As far as camping goes, the most advanced thing I take with is a gas stove. Why the fuck you'd want Wifi or any of the other trappings of city life in the peaceful woods is beyond me.
Yeah... That explains why they've made millions running tech companies and you're trolling Slashdot.
While not as good as a remote shutter, you might want to look into a timed shutter. My new digicam can take one picture every X minutes until it fills the card. If you set that to one minute, you should be able to anticipate where the plane will be when the shutter goes off (And make a couple of extra passes to make sure).
"...needs member cities to pony up an additional $250,000 so it can continue to pursue its bond offering."
So it looks like they're just $250k short, not $4.5 million short as the poster seemed to indicate. In fact, if I'm reading this right, it means each city would only need to come up with ~$14k each, if they're going to split it equally.
Goddamn that is a smooth troll! But what the hell, I'll reply anyway...
Considering the manpower that Red Hat has devoted to Fedora (Which has gone UP vs. RHL), and the fact that they're trying to get "the community" involved more, this could actually be a good thing for Red Hat users.
They're not abandoning the enthusiast market, they've just spun it off into a not-for-profit so they can write off what isn't making them money. Think of it as RedHat Edge.
Heh. And what exactly caused them to flock? Seriously, computers were around long before Windows 95, why would they suddenly become popular when it came out? Hmmmm.....
A few things: The Internet, e-mail, web-browsning, pr0n, their kids, computer games, BBSes, and the old-guard geeks who already had computers. Honestly, most people (read: non-geeks) don't like computers. Their "Computer" constantly frustrates them, crashes, does unexpected things, and refuses to boot up after they've installed some new piece of hardware that works for a few weeks. They only use their computer to write e-mail, browse, chat, and play games. They toss the icons (or they have someone toss the icons) for their favorite programs on the desktop and then they keep it that way (Unless "the computer" crashes and rearranges everything, then it takes them ten minutes to put everything back the way they like it). That's "intuitive" to them, not the Start Button, no matter how many programs it hides from them, or how it organizes everything by the date said program was installed.
Fair point, to a degree. However, it does make one wonder how intuitive Mac really is. It's been a while since I've used one, but I fell into that same trap too. Took me a bit of clicking around to find an app to start. Linux and KDE, on the other hand, provided a handy dandy start-esque button to click as opposed to this really teeny weeny Apple icon. I was up and running with it pretty quick.
(too bad there were too many indescript apps that all began with K, but that's a seperate topic...)
The Mac is plenty intuitive, as long as you don't define that as "Windows-like". Applications are listed in their own folder inside the hard drive or as icons at the bottom of the scren, menu bars are always in the same spot, and you can zip your mouse up to the top of the screen and hit File easily without having to back it away from the edge of the screen 3 pixels and lose focus on your active program. I don't think Mac is the paragon of intuitiveness either (I don't believe there is One True Way), but they've done a lot of good work, trail-blazed a lot of good guidelines that others are using, and aren't afraid of changing things around if it will make life easier. Incidentally, the programs aren't under the teeny Apple icon anymore. (And it might help if you've used a distro that has tried to improve on the user experience by naming the programs in the menu according to function, such as RedHat 9).
I'll concede that there's some truth to the 'familiarity factor'. However, my original point still stands: Windows 95 definitely did something right in the UI field.
Most of Microsoft's "innovation" has been copied from Apple, but changed enough to hopefully avoid a lawsuit (After the first one anyway).
As for why Windows is on top, it has almost nothing to do with their UI. Millions of people flocked to it because they thought they needed a computer, and the only ones they could get were Dells, Microns, Compaqs, etc and those ONLY came with Windows. Working in tech support, you quickly learn that Windows is nothing like "intuitive". Microsoft is in the position it's in now because of its relationship with IBM in the beginning and the fact that it's been able to bully all the OEMs since.
The thing I hear the most about Linux desktops is that they're not more like Windows desktops. Once people learn the one, they think everything else should work like it. My roommates can't even use my iBook because it has no Start Button.
Yeah, until a common library (Let's call it zlib, or if you prefer openssl) turns out to have a buffer overflow or other security bug in it which has been there for years (Let's say that happens today, or has several vulnerabilities patched a couple of times in a single month), and you realize that it happens to be included 45 different times on your system. Or even better yet, each one has some slightly different tweeks applied to them so you can't just replace them!
Shared libraries aren't just for saving RAM and harddisk space.
I wanted to ask you questions about this in your journal, but I can't find the Reply link.
I've been thinking about creating a Media Box / DVD Player / Tivo / stereo system. I've been looking at an EPIA-M 900, but I have some questions. I will of course be running Linux on it, but I want as much of the hardware to work as I can (6-speaker out!). What have you gotten to work?
Wouldn't it be possible to wire a computer more directly into the car, maybe with a few resistors and perhaps a DC to DC converter, to 'clean up' the power?
Actually, most ATX-spec power requirements are 5v and 12v, however the problems arise in that car power is very "dirty". And there are problems with voltages appearing, disappearing, and re-appearing again (Key to Aux position (power), key to Start position (all power to starter), key to On position (power)).
That said, there are kits and designs for using DC-DC converters to step down the power and capacitors/resistors to handle the brownouts and spikes (Like a mini-UPS). Unfortunately I haven't been able to find much about these as yet.
Wouldn't hitting a pothole do bad things to the hard drive?
Good question. I've been contemplating a Mini-ITX-based system for my car for a couple of months now, and that's been weighing heavily on my mind. However, since I've had so much time to research, I've come up with a couple of ideas.
Shock-mounted hard drive: Create foam harness that absorbs shock. Disadvantage: Wouldn't help if you jumped the car over the Grand Canyon or even a curb.
Ruggedized hard drive: Most laptop hard disks are designed to take more abuse than desktop drives. Disadvantage: Slower drives (4500 rpm) special connectors. Additional advantage; lower power requirements.
Vertically-mounted hard drive: Other carPC projects have mounted the drives on their sides so hopefully if a bump is sent through the drive the heads would be jerked "sideways" instead of slamming into the platters. Disadvantage: More space required for system mounting (Can't stick it under a seat).
Non-moving media: High-capacity solid-state media (Compact Flash). There are adapters that translate the cards into IDE storage devices. Disadvantage: Not much space (1gb per chip if you shell out).
Using one or more of those strategies should provide some protection from shocks.
And this would be a great example of why people think geeks are a bunch of elitist assholes.
And this would be a great example of why blanket statements are a bunch of bullshit.
Yes, there are SOME nerds who are elitist, but there are also SOME non-nerds who are as well. Elitism runs rampant in society. If someone thinks they're better at something than someone else, they will invariably use it to bolster their self-esteem, whether someone else hears them or not.
Well then here's a better idea then, put out a Blizzard server that people can install and run on their own machines. id Software does it, Epic Megagames does it, hell even Sierra Online does it. Put in a little flag that passes off the key to the master server, then watch the community build itself. Quake 3 is almost 4 years old now and it's still going strong, without a project like BnetD.
Also remember that they weren't against Open Source, they were specifically against it being used to allow pirated copies of their games to be played. While we're remembering stuff, let's also remember that it was Vivendi (Blizzard's parent company) that filed the complaint. Finally, let's also remember that it was not a DMCA case, it was plain old copyright.
And just to add to that, let's also remember that it IS a DMCA case. There is no Blizzard code in BnetD (No copyright infringement). The only thing Vivendi had left was the DMCA, and they DID trot it out (At least enough to frighten people who don't have their own lawyers on retainer).
Boycotting Blizzard is probably the least effective way of getting your disapproval across to them. Exactly how are they supposed to know why you didn't buy the game? A drop off in sales will likely be explained by sagging economy and other factors affecting every single game company on the planet. Besides, it's Vivendi you're after. Send THEM a letter. Don't be a tard and give Blizzard reason to stop making those good games you like.
Boycotting someone is more than just refusing to do business with them. At the very least, you should send them an angry letter telling them what you think of them, that you'll never do business with them again, and that you'll do everything in your power to keep other people from doing business with them in the future. The drop in sales is just the last exclamation point on your protest. Without it, you're just an angry nut-job who is still bending over for them and buying their games.
As for being "a tard", just because they make games (good or otherwise) is not enough reason for me to give up my rights to play a game I shelled out a part of my life for. I've got friends who like to play StarCraft, but none of us like playing on BattleNet. All the trolls, cheaters, crappy connections, and general pain associated with playing it on a Blizzard-blessed server are too much. It'd be like trying to play against the trolls on Slashdot.
I'm not sure about doing major version upgrades (from 7.x to 8.x), but minor-version upgrades are possible (I've done them anyway). Resulted in about 5 minutes down-time (When I rebooted to activate the new kernel, but if you don't wanna do that, fine).
The trick is a combination of the -Uvh (update/install packages) and -Fvh (update packages only if older version is installed) switches to RPM. Along with removing some old packages that conflict, installing some new packages that are required by the new version, and, changing some config files (Which you have to do after an upgrade anyway).
The reason for that is that each computer's BIOS will format the drive differently. I had a 486dx/33 with that option and I was actually able to use it to save a 170mb drive that my father had given me because his company said it was kaput. However when I tried to move that drive to another computer with a different BIOS, it threw up data errors left and right.
The standard "IDE format" is BIOS agnostic so you can transport drives, and it doesn't cause problems with some cheap drives that (back when they took that option out) wouldn't read in ANY machine after a "BIOS-level format"..
I agree with your statements, but I don't see how you can use them to attack RedHat. I mean companies like Xandros, Lindows, and hell even SuSE include non-free software with their distributions, but RedHat has made a long-standing commitment (Since RH6 I believe) to only include FREE (As in speech) software with their distribution. That's why they don't distribute the nVidia drivers that are so popular, or WineX, or MP3 decoders anymore.
Divx is a joke as far as commercial products go...
I'm curious what makes you think DivX is such a joke. Is it just that you're not aware of any games that use it? Or do you think the movies in games like WarCraft III and in fact most of Blizzard's recent game trailer movies are crappy quality?
Um... Did you not use Windows 95 / 98 / ME? Have you never had a BSOD when you plugged in a USB device? Or had to reboot the machine just because you changed your IP to "Automatically obtain an IP address" Or had to talk your mother through uninstalling a program in Safe Mode because after she installed it and it forced her to reboot, her computer keeps restarting into Safe Mode and she can't get her e-mail? How about upgrading your hardware without re-installing Windows?
I have been unfortunate enough to use every version of Windows (with the exception of "ME") extensively. My workstation at work is running Windows 2000 Professional SP3 right now (And can anyone tell me why it wants the MS Office CD in the middle of installing SP3? I still can't make sense of that, and it doesn't do it on every computer I've installed it on, even other ones that HAVE OFFICE).
Now I will grant you that W2k and WXP are more stable than the old DOS-based line, but even they have their problems. Sometimes my W2k workstation goes to sleep and refuses to wake up, other times it's fine. Right now, Outlook is hung trying to communicate with our Exchange server, even though IS tells me everything is fine.
THAT is what I call flakey. The inconsistancies in the OS that cause the user experience to vary so widely and cause nightmares to tech support reps.
Of course, you could just bite the bullet and download Windows Media Player for Mac OS X.
I had WMP installed on my iBook for a while, but all it did was give me the ability to play certain kinds of ASF files. It couldn't even play the files that QuickTime could play.
But still there was nothing I could find that would play MP42 / MP43 AVI files on Mac OS X, and some of the DiVX/MP3 files didn't play well at all. Even with QuickTime 6 installed. Sound dropped out entirely sometimes, other times it goes wildly out of sync. And still other times it doesn't play the whole file. It thinks the file ends like 10 minutes in when it's actually a 40 minute recording. MPlayer has none of these problems. Granted it doesn't play ASF files either, but if I can get my head around Transcode right, I might be able to convert these video clips to a format that it will play.
Of course, I'm not everyone, so I'll ask: Is there any really compelling reason to go to a Linux distro left?
Just off the top of my head:
Speed - Even Ximian GNOME and KDE installed on my iBook are faster than OS X 10.1.5, and when I pair down to GkrellM+PMU and Enlightenment, it runs extremely quickly. I realize Jaguar is supposed to be faster, but I still doubt it is as fast.
Stability - I know a dozen easy ways to cause the Finder and even the entire kernel to hang on an iBook (Hang to where you have to hold the power button). Granted OS X isn't as flakey as Windows, but it's still annoying being forced to wait through the two-minute boot sequence just because I take it to work with me and have NFS shares mounted in both locations.
Battery Life - Because Linux wastes less cycles rendering PDF to my screen constantly, I get an extra 20 minutes per battery charge.
Movie Playback - Funny as this may sound, MPlayer can play more movie types than QuickTime+DiVX5 codec, plus with the extra speed of the system, the movies play smoother.
I picked it up after it was reviewed right here, and I have not been let down with it.
I had an I-JAM before and it was too underpowered and picky about its cards. The NEX II has handled all the CF Cards I have (right now I have a Samsung 256mb card in it) I have CF cards for my Visor and my digital camera, and it's nice to be able to use the extra space on those for MP3s if I'm going to be out a long time. I have had a few MP3s that play silence at about 4x normal rate, but it has NEVER crashed on me. It handles all the audio books I have (32k/s 22khz mono) up to my high-fidelity LAME-encoded music tracks (192k/s 44khz stereo) and I have had the occasional 320k/s MP3 on there (I don't do WMA and never will).
The NEX II shows up as a USB drive in Linux, and should under OpenBSD if it has full USB 1.1 mass-storage capabilities, and you can copy any data you want. The cards are formatted VFAT so they will work in Windows if you need them to.
They have some "NEX Skins" you can replace to change the accent panel on the front. They're just paper so you can actually make your own if you feel creative. It runs on two AA batteries which give it a long play time (I've gone so long on charges that I can't even estimate). It comes with a neoprene carrying case which permits total access to the player without taking it out of the case. And since there are no moving parts, it will not skip or damage its hard drive while you jog/hike/bike.
My only real bitch is that the headphones it comes with suck. I have a good pair of Sony phones though, so I don't mind. And it was cheap (As others have stated). I love it.
Yes, some display support has improved. How about printing? How about font installation? How about obtaining font metrics and outlines from the font system -- oh, wait, you have to ask X for the path and then read the font file yourself, that's right, duh.
How about xfs? Ever used it? Really sweet program, support TrueType, even on old programs that don't otherwise know about them. As for installing fonts, that process consists of copying the file into the right folder and re-starting xfs. Hell, you can even run one xfs server that handles multiple X servers.
This must be one of those invisible features. How do you install a driver, change the refresh rate, color depth, resolution, etc. without editing/etc/X11/XF86Config-4? Why does X require a specific definition of each suitable resolution? can't it query the current monitor like Macs and Winders do (DPMS)?
Well, looking at my XF86Config-4 file, I notice a distinct lack of modelines, and further, checking XF86Config.0.Log, I see several lines containing DPMS probes of my monitor. In fact, ever since I installed XFree86 4.0 back over a year ago, I haven't had to deal with any of that.
This does not change the resolution of the display, only the size of the viewport.
You're right, and I prefer it this way. I get sick of moving icons around when I change resolutions, but sometimes I just want that video window to take up more of my 19" monitor.
My website is not a store. It is more like my house. By accessing it you are trespassing on my private property. It doesn't matter whether or not I locked the doors.
Hardly! It's more like putting up a pavilion at a park, then getting pissed when people wander through.
Face it, unless some kind of access control is put up, a webpage WILL get viewed, linked, indexed, searched, and ranked. I know this first hand. I put up a personal webserver, but because I hosted one little project that I told Freshmeat about, now I'm getting hits from blogs in Germany.
But realize this-- the RIAA's spin will claim that any falloff in revenue is due to piracy, not a boycott-- hence their need for the copy protection.
Duh. Of course they will. But what we need to do is not just stop buying CDs by RIAA labels, but we need to tell people why we're not buying them. A boycott isn't a boycott unless we tell people about it.
Slashdot Mirror
As far as camping goes, the most advanced thing I take with is a gas stove. Why the fuck you'd want Wifi or any of the other trappings of city life in the peaceful woods is beyond me.
Yeah... That explains why they've made millions running tech companies and you're trolling Slashdot.
While not as good as a remote shutter, you might want to look into a timed shutter. My new digicam can take one picture every X minutes until it fills the card. If you set that to one minute, you should be able to anticipate where the plane will be when the shutter goes off (And make a couple of extra passes to make sure).
According to the SLTrib article:
"...needs member cities to pony up an additional $250,000 so it can continue to pursue its bond offering."
So it looks like they're just $250k short, not $4.5 million short as the poster seemed to indicate. In fact, if I'm reading this right, it means each city would only need to come up with ~$14k each, if they're going to split it equally.
Goddamn that is a smooth troll! But what the hell, I'll reply anyway...
Considering the manpower that Red Hat has devoted to Fedora (Which has gone UP vs. RHL), and the fact that they're trying to get "the community" involved more, this could actually be a good thing for Red Hat users.
They're not abandoning the enthusiast market, they've just spun it off into a not-for-profit so they can write off what isn't making them money. Think of it as RedHat Edge.
Um, yes, American Glocks... Composits and ceramics are highly viable, but they scare the bejesus out of the BATF.
A few things: The Internet, e-mail, web-browsning, pr0n, their kids, computer games, BBSes, and the old-guard geeks who already had computers. Honestly, most people (read: non-geeks) don't like computers. Their "Computer" constantly frustrates them, crashes, does unexpected things, and refuses to boot up after they've installed some new piece of hardware that works for a few weeks. They only use their computer to write e-mail, browse, chat, and play games. They toss the icons (or they have someone toss the icons) for their favorite programs on the desktop and then they keep it that way (Unless "the computer" crashes and rearranges everything, then it takes them ten minutes to put everything back the way they like it). That's "intuitive" to them, not the Start Button, no matter how many programs it hides from them, or how it organizes everything by the date said program was installed.
The Mac is plenty intuitive, as long as you don't define that as "Windows-like". Applications are listed in their own folder inside the hard drive or as icons at the bottom of the scren, menu bars are always in the same spot, and you can zip your mouse up to the top of the screen and hit File easily without having to back it away from the edge of the screen 3 pixels and lose focus on your active program. I don't think Mac is the paragon of intuitiveness either (I don't believe there is One True Way), but they've done a lot of good work, trail-blazed a lot of good guidelines that others are using, and aren't afraid of changing things around if it will make life easier. Incidentally, the programs aren't under the teeny Apple icon anymore. (And it might help if you've used a distro that has tried to improve on the user experience by naming the programs in the menu according to function, such as RedHat 9).
Yes, namely emulating Mac OS 7 with a few tweeks.
Most of Microsoft's "innovation" has been copied from Apple, but changed enough to hopefully avoid a lawsuit (After the first one anyway).
As for why Windows is on top, it has almost nothing to do with their UI. Millions of people flocked to it because they thought they needed a computer, and the only ones they could get were Dells, Microns, Compaqs, etc and those ONLY came with Windows. Working in tech support, you quickly learn that Windows is nothing like "intuitive". Microsoft is in the position it's in now because of its relationship with IBM in the beginning and the fact that it's been able to bully all the OEMs since.
The thing I hear the most about Linux desktops is that they're not more like Windows desktops. Once people learn the one, they think everything else should work like it. My roommates can't even use my iBook because it has no Start Button.
Yeah, until a common library (Let's call it zlib, or if you prefer openssl) turns out to have a buffer overflow or other security bug in it which has been there for years (Let's say that happens today, or has several vulnerabilities patched a couple of times in a single month), and you realize that it happens to be included 45 different times on your system. Or even better yet, each one has some slightly different tweeks applied to them so you can't just replace them!
Shared libraries aren't just for saving RAM and harddisk space.
I wanted to ask you questions about this in your journal, but I can't find the Reply link.
I've been thinking about creating a Media Box / DVD Player / Tivo / stereo system. I've been looking at an EPIA-M 900, but I have some questions. I will of course be running Linux on it, but I want as much of the hardware to work as I can (6-speaker out!). What have you gotten to work?
Actually, most ATX-spec power requirements are 5v and 12v, however the problems arise in that car power is very "dirty". And there are problems with voltages appearing, disappearing, and re-appearing again (Key to Aux position (power), key to Start position (all power to starter), key to On position (power)).
That said, there are kits and designs for using DC-DC converters to step down the power and capacitors/resistors to handle the brownouts and spikes (Like a mini-UPS). Unfortunately I haven't been able to find much about these as yet.
Good question. I've been contemplating a Mini-ITX-based system for my car for a couple of months now, and that's been weighing heavily on my mind. However, since I've had so much time to research, I've come up with a couple of ideas.
Using one or more of those strategies should provide some protection from shocks.
And this would be a great example of why people think geeks are a bunch of elitist assholes.
And this would be a great example of why blanket statements are a bunch of bullshit.
Yes, there are SOME nerds who are elitist, but there are also SOME non-nerds who are as well. Elitism runs rampant in society. If someone thinks they're better at something than someone else, they will invariably use it to bolster their self-esteem, whether someone else hears them or not.
Well then here's a better idea then, put out a Blizzard server that people can install and run on their own machines. id Software does it, Epic Megagames does it, hell even Sierra Online does it. Put in a little flag that passes off the key to the master server, then watch the community build itself. Quake 3 is almost 4 years old now and it's still going strong, without a project like BnetD.
Also remember that they weren't against Open Source, they were specifically against it being used to allow pirated copies of their games to be played. While we're remembering stuff, let's also remember that it was Vivendi (Blizzard's parent company) that filed the complaint. Finally, let's also remember that it was not a DMCA case, it was plain old copyright.
And just to add to that, let's also remember that it IS a DMCA case. There is no Blizzard code in BnetD (No copyright infringement). The only thing Vivendi had left was the DMCA, and they DID trot it out (At least enough to frighten people who don't have their own lawyers on retainer).
Boycotting Blizzard is probably the least effective way of getting your disapproval across to them. Exactly how are they supposed to know why you didn't buy the game? A drop off in sales will likely be explained by sagging economy and other factors affecting every single game company on the planet. Besides, it's Vivendi you're after. Send THEM a letter. Don't be a tard and give Blizzard reason to stop making those good games you like.
Boycotting someone is more than just refusing to do business with them. At the very least, you should send them an angry letter telling them what you think of them, that you'll never do business with them again, and that you'll do everything in your power to keep other people from doing business with them in the future. The drop in sales is just the last exclamation point on your protest. Without it, you're just an angry nut-job who is still bending over for them and buying their games.
As for being "a tard", just because they make games (good or otherwise) is not enough reason for me to give up my rights to play a game I shelled out a part of my life for. I've got friends who like to play StarCraft, but none of us like playing on BattleNet. All the trolls, cheaters, crappy connections, and general pain associated with playing it on a Blizzard-blessed server are too much. It'd be like trying to play against the trolls on Slashdot.
So we run BnetD, and we don't play WarCraft 3.
I'm not sure about doing major version upgrades (from 7.x to 8.x), but minor-version upgrades are possible (I've done them anyway). Resulted in about 5 minutes down-time (When I rebooted to activate the new kernel, but if you don't wanna do that, fine).
The trick is a combination of the -Uvh (update/install packages) and -Fvh (update packages only if older version is installed) switches to RPM. Along with removing some old packages that conflict, installing some new packages that are required by the new version, and, changing some config files (Which you have to do after an upgrade anyway).
The reason for that is that each computer's BIOS will format the drive differently. I had a 486dx/33 with that option and I was actually able to use it to save a 170mb drive that my father had given me because his company said it was kaput. However when I tried to move that drive to another computer with a different BIOS, it threw up data errors left and right.
The standard "IDE format" is BIOS agnostic so you can transport drives, and it doesn't cause problems with some cheap drives that (back when they took that option out) wouldn't read in ANY machine after a "BIOS-level format"..
I agree with your statements, but I don't see how you can use them to attack RedHat. I mean companies like Xandros, Lindows, and hell even SuSE include non-free software with their distributions, but RedHat has made a long-standing commitment (Since RH6 I believe) to only include FREE (As in speech) software with their distribution. That's why they don't distribute the nVidia drivers that are so popular, or WineX, or MP3 decoders anymore.
Divx is a joke as far as commercial products go...
I'm curious what makes you think DivX is such a joke. Is it just that you're not aware of any games that use it? Or do you think the movies in games like WarCraft III and in fact most of Blizzard's recent game trailer movies are crappy quality?
Um... Did you not use Windows 95 / 98 / ME? Have you never had a BSOD when you plugged in a USB device? Or had to reboot the machine just because you changed your IP to "Automatically obtain an IP address" Or had to talk your mother through uninstalling a program in Safe Mode because after she installed it and it forced her to reboot, her computer keeps restarting into Safe Mode and she can't get her e-mail? How about upgrading your hardware without re-installing Windows?
I have been unfortunate enough to use every version of Windows (with the exception of "ME") extensively. My workstation at work is running Windows 2000 Professional SP3 right now (And can anyone tell me why it wants the MS Office CD in the middle of installing SP3? I still can't make sense of that, and it doesn't do it on every computer I've installed it on, even other ones that HAVE OFFICE).
Now I will grant you that W2k and WXP are more stable than the old DOS-based line, but even they have their problems. Sometimes my W2k workstation goes to sleep and refuses to wake up, other times it's fine. Right now, Outlook is hung trying to communicate with our Exchange server, even though IS tells me everything is fine.
THAT is what I call flakey. The inconsistancies in the OS that cause the user experience to vary so widely and cause nightmares to tech support reps.
Of course, you could just bite the bullet and download Windows Media Player for Mac OS X.
I had WMP installed on my iBook for a while, but all it did was give me the ability to play certain kinds of ASF files. It couldn't even play the files that QuickTime could play.
But still there was nothing I could find that would play MP42 / MP43 AVI files on Mac OS X, and some of the DiVX/MP3 files didn't play well at all. Even with QuickTime 6 installed. Sound dropped out entirely sometimes, other times it goes wildly out of sync. And still other times it doesn't play the whole file. It thinks the file ends like 10 minutes in when it's actually a 40 minute recording. MPlayer has none of these problems. Granted it doesn't play ASF files either, but if I can get my head around Transcode right, I might be able to convert these video clips to a format that it will play.
Of course, I'm not everyone, so I'll ask: Is there any really compelling reason to go to a Linux distro left?
Just off the top of my head:
Speed - Even Ximian GNOME and KDE installed on my iBook are faster than OS X 10.1.5, and when I pair down to GkrellM+PMU and Enlightenment, it runs extremely quickly. I realize Jaguar is supposed to be faster, but I still doubt it is as fast.
Stability - I know a dozen easy ways to cause the Finder and even the entire kernel to hang on an iBook (Hang to where you have to hold the power button). Granted OS X isn't as flakey as Windows, but it's still annoying being forced to wait through the two-minute boot sequence just because I take it to work with me and have NFS shares mounted in both locations.
Battery Life - Because Linux wastes less cycles rendering PDF to my screen constantly, I get an extra 20 minutes per battery charge.
Movie Playback - Funny as this may sound, MPlayer can play more movie types than QuickTime+DiVX5 codec, plus with the extra speed of the system, the movies play smoother.
Another vote for the NEX II.
I picked it up after it was reviewed right here, and I have not been let down with it.
I had an I-JAM before and it was too underpowered and picky about its cards. The NEX II has handled all the CF Cards I have (right now I have a Samsung 256mb card in it) I have CF cards for my Visor and my digital camera, and it's nice to be able to use the extra space on those for MP3s if I'm going to be out a long time. I have had a few MP3s that play silence at about 4x normal rate, but it has NEVER crashed on me. It handles all the audio books I have (32k/s 22khz mono) up to my high-fidelity LAME-encoded music tracks (192k/s 44khz stereo) and I have had the occasional 320k/s MP3 on there (I don't do WMA and never will).
The NEX II shows up as a USB drive in Linux, and should under OpenBSD if it has full USB 1.1 mass-storage capabilities, and you can copy any data you want. The cards are formatted VFAT so they will work in Windows if you need them to.
They have some "NEX Skins" you can replace to change the accent panel on the front. They're just paper so you can actually make your own if you feel creative. It runs on two AA batteries which give it a long play time (I've gone so long on charges that I can't even estimate). It comes with a neoprene carrying case which permits total access to the player without taking it out of the case. And since there are no moving parts, it will not skip or damage its hard drive while you jog/hike/bike.
My only real bitch is that the headphones it comes with suck. I have a good pair of Sony phones though, so I don't mind. And it was cheap (As others have stated). I love it.
Yes, some display support has improved. How about printing? How about font installation? How about obtaining font metrics and outlines from the font system -- oh, wait, you have to ask X for the path and then read the font file yourself, that's right, duh.
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4? Why does X require a specific definition of each suitable resolution? can't it query the current monitor like Macs and Winders do (DPMS)?
How about xfs? Ever used it? Really sweet program, support TrueType, even on old programs that don't otherwise know about them. As for installing fonts, that process consists of copying the file into the right folder and re-starting xfs. Hell, you can even run one xfs server that handles multiple X servers.
This must be one of those invisible features. How do you install a driver, change the refresh rate, color depth, resolution, etc. without editing
Well, looking at my XF86Config-4 file, I notice a distinct lack of modelines, and further, checking XF86Config.0.Log, I see several lines containing DPMS probes of my monitor. In fact, ever since I installed XFree86 4.0 back over a year ago, I haven't had to deal with any of that.
This does not change the resolution of the display, only the size of the viewport.
You're right, and I prefer it this way. I get sick of moving icons around when I change resolutions, but sometimes I just want that video window to take up more of my 19" monitor.
Blah. That's my troll feeding for this month.
My website is not a store. It is more like my house. By accessing it you are trespassing on my private property. It doesn't matter whether or not I locked the doors.
Hardly! It's more like putting up a pavilion at a park, then getting pissed when people wander through.
Face it, unless some kind of access control is put up, a webpage WILL get viewed, linked, indexed, searched, and ranked. I know this first hand. I put up a personal webserver, but because I hosted one little project that I told Freshmeat about, now I'm getting hits from blogs in Germany.
But realize this-- the RIAA's spin will claim that any falloff in revenue is due to piracy, not a boycott-- hence their need for the copy protection.
Duh. Of course they will. But what we need to do is not just stop buying CDs by RIAA labels, but we need to tell people why we're not buying them. A boycott isn't a boycott unless we tell people about it.