Alot of people seem to want for Linux to gain a large user base.
I am simply stating what is needed if Linux is to do such.
A larger user base would mean more hardware support and more software support from other companies.
It also has its down sides of course, but this is not the place for that debate.
If features are to be added then they should be added in some sort organized way. Sure alot of new features may look good, but do they help contribute to the overall usability of the OS/GUI/ETC?
Even more, are they the most efficent contribution? Could time have been spent implementing features that add even more to the OS then the ones that were implemented? Too late now, water under the bridge and all of that, but prehaps a list of these hypothetical "high gain" features should be compiled for prioritized implementation.
"Besides, most copy protection is just done by buying a copy protection library (now SafeDisk, Elan, V-Box.. then Prolok, Lenslok(!), Rob Northern..) and inserting a few calls to it at critical points. "
Your forgeting that not all software worked this easily. Alot of older companies (ALOT!) used custom in house copyprotection systems. Sure these systems where all sooner or latter bypassed, but those patchs would be fsked up the second a recompile was attempted after any changed has been made. (byte offsets all changed)
Somebody else mentioned Public Domain rather then open source. PD software has the whole entire "make the code ready for public use" problem, while OS software has the entire "uh, dude, that program is 11 years old and 3 company names ago, you mean somebody still remembers that it EXISTS?"
In some cases traces of a program do not even exist but in 1 or 2 places on the next. The game "Floor 13" is a good example of this. (uh, any information on it at all? It contains tons of alusions to every Nerd psuedo-religion ever. Illumni, etc)
"As for the copyright limit, that is not only a very tough fight(of IMHO questionable merit) but it doesn't yeild the results you want anyway. Even if you did away with all software copyrights you could only reverse engineer the programs, you wouldn't have the original source code."
The sourcecode could be released by willing employees though, often times the original programmer wants to release the sourcecode for free but because the program is caught up in numerious legal tangles it becomes impossible.
It would be/ALOT/ easier if the programmer could just shrug his/her shoulders and say "well hey, the copyright has ran out, nothing you can do about it."
Re:Using "ClearType" with XFree86, GNOME, KDE
on
Looking Ahead at GNOME 2
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
This is the difference between Linux and Windows.
Microsoft makes their cleartype technology enablable with a big large red button shouting "PUSH ME DARN YOU PUSH ME!".
Linux puts it in a text file.
While having the text file option is nice and all, it would be better if the friendlier installation packages said at install time "heya, we noticed that you have an LCD screen, any chance you want to enable LCD font antialiasing? It'll make your text alot easier to read!"
For the boxed distros, shove it on the back of the box in a yellow jaggy oval. Bright yellow.
Also include it in a settings->display style applet. Make it obvious. Make it easy. Make it so that people KNOW its there.
Linux has alot of unused features, unused because few people/KNOW/ about them.
Hell, it could be able to cure cancer and theres a chance the lot of us wouldn't know what string to put on what line to enable it.:)
That is precisly what I am talking about. It should require no user intervention at all.:(
In fact Asian Charecter support in Windows is also easy, just a single EXE file to be downloaded and run. Just select the desired language and spell things out phonicaly in romanized letters, watch the desired charecter appear.
More popular programs like this are needed on Linux, and need to be installed by default. A standard of some sort needs to be set that allows for all programs to easily use these features. Imagine every Gnome/KDE/ program having easy to implement naturalization.
Or a Hiragana flashcard program, or a Kanji flashcard program, or both intermixed with each other with no issues at all. The english letters/word choices being shown at the bottom of the screen.
Now imagine the Kanji charecters also being antialiased. Along with everything else.
All the user would know is that he/she is improving their Japanese skills on a very nice looking display and that it was even easier to get running that the Windows equivilent.
"Choosing a language is one of the first choices when I install Debian. "
When you install?
How. . . . quaint.
Multiple language packs easily and seemlessly working together in all applications. Installed on the fly as the user encounters new text, small downloads perferable.
"Oh, and to get my Creative Webcam 3 installed in Linux took at the most 2 modprobe commands and compiling gqcam to take pictures. While I could never get it working in Windows 2000 (this was a year ago though)"
That is one slight issue, a shitpot load of patchs not on the windows update site (hidden within the bowls on microsofts webpage, sometimes not even linked too from within it, Google is your friend.) need to be installed to get great USB support. By default it is only decent.
It doesn't help that most webcams insist on using their odd arsed data tranfer format instead of .
I remember reading up the other day on a game called Star Command.
When asked why they didn't release the game for free or open source it, a person in the company (CEO/Lead developer or some such high up person, small company anyways) said that it would take too much of their time and money.
First they would have to try and FIND the source code (doubtful if it still existed), then if they managed to do that, reassign some people from another money making project to taking an old (in this case DOS game) and removing the protections and security checks they put in there and scanning in the documentation, bundeling it up, setting up a server for distribution (or maintaining a sourceforge account, granted they could pass it on to somebody, but then that entales the legal issues involved), all just to make a few people happy that they could now freely get an old DOS game.
Sure it/MIGHT/ be upgraded to something modern and ported all over heck and such, but shoot, reality is that it would cost them MONEY when they are already a struggeling small company.
Not to mention cases where the rights to a program are split across a few gazzilion people and numerious corporations. This is especialy true when one company has the rights to the game and another company has the rights to distribution. Icky situation there. And if by some chance somebody sold off merchandising rights. . . . oh man, no hope at/ALL/.
A good first step though would be to/REDUCE/ the copyright limit. ~7years for computer programs and ~25 years for books and other documents sounds nice. (Some books stay in print and keep on selling for longer then that though)
At least it would take care of the legal hassles somewhat, but it still wouldn't help with finding the sourcecode.
"umm, lets see now, where did I shove that 5.25' disk. . . . . "
If the Linux crowd wants to get inroads into the main stream windows user base then they need to start promoting or developing (case depending of course, if it already exists, PROMOTE IT) some key features.
Generic HID drivers. Right now I can plug damn nearly anything with buttons and pad(s) on it into my win2k boxen and it will run. How is somebody to know if Linux does this? Hardly something that is discussed often.
---I should be able to plug a control pad in and it should work no fuss no muss. Oh yah, and a little button should make it take over my house, let the analog keys work, and so forth.
If I get a USB hub and start jacking mice into it left and right, what would happen? Will they work with no error, will another mouse pointer just appear on my screen or will each mouse control the same cursor? Even better, can I choose which? Easily? Can programs choose which? 4 player breakout games exist for Windows, simply shove more mice on the computer.
----Thats UI, easy to control, as many devices as I want plugged in all at once.
Concentrate on making features usable and advertising them. Sure AA text may be nice (really nice in some cases.:) ) and Unicode text support is useful.
How easy is it to install additional fonts? Can users just click "install Japanese font pack" from a font pack listing someplace and have the GUI go online and download said fonts without a hitch? People working in multi-cultural enviroments want to know that sorta stuff, I'm typing this from a library computer that typicaly has 2-3 new language packs installed on it/PER DAY/. Obviously easy/seamless/ multicultural support is a nice idea, implement/advertise it!
Sure this is a developer pack, but when stuff is easy for the developer it is (should be) easy for the user.
The only difference between the OO methodology and a procedural methodology is how the/HUMAN/ on the other end has to think about the problem.
Then again, isn't that how everything is? Convienent metaphores to keep poor little humans from having to comprehend too much stuff at once.
Hierarchal file display VS flat file display. If humans could take in data faster the flat display would work better, albiet with a bit more waste in data tranfer (excess data on each directory listing.)
Hell, the only reason you have to WRITE DOWN the intermediate steps of design and brainstorming and such is because the human mind (in most cases) is unable to deal with all of the complexities of, say, a motherboard, mentaly.
Hell get a smart enough brain and you could design anything Fast As Shit.
Annoying sucker that brain is, on a thirty minute math problem it can take me 5 minutes of actual math and 25 minutes of writting down the intermediat steps. . . . . bleh.
Will somebody please explain to me again what would be moraly wrong with going around and shooting the bastards who do this? Or what about that spokesman that said that there was nothing wrong with what the company did? I would have no moral issues with his torture + death.
But I have more trouble remembering images then I do numbers.:(
I have some nifty keen passwords though.:)
looooong as fucking hell and random as shit with lots of misc stuff thrown in there. Various PWs for different sites too of course, security level varies. ^_^
Does HDTV come from my standard cable box? Or does it require a special connector? I have digital cable yet it is through an RF box (thanks AT&T! Bleh).
Getting nuts though, heh, recorded analog, encoded to digital in MPEG2 format, displayed on an analog TV screen, bleeeeh. The quality loss has got to be horrid.
Oh wait, it IS!
Heh.
Not as bad as the 100ft RF extension cable I have going to my computer though, hehe. Hey, it works, uh, kinda. Well, most of the channels are viewable.:)
I'm still using a shoddy Zenith 19in with only RF plugs.
My computer moniter is bigger then that.:(
Thus, the TV in card I am using.:)
Anybody know of a TV In card that supports HDTV signals? Seriously, I have a 36inch monitor and a fscking 19inch TV set and things aren't likely to change soon! Nifty to be able to view HDTV on my computer though.:) (heh, at least its already progressive.:) )
PEER TO PEER FILE SHARING PROGRAMS _sAVE_ BROADBAND ISPS MONEY!!!!
Thats right!
Why? Simple actualy!
When a person is using a P2P program and maxing out their upload cap, their downloads go slow as hell. I mean really slow too, 5-10KBp/s slow.
So if a person is uploading at 15KBP/s (about what you get from a 128kbit upload cap) and downloading at 10KBp/s, that is a _MERE_ 25KBp/s of bandwidth usage!
Hell, I f*cking surf the net faster then that. Especialy Newgrounds.com or any simular broadband intensive site.
I use up less bandwidth downloading movies, because I am also UPLOADING files, then I do just surfing in general.
Hell. AT&T should be PASSING OUT copies of P2P file sharing programs! ^_^
Hell I use 2GB a week SURFING THE NET. That is not even downloading any files!!!
SHIT!
The BW cap was bad enough, but fuck, a DOWNLOAD cap? SHIT!!
Pardon me while I go and do my best to put ATTBI outa biz with a downloading spree.
Now, lets see, in the last month I have downloaded ~40GB, so, hmm. . . ..80gb HD, wonder if I can make 40GB a month with a 1.5Mbp/s cap? Somebody care to do the math?:)
Gonna try at least, hehe.
::runs off to find a list of 'must see' movies::
Think I'll get some Opera CDs while I am at it. I damned well KNOW the RIAA doesn't control those.:)
I mostly work in a low income area, so reliability is not a factor so much as getting equipment that is better then 486s deployed in schools and houses.
(yes, I just said 486s. In High Schools. Some fools in the higher up insist on spending money on iMacs and such so intsead of ~$700 a pop computers are costing ~$2000 a pop, ugh!)
Teachers have noticed that Autistic students do far better with computers, but getting ACCESS to those computers (the special ed department got $2000. . . . 3 years ago, for computer purchases. Unfortunately they did not have any idea about where to purchase computers from cheaply and ended up buying a Dell system. ) is the hard part.
Getting involved and talking to the teachers helps alot, typicaly people are willing to either 'bend' the rules a bit or agree to using 'alternative' operating systems if they can just get access to a computer at all!!!
Because the 'officals' higher up typicaly do not care what special ed departments are doing (or have to go through. . . . . ) Special Ed departments can get away with alot of stuff (such as being seperate from any 'offical' networks or such. Yes you lose internet access, but you also don't have to store stuff on unreliable quirky district hardware, bleh!).
Always remember that performance comes AFTER price. Performance, price, reliability, pick 2, as the saying goes.
For general workstations, a Duron 700 ($29 pricewatch) is plenty, and it really is sad that more K7 motherboards do not have integrated video. As it is Integrated Sound is fine, and an Integrated RAID controler gives you reliability at a lower price then an add-on card, with a performance trade-off. Thankfuly this is just what you are looking for.
If you are going for a networked setup, I actualy saw a VERY nifty one in use awhile back.
Every time the computers where booted they had a computer HD image installed to them from a centeral server. NOTHING could _EVER_ be done to the computers (aside from direct physical manipulation) to mess it up, that a reboot would not fix.
Great system if you can manage it. Not to mention afford it, Novel Netware for booting, OS was Win98. Great for the enviroment it was in though.
Ultra small HDs in a RAID setup is probebly your best bet. Go for software RAID if absolutly neccisary, if data reliability is HIGH HIGH _HIGH_ up on your list use all the data backup methods shoved together at once. A tape drive off in some corner that on a weekly basis also automaticaly backs up all data would be nice too, though not neccisary.
As far as the system goes, I aim my price point at around $500(USD) or so. Of course based on a specific students needs, this price can go up dramaticaly, and it does not include the price of Speakers or a monitor. (typicaly I am in a situation where monitors are literaly lying around on the floor, cruddy though they may be.)
Put a call out for HD though, alot of companies will be MORE then unhappy to unload their p133s onto you.
Which have nice 2GB hds or so in them. }:)
Not to mention the free keyboards + mice. You'd be amazed how easily those are forgotten. (Hey, uh, did we just order 30 systems and forget to buy keyboards? OH SHIT!!!! DOH! I have Actualy seen that happen, hehe.:o )
The local goverment is likely going to be useless. Solicite them if you can, if your need is great enough. . . . . THere are also various organizations out there that have a LITTLE bit of money to give away, but computers for special ed students is not a very popular cause amongst many people.:(
Summary:
Go with small HDs (donated perferably) in an IDE RAID setup.
Scrounge up neccisary Keyboards + Mice.
Do NOT pay more then $500 for your base parts. Perferably less. I saw a 700mhz Duron Bare Bones (Case, Powersupply, MoBo, CPU, RAM) for around $300 recently.
3d features on the SC do not matter. For computers used for display purposes, go for Matrox, otherwise go for whatever is cheapest.
Don't make the mistake of buying TOO low quality, Bad Shit Happens then. Especialy when others are looking up to you. (Hey, That brand worked alright on my 15 boxen at home!/So what? Don't work worth a shit here!/)
Monitors are a tricky issue. Even buying cheap ones, they are almost half the cost of a system. Obviously bigger == better, even more so when you are dealing with students whose attention you NEED to grab. (then again, big bright visuals grab anybodies attention.)
If you are lucky enough to get an actual budget (Woh! You lucky dog.;) ) then I say concentrate on the monitors.
Self assemble (or get a local H.S. tech class to do it for ya, at least one student in there should be able to plug Red Wire into Red Hole.:) ) to save up to a few hundred per box.
My e-mail should be shown now (hmm, should've been shown before. ^_^ it used to be, when you where able to have 2 different emails, one for/, to know, another that was 'shown'. BLeh) but since ATT@HOME switched to ATTBI it is only checked once every other day now. I do check it though.
Pardon the Piss Poor nature of the message, my brain is REALLY f*cked up right now, been working on Artsy stuff WAY to much lately. (help, 16 hours doing creative work makes my head hurt!)
Remember your humility, for it is but a few baes pairs that seperate genius and insanity.
It is only a few base pairs that make the difference between one who works so hard he forgets to bath, and one who cannot bath themself at all.
It is only a few base pairs that has given you the live you lead and not th life of another, a life full of sorrow and pain.
Remember your humility. I always do my best to remember mine, I setup computers for special ed classes and help then with the minimal funding that they get for computers.
I have heard many of the special ed teachers say that even their Autistic students seem to enjoy doing things on the computer, and that the few setps of progress made seem to be taken in that electronic world.
Sad that so little funding is given to special ed departments. A local school was happy when they recieved $2000 two years ago for computers.
THe jewelery class (beads and such) got $6000 worth of iMacs.
Donate your time, energy, and efforts towards helping childern with special needs.
Not because you may need to use such resources one day when you have a family of your own, But because it is the right thing to do.
Many, and I mean -many- grey and black market websites have this type of a policy. Privet FTPs and Forums also have a simular policy, don't give out the address.
Hell I belong to a number of places on the internet, websites included, that are not supposed to have their address's handed out or be linked too.
Of course these sites are trying to AVOID publicity and users, seems to me that a company wants all of the publicity that they can get. Then again negative publicity, ah, hehe. I can see them only going after sites that say bad things about them.:)
Also from my (admititly very very -very- limited) experance on the Japanese side of the web, they also have rules about linking, with a person needing to ask for permission before linking to some sites. I have read on American web sites about the American webmaster getting yelled at by the Japanese webmaster for linking to their site without asking. ^_^
FINALY! I have been waiting for _YEARS_ for a breakthrough like this. Man shitty day so far, this makes is worthwhile and them some!!! YEEEES!!!!!!!
I'm legaly blind in one eye, I have almost no depth preception. You know all of those 3d monitors that people keep on getting excited over? Well if Science keeps up its march I may be able to use them one day!! YAAAHHOOOOO!!!!
Slashdot Mirror
Huh?
:)
:)
.) still buy Bards Tale for the PC on at least one CD-ROM RPG classics distribution pack.
I still have my original disks.
And the Bards Tale Construction Set.
You can actualy (I believe. . .
Alot of people seem to want for Linux to gain a large user base.
I am simply stating what is needed if Linux is to do such.
A larger user base would mean more hardware support and more software support from other companies.
It also has its down sides of course, but this is not the place for that debate.
If features are to be added then they should be added in some sort organized way. Sure alot of new features may look good, but do they help contribute to the overall usability of the OS/GUI/ETC?
Even more, are they the most efficent contribution? Could time have been spent implementing features that add even more to the OS then the ones that were implemented? Too late now, water under the bridge and all of that, but prehaps a list of these hypothetical "high gain" features should be compiled for prioritized implementation.
"Besides, most copy protection is just done by buying a copy protection library (now SafeDisk, Elan, V-Box.. then Prolok, Lenslok(!), Rob Northern..) and inserting a few calls to it at critical points. "
Your forgeting that not all software worked this easily. Alot of older companies (ALOT!) used custom in house copyprotection systems. Sure these systems where all sooner or latter bypassed, but those patchs would be fsked up the second a recompile was attempted after any changed has been made. (byte offsets all changed)
Somebody else mentioned Public Domain rather then open source. PD software has the whole entire "make the code ready for public use" problem, while OS software has the entire "uh, dude, that program is 11 years old and 3 company names ago, you mean somebody still remembers that it EXISTS?"
In some cases traces of a program do not even exist but in 1 or 2 places on the next. The game "Floor 13" is a good example of this. (uh, any information on it at all? It contains tons of alusions to every Nerd psuedo-religion ever. Illumni, etc)
Concentrate the effort on first producing those features that look/sound good.
/match/ microsoft feature for feature but also to /surpass/ them.
I know it sounds nasty, but a balance can be found.
If Linux wishs to pull ahead, then a balance has to be found.
Concentrate on the features that people really want. Or at least that people think that they really want.
The opensource development community has the capability to not only
*COUGH* USB2.0 *COUGH*
"As for the copyright limit, that is not only a very tough fight(of IMHO questionable merit) but it doesn't yeild the results you want anyway. Even if you did away with all software copyrights you could only reverse engineer the programs, you wouldn't have the original source code."
/ALOT/ easier if the programmer could just shrug his/her shoulders and say "well hey, the copyright has ran out, nothing you can do about it."
The sourcecode could be released by willing employees though, often times the original programmer wants to release the sourcecode for free but because the program is caught up in numerious legal tangles it becomes impossible.
It would be
This is the difference between Linux and Windows.
/KNOW/ about them.
:)
Microsoft makes their cleartype technology enablable with a big large red button shouting "PUSH ME DARN YOU PUSH ME!".
Linux puts it in a text file.
While having the text file option is nice and all, it would be better if the friendlier installation packages said at install time "heya, we noticed that you have an LCD screen, any chance you want to enable LCD font antialiasing? It'll make your text alot easier to read!"
For the boxed distros, shove it on the back of the box in a yellow jaggy oval. Bright yellow.
Also include it in a settings->display style applet. Make it obvious. Make it easy. Make it so that people KNOW its there.
Linux has alot of unused features, unused because few people
Hell, it could be able to cure cancer and theres a chance the lot of us wouldn't know what string to put on what line to enable it.
That is precisly what I am talking about. It should require no user intervention at all. :(
In fact Asian Charecter support in Windows is also easy, just a single EXE file to be downloaded and run. Just select the desired language and spell things out phonicaly in romanized letters, watch the desired charecter appear.
More popular programs like this are needed on Linux, and need to be installed by default. A standard of some sort needs to be set that allows for all programs to easily use these features. Imagine every Gnome/KDE/ program having easy to implement naturalization.
Or a Hiragana flashcard program, or a Kanji flashcard program, or both intermixed with each other with no issues at all. The english letters/word choices being shown at the bottom of the screen.
Now imagine the Kanji charecters also being antialiased. Along with everything else.
All the user would know is that he/she is improving their Japanese skills on a very nice looking display and that it was even easier to get running that the Windows equivilent.
Uh, make that "bowels", not "bowls". ^_^
"Choosing a language is one of the first choices when I install Debian. "
When you install?
How. . . . quaint.
Multiple language packs easily and seemlessly working together in all applications. Installed on the fly as the user encounters new text, small downloads perferable.
"Oh, and to get my Creative Webcam 3 installed in Linux took at the most 2 modprobe commands and compiling gqcam to take pictures. While I could never get it working in Windows 2000 (this was a year ago though)"
That is one slight issue, a shitpot load of patchs not on the windows update site (hidden within the bowls on microsofts webpage, sometimes not even linked too from within it, Google is your friend.) need to be installed to get great USB support. By default it is only decent.
It doesn't help that most webcams insist on using their odd arsed data tranfer format instead of .
I remember reading up the other day on a game called Star Command.
/MIGHT/ be upgraded to something modern and ported all over heck and such, but shoot, reality is that it would cost them MONEY when they are already a struggeling small company.
/ALL/.
/REDUCE/ the copyright limit. ~7years for computer programs and ~25 years for books and other documents sounds nice. (Some books stay in print and keep on selling for longer then that though)
When asked why they didn't release the game for free or open source it, a person in the company (CEO/Lead developer or some such high up person, small company anyways) said that it would take too much of their time and money.
First they would have to try and FIND the source code (doubtful if it still existed), then if they managed to do that, reassign some people from another money making project to taking an old (in this case DOS game) and removing the protections and security checks they put in there and scanning in the documentation, bundeling it up, setting up a server for distribution (or maintaining a sourceforge account, granted they could pass it on to somebody, but then that entales the legal issues involved), all just to make a few people happy that they could now freely get an old DOS game.
Sure it
Not to mention cases where the rights to a program are split across a few gazzilion people and numerious corporations. This is especialy true when one company has the rights to the game and another company has the rights to distribution. Icky situation there. And if by some chance somebody sold off merchandising rights. . . . oh man, no hope at
A good first step though would be to
At least it would take care of the legal hassles somewhat, but it still wouldn't help with finding the sourcecode.
"umm, lets see now, where did I shove that 5.25' disk. . . . . "
Ok, thats nice, it looks good, umm. . . .
:) ) and Unicode text support is useful.
/PER DAY/. Obviously easy /seamless/ multicultural support is a nice idea, implement/advertise it!
If the Linux crowd wants to get inroads into the main stream windows user base then they need to start promoting or developing (case depending of course, if it already exists, PROMOTE IT) some key features.
Generic HID drivers. Right now I can plug damn nearly anything with buttons and pad(s) on it into my win2k boxen and it will run. How is somebody to know if Linux does this? Hardly something that is discussed often.
---I should be able to plug a control pad in and it should work no fuss no muss. Oh yah, and a little button should make it take over my house, let the analog keys work, and so forth.
If I get a USB hub and start jacking mice into it left and right, what would happen? Will they work with no error, will another mouse pointer just appear on my screen or will each mouse control the same cursor? Even better, can I choose which? Easily? Can programs choose which? 4 player breakout games exist for Windows, simply shove more mice on the computer.
----Thats UI, easy to control, as many devices as I want plugged in all at once.
Concentrate on making features usable and advertising them. Sure AA text may be nice (really nice in some cases.
How easy is it to install additional fonts? Can users just click "install Japanese font pack" from a font pack listing someplace and have the GUI go online and download said fonts without a hitch? People working in multi-cultural enviroments want to know that sorta stuff, I'm typing this from a library computer that typicaly has 2-3 new language packs installed on it
Sure this is a developer pack, but when stuff is easy for the developer it is (should be) easy for the user.
Looking nice is good, working smooth is better.
The only difference between the OO methodology and a procedural methodology is how the /HUMAN/ on the other end has to think about the problem.
Then again, isn't that how everything is? Convienent metaphores to keep poor little humans from having to comprehend too much stuff at once.
Hierarchal file display VS flat file display. If humans could take in data faster the flat display would work better, albiet with a bit more waste in data tranfer (excess data on each directory listing.)
Hell, the only reason you have to WRITE DOWN the intermediate steps of design and brainstorming and such is because the human mind (in most cases) is unable to deal with all of the complexities of, say, a motherboard, mentaly.
Hell get a smart enough brain and you could design anything Fast As Shit.
Annoying sucker that brain is, on a thirty minute math problem it can take me 5 minutes of actual math and 25 minutes of writting down the intermediat steps. . . . . bleh.
This type of sh*t literaly makes me ill.
Will somebody please explain to me again what would be moraly wrong with going around and shooting the bastards who do this? Or what about that spokesman that said that there was nothing wrong with what the company did? I would have no moral issues with his torture + death.
But I have more trouble remembering images then I do numbers. :(
:)
I have some nifty keen passwords though.
looooong as fucking hell and random as shit with lots of misc stuff thrown in there. Various PWs for different sites too of course, security level varies. ^_^
Used to be in the seattle/puget sound area there was an art group headed up by a BBS called Rat City.
They produced some nice music and artwork, but I cannot find but an old telephone number as a trace of them on the net.
Anybody else still remember this highly obscure BBS? Insane stuff at times
Uh, NO WAY IN HELL!
:)
:)
:)
I paid $20 for my generic TV-IN card.
Same generic BT chipset, ALOT cheaper price!
Computer swap meets are nice.
Does HDTV come from my standard cable box? Or does it require a special connector? I have digital cable yet it is through an RF box (thanks AT&T! Bleh).
Getting nuts though, heh, recorded analog, encoded to digital in MPEG2 format, displayed on an analog TV screen, bleeeeh. The quality loss has got to be horrid.
Oh wait, it IS!
Heh.
Not as bad as the 100ft RF extension cable I have going to my computer though, hehe. Hey, it works, uh, kinda. Well, most of the channels are viewable.
GameCube supports HDTV.
:(
:)
:) (heh, at least its already progressive. :) )
Me?
I'm still using a shoddy Zenith 19in with only RF plugs.
My computer moniter is bigger then that.
Thus, the TV in card I am using.
Anybody know of a TV In card that supports HDTV signals? Seriously, I have a 36inch monitor and a fscking 19inch TV set and things aren't likely to change soon! Nifty to be able to view HDTV on my computer though.
Call then x86s.
:)
X Eighy-six compatible or X Eighy-Six, either or works just fine.
Sure as hell not going to call it PS/2 compatible, bleh, damn playstation 2 was the final nail in THAT term. (: ^_^
I haven't seen an IBM desktop in ages.
Mabye having -ZERO- market exposure in the desktop market arena is to blame?
I have not seen an IBM desktop in a store, at a business, or anyplace else, that is anything near modern.
Yaah!
::runs out to buy another pack of TDK CDRS::
Actualy here is the kicker for ya;
PEER TO PEER FILE SHARING PROGRAMS _sAVE_ BROADBAND ISPS MONEY!!!!
Thats right!
Why? Simple actualy!
When a person is using a P2P program and maxing out their upload cap, their downloads go slow as hell. I mean really slow too, 5-10KBp/s slow.
So if a person is uploading at 15KBP/s (about what you get from a 128kbit upload cap) and downloading at 10KBp/s, that is a _MERE_ 25KBp/s of bandwidth usage!
Hell, I f*cking surf the net faster then that. Especialy Newgrounds.com or any simular broadband intensive site.
I use up less bandwidth downloading movies, because I am also UPLOADING files, then I do just surfing in general.
Hell. AT&T should be PASSING OUT copies of P2P file sharing programs! ^_^
Ah, bandwidth cap?
.80gb HD, wonder if I can make 40GB a month with a 1.5Mbp/s cap? Somebody care to do the math? :)
:)
FUCK!
I use ~2GB a week. Minimum.
Hell I use 2GB a week SURFING THE NET. That is not even downloading any files!!!
SHIT!
The BW cap was bad enough, but fuck, a DOWNLOAD cap? SHIT!!
Pardon me while I go and do my best to put ATTBI outa biz with a downloading spree.
Now, lets see, in the last month I have downloaded ~40GB, so, hmm. . . .
Gonna try at least, hehe.
::runs off to find a list of 'must see' movies::
Think I'll get some Opera CDs while I am at it. I damned well KNOW the RIAA doesn't control those.
I mostly work in a low income area, so reliability is not a factor so much as getting equipment that is better then 486s deployed in schools and houses.
:o )
:(
/So what? Don't work worth a shit here!/)
;) ) then I say concentrate on the monitors.
:) ) to save up to a few hundred per box.
/, to know, another that was 'shown'. BLeh) but since ATT@HOME switched to ATTBI it is only checked once every other day now. I do check it though.
(yes, I just said 486s. In High Schools. Some fools in the higher up insist on spending money on iMacs and such so intsead of ~$700 a pop computers are costing ~$2000 a pop, ugh!)
Teachers have noticed that Autistic students do far better with computers, but getting ACCESS to those computers (the special ed department got $2000. . . . 3 years ago, for computer purchases. Unfortunately they did not have any idea about where to purchase computers from cheaply and ended up buying a Dell system. ) is the hard part.
Getting involved and talking to the teachers helps alot, typicaly people are willing to either 'bend' the rules a bit or agree to using 'alternative' operating systems if they can just get access to a computer at all!!!
Because the 'officals' higher up typicaly do not care what special ed departments are doing (or have to go through. . . . . ) Special Ed departments can get away with alot of stuff (such as being seperate from any 'offical' networks or such. Yes you lose internet access, but you also don't have to store stuff on unreliable quirky district hardware, bleh!).
Always remember that performance comes AFTER price. Performance, price, reliability, pick 2, as the saying goes.
For general workstations, a Duron 700 ($29 pricewatch) is plenty, and it really is sad that more K7 motherboards do not have integrated video. As it is Integrated Sound is fine, and an Integrated RAID controler gives you reliability at a lower price then an add-on card, with a performance trade-off. Thankfuly this is just what you are looking for.
If you are going for a networked setup, I actualy saw a VERY nifty one in use awhile back.
Every time the computers where booted they had a computer HD image installed to them from a centeral server. NOTHING could _EVER_ be done to the computers (aside from direct physical manipulation) to mess it up, that a reboot would not fix.
Great system if you can manage it. Not to mention afford it, Novel Netware for booting, OS was Win98. Great for the enviroment it was in though.
Ultra small HDs in a RAID setup is probebly your best bet. Go for software RAID if absolutly neccisary, if data reliability is HIGH HIGH _HIGH_ up on your list use all the data backup methods shoved together at once. A tape drive off in some corner that on a weekly basis also automaticaly backs up all data would be nice too, though not neccisary.
As far as the system goes, I aim my price point at around $500(USD) or so. Of course based on a specific students needs, this price can go up dramaticaly, and it does not include the price of Speakers or a monitor. (typicaly I am in a situation where monitors are literaly lying around on the floor, cruddy though they may be.)
Put a call out for HD though, alot of companies will be MORE then unhappy to unload their p133s onto you.
Which have nice 2GB hds or so in them. }:)
Not to mention the free keyboards + mice. You'd be amazed how easily those are forgotten. (Hey, uh, did we just order 30 systems and forget to buy keyboards? OH SHIT!!!! DOH! I have Actualy seen that happen, hehe.
The local goverment is likely going to be useless. Solicite them if you can, if your need is great enough. . . . . THere are also various organizations out there that have a LITTLE bit of money to give away, but computers for special ed students is not a very popular cause amongst many people.
Summary:
Go with small HDs (donated perferably) in an IDE RAID setup.
Scrounge up neccisary Keyboards + Mice.
Do NOT pay more then $500 for your base parts. Perferably less. I saw a 700mhz Duron Bare Bones (Case, Powersupply, MoBo, CPU, RAM) for around $300 recently.
3d features on the SC do not matter. For computers used for display purposes, go for Matrox, otherwise go for whatever is cheapest.
Don't make the mistake of buying TOO low quality, Bad Shit Happens then. Especialy when others are looking up to you. (Hey, That brand worked alright on my 15 boxen at home!
Monitors are a tricky issue. Even buying cheap ones, they are almost half the cost of a system. Obviously bigger == better, even more so when you are dealing with students whose attention you NEED to grab. (then again, big bright visuals grab anybodies attention.)
If you are lucky enough to get an actual budget (Woh! You lucky dog.
Self assemble (or get a local H.S. tech class to do it for ya, at least one student in there should be able to plug Red Wire into Red Hole.
My e-mail should be shown now (hmm, should've been shown before. ^_^ it used to be, when you where able to have 2 different emails, one for
Pardon the Piss Poor nature of the message, my brain is REALLY f*cked up right now, been working on Artsy stuff WAY to much lately. (help, 16 hours doing creative work makes my head hurt!)
Remember your humility, for it is but a few baes pairs that seperate genius and insanity.
It is only a few base pairs that make the difference between one who works so hard he forgets to bath, and one who cannot bath themself at all.
It is only a few base pairs that has given you the live you lead and not th life of another, a life full of sorrow and pain.
Remember your humility. I always do my best to remember mine, I setup computers for special ed classes and help then with the minimal funding that they get for computers.
I have heard many of the special ed teachers say that even their Autistic students seem to enjoy doing things on the computer, and that the few setps of progress made seem to be taken in that electronic world.
Sad that so little funding is given to special ed departments. A local school was happy when they recieved $2000 two years ago for computers.
THe jewelery class (beads and such) got $6000 worth of iMacs.
Donate your time, energy, and efforts towards helping childern with special needs.
Not because you may need to use such resources one day when you have a family of your own, But because it is the right thing to do.
Many, and I mean -many- grey and black market websites have this type of a policy. Privet FTPs and Forums also have a simular policy, don't give out the address.
:)
Hell I belong to a number of places on the internet, websites included, that are not supposed to have their address's handed out or be linked too.
Of course these sites are trying to AVOID publicity and users, seems to me that a company wants all of the publicity that they can get. Then again negative publicity, ah, hehe. I can see them only going after sites that say bad things about them.
Also from my (admititly very very -very- limited) experance on the Japanese side of the web, they also have rules about linking, with a person needing to ask for permission before linking to some sites. I have read on American web sites about the American webmaster getting yelled at by the Japanese webmaster for linking to their site without asking. ^_^
FINALY! I have been waiting for _YEARS_ for a breakthrough like this. Man shitty day so far, this makes is worthwhile and them some!!! YEEEES!!!!!!!
I'm legaly blind in one eye, I have almost no depth preception. You know all of those 3d monitors that people keep on getting excited over? Well if Science keeps up its march I may be able to use them one day!! YAAAHHOOOOO!!!!