Only posts #35, #60, #80 #118 had anything useful to say that was really on topic.
#35: Voice of moderation, mostly non technical staff gets layed off. (portal.suse.de/en)
#60: Socially acceptable lay offs that don't save SuSE any money immedeately.
#80: "Just restructuring a bit", "going strong" from an employee of SuSE Labs
#118: SuSE is not publicly traded. Privately
funded. Was profitable from the beginning
and maybe grew a little too fastduring the
tech bubble.
The rest, were just doom'n'gloom sayers...
Come on, people. Not everything is going down hill. Some companys have a sound structure.
SuSE is not only in the distribution business, the do a lot of service to and have more products than "just" the distribution and stuffed animals.
DAX, Deutscher Aktien Index, German stocks index.
Watching news concerning the economy will often show the DOW, DAX, FTSE and other indices side by side, allowing you to make remarks about the size of other nation's dipsticks.
See:
http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/wei.html?sidena v= front
I have read a lot of dismissive comments about cargolifter here. And it is true that they face a lot of technical difficulties.
But they are very serious about building this keeled airship (not a blimp, not a zeppelin).
They have build the production facilty in Germany, an incredibly big hangar. They do have lots of investors, many of them companies that will benefit from the finished product.
Yes their stock is slumping, but that is no wonder in the current climate at the stock exchanges, it _is_ a very risky venture.
But this is not some crazy venture, von Gablenz is going about it in a very level headed way. When they premiered on the stock market during the bubble, they did not go to the "Neuer Markt" where the bubble economy was rampant. They went into the MDAX. The DAX is Germany's equivalent of the Dow, the MDAX holds the next 100 smaller companies (not small caps, more like middle caps, damn my restriceted vocabulary). This means that they are very interested in a steady, level headed developement of Cargolifter, instead of making big bucks fast.
To sum it up: Cargolifter is a risky, crazy thing, but they are very sure of accomplishing this technological feat. The already have funding up to the finished full scale operating prototype (their estimates).
So watch out! If it can be done, their doing it. It is incredibly interesting technology and it will be fun to watch how they are going to do it. Their web site holds a lot of information and many good pictures of side projects and the big hangar. http://www.cargolifter.com
DVB is a digital broadcasting standard using MPEG2 that is used in Europe. Most, if not all free-to-air stations here in Germany are broadcasting it over sattelite (stationary 60cm dish is enough) and cable. You get DVD quality resolution and sharpness.
linuxtv.org is developing / has developed a driver for a certain group of cards that allmost all available models are based on. A tivo like VDR application has been written. There even is a legal way to watch PayTV channels via a standard smart card interface.
It works great.
Nokia is cooperating with them in developing an open API. (As I understand it the linuxtv people had a working system and Nokia approached them, to work with them on that project. So it's not a case of a company allowing others to participate, but a big company joinign in. I think that is a good sign.)
So I have build my own Tivo (not available here yet) like device really easily thanks to the great work of those people.
With LCD and remote it is a real appliance, usable without any great knowlege about computers. (Just the beta status of the software;-), but thats changing fast).
With the onboard MPEG2 decoder chip, it puts not a great load on the CPU and DVD playing is also possibele without a glich.
Yeah! I'm very happy.
Marcus
It's BASEketball (Soutpark guys Parker and Stone)
on
Technology And The XFL
·
· Score: 1
This reminds me of the very bad but nevertheless very funny movie Baseketball by Southpark creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
What struck me as very XFLesque is the beginning where the decline of American TV Sports is depicted (Football players doing "Lord of the Dance" after touchdown, hilarious).
Here is a google hit for the curious:
A Fan's Page
Disclaimer: I never heard about the XFL before and don't like Football anyway. Soccer rules, and I find it extremly annoying that the US couldn't find their own word for their pet sport that doesn't invovle that much footwork with the ball.;-)
I see no problem with the statement in the subject line.
Three days ago I bought two 802.11b cards. Sure it's just Ad-Hoc mode, but others can join seamlessly. (Acces Points are way more expensive than the still expensive pcmcia cards. Grumble.)
So I firewall my OpenBSD box against attacks from the internet, at the same time I firewall my wireless LAN heavily allowing only dhcp, dns, http proxy, and local mail/chat stuff.
My own wireless client now can run netfilter against attacks from the other wireless users and have an IPsec vpn, so I can fully access the router/server box.
Voila, a secure network. Meet new people, make new friends. Given the short range of my setup I am bound to meet them. Still, the range is enough to surf at the local pub around the corner;-)
Everybody is posting to fast! While I was writing my submission, sombody already posted that LinDVD is not vaporware and somebody else posted a Cyberlink link.
Their efforts seem not to be as vaporous as those of Intervideo. There's not just an ugly press release, but they seem to be looking for real customers.
Here's the bad part: It seems to be for internet appliance developers only.:-(
I wonder, could one buy such a beast, rip it apart, plug the software into a regular linux pc, and still be on the legal side of those murky waters that are called The Law?
South Park was going to be X-Rated anyway, they had to omit a scene to prevent it
South Park, even without the cut scene, would have been X-rated if it wasn't a cartoon. At least I read that somewhere.
And are you trying to tell me that people in Germany can't distinguish between "Tomm and Jerry and some kind of Blood and Gore Flick" on their own? Hello? Hello?? How do you translate 'independent thought' into German?
I was talking about restricting access to minors. MINORS.
By the way, violence is glorified every day by every government with a military, including yours. Move to Switzerland.
Switzerland also has an army, they even consider it one of the foundations of the swiss model of independence, democracy and neutrality. (Things are changing a little, there was a documentary on TV recently)
Sounds to me like the pot is calling the kettle black.
Your kettle-pot, analogy isn't very good. Look at the word I used: again AGAIN. I hate those knee jerk reactions to our totalitarian past. Of course we have to remeber it and guard against it, but so do you. So please educate yourself about modern Germany. So we can have a discussion and not some kind of pavlovian reflex.
SO people are reading very late posts. Thanks supruzr.:-)
By the way, didn't you use the kettle-pot thing before? Or is it just your sig ? It seemed to be a response to a sentence of mine... BY golly did I Fall for a troll ? OOOooh this is fun.
First of all don't flail me to death, because I didn't read many of the replys to the article. In fact, I just searched for "Germany" and "Bloodpatch". This post isn't going to be read by anyone anyway, because it's already "old" and I am poster number 50034567.
Here in Germany ultra violent movies and computer games are put on an so called "index" when they become too violent. Just like pornography you have to be 18 or older to buy that stuff.
No commercials and no ads allowed. But it is not as bad as being x-rated is for an American movie. Fight Club was 18 or older in Germany and many people saw it. Quake sells well. And anybody of legal age can get the stuff, even in "normal" shops, no guilty feeling of visiting a seedy sex shop is involved;-).
(The violence is gauged on the psychological impact it causes. This is very subjective, but helps you to distinguish between Tomm and Jerry and some kind of Blood and Gore Flick which glorifies violence. America has that, too. South Park the movie, would have been x-rated if it weren't a cartoon.)
On the negative side, some vendors "censor" their games for release in Germany. Blood is green. Soldiers in Half-Life are robots, body's can't be mutilated, etc. But than there are so called "Bloodpatches" available on the internet that turn everything gory again.I can live with that. It's just restrictions and not censorship. You do not have to buy the tamed German version of a Game, you can get an import. I think Quake is on the "index", no cutie German Version, and everybody plays it. A well known computer magazine uses it as a kind of standard for real world graphics perfomance for video cards.
Restricting pornography and violence, so that kids don't get too disturbed (parents are not always a big help) seems quite OK to me. Americans might Ask themselves why is pornography restricted while violence is not ? That' strange, too. Or swear words and blasphemy, there seems to be a taboo on those while in most European countries nobody gets exited.
Or take something like the American Nazi Party. Something like this (left or right) is forbidden in Germany, because it "acts against the basic concepts of our democratic society"(TM). We had our experience with a totalitarian organization that ursurped a democracy and we do not want it to happen again. Too much government, you might reply and you might be right. But isn't it a basic principle that government and society should reflect each other, be two sides of a medal ? Maybe that truism is why we accept that kind of rules, even though it comes close to censorship.
So on the one hand we trust our government more than Americans do and on the other hand we keep a close look at it so it doesn't get out of hand. (One example of that "closer look" is the number of people participating in elections. Not a 100 percent are voting, but it is a lot more than in the US).
Aaaaaah, that rant felt good. And maybe I clarified one or two things that make America and Europe (Germany) so very different even though we share so many similarities in our belives and goals.
Marcus (mmkhd are all of my initials, I laugh at a single middle initial:-)
Mmmm, I don't know when the playstation2 will be available in Europe and what it will cost, but if you need a cheap standalone dvd-player, why not go for a Yamakawa?
These things can be made region free and Mvision can be disabled with only a few button presses. It seems to have a lot in common with the Apex mentioned here (Why is hifi/video equipment always more expensive here in Germany:( )
It costs 256 Euros here in Germany and also goes by the name of Raite (original manufacturer), Kiss, SEG nad probably others (see Apex).
Slashdot Mirror
And a further addition could
be the "anatomically correct" Wi-Fi bear
with above mentioned camera.
Just keeping up the bad taste.
(Female participants are encouraged to
add their own tastless comments.)
No Linux in the story?
Twaddle!
I think that screen shown when pinging
through the bear is probably showing Linux.
Only posts #35, #60, #80 #118 had anything useful to say that was really on topic.
#35: Voice of moderation, mostly non technical staff gets layed off. (portal.suse.de/en)
#60: Socially acceptable lay offs that don't save SuSE any money immedeately.
#80: "Just restructuring a bit", "going strong" from an employee of SuSE Labs
#118: SuSE is not publicly traded. Privately
funded. Was profitable from the beginning
and maybe grew a little too fastduring the
tech bubble.
The rest, were just doom'n'gloom sayers...
Come on, people. Not everything is going down hill. Some companys have a sound structure.
SuSE is not only in the distribution business, the do a lot of service to and have more products than "just" the distribution and stuffed animals.
Marcus
DAX, Deutscher Aktien Index, German stocks index.
Watching news concerning the economy will often show the DOW, DAX, FTSE and other indices side by side, allowing you to make remarks about the size of other nation's dipsticks.
See:
http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/wei.html?siden
Marcus
I have read a lot of dismissive comments about cargolifter here. And it is true that they face a lot of technical difficulties.
But they are very serious about building this keeled airship (not a blimp, not a zeppelin).
They have build the production facilty in Germany, an incredibly big hangar. They do have lots of investors, many of them companies that will benefit from the finished product.
Yes their stock is slumping, but that is no wonder in the current climate at the stock exchanges, it _is_ a very risky venture.
But this is not some crazy venture, von Gablenz is going about it in a very level headed way. When they premiered on the stock market during the bubble, they did not go to the "Neuer Markt" where the bubble economy was rampant. They went into the MDAX. The DAX is Germany's equivalent of the Dow, the MDAX holds the next 100 smaller companies (not small caps, more like middle caps, damn my restriceted vocabulary). This means that they are very interested in a steady, level headed developement of Cargolifter, instead of making big bucks fast.
To sum it up: Cargolifter is a risky, crazy thing, but they are very sure of accomplishing this technological feat. The already have funding up to the finished full scale operating prototype (their estimates).
So watch out! If it can be done, their doing it. It is incredibly interesting technology and it will be fun to watch how they are going to do it. Their web site holds a lot of information and many good pictures of side projects and the big hangar. http://www.cargolifter.com
Marcus
DVB is a digital broadcasting standard using MPEG2 that is used in Europe. Most, if not all free-to-air stations here in Germany are broadcasting it over sattelite (stationary 60cm dish is enough) and cable. You get DVD quality resolution and sharpness.
;-), but thats changing fast).
linuxtv.org is developing / has developed a driver for a certain group of cards that allmost all available models are based on. A tivo like VDR application has been written. There even is a legal way to watch PayTV channels via a standard smart card interface.
It works great.
Nokia is cooperating with them in developing an open API. (As I understand it the linuxtv people had a working system and Nokia approached them, to work with them on that project. So it's not a case of a company allowing others to participate, but a big company joinign in. I think that is a good sign.)
So I have build my own Tivo (not available here yet) like device really easily thanks to the great work of those people.
With LCD and remote it is a real appliance, usable without any great knowlege about computers. (Just the beta status of the software
With the onboard MPEG2 decoder chip, it puts not a great load on the CPU and DVD playing is also possibele without a glich.
Yeah! I'm very happy.
Marcus
What struck me as very XFLesque is the beginning where the decline of American TV Sports is depicted (Football players doing "Lord of the Dance" after touchdown, hilarious).
Here is a google hit for the curious: A Fan's Page
Disclaimer: I never heard about the XFL before and don't like Football anyway. Soccer rules, and I find it extremly annoying that the US couldn't find their own word for their pet sport that doesn't invovle that much footwork with the ball. ;-)
Marcus
Three days ago I bought two 802.11b cards. Sure it's just Ad-Hoc mode, but others can join seamlessly. (Acces Points are way more expensive than the still expensive pcmcia cards. Grumble.)
So I firewall my OpenBSD box against attacks from the internet, at the same time I firewall my wireless LAN heavily allowing only dhcp, dns, http proxy, and local mail/chat stuff.
My own wireless client now can run netfilter against attacks from the other wireless users and have an IPsec vpn, so I can fully access the router/server box.
Voila, a secure network. Meet new people, make new friends. Given the short range of my setup I am bound to meet them. Still, the range is enough to surf at the local pub around the corner ;-)
Marcus
Whoa!
Everybody is posting to fast! While I was writing my submission, sombody already posted that LinDVD is not vaporware and somebody else posted a Cyberlink link.
But that was my only line! --Monty Python
;-)
Marcus
Cyberlink, the company that brought you powerdvd, is going for the linux market, too.
Cyberlink
Their efforts seem not to be as vaporous as those of Intervideo. There's not just an ugly press release, but they seem to be looking for real customers.
Here's the bad part: It seems to be for internet appliance developers only. :-(
I wonder, could one buy such a beast, rip it apart, plug the software into a regular linux pc, and still be on the legal side of those murky waters that are called The Law?
Marcus
South Park, even without the cut scene, would have been X-rated if it wasn't a cartoon. At least I read that somewhere.
And are you trying to tell me that people in Germany can't distinguish between "Tomm and Jerry and some kind of Blood and Gore Flick" on their own? Hello? Hello?? How do you translate 'independent thought' into German?I was talking about restricting access to minors. MINORS.
By the way, violence is glorified every day by every government with a military, including yours. Move to Switzerland.Switzerland also has an army, they even consider it one of the foundations of the swiss model of independence, democracy and neutrality. (Things are changing a little, there was a documentary on TV recently)
Sounds to me like the pot is calling the kettle black.Your kettle-pot, analogy isn't very good. Look at the word I used: again AGAIN. I hate those knee jerk reactions to our totalitarian past. Of course we have to remeber it and guard against it, but so do you. So please educate yourself about modern Germany. So we can have a discussion and not some kind of pavlovian reflex.
SO people are reading very late posts. Thanks supruzr. :-)
By the way, didn't you use the kettle-pot thing before? Or is it just your sig ? It seemed to be a response to a sentence of mine... BY golly did I Fall for a troll ? OOOooh this is fun.
MarcusFirst of all don't flail me to death, because I didn't read many of the replys to the article. In fact, I just searched for "Germany" and "Bloodpatch". This post isn't going to be read by anyone anyway, because it's already "old" and I am poster number 50034567.
Here in Germany ultra violent movies and computer games are put on an so called "index" when they become too violent. Just like pornography you have to be 18 or older to buy that stuff.
No commercials and no ads allowed. But it is not as bad as being x-rated is for an American movie. Fight Club was 18 or older in Germany and many people saw it. Quake sells well. And anybody of legal age can get the stuff, even in "normal" shops, no guilty feeling of visiting a seedy sex shop is involved ;-).
(The violence is gauged on the psychological impact it causes. This is very subjective, but helps you to distinguish between Tomm and Jerry and some kind of Blood and Gore Flick which glorifies violence. America has that, too. South Park the movie, would have been x-rated if it weren't a cartoon.)
On the negative side, some vendors "censor" their games for release in Germany. Blood is green. Soldiers in Half-Life are robots, body's can't be mutilated, etc. But than there are so called "Bloodpatches" available on the internet that turn everything gory again.I can live with that. It's just restrictions and not censorship. You do not have to buy the tamed German version of a Game, you can get an import. I think Quake is on the "index", no cutie German Version, and everybody plays it. A well known computer magazine uses it as a kind of standard for real world graphics perfomance for video cards.
Restricting pornography and violence, so that kids don't get too disturbed (parents are not always a big help) seems quite OK to me. Americans might Ask themselves why is pornography restricted while violence is not ? That' strange, too. Or swear words and blasphemy, there seems to be a taboo on those while in most European countries nobody gets exited.
Or take something like the American Nazi Party. Something like this (left or right) is forbidden in Germany, because it "acts against the basic concepts of our democratic society"(TM). We had our experience with a totalitarian organization that ursurped a democracy and we do not want it to happen again. Too much government, you might reply and you might be right. But isn't it a basic principle that government and society should reflect each other, be two sides of a medal ? Maybe that truism is why we accept that kind of rules, even though it comes close to censorship.
So on the one hand we trust our government more than Americans do and on the other hand we keep a close look at it so it doesn't get out of hand. (One example of that "closer look" is the number of people participating in elections. Not a 100 percent are voting, but it is a lot more than in the US).
Aaaaaah, that rant felt good. And maybe I clarified one or two things that make America and Europe (Germany) so very different even though we share so many similarities in our belives and goals.
Marcus (mmkhd are all of my initials, I laugh at a single middle initial :-)
Mmmm, I don't know when the playstation2 will be available in Europe and what it will cost, but if you need a cheap standalone dvd-player, why not go for a Yamakawa?
:( )
These things can be made region free and Mvision can be disabled with only a few button presses. It seems to have a lot in common with the Apex mentioned here (Why is hifi/video equipment always more expensive here in Germany
It costs 256 Euros here in Germany and also goes by the name of Raite (original manufacturer), Kiss, SEG nad probably others (see Apex).
Marcus