A camera that sits on top of your computer (like a web cam, but most likely higher quality and greater refresh) that TRACKS YOUR EYES.
Where your eyes move over the screen, the camera tracks the movement and moves the cursor to where you are focussing. If you change position in your chair, you can quickly "refocus" the device by training it with a physical mouse. (ie: if you move around too far, you will lose your connection, and have to retrain the camera by moving the mouse around with your hand and following the cursor with your eyes) Smarter versions of the camera will tolerate a greater movement of the viewer.
This device would be lightning quick, and let you operate the pointer while having BOTH HANDS on the keyboard.
I would imagine that games would also be enhanced, for example playing quake!
This might the appropriate topic to create a thread of comments/suggestions/ideas regarding a Linux help site that I want to start up. If this is the wrong place to do so, then I apologise.
The design of this site would be centered around "users helping users". Those who feel adept in helping newbies could sign up as "helpers", where their particular skills and areas of expertise would be kept track of. Newbies in need of help could then fill in a form requesting for help, from which the system would match their particular problem with a suitable "helper" - who would be emailed their information.
Of course, to remove common questions, users would be taken through maybe some kind of Wizard (ick I hate that word:P) which would recommend certain HOWTO's/FAQ's based on their problem, before allowing them to submit a help request.
In effect, what would be created would be a large scale "help desk" system - however free for people to use.
The incentive for people to become "helpers" would be simple - the best helpers each month (derived from positive feedback from users) would revieve free hardware/software from sponsors of the site. I'm thinking people like VA, PenguinComputing, and Redhat could be suitable "sponsors".
Help requests and solutions would be recorded and put in some kind of Linux help knowledge base, which would be free to search.
I have confidence that (once above the ground) such a help system would really benefit the Linux community.
A) People could get personal help with their problems B) Those who help would be rewarded from sponsors C) Sponsors get exposure D) People might feel easier about learning Linux is they knew a free help system existed.
Well, I hope that gives you guys enough of an idea as to what I would like to see. I am eager for constructive critisism/ideas/comments/questions for this idea.
Well, they say that this thing is "Linux based"... but are only offering "evaluation" versions to download?! If they have used the Linux source then surely they must adhere to the GPL and release the source?!
Debian is run entirely by volunteers, who spend much unpaid time slaving away keeping packages up to date and fixing bugs.
Do we, the users have *any* right whatsoever to complain about the slipping date of the freeze? If you want to see Debian go stable sooner then get out there and help bugfix. Whining won't get you anwhere.
Ok... great.. we have journaling.. where are the ACL's??? ACL's are one of the biggest things setting linux behind commercial *nixes such as solaris and irix. (And don't tell me User Private Groups get around ACL's - because they don't.)
I realised MS was a monopoly about two years ago. Industy has known it for longer... although I'm glad to see the judge's initial findings, I'm dissapointed it took *this* long.
The IT industry is such a rapidly changing/evolving area that it's just NOT acceptable for important law suits like this to take so long. It's most likely counter productive to have to wait this long for the courts to make their minds up, as others will simply take the "law" into their own hands.
Look at Sun with their free StarOffice - which is quite a direct aim at one of MS's crown jewels (Office). Look at the "commercial" use of OSS by certain companies who are looking at ways to take out big Microsloth. Regardless if their actions are good for users, they are doing this because the courts are too slow to react to this fast paced industry.
As IT grows it inherintly obvious that these kinds of lawsuits will also grow... and if we don't get a better way of dealing with Antitrust and Monopolies then is there really going to be a legal confidence working in this industry?
... but Intel would not let HP release it until it had ia32 reverse compatibility. So now we have to wait an extra two years!!
Why? You can't just recompile closed source. More reason for OSS I say. This is a very good example of the Wintel monopoly holding back technology progress.
Also, had intel not designed the x86 architecture in 3 months (normally takes over a year.. but they had to get it out quick) it might not be taking so long for Merced to appear.
Wow, this sure is narrow minded of MIT to let MS help them with "research".
If MS has anything to do with it, the funds will prolly go 1% research, 99% marketing.
This seems to be the problem nowadays.. large companies fund the research so they can lay claim to intellectual property and exploit the results of research to their own financial gain.
Business wise - there is nothing wrong with this.. but academically this is a Bad Thing. Privatisation of research always seems to lead to results being heavily guarded in secrecy - which defeats the whole ethos of academic research!!
Free the knowledge - keep research open, and out of the meddling hands of private funding.
I think that MS and OSS are a little bit closer than dogs and apples.
Secondly, why do you think that companies such as Apple and SGI are suddenly moving towards an OSS way of doing business? Do you think that it has something to do with the rising annual rainfall of South West Australia, or maybe that these companies find OSS the only viable alternative to beat MS?
Your dis-proof is not mathematical, and nor does your explanation of the growth of OSS contain any substance.
I suggest that you get a clue and learn how to write constructive criticism.
No, I do *NOT* worship Bill[tm] or his Empire[r]. Actually, I severely DISLIKE Microsoft, however my loathing for MS is less than my love of Open Source.
I think that a guilty verdict would do more damage to OSS than it would do good. Think about it - if they were found guilty, then the DOJ would put in place jurisdiction to level the playing field for other competitors.
But what "competitors" would such laws help to leverage into the market? Sun, IBM, SGI and Apple come to mind to name a few...
However - consider what tactics these companies are using to combat Microsoft - Open Source of course! Look at projects such as Apple Darwin and Linux4SGI... all Open Source (of some form)!!
If MS *WAS* found guilty, then the DOJ would put in place laws to help companies such as Sun, SGI etc.. get a more equal footing.
But this would be at the expense of OSS!! No longer would OSS look as much of a good looking alternative to combat MS's monopoly - and I'm sure many of these companies will dump their OSS projects when they find themselves on a more equal footing with MS - it would be back to normal business practises (and no OSS.)
In fact, looking at the growth of Open Source and corellating it to the growth of MS's monopoly - you see a trend - as the monopoly grows, so too does OSS. I'm not a statistician, but I'm sure theres some truth to this relationship.
Then again, I would still be happy to see MS found Guilty - my point is that if they ARE - we shouldn't just jump to the conclusion that it will be good for us (the users/consumers).
"Linux at the moment can be considered more a play thing for IT students rather than a serious operating system..."
I'm sure that when these "IT students" complete their degrees, they will be deploying Linux based solutions over SCO.
This is a serious overlook by SCO - do they believe that an IT grad who has spent the last two years "playing" with Linux will choose to deploy SCO? I'm an undergraduate and I'm *already* deploying Linux in the places that I work part time.
SCO needs to realise that in the next 5 - 10 years, it will be those graduated "IT students" making the decisions, and I'm sure most of those who "played" with Linux will be deploying it over SCO, simply because they know Linux better.
A graduate who feels comfortable in Linux is certainly not going to suggest to use SCO, because they would not have touched upon it, and would feel more confident using a product that they know.
If SCO wants to be alive in the near future, they need to realise that eventually the current crop of people who make the IT decisions will be replaced with those who have been brought up with Linux, and are willing to use it.
Another thing that SCO has overlooked, is why people have an interest in UNIX again. It's certainly not because of SCO's marketing. It's because of LINUX and other free *nixes. SCO has done nothing to promote the UNIX industry in the last 5 years. I'm sure that being bitter about Linux will only worsen their image.
I know plenty of people who know what Linux is, but don't have a clue what SCO is.
I belive that if SCO wants to survive, they need to stop overlooking such mentioned facts. I think that their bitterness against Linux has made SCO somewhat blind to the REAL problems they face.
This is a fantastic day to celebrate for the open source movement... but let's be a little wary of this move by Sun.
Sun certainly isn't into giving things away for free - they are a company that's been brought up in the culture of American free market business.
They are doing almost the same thing Microsoft did to Netscape - offer the competitor's product for free to try and leverage your own product. Hey - I think this is great that MS is getting a taste of what they do to others. But if the motive behind Sun open sourcing Star Office is for this reason, then its only to the community's benefit because Sun will benefit too.
This is quite obvious, but I point this out because I think it might conflict with the general ideaology of open source.
But, it IS a step in the right direction, but we should be careful not to allow ourselves to become blind to the motives of these companies - they want to make money.
It's certainly a WIN/WIN situation for Sun and the community - so let's keep on our toes and make sure it stays that way! Keep coding Abiword and KOffice... the more free software the better!!
Slashdot Mirror
... would be making models+skins of yourself for Quake! (and your gf naked :)
Is there a .au of Miguel saying (like Torvalds) "hello my name is Miguel and I pronounce Guh-nome and Guh-nome" ?
;)
All my friends pronounce it as Gee-nome, (as in the g-nome project), while other's call it nome.
I wanna set this straight
www.opencontent.org
:P
semis
Last year, wasn't there some Australian guy who claimed to have developed a codec that could send DVD quality motion+sound over a 56k modem?
It was on slashdot, but I can't find it in the article history. It was also published in many computer magazines and newspaper articles.
Obviously, it was a hoax - but he got quite a bit of capital from investors. What has happened to this guy?
Top 10 things I wanted for Christmas ... but didn't get :(
;)
/dev/null that gives - and not takes
1. triple caffeinated penguin mints
2. semis@slashdot.org
3. A Hemos action figurine
4. "Fear the Penguin" T-Shirt signed by bill.
5. one of them things from fufme.com
6. a new hotmail exploit on Bugtraq
7. my shell to say "Merry Christmas - jackass" when I logged in
8. "slashdot me, baby" boxers.
9. a
10. A Picachu voodoo doll
I'm sorry, but a 1 second boot time really doesn't impress me. It might if I used windows and had to reboot twice a day. ;)
A camera that sits on top of your computer (like a web cam, but most likely higher quality and greater refresh) that TRACKS YOUR EYES.
Where your eyes move over the screen, the camera tracks the movement and moves the cursor to where you are focussing. If you change position in your chair, you can quickly "refocus" the device by training it with a physical mouse. (ie: if you move around too far, you will lose your connection, and have to retrain the camera by moving the mouse around with your hand and following the cursor with your eyes) Smarter versions of the camera will tolerate a greater movement of the viewer.
This device would be lightning quick, and let you operate the pointer while having BOTH HANDS on the keyboard.
I would imagine that games would also be enhanced, for example playing quake!
Ok.. so who's gonna build me one of these?!
This might the appropriate topic to create a thread of comments/suggestions/ideas regarding a Linux help site that I want to start up. If this is the wrong place to do so, then I apologise.
:P) which would recommend certain HOWTO's/FAQ's based on their problem, before allowing them to submit a help request.
The design of this site would be centered around "users helping users". Those who feel adept in helping newbies could sign up as "helpers", where their particular skills and areas of expertise would be kept track of. Newbies in need of help could then fill in a form requesting for help, from which the system would match their particular problem with a suitable "helper" - who would be emailed their information.
Of course, to remove common questions, users would be taken through maybe some kind of Wizard (ick I hate that word
In effect, what would be created would be a large scale "help desk" system - however free for people to use.
The incentive for people to become "helpers" would be simple - the best helpers each month (derived from positive feedback from users) would revieve free hardware/software from sponsors of the site. I'm thinking people like VA, PenguinComputing, and Redhat could be suitable "sponsors".
Help requests and solutions would be recorded and put in some kind of Linux help knowledge base, which would be free to search.
I have confidence that (once above the ground) such a help system would really benefit the Linux community.
A) People could get personal help with their problems
B) Those who help would be rewarded from sponsors
C) Sponsors get exposure
D) People might feel easier about learning Linux is they knew a free help system existed.
Well, I hope that gives you guys enough of an idea as to what I would like to see. I am eager for constructive critisism/ideas/comments/questions for this idea.
cheers,
semis.
Well, they say that this thing is "Linux based"... but are only offering "evaluation" versions to download?! If they have used the Linux source then surely they must adhere to the GPL and release the source?!
Debian is run entirely by volunteers, who spend much unpaid time slaving away keeping packages up to date and fixing bugs.
Do we, the users have *any* right whatsoever to complain about the slipping date of the freeze? If you want to see Debian go stable sooner then get out there and help bugfix. Whining won't get you anwhere.
Ok... great.. we have journaling.. where are the ACL's??? ACL's are one of the biggest things setting linux behind commercial *nixes such as solaris and irix. (And don't tell me User Private Groups get around ACL's - because they don't.)
I realised MS was a monopoly about two years ago. Industy has known it for longer... although I'm glad to see the judge's initial findings, I'm dissapointed it took *this* long.
... and if we don't get a better way of dealing with Antitrust and Monopolies then is there really going to be a legal confidence working in this industry?
The IT industry is such a rapidly changing/evolving area that it's just NOT acceptable for important law suits like this to take so long. It's most likely counter productive to have to wait this long for the courts to make their minds up, as others will simply take the "law" into their own hands.
Look at Sun with their free StarOffice - which is quite a direct aim at one of MS's crown jewels (Office). Look at the "commercial" use of OSS by certain companies who are looking at ways to take out big Microsloth. Regardless if their actions are good for users, they are doing this because the courts are too slow to react to this fast paced industry.
As IT grows it inherintly obvious that these kinds of lawsuits will also grow
... for bringing me drivers for my Monster-II before these slackers.
REM ha.. I win!
pause
why is there such a fuss in the x86 world over a 5 percent performance gain? If you really want a performance gain go get an alpha or a MIPS.
... because it's got polynomial equation solving built into its instruction set!!
... but Intel would not let HP release it until it had ia32 reverse compatibility. So now we have to wait an extra two years!!
Why? You can't just recompile closed source. More reason for OSS I say. This is a very good example of the Wintel monopoly holding back technology progress.
Also, had intel not designed the x86 architecture in 3 months (normally takes over a year.. but they had to get it out quick) it might not be taking so long for Merced to appear.
sigh.
Where are the X apps?
I'de like to see this person review some Gnome or KDE apps - in depth constructive criticism like this would help make our favorite DE's even better!
Wow, this sure is narrow minded of MIT to let MS help them with "research".
If MS has anything to do with it, the funds will prolly go 1% research, 99% marketing.
This seems to be the problem nowadays.. large companies fund the research so they can lay claim to intellectual property and exploit the results of research to their own financial gain.
Business wise - there is nothing wrong with this.. but academically this is a Bad Thing. Privatisation of research always seems to lead to results being heavily guarded in secrecy - which defeats the whole ethos of academic research!!
Free the knowledge - keep research open, and out of the meddling hands of private funding.
Hell, they are so low that this intel thing is bound to do something to em....
I think that MS and OSS are a little bit closer than dogs and apples.
Secondly, why do you think that companies such as Apple and SGI are suddenly moving towards an OSS way of doing business? Do you think that it has something to do with the rising annual rainfall of South West Australia, or maybe that these companies find OSS the only viable alternative to beat MS?
Your dis-proof is not mathematical, and nor does your explanation of the growth of OSS contain any substance.
I suggest that you get a clue and learn how to write constructive criticism.
No, I do *NOT* worship Bill[tm] or his Empire[r].
... all Open Source (of some form)!!
Actually, I severely DISLIKE Microsoft, however my loathing for MS is less than my love of Open Source.
I think that a guilty verdict would do more damage to OSS than it would do good. Think about it - if they were found guilty, then the DOJ would put in place jurisdiction to level the playing field for other competitors.
But what "competitors" would such laws help to leverage into the market? Sun, IBM, SGI and Apple come to mind to name a few...
However - consider what tactics these companies are using to combat Microsoft - Open Source of course! Look at projects such as Apple Darwin and Linux4SGI
If MS *WAS* found guilty, then the DOJ would put in place laws to help companies such as Sun, SGI etc.. get a more equal footing.
But this would be at the expense of OSS!! No longer would OSS look as much of a good looking alternative to combat MS's monopoly - and I'm sure many of these companies will dump their OSS projects when they find themselves on a more equal footing with MS - it would be back to normal business practises (and no OSS.)
In fact, looking at the growth of Open Source and corellating it to the growth of MS's monopoly - you see a trend - as the monopoly grows, so too does OSS. I'm not a statistician, but I'm sure theres some truth to this relationship.
Then again, I would still be happy to see MS found Guilty - my point is that if they ARE - we shouldn't just jump to the conclusion that it will be good for us (the users/consumers).
"Linux at the moment can be considered more a play thing for IT students rather than a serious operating system ..."
I'm sure that when these "IT students" complete their degrees, they will be deploying Linux based solutions over SCO.
This is a serious overlook by SCO - do they believe that an IT grad who has spent the last two years "playing" with Linux will choose to deploy SCO? I'm an undergraduate and I'm *already* deploying Linux in the places that I work part time.
SCO needs to realise that in the next 5 - 10 years, it will be those graduated "IT students" making the decisions, and I'm sure most of those who "played" with Linux will be deploying it over SCO, simply because they know Linux better.
A graduate who feels comfortable in Linux is certainly not going to suggest to use SCO, because they would not have touched upon it, and would feel more confident using a product that they know.
If SCO wants to be alive in the near future, they need to realise that eventually the current crop of people who make the IT decisions will be replaced with those who have been brought up with Linux, and are willing to use it.
Another thing that SCO has overlooked, is why people have an interest in UNIX again. It's certainly not because of SCO's marketing. It's because of LINUX and other free *nixes. SCO has done nothing to promote the UNIX industry in the last 5 years. I'm sure that being bitter about Linux will only worsen their image.
I know plenty of people who know what Linux is, but don't have a clue what SCO is.
I belive that if SCO wants to survive, they need to stop overlooking such mentioned facts. I think that their bitterness against Linux has made SCO somewhat blind to the REAL problems they face.
This is a fantastic day to celebrate for the open source movement... but let's be a little wary of this move by Sun.
... the more free software the better!!
Sun certainly isn't into giving things away for free - they are a company that's been brought up in the culture of American free market business.
They are doing almost the same thing Microsoft did to Netscape - offer the competitor's product for free to try and leverage your own product. Hey - I think this is great that MS is getting a taste of what they do to others. But if the motive behind Sun open sourcing Star Office is for this reason, then its only to the community's benefit because Sun will benefit too.
This is quite obvious, but I point this out because I think it might conflict with the general ideaology of open source.
But, it IS a step in the right direction, but we should be careful not to allow ourselves to become blind to the motives of these companies - they want to make money.
It's certainly a WIN/WIN situation for Sun and the community - so let's keep on our toes and make sure it stays that way! Keep coding Abiword and KOffice