Did you know that he actually believes that midiclorians (or whatever the fuck they are) are real? I remember reading an interview with him in Entertainment Weekly regarding "The Force" and his personal beliefs when Episode I was released. The man has taken his own fiction (which isn't his own, but that's excusable, at some level every creative endeavor is derivative of something) and turned it into his reality.
That and his fucked up, screw the people who made him (uh, that would be you, fans), sales and marketing techniques.
I give Lucas as much credit as I give to the craxy old man who wanders around downtown screaming. It might surprise you to find out that I give the screamer more credit that you might think.
As someone who was brought up and educated by science fiction, I know it to be plainly true that all robots eventually become self aware and turn on their human masters!
Because I don't like to spend my income on new computer equipment (I'd rather devote disposable income to photography and music). Because my 333 G3 beats the hell out of my 333 P2. Because I like the hardware. Because OS X is a dog on my machine.
I have a Blue and White G3 at home. Have you tried to run OS X on hardware that old? It may look purty, but it is painfully slow. I run SuSE 7.3 with Windowmaker as my desktop. It runs fast, does everything that OS X does, and has a similar look and feel. I recently removed OS X from my hard drive.
have a Blue and White G3, running at 333 Mhz. I love it. On the two hard drives on this machine I have OS X, SuSE 7.3, Mandrake (cooker), and Darwin installed on it.
The rundown:
OS X is lovely, but slow slow slow. Even upgraded to 10.1.2 it is still just too damn slow to use. Aside from that, I love the interface and the tools.
Darwin is just too close to BSD. I like to have good configuration tools (aside from vi). Very little documentation, and too much of a learning curve for someone who has more important things to do than configure and administer a BSD box. I admit that I haven't played with it much.
Mandrake is a bit rough around the edges (it is the cooker version, after all). It had the best install of any Linux distribution that I've ever used. I just love the bootloader that it installed. It is a two stage wonder program that lets me pick any operating system that I want.
SuSE 7.3 is a joy to work with. It is responsive, has great configuration tools, has almost every application that I could want, and is just fun to use. I had two problems with it. I can't adjust gamma with XFree 4.x (which is an XFree problem), and it can't run the built in firewire (well it can, but only in raw mode which doesn't do me any good). I solved the firewire problem by buying a cheapo pci firewire card, and it is up and running.
If I had a state of the art Mac I would run OS X in a heartbeat. On my G3, I prefer SuSE 7.3.
I get to listen to every single conversation that occurs between two developers. I also know when somebody calls, and who it is, because all calls to the farm default to speakerphone. I'm not bothered by pesky natural light. Whenever I want to communicate with my coworkers, all I have to do is raise my voice and call over the partitions. I know when people are coming and going. I have absolutely no privacy to speak with my family and loved ones, keeping me more focused on the task at hand. Yes, cubicles are the way to go.
Now excuse me while I head off to the bathroom and smash my head into the mirror there. It's theraputic.
Absolutely. The common household cat was a threat to the uncommon hummingbird. If I had to choose between saving the life of a hummingbird and that of a cat, I'll take the hummingbird.
The cat is a domestic animal. A pet. People should take responsibility for their pets. I know of several indoor cats that appear to lead happy lives.
Wild cats are a different story. They are indigenous to the areas that they occupy. They fill an important role in the natural eco system. House cats generally are imported to regions, and have an impact on the local wildlife.
Naturally, there are exceptions to every rule. In rural areas cats can play an important role in pest control, i.e. mice and rats.
When he was in graduate school my advisor lived in a house with several other students. Most of the people living there were environmental and population biologists (as opposed to microbiologists or biochemists) and had lots of neat animal observation stands set up around the house. One of these stands was a hummingbird feeder, which attracted a particularly rare (and endangered) breed of hummingbird. Another student there had a cat. Now the cat took to eating the hummingbirds, which didn't make the other residents in the house too happy. Several attempts were made to encourage the owner of the cat not to let the cat outside, but the owner refused. One day the owner of the cat came home to find his cat dead, most likely from poisoning.
This brings up an interesting point about cats. They have a devastating effect on indigenous wildlife. Lots of rare birds and small animals are killed by cats that are given the opportunity to go outside. This shows a tremendous amount of ignorance on the part of pet owners.
It is also dangerous for cats to roam. They are very territorial, and will fight with most other cats in the area. I had a cat once that became infected with FIV (the feline equivalent of HIV) through fighting with other neighborhood cats.
The cat recognition is a cool hack, but keeping the cats indoor would be safer and more ethical.
At work I develop scientific applications. Since I don't want to waste memory, but still want to have a functional X server, I run a window manager called PWM (if you do a search for it on google, use the keywords "pwm" and "ion"). I like it because it takes almost no memory, and allows me to dock windows together. It suits my style of working.
I run a Blue and White G3 at home, with SuSE 7.3. I just reinstalled the system last night in (what appears to be a successful) attempt in building the perfect system. I downloaded the most recent version of Windowmaker (0.80) and spent some time configuring it. It is a sweet desktop. I have all of the applications that I use regularly at my fingertips, have lots of fun dockable apps to do useful things like establish my internet connection and play my ogg-vorbis files, and have lots of eye candy.
I compiled Windowmaker with CFLAGS="-O3" (highest level optimizations), and it screams. I'm not running particularly fast hardware, but with over half a gig of memory plugged into it and my favorite apps optimized, it hauls ass. I absolutely love it. Windowmaker is one of the most overlooked window manager projects out there, and takes a little to get used to, but is well worth the effort.
I have a Blue and White G3, running at 333 Mhz. I love it. On the two hard drives on this machine I have OS X, SuSE 7.3, Mandrake (cooker), and Darwin installed on it.
The rundown:
OS X is lovely, but slow slow slow. Even upgraded to 10.1.2 it is still just too damn slow to use. Aside from that, I love the interface and the tools.
Darwin is just too close to BSD. I like to have good configuration tools (aside from vi). Very little documentation, and too much of a learning curve for someone who has more important things to do than configure and administer a BSD box. I admit that I haven't played with it much.
Mandrake is a bit rough around the edges (it is the cooker version, after all). It had the best install of any Linux distribution that I've ever used. I just love the bootloader that it installed. It is a two stage wonder program that lets me pick any operating system that I want.
SuSE 7.3 is a joy to work with. It is responsive, has great configuration tools, has almost every application that I could want, and is just fun to use. I had two problems with it. I can't adjust gamma with XFree 4.x (which is an XFree problem), and it can't run the built in firewire (well it can, but only in raw mode which doesn't do me any good). I solved the firewire problem by buying a cheapo pci firewire card, and it is up and running.
If I had a state of the art Mac I would run OS X in a heartbeat. On my G3, I prefer SuSE 7.3.
I've seen three different styles of magic white boards. Some that have sensors in the tips of the markers, some like mimeo which use some sort of wireless communication, and others that pass a scanner over the board. In every situation that I've seen them in (graduate school, government research facility, private company) they were all useless beyond the ghee-whiz factor. I can imagine some use in collaboration, but aside from that white boards wind up as big scratch pads for ideas. They get the work rolling, but generally aren't the work.
The color scheme on the search page clearly differentiates between the search engine and the ad. I, for one, like the ads on google. Like the searches, they are often useful. I'm also grateful that the ads are distinct from the search. Enjoy the friendly Google while you can, folks. Nothing this good lasts forever.
Just a sampling of music from indie labels that I have bought and liked:
* Appleseed Cast, "Low Level Owl Vol I,II", Deep Elm Records This has to be one of the best recordings of last year. This band reminds me of Radiohead, yet with an earthy tone drawn from their subdued vocals and natural samples.
* Morton Feldman/Ives Ensemble, "String Quartet II", Hat Art Records (limited pressing of 3000) The first complete recording of the 4-6 hour string quarted by the legendary composer. Takes a bit of will to listen to, but well worth every second.
* Boxhead Ensemble, "Two Brothers", Truckstop Media A string ensemble. Not pop, but a great spin.
* The Notwist, "Neon Golden", import (forget the label) A german band, singing in english, which fuses electronic and acoustic music very well. The inflections of the lead singer can be a bit confusing at times, but soon grows on you.
* Unisex, "Stratosfear", Double Agent. Good pop/electronica music. Catchy with only one poorly executed track on the album.
* Mirah, "You Think It's Like This But Really It Is Like This," K Records Low fi, post punk, female vocals that tug at your heart.
I've been searching out obscure and hard to find music for the last several months now, and I feel good about supporting the indie music scene and I've enjoyed the music to boot.
A language is only as good as its compiler. I remember reading an article (at the register maybe?) about a microsoft security product that had buffer overflows not because of the original code, but from the code that the compiler generated. C, not being a very high level language, is easier to write compilers for. It is easy to audit and verify. It is what most system programmers cut their teeth on. All of those reasons (and many more) make it an ideal OS language. Yes, it has its problems, but at least you know that a buffer overflow is your own damn fault if you write it. And with a little knowledge and forethought they can be easily avoided.
You want to look at naked women on your terminal? Try using the aalib (ascii art library). It does an outstanding job of converting graphics files to ascii output.
I have a television. I use it to watch videos. Aside from that it sits in my apartment and collects dust. I get out and practice Yoga and Tai-Chi. I spend time with my friends. I ski on a regular basis. I like to read all sorts of things, ranging from fiction to philosophy. I enjoy a wide variety of music, and like to sit on my couch and enjoy a new CD or the radio. There is so much out there to enjoy. There is so much out there that is more enjoyable and stimulating than television. Why should I give two shits about PVRs and how they piss off the networks?
Try this. Line the room with hundreds (thousands?) of styrofoam cones, so that the walls look something like this:
>
>
>
>
(that is just one wall, stupid lameness filter)
The cones will absorb all sorts of wavelenths, and make the room really quiet. I've been in rooms like this before, and there is almost zero reverb no matter how loudly you yell or how much noise you make.
Slashdot Mirror
Did you know that he actually believes that midiclorians (or whatever the fuck they are) are real? I remember reading an interview with him in Entertainment Weekly regarding "The Force" and his personal beliefs when Episode I was released. The man has taken his own fiction (which isn't his own, but that's excusable, at some level every creative endeavor is derivative of something) and turned it into his reality.
That and his fucked up, screw the people who made him (uh, that would be you, fans), sales and marketing techniques.
I give Lucas as much credit as I give to the craxy old man who wanders around downtown screaming. It might surprise you to find out that I give the screamer more credit that you might think.
The Colorado constitution "protect an individual's fundamental right to purchase books anonymously, free from governmental interference."
So it isn't just a first amendment issue.
As someone who was brought up and educated by science fiction, I know it to be plainly true that all robots eventually become self aware and turn on their human masters!
What do people find appealing about Lexx? I find it to be unwatchable. What do you like about it?
Ha!
Syntax vs. semantics again. You, my friend, are an ass.
SuSE doesn't release any ISOs any more. Why is it fortunate that they have a distro if what you want' doesn't meet your criteria.
p.s. I've used the PPC beta from Mandrake, and it looks to be pretty good. My preference is to run SuSE 7.3, though
Because I don't like to spend my income on new computer equipment (I'd rather devote disposable income to photography and music). Because my 333 G3 beats the hell out of my 333 P2. Because I like the hardware. Because OS X is a dog on my machine.
Methinks that you might be confused. Are you sure you're not talking about OS X?
SuSE 7.3 PPC runs like a banshee on my Blue and White G3
http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2002/02.htm l
"Someone on IRC said, 'how do they expect the little guys to survive?' I replied, 'No Mister Bond, I expect you to die.'"
I have a Blue and White G3 at home. Have you tried to run OS X on hardware that old? It may look purty, but it is painfully slow. I run SuSE 7.3 with Windowmaker as my desktop. It runs fast, does everything that OS X does, and has a similar look and feel. I recently removed OS X from my hard drive.
have a Blue and White G3, running at 333 Mhz. I love it. On the two hard drives on this machine I have OS X, SuSE 7.3, Mandrake (cooker), and Darwin installed on it.
The rundown:
OS X is lovely, but slow slow slow. Even upgraded to 10.1.2 it is still just too damn slow to use. Aside from that, I love the interface and the tools.
Darwin is just too close to BSD. I like to have good configuration tools (aside from vi). Very little documentation, and too much of a learning curve for someone who has more important things to do than configure and administer a BSD box. I admit that I haven't played with it much.
Mandrake is a bit rough around the edges (it is the cooker version, after all). It had the best install of any Linux distribution that I've ever used. I just love the bootloader that it installed. It is a two stage wonder program that lets me pick any operating system that I want.
SuSE 7.3 is a joy to work with. It is responsive, has great configuration tools, has almost every application that I could want, and is just fun to use. I had two problems with it. I can't adjust gamma with XFree 4.x (which is an XFree problem), and it can't run the built in firewire (well it can, but only in raw mode which doesn't do me any good). I solved the firewire problem by buying a cheapo pci firewire card, and it is up and running.
If I had a state of the art Mac I would run OS X in a heartbeat. On my G3, I prefer SuSE 7.3.
I get to listen to every single conversation that occurs between two developers. I also know when somebody calls, and who it is, because all calls to the farm default to speakerphone. I'm not bothered by pesky natural light. Whenever I want to communicate with my coworkers, all I have to do is raise my voice and call over the partitions. I know when people are coming and going. I have absolutely no privacy to speak with my family and loved ones, keeping me more focused on the task at hand. Yes, cubicles are the way to go.
Now excuse me while I head off to the bathroom and smash my head into the mirror there. It's theraputic.
Absolutely. The common household cat was a threat to the uncommon hummingbird. If I had to choose between saving the life of a hummingbird and that of a cat, I'll take the hummingbird.
The cat is a domestic animal. A pet. People should take responsibility for their pets. I know of several indoor cats that appear to lead happy lives.
Wild cats are a different story. They are indigenous to the areas that they occupy. They fill an important role in the natural eco system. House cats generally are imported to regions, and have an impact on the local wildlife.
Naturally, there are exceptions to every rule. In rural areas cats can play an important role in pest control, i.e. mice and rats.
When he was in graduate school my advisor lived in a house with several other students. Most of the people living there were environmental and population biologists (as opposed to microbiologists or biochemists) and had lots of neat animal observation stands set up around the house. One of these stands was a hummingbird feeder, which attracted a particularly rare (and endangered) breed of hummingbird. Another student there had a cat. Now the cat took to eating the hummingbirds, which didn't make the other residents in the house too happy. Several attempts were made to encourage the owner of the cat not to let the cat outside, but the owner refused. One day the owner of the cat came home to find his cat dead, most likely from poisoning.
This brings up an interesting point about cats. They have a devastating effect on indigenous wildlife. Lots of rare birds and small animals are killed by cats that are given the opportunity to go outside. This shows a tremendous amount of ignorance on the part of pet owners.
It is also dangerous for cats to roam. They are very territorial, and will fight with most other cats in the area. I had a cat once that became infected with FIV (the feline equivalent of HIV) through fighting with other neighborhood cats.
The cat recognition is a cool hack, but keeping the cats indoor would be safer and more ethical.
At work I develop scientific applications. Since I don't want to waste memory, but still want to have a functional X server, I run a window manager called PWM (if you do a search for it on google, use the keywords "pwm" and "ion"). I like it because it takes almost no memory, and allows me to dock windows together. It suits my style of working.
I run a Blue and White G3 at home, with SuSE 7.3. I just reinstalled the system last night in (what appears to be a successful) attempt in building the perfect system. I downloaded the most recent version of Windowmaker (0.80) and spent some time configuring it. It is a sweet desktop. I have all of the applications that I use regularly at my fingertips, have lots of fun dockable apps to do useful things like establish my internet connection and play my ogg-vorbis files, and have lots of eye candy.
I compiled Windowmaker with CFLAGS="-O3" (highest level optimizations), and it screams. I'm not running particularly fast hardware, but with over half a gig of memory plugged into it and my favorite apps optimized, it hauls ass. I absolutely love it. Windowmaker is one of the most overlooked window manager projects out there, and takes a little to get used to, but is well worth the effort.
I have a Blue and White G3, running at 333 Mhz. I love it. On the two hard drives on this machine I have OS X, SuSE 7.3, Mandrake (cooker), and Darwin installed on it.
The rundown:
OS X is lovely, but slow slow slow. Even upgraded to 10.1.2 it is still just too damn slow to use. Aside from that, I love the interface and the tools.
Darwin is just too close to BSD. I like to have good configuration tools (aside from vi). Very little documentation, and too much of a learning curve for someone who has more important things to do than configure and administer a BSD box. I admit that I haven't played with it much.
Mandrake is a bit rough around the edges (it is the cooker version, after all). It had the best install of any Linux distribution that I've ever used. I just love the bootloader that it installed. It is a two stage wonder program that lets me pick any operating system that I want.
SuSE 7.3 is a joy to work with. It is responsive, has great configuration tools, has almost every application that I could want, and is just fun to use. I had two problems with it. I can't adjust gamma with XFree 4.x (which is an XFree problem), and it can't run the built in firewire (well it can, but only in raw mode which doesn't do me any good). I solved the firewire problem by buying a cheapo pci firewire card, and it is up and running.
If I had a state of the art Mac I would run OS X in a heartbeat. On my G3, I prefer SuSE 7.3.
ya ta!
yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!
I've seen three different styles of magic white boards. Some that have sensors in the tips of the markers, some like mimeo which use some sort of wireless communication, and others that pass a scanner over the board. In every situation that I've seen them in (graduate school, government research facility, private company) they were all useless beyond the ghee-whiz factor. I can imagine some use in collaboration, but aside from that white boards wind up as big scratch pads for ideas. They get the work rolling, but generally aren't the work.
Ogg-Vorbis support.
The color scheme on the search page clearly differentiates between the search engine and the ad. I, for one, like the ads on google. Like the searches, they are often useful. I'm also grateful that the ads are distinct from the search. Enjoy the friendly Google while you can, folks. Nothing this good lasts forever.
Just a sampling of music from indie labels that I have bought and liked:
* Appleseed Cast, "Low Level Owl Vol I,II", Deep Elm Records
This has to be one of the best recordings of last year. This band reminds me of Radiohead, yet with an earthy tone drawn from their subdued vocals and natural samples.
* Morton Feldman/Ives Ensemble, "String Quartet II", Hat Art Records (limited pressing of 3000)
The first complete recording of the 4-6 hour string quarted by the legendary composer. Takes a bit of will to listen to, but well worth every second.
* Boxhead Ensemble, "Two Brothers", Truckstop Media
A string ensemble. Not pop, but a great spin.
* The Notwist, "Neon Golden", import (forget the label)
A german band, singing in english, which fuses electronic and acoustic music very well. The inflections of the lead singer can be a bit confusing at times, but soon grows on you.
* Unisex, "Stratosfear", Double Agent.
Good pop/electronica music. Catchy with only one poorly executed track on the album.
* Mirah, "You Think It's Like This But Really It Is Like This," K Records
Low fi, post punk, female vocals that tug at your heart.
I've been searching out obscure and hard to find music for the last several months now, and I feel good about supporting the indie music scene and I've enjoyed the music to boot.
A language is only as good as its compiler. I remember reading an article (at the register maybe?) about a microsoft security product that had buffer overflows not because of the original code, but from the code that the compiler generated. C, not being a very high level language, is easier to write compilers for. It is easy to audit and verify. It is what most system programmers cut their teeth on. All of those reasons (and many more) make it an ideal OS language. Yes, it has its problems, but at least you know that a buffer overflow is your own damn fault if you write it. And with a little knowledge and forethought they can be easily avoided.
You want to look at naked women on your terminal? Try using the aalib (ascii art library). It does an outstanding job of converting graphics files to ascii output.
I have a television. I use it to watch videos. Aside from that it sits in my apartment and collects dust. I get out and practice Yoga and Tai-Chi. I spend time with my friends. I ski on a regular basis. I like to read all sorts of things, ranging from fiction to philosophy. I enjoy a wide variety of music, and like to sit on my couch and enjoy a new CD or the radio. There is so much out there to enjoy. There is so much out there that is more enjoyable and stimulating than television. Why should I give two shits about PVRs and how they piss off the networks?
Try this. Line the room with hundreds (thousands?) of styrofoam cones, so that the walls look something like this:
>
>
>
>
(that is just one wall, stupid lameness filter)
The cones will absorb all sorts of wavelenths, and make the room really quiet. I've been in rooms like this before, and there is almost zero reverb no matter how loudly you yell or how much noise you make.