If you're still lost, I recommend you avoid the commanline:-)
And this is the sort of response that drives people actually looking to learn UNIX away.
I have been familiar with command line since it was typed out on paper.
However, to a newbie the manual page is no more intuitively decipherable than clicking on "Start" to shutdown is on Windows.
man pages are only of use to people who already know the command line. Others need it explained to them, and I have found it far more productive to provide them with that explanation than implying they're just too stupid to read the manual.
I see that my original post is now modded as flamebait for having this underlying point. If this one is also modded as flamebait I shall suffer that fate gladly in order to stick up for people who feel they need a good book and/or a bit hand holding to get them started and oppose the "RTFM" and "YTSTRTM" attitude.
The late Peter Gregg, whose nickname was "Peter Perfect" due to his skill and attention to detail, was an extremely successful sports car racer and multi time IMSA champ.
On the street he always drove automatics because he felt they were superiour technology for the application.
You'll find that where the rules allow all racing cars now handle their gear changing automatically under computer control, because the computer and robotic systems can do it better than any human. In fact, where the rules allow and the technology is available, constant velocity transmissions are prefered and no "gear change", per se, takes place at all.
If one can create a hardware architechture which simply refuses to overflow a buffer, what possible point would there be in not doing so?
Do not virtually all high performance cars these days, including racing cars where the utmost in performance is required, make use of rev limiters to prevent human control from damaging the engine?
Once upon a time my favorite programming tool was called a "soldering iron." I still make use of said device for peripherals. I'm not entirely unfamiliar with low level hardware based issues in programming.
Once upon a time you also had to pour your own babbit main bearings for your car. To start the car the first step was to drain the oil sump, heat the oil in a pan on the stove, replace it, then hand pump the oil into the engine, then hand pump fuel into the carb, then hand crank the engine. We call those times "The Bad Old Days."
What a computer can do better than a human is the legitimate field for using computer power.
The problem comes only when people use computers to do what people are better at, thinking.
This has nothing to do with Microsoft, and everything to do with architecture and programing languages.
If you program in C on Intel you are going to have problems without almost fanatical devotion to the Po^H^H management of your memory resources.
That goes for Linux as well, as any check at Bugtraq can confirm.
Yes, people should be very careful when coding in languages and on architechtures which allow buffer overflow, but the real solution is at a level lower than the coder's.
Well, I'd be among those that claim that XP doesn't work as designed, i.e. when it's working perfectly it isn't working by my definition of "working."
That doesn't mean I don't use Windows, just that I have declined to upgrade and don't intend to do so except under some form of compulsion, which I feel free to resent.
As per my other post I'd recommend Mandrake, and I'm sure you'll find that dozens of other like recommendations appear under this article.
My experience is that it installs fast, clean and with networking up, running and configured on almost anything and it's what I always use these days when I'm introducing Linux to someone.
I don't have personal experience with installing it with Linksys wireless gear, but it certainly goes without a hitch on my Linksys NIC and ethernet router.
Ok, taking further chance at being punted around I'll take a crack at clarifying the British usage of "punter."
Punters, as per the above definition, were disreputalbe warf dwellers. Uneducated, unwashed, unmoralled, and unethical. Pub dwellers, gamblers, cutthroats, defrauders, etc.
Punter means essentially the same thing as "riffraff." Riff; a disreputable person. Raff: a huddled mass of people, see also "raft" to tie several boats together so as to form one unit.
It has nothing to do with the act of poling a punt or being pushed around. It's simply a derogatory term for the lower classes.
KFG
Re:Today only, free access courtesy of Slashdot
on
Orwellian Tech Support
·
· Score: 4, Informative
And I have heard the act of floating slightly above the ground refered to as "hoovering."
Sometimes people just get mixed up over words that sound very similar.
Bunt is derived from butt, to hit lightly. It is possible that it is a portmanteua word with punt, but there is no actual evidence that this is the case.
Punt means to drop a ball from the hands and kick it. It does not carry the explicit meaning of to do so lightly, in fact generally opposite is the case.
These are both also technical terms of sport, and their meanings have been rigidly defined in the rule books for over 100 years.
KFG
Re:Today only, free access courtesy of Slashdot
on
Orwellian Tech Support
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Yes, it signifies that the article was writen in Tuscon, Arizona. In context, the writer was clearly using the American defintion of punt, and thus punter.
Your milage at The Reg may vary.
I perhaps composed my post somewhat poorly, not explicitly pointing out that I was supplying the defintion of "punt" to those who were not British, or otherwise not American, who might misapply the British definition to the article, where it would make little sense, implicitly recognizing that although the article might well be written by Americans and for Americans the web is, nonetheless World Wide.
Thus, because England and America are two countries seperated by a common language, and English being the lingua franca of the web, confusion is oft the result, especially to those for whom neither English nor American are their first language.
If my attempt to clarify only added to the confusion it was not deliberately intended to do so.
My experience is that yes, most male gamers are, although this will vary by genre. You'll find more of it FPSs, say, then in racing sims, but it's present to some degree everywhere.
Girl gamers who are good are especially to be feared ( as they are often elswhere), because they empiriaclly demonstrate the invalidity of the argument that they don't belong because they somehow unsuitable for the task.
Personally, if I were a girl gamer, I'd take a certain amount of delight in kicking dickwad ass for the above reason and consider it something of a social duty, but given the realities of life and human nature if a group of the girls justs wants to not have to deal with the bullshit for a while and have a friendly game of killing their girlfriends I can't say I'd gainsay them the choice.
It's a shame, because computer gaming is often held up as the paragon of fields where one is judged solely on merit and no one even knows if you're a 6 year old confined to a wheelchair or a 50 year old marine hand to hand combat instructor.
I think you'll find there's a large number of girl gamers who are not known to be girl gamers, i.e. they are "passing", just so they can be given this right.
KFG
Re:Today only, free access courtesy of Slashdot
on
Orwellian Tech Support
·
· Score: 3, Informative
No. The term you are thinking of is "bunt."
KFG
Re:Today only, free access courtesy of Slashdot
on
Orwellian Tech Support
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Yes, however, this is an American article and is thus using the American definition of punt.
The term punt comes from American football, where one kicks, or "punts" the ball downfield when deliberately handing control of the ball to the other side, thus making the opposing team have more ground to make up toward the goal.
Such deliberate exchanges of ball control are part of the rules of American football, so punting is a stategic choice.
In colloquial usage to punt means either to do something essentially random and see what happens, or to "kick" the problem to someone else, leading to the common American phrase, "When in doubt, punt."
This is true, however, certain positions, for various reasons, are more prone to create disgruntlment in a larger number of workers than is average. This is because some jobs suck. Some jobs suck moronically, i.e. without logical reason. These last seem to cause the most disgruntlement in the largest number of workers.
Your challenge, Mr. Phelps, should you choose to accept it, is to find a gruntled tech support worker.
It's even easier the cheaper to build your own version of this toy, since it's a model of the Predator fixed wing aircraft.
The commercial version is an order of magnitude cheaper than the Rotomotion as well, putting it honestly in the toy/hobbyiest catagory.
But as your own post points out there's nothing particularly revolutionary about it. Hobbyists have been building these things for a while. In light wind conditions small blimps are a hoot, can carry a fair amount of gear, and with todays wireless networking technology can be monitored and controled by equipment many people already have.
Yeah, sometimes I get bored and hack stuff up out of what I've got lying around just to see what I can do with it.
To be sold for a profit. So you have to work in a salt mine somewhere to earn enough money to buy one so the people who make them can spend their time playing around with experimental robots.
Making it even more interesting that SCO claims all of 10 licensees in their IBM suit. I'd guess Slashdot is about to give them more traffic than these pages have ever had before.
Of particular interest is the License FAQ page. Bits of it are a real hoot.
Also of note is the fact that it only allows use of Linux in binary form, explicitly disallowing the possesion of source code. So the only Linux distros that would be in legal compliance would be those that do not distribute source with the binaries.
So if you bought a SCO license and then downloaded a Mandrake.iso you would be in violation unless you also purchased a source license. And if you go to the source license page you find this:
SCOsource is a SCO business division that manages its UNIX(R) System intellectual property. The charter of this division is to create new and innovative licensing programs to meet the changing demands of today's market and to protect its intellectual property asset.
Slashdot Mirror
If you're still lost, I recommend you avoid the commanline :-)
And this is the sort of response that drives people actually looking to learn UNIX away.
I have been familiar with command line since it was typed out on paper.
However, to a newbie the manual page is no more intuitively decipherable than clicking on "Start" to shutdown is on Windows.
man pages are only of use to people who already know the command line. Others need it explained to them, and I have found it far more productive to provide them with that explanation than implying they're just too stupid to read the manual.
I see that my original post is now modded as flamebait for having this underlying point. If this one is also modded as flamebait I shall suffer that fate gladly in order to stick up for people who feel they need a good book and/or a bit hand holding to get them started and oppose the "RTFM" and "YTSTRTM" attitude.
KFG
The late Peter Gregg, whose nickname was "Peter Perfect" due to his skill and attention to detail, was an extremely successful sports car racer and multi time IMSA champ.
On the street he always drove automatics because he felt they were superiour technology for the application.
You'll find that where the rules allow all racing cars now handle their gear changing automatically under computer control, because the computer and robotic systems can do it better than any human. In fact, where the rules allow and the technology is available, constant velocity transmissions are prefered and no "gear change", per se, takes place at all.
If one can create a hardware architechture which simply refuses to overflow a buffer, what possible point would there be in not doing so?
Do not virtually all high performance cars these days, including racing cars where the utmost in performance is required, make use of rev limiters to prevent human control from damaging the engine?
Once upon a time my favorite programming tool was called a "soldering iron." I still make use of said device for peripherals. I'm not entirely unfamiliar with low level hardware based issues in programming.
Once upon a time you also had to pour your own babbit main bearings for your car. To start the car the first step was to drain the oil sump, heat the oil in a pan on the stove, replace it, then hand pump the oil into the engine, then hand pump fuel into the carb, then hand crank the engine. We call those times "The Bad Old Days."
What a computer can do better than a human is the legitimate field for using computer power.
The problem comes only when people use computers to do what people are better at, thinking.
KFG
Ok, I typed "man man".
Can you recommend a good book that explains its contents to me?
KFG
This has nothing to do with Microsoft, and everything to do with architecture and programing languages.
If you program in C on Intel you are going to have problems without almost fanatical devotion to the Po^H^H management of your memory resources.
That goes for Linux as well, as any check at Bugtraq can confirm.
Yes, people should be very careful when coding in languages and on architechtures which allow buffer overflow, but the real solution is at a level lower than the coder's.
KFG
Yes.
KFG
Well, I'd be among those that claim that XP doesn't work as designed, i.e. when it's working perfectly it isn't working by my definition of "working."
That doesn't mean I don't use Windows, just that I have declined to upgrade and don't intend to do so except under some form of compulsion, which I feel free to resent.
As per my other post I'd recommend Mandrake, and I'm sure you'll find that dozens of other like recommendations appear under this article.
My experience is that it installs fast, clean and with networking up, running and configured on almost anything and it's what I always use these days when I'm introducing Linux to someone.
I don't have personal experience with installing it with Linksys wireless gear, but it certainly goes without a hitch on my Linksys NIC and ethernet router.
KFG
If everything works with XP, why are you switching?
An innate preference for the Open Source philosophy and/or a geekly curiosity?
KFG
Fedora is a bleeding edge development distro.
Give a try to Mandrake, you'll find that it generally installs on out of the box boxen, quicker, easier and with less intelligent input than Windows.
And of course there's always Knoppix for those who are curious, but want to take minimal risks with either their system or intellignce.
KFG
On the other hand, you at least have the wisdom to admit it, even if in jest, suggesting that there's still hope for you.
KFG
Ok, taking further chance at being punted around I'll take a crack at clarifying the British usage of "punter."
Punters, as per the above definition, were disreputalbe warf dwellers. Uneducated, unwashed, unmoralled, and unethical. Pub dwellers, gamblers, cutthroats, defrauders, etc.
Punter means essentially the same thing as "riffraff." Riff; a disreputable person. Raff: a huddled mass of people, see also "raft" to tie several boats together so as to form one unit.
It has nothing to do with the act of poling a punt or being pushed around. It's simply a derogatory term for the lower classes.
KFG
And I have heard the act of floating slightly above the ground refered to as "hoovering."
Sometimes people just get mixed up over words that sound very similar.
Bunt is derived from butt, to hit lightly. It is possible that it is a portmanteua word with punt, but there is no actual evidence that this is the case.
Punt means to drop a ball from the hands and kick it. It does not carry the explicit meaning of to do so lightly, in fact generally opposite is the case.
These are both also technical terms of sport, and their meanings have been rigidly defined in the rule books for over 100 years.
KFG
Yes, it signifies that the article was writen in Tuscon, Arizona. In context, the writer was clearly using the American defintion of punt, and thus punter.
Your milage at The Reg may vary.
I perhaps composed my post somewhat poorly, not explicitly pointing out that I was supplying the defintion of "punt" to those who were not British, or otherwise not American, who might misapply the British definition to the article, where it would make little sense, implicitly recognizing that although the article might well be written by Americans and for Americans the web is, nonetheless World Wide.
Thus, because England and America are two countries seperated by a common language, and English being the lingua franca of the web, confusion is oft the result, especially to those for whom neither English nor American are their first language.
If my attempt to clarify only added to the confusion it was not deliberately intended to do so.
KFG
My experience is that yes, most male gamers are, although this will vary by genre. You'll find more of it FPSs, say, then in racing sims, but it's present to some degree everywhere.
Girl gamers who are good are especially to be feared ( as they are often elswhere), because they empiriaclly demonstrate the invalidity of the argument that they don't belong because they somehow unsuitable for the task.
Personally, if I were a girl gamer, I'd take a certain amount of delight in kicking dickwad ass for the above reason and consider it something of a social duty, but given the realities of life and human nature if a group of the girls justs wants to not have to deal with the bullshit for a while and have a friendly game of killing their girlfriends I can't say I'd gainsay them the choice.
It's a shame, because computer gaming is often held up as the paragon of fields where one is judged solely on merit and no one even knows if you're a 6 year old confined to a wheelchair or a 50 year old marine hand to hand combat instructor.
I think you'll find there's a large number of girl gamers who are not known to be girl gamers, i.e. they are "passing", just so they can be given this right.
KFG
No. The term you are thinking of is "bunt."
KFG
Yes, however, this is an American article and is thus using the American definition of punt.
The term punt comes from American football, where one kicks, or "punts" the ball downfield when deliberately handing control of the ball to the other side, thus making the opposing team have more ground to make up toward the goal.
Such deliberate exchanges of ball control are part of the rules of American football, so punting is a stategic choice.
In colloquial usage to punt means either to do something essentially random and see what happens, or to "kick" the problem to someone else, leading to the common American phrase, "When in doubt, punt."
KFG
This is true, however, certain positions, for various reasons, are more prone to create disgruntlment in a larger number of workers than is average. This is because some jobs suck. Some jobs suck moronically, i.e. without logical reason. These last seem to cause the most disgruntlement in the largest number of workers.
Your challenge, Mr. Phelps, should you choose to accept it, is to find a gruntled tech support worker.
This karma shall self-destrutct in 5 seconds.
KFG
Fortunately, the law, in its wisdom, has recognized the likelyhood of such, anticipated the act, and provided a rememdy.
KFG
It's even easier the cheaper to build your own version of this toy, since it's a model of the Predator fixed wing aircraft.
The commercial version is an order of magnitude cheaper than the Rotomotion as well, putting it honestly in the toy/hobbyiest catagory.
But as your own post points out there's nothing particularly revolutionary about it. Hobbyists have been building these things for a while. In light wind conditions small blimps are a hoot, can carry a fair amount of gear, and with todays wireless networking technology can be monitored and controled by equipment many people already have.
Yeah, sometimes I get bored and hack stuff up out of what I've got lying around just to see what I can do with it.
KFG
All they're doing there is building spy planes, UFOs and talking to aliens and shit. Boring stuff.
.
On the other hand there's this sunbathing little cutie next door. .
KFG
Me too. It was the worst five minutes of my life.
KFG
Man, in some ways that picture is almost as disturbing as the 912 robot/manlove one.
Yeah, the robot is tall. The chest cavity where the little person is stuffed is not.
I imagine the casting document went something like this:
Needed: Little person with a SAG card, a bit of marquee recongnition, and a proven ability to turn in a mechanical performance.
Pretty much narrowed the field down.
Kinda like when Rob Reiner was asked why he took a chance on casting Andre the Giant in a movie:
"The script said "giant.""
KFG
You beat me to it. There is indeed precedent for hiring a little person to fit inside the robot "costume", but having someone else provide the voice.
.yet.
Actually I think that would be the majority of robot movies.
We don't need to fear. .
KFG
It could be worse. At least he didn't dress it up in Frederick's of Hollywood.
KFG
To be sold for a profit. So you have to work in a salt mine somewhere to earn enough money to buy one so the people who make them can spend their time playing around with experimental robots.
Ya know, standard shiney tech business model.
KFG
Fascinating!
.iso you would be in violation unless you also purchased a source license. And if you go to the source license page you find this:
Making it even more interesting that SCO claims all of 10 licensees in their IBM suit. I'd guess Slashdot is about to give them more traffic than these pages have ever had before.
Of particular interest is the License FAQ page. Bits of it are a real hoot.
Also of note is the fact that it only allows use of Linux in binary form, explicitly disallowing the possesion of source code. So the only Linux distros that would be in legal compliance would be those that do not distribute source with the binaries.
So if you bought a SCO license and then downloaded a Mandrake
SCOsource is a SCO business division that manages its UNIX(R) System intellectual property. The charter of this division is to create new and innovative licensing programs to meet the changing demands of today's market and to protect its intellectual property asset.
Followed by an ad for their binary only license.
The plot grows thicker.
KFG