The thing to remember about the OLPC is that it's not a machine intended for conventional usage, like your PC or a company server. It's a discovery tool. Its purpose is to give kids a view onto a representational territory of concepts from math, science, music, reading, and other disciplines, and promote learning through exploration, discovery, construction, and sharing of information.
I submit that such a discovery tool which encourages exploration and discovery of the tool itself is vastly more useful than one which does not. It's what Guy Steele called "going meta". Windows is not a very discoverable operating system.
In order for OLPC to fulfil its original stated purpose -- a rather noble one -- it must be based on open source. Linux is a good choice but it could be FreeBSD or Darwin or Plan 9 underneath as long as the source is freely available.
I find that Windows installations, like old houses, exhibit entropy due to neglect.
The longer you go between Windows reboots, the more likely it will be that "there's a problem". Twice have I found a need to boot into Windows 2000 only to find that it is irreparably hosed and won't even recognize its own partition anymore.
Agreed; and Linus himself has indicated that he doesn't give a flying [expletive] what Microsoft is doing with Windows, because it has no bearing on his work on the kernel.
Having been privy to some bizarre, Kafka-esque telephone calls to Adobe's support center, I can tell you that Adobe doesn't put any more worth on your time than the Gimp developers do.
Johnny Mnemonic: Yeah, the Black Shakes. What causes it? Spider: What causes it? [points to various pieces of equipment throughout the room] Spider: This causes it! This causes it! This causes it! Information overload! All the electronics around you poisoning the airwaves. Technological fucking civilization. But we still have all this shit, because we can't live without it. Let me do my work.
It has a 1200x900 mono display (lower color resolution) that approaches paper quality and is just about perfect for this sort of thing.
Display size is a bit small but it's more than usable, especially when folded up with the display out. All open source (Linux, etc.) and a bargain at twice the price (which is what you'd be paying; but take comfort in the fact that in addition to an electronic toy for yourself you'll be contributing to the education of a child elsewhere in the world).
You need to start thinking more like a mathematician: in math, "complex" typically means "having a real part and an imaginary part", not "the opposite of simple".
Mathematicians tend to say "trivial" where you and I might say "simple" and "nontrivial" where we might say "complex". For "totally headfucking" the proper phrase is "decidedly nontrivial".
Next is Alvin and the Chipmunks -- in CG, by the director of the second, suckier Garfield movie. At the rate we're going we can soon expect a movie remake of Sonic the Hedgehog the TV show ("SatAM" to furries). Thrill to ubernerd furry lust for an all-CG Princess Sally.
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The thing to remember about the OLPC is that it's not a machine intended for conventional usage, like your PC or a company server. It's a discovery tool. Its purpose is to give kids a view onto a representational territory of concepts from math, science, music, reading, and other disciplines, and promote learning through exploration, discovery, construction, and sharing of information.
I submit that such a discovery tool which encourages exploration and discovery of the tool itself is vastly more useful than one which does not. It's what Guy Steele called "going meta". Windows is not a very discoverable operating system.
In order for OLPC to fulfil its original stated purpose -- a rather noble one -- it must be based on open source. Linux is a good choice but it could be FreeBSD or Darwin or Plan 9 underneath as long as the source is freely available.
There's always Rapid Onset, Vital Passage, or Sudden Thrust.
Hey, wasn't there an episode of Max Headroom about this? Some television network was harvesting people's dreams for ratings or something?
I find that Windows installations, like old houses, exhibit entropy due to neglect.
The longer you go between Windows reboots, the more likely it will be that "there's a problem". Twice have I found a need to boot into Windows 2000 only to find that it is irreparably hosed and won't even recognize its own partition anymore.
Agreed; and Linus himself has indicated that he doesn't give a flying [expletive] what Microsoft is doing with Windows, because it has no bearing on his work on the kernel.
Cellular, modular, interactive-odular...
It's like listening to John Cleese reading dialogue from a Samurai Shodown game.
This makes me pine even more for the old Turboman ads...
Having been privy to some bizarre, Kafka-esque telephone calls to Adobe's support center, I can tell you that Adobe doesn't put any more worth on your time than the Gimp developers do.
...unfortunately to realize the biggest ones you would probably need two turntables, and optionally (though it is highly recommended), a microphone.
We could call it "the eighth console generation" according to the convention used by Wikipedia (current gen is the seventh).
All these world are belong to you, except Europa. You have no chance to land there make your time.
Johnny Mnemonic: Yeah, the Black Shakes. What causes it?
Spider: What causes it?
[points to various pieces of equipment throughout the room]
Spider: This causes it! This causes it! This causes it! Information overload! All the electronics around you poisoning the airwaves. Technological fucking civilization. But we still have all this shit, because we can't live without it. Let me do my work.
It has a 1200x900 mono display (lower color resolution) that approaches paper quality and is just about perfect for this sort of thing.
Display size is a bit small but it's more than usable, especially when folded up with the display out. All open source (Linux, etc.) and a bargain at twice the price (which is what you'd be paying; but take comfort in the fact that in addition to an electronic toy for yourself you'll be contributing to the education of a child elsewhere in the world).
Microsoft = Dr. Evil
Apple = John Travolta's character from Swordfish
ASUS can strip the GPL out and simply declare the module to be under their new license. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
You need to start thinking more like a mathematician: in math, "complex" typically means "having a real part and an imaginary part", not "the opposite of simple".
Mathematicians tend to say "trivial" where you and I might say "simple" and "nontrivial" where we might say "complex". For "totally headfucking" the proper phrase is "decidedly nontrivial".
Congratulations, Slashdot trolls -- the "In Soviet Russia" jokes now write themselves.
Now I'll finally know what it's like to be Starscream!
That is really quite amazing, and reminds me a bit of the jumping spiders whose retinas vibrate to increase their optic resolution.
Next is Alvin and the Chipmunks -- in CG, by the director of the second, suckier Garfield movie. At the rate we're going we can soon expect a movie remake of Sonic the Hedgehog the TV show ("SatAM" to furries). Thrill to ubernerd furry lust for an all-CG Princess Sally.
Sure, but who outside the academic community uses TeX to do real print work?
Now who uses Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress on a Mac?
"I'm the Secretary of State... brought to you by Carl's Jr."
"Why do you keep saying that?"
"'Cause they pay me every time I do! It's a really great way to make money. If you're so smart why don't you know that?"
That was acknowledged in the article, which stated that Google's corporate culture was very much like early Microsoft.
Who called it?!