The article neglected to mention that sometimes the greater depth of field (DOF) inherent in digicams is an advantage. DOF controls how much of the photo is in focus. It's nice to be able to limit the DOF for subject isolation and creative control, but sometimes it works against you.
High magnification (macrophotography) and high depth scenes (landscapes) often benefit from a wide DOF. With a DSLR, one must stop down significantly to get a DOF that compares to a compact. That is why macrophotographers have macro flash units and landscape photographers have tripods: they need lots of light or long exposures because of the little light coming through the narrow aperture.
A digicam, on the other hand, has so much DOF that even f/2.8 will have as much depth of field as f/16 on a DSLR, yet it collects 32 times more light (5 stops)! But consider that the DSLR can likely boost the sensitivity 2 stops before it reaches the noise levels of the digicam, so we could say the comparison is between f/2.8 (ISO 100) and f/8 (ISO 400). Still, that is three stops: a lot of light.
I'd rather buy a smaller TV with a better picture than one with a larger picture that is less appealing to the eye.
You should consider conventional tube TVs. Consumer Reports found that the Sony KV-34HS420 ($1200) had HDTV picture quality that could only be matched by $3000+ Plasmas, and $5000+ LCDs/DLPs. This is a very recent development; last year the only wide screen HDTV conventionals were mediocre.
The downside is that they're smaller (34-inches), very heavy (200+ pounds), and voluminous.
One thing I don't like about DLP is the relatively limited vertical angle for best picture viewing
None of the alternatives can beat conventionals in that metric.
You mean the tourists don't come here to see our rain? I love Portland, too. We seem to have an abundance of great user groups. The Portland Perl Mongers is a great group for us Perl-lovers (and includes several Perl celebrities). The Rose City Astronomers are a really neat group of people if you enjoy looking up at night.
The recent interview with Linus Torvalds reveals a little bit about what is so attractive about this place. I've traveled a little, but there's no place like home.
McVoy: The other problem is that the services model doesn't generate enough revenue to support the creation of the next generation of innovative products. Red Hat has been around for a long time--for a decade now. Yet try to name one significant thing--one innovative product--that has come out of Red Hat.
Red Hat must have innovated something, haven't they? Tux is the first kernel-space http server on Linux, but it's been done before on other O.S.'s so maybe that doesn't count. Does buying smaller, innovative companies and releasing their products count?
We just got back from the Special Advance Screening of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'll try not to leave any spoilers in my review.
The movie was excellent. I would say that it ranks 3rd of all the movies that have come out in the last twelve months.
The humour was great. In my opinion, it's much better if you've already read the book(s), heard the radio shows, or, to a lesser extent, seen the mini series. I've only seen the mini series, so a lot of the humor went over my head. (The alternative is that it really wasn't funny, and having read the book wont help at all, but I hope that's not the case.)
The plot and story were well adapted (as best I can tell from my exposure) to the movie format, but I missed several of the funny parts that didn't make it in. I could tell that things were dumbed down a bit, but it gave a greater feeling of satisfaction at the end. I really liked the way the movie dealt with the question of life, the universe, and everything.
Several aspects of the film were extreme, in the sense that you don't see them in regular movies. For example, most of the transitions between scenes were abrupt, disjointed, and jarring; but I think that's the effect they desired. In addition, the makeup, costumes, and set were totally over-the-top and ridiculous. But again, I think that was the point. Even with all that, I still felt immersed in the story.
The special effects were top shelf, especially the many sequences in the last quarter of the film. The Guide itself was well done. Marvin had excellent treatment, but did not get nearly enough screen time.
The portrayal of organized religion was just as I suspected: true to Douglas Adams' disdainful atheistic point of view. I think the introduction could have been better, but by the time the end of the movie came around, I somehow felt that it was fitting. The acting was good.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is definitely worth seeing for humour and a good story.
You can get a regular land line and still buy a phone number in any area code that you want. You will pay long distance charges whenever someone calls you, however.
I just want to express my gratitude to the Fedora developers and community for releasing a well-packaged operating system. I upgraded from Fedora Core 2 - Test 3 to the official release via yum, and it has been working great. Very stable, fast, and featureful.
I feel sorry for those who have bought an ionic breeze, because I was very close to buying one at one time. Luckily, I did some research first.
The ionic breeze is 100% pure scam. They may as well call it "sonic snake oil breeze". Consumer reports "found almost no measurable reduction in airborne particles."
Their tests were based on the industry standard for measuring clean-air delivery rate (CADR).
If consumer reports isn't trustworthy enough for you, an independent experts have confirmed the validity of the C.R. testing methodology, as well as the interpretation of the test results.
You are right, I forgot about that. Microsoft's terminal windows have a clipboard that's much worse than even the X clipboard.
I appreciate your input on a best solution, maybe someday someone will code (or has coded?) one up. The best for me is:
Please select the functionality you would like for CTRL-C/X/V:
Send signal to terminal application (use X clipboard for copy/paste).
Always Copy/Cut/Paste (use the menu for signals).
Copy/Cut/Paste if the terminal window as clicked (you will notice that the visual input cursor has moved to the place you clicked -- that is where the text will be pasted, if applicable).
Luyseyal touched on an issue that is very dear to my heart. He described my idyllic cut-and-replace:
Select text to be copied
Cut
Select text to be replaced
Paste
If you do this in X... Oops! By selecting the text that you want to replace, you've just copied it into the buffer again, overwriting what was there.
Bonus points if you already closed the first application, and the important copied text is gone forever.
Like Luyseyal, I find the current workaround (comprised of extra 'delete' steps) to be much slower, and kludgy besides.
But unlike Luyseyal, I would prefer the X developers to just implement the Windows method, instead of requiring users who migrate to learn a new method.
KDE has been my desktop for over a year, and I use the "kludgy method" to cut-and-replace day in and day out, hating every minute of it.
In a related vein, does anyone know how to disable the regular CTRL-C in a KDE terminal window, perhaps by making it into a menu item instead? Then I could finally use CTRL-C in the terminal.
Have you ever discharged a little static and zapped yourself or a friend? Well, if you live under the power lines, you better wear a rubber suit everywhere you go in your house, becuase if you let *that* electrical current out... *BZZZZAP*... and there wont be much left of you, or your new house.
This evening on C|Net, SCO revealed that they are amending their suit again. They are willing to accept a personal, heart-felt apology from Linus Torvalds in the place of $3 billion dollars. The SCO CEO commented, "This internet isn't big enough for the two of us."
In response, Linus Torvalds said, "you're braindamaged."
If the Compiere suggestion I made doesn't fly ($1,500 is close to $2,000, but worth it IMHO), and wine doesn't either, then perhaps you can check into SQL-Ledger. It has already been integrated with Interchange, the best open source e-commerce package out there.
You've probably already come across it, but Compiere is a great ERP/POS. It's open source (MPL), but currently requires Oracle, which ups the minimum investment to $1,500 -- probably not in your budget. The PostgreSQL port is reportedly in progress.
There are other small systems around that you've likely already seen, such as SQL Ledger (with a web UI, yuck).
It would not be outside the realm of possibility to utilize wine to run your accounting software. FYI, I wasn't able to get QuickBooks 2002 running with Wine 5/08/03 snapshot -- but I didn't try very hard.
Hmmm... that's the first time I've heard 'mensch' from an English speaker (vs. German) -- I guess I need to hang out with high society a little more often. Or maybe it's just the high tech subculture that has been favoring German lately? Uber, anyone?
Thanks for the advice. Others advised us to install the a/c through the wall as well (I never thought about doing it high, that's smart, and obvious) -- but since the house we are living in is rented, and the landlord didn't like the idea, then we have to stick to the alternatives. Thank you for the commentary, however, you've contributed to my knowledge of a/c.
BTW, why do you hate casements? Besides the fact that they don't play nice with a/c, I've enjoyed them (easy to open, but that's not always a function of window style).
> BTW: I have $5 that says your Kenmore A/C is a Frigidaire OEM.;-)
How funny, you're right! I wonder how I could confirm if any parts have been changed out, say, from the Frigidaire model. I could buy both, then rip them open and see for myself.:-)
Thanks for sharing the advice. We have a combined living room / dining / kitchen, just like you said, that is where it is going. Even so, it has 4 fan speeds though... shouldn't we be able to put it on a lower fan speed to keep it from cycling, if it's only a slightly warm day?
Slashdot Mirror
One can't ruin something that's already bad. Super Mario Brothers, in contrast, was a great game.
The article neglected to mention that sometimes the greater depth of field (DOF) inherent in digicams is an advantage. DOF controls how much of the photo is in focus. It's nice to be able to limit the DOF for subject isolation and creative control, but sometimes it works against you.
High magnification (macrophotography) and high depth scenes (landscapes) often benefit from a wide DOF. With a DSLR, one must stop down significantly to get a DOF that compares to a compact. That is why macrophotographers have macro flash units and landscape photographers have tripods: they need lots of light or long exposures because of the little light coming through the narrow aperture.
A digicam, on the other hand, has so much DOF that even f/2.8 will have as much depth of field as f/16 on a DSLR, yet it collects 32 times more light (5 stops)! But consider that the DSLR can likely boost the sensitivity 2 stops before it reaches the noise levels of the digicam, so we could say the comparison is between f/2.8 (ISO 100) and f/8 (ISO 400). Still, that is three stops: a lot of light.
You should consider conventional tube TVs. Consumer Reports found that the Sony KV-34HS420 ($1200) had HDTV picture quality that could only be matched by $3000+ Plasmas, and $5000+ LCDs/DLPs. This is a very recent development; last year the only wide screen HDTV conventionals were mediocre.
The downside is that they're smaller (34-inches), very heavy (200+ pounds), and voluminous.
None of the alternatives can beat conventionals in that metric.
You mean the tourists don't come here to see our rain? I love Portland, too. We seem to have an abundance of great user groups. The Portland Perl Mongers is a great group for us Perl-lovers (and includes several Perl celebrities). The Rose City Astronomers are a really neat group of people if you enjoy looking up at night.
The recent interview with Linus Torvalds reveals a little bit about what is so attractive about this place. I've traveled a little, but there's no place like home.
McVoy: The other problem is that the services model doesn't generate enough revenue to support the creation of the next generation of innovative products. Red Hat has been around for a long time--for a decade now. Yet try to name one significant thing--one innovative product--that has come out of Red Hat.
Red Hat must have innovated something, haven't they? Tux is the first kernel-space http server on Linux, but it's been done before on other O.S.'s so maybe that doesn't count. Does buying smaller, innovative companies and releasing their products count?
Me too! I was going to make a joke about it, but figured the article summary was as good as I could do anyway. :)
We just got back from the Special Advance Screening of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'll try not to leave any spoilers in my review.
The movie was excellent. I would say that it ranks 3rd of all the movies that have come out in the last twelve months.
The humour was great. In my opinion, it's much better if you've already read the book(s), heard the radio shows, or, to a lesser extent, seen the mini series. I've only seen the mini series, so a lot of the humor went over my head. (The alternative is that it really wasn't funny, and having read the book wont help at all, but I hope that's not the case.)
The plot and story were well adapted (as best I can tell from my exposure) to the movie format, but I missed several of the funny parts that didn't make it in. I could tell that things were dumbed down a bit, but it gave a greater feeling of satisfaction at the end. I really liked the way the movie dealt with the question of life, the universe, and everything.
Several aspects of the film were extreme, in the sense that you don't see them in regular movies. For example, most of the transitions between scenes were abrupt, disjointed, and jarring; but I think that's the effect they desired. In addition, the makeup, costumes, and set were totally over-the-top and ridiculous. But again, I think that was the point. Even with all that, I still felt immersed in the story.
The special effects were top shelf, especially the many sequences in the last quarter of the film. The Guide itself was well done. Marvin had excellent treatment, but did not get nearly enough screen time.
The portrayal of organized religion was just as I suspected: true to Douglas Adams' disdainful atheistic point of view. I think the introduction could have been better, but by the time the end of the movie came around, I somehow felt that it was fitting. The acting was good.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is definitely worth seeing for humour and a good story.
My opinion about Linux filtering software is unbiased, despite the fact that my first name is that of the author's.
I've been using Dansguardian in the same way described in the article for a while now and it has worked great.
You can get a regular land line and still buy a phone number in any area code that you want. You will pay long distance charges whenever someone calls you, however.
If you have never played Hearts of Iron, I challenge you to buy it. It is the best world war II strategy game ever.
I just want to express my gratitude to the Fedora developers and community for releasing a well-packaged operating system. I upgraded from Fedora Core 2 - Test 3 to the official release via yum, and it has been working great. Very stable, fast, and featureful.
Thanks again!
I feel sorry for those who have bought an ionic breeze, because I was very close to buying one at one time. Luckily, I did some research first.
The ionic breeze is 100% pure scam. They may as well call it "sonic snake oil breeze". Consumer reports "found almost no measurable reduction in airborne particles."
Their tests were based on the industry standard for measuring clean-air delivery rate (CADR).
If consumer reports isn't trustworthy enough for you, an independent experts have confirmed the validity of the C.R. testing methodology, as well as the interpretation of the test results.
You are right, I forgot about that. Microsoft's terminal windows have a clipboard that's much worse than even the X clipboard.
I appreciate your input on a best solution, maybe someday someone will code (or has coded?) one up. The best for me is:
Please select the functionality you would like for CTRL-C/X/V:
Yes, I can and do use the CTRL buttons with my window manager.
However, I spend the majority of my time in a terminal window, where they are useless.
Luyseyal touched on an issue that is very dear to my heart. He described my idyllic cut-and-replace:
If you do this in X... Oops! By selecting the text that you want to replace, you've just copied it into the buffer again, overwriting what was there.
Bonus points if you already closed the first application, and the important copied text is gone forever.
Like Luyseyal, I find the current workaround (comprised of extra 'delete' steps) to be much slower, and kludgy besides.
But unlike Luyseyal, I would prefer the X developers to just implement the Windows method, instead of requiring users who migrate to learn a new method.
KDE has been my desktop for over a year, and I use the "kludgy method" to cut-and-replace day in and day out, hating every minute of it.
In a related vein, does anyone know how to disable the regular CTRL-C in a KDE terminal window, perhaps by making it into a menu item instead? Then I could finally use CTRL-C in the terminal.
Sounds funny, but it's true. Many reputable lawyer firms have had departments named that exactly, for years.
Have you ever discharged a little static and zapped yourself or a friend? Well, if you live under the power lines, you better wear a rubber suit everywhere you go in your house, becuase if you let *that* electrical current out... *BZZZZAP* ... and there wont be much left of you, or your new house.
I find history and astronomy to be very fascinating.
This evening on C|Net, SCO revealed that they are amending their suit again. They are willing to accept a personal, heart-felt apology from Linus Torvalds in the place of $3 billion dollars. The SCO CEO commented, "This internet isn't big enough for the two of us."
In response, Linus Torvalds said, "you're braindamaged."
If the Compiere suggestion I made doesn't fly ($1,500 is close to $2,000, but worth it IMHO), and wine doesn't either, then perhaps you can check into SQL-Ledger. It has already been integrated with Interchange, the best open source e-commerce package out there.
You've probably already come across it, but Compiere is a great ERP/POS. It's open source (MPL), but currently requires Oracle, which ups the minimum investment to $1,500 -- probably not in your budget. The PostgreSQL port is reportedly in progress.
There are other small systems around that you've likely already seen, such as SQL Ledger (with a web UI, yuck).
This site seems to have some suggestions as well:
Christopher Browne's compilation of free software for accounting.
It would not be outside the realm of possibility to utilize wine to run your accounting software. FYI, I wasn't able to get QuickBooks 2002 running with Wine 5/08/03 snapshot -- but I didn't try very hard.
Good luck.
Thanks for the advice. Others advised us to install the a/c through the wall as well (I never thought about doing it high, that's smart, and obvious) -- but since the house we are living in is rented, and the landlord didn't like the idea, then we have to stick to the alternatives. Thank you for the commentary, however, you've contributed to my knowledge of a/c.
BTW, why do you hate casements? Besides the fact that they don't play nice with a/c, I've enjoyed them (easy to open, but that's not always a function of window style).
> BTW: I have $5 that says your Kenmore A/C is a Frigidaire OEM. ;-)
:-)
How funny, you're right! I wonder how I could confirm if any parts have been changed out, say, from the Frigidaire model. I could buy both, then rip them open and see for myself.
Thanks for sharing the advice. We have a combined living room / dining / kitchen, just like you said, that is where it is going. Even so, it has 4 fan speeds though... shouldn't we be able to put it on a lower fan speed to keep it from cycling, if it's only a slightly warm day?