Yep, very cute. I've read trade mags for about 20 years...and they haven't inspired me much. I've even given interviews and found that the writer *intentionally* misrepresents to pump up hype or personal opinion.
Specifics: Both the product my company was selling and our main competitor had a flexible option that could (if abused) cause serious problems. The reporter narrowed it down to 'Product X can kill your computer, Product Y is much safer and doesn't'. Grrrrrrr.... Makes me understand why PR people seem so dumb and slick when answering questions if these folks are what they have to deal with.
A few rare publications have impressed me; The Economist (in general) and Linux Journal (as a tech mag) come to mind. There are a few more, but most are horrid or only focus on hype and leaving out details that do matter.
That isn't entirely true. In the development tree, packages will sometimes go backwards in version (i.e. from 1.1-1 to 1.0.5-2). When you just continue to do updates, you won't get such packages updated unless you manually track them down and use "rpm --oldpackage". This has happened with several packages lately IIRC.
How can I ID those packages? (Release list, command, mailing list archive,...?)
Well, define "beta". I've run Debian unstable for months with zero problems whatsoever. Call that a "beta" if you want... it's right in the name: "unstable!"
Maybe ^ ^ ^ ^ is the reason for;
P.S. I love how my original post is sitting pretty at -1... I guess Slashdot moderators can't handle the truth.
I installed it last week, and it froze the machine _cold_ twice... i.e. had to reach for the power switch. I had enough (as this box _had_ to be reliable) and switched to Debian Testing (sarge)... no problems since.
Did you update from XFree to X.org? There were some hassles for me on another card (Nvidia) that likely would not be an issue on a "clean" install (guessing).
I've never seen a good GNOME book that tells you how to do all sorts of fun stuff like write Nautilus shell extensions, do Bonobo stuff, write filesystem filters, add Evolution plugins, and do drag-and-drop the right way.
That's book #1. Book #2 would be for KDE.
Q. With the consolidation happening through Freedesktop.org standards, does that include API or is it mainly file conventions, cut-and-paste, and a few special widgets/add-ons?
Is a 'real world' book on programming for Linux for people who already know how to program. I would buy this book in a heart beat. Let me explain. I know how to program already, and for the most part, what I would be follow ANSI specifications, and should compile uder LINUX. What I would like to see is a book that would explain how to properly write a program for the linux desktop.
It looks like you're interested in about a dozen books. There's a lot of variety out there!
BUT... the linux kernel developers need to get over their fanaticism about open-source drivers.
It's not fanaticism. The Linux kernel developers didn't make that binary module. Why should they support -- or even look at -- something they didn't make?
If the source is available, they might be interested. Since it's not, this quickly becomes painful and one-sided; the binary module developers can see the kernel source, but the kernel developers can't see the same from the binary module developers. (Gee! More work debugging something that can't be fixed!)
Part of every attempt to legislate (which the kernel's interrogation of drivers is) should include the question "how will people cheat, and how can we stop this". Otherwise this kind of game is inevitable.
What would be smarter would be to try to understand why they do this. At the moment, it seems to me that their only problem is to taint the kernel. Why ? I don't this that any old modutils/module-utils found in any distros don't load properly such modules. So perhaps they only want not to taint the kernel because it appears dirty to their customers who will not receive any more support from LKML. So perhaps what we really need is to add a new MODULE_SUPPORT field stating where to get support from in case of bugs, oopses or panics on a tainted kernel. Thus, the module author would be able to insert something such as "support_XXX@author.com" which will be displayed on each oops/panic/etc... Even if this is a long list because the customer uses connexant, nvidia, checkpoint and I don't know what, at least he will get 3 email addresses for his support. And it might reassure these authors to know that the customer will ask them before asking us with our automatic replies "unload your binary modules...".
If it turns out this is also ignored, then make it more restrictive.
They sell it as a download or you can get it retail. For some reason -- so as to not *iss-off retailers probably -- they don't sell it on-site as a boxed game.
I picked a copy up at a retail store (EB Games in the US) a few months back. They have a samuri mod that I haven't tried yet. It was initially only for European players but they said that it would eventually be a download for everyone else. (checks) Yep, it's a 11mb download (2 parts).
I've not joined some groups specifically because of this problem. Getting 400-500 spams a day is a pain, even if only a couple come through the filters.
Slashdot example: I used to have a visible mail account posted here at/.
I quickly turned that off, though to this day 10% of my spam is to that account, so I've placed it in the/dev/null filter. I've not used it in 4 or more years.
The sad thing is that I did initially get some on-topic private emails...no more.
I'm Agnostic because it is the only intellectually honest thing that I can be.
This is a bit thoughtful, so please read it and give me your comments...
I'm an atheist for the same reason you're an agnostic.
An atheist can at the same time not have one or more god(s) and still not deny that others do have god(s).
I don't go out of my way to tell people the god they worship doesn't exist. Maybe it does. Maybe there are many gods. I haven't seen one, and everything typically associated with gods has a reasonable explanation or "I don't know" works better for. I'd be very curious if there were credible evidence for one or more, though each religion seems to be based on 'faith' alone; an assertion of truth w/o facts.
An observation:
When I use the word God, I put it in the category of
meta knowledge. In most cases when people discuss God they mean "conscience". Try it out yourself...it plugs in very very well for soul too. Trace that back to how a conscience works in society, and *bam* there's what people describe as important in faith and religion.
(The things associated with faith and religion are important.)
Because of that, I try not bringing up atheism or challenge what they think...it would take quite a bit of effort to get them to accept I have a different opinion with no effort to change what they think.
Savage is a great game. It's a tactical, strategic, first person shooter; you have 1 commander who oversees the landscape, commands, and deals with resources. The rest of your team does the actual combat and other tasks to ensure victory (or totally 'ef it up).
Most of the early Savage games were predictable; rush forward, get mines, build, and put up some towers to protect what you've built. Specific maps had "the way" to win. Anything else was ignored. After about a month, the commanders figured out that this didn't always work...other commanders were being quite inventive. Sneeky warriors would hide, build a garrison, and use that to attack as a group...swamping the enemy's defenses. Games are now either a few minutes long or up to a good 2 hours. Individual achievements matter; if you don't take out that tower by any means possible...your team won't win! If you don't stand on that bridge and defeat 5+ opponents...your base may fall.
So, the one cheesy move? Bunny hopping in hand-to-hand combat; jumping up and down repeatedly. It takes the skill out of fighting and makes the game much less intesting to play. Players are regularly banned (temporarily) from servers if they do it and don't stop.
Side note: It's only $20 now. Was $40. Servers are fairly well populated, and games of 30-60 are common. Plays on Windows or Linux -- both server and clients.
consistent with archaeological evidence. Nothing in the Bible has ever been disproven based on ancient findings by any reputable scientific investigation.
Are you saying that any research that contradicts what the Bible says is not "reputable"?
Ahm, Pi? (aka 3.14...)
Gali-#en-leo? Copernicus?!?!?!
How about doctrine changes over the ages, including recient history (I could go on, though one example is enough to refute your dogmatic statement and I've given severial.
(No, I'm not going to dig up Bible references. If you've studied one or a few of the books and translations called "The Bible", you *should* know and also know how to prove me wrong. If not...well...what can I say?)
A book can be inspiring. It can even guide you. I'm concerned when it can't be questioned w/o someone insisting that it has no faults.
Microsoft SharePoint is Microsoft's take on a Wiki.
Search google for "wikiwiki"/"wiki wiki" for details.
Important: If you haven't delt with wikis before, I suggest taking some time to look at them. Very very interesting stuff. Very practical as an information collaboration and storage/search system.
The differences in Microsoft's approach are basically;
* Document-centric -- specifically MS Office document suite from Word through PowerPoint with very tight integration with the FrontPage way of page design.
* Good for checking or logging existing documents into the system.
* Good for people who basically want a filing cabnet for Microsoft Office documents.
These good points cause problems that are not usually an issue with other Wikis;
* SharePoint is not easy or practical to use if the primary tasks involve;
+ Colaboration in general. + Searching existing data. + Editing/creating links and subdocuments. + Auditing.
IF you deal with folks where Microsoft lock-in is perfectly fine (as SharePoint inceases lock-in), and the negitive parts of the software are also not concerns, go for it. Otherwise, treat it like any other Wiki and decide from the list of available ones not just this one brand.
I'm of the opinion that I could COMPLETELY remove MSOffice, rename all the OpenOffice icons to the MS equivalent, and we'd be in business.
I think you'd be right. I've had many conversations where people *think* they use software X when it turns out they have something else entirely. Asking if they want to switch, though, will lead to quite a bit of anxiety.
Its always interesting to see people dismiss java as a failure out of hand with no real arguments for it. Did it fail?
No, though it would be a hell of a bonus if they opened the thing. Specs only, or (bonus) specs+implemetation. While they are at it, make it easy to get and use.
I understand why Sun hasn't done this. I'd also like to scream at them for 'screwing-the-pooch' and missing a much bigger opportunity.
The reason why installing/uninstalling software under Windows requires that you answer any questions is largely because of this lack of dependency tracking and management.
I can think of only a dozen apps I've had to answer questions during installation under Linux and FreeBSD and most of those are at distribution install time. Everything else either has sane defaults, would have to be configured later anyway, or prompts you when you use the software.
I get to the download page, and ooops! I also need to install 3 other GNU projects just to get the software I want to work.... I know most GNU projects compile on Windows (or will with some modifications) but it has to be easier for the Windows user to get said applications.
Was the software ported from *nix? If so, that's to be expected.
Windows - Bundle OS upgrades with the app so the app doesn't need to have them added later.
*nix - Leave OS upgrades to the OS; if the parts aren't there, the package manager will tell you or fetch them automatically.
There are upsides to each approach, though the Windows method is really out of necessity; Windows does not track dependencies the apps are responsible for that.
Because of this difference, you can install 3-3,000 software packages on a *nix system and not notice any conflicts; the dependencies are handled properly or the package won't be installed.
With Windows;
If the software puts supporting libraries (or other parts) in the app directory -- no fuss except for the wasted disk space and missing bug fixes that other software may get using the shared lib.
If (OTOH), the software updates shared libraries, because Windows does not track dependencies, some other software may break or be mistakenly downgraded.
Microsoft is moving in the right direction to resolve these problems, though the legacy (well, *everything* including the current software) needs to be replaced, repackaged, or retro-actively repackaged. Some change manager utilities already do this, but it's a patch to the problem not a fix.
*nix systems (in general) don't have these issues. The 'RPM hell' that folks complain about is the dependency and integrity/security features doing exactly what they should; blocking easy installation of potentially unusable software.
Big question: Why should the software providers have to handle problems that Microsoft does not offer a solution for? Each time, and for Windows only, the wheel has to be reinvented. This is really an issue for Microsoft to correct, not the developers. If someone wants to repackage a tool so that it is easy to install, they can...and are responsible for the pitfalls (listed above) if any.
That said, Cygwin has an installer. It uses one because Cygwin is basically a 'GNU on Windows' distribution minus the OS. *nix distributions have installers, so at that level it makes sense.
Don't take this as a dig at you. I generally agree with it. That said [said he with a grin];
Having something similar to the Microsoft platform would encourage developers to develop cross-platform. If a usable subset is developed on mono, the restriction to that subset is the price for a cross-platform application - better than a reimplementation.
Or, rephrased...
Having something similar to Microsoft's IE/Word/Excel/Powerpoint/... would encourage users to use cross-platform. If a usable subset is available, the restriction to that subset is the price for a cross-platform application - better than being stuck with only one OS.
Countered by...
"Yes, Mozilla/OpenOffice/... are nice, but they have to be
just like IE/MSOffice/... in all details or they are wrong/impractical/...
."
It's an entirely unfair basis of judgement.
If you've ever watched children complain and whine if they don't get EXACTLY what they are thinking of WHEN they want it -- even if that thing does not exist or isn't available at the moment -- the behavior of adults on other matters also becomes understandable. (Note: Some kids and adults don't have this problem as much as others...though all do.)
The only solution to this is to either give no (or few) choices or just give the thing to the person as-if there should be no problem and address the minor issues when they occur. May not work.
Children are small crazy people. Adults are larger not-as-crazy people. Both overreact and are picky. Developers can be flexible, though like other adults it's not a likely situation.
Slashdot Mirror
Specifics: Both the product my company was selling and our main competitor had a flexible option that could (if abused) cause serious problems. The reporter narrowed it down to 'Product X can kill your computer, Product Y is much safer and doesn't'. Grrrrrrr.... Makes me understand why PR people seem so dumb and slick when answering questions if these folks are what they have to deal with.
A few rare publications have impressed me; The Economist (in general) and Linux Journal (as a tech mag) come to mind. There are a few more, but most are horrid or only focus on hype and leaving out details that do matter.
How can I ID those packages? (Release list, command, mailing list archive, ...?)
Everything else is on the install CDs.
Maybe ^ ^ ^ ^ is the reason for;
No more comments from me. I've said enough.
Erm...don't run a beta on an important machine?
If you do...thanks for testing!
Did you update from XFree to X.org? There were some hassles for me on another card (Nvidia) that likely would not be an issue on a "clean" install (guessing).
Works well. If you have test 2 installed, and have used Uptodate in the last few days, you're probably close if not using test 3.
Time to hop in a truck, go to Texas, and hand out PS2 and Xbox games! I'm thinking that a 5:1 swap might be persuasive...
That's book #1. Book #2 would be for KDE.
Q. With the consolidation happening through Freedesktop.org standards, does that include API or is it mainly file conventions, cut-and-paste, and a few special widgets/add-ons?
Honestly, I don't know.
It looks like you're interested in about a dozen books. There's a lot of variety out there!
DOS didn't have inodes. The comic is multi-platform. :)
It's not fanaticism. The Linux kernel developers didn't make that binary module. Why should they support -- or even look at -- something they didn't make?
If the source is available, they might be interested. Since it's not, this quickly becomes painful and one-sided; the binary module developers can see the kernel source, but the kernel developers can't see the same from the binary module developers. (Gee! More work debugging something that can't be fixed!)
I agree, though remembering how I solve security problems where people work-around security procedures leads me to think that what Willy Tarreau wrote looks like a good first start;
If it turns out this is also ignored, then make it more restrictive.
I picked a copy up at a retail store (EB Games in the US) a few months back. They have a samuri mod that I haven't tried yet. It was initially only for European players but they said that it would eventually be a download for everyone else. (checks) Yep, it's a 11mb download (2 parts).
Slashdot example: I used to have a visible mail account posted here at /.
I quickly turned that off, though to this day 10% of my spam is to that account, so I've placed it in the /dev/null filter. I've not used it in 4 or more years.
The sad thing is that I did initially get some on-topic private emails...no more.
This is a bit thoughtful, so please read it and give me your comments...
I'm an atheist for the same reason you're an agnostic.
An atheist can at the same time not have one or more god(s) and still not deny that others do have god(s).
I don't go out of my way to tell people the god they worship doesn't exist. Maybe it does. Maybe there are many gods. I haven't seen one, and everything typically associated with gods has a reasonable explanation or "I don't know" works better for. I'd be very curious if there were credible evidence for one or more, though each religion seems to be based on 'faith' alone; an assertion of truth w/o facts.
An observation:
(The things associated with faith and religion are important.)
Because of that, I try not bringing up atheism or challenge what they think...it would take quite a bit of effort to get them to accept I have a different opinion with no effort to change what they think.
Most of the early Savage games were predictable; rush forward, get mines, build, and put up some towers to protect what you've built. Specific maps had "the way" to win. Anything else was ignored. After about a month, the commanders figured out that this didn't always work...other commanders were being quite inventive. Sneeky warriors would hide, build a garrison, and use that to attack as a group...swamping the enemy's defenses. Games are now either a few minutes long or up to a good 2 hours. Individual achievements matter; if you don't take out that tower by any means possible...your team won't win! If you don't stand on that bridge and defeat 5+ opponents...your base may fall.
So, the one cheesy move? Bunny hopping in hand-to-hand combat; jumping up and down repeatedly. It takes the skill out of fighting and makes the game much less intesting to play. Players are regularly banned (temporarily) from servers if they do it and don't stop.
Side note: It's only $20 now. Was $40. Servers are fairly well populated, and games of 30-60 are common. Plays on Windows or Linux -- both server and clients.
Trailer video
Gameplay video
Download playable demo
Are you saying that any research that contradicts what the Bible says is not "reputable"?
Ahm, Pi? (aka 3.14...)
Gali-#en-leo? Copernicus?!?!?!
How about doctrine changes over the ages, including recient history (I could go on, though one example is enough to refute your dogmatic statement and I've given severial.
(No, I'm not going to dig up Bible references. If you've studied one or a few of the books and translations called "The Bible", you *should* know and also know how to prove me wrong. If not...well...what can I say?)
A book can be inspiring. It can even guide you. I'm concerned when it can't be questioned w/o someone insisting that it has no faults.
After all, do you think that the world rests on the back of a great turtle? Do you find it convincing that others do?
(cut and paste from email)
Microsoft SharePoint is Microsoft's take on a Wiki.
Search google for "wikiwiki"/"wiki wiki" for details.
Important: If you haven't delt with wikis before, I suggest taking some time to look at them. Very very interesting stuff. Very practical as an information collaboration and storage/search system.
The differences in Microsoft's approach are basically;
* Document-centric -- specifically MS Office document suite from Word through PowerPoint with very tight integration with the FrontPage way of page design.
* Good for checking or logging existing documents into the system.
* Good for people who basically want a filing cabnet for Microsoft Office documents.
These good points cause problems that are not usually an issue with other Wikis;
* SharePoint is not easy or practical to use if the primary tasks involve;
+ Colaboration in general.
+ Searching existing data.
+ Editing/creating links and subdocuments.
+ Auditing.
IF you deal with folks where Microsoft lock-in is perfectly fine (as SharePoint inceases lock-in), and the negitive parts of the software are also not concerns, go for it. Otherwise, treat it like any other Wiki and decide from the list of available ones not just this one brand.
I think you'd be right. I've had many conversations where people *think* they use software X when it turns out they have something else entirely. Asking if they want to switch, though, will lead to quite a bit of anxiety.
Well, if that turns out to be the case, let's hope that a nice gentleman named Bubba makes them feel REEEEEEL good in prison.
No, though it would be a hell of a bonus if they opened the thing. Specs only, or (bonus) specs+implemetation. While they are at it, make it easy to get and use.
I understand why Sun hasn't done this. I'd also like to scream at them for 'screwing-the-pooch' and missing a much bigger opportunity.
The reason why installing/uninstalling software under Windows requires that you answer any questions is largely because of this lack of dependency tracking and management.
I can think of only a dozen apps I've had to answer questions during installation under Linux and FreeBSD and most of those are at distribution install time. Everything else either has sane defaults, would have to be configured later anyway, or prompts you when you use the software.
Was the software ported from *nix? If so, that's to be expected.
Windows - Bundle OS upgrades with the app so the app doesn't need to have them added later.
*nix - Leave OS upgrades to the OS; if the parts aren't there, the package manager will tell you or fetch them automatically.
There are upsides to each approach, though the Windows method is really out of necessity; Windows does not track dependencies the apps are responsible for that.
Because of this difference, you can install 3-3,000 software packages on a *nix system and not notice any conflicts; the dependencies are handled properly or the package won't be installed.
With Windows;
If the software puts supporting libraries (or other parts) in the app directory -- no fuss except for the wasted disk space and missing bug fixes that other software may get using the shared lib.
If (OTOH), the software updates shared libraries, because Windows does not track dependencies, some other software may break or be mistakenly downgraded.
Microsoft is moving in the right direction to resolve these problems, though the legacy (well, *everything* including the current software) needs to be replaced, repackaged, or retro-actively repackaged. Some change manager utilities already do this, but it's a patch to the problem not a fix.
*nix systems (in general) don't have these issues. The 'RPM hell' that folks complain about is the dependency and integrity/security features doing exactly what they should; blocking easy installation of potentially unusable software.
Big question: Why should the software providers have to handle problems that Microsoft does not offer a solution for? Each time, and for Windows only, the wheel has to be reinvented. This is really an issue for Microsoft to correct, not the developers. If someone wants to repackage a tool so that it is easy to install, they can...and are responsible for the pitfalls (listed above) if any.
That said, Cygwin has an installer. It uses one because Cygwin is basically a 'GNU on Windows' distribution minus the OS. *nix distributions have installers, so at that level it makes sense.
Or, rephrased...
Countered by...
- "Yes, Mozilla/OpenOffice/... are nice, but they have to be
- just like IE/MSOffice/... in all details or they are wrong/impractical/...
."It's an entirely unfair basis of judgement.
If you've ever watched children complain and whine if they don't get EXACTLY what they are thinking of WHEN they want it -- even if that thing does not exist or isn't available at the moment -- the behavior of adults on other matters also becomes understandable. (Note: Some kids and adults don't have this problem as much as others...though all do.)
The only solution to this is to either give no (or few) choices or just give the thing to the person as-if there should be no problem and address the minor issues when they occur. May not work.
Children are small crazy people. Adults are larger not-as-crazy people. Both overreact and are picky. Developers can be flexible, though like other adults it's not a likely situation.