I'm interested in re-creating a proper survey that would more truly show Linux desktop usage. One of the statistics that I'd like to get would be based on removing the ISPs (like AOL) that are out there that you can't use Linux with directly. This may be because they have special software that only works on Window or Mac. Or maybe it's because they outright block it.
One of my thoughts of the day after FF came out was How Real Does Aki Feel. I explained that there are certain human elements that are required before I'll be convinced that I'm not just looking at texture maps on polygons. Shrek did a good job of overcoming this problem. On the DVD they have interviews with the characters as if they were real people and not the people who do their voices.
Provided that they can keep users from voting multiple times through ip tracking (can you imagine the size of the database for that), they will probably run into the same symptoms that mp3.com's top 40 boards had, there were usually the same group of artists or songs on that board because few people ever explored the rest of the mp3.com archives. But maybe since google isn't the place housing the content, it will be different.
While reading the headline for this article I looked up and saw the ThinkGeek add saying "How are you gentlemen....". Of all the possibilities that a chip like this could be used for, it will most likely in th end be used for jokes like sending messages saying "Would you like to play a game." Of cource, then you could send messages through the ikinator and it would say "Would you like to play a god damn game!"
Re:Fascinating, but not practical, here's why:
on
Ternary Computing
·
· Score: 1
Err, let's try that again
First of all, hardware is getting smaller and smaller all the time, so the whole premise behind ternary computing (base 3 would use less hardware) doesn't apply, especially since brand new gates would have to be made in order to distinguish between 3 signal levels rather than 2, and that would be taking a HUGE step backwards.
To say that trying out trinary computing would be taking a step backwards because you had to rewrite all the circuitry starting from scratch is like saying in 1991 that rewriting Unix from scratch just to make it open source is a big step backwards.
Re:Fascinating, but not practical, here's why:
on
Ternary Computing
·
· Score: 1
First of all, hardware is getting smaller and smaller all the time, so the whole premise behind ternary computing (base 3 would use less hardware) doesn't apply, especially since brand new gates would have to be made in order to distinguish between 3 signal levels rather than 2, and that would be taking a HUGE step backwards.
To say that trying out trinary computing would be taking a step backwards because you had to rewrite all the circuitry starting from scratch, is like saying in 1991 that rewriting Unix from scratch just to make it open source is a big step backwards.
Recently, thawte has also decided to change the way they issue wildcard certificates. What used to be a great way to use one certificate for all hosts on the same domain, has now become just a way to do mass certificate licensing. They are charging people a fee for each host that they use the wildcard ceritificate on, although I don't see how this could work. The price per host gets lower as you buy more licenses. But still. Come on!!
I just hope that when the company I work for goes to renew their wildcard certificate that they don't try to switch us to the new wildcarding system.
This actually will be a good thing in the long run because it will help the average consumer feel that Linux is catching on among those that he/she can relate too.
Remember how Commodore 64s and Tandy's once ruled the home computer market and you could play all kinds of games. Well, here comes along the 286 and somehow everyone wants to start using spreadsheets and do wordprocessing instead of having fun.
The point is that people's taste for what they want out of a computer and how the computer works changes over time. Microsoft is probably on the right track to change their OS to be something more like AOL. Perhaps that's what everybody will eventually want and then when they look upon us with no different eyes than those old folgies that still think that 8-bits is enough.
On your homepage you mention that you once worked for NewTek during their development or initial release of the Video Toaster. I've always been curious to know how you got the job there and what you exactly did for them? Did you ever own an Amiga prior to working at NewTek?
Perhaps the development cycle has slowed down because most of the nicer and more mature window managers have become quite stable and there are becoming less and less bugs to fix. Isn't that the eventual goal of OSS, to become as stable and usable as possible. So there must be some saturation point when as we approach that peak.
If you think about other pieces of OSS software, there is nearly no development. Utilities such as GNU text-utils or even emacs don't get updated more than once a year or two.
It's simple really. Release a rumor to the slashdot community that your latest CD has copy protection (when secretly it doesn't) so that all those quick-clickers can start a grass roots movement to buy millions of CDs and return them. Only they find out that they can't return them because there is nothing wrong with playing the CD.
Honestly, I don't know whether the CD is really copy protected or not. I just thought it was interesting to see all the slashdotters wanting to go out and buy a CD.
It doesn't matter whether it's time spent playing Diablo or time spent writing free software. These people selling rare and hard to get items have put in the nessecary work to earn the real rewards. There are obviously people out there who want those items bad enough that they would rather pay for them than do the work them selves. Well, what's wrong with that, it happens everyday in the business world. So let's stop questioning this motive like it's something new.
Nevermind, I forgot to shift the decimal place. Need some more caffeine. My mistake wouldn't have cropped up if we could trust slashdot authors on a more frequent basis. I just thought they had screwed up again.
It seems as if the website Astronomy Picture of the Day at NASA might have a picture of it tommorow as they show tommorow's imaging being "Northeast Fireball" Astronomy Picture of the Day
Because like it or not (and I don't either), chances are that commercial acceptance is what Linux is going to need. Otherwise we'll end up like blind Amiga users (I was one of them).
That's the problem with Linux now. Now that the fad part of it is over everone's attitudes have gone south. I remember when everyone was jazzed about Linux and would talk about it until they were blue in the face.
Now that we as a community are being noticed, it's 2.4 times more important that we show some professionalism. It's 2.4 times more important that we don't get discouraged.
Sounds like you have a lot of services turned on (like a webserver, sendmail, etc.). Change the init scripts so that they don't startup and you can reduce the boot time. Remember that Windows boot time includes the time that it takes to get to the desktop and that hour glass icon to go away. I think Microsoft has done a good job of making people think it is fast, when it really isn't. After all, look at the Mac. Apple knew that they could make a Mac seem faster if they would make the desktop menus respond as fast as possible.
What Linux really needs is not fancy boot up screens and stuff, but good level minded ergonomics engineers.
So what, are we just going to take a large leap over the GHz section of clock cycles. We were in the MHz phase for at least 20 years. Now we're talking about nearly going to THz in less than 5
Slashdot Mirror
I'm interested in re-creating a proper survey that would more truly show Linux desktop usage. One of the statistics that I'd like to get would be based on removing the ISPs (like AOL) that are out there that you can't use Linux with directly. This may be because they have special software that only works on Window or Mac. Or maybe it's because they outright block it.
For a second there, I read that as "DVD Player Chiapets to support windows media files". I need another drink, or maybe I've had to many.
One of my thoughts of the day after FF came out was How Real Does Aki Feel. I explained that there are certain human elements that are required before I'll be convinced that I'm not just looking at texture maps on polygons. Shrek did a good job of overcoming this problem. On the DVD they have interviews with the characters as if they were real people and not the people who do their voices.
At least this will keep the internet interesting. Activity and change keep things from dying out.
Provided that they can keep users from voting multiple times through ip tracking (can you imagine the size of the database for that), they will probably run into the same symptoms that mp3.com's top 40 boards had, there were usually the same group of artists or songs on that board because few people ever explored the rest of the mp3.com archives. But maybe since google isn't the place housing the content, it will be different.
I have a whole bucket load of pennies so I shouldn't have any problem surfing the web as I normally do.
Seriously though, when money is involved and it being easy enough to exploit, it wouldn't take long before a model like this would fail.
While reading the headline for this article I looked up and saw the ThinkGeek add saying "How are you gentlemen....". Of all the possibilities that a chip like this could be used for, it will most likely in th end be used for jokes like sending messages saying "Would you like to play a game." Of cource, then you could send messages through the ikinator and it would say "Would you like to play a god damn game!"
Err, let's try that again
First of all, hardware is getting smaller and smaller all the time, so the whole premise behind ternary computing (base 3 would use less hardware) doesn't apply, especially since brand new gates would have to be made in order to distinguish between 3 signal levels rather than 2, and that would be taking a HUGE step backwards.
To say that trying out trinary computing would be taking a step backwards because you had to rewrite all the circuitry starting from scratch is like saying in 1991 that rewriting Unix from scratch just to make it open source is a big step backwards.
First of all, hardware is getting smaller and smaller all the time, so the whole premise behind ternary computing (base 3 would use less hardware) doesn't apply, especially since brand new gates would have to be made in order to distinguish between 3 signal levels rather than 2, and that would be taking a HUGE step backwards. To say that trying out trinary computing would be taking a step backwards because you had to rewrite all the circuitry starting from scratch, is like saying in 1991 that rewriting Unix from scratch just to make it open source is a big step backwards.
Recently, thawte has also decided to change the way they issue wildcard certificates. What used to be a great way to use one certificate for all hosts on the same domain, has now become just a way to do mass certificate licensing. They are charging people a fee for each host that they use the wildcard ceritificate on, although I don't see how this could work. The price per host gets lower as you buy more licenses. But still. Come on!!
I just hope that when the company I work for goes to renew their wildcard certificate that they don't try to switch us to the new wildcarding system.
This actually will be a good thing in the long run because it will help the average consumer feel that Linux is catching on among those that he/she can relate too.
Remember how Commodore 64s and Tandy's once ruled the home computer market and you could play all kinds of games. Well, here comes along the 286 and somehow everyone wants to start using spreadsheets and do wordprocessing instead of having fun.
The point is that people's taste for what they want out of a computer and how the computer works changes over time. Microsoft is probably on the right track to change their OS to be something more like AOL. Perhaps that's what everybody will eventually want and then when they look upon us with no different eyes than those old folgies that still think that 8-bits is enough.
OSS needs to lead. Now damnit!
On your homepage you mention that you once worked for NewTek during their development or initial release of the Video Toaster. I've always been curious to know how you got the job there and what you exactly did for them? Did you ever own an Amiga prior to working at NewTek?
2000 years ago a group of people believed in a man called Jesus Christ. And now an enormous amount of our society is based around his sacrifice.
2000 years from now, perhaps the world will pray to a man named Luke Skywalker???
Perhaps the development cycle has slowed down because most of the nicer and more mature window managers have become quite stable and there are becoming less and less bugs to fix. Isn't that the eventual goal of OSS, to become as stable and usable as possible. So there must be some saturation point when as we approach that peak.
If you think about other pieces of OSS software, there is nearly no development. Utilities such as GNU text-utils or even emacs don't get updated more than once a year or two.
It's simple really. Release a rumor to the slashdot community that your latest CD has copy protection (when secretly it doesn't) so that all those quick-clickers can start a grass roots movement to buy millions of CDs and return them. Only they find out that they can't return them because there is nothing wrong with playing the CD.
Honestly, I don't know whether the CD is really copy protected or not. I just thought it was interesting to see all the slashdotters wanting to go out and buy a CD.
Those bastards at Steak-n-Shake will never switch to accepting non-cash methods of payment.
It doesn't matter whether it's time spent playing Diablo or time spent writing free software. These people selling rare and hard to get items have put in the nessecary work to earn the real rewards. There are obviously people out there who want those items bad enough that they would rather pay for them than do the work them selves. Well, what's wrong with that, it happens everyday in the business world. So let's stop questioning this motive like it's something new.
Nevermind, I forgot to shift the decimal place. Need some more caffeine. My mistake wouldn't have cropped up if we could trust slashdot authors on a more frequent basis. I just thought they had screwed up again.
Seven nines of uptime is 315 seconds a year. I think you mean nine nines of uptime. Or maybe you mean seven nines after the decimal.
It seems as if the website Astronomy Picture of the Day at NASA might have a picture of it tommorow as they show tommorow's imaging being "Northeast Fireball"
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Because like it or not (and I don't either), chances are that commercial acceptance is what Linux is going to need. Otherwise we'll end up like blind Amiga users (I was one of them).
That's the problem with Linux now. Now that the fad part of it is over everone's attitudes have gone south. I remember when everyone was jazzed about Linux and would talk about it until they were blue in the face.
Now that we as a community are being noticed, it's 2.4 times more important that we show some professionalism. It's 2.4 times more important that we don't get discouraged.
Sounds like you have a lot of services turned on (like a webserver, sendmail, etc.). Change the init scripts so that they don't startup and you can reduce the boot time. Remember that Windows boot time includes the time that it takes to get to the desktop and that hour glass icon to go away. I think Microsoft has done a good job of making people think it is fast, when it really isn't. After all, look at the Mac. Apple knew that they could make a Mac seem faster if they would make the desktop menus respond as fast as possible. What Linux really needs is not fancy boot up screens and stuff, but good level minded ergonomics engineers.
So what, are we just going to take a large leap over the GHz section of clock cycles. We were in the MHz phase for at least 20 years. Now we're talking about nearly going to THz in less than 5