Yes... you are hereby granted field membership. Remember to pay your dues by anonymous drop prior to the 5th of each month. In the meantime, *here* is your tinfoil hat.;-)
Observe that, generally, domain name urls take the form of TRADEMARK_NAME.com. So maybe this guy should get together with C|Net and start up a sex.com.com section for technologically discriminating adults.;-)
No, I haven't read the details of the earthlink "solution", but why would the e-mail necessarily have to be html-based? They could put a "view _this_ page with a web browser..." flat link in the message of the challenge. (I got such a C/R message a year ago myself that pointed to an image-based challenge.) Or they can go for the gusto and have an html version (with image?) and text version in the same message, and your client uses what it can. Now, on the other hand, if you've limited your system to a *purely* text solution, then that is your right (certainly), but when in Rome, don't cry about the majority of other people being Roman.
[rant omitted]
And everyone on slashdot applauds...
Apparently not everybody.
Re:i don't quite follow...
on
Linus on DRM
·
· Score: 1
To correct that analogy, I would say that I've never installed locks that keep ME locked INSIDE my own house
At the expense of beating a bad analogy... since locks work two directions, you've then also never installed locks to keep unwanted intruders and/or riff-raff out? (Here in this case, it'd be more like a "smart house" that only unlocks the door for people I say are cool to come in, but I digress.) I think the concept of having the OS support the ability to have DRM is fine. The devil is in the details, of course, and there exists the possibility that DRM could be used for more evil purposes than for good purposes (naturally), but Linux (et. al) is about choice, so I applaud Linus' comment and stand on this matter. I'll decide if I want DRM-signed gewgaws running around my system.
If, 10 years down a very speculative future path, Linux far overtakes Windows in popularity for hack/crack attack attempts, it would be nice to have the option to have security apps running on the box that I know are signed by RedHat (or whomever I happen to have trust in at the time).
But if they shipped an OS based on just the CLI, it couldn't very well be called "Windows," now could it?
Of course not. I mean... they testified in court that Internet Explorer is critically integrated into Windows, and any idiot knows that IE is a GUI app. Surely they weren't lying in court or anything.;-)
Re:i don't quite follow...
on
Linus on DRM
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
By everyone's favorite analogy, it sounds like a housing contractor installing locks on houses he makes, which allows each homeowner to have the choice to decide to lock their door or not. (This in counterpoint to some hypothetical "popular" opinion that locks are inherently evil.) The presence of the lock doesn't mean the homeowner *has* to use it. (I didn't say it was a terribly great analogy.)
Yeah, inflate your point by linking to the "Pro" version. The thing is, sh|t generally costs money. The alternative is to take what you can get for free or do it yourself (the latter of which isn't strictly free, accounting for your time being worth something). You sound like you either: 1) think the world owes you something (get over it; life isn't fair) based on your choice of OS 2) didn't do your homework when you bought the game
Parent seems to have been modded 'flamebait', maybe for this statement, but what I think is meant to be said is fair enough. Maybe it'd have been better to have said "if you want games [now], buy a machine made for (or that provides a platform for) games", with an implicit corollary that "if you want games anywhere else, fine, but don't gripe in the meantime".
After all, I wouldn't pick windows to run a server that needs to be rock solid, I didn't get a PS2 since I thought it could run photoshop, why would I pick a nice developer-friendly *nix box to run games? Sure, having a big collection of games native to Linux would be nice, but I got into Linux knowing that wasn't likely to be the case for a good while. (Heck, if I can get XFree86 to come up with the new video card I got -- to play game(s) under windows -- to check mail and surf the web, I'll be happy enough.) It is starting to sound like the 'beggars being choosers' thing.
Even slashdot has M$ adds on it. Are slashdotters realy the kind of people Microsoft should be targeting?
The logic probably works like this: not every slashdotter is fanatically anti-MS purely on principle (personally, I hate the nature of their business practices as much as the next guy), so there might be, say, some fraction of older and wiser people who merely view a computer as a tool to accomplish a job. If Microsoft, business practices aside, makes a tool that (they think?) does a job well and no one else is addressing, why *wouldn't* they advertise it here or anywhere else? The people who won't go near them still won't go near them, but you'll still know about their new FooApp anyway; but the other group of people might be interested in actually using it (be it for personal or company use). Either way, their advertising, here or elsewhere, has probably done its job. *shrug* (The first clue that you are more likely in the anti-MS-on-principle camp is the "M$" spelling. Really... what does that accomplish?)
There's a variation I've heard that seems to be what OSS (anything, really, though from my experience OSS a bit more) hits and may be part of what the article is/was complaining about... "The first 90% of the code takes 90% of the time and effort. The last 10% of the code takes the other 90% of the time and effort."
Okay... I defer this task to my wife, making a humorous play of being ignorant about how. But in reality, she has so many shows programmed in already through the week that she has to juggle which 1- or 2-hour block of tape time has been watched and thus can be recorded over. God forbid I screw up the complex juggling act and erase the unwatched hour of _Judging Amy_ or something. It is far better to plead ignorance/fear.;-) (What? Another tape? [fingers in ears]la la la la la la[/fingers in ears] )
Wow.... that's a useful and non-inflammatory piece of information there, eh? Maybe I could boot over to '98, drop in a CD and go clickety on all the "Next" buttons. Why do all the gentoo posters here on slashdot seem to think their little "emerge" installer solves all the problems in the world, many of which aren't associated with installation?
More to reply than to be modded or anything, but my own very personal list of needed features involve:
* Cross platform client. Have two systems that dual boot, and Mac is really getting tempting as a replacement for one of the '98 partitions. I certainly don't want to tie down to a particular desktop environment under any OS choice. Given this, my slowly growing prototype MS Money replacement is Java (as appears is money dance?) * decentralized data storage. (MySQL server or some such.) not necessarily multi-concurrent or anything, just that any box in any OS mode can see/modify finance data. * Keeping the data format "open" in sense of being human-readable in its raw form isn't strictly required, but is desirable (and chucking data to a central database seems to address this also). backup/restore capability, etc. * bill schedules coupled with balance forcasting into an arbitrary time period. (This is the most invaluable tool I've adapted to in MS Money. lack of a forecast graph is a deal-breaker... to me.) * enter / display / modify transactions like like a check layout. (some programs only 'display' in a tabular format unless you 'edit' or something.) * Balancing against a (paper) statement has to be as easy as, say, checking my e-mail. * Common reports and graphs (line, bar, pie, etc.) but also more 'expert mode' queries into the database and/or a very flexible way to make complex queries. * checking, savings, credit card, 401k contributions, investments.
Again, this is just a personal list based on my current use case(s) with MS Money. Online stuff isn't personally needed since my bank has a web interface to view stuff, but no way as yet to download statements that I've found (and really, by hand isn't that hard).
If there's a walk-through or tutorial guide on setting up gnucash for [preferrably simple-style] personal finances, please post. I've looked for something several times and haven't found any useful references. The recent 1.8 looks fairly close to my needs, but I simply don't have brainpower to invest in figuring out a workable setup on my own. (Yes, the irony of that statement vs. my running two dual boot linux boxes isn't lost on me...where you think my time goes?;-) Something like a "MS Money user's survival guide to gnucash" (or the like for quicken users) would probably go a long way to help gain some adoption.
Probably "ease of use". I have yet to see this new-fangled thing yet. In the meantime, I've been very slowly brewing up something I can use myself (no, it isn't far enough along to matter to anyone else yet; yes, it'd be GPL'ed or something else "open" if it does get there). I've looked at gnucash each time the next even-number comes out. It looks nice if you need to do small-business stuff, but for just my personal finances, I could never get far enough along after hours of banging my head against it to get anything set up and useable. So... if the new app looks like it'll be as easy and intuitive (to me) to use, I might give it a shot. That's what I would reply to your question with. (On the matter of rolling my own, gnucash doesn't have things I'd call simple and necessary yet for personal finance tracking that, having used in MS Money, are quite simply deal-breakers for me to not have available.)
Such batteries promise to be cheaper, safer and less toxic than previously demonstrated methanol based fuel cells.
Not to mention having an extra carbon atom per molecule... and the one thing we all know is: chicks dig carbon. (In fact, they seem to insist on getting a fairly costly form of it to agree to marry.;)
If you are starting out that new, then I'd recommend getting a book oriented around your distribution. Make sure it covers some of the basics of X/window managers/gnome or KDE, if you're going to be using something like that. As an example, Redhat 7.3 Bible (or some similar name), contains lots of stuff I still find useful to refer to (even if "my copy" is really just on the shelf at the bookstore;) after many years of tinkering. A solid book along this line might set you back around $40-$50 from a brick-and-mortar, but in the end, the aggravation and time it can save will make it worth it. If on the other hand you are using a distro that there isn't a well-written 1000-ish page tome for, then I really couldn't say. You'll hear a lot about O'Reilly books, and they're nice, but in my opinion many are more for reference than they are for learning (and the ones I have don't go deeply enough to be a full reference either... so I haven't understood the fascination).
Honest question coming. I'm not sure where I come down on this issue personally, but...
the rows of tabs that flip and change position are the single most unnerving UI element ever conceived. you click one element and the entire geography of the context you're in flips. what was stable a millisecond ago is now reorded.
it's like a battle axe poised against the very wiring of your short term memory.
Not accounting for effects on screen realestate, how are the rows of tabs really much different on your short term memory than, say, having a set of menu options under "View" that does a similar thing? (Arguably, the tabs indicate which 'view' you are in, but on the flip side, the menu-view location can be indicated in some sort of a header panel elsewhere in the interface, though at this point we're not really saving the screen realestate either. this last variation is my personally preferred method.)
Now, I personally don't care a *great* deal for the multi-row tab concept and I generally avoid creating it since I've heard/read people don't like it, but I'm wondering just what/why you've said what you have. One interface element I think is worse than this is the 'vertically sliding tabs' like in the sidebar panel of Microsoft Outlook (its a "work" thing) or in the user preferences area of Galeon, or the sidebar of Nautilus. Now, you've taken a multi-row tab concept and forced a lot of vertical mouse motion to switch back and forth, and the extra mouse motion really irritates me.
I suppose then that also packing a CD->soundcard wire and a glob of silly putty would be bad, too?;-) (I was more meaning in checked luggage, not carry on, though if they're x-raying that too, well, it'd be more hassle than *my* family's worth.)
My recent trip to see [the wife's] family was an interesting comedy of errors with their various computers. Between three households and three computers, not one of them was in sufficient working order for me to do anything to them. ( One, a laptop, had the keyboard die *that morning*; another had been in "the shop" since the day before and, given the holiday nature of things, wasn't back home and plugged in until we were leaving; the last one was bootable and semi-functional, but needed a massive boatload of system / driver / software updates... this particular one on the same phone line as the single voice line and pointing to a shared ISP account with someone else that was "busy" when I did manage to make the thing dial. God... it was ugly).
I think I've decided that, next similar trip, I'll just have to have finally bought a nice laptop... either that or *carefully* pack a suitcase with spare HD, NIC, modem, screwdriver, and various boot-up / install / rescue disks as I can manage. I remember a period of time about ten years ago when hardware was *SO* much easier to troubleshoot. (Granted, the tech compared to today sucked, but it was a more-or-less consistent, easy to hammer into place sort of "sucked".) *sigh*
That is the only way in fact, that linux will ever overtake the MS Windows desktop. Most non techies cannot easily make the (massive in their eyes) switch to a new desktop and OS.
I'm not sure how necessary the 'look and feel' aspect, in and of itself, is really necessary. What Linux (or, insert favorite alternate graphical OS/desktop environment here) really needs is more polish on the various little un-glamorous things that make the desktop environment, as a whole, sing. I've got my wife happily using gnome 1.4 on RH7.3, and the differences in interface operation don't bother her. What would make life more pleasant for us would be various other things like, oh, just off the top of my head:
(1) as 'root', I install a gnome app, but it goes into some completely *screwball* menu location that I removed long ago, only to show up again, with no choice(s) for me. Contrast with the install-shield stuff that gives me a choice based on currently existing menu layout.
(1a) in response to "but gnome application RPM's don't facilitate this" type responses... maybe that should go on the list too.;-)
(2) as a normal user, a way to possibly install a self-only gnome app somewhere in the home directory (at least for the programs that aren't doing anything that needs root-level authority to do stuff). See (1) regarding giving choice of install location (both in filesystem and on the user menu)
(3) a solid network browser a la network neighborhood.
I could list off a few other gripes too (drag/drop and other non-visual things), and yes, I'm aware that such things Are Being Worked On (tm?), but this has been the case for a while. And saying "have you tried KDE?" isn't necessarily valid here... I've "started over" to get our boxes running gnome (as opposed to win'98) and I've got little motivation to "start over" again... so maybe that makes the above a bit gnome-specific (probably true). All this mainly to say that there are issues that are causing annoying little problems, and they aren't tied up specifically with how closely the desktop / window manager "mimics" the appearance of windows. Don't get me wrong, you'll get linux off my system after its pried from my cold, dead hands. (Oh, and before the "get off your butt and contribute" flamers get going, I do have a project or two in the works, thanks very much.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Observe that, generally, domain name urls take the form of TRADEMARK_NAME.com. So maybe this guy should get together with C|Net and start up a sex.com.com section for technologically discriminating adults. ;-)
No, I haven't read the details of the earthlink "solution", but why would the e-mail necessarily have to be html-based? They could put a "view _this_ page with a web browser ..." flat link in the message of the challenge. (I got such a C/R message a year ago myself that pointed to an image-based challenge.) Or they can go for the gusto and have an html version (with image?) and text version in the same message, and your client uses what it can. Now, on the other hand, if you've limited your system to a *purely* text solution, then that is your right (certainly), but when in Rome, don't cry about the majority of other people being Roman.
Apparently not everybody.
At the expense of beating a bad analogy... since locks work two directions, you've then also never installed locks to keep unwanted intruders and/or riff-raff out? (Here in this case, it'd be more like a "smart house" that only unlocks the door for people I say are cool to come in, but I digress.) I think the concept of having the OS support the ability to have DRM is fine. The devil is in the details, of course, and there exists the possibility that DRM could be used for more evil purposes than for good purposes (naturally), but Linux (et. al) is about choice, so I applaud Linus' comment and stand on this matter. I'll decide if I want DRM-signed gewgaws running around my system.
If, 10 years down a very speculative future path, Linux far overtakes Windows in popularity for hack/crack attack attempts, it would be nice to have the option to have security apps running on the box that I know are signed by RedHat (or whomever I happen to have trust in at the time).
By everyone's favorite analogy, it sounds like a housing contractor installing locks on houses he makes, which allows each homeowner to have the choice to decide to lock their door or not. (This in counterpoint to some hypothetical "popular" opinion that locks are inherently evil.) The presence of the lock doesn't mean the homeowner *has* to use it. (I didn't say it was a terribly great analogy.)
Yeah, inflate your point by linking to the "Pro" version. The thing is, sh|t generally costs money. The alternative is to take what you can get for free or do it yourself (the latter of which isn't strictly free, accounting for your time being worth something). You sound like you either:
1) think the world owes you something (get over it; life isn't fair) based on your choice of OS
2) didn't do your homework when you bought the game
After all, I wouldn't pick windows to run a server that needs to be rock solid, I didn't get a PS2 since I thought it could run photoshop, why would I pick a nice developer-friendly *nix box to run games? Sure, having a big collection of games native to Linux would be nice, but I got into Linux knowing that wasn't likely to be the case for a good while. (Heck, if I can get XFree86 to come up with the new video card I got -- to play game(s) under windows -- to check mail and surf the web, I'll be happy enough.) It is starting to sound like the 'beggars being choosers' thing.
Guess if I'm only allowed one choice, then I gotta go with:
E) Cowboyneal!
... that my Java skills can be used for evil, rather than good. ;-)
There's a variation I've heard that seems to be what OSS (anything, really, though from my experience OSS a bit more) hits and may be part of what the article is/was complaining about... "The first 90% of the code takes 90% of the time and effort. The last 10% of the code takes the other 90% of the time and effort."
> Programming the VCR
;-)
Okay... I defer this task to my wife, making a humorous play of being ignorant about how. But in reality, she has so many shows programmed in already through the week that she has to juggle which 1- or 2-hour block of tape time has been watched and thus can be recorded over. God forbid I screw up the complex juggling act and erase the unwatched hour of _Judging Amy_ or something. It is far better to plead ignorance/fear.
(What? Another tape? [fingers in ears]la la la la la la[/fingers in ears] )
More to reply than to be modded or anything, but my own very personal list of needed features involve:
* Cross platform client. Have two systems that dual boot, and Mac is really getting tempting as a replacement for one of the '98 partitions. I certainly don't want to tie down to a particular desktop environment under any OS choice. Given this, my slowly growing prototype MS Money replacement is Java (as appears is money dance?)
* decentralized data storage. (MySQL server or some such.) not necessarily multi-concurrent or anything, just that any box in any OS mode can see/modify finance data.
* Keeping the data format "open" in sense of being human-readable in its raw form isn't strictly required, but is desirable (and chucking data to a central database seems to address this also). backup/restore capability, etc.
* bill schedules coupled with balance forcasting into an arbitrary time period. (This is the most invaluable tool I've adapted to in MS Money. lack of a forecast graph is a deal-breaker... to me.)
* enter / display / modify transactions like like a check layout. (some programs only 'display' in a tabular format unless you 'edit' or something.)
* Balancing against a (paper) statement has to be as easy as, say, checking my e-mail.
* Common reports and graphs (line, bar, pie, etc.) but also more 'expert mode' queries into the database and/or a very flexible way to make complex queries.
* checking, savings, credit card, 401k contributions, investments.
Again, this is just a personal list based on my current use case(s) with MS Money. Online stuff isn't personally needed since my bank has a web interface to view stuff, but no way as yet to download statements that I've found (and really, by hand isn't that hard).
If there's a walk-through or tutorial guide on setting up gnucash for [preferrably simple-style] personal finances, please post. I've looked for something several times and haven't found any useful references. The recent 1.8 looks fairly close to my needs, but I simply don't have brainpower to invest in figuring out a workable setup on my own. (Yes, the irony of that statement vs. my running two dual boot linux boxes isn't lost on me...where you think my time goes? ;-) Something like a "MS Money user's survival guide to gnucash" (or the like for quicken users) would probably go a long way to help gain some adoption.
Probably "ease of use". I have yet to see this new-fangled thing yet. In the meantime, I've been very slowly brewing up something I can use myself (no, it isn't far enough along to matter to anyone else yet; yes, it'd be GPL'ed or something else "open" if it does get there). I've looked at gnucash each time the next even-number comes out. It looks nice if you need to do small-business stuff, but for just my personal finances, I could never get far enough along after hours of banging my head against it to get anything set up and useable. So... if the new app looks like it'll be as easy and intuitive (to me) to use, I might give it a shot. That's what I would reply to your question with. (On the matter of rolling my own, gnucash doesn't have things I'd call simple and necessary yet for personal finance tracking that, having used in MS Money, are quite simply deal-breakers for me to not have available.)
(In fact, they seem to insist on getting a fairly costly form of it to agree to marry.
If you are starting out that new, then I'd recommend getting a book oriented around your distribution. Make sure it covers some of the basics of X/window managers/gnome or KDE, if you're going to be using something like that. As an example, Redhat 7.3 Bible (or some similar name), contains lots of stuff I still find useful to refer to (even if "my copy" is really just on the shelf at the bookstore ;) after many years of tinkering. A solid book along this line might set you back around $40-$50 from a brick-and-mortar, but in the end, the aggravation and time it can save will make it worth it. If on the other hand you are using a distro that there isn't a well-written 1000-ish page tome for, then I really couldn't say. You'll hear a lot about O'Reilly books, and they're nice, but in my opinion many are more for reference than they are for learning (and the ones I have don't go deeply enough to be a full reference either... so I haven't understood the fascination).
Not accounting for effects on screen realestate, how are the rows of tabs really much different on your short term memory than, say, having a set of menu options under "View" that does a similar thing? (Arguably, the tabs indicate which 'view' you are in, but on the flip side, the menu-view location can be indicated in some sort of a header panel elsewhere in the interface, though at this point we're not really saving the screen realestate either. this last variation is my personally preferred method.)
Now, I personally don't care a *great* deal for the multi-row tab concept and I generally avoid creating it since I've heard/read people don't like it, but I'm wondering just what/why you've said what you have. One interface element I think is worse than this is the 'vertically sliding tabs' like in the sidebar panel of Microsoft Outlook (its a "work" thing) or in the user preferences area of Galeon, or the sidebar of Nautilus. Now, you've taken a multi-row tab concept and forced a lot of vertical mouse motion to switch back and forth, and the extra mouse motion really irritates me.
I suppose then that also packing a CD->soundcard wire and a glob of silly putty would be bad, too? ;-) (I was more meaning in checked luggage, not carry on, though if they're x-raying that too, well, it'd be more hassle than *my* family's worth.)
My recent trip to see [the wife's] family was an interesting comedy of errors with their various computers. Between three households and three computers, not one of them was in sufficient working order for me to do anything to them. ( One, a laptop, had the keyboard die *that morning*; another had been in "the shop" since the day before and, given the holiday nature of things, wasn't back home and plugged in until we were leaving; the last one was bootable and semi-functional, but needed a massive boatload of system / driver / software updates... this particular one on the same phone line as the single voice line and pointing to a shared ISP account with someone else that was "busy" when I did manage to make the thing dial. God... it was ugly).
I think I've decided that, next similar trip, I'll just have to have finally bought a nice laptop... either that or *carefully* pack a suitcase with spare HD, NIC, modem, screwdriver, and various boot-up / install / rescue disks as I can manage. I remember a period of time about ten years ago when hardware was *SO* much easier to troubleshoot. (Granted, the tech compared to today sucked, but it was a more-or-less consistent, easy to hammer into place sort of "sucked".) *sigh*
I'm not sure how necessary the 'look and feel' aspect, in and of itself, is really necessary. What Linux (or, insert favorite alternate graphical OS/desktop environment here) really needs is more polish on the various little un-glamorous things that make the desktop environment, as a whole, sing. I've got my wife happily using gnome 1.4 on RH7.3, and the differences in interface operation don't bother her. What would make life more pleasant for us would be various other things like, oh, just off the top of my head:
(1) as 'root', I install a gnome app, but it goes into some completely *screwball* menu location that I removed long ago, only to show up again, with no choice(s) for me. Contrast with the install-shield stuff that gives me a choice based on currently existing menu layout.
(1a) in response to "but gnome application RPM's don't facilitate this" type responses... maybe that should go on the list too.
(2) as a normal user, a way to possibly install a self-only gnome app somewhere in the home directory (at least for the programs that aren't doing anything that needs root-level authority to do stuff). See (1) regarding giving choice of install location (both in filesystem and on the user menu)
(3) a solid network browser a la network neighborhood.
I could list off a few other gripes too (drag/drop and other non-visual things), and yes, I'm aware that such things Are Being Worked On (tm?), but this has been the case for a while. And saying "have you tried KDE?" isn't necessarily valid here... I've "started over" to get our boxes running gnome (as opposed to win'98) and I've got little motivation to "start over" again... so maybe that makes the above a bit gnome-specific (probably true). All this mainly to say that there are issues that are causing annoying little problems, and they aren't tied up specifically with how closely the desktop / window manager "mimics" the appearance of windows. Don't get me wrong, you'll get linux off my system after its pried from my cold, dead hands. (Oh, and before the "get off your butt and contribute" flamers get going, I do have a project or two in the works, thanks very much.