Re:Its all about the command line stupid....
on
Ubuntu on a Dime
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· Score: 1
I have had to fire up exactly one command line out of necessity to do anything on any of the three of my current Linux Mint machines, and they've all been running Mint since they day they were commissioned. Two of them are running proprietary drivers for Wifi and all three are running proprietary drivers for video, and all have received at least two kernel upgrades (one of them has been in operation for three Linux Mint revisions - an older Dell Latitude - I have literally never fired up a Linux command line on that machine).
The exception was getting the microphone working under a very new model of the Asus eeePC in the current Mint - I had to cut-and-paste a command line entry because the drivers do not include a fully working driver for that device, so I had to adjust the volume manually the first time. The volume control now works well, and theoretically Ubuntu 10.04 will have a better driver for that microphone.
Though there are times when the command line is the only way, it looks more pervasive than it is. Don't assume the command line is the only way to do anything just because you see a lot of recommended solutions that involve the command line on help forums. The command line is how a lot of solutions are delivered on the Internet, for two darned good reasons:
1. I can solve your problem with one or maybe a few simple cut-and-paste commands, or I can walk you through a bunch of screens with screenshots to reach the same setting. If I'm writing a Wiki, I'm putting up the cut-and-paste instructions. You'll have your problem solved faster and I don't pay as much for bandwidth.
2. Chances are, the command line fix will work on all or most versions of Linux. The screens can differ from distro to distro, or you might have loaded a custom theme, or have loaded KDE or Xfce instead of the default Gnome, so I can't guarantee you'll see what I'm seeing. I can guarantee that a command entered to restart Samba will restart Samba, and the only requirement is that you have Samba installed.
There are, of course, faster or more convenient ways to do a lot of things that simply require the command line (pattern-based renaming of hundreds of files as opposed to editing the name of each file individually, or doing an upgrade or an install using apt-get rather than waiting for the GUI to load on older hardware). I can do all of it from a GUI, but I choose the command line because it's faster or more convenient.
There are, of course, fixes that absolutely require a command line, that's very true. There are even a few features that are not readily accessible from the GUI because no one has written a GUI for them yet. Those are currently pretty rare. But they do exist. Fortunately, most of those fixes are documented somewhere and involve starting up a command line and cutting-and-pasting a few things.
But $100 is $100, and if you're building a basic machine on a budget, even $100 makes a significant difference in the overall cost of the machine.
Of course, if the purpose is to get a working machine, they can be had with Windows Seven Home or Starter already installed in the $300 range, which is about what the author's machine would cost if you wanted to add Windows to it.
On the other hand, Ubuntu, Mint, etc are not feature-limited based on what you spend on them. I can run a remote desktop server, have Compiz (fancy desktop effects), encrypt hard drives and home directories, run a Virtual OS, and run it in any language I choose. Any of those features would require at least Windows Seven Pro, and in a few cases Enterprise or Ultimate.
Computer: $200 Book: $25 Keyboard: $10 Mouse: $5 Monitor: ~$60 if you're damned lucky. Operating system: $0 WiFi: No Webcam: No Portable: No Total cost: $300
ASUS eeePC netbook: $300 (or similar - I only mention the eeePC because I have personal experience with it and Linux) Nuke the Starter Edition of Windows 7, reload with Ubuntu, Mint, or your choice of distro: $0, in about an hour. Keyboard: Included Mouse: $5 (if you want an external) Monitor: Included WiFi: Included Webcam: Included Portable: Yes, ten hours of battery, and weighs almost nothing.
Both approaches have their high points, and their low points.
Netbook disadvantages:
- Smaller screen (10"), but you can add an external one later if that bothers you.
- Slightly smaller keyboard (though I'm 6' 4" with proportionally large hands, and I can type nearly as fast on a netbook as I can my laptop or Microsoft Natural keyboard), but again you can add one if you need it later.
- Not upgradeable in any meaningful way.
- You haven't learned to assemble a system yourself.
- If you leave the Windows 7 starter, you'll need to shell out for Antivirus, etc. But Ubuntu Netbook Remix (or even Ubuntu, Mint, etc) run great on it.
Netbook advantages:
- Includes wifi and a battery, so you can go to almost any library in the country and get on the Internet for free. That can save you a lot of dough if you're cash-strapped (example: keep a low-cost dialup plan for daily surfing, then pop down to the library for any large downloads or updates).
- No assembly required. Ready to go out of the box.
- Portable, both around the house and take it with you.
- Includes a webcam for videoconferencing if you have a decent Internet connection available.
Listen, buddy, I don't know how you did it, but my company's lawyers will be contacting you shortly.
There is no way in hell you should have gotten a copy of our hiring procedure through any legitimate means, but if you did you had to have signed the NDA that came with it.
Canonical is a for-profit business that builds a seriously kick-ass distro of Linux, and they put a lot of work into doing so, and they give it to you for free. They even let other smart people use their hard work to build derivatives like Mint.
If they can make a few sheckles from setting the default search engine in their distro, when anyone with opposable thumbs and an IQ over 50 can click on the search engine logo and choose another one, why should they be going to the trouble of programming a random-order list?
If they took away the choice list, or blocked all search engines but their "preferred" one, OK, I could see an objection. If choosing a new search engine was as hard as downloading and installing a browser, I could see an objection. But this is literally a two-mouseclick choice. Other than the "in random order" part, Ubuntu already provides exactly what you propose.
Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy are still around. They make MP3 audio tracks that can be played in sync with movies, instead of having to deal with licensing issues with altering the movies themselves. Their work can be found at rifftrax.com. It's usually a few bucks per track. You rent the movie and play it, and play the MP3 at the same time, and you still get great one-liners like "Honey Bunches... OF DEATH!" (<-- all time favorite MST3K line ever).
You have to provide your own cardboard cutout to stick on your computer screen if you want one.
So when I add a checkbox that says "Amortize this loan?" above the checkbox that used to be there that said "Automatically calculate payments for this loan?" then change the verbiage on the automatic calculation, this application is going to go kaboom.
I'm not criticizing screen scrapers. I've used them. But upgrading the underlying software always changes screen elements and requires a rewrite/update to the scraper code.
So, in answer to the original question:
This is called a screen scraper, and likes to break with updates to the underlying program, right?
The answer is an unequivocal YES. There are very few changes you can make to the underlying application that will not break a screen scraper. They are incredibly useful tools, but they have their limits.
But the company in question packaged the original movie along with a "sanitized" version. You get to decide what you can and cannot watch, by either pulling the original or the "sanitized" version from the DVD holder.
Silly? Sure. If I don't like a movie in its original, I probably won't like a sanitized version either.
But it's not affecting your choice to watch movies the way you want to - it's offering a service that is optional and people pay extra for.
Combine the two previous posts, and add NoScript in for good measure.
Greasemonkey + AdBlock Plus + NoScript = The Web, the way YOU want it to be.:)
And, just like the tool above, if a company changes their web page, you're looking at some redo on at least the Greasemonkey site. Be sure to add Greasefire in addition to Greasemonkey - lots of people have lots of great scripts that are at least good example code to pull from.
And if you've worked with screen scrapers, you'd know that most of them are based on UI elements, and an upgrade to the underlying software almost always causes problems because the UI elements frequently change when software is upgraded.
So, yes, this is a screen scraper, which means it will survive some small alterations to the UI, but you're usually looking at upgrading/rewriting the screen specs when the underlying screens change.
I have to imagine that, if this software is intercepting the outputs of legally-paid-for closed source software and altering them, this could never be considered a crack. Then again, I suppose if Hollyweird can sue someone for building a custom version of a movie with the swearing and naughty bits bleeped out, while including a copy of the original version of the movie to make sure the end consumer has actually purchased a license, who knows?
If this is considered a "crack", will software developers be able to stop me from purchasing a larger screen, or better speakers?
I'm a big fan of the Model M, and use a Microsoft Natural keyboard for daily use. I have very large hands, and I was pleasantly surprised at how good the keyboard on my wife's Asus eeePC really is. They made the keys little "chicklets" so there's a small gap between each key, and I can touch-type just fine on it.
It's not as fast as touch typing on a full-sized keyboard, but I don't dread the experience either.
Of course, I have to constantly adapt between several different-model keyboards daily, so I find changing keyboards isn't terribly hard. I'm also not all THAT fast behind any specific keyboard, probably because I haven't been able to settle with one specific keyboard for continuous use, so I adapt quickly to new keyboards but can't get that fast on any one of them. Your mileage obviously varies.:)
Re:More like a Starbucks appliance
on
iPad Review
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· Score: 1
Until the first time someone spills coffee, drops a fork, spills a packet of sugar, or even sets a hot mug down on the surface of the screen.
If you want people to interact with it, the screen surface has to be exposed. Once you do that on a table at a cafe, it'll be about 5 seconds before someone destroys it.
If you just want a display, you can get 10" screens that can show content non-interactively for about 1/5 the price of an iPad.
Re:CmdrTaco drags big brass ones along the ground
on
iPad Review
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· Score: 1
but at *NO* point in time have I ever heard someone say "you know, this mobile phone/MP3 player is OK, but I sure wish it was 4 times as large and weighed as much as a laptop!"
The iPod Touch is an MP3 player? Really?:)
Seriously, I haven't heard it said in quite that way, but I have used my iPod Touch occasionally for casual web surfing and thought "gee, I really wish this screen was a lot bigger". I saw the iPad as a modern-day clipboard that could surf the Web. Unfortunately, they decided to have it run iPhone OS and not something more useful like, say, MacOS or your choice of OSes. But given its form factor anything other than iPhone OS is probably going to end up clumsy on it, and Apple doesn't do "clumsy".
After careful consideration, I decided that a $300 netbook running my choice of Linux or Windows, with better WiFi range, better battery life, and an extra 200GB of storage made a lot more sense than an iPad for what I wanted to use it for. Plus I can tether my AT&T Blackberry to it and get Internet access wherever I want to without another monthly fee.
Re:CmdrTaco drags big brass ones along the ground
on
iPad Review
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· Score: 3, Funny
Nonsense. I just finished a 14-year-old Twinkie and it was as tasty as the dayyyy it wazz maaayde.. hey, whyyy izzz Slashdohhhttt suddenly purrple? Dfggbghtz. Shakkrsnordleez. Gzzfmht.. farkle...
It's almost like someone posting a study causes people to post the tag, isn't it?
Oh, wait, I'm implying causation, sorry!
It's almost like there is a direct correlation between posts about studies, and the use of the correlationisnotcausation tag. Must be an odd coincidence.
To each his/her own, I guess. I started watching during the Peter Davison years, and went back and started from the beginning some time later. It's not a stunningly great series, but it's compelling. Name any TV series you like, and Doctor Who has probably outlasted it.:)
Slashdot Mirror
I have had to fire up exactly one command line out of necessity to do anything on any of the three of my current Linux Mint machines, and they've all been running Mint since they day they were commissioned. Two of them are running proprietary drivers for Wifi and all three are running proprietary drivers for video, and all have received at least two kernel upgrades (one of them has been in operation for three Linux Mint revisions - an older Dell Latitude - I have literally never fired up a Linux command line on that machine).
The exception was getting the microphone working under a very new model of the Asus eeePC in the current Mint - I had to cut-and-paste a command line entry because the drivers do not include a fully working driver for that device, so I had to adjust the volume manually the first time. The volume control now works well, and theoretically Ubuntu 10.04 will have a better driver for that microphone.
Though there are times when the command line is the only way, it looks more pervasive than it is. Don't assume the command line is the only way to do anything just because you see a lot of recommended solutions that involve the command line on help forums. The command line is how a lot of solutions are delivered on the Internet, for two darned good reasons:
1. I can solve your problem with one or maybe a few simple cut-and-paste commands, or I can walk you through a bunch of screens with screenshots to reach the same setting. If I'm writing a Wiki, I'm putting up the cut-and-paste instructions. You'll have your problem solved faster and I don't pay as much for bandwidth.
2. Chances are, the command line fix will work on all or most versions of Linux. The screens can differ from distro to distro, or you might have loaded a custom theme, or have loaded KDE or Xfce instead of the default Gnome, so I can't guarantee you'll see what I'm seeing. I can guarantee that a command entered to restart Samba will restart Samba, and the only requirement is that you have Samba installed.
There are, of course, faster or more convenient ways to do a lot of things that simply require the command line (pattern-based renaming of hundreds of files as opposed to editing the name of each file individually, or doing an upgrade or an install using apt-get rather than waiting for the GUI to load on older hardware). I can do all of it from a GUI, but I choose the command line because it's faster or more convenient.
There are, of course, fixes that absolutely require a command line, that's very true. There are even a few features that are not readily accessible from the GUI because no one has written a GUI for them yet. Those are currently pretty rare. But they do exist. Fortunately, most of those fixes are documented somewhere and involve starting up a command line and cutting-and-pasting a few things.
Yes, you can buy it for about half that:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116752 Newegg: $100
But $100 is $100, and if you're building a basic machine on a budget, even $100 makes a significant difference in the overall cost of the machine.
Of course, if the purpose is to get a working machine, they can be had with Windows Seven Home or Starter already installed in the $300 range, which is about what the author's machine would cost if you wanted to add Windows to it.
On the other hand, Ubuntu, Mint, etc are not feature-limited based on what you spend on them. I can run a remote desktop server, have Compiz (fancy desktop effects), encrypt hard drives and home directories, run a Virtual OS, and run it in any language I choose. Any of those features would require at least Windows Seven Pro, and in a few cases Enterprise or Ultimate.
Computer: $200
Book: $25
Keyboard: $10
Mouse: $5
Monitor: ~$60 if you're damned lucky.
Operating system: $0
WiFi: No
Webcam: No
Portable: No
Total cost: $300
ASUS eeePC netbook: $300 (or similar - I only mention the eeePC because I have personal experience with it and Linux)
Nuke the Starter Edition of Windows 7, reload with Ubuntu, Mint, or your choice of distro: $0, in about an hour.
Keyboard: Included
Mouse: $5 (if you want an external)
Monitor: Included
WiFi: Included
Webcam: Included
Portable: Yes, ten hours of battery, and weighs almost nothing.
Both approaches have their high points, and their low points.
Netbook disadvantages:
- Smaller screen (10"), but you can add an external one later if that bothers you.
- Slightly smaller keyboard (though I'm 6' 4" with proportionally large hands, and I can type nearly as fast on a netbook as I can my laptop or Microsoft Natural keyboard), but again you can add one if you need it later.
- Not upgradeable in any meaningful way.
- You haven't learned to assemble a system yourself.
- If you leave the Windows 7 starter, you'll need to shell out for Antivirus, etc. But Ubuntu Netbook Remix (or even Ubuntu, Mint, etc) run great on it.
Netbook advantages:
- Includes wifi and a battery, so you can go to almost any library in the country and get on the Internet for free. That can save you a lot of dough if you're cash-strapped (example: keep a low-cost dialup plan for daily surfing, then pop down to the library for any large downloads or updates).
- No assembly required. Ready to go out of the box.
- Portable, both around the house and take it with you.
- Includes a webcam for videoconferencing if you have a decent Internet connection available.
Listen, buddy, I don't know how you did it, but my company's lawyers will be contacting you shortly.
There is no way in hell you should have gotten a copy of our hiring procedure through any legitimate means, but if you did you had to have signed the NDA that came with it.
Welcome to Slashdot, where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the programmers are above average."
Why? No, seriously, why?
Canonical is a for-profit business that builds a seriously kick-ass distro of Linux, and they put a lot of work into doing so, and they give it to you for free. They even let other smart people use their hard work to build derivatives like Mint.
If they can make a few sheckles from setting the default search engine in their distro, when anyone with opposable thumbs and an IQ over 50 can click on the search engine logo and choose another one, why should they be going to the trouble of programming a random-order list?
If they took away the choice list, or blocked all search engines but their "preferred" one, OK, I could see an objection. If choosing a new search engine was as hard as downloading and installing a browser, I could see an objection. But this is literally a two-mouseclick choice. Other than the "in random order" part, Ubuntu already provides exactly what you propose.
Yes, there was certainly a moment when the Daleks started flying when I went "what the hell? This isn't the Doctor Who I remember!"
Oh, wait, sorry wrong "character who suddenly gets massive powers in the new series that were part of the plot of the old series"
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!"
Yes. Sort of.
Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy are still around. They make MP3 audio tracks that can be played in sync with movies, instead of having to deal with licensing issues with altering the movies themselves. Their work can be found at rifftrax.com. It's usually a few bucks per track. You rent the movie and play it, and play the MP3 at the same time, and you still get great one-liners like "Honey Bunches... OF DEATH!" (<-- all time favorite MST3K line ever).
You have to provide your own cardboard cutout to stick on your computer screen if you want one.
So when I add a checkbox that says "Amortize this loan?" above the checkbox that used to be there that said "Automatically calculate payments for this loan?" then change the verbiage on the automatic calculation, this application is going to go kaboom.
I'm not criticizing screen scrapers. I've used them. But upgrading the underlying software always changes screen elements and requires a rewrite/update to the scraper code.
So, in answer to the original question:
This is called a screen scraper, and likes to break with updates to the underlying program, right?
The answer is an unequivocal YES. There are very few changes you can make to the underlying application that will not break a screen scraper. They are incredibly useful tools, but they have their limits.
Right.
But the company in question packaged the original movie along with a "sanitized" version. You get to decide what you can and cannot watch, by either pulling the original or the "sanitized" version from the DVD holder.
Silly? Sure. If I don't like a movie in its original, I probably won't like a sanitized version either.
But it's not affecting your choice to watch movies the way you want to - it's offering a service that is optional and people pay extra for.
I think GP was going for the William Shatner style of speech, and confused the comma and the exclamation point.
I agree with you, so obviously you're right. Sadly, I'm out of mod points.
How about a "-1, didn't read the article" and more importantly "-2, didn't read the summary"?
It's OK, mods, I know this will be -1 offtopic in 3... 2... 1... Do what you gotta do.
Combine the two previous posts, and add NoScript in for good measure.
Greasemonkey + AdBlock Plus + NoScript = The Web, the way YOU want it to be. :)
And, just like the tool above, if a company changes their web page, you're looking at some redo on at least the Greasemonkey site. Be sure to add Greasefire in addition to Greasemonkey - lots of people have lots of great scripts that are at least good example code to pull from.
And if you've worked with screen scrapers, you'd know that most of them are based on UI elements, and an upgrade to the underlying software almost always causes problems because the UI elements frequently change when software is upgraded.
So, yes, this is a screen scraper, which means it will survive some small alterations to the UI, but you're usually looking at upgrading/rewriting the screen specs when the underlying screens change.
I have to imagine that, if this software is intercepting the outputs of legally-paid-for closed source software and altering them, this could never be considered a crack. Then again, I suppose if Hollyweird can sue someone for building a custom version of a movie with the swearing and naughty bits bleeped out, while including a copy of the original version of the movie to make sure the end consumer has actually purchased a license, who knows?
If this is considered a "crack", will software developers be able to stop me from purchasing a larger screen, or better speakers?
I'm a big fan of the Model M, and use a Microsoft Natural keyboard for daily use. I have very large hands, and I was pleasantly surprised at how good the keyboard on my wife's Asus eeePC really is. They made the keys little "chicklets" so there's a small gap between each key, and I can touch-type just fine on it.
It's not as fast as touch typing on a full-sized keyboard, but I don't dread the experience either.
Of course, I have to constantly adapt between several different-model keyboards daily, so I find changing keyboards isn't terribly hard. I'm also not all THAT fast behind any specific keyboard, probably because I haven't been able to settle with one specific keyboard for continuous use, so I adapt quickly to new keyboards but can't get that fast on any one of them. Your mileage obviously varies. :)
Until the first time someone spills coffee, drops a fork, spills a packet of sugar, or even sets a hot mug down on the surface of the screen.
If you want people to interact with it, the screen surface has to be exposed. Once you do that on a table at a cafe, it'll be about 5 seconds before someone destroys it.
If you just want a display, you can get 10" screens that can show content non-interactively for about 1/5 the price of an iPad.
but at *NO* point in time have I ever heard someone say "you know, this mobile phone/MP3 player is OK, but I sure wish it was 4 times as large and weighed as much as a laptop!"
The iPod Touch is an MP3 player? Really? :)
Seriously, I haven't heard it said in quite that way, but I have used my iPod Touch occasionally for casual web surfing and thought "gee, I really wish this screen was a lot bigger". I saw the iPad as a modern-day clipboard that could surf the Web. Unfortunately, they decided to have it run iPhone OS and not something more useful like, say, MacOS or your choice of OSes. But given its form factor anything other than iPhone OS is probably going to end up clumsy on it, and Apple doesn't do "clumsy".
After careful consideration, I decided that a $300 netbook running my choice of Linux or Windows, with better WiFi range, better battery life, and an extra 200GB of storage made a lot more sense than an iPad for what I wanted to use it for. Plus I can tether my AT&T Blackberry to it and get Internet access wherever I want to without another monthly fee.
Nonsense. I just finished a 14-year-old Twinkie and it was as tasty as the dayyyy it wazz maaayde.. hey, whyyy izzz Slashdohhhttt suddenly purrple? Dfggbghtz. Shakkrsnordleez. Gzzfmht.. farkle...
No worries. We'll use a land shark.
"Candygram!"
It's almost like someone posting a study causes people to post the tag, isn't it?
Oh, wait, I'm implying causation, sorry!
It's almost like there is a direct correlation between posts about studies, and the use of the correlationisnotcausation tag. Must be an odd coincidence.
I prefer the ones whose names end in ".avi" - they seem more... alive, somehow.
To each his/her own, I guess. I started watching during the Peter Davison years, and went back and started from the beginning some time later. It's not a stunningly great series, but it's compelling. Name any TV series you like, and Doctor Who has probably outlasted it. :)