but if you have to ask this question, members of the opposite sex will probably appreciate it if you just stay the hell away. Women (I'm assuming this question is being asked by a guy) want and need lots of affection. Plants need water and sunlight. Women need (at the extreme minimum) food, compliments, conversation, touching/sex, and the occasional pair of shoes. If you aren't willing to provide these, then your relationship will resemble a plant left in a dry basement for a few months.
That's not saying that you can't have time with your friends, but RPGing and relationships just don't mix (unless she RPGs too).
Yeah, but you're assuming that A) SCO's actual intent is to win the Lawsuit (and not just FUD Linux), and B) Baystar loves SCO's management and believes in them soooo much that they will let them continue on down their merry path to distruction.
Bzzzzzzt! Thank you for playing.
Once Baystar controls SCO, they can have SCO sell their IP "assets" or interests or whatever to another company (let's call it BaySCO). The amount could even be something as ridiculous as CN$1 (a loony for a bunch of loonies). The incoming legal fire from IBM et al turns SCO into a smoking crater, but then BaySCO is free to start the whole process all over again. At this point, IBM & friends can essentially try to get a court to declare (without naming a specific defendant) that there is no infringement, breach of contract, etc., but even the threats down the road are really limited only by BaySCO (and their successors') imagination - keep in mind that the SCO complaints against IBM over the last year or so have changed so much as to not even resemble the original suit filed.
Ok, so while there is some short-term negative publicity around one major investor bailing, it leaves Baystar capital with much more power over SCO. It's widely conjectured that Baystar's recent abortive bailing-out was actually just a public slap to SCO to get them to make some executive changes. Now Baystar's leverage is increased substantially. It has occurred to myself and to others that what Baystar may be able to do is effectively "foreclose" on SCO - not in the traditional debt sense, but they'll be able to stick a gun to SCO's head and force them to replace board members under threat of Baystar's pulling out, which would effectively bankrupt SCO. Round one - replace the CFO. Round two - put some of our buddies here on the board to provide you with some sage advice.
Then we have Baystar (the Microsoft puppet) effectively inheriting all of the IP claims (by proxy, but the result is the same), which they think are meritorious. This could result in a whole new round of litigation run by someone who's not a complete jackass.
The new litigation may (will)also be a complete pile of bullshit, but it still ties things up in the courts for years. Be afraid, very afraid.
A desire to cause pain to one's server, primarily though the Slashdot linking of an article that consists of nothing but large.jpg images. This condition should be treated immediately with extensive psychiatric care (the glowing and smoking remains of the server can be hosed down once the heat dies down enough to allow approach).
Training is probably the biggest real-world issue. Any migration between platforms should always plan on plenty of time spent getting users up to speed. Document conversion would be the next issue, again follow the Law of the Seven P's (Proper Previous Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance).
Getting support on MS Office from Microsoft is a joke - if you value your time and money, you're better off using Google, just as you would with OpenOffice.
When it comes to advanced features there are a lot of features in MS Office that aren't in OO, however, these are features that aren't used by ~80-95% of your userbase, depending on your industry.
Approximate recent pricing for a medium-sized company (~150 desktops, Open License Business):
Office 2K3 Pro: $420
Office 2K3 Standard: $340
Yes, you can get better pricing; this is just intended to give people a ballpark idea of the licensing costs involved (excluding the cost of tracking and managing licenses down the road). With these licenses you can also run Office 2K2 (XP) or Office 2K instead of 2K3 on the machine(s) in question.
When the hydrogen tank is full and household appliances are not in use, the excess electricity will be injected back into the grid.
On the other hand, if the PV panels do not generate enough electricity to power the electrolysis system, power will be drawn from the grid.
Even though the house may be self-sufficient in the net balance of things, it's still using the grid as a "virtual battery" to accomodate periods without sunlight.
Not to defend unsafe driving, but the reason that nearly everyone speeds is that many speed limits are set so such a low common denominator that you'd assume that brain-damaged chimpanzees were used as the baseline cases. Most people will drive a reasonable speed regardless of what's posted. There are always a few idiots that will drive at insane speeds regardless of what's posted.
The reason that they do this is that they're addicted to traffic ticket revenue, which is essentially a randomly-enforced "tax lottery" - especially in my area where average highway traffic moves at 80 MPH+ (I've been "going with the flow" along with two dozen other drivers at 95+ in the city). I'm just waiting for them to pair this up with red-light cameras and 2-second yellow lights for the ultimate in revenue generation...
Yes, this sounds cynical (and it is), but if these jackasses were really interested in little things like public safety then they'd probably put some actual effort into designing safe intersections, traffic interchanges, force land developers to plan traffic flow, setting speed limits that are reasonable, etc.
Like they say: Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. Those who actually do learn history are doomed to know what's coming from the other 99.99999% of humanity.
Actually, I've implemented FreeS/WAN on some VPNs that operate over wireless ISPs in Mexico, and is seems unusually tolerant of the, shall we say, continuous stream of new and exciting conditions that exist on those networks. It's been far more stable than some commercial products we tried (for big $$$).
That being said, I did believe (from reading the docs) that the development team was far more interested in making a (pointless, IMHO) political statement than in creating a useable piece of software. For most small / medium businesses, Oportunistic Encryption is the last thing you want - typically these companies have one interface to the Internet, and having trusted and untrusted-from-random-IP-subnets coming in on the same connection creates a firewall design nightmare. I'm sure there's a way to make it work, but frankly if information is worth securing, we can and do secure it. If it isn't, then we just don't care - I'd rather just Keep It Simple, Stupid.
You missed the point of the article. He's speaking about Open Source projects in general, and he has a very good point. I only started using Linux and other open-source software about three years ago, and I've gone through the exact same process with at least a dozen different packages. Most of this could and should be fixed on the documentation level - if someone like myself with 20+ years of computer (coding x86 and TMS9900 assembly at age 10) experience gets frustrated, there is a serious problem.
It's all well and good to put out an excellent piece of software like CUPS, but it's also important to communicate its workings (and CUPS is just an example; we could go down a list if we wanted to). Even though I have extensive coding experience, I think the best way I could contribute to Open Source is on the documentation side... if I can just figure out what I'm doing first:). Even then, the other Eric and myself can't fix everything.
Beyond that, open source developers need to develop the mindset (pun semi-intended) that their user knows either little-to-nothing for desktop applications, or basic server administration for daemons. Each piece of documentation should begin with something like "In order to comprehend this documentation, we suggest you be knowledgeable about: (shell scripting, OpenSSL CA management, installing CPAN modules, etc)." Pointing to some good references would be a bonus. Listing knowledge dependencies is every bit as important as listing library/package dependencies.
Once that's out of the way, you have to communicate everything necessary to configure and run the software. Writing documentation from a naive (in terms of program functionality) perspective is difficult and tedious, but it is doable. You just have to ask yourself "If I didn't write this, would I know what the hell I'm talking about?" after eveyr paragraph.
And that's just to be "reasonably" useable. If we really want to "take over the desktop," then we need perfectly polished wizards and other GUI tools to help those users that are are not inclined to RTFM, spend a few hours with Google, or (shudder) RTFS. The bottom line: it's wonderful to put out a really cool and useful piece of software, but the job isn't done until it's documented (daemons) and / or idiot-proof (end-user software).
Unless you have money to burn on bleeding-edge technology (and in this case, it could quite easily be described as bleeding-to-death) as a college student, I would stick with a traditional notebook PC - you'll get much more for your money, and you don't risk being stuck with a possibly dead-end investment.
So they're claiming that the source code zipped at only about 33% compression. I haven't seen the code (nor am I inclined to, as just dealing with the incredibly shitty Windows API gives me a headache) but I'm extremely suspicious - source code usually achieves compression rates well in excess of 90%, with 95% - 98% not unheard of. So it is far more likely that this code expands to somewhere between 2 and 4GB.
Of course, this is Microsoft so who knows - they could be fucking up the compression in some really impressive way.
Slashdot Mirror
but if you have to ask this question, members of the opposite sex will probably appreciate it if you just stay the hell away. Women (I'm assuming this question is being asked by a guy) want and need lots of affection. Plants need water and sunlight. Women need (at the extreme minimum) food, compliments, conversation, touching/sex, and the occasional pair of shoes. If you aren't willing to provide these, then your relationship will resemble a plant left in a dry basement for a few months.
That's not saying that you can't have time with your friends, but RPGing and relationships just don't mix (unless she RPGs too).
Next thing you know, Mark Hamill will be in major demand based on the Wing Commander series...
Yeah, but you're assuming that A) SCO's actual intent is to win the Lawsuit (and not just FUD Linux), and B) Baystar loves SCO's management and believes in them soooo much that they will let them continue on down their merry path to distruction.
Bzzzzzzt! Thank you for playing.
Once Baystar controls SCO, they can have SCO sell their IP "assets" or interests or whatever to another company (let's call it BaySCO). The amount could even be something as ridiculous as CN$1 (a loony for a bunch of loonies). The incoming legal fire from IBM et al turns SCO into a smoking crater, but then BaySCO is free to start the whole process all over again. At this point, IBM & friends can essentially try to get a court to declare (without naming a specific defendant) that there is no infringement, breach of contract, etc., but even the threats down the road are really limited only by BaySCO (and their successors') imagination - keep in mind that the SCO complaints against IBM over the last year or so have changed so much as to not even resemble the original suit filed.
Ok, so while there is some short-term negative publicity around one major investor bailing, it leaves Baystar capital with much more power over SCO. It's widely conjectured that Baystar's recent abortive bailing-out was actually just a public slap to SCO to get them to make some executive changes. Now Baystar's leverage is increased substantially. It has occurred to myself and to others that what Baystar may be able to do is effectively "foreclose" on SCO - not in the traditional debt sense, but they'll be able to stick a gun to SCO's head and force them to replace board members under threat of Baystar's pulling out, which would effectively bankrupt SCO. Round one - replace the CFO. Round two - put some of our buddies here on the board to provide you with some sage advice.
Then we have Baystar (the Microsoft puppet) effectively inheriting all of the IP claims (by proxy, but the result is the same), which they think are meritorious. This could result in a whole new round of litigation run by someone who's not a complete jackass.
The new litigation may (will)also be a complete pile of bullshit, but it still ties things up in the courts for years. Be afraid, very afraid.
To quote Mark Twain -
A desire to cause pain to one's server, primarily though the Slashdot linking of an article that consists of nothing but large .jpg images. This condition should be treated immediately with extensive psychiatric care (the glowing and smoking remains of the server can be hosed down once the heat dies down enough to allow approach).
Training is probably the biggest real-world issue. Any migration between platforms should always plan on plenty of time spent getting users up to speed. Document conversion would be the next issue, again follow the Law of the Seven P's (Proper Previous Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance).
Getting support on MS Office from Microsoft is a joke - if you value your time and money, you're better off using Google, just as you would with OpenOffice.
When it comes to advanced features there are a lot of features in MS Office that aren't in OO, however, these are features that aren't used by ~80-95% of your userbase, depending on your industry.
Yes, you can get better pricing; this is just intended to give people a ballpark idea of the licensing costs involved (excluding the cost of tracking and managing licenses down the road). With these licenses you can also run Office 2K2 (XP) or Office 2K instead of 2K3 on the machine(s) in question.
Yeah, but then you wind up with a job that really sucks.
Not to defend unsafe driving, but the reason that nearly everyone speeds is that many speed limits are set so such a low common denominator that you'd assume that brain-damaged chimpanzees were used as the baseline cases. Most people will drive a reasonable speed regardless of what's posted. There are always a few idiots that will drive at insane speeds regardless of what's posted.
The reason that they do this is that they're addicted to traffic ticket revenue, which is essentially a randomly-enforced "tax lottery" - especially in my area where average highway traffic moves at 80 MPH+ (I've been "going with the flow" along with two dozen other drivers at 95+ in the city). I'm just waiting for them to pair this up with red-light cameras and 2-second yellow lights for the ultimate in revenue generation...
Yes, this sounds cynical (and it is), but if these jackasses were really interested in little things like public safety then they'd probably put some actual effort into designing safe intersections, traffic interchanges, force land developers to plan traffic flow, setting speed limits that are reasonable, etc.
What if said backside belonged to Nichole Kidman, or Elle Macpherson?
Get us all hyped up over a book that won't be out for a month... Evil!!! :)
It's not quite all open source, but props to Novell for finally releasing a downloadable evaluation version of SuSe Enterprise Server...
Oh, we'd have 1MB pipes (1.536Mbps most likely) all right... you'd just need a second mortgage to afford one month of service.
You need incentinves. Simply explain that better social skills lead to more sex.
And even the $45 amount thrown out in the article was a guess (by the author's own admission). It's probably closer to ~$70 (my guess).
Like they say: Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. Those who actually do learn history are doomed to know what's coming from the other 99.99999% of humanity.
But... I... must... get... my... South... Park... fix... (ok, there's always this place.
Actually, I've implemented FreeS/WAN on some VPNs that operate over wireless ISPs in Mexico, and is seems unusually tolerant of the, shall we say, continuous stream of new and exciting conditions that exist on those networks. It's been far more stable than some commercial products we tried (for big $$$).
That being said, I did believe (from reading the docs) that the development team was far more interested in making a (pointless, IMHO) political statement than in creating a useable piece of software. For most small / medium businesses, Oportunistic Encryption is the last thing you want - typically these companies have one interface to the Internet, and having trusted and untrusted-from-random-IP-subnets coming in on the same connection creates a firewall design nightmare. I'm sure there's a way to make it work, but frankly if information is worth securing, we can and do secure it. If it isn't, then we just don't care - I'd rather just Keep It Simple, Stupid.
You missed the point of the article. He's speaking about Open Source projects in general, and he has a very good point. I only started using Linux and other open-source software about three years ago, and I've gone through the exact same process with at least a dozen different packages. Most of this could and should be fixed on the documentation level - if someone like myself with 20+ years of computer (coding x86 and TMS9900 assembly at age 10) experience gets frustrated, there is a serious problem.
:). Even then, the other Eric and myself can't fix everything.
It's all well and good to put out an excellent piece of software like CUPS, but it's also important to communicate its workings (and CUPS is just an example; we could go down a list if we wanted to). Even though I have extensive coding experience, I think the best way I could contribute to Open Source is on the documentation side... if I can just figure out what I'm doing first
Beyond that, open source developers need to develop the mindset (pun semi-intended) that their user knows either little-to-nothing for desktop applications, or basic server administration for daemons. Each piece of documentation should begin with something like "In order to comprehend this documentation, we suggest you be knowledgeable about: (shell scripting, OpenSSL CA management, installing CPAN modules, etc)." Pointing to some good references would be a bonus. Listing knowledge dependencies is every bit as important as listing library/package dependencies.
Once that's out of the way, you have to communicate everything necessary to configure and run the software. Writing documentation from a naive (in terms of program functionality) perspective is difficult and tedious, but it is doable. You just have to ask yourself "If I didn't write this, would I know what the hell I'm talking about?" after eveyr paragraph.
And that's just to be "reasonably" useable. If we really want to "take over the desktop," then we need perfectly polished wizards and other GUI tools to help those users that are are not inclined to RTFM, spend a few hours with Google, or (shudder) RTFS. The bottom line: it's wonderful to put out a really cool and useful piece of software, but the job isn't done until it's documented (daemons) and / or idiot-proof (end-user software).
Unless you have money to burn on bleeding-edge technology (and in this case, it could quite easily be described as bleeding-to-death) as a college student, I would stick with a traditional notebook PC - you'll get much more for your money, and you don't risk being stuck with a possibly dead-end investment.
So they're claiming that the source code zipped at only about 33% compression. I haven't seen the code (nor am I inclined to, as just dealing with the incredibly shitty Windows API gives me a headache) but I'm extremely suspicious - source code usually achieves compression rates well in excess of 90%, with 95% - 98% not unheard of. So it is far more likely that this code expands to somewhere between 2 and 4GB.
Of course, this is Microsoft so who knows - they could be fucking up the compression in some really impressive way.