Windows95 OSR2.1 was the actual "first stable Windows, ever." Its USB support sucked, but it was the first with FAT32 and its multitasking was a bit more robust.
However, Windows95 *did* come on a set of floppies, the last Windows version small enough to be installed that way. This proved to be quite useful with my first ThinkPad, a 365x, which didn't have an optical drive.
It could be argued that OSR2.5 was a step backward, because IE was a mandatory install and couldn't be removed. You could specify *not* installing IE with the expert mode of the OSR 2.1 install. And you could remove it any time you wanted. Too bad Netscape at that point was a crashy program that crashed a lot, but Opera proved to be a lovely addition to a 95OSR2.1 system.
95OSR2.1 was not topped until Windows 2000 Pro, which I think marks the high-water mark for MS operating systems. XP is 2K with tons of unnecessary crap ladled on. Feh.
This was using a 2.4 kernel and OSS, btw. My desktop has built-in sound but it's been bypassed with an Ensoniq PCI audio card. Debian Sarge is my distro.
I wonder if Skype is able to take advantage of more modern audio drivers for Windows, like those based on the ASIO standard, or if they're stuck with the broken Windows Multimedia drivers...
Skype actually seems to work *better* in Linux than in Windows. When I Skype to a couple of Windows-using friends, it's usually the Windows clients that are breaking up. On the other hand I come in clear as a bell.
Perhaps Skype should get in contact with a creator of a Linux live CD and arrange to have their client provided with the CD. Then they can distribute Skype on the live CD and have it shown in its best light.
The reason why Traveller is the game that absolutely will not die is that Traveller is so damn good. The original Traveller "Little Black Books" are going for crazy money on eBay and are being sold in brand new virgin reprints for even crazier money.
The reason why people are still literally and figuratively "questing" for these books is simple. It is a damn fun RPG to play and a damn fun RPG to "Referee." (Traveller-speak for DM/GM) You get to create a character that is better than a first-level character before they even set foot in the game, and the process of creating a character is damn fun in and of itself. Game play is not dominated by dice rolls, it's dominated by interactive storytelling.
Traveller v.5 (aka Traveller^5) is being developed even as we speak. Check out the process in action at http://www.traveller5.com/
The reason why paper-and-pencil gaming has lasted this long is because it's a blast to play and you don't have to have the latest-and-greatest l33t b0x with m4d GPU to play it. Hell, I bet people were passing time after the Northridge Earthquake playing these kind of games.
It's not for paupers, because the manuals can get pricey, although there is always d20 system which is free-as-in-beer and free-as-in-freedom, and other systems allow you to download PDF basic rule sets for free-as-in-beer. But it's certainly cheaper than chasing the moving target of PC gaming. And usually your mind is better at creating images of what you are doing out there than even the baddest-ass NVidia or ATI video card.
I remember meeting Robert Moog at a music technology convention in 1981. He was still designing new instruments, but was in the paradoxical position of not being able to put his own name on them...thanks a lot CBS Music.
He was able to get his trademarks back and his designs, and a new version of the Minimoog came out at the most recent NAMM convention in California in January. Here's a non-sponsored link to it.
He was a geek's geek, and put the tech in techno. He will be missed.
"Samurai Champloo"...Samurai drama meets Hip Hop meets "Pulp Fiction" by the folks who brought you "Cowboy Bebop." Currently showing on Adult Swim. You'll love it. Trust me.
There is a simple way to fix this problem. If you don't want them to use the laptop at home, don't let them take it home.
Exactly.
"Listen up, kids. You will be given a laptop to use on school premises only. The laptops will be handed to you in Homeroom and must be turned in every day at the end of the last period of classes. If you go off campus for lunch, you must either turn your laptop in for safekeeping at the office or keep it securely locked away in your locker.
"Abuse of your laptop will be grounds for losing laptop privileges. You will then have to do your school work that requires use of your laptop in the computer lab up until the end of the year. Abuse of your laptop entails downloading porn, music, non-authorized software, or vandalizing your laptop or the laptops of others. Circumvention of the security systems used on campus (Dan's Guardian, Deep Freeze, etc.) will be grounds for losing laptop privileges.
"Due to security concerns, bringing your own laptop or handheld computer to school is expressly forbidden. Those violating these rules will have their laptop or handheld confiscated and their parents or guardians notified about how to pick up the confiscated property.
"If you break your laptop and it is determined the breakage is accidental or the result of mechanical breakdown or some other intrinsic failure, you will receive a working laptop in exchange for the disabled laptop. If the breakage is determined to be caused by negligence or vandalism, you will lose your laptop privileges.
"With privileges such as these come responsibilities. Don't come crying to us if you break the rules and find yourself without your school-issued laptop, because you knew the rules in the first place. To assure us that you do know the rules, you will be given a paper copy of the rules with a form to fill out. Those of you who need assistance with reading the rules or filling out the form will receive the assistance. Only when we are sure you completely understand these rules will we issue you your laptop."
There. problem solved. Next earth-shaking issue, please...
...I don't think that a holiday that is not celebrated in the United States (IE Guy Fawkes Day) is going to make any difference as far as the majority of V For Vendetta's potential take. What I think might be going on with this film, however, is Warner Bros. losing their collective nerve over a movie that has as its hero a person whose actions can be interpreted as being "terrorist."
The only time Guy Fawkes Day has figured in a work of art aimed at an American audience is in the "Depth Takes A Holiday" episode of the MTV animated series "Daria." Guy Fawkes Day is portrayed as a surly British punk rocker who looks like Sid Vicious and sings like Johnny Rotten. Since British obscenities barely register in American English, he gets to swear like a British sailor. Of course, when the show aired on English MTV it had to be edited something fierce. Note to the Brits: you didn't miss much. One of the least enjoyable "Daria" episodes, one of the two from the series that almost sent it hurling over the shark tank. Almost doesn't count, though.
As for myself, I'm looking forward to the $50 original recipe XBoxes that are inevitably going to flood the market after the release of the 360. I always buy one generation behind. Not the 'leet-est way to go but most economical. I still play my $50 Dreamcast. 'nuff said.
This now means that any anti-cheat system for the opensourced Quake 3 is going to have to be written from scratch. Gentlemen (and Ladies) start your editors...
These are clamshell iBooks, which are basically designed for K-12 kids. They are made with that Fischer-Price ABS plastic for a reason: durability. Wegener Media refurbs iBooks. They are a bear to upgrade, so have Wegener stuff the iBook with all the RAM you can (512MB SO-DIMM, bringing the onboard RAM up to 544MB) and a nice fat hard drive. When I got mine upgraded by them, I got a Fujitsu 30GB drive.
These won't run Tiger without something like X Post Facto to convince Tiger to install, so stick with Panther. Current patch level is 10.3.9. MS Office 2003 will not install on an 800x600 resolution, so look for Office v.X Student-Teacher which is very happy running on a Clamshell.
This is not a good gaming lappie under X. ATI Rage Acceleration, which allowed these machines to play games like Unreal Tournament (1999) and Quake III Arena under Mac OS 9.x, was not carried over to X. There was a whole class-action lawsuit over this, and if you have an old-school iBook or a Beige G3 or a Wallstreet PowerBook you can get the cost of X refunded if you turn your disks in. However, in some cases, this inability to do 3D Acceleration might actually be a good thing.
You should be able to get away with a fully loaded Clamshell iBook for about $500. Yeah, you can also get a new Dell Inspiron lappie for a little more. But that Dell will be toast after a few weeks of being toted around in a kid's backpack. They are flimsy even for adults. Give one to a kid and it's dead meat.
Even though George W. Bush protests loudly that he is a Born-Again Christian, the FDA approved Veri-Chip implantation in humans on his watch, during his administration.
The approval was given even though it was an election year, where GW Bush faced a Democratic opponent who had an excellent chance of winning. If the Dems had a spine and/or a strategic bone in their bodies, they would have left fliers in the parking lots of Fundie Christian churches trumpeting this fact. However, we tend to play fair, unlike Karl Rove, and this opportunity was sadly missed.
GW Bush was re-elected largely on the strength of the "faith-based" vote. Wouldn't it be just hilarious if he wasn't really "on the side of the Angels" but "playing for the Other Team?"
Note: I don't believe in Christianity, the Bible, or the Book of Revelation as prophecy. However, if someone ever tells me "You've got to have this chip implanted or you can't buy, sell or have a job," my response will be simple: "You'll have to kill me first."
Actually I'm more interested in apt-get for SuSE. SuSE is the one distro that supposedly can get everything working on a ThinkPad right out of the box, including the notorious audio on 600/600e problem. If apt was available for SuSE I'd be all over it.
Hell, I have broadband and I would love such a facility in my neighborhood. Bringing my own discs is no problem. A whole set of Debian Sarge CDs for the price of discs? I'm into it. Building one of these would be a great LUG project.
They're done, done, done, stick a fork in 'em, they're DONE! (sfx: gavel BANG!)
It would be so cool if the final moments of the Smoking Crack Organization could happen on The People's Court. So we could actually hear Darl McBribe whimper and see him pee himself. In public. On camera.
The various screenplay templates for OpenOffice.Org are ready for primetime NOW. I use OO.o instead of Final Draft, even though I own two licenses for it fair and square, because I know that even if OO.o dies I can retrieve my work. Who knows what will happen if Final Draft dies? Yeah I can save as text or save as.PDF but that's not so great. This way my files will theoretically always be able to be edited.
And yes, I live in LA, therefore I am working on a screenplay. As are most of us Angelenos.
The crucial event in Ayn Rand's life was the day her father's apothecary shop (think drug store) in Petrograd was seized by the Bolsheviks. Her entire philosophy coalesced on the spot from there. Understand that, and everything else about her and about Objectivism kind of takes shape from there.
A lot of her weirder ideas came from her addiction to methamphetamine. The meth was prescribed for her as a "diet pill." She apparently used it right up until she died.
Combine that early trauma in her life with meth and its side-effects (paranoia, etc.) and you get The Gospel According To Rand.
OK, so I guess that means that about wraps it up for the live-action Neon Genesis Evangelion they announced with such fanfare a couple of years ago. That is, unless WETA Workshop and Gainax can get funding elsewhere. (Wry chuckle as I was quite skeptical of ADV's ability to bankroll such a project...)
An inadvertant plus: maybe the English-language rights for the Nuku Nuku series will be back up for grabs with the demise of ADV. And Excel Saga too. And Neon Genesis Evangelion. Nuku Nuku in particular needs to get a polishing-up.
Slashdot Mirror
Windows95 OSR2.1 was the actual "first stable Windows, ever." Its USB support sucked, but it was the first with FAT32 and its multitasking was a bit more robust.
However, Windows95 *did* come on a set of floppies, the last Windows version small enough to be installed that way. This proved to be quite useful with my first ThinkPad, a 365x, which didn't have an optical drive.
It could be argued that OSR2.5 was a step backward, because IE was a mandatory install and couldn't be removed. You could specify *not* installing IE with the expert mode of the OSR 2.1 install. And you could remove it any time you wanted. Too bad Netscape at that point was a crashy program that crashed a lot, but Opera proved to be a lovely addition to a 95OSR2.1 system.
95OSR2.1 was not topped until Windows 2000 Pro, which I think marks the high-water mark for MS operating systems. XP is 2K with tons of unnecessary crap ladled on. Feh.
I had to reencode this...XMMS didn't like it so I threw it into Audacity and reencoded through LAME. Audacity didn't have any trouble with it, though.
This was using a 2.4 kernel and OSS, btw. My desktop has built-in sound but it's been bypassed with an Ensoniq PCI audio card. Debian Sarge is my distro.
I wonder if Skype is able to take advantage of more modern audio drivers for Windows, like those based on the ASIO standard, or if they're stuck with the broken Windows Multimedia drivers...
Thanks for correcting me...Norlin...of course. Sorry about that.
Somehow I remembered them being in the same corporate conglomerate as Fender. Senior moment.
Skype actually seems to work *better* in Linux than in Windows. When I Skype to a couple of Windows-using friends, it's usually the Windows clients that are breaking up. On the other hand I come in clear as a bell.
Perhaps Skype should get in contact with a creator of a Linux live CD and arrange to have their client provided with the CD. Then they can distribute Skype on the live CD and have it shown in its best light.
The reason why Traveller is the game that absolutely will not die is that Traveller is so damn good. The original Traveller "Little Black Books" are going for crazy money on eBay and are being sold in brand new virgin reprints for even crazier money.
The reason why people are still literally and figuratively "questing" for these books is simple. It is a damn fun RPG to play and a damn fun RPG to "Referee." (Traveller-speak for DM/GM) You get to create a character that is better than a first-level character before they even set foot in the game, and the process of creating a character is damn fun in and of itself. Game play is not dominated by dice rolls, it's dominated by interactive storytelling.
Traveller v.5 (aka Traveller^5) is being developed even as we speak. Check out the process in action at http://www.traveller5.com/
The reason why paper-and-pencil gaming has lasted this long is because it's a blast to play and you don't have to have the latest-and-greatest l33t b0x with m4d GPU to play it. Hell, I bet people were passing time after the Northridge Earthquake playing these kind of games.
It's not for paupers, because the manuals can get pricey, although there is always d20 system which is free-as-in-beer and free-as-in-freedom, and other systems allow you to download PDF basic rule sets for free-as-in-beer. But it's certainly cheaper than chasing the moving target of PC gaming. And usually your mind is better at creating images of what you are doing out there than even the baddest-ass NVidia or ATI video card.
I remember meeting Robert Moog at a music technology convention in 1981. He was still designing new instruments, but was in the paradoxical position of not being able to put his own name on them...thanks a lot CBS Music.
He was able to get his trademarks back and his designs, and a new version of the Minimoog came out at the most recent NAMM convention in California in January. Here's a non-sponsored link to it.
He was a geek's geek, and put the tech in techno. He will be missed.
"Samurai Champloo"...Samurai drama meets Hip Hop meets "Pulp Fiction" by the folks who brought you "Cowboy Bebop." Currently showing on Adult Swim. You'll love it. Trust me.
There is a simple way to fix this problem. If you don't want them to use the laptop at home, don't let them take it home.
Exactly.
"Listen up, kids. You will be given a laptop to use on school premises only. The laptops will be handed to you in Homeroom and must be turned in every day at the end of the last period of classes. If you go off campus for lunch, you must either turn your laptop in for safekeeping at the office or keep it securely locked away in your locker.
"Abuse of your laptop will be grounds for losing laptop privileges. You will then have to do your school work that requires use of your laptop in the computer lab up until the end of the year. Abuse of your laptop entails downloading porn, music, non-authorized software, or vandalizing your laptop or the laptops of others. Circumvention of the security systems used on campus (Dan's Guardian, Deep Freeze, etc.) will be grounds for losing laptop privileges.
"Due to security concerns, bringing your own laptop or handheld computer to school is expressly forbidden. Those violating these rules will have their laptop or handheld confiscated and their parents or guardians notified about how to pick up the confiscated property.
"If you break your laptop and it is determined the breakage is accidental or the result of mechanical breakdown or some other intrinsic failure, you will receive a working laptop in exchange for the disabled laptop. If the breakage is determined to be caused by negligence or vandalism, you will lose your laptop privileges.
"With privileges such as these come responsibilities. Don't come crying to us if you break the rules and find yourself without your school-issued laptop, because you knew the rules in the first place. To assure us that you do know the rules, you will be given a paper copy of the rules with a form to fill out. Those of you who need assistance with reading the rules or filling out the form will receive the assistance. Only when we are sure you completely understand these rules will we issue you your laptop."
There. problem solved. Next earth-shaking issue, please...
The ThinkPad X-series uses 1.8" drives to cut down on weight and size.
...I don't think that a holiday that is not celebrated in the United States (IE Guy Fawkes Day) is going to make any difference as far as the majority of V For Vendetta's potential take. What I think might be going on with this film, however, is Warner Bros. losing their collective nerve over a movie that has as its hero a person whose actions can be interpreted as being "terrorist."
The only time Guy Fawkes Day has figured in a work of art aimed at an American audience is in the "Depth Takes A Holiday" episode of the MTV animated series "Daria." Guy Fawkes Day is portrayed as a surly British punk rocker who looks like Sid Vicious and sings like Johnny Rotten. Since British obscenities barely register in American English, he gets to swear like a British sailor. Of course, when the show aired on English MTV it had to be edited something fierce. Note to the Brits: you didn't miss much. One of the least enjoyable "Daria" episodes, one of the two from the series that almost sent it hurling over the shark tank. Almost doesn't count, though.
As for myself, I'm looking forward to the $50 original recipe XBoxes that are inevitably going to flood the market after the release of the 360. I always buy one generation behind. Not the 'leet-est way to go but most economical. I still play my $50 Dreamcast. 'nuff said.
Punkbuster is third-party and also closed-source.
This now means that any anti-cheat system for the opensourced Quake 3 is going to have to be written from scratch. Gentlemen (and Ladies) start your editors...
If you're going to get a kid a laptop, I suggest you go the cheapest and most durable route possible.
Voila: http://wegenermedia.com/ibk300bby.htm
These are clamshell iBooks, which are basically designed for K-12 kids. They are made with that Fischer-Price ABS plastic for a reason: durability. Wegener Media refurbs iBooks. They are a bear to upgrade, so have Wegener stuff the iBook with all the RAM you can (512MB SO-DIMM, bringing the onboard RAM up to 544MB) and a nice fat hard drive. When I got mine upgraded by them, I got a Fujitsu 30GB drive.
These won't run Tiger without something like X Post Facto to convince Tiger to install, so stick with Panther. Current patch level is 10.3.9. MS Office 2003 will not install on an 800x600 resolution, so look for Office v.X Student-Teacher which is very happy running on a Clamshell.
This is not a good gaming lappie under X. ATI Rage Acceleration, which allowed these machines to play games like Unreal Tournament (1999) and Quake III Arena under Mac OS 9.x, was not carried over to X. There was a whole class-action lawsuit over this, and if you have an old-school iBook or a Beige G3 or a Wallstreet PowerBook you can get the cost of X refunded if you turn your disks in. However, in some cases, this inability to do 3D Acceleration might actually be a good thing.
You should be able to get away with a fully loaded Clamshell iBook for about $500. Yeah, you can also get a new Dell Inspiron lappie for a little more. But that Dell will be toast after a few weeks of being toted around in a kid's backpack. They are flimsy even for adults. Give one to a kid and it's dead meat.
I see they still don't make USB keyboards, though. Pity.
From what I understand apt-get is in Linspire just like any other Debian-based distro.
#apt-get install synaptic
Problem solved.
Even though George W. Bush protests loudly that he is a Born-Again Christian, the FDA approved Veri-Chip implantation in humans on his watch, during his administration.
The approval was given even though it was an election year, where GW Bush faced a Democratic opponent who had an excellent chance of winning. If the Dems had a spine and/or a strategic bone in their bodies, they would have left fliers in the parking lots of Fundie Christian churches trumpeting this fact. However, we tend to play fair, unlike Karl Rove, and this opportunity was sadly missed.
GW Bush was re-elected largely on the strength of the "faith-based" vote. Wouldn't it be just hilarious if he wasn't really "on the side of the Angels" but "playing for the Other Team?"
Note: I don't believe in Christianity, the Bible, or the Book of Revelation as prophecy. However, if someone ever tells me "You've got to have this chip implanted or you can't buy, sell or have a job," my response will be simple: "You'll have to kill me first."
Actually I'm more interested in apt-get for SuSE. SuSE is the one distro that supposedly can get everything working on a ThinkPad right out of the box, including the notorious audio on 600/600e problem. If apt was available for SuSE I'd be all over it.
Hell, I have broadband and I would love such a facility in my neighborhood. Bringing my own discs is no problem. A whole set of Debian Sarge CDs for the price of discs? I'm into it. Building one of these would be a great LUG project.
They're done, done, done, stick a fork in 'em, they're DONE! (sfx: gavel BANG!)
It would be so cool if the final moments of the Smoking Crack Organization could happen on The People's Court. So we could actually hear Darl McBribe whimper and see him pee himself. In public. On camera.
Gotcha, you litigious bastard!
F/OSS solution for metered hotspots:
http://www.publicip.net/
Very cool.
The various screenplay templates for OpenOffice.Org are ready for primetime NOW. I use OO.o instead of Final Draft, even though I own two licenses for it fair and square, because I know that even if OO.o dies I can retrieve my work. Who knows what will happen if Final Draft dies? Yeah I can save as text or save as .PDF but that's not so great. This way my files will theoretically always be able to be edited.
And yes, I live in LA, therefore I am working on a screenplay. As are most of us Angelenos.
The crucial event in Ayn Rand's life was the day her father's apothecary shop (think drug store) in Petrograd was seized by the Bolsheviks. Her entire philosophy coalesced on the spot from there. Understand that, and everything else about her and about Objectivism kind of takes shape from there.
A lot of her weirder ideas came from her addiction to methamphetamine. The meth was prescribed for her as a "diet pill." She apparently used it right up until she died.
Combine that early trauma in her life with meth and its side-effects (paranoia, etc.) and you get The Gospel According To Rand.
http://tinyurl.com/8k3cn
(Yes, this tinyurl really *is* a Google Maps URL, not anything heinous. Guaranteed safe for work.)
OK, so I guess that means that about wraps it up for the live-action Neon Genesis Evangelion they announced with such fanfare a couple of years ago. That is, unless WETA Workshop and Gainax can get funding elsewhere. (Wry chuckle as I was quite skeptical of ADV's ability to bankroll such a project...)
An inadvertant plus: maybe the English-language rights for the Nuku Nuku series will be back up for grabs with the demise of ADV. And Excel Saga too. And Neon Genesis Evangelion. Nuku Nuku in particular needs to get a polishing-up.