Ogg sounds better than AAC and it beats the living crap out of MP3. I'm going to be supporting Audio Lunchbox. They have the totally right idea. No DRM+Ogg support=something I can get behind whole-heartedly. Besides, they carry Epitaph Records' catalog. W00t.
...especially if they put Kudzu or something like it into the mix to autodetect things like Knoppix does.
I especially like the option in the auto-partitioner for a separate/home directory. Anyone who doesn't do this is asking for trouble. Knoppix's knx-hdinstall doesn't, and requires some wizard-level incantations to repair.
Here it is at NewEgg.Com. You can't go wrong dealing with NewEgg. I live in California and gladly pay the sales tax on stuff I buy from them because they are just so damn good.
I could hook up my Visor Neo to my Cingular phone and ssh
I wouldn't SSH over GPRS. Too much latency. GPRS works for web, email and IRC (the latter just good enough) but SSH overhead brings GPRS to its knees. Don't even think about playing games over GPRS.
I'm impressed. A real open-source driver from a major company...this shames the NVidias and the Lucents of the world who give stupid excuses for their closed-source drivers.
Looks like I'm going to be sniffing around for a refurbed IBM T41 ThinkPad with Centrino tech in the future.
The ballot would, of course, be something similar to a scantron or other paper form, but would also have human readable form of the contained data.
Los Angeles County is using a machine now called the "InkaVote." The mechanism of voting is very similar to the old "Votomatic" punch card machines but uses a little ink pen to make a clear, unambiguous mark on the ballot. I'm guessing that the ballots will be optically scanned when they get to their final destination and are counted.
It's a good system, actually. Not too many people had to be given the guided tour because the interface is so similar to the old punch-card system. It is also very easy to "proofread" your ballot after voting...look at where you placed your marks and compare the number the mark is under with the numbers on the ballot.
No chads, no ambiguity, a truly binary result. I could live with something like that. I hope LA County keeps this rather than buy any more Diebold machines.
...is a good night to be a geek in Los Angeles. I didn't watch the show (I hate awards shows) but it did my heart good to hear that LOTR:ROTK got the props it deserved.
Pour out another flagon of mead and raise a toast...to the intrepid Nine and an epic quest accomplished! Huzzah!
Actually the "shiny happy interface" is the main reason I'm sticking with 2K over XP in the few cases I still run Windows. That "shiny happy interface" eats up no mean amount of resources. 2K is leaner and meaner and able to run on more computers. A K6-2 will struggle under XP, but will fly under 2K. There are ways of killing some of the eye candy in 2K to make it even faster.
Actually, doing things just to see if they're possible is kind of a geek thing to do in a general sense. And of course, this is the place that advertizes itself as "News for Nerds, Stuff that matters." So it kind of makes sense, doesn't it?
What I want is a little handheld computer that runs Mac OS 6. It wouldn't be that hard to do and you have a literal ocean of abandonware out there you could use with such a device.
Here you go. PalmOS up to version 5.x is basically the equivalent of MacOS 6 before the Multi-Finder. It's no accident...the people who wrote the PalmOS were former MacOS developers. A Palm, to me, feels like a Compact Mac shrunk down to a handheld size and weight.
Now if only I could make my m125 chime when I turn it on and make the generic Mac system beep when it encounters an error...
Sony Ericsson r540m. It's an "Euro-only" phone but you can get it at eBay easily enough. I'm not sure if The Register's (of BOFH fame) store sells to the US but they currently have 'em on sale.
It's a bare-bones mobile phone which has two things geeks would love: a GPRS modem built in and Bluetooth. No color screen, minimal games, no camera, no BS. Yeah it does SMS (poorly) and WAP, but you can ignore that. It also uses standard SonyEricsson accessories and batteries which is a real plus.
It's also harder to lose than the average dinky Swiss Army Phone From Hell...a bit chunky and longish, sort of Nokia 51xx-ish. It's also made of really tough silvery plastic that would look outstanding with an Aluminum or Titanium PowerBook. Not very fashionable, but cool.
I did a speech about USA-PATRIOT for Speech 101 last semester. In doing the research for the speech, I found that some of the most damaging aspects of the act are built atop a law passed during the Carter Administration: the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. And during the Clinton Administration the Legislature and the Executive Branch was also quite busy coming up with anti-privacy regulations like the Clipper Chip and the DMCA.
Basically, what I'm saying is that neither party has been particularly good on matters of personal liberties and the right to privacy. The Republicans are just a lot more blatant about their intentions than the Democrats. And the Republicans tend to go a little farther and push a little harder than the Democrats do.
Bill Murray was my choice for Zaphod. Alas, he's too old to play him now. However, this would not be an impediment if they did Hitchhiker's the right way and did it as an ANIMATED movie.
Perhaps KBLT, one of the best damn radio stations ever to broadcast in Los Angeles, will be able to legitimize and go back on the air. KBLT was a pirate radio station, but it was much beloved by the folks in Silverlake, Echo Park, Hollywood and Downtown LA who were within range.
At this point the only hope for good radio in Los Angeles is KXLU 88.9 out of Loyola Marymount University. KROQ sucks and has sucked for most of its lifespan, and Indie which holds the space Mars FM and Groove Radio used to take up is a Clear Channel station.
Maybe with low-power radio licenses *finally* making it out there, we might hear a little diversity. Maybe Valley College's station KVCM might even get some people listening to it. It's been on Adelphia Cable for years now but you can't listen to cable radio in your car or on your Walkman.
I wonder how much it costs to set up one of these low-power radio stations? I mean, KBLT wasn't exactly run by rich people...
Awww heck, why doesn't Apple just go ahead and buy Disney and keep all those profits they were trying to get Disney to give up?:)
Well, oh Anonymously Cowardly one, this is actually a damn good idea and one that makes complete sense. Remember when it looked like Apple or Pixar or both were going to buy Universal Music? I remember mentioning that it made more sense for Apple and Pixar to buy Universal Pictures for a guaranteed advantageous home base to release Pixar movies. I believe that Jobs can marshal enough money to beat the Comcast offer, and would be looked upon very kindly as a "white knight" versus Comcast's hostile bid.
Apple, Pixar, Disney, ABC TV (USA) and Disney Cable Networks? A match made in heaven. Do it, Steve. Do it.
Now that "Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom" (DaOitMK) has been released under the least-restrictive Creative Commons licence, the possibilities of completely legal fanfic emerge. You know what? It's a good thing.
Cory Doctorow created a very interesting "universe" that other writers can play around in. A society where nobody really dies, where we've outgrown the need to work to earn our food and shelter, and where a person's reputation is more important than their net worth? Think about it: it's a very rich world to write stories in.
Yeah, most fanfic sucks. But sometimes people write fics that are as good as the movie or TV show they are riffing on. I can think of two people who wrote "Daria" fic who have a great future ahead of them as writers: CE Forman and Kara Wild. If there ever is a revival of the series (which won't happen and there are very good reasons why it shouldn't) they should be brought on board as official writers for the series.
Fanfic is often a way for a less-than-secure writer to exercise their writing muscles without the fuss, muss or bother of creating characters and environments for the characters to interact in. I know...I've written a little in my day, although I'm not proud enough to link to it so that you can see it.
Who knows what will happen once the DaOitMK universe starts expanding thanks to the work of fanfic writers? I suspect this endeavor might even spawn some writers who might not have gotten into writing otherwise.
Thank you, Cory Doctorow. You have given quite a generous gift...maybe more generous than you will ever know.
I paid $50 for a refurbed Palm m100 about two years ago. The thing is still running, fat, sassy and happy. I now basically run my life on an m125. Again, bought refurbed, this time for $60 after you factor in the rebate.
I had to move to the m125 because there's a glitch in PalmOS before version 3.5.2 that conflicts with certain apps running on MacOS 9.x, and the m100 can't have its OS upgraded because it's burned to ROM. The m125 has PalmOS 4.0.1 burned to ROM and it coexists beautifully with my Mac G3 Blue-and-white, my Windows desktop and my dual-booting Thinkpad 600e.
The thing that really kicks ass about Palm is Palm Desktop. You can still download it from palmone.com for FREE as in beer (not free as in freedom but what do you expect from a closed-source for-profit software/hardware company like Palm) and it is a great little PIM program regardless of whether you use it for syncing your Palm or just keeping your appointments straight.
Sure, a Zaurus would be able to do more. Yes, PalmOS is crashy and cranky...what do you expect from something that basically is like MacOS before the MultiFinder was born? Still and all, it does what I need it to do, no more, no less.
Most importantly, carrying around my little Palm is easier on the shoulders and back than carrying around a 3 pound paper-and-pencil planner. That you cannot deny.
...Lycoris is still based on Caldera, the Anti-Linux. Granted, it's their own fork of Caldera, but it's tainted nevertheless. I used to really, really like Lycoris, but I can't recommend it even to n00bs because it's got the Darl whiff now.
I hope Joseph Cheek gets hip and moves the code base to a more appropriate one. Debian would be a good choice.
I would actually be interested in this...that is, unless this is a hoax. If someone is prepared to market this, please let me know. An open-source chibi 'puter would be nice.
It's $20 if you are a T-Mobile customer, and it's all-you-can-eat. It's only at modem speed, but I can live with that. It's also more secure than using an 802.11b public hotspot. With GPRS packet data transfer you are behind T-Mobile's NAT rather than being nekkid to the world and r00table. Unless, of course you run something like Zone Alarm in Windows or have the firewall active in Linux/BSD/MacOS X.
For economic reasons, I had to choose between ditching our cable TV and ditching our DSL. I said adios to Adelphia last year around this time. The only thing I miss not having cable is the fact that over-the-air broadcast quality kinda sucks nowadays, especially when you are trying to pull it in with rabbit ears.
I also mildly miss a few specialty channels but I can live without them and I've got plenty of friends who can vidcap and burn or run tape if I really need to see something.
DSL, OTOH...from my cold, dead hands! From my cold, dead hands! Adelphia cable modem is not an option because our area does not run on DOCSIS but proprietary crap (Terayon TeraPro) that has you losing your connection multiple times a day. It's nice to have a Broadband connection that is there for you anytime you want it.
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Ogg sounds better than AAC and it beats the living crap out of MP3. I'm going to be supporting Audio Lunchbox. They have the totally right idea. No DRM+Ogg support=something I can get behind whole-heartedly. Besides, they carry Epitaph Records' catalog. W00t.
I meant partition, sorry...
...especially if they put Kudzu or something like it into the mix to autodetect things like Knoppix does.
/home directory. Anyone who doesn't do this is asking for trouble. Knoppix's knx-hdinstall doesn't, and requires some wizard-level incantations to repair.
I especially like the option in the auto-partitioner for a separate
Link to the product at NewEgg.
Here it is at NewEgg.Com. You can't go wrong dealing with NewEgg. I live in California and gladly pay the sales tax on stuff I buy from them because they are just so damn good.
I wouldn't SSH over GPRS. Too much latency. GPRS works for web, email and IRC (the latter just good enough) but SSH overhead brings GPRS to its knees. Don't even think about playing games over GPRS.
I'm impressed. A real open-source driver from a major company...this shames the NVidias and the Lucents of the world who give stupid excuses for their closed-source drivers.
Looks like I'm going to be sniffing around for a refurbed IBM T41 ThinkPad with Centrino tech in the future.
The ballot would, of course, be something similar to a scantron or other paper form, but would also have human readable form of the contained data.
Los Angeles County is using a machine now called the "InkaVote." The mechanism of voting is very similar to the old "Votomatic" punch card machines but uses a little ink pen to make a clear, unambiguous mark on the ballot. I'm guessing that the ballots will be optically scanned when they get to their final destination and are counted.
It's a good system, actually. Not too many people had to be given the guided tour because the interface is so similar to the old punch-card system. It is also very easy to "proofread" your ballot after voting...look at where you placed your marks and compare the number the mark is under with the numbers on the ballot.
No chads, no ambiguity, a truly binary result. I could live with something like that. I hope LA County keeps this rather than buy any more Diebold machines.
...is a good night to be a geek in Los Angeles. I didn't watch the show (I hate awards shows) but it did my heart good to hear that LOTR:ROTK got the props it deserved.
Pour out another flagon of mead and raise a toast...to the intrepid Nine and an epic quest accomplished! Huzzah!
Well, Protocol Seven did do away with the need to actually have a computer to connect to The Wired, so I suspect IP v.8 would be entirely unnecessary.
Actually the "shiny happy interface" is the main reason I'm sticking with 2K over XP in the few cases I still run Windows. That "shiny happy interface" eats up no mean amount of resources. 2K is leaner and meaner and able to run on more computers. A K6-2 will struggle under XP, but will fly under 2K. There are ways of killing some of the eye candy in 2K to make it even faster.
Actually, doing things just to see if they're possible is kind of a geek thing to do in a general sense. And of course, this is the place that advertizes itself as "News for Nerds, Stuff that matters." So it kind of makes sense, doesn't it?
Here you go. PalmOS up to version 5.x is basically the equivalent of MacOS 6 before the Multi-Finder. It's no accident...the people who wrote the PalmOS were former MacOS developers. A Palm, to me, feels like a Compact Mac shrunk down to a handheld size and weight.
Now if only I could make my m125 chime when I turn it on and make the generic Mac system beep when it encounters an error...
Sony Ericsson r540m. It's an "Euro-only" phone but you can get it at eBay easily enough. I'm not sure if The Register's (of BOFH fame) store sells to the US but they currently have 'em on sale.
It's a bare-bones mobile phone which has two things geeks would love: a GPRS modem built in and Bluetooth. No color screen, minimal games, no camera, no BS. Yeah it does SMS (poorly) and WAP, but you can ignore that. It also uses standard SonyEricsson accessories and batteries which is a real plus.
It's also harder to lose than the average dinky Swiss Army Phone From Hell...a bit chunky and longish, sort of Nokia 51xx-ish. It's also made of really tough silvery plastic that would look outstanding with an Aluminum or Titanium PowerBook. Not very fashionable, but cool.
Basically, what I'm saying is that neither party has been particularly good on matters of personal liberties and the right to privacy. The Republicans are just a lot more blatant about their intentions than the Democrats. And the Republicans tend to go a little farther and push a little harder than the Democrats do.
Just keeping this debate honest...
Bill Murray was my choice for Zaphod. Alas, he's too old to play him now. However, this would not be an impediment if they did Hitchhiker's the right way and did it as an ANIMATED movie.
Perhaps KBLT, one of the best damn radio stations ever to broadcast in Los Angeles, will be able to legitimize and go back on the air. KBLT was a pirate radio station, but it was much beloved by the folks in Silverlake, Echo Park, Hollywood and Downtown LA who were within range.
At this point the only hope for good radio in Los Angeles is KXLU 88.9 out of Loyola Marymount University. KROQ sucks and has sucked for most of its lifespan, and Indie which holds the space Mars FM and Groove Radio used to take up is a Clear Channel station.
Maybe with low-power radio licenses *finally* making it out there, we might hear a little diversity. Maybe Valley College's station KVCM might even get some people listening to it. It's been on Adelphia Cable for years now but you can't listen to cable radio in your car or on your Walkman.
I wonder how much it costs to set up one of these low-power radio stations? I mean, KBLT wasn't exactly run by rich people...
Well, oh Anonymously Cowardly one, this is actually a damn good idea and one that makes complete sense. Remember when it looked like Apple or Pixar or both were going to buy Universal Music? I remember mentioning that it made more sense for Apple and Pixar to buy Universal Pictures for a guaranteed advantageous home base to release Pixar movies. I believe that Jobs can marshal enough money to beat the Comcast offer, and would be looked upon very kindly as a "white knight" versus Comcast's hostile bid.
Apple, Pixar, Disney, ABC TV (USA) and Disney Cable Networks? A match made in heaven. Do it, Steve. Do it.
Now that "Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom" (DaOitMK) has been released under the least-restrictive Creative Commons licence, the possibilities of completely legal fanfic emerge. You know what? It's a good thing.
Cory Doctorow created a very interesting "universe" that other writers can play around in. A society where nobody really dies, where we've outgrown the need to work to earn our food and shelter, and where a person's reputation is more important than their net worth? Think about it: it's a very rich world to write stories in.
Yeah, most fanfic sucks. But sometimes people write fics that are as good as the movie or TV show they are riffing on. I can think of two people who wrote "Daria" fic who have a great future ahead of them as writers: CE Forman and Kara Wild. If there ever is a revival of the series (which won't happen and there are very good reasons why it shouldn't) they should be brought on board as official writers for the series.
Fanfic is often a way for a less-than-secure writer to exercise their writing muscles without the fuss, muss or bother of creating characters and environments for the characters to interact in. I know...I've written a little in my day, although I'm not proud enough to link to it so that you can see it.
Who knows what will happen once the DaOitMK universe starts expanding thanks to the work of fanfic writers? I suspect this endeavor might even spawn some writers who might not have gotten into writing otherwise.
Thank you, Cory Doctorow. You have given quite a generous gift...maybe more generous than you will ever know.
I paid $50 for a refurbed Palm m100 about two years ago. The thing is still running, fat, sassy and happy. I now basically run my life on an m125. Again, bought refurbed, this time for $60 after you factor in the rebate.
I had to move to the m125 because there's a glitch in PalmOS before version 3.5.2 that conflicts with certain apps running on MacOS 9.x, and the m100 can't have its OS upgraded because it's burned to ROM. The m125 has PalmOS 4.0.1 burned to ROM and it coexists beautifully with my Mac G3 Blue-and-white, my Windows desktop and my dual-booting Thinkpad 600e.
The thing that really kicks ass about Palm is Palm Desktop. You can still download it from palmone.com for FREE as in beer (not free as in freedom but what do you expect from a closed-source for-profit software/hardware company like Palm) and it is a great little PIM program regardless of whether you use it for syncing your Palm or just keeping your appointments straight.
Sure, a Zaurus would be able to do more. Yes, PalmOS is crashy and cranky...what do you expect from something that basically is like MacOS before the MultiFinder was born? Still and all, it does what I need it to do, no more, no less.
Most importantly, carrying around my little Palm is easier on the shoulders and back than carrying around a 3 pound paper-and-pencil planner. That you cannot deny.
...Lycoris is still based on Caldera, the Anti-Linux. Granted, it's their own fork of Caldera, but it's tainted nevertheless. I used to really, really like Lycoris, but I can't recommend it even to n00bs because it's got the Darl whiff now.
I hope Joseph Cheek gets hip and moves the code base to a more appropriate one. Debian would be a good choice.
Stick a fork in them, they're done.
I would actually be interested in this...that is, unless this is a hoax. If someone is prepared to market this, please let me know. An open-source chibi 'puter would be nice.
It's $20 if you are a T-Mobile customer, and it's all-you-can-eat. It's only at modem speed, but I can live with that. It's also more secure than using an 802.11b public hotspot. With GPRS packet data transfer you are behind T-Mobile's NAT rather than being nekkid to the world and r00table. Unless, of course you run something like Zone Alarm in Windows or have the firewall active in Linux/BSD/MacOS X.
For economic reasons, I had to choose between ditching our cable TV and ditching our DSL. I said adios to Adelphia last year around this time. The only thing I miss not having cable is the fact that over-the-air broadcast quality kinda sucks nowadays, especially when you are trying to pull it in with rabbit ears.
I also mildly miss a few specialty channels but I can live without them and I've got plenty of friends who can vidcap and burn or run tape if I really need to see something.
DSL, OTOH...from my cold, dead hands! From my cold, dead hands! Adelphia cable modem is not an option because our area does not run on DOCSIS but proprietary crap (Terayon TeraPro) that has you losing your connection multiple times a day. It's nice to have a Broadband connection that is there for you anytime you want it.