This is why I am rooting for Lycoris as the "Linux with Training Wheels" for recovering Windows users. Lycoris releases source. Lycoris is based on a standard distribution (Caldera OpenLinux) and openly acknowledges that it is a species of Linux.
I am only waiting for Lycoris to tweak KDE 3 the way they did KDE 2.2.2.
It actually is a Good Thing (tm) that the Lycoris Group changed their name from Redmond Linux. The whole Lindows thing is a distraction from the goal of creating a simplified Linux for the desktop.
Well, it all goes to the same place. I go to the MPAA page and I see a list of members including:
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.; (which is distributing SW)
That's why I don't make a distinction. They're all a part of it.
Yeah, it really is fscked. My husband wanted to take me to see a movie. I try to avoid anything but indies now, so I say "cool, let's go to see Dogtown and ZBoys. Indie film, no connection to the MPAA, a movie about some people who were sorta, kinda heroes for me Back In The Day...yeah, great idea.
Guess what. The film starts. What's the first thing you see? A title slide that says "Sony Classics Pictures."
GAAAHHHH!!!! EVIL FSCKN SONY STRIKES AGAIN!!!!
I really, really resent the MPAA. They have the movie distribution channels locked up so tightly that not even indie movies can get in theatres without kissing Don Jack "The Ripper" Valenti's ring.
That's it. I'll just wait for stuff like this to come out on DVD and get it on Half.Com.
PS: Dogtown thoroughly kicked ass. You gotta see the scenes of Venice surfers playing very dangerous games with the ruins of the Pacific Ocean Park pier. But wait until you can get a used DVD on Half.Com. Do it for the kids!
Again, my cry: Why the hell wouldn't you use a NVidia nForce chipset in such a machine? Those specs are a little better than previous versions, but still...let me show you an example of what this machine could have been:
This is ABit's mATX version of the nForce motherboard. Compare and contrast Shuttle's spec sheet.Here's a link to someone who's used this to create a great little gaming machine...too bad this costs a premium...
The first company who makes a bitty box barebones with the nForce at a reasonable price comparable to the Shuttle "shoebox"en and the ASUS Terminator will 0wn the LAN Party market.
I wish that ASUS had waited a little while and built this with the nForce chipset. VIA chipset...'nuff said. Also you get two expansion slots...that's it...two. One for the PCI video card you're gonna want to put into this to replace the cruddy onboard video, one for the audio card to replace the cruddy onboard video.
At least with nForce you have onboard video and audio that is not only usable, but damn good. The Terminator's form factor would make it a perfect LAN party box...that is, if only it could be used that way.
One other gripe about the Terminator...the ones they sent a local electronics retailer who shall remain nameless included a CD-ROM. If they included a DVD-ROM or a CD-RW it would have been fine. I would have had to remove the CD-ROM and use it for something else if I had purchased the thing. Thankfully it uses a standard bay so replacing it is no sweat.
If you don't know what the SFX form factor is, it's two specs for small form-factor power supplies. One is SFX-S, the other is SFX-L. One of the more famous (infamous) companies that uses SFX-L power supplies is eMachines.
These power supplies put out 180W which is not great but will do the job if you don't overtax them. The coming ATI P4 chipset with Radeon-class graphics should thrive happily with this PS, and I already know two people running nForce motherboards with this very power supply in small form-factor cases. Sparkle also makes a similar Athlon/P4 approved power supply.
PC Power And Cooling kicks ass. Great products, knowledgeable sales people, fair if not cheap prices.
Get a flat panel display with a detachable base. Detach it. Store the base somewhere safe so that you can have access to it when you want it.
Get a collapsable tabletop easel from an art supply store.
Hang the flat panel on the wall when at home, tote the collapsable easel and the flat panel display in your carrier along with your keyboard, pointing device and whatnot.
Unfold the easel and set the flat panel display on it as if it was a canvas.
Re:Sony == DMCA. Bad people. M'kay?
on
Sony PCG-U1
·
· Score: 1, Flamebait
Why the HELL is this a troll?
People! Sony is a member of both the RIAA and the MPAA. They are known for some very rapacious behavior. And yet! Every time something kewl comes out from Sony like the newest Kawaii VAIO, people drool all over their dorks over it.
I don't buy Sony ANYTHING at this point. You shouldn't either.
Do your fsckn worst to this post...I'm well over the cap. And, dammit, I'M RIGHT!!!
OK, eMachines computers are decent, and the price is right. However: some caveats.
We have about 50-60 E-Machines here, and only 2 or 3 have ever gave us a problem. These PC's are insanley[sic] priced and the components are name brand.
Here are potential points of failure on an eMachines:
Power supplies
crappy Samsung Hard Drives
icky built-in video/audio
Strictly, the last is not a point of failure, but more an annoyance that is easily remedied.
My suggestion: if you go the eMachines route, replace the boot hard drive right away with a boxed Maxtor and use the Samsung as a slave data drive. Also get a spare Sparkle SFX-L form-factor power supply for each machine...the power supply WILL DIE. I guarantee it. Maybe not this week, maybe not this month, maybe even not this year, but IT WILL HAPPEN.
Also I strongly suggest using the expansion slots to replace the video with something that doesn't suck memory and processor cycles. You can still find decent PCI video cards.
Do this and you will avoid most of the eMachines' endemic problems. It's better to build from scratch, but if you must buy a box with a name, you can do worse (cough*HP Pavilion*cough) than eMachines.
A motherboard based on the nVidia nForce chipset. Several manufacturers make 'em. Basically it's the first all-in-one mobo chipset that WORKS out of the box. And yes! it's an Athlon chipset.
With all the issues with the VIA K7 chipset, it's natural you'd feel a little queasy about going the AMD route. Also there's the heat death issues to consider. I understand there are now safety measures in place to save an Athlon XP if the chip fan/heatsink fails, but that was not the case with earlier Athlons. But keep that fan on tight...it's important.
I'm wondering specifically if he takes any drugs for the "condition"?
Magic Johnson has been on the "cocktail" since 1991. His viral load is almost zero. I'm sure he understands that any day now that combination of drugs he takes might cease working. I suspect his optimistic attitude is a big, big help in keeping him healthy.
I hope he survives long enough to give that weenie mayor of ours Jimmy Hahn what-for when he stands for reelection. Hahn's tactics were appalling. Heh, maybe if the San Fernando Valley succeeds in splitting from LA Hahn won't be our mayor anymore. Stay tuned...the battle coming up this Fall will be very interesting.
Robert Fripp is a personal hero of mine...he's been making incredible music since 1968...I was born November 1963 so that's most of my life. To hear about the financial pain he's going through is almost too much to take.
The Japanese Government directly supports the necessities of life for people considered "National Treasures." Perhaps the UK should consider people like Fripp (Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel and Bill Nelson also come to mind) "National Treasures" and make sure they can continue creating without the nagging worries that can stifle creativity.
In the US, it's even worse. I can think of dozens of incredible musicians forced to do day jobs and whatnot because their music doesn't fit the flavor of the month. I happen to be married to one of them.
This really fsckn sucks.
Burn all you want, either way the artist loses...
on
The Culture of CD Burning
·
· Score: 3, Informative
The only people whose ox is getting gored from "the culture of CD burning" are the Five Families of the Record Business and the RIAA. The artists already get it up the butt, with no vaseline and definitely no reach-around.
If Sheryl Crow and Elvis Costello want to see more return from their music, then they should go indie and set up a site where people can download their music legally for a fair price. Unfortunately it's not so easy to get out of a record contract...it really is like indentured servitude at the moment.
So yeah, let Hilary Rosen, Vivendi, Sony, AOL-TW/WEA, Bertlesmann and EMI weep in their beer all they want. I have no sympathy for those bastards.
I will continue to buy my music used because I don't want them to make money off my musical tastes. If I want to rip my own mix CDs from CDs I bought, then that's my own damn business. I don't do P2P...I am naturally paranoid about my network and am not into opening up holes in it lightly.
Until artists get the fair shake they deserve, I do not see my actions as hurting them. They are suffering enough as it is at the hands of the same people who cry buckets of crocodile tears about "the poor artists" in the media.
Lycoris is also designed to look and feel more like Windows XP than any other distro. The real purpose of Lycoris seems to be to provide a distro with "training wheels" for Microsoft refugees. As such, it occupies a very unique and very needed niche in Linux-land.
I have an order in for Lycoris Desktop Developer edition, (Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!) and I will probably comment on my experiences with the distro in my column at Low End PC as soon as I get some time with it.
I think it's hilarious that these guys are based in Redmond. I don't think that MS is quaking in their boots just yet, but if this is what the Lycoris site claims, they might have reason to in the future.
Oh yeah, just so I correct a mistake I made about this distro in the past...it is based on Caldera, not Corel/Debian.
As one geek in CA, Feinstein (and Boxer, they are both 0wned by the RIAA and MPAA) is NOT getting my vote. My senatorial votes are going Libertarian the next time they stand for reelection. That way I don't dirty up my hands with the GOP nutcases and I still give my upraised middle finger to Valenti's Made (wo)Men.
I defy anyone with even a passing familiarity with Windows to not figure out this desktop in a heartbeat. It's so much like XP it's scary. Basically what Lycoris Linux does is use their own theme and turn KDE into a very convincing clone of XP. If they added Open Office 6 to the picture it would be even more like XP+Office.
A power user might not like how one's favorite little Linux app might be missing, but Lycoris is based on Caldera and Caldera RPMs should be fine.
Just got finished setting my 2K box straight. Yeah, I think that ICANN should think quite strongly of setting aside.LAN as a non-routable TLD. Simple, looks like a real TLD, but can't get out on the Internet. Just like non-routable IP addresses: 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x and those Class B's that nobody uses but are there anyway.
I didn't know about the attempt to codify.LINK as a non-routable TLD, but.LOCAL was once proposed and is often used as an example in books about TCP/IP networking..LAN, however, has the advantage of looking like a "proper" TLD. (at least Stateside, anyway...)
Slashdot Mirror
That's a blimp, not a rigid airship.
Everything in Lycoris is Open Source. If Lycoris dies then others can pick up the project and run with it. That's the diff between it and Lindows.
This is why I am rooting for Lycoris as the "Linux with Training Wheels" for recovering Windows users. Lycoris releases source. Lycoris is based on a standard distribution (Caldera OpenLinux) and openly acknowledges that it is a species of Linux.
I am only waiting for Lycoris to tweak KDE 3 the way they did KDE 2.2.2.
It actually is a Good Thing (tm) that the Lycoris Group changed their name from Redmond Linux. The whole Lindows thing is a distraction from the goal of creating a simplified Linux for the desktop.
Just add Open Office and you have the "Linux Challenge" all ready to go.
Coke, Pepsi or Lycoris? ;-)
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.; (which is distributing SW)
That's why I don't make a distinction. They're all a part of it.
Yeah, it really is fscked. My husband wanted to take me to see a movie. I try to avoid anything but indies now, so I say "cool, let's go to see Dogtown and ZBoys. Indie film, no connection to the MPAA, a movie about some people who were sorta, kinda heroes for me Back In The Day...yeah, great idea.
Guess what. The film starts. What's the first thing you see? A title slide that says "Sony Classics Pictures."
GAAAHHHH!!!! EVIL FSCKN SONY STRIKES AGAIN!!!!
I really, really resent the MPAA. They have the movie distribution channels locked up so tightly that not even indie movies can get in theatres without kissing Don Jack "The Ripper" Valenti's ring.
That's it. I'll just wait for stuff like this to come out on DVD and get it on Half.Com.
PS: Dogtown thoroughly kicked ass. You gotta see the scenes of Venice surfers playing very dangerous games with the ruins of the Pacific Ocean Park pier. But wait until you can get a used DVD on Half.Com. Do it for the kids!
SONY.
Sony, Sony, Sony.
Now do you understand why I fsckn can't stand them????
If there is an Intellectual Property fracas, 9 out of 10 times Sony's right in the middle of it. Burn in Hell, Akio Morita!
ABit: NV7M spec sheet
This is ABit's mATX version of the nForce motherboard. Compare and contrast Shuttle's spec sheet.Here's a link to someone who's used this to create a great little gaming machine...too bad this costs a premium...
PCFX.cc: "XBrat" gaming bitty box
The first company who makes a bitty box barebones with the nForce at a reasonable price comparable to the Shuttle "shoebox"en and the ASUS Terminator will 0wn the LAN Party market.
I wish that ASUS had waited a little while and built this with the nForce chipset. VIA chipset...'nuff said. Also you get two expansion slots...that's it...two. One for the PCI video card you're gonna want to put into this to replace the cruddy onboard video, one for the audio card to replace the cruddy onboard video.
At least with nForce you have onboard video and audio that is not only usable, but damn good. The Terminator's form factor would make it a perfect LAN party box...that is, if only it could be used that way.
One other gripe about the Terminator...the ones they sent a local electronics retailer who shall remain nameless included a CD-ROM. If they included a DVD-ROM or a CD-RW it would have been fine. I would have had to remove the CD-ROM and use it for something else if I had purchased the thing. Thankfully it uses a standard bay so replacing it is no sweat.
Maybe not an 150W power supply (at least, not well) but here is an example of two SFX-format power supplies that are Athlon and P4 approved:
PC Power And Cooling: Athlon/P4 approved SFX-format power supplies
If you don't know what the SFX form factor is, it's two specs for small form-factor power supplies. One is SFX-S, the other is SFX-L. One of the more famous (infamous) companies that uses SFX-L power supplies is eMachines.
These power supplies put out 180W which is not great but will do the job if you don't overtax them. The coming ATI P4 chipset with Radeon-class graphics should thrive happily with this PS, and I already know two people running nForce motherboards with this very power supply in small form-factor cases. Sparkle also makes a similar Athlon/P4 approved power supply.
PC Power And Cooling kicks ass. Great products, knowledgeable sales people, fair if not cheap prices.
Quite easily done with the nForce chipset.
Problem solved.
Get the source. Recompile for MacOS X. Problem solved.
It's now in my .SIG...
Why the HELL is this a troll?
People! Sony is a member of both the RIAA and the MPAA. They are known for some very rapacious behavior. And yet! Every time something kewl comes out from Sony like the newest Kawaii VAIO, people drool all over their dorks over it.
I don't buy Sony ANYTHING at this point. You shouldn't either.
Do your fsckn worst to this post...I'm well over the cap. And, dammit, I'M RIGHT!!!
We have about 50-60 E-Machines here, and only 2 or 3 have ever gave us a problem. These PC's are insanley[sic] priced and the components are name brand.
Here are potential points of failure on an eMachines:
Strictly, the last is not a point of failure, but more an annoyance that is easily remedied.
My suggestion: if you go the eMachines route, replace the boot hard drive right away with a boxed Maxtor and use the Samsung as a slave data drive. Also get a spare Sparkle SFX-L form-factor power supply for each machine...the power supply WILL DIE. I guarantee it. Maybe not this week, maybe not this month, maybe even not this year, but IT WILL HAPPEN.
Also I strongly suggest using the expansion slots to replace the video with something that doesn't suck memory and processor cycles. You can still find decent PCI video cards.
Do this and you will avoid most of the eMachines' endemic problems. It's better to build from scratch, but if you must buy a box with a name, you can do worse (cough*HP Pavilion*cough) than eMachines.
With all the issues with the VIA K7 chipset, it's natural you'd feel a little queasy about going the AMD route. Also there's the heat death issues to consider. I understand there are now safety measures in place to save an Athlon XP if the chip fan/heatsink fails, but that was not the case with earlier Athlons. But keep that fan on tight...it's important.
Magic Johnson has been on the "cocktail" since 1991. His viral load is almost zero. I'm sure he understands that any day now that combination of drugs he takes might cease working. I suspect his optimistic attitude is a big, big help in keeping him healthy.
I hope he survives long enough to give that weenie mayor of ours Jimmy Hahn what-for when he stands for reelection. Hahn's tactics were appalling. Heh, maybe if the San Fernando Valley succeeds in splitting from LA Hahn won't be our mayor anymore. Stay tuned...the battle coming up this Fall will be very interesting.
Ye gods! I'm REALLY depressed now.
Robert Fripp is a personal hero of mine...he's been making incredible music since 1968...I was born November 1963 so that's most of my life. To hear about the financial pain he's going through is almost too much to take.
The Japanese Government directly supports the necessities of life for people considered "National Treasures." Perhaps the UK should consider people like Fripp (Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel and Bill Nelson also come to mind) "National Treasures" and make sure they can continue creating without the nagging worries that can stifle creativity.
In the US, it's even worse. I can think of dozens of incredible musicians forced to do day jobs and whatnot because their music doesn't fit the flavor of the month. I happen to be married to one of them.
This really fsckn sucks.
Salon: Courtney Love Does The Math
And the essay that inspired the speech:
Negativland Official Site: The Problem With Music by Steve Albini
The only people whose ox is getting gored from "the culture of CD burning" are the Five Families of the Record Business and the RIAA. The artists already get it up the butt, with no vaseline and definitely no reach-around.
If Sheryl Crow and Elvis Costello want to see more return from their music, then they should go indie and set up a site where people can download their music legally for a fair price. Unfortunately it's not so easy to get out of a record contract...it really is like indentured servitude at the moment.
So yeah, let Hilary Rosen, Vivendi, Sony, AOL-TW/WEA, Bertlesmann and EMI weep in their beer all they want. I have no sympathy for those bastards.
I will continue to buy my music used because I don't want them to make money off my musical tastes. If I want to rip my own mix CDs from CDs I bought, then that's my own damn business. I don't do P2P...I am naturally paranoid about my network and am not into opening up holes in it lightly.
Until artists get the fair shake they deserve, I do not see my actions as hurting them. They are suffering enough as it is at the hands of the same people who cry buckets of crocodile tears about "the poor artists" in the media.
Lycoris is also designed to look and feel more like Windows XP than any other distro. The real purpose of Lycoris seems to be to provide a distro with "training wheels" for Microsoft refugees. As such, it occupies a very unique and very needed niche in Linux-land.
I have an order in for Lycoris Desktop Developer edition, (Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!) and I will probably comment on my experiences with the distro in my column at Low End PC as soon as I get some time with it.
I think it's hilarious that these guys are based in Redmond. I don't think that MS is quaking in their boots just yet, but if this is what the Lycoris site claims, they might have reason to in the future.
Oh yeah, just so I correct a mistake I made about this distro in the past...it is based on Caldera, not Corel/Debian.
As one geek in CA, Feinstein (and Boxer, they are both 0wned by the RIAA and MPAA) is NOT getting my vote. My senatorial votes are going Libertarian the next time they stand for reelection. That way I don't dirty up my hands with the GOP nutcases and I still give my upraised middle finger to Valenti's Made (wo)Men.
So much for moderating this thread...oh well...
I defy anyone with even a passing familiarity with Windows to not figure out this desktop in a heartbeat. It's so much like XP it's scary. Basically what Lycoris Linux does is use their own theme and turn KDE into a very convincing clone of XP. If they added Open Office 6 to the picture it would be even more like XP+Office.
/ (support site)
A power user might not like how one's favorite little Linux app might be missing, but Lycoris is based on Caldera and Caldera RPMs should be fine.
Get a disk set and spread it around...
http://www.lycoris.com/
http://www.lycoris.org
Radio Shack also licensed OS9, and used it as the operating system for the Color Computer.
Just got finished setting my 2K box straight. Yeah, I think that ICANN should think quite strongly of setting aside .LAN as a non-routable TLD. Simple, looks like a real TLD, but can't get out on the Internet. Just like non-routable IP addresses: 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x and those Class B's that nobody uses but are there anyway.
.LINK as a non-routable TLD, but .LOCAL was once proposed and is often used as an example in books about TCP/IP networking. .LAN, however, has the advantage of looking like a "proper" TLD. (at least Stateside, anyway...)
I didn't know about the attempt to codify
Also, file this under "things they don't include in Microsoft Official Courseware."
I'm scurrying to fix this now.