There were a lot of good reasons for the web to overtake gopher. So why go back?
When I saw Gopher and the web they weren't that diffrent. Nice clients and easy access to information.
But I could publish my own web pages.. Gopher never really provided that.
So why go back?
Oh sure the web was designed to be expandable etc and it really pushed new vistas. E-Commerce and multimedia.
But look at it today... Multimedia is still a shambles. No web browsers for Unix or Windows that fully support all the web standards. (Notice I'm side stepping Amiga... I've seen some nice work from Amiga web browsers and I suspect they are far more on the ball than Netscape and Microsoft).
To get a decent web browser you may need an Amiga.. A decent web server is a Sun Solarus.
For basic information retreaval that kinda sucks. It shouldn't need much more than the power of an AT&T 3B2 or a i386 and decent clients should be available to at least 90% of the net population (read.. Microsoft Windows.. and Unix.. and Mac.. not Amiga..)
It speaks well for Amiga that it really is the last of the great web client boxes.. I mean.. wow..
Now Unix people don't wish to be pushed into using something other than what they like... Hay Windows people.. you gotta use an Amiga or be cut off from the Net.. how do you feal hmm?? Makes you feal really pissed off don't it?
Amiga people: This is what revenge tasts like...
So.. thats why gopher.
Gopher is stagnent.. It hasn't changed.. Even Netscape makes a decent gopher client.
You can "surf" all of gopher comfortable knowing your client works fine...
Not so when surfing the web...
But gopher is still a step backwards...
But for uniform compatability it can't be beat...
I don't think gopher is the right direction..
The Internet has evolved and the web is really byond limit...
Time for something GNU:)
I'm waiting for the Walkie/Slashdot poll crossover...
"I have perverse sexual lust for Hemos"
(The last option on It's Walky is "I have perverse sexual lust for...")
The last one was "Where do babies come from" and of course everyone voted "Perverse sexual lust"...
So Keenspot is out to make us into
sexual perverts.. and Slashdot is building a personality cult around Hemos...
The first recount (By Florida law) should have been a hand count.
Having said that I object to a FORTH count. Gore should be limited to asking for ONE recount. More than that we are looking at pure delay and there is a point where ALL the votes in Florida get thrown out. If this were to happen Gore would win.
Bush should be worryed about the hand count.. If the sloppyness of the recount is any indication the Florida officials are not reliable enough to do a hand count.
I'd also like to add.. You can botch a machine count as well as a hand count... So it shouldn't matter as much what kind of count as it should matter how well the count is being done...
It might ammuse your rulers to know the United States is allready under the control of the Krull.
It's just one step in our plan for world domination.
We are currently responsable for this election and we currently have control over Napster.
As for your question in item 10.. As near as we can tell a psycopatic human did it but we are simply relying on human reports for this and have no Krull varification.
All we are sure of is that there was no Krull involvment...
Ok I'd like to know why Taco is asking us to Spam Kurt.
What is it that Kurt did to deserve this?
Did he abandon BSI?
Did he install Windows NT on Slashdot?
Did he get an MSCE?
Or is Taco just evil incarnet and tormenting his room mate into surrendering his tressured Furbes for Tacos fendish experements..
Well I want to know and I think we all should know before continuing this assult on Kurt...
So what I suggest is that you send e-mail to kurt@thepope.org and ask...
Thank you....
Jeffery (The evil ranting cyber cat) Felinoid McLean [Dark lord of shiny things]
First off I'd like to say I'm putting asside my normal "conspericy" jokes becouse of all the election year insanity than makes Krull rants seem plausable by comparison...
As for the "Elitest" idea that "If they are too stupid to get the vote right they shouldn't vote"..
Good arguments but I find flaw with them...
Your local election officals (and from what I see.. Floridas election officals) are jerks. Contact your local government and bitch.
After the Election you Floridians should contact your local officals and bitch as well...
There is no excuse for treating voters poorly. PIRIOD!! It is your responsability to bitch and bitch and bitch any time someone pulls that.
The Republicans (and most likely the Democrats) have a HUGE manual on voter fraud and harrasing voters is probably in there...
Both partys send people out to spot such behavue.
Tell your local (Demo or Repub or non-partison) voter fraud people to keep an eye on your voting precinct...
The fact that your election officals not only don't prevent voter harrasment but are the source of it tell me your election officals are doing a poor job.
A good craftsmen puts pollish on.. not becouse it matters but becouse it's habbit. Humans are creaters of habbit and a person who dose a good job will do a compleate job someone who harrases voters is going to mess up elsewhere as well.
To continue...
if you allow your election officals to harras you out of your vote you in effect gave it up. Your not "Dumb" but protecting your ego.. is your ego more importent than your vote? Sadly for many americans the true be told.. YES IT IS... Thankfully Cmdr Tacos vote isn't up to trade for his ego...
Still.. if you are willing to give up your vote for your ego.. you should not clame your vote later on...
The idiots of this election are not those who were harrased out of a vote... sad that it happend and it probably happend at lot.
While I'd like to see people release ego my preaching in this area would be a small matter of glass houses...
So those who have sold vote for ego.. or had to sell ego for vote.. I ask.. I beg.. get over to your local officals and harras them... Becouse nobody should ever be asked to make that trade...
But once the trade is made... drop it.. in the end.. you gave up your vote... don't ask for a reclame now...
The idiots are not the people who make a mistake and are harrased into not asking for a new ballet..
We all make mistakes... Hay punch the whole card if that happends:)
But if your election officals are jerks you still need to ask for annother ballot so you can vote..
The idiots are the ones who walk in don't look at anything and mindlessly punch... thats just plain dumb... You know who you are going to vote for you have 5 min (in Florida... where I live it's 3 min) to punch the right holes.. Of course I punch keys more rapidly than that but I allready know where they are (on my keyboard) take the time to LOOK...
The idiots are also the ones who punch twice think it still counts...
One other issue I wish to address...
This so called "Throwing your vote away"...
This election above all others... Throwing your vote away?!?
Voting for someone just becouse he isn't someone else? When the two main candiates are vertually identical (as thies two are) voting for the twin of what you dislike isn't going to do anything.
Twetel Dee (Al Gore) vs Tewetel Dumb (Bush)... Wow what a choice we have...
Al Gore: Asside form taking a role in establishing the Internet he has not been very pro-net...
Al Gore supported the CDA.. along with many Democrats.. (Religous Right supported the Democrats over the Republicans the election year folowing the CDA nonsence in trade for the CDA.. it was the only time that happend).
Al Gore is very supportive of funding and growing technologys but he is also supportive of technological suppression for specal intrests.
Bush: Microsoft Good...
Ok Bushes addatude is probably easyer to summerise.. Bush is a great deal more simple minded. Not dumb.. avrage.. I want to make that clear.
Geeks, Reporters, and Politicians are rather smart people..
It takes a great deal of intelect to do what we geeks do.. to grapple and report data the way reporters do.. and to put it to use the way politicians do..
It is not an unjustifyed call to question Bushes ability to understand the most complex and constrainning issues. He is to avrage...
But the ability to pass a trivia test isn't a fair test of a political canidates mettal. Being smart dosn't include knowing all things... It just means your tempered with the knowladge you need and the ability to handle it.
Al Gore dosn't come up much smarter.. Sorry but with all Al Gores public experence he still screws up and says something the press reads as "I invented the Internet"... He knows how the press will read what he says...
That was pritty dumb...
Ferthermore in a book he writes about wanting to ban cars.. Now wait. No way is he sereous.. But Thats not the kind of ammo you leave laying around for future political opponents. That was dumb.
Al Gore is smartter than Bush but I challange that Al Gore is no better sutted to grasp the complex issues.
In any case Bush and Gore are not very diffrent..
Now for irony sake... I did vote for Nader.... You may say a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush.. but with me.. I didn't just vote FOR Nader.. I voted "Not Gore"...
I don't know what Bush would do but history tells me what Gore would do is not good.. I'd rather have an idiot who MIGHT get it right than a smart guy he is garentied to screw things up..
Having said that.... It dosn't matter now..
Whom ever gets in office will have 4 years of nothing... The White House is a house devided... 4 years of anarcy... I like that.
Anyway... the only scary part of this was that the misscast votes went to Buccannan....
Al Gore isn't that bad.. Maybe annother CDA for the supream cort to strike down.. Ban guns.. Nothing that really stresses me much..
Bush might mess with the Microsoft case... Otherwise I don't see much damage comming from this clone..
Nader I like... all the way around...
By Pat B... scares the hack out of me... and he was catching all the misvotes...
He is also a whinny baby... Should do Slashdot posts... (Oh gods I just looked in the mirror and saw Pats face..)
Anyway... my views... A vote for Pat is a vote for the Krull....
As for that other elitist....
The one who ranted about "Your generation" and "DotCom" and whatever.. I'd like to know what that full rant was...
But ANYONE who would dismiss a generation becouse it's convenent shouldn't be taken sereously...
Where I live I vote in someones home....
The same people who volintear to work the elections also give up some space.
It's a lot cheaper to pay a home owner some small token fee than to use government buildings.
It's still not enough.. the local churches still give up some space for the election..
However there are rules in place to prevent mixing of religion and vote... During the election all religous matereal is stored away..
1. There are more Windows machines
While true this project needs a limited number of hand picked 24/7 reliable systems.. There are more 24/7 Reliable Linux boxes that are not otherwise employed (Not part of a larg IT network) and are just "personal systems" that would want in on this.
2. Linux users won't install strage software.
Distributed.net proves Linux users will (by in larg) do exactly that if motivated... As well as Windows and BSD and Solarus and well anyone really.
The number of people who worry about closed source binarys is significant but most will set such conserns asside... given the choice most would pick open over closed but not allways...
3. No Linux client yet
The IT sector dosn't think of Linux first.. they just automaticly think Windows first... so the Windows client was done first...
The Linux client is "on the way" but they couldn't wait for it...
Also likely the Windows client was a quick and dirty... to be replaced later with quality code.. Linux people are far more picky about this.. they can (and do) recognise shotty code eating cycles...
It makes some sence to have a.[your certifyed] type domain.
As far as hiarcy.. that's kinda dead becouse of the way people use the Internet...
Altavista was once altavista.dec.com.. It became altavista.com before it was sold off..
People like quickjump domains... They are lazy...
Accually that is a good thing in some ways....
The DNS isn't obsolete but it's design dosn't match the way non-tech people think.
A new enity that better matches the way people think could replace it...
As for regulating content... You'll just know that Altercare.com isn't certifyed by the WHO... but MainstreamMedical.health is...
Yes it'll put chains on some websites but not all.
Some people want/need some way to know the website is 100% lagit...
People buy magents and fat disolving lotions over the TV...
Thies people should know if they want 100% assurence that everything is ok.. go visit the.health domains...
On the other hand if you are capable of sorting out the bull then go for it...
if a website wants to behave like it's dealing out nothing but 100% accepted medicen then they should get the.heath.. If they don't want the WHO regulations then they have to accept a lesser stand...
Part of this is just sad.. it speaks of people who can not think for themselfs....
But thats exactly the world we live in...
Windows 98 anyone?
Slashdot can not mirror websites becouse it's copyriten matereal...
They'd get sued...
Side note...
at one time Slashdot itself ran on one computer.. and it was allready unleashing the Slashdot effect.
Yes Slashdot can take down websites... Known as the Slashdot effect...
However they are not alone...
Rush Limbaugh won't announce websites anymore becouse of his own Slashdot effect..
User Friendlys Ufies produce a Ufie Slashdot effect..
On the other hand...
Web sites who survived the Slashdot effect with no ill side effects include a Linux 386...
Web sites who died include Windows NT clusters..
I don't mean to say that Linux is allways on the surviver side and NT allways on the death side... the 386 was all static links and the NT cluster had an AI...
But more often than not if it dies it's NT if it dosn't even notice it's Linux... (And if it dies it's got dynamic pages)
It's up to the webmaster to ammor his website against the Slashdot effect not Slashdot to protect them...
People shouldn't be complacent about how fast dynamic pages can be generated...
An OS/2 box running on a 286 can run a website... you throw out for a Xenon or a Pentium pro for a reason...
Your using Linux, BSD, Solarus or Windows NT/2K for a reason...
You have mega bandwith for a reason...
It's not for deathmatches... it is for larg amounts of traffic...
The Slashdot effect may nock down websites.. sorry.. But for those who are preparied... geocitys, ZDnet, etc.. the traffic means banner hits... money... thats the name of the game..
if a small website run by two monkeys gets nocked down.. ok so someones going to have a "bad day".. to bad...
if I got Slashdotted ZenToe would be FRIED.. I know this.. (I'm working on code to prevent it).. But it's my problem.. Not Tacos..
If I were Slashdotted (into DUST) I'd say "ThankYouThankYouThankYou" and fix my website...
Yeah it was posted before...
It looks neet.. This is the second time it's been Slashdotted...
No Taco you CAN NOT sell it Atari still has a copyright on the thing and worse yet they tossed all the documents (yet annother Slashdot story) so they can not do it themselfs.
It looks pritty easy to do thow....
On a side note didn't Sears make a clone of the Atari VCS at one point?
What ever happend to that? Did they get sued?
Linux is the "jack of all trades master of none" of operating systems.
It's not as easy as MacOs, as reliable as Solarus, or as fast (in graphics) as Windows 98
But for a fast, easy and reliable system Linux can't be beat.
Linux suck... everyone sucks.. Linux just sucks less...
>Linux 1.0.13 sucked pretty big balls too. You could have argued then "Why use that crappy OS when I can get Solaris X86 or Sco?"
At the time Solaris kinda sucked..
SCO is close... SCO and someone else made a 64 bit Unix and was giving it away for free.. Why use Free 32 bit Linux (that sucks eggs) when you can get a pritty pimpin 64 bit os?
Hay that is EXACTLY what I thought at the time.. I desided I wanted Linux becouse I had reason to suspect I'd never get upgrades on the 64 bit system.
> What about if some brilliant upstart came up with a $2k 1m^3 holographic display because of this? Then would it be useful?
Not even nessisarly brillant...
First the means... then the application (someone writes some earth shattering app that is obveous NOW becouse he has the 3D environment) then some corprate stiff says "Well it needs this this and this" hands it off to a few techs and you have a new product.
This is akin to GUI back in the day of the command line.
Or turn back ferther..
Desktop publishing and user friendly interfaces came out of GUI develupment but it's douptful the first GUIs had eather.
Printer terminals then interactive software
Video terminals then full screen editors
IBM PCs had CGA graphics.. why should a busness computer have any graphics at all? Then came bar graphs and pie charts.. CGA was justifyed...
You shouldn't worry to much about why it'll be used or how it'll be used. Odds are pritty good it'll never be used at all or if it is used it'll be found to be insufficent to the task.
Who knows what someone will dream up. Once the technology exists someone will find a way to use/abuse it.
It was when we could have more than 64k of ram that we realised we could load whole databanks of information into ram and get faster preformence than just reading as needed off the disk.
Eventually someone will look at this and say.. yeah.. and come up with some wonderful earth shattering idea that would make use of 3D environments.
Here I am with a GUI web browser... but when I edit text files I go to kterm... and I'm compiling with make. Nothing GUI about that.. and my WinTV when I use it as a TV I dislike the window in the corner of my screen.. I turn on full screen mode.. it's MUCH better for watching TV...
While I myself can only see say trying to use Slashdot in this environment or trying to code in this environment.. much of what I do is still commandline anyway..
But a 3D envrionment is more indepth and may have some applications we aren't thinking of...
Some times it's just hard to imagin untell you see the technology infront of you..
Once the technology itself has manifested itself someone will see a way to apply it....
Just a thought here...
A Unix system with a brain device driver..
/usr/bin/socalise
requires chmod 666/dev/brain
while/dev/brain should only be accessed by a secure daemon/sbin/thoughtsheald or any number of other mind protecting daemons..
so for security you should be
chmod 644/dev/brain
and for brain input
chmod 666/dev/mindsheald
but/usr/bin/socalise wants access that/sbin/thoughtsheald dosn't allow.. like controlling your mood etc... making you happy when someone pages you etc...
So...
www.sourceforge.net/socalsheald
a mind sheald that spoofs socalise
Ohh yeah.. socalise is binary only produced by AoL
Now the forces of AoL rise up agains this source forge mennace... "They are hinding sinsiter thoughts from us.. they must be planning evil things"
socalsheald ends up having to put up a wide range of responces to mimic a real brain.. then a script kiddie fed up with it all issues one simple command
cat/dev/random >/dev/socalport
A moment of screams... a moment of terror.. a moment of sillence...
>How is learning motif easier then the mfc classes?
-snip-
>Have you seen windows2000? It is the most stable Micrsoft product ever invented since os/2.:-) I admit windows98 sucks goatballs
-snip-
>Also Motif and the nasty news/x windows crap is terrible to get anything done with it. A well respecting computer scientist said programming in motif is like building a bookshelf out of mashed potatoes.
-snip-
>Comparing windows 3.0 and the early releases of com and ole to today's technogolies is not a fair one.
It's very unfair to bring up Motif while repeatedly asking to compair Win 2k with Linux instead of Win 9x and Win 3.x
Motif is one widget set... Sence Athena there hasn't been much need for Motif...
Now a days we use GTK and QT
Motif is pritty much dead...
On the other hand Windows 98 is alive and well..
If you want to code for Windows you need to code for Windows 98...
Windows NT and 2K are supper bitchen desktops.. But they are sold as servers and workstations.
As servers they have a GUI.. the GUI is in kernel space so it can't even be swapped out when the GUI is idle.
The net result is to run your server you need.. a mouse.. a keyboard.. and a monitor...
A server should run headless.. no mouse, no keyboard.. no monitor..
To access the server you use a workstation..
(the exeption is when you have ONE server.. but if you have 20 servers then 20 keyboards, mice and monitors is a roial mess... or you can KVM but thats still 20 video cards..)
Now Win 2K/NT as a workstation dosen't make an effort to be compatable with the servers that are out there. Thats not good. A good workstation should be able to work with what exists. It shouldn't dump on the server the need for compatability..
The server dose to much allready to run compatability daemons for workstations or run a GUI..
Where Win 2k/NT is super pimp is in the home/desktop market....
Microsoft dosn't market it to that market.. So noone uses them as home/desktop machimes.
So writing code for them is a bit moot...
>Windows is far more easier to use.
Even with Win2k I STRONGLY disagree...
Windows menus are every bit as cryptic as the Unix command line...
BSD has a smaller learnning curve... than Windows... Linux has a larger learnning curve..
But Windows learnning curve is there...
I blame the learnning curve on Linux for the lack of manuals.. all text docs.. you touched on that. Windows comes shipped with a manual.. Linux dosn't. I keep being told "man pages" but... no... I have the AT&T manuals and this makes life MUCH easyer... But not quite as easy as I'd like.
ORA books include a good selection of Linux books and I recomend those over the text...
I have a termal printer for printing text docs.. There is just nothing better than having it on paper.
>I believe for myself its time to put linux back int he computer room where its strenght is and put windows back on my computer.
Sadly Win NT and 2K don't go on your computer.. they only exist in the computer room. The software for the home users are for 9x...
Linux however is marketted for home , workstation and server as well as imbeded markets...
As such Linux has software in thies markets.
As long as Win NT and 2K are marketted for the computer room... and not the user market.. they won't have the software...
Now to back off from badmouthing Microsoft...
Windows 98 is supper bitchen for compatability.. for running the older apps.. for people who wish to continue to run the same old software they allways ran.. Basicly people who still like Dos.. thats a very small slice of the market but they are alive and well.. Otherwise DosEmu and FreeDos would be dead... CP/M lived in emulation up to like the mid 1990s.. As long as you can keep Dos/Windows reasonably current.. bitchen.. for the users who what it... They do exist.. Remember.. mainframes from the 1950s were tossed becouse they had the Y2K bug.. and no other reason...
Dos has a Y2K bug but Windows 98 dosn't... supper bitchen... and you can't run Dos alone anymore becouse you need net access etc so the whole thing makes sence as a Dos lovers dream...
Windows 2K/NT for the user space.. but Microsoft dosn't market it that way... It's a super bitchen desktop... cryptic but people honnestly don't give a rats ass.. at least not in that market...
Linux is more the hobbyest.. deployed everywhere.. it can do everything... but if you want a fine tooned system... Linux is NOT it... even in the server market....
The inventors dream.. When your doing something nobody else did before you'd rather have an os that you can modify and keep it quiet... SHHH.. top secret.. No talking with Microsoft...
Annother problem you mentioned was RPM packages... RedHat... Lot's of talk about Linux stability... RedHat isn't in that talk... RedHat isn't even Win 98.. Unstable for no reason at all.. good bad or just plain lame.. Not even a viable excuse.. "We wanted to" is all they can give us. Pathetic..
Anyway your better of installing from source... no this isn't easyer than Microsofts package installation... but for user friendly binary installs look to RealPlayer and ID softwares Quake 3... They include a binary installer..
Much better than RPMs....
Stay way from RedHat..
Microsoft has some pritty pimpen tech but they market them to the WRONG markets.
>Since when is Unix "friendly" in any sense of the word?
From conseption to 1995...
After the release of Windows 95 anything not GUI is not user friendly.
In short.. 20 years of user friendly operating systems vanish and preveously user hostile GUI environments get called "friendly"
How can Windows 3.11 and Windows NT 4 be called user friendly and have it not extend to Unix when Windows 3.11 and Win NT 4 takes it's UI from Unix... to be exact.. Motif...
Simple.. Motif is an interface layor nothing more.. Unix remains in control... Windows 3.11 however is in control not dos..
When to GUI is in control it's user friendly... ease of use and learnning curve be dammed..
I find only experenced computer users consider Windows to be "User Friendly" and I have an idea as to why...
Experenced users don't have a learnning curve.. You allready understand how computers work it's a short jump to understanding "THIS" system.. You allready know the basic details. It takes a very small amount of guesswork..
But a newbie dosn't have this experence to work with. He dosn't know how to dubble click.. He really is starting fresh... The learnning curve is MASIVE.
I need to explain myself for a moment...
Non expert people whom techs would normally run into can.. as a rule.. get a tech to help them when they need help.
But a lot of people don't have even a few techs to help them out.
I ware so many hats that often people DO NOT know they can turn to me for help.. and they can not turn to anyone else. It is from thies people I get a real understanding of the futility they feel when using Windows.
"To use a computer requires a PHD in computer science"
I hear this A LOT
Most of the time it's a person who gave up after trying to use Windows...
User friendly is anything with both a short learnning curve and easy to use.
Unix is easy to use.. piriod...
Linux has a long learnning curve.. but GUI destros like Mandrake are cutting that down...
BSD has allways had a reasonably short learnning curve.. maybe not as short as people would like but for what BSD is... having a short learnning curve is pritty dang smacking cool...
The reason given for why operating systems that were called "user friendly" pre 1995 no longer have this status is "changing terminology"..
The only posable change is redefinning "user friendly" to mean "GUI imbeded in the kernel".
However imbeding the GUI in the kernel dosn't make an os easy and it's absence form the kernel dosn't make it hard.
It's quite posable to have a os with no GUI at all and it still be easy to use and learn...
It is also quite posable to have an os with a GUI and have it be imposable to use and learn...
For this I present... BSD and Windows...
Windows "You need a PHD in computer science to use a computer"
BSD "I learnned to use computers in collage.. it was easy"
BSD shell account is considerably easyer than Windows...
I've used a SunOs shell account... bliss... a well admined SunOs shell account I might add.. but hay:)
BTW the worlds worst os I refered to in my.sig.. if it ever worked it would be a user friendly command line.... it never did.. not correctly...
I don't have/want a larg screen TV even for HDTV but eventually HDTV will replace NTSC or at least thats the plan. It probably will never happen.
In any case. I have a CRT capable of HDTV.. it's call my SVGA.. I use it to watch TV allready..
In fact my computer screen was ALLWAYS my TV set.
Originally back in Vic20 days.. my TV was my computer screen.. Eventually my TV was a VCR plugged into my computer monitor (Capable of CGA and composit video) Add a switch becouse I had a C128 and a 64+Mimic plugged in to it (Yes they produced a limited number of Mimics.. mine died)
There was a simple TV tuner that you could plug into a composit monitor and then plug your home computer into it.
So.. yeah.. people have been doing THAT for years..
An old Byte mag cover comes to mind OFTEN showing a Mac plus shapped computer with Mr Spock on the screen and the number 2 in the upper cornner.
The idea presented in that mag was eventually the home computer would REPLACE TV. (With streamming media this is allready startting to happen.. but may take a long time).
TV cards have been around for a LONG time.. I have one myself but thats more for my webcam..
It makes sence to me anyway.. the big cost of a TV set is the CRT.. why buy more than one?
Put your DVD drive, TV card, HDTV card, into a computer and buy one nice CRT...
Annother issue is CRTs burn out... get broken etc.. ever TV I ever owned eventually died when the CRT died.
I'd much rather buy ONE crt and maintain it.. instead of 2 or more...
Monitors get nicer and nicer.. bigger and cheaper.. every year.
Eventually I'll be able to afford a nice LCD screen...
and buying the monitor your paying for the CRT and the electronics to mainatin a crisp clean image.
I don't need to pay for the electronics that bring my HDTV or NTSC or PAL video..
It's all on my computer...
Watermarking is adding details you can't hear.. Audio compression is REMOVING details you can not hear. Assuming the anolog cables and sound card DAC and ADC don't strip it first the compression should.
It seems to me the SDMI is totally based on identical reproduction.. do anything to elinminate that and you lose the watermark in the process
People won't want low grade audio and Napster will never take off.
What the SDMI people forget when testing for perfict audio is that they are making a protecting against MP3 piracy.. This will have zero impact.
Accually ANY piracy would degrade the audio somewhat.
So golden ears can tell the diffrence while partly tone deff me can't tell the diffrence..
Someone pointed that SDMI will be flawed but the music industry will just get laws past so it dosn't matter.. Someone else pointed out (to me in RL) that with the United States ellections so close (In all offices) that we are likely to get a pritty much even mix of partys we'll end up with 4 years of bickering and political infighting.. no new laws.. and nothing gets done. So if the SDMI stratagy is to get a new DMCA type thing passed.. Good luck..
Basicly it's not so easy to buy people.. buy republicans and the democrats will oppose you on princaple.. and visa versa.. you can't buy em both...
Picture this in say 2004
MeowPawjects new Internet Applience the NetCat includes a liccens agreement that compells the user to use free software (open source, public domain etc.. the MP deffenition of free) and never again use commertal software unless as part of continued employment or use of a commertal service.
When asked MP owner Felinoid simply said "We make our proffits from Internet traffic from people downloading our software.. as long as people use commertal alternitives we lose money".
Many software and hardware makers are said to be conserned about this move one industry analist called it "a rock and a hard place" many busnesses rely on exactly the same kind of liccens to protect themselfs and may now be on the side of having to sue against it.
Open source advocates are noted to be joyful at this event thow in the preplexing position of chearing Microsoft in suing Meow Pawjects saying "We'd rather Meow lost and get rid of this stupid legalistic nightmare than have them win and strong arm people into open source".
[I use MP as an example becouse it's my project.. and I don't have anything going so don't bother.. get your software from FreshMeat.. thats were all my announcments go]
Replace the whole batch and then you can 180 it... replace one and all you get to do is allow congress to pass a law making it illegal (or some form of it).
But not a sereous issue yet...
When the first gose down and we are 2 to go.. then worry... right now other issues are to be considered.
Slashdot Mirror
There were a lot of good reasons for the web to overtake gopher. So why go back?
:)
When I saw Gopher and the web they weren't that diffrent. Nice clients and easy access to information.
But I could publish my own web pages.. Gopher never really provided that.
So why go back?
Oh sure the web was designed to be expandable etc and it really pushed new vistas. E-Commerce and multimedia.
But look at it today... Multimedia is still a shambles. No web browsers for Unix or Windows that fully support all the web standards. (Notice I'm side stepping Amiga... I've seen some nice work from Amiga web browsers and I suspect they are far more on the ball than Netscape and Microsoft).
To get a decent web browser you may need an Amiga.. A decent web server is a Sun Solarus.
For basic information retreaval that kinda sucks. It shouldn't need much more than the power of an AT&T 3B2 or a i386 and decent clients should be available to at least 90% of the net population (read.. Microsoft Windows.. and Unix.. and Mac.. not Amiga..)
It speaks well for Amiga that it really is the last of the great web client boxes.. I mean.. wow..
Now Unix people don't wish to be pushed into using something other than what they like... Hay Windows people.. you gotta use an Amiga or be cut off from the Net.. how do you feal hmm?? Makes you feal really pissed off don't it?
Amiga people: This is what revenge tasts like...
So.. thats why gopher.
Gopher is stagnent.. It hasn't changed.. Even Netscape makes a decent gopher client.
You can "surf" all of gopher comfortable knowing your client works fine...
Not so when surfing the web...
But gopher is still a step backwards...
But for uniform compatability it can't be beat...
I don't think gopher is the right direction..
The Internet has evolved and the web is really byond limit...
Time for something GNU
I'm waiting for the Walkie/Slashdot poll crossover...
"I have perverse sexual lust for Hemos"
(The last option on It's Walky is "I have perverse sexual lust for...")
The last one was "Where do babies come from" and of course everyone voted "Perverse sexual lust"...
So Keenspot is out to make us into sexual perverts.. and Slashdot is building a personality cult around Hemos...
The first recount (By Florida law) should have been a hand count.
Having said that I object to a FORTH count. Gore should be limited to asking for ONE recount. More than that we are looking at pure delay and there is a point where ALL the votes in Florida get thrown out. If this were to happen Gore would win.
Bush should be worryed about the hand count.. If the sloppyness of the recount is any indication the Florida officials are not reliable enough to do a hand count.
I'd also like to add.. You can botch a machine count as well as a hand count... So it shouldn't matter as much what kind of count as it should matter how well the count is being done...
It might ammuse your rulers to know the United States is allready under the control of the Krull.
It's just one step in our plan for world domination.
We are currently responsable for this election and we currently have control over Napster.
As for your question in item 10.. As near as we can tell a psycopatic human did it but we are simply relying on human reports for this and have no Krull varification.
All we are sure of is that there was no Krull involvment...
Ok I'd like to know why Taco is asking us to Spam Kurt.
What is it that Kurt did to deserve this?
Did he abandon BSI?
Did he install Windows NT on Slashdot?
Did he get an MSCE?
Or is Taco just evil incarnet and tormenting his room mate into surrendering his tressured Furbes for Tacos fendish experements..
Well I want to know and I think we all should know before continuing this assult on Kurt...
So what I suggest is that you send e-mail to kurt@thepope.org and ask...
Thank you....
Jeffery (The evil ranting cyber cat) Felinoid McLean [Dark lord of shiny things]
First off I'd like to say I'm putting asside my normal "conspericy" jokes becouse of all the election year insanity than makes Krull rants seem plausable by comparison...
:)
As for the "Elitest" idea that "If they are too stupid to get the vote right they shouldn't vote"..
Good arguments but I find flaw with them...
Your local election officals (and from what I see.. Floridas election officals) are jerks. Contact your local government and bitch.
After the Election you Floridians should contact your local officals and bitch as well...
There is no excuse for treating voters poorly. PIRIOD!! It is your responsability to bitch and bitch and bitch any time someone pulls that.
The Republicans (and most likely the Democrats) have a HUGE manual on voter fraud and harrasing voters is probably in there...
Both partys send people out to spot such behavue.
Tell your local (Demo or Repub or non-partison) voter fraud people to keep an eye on your voting precinct...
The fact that your election officals not only don't prevent voter harrasment but are the source of it tell me your election officals are doing a poor job.
A good craftsmen puts pollish on.. not becouse it matters but becouse it's habbit. Humans are creaters of habbit and a person who dose a good job will do a compleate job someone who harrases voters is going to mess up elsewhere as well.
To continue...
if you allow your election officals to harras you out of your vote you in effect gave it up. Your not "Dumb" but protecting your ego.. is your ego more importent than your vote? Sadly for many americans the true be told.. YES IT IS... Thankfully Cmdr Tacos vote isn't up to trade for his ego...
Still.. if you are willing to give up your vote for your ego.. you should not clame your vote later on...
The idiots of this election are not those who were harrased out of a vote... sad that it happend and it probably happend at lot.
While I'd like to see people release ego my preaching in this area would be a small matter of glass houses...
So those who have sold vote for ego.. or had to sell ego for vote.. I ask.. I beg.. get over to your local officals and harras them... Becouse nobody should ever be asked to make that trade...
But once the trade is made... drop it.. in the end.. you gave up your vote... don't ask for a reclame now...
The idiots are not the people who make a mistake and are harrased into not asking for a new ballet..
We all make mistakes... Hay punch the whole card if that happends
But if your election officals are jerks you still need to ask for annother ballot so you can vote..
The idiots are the ones who walk in don't look at anything and mindlessly punch... thats just plain dumb... You know who you are going to vote for you have 5 min (in Florida... where I live it's 3 min) to punch the right holes.. Of course I punch keys more rapidly than that but I allready know where they are (on my keyboard) take the time to LOOK...
The idiots are also the ones who punch twice think it still counts...
One other issue I wish to address...
This so called "Throwing your vote away"...
This election above all others... Throwing your vote away?!?
Voting for someone just becouse he isn't someone else? When the two main candiates are vertually identical (as thies two are) voting for the twin of what you dislike isn't going to do anything.
Twetel Dee (Al Gore) vs Tewetel Dumb (Bush)... Wow what a choice we have...
Al Gore: Asside form taking a role in establishing the Internet he has not been very pro-net...
Al Gore supported the CDA.. along with many Democrats.. (Religous Right supported the Democrats over the Republicans the election year folowing the CDA nonsence in trade for the CDA.. it was the only time that happend).
Al Gore is very supportive of funding and growing technologys but he is also supportive of technological suppression for specal intrests.
Bush: Microsoft Good...
Ok Bushes addatude is probably easyer to summerise.. Bush is a great deal more simple minded. Not dumb.. avrage.. I want to make that clear.
Geeks, Reporters, and Politicians are rather smart people..
It takes a great deal of intelect to do what we geeks do.. to grapple and report data the way reporters do.. and to put it to use the way politicians do..
It is not an unjustifyed call to question Bushes ability to understand the most complex and constrainning issues. He is to avrage...
But the ability to pass a trivia test isn't a fair test of a political canidates mettal. Being smart dosn't include knowing all things... It just means your tempered with the knowladge you need and the ability to handle it.
Al Gore dosn't come up much smarter.. Sorry but with all Al Gores public experence he still screws up and says something the press reads as "I invented the Internet"... He knows how the press will read what he says...
That was pritty dumb...
Ferthermore in a book he writes about wanting to ban cars.. Now wait. No way is he sereous.. But Thats not the kind of ammo you leave laying around for future political opponents. That was dumb.
Al Gore is smartter than Bush but I challange that Al Gore is no better sutted to grasp the complex issues.
In any case Bush and Gore are not very diffrent..
Now for irony sake... I did vote for Nader.... You may say a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush.. but with me.. I didn't just vote FOR Nader.. I voted "Not Gore"...
I don't know what Bush would do but history tells me what Gore would do is not good.. I'd rather have an idiot who MIGHT get it right than a smart guy he is garentied to screw things up..
Having said that.... It dosn't matter now..
Whom ever gets in office will have 4 years of nothing... The White House is a house devided... 4 years of anarcy... I like that.
Anyway... the only scary part of this was that the misscast votes went to Buccannan....
Al Gore isn't that bad.. Maybe annother CDA for the supream cort to strike down.. Ban guns.. Nothing that really stresses me much..
Bush might mess with the Microsoft case... Otherwise I don't see much damage comming from this clone..
Nader I like... all the way around...
By Pat B... scares the hack out of me... and he was catching all the misvotes...
He is also a whinny baby... Should do Slashdot posts... (Oh gods I just looked in the mirror and saw Pats face..)
Anyway... my views... A vote for Pat is a vote for the Krull....
As for that other elitist....
The one who ranted about "Your generation" and "DotCom" and whatever.. I'd like to know what that full rant was...
But ANYONE who would dismiss a generation becouse it's convenent shouldn't be taken sereously...
> DOS RULES FOREVER!!!!
Note.. Dos.. not Windows.. Dos.. the command line operating system Windows runs on top of...
Fight it all you like... users want the command line.... Dos and Unix.. Not Windows...
Where I live I vote in someones home....
The same people who volintear to work the elections also give up some space.
It's a lot cheaper to pay a home owner some small token fee than to use government buildings.
It's still not enough.. the local churches still give up some space for the election..
However there are rules in place to prevent mixing of religion and vote... During the election all religous matereal is stored away..
1. There are more Windows machines
While true this project needs a limited number of hand picked 24/7 reliable systems.. There are more 24/7 Reliable Linux boxes that are not otherwise employed (Not part of a larg IT network) and are just "personal systems" that would want in on this.
2. Linux users won't install strage software.
Distributed.net proves Linux users will (by in larg) do exactly that if motivated... As well as Windows and BSD and Solarus and well anyone really.
The number of people who worry about closed source binarys is significant but most will set such conserns asside... given the choice most would pick open over closed but not allways...
3. No Linux client yet
The IT sector dosn't think of Linux first.. they just automaticly think Windows first... so the Windows client was done first...
The Linux client is "on the way" but they couldn't wait for it...
Also likely the Windows client was a quick and dirty... to be replaced later with quality code.. Linux people are far more picky about this.. they can (and do) recognise shotty code eating cycles...
It makes some sence to have a .[your certifyed] type domain.
.health domains...
.heath.. If they don't want the WHO regulations then they have to accept a lesser stand...
As far as hiarcy.. that's kinda dead becouse of the way people use the Internet...
Altavista was once altavista.dec.com.. It became altavista.com before it was sold off..
People like quickjump domains... They are lazy...
Accually that is a good thing in some ways....
The DNS isn't obsolete but it's design dosn't match the way non-tech people think.
A new enity that better matches the way people think could replace it...
As for regulating content... You'll just know that Altercare.com isn't certifyed by the WHO... but MainstreamMedical.health is...
Yes it'll put chains on some websites but not all.
Some people want/need some way to know the website is 100% lagit...
People buy magents and fat disolving lotions over the TV...
Thies people should know if they want 100% assurence that everything is ok.. go visit the
On the other hand if you are capable of sorting out the bull then go for it...
if a website wants to behave like it's dealing out nothing but 100% accepted medicen then they should get the
Part of this is just sad.. it speaks of people who can not think for themselfs....
But thats exactly the world we live in...
Windows 98 anyone?
It was moderated UP Funny... and one down "troll" (someone didn't see Space balls and didn't know what the poster was saying)
One idiot moderator and thousands of idiot posters...
[No wonder Microsoft has 90% of the market... people are to stupid to try anything new]
Slashdot can not mirror websites becouse it's copyriten matereal...
They'd get sued...
Side note...
at one time Slashdot itself ran on one computer.. and it was allready unleashing the Slashdot effect.
Yes Slashdot can take down websites... Known as the Slashdot effect...
However they are not alone...
Rush Limbaugh won't announce websites anymore becouse of his own Slashdot effect..
User Friendlys Ufies produce a Ufie Slashdot effect..
On the other hand...
Web sites who survived the Slashdot effect with no ill side effects include a Linux 386...
Web sites who died include Windows NT clusters..
I don't mean to say that Linux is allways on the surviver side and NT allways on the death side... the 386 was all static links and the NT cluster had an AI...
But more often than not if it dies it's NT if it dosn't even notice it's Linux... (And if it dies it's got dynamic pages)
It's up to the webmaster to ammor his website against the Slashdot effect not Slashdot to protect them...
People shouldn't be complacent about how fast dynamic pages can be generated...
An OS/2 box running on a 286 can run a website... you throw out for a Xenon or a Pentium pro for a reason...
Your using Linux, BSD, Solarus or Windows NT/2K for a reason...
You have mega bandwith for a reason...
It's not for deathmatches... it is for larg amounts of traffic...
The Slashdot effect may nock down websites.. sorry.. But for those who are preparied... geocitys, ZDnet, etc.. the traffic means banner hits... money... thats the name of the game..
if a small website run by two monkeys gets nocked down.. ok so someones going to have a "bad day".. to bad...
if I got Slashdotted ZenToe would be FRIED.. I know this.. (I'm working on code to prevent it).. But it's my problem.. Not Tacos..
If I were Slashdotted (into DUST) I'd say "ThankYouThankYouThankYou" and fix my website...
of course...
Everyone knows the y2k bug distoryed civilisation as we know in on January 1 1999
Reminds me of all the people who walked around with T shirts saying 1-1-00
I don't see those anymore...
Yeah it was posted before...
It looks neet.. This is the second time it's been Slashdotted...
No Taco you CAN NOT sell it Atari still has a copyright on the thing and worse yet they tossed all the documents (yet annother Slashdot story) so they can not do it themselfs.
It looks pritty easy to do thow....
On a side note didn't Sears make a clone of the Atari VCS at one point?
What ever happend to that? Did they get sued?
Linux is the "jack of all trades master of none" of operating systems.
It's not as easy as MacOs, as reliable as Solarus, or as fast (in graphics) as Windows 98
But for a fast, easy and reliable system Linux can't be beat.
Linux suck... everyone sucks.. Linux just sucks less...
>Linux 1.0.13 sucked pretty big balls too. You could have argued then "Why use that crappy OS when I can get Solaris X86 or Sco?"
At the time Solaris kinda sucked..
SCO is close... SCO and someone else made a 64 bit Unix and was giving it away for free.. Why use Free 32 bit Linux (that sucks eggs) when you can get a pritty pimpin 64 bit os?
Hay that is EXACTLY what I thought at the time.. I desided I wanted Linux becouse I had reason to suspect I'd never get upgrades on the 64 bit system.
> What about if some brilliant upstart came up with a $2k 1m^3 holographic display because of this? Then would it be useful?
Not even nessisarly brillant...
First the means... then the application (someone writes some earth shattering app that is obveous NOW becouse he has the 3D environment) then some corprate stiff says "Well it needs this this and this" hands it off to a few techs and you have a new product.
This is akin to GUI back in the day of the command line.
Or turn back ferther..
Desktop publishing and user friendly interfaces came out of GUI develupment but it's douptful the first GUIs had eather.
Printer terminals then interactive software
Video terminals then full screen editors
IBM PCs had CGA graphics.. why should a busness computer have any graphics at all? Then came bar graphs and pie charts.. CGA was justifyed...
You shouldn't worry to much about why it'll be used or how it'll be used. Odds are pritty good it'll never be used at all or if it is used it'll be found to be insufficent to the task.
Who knows what someone will dream up. Once the technology exists someone will find a way to use/abuse it.
It was when we could have more than 64k of ram that we realised we could load whole databanks of information into ram and get faster preformence than just reading as needed off the disk.
Eventually someone will look at this and say.. yeah.. and come up with some wonderful earth shattering idea that would make use of 3D environments.
Here I am with a GUI web browser... but when I edit text files I go to kterm... and I'm compiling with make. Nothing GUI about that.. and my WinTV when I use it as a TV I dislike the window in the corner of my screen.. I turn on full screen mode.. it's MUCH better for watching TV...
While I myself can only see say trying to use Slashdot in this environment or trying to code in this environment.. much of what I do is still commandline anyway..
But a 3D envrionment is more indepth and may have some applications we aren't thinking of...
Some times it's just hard to imagin untell you see the technology infront of you..
Once the technology itself has manifested itself someone will see a way to apply it....
Just a thought here...
/dev/brain
/dev/brain should only be accessed by a secure daemon /sbin/thoughtsheald or any number of other mind protecting daemons..
/dev/brain
/dev/mindsheald
/usr/bin/socalise wants access that /sbin/thoughtsheald dosn't allow.. like controlling your mood etc... making you happy when someone pages you etc...
/dev/random >/dev/socalport
A Unix system with a brain device driver..
/usr/bin/socalise
requires chmod 666
while
so for security you should be
chmod 644
and for brain input
chmod 666
but
So...
www.sourceforge.net/socalsheald
a mind sheald that spoofs socalise
Ohh yeah.. socalise is binary only produced by AoL
Now the forces of AoL rise up agains this source forge mennace... "They are hinding sinsiter thoughts from us.. they must be planning evil things"
socalsheald ends up having to put up a wide range of responces to mimic a real brain.. then a script kiddie fed up with it all issues one simple command
cat
A moment of screams... a moment of terror.. a moment of sillence...
>How is learning motif easier then the mfc classes? :-) I admit windows98 sucks goatballs
-snip-
>Have you seen windows2000? It is the most stable Micrsoft product ever invented since os/2.
-snip-
>Also Motif and the nasty news/x windows crap is terrible to get anything done with it. A well respecting computer scientist said programming in motif is like building a bookshelf out of mashed potatoes.
-snip-
>Comparing windows 3.0 and the early releases of com and ole to today's technogolies is not a fair one.
It's very unfair to bring up Motif while repeatedly asking to compair Win 2k with Linux instead of Win 9x and Win 3.x
Motif is one widget set... Sence Athena there hasn't been much need for Motif...
Now a days we use GTK and QT
Motif is pritty much dead...
On the other hand Windows 98 is alive and well..
If you want to code for Windows you need to code for Windows 98...
Windows NT and 2K are supper bitchen desktops.. But they are sold as servers and workstations.
As servers they have a GUI.. the GUI is in kernel space so it can't even be swapped out when the GUI is idle.
The net result is to run your server you need.. a mouse.. a keyboard.. and a monitor...
A server should run headless.. no mouse, no keyboard.. no monitor..
To access the server you use a workstation..
(the exeption is when you have ONE server.. but if you have 20 servers then 20 keyboards, mice and monitors is a roial mess... or you can KVM but thats still 20 video cards..)
Now Win 2K/NT as a workstation dosen't make an effort to be compatable with the servers that are out there. Thats not good. A good workstation should be able to work with what exists. It shouldn't dump on the server the need for compatability..
The server dose to much allready to run compatability daemons for workstations or run a GUI..
Where Win 2k/NT is super pimp is in the home/desktop market....
Microsoft dosn't market it to that market.. So noone uses them as home/desktop machimes.
So writing code for them is a bit moot...
>Windows is far more easier to use.
Even with Win2k I STRONGLY disagree...
Windows menus are every bit as cryptic as the Unix command line...
BSD has a smaller learnning curve... than Windows... Linux has a larger learnning curve..
But Windows learnning curve is there...
I blame the learnning curve on Linux for the lack of manuals.. all text docs.. you touched on that. Windows comes shipped with a manual.. Linux dosn't. I keep being told "man pages" but... no... I have the AT&T manuals and this makes life MUCH easyer... But not quite as easy as I'd like.
ORA books include a good selection of Linux books and I recomend those over the text...
I have a termal printer for printing text docs.. There is just nothing better than having it on paper.
>I believe for myself its time to put linux back int he computer room where its strenght is and put windows back on my computer.
Sadly Win NT and 2K don't go on your computer.. they only exist in the computer room. The software for the home users are for 9x...
Linux however is marketted for home , workstation and server as well as imbeded markets...
As such Linux has software in thies markets.
As long as Win NT and 2K are marketted for the computer room... and not the user market.. they won't have the software...
Now to back off from badmouthing Microsoft...
Windows 98 is supper bitchen for compatability.. for running the older apps.. for people who wish to continue to run the same old software they allways ran.. Basicly people who still like Dos.. thats a very small slice of the market but they are alive and well.. Otherwise DosEmu and FreeDos would be dead... CP/M lived in emulation up to like the mid 1990s.. As long as you can keep Dos/Windows reasonably current.. bitchen.. for the users who what it... They do exist.. Remember.. mainframes from the 1950s were tossed becouse they had the Y2K bug.. and no other reason...
Dos has a Y2K bug but Windows 98 dosn't... supper bitchen... and you can't run Dos alone anymore becouse you need net access etc so the whole thing makes sence as a Dos lovers dream...
Windows 2K/NT for the user space.. but Microsoft dosn't market it that way... It's a super bitchen desktop... cryptic but people honnestly don't give a rats ass.. at least not in that market...
Linux is more the hobbyest.. deployed everywhere.. it can do everything... but if you want a fine tooned system... Linux is NOT it... even in the server market....
The inventors dream.. When your doing something nobody else did before you'd rather have an os that you can modify and keep it quiet... SHHH.. top secret.. No talking with Microsoft...
Annother problem you mentioned was RPM packages... RedHat... Lot's of talk about Linux stability... RedHat isn't in that talk... RedHat isn't even Win 98.. Unstable for no reason at all.. good bad or just plain lame.. Not even a viable excuse.. "We wanted to" is all they can give us. Pathetic..
Anyway your better of installing from source... no this isn't easyer than Microsofts package installation... but for user friendly binary installs look to RealPlayer and ID softwares Quake 3... They include a binary installer..
Much better than RPMs....
Stay way from RedHat..
Microsoft has some pritty pimpen tech but they market them to the WRONG markets.
>Since when is Unix "friendly" in any sense of the word?
:)
.sig.. if it ever worked it would be a user friendly command line.... it never did.. not correctly...
From conseption to 1995...
After the release of Windows 95 anything not GUI is not user friendly.
In short.. 20 years of user friendly operating systems vanish and preveously user hostile GUI environments get called "friendly"
How can Windows 3.11 and Windows NT 4 be called user friendly and have it not extend to Unix when Windows 3.11 and Win NT 4 takes it's UI from Unix... to be exact.. Motif...
Simple.. Motif is an interface layor nothing more.. Unix remains in control... Windows 3.11 however is in control not dos..
When to GUI is in control it's user friendly... ease of use and learnning curve be dammed..
I find only experenced computer users consider Windows to be "User Friendly" and I have an idea as to why...
Experenced users don't have a learnning curve.. You allready understand how computers work it's a short jump to understanding "THIS" system.. You allready know the basic details. It takes a very small amount of guesswork..
But a newbie dosn't have this experence to work with. He dosn't know how to dubble click.. He really is starting fresh... The learnning curve is MASIVE.
I need to explain myself for a moment...
Non expert people whom techs would normally run into can.. as a rule.. get a tech to help them when they need help.
But a lot of people don't have even a few techs to help them out.
I ware so many hats that often people DO NOT know they can turn to me for help.. and they can not turn to anyone else. It is from thies people I get a real understanding of the futility they feel when using Windows.
"To use a computer requires a PHD in computer science"
I hear this A LOT
Most of the time it's a person who gave up after trying to use Windows...
User friendly is anything with both a short learnning curve and easy to use.
Unix is easy to use.. piriod...
Linux has a long learnning curve.. but GUI destros like Mandrake are cutting that down...
BSD has allways had a reasonably short learnning curve.. maybe not as short as people would like but for what BSD is... having a short learnning curve is pritty dang smacking cool...
The reason given for why operating systems that were called "user friendly" pre 1995 no longer have this status is "changing terminology"..
The only posable change is redefinning "user friendly" to mean "GUI imbeded in the kernel".
However imbeding the GUI in the kernel dosn't make an os easy and it's absence form the kernel dosn't make it hard.
It's quite posable to have a os with no GUI at all and it still be easy to use and learn...
It is also quite posable to have an os with a GUI and have it be imposable to use and learn...
For this I present... BSD and Windows...
Windows "You need a PHD in computer science to use a computer"
BSD "I learnned to use computers in collage.. it was easy"
BSD shell account is considerably easyer than Windows...
I've used a SunOs shell account... bliss... a well admined SunOs shell account I might add.. but hay
BTW the worlds worst os I refered to in my
I don't have/want a larg screen TV even for HDTV but eventually HDTV will replace NTSC or at least thats the plan. It probably will never happen.
In any case. I have a CRT capable of HDTV.. it's call my SVGA.. I use it to watch TV allready..
In fact my computer screen was ALLWAYS my TV set.
Originally back in Vic20 days.. my TV was my computer screen.. Eventually my TV was a VCR plugged into my computer monitor (Capable of CGA and composit video) Add a switch becouse I had a C128 and a 64+Mimic plugged in to it (Yes they produced a limited number of Mimics.. mine died)
There was a simple TV tuner that you could plug into a composit monitor and then plug your home computer into it.
So.. yeah.. people have been doing THAT for years..
An old Byte mag cover comes to mind OFTEN showing a Mac plus shapped computer with Mr Spock on the screen and the number 2 in the upper cornner.
The idea presented in that mag was eventually the home computer would REPLACE TV. (With streamming media this is allready startting to happen.. but may take a long time).
TV cards have been around for a LONG time.. I have one myself but thats more for my webcam..
It makes sence to me anyway.. the big cost of a TV set is the CRT.. why buy more than one?
Put your DVD drive, TV card, HDTV card, into a computer and buy one nice CRT...
Annother issue is CRTs burn out... get broken etc.. ever TV I ever owned eventually died when the CRT died.
I'd much rather buy ONE crt and maintain it.. instead of 2 or more...
Monitors get nicer and nicer.. bigger and cheaper.. every year.
Eventually I'll be able to afford a nice LCD screen...
and buying the monitor your paying for the CRT and the electronics to mainatin a crisp clean image.
I don't need to pay for the electronics that bring my HDTV or NTSC or PAL video..
It's all on my computer...
Watermarking is adding details you can't hear.. Audio compression is REMOVING details you can not hear. Assuming the anolog cables and sound card DAC and ADC don't strip it first the compression should.
It seems to me the SDMI is totally based on identical reproduction.. do anything to elinminate that and you lose the watermark in the process
People won't want low grade audio and Napster will never take off.
What the SDMI people forget when testing for perfict audio is that they are making a protecting against MP3 piracy.. This will have zero impact.
Accually ANY piracy would degrade the audio somewhat.
So golden ears can tell the diffrence while partly tone deff me can't tell the diffrence..
Someone pointed that SDMI will be flawed but the music industry will just get laws past so it dosn't matter.. Someone else pointed out (to me in RL) that with the United States ellections so close (In all offices) that we are likely to get a pritty much even mix of partys we'll end up with 4 years of bickering and political infighting.. no new laws.. and nothing gets done. So if the SDMI stratagy is to get a new DMCA type thing passed.. Good luck..
Basicly it's not so easy to buy people.. buy republicans and the democrats will oppose you on princaple.. and visa versa.. you can't buy em both...
Picture this in say 2004
MeowPawjects new Internet Applience the NetCat includes a liccens agreement that compells the user to use free software (open source, public domain etc.. the MP deffenition of free) and never again use commertal software unless as part of continued employment or use of a commertal service.
When asked MP owner Felinoid simply said "We make our proffits from Internet traffic from people downloading our software.. as long as people use commertal alternitives we lose money".
Many software and hardware makers are said to be conserned about this move one industry analist called it "a rock and a hard place" many busnesses rely on exactly the same kind of liccens to protect themselfs and may now be on the side of having to sue against it.
Open source advocates are noted to be joyful at this event thow in the preplexing position of chearing Microsoft in suing Meow Pawjects saying "We'd rather Meow lost and get rid of this stupid legalistic nightmare than have them win and strong arm people into open source".
[I use MP as an example becouse it's my project.. and I don't have anything going so don't bother.. get your software from FreshMeat.. thats were all my announcments go]
Replace the whole batch and then you can 180 it... replace one and all you get to do is allow congress to pass a law making it illegal (or some form of it).
But not a sereous issue yet...
When the first gose down and we are 2 to go.. then worry... right now other issues are to be considered.