That's exactly the "militant linux" attitude that the article is warning against.
Hold the phone there, pal. I was saying that Windows was better than Linux at gaming, not that it couldn't, shouldn't or wouldn't be used. Hell, I check out linuxgames.com every day, and I can't wait for Parsec to come out. But face facts: Windows is better at gaming than Linux. How that sentiment is "militant Linux attitude", I don't know. Seems more "militant Win32", if anything.
I was mainly just saying that the article was pointless. When I'm booted into Linux (on the one machine I have that is actually fast enough to even play games, and the only one with a Win32 partition), I don't think of Gamespy as being a particularly helpful resource. Their client won't work in Linux and they have little to say that can help me, this article included.
I'm well aware of issues like driver support, standards, etc. It didn't stop me from getting X 4.01 and V3 drivers running, and I didn't need Gamepsy to tell me anything about them. I was already in a position to be aware of the issues. Again, that isn't being militant about Linux. All I'm saying is that anyone bent on getting their Linux box into gaming shape doesn't need Gamespy articles which point out the obvious for them. Gamespy and Linux have about as much to do with each other as shellfish and pr0n.
And anything I post should never be construed as YOU MUST do this and you MUST do that. I'm too much of an idiot to bear that burden...:-) And anything I post doesn't change the fact that Windows makes for better gaming that Linux. At least for now.
It's not like they actually have a Linux port of gamespy or anything, is it? So why do they bother? I think maybe they should just move on to other topics...
And why do they talk about driver issues and "user support" differences in the OS'es? Please. Linux ain't windows, never will be. I figure that anyone who wants to get Linux running their Nvidia, SB Live, Athlon Big Gaming Box Bad Boy probably doesn't give a rat's ass about how to get drivers installed. They could probably actually figure it out without Gamespy bothering to mention it to them. Gamespy's article doesn't really break any new ground, does it? I mean, it's not like the Linux gaming issues are big secrets, right? Two points to Gamespy for stating the obvious.
People just don't use Linux for gaming that much -- it's still best as a server and a rock-solid workstation. Yeah, it's nice to play Q3 sometimes, but not crucial. Windows is still better at gaming, probably because MS gives hard/software developers one place to aim. I know a lot of people that dual-boot just to play games. To me and them, windows is the console of the computing world: we use Linux to get stuff done and windows as a game machine. Another point and a half to Gamespy for much ado about gaming nothing.
Although I might be talking out my ass, though. Once I can run both Eudora and Tribes2 on my Linux partition, that windows drive I've got is in serious jeopardy...
I know it's a sleazy thought, but the reason why Red Hat is the most popular distro has more to do with marketing and deals than the code itself.
And what exactly is wrong with Red Hat being the "Most Popular Distro"? Is there a popularity prize that a distro can win which makes it somehow better? So Linux isn't Linux if there's some sinister plot? And could you please tell me which bits of code are "inferior"?
Facts are always better than hyperbole, but often hard to find when faced with an OS bigot. Are you bigoted? If my NT box has an uptime of 187 days and meets my needs for a particular task is that bad? If I use Red Hat Linux instead of SuSE or Slack or Debian is that wrong? You'd begrudge me my Red Hat implementation for what reasons, exactly? Show me the code, pal.
At the risk of starting a flame war, I just have to say that this sort of sentiment is exactly what is wrong with the Linux "community" right now. We need solidarity. We don't need ill-informed newbies dividing the Linux camp. "My distro is better than yours..." Well nyah nyah nyah. I got the same damn kernel you got. I have a system that does exactly what I want and is highly extensible should future needs arise. But it's based on Red Hat. That's bad?!? What have you been smoking, my friend?
Drop the 'tude and realize that we're all pals here. At least one Linux distro has to be popular, and if that was Debian, you'd probably come up with unfounded reasons why it's bad. You'd be using Red Hat or Mandrake then, wouldn't you? Just because they were the "alternate Linux". Admit it.
Maybe Red Hat isn't the cool distro as far as you're concerned, but I have news for you: A choice between your opinion and my needs isn't a choice. I choose what works, regardless of what the cool distro du jour happens to be. Your opinion doesn't help anything.
While there aren't as many people around here, the inconvenience of having to go a thousand miles or more is enough to keep me away from the shows on the coast, and it's nice to have shows within reasonable driving distance that I can go to.
The issue with most folks isn't driving and proximity -- people figure that unless they live in NY or Silly Valley that they'll be flying anyway. (Keep in mind the true goal of any geek worth his/her salt is to get as much free vacation time/clothing as possible by way of conferences and trade shows. They have to get the company to pay for the trip, so the trip has to be worth it.) The real issue is what value does a show like LinuxFest bring to the Linux "community" (gawd, I hate that word)?
Why should Red Hat, VA Linux, Corel, whatever spend time and money putting up a booth there? Is it worth it to them to expend those resources so they can cater to the attentions of people that are within driving distance? No way. They want maximum eyeballs.
You do that by getting your show noticed. People want to attend because of the cool speakers/panels/tutorials, companies want to exhibit because of the people, more people come because of all the companies. It's a self-feeding cycle. But one that cannot work more than a couple times a year. It waters everything down. It wasn't that LinuxFest was handled badly, it that it existed in the first place. Anything that needs artificial impetus to prop up its existence is doomed. It should grow on it's own. Slashdot didn't get popular because of a marketing campaign and a podunk show like this one wouldn't have been helped by one.
I say that if you can't get a company to pay your way, you shouldn't be worried about distance. You should be looking for quality. You should pick one or two shows that are large enough to give you maximum ROI on your time investment, spend the vacation hours, save the cash and go. Pick a show in New York or San Jose and be done with it.
I would personally love to go to every show there is. I can't, though. See, I work. I certianly can't get my company to pay for me to go to a show like LinuxFest, but even to attend of my own accord, I need to convice people to give me the time off. Then I use vacation time. That disappears pretty quickly.
So to have a well-attended show, you've got to convince me that it's worth it. You've got to convince me to want to convince my employer. How do you do that?
Have the event in a city that is easy to get to and/or has some draw. The O'Reilly Conference in Monterrey, CA, US isn't that easy to get to, but one can hardly imagine a better place to be.
Have speakers that can enrich me professionally or personally. Larry Wall, Linus, ESR, et al. all are good choices. At the first Perl Conference, ESR got on my case about Qpopper. That was cool.
Have enough buzz that my managers have heard of it as well. Failing that, get big names attached to your event so my employer won't have to ask me too many questions. If my super asks more than three questions, I'm taking vacation time. That's not ideal.
Have enough value that I don't need to try and convince anyone that it'll bring value to what I do. Tutorials are almost guaranteed to convince an employer to pay. If I come back knowing something new, that's good. If I come back and all I experienced was a group Linux wank, that's not so good.
Have something the others don't. The tradeshow arena is a crowded market. You have to stand out and it takes more than one LUG to get the word out. A good example of a show I'd attend on my own would be one that focuses on gaming, 3D, DRI, etc., etc. I haven't seen too much on that, so it would be novel. Worth going to Kansas for even.
So many shows are perceived to be all the same, and just not interesting and unique enough. You've got to get the critical mass behind your show. Otherwise it's not worth it for me. That means it's not worth it for my employer. Going to a show free is the best scenario and one that every show's organizers should aim for.
Ummm, you're joking, right? He said that they happened to be there during this turning point in Korean history, not that the point has turned because they were there. He was saying that the Korean outreach towards Linux is coming on the heels of a number of amazing events. Correlation never proves causation.
And about your second paragraph:
Linux might just wind up feeding some of the world's hungry. I could see where extremely low-cost computing could certainly help Third-World countries. 100% of the web servers in.td,.ne,.lr., gq,.cf, and.dj run Linux (source: Internet Operating System Counter). Even superficially speaking, that has to create some jobs.
You can't tell me that countries with lots of manpower and very little money wouldn't benefit from what amounts to essentially free computing power. If nothing else, Linux can help countries like Niger and Djibouti keep up in the technology game. You think they'd have that chance if they had to pay per seat to get Windows servers up? They'd have a much, much worse chance wihtout Linux around.
Linux is helping to sure disease. I happen to know for a fact that UCLA (among many other places) runs a rather large Linux cluster for doing things like chemical analysis for medical research. They do way more with Linux than they could ever do without Linux. Big hardware isn't cheap, and there's only so much grant money to go around -- a Linux RAIC-ish system stretches a budget to the point that the previously impossible becomes possible.
Take a look at the Linux Medical Research HOWTO and then tell me Linux isn't helping cure disease. I'm sure that someone else here can give you first-hand experience on what Linux is doing in the medical community.
Linux isn't going to put a man on Mars?!? Now I know you're joking. Do you know how much Linux junk NASA runs? Hell, the driver for the NIC in every Linux box I have was written by a guy at NASA (it's the Tulip driver). And there's always Beowulf, but that probably won't do anything to help get a man on Mars.
I'm not saying Linux is a panacea, and anyone that does so is a certifiable moron who has no idea what (s)he's talking about (at least they'll be easy to identify and avoid). But to say that Linux isn't helping make some really wonderful things happen is extremely short-sighted. In fact, I'm still not convinced that you weren't joking. If I hadn't replied in this thread, I probably would have moderated it up as "funny".
This invention relates to an information handling system in which information is derived from a computer at a remote point and transmitted via the public telephone network to terminal apparatus. The invention also includes the terminal apparatus itself.
Now, I'm not a lawyer, but the patent mentions phone lines, central servers, and "terminal apparatus" quite a bit. Which doesn't sound like the WWW at all. Sounds a lot more like gopher to me.
Anyway, they would have to claim that the "phone lines" are the Net's backbone, the "central server" is anyone with Apache running, and the "terminal apparatus" is the browser.
Here's some more that makes it sound distincntly unWWW-like:
It has been proposed to provide for domestic and/or business consumers a simplified form of computer terminal by means of which information stored in a computer can be obtained from it via the public telephone network. The form of the terminal is different from a conventional computer terminal, both in the simplicity of its operation and in the form of its display.
... the screen in the form of a sequence of progressively more detailed indices by means of which an operator is enabled to key-in to a key pad provided for the terminal numbers identifying a particular page of information which he requires. Since the system is to be operated by unskilled operators it is important that the key required be of self-evident nature and inevitably this will restrict the nature of facilities which the computer can provide.
Difficulties arise in such a system, however, because of the need to ensure the simplicity of operation of the terminal, bearing in mind the likelihood that the significance of particular keying inputs may need to be varied in dependence on the data being displayed.
It is an object of the present invention to alleviate the above difficulty.
Now tell me that sounds like the concept of hyperlinking. I don't think so. The only thing they even came close to getting right was the part about "the system is to be operated by unskilled operators". There's no arguing with that.
I really hope we can get some US patent reform. Does anyone know of a decent movement to let our US representatives know how silly this has all become? I mean, everyone smells money in the "digital goldrush", and so they do inane thingsd like attempt patent enforcements like this. But everyone forgets that the only people to make a lasting living off the California Goldrush 1800's were the guys selling food and equipment to the miners (ever wonder where Levi's Jeans came from?). Everyone would be much better off letting the WWW do what it wants while concentrating on becoming the one that facillitates those goals.
From what I have read, it seems that K6 and Athalon are perfectly capible of SMP
Nope, sorry. The Athlon can do SMP (one of the benefits of a redesign -- and of using the EV6). The K6 cannot do SMP.
I've long looked at that pair of old K6-2/300 CPUs I have sitting left over and wished I could upgrade my MP3 server to an SMP box, but it's not to be. The K6-* chips can't handle SMP because of design limitations (and some patent hinkiness with Intel, if I recall correctly).
A better question is when will the Athlon do SMP? AMD would do well to court the Linux/smaller server crowd and hand us an SMP-able chipset that we can use. Since Intel seems to be having problems delivering just about everything they "release", one would think AMD would jump at the chance to steal some of the workgroup/small server market from them like they've done with the dektop. Guess they're just too busy. Darn shame, too. Best way to get me to buy another AMD chip isn't with a faster clock speed (600MHz is plenty fast, thanks), it's by tempting me with SMP. Hell, they release an SMP chipset, they'll sell me two chips at once!:-)
My K7/600 and FIC SD-11 motherboard (rev 1.28) work great with Linux. For shits and grins, I installed Red Hat 6.2 a little while back and it works flawlessly. I haven't had a single problem -- even with AGP -- using a completely plain vanilla install, default kernel, etc, etc. The nicest part was the "built-in" support for the Voodoo 3 and SB Live cards in RH6.2. It was so idiot-proof and simple, I thought I was installing Windows for a minute...:-)
Anyway, Linux runs like a champ on my Athlon. I hate it when I have to boot back into Windows just to play Tribes. I did have to add a mem line to lilo.conf (all 128MB wasn't being detected) but that was the only oddity. Whether that was because of chipset issues or not I never found out. I meant to look into it, but haven't had the time.
Oh yeah, one more thing: I've got SCSI everything in that box (Apaptec 2940U2W, Quantum Atlas 10K, Plextor CD and CD-R in case you were curious; they all work great). If I remember correctly, the chipset problems happened a lot with newer IDE controllers. Maybe I skirted the problem with SCSI, I don't know.
I certainly mean no denigration by this, but will this "University" be universal or will it teach only concepts that use Ars Digita's preferred architecture: AOLServer, Tcl and Oracle? For example, you mention that 40 hits per second exposes the limits of Perl/CGI/DBI (which might be a questionable statement in and of itself), but I've worked on teams that built stuff which very nicely handles hundreds of hits per second using Java servlets and MySQL (for only one example). Will this sort of thing be taught in addition to the stuff you guys prefer?
I just can't help but think that the University will be biased in some way. Certainly, it's biased towards rote memorization in applicants (a rather inflammatory earlier statement alluded that a score of at least 1400 on the SATs was a requirement for being bright), but will the technological course material follow? I know that there's an Ivy League ethos that surrounds many people and institutions, and it would be a shame if that same sentiment ruled out "less bright" technologies as well as people in this new University. (And for the record: I work with extremely smart people -- some of whom never graduated college -- who use none of what Ars Digita uses, so I may be a little biased myself...;-)
Another thought just hit me: Couldn't this University been seen as a thinly veiled way to promote Ars Digita's technological choices? Honestly, I don't know many people that actually use Tcl or AOLServer to do much, especially in a production environment. If future gradutes of your program are well-schooled in using those products, wouldn't they necessarily think of these technologies first when doing future work? Won't they be biased? So can't this just be seen as an "Tcl/AOLServer Mill"?
Again, I don't mean any slight or to seem like a troll, but this whole thing sounds to me like it'll be as well-rounded as any MCSE learning might be.
Yeah, I remember. I think. I've been online (in one form or another) since 1989. Are you talking about AOL's wonderfully orchestrated "integration" of their usenet client with the rest of the world's servers? When every AOLer who posted an article had three posts made for them (count the "me too"s -- I dare you). The day usenet died? I remember that. I don't think I've posted to a newsgroup since like 1994...
And the famous spammers. They were based in Phoenix. I'm from AZ and remember them too. But your point is?
Mine was that not everyone is an expert. Everyone starts out. And they're usually stupid. Back when I got online with my awesome dialup (remember Archie, WAIS, gopher?), I sounded like a moron ("What's this 'Online Oracle' that everyone listens to?"), but there were people to help me. Now, it's just more noise among the (rapidly diminishing) signal. Do I care? Yeah, sure. Would I like everyone to know what "RFC" stands for? You bet. Do I want the old days back? No way.
I once tried using my brand spankin' new PPP account to look up Western Digital HDD specs in 1994. Couldn't do it: They didn't even have a www site; I had to a call (and pay for) a support line. There was no other way. And to think that just yesterday I got the specs for my brand new Quantum U2W SCSI HDD off the web and was up and running in minutes. (Seriously: How many of you would like to set up a new machine with old hardware, no hardware manuals/docs, and no Net connection whatsoever? I thought so.)
Do I want to go back to the "elites only", "PHB wants to know what's the point to this 'web' thing?" ways? Not a chance. Would you want to?
It's largely because of AOL that the web is so incredibly useful. More power to them, I say. Keep getting companies to put their stuff on the Web. I can't tell you how much I appreciate living in the age of the Biggest, Easiest Encyclopedia Ever Made.
I never want the Internet to go away. Ever. If it takes AOL to assure that, then that's the way it is and there's no point in worrying about it. Just keep doin' what you're doin' and preaching what you're preaching. It's good for you and good for me. And who knows? Maybe a few AOLers will see the light and join us in making their Net experience possible? Things could be worse, you know.
Face it: Not everyone is as savvy as your average/. reader. Many, many people need AOL (or something like AOL) to get online. They need the coddling, the hand-holding, etc. AOL is doing us a favor, really, by getting so many people wired. The trouble is that they, like everyone else from Sun to IBM to MS, want to own everything about it. They don't play well with others. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'd personally rather see the "online" world get bigger and more ubiquitous, even if that means people going through AOL and all their proprietary nonsense. There are people that just wouldn't get online otherwise. Of course, in my ideal world, AOL would be more open, even in small ways. Their mail system would support open standards and the chat (or "IM" or whatever it's called) spec would allow any other client to connect with AOL's clients, for example. There are plently of other things about AOL that aren't so great. But they really are doing the world a favor by getting everyone hooked up. Like I said, not everyone can be a guru, and a lot of people need their hand held. As long as that doesn't come with the outright exclusion of other systems and ideas, I'm all for it. You and I will still have HTTP, TCP/IP, POP, et al. to play with.
Nope. You're thinking of the wrong thing. PNG doesn't multi-images. Take a look at the PNG web site's intro page. It says:
One GIF feature that PNG does not try to reproduce is multiple-image support, especially animations; PNG was and is intended to be a single-image format only. (A very PNG-like extension format called MNG is currently under development, but MNGs and PNGs will have different file extensions and different purposes.)
You want animations, you want MNG. Of course, animations should go away completely and totally for all time, but that's just my opinion...
This is exactly the reason why new software development needs to use a format other than GIF. Current software should use PNG whenever possible and get the 2003 ball rolling now. Take for example the new Eudora version with advertisements. Those ads are PNGs, not GIFs. Why? Thinking ahead, I guess. Others should follow that example and just get it over with. There's a lot to be said for avoiding the licensing headaches with GIFs.
And why would anyone in their right mind continue support for GIFs? It doesn't get you much but trouble. Seriously, Unisys not only makes using GIF an expensive proposition, but they make it nearly impossible to even figure out if you need a license in the first place. Honestly: Have any of you looked into what it takes to sell software that uses GIFs (or even to just write in-house software that helps create software that uses GIFs)? Start small and pretend that you're only writing software that just decodes GIFs. Do you need a license? There's no real way to find out. Ask Unisys and you'll get as many answers as people you ask. Look at their license and it appears that you only need a license if you write software that makes GIF (or compresses with LZW). But then you look again and find that other companies that only decode LZW have a license. It's really frustrating and I can't wait for GIF to go away.
PNG has a lot of advantages over GIF, like alpha channels, gamma correction, etc. It also has some disadvantages. It seems that some PNG creation/conversion programs play a little fast and loose with the rules so things can get weird later on (The GIMP seems to be fine, though). But the biggest advantage PNG has over GIF, IMO, is no built-in support for animation. The decision to leave that "feature" out was absolutely brilliant. Unless you're a web developer, maybe, in which case you'll have to get used to MNG...:-)
Things would be really nice right now if people had gotten on the PNG bandwagon a while ago. Then Unisys would be out of the picture completely and we'd all be happier.
The Wornick Company, which makes military MREs, will happily sell you MREs in bulk
Those are all foo-foo MREs and bear no resemblence whatsoever to the real thing. I know, they are the real thing now, but that doesn't make them good. The newest Johnny Quest can't hold a candle to the old Johnny Quest the same way these new MREs aren't nearly as good as the old MREs.
Oh, gone are the days when you could get real MREs. I'm talking Chicken and Rice, Turkey a la King, and the absolute best MRE ever made (if not only because of the incredible -- and I mean truly majestic smelling -- flatulence it provided) Meatballs, Beef and Rice in Spicy Tom Sauce. I lived on Spicy Tom Sauce for a while. I'd eat that breakfast, lunch and dinner if I could. I'd likely get fired, though.
The worst MRE has to be either the Scrambled Eggs or the Ham Slice (which I've actually seen hungry people refuse to eat, although it was pretty good if you could get your hands on a slice of cheese and then combine it with the MRE bread). I've got a case of 9 year old Ham Slices in my garage. I can't eat them. Anyone wants them, let me know. They're still edible (well, as edible as they ever were), and cheap. Maybe ebay would like them?
Has anyone tried the new MRE-ish things? Those ones in the white plastic trays? My parents bought a pallet of them (like thousands) wholesale before Y2K and I got my hands on some after the hangover settled. Not bad, but not right. First off, they have that weasely plastic tray instead of a pouch and you can't open them without a knife. The taste isn't right either. That cardboard top is a complete nuisance. And the most important factor: they don't bind you up enough.
To me, the best thing about MREs was that when you ate one in the morning (I'm serious: if you're in a position to subsist on MRES, you eat them in the morning and you like them in the morning) you didn't have to dump until exactly 12 hours later. Really, you could set you watch to your bowels after three days of MREs. You eat nothing but MREs and you pinch but one hefty pellet a day. It's very handy, and I even bust out an MRE sometimes when I'm feeling less than regular.
But you can counteract the retaining effects of the main meal packet with the chocolate bar. It's a laxative, and don't let anyone tell you differently. I've eaten the bars alone, and they work extraordinarily well. Too well. I know people say it's a myth, but I'll be happy to prove it to anyone that cares to watch. It only takes about six hours, and I'll buy the beer while you wait. See, I've still got some of those that I haven't eaten.
Now on to the drink packet. The Lemon flavor is best with liquor (works best with rum or vodka, not so well with Slivovitz or Pernot), the cherry is best for normal drinking. But you only have to mix the packet's contents with half the amount of water the instructions say. Then it's good and not too sticky and you get twice as much. Forget that crap about not mixing in your canteen. Do it anyway -- you don't care.
The accessory packet is worthless except for the Tabasco and the matches. You can't even blow your nose with that TP. The utensils suck. Throw everything but the sauce and the matches away. Keep the coffee/cocoa if you like that sort of thing (you can eat the coffee raw if you're desperate).
How to eat a real MRE: Easy, you tear it long ways, not sideways. Ignore those perforations they have near the top. Take your knife and cut the side of the pouch off. Then you can use that same knife to shovel the contents into your mouth. Takes about ten seconds to eat one that way. Using the perforations means you get your hands dirty and it takes forever, even if you get tricky and try to squeeze the stuff out (trust me). Oh yeah, don't forget to put the entire thing of Tabasco into the pouch, no matter what the meal. Eat the whole little bottle. It's important.
Make sure that you save the main meal pouch for holding trash. And don't bother with heaters. MREs are like revenge: best eaten cold.:-)
I miss MREs. Maybe I'll go dig one out of the garage now.
I'd seriously buy an I-opener for $500 if it had wireless LAN or ethernet capability (actually, a PC Card slot would do nicely since I've got a boatload of various old laptop components sitting around). IMO, a computing device (of any type) is of little value without some sort of network integration. And a modem is not what I mean.
This sounds really lame, but I want one to act as a "front end" to my home network's streaming MP3 server. Right now I've got a crufty old P100 laptop doing duty, and it can barely run X and XMMS at the same time (I'm serious: I've tried BlackBox and even fvwm). I've got around 20GB of stored music, and I've boxed up my CDs and put them away. I've spent a lot of time on my home network and my music system. So having a front end to that is required -- I can't go back to a regular stereo. When I first saw the I-opener, I thought I'd found that front end.
What I need is a low cost, fairly small footprint machine that can get on a network. Once I have that, I can get Linux on it somehow. I've considered buying an I-opener and taking the 3 month hit for their subscription (even though I won't use it even once) just to get a machine that I can hack into.
I know the "moderation window" on this post is closed (which is that first four hour window one has in which to post such that the comment will not be buried in other posts and which can therefore be moderated up or down), but I figured I'd throw my couple cents in anyway. However, if you do read this, tell them to put in a PC Card slot and let us take care of the rest.
(Hey, I just had a thought: Anyone remember Heathkit? Anyone here remember putting together one of their kits? Well, how about if Netpliance sold "Open Source" kits that included stuff like that HDD mounting plate and such. What they need to do is let people hack into the things and then get all the best hacks incoporated into one -- or more -- kits that people can buy. Sell them the regular I-opener and the kit for whatever extra. Then give them a special warranty and license to hack. It'd be Open Source Hardware, and pretty damn cool. They could even give a couple percent of the proceeds to the guys that first made the hacks that get sold. Since they wouldn't have to assemble anything, there'd be no re-tooling and the only additional SKUs would be for the kits: the BOM for the I-opener itself would stay the same and so would the cost to produce them. And yet everyone would be very happy, because they'd get to play around with a Philips Head and such.)
If this gets implemented, kids are going to suffer and badly. Budding engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists are going to be labeled, in an officially sanctioned way, and then made to conform against their will. This will break them and they will retaliate, perhaps violently. I know this will happen. In fact, it did (don't ask about the sodium hydroxide in the jocks' lockers or the JB Weld in the door locks during a fire drill). This whole Pinkerton thing is spooky. I know it is, because a similar thing happened to me.
I grew up with asthma, yet I liked sports. When I tried to play baseball or basketball (I was 6'2" in 9th grade), the teachers got afraid of this note that had been circulating since I was in grade school and which I had not known about. The note (which was purely unofficial) mentioned one period of overexertion, a brief (and useless) hospital trip and my mother's anger. I wasn't to hurt myself while at school, she said, and she was mad at the school for letting me do so (even though I was a kid, and kids do things that are physical).
So I couldn't play sports even though I tried, and even though my childhood asthma has long gone away. I probably shouldn't have tried because it made the stigma worse. I was branded, and an outcast. I was the tall geeky kid that had a mysterious. dubious cloud hanging over him. Pretty soon I started fitting into that mold. The only thing that saved me was the Commodore VIC20 and BASIC. I could -- and did -- spend hours on that thing. I spent so much time on it because nobody else knew the first thing about it (and I didn't have to worry about it liking me). So I found my niche.
It was a completely asocial activity and a totally complete way of removing me from normal adolescent society. I didn't get (m)any dates, even though people say I'm not at all bad looking. I just didn't know how to interact with people, much less girls. I can't say it was harmful since I'm a happily married stock option millionaire now, but it might not have been the conducive to preparing me for a normal life, and many people might not have had the perseverance (or technical inclination) I had. I knew I had to make things right the only way I knew how, so I got an education; a lesser being would have grabbed Daddy's shotgun and started plugging away during third period. It's amazing how much shit you can take after you've had to deal with BASIC.
Every day I went to school and got laughed at and made fun of, even though I'm a very sociable person, funny, nice, and people now generally like me. I was a pariah in high school, and a pariah before it was cool and you could get away with it. I had to break new ground in being a gloomy, moody, socially introverted, outcast kid. I was the quintessential geek prototype. I was even in the chess club, and I even played Dungeons and Dragons (although it seems really funny to actually spell out the name "D&D"...:-). The reason is because I was labeled. And once I was labeled early on, that label stuck.
Imagine it's 2002 and you're like me: spending all your time on the computer, logging on to BBSes (!) and not going to parties, dances, homecoming, track and field. You'd rather be on the PC. What happens? You get labeled. And you'd probably get labeled in such as way as to prevent you from being on the PC. And then you'd have no outlet, yet the label would stick (trust me on this: the label will always stick, even 18 years later). You go completely nutty and you react the only way a teenager can: you act out.
So people (the word "educators" makes me sick) decide you need "integration" and regular "activities" to achieve "normalcy". So they put you in PE and sports and all that (in "low stress" activities, mind you, which makes it even worse) and you get your ass kicked, your shoes filled with shit while you're showering, names called, fights picked, stories told, etc. It's a horribly cruel life and the only thing you come away with is you know that POKE and PEEK aren't what you do in the shower and how to kick a big guy in the knee (or hit him in the throat) before he hits you so you can still run away. But your teachers have your best interests at heart. They want to make you "normal". Pardon my French: FUCK ALL THAT NONSENSE. They should encourage and nurture whatever gifts a kids has, not get their brown-nosing, toady classmates to turn them in for money! What the hell kind of message do you think that sends?!?
You will KILL children with these bounty programs. And that's what they are: bounty programs. I KNOW I would have been turned in, and I know I would have reacted against those that ratted me out. I know it with all my heart. Hell, 18 years later I can even remember the names of the people that would have been first in line to turn me in and get their cash (Blake Bottle, Kevin Maloney and Todd Peterson are you out there?). I would have been dead if I hadn't been left alone in school. I mean, we're talking eight years of hell here, with the only solace being my one other geek friend and a really bad computer. If people could have turned me in for being shunned?!? Jesus, do you realize what that would have done? Ever play "Smear the Queer" when you were in school? They probably call it something else these days, but the concept is the same: shit on the other guy as much as you can because you can only feel good about yourself if you make someone else feel bad. People felt good because of me a lot.
School was traumatic, sure, but I got over it, mostly because my parents saw what was happening and bought me new computer hardware all the time:-). The only thing good to come of it is that I'm extremely sure about who I am and what I can do (and those guys who ridiculed me are probably going to be installing the Corian counters I'm having installed in the new house I just paid cash for). But if I had had classmates making money by turning me in for being what little of myself I could show in public, I'd have either taken my own life or taken a rifle to school. No wonder kids are drawing a bead on their fellow classmates with things like this Pinkerton bounty going on. I would have too. I'd be in jail instead of writing ecommerce apps and having babies and thinking about carpet and 401(k)s. It's not right to snuff out a budding geek before he find his calling, that's what will happen.
Ugh. I can't talk about it anymore. I pray to God that my kids never have to deal with Pinkerton's ideas and WAVE-like programs. If they, do, I'm finding them a school that cares about them. Heck, I might even still react to their Orwellian persecution. Who's to say I'm socially viable after what I've been through? Maybe if my co-workers could turn me in for a bonus or a t-shirt things would be ok...:-)
What will they do? 'grep' them to death? Send a heard of 'bison' after them?
I was thinking of something like `kill -9 aliens`.
Seriously, I didn't have any plans in mind. And I didn't really mean the post to be that funny. I was being serious, actually. I think it would make a good story.
But as to how the aliens are killed, I don't know. Maybe there's some new signaling protocol between the earth the the satellites that people have been working on. Maybe one of the hacker types figures out he can broadcast something in a weird part of the spectrum that annoys them and makes them want to leave. You know, like one of those deals that drives away squirrels using ultrasound. But only with... uh.. aliens. Maybe the aliens are actually lost-lost relatives of terrestrial squirrels and they've come back to get their cousins. So maybe the same noise annoys them too. Yeah, sure. I can see the book's title now: "So Long, And Thanks For All The Nuts."
Think about it: An expensive, globe-encircling network of satellites becomes abandoned, and a loose-knit group of hackers take possession of it. This group turns the network inside out, and severly tweaks everything from the software to the hardware (via privately launched Arianne rockets, maybe?). Suddenly, the network bears little resemblance to its former self.
And because everyone can contribute to the creation of the new "entity", the network grows and mutates into something like a cross between Stephenson's Metaverse and Gibson's Bay Bridge. Everyone's particular skills wind up making something that it much more than the sum of its parts. It's so big and weird, nobody understands all of it, much less the extent of its existence.
Then, mayhem. This new network becomes really important (since people can use it freely, they come to rely on it). Now, you add whatever second-act scenario you want:
Middle Eastern terrorists (or whatever other group suits you) on a jihad against technology takes control. Oh no, Luddites in the wire! Suddenly, they have the world's gonverment's by the short hairs. Something must be done, and the call to the OSS community goes out.
The network links many computers all over the place. It's got distributed.net-ish tendrils all over the place: banks, schools, the Federal Reserve, etc. Then it starts to think (or act) on its own. Something has to be done. It's Big Government vs. Open Source.
The governments of the world fear the hacker group's satellite network (maybe it's used for cracking large military ciphers or some such). They send Delta Force spacemen up to physically sieze control of the satellites. But some ex-Livemore Labs guys have installed discarded Reagan-era Star Wars lasers (or whatever defense system you like: railguns, particale beams, etc) and fortified the network. Battle ensues.
The SETI people, hurting for cash, use the network for finding aliens. They find the aliens, and these aren't the E.T., pull-my-finger kind of little green men. They're pissed. The aliens think the network is some cybernetic organism, and they feel threatened. They attack, and Open Source comes to the rescue (plenty of good ways to do this, hopefully using GNU tools of some sort).
Pop in a wrap-up about how OSS (and "hackers" -- the White Hat kind) saved the world (or made it a better place to live; pick your grandiosity level) and you've got a story.
Sounds like a fun read. Maybe if we can't Open Source the satellites, we could write an OS book about it?
*sigh...* I suppose it really is just too difficult to actually read the article, isn't it?
I read the entire thing.
This announcement is that 1GHz PIII systems will be available, actually available, by the end of the month. They really, honestly have 1GHz PIIIs right now in the hands of HP, IBM, and somebody else... I forget who.
Really? You honestly think so? The 1GHz PIIIs are available? Not for me at work. Not for my friend's company. Not for the guys that need to actually use that much horsepower for things like 3D rendering or high-end graphics work or middleware workgroup servers.
The only reason the 1GHz PIIIs will be ready at the end of the month is that Intel only has enough supply to give to a few choice customers (likely those same customers that have toed their line). I'd be willing to bet that the faster PIIIs were originally intended to be 900MHz parts and Intel found enough good ones that can be safely overclocked.
The point I'm trying to make is, if you're going to blast someone, at least blast them for real reasons.
I was. For all intents and purposes, Intel doesn't have a 1GHz PIII available. It has a few CPUs -- not enough to go around, mind you -- that it can share with a tiny percentage of the market. All in the name of having the fastest CPU. Why give them out only to the small fry when the real bread and butter is Compaq and Gateway and Dell?
AMD had a 500 MHz Athlon out well before a Joe User could get one. AMD got the real customers taken care of first: they had systems to the people that could actually use them. They were up front about it, and Intel isn't. That's what I'm saying.
The "third quarter" bit refers to when systems will be available for coporate volume purchases. "People" will be able to buy "the damn things" by the end of the month.
As long as I don't want them from my regular vendor I can get them. Wow. Just let me know when they release a 1 GHz CPU that I can actually use.
Well, maybe not vaporware, but the announcement is pretty hokey. Think about it: They "announce" that they have a 1 GHz CPU, but then quietly say that they won't have actual systems out until the third quarter. So why not "announce" their CPU when people can actually buy the damn things?!?
The reason is that Intel is scared shitless of AMD. Intel knows that AMD can best them in the MHz (GHz?) race at any time, and they know that AMD has 1GHz chips. They also know that the Athlon beats the pants off the old 686 core of the Pentium III (which is really only a Pentium Pro that went uptown).
The fact of the matter is that Intel is scrambling to keep its mindshare, so it makes big news about things that will happen six months from now. People that trade stocks and make PCs now have it in their heads that Intel actually has a 1GHz system, and that they were the first ones to break the GHz barrier. Those people forget about AMD and the K7. That's the really Intel's strategy: keep announcing things that aren't here yet so the spotlight never strays too far, even though the PIII is inferior. Make people forget about that "other" chip company.
But don't take my word for it, no. Go try and buy an 800 or even 750 MHz PIII system. Then go shop around for an 850 MHz Athlon system. AMD announces things when they happen, like a company should. Intel is the hardware equivalent of Microsoft and I hope their subterfuge and bully tactics (look through Tom's Hardware for articles about Intel and K7 motherboard manufacturers for a little info about friendly old Intel) come back to bite them in the ass.
You always wanted to be able to alternately smell and talk/see to you online companion, and now you can. You think that 16 year old is really a man? Now you can be sure with SmellU-SmellMe, coming soon from RealAroma.com! You just can't be sure until you get a whiff of either Tommy Girl or Old Spice.
SmellU-SmellMe: Don't get caught chatting without it.
-B
First vacation station in the *solar system*?!?
on
Getaway to Club Mir
·
· Score: 2
Do they know something we don't:
Anderson, Energiya and other investors are forming Mir Corp. Ltd. in Bermuda to run what they hope will be the first for-profit space station in the solar system.
What about the rest of the galaxy? Are there more for-profit space stations that they aren't telling us about? I smell conspiracy. Someone knows something about space stations outside the solar system, and I think we oughtta make them fess up before we hang our hats on Mir. I wanna see if a vacation on the alien one would be better...
I suppose that you could keep things cooler if you severely underclocked a fast CPU. But the minute you add a HDD, SCSI adapter, whatever, things start to heat up again. And then ventilation/filtration is a problem.
You might have to go with the "little house" concept: put an otherwise normal PC inside an outdoor enclosure made for that purpose. I'm thinking of the kind that they use for cellular equipment. But that ain't going to be cheap.
I saw your post and went and got a copy. Yeah, it fixed the hole. But I'm just going to go ahead and install 1.2.27-7us via sources instead of SRPM anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
Hold the phone there, pal. I was saying that Windows was better than Linux at gaming, not that it couldn't, shouldn't or wouldn't be used. Hell, I check out linuxgames.com every day, and I can't wait for Parsec to come out. But face facts: Windows is better at gaming than Linux. How that sentiment is "militant Linux attitude", I don't know. Seems more "militant Win32", if anything.
I was mainly just saying that the article was pointless. When I'm booted into Linux (on the one machine I have that is actually fast enough to even play games, and the only one with a Win32 partition), I don't think of Gamespy as being a particularly helpful resource. Their client won't work in Linux and they have little to say that can help me, this article included.
I'm well aware of issues like driver support, standards, etc. It didn't stop me from getting X 4.01 and V3 drivers running, and I didn't need Gamepsy to tell me anything about them. I was already in a position to be aware of the issues. Again, that isn't being militant about Linux. All I'm saying is that anyone bent on getting their Linux box into gaming shape doesn't need Gamespy articles which point out the obvious for them. Gamespy and Linux have about as much to do with each other as shellfish and pr0n.
And anything I post should never be construed as YOU MUST do this and you MUST do that. I'm too much of an idiot to bear that burden... :-) And anything I post doesn't change the fact that Windows makes for better gaming that Linux. At least for now.
-B
And why do they talk about driver issues and "user support" differences in the OS'es? Please. Linux ain't windows, never will be. I figure that anyone who wants to get Linux running their Nvidia, SB Live, Athlon Big Gaming Box Bad Boy probably doesn't give a rat's ass about how to get drivers installed. They could probably actually figure it out without Gamespy bothering to mention it to them. Gamespy's article doesn't really break any new ground, does it? I mean, it's not like the Linux gaming issues are big secrets, right? Two points to Gamespy for stating the obvious.
People just don't use Linux for gaming that much -- it's still best as a server and a rock-solid workstation. Yeah, it's nice to play Q3 sometimes, but not crucial. Windows is still better at gaming, probably because MS gives hard/software developers one place to aim. I know a lot of people that dual-boot just to play games. To me and them, windows is the console of the computing world: we use Linux to get stuff done and windows as a game machine. Another point and a half to Gamespy for much ado about gaming nothing.
Although I might be talking out my ass, though. Once I can run both Eudora and Tribes2 on my Linux partition, that windows drive I've got is in serious jeopardy...
-B
And what exactly is wrong with Red Hat being the "Most Popular Distro"? Is there a popularity prize that a distro can win which makes it somehow better? So Linux isn't Linux if there's some sinister plot? And could you please tell me which bits of code are "inferior"?
Facts are always better than hyperbole, but often hard to find when faced with an OS bigot. Are you bigoted? If my NT box has an uptime of 187 days and meets my needs for a particular task is that bad? If I use Red Hat Linux instead of SuSE or Slack or Debian is that wrong? You'd begrudge me my Red Hat implementation for what reasons, exactly? Show me the code, pal.
At the risk of starting a flame war, I just have to say that this sort of sentiment is exactly what is wrong with the Linux "community" right now. We need solidarity. We don't need ill-informed newbies dividing the Linux camp. "My distro is better than yours..." Well nyah nyah nyah. I got the same damn kernel you got. I have a system that does exactly what I want and is highly extensible should future needs arise. But it's based on Red Hat. That's bad?!? What have you been smoking, my friend?
Drop the 'tude and realize that we're all pals here. At least one Linux distro has to be popular, and if that was Debian, you'd probably come up with unfounded reasons why it's bad. You'd be using Red Hat or Mandrake then, wouldn't you? Just because they were the "alternate Linux". Admit it.
Maybe Red Hat isn't the cool distro as far as you're concerned, but I have news for you: A choice between your opinion and my needs isn't a choice. I choose what works, regardless of what the cool distro du jour happens to be. Your opinion doesn't help anything.
Get a clue and stop being such an elitist.
-B
The issue with most folks isn't driving and proximity -- people figure that unless they live in NY or Silly Valley that they'll be flying anyway. (Keep in mind the true goal of any geek worth his/her salt is to get as much free vacation time/clothing as possible by way of conferences and trade shows. They have to get the company to pay for the trip, so the trip has to be worth it.) The real issue is what value does a show like LinuxFest bring to the Linux "community" (gawd, I hate that word)?
Why should Red Hat, VA Linux, Corel, whatever spend time and money putting up a booth there? Is it worth it to them to expend those resources so they can cater to the attentions of people that are within driving distance? No way. They want maximum eyeballs.
You do that by getting your show noticed. People want to attend because of the cool speakers/panels/tutorials, companies want to exhibit because of the people, more people come because of all the companies. It's a self-feeding cycle. But one that cannot work more than a couple times a year. It waters everything down. It wasn't that LinuxFest was handled badly, it that it existed in the first place. Anything that needs artificial impetus to prop up its existence is doomed. It should grow on it's own. Slashdot didn't get popular because of a marketing campaign and a podunk show like this one wouldn't have been helped by one.
I say that if you can't get a company to pay your way, you shouldn't be worried about distance. You should be looking for quality. You should pick one or two shows that are large enough to give you maximum ROI on your time investment, spend the vacation hours, save the cash and go. Pick a show in New York or San Jose and be done with it.
-B
So to have a well-attended show, you've got to convince me that it's worth it. You've got to convince me to want to convince my employer. How do you do that?
So many shows are perceived to be all the same, and just not interesting and unique enough. You've got to get the critical mass behind your show. Otherwise it's not worth it for me. That means it's not worth it for my employer. Going to a show free is the best scenario and one that every show's organizers should aim for.
-B
And about your second paragraph:
You can't tell me that countries with lots of manpower and very little money wouldn't benefit from what amounts to essentially free computing power. If nothing else, Linux can help countries like Niger and Djibouti keep up in the technology game. You think they'd have that chance if they had to pay per seat to get Windows servers up? They'd have a much, much worse chance wihtout Linux around.
Take a look at the Linux Medical Research HOWTO and then tell me Linux isn't helping cure disease. I'm sure that someone else here can give you first-hand experience on what Linux is doing in the medical community.
I'm not saying Linux is a panacea, and anyone that does so is a certifiable moron who has no idea what (s)he's talking about (at least they'll be easy to identify and avoid). But to say that Linux isn't helping make some really wonderful things happen is extremely short-sighted. In fact, I'm still not convinced that you weren't joking. If I hadn't replied in this thread, I probably would have moderated it up as "funny".
-B
Anyway, they would have to claim that the "phone lines" are the Net's backbone, the "central server" is anyone with Apache running, and the "terminal apparatus" is the browser.
Here's some more that makes it sound distincntly unWWW-like:
Now tell me that sounds like the concept of hyperlinking. I don't think so. The only thing they even came close to getting right was the part about "the system is to be operated by unskilled operators". There's no arguing with that.I really hope we can get some US patent reform. Does anyone know of a decent movement to let our US representatives know how silly this has all become? I mean, everyone smells money in the "digital goldrush", and so they do inane thingsd like attempt patent enforcements like this. But everyone forgets that the only people to make a lasting living off the California Goldrush 1800's were the guys selling food and equipment to the miners (ever wonder where Levi's Jeans came from?). Everyone would be much better off letting the WWW do what it wants while concentrating on becoming the one that facillitates those goals.
This whole thing blows.
-B
Nope, sorry. The Athlon can do SMP (one of the benefits of a redesign -- and of using the EV6). The K6 cannot do SMP.
I've long looked at that pair of old K6-2/300 CPUs I have sitting left over and wished I could upgrade my MP3 server to an SMP box, but it's not to be. The K6-* chips can't handle SMP because of design limitations (and some patent hinkiness with Intel, if I recall correctly).
A better question is when will the Athlon do SMP? AMD would do well to court the Linux/smaller server crowd and hand us an SMP-able chipset that we can use. Since Intel seems to be having problems delivering just about everything they "release", one would think AMD would jump at the chance to steal some of the workgroup/small server market from them like they've done with the dektop. Guess they're just too busy. Darn shame, too. Best way to get me to buy another AMD chip isn't with a faster clock speed (600MHz is plenty fast, thanks), it's by tempting me with SMP. Hell, they release an SMP chipset, they'll sell me two chips at once! :-)
-B
Anyway, Linux runs like a champ on my Athlon. I hate it when I have to boot back into Windows just to play Tribes. I did have to add a mem line to lilo.conf (all 128MB wasn't being detected) but that was the only oddity. Whether that was because of chipset issues or not I never found out. I meant to look into it, but haven't had the time.
Oh yeah, one more thing: I've got SCSI everything in that box (Apaptec 2940U2W, Quantum Atlas 10K, Plextor CD and CD-R in case you were curious; they all work great). If I remember correctly, the chipset problems happened a lot with newer IDE controllers. Maybe I skirted the problem with SCSI, I don't know.
-B
I just can't help but think that the University will be biased in some way. Certainly, it's biased towards rote memorization in applicants (a rather inflammatory earlier statement alluded that a score of at least 1400 on the SATs was a requirement for being bright), but will the technological course material follow? I know that there's an Ivy League ethos that surrounds many people and institutions, and it would be a shame if that same sentiment ruled out "less bright" technologies as well as people in this new University. (And for the record: I work with extremely smart people -- some of whom never graduated college -- who use none of what Ars Digita uses, so I may be a little biased myself... ;-)
Another thought just hit me: Couldn't this University been seen as a thinly veiled way to promote Ars Digita's technological choices? Honestly, I don't know many people that actually use Tcl or AOLServer to do much, especially in a production environment. If future gradutes of your program are well-schooled in using those products, wouldn't they necessarily think of these technologies first when doing future work? Won't they be biased? So can't this just be seen as an "Tcl/AOLServer Mill"?
Again, I don't mean any slight or to seem like a troll, but this whole thing sounds to me like it'll be as well-rounded as any MCSE learning might be.
-B
And the famous spammers. They were based in Phoenix. I'm from AZ and remember them too. But your point is?
Mine was that not everyone is an expert. Everyone starts out. And they're usually stupid. Back when I got online with my awesome dialup (remember Archie, WAIS, gopher?), I sounded like a moron ("What's this 'Online Oracle' that everyone listens to?"), but there were people to help me. Now, it's just more noise among the (rapidly diminishing) signal. Do I care? Yeah, sure. Would I like everyone to know what "RFC" stands for? You bet. Do I want the old days back? No way.
I once tried using my brand spankin' new PPP account to look up Western Digital HDD specs in 1994. Couldn't do it: They didn't even have a www site; I had to a call (and pay for) a support line. There was no other way. And to think that just yesterday I got the specs for my brand new Quantum U2W SCSI HDD off the web and was up and running in minutes. (Seriously: How many of you would like to set up a new machine with old hardware, no hardware manuals/docs, and no Net connection whatsoever? I thought so.)
Do I want to go back to the "elites only", "PHB wants to know what's the point to this 'web' thing?" ways? Not a chance. Would you want to?
It's largely because of AOL that the web is so incredibly useful. More power to them, I say. Keep getting companies to put their stuff on the Web. I can't tell you how much I appreciate living in the age of the Biggest, Easiest Encyclopedia Ever Made.
I never want the Internet to go away. Ever. If it takes AOL to assure that, then that's the way it is and there's no point in worrying about it. Just keep doin' what you're doin' and preaching what you're preaching. It's good for you and good for me. And who knows? Maybe a few AOLers will see the light and join us in making their Net experience possible? Things could be worse, you know.
-B
-B
Nope. You're thinking of the wrong thing. PNG doesn't multi-images. Take a look at the PNG web site's intro page. It says:
You want animations, you want MNG. Of course, animations should go away completely and totally for all time, but that's just my opinion...
-B
And why would anyone in their right mind continue support for GIFs? It doesn't get you much but trouble. Seriously, Unisys not only makes using GIF an expensive proposition, but they make it nearly impossible to even figure out if you need a license in the first place. Honestly: Have any of you looked into what it takes to sell software that uses GIFs (or even to just write in-house software that helps create software that uses GIFs)? Start small and pretend that you're only writing software that just decodes GIFs. Do you need a license? There's no real way to find out. Ask Unisys and you'll get as many answers as people you ask. Look at their license and it appears that you only need a license if you write software that makes GIF (or compresses with LZW). But then you look again and find that other companies that only decode LZW have a license. It's really frustrating and I can't wait for GIF to go away.
PNG has a lot of advantages over GIF, like alpha channels, gamma correction, etc. It also has some disadvantages. It seems that some PNG creation/conversion programs play a little fast and loose with the rules so things can get weird later on (The GIMP seems to be fine, though). But the biggest advantage PNG has over GIF, IMO, is no built-in support for animation. The decision to leave that "feature" out was absolutely brilliant. Unless you're a web developer, maybe, in which case you'll have to get used to MNG... :-)
Things would be really nice right now if people had gotten on the PNG bandwagon a while ago. Then Unisys would be out of the picture completely and we'd all be happier.
-B
Those are all foo-foo MREs and bear no resemblence whatsoever to the real thing. I know, they are the real thing now, but that doesn't make them good. The newest Johnny Quest can't hold a candle to the old Johnny Quest the same way these new MREs aren't nearly as good as the old MREs.
Oh, gone are the days when you could get real MREs. I'm talking Chicken and Rice, Turkey a la King, and the absolute best MRE ever made (if not only because of the incredible -- and I mean truly majestic smelling -- flatulence it provided) Meatballs, Beef and Rice in Spicy Tom Sauce. I lived on Spicy Tom Sauce for a while. I'd eat that breakfast, lunch and dinner if I could. I'd likely get fired, though.
The worst MRE has to be either the Scrambled Eggs or the Ham Slice (which I've actually seen hungry people refuse to eat, although it was pretty good if you could get your hands on a slice of cheese and then combine it with the MRE bread). I've got a case of 9 year old Ham Slices in my garage. I can't eat them. Anyone wants them, let me know. They're still edible (well, as edible as they ever were), and cheap. Maybe ebay would like them?
Has anyone tried the new MRE-ish things? Those ones in the white plastic trays? My parents bought a pallet of them (like thousands) wholesale before Y2K and I got my hands on some after the hangover settled. Not bad, but not right. First off, they have that weasely plastic tray instead of a pouch and you can't open them without a knife. The taste isn't right either. That cardboard top is a complete nuisance. And the most important factor: they don't bind you up enough.
To me, the best thing about MREs was that when you ate one in the morning (I'm serious: if you're in a position to subsist on MRES, you eat them in the morning and you like them in the morning) you didn't have to dump until exactly 12 hours later. Really, you could set you watch to your bowels after three days of MREs. You eat nothing but MREs and you pinch but one hefty pellet a day. It's very handy, and I even bust out an MRE sometimes when I'm feeling less than regular.
But you can counteract the retaining effects of the main meal packet with the chocolate bar. It's a laxative, and don't let anyone tell you differently. I've eaten the bars alone, and they work extraordinarily well. Too well. I know people say it's a myth, but I'll be happy to prove it to anyone that cares to watch. It only takes about six hours, and I'll buy the beer while you wait. See, I've still got some of those that I haven't eaten.
Now on to the drink packet. The Lemon flavor is best with liquor (works best with rum or vodka, not so well with Slivovitz or Pernot), the cherry is best for normal drinking. But you only have to mix the packet's contents with half the amount of water the instructions say. Then it's good and not too sticky and you get twice as much. Forget that crap about not mixing in your canteen. Do it anyway -- you don't care.
The accessory packet is worthless except for the Tabasco and the matches. You can't even blow your nose with that TP. The utensils suck. Throw everything but the sauce and the matches away. Keep the coffee/cocoa if you like that sort of thing (you can eat the coffee raw if you're desperate).
How to eat a real MRE: Easy, you tear it long ways, not sideways. Ignore those perforations they have near the top. Take your knife and cut the side of the pouch off. Then you can use that same knife to shovel the contents into your mouth. Takes about ten seconds to eat one that way. Using the perforations means you get your hands dirty and it takes forever, even if you get tricky and try to squeeze the stuff out (trust me). Oh yeah, don't forget to put the entire thing of Tabasco into the pouch, no matter what the meal. Eat the whole little bottle. It's important.
Make sure that you save the main meal pouch for holding trash. And don't bother with heaters. MREs are like revenge: best eaten cold. :-)
I miss MREs. Maybe I'll go dig one out of the garage now.
-B
This sounds really lame, but I want one to act as a "front end" to my home network's streaming MP3 server. Right now I've got a crufty old P100 laptop doing duty, and it can barely run X and XMMS at the same time (I'm serious: I've tried BlackBox and even fvwm). I've got around 20GB of stored music, and I've boxed up my CDs and put them away. I've spent a lot of time on my home network and my music system. So having a front end to that is required -- I can't go back to a regular stereo. When I first saw the I-opener, I thought I'd found that front end.
What I need is a low cost, fairly small footprint machine that can get on a network. Once I have that, I can get Linux on it somehow. I've considered buying an I-opener and taking the 3 month hit for their subscription (even though I won't use it even once) just to get a machine that I can hack into.
I know the "moderation window" on this post is closed (which is that first four hour window one has in which to post such that the comment will not be buried in other posts and which can therefore be moderated up or down), but I figured I'd throw my couple cents in anyway. However, if you do read this, tell them to put in a PC Card slot and let us take care of the rest.
(Hey, I just had a thought: Anyone remember Heathkit? Anyone here remember putting together one of their kits? Well, how about if Netpliance sold "Open Source" kits that included stuff like that HDD mounting plate and such. What they need to do is let people hack into the things and then get all the best hacks incoporated into one -- or more -- kits that people can buy. Sell them the regular I-opener and the kit for whatever extra. Then give them a special warranty and license to hack. It'd be Open Source Hardware, and pretty damn cool. They could even give a couple percent of the proceeds to the guys that first made the hacks that get sold. Since they wouldn't have to assemble anything, there'd be no re-tooling and the only additional SKUs would be for the kits: the BOM for the I-opener itself would stay the same and so would the cost to produce them. And yet everyone would be very happy, because they'd get to play around with a Philips Head and such.)
-B
I grew up with asthma, yet I liked sports. When I tried to play baseball or basketball (I was 6'2" in 9th grade), the teachers got afraid of this note that had been circulating since I was in grade school and which I had not known about. The note (which was purely unofficial) mentioned one period of overexertion, a brief (and useless) hospital trip and my mother's anger. I wasn't to hurt myself while at school, she said, and she was mad at the school for letting me do so (even though I was a kid, and kids do things that are physical).
So I couldn't play sports even though I tried, and even though my childhood asthma has long gone away. I probably shouldn't have tried because it made the stigma worse. I was branded, and an outcast. I was the tall geeky kid that had a mysterious. dubious cloud hanging over him. Pretty soon I started fitting into that mold. The only thing that saved me was the Commodore VIC20 and BASIC. I could -- and did -- spend hours on that thing. I spent so much time on it because nobody else knew the first thing about it (and I didn't have to worry about it liking me). So I found my niche.
It was a completely asocial activity and a totally complete way of removing me from normal adolescent society. I didn't get (m)any dates, even though people say I'm not at all bad looking. I just didn't know how to interact with people, much less girls. I can't say it was harmful since I'm a happily married stock option millionaire now, but it might not have been the conducive to preparing me for a normal life, and many people might not have had the perseverance (or technical inclination) I had. I knew I had to make things right the only way I knew how, so I got an education; a lesser being would have grabbed Daddy's shotgun and started plugging away during third period. It's amazing how much shit you can take after you've had to deal with BASIC.
Every day I went to school and got laughed at and made fun of, even though I'm a very sociable person, funny, nice, and people now generally like me. I was a pariah in high school, and a pariah before it was cool and you could get away with it. I had to break new ground in being a gloomy, moody, socially introverted, outcast kid. I was the quintessential geek prototype. I was even in the chess club, and I even played Dungeons and Dragons (although it seems really funny to actually spell out the name "D&D"... :-). The reason is because I was labeled. And once I was labeled early on, that label stuck.
Imagine it's 2002 and you're like me: spending all your time on the computer, logging on to BBSes (!) and not going to parties, dances, homecoming, track and field. You'd rather be on the PC. What happens? You get labeled. And you'd probably get labeled in such as way as to prevent you from being on the PC. And then you'd have no outlet, yet the label would stick (trust me on this: the label will always stick, even 18 years later). You go completely nutty and you react the only way a teenager can: you act out.
So people (the word "educators" makes me sick) decide you need "integration" and regular "activities" to achieve "normalcy". So they put you in PE and sports and all that (in "low stress" activities, mind you, which makes it even worse) and you get your ass kicked, your shoes filled with shit while you're showering, names called, fights picked, stories told, etc. It's a horribly cruel life and the only thing you come away with is you know that POKE and PEEK aren't what you do in the shower and how to kick a big guy in the knee (or hit him in the throat) before he hits you so you can still run away. But your teachers have your best interests at heart. They want to make you "normal". Pardon my French: FUCK ALL THAT NONSENSE. They should encourage and nurture whatever gifts a kids has, not get their brown-nosing, toady classmates to turn them in for money! What the hell kind of message do you think that sends?!?
You will KILL children with these bounty programs. And that's what they are: bounty programs. I KNOW I would have been turned in, and I know I would have reacted against those that ratted me out. I know it with all my heart. Hell, 18 years later I can even remember the names of the people that would have been first in line to turn me in and get their cash (Blake Bottle, Kevin Maloney and Todd Peterson are you out there?). I would have been dead if I hadn't been left alone in school. I mean, we're talking eight years of hell here, with the only solace being my one other geek friend and a really bad computer. If people could have turned me in for being shunned?!? Jesus, do you realize what that would have done? Ever play "Smear the Queer" when you were in school? They probably call it something else these days, but the concept is the same: shit on the other guy as much as you can because you can only feel good about yourself if you make someone else feel bad. People felt good because of me a lot.
School was traumatic, sure, but I got over it, mostly because my parents saw what was happening and bought me new computer hardware all the time :-). The only thing good to come of it is that I'm extremely sure about who I am and what I can do (and those guys who ridiculed me are probably going to be installing the Corian counters I'm having installed in the new house I just paid cash for). But if I had had classmates making money by turning me in for being what little of myself I could show in public, I'd have either taken my own life or taken a rifle to school. No wonder kids are drawing a bead on their fellow classmates with things like this Pinkerton bounty going on. I would have too. I'd be in jail instead of writing ecommerce apps and having babies and thinking about carpet and 401(k)s. It's not right to snuff out a budding geek before he find his calling, that's what will happen.
Ugh. I can't talk about it anymore. I pray to God that my kids never have to deal with Pinkerton's ideas and WAVE-like programs. If they, do, I'm finding them a school that cares about them. Heck, I might even still react to their Orwellian persecution. Who's to say I'm socially viable after what I've been through? Maybe if my co-workers could turn me in for a bonus or a t-shirt things would be ok... :-)
-B
I was thinking of something like `kill -9 aliens`.
Seriously, I didn't have any plans in mind. And I didn't really mean the post to be that funny. I was being serious, actually. I think it would make a good story.
But as to how the aliens are killed, I don't know. Maybe there's some new signaling protocol between the earth the the satellites that people have been working on. Maybe one of the hacker types figures out he can broadcast something in a weird part of the spectrum that annoys them and makes them want to leave. You know, like one of those deals that drives away squirrels using ultrasound. But only with... uh.. aliens. Maybe the aliens are actually lost-lost relatives of terrestrial squirrels and they've come back to get their cousins. So maybe the same noise annoys them too. Yeah, sure. I can see the book's title now: "So Long, And Thanks For All The Nuts."
OK, so the alien thing is pretty pathetic... :-)
-B
And because everyone can contribute to the creation of the new "entity", the network grows and mutates into something like a cross between Stephenson's Metaverse and Gibson's Bay Bridge. Everyone's particular skills wind up making something that it much more than the sum of its parts. It's so big and weird, nobody understands all of it, much less the extent of its existence.
Then, mayhem. This new network becomes really important (since people can use it freely, they come to rely on it). Now, you add whatever second-act scenario you want:
Pop in a wrap-up about how OSS (and "hackers" -- the White Hat kind) saved the world (or made it a better place to live; pick your grandiosity level) and you've got a story.
Sounds like a fun read. Maybe if we can't Open Source the satellites, we could write an OS book about it?
-B
I read the entire thing.
This announcement is that 1GHz PIII systems will be available, actually available, by the end of the month. They really, honestly have 1GHz PIIIs right now in the hands of HP, IBM, and somebody else... I forget who.
Really? You honestly think so? The 1GHz PIIIs are available? Not for me at work. Not for my friend's company. Not for the guys that need to actually use that much horsepower for things like 3D rendering or high-end graphics work or middleware workgroup servers.
The only reason the 1GHz PIIIs will be ready at the end of the month is that Intel only has enough supply to give to a few choice customers (likely those same customers that have toed their line). I'd be willing to bet that the faster PIIIs were originally intended to be 900MHz parts and Intel found enough good ones that can be safely overclocked.
The point I'm trying to make is, if you're going to blast someone, at least blast them for real reasons.
I was. For all intents and purposes, Intel doesn't have a 1GHz PIII available. It has a few CPUs -- not enough to go around, mind you -- that it can share with a tiny percentage of the market. All in the name of having the fastest CPU. Why give them out only to the small fry when the real bread and butter is Compaq and Gateway and Dell?
AMD had a 500 MHz Athlon out well before a Joe User could get one. AMD got the real customers taken care of first: they had systems to the people that could actually use them. They were up front about it, and Intel isn't. That's what I'm saying.
The "third quarter" bit refers to when systems will be available for coporate volume purchases. "People" will be able to buy "the damn things" by the end of the month.
As long as I don't want them from my regular vendor I can get them. Wow. Just let me know when they release a 1 GHz CPU that I can actually use.
-B
The reason is that Intel is scared shitless of AMD. Intel knows that AMD can best them in the MHz (GHz?) race at any time, and they know that AMD has 1GHz chips. They also know that the Athlon beats the pants off the old 686 core of the Pentium III (which is really only a Pentium Pro that went uptown).
The fact of the matter is that Intel is scrambling to keep its mindshare, so it makes big news about things that will happen six months from now. People that trade stocks and make PCs now have it in their heads that Intel actually has a 1GHz system, and that they were the first ones to break the GHz barrier. Those people forget about AMD and the K7. That's the really Intel's strategy: keep announcing things that aren't here yet so the spotlight never strays too far, even though the PIII is inferior. Make people forget about that "other" chip company.
But don't take my word for it, no. Go try and buy an 800 or even 750 MHz PIII system. Then go shop around for an 850 MHz Athlon system. AMD announces things when they happen, like a company should. Intel is the hardware equivalent of Microsoft and I hope their subterfuge and bully tactics (look through Tom's Hardware for articles about Intel and K7 motherboard manufacturers for a little info about friendly old Intel) come back to bite them in the ass.
-B
SmellU-SmellMe: Don't get caught chatting without it.
-B
-B
You might have to go with the "little house" concept: put an otherwise normal PC inside an outdoor enclosure made for that purpose. I'm thinking of the kind that they use for cellular equipment. But that ain't going to be cheap.
-B
I shoulda been installing SSH via sources anyway.
-B