Yesterday I wrote a piece in my journal about my experiences with SuSE tech support.
It sucks.
They are responsive, I'll give them that, but they assume you are an idiot and treat you as such. They would rather tell you how dumb they think you are than help you fix your problem. They are polite about it - meaning they don't call you an idiot to your face - but their condescending tone gives them away.
They shut up real fast, though, when it turns out they were wrong.
Can we in the Linux realm get to the point where everything is pluggable with the minimum of prayers? Can I install my stupid screen saver by clicking on a button? That's what Average Joe will want. That's what I want!
Tried SuSE 7.2? It's very close.
Aside from an issue I had with the SuSE 2.4 kernel, it's a graphical "wizard" install all the way through to a KDE desktop. The screensaver was already installed and I could switch by clicking a button. It auto-detected all my hardware, including sound and old ISA cards, and auto-configured PPP with dialog boxes.
The only config files I have edited by hand are my.bashrc (setting up my development environment) and my.sircrc.pl (writing a command to let me pipe fortune into irc by typing/fortune).
Of course, I also made a command to pipe in a fortune -o.
if you need to send a document to someone you will have to save it as msword file and some features you used might be left out.
Nah, just send them the document in its native form. If they complain that they can't open it, just tell them they will have to get OpenOffice.
It's what the Word users did to me for years. In college, I had to go to a computer lab to type my resume, instead of using ApplixWare, because dumb companies wanted it in Word format.
If that's acceptable behavior for MS Office users, it's acceptable behavior for you. Word format isn't the standard. Standards aren't owned.
MS sells keyboards and mice. Yes, they are getting into the console market as well. They didn't do any of that 10 years ago when they started the research lab, and they are still primarily a software company. Why do they want their own console? To sell games, of course.
MS's dabbles in hardware at best - their interest is in software. They don't sell big iron, and don't want to.
Microsoft Research the first research lab started by a computer company???
No, by a software company. Sure, Xerox, Apple, IBM, HP, Digital, etc. all had research labs. But, they are all hardware/software companies. The primary focus of MS is software, and that makes it unique. The others all use software as leverage to sell hardware.
Whatever happened to Palm's plan to exit the hardware business and become the 'Microsoft of Handheld Devices' anyway? This was an announced strategy back when a bunch of their hardware designers quit and founded handspring...
Well, something like 98% of Palm's revenue comes from the sale of hardware, and what's left from PalmOS licensees. They did recently
spin off a subsidiary to handle PalmOS and licensing it. Now Palm proper is just a hardware company.
I just watched the movie... It looks really good, I'll have to give it that. I'm still skeptical of gameplay, but the animation is great. (I still think Link looks like and ugly little girl).
BTW, the reason the quality is so bad is because it is a video of a video presentation - meaning someone filmed a projection screen with a HandyCam. Then they used stills from the HandyCam tape for screenshots.
In Denmark, whatever you produce (texts, images, lyrics) is automatically your copyright. You don't buy it, or have to specifically declare it copyrighted. Isn't it like this in the States?
Yes, it is. But if you ever go to court to defend it, things become so much easier if you have registered it with the copyright office - that establishes exactly what you created and attaches a date to it.
Another thing I have heard about is mailing it to yourself, and not opening the package. This passes it through a government agency (the USPS) and gives it an official date (the postmark). This would probably be better than nothing, but I wouldn't trust it like I would trust an official registration with the copyright office.
So while I theoretically own the copyright on everything I create the moment I create it, proving the what and the when is tricky without a registration.
Man, Killer Klowns is the best. Prime entertainment. It makes me laugh - I don't know if it is supposed to make me laugh, but it does, and I appreciate that.
I had a long and scintillating phone conversation with Scott McCloud last night, where he revealed to me that he's actually a demon from outer space. -- Jon, goats.com
Goats is one of many great online comics, but happens to be my favorite.
I was in Colorado last winter, using my computer in the basement of my parent's house. The static electricity was really bad. I had a big blue arc shoot from my finger into my logitech mouse and fry the serial port on my motherboard.
It was enough electricity to give me quite a zing, as well.
This is probably what happened with the Palms.
In my case, I don't blame the mouse. I don't blame the motherboard. I blame myself for not grounding myself before I touched the computer. I know better.
If this is indeed the problem, this lawsuit is bogus.
Did you see the movie, or just listen to it? The death star had huge chunks missing from it. Sure, it was habitable, and they could fire the laser and blow stuff up, but the thing was unfinished. That's how the rebel fleet was able to fly ships inside of it to get to the reactor - they flew through the part that wasn't completed yet.
Read the article instead of rushing to get a post at the top. Gator doesn't change anyones web content. It pops up an ad - in another window - on the user's desktop.
This was all clearly outlined in the article you obviously didn't read.
to build not one but TWO Death Stars with the same flaw?
The first Death Star was destroyed by sending a torpedo down an exaust port that triggered a chain reaction that eventually blew up the main reactor.
The second Death Star, if complete, would presumably be without this flaw - at the time of the attack, however, it was incomplete, so the rebels just flew through the infrastructure and blew up the reactor directly.
So only the first Death Star had the flaw - the only problem with the second was that it wasn't finished yet.
I think it would also be nice to have a new hybrid OS running the device. If they could take bits of PalmOS and bits of WindowsCE and bits of Linux, then you'd have a killer all-in-one device.
Yeah, maybe we could put bits of xinu and qnx in there too, just to round it out a bit. And maybe some bits of OSX. Yeah, that would be really leet, dude! Now let's go haxor a gibson!
but I wonder, what was wrong with this guy that he just didn't leave.
Well, he tried a couple times to fix the problem, because he wanted to see it set right. I got the impression he had alot of "love" invested in the site, and would rather see it set straight than just walk out. But he was already looking for another job when they fired him.
It's tough to just get up and leave one day - everyone has bills and this guy had a family. I think he handled it well, and I know it took a lot of courage to blow the whistle initially - and then a second time.
So if you want to talk about morals, I think this guy has quite a bit.
Astroturfing bothered him
He tried to help set things right
He didn't forget about the welfare of his family and just walk out one day.
So, Win-Developer, did you read the whole article? Are you trolling? Or do you just have some twisted little morality you'd like to share with us?
It's a private company. They can sell whatever they want. Try buying a car without any tires.
Actually, it's a public company, traded on NASDAQ.
"They" can sell whatever they want, but if it's not what customers want, they'll go out of business. And I imagine if the only way to sell me a car was to take the tires off of it, the dealer would do it.
An engine would have been a better analogy, because it would probably wouldn't be worth the dealer's time to take out an engine just to sell a body. But that analogy is broken too, because an engine costs a larger percentage of the car than an operating system does of the computer. Especially if you're Dell and buy big licenses. It would be very little trouble for dell to sell a computer with no OS. ---
In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License.
So, just because both are on a CD or hard drive together does not constitute a derivative work.
Read the license for yourself. Don't come back here and pretend to know about the GPL until you've read it.
Slashdot Mirror
Kinda hard to get on IRC when the kernel won't load, eh?
It sucks.
They are responsive, I'll give them that, but they assume you are an idiot and treat you as such. They would rather tell you how dumb they think you are than help you fix your problem. They are polite about it - meaning they don't call you an idiot to your face - but their condescending tone gives them away.
They shut up real fast, though, when it turns out they were wrong.
Tried SuSE 7.2? It's very close.
Aside from an issue I had with the SuSE 2.4 kernel, it's a graphical "wizard" install all the way through to a KDE desktop. The screensaver was already installed and I could switch by clicking a button. It auto-detected all my hardware, including sound and old ISA cards, and auto-configured PPP with dialog boxes.
The only config files I have edited by hand are my .bashrc (setting up my development environment) and my .sircrc.pl (writing a command to let me pipe fortune into irc by typing /fortune).
Of course, I also made a command to pipe in a fortune -o.
Nah, just send them the document in its native form. If they complain that they can't open it, just tell them they will have to get OpenOffice.
It's what the Word users did to me for years. In college, I had to go to a computer lab to type my resume, instead of using ApplixWare, because dumb companies wanted it in Word format.
If that's acceptable behavior for MS Office users, it's acceptable behavior for you. Word format isn't the standard. Standards aren't owned.
I heard on the radio that the USAF shot it down because they determined it was hijacked and headed for the DC area.
I don't see a problem with it. It's just the free market at work, supply and demand. This is the kind of thing we told the russians that they needed.
Buying this stuff is not for me, but I'm not one to stand in the way of capitalism.
Even then, it's only as safe if your compiler hasn't been compromised.
MS sells keyboards and mice. Yes, they are getting into the console market as well. They didn't do any of that 10 years ago when they started the research lab, and they are still primarily a software company. Why do they want their own console? To sell games, of course.
MS's dabbles in hardware at best - their interest is in software. They don't sell big iron, and don't want to.
No, by a software company. Sure, Xerox, Apple, IBM, HP, Digital, etc. all had research labs. But, they are all hardware/software companies. The primary focus of MS is software, and that makes it unique. The others all use software as leverage to sell hardware.
Well, something like 98% of Palm's revenue comes from the sale of hardware, and what's left from PalmOS licensees. They did recently spin off a subsidiary to handle PalmOS and licensing it. Now Palm proper is just a hardware company.
I just watched the movie... It looks really good, I'll have to give it that. I'm still skeptical of gameplay, but the animation is great. (I still think Link looks like and ugly little girl).
BTW, the reason the quality is so bad is because it is a video of a video presentation - meaning someone filmed a projection screen with a HandyCam. Then they used stills from the HandyCam tape for screenshots.
I agree. I recently bought a SNES just to play Link to the Past.
The dungeon puzzles are what made LTTP such a great game.. N64 Zelda couldn't touch it.
And maybe they're just bad screenshots, but I think the cartoons look dismal. They could have gotten a much better cartoonist.
Yep. That's what I was saying.
In Denmark, whatever you produce (texts, images, lyrics) is automatically your copyright. You don't buy it, or have to specifically declare it copyrighted. Isn't it like this in the States?
Yes, it is. But if you ever go to court to defend it, things become so much easier if you have registered it with the copyright office - that establishes exactly what you created and attaches a date to it.
Another thing I have heard about is mailing it to yourself, and not opening the package. This passes it through a government agency (the USPS) and gives it an official date (the postmark). This would probably be better than nothing, but I wouldn't trust it like I would trust an official registration with the copyright office.
So while I theoretically own the copyright on everything I create the moment I create it, proving the what and the when is tricky without a registration.
This is all in the US of course.
Man, Killer Klowns is the best. Prime entertainment. It makes me laugh - I don't know if it is supposed to make me laugh, but it does, and I appreciate that.
And yes, it's spelled with a 'K'.
- reinventing micropayments
- micro-thoughs on micropayments
- the last word on micropayments and scott mccloud
I had a long and scintillating phone conversation with Scott McCloud last night, where he revealed to me that he's actually a demon from outer space. -- Jon, goats.comGoats is one of many great online comics, but happens to be my favorite.
I was in Colorado last winter, using my computer in the basement of my parent's house. The static electricity was really bad. I had a big blue arc shoot from my finger into my logitech mouse and fry the serial port on my motherboard.
It was enough electricity to give me quite a zing, as well.
This is probably what happened with the Palms.
In my case, I don't blame the mouse. I don't blame the motherboard. I blame myself for not grounding myself before I touched the computer. I know better.
If this is indeed the problem, this lawsuit is bogus.
Did you see the movie, or just listen to it? The death star had huge chunks missing from it. Sure, it was habitable, and they could fire the laser and blow stuff up, but the thing was unfinished. That's how the rebel fleet was able to fly ships inside of it to get to the reactor - they flew through the part that wasn't completed yet.
Don't argue. Go watch the movie.
Read the article instead of rushing to get a post at the top. Gator doesn't change anyones web content. It pops up an ad - in another window - on the user's desktop.
This was all clearly outlined in the article you obviously didn't read.
The first Death Star was destroyed by sending a torpedo down an exaust port that triggered a chain reaction that eventually blew up the main reactor.
The second Death Star, if complete, would presumably be without this flaw - at the time of the attack, however, it was incomplete, so the rebels just flew through the infrastructure and blew up the reactor directly.
So only the first Death Star had the flaw - the only problem with the second was that it wasn't finished yet.
Yeah, maybe we could put bits of xinu and qnx in there too, just to round it out a bit. And maybe some bits of OSX. Yeah, that would be really leet, dude! Now let's go haxor a gibson!
By the way, look at this phone.
---
Well, he tried a couple times to fix the problem, because he wanted to see it set right. I got the impression he had alot of "love" invested in the site, and would rather see it set straight than just walk out. But he was already looking for another job when they fired him.
It's tough to just get up and leave one day - everyone has bills and this guy had a family. I think he handled it well, and I know it took a lot of courage to blow the whistle initially - and then a second time.
So if you want to talk about morals, I think this guy has quite a bit.
- Astroturfing bothered him
- He tried to help set things right
- He didn't forget about the welfare of his family and just walk out one day.
So, Win-Developer, did you read the whole article? Are you trolling? Or do you just have some twisted little morality you'd like to share with us?Actually, it's a public company, traded on NASDAQ.
"They" can sell whatever they want, but if it's not what customers want, they'll go out of business. And I imagine if the only way to sell me a car was to take the tires off of it, the dealer would do it.
An engine would have been a better analogy, because it would probably wouldn't be worth the dealer's time to take out an engine just to sell a body. But that analogy is broken too, because an engine costs a larger percentage of the car than an operating system does of the computer. Especially if you're Dell and buy big licenses. It would be very little trouble for dell to sell a computer with no OS.
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My response was to the vague scenario in AC's post - not to the article itself, which makes it a little off-topic.
The AC was talking about MacOS (and the BSD core, which he wrongly assumed was GPL'd) installing "software" (in the application sense).
Yes, static linking is creating a "work based on the program." You are right. That's just not what we were talking about.
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In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License.
So, just because both are on a CD or hard drive together does not constitute a derivative work.
Read the license for yourself. Don't come back here and pretend to know about the GPL until you've read it.
You can read it online here.
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