Over the last few years of open source, why is it that when an open source company becomes successful financially (and by this, I mean is able to operate without going under), they become the source of evil-ness in the eyes of others? I understand that Taco put the "evil forces" in quotes to indicate a certain level of sarcasm, but to some in Open Source Land, they do see it this way.
What has RedHat done that is so bad? Sold out? Stifled innovation? As far as I am concerned, no, they have not. In fact, I am very happy with their products on the server level and use it on three production machines at my local university. The Airforce is even looking into using servers running RedHat. Not only does their stuff run well, but it gets good name recognition for Linux as a whole.
It isn't just RedHat, either. I am sure that if the Apache Foundation were to go private and start selling a commercial version of Apache httpd AND become commercially sound, they would be looked upon in the same way.
I am asking in all seriousness. I want to understand this mentallity.
Sure, people were able to get their foot in the door maybe five years ago, but times have changed. With the dotcom bust, the market is now saturated with talent that has no formal schooling, but write mean code. In fact, I just got out of a meeting for my company where the comment was made that the problem right now is a glut of too much high priced talent. So, unfortunately, you will probably have to find a degree some how, even if it is doing the Sally Struthers home schooling method. Places are starting to place a huge emphasis on that in an effort to seperate people since there are so many tech types out in the world.
I can some what relate in that I have just a BS, but a Masters degree is what my company is interested in. Plus, I am classified as a test engineer, but would really like to program. I know it is hard, but even one course a semester would look great on a resume. It would tell your HR and higher ups that you are making an effort for a formal education. Heck, just taking two courses last year got me a pay raise.
This is the direction I am taking and I don't regret it. I am moderately happy in what I am doing, and have found persistantly bugging the higher ups for more programming to do doesn't hurt either. One final piece of advice I could offer is don't ignore the power of the web. Take on a moderately difficult task (in my case, creating interactive web sites for my boss and my old school) and then gloat about it as much as you can on a webpage along with a copy of your resume. This can get someone's attention as well!
What is climate but (basically dumbing it down) taking the average of the last x number of years of weather to define the norm. So, to define what the climate is fifty years into the future, one would have to take a look at the weather for each of those years. I agree that is no small task.
I must take issue with the parent post, though. I agree that weather is a choatic system, very much so. But, all aspects of weather can be parameterized, even the most chaotic ones. The key here is a matter of scale. The mesoscale type systems are extremely hard to model, but you take a global system (long wave patterns), and you will have a much better time of modeling them. How? You throw out the small scale stuff like your butterfly and such. On a global scale, something like that would quickly disappear into the larger scale. That is why global models (like the MRF, NOGAPS, and such) work better out farther (those models run out to 384 hours as opposed to smaller scale models that run out 84). Verification rates are acceptable for those models out that far (numbers I cannot quote off the top of my head). They could do better, but they would require more time to process and would not be useful to the operational meteorologist.
This distributed system will be over eight months and on such a large scale, the results will be useful.
This is cool. Beyond being used to understand the current climate change that is happening, obscure weather phenom could be modeled on a larger scale for a longer time.
Perfect example would be an article out of the latest AMS Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Earth Interactions that discusses plane contrails. It seems that the lack of air traffic after 9/11 allowed the meteorlogist to work on a long held theory that plane contrails affect weather. Only problem was that the dataset was only over three days, which was just a small time sample.
Using a system such as this, those weather conditions could be recreated over a longer period of time and the results could be realized. Too cool.
Point 1: I guess the point was missed. I was implying that such an act is shown in some detail in a video game. The fact that health was returned was secondary. I would guess if protection was used, some would feel refreshed afterwards..... ahem.
Point 2: I doubt he would, but I wouldn't want to be the one to explain to him what WAS going on in the car, hence my concern. You might feel comfortable telling a lie to a kid, but I don't, no matter the age. Then again, you could just tell him the player is getting health back... heh.
[quote] Try being a "real" parent and taking responsibility for your children instead of whining at congress to do it for you. [/quote]
Exactly!!!! By forcing parental consent on such things, the parent is directly involved in what their kid buys. Just like they should be involved in movie selection and such.
Your article leaves out one important piece of info, the rental cannot occur without parental consent. In my opinion, this changes things considerably. Something people don't seem to recognize is that video games have become a lot more "real" in just the last five years. Real to the point that a person can get their health back by having sex with a prostitute. Beyond the fact that I think this is one of the most innovative ways to get life back, I wouldn't want my friend's three year old to see that. If it is good enough for movies, it is good enough for modern games...
Actually, I would respectfully disagree. Window manager themes are becoming more and more complex which leads to many revisions of said theme. I believe that the setup for freshmeat would be perfect to track different revisions and releases. Plus, in this period of economic downturn and unrest, companies are spread pretty thin in the employee department. This leads to a lack of available web programmers to do the job. I am just glad to just have it back.
I see your point, but I don't believe they just threw it there. They are actually using that site's code base which makes this different....
Please note, it is first thing here in the central part of the US and my brain doesn't normally work as well. So, read at your own risk...
Until recently, I had been running Win2k on my Toshiba laptop due to a need for good presentation software (heck, when you work for the US Air Force, it is either Powerpoint or you don't do your job...). Well, the need to do some web/sql development pushed me to put Source Mage Linux on the ol' workhorse. Needless to say, I needed some presenation software.
Enter OpenOffice. I had looked at Koffice, but I didn't want to run a full blown desktop environment (currently, I am running X 4.2 with E) and the dependencies to get Koffice up were huge. I had read about OpenOffice and was pretty pumped that would be the solution. I had no idea.
As I said above, Powerpoint was my main concern, but to a lesser extent, Excel since I import a lot of spreadsheet activity into my presentation. So, I get OpenOffice installed and I pull out my last ppt file from a recent meeting and go to work. First thing I noticed is that it takes OpenOffice a while to start. I am not quite sure what to contribute this to, as my system is a Celery 650 with 192 meg of ram. Once it has been loaded, though, it appears to be cached since it starts very fast there after. Next, it loaded my Powerpoint file, something from Powerpoint 2000. It takes a little while, something that doesn't really surprise me since I have quite a few Excel tables imbedded in the show. After about 25 seconds, it is up.
The first thing I notice about the presentation is that it looks great! In presentation mode, the slides are clear and the text is even anti-aliased. Doing a side by side comparison with my XP machine, I was actually more impressed by the Impress display. Great job there. Next, I went to one of the many Excel objects and double clicked it. Boom, it loaded the Calc object in the presentation and I was able to edit the spreadsheet like Powerpoint/Excel. Too damn impressive.
What else do I like.... hmmmmm:
I like the fact that what ever OpenOffice app you are in, you can open up any document. Very cool
My Word documents look as good in OpenOffice. Very nice.
The desktop thing is gone. Thank God...
I am sure there is more, but I have just started playing...
If you can, go and help out these people. It is good stuff...
I just wish *blatant non subtle hinting* some kind soul could get me into an early showing in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area;)
Back in the day of Star Trek IV, a friend got me into an early screening, and it was just me and him. The experience was not all that great. I guess my problem is that movies are more of a group thing for me. The Phantom Menace was a blast to see in a big group, while STIV was relatively boring with just me and that guy (sorry Tag if you are reading this...). The biggest problem is that those early screenings, it is usually just two tickets, you and the friend that got them. SciFi is something best experienced en masse.
And this is a problem because? Gnome 1.4 has been around for quite some time and has been hashed over in so many reviews, why bother to cover it again? Meanwhile, KDE is at a new version 3.0 and is on the tips of everyone's lips at the moment. I am all for equal representation of a desktop environment, but could you blame the reviewer for wanting to cover something new? Sheesh....
As for desktops, I have recently discovered Sorcery Linux. This has been a blast, and the best part is I only get those programs I want. There. My own mini-review of a Linux distro. Check it out, you won't be sorry.
I studied lots of material for over six months before coming to my conclusion to go with the industry standard. The speed of the DVD+R(W) was tempting, but there were quite a few motivating points that made me swing the other way. In no particular order:
All those wonderful PowerMac/iMac machines that are being pumped out have the Pioneer drive in them. Even if the DVD+ format wins out, there will still be quite a few people making disks down the road. With Apple behind them, though, I thought it a safe bet it would have a pretty large margin share. (Before you go "Apple only has single-digit % market share", I am aware, but alot of people I know think "If it is on a Mac for AV, it must be pretty good).
Compatibility was a huge issue for me. I have quite a few family members with DVD players that I don't know about. With DVD-R, I am almost always guaranteed that the disc will work on their player. That way, I can send a disc out without worrying about it not working.
To be honest, I have been tracking the DVD+ standards group, and their inability to come to an agreement on the +R standard until very recently had me kind of upset. To top that off, companies promising DVD+R upgrades (HP included) have quietly removed this notice from their websites and their products. One of the forums I visited even had an anonymous report that a tech said they will not upgrade the units. Don't have time to wait for you guys to pull your thumbs out of your butts, guys....
Finally, my biggest motivation: price. Best Buy had one on the shelf for $300 with an additional 10% off at the register. Couldn't pass that up.
Sure, there are drawbacks. As the article mentioned, write times are slow. If I am burning a DVD-RW to test on my x-box, I might as well go and get dinner with friends. The unit is also a little slow on the read, but nothing a second DVD-ROM drive didn't fix. The other thing that might deter some folks is that the software is way under-developed. I wish Adobe would just build DVD creation support into Premiere so I would have a nice all in one solution for my digital camcorder, but I can dream.
In all, I am glad at my purchase. As I mentioned above, compatiblity has be fantastic, and I have something that I can play digitally for quite some time.
Come on, I am sure that quite a few/. folks wouldn't do the same thing if they had the funds in a heartbeat, at least those of us that could squeeze into a space suit (myself excluded).
Of course, I am not quite sure where all the animosity comes from. I will be the first to cry out against N'Sync and all that Jedi mumbo jumbo that Lucas tried to pull. Bass himself seems to be pretty smart and articulate, though (from what I saw when he was on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire way back when it was fun to watch at a bar with friends with lots of beer). Of course, anyone talking with Regis Philbin would probably seem pretty smart in comparison. Now that I think about it, not the best way to judge someone.
If anyone from Mandrake is reading these, I do have a humble, not-so-top-priority-but-would-be-cool, request. One thing I have enjoyed about the Windows 2000 setup is that it makes setting up a streaming media server super easy. This is one area that, although I have done so on a Linux box, would benefit greatly from an automatic install during the system install/upgrade. Again, just something that I believe would help make a distro more popular and would make my life a lot easier.
Receiving Threatening Phone Calls Is Cool?!
on
Goodbye, "Majestic"
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I dunno, sounds pretty uncool to me. The list of reasons is pretty long. First off, going on a first date to dinner and having to tell your girlfriend that you need to take a call from a video game would be pretty dorky. Second, I would have to guess somewhere in the message, it would let you know that it was the game calling, otherwise you might have a serious threat on your life. Case in point: "I am going to kill you, I am going to gut you like a stuck pig. Thanks for playing Majestic." I don't know, the whole idea just sounds really, REALLY cheesy.
Apart from really fast kernel compiles and stuff like that, what's the benefit of such a machine?
There are quite a few uses beyond gaming, in fact. Here are just a couple that made me invest in a dual Athlon 1600+:
Adobe After Effects. The programs is SMP aware, and it shows. Rendering can now be done and the system doesn't go to complete pot. Saves a great deal of time in the long run.
Blender. Not that it is SMP aware, but I can now let it render and still use the system. Another time saver.
Adobe Premiere. When you go to output your finished product, the system is still usable.
Sure, these are pretty specialized, but for what I do, it is awesome. Plus, VC++ just works well with it. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some downsides to SMP, specially from a Linux driver standpoint. Both Soundblaster and nVidia had major issues with SMP and their respective products. Issues that have been fixed, and they were not major, as I just changed out the video card to something else and didn't have sound, so I was able to still use my Linux desktop. Just my $.02.
The talk in the theater after i saw the movie last night is that this is the last View Askew production
Not entirely true. What JSBSB represents is the end to the Jersey series, in live action form. There is a cartoon movie version of Clerks, in the same style as the to-quickly-canceled TV series was, but the live action stuff is done.
From what I have heard, Smith wants to do more serious movies (even though Chasing Amy was one of the best drama type movies I have seen in some time). Case in point is that IMDB had printed an article that said Smith has already signed Ben Affleck to play a character based on Smith's life as a father. Sounds pretty serious.
Dude, dude, dude!!!! Next time you post a link to a porn site, give those of us at work an indication that's what it is!!!! Damn, I am sure some red light went off somewhere just now....
...the movie The Running Man will become reality. Why not? If this kind of trash is so popular in this day and age, how low can the American television audience go? I could see it now, gather a group of rough and tough guys and gals on death row. Promise the winner life while the others would die. The jail system wins, the viewers win. It would be a blast. Plus, every year, you could get the top ten winners and have a pay-per-view event. I bet McMahon would be all over that. For my money, the Net is much more wholesome.
Unless you are blind, all quickiemarts (aka 7-Eleven, Kum and Go, etc) have some form of sticker when you enter the shop that says the place is under the camera's eye. So, in that respect, it is different. Sorry, but no legal action for you.
Shallow? Ouch, I thought my vision was rather deep, now shallow.;-)
I can see your point, but my original comment on all of this was from a much larger stand point, not just of Slashdot readers.
I do agree that most/. folk would be able to "fix" a bad WinXP registration mess. My whole point from the beginning was that the majority of users wouldn't.
Ah, but you vision is too narrow. If you are Joe Blow grandma who's first computer was running WinXP, for all intent and purposes, you computer has ceased to function.
You do have a choice. I just wish more people would realize that they don't have to put up with this sort of thing, and choose to eschew Microsoft.
I couldn't agree more. That is why I think a grass roots effort needs to be mobilized. Creating a website or posting this sort of thing on Slashdot won't help, it just leads to informed people complaining to informed people. The informed people need to get in touch with the uninformed. Around my house and where I work, I am considered one who has a some what informed opinion on things computer related. Lately, I have been getting asked quite a bit about WinXP and I tell people what I think. Stay with 2000/98SE. Got to get the word out! The people I feel bad for are those who buy a new computer. Ouch.
...that by installing WindowsXP, you give Microsoft lease to cripple your machine? OK, I can see it in OfficeXP, fine. But when you give a company the ability to bring down your entire computer, that is just stupid. I have read about Microsoft, I have heard from Microsoft reps that it is painless to get the key to register and open you computer back up, but have you CALLED Microsoft recently? I would be scared that I wouldn't be able to open up my computer until the phone lines were a little less congested. This is dumb, really really dumb.
Slashdot Mirror
Over the last few years of open source, why is it that when an open source company becomes successful financially (and by this, I mean is able to operate without going under), they become the source of evil-ness in the eyes of others? I understand that Taco put the "evil forces" in quotes to indicate a certain level of sarcasm, but to some in Open Source Land, they do see it this way.
What has RedHat done that is so bad? Sold out? Stifled innovation? As far as I am concerned, no, they have not. In fact, I am very happy with their products on the server level and use it on three production machines at my local university. The Airforce is even looking into using servers running RedHat. Not only does their stuff run well, but it gets good name recognition for Linux as a whole.
It isn't just RedHat, either. I am sure that if the Apache Foundation were to go private and start selling a commercial version of Apache httpd AND become commercially sound, they would be looked upon in the same way.
I am asking in all seriousness. I want to understand this mentallity.
Sure, people were able to get their foot in the door maybe five years ago, but times have changed. With the dotcom bust, the market is now saturated with talent that has no formal schooling, but write mean code. In fact, I just got out of a meeting for my company where the comment was made that the problem right now is a glut of too much high priced talent. So, unfortunately, you will probably have to find a degree some how, even if it is doing the Sally Struthers home schooling method. Places are starting to place a huge emphasis on that in an effort to seperate people since there are so many tech types out in the world.
I can some what relate in that I have just a BS, but a Masters degree is what my company is interested in. Plus, I am classified as a test engineer, but would really like to program. I know it is hard, but even one course a semester would look great on a resume. It would tell your HR and higher ups that you are making an effort for a formal education. Heck, just taking two courses last year got me a pay raise.
This is the direction I am taking and I don't regret it. I am moderately happy in what I am doing, and have found persistantly bugging the higher ups for more programming to do doesn't hurt either. One final piece of advice I could offer is don't ignore the power of the web. Take on a moderately difficult task (in my case, creating interactive web sites for my boss and my old school) and then gloat about it as much as you can on a webpage along with a copy of your resume. This can get someone's attention as well!
What is climate but (basically dumbing it down) taking the average of the last x number of years of weather to define the norm. So, to define what the climate is fifty years into the future, one would have to take a look at the weather for each of those years. I agree that is no small task.
I must take issue with the parent post, though. I agree that weather is a choatic system, very much so. But, all aspects of weather can be parameterized, even the most chaotic ones. The key here is a matter of scale. The mesoscale type systems are extremely hard to model, but you take a global system (long wave patterns), and you will have a much better time of modeling them. How? You throw out the small scale stuff like your butterfly and such. On a global scale, something like that would quickly disappear into the larger scale. That is why global models (like the MRF, NOGAPS, and such) work better out farther (those models run out to 384 hours as opposed to smaller scale models that run out 84). Verification rates are acceptable for those models out that far (numbers I cannot quote off the top of my head). They could do better, but they would require more time to process and would not be useful to the operational meteorologist.
This distributed system will be over eight months and on such a large scale, the results will be useful.
This is cool. Beyond being used to understand the current climate change that is happening, obscure weather phenom could be modeled on a larger scale for a longer time.
Perfect example would be an article out of the latest AMS Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Earth Interactions that discusses plane contrails. It seems that the lack of air traffic after 9/11 allowed the meteorlogist to work on a long held theory that plane contrails affect weather. Only problem was that the dataset was only over three days, which was just a small time sample.
Using a system such as this, those weather conditions could be recreated over a longer period of time and the results could be realized. Too cool.
Point 1: I guess the point was missed. I was implying that such an act is shown in some detail in a video game. The fact that health was returned was secondary. I would guess if protection was used, some would feel refreshed afterwards..... ahem.
Point 2: I doubt he would, but I wouldn't want to be the one to explain to him what WAS going on in the car, hence my concern. You might feel comfortable telling a lie to a kid, but I don't, no matter the age. Then again, you could just tell him the player is getting health back... heh.
[quote]
Try being a "real" parent and taking responsibility for your children instead of whining at congress to do it for you.
[/quote]
Exactly!!!! By forcing parental consent on such things, the parent is directly involved in what their kid buys. Just like they should be involved in movie selection and such.
...as the government seems to move faster then my ability to web browse.
Your article leaves out one important piece of info, the rental cannot occur without parental consent. In my opinion, this changes things considerably. Something people don't seem to recognize is that video games have become a lot more "real" in just the last five years. Real to the point that a person can get their health back by having sex with a prostitute. Beyond the fact that I think this is one of the most innovative ways to get life back, I wouldn't want my friend's three year old to see that. If it is good enough for movies, it is good enough for modern games...
Actually, I would respectfully disagree. Window manager themes are becoming more and more complex which leads to many revisions of said theme. I believe that the setup for freshmeat would be perfect to track different revisions and releases. Plus, in this period of economic downturn and unrest, companies are spread pretty thin in the employee department. This leads to a lack of available web programmers to do the job. I am just glad to just have it back.
I see your point, but I don't believe they just threw it there. They are actually using that site's code base which makes this different....
Until recently, I had been running Win2k on my Toshiba laptop due to a need for good presentation software (heck, when you work for the US Air Force, it is either Powerpoint or you don't do your job...). Well, the need to do some web/sql development pushed me to put Source Mage Linux on the ol' workhorse. Needless to say, I needed some presenation software.
Enter OpenOffice. I had looked at Koffice, but I didn't want to run a full blown desktop environment (currently, I am running X 4.2 with E) and the dependencies to get Koffice up were huge. I had read about OpenOffice and was pretty pumped that would be the solution. I had no idea.
As I said above, Powerpoint was my main concern, but to a lesser extent, Excel since I import a lot of spreadsheet activity into my presentation. So, I get OpenOffice installed and I pull out my last ppt file from a recent meeting and go to work. First thing I noticed is that it takes OpenOffice a while to start. I am not quite sure what to contribute this to, as my system is a Celery 650 with 192 meg of ram. Once it has been loaded, though, it appears to be cached since it starts very fast there after. Next, it loaded my Powerpoint file, something from Powerpoint 2000. It takes a little while, something that doesn't really surprise me since I have quite a few Excel tables imbedded in the show. After about 25 seconds, it is up.
The first thing I notice about the presentation is that it looks great! In presentation mode, the slides are clear and the text is even anti-aliased. Doing a side by side comparison with my XP machine, I was actually more impressed by the Impress display. Great job there. Next, I went to one of the many Excel objects and double clicked it. Boom, it loaded the Calc object in the presentation and I was able to edit the spreadsheet like Powerpoint/Excel. Too damn impressive.
What else do I like.... hmmmmm:
- I like the fact that what ever OpenOffice app you are in, you can open up any document. Very cool
- My Word documents look as good in OpenOffice. Very nice.
- The desktop thing is gone. Thank God...
- I am sure there is more, but I have just started playing...
If you can, go and help out these people. It is good stuff...I just wish *blatant non subtle hinting* some kind soul could get me into an early showing in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area ;)
Back in the day of Star Trek IV, a friend got me into an early screening, and it was just me and him. The experience was not all that great. I guess my problem is that movies are more of a group thing for me. The Phantom Menace was a blast to see in a big group, while STIV was relatively boring with just me and that guy (sorry Tag if you are reading this...). The biggest problem is that those early screenings, it is usually just two tickets, you and the friend that got them. SciFi is something best experienced en masse.
And this is a problem because? Gnome 1.4 has been around for quite some time and has been hashed over in so many reviews, why bother to cover it again? Meanwhile, KDE is at a new version 3.0 and is on the tips of everyone's lips at the moment. I am all for equal representation of a desktop environment, but could you blame the reviewer for wanting to cover something new? Sheesh....
As for desktops, I have recently discovered Sorcery Linux. This has been a blast, and the best part is I only get those programs I want. There. My own mini-review of a Linux distro. Check it out, you won't be sorry.
- All those wonderful PowerMac/iMac machines that are being pumped out have the Pioneer drive in them. Even if the DVD+ format wins out, there will still be quite a few people making disks down the road. With Apple behind them, though, I thought it a safe bet it would have a pretty large margin share. (Before you go "Apple only has single-digit % market share", I am aware, but alot of people I know think "If it is on a Mac for AV, it must be pretty good).
- Compatibility was a huge issue for me. I have quite a few family members with DVD players that I don't know about. With DVD-R, I am almost always guaranteed that the disc will work on their player. That way, I can send a disc out without worrying about it not working.
- To be honest, I have been tracking the DVD+ standards group, and their inability to come to an agreement on the +R standard until very recently had me kind of upset. To top that off, companies promising DVD+R upgrades (HP included) have quietly removed this notice from their websites and their products. One of the forums I visited even had an anonymous report that a tech said they will not upgrade the units. Don't have time to wait for you guys to pull your thumbs out of your butts, guys....
- Finally, my biggest motivation: price. Best Buy had one on the shelf for $300 with an additional 10% off at the register. Couldn't pass that up.
Sure, there are drawbacks. As the article mentioned, write times are slow. If I am burning a DVD-RW to test on my x-box, I might as well go and get dinner with friends. The unit is also a little slow on the read, but nothing a second DVD-ROM drive didn't fix. The other thing that might deter some folks is that the software is way under-developed. I wish Adobe would just build DVD creation support into Premiere so I would have a nice all in one solution for my digital camcorder, but I can dream.In all, I am glad at my purchase. As I mentioned above, compatiblity has be fantastic, and I have something that I can play digitally for quite some time.
Come on, I am sure that quite a few /. folks wouldn't do the same thing if they had the funds in a heartbeat, at least those of us that could squeeze into a space suit (myself excluded).
Of course, I am not quite sure where all the animosity comes from. I will be the first to cry out against N'Sync and all that Jedi mumbo jumbo that Lucas tried to pull. Bass himself seems to be pretty smart and articulate, though (from what I saw when he was on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire way back when it was fun to watch at a bar with friends with lots of beer). Of course, anyone talking with Regis Philbin would probably seem pretty smart in comparison. Now that I think about it, not the best way to judge someone.
If anyone from Mandrake is reading these, I do have a humble, not-so-top-priority-but-would-be-cool, request. One thing I have enjoyed about the Windows 2000 setup is that it makes setting up a streaming media server super easy. This is one area that, although I have done so on a Linux box, would benefit greatly from an automatic install during the system install/upgrade. Again, just something that I believe would help make a distro more popular and would make my life a lot easier.
I dunno, sounds pretty uncool to me. The list of reasons is pretty long. First off, going on a first date to dinner and having to tell your girlfriend that you need to take a call from a video game would be pretty dorky. Second, I would have to guess somewhere in the message, it would let you know that it was the game calling, otherwise you might have a serious threat on your life. Case in point: "I am going to kill you, I am going to gut you like a stuck pig. Thanks for playing Majestic." I don't know, the whole idea just sounds really, REALLY cheesy.
There are quite a few uses beyond gaming, in fact. Here are just a couple that made me invest in a dual Athlon 1600+:
- Adobe After Effects. The programs is SMP aware, and it shows. Rendering can now be done and the system doesn't go to complete pot. Saves a great deal of time in the long run.
- Blender. Not that it is SMP aware, but I can now let it render and still use the system. Another time saver.
- Adobe Premiere. When you go to output your finished product, the system is still usable.
Sure, these are pretty specialized, but for what I do, it is awesome. Plus, VC++ just works well with it. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some downsides to SMP, specially from a Linux driver standpoint. Both Soundblaster and nVidia had major issues with SMP and their respective products. Issues that have been fixed, and they were not major, as I just changed out the video card to something else and didn't have sound, so I was able to still use my Linux desktop. Just my $.02.The talk in the theater after i saw the movie last night is that this is the last View Askew production
Not entirely true. What JSBSB represents is the end to the Jersey series, in live action form. There is a cartoon movie version of Clerks, in the same style as the to-quickly-canceled TV series was, but the live action stuff is done.
From what I have heard, Smith wants to do more serious movies (even though Chasing Amy was one of the best drama type movies I have seen in some time). Case in point is that IMDB had printed an article that said Smith has already signed Ben Affleck to play a character based on Smith's life as a father. Sounds pretty serious.
Stile Project. 'Nuff said.
Dude, dude, dude!!!! Next time you post a link to a porn site, give those of us at work an indication that's what it is!!!! Damn, I am sure some red light went off somewhere just now....
Bryan R.
...the movie The Running Man will become reality. Why not? If this kind of trash is so popular in this day and age, how low can the American television audience go? I could see it now, gather a group of rough and tough guys and gals on death row. Promise the winner life while the others would die. The jail system wins, the viewers win. It would be a blast. Plus, every year, you could get the top ten winners and have a pay-per-view event. I bet McMahon would be all over that. For my money, the Net is much more wholesome.
Bryan R.
Unless you are blind, all quickiemarts (aka 7-Eleven, Kum and Go, etc) have some form of sticker when you enter the shop that says the place is under the camera's eye. So, in that respect, it is different. Sorry, but no legal action for you.
Bryan R.
Shallow? Ouch, I thought my vision was rather deep, now shallow. ;-)
/. folk would be able to "fix" a bad WinXP registration mess. My whole point from the beginning was that the majority of users wouldn't.
I can see your point, but my original comment on all of this was from a much larger stand point, not just of Slashdot readers.
I do agree that most
Bryan R.
Heh, I still have hope for the children of tomorrow...
Bryan R.
Ah, but you vision is too narrow. If you are Joe Blow grandma who's first computer was running WinXP, for all intent and purposes, you computer has ceased to function.
Bryan R.
You do have a choice. I just wish more people would realize that they don't have to put up with this sort of thing, and choose to eschew Microsoft.
I couldn't agree more. That is why I think a grass roots effort needs to be mobilized. Creating a website or posting this sort of thing on Slashdot won't help, it just leads to informed people complaining to informed people. The informed people need to get in touch with the uninformed. Around my house and where I work, I am considered one who has a some what informed opinion on things computer related. Lately, I have been getting asked quite a bit about WinXP and I tell people what I think. Stay with 2000/98SE. Got to get the word out! The people I feel bad for are those who buy a new computer. Ouch.
Bryan R.
...that by installing WindowsXP, you give Microsoft lease to cripple your machine? OK, I can see it in OfficeXP, fine. But when you give a company the ability to bring down your entire computer, that is just stupid. I have read about Microsoft, I have heard from Microsoft reps that it is painless to get the key to register and open you computer back up, but have you CALLED Microsoft recently? I would be scared that I wouldn't be able to open up my computer until the phone lines were a little less congested. This is dumb, really really dumb.
Bryan R.