I'm not really sure if telling people ANYTHING about the OS is really worth it. Most non-geek people don't care about the OS and only really care about the apps. If the OS breaks, they'll get one of us geeks to fix it.
If people want to "Surf the Internet", show them multiple browsers (Firefox, Opera, IE) and how to do the same thing in each one. If people want to "write a letter to my cousin", show them multiple text editors (WordPad, Abiword, etc)
The key is to show people that there is more than one way to accomplish something so that they don't get into the mindset where they cannot function if they happen to come across a non-Microsoft-OS computer. It may take them a little while to get used to Safari or OpenOffice, but once they know that the same basic concepts exist in multiple applications they are much better off than knowing one application. (eg: the address bar, the reload button, how to change a font size or bold it)
First, find a radio station...
on
Learning to DJ?
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· Score: 1
OK, so now you listened to all of your Beatles, Bee Gees, Beach Boys, and B-52s ("the four Bs") LPs over and over. Well, it's now time to become a Disk Jockey! (aka "Platter Head", "Vinyl Veteran", "Shellac Spinner") First off...go and find a radio station. Just drive around and look for the big antennas, then go knock on the doors of the building and show them your collection of 45s. They are sure to hire you on the spot. OK, now on your first work day make sure that your turntables are set up correctly. Playing your 45 singles on the 33 1/3 setting is sure to get you a stern "talking to" from the station manager. Second...most songs have a bit of an instrumental bit at the beginning... this part is the best time to talk because people are paying attention at that time...So you should give the current temperature or traffic reports or something similar so you are killing two birds with one stone (music AND information)! Don't be afraid of new technology. There are these things called "Compact Disks" that are becoming more and more popular, but alas they don't have the warm golden tones of good ol' vinyl LPs...so I've held off on them for now, but I keep trying them out every few years to see if they've fixed the sound on them, and you should too! Anyhow, back to the DJ-ing. You will probably be sent out to malls or stores or bars sometimes to do these things called "remotes". They are fun and will give you an opportunity to mingle with the "common man". But don't get too friendly because the world can be a scary place and it's good to remember that the DJ booth back at the radio station doesn't have these scary people. Sometimes, you will have to interrupt your DJ-ing with some special news event that just happened. (In the biz, we call this a "bulletin") That is OK. When you are done with the interruption, make some sort of light-hearted comment like "Boy, I'm sure glad *I* wasn't on that plane" to bring up the mood and get your eager listening audience back in the mood for some music (or "Tunes" as we professionals like to call them). You will probably be given a list of songs to play. It is OK to ignore this list because YOU are the DJ... YOU know YOUR audience better than some high-priced firm in LA. If you feel the need to play the Eagles "Hotel California" three or four times in an hour...go for it! Anyhow, I hope these tips help you in your quest to become a DJ.
I was kinda counting on either audio cassette or LP record distribution
But seriously, since when does "Digital" mean "download"?. All my CD-ROM games are already "Digital" and have been for ohhhh....ten or fifteen years? Same with my game cartridges....all ones and zeros there also.
and, by the way in case you think I'm joking about the Analog distribution method... I *am* old enough to remember programs & games distributed on audio cassette (I had a Radio Shack/Tandy MC-10 which used a cassette interface for storing programs...early 1980s)
It ticks me off that we even need this. And I know we (IT professionals) all saw it coming.
Viruses were a plague (pun intended) in the MS-Windows world back when we had the big brick cellphones, but instead of just making the damn things smaller, they added toy functions and programmability without adequate regression testing and then SURPRISE someone has found exploits for them, so we need now need AV.
If I was more conspiracy minded, I'd think the AV vendors have been planning this for years...:-)
This why I love the various Live-CD Linux (& BSD) distros, you know that if the worse case scenario happens and you get infected, you shut it off
(ignoring anything potentially lurking in the flashBIOS)
OK...I probably have one of the more antique home data centers...
three VAX 4000-300 (all running OpenBSD, of course, it's my home firewall) two VAX 4000-200 two VAX 4000-105 (running VMS) a VAX 4000 m60 two VAX 3100 three PDP 11/34as I've also got two DEC Rainbows, but I haven't powered them up in years. And of course, the usual collection of Commodore 64s, Radio Shack CoCos, Radio Shack MC-10s, etc. etc.
Being even more picky, Challenger did NOT explode. The external fuel tank broke open and the contents burned (very fast). The shuttle, faced with severe G-forces in directions that were not designed for, broke up into multiple pieces and the crew compartment remained intact.
Oh, man...I am in a badddd mood this morning because of this. I woke up, turned on my computer and went to look through the groups that I frequent and was appalled at how things have changed.
I've been using Usenet since the 1980s and switched over to www.dejanews.com when they started (1994? 1995?) because it provided a nice summarized interface with the search options I needed. I also know that most ISPs also offer NNTP service so I can read Usenet via that, but doggone it, Google groups was just too darn good and I got used to it. However, now that they seem to have broken it, I guess I'll have to get "tin" or some other newsreader going and use my ISPs "official" Usenet server.
So unfortunately, Google has lost me (and any ad revenue they may have gotten from my views) because of this change.
This slashdot thread has reminded me of the good old days of hacking on the CDC 1604. So I took the current release of NetBSD for the VAX and hacked it up to run on the CDC 1604 I then compiled Apache, loaded up some web pages that I copied off the Internet, and put up a site. You can see it at www.cnn.com
I've been using Linux since v0.95 (Fall 1992?), and I've never done a complete install from a distribution. The best way to learn and use Linux is to grab a root/boot diskset and hand-craft your partitions, disk structure, and compile everything.
(Although I do use Slackware for my basic source of everything...I originally used SLS [SoftLanding System - remember them? 1993/1994 in Victoria Canada...one of the first distributions around])
Slashdot Mirror
I, for one, welcome our new poo-flinging robot monkeys
I'm not really sure if telling people ANYTHING about the OS is really worth it. Most non-geek people don't care about the OS and only really care about the apps. If the OS breaks, they'll get one of us geeks to fix it.
If people want to "Surf the Internet", show them multiple browsers (Firefox, Opera, IE) and how to do the same thing in each one.
If people want to "write a letter to my cousin", show them multiple text editors (WordPad, Abiword, etc)
The key is to show people that there is more than one way to accomplish something so that they don't get into the mindset where they cannot function if they happen to come across a non-Microsoft-OS computer.
It may take them a little while to get used to Safari or OpenOffice, but once they know that the same basic concepts exist in multiple applications they are much better off than knowing one application. (eg: the address bar, the reload button, how to change a font size or bold it)
OK, so now you listened to all of your Beatles, Bee Gees, Beach Boys, and B-52s ("the four Bs") LPs over and over. Well, it's now time to become a Disk Jockey! (aka "Platter Head", "Vinyl Veteran", "Shellac Spinner")
First off...go and find a radio station. Just drive around and look for the big antennas, then go knock on the doors of the building and show them your collection of 45s. They are sure to hire you on the spot.
OK, now on your first work day make sure that your turntables are set up correctly. Playing your 45 singles on the 33 1/3 setting is sure to get you a stern "talking to" from the station manager. Second...most songs have a bit of an instrumental bit at the beginning... this part is the best time to talk because people are paying attention at that time...So you should give the current temperature or traffic reports or something similar so you are killing two birds with one stone (music AND information)!
Don't be afraid of new technology. There are these things called "Compact Disks" that are becoming more and more popular, but alas they don't have the warm golden tones of good ol' vinyl LPs...so I've held off on them for now, but I keep trying them out every few years to see if they've fixed the sound on them, and you should too!
Anyhow, back to the DJ-ing.
You will probably be sent out to malls or stores or bars sometimes to do these things called "remotes". They are fun and will give you an opportunity to mingle with the "common man". But don't get too friendly because the world can be a scary place and it's good to remember that the DJ booth back at the radio station doesn't have these scary people.
Sometimes, you will have to interrupt your DJ-ing with some special news event that just happened. (In the biz, we call this a "bulletin") That is OK. When you are done with the interruption, make some sort of light-hearted comment like "Boy, I'm sure glad *I* wasn't on that plane" to bring up the mood and get your eager listening audience back in the mood for some music (or "Tunes" as we professionals like to call them).
You will probably be given a list of songs to play. It is OK to ignore this list because YOU are the DJ... YOU know YOUR audience better than some high-priced firm in LA. If you feel the need to play the Eagles "Hotel California" three or four times in an hour...go for it!
Anyhow, I hope these tips help you in your quest to become a DJ.
I was kinda counting on either audio cassette or LP record distribution
...early 1980s)
But seriously, since when does "Digital" mean "download"?.
All my CD-ROM games are already "Digital" and have been for ohhhh....ten or fifteen years?
Same with my game cartridges....all ones and zeros there also.
and, by the way in case you think I'm joking about the Analog distribution method...
I *am* old enough to remember programs & games distributed on audio cassette (I had a Radio Shack/Tandy MC-10 which used a cassette interface for storing programs
If I was more conspiracy minded, I'd think the AV vendors have been planning this for years... :-)
This why I love the various Live-CD Linux (& BSD) distros, you know that if the worse case scenario happens and you get infected, you shut it off
(ignoring anything potentially lurking in the flashBIOS)
Why was this modded funny? That's EXACTLY what I will do... :-)
I'm in Canada...it's just like having electric heating....a little bit more expensive than natural gas
seven cents a KiloWatt Hour
So, whether the money goes to the (natural gas) furnace or the VAXen, it is basically the same.
OK...I probably have one of the more antique home data centers...
three VAX 4000-300 (all running OpenBSD, of course, it's my home firewall)
two VAX 4000-200
two VAX 4000-105 (running VMS)
a VAX 4000 m60
two VAX 3100
three PDP 11/34as
I've also got two DEC Rainbows, but I haven't powered them up in years.
And of course, the usual collection of Commodore 64s, Radio Shack CoCos, Radio Shack MC-10s, etc. etc.
And a Mac Mini in the kitchen
Thomas
Being even more picky, Challenger did NOT explode.
The external fuel tank broke open and the contents burned (very fast). The shuttle, faced with severe G-forces in directions that were not designed for, broke up into multiple pieces and the crew compartment remained intact.
An old dupe, but still a dupe...1 2/0436204&tid=99
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/
I've been told by someone at Microsoft that "640K should be enough for anyone"
(yeah, yeah...I know...urban legend)
Oh, man...I am in a badddd mood this morning because of this. I woke up, turned on my computer and went to look through the groups that I frequent and was appalled at how things have changed.
I've been using Usenet since the 1980s and switched over to www.dejanews.com when they started (1994? 1995?) because it provided a nice summarized interface with the search options I needed. I also know that most ISPs also offer NNTP service so I can read Usenet via that, but doggone it, Google groups was just too darn good and I got used to it. However, now that they seem to have broken it, I guess I'll have to get "tin" or some other newsreader going and use my ISPs "official" Usenet server.
So unfortunately, Google has lost me (and any ad revenue they may have gotten from my views) because of this change.
This slashdot thread has reminded me of the good old days of hacking on the CDC 1604. So I took the current release of NetBSD for the VAX and hacked it up to run on the CDC 1604
I then compiled Apache, loaded up some web pages that I copied off the Internet, and put up a site. You can see it at www.cnn.com
Moderate this "-1 April" hahahahaha
Thomas
(Although I do use Slackware for my basic source of everything...I originally used SLS [SoftLanding System - remember them? 1993/1994 in Victoria Canada...one of the first distributions around])
Bah! Distributions! Bah!
Thomas Dzubin