Nothing like a good set of standards to keep everyone on their toes. Pooh Pooh to the netscape folks....And to the USB folks who make it harder and harder for me to find a good SCSI scanner for Linux --- pooh pooh to you to.
I wonder if that "CD Player" he took into space was really a "Rio Volt" MP3/WMA player? If so -- we can finally find out if outer space fixes that skip problem that is hurting an otherwise awsome product. ("Ok mr. Tito -- please upgrade your firmware to 1.13space before leaving")
If tech support had all the answers to questions like that -- chances are they could get jobs as programmers. (I mean calling Access tech support to find out how to access common dialog functions from code is something that maybe the programmers should be able to pick up online or in a book...) --- Oh yea -- these where Mac users...
It's like me calling up the guy at jiffy lube who changes my oil and asking him how to replace my transmission. If I am getting paid as a mechanic -- I should know how to change transmissions. My suggestion is to save up your $50 "support line" pool -- and hire a programmer.
"Debian does not make this trade-off where I want. Unstable is just a little too unstable and stable is just a little bit too old"
I agree -- Debian Stable is kind of like watching all of the fish in the pond and wishing for a pole. And then when you get a top of the line pole to throw in the water -- all of the fish are gone.
What would be cool (for the desktop user - not a server) is a distibution like debian that involved no distribution numbers -- and included a repository of new versions of software as they were released and deemed not broken and were apt-getable..This way you would not have to wait 2 years to go from (example -- xmms 1.2 to xmms 1.3)...You could make a bigger deal out of huge updates like XFree 3.3.6 to XFree 4.0, etc...However, updates of regular packages should be available without having to wait years....(I know you could compile yourself -- but the first time you do "make install" -- you have just blown away the whole advantage of any packaging database...)
I installed it last night. So far only 1 problem. GNOME using Nautilus is broke...That "Super" file manager crashes to the carpet very often....I am wondering why a mainstream distribution would include something in such a critical area that is so unstable. (I.E. -- I click on a desktop icon to browse one of my folders and it crashes...) I mean -- the distributions go a long way to insure they don't include broken development kernels behind the scenes....why ruin it by including (badly) broken desktop environments.
On the flip side -- KDE 2.1 seems to be about as solid as they come...I have tried really hard to like kde....But I just seem to be a slave to stuff that looks "cool" (I.E. -- GTK themes and Sawfish themes that look good and are original -- Crux is a good example....Plus the Gnome panel is cool) KDE just seems boxy and boring for me as a home user....I would not hesitate to recommend it for the boring corporate desktops though -- as it seems to be the most stable, feature rich, desktop environment that we have going for us.
It would be really neat if the Gnome people would do some damage control and convert Konq. to Gtk -- and end this whole Mozilla/Eazel cancer (at least until a cure can be found) -- and give us a stable desktop environment.
The RDBMS can only be as good as the hardware and OS that it is running on. Give me HPUX, Sun, AIX, Mainframe (IBM DB2) -- and then try to build a WinTel machine that can scale??? Get real -- as soon as MS Sql Server can run on the above hardware/software combo's how can it be in the same ball park???? We are talking big data stores -- not the inventory for a lemonade stand. I work with this stuff everyday.
MS Sql Server is nothing more than Sybase with a GUI that is limited to the Intel platform and Windows OS. Most corporations will not store their huge data stores on a desktop OS and limited hardware....(Any more than they will convert all off their desktop users to Linux.) DB2 is an awesome mainframe RDBMS because of the hardware it runs on. Oracle is great because it will perform on all the industrial strength *nix hardware platforms. Oracle or DB2 on Intel And/Or Windows becomes just another underpowered toy like SQL Server. Much like how the fancy sports/race cars look really good on the outside -- but they also have to back it up under the hood.
It's hard to say considering the question did not say what kind of web site it was. I would think the advice would be different if it was an alternative sales site like Amazon or an Informational news site like USATODAY.com, Review site, Geek News site like/., etc.
I have a friend that runs a popular game review/ chat/ discussion type website and he pays the bills by selling trinkets like Tshirts, Caps, Mousepads, bumper stickers, custom Linux distros (NOT), etc. that show off the website logo..etc..etc..
Off the top of my head I would think it would be good to spread your high bandwidth content like pictures, downloads, etc...to multiple alternative or even free or low cost hosts.
I think a better question would be: "What web hosting provider(s) give me the most bang for my buck....."
Quick -- get this guy back in front of his Star Trek TNG reruns...+ as an added bonus we can get Katz on the case and see if we can get a piece that describes the not so absurd rants that maybe star wars did launch the true decline of western civilization....
people still continue to buy and use Apple products....(Albeit its about as many people still running netware.)
Why must they always be a bully? -- even now when they hold about as much clout in the IT industry as my high school art teacher did in the art industry.
I am a project manager for a web dev team -- and if I had my way I would make sure all web developers had 15" monitors running at 800x600...
It's one thing to look at a Web Interface at 1280x1024 and say that looks sooo good....but then face reality when on the road and using your laptop that maxes out at 800x600 and deciding that scrolling right is a BAD thing for apps....
It is getting fairly good if you are willing to go to e-bay to buy the hardware because the stores are carrying todays devices and linux USB is now getting yesterdays drivers in place. The lifecycle of hardware in stores seems to be really short.
Great article...but he stopped to soon. I think what he left out was this:
When 95% of what people are doing nowdays is cruising the web a 56K or less --- then what good does a souped up 1gz state of the art power demon equipped with a power house 56k modem do them??? I think you will see harware requirements shoot up when Joe Six Pack can stream good video from the web....(I have to laugh when I see Dell and Gateway ads saying that these faster computers will "Speed up your Internet Experience"....)
I guess this was a "window shoppers" comparison. Great concept...But roving the local circuit city for research can't hold a candle to actually trying the software out. Oh well....The whole topic of not being "forced" to upgrade every 6 months has been a favorite one of mine for the last year or so.
Yep -- a 64k.wma file is pretty comparable to a 128k.mp3 file.
The sucker punch lies in the fact that it is a total proprietory format that *nix users will never have access to.
This is the IE of the audio world. Sure we have alternatives -- but they have enough resources to ensure that they stay 1 or 2 steps ahead of the pack in quality and features.
Usually I shrug at watever the boys in Redmond do. But this one scares me. In case you have not noticed -- most new portable audio players are shipping with support for.wma's in addition to the "old".mp3 standard. This in itself is not a big deal -- but (I hate to admit) I installed Windows 98 the other day after purchasing one of these new devices -- and began to experiment with.wma encoding. -- I have to admit that the quality VS. size factor that they claim walks all over.mp3's. So now I can hold twice the amount of.wma files on my 64 meg portable as I can comparable.mp3 files. And as an added bonus I don't lose any sount quality.
These 2 factors along with the fact that Micro$oft can "lock down".wma's by simply checking a box in the proprietory.dll's at any given moment and releasing a "critical patch"-- (looks very possitive in the eyes of the mp3 opponents if you read the Wall Street Journle article linked in this post)....Are enough to make me think that Microsoft is putting themselves into a pretty good position to gain control of the market and then please the powers that be at the expense of the users.
Man -- why are so many "Linux Advocates" so up in arms over Microsofts new licensing schemes. I would be pissed if I was a "Pirate" dead set on a free ride...This would throw a big wrench into my "cartel". However, they can do whatever they want -- because I have been "Microsoft Free" since 1997, and things just keep getting better and better. (And even before 97, I was apt to pay for software that had a price tag -- using the same method I use to get groceries and gas for my car....) As soon as I deemed the price to high -- well I started using Linux, and have not looked back. If you want to cry about the new XP license scheme -- I am sure you can find some pro windows haXor site where you can trade war stories and cry in your beer.
All in all, I was happy with his answers. Straight forward -- with truth.
Yea -- The media tends to point blame at the more "glamorous" targets (internet, video games, etc.) rather than the "boring" real issues of peer interaction, acceptance, and parental relationships.
I think this article was a little flat for the same reasons. It's just not as easy to rant about parent responsibility and bullys to a culture that wants to look through hollywood glasses.
Their goes my last 9 bucks. I look at my bills and these little charges here and little charges there are starting to take a toll on the bigger picture. Alas in this case I must have my LA Dodgers baseball -- and if they (real) can make a nice consolidated site where I can listen to the game and maybe few real time stats -- then maybe this will be one of the better Johnny come lately -- please keep my poor dot com alive -- pathetic cash grabs I have sprung for in the last few months....
Don't get me wrong -- I don't believe in a free lunch -- but usually I only have to pay for lunch once a day -- and then I am full....In this case I am having to pay a service charge for an alarming amount of sites I frequent now days.
How much longer until I get charged a quarter each time I want to check me email?
Up until I got my cable modem for the bargain rate of less than $40 a month I was sure I would have to wait on the telephone companies to offer competitive rates to string a T1 into my home...Of course their was ISDN or at that time ramblings about DSL (if you happened to live next door to a switch...) Cox@home solved all my problems for a reasonable fee. I feel sorry for anyone waiting on the "baby bells" for a reasonable solution....Everywhere I turn I am reading articles on how the phone companies have bothched or missed the boat on consumer bandwidth solutions. For me I can just choose to move wherever Cable service is available and cross my fingers that the EULA's do not get to far out of hand.
We wont rest until everyone is on a p2p network or filesharing connection that is shared by no one. (Lets see 1 million users --- 1 million and 1 places to share files)....
I would sure hate to see the numbers for the companies that went (are going) under....The $15 million that the Eazel folks spent comes to mine...I am no expert but I bet if you gav half of that ($7.5 million) to a big group of qualified Linux hackers and their moms (the moms would be for the Human Factors stuff -- you know the old joke of "when my mom can use it")....they could come out with a version 1.0 file manager and have a little extra left over for Pizza and beer.
Slashdot Mirror
Nothing like a good set of standards to keep everyone on their toes. Pooh Pooh to the netscape folks....And to the USB folks who make it harder and harder for me to find a good SCSI scanner for Linux --- pooh pooh to you to.
I wonder if that "CD Player" he took into space was really a "Rio Volt" MP3/WMA player? If so -- we can finally find out if outer space fixes that skip problem that is hurting an otherwise awsome product. ("Ok mr. Tito -- please upgrade your firmware to 1.13space before leaving")
If tech support had all the answers to questions like that -- chances are they could get jobs as programmers. (I mean calling Access tech support to find out how to access common dialog functions from code is something that maybe the programmers should be able to pick up online or in a book...) --- Oh yea -- these where Mac users...
It's like me calling up the guy at jiffy lube who changes my oil and asking him how to replace my transmission. If I am getting paid as a mechanic -- I should know how to change transmissions. My suggestion is to save up your $50 "support line" pool -- and hire a programmer.
"Debian does not make this trade-off where I want. Unstable is just a little too unstable and stable is just a little bit too old"
I agree -- Debian Stable is kind of like watching all of the fish in the pond and wishing for a pole. And then when you get a top of the line pole to throw in the water -- all of the fish are gone.
What would be cool (for the desktop user - not a server) is a distibution like debian that involved no distribution numbers -- and included a repository of new versions of software as they were released and deemed not broken and were apt-getable..This way you would not have to wait 2 years to go from (example -- xmms 1.2 to xmms 1.3)...You could make a bigger deal out of huge updates like XFree 3.3.6 to XFree 4.0, etc...However, updates of regular packages should be available without having to wait years....(I know you could compile yourself -- but the first time you do "make install" -- you have just blown away the whole advantage of any packaging database...)
I installed it last night. So far only 1 problem. GNOME using Nautilus is broke...That "Super" file manager crashes to the carpet very often....I am wondering why a mainstream distribution would include something in such a critical area that is so unstable. (I.E. -- I click on a desktop icon to browse one of my folders and it crashes...) I mean -- the distributions go a long way to insure they don't include broken development kernels behind the scenes....why ruin it by including (badly) broken desktop environments.
On the flip side -- KDE 2.1 seems to be about as solid as they come...I have tried really hard to like kde....But I just seem to be a slave to stuff that looks "cool" (I.E. -- GTK themes and Sawfish themes that look good and are original -- Crux is a good example....Plus the Gnome panel is cool) KDE just seems boxy and boring for me as a home user....I would not hesitate to recommend it for the boring corporate desktops though -- as it seems to be the most stable, feature rich, desktop environment that we have going for us.
It would be really neat if the Gnome people would do some damage control and convert Konq. to Gtk -- and end this whole Mozilla/Eazel cancer (at least until a cure can be found) -- and give us a stable desktop environment.
The RDBMS can only be as good as the hardware and OS that it is running on. Give me HPUX, Sun, AIX, Mainframe (IBM DB2) -- and then try to build a WinTel machine that can scale??? Get real -- as soon as MS Sql Server can run on the above hardware/software combo's how can it be in the same ball park???? We are talking big data stores -- not the inventory for a lemonade stand. I work with this stuff everyday.
MS Sql Server is nothing more than Sybase with a GUI that is limited to the Intel platform and Windows OS. Most corporations will not store their huge data stores on a desktop OS and limited hardware....(Any more than they will convert all off their desktop users to Linux.) DB2 is an awesome mainframe RDBMS because of the hardware it runs on. Oracle is great because it will perform on all the industrial strength *nix hardware platforms. Oracle or DB2 on Intel And/Or Windows becomes just another underpowered toy like SQL Server. Much like how the fancy sports/race cars look really good on the outside -- but they also have to back it up under the hood.
It's hard to say considering the question did not say what kind of web site it was. I would think the advice would be different if it was an alternative sales site like Amazon or an Informational news site like USATODAY.com, Review site, Geek News site like /., etc.
I have a friend that runs a popular game review/ chat/ discussion type website and he pays the bills by selling trinkets like Tshirts, Caps, Mousepads, bumper stickers, custom Linux distros (NOT), etc. that show off the website logo..etc..etc..
Off the top of my head I would think it would be good to spread your high bandwidth content like pictures, downloads, etc...to multiple alternative or even free or low cost hosts.
I think a better question would be: "What web hosting provider(s) give me the most bang for my buck....."
No one ever got fired for choosing KDE.
** Not my personal choice -- but KDE is by far the safe choice for a corporate Linux desktop.
/* Sarcasm on */ /* Sarcasm Off */
Now that Stormix is gone, where will I get my security updates?
Or -- boy I will surely miss the....errr...what did make Stormix so unique that will make it worthy of me to miss?
Quick -- get this guy back in front of his Star Trek TNG reruns...+ as an added bonus we can get Katz on the case and see if we can get a piece that describes the not so absurd rants that maybe star wars did launch the true decline of western civilization....
people still continue to buy and use Apple products....(Albeit its about as many people still running netware.)
Why must they always be a bully? -- even now when they hold about as much clout in the IT industry as my high school art teacher did in the art industry.
Never underestimate the power of 21" monitor.
I am a project manager for a web dev team -- and if I had my way I would make sure all web developers had 15" monitors running at 800x600...
It's one thing to look at a Web Interface at 1280x1024 and say that looks sooo good....but then face reality when on the road and using your laptop that maxes out at 800x600 and deciding that scrolling right is a BAD thing for apps....
It is getting fairly good if you are willing to go to e-bay to buy the hardware because the stores are carrying todays devices and linux USB is now getting yesterdays drivers in place. The lifecycle of hardware in stores seems to be really short.
Great article...but he stopped to soon. I think what he left out was this:
When 95% of what people are doing nowdays is cruising the web a 56K or less --- then what good does a souped up 1gz state of the art power demon equipped with a power house 56k modem do them??? I think you will see harware requirements shoot up when Joe Six Pack can stream good video from the web....(I have to laugh when I see Dell and Gateway ads saying that these faster computers will "Speed up your Internet Experience"....)
I guess this was a "window shoppers" comparison. Great concept...But roving the local circuit city for research can't hold a candle to actually trying the software out. Oh well....The whole topic of not being "forced" to upgrade every 6 months has been a favorite one of mine for the last year or so.
Yep -- a 64k .wma file is pretty comparable to a 128k .mp3 file.
The sucker punch lies in the fact that it is a total proprietory format that *nix users will never have access to.
This is the IE of the audio world. Sure we have alternatives -- but they have enough resources to ensure that they stay 1 or 2 steps ahead of the pack in quality and features.
Usually I shrug at watever the boys in Redmond do. But this one scares me. In case you have not noticed -- most new portable audio players are shipping with support for .wma's in addition to the "old" .mp3 standard. This in itself is not a big deal -- but (I hate to admit) I installed Windows 98 the other day after purchasing one of these new devices -- and began to experiment with .wma encoding. -- I have to admit that the quality VS. size factor that they claim walks all over .mp3's. So now I can hold twice the amount of .wma files on my 64 meg portable as I can comparable .mp3 files. And as an added bonus I don't lose any sount quality.
.wma's by simply checking a box in the proprietory .dll's at any given moment and releasing a "critical patch"-- (looks very possitive in the eyes of the mp3 opponents if you read the Wall Street Journle article linked in this post)....Are enough to make me think that Microsoft is putting themselves into a pretty good position to gain control of the market and then please the powers that be at the expense of the users.
These 2 factors along with the fact that Micro$oft can "lock down"
What Will Happen to Rented Software When Its Publisher Sinks?
The same thing that happens when walmart wants to build a store where the apartment complex you live in now sits.
Man -- why are so many "Linux Advocates" so up in arms over Microsofts new licensing schemes. I would be pissed if I was a "Pirate" dead set on a free ride...This would throw a big wrench into my "cartel". However, they can do whatever they want -- because I have been "Microsoft Free" since 1997, and things just keep getting better and better. (And even before 97, I was apt to pay for software that had a price tag -- using the same method I use to get groceries and gas for my car....) As soon as I deemed the price to high -- well I started using Linux, and have not looked back. If you want to cry about the new XP license scheme -- I am sure you can find some pro windows haXor site where you can trade war stories and cry in your beer.
All in all, I was happy with his answers. Straight forward -- with truth.
Yea -- The media tends to point blame at the more "glamorous" targets (internet, video games, etc.) rather than the "boring" real issues of peer interaction, acceptance, and parental relationships.
I think this article was a little flat for the same reasons. It's just not as easy to rant about parent responsibility and bullys to a culture that wants to look through hollywood glasses.
Their goes my last 9 bucks. I look at my bills and these little charges here and little charges there are starting to take a toll on the bigger picture. Alas in this case I must have my LA Dodgers baseball -- and if they (real) can make a nice consolidated site where I can listen to the game and maybe few real time stats -- then maybe this will be one of the better Johnny come lately -- please keep my poor dot com alive -- pathetic cash grabs I have sprung for in the last few months....
Don't get me wrong -- I don't believe in a free lunch -- but usually I only have to pay for lunch once a day -- and then I am full....In this case I am having to pay a service charge for an alarming amount of sites I frequent now days.
How much longer until I get charged a quarter each time I want to check me email?
Up until I got my cable modem for the bargain rate of less than $40 a month I was sure I would have to wait on the telephone companies to offer competitive rates to string a T1 into my home...Of course their was ISDN or at that time ramblings about DSL (if you happened to live next door to a switch...) Cox@home solved all my problems for a reasonable fee. I feel sorry for anyone waiting on the "baby bells" for a reasonable solution....Everywhere I turn I am reading articles on how the phone companies have bothched or missed the boat on consumer bandwidth solutions. For me I can just choose to move wherever Cable service is available and cross my fingers that the EULA's do not get to far out of hand.
IMHO
We wont rest until everyone is on a p2p network or filesharing connection that is shared by no one. (Lets see 1 million users --- 1 million and 1 places to share files)....
I would sure hate to see the numbers for the companies that went (are going) under....The $15 million that the Eazel folks spent comes to mine...I am no expert but I bet if you gav half of that ($7.5 million) to a big group of qualified Linux hackers and their moms (the moms would be for the Human Factors stuff -- you know the old joke of "when my mom can use it")....they could come out with a version 1.0 file manager and have a little extra left over for Pizza and beer.