I'm vegetarian. Whenever I'm eating with others who are eating burgers, they assume I want a veggie-patty to fit in. I don't. I'm not interested in pretending to be a meat-eater, or I'd probably just be a meat-eater.*
TFA points out what is basically the same deal... I don't want GNU/Linux to be the same as Windows or I'd probably just use Windows.*
*Aside from all applicable philosophical reasons against doing so.
Not sure where the hell you live, but in Australia you can buy it right now, outright for AUD$585.00. iPhone 4 pricing starts at AUD$719.00 for the 8Gb model. N900 has 32Gb. It's a no-brainer.
I don't have a car - I use public transportation and ride my bike. Yet - there are roads built in my area - with tax payer money - that disallow bicycles and have no buses. In general I feel far more attention is paid to support car owners than our own public transportation systems. Why? Not everyone can drive, but everyone can use trams, trains and buses.
I'm sure all the politicians have no problem buying cars and ipods however.
The amount of times I tried to finish this game as a kid and always failed at the same spot.... well let's just say that it's amazing I still play games. Friends at the time laughed at me since they finished it with their NES version. Just a few years ago I found out it was impossible to finish the game on PC due to these bugs. This game nearly ruined my life!! If only there were patches!!:)
I don't go that far as to download torrents, but I do wait until the games are on sale. I make every effort to never pay more than AU$40 for a title. Sometimes this goal is reached in just a few months. Other times, waiting for that title can take over a year. Another advantage is that the games generally have a crack available by the time I play them, so the DRM is stripped. Also, by that stage there's an abundance of game reviews, which further prevent wasting money, and I can usually run the games fine under WINE.
The last game I brought was Killing Floor, found at EB Games for $12.45. I've played it during all my spare time for 2 weeks. Awesome value for money.
I also game with a GTX480 (that's where the saved cash goes - my PC). There's simply no way I'm going back to 1280x720-res console gaming, which often has no AA or other effects. And then there's the keyboard and the mouse being far superior. You would think console game developers would support a keyboard and mouse on console platforms! I have an X360 and PS3 hooked up to the same monitor my PC is, but I still have to use a controller? No - my apartment is too small for a couch, so TV gaming is out of the question. I avoid buying console games wherever possible. To date, I only have about 5 X360 games but close to (maybe even over) 100 recent PC titles.
Similar to WINE in a way, it's good to have an open source project to allow us to run more software. However, that doesn't mean that software developers should make their applications depend on them when specifically targeting a GNU/Linux environment - it's an unnecessary risk.
"Again" most probably dislikes Flash due to multiple bad experiences with it using his netbook. Obviously he has visited sites in the past he expects to work, that have failed him due to Flash. For those unspecified sites, he is almost certainly the target audience.
Flash on GNU/Linux absolutely sucks. So many times i go to watch a video, I full-screen it and the video plays *behind* the browser. I have to minimize the browser (and know to do that) or nothing will happen. Lots of videos also simply refuse to play unless they are on YouTube, so frequently I have to right-click and select "Watch this on YouTube" just to get the video to play. Even then, the controls frequently freeze up, preventing me from skipping to a particular section of the video. Other times, the video will just stop streaming unless I reload the page and stream it from scratch.
Flash is a far cry from being cross-platform. It does not make your website available to more users. It *reduces* the number of people who can visit the site. I wish designers would keep that in mind, instead of trusting the word of Adobe's marking BS. With these points in mind, no website should *require* flash, and an end user should be able to obtain any information from a website regardless of having a Flash plugin installed.
Right on. A demo, particularly with something like Crysis, allows one to determine if the game will be playable to an acceptable level on their gaming rig. Without a demo, one can only buy and hope - which obviously means more sales.
I reckon we just need to rip the GUI out of VirtualBox and slap it onto KVM. Integrate VDE into it, and it's basically perfect. How hard can it be? A few months work from a few dedicated developers?
> Ask Transgaming about Cedega. As a former subscriber, I can say that while its better than nothing, the majority of games I want to play on Linux still do not work. So i found it kinda pointless.
I knew somebody would eventually make this type of argument, so as of late August last year I've been keeping score of the games I've *finished*. As you'll see, most of my gaming is done under WINE. I'm not talking Transgaming or CodeWeavers - I'm talking the official WINE, maybe with some patches, the odd registry tweak and winetricks.
Currently playing: WarCraft 2 Battle.Net edition. Also just brought Majesty 1 (native GNU/Linux version) and Majesty 2 (rated Gold under WINE's appdb).
Most of my PC games were brought when I had a Windows install kicking around. I spent a long time reinstalling all of my games under WINE, and found that around 60% of my collection worked. In the end, since most worked I simply deleted my Windows install altogether. I'm exclusively a GNU/Linux and console gamer now.
Lastly, Id Software, Linux Game Publishing and others seem to have no problems dealing with all the different GNU/Linux distros out there. I've still got the old GNU/Linux version of Quake II which was working fine last time I tried.
I've configured our local office WAP with WPA2-Enterprise and PEAP. I have to support this setup on a variety of machines.
Windows machines (depending on the configuration) typically refuse to connect unless the root certificate presented is trusted first. Unfortunately the error is typically quite unhelpful, but at least it operates in a safe way. It's also not too obvious how to import certificates for non-techies.
GNU/Linux machines running NetworkManager such as Ubuntu IMHO do the right thing - warn if the root certificate is not trusted, but allow you to bypass the warning and connect if for whatever reason you want to. You are prompted to upload the root certificate file right on the connection box, so it's very user friendly and encourages secure behavior.
iPod Touch/iPhones don't offer any obvious way to import the certificate! Upon connection they do present you the certificate and ask if you would like to trust it... however when you scroll down to the fingerprint, half of it doesn't fit on the screen and you can't scroll to the right to see the rest of it! The most important thing you need to see and half of it's missing! What were they thinking?
Most open source video DVD players (Xine, VLC, XBMC etc.) ignore the no-skip flag on DVD content. Just click next and be done with it. I'm not sure if this is a feature of libdvdcss, the player itself or both.
Like the ReiserFS analogy. Seems correct - corporations always get taken more seriously than individuals. Probably something to do with having money.:)
I brought C&C: The First Decade, C&C3 and the Kane's Wrath expansion - all before I was aware of DRM and activation issues with EA titles. I'm going to wait until RA3 comes down to about AU$25 - about the price of four rentals. That's basically all you're getting for your money. Hopefully, by that stage the expansions will come bundled.:)
It's a shame, since I'm also left waiting for Crysis Warhead and Dead Space. I could purchase the X360 or PS3 versions, but I know they won't be as fun or look as nice so I generally only purchase console games when they are exclusive to consoles.
"As for the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1, we are in discussions with Creative Labs regarding a Linux driver. We project that it will be available at the end of 2008, since our major focus is on the HDMI product line and DDL / DTS driver at this time."
This has been on their website for ages. Yes, the Prelude uses the Creative X-Fi technology.
The problem is that Aunt Mildred shouldn't be using a computer without being properly educated on how to use it.
My parents are the same - they can figure out how to use e-mail *usually*, but when something goes wrong they have no basic understanding of how things are supposed to work, and hence where the problem may be. They don't even know the difference between a web browser, "the Internet" or an e-mail client, despite having used a computer for a few years now.
In the case of my parents, they have zero interest in computers - they see them as a means to an end. They are too lazy to read a book on the subject (even ones I brought them) - it's easier to call a nephew or a son and have them fix it. The hundreds of hours of my time wasted on what would normally be trivial problems (eg. How to backup a file? Is this e-mail legitimate? How to I open this file? Where did my e-mail go? What's the difference between a file and a folder (for the 100th time)? etc.), has severely damaged our relationship, and has led to my wife even blocking their number on occasion.
People take the time to learn how to drive a car, because they are forced to study for a license. Perhaps the same should be required for a computer?
It's not hard to learn that the Windows PnP logo doesn't mean anything on a GNU/Linux system. The simple fact is that there are people out there who should not be using computers. Arguing that these few clueless people can't get things done on something other than Windows doesn't mean much.
That is almost definitely a result of my incident. My screenshots prove that Dell made no indication that XPS was an Inspiron at the time of the theft (and therefore also at the time of the purchase). I have an e-mail where they basically apologized for this issue (if you can cut through the bad English).
Note that this is much stricter than the policy that I received, where the term "locked" doesn't even appear. Dell have taken "forced entry" to mean that something must have been broken when entering the premises. This was not defined at the start of the policy, so I expect it might be arguable that the force was involved when they removed it from my hands.
Not that any of this should matter if I can prove the policy was not applicable to me. But then would that mean that I invalidate any kind of insurance? Perhaps in that case I could at least claim the few hundred that I paid for insurance.
I'm in Australia, and believe I earn just over the threshold for free legal aid (a recent pay-rise pushed me over). At this point I was considering taking a look at the National Association of Community Legal Centres (http://www.naclc.org.au/), but haven't had a chance to do much research there.
Thanks for the suggestion. If I have no luck, I'll look into this possibility.
I purchased a Dell XPS 1210 in Australia in November last year, with 3 Years (CompleteCover Guard) Theft insurance. I was typing on the laptop while sitting down at a local restaurant at a fancy part of town, when two big guys came running past the table and grabbed the laptop from behind.
I chased the thieves two blocks before they were able to give me the slip. The whole thing was on security camera (in daylight), and the police informed me that they had a clear picture of the entire incident.
When I reported the incident to Dell, they replied to me the next day via e-mail and said that my claim was rejected because there was no sign of force to the premises. I was stunned, and so went to read the policy. Yes, it said that "Theft of attempted theft not accompanied by forcible and violent entry" was excluded. I then noticed that the policy on the Dell website was somewhat different to the policy provided to me via hardcopy, but they both had a similar clause.
Finally, I decided that if they wanted to get technical, I'd do the same. After carefully reading *both* policies, I noticed that they both had wording similar to "CompleteCover Service is only available with the purchase of a Dell Latitude or Inspiron portable computer, or Dimension or Optiplex or Precision desktop computer, or Axim PDA (The "Product") but is not necessary that you purchase CompleteCover Service to buy a Product from us."
So what did I purchase? Obviously they had no document explaining exclusions for my XPS, since it appears they didn't have a valid policy!
At one point, I was verbally informed that XPS was a Latitude. When I captured many screenshots of the website as evidence against this, Dell denied that this was ever stated.
There were a few other arguable points I could have made, but in the end Dell just wouldn't listen. I only ever spoke to call centers in Asia where the accent was so thick it was hard to understand. I had one e-mail admit there might be a problem with the policy and they will try to fix it in the near future, and many apologies, but every e-mail always quoted "There was no theft of attempted theft not accompanied by forcible and violent entry". E-mails were sometimes hard to read due to invalid sentence structure.
I have been advised not to try and fight this. I am quite broke (my wife is out of work, I am on a small income and only just paid the stolen laptop off), and feel powerless to do anything. I feel the best I can do is encourage people not to purchase anything from Dell. It sure seems like I'm not the only one with a bad experience.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm vegetarian. Whenever I'm eating with others who are eating burgers, they assume I want a veggie-patty to fit in. I don't. I'm not interested in pretending to be a meat-eater, or I'd probably just be a meat-eater.*
TFA points out what is basically the same deal... I don't want GNU/Linux to be the same as Windows or I'd probably just use Windows.*
*Aside from all applicable philosophical reasons against doing so.
Not sure where the hell you live, but in Australia you can buy it right now, outright for AUD$585.00. iPhone 4 pricing starts at AUD$719.00 for the 8Gb model. N900 has 32Gb. It's a no-brainer.
I don't have a car - I use public transportation and ride my bike. Yet - there are roads built in my area - with tax payer money - that disallow bicycles and have no buses. In general I feel far more attention is paid to support car owners than our own public transportation systems. Why? Not everyone can drive, but everyone can use trams, trains and buses.
I'm sure all the politicians have no problem buying cars and ipods however.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - PC edition (pre-Internet era)
http://www.scary-crayon.com/games/tmnt12pc/
The amount of times I tried to finish this game as a kid and always failed at the same spot.... well let's just say that it's amazing I still play games. Friends at the time laughed at me since they finished it with their NES version. Just a few years ago I found out it was impossible to finish the game on PC due to these bugs. This game nearly ruined my life!! If only there were patches!! :)
I don't go that far as to download torrents, but I do wait until the games are on sale. I make every effort to never pay more than AU$40 for a title. Sometimes this goal is reached in just a few months. Other times, waiting for that title can take over a year. Another advantage is that the games generally have a crack available by the time I play them, so the DRM is stripped. Also, by that stage there's an abundance of game reviews, which further prevent wasting money, and I can usually run the games fine under WINE.
The last game I brought was Killing Floor, found at EB Games for $12.45. I've played it during all my spare time for 2 weeks. Awesome value for money.
I also game with a GTX480 (that's where the saved cash goes - my PC). There's simply no way I'm going back to 1280x720-res console gaming, which often has no AA or other effects. And then there's the keyboard and the mouse being far superior. You would think console game developers would support a keyboard and mouse on console platforms! I have an X360 and PS3 hooked up to the same monitor my PC is, but I still have to use a controller? No - my apartment is too small for a couch, so TV gaming is out of the question. I avoid buying console games wherever possible. To date, I only have about 5 X360 games but close to (maybe even over) 100 recent PC titles.
All of which are FOSS solutions. Naz's point still stands.
Impossible! Everyone loves shooting zombies, even if not as much as the British.
The real issue is with patents. Stallman wrote about this last year.
http://www.fsf.org/news/dont-depend-on-mono
Similar to WINE in a way, it's good to have an open source project to allow us to run more software. However, that doesn't mean that software developers should make their applications depend on them when specifically targeting a GNU/Linux environment - it's an unnecessary risk.
"Again" most probably dislikes Flash due to multiple bad experiences with it using his netbook. Obviously he has visited sites in the past he expects to work, that have failed him due to Flash. For those unspecified sites, he is almost certainly the target audience.
Flash on GNU/Linux absolutely sucks. So many times i go to watch a video, I full-screen it and the video plays *behind* the browser. I have to minimize the browser (and know to do that) or nothing will happen. Lots of videos also simply refuse to play unless they are on YouTube, so frequently I have to right-click and select "Watch this on YouTube" just to get the video to play. Even then, the controls frequently freeze up, preventing me from skipping to a particular section of the video. Other times, the video will just stop streaming unless I reload the page and stream it from scratch.
Flash is a far cry from being cross-platform. It does not make your website available to more users. It *reduces* the number of people who can visit the site. I wish designers would keep that in mind, instead of trusting the word of Adobe's marking BS. With these points in mind, no website should *require* flash, and an end user should be able to obtain any information from a website regardless of having a Flash plugin installed.
Or they could do what they did with Firefox 3 beta in 8.04 and leave the probably buggy component in there to be fixed later. :)
Right on. A demo, particularly with something like Crysis, allows one to determine if the game will be playable to an acceptable level on their gaming rig. Without a demo, one can only buy and hope - which obviously means more sales.
I reckon we just need to rip the GUI out of VirtualBox and slap it onto KVM. Integrate VDE into it, and it's basically perfect. How hard can it be? A few months work from a few dedicated developers?
Agreed. The USA needs to be more direct, as clearly their current approach isn't working if Stephen wasn't even aware until he read it in the paper.
I would love for the USA to make as big a deal out of this as possible.
> Ask Transgaming about Cedega. As a former subscriber, I can say that while its better than nothing, the majority of games I want to play on Linux still do not work. So i found it kinda pointless.
I knew somebody would eventually make this type of argument, so as of late August last year I've been keeping score of the games I've *finished*. As you'll see, most of my gaming is done under WINE. I'm not talking Transgaming or CodeWeavers - I'm talking the official WINE, maybe with some patches, the odd registry tweak and winetricks.
2009-08-29: BlackSite (WINE + mousepatch)
2009-08-30: F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin (WINE)
2009-09-11: Quake 4 (native GNU/Linux)
2009-09-13: Unreal (WINE)
2009-09-14: Frontlines: Fuel of War (WINE + mousepatch)
2009-12-12: Unreal II: The Awakening (WINE)
2009-12-13: Wolfenstein (WINE)
2009-12-20: Crysis (WINE + regression patch)
2009-12-25: Crysis Warhead (WINE + regression patch + crack)
2009-12-28: Red Faction (WINE 1.1.33)
2010-01-03: Red Alert 3 (WINE)
2010-01-08: Red Faction II (WINE 1.1.35)
2010-01-30: Half-Life (WINE 1.1.37)
2010-02-02: Half-Life 2 (WINE 1.1.37)
2010-02-02: Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (WINE 1.1.37)
2010-02-05: Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (WINE 1.1.37)
2010-02-06: Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (WINE 1.1.37)
Currently playing: WarCraft 2 Battle.Net edition. Also just brought Majesty 1 (native GNU/Linux version) and Majesty 2 (rated Gold under WINE's appdb).
Most of my PC games were brought when I had a Windows install kicking around. I spent a long time reinstalling all of my games under WINE, and found that around 60% of my collection worked. In the end, since most worked I simply deleted my Windows install altogether. I'm exclusively a GNU/Linux and console gamer now.
Lastly, Id Software, Linux Game Publishing and others seem to have no problems dealing with all the different GNU/Linux distros out there. I've still got the old GNU/Linux version of Quake II which was working fine last time I tried.
I've configured our local office WAP with WPA2-Enterprise and PEAP. I have to support this setup on a variety of machines.
Windows machines (depending on the configuration) typically refuse to connect unless the root certificate presented is trusted first. Unfortunately the error is typically quite unhelpful, but at least it operates in a safe way. It's also not too obvious how to import certificates for non-techies.
GNU/Linux machines running NetworkManager such as Ubuntu IMHO do the right thing - warn if the root certificate is not trusted, but allow you to bypass the warning and connect if for whatever reason you want to. You are prompted to upload the root certificate file right on the connection box, so it's very user friendly and encourages secure behavior.
iPod Touch/iPhones don't offer any obvious way to import the certificate! Upon connection they do present you the certificate and ask if you would like to trust it... however when you scroll down to the fingerprint, half of it doesn't fit on the screen and you can't scroll to the right to see the rest of it! The most important thing you need to see and half of it's missing! What were they thinking?
I'm not surprised by this news at all.
I'm in this job because I enjoy it. Simple as that.
Most open source video DVD players (Xine, VLC, XBMC etc.) ignore the no-skip flag on DVD content. Just click next and be done with it. I'm not sure if this is a feature of libdvdcss, the player itself or both.
Like the ReiserFS analogy. Seems correct - corporations always get taken more seriously than individuals. Probably something to do with having money. :)
I brought C&C: The First Decade, C&C3 and the Kane's Wrath expansion - all before I was aware of DRM and activation issues with EA titles. I'm going to wait until RA3 comes down to about AU$25 - about the price of four rentals. That's basically all you're getting for your money. Hopefully, by that stage the expansions will come bundled. :)
It's a shame, since I'm also left waiting for Crysis Warhead and Dead Space. I could purchase the X360 or PS3 versions, but I know they won't be as fun or look as nice so I generally only purchase console games when they are exclusive to consoles.
Pressure from Auzentech, perhaps?
"As for the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1, we are in discussions with Creative Labs regarding a Linux driver. We project that it will be available at the end of 2008, since our major focus is on the HDMI product line and DDL / DTS driver at this time."
This has been on their website for ages. Yes, the Prelude uses the Creative X-Fi technology.
http://www.auzentech.com/site/support/FAQ.php#compatibility
The problem is that Aunt Mildred shouldn't be using a computer without being properly educated on how to use it.
My parents are the same - they can figure out how to use e-mail *usually*, but when something goes wrong they have no basic understanding of how things are supposed to work, and hence where the problem may be. They don't even know the difference between a web browser, "the Internet" or an e-mail client, despite having used a computer for a few years now.
In the case of my parents, they have zero interest in computers - they see them as a means to an end. They are too lazy to read a book on the subject (even ones I brought them) - it's easier to call a nephew or a son and have them fix it. The hundreds of hours of my time wasted on what would normally be trivial problems (eg. How to backup a file? Is this e-mail legitimate? How to I open this file? Where did my e-mail go? What's the difference between a file and a folder (for the 100th time)? etc.), has severely damaged our relationship, and has led to my wife even blocking their number on occasion.
People take the time to learn how to drive a car, because they are forced to study for a license. Perhaps the same should be required for a computer?
It's not hard to learn that the Windows PnP logo doesn't mean anything on a GNU/Linux system. The simple fact is that there are people out there who should not be using computers. Arguing that these few clueless people can't get things done on something other than Windows doesn't mean much.
If this actually counts, I believe you are cheating even more than you intended!
/bin/true; do wget -O /dev/null http://download.mozilla.com/whatever/firefox-3.0.0-is-awesome.tar.gz; done
From the man page:
-c
Continue getting a partially-downloaded file.
As you would have already downloaded the file the first time, wget would not have anything to resume! Try this instead:
while
That is almost definitely a result of my incident. My screenshots prove that Dell made no indication that XPS was an Inspiron at the time of the theft (and therefore also at the time of the purchase). I have an e-mail where they basically apologized for this issue (if you can cut through the bad English).
s Agreement/2.pdf
You are correct - the page advertising indicates that the item had to be locked. The actual policy can be found at:
http://www.dell.com/downloads/ap/services/Service
Note that this is much stricter than the policy that I received, where the term "locked" doesn't even appear. Dell have taken "forced entry" to mean that something must have been broken when entering the premises. This was not defined at the start of the policy, so I expect it might be arguable that the force was involved when they removed it from my hands.
Not that any of this should matter if I can prove the policy was not applicable to me. But then would that mean that I invalidate any kind of insurance? Perhaps in that case I could at least claim the few hundred that I paid for insurance.
I'm in Australia, and believe I earn just over the threshold for free legal aid (a recent pay-rise pushed me over). At this point I was considering taking a look at the National Association of Community Legal Centres (http://www.naclc.org.au/), but haven't had a chance to do much research there.
Thanks for the suggestion. If I have no luck, I'll look into this possibility.
I purchased a Dell XPS 1210 in Australia in November last year, with 3 Years (CompleteCover Guard) Theft insurance. I was typing on the laptop while sitting down at a local restaurant at a fancy part of town, when two big guys came running past the table and grabbed the laptop from behind.
I chased the thieves two blocks before they were able to give me the slip. The whole thing was on security camera (in daylight), and the police informed me that they had a clear picture of the entire incident.
When I reported the incident to Dell, they replied to me the next day via e-mail and said that my claim was rejected because there was no sign of force to the premises. I was stunned, and so went to read the policy. Yes, it said that "Theft of attempted theft not accompanied by forcible and violent entry" was excluded. I then noticed that the policy on the Dell website was somewhat different to the policy provided to me via hardcopy, but they both had a similar clause.
Finally, I decided that if they wanted to get technical, I'd do the same. After carefully reading *both* policies, I noticed that they both had wording similar to "CompleteCover Service is only available with the purchase of a Dell Latitude or Inspiron portable computer, or Dimension or Optiplex or Precision desktop computer, or Axim PDA (The "Product") but is not necessary that you purchase CompleteCover Service to buy a Product from us."
So what did I purchase? Obviously they had no document explaining exclusions for my XPS, since it appears they didn't have a valid policy!
At one point, I was verbally informed that XPS was a Latitude. When I captured many screenshots of the website as evidence against this, Dell denied that this was ever stated.
There were a few other arguable points I could have made, but in the end Dell just wouldn't listen. I only ever spoke to call centers in Asia where the accent was so thick it was hard to understand. I had one e-mail admit there might be a problem with the policy and they will try to fix it in the near future, and many apologies, but every e-mail always quoted "There was no theft of attempted theft not accompanied by forcible and violent entry". E-mails were sometimes hard to read due to invalid sentence structure.
I have been advised not to try and fight this. I am quite broke (my wife is out of work, I am on a small income and only just paid the stolen laptop off), and feel powerless to do anything. I feel the best I can do is encourage people not to purchase anything from Dell. It sure seems like I'm not the only one with a bad experience.