you could just as well have said this: "We wanted to send party invitations, so we hacked into each of our customers' servers and put a message on their home page.
No, actually, you're wrong. If you go to a restaurant and leave your business card, you are pretty much authorizing the restaurant to use the information to contact you. That's how business has been conducted for quite a long time. You have a reasonable expectation that the restaurant will not abuse your trust and in that regard, I don't think we have at all. As I said, all but a very few people welcomed these invitations. My company is quite well known for throwing a hell of a party.
Yet with this software, one person can have the ability to block a group announcement that is welcomed by 99 percent of the people.
Ever click a ThinkGeek banner on Slashdot? What if one reader had the ability to block the ads for everyone? I'd miss them, even though they are technically the same as most any other banner ad and in some people's minds, evil. ThinkGeek seems to be a clueful company that knows its audience and in that is a welcome addition to the community. The also pay the money that keeps the servers running.
Ever get a catalog in the mail that you actually thought was worthwhile? What if one person could decide that it was junkmail and should be blocked for everybody? That there was no way for you to 'opt-in', because there was no way for you to hear about it in the first place.
What I'm saying is that one guy who may not even recall opting in can block a perfectly valid email announcement. In that way, the system does have a flaw.
What if I was on the CERT advisory email list and decided to say that their latest announcement was spam? From my understanding of the system in question, I would have that ability.
I would love for there to be a good system for controlling the junk email that I get, but I don't think that this is there yet.
I spent the last few days hacking together a bulk mailer in perl. I did so with a lot of sensitivity and a bit of trepidation and a lot of social engineering to my employer who wanted to put together a way to send invitations to a party via email, rather than the very expensive snail mail method that we had been using.
This was emailed to our real customers - our 'A list'. These are the people who get invited to these parties each time - people who come and enjoy the food and drinks, no strings attached.
But, yet, technically, it *is* bulk email and this first time, unsolicited. A very large percentage of the people responded enthusiasticly that they want to remain on the list for this, but a few (8 out of 3500) asked to be removed from the list. One guy seemed annoyed and I typed him a personal apology. (In fact, I doubt that this guy read the email before sending off his remove request.)
What if that guy had submitted the email as spam to this system?
In that case, the rest would miss out on coming to a good party.
I hate spam as much as anyone on slashdot. I was asked to set up a bulk email and found that it could be done in a way that was not offensive in this case. Had it conflicted with my conscience, I would have refused.
Maybe the system needs some sort of moderation as a filter, too. At least that would allow valid bulk email to survive one trigger-happy end-user.
Ok, go ahead and tell me that I'm wrong in this...
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
Repeat after me:
Moe-ni-tah
Bideo-kah-do
She-pee-you
May-moe-rie
You get the picture... Try not to over-translate things - For instance, one time I was looking for Memory (RAM) and translated it to omoide. Once the clerk figured out what I was trying to say, it had him laughing so hard that he had to get someone else to help me.
Akihabara is one of the easiest places to get around for a foreign geek in Tokyo - so many more of the words are 'translated' like my examples above. If you are looking for a complete system, stick to the big stores like T-Zone or Laox or any place that has a big english sign that says 'Duty-Free'. Those places have english-speaking sales staff and know all of the customs info. Bring your passport if you buy anything expensive, as you'll need it to avoid paying tax.
You mention nifty handhelds and mini-notebooks - I too have drooled over the selection here, but there are 2 main problems with those: Japanese Keyboards and Japanese OS. It's really a drag, but on small devices, it's almost impossible to change those two things.
You should see good selections of other things such as digital cameras, MiniDisc players and the like. (Get a minidisc player here - they're cheap, dozens of models and easy to figure out; you'll not regret it. Just make sure the batteries and chargers are compatable.)
Japan uses different power than the US and Europe. For PCs and Laptops, it's never a problem, but for other things, it might be. (Learn what your standard is at home and learn how to read the charger/device you are buying.)
Saturdays, the prices are a bit lower, I've heard, but not noticed. New items tend to be price-fixed at all of the stores, but that just means you don't have to shop all of the stores. Credit cards are usually OK, but bring some cash.
For parts and upgrades, check out DIY (do it yourself) Street. It has a great bazaar feel and some of the best selections of oddball gizmos.
I really don't think much haggling goes on - not just here, but anywhere in Tokyo. Japanese people generally do not haggle, with the exception of Osaka - I hear it is traditionally much more common there.
All-in-all, for most mainstream stuff, you'll do just as well at the big electronics shops all over Tokyo, but you miss the experience of Akihabara. Where it really shines is for the ability to track down literally *any* small part, connector or special cable. We don't have or need Radio Shack here. It's geek heaven.
Also remember that 90% of the shops close at 8:00pm - some are open til 9:00, but get there well before - Stores typically start playing "Auld Lang Syne" when they want to start closing.
There are also dozens of porn shops, but don't bother - Japanese porn is some of the worst in the world, since by law, they must place a spot of 'mosaic' over the naughty bits.
If you're going on a Saturday or Sunday, drop me a line - I may join you and show you around.
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
Your typical Tokyo after work get-together costs you ~$80/ea. Crappy dinner, beers and karaoke. Add $20 for cabs if it goes after midnight.
To counter this a bit, I did the following:
At my last job, I dreaded these things, so I instituted "Jim's Movie Night" where I would clear a big space in the document warehouse. set up a screen, speakers and one of those projectors usually reserved for PowerPoint. Everyone was told to bring their own food and beer and Just kick back and relax.
They were really a great success and management looked the other way.
When picking a movie became difficult, I hacked together a CGI voting program on the company intranet. I'd wget reviews of the movies from wherever and then let people vote on this week's movie.
It was a really nice thing - cheap and easy and a lot of fun. I'd recommend it to anyone who's got access to an old conference-room projector and a bit of space.
Start it out for close friends and let the thing grow as it will. You'll be surprised how many people will show.
After messing around with firewalls all day, I wonder if something like PSDoom could take some of the drudgery out of that...
Picture this:
You've got a large stone wall with ~65,000 entrances, a machine gun, boiling oil and a six-pack of beer.
Sounds like a lot more fun than how I spent the last few days...
When you get a really solid firewall going, you can pick off valid packets just for fun...
Not to mention stupid things like "ZIP" codes.
Guess what - other countries may have postal codes, but they don't always fall into a format of five contiguous numbers...
Just today, Yahoo told me that I had an impossible 'zip' code, so I did what I usually do in that case - enter "02134", which as many of you know. is pronounced "Oh!, two-one, three-FOUR!", especially if it follows "Box 3-5-0, Boston Mass", which I fill in whenever some braindead php monkey has never heard of my particular prefecture...
Except that they will have no power to say that certain things are 'no longer supported', the way that they can with all things DOS.
Now there are projects like ZipSlack and LTSP - I don't see how they can make things like that go away.
Sure, things like KDE and Gnome and StarOffice might get all bloated, but you can always dump them for BlackBox (or your favorite shell) and VI. You don't have that choice with Windows XP.
I can't see the Kernel gurus letting the kernel get out of hand anytime soon, either. Even if it does, there's nothing preventing someone from releasing a new distro based on an old kernel.
Linux doesn't need to win to survive
Even if it wins, who cares? People who do Linux aren't motivated by profit, since they rarely see profits.
Theirs is a near-religious zeal, whether you think that is a good thing or not.
Linux will continue to get better, or bigger, or whatever, until it ceases to be Linux. Even when you stop hearing about Linux, it will still be there.
As long as one person keeps a copy of the source somewhere on a forgotten P10 server with only a terabyte of RAM, Linux will survive and someone will stumble upon it and become enamoured with the spirit of the whole Linux movement. And then it continues...
There will now always be an alternative to commercial software.
(((640 *480) * 24bpp) * 30FPS) * 1000 =
Roughly 2.21184e+11 bits per second, uncompressed.
Hmmm.
Why not just erect a satellite dish and stream the data into space? The cost of having an alien intelligence beam it back to you would probably be less than conventional storage costs.
I would especially favor this plan if it's some kind of face-recognition software or other privacy-deprivation program.
Another plan would be to hire 1000 people to sit and swap tapes on their home VCRs every few hours - just hire the people who currently plan to make a living stuffing envelopes at home.
Yet, something tells me that you're not doing anything that I would want to encourage...
Cheers,
Jim, hopefully out of your Jurisdiction
Go down to the seashore and declare a war against the sea. Bill did that just as the tide began to recede, so it looked as though he was winning. But after a while, you realize that how matter how much you kick at the waves, it has no effect.
It's a waiting game and we don't have that long to wait...
I still give too much credit to your typical slashdot reader - maybe you enjoy flipping between your WebTV and your Saturday Night Live too much to contribute intelligently to this conversation.
Go ahead, flame me - I've got Karma to burn, but all I really proposed that there is an internet that has always existed *in spite* of the commercial offerings of AOL/TW/DoJ/MS-Disney. Don't believe me? Go on IRC and talk to the developers of the latest and greatest Linux software - browse sites like this one.
Listen - You have basically two options:
1.) Contribute
2.) Be ignored
Take your pick...
It's my redneck background, I guess - Back in high school, we used to get drunk, drive around in in pickup trucks and shoot at mailboxes and stopsigns and other inanimate objects. This is kind of the same thing...
I know I occasionally cross the line between Linux advocate and Linux asshole, but it's a very fine line. I think of the cost of Windows (NT/2000/XP) and I can't help but think that I could spend that money buying something other than software. Sure, I could install illegally, like many people, but I get a kick out of supporting the efforts of people who actually think that writing software is *cool*. People who write software to fit the needs of themselves, not the needs of their marketing department.
If, as you say, you are trying to help me, take a moment to examine your own motives. Why do you oppose the free software movement? Do you feel inadequate because you never got the hang of 'tar -zxvf'? Did you install Slackware a few years ago and never manage to get 'X' working? Take another look.
Yes, as you said, I probably think too much about free software, but doing so has afforded me a good life - freedom to do what I want, where I want, when I want, regardless of what the MSCE drones are handed down from Redmond.
Enjoy your life, I will enjoy mine.:-)
Cheers,
Jim
Dear Anonymous Coward:
No, I will not feel like a Jackass. (At least not because of this post, anyway.)
Yes, I use Linux. I advocate its use. I believe in it, I contribute to it. Find me on a Saturday and I will help you install it. I will help you avoid some of the mistakes that I made and show you some of the cool things about it that made me a convert.
Believe me, I am *not* smarter than others and I know it. More adventurous, perhaps, maybe only more bored... Windows is great if you've got to make a living, which I did for a long time, but linux is a "Good Thing" -
Did you ever notice how the best parties tend to revolve around the kitchen? Well, it's kind of like that - You don't have to be involved in the actual cooking, you just have to want to stay near the action. Linux is like that - You can involve yourself as much as you like.
Windows/passport/msn/ie, on the other hand, is more like a restaurant, where you are content to let others oversee the cooking - if you are happy to see only the end result, fine. Take what they serve you. You might be satisfied. But if you are the kind of party guest who gravitates towards the kitchen, take a look at Linux - you might enjoy your experience more if you can at least feel involved in the production. Something tells me that if you are posting to Slashdot, you are already involved.
Sorry if I sounded like a snob - I probably did, but I think I will happily give up a lot of the 'features' (SPAM/flash/realaudio/hotmail) of the modern internet in favor of the old-fashioned exchange of ideas that I used to see here. (ASCII text)
Recently I saw how pretty XP was and heard it had compatability modes for playing old DOS games.
Why not just load up DOS 5 for old games? Oh, wait, you can't... But then again, if I wanted to run Slackware 1.3, I could probably find it using Google and run it without breaking any license agreements - but you lost your license for DOS 5 when you installed Win 3.1 back in '93, didn't you?
Don't mind me...
Jim in Tokyo
PS - Gnome can be pretty, too - as pretty as you want it to be.
By ensuring a Windows-only "internet" they are granting freedom to Linux users and people saavy enough not to play along...
I was happy enough with the BBS culture of 10 - 15 years ago - I will be happy to see all of those morons gone. If you can't figure out that you don't need Windows, I'm not sure that I want to know you...
Good riddance to them - For a while, it was as if the football team had joined the A/V club and now they're being shepherded out of the room - let them go... Maybe I'll get less spam and fewer Code Red attacks...
Should have named them "Robo-cat" - that one on the right is about as appealing as Arnold Schwartzeswhatzis...
Of course, most of the cats in Tokyo *are* deformed, so they didn't have good examples to work from...
It was 270, believe it or not - 2:00 am, with no lights on the bike, either.
Of course I used to be a DC bike messenger, so I was a bit nuts to begin with -
DBTools Is a pretty nice Windows-only front end (Though it will easily admin a server on a linux box.) - It looks a lot like Oracle's tool did 5 years ago, but it really works pretty well.
This is the tool I recommend to people coming from MSAccess. I often use it when creating tables because I can never remember the syntax for doing auto-increment fields...
It will take you about 5-10 minutes to figure out how it all works and it doesn't insult the intelligence of the command-line crowd.
Hope this is of some use to somebody...
Funny - they don't even sell deodorant here. (I buy at least a half-dosen sticks each trip to the states.) Add these super lightweight summer suits and the guys do fine. BO is probably less acceptable here than in the states, too. Foreigners often have a tough time with that.
When I wore a suit to work on my bike, I had to carefully plan what I would wear. (Dress shirt folded with my jacket in the front basket - no backpack.) Small towel for drying off. (See the other reply...) And if that didn't work, a shower at the healthclub at lunchtime would. You also had to remember which intersections didn't have a shady spot in which to wait for the light to change or find a better place to wait.
Still it was *way* better than being crammed into a Tokyo train with your jacket and tie on. They are just as crowded as you've probably heard.
It's fall here now and much cooler - Biking to work now is a joy.
Plus, you will thank yourself when you are 40...
Cheers,
Jim
Slashdot Mirror
No offense, hear me out a bit:
you could just as well have said this: "We wanted to send party invitations, so we hacked into each of our customers' servers and put a message on their home page.
No, actually, you're wrong. If you go to a restaurant and leave your business card, you are pretty much authorizing the restaurant to use the information to contact you. That's how business has been conducted for quite a long time. You have a reasonable expectation that the restaurant will not abuse your trust and in that regard, I don't think we have at all. As I said, all but a very few people welcomed these invitations. My company is quite well known for throwing a hell of a party.
Yet with this software, one person can have the ability to block a group announcement that is welcomed by 99 percent of the people.
Ever click a ThinkGeek banner on Slashdot? What if one reader had the ability to block the ads for everyone? I'd miss them, even though they are technically the same as most any other banner ad and in some people's minds, evil. ThinkGeek seems to be a clueful company that knows its audience and in that is a welcome addition to the community. The also pay the money that keeps the servers running.
Ever get a catalog in the mail that you actually thought was worthwhile? What if one person could decide that it was junkmail and should be blocked for everybody? That there was no way for you to 'opt-in', because there was no way for you to hear about it in the first place.
What I'm saying is that one guy who may not even recall opting in can block a perfectly valid email announcement. In that way, the system does have a flaw.
What if I was on the CERT advisory email list and decided to say that their latest announcement was spam? From my understanding of the system in question, I would have that ability.
I would love for there to be a good system for controlling the junk email that I get, but I don't think that this is there yet.
Cheers,
Jim
I spent the last few days hacking together a bulk mailer in perl. I did so with a lot of sensitivity and a bit of trepidation and a lot of social engineering to my employer who wanted to put together a way to send invitations to a party via email, rather than the very expensive snail mail method that we had been using.
This was emailed to our real customers - our 'A list'. These are the people who get invited to these parties each time - people who come and enjoy the food and drinks, no strings attached.
But, yet, technically, it *is* bulk email and this first time, unsolicited. A very large percentage of the people responded enthusiasticly that they want to remain on the list for this, but a few (8 out of 3500) asked to be removed from the list. One guy seemed annoyed and I typed him a personal apology. (In fact, I doubt that this guy read the email before sending off his remove request.)
What if that guy had submitted the email as spam to this system?
In that case, the rest would miss out on coming to a good party.
I hate spam as much as anyone on slashdot. I was asked to set up a bulk email and found that it could be done in a way that was not offensive in this case. Had it conflicted with my conscience, I would have refused.
Maybe the system needs some sort of moderation as a filter, too. At least that would allow valid bulk email to survive one trigger-happy end-user.
Ok, go ahead and tell me that I'm wrong in this...
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
Repeat after me:
Moe-ni-tah
Bideo-kah-do
She-pee-you
May-moe-rie
You get the picture... Try not to over-translate things - For instance, one time I was looking for Memory (RAM) and translated it to omoide. Once the clerk figured out what I was trying to say, it had him laughing so hard that he had to get someone else to help me.
Akihabara is one of the easiest places to get around for a foreign geek in Tokyo - so many more of the words are 'translated' like my examples above. If you are looking for a complete system, stick to the big stores like T-Zone or Laox or any place that has a big english sign that says 'Duty-Free'. Those places have english-speaking sales staff and know all of the customs info. Bring your passport if you buy anything expensive, as you'll need it to avoid paying tax.
You mention nifty handhelds and mini-notebooks - I too have drooled over the selection here, but there are 2 main problems with those: Japanese Keyboards and Japanese OS. It's really a drag, but on small devices, it's almost impossible to change those two things.
You should see good selections of other things such as digital cameras, MiniDisc players and the like. (Get a minidisc player here - they're cheap, dozens of models and easy to figure out; you'll not regret it. Just make sure the batteries and chargers are compatable.)
Japan uses different power than the US and Europe. For PCs and Laptops, it's never a problem, but for other things, it might be. (Learn what your standard is at home and learn how to read the charger/device you are buying.)
Saturdays, the prices are a bit lower, I've heard, but not noticed. New items tend to be price-fixed at all of the stores, but that just means you don't have to shop all of the stores. Credit cards are usually OK, but bring some cash.
For parts and upgrades, check out DIY (do it yourself) Street. It has a great bazaar feel and some of the best selections of oddball gizmos.
I really don't think much haggling goes on - not just here, but anywhere in Tokyo. Japanese people generally do not haggle, with the exception of Osaka - I hear it is traditionally much more common there.
All-in-all, for most mainstream stuff, you'll do just as well at the big electronics shops all over Tokyo, but you miss the experience of Akihabara. Where it really shines is for the ability to track down literally *any* small part, connector or special cable. We don't have or need Radio Shack here. It's geek heaven.
Also remember that 90% of the shops close at 8:00pm - some are open til 9:00, but get there well before - Stores typically start playing "Auld Lang Syne" when they want to start closing.
There are also dozens of porn shops, but don't bother - Japanese porn is some of the worst in the world, since by law, they must place a spot of 'mosaic' over the naughty bits.
If you're going on a Saturday or Sunday, drop me a line - I may join you and show you around.
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
And maybe if I can transfer my low-res expensive watch photos to my low-res expensive pda, I'll feel better about having already wasted my money.
This might make you feel a bit better:
Palm and Wrist Camera.
It lets you transfer pics from the original wrist camera to a PalmOS device, via infrared.
Quite nifty.
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
Is that that was his 43rd post - I wonder what he has cooking for his next post?
:-)
Jim in Tokyo
> 2. Buying Rounds
Hollowpoint...
Your typical Tokyo after work get-together costs you ~$80/ea. Crappy dinner, beers and karaoke. Add $20 for cabs if it goes after midnight.
To counter this a bit, I did the following:
At my last job, I dreaded these things, so I instituted "Jim's Movie Night" where I would clear a big space in the document warehouse. set up a screen, speakers and one of those projectors usually reserved for PowerPoint. Everyone was told to bring their own food and beer and Just kick back and relax.
They were really a great success and management looked the other way.
When picking a movie became difficult, I hacked together a CGI voting program on the company intranet. I'd wget reviews of the movies from wherever and then let people vote on this week's movie.
It was a really nice thing - cheap and easy and a lot of fun. I'd recommend it to anyone who's got access to an old conference-room projector and a bit of space.
Start it out for close friends and let the thing grow as it will. You'll be surprised how many people will show.
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
After messing around with firewalls all day, I wonder if something like PSDoom could take some of the drudgery out of that...
Picture this:
You've got a large stone wall with ~65,000 entrances, a machine gun, boiling oil and a six-pack of beer.
Sounds like a lot more fun than how I spent the last few days...
When you get a really solid firewall going, you can pick off valid packets just for fun...
Not to mention stupid things like "ZIP" codes.
Guess what - other countries may have postal codes, but they don't always fall into a format of five contiguous numbers...
Just today, Yahoo told me that I had an impossible 'zip' code, so I did what I usually do in that case - enter "02134", which as many of you know. is pronounced "Oh!, two-one, three-FOUR!", especially if it follows "Box 3-5-0, Boston Mass", which I fill in whenever some braindead php monkey has never heard of my particular prefecture...
Except that they will have no power to say that certain things are 'no longer supported', the way that they can with all things DOS.
Now there are projects like ZipSlack and LTSP - I don't see how they can make things like that go away.
Sure, things like KDE and Gnome and StarOffice might get all bloated, but you can always dump them for BlackBox (or your favorite shell) and VI. You don't have that choice with Windows XP.
I can't see the Kernel gurus letting the kernel get out of hand anytime soon, either. Even if it does, there's nothing preventing someone from releasing a new distro based on an old kernel.
Linux doesn't need to win to survive
Even if it wins, who cares? People who do Linux aren't motivated by profit, since they rarely see profits.
Theirs is a near-religious zeal, whether you think that is a good thing or not.
Linux will continue to get better, or bigger, or whatever, until it ceases to be Linux. Even when you stop hearing about Linux, it will still be there.
As long as one person keeps a copy of the source somewhere on a forgotten P10 server with only a terabyte of RAM, Linux will survive and someone will stumble upon it and become enamoured with the spirit of the whole Linux movement. And then it continues...
There will now always be an alternative to commercial software.
(((640 *480) * 24bpp) * 30FPS) * 1000 =
Roughly 2.21184e+11 bits per second, uncompressed.
Hmmm.
Why not just erect a satellite dish and stream the data into space? The cost of having an alien intelligence beam it back to you would probably be less than conventional storage costs.
I would especially favor this plan if it's some kind of face-recognition software or other privacy-deprivation program.
Another plan would be to hire 1000 people to sit and swap tapes on their home VCRs every few hours - just hire the people who currently plan to make a living stuffing envelopes at home.
Yet, something tells me that you're not doing anything that I would want to encourage...
Cheers,
Jim, hopefully out of your Jurisdiction
Go down to the seashore and declare a war against the sea. Bill did that just as the tide began to recede, so it looked as though he was winning. But after a while, you realize that how matter how much you kick at the waves, it has no effect.
It's a waiting game and we don't have that long to wait...
Cheers,
Jim
I still give too much credit to your typical slashdot reader - maybe you enjoy flipping between your WebTV and your Saturday Night Live too much to contribute intelligently to this conversation.
Go ahead, flame me - I've got Karma to burn, but all I really proposed that there is an internet that has always existed *in spite* of the commercial offerings of AOL/TW/DoJ/MS-Disney. Don't believe me? Go on IRC and talk to the developers of the latest and greatest Linux software - browse sites like this one.
Listen - You have basically two options:
1.) Contribute
2.) Be ignored
Take your pick...
Cheers,
Jim
It's my redneck background, I guess - Back in high school, we used to get drunk, drive around in in pickup trucks and shoot at mailboxes and stopsigns and other inanimate objects. This is kind of the same thing... :-)
I know I occasionally cross the line between Linux advocate and Linux asshole, but it's a very fine line. I think of the cost of Windows (NT/2000/XP) and I can't help but think that I could spend that money buying something other than software. Sure, I could install illegally, like many people, but I get a kick out of supporting the efforts of people who actually think that writing software is *cool*. People who write software to fit the needs of themselves, not the needs of their marketing department.
If, as you say, you are trying to help me, take a moment to examine your own motives. Why do you oppose the free software movement? Do you feel inadequate because you never got the hang of 'tar -zxvf'? Did you install Slackware a few years ago and never manage to get 'X' working? Take another look.
Yes, as you said, I probably think too much about free software, but doing so has afforded me a good life - freedom to do what I want, where I want, when I want, regardless of what the MSCE drones are handed down from Redmond.
Enjoy your life, I will enjoy mine.
Cheers,
Jim
Shutup bitch, you can't stop it.
I don't need to. I've got a modem. Have fun being a consumer.
;-)
Dear Anonymous Coward:
No, I will not feel like a Jackass. (At least not because of this post, anyway.)
Yes, I use Linux. I advocate its use. I believe in it, I contribute to it. Find me on a Saturday and I will help you install it. I will help you avoid some of the mistakes that I made and show you some of the cool things about it that made me a convert.
Believe me, I am *not* smarter than others and I know it. More adventurous, perhaps, maybe only more bored... Windows is great if you've got to make a living, which I did for a long time, but linux is a "Good Thing" -
Did you ever notice how the best parties tend to revolve around the kitchen? Well, it's kind of like that - You don't have to be involved in the actual cooking, you just have to want to stay near the action. Linux is like that - You can involve yourself as much as you like.
Windows/passport/msn/ie, on the other hand, is more like a restaurant, where you are content to let others oversee the cooking - if you are happy to see only the end result, fine. Take what they serve you. You might be satisfied. But if you are the kind of party guest who gravitates towards the kitchen, take a look at Linux - you might enjoy your experience more if you can at least feel involved in the production. Something tells me that if you are posting to Slashdot, you are already involved.
Sorry if I sounded like a snob - I probably did, but I think I will happily give up a lot of the 'features' (SPAM/flash/realaudio/hotmail) of the modern internet in favor of the old-fashioned exchange of ideas that I used to see here. (ASCII text)
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
Recently I saw how pretty XP was and heard it had compatability modes for playing old DOS games.
Why not just load up DOS 5 for old games? Oh, wait, you can't... But then again, if I wanted to run Slackware 1.3, I could probably find it using Google and run it without breaking any license agreements - but you lost your license for DOS 5 when you installed Win 3.1 back in '93, didn't you?
Don't mind me...
Jim in Tokyo
PS - Gnome can be pretty, too - as pretty as you want it to be.
By ensuring a Windows-only "internet" they are granting freedom to Linux users and people saavy enough not to play along...
I was happy enough with the BBS culture of 10 - 15 years ago - I will be happy to see all of those morons gone. If you can't figure out that you don't need Windows, I'm not sure that I want to know you...
Good riddance to them - For a while, it was as if the football team had joined the A/V club and now they're being shepherded out of the room - let them go... Maybe I'll get less spam and fewer Code Red attacks...
Obviously Somewhat Embittered,
Jim in Tokyo
"Ooo eee ooo ah ah, ting tang walla walla, bing bang"
The verbal equivalent of perl?
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
Should have named them "Robo-cat" - that one on the right is about as appealing as Arnold Schwartzeswhatzis...
Of course, most of the cats in Tokyo *are* deformed, so they didn't have good examples to work from...
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
(BTW - this is my 200th post! )
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
It was 270, believe it or not - 2:00 am, with no lights on the bike, either.
Of course I used to be a DC bike messenger, so I was a bit nuts to begin with -
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
DBTools Is a pretty nice Windows-only front end (Though it will easily admin a server on a linux box.) - It looks a lot like Oracle's tool did 5 years ago, but it really works pretty well.
This is the tool I recommend to people coming from MSAccess. I often use it when creating tables because I can never remember the syntax for doing auto-increment fields...
It will take you about 5-10 minutes to figure out how it all works and it doesn't insult the intelligence of the command-line crowd.
Hope this is of some use to somebody...
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
Funny - they don't even sell deodorant here. (I buy at least a half-dosen sticks each trip to the states.) Add these super lightweight summer suits and the guys do fine. BO is probably less acceptable here than in the states, too. Foreigners often have a tough time with that.
When I wore a suit to work on my bike, I had to carefully plan what I would wear. (Dress shirt folded with my jacket in the front basket - no backpack.) Small towel for drying off. (See the other reply...) And if that didn't work, a shower at the healthclub at lunchtime would. You also had to remember which intersections didn't have a shady spot in which to wait for the light to change or find a better place to wait.
Still it was *way* better than being crammed into a Tokyo train with your jacket and tie on. They are just as crowded as you've probably heard.
It's fall here now and much cooler - Biking to work now is a joy.
Plus, you will thank yourself when you are 40...
Cheers,
Jim