Let me ditto this suggestion. It's a Debian 2.2 (I believe) distro, Gnome/KDE/twvm (you can choose which one to try). Yes, it takes 3-5 minutes to boot, but that's because it's doing a ton of stuff (like, oh, getting all the drivers set up). The great thing is that on the 4 machines I've tested it on (1 Dell with 2k, 2 home-growns with Win98 and different mobo/sound/video/etc), it's started up flawlessly. If you want someone to taste Linux (complete with StarOffice), give them a CD of DemoLinux!
http://www.demolinux.org/
Among various other improvements, version 3.0 now introduces the Xvesa X server, remplacing the framebuffer used before, which depended on VESA 2.0 cards. We now handle PCI sound cards, Lucent winmodems, Reiserfs version 3.5.x, certain USB peripherals and several other 2.2.18 kernel devices. As for version 2.0, DemoLinux 3 heavily uses a transparent compression schema that allows to sotre over a gigabyte of applications, including GNOME and KDE and the StarOffice office suite. The compression code has been fixed and now it is faster and more reliable. The list of installed packages is
here . Notice this time we included highly demanded tools like ssh (which is downloaded on the fly and not pre-installed, due to legal reasons), gpart, dump etc, as well as a version of TeXmacs.
Actually, what I read from Joss (one of his posts) was that it was a story about a man investigating haunted houses, supernatural and otherwise. And it's going to be hard for Anthony Stewart Head to play a teen version of, well, himself.
Part of it was brought on by ASH's wish to go back to England, and apparently the Beeb had a long-standing "we want!" for something of Joss'. It ought to be interesting. The big question is if the Beeb will shoot themselves in the foot and not let it show in the states. If not, I think the a.b.m.b-v-s newsgroup's going to be the U.S.'s only shot at watching it.
I have a car MP3 player. I have 12 CDs in the car, and it's not enough. It gives me the ability to pick and choose on the fly what I want to listen to. Not in the mood for acoustic death metal today? No problem.
I brought 20 CDs to work today. I'll listen to half of them, and change the CDs tonight. I go through 50 CDs a week, and it'll still take me MONTHS to go through my collection. I'm serious about music.
all that being said, you do have a valid point. Say it does take 3 hours. Once a week, and that's not bad. It's not an iPod, but we're PC users, and used to not getting the coolest stuff. We're okay with that, it's cheaper to get a Treo. All that being said, if someone wanted to buy me an iPod, I'll be all over it. I really have no interest in a Treo; the music management doesn't seem to be done as well as the iPod. However, for people who're considering buying a 128 mb player, this thing is far superior. And for about the same price. I wouldn't buy a Nomad (too damn big, currently), but this I could see.
Actually, I'm disappointed as hell. Corporatism isn't evil, despite what you think, except when it stifles competition and innovation, and you bet your ass that's what Microsoft was doing. Multinationals are fine, provided they're fighting tooth and nail for your money. When that stops is when the troubles begin. The government was in the right to go after them, and I've despised the whole "well, we're MICROSOFT, so we don't have to". I never thought I'd see a company piss on the government and have the government TAKE IT.
Personally, everyone who lied under oath should be in jail right now. Don't want to limit your illegal activities, Bill? That's fine, we'll talk next month.
Hmmm... At first I thought the connection was hosed because of the weird "skippy" vocals. Then I realized it was deliberate.
And do at least watch the first video all the way through. I decided to do so, and there actually is a story later on. Unfortunately, you have to listen to some god-awful music ("Celebrate good times, come on!" was apparently the spiritual guide for this band) to do so.
Animation = great, the guy still has a great sense of cinematography. But the music....
I haven't been running Linux lately, but I had the perfect opportunity in May - I was going out of town with my Laptop, and as long as I could use email, I was set. So I downloaded all the distros I could remember offhand - Mandrake, Corel, Debian, and Red Hat.
Debian - this was easily the toughest of them all. Text-based installer, questions I didn't know how to answer (why does it want me to become a USENET server?), etc, etc. But it finally ran, and being able to "apt-get" is amazingly cool.
Corel - I know I'll get flamed for this, and it DOES have disads. But it installed flawlessly on my computer, and seemed to work pretty well. On the plus side it acts a lot like windows, and installing software uses a variant of apt-get (which Corel is based on). I use it at home. On the downside, it's not nearly as supported as, say, Red Hat, so you need a lot more hand-holding. But I heartily recommend it.
Red Hat. I downloaded 7.1, and it had a great installer. The good side is that it's commonly considered the standard, so FAQs and programs are built specifically for it. On the down side, all the trojans and the like are built for it too. The problem I ran into is that applications stopped working for no apparent reason (even with re-installing from scratch) and Usenet didn't offer any solutions.
Mandrake - amazingly well put together. The installer was smooth as silk, everything looked and acted great, pretty sweet. I believe it's based on Red Hat, so take the pluses and minuses from that.
Overall - Any of them will work. Someone else suggested doing what I did, and I concur - buy or download all of them (and just go to linuxberg/linuxburg/linuxville and download the debian image- it took half an hour to figure out how to use debian's vaunted smart-installer, and then it didn't work. Get the ISO image), and try each one on your machine. I'd almost say to try installing them in this order - Corel, Debian, Red Hat, Mandrake. See how you like each one. Try installing a few programs. See what you think and once you're done, make sure to secure it. Keep it off the network until you have (if you can, since you'll be downloading stuff to patch it). In that part Debian has the advantage, due to "apt-get update", which will update all the packages, and I believe install all the security patches. But you still need to secure the thing, look at Bastille.
And let Slashdot know what you went with, and why. If it gets posted, it'll make an interesting followup.
Nope. Doesn't count. Sure the writing is good, but it's not Sci-Fi. Fantasy, sure, especially with the political leanings. But they're talking about Sci-Fi. Why was this modded up again? Come on, Urkel is probably sci-fi since no-one that annoying could exist naturally. Sorry, he's in an "alternate universe" where he's annoying (and no bringing up the "Alternate Urkel episodes. or that I know about them). Doesn't make it sci-fi.
Good Sci-Fi
Farscape (awesome)
Invisible Man(great and hilarious)
New Adventures of Jules Verne (not great, just good, but has potential)
The Chronicle(I hope it stays this good)
Dark Angel (love that cliffhanger ending, especially since no-one knew if it was getting renewed or not)
Buffy (like I need to say anything?)
And of course, this fall, the new B5 show. Which, unlike the new Star Trek, will definitely not suck. (I hope the new Star Trek doesn't suck, but I'm not getting that vibe. Someone fire Berman)
People aren't 'loyal [network du jour] viewers' but will go where they perceive the best value is. At least, some will.
Not really true. The true thing Networks should fear about the PVR is their fall TV lineup. It's hard to do a "must-see Thursday" if no-one's watching it live. Heck, it's really hard to promote a new show if everyone's watching from "tape". Say you find a show (obPlug: Whose Line Is It Anyways) that you enjoy. You set it to record. Say they cancel the second episode each night, and replace it with something else. You're no longer taping it, since it's not Your Show. You'll notice it eventually, but the first few weeks are key to see whether a show will survive.
And people are lazy, which is why stuff like "Must See TV" exists. Hell, there are shows that existed for YEARS that were utter dreck. But you are correct that brand loyalty went out the window. It left when the networks started trying to get the audience from the others. Check out Leno vs Letterman these days. They're almost identical. Joy. Guess I'll go watch Jon Stewart.
Moderators - that wasn't funny, that was depressing. Fortunately many of the Looking Glass team are working on Thief 3 at Manifesto (formerly Ion Storm Austin). This has been hashed to death, but I personally still feel that Eidos did the world a disservice by allowing Ion Storm Dallas to continue (even this long) and Looking Glass to go under.
Yes, it's scary. Yes, it's creepy. And yes, it's impressive. And they have better privacy, since they want to keep it to themselves! Capitalism at work.
Cool example: When you check in, they check your preferences. If you're a big gambler, they come over, greet you by name, make sure whatever drink you normally get is ready for you, etc, etc, etc. It's a damn impressive article.
It WASN'T for everyone, that was the point!
on
Apple Dumps the Cube
·
· Score: 2
The problem was they tried to sell too many.
History recap. Apple, after Jobs came back, decided that there were 4 markets they could go after. There was the basic computer (iMac), the Advanced for professionals (G4 tower), the Laptop (the iMac laptop and g4 titanium), and the executive. For businesses, the cube was a brilliant idea. They had something for the clerks (iMac), something for the techies (G4 tower), and the cube was their attempt to go after the executives that otherwise wouldn't touch an Apple. This could've been a real coup. Sell them to the execs. The boss really likes it (esp. if you pair it up with a flat-display), hates the incompatibilities with PCs and so moves the company to Macs. Brilliant. I know of several execs that did that.
The problem was that it was never supposed to be for the masses. Yes, it's cool looking. Yes it's silent. Yes I want one. But it's not expandable (which is a much smaller deal than everyone makes it out to be.... your average computer buyer will never upgrade anything aside from RAM), and it was widely panned. If they had marketed it at executives exclusively (ala the 20th Anniversay Mac), they could've done gangbusters, and possibly raised their market share. Alas...
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.demolinux.org/
Actually, what I read from Joss (one of his posts) was that it was a story about a man investigating haunted houses, supernatural and otherwise. And it's going to be hard for Anthony Stewart Head to play a teen version of, well, himself.
Part of it was brought on by ASH's wish to go back to England, and apparently the Beeb had a long-standing "we want!" for something of Joss'. It ought to be interesting. The big question is if the Beeb will shoot themselves in the foot and not let it show in the states. If not, I think the a.b.m.b-v-s newsgroup's going to be the U.S.'s only shot at watching it.
(don't mod this up, it's not worth it)
"The American public knows what it wants, and it deserves to get it... good and hard" -- H.L. Mencken, 'The American Mercury'
Sorry, had to do it. Oblink for them:
i st /glance/-/88810/ref=m_art_dp/107-0093169-3520543
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/art
Naw, you're right, no one has any use for it.
Read the blurb, that's all the comparison is. What a waste of bytes; the submitter summed up in 3 lines what it took the whole page on CNet.
Norman Spinrad, "Little Heroes".
Published 1987. About Muzik, Inc., who makes a virtual record star. Videos and everything.
---
Actually, I'm disappointed as hell. Corporatism isn't evil, despite what you think, except when it stifles competition and innovation, and you bet your ass that's what Microsoft was doing. Multinationals are fine, provided they're fighting tooth and nail for your money. When that stops is when the troubles begin. The government was in the right to go after them, and I've despised the whole "well, we're MICROSOFT, so we don't have to". I never thought I'd see a company piss on the government and have the government TAKE IT.
Personally, everyone who lied under oath should be in jail right now.
Don't want to limit your illegal activities, Bill? That's fine, we'll talk next month.
Hmmm... At first I thought the connection was hosed because of the weird "skippy" vocals. Then I realized it was deliberate.
And do at least watch the first video all the way through. I decided to do so, and there actually is a story later on. Unfortunately, you have to listen to some god-awful music ("Celebrate good times, come on!" was apparently the spiritual guide for this band) to do so.
Animation = great, the guy still has a great sense of cinematography. But the music....
I got through the interview at the end, but then I couldn't get a clear feed. What happened?
Cool story, I will admit, and I like the style. But even broadband + slashdot_effect = miserable viewing experience
That's actually limp. He should've used a slot-load, so you could put them in the CDs "correctly". That would rock.
I haven't been running Linux lately, but I had the perfect opportunity in May - I was going out of town with my Laptop, and as long as I could use email, I was set. So I downloaded all the distros I could remember offhand - Mandrake, Corel, Debian, and Red Hat.
Debian - this was easily the toughest of them all. Text-based installer, questions I didn't know how to answer (why does it want me to become a USENET server?), etc, etc. But it finally ran, and being able to "apt-get" is amazingly cool.
Corel - I know I'll get flamed for this, and it DOES have disads. But it installed flawlessly on my computer, and seemed to work pretty well. On the plus side it acts a lot like windows, and installing software uses a variant of apt-get (which Corel is based on). I use it at home. On the downside, it's not nearly as supported as, say, Red Hat, so you need a lot more hand-holding. But I heartily recommend it.
Red Hat. I downloaded 7.1, and it had a great installer. The good side is that it's commonly considered the standard, so FAQs and programs are built specifically for it. On the down side, all the trojans and the like are built for it too. The problem I ran into is that applications stopped working for no apparent reason (even with re-installing from scratch) and Usenet didn't offer any solutions.
Mandrake - amazingly well put together. The installer was smooth as silk, everything looked and acted great, pretty sweet. I believe it's based on Red Hat, so take the pluses and minuses from that.
Overall - Any of them will work. Someone else suggested doing what I did, and I concur - buy or download all of them (and just go to linuxberg/linuxburg/linuxville and download the debian image- it took half an hour to figure out how to use debian's vaunted smart-installer, and then it didn't work. Get the ISO image), and try each one on your machine. I'd almost say to try installing them in this order - Corel, Debian, Red Hat, Mandrake. See how you like each one. Try installing a few programs. See what you think and once you're done, make sure to secure it. Keep it off the network until you have (if you can, since you'll be downloading stuff to patch it). In that part Debian has the advantage, due to "apt-get update", which will update all the packages, and I believe install all the security patches. But you still need to secure the thing, look at Bastille.
And let Slashdot know what you went with, and why. If it gets posted, it'll make an interesting followup.
"...and the dog dies"
Hasn't that one been rumored for years? What's so bad about that title. Attack of the 50 kay clones. Great.
Good Sci-Fi
And of course, this fall, the new B5 show. Which, unlike the new Star Trek, will definitely not suck. (I hope the new Star Trek doesn't suck, but I'm not getting that vibe. Someone fire Berman)
People aren't 'loyal [network du jour] viewers' but will go where they perceive the best value is. At least, some will.
Not really true. The true thing Networks should fear about the PVR is their fall TV lineup. It's hard to do a "must-see Thursday" if no-one's watching it live. Heck, it's really hard to promote a new show if everyone's watching from "tape". Say you find a show (obPlug: Whose Line Is It Anyways) that you enjoy. You set it to record. Say they cancel the second episode each night, and replace it with something else. You're no longer taping it, since it's not Your Show. You'll notice it eventually, but the first few weeks are key to see whether a show will survive.
And people are lazy, which is why stuff like "Must See TV" exists. Hell, there are shows that existed for YEARS that were utter dreck. But you are correct that brand loyalty went out the window. It left when the networks started trying to get the audience from the others. Check out Leno vs Letterman these days. They're almost identical. Joy. Guess I'll go watch Jon Stewart.
Think about it, that's a 30-second commercial going by every half-second.
Ah, yes. Blipverts!
Moderators - that wasn't funny, that was depressing. Fortunately many of the Looking Glass team are working on Thief 3 at Manifesto (formerly Ion Storm Austin). This has been hashed to death, but I personally still feel that Eidos did the world a disservice by allowing Ion Storm Dallas to continue (even this long) and Looking Glass to go under.
May Thief 3 rock.
First I buy a Newton. They go under.
Then I get a Psion. They go under.
Maybe I should get a PocketPC next.
and another gave me these:
and finally,
Okay, I figured they were talking about the Computerworld article, which is much better written. They're not
4 7_STO61799,00.html
link - http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV
Yes, it's scary. Yes, it's creepy. And yes, it's impressive. And they have better privacy, since they want to keep it to themselves! Capitalism at work.
Cool example: When you check in, they check your preferences. If you're a big gambler, they come over, greet you by name, make sure whatever drink you normally get is ready for you, etc, etc, etc. It's a damn impressive article.
The problem was they tried to sell too many.
History recap. Apple, after Jobs came back, decided that there were 4 markets they could go after. There was the basic computer (iMac), the Advanced for professionals (G4 tower), the Laptop (the iMac laptop and g4 titanium), and the executive. For businesses, the cube was a brilliant idea. They had something for the clerks (iMac), something for the techies (G4 tower), and the cube was their attempt to go after the executives that otherwise wouldn't touch an Apple. This could've been a real coup. Sell them to the execs. The boss really likes it (esp. if you pair it up with a flat-display), hates the incompatibilities with PCs and so moves the company to Macs. Brilliant. I know of several execs that did that.
The problem was that it was never supposed to be for the masses. Yes, it's cool looking. Yes it's silent. Yes I want one. But it's not expandable (which is a much smaller deal than everyone makes it out to be.... your average computer buyer will never upgrade anything aside from RAM), and it was widely panned. If they had marketed it at executives exclusively (ala the 20th Anniversay Mac), they could've done gangbusters, and possibly raised their market share. Alas...
The favorite-
others...