Linux is entirely capable of doing absolutely everything the average consumer would want to do. The internet is pretty much 99% of that of course, DVD players, StarOffice, mp3 players are there, it's been a long time since i've seen a movie format I couldn't play, and to the average consumer who's perfectly happy with the 4-5 games any ms os comes with, i'm sure the 50+ with any linux distro would be fine. Many people would give up the ability to buy any game on the shelf (which they'll likely never do anyways) for 100% stability - and if this is laid out to them by a store employee where they're buying a computer, they won't think twice.
Corel Linux when it first came out was great in that it straight off worked with windows networking, was easy to use for someone who's never touched linux, and the install went smoothly and perfectly. Also, i've just recently switched to debian, from slack, and apt-get is just amazing. My mom last week told me she wanted to install linux, and wanted to know the easiest way. I was forced to reccommend Mandrake, but I didn't feel good about it. Right now, there is no good, consumer-oriented linux distro, and this could be what we need. Of course, someone huge (hp/compaq anyone?) putting a lot of money into getting linux systems on the shelf in every Best Buy, and commercials in prime-time TV, would be a great thing too. And more consultants talking *small* businesses into using linux for their networks. I have a lot more ideas floating through my head, but since none of it's going to happen, i'll quit ranting now...
far far different in style... dune 1 was a cheesy adventure game, that seriously sucked... dune 2's the game everyone's thinking of, which kicked ass... this is on the pc, dunno about other systems, though i do know they released dune 2 on the sega genesis as just dune (iirc), but it sucked, impossible to control with a gamepad
dune 2000 was cool too, remake of dune on the red alert engine... still play that occasionally
and my last 2 cents, i've been a huge fan of westwood games for quite a few years, but every time they've released a game for the last 4 or so years, i've asked about linux support, and mod support, and every time i get the same lack of response...
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I'm going there starting in august. Great looking school, great equipment, and Dave Arneson (Dungeons & Dragons co-author) is one of the instructors. Though i can't say much about what it's like going there, or what i'll be doing when i get out =P
Deemus, how did your friends like the school? Where are they working now? Basically just would they reccomend to someone else to go there? Send me an email if you want...
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I work for an organization that does habilitation of people born with physical disabilities. One person who works for us, who has no use of his legs and very little use of his arms, uses his computer with a head-mounted stylus and a standard keyboard with a plastic plate over it with holes for each key, and uses mousekeys for the mouse... He's extremely good with working with that setup, i'd bet he could type faster than half the "normal" people there, and he actually types our monthly newsletter. However, he's not great with the mouse (as anyone who's had to use mousekeys would know), but he wouldn't be able to use this as it would interfere with his typing. Has anyone ever seen anything that may work better for him?
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
Someone please mod this AC up... he actually had something quite relevant and interesting to say. Although it's not exactly playable (can't get so far as "enter building" without being kicked back to the main menu), it's cool that somebody's started on it....
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I just came up with a wicked idea, though hardly have the time to implement it.... Infocom text-based games through VoiceXML, would make the ride to work far less boring. can't see any reason why it wouldn't work, and actually should be fairly easy to do....
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I can't believe not one person mentioned PvP. Also, Angst Technology and Dork Tower are worth reading on occasion.
And kudos to the people at NetComics (mentioned a little higher up), found this prog a few weeks ago, very nice...
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I've got a sony 5-dvd changer, not sure of the model, and i'm at work right now so i can't check; prolly 2 years old... Anyway, with the dune miniseries on vcd, i first burned it at 8x, and none of the disks would read (basically didn't detect there was a disk there), i burned them again at 1x, now works perfectly. Disks were dark-blue-on-silver generic. I haven't tried with any other cdr's, rw's, music, etc, but i may try it tonight...
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I think I'm gonna head down to the bookstore as soon as i'm finished writing this. From the review, this book seems to have a lot of the things that drew me to Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, written in the 50's - dated sci-fi books give a great outlook on what the future could've become, with a few small changes over such a short time.
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
"Of course, you could have a dual processor machine - one processor would have 26-bit support, and run all the old applications (and some of the kernel), while the new processor would run new applications at significantly faster speeds. This can be emulated now by switching between 26 and 32 bit modes on the fly."
-now *that's* a cool idea...
on a similar note, how about a split-architecture, athlon/alpha, with a custom kernel that routes tasks to whichever chip handles it best... the beginnings are there, they're both already seriously smp-able cpus, the amd 750 is based off the alpha ev6 bus (i believe i've seen newer alpha ev-6 boards using amd-750 chipsets), and later alphas were very similar to x86-architecture.
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
hmm... using nanotechnology, theroetically, we're one step closer to human/electronic integration... i would assume there's much less overhead in this than would be in getting silicon to talk directly to human cells/dna...
assuming an implanted cybernetic interface, it should be possible to send data straight to the brain, but there's got to be some way of physically getting it there... I wouldn't mind having a wireless ethernet connection to my head, (i'd probably be first to sign up; i'd do it myself now if i could find a cell modem small/cheap enough) but i think most people would have some privacy issues with that =P
so here's my idea: Books on Pez
Imagine the entire dune anthology, in the form of tasty cinnamon candies, with a sandworm head... you could read the series 20 times in an hour (plus get a hell of a sugar high)
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
"no ATA/66 on 440BX" is unimportant to me, that's what scsi is for:) I'm just waiting for someone to get around "No AGP4x on BX".... or even better, SMP T-Birds...
All i ask for is the absolute best of everything with support for everything in one product with an extremely compact design yet limitless expansion capability, and for very little money... is that really too much?
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
apple needs to realize that speed isn't their main problem, but rather compatibility and expansion.... The g4 is a great processor, but i'd never consider buying a computer with *no* expansion beyond usb, and no removable storage without spending more money... plus no way to add components in the case... a cool looking case means nothing if you've got to have an ugly stack of usb peripherals sitting next to it....
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I know the Edge 3d had one version with hardware Sega Genesis emulation. The saturn was very similar to the genesis (backwards compatible, i believe?) so I think you're right on that....
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
Chip prices are almost always given in batches of 1000 (smallest amount a reseller can buy from amd). However, because of the heavy competition (Pricewatch), and because bigger oem's pay even less, within a couple weeks of a price drop, consumer prices are usually either very close or slightly below that number.
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
The winchip was a great chip for the market it was aimed at - For business use and home pc's, they were cheaper than an intel or k6, and far more stable & supported than k5's or anything cyrix had. For games or anything intensive it bombed, but could easily keep up with an equivalent intel on business apps/web surfing/etc.
It wasn't exactly barebones either, the only thing it was lacking was native 16-bit support (hence *win*chip)... it was still capable of running dos & 16-bit apps, just very badly. The only other downside i can remember was the 60mhz bus...
also, they did have MMX on all models, and 3d-Now was added on the winchip-2.
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
Slashdot Mirror
True, but not...
Linux is entirely capable of doing absolutely everything the average consumer would want to do. The internet is pretty much 99% of that of course, DVD players, StarOffice, mp3 players are there, it's been a long time since i've seen a movie format I couldn't play, and to the average consumer who's perfectly happy with the 4-5 games any ms os comes with, i'm sure the 50+ with any linux distro would be fine. Many people would give up the ability to buy any game on the shelf (which they'll likely never do anyways) for 100% stability - and if this is laid out to them by a store employee where they're buying a computer, they won't think twice.
Corel Linux when it first came out was great in that it straight off worked with windows networking, was easy to use for someone who's never touched linux, and the install went smoothly and perfectly. Also, i've just recently switched to debian, from slack, and apt-get is just amazing. My mom last week told me she wanted to install linux, and wanted to know the easiest way. I was forced to reccommend Mandrake, but I didn't feel good about it. Right now, there is no good, consumer-oriented linux distro, and this could be what we need. Of course, someone huge (hp/compaq anyone?) putting a lot of money into getting linux systems on the shelf in every Best Buy, and commercials in prime-time TV, would be a great thing too. And more consultants talking *small* businesses into using linux for their networks. I have a lot more ideas floating through my head, but since none of it's going to happen, i'll quit ranting now...
sorry. html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/9989
--
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/9939. html
--
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
far far different in style... dune 1 was a cheesy adventure game, that seriously sucked... dune 2's the game everyone's thinking of, which kicked ass... this is on the pc, dunno about other systems, though i do know they released dune 2 on the sega genesis as just dune (iirc), but it sucked, impossible to control with a gamepad
dune 2000 was cool too, remake of dune on the red alert engine... still play that occasionally
and my last 2 cents, i've been a huge fan of westwood games for quite a few years, but every time they've released a game for the last 4 or so years, i've asked about linux support, and mod support, and every time i get the same lack of response...
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I'm going there starting in august. Great looking school, great equipment, and Dave Arneson (Dungeons & Dragons co-author) is one of the instructors. Though i can't say much about what it's like going there, or what i'll be doing when i get out =P
Deemus, how did your friends like the school? Where are they working now? Basically just would they reccomend to someone else to go there? Send me an email if you want...
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I work for an organization that does habilitation of people born with physical disabilities. One person who works for us, who has no use of his legs and very little use of his arms, uses his computer with a head-mounted stylus and a standard keyboard with a plastic plate over it with holes for each key, and uses mousekeys for the mouse... He's extremely good with working with that setup, i'd bet he could type faster than half the "normal" people there, and he actually types our monthly newsletter. However, he's not great with the mouse (as anyone who's had to use mousekeys would know), but he wouldn't be able to use this as it would interfere with his typing. Has anyone ever seen anything that may work better for him?
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
Someone please mod this AC up... he actually had something quite relevant and interesting to say. Although it's not exactly playable (can't get so far as "enter building" without being kicked back to the main menu), it's cool that somebody's started on it....
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I just came up with a wicked idea, though hardly have the time to implement it.... Infocom text-based games through VoiceXML, would make the ride to work far less boring. can't see any reason why it wouldn't work, and actually should be fairly easy to do....
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I can't believe not one person mentioned PvP. Also, Angst Technology and Dork Tower are worth reading on occasion.
And kudos to the people at NetComics (mentioned a little higher up), found this prog a few weeks ago, very nice...
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
a realplayer version of the video is available at CNet, so the rest of us can watch it...
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
So wouldn't that make genes more like Makefiles?
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I've got a sony 5-dvd changer, not sure of the model, and i'm at work right now so i can't check; prolly 2 years old... Anyway, with the dune miniseries on vcd, i first burned it at 8x, and none of the disks would read (basically didn't detect there was a disk there), i burned them again at 1x, now works perfectly. Disks were dark-blue-on-silver generic. I haven't tried with any other cdr's, rw's, music, etc, but i may try it tonight...
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I think I'm gonna head down to the bookstore as soon as i'm finished writing this. From the review, this book seems to have a lot of the things that drew me to Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, written in the 50's - dated sci-fi books give a great outlook on what the future could've become, with a few small changes over such a short time.
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
"Of course, you could have a dual processor machine - one processor would have 26-bit support, and run all the old applications (and some of the kernel), while the new processor would run new applications at significantly faster speeds. This can be emulated now by switching between 26 and 32 bit modes on the fly."
-now *that's* a cool idea...
on a similar note, how about a split-architecture, athlon/alpha, with a custom kernel that routes tasks to whichever chip handles it best... the beginnings are there, they're both already seriously smp-able cpus, the amd 750 is based off the alpha ev6 bus (i believe i've seen newer alpha ev-6 boards using amd-750 chipsets), and later alphas were very similar to x86-architecture.
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
hmm... using nanotechnology, theroetically, we're one step closer to human/electronic integration... i would assume there's much less overhead in this than would be in getting silicon to talk directly to human cells/dna...
... I wouldn't mind having a wireless ethernet connection to my head, (i'd probably be first to sign up; i'd do it myself now if i could find a cell modem small/cheap enough) but i think most people would have some privacy issues with that =P
assuming an implanted cybernetic interface, it should be possible to send data straight to the brain, but there's got to be some way of physically getting it there
so here's my idea: Books on Pez
Imagine the entire dune anthology, in the form of tasty cinnamon candies, with a sandworm head... you could read the series 20 times in an hour (plus get a hell of a sugar high)
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
"no ATA/66 on 440BX" is unimportant to me, that's what scsi is for :) I'm just waiting for someone to get around "No AGP4x on BX".... or even better, SMP T-Birds...
All i ask for is the absolute best of everything with support for everything in one product with an extremely compact design yet limitless expansion capability, and for very little money... is that really too much?
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
apple needs to realize that speed isn't their main problem, but rather compatibility and expansion.... The g4 is a great processor, but i'd never consider buying a computer with *no* expansion beyond usb, and no removable storage without spending more money... plus no way to add components in the case... a cool looking case means nothing if you've got to have an ugly stack of usb peripherals sitting next to it....
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
I know the Edge 3d had one version with hardware Sega Genesis emulation. The saturn was very similar to the genesis (backwards compatible, i believe?) so I think you're right on that....
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
Chip prices are almost always given in batches of 1000 (smallest amount a reseller can buy from amd). However, because of the heavy competition (Pricewatch), and because bigger oem's pay even less, within a couple weeks of a price drop, consumer prices are usually either very close or slightly below that number.
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO
The winchip was a great chip for the market it was aimed at - For business use and home pc's, they were cheaper than an intel or k6, and far more stable & supported than k5's or anything cyrix had. For games or anything intensive it bombed, but could easily keep up with an equivalent intel on business apps/web surfing/etc.
It wasn't exactly barebones either, the only thing it was lacking was native 16-bit support (hence *win*chip)... it was still capable of running dos & 16-bit apps, just very badly. The only other downside i can remember was the 60mhz bus...
also, they did have MMX on all models, and 3d-Now was added on the winchip-2.
Walter H. Trent "Muad'Dib"
Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, IMHO