If you don't mind, it's really not that hard to create a satisfying life. Do you like challenges? Challenges that you can attack in systematic, logical ways? Social events are the same way.
Here's hint: buy a book called, "How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less," by Nicholas Boothman.
Still reading?
This book, in spite of its horribly corny name, is a very easy read. You'll learn how to communicate easily and freely. Not only that, it's done in a way that geeks will love -- systematically and logically. It takes the scary mystery out of talking with people. Sounds wierd, huh?
I was homeschooled, with almost no interaction with other people, and I started out a good deal more reclusive that probably most people here.
1) Learn to talk with people -- see above book 2) Ask someone you trust, preferably an adult, if they know someone who's interested in... 3) Ballroom dancing or social dancing, 'cause you need a partner. (This is not usually true -- most social dance schools will accept you with or without a partner. However, find a partner, trust me)
Trust me on the last part. Just do it. Takes some nerve when you've never asked anyone for anything like that. So, don't ask directly. Ask your boss. Ask your aunt. Ask somebody, but start a life for yourself.
It's really not that hard, and you'll be glad you did.
(Then take up hip hop, karate, or some other heavy physical activity, but that's another topic altogether.
Christopher Jastram http://www.livingresource.net/
I searched long and hard for something that would grab keyboard shortcuts across all the different WMs I use. That something I found a few months ago, and it is "xbindkeys". Grabs keyboard shortcuts somewhere between keyboard and focused application. Wonderful program. No GUI config, but still an answer to my prayers.
Dunno about various sound platforms. I only use XMMS, the CD player, and games (it was no different in windows; I turned all the sounds off). Games seem to use the standard OSS system, so I just keep ESD and similar ilk firmly dead. Problem solved (for me).
Dunno about DirectX, but if the comparison from the programmer's point of view between DirectX and OpenGL+SDL is similar to VBscript vs. perl+python+shell, or MySQL vs. Access, then any developer not programming OpenGL+SDL already is subject to a PHB.
Complete world dominance is only a matter of time. Progressive, cooperative software development works. Instead of re-writing software, build it and let it grow. Thus, what we lack in quality and quantity now will be supplied by time.
Including a suitable replacement for XFree86.
I don't know when you started in Linux; I started with RH4.2. I've seen this phenomenon, and I'm totally thrilled.
...remove taxes on any corporation whose primary purpose is to set up a spaceline to the moon, with accompanying permanent moonbase.
And no, I don't think it'd get rid of Enron and Microsoft. Actually, the screwy accounting practices used by Enron were not suspicious because so many corporations are trying to avoid the crippling US taxes. If the corporate taxation system didn't exist (and it didn't, originally), and if the individual taxation system didn't exist, funky accounting and fake-front corporations would be red-light for corruption.
As for Microsoft, monopolies are self-defeating. I use Linux as a personal choice. The more people use Linux, the sooner Microsoft will be delegated to a more minority role.
I use Vim primarily, and I'm beginning to switch to using Emacs for coding.
Vim has the most wonderful autocomplete hotkeys; type the beginning of the function/variable name, then press Ctrl-p to search up and Ctrl-n to search down through the file, buffers, etc. Now, long variable names are actually usable for 80wpm typists like me. (I'm around 40-50 for plain text).
Does anyone know what the equivalent (or at least sorta-equivalent) commands are in Emacs?
-Chris
I can tell you why WE (US) don't have a moon base!
on
China Plans Moonbase
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Given a little more time, private enterprise would have gotten us into space. Look at John Carmack -- whee!
No. Instead, the governmnet has to rush the gun and abso-fucking-lutely hobble the private sector while trying to rush premature technology into space. Private enterprise has proven to be the best solution to technological inadequacies; as proven throughout history and at the current time.
How to place a thriving American colony on the moon; Lift all restrictions, except those that keep private companies from harming people (i.e., dropping rocket stages in Dallas, Texas).
And, this one will get us on the moon long before China; remove all taxes on any corporation whose primary purpose is to get to the mooon, and remove taxes on their transactions with other corporations. Bingo! You don't even have to subsidize 'em!
But of course the idiots (and they are!) in Congress don't have the balls to consider such a radical move. Lift Restrictions? My God, man, you're talking the end of the world!
Transportation (Earth-to-Earth) (Cheaper payload rocketry will make fast, long-distance trips easier for those who need them)
I think space is the next growth of mankind. As we run out of resources on Earth, we can start to build in the wastelands of Luna, and the rockyards of the asteroid belt. With a free market and time, I think we can do it. Also, all our eggs would no longer be in one basket once we had self-sufficient space colonies.
Why? So that he can become the artist, not the technician. The technician does it by the book, and when something comes up that's not in the book, well, too bad.
The artist sees a situation and see the solution. Any problem, any computer. He is simply familiar with the computer in a way that people who aren't at that level cannot understand.
It doesn't matter how good the tech industry record is. The worse, the better for playing around. A perfect record that results in a seamless computing experience... well, can't play in that sandbox!
I used to comment code, then I learned about a cool little feature of Vim that allows for easy 'self-commenting' code; automatic completion.
Say we have, ISDN_Terminals_Per_Trunk ISDN_Trunks ISDN _Controllers
We type, ISDN Ctrl-P And get, ISDN_Terminals_Per_Trunk Type it again, ISDN_Trunks, Etcetera.
Thus I have the lazy typing of variables such as 'd1' and 'ut', but with the readability of 'raw_data_from_file' and 'user_text'.
Works amazingly well. Ctrl+p looks 'up' through the file, Ctrl-n looks 'down' through the file. You can also specify extra files and buffers to look it. This feature also makes standard coding a lot easier and *much* faster!
(I'm sure Emacs can do this too, but the extent of my knowledge in Emacs is C-x C-s and C-x C-c. Sorry)
I totally agree. People are really truly honest-to-God afraid of technology. Afraid of breaking it? I don't know.
But how can I urge my little brother to just *play* with his computer? He knows how to install SuSE (done it a couple times), but golly gee, he just won't poke around things he doesn't know about... Has to have a step-by-step instruction on how to set up his mouse wheel, how to set up sound, how to send up 3d-accel with his Radeon. Any suggestions?
(Now, when *I* was messing around, it was the only computer we had and, well--anyway, he's got it lucky.:)
Funny thing, some FPS games tend to make me ill too. Queasy, headache, eye-ache (not from the monitor--this is within a few minutes).
Oddly enough, I've found that really low framerates and resolutions don't seem as bad, and it also helps if I'm actually *doing* something in the game. Just running around killing in SP with cheats...vomit (almost). Running around in an MP level full of killers doesn't make me queasy.
Here's a wierd part; flight sims don't do this to me. Helicopter, plane, space, nothing. I can play for hours (I have) with no problem. Switch to FPS... yum (!).
I think it's a relative of motion sickness, though I have no problems with airsickness or carsickness (can sleep, read, eat, etc).
I'd love a non-drug fix for this. As it is, I play Half-Life about once a month-- really good game, but I don't feel so good afterwards. It's like an addiction; trying to control it, but succumbing to an occasional 'fix'.
I built a linux system from scratch using LFS (www.linuxfromscratch.org) a few months ago, and was quite intrigued with the boot scripts. After playing around, making custom boot scripts in perl, etc, I got a brilliant idea:
Why not run X immediately after mounting the filesystem? Thus, as soon as the kernel hands control to init, the filesystem is mounted and X is started. Then, all the daemons, network support, and big hoggy slow things start in the background (niced to 20) while I get on with my work.
Notes for those who want to do this;
Edit/etc/inittab and disable anything from using tty2. X uses it, and when getty tries to use it, getty gets the input while X keeps the display. Yuck.
Use setuidgid to start X in a user other than root.
The only real problem I've found is that I don't see errors that might occur in the boot process. (especially filesystem errors) However, once I notice something isn't right, I can Ctrl-Alt-F1 back to tty1 and see what's going on.
And, one person asked why a fast boot matters. The reason is this; most of us absolutely *hate* to wait, especially for a computer. All those little 2-, 5-, 10-second delays while the computer gets a web page, runs Netscape, whatever... they're very irritating. Like salt in a sore. Therefore, the more the waits can be reduced, the happier I am!
This is the whole basis of Libertarian arguments, the whole reason for limited government, the whole argument against any centralized government.
Most of the people in government (usually) are out to help the people. They are doing their jobs, keeping the peace and prosecuting wrongdoers.
The problem is the 0.01 percent (I'm overstating here) who are a bunch of psychopathic powermongers. Since they desire power, you find much greater densities of them in positions of political power. It's these people that we have to protect ourselves from.
Carnivore is an amazing tool. As far as I can tell, it is something that could be done privately. Is there a market for it? Probably not. Why not? Well, would you pay $10k/yr to have somebody put a black box on your network to capture data that can be used as forensic evidence?
No, but *I* PAY FOR IT! I pay TAXES, while you get it for FREE!
Good admins do it on their own; extra box + packet sniffer + no running services + lots of disk space == Carnivore-that-I-pay-for-in-my-monthly-ISP-payment . So there. As long as it *isn't* taxes, I'm happy!
I've been looking for 8- to 12-inch color LCDs, and I simply can't find them for sale. There are products (net appliances) that incorporate them, but I don't want to shell out that much money.
I'd like to spend no more than ~$170 on a 10-inch, 800x600 LCD screen.
Why?
Most people stick their brandy-new LCD screens right up where the CRT used to be. Up high on the desk, where people get cricks in their necks 'cause you're not designed to sit and look straight ahead like that... I'd like to position the LCD on a tray about 16 inches in front of my face at about a 45 degree angle down, and have the keyboard under the tray at level-forearm height (I'm a touch-typist).
Like a book. When do you see people holding a book at arms' length, level with their eyes, while sitting ramrod-straight in a chair? You don't, because people hold the book in a more *comfortable* position; hands low, book low (but not too low).
But I can't find any 10-inch color LCDs with a connector that I can just plug in to my computer! Any info? Somewhere? Someone?
Take everything out of the box *before* you apply the Dremel... metal slivers in the PS, crossing leads on the motherboard, or in the FDD just ain't pretty, let me tell you.
Just a helpful hint for those (like me) who might not think of such before applying high-speed cutters...
It's difficult to have a few hundred square miles of land on earth to collect solar energy. It's quite costly, but not a problem aesthetically to have a huge solar array in orbit. There might be problems with meteorites and similar crud, but there's also problems with wind storms and animals on earth. (not to mention to local kids...)
Plus, you don't have as much energy loss in the atmosphere if you concentrate the energy in a tight beam.
I can't see 3d. Apparently the connections for my eyes to function together just weren't wired right when it counted. I can move my eyes in unison, but there is no 3d effect.
Makes some aspects of life a bitch, like RC airplanes and driving...:)
Blatant, manufactured 3d I can pick out, but your everyday depth perception... uh-uh. Doesn't work. So, thank you very much, I'll stick with regular LCDs.
(Although I am interested in VR headsets. Any sites you can recommend that deal with these things? Reviews, news, etc?)
I absolutely hate going keyboard-mouse-keyboard-mouse back and forth. Ugh. So I put a trackball under the table that I use with my toes (several months ago). It helps, but not much 'cause my sock slids on the ball...
So, I just mount one of these on my foot. This gets around all those naysayers who don't like eye-trackers (never mind the F117 and Apache targeting systems...) or head-trackers. And, it uses my feet, which are almost never otherwise used in my computing experience.
Therefore, I want one. Now. I will Rule You in All Games, because I can use the mouse to move, keyboard to fire, and feet to aim.
(Although, you would have to develop a *rather* high level of ambidextrousity to do this right! It was hard enough when I decided to try using keyboard+mouse at the same time in FPS games...)
I've used Windows and Linux, and one of my BIG gripes with moving from DOS/Win3.1 to Win95 was that applications didn't install in one directory only. They spread all over the place.
With Linux applications (AND libraries!), you can install them in their own, isolated folders. How simple can it be to see what files are used for a specific tool? Try "make -n install".
One nice thing about Linux is that you don't HAVE to go online for everything; fully adequate documentation is often included with the packages (and I hate looking at the source code.)
I'm on a 28.8 modem. This matters. I hate going online to get docs, or howtos, or ESPECIALLY searching TechNet, since the MS pages are so incredibly, unnecessarily huge.
Not. I don't know about the stockpiling, but just about every school in the Providence area closed during the storm before last...1 1/2 inches fell. I kid you not.
Plus, every single fscking person on the road has forgotten how to drive in snow (even sanded/salted snow) before each and every snowstorm. Dicks.
This will sound like a troll, but I just came home from a fairly exciting ride to the Prov. post office. 9 miles, every single fucking mile had a dork playing games. (Like, zip around me at 70+, and jerk in front of me as we're approaching an offramp. Dicks)
I just got something like that working this morning. The answer: start XDM first thing after mounting the partitions. My boot scripts are custom made (by me), so it's easy for me to do, but it shouldn't be too hard even on distro scripts.
So, my computer checks the filesystems, mounts them, starts xdm, and then continues on to set up networking, services, etc. I'm working as soon as it starts xdm.
My X setup takes mouse data from gpm. This could cause some problems with kdm (which can use the mouse), but the mouse is not needed or used in xdm. I have gpm starting afterwards, and gpm is loaded by the time I finish logging in.
Slashdot Mirror
If you don't mind, it's really not that hard to create a satisfying life. Do you like challenges? Challenges that you can attack in systematic, logical ways? Social events are the same way.
...
Here's hint: buy a book called, "How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less," by Nicholas Boothman.
Still reading?
This book, in spite of its horribly corny name, is a very easy read. You'll learn how to communicate easily and freely. Not only that, it's done in a way that geeks will love -- systematically and logically. It takes the scary mystery out of talking with people. Sounds wierd, huh?
I was homeschooled, with almost no interaction with other people, and I started out a good deal more reclusive that probably most people here.
1) Learn to talk with people -- see above book
2) Ask someone you trust, preferably an adult, if they know someone who's interested in
3) Ballroom dancing or social dancing, 'cause you need a partner. (This is not usually true -- most social dance schools will accept you with or without a partner. However, find a partner, trust me)
Trust me on the last part. Just do it. Takes some nerve when you've never asked anyone for anything like that. So, don't ask directly. Ask your boss. Ask your aunt. Ask somebody, but start a life for yourself.
It's really not that hard, and you'll be glad you did.
(Then take up hip hop, karate, or some other heavy physical activity, but that's another topic altogether.
Christopher Jastram
http://www.livingresource.net/
Damn! I couldn't have said it better myself. I actually *was* going to say, but you said it much better. You rock!
Perhaps you meant to say, "the biggest obstacle is that Linux hasn't been ported to run on rabble?" :)
I searched long and hard for something that would grab keyboard shortcuts across all the different WMs I use. That something I found a few months ago, and it is "xbindkeys". Grabs keyboard shortcuts somewhere between keyboard and focused application. Wonderful program. No GUI config, but still an answer to my prayers.
:)
Dunno about various sound platforms. I only use XMMS, the CD player, and games (it was no different in windows; I turned all the sounds off). Games seem to use the standard OSS system, so I just keep ESD and similar ilk firmly dead. Problem solved (for me).
Dunno about DirectX, but if the comparison from the programmer's point of view between DirectX and OpenGL+SDL is similar to VBscript vs. perl+python+shell, or MySQL vs. Access, then any developer not programming OpenGL+SDL already is subject to a PHB.
Complete world dominance is only a matter of time. Progressive, cooperative software development works. Instead of re-writing software, build it and let it grow. Thus, what we lack in quality and quantity now will be supplied by time.
Including a suitable replacement for XFree86.
I don't know when you started in Linux; I started with RH4.2. I've seen this phenomenon, and I'm totally thrilled.
Weeza gonna rule youza! Heh! Don't complain though, 'cause it's really liberation.
Chris
Thanks a lot! Eventually, I'll go buy the O'Reilly Emacs book. :)
-Chris
I don't think I phrased it right.
...remove taxes on any corporation whose primary purpose is to set up a spaceline to the moon, with accompanying permanent moonbase.
And no, I don't think it'd get rid of Enron and Microsoft. Actually, the screwy accounting practices used by Enron were not suspicious because so many corporations are trying to avoid the crippling US taxes. If the corporate taxation system didn't exist (and it didn't, originally), and if the individual taxation system didn't exist, funky accounting and fake-front corporations would be red-light for corruption.
As for Microsoft, monopolies are self-defeating. I use Linux as a personal choice. The more people use Linux, the sooner Microsoft will be delegated to a more minority role.
-Chris
The cops following... good trick. Pee on them.
Here in Machusetts, there's no yellow lights before red lights, just RED FLASHING LIGHTS! SLAM BRAKES!
In MA, both lanes of the road are *required* to stop, except the opposite lane of a divided highway.
-Chris
I use Vim primarily, and I'm beginning to switch to using Emacs for coding.
Vim has the most wonderful autocomplete hotkeys; type the beginning of the function/variable name, then press Ctrl-p to search up and Ctrl-n to search down through the file, buffers, etc. Now, long variable names are actually usable for 80wpm typists like me. (I'm around 40-50 for plain text).
Does anyone know what the equivalent (or at least sorta-equivalent) commands are in Emacs?
-Chris
Given a little more time, private enterprise would have gotten us into space. Look at John Carmack -- whee!
No. Instead, the governmnet has to rush the gun and abso-fucking-lutely hobble the private sector while trying to rush premature technology into space. Private enterprise has proven to be the best solution to technological inadequacies; as proven throughout history and at the current time.
How to place a thriving American colony on the moon; Lift all restrictions, except those that keep private companies from harming people (i.e., dropping rocket stages in Dallas, Texas).
And, this one will get us on the moon long before China; remove all taxes on any corporation whose primary purpose is to get to the mooon, and remove taxes on their transactions with other corporations. Bingo! You don't even have to subsidize 'em!
But of course the idiots (and they are!) in Congress don't have the balls to consider such a radical move. Lift Restrictions? My God, man, you're talking the end of the world!
-chris
Couple reasons why, off the top of my head:
;-)
Science (Zero-G work)
Fun (Tourists)
Because it's there (as you said)
Transportation (Earth-to-Earth) (Cheaper payload rocketry will make fast, long-distance trips easier for those who need them)
I think space is the next growth of mankind. As we run out of resources on Earth, we can start to build in the wastelands of Luna, and the rockyards of the asteroid belt. With a free market and time, I think we can do it. Also, all our eggs would no longer be in one basket once we had self-sufficient space colonies.
Part of the Human Virus, and Proud of it!
-Christopher
Why? So that he can become the artist, not the technician. The technician does it by the book, and when something comes up that's not in the book, well, too bad.
The artist sees a situation and see the solution. Any problem, any computer. He is simply familiar with the computer in a way that people who aren't at that level cannot understand.
-lf (I'm not there yet, but I've seen it!)
It doesn't matter how good the tech industry record is. The worse, the better for playing around. A perfect record that results in a seamless computing experience... well, can't play in that sandbox!
Do you use VIM?
N _Controllers
I used to comment code, then I learned about a cool little feature of Vim that allows for easy 'self-commenting' code; automatic completion.
Say we have,
ISDN_Terminals_Per_Trunk
ISDN_Trunks
ISD
We type,
ISDN Ctrl-P
And get,
ISDN_Terminals_Per_Trunk
Type it again,
ISDN_Trunks,
Etcetera.
Thus I have the lazy typing of variables such as 'd1' and 'ut', but with the readability of 'raw_data_from_file' and 'user_text'.
Works amazingly well. Ctrl+p looks 'up' through the file, Ctrl-n looks 'down' through the file. You can also specify extra files and buffers to look it. This feature also makes standard coding a lot easier and *much* faster!
(I'm sure Emacs can do this too, but the extent of my knowledge in Emacs is C-x C-s and C-x C-c. Sorry)
-lf
I totally agree. People are really truly honest-to-God afraid of technology. Afraid of breaking it? I don't know.
:)
But how can I urge my little brother to just *play* with his computer? He knows how to install SuSE (done it a couple times), but golly gee, he just won't poke around things he doesn't know about... Has to have a step-by-step instruction on how to set up his mouse wheel, how to set up sound, how to send up 3d-accel with his Radeon. Any suggestions?
(Now, when *I* was messing around, it was the only computer we had and, well--anyway, he's got it lucky.
-lf
Funny thing, some FPS games tend to make me ill too. Queasy, headache, eye-ache (not from the monitor--this is within a few minutes).
Oddly enough, I've found that really low framerates and resolutions don't seem as bad, and it also helps if I'm actually *doing* something in the game. Just running around killing in SP with cheats...vomit (almost). Running around in an MP level full of killers doesn't make me queasy.
Here's a wierd part; flight sims don't do this to me. Helicopter, plane, space, nothing. I can play for hours (I have) with no problem. Switch to FPS... yum (!).
I think it's a relative of motion sickness, though I have no problems with airsickness or carsickness (can sleep, read, eat, etc).
I'd love a non-drug fix for this. As it is, I play Half-Life about once a month-- really good game, but I don't feel so good afterwards. It's like an addiction; trying to control it, but succumbing to an occasional 'fix'.
-lf
I built a linux system from scratch using LFS (www.linuxfromscratch.org) a few months ago, and was quite intrigued with the boot scripts. After playing around, making custom boot scripts in perl, etc, I got a brilliant idea:
/etc/inittab and disable anything from using tty2. X uses it, and when getty tries to use it, getty gets the input while X keeps the display. Yuck.
Why not run X immediately after mounting the filesystem? Thus, as soon as the kernel hands control to init, the filesystem is mounted and X is started. Then, all the daemons, network support, and big hoggy slow things start in the background (niced to 20) while I get on with my work.
Notes for those who want to do this;
Edit
Use setuidgid to start X in a user other than root.
The only real problem I've found is that I don't see errors that might occur in the boot process. (especially filesystem errors) However, once I notice something isn't right, I can Ctrl-Alt-F1 back to tty1 and see what's going on.
And, one person asked why a fast boot matters. The reason is this; most of us absolutely *hate* to wait, especially for a computer. All those little 2-, 5-, 10-second delays while the computer gets a web page, runs Netscape, whatever... they're very irritating. Like salt in a sore. Therefore, the more the waits can be reduced, the happier I am!
Yeehaw!
-lf11
This is the whole basis of Libertarian arguments, the whole reason for limited government, the whole argument against any centralized government.
Most of the people in government (usually) are out to help the people. They are doing their jobs, keeping the peace and prosecuting wrongdoers.
The problem is the 0.01 percent (I'm overstating here) who are a bunch of psychopathic powermongers. Since they desire power, you find much greater densities of them in positions of political power. It's these people that we have to protect ourselves from.
Carnivore is an amazing tool. As far as I can tell, it is something that could be done privately. Is there a market for it? Probably not. Why not? Well, would you pay $10k/yr to have somebody put a black box on your network to capture data that can be used as forensic evidence?
No, but *I* PAY FOR IT! I pay TAXES, while you get it for FREE!
Good admins do it on their own; extra box + packet sniffer + no running services + lots of disk space == Carnivore-that-I-pay-for-in-my-monthly-ISP-payment . So there. As long as it *isn't* taxes, I'm happy!
Think about it.
-lf
I've been looking for 8- to 12-inch color LCDs, and I simply can't find them for sale. There are products (net appliances) that incorporate them, but I don't want to shell out that much money.
I'd like to spend no more than ~$170 on a 10-inch, 800x600 LCD screen.
Why?
Most people stick their brandy-new LCD screens right up where the CRT used to be. Up high on the desk, where people get cricks in their necks 'cause you're not designed to sit and look straight ahead like that... I'd like to position the LCD on a tray about 16 inches in front of my face at about a 45 degree angle down, and have the keyboard under the tray at level-forearm height (I'm a touch-typist).
Like a book. When do you see people holding a book at arms' length, level with their eyes, while sitting ramrod-straight in a chair? You don't, because people hold the book in a more *comfortable* position; hands low, book low (but not too low).
But I can't find any 10-inch color LCDs with a connector that I can just plug in to my computer! Any info? Somewhere? Someone?
Thanks,
-lf
Take everything out of the box *before* you apply the Dremel... metal slivers in the PS, crossing leads on the motherboard, or in the FDD just ain't pretty, let me tell you.
Just a helpful hint for those (like me) who might not think of such before applying high-speed cutters...
-lf
I think you can make things much bigger in space.
It's difficult to have a few hundred square miles of land on earth to collect solar energy. It's quite costly, but not a problem aesthetically to have a huge solar array in orbit. There might be problems with meteorites and similar crud, but there's also problems with wind storms and animals on earth. (not to mention to local kids...)
Plus, you don't have as much energy loss in the atmosphere if you concentrate the energy in a tight beam.
I think.
-lf
I can't see 3d. Apparently the connections for my eyes to function together just weren't wired right when it counted. I can move my eyes in unison, but there is no 3d effect.
:)
Makes some aspects of life a bitch, like RC airplanes and driving...
Blatant, manufactured 3d I can pick out, but your everyday depth perception... uh-uh. Doesn't work. So, thank you very much, I'll stick with regular LCDs.
(Although I am interested in VR headsets. Any sites you can recommend that deal with these things? Reviews, news, etc?)
-lf
I absolutely hate going keyboard-mouse-keyboard-mouse back and forth. Ugh. So I put a trackball under the table that I use with my toes (several months ago). It helps, but not much 'cause my sock slids on the ball...
So, I just mount one of these on my foot. This gets around all those naysayers who don't like eye-trackers (never mind the F117 and Apache targeting systems...) or head-trackers. And, it uses my feet, which are almost never otherwise used in my computing experience.
Therefore, I want one. Now. I will Rule You in All Games, because I can use the mouse to move, keyboard to fire, and feet to aim.
(Although, you would have to develop a *rather* high level of ambidextrousity to do this right! It was hard enough when I decided to try using keyboard+mouse at the same time in FPS games...)
-lf
Okay, my reply.
I've used Windows and Linux, and one of my BIG gripes with moving from DOS/Win3.1 to Win95 was that applications didn't install in one directory only. They spread all over the place.
With Linux applications (AND libraries!), you can install them in their own, isolated folders. How simple can it be to see what files are used for a specific tool? Try "make -n install".
One nice thing about Linux is that you don't HAVE to go online for everything; fully adequate documentation is often included with the packages (and I hate looking at the source code.)
I'm on a 28.8 modem. This matters. I hate going online to get docs, or howtos, or ESPECIALLY searching TechNet, since the MS pages are so incredibly, unnecessarily huge.
-lf
Not. I don't know about the stockpiling, but just about every school in the Providence area closed during the storm before last...1 1/2 inches fell. I kid you not.
Plus, every single fscking person on the road has forgotten how to drive in snow (even sanded/salted snow) before each and every snowstorm. Dicks.
This will sound like a troll, but I just came home from a fairly exciting ride to the Prov. post office. 9 miles, every single fucking mile had a dork playing games. (Like, zip around me at 70+, and jerk in front of me as we're approaching an offramp. Dicks)
Ohhhh.... What a great place to live. Not.
-lf
I just got something like that working this morning. The answer: start XDM first thing after mounting the partitions. My boot scripts are custom made (by me), so it's easy for me to do, but it shouldn't be too hard even on distro scripts.
So, my computer checks the filesystems, mounts them, starts xdm, and then continues on to set up networking, services, etc. I'm working as soon as it starts xdm.
My X setup takes mouse data from gpm. This could cause some problems with kdm (which can use the mouse), but the mouse is not needed or used in xdm. I have gpm starting afterwards, and gpm is loaded by the time I finish logging in.
Hope this helps,
-Chris