Secondly, the author obviously lacks clue- modern Windows OS' do *not* execute files based on file type, its a combination of reading the first N bytes of the file, and file type. Rename any.exe to anything else and click on it on a Windows host.
Wrong. Executables in Win32 must have an appropriate extension. In Win2K, particularly, those listed in the PATHEXT environment variable are considered 'executable', and the registry info has to be in order for them to run. Naturally, it also checks for magic numbers in.exe files, but.com files are considered machine code from start to end..scr files are treated like.exe's, and.bat and.cmd files are interprited by the shell. Others listed must have registry keys arranged to associate them to an executable program to run them.
Don't let the 'Hide Extensions' user interface fool you. Tools -> Folder Options -> View -> 'Hide file extensions for known file types' Even disabling this option, you still won't see the.lnk extensions on all those shortcuts on your start menu or desktop.
All the registry schmooze for associations lives in HKCR\.[ext] and HKCR\[ext]file (generally. That's not a hard-and-fast rule).
Re:Duplication of functionality in distributions.
on
Too Much Free Software
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· Score: 1
I like my distro... 6 floppies and a Net connection. Debian is hard to beat. Nothing but what you ask for (and what it depends on).
Woah! Some of the most insightful commentary I've seen on the geek community yet!
Teach! Amen! The only problem is this: Mentalities lent toward becoming a geek are not usually also well adjusted to teaching. And it's also hard (for me) to find the time and students to teach. People don't want to understand: 'just let me click my word processor up here and type some stuff.'
On that note, I've been really treasuring the time spent helping my friend across town set up his Linux 2.4 NAT machine for his cablemodem. He's sucking this stuff up! And I'm loving it! He has a knack for making the connections between commands/actions and system configuration effects that is really coming out.
It's really rewarding to me to see my friend learning so much from me, and I'd highly advise *any* geek to find an apprentice or two who are interested and want to understand. It's tough, but you can reap great rewards... and so can your OS of choice.
Yes, I agree, I don't want this thing tied to my Quake 3, but I could see it as very handy for Tribes 2 or Diablo 2, where an icon on the touchpad would correspond to an inventory selection or skill.
Say, a row of icons to select armor, a row for weapons, a row for packs, a row for grenades, a row for presets... Now just select your loadout by tapping icons. Seems pretty slick in concept.
Well, I've been using a Logitech Trackman Marble for a great while, and haven't had any trouble with spinning it too fast. I have been able to spin it faster than it can handle, but it's design is such that it makes more sense to use smaller movements (ala higher sensitivity/acceleration), so it's not a real issue. It's a thumb operated ~1.5 inch diameter ball set in a nice ergonomic lump that allows the hand to rest atop it comfortably.
Recently upgraded to a USB version with a wheel, and found the wheel is a little flakey; that is, I get wheel movements when all I really wanted was a middle-click. Bad stuff when that swaps weapons on ya...
As a gaming device, I've been very satisfied with it. I can stomp all on campus in Q2 or Q3 with it, though this may be due to a generally lower than average quality of players here... The firewall we have prevents general Net play.
As a general pointing device, it's also good, but it falls short on any fine detail work. It tends to build up gunk at the three contact points where the ball rests, and that can make very small, precise movements more difficult. A quick wipe with a tissue helps that a lot.
Yes, I think that the purchase of STB was the downfall of 3dfx. STB always made dislikable cards, anyway; their stupid 'STB Vision' crap fouled up more than one system that I've seen. I can just see some poor suit somewhere holding his head in his hands and going 'Why, oh, why did I buy STB?'
I'm not sure I'd blame it on the lateness of the V3. I think that reputation could have held them through that one, if they hadn't gone with STB... 'course, maybe without STB they'd have been on time?
It's interesting that the V3 did show up on-board in Dell systems for a while. Makes me wonder why they did that, and yet not the old style 'buy our chips' deals.
Ah, well... I suppose we could speculate like that for a long long time...
Look, neither D&D or Christianity is inherantly evil. They are what you make of them. You CAN have a cult-oriented group of D&D players looking for new members, or you can have a healthy group of well-adjusted people playing D&D together just as a way to spend time enjoying each other's company. In the same way, if you want to look to the Bible for justification for a holy war and rape/pillage/murder/whatever, I'm sure you could - it's been done before, for crying out loud. But that doesn't make Christianity evil. In the same way, a few wierdos don't make D&D evil.
These are similar to tools/computers, in that they have no intrinsic goodness or badness to them; they are simply what people make of them. If you twist D&D, sure, it'll be evil for you and your gaming group. If you twist Christianity, it'll be evil for your congregation, too. But neither of those cases make either of the items in question evil.
Please, Please, Please -- there has got to be some way to determine if the person calling you is not your avreage 'where is the "any" key' idiot and quickly get them talk to somebody who understands them
Hmmm... this just struck me: why not have an automated quiz first thing when somebody calls tech support? Multiple choice, 5 or 10 questions, pushbutton. Anykey people talk to those who deal with them, and the rest of us talk to someone intellegent. Some simple vocabulary questions would probably do quite well.
ring... ring... "Thank you for calling Company X tech support. Please answer the following quick questions to help us determine how to serve you best..."
Brilliance! [was I disagree...]
on
Is UNIX An OS?
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· Score: 1
"Instead of putting down Unix as "not an entire operating system," why not just say that just an operating system in and of itself is probably not what the majority of most users want."
We have a winner! Give the man an award: he has just hit the nail on the head. Nobody but nobody wants naught but an OS. An OS by itself is utterly useless to a user. User programs (applications) are what make a machine useful. The fact that most OS's come with several of these bundled is, therefore, not surprising. However, calling this bundled application set an OS is simply not true to the definition of OS.
So, what it really comes down to is that most people don't know what 'OS' really means. The fact that this happens to include Mr. Every and most GUI users doesn't surprise me. MacOS and Windows are designed to be black boxes where you point and grunt and it just works - no understanding involved.
So, should we just dismiss this as more lusers^H^H^H^H^H^Hconsumers blithering about stuff they don't understand? NO! We, the educated, must educate them! Education is the key to the 'information age'. Without it, people will be bumbling about in the dark when they sit at their computers.
To that end I would implore everyone who knows better: don't let misuse of terms slide. A lot of people simply don't know the vocabulary to discuss computers intelegently, so they grope and muddle and spread partial or bogus information, such as the misconception that an OS includes all these user apps.
Wait a minute... Wait a minute... Unnatural language? Eureka! What a novel idea! Except that we already have it in bash or as many others similar to it...
But that happens server side. The rest of the net need not change anything. A few changes in the server code on only the root servers, and then life is good, right? It seems so simple... Am I missing something?
LOL! Now let's see a development environment on it.
WinCE still sucks pretty bad. I test devices running CE, and it has plenty of memory leaks here and there. And you know how well a typical piece of M$ software handles out of memory conditions... hehe
Actually, just today I saw such a device at work. D-Link makes a 10/100 auto-sense USB ethernet adapter. I have also seen a 10 Mbits only device, but the manufacturer of that doesn't spring to mind...
Slashdot Mirror
Don't let the 'Hide Extensions' user interface fool you. Tools -> Folder Options -> View -> 'Hide file extensions for known file types' Even disabling this option, you still won't see the .lnk extensions on all those shortcuts on your start menu or desktop.
All the registry schmooze for associations lives in HKCR\.[ext] and HKCR\[ext]file (generally. That's not a hard-and-fast rule).
I like my distro... 6 floppies and a Net connection. Debian is hard to beat. Nothing but what you ask for (and what it depends on).
Teach! Amen! The only problem is this: Mentalities lent toward becoming a geek are not usually also well adjusted to teaching. And it's also hard (for me) to find the time and students to teach. People don't want to understand: 'just let me click my word processor up here and type some stuff.'
On that note, I've been really treasuring the time spent helping my friend across town set up his Linux 2.4 NAT machine for his cablemodem. He's sucking this stuff up! And I'm loving it! He has a knack for making the connections between commands/actions and system configuration effects that is really coming out.
It's really rewarding to me to see my friend learning so much from me, and I'd highly advise *any* geek to find an apprentice or two who are interested and want to understand. It's tough, but you can reap great rewards... and so can your OS of choice.
Say, a row of icons to select armor, a row for weapons, a row for packs, a row for grenades, a row for presets... Now just select your loadout by tapping icons. Seems pretty slick in concept.
Well, I've been using a Logitech Trackman Marble for a great while, and haven't had any trouble with spinning it too fast. I have been able to spin it faster than it can handle, but it's design is such that it makes more sense to use smaller movements (ala higher sensitivity/acceleration), so it's not a real issue. It's a thumb operated ~1.5 inch diameter ball set in a nice ergonomic lump that allows the hand to rest atop it comfortably.
Recently upgraded to a USB version with a wheel, and found the wheel is a little flakey; that is, I get wheel movements when all I really wanted was a middle-click. Bad stuff when that swaps weapons on ya...
As a gaming device, I've been very satisfied with it. I can stomp all on campus in Q2 or Q3 with it, though this may be due to a generally lower than average quality of players here... The firewall we have prevents general Net play.
As a general pointing device, it's also good, but it falls short on any fine detail work. It tends to build up gunk at the three contact points where the ball rests, and that can make very small, precise movements more difficult. A quick wipe with a tissue helps that a lot.
Yes, I think that the purchase of STB was the downfall of 3dfx. STB always made dislikable cards, anyway; their stupid 'STB Vision' crap fouled up more than one system that I've seen. I can just see some poor suit somewhere holding his head in his hands and going 'Why, oh, why did I buy STB?'
I'm not sure I'd blame it on the lateness of the V3. I think that reputation could have held them through that one, if they hadn't gone with STB... 'course, maybe without STB they'd have been on time?
It's interesting that the V3 did show up on-board in Dell systems for a while. Makes me wonder why they did that, and yet not the old style 'buy our chips' deals.
Ah, well... I suppose we could speculate like that for a long long time...
Look, neither D&D or Christianity is inherantly evil. They are what you make of them. You CAN have a cult-oriented group of D&D players looking for new members, or you can have a healthy group of well-adjusted people playing D&D together just as a way to spend time enjoying each other's company. In the same way, if you want to look to the Bible for justification for a holy war and rape/pillage/murder/whatever, I'm sure you could - it's been done before, for crying out loud. But that doesn't make Christianity evil. In the same way, a few wierdos don't make D&D evil.
These are similar to tools/computers, in that they have no intrinsic goodness or badness to them; they are simply what people make of them. If you twist D&D, sure, it'll be evil for you and your gaming group. If you twist Christianity, it'll be evil for your congregation, too. But neither of those cases make either of the items in question evil.
Hmmm... this just struck me: why not have an automated quiz first thing when somebody calls tech support? Multiple choice, 5 or 10 questions, pushbutton. Anykey people talk to those who deal with them, and the rest of us talk to someone intellegent. Some simple vocabulary questions would probably do quite well.
ring... ring... "Thank you for calling Company X tech support. Please answer the following quick questions to help us determine how to serve you best..."
We have a winner! Give the man an award: he has just hit the nail on the head. Nobody but nobody wants naught but an OS. An OS by itself is utterly useless to a user. User programs (applications) are what make a machine useful. The fact that most OS's come with several of these bundled is, therefore, not surprising. However, calling this bundled application set an OS is simply not true to the definition of OS.
So, what it really comes down to is that most people don't know what 'OS' really means. The fact that this happens to include Mr. Every and most GUI users doesn't surprise me. MacOS and Windows are designed to be black boxes where you point and grunt and it just works - no understanding involved.
So, should we just dismiss this as more lusers^H^H^H^H^H^Hconsumers blithering about stuff they don't understand? NO! We, the educated, must educate them! Education is the key to the 'information age'. Without it, people will be bumbling about in the dark when they sit at their computers.
To that end I would implore everyone who knows better: don't let misuse of terms slide. A lot of people simply don't know the vocabulary to discuss computers intelegently, so they grope and muddle and spread partial or bogus information, such as the misconception that an OS includes all these user apps.
Let's whip this misinformation beast!
You have a 905B; the same kernel module runs both. Check out the options in networking in 'make menuconfig'; I think the help info tells you that.
Well, given a chance to read it, and provided I agree with what it says, yeah, I'd hand out flyers.
Wait a minute... Wait a minute... Unnatural language? Eureka! What a novel idea! Except that we already have it in bash or as many others similar to it...
Also worth checking out is VNC.
But that happens server side. The rest of the net need not change anything. A few changes in the server code on only the root servers, and then life is good, right? It seems so simple... Am I missing something?
LOL! Now let's see a development environment on it.
WinCE still sucks pretty bad. I test devices running CE, and it has plenty of memory leaks here and there. And you know how well a typical piece of M$ software handles out of memory conditions... hehe
Actually, just today I saw such a device at work. D-Link makes a 10/100 auto-sense USB ethernet adapter. I have also seen a 10 Mbits only device, but the manufacturer of that doesn't spring to mind...