You can't make everyone learn the CLI like they should. *sigh*
This sentiment is the exact reason why Linux isn't more widely used as a desktop operating system. Linux at present is a geek toy and a server OS. It will never be more until/unless Linux developers start re-evaluating the validity of the quoted statement above.
Read the article. Some Linux distro developer did:)
Meanwhile, the argument that you should know what all the levers in your car do, and know what all the buttons on your microwave do, and know what all the tools in your toolbox do, still sounds awfully reasonable to me. People should learn the CLI on Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X, exactly because it's there!
That's not to say that people have to learn to love the CLI, or use it all the time. But it may just turn out to be the best tool for some tasks. If nothing else, most people really should know enough to move around their filesystem in a CLI, in case they have to restore files by hand someday (say, after booting from a bootdisk when suffering from a corrupted registry or boot manager or the like).
Yeah, but maybe not the company you're thinking of. The update packages available since the latest release a certain very popular Linux distro weigh in at something like 800MB.
Of which 80-90% was probably Netscape:)
All of the "critical updates" to update an old CD installation of Win98 are only 30MB or so
Yet another reason to browse with Mozilla or Opera with onLoad (or all) popups disabled.
KDE's Konqueror browser also anti-popup functionality in 2.2 and later.
Actually, it's simpler than you'd think.
on
Pitch Perfect Karaoke
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Here's how this thing works.
First, they play a song with the vocals removed so that someone can sing along, like standard karaoke.
Now, here's how this new technology works. Once that someone starts singing, their microphone is automatically turned off, and the original vocal tracks are added back in.
It's to save on the cost of electricity. Most of these sites are hosted in California, and it's too expensive to keep repeating words that are over 8 letters long, like "motherboards". So instead they just say "mobos".
The reason you can't remove those components from Windows is precisely because windows is so modular.
Windows is HIGHLY modular and componentised which is EXACTLY why you can't remove certain components. It's all the component REUSE that causes windows depend on stuff like IE. You guys all think you're great software engineers but can't seem to understand that!
Quite to the contrary, that's why removing IE would be hard. You could do it - by writing code to handle each of the individual functions which IE previously handled, then sorting out the various calls in your code so that they call the correct new functions. Perhaps they could recycle some Win95 code:) Yes, you'd lose functionality. For example, your hard drive browser could no longer double as a web browser. It's still doable, though. From the article:
"Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said. "You just can't yank Internet Explorer out."
The proposal would require "a complete redesign" that would cost millions of hours to build and test, Desler said."
Now let's take a look at the OEMs. They ship machines with 90% of MS software, and while the OEM is responsible for the support of the system, they know that by having an all-Microsoft cast on the system they are assured interoperability. The OEM, thus, is not in the business of working the kinks out of their particular "distribution" of "computer usage experience". While the users may think of buying a "Dell" or "Gateway", who do they bash when their machines become finicky? Why Microsoft of course. There's a single point of blame in the industry.
"Distribution". Linux has distributions. There's a core set of code, and lots of companies and organizations (RedHat, SUSE, Debian, etc.) have sprung up to turn that code into a good user experience (aka a "Distribution").
Perhaps if MS offered a stripped-down Windows, something similar would happen. "Pure" Windows might be hard to use (or not), but with Company X's "Windows Enhancement Pack", things would get a lot easier. OEMs buy enhancement packs from Company X, and all is well.
Before you point out that this could lead to incompatibities among distos (as with Linux now), note that there's still a single company controlling the core Windows code. They could enforce standardization in several ways. For example, instead of a single mandatory web browser, they could have a "web browser integration" API (like KDE does, I think?) 3rd party browsers would have to either be compliant to this API or, well, be non-compliant and suffer the consequences, such as functionality not working, being labelled "non-compliant" by the press, and so on.
why is everyone is so hysterical about global warming? do they not know that this is part of the larger ice-age cycle that repeats about every 20k years? we're in the warming period. we go from nearly covered in ice to nearly devoid of ice (with huge sea-level fluctuations) and then back again. is there some kind of expectation that this change is linear? that there will be no bursts of exponential change followed by other plateaus? that these kinds of global changes will not create increased levels of extinction? hey, maybe humans are influencing the cycle. maybe we've shortened it a few thousand years. maybe nobody really knows jack shit but needs something to bitch about between commercials.
I think the concern is this: first, that humans are changing their environment, and second, that we're doing it so fast (and the rate of change is accelerating?) that we won't be able to predict/deal with the consequences. In the broadest sense, that's pretty much what it boils down to.
In the case of global warming, there's a lot of evidence and research which backs up that first point. This means that the second is a valid concern, especially since many people who know more about it than you or I think that we're going to have problems (specifically, that the rate of change in the temperature of the Earth is too high to be purely natural, and is getting faster, yet that we're not doing enough to either prevent it or deal with its consequences).
After that it gets complicated. Discussing that second point at all requires making predictions, and prediction is an inexact science. Also, some of the issues related to global warming are extremely complex. For example, there are several reasons to want to move away from gasoline-burning automobiles, from concern over global warming to issues of long-term availability of fossil fuels, the health effects of automobile exhaust, city planning issues, and so on. Then there's convencience, habit, corporations trying to protect their profits, and other forces on the side of maintaining the status quo. This results in one dang complicated issue, which is why people spend a lot of time talking about it!
Incidentally, last time a global warming story was posted on SlashDot, someone got modded way up for pointing out that we are in a cooling period, not a warming period. Another reason why there's so much discussion is the massive amount of misinformation out there. Plus there's the fact that the issue is way to big for a discussion to cover every aspect of it. On top of that, there's a tendancy for people to believe what they want to believe (a general tendancy - ask any tech support person!) The result: massive amounts of discussion.
When will people get it through their thick skulls that petitions dont work.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't those propositions that appear in state elections every year get there because enough people signed a petition to get them on the ballot? Lots of those propositions get passed, too.
Petitions are perfectly useful when used properly. Perhaps the ones we hear about on SlashDot aren't being done right. Perhaps electronically signing a petition which says little more than "We don't like X" doesn't cut it. But petitions in general are perfectly useful.
You say it yourself: people are generally more comfortable with what they're used to. It's fairly safe to say that most Linux users are more familiar with single-window style applications.
[snip...]
I'll backpedal slightly from my previous argument and admit that The Gimp isn't *unpleasant* to use. It's just not (in my opinion, and others I've spoken with) *as* pleasant as Photoshop.
There's something missing from your argument. Are you and those people you've talked to more used to Windows than Linux? If people "prefer" the Photoshop way, and those same people are more familiar with the Windows way, then are you really talking about the difference between Photoshop and The Gimp, or about the difference between Linux and Windows?
Re:Only because you're a hypersensitive twit.
on
Chase the Rabbits
·
· Score: 1, Offtopic
Thanks, I'm just depressed that it got modded up. I went on full-up psycho mode there and the mods didn't even have the common goddamn courtesy to bitchslap me for it.
Defending a popular opinion (however you do it) tends to get support from the masses. And the moderators on SlashDot are probably nothing special in that regard.
The real problem is when this sort of thing happens too much. Then intelligent debate tends to go out the window...
Re:Only because you're a hypersensitive twit.
on
Chase the Rabbits
·
· Score: 2
Next time you want to whimper about how terrible the U.S. military is, remember that their mission is to act as guarantors of freedom not merely for the U.S., but for the world. Sometimes the mere threat of their use is enough to cause aggressive individuals to reconsider. Sometimes we actually have to show the intestinal fortitude to use them. And sometimes, every once in a while, I wish they'd call in airstrikes on idiot hippies like you.
The problem is, of course, that what's best for the U.S. is not always the most moral course of action. Nor is it always best in the long run (Vietnam looked like a good idea at the time -- gotta stop those commies!) So some intelligent debate would be nice.
2) Requires incoming connections. Due to the unusual (but very cool) client/server inversion, when you start an X application, it connects back to your server. This requires an *incoming* connection, which is far more problematic for firewalls, NAT's, proxies, corporate networks, and such. VNC, HotMail via HTTP, and other webtop-ish things, work on strictly outgoing TCP/IP connections, making them firewall friendly.
I'm pretty sure you can use SSH tunnelling to deal with this one. If I'm wrong, please correct me on this.
Of course, this also requires an ssh client that supports X forwarding, which some systems may not have.
Crazy thought: How about waiting for the text of the law and reading it before criticizing! Sure it sounds kind of strange, but wouldn't it be more effective to fax your senator knowing what the law actually says?
How about you read the SlashDot posting and the linked article? You'll see things like this:
The bill, called the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA), prohibits the sale of any kind of electronic device -- unless that device includes copy-protection standards to be set by the federal government.
And this:
Once known as the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, the CBDTPA says that all "digital media devices" sold in the United States or shipped across state lines must include copy protection mechanisms to be defined by the Federal Communications Commission.
That's what we were afraid of! While reading the bill when the text is posted is not a bad idea, I also think we're still safe criticizing it.
Absolutely correct. GNOME and KDE attempt to reproduce all the functionality of Windows. They'll probably never be as bloated as Windows (or as inflexible), but there's a minimum amount of overhead for all those features.
The most important point for people with "low-end" boxes to remember is... that they have low-end boxes! You can't possibly expect every piece of software in existence to run fast on your old Pentium or whatever. If you have older hardware, use suitable software.
For example, I recently set up a 486-33 laptop with 8MB of ram as a webserver. It works just fine. Is it running Apache? No way. I didn't even bother to try. Why? It's called being realistic. With such old hardware, you use a simpler, smaller webserver. And likewise, with a low-end (say, Pentium) desktop, use WindowMaker. For a 386 being used as a desktop, get GeoWorks (if it's still available?) or whatever.
The point is, while optimized software is certainly a useful goal. Just don't expect miracles. You can't reproduce the functionality of Windows plus some on top of the functionality of X on top of the functionality of Linux and expect it to run on just anything.
A little tidbit for those college students/those with parents/friends in the education industry. Try going to the Education Apple Store, things are cheaper for 'ya.
Not that I'm complaining (being in the education industry myself). It just makes me wonder, what possible academic value does an iPod have? If none, then what's the point of academic pricing again? Not that I'm complaining, mind you (me want bargain!)
Of course, we also need to take time into account, or more specifically, the rate at which events such as this occur. If a once-in-a-million-years asteroid just missed Earth by a bit, then I'm not worried either. If a fifty-times-a-year asteroid just missed Earth, then I'm worried.
You only need 16MB to handle the highest resolution computer graphics displays ever made.
This is true for 2D displays, but when you start having double and triple buffering plus z-buffers it starts to add up. Then add the texture requirement and you can see why most newer cards have 64-128MB of memory on the cards.
Technically, though, he's still correct. Sure, your card would be awfully slow playing something like Quake III without on-card memory for textures, etc.:) However, any 3d rendering could theoretically be done in software and then (slowly) displayed on a 2d-only card, right?
However, It has it's caveats, like any distro. It's still too large. I'd like to see what you get with a 65 meg install.
When discussing Mandrake's "small install" options, let's remember that all the binaries which ship with Mandrake (at least in the x86 version - the most popular one by far) are 586 optimized. What's the smallest hard drive you've ever seen in a Pentium?
Personally, I'm a bit surprised that they bothered. I don't the idea is to make a "Mandrake for older systems", which is the point of many small distros (such as Tiny). More likely, they're aiming for those expert users who just want the core programs and libraries, and will build their own system from there. For example, users who are setting up a minimal server with as little unnecessary code as possible lying around (in which case I would think that XFree and internationalization tools would not be included).
The reference was to worms like Nimbda that were released 6 months after the patch was released, "Dumbass." Keep trying, though.
I hate to tell you this, but most exploits come out in less than six months. Sometimes they even come out before the patches. My point is still correct.
Security? I find both to be atrocious, but provided the administrator is competent and patches machines within 6 months of the release of updates, I'd say there on equal ground.
6 months?!?! Try 6 hours (max)!
Pal, I think I know the security is so "atrocious" on your systems.
(Actually, you've hit on one of the reasons why I like using an old 486 laptop as a webserver. It was cheap, has low power consumption, and a built-in monitor for whenever I need to check up on it!)
JFK: NG troops have M-16s (or AR-15s) on their backs [snip] Paris: CRS troops carrying subbies, finger on the trigger. Grade: A Rome: Carabinieri troops w/ subbies & full-size bullethoses of various origin. Hand on the grip. Grade: A Istanbul: Similar to Rome. Grade: A
I wonder which is better: The odds of a firefight against terrorists breaking out at an airport, or the odds of a soldier with their finger on the trigger slipping on some split coffee?
Slashdot Mirror
You can't make everyone learn the CLI like they should. *sigh*
:)
This sentiment is the exact reason why Linux isn't more widely used as a desktop operating system. Linux at present is a geek toy and a server OS. It will never be more until/unless Linux developers start re-evaluating the validity of the quoted statement above.
Read the article. Some Linux distro developer did
Meanwhile, the argument that you should know what all the levers in your car do, and know what all the buttons on your microwave do, and know what all the tools in your toolbox do, still sounds awfully reasonable to me. People should learn the CLI on Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X, exactly because it's there!
That's not to say that people have to learn to love the CLI, or use it all the time. But it may just turn out to be the best tool for some tasks. If nothing else, most people really should know enough to move around their filesystem in a CLI, in case they have to restore files by hand someday (say, after booting from a bootdisk when suffering from a corrupted registry or boot manager or the like).
Yeah, but maybe not the company you're thinking of. The update packages available since the latest release a certain very popular Linux distro weigh in at something like 800MB.
:)
Of which 80-90% was probably Netscape
All of the "critical updates" to update an old CD installation of Win98 are only 30MB or so
Which is about the size of IE 6.0. Roughly.
Apples to oranges, and all that.
Yet another reason to browse with Mozilla or Opera with onLoad (or all) popups disabled.
KDE's Konqueror browser also anti-popup functionality in 2.2 and later.
Here's how this thing works.
First, they play a song with the vocals removed so that someone can sing along, like standard karaoke.
Now, here's how this new technology works. Once that someone starts singing, their microphone is automatically turned off, and the original vocal tracks are added back in.
I hear it sounds great!
It's to save on the cost of electricity. Most of these sites are hosted in California, and it's too expensive to keep repeating words that are over 8 letters long, like "motherboards". So instead they just say "mobos".
The reason you can't remove those components from Windows is precisely because windows is so modular.
:) Yes, you'd lose functionality. For example, your hard drive browser could no longer double as a web browser. It's still doable, though. From the article:
:)
Windows is HIGHLY modular and componentised which is EXACTLY why you can't remove certain components. It's all the component REUSE that causes windows depend on stuff like IE. You guys all think you're great software engineers but can't seem to understand that!
Quite to the contrary, that's why removing IE would be hard. You could do it - by writing code to handle each of the individual functions which IE previously handled, then sorting out the various calls in your code so that they call the correct new functions. Perhaps they could recycle some Win95 code
"Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said. "You just can't yank Internet Explorer out."
The proposal would require "a complete redesign" that would cost millions of hours to build and test, Desler said."
Hard, but still doable - even according to MS!
Now let's take a look at the OEMs. They ship machines with 90% of MS software, and while the OEM is responsible for the support of the system, they know that by having an all-Microsoft cast on the system they are assured interoperability. The OEM, thus, is not in the business of working the kinks out of their particular "distribution" of "computer usage experience". While the users may think of buying a "Dell" or "Gateway", who do they bash when their machines become finicky? Why Microsoft of course. There's a single point of blame in the industry.
"Distribution". Linux has distributions. There's a core set of code, and lots of companies and organizations (RedHat, SUSE, Debian, etc.) have sprung up to turn that code into a good user experience (aka a "Distribution").
Perhaps if MS offered a stripped-down Windows, something similar would happen. "Pure" Windows might be hard to use (or not), but with Company X's "Windows Enhancement Pack", things would get a lot easier. OEMs buy enhancement packs from Company X, and all is well.
Before you point out that this could lead to incompatibities among distos (as with Linux now), note that there's still a single company controlling the core Windows code. They could enforce standardization in several ways. For example, instead of a single mandatory web browser, they could have a "web browser integration" API (like KDE does, I think?) 3rd party browsers would have to either be compliant to this API or, well, be non-compliant and suffer the consequences, such as functionality not working, being labelled "non-compliant" by the press, and so on.
why is everyone is so hysterical about global warming? do they not know that this is part of the larger ice-age cycle that repeats about every 20k years? we're in the warming period. we go from nearly covered in ice to nearly devoid of ice (with huge sea-level fluctuations) and then back again. is there some kind of expectation that this change is linear? that there will be no bursts of exponential change followed by other plateaus? that these kinds of global changes will not create increased levels of extinction? hey, maybe humans are influencing the cycle. maybe we've shortened it a few thousand years. maybe nobody really knows jack shit but needs something to bitch about between commercials.
I think the concern is this: first, that humans are changing their environment, and second, that we're doing it so fast (and the rate of change is accelerating?) that we won't be able to predict/deal with the consequences. In the broadest sense, that's pretty much what it boils down to.
In the case of global warming, there's a lot of evidence and research which backs up that first point. This means that the second is a valid concern, especially since many people who know more about it than you or I think that we're going to have problems (specifically, that the rate of change in the temperature of the Earth is too high to be purely natural, and is getting faster, yet that we're not doing enough to either prevent it or deal with its consequences).
After that it gets complicated. Discussing that second point at all requires making predictions, and prediction is an inexact science. Also, some of the issues related to global warming are extremely complex. For example, there are several reasons to want to move away from gasoline-burning automobiles, from concern over global warming to issues of long-term availability of fossil fuels, the health effects of automobile exhaust, city planning issues, and so on. Then there's convencience, habit, corporations trying to protect their profits, and other forces on the side of maintaining the status quo. This results in one dang complicated issue, which is why people spend a lot of time talking about it!
Incidentally, last time a global warming story was posted on SlashDot, someone got modded way up for pointing out that we are in a cooling period, not a warming period. Another reason why there's so much discussion is the massive amount of misinformation out there. Plus there's the fact that the issue is way to big for a discussion to cover every aspect of it. On top of that, there's a tendancy for people to believe what they want to believe (a general tendancy - ask any tech support person!) The result: massive amounts of discussion.
When will people get it through their thick skulls that petitions dont work.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't those propositions that appear in state elections every year get there because enough people signed a petition to get them on the ballot? Lots of those propositions get passed, too.
Petitions are perfectly useful when used properly. Perhaps the ones we hear about on SlashDot aren't being done right. Perhaps electronically signing a petition which says little more than "We don't like X" doesn't cut it. But petitions in general are perfectly useful.
You say it yourself: people are generally more comfortable with what they're used to. It's fairly safe to say that most Linux users are more familiar with single-window style applications.
[snip...]
I'll backpedal slightly from my previous argument and admit that The Gimp isn't *unpleasant* to use. It's just not (in my opinion, and others I've spoken with) *as* pleasant as Photoshop.
There's something missing from your argument. Are you and those people you've talked to more used to Windows than Linux? If people "prefer" the Photoshop way, and those same people are more familiar with the Windows way, then are you really talking about the difference between Photoshop and The Gimp, or about the difference between Linux and Windows?
Thanks, I'm just depressed that it got modded up. I went on full-up psycho mode there and the mods didn't even have the common goddamn courtesy to bitchslap me for it.
Defending a popular opinion (however you do it) tends to get support from the masses. And the moderators on SlashDot are probably nothing special in that regard.
The real problem is when this sort of thing happens too much. Then intelligent debate tends to go out the window...
Next time you want to whimper about how terrible the U.S. military is, remember that their mission is to act as guarantors of freedom not merely for the U.S., but for the world. Sometimes the mere threat of their use is enough to cause aggressive individuals to reconsider. Sometimes we actually have to show the intestinal fortitude to use them. And sometimes, every once in a while, I wish they'd call in airstrikes on idiot hippies like you.
The problem is, of course, that what's best for the U.S. is not always the most moral course of action. Nor is it always best in the long run (Vietnam looked like a good idea at the time -- gotta stop those commies!) So some intelligent debate would be nice.
That so many posters confuse a heat conductor with a heat pump.
We're not all engineers, you know. Some of us are English Majors.
Speaking of which, you've got a nasty sentence fragment problem there...
2) Requires incoming connections. Due to the unusual (but very cool) client/server inversion, when you start an X application, it connects back to your server. This requires an *incoming* connection, which is far more problematic for firewalls, NAT's, proxies, corporate networks, and such. VNC, HotMail via HTTP, and other webtop-ish things, work on strictly outgoing TCP/IP connections, making them firewall friendly.
I'm pretty sure you can use SSH tunnelling to deal with this one. If I'm wrong, please correct me on this.
Of course, this also requires an ssh client that supports X forwarding, which some systems may not have.
Crazy thought: How about waiting for the text of the law and reading it before criticizing! Sure it sounds kind of strange, but wouldn't it be more effective to fax your senator knowing what the law actually says?
How about you read the SlashDot posting and the linked article? You'll see things like this:
The bill, called the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA), prohibits the sale of any kind of electronic device -- unless that device includes copy-protection standards to be set by the federal government.
And this:
Once known as the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, the CBDTPA says that all "digital media devices" sold in the United States or shipped across state lines must include copy protection mechanisms to be defined by the Federal Communications Commission.
That's what we were afraid of! While reading the bill when the text is posted is not a bad idea, I also think we're still safe criticizing it.
Absolutely correct. GNOME and KDE attempt to reproduce all the functionality of Windows. They'll probably never be as bloated as Windows (or as inflexible), but there's a minimum amount of overhead for all those features.
The most important point for people with "low-end" boxes to remember is... that they have low-end boxes! You can't possibly expect every piece of software in existence to run fast on your old Pentium or whatever. If you have older hardware, use suitable software.
For example, I recently set up a 486-33 laptop with 8MB of ram as a webserver. It works just fine. Is it running Apache? No way. I didn't even bother to try. Why? It's called being realistic. With such old hardware, you use a simpler, smaller webserver. And likewise, with a low-end (say, Pentium) desktop, use WindowMaker. For a 386 being used as a desktop, get GeoWorks (if it's still available?) or whatever.
The point is, while optimized software is certainly a useful goal. Just don't expect miracles. You can't reproduce the functionality of Windows plus some on top of the functionality of X on top of the functionality of Linux and expect it to run on just anything.
A little tidbit for those college students/those with parents/friends in the education industry. Try going to the Education Apple Store, things are cheaper for 'ya.
Example: 5 GB iPod: $369 (Normally $399)
10 GB iPod: $469. (Normally $499)
Not that I'm complaining (being in the education industry myself). It just makes me wonder, what possible academic value does an iPod have? If none, then what's the point of academic pricing again? Not that I'm complaining, mind you (me want bargain!)
Of course, we also need to take time into account, or more specifically, the rate at which events such as this occur. If a once-in-a-million-years asteroid just missed Earth by a bit, then I'm not worried either. If a fifty-times-a-year asteroid just missed Earth, then I'm worried.
You only need 16MB to handle the highest resolution computer graphics displays ever made.
:) However, any 3d rendering could theoretically be done in software and then (slowly) displayed on a 2d-only card, right?
This is true for 2D displays, but when you start having double and triple buffering plus z-buffers it starts to add up. Then add the texture requirement and you can see why most newer cards have 64-128MB of memory on the cards.
Technically, though, he's still correct. Sure, your card would be awfully slow playing something like Quake III without on-card memory for textures, etc.
However, It has it's caveats, like any distro. It's still too large. I'd like to see what you get with a 65 meg install.
When discussing Mandrake's "small install" options, let's remember that all the binaries which ship with Mandrake (at least in the x86 version - the most popular one by far) are 586 optimized. What's the smallest hard drive you've ever seen in a Pentium?
Personally, I'm a bit surprised that they bothered. I don't the idea is to make a "Mandrake for older systems", which is the point of many small distros (such as Tiny). More likely, they're aiming for those expert users who just want the core programs and libraries, and will build their own system from there. For example, users who are setting up a minimal server with as little unnecessary code as possible lying around (in which case I would think that XFree and internationalization tools would not be included).
The reference was to worms like Nimbda that were released 6 months after the patch was released, "Dumbass." Keep trying, though.
I hate to tell you this, but most exploits come out in less than six months. Sometimes they even come out before the patches. My point is still correct.
P.S. "Nimda".
Security? I find both to be atrocious, but provided the administrator is competent and patches machines within 6 months of the release of updates, I'd say there on equal ground.
6 months?!?! Try 6 hours (max)!
Pal, I think I know the security is so "atrocious" on your systems.
What if it's a server?
Um... access whatever data it's serving?
(Actually, you've hit on one of the reasons why I like using an old 486 laptop as a webserver. It was cheap, has low power consumption, and a built-in monitor for whenever I need to check up on it!)
So with my blinkenlights all taped up, and my fan silent.. I just need a way to find out if my systems are still running.
There's a device which is generally used to monitor whether or not your system is responding to your input.
It's called a monitor.
JFK: NG troops have M-16s (or AR-15s) on their backs
[snip]
Paris: CRS troops carrying subbies, finger on the trigger. Grade: A
Rome: Carabinieri troops w/ subbies & full-size bullethoses of various origin. Hand on the grip. Grade: A
Istanbul: Similar to Rome. Grade: A
I wonder which is better: The odds of a firefight against terrorists breaking out at an airport, or the odds of a soldier with their finger on the trigger slipping on some split coffee?