I'd aruge that IE is a long ways from being a "drop in replacement" for Firefox. IE is in the stone ages functionality wise compared to Firefox. The only reason anyone is still using IE is because they have to (because site X only works with IE because the idiot web developer didn't test it with anything else)
I would have bought an EPIA years ago if VIA would open up the specs a bit more. Google around about people getting linux going on these. It is an easy thing to do, as long as you don't want to have everything on the board work (like the SVideo out, the onboard MPEG2 decoder, etc) . It can work from what I understand, just not something I wanted to spend a week trying.
So is the new line any better? If so I'd buy as I'm in the market for 2 or 3 machines like this. Question is, does VIA even care about the Linux user? Until now the answer has been no.
I ski two days a week. I volunteer one night to help handicap kids learn, and the other I take my whole family out for fun. One day a week I take my kids to gymnastics class, another to soccer practice. Then on Saturday we usually have a (soccer) game in addition to a birthday party of one of the kids in one of their classes. On Sundays I usually hang out with family of friends after church and brunch.
On the flip side I work from home, and my home theater is in my basement. I've only seen two movies at the cinema in the last six months, but I've probably watched fifty movies in the time (thanks to Netflix.) The guy who gave me the idea for the home-theater is in a similar situation to mine. We don't exactly lock ourselves away from society, far from it. Having a home theater means I invite my friends (and their kids) over for dinner and a movie on Fridays rather then paying a sitter $50, a restaurant $70 and a cinema $30. You don't have to do that too many times for the $5k you put into the theater to pay for itself, and our kids get to socialize with other kids to boot. Besides, I love to cook so the food is usually better, as is the wine.
I'd say your stereotype of home theatre owners being anti-social is way off base. In fact of the five or six people I know that have a home theater, I wouldn't categorize any of them that way.
You must hang out with some really fun people. My present is just (sometimes semi-)annoying characters spouting off one (often not so) snappy one-liner/throwaway gag after another. Why should the future be any different? I guess I liked the show because I could see the my friends in the characters (the rebel, the "tough" chick, the rich kid, the psycho babe, the big dumb ape, the earthy chick, the comedian, the hot intellectual chick, the do-gooder) in situations I've seen them in before (naked in front of everyone, way out of their league and about to get their asses kicked, unexpectedly put on a pedestal, etc) and you hated it because you couldn't (come to think of it, all it was missing was the "nice guy's" hot wife with the Russian accent:-)
Who really gives a shit? If you don't like the show, don't watch it. I saw the movie after hearing a good review, and I liked it. I bought the series on DVD, and I liked it too. Now it has grown on my wife who tried her best not to like it (she can't stand Sci-Fi or westerns, but she loves Firefly now).
Like the comedian sais... "If you don't get it, it's probably because you don't get it."
I used Eclipse originally and then migrated to IDEA because Eclipse kept crashing on me (to be fair, this was probably Debian Unstable's fault, not Eclipse). To be honest I really prefer the IntelliJ enviro. At the time it did a lot of things out of the box that Eclipse did not (like show me errors in my Javadoc comments, integrate extremely smoothly with Tomcat, gracefully handle JSPs, etc). Eclipse could probably be bent to do all these things with various plugins, but my IDE is one thing i really don't want to futz with all that much.
That was two years ago, and to be honest I haven't had much urge to check on how Eclipse is doing these days. I liked it when it wasn't crashing, and for the price you can't beat it... But when your company is picking up the tab and you just want it to work, you can't beat IntelliJ with a stick:-)
Why stop there? Why does any entity need to hold on to my SSN? Why not just make it illegal to do so? I work with large databases every day (100k+ "souls") and it is insane to me that we keep the SSN for all these people. What a security nightmare/identity thief's dream. I've argued with my boss several times that we should dump the SSN and just keep a few hashes instead (md5/sh1/whatever). He doesn't like that idea for valid reasons (mainly compatibility with other systems that don't know shit about a hashed SSN).
I really wish congress would pass a law stating that no private entity without a federal charter can hold an SSN longer then 30-60 days. I could then share hashed SSNs with various other DBs because they would have to deal with those, or face the legal consequences.
Of course I think all commercial entities should be mandated to purge all customer data after two years as well. Why should Sears keep my SSN on file forever just because I had a credit card with them 10 years ago?
"You guys"? So all of "us" OSS geeks are all the same and we all think all you windows types are drooling morons who can't tell the difference between your CD-ROM drive and a cup holder?
Grow up. Ballmer is a tool (specifically Gate's tool) and Eric's response was more then a bit childish. However Ballmer != average windows user, ESR != average OSS user.
Isnt that what he asked for was a site that specifically reviews scanners ALA Toms? (Though sadly I think Tom's has sucked for some time now, for serious hardware reviews I go to anandtech these days)
I had the same experience when I first tried Gimp. But then again I had the same experience when I first tried PS. The fact is you have to learn how to do anything non-trivial in any non-trivial program. Next time take the approach of "I would like to learn how to do X with Y" instead of "I need Y to do X even though I already know how to do it easier/quicker with Z" and you might be pleasantly surprised.
I can't believe I'm replying to an AC, but AMEN BROTHER!
I have yet to meet a single programmer who works with mono "for pay". I would wager that 99.999999% of programmers who are getting payed to write C# are getting payed to write C# under windows. Can you say the same about Java? The Java projects I see are fairly well distributed between straight VM plays on windows or linux, or bundled into a platform like Oracle or Websphere. There is a lot of platform diversity in the Java arena, nearly none in the C# world AFAICT.
Did you even read the linked articles? He isn't complaining about Apple. He is complaining about jerks like you bashing KHTML on Slashdot for not incorporating Apples sloppy hacks back into KHTML.
I like PHP also. It is fast and fun(!) to develop with. Things come together quickly... However that is also part of the problem. The barrier to entry is so low that it suffers from the dentist syndrome (what do you call someone who couldn't make it through med school? A dentist.. What do you call a web developer who couldn't hack it with J2EE? A PHP programmer) I've seen so much brain-dead PHP code from kids straight out of college, I have come to believe that it isn't the appropriate choice for larger projects (unless you don't mind eating spaghetti). For small projects it is great, but I believe larger projects need a language that promotes more structure.
Other huge issues with PHP include:
Database Support: The drivers are built on top of native drivers... So they often behave differently on various platforms and are sometimes unavailable (See MS-SQL on linux, and don't tell my about FreeTDS, it has been broken for almost two years)
Backward Compatibility: PHP is famous for breaking large things on minor releases. For example somewhere in the 4.1.x series PHP decided that 0 != null anymore. This caused major headaches around here (as we are mostly a PHP shop). Sure it was in the release notes, but who expects such a major change in a minor release?
PHP is stateless, which is good and bad. It is good in that you don't have to think so hard about race conditions, etc. It is bad because you can't pool objects that are expensive to create (other then the built in database pooling). This makes some things very hard to do in PHP that are trivial in Java. For example, sparking a thread to run in the background and reporting on it's progress as time goes on, then sending an email out when the background process finishes.
For personal web projects I still use PHP. For small web projects I use PHP. For throw away web code I still like PHP. For large projects or those with several developers, these days I prefer Java.
Funny, I have purchased three laptops this year and they all of them worked just fine with recent XFree builds. Then again I'm a fairly serious computer user, I [GASP] googled the laptops for their linux compatability before I purchased them! If you don't know how to google, you can always just pop in a recent Knoppix CD if you can find the exact model at a local B&M store.
Come to think of it, of all the linux users I know, I don't know even one who has needed a commercial X server in years.
Try Netflix. I have watched the Band-of-Brother, Farscapes, Star Trek TNG, Cowboy Bepop, Neon Genesis, etc. If it is on DVD (and not X-Rated) Netflix probably has it. I'm not affiliated or anything, just someone in the nearly the same situation as you.
The only thing that sucks about this vs an on demand model is that I have to wait for the new seasons to be released on DVD. But I'm so far behind that isn't generally a problem.
It is surprisingly hard to find any census data on China (probably for obvious reasons). The data I could find is from over a decade ago. At that time (1986) over 60% of the population fell into the "peasant" category. Even if that number is only 50% now, that is still 600 million peasants who certainly aren't really in the market for wireless access points. Even a majority of those who are "non-peasants" probably aren't doing well enough to squander money on a WAP considering GDP per capita was only $467 in 1997.
I would guess less then 10% of the population of china could realistically be considered a "market" for electronic goods. That is a non-trivial 120 million people, but it certainly does not dwarf the combined western markets.
Well, even Metallica sold out, I don't guess I can blame the Google folks for wanting to cash in. I wonder how long it will take for Microsoft to cripple the search engine with annoying ads and "premium content" though.
Honestly, it sounds like the UT folks got robbed.
I mean think about it, 600 dual processor Dells that retail for $5k each. Even if they are all full retail price that is still only 600 * 5000 =~ $3.00 MILL. Add in another $300k for 50 top of the line gigabit ethernet switches at full retail. Even if the data center itself cost 5 Million (which would buy one hell of a data center) that still only adds up to about 10Mill.
Seriously, think about it... 38 Mill / 600 = 63k per machine!
Can anyone spell fraud?
Odd, I don't see the part of my post where I say I think music is overpriced or that I think I have the right not to pay them.
What I did say is that I personally think the model we have now (CD sales) is dying and I hinted that a new model will likely have to evolve.
All the music I have bought over the last year or so has been from small independant labels (from "working class bands"). I do download music on occasion, but only from MP3.com where it is freely available and distributed legitimately (guess where I found the small working class bands whos CDs I purchased?).
I don't think the existing model will survive, but that doesn't automatically make me a Napsterhead. I think drug laws are stupid too, but I don't personally choose to indulge in heroin.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd aruge that IE is a long ways from being a "drop in replacement" for Firefox. IE is in the stone ages functionality wise compared to Firefox. The only reason anyone is still using IE is because they have to (because site X only works with IE because the idiot web developer didn't test it with anything else)
I would have bought an EPIA years ago if VIA would open up the specs a bit more. Google around about people getting linux going on these. It is an easy thing to do, as long as you don't want to have everything on the board work (like the SVideo out, the onboard MPEG2 decoder, etc) . It can work from what I understand, just not something I wanted to spend a week trying.
So is the new line any better? If so I'd buy as I'm in the market for 2 or 3 machines like this. Question is, does VIA even care about the Linux user? Until now the answer has been no.
I ski two days a week. I volunteer one night to help handicap kids learn, and the other I take my whole family out for fun. One day a week I take my kids to gymnastics class, another to soccer practice. Then on Saturday we usually have a (soccer) game in addition to a birthday party of one of the kids in one of their classes. On Sundays I usually hang out with family of friends after church and brunch.
.) The guy who gave me the idea for the home-theater is in a similar situation to mine. We don't exactly lock ourselves away from society, far from it. Having a home theater means I invite my friends (and their kids) over for dinner and a movie on Fridays rather then paying a sitter $50, a restaurant $70 and a cinema $30. You don't have to do that too many times for the $5k you put into the theater to pay for itself, and our kids get to socialize with other kids to boot. Besides, I love to cook so the food is usually better, as is the wine.
On the flip side I work from home, and my home theater is in my basement. I've only seen two movies at the cinema in the last six months, but I've probably watched fifty movies in the time (thanks to Netflix
I'd say your stereotype of home theatre owners being anti-social is way off base. In fact of the five or six people I know that have a home theater, I wouldn't categorize any of them that way.
No dude, it means the Scientology folks are onto something. There really is an alien in your brain...
Thanks for the link. Fucking google and their flash movies,
Why would you treat bird flu (which by definition is a virus) with an anti-biotic?
You must hang out with some really fun people. My present is just (sometimes semi-)annoying characters spouting off one (often not so) snappy one-liner/throwaway gag after another. Why should the future be any different? I guess I liked the show because I could see the my friends in the characters (the rebel, the "tough" chick, the rich kid, the psycho babe, the big dumb ape, the earthy chick, the comedian, the hot intellectual chick, the do-gooder) in situations I've seen them in before (naked in front of everyone, way out of their league and about to get their asses kicked, unexpectedly put on a pedestal, etc) and you hated it because you couldn't (come to think of it, all it was missing was the "nice guy's" hot wife with the Russian accent :-)
Who really gives a shit? If you don't like the show, don't watch it. I saw the movie after hearing a good review, and I liked it. I bought the series on DVD, and I liked it too. Now it has grown on my wife who tried her best not to like it (she can't stand Sci-Fi or westerns, but she loves Firefly now).
Like the comedian sais... "If you don't get it, it's probably because you don't get it."
I used Eclipse originally and then migrated to IDEA because Eclipse kept crashing on me (to be fair, this was probably Debian Unstable's fault, not Eclipse). To be honest I really prefer the IntelliJ enviro. At the time it did a lot of things out of the box that Eclipse did not (like show me errors in my Javadoc comments, integrate extremely smoothly with Tomcat, gracefully handle JSPs, etc). Eclipse could probably be bent to do all these things with various plugins, but my IDE is one thing i really don't want to futz with all that much.
:-)
That was two years ago, and to be honest I haven't had much urge to check on how Eclipse is doing these days. I liked it when it wasn't crashing, and for the price you can't beat it... But when your company is picking up the tab and you just want it to work, you can't beat IntelliJ with a stick
Why stop there? Why does any entity need to hold on to my SSN? Why not just make it illegal to do so? I work with large databases every day (100k+ "souls") and it is insane to me that we keep the SSN for all these people. What a security nightmare/identity thief's dream. I've argued with my boss several times that we should dump the SSN and just keep a few hashes instead (md5/sh1/whatever). He doesn't like that idea for valid reasons (mainly compatibility with other systems that don't know shit about a hashed SSN).
I really wish congress would pass a law stating that no private entity without a federal charter can hold an SSN longer then 30-60 days. I could then share hashed SSNs with various other DBs because they would have to deal with those, or face the legal consequences.
Of course I think all commercial entities should be mandated to purge all customer data after two years as well. Why should Sears keep my SSN on file forever just because I had a credit card with them 10 years ago?
I did, and was about to post the same... $1.98 is still too much for Maxtor or any product they produce IMHO.
I can't believe I'm responding to an AC, but I just can't contain it...
AMEN! Preach it brother!
"You guys"? So all of "us" OSS geeks are all the same and we all think all you windows types are drooling morons who can't tell the difference between your CD-ROM drive and a cup holder?
Grow up. Ballmer is a tool (specifically Gate's tool) and Eric's response was more then a bit childish. However Ballmer != average windows user, ESR != average OSS user.
Isnt that what he asked for was a site that specifically reviews scanners ALA Toms? (Though sadly I think Tom's has sucked for some time now, for serious hardware reviews I go to anandtech these days)
I had the same experience when I first tried Gimp. But then again I had the same experience when I first tried PS. The fact is you have to learn how to do anything non-trivial in any non-trivial program. Next time take the approach of "I would like to learn how to do X with Y" instead of "I need Y to do X even though I already know how to do it easier/quicker with Z" and you might be pleasantly surprised.
No reason? You know Microsoft makes nearly all it's profit from OEM software deals that it doesn't even have to support right?
I can't believe I'm replying to an AC, but AMEN BROTHER!
I have yet to meet a single programmer who works with mono "for pay". I would wager that 99.999999% of programmers who are getting payed to write C# are getting payed to write C# under windows. Can you say the same about Java? The Java projects I see are fairly well distributed between straight VM plays on windows or linux, or bundled into a platform like Oracle or Websphere. There is a lot of platform diversity in the Java arena, nearly none in the C# world AFAICT.
Did you even read the linked articles? He isn't complaining about Apple. He is complaining about jerks like you bashing KHTML on Slashdot for not incorporating Apples sloppy hacks back into KHTML.
Other huge issues with PHP include:
Database Support: The drivers are built on top of native drivers... So they often behave differently on various platforms and are sometimes unavailable (See MS-SQL on linux, and don't tell my about FreeTDS, it has been broken for almost two years)
Backward Compatibility: PHP is famous for breaking large things on minor releases. For example somewhere in the 4.1.x series PHP decided that 0 != null anymore. This caused major headaches around here (as we are mostly a PHP shop). Sure it was in the release notes, but who expects such a major change in a minor release?
PHP is stateless, which is good and bad. It is good in that you don't have to think so hard about race conditions, etc. It is bad because you can't pool objects that are expensive to create (other then the built in database pooling). This makes some things very hard to do in PHP that are trivial in Java. For example, sparking a thread to run in the background and reporting on it's progress as time goes on, then sending an email out when the background process finishes.
For personal web projects I still use PHP. For small web projects I use PHP. For throw away web code I still like PHP. For large projects or those with several developers, these days I prefer Java.
Funny, I have purchased three laptops this year and they all of them worked just fine with recent XFree builds. Then again I'm a fairly serious computer user, I [GASP] googled the laptops for their linux compatability before I purchased them! If you don't know how to google, you can always just pop in a recent Knoppix CD if you can find the exact model at a local B&M store.
Come to think of it, of all the linux users I know, I don't know even one who has needed a commercial X server in years.
Like a gallery program?
Try Netflix. I have watched the Band-of-Brother, Farscapes, Star Trek TNG, Cowboy Bepop, Neon Genesis, etc. If it is on DVD (and not X-Rated) Netflix probably has it. I'm not affiliated or anything, just someone in the nearly the same situation as you.
The only thing that sucks about this vs an on demand model is that I have to wait for the new seasons to be released on DVD. But I'm so far behind that isn't generally a problem.
It is surprisingly hard to find any census data on China (probably for obvious reasons). The data I could find is from over a decade ago. At that time (1986) over 60% of the population fell into the "peasant" category. Even if that number is only 50% now, that is still 600 million peasants who certainly aren't really in the market for wireless access points. Even a majority of those who are "non-peasants" probably aren't doing well enough to squander money on a WAP considering GDP per capita was only $467 in 1997.
I would guess less then 10% of the population of china could realistically be considered a "market" for electronic goods. That is a non-trivial 120 million people, but it certainly does not dwarf the combined western markets.
Well, even Metallica sold out, I don't guess I can blame the Google folks for wanting to cash in. I wonder how long it will take for Microsoft to cripple the search engine with annoying ads and "premium content" though.
Seriously, think about it... 38 Mill / 600 = 63k per machine! Can anyone spell fraud?
Odd, I don't see the part of my post where I say I think music is overpriced or that I think I have the right not to pay them.
What I did say is that I personally think the model we have now (CD sales) is dying and I hinted that a new model will likely have to evolve.
All the music I have bought over the last year or so has been from small independant labels (from "working class bands"). I do download music on occasion, but only from MP3.com where it is freely available and distributed legitimately (guess where I found the small working class bands whos CDs I purchased?).
I don't think the existing model will survive, but that doesn't automatically make me a Napsterhead. I think drug laws are stupid too, but I don't personally choose to indulge in heroin.
Any more straw-men you need knocked down?