The joke is more in the CNN headline than the actual incident. It sounds like four people died trying to port Quake. No doubt the reporter isn't aware of video games or programming languages. But it's cute for a crowd like Slashdot.
Of course, except for those anti-humor folks. In which case, it's fine to bitch about it because well, you've gotta have something to bitch about.
Recently I've purchased a couple new CPUs. First, I had a K6-2/400. It is very nice for workstation-type things, but I was compiling more and more and wanted more power.
So I bought a K6-III/450. That was a noticable difference on compiling things. I'd say about 25% faster compiling kernels and such.
Then I went all out and bought Athlon/550. Wow. This thing now compiles at least twice as fast as the K6-2/400. With my simple kernel config, I went from about 7 minutes down to about 2.5 minutes. Now, if only the motherboard makers would finally come out with SMP boards, that would be perfect.
And all of this was done with a single Mandrake setup. Just pop in a new motherboard/CPU and boot back up again.
As for Mandrake, it will install kdelibs properly this time around. There was a problem with the kcmclock pack getting installed before kdelibs. But it's all better now.
If you were to nominate her, it would have to have been for last year's person of the year. The news came out Jan 24, 1998 or so. It was on the news just about every day, through his final admission of lieing on August 17, through the culmination in the Impeachment December 19. That pretty well covers nearly all of 1998.:)
This year there was only what, a month or two of the Senate trial, which we all knew wouldn't have the votes to complete his removal. Since then, there's been nothing. Well, except for Baba Wawa's little interview, which didn't have as many viewers as ABC was expecting.
He was in office, so were 534 other congressmen. Did he start any bill before say 1990 that did something involving the Internet? If he did something like that, he could get some slack for the remark. Otherwise, it's just pure stupidity.
What about that Love Canal he found and brought to Congress, declared a disaster a year before he even got into Congress.
What about him and the Tipster being the basis for Love Story? I mean, he couldn't sit down with the author beforehand and at least pay him off to be able to claim this?
Then there's the audio clip Rush Limbaugh plays every now and then, at some museum sort of place, Monticello perhaps. Anyway, Al says something like, "Now who is this?" The person giving him the tour says, "That is George Washington." That's just plain hilarious.
Then there's the time he said how his father "saw thousands of Tennesseans were forced to obey Jim Crowe Laws, he knew America could do better." Yet, his pop voted against the Civil Rights Act. Go figure.
In 1986, he says he'll forever fight against evil cigarette companies for causing his sister to die of lung cancer. In 1988, while campaigning for president, he tells how he farmed it, hoed it, dried it out, loves it, etc at a tobacco farm.
So Mr. Quayle reads potatoe off a card, he's a moron for life. Al's done plenty more to show us what his head's made of.:)
Sorry to burst your bubble, but tech support is the arena from which I escaped. Not even Linux support, but Windows and OS/2. And to top it off, in a corp that is really quite inept. So, I shall keep my award. And why does my original post only have a score of 4? Come on you moderators, I need a 5!!
Click on my user info, and see some of my brave posts on the recent Tivo article. If there is one thing the tech support job taught me, it's that people are morons by default. A (very) few actually put forth the effort to learn a bit, but most just don't. You have to tell these latter types where the power button is whenever they get a different computer. Meanwhile the other ones figure that since their last computer had a button on the front that powered on the thing, the new one just may have a similar button.
... myself. No, reallly. In the last year, I have really influenced my life, and in a good way. I have overcome the shackles of The Man(tm), lived on Kraft Cheese & Macaroni and peanut butter for a few months, to now be making more money than before and doing what something I really enjoy, Linux stuff.
So, I implore all of you to follow in my footsteps and vote for me too. After all, do the same stuff, follow your dreams, and maybe next year you too can be Slashdot's Man Of the Year.
Don't you go bringing your "facts" into this important "story." These kiddies are "intelligent" when you compare them to the average couch potato who is too scared to find the "power button" on a "computer". With this knowledge of power, they will take over the world. Just you wait and see...
Your confusing reporting with journalism and assuming the media is unbiased. The key with especially television is getting viewers. You best do that by tapping into the fears of the general public.
Given that everyone out there doesn't know how to set the VCR clock, they avoid learning anything about technology. This avoidance leads to unjustified fears. People assume snakes are slimey and do nothing but bite/constrict everything they encounter. So they have great fear of what they do not know.
People love feeding their fears. So, what better way than to have 30 minutes of world-ending hoopla? It's entertainment, more than information. They aren't looking to tell you "It's ok, you will be able to flush the toilet on Jan 1," but instead, "Look at what these kids can do to the Pentagon, imagine if they turned on the local sewage treatment plant! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!"
Sure it'd be nice if they asked whoever they report on who/what/where/when/why/how, but those days are gone. You take one person's statement, then go to the other side and ask, "How do you intend to stop this person from taking over the world?" They say something like, "Your person is a wacko, you can't take over the world with a a spork and packet of hot sauce from Taco Bell." And then go back to the news desk, where the anchor says, "There you have it, the President is doing nothing about this impending coup."
Come now, you aren't putting on your offical media paranoia cap.
These people do nothing less than completely shutting down the Dept of Defense, Pentagon, and every nuclear sub. I mean, what else is there besides web sites and email? And they don't stop at government agencies. Every bank in the world has been cracked and now every cracker knows you withdrew $20 on June 16th at 5:03pm at the ATM next to WalMart. With this sort of information, they will withdraw all your money from your account and spend it on more computers.
Why, with these sort of tools, they could crack into the stop lights at some major intersection, turning them all red, causing traffic jams 100 miles long as no one knows better than to just go.
You see, this January is going to be some serious business. And the only way out is to stockpile propane and cheese whiz in the bunker, never to emerge until March.
Let's see. How many people out there can plug a telephone jack into an outlet when that is the only socket like it? Even your worst idiot could do this with enough coaching. Now add in another socket that looks similar, but is a little bigger. Now you've got phone lines tied up with, "My telephone cord isn't staying in this thing. What's the matter with you people??" Or the person is able to figure out enough that the ethernet jack is for connecting to a computer. So they go to Best Buy and get a net card, hub, etc kit. Now you've got morons trying to figure out how to plug in a card, set up a network, assigning IP addresses, getting an ISP, setting up stuff for that ISP, and more to use their Tivo.
The secret to Tivo's success is keeping it simple. If they lose a couple Slashdotters, oh well. You see, by just adding a tiny thing like an ethernet connection, you've just compounded the number of problems people will call with by 100 fold.:)
This is like the yahoos that claim since Playstation (or whatever console) doesn't do everything a computer can do, it's worthless.
In the end, I don't know that a DIY solution would end up any cheaper than a Tivo/ReplayTV. It would certainly be larger and louder. However, it could easily be a superior product for the technically-inclined folks who want to take back control of their appliances.
Even when you have one unit, try to do it in under $500 in time and parts. Then try to base a business off it. Imagine how many, "Where is this teleynet thing in my Start Menu?" "This RJ45 cable doesn't fit in my WinModem, what do I do?" "How do I order a bowl of Frosted Flakes with this?" Tivo's goal is not the hacker/linux market but your average Joe Schmoe. So keeping it as simple as possible, but with enough TV-related features is important. And as anyone who's spent a little time in tech support, if the feature exists, people will ask bout, abuse it, etc.
After the recent news, ABC isn't one you want to say doesn't have influence.:) From the John Cochran dinner with old chum Algore, to the staged McCain/Bradley handshake. They're in the business of pushing what helps them get viewers. And, we all know the end of the world is near, so people will watch and see how kiddies will break into their computer come Jan 1. Hype + hippie liberals = News.
That's a simple, "No." The last thing they need is to tie up their support lines with idiots, "What do I do at this "tcsh#" prompt?" If the feature is there, no matter that they say there's no support for it, idiots will call nonetheless. This is a simple TV recording device, not an all in one hack box/video editor.
But if you want to hack (of course voiding the warranty), there are some pictures someone took at here.
I wouldn't expect connecting this to your computers anytime soon. They are going for the general TV appliance market. Your general idiots that can't open a doorknob or program a VCR. And the thing is pretty idiot proof, there is no power button for one. And I'm sure idiots can learn to go through the tv guide and just hit "Select" to record their shows.
If you want a complete video editing station, spend the $20k and get a professional one.;) Or spend $70 on a WinTV capture card and one of those video cards with TV out to do all your PC-based editing. But don't whine on here, "Unless Tivo does these 50,000 features, they ain't getting my $500!" It's whiny.
I've had my Tivo for three weeks now (approximately), and it is well worth the $500. Now I watch more programs that are to my liking, and not the crap out there. The Tivo Suggestions thing is wonderful. It gets a dumb program every now and then, but usually is on target. Just mark those with a thumbs down and go on. That's just one feature, there's a whole lot more too.
A much simpler approach, since stations will always find a way around these schemes, is just a 30sec skip button on the remote. That way you don't have to worry about the program accidently deleting 30 seconds from your show. They've got that 7 second rewind button which I never use, just replace it with this function.:)
I expect we'll see more of these in these last couple weeks of life. If Russia's nukes don't go off and burn over New York, Chicago, California, the end of the world is bound to come via 14yr olds shutting down everything.
A few things in the 20/20 piece struck me as odd. First, the head punk of this Global Hell didn't come across as anything more than your average script kiddie. He basically just cracks into places because he's bored. One thing he said in the very beginning was that he loves his computer more than "anything in the world." Not his mom (there was no dad in the interview, hmm), or anything of real importance, but an electronic box. This is the first stage in social disorders like this.
Then he got his computer taken away in a police raid, and what happens? His mother, seeking nothing but making the boy happy, goes out and buys another one the next day. No discipline or anything, but "Oh honey, here's a new computer. Will you love me now?" Now in my day, the parents would have thrown a fit over the police raiding our house and I wouldn't get out of the dungeon for weeks. Has anything changed in just ten years since I was a teen, or was it because my parents didn't need to try so hard for the kids to like them?
Then there was that goofball at the American Retirement Company or whatever saying he's hired this guy as a "consultant" to prevent him from sicking all the other kiddies on the company. Wasn't there some law back when the mob did these things which made it just as illegal to pay off these sort of extortionists?
One funny part in it was when they talked about the virus due to explode next year. They said it was spread by Microsoft's email program. Sounds to me the way to cure that is to not use MS Outlook.
Oh. And I have just lost $500,000 typing this post using the media's magical calculator.
There are four quality levels from the lowest at 14 hours to the highest at 4 hours plus change. Everyone else has said how the lowest quality is oh so horrible, but I just don't see that. I have my default set to that and have had no problems. I can watch whatever show/movie just fine, and I can get the most Tivo suggestions on my hd. Things I want to keep forever, put on VHS I will record at a higher level. But for these throw-away things, who cares?
I don't watch much streaming video, but my last couple experiences I had to use WMP. I must say they were horrible streams. Video updated about once every 30 seconds, sound would cut out constantly. Of course, the ISP that was hosting it could be to blame. I hate them and everything they stand for, but I must watch Roe and Garry.:)
It's simple really, fear of the Microsoft non-Monopoly. Next thing you know, Microsoft buys any other broadcasting sites, and voila. That, and users (for the most part) are utter morons, who can't install anything, nor know which link to click on Real Audio or Windows Media Player. So, these sites choose to go with the one way users will hassle them the least with, the player that comes with the "OS."
I didn't finally pick up the book until a few years ago. The funny thing is that the story starts out in early June of 1994 (or was it 96?), and I was reading it just a couple days off from that very date... Freaky, huh? Ok, maybe not THAT freaky, but still a little freakish...
No, no, no. You aren't thinking clearly. Microsoft just flushed $1m down the toilet. It's gone, *poof*. Microsoft will have to start from scratch and redesign the thing.
This is the same as Nasa blasting $160million at Mars, every industry losing trillions on piracy, ice makers losing quintillions during winter because people can freeze their own ice in their back yard, and the governments losing sextillions every day because they do not tax the Internet. All of these things are lost forever. And it all can be explained because of global warming.
Slashdot Mirror
The joke is more in the CNN headline than the actual incident. It sounds like four people died trying to port Quake. No doubt the reporter isn't aware of video games or programming languages. But it's cute for a crowd like Slashdot.
Of course, except for those anti-humor folks. In which case, it's fine to bitch about it because well, you've gotta have something to bitch about.
Recently I've purchased a couple new CPUs. First, I had a K6-2/400. It is very nice for workstation-type things, but I was compiling more and more and wanted more power.
So I bought a K6-III/450. That was a noticable difference on compiling things. I'd say about 25% faster compiling kernels and such.
Then I went all out and bought Athlon/550. Wow. This thing now compiles at least twice as fast as the K6-2/400. With my simple kernel config, I went from about 7 minutes down to about 2.5 minutes. Now, if only the motherboard makers would finally come out with SMP boards, that would be perfect.
And all of this was done with a single Mandrake setup. Just pop in a new motherboard/CPU and boot back up again.
As for Mandrake, it will install kdelibs properly this time around. There was a problem with the kcmclock pack getting installed before kdelibs. But it's all better now.
Looking at the ftp dir, there's glibc-2.1.2-9mdk.i586.rpm. So I would guess, yes.
If you were to nominate her, it would have to have been for last year's person of the year. The news came out Jan 24, 1998 or so. It was on the news just about every day, through his final admission of lieing on August 17, through the culmination in the Impeachment December 19. That pretty well covers nearly all of 1998. :)
This year there was only what, a month or two of the Senate trial, which we all knew wouldn't have the votes to complete his removal. Since then, there's been nothing. Well, except for Baba Wawa's little interview, which didn't have as many viewers as ABC was expecting.
He was in office, so were 534 other congressmen. Did he start any bill before say 1990 that did something involving the Internet? If he did something like that, he could get some slack for the remark. Otherwise, it's just pure stupidity.
:)
What about that Love Canal he found and brought to Congress, declared a disaster a year before he even got into Congress.
What about him and the Tipster being the basis for Love Story? I mean, he couldn't sit down with the author beforehand and at least pay him off to be able to claim this?
Then there's the audio clip Rush Limbaugh plays every now and then, at some museum sort of place, Monticello perhaps. Anyway, Al says something like, "Now who is this?" The person giving him the tour says, "That is George Washington." That's just plain hilarious.
Then there's the time he said how his father "saw thousands of Tennesseans were forced to obey Jim Crowe Laws, he knew America could do better." Yet, his pop voted against the Civil Rights Act. Go figure.
In 1986, he says he'll forever fight against evil cigarette companies for causing his sister to die of lung cancer. In 1988, while campaigning for president, he tells how he farmed it, hoed it, dried it out, loves it, etc at a tobacco farm.
So Mr. Quayle reads potatoe off a card, he's a moron for life. Al's done plenty more to show us what his head's made of.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but tech support is the arena from which I escaped. Not even Linux support, but Windows and OS/2. And to top it off, in a corp that is really quite inept. So, I shall keep my award. And why does my original post only have a score of 4? Come on you moderators, I need a 5!!
Click on my user info, and see some of my brave posts on the recent Tivo article. If there is one thing the tech support job taught me, it's that people are morons by default. A (very) few actually put forth the effort to learn a bit, but most just don't. You have to tell these latter types where the power button is whenever they get a different computer. Meanwhile the other ones figure that since their last computer had a button on the front that powered on the thing, the new one just may have a similar button.
... myself. No, reallly. In the last year, I have really influenced my life, and in a good way. I have overcome the shackles of The Man(tm), lived on Kraft Cheese & Macaroni and peanut butter for a few months, to now be making more money than before and doing what something I really enjoy, Linux stuff.
So, I implore all of you to follow in my footsteps and vote for me too. After all, do the same stuff, follow your dreams, and maybe next year you too can be Slashdot's Man Of the Year.
Thank you, and God bless.
Don't you go bringing your "facts" into this important "story." These kiddies are "intelligent" when you compare them to the average couch potato who is too scared to find the "power button" on a "computer". With this knowledge of power, they will take over the world. Just you wait and see...
Your confusing reporting with journalism and assuming the media is unbiased. The key with especially television is getting viewers. You best do that by tapping into the fears of the general public.
Given that everyone out there doesn't know how to set the VCR clock, they avoid learning anything about technology. This avoidance leads to unjustified fears. People assume snakes are slimey and do nothing but bite/constrict everything they encounter. So they have great fear of what they do not know.
People love feeding their fears. So, what better way than to have 30 minutes of world-ending hoopla? It's entertainment, more than information. They aren't looking to tell you "It's ok, you will be able to flush the toilet on Jan 1," but instead, "Look at what these kids can do to the Pentagon, imagine if they turned on the local sewage treatment plant! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!"
Sure it'd be nice if they asked whoever they report on who/what/where/when/why/how, but those days are gone. You take one person's statement, then go to the other side and ask, "How do you intend to stop this person from taking over the world?" They say something like, "Your person is a wacko, you can't take over the world with a a spork and packet of hot sauce from Taco Bell." And then go back to the news desk, where the anchor says, "There you have it, the President is doing nothing about this impending coup."
Come now, you aren't putting on your offical media paranoia cap.
These people do nothing less than completely shutting down the Dept of Defense, Pentagon, and every nuclear sub. I mean, what else is there besides web sites and email? And they don't stop at government agencies. Every bank in the world has been cracked and now every cracker knows you withdrew $20 on June 16th at 5:03pm at the ATM next to WalMart. With this sort of information, they will withdraw all your money from your account and spend it on more computers.
Why, with these sort of tools, they could crack into the stop lights at some major intersection, turning them all red, causing traffic jams 100 miles long as no one knows better than to just go.
You see, this January is going to be some serious business. And the only way out is to stockpile propane and cheese whiz in the bunker, never to emerge until March.
Let's see. How many people out there can plug a telephone jack into an outlet when that is the only socket like it? Even your worst idiot could do this with enough coaching. Now add in another socket that looks similar, but is a little bigger. Now you've got phone lines tied up with, "My telephone cord isn't staying in this thing. What's the matter with you people??" Or the person is able to figure out enough that the ethernet jack is for connecting to a computer. So they go to Best Buy and get a net card, hub, etc kit. Now you've got morons trying to figure out how to plug in a card, set up a network, assigning IP addresses, getting an ISP, setting up stuff for that ISP, and more to use their Tivo.
:)
The secret to Tivo's success is keeping it simple. If they lose a couple Slashdotters, oh well. You see, by just adding a tiny thing like an ethernet connection, you've just compounded the number of problems people will call with by 100 fold.
This is like the yahoos that claim since Playstation (or whatever console) doesn't do everything a computer can do, it's worthless.
In the end, I don't know that a DIY solution would end up any cheaper than a Tivo/ReplayTV. It would certainly be larger and louder. However, it could easily be a superior product for the technically-inclined folks who want to take back control of their appliances.
Even when you have one unit, try to do it in under $500 in time and parts. Then try to base a business off it. Imagine how many, "Where is this teleynet thing in my Start Menu?" "This RJ45 cable doesn't fit in my WinModem, what do I do?" "How do I order a bowl of Frosted Flakes with this?" Tivo's goal is not the hacker/linux market but your average Joe Schmoe. So keeping it as simple as possible, but with enough TV-related features is important. And as anyone who's spent a little time in tech support, if the feature exists, people will ask bout, abuse it, etc.
After the recent news, ABC isn't one you want to say doesn't have influence. :) From the John Cochran dinner with old chum Algore, to the staged McCain/Bradley handshake. They're in the business of pushing what helps them get viewers. And, we all know the end of the world is near, so people will watch and see how kiddies will break into their computer come Jan 1. Hype + hippie liberals = News.
That's a simple, "No." The last thing they need is to tie up their support lines with idiots, "What do I do at this "tcsh#" prompt?" If the feature is there, no matter that they say there's no support for it, idiots will call nonetheless. This is a simple TV recording device, not an all in one hack box/video editor.
But if you want to hack (of course voiding the warranty), there are some pictures someone took at here.
I wouldn't expect connecting this to your computers anytime soon. They are going for the general TV appliance market. Your general idiots that can't open a doorknob or program a VCR. And the thing is pretty idiot proof, there is no power button for one. And I'm sure idiots can learn to go through the tv guide and just hit "Select" to record their shows.
;) Or spend $70 on a WinTV capture card and one of those video cards with TV out to do all your PC-based editing. But don't whine on here, "Unless Tivo does these 50,000 features, they ain't getting my $500!" It's whiny.
If you want a complete video editing station, spend the $20k and get a professional one.
I've had my Tivo for three weeks now (approximately), and it is well worth the $500. Now I watch more programs that are to my liking, and not the crap out there. The Tivo Suggestions thing is wonderful. It gets a dumb program every now and then, but usually is on target. Just mark those with a thumbs down and go on. That's just one feature, there's a whole lot more too.
A much simpler approach, since stations will always find a way around these schemes, is just a 30sec skip button on the remote. That way you don't have to worry about the program accidently deleting 30 seconds from your show. They've got that 7 second rewind button which I never use, just replace it with this function. :)
I expect we'll see more of these in these last couple weeks of life. If Russia's nukes don't go off and burn over New York, Chicago, California, the end of the world is bound to come via 14yr olds shutting down everything.
A few things in the 20/20 piece struck me as odd. First, the head punk of this Global Hell didn't come across as anything more than your average script kiddie. He basically just cracks into places because he's bored. One thing he said in the very beginning was that he loves his computer more than "anything in the world." Not his mom (there was no dad in the interview, hmm), or anything of real importance, but an electronic box. This is the first stage in social disorders like this.
Then he got his computer taken away in a police raid, and what happens? His mother, seeking nothing but making the boy happy, goes out and buys another one the next day. No discipline or anything, but "Oh honey, here's a new computer. Will you love me now?" Now in my day, the parents would have thrown a fit over the police raiding our house and I wouldn't get out of the dungeon for weeks. Has anything changed in just ten years since I was a teen, or was it because my parents didn't need to try so hard for the kids to like them?
Then there was that goofball at the American Retirement Company or whatever saying he's hired this guy as a "consultant" to prevent him from sicking all the other kiddies on the company. Wasn't there some law back when the mob did these things which made it just as illegal to pay off these sort of extortionists?
One funny part in it was when they talked about the virus due to explode next year. They said it was spread by Microsoft's email program. Sounds to me the way to cure that is to not use MS Outlook.
Oh. And I have just lost $500,000 typing this post using the media's magical calculator.
There are four quality levels from the lowest at 14 hours to the highest at 4 hours plus change. Everyone else has said how the lowest quality is oh so horrible, but I just don't see that. I have my default set to that and have had no problems. I can watch whatever show/movie just fine, and I can get the most Tivo suggestions on my hd. Things I want to keep forever, put on VHS I will record at a higher level. But for these throw-away things, who cares?
I agree, I guess...
:)
I don't watch much streaming video, but my last couple experiences I had to use WMP. I must say they were horrible streams. Video updated about once every 30 seconds, sound would cut out constantly. Of course, the ISP that was hosting it could be to blame. I hate them and everything they stand for, but I must watch Roe and Garry.
It's simple really, fear of the Microsoft non-Monopoly. Next thing you know, Microsoft buys any other broadcasting sites, and voila. That, and users (for the most part) are utter morons, who can't install anything, nor know which link to click on Real Audio or Windows Media Player. So, these sites choose to go with the one way users will hassle them the least with, the player that comes with the "OS."
I didn't finally pick up the book until a few years ago. The funny thing is that the story starts out in early June of 1994 (or was it 96?), and I was reading it just a couple days off from that very date... Freaky, huh? Ok, maybe not THAT freaky, but still a little freakish...
No, no, no. You aren't thinking clearly. Microsoft just flushed $1m down the toilet. It's gone, *poof*. Microsoft will have to start from scratch and redesign the thing.
This is the same as Nasa blasting $160million at Mars, every industry losing trillions on piracy, ice makers losing quintillions during winter because people can freeze their own ice in their back yard, and the governments losing sextillions every day because they do not tax the Internet. All of these things are lost forever. And it all can be explained because of global warming.
I'm sure Clinton could work something out something for you for the right donation. Algore isn't doing too well right now...
But hurry, there's only another 13 months that he can make such deals. What's a couple hundred grand for a million+ dollar item.