Ryerson's academic misconduct policy, which is being updated, defines [academic misconduct] as "any deliberate activity to gain academic advantage, including actions that have a negative effect on the integrity of the learning environment."
Be careful not to let anyone catch you studying! Apparently that's cheating too, by the university's rules.
Yeah, I know it was nowhere near as difficult as I suggested. But it wasn't even in the same ballpark as a Windows or Mac install.
I've just been cranky about the myriad of these dumb little problems the two most popular distros have. It doesn't paint a very good picture of linux at all.
I'd like to add something with a bit less of a rant to it, since that's basically what my original post was.
What a distro is going to have to do to get the desktop user:
First, get every available driver they can get their hands on and test to make sure it all works out of box. This may mean living with the fact there is something inside that isn't "free", and then working out any licensing issues (even if it means shelling out some cash or doing some fancy legal work).
On top of that, it needs to crash "nicer". Any time I reboot and have a problem coming back up with a linux computer, if I don't mash on the I key and make sure it doesn't run whatever it is causing the problem, it usually just halts there without letting me proceed further. And when I do bypass it? Good luck getting a GUI. I've got to solve my problem manually. No common desktop user wants to deal with this. That means it will require an -easily accessible- "safe mode" of some sort. Load basic drivers and a GUI, and, if possible, point them in the right direction. Don't make them go look for their Fedora Boot CD to run rescue. And then see a command prompt.
Re:Yeah, this would work...
on
Linux Desktop Guide
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I did mention that that is exactly what I did, didn't I? I'll give more detail. I edited the one line in the X config file, that didn't work. I added a few different things from their installation tutorial. That didn't work. I tried simply changing it through X itself, that didn't work.
...if it weren't for all the problems installing and setting it up. Linux will NEVER be a popular desktop computer until there is a major distro that really has its mind set on that and can get its act together. Going all the way back to Windows 3.1, even my worst Windows installs always end up with more things functioning than with the best Linux installs.
I tried setting up Fedora Core 2 on one of my systems the other day and had so much trouble I ended up switching to Mandrake (and now I'm about to switch to Gentoo because Mandrake doesn't seem that nice either).
The first problem I had (and apparently several other people had) was during installation. I don't know what went wrong, but it absolutely refuses to accept my disc 3's. I downloaded disc 3 twice, did a checksum on it the second time to make sure it was absolutely perfect, then burned it (from two different burners) at low speeds and it still said "That is not a valid Fedora Core Disc 3" every time. Oh, well, I guess I'll just skip installing the things on that disc. Oops, no option for that, I have to reboot and cancel the entire installation.
Fast forward to not installing anything from disc 3 and getting Fedora up and running. Sort of. Immediately upon loading Gnome, it tells me I have some updates to download. 166 of them. Well, I better get started on that. *clicks through all the windows to download updates*... *update program does absolutely nothing for 15 minutes, then crashes*. Darn. Let's see what my other options are. *goes and downloads yum*... *after downloading most of the patches two or three times due to something getting stuck halfway through the download, one particular download (ghostwriter update) absolutely refuses to download no matter what happens*
Well, screw updates, I'll just go through and do some of them manually later. Let's get to the problem of my videocard not using the proper drivers. *heads to nvidia.com and downloads the drivers*... *init 3, install, change/etc/X11/XF86Config, init 5, high-pitched noises and monitor spiking and freaking out*... Hmm, that's not supposed to happen. Lemme check that out online. Oh, you say Fedora Core 2 doesn't work with Nvidia graphic cards by default, unless you change a few settings and recompile the kernel? That's nice. I have a better one. How about, I give you the finger, and you get the hell off my computer.
So here I am posting in Windows XP, despite my best efforts to leave. I actually value my time.
I like to do that all the time. With some programs you can't have multiple files open at one time. Or you can't space them out on your screen the way you want them (because they're contained in the same box). Or, because it's prone to crashing, like IE, and running a totally new instance of it will prevent your new windows from crashing if the program goes down.
I can't believe an OS -wouldn't- at least give you an option to do that somewhere just because some users are too stupid to realize how their computer works.
Identify yourself as MSIE 5 and you're fine. I've never had a problem. In fact, I didn't even know what the hell you were talking about until I identified myself as using netscape.
Living near Dayton, OH, we're always hearing about stuff like this. I just helped rebuild this site about the Wright Brothers Flyer and go to Wright State University. Also, I hear Stickman uses one on occasion.
Because everyone knows you can only spend ALL your time doing one thing, and never the other. Why, it would be just plain silly to have a good real life relationship with someone AND want to game with the SAME PERSON!;)
These dictionary-attack spam hit twice as hard if your email address is a very common word like "just" or "go" such as mine. In fact, most of the spam I get they don't even try to hide what they're doing. In the "to:" field, there are usually about a dozen other people with the same username as me on all different servers.
And talking about not hiding anything, the rest of my spam is quite blatantly from a form mail script ("The form you submitted returned the following results: Lose 200 pounds by eating everything you want!!!!11"), which is pretty sloppy for the spammer, the server with the script, and me for not bothering to deal with it;)
All in all though, I'm sure most of the spam I get is "my own fault" in that it was completely clean until I started actually using the email address for things.
A long time ago I heard that the scooter wasn't the important thing, but instead it was the special engine (or something) used to power it. But this thing just uses batteries.
Had anyone else heard anything about that? Or was that just a big rumor at the time before people actually found out that yes, IT was pretty much a scooter?
Slashdot Mirror
The same holographic storage mentioned in the article was featured on Slashdot two years ago.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/28/2226239
Be careful not to let anyone catch you studying! Apparently that's cheating too, by the university's rules.
That is, something you are bound to come across at least a few times every day on the internet.
Yeah, I know it was nowhere near as difficult as I suggested. But it wasn't even in the same ballpark as a Windows or Mac install.
I've just been cranky about the myriad of these dumb little problems the two most popular distros have. It doesn't paint a very good picture of linux at all.
I'd like to add something with a bit less of a rant to it, since that's basically what my original post was.
What a distro is going to have to do to get the desktop user:
First, get every available driver they can get their hands on and test to make sure it all works out of box. This may mean living with the fact there is something inside that isn't "free", and then working out any licensing issues (even if it means shelling out some cash or doing some fancy legal work).
On top of that, it needs to crash "nicer". Any time I reboot and have a problem coming back up with a linux computer, if I don't mash on the I key and make sure it doesn't run whatever it is causing the problem, it usually just halts there without letting me proceed further. And when I do bypass it? Good luck getting a GUI. I've got to solve my problem manually. No common desktop user wants to deal with this. That means it will require an -easily accessible- "safe mode" of some sort. Load basic drivers and a GUI, and, if possible, point them in the right direction. Don't make them go look for their Fedora Boot CD to run rescue. And then see a command prompt.
I did mention that that is exactly what I did, didn't I? I'll give more detail. I edited the one line in the X config file, that didn't work. I added a few different things from their installation tutorial. That didn't work. I tried simply changing it through X itself, that didn't work.
I'm sorry I insulted Linux, sir, I take it back.
...if it weren't for all the problems installing and setting it up. Linux will NEVER be a popular desktop computer until there is a major distro that really has its mind set on that and can get its act together. Going all the way back to Windows 3.1, even my worst Windows installs always end up with more things functioning than with the best Linux installs.
... *update program does absolutely nothing for 15 minutes, then crashes*. Darn. Let's see what my other options are. *goes and downloads yum* ... *after downloading most of the patches two or three times due to something getting stuck halfway through the download, one particular download (ghostwriter update) absolutely refuses to download no matter what happens*
... *init 3, install, change /etc/X11/XF86Config, init 5, high-pitched noises and monitor spiking and freaking out* ... Hmm, that's not supposed to happen. Lemme check that out online. Oh, you say Fedora Core 2 doesn't work with Nvidia graphic cards by default, unless you change a few settings and recompile the kernel? That's nice. I have a better one. How about, I give you the finger, and you get the hell off my computer.
I tried setting up Fedora Core 2 on one of my systems the other day and had so much trouble I ended up switching to Mandrake (and now I'm about to switch to Gentoo because Mandrake doesn't seem that nice either).
The first problem I had (and apparently several other people had) was during installation. I don't know what went wrong, but it absolutely refuses to accept my disc 3's. I downloaded disc 3 twice, did a checksum on it the second time to make sure it was absolutely perfect, then burned it (from two different burners) at low speeds and it still said "That is not a valid Fedora Core Disc 3" every time. Oh, well, I guess I'll just skip installing the things on that disc. Oops, no option for that, I have to reboot and cancel the entire installation.
Fast forward to not installing anything from disc 3 and getting Fedora up and running. Sort of. Immediately upon loading Gnome, it tells me I have some updates to download. 166 of them. Well, I better get started on that. *clicks through all the windows to download updates*
Well, screw updates, I'll just go through and do some of them manually later. Let's get to the problem of my videocard not using the proper drivers. *heads to nvidia.com and downloads the drivers*
So here I am posting in Windows XP, despite my best efforts to leave. I actually value my time.
I like to do that all the time. With some programs you can't have multiple files open at one time. Or you can't space them out on your screen the way you want them (because they're contained in the same box). Or, because it's prone to crashing, like IE, and running a totally new instance of it will prevent your new windows from crashing if the program goes down.
I can't believe an OS -wouldn't- at least give you an option to do that somewhere just because some users are too stupid to realize how their computer works.
Identify yourself as MSIE 5 and you're fine. I've never had a problem. In fact, I didn't even know what the hell you were talking about until I identified myself as using netscape.
http://dreamsource.de/pics/chickpics/images/1.jpg? 500.jpg?dreamsource.de
I use outlook express and I've never had a problems.
Maybe it's because I don't open suspicious email or run random programs that are emailed to me.
-----Moosechees
Living near Dayton, OH, we're always hearing about stuff like this. I just helped rebuild this site about the Wright Brothers Flyer and go to Wright State University. Also, I hear Stickman uses one on occasion.
I'm surprised there haven't been more trolls about the word choice of the title...
Because everyone knows you can only spend ALL your time doing one thing, and never the other. Why, it would be just plain silly to have a good real life relationship with someone AND want to game with the SAME PERSON! ;)
I'm pretty sure it's legal for anyone to record/spy on cell phone conversations, due to how they're broadcast.
These dictionary-attack spam hit twice as hard if your email address is a very common word like "just" or "go" such as mine. In fact, most of the spam I get they don't even try to hide what they're doing. In the "to:" field, there are usually about a dozen other people with the same username as me on all different servers.
;)
And talking about not hiding anything, the rest of my spam is quite blatantly from a form mail script ("The form you submitted returned the following results: Lose 200 pounds by eating everything you want!!!!11"), which is pretty sloppy for the spammer, the server with the script, and me for not bothering to deal with it
All in all though, I'm sure most of the spam I get is "my own fault" in that it was completely clean until I started actually using the email address for things.
A long time ago I heard that the scooter wasn't the important thing, but instead it was the special engine (or something) used to power it. But this thing just uses batteries.
Had anyone else heard anything about that? Or was that just a big rumor at the time before people actually found out that yes, IT was pretty much a scooter?
Duh, that wouldn't work. It doesn't cure disease, it just protects from natural death. Read the facts next time, man!