I also bought the Win version a few weeks ago.
I just sold it to a friend and ordered the Tribes 2 + Alpha Centauri double pack from Tuxgames. The idea of being able to play T2 and AC (both brilliant games) without resotring to the "boot-to-windows-game-partition" dance is wonderful. Go Loki!
I would also urge people to support Loki (and Tuxgames and...) right now. If there games don't dell, there may not be as many new games for Linux in the future. Linux is great for software development and server stuff, and being able to also play games on it removes the last need for a Windows partition.
Toshiba has a new model out with the GeForce2Go
chip, it's probably the best graphical (=gaming:)
laptop available right now. According to early
reviews I've read, it generates impressive framerates for a laptop. Don't remember the exact
model, it's one of the Satellite 2xxx-xxx models.
It also has a combo DVD-CDROM-CDRW drive, and the
pricetag is pretty reasonable (around $2700).
It sounds like an urban legend but it's not, it's well documented. There's a long history of student pranks here in Finland, and that (among other good ones) is quite true. They keep records of these things at the university, since there is actually an annual student prank contest at the University of Technology. This year some guys exchanged the labels on some cans of beans (or whatever) at supermarkets with authentic-looking labels thay advertised the cans as containing "Seal meat" (or "norpan lihaa" in Finnish, "norppa" is a variety of Finnish seal which on the protected animals list). The store managers were reportedly quite puzzled when irate shoppers saw the cans on the shelf...
Another good HUT prank involved park benches in
Helsinki. I don't remember what year this was, but
the story goes somewhat like this:
First off, students at HUT (and other Finnish universities) have distinctive coveralls which they (we:) wear when they want to distinguish themselves as students during various student-
oriented occasions. These coveralls have different colors, and Finns are quite used to associating people in colored coveralls with "a bunch of students doing some weird student stuff. This is not something that students wear as everyday wear, mind you, it's reserved for certain occasions.
Anyway, during this caper some students went out and (with great difficulty) purchased a park bench from the city/park authorities. They got a receipt, and then proceeded to carry this park bench across town. It didn't take long for some police to stop them, with the assumption that the guys had stolen the bench. The students showed the police the receipt, and complained that they were getting stopped by the police all the time and could the police do something about it? Finnish police being generally quite helpful, the policemen radioed out a notice that there were a couple of students (in coveralls) carrying a legal bench across town and that they should not be harassed.
Naturally, as soon as this was done a lot of students in identical coveralls proceeded to grab most of the park benches in central Helsinki and carry them to a pre-arranged location. Rumor has it that they managed to stack up hundreds of park benches into an "artistic" formation before anyone else got a clue that something strange was going on:)
Yeah, I've been using M18 (or nightly builds of it, actually) as my primary browser on Linux for a while now. It still doesn't have https support so I have to use Njetscape 4.7 to access ecommerce sites, but that's about the only thing I still use NS for.
Mozilla is good nowadays. Crashes are rare, and it supports CSS wonderfully. Someone asked "what good is standards compliance" in an earlier thread... that someone probably has never had to do web application development. Trying to make web services that work reliably on non-standard browsers (especially Netscape) is a major pain. It may be possible to actually use CSS positioning and other goodies in the near future, instead of always resorting to tables and other kludges for formatting.
Yes, Java is slower than C or C++. Does it matter? Yes, if you're doing graphical stuff or heavy GUIs. Not at all if you're doing server-side stuff, where Java's built-in multithreading and exceptions kick ass, so to say.
Java is brilliant for a lot of stuff, less brilliant for some others. Right tool for the job, you know?
There was also an old Heinlein short story on this theme, or actually about someone inventing a past-time viewing machine and then realizing that it could also be used to spy on anyone (since "1 second ago" is also in the past). Don't remember the name of the story offhand...
It's not a question of price... often is costs justs as much (or even more) to order DVDs from the States (I live in Finland).
It's a question of availability. There are tons of movies that are only available on R1, or of which the R1 version is a "special edition" with tons of goodies while the R2 version is pan+scan crap.
There are also some R2 titles that are superior to the R1 version. For example, the R1 version of Eyes Wide Shut is censored, unlike all the other versions. As another example, the R2 release of X-Files: the movie is anamorphic, while the R1 release is plain-vanilla widescreen.
Amen. This news both saddens and angers me. LG was the best game house out there, period, and made games that required you to think. System Shock 2 is one of my favorite games ever. Too bad that kind of thing doesn't sell enough to the "masses". Sigh...
It's just not the artificially high prices that piss me off, but the fact that artists get a *very* small percentage of those prices. I'm quite willing to give my money to artists that I like, but I'm not very keen on helping make middlemen rich.
Ummm, you're missing something. The point is that no Linux (or Unix) mail reader is so stupid as to run any sort of executable (binary, script, whatever) that the user receives as an attachment. This is not a case of Windows versus Linux, but a case of "stupid mail programs" versus "all other mail programs". So yes, Pine/Elm/Mutt/VM/etc users *can* laugh manically, since those programs don't have stupid security holes. Outlook does.
Not that far in the future...
on
Wearable PCs
·
· Score: 1
Actually, wearable networked computers and mobile devices are not that far in the future, at least here in Finland / Europe where the cellular phone network (GSM) is way ahead of the U.S. Digital GSM data traffic is routine, and combining that with Bluetooth and WAP gives you all the pieces you need. I'd say stuff like this will be on the market beginning of next year (in Europe, at least) - they already had demos of stuff like that at CeBIT last week.
Since the States still doesn't have two-way SMS, let alone anything more sophisticated, you guys over there might be in for a bit longer wait, sorry:(
I must say that I dont't quite understand the flaming here. No, Katz's book isn't strictly relevant to Linux - but then a lot of other things aren't either. Tunnel vision is a bad thing, I personally like the fact that/. doesn't single-mindedly focus on just the tech stuff. Especially since the new filter stuff allows you to never see the "non-tech" articles if they annoy you.
As for Katz: good for him! I think people read way too few books nowadays, and anything that promotes literacy is Good(tm). With the current emphasis on mass-market "bestsellers" and huge volumes, it's a very healthy sign that "small titles" can also find their niche. Besides, Jon's book actually is relevant to/. in a way, since the way he has handled the publication is a new way for writers to display their books. Sort of like MP3 is circumventing the big record labels, things like this might help non-bestseller authors survive. Or maybe not, but it is an interesting phenomenon.
Jon's book sounded interesting, so I ordered a copy through Amazon (haven't gotten it yet, it's coming in the same batch as Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky", yum:). It's weird... I love high-tech toys, but on the other hand there is nothing quite like taking a backback and some camping gear and dissappearing into the backcountry for a few days with no high-tech whatsoever. If you've never tried it you should... waking up at 6am and just listening to the wind and the silence is an experience that's easy to scoff at, but quite something else when you're there yourself. I find myself fascinated by the combination of high-tech and outdoor life, and how they could work together - I live in Finland, and just about everyone is "mobile" in the data connection sense, and it's truly weird to sit at a campsite in Lapland and read your email with a Nokia Communicator. We live in a weird world:)
Some rambling thoughts from this part of the world...
Slashdot Mirror
I also bought the Win version a few weeks ago. I just sold it to a friend and ordered the Tribes 2 + Alpha Centauri double pack from Tuxgames. The idea of being able to play T2 and AC (both brilliant games) without resotring to the "boot-to-windows-game-partition" dance is wonderful. Go Loki!
I would also urge people to support Loki (and Tuxgames and...) right now. If there games don't dell, there may not be as many new games for Linux in the future. Linux is great for software development and server stuff, and being able to also play games on it removes the last need for a Windows partition.
Toshiba has a new model out with the GeForce2Go :)
chip, it's probably the best graphical (=gaming
laptop available right now. According to early
reviews I've read, it generates impressive framerates for a laptop. Don't remember the exact
model, it's one of the Satellite 2xxx-xxx models.
It also has a combo DVD-CDROM-CDRW drive, and the
pricetag is pretty reasonable (around $2700).
It sounds like an urban legend but it's not, it's well documented. There's a long history of student pranks here in Finland, and that (among other good ones) is quite true. They keep records of these things at the university, since there is actually an annual student prank contest at the University of Technology. This year some guys exchanged the labels on some cans of beans (or whatever) at supermarkets with authentic-looking labels thay advertised the cans as containing "Seal meat" (or "norpan lihaa" in Finnish, "norppa" is a variety of Finnish seal which on the protected animals list). The store managers were reportedly quite puzzled when irate shoppers saw the cans on the shelf...
Another good HUT prank involved park benches in Helsinki. I don't remember what year this was, but the story goes somewhat like this:
First off, students at HUT (and other Finnish universities) have distinctive coveralls which they (we :) wear when they want to distinguish themselves as students during various student-
oriented occasions. These coveralls have different colors, and Finns are quite used to associating people in colored coveralls with "a bunch of students doing some weird student stuff. This is not something that students wear as everyday wear, mind you, it's reserved for certain occasions.
Anyway, during this caper some students went out and (with great difficulty) purchased a park bench from the city/park authorities. They got a receipt, and then proceeded to carry this park bench across town. It didn't take long for some police to stop them, with the assumption that the guys had stolen the bench. The students showed the police the receipt, and complained that they were getting stopped by the police all the time and could the police do something about it? Finnish police being generally quite helpful, the policemen radioed out a notice that there were a couple of students (in coveralls) carrying a legal bench across town and that they should not be harassed.
Naturally, as soon as this was done a lot of students in identical coveralls proceeded to grab most of the park benches in central Helsinki and carry them to a pre-arranged location. Rumor has it that they managed to stack up hundreds of park benches into an "artistic" formation before anyone else got a clue that something strange was going on :)
Ok, I hadn't realized that you can install https
support on M18 that simply, I was under the impression that they were still working on it. Silly me.
Thanks!
Yeah, I've been using M18 (or nightly builds of it, actually) as my primary browser on Linux for a while now. It still doesn't have https support so I have to use Njetscape 4.7 to access ecommerce sites, but that's about the only thing I still use NS for.
Mozilla is good nowadays. Crashes are rare, and it supports CSS wonderfully. Someone asked "what good is standards compliance" in an earlier thread... that someone probably has never had to do web application development. Trying to make web services that work reliably on non-standard browsers (especially Netscape) is a major pain. It may be possible to actually use CSS positioning and other goodies in the near future, instead of always resorting to tables and other kludges for formatting.
Ho hum.
Yes, Java is slower than C or C++. Does it matter? Yes, if you're doing graphical stuff or heavy GUIs. Not at all if you're doing server-side stuff, where Java's built-in multithreading and exceptions kick ass, so to say.
Java is brilliant for a lot of stuff, less brilliant for some others. Right tool for the job, you know?
There was also an old Heinlein short story on this theme, or actually about someone
inventing a past-time viewing machine and then realizing that it could also
be used to spy on anyone (since "1 second ago" is also in the past).
Don't remember the name of the story offhand...
It's not a question of price... often is costs
justs as much (or even more) to order DVDs from
the States (I live in Finland).
It's a question of availability. There are tons of
movies that are only available on R1, or of which
the R1 version is a "special edition" with tons
of goodies while the R2 version is pan+scan crap.
There are also some R2 titles that are superior to
the R1 version. For example, the R1 version of
Eyes Wide Shut is censored, unlike all the other
versions. As another example, the R2 release of
X-Files: the movie is anamorphic, while the R1
release is plain-vanilla widescreen.
Amen. This news both saddens and angers me. LG was the best game house out there, period, and made games that required you to think. System Shock 2 is one of my favorite games ever. Too bad that kind of thing doesn't sell enough to the "masses". Sigh...
It's just not the artificially high prices that piss me off, but the fact that artists get a *very* small percentage of those prices. I'm quite willing to give my money to artists that I like, but I'm not very keen on helping make middlemen rich.
Ummm, you're missing something. The point is that
no Linux (or Unix) mail reader is so stupid as
to run any sort of executable (binary, script, whatever) that the user receives as an attachment. This is not a case of Windows versus Linux, but a case of "stupid mail programs" versus "all other mail programs". So yes, Pine/Elm/Mutt/VM/etc users *can* laugh manically, since those programs don't have stupid security holes. Outlook does.
Actually, wearable networked computers and mobile
devices are not that far in the future, at least
here in Finland / Europe where the cellular phone
network (GSM) is way ahead of the U.S. Digital GSM
data traffic is routine, and combining that with
Bluetooth and WAP gives you all the pieces you
need. I'd say stuff like this will be on the market beginning of next year (in Europe, at least) - they already had demos of stuff like that at CeBIT last week.
Since the States still doesn't have two-way SMS, let alone anything more sophisticated, you guys over there might be in for a bit longer wait, sorry :(
I must say that I dont't quite understand the flaming here. No, Katz's book isn't strictly relevant to Linux - but then a lot of other things aren't either. Tunnel vision is a bad thing, I personally like the fact that /. doesn't single-mindedly focus on just the tech stuff. Especially since the new filter stuff allows you to never see the "non-tech" articles if they annoy you.
As for Katz: good for him! I think people read way too few books nowadays, and anything that promotes literacy is Good(tm). With the current emphasis on mass-market "bestsellers" and huge volumes, it's a very healthy sign that "small titles" can also find their niche. Besides, Jon's book actually is relevant to /. in a way, since the way he has handled the publication is a new way for writers to display their books. Sort of like MP3 is circumventing the big record labels, things like this might help non-bestseller authors survive. Or maybe not, but it is an interesting phenomenon.
Jon's book sounded interesting, so I ordered a copy through Amazon (haven't gotten it yet, it's coming in the same batch as Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky", yum :). It's weird... I love high-tech toys, but on the other hand there is nothing quite like taking a backback and some camping gear and dissappearing into the backcountry for a few days with no high-tech whatsoever. If you've never tried it you should... waking up at 6am and just listening to the wind and the silence is an experience that's easy to scoff at, but quite something else when you're there yourself. I find myself fascinated by the combination of high-tech and outdoor life, and how they could work together - I live in Finland, and just about everyone is "mobile" in the data connection sense, and it's truly weird to sit at a campsite in Lapland and read your email with a Nokia Communicator. We live in a weird world:)
Some rambling thoughts from this part of the world...