The obvious problem is that people are offended by ads and, given simple enough ability, will remove or block them. Either
Make the ad software difficult to remove
Make the ads so inoffensive that users don't bother disabling them
Option #1 would drive most users to choose other software -- since we're talking open source, there would usually be several options, including a freely modded version of the same package.
Option #2 is easier said than done. Obviously popups are out of the picture, as well as persistent ads that take up substantial screen space.
Personally I hate advertisements, but I'm a 40-ish crank and consider them a form of noise pollution. Younger generations seem to accept ads as part of our culture.
Overall it's nice that people are thinking about physics (or at all); maybe the site's educational. I agree tho that many of the nitpicks are presumptuous -- I don't think we understand sufficiently the technology of (for instance) the Phantom Menace underwater force fields to predict how well they function in different circumstances.
Then again, I wasn't paying much attention. I rarely think at movies, especially blockbusters. I usually like them better if I can treat them like dreams.
Beyond the intro "errors made so frequently it'd be inefficient to keep pointing them out" page, I wasn't impressed. Here are some other nit-pick sites, not physics-specific, but a bit more thorough, and allowing for refutations:
I've also seen a college computer lab where almost half the machines were useless due to viruses. I love the idea of opening up a game room, but be sure you have good AV in place before you consider doing this.
Unapproved software shouldn't be allowed, and I'd add anti-trojans like Ad-Aware (which I use and am pleased with) plus Moosoft Cleaner (with TCActive configured to disruptively high priority -- I'm still figuring out if I can work this tho) just to be sure.
It goes without saying that tube-favoring audiophiles will use external devices for playing music. However, the tube amp is still be desireable for system beep tones.
I would love it if they standardized a smart connection to Novell Netware. Caldera made some tools for this a while back (still included), and other sources have made GUI's and whatnot, but the process requires:
a kernel recompile
a buncha utilites (at least two different packages)
a specialized login script somewhere
changes to the GUI login
This shouldn't be hard, but (long story short) it's never worked for me.
I could really use a more automated, standardized setup for this that would be suited for an office-wide implementation. Especially desired would be a way to send Linux-useable login scripts from Novell NDS Administrator.
I wish Novell would lift a helpful finger too. It may be pragmatic to support hardly anything outside Windows, but I would imagine their experiences with Microsoft would drive them to support other desktop options.
This feature would earn UnitedLinux my heart. Currently I'm Red Hat at the office, Mandrake & SlackWare (tho I'm not smart enough for SlackWare) at home.
A lot of online vendors have web-based "configurators" (for example, here are Dell's and Penguin Computing's) that let you select the features you desire. However I don't know any that tell you exactly what brand your getting for each part, which is what I would want in this case. Also, the major vendors often have custom components that aren't what you'd expect -- a 3Com NIC in a Dell computer probably isn't identical to the one with the same model number you'd buy at a computer store.
Also (and more to your point) few if any companies will build with just "any" component the customer specifies because of the time it would take to micro-test each configuration for hardware/software/driver conflicts. There's no way to anticipate every possible problem (not all of which are known, or if known then well-documented) for every component combination. People who home-build often spend weeks querying forums and scrutinizing manufacturer FAQ's -- ask anyone who's tried to enable all the cool features on their Abit KT7-A RAID motherboard. It's just more than a real business would have time for. Better to stick with known parts and supply a CD with drivers known to work.
For the same reason, I wouldn't recommend having your machine built by a friendly enthusiast, unless you're confident they'll be available for substantial support on the chance trouble arises. Any twit can plug the parts together, but that's where the hard part typically begins.
Linux: The Textbook
on
Linux Textbooks?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Here's a bit more info on Novell DOS, including features that made is superior, and a list of magazines that endorsed it over MS-DOS. Also worth mentioning, Novell DOS was about $50 cheaper than MS-DOS.
I remember reading reviews in several computer mags (like PC Magazine or Network World, but I can't remember exactly which) on the 3 consumer-available DOS versions (the third was IBM PC-DOS by the way, and I believe DR-DOS was called Novell DOS at the time).
IBM PC-DOS was shrugged off as having nothing special to offer
Novell DOS was considered clearly superior, having some features MS-DOS lacked, but was dismissed as for bleeding edge users & hotdogs only
MS-DOS was recommended because it would be the standard for which all software was optimized
None of these mentioned the Windows 3.1 error, tho Windows was certainly used as a test application.
The cheat was an error message, by the way. When the beta version of Windows 3.1 (named Bambi) discovered DR-DOS it complained...
Rodham Clinton is a compound last name -- this would normally be hypenated, but either Hillary chooses not to, or everyone else is forgetting. Ms. Clinton stopped using "Rodham" when the american media started commenting on her lack of submission to her husband.
When, after the election, she started asserting influence, conservative wags referred to it as "creeping Rodhamism".
I think it's still too early to hook Windows users. A bad experience now could sour that market for a later conversion.
Linux (any distro, any GUI) still isn't ready for the masses. The joke/troll/insight someone had that OS X is the first Unix ready for Windows users kinda conveys how far Linux still has to go for the average user.
I'm not pressuring my friends (much) to use Linux, even tho I'd really like to. I'd even be afraid to convert my office to Linux desktops, even tho I'm in a position to do so. If, after scaling the learning curve, the user loses an ability they used to have -- a favorite IM service, a proprietary media or browser plug-in, whatever -- I've created a new Windows loyalist.
Tried this (on a non-critical box), but up2date isn't working for non-subscribing cheapskates like myself
Error message: Free service limited due to high load, please try again later.
Error Class Code: 51
Error Class Info: Due to extremely high traffic, access to Red Hat Network is currently limited to subscription customers. Please try again later. If you would like to become a subscription customer, go to https://rhn.redhat.com/preview/priority_service.px t for more information.
I'll try again later. I'm DL-ing ISO images for when this fails utterly.
3ware have been really nice about releasing Red Hat & SuSE Linux drivers (with source I think -- there's a src/ directory with a.tgz I haven't looked at) side by side Windows drivers. (Oddly, they don't bother with Mac drivers.)
Citrix works nice if you got the $$. I've seen it in use but have never set it set up or administrated.
VNC works great with Windows & Linux clients, and Linux servers (Windows servers are limited to a single desktop at this time I believe). You need to install a VNC client, but I consider it the best alternative.
Another product called Tridia VNC (here's a review from UnixReview.com ) works in any browser supporting Java 2. I find it inadequate for most users because the screen refreshes are poor, but I use it for my stuff and I'm good whereever I go.
Supports common audio formats like MP3 and WMA, and can be upgraded to emerging digital standards so your home audio system is always up-to-date.
heckety heck
First I wanna ask if you can get to a command line, can you modify it to encode Vorbis -- but then really why is this thing not cheaper than a computer you could build or purchase to do the same work? Not worth having or hacking.
This isn't for us. It's for stereo gadget-philes that aren't too computer-savvy.
I shoulda looked this up before posting. A PET scan uses positrons, which are a by-product of radioactive decay. I didn't know positrons were so easy to come by.
Now I'm wondering if there's anti-matter in between my sofa cushions.
Is antimatter really being used for medical imaging? Considering the trouble it is to make, it seems like antimatter wouldn't be cost effective for this kind of use, and would be overkill for the cancer treatment proposed in this article. I could use a reference link here if anyone knows of one.
I can see the advantage in propulsion since so much of the weight of our current rockets is fuel, and most of that fuel is spent lifting other fuel.
However, if we have to create our own antimatter from scratch, the amount of fuel needed to travel to the nearest star (a common goal for which anti-matter is often considered a solution) would probably overtax our planet's energy resources. (This is presuming we don't just find a huge supply of antimatter hiding behind Saturn or something -- which isn't likely from what we think we know about the universe.)
So antimatter, like wormholes, would probably become just a plaything for the rich. I predict it will be used for the ultimate in opulent jewelry.
The moderator of a Yahoo club to which I belong sent (as a standard new member greeting) some poetry as an MS-Word attachment. He was quite surprised when I replied with the name of the company he was working at when he typed it (File | Properties | Summary), and explained how to save as text.
He quickly changed the greeting to a.TXT
Later, on my advice, he made it an.RTF so he could font & format. This created sufficient confusion among other recipients that he had to change it back.
This would be a money-spinner for registrars since many interests -- probably all the people worth a *.sucks domain, corporate especially -- will buy up their own.sucks as part of their PR control.
I see no other benefit.
How hard can it be to get onto MSN?
on
Netscape 6.2
·
· Score: 1
The abovementioned K-Meleon lets you specify UserAgent strings from the Preferences menu. At the level on which Microsoft is working, that should baffle them.
Friday 26 Oct 2001 10:30 AM EST (GMT -05:00), still can't see it.
They're not in any hurry it seems. The CNET article that opened with "Microsoft did an about-face Thursday by opening the redesigned MSN.com Web site to some third-party browsers" was rather presumptuous.
Bugzilla's page on this (more here) shows Microsoft are being quite uncooperative. While initially it was thought to be an issue of strict compliance, this has been ruled out.
Evidence that this is malicious blocking of particular browsers:
With a little bit of fiddling, it seems fine if I use the NS6.1 UA string
Now I'm wondering when my Hotmail account will stop working.
Slashdot Mirror
Option #1 would drive most users to choose other software -- since we're talking open source, there would usually be several options, including a freely modded version of the same package.
Option #2 is easier said than done. Obviously popups are out of the picture, as well as persistent ads that take up substantial screen space.
Personally I hate advertisements, but I'm a 40-ish crank and consider them a form of noise pollution. Younger generations seem to accept ads as part of our culture.
URL 2: microsoft.com
click [Check URLs]
URL ___________ current category __ Suggest a Change
............... Remove from list ........ Criminal skills
sourceforge.net MP3
microsoft.com . NOT LISTED
click [Send Request]
Kills two birds with one stone.
Then again, I wasn't paying much attention. I rarely think at movies, especially blockbusters. I usually like them better if I can treat them like dreams.
Beyond the intro "errors made so frequently it'd be inefficient to keep pointing them out" page, I wasn't impressed. Here are some other nit-pick sites, not physics-specific, but a bit more thorough, and allowing for refutations:
Unapproved software shouldn't be allowed, and I'd add anti-trojans like Ad-Aware (which I use and am pleased with) plus Moosoft Cleaner (with TCActive configured to disruptively high priority -- I'm still figuring out if I can work this tho) just to be sure.
My 2 cents.
It goes without saying that tube-favoring audiophiles will use external devices for playing music. However, the tube amp is still be desireable for system beep tones.
- a kernel recompile
- a buncha utilites (at least two different packages)
- a specialized login script somewhere
- changes to the GUI login
This shouldn't be hard, but (long story short) it's never worked for me.I could really use a more automated, standardized setup for this that would be suited for an office-wide implementation. Especially desired would be a way to send Linux-useable login scripts from Novell NDS Administrator. I wish Novell would lift a helpful finger too. It may be pragmatic to support hardly anything outside Windows, but I would imagine their experiences with Microsoft would drive them to support other desktop options.
This feature would earn UnitedLinux my heart. Currently I'm Red Hat at the office, Mandrake & SlackWare (tho I'm not smart enough for SlackWare) at home.
Also (and more to your point) few if any companies will build with just "any" component the customer specifies because of the time it would take to micro-test each configuration for hardware/software/driver conflicts. There's no way to anticipate every possible problem (not all of which are known, or if known then well-documented) for every component combination. People who home-build often spend weeks querying forums and scrutinizing manufacturer FAQ's -- ask anyone who's tried to enable all the cool features on their Abit KT7-A RAID motherboard. It's just more than a real business would have time for. Better to stick with known parts and supply a CD with drivers known to work.
For the same reason, I wouldn't recommend having your machine built by a friendly enthusiast, unless you're confident they'll be available for substantial support on the chance trouble arises. Any twit can plug the parts together, but that's where the hard part typically begins.
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Copyright: 2002
Format: Paper, 678 pp
ISBN: 0-201-72595-9
Status: Published 07/02/2001
Retail Price: $52.00 US
I know nothing about this publication, but the table of contents suggests it covers the areas you want.
When I listen to Aphex Twin long enough I hear the refrigerator.
You can Google Search the rest if curious.
- IBM PC-DOS was shrugged off as having nothing special to offer
- Novell DOS was considered clearly superior, having some features MS-DOS lacked, but was dismissed as for bleeding edge users & hotdogs only
- MS-DOS was recommended because it would be the standard for which all software was optimized
None of these mentioned the Windows 3.1 error, tho Windows was certainly used as a test application.The cheat was an error message, by the way. When the beta version of Windows 3.1 (named Bambi) discovered DR-DOS it complained ...
Here's a report of a Microsoft memo explaining the practice.
When, after the election, she started asserting influence, conservative wags referred to it as "creeping Rodhamism".
Linux (any distro, any GUI) still isn't ready for the masses. The joke/troll/insight someone had that OS X is the first Unix ready for Windows users kinda conveys how far Linux still has to go for the average user.
I'm not pressuring my friends (much) to use Linux, even tho I'd really like to. I'd even be afraid to convert my office to Linux desktops, even tho I'm in a position to do so. If, after scaling the learning curve, the user loses an ability they used to have -- a favorite IM service, a proprietary media or browser plug-in, whatever -- I've created a new Windows loyalist.
Error message: Free service limited due to high load, please try again later.x t for more information.
I'll try again later. I'm DL-ing ISO images for when this fails utterly.Error Class Code: 51
Error Class Info: Due to extremely high traffic, access to Red Hat Network is currently limited to subscription customers. Please try again later. If you would like to become a subscription customer, go to https://rhn.redhat.com/preview/priority_service.p
3ware have been really nice about releasing Red Hat & SuSE Linux drivers (with source I think -- there's a src/ directory with a .tgz I haven't looked at) side by side Windows drivers. (Oddly, they don't bother with Mac drivers.)
here it is. Ugh.
VNC works great with Windows & Linux clients, and Linux servers (Windows servers are limited to a single desktop at this time I believe). You need to install a VNC client, but I consider it the best alternative.
- details here
- screenshots cose we love 'em.
Another product called Tridia VNC (here's a review from UnixReview.com ) works in any browser supporting Java 2. I find it inadequate for most users because the screen refreshes are poor, but I use it for my stuff and I'm good whereever I go.heckety heck
First I wanna ask if you can get to a command line, can you modify it to encode Vorbis -- but then really why is this thing not cheaper than a computer you could build or purchase to do the same work? Not worth having or hacking.
This isn't for us. It's for stereo gadget-philes that aren't too computer-savvy.
Now I'm wondering if there's anti-matter in between my sofa cushions.
Is antimatter really being used for medical imaging? Considering the trouble it is to make, it seems like antimatter wouldn't be cost effective for this kind of use, and would be overkill for the cancer treatment proposed in this article. I could use a reference link here if anyone knows of one.
I can see the advantage in propulsion since so much of the weight of our current rockets is fuel, and most of that fuel is spent lifting other fuel.
However, if we have to create our own antimatter from scratch, the amount of fuel needed to travel to the nearest star (a common goal for which anti-matter is often considered a solution) would probably overtax our planet's energy resources. (This is presuming we don't just find a huge supply of antimatter hiding behind Saturn or something -- which isn't likely from what we think we know about the universe.)
So antimatter, like wormholes, would probably become just a plaything for the rich. I predict it will be used for the ultimate in opulent jewelry.
He quickly changed the greeting to a .TXT
Later, on my advice, he made it an .RTF so he could font & format. This created sufficient confusion among other recipients that he had to change it back.
I see no other benefit.
The abovementioned K-Meleon lets you specify UserAgent strings from the Preferences menu. At the level on which Microsoft is working, that should baffle them.
They're not in any hurry it seems. The CNET article that opened with "Microsoft did an about-face Thursday by opening the redesigned MSN.com Web site to some third-party browsers" was rather presumptuous.
Microsoft are binging on evil this month.
Evidence that this is malicious blocking of particular browsers:
Now I'm wondering when my Hotmail account will stop working.