People always think that MS is ahead for this reason or that reason. But in truth, there are exactly 2 reasons why MS is still #1.
Reason 1: People don't like change. Most of the population is incredibly illogically stubborn. They aren't willing to expend a small amount of effort to drastically increase their happiness afterwards because they don't want the temporary discomfort. They would rather stick with whatever crap they already have. You can always tell who they are by trying to get them to switch from IE to Firebird. Those who are willing to try and expend a little effort never go back. The rest of them see the benefits right in front of them, but they just wont change. I say, it's their loss.
Reason 2: Marketing. People just don't know about linux. Or they've heard the name and don't know what it means. If we had a super bowl commercial, let's say, that informed people of the following: $200 of the cost of that computer you just bought was for MS Windows. Linux can do all the thigns you want. Linux doesn't crash. Linux is free. Software for linux is free. Never pay money for software again. Linux is secure. Don't worry as much about virii, etc. etc. You would see all those people who aren't afraid of change switch in an instant. Despite the increasing popularity of Linux and OSS, people still just don't know.
If you think that there is some other reason people are still using windows you are gravely mistaken.
Ok. I'm a winamp2 nut. I refused winamp3. So naturally my first reaction when I heard about 5 was, screw that! winamp2 forevar!
But I couldn't resist trying it. So I downloaded the free winamp5. I must say that this is an appropriate analogy.
windows2000:windowsXP::winamp2:winamp5
winamp 5 can be turned into winamp2 with a few mouse clicks windows xp can be turned into windows2000 in a few mouse clicks
winamp 5 can run every plugin, skin and visualization from winamp 2 windows xp can do everything windows 2000 can do
winamp 5 has more options and more features than winamp 2 windows xp has some stuff in it that win2k don't got
The audio quality is identical. On my fast pc the speed is identical. I don't need cd burning or ripping because I have CDex and Nero, so I don't need to pay for the pro version, which only costs 15$.
My faith in nullsoft has been restored. I'll try winamp 5 a week and see if I find a reason not to use it.
Oh, the minibrowser is gone (yay!) but it is present in the media library (boo!), but you can click one button and it will go away (yay!). So it's all good.
I used KDE for many many years. It was my desktop of choice. It was the only environment which had all the features I wanted. I didn't even use konqueror or anything. I liked the KDE panel most of all, but I also really really like kwrite, kmail and the konsole. I still really like kmail and kwrite.
Recently I got a new pc. I replace my Pentium 3 450 with my Athlon-XP 2500+. Now I knew that KDE was bloated, but I wanted the features and the programs that came in it. I did an XP/Gentoo dual boot on my new boxen and emerged kde. It worked, much faster than previous. But the response on a lot of things was still slow. Keep in mind this was whatever kde version was out a month or two ago.
Every time I remember KDE getting updated they made major changes that were always for the better. The dramatic difference between KDE1 and 2 was outstanding. In the days of 2 I couldn't imagine better, but KDE3 lived up to everything it promised and 2 couldn't even compare. I'm sure KDE 3.2 will do just the same.
Eventually though, the bloat got to me. I was running an optimized gentoo install and my desktop environment was slowing me down. And it was only because I wanted to use the mail client, panel and text editor that came with it. That's when I discovered XFCE-4. It didn't have all the features I needed, but XFCE4 works perfectly with all kinds of software. If I want screensavers I just emerge xscreensavers. If I want keybindings I emerge xbindkeys. If I want cpu monitoring I can get xfce-extras or gkrellm and bubblefishymon.
What really sealed the deal was the fact that I replaced Kmail with thunderbird, konsole with xterm, and kwrite... I still haven't replaced that. But I sure as heck wasn't going to keep using the big slow desktop just for the text editor. If you absolutely need to get all the stuff KDE has to offer, stick with it. If you actually use all of that stuff then it is so worth it and nobody does it better. If you want to trim down and increase the performance, try out XFCE4. I see it becoming a serious competitor with Gnome and KDE in the near future.
Most public libraries I know have windows machines which can be used by anyone to hop on the net. Schedule meetings with librarians and convince them to put linux on these boxes instead. They don't get a lot of money in these places, so if you volunteer to set it up for them for free they'll probably accept. The cash they save by not paying for windows licenses is more than enough. Sure, patrons might not know what to do at first, but the library is a place of learning. They'll soon learn to click on the red dinosaur instead of on the blue e.
Suprisingly, they can do a lot with Apple//cs. There are many physics peripherals and applications for the apple. Vernier software used to make a lot of stuff for the thing, now they've moved on, but the old stuff still works. And your school probably still has those old 5.25" disks that work just fine. I say sure, an apple//c is old and slow. But it works just fine for the applications the physics class is using them for. Why replace them with pcs? The apples are so less prone to problems because they are so much more simple. The worst you get it a broken disk or disk drive, and then you just replace it for next to nothing.
I think the problem here is that people have stuff that's more than they need. The apple ][gs from 1986 is capable of doing everything the average person does with their pc. So when someone has A Pentium 4 with winxp to run Word I hang my head in disbelief. They only need maybe a Pentium 2 with 98 SE. Companies that think about saving money and actually have brains keep the old stuff that works. Don't upgrade if you don't have to. And if you are just doing office work like word processing and nothin cpu intensive then you should have an old slow machine. It's cost effective. And odds are if the machine is that old and still around it's high quality and wont give you as much technical troubles.
Is to always use opengl. You can use OpenGL to draw 2d things. Lots of old console emulators do it all the time. I really the the future of the GUI is vector graphics like svg on top of OpenGL with new video cards. It would make everything super fast and awesome.
Hey guys, when you find a new back door, don't tell anyone until right after MS releases a patch. You'll have a whole 30 days to crax0r everyone's b0x0r!
you are indeed correct. I have decided that I want the following all rolled into one.
Digicam, phone, pda, mp3 player, wireless (bluetooth/802.11). I know there are a few that exist, but none are quite exactly perfect. The hiptop comes close, but no wireless. The Treo600 comes close too. One day I will have it, patience.
184kbps? that's crap! Man people really have it bad when it comes to bandwith. I download stuff at 2 Megabytes per second usually. I get my linux isos in 350 seconds. Never will I leave college for the land of shitty internet.
I use gentoo. In linux I have mplayer emerged. It plays everything automatically. I haven't seen a file it wont play properly all on its own. It's like magic. I wish mplayer worked as perfect in windows as in linux.
In windows since mplayer in windows isn't even comparable to linux I use winamp 2. Since it's already the best player for mp3s might as well use it for video too and save myself a piece of software. I have ffdshow installed and it works perfect with winamp2. I haven't found a divx file that wont play. I have however, found ogms it wont play. It's somewhat annoying, but not so bad. I also have quick time alt and real alt so I can play those files in windows without their respective crap softwares.
Back in the day I would always just use ext2. Then I realized, hey there are other filesystems to choose from, so I decided to shoot in the dark and try reiser and xfs and ext3. xfs has always been the most awesome.
Just one thing. Now that we've got the source code for dealing with xfs, can someone write a driver so I can mount my xfs partitions from windows xp? It would really help out a lot of us dual booting types. I would do it myself, but I don't know jack about how filesystems work. I just know which ones do what.
I hope they put the xfs into 2.6 also. Maybe it wont be necessary to have seperate xfs-sources in gentoo anymore and xfs will finally be included in the gentoo-sources.
preventing diddling on phones during lectures, and cheating during exams I think are perfectly fine uses of cell-phone jammers and should be illegal. I also think all variety of theatres should employ this technology so the asshole who doesn't turn his phone off wont distract/annoy the entire audience when his annoying ring tone blares out 10 times. And rather than turn his phone off he pretends it wasn't him.
Of course, this can also be used for evil. Big evil. If I had a portable jammer I could bring it to a bank and prevent everyone from calling 911 as I robbed it. I think that's why these things are illegal.
I don't care how much money. The Plextor PX-708A is still my most desired piece of hardware. It's so freakin' hot. And newegg's got it for $220, not bad at all.
In the interview the guy equates the studies about violent video games effect on children to studies about smoking and lung cancer. This just happens to be the opposite of the argument I always use against this kind of legislation.
Smoking causes lung damage. Why is this? Because no matter who you are if you smoke your lungs will be damaged. If you continue to smoke it will cause a horrible disease like lung cancer.
Violent video games cause violent children. Why is this? Because no matter wou you hare if you play violent video games you will commit violent acts and become a violent person.
Notice how the second one is not true! Therefore Violent video games do not cause violence! Obviously it is something else that causes the violence. If it was the video games, then I would be a psycho killer.
Bad parenting is the problem. Use existing laws to punish parents who raise kids poorly. The same laws that get you in trouble if you leave your baby in a locked car.
And I'm tired of all these legislators trying to make laws about video games and technology when they know nothing about it. This guy probably never played a video game in his life outside of solitaire. If you don't know about it don't make a law about it. You wouldn't hire a farmer to be your sys admin would you? Then again you wouldn't want a sys admin to run the farm. Don't make laws about things you don't know about.
oh, well you are using Safari. Mozilla doesn't have that many advantages over Safari because Safari is damned good. But compared to IE there is definitely a reason to change to Moz, in fact there are many many. I'm not saying everyone should use the same thing or any specific thing. I'm saying that people should change to a better thing if there is one. Especially if their current thing is extremely deficient. They shouldn't resist this change to a much better product simply because they don't want to be bothered.
Nintendo controllers and systems have classically been made of ultra-durable plastic of doom. I remember throwing controllers again brick walls, and dropping gamecubes painfully high distances. Of course, I've never had any of these things break or stop working. I'm sure that when cockroaches rule the earth they will all play SNES games.
Slashdot Mirror
People always think that MS is ahead for this reason or that reason. But in truth, there are exactly 2 reasons why MS is still #1.
Reason 1: People don't like change. Most of the population is incredibly illogically stubborn. They aren't willing to expend a small amount of effort to drastically increase their happiness afterwards because they don't want the temporary discomfort. They would rather stick with whatever crap they already have. You can always tell who they are by trying to get them to switch from IE to Firebird. Those who are willing to try and expend a little effort never go back. The rest of them see the benefits right in front of them, but they just wont change. I say, it's their loss.
Reason 2: Marketing. People just don't know about linux. Or they've heard the name and don't know what it means. If we had a super bowl commercial, let's say, that informed people of the following:
$200 of the cost of that computer you just bought was for MS Windows. Linux can do all the thigns you want. Linux doesn't crash. Linux is free. Software for linux is free. Never pay money for software again. Linux is secure. Don't worry as much about virii, etc. etc. You would see all those people who aren't afraid of change switch in an instant. Despite the increasing popularity of Linux and OSS, people still just don't know.
If you think that there is some other reason people are still using windows you are gravely mistaken.
to fix video problems in winamp install ffdshow
Ok. I'm a winamp2 nut. I refused winamp3. So naturally my first reaction when I heard about 5 was, screw that! winamp2 forevar!
But I couldn't resist trying it. So I downloaded the free winamp5. I must say that this is an appropriate analogy.
windows2000:windowsXP::winamp2:winamp5
winamp 5 can be turned into winamp2 with a few mouse clicks
windows xp can be turned into windows2000 in a few mouse clicks
winamp 5 can run every plugin, skin and visualization from winamp 2
windows xp can do everything windows 2000 can do
winamp 5 has more options and more features than winamp 2
windows xp has some stuff in it that win2k don't got
The audio quality is identical. On my fast pc the speed is identical. I don't need cd burning or ripping because I have CDex and Nero, so I don't need to pay for the pro version, which only costs 15$.
My faith in nullsoft has been restored. I'll try winamp 5 a week and see if I find a reason not to use it.
Oh, the minibrowser is gone (yay!) but it is present in the media library (boo!), but you can click one button and it will go away (yay!). So it's all good.
yeah, but you still have to emerge kde to get them.
I used KDE for many many years. It was my desktop of choice. It was the only environment which had all the features I wanted. I didn't even use konqueror or anything. I liked the KDE panel most of all, but I also really really like kwrite, kmail and the konsole. I still really like kmail and kwrite.
Recently I got a new pc. I replace my Pentium 3 450 with my Athlon-XP 2500+. Now I knew that KDE was bloated, but I wanted the features and the programs that came in it. I did an XP/Gentoo dual boot on my new boxen and emerged kde. It worked, much faster than previous. But the response on a lot of things was still slow. Keep in mind this was whatever kde version was out a month or two ago.
Every time I remember KDE getting updated they made major changes that were always for the better. The dramatic difference between KDE1 and 2 was outstanding. In the days of 2 I couldn't imagine better, but KDE3 lived up to everything it promised and 2 couldn't even compare. I'm sure KDE 3.2 will do just the same.
Eventually though, the bloat got to me. I was running an optimized gentoo install and my desktop environment was slowing me down. And it was only because I wanted to use the mail client, panel and text editor that came with it. That's when I discovered XFCE-4. It didn't have all the features I needed, but XFCE4 works perfectly with all kinds of software. If I want screensavers I just emerge xscreensavers. If I want keybindings I emerge xbindkeys. If I want cpu monitoring I can get xfce-extras or gkrellm and bubblefishymon.
What really sealed the deal was the fact that I replaced Kmail with thunderbird, konsole with xterm, and kwrite... I still haven't replaced that. But I sure as heck wasn't going to keep using the big slow desktop just for the text editor. If you absolutely need to get all the stuff KDE has to offer, stick with it. If you actually use all of that stuff then it is so worth it and nobody does it better. If you want to trim down and increase the performance, try out XFCE4. I see it becoming a serious competitor with Gnome and KDE in the near future.
Most public libraries I know have windows machines which can be used by anyone to hop on the net. Schedule meetings with librarians and convince them to put linux on these boxes instead. They don't get a lot of money in these places, so if you volunteer to set it up for them for free they'll probably accept. The cash they save by not paying for windows licenses is more than enough. Sure, patrons might not know what to do at first, but the library is a place of learning. They'll soon learn to click on the red dinosaur instead of on the blue e.
Or Starcon, or whatever you want to call it. How long will we wait?
Yeah, the US does oppose it. Why you ask? Well, because it happens to be fair and just!
Suprisingly, they can do a lot with Apple //cs. There are many physics peripherals and applications for the apple. Vernier software used to make a lot of stuff for the thing, now they've moved on, but the old stuff still works. And your school probably still has those old 5.25" disks that work just fine. I say sure, an apple //c is old and slow. But it works just fine for the applications the physics class is using them for. Why replace them with pcs? The apples are so less prone to problems because they are so much more simple. The worst you get it a broken disk or disk drive, and then you just replace it for next to nothing.
I think the problem here is that people have stuff that's more than they need. The apple ][gs from 1986 is capable of doing everything the average person does with their pc. So when someone has A Pentium 4 with winxp to run Word I hang my head in disbelief. They only need maybe a Pentium 2 with 98 SE. Companies that think about saving money and actually have brains keep the old stuff that works. Don't upgrade if you don't have to. And if you are just doing office work like word processing and nothin cpu intensive then you should have an old slow machine. It's cost effective. And odds are if the machine is that old and still around it's high quality and wont give you as much technical troubles.
Brand new, amazing, super awesome,
CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONING.
Ooooh, so high tech and awesome.
What does this mean for Windex?
Is to always use opengl. You can use OpenGL to draw 2d things. Lots of old console emulators do it all the time. I really the the future of the GUI is vector graphics like svg on top of OpenGL with new video cards. It would make everything super fast and awesome.
Hey guys, when you find a new back door, don't tell anyone until right after MS releases a patch. You'll have a whole 30 days to crax0r everyone's b0x0r!
you are indeed correct. I have decided that I want the following all rolled into one.
Digicam, phone, pda, mp3 player, wireless (bluetooth/802.11). I know there are a few that exist, but none are quite exactly perfect. The hiptop comes close, but no wireless. The Treo600 comes close too. One day I will have it, patience.
184kbps? that's crap! Man people really have it bad when it comes to bandwith. I download stuff at 2 Megabytes per second usually. I get my linux isos in 350 seconds. Never will I leave college for the land of shitty internet.
I use gentoo. In linux I have mplayer emerged. It plays everything automatically. I haven't seen a file it wont play properly all on its own. It's like magic. I wish mplayer worked as perfect in windows as in linux.
In windows since mplayer in windows isn't even comparable to linux I use winamp 2. Since it's already the best player for mp3s might as well use it for video too and save myself a piece of software. I have ffdshow installed and it works perfect with winamp2. I haven't found a divx file that wont play. I have however, found ogms it wont play. It's somewhat annoying, but not so bad. I also have quick time alt and real alt so I can play those files in windows without their respective crap softwares.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3076w .boardgamegeek.com/game/822g eek.com/game/555m e/1
http://ww
http://www.boardgame
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ga
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3931
The bestest games they be. Settlers is good, but played out.
I was too lazy to turn these into links. But if you used Firebird and had the textlink extention it wouldn't matter.
Back in the day I would always just use ext2. Then I realized, hey there are other filesystems to choose from, so I decided to shoot in the dark and try reiser and xfs and ext3. xfs has always been the most awesome.
Just one thing. Now that we've got the source code for dealing with xfs, can someone write a driver so I can mount my xfs partitions from windows xp? It would really help out a lot of us dual booting types. I would do it myself, but I don't know jack about how filesystems work. I just know which ones do what.
I hope they put the xfs into 2.6 also. Maybe it wont be necessary to have seperate xfs-sources in gentoo anymore and xfs will finally be included in the gentoo-sources.
preventing diddling on phones during lectures, and cheating during exams I think are perfectly fine uses of cell-phone jammers and should be illegal. I also think all variety of theatres should employ this technology so the asshole who doesn't turn his phone off wont distract/annoy the entire audience when his annoying ring tone blares out 10 times. And rather than turn his phone off he pretends it wasn't him.
Of course, this can also be used for evil. Big evil. If I had a portable jammer I could bring it to a bank and prevent everyone from calling 911 as I robbed it. I think that's why these things are illegal.
I don't care how much money. The Plextor PX-708A is still my most desired piece of hardware. It's so freakin' hot. And newegg's got it for $220, not bad at all.
that Mario 3 came out.
Hands down.
In the interview the guy equates the studies about violent video games effect on children to studies about smoking and lung cancer. This just happens to be the opposite of the argument I always use against this kind of legislation.
Smoking causes lung damage. Why is this? Because no matter who you are if you smoke your lungs will be damaged. If you continue to smoke it will cause a horrible disease like lung cancer.
Violent video games cause violent children. Why is this? Because no matter wou you hare if you play violent video games you will commit violent acts and become a violent person.
Notice how the second one is not true! Therefore Violent video games do not cause violence! Obviously it is something else that causes the violence. If it was the video games, then I would be a psycho killer.
Bad parenting is the problem. Use existing laws to punish parents who raise kids poorly. The same laws that get you in trouble if you leave your baby in a locked car.
And I'm tired of all these legislators trying to make laws about video games and technology when they know nothing about it. This guy probably never played a video game in his life outside of solitaire. If you don't know about it don't make a law about it. You wouldn't hire a farmer to be your sys admin would you? Then again you wouldn't want a sys admin to run the farm. Don't make laws about things you don't know about.
oh, well you are using Safari. Mozilla doesn't have that many advantages over Safari because Safari is damned good. But compared to IE there is definitely a reason to change to Moz, in fact there are many many. I'm not saying everyone should use the same thing or any specific thing. I'm saying that people should change to a better thing if there is one. Especially if their current thing is extremely deficient. They shouldn't resist this change to a much better product simply because they don't want to be bothered.
it's probably that virus they call Roxio Easy CD Creator. The only known cure is Nero Burning ROM.
Nintendo controllers and systems have classically been made of ultra-durable plastic of doom. I remember throwing controllers again brick walls, and dropping gamecubes painfully high distances. Of course, I've never had any of these things break or stop working. I'm sure that when cockroaches rule the earth they will all play SNES games.