"...but also has a very interesting writing style."
And that would be...? If you are referring to alternating chapters set in different viewpoints, you need to get out more. That's pretty old--"standard" you might even say. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
"Beacon works because there's an overwhelming sense of cooperation, among the students, their parents, and the faculty."
Exactly. A lot of people respect other people's property. But even more people respect their own property. By making Beacon's network the property of the students, they have increased the amount of respect it gets and therefore how useful it is.
Slashdot could stand to learn this same lesson. A major step was taken by allowing comment-moderation by users, but a few additional things need to happen:
1) More moderators (everyone always a moderator?)(increases actual AND perceived ownership) 2) Allow mod and post to same story (decreases dichotomy between "I'm moderating so I better be responsible" and "I'm not moderating so I can 'First Post!' all I want." Also alleviates problem of having the best posters always out of circulation because they were picked as moderators. 3) Setup moderation of articles themselves. This is arguably the most important feature missing from Slashdot. Others have mentioned variations such as moderating the input queue. That's fine too. The point is, the kids at Beacon aren't just in charge of a micro-cosm, like a single PC or a single lab--they are running the servers. Instead of spoonfeeding the/. readership, let us take control. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
I agree that this is a wise course of action (or at least wise to consider), but I don't agree that it shows foresight. Quite the opposite.
REAL foresight would have been sending the probe out clean to begin with so that contamination would never be an issue. You may argue that they had no idea Galileo would make it this far. I have two responses to that:
1) "We'll never need more than 640KB of RAM" 2) Even if you never made it to Europa, why risk contaminating space itself? There are a lot of people studying space-borne life and having microbe-infested spaceships zooming around probably doesn't help much. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
shrimp writes, "Slashdot really does have journalistic integrity! See for yourself! " I can't decide if this is supposed to be a story or not. I mean, it's innaccurate, but I just can't tell. Perhaps I need to read the link before I try to post stories. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
Put a floppy in the drive. Find a large file and start copying it to the floppy. While the copy is in progress reply to this comment in your Netscape window.
BTW, I find Windows only marginally better than MacOS. I use Linux at home and work. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
...but then I realized how pointless that would be. For instance, there's no good way to put, say,/etc/sendmail.cf AND/etc/hosts in the same XML format. So you'd make one type for each file. You'd end up in the same situation that we are in now: multiple formats with confusing structure with the added "bonus" of XML tags littering the file. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
Actually, if you put LanManager on a floppy you can do this with straight TCP/IP. The IP stack itself is very small, but the NIC drivers are HUGE. I was only ever able to fit 4 drivers on a disk (typically NE2000, NE2000+, Intel EtherExpress, Intel EtherExpress PRO, IIRC).
-- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
Please tell me this will allow me to authenticate against MS Proxy Server from Mozilla (or even Netscape). Or is that protocol a level (or two) above SMB itself? -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
I guess you haven't been hanging around Slashdot long enough. This came up and was resolvednearly two years ago. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
The (/.) article makes a big deal of non-interoperability of sync software, but I see (at least) two larger applications.
First is the obvious: an open (?) spec mean all devices can sync with all OS's. with each other. This would be an absolute godsend! -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
If MacOS X succeeds it will be precisely BECAUSE it is so similar to Unix. Even Apple knows this--that's why they based it on BSD. So why not beat the rush and use Unix now?
As for the rest of your argument I agree: except for the part about X being dead. X is more alive than ever. Think about it. What are the two biggest fields of CS of the 90's (and beyond)? Networking and GUIs. What is X? A networked GUI (framework). Yeah, that's totally obsolete... -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
I don't run GNOME on my system because I like the feeling of "raw Linux" and because I don't like how GNOME looks/works/acts/etc. That's entirely up to me and isn't the reason I hate it.
What I hate is all the unnatural dependencies on GNOME on RedHat systems. For instance, last night I upgraded my RH5.2 system to RH6.1. I have a lot of complaints about how this worked (like, why can't I cancel or at least unmount my drive? and why can't password-less users login or at least have root change their passwords), but the relevant complaint is the GNOME deps.
After the install I found that a lot of GNOME stuff had slipped through (another complaint: when I DON'T want to auto-install deps, let me UN-install upward deps). I spent a few minutes rpm -e'ing these, but when I tried to remove gnome-libs it told me that wmconfig needed it. OK, so get rid of wmconfig. Can't, fvwm needs it. WTF? That's just not possible. fvwm is ~8 years old, GNOME is Actually, the real blame for this goes to RedHat (for stupid dependency defs) and the RPM format (for not allowing "wishlist" vs "gotta-have" deps). So once I get a tape drive I'm going to back my system up and install Debian. I hope it's a little saner and less "user-friendly".
To bring this post marginally on-topic: I don't mind if some (even most) people prefer "pretty", "standardized" Linux as long as two conditions are met:
1) I can still get to the "raw" level that I like. 2) Apps are not written to depend on a "standard" and break when it isn't true. There's a lot of tools on freshmeat that I'd like to use, but they all start with "g" or "K"--so I can't use them. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
Chances of MS having a team working on porting Office to Linux: 95% Chances of Office being available on Linux sometime in the next 3 years: 10% Chances of Office "going Open Source" sometime in the next 10 years: 0%. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
I just checked CNN's front page with M13: No problem.
BTW *pointed look at Foogle*, no one is saying you are lying or stupid if Mozilla doesn't work for you. They are just saying "It works for me, so there is no fundamental reason it couldn't be MADE TO work for you." That is, since it works for (at least) one person, the bug must be in some other area. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
I've been using M13 as my ONLY browser (at work) for two weeks. I use it pretty heavily, and I go to Deja approx once per day.
I have not had one single crash of the browser. (I have had mail crash on me).
I was anxiously waiting for M14 to clean up some interface/formatting/speed problems, but apparently they aren't going to do one(?) -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
This weekend I went to my local library (small town NH) and signed up for Internet access (as a convenience thing when I'm in the library and want to look something up). One of the steps I had to do was reading the "policies and guidelines". "Uh-oh," I thought, "Holland all over again."
Not so. Turns out they had VERY liberal policies. Essentially, you can do anything you want, although if you view porn, etc and other patrons complain they will ask you to stop.
The most interesting thing (and I wish I had kept a copy of the sheet for the URLs it gave) was the references to Supreme Court (of US? of NH? dunno) decisions that filtering in a library amounted to censorship and had been outlawed in 1996.
If no one here can post with any more information, I'll go get another copy of the sheet and copy the URLs for jamie (or someone) to post later. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
I'm not saying it should be illegal for Murdoch to broadcast what he wants. Like you, "...I recognize his right to run his business as he sees fit". Also like you, presumably, I know that the media wields a great deal of power and there is responsibility that goes with this power. When that responsibility is abused, I complain. Would you deny me the right to make complaints when I want?
In other words, take your own advice: when you see someone has written another comment you don't want to read, instead of repeating the tired, ass-kissing adage "Let Rob do what he wants", just think to yourself "Let Poster X do what he wants--which is apparently complaining to Rob."
There, look what you've done--you've made me violate my own advice. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
So, if Rupert Murdoch decided to run stories exalting, say, Pat Buchanan as the ideal Presidential candidate and run mud-slinging stories on all the others, you'd have no problem with that because "Rupe wanted to and it's his multi-media conglomerate"? -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
If the source code was really available (like GPL, not some lame read-only license), that 29MB would shoot down to around 5MB within 6 months. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
NEWSFLASH: You don't have to read all the stuff posted on Slashdot. If you see an uninteresting comment, feel free not to read it. In any case, don't post crap like this.
Slashdot has headlines. About 8 headlines per page to be more precise. What a great place to post duplicates. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
A year or so ago, didn't RedHat claim they were going to distribute only free software? I remember them using this argument to explain why certain long-standing rpm packages suddenly disappeared from the CD (like xsnow).
I guess this is just another example of the difference between "committed" and "involved". Like with a ham and egg breakfast: The chicken is involved, the pig is committed. -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
There's a million dinky little features in, say, Word that, even when they work correctly (which is rare) don't work the way I want them to or have zero documentation.
Having the source code would fix all three of those problems: 1) If it doesn't work, fix it. 2) If it does work, but I can't figure out how read the source. 3) If it does work and I know how, but I don't like it change the source.
-- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
After being burned by MS Office, I'm not getting ANY "productivity suite" that doesn't come with source. How about adding "licensing" to your review chart? -- Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
Slashdot Mirror
"...but also has a very interesting writing style."
And that would be...? If you are referring to alternating chapters set in different viewpoints, you need to get out more. That's pretty old--"standard" you might even say.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
"Beacon works because there's an overwhelming sense of cooperation, among the students, their parents, and the faculty."
/. readership, let us take control.
Exactly. A lot of people respect other people's property. But even more people respect their own property. By making Beacon's network the property of the students, they have increased the amount of respect it gets and therefore how useful it is.
Slashdot could stand to learn this same lesson. A major step was taken by allowing comment-moderation by users, but a few additional things need to happen:
1) More moderators (everyone always a moderator?)(increases actual AND perceived ownership)
2) Allow mod and post to same story (decreases dichotomy between "I'm moderating so I better be responsible" and "I'm not moderating so I can 'First Post!' all I want." Also alleviates problem of having the best posters always out of circulation because they were picked as moderators.
3) Setup moderation of articles themselves. This is arguably the most important feature missing from Slashdot. Others have mentioned variations such as moderating the input queue. That's fine too. The point is, the kids at Beacon aren't just in charge of a micro-cosm, like a single PC or a single lab--they are running the servers. Instead of spoonfeeding the
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
I agree that this is a wise course of action (or at least wise to consider), but I don't agree that it shows foresight. Quite the opposite.
REAL foresight would have been sending the probe out clean to begin with so that contamination would never be an issue. You may argue that they had no idea Galileo would make it this far. I have two responses to that:
1) "We'll never need more than 640KB of RAM"
2) Even if you never made it to Europa, why risk contaminating space itself? There are a lot of people studying space-borne life and having microbe-infested spaceships zooming around probably doesn't help much.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
shrimp writes, "Slashdot really does have journalistic integrity! See for yourself! " I can't decide if this is supposed to be a story or not. I mean, it's innaccurate, but I just can't tell. Perhaps I need to read the link before I try to post stories.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
Put a floppy in the drive. Find a large file and start copying it to the floppy. While the copy is in progress reply to this comment in your Netscape window.
BTW, I find Windows only marginally better than MacOS. I use Linux at home and work.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
...but then I realized how pointless that would be. For instance, there's no good way to put, say, /etc/sendmail.cf AND /etc/hosts in the same XML format. So you'd make one type for each file. You'd end up in the same situation that we are in now: multiple formats with confusing structure with the added "bonus" of XML tags littering the file.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
Actually, if you put LanManager on a floppy you can do this with straight TCP/IP. The IP stack itself is very small, but the NIC drivers are HUGE. I was only ever able to fit 4 drivers on a disk (typically NE2000, NE2000+, Intel EtherExpress, Intel EtherExpress PRO, IIRC).
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
Please tell me this will allow me to authenticate against MS Proxy Server from Mozilla (or even Netscape). Or is that protocol a level (or two) above SMB itself?
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
I guess you haven't been hanging around Slashdot long enough. This came up and was resolved nearly two years ago.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
The (/.) article makes a big deal of non-interoperability of sync software, but I see (at least) two larger applications.
First is the obvious: an open (?) spec mean all devices can sync with all OS's.
with each other. This would be an absolute godsend!
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
If MacOS X succeeds it will be precisely BECAUSE it is so similar to Unix. Even Apple knows this--that's why they based it on BSD. So why not beat the rush and use Unix now?
As for the rest of your argument I agree: except for the part about X being dead. X is more alive than ever. Think about it. What are the two biggest fields of CS of the 90's (and beyond)? Networking and GUIs. What is X? A networked GUI (framework). Yeah, that's totally obsolete...
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
I don't run GNOME on my system because I like the feeling of "raw Linux" and because I don't like how GNOME looks/works/acts/etc. That's entirely up to me and isn't the reason I hate it.
What I hate is all the unnatural dependencies on GNOME on RedHat systems. For instance, last night I upgraded my RH5.2 system to RH6.1. I have a lot of complaints about how this worked (like, why can't I cancel or at least unmount my drive? and why can't password-less users login or at least have root change their passwords), but the relevant complaint is the GNOME deps.
After the install I found that a lot of GNOME stuff had slipped through (another complaint: when I DON'T want to auto-install deps, let me UN-install upward deps). I spent a few minutes rpm -e'ing these, but when I tried to remove gnome-libs it told me that wmconfig needed it. OK, so get rid of wmconfig. Can't, fvwm needs it. WTF? That's just not possible. fvwm is ~8 years old, GNOME is
Actually, the real blame for this goes to RedHat (for stupid dependency defs) and the RPM format (for not allowing "wishlist" vs "gotta-have" deps). So once I get a tape drive I'm going to back my system up and install Debian. I hope it's a little saner and less "user-friendly".
To bring this post marginally on-topic: I don't mind if some (even most) people prefer "pretty", "standardized" Linux as long as two conditions are met:
1) I can still get to the "raw" level that I like.
2) Apps are not written to depend on a "standard" and break when it isn't true. There's a lot of tools on freshmeat that I'd like to use, but they all start with "g" or "K"--so I can't use them.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
Chances of MS having a team working on porting Office to Linux: 95%
Chances of Office being available on Linux sometime in the next 3 years: 10%
Chances of Office "going Open Source" sometime in the next 10 years: 0%.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
cat slashdot_stories | sort | uniq | wc -l
3000
cat slashdot_stories | grep -i sengan | grep -v [sucks|grammar|political flamebait] | wc -l
0
cat slashdot_users | wc -l
100000
cat slashdot_users | grep -i katz | grep off | wc -l
9000
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
I just checked CNN's front page with M13: No problem.
BTW *pointed look at Foogle*, no one is saying you are lying or stupid if Mozilla doesn't work for you. They are just saying "It works for me, so there is no fundamental reason it couldn't be MADE TO work for you." That is, since it works for (at least) one person, the bug must be in some other area.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
I've been using M13 as my ONLY browser (at work) for two weeks. I use it pretty heavily, and I go to Deja approx once per day.
I have not had one single crash of the browser. (I have had mail crash on me).
I was anxiously waiting for M14 to clean up some interface/formatting/speed problems, but apparently they aren't going to do one(?)
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
This weekend I went to my local library (small town NH) and signed up for Internet access (as a convenience thing when I'm in the library and want to look something up). One of the steps I had to do was reading the "policies and guidelines". "Uh-oh," I thought, "Holland all over again."
Not so. Turns out they had VERY liberal policies. Essentially, you can do anything you want, although if you view porn, etc and other patrons complain they will ask you to stop.
The most interesting thing (and I wish I had kept a copy of the sheet for the URLs it gave) was the references to Supreme Court (of US? of NH? dunno) decisions that filtering in a library amounted to censorship and had been outlawed in 1996.
If no one here can post with any more information, I'll go get another copy of the sheet and copy the URLs for jamie (or someone) to post later.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
Is the "typical Win9x application" running on those blank-screen laptops "reboot.exe"?
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
I'm not saying it should be illegal for Murdoch to broadcast what he wants. Like you, "...I recognize his right to run his business as he sees fit". Also like you, presumably, I know that the media wields a great deal of power and there is responsibility that goes with this power. When that responsibility is abused, I complain. Would you deny me the right to make complaints when I want?
In other words, take your own advice: when you see someone has written another comment you don't want to read, instead of repeating the tired, ass-kissing adage "Let Rob do what he wants", just think to yourself "Let Poster X do what he wants--which is apparently complaining to Rob."
There, look what you've done--you've made me violate my own advice.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
So, if Rupert Murdoch decided to run stories exalting, say, Pat Buchanan as the ideal Presidential candidate and run mud-slinging stories on all the others, you'd have no problem with that because "Rupe wanted to and it's his multi-media conglomerate"?
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
If the source code was really available (like GPL, not some lame read-only license), that 29MB would shoot down to around 5MB within 6 months.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
NEWSFLASH: You don't have to read all the stuff posted on Slashdot. If you see an uninteresting comment, feel free not to read it. In any case, don't post crap like this.
Slashdot has headlines. About 8 headlines per page to be more precise. What a great place to post duplicates.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
A year or so ago, didn't RedHat claim they were going to distribute only free software? I remember them using this argument to explain why certain long-standing rpm packages suddenly disappeared from the CD (like xsnow).
I guess this is just another example of the difference between "committed" and "involved". Like with a ham and egg breakfast: The chicken is involved, the pig is committed.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
There's a million dinky little features in, say, Word that, even when they work correctly (which is rare) don't work the way I want them to or have zero documentation.
Having the source code would fix all three of those problems:
1) If it doesn't work, fix it.
2) If it does work, but I can't figure out how read the source.
3) If it does work and I know how, but I don't like it change the source.
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
After being burned by MS Office, I'm not getting ANY "productivity suite" that doesn't come with source. How about adding "licensing" to your review chart?
--
Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.