While the reviewer is right that apt is a wonderful tool, he is guilty of two very common mistakes:
apt is not the package manager per se. It is a front end to the package manager. Therefore the whole idea of using it with another package manager as its default (dpkg) is not so unlikely as it sounds. In fact, as far as I can make out from my Debian documentation, apt is specifically designed to be agnostic in regards to what package manager does the actual work.
The previous was only a minor quibble. His major mistake is however his assertion that you can download any.rpm and have apt sort out the dependencies. Guess what? It doesn't work that way. In order for apt to work, it needs a central repository that provides it with a correct dependency list. Without that, you're back to the good old dependency hell. This is what makes Connectiva and Debian great, because that is exactly what they provide, and it is only because they do that that apt is such a great tool
That's right. They don't have a right to be paid for their work. They do have the right to offer their work and ask for payment, but nobody is obliged to pay. That's called a free market.
Ok. Glad to be of service. Two more things to look out for if you are going to try Debian though:
Debian does not autodetect your hardware. Make sure you have a list of what's inside your PC. Especially important are the relevant chipsets. Also, if you have gotten X to work on another distro, make a printout of your XF86Config file. You might need it.
If you do try 'unstable' remember that the instability does not refer to the software itself, but usually to the packaging system. 'unstable' is a nice distro, very up to date, but occasionaly things like duplicate files in different packages, or dependency conflicts arise. If you're not afraid of the occasional glitch, I'd recommend 'unstable'. Just be sure to track it by a few days, so you can watch out for the more critical bugs (someone already mentioned a patch in libpam gone awry, disabling login for a full day).
Do remember that upgrading a distribution is non-trivial, even though Debian does its best to make it as painless as possible. If you have the stomach for dealing with some minor niggles the procedure is as follows:
Install the stable distro ('Potato'), but only install enough to get networking going. The base installation with no further package selection should work if you're on a network, otherwise use tasksel to install the dialup utilities.
Edit/etc/apt/sources.list to include a line to the testing distro ('Woody') or if you're feeling adventurous, add unstable ('Sid'). Just copy the relevant lines that are already there, changing stable to testing or unstable as you see fit.
Run apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade. If all goes well, you should end up with your base system upgraded to testing or unstable (I don't know if you can upgrade straight to unstable yet. 3 months ago I had to upgrade to testing first).
Install the rest of your system using either dselect, deity or just plain apt-get install <package-name>.
Have fun!
If you do run into any problems, check the docs. If they don't help, or if you haven't got a clue which docs to consult, ask the debian-user mailing list, they tend to be friendly folk. If you have more preliminary questions, check my email on my user page.
Sorry to bust your bubble, but with over half a million registered readers, Slashdot is not a small group of fanatics. It is in fact a very vocal and large community, especially when related to the field it is active in (technology).
Perhaps mainstream media has more readers, but I doubt they have a larger active community on the web.
It's 'Geheime Staats Polizei'. 'Staat' means State (d'oh!) while 'Stadt' means City. The Gestapo was a state agency, not a regional one.
While they did work together, the Gestapo and the Schutzstaffel (literally: 'the bodyguard detail' as they grew out of the party leaders' bodyguards) aka the SS were two different organisations. The SS was more military/militia, whereas the Gestapo was definitely civilian.
Perhaps you were confusing the Gestapo with the SD (Sicherheitsdienst, 'Security Service'), which was the SS' secret police, and if possible even more feared.
Well, I just gave this some thought this morning, and I concluded that the best thing to do is to write the US Ambassador in your country. The idea is that if they get enough letters pointing out the taint on the US image, and the possible economic consequences of these laws, that some Congressmen will be clued in by the State Department.
Of course, whether this will help is doubtful, but it is better than doing nothing.
On the other hand, many people in the anti-spam community seem to support the idea of holding an ISP responsible for its spammers. Although I support that idea whole-heatedly, it presents me with a conundrum: if I want to hold my ISP responsible for the spammers it harbours, but I don't want them to be responsible for copyright infringement on their network, am I being a hypocrite?
Great post. If I had mod points you'd get even higher. Allow me to add another observation to yours.
It is IMO unlikely to blame massive cat-killing as a contributing cause to the Black Plague. The theory that cats kept the rat population down sounds fine, until you realise that cats are actually lousy ratters. A cat's natural reflexes are to shy away from anything that tries to attack it. Unlike mice, rats attack when they are cornered. So, except for a few specialist breeds and quirky individuals, cats are not likely to keep rat populations managable.
I think a more likely explanation would be the urbanisation happening in Europe throughout the 14th century. This was the time of the rise of the urban merchants to power, and with them the growth of cities. More and more densely populated cities equals more rats. Coupled with the generally unhygienic conditions this is a recipe for disaster, and a disaster is what happened.
Already done. And you know what is funny? Because of the sue happy nature of the common or garden-variety spammer, the people compiling the blocklist are anonymous and will remain so. The only way out is to stop spamming.
Granted, it smacks of vigilante justice to some, but it works. See this for an example.
Just bought a set of those today. Not earth-shattering, a simple subwoofer and 4 satellites, analog input only, but sound quality is excellent.
Unless you are a real audiophile, this might just be a set worth looking into. It cost me only HFL 399,- (somewhere between $175,- and $200,-), and it is definitely worth it. Here is the link in case you're curious: A.3500 Speaker Set. They also have more upmarket stuff using the same technology.
How the fsck did this get +1 (Insightful)?! It is a straigth cut and paste from Alan Cox' email linked above, without attribution. This should have been -1 (Redundant).
Moderators, read the fscking article before hitting the crack please (and yes I am off-topic. Mod me down if you dare).
Of course there is a flipside. While our booms are not as outrageous as in the US, neither do we go bust as fast. So the labour policies in Europe do make for a less flexible economy, but that has benefits as well as downsides. As always, there is a tradeoff to be made.
Also, I live in the Netherlands, a country with perhaps the most stringent hiring laws in Europe. Unemployment is definitely comparable, if not lower than the US, and the standard of living is definitely comparable. Even though the Netherlands as a mercantile nation is fairly dependent on swings in the world economy, moreso than countries with a strong industrial base, we seem to weather the crises quite well, thankyouverymuch.
I think that on the whole the European economies are less volatile than the US, but over several decades, I think our standard of living has risen comparably. It all averages out in the end.
Yes, there is a standard European ID card, I have one instead of a passport. And yes, it is compulsory to carry it at all times in public.
In fact, when it was introduced, the same furor about invasion of privacy was raised here. It has been around for some time now, and the authorities haven't abused their power yet. It is generally only asked for in situations where they actually need your ID, such as when applying for benefits, or being stopped for things like speeding.
Also, although it is technically illegal not to have your ID on you, not a big deal is being made of it unless you actually are committing some sort of offence, in which case it will be added to the rap sheet. I lost my ID 2 months ago and got a nice letter from the police that it had been found, and if I would please pick it up at the station. No mention was made of the fact that I had been walking around without ID for 2 weeks. In fact, I joked about that to the officer when I went to pick it up, as I had no ID to prove that it was actually my ID card I was picking up. That was exactly what he told me: unless you actually commit some sort of offence, no officer would write out a ticket for not carrying ID.
A national ID is not a big deal. On the other hand, it would pose no solution to the problem of preventing crime and by extension terrorism either.
You have very good points, and I believe that they are the main reasons for blowing off the attack on Baghdad.
Still, urban combat would have led to casualties, both coalition military and Iraqi civilians, that would have been politically unacceptable. That US forces are well-trained in urban warfare I'll give you, but I did say that in order to win you had to be able and willing to enter into it.
Something strikes me as funny reading your last paragraph. I have seen many reasons given for the decision to stop Desert Storm short of Baghdad, but not the (militarily speaking) most obvious one.
Think on this: on past experience, in urban combat, air cover, artillery power and armour are useless. It is a man to man (squad to squad) fight for a single block, or even a single building at a time. The only way to win in urban combat is basically to be able (and willing) to feed more men into the meat grinder than your opponent.
I do believe Bush sr. mentioned this in an interview after his presidency but I'm not sure. If anyone reads this and knows an answer, please enlighten me.
I hope you get to see this, but that was exactly my point. From down here in Europe I have to snigger a little at those people that think that keeping a governement close to a constitution would be enough. Aside from the government itself craving power, there will always be lobbyists to change laws, nay even the constitution itself, to fit their agenda.
Libertarianism is a beautiful dream, but IMO it can't work, not the way the parent espouses it.
Allow me a comment from an outsiders viewpoint: The US had a pretty unfettered economy in the early 19th century, and what resulted? Why, the rise of the 'robber barons' of course. Now I know the standard Libertarian comeback: "The robber barons were able to rise because the government interfered in the economy in their favour". Guess who lobbied the government for that interference?
The only way to make sure that the government will be held to its Constitutional limits is by making the Constitution completely immutable, otherwise lobbyists can make legislation possible to extend government power again, to the point of Constitutional amendments even.
Now think on US history a bit, and think what would have happened if your governement had been shackled to an immutable Constitution from the start. Hint: As far as I can tell, you guys fought a Civil War for (among other things) a Constitutional Amendment.
Still, I think you missed Katz' point. However, apart from your slightly inflammatory tone, I think that is acceptable. It is after all a tragedy for all concerned, and it is possible for people to overreact in these circumstances.
However, I really got sick of those vindictive moderators that have chosen to use this story to vent their blind hatred for Katz by modding up anyone who bashes him. It shows their immaturity, as moderation is even more anonymous than posting AC. As far as I am concerned they are cowardly little a**holes.
So, you are not to blame. You disagree with Katz, that's okay. I still think your post is sitting too high though.
Think of it this way: Katz first tried to reach a friend, his piece only appeared later in the day after he had some time to reflect on his feelings. That led him to this conclusion, that's what he then proceeded to post. So even if you don't like him, give him some credit please, otherwise you are bound to be mistaken for yet another blind Katz basher.
This gets +5, and 'Insightful' to boot? If I get this in metamod, I will take away those mod points faster than you can say 'blind Katz bashing'.
Hell, Jon states at the end of his piece that he is praying for friends that may well have died and all you (general you, not just the parent) can do is kick him in the balls and make a mockery of his fear? Granted, you may not like Katz, but this is one of the lowest possible things you can do to a human being.
Moderators, give this post the -1 oblivion it deserves please, and to the parent: read for a fscking change, you missed Jon's point entirely.
I doubt the EU would be able to order Microsoft to split up because it is based in the US.
Nope. They can't do that. However they can impose fines of up to 10% of global revenue. Think of what a 10% hit to revenue does to a stock price...
Mario Monti, the Commissioner responsible for anti-trust has quite clearly stated (about 2 months ago) that his department had a deal with the US DOJ not to interfere until the case were settled in the US. When MS gets away with a slap on the wrist, expect the EU to step up its efforts.
Given that the shrub has done a good job of alienating the rest of the world, I hope that the EU finally shows some backbone and bites back: "We're not your lapdog anymore", because by God we really need a bit more of that attitude down here. For the record, I am a European, and damn tired of our governments blindly following the US' lead everytime.
Yay! Another Hamilton fan. If you like his style, you should try his earlier 'Greg Mandel' series, a gritty mix of Cyberpunk/whodunit mysteries:
Mindstar Rising (his debut)
A Quantum Murder
The Nano Flower
Hamilton only made his debut in 1993/1994 IIRC, so that's quite a prolific output, and all of it excellent quality. Nice guy too (I have a signed copy of The Reality Dysfunction.
Two minor nitpicks on your post though:
The series is called The Night's Dawn Trilogy. The Reality Dysfunction is merely the first book.
Whatever its many qualities, this trilogy is definitely not hard sf, it is better classified as Space Opera. It is however an excellent example in the genre, so if you are into that it is a definite must-read.
Slashdot Mirror
While the reviewer is right that apt is a wonderful tool, he is guilty of two very common mistakes:
- apt is not the package manager per se. It is a front end to the package manager. Therefore the whole idea of using it with another package manager as its default (dpkg) is not so unlikely as it sounds. In fact, as far as I can make out from my Debian documentation, apt is specifically designed to be agnostic in regards to what package manager does the actual work.
- The previous was only a minor quibble. His major mistake is however his assertion that you can download any
.rpm and have apt sort out the dependencies. Guess what? It doesn't work that way. In order for apt to work, it needs a central repository that provides it with a correct dependency list. Without that, you're back to the good old dependency hell. This is what makes Connectiva and Debian great, because that is exactly what they provide, and it is only because they do that that apt is such a great tool
Mart (a happy Debian user)That's right. They don't have a right to be paid for their work. They do have the right to offer their work and ask for payment, but nobody is obliged to pay. That's called a free market.
Mart
Ok. Glad to be of service. Two more things to look out for if you are going to try Debian though:
- Debian does not autodetect your hardware. Make sure you have a list of what's inside your PC. Especially important are the relevant chipsets. Also, if you have gotten X to work on another distro, make a printout of your XF86Config file. You might need it.
- If you do try 'unstable' remember that the instability does not refer to the software itself, but usually to the packaging system. 'unstable' is a nice distro, very up to date, but occasionaly things like duplicate files in different packages, or dependency conflicts arise. If you're not afraid of the occasional glitch, I'd recommend 'unstable'. Just be sure to track it by a few days, so you can watch out for the more critical bugs (someone already mentioned a patch in libpam gone awry, disabling login for a full day).
MartOk, I hope you get to read this.
Do remember that upgrading a distribution is non-trivial, even though Debian does its best to make it as painless as possible. If you have the stomach for dealing with some minor niggles the procedure is as follows:
If you do run into any problems, check the docs. If they don't help, or if you haven't got a clue which docs to consult, ask the debian-user mailing list, they tend to be friendly folk. If you have more preliminary questions, check my email on my user page.
MartSorry to bust your bubble, but with over half a million registered readers, Slashdot is not a small group of fanatics. It is in fact a very vocal and large community, especially when related to the field it is active in (technology).
Perhaps mainstream media has more readers, but I doubt they have a larger active community on the web.
MartA couple of minor quibbles:
- It's 'Geheime Staats Polizei'. 'Staat' means State (d'oh!) while 'Stadt' means City. The Gestapo was a state agency, not a regional one.
- While they did work together, the Gestapo and the Schutzstaffel (literally: 'the bodyguard detail' as they grew out of the party leaders' bodyguards) aka the SS were two different organisations. The SS was more military/militia, whereas the Gestapo was definitely civilian.
- Perhaps you were confusing the Gestapo with the SD (Sicherheitsdienst, 'Security Service'), which was the SS' secret police, and if possible even more feared.
MartWell, I just gave this some thought this morning, and I concluded that the best thing to do is to write the US Ambassador in your country. The idea is that if they get enough letters pointing out the taint on the US image, and the possible economic consequences of these laws, that some Congressmen will be clued in by the State Department.
Of course, whether this will help is doubtful, but it is better than doing nothing.
MartOn the other hand, many people in the anti-spam community seem to support the idea of holding an ISP responsible for its spammers. Although I support that idea whole-heatedly, it presents me with a conundrum: if I want to hold my ISP responsible for the spammers it harbours, but I don't want them to be responsible for copyright infringement on their network, am I being a hypocrite?
MartYour link is broken: it is Linux Magazin (without the -e). Understandable, as they also publish an english version.
And yes, that magazine rocks.
MartGreat post. If I had mod points you'd get even higher. Allow me to add another observation to yours.
It is IMO unlikely to blame massive cat-killing as a contributing cause to the Black Plague. The theory that cats kept the rat population down sounds fine, until you realise that cats are actually lousy ratters. A cat's natural reflexes are to shy away from anything that tries to attack it. Unlike mice, rats attack when they are cornered. So, except for a few specialist breeds and quirky individuals, cats are not likely to keep rat populations managable.
I think a more likely explanation would be the urbanisation happening in Europe throughout the 14th century. This was the time of the rise of the urban merchants to power, and with them the growth of cities. More and more densely populated cities equals more rats. Coupled with the generally unhygienic conditions this is a recipe for disaster, and a disaster is what happened.
MartAlready done. And you know what is funny? Because of the sue happy nature of the common or garden-variety spammer, the people compiling the blocklist are anonymous and will remain so. The only way out is to stop spamming.
Granted, it smacks of vigilante justice to some, but it works. See this for an example.
MartJust bought a set of those today. Not earth-shattering, a simple subwoofer and 4 satellites, analog input only, but sound quality is excellent.
Unless you are a real audiophile, this might just be a set worth looking into. It cost me only HFL 399,- (somewhere between $175,- and $200,-), and it is definitely worth it. Here is the link in case you're curious: A.3500 Speaker Set. They also have more upmarket stuff using the same technology.
Hope this helps,
MartHow the fsck did this get +1 (Insightful)?! It is a straigth cut and paste from Alan Cox' email linked above, without attribution. This should have been -1 (Redundant).
Moderators, read the fscking article before hitting the crack please (and yes I am off-topic. Mod me down if you dare).
MartOf course there is a flipside. While our booms are not as outrageous as in the US, neither do we go bust as fast. So the labour policies in Europe do make for a less flexible economy, but that has benefits as well as downsides. As always, there is a tradeoff to be made.
Also, I live in the Netherlands, a country with perhaps the most stringent hiring laws in Europe. Unemployment is definitely comparable, if not lower than the US, and the standard of living is definitely comparable. Even though the Netherlands as a mercantile nation is fairly dependent on swings in the world economy, moreso than countries with a strong industrial base, we seem to weather the crises quite well, thankyouverymuch.
I think that on the whole the European economies are less volatile than the US, but over several decades, I think our standard of living has risen comparably. It all averages out in the end.
MartYes, there is a standard European ID card, I have one instead of a passport. And yes, it is compulsory to carry it at all times in public.
In fact, when it was introduced, the same furor about invasion of privacy was raised here. It has been around for some time now, and the authorities haven't abused their power yet. It is generally only asked for in situations where they actually need your ID, such as when applying for benefits, or being stopped for things like speeding.
Also, although it is technically illegal not to have your ID on you, not a big deal is being made of it unless you actually are committing some sort of offence, in which case it will be added to the rap sheet. I lost my ID 2 months ago and got a nice letter from the police that it had been found, and if I would please pick it up at the station. No mention was made of the fact that I had been walking around without ID for 2 weeks. In fact, I joked about that to the officer when I went to pick it up, as I had no ID to prove that it was actually my ID card I was picking up. That was exactly what he told me: unless you actually commit some sort of offence, no officer would write out a ticket for not carrying ID.
A national ID is not a big deal. On the other hand, it would pose no solution to the problem of preventing crime and by extension terrorism either.
MartYou have very good points, and I believe that they are the main reasons for blowing off the attack on Baghdad.
Still, urban combat would have led to casualties, both coalition military and Iraqi civilians, that would have been politically unacceptable. That US forces are well-trained in urban warfare I'll give you, but I did say that in order to win you had to be able and willing to enter into it.
Still, thanks for clarifying things a little.
MartSomething strikes me as funny reading your last paragraph. I have seen many reasons given for the decision to stop Desert Storm short of Baghdad, but not the (militarily speaking) most obvious one.
Think on this: on past experience, in urban combat, air cover, artillery power and armour are useless. It is a man to man (squad to squad) fight for a single block, or even a single building at a time. The only way to win in urban combat is basically to be able (and willing) to feed more men into the meat grinder than your opponent.
I do believe Bush sr. mentioned this in an interview after his presidency but I'm not sure. If anyone reads this and knows an answer, please enlighten me.
MartI hope you get to see this, but that was exactly my point. From down here in Europe I have to snigger a little at those people that think that keeping a governement close to a constitution would be enough. Aside from the government itself craving power, there will always be lobbyists to change laws, nay even the constitution itself, to fit their agenda.
Libertarianism is a beautiful dream, but IMO it can't work, not the way the parent espouses it.
MartAllow me a comment from an outsiders viewpoint: The US had a pretty unfettered economy in the early 19th century, and what resulted? Why, the rise of the 'robber barons' of course. Now I know the standard Libertarian comeback: "The robber barons were able to rise because the government interfered in the economy in their favour". Guess who lobbied the government for that interference?
The only way to make sure that the government will be held to its Constitutional limits is by making the Constitution completely immutable, otherwise lobbyists can make legislation possible to extend government power again, to the point of Constitutional amendments even.
Now think on US history a bit, and think what would have happened if your governement had been shackled to an immutable Constitution from the start. Hint: As far as I can tell, you guys fought a Civil War for (among other things) a Constitutional Amendment.
From Europe, with wry amusement, MartStill, I think you missed Katz' point. However, apart from your slightly inflammatory tone, I think that is acceptable. It is after all a tragedy for all concerned, and it is possible for people to overreact in these circumstances.
However, I really got sick of those vindictive moderators that have chosen to use this story to vent their blind hatred for Katz by modding up anyone who bashes him. It shows their immaturity, as moderation is even more anonymous than posting AC. As far as I am concerned they are cowardly little a**holes.
So, you are not to blame. You disagree with Katz, that's okay. I still think your post is sitting too high though.
Think of it this way: Katz first tried to reach a friend, his piece only appeared later in the day after he had some time to reflect on his feelings. That led him to this conclusion, that's what he then proceeded to post. So even if you don't like him, give him some credit please, otherwise you are bound to be mistaken for yet another blind Katz basher.
MartThis gets +5, and 'Insightful' to boot? If I get this in metamod, I will take away those mod points faster than you can say 'blind Katz bashing'.
Hell, Jon states at the end of his piece that he is praying for friends that may well have died and all you (general you, not just the parent) can do is kick him in the balls and make a mockery of his fear? Granted, you may not like Katz, but this is one of the lowest possible things you can do to a human being.
Moderators, give this post the -1 oblivion it deserves please, and to the parent: read for a fscking change, you missed Jon's point entirely.
MartThen I want something of what you are smoking, because it is obviously stronger.
You can remove konqueror from KDE and install a different filemanager. Hell, you can even leave Konqueror and replace the khtml part with Gecko.
Now try removing IE from windows, or use Gecko as IEs HTML renderer. What? Can't do it? QED.
MartOh, I agree. Proper conduct remedies can be as bad, or worse, for Microsoft. Unfortunately, think of who is going to enforce those remedies...
...The same Government that just let them off easy. Yeah, Microsoft is really quaking in its boots now. NOT!
MartNope. They can't do that. However they can impose fines of up to 10% of global revenue. Think of what a 10% hit to revenue does to a stock price...
Mario Monti, the Commissioner responsible for anti-trust has quite clearly stated (about 2 months ago) that his department had a deal with the US DOJ not to interfere until the case were settled in the US. When MS gets away with a slap on the wrist, expect the EU to step up its efforts.
Given that the shrub has done a good job of alienating the rest of the world, I hope that the EU finally shows some backbone and bites back: "We're not your lapdog anymore", because by God we really need a bit more of that attitude down here. For the record, I am a European, and damn tired of our governments blindly following the US' lead everytime.
MartYay! Another Hamilton fan. If you like his style, you should try his earlier 'Greg Mandel' series, a gritty mix of Cyberpunk/whodunit mysteries:
Hamilton only made his debut in 1993/1994 IIRC, so that's quite a prolific output, and all of it excellent quality. Nice guy too (I have a signed copy of The Reality Dysfunction.
Two minor nitpicks on your post though:
- The series is called The Night's Dawn Trilogy. The Reality Dysfunction is merely the first book.
- Whatever its many qualities, this trilogy is definitely not hard sf, it is better classified as Space Opera. It is however an excellent example in the genre, so if you are into that it is a definite must-read.
Mart