In reply to #1, if you shoot in RAW then it is completely possible to salvage over or underexposure. At least with the Canon SLRs I have used, they're shot at 14 bits, and have data on areas that are up to 1 stop overexposed. Admittedly, white balance can sometimes make it so you can only get about 1/2 stop back, but I still prefer the control I get over what film allows.
Now let's see what it's like with google. Much better.
I know it's probably just different input datasets, but it still is an important thing to have roads look relatively smooth, instead of jaggedy.
Re:Questions for those with access to the beta
on
Longhorn Beta Begins
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· Score: 1
In the MMC console thing they were showing, they still had some win9x vintage icons. But the one 16-color icon on the start menu seems to have been replaced, and Shut Do... was fixed.
As to styles being smashed together, it's worse than the other screenshots. (pictures here)
For instance, this picture has a dark start bar, a somewhat light window decoration, two dark bars in the explorer window, and an XP style sidebar. It's a complete mess, and I for one would take XP Tinkertoy look over this.
Now if I could only get a Mac clone theme for KDE;)
I can't tell if the ';)' is meant to imply sarcasm, but I shall address this point as if it didn't. The default (with 3.4) look, Plastik, is very clean and non-obtrusive. However, if you want the apple look-n-feel, Baghira manages to look quite decent, if not exactally Mac-like.
Just want to pop in and give a strong word of reccomendation for the Digital Rebel and the 20D. They are really solidly built, and I've had a really nice time working with them under Linux (with a USB CF reader) and UFRaw (which uses dcraw to load raw files) works wonders, along with a small perl script that allows double-clicking on a thumbnail jpeg image in Nautilus or Konqueror and having the Gimp load up the correct raw image.
In addition, Canon seems to be nice about using standard things amongst all their cameras. I upgraded from my Rebel to a 20D, and I was able to use all my memory, lenses, and batteries (!). So yeah, highly reccomended.
Just a tip: try UFRaw for a nice interface for loading raw files in the Gimp. It's in the Debian and Ubuntu archives, and isn't very hard to compile from source.
Is the official Ubuntu position that we should wait for all our software to get updated exactly once every six months?
Yeah, for the most part. They have their 'stable' version which only gets upgraded every 6 months, and then they have a development branch (hoary currently) that is under active development, but NOT guarenteed to be stable. They are fairly cutting edge there (GNOME 2.9.4, Xorg) but the packages not in their core do lag behind some. Biggest one I noticed is that blender is back at 2.33 or 2.34 when current is 2.36.
Just a me too post here. This is what made me switch from WinXP to Linux a little over a year ago (well, sans Evolution). As for the list of programs, I do believe you forgot the GIMP, as well as having a place where 'building from source' is amazingly easy.
I've helped convert several people by this same logic.
No, because that requires me to know the WHOLE PATH AND FILENAME.
While I can see how that impression could be made, it is more flexible than that, allowing you to type in a directory, open it, and THEN be presented with the file chooser window in that directory. Still not ideal, but not as bad as you made it sound.
"Gosh I am so smart that I know how you want to use your computer, and I don't even NEED to ask you your opinion, because we all know it's wrong anyway."
Unfortunately I have to agree with you somewhat on this point. I find their attitude less problematic than the niggling little bugs I run across in the other DEs. To each their own, I guess.
Admittedly a problem in Gnome 2.6, but in 2.8 I'm looking at the file management preferences dialog, "behaviour" tab, and seeing an (unchecked) option that says "Always open in browser windows"
And while the majority of people seem to not want this as an option, I quite like it, especially after learning a few tricks.
Tricks, in case anyone wants: Double middle-click on a folder to open that one and close the current folder Control+Shift+W to close all parent folders Control+Q to exit out of all nautilus windows
Actually there is another choice. In the alpha labs, whether to use the E?? (forgot the letters) system or to use the bridge. Very small decision.
Also, there's a point where you see a scientist in a chamber, and you can either kill him or rescue him. If you rescue him, you can follow him into a room with a PDA that has information that lets you get the BFG. So there's a somewhat larger decision.
I'm on debian unstable/experimental and have been running Gnome 2.8 for a while now. The only problem I have with the current Debian Gnome experiance is a bug somewhere in gstreamer or rhythmbox that causes rhythmbox to freeze on trying to return to the beginning of the track.
The big difference between these people and President Bush is that while these people thought that Saddam still had WMD programs, President Bush was the one who started what is for all intents and purposes a war that was without justification for entering it. Some even voted to allow the President the right to choose whether or not we invade. But the decision was still his to invade against the will of the vast majority of the civilized world, and that is where most of us disagree with him.
But your quotes do help illustrate that it is not as clear as some on either side would make it out to be.
This has been the absolute opposite of my experiance. I've found the fonts on WinXP are either antialiased with colored edges or aliased, and that linux tends to get everything right with the exception of capital letter "o"
I would be really interested in seeing a screenshot or detailed description of what you notice as being craptacular about the fonts.
Okay, I easily could be missing something, but isn't that almost the exact method that GTK2 uses (at least in more OO languages like Python)? I must admit to never programming in swing since java and I don't get along well, but it sounds like swing and GTK share the good points. If any can confirm/deny, I would honestly appreciate it.
As for your complaint about Ctrl+O, try using Crtl+L, which (iirc) brings focus to the address bar, and should on windows also highlight the text. Hopefully along with the other tips here it'll help you some.
I took the AP AB Computer Science exam, which covers all that would be covered in the first year of a college level CS class, as opposed to the A exam which just covers just one semester. Most CS classes in high schools are just A level, so taking the AB involved doing stuff on my own (ick).
Before this class, I had been programming for a while, and was self-taught in QBasic, C, C++, Perl, some Java, and Python. So my perspective might be a bit on the 'too easy' side.
That said, I thought the exam was really well done. It covered simple things (giving a 'mystery' method and making you figure out what it does) up to more complicated things (binary trees, recursing through them). Something else they covered, which I think is critically important, and also think wasn't covered under C++, is the efficiency aspect of programs. Some questions would ask which is more efficient, quicksort or insertion sort (easy answer), while others would get a bit harder, giving the runtimes of two unknown sorts on a random array and on a sorted array, and making you figure out which sorts they used. All efficiencies were in 'Big O' notation, not being as in-depth as Art Of Computer Science, but what can you expect from high school students?
Also, there was a marine biology case study which was a larger body of code to deal with and worked our abilities to deal with things that we can't see the source for. This was also present in the C++ version of the AP exam.
Both the iriver iHP 120 and 140 have digital line in and out. They allow you to record at up to (iirc) 320kbps MP3 and straight WAV. The 120 has 20gigs, and 140 has 40. Wonderful software to access the players also - they just show up as a generic USB(2) mass storage device. It also supports OGG, MP3, WAV, and AAC (afaik).
Sorry for the fanboy sounding, but I have one and just love it.
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In reply to #1, if you shoot in RAW then it is completely possible to salvage over or underexposure. At least with the Canon SLRs I have used, they're shot at 14 bits, and have data on areas that are up to 1 stop overexposed. Admittedly, white balance can sometimes make it so you can only get about 1/2 stop back, but I still prefer the control I get over what film allows.
Comparing Virtual Earth with Google Maps, it seems that Virtual Earth has far "noisier" data. An example should help.
Look at this cloverleaf. The curves are all jaggedy.
Now let's see what it's like with google. Much better.
I know it's probably just different input datasets, but it still is an important thing to have roads look relatively smooth, instead of jaggedy.
In the MMC console thing they were showing, they still had some win9x vintage icons. But the one 16-color icon on the start menu seems to have been replaced, and Shut Do... was fixed.
As to styles being smashed together, it's worse than the other screenshots. (pictures here)
For instance, this picture has a dark start bar, a somewhat light window decoration, two dark bars in the explorer window, and an XP style sidebar. It's a complete mess, and I for one would take XP Tinkertoy look over this.
Are you sure it wasn't A101? That's what it was when I saw it, and I can't imagine they'd have too many props for which seat it's in.
But then the revelation of Darth Vader being Luke's father is ruined. It's a hard call to make, although I like the 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 6 idea.
I can't tell if the ';)' is meant to imply sarcasm, but I shall address this point as if it didn't. The default (with 3.4) look, Plastik, is very clean and non-obtrusive. However, if you want the apple look-n-feel, Baghira manages to look quite decent, if not exactally Mac-like.
Hope this helps.
Just want to pop in and give a strong word of reccomendation for the Digital Rebel and the 20D. They are really solidly built, and I've had a really nice time working with them under Linux (with a USB CF reader) and UFRaw (which uses dcraw to load raw files) works wonders, along with a small perl script that allows double-clicking on a thumbnail jpeg image in Nautilus or Konqueror and having the Gimp load up the correct raw image.
In addition, Canon seems to be nice about using standard things amongst all their cameras. I upgraded from my Rebel to a 20D, and I was able to use all my memory, lenses, and batteries (!). So yeah, highly reccomended.
Just a tip: try UFRaw for a nice interface for loading raw files in the Gimp. It's in the Debian and Ubuntu archives, and isn't very hard to compile from source.
Yeah, for the most part. They have their 'stable' version which only gets upgraded every 6 months, and then they have a development branch (hoary currently) that is under active development, but NOT guarenteed to be stable. They are fairly cutting edge there (GNOME 2.9.4, Xorg) but the packages not in their core do lag behind some. Biggest one I noticed is that blender is back at 2.33 or 2.34 when current is 2.36.
Just a me too post here. This is what made me switch from WinXP to Linux a little over a year ago (well, sans Evolution). As for the list of programs, I do believe you forgot the GIMP, as well as having a place where 'building from source' is amazingly easy.
I've helped convert several people by this same logic.
While I can see how that impression could be made, it is more flexible than that, allowing you to type in a directory, open it, and THEN be presented with the file chooser window in that directory. Still not ideal, but not as bad as you made it sound.
Unfortunately I have to agree with you somewhat on this point. I find their attitude less problematic than the niggling little bugs I run across in the other DEs. To each their own, I guess.
Admittedly a problem in Gnome 2.6, but in 2.8 I'm looking at the file management preferences dialog, "behaviour" tab, and seeing an (unchecked) option that says "Always open in browser windows"
And while the majority of people seem to not want this as an option, I quite like it, especially after learning a few tricks.
Tricks, in case anyone wants:
Double middle-click on a folder to open that one and close the current folder
Control+Shift+W to close all parent folders
Control+Q to exit out of all nautilus windows
HTH
Actually there is another choice. In the alpha labs, whether to use the E?? (forgot the letters) system or to use the bridge. Very small decision.
Also, there's a point where you see a scientist in a chamber, and you can either kill him or rescue him. If you rescue him, you can follow him into a room with a PDA that has information that lets you get the BFG. So there's a somewhat larger decision.
I'm on debian unstable/experimental and have been running Gnome 2.8 for a while now. The only problem I have with the current Debian Gnome experiance is a bug somewhere in gstreamer or rhythmbox that causes rhythmbox to freeze on trying to return to the beginning of the track.
The big difference between these people and President Bush is that while these people thought that Saddam still had WMD programs, President Bush was the one who started what is for all intents and purposes a war that was without justification for entering it. Some even voted to allow the President the right to choose whether or not we invade. But the decision was still his to invade against the will of the vast majority of the civilized world, and that is where most of us disagree with him.
But your quotes do help illustrate that it is not as clear as some on either side would make it out to be.
This has been the absolute opposite of my experiance. I've found the fonts on WinXP are either antialiased with colored edges or aliased, and that linux tends to get everything right with the exception of capital letter "o"
I would be really interested in seeing a screenshot or detailed description of what you notice as being craptacular about the fonts.
Okay, I easily could be missing something, but isn't that almost the exact method that GTK2 uses (at least in more OO languages like Python)? I must admit to never programming in swing since java and I don't get along well, but it sounds like swing and GTK share the good points. If any can confirm/deny, I would honestly appreciate it.
I'd appreciate it if you could send one off to medgno@medievalgnome.org
Benedict. medgno@medievalgnome.org
Have you tried disabling klipper? I've found that whenever I have clipboard issues that program is usually running.
As for your complaint about Ctrl+O, try using Crtl+L, which (iirc) brings focus to the address bar, and should on windows also highlight the text. Hopefully along with the other tips here it'll help you some.
No, it's still (jokes nonwithstanding) pencil and paper, with the same sections and time limits.
I took the AP AB Computer Science exam, which covers all that would be covered in the first year of a college level CS class, as opposed to the A exam which just covers just one semester. Most CS classes in high schools are just A level, so taking the AB involved doing stuff on my own (ick).
Before this class, I had been programming for a while, and was self-taught in QBasic, C, C++, Perl, some Java, and Python. So my perspective might be a bit on the 'too easy' side.
That said, I thought the exam was really well done. It covered simple things (giving a 'mystery' method and making you figure out what it does) up to more complicated things (binary trees, recursing through them). Something else they covered, which I think is critically important, and also think wasn't covered under C++, is the efficiency aspect of programs. Some questions would ask which is more efficient, quicksort or insertion sort (easy answer), while others would get a bit harder, giving the runtimes of two unknown sorts on a random array and on a sorted array, and making you figure out which sorts they used. All efficiencies were in 'Big O' notation, not being as in-depth as Art Of Computer Science, but what can you expect from high school students?
Also, there was a marine biology case study which was a larger body of code to deal with and worked our abilities to deal with things that we can't see the source for. This was also present in the C++ version of the AP exam.
since I think java has short-circuit evaluation - if the first term is false, there is no need to check the second one.
Both the iriver iHP 120 and 140 have digital line in and out. They allow you to record at up to (iirc) 320kbps MP3 and straight WAV. The 120 has 20gigs, and 140 has 40. Wonderful software to access the players also - they just show up as a generic USB(2) mass storage device. It also supports OGG, MP3, WAV, and AAC (afaik).
Sorry for the fanboy sounding, but I have one and just love it.