I like URPMI, but the graphical Mandrake Update doesn't work for me. The last time I tried to use it, just to add some things I'd forgotten when I installed, it locked my system up so tight I couldn't even ssh into it. The hdd was spinning like there was no tomorrow. Incidentally, this is a system with 512MB RAM.
I ended up having to kill the power, luckily I had no filesystem corruption (thank you ext3).
Well, the problem is that binaries need to be in the $PATH to be really usable.
Sure, for command line stuff, you want your binaries in $PATH. On a 'desktop' distribution, though, what would be wrong with applications not being in the $PATH, but instead having all the menu items point to the correct location? Yeah, it would make it harder to launch apps from an xterm - but a lot of users don't care about that, and those that do could modify their $PATH or make some symlinks for stuff they use often.
They don't exactly finish the list in the song. Eight is the last day that actually has gifts, unless you count the babbling about a chainsaw and a baker's dozen of doughnuts at the end.
Here's what is mentioned:
8 comic books
7 packs of smokes
6 packs of two-four
5 golden touques
4 pounds of backbacon
3 French toasts
2 turtlenecks
and a beer... in a tree
Hmmph. I'm running Mdk8.1 on my desktop, and haven't had the first bit of trouble with it.
I looked at the Xandros page, though, and it looks promising. I don't treat my distribution like a religion - I'll move the minute I see something I like better.
I use KDE as my desktop, but I run Evolution (or sometimes Mozilla) for mail. Why? Kmail still can't store sent mail in an IMAP folder (I think it's on the agenda for KDE3).
No way that will happen. Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly in video games or set-tops, thus they are not part of the case. Of course, it's getting harder and harder for me to buy cool gear without supporting either Microsoft or Sony now. Damnit.
Yep, the lucky Japanese folks have had analog HDTV for years. Digital HDTV is the new North American standard. Terrestrial broadcasting looks like it's going to be ATSC standard over 8VSB modulation; there are about 15 resolutions ranging from 480-line interlaced (basically NTSC quality) up to 1080-line interlaced, or 720 progressive. So far, it looks like the majority of broadcasters will end up using 1080i.
Incidentally, there are quite a few HD broadcasts. CBS has a few HD shows, NBC shows Leno in high-def, there is a HD HBO and an HD Showtime available to satellite customers, and there's HDnet showing high-def sports programming for DirecTV customers.
Unfortunately, without satellite, you're probably hosed. Time-Warner cable has some areas where HD is available; otherwise you'd have to be in one of the cities whose broadcasters have brought a digital transmitter online already. There should be more available by May, 2002, although I'm sure a lot of the broadcasters will try to get that delayed even more.
Of course, you would first need Star Trek to be broadcast in HDTV. Heck, I'd be fine with it in NTSC resolution if it was anamorphic instead of letterboxed. Having only 360 lines of vertical resolution blows, especially since I'm having to tape it on VHS at least through this week's episode since we're doing childbirth classes on Wednesday nights.
Incidentally, I happen to think the theme song OK. I think it fits the show better than a big symphonic thing would. I bet I'm gonna get flamed for that, though.
I would have been nice if we could have finally gotten rid of interlaced signals with the HDTV spec, but it didn't happen.
There's nothing (but cost) stopping manufacturers from building TV's which can handle 1080p, and upconverting everything else. Then, in the future a 1080p source could take advantage of the capability. Some high-end CRT projectors can handle the scan rates required, but I haven't seen an RPTV that could do it yet.
HDTV is a joke and a flop. It's pretty much been rejected by most consumers. Want proof? Just look at all the 25,27 and 32 inch TV sets walking out of the doors of K-mart,Wal-mart and Target stores.
I suppose high-end stereo systems are also a joke and a flop since so many boomboxes are sold at K-mart, Target, and Walmart. When DVD's were still cutting edge, you could have made the same comparison regarding VHS. And I imagine you could have said the same about color TV vs. black-and-white, but I wasn't around back then so I can't be positive.
I agree that HDTV isn't getting rolled out quickly enough, but that's the fault of the broadcasters dragging their feet. And with no programming, it's hard to sell HDTV sets. But, among the crowd shopping for projection TV's, or the folks with discerning enough tastes not to buy the cheapest TV on the shelf, HD-ready sets are moving. They give better picture quality with DVD than NTSC-only sets. Projection TV's with HD capability also display a smoother image on broadcast TV since they generally de-interlace the image, avoiding the striped effect apparent on older projection sets.
At any rate, I'm glad the new games are coming out with HD support, it gives one more reason to pay the few extra bucks to get an HD-capable set. Oh, and it *is* just a few extra bucks, unless you're comparing a top-of-the-line HD-ready set to the cheapest RCA at Walmart.
Tell that to the remains of the 1GHz Athlon I have sitting on my desk. One of the nubs on the CPU socket broke and let the heatsink fall off while I was at work. I'm not sure how long the CPU lasted, but it was dead when I got home. From that point on, I won't buy a heatsink that only uses the two middle nubs to latch on.
Seeing DVDs now, i don't understand how anyone could be fooled into thinking they are high-quality, the artifacts are terrible.
Simple... the only comparisons are to broadcast or cable TV, VHS (ugh), or digital satellite/cable (more compression than DVD). A good DVD blows away any other source that's available to consumers now. Well, HD looks better, but it's not really all that available yet.
What sucks is that with a 100GB rewritable format available, the MPAA and such are now going to try to slow the HDTV rollout even more, saying that now their content won't be safe from piracy. Bastards.
It seems like a while back, I remember Word used to suggest "Jew" as a replacement for almost any short misspelled word. Or maybe that was WordPefect. Anyway, I can see why you might not want certain words suggested as replacements for spelling errors - someone mistypes "spit", you don't want to pop up "shit" as a possible correction.
A piece of legislation that lays out the rights consumers have with music, ebooks, movies, whatever, and makes it illegal for media producers to utilize any protection scheme which would prevent users from exercising these rights.
We should have the right to make a backup copy. We should have the right to time-shift programming. We should have the right to transfer from one format to another (eg, CD to MP3) for personal use on different devices. And we should be able to exercise these rights without any loss of quality imposed by copy protection. Obviously, we shouldn't be able to make gillions of copies for total strangers available on the internet, but we should probably have the right to make limited copies for friends and family.
Unfortunately, the chances of passing a piece of legislation that gives consumers rights and restricts corporations is just about nil. But if we could pull it off, we'd have won the battle against DMCA and SSSCA permanently.
The real difference is: when a corporation gets really big and it is no longer in your best interest to "support" them with your hard earned dollars, you can choose not to. Try that with the government. I think we did try that with the government - in 1776. You'd think with that experience under our belts, we'd be able to keep our government of, by, and for the people on track. Unfortunately, not enough people know or care what's going on in Congress now. If it weren't for the corporate opposition, SSSCA would be on GW's desk before we knew it.
Some seem to think that MS should have been in favour of this as it would "outlaw Linux". Not true - it just might outlaw running Linux without the SSSCA code.
I don't think MS wants to see Linux outlawed - they need at least it and MacOS to survive and hold enough market share that Windows isn't considered a monopoly.
This isn't as crazy as it sounds. We all know that the real purpose of CSS and Region codes on DVD's is to *control access*, not to prevent copying. And that's exactly what MSN appears to be doing. So, they could argue that changing your user-agent string to access their site and content on a non-approved browser or platform is 'circumventing a technological access control mechanism'. It makes every bit as much sense as the DeCSS case - which is none, but that's never stopped a lawyer before!
This reminds me of all of the database benchmarks, tp1, tpc, etc; the database vendors always tuned their products for these....
Well, if database vendors 'tuned' their products for benchmarks by not retrieving all the data if they detected a common benchmark, it would be the same thing. But I don't think any of them did that.
If ATI had actually optimized their drivers so that they improved performance in the Quake3 engine in general, without quality loss, there'd be no real problem. It's because they are detecting the benchmark and specifically doing less work to get higher framerates that this is a problem.
Shouldn't it be possible to run the DirectFB GUI on your box, and then have a slim X server which runs on top of DirectFB for running legacy X client apps on a remote machine (or the local machine)? Best of both worlds, so to speak.
The only catch is, anything you might want to run from another box, you'd need an X client version of it. So, you'd have to have both a DirectFB version if you wanted it to be fast locally, and an X client version accesible remotely.
I don't have a problem using Mozilla with First USA. I did a while back, but it seems like around 0.93 it started working. I never got a message to "upgrade my browser", it just bumped me back to the main page when I tried to log in. Works fine now, though.
My local cable is through Charter Communications, owned by Paul Allen. We've had cable modem for about a year and a half. DSL is still not available down here and won't be for a long time probably. I think the problem is that phone companies are 1) clueless, and 2) still trying to protect their T-1 sales. The cable companies in general seem perfectly willing to take up the slack. Charter is spending a good bit of money advertising Pipeline high-speed internet.
Unfortunately, the cable companies are still clueless about HDTV, which should be the next item on their agenda.
The admission price is lower, for now. Remember, at one time L. Ron was just a bad sci-fi writer too. It's not unimaginable that Lucas might see the Jedi religion as a huge money-maker. Then again, he seems to have already made plenty; L. Ron complained about writing not being lucrative enough before founding $cientology.
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I like URPMI, but the graphical Mandrake Update doesn't work for me. The last time I tried to use it, just to add some things I'd forgotten when I installed, it locked my system up so tight I couldn't even ssh into it. The hdd was spinning like there was no tomorrow. Incidentally, this is a system with 512MB RAM.
I ended up having to kill the power, luckily I had no filesystem corruption (thank you ext3).
Well, the problem is that binaries need to be in the $PATH to be really usable.
Sure, for command line stuff, you want your binaries in $PATH. On a 'desktop' distribution, though, what would be wrong with applications not being in the $PATH, but instead having all the menu items point to the correct location? Yeah, it would make it harder to launch apps from an xterm - but a lot of users don't care about that, and those that do could modify their $PATH or make some symlinks for stuff they use often.
The Hindenburg was hygrongen filled wasnt it?
Yes, and its skin was painted with rocket fuel, which was probably the real cause of the disaster.
They don't exactly finish the list in the song. Eight is the last day that actually has gifts, unless you count the babbling about a chainsaw and a baker's dozen of doughnuts at the end.
Here's what is mentioned:
8 comic books
7 packs of smokes
6 packs of two-four
5 golden touques
4 pounds of backbacon
3 French toasts
2 turtlenecks
and a beer... in a tree
Hmmph. I'm running Mdk8.1 on my desktop, and haven't had the first bit of trouble with it.
I looked at the Xandros page, though, and it looks promising. I don't treat my distribution like a religion - I'll move the minute I see something I like better.
I use KDE as my desktop, but I run Evolution (or sometimes Mozilla) for mail. Why? Kmail still can't store sent mail in an IMAP folder (I think it's on the agenda for KDE3).
No way that will happen. Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly in video games or set-tops, thus they are not part of the case. Of course, it's getting harder and harder for me to buy cool gear without supporting either Microsoft or Sony now. Damnit.
Yep, the lucky Japanese folks have had analog HDTV for years. Digital HDTV is the new North American standard. Terrestrial broadcasting looks like it's going to be ATSC standard over 8VSB modulation; there are about 15 resolutions ranging from 480-line interlaced (basically NTSC quality) up to 1080-line interlaced, or 720 progressive. So far, it looks like the majority of broadcasters will end up using 1080i.
Incidentally, there are quite a few HD broadcasts. CBS has a few HD shows, NBC shows Leno in high-def, there is a HD HBO and an HD Showtime available to satellite customers, and there's HDnet showing high-def sports programming for DirecTV customers.
Unfortunately, without satellite, you're probably hosed. Time-Warner cable has some areas where HD is available; otherwise you'd have to be in one of the cities whose broadcasters have brought a digital transmitter online already. There should be more available by May, 2002, although I'm sure a lot of the broadcasters will try to get that delayed even more.
Of course, you would first need Star Trek to be broadcast in HDTV. Heck, I'd be fine with it in NTSC resolution if it was anamorphic instead of letterboxed. Having only 360 lines of vertical resolution blows, especially since I'm having to tape it on VHS at least through this week's episode since we're doing childbirth classes on Wednesday nights.
Incidentally, I happen to think the theme song OK. I think it fits the show better than a big symphonic thing would. I bet I'm gonna get flamed for that, though.
I would have been nice if we could have finally gotten rid of interlaced signals with the HDTV spec, but it didn't happen.
There's nothing (but cost) stopping manufacturers from building TV's which can handle 1080p, and upconverting everything else. Then, in the future a 1080p source could take advantage of the capability. Some high-end CRT projectors can handle the scan rates required, but I haven't seen an RPTV that could do it yet.
HDTV is a joke and a flop. It's pretty much been rejected by most consumers. Want proof? Just look at all the 25,27 and 32 inch TV sets walking out of the doors of K-mart,Wal-mart and Target stores.
I suppose high-end stereo systems are also a joke and a flop since so many boomboxes are sold at K-mart, Target, and Walmart. When DVD's were still cutting edge, you could have made the same comparison regarding VHS. And I imagine you could have said the same about color TV vs. black-and-white, but I wasn't around back then so I can't be positive.
I agree that HDTV isn't getting rolled out quickly enough, but that's the fault of the broadcasters dragging their feet. And with no programming, it's hard to sell HDTV sets. But, among the crowd shopping for projection TV's, or the folks with discerning enough tastes not to buy the cheapest TV on the shelf, HD-ready sets are moving. They give better picture quality with DVD than NTSC-only sets. Projection TV's with HD capability also display a smoother image on broadcast TV since they generally de-interlace the image, avoiding the striped effect apparent on older projection sets.
At any rate, I'm glad the new games are coming out with HD support, it gives one more reason to pay the few extra bucks to get an HD-capable set. Oh, and it *is* just a few extra bucks, unless you're comparing a top-of-the-line HD-ready set to the cheapest RCA at Walmart.
Heatsinks don't just fall off.
Tell that to the remains of the 1GHz Athlon I have sitting on my desk. One of the nubs on the CPU socket broke and let the heatsink fall off while I was at work. I'm not sure how long the CPU lasted, but it was dead when I got home. From that point on, I won't buy a heatsink that only uses the two middle nubs to latch on.
Seeing DVDs now, i don't understand how anyone could be fooled into thinking they are high-quality, the artifacts are terrible.
Simple... the only comparisons are to broadcast or cable TV, VHS (ugh), or digital satellite/cable (more compression than DVD). A good DVD blows away any other source that's available to consumers now. Well, HD looks better, but it's not really all that available yet.
What sucks is that with a 100GB rewritable format available, the MPAA and such are now going to try to slow the HDTV rollout even more, saying that now their content won't be safe from piracy. Bastards.
It seems like a while back, I remember Word used to suggest "Jew" as a replacement for almost any short misspelled word. Or maybe that was WordPefect. Anyway, I can see why you might not want certain words suggested as replacements for spelling errors - someone mistypes "spit", you don't want to pop up "shit" as a possible correction.
(Apologies to MLK).
A Digital Media User's Bill of Rights.
A piece of legislation that lays out the rights consumers have with music, ebooks, movies, whatever, and makes it illegal for media producers to utilize any protection scheme which would prevent users from exercising these rights.
We should have the right to make a backup copy. We should have the right to time-shift programming. We should have the right to transfer from one format to another (eg, CD to MP3) for personal use on different devices. And we should be able to exercise these rights without any loss of quality imposed by copy protection. Obviously, we shouldn't be able to make gillions of copies for total strangers available on the internet, but we should probably have the right to make limited copies for friends and family.
Unfortunately, the chances of passing a piece of legislation that gives consumers rights and restricts corporations is just about nil. But if we could pull it off, we'd have won the battle against DMCA and SSSCA permanently.
The real difference is: when a corporation gets really big and it is no longer in your best interest to "support" them with your hard earned dollars, you can choose not to. Try that with the government.
I think we did try that with the government - in 1776. You'd think with that experience under our belts, we'd be able to keep our government of, by, and for the people on track. Unfortunately, not enough people know or care what's going on in Congress now. If it weren't for the corporate opposition, SSSCA would be on GW's desk before we knew it.
I don't think MS wants to see Linux outlawed - they need at least it and MacOS to survive and hold enough market share that Windows isn't considered a monopoly.
Is he currently buying up roads and putting up barriers to keep competing cars off?
Do his cars require upgrades every year, and crash two or three times a week?
There are plenty of reasons to dislike Microsoft other than that they are successful.
This isn't as crazy as it sounds. We all know that the real purpose of CSS and Region codes on DVD's is to *control access*, not to prevent copying. And that's exactly what MSN appears to be doing. So, they could argue that changing your user-agent string to access their site and content on a non-approved browser or platform is 'circumventing a technological access control mechanism'. It makes every bit as much sense as the DeCSS case - which is none, but that's never stopped a lawyer before!
Well, if database vendors 'tuned' their products for benchmarks by not retrieving all the data if they detected a common benchmark, it would be the same thing. But I don't think any of them did that.
If ATI had actually optimized their drivers so that they improved performance in the Quake3 engine in general, without quality loss, there'd be no real problem. It's because they are detecting the benchmark and specifically doing less work to get higher framerates that this is a problem.
You can buy X10 compatible devices at Radio Shack, but I bet X10 still makes money off licensing fees and such.
Shouldn't it be possible to run the DirectFB GUI on your box, and then have a slim X server which runs on top of DirectFB for running legacy X client apps on a remote machine (or the local machine)? Best of both worlds, so to speak.
The only catch is, anything you might want to run from another box, you'd need an X client version of it. So, you'd have to have both a DirectFB version if you wanted it to be fast locally, and an X client version accesible remotely.
I don't have a problem using Mozilla with First USA. I did a while back, but it seems like around 0.93 it started working. I never got a message to "upgrade my browser", it just bumped me back to the main page when I tried to log in. Works fine now, though.
Unfortunately, the cable companies are still clueless about HDTV, which should be the next item on their agenda.
The admission price is lower, for now. Remember, at one time L. Ron was just a bad sci-fi writer too. It's not unimaginable that Lucas might see the Jedi religion as a huge money-maker. Then again, he seems to have already made plenty; L. Ron complained about writing not being lucrative enough before founding $cientology.