If you know Tim O'Reilly remind him that his books are best when they're not about politics.
I do know Tim O'Reilly, and while I'm not speaking for him or from him, I've got an opinion on this -
What *isn't* about politics? If you work in IT of any sort, you know that everything is politics. Just in reading discussions on/. you'll see constant debate that's not just technical, but personal and philosophical (whether they know it or not). Geeks are people too, and if geeks are considering getting their MSCE or hacking Perl, they're doing so because it affects their lives, they feel they're making the right choice, and they're deciding on matters that determine their career and IMHO their friggin' happiness.
So, sometimes a book comes along that geeks needs to read, like "The Cathedral...", that provides a cogent, authoritative viewpoint on software development. Sometimes, geeks get bored, fed up, or frustrated, and then, well, they read "User Friendly!"
Don't forget, that's 2 books out of ~500 that O'Reilly publishes. Hmm, vanity press indeed...
But then, Tim did name the company after himself;)
Has anyone thought about what having an open-source project behind this browser means? Netscape 6.0 will not be the final release, it will be the first in a continuous series of easily updatable (through XPConnect/.jar/etc., like every project on mozdev.org) standards-compliant open browsers that can be customized for any situation. Netscape 6.0 is the first of these; it's Netscape for consumers using separate browsers, with AOL properties. Use Mozilla instead, switch the chrome, do whatever you want, just remember Netscape isn't meant for the developer, Mozilla is.
But what about AOL's 60 million users? AOL will switch from using IE to using a Gecko-derived browser natively, which instantly migrates half the US internet population to Netscape. AOL patches their software almost every time a user connects, so for all of these users, the patches can be integrated piecemeal, and they *are* relatively minor problems.
Remember, Netscape 6 != Mozilla 1.0, it's roughly Mozilla 0.9 (look it up). People have been writing article after article slamming Netscape for not releasing a product, something, anything, "before it's too late," and now that they are, they're being lambasted from a different direction. Let them release the damn thing already!
While you're suffering from GiS withdrawal, take a listen/read of MBRL.
They say they're going to post Iron Chef episodes soon, to keep it alive now that it's cancelled in Japan. Damn I love that fsckin' show.
This is a great idea. I just went to the Jabber site, am downloading it, and have great hopes. I've been using "Everybuddy" for a few weeks now because it supports ICQ and IM in the same interface, and Jabber's specs (apparently) allow for any current or future system to be added with a module? Hey, I'd MUCH rather that than AOL IM.
In all seriousness, the CAVE is being researched and developed here at Brown University's Graphics Group, headed by Andy van Dam. I was asked if I wanted to do my thesis using one, but I rejected the idea because I'd have to teach myself this complex structure and write for it. I'm thinking I shoulda just sucked it up, huh?
It's really disappointing to see Mandrake, the winner of Best Product at LinuxWorld, if I remember right, being blasted for, what, documentation? As I read this article, I wondered whether anyone rating these distros had used Linux before, and whether they actually used the Linii they reviewed, because they talked about nothing but installing and things you could read on the box yourself - do I really need a hardcopy manual, really? Should it completely overshadow the completeness, functionality and speed of a real OS? And, number of "freeware" and "shareware" apps?? It's very misleading to say the free software included in a distro is "freeware," a diminuation of sorts.
Frankly, I haven't seen Corel Linux yet, but if they feel it's so close to Caldera, it will drive me bananas. I expect a distribution to give me everything I need to be productive *now*, and OpenLinux just did not cut it. I switched back to Mandrake w/GNOME faster than you can say "Damn, I see what they meant by gooey."
Can the currently available tools for pilot syncing (kpilot, staroffice, etc.) be used with the Visor? I figure they should, same OS, but... since I haven't read any explicit news about compatability, I don't want to assume...
I've been using ipchains for a month now, and I've been playing HalfLife, using ICQ, and just about anything you can think of with it... yeah, mini-HOWTO is absolutely invaluable for doing it.
Right on, bring us more Geeks In Space. We were listening to it here at work and having a grand ol' time. Sure, it's dorky, but at the same time you crazy kids are funny, like listening to me and my friends except with no effort.
I agree, and you're not saying anything I'm not doing. The commerce sites I work on are built on SQL databases using different kinds of page templates, etc. However, you still have to design the pages, and different sorts of products, different levels of the sites, different catalogs, etc. all needs different pages, and that's where I feel that sifting through mountains of code when it's possible to use a clean, direct, efficient WYSIWYg editor like Dreamweaver is a little silly.
Now, before Dreamweaver, I would have balked and said "use HomeSite/Hotmetal pro/etc." but, times are changing...
Just to respond, here's me reasoning. I want to use Linux. I want to use it on a Pentium II machine. I also know that 85-90% of web users are using Windows. Hence, I have to use a PC with Windows *at least* some of the time to do testing, so I might as well use it to do a lot of my design, since all the tools I use are available on it. Plus, if I'm going to design a web page that 90% of the audience is going to be viewing in Windows, I am going to create it in Windows so that through the entire process I'm conscious of what my audience will really see. PC color palettes are darker, quirks between the browsers make differences, etc.
Not to say I wouldn't love to be designing natively in Linux or Mac (each for different reasons, preferably Linux because of stability), it's just not the reality I can work with now.
Again, this is worthless information for a post. If you want to use a text editor, then go ahead, fine by me. But have you ever had to manage an e-commerce site with 15,000 products with a plain text editor? And several people working on it at once? You want to deal with the frustration, waste of time and RSI that comes with it? Never.
It's incredibly difficult to do any kind of real web development without a sophisticated solution created *specifically* for the Web. Just like how I love using GIMP, but I create all my web graphics with Fireworks 2, because it's created from the ground-up with the Web in mind.
I'm dying for Macromedia to develop Dreamweaver for Linux, because it is honestly one of the few apps that keep me tied to Windows. I'm officially an "online media designer" and unofficially both a geek and art snob, and Dreamweaver fulfills all these wishes.
Honestly, for high-volume or high-quality/beauty web page creation, it is near-impossible to crack on about "use notepad/simpletext/blah blah". At least grab a full HTML-editor like BBEdit or, my favorite, HomeSite. They can fill any text gaps you may have, and are already integrated with Dreamweaver depending on your platform.
Slashdot Mirror
I do know Tim O'Reilly, and while I'm not speaking for him or from him, I've got an opinion on this -
What *isn't* about politics? If you work in IT of any sort, you know that everything is politics. Just in reading discussions on /. you'll see constant debate that's not just technical, but personal and philosophical (whether they know it or not). Geeks are people too, and if geeks are considering getting their MSCE or hacking Perl, they're doing so because it affects their lives, they feel they're making the right choice, and they're deciding on matters that determine their career and IMHO their friggin' happiness.
So, sometimes a book comes along that geeks needs to read, like "The Cathedral ...", that provides a cogent, authoritative viewpoint on software development. Sometimes, geeks get bored, fed up, or frustrated, and then, well, they read "User Friendly!"
Don't forget, that's 2 books out of ~500 that O'Reilly publishes. Hmm, vanity press indeed ...
But then, Tim did name the company after himself ;)
Has anyone thought about what having an open-source project behind this browser means? Netscape 6.0 will not be the final release, it will be the first in a continuous series of easily updatable (through XPConnect/.jar/etc., like every project on mozdev.org) standards-compliant open browsers that can be customized for any situation. Netscape 6.0 is the first of these; it's Netscape for consumers using separate browsers, with AOL properties. Use Mozilla instead, switch the chrome, do whatever you want, just remember Netscape isn't meant for the developer, Mozilla is.
But what about AOL's 60 million users? AOL will switch from using IE to using a Gecko-derived browser natively, which instantly migrates half the US internet population to Netscape. AOL patches their software almost every time a user connects, so for all of these users, the patches can be integrated piecemeal, and they *are* relatively minor problems.
Remember, Netscape 6 != Mozilla 1.0, it's roughly Mozilla 0.9 (look it up). People have been writing article after article slamming Netscape for not releasing a product, something, anything, "before it's too late," and now that they are, they're being lambasted from a different direction. Let them release the damn thing already!
While you're suffering from GiS withdrawal, take a listen/read of MBRL. They say they're going to post Iron Chef episodes soon, to keep it alive now that it's cancelled in Japan. Damn I love that fsckin' show.
Listen and laugh ...
For an alternative to GiS, check out My Bong Runs Linux. It's another geek radio show, that, well, just click on the link.
This is a great idea. I just went to the Jabber site, am downloading it, and have great hopes. I've been using "Everybuddy" for a few weeks now because it supports ICQ and IM in the same interface, and Jabber's specs (apparently) allow for any current or future system to be added with a module? Hey, I'd MUCH rather that than AOL IM.
-bp
In all seriousness, the CAVE is being researched and developed here at Brown University's Graphics Group, headed by Andy van Dam. I was asked if I wanted to do my thesis using one, but I rejected the idea because I'd have to teach myself this complex structure and write for it. I'm thinking I shoulda just sucked it up, huh?
-bp
It's really disappointing to see Mandrake, the winner of Best Product at LinuxWorld, if I remember right, being blasted for, what, documentation? As I read this article, I wondered whether anyone rating these distros had used Linux before, and whether they actually used the Linii they reviewed, because they talked about nothing but installing and things you could read on the box yourself - do I really need a hardcopy manual, really? Should it completely overshadow the completeness, functionality and speed of a real OS? And, number of "freeware" and "shareware" apps?? It's very misleading to say the free software included in a distro is "freeware," a diminuation of sorts.
Frankly, I haven't seen Corel Linux yet, but if they feel it's so close to Caldera, it will drive me bananas. I expect a distribution to give me everything I need to be productive *now*, and OpenLinux just did not cut it. I switched back to Mandrake w/GNOME faster than you can say "Damn, I see what they meant by gooey."
-bp
Can the currently available tools for pilot syncing (kpilot, staroffice, etc.) be used with the Visor? I figure they should, same OS, but ... since I haven't read any explicit news about compatability, I don't want to assume ...
-creon
I've been using ipchains for a month now, and I've been playing HalfLife, using ICQ, and just about anything you can think of with it ... yeah, mini-HOWTO is absolutely invaluable for doing it.
Right on, bring us more Geeks In Space. We were listening to it here at work and having a grand ol' time. Sure, it's dorky, but at the same time you crazy kids are funny, like listening to me and my friends except with no effort.
latah.
ditto.
I agree, and you're not saying anything I'm not doing. The commerce sites I work on are built on SQL databases using different kinds of page templates, etc. However, you still have to design the pages, and different sorts of products, different levels of the sites, different catalogs, etc. all needs different pages, and that's where I feel that sifting through mountains of code when it's possible to use a clean, direct, efficient WYSIWYg editor like Dreamweaver is a little silly.
...
Now, before Dreamweaver, I would have balked and said "use HomeSite/Hotmetal pro/etc." but, times are changing
Just to respond, here's me reasoning. I want to use Linux. I want to use it on a Pentium II machine. I also know that 85-90% of web users are using Windows. Hence, I have to use a PC with Windows *at least* some of the time to do testing, so I might as well use it to do a lot of my design, since all the tools I use are available on it. Plus, if I'm going to design a web page that 90% of the audience is going to be viewing in Windows, I am going to create it in Windows so that through the entire process I'm conscious of what my audience will really see. PC color palettes are darker, quirks between the browsers make differences, etc.
Not to say I wouldn't love to be designing natively in Linux or Mac (each for different reasons, preferably Linux because of stability), it's just not the reality I can work with now.
Again, this is worthless information for a post. If you want to use a text editor, then go ahead, fine by me. But have you ever had to manage an e-commerce site with 15,000 products with a plain text editor? And several people working on it at once? You want to deal with the frustration, waste of time and RSI that comes with it? Never.
It's incredibly difficult to do any kind of real web development without a sophisticated solution created *specifically* for the Web. Just like how I love using GIMP, but I create all my web graphics with Fireworks 2, because it's created from the ground-up with the Web in mind.
Phew!!
I'm dying for Macromedia to develop Dreamweaver for Linux, because it is honestly one of the few apps that keep me tied to Windows. I'm officially an "online media designer" and unofficially both a geek and art snob, and Dreamweaver fulfills all these wishes.
...
Honestly, for high-volume or high-quality/beauty web page creation, it is near-impossible to crack on about "use notepad/simpletext/blah blah". At least grab a full HTML-editor like BBEdit or, my favorite, HomeSite. They can fill any text gaps you may have, and are already integrated with Dreamweaver depending on your platform.
Now back to our regularly scheduled program