Mea culpa! I was being sloppy. I meant the main case. I was wanted to be specific in my comments, because I think the keyboard and mouse are not in the same league, design-wise, as the system itself.
I just got a G5 this week (my first Mac in years since a 6100) and I was blown away when I took it out of the box. I can't remember when I last saw a piece of computer hardware that made me just want to inspect its every nook and cranny. The CPU is such a beautiful example of form, function and fit. Simply gorgeous. Now if Apple would only rethink their keyboard and mouse designs - mine immediately went back in the box to be replaced w/ Logitech wireless hardware.
As for OS X - lots of good human factors engineering at work there as well. There are a few aspects of window management that I dearly miss from my Linux boxen though like middle mouse button paste and the window-embedded menu bars. The latter is a real pain on multi-display machines that force you to mouse to the other end of the desktop just to access a non-hotkeyed menu option. I've gotta spend some time surfing, because I have to believe someone's made a hack for the middle mouse button paste at the very least.
I know some of the major beefs with FC2 centered around changes to Nautilus, but I didn't pay much attention since I very rarely use it or any graphical file manager. How important is graphical file management on the Linux desktop? I'm a command line file twiddler myself, and the things I rely on GNOME for are around menu, applet, launcher, and basic window manager functionality. I don't know how much of my desktop's bloat is associated with Nautilus, but it's certainly a tax I could do without paying...
I really appreciated this sub-thread. In the course of upgrading my order from a 2x1.8 to a 2x2 this morning I bumped up the video card as well. After the upgrades I still saved $70 over my original order price. WooT!:D
I know I'm looking forward to the low sound output since I'll be using my for digital audio work. I'd been using an old Linux box running FC1/PlanetCCRMA as my primary DAW, and that thing sounded like a jet about ready to take off. Hardly the kind of thing you want in a recording studio.:) That said, there are still some audio apps for Linux that I expect to keep using even after my G5 shows up.
I was a little upset when I spotted the upgrades early this morning because I just ordered a G5 1.8x2 the day before last. Imagine my delight when I got an email this morning from them offering to let me change my order. So now I'm getting a G5 2x2 for a hundred bucks less. Booyah!
This is a really succinct chronology that matches my understanding of the Linux kernel's early history and puts the lie to Brown's text. Thanks for taking the time to write it, Gnat! As you say, Linus' real strength is in managing the project that the Linux kernel has become. He just also happened to be in the right place at the right time when he posted that original memo announcing his infant kernel all those years ago.
Am I missing something, or is the implication made that Linux became a fullblown and mature OS overnight? The earliest version that Linus put together was incomplete and immature. No one ever claimed that Linus got from version 0.0 to 2.x.y all by his lonesome. We all know (now) that he had plenty of help from Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy...
One obvious application is to use the images as texture maps for 3D FPS simulators to train law enforcement or military in virtual urban environments. Just the ticket for training the troops to put down local uprisings.:)
Two days of excellent reading in a row from Professor Tanenbaum. I'm grateful that people like this are thoughtfully and carefully debunking so much of the FUD that certain nameless corporations would love to see propagated.
"Finally, Brown began to focus sharply. He kept asking, in different forms, how one person could write an operating system all by himself. He simply didn't believe that was possible."
How many people does Brown thing wrote the original version of DOS? Microsoft wouldn't have gotten their big break were it not for Tim Paterson's SOLO coding effort.
And does anyone actually think that traditional vehicles actually get the fuel economy advertised on the sticker? How many people drive traditionally powered cars that make fuel economy as visible and obvious as the Prius? How many people rigorously compute their fuel economy at each fill up? Methinks if more vehicles actively reported their instantaneous and average fuel economy there would be lots of pissed off people driving "regular" cars as well. The bottom line? Fuel economy is CLOSELY tied to how the car is used. You can get really great fuel economy with an HEV or "crummy" fuel economy. And I use the word crummy very loosely since bad HEV economy is still much better than most contemporary alternatives.
Disclaimer - I'm a very satisfied 2002 Prius owner who sometimes gets awesome mileage and sometimes not - it depends on how I'm using the vehicle during a fill up. I track fuel economy on my webpage if anyone cares to see how much variability you get based on the drive cycle.
You'd think after two major mishaps at Oscorp that resulted in insane super-criminals that they'd at the very least have their QS9000 certification revoked!
Those of us working on embedded controls software have been headed in this direction for a while. Graphical programming tied to simulation and target code generation is a pretty powerful combination. You can manage unit or system level testing in simulation and back-to-back regression test on hardware very easily.
I ordered a Squeezebox after reading the/. story posted back in December, and I'm glad I did. I've since added a second box in my house and my Dad bought one too. It's a terrific interface that makes my music collection available anywhere in the house. Slimdevices along with the development community has been great at fixing bugs and enhancing the functionality of the server software and unit firmware. Check 'em out!
You didn't like the drawing package? I think that's one of OO's strong points. It's incredibly flexible and full-featured IMHO. Perhaps it has too many widgets?
Hmmmm. I guess the fact that OpenOffice successfully opens.doc files from old versions of MSOffice that recent MSOffice revs can't read isn't interesting... or it's a fluke... Nah, must have been user error. Maybe I need to be retrained. Me glazzies! I can't shut me glazzies!
Why spend money on science when we can focus on establish a manned base on a satellite that may have exploitable resources. And what's the point of establishing a long-term presence on the moon if not to identify exploitable resources?
Thankfully for the oil conglomerates we've been able to take huge leaps backwards! The Hummer just manages to eek out double digit fuel economy. On the down side, it doesn't come with a cigarette lighter - you have to light your cigars with 100 dollar bills...
This thread is making me feel all warm and tingly inside. What a wonderful world we'll live in when RFID is pervasive! Privacy? Anonymity? What's that?
Some friends and I were having a discussion about the new twenty dollar bills here in the US. It suddenly occurred to me that there's a really exciting opportunity for paper circuitry and RFID tagging here. I can't wait for the day when a device can passively scan me to know how much money I have on my person. And just think of the data mining opportunities. I'm sure marketing department loins are already stirring...
I know I'm spoiled for life. I do a lot of CAD work with Simulink, and I need as much real estate as possible. I splurged and added a second 20" monitor running 1600x1200 for my main desktop and I will never go back. Working on anything else seems like trying to perform surgery in a straightjacket! (I exaggerate, but not by much.)
For those that care, I'm running a Gateway 20", a BENQ 20" LCD (which I love), and an Asylum5200FX card with Redhat 9. I work across 3 machines so I have a seperate 2 screen desktop for each of them that I jump between. It works out very nicely.
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Mea culpa! I was being sloppy. I meant the main case. I was wanted to be specific in my comments, because I think the keyboard and mouse are not in the same league, design-wise, as the system itself.
I just got a G5 this week (my first Mac in years since a 6100) and I was blown away when I took it out of the box. I can't remember when I last saw a piece of computer hardware that made me just want to inspect its every nook and cranny. The CPU is such a beautiful example of form, function and fit. Simply gorgeous. Now if Apple would only rethink their keyboard and mouse designs - mine immediately went back in the box to be replaced w/ Logitech wireless hardware.
As for OS X - lots of good human factors engineering at work there as well. There are a few aspects of window management that I dearly miss from my Linux boxen though like middle mouse button paste and the window-embedded menu bars. The latter is a real pain on multi-display machines that force you to mouse to the other end of the desktop just to access a non-hotkeyed menu option. I've gotta spend some time surfing, because I have to believe someone's made a hack for the middle mouse button paste at the very least.
I know some of the major beefs with FC2 centered around changes to Nautilus, but I didn't pay much attention since I very rarely use it or any graphical file manager. How important is graphical file management on the Linux desktop? I'm a command line file twiddler myself, and the things I rely on GNOME for are around menu, applet, launcher, and basic window manager functionality. I don't know how much of my desktop's bloat is associated with Nautilus, but it's certainly a tax I could do without paying...
I really appreciated this sub-thread. In the course of upgrading my order from a 2x1.8 to a 2x2 this morning I bumped up the video card as well. After the upgrades I still saved $70 over my original order price. WooT! :D
I know I'm looking forward to the low sound output since I'll be using my for digital audio work. I'd been using an old Linux box running FC1/PlanetCCRMA as my primary DAW, and that thing sounded like a jet about ready to take off. Hardly the kind of thing you want in a recording studio. :) That said, there are still some audio apps for Linux that I expect to keep using even after my G5 shows up.
I was a little upset when I spotted the upgrades early this morning because I just ordered a G5 1.8x2 the day before last. Imagine my delight when I got an email this morning from them offering to let me change my order. So now I'm getting a G5 2x2 for a hundred bucks less. Booyah!
This is a really succinct chronology that matches my understanding of the Linux kernel's early history and puts the lie to Brown's text. Thanks for taking the time to write it, Gnat! As you say, Linus' real strength is in managing the project that the Linux kernel has become. He just also happened to be in the right place at the right time when he posted that original memo announcing his infant kernel all those years ago.
Am I missing something, or is the implication made that Linux became a fullblown and mature OS overnight? The earliest version that Linus put together was incomplete and immature. No one ever claimed that Linus got from version 0.0 to 2.x.y all by his lonesome. We all know (now) that he had plenty of help from Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy...
Lots of others think this is a viable business model as well. The Phantom video game console will be offered for free with a software subscription.
One obvious application is to use the images as texture maps for 3D FPS simulators to train law enforcement or military in virtual urban environments. Just the ticket for training the troops to put down local uprisings. :)
Two days of excellent reading in a row from Professor Tanenbaum. I'm grateful that people like this are thoughtfully and carefully debunking so much of the FUD that certain nameless corporations would love to see propagated.
This simply confounded me...
"Finally, Brown began to focus sharply. He kept asking, in different forms, how one person could write an operating system all by himself. He simply didn't believe that was possible."
How many people does Brown thing wrote the original version of DOS? Microsoft wouldn't have gotten their big break were it not for Tim Paterson's SOLO coding effort.
Great article though...
Someone mod this brilliant person up!
And does anyone actually think that traditional vehicles actually get the fuel economy advertised on the sticker? How many people drive traditionally powered cars that make fuel economy as visible and obvious as the Prius? How many people rigorously compute their fuel economy at each fill up? Methinks if more vehicles actively reported their instantaneous and average fuel economy there would be lots of pissed off people driving "regular" cars as well. The bottom line? Fuel economy is CLOSELY tied to how the car is used. You can get really great fuel economy with an HEV or "crummy" fuel economy. And I use the word crummy very loosely since bad HEV economy is still much better than most contemporary alternatives.
Disclaimer - I'm a very satisfied 2002 Prius owner who sometimes gets awesome mileage and sometimes not - it depends on how I'm using the vehicle during a fill up. I track fuel economy on my webpage if anyone cares to see how much variability you get based on the drive cycle.
3D graphics - Linear Algebra
Digital Signal Processing (for Audio) - Complex Math
You'd think after two major mishaps at Oscorp that resulted in insane super-criminals that they'd at the very least have their QS9000 certification revoked!
Those of us working on embedded controls software have been headed in this direction for a while. Graphical programming tied to simulation and target code generation is a pretty powerful combination. You can manage unit or system level testing in simulation and back-to-back regression test on hardware very easily.
I ordered a Squeezebox after reading the /. story posted back in December, and I'm glad I did. I've since added a second box in my house and my Dad bought one too. It's a terrific interface that makes my music collection available anywhere in the house. Slimdevices along with the development community has been great at fixing bugs and enhancing the functionality of the server software and unit firmware. Check 'em out!
You didn't like the drawing package? I think that's one of OO's strong points. It's incredibly flexible and full-featured IMHO. Perhaps it has too many widgets?
Hmmmm. I guess the fact that OpenOffice successfully opens .doc files from old versions of MSOffice that recent MSOffice revs can't read isn't interesting... or it's a fluke... Nah, must have been user error. Maybe I need to be retrained. Me glazzies! I can't shut me glazzies!
...or economic.
Why spend money on science when we can focus on establish a manned base on a satellite that may have exploitable resources. And what's the point of establishing a long-term presence on the moon if not to identify exploitable resources?
Thankfully for the oil conglomerates we've been able to take huge leaps backwards! The Hummer just manages to eek out double digit fuel economy. On the down side, it doesn't come with a cigarette lighter - you have to light your cigars with 100 dollar bills...
:)
Did I mention how much I love my Toyota Prius?
This thread is making me feel all warm and tingly inside. What a wonderful world we'll live in when RFID is pervasive! Privacy? Anonymity? What's that?
Some friends and I were having a discussion about the new twenty dollar bills here in the US. It suddenly occurred to me that there's a really exciting opportunity for paper circuitry and RFID tagging here. I can't wait for the day when a device can passively scan me to know how much money I have on my person. And just think of the data mining opportunities. I'm sure marketing department loins are already stirring...
(Sarcasm mode active for the humor impaired)
I know I'm spoiled for life. I do a lot of CAD work with Simulink, and I need as much real estate as possible. I splurged and added a second 20" monitor running 1600x1200 for my main desktop and I will never go back. Working on anything else seems like trying to perform surgery in a straightjacket! (I exaggerate, but not by much.)
For those that care, I'm running a Gateway 20", a BENQ 20" LCD (which I love), and an Asylum5200FX card with Redhat 9. I work across 3 machines so I have a seperate 2 screen desktop for each of them that I jump between. It works out very nicely.