I sometimes compose in BBEdit just for its simplicity and speed. Later, I format the document in a word processor (OpenOffice.org for the last year).
I, too, hate Word for all the same reasons that the author mentioned and I hate OpenOffice.org for mimicing all of Word's flaws.
There's something nice about writing in a text editor. You don't get distracted by all the little adjustments available in word processors. You just write.
I guess that's pretty true if you stick with a stock installations but, given enough time, I've always drifted into configurations that seem to entail some loose ends (un-official software that I've installed).
As a result, while supporting old distibutions is expensive for vendors, repeated upgrade cycles are likewise unpleasant for me.
As a result, I have to be dragged kicking and screaming from one major release to the next. I skipped RH8 altogether.
The important thing is that there seems to be a lot of work being done to deal with these issues, from/by/for both ends of the community.
I started reading your post but then my eyes began to bug out of my head, vibrating about uncontrollably.
You've probably written the best post here, but I imagine few people will read it. Please consider dividing future posts into digestable sections called "paragraphs."
--Richard
I don't believe it for a second
on
Solar Window Panes
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I don't believe this story for a second. Not a bit.
For decades I have been folowing solar cell technology, absolutely salivating at the promises that efficiency rating would soon rise above 15%.
Well, I've given up. I've read shitty pie-in-the-sky stories like this almost every year for the last 25-years.
Now, if someone on Slashdot tells me that they bought these +50% efficient solar cells in Home Depot, that's when I'll get excited. Like I'll get excited when Chevrolet markets a flying car or my city puts a nuclear fusion power plant into service.
"This effectively exists already. Recordable CD/DVD longevity is largely a function of dye stability. Over-generalizing, modern media support higher-speed writing because the dye is more stable. Ergo, greater long-term stability."
That "ergo" sure does contain a lot of assumptions.
Who cares how quickly a web browser loads up? You do, but why? Because it crashes? Because your machine locks up?
I start up web browsers on my computers once every couple weeks. Tops....even on my laptop, which runs 24/7 but sleeps as needed.
My dad (he's 63) works the same way. He's no hacker, but he doesn't relaunch either--let alone reboot--any more than he has too, which is on the order of weeks.
I should add that all these machines are running Linux or Mac OS X. I'm not qualified to speculate how often or why users need to relaunch web browsers on Windows.
As a read through all the posts on this topic, there's an overwhelming interest in the LEAST IMPORTANT performance characteristic of applications, their startup time. The bigger issue for slow-computer users like myself is the sluggish GUI performance of Mozilla, yet there's not a word about that.
I'm not going to complain too strongly, though. My computer was constructed before there was even a Mozilla web browser to complain about. I'm impressed that it's usable at all.
"They get points for lying and then admitting to it later?"
Absolutely. You don't think there's virtue in there, somewhere?
Also, note in their statement that they were direct and frank. They didn't mince words as most other companies would have.
Imagine if Microsoft where to do the same thing:
Well, we don't really know anything about security and we've really been lying to all of you all along. The truth is, we don't even care about security. We don't care about you, for that matter. We just thought you ought to know.
If MS were to be that frank, I'd give them points, too.
The total cost of anything is a tough number to pin down. I'm always suspicious of total cost figures because so much of what goes in to them amounts to pulling numbers from asses.
And I'm all against mercury poisoning. Put me on the record.
On ther otherhand -- as my father would say -- didn't that mercury originally come from the earth in the first place?
I'm not trying to over-simplify anything. I just want to make people think.
I, too, hated the funky color flourescent lights produced. Then, about a year ago, I discovered that Sunbeam sold screw-in flourescent lights that emit light indistinguishable from incandescents (to my pretty picky eyes).
I originally bought them from Target but stopped by a few days ago for the first time in a long time and learned that the don't sell them anymore. Oh, the wonders of the American marketing machine.
Not all flourscent lights are the same. Find the Sunbeams.
"First, we tend to focus on the flaws in Windows."
Man, I wish that were true. I really do, but it's not.
Windows flaws are duplicated.
The flaw that bit my ass a couple weeks ago... auto-numbering in OpenOffice.com's word processor. Faithfully duplicates Word's shitting auto-numbering "feature". Godawful.
Slashdot Mirror
Please rewrite this, breaking it into paragraphs, and re-submit it.
--Richard
I sometimes compose in BBEdit just for its simplicity and speed. Later, I format the document in a word processor (OpenOffice.org for the last year).
I, too, hate Word for all the same reasons that the author mentioned and I hate OpenOffice.org for mimicing all of Word's flaws.
There's something nice about writing in a text editor. You don't get distracted by all the little adjustments available in word processors. You just write.
That's what it's all about, anyway.
--Richard
PS: I ALWAYS turn off live spellchecking.
"...I easily go through 80 gigs a month..."
Do tell. Please.
Well, it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it? After all, a lot of game makers would love to ship 500k units.
And personally, I'd love the burden of paying $50,000 taxes every year, if you catch my drift.
Sorry, dude, the news is pretty much out on this... per installation, *nix is attacked more than Windows.
Maybe you were on vacation or you trashed the news with the rest of your Windows virus-infected email.
BTW, troll, troll, troll.
My grandmother (on my father's side) was using Linux back in the early 70's. That was back before X-windows. She used a Smith-Corona keyboard.
Come on, guys! This is a joke.
This message and variants of it have been posted for a long time on Slashdot. Like the "image a beowulf-cluster of these."
If a fucking joke!
"upgrading is no big deal."
I guess that's pretty true if you stick with a stock installations but, given enough time, I've always drifted into configurations that seem to entail some loose ends (un-official software that I've installed).
As a result, while supporting old distibutions is expensive for vendors, repeated upgrade cycles are likewise unpleasant for me.
As a result, I have to be dragged kicking and screaming from one major release to the next. I skipped RH8 altogether.
The important thing is that there seems to be a lot of work being done to deal with these issues, from/by/for both ends of the community.
--Richard
Very cool. I was pretty bummed when Red Hat started making me jump through hoops to use up2date, a utility which has always worked very well for me.
Thanks for posting it. This is what "community" is all about.
--Richard
Well, since it's a rip-off of MS Office, I don't know how you can say it was ugly.
Lemme guess... You don't buckle your seatbelt so that you can be thrown to saftey from a potential car wreck.
I started reading your post but then my eyes began to bug out of my head, vibrating about uncontrollably.
You've probably written the best post here, but I imagine few people will read it. Please consider dividing future posts into digestable sections called "paragraphs."
--Richard
I don't believe this story for a second. Not a bit.
For decades I have been folowing solar cell technology, absolutely salivating at the promises that efficiency rating would soon rise above 15%.
Well, I've given up. I've read shitty pie-in-the-sky stories like this almost every year for the last 25-years.
Now, if someone on Slashdot tells me that they bought these +50% efficient solar cells in Home Depot, that's when I'll get excited. Like I'll get excited when Chevrolet markets a flying car or my city puts a nuclear fusion power plant into service.
Chill out guys, it ain't real 'till it's real.
--Richard
"This effectively exists already. Recordable CD/DVD longevity is largely a function of dye stability. Over-generalizing, modern media support higher-speed writing because the dye is more stable. Ergo, greater long-term stability."
That "ergo" sure does contain a lot of assumptions.
--Richard
Yours is the worst plan I have ever heard of. Dreadful.
It relies on the ongoing support of a human being, creatures notorious for their fickleness.
I bet all your shit is gone in just 30-years... forget a lifetime. Also, which of your children are you going to curse with this honor?
--Richard
>> Actually, yes. And they are mailed to me nightly.
>> I usually get 1 or 2 correctable errors a week.
And how many undetected errors do you log each week?
--Richard
"ANY software can be compromised to ANY degree."
This is REALLY close to a troll.
FUD.
And, by the evidence of 15-years, untrue.
--Richard
Actually, since you brought it up...
...even on my laptop, which runs 24/7 but sleeps as needed.
Who cares how quickly a web browser loads up? You do, but why? Because it crashes? Because your machine locks up?
I start up web browsers on my computers once every couple weeks. Tops.
My dad (he's 63) works the same way. He's no hacker, but he doesn't relaunch either--let alone reboot--any more than he has too, which is on the order of weeks.
I should add that all these machines are running Linux or Mac OS X. I'm not qualified to speculate how often or why users need to relaunch web browsers on Windows.
As a read through all the posts on this topic, there's an overwhelming interest in the LEAST IMPORTANT performance characteristic of applications, their startup time. The bigger issue for slow-computer users like myself is the sluggish GUI performance of Mozilla, yet there's not a word about that.
I'm not going to complain too strongly, though. My computer was constructed before there was even a Mozilla web browser to complain about. I'm impressed that it's usable at all.
--Richard
I have a PII/266. It's fast enough to run Mozilla. But you are WAY short on memory. Your problem is that you are waiting on VM swaps.
--Richard
Absolutely. You don't think there's virtue in there, somewhere?
Also, note in their statement that they were direct and frank. They didn't mince words as most other companies would have.
Imagine if Microsoft where to do the same thing:
If MS were to be that frank, I'd give them points, too.
--Richard
Don't be too hard on the Apple marketing kids...
Like most people, they don't know the difference between an abbreviation and an acronym.
--Richard
The total cost of anything is a tough number to pin down. I'm always suspicious of total cost figures because so much of what goes in to them amounts to pulling numbers from asses.
And I'm all against mercury poisoning. Put me on the record.
On ther otherhand -- as my father would say -- didn't that mercury originally come from the earth in the first place?
I'm not trying to over-simplify anything. I just want to make people think.
--Richard
"Tax the incandescents till so that they're the same price as the LEDs (or floresents currently ~$10-15)."
Taxes solve problems? Taxes NEVER solve problems. Why don't we just cut off people's hands so that the can never screw in an incandescent bulb?
BTW, you need to go shopping. Your price quotes for flourescents are waaay off.
--Richard
PS: You're lucky there's no bad-idea tax.
>> 3. They make everyone look slightly green
Keep shopping.
I, too, hated the funky color flourescent lights produced. Then, about a year ago, I discovered that Sunbeam sold screw-in flourescent lights that emit light indistinguishable from incandescents (to my pretty picky eyes).
I originally bought them from Target but stopped by a few days ago for the first time in a long time and learned that the don't sell them anymore. Oh, the wonders of the American marketing machine.
Not all flourscent lights are the same. Find the Sunbeams.
--Richard
"First, we tend to focus on the flaws in Windows."
Man, I wish that were true. I really do, but it's not.
Windows flaws are duplicated.
The flaw that bit my ass a couple weeks ago... auto-numbering in OpenOffice.com's word processor. Faithfully duplicates Word's shitting auto-numbering "feature". Godawful.
It's all about duplication. Period.
--Richard