Maybe I have a slanted view, but my little cousins aren't really good at more general apps; they always want to play a game. They were very confused when I logged in, and, by just banging on the keyboard, had "DOS" up. (I had run telnet to my comptuer at home; some 200 miles away) They were very confused, and thought it was lame that I was checking my e-mail rather than gaming. ________________________________________________
Please explain the more common features of web browsers; my grandmother took to using the drop-down URL menu in IE as her "favorites" menu and got very upset when I went to some sites...
Also, yet another computer education pet peeve of mine -- try to explain general concepts, not a specific application. I just took a really crappy 'multimedia' course; I was hoping I would learn something. Instead, I learned a lot about the software that came with the teacher's scanner, but not much else. ________________________________________________
... the size of the Internet. My grandfather is constantly remarking on how he found "yet another" website; I don't think he quite understands that there are billions of sites.
Also, a little pet peeve... Explain the 'syntax' of a URL -- what the "http://" means, and how the domain is essentially a reverse directory -- slashdot goes under "org", and "www" goes under Slashdot.
A smaller pet peeve -- the www isn't necessary. I've taken to not typing it at all, and very rarely do I need it.
As if you don't have enough tips... A discussion of e-mail hoaxes and spam is in order; not to mention viruses. I find that seniors are usually impressed with the coolness of a complete stranger sending them a 'webpage' as an attachement... And my grandfather was convinced for the longest time that the US Postal Service was going to start taxing everyone for lost profits due to e-mail. And dealing with spam could be its own lesson.
Good luck with the class, I appreciate what you're doing. ________________________________________________
Heh, thanks for the correction... I should read more carefully before I start fantasizing about things.:-D ________________________________________________
He he, I don't see what's with the tiny resolution... Eizo has a 50" Plasma that can do 1600x1200. Why this 60" monitor doesnt' seem to do better than what looks like 800x600 or so completely baffles me... ________________________________________________
Now, I realize it's not quite the same thing, but... I have picked up numerous 486s. No one will take them, it seems -- they're "junk." I've seen tons of them for sale, but I dont' think I've ever seen any being purchased
Junky or not, I've got a nice firewall, and what may soon become a backup. And another that I'm thinking of setting up as a nameserver. True, running Enlightenment on X and trying process multiple SETI@home work elements. But people seem to be spoiled by excessively fast computers. You don't need a 650 MHz SMP box to do a small amount of file-serving.
Don't get me wrong; there's no harm in having an underloaded computer if you've got the money; but the general opinion seems to be "This computer is five years old! Let's tear it to shreds!" ________________________________________________
The trend seems to be to move toward miniature computers. While it is difficult to argue that they are eye-catching, well... a train wreck is eye-catching, too.
My point is this: as everyone moves toward the smallest design possible, they are showing a disturbing trend. What happens when I want to add another hard drive? I need an external one. What about my PCI TV tuner? Do I need to rig something up so I can have that lying on my desk, too? Everyone is neglecting the need for expansion. My computer is in a very small case; I intend on building my next computer by hand, in a file server enclosure, because I'm already out of space, and don't have half the peripherals I want yet. ________________________________________________
IIRC, a company is legally considered to be a person in some aspects. While I cannot confirm that this is true, it could have some rather interesting implications.
However, I don't believe a company can vote... ________________________________________________
I've heard rumors of Compaq having some of its hardware techs working with RedHat to get Alpha support just right; I don't know that Sun has considered sending their engineers to discuss Linux with RH...
BTW, if you really can't find anything on the market, why not go with a real old version of RedHat or something? Sure, it's old, but you can always patch the kernel and applications... *cough* apt-get *cough*;) ________________________________________________
t is getting to the point where I am going to ACTIVELY pirate copyrighted media, just to show my absolute disgust for the MPAA and RIAA.
This is exactly why I have various forms of DeCSS saved on my hard drive, even though I don't have a DVD drive, nor any interest in watching DVDs anytime soon. ________________________________________________
The idea first struck me as quite odd -- you like reading flames. I personally do not, but, the more I thought about it, the more I loved your idea. Why not enable people to search for posts with a specific karma description? You know, for the days when you need a little humor; sometimes I just read scanning for "funny" posts. Of course, the system could allow for people to search for anything, so one could conceivably look for "flamebait" posts, or even "offtopic" posts. ________________________________________________
Anyone else stopped visiting JokeWallpaper now that they moved to this pay-based system? The site has become impossible to navigate; half of my window is filled with "Click here to purchase" stuff. Maybe they'll see the light and move back to the old way? ________________________________________________
the single-character domains have been blocked for a long time; but there's one thing I always wonder -- how is it that x.org is taken? (For the X Windows people) I'm yet to find another single character that's taken, although there may be others that I haven't found (domains, not letters in the alphabet... although that's always possible, too...)
Can anyone enlighten me? ________________________________________________
A *lot* of ISPs seem to have two-letter domains: he.net, mv.net (my old ISP), wi.com, etc. Apparently, they can hang onto them, but still... ________________________________________________
I pointed out a pathetic flaw at my school -- everyone has an account, but the default password is blank. The problem is, a lot of people don't know that they *have* an account... *Several* people have said, when I went to log off, "Oh, can you please just stay logged on? I don't have an account." I reply "Sure you do..." and help them, but, if I wanted to be malicious, I *could* just find their name, log into their account, and cause havoc...
I told the system administrator -- as my school's computer policy *requires* me to. (I might add, however, that the policy says "the network... or the Internet... I could have some fun pointing out security flaws in a proxy server in Afghanistan...") I was told "Just for telling me that, I could suspend your account and ban you from the computer lab."
I think the best approach is to just not help people unless they ask. Sure, it seems responsible to try to point out a security risk, but most network administrators seem to construe good-natured tips as being threats... The *real* ironic thing is that someone has been running a brute-force attempt to guess the admin's password for quite some time now; they're perfectly okay with this... ________________________________________________
This is a nifty idea and all, but... Did anyone else notice that it's a rectangle? The G4 Cube is a cube shape. (More or less...) This is not.
In addition, it is by no means clear. I suppose you could do one of those nifty case mods where you cuts the side panels out and put in plexiglass. But until that happens...
...I suggest we call this an "opaqueRACK," as it is both opaque and in a standard rack-server enclosure. Perhaps we can follow in the footsteps of Cue:Cat and many other companies, and introduce random characters, too... "opaque*RAQ" sounds much better, doesn't it?;) ________________________________________________
When was the last time you ran unknown programs (as root) on your machine, then manually copied them (and ran as root) on another machine as well?
Oh, I do that all the time. But when I'm short on time, I just post my hostname and root password on Slashdot so people can help me out. I also post my credit card numbers in newsgroups occasionally. ________________________________________________
I agree -- it seems to be fake. Doubt if the product actually exists, but, man, are they good with graphics! I decided to take a look at their portfolio, which has a 'link' that they forgot to link to anything...
Anyone want to fess up and explain what's going on? I think they're either going to be sued by Apple for releasing information prematurely, or they completely made this up. ________________________________________________
You forgot the biggest one -- Xerox. "Will you please Xerox this?" However, if I were Xerox, I wouldn't be 100% upset over this -- it's generally a clear sign that I am dominating the market. I prefer to drink Pepsi, but I generally just ask for a "coke" because it's the de facto 'standard'.
Still, when a Canon photocopier blows up, I would suddenly change my position on it being called a "Xerox." (Not to imply that Canon photocopiers explode often... Just a random example.) ________________________________________________
I can never play games the "right" way; the way they were designed to be played...
When I first started playing, a neighbor walked into my house. We were both males, but I noticed one of the available options was "Tickle". He shoved me, and never came back. I cracked up laughing, and decided to start calling him at 3 AM.
Sadly, though, I ended up quitting, because my character got to be in such horrible health that he refused to look for a job or clean up, and eventually couldn't afford food. Another highlight: when he ran out of money, he had a maid cleaning -- she took my trashcan as collateral! ________________________________________________
Anyone see the UserFriendly comic a while back; it was actually in a Linux mag -- it said "1 click shopping + 1 click mouse = trouble", or something to that effect - with a cat in front of the computer, presumably having purrchased (no pun intended) a new Porsche or something...
Sorry, just thought it was kinda funny. ________________________________________________
Doesn't anyone else feel it's time for a back to basics aproach with computers?
I've really gotta agree with you. Everyone considers GUIs "easy to use", and dismisses the command line as antiquated, meaningless gibberish. Now, I'm not one of those "I refuse to run X" people, but I prefer to use the command line for a lot of tasks.
For example... Try creating a directory. To a complete newbie, "mkdir" is some cryptic command. But with the slightest knowledge of the command line, it becomes evident that it's better. "mkdir foo" is a *lot* easier than starting Windows Explorer, navigating to the folder you want, and then right clicking, and renaming "New Folder".
I'm not advocating that people stop work on GUIs, but I think that if more people would take the time to learn the basics of the command line, people would be more proficient with computers. In some cases, a GUI is a lot better -- if you're searching for something, you might fire up a quick GUI to click a few boxes, and have it run grep for you. But if you spend tons of time every day doing that, why not just learn grep? There really is a reason I generally have multiple terminal windows open... ________________________________________________
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe I have a slanted view, but my little cousins aren't really good at more general apps; they always want to play a game. They were very confused when I logged in, and, by just banging on the keyboard, had "DOS" up. (I had run telnet to my comptuer at home; some 200 miles away) They were very confused, and thought it was lame that I was checking my e-mail rather than gaming.
________________________________________________
Please explain the more common features of web browsers; my grandmother took to using the drop-down URL menu in IE as her "favorites" menu and got very upset when I went to some sites...
Also, yet another computer education pet peeve of mine -- try to explain general concepts, not a specific application. I just took a really crappy 'multimedia' course; I was hoping I would learn something. Instead, I learned a lot about the software that came with the teacher's scanner, but not much else.
________________________________________________
Also, a little pet peeve... Explain the 'syntax' of a URL -- what the "http://" means, and how the domain is essentially a reverse directory -- slashdot goes under "org", and "www" goes under Slashdot.
A smaller pet peeve -- the www isn't necessary. I've taken to not typing it at all, and very rarely do I need it.
As if you don't have enough tips... A discussion of e-mail hoaxes and spam is in order; not to mention viruses. I find that seniors are usually impressed with the coolness of a complete stranger sending them a 'webpage' as an attachement... And my grandfather was convinced for the longest time that the US Postal Service was going to start taxing everyone for lost profits due to e-mail. And dealing with spam could be its own lesson.
Good luck with the class, I appreciate what you're doing.
________________________________________________
Heh, thanks for the correction... I should read more carefully before I start fantasizing about things. :-D
________________________________________________
He he, I don't see what's with the tiny resolution... Eizo has a 50" Plasma that can do 1600x1200. Why this 60" monitor doesnt' seem to do better than what looks like 800x600 or so completely baffles me...
________________________________________________
"I'm worried that one of these things will blow away with my new house attached to it."
or...
"I'm worried one of these things will drop a skyscraper on my house."
"What would happen if I poked it with a pin....?"
________________________________________________
Try tacking "will be quite slow" onto the end; it'll make far more sense.... :)
________________________________________________
Junky or not, I've got a nice firewall, and what may soon become a backup. And another that I'm thinking of setting up as a nameserver. True, running Enlightenment on X and trying process multiple SETI@home work elements. But people seem to be spoiled by excessively fast computers. You don't need a 650 MHz SMP box to do a small amount of file-serving.
Don't get me wrong; there's no harm in having an underloaded computer if you've got the money; but the general opinion seems to be "This computer is five years old! Let's tear it to shreds!"
________________________________________________
My point is this: as everyone moves toward the smallest design possible, they are showing a disturbing trend. What happens when I want to add another hard drive? I need an external one. What about my PCI TV tuner? Do I need to rig something up so I can have that lying on my desk, too? Everyone is neglecting the need for expansion. My computer is in a very small case; I intend on building my next computer by hand, in a file server enclosure, because I'm already out of space, and don't have half the peripherals I want yet.
________________________________________________
However, I don't believe a company can vote...
________________________________________________
I'm going to patent the process of copyrighting laws and charge them royalties.
________________________________________________
BTW, if you really can't find anything on the market, why not go with a real old version of RedHat or something? Sure, it's old, but you can always patch the kernel and applications... *cough* apt-get *cough* ;)
________________________________________________
This is exactly why I have various forms of DeCSS saved on my hard drive, even though I don't have a DVD drive, nor any interest in watching DVDs anytime soon.
________________________________________________
The idea first struck me as quite odd -- you like reading flames. I personally do not, but, the more I thought about it, the more I loved your idea. Why not enable people to search for posts with a specific karma description? You know, for the days when you need a little humor; sometimes I just read scanning for "funny" posts. Of course, the system could allow for people to search for anything, so one could conceivably look for "flamebait" posts, or even "offtopic" posts.
________________________________________________
Anyone else stopped visiting JokeWallpaper now that they moved to this pay-based system? The site has become impossible to navigate; half of my window is filled with "Click here to purchase" stuff. Maybe they'll see the light and move back to the old way?
________________________________________________
Can anyone enlighten me?
________________________________________________
A *lot* of ISPs seem to have two-letter domains: he.net, mv.net (my old ISP), wi.com, etc. Apparently, they can hang onto them, but still...
________________________________________________
I told the system administrator -- as my school's computer policy *requires* me to. (I might add, however, that the policy says "the network... or the Internet... I could have some fun pointing out security flaws in a proxy server in Afghanistan...") I was told "Just for telling me that, I could suspend your account and ban you from the computer lab."
I think the best approach is to just not help people unless they ask. Sure, it seems responsible to try to point out a security risk, but most network administrators seem to construe good-natured tips as being threats... The *real* ironic thing is that someone has been running a brute-force attempt to guess the admin's password for quite some time now; they're perfectly okay with this...
________________________________________________
In addition, it is by no means clear. I suppose you could do one of those nifty case mods where you cuts the side panels out and put in plexiglass. But until that happens...
...I suggest we call this an "opaqueRACK," as it is both opaque and in a standard rack-server enclosure. Perhaps we can follow in the footsteps of Cue:Cat and many other companies, and introduce random characters, too... "opaque*RAQ" sounds much better, doesn't it? ;)
________________________________________________
Oh, I do that all the time. But when I'm short on time, I just post my hostname and root password on Slashdot so people can help me out. I also post my credit card numbers in newsgroups occasionally.
________________________________________________
Anyone want to fess up and explain what's going on? I think they're either going to be sued by Apple for releasing information prematurely, or they completely made this up.
________________________________________________
Still, when a Canon photocopier blows up, I would suddenly change my position on it being called a "Xerox." (Not to imply that Canon photocopiers explode often... Just a random example.)
________________________________________________
When I first started playing, a neighbor walked into my house. We were both males, but I noticed one of the available options was "Tickle". He shoved me, and never came back. I cracked up laughing, and decided to start calling him at 3 AM.
Sadly, though, I ended up quitting, because my character got to be in such horrible health that he refused to look for a job or clean up, and eventually couldn't afford food. Another highlight: when he ran out of money, he had a maid cleaning -- she took my trashcan as collateral!
________________________________________________
Sorry, just thought it was kinda funny.
________________________________________________
I've really gotta agree with you. Everyone considers GUIs "easy to use", and dismisses the command line as antiquated, meaningless gibberish. Now, I'm not one of those "I refuse to run X" people, but I prefer to use the command line for a lot of tasks.
For example... Try creating a directory. To a complete newbie, "mkdir" is some cryptic command. But with the slightest knowledge of the command line, it becomes evident that it's better. "mkdir foo" is a *lot* easier than starting Windows Explorer, navigating to the folder you want, and then right clicking, and renaming "New Folder".
I'm not advocating that people stop work on GUIs, but I think that if more people would take the time to learn the basics of the command line, people would be more proficient with computers. In some cases, a GUI is a lot better -- if you're searching for something, you might fire up a quick GUI to click a few boxes, and have it run grep for you. But if you spend tons of time every day doing that, why not just learn grep? There really is a reason I generally have multiple terminal windows open...
________________________________________________