The posts suggesting you don't re-invent the wheel are wise, especially since there are already packages out there to get you where you want to go with negligible overhead. Check out xubuntu for a pretty much out-of-the-box barebones GUI without spending a week or two (or more) learning the minutiae of Linux inner workings, or if you really want to sink your teeth in, get Gentoo running and only include packages for xfce and mono. Gentoo is pretty much a build-your-own-distro kit (at least last I used it over a year ago).
The only thing I found Gentoo could do reasonably better than Windows or a pre-built distro or even GNOME/KDE on Gentoo, ever, in months of messing with it, is that I could run a Playstation emulator (ePSXe) with no "hiccups" due to background processes kicking in every now and then. Even then I likely just am not configuring something right or I could have solved the problem with a newer and speedier processor. Believe you me, I was looking for applications of "barebones" setups--I had a huge nerd-on for only running the bare minimum of what I needed and thought it would be this vastly superior experience. It's really not.
Really, the minimalism thing is only for learning how things work, very specific situations with limited hardware power, and embedded systems. For a media center with most hardware made in the last like 5 years (or longer, depending), xubuntu will be more than enough minimalism.
What Yvan said. They would have just made an FFXI external hard drive. Why this wasn't an option on the PS2 with its USB who knows, maybe the ports were slower I don't remember. But FFXI with all the current expansions and a 20GB+ (the current version with all expansions is about 10GB and there are still more in the works) external USB hard drive for like $90 wouldn't have sold too shabby. Put a longish cord on it with a USB port for a keyboard (you pretty much need one to play XI) to make couch play easier. Add bonus points if a non-HDD version existed for the normal $50 price tag and it worked reasonably well with any external drive, and double bonus points if it could be any FAT/NTFS formatted drive. Hell I would have probably nabbed one despite owning the PC version (and being addicted to using PC-only helper applications) just 'coz it'd be cool to have.
I'd DEFINITELY get it if it could also be used to launch Wii channels off of instead of just being limited to internal memory but that's a rant for another day. D:
Remember that Disney ran Virtual Magic Kingdom for quite some time, and closed it down recently, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was because they were basically moving it to this new DS platform. If Nintendo for some reason lets them bypass the friend code thing and have something vaguely resembling an online chatroom, it's because Disney used VMK to make a very impressive case to Nintendo to circumvent the rules--keeping in mind that S-E was denied when they wanted to port Final Fantasy XI to the Wii, this is the only way it could be explained if DGamer allows communication with strangers.
The reason for this being that with VMK Disney went out of their way to control chat activity. I only played it very briefly and mostly at Disneyland park, but the most striking feature was that yes you could chat with random Disneyholics connected to the service, but you could only use pre-approved dictionary words to do so. It seemed robust enough to keep from being excessively limiting (unlike the auto-translate feature of the aforementioned Final Fantasy XI which was more useful for being entertaining and saying naughty things--I played for months before I knew the FFXI dictionary well enough to be able to even use it effectively) but I was led to assume that using it to say anything personally identifiable was excessively tricky.
So if Nintendo greenlights this with the inclusion of chat with strangers, it's going to be because Disney proved that they made VMK safe when their users had full keyboards, and that on the DS they're going to tighten it even more, and that they will have employees constantly monitoring communication to make sure it is safe.
Anyone who thinks games can't be engrossing haven't had their multimillion space dollar internet space ship blown up by the fagwads in another alliance that are you and all your buddies' eternal sworn internet enemy! Or spent a couple of hours hunting him down and returning the favor.;)
This brings up a point, though. EvE Online is less popular than other MMORPGs partly because it's a game where death matters and you lose time and effort when you die. BECAUSE it is so engrossing and tries to be less of a mindless, pre-manufactured experience than other games, it also has limited appeal.
Where's the slew of awesome PS3 launch titles then?
Really, all this complaining about the Wii's launch titles is getting god damned annoying. They gave you a ZELDA GAME for crying out loud. The Virtual Console is a great way to spend money and waste time until more AAA Wii games come out. I'm really not sure what people expected! Blowjobs?
I don't have a mac and I pretty much hate the textmate people for having no desire to make their application cross-platform whatsoever. Some of us don't own a mac and would like a Ruby on Rails editor that doesn't blow goats, thanks a lot. >=(
Nobody has to learn assembly language anymore to create piddly things like compilers or program ultra-small devices or anything like that. You can do all of those things with Ruby on Rails now.
I don't own an xbox or anything but seriously, if you bought a core system you are kind of retarded. One of the reasons I don't own an xbox 360 is because even if I get the premium, the mere fact that the Core system exists limits the capabilities of the hypothetically-purchased premium system.
The Wii is selling like hotcakes and the lines to buy them are getting longer and forming earlier when whiff of a shipment comes in.
Once there's enough to satisfy the people willing to wait in line forever, it will sell extremely well "off the shelf", I'm sure.
I think Microsoft will reap the rewards of having plenty of stock, sure, but it really seems like the Wii will hit 10m units as soon as they can roll that many off the assembly lines. The 360 isn't that fortunate.
it would take someone to severely injure themselves, start a class-action lawsuit, and sue the people who make these packages so hard they'd reconsider the supposed advantages. I have thought this DOUBLE while opening a Wii remote and classic controller package recently while dreaming about the pretty boxes the European versions come in.
Can't our overly-litigious society do something productive for once?:(
As a fellow Nintendo fanboy, I agree. I am really disappointed at what Sony is doing with their brand this generation, and there's not much they could have done to make it worse.:( I really want the market to stay with three strong consoles; I'd be really sad if it went down to a Microsoft/Nintendo deathmatch (and for obvious reasons, I was annoyed that so many in the media wrote the gamecube out of the race last generation!)
If I may add to the redundancy with a stupid question, this really DOES sound like the old "FUD" tactics again. Microsoft truly seems to hope that maybe people are stupid and will start not trusting Google because they're, "like so directly responsible for this" when Microsoft themselves obviously couldn't do any better.
Sorry to state the obvious again. I will admit that I truly hate Microsoft, and wish that people would shout "FUD" at them more often than they do.
The question we all want to know...
on
Stop, Light.
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· Score: 1
OK, I'm surprised nobody has asked this, because I'm sure we're all thinking: how many MP3s can you store in a beam of light?
A sequal to Scorched Earth?! Woah, wait, what the hell am I doing posting on the message board... I gotta go download this sucker!
Re:.NET may signal the demise of Linux
on
Perl and .NET
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· Score: 1
I'm using Netscape now, and I hate it. Mozilla crashes every three seconds (DISCLAIMER: that is an exaggeration). Last time I tried Konqueror, I almost puked (and so did my computer). IE, quite unfortunately, seems to be the best of all the evils, but it still crashes.
I'm afraid there's no such thing as a good web browser. They don't exist.
Re:.NET might be very good to us
on
Perl and .NET
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· Score: 1
Microsoft wants to screw over Linux... and they will take any advantage they can to do so without appearing to be completely evil. This.NET thing could possibly do just that using the same strategy they're using for Internet Explorer.
I don't know if you could see what platform I was using to write that, but if you could, I wrote it at school. At school, they have Microsoft-freaking-everything... the only non-Microsoft program we have is the program teachers use to keep track of grades. That's it. Now I'm at home, I can use my favorite Linux distro. ^_^
Re:Floppy Awards [somewhat off-topic]
on
The Floppy Awards
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· Score: 1
Hmm... scary thought... if CD-ROM drives were never invented (or any other means of cheap mass storage) would we have multiple floppy drives again? Perhaps some sort of device to put all 715 Word 2000 disks in, so that they are funneled in and don't have to be switched?
I really hate it because as a cable modem user, the bottlenecks come from moving from page to page- not loading a page (it's usually those Q#$%#$ adservers' fault). However, the reason they do this, I believe, is because of said ads... the more views they get, the more money they get.
But yeah, here here. I'm tired of the insanely small 'mini-column' that frequents many news sites; usually the ones based on paper publications... I didn't buy a 19" monitor to only have a 1/5-width column be viewable. >_<
The last page serves to remind us that, no matter how much the RIAA is ripping us off, whether or not we have credit card, whether or not we plan on buying the CD later, no matter how rich the music companies are, etc. etc. etc., downloading copyrighted music is illegal.
Now, don't get me wrong: I have an over 2 GB folder of MP3s myself... and a good portion of them I don't own the CDs to nor do I plan on buying them. But I don't try to justify it... it's wrong, but I do it anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
The posts suggesting you don't re-invent the wheel are wise, especially since there are already packages out there to get you where you want to go with negligible overhead. Check out xubuntu for a pretty much out-of-the-box barebones GUI without spending a week or two (or more) learning the minutiae of Linux inner workings, or if you really want to sink your teeth in, get Gentoo running and only include packages for xfce and mono. Gentoo is pretty much a build-your-own-distro kit (at least last I used it over a year ago).
The only thing I found Gentoo could do reasonably better than Windows or a pre-built distro or even GNOME/KDE on Gentoo, ever, in months of messing with it, is that I could run a Playstation emulator (ePSXe) with no "hiccups" due to background processes kicking in every now and then. Even then I likely just am not configuring something right or I could have solved the problem with a newer and speedier processor. Believe you me, I was looking for applications of "barebones" setups--I had a huge nerd-on for only running the bare minimum of what I needed and thought it would be this vastly superior experience. It's really not.
Really, the minimalism thing is only for learning how things work, very specific situations with limited hardware power, and embedded systems. For a media center with most hardware made in the last like 5 years (or longer, depending), xubuntu will be more than enough minimalism.
What Yvan said. They would have just made an FFXI external hard drive. Why this wasn't an option on the PS2 with its USB who knows, maybe the ports were slower I don't remember. But FFXI with all the current expansions and a 20GB+ (the current version with all expansions is about 10GB and there are still more in the works) external USB hard drive for like $90 wouldn't have sold too shabby. Put a longish cord on it with a USB port for a keyboard (you pretty much need one to play XI) to make couch play easier. Add bonus points if a non-HDD version existed for the normal $50 price tag and it worked reasonably well with any external drive, and double bonus points if it could be any FAT/NTFS formatted drive. Hell I would have probably nabbed one despite owning the PC version (and being addicted to using PC-only helper applications) just 'coz it'd be cool to have.
I'd DEFINITELY get it if it could also be used to launch Wii channels off of instead of just being limited to internal memory but that's a rant for another day. D:
Remember that Disney ran Virtual Magic Kingdom for quite some time, and closed it down recently, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was because they were basically moving it to this new DS platform. If Nintendo for some reason lets them bypass the friend code thing and have something vaguely resembling an online chatroom, it's because Disney used VMK to make a very impressive case to Nintendo to circumvent the rules--keeping in mind that S-E was denied when they wanted to port Final Fantasy XI to the Wii, this is the only way it could be explained if DGamer allows communication with strangers.
The reason for this being that with VMK Disney went out of their way to control chat activity. I only played it very briefly and mostly at Disneyland park, but the most striking feature was that yes you could chat with random Disneyholics connected to the service, but you could only use pre-approved dictionary words to do so. It seemed robust enough to keep from being excessively limiting (unlike the auto-translate feature of the aforementioned Final Fantasy XI which was more useful for being entertaining and saying naughty things--I played for months before I knew the FFXI dictionary well enough to be able to even use it effectively) but I was led to assume that using it to say anything personally identifiable was excessively tricky.
So if Nintendo greenlights this with the inclusion of chat with strangers, it's going to be because Disney proved that they made VMK safe when their users had full keyboards, and that on the DS they're going to tighten it even more, and that they will have employees constantly monitoring communication to make sure it is safe.
Umm, I don't think you ""get"" eve
Nobody ACTUALLY plays eve, they play post about eve.
Anyone who thinks games can't be engrossing haven't had their multimillion space dollar internet space ship blown up by the fagwads in another alliance that are you and all your buddies' eternal sworn internet enemy! Or spent a couple of hours hunting him down and returning the favor. ;)
This brings up a point, though. EvE Online is less popular than other MMORPGs partly because it's a game where death matters and you lose time and effort when you die. BECAUSE it is so engrossing and tries to be less of a mindless, pre-manufactured experience than other games, it also has limited appeal.
Um, it's already happened? There was some brohuahua about it a month or two ago right here on slashdot
Where's the slew of awesome PS3 launch titles then?
Really, all this complaining about the Wii's launch titles is getting god damned annoying. They gave you a ZELDA GAME for crying out loud. The Virtual Console is a great way to spend money and waste time until more AAA Wii games come out. I'm really not sure what people expected! Blowjobs?
I'm sure the RIAA and/or MPAA and/or Microsoft are to blame for this somehow.
I don't have a mac and I pretty much hate the textmate people for having no desire to make their application cross-platform whatsoever. Some of us don't own a mac and would like a Ruby on Rails editor that doesn't blow goats, thanks a lot. >=(
If someone made that, I'd so use it.
:)
But naw, instead I just got someone who took me seriously
Nobody has to learn assembly language anymore to create piddly things like compilers or program ultra-small devices or anything like that. You can do all of those things with Ruby on Rails now.
I don't own an xbox or anything but seriously, if you bought a core system you are kind of retarded. One of the reasons I don't own an xbox 360 is because even if I get the premium, the mere fact that the Core system exists limits the capabilities of the hypothetically-purchased premium system.
The Wii is selling like hotcakes and the lines to buy them are getting longer and forming earlier when whiff of a shipment comes in.
Once there's enough to satisfy the people willing to wait in line forever, it will sell extremely well "off the shelf", I'm sure.
I think Microsoft will reap the rewards of having plenty of stock, sure, but it really seems like the Wii will hit 10m units as soon as they can roll that many off the assembly lines. The 360 isn't that fortunate.
You need SOMETHING to do while waiting 12+ hours in line to buy a Wii!
it would take someone to severely injure themselves, start a class-action lawsuit, and sue the people who make these packages so hard they'd reconsider the supposed advantages. I have thought this DOUBLE while opening a Wii remote and classic controller package recently while dreaming about the pretty boxes the European versions come in.
:(
Can't our overly-litigious society do something productive for once?
As a fellow Nintendo fanboy, I agree. I am really disappointed at what Sony is doing with their brand this generation, and there's not much they could have done to make it worse. :( I really want the market to stay with three strong consoles; I'd be really sad if it went down to a Microsoft/Nintendo deathmatch (and for obvious reasons, I was annoyed that so many in the media wrote the gamecube out of the race last generation!)
If I may add to the redundancy with a stupid question, this really DOES sound like the old "FUD" tactics again. Microsoft truly seems to hope that maybe people are stupid and will start not trusting Google because they're, "like so directly responsible for this" when Microsoft themselves obviously couldn't do any better.
Sorry to state the obvious again. I will admit that I truly hate Microsoft, and wish that people would shout "FUD" at them more often than they do.
OK, I'm surprised nobody has asked this, because I'm sure we're all thinking: how many MP3s can you store in a beam of light?
A sequal to Scorched Earth?! Woah, wait, what the hell am I doing posting on the message board... I gotta go download this sucker!
I'm using Netscape now, and I hate it. Mozilla crashes every three seconds (DISCLAIMER: that is an exaggeration). Last time I tried Konqueror, I almost puked (and so did my computer). IE, quite unfortunately, seems to be the best of all the evils, but it still crashes.
I'm afraid there's no such thing as a good web browser. They don't exist.
Microsoft wants to screw over Linux... and they will take any advantage they can to do so without appearing to be completely evil. This .NET thing could possibly do just that using the same strategy they're using for Internet Explorer.
I don't know if you could see what platform I was using to write that, but if you could, I wrote it at school. At school, they have Microsoft-freaking-everything... the only non-Microsoft program we have is the program teachers use to keep track of grades. That's it. Now I'm at home, I can use my favorite Linux distro. ^_^
Hmm... scary thought... if CD-ROM drives were never invented (or any other means of cheap mass storage) would we have multiple floppy drives again? Perhaps some sort of device to put all 715 Word 2000 disks in, so that they are funneled in and don't have to be switched?
Hmm....
The weather and your health. :-D
I have to second that motion...
I really hate it because as a cable modem user, the bottlenecks come from moving from page to page- not loading a page (it's usually those Q#$%#$ adservers' fault). However, the reason they do this, I believe, is because of said ads... the more views they get, the more money they get.
But yeah, here here. I'm tired of the insanely small 'mini-column' that frequents many news sites; usually the ones based on paper publications... I didn't buy a 19" monitor to only have a 1/5-width column be viewable. >_<
The last page serves to remind us that, no matter how much the RIAA is ripping us off, whether or not we have credit card, whether or not we plan on buying the CD later, no matter how rich the music companies are, etc. etc. etc., downloading copyrighted music is illegal.
Now, don't get me wrong: I have an over 2 GB folder of MP3s myself... and a good portion of them I don't own the CDs to nor do I plan on buying them. But I don't try to justify it... it's wrong, but I do it anyway.