Why GNOME's Got it Right By Timothy R. Butler Editor-in-Chief, Open for Business July 30, 2004, 02:17:00 EDT
Desktop Computing Last week, some developers disagreeing with the direction of the GNOME Project decided to create what appears to be the beginning of a fork of the project -- GoneME. Like many from KDE Project and elsewhere in the community, GoneME's major complaints boil down to what has proven to be GNOME's most controversial move: simplifying the user interface. While naysayers, including the GoneME developers, seem to feel that the simplification of the interface, undertaken with the encouragement of such GNOME leaders as Havoc Pennington of Red Hat, is actually just "dumbing down" the interface, I think these critics are actually missing the point completely.
A Newbie in the Land of Penguins Six years ago this month, I bought my first GNU/Linux distribution. I had become intrigued with Linux several months earlier when I had seen a feature in Byte magazine about a new desktop emerging called the GNU Network Object Model Environment (GNOME), and decided to figure out how to give this mysterious operating system a whirl. At the time, GNOME was not installed by default yet -- it was too early in development, I would find out -- and when I finally did get it installed, it turned out to be a very big disappointment. Yes, of course, it wasn't even at the alpha stage of development yet, but I did not realize that when I had gone out and purchased a copy of GNU/Linux. All I did realize was what I had read in the press: GNOME was a rising star that looked extremely promising. It was next to impossible to even get it started, a fact that, at least for a total newbie to GNU/Linux, was enough to make me feel discouraged not only about GNOME but also about the operating system. Let's face it: FVWM 95 never was and never will be a dream desktop, and that, along with the similarly undesirable Afterstep and FVWM 2 were the choices included with Red Hat Linux 5.1.
I had not figured out how to get a modem configured on GNU/Linux yet (these being the bad old days of manual configuration), so I rebooted into Windows and spent some serious time researching the options. I kept coming across a desktop named KDE, which had just reached version 1.0 and decided it was something I needed to try. I couldn't find any packages for it at the time, so I downloaded the source. KDE was much smaller then, but I was also running a lot slower computer, so it took what seemed like an eternity to compile. Not surprisingly, even simple compilation errors are daunting if you've only been using GNU/Linux for a few days, but after several weeks of head scratching and tinkering, I finally booted into KDE for the first time. It was pretty nice, perhaps it seemed doubly so after all of the hard work.
But it was not nice enough to get me to switch from Windows. And so it stayed for several years. Finally, a few months after KDE 2.0 came out, I started to become convinced that the GNU/Linux desktop could meet my desktop computing needs, and so I made the switch. Throughout all this time, I kept looking at GNOME, but it always seemed less than satisfying. It had so many options and programs; need I remind you that this was a desktop that did not even have a single window manager at first. Everything about it seemed rudimentary and unpolished from the standpoint of a Windows user or a KDE user. KDE remained my primary desktop.
Doubts Creep In Despite my overall happiness with the project, nagging questions about KDE's planning started to occur to me as I observed it. Projects like Twister, which would have made Kontact -- the Outlook-like PIM that premiered in the last release -- a reality several years before it finally came out, were looked over while time was spent adding multiple address book backends, CVS clients, a growing collection of games and edutainment applets, an ever growing list of features in Konqueror and
Here is a really good explanation of the background on our current definition of a "Blue Moon" which seems to have been popularized by none other than Trivial Persuit.
On July 31 of this year, those taking an evening stroll beneath a cloudless sky will have the opportunity to look up and see what modern folklore refers to as a "blue moon." Though the moon itself will not actually be blue--or likely even appear blue--it will be the second full moon in the same calendar month of July, which is what qualifies this Saturday's lunar view as a blue moon, at least by today's standards.
That's not to say that the moon has never appeared blue in color to the average, unaided, ground-bound observer. The moon can and has shone blue or even green in color whenever a sufficient quantity of micron-sized particulates is present in the atmosphere, usually after a volcanic eruption.
The micron-sized debris (specifically, any particles slightly larger than the wavelength of red light, about 0.7 microns) refracts the moonlight, turning it green or blue, based on certain atmospheric factors. For an example of this phenomenon, one need look no further than accounts of blue moons following the eruption of the island of Krakatau in 1883.
While instances of actual blue-tinted moons represent one of several documented meanings of the term, using blue moon to describe the second full moon in one calendar month is a fairly recent practice. This definition arose in the 20th century, and it didn't really become part of the widespread public consciousness until the 1980s.
We can attribute this sudden proliferation of a previously undocumented and unused definition for blue moon to three otherwise reputable sources of fine information and fun trivia, all of which were working off bad information.
WHAT THREE MASS-MEDIA TRIVIA SOURCES ARE MOST RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NEWEST DEFINITION OF A "BLUE MOON"?
What three reputable mass-media trivia resources are most responsible for the current popular definition of a "blue moon" to mean the second full moon in the same calendar month, and what is the likely origin of this "mistaken" definition?
The most recent and most widely known source of the "new" blue moon definition is none other than the king daddy of all trivia board games, Trivial Pursuit. Specifically, the Trivial Pursuit Genus II edition published in 1986 included this definition as a question in the Science and Nature category.
Given the popularity of the game, it's little wonder that folklorists witnessed this definition enter widespread usage in the 1980s. But where did the game makers get their information?
Trivial Pursuit archives (yes, they exist) cite The Kids' World Almanac of Records and Facts, published in 1985, as the source of the question. The book's authors, however, can't trace their own source for this "fact."
So where did the Almanac authors get it? Folklorist Philip Hiscock suggests it came from our second mass-media source.
In January 1980, the National Public Radio (NPR) program "Star Date" featured a piece by Deborah Byrd that noted the "second full moon in one calendar month" definition of blue moon. Byrd cited a 1946 article in Sky & Telescope magazine as her source. Hiscock considers the "Star Date" broadcast as the likely source of the Almanac entry, and thus NPR is the second mass-media source to get blue moon "wrong."
The third, obviously, is the usually reliable Sky & Telescope magazine. A March 1946 article by amateur astronomer James Hugh Pruett titled "Once in a Blue Moon" contains the modern definition of the term, but it cites the 1937 Maine Farmers' Almanac as its source. No edition of that Almanac, however, contains the modern definition of a blue moon.
Several editions of the Almanac do list a different definition of a blue moon--the third, extra full moon of an agricultural season. The Maine Farmers' Almanacs of tha
Here is a pdf (pretty dumb format) which has a few Google tricks for those who are not familiar with some of the extended functionality of the worlds most popular search engine.
Sorry, Benny Hill is/was British. Rather obtuse for some people, too. Since this post and a preceeding one assume that I might hail from the British Isles, here are a few recognisable names as a hint: Mike Myers, Dan Ayckroyd, Jim Carrey, Peter Jennings, Shania Twain, Brian Adams, Caroline Rhea, Jill Hennessey, Michael J. Fox, Matthew Perry, Raymond Burr, John Candy, Dave Foley, Brendan Fraser, Robert Goulet, Lorne Greene, Phil Hartman, Eugene Levy, Howie Mandel, Rick Moranis, Martin Short, Leslie Nielsen, Christopher Plummer, Jason Priestly, Keanu Reeves, William Shatner, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Dave Thomas, Pamela Anderson, Neve Campbell, Kim Cattrall, Margot Kidder, Shannon Tweed, Louis B. Mayer, Lorne Michaels, Monty Hall, Rich Little, Alex Trebek, Paul Shaffer, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson.
In case it is not evident, I AM CANADIAN! Yes, that can be annoying too, can't it?
I saw this for the first time this morning. I honestly have to say it is about the most pointless piece of tripe I have had the distinct displeasure to witness in quite a while. I am not of the US but I do follow your politics as it impacts on a significant part of the world. The American sense of humour eludes me. I think it is because it's... not funny.
You know what? I can invoke a BSOD on my fully patched Win 2000 machine at work almost at will. I can't tweak it as it is set to corp standards. As for our friend "Clippy" the first thing I did was turn that intellect insulting POS off.
Why do people keep focusing on these monstrosities of idiocy? Because they are freaking fed up with the stupidity of the marketing geniuses.
People are so sensitized to the lack of performance, the vulnerabilities and the restrictions that every time another one arises, they instantly recall all the bad experiences they have had previously.
Not to demean lyric writers (some songs are really augmented by great lyrics), but that just doesn't measure up to actual composition in my eyes..
Ha, Ha, Ho, Ho, Ho,... That's rich. No, really... You must listen to Rap (they forgot the "C", BTW). If there are no lyrics, it is an "instrumental" piece. All "songs" have lyrics.
I think the point was more to the effect of getting a load of "features" that have nothing to do with the primary intent of the original program. For the Scrabble example, all he wanted to do was play a nice "quiet" game. Now there is so much cruft installed, he has to remove some of the added "features" that he didn't want anyway and couldn't select just the ones he did want. For the dictionary, etc. the unwanted multimedia seemed to be the issue. Some of us are more of the "just the facts" types, but often there is no alternative except to take the force-fed install and tweak out the superflous stuff afterwards. Like some OSes we know.
You will never please all the people but neither should we dismiss their critiques either. Everyone has their story and opinions. All are valid to some extent.
Microsoft only comes out with scheduled patches once per month. They issue updates whenever they have an issue which can't/shouldn't wait for the scheduled monthly.
Best thing in the article: "Senior Editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has been using and writing about operating systems since the late '80s and thinks he may just have learned something about them along the way."
If I were to switch to Linux I know that I would lose at least 3-5 days of productivity just installing the damn thing.
I hope you mean: "If I were to switch to Linux I know that I would lose at least 3-5 days of productivity just installing, configuring, finding the apps I want, and learning how to use the damn thing."
Most recent installs I've done take about 30 minutes. The rest of the time is spent on updates and installing other apps and migrating data. Maybe takes 1½ hours.
We are currently building a data center that will contain all firm data that is to prove the extent of Software Piracy of our members products. The program is referred to as: 'Misapropriation of Your Application Software System' (MYASS). Next Monday at 9:00 am there will be a meeting in which I will show MYASS to everyone. We will continue to hold demonstrations throughout the month so that all employees will have an opportunity to get a good look at MYASS. As for the status of implementation of the program, I have not addressed the networking aspects, so currently only one person at a time can use MYASS. This restriction will be removed after MYASS expands. Several people are using the program already and have come to depend on it.
Just this morning, I walked into a subordinate's office and was not surprised to find that he had his nose buried in MYASS.
I've noticed that some of the less technical personnel are somewhat afraid of MYASS. Just last week, when asked to enter some information into the program, I had a secretary say to me, 'I'm a little nervous, I've never put anything in MYASS before.' I volunteered to help her through her first time, and, when we were through, she admitted that it was relatively painless, and that she was actually looking forward to doing it again. She went so far as to say that, after using SAP and ORACLE, she was ready to kiss MYASS.
I know there are concerns over the virus that was found in MYASS upon initial installation, but I am pleased to say the virus has been eliminated and we were able to save MYASS. In the future, however, protection will be required prior to entering MYASS. We planned this database to encompass all information associated with the business. So as you begin using the program, feel free to put anything you want into MYASS. As MYASS grows larger, we envision a time when it will be commonplace to walk by an office and see a manager hand a paper to an employee and say, 'Here, stick this in MYASS'.
This program has already demonstrated great benefit to the company during recent MPAA and RIAA reviews. After requesting certain historical data, the agencies representatives were amazed how quickly we provided the information. When asked how the numbers could be retrieved so rapidly, our Piracy Statistics Manager proudly stated, 'Simple, I just pulled them out of MYASS'.
Slashdot Mirror
Reasearchers should look at the The Deep Web if they are just starting out.
Moderators
Yes, I moderate, when I can.
You can calculate many, many things this way. For instance bits to Mb or Gb try: "213,456,450,001 bits in Gb".
The results are accurate.
For something more esoteric, try "recipe: curry+beef" or, whatever.
Here is a pdf (pretty dumb format) which has a few Google tricks for those who are not familiar with some of the extended functionality of the worlds most popular search engine.
Sorry, Benny Hill is/was British. Rather obtuse for some people, too.
Since this post and a preceeding one assume that I might hail from the British Isles, here are a few recognisable names as a hint:
Mike Myers, Dan Ayckroyd, Jim Carrey, Peter Jennings, Shania Twain, Brian Adams, Caroline Rhea, Jill Hennessey, Michael J. Fox, Matthew Perry, Raymond Burr, John Candy, Dave Foley, Brendan Fraser, Robert Goulet, Lorne Greene, Phil Hartman, Eugene Levy, Howie Mandel, Rick Moranis, Martin Short, Leslie Nielsen, Christopher Plummer, Jason Priestly, Keanu Reeves, William Shatner, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Dave Thomas, Pamela Anderson, Neve Campbell, Kim Cattrall, Margot Kidder, Shannon Tweed, Louis B. Mayer, Lorne Michaels, Monty Hall, Rich Little, Alex Trebek, Paul Shaffer, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson.
In case it is not evident, I AM CANADIAN!
Yes, that can be annoying too, can't it?
The animation was far, far from subtle. There was nothing to "not get".
My, you yanks are a touchy bunch.
What do you expect from a music video TV station?
Deep insightful programming? Sorry, we all lose there.
or was that Kerry?
Bush
I saw this for the first time this morning. I honestly have to say it is about the most pointless piece of tripe I have had the distinct displeasure to witness in quite a while. ... not funny.
I am not of the US but I do follow your politics as it impacts on a significant part of the world.
The American sense of humour eludes me. I think it is because it's
You know what? I can invoke a BSOD on my fully patched Win 2000 machine at work almost at will.
I can't tweak it as it is set to corp standards.
As for our friend "Clippy" the first thing I did was turn that intellect insulting POS off.
Why do people keep focusing on these monstrosities of idiocy? Because they are freaking fed up with the stupidity of the marketing geniuses.
People are so sensitized to the lack of performance, the vulnerabilities and the restrictions that every time another one arises, they instantly recall all the bad experiences they have had previously.
Yes, I'm bitter and Yes I am drinking again.
Ha, Ha, Ho, Ho, Ho,... That's rich. No, really...
You must listen to Rap (they forgot the "C", BTW).
If there are no lyrics, it is an "instrumental" piece. All "songs" have lyrics.
Yes, Flamebait, but doesn't that deserve it?
He tried. It didn't work.
The sad truth is that far too few people are aware of the impact of coding a website that is not accessible.
I hesitate to say that they don't care. I prefer to think that they don't know.
What is to say he doesn't collech/harvest the data he forwarded?
Here is a unique idea:
Altruism, like passion, is the key intent that philanthropy expresses; a concern for the welfare of others; selflessness.
It's a really old idea, however, some people still care about others.
We should all try it some time.
A developer asked me today "How many blind people access our site?".
I answered "God forbid, if the wrong thing happened to you today, tomorrow we could have one more."
True quote.
I test web accessibility, BTW.
I think the point was more to the effect of getting a load of "features" that have nothing to do with the primary intent of the original program.
For the Scrabble example, all he wanted to do was play a nice "quiet" game. Now there is so much cruft installed, he has to remove some of the added "features" that he didn't want anyway and couldn't select just the ones he did want.
For the dictionary, etc. the unwanted multimedia seemed to be the issue.
Some of us are more of the "just the facts" types, but often there is no alternative except to take the force-fed install and tweak out the superflous stuff afterwards. Like some OSes we know.
You will never please all the people but neither should we dismiss their critiques either.
Everyone has their story and opinions. All are valid to some extent.
Microsoft only comes out with scheduled patches once per month.
They issue updates whenever they have an issue which can't/shouldn't wait for the scheduled monthly.
Best thing in the article:
"Senior Editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has been using and writing about operating systems since the late '80s and thinks he may just have learned something about them along the way."
Don't we all.
I hope you mean: "If I were to switch to Linux I know that I would lose at least 3-5 days of productivity just installing, configuring, finding the apps I want, and learning how to use the damn thing."
Most recent installs I've done take about 30 minutes. The rest of the time is spent on updates and installing other apps and migrating data.
Maybe takes 1½ hours.
Garfield, perhaps?
Big, Fat, Lazy and Orange!
"The median expected salary for a typical Programmer III in Seattle, WA, is $73,392."
Found it here
We are currently building a data center that will contain all firm data that is to prove the extent of Software Piracy of our members products. The program is referred to as: 'Misapropriation of Your Application Software System' (MYASS). Next Monday at 9:00 am there will be a meeting in which I will show MYASS to everyone. We will continue to hold demonstrations throughout the month so that all employees will have an opportunity to get a good look at MYASS. As for the status of implementation of the program, I have not addressed the networking aspects, so currently only one person at a time can use MYASS. This restriction will be removed after MYASS expands. Several people are using the program already and have come to depend on it.
Just this morning, I walked into a subordinate's office and was not surprised to find that he had his nose buried in MYASS.
I've noticed that some of the less technical personnel are somewhat afraid of MYASS. Just last week, when asked to enter some information into the program, I had a secretary say to me, 'I'm a little nervous, I've never put anything in MYASS before.' I volunteered to help her through her first time, and, when we were through, she admitted that it was relatively painless, and that she was actually looking forward to doing it again. She went so far as to say that, after using SAP and ORACLE, she was ready to kiss MYASS.
I know there are concerns over the virus that was found in MYASS upon initial installation, but I am pleased to say the virus has been eliminated and we were able to save MYASS. In the future, however, protection will be required prior to entering MYASS. We planned this database to encompass all information associated with the business. So as you begin using the program, feel free to put anything you want into MYASS. As MYASS grows larger, we envision a time when it will be commonplace to walk by an office and see a manager hand a paper to an employee and say, 'Here, stick this in MYASS'.
This program has already demonstrated great benefit to the company during recent MPAA and RIAA reviews. After requesting certain historical data, the agencies representatives were amazed how quickly we provided the information. When asked how the numbers could be retrieved so rapidly, our Piracy Statistics Manager proudly stated, 'Simple, I just pulled them out of MYASS'.