Here's why I believe this: The computer is a tool, just like a car, a microwave, blahblahblah.
A hammer is tool. It is used hit nails. If it used improperly, you can end up hurting someone or yourself. Likewise with a car. If you don't have some basic understanding of how to operate a car or knowledge of the traffic rules then the result is same as the hammer. The differenece with a car is that there's something that says that you meet the minimum requirements for knowing how to operate a vehicle and understand traffic regukations. That something is called a Licence.
The end user just wants it to work. Just like they turn the key on the car, turn on the microwave, blahblahblah. The answer of "Her solution is to bite the bullet and really learn to use a computer." really isn't addressing the issue of the fact that it's supposed to be a tool that I turn on and use, not have to be a CS major/have years of experience/whatever they percieve it takes to fix it to understand it.
It turns out that you do. See my comments above. but let me just add that even with a microwave, there are instructions on how to use it. There are also warnings about what not to put in it. (here's a hint, aluminim foil or anything made of metal.)
This moves the onus of fixing a programmatic problem (holes that should be patched/shouldn't exist/aren't obvious to someone who is usually unqualified to address it.
I'll give them some credit. With 2000 and XP, Microsoft has made efforts to at least keep people's machines updated. For the most part, it's been pretty painless. however, Computers being complicated machines this doesn't mean that Jane should just remain in 1998. Times change, and she needs to upgrade occasionaly. And as a result she needs to learn a little more about the tools she uses.
Dude, just buy another HD. They're not expensive anymore shop around on Ebay or Froogle or pricewatch or price. Why complicate matters with USB and flashdrives?
Hell I have the orignal 6 gig from my TP 600 you want it? You pay the shipping.
It's quite likely the OSS guys happened to write a better driver for that modem than the one that was provided for Windows by the manufacturer. That doesn't mean anything for Windows or Linux.
Well let me ask you this: Should something like a shitty driver for a modem (of all things) be able to bring the Entire OS down? What does that say about how Windows is designed from an Architecture standpoint? I could see how how a poorly written Raid array, SCSI Host or even a disk) driver could cause a lot of grief. But a modem driver?
Does anyone know if there's a Firefox skin that looks like IE? I'd make Firefox look like IE and change the icons around on the family computer so that they'd stop using IE and stop making me go in there and fix whatever they've done with it every five minutes.
You don't even have to this. Do what I did. If you're running XP SP1 and you have Firefox installed, do the following:
From the Start Menu, Click on "Set program access Defaults"
Click on Custom.
Where it say choose a default Web browser, choose Mozilla Firefox.
Uncheck the box that says "Enable access to this program" next to the Internet Explorer option
Click Ok.
You notice now that Internet Explorer is no longer on the Desktop so they can't Open it. Rejoice.
I tried to setup spamassasin a couple of months back and I found it to be too much of a hassle to setup. Could someone who used both spamassasin and dspam comment on easy or difficult it is to setup dspam?
Yes, I have tried it. Not once but several times. I've gotten a (semi, and a couple of fully) working system(s) on several machines. (last attempt was on my Thinkpad 600. That machine dual-boots debian and WinXP now.) And you know what? as great as the Gentoo users make the distro out to be I feel it's too much damn work and too much thumb twidling to waiting for stuff complile. I know you don't have compile everything and that there's precompiled binary's for certain things. But Even Debian's (woody) installer doesn't put you through what the gentoo installer puts you though. Most people who bitch about debian's installer are really bitching that it doesn't detect hardware (I know the new one does.) and/or they're bitching about dselect.
Also, the Optimized binary's argument has been de-bunked. (don't have link handy, it's late, ask google.) Compiling everything doesn't get you any mesurable increase in performance. Unless you enable potentialy unstable compile flags.
So yeah, for my purposes (for which I am obviosly the authority.) gentoo is not the distro for me.
As soon as I saw the Article, I was thinking "damn how many posts before a Gentoo user shows up and lets everyone know he runs it and how great it is. Then I saw the parent. I love slashdot.
Now what I'd really like to see is a distribution called BeginnerLinux or something along those lines, maybe based off of one of the big distros, that works as a LiveCD and is specifically tailored to giving the new user a comprehensive walkthrough of Linux, from apps to everything under the hood, and then shows them how to move to a full blown distro.
It already exists. It's called knoppix and there are instructions that allow you to turn it into a full blown system.
In case people are reading this and think it's cool and want to try Debian out. I suggest they read this page before they go looking for ISO's to burn.
The Official Debian installer is one the things people heavily judge the distro by.
In other words, the camera is something you can ignore and doesn't cost anything so why not just accept it even if you won't use it?
I don't get this mentality. What about people who work in institutions where cameras and other recording devices are strictly prohibited?
I have a Nokia 8390. It's looking somewhat beat up but the phone works like a champ. And what is it w/ the US that it seems that all of the phones that I'd like aren't available here?
I've been looking phone with a: -Color screen. -Bluetooth. -Is small, (I'll take one that is little bigger than my current one, or flip phone.) -Somewhat Stylish (i.e. not faggy looking) -Is sturdy. -Is a GSM phone. (preferably, a world phone but doesn't have to be.) -Isn't a PDA. -And w/o a Camera (Although if it has one, I won't mind. Chances are though that I prob won't use it)
I've found several phones that meet my criteria, but none of them are available in the US. I would have to inport one and that costs too Much $$$. What Gives?
If this situation actually happens, or even if it doesn't, imagine a company run as a democracy.
As great as that sounds in theory; In practice, absolutley nothing would get done. The CEO example sounds nice but Why don't we drill down to the "peon" (my) level.
I can see it now:
PHB: I need you to restore this file, for joe VP user.
Employee: I will not. The software we use is made by company that only writes software for the product of another company who is a convicted Monopoly. That monopoly is accused of conspiring with Hollywood who is using the Legal system to pass laws that are in it's favor. In addition, I am swamped with this other thing I'm working on.
PHB: Well, you have the right to disagree. This is a democracy after all. I'll call a meeting and we will vote on it.
I know that you mean that there really aren't any native linux versions of tax software. Turbotax for the Web worked fine for me using Mozilla last year, and is working so far for me with Firefox.8 running on Debian.
In order to override complaints (which might be caused by an already
installed package "xlibmesa3" that also provides the file libGL.so.1.2)
please use this installation command line:
dpkg -i --force-overwrite.deb
This is bad. don't do this. If you do, then the next update of xlibmesa-gl will break.
pretty sure. like I said I dropped back to 2.4 and this behavior is non-existant. oh, and forgot a step: I have to rmmod ps2mouse and then modprobe ps2mouse then restart gpm then everything works again. The part about restarting X only fixes a problem with my pointer turning into a big square when I switch to a VC (but I know that's X's fault.)
Slashdot Mirror
Care to name some? I'll name the ones I know:
http://discountlaptops.com
http://www.emperorlinux.com
Please help expand my list.
Let's use the examples you gave:
Here's why I believe this: The computer is a tool, just like a car, a microwave, blahblahblah.
A hammer is tool. It is used hit nails. If it used improperly, you can end up hurting someone or yourself. Likewise with a car. If you don't have some basic understanding of how to operate a car or knowledge of the traffic rules then the result is same as the hammer. The differenece with a car is that there's something that says that you meet the minimum requirements for knowing how to operate a vehicle and understand traffic regukations. That something is called a Licence.
The end user just wants it to work. Just like they turn the key on the car, turn on the microwave, blahblahblah. The answer of "Her solution is to bite the bullet and really learn to use a computer." really isn't addressing the issue of the fact that it's supposed to be a tool that I turn on and use, not have to be a CS major/have years of experience/whatever they percieve it takes to fix it to understand it.
It turns out that you do. See my comments above. but let me just add that even with a microwave, there are instructions on how to use it. There are also warnings about what not to put in it. (here's a hint, aluminim foil or anything made of metal.)
This moves the onus of fixing a programmatic problem (holes that should be patched/shouldn't exist/aren't obvious to someone who is usually unqualified to address it.
I'll give them some credit. With 2000 and XP, Microsoft has made efforts to at least keep people's machines updated. For the most part, it's been pretty painless. however, Computers being complicated machines this doesn't mean that Jane should just remain in 1998. Times change, and she needs to upgrade occasionaly. And as a result she needs to learn a little more about the tools she uses.
Is there an AVI/DivX/anything else version of this available for those of us without QuickTime?
I'm watching this w/ Totem running on Debian Unstable. No quicktime/crosover office/mplayer/wine/etc needed here.
Dude, just buy another HD. They're not expensive anymore shop around on Ebay or Froogle or pricewatch or price. Why complicate matters with USB and flashdrives?
Hell I have the orignal 6 gig from my TP 600 you want it? You pay the shipping.
It's quite likely the OSS guys happened to write a better driver for that modem than the one that was provided for Windows by the manufacturer. That doesn't mean anything for Windows or Linux.
Well let me ask you this: Should something like a shitty driver for a modem (of all things) be able to bring the Entire OS down? What does that say about how Windows is designed from an Architecture standpoint? I could see how how a poorly written Raid array, SCSI Host or even a disk) driver could cause a lot of grief. But a modem driver?
You don't even have to this. Do what I did. If you're running XP SP1 and you have Firefox installed, do the following:
From the Start Menu, Click on "Set program access Defaults"
Click on Custom.
Where it say choose a default Web browser, choose Mozilla Firefox.
Uncheck the box that says "Enable access to this program" next to the Internet Explorer option
Click Ok. You notice now that Internet Explorer is no longer on the Desktop so they can't Open it. Rejoice.
maybe because It's your right (in the US at least) to not get spam? look at the recent legislation that's been passed.
Simple, if what you have works for you then you probably don't need this.
I tried to setup spamassasin a couple of months back and I found it to be too much of a hassle to setup. Could someone who used both spamassasin and dspam comment on easy or difficult it is to setup dspam?
Yes, I have tried it. Not once but several times. I've gotten a (semi, and a couple of fully) working system(s) on several machines. (last attempt was on my Thinkpad 600. That machine dual-boots debian and WinXP now.) And you know what? as great as the Gentoo users make the distro out to be I feel it's too much damn work and too much thumb twidling to waiting for stuff complile. I know you don't have compile everything and that there's precompiled binary's for certain things. But Even Debian's (woody) installer doesn't put you through what the gentoo installer puts you though. Most people who bitch about debian's installer are really bitching that it doesn't detect hardware (I know the new one does.) and/or they're bitching about dselect.
Also, the Optimized binary's argument has been de-bunked. (don't have link handy, it's late, ask google.) Compiling everything doesn't get you any mesurable increase in performance. Unless you enable potentialy unstable compile flags.
So yeah, for my purposes (for which I am obviosly the authority.) gentoo is not the distro for me.
As soon as I saw the Article, I was thinking "damn how many posts before a Gentoo user shows up and lets everyone know he runs it and how great it is. Then I saw the parent. I love slashdot.
It already exists. It's called knoppix and there are instructions that allow you to turn it into a full blown system.
aside from grub being "just a boot loader", Wouldn't it make sense if grub was somehow moved into the bios?
In case people are reading this and think it's cool and want to try Debian out. I suggest they read this page before they go looking for ISO's to burn.
The Official Debian installer is one the things people heavily judge the distro by.
I don't get this mentality. What about people who work in institutions where cameras and other recording devices are strictly prohibited?
I have a Nokia 8390. It's looking somewhat beat up but the phone works like a champ. And what is it w/ the US that it seems that all of the phones that I'd like aren't available here?
I've been looking phone with a:
-Color screen.
-Bluetooth.
-Is small, (I'll take one that is little bigger than my current one, or flip phone.)
-Somewhat Stylish (i.e. not faggy looking)
-Is sturdy.
-Is a GSM phone. (preferably, a world phone but doesn't have to be.)
-Isn't a PDA.
-And w/o a Camera (Although if it has one, I won't mind. Chances are though that I prob won't use it)
I've found several phones that meet my criteria, but none of them are available in the US. I would have to inport one and that costs too Much $$$.
What Gives?
*OT* Which LCD do you have?
As great as that sounds in theory; In practice, absolutley nothing would get done. The CEO example sounds nice but Why don't we drill down to the "peon" (my) level.
I can see it now:
PHB: I need you to restore this file, for joe VP user.
Employee: I will not. The software we use is made by company that only writes software for the product of another company who is a convicted Monopoly. That monopoly is accused of conspiring with Hollywood who is using the Legal system to pass laws that are in it's favor. In addition, I am swamped with this other thing I'm working on.
PHB: Well, you have the right to disagree. This is a democracy after all. I'll call a meeting and we will vote on it.
I know that you mean that there really aren't any native linux versions of tax software. Turbotax for the Web worked fine for me using Mozilla last year, and is working so far for me with Firefox
This is bad. don't do this. If you do, then the next update of xlibmesa-gl will break.
man dpkg-divert
Grand theft horse-carriage, baby! Whoooo!
Personally, I'm waiting for Grand Theft Dinosaur: Bedrock City.
In case are wondering about the city
Libery City = New York City (Modern Day)
Vice City = Miami (1986-87 there or about)
San Andreas = (I Imagine that is Los Angeles, but when?)
Damn, you just eloquently summed up my thoughts after working on Solaris.
I strenuously suggest that you read This if you plan on installing debian.
pretty sure. like I said I dropped back to 2.4 and this behavior is non-existant. oh, and forgot a step: I have to rmmod ps2mouse and then modprobe ps2mouse then restart gpm then everything works again. The part about restarting X only fixes a problem with my pointer turning into a big square when I switch to a VC (but I know that's X's fault.)