yeah, there is a Linux proxy server that can speak to the MS Proxy Client; I *think* it's Dante, from a Scandinavian company? I'm at home and don't have the references to hand...
You can't. That's what Open Source means - your enemies as well as your friends can use it. The Serbs can use it as well as the Kossovans. Straights and gays. Republicans and Democrats. Once you open it, you can't put it back in the box.
Um... I don't think Demon are the biggest (and I speak as a long-term Demon user who's staying with them in the short term, 'cos my email address is too widely known to change). Interesting fact; although these free services (Yanks; remember that we pay for local phone calls in the UK) tend to give punters a CD to install, most of them can be used without the CD after a little fiddling; I regularly use Freeserve from my Linux setup and will be looking at the totally free (0800) services soon to see if I can get them going.
Hmmm... Sir Clive has screwed up as well...
on
Sinclair Does Linux
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· Score: 1
Sir Clive Sinclair did indeed manufacture a whole run of very successful machines, all of which I owned at the time (ZX-80, ZX-81, Spectrum). However, it's a bit rich to say that he single-handledly started the UK computer revolution, since I also remember reams of Apple ][ machines, Nascoms and even the Commodore PET. He also, just to redress the balance, made the QL, one of the worst-designed, built and oversold machines in the history of PCs (and yes, I owned one too). He launched the amazing electric C5 car as well. IMVVVHO, what he has always done is to produce products using very cheap technology and try to hype them into the market. Anyway, since PCs seem to be getting cheaper all the time (even free in some cases), will there really be a market for his devices? Remember, they won't run MS applications, since they won't have an Intel chip and Windows....
With traditional HCI, yes. But there are programmers out there who are also interface designers and information architects (i.e., me), who are keen to get involved and contribute to Open Source projects by doing interface work. There has to be a recognition in the OSS community that programming is just part of what's needed to build software. It took a while before people recognised the need for documentation; maybe real interface design is next? Hmmm... this sounds like the history of programming in general... first the code, then the interface and if you're lucky, the documentation...
Yes. Without question I say yes. If you try to deliver the entire power of Linux at any one time to an interface, it will never be easy to use. However, by revealing to a user just the commands and options they need to do whatever they're focused on at that point in time, you cut down the complexity. I'd love to see either the Gnome or KDE crews looking at alternatives (or at least enhancements) to the hoary old WIMP interfaces. Myself, I'm working on a Linux/GPL application rather like Natrificial's Brain that can act a an alternative way to navigate the in formation on a computer. The Brain is what I use every day instead of the Windows 98 Explorer and I find it much more effective.
Skyshadow wrote: They're right about one thing: Linux (okay, damn it, Linux-based operating systems in general) have too many damn programs. In some areas, there are simply too many potentially useful and yet obscured programs that you won't find unless you're looking for them. But a good interface is a very effective way around this problem. For example, the company I work (Amaze) for have rebuilt the interface to a system more complex than Linux (it operates X-ray microanalysis equipment) so that any user at any level, by following a simple flowchart of the taks they're trying to do, is shown, at each stage, just the controls they need and no others. It's called progressive or incremental disclosure in interface circles. I can see something like this for common Linux tasks - choose what you want to do from some available set of choices and the interface shows you just the commands that are relevant. Cuts down the complexity a treat.
I don't know that RMS could work *anywhere* he wanted for any amount. There's a considerable portion of the industry where he *wouldn't* work because it would be against his principles. There's another subset who wouldn't employ him because of his somewhat rigid stances and possible inflexibility. There's another subset who are MS/Novell/whatever-based where he doesn't have the skills. Not everyone regards him as a guru. I make no comments vis-a-vis my attitude to him, by the way, just an observation.
Just in passing, Dinorwig isn't really your average hydro-electric plant, it's a pump storage scheme. Off-peak (cheap) electricity is used to pump water from a lower reservoir to a higher one. Then, when there are peaks in demand during the day, the water is released back down to add a chunk of megawattage back into the Grid at a few seconds notice. Very cool place; I was lucky enough to get a guided tour inside before it was finished, many years ago...
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yeah, there is a Linux proxy server that can speak to the MS Proxy Client; I *think* it's Dante, from a Scandinavian company? I'm at home and don't have the references to hand...
Well, this judgement may apply to the US, and sites therein, but the US does not control the "entire Internet".
You can't. That's what Open Source means - your enemies as well as your friends can use it. The Serbs can use it as well as the Kossovans. Straights and gays. Republicans and Democrats. Once you open it, you can't put it back in the box.
Um... I don't think Demon are the biggest (and I speak as a long-term Demon user who's staying with them in the short term, 'cos my email address is too widely known to change). Interesting fact; although these free services (Yanks; remember that we pay for local phone calls in the UK) tend to give punters a CD to install, most of them can be used without the CD after a little fiddling; I regularly use Freeserve from my Linux setup and will be looking at the totally free (0800) services soon to see if I can get them going.
Sir Clive Sinclair did indeed manufacture a whole run of very successful machines, all of which I owned at the time (ZX-80, ZX-81, Spectrum). However, it's a bit rich to say that he single-handledly started the UK computer revolution, since I also remember reams of Apple ][ machines, Nascoms and even the Commodore PET. He also, just to redress the balance, made the QL, one of the worst-designed, built and oversold machines in the history of PCs (and yes, I owned one too). He launched the amazing electric C5 car as well. IMVVVHO, what he has always done is to produce products using very cheap technology and try to hype them into the market.
Anyway, since PCs seem to be getting cheaper all the time (even free in some cases), will there really be a market for his devices? Remember, they won't run MS applications, since they won't have an Intel chip and Windows....
With traditional HCI, yes. But there are programmers out there who are also interface designers and information architects (i.e., me), who are keen to get involved and contribute to Open Source projects by doing interface work.
There has to be a recognition in the OSS community that programming is just part of what's needed to build software. It took a while before people recognised the need for documentation; maybe real interface design is next?
Hmmm... this sounds like the history of programming in general... first the code, then the interface and if you're lucky, the documentation...
Yes. Without question I say yes. If you try to deliver the entire power of Linux at any one time to an interface, it will never be easy to use. However, by revealing to a user just the commands and options they need to do whatever they're focused on at that point in time, you cut down the complexity.
I'd love to see either the Gnome or KDE crews looking at alternatives (or at least enhancements) to the hoary old WIMP interfaces. Myself, I'm working on a Linux/GPL application rather like Natrificial's Brain that can act a an alternative way to navigate the in formation on a computer. The Brain is what I use every day instead of the Windows 98 Explorer and I find it much more effective.
Skyshadow wrote: They're right about one thing: Linux (okay, damn it, Linux-based operating systems in general) have too many damn programs. In some areas, there are simply too many potentially useful and yet obscured programs that you won't find unless you're looking for them.
But a good interface is a very effective way around this problem. For example, the company I work (Amaze) for have rebuilt the interface to a system more complex than Linux (it operates X-ray microanalysis equipment) so that any user at any level, by following a simple flowchart of the taks they're trying to do, is shown, at each stage, just the controls they need and no others. It's called progressive or incremental disclosure in interface circles. I can see something like this for common Linux tasks - choose what you want to do from some available set of choices and the interface shows you just the commands that are relevant. Cuts down the complexity a treat.
I don't know that RMS could work *anywhere* he wanted for any amount. There's a considerable portion of the industry where he *wouldn't* work because it would be against his principles. There's another subset who wouldn't employ him because of his somewhat rigid stances and possible inflexibility. There's another subset who are MS/Novell/whatever-based where he doesn't have the skills. Not everyone regards him as a guru.
I make no comments vis-a-vis my attitude to him, by the way, just an observation.
Just in passing, Dinorwig isn't really your average hydro-electric plant, it's a pump storage scheme. Off-peak (cheap) electricity is used to pump water from a lower reservoir to a higher one. Then, when there are peaks in demand during the day, the water is released back down to add a chunk of megawattage back into the Grid at a few seconds notice. Very cool place; I was lucky enough to get a guided tour inside before it was finished, many years ago...