I took a look at buying some real estate in San Jose, and 75% of the sellers were out of luck engineers who're moving out of the area. Real estate up the peninsula (like Redwood City and San Carlos) seems to be holding on, probably buoyed by interest rates. However the rental market is WAY down, you can rent a house that used to go for $3500 a month for $2300, and you can take your time thinking about it.
Re:looking for a good windows to linux book.
on
Linux Power Tools
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Take my advice:
Find an old, unwanted machine.
Install Linux. At least with Redhat, it's as easy as Windows. Only consufing part to you might be the partition setup, but any installer today will do this for you
Have a Windows machine on the internet so you can Google your way out of problems in case you zorch something and until you use your Linux machine for web browsing
Get it on the network, and get a samba share drive going. Now, you can download files the way you always have with Windows (for now) and copy them to the Linux machine.
Find some packages that are fun or useful to you. Install a web server and (my favorite) Twiki, and voila, you have easy to create web content.
When (not if) you get snagged, Google or 'man' your way out. When you learn a new trick, store it (for instance, on your Twiki site!)
Learn how to look at and grep logs. After the shock of seeing all the network debris that flows into your system, learn how to set up your Linux machine as a firewall and block ports.
Be prepared to repeat if you hose something, or get hacked.
...in short, dive in. Aim your sights towards something you want, stumble, learn, repeat. Learning Linux/Unix is not like learning physics where you need to learn a few principles and grow a huge tree. It's more like chemistry: it's about filling a bag with lots of little tricks. Indeed, that's kind of the Unix way: lots of little tools that play well together. Having little goals and projects are key, because each 'trick' in your bag is only interesting when there was a relevant reason for learning it.
George Lucas shot his latest film with a digital video camera
Are you referring to Attack of the Clones? If so, while I agree that still film is dying, I wish George hadn't shot digital. From the opening Lucasfilm logo I could perceive the pixels (and this was in a 'digital projector' theatre). For motion pictures, digital is nowhere near the staggering resolution of a 70mm print.
I'm also shocked when I watch DVDs / Direct-TV at the compression artifacts. Maybe only video nerds like me notice it, but I think in this way we took a major step backward from LD.
Anyways, I think leaving out the Scouring is even more of a disappointment than leaving out Tom Bombadil. But that's just me.
It's not just you. Bombadil is a fascinating character no doubt; he's beyond even Sauron's reach. But I've read book reviews from near the time LoTR was published that criticize the Bombadil adventure as an unnecessary diversion that added little to the plot. It's hard for me to disagree. That doesn't mean the reviewers were right, but there was precedent in literary criticism for Jackson to prioritize Bombadil out of the films.
I read TTT and RoTK right after seeing the TTT film, and quickly realized that they had WAY too much left to film to fit in one film. I wish they'd turn it into a 4 part series.
I mean, how can you cut the confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman? Without this, do we cut the entire palantir subplot? Without the palantir, we don't see where Aragorn stares down Sauron.
I also wonder how much of 'The Scouring of the Shire' made it in. How much screen time would we need for the Saruman / Wormtongue confrontation?
It used to be cool to use Linux, not it's just fucking annoying....
So, Linux is no longer cool because its users have become hypocrites? Why not just use what you like? It's the Atari vs. Intellivision wars all over again, except George Plimpton is dead.
This is an interesting question: is there a fundamental, irreducible 'energy of information'? In an ideal transistor, what is the minimum energy needed to flip a bit?
what if Minority Report ended on the fade to black when Tom Cruise confront his boss and a gunshot is heard ? That would be IMHO a quite dickian ending.
Your points are well taken but Dick would not end a story like this. In your proposal, the author is simply hiding something to 'artificially' create suspense. Dick's magic comes from weaving seemingly unresolvable realities into a believable tale.
In fact, the short story MR is based on ends as cleanly as the movie. The 'twist' is the idea that being the one person with personal access to the predictive equipment inevitably tangles you up in a crime.
Uh, guys, the whole point was that it wasn't explicit whether it was true or not. There's also the scene where the big boss Vilos, in desparately trying to make him believe that he's a 'fake' Quaid' tells Quaid of the adventures he's about to have - and these descriptions describe the rest of the movie!
This captures the magic in PKD stories - one can never draw the line between the reality and illusion/delusion. His brilliant storytelling makes each equally plausible. Say all you want about Total Recall, but in this way it was dead-on to the spirit of PKD's work.
Next time you think there is no force of strength behind rule of law, try punching a judge
Uh, while I was mostly with you on your points, how does this analogy work? If you assault someone, judge or not, you break the law. Maybe a better analogy would be when people on Clinton's bad side found themself suddenly targets of IRS audits (heck, I probably just got myself one now with this comment). You see, here we have someone doing something legal (freedom of speech) feeling the muscle of those with the ability to more easily leverage the law's consequences.
Free software has hit critical mass. Unix works, and hence, so does Linux. Microsoft still doesn't get it. Free Software is not a competitor in the same sense as other software companies, so they should quit the 'Coke vs. Pepsi' mentality. Free Software doesn't need shareholders, lawyers, shrink wrapped endcap located boxes nor revenue targets to survive and thrive.
Then, by your analogy, just as Sony makes VHS decks, do you expect to see a Unix-based Microsoft OS?
And as much as I like your analogy, let me play devil's advocate: VHS was unstoppable because it hit critical mass in terms of the number of decks out there. The video rental market sealed Beta's fate. So, here we are now with a far greater percentage of users with Microsoft-based PCs and an even greater percentage of Microsoft software content. So, which is Microsoft? VHS or Beta? It's probably a bit of both.
Coke introduced 'New Coke', people hated it and grew nostalgic for 'Old Coke'. So Coke brilliantly re-introduced 'Coke Classic'. Turns out 'Coke Classic' sales beat pre-'New Coke' sales. People still debate whether Coke created a conspiracy here or got lucky. And there's even room for more future mystique harvesting - people still think the 'Old Coke' tasted better than 'Coke Classic', so someday Coke could release 'Coke Old Fashioned' or something and make more money selling unhealthy water crammed with as much sugar (12 teaspoons) as science will allow.
Anyway, Disney's doing the same thing. People will long for the good old days of hand drawn animation now long gone. Pretty soon, Disney will designate movies as '100% hand drawn' and artificially add value and mystique to the same old thing they've been doing before.
Although it wouldn't work for T2, I suppose you could have a central brain and power pod which would get swished around to keep it wishin the goopy part. But I wouldn't invest in a startup that claimed they could do it.
Ah, they've discoverd the Atari 800. (yes, same designer). And the designer of the Atari 800's SIO serial bus is on the patent for USB. The old becomes new.
Ever play 'Alternate Reality' on the Atari 8 bit computers? This epic game was to end with a realization that you're in a matrix-like cocoon. The creator of the game, Phil Price, evidently met the W. brothers, and (quote)
I did talk to two guys while at a restaurant in Westwood [In LA , near UCLA, it's the core of Hollywood]. I explained to them AR and it storyline, ideas and the Hollywood movie Dark City simularities to some of it and it's differences [i.e. things I think they did wrong in that movie that made it a bomb in the box office]. They listened intently, and one of them remarked to me (as they smiled to each other) was that "ideas can't be copyrighted". Matrix came out a few years later, I very much doubt they were the two brothers who came up with Matrix, but it made me wonder after Matrix came out.
see this for many more comparisons between the two.
In the late 70s, when I was around 9 years old, I would sometimes go downtown with a family friend and play games on the minicomputer of her law firm. Two of the games on there were 'Adventure' and 'Zork'. I have never been the same as this inspired my computer career. Anyway, I vividly remember comparing notes with the secretaries there who had copious maps and clues on how to make the snake go away, where to find batteries for the flashlight, etc. It's amazing what people can do.
Similarly in the 90s, I saw non-technical secretaries work miracles with DOS Wordperfect 5.1. People can learn. It was years before they could do the same quality with Windows-based Word Processors.
No, these secretaries aren't going to understand programming concepts. But we have been so intrenched in the Windows world that we have forgotten that people actually have far greater capacity to deal with things than we give them credit. The world *can* survive without InstallShield and the 'Windows Experience'.
Want proof? Look at Linux! I personally thought no one (even sysadmins) would seriously consider going back to command lines, manual builds and (gasp) vi.
So, the key isn't so much to make Linux desktop emulate the 'finger paint' simplistic Windows, but to instead make sure the holes are patched up (e.g., no hiding options of UI apps in.conf files). Frustration, not ease, is really the show stopper.
The magic of Unix's CLI lies in having lots of small, useful tools that play well together by talking text. It's brilliant and has a 3 decade track record.
Instead, Microsoft wants to have a massive Borg-like internal heap of objects and functions, and give you a text interface to it.
I'd much rather have lots of little, self-sufficient programs that essentially *are* the OS, rather than a new view into the OS.
Yes, having function-level access and object manipulation sounds really cool and orderly compared to the barbaric pipe & grep. But when all goes to h3ll, you'll wish you had text.
Text is universal. Objects and function calls change like the wind.
Re:Greatest and most significant Human achievment.
on
Human Accomplishment
·
· Score: 1
I seriously doubt we 'created' fire. We saw fire created by nature and eventually figured out how to copy it.
Look at the 'Rpeak' reading on the top500.org site here. This is the theoretical maximum for the cluster. Take the #3 Intel machine. It has 1152 dual processor machines for a total of 2304 processors at 2.4 Ghz. So, 2304*2*2.4 = 11,059.
An Itanium, BTW can do 4 flops per clock, and that's why a 1.5 Ghz Itanium competes with a 3.06 Ghz Xeon on Linpack
Slashdot Mirror
I took a look at buying some real estate in San Jose, and 75% of the sellers were out of luck engineers who're moving out of the area. Real estate up the peninsula (like Redwood City and San Carlos) seems to be holding on, probably buoyed by interest rates. However the rental market is WAY down, you can rent a house that used to go for $3500 a month for $2300, and you can take your time thinking about it.
George Lucas shot his latest film with a digital video camera
Are you referring to Attack of the Clones? If so, while I agree that still film is dying, I wish George hadn't shot digital. From the opening Lucasfilm logo I could perceive the pixels (and this was in a 'digital projector' theatre). For motion pictures, digital is nowhere near the staggering resolution of a 70mm print.
I'm also shocked when I watch DVDs / Direct-TV at the compression artifacts. Maybe only video nerds like me notice it, but I think in this way we took a major step backward from LD.
Anyways, I think leaving out the Scouring is even more of a disappointment than leaving out Tom Bombadil. But that's just me.
It's not just you. Bombadil is a fascinating character no doubt; he's beyond even Sauron's reach. But I've read book reviews from near the time LoTR was published that criticize the Bombadil adventure as an unnecessary diversion that added little to the plot. It's hard for me to disagree. That doesn't mean the reviewers were right, but there was precedent in literary criticism for Jackson to prioritize Bombadil out of the films.
I read TTT and RoTK right after seeing the TTT film, and quickly realized that they had WAY too much left to film to fit in one film. I wish they'd turn it into a 4 part series.
I mean, how can you cut the confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman? Without this, do we cut the entire palantir subplot? Without the palantir, we don't see where Aragorn stares down Sauron.
I also wonder how much of 'The Scouring of the Shire' made it in. How much screen time would we need for the Saruman / Wormtongue confrontation?
It used to be cool to use Linux, not it's just fucking annoying....
So, Linux is no longer cool because its users have become hypocrites? Why not just use what you like? It's the Atari vs. Intellivision wars all over again, except George Plimpton is dead.
This is an interesting question: is there a fundamental, irreducible 'energy of information'? In an ideal transistor, what is the minimum energy needed to flip a bit?
--matt
Similarly, "Murphy's Law" was supposed to be called "Murphy's Axiom" but something got screwed up.
what if Minority Report ended on the fade to black when Tom Cruise confront his boss and a gunshot is heard ? That would be IMHO a quite dickian ending.
Your points are well taken but Dick would not end a story like this. In your proposal, the author is simply hiding something to 'artificially' create suspense. Dick's magic comes from weaving seemingly unresolvable realities into a believable tale.
In fact, the short story MR is based on ends as cleanly as the movie. The 'twist' is the idea that being the one person with personal access to the predictive equipment inevitably tangles you up in a crime.
Uh, guys, the whole point was that it wasn't explicit whether it was true or not. There's also the scene where the big boss Vilos, in desparately trying to make him believe that he's a 'fake' Quaid' tells Quaid of the adventures he's about to have - and these descriptions describe the rest of the movie!
This captures the magic in PKD stories - one can never draw the line between the reality and illusion/delusion. His brilliant storytelling makes each equally plausible. Say all you want about Total Recall, but in this way it was dead-on to the spirit of PKD's work.
Next time you think there is no force of strength behind rule of law, try punching a judge
Uh, while I was mostly with you on your points, how does this analogy work? If you assault someone, judge or not, you break the law. Maybe a better analogy would be when people on Clinton's bad side found themself suddenly targets of IRS audits (heck, I probably just got myself one now with this comment). You see, here we have someone doing something legal (freedom of speech) feeling the muscle of those with the ability to more easily leverage the law's consequences.
Free software has hit critical mass. Unix works, and hence, so does Linux. Microsoft still doesn't get it. Free Software is not a competitor in the same sense as other software companies, so they should quit the 'Coke vs. Pepsi' mentality. Free Software doesn't need shareholders, lawyers, shrink wrapped endcap located boxes nor revenue targets to survive and thrive.
Then, by your analogy, just as Sony makes VHS decks, do you expect to see a Unix-based Microsoft OS?
And as much as I like your analogy, let me play devil's advocate: VHS was unstoppable because it hit critical mass in terms of the number of decks out there. The video rental market sealed Beta's fate. So, here we are now with a far greater percentage of users with Microsoft-based PCs and an even greater percentage of Microsoft software content. So, which is Microsoft? VHS or Beta? It's probably a bit of both.
I guess someone watched too many 'Airwolf' re-runs, or rented 'Blue Thunder'.
Coke introduced 'New Coke', people hated it and grew nostalgic for 'Old Coke'. So Coke brilliantly re-introduced 'Coke Classic'. Turns out 'Coke Classic' sales beat pre-'New Coke' sales. People still debate whether Coke created a conspiracy here or got lucky. And there's even room for more future mystique harvesting - people still think the 'Old Coke' tasted better than 'Coke Classic', so someday Coke could release 'Coke Old Fashioned' or something and make more money selling unhealthy water crammed with as much sugar (12 teaspoons) as science will allow.
Anyway, Disney's doing the same thing. People will long for the good old days of hand drawn animation now long gone. Pretty soon, Disney will designate movies as '100% hand drawn' and artificially add value and mystique to the same old thing they've been doing before.
Although it wouldn't work for T2, I suppose you could have a central brain and power pod which would get swished around to keep it wishin the goopy part. But I wouldn't invest in a startup that claimed they could do it.
I'm certain it's the other way around, because Phil Price was an Atari fanatic.
...and even if every molecule did computing, what about power?
Ah, they've discoverd the Atari 800. (yes, same designer). And the designer of the Atari 800's SIO serial bus is on the patent for USB. The old becomes new.
...or 'The Hobbit', though that probably wouldn't work as the characters act in a much more 'adult' fashion in LoTR.
Ever play 'Alternate Reality' on the Atari 8 bit computers? This epic game was to end with a realization that you're in a matrix-like cocoon. The creator of the game, Phil Price, evidently met the W. brothers, and (quote)
I did talk to two guys while at a restaurant in Westwood [In LA , near UCLA, it's the core of Hollywood]. I explained to them AR and it storyline, ideas and the Hollywood movie Dark City simularities to some of it and it's differences [i.e. things I think they did wrong in that movie that made it a bomb in the box office]. They listened intently, and one of them remarked to me (as they smiled to each other) was that "ideas can't be copyrighted". Matrix came out a few years later, I very much doubt they were the two brothers who came up with Matrix, but it made me wonder after Matrix came out.
see this for many more comparisons between the two.
In the late 70s, when I was around 9 years old, I would sometimes go downtown with a family friend and play games on the minicomputer of her law firm. Two of the games on there were 'Adventure' and 'Zork'. I have never been the same as this inspired my computer career. Anyway, I vividly remember comparing notes with the secretaries there who had copious maps and clues on how to make the snake go away, where to find batteries for the flashlight, etc. It's amazing what people can do.
.conf files). Frustration, not ease, is really the show stopper.
Similarly in the 90s, I saw non-technical secretaries work miracles with DOS Wordperfect 5.1. People can learn. It was years before they could do the same quality with Windows-based Word Processors.
No, these secretaries aren't going to understand programming concepts. But we have been so intrenched in the Windows world that we have forgotten that people actually have far greater capacity to deal with things than we give them credit. The world *can* survive without InstallShield and the 'Windows Experience'.
Want proof? Look at Linux! I personally thought no one (even sysadmins) would seriously consider going back to command lines, manual builds and (gasp) vi.
So, the key isn't so much to make Linux desktop emulate the 'finger paint' simplistic Windows, but to instead make sure the holes are patched up (e.g., no hiding options of UI apps in
The magic of Unix's CLI lies in having lots of small, useful tools that play well together by talking text. It's brilliant and has a 3 decade track record.
Instead, Microsoft wants to have a massive Borg-like internal heap of objects and functions, and give you a text interface to it.
I'd much rather have lots of little, self-sufficient programs that essentially *are* the OS, rather than a new view into the OS.
Yes, having function-level access and object manipulation sounds really cool and orderly compared to the barbaric pipe & grep. But when all goes to h3ll, you'll wish you had text.
Text is universal. Objects and function calls change like the wind.
I seriously doubt we 'created' fire. We saw fire created by nature and eventually figured out how to copy it.
Intel Xeon's can do 2 (64 bit) flops per clock.
Look at the 'Rpeak' reading on the top500.org site here. This is the theoretical maximum for the cluster. Take the #3 Intel machine. It has 1152 dual processor machines for a total of 2304 processors at 2.4 Ghz. So, 2304*2*2.4 = 11,059.
An Itanium, BTW can do 4 flops per clock, and that's why a 1.5 Ghz Itanium competes with a 3.06 Ghz Xeon on Linpack