(completely off topic, but...)
Its Mandarin, and imho, its not _that_ hard to learn. I actually do it to relieve stress;-)
At CMU, I learned basically a 4 year old's vocabulary in 3 months. As long as you practice ~4 hours a day, conversation comes easy after a while. Personally, I believe it is so easy because its not a romantic language (and thus, you don't start messing up one region's rules with another).
A good place to start learning is zhongwen.com
Writing characters is also fun...but it take PRACTICE! If you want to learn how to write a character correctly, be prepared to do it at least a couple hundred times.;-)
zai2 jian4!
(i hope I got that right;-)
--------------------------
I have mentioned time and time before, LINUX IS NOT READY FOR THE DESKTOP OR THE AVERAGE USER.
My question is...will it ever be?
Unix is designed to be...well...Unix. Security. Small program to do specific task. Very focused on the developer/researcher/other academia nut.
Windows and MacOS appeal to a different market...Joe Blow. They know he/she doesn't care what an IRQ or DMA is. Differences between FAT32 and NTFS? One sounds like an obeseity problem, the other a muffled sneeze.
Unix and Linux are trying to simplify their complex backgrounds, where as the commercial OSes are working from a simplier standpoint, giving out more hardcore details to those who know to look for them. Personally, I believe that's the smarter thing to do.
I've always wanted to write my own OS, starting from the WinNT or MacOS perspective...think simple. Maybe its time I put more effort into it... --------------------------
You're not the average user, though. You're probably well versed in how to use Linux.
A newbie to Linux gets swamped with information. Hell, it took me two months of near-constant usage before I was used to Linux, and that was back in the 2.0.32 days;-)
Newbies don't know what "rtfm" is...they are coming from the point-and-click MacOS or Windows world, and they need a transition. KDE and Gnome provide that transition, but even they have a tough time hiding all the complexity that is Linux... --------------------------
The problem is, the app spread between those two DE's are completely different.
I personally love using KDE, but it lacks a good ICQ client (kicq is still a work in progress, and I don't really like licq). Thus, I use GnomeICU...now I have to install all kinds of crap just so that I can use that and a few other small GTK apps. --------------------------
maybe you could better spend your time helping the Mozilla team by running test builds and writing bug reports instead of hanging out on/. and complaining about the speed.
hehehe...I never complained about the speed...I complained that the Mozilla team is all talk;-)
FYI, I have submitted bug reports, only to be met by the stupidity of the developers - I find a bug for the Linux version, they said they couldn't reproduce it under Windows NT and therefore, my report is invalid. Lovely bunch of people, those Netscape folk.
Reading the rest of your comment, you're completely missing the point. Solaris is NOT a desktop environment - its a server! So why are they forcing a desktop onto it? Didn't they learn from how well WinNT Server does w/ all the GUI stuff on top?
To add to this, they're already promising to use something which isn't finished...yes, I'll agree a replacement for CDE is in order, but why not KDE? Its now got the GPL'd warm-fuzzies all over it. Why not XFCE? Why not some other alternative?
I would arguem most of the *nix users out there don't care that they can play mp3s w/in their browser/file manager/shell/masterabatory device. If you want it, fine. Your choice. But why is it being imposed on a Operating System designed for a SERVER?
And your assumption about everyone who wants a GUI has Win or OSX is *very, very wrong.* I want a great, easy to use GUI yet I don't want to give up the control of my software to a single corporation and become a slave to their desires. That's why I'm using free software. That's why I'm here
Oh god...quit thumping your chest, you look foolish.
Aren't you doing the same thing with Gnome? The Gnome foundation is a collection of companies steering the direction of Gnome. Yes, they can't hijack the project, but they most definately are influencing the project. If you want true "freedom", you wouldn't be using that, either...
Party line?! Sounds like your role my friend. You're the one bashing prominent open source projects on/., not me. And the last time I checked, that *is* the party line around here.
Do you even read slashdot? --------------------------
blah blah blah..."its one of the best open source"...blah blah blah..."make a big difference"....blah blah blah..."the only real drawback is... sluggishness, but I'm sure they'll fix [that]"
How many times has this been said? Mozilla has been saying this for 2 years, and IE is still running strong;-)
Like I said before, the Nautilis team is talented...but once Linux actually has a stronghold on the DESKTOP market, Nautilis is still someone's dream...Both Windows and MacOS X will be far ahead Nautilis by the time Nautilis comes out the door.
What Nautilis needs to do find a market, and meet it...everyone who really wants a GUI has Windows or MacOS (X). Isn't there something new and creative Nautlilis can be doing instead of writing an open source version of Windows Explorer?
Oh, and to any moderators out there. His comment isn't insightful - its the party line. Mine aren't "overrated"...they're my opinion. --------------------------
Honestly, the Gnome team has proved they can't hold to a schedule at all. That's fine in the Open Source world where its done when its done, but Sun is a buisness. Shipping betaware sounds like...like...Microsoft;-) --------------------------
They made this decision before Nautilis reached 1.0! What was the last 1.0 release you can remeber that went smoothly? Remeber Gnome? KDE had many issues too, IIRC.
The Nautilis team is talented, yes...but good software survives the test of time...Nautilis is still wearing diapers.:-) --------------------------
Oops...didn't mean to mislead you. Yup, the OS needs to be involved at some level (either by doing the authentication, or letting some user-level app do it).
The Open Source community will be involved in this at somepoint. You must remeber that companies make hardware, and when it comes to something like this, its either their way or no way. Yeah, maybe we can hack together drivers, but we'll also get sued for breaking the EULA.:-/ --------------------------
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but in a class I'm taking right now we were discussing MPAA and DMCA. One of the (disturbing) trends in technology seems to be authentication between the host CPU and devices - basically, any peripheral you attach will authenticate with the host box, making sure they are "compatible."
Sounds cool, doesn't it? But now companies could start being able to restrict what you hook up to your computer. Sony does like HP right now? Now Trinitrons won't work on your Pavilion PC.
DVD drives apparently have this technology already...in preparing to start your DVD drive, the CPU and the DVD drive exchange encrypted messages to make sure you can use the DVD functionality.
I didn't see it in the article, but does anyone know if this new monitor technology will definately be using this stuff? If so, be prepared to get a EULA with your next hardware purchase:-/ --------------------------
With applications like StarOffice You're not helping your cause.
Open source methods create the best software. BIND - 95% of the market. Apache - 69% of the market. Sendmail - 90% of the market. And Office? Mathematica? Non-free software stands quite well on its own.
GNOME is an ideal replacement for it under Linux, and is actually more advanced. ...when it works. Maybe nautilis will be better, but gmc is crap. I believe even Miguel has send so in not so blunt terms.
Ease of use. Completely subjective. I know many people who find the MacOS UI infinitely superior to Gnome/KDE/Windows
You've got a case of the "blinded-by-obession"s. Remember, what's best for you may not be best for another. Remember, Linux is all about freedom...some people choose to use non-free OS/software because they feel its better. --------------------------
Being a Computer Science major at a particular school I could tell you that having a laptop (at least in my case) would have helped out a LOT.
Nearly everything I do involves a computer...from writing up my Operating Systems projects to writ ing up papers.. And using the campus's WaveLan, I could be doing it in a class I don't care nearly as much about.
Plus, the ability to take notes in class and have them readable (my handwriting is shit...) would be a nice bonus.
Why haven't I got one now? I'm pretty much broke...
Of course, if it were mandated that I have a laptop, I may be even deeper in the red than I am now... --------------------------
I would think it wouldn't be that much more...hell, its probably just the same play() call, but now you have an option to allow only one stream at a time vs. the bitwise thing during device init.
Plus, what is the advantage of having a sound daemon? Seems like just extra overhead.... --------------------------
Slashdot Mirror
AHH! Stupid formatting...hope you can still read it :-/
--------------------------
(completely off topic, but...) Its Mandarin, and imho, its not _that_ hard to learn. I actually do it to relieve stress ;-)
At CMU, I learned basically a 4 year old's vocabulary in 3 months. As long as you practice ~4 hours a day, conversation comes easy after a while. Personally, I believe it is so easy because its not a romantic language (and thus, you don't start messing up one region's rules with another).
A good place to start learning is zhongwen.com
Writing characters is also fun...but it take PRACTICE! If you want to learn how to write a character correctly, be prepared to do it at least a couple hundred times. ;-)
zai2 jian4!
(i hope I got that right ;-)
--------------------------
I have mentioned time and time before, LINUX IS NOT READY FOR THE DESKTOP OR THE AVERAGE USER.
My question is...will it ever be?
Unix is designed to be...well...Unix. Security. Small program to do specific task. Very focused on the developer/researcher/other academia nut.
Windows and MacOS appeal to a different market...Joe Blow. They know he/she doesn't care what an IRQ or DMA is. Differences between FAT32 and NTFS? One sounds like an obeseity problem, the other a muffled sneeze.
Unix and Linux are trying to simplify their complex backgrounds, where as the commercial OSes are working from a simplier standpoint, giving out more hardcore details to those who know to look for them. Personally, I believe that's the smarter thing to do.
I've always wanted to write my own OS, starting from the WinNT or MacOS perspective...think simple. Maybe its time I put more effort into it...
--------------------------
You're not the average user, though. You're probably well versed in how to use Linux.
;-)
A newbie to Linux gets swamped with information. Hell, it took me two months of near-constant usage before I was used to Linux, and that was back in the 2.0.32 days
Newbies don't know what "rtfm" is...they are coming from the point-and-click MacOS or Windows world, and they need a transition. KDE and Gnome provide that transition, but even they have a tough time hiding all the complexity that is Linux...
--------------------------
The problem is, the app spread between those two DE's are completely different.
I personally love using KDE, but it lacks a good ICQ client (kicq is still a work in progress, and I don't really like licq). Thus, I use GnomeICU...now I have to install all kinds of crap just so that I can use that and a few other small GTK apps.
--------------------------
No, its all about having too much crap! :-)
Who needs 3 different Napster/AIM/ICQ/IRC clients? Linux is a plethora or repeated and re-invented work, and distro are now starting to show that.
What's really needed are more fine grained packages. I never use xterm or rxvt, but I use aterm. Can I please install JUST that?
I don't really use python, but Gnome does...grrrr... add an extra n megabytes of lost space to that...
and the list continues...
--------------------------
And what a crappy desktop it makes, no? Right tool for the right job, chief :-P
--------------------------
maybe you could better spend your time helping the Mozilla team by running test builds and writing bug reports instead of hanging out on /. and complaining about the speed.
;-)
/., not me. And the last time I checked, that *is* the party line around here.
hehehe...I never complained about the speed...I complained that the Mozilla team is all talk
FYI, I have submitted bug reports, only to be met by the stupidity of the developers - I find a bug for the Linux version, they said they couldn't reproduce it under Windows NT and therefore, my report is invalid. Lovely bunch of people, those Netscape folk.
Reading the rest of your comment, you're completely missing the point. Solaris is NOT a desktop environment - its a server! So why are they forcing a desktop onto it? Didn't they learn from how well WinNT Server does w/ all the GUI stuff on top?
To add to this, they're already promising to use something which isn't finished...yes, I'll agree a replacement for CDE is in order, but why not KDE? Its now got the GPL'd warm-fuzzies all over it. Why not XFCE? Why not some other alternative?
I would arguem most of the *nix users out there don't care that they can play mp3s w/in their browser/file manager/shell/masterabatory device. If you want it, fine. Your choice. But why is it being imposed on a Operating System designed for a SERVER?
And your assumption about everyone who wants a GUI has Win or OSX is *very, very wrong.* I want a great, easy to use GUI yet I don't want to give up the control of my software to a single corporation and become a slave to their desires. That's why I'm using free software. That's why I'm here
Oh god...quit thumping your chest, you look foolish.
Aren't you doing the same thing with Gnome? The Gnome foundation is a collection of companies steering the direction of Gnome. Yes, they can't hijack the project, but they most definately are influencing the project. If you want true "freedom", you wouldn't be using that, either...
Party line?! Sounds like your role my friend. You're the one bashing prominent open source projects on
Do you even read slashdot?
--------------------------
blah blah blah..."its one of the best open source"...blah blah blah..."make a big difference"....blah blah blah..."the only real drawback is ... sluggishness, but I'm sure they'll fix [that]"
;-)
How many times has this been said? Mozilla has been saying this for 2 years, and IE is still running strong
Like I said before, the Nautilis team is talented...but once Linux actually has a stronghold on the DESKTOP market, Nautilis is still someone's dream...Both Windows and MacOS X will be far ahead Nautilis by the time Nautilis comes out the door.
What Nautilis needs to do find a market, and meet it...everyone who really wants a GUI has Windows or MacOS (X). Isn't there something new and creative Nautlilis can be doing instead of writing an open source version of Windows Explorer?
Oh, and to any moderators out there. His comment isn't insightful - its the party line. Mine aren't "overrated"...they're my opinion.
--------------------------
Wasn't Gnome 1.4 supposed to be out a while ago?
;-)
Honestly, the Gnome team has proved they can't hold to a schedule at all. That's fine in the Open Source world where its done when its done, but Sun is a buisness. Shipping betaware sounds like...like...Microsoft
--------------------------
They made this decision before Nautilis reached 1.0! What was the last 1.0 release you can remeber that went smoothly? Remeber Gnome? KDE had many issues too, IIRC.
:-)
The Nautilis team is talented, yes...but good software survives the test of time...Nautilis is still wearing diapers.
--------------------------
Nah, its probably the same think you had. BlockTransfer(), and yfs.h ;-) The rest was all up to us...
--------------------------
Man, I loved that game. Cool music, even from the shitty PC speaker on my 386/16 ;-)
Does anyone know how SCIII was?
--------------------------
Oops...didn't mean to mislead you. Yup, the OS needs to be involved at some level (either by doing the authentication, or letting some user-level app do it).
:-/
The Open Source community will be involved in this at somepoint. You must remeber that companies make hardware, and when it comes to something like this, its either their way or no way. Yeah, maybe we can hack together drivers, but we'll also get sued for breaking the EULA.
--------------------------
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but in a class I'm taking right now we were discussing MPAA and DMCA. One of the (disturbing) trends in technology seems to be authentication between the host CPU and devices - basically, any peripheral you attach will authenticate with the host box, making sure they are "compatible."
:-/
Sounds cool, doesn't it? But now companies could start being able to restrict what you hook up to your computer. Sony does like HP right now? Now Trinitrons won't work on your Pavilion PC.
DVD drives apparently have this technology already...in preparing to start your DVD drive, the CPU and the DVD drive exchange encrypted messages to make sure you can use the DVD functionality.
I didn't see it in the article, but does anyone know if this new monitor technology will definately be using this stuff? If so, be prepared to get a EULA with your next hardware purchase
--------------------------
Uhm. I submitted the article, and I think both are "pretty sweet" ;-)
--------------------------
Hacking coffee pots is enough of a problem ;-)
Mr. Coffee on the web
--------------------------
Its spelled O, p, e, r, a.
;-)
Silly RPI student. CMU rules
--------------------------
I resent that bad impersonation.
I've got a brand new modem and a silver plated scrotum.
--------------------------
ln -s /usr/src/linux /usr/src/linux-2.2.14
;-)
Now cross your fingers and pray
--------------------------
The best machine I have is a 200mmx!! Damnit. :-)
--------------------------
Linux is an unstoppable operating system
Oh god.
With applications like StarOffice
You're not helping your cause.
Open source methods create the best software. BIND - 95% of the market. Apache - 69% of the market. Sendmail - 90% of the market.
And Office? Mathematica? Non-free software stands quite well on its own.
GNOME is an ideal replacement for it under Linux, and is actually more advanced.
...when it works. Maybe nautilis will be better, but gmc is crap. I believe even Miguel has send so in not so blunt terms.
Ease of use.
Completely subjective. I know many people who find the MacOS UI infinitely superior to Gnome/KDE/Windows
You've got a case of the "blinded-by-obession"s. Remember, what's best for you may not be best for another. Remember, Linux is all about freedom...some people choose to use non-free OS/software because they feel its better.
--------------------------
How's the developement of Gimp 1.2/2.0 coming? Is there any status page?
--------------------------
Why do college kids?
Being a Computer Science major at a particular school I could tell you that having a laptop (at least in my case) would have helped out a LOT.
Nearly everything I do involves a computer...from writing up my Operating Systems projects to writ ing up papers.. And using the campus's WaveLan, I could be doing it in a class I don't care nearly as much about.
Plus, the ability to take notes in class and have them readable (my handwriting is shit...) would be a nice bonus.
Why haven't I got one now? I'm pretty much broke...
Of course, if it were mandated that I have a laptop, I may be even deeper in the red than I am now...
--------------------------
I would think it wouldn't be that much more...hell, its probably just the same play() call, but now you have an option to allow only one stream at a time vs. the bitwise thing during device init.
Plus, what is the advantage of having a sound daemon? Seems like just extra overhead....
--------------------------