Well...I've been using computers for only about 15 years or so, and typing on QWERTY layout for a bit longer. I changed to Dvorak about 6 months ago or so...it took me about a month to be back up to speed, due to the fact that I didn't want to loose my qwerty, so I was using both layouts.
The only real difference I've found between em is that I make less typos with the Dvorak (the "teh" mistake disapeared almost completely) and my wrists don't hurt much anymore (they used to hurt with qwerty after 6 or 7hr of typing).
I don't think Dvorak makes you faster, but it does make for a better typing experience, since you really use all fingers with it.
I work in a company that installs access control stuff, like proximity badges and readers, as well as software to create reports about em. We recently got hired by one of the biggest Univs in Mexico to install equipment in their campus...they are going to put readers in all the exits of the campus (none inside, except for the library and the cafeteria, and those aro to get food and books only) and they are going to stop giving cards to students and faculty and give only access-control badges.
I don't really know what the people at the U think about it, but when I heard we had that contract, I really didn't like the idea, so I asked to be taken out of the project.
Well...as lots of people has been saying about this, PNG sounds better every day....then again, I don't have any gifs on my sites so...jpg is good, and there's no silly animations:)
As for the pseudo-advocates that can't stay away from the flamethrower....kids...you hurt the Free Software/Open Source movement a lot more than you can help it with your silly tirades...most people out there will be hearing about FS/OS for the first time the day s/he gets one gazillion emails because of something that/. (or whatever other site) posted....and they will NOT have kind thoughts about us, because people who is insulted doesn't have kind thoughts about those that insult them, so....use your brains, if you have any. Or, at the very least, shut up.
Vox, who really dislikes "advocates" who don't have a clue
Nothing is wrong with being accountable for what you do....but...think about it this way...let's say that a company (let's call it The Evil Empire) decides to go after every person that says that their product (let's call it Not There Orange Server) is slower than a product that is free (let's call it LeeNux)....they produce the proof (let's say they hire a company called BrainCrap to demonstrate their claims) and show that not only Not There is not slower than LeeNux, but that Not There is 3 times faster than LeeNux...how many people do you think the Evil Empire can ruin with the kind of money that Evil Empires usually have?.
Just think about it...with the "sue-friendly" mindset of most american corps (and american people), there's plenty of reasons to be worried about this kind of crap.
And don't forget about the diary of Telsa ("The most acurate diary" as she calls it, or "the other side of the story" as he has it linked)...it's hilaryous(sp?):)
I'm mexican, and I can only say: One million computers with linux running on them are being deployed in our schools as we speak. I think the project is due mid-2000 or so.
There's no way that RH's portal can compete with/. (or any portal with any weblog, as a matter of fact)...they are two different breeds, for starters, and, more important, RH's portal will be (if they are smart enough) focused towards newbies, and not towards the kind of people that are here (people that are mostly already converted to linux, in thought if not in deed). If RH tries to compete with/. they would be stupid.
him. Everyone wants Darth Maul instead. Just try and find him. (marketing guy freaking out : "They want the BAD guy? The BAD guy? No they don't. deep down they really want the cute, loveable Jar Jar Binks. They just don't know it yet") eat me dude
Mmmm...they shouldn't be so surprised about that...I mean...at least in Mexico, the movie from the original trilogy that was seen by more people was "The empire..."...and the reason most people gave back then on interviews was "it's a great movie because the bad guys win at last":)
1) MSOffice Document specifications are ALREADY open. Anyone who wants to can implement an viewer/editor and many already have. I can think of at least half a dozen non-microsoft products that can at least Read.doc files.
You may want to read the comments before yours...people who IS working on this said clearly that the published "standards" of Office file formats is really only about 80% of the real thing, and that only about 60% of that is right, the rest is not real.
Your second point would be better adressed by the author, not by me, but I can tell you that for me it's not a matter of a MS format or not, but a matter of a STANDARD format or not. I don't do much word processing, but when I do need to make something look pretty, I rather use HTML. I know is not as pretty as you can get with a real word processor, but it IS standard, and you can read it in any computer with a browser, no matter the computer, no matter the browser.
If somebody comes up with a better STANDARD file format, I'll use it...untill then, I'll keep writing in plain text or HTML.
For your 3rd point...unfortunatelly I am no coder, so I have no answer.
XML in O2K, I haven't seen it as of yet, but if it can't be seen by any browser in any computer, it's still a propietary POS, Microsoft or not.
But the thing here is...if I get a file from my brother, and he uses Word, there's no way for me to open it, unless I have Word...and that's what the article says...and that is the REAL problem. Why should I be forced to use Word to look at the stuff others send me? I normally reply with "send it in a reasonable and usable format like RTF or HTML", but it isn't the real solution...the real solution is to have a standard to which ALL wordprocessors adhere, in which we can exchange information, no matter what program we choose to use.
This is like if you couldn't get a phonecall from a friend or family unless you were in the same phone company or using the same brand of phones...totally stupid idea.
Do you actually know anybody (like a real live person) who doesn't know shit about computers and uses linux? Don't give hypothetical examples, I'm talking about real
My mother:) Her first contact with a computer was windows98 3 months ago...she hated it after a week...I installed linux (Mandrake 6) on her puter...she loves it:) She bugs me a LOT less now than she did during the week she used 98.
So...yes, Linux is better for the average joe than Windows, simply because it doesn't freeze and makes them loose the letter they've been typing for an hour
I have to agree with you on this too...I've tried this 'team chess' approach a couple of times, and it sucks:) Unless you have a team with the same playing style and with one person taking the decisions after the rest of the team proposes approaches, team play is not something that will ever work with chess.
The only way to make teamwork function in chess is the way GMs do it...they have advisors who know the playing style and preferences of the GM, and offer him options, but in the end it is the GM who decides.
There's things for which democracy sucks, and this is one of them:)
required to beat--and usually even draw with--Kasparov and his gang of advisors.
This is, I think, what everybody is forgetting...it isn't 'the world vs Kasparov', but 'the world vs. the top 10 chess minds in the world'...there's no way in hell the MS-team will beat Gary and Co., they have been playing like a team for waaaay too long:)
BTW, I don't belive Kasparov is the best player of modern times...Fisher or Capablanca would beat his butt 9 out of every 10 games:)
Nop, no kidding...it says so at ESR's website, go check it out at www.tuxedo.org somewhere in there it's a list of all the projects he is/has been involved in
The thing here is not so much if Linux will kick NT (in this config, I doubt it will), but if Linux will do substantially better than it did in the first test.
If the difference between NT and Linux is NOT the 3.5 times and 2.5 times faster that they published before, all criticisms agains Mindcraft still stand.
We all know that Linux will, sooner or later (probably sooner:) kick NT's butt in this kind of benchmark(et)ing...the deal with the new test is...did Mindcraft f'k up the first and second tests? The answer is, almost certainly, yes...and that is what the community should focus on. NT may be faster this week, but Mindcraft has been lieing for long enough.
Nothing to do with linux development? I don't know about the kernel itself, but he has created, modified or participated in:
Fetchmail
keeper
sitemap
harvester
and some languages, like:
intercal
pilot
cupl
and a bunch of other stuff...just do a grep for his name or initials in your linux box...you'll find a bunch.
BTW, I don't even now ESR, and actually don't enjoy the interviews he does much (is always the same one:) but I belive in giving credit where credit is due.
I have to add my congrats to all of the hackers that have made this wonderfull OS available to us all, and to the guys (not always hackers themselves:) that have created the documentation so 'normal' people (does such thing exist?:) like me can use and abuse this great OS:)
I like Linux. I want Linux to succeed. But it does the cause no good to exaggerate the pain of Windows installation (which literally millions of bonehead users have made work), and minimize the very real problems of Linux.
I can just talk about what happened tonight (well...a few hours ago:) My brother is a doc, who has been using windows9x for a couple of years now...he is no power-user at all, does nothing but write papers, check his medical CDs and play age of empires...when something goes crazy, he yells at me and has me fix it.
I've re-installed windows on his puter a few times, due to different things, and the last two times, I made him do it, while I was watching TV besides him, ready to answer his questions if needed....last time he installed, it took him about an hour or so.
Tonight/last night, I decided to make him install RedHat 6 on a spare computer, to see if it really is as hard for non-techs as people say it is....I gave him a CD, a floppy disk, a printed copy of an installation howto I found somewhere, a printed copy of the System/Device Manager thing in windows (so he had the IRQs and stuff like that) and I went off to pick up dinner.
I returned 30 minutes later to find him trying to get the soundcard working (he got it in 5 mins once I told him about sndconfig or whatever that one is called:) I just fixed the resolution on the monitor (he didn't know what monitor to select, so he chose VGA).
So...a non-tech dude took 35 minutes to install RH 6 on a pretty vanilla p200/MMX puter (soundcard, NIC, no modem)....he's been playing with the box for the last 5 or 6 hr, and he's having fun with it:)
When a linux install goes well, it's a piece of cake...when the problems show up, it can be a royal pain in the a$$...but then again, so is with any other OS out there, in my experience.
Vox
PS: Yes, I've installed NT and 9x a bunch of times...I make computers for a living, and discovered Linux only a couple of months ago...9x is easy to install when the hardware is right, NT is a pain in the a$$ even if the HW is the right one...linux is right between them, in my experience. After tonight, I'am going to start offering Linux pre-installed as an option for my clients:)
Like mail, for example. Gee, was setting up a mailserver under Linux ever easy! Call your provider, edit sendmail.cf, and run sendmail on boot. Ooooooo... now I can call myself a Linux expert!;)
Wanna hear a better one?:) My first contact with *nix was setting up a listerver in Los Angeles...from my home in Mexico:) I even got payed for it:)
I got the job because I 'admin' more than a few mailing lists, and everybody thinks I know what I'm doing:)
The damn thing was so easy to set up (with a Linux manual at hand:) that I couldn't belive it was really installed till I started seeing emails going through it:)
Linux is hard? Nah!!!! NT is a royal pain...if the program is broken, you are SOL...if a linux program is broken, you fix it (or get a friend to fix it:)
Vox
Anybody can be a linux expert if they dare to use their brain:)
What is that with calling PCWeek a neutral location and using them to audit the results? MS Ziff Davis is not a neutral party.
Mmm...they are calling ZD neutral party because the RedHat dude (whatever his name is, I'm bad with names:) said that RH would only participate if a neutral 3rd party "like Ziff Davis" (HIS words) participates...so...they just granted his request:) Read the Mindshaft invitation for the open benchmark (is somewhere in their site) they have the quote there, and it is also in an article in Linux Today, IIRC.
Slashdot Mirror
Well...I've been using computers for only about 15 years or so, and typing on QWERTY layout for a bit longer. I changed to Dvorak about 6 months ago or so...it took me about a month to be back up to speed, due to the fact that I didn't want to loose my qwerty, so I was using both layouts.
The only real difference I've found between em is that I make less typos with the Dvorak (the "teh" mistake disapeared almost completely) and my wrists don't hurt much anymore (they used to hurt with qwerty after 6 or 7hr of typing).
I don't think Dvorak makes you faster, but it does make for a better typing experience, since you really use all fingers with it.
Vox, a Dvorak convert
I work in a company that installs access control stuff, like proximity badges and readers, as well as software to create reports about em. We recently got hired by one of the biggest Univs in Mexico to install equipment in their campus...they are going to put readers in all the exits of the campus (none inside, except for the library and the cafeteria, and those aro to get food and books only) and they are going to stop giving cards to students and faculty and give only access-control badges.
I don't really know what the people at the U think about it, but when I heard we had that contract, I really didn't like the idea, so I asked to be taken out of the project.
So...is the end near?
Well...as lots of people has been saying about this, PNG sounds better every day....then again, I don't have any gifs on my sites so...jpg is good, and there's no silly animations :)
/. (or whatever other site) posted....and they will NOT have kind thoughts about us, because people who is insulted doesn't have kind thoughts about those that insult them, so....use your brains, if you have any. Or, at the very least, shut up.
As for the pseudo-advocates that can't stay away from the flamethrower....kids...you hurt the Free Software/Open Source movement a lot more than you can help it with your silly tirades...most people out there will be hearing about FS/OS for the first time the day s/he gets one gazillion emails because of something that
Vox, who really dislikes "advocates" who don't have a clue
Well...I got
84% Yoda
4% Han Solo
15% Wampas
63% Qui Gon Jinn
2% Leia
Now...THAT's a weird combo
Vox
Nothing is wrong with being accountable for what you do....but...think about it this way...let's say that a company (let's call it The Evil Empire) decides to go after every person that says that their product (let's call it Not There Orange Server) is slower than a product that is free (let's call it LeeNux)....they produce the proof (let's say they hire a company called BrainCrap to demonstrate their claims) and show that not only Not There is not slower than LeeNux, but that Not There is 3 times faster than LeeNux...how many people do you think the Evil Empire can ruin with the kind of money that Evil Empires usually have?.
Just think about it...with the "sue-friendly" mindset of most american corps (and american people), there's plenty of reasons to be worried about this kind of crap.
Vox
And don't forget about the diary of Telsa ("The most acurate diary" as she calls it, or "the other side of the story" as he has it linked)...it's hilaryous(sp?) :)
Vox
I'm mexican, and I can only say: One million computers with linux running on them are being deployed in our schools as we speak. I think the project is due mid-2000 or so.
Vox
There's no way that RH's portal can compete with /. (or any portal with any weblog, as a matter of fact)...they are two different breeds, for starters, and, more important, RH's portal will be (if they are smart enough) focused towards newbies, and not towards the kind of people that are here (people that are mostly already converted to linux, in thought if not in deed). If RH tries to compete with /. they would be stupid.
Vox
him. Everyone wants Darth Maul instead. Just try and find him. (marketing guy freaking out : "They want the BAD guy? The BAD guy? No they don't. deep down they really want the cute, loveable Jar Jar Binks. They just don't know it yet") eat me dude
:)
:)
Mmmm...they shouldn't be so surprised about that...I mean...at least in Mexico, the movie from the original trilogy that was seen by more people was "The empire..."...and the reason most people gave back then on interviews was "it's a great movie because the bad guys win at last"
So...evil dudes sell
Vox
1) MSOffice Document specifications are ALREADY open. Anyone who wants to can implement an viewer/editor and many already have. I can think of at least half a dozen non-microsoft products that can at least Read .doc files.
You may want to read the comments before yours...people who IS working on this said clearly that the published "standards" of Office file formats is really only about 80% of the real thing, and that only about 60% of that is right, the rest is not real.
Your second point would be better adressed by the author, not by me, but I can tell you that for me it's not a matter of a MS format or not, but a matter of a STANDARD format or not. I don't do much word processing, but when I do need to make something look pretty, I rather use HTML. I know is not as pretty as you can get with a real word processor, but it IS standard, and you can read it in any computer with a browser, no matter the computer, no matter the browser.
If somebody comes up with a better STANDARD file format, I'll use it...untill then, I'll keep writing in plain text or HTML.
For your 3rd point...unfortunatelly I am no coder, so I have no answer.
XML in O2K, I haven't seen it as of yet, but if it can't be seen by any browser in any computer, it's still a propietary POS, Microsoft or not.
Vox
But the thing here is...if I get a file from my brother, and he uses Word, there's no way for me to open it, unless I have Word...and that's what the article says...and that is the REAL problem. Why should I be forced to use Word to look at the stuff others send me? I normally reply with "send it in a reasonable and usable format like RTF or HTML", but it isn't the real solution...the real solution is to have a standard to which ALL wordprocessors adhere, in which we can exchange information, no matter what program we choose to use.
This is like if you couldn't get a phonecall from a friend or family unless you were in the same phone company or using the same brand of phones...totally stupid idea.
Vox
Do you actually know anybody (like a real live person) who doesn't know shit about computers and uses linux? Don't give hypothetical examples, I'm talking about real
:) Her first contact with a computer was windows98 3 months ago...she hated it after a week...I installed linux (Mandrake 6) on her puter...she loves it :) She bugs me a LOT less now than she did during the week she used 98.
My mother
So...yes, Linux is better for the average joe than Windows, simply because it doesn't freeze and makes them loose the letter they've been typing for an hour
Vox
I have to agree with you on this too...I've tried this 'team chess' approach a couple of times, and it sucks :) Unless you have a team with the same playing style and with one person taking the decisions after the rest of the team proposes approaches, team play is not something that will ever work with chess.
:)
The only way to make teamwork function in chess is the way GMs do it...they have advisors who know the playing style and preferences of the GM, and offer him options, but in the end it is the GM who decides.
There's things for which democracy sucks, and this is one of them
Vox
required to beat--and usually even draw with--Kasparov and his gang of advisors.
:)
:)
This is, I think, what everybody is forgetting...it isn't 'the world vs Kasparov', but 'the world vs. the top 10 chess minds in the world'...there's no way in hell the MS-team will beat Gary and Co., they have been playing like a team for waaaay too long
BTW, I don't belive Kasparov is the best player of modern times...Fisher or Capablanca would beat his butt 9 out of every 10 games
Vox
Nop, no kidding...it says so at ESR's website, go check it out at www.tuxedo.org somewhere in there it's a list of all the projects he is/has been involved in
Vox
The thing here is not so much if Linux will kick NT (in this config, I doubt it will), but if Linux will do substantially better than it did in the first test.
:) kick NT's butt in this kind of benchmark(et)ing...the deal with the new test is...did Mindcraft f'k up the first and second tests? The answer is, almost certainly, yes...and that is what the community should focus on. NT may be faster this week, but Mindcraft has been lieing for long enough.
If the difference between NT and Linux is NOT the 3.5 times and 2.5 times faster that they published before, all criticisms agains Mindcraft still stand.
We all know that Linux will, sooner or later (probably sooner
Vox
Nothing to do with linux development? I don't know about the kernel itself, but he has created, modified or participated in:
:) but I belive in giving credit where credit is due.
Fetchmail
keeper
sitemap
harvester
and some languages, like:
intercal
pilot
cupl
and a bunch of other stuff...just do a grep for his name or initials in your linux box...you'll find a bunch.
BTW, I don't even now ESR, and actually don't enjoy the interviews he does much (is always the same one
Vox
The comparison is NT4 vs Linux 2.0.3something...that means, it's just as worthless as all the previous ones :)
:)
I'll belive those numbers when it's NT4 with latest SP vs. Linux' latest stable kernel...till then, those tests are just Microsoft ads
Vox
but professional engineers can code up those ideas into a workable system better due to their experience.
:)
Professional engineers like Bill Gates, right? As far as I remember he's a college dropout
Vox
I just voted, and it's Mac 55%, Console, DVD and PC 0% (actually 2% divided among the 3 of em, I'd guess), linux games 43%
:)
I guess somebody posted the poll in a Mac-news page
Vox
Congrats, everybody, keep up the good work :)
Vox
I like Linux. I want Linux to succeed. But it does the cause no good to exaggerate the pain of Windows installation (which literally millions of bonehead users have made work), and minimize the very real problems of Linux.
:) My brother is a doc, who has been using windows9x for a couple of years now...he is no power-user at all, does nothing but write papers, check his medical CDs and play age of empires...when something goes crazy, he yells at me and has me fix it.
:) I just fixed the resolution on the monitor (he didn't know what monitor to select, so he chose VGA).
:)
:)
I can just talk about what happened tonight (well...a few hours ago
I've re-installed windows on his puter a few times, due to different things, and the last two times, I made him do it, while I was watching TV besides him, ready to answer his questions if needed....last time he installed, it took him about an hour or so.
Tonight/last night, I decided to make him install RedHat 6 on a spare computer, to see if it really is as hard for non-techs as people say it is....I gave him a CD, a floppy disk, a printed copy of an installation howto I found somewhere, a printed copy of the System/Device Manager thing in windows (so he had the IRQs and stuff like that) and I went off to pick up dinner.
I returned 30 minutes later to find him trying to get the soundcard working (he got it in 5 mins once I told him about sndconfig or whatever that one is called
So...a non-tech dude took 35 minutes to install RH 6 on a pretty vanilla p200/MMX puter (soundcard, NIC, no modem)....he's been playing with the box for the last 5 or 6 hr, and he's having fun with it
When a linux install goes well, it's a piece of cake...when the problems show up, it can be a royal pain in the a$$...but then again, so is with any other OS out there, in my experience.
Vox
PS: Yes, I've installed NT and 9x a bunch of times...I make computers for a living, and discovered Linux only a couple of months ago...9x is easy to install when the hardware is right, NT is a pain in the a$$ even if the HW is the right one...linux is right between them, in my experience. After tonight, I'am going to start offering Linux pre-installed as an option for my clients
Just to say again what others have said and many more think...thanks Rob and the whole /. Crew for making this one of the best sites on the world :)
Vox
Like mail, for example. Gee, was setting up a mailserver under Linux ever easy! Call your provider, edit sendmail.cf, and run sendmail on boot. Ooooooo... now I can call myself a Linux expert! ;)
:) My first contact with *nix was setting up a listerver in Los Angeles...from my home in Mexico :) I even got payed for it :)
:)
:) that I couldn't belive it was really installed till I started seeing emails going through it :)
:)
:)
Wanna hear a better one?
I got the job because I 'admin' more than a few mailing lists, and everybody thinks I know what I'm doing
The damn thing was so easy to set up (with a Linux manual at hand
Linux is hard? Nah!!!! NT is a royal pain...if the program is broken, you are SOL...if a linux program is broken, you fix it (or get a friend to fix it
Vox
Anybody can be a linux expert if they dare to use their brain
What is that with calling PCWeek a neutral location and using them to audit the results? MS Ziff Davis is not a neutral party.
:) said that RH would only participate if a neutral 3rd party "like Ziff Davis" (HIS words) participates...so...they just granted his request :) Read the Mindshaft invitation for the open benchmark (is somewhere in their site) they have the quote there, and it is also in an article in Linux Today, IIRC.
Mmm...they are calling ZD neutral party because the RedHat dude (whatever his name is, I'm bad with names
Vox