we will need people in space far as long as it takes to make machines able to deal with the unexpected in space.
were people aboard the mars polar lander, they would have caught the empirical/metric screw up.
apollo 13 showed the world that with enough minds and effort, humans can deal with and sometimes overcome any unexpected difficulty in space.
certainly there are areas where we need self reliant machines for exploration, but for the near future, there is no more reliable fail-safe system than a human being with the proper tools.
machines are not evolved enough to replace us, yet.
The Open Source movement has never been at stake. Are people not going to use free software because BK decided to limit the use of their software?
And as for me 'accepting the loss of my rights', I choose to use software that does the job I need it to do. Personally I couldn't care less if the source is open or closed. When I choose to use a certain piece of software is is based solely on whether or not it will do the job I want it to. I use a mix of open and closed software because that is what software is for, a tool. If I were told that I couldn't use a piece of software in a certain way, and I needed that function, then I would choose something else.
Choosing closed source is a matter of trade offs. Is the user willing to give up some control in order to get the main task done? Most people say yes, unless they happen to be on slashdot.
You assume Linus started this all to be the great voice in the wilderness. As if he was trying to create some eutopia where all software could be free and the evil corporations would be struck down by the forces of good. Bah.
He did it because be wanted to. He lacks a 'political conscience' because he didn't have one.
It seems to me that Linus would rather spend time with his family because his family is more important to him than some stupid code he wrote long ago.
It is just software people, this isn't that important.
The whole point of using a tool is to get a job done. If I need to hammer a nail, I could go and use a free rock to do the job, or I could go to a store and buy a hammer. Both will do the job, but one is better suited to do that job. It doesn't make me evil if I buy a proprietary solution.
The reason people like Linus use whatever gets the job done isn't due to their selfishness or social apathy, but because they have a job to do. This isn't ending world hunger or curing all disease, it's fricking software.
One of the things that make free software people look absurd is the religious fanaticism some of the free software folk feel is necessary. They forget that in the grand scheme of life and the universe, software, free or commercial doesn't really matter. You want people to do it your way, forgetting that free software also means freedom to use what you want, even if it isn't free software.
Quit trying to make it a moral issue. It is an issue of choice. People have the right to use what they want. If you don't like that then maybe you are more like the closed source software houses than you wish to admit.
Hypocrites.
Re:Anybody still using Betamax at home should...
on
Sony Kills Betamax
·
· Score: 1
I'm glad im not the only person that did that.
Up until 2 years ago, i recorded ntsc tv broadcasts to my sony hi8 camcorder.
My beta deck died a long time ago, so i have never compared hi8 to betamax, but i can say that hi8 looks noticably better than vhs-sp. SVHS beats hi8, but taking the tape size into consideration, I'd still chose hi8.
Now i use Digital8 for my tv recording. I can only get 60 minutes per tape, but that suits me fine.
If Bnetd would incorporate a key check that would prevent dupe keys, betas, and the no key at all folks, I would be suprised if Blizzard didn't drop their complaints.
Blizzard got whiney when kids were warezing the beta.
The EFF really should think before they jump into cases, there must be more important issues than a few kids that cant play starcraft online.
yes, the kids at/. need money, but many of us have jobs that pay us to provide that money.
just because a certain job is rewarding, it doesnt mean it can support you. eventually you have to decide to either stop doing it, because you can't get cash for rent, or continue, but change the beast so it can generate more resonable income.
like a few people i know, i have been forced to leave rewarding jobs because they didnt pay enough./. charging for ad free space ( and ad space) isnt the happy free for all we are all comfortable with, but its not the end either.
if the increase in ads and the extra cash from the ad free keep OSDN into enough cash to keep/. and crew around great. why bitch about it?
i probaby wont pay. depending on the type of ads, i may proxy them off, or even stop coming to/. alltogether. i dont know. what i do know is that a lot of people are acting like its the end of the world, it isnt, its just a change.
and really, as long as they ARE NOT SELLING KARMA EVER (subtle isnt it), the 1000 pages/$5 isnt even that much cash. i'm unemployed and can still afford that.
stop trying to make/. into an example of the evil world creeping into our precious internet. without the evil world, we would still be on irc and no one would know the joys of dsl.
The analogy is faulty. A better one would be whether you should put up a sign saying the bank keeps the combination of the safe written on a piece of paper at the front desk. The bank made a mistake, but either doesnt recognize it as a mistake or doesnt think anyone else will ever know.
The issue is whether an entity should disclose details about an exploit, including the how-to.
All software, regardless of whether its closed or open sourced will have flaws. In an open system, these flaws have a better chance of being found and fixed, more eyes on the code. Open source encourages peer review. (buzz word!)
The MS folks are clouding the issue at hand. Yes, they have security holes, and holes should be made public, but rather than suggesting that the actual exploit how-tos not be detailed in public until they can be repaired (which I think is fair), they (M$) are saying the security holes were exploited due solely to code examples and details that was released by security people.
aka - covering their ass
Microsoft is trying to save face. People, at least the educated ones, can see this. I do think MS raises a good point (although they run around it), when a security concern is found, it might be better to do as CERT does and document it, provide a fix, but not share the step by step exploit with the entire world.
People should use this drivel from Microsoft to highlight Microsoft's lack of acountablity.
Microsoft isn't intentionally releasing insecure software (sloppy yes, intentionally insecure no), but they are trying to avoid the issue of accountability by claiming the flaws are exploited solely due to example exploit code, and not because the flaw exists. They are attempting to distract the public as to the source of the security issues, which is their lack of responsibility for the state of their code.
While I'm a big fan of open and free information, I can understand why some would want to keep certain information gaurded. Perhaps security bulletins should omit the detailed exploit how-to and example code until a fix for the flaw can be put in place. I think a system like that would force closed source operations to be accountable for fixing flaws. The existence of the flaw would be public knowledge, and the producer of the code would then have the responsibility for repairing the flaw, or be shown to the public as intentionally not fixing the flaw. PR nightmare.
We will never be free of security through obsurity, but we can try to make a responsible process that alerts people to security issues and remedies, without creating a detailed how-to database with example code that any fool script kid can use to harass the public at large.
MS isn't going away, we can however, try to encourage them to be responsible members of the software world.
While I'll agree that ST Voyager had MUCH to be desired, DS 9 wasn't bad at all.
Deep Space Nine was a pleasant diversion from the "fly the enterprise, have a holodeck/Mr Data/ time travel/ incident that were so prevalent in ST TNG. DS 9 didn't have all the skirt chasing of the original series, nor did it have the neat self contained trouble/resolution in one hour of show that plagued TNG.
DS 9 had story, and maybe it was a bit too much soap opera at times, but of all the existing trek series, it alone had a continuing story. There were unresolved issues at the end of the program that were to be dealt with in the next week's episode. Telling a story this way created an epic, one piece leads into the other, and the whole is a well told congruent story.
You don't have to like DS 9, it wasn't everyone's idea of a "proper" trek series, but that is no reason to put it down to the same level as Voyager. Sheesh, DS 9 never had to resort to T&A to drum up ratings, unlike one ST series.
10. Ah Megamisama (Ah My Goddess in US) Classic story, boy goes to college, boy gets hungry and calls for food, boy calls wrong number and gets Belldandy of Norse mythology. Off kilter love story, computer 'bugs' that look like rabbits crossed with a spider, and racing motorcycles. Not to be missed.
9. Anything Macross. No, not the Robotech garbage, but the original story. Giant robots, giant aliens, and 16 year old pop stars. That's what life is about.
8. Akira nuf said.
7. Ghost in the Shell Maybe I'm wrong, but ghost in the shell is an order of magnatude better than Akira. Same overal idea, but GitS feels more complete as a story at it's end than Akira.
6. Tenchi Muyo In the world of anime, nothing is mundane, and Tench highlights that. From incest, to love triangles, Tenchi has it all, only one other anime comes as close to utter weirdness, Urusei Yatsura.
5. Ranma 1/2 Shape changing, cross dressing, love triagles.
4. BubbleGum Crisis True classic. Not since Bladerunner has something defined the dark future people feel is in-escapable. Good story, and great soundtack.
3. Record of Lodoss War DnD in anime form. The thing that made me like this title was the fact that good guys loose. Maybe in the end good conquers evil, but not without good people falling along the way.
2. Urusei Yatsura One Boy, one girl, one girl alien. Rumiko Takahashi's claim to fame. While not as quality as Ranma, it is IMOHO the best work she has ever done. The plethora of characters, the odd stories, this series is still enjoyable 15 years after it started.
1. Kimagure Orange Road The classic love triangle plus magic powers. The characters are so well written, that sometimes you forget that the're just animated. Only 26 episodes, but this has remained my favorite anime for over 10 years.
Well, aside from the never ending barage of mis-used buzzwords, I have again been mystified by my lack of modern hi-tech knowledge. The computer in last night's X-files was one such computer. I have a short list of proofs to show how myself, and all the other nay-sayers are simply not familiar with the magical 'tv' computer.
proof a) The users of the computer were all at the whim of the MtvC (Magical TV Computer), who's advanced 'holographic' technology simply altered time and space to avoid all of those pesky laws of physics. This is further demonstrated by the computer's ability to swallow up poor old Fox, as he tried in vain to escape it's evil game.
proof 2) The MtvC uses a top-secret file system that allows for the unobsereved and unstoppable movement of code from one,machine to another, and the spontaneous execution of that code. With this special technology, the MtvC can 'invade' other systems and carry out all types of mischief. Such was the case with last nights evil woman in the game.
proof 3) The MtvC massive filesystem prevents it being backed up or re-started. Due to the awesome ammount of data involved, the MtvC cannot be backed up by current technology. The simple fact that when the idea to 'kill' the program came up, the project designer violently opposed, shows that there was no way, once 'killed' that the game could be re-created or destroyed. We are not talking about a simple machine processing data, no, we are dealing with an electronic 'magical' engine, that creates entire worlds in mere slivers of time. You just can't re-code something as complex as an entire universe.
proof 4) The MtvC is immune to electrical dependencies that we all (with our primitive computers) must deal with on a daily basic. The MtvC could not be taken offline by disconnecting it from power, nor could it be removed from the offending network. This proof alone, should show all of those nay-sayers that the situation in last night's X-Files, was not only realistic, but if anything, a bold move on the part of Chris Carter and firends to educate the masses on the danger these new devices hold in store for the human race.
Don't be found un-aware when the Magical tv Computers begin their reign of terror. Contact your local govenments and urge them to force Chris Carter and friends into dis-closing the location of the MtvC from last night's episode. Only with perseverence and diligence, can we mere humans prevent the upcoming apocalypse of the Magical tv Computer.
Thank you for your time
Re:AC always has problems expressing his visions
on
Childhood's End
·
· Score: 1
Fountains of Paradise is by far one of ACC's greatest works. Butpeople are far to eager to lable Clark as a 'science' fiction writer. Clark has always commented on the human condition, and often does use future settings, but that takes away from the real point of his writing.
A beautiful example of this is The Songs of Distant Earth, a real gem, that while set in far future, deals more with humanity and its interaction with other life rather than other fiction (first thing that comes to mind is some of the new Star Wars books). Don't ignore the social comentary just because it happens to be set in a fictional world.
And as for another great writer who tends to get lumped into the sci-fi (bad word) genre, don't forget Robert Heinlein.
If all you need is shell access, do what others have suggested and find an old terminal. Laptops are too much cash for too much hardware. I routinely find Dec VT320 and 420 terminals at swap meets (SF bay area) but they are really easy to find via ebay or other such avenues. Terminals are easy (no moving parts) to maintain and even easier to set up under most of the free un*x flavors and linux. I use Freebsd, but before that I had 2 vt320 running off a slackware box. A cheap laptop is nice, but for simplicity, a dumb serial terminal is the way to go.
As a FreeBSD abd BEOS user, I have been waiting for someone to yell that the penguin has no clothes. Linux was a beautiful thing in 93 when I first installed it, maybe some bits were missing, but it was powerful, free, and easy to get support for. I remember when usenet was chock full of Linux users trying to help other Linux users add features and support. Now the picture has turned, what was an effort backed by people who cared about Linux, is now a movement by people to use Linux till they have squeezed every last drop of profitability out of it. What happened to community? Free source? For god's sake, am I the only person on the damn planet that can see the scam people like RedHat are pulling. Making money off the backs of dedicated users of an OS, and then reaping the rewards, I wish I could pull that off, kudos to RH. I would love to see just how many people contributed to Linux and it's sucess. Then again I would also love to see how many of those people got any recognition at all from RH. I'm not even talking money, just a kind word, some recognition for the real reason Linux is even still around. There are multitudes of people that have worked without compensation because they believed in Linux, they loved it and what it could be. For them it wasn't about money, it was about an ideal.
OK folk, this reminds me of the motif v openview debate oh so many years ago. The fact is that RedHat has done a lot to get Linux into the public eye. I don't think it's the god of distributions, but thats a pointless argument anyway. The idea of a SUPPORTED dist of linux was such a god idea, RedHat should be commended for giving users of other os'es a chance to experiment with a new animal, in this case linux, with the comfort of knowing that if they ran into trouble, help was just a phone call or email away. That is good for Freenix in general. Now I will say that I prefer FreeBSD as a server, but on my personal workstation is SuSE, nothing against RedHat, I just like SuSE. But what I see are people that should be a solid group working towared a goal, are instead bickering about what window manager somebody uses, or if one person likes elm better than pine. Grow up people, this kind of division in the linux community only re-enforces the idea that Linux and free unix's are a hobby os, and not a serious attempt at a stable, full featured, customizable, and FREE operating system. Don't be dumb, quit whining if RedHat is good or evil, and start showing people that Linux (read freenix) regardless of which distribution,is a good idea that should be taken seriously.
Slashdot Mirror
we will need people in space far as long as it takes to make machines able to deal with the unexpected in space.
were people aboard the mars polar lander, they would have caught the empirical/metric screw up.
apollo 13 showed the world that with enough minds and effort, humans can deal with and sometimes overcome any unexpected difficulty in space.
certainly there are areas where we need self reliant machines for exploration, but for the near future, there is no more reliable fail-safe system than a human being with the proper tools.
machines are not evolved enough to replace us, yet.
The Open Source movement has never been at stake. Are people not going to use free software because BK decided to limit the use of their software?
And as for me 'accepting the loss of my rights', I choose to use software that does the job I need it to do. Personally I couldn't care less if the source is open or closed. When I choose to use a certain piece of software is is based solely on whether or not it will do the job I want it to. I use a mix of open and closed software because that is what software is for, a tool. If I were told that I couldn't use a piece of software in a certain way, and I needed that function, then I would choose something else.
Choosing closed source is a matter of trade offs. Is the user willing to give up some control in order to get the main task done? Most people say yes, unless they happen to be on slashdot.
ok, that was funny.
You assume Linus started this all to be the great voice in the wilderness. As if he was trying to create some eutopia where all software could be free and the evil corporations would be struck down by the forces of good. Bah.
He did it because be wanted to. He lacks a 'political conscience' because he didn't have one.
It seems to me that Linus would rather spend time with his family because his family is more important to him than some stupid code he wrote long ago.
It is just software people, this isn't that important.
Reading the email, it looks less like 'dont use bk to develop a competetor' and more like 'remember when we asked you for help? well screw you now'.
BK has the right to license whom it wants, but I think the 'no compete' clause for the free version might have some personal prejudice behind it.
Not that any of it matters.
Nonsense.
The whole point of using a tool is to get a job done. If I need to hammer a nail, I could go and use a free rock to do the job, or I could go to a store and buy a hammer. Both will do the job, but one is better suited to do that job. It doesn't make me evil if I buy a proprietary solution.
The reason people like Linus use whatever gets the job done isn't due to their selfishness or social apathy, but because they have a job to do. This isn't ending world hunger or curing all disease, it's fricking software.
One of the things that make free software people look absurd is the religious fanaticism some of the free software folk feel is necessary. They forget that in the grand scheme of life and the universe, software, free or commercial doesn't really matter. You want people to do it your way, forgetting that free software also means freedom to use what you want, even if it isn't free software.
Quit trying to make it a moral issue. It is an issue of choice. People have the right to use what they want. If you don't like that then maybe you are more like the closed source software houses than you wish to admit.
Hypocrites.
I'm glad im not the only person that did that.
Up until 2 years ago, i recorded ntsc tv broadcasts to my sony hi8 camcorder.
My beta deck died a long time ago, so i have never compared hi8 to betamax, but i can say that hi8 looks noticably better than vhs-sp. SVHS beats hi8, but taking the tape size into consideration, I'd still chose hi8.
Now i use Digital8 for my tv recording. I can only get 60 minutes per tape, but that suits me fine.
find the episode of the simpsons where homer makes a dating service tape for ned flanders.
homer makes great use of the star wipe.
a lot of star trek external ship shots were done with models. can get better than real.
except for enterprise, cg finally caught up.
my 3d rig has always been;
model in blender, animate and render in maya.
i was one of the folks the ought blender way back. they still have maya and lighwave beat as far as good docs with examples.
i will miss NaN
If Bnetd would incorporate a key check that would prevent dupe keys, betas, and the no key at all folks, I would be suprised if Blizzard didn't drop their complaints.
Blizzard got whiney when kids were warezing the beta.
The EFF really should think before they jump into cases, there must be more important issues than a few kids that cant play starcraft online.
i have been using paypal for a while, and frequently and have never had any trouble. and i dont know anyone personally that has.
/. people will come up with an alternative.
it cant be any worse than normal credit card companies, paypal just has some growing to do.
and if you dont like it, dont use it. wait and
yes, the kids at /. need money, but many of us have jobs that pay us to provide that money.
/. charging for ad free space ( and ad space) isnt the happy free for all we are all comfortable with, but its not the end either.
/. and crew around great. why bitch about it?
/. alltogether. i dont know. what i do know is that a lot of people are acting like its the end of the world, it isnt, its just a change.
/. into an example of the evil world creeping into our precious internet. without the evil world, we would still be on irc and no one would know the joys of dsl.
just because a certain job is rewarding, it doesnt mean it can support you. eventually you have to decide to either stop doing it, because you can't get cash for rent, or continue, but change the beast so it can generate more resonable income.
like a few people i know, i have been forced to leave rewarding jobs because they didnt pay enough.
if the increase in ads and the extra cash from the ad free keep OSDN into enough cash to keep
i probaby wont pay. depending on the type of ads, i may proxy them off, or even stop coming to
and really, as long as they ARE NOT SELLING KARMA EVER (subtle isnt it), the 1000 pages/$5 isnt even that much cash. i'm unemployed and can still afford that.
stop trying to make
The analogy is faulty. A better one would be whether you should put up a sign saying the bank keeps the combination of the safe written on a piece of paper at the front desk. The bank made a mistake, but either doesnt recognize it as a mistake or doesnt think anyone else will ever know.
The issue is whether an entity should disclose details about an exploit, including the how-to.
All software, regardless of whether its closed or open sourced will have flaws. In an open system, these flaws have a better chance of being found and fixed, more eyes on the code. Open source encourages peer review. (buzz word!)
The MS folks are clouding the issue at hand. Yes, they have security holes, and holes should be made public, but rather than suggesting that the actual exploit how-tos not be detailed in public until they can be repaired (which I think is fair), they (M$) are saying the security holes were exploited due solely to code examples and details that was released by security people.
aka - covering their ass
Microsoft is trying to save face. People, at least the educated ones, can see this. I do think MS raises a good point (although they run around it), when a security concern is found, it might be better to do as CERT does and document it, provide a fix, but not share the step by step exploit with the entire world.
People should use this drivel from Microsoft to highlight Microsoft's lack of acountablity.
Microsoft isn't intentionally releasing insecure software (sloppy yes, intentionally insecure no), but they are trying to avoid the issue of accountability by claiming the flaws are exploited solely due to example exploit code, and not because the flaw exists. They are attempting to distract the public as to the source of the security issues, which is their lack of responsibility for the state of their code.
While I'm a big fan of open and free information, I can understand why some would want to keep certain information gaurded. Perhaps security bulletins should omit the detailed exploit how-to and example code until a fix for the flaw can be put in place. I think a system like that would force closed source operations to be accountable for fixing flaws. The existence of the flaw would be public knowledge, and the producer of the code would then have the responsibility for repairing the flaw, or be shown to the public as intentionally not fixing the flaw. PR nightmare.
We will never be free of security through obsurity, but we can try to make a responsible process that alerts people to security issues and remedies, without creating a detailed how-to database with example code that any fool script kid can use to harass the public at large.
MS isn't going away, we can however, try to encourage them to be responsible members of the software world.
Of course this is just my opinion
While I'll agree that ST Voyager had MUCH to be desired, DS 9 wasn't bad at all.
Deep Space Nine was a pleasant diversion from the "fly the enterprise, have a holodeck/Mr Data/ time travel/ incident that were so prevalent in ST TNG. DS 9 didn't have all the skirt chasing of the original series, nor did it have the neat self contained trouble/resolution in one hour of show that plagued TNG.
DS 9 had story, and maybe it was a bit too much soap opera at times, but of all the existing trek series, it alone had a continuing story. There were unresolved issues at the end of the program that were to be dealt with in the next week's episode. Telling a story this way created an epic, one piece leads into the other, and the whole is a well told congruent story.
You don't have to like DS 9, it wasn't everyone's idea of a "proper" trek series, but that is no reason to put it down to the same level as Voyager. Sheesh, DS 9 never had to resort to T&A to drum up ratings, unlike one ST series.
otoPICO
Ok, top 10... in my own humble opinion
10. Ah Megamisama (Ah My Goddess in US)
Classic story, boy goes to college, boy gets hungry and calls for food, boy calls wrong number and gets Belldandy of Norse mythology. Off kilter love story, computer 'bugs' that look like rabbits crossed with a spider, and racing motorcycles. Not to be missed.
9. Anything Macross.
No, not the Robotech garbage, but the original story. Giant robots, giant aliens, and 16 year old pop stars. That's what life is about.
8. Akira
nuf said.
7. Ghost in the Shell
Maybe I'm wrong, but ghost in the shell is an order of magnatude better than Akira. Same overal idea, but GitS feels more complete as a story at it's end than Akira.
6. Tenchi Muyo
In the world of anime, nothing is mundane, and Tench highlights that. From incest, to love triangles, Tenchi has it all, only one other anime comes as close to utter weirdness, Urusei Yatsura.
5. Ranma 1/2
Shape changing, cross dressing, love triagles.
4. BubbleGum Crisis
True classic. Not since Bladerunner has something defined the dark future people feel is in-escapable. Good story, and great soundtack.
3. Record of Lodoss War
DnD in anime form. The thing that made me like this title was the fact that good guys loose. Maybe in the end good conquers evil, but not without good people falling along the way.
2. Urusei Yatsura
One Boy, one girl, one girl alien. Rumiko Takahashi's claim to fame. While not as quality as Ranma, it is IMOHO the best work she has ever done. The plethora of characters, the odd stories, this series is still enjoyable 15 years after it started.
1. Kimagure Orange Road
The classic love triangle plus magic powers. The characters are so well written, that sometimes you forget that the're just animated. Only 26 episodes, but this has remained my favorite anime for over 10 years.
Well, aside from the never ending barage of mis-used buzzwords, I have again been mystified by my lack of modern hi-tech knowledge. The computer in last night's X-files was one such computer. I have a short list of proofs to show how myself, and all the other nay-sayers are simply not familiar with the magical 'tv' computer.
,machine to another, and the spontaneous execution of that code. With this special technology, the MtvC can 'invade' other systems and carry out all types of mischief. Such was the case with last nights evil woman in the game.
proof a)
The users of the computer were all at the whim of the MtvC (Magical TV Computer), who's advanced 'holographic' technology simply altered time and space to avoid all of those pesky laws of physics. This is further demonstrated by the computer's ability to swallow up poor old Fox, as he tried in vain to escape it's evil game.
proof 2)
The MtvC uses a top-secret file system that allows for the unobsereved and unstoppable movement of code from one
proof 3)
The MtvC massive filesystem prevents it being backed up or re-started. Due to the awesome ammount of data involved, the MtvC cannot be backed up by current technology. The simple fact that when the idea to 'kill' the program came up, the project designer violently opposed, shows that there was no way, once 'killed' that the game could be re-created or destroyed. We are not talking about a simple machine processing data, no, we are dealing with an electronic 'magical' engine, that creates entire worlds in mere slivers of time. You just can't re-code something as complex as an entire universe.
proof 4)
The MtvC is immune to electrical dependencies that we all (with our primitive computers) must deal with on a daily basic. The MtvC could not be taken offline by disconnecting it from power, nor could it be removed from the offending network. This proof alone, should show all of those nay-sayers that the situation in last night's X-Files, was not only realistic, but if anything, a bold move on the part of Chris Carter and firends to educate the masses on the danger these new devices hold in store for the human race.
Don't be found un-aware when the Magical tv Computers begin their reign of terror. Contact your local govenments and urge them to force Chris Carter and friends into dis-closing the location of the MtvC from last night's episode. Only with perseverence and diligence, can we mere humans prevent the upcoming apocalypse of the Magical tv Computer.
Thank you for your time
Fountains of Paradise is by far one of ACC's greatest works. Butpeople are far to eager to lable Clark as a 'science' fiction writer. Clark has always commented on the human condition, and often does use future settings, but that takes away from the real point of his writing.
A beautiful example of this is The Songs of Distant Earth, a real gem, that while set in far future, deals more with humanity and its interaction with other life rather than other fiction (first thing that comes to mind is some of the new Star Wars books). Don't ignore the social comentary just because it happens to be set in a fictional world.
And as for another great writer who tends to get lumped into the sci-fi (bad word) genre, don't forget Robert Heinlein.
otoPICO
If all you need is shell access, do what others have suggested and find an old terminal. Laptops are too much cash for too much hardware. I routinely find Dec VT320 and 420 terminals at swap meets (SF bay area) but they are really easy to find via ebay or other such avenues. Terminals are easy (no moving parts) to maintain and even easier to set up under most of the free un*x flavors and linux. I use Freebsd, but before that I had 2 vt320 running off a slackware box. A cheap laptop is nice, but for simplicity, a dumb serial terminal is the way to go.
As a FreeBSD abd BEOS user, I have been waiting for someone to yell that the penguin has no clothes. Linux was a beautiful thing in 93 when I first installed it, maybe some bits were missing, but it was powerful, free, and easy to get support for. I remember when usenet was chock full of Linux users trying to help other Linux users add features and support. Now the picture has turned, what was an effort backed by people who cared about Linux, is now a movement by people to use Linux till they have squeezed every last drop of profitability out of it. What happened to community? Free source? For god's sake, am I the only person on the damn planet that can see the scam people like RedHat are pulling. Making money off the backs of dedicated users of an OS, and then reaping the rewards, I wish I could pull that off, kudos to RH. I would love to see just how many people contributed to Linux and it's sucess. Then again I would also love to see how many of those people got any recognition at all from RH. I'm not even talking money, just a kind word, some recognition for the real reason Linux is even still around.
There are multitudes of people that have worked without compensation because they believed in Linux, they loved it and what it could be. For them it wasn't about money, it was about an ideal.
What is someone's ideals worth?
If you happen to have RH stock: about 68 dollars
otoPICO
OK folk, this reminds me of the motif v openview debate oh so many years ago. ,is a good idea that should be taken seriously.
The fact is that RedHat has done a lot to get Linux into the public eye. I don't think it's the god of distributions, but thats a pointless argument anyway.
The idea of a SUPPORTED dist of linux was such a god idea, RedHat should be commended for giving users of other os'es a chance to experiment with a new animal, in this case linux, with the comfort of knowing that if they ran into trouble, help was just a phone call or email away. That is good for Freenix in general.
Now I will say that I prefer FreeBSD as a server, but on my personal workstation is SuSE, nothing against RedHat, I just like SuSE. But what I see are people that should be a solid group working towared a goal, are instead bickering about what window manager somebody uses, or if one person likes elm better than pine. Grow up people, this kind of division in the linux community only re-enforces the idea that Linux and free unix's are a hobby os, and not a serious attempt at a stable, full featured, customizable, and FREE operating system.
Don't be dumb, quit whining if RedHat is good or evil, and start showing people that Linux (read freenix) regardless of which distribution
My opinion yes, humble no.
otoPICO
p.s. GO SETI@HOME !!