I think you are referring to an article about RHAD Labs that appeared some months ago in the News and Observer (a local paper). It was me who made similar, but not quite the same comments.
Let me tell you the little story. The day before the interview I had spent an unfruitful afternoon trying to write a configuration file for Enlightenment, to make a theme. Mind you, I did not succeed. So the next day I was rambling about how unreadable Enlightenment's configuration files are. I was especially untactful against the Enlightenment configuration parser.
So on the next day there came this reporter to interview the RHAD Labs crowd, and he asked me what I was rambling about. I told him, and somehow he managed to mangle it into text that said that I hated Raster's code and that Enlightenment was a bad program. I don't think I said that. I said that I did not like the way it parses configuration files. I apologize to Raster if I was harsh.
I have offered Raster to write a real parser for his Enlightenment configuration files. I think it is important for the window manager such as Enlightenment to have an easy way to create themes. A configuration file with better organization than what there is now would be good. A GUI tool to do it would be even better.
Again, I am sorry. I have learned the hard way that the press likes to mangle one's thoughts to create "interesting" press about a non-existent conflict.
As Miguel said, the thing that we *do* want to replace is Imlib. Imlib's memory management is rather poor, and as such GNOME applications cannot be as efficient as they could be with respect to image loading and caching. Imlib was designed for Enlightenment's particular needs and as a libXpm replacement.
I hope this clears things up. I apologize to Raster if that newspaper article implied offensive things. And I wish him the best of luck in California, where you can find nice civilized cities.
This is just my opinion.. but Im not so sure about these stability issues. I originally ran E and GNOME way back when (gnome was in.20 i think?).. At that time I would agree, it wasn't stable at all. I switched to WindowMaker.. Then a few months ago I thought maybe it was time to try the two out again, so I installed.15 and gnome 1.0.. So far so good. GNOME adds all the functionality I need, and Enlightenment keeps my eyes happy. Maybe it's a huge fluke, but Ive had E and GNOME running for about 40 days so far.. I was under the impression that's a respectable uptime for a workstation?
The reason that I actually look forward to using the phone company's copper, and dread the electric company's copper, is that the former is accustomed (in the US at least) to an all-you-can-eat pricing scheme for local calls. The electric companies would be unlikely to even consider that sort of scheme. I've got a cable modem. If I want ISDN, I know where to find it.
The market rewards the first-to-market. No one is going to give up market share in order to meet Level 5 of the CMM.
First-to-market is more important than quality to software businesses. Any company that ignores this and pursues the moral high-ground of quality is going to find themselves out of business. Sorry, thats just the way it is.
I think when the game companies become bigger, the decisive factor of a game weight more toward marketing, directing, the cost of making multi-platform games wouldn't be that big a concern anymore. Now making a game is just like getting a script approved, getting the green light.
I went to the IPIX web site this morning, and I took a look at the companies that they cite as being 'happy customers' and who generally user 'their' technique to sell product.
I noticed one of the companies was an aircraft manufacturer.
My flying school has one of the aircraft made by that manufacturer.
So I rang my flying school. I said "Because you use brand-x aircraft, and brand-x financially supports IPIX, I'm not going to fly with you any more". Whammo, thats a $600.00 per month hit in their pockets.
Then I rang the brand-x Aircraft company and said "Because you use a product from IPEX corporation, and my flying school uses your aircraft, I've cancelled my lessons with my flying school, and I'm taking my business elsewhere".
Now you can bet your arse the Cheif Pilot at my flying school rang brand-x aircraft company and said "what the fsck is it with this IPEX mob?"
I'll be checking the list again tomorrow, and calling the other manufacturers of goods and services that I use and are on IPEX's list...
There's more than one way to skin a cat...
(By the way, this is in no way supposed to be a judgement on the Eagle Aircraft company or the excellent Eagle 150 aeroplane. It's just my way of digging at IPEX from the other end of the food chain...)
The poll results aren't unbiased...but they show the market share of Linux users out there...One thing I'm curious about tho...What's "Stay focused on PC games" supposed to mean? Linux/DVD are both "PC" capable...that's Windows in disguise. The poll is skewed in creation... More Mac 48% Linux 50% votes 6401
Koffice works fine. It's just difficult as hell to install the current version. You need QT2 beta and KDE2.0-libs from CVS and you need the newest mico2.2.6 and you need luck to get it all compiled with a decent compiler.
But who ever said koffice was vapourware? Just because Gnumeric or Abiword are easy to install doesn't mean they have the same functionality. Dos might be easier to install than Linux!
Arkeia is great. You may be able to get a significant discount on the commercial product. I had communication with the president of the company and received a 54% discount on the mini lan product + 1 server class backup license for personal use. I just received my licensed product directly from the president of Knox Software. I previously tested the product to backup NT and Linux to a 8mm Exabyte Drive.
The comment from a LivePicture person is pretty interesting and suggests that IPIX is aggressively trying to use their (imho) overly broad 8mm lens software patents to prevent competitors from offering spherical solutions.
While 90% of the time regular cylindrical panoramas are ideal for capturing the essence of a place, there are a number of situations where a spherical panorama would show additional things of interest. For instance, a cave, under a forest canopy, an underwater scene, or bizarre points of view inside a Bryce constructed world.
Many of us who shoot a lot of photo VRs would like to have the flexibility to shoot either spherical or cylindrical. But there is no way I'm going to pay $25 a panorama to publish VRs on the Web. No way I'm going to support an organization that threatens individuals like Helmut. No way I'm going to enter into an agreement not to compete with the various partners of the spherical tool-maker. Imagine if Kodak charged you a licensing fee of $20 for every roll of film you shot using Kodak's patented film? It reeks of a monopolistic world-view. That business model could only work if there were no competitors offering spherical panos without per-pano fees. Besides Helmut's excellent tools, there is now another competitor in this niche--Smoothmove is a spherical solution that allows you to shoot using 14mm or other non-fisheye lenses, and without per-pano fees.
Disclaimer: I have no connection with Smoothmove, other than wanting to see some competition in the spherical pano world (well actually I'd like to see ethical people/organizations succeed, but that's dreaming).
What's the best backup system - ie. hardware for a single user PC Linux system? The machine is just for my use at home, but I need to back up some files. Are Zip drives really worth it, and supported out of the box by Redhat (its what I use, ok?!)? Anyone hear anything from the Orb device that came out recently?
All very good points...I'd like to add one though. The typical Linux user has a predisposition against anything with a price tag. This does not neccesarily mean that Linux users are cheap, only that they (and I) enjoy the convenience of yanking all there software off an ftp site and never leaving their home. For this reason I am sceptical of the potential sales of any commercial product that does not follow the model of Corel and Star Divions (i.e. free non-commercial licensing).
If ANYONE suggests Legato Networker, run away as fast and as far as you can.
We had this piece of crap installed on Netware and it SUCKED. Oh, it backed up and restored just fine. But it was literally an all day event to restore a single file. And the "user interface" (in quotes because it barely qualified) was the WORST I have ever seen for ANY program. And it required numerous patched NLMs to handle file-locking correctly. And it still brought down our servers regularly. -- "Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Its funny that open source advocates pick on Microsoft for "embracing and extending" as opposed to innovating...it looks like thats what most open source developers do. I don't blame these companies for defending their turf - whats the point of going into business just to fee ideas to the waiting hordes of open source programmers?
Is there a force stronger than the/. effect? Apparently there is. Check the poll results: Mac Games (55%), Console Games (0%), DVD Games (0%), Linux Games (45%), Stayed Focued on PC Games (0%). Apparently the Mac nuts are stronger than the Linux nuts. Is there a/. for Mac users out there somewhere that I don't know about?
Note: this was as of 10:30 a.m. PDT with ~3500 votes
When you click on a reply to a comment, read it and want to return to the index, netscape would return you to the beginning of the page, while IE would return you to where you left off.
This alone has made it worth it to set my/. preferences to ``light HTML.'' This problem doesn't seem to happen then.
What would they be getting suspicious of? Linux users and game buyers participating in their poll? Remember.. just because we're a large community doesn't mean we're not a real one.
It brings to mind something someone said about Howard Stern's movie. "Well yeah, the only reason it even sold tickets was because his fans went!" They equated his fans with him, being on "his side" and therefore not being real people. It seems blatantly obvious to the rest of us. =) It's the same with linux. Yes, we're a big community, and our voice counts. The other sections of that poll could never get the kind of support that we show.. do not think that this is cheating! I'd buy sierra games for linux. Enough said.
I said that I would buy it, and Ive been looking at my local Best Buy and CompUSA almost every weekend... maybe it's time to order online or something.
Science fiction doesn't necessarily have to be based in real science. Wouldn't be all that fictitious then, would it?
Look at Ray Bradbury. One of the best sci-fi writers of all time, IMO. Read through the Martian Chronicles. There is a whole lot of technology in there that is just laughable as hell, even for the time it was written. But it's still conceptually fascinating, and that's the entire point. I remember a bit from the first story ("Ylla") about some "magnetic dust" that you could sprinkle around the house and it would pick up all the dirt and dispose of it. Now is this feasable? Not especially. Is it interesting? Hell yes it is, especially the way Bradbury writes it.
And while we're on the topic of nonsensical science...anyone want to explain to me just how "the force" works? Microbes my ass, I want to hear how people can be telekinetic, fire bolts of lightning, etc. I'm also interested in how they got their laser beams to travel so slowly, and to show up in a vacuum.
It seems to me that even if your entire post is valid, it could be applied to "Star Wars" with only some very minor changes.
Slashdot Mirror
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
I use JB at home but can't at work. Refreshing the main page at home takes about 5 seconds via 56K. At work: often well over 10 seconds via T1.
--
"Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Posted by Federico Mena-Quintero:
I think you are referring to an article about RHAD Labs that appeared some months ago in the News and Observer (a local paper). It was me who made similar, but not quite the same comments.
Let me tell you the little story. The day before the interview I had spent an unfruitful afternoon trying to write a configuration file for Enlightenment, to make a theme. Mind you, I did not succeed. So the next day I was rambling about how unreadable Enlightenment's configuration files are. I was especially untactful against the Enlightenment configuration parser.
So on the next day there came this reporter to interview the RHAD Labs crowd, and he asked me what I was rambling about. I told him, and somehow he managed to mangle it into text that said that I hated Raster's code and that Enlightenment was a bad program. I don't think I said that. I said that I did not like the way it parses configuration files. I apologize to Raster if I was harsh.
I have offered Raster to write a real parser for his Enlightenment configuration files. I think it is important for the window manager such as Enlightenment to have an easy way to create themes. A configuration file with better organization than what there is now would be good. A GUI tool to do it would be even better.
Again, I am sorry. I have learned the hard way that the press likes to mangle one's thoughts to create "interesting" press about a non-existent conflict.
As Miguel said, the thing that we *do* want to replace is Imlib. Imlib's memory management is rather poor, and as such GNOME applications cannot be as efficient as they could be with respect to image loading and caching. Imlib was designed for Enlightenment's particular needs and as a libXpm replacement.
I hope this clears things up. I apologize to Raster if that newspaper article implied offensive things. And I wish him the best of luck in California, where you can find nice civilized cities.
Federico
Posted by majestic1:
.20 i think?) .. At that time I would agree, it wasn't stable at all. I switched to WindowMaker.. Then a few months ago I thought maybe it was time to try the two out again, so I installed .15 and gnome 1.0.. So far so good. GNOME adds all the functionality I need, and Enlightenment keeps my eyes happy. Maybe it's a huge fluke, but Ive had E and GNOME running for about 40 days so far.. I was under the impression that's a respectable uptime for a workstation?
This is just my opinion.. but Im not so sure about these stability issues. I originally ran E and GNOME way back when (gnome was in
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
What is everybody talking about?
--
"Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Posted by shaver@netscape.com:
Since when does Miguel work at or for Red Hat?
Posted by Sylvar:
The reason that I actually look forward to using the phone company's copper, and dread the electric company's copper, is that the former is accustomed (in the US at least) to an all-you-can-eat pricing scheme for local calls. The electric companies would be unlikely to even consider that sort of scheme. I've got a cable modem. If I want ISDN, I know where to find it.
Posted by d106ene5:
The market rewards the first-to-market. No one is going to give up market share in order to meet Level 5 of the CMM.
First-to-market is more important than quality to software businesses. Any company that ignores this and pursues the moral high-ground of quality is going to find themselves out of business. Sorry, thats just the way it is.
Posted by My_Favorite_Anonymous_Coward:
see title
Posted by My_Favorite_Anonymous_Coward:
I think when the game companies become bigger, the decisive factor of a game weight more toward marketing, directing, the cost of making multi-platform games wouldn't be that big a concern anymore. Now making a game is just like getting a script approved, getting the green light.
Posted by 747SP:
I went to the IPIX web site this morning, and I took a look at the companies that they cite as being 'happy customers' and who generally user 'their' technique to sell product.
I noticed one of the companies was an aircraft manufacturer.
My flying school has one of the aircraft made by that manufacturer.
So I rang my flying school. I said "Because you use brand-x aircraft, and brand-x financially supports IPIX, I'm not going to fly with you any more". Whammo, thats a $600.00 per month hit in their pockets.
Then I rang the brand-x Aircraft company and said "Because you use a product from IPEX corporation, and my flying school uses your aircraft, I've cancelled my lessons with my flying school, and I'm taking my business elsewhere".
Now you can bet your arse the Cheif Pilot at my flying school rang brand-x aircraft company and
said "what the fsck is it with this IPEX mob?"
I'll be checking the list again tomorrow, and calling the other manufacturers of goods and services that I use and are on IPEX's list...
There's more than one way to skin a cat...
(By the way, this is in no way supposed to be a judgement on the Eagle Aircraft company or the excellent Eagle 150 aeroplane. It's just my way of digging at IPEX from the other end of the food chain...)
Posted by Nericus:
The poll results aren't unbiased...but they show the market share of Linux users out there...One thing I'm curious about tho...What's "Stay focused on PC games" supposed to mean? Linux/DVD are both "PC" capable...that's Windows in disguise. The poll is skewed in creation... More Mac 48% Linux 50% votes 6401
Posted by Moritz Moeller - Herrmann:
Koffice works fine. It's just difficult as hell to install the current version. You need QT2 beta and KDE2.0-libs from CVS and you need the newest mico2.2.6 and you need luck to get it all compiled with a decent compiler.
But who ever said koffice was vapourware? Just because Gnumeric or Abiword are easy to install doesn't mean they have the same functionality. Dos might be easier to install than Linux!
Posted by somar:
Arkeia is great. You may be able to get a significant discount on the commercial product. I had communication with the president of the company and received a 54% discount on the mini lan product + 1 server class backup license for personal use. I just received my licensed product directly from the president of Knox Software. I previously tested the product to backup NT and Linux to a 8mm Exabyte Drive.
-Scott
Posted by erik the unready:
The comment from a LivePicture person is pretty interesting and suggests that IPIX is aggressively trying to use their (imho) overly broad 8mm lens software patents to prevent competitors from offering spherical solutions.
While 90% of the time regular cylindrical panoramas are ideal for capturing the essence of a place, there are a number of situations where a spherical panorama would show additional things of interest. For instance, a cave, under a forest canopy, an underwater scene, or bizarre points of view inside a Bryce constructed world.
Many of us who shoot a lot of photo VRs would like to have the flexibility to shoot either spherical or cylindrical. But there is no way I'm going to pay $25 a panorama to publish VRs on the Web. No way I'm going to support an organization that threatens individuals like Helmut. No way I'm going to enter into an agreement not to compete with the various partners of the spherical tool-maker. Imagine if Kodak charged you a licensing fee of $20 for every roll of film you shot using Kodak's patented film? It reeks of a monopolistic world-view. That business model could only work if there were no competitors offering spherical panos without per-pano fees. Besides Helmut's excellent tools, there is now another competitor in this niche--Smoothmove is a spherical solution that allows you to shoot using 14mm or other non-fisheye lenses, and without per-pano fees.
Disclaimer: I have no connection with Smoothmove, other than wanting to see some competition in the spherical pano world (well actually I'd like to see ethical people/organizations succeed, but that's dreaming).
Posted by stodge:
What's the best backup system - ie. hardware for a single user PC Linux system? The machine is just for my use at home, but I need to back up some files. Are Zip drives really worth it, and supported out of the box by Redhat (its what I use, ok?!)? Anyone hear anything from the Orb device that came out recently?
Posted by kenmcneil:
All very good points...I'd like to add one though. The typical Linux user has a predisposition against anything with a price tag. This does not neccesarily mean that Linux users are cheap, only that they (and I) enjoy the convenience of yanking all there software off an ftp site and never leaving their home. For this reason I am sceptical of the potential sales of any commercial product that does not follow the model of Corel and Star Divions (i.e. free non-commercial licensing).
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
If ANYONE suggests Legato Networker, run away as fast and as far as you can.
We had this piece of crap installed on Netware and it SUCKED. Oh, it backed up and restored just fine. But it was literally an all day event to restore a single file. And the "user interface" (in quotes because it barely qualified) was the WORST I have ever seen for ANY program. And it required numerous patched NLMs to handle file-locking correctly. And it still brought down our servers regularly.
--
"Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Posted by antivert:
"nt" means "no text in the comment".
Posted by d106ene5:
Its funny that open source advocates pick on Microsoft for "embracing and extending" as opposed to innovating...it looks like thats what most open source developers do. I don't blame these companies for defending their turf - whats the point of going into business just to fee ideas to the waiting hordes of open source programmers?
Is there a force stronger than the
Note: this was as of 10:30 a.m. PDT with ~3500 votes
This alone has made it worth it to set my
Netscape 3.04. Linux.
Posted by antivert:
What would they be getting suspicious of? Linux users and game buyers participating in their poll? Remember.. just because we're a large community doesn't mean we're not a real one.
It brings to mind something someone said about Howard Stern's movie. "Well yeah, the only reason it even sold tickets was because his fans went!" They equated his fans with him, being on "his side" and therefore not being real people. It seems blatantly obvious to the rest of us. =)
It's the same with linux. Yes, we're a big community, and our voice counts. The other sections of that poll could never get the kind of support that we show.. do not think that this is cheating! I'd buy sierra games for linux. Enough said.
Posted by majestic1:
I said that I would buy it, and Ive been looking at my local Best Buy and CompUSA almost every weekend... maybe it's time to order online or something.
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
The Incredible Machine for Linux would ROCK!!!
64% and rising...
--
"Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Posted by Merc.TGD:
Science fiction doesn't necessarily have to be based in real science. Wouldn't be all that fictitious then, would it?
Look at Ray Bradbury. One of the best sci-fi writers of all time, IMO. Read through the Martian Chronicles. There is a whole lot of technology in there that is just laughable as hell, even for the time it was written. But it's still conceptually fascinating, and that's the entire point. I remember a bit from the first story ("Ylla") about some "magnetic dust" that you could sprinkle around the house and it would pick up all the dirt and dispose of it. Now is this feasable? Not especially. Is it interesting? Hell yes it is, especially the way Bradbury writes it.
And while we're on the topic of nonsensical science...anyone want to explain to me just how "the force" works? Microbes my ass, I want to hear how people can be telekinetic, fire bolts of lightning, etc. I'm also interested in how they got their laser beams to travel so slowly, and to show up in a vacuum.
It seems to me that even if your entire post is valid, it could be applied to "Star Wars" with only some very minor changes.