"I've finally gotten away from using a proprietary operating system on non-proprietary hardware, and now I'm going to switch to using a proprietary operating system on proprietay hardware."
My original reason for switching to Linux was to have an affordable *nix to use to learn the ways of Unix. Also I'd heard that Linux ran well on older hardware, which was all I could afford. This was before I was aware of free Solaris for personal use. Which could'nt run on my hardware anyway. I admit I was ingorant of the BSDs.
While using Linux I admit I revelled in the idea of opensource, free software and stickin' it to The Man. But I was also disappointed with the constant struggle to configure. Sometimes it was geeky fun, other times just a pain in the ass.
OS X changed all that.The hardware is very good, and the OS is getting to be quite good too, and if I want Opensource and GNU, there's Fink. It's win-win.
As for the proprietary argument, whatever. How hard is it to get some vendors to give out enought specs so people can write Linux drivers for their components? I think the price and proprietary hardware/software argument against Apple is bankrupt at this point. FUD. Bullshit. You don't hear people complaining about Sun's proprietary hardware/software/price much do you? There are good reasons for proprietary systems. They work more consistantly and reliably.
"I agree with the AC -- it's called "being a fucking illiterate". There once was a time when children would lose points for misspelling words, especially simple ones like "you", "your", "you're", "to", "too", "two", etc (depending on the grade level, they may or may not have lost points for using the incorrect word, since that kind of thing isn't easy to grasp in first grade). These days, kids are lucky to be able to read by the time they graduate high school. I guess all of these similar-sounding, different-spelling, different-meaning words are just too difficult for today's kids (not necessarily homonyms, though I guess they can be difficult too)."
Darn that Prince! Uh, er, Artist Formerly Known As Prince. Um, the symbol guy. Wait, is he now known as Prince again? Geez. Darn that purple guy!!
CSI? CSI?! Bwahahaha! He's no snob. He obviously lacks discernment if he watches that lame show. Of all the cop dramas out there, CSI? Good lord! C-SPAN's more interesting than CSI.
...and yet, like "Just Shoot Me", the Star Trek franchise lives on. STTOS was fine, even good. But anything after that is the smarmiest, worst production design, bad stories, worse acting, pieces of Science Fiction crap to ever hit the airwaves.
Like Max Headroom, any time you get something that has a chance of being interesting, it immediately gets cancelled. "Too challenging." "Not enough interest." Crap. Look at Freaks and Geeks, a really interesting show with good acting, interesting writing...poof!
What is wrong with the US!? Why do all our movies and television shows have to be pablum?
Yeah, Firefly has its problems, but at least they're not as glaring as anything the Star Trek franchise came up with. At least we don't have gratuitous humanoid aliens with clay on their foreheads in Firefly.
As for "western in space", I didn't really take it that way. I thought of it as more space with a folk influence. And I like that. It's like having a log cabin in Northern California with cable modem access and a honkin' powerful box. It's like space shuttle astronauts wearing those wool and leather slipper socks. Atleast you don't have that sterile corporate office building look of STTNG.
Actually most people CAN'T read. Look anywhere for literacy stats, it is disgusting.
Some stats show that High school graduates tend to have public school reading levels. Adults out of school are even worse."
Witness the spelling and grammar on Slashdot. Which seems odd to me since geeking about on computers is mainly interaction with text. So it would seem that a high percentage of the Slashdot crowd should know their way around the written word.
Though maybe it's all that command line syntax that ruins it all.
Note: I accept any and all spelling and grammar flames. I'm not perfect either.
Ouch. Anybody notice that the animal books are getting really expensive?
I mean the Armadillo book was $32.95 for the second edition, now it's $54.95. I have to have it...but man, I might have to wait until I can pick it up used.
I almost feel guilty for complaining, considering how O'Reilly's such a good resource in every way for the computing community, but...the bubble broke (and I'm in higher ed, so I never even got a piece of the pie).
"There's no fanatic loyalty for Craftsman tools. Or Cuisinart. Or Polaroids. These things are TOOLS, and their users, numerous as they may be, view them as such."
Uh, shows how much you know. There are tons of guys out there who won't use anything but a Craftsman tool. Craftsman tools are even collectible. I don't know about Cuisnart, but I collect Polaroid cameras, and quite a few other people I know do too.
LucasFilm can kiss my ass! When George Lucas starts producing films that don't suck mule dick again, then LucasFilm can start whining.
Meanwhile, Hollywood continues to churn out pure crap. When they figure out it's the story that makes the movie, not the actor or special effects, then they might realize a new golden age.
The reason people are going the DVD+home theatre route is because they'd rather take the risk for three dollars renting at Blockbuster and getting a crappy movie, rather than spending the eight to ten dollars ticket price (plus Coke, popcorn, and jordan almonds, which brings it up to something like $20) only to walk out of the theatre saying "Well, it didn't suck completely." At least at home if it's completely un-watchable, they can switch channels and watch Animal Planet.
Besides, I'd be willing to bet there's a brisk sales in legitimate DVDs, if the numbers of people I see in the checkout lines at Best Buy is any barometer. I've seen people pony up three hundred dollars at a crack for a stack of DVDs. Just in my circle of friends we each spend around a hundred dollars a month on legitimate DVDs. Yeah, DVDs'll kill the movie industry, just like VHS did. McCallum is an obvious jackass.
"Perhaps God no longer acts in obvious ways like this because they simply don't work. "
Or perhaps God no longer acts in obvious ways like that is BECAUSE IT'S A BOOK! It's fiction. Parable. Written by men. Men interested in controlling the behavior of other men in order to maintain power over them.
I am so sick and tired of Christians pointing to the Bible as though it provides incontrovertible evidence of the existence of God, the will of God, and the godhead of Jesus. It's no more proof of God than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is.
And another thing! Jesus is the messenger, not the message. Why do so many Christians insist on worshipping Jesus? Isn't that putting Man before God (If Jesus ever really existed).
"...take whatever the hell job you can find, cause there isn't squat out there right now."
Yeah, I've been hearing that for years and I've never been out of a job for longer than a month or two (and that long was mostly due to laziness and vacation). I'm serious. I've been working steadily since the late 70s. The key? Don't be too proud. Don't specialize too much. And choose who you want to work for, don't answer ads.
Believe me, I'm not trying to sound arrogant or whatever, I've seriously never had a problem getting a job. I've been laid off a few times, and had companies go out of business, but I've always gotten a job pretty quickly, sometimes before I could collect my first unemployment check.
'Course I'll do ANYTHING (legitimate) to make a living. And all through my work history, the pay and responsibility has always gone up.
Having bought an iBook in December which came installed and booting with OS 9 with the option to boot to X (I booted to X and never went back to 9), I was a little miffed that 10.2 came out so soon. Not that it's here, but that it cost $129.00. But, I work for a University so I pay $69.95, which is still more than a download of Mandrake, but hey.
Here's what I think they should do: If you have 9, you have to buy 10.2. If your computer came installed with 10.x & 9, you still have to buy. But if you bought the boxed OS X separate from a computer purchase, you should get an upgrade discount.
The logic is, if you have 9.x, you're getting a MAJOR upgrade. If you got 10.x on a computer when you purchased the computer, you basically got it gratis. I mean, it's not a separate charge for the OS, kinda like MS, they throw it in. However, if you made the point of buying the boxed version of OS X separately, then you paid full price for the OS itself, and since 10.2 is following so closely, you should get an upgrade to it.
I hope they don't port it. Why? Because then it'll end up just like Windows. The reason Mac OS "just works" is because they have relatively limited configurations to deal with.
And, as has been pointed out ad nauseum, Apple hardware is not especially expensive relative to comparable PC hardware. It's a red herring, and disingenuous to make that argument at this point. It should be noted as well that Apple's always used higher end components in their machines.
Again, the trade off with Apple has always been: slightly to much more expensive initial cost for better components and better overall workability between the OS and the hardware, as well as a longer useful life per machine. The downside being the instablility of the OS pre-OS X.
Go to your local Chinese grocery and buy one of those big Chinese chef cleavers. That's all you really need, 'ceptin' maybe a little paring knife fer fancy curlicues. Yan can't be wrong.
Seriously, a one point in my batchelor life the only sharp knife in the house was some silly cleaver I had gotten as a gift. Since it was the only sharp knife I used it, and used it, and got used to it. I knew that Chinese chefs pretty much used cleavers exclusively, so I decided to try it. That was years ago.
I prefer the one that's a single piece of stainless steel shaped into a cleaver, rather than the ones attached to a wooden handle. I use an old Gerber diamond "whetstone" sharpener I bought in the 80s to sharpen it. The blade was 4 1/2" high when I bought it for $10. Ten years later, 4" high.
I was a vegetarian for about 18 months when I was in college. I lost a lot of weight, that was a good thing. But that was the 80s and boy was it a PITA to just go through regular life. Resturants weren't savvy, people were always asking questions. (I wasn't in CA).
I gave it up. Too inconvenient. But it changed my eating habits. I eat more fresh vegetables than I did before that, and usually insist on whole grain breads, etc.
One thing though. I can't stand "political" vegetarians, couldn't then either. They're like ex-smokers, etc. Always have to give you shit about what YOU'RE doing. And too self-obsessed. I mean, everything has to revolve around bodily processes. To the point of checking their poop for consistancy.
I figure, go with the food pyramid. Try to eat fresh fruit and vegetables and some meat. You know when you're over-doing it on certain things.
" Actually, a paper book can last for centuries, while digital media is degrading very quickly."
While this may be true, a sane, or at least forward thinking archivist will be prepared to move digital archives over to newer or better media as the need arises.
Of course this does not take into account financing, which in these budget-cutting, practical-money-making-research-and-projects-takes -precedence-over-pure-research -or-preserving-human-knowledge-and-art times is an iffy thing.
I bought one of those Sony emergency radios, it's bright orange,AM/FM, has little light for the dial, water resistant,an audio beacon (sounds like a smoke detector), and it's crank/battery/ac adapter powered. It's pretty basic, but it sounds okay.
I bought it to be my work radio, just to listen to talk radio while I'm working in my office. But I started using it in the kitchen while I'm cooking because it's small and durable.
Anyway, I figured I'd never have to buy batteries for it. If you crank the thing for one minute, you get about 30 minutes of power. But the thing is, it's a pretty stiff crank (heh), and you have to crank it pretty fast. After about 3 minutes, you're pretty much sick of doing it. But that does give you a good hour or so of listening. It'd be good if you were stranded in the woods and you wanted to hear the ball game, or use the smoke detector noise scare away predators. Otherwise, it's just easier to use batteries, which seem to last forever.
These crank-up electronic devices are really only useful in emergency situations, or by really committed environmentalists.
From His Application: "When I was 10, I was trying to run game on this neighborhood chick and I forced out a fart (I guess I thought it was cool) and I crapped myself in the middle of the street. Maybe she dug it because after I cleaned up, we went to the site and poked at it with some sticks."
How do the people in the ads look like retards? You mean they appear to be developmentally retarded? That they have some sort of mental birth defect? How can you tell? You seem to be the idiot here, AC.
They seem like normal people to me. Mark Frauenfelder is a co-founder of the 'zine Boing Boing and a former Wired guy.
Who would you like to see? Who would be less of "retard"? You? What, you're more "normal" looking/acting than the people in those commercials?
Or is it that you'd rather have some model appear in the commercial, someone who's just paid to say the spew, but really doesn't know jack about the product? Or like some models, doesn't know a thing about computers at all.
What's there to do around Vernon Hills? Probably zip. I dunno, never been there. As for things to do in Chicago, c'mon, it's a major city. What do you want to do? Try the Reader,MetroMix, and CHI blue
Slashdot Mirror
"I've finally gotten away from using a proprietary operating system on non-proprietary hardware, and now I'm going to switch to using a proprietary operating system on proprietay hardware."
My original reason for switching to Linux was to have an affordable *nix to use to learn the ways of Unix. Also I'd heard that Linux ran well on older hardware, which was all I could afford. This was before I was aware of free Solaris for personal use. Which could'nt run on my hardware anyway. I admit I was ingorant of the BSDs.
While using Linux I admit I revelled in the idea of opensource, free software and stickin' it to The Man. But I was also disappointed with the constant struggle to configure. Sometimes it was geeky fun, other times just a pain in the ass.
OS X changed all that.The hardware is very good, and the OS is getting to be quite good too, and if I want Opensource and GNU, there's Fink. It's win-win.
As for the proprietary argument, whatever. How hard is it to get some vendors to give out enought specs so people can write Linux drivers for their components? I think the price and proprietary hardware/software argument against Apple is bankrupt at this point. FUD. Bullshit. You don't hear people complaining about Sun's proprietary hardware/software/price much do you? There are good reasons for proprietary systems. They work more consistantly and reliably.
"I agree with the AC -- it's called "being a fucking illiterate". There once was a time when children would lose points for misspelling words, especially simple ones like "you", "your", "you're", "to", "too", "two", etc (depending on the grade level, they may or may not have lost points for using the incorrect word, since that kind of thing isn't easy to grasp in first grade). These days, kids are lucky to be able to read by the time they graduate high school. I guess all of these similar-sounding, different-spelling, different-meaning words are just too difficult for today's kids (not necessarily homonyms, though I guess they can be difficult too)."
Darn that Prince! Uh, er, Artist Formerly Known As Prince. Um, the symbol guy. Wait, is he now known as Prince again? Geez. Darn that purple guy!!
CSI? CSI?! Bwahahaha! He's no snob. He obviously lacks discernment if he watches that lame show. Of all the cop dramas out there, CSI? Good lord! C-SPAN's more interesting than CSI.
...and yet, like "Just Shoot Me", the Star Trek franchise lives on. STTOS was fine, even good. But anything after that is the smarmiest, worst production design, bad stories, worse acting, pieces of Science Fiction crap to ever hit the airwaves.
Like Max Headroom, any time you get something that has a chance of being interesting, it immediately gets cancelled. "Too challenging." "Not enough interest." Crap. Look at Freaks and Geeks, a really interesting show with good acting, interesting writing...poof!
What is wrong with the US!? Why do all our movies and television shows have to be pablum?
Yeah, Firefly has its problems, but at least they're not as glaring as anything the Star Trek franchise came up with. At least we don't have gratuitous humanoid aliens with clay on their foreheads in Firefly.
As for "western in space", I didn't really take it that way. I thought of it as more space with a folk influence. And I like that. It's like having a log cabin in Northern California with cable modem access and a honkin' powerful box. It's like space shuttle astronauts wearing those wool and leather slipper socks. Atleast you don't have that sterile corporate office building look of STTNG.
http://catalog.us.dell.com/CS1/cs1page2.aspx?cs= 04&keycode=6W463&br=2&fm=10266
I just ordered five of these critters for my office. They're so small and cute. I wish I could take one home and install *nix on it.
Actually most people CAN'T read. Look anywhere for literacy stats, it is disgusting.
Some stats show that
High school graduates tend to have public school reading levels. Adults out of school are even worse."
Witness the spelling and grammar on Slashdot. Which seems odd to me since geeking about on computers is mainly interaction with text. So it would seem that a high percentage of the Slashdot crowd should know their way around the written word.
Though maybe it's all that command line syntax that ruins it all.
Note: I accept any and all spelling and grammar flames. I'm not perfect either.
Ouch. Anybody notice that the animal books are getting really expensive?
I mean the Armadillo book was $32.95 for the second edition, now it's $54.95. I have to have it...but man, I might have to wait until I can pick it up used.
I almost feel guilty for complaining, considering how O'Reilly's such a good resource in every way for the computing community, but...the bubble broke (and I'm in higher ed, so I never even got a piece of the pie).
"There's no fanatic loyalty for Craftsman tools. Or Cuisinart. Or Polaroids. These things are TOOLS, and their users, numerous as they may be, view them as such."
Uh, shows how much you know. There are tons of guys out there who won't use anything but a Craftsman tool. Craftsman tools are even collectible. I don't know about Cuisnart, but I collect Polaroid cameras, and quite a few other people I know do too.
I've got an iBook too.
Dagnabbit, I can't get an ftp install to complete, I keep getting kicked.
Oh and....frost pist!
Meanwhile, Hollywood continues to churn out pure crap. When they figure out it's the story that makes the movie, not the actor or special effects, then they might realize a new golden age.
The reason people are going the DVD+home theatre route is because they'd rather take the risk for three dollars renting at Blockbuster and getting a crappy movie, rather than spending the eight to ten dollars ticket price (plus Coke, popcorn, and jordan almonds, which brings it up to something like $20) only to walk out of the theatre saying "Well, it didn't suck completely." At least at home if it's completely un-watchable, they can switch channels and watch Animal Planet.
Besides, I'd be willing to bet there's a brisk sales in legitimate DVDs, if the numbers of people I see in the checkout lines at Best Buy is any barometer. I've seen people pony up three hundred dollars at a crack for a stack of DVDs. Just in my circle of friends we each spend around a hundred dollars a month on legitimate DVDs. Yeah, DVDs'll kill the movie industry, just like VHS did. McCallum is an obvious jackass.
oh yeah. I haven't read UserFriendly since 09/11/01........
omigod! UF! holy fluffy feet things! I forgot about UserFriendly! I musta been hit on the head. what's wrong with me?
waitaminute, I might not be who I think I am. jeez. bye. *opens a tab in Mozilla* I got a lot of catching up to do.
(switcher theme)da do da do da do...I'm Rob Malda, and I'm an Alpha Geek.
"Perhaps God no longer acts in obvious ways like this because they simply don't work. "
Or perhaps God no longer acts in obvious ways like that is BECAUSE IT'S A BOOK! It's fiction. Parable. Written by men. Men interested in controlling the behavior of other men in order to maintain power over them.
I am so sick and tired of Christians pointing to the Bible as though it provides incontrovertible evidence of the existence of God, the will of God, and the godhead of Jesus. It's no more proof of God than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is.
And another thing! Jesus is the messenger, not the message. Why do so many Christians insist on worshipping Jesus? Isn't that putting Man before God (If Jesus ever really existed).
" ...take whatever the hell job you can find, cause there isn't squat out there right now."
Yeah, I've been hearing that for years and I've never been out of a job for longer than a month or two (and that long was mostly due to laziness and vacation). I'm serious. I've been working steadily since the late 70s. The key? Don't be too proud. Don't specialize too much. And choose who you want to work for, don't answer ads.
Believe me, I'm not trying to sound arrogant or whatever, I've seriously never had a problem getting a job. I've been laid off a few times, and had companies go out of business, but I've always gotten a job pretty quickly, sometimes before I could collect my first unemployment check.
'Course I'll do ANYTHING (legitimate) to make a living. And all through my work history, the pay and responsibility has always gone up.
Here's what I think they should do: If you have 9, you have to buy 10.2. If your computer came installed with 10.x & 9, you still have to buy. But if you bought the boxed OS X separate from a computer purchase, you should get an upgrade discount.
The logic is, if you have 9.x, you're getting a MAJOR upgrade. If you got 10.x on a computer when you purchased the computer, you basically got it gratis. I mean, it's not a separate charge for the OS, kinda like MS, they throw it in. However, if you made the point of buying the boxed version of OS X separately, then you paid full price for the OS itself, and since 10.2 is following so closely, you should get an upgrade to it.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
I hope they don't port it. Why? Because then it'll end up just like Windows. The reason Mac OS "just works" is because they have relatively limited configurations to deal with.
And, as has been pointed out ad nauseum, Apple hardware is not especially expensive relative to comparable PC hardware. It's a red herring, and disingenuous to make that argument at this point. It should be noted as well that Apple's always used higher end components in their machines.
Again, the trade off with Apple has always been: slightly to much more expensive initial cost for better components and better overall workability between the OS and the hardware, as well as a longer useful life per machine. The downside being the instablility of the OS pre-OS X.
Seriously, a one point in my batchelor life the only sharp knife in the house was some silly cleaver I had gotten as a gift. Since it was the only sharp knife I used it, and used it, and got used to it. I knew that Chinese chefs pretty much used cleavers exclusively, so I decided to try it. That was years ago.
I prefer the one that's a single piece of stainless steel shaped into a cleaver, rather than the ones attached to a wooden handle. I use an old Gerber diamond "whetstone" sharpener I bought in the 80s to sharpen it. The blade was 4 1/2" high when I bought it for $10. Ten years later, 4" high.
I gave it up. Too inconvenient. But it changed my eating habits. I eat more fresh vegetables than I did before that, and usually insist on whole grain breads, etc.
One thing though. I can't stand "political" vegetarians, couldn't then either. They're like ex-smokers, etc. Always have to give you shit about what YOU'RE doing. And too self-obsessed. I mean, everything has to revolve around bodily processes. To the point of checking their poop for consistancy.
I figure, go with the food pyramid. Try to eat fresh fruit and vegetables and some meat. You know when you're over-doing it on certain things.
Life's too short to filter your pie hole.
While this may be true, a sane, or at least forward thinking archivist will be prepared to move digital archives over to newer or better media as the need arises.
Of course this does not take into account financing, which in these budget-cutting, practical-money-making-research-and-projects-takes -precedence-over-pure-research -or-preserving-human-knowledge-and-art times is an iffy thing.
I bought it to be my work radio, just to listen to talk radio while I'm working in my office. But I started using it in the kitchen while I'm cooking because it's small and durable.
Anyway, I figured I'd never have to buy batteries for it. If you crank the thing for one minute, you get about 30 minutes of power. But the thing is, it's a pretty stiff crank (heh), and you have to crank it pretty fast. After about 3 minutes, you're pretty much sick of doing it. But that does give you a good hour or so of listening. It'd be good if you were stranded in the woods and you wanted to hear the ball game, or use the smoke detector noise scare away predators. Otherwise, it's just easier to use batteries, which seem to last forever.
These crank-up electronic devices are really only useful in emergency situations, or by really committed environmentalists.
From His Application:
"When I was 10, I was trying to run game on this neighborhood chick and I forced out a fart (I guess I thought it was cool) and I crapped myself in the middle of the street. Maybe she dug it because after I cleaned up, we went to the site and poked at it with some sticks."
"With OS X, I hardly ever crap myself."
They seem like normal people to me. Mark Frauenfelder is a co-founder of the 'zine Boing Boing and a former Wired guy.
Who would you like to see? Who would be less of "retard"? You? What, you're more "normal" looking/acting than the people in those commercials?
Or is it that you'd rather have some model appear in the commercial, someone who's just paid to say the spew, but really doesn't know jack about the product? Or like some models, doesn't know a thing about computers at all.
True. But what am I supposed to do, bring back the dead? Besides, we have laws against monopolies. Oh wait...
What's there to do around Vernon Hills? Probably zip. I dunno, never been there. As for things to do in Chicago, c'mon, it's a major city. What do you want to do? Try the Reader ,MetroMix, and CHI blue