I mean...eat penguin shit you cocksmoking ass spelunker.
Can we take this to e-mail now? Does this count as a flamewar?:)
Noticed you also left out stuff on Beowulf clusters, LinuxOne, and new moderation/article categories. Also "Have you ever accused Slashdot of selling out..." and "...before Andover was bought by VA Linux?" "...before Andover, period?"
just a few helpful suggestions, of which I'm sure you're receiving many, some in not-so-nice e-mails, by now:)
I hope JonKatz comments on it, or I'm going to kill him. And pour hot grits down his pants.
Of course, this article is going to get moderated down, because the moderators always moderate down dissenting viewpoints, right? Especially if they're Microserfs like I supposedly am.:)
...must go customize Slashboxes now...wonder what Slashdot looks like...
Is it just me, or has the ability of the average Slashdot poster to discern humour from trolling stupidity fallen well below a healthy level since Jan. 1?
Bill Gates...Canadian? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! *stabs self* Now, I dare someone to take this seriously, like happened over in the Microsoft X-Box comments...
"Yes! I'm on the final level of Quake: Rehash! I'm about to squash this wonderfully 3D-rendered, semi-AI-controlled final opponent. And the screen theme is pretty."
"Now, to step forward..."
*presses up*
---WARNING! - This program has performed an illegal operation. It will now be shut down. It is recommended that you reboot your system.---
"AUGH...well, at least I saved the game..."
---WARNING! - Cannot open save game file. File corruption. Please contact Microsoft Technical Support for details.
Press F1 to continue---
*sound of console being tossed out window and crashing on cement*
Same deal here in the True North. Some time is taken out each day so the opposition parties can grill the government on whatever scandals the feds are trying to cover up.
Question Period doesn't get watched as much as it should. When I do see clips of QP, or even run across it on C-PAC (Canada's C-SPAN clone), I'm usually treated to the sickeningly satisfying sight of government ministers dancing around hard questions tossed like hand grenades from the mouths of the opposition. You never get a straight answer, but you get to see the people in power run, dissemble, dodge questions, cover their asses in legalese, and even spew outright lies, just to get the damn question out of the way.
Not to ignore normal Parliamentary sessions and their provincial counterparts...bickering, heckling, posturing, yelling, stomping, and once in a while theatrical protest! It's like kindergarten for grown-ups. Somehow, stuff gets done (mainly because the government party can push every piece of legislation through. The opposition's there for embarrassment value.)
Tangent: When I see Congressmen or Senators speaking on U.S. TV, they're usually dull, proper, and not exactly forceful, save for a few firebrands. Meanwhile, in Canada...once, while watching the Corrections Minister bark out a point, two old farts on the opposite side could be heard booing. Booing! In the legislature! During normal sessions! Another incident saw a member of the opposition, then run by Quebec separtists, remove a chair from the chamber and keep it for two weeks. It's more entertaining than, say, WCW.
I'm not sure this kind of system could work in the land of the free. Hell-raising Congressmen and Senators might enjoy it too much.
Oh, and we have senators too, but they don't do much besides sleep and suck money.
Allow me to spend a moment considering what this kind of technology and experimentation represents.
150, perhaps even one hundred years ago, the completely blind, and even visually impaired (hi!) were considered next to useless by "normal" society. Disabled in general were embarassments to be hidden, rather than fellows to be assisted and given a chance to grow. A century or two ago, I probably would have been sent to a "special" school, if my family were rich and looking to dump me. If my parents were poor, forget it. No way to make up for crap eyes, or deformed legs, or a fried brain.
Fast-forward to 2000. Legs don't work? Get prosthetics! Muscles don't respond properly? Treatment, baby! Eyes not up to snuff? Get a brain implant! This is a glorious time, at least if you live in a region with access to medical help. Whereas someone like me or worse would be stuck in some "good with his hands" job long ago, now I can participate in a radio/TV arts program. So can the completely blind guy one year ahead of me. Advances like these may allow him, me, and other blind/visually screwed people to one day experience sight approaching that of a person blessed with a working pair of optic receptors. Perhaps bulky visors, headsets, even glasses will be unnecessary.
If there was a project in progress to fix my < 20/200, color-blind, light-sensitive eyes, or at least get around the problem, I'd sign up in a second. I wouldn't wish this state on my worst enemy. However, I've become used to it. I still express disbelief at the ranges most people can discern text, when I'm still trying to figure out just what in hell they're looking at.
We can always expect the worst, hope for the best, and work toward a better future in any way we can. Otherwise, why the fsck are we here?
(actually...leave that question for another thread.)
what/.'ers want to know is, does it run linux, and can you make a beowulf cluster out of it? plat
Someone remind me again how much control God Himself (Linus) has over the name "Linux"? I understand he has some form of control; is it copyright? Does it only have effect in Sweden, or is his control over the name supposed to be internationally recognized? Could a simple letter from the man to the Uruguayan body that hands trademarks out end this fiasco before it starts?
if you couldn't call your friend's house because they were using Microsoft Phone and you had AOL's You've Got A Phone. Sometimes standards are a good thing.
Interesting you use the phone analogy; this is a little ditty I wrote some long night over the summer.
Take a piece of what should be good news (a new partner in space exploration), throw a flag in the mix, and watch the little shaved apes go at each other like it's 1 000 000 BC. Supposedly intelligent, enlightened people become patriotic berserkers when several nations whose governments told the populace to hate the other enter the arena.
On the one hand, the gerontocracy in control of China has a pathetic human rights record. On the other hand, it's not like the populace has much choice for the time being. Witness Tiananmen Square - nice attempt fellas, too bad the army had the guns.
I think we should welcome a new nation to the ultimate frontier. Make a few magnanimous gestures, speak a few kind words, they may even have something to contribute to the "international" space station.
Old fears die hard, eh? Mao is dead, and the times are a-changin'. Slowly, but a-changin'.
And as this entire thread has shown, attitudes change even slower.
Or maybe I'm just naive, and put too much faith in this species to get past itself.
...so the "ease of use" tack that LinuxOne is taking just might the the key that makes them cash.
Strange, Caldera and Red Hat have been going head-to-head over ease-of-install for a while. Corel's about to jump into the game. Two projects are underway to create a more-or-less "standard" GUI for Linux. But hey, it's who can pump out more press releases, eh?
It appears that LinuxOne is doing their part to help Linux make it further on the desktop level.
By swiping Red Hat's distro and doing a mass replace of "Red Hat" with "LinuxOne"?
They may have a history of vaporware in the past, but there's a distro now...
Yes, either Red Hat's or Mandrake's (itself a modification of Red Hat, but at least they made some actual changes and improvements).
It might not be anything "new", but success is largely marketing and spin, and LinuxOne seems to have that under control.
That's a very Gatesian/MS way of thinking; success = marketing. Yet, Linux has rocketed to prominence this year on little more than a reputation and one company with an actual unique product going public. A lot of the spin pumped out by LinuxOne could easily do more to hurt the Open Source movement than help it. Since they seem to be doing nothing but swiping other distros, it's anyone's guess what kind of tech support the company will provide, if any. I'm also willing to bet the company will put out some horrid license that contravenes the GPL. Red Hat has a reputation of good products and tech support. LinuxOne has a reputation of vapourware and marketing hype. I have serious fears that this fly-by-night opportunist could do lasting damage to Linux and the Open Source movement by making a mockery of the whole thing in the news media.
If they do this then they're spending reputation. It's no different than if their books on military hardware maintained that Canada had orbiting launch platforms capable of launching creme pies at any government official.
Just a quick post to give congratulations to one of the world's most famous programmers. It may be honorary, but Linus deserves that recognition for his work, and his inspiration for others to work alongside him.
Unfortunately, the computer does have to be exceedingly simple and functional in order for it to be useful in a classroom setting. There is nothing more distracting than having the tools you are using to give a lecture die on you halfway through. It completely interrupts the flow.
Thoughts of Bill "Just plug this scanner in and - HAHAHAHAHA" Gates come to mind:)...
I should probably mention the studio computers run NT Workstation. I don't know if that would make a hell of a lot of difference, but there you have it. Since these systems don't normally have ZIP drives plugged in, I don't believe you could install the drivers for ZIPs without NT looking for the drive and whining on every reboot. The option just isn't there. I wonder if NT just isn't that great for multimedia work; I hear similar complaints about crashes in the video editing suites running Video Action RT, and from the cable company back home using Adobe Premiere and Inscriber under NT. Keep in mind, some (if not most) of these systems were purchased with the software preinstalled, for piles of money. Are these companies just not doing proper system testing before sending them out?
Linux, BSD, and the variants may be more of a bear to set up, but they certainly don't go down in flames as often. From everything I can tell, NT just can't handle multimedia work. Is it the programs themselves? NT? The hardware? All I know is, random, fatal crashes should not be an issue, especially considering the limited time these students have to do their productions.
I just started work in the audio library for the Radio-Televison Arts, Image Arts and Film students. The computers used to handle studio/equipment booking and file transfers between studios are both Win95, as is a spare computer in the room. On my first day of work, I had the pleasure of watching one computer BSOD once and white-box crash once (I knew M$ ported over tons of legacy code from Win3.1, but this is ridiculous...). As well, the damn thing locked up during a large file transfer. It's a good thing I remembered the files to be transferred, because the studio computers are regularly wiped clean of files; the student would have been justifiably angry. Complaints about the systems are legion.
The audio production studios all run NT so the students can use SAW, SAWPlus32, and Cakewalk. Students are warned to save often, because some of these computers die at the slightest sneeze from the user. ZIP drives would be lifesavers for those students who have the equipment and software to do some editing work at home. Not allowed. Why? Windows can't handle the parallel port drives being plugged in and used on the fly - it screws up the entire system.
A 10-terabyte server was brought online this year for the use of third-year students working on projects. It took three years to get this blasted thing working with Windows NT, otherwise I could have used it last year for my first-year projects.
I'd love to port the entire system over to Linux, BSD, or something else that could handle the load. MS Scheduler is one of the better pieces of M$ bloatware I've seen, but it's likely there's a Linux program that can do the same thing. File transfers would be a lot less dicey, and the 10-TB dream server would probably have been up 2 years ago if the audio crew hadn't had to fight NT.
So what's stopping me from bringing the revolution to Ryerson?
1) Windows-only audio software. I don't know about Cakewalk, but I don't know of any audio editing software comparable to the SAW series for Linux. I'm not sure WINE would be an option, since I don't know how it handles programs looking specifically for certain audio drivers. (I might be able to determine this myself soon.)
2) Familiarity with Windows. Quite frankly, there are a lot of computer illiterate people on this planet, people who are comfortable with a happy little Start button and colourful icons that look familiar to them. StarOffice would be a great replacement for Word and PowerPoint, but I find it likely the "I-just-want-to-do-work" people would freak out not knowing how to handle Linux, BSD, X, whatever. I've seen some comments dumping on fvwm95, but it might be exactly what newbies need to become comfortable with Linux. It provides a similar interface while still having the power of Linux. GNOME might also be an option soon; its style reminds me a lot of Win95 (don't hurt me, please:)
There's still the stumbling block of the Windows-only programs though. I don't blame anyone for this lack of software; I don't think Linux was ever considered for uses like this until now. I kinda hope these gaps are closed fast, before I have to console first-years who lose major parts of projects thanks to a BSOD crash.
Windows isn't just an RTA disease; Windows computers are strewn throughout campus. PowerPoint presentations infest classes. Multimedia lecterns were installed a couple years back; the computers, naturally, run NT and PowerPoint. Once again, people are too bloody familiar with Windows, crashes and all; as well, no one considered Linux/BSD/whatever for these purposes until now, just as M$ tries to achieve a final, lasting hammerlock on the computer world. Perhaps someone with far more programming know-how than me can help make Linux a viable option for editing audio, video, and creating presentations (not just showing them:)
Fortunately, the central server for Ryerson is AIX...seems to be an old version, but I haven't seen it go down yet. At least the admins have the sense to use a real operating system for mission-critical stuff; I have to wonder if the Windows infestation is one of those decisions made by higher-ups who listened to M$ marketing.
I eagerly await the day when Ryerson can throw off the shackles of BSODs and lockups once and for all. SAW for Linux, anyone?:)
I don't think anyone here wants to deny Microsoft the "freedom to innovate" - if they'd actually use that freedom, instead of grabbing everyone else's innovations, dressing them up, and selling them at $179 a pop, Micros~1.oft might not have to pull stunts like this, non?
I knew the article would dive into standard FUD and "misinformation" when I saw the first quote was from a Microsoft exec. Talk about your biased sources! It's like asking Lenin his opinion of capitalism. You can pretty much guess the kind of quote you're going to get.
I suppose we should apply the lessons we learned from the Bob Metcalfe/Win2K endorsement fiasco, though:
Avoid flaming reactions
Don't worry about articles like this; for every journalist who actually believes M$ press releases, there's another one who has a clue as to what's really going on.
If you absolutely must reply to the author/editorial board, write an intelligent rebuttal; point-by-point analyses and calm language show you know what you're talking about.
Just remember; for the second Mindcraft test, the Linux community sent programmers, while M$ sent marketers (is this just an urban legend? It still spells out the differences between the BorGates and the OS Federation)
Stay calm, concentrate on making one of the best operating systems even better, not on "beating Microsoft". Cooler heads shall prevail:)
How do you suppose we're going to become better, more morally evolved beings?
By making mistakes, learning what are good, helpful things to do, and what are nasty, harmful things to do. Maybe having some enlightenend members of our species to give us some suggestions along the way. That's the eventual goal, anyway. Unattainable, perhaps, but something worth working toward.
As a "bleeding-heart liberal" I'm assuming you're not suggesting a spirtual revolution, and government-imposed rules don't seem to have helped us very much
Ah, I only said some people might call me a bleeding-heart for thinking such things; I'm really not sure how to classify myself. And a spiritual revolution just might be what the witch doctor ordered, though political power movements masquerading as spiritual crusades don't cut it; crews like Focus on the Family and the Christian Coalition are out for power, trying to gain power to impose order. Again, order for the wrong reasons. Christ, Siddharta Gautama, and Mohandas Ghandi (whose political crusade had a morally right purpose, not a goal of personal power) were on the right track. Pat Robertson and Gary Bauer most certainly are not.
The gun people advocate the crudest civilizing influence - direct force. These satellites simply make information available - "the pen is mightier than the sword" - seems all to the good to me.
It's still about might; who has the control, who has the bigger gun or the sharper eye. What I envision to be a "good" peace is one where people agree not to attack or harm each other, because inside they genuinely know and believe that's not how to survive, not how our species will survive. Once again, perhaps its fantasy, but there's still a lot of time left for this to become reality:)
Technology is only a tool that can be used for good, or for evil. Like all tools, it can be controlled, kept from those whom the controllers feel aren't worthy of using it, or don't have enough wealth to use it. The promise offered by this technology is not truth, but voyeurism. It's like someone looking over your shoulder all the time.
One of the most powerful parts of ("Speaker for the Dead") is the story of Novinha's family, warped by lies from the start, and strangely healed by Ender publicly speaking the shameful truth. I'll never be able to justify lying for somebody's good again after reading that book.
Understand, I'm not advocating lying for others, but having some privacy, time and space where oneself can't be watched. I've never read either "Ender's Game" or "Speaker for the Dead", so I can't speak for Ender's motivations, but would I be correct in surmising that his revelation of the truth was a moral decision, reached by himself? He wasn't forced to be truthful because someone was watching him to make sure he did it? That sort of thing is what I consider right; revealing truth, however shameful or painful, because it's the right thing to do. An internally-imposed order, as opposed to an externally-imposed one.
I think this "transparency" issue is much the same thing - the truth is always to the good, and more is better.
But again, it's a form of external control. If we learn anything from this, it will be that giving some people the power to watch others, and dole out that information for money, is a bad idea. The development of true telepathy would be a much better development; until then, self-control and self-restraint are far better forms of order than someone watching our movements.
In his 1987 novel, "2061: Odyssey Three," Clarke envisioned a time when, with everyone keeping an eye on everyone else, surprise attacks would be impossible and war among great powers unthinkable.
This strikes me as wrong, similar to when a gun control opponent states that "an armed society is a polite society." The peace envisioned in both concepts is not tranquility as a result of us being better, more morally evolved beings, but order imposed by fear and force. Not that constant, unpreventable war and strife are any better; I just think there's a better way to reduce conflict among us.
For some reason, the Vorlons spring to mind.
Perhaps I'm dreaming; perhaps I'm not being realistic, a "bleeding-heart liberal" as some might say. That might be a correct assessment; still, I think to truly reduce the threat of war, we have to learn, on our own, how to get along with each other. We can't rely on "solutions" imposed upon us by those with more power. I can easily imagine "everyone keeping an eye on everyone else" and "armed society = polite society" degenerating into "might makes right, as does control." I greatly respect Clarke's intelligence and wisdom, but in my heart I cannot agree with him on this issue.
Slashdot Mirror
Cool!
I mean...eat penguin shit you cocksmoking ass spelunker.
Can we take this to e-mail now? Does this count as a flamewar?:)
Noticed you also left out stuff on Beowulf clusters, LinuxOne, and new moderation/article categories. Also "Have you ever accused Slashdot of selling out..." and "...before Andover was bought by VA Linux?" "...before Andover, period?"
just a few helpful suggestions, of which I'm sure you're receiving many, some in not-so-nice e-mails, by now:)
Seriously, enjoyable stuff. When's the IPO?:)
Well...uhhhh...I'm under 50k! That's gotta stand for something!
Let's see...replying to my own post...there's another point for me on the Purity Test. I'll be half-impure in no time.
Karma whorin' for Natalie Portman...
That purity test...called me a Microserf.
A MICROSERF!
Just for that, I'm going to whore the article I submitted last week, but didn't get posted. It's at my website; now to find out if I can see the Slashdot effect in action.
I hope JonKatz comments on it, or I'm going to kill him. And pour hot grits down his pants.
Of course, this article is going to get moderated down, because the moderators always moderate down dissenting viewpoints, right? Especially if they're Microserfs like I supposedly am.:)
...must go customize Slashboxes now...wonder what Slashdot looks like...
Is it just me, or has the ability of the average Slashdot poster to discern humour from trolling stupidity fallen well below a healthy level since Jan. 1?
Bill Gates...Canadian? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! *stabs self* Now, I dare someone to take this seriously, like happened over in the Microsoft X-Box comments...
I'll repeat what I said above - it's a joke.
The concept of "humour" seems to be rapidly draining from Slashdot...
oh for the love of Kosh, it was a *joke* people.
Joke.
You know, juxtaposition of absurdities, make you giggle, ha ha?
"Yes! I'm on the final level of Quake: Rehash! I'm about to squash this wonderfully 3D-rendered, semi-AI-controlled final opponent. And the screen theme is pretty."
"Now, to step forward..."
*presses up*
---WARNING! - This program has performed an illegal operation. It will now be shut down. It is recommended that you reboot your system.---
"AUGH...well, at least I saved the game..."
---WARNING! - Cannot open save game file. File corruption. Please contact Microsoft Technical Support for details.
Press F1 to continue---
*sound of console being tossed out window and crashing on cement*
sorry, couldn't resist:)
Same deal here in the True North. Some time is taken out each day so the opposition parties can grill the government on whatever scandals the feds are trying to cover up.
Question Period doesn't get watched as much as it should. When I do see clips of QP, or even run across it on C-PAC (Canada's C-SPAN clone), I'm usually treated to the sickeningly satisfying sight of government ministers dancing around hard questions tossed like hand grenades from the mouths of the opposition. You never get a straight answer, but you get to see the people in power run, dissemble, dodge questions, cover their asses in legalese, and even spew outright lies, just to get the damn question out of the way.
Not to ignore normal Parliamentary sessions and their provincial counterparts...bickering, heckling, posturing, yelling, stomping, and once in a while theatrical protest! It's like kindergarten for grown-ups. Somehow, stuff gets done (mainly because the government party can push every piece of legislation through. The opposition's there for embarrassment value.)
Tangent: When I see Congressmen or Senators speaking on U.S. TV, they're usually dull, proper, and not exactly forceful, save for a few firebrands. Meanwhile, in Canada...once, while watching the Corrections Minister bark out a point, two old farts on the opposite side could be heard booing. Booing! In the legislature! During normal sessions! Another incident saw a member of the opposition, then run by Quebec separtists, remove a chair from the chamber and keep it for two weeks. It's more entertaining than, say, WCW.
I'm not sure this kind of system could work in the land of the free. Hell-raising Congressmen and Senators might enjoy it too much.
Oh, and we have senators too, but they don't do much besides sleep and suck money.
Or, he scammed it from UserFriendly, which parodied those damn ads.
Allow me to spend a moment considering what this kind of technology and experimentation represents.
/.'ers want to know is, does it run linux, and can you make a beowulf cluster out of it?
150, perhaps even one hundred years ago, the completely blind, and even visually impaired (hi!) were considered next to useless by "normal" society. Disabled in general were embarassments to be hidden, rather than fellows to be assisted and given a chance to grow. A century or two ago, I probably would have been sent to a "special" school, if my family were rich and looking to dump me. If my parents were poor, forget it. No way to make up for crap eyes, or deformed legs, or a fried brain.
Fast-forward to 2000. Legs don't work? Get prosthetics! Muscles don't respond properly? Treatment, baby! Eyes not up to snuff? Get a brain implant! This is a glorious time, at least if you live in a region with access to medical help. Whereas someone like me or worse would be stuck in some "good with his hands" job long ago, now I can participate in a radio/TV arts program. So can the completely blind guy one year ahead of me. Advances like these may allow him, me, and other blind/visually screwed people to one day experience sight approaching that of a person blessed with a working pair of optic receptors. Perhaps bulky visors, headsets, even glasses will be unnecessary.
If there was a project in progress to fix my < 20/200, color-blind, light-sensitive eyes, or at least get around the problem, I'd sign up in a second. I wouldn't wish this state on my worst enemy. However, I've become used to it. I still express disbelief at the ranges most people can discern text, when I'm still trying to figure out just what in hell they're looking at.
We can always expect the worst, hope for the best, and work toward a better future in any way we can. Otherwise, why the fsck are we here?
(actually...leave that question for another thread.)
what
plat
I will say this...
This is probably the fastest Micro$oft has fixed a hole in history.
Someone remind me again how much control God Himself (Linus) has over the name "Linux"? I understand he has some form of control; is it copyright? Does it only have effect in Sweden, or is his control over the name supposed to be internationally recognized? Could a simple letter from the man to the Uruguayan body that hands trademarks out end this fiasco before it starts?
Just wondering,
plat
if you couldn't call your friend's house because they were using Microsoft Phone and you had AOL's You've Got A Phone. Sometimes standards are a good thing.
Interesting you use the phone analogy; this is a little ditty I wrote some long night over the summer.
Amazing.
Take a piece of what should be good news (a new partner in space exploration), throw a flag in the mix, and watch the little shaved apes go at each other like it's 1 000 000 BC. Supposedly intelligent, enlightened people become patriotic berserkers when several nations whose governments told the populace to hate the other enter the arena.
On the one hand, the gerontocracy in control of China has a pathetic human rights record. On the other hand, it's not like the populace has much choice for the time being. Witness Tiananmen Square - nice attempt fellas, too bad the army had the guns.
I think we should welcome a new nation to the ultimate frontier. Make a few magnanimous gestures, speak a few kind words, they may even have something to contribute to the "international" space station.
Old fears die hard, eh? Mao is dead, and the times are a-changin'. Slowly, but a-changin'.
And as this entire thread has shown, attitudes change even slower.
Or maybe I'm just naive, and put too much faith in this species to get past itself.
...so the "ease of use" tack that LinuxOne is taking just might the the key that makes them cash.
Strange, Caldera and Red Hat have been going head-to-head over ease-of-install for a while. Corel's about to jump into the game. Two projects are underway to create a more-or-less "standard" GUI for Linux. But hey, it's who can pump out more press releases, eh?
It appears that LinuxOne is doing their part to help Linux make it further on the desktop level.
By swiping Red Hat's distro and doing a mass replace of "Red Hat" with "LinuxOne"?
They may have a history of vaporware in the past, but there's a distro now...
Yes, either Red Hat's or Mandrake's (itself a modification of Red Hat, but at least they made some actual changes and improvements).
It might not be anything "new", but success is largely marketing and spin, and LinuxOne seems to have that under control.
That's a very Gatesian/MS way of thinking; success = marketing. Yet, Linux has rocketed to prominence this year on little more than a reputation and one company with an actual unique product going public. A lot of the spin pumped out by LinuxOne could easily do more to hurt the Open Source movement than help it. Since they seem to be doing nothing but swiping other distros, it's anyone's guess what kind of tech support the company will provide, if any. I'm also willing to bet the company will put out some horrid license that contravenes the GPL. Red Hat has a reputation of good products and tech support. LinuxOne has a reputation of vapourware and marketing hype. I have serious fears that this fly-by-night opportunist could do lasting damage to Linux and the Open Source movement by making a mockery of the whole thing in the news media.
If they do this then they're spending reputation. It's no different than if their books on military hardware maintained that Canada had orbiting launch platforms capable of launching creme pies at any government official.
WHO TOLD YOU???
I mean...yes, you're right;)
*goes off to reset targeting parameters...*
Just a quick post to give congratulations to one of the world's most famous programmers. It may be honorary, but Linus deserves that recognition for his work, and his inspiration for others to work alongside him.
Code on.
Unfortunately, the computer does have to be exceedingly simple and functional in order for it to be useful in a classroom setting. There is nothing more distracting than having the tools you are using to give a lecture die on you halfway through. It completely interrupts the flow.
Thoughts of Bill "Just plug this scanner in and - HAHAHAHAHA" Gates come to mind:)...I should probably mention the studio computers run NT Workstation. I don't know if that would make a hell of a lot of difference, but there you have it. Since these systems don't normally have ZIP drives plugged in, I don't believe you could install the drivers for ZIPs without NT looking for the drive and whining on every reboot. The option just isn't there. I wonder if NT just isn't that great for multimedia work; I hear similar complaints about crashes in the video editing suites running Video Action RT, and from the cable company back home using Adobe Premiere and Inscriber under NT. Keep in mind, some (if not most) of these systems were purchased with the software preinstalled, for piles of money. Are these companies just not doing proper system testing before sending them out?
Linux, BSD, and the variants may be more of a bear to set up, but they certainly don't go down in flames as often. From everything I can tell, NT just can't handle multimedia work. Is it the programs themselves? NT? The hardware? All I know is, random, fatal crashes should not be an issue, especially considering the limited time these students have to do their productions.
Similar issues and gripes here at Ryerson...
I just started work in the audio library for the Radio-Televison Arts, Image Arts and Film students. The computers used to handle studio/equipment booking and file transfers between studios are both Win95, as is a spare computer in the room. On my first day of work, I had the pleasure of watching one computer BSOD once and white-box crash once (I knew M$ ported over tons of legacy code from Win3.1, but this is ridiculous...). As well, the damn thing locked up during a large file transfer. It's a good thing I remembered the files to be transferred, because the studio computers are regularly wiped clean of files; the student would have been justifiably angry. Complaints about the systems are legion.
The audio production studios all run NT so the students can use SAW, SAWPlus32, and Cakewalk. Students are warned to save often, because some of these computers die at the slightest sneeze from the user. ZIP drives would be lifesavers for those students who have the equipment and software to do some editing work at home. Not allowed. Why? Windows can't handle the parallel port drives being plugged in and used on the fly - it screws up the entire system.
A 10-terabyte server was brought online this year for the use of third-year students working on projects. It took three years to get this blasted thing working with Windows NT, otherwise I could have used it last year for my first-year projects.
I'd love to port the entire system over to Linux, BSD, or something else that could handle the load. MS Scheduler is one of the better pieces of M$ bloatware I've seen, but it's likely there's a Linux program that can do the same thing. File transfers would be a lot less dicey, and the 10-TB dream server would probably have been up 2 years ago if the audio crew hadn't had to fight NT.
So what's stopping me from bringing the revolution to Ryerson?
1) Windows-only audio software. I don't know about Cakewalk, but I don't know of any audio editing software comparable to the SAW series for Linux. I'm not sure WINE would be an option, since I don't know how it handles programs looking specifically for certain audio drivers. (I might be able to determine this myself soon.)
2) Familiarity with Windows. Quite frankly, there are a lot of computer illiterate people on this planet, people who are comfortable with a happy little Start button and colourful icons that look familiar to them. StarOffice would be a great replacement for Word and PowerPoint, but I find it likely the "I-just-want-to-do-work" people would freak out not knowing how to handle Linux, BSD, X, whatever. I've seen some comments dumping on fvwm95, but it might be exactly what newbies need to become comfortable with Linux. It provides a similar interface while still having the power of Linux. GNOME might also be an option soon; its style reminds me a lot of Win95 (don't hurt me, please:)
There's still the stumbling block of the Windows-only programs though. I don't blame anyone for this lack of software; I don't think Linux was ever considered for uses like this until now. I kinda hope these gaps are closed fast, before I have to console first-years who lose major parts of projects thanks to a BSOD crash.
Windows isn't just an RTA disease; Windows computers are strewn throughout campus. PowerPoint presentations infest classes. Multimedia lecterns were installed a couple years back; the computers, naturally, run NT and PowerPoint. Once again, people are too bloody familiar with Windows, crashes and all; as well, no one considered Linux/BSD/whatever for these purposes until now, just as M$ tries to achieve a final, lasting hammerlock on the computer world. Perhaps someone with far more programming know-how than me can help make Linux a viable option for editing audio, video, and creating presentations (not just showing them:)
Fortunately, the central server for Ryerson is AIX...seems to be an old version, but I haven't seen it go down yet. At least the admins have the sense to use a real operating system for mission-critical stuff; I have to wonder if the Windows infestation is one of those decisions made by higher-ups who listened to M$ marketing.
I eagerly await the day when Ryerson can throw off the shackles of BSODs and lockups once and for all. SAW for Linux, anyone?:)
I don't think anyone here wants to deny Microsoft the "freedom to innovate" - if they'd actually use that freedom, instead of grabbing everyone else's innovations, dressing them up, and selling them at $179 a pop, Micros~1.oft might not have to pull stunts like this, non?
My $0.02Cdn...
I knew the article would dive into standard FUD and "misinformation" when I saw the first quote was from a Microsoft exec. Talk about your biased sources! It's like asking Lenin his opinion of capitalism. You can pretty much guess the kind of quote you're going to get.
I suppose we should apply the lessons we learned from the Bob Metcalfe/Win2K endorsement fiasco, though:
- Avoid flaming reactions
- Don't worry about articles like this; for every journalist who actually believes M$ press releases, there's another one who has a clue as to what's really going on.
- If you absolutely must reply to the author/editorial board, write an intelligent rebuttal; point-by-point analyses and calm language show you know what you're talking about.
- Just remember; for the second Mindcraft test, the Linux community sent programmers, while M$ sent marketers (is this just an urban legend? It still spells out the differences between the BorGates and the OS Federation)
Stay calm, concentrate on making one of the best operating systems even better, not on "beating Microsoft". Cooler heads shall prevail:)How do you suppose we're going to become better, more morally evolved beings?
By making mistakes, learning what are good, helpful things to do, and what are nasty, harmful things to do. Maybe having some enlightenend members of our species to give us some suggestions along the way. That's the eventual goal, anyway. Unattainable, perhaps, but something worth working toward.
As a "bleeding-heart liberal" I'm assuming you're not suggesting a spirtual revolution, and government-imposed rules don't seem to have helped us very much
Ah, I only said some people might call me a bleeding-heart for thinking such things; I'm really not sure how to classify myself. And a spiritual revolution just might be what the witch doctor ordered, though political power movements masquerading as spiritual crusades don't cut it; crews like Focus on the Family and the Christian Coalition are out for power, trying to gain power to impose order. Again, order for the wrong reasons. Christ, Siddharta Gautama, and Mohandas Ghandi (whose political crusade had a morally right purpose, not a goal of personal power) were on the right track. Pat Robertson and Gary Bauer most certainly are not.
The gun people advocate the crudest civilizing influence - direct force. These satellites simply make information available - "the pen is mightier than the sword" - seems all to the good to me.
It's still about might; who has the control, who has the bigger gun or the sharper eye. What I envision to be a "good" peace is one where people agree not to attack or harm each other, because inside they genuinely know and believe that's not how to survive, not how our species will survive. Once again, perhaps its fantasy, but there's still a lot of time left for this to become reality:)
Technology is only a tool that can be used for good, or for evil. Like all tools, it can be controlled, kept from those whom the controllers feel aren't worthy of using it, or don't have enough wealth to use it. The promise offered by this technology is not truth, but voyeurism. It's like someone looking over your shoulder all the time.
One of the most powerful parts of ("Speaker for the Dead") is the story of Novinha's family, warped by lies from the start, and strangely healed by Ender publicly speaking the shameful truth. I'll never be able to justify lying for somebody's good again after reading that book.
Understand, I'm not advocating lying for others, but having some privacy, time and space where oneself can't be watched. I've never read either "Ender's Game" or "Speaker for the Dead", so I can't speak for Ender's motivations, but would I be correct in surmising that his revelation of the truth was a moral decision, reached by himself? He wasn't forced to be truthful because someone was watching him to make sure he did it? That sort of thing is what I consider right; revealing truth, however shameful or painful, because it's the right thing to do. An internally-imposed order, as opposed to an externally-imposed one.
I think this "transparency" issue is much the same thing - the truth is always to the good, and more is better.
But again, it's a form of external control. If we learn anything from this, it will be that giving some people the power to watch others, and dole out that information for money, is a bad idea. The development of true telepathy would be a much better development; until then, self-control and self-restraint are far better forms of order than someone watching our movements.
As an aside, somehow I also advocate Open Source, free information, and cracking for knowledge. The open source is a no-brainer; people agreeing to share information and code to make it better is a Good Thing©. Same with free information; knowledge is good when everyone (everyone) benefits. Why the last, I don't know. Am I a hypocrite, or is it just a case of "Robin Hood" syndrome?
This strikes me as wrong, similar to when a gun control opponent states that "an armed society is a polite society." The peace envisioned in both concepts is not tranquility as a result of us being better, more morally evolved beings, but order imposed by fear and force. Not that constant, unpreventable war and strife are any better; I just think there's a better way to reduce conflict among us.
For some reason, the Vorlons spring to mind.
Perhaps I'm dreaming; perhaps I'm not being realistic, a "bleeding-heart liberal" as some might say. That might be a correct assessment; still, I think to truly reduce the threat of war, we have to learn, on our own, how to get along with each other. We can't rely on "solutions" imposed upon us by those with more power. I can easily imagine "everyone keeping an eye on everyone else" and "armed society = polite society" degenerating into "might makes right, as does control." I greatly respect Clarke's intelligence and wisdom, but in my heart I cannot agree with him on this issue.