For those who are saying this mustn't be real becasue they don't have their own domain - they have: http://www.zipaudio.com/
Details of their product are at: http://www.zipaudio.com/hardware.htm
Of course that's not a definite indication they are genuine but you can draw your own conclusions. --
Re:I can't believe they pay people to write this
on
ABCNews GNOME Acticle
·
· Score: 1
But don't email him and say he's an idiot, however, as it won't do the cause any good. Keep the arguments to the facts only, point out his errors, and if you think the article still had a few good points then mention them as well.
I've used google since reading about it on slashdot and it's the only decent (consistant) search engine around in terms of finding accurate results. But Google has had FAQ's, job listings and whatever on their site for AGES so it isn't really news is it? But at least it'll introduce a few more people to google - it's saved me plenty of time in the past which would have been wasted if I'd used another search engine.
When you think about the innacuracies of this article you wonder why these people are actually paid to write them. I've been using Linux since 1996 and the X-Window system (the GUI) has been around since I started using Linux and X dates back into the eighties. OK when I started the window managers were quite poor compared to the ones you can have today such as WindowMaker, but at the time FVWM served my needs it certainly provided a graphical user interface.
They're not the only ones to make such as mistake. I remember an article in a british newspaper a while ago that was reviewing Linux and said 'at the moment Linux doesn't have a graphical user interface, but don't worry as RedHat are working on GNOME'.
If by GUI they really mean desktop environment you have KDE which predates GNOME and a few other desktop environments are also around (free and commercial).
I don't think slashdot should link to these articles as the site is getting more hits which means they can get more from advertising revenues and the author will get praised for bringing in loads of revenue and keeping their advertisers happy. It obvious that these people don't care about accuracy thay just want people to visit their site, although now you've visited the site you can all send a reasonable non-offensive email stating clearly the innacuracies. Don't send emails that are offensive such as 'you are an idiot' as that will do us no good.
The only problem is I can't find the authors email address, can you? --
It's more likely the opposite way round. Linux makes the ideal server OS and is only just coming up to scratch on the desktop.
I've used Linux since 1996 and it has been my exclusive desktop OS since then but not until recently with the arrival of KDE and GNOME are we going to see it hit the mainstream. People need something easy to use and KDE or GNOME gives it to them, a few more of the major applications (and the completion of the mozilla porject - we need a fast web browser that is standards compliant - although I admit the KDE one is quite good) and Linux will be a major step at making computers really affordable.
On the server side Linux has been ready much longer. UNIX in general has been better suited as a server than NT and the freeness of Linux (cost and liberty) makes it the ideal platform. Bugs are fixed quicker, you can extend the Operating System to your needs. The servers are stable, etc. Don't tell me NT is easier to set up. I don't think it is. I hate setting up serices with a GUI utility and I'm so used to UNIX anyway. But UNIX is hands down the better server platform and administrators are paid to use what is best not what gives them an easier time (which is a false economy - with NT you get more stress later when you have to keep going to boot the system, while the UNIX admin just relaxes as the uptime goes up and up) --
Re:advertised as pre-Alpha, performs as Beta
on
Mozilla M5 Released
·
· Score: 2
Have a look in the README file in the directory you have to download M5 from: ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/releases/m5/RE ADME
It states clearly: This directory contains precompiled binaries of Mozilla. These are pre-alpha. They are not thoroughly tested.
If that is advertising their product as a beta then they need a new advertising department.
If you want to comment on this release get your facts straight first. --
Rob should release the source code to slashdot at regular intervals (along with the warning that it's beta) this would mean people who want to put all the latest slash technology into their site can do and they can also submit bugs to Rob - which would rapidly move the beta code to stable code. --
Caldera went from version 1.3 up to version 2.2 and although it seems strange that there's no version 2.0 I actually think this is a good idea because their version number is in line with the kernel version included with their distribution.
It is a common cause for newbies who think the version of their distribution is the version of Linux their using. (I'm sick of people talking about 'Linux 6.0' when they mean for example SuSE 6.0 or 'Linux 5.1' when they mean RedHat 5.1.
As Caldera is aiming their distribution towards the newbies hopefully their version numbering scheme will clear things up although it's too late for most other distributions (except Debian) to follow a similar naming scheme as if they started to go to kernel numbers to identify their distributions it would appear very strange.
Imagine upgrading from RedHat 6.0 to RedHat 2.2.5!!
It's a shame that despite their name Caldera appears to be the least open of all linux distributors.
But good luck to Caldera if this product is half as user friendly as it's made out to be it could be the entry point to a whole new generation of Linux users. --
RedHat employs 9 year old on website quality ctrl
on
Thought Recognition
·
· Score: 1
Well I'm always finding the opportunity to bask redhat.com and here's another reason: The front page articles on www.redhat.com don't have the icons to tell you what a story is about. Therefore you won't see the foot icon saying this is humour and some people (OK perhaps they have a braincell loose) may take the article seriously particularly as it's NOT April 1st any more. Bad for RedHat's image more than Microsoft's as some people may consider it slander against Microsoft. --
About the jobs page - how is searching for jobs meant to help you on your quest for UNemployment?? (that's what it said at the time of writing - perhaps they'll fix it soon). As for the varying default comment threshold I think it's a good idea. So basically people who publish meaningless comments all the time have a harder job to get noticed but people with a reputation for good comments get a higher threshold even before the moderators check it. --
I wouldn't put it past them to spread fud like that. The question is: as RedHat are promoting this call in sick event by displaying the slashdot article on their page does this mean that RedHat support the event. Well would you announce on your home page an event you didn't agree with - particulary if you weren't paid to do so? --
I'm not saying that a portal that has articles from sites such as slashdot.org is a bad idea but RedHat have:
Positioned the site at http://www.redhat.com/ - the site where people go to look for info on RedHat (this includes people who know nothing about Linux and want to find out more)
Dumped the raw articles (spelling mistakes and all) onto the front page of their site - and most importantly there's no way to just click on the article and view the comments - part of the fun of slashdot
Related to not being able to view the comments - the articles about slashdot improving it's moderation and comments system are still printed. Someone who reads redhat.com and not slashdot will be thinking 'What comments system - I can't comment to these!'
Slashdot is 'news for nerds' people in the know about computers. Some of these articles are irrelavent to Linux/Open Source but Rob may want to include them for public interest (it's his right to). They look stupid on RedHat's site. Some articles can be damaging to RedHat such as the 'Is RedHat the next Microsoft?' and the fact Rob admits to changing to Debian in an article.
RedHat need to do something to improve that site or at least move it to a location more appropriate e.g. www.linux-news.com but that seems to have been taken - RedHat think they must be some more suitable domains around. --
Yeah tha almighty buck! The currency designed so all the notes look different so you can easily tell them apart and are different sizes to help the blind and people with no eyesight!
Seriously does the US still have banknotes that all look the same or have they changed since I was last there 8 years ago? --
Q. What does this article have to do with opensource? A. It's publicised on the RedHat website!! http://www.redhat.com/ At this present moment you'll find this article listed on the RedHat.com website as part of their stupid policy of blindly copying slashdot articles. RedHat have a massively supportive policy of supporting open source software and as their site is promoting the event it could be bad for RedHat as well as the open source community in general when these sort of articles are mirrored on a website.
Perhaps redhat.com should apply some of slashdots new preference features to customise the content that appears on their site so only relavant slashdot information gets published.
RedHat aren't doing themselves any good with this portal. A few days ago it mentioned that Rob had switched slashdot over to Debian!! http://www.redhat.com/news/slashdot/archive/0.ht ml (on the JWZ article!!) --
Baseball isn't what I'd consider a spectator sport, but then what appeals to the US in the way of sport is usually different to what appeals to the rest of the world. But if they enjoy it so be it but why have major sporting events on days that many people work? If they didn't hold the FA Cup on a Saturday so I could watch it I'd be annoyed. All our football (soccer) matches are played outside of normal working hours (Saturday/Sunday afternoons or weekday evenings) so it's very rarely we need to find an excuse to call in sick in the name of sport.
Bad term replace documentation with publications. I believe for software to be successful the important documentation (readme's, manpages, etc) have to be free and included with the source code (or binary if you prefer your software compiled for you). I was talking more about books on the subject (such as the one's O'Reilly make a living out of). Money can be made in these areas for many people (if the software is sufficiently complex enough for people to use) but as I stated most coders aren't interested in writing books on their software or don't have the skills to write a book of sufficient quility for people to even think of buying. --
Well that's true but I know many people who'd still give radio a miss for most of the time. I'm sure mass acceptance of portable MP3 players will have an affect on radio listening figures. --
Rob I can tell you're an American because the event is meant to be a 'World Call in Sick day' from the body of the article even though the title called it a NATIONAL call in sick day. I suppose the US thinks they are the world (e.g. world series baseball, etc);)
Well more seriously. I take these ideas with a sense of humour because if everyone was to call in sick then what would happen is they'd probably get sacked as the bosses would know something is going on and there's plenty of people just willing to take a job. It'd probably be bad for people who were *really* sick on that day as the boss would just think they were staying off for the sake of it.
Anyway talk about this day - but don't be serious about it. It should have been on a Monday. As a jingle on a local radio station goes: It's a Monday and you know it call in sick Got a cold a flu a fever take your pick If you want to ditch the day and still collect your pay It's a Monday and you know it call in sick --
Whatever the disadvantages I'm sure that the much higher storage space will outweigh the disadvantage of having moving parts. It can't be any worse than my portble CD player. --
This would indeed be great for the consumer as together with the empeg car it'll eliminate one of the main reasons people listen to radio - to get a wide variety of music. A lot of the music could be saved on the drives and either set to random or create a playlist and you'll have plenty of music to choose from without the hassle of changing CD's or tapes. I think this'll affect radio more than it does the record companies. Yes I know many people will download MP3's from the net (but that's happening now and people then just burn the audio to normal CD or tape to listen to on the move) but most people will still probably buy the CD's and convert them to MP3 to create a customised music experience. Less people will then have the need for radio. However, although I like radio. I still think these devices are worth having because the radio isn't good all day. --
It's difficult for many people to comprehend the meaning of free software. It took me ages to explain to people that it wasn't illegal to sell Linux and that free meant freedom of choice. People instantly think of freedom in terms of money because that's what drives most people. There's a lot of greedy people out there who just want to make more and more money without doing any good. The same thing happens with the word open - if it's open you can get it free of charge.
But in reality free is free! If you have the freedom to do what you like with software you have the freedom to give it away free. So truely free software will always mean you'll also be able to get it free of charge somewhere.
To make money out of free software you need to add value to the package. Either as support or documentation. I know coders will say - I DON'T WANT TO WRITE DOCUMENTATION and many coders can't write decent documentation anyway. So as a one man operation you probably can't make much or anything out of open source. But in the bigger picture companies like RedHat are doing just fine and are employing some of the key coders although most are still volunteers.
For most people open source will just remain a hobby for their spare time and people can be motivated by the fact they can improve a product to suit their needs or if they are a major contributer in a successful product it'll look good on their CV. Open Source has beewn successful in the past and do we really need to try and change a winning formula? --
I wouldn't say Mozilla has died, yes JWZ has left, it has taken longer than expected to get anywhere and there's a lower proportion of non-Netscape employees than expected but the Mozilla project is now making progress and has the potential to produce the greatest possible web browser which is fast, cross-platform and standards compliant.
As JWZ said just releasing the source code last year which didn't even compile when it was first released didn't exactly inspire confidence with the open source public now they've totally re-written it and now there's a decent layout engine there's the potential to go somewhere. --
Slashdot Mirror
For those who are saying this mustn't be real becasue they don't have their own domain - they have:
http://www.zipaudio.com/
Details of their product are at: http://www.zipaudio.com/hardware.htm
Of course that's not a definite indication they are genuine but you can draw your own conclusions.
--
But don't email him and say he's an idiot, however, as it won't do the cause any good. Keep the arguments to the facts only, point out his errors, and if you think the article still had a few good points then mention them as well.
--
I've used google since reading about it on slashdot and it's the only decent (consistant) search engine around in terms of finding accurate results. But Google has had FAQ's, job listings and whatever on their site for AGES so it isn't really news is it? But at least it'll introduce a few more people to google - it's saved me plenty of time in the past which would have been wasted if I'd used another search engine.
I hope google has every success in the future.
--
I don't agree. Although the article was fairly complementary I could see some newcomer thinking the following:
1) So GUI's on Linux are a new thing. I'd better stick with an OS that has had a GUI for longer as there's no way the GUI can be stable.
2) If GNOME has just been released and it is the first, then there must be no alternative (i.e. it could be bad publicity for KDE)
3) So Linux is the only UNIX with a GUI? (the article gave the impression that GNOME was only for Linux and other UNIXes were command line only)
Accuracy in an article is important - particularly when the errors are this blatant.
--
When you think about the innacuracies of this article you wonder why these people are actually paid to write them. I've been using Linux since 1996 and the X-Window system (the GUI) has been around since I started using Linux and X dates back into the eighties. OK when I started the window managers were quite poor compared to the ones you can have today such as WindowMaker, but at the time FVWM served my needs it certainly provided a graphical user interface.
They're not the only ones to make such as mistake. I remember an article in a british newspaper a while ago that was reviewing Linux and said 'at the moment Linux doesn't have a graphical user interface, but don't worry as RedHat are working on GNOME'.
If by GUI they really mean desktop environment you have KDE which predates GNOME and a few other desktop environments are also around (free and commercial).
I don't think slashdot should link to these articles as the site is getting more hits which means they can get more from advertising revenues and the author will get praised for bringing in loads of revenue and keeping their advertisers happy. It obvious that these people don't care about accuracy thay just want people to visit their site, although now you've visited the site you can all send a reasonable non-offensive email stating clearly the innacuracies. Don't send emails that are offensive such as 'you are an idiot' as that will do us no good.
The only problem is I can't find the authors email address, can you?
--
It's more likely the opposite way round. Linux makes the ideal server OS and is only just coming up to scratch on the desktop.
I've used Linux since 1996 and it has been my exclusive desktop OS since then but not until recently with the arrival of KDE and GNOME are we going to see it hit the mainstream. People need something easy to use and KDE or GNOME gives it to them, a few more of the major applications (and the completion of the mozilla porject - we need a fast web browser that is standards compliant - although I admit the KDE one is quite good) and Linux will be a major step at making computers really affordable.
On the server side Linux has been ready much longer. UNIX in general has been better suited as a server than NT and the freeness of Linux (cost and liberty) makes it the ideal platform. Bugs are fixed quicker, you can extend the Operating System to your needs. The servers are stable, etc.
Don't tell me NT is easier to set up. I don't think it is. I hate setting up serices with a GUI utility and I'm so used to UNIX anyway. But UNIX is hands down the better server platform and administrators are paid to use what is best not what gives them an easier time (which is a false economy - with NT you get more stress later when you have to keep going to boot the system, while the UNIX admin just relaxes as the uptime goes up and up)
--
Have a look in the README file in the directory you have to download M5 from:E ADME
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/releases/m5/R
It states clearly:
This directory contains precompiled binaries of Mozilla.
These are pre-alpha. They are not thoroughly tested.
If that is advertising their product as a beta then they need a new advertising department.
If you want to comment on this release get your facts straight first.
--
ijb is the Internet junkbuster see:
http://www.junkbuster.com/ for more details
--
Rob should release the source code to slashdot at regular intervals (along with the warning that it's beta) this would mean people who want to put all the latest slash technology into their site can do and they can also submit bugs to Rob - which would rapidly move the beta code to stable code.
--
Caldera went from version 1.3 up to version 2.2 and although it seems strange that there's no version 2.0 I actually think this is a good idea because their version number is in line with the kernel version included with their distribution.
It is a common cause for newbies who think the version of their distribution is the version of Linux their using. (I'm sick of people talking about 'Linux 6.0' when they mean for example SuSE 6.0 or 'Linux 5.1' when they mean RedHat 5.1.
As Caldera is aiming their distribution towards the newbies hopefully their version numbering scheme will clear things up although it's too late for most other distributions (except Debian) to follow a similar naming scheme as if they started to go to kernel numbers to identify their distributions it would appear very strange.
Imagine upgrading from RedHat 6.0 to RedHat 2.2.5!!
It's a shame that despite their name Caldera appears to be the least open of all linux distributors.
But good luck to Caldera if this product is half as user friendly as it's made out to be it could be the entry point to a whole new generation of Linux users.
--
Well I'm always finding the opportunity to bask redhat.com and here's another reason:
The front page articles on www.redhat.com don't have the icons to tell you what a story is about. Therefore you won't see the foot icon saying this is humour and some people (OK perhaps they have a braincell loose) may take the article seriously particularly as it's NOT April 1st any more.
Bad for RedHat's image more than Microsoft's as some people may consider it slander against Microsoft.
--
About the jobs page - how is searching for jobs meant to help you on your quest for UNemployment?? (that's what it said at the time of writing - perhaps they'll fix it soon). As for the varying default comment threshold I think it's a good idea. So basically people who publish meaningless comments all the time have a harder job to get noticed but people with a reputation for good comments get a higher threshold even before the moderators check it.
--
I wouldn't put it past them to spread fud like that. The question is: as RedHat are promoting this call in sick event by displaying the slashdot article on their page does this mean that RedHat support the event. Well would you announce on your home page an event you didn't agree with - particulary if you weren't paid to do so?
--
- Positioned the site at http://www.redhat.com/ - the site where people go to look for info on RedHat (this includes people who know nothing about Linux and want to find out more)
- Dumped the raw articles (spelling mistakes and all) onto the front page of their site - and most importantly there's no way to just click on the article and view the comments - part of the fun of slashdot
- Related to not being able to view the comments - the articles about slashdot improving it's moderation and comments system are still printed. Someone who reads redhat.com and not slashdot will be thinking 'What comments system - I can't comment to these!'
Slashdot is 'news for nerds' people in the know about computers. Some of these articles are irrelavent to Linux/Open Source but Rob may want to include them for public interest (it's his right to). They look stupid on RedHat's site. Some articles can be damaging to RedHat such as the 'Is RedHat the next Microsoft?' and the fact Rob admits to changing to Debian in an article.RedHat need to do something to improve that site or at least move it to a location more appropriate e.g. www.linux-news.com but that seems to have been taken - RedHat think they must be some more suitable domains around.
--
Yeah tha almighty buck! The currency designed so all the notes look different so you can easily tell them apart and are different sizes to help the blind and people with no eyesight!
Seriously does the US still have banknotes that all look the same or have they changed since I was last there 8 years ago?
--
Q. What does this article have to do with opensource?
t ml
A. It's publicised on the RedHat website!! http://www.redhat.com/
At this present moment you'll find this article listed on the RedHat.com website as part of their stupid policy of blindly copying slashdot articles. RedHat have a massively supportive policy of supporting open source software and as their site is promoting the event it could be bad for RedHat as well as the open source community in general when these sort of articles are mirrored on a website.
Perhaps redhat.com should apply some of slashdots new preference features to customise the content that appears on their site so only relavant slashdot information gets published.
RedHat aren't doing themselves any good with this portal. A few days ago it mentioned that Rob had switched slashdot over to Debian!!
http://www.redhat.com/news/slashdot/archive/0.h
(on the JWZ article!!)
--
Baseball isn't what I'd consider a spectator sport, but then what appeals to the US in the way of sport is usually different to what appeals to the rest of the world. But if they enjoy it so be it but why have major sporting events on days that many people work? If they didn't hold the FA Cup on a Saturday so I could watch it I'd be annoyed.
All our football (soccer) matches are played outside of normal working hours (Saturday/Sunday afternoons or weekday evenings) so it's very rarely we need to find an excuse to call in sick in the name of sport.
It's the best way to have it.
--
Bad term replace documentation with publications. I believe for software to be successful the important documentation (readme's, manpages, etc) have to be free and included with the source code (or binary if you prefer your software compiled for you). I was talking more about books on the subject (such as the one's O'Reilly make a living out of).
Money can be made in these areas for many people (if the software is sufficiently complex enough for people to use) but as I stated most coders aren't interested in writing books on their software or don't have the skills to write a book of sufficient quility for people to even think of buying.
--
Well that's true but I know many people who'd still give radio a miss for most of the time. I'm sure mass acceptance of portable MP3 players will have an affect on radio listening figures.
--
Rob I can tell you're an American because the event is meant to be a 'World Call in Sick day' from the body of the article even though the title called it a NATIONAL call in sick day. I suppose the US thinks they are the world (e.g. world series baseball, etc) ;)
Well more seriously. I take these ideas with a sense of humour because if everyone was to call in sick then what would happen is they'd probably get sacked as the bosses would know something is going on and there's plenty of people just willing to take a job. It'd probably be bad for people who were *really* sick on that day as the boss would just think they were staying off for the sake of it.
Anyway talk about this day - but don't be serious about it.
It should have been on a Monday. As a jingle on a local radio station goes:
It's a Monday and you know it call in sick
Got a cold a flu a fever take your pick
If you want to ditch the day and still collect your pay
It's a Monday and you know it call in sick
--
Whatever the disadvantages I'm sure that the much higher storage space will outweigh the disadvantage of having moving parts. It can't be any worse than my portble CD player.
--
This would indeed be great for the consumer as together with the empeg car it'll eliminate one of the main reasons people listen to radio - to get a wide variety of music.
A lot of the music could be saved on the drives and either set to random or create a playlist and you'll have plenty of music to choose from without the hassle of changing CD's or tapes.
I think this'll affect radio more than it does the record companies. Yes I know many people will download MP3's from the net (but that's happening now and people then just burn the audio to normal CD or tape to listen to on the move) but most people will still probably buy the CD's and convert them to MP3 to create a customised music experience. Less people will then have the need for radio.
However, although I like radio. I still think these devices are worth having because the radio isn't good all day.
--
It's difficult for many people to comprehend the meaning of free software. It took me ages to explain to people that it wasn't illegal to sell Linux and that free meant freedom of choice.
People instantly think of freedom in terms of money because that's what drives most people.
There's a lot of greedy people out there who just want to make more and more money without doing any good.
The same thing happens with the word open - if it's open you can get it free of charge.
But in reality free is free! If you have the freedom to do what you like with software you have the freedom to give it away free. So truely free software will always mean you'll also be able to get it free of charge somewhere.
To make money out of free software you need to add value to the package. Either as support or documentation. I know coders will say - I DON'T WANT TO WRITE DOCUMENTATION and many coders can't write decent documentation anyway. So as a one man operation you probably can't make much or anything out of open source. But in the bigger picture companies like RedHat are doing just fine and are employing some of the key coders although most are still volunteers.
For most people open source will just remain a hobby for their spare time and people can be motivated by the fact they can improve a product to suit their needs or if they are a major contributer in a successful product it'll look good on their CV. Open Source has beewn successful in the past and do we really need to try and change a winning formula?
--
You're correct:
bash# whois doom2000.com
[rs.internic.net]
Registrant:
id Software (DOOM17-DOM)
18601 LBJ Freeway, Suite 615
Mesquite, TX 75150
US
Domain Name: DOOM2000.COM
Administrative Contact:
Hollenshead, Todd (TH5651) toddh@IDSOFTWARE.COM
972-613-3589 (FAX) 972-686-9288
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Cash, John (JC2447) jcash@IDSOFTWARE.COM
(972)613-3589 (FAX) (972)686-9288
Billing Contact:
Hollenshead, Todd (TH5651) toddh@IDSOFTWARE.COM
972-613-3589 (FAX) 972-686-9288
Record last updated on 24-Jul-98.
Record created on 24-Jul-98.
Database last updated on 3-Apr-99 21:42:11 EDT.
Domain servers in listed order:
SATAN.IDSOFTWARE.COM 192.246.40.37
NS1.NTR.NET 206.112.1.1
ASTI.NTR.NET 206.112.1.2
--
I wouldn't say Mozilla has died, yes JWZ has left, it has taken longer than expected to get anywhere and there's a lower proportion of non-Netscape employees than expected but the Mozilla project is now making progress and has the potential to produce the greatest possible web browser which is fast, cross-platform and standards compliant.
As JWZ said just releasing the source code last year which didn't even compile when it was first released didn't exactly inspire confidence with the open source public now they've totally re-written it and now there's a decent layout engine there's the potential to go somewhere.
--