You're right, I forgot all about the Jon Johansen reverse engineering of CSS incident. I knew that you could rip DVDs into MPEGs, I just forgot about the DeCSS step!
Sitting in the basement at Rice University ~1983 sometime after midnight communicating in near real-time with a professional astronomer in Australia.
Ahhh... good old ICSA in the basement of Herman Brown. I spent a lot of time down there in 1977 keypunching PL/1 code to run on the mainframe.
The good memories include going to Willy's Pub to have a couple of beers while waiting for the operators to put the output in the bins. Not so good was having to rekey the punch cards because the indents were off by a column or two (probably due to the trips to Willy's:-). Good thing the keypunch machines had read/edit buffers, one saved a lot of retyping that way.
I also remember a few years later being the only one in the IBM-PC lab down there because everyone else was using the Apple Macs and also using the Macs to program in Pascal for another course.
If you don't mind me asking, were you an undergrad at Rice and if so which college were you in? I myself was in Will Rice when it was known as the "College of Men and Gods" and the Beer-Bike race actually involved drinking real beer!
I ran across Silk the other day and it seems promising. Silk is a GPLed general purpose web-based collaborative framework based on J2EE. I am not sure if it does everything you need but it is currently under active development. The project home page is located at http://www.silk-project.org/index.html and there an online demo available.
I hope our next leader is liberal and it fucks up our country beyond recognition...to teach the liberals a lesson.
I hate to break the news to you buddy, but your pal Bush has already fucked up this country beyond recognition.
All a liberal could do is repair the damage the conservatives have done to this once great nation, but I don't see any visionary liberals of the stature of FDR who could rescue this country out there.
If the U.S. continues sliding down the toilet at the same rate it has been going these last few years in a few years I'll be looking for a new country to move to, probably one in Europe...
Sweet. I need to find one of those for when our IT guys make me switch back to a Windows desktop.
More "unixy" goodness: Cygwin. Unix tools you can use in a CMD window. It is nice to be able to get a directory listing when you type ls by mistake rather than getting a stupid error message.
It is also neat to be able to run an X server on your Windoze box to export X sessions from your servers to. You can even run KDE under Windows Explorer! You really need to do yourself a favor and check Cygwin out...
Any hints on the Major differences between the Distros?
For workstation use I personally like Mandrake. Easy to install, upgrade and use. Not sure what is coming up now that it is Mandriva but it should remain easy to install and use.
I like Slackware too but it is aimed at more experienced Linux users. It can be set up as a pretty minimal system or as one with a full KDE install. Works great on my older P-II 300 Mhz laptop (KDevelop rocks!).
I've used Fedora some and it is a pretty good distribution. It was easy for me to set up and use but I had past experience administering Red Hat servers so YMMV. Yum makes it pretty easy to keep up to date.
I've been playing with Gentoo recently, I like it a lot. Source based so it takes time to compile the installation but you can customize it to your hardware and only install the software you need.
It really depends what you want to do with the computer. You mentioned it was a Media Center so my experience with MythTV may be helpful.
I started with a recent version of Mandrake and ran into RPM Hell (the Mandrake MythTV RPMs are unofficial ones). MythTV supposedly works well with Fedora FC-2 and FC-3 but I was afraid I would run into RPM Hell again so I finally went with Gentoo.
With Gentoo I got MythTV to work smoothly and all I can say is Gentoo rocks! Lots of great documentation for Gentoo exists on the internet and if you want to learn more about how Linux works Gentoo is definitely the distribution for you...
xine is also contraband in Slashdot's and Microsoft's home country.
Really? Damn. I'm glad I decided to stick with XP Pro and PowerDVD I downloaded from usenet. I'd hate to get caught with contraband! It'd be pretty silly to get hauled off as a terrorist just for wanting to watch a DVD on your free O/S.
A Windows XP Professional operating system obtained through Usenet is also contraband in virtually every nation in the WTO unless you have an explicit agreement with Microsoft. <Foghorn Leghorn>That's a joke, son! A joke!</Foghorn Leghorn>
Soon after, I installed XFCE4, and ran it. Ahhh, XFCE. Upon rebooting, it wouldn't get past the login screen though. Something about ICE.authority or such, and my lack of access rights to it. I have now to reinstall Linux, again.
Why reinstall Linux again? Just boot off of the CDROM rescue disk and edit the init files to start at run level 3. Reboot and when it comes up to the console login as root and then fix your XFCE problem.
Just because you can't get into X does not mean you can't get into your Linux system. Wasting hours reinstalling/reconfiguring a borked OS is a Windows-ism, fixing your problem after only a few minutes while learning something in the process is the Linux way.
"Latino" is somehow a disagreeable word for you due to its ethnic generality, yet you feel comfortable using terms like "gringo" and "white."
White is not a pejorative term, it is an adjective. White people exist, how can it be a perjorative when it is a descriptive term? I guess it is when you are as ashamed of your background as you seem to be...
I on the other hand am proud of who I am, a Chicano. By calling me Latino you are insulting me. You claim "Gringo" is a prejorative term yet you don't acknowledge that Latino is? Talk about a lack of critical thinking skills!
Here's Voz de Aztlan: Anti-semitism and embracing terrorism and hate. And here's the MEChA "El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán," which among other things claims that the southwestern US "belongs... not to the foreign Europeans," and declares, "Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada." Care to translate that for us - and explain how it's not racist?
Too easy, you marry a Chicano you become Raza. If I marry a White girl that does not automatically make me White. Who are the real racists, the Chicanos who are proud of who we are and thus want to keep our own culture intact, or the Whites who insist that we buy into THEIR culture (aka the Melting Pot)?
I nor do I support the Republican Party
If you walk like a duck and quack like a duck you probably are a duck. I don't see the Democrats making a big deal about me wanting to be Chicano but for some reason it seems to bother Republicans to no end!
And, by the way, by mentioning "Mein Kampf," you have triggered Godwin's Law. Buh-bye.
As far as Godwin's Law goes you are dead wrong! Anyway, since you apparently are not open minded enough to have an honest debate and too racistly anti-Chicano to bother with, it is obvious that I have been trolled by a master baiter!
"Gringo" has a pejorative element to it. You know this as well as I do.
Bullshit! Maybe in Mexico there is a little negativity to the word but in the good old USA there is not. How else can you explain people naming their restaurant Gringo's Restuarant? If the word "Gringo" was racist like you claim don't you think that the number of google hits would equal Nigger's Restaurant?
I'd say you're the one who's using "weasel words" here as a way to veil your hatred.
Hey, you don't know me, how dare you accuse me of "hatred"? At least I am not afraid to let people know who I am instead of cowardly hiding behind some pseudonym like your chicken-shit ass!
And if you don't feel like you can participate in civil discourse without bigoted terms, then you're the one who should leave
Let's compare Slashdot user ID's - I have been here a lot longer than you and I will probably be here when you are long gone. I am quite capable of civil discourse but I will call out IDIOTS when I spot them, and you have proven that you are a first-class idiot!
I'm sure Latino-nationalist hate sites like Voz De Aztlan or MEChA would love to hear from you.
This confirms it, you are an idiot deluxe!
First of all, those are CHICANO groups, LATINO is a "weasel word" created by the great WHITE fathers in Washington D.C. that is used to lump together different Spanish-speaking groups into one group for statistical purposes. Calling groups as different as Chicanos and Cubanos with the word Latino is like saying that someone from England and someone from Germany are the same because they are both White Europeans.
I'm sure that that people from those countries will vehemently deny that that is true, so why is it OK to respect THEIR cultural differences while WHITE-washing (pun intended) differences between MY culture and other Spanish-speaking cultures?
Second, Voz de Aztlan and MEChA are NOT hate groups! Find me an official US Government webpage that says they are and that US citizens will be prosecuted for contributing to those groups like they can for contributing to groups like the Irish Republican Army. You can't because that webpage does not exist!
If anything, you are the one that is a racist by denying me and my fellow Chicanos the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If you want to find a bigot all you have to do is look in the mirror, pendejo!
Maybe if you stopped reading Mein Kampf and Republican Party propaganda long enough to look around and see what is really going on you will quit accusing people of being "bigoted" when in reality they are not...
First of all, "girngo" is a racist term, and I ask that you refrain from using it here, as with any other racist term.
Nope, in Mexico a "gringo" is anyone from U.S., so a African-American is also considered a "gringo". Race is not a factor.
Anyway, who appointed you to the Slashdot language police? I would rather have people that speak honestly, that way you can size up their true nature. It is hard to do that when they use weasel words (like Republicans who insist that "pro-life" does not mean "anti-capital punishment").
The internet is a big place, if you don't like frank language you are free to go somewhere else other than Slashdot...
Wrong! 'Real Genius' is the origin of this clip... A classic (sort of) and probably Val Kilmer's best movie.;-)
While Real Genius is indeed a great movie, IMO Val Kilmer's best movie is probably The Salton Sea. If you haven't seen this little-known film yet you really do need to make an effort to see it. While it is mainly a dark drama about the drug underworld, the scene where the speed freaks recreate JFK's assassination is hilarious!
They tried to discipline me, sabotage my computer access, intimdate me with lawyers, and harass me with school police.
Sounds very familar to me: Houston Community College managed to get a bogus trespass injunction slapped on me and used their campus police force to harass me after I filed a Whistleblower lawsuit against them.
The state District Court judge handling my Whistleblower case agreed with me that my anti-HCC website was protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution so that website is still online: Houston Community College Sucks!
As an aside, it was really hilarious seeing the a State District Court judge examine a photoshopped picture of HCC Chancellor Bruce Leslie in a Nazi uniform leading his HCC stormtroopers which I called HCC Uber Alles.
Even though I did not get my job back and eventually had to drop my Whistleblower lawsuit because I was broke and could not afford a lawyer, setting up the website really opened up my eyes, i.e., since HCC sucked so much why in Hell was I trying to get my old job back?
If a strange Mexican man offers your child some candy, and your child steps into his car, that's considered an alien abduction unless you live in Mexico.
Excuse me but I do believe your white sheet is showing! Maybe if you cut a few air holes in it it won't block the oxygen to your brain. How about this: If a strange Canadian man offers your child some candy, and your child steps into his car, that's considered an alien abduction unless you live in Canada.
In case you did not mean to sound racist, unintentional racism is racism nonetheless. But if you are an average citzen of the USA it is not really your fault, as your average citizen of the USA would never accept a wall between the US and Canada but does not think twice about the wall between the US and Mexico.:-/
I think it is funny that the same conservatives in the USA who made a big deal about tearing down the Berlin Wall are exactly the same ones who built the wall between the US and Mexico. Welcome to the USA, where the unofficial motto is Do as we say and not as we do!
Slashdot Mirror
I went ahead and set them straight...
The good memories include going to Willy's Pub to have a couple of beers while waiting for the operators to put the output in the bins. Not so good was having to rekey the punch cards because the indents were off by a column or two (probably due to the trips to Willy's
I also remember a few years later being the only one in the IBM-PC lab down there because everyone else was using the Apple Macs and also using the Macs to program in Pascal for another course.
If you don't mind me asking, were you an undergrad at Rice and if so which college were you in? I myself was in Will Rice when it was known as the "College of Men and Gods" and the Beer-Bike race actually involved drinking real beer!
I ran across Silk the other day and it seems promising. Silk is a GPLed general purpose web-based collaborative framework based on J2EE. I am not sure if it does everything you need but it is currently under active development. The project home page is located at http://www.silk-project.org/index.html and there an online demo available.
Shouldn't that be "The Mighty Dicks"? :-)
"Not a period." is not a sentence but a fragment. Subtract ten points for incorrect English usage.
The funny thing about your flame is that YOU should have used a comma, not a period!
All a liberal could do is repair the damage the conservatives have done to this once great nation, but I don't see any visionary liberals of the stature of FDR who could rescue this country out there.
If the U.S. continues sliding down the toilet at the same rate it has been going these last few years in a few years I'll be looking for a new country to move to, probably one in Europe...
What makes your comment doubly funny is Samuel Johnson's famous quote: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel"
It is also neat to be able to run an X server on your Windoze box to export X sessions from your servers to. You can even run KDE under Windows Explorer! You really need to do yourself a favor and check Cygwin out...
I like Slackware too but it is aimed at more experienced Linux users. It can be set up as a pretty minimal system or as one with a full KDE install. Works great on my older P-II 300 Mhz laptop (KDevelop rocks!).
I've used Fedora some and it is a pretty good distribution. It was easy for me to set up and use but I had past experience administering Red Hat servers so YMMV. Yum makes it pretty easy to keep up to date.
I've been playing with Gentoo recently, I like it a lot. Source based so it takes time to compile the installation but you can customize it to your hardware and only install the software you need.
It really depends what you want to do with the computer. You mentioned it was a Media Center so my experience with MythTV may be helpful.
I started with a recent version of Mandrake and ran into RPM Hell (the Mandrake MythTV RPMs are unofficial ones). MythTV supposedly works well with Fedora FC-2 and FC-3 but I was afraid I would run into RPM Hell again so I finally went with Gentoo.
With Gentoo I got MythTV to work smoothly and all I can say is Gentoo rocks! Lots of great documentation for Gentoo exists on the internet and if you want to learn more about how Linux works Gentoo is definitely the distribution for you...
Just because you can't get into X does not mean you can't get into your Linux system. Wasting hours reinstalling/reconfiguring a borked OS is a Windows-ism, fixing your problem after only a few minutes while learning something in the process is the Linux way.
P.S. Google is your friend!
I on the other hand am proud of who I am, a Chicano. By calling me Latino you are insulting me. You claim "Gringo" is a prejorative term yet you don't acknowledge that Latino is? Talk about a lack of critical thinking skills!Too easy, you marry a Chicano you become Raza. If I marry a White girl that does not automatically make me White. Who are the real racists, the Chicanos who are proud of who we are and thus want to keep our own culture intact, or the Whites who insist that we buy into THEIR culture (aka the Melting Pot)?If you walk like a duck and quack like a duck you probably are a duck. I don't see the Democrats making a big deal about me wanting to be Chicano but for some reason it seems to bother Republicans to no end! As far as Godwin's Law goes you are dead wrong! Anyway, since you apparently are not open minded enough to have an honest debate and too racistly anti-Chicano to bother with, it is obvious that I have been trolled by a master baiter!
First of all, those are CHICANO groups, LATINO is a "weasel word" created by the great WHITE fathers in Washington D.C. that is used to lump together different Spanish-speaking groups into one group for statistical purposes. Calling groups as different as Chicanos and Cubanos with the word Latino is like saying that someone from England and someone from Germany are the same because they are both White Europeans.
I'm sure that that people from those countries will vehemently deny that that is true, so why is it OK to respect THEIR cultural differences while WHITE-washing (pun intended) differences between MY culture and other Spanish-speaking cultures?
Second, Voz de Aztlan and MEChA are NOT hate groups! Find me an official US Government webpage that says they are and that US citizens will be prosecuted for contributing to those groups like they can for contributing to groups like the Irish Republican Army. You can't because that webpage does not exist!
If anything, you are the one that is a racist by denying me and my fellow Chicanos the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If you want to find a bigot all you have to do is look in the mirror, pendejo!
Maybe if you stopped reading Mein Kampf and Republican Party propaganda long enough to look around and see what is really going on you will quit accusing people of being "bigoted" when in reality they are not...
Anyway, who appointed you to the Slashdot language police? I would rather have people that speak honestly, that way you can size up their true nature. It is hard to do that when they use weasel words (like Republicans who insist that "pro-life" does not mean "anti-capital punishment").
The internet is a big place, if you don't like frank language you are free to go somewhere else other than Slashdot...
The state District Court judge handling my Whistleblower case agreed with me that my anti-HCC website was protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution so that website is still online: Houston Community College Sucks!
As an aside, it was really hilarious seeing the a State District Court judge examine a photoshopped picture of HCC Chancellor Bruce Leslie in a Nazi uniform leading his HCC stormtroopers which I called HCC Uber Alles.
Even though I did not get my job back and eventually had to drop my Whistleblower lawsuit because I was broke and could not afford a lawyer, setting up the website really opened up my eyes, i.e., since HCC sucked so much why in Hell was I trying to get my old job back?
In case you did not mean to sound racist, unintentional racism is racism nonetheless. But if you are an average citzen of the USA it is not really your fault, as your average citizen of the USA would never accept a wall between the US and Canada but does not think twice about the wall between the US and Mexico.
I think it is funny that the same conservatives in the USA who made a big deal about tearing down the Berlin Wall are exactly the same ones who built the wall between the US and Mexico. Welcome to the USA, where the unofficial motto is Do as we say and not as we do!