... I parked very far away (not my intention, just my typical parking job) yesterday, had to hike past it but had no time to stop; perhaps this evening I will talk some people into it, but... they also want to go to AVN, which is full of naked people.
If MS is claiming any sort of meaningful result from a 5-year study, let's see...
5 years ago, it was early 1999. Linux existed, and more than existed -- it was already nicely stable and robust, had inspired some print journals and ongoing festivals (ok, we call them "conventions" and "expos" but c'mon;)), and the X Window System was happily doing what X did on Suns and SGI machines. Some google searching finds that January 5 years ago is when the "The first 2.2 prerelease kernels appear, starting the final push toward the release of the long-awaited 2.2 kernel."
Now, not that the curves are easy to define, but if you could match up (in your own domain, naturally) the Windows curve of improvement vs. the Linux curve, what would you find? Has Windows gotten better as quickly (for your uses) as Linux has? Do you believe that in another (1,3,5) years that Windows will either remain or have become "better" than Linux for your application?
And Yes, I mean "GNU/Linux" and more to the point GNU/Linux/X/Apache/Perl/Python/KDE/GNOME/OpenOffic e.org/MPlayer/MySQL/etc etc. That is, systems running software to do stuff.
This ignores Mac OS X or other Unix varieties of course, and does not get into the fact that "Windows" describes a gurgling sea of related, slightly different operating systems... I'm looking at an over-simplified black and white world for the purposes of illustration:)
Which sounds pleasant etc (if you like whiskey; I think that your average vinyl-factory explosion would make a better mouth sensation), but since whiskey tends not to be free, or even cheap, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Still, raspberries and lawnmowers.
My laptop could be used for any of the purposes listed in 1-4, especially as a big GPS / map display using GPSDrive. It does not, however, have a lockout switch to limit its display capabilities to these functions while driving. (And since it would make a good car audio source, I wouldn't want it to, but that's another matter.) Do you know any laptops or handheld GPS-capable computers that do have such a lockout?
That's what the law calls for, if such a device is to be used legally in the front seat or with the display in view of the driver.
The law names excemptions, and police cars are among them. (And if it didn't, I've seen enough cops not stop at stop signs and red lights that I believe they some policepersons have a fair idea of how likely laws are to be enforced against them, anyhow.)
... I think says something less sensible than you're allowing.
There's still the issue of "installed in a vehicle" which would seem to rule out most laptops, except for semi-installed edge cases like the one I pointed out.
And under point 5, above, a laptop (or an iPaq) is capable of "visually displaying a television broadcast or video signal," and none I know of have an interlock as specified. It would be *possible* for laptops to have a "driving mode" or something, but according to the letter of the law, I don't see how they can fit through the cracks. I don't live in CA -- if you do, and have any law enforcement friends, you have a better chance than I do of finding out;) (Unless I find the USB cable for my GPS and tempt fate next week on a trip to CA...)
A nice thing about Mozilla (the suite) is that with one not-unreasonable download, I can convert a foreign computer (want to check email at a friend's place, etc.) to a reasonable communications station (email, IRC, web) with an interface I like, including tabbed browsing. Primarily, this means "on a Windows machine," since most Linux or FreeBSD machines will probably already be equipped with both Mozilla and Xchat. (OK, two, downloads if I want ssh -- putty rocks.)
For the last few years, I've used Chatzilla on and off, usually finding after an hour or so that I missed Xchat, which so far is to me the most impressive IRC client around (and from which Chatzilla seems to intelligently take many cues). Recently though, esp. with Mozilla 1.7a, I notice that I start chatzilla and *don't* need to switch to Xchat. The one exception is DCC, but since I've used DCC rarely, it's not a biggie.
So I find that as of this month, my primary IRC client has been Chatzilla. Thanks, Mozilla / Chatzilla developers!
I live at present in Seattle, but I've seen those OBX stickers all over the country -- for some reason I thought it was a sporting goods manufacturer rather than a place. (Reminds me of STX, lacrosse-stick makers...)
Thanks.I've been wondering for years what those stupid stickers meant, but it's the sort of question that always fades from memory before getting a chance to ask someone who might actually know.
Maybe the word "PLACE" in a black-bordered white oval would be the right answer...
If you don't do much printing (like me), even a low-budget b/w laser printer is going to last a long time. Samsung makes several cheap-n-cheerful compact lasers that even come with a little penguin on the box. Watch sites like techbargains; recently some merchant had Samsung 1700 b/w lasers for $70 (after rebate) *shipped*. Not bad.
DMCA or not, I've been happy with my Lexmark E210, nicely Linux supported and (since I print little) still on its first cart. after 1.5 years...
I'm still waiting for an available CD(R(W)), AA-powered Ogg player, but it looks like next month there may be what I want from iRiver... If one existed, I'd like a CD-based player that also had a CF card slot, unlikely as that sounds, but when iRiver (or someone else) starts shipping a CD/AA ogg player in the U.S., they'll get my money...
"Then why do I constantly read on/. that MS have a complete monopoly on software like nothing else was available?"
Because people like to believe that they are uniquely oppressed:) I find my unique oppression in other areas;)
"Note also the complete lack of Office of any kind. I rarely need a word processor, and if I do there's Wordpad or KOffice and whatever spreadsheet it comes with on Linux."
(Not sure I get that last sentence -- does this mean you're running Linux sometimes, too?)
Don't forget OpenOffice.org. 1.1.X is noticably better in my experience than 1.1.0, at least under Linux. My OO.o experience in the past has always shown the Windows and Linux versions to be identical in operation, so I'm hoping that's true for you, too.
Gimp runs on Windows, too, if you're interested. I hear people compare it to PaintShop Pro, but I've never used PSP, dunno how they actually stack up.
This thankfully has lately become less of an issue, because there is Free, cross-platform software that does a good job reading MS Word files. (I'm thinking of AbiWord and OpenOffice.org, though I'm sure there are others.)
It's still an annoying format, but widespread. (Or, "It's a widespread format, but annoying.")
I read the document on my system with OpenOffice.org, and I don't have Word;)
It may surprise you to hear from me, as we are not previously acquainted. An embarrassing technological situation compels me to write in hopes that you as an honorable Slashdot poster might embark upon a potentially remunerative endeavor of some note, in which your role need be no larger than you are comfortable with. This involves simply the exchange of some currency (which can be in dollars $US, or Korean Won if that best suits our mutuality) for an item tragically locked up in the Republic of Korea and for which my enterprise has great hopes.
a) AA batteries:) I may be a loon, but I get annoyeder and annoyeder at custom-shape li-ion and other batteries that I can't replace cheaply. (Even though they're great technology and often admirably suited to certain tasks.) I want to be able (if necessary) to stick in AAs from the corner store and (generally) to stick in rechargeables.
b) hard drives. Yes, a hard drive can hold a lot more than a CD, and I'm not generally going to be carrying 30 CDs of Ogg Vorbis files around, but I still like the flexibility of being able to swap disks in order to swap music, rather than needing to hook up to the mothership (PC with my music) whenever I want to add more on. Also, I don't want to have to face the dilemma of removing old favorites to make room on the hard disk. There's a place for the hard-drive players (and the Karma looks great, I'm quite tempted by it) but I'd rather have a CD-based player for now.
b') Cost -- those iRiver CD-based players are in a friendlier price range than anything with a hard drive:) -- unless the new iPods can play oggs out of the box, which they won't;)
c) Need picture of sister to better evaluate your offer.
the IMP series (though not sure which models) is what I'm waiting for. If that wasn't promised, I'd try to find a reader in Korea who'd be willing to help me import a Samsung Yepp ogg-capable CD player.
Shame about the 96kbs floor, though -- that's far more than I need for audiobooks. Still, CDs are cheap enough I should not complain.
"Did Adam Smith ever talk of trees or clean water? No he did not. It simply did not occur to him that we might one day run out of either substance." On what basis do you say that? As far as I can tell (I've dabbled in Smith, have not read even 3/4 of Wealth of Nations, though, so perhaps he says this), Smith does not confine his views on scarcity to precious metals or anything else.
Let's say that G.W decided that trees cause pollution and ordered all forests logged. The market would be flooded with wood and the price of wood would drop down to nothing. At that point a capitalism would say "the price of wood keeps decreasing so that must mean there are more trees in the world, in fact I predict that in 6 months there will be infinate amount of trees in the world"."
(Who's G.W.?)
The above scenario, while I know you meant it as a cartoon rather than a serious possibility, better describes the attitude toward labor under Chinese socialism ("there will always be more") than it does the attitude of any capitalist I've met.
You say that "[C]apitalism has no way of measuring sustainibility until it's too late." Compared to what? There are lots of Czechs suffering from chemicals dumped into mines who might have liked M. Friedman's right to sue polluters under their former regime. (I like David D. Friedman better;)) Besides which, imperfect as they are, market-centric systems cannot afford to ignore future supplies of whatever they're dealing in, from oil to 30lb bond printer paper.
One example: the existence and robustness of futures markets (and all markets have some element of future prices built in, even those that aren't specifically called futures markets, but that's another point!) tend to nullify this example, though: since we know where wood comes from (trees), the price of wood (I predict) would rise with the risk level of a diminishing future supply, until and unless substitutes were found for enough uses for wood that the magnitude of change a wood-supply crisis could cause was considerably shrunk.
What are futures markets if not a mechanism for measuring (better said, perhaps, "predicting") sustainability?
"The founders of capitalism never took into account the impact of their theories would have on the global environment because they presumed there would be an infinate aount of trees, energy, clean water, air etc."
Prove it:)
My understanding of captitalism is nearly the exact opposite; it's that capitalism assumes scarce resources with imperfect but real fungibility (and inevitable but minimizable tradeoffs) which makes money-based exchanges the least friction-bound way to allocate them.
Which capitalists "presumed there would be an infinate aount of trees, energy, clean water, air etc," and when? This sounds more like Conquistodore theology than Adam Smith.
I wrote a little thing about putting together a WiFi+modem setup nearly two years ago -- the prices have dropped since then; if you follow a site like techbargains.com, you can probably find a suitable WiFi/DHCP server/3- or 4-port router for something between free and $50 (after rebate), and a 56K hardware modem that would work fine for about $30 -- so I think you can say it's no more expensive than a linksys home router's regular price, anyhow. Hard to believe how much I paid for the same stuff a few years ago, but it's all H2O under the bridge now.
I'm surprised there aren't yet integrated modem+switch+WiFi boxes as I predict in that writeup that by now there would be.
I picked up a sort of wraparound thing 3 or 4 years ago at a computer/junk shop near San Jose... I think it's made by Targus (it's not handy, but it's one of those mainstream bagmakers, and it's not Kensington:)), but I have no idea what laptops they were actually aiming it for, because it's rather small. However, it works well for my iBook. You spread this thing out on a flat surface, then plop the iBook in the middle and wrap the velcro'd sides around, then the velcro'd top. That's it.
Though there is a carry handle on the top, I don't use this much, preferring to stick this sleeve into a courier pouch or backpack.
If your laptop is small enough, I think a sleeve+bag is a good way to go. My "desktop replacement" laptop, though, is a little large for that, has its own briefcase-style softcase.
Slashdot Mirror
... I parked very far away (not my intention, just my typical parking job) yesterday, had to hike past it but had no time to stop; perhaps this evening I will talk some people into it, but ... they also want to go to AVN, which is full of naked people.
Hmmm, will let you know.
timothy
Yes, they're in LV right now as well, at the Sands. Might get there later this evening.
timothy
Just a note to say I'm glad to see that in this case a book was worth two (very different) reviews.
timothy
If MS is claiming any sort of meaningful result from a 5-year study, let's see ...
;)), and the X Window System was happily doing what X did on Suns and SGI machines. Some google searching finds that January 5 years ago is when the "The first 2.2 prerelease kernels appear, starting the final push toward the release of the long-awaited 2.2 kernel."
c e.org/MPlayer/MySQL/etc etc. That is, systems running software to do stuff.
... I'm looking at an over-simplified black and white world for the purposes of illustration :)
5 years ago, it was early 1999. Linux existed, and more than existed -- it was already nicely stable and robust, had inspired some print journals and ongoing festivals (ok, we call them "conventions" and "expos" but c'mon
Now, not that the curves are easy to define, but if you could match up (in your own domain, naturally) the Windows curve of improvement vs. the Linux curve, what would you find? Has Windows gotten better as quickly (for your uses) as Linux has? Do you believe that in another (1,3,5) years that Windows will either remain or have become "better" than Linux for your application?
And Yes, I mean "GNU/Linux" and more to the point GNU/Linux/X/Apache/Perl/Python/KDE/GNOME/OpenOffi
This ignores Mac OS X or other Unix varieties of course, and does not get into the fact that "Windows" describes a gurgling sea of related, slightly different operating systems
timothy
"Free as in Whiskey!"
Which sounds pleasant etc (if you like whiskey; I think that your average vinyl-factory explosion would make a better mouth sensation), but since whiskey tends not to be free, or even cheap, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Still, raspberries and lawnmowers.
Agreed! I like to have directions on my Visor for the exact same reason. Of course, that doesn't help much if you're lost ;)
timothy
My laptop could be used for any of the purposes listed in 1-4, especially as a big GPS / map display using GPSDrive. It does not, however, have a lockout switch to limit its display capabilities to these functions while driving. (And since it would make a good car audio source, I wouldn't want it to, but that's another matter.) Do you know any laptops or handheld GPS-capable computers that do have such a lockout?
That's what the law calls for, if such a device is to be used legally in the front seat or with the display in view of the driver.
timothy
Just floating above it :)
The law names excemptions, and police cars are among them. (And if it didn't, I've seen enough cops not stop at stop signs and red lights that I believe they some policepersons have a fair idea of how likely laws are to be enforced against them, anyhow.)
timothy
... I think says something less sensible than you're allowing.
;) (Unless I find the USB cable for my GPS and tempt fate next week on a trip to CA ...)
There's still the issue of "installed in a vehicle" which would seem to rule out most laptops, except for semi-installed edge cases like the one I pointed out.
And under point 5, above, a laptop (or an iPaq) is capable of "visually displaying a television broadcast or video signal," and none I know of have an interlock as specified. It would be *possible* for laptops to have a "driving mode" or something, but according to the letter of the law, I don't see how they can fit through the cracks. I don't live in CA -- if you do, and have any law enforcement friends, you have a better chance than I do of finding out
timothy
A nice thing about Mozilla (the suite) is that with one not-unreasonable download, I can convert a foreign computer (want to check email at a friend's place, etc.) to a reasonable communications station (email, IRC, web) with an interface I like, including tabbed browsing. Primarily, this means "on a Windows machine," since most Linux or FreeBSD machines will probably already be equipped with both Mozilla and Xchat. (OK, two, downloads if I want ssh -- putty rocks.)
For the last few years, I've used Chatzilla on and off, usually finding after an hour or so that I missed Xchat, which so far is to me the most impressive IRC client around (and from which Chatzilla seems to intelligently take many cues). Recently though, esp. with Mozilla 1.7a, I notice that I start chatzilla and *don't* need to switch to Xchat. The one exception is DCC, but since I've used DCC rarely, it's not a biggie.
So I find that as of this month, my primary IRC client has been Chatzilla. Thanks, Mozilla / Chatzilla developers!
timothy
I live at present in Seattle, but I've seen those OBX stickers all over the country -- for some reason I thought it was a sporting goods manufacturer rather than a place. (Reminds me of STX, lacrosse-stick makers ...)
timothy
Thanks.I've been wondering for years what those stupid stickers meant, but it's the sort of question that always fades from memory before getting a chance to ask someone who might actually know.
...
Maybe the word "PLACE" in a black-bordered white oval would be the right answer
timothy
If you don't do much printing (like me), even a low-budget b/w laser printer is going to last a long time. Samsung makes several cheap-n-cheerful compact lasers that even come with a little penguin on the box. Watch sites like techbargains; recently some merchant had Samsung 1700 b/w lasers for $70 (after rebate) *shipped*. Not bad.
...
DMCA or not, I've been happy with my Lexmark E210, nicely Linux supported and (since I print little) still on its first cart. after 1.5 years
timothy
Mr. Lamer:
... Neat stuff :)
... If one existed, I'd like a CD-based player that also had a CF card slot, unlikely as that sounds, but when iRiver (or someone else) starts shipping a CD/AA ogg player in the U.S., they'll get my money ...
Huh, so you got a Neuros
I'm still waiting for an available CD(R(W)), AA-powered Ogg player, but it looks like next month there may be what I want from iRiver
timothy
"Then why do I constantly read on /. that MS have a complete monopoly on software like nothing else was available?"
:) I find my unique oppression in other areas ;)
Because people like to believe that they are uniquely oppressed
"Note also the complete lack of Office of any kind. I rarely need a word processor, and if I do there's Wordpad or KOffice and whatever spreadsheet it comes with on Linux."
(Not sure I get that last sentence -- does this mean you're running Linux sometimes, too?)
Don't forget OpenOffice.org. 1.1.X is noticably better in my experience than 1.1.0, at least under Linux. My OO.o experience in the past has always shown the Windows and Linux versions to be identical in operation, so I'm hoping that's true for you, too.
Gimp runs on Windows, too, if you're interested. I hear people compare it to PaintShop Pro, but I've never used PSP, dunno how they actually stack up.
timothy
This thankfully has lately become less of an issue, because there is Free, cross-platform software that does a good job reading MS Word files. (I'm thinking of AbiWord and OpenOffice.org, though I'm sure there are others.)
;)
It's still an annoying format, but widespread. (Or, "It's a widespread format, but annoying.")
I read the document on my system with OpenOffice.org, and I don't have Word
timothy
Is the whining USPS reaction to the Mad TV sketch about going postal (the concept).
The post office should lighten up -- after all, it's only a joke. Everyone knows that it doesn't really happen.
timothy (whose father and grandfather worked for the post office and escaped bullet wounds)
Dear Honorable Mr. Krumms:
It may surprise you to hear from me, as we are not previously acquainted. An embarrassing technological situation compels me to write in hopes that you as an honorable Slashdot poster might embark upon a potentially remunerative endeavor of some note, in which your role need be no larger than you are comfortable with. This involves simply the exchange of some currency (which can be in dollars $US, or Korean Won if that best suits our mutuality) for an item tragically locked up in the Republic of Korea and for which my enterprise has great hopes.
Sincerely,
timothy
a) AA batteries :) I may be a loon, but I get annoyeder and annoyeder at custom-shape li-ion and other batteries that I can't replace cheaply. (Even though they're great technology and often admirably suited to certain tasks.) I want to be able (if necessary) to stick in AAs from the corner store and (generally) to stick in rechargeables.
:) -- unless the new iPods can play oggs out of the box, which they won't ;)
b) hard drives. Yes, a hard drive can hold a lot more than a CD, and I'm not generally going to be carrying 30 CDs of Ogg Vorbis files around, but I still like the flexibility of being able to swap disks in order to swap music, rather than needing to hook up to the mothership (PC with my music) whenever I want to add more on. Also, I don't want to have to face the dilemma of removing old favorites to make room on the hard disk. There's a place for the hard-drive players (and the Karma looks great, I'm quite tempted by it) but I'd rather have a CD-based player for now.
b') Cost -- those iRiver CD-based players are in a friendlier price range than anything with a hard drive
c) Need picture of sister to better evaluate your offer.
timothy
the IMP series (though not sure which models) is what I'm waiting for. If that wasn't promised, I'd try to find a reader in Korea who'd be willing to help me import a Samsung Yepp ogg-capable CD player.
Shame about the 96kbs floor, though -- that's far more than I need for audiobooks. Still, CDs are cheap enough I should not complain.
timothy
"Did Adam Smith ever talk of trees or clean water? No he did not. It simply did not occur to him that we might one day run out of either substance." On what basis do you say that? As far as I can tell (I've dabbled in Smith, have not read even 3/4 of Wealth of Nations, though, so perhaps he says this), Smith does not confine his views on scarcity to precious metals or anything else.
;)) Besides which, imperfect as they are, market-centric systems cannot afford to ignore future supplies of whatever they're dealing in, from oil to 30lb bond printer paper.
Let's say that G.W decided that trees cause pollution and ordered all forests logged. The market would be flooded with wood and the price of wood would drop down to nothing. At that point a capitalism would say "the price of wood keeps decreasing so that must mean there are more trees in the world, in fact I predict that in 6 months there will be infinate amount of trees in the world"."
(Who's G.W.?)
The above scenario, while I know you meant it as a cartoon rather than a serious possibility, better describes the attitude toward labor under Chinese socialism ("there will always be more") than it does the attitude of any capitalist I've met.
You say that "[C]apitalism has no way of measuring sustainibility until it's too late." Compared to what? There are lots of Czechs suffering from chemicals dumped into mines who might have liked M. Friedman's right to sue polluters under their former regime. (I like David D. Friedman better
One example: the existence and robustness of futures markets (and all markets have some element of future prices built in, even those that aren't specifically called futures markets, but that's another point!) tend to nullify this example, though: since we know where wood comes from (trees), the price of wood (I predict) would rise with the risk level of a diminishing future supply, until and unless substitutes were found for enough uses for wood that the magnitude of change a wood-supply crisis could cause was considerably shrunk.
What are futures markets if not a mechanism for measuring (better said, perhaps, "predicting") sustainability?
timothy
"The founders of capitalism never took into account the impact of their theories would have on the global environment because they presumed there would be an infinate aount of trees, energy, clean water, air etc."
:)
Prove it
My understanding of captitalism is nearly the exact opposite; it's that capitalism assumes scarce resources with imperfect but real fungibility (and inevitable but minimizable tradeoffs) which makes money-based exchanges the least friction-bound way to allocate them.
Which capitalists "presumed there would be an infinate aount of trees, energy, clean water, air etc," and when? This sounds more like Conquistodore theology than Adam Smith.
timothy
I wrote a little thing about putting together a WiFi+modem setup nearly two years ago -- the prices have dropped since then; if you follow a site like techbargains.com, you can probably find a suitable WiFi/DHCP server/3- or 4-port router for something between free and $50 (after rebate), and a 56K hardware modem that would work fine for about $30 -- so I think you can say it's no more expensive than a linksys home router's regular price, anyhow. Hard to believe how much I paid for the same stuff a few years ago, but it's all H2O under the bridge now.
I'm surprised there aren't yet integrated modem+switch+WiFi boxes as I predict in that writeup that by now there would be.
timothy
Hey, that's the best way for cancer to be ... then you can sneak up on it and apply a scalpel before it has a chance to object.
timothy
I picked up a sort of wraparound thing 3 or 4 years ago at a computer/junk shop near San Jose ... I think it's made by Targus (it's not handy, but it's one of those mainstream bagmakers, and it's not Kensington :)), but I have no idea what laptops they were actually aiming it for, because it's rather small. However, it works well for my iBook. You spread this thing out on a flat surface, then plop the iBook in the middle and wrap the velcro'd sides around, then the velcro'd top. That's it.
Though there is a carry handle on the top, I don't use this much, preferring to stick this sleeve into a courier pouch or backpack.
If your laptop is small enough, I think a sleeve+bag is a good way to go. My "desktop replacement" laptop, though, is a little large for that, has its own briefcase-style softcase.
timothy