It's actually a pretty neat comparison to say "as much text as in every book at the LoC" but annoying to forget that text is not the same as books / other artifacts. For newer books I think this matters less, but for older books (which can't be reproduced by telling a printer to reproduce a postscript file), the actual substance of the book itself holds a lot of information. Color / typeface / paper quality / etc.
Just like a painting can be *represented* at different bit depths and resolutions -- no one of these *is* the painting, so you have to specify these parameters before saying "enough hard drive space to hold every painting in the louvre!"
Anyhow, thanks for pointing out a peeve of mine.:)
I am not in the cheerleader market right now, and I don't believe many cheerleaders are in the Me market, either. ]
And Dallas is *not* always warm:) I've been there when it's been cold, and there's even the odd snowstorm. Not that that's a bad thing, but if warmth is the reason, and you want to keep your Texas concealed permit, good taxes, etc, someplace like McAllen is better.
Austin (or esp. San Antonio) is much more tempting...
I don't have Windows, and I don't know how much disk space it recognizes.
Even if I did, I sure don't have 2TB.I'm doubt that the kernels of any of the Linux machines I have right now could nicely handle TB either, and I have serious doubts about the motherboards inside them handling so much disk anyhow;)
I think it was on my third page of Google results. There was another, similar one posted by Michael prior about another $5K TB array, but this one has more details.
It's amazing (well, to the easily amazed, like me) that soon 1TB will be a normal, reasonable, regular-type quantity of storage. My step-brother told me the other day that he has half a TB of storage in his household, and it still boggles my mind.
Now, for the same money, you can get twice the storage (4 of these), *and* a decent (though not high-end) laptop; you can fit your 2TB array and associated computer into a briefcase.
That sidesteps the issues both of "need to install first?" and "giving out debian cds with no questions asked." Knoppix *can* be used to install a permanent, hd-based system, but it doesn't need to be.
Also, it comes with a mess of good apps to start with (various desktop environments, too), so you can demonstrate a wide range of possible uses.
There are (is at least one, anyhow) similarly bootable BSD system, and that brings me to one more reason to suggest Knoppix here -- you don't have to wipe out any *existing* OS installations to use it.
I hope never to be in an accident where it will be really important that I be able to reach my little orange handled window smasher, but I don't plan to go around randomly breaking windows with it:)
And the *reason* I didn't get 20 of the stupid little cars is that they were completely sold out, because other people smarter than me already did the ebay hoarding first.
Actually, I got stocking stuffers -- "safety hammers." These are the orange, weighted hammers for smashing auto glass, with a notch protecting a blade for slicing seatbelts etc. They were on sale for $5 apiece, so I bought out the store (they only had 6 left).
However, what I *wish* I had gotten is about 20 of those stupid remote control cars, and put them all on eBay. Then I could have bought some real presents.
Yes, there are *some* Windows user groups, or at least gatherings where people assemble to discuss / bemoan their Windows software, but when it comes to true fan clubs, the Mac wins. (Linux wins, too -- it's not a one-winner competition:))
When I bought my first personally-owned Mac about 10 years ago, I discovered that there was an "Apple Pi" (I think that was the name) meeting in my town, and by going there a few times, I learned some valuable tips, bought shareware fonts (when shareware was nice), and was generally happy with things.
One reason I looked for a Mac user group is that I had a problem getting my modem to connect; the conclusion I came to is that -- wielding the broadest brush possible -- Mac problems are mostly interesting; Windows problems are mostly infuriating.
Scanning comments, I see that some people say that the "tainted" 1.2 has trouble with ebay among other sites; can anyone point out specific pages which break 1.2?
I yesterday's nightly (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.3a) Gecko/20021129), and it's been working very nicely for, well, the last 12 hours, it's only been on since then;)
It seems snappier than the last Mozilla I had on here, a nightly from probably 5 or 6 weeks ago.
Actually, I didn't mean the Walmart computers -- I meant the boxed set of Mandrake which they (used to?) carry.
I actually hadn't thought of the computers themselves as I wrote that comment. Yes, I'm sure a lot of the included Linux on those *will* be wiped out for license-free Windows install, but I'd still say that Linux is mainstream (even though it's clearly a smaller player than Microsoft) just to be on sale there:)
If you could buy something in a Texas Wal-Mart a couple of years ago, would you say it deserves the name "mainstream"?
If yes, then it's too late for Linux to escape, because I've done that.
Nicely boxed, manual-included Linux distros have been around for years (in national chain stores), and "open source" covers things a lot less radical, like say the Phoenix browser. Lots of Windows users don't think of themselves as too far from the mainstream justs because they're using a better browser than IE:)
I will be downloading 1.2 or a current nightly (I've gotten behind) soon enough just for this. Well, some of the other things sounds fine too, but the ability to have a multi-tab startup is something I've craved for a while.
Since (like me) there are more and more people who work primarily from a web interface (even if that's still a small absolute number of people), tab features are really nice.
Peter Jackson may not put it in the credits, because it might make other people feel too much envy, but he's releasing this movie not only on an evening that I have off, but on the anniversary of my birth oh so many years ago. Anyone who would like to buy me a ticket... well wait, on my birthday, won't they let me in for free?!
It's three years old, black, 8MB, has been kept for most of the time since arrival (Christmas present -- thanks mom) wrapped in a functional but very ugly blue neoprene case from BodyGlove. Has lots of important stuff on there, so I have religiously changed the batteries, complete with a little ritual, white hat of worship, incense, etc.
Finally, the handspring modules are all obsolete, so I picked one up at Wal-Mart for $10, and now my visor is actually backed up -- amazing!
Note: the first time I put in the backup unit, it gave me an error message and I nearly expelled some body fluids. The 2nd time, in this case, turned out to be the charm. Now I just have to find some old Visors on eBay to one day replace this when the inevitable happens.
OK: I don't have a shuttle small form factor case right now, and perhaps I never will, but a question for all six of the other people in the world without one: Can you look at the picture (right hand side) at the LANL space simulator page without lusting at least a little bit for a shuttle case?:)
What I'd really like though is a case that small but with a cool-running, low-power chip, for low noise and even better for low power consumption.
Shuttle eventually gave in and came out with SFF cases for AMD chips; what about for Transmeta, esp. the new Astro?:) (Or even VIA's low-power stuff...)
For reasons of paranoia and inertia, I have (and anticipate continuing to have) several computers around the house. They might all end up being laptops, but that gets expensive, too. I'd rather save space and utility bills by making my multiple computers small and frugal:)
I have a medium-sized collection of DVDs. Among the movies it contain are favorites, like Barcelona, GhostWorld, and Annie Hall, that I sometimes want to watch just for a certain funny or intriguing scene. I also prefer (not owning a large TV) to watch movies on a computer screen. I think would prefer this even if I *did* own a large TV, which is (drumroll) one reason that I don't. Ahem.
So I have been compressing my movies into DiVX;) using the excellent software dvd:rip and enjoying the results.
This is a very slow process, and it's the first thing in a while which has specifically made me want to upgrade both processor (a 600MHz Athlon otherwise still feels very fast to me, and I'm in time-machine-based negotiations to lease a fraction of its power to the U.S. Space program circa 1962) and hard drive (because movies are big, even compressed).
"It's like if a company wanted to tear down a bunch of beatiful old stone buildings (which by and large would be far too expensive to build today) to get the stone, and justified it by saying they'd build some tacky prefabs to replace them. Well, great, there's still a roof to protect you from the rain, but wouldn't you feel a bit cheated?"
Yes.
It's fairly disingenuous (but understandable, predictable, etc) for Weyerhaeuser to act as if "trees is trees" but you're right, there is a difference between a tree farm and a nice old forest.
Even people who are not opposed to large-scale logging (like home builders or potential builders who don't want to double their lumber costs and have not seen the light that wood is not the only material with which to build a house) can agree that logging is even at best beautiful in the cauldron-of-creation way rather than the sculpture-of-beautiful-woman way.
"Your parents run Windows for a reason, and trust me -- it's not because it looks that incredible. It's just easier to use, and easier to get support for. End of story."
Well, that's one story, but not the only possible one. For instance, when my mom needed a computer for school, I convinced to get herself an iBook, and she's been using it to write papers, exchange email, find things with google (using mozilla, which she prefers to IE), etc. (Prior to this, she had a seldom-used Windows frankenbox which was always crashing, causing long-distance bills to ask me questions to which I had no answer, etc.) Mac OS and Mac OS X are pretty, and for many people at least feel much friendlier than Windows does.
My dad's Windows machine crashes frequently, bogged down with the anti-virus gunk which is necessary to fight the virus gunk, and so and and so forth until we reach the anti-anti-anti-missile. And he complains, but tolerates (not likes) Windows because of... well, because he is a stubborn techno-masochist. Certainly not for the support or ease of use:) In fact, he's grumbling enough about how much nicer Macs seem that I predict he'll join Ellen Feiss at least a small metaphoric sense.
(You mention OS X in passing, I know, but I just wanted to emphasize that;)... and a decent Linux desktop IMO comes much closer in feel to OS X than does Windows of any sort.)
"Users of free software are an interesting bunch. They knowingly accept and embrace and are even attracted to the fact that it's traditionally much harder to use than everyday Windows software."
Eh, there may be some geek-chic self-abuse among a certain subgroup of the huge universe of people who for some reason or another (use / like / tolerate / rely on) free software, but the real "interesting bunch" is a *very* large set. Some people may embrace unfriendly software simply because it sets them apart, but I think its a tiny fraction, however vocal. I like easy software, myself:)
That a lot of free software is complicated to get going is a good point -- but it's not fair to smear all of it because some of it is bad. There's a lot of bad software for nearly any platform:) Most people (I assert, cannot prove) never install software on their computers, and never upgrade the hardware. A default install of Red Hat / Mandrake / Lycoris includes a broad range of preinstalled software which beats the pre-installed set on most Windows PCs. Packaging religons aside, there's a lot of software available in nice packaging for a) all the RPM based distros of Linux and b) even better, as debs for users of debian-based distros as well as c) in the ports tree for BSD, for those so inclined. For the many applications so packaged, it's hard to complain.
Re: online rudeness, hostility towards question-askers, etc... I've seen bextremes of both helpful and antagonistic responses to questions online, sometimes as the asker and sometimes just as an observer. I know less about the Windows side of things, but some of the worst / rudest behavior I've seen has been directed by supposed Windows gururs toward people asking them questions. I have never seen evidence that free software programmers / IRC denizens are any worse, and I've seen several who go far, far beyond the call of duty to help newbies (or fumblefingers like me).
Anyhow. Maybe you're just trolling anyhow, but whatever:)
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks for pointing that out.
:)
It's actually a pretty neat comparison to say "as much text as in every book at the LoC" but annoying to forget that text is not the same as books / other artifacts. For newer books I think this matters less, but for older books (which can't be reproduced by telling a printer to reproduce a postscript file), the actual substance of the book itself holds a lot of information. Color / typeface / paper quality / etc.
Just like a painting can be *represented* at different bit depths and resolutions -- no one of these *is* the painting, so you have to specify these parameters before saying "enough hard drive space to hold every painting in the louvre!"
Anyhow, thanks for pointing out a peeve of mine.
timothy
I am not in the cheerleader market right now, and I don't believe many cheerleaders are in the Me market, either. ]
:) I've been there when it's been cold, and there's even the odd snowstorm. Not that that's a bad thing, but if warmth is the reason, and you want to keep your Texas concealed permit, good taxes, etc, someplace like McAllen is better.
...
And Dallas is *not* always warm
Austin (or esp. San Antonio) is much more tempting
timothy
I think that keeeey is stuck on my keeeeyboard.
timothy
I don't have Windows, and I don't know how much disk space it recognizes.
;)
Even if I did, I sure don't have 2TB.I'm doubt that the kernels of any of the Linux machines I have right now could nicely handle TB either, and I have serious doubts about the motherboards inside them handling so much disk anyhow
timothy
I think it was on my third page of Google results. There was another, similar one posted by Michael prior about another $5K TB array, but this one has more details.
It's amazing (well, to the easily amazed, like me) that soon 1TB will be a normal, reasonable, regular-type quantity of storage. My step-brother told me the other day that he has half a TB of storage in his household, and it still boggles my mind.
timothy
This was a neat story, IMO:
("The Amazing $5k Terabyte Array")
That's not too long ago.
Now, for the same money, you can get twice the storage (4 of these), *and* a decent (though not high-end) laptop; you can fit your 2TB array and associated computer into a briefcase.
That's a lot.
timothy
That sidesteps the issues both of "need to install first?" and "giving out debian cds with no questions asked." Knoppix *can* be used to install a permanent, hd-based system, but it doesn't need to be.
Also, it comes with a mess of good apps to start with (various desktop environments, too), so you can demonstrate a wide range of possible uses.
There are (is at least one, anyhow) similarly bootable BSD system, and that brings me to one more reason to suggest Knoppix here -- you don't have to wipe out any *existing* OS installations to use it.
timothy
tools are neutral :)
:)
I hope never to be in an accident where it will be really important that I be able to reach my little orange handled window smasher, but I don't plan to go around randomly breaking windows with it
timothy
A model train would be nice, but not until I'm old and settled. Until then, I think a train would take up too much space and time.
timothy
And the *reason* I didn't get 20 of the stupid little cars is that they were completely sold out, because other people smarter than me already did the ebay hoarding first.
timothy
... and all I got were these lousy USB adapters!
Actually, I got stocking stuffers -- "safety hammers." These are the orange, weighted hammers for smashing auto glass, with a notch protecting a blade for slicing seatbelts etc. They were on sale for $5 apiece, so I bought out the store (they only had 6 left).
However, what I *wish* I had gotten is about 20 of those stupid remote control cars, and put them all on eBay. Then I could have bought some real presents.
timothy
Yes, there are *some* Windows user groups, or at least gatherings where people assemble to discuss / bemoan their Windows software, but when it comes to true fan clubs, the Mac wins. (Linux wins, too -- it's not a one-winner competition :))
When I bought my first personally-owned Mac about 10 years ago, I discovered that there was an "Apple Pi" (I think that was the name) meeting in my town, and by going there a few times, I learned some valuable tips, bought shareware fonts (when shareware was nice), and was generally happy with things.
One reason I looked for a Mac user group is that I had a problem getting my modem to connect; the conclusion I came to is that -- wielding the broadest brush possible -- Mac problems are mostly interesting; Windows problems are mostly infuriating.
timothy
(say that 20 times fast)
;)
Scanning comments, I see that some people say that the "tainted" 1.2 has trouble with ebay among other sites; can anyone point out specific pages which break 1.2?
I yesterday's nightly (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.3a) Gecko/20021129), and it's been working very nicely for, well, the last 12 hours, it's only been on since then
It seems snappier than the last Mozilla I had on here, a nightly from probably 5 or 6 weeks ago.
timothy
Actually, I didn't mean the Walmart computers -- I meant the boxed set of Mandrake which they (used to?) carry.
:)
I actually hadn't thought of the computers themselves as I wrote that comment. Yes, I'm sure a lot of the included Linux on those *will* be wiped out for license-free Windows install, but I'd still say that Linux is mainstream (even though it's clearly a smaller player than Microsoft) just to be on sale there
timothy
If you could buy something in a Texas Wal-Mart a couple of years ago, would you say it deserves the name "mainstream"?
:)
If yes, then it's too late for Linux to escape, because I've done that.
Nicely boxed, manual-included Linux distros have been around for years (in national chain stores), and "open source" covers things a lot less radical, like say the Phoenix browser. Lots of Windows users don't think of themselves as too far from the mainstream justs because they're using a better browser than IE
tiothy
I will be downloading 1.2 or a current nightly (I've gotten behind) soon enough just for this. Well, some of the other things sounds fine too, but the ability to have a multi-tab startup is something I've craved for a while.
Since (like me) there are more and more people who work primarily from a web interface (even if that's still a small absolute number of people), tab features are really nice.
Thanks Mozilla people.
timothy
when they are sent, pre-fetch requests are labeled as such. So a site getting the requests can keep track of regular vs. pre-fetch requests.
timothy
Actually, all you need is monolithic.com. Can't believe I've refered to that site twice in recent comments, though ;)
timothy
Peter Jackson may not put it in the credits, because it might make other people feel too much envy, but he's releasing this movie not only on an evening that I have off, but on the anniversary of my birth oh so many years ago. Anyone who would like to buy me a ticket ... well wait, on my birthday, won't they let me in for free?!
Thanks, Pete.
timothy
I live in the ZIPcode that's "just a bunch of sixes, ma'am."
timothy
It's three years old, black, 8MB, has been kept for most of the time since arrival (Christmas present -- thanks mom) wrapped in a functional but very ugly blue neoprene case from BodyGlove. Has lots of important stuff on there, so I have religiously changed the batteries, complete with a little ritual, white hat of worship, incense, etc.
Finally, the handspring modules are all obsolete, so I picked one up at Wal-Mart for $10, and now my visor is actually backed up -- amazing!
Note: the first time I put in the backup unit, it gave me an error message and I nearly expelled some body fluids. The 2nd time, in this case, turned out to be the charm. Now I just have to find some old Visors on eBay to one day replace this when the inevitable happens.
timothy
OK: I don't have a shuttle small form factor case right now, and perhaps I never will, but a question for all six of the other people in the world without one: Can you look at the picture (right hand side) at the LANL space simulator page without lusting at least a little bit for a shuttle case? :)
:) (Or even VIA's low-power stuff ...)
:)
What I'd really like though is a case that small but with a cool-running, low-power chip, for low noise and even better for low power consumption.
Shuttle eventually gave in and came out with SFF cases for AMD chips; what about for Transmeta, esp. the new Astro?
For reasons of paranoia and inertia, I have (and anticipate continuing to have) several computers around the house. They might all end up being laptops, but that gets expensive, too. I'd rather save space and utility bills by making my multiple computers small and frugal
timothy
I have a medium-sized collection of DVDs. Among the movies it contain are favorites, like Barcelona, GhostWorld, and Annie Hall, that I sometimes want to watch just for a certain funny or intriguing scene.
I also prefer (not owning a large TV) to watch movies on a computer screen. I think would prefer this even if I *did* own a large TV, which is (drumroll) one reason that I don't. Ahem.
So I have been compressing my movies into DiVX;) using the excellent software dvd:rip and enjoying the results.
This is a very slow process, and it's the first thing in a while which has specifically made me want to upgrade both processor (a 600MHz Athlon otherwise still feels very fast to me, and I'm in time-machine-based negotiations to lease a fraction of its power to the U.S. Space program circa 1962) and hard drive (because movies are big, even compressed).
timothy
"It's like if a company wanted to tear down a bunch of beatiful old stone buildings (which by and large would be far too expensive to build today) to get the stone, and justified it by saying they'd build some tacky prefabs to replace them. Well, great, there's still a roof to protect you from the rain, but wouldn't you feel a bit cheated?"
:)
Yes.
It's fairly disingenuous (but understandable, predictable, etc) for Weyerhaeuser to act as if "trees is trees" but you're right, there is a difference between a tree farm and a nice old forest.
Even people who are not opposed to large-scale logging (like home builders or potential builders who don't want to double their lumber costs and have not seen the light that wood is not the only material with which to build a house) can agree that logging is even at best beautiful in the cauldron-of-creation way rather than the sculpture-of-beautiful-woman way.
Still, they plant 'em
timothy
(not in order, but some random responses :))
... well, because he is a stubborn techno-masochist. Certainly not for the support or ease of use :) In fact, he's grumbling enough about how much nicer Macs seem that I predict he'll join Ellen Feiss at least a small metaphoric sense.
;) ... and a decent Linux desktop IMO comes much closer in feel to OS X than does Windows of any sort.)
:)
:) Most people (I assert, cannot prove) never install software on their computers, and never upgrade the hardware. A default install of Red Hat / Mandrake / Lycoris includes a broad range of preinstalled software which beats the pre-installed set on most Windows PCs. Packaging religons aside, there's a lot of software available in nice packaging for a) all the RPM based distros of Linux and b) even better, as debs for users of debian-based distros as well as c) in the ports tree for BSD, for those so inclined. For the many applications so packaged, it's hard to complain.
... I've seen bextremes of both helpful and antagonistic responses to questions online, sometimes as the asker and sometimes just as an observer. I know less about the Windows side of things, but some of the worst / rudest behavior I've seen has been directed by supposed Windows gururs toward people asking them questions. I have never seen evidence that free software programmers / IRC denizens are any worse, and I've seen several who go far, far beyond the call of duty to help newbies (or fumblefingers like me).
:)
"Your parents run Windows for a reason, and trust me -- it's not because it looks that incredible. It's just easier to use, and easier to get support for. End of story."
Well, that's one story, but not the only possible one. For instance, when my mom needed a computer for school, I convinced to get herself an iBook, and she's been using it to write papers, exchange email, find things with google (using mozilla, which she prefers to IE), etc. (Prior to this, she had a seldom-used Windows frankenbox which was always crashing, causing long-distance bills to ask me questions to which I had no answer, etc.) Mac OS and Mac OS X are pretty, and for many people at least feel much friendlier than Windows does.
My dad's Windows machine crashes frequently, bogged down with the anti-virus gunk which is necessary to fight the virus gunk, and so and and so forth until we reach the anti-anti-anti-missile. And he complains, but tolerates (not likes) Windows because of
(You mention OS X in passing, I know, but I just wanted to emphasize that
"Users of free software are an interesting bunch. They knowingly accept and embrace and are even attracted to the fact that it's traditionally much harder to use than everyday Windows software."
Eh, there may be some geek-chic self-abuse among a certain subgroup of the huge universe of people who for some reason or another (use / like / tolerate / rely on) free software, but the real "interesting bunch" is a *very* large set. Some people may embrace unfriendly software simply because it sets them apart, but I think its a tiny fraction, however vocal. I like easy software, myself
That a lot of free software is complicated to get going is a good point -- but it's not fair to smear all of it because some of it is bad. There's a lot of bad software for nearly any platform
Re: online rudeness, hostility towards question-askers, etc
Anyhow. Maybe you're just trolling anyhow, but whatever
timothy