The anwser is to keep the #1 standard of the past 20 years. Floppy drives were the standard, every PC had a floppy, you could take your disk and know with 100% certanty you could read the data.
Man, what planet have you been living on? Have you tried using floppy discs lately?
Floppy discs have never given you 100% certainty and these days it's probably more like 20%. I practically never use them and when I do it becomes a long and tedious search to find a disc and drive that actually work. The drives are little more than a token gesture on modern PCs and they're fast disappearing.
A new standard for floppies would offer none of the benefits which you claim. No existing drive would read them. No existing media would give you this mythical new capacity. It would just be a completely new and incompatible option. It would also be far less convenient to carry around than the modern alternatives.
Accept it - the floppy is dead. It was useful in its day but it's long since been superseded. The alternatives are just too overwhelmingly better.
Apologies for following up twice to the same posting, but I missed something.
My printer in my house is on a printer server box. Configuring printing should be trivial. Privide a printer type and an IP and GO.
Why so complicated? With CUPS, once your print server is set up the process is even simpler - just GO! Why would you want to specify a printer type and an IP? That sort of messing around with details is precisely what the user shouldn't have to worry about. CUPS takes care of all of this for you.
Whilst I agree that setting up a CUPS server is still a pain - mostly because of the lack of decent documentation - once your server is up and running then workstation is even easier than the process described for Windows in the parent article.
All you have to do is - nothing at all! I can take a virgin PC, connect it to my network, boot with a Knoppix CD, start OpenOffice.org and all my printers are there and ready to use. No configuration, no drivers, no \\servername\printername. As soon as I do File=>Print in OpenOffice.org I get a list of the printers which are configured and ready for me to use. No user intervention of any sort required.
Yes, penetrating the fog of CUPS documentation to get your server(s) set up is a prime pain, but once the server is there then CUPS has Windows printing beaten hollow for ease of end-user use.
First of all, once many places gained degree granting status, they dumped the "polytechnic" title.
Not quite. Polytechnics were issuing degrees long before they all renamed themselves as universities. The great renaming was a simple government sponsored con so that the then government could say, "Look, we've increased the number of universities by NNNNN", when in fact all they'd done was to rename the polytechnics.
On a similar note - can anyone explain why the key to my car will lock and unlock the car at significantly greater distances if I hold it up to the side of my head (the key, not the car)?
The car is a Smart City Cabriolet (not that I suppose that makes any difference) and the key is just a normal sort of radio key.
Given the tendency to measure fuel consumption in litres/100k, I can cancel down and say that my car's fuel consumption is about 0.05 square millimetres.
If you prefer the imperial measure of miles/gallon, you could similarly reduce it to inverse acres.
Since Meccano is about 30 years older than Lego it's difficult to see how it can be described as a "further-removed variant". It also historically had nothing in common with Lego (apart from being a construction set). The basic building block of Lego is a plastic brick whilst the basic building block of Meccano is a steel strip with holes in.
Looking at modern offerings from both camps however they do seem to have grown together. Both now offer lots of unimaginative plastic pieces of very limited use. It seems that Meccano has lost its way in the same way that Lego has.
There was of course a real second problem in the year 2000 - it had 54 weeks, which tripped up at least one computer system (running a Scandinavian rail system IIRC).
Before that, they were unheard of (and I don't remember seeing any in Western Europe in the 70s, either).
I do. I got my first one when I was a student at Oxford in 1979. True, they didn't hit the mass market until the early 80s, but they were definitely around in the 70s.
I too saw that review, but the car they didn't like wasn't a Smart. I regret however that I can't for the moment remember what it was. The Smart didn't feature in that test - perhaps it should have done.
To call it slow in comparison to a Land Rover would be ludicrous!
Simply untrue. The only time when the automatic gear change could be described as "slow" is when the driver has failed to anticipate the need for a change and the gearbox then has to take over and do it at the last minute. If the gearchange happens just when you wanted power then yes, it can be annoying. As with any tool, if you don't know how to use it then in extremis it could be dangerous.
and reduces confort (it brakes the car during the shift)
Also untrue. It doesn't brake the car during the shift.
It's true that the fuel economy isn't anything to write home about. My previous car was a 5-seater estate which could beat the Smart on both fuel economy and speed (55 mpg against the Smart's 52 mpg), but the Smart is heaps more fun.
Towing a Smart *behind* an SUV (or at least, a mobile home) is very common.
You can't unfortunately tow one with its wheels on the ground because you'll knacker the Smart's gearbox, but you can buy some very neat custom trailers which carry the Smart and hook onto the back of your mobile home.
In fact, I hate to tell you, but unless you're speaking the original English language, which you're not, you are using a dialect.
Define "original English language".
American English differs quite a lot from English English but neither can claim to be the original. It's pretty clear that English has grown away from American English just as much as American English has grown away from English.
A better plan is to wait until something new comes out and then buy whatever it replaced. Buying the latest greatest thing will always give you poor value for money, whatever the man in the computer shop says.
If you don't have money to burn (and it sounds like you don't) think in terms of something like:
1GHz / 1.5GHz processor
512M / 1G RAM (it's cheap)
Fast HD
Good video card
Good sound card
You'll pay less than half the money for a machine which gives you 99% of the functionality and life.
> I suppose everyone running OO on Linux (except > for those three persons) is using a traditional > monitor and couldn't care less about sub-pixel > hinting.
I'm using OOo on Linux with LCD monitors (on several systems) and I'd never even noticed the feature wasn't there. I think you'll find the reason it's low priority is that it has very little impact on the average user - LCD or otherwise.
Which British? Those widgets are fine for Guinness, but they really ruin ale in cans. AFAIK we were never consulted - they were just wished on us by marketing types.
Fortunately we can vote with our feet and simply not buy cans with widgets in.
BTW, the warm beer thing is a myth. Good beer is served at the temperature of a cool cellar. The thing is that if the beer actually tastes nice you don't have to chill it to the temperature of liquid nitrogen before you can bear to drink it.
Slashdot Mirror
You have been /.ed
Thank you for playing.
But only 2.6.8 in Sarge IIRC.
John (4 digits)
Man, what planet have you been living on? Have you tried using floppy discs lately?
Floppy discs have never given you 100% certainty and these days it's probably more like 20%. I practically never use them and when I do it becomes a long and tedious search to find a disc and drive that actually work. The drives are little more than a token gesture on modern PCs and they're fast disappearing.
A new standard for floppies would offer none of the benefits which you claim. No existing drive would read them. No existing media would give you this mythical new capacity. It would just be a completely new and incompatible option. It would also be far less convenient to carry around than the modern alternatives.
Accept it - the floppy is dead. It was useful in its day but it's long since been superseded. The alternatives are just too overwhelmingly better.
John
Why so complicated? With CUPS, once your print server is set up the process is even simpler - just GO! Why would you want to specify a printer type and an IP? That sort of messing around with details is precisely what the user shouldn't have to worry about. CUPS takes care of all of this for you.
John
Whilst I agree that setting up a CUPS server is still a pain - mostly because of the lack of decent documentation - once your server is up and running then workstation is even easier than the process described for Windows in the parent article.
All you have to do is - nothing at all! I can take a virgin PC, connect it to my network, boot with a Knoppix CD, start OpenOffice.org and all my printers are there and ready to use. No configuration, no drivers, no \\servername\printername. As soon as I do File=>Print in OpenOffice.org I get a list of the printers which are configured and ready for me to use. No user intervention of any sort required.
Yes, penetrating the fog of CUPS documentation to get your server(s) set up is a prime pain, but once the server is there then CUPS has Windows printing beaten hollow for ease of end-user use.
John
No, no, no. It just seems like four months when you're watching it.
Not quite. Polytechnics were issuing degrees long before they all renamed themselves as universities. The great renaming was a simple government sponsored con so that the then government could say, "Look, we've increased the number of universities by NNNNN", when in fact all they'd done was to rename the polytechnics.
On a similar note - can anyone explain why the key to my car will lock and unlock the car at significantly greater distances if I hold it up to the side of my head (the key, not the car)?
The car is a Smart City Cabriolet (not that I suppose that makes any difference) and the key is just a normal sort of radio key.
John
Given the tendency to measure fuel consumption in litres/100k, I can cancel down and say that my car's fuel consumption is about 0.05 square millimetres.
If you prefer the imperial measure of miles/gallon, you could similarly reduce it to inverse acres.
John
to poin the high gain antenna towards Earth
Wait - that wouldn't be the AE-35 unit would it?
Since Meccano is about 30 years older than Lego it's difficult to see how it can be described as a "further-removed variant". It also historically had nothing in common with Lego (apart from being a construction set). The basic building block of Lego is a plastic brick whilst the basic building block of Meccano is a steel strip with holes in.
Looking at modern offerings from both camps however they do seem to have grown together. Both now offer lots of unimaginative plastic pieces of very limited use. It seems that Meccano has lost its way in the same way that Lego has.
John
There was of course a real second problem in the year 2000 - it had 54 weeks, which tripped up at least one computer system (running a Scandinavian rail system IIRC).
John
I do. I got my first one when I was a student at Oxford in 1979. True, they didn't hit the mass market until the early 80s, but they were definitely around in the 70s.
John
The problem is, if you want to sue someone for $3 billion, you have to pick someone who's got $3 billion.
The fact that they also have a legal department which covers the land masses of three major planets is just an unfortunate side effect.
John
I too saw that review, but the car they didn't like wasn't a Smart. I regret however that I can't for the moment remember what it was. The Smart didn't feature in that test - perhaps it should have done.
To call it slow in comparison to a Land Rover would be ludicrous!
John
Simply untrue. The only time when the automatic gear change could be described as "slow" is when the driver has failed to anticipate the need for a change and the gearbox then has to take over and do it at the last minute. If the gearchange happens just when you wanted power then yes, it can be annoying. As with any tool, if you don't know how to use it then in extremis it could be dangerous.
Also untrue. It doesn't brake the car during the shift.
It's true that the fuel economy isn't anything to write home about. My previous car was a 5-seater estate which could beat the Smart on both fuel economy and speed (55 mpg against the Smart's 52 mpg), but the Smart is heaps more fun.
John
Towing a Smart *behind* an SUV (or at least, a mobile home) is very common.
You can't unfortunately tow one with its wheels on the ground because you'll knacker the Smart's gearbox, but you can buy some very neat custom trailers which carry the Smart and hook onto the back of your mobile home.
See for instance, http://www.sailsussex.freeserve.co.uk/
John
(Got a Smart Pure Cabriolet and loving it.)
Define "original English language".
American English differs quite a lot from English English but neither can claim to be the original. It's pretty clear that English has grown away from American English just as much as American English has grown away from English.
Everyone speaks a dialect.
John
If you don't have money to burn (and it sounds like you don't) think in terms of something like:
- 1GHz / 1.5GHz processor
- 512M / 1G RAM (it's cheap)
- Fast HD
- Good video card
- Good sound card
You'll pay less than half the money for a machine which gives you 99% of the functionality and life.HTH
John
...fill in appropriate aphorism about Pope/Bears/Dolly Parton
> I suppose everyone running OO on Linux (except
> for those three persons) is using a traditional
> monitor and couldn't care less about sub-pixel
> hinting.
I'm using OOo on Linux with LCD monitors (on several systems) and I'd never even noticed the feature wasn't there. I think you'll find the reason it's low priority is that it has very little impact on the average user - LCD or otherwise.
John
Which British? Those widgets are fine for Guinness, but they really ruin ale in cans. AFAIK we were never consulted - they were just wished on us by marketing types.
Fortunately we can vote with our feet and simply not buy cans with widgets in.
BTW, the warm beer thing is a myth. Good beer is served at the temperature of a cool cellar. The thing is that if the beer actually tastes nice you don't have to chill it to the temperature of liquid nitrogen before you can bear to drink it.
John