"Geez, Mom. If you really don't like using F6, just change the code and do the 5-hour recompile. Stop your complaining."
Actually, it's not too hard. It doesn't involve recompiling, it just involves adding a few lines to your user.js file. Maybe in the future they'll add a nice GUI for your mom to use.
My point wasn't that your mom should change the code, but that someone who is capable of such a thing should do so when they want a particular feature and contribute it to the project. And the author of this article is a software developer. But I know he was just trying to make a point, it just wasn't a good example.
I use Mozilla on all my boxen, but on my Windows box I have it saying its using the Linux version.
Nice little line to add to your user.js: user_pref("general.useragent.override", "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.0.0) Gecko/20020529");
How's that for skewing web server statistics?:)
Those who have IE users on their network and want to skew results in favor of Mozilla can do so by using a web proxy (such as Squid). Hmmmm.. this could account for the large number of IE in web server logs. Many web proxies will send a set browser name to the web server, and I imagine most of these proxies are set to say its IE.
Yeah, the ALT-D thing threw me off, too. I mean, its open-source, if you want to use different keyboard shortcuts, modify it to meet your needs (granted, that may take a little work). Customizable controls are completely a possibility.
After using Mozilla for a week, I got used to its keyboard controls, and now when I'm in IE I hit the wrong keys. But I can't modify IE keyboard controls to fit what I'm used to.
Well my argument isn't going to hold water if royalties are charged for used CDs, that was really all I was saying.
I wasn't really talking to normal buyers of CDs, though, I was talking to those specifically boycotting CDs due to their dislike of the RIAA, and I was telling them they still have the option of buying used. It is a bit ironic that this article was posted a day after I made such a statement.
Personally, I'm going to buy music just like I normally do. But those who boycott still have options as far as music is concern (besides being a pirate).
Just the other day I was telling people who were boycotting CDs and the RIAA that they can still buy used music because it only profits the music store. Hopefully this doesn't apply to used vinyl (and tapes) which are dirt cheap these days. I just bought 15 good albums for $1 a piece the other day.
When I took the AP computer science test in high school we had to code on paper! I'm just like you...I get my vibe when I am in front of the computer coding, not with a pencil and paper.
I enjoyed taking my AP Computer Science test (1995). It was the only AP test I felt totally comfortable taking. I would much rather write code on paper, than write an essay on paper about some passage that I just read. Writing *anything* on computer is going to be easier of course. You write an essay on computer, you can type faster than you can write, you can go back and cut and paste and edit easilly, and you can run a spell/grammer check.
I had to take a ton of exams that required writing code or pseudocode. I didn't have too much trouble and just got good at it after a while. A lot of times they aren't trying to test how well you code, but how well you approach a problem. The comments in the code was often the more important part. Writing assembly on paper was probably the easiest because you could run through it in your head easilly. Having said all that these tests were quite a challenge, though in a good way.
My problem is with reading code. I don't learn much from reading code and often get lost in reading relatively complex code. Computer books are only good for reference for me, I can't learn much from reading them. Its not until I sit down and write some code for myself that I get anywhere. Also, trying to figure out someone else's code can be difficult.
The core requirements may suck, but once they are over its nothing but hardcore computer hacking fun. Get them out of way first when you're fresh out of high school and used to taking useless courses. My last semester was a fall semester with two CS courses (only 6 credits), it couldn't have been a better last semester.
This is slightly offtopic but.. Cell phones use up battery power sitting around waiting for an incoming call, no? There should be a feature that doesn't stay on the network, but every say 15 minutes (or whatever you set it to), it connects and sees if you have any voice mail or had any calls. Has this been done?
I don't know if I either heard this somewhere or thought of this on my own, but I've been entertaining the idea of every car having such a relay and being part of a P2P network. There are always cars on the road, and it would be interesting to see how effective such a network would be in how much area it can cover. Maybe a simulation based on traffic data would be interesting.
Of course the problem is getting lots of people to install this in their car.
One of the CDs I recently bought I got directly from the lead singer of the band at one of their shows (Engine Down, check 'em out they rock). I think all these people who are fed up with the RIAA should go explore independent artists and their local music scene.
Though I'm not saying ignore the major label bands, some of them are really good. If you really want to support an artist, go see them live. That is where they make most of their profit (from what I hear anyhow).
Its not like Incubus is going to start driving trucks with their cds and selling out of their van.
I agree. I'm not all about this boycotting nonsense. I buy music for the simple purpose of supporting the artists I like. Sure I can get it for free if I really wanted to, but there are those bands that are genuinely good, how can I not support them?
Though I'm not saying ignore the major label bands, some of them are really good. If you really want to support an artist, go see them live. That is where they make most of their profit (from what I hear anyhow).
I will no longer pay for music, period. Only if I happen to be at the mall and happen to remember a CD I want
Forget the mall, support your local independent music store instead (rather than the chains like Blockbuster Music, Sams, Best Buy, etc that already see enough revenue). If you're into bands on independent labels, buy their CDs knowing that the money is going to people who actually need it. Support the little guys who are putting out quality stuff but are still struggling.
Buy used music, its cheaper (and only the record store makes money off this). If you like vinyl, buy the records you already have in digital format. I just bought 15 used records for $1/piece the other day, a few of which I already had CDs of. At $1 an album I can't complain!
I used 1.1a a bit last night, but switched back to 1.0 because it was crashing every time I visited Slashdot! The page didn't even get to load or anything. It had no problems with other sites I tried, though.
The more I use Mozilla 1.x, the more I'm liking it. All those little things that I felt were missing with earlier releases are now included (such as good keyboard controls for bookmarks). I'm finding more and more useful features as I go along. This is only going to get better.
I've got pipelining on. I think its increasing speeds (I'm on cable), but I haven't really done any serious comparisons. In any case, it hasn't caused me any problems.
I'm not really a "vinyl beats CD pusher" or an "audiophile" but I do appreciate vinyl. I just bought 15 records today for a $1 a piece, most of which were classic albums (some of which I already owned on CD). I don't have great equipment (my cartridge costed $100 new), but even so, in most cases I like listening to the record better than the CD. If you actually sit down and actively listen you can't deny it. If anything, the sound is just different in a way that is pleasant and offers something that CD doesn't. When you record vinyl to CD quality you lose that something, I've experienced that myself.
Though I won't say it beats CD, or vice versa. You've gotta take care of your records, putting them on is a bit of trouble, a flaky pitch control can be annoying, and you can't listen in your car or while you're on the go. I often rip my CDs (as WAV's) and queue up playlists, a convenience you generally don't have with vinyl.
Digital audio is the way to go these days, but vinyl is still good. Though, maybe one of these 24-bit higher sampling rate formats will obsolete vinyl (I personally haven't experienced much of them so I can't say).
The only ones I've seen are nearly as expensive as a new CPU, and since you're going to replace the CPU in 6 months anyway, why spend that much for the heatsink?
If you're replacing your CPU every 6 months you can afford to buy a decent heatsink, especially considering you don't have to replace the heatsink, its a one-time purchase. If you don't want to buy a big heatsink that uses mounting holes, many of the newer socket clips work really well, for example the Swiftech MCX370.
Now, I'll be the first to say that we need a cohesive, third party, solid rating system for chips. But throwing in a number that you damn well know the rank and file are going to misinterpret is just naughty.
This is much harder than you think. A benchmark can easilly be biased even if it doesn't intend to be. Its difficult to come up with a single number that tells you the CPU performance. If you read a comparison review between an Intel and AMD CPU for example, you'll notice some things score higher on each processor. You've got things like pipeline performance, cache performance, specialized instruction sets that are unique to a particular processor, etc which make a clear cut rating impossible to make.
As someone who understands that clock speed means very little, I don't really care how AMD markets their CPUs. Clock speed is only good for comparing CPUs of the exact same architecture, so what difference does it make as long as you can tell the difference among the XPs? If someone really needs to know the clock speed they can find that information as needed.
As someone else mentioned, these PR ratings are performance in comparison to an Athlon Thunderbird. Considering how similar AMD's XPs are to their older line of processors, one could argue that they are just trying to differentiate between the two (although I doubt that's their only motive).
Who uses bookmarks anymore? It's easier to use auto complete for the sites I visit most (i.e. sl = slashdot.org) and Google [google.com] is good usually good enough to find whatever other information I need.
Bookmarks are good for keeping track of sites you might want to go back to but wouldn't remember to otherwise. And a lot of times URLs alone are not descriptive enough. I use bookmarks quite frequently and I imagine many other people do the same (especially when doing research). There are times when even Google won't help me find that page I came across but didn't bookmark.
Of course as you can imagine I have a heap of bookmarks with only the most important ones organized. But it gives me something to do when I just want to randomly surf and can't think of anything to go to.
You can cut down the amount of RAM usage by going to Preferences->Advanced->Cache and then reduce the memory cache. Personally, I find its memory usage quite acceptable (I watch the virtual memory usage as well as the physical memory usage). I've heard that IE hides much of its mem usage. But I guess you're on a Solaris box so this is probably not the case for you.
(You may have noticed that I seem fixated on Mozilla's slowness. [...] I have a Sun workstation that cost more money than Slashdot earns in a year. On this workstation, Internet Explorer takes x seconds to load, Netscape 4 takes 2x seconds to load, and Mozilla takes 15x (!!) seconds to load.
You're comparing browser load times? If so, that's not a really an important issue, though I find Mozilla loads fast even without the preloading feature. What's important is page rendering times. According to the CNET article, Mozilla was faster in 3 or 4 tests (granted they don't go into detail and talk about other tests).
In any case do want you want. Continue to use IE exclusively if you please. But many of us are going to be giving Mozilla and Mozilla-based browsers a chance. It has something that IE will most likely never have: it is completely customizable in that we have the source code.
most people use Kazaa to get mp3, movies, and warez. Don't you think that they are not the best kind of people?
Don't forget amateur porn. There is nothing wrong or illegal with amateur porn. There are plenty of legitimate uses for P2P, don't generalize. It just happens to be a very effective means of transfering files without any hastle. I've even traded Linux distros and other free software on P2P just to take the load off of the http/ftp sites.
I think IE has been "browser of choice" for only the last year and a half (give or take a few months). Netscape (and maybe Opera) worked with most web pages until around March 2001, when I started to notice that many pages could only be viewed properly with IE. Maybe this happened earlier, but it seems like it wasn't as big of a problem until then. Also, IE is well known for crashing frequently under Win9x/ME. In early 2001, Win2k was being recognized as a stable OS, and IE ran on it without crashing frequently. People were switching to Win2k (or buying PCs with it preinstalled), and finding IE5.0 installed and using it instead of bothering with other browsers.
My whole point is, it hasn't been long that IE has been "browser of choice." And things change so quickly in this area that the popular browser can be Netscape one day, IE the next day, and an onslaught of Mozilla-based browsers the day after that.
Well, you just got lucky. There are some motherboard changes that might work (similar chipsets?), but others that won't. It has to do with HAL customization. They might've changed things in WinXP, but with Win2k this is a common issue.
When I switched from an AMD K6-2 based motherboard to a Athlon 1.4GHz based motherboard, I ran into this issue. The only solution was to reinstall and then restore a backup. This is also what Microsoft recommends, even for WinXP. Some people have said that if you do a motherboard swap (without the reinstall) and even if it works fine, Win2k may not make use of your hardware correctly (even though you don't notice, for example it could make a difference in performance).
Having said all this, I realized I haven't really done much research into doing motherboard swaps on Linux. I just assumed everything was fine since I can take a hard drive with Linux on it and put it in any of my PCs, and just assumed everything was working fine (I suppose it depends on your kernel and what it was compiled with). But I know at least that it boots up and runs fine!
Here's something you can't do with Win2k: take a hard drive with Win2k installed and move it to a PC with a different motherboard, the OS won't boot not even in safe mode. Granted you can do a backup, install, then restore backup, but that's just a workaround and you need space for the backup.
With most Linux distros, you can do this easilly by just taking the hard drive with Linux, putting it in the new PC, and booting up. I've done it with Redhat 6.0 and it goes and recognizes all the new hardware all by itself.
Slashdot Mirror
"Geez, Mom. If you really don't like using F6, just change the code and do the 5-hour recompile. Stop your complaining."
Actually, it's not too hard. It doesn't involve recompiling, it just involves adding a few lines to your user.js file. Maybe in the future they'll add a nice GUI for your mom to use.
My point wasn't that your mom should change the code, but that someone who is capable of such a thing should do so when they want a particular feature and contribute it to the project. And the author of this article is a software developer. But I know he was just trying to make a point, it just wasn't a good example.
I use Mozilla on all my boxen, but on my Windows box I have it saying its using the Linux version.
:)
Nice little line to add to your user.js:
user_pref("general.useragent.override", "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.0.0) Gecko/20020529");
How's that for skewing web server statistics?
Those who have IE users on their network and want to skew results in favor of Mozilla can do so by using a web proxy (such as Squid). Hmmmm.. this could account for the large number of IE in web server logs. Many web proxies will send a set browser name to the web server, and I imagine most of these proxies are set to say its IE.
Yeah, the ALT-D thing threw me off, too. I mean, its open-source, if you want to use different keyboard shortcuts, modify it to meet your needs (granted, that may take a little work). Customizable controls are completely a possibility.
After using Mozilla for a week, I got used to its keyboard controls, and now when I'm in IE I hit the wrong keys. But I can't modify IE keyboard controls to fit what I'm used to.
Well my argument isn't going to hold water if royalties are charged for used CDs, that was really all I was saying.
I wasn't really talking to normal buyers of CDs, though, I was talking to those specifically boycotting CDs due to their dislike of the RIAA, and I was telling them they still have the option of buying used. It is a bit ironic that this article was posted a day after I made such a statement.
Personally, I'm going to buy music just like I normally do. But those who boycott still have options as far as music is concern (besides being a pirate).
Just the other day I was telling people who were boycotting CDs and the RIAA that they can still buy used music because it only profits the music store. Hopefully this doesn't apply to used vinyl (and tapes) which are dirt cheap these days. I just bought 15 good albums for $1 a piece the other day.
When I took the AP computer science test in high school we had to code on paper! I'm just like you...I get my vibe when I am in front of the computer coding, not with a pencil and paper.
I enjoyed taking my AP Computer Science test (1995). It was the only AP test I felt totally comfortable taking. I would much rather write code on paper, than write an essay on paper about some passage that I just read. Writing *anything* on computer is going to be easier of course. You write an essay on computer, you can type faster than you can write, you can go back and cut and paste and edit easilly, and you can run a spell/grammer check.
I had to take a ton of exams that required writing code or pseudocode. I didn't have too much trouble and just got good at it after a while. A lot of times they aren't trying to test how well you code, but how well you approach a problem. The comments in the code was often the more important part. Writing assembly on paper was probably the easiest because you could run through it in your head easilly. Having said all that these tests were quite a challenge, though in a good way.
My problem is with reading code. I don't learn much from reading code and often get lost in reading relatively complex code. Computer books are only good for reference for me, I can't learn much from reading them. Its not until I sit down and write some code for myself that I get anywhere. Also, trying to figure out someone else's code can be difficult.
The core requirements may suck, but once they are over its nothing but hardcore computer hacking fun. Get them out of way first when you're fresh out of high school and used to taking useless courses. My last semester was a fall semester with two CS courses (only 6 credits), it couldn't have been a better last semester.
This is slightly offtopic but.. Cell phones use up battery power sitting around waiting for an incoming call, no? There should be a feature that doesn't stay on the network, but every say 15 minutes (or whatever you set it to), it connects and sees if you have any voice mail or had any calls. Has this been done?
I don't know if I either heard this somewhere or thought of this on my own, but I've been entertaining the idea of every car having such a relay and being part of a P2P network. There are always cars on the road, and it would be interesting to see how effective such a network would be in how much area it can cover. Maybe a simulation based on traffic data would be interesting.
Of course the problem is getting lots of people to install this in their car.
Sorry, the bottom half of that should've read:
One of the CDs I recently bought I got directly from the lead singer of the band at one of their shows (Engine Down, check 'em out they rock). I think all these people who are fed up with the RIAA should go explore independent artists and their local music scene.
Though I'm not saying ignore the major label bands, some of them are really good. If you really want to support an artist, go see them live. That is where they make most of their profit (from what I hear anyhow).
Its not like Incubus is going to start driving trucks with their cds and selling out of their van.
I agree. I'm not all about this boycotting nonsense. I buy music for the simple purpose of supporting the artists I like. Sure I can get it for free if I really wanted to, but there are those bands that are genuinely good, how can I not support them?
One of the CDs I recently bought I got directly from the lead singer of the band at one of their shows (, check 'em out they rock). I think all these people who are fed up with the RIAA should go explore independent artists and their local music scene.
Though I'm not saying ignore the major label bands, some of them are really good. If you really want to support an artist, go see them live. That is where they make most of their profit (from what I hear anyhow).
I will no longer pay for music, period. Only if I happen to be at the mall and happen to remember a CD I want
Forget the mall, support your local independent music store instead (rather than the chains like Blockbuster Music, Sams, Best Buy, etc that already see enough revenue). If you're into bands on independent labels, buy their CDs knowing that the money is going to people who actually need it. Support the little guys who are putting out quality stuff but are still struggling.
Buy used music, its cheaper (and only the record store makes money off this). If you like vinyl, buy the records you already have in digital format. I just bought 15 used records for $1/piece the other day, a few of which I already had CDs of. At $1 an album I can't complain!
I used 1.1a a bit last night, but switched back to 1.0 because it was crashing every time I visited Slashdot! The page didn't even get to load or anything. It had no problems with other sites I tried, though.
The more I use Mozilla 1.x, the more I'm liking it. All those little things that I felt were missing with earlier releases are now included (such as good keyboard controls for bookmarks). I'm finding more and more useful features as I go along. This is only going to get better.
I've got pipelining on. I think its increasing speeds (I'm on cable), but I haven't really done any serious comparisons. In any case, it hasn't caused me any problems.
I'm not really a "vinyl beats CD pusher" or an "audiophile" but I do appreciate vinyl. I just bought 15 records today for a $1 a piece, most of which were classic albums (some of which I already owned on CD). I don't have great equipment (my cartridge costed $100 new), but even so, in most cases I like listening to the record better than the CD. If you actually sit down and actively listen you can't deny it. If anything, the sound is just different in a way that is pleasant and offers something that CD doesn't. When you record vinyl to CD quality you lose that something, I've experienced that myself.
Though I won't say it beats CD, or vice versa. You've gotta take care of your records, putting them on is a bit of trouble, a flaky pitch control can be annoying, and you can't listen in your car or while you're on the go. I often rip my CDs (as WAV's) and queue up playlists, a convenience you generally don't have with vinyl.
Digital audio is the way to go these days, but vinyl is still good. Though, maybe one of these 24-bit higher sampling rate formats will obsolete vinyl (I personally haven't experienced much of them so I can't say).
The only ones I've seen are nearly as expensive as a new CPU, and since you're going to replace the CPU in 6 months anyway, why spend that much for the heatsink?
If you're replacing your CPU every 6 months you can afford to buy a decent heatsink, especially considering you don't have to replace the heatsink, its a one-time purchase. If you don't want to buy a big heatsink that uses mounting holes, many of the newer socket clips work really well, for example the Swiftech MCX370.
Now, I'll be the first to say that we need a cohesive, third party, solid rating system for chips. But throwing in a number that you damn well know the rank and file are going to misinterpret is just naughty.
This is much harder than you think. A benchmark can easilly be biased even if it doesn't intend to be. Its difficult to come up with a single number that tells you the CPU performance. If you read a comparison review between an Intel and AMD CPU for example, you'll notice some things score higher on each processor. You've got things like pipeline performance, cache performance, specialized instruction sets that are unique to a particular processor, etc which make a clear cut rating impossible to make.
As someone who understands that clock speed means very little, I don't really care how AMD markets their CPUs. Clock speed is only good for comparing CPUs of the exact same architecture, so what difference does it make as long as you can tell the difference among the XPs? If someone really needs to know the clock speed they can find that information as needed.
As someone else mentioned, these PR ratings are performance in comparison to an Athlon Thunderbird. Considering how similar AMD's XPs are to their older line of processors, one could argue that they are just trying to differentiate between the two (although I doubt that's their only motive).
Who uses bookmarks anymore? It's easier to use auto complete for the sites I visit most (i.e. sl = slashdot.org) and Google [google.com] is good usually good enough to find whatever other information I need.
Bookmarks are good for keeping track of sites you might want to go back to but wouldn't remember to otherwise. And a lot of times URLs alone are not descriptive enough. I use bookmarks quite frequently and I imagine many other people do the same (especially when doing research). There are times when even Google won't help me find that page I came across but didn't bookmark.
Of course as you can imagine I have a heap of bookmarks with only the most important ones organized. But it gives me something to do when I just want to randomly surf and can't think of anything to go to.
It's a RAM hog. It's slow.
You can cut down the amount of RAM usage by going to Preferences->Advanced->Cache and then reduce the memory cache. Personally, I find its memory usage quite acceptable (I watch the virtual memory usage as well as the physical memory usage). I've heard that IE hides much of its mem usage. But I guess you're on a Solaris box so this is probably not the case for you.
(You may have noticed that I seem fixated on Mozilla's slowness. [...] I have a Sun workstation that cost more money than Slashdot earns in a year. On this workstation, Internet Explorer takes x seconds to load, Netscape 4 takes 2x seconds to load, and Mozilla takes 15x (!!) seconds to load.
You're comparing browser load times? If so, that's not a really an important issue, though I find Mozilla loads fast even without the preloading feature. What's important is page rendering times. According to the CNET article, Mozilla was faster in 3 or 4 tests (granted they don't go into detail and talk about other tests).
In any case do want you want. Continue to use IE exclusively if you please. But many of us are going to be giving Mozilla and Mozilla-based browsers a chance. It has something that IE will most likely never have: it is completely customizable in that we have the source code.
most people use Kazaa to get mp3, movies, and warez. Don't you think that they are not the best kind of people?
Don't forget amateur porn. There is nothing wrong or illegal with amateur porn. There are plenty of legitimate uses for P2P, don't generalize. It just happens to be a very effective means of transfering files without any hastle. I've even traded Linux distros and other free software on P2P just to take the load off of the http/ftp sites.
I think IE has been "browser of choice" for only the last year and a half (give or take a few months). Netscape (and maybe Opera) worked with most web pages until around March 2001, when I started to notice that many pages could only be viewed properly with IE. Maybe this happened earlier, but it seems like it wasn't as big of a problem until then. Also, IE is well known for crashing frequently under Win9x/ME. In early 2001, Win2k was being recognized as a stable OS, and IE ran on it without crashing frequently. People were switching to Win2k (or buying PCs with it preinstalled), and finding IE5.0 installed and using it instead of bothering with other browsers.
My whole point is, it hasn't been long that IE has been "browser of choice." And things change so quickly in this area that the popular browser can be Netscape one day, IE the next day, and an onslaught of Mozilla-based browsers the day after that.
I meant to link HAL customization
Well, you just got lucky. There are some motherboard changes that might work (similar chipsets?), but others that won't. It has to do with HAL customization. They might've changed things in WinXP, but with Win2k this is a common issue.
When I switched from an AMD K6-2 based motherboard to a Athlon 1.4GHz based motherboard, I ran into this issue. The only solution was to reinstall and then restore a backup. This is also what Microsoft recommends, even for WinXP. Some people have said that if you do a motherboard swap (without the reinstall) and even if it works fine, Win2k may not make use of your hardware correctly (even though you don't notice, for example it could make a difference in performance).
Having said all this, I realized I haven't really done much research into doing motherboard swaps on Linux. I just assumed everything was fine since I can take a hard drive with Linux on it and put it in any of my PCs, and just assumed everything was working fine (I suppose it depends on your kernel and what it was compiled with). But I know at least that it boots up and runs fine!
Here's something you can't do with Win2k: take a hard drive with Win2k installed and move it to a PC with a different motherboard, the OS won't boot not even in safe mode. Granted you can do a backup, install, then restore backup, but that's just a workaround and you need space for the backup.
With most Linux distros, you can do this easilly by just taking the hard drive with Linux, putting it in the new PC, and booting up. I've done it with Redhat 6.0 and it goes and recognizes all the new hardware all by itself.
"Only IBM would SELL something you can get for FREE, and I think only Germany would BUY what you can download for FREE"
Well, I believe IBM is selling them "computer systems based on Linux" (quoting the article). And most likely support for these systems as well.