The thing is, if they ripped out media player, what it would break would be the ability of software written for windows to display.. some Microsoft proprietary data formats.
Bullshit. Windows Media (WMP, WMA) does not equal Windows Media Player any more than that godaweful Quicktime player is equal to Quicktime.
Media Player and IE are just frontends for backend API that do all the work, including playing open formats. The media infrastructure behind MP is just as important to Windows as Quicktime is to Macs. (And we wouldn't need that god damn shitty player to play MOVs if Apple made the appropriate DLL for Windows; then it would play in MP or any other Windows player, game, *AHEM*VCD encoder*AHEM* or whatever).
I think you should pay closer attention to the following, with emphasis on not leaving urban areas, since anything remotely resembling a tree is currently on fire.
"Australia - The Confusing Country", by Douglas Adams
Australia is a very confusing place, taking up a large amount of the bottom half of the planet. It is recognisable from orbit because of many unusual features, including what at first looks like an enormous bite taken out of its southern edge; a wall of sheer cliffs which plunge deep into the girting sea. Geologists assure us that this is simply an accident of geomorphology and plate tectonics, but they still call it the "Great Australian Bight" proving that not only are they covering up a more frightening theory, but they can't spell either.
The first of the confusing things about Australia is the status of the place. Where other land masses and sovereign lands are classified as either continent, island, or country, Australia is considered all three. Typically, it is unique in this.
The second confusing thing about Australia are the animals. They can be divided into three categories: Poisonous, Odd, and Sheep. It is true that of the 10 most poisonous arachnids on the planet, Australia has 9 of them. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that of the 9 most poisonous arachnids, Australia has all of them. However, there are curiously few snakes, possibly because the spiders have killed them all. But even the spiders won't go near the sea. Any visitors should be careful to check inside boots (before putting them on) under toilet seats (before sitting down) and generally everywhere else. A stick is very useful for this task.
Strangely, it tends to be the second class of animals (the Odd) that are more dangerous. The creature that kills the most people each year is the common Wombat. It is nearly as ridiculous as its name, and spends its life digging holes in the ground, in which it hides. During the night it comes out to eat worms and grubs.
The wombat kills people in two ways: First, the animal is indestructible. Digging holes in the hard Australian clay builds muscles that outclass Olympic weightlifters. At night, they often wander the roads.
Semi-trailers (Road Trains) have hit them at high speed, with all 9 wheels on one side, and this merely makes them very annoyed. They express this by snorting, glaring, and walking away. Alas, to smaller cars, the wombat becomes an asymmetrical launching pad, with results that can be imagined, but not adequately described.
The second way the wombat kills people relates to its burrowing behaviour. If a person happens to put their hand down a Wombat hole, the Wombat will feel the disturbance and think "Ho!My hole is collapsing!" at which it will brace its muscled legs and push up against the roof of its burrow with incredible force, to prevent its collapse. Any unfortunate hand will be crushed, and attempts to withdraw will cause the Wombat to simply bear down harder. The unfortunate will then bleed to death through their crushed hand as the wombat prevents him from seeking assistance. This is considered the third most embarrassing known way to die, and Australians don't talk about it much.
At this point, we would like to mention the Platypus, estranged relative of the mammal, which has a duck-bill, otter's tail, webbed feet, lays eggs, detects its aquatic prey in the same way as the electric eel, and has venomous barbs attached to its hind legs, thus combining all 'typical' Australian attributes into a single improbable creature.
The last confusing thing about Australia is the inhabitants. First, a short history: Some time around 40,000 years ago, some people arrived in boats from the north. They ate all the available food, and lots of them died. The ones that survived learned respect for the balance of nature, man's proper place in the scheme of things, and spiders. They settled in, and spent a lot of the intervening time making up strange stories.
Then, around 200 years ago, Europeans arrived in boats from the north. More accurately, European convicts were sent, with a few deranged and stupid people in charge. They tried to plant their crops in Autumn(failing to take account of the reversal of the seasons when moving from the top half of the planet to the bottom), ate all their food, and a lot of them died.
About then the sheep arrived, and have been treasured ever since. It is interesting to note here that the Europeans always consider themselves vastly superior to any other race they encounter, since they can lie, cheat, steal, and litigate (marks of a civilised culture they say) - whereas all the Aboriginals can do is happily survive being left in the middle of a vast red-hot desert, equipped with a stick.
Eventually, the new lot of people stopped being Europeans on Extended Holiday and became Australians. The changes are subtle, but deep, caused by the mind-stretching expanses of nothingness and eerie quiet, where a person can sit perfectly still and look deep inside themselves to the core of their essence, their reasons for being, and the necessity of checking inside your boots every morning for fatal surprises.
They also picked up the most finely tuned sense of irony in the world, and the Aboriginal gift for making up stories. Be warned. There is also the matter of the beaches.
Australian beaches are simply the nicest and best in the entire world. Although anyone actually venturing into the sea will have to contend with sharks, stinging jellyfish, stonefish (a fish which sits on the bottom of the sea, pretends to be a rock, and has venomous barbs sticking out of its back that will kill just from the pain) and surfboarders. However, watching a beach sunset is worth the risk.
As a result of all this hardship, dirt, thirst, and wombats, you would expect Australians to be a dour lot. Instead, they are genial, jolly, cheerful, and always willing to share a kind word with a stranger, unless they are an American. Faced with insurmountable odds and impossible problems, they smile disarmingly and look for a stick. Major engineering feats have been performed with sheets of corrugated iron, string, and mud.
Alone of all the races on earth, they seem to be free from the 'Grass is Greener on the other side of the fence' syndrome, and roundly proclaim that Australia is, in fact, the other side of that fence. They call the land "Oz", "Godzone" (a verbal contraction of "God's Own Country") and "Best bloody place on earth, bar none, strewth." The irritating thing about this is they may be right.
There are some traps for the unsuspecting traveller, though. Do not under any circumstances suggest that the beer is imperfect, unless you are comparing it to another kind of Australian beer. Do not wear a Hawaiian shirt. Religion and Politics are safe topics of conversation (Australians don't care too much about either) but Sport is a minefield. The only correct answer to "So, howdya' like our country, eh?" is "Best {insert your own regional swear word here} country in the world!".
It is very likely that, on arriving, some cheerful Australians will 'adopt' you, and on your first night, and take you to a pub where Australian Beer is served. Despite the obvious danger, do not refuse. It is a form of initiation rite. You will wake up late the next day with an astonishing hangover, a foul-taste in your mouth, and wearing strange clothes. Your hosts will usually make sure you get home, and waive off any legal difficulties with "It's his first time in Australia, so we took him to the pub.", to which the policeman will sagely nod and close his notebook. Be sure to tell the story of these events to every other Australian you encounter, adding new embellishments at every stage, and noting how strong the beer was. Thus you will be accepted into this unique culture.
Most Australians are now urban dwellers, having discovered the primary use of electricity, which is air-conditioning and refrigerators.
Typical Australian sayings
"G'Day!"
"It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick."
"She'll be right."
"And down from Kosciusko, where the pine clad ridges raise their torn and rugged battlements on high, where the air is clear as crystal, and the white stars fairly blaze at midnight in the cold and frosty sky. And where, around the overflow, the reed beds sweep and sway to the breezes, and the rolling plains are wide. The Man from Snowy River is a household word today, and the stockmen tell the story of his ride."
Tips to Surviving Australia
Don't ever put your hand down a hole for any reason whatsoever. We mean it.
The beer is stronger than you think, regardless of how strong you think it is.
Always carry a stick.
Air-conditioning.
Do not attempt to use Australian slang, unless you are a trained linguist and good in a fistfight.
Thick socks.
Take good maps. Stopping to ask directions only works when there are people nearby.
If you leave the urban areas, carry several litres of water with you at all times, or you will die.
Even in the most embellished stories told by Australians, there is always a core of truth that it is unwise to ignore.
See Also: "Deserts: How to die in them", "The Stick: Second most useful thing ever" and "Poisonous and Venomous arachnids, insects, animals, trees, shrubs, fish and sheep of Australia, volumes 1-42"
Maybe, maybe not. Smaller fans = louder (or at least a higher pitched whine which is far more irritating than a deep hum).
My smallest system is a MiniITX job, and is by the the loudest machine I have ever owned, thanks to the screaming little PSU fan (/me kicks self for not getting the external fanless brick PSU & boring case instead of the funky all in one case).
My full tower cases, OTOH, are slightly more quiet than my midi cases. That probably has more to do with the fact that they're (expensive) high quality towers with large slow fans, and therefore don't vibrate as much as smaller/crappier cases.
Beyond 2000 used to rock in the 80's and early 90's, and started to suck slightly afterwards, much like computer mags.. after the Internet showed up, everything in print or on TV was either talking about the Internet (boring), or was beaten to the scoop months ago by the Internet (lame; you got a $budget$ guys, surely you can beat Free?)
And I can only assume Channel Nein had the rights to Beyond 2000, since it never had a stable timeslot in the 90's. I gave up trying to watch it cos I could never figure out when the fuck it was on.
Scrolling through Windows' Regional Settings, there are a number of countries that use YYYYMMDD. Japan isn't listed (at all) but I seem to remember they use that format as well.
The thing is, the people making the decisions aren't usually the techie types. A suit will read it as 'small buzzword compliant firm takes on reuters for hacking' and immediately want to hire them/buy their stuff.
that everything should be one big network with the same addressed space (i.e. the Intranet, really, rather than the Internet, because the latter implies connections between different networks
The Internet is a public network of networks, not a maze of private IP network gateways. Ever heard of a "Class C Network" or similar? They ARE separate networks, they just use a common protocol and address space to enable communication with each other. NAT is a proxy, not a network.
There are DVD recorders around, though pretty pricy, as is the media.
I think Tivo, etc. have VCR/DVD beat for time shifting purposes regardless, so an an integrated DVD/HDD recorder would pretty much cover all bases IMO.. they just need to make it a helluvalot cheaper
Why does the open source community have the right to be insulted? They continually insult Microsoft users for their "choice" in software, crapping on endlessly about the superiority of OSS. Well, someone's finally calling you on it - if it's so fucking superior, PROVE IT.
So, to the OSS community, take your pick: a) write the apps people really want, b) STFU & leave everyone else alone.
Slashdot Mirror
Media Player and IE are just frontends for backend API that do all the work, including playing open formats. The media infrastructure behind MP is just as important to Windows as Quicktime is to Macs. (And we wouldn't need that god damn shitty player to play MOVs if Apple made the appropriate DLL for Windows; then it would play in MP or any other Windows player, game, *AHEM*VCD encoder*AHEM* or whatever).
Uh, we don't actually get The Ashes... you lot get to keep it no matter who wins it..
I think you should pay closer attention to the following, with emphasis on not leaving urban areas, since anything remotely resembling a tree is currently on fire.
"Australia - The Confusing Country", by Douglas Adams
Australia is a very confusing place, taking up a large amount of the bottom half of the planet. It is recognisable from orbit because of many unusual features, including what at first looks like an enormous bite taken out of its southern edge; a wall of sheer cliffs which plunge deep into the girting sea. Geologists assure us that this is simply an accident of geomorphology and plate tectonics, but they still call it the "Great Australian Bight" proving that not only are they covering up a more frightening theory, but they can't spell either.
The first of the confusing things about Australia is the status of the place. Where other land masses and sovereign lands are classified as either continent, island, or country, Australia is considered all three. Typically, it is unique in this.
The second confusing thing about Australia are the animals. They can be divided into three categories: Poisonous, Odd, and Sheep. It is true that of the 10 most poisonous arachnids on the planet, Australia has 9 of them. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that of the 9 most poisonous arachnids, Australia has all of them. However, there are curiously few snakes, possibly because the spiders have killed them all. But even the spiders won't go near the sea. Any visitors should be careful to check inside boots (before putting them on) under toilet seats (before sitting down) and generally everywhere else. A stick is very useful for this task.
Strangely, it tends to be the second class of animals (the Odd) that are more dangerous. The creature that kills the most people each year is the common Wombat. It is nearly as ridiculous as its name, and spends its life digging holes in the ground, in which it hides. During the night it comes out to eat worms and grubs.
The wombat kills people in two ways: First, the
animal is indestructible. Digging holes in the hard Australian clay builds muscles that outclass Olympic weightlifters. At night, they often wander the roads.
Semi-trailers (Road Trains) have hit them at high speed, with all 9 wheels on one side, and this merely makes them very annoyed. They express this by snorting, glaring, and walking away. Alas, to smaller cars, the wombat becomes an asymmetrical launching pad, with results that can be imagined, but not adequately described.
The second way the wombat kills people relates to its burrowing behaviour. If a person happens to put their hand down a Wombat hole, the Wombat will feel the disturbance and think "Ho!My hole is collapsing!" at which it will brace its muscled legs and push up against the roof of its burrow with incredible force, to prevent its collapse. Any unfortunate hand will be crushed, and attempts to withdraw will cause the Wombat to simply bear down harder. The unfortunate will then bleed to death through their crushed hand as the wombat prevents him from seeking assistance. This is considered the third most embarrassing known way to die, and Australians don't talk about it much.
At this point, we would like to mention the Platypus, estranged relative of the mammal, which has a duck-bill, otter's tail, webbed feet, lays eggs, detects its aquatic prey in the same way as the electric eel, and has venomous barbs attached to its hind legs, thus combining all 'typical' Australian attributes into a single improbable creature.
The last confusing thing about Australia is the
inhabitants. First, a short history: Some time around 40,000 years ago, some people arrived in boats from the north. They ate all the available food, and lots of them died. The ones that survived learned respect for the balance of nature, man's proper place in the scheme of things, and spiders. They settled in, and spent a lot of the intervening time making up strange stories.
Then, around 200 years ago, Europeans arrived in boats from the north. More accurately, European convicts were sent, with a few deranged and stupid people in charge. They tried to plant their crops in Autumn(failing to take account of the reversal of the seasons when moving from the top half of the planet to the bottom), ate all their food, and a lot of them died.
About then the sheep arrived, and have been treasured ever since. It is interesting to note here that the Europeans always consider themselves vastly superior to any other race they encounter, since they can lie, cheat, steal, and litigate (marks of a civilised culture they say) - whereas all the Aboriginals can do is happily survive being left in the middle of a vast red-hot desert, equipped with a stick.
Eventually, the new lot of people stopped being
Europeans on Extended Holiday and became Australians. The changes are subtle, but deep, caused by the mind-stretching expanses of nothingness and eerie quiet, where a person can sit perfectly still and look deep inside themselves to the core of their essence, their reasons for being, and the necessity of checking inside your boots every morning for fatal surprises.
They also picked up the most finely tuned sense of irony in the world, and the Aboriginal gift for making up stories. Be warned. There is also the matter of the beaches.
Australian beaches are simply the nicest and best in the entire world. Although anyone actually venturing into the sea will have to contend with sharks, stinging jellyfish, stonefish (a fish which sits on the bottom of the sea, pretends to be a rock, and has venomous barbs sticking out of its back that will kill just from the pain) and surfboarders. However, watching a beach sunset is worth the risk.
As a result of all this hardship, dirt, thirst, and wombats, you would expect Australians to be a dour lot. Instead, they are genial, jolly, cheerful, and always willing to share a kind word with a stranger, unless they are an American. Faced with insurmountable odds and impossible problems, they smile disarmingly and look for a stick. Major engineering feats have been performed with sheets of corrugated iron, string, and mud.
Alone of all the races on earth, they seem to be free from the 'Grass is Greener on the other side of the fence' syndrome, and roundly proclaim that Australia is, in fact, the other side of that fence. They call the land "Oz", "Godzone" (a verbal contraction of "God's Own Country") and "Best bloody place on earth, bar none, strewth." The irritating thing about this is they may be right.
There are some traps for the unsuspecting traveller, though. Do not under any circumstances suggest that the beer is imperfect, unless you are comparing it to another kind of Australian beer. Do not wear a Hawaiian shirt. Religion and Politics are safe topics of conversation (Australians don't care too much about either) but Sport is a minefield. The only correct answer to "So, howdya' like our country, eh?" is "Best
{insert your own regional swear word here} country in the world!".
It is very likely that, on arriving, some cheerful Australians will 'adopt' you, and on your first night, and take you to a pub where Australian Beer is served. Despite the obvious danger, do not refuse. It is a form of initiation rite. You will wake up late the next day with an astonishing hangover, a foul-taste in your mouth, and wearing strange clothes. Your hosts will usually make sure you get home, and waive off any legal difficulties with "It's his first time in Australia, so we took him to the pub.", to which the policeman will sagely nod and close his notebook. Be sure to tell the story of these events to every other
Australian you encounter, adding new embellishments at every stage, and noting how strong the beer was. Thus you will be accepted into this unique culture.
Most Australians are now urban dwellers, having
discovered the primary use of electricity, which is air-conditioning and refrigerators.
Typical Australian sayings
"G'Day!"
"It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp
stick."
"She'll be right."
"And down from Kosciusko, where the pine clad ridges raise their torn and rugged battlements on high, where the air is clear as crystal, and the white stars fairly blaze at midnight in the cold and frosty sky.
And where, around the overflow, the reed beds sweep
and sway to the breezes, and the rolling plains are wide. The Man from Snowy River is a household word today, and the stockmen tell the story of his ride."
Tips to Surviving Australia
Don't ever put your hand down a hole for any
reason whatsoever. We mean it.
The beer is stronger than you think, regardless of how strong you think it is.
Always carry a stick.
Air-conditioning.
Do not attempt to use Australian slang, unless you are a trained linguist and good in a fistfight.
Thick socks.
Take good maps. Stopping to ask directions only works when there are people nearby.
If you leave the urban areas, carry several litres of water with you at all times, or you will die.
Even in the most embellished stories told by
Australians, there is always a core of truth that it is unwise to ignore.
See Also: "Deserts: How to die in them", "The Stick: Second most useful thing ever" and "Poisonous and Venomous arachnids, insects, animals, trees, shrubs, fish and sheep of Australia, volumes 1-42"
And it wouldn't have to stop off at NZ if it weren't in the fucking way..
Uh, you gotta factor it before you know it's a prime, no?
It's called competition.
Everyone should remember this the next time they feel the urge to crap on about monopolies.
I think you just discovered the speed of 'cool' - really fucking slow.
Note the "to date" part. This new technology is supposed to recify the short lifespan problem.
If you're used to *nix, VMS will be like plucking your eyes out with a blunt toothpick.
Maybe, maybe not. Smaller fans = louder (or at least a higher pitched whine which is far more irritating than a deep hum).
My smallest system is a MiniITX job, and is by the the loudest machine I have ever owned, thanks to the screaming little PSU fan (/me kicks self for not getting the external fanless brick PSU & boring case instead of the funky all in one case).
My full tower cases, OTOH, are slightly more quiet than my midi cases. That probably has more to do with the fact that they're (expensive) high quality towers with large slow fans, and therefore don't vibrate as much as smaller/crappier cases.
486's were released in '89
Beyond 2000 used to rock in the 80's and early 90's, and started to suck slightly afterwards, much like computer mags.. after the Internet showed up, everything in print or on TV was either talking about the Internet (boring), or was beaten to the scoop months ago by the Internet (lame; you got a $budget$ guys, surely you can beat Free?)
And I can only assume Channel Nein had the rights to Beyond 2000, since it never had a stable timeslot in the 90's. I gave up trying to watch it cos I could never figure out when the fuck it was on.
Scrolling through Windows' Regional Settings, there are a number of countries that use YYYYMMDD. Japan isn't listed (at all) but I seem to remember they use that format as well.
you'd prolly have to polish the fuck out of it so the laser can still focus..
So in other words, /.'s business plan is:
1) Analyse '???'
2) ???
3) Profit!
The thing is, the people making the decisions aren't usually the techie types. A suit will read it as 'small buzzword compliant firm takes on reuters for hacking' and immediately want to hire them/buy their stuff.
This is about as exciting as Microsoft releasing the sourcecode to Notepad or DOS 1.0. Hoo fucking ray.
It's a system library, yes. Not built into the kernel.
And the apps are just as much front ends as any other program that makes heavy use of prebuilt libraries/toolkits.
Just so you know, ext2 fragments. Badly.
However, the performance hit from a fragged ext2 or NTFS filesystem varies a lot, starting at 'fuck all.'
I used the quickloader a couple of times - took twice as long as loading from scratch. It must be getting swapped out or something.
There are DVD recorders around, though pretty pricy, as is the media.
I think Tivo, etc. have VCR/DVD beat for time shifting purposes regardless, so an an integrated DVD/HDD recorder would pretty much cover all bases IMO.. they just need to make it a helluvalot cheaper
Why does the open source community have the right to be insulted? They continually insult Microsoft users for their "choice" in software, crapping on endlessly about the superiority of OSS. Well, someone's finally calling you on it - if it's so fucking superior, PROVE IT.
So, to the OSS community, take your pick: a) write the apps people really want, b) STFU & leave everyone else alone.