All true... tho I suppose someone somewhere has run the numbers for the basic classes of "speed + direction + mass + velocity + composition + fudge factor" vs. "size of hole in ground, or velocity and vectors of remaining chunks of planet".;)
I always wondered how that little chunk of iron wound up sitting on *top* of the grass, like it had been gently placed there... tho I've read that isn't too unusual with small meteorites.
I'd remove said storage, and ship it by regular mail to a U.S. postal address, which gives you some protection against search. Describe it for Customs purposes as "used computer parts" with a value under $100, and "gift" so you don't get dinged a duty fee by Customs.
Either that, or invest in some serious web hosting overseas, dump everything to that, and kill it off the current storage device.
I've sometimes thought that rather than stealing from some people to support those who can't or won't support themselves (and there's considerable overlap between the two) we should return to the medieval beggar system, where those in need would have to ask, and those who felt the urge could donate. But no one would be coerced into giving OR receiving (and there's some coercion on that side too, especially for the only-slightly-disabled who are informed that to get benefits, they CANNOT work and help support themselves).
I once saw a meteor that was large enough to show a disk -- albeit burning very brightly (it lit up the night like an old-fashioned flashbulb). It only lasted a few seconds after that. Sadly for disaster theorists, the atmosphere was just too much for it.
Until they start throwing rocks the size of large buildings, or strip off the atmosphere before doing so, I just can't get too worried about such trivial space junk.
(Anyone know how big a rock needs to start off to survive the passage thru the atmosphere and have any part of itself hit the ground?? -- I once found a meteorite; it was nickel-iron and only about an inch across, and it was lying on top of the grass in our front yard!)
Using my cave-dwelling self as a contrary example of how you don't need to be a sociopath to get sick of people, and sick of sharing everything in your life with everyone you know... and this applies even if like myself, you can go long stretches without seeing anyone and it doesn't bother you. (Which is NOT the same thing as hiding from people. If I were hiding, I wouldn't be HERE!)
I have a TV, I like some types of TV, but I haven't seen my TV in a couple years... nothing there I want to see bad enough to be arsed to move the shelf that wound up in front of the TV. If broadcast content was better, maybe I'd be motivated (and I don't need it for DVDs, I've got the computer for that).
And being everyone's good listener gets really OLD after a certain point, which is why I've developed spates of not answering my phone... I'm sick of hearing the same trivial shit over and over. And I don't have a cellphone... if I don't want to talk to you when I'm at home, why would I want to talk to you when I'm elsewhere?
Same thing for social networking and blog sites. Same old same old everywhere you look. I don't care about it, I'm tired of seeing it, and I'm not going to waste my time there.
Email? got that. But I can choose to ignore it, just as I can choose to ignore slashdot. I can come here when the mood strikes me, or not if it doesn't. No one drags me in here.
And privacy? Go ahead and stare; what I put out in public, I assume will get looked at; ain't nothin' special. But what I *don't* put out in public is none of your damned business.
Being a troglodyte, I *still* don't have a cellphone. I don't want my phone following me around; there's nothing in my life that can't wait til I get home to the answering machine. If someone else's life is that frantic, or that dependent on talking to be whenever the hell they want to, I don't really want to be part of it.
Likewise, I don't have a facebook account. I do have gmail as a last-ditch backup (I've got other accounts I prefer) and a livejournal mainly to keep track of a few friends who were falling away -- an unfortunate consequence of any communication differential. However, I don't post personal info there, nor do I see any reason why I should.
[Hope this posts. The latest slashdot changes have created a lot of problems in textmode.]
You are correct (I wasn't entirely clear), and the same legal remedies apply as ever -- tho if you squint, plagiarism might be regarded as a special form of copyright infringement, where the material is re-used (distribution of a sort) without permission, AND the attribution is stripped.
And by now I've forgotten where I was going with that:)
The GIMP has never liked me much, and I don't like Photoshop much. (I won CS2 a while back, but detesting v5/6, haven't yet installed it!) I can do 10x the work in half the time in Photopaint, and it will run on any system less than 15 years old, too:) v8 is the very definition of a user-friendly yet competent bitmap editor.
I've seen Parallels running, it's nice! and the fact is, if I do wind up with an everyday linux desktop, it's probably going to have some species of both Windows and real DOS running fulltime in VMs. There are a few old DOS apps I can't live without either, including one I need for business that I've never found a wholly-suitable replacement for. (I do have source, but it's in Pascal. After so many years I know the app so well that the source makes sense even without comments.:)
If someone would compile Vern Buerg's LIST (source for v6 is public domain, but is in assembly) for linux, that would get me further than anything else -- I learned more from snooping around my old 286 with LIST than from all other sources combined!! I think it's perfectly normal to peer at a binary's innards or to read a document in hex mode.:)
Commandline doesn't bother me, but the fact that I feel blind in the linux environment DOES (LIS, a tool like LIST would help a lot.. Midnight Commander comes close, but isn't real convenient to use that way)...along with a certain lack of patience when it comes to long strings of esoteric switches and CL arguments... where it's too easy to make a mistake, and *NIX is unforgiving.
Yeah, I think you're right that the assumption is that anyone who's already a DOS dweeb or a Registry wrangler will eventually become a kernel-geek, and 10 years ago, that was pretty much so. Nowadays... me and most middle-aged people, even advanced users elsewise, just don't have youth's time and patience for slogging through and absorbing new material. We want it to Just Freakin' Work, and if it doesn't, gimme a hammer and I'll *make* it work.:) But the desire to spend months learning to work with more-refined tools just isn't there anymore. (But I don't want a Mac, because I hate the whole interface with a passion, not to mention the *enforced* ignorance. And yes, I own one!)
What I'd really like is a linux config interface that works like some HTML editors: a nice GUI where you're shown the available choices, and a second panel where the actual changes are being made in realtime (where you could also edit, if you felt brave). Since most (all?) linux config stuff reputedly lives in textfiles, and since such a dual interface has been in some HTML editors for at least 12 years, ISTM it wouldn't be that hard to implement. With such a tool, the user could use whichever config method he feels comfortable with, and can LEARN if he wishes, by watching exactly what changes the GUI makes to the config files.
Ideally, any changes made to the text side would be reflected in the GUI too, with Help (maybe info balloons or dialog popups) available for wrong or dangerous choices.
I think such a tool would go a long ways toward demystifying linux for we who've outgrown the need to tinker with everything and learn every detail, but still want to know Just What The Hell Is Going On In There. IOW, a middle ground for the otherwise-advanced user with limited remaining patience.:)
Remember the estimated $6M worth of sales from NIN's digital experiment? Give away the lowest-common denominator (average-grade MP3s), sell various upgrades, from better-grade downloads to 3-figure boxed sets. And not a dime in advertising or distribution costs for the digital versions, other than the bill for a bit of bandwidth. Word of mouth and slashdot ensured a banner turnout. (And presumably the hardcopies were priced well over the overhead to manufacture them.)
Most artists would be delerious with joy if they managed 1% of that level of success -- especially if they got to keep all of it, instead of having to hand 98% of it to the label!
And then there's Jonathan Coulson, whose amateur music sold well enough, starting from freebies and optional purchases, that he could quit his day job.
It's clear the market is there to be exploited, which goes to prove the contention that the RIAA isn't about stopping piracy, it's about retaining control.
As to controlling ideas and profiting from them.. copyright in its original form did that adequately, and could still continue to do so: If someone plagiarizes your content, you have redress same as always. And if you're using the well-proven "Free samples" method of advertising and initial distribution, there ceases to be such a crime as "digital piracy".
On following THAT stream of money, one finds in part a very unhappy advertising and promotions industry that's being shut out by digital free samples. But why be unhappy? they can advertise paid upgrades to someone's free content as well as the content owner can, and maybe better -- especially should the content owner feel a need to reach a new market (which new artists always do). I see money here for sales on commission, no different from ordinary meatspace commissions.
"That is what cowboys have been doing since the 19th century. For generations, cowboys have used commands such as "gee" and "haw" to tell their cattle to move right or left."
I see the problem. They've confused "cattle" with "herding dogs".
The problem with that theory is that it assumes that different people were in charge before and after the Revolution, but the truth is that it was largely the same people doing the same jobs but in different uniforms and with new job titles. The same thing happened after the USSR fell apart -- same people, same job, different uniform.
My first thought about that number was that it's probably just about the total of wannabe-signed, halfbaked garage bands, has-beens, and other not-so-good artists who are presently either unmarketable or not worth marketing. BUT... if ALL of them had record contracts, that would be... oh, about 750,000 more artists who'd be employed, right??
Exactly the same war is being waged against dog breeders and livestock producers by various "animal rights" interests (CA Prop 2 is one such example).
Extending civil asset forfeiture to extremes like taking the cars from people who merely WATCH a street race is another example.
We seem to be returning to a Puritan culture, where "anything *I* don't like, YOU can't do either!" whether there's a logical reason for that or not. And if you can't jail someone for some such offense, taking his property for that offense is... well, not the next-best thing; it's probably "even better" because it's profitable!
We've also entered an era of finding ways to ALWAYS ensure that any person of interest can be convicted of a felony. CA Prop 6 does this by requiring gang members to register with the police (in blatant disregard of our Constitutional Right of Assembly). Arrest some kid without enough evidence of a crime? no problem... chances are he never registered as a gang member; GOT HIM!
The RIAA's desired incarnation of copyright is similiar: Did you even THINK of perusing that material? then PAY UP! and if you don't, we'll send Vinny and Guido to confiscate your computer (that way we can be sure what IP address to tie your "crime" to). The moment we have a "Copyright Czar" you can expect the "war on piracy" to escalate to levels very similar to the "war on drugs" -- with equally negative effects. Imagine raids on average citizens for the crime of copying a disk they got from the library...
Personally, I believe the "war on drugs" is encouraged and even partly funded by the drug lords, to keep prices artificially high. One could draw similar parallels to the RIAA cartel.... as to drugs, I'm all for legalize/regulate/tax. It's relatively easy with hard goods like drugs. How could we do that with content -- to legalize, regulate, and tax, so everyone gets their cut yet no one (short of "smugglers") can be hauled in for a "crime"??
I think that's probably what happened -- the new partition didn't get fully baked, so it wound up mangled. (I know it didn't restart the machine after it was supposedly done repartitioning.) It's a test box and no one really cares about the old Ubuntu 7 (2007?:) install, just annoying cuz U8 wasted a bunch of my time. I'm not overly fond of Ubuntu anyversion... but that week I was supposed to demo it for the PC user grope, and was quite frustrated that it wouldn't play nice!
Gonna install Mandra^H^H Mandriva current-version on that box next... they've FINALLY fixed a small bug in Konq's filebrowser interface (or at least that's where it manifested, tho I'm not sure it was a Konq bug), that despite being very minor, was a showstopper for me due to being a chronic every-bloody-time-I-used-it annoyance. HOORAY!
Now if I can find a copy of Corel Photopaint v8 for linux (it exists, retail box no less!), or be assured the WinVersion will run reliably in WINE, I might FINALLY end up with a linux box I can love.:)
Actually, that level of linux underpinnings, such as the "just do this and that then restart X" are a major source of frustration for me. I completely grok DOS, and I can usually beat Windows-anyspecies into submission (and am quite comfy rooting in the registry), but I feel like I'm blindfolded in linux.:( For users like myself (and most of the small local LUG, for that matter) there's a real need for some middle-ground system tools, that neither hide everything from the Stupid User nor assume everyone is a kernel-geek. Alas, IANAprogrammer, so I can't do anything about it!
No, "manual" gave me an interface vaguely akin to Partition Magic (which I use all the time), and I moved stuff around til it was sized how I wanted it... clicked Continue (or whatever the button said), and it proceeded to spend the next hour going thru the motions (even asked all the normal install questions) but nothing happened, except it got to a certain point and froze (it did this, with minor variations, four times in a row, on a machine that ran Ubuntu 5-6-7 just fine). Found out later (from several folks I see at the local LUG) that this isn't unusual with Ubuntu 8; reportedly it has something to do with them having removed support for middle-aged NVidia video cards.
It did nuke the existing install (last year's Ubuntu), but left the HD with no viable partitions; it's so messed up that FDISK won't touch it. I'll have to write zeros to the disk to make it usuable again. (Which per one of my fellow LUG-nuts, it did to his laptop too. So it ain't just me.)
Didn't know they'd tied the "version number" to the year... it just says 8.something on the CD.
In the four attempts, only once did it get as far as the LiveCD interface, tho it ran in some oddball low-colour resolution. The INSTALL icon was present, but did nothing. Literally nothing!! Next three tries didn't get anywhere near as far along. Gave up on this version!
Could be; things do change rapidly in sitebuilding tools, and I haven't paid much attention in the past year or two. Whatever tools are presently being used don't usually ID-tag the page source.
I'd still like to hurt 'em, tho... increasingly, without flash you can't even get into a site. They want both latest and greatest, and don't even bother with a skip-to-navigation link. Bah, I just go elsewhere. Ain't nothing online I need that bad.
I hope it would work that way, but given human nature when it finds itself at the top and/or threatened, I have small faith.:(
Also, I think you'd find few buyers for the assets if they were forced to keep what are now to them surplus personnel (just as you don't find mergers where everyone gets to keep their jobs). And we'd wind up with a bunch of gov't-owned businesses, paid for and continuing to be financed with tax dollars, while losing money in the usual way for govt-run "business".
But if there's any talent in the dross, maybe someone will pick it up, rework/cover the song, and release it -- which means the band gets both a royalty and a lesson in how they SHOULD have handled that tune.
Whom I found by being sent by a friend to his "Thingaweek" site. His "Skullcrusher Mountain" was briefly my favourite song (I'm writing my own parody of it!)
Slashdot Mirror
All true... tho I suppose someone somewhere has run the numbers for the basic classes of "speed + direction + mass + velocity + composition + fudge factor" vs. "size of hole in ground, or velocity and vectors of remaining chunks of planet". ;)
I always wondered how that little chunk of iron wound up sitting on *top* of the grass, like it had been gently placed there... tho I've read that isn't too unusual with small meteorites.
I'd remove said storage, and ship it by regular mail to a U.S. postal address, which gives you some protection against search. Describe it for Customs purposes as "used computer parts" with a value under $100, and "gift" so you don't get dinged a duty fee by Customs.
Either that, or invest in some serious web hosting overseas, dump everything to that, and kill it off the current storage device.
I've sometimes thought that rather than stealing from some people to support those who can't or won't support themselves (and there's considerable overlap between the two) we should return to the medieval beggar system, where those in need would have to ask, and those who felt the urge could donate. But no one would be coerced into giving OR receiving (and there's some coercion on that side too, especially for the only-slightly-disabled who are informed that to get benefits, they CANNOT work and help support themselves).
Also gives them 24 hours to decide which of your files are "evidence".
Kindof like having free access to your house for a day, plenty of time to ensure that the 'evidence' they want to find will be present.
Smells like corruption waiting to happen to me.
I once saw a meteor that was large enough to show a disk -- albeit burning very brightly (it lit up the night like an old-fashioned flashbulb). It only lasted a few seconds after that. Sadly for disaster theorists, the atmosphere was just too much for it.
Until they start throwing rocks the size of large buildings, or strip off the atmosphere before doing so, I just can't get too worried about such trivial space junk.
(Anyone know how big a rock needs to start off to survive the passage thru the atmosphere and have any part of itself hit the ground?? -- I once found a meteorite; it was nickel-iron and only about an inch across, and it was lying on top of the grass in our front yard!)
Using my cave-dwelling self as a contrary example of how you don't need to be a sociopath to get sick of people, and sick of sharing everything in your life with everyone you know... and this applies even if like myself, you can go long stretches without seeing anyone and it doesn't bother you. (Which is NOT the same thing as hiding from people. If I were hiding, I wouldn't be HERE!)
I have a TV, I like some types of TV, but I haven't seen my TV in a couple years... nothing there I want to see bad enough to be arsed to move the shelf that wound up in front of the TV. If broadcast content was better, maybe I'd be motivated (and I don't need it for DVDs, I've got the computer for that).
And being everyone's good listener gets really OLD after a certain point, which is why I've developed spates of not answering my phone... I'm sick of hearing the same trivial shit over and over. And I don't have a cellphone ... if I don't want to talk to you when I'm at home, why would I want to talk to you when I'm elsewhere?
Same thing for social networking and blog sites. Same old same old everywhere you look. I don't care about it, I'm tired of seeing it, and I'm not going to waste my time there.
Email? got that. But I can choose to ignore it, just as I can choose to ignore slashdot. I can come here when the mood strikes me, or not if it doesn't. No one drags me in here.
And privacy? Go ahead and stare; what I put out in public, I assume will get looked at; ain't nothin' special. But what I *don't* put out in public is none of your damned business.
Being a troglodyte, I *still* don't have a cellphone. I don't want my phone following me around; there's nothing in my life that can't wait til I get home to the answering machine. If someone else's life is that frantic, or that dependent on talking to be whenever the hell they want to, I don't really want to be part of it.
Likewise, I don't have a facebook account. I do have gmail as a last-ditch backup (I've got other accounts I prefer) and a livejournal mainly to keep track of a few friends who were falling away -- an unfortunate consequence of any communication differential. However, I don't post personal info there, nor do I see any reason why I should.
[Hope this posts. The latest slashdot changes have created a lot of problems in textmode.]
You are correct (I wasn't entirely clear), and the same legal remedies apply as ever -- tho if you squint, plagiarism might be regarded as a special form of copyright infringement, where the material is re-used (distribution of a sort) without permission, AND the attribution is stripped.
And by now I've forgotten where I was going with that :)
The GIMP has never liked me much, and I don't like Photoshop much. (I won CS2 a while back, but detesting v5/6, haven't yet installed it!) I can do 10x the work in half the time in Photopaint, and it will run on any system less than 15 years old, too :) v8 is the very definition of a user-friendly yet competent bitmap editor.
I've seen Parallels running, it's nice! and the fact is, if I do wind up with an everyday linux desktop, it's probably going to have some species of both Windows and real DOS running fulltime in VMs. There are a few old DOS apps I can't live without either, including one I need for business that I've never found a wholly-suitable replacement for. (I do have source, but it's in Pascal. After so many years I know the app so well that the source makes sense even without comments. :)
If someone would compile Vern Buerg's LIST (source for v6 is public domain, but is in assembly) for linux, that would get me further than anything else -- I learned more from snooping around my old 286 with LIST than from all other sources combined!! I think it's perfectly normal to peer at a binary's innards or to read a document in hex mode. :)
Commandline doesn't bother me, but the fact that I feel blind in the linux environment DOES (LIS, a tool like LIST would help a lot.. Midnight Commander comes close, but isn't real convenient to use that way) ...along with a certain lack of patience when it comes to long strings of esoteric switches and CL arguments... where it's too easy to make a mistake, and *NIX is unforgiving.
Yeah, I think you're right that the assumption is that anyone who's already a DOS dweeb or a Registry wrangler will eventually become a kernel-geek, and 10 years ago, that was pretty much so. Nowadays ... me and most middle-aged people, even advanced users elsewise, just don't have youth's time and patience for slogging through and absorbing new material. We want it to Just Freakin' Work, and if it doesn't, gimme a hammer and I'll *make* it work. :) But the desire to spend months learning to work with more-refined tools just isn't there anymore. (But I don't want a Mac, because I hate the whole interface with a passion, not to mention the *enforced* ignorance. And yes, I own one!)
What I'd really like is a linux config interface that works like some HTML editors: a nice GUI where you're shown the available choices, and a second panel where the actual changes are being made in realtime (where you could also edit, if you felt brave). Since most (all?) linux config stuff reputedly lives in textfiles, and since such a dual interface has been in some HTML editors for at least 12 years, ISTM it wouldn't be that hard to implement. With such a tool, the user could use whichever config method he feels comfortable with, and can LEARN if he wishes, by watching exactly what changes the GUI makes to the config files.
Ideally, any changes made to the text side would be reflected in the GUI too, with Help (maybe info balloons or dialog popups) available for wrong or dangerous choices.
I think such a tool would go a long ways toward demystifying linux for we who've outgrown the need to tinker with everything and learn every detail, but still want to know Just What The Hell Is Going On In There. IOW, a middle ground for the otherwise-advanced user with limited remaining patience. :)
Remember the estimated $6M worth of sales from NIN's digital experiment? Give away the lowest-common denominator (average-grade MP3s), sell various upgrades, from better-grade downloads to 3-figure boxed sets. And not a dime in advertising or distribution costs for the digital versions, other than the bill for a bit of bandwidth. Word of mouth and slashdot ensured a banner turnout. (And presumably the hardcopies were priced well over the overhead to manufacture them.)
Most artists would be delerious with joy if they managed 1% of that level of success -- especially if they got to keep all of it, instead of having to hand 98% of it to the label!
And then there's Jonathan Coulson, whose amateur music sold well enough, starting from freebies and optional purchases, that he could quit his day job.
It's clear the market is there to be exploited, which goes to prove the contention that the RIAA isn't about stopping piracy, it's about retaining control.
As to controlling ideas and profiting from them.. copyright in its original form did that adequately, and could still continue to do so: If someone plagiarizes your content, you have redress same as always. And if you're using the well-proven "Free samples" method of advertising and initial distribution, there ceases to be such a crime as "digital piracy".
On following THAT stream of money, one finds in part a very unhappy advertising and promotions industry that's being shut out by digital free samples. But why be unhappy? they can advertise paid upgrades to someone's free content as well as the content owner can, and maybe better -- especially should the content owner feel a need to reach a new market (which new artists always do). I see money here for sales on commission, no different from ordinary meatspace commissions.
"Fascist techniques like forced rehab are good at costing a lot of people a lot of money"
You misspelled "Fascist techniques like forced rehab are good at making the rehab providers (including prisons) a lot of money"
But otherwise, dead-on.
And now back to today's discussion :)
From TFA:
"That is what cowboys have been doing since the 19th century. For generations, cowboys have used commands such as "gee" and "haw" to tell
their cattle to move right or left."
I see the problem. They've confused "cattle" with "herding dogs".
The problem with that theory is that it assumes that different people were in charge before and after the Revolution, but the truth is that it was largely the same people doing the same jobs but in different uniforms and with new job titles. The same thing happened after the USSR fell apart -- same people, same job, different uniform.
Suggested Reading:
Why They Behave Like Russians
now free from the Open Library project
http://www.openlibrary.org/details/whytheybehavelik00fiscmiss
My first thought about that number was that it's probably just about the total of wannabe-signed, halfbaked garage bands, has-beens, and other not-so-good artists who are presently either unmarketable or not worth marketing. BUT... if ALL of them had record contracts, that would be ... oh, about 750,000 more artists who'd be employed, right??
Exactly the same war is being waged against dog breeders and livestock producers by various "animal rights" interests (CA Prop 2 is one such example).
Extending civil asset forfeiture to extremes like taking the cars from people who merely WATCH a street race is another example.
We seem to be returning to a Puritan culture, where "anything *I* don't like, YOU can't do either!" whether there's a logical reason for that or not. And if you can't jail someone for some such offense, taking his property for that offense is ... well, not the next-best thing; it's probably "even better" because it's profitable!
We've also entered an era of finding ways to ALWAYS ensure that any person of interest can be convicted of a felony. CA Prop 6 does this by requiring gang members to register with the police (in blatant disregard of our Constitutional Right of Assembly). Arrest some kid without enough evidence of a crime? no problem... chances are he never registered as a gang member; GOT HIM!
The RIAA's desired incarnation of copyright is similiar: Did you even THINK of perusing that material? then PAY UP! and if you don't, we'll send Vinny and Guido to confiscate your computer (that way we can be sure what IP address to tie your "crime" to). The moment we have a "Copyright Czar" you can expect the "war on piracy" to escalate to levels very similar to the "war on drugs" -- with equally negative effects. Imagine raids on average citizens for the crime of copying a disk they got from the library...
Personally, I believe the "war on drugs" is encouraged and even partly funded by the drug lords, to keep prices artificially high. One could draw similar parallels to the RIAA cartel.... as to drugs, I'm all for legalize/regulate/tax. It's relatively easy with hard goods like drugs. How could we do that with content -- to legalize, regulate, and tax, so everyone gets their cut yet no one (short of "smugglers") can be hauled in for a "crime"??
The tags are all messed up in low-bandwidth/no-CSS/no-JS mode, too.
I think that's probably what happened -- the new partition didn't get fully baked, so it wound up mangled. (I know it didn't restart the machine after it was supposedly done repartitioning.) It's a test box and no one really cares about the old Ubuntu 7 (2007? :) install, just annoying cuz U8 wasted a bunch of my time. I'm not overly fond of Ubuntu anyversion... but that week I was supposed to demo it for the PC user grope, and was quite frustrated that it wouldn't play nice!
Gonna install Mandra^H^H Mandriva current-version on that box next... they've FINALLY fixed a small bug in Konq's filebrowser interface (or at least that's where it manifested, tho I'm not sure it was a Konq bug), that despite being very minor, was a showstopper for me due to being a chronic every-bloody-time-I-used-it annoyance. HOORAY!
Now if I can find a copy of Corel Photopaint v8 for linux (it exists, retail box no less!), or be assured the WinVersion will run reliably in WINE, I might FINALLY end up with a linux box I can love. :)
Actually, that level of linux underpinnings, such as the "just do this and that then restart X" are a major source of frustration for me. I completely grok DOS, and I can usually beat Windows-anyspecies into submission (and am quite comfy rooting in the registry), but I feel like I'm blindfolded in linux. :( For users like myself (and most of the small local LUG, for that matter) there's a real need for some middle-ground system tools, that neither hide everything from the Stupid User nor assume everyone is a kernel-geek. Alas, IANAprogrammer, so I can't do anything about it!
No, "manual" gave me an interface vaguely akin to Partition Magic (which I use all the time), and I moved stuff around til it was sized how I wanted it... clicked Continue (or whatever the button said), and it proceeded to spend the next hour going thru the motions (even asked all the normal install questions) but nothing happened, except it got to a certain point and froze (it did this, with minor variations, four times in a row, on a machine that ran Ubuntu 5-6-7 just fine). Found out later (from several folks I see at the local LUG) that this isn't unusual with Ubuntu 8; reportedly it has something to do with them having removed support for middle-aged NVidia video cards.
It did nuke the existing install (last year's Ubuntu), but left the HD with no viable partitions; it's so messed up that FDISK won't touch it. I'll have to write zeros to the disk to make it usuable again. (Which per one of my fellow LUG-nuts, it did to his laptop too. So it ain't just me.)
Didn't know they'd tied the "version number" to the year... it just says 8.something on the CD.
In the four attempts, only once did it get as far as the LiveCD interface, tho it ran in some oddball low-colour resolution. The INSTALL icon was present, but did nothing. Literally nothing!! Next three tries didn't get anywhere near as far along. Gave up on this version!
That sounds like it!!
Now, who said it??
Could be; things do change rapidly in sitebuilding tools, and I haven't paid much attention in the past year or two. Whatever tools are presently being used don't usually ID-tag the page source.
I'd still like to hurt 'em, tho... increasingly, without flash you can't even get into a site. They want both latest and greatest, and don't even bother with a skip-to-navigation link. Bah, I just go elsewhere. Ain't nothing online I need that bad.
I hope it would work that way, but given human nature when it finds itself at the top and/or threatened, I have small faith. :(
Also, I think you'd find few buyers for the assets if they were forced to keep what are now to them surplus personnel (just as you don't find mergers where everyone gets to keep their jobs). And we'd wind up with a bunch of gov't-owned businesses, paid for and continuing to be financed with tax dollars, while losing money in the usual way for govt-run "business".
Wow, those photos are works of art. Thanks for the link!
But if there's any talent in the dross, maybe someone will pick it up, rework/cover the song, and release it -- which means the band gets both a royalty and a lesson in how they SHOULD have handled that tune.
Whom I found by being sent by a friend to his "Thingaweek" site. His "Skullcrusher Mountain" was briefly my favourite song (I'm writing my own parody of it!)
Nah, just that everything evolves to become the same as its former enemies. How does that quote go on the subject??