I don't think this qualifies as "dumbing down", as in Windows/DOS, where configuration options are gradually "lost" and replaced with Wizards or automatic-configuration. This demonstrates the flexibility of the open-source model, whereby branches such as these can exist concurrently with the main Linux kernel. Heck, even distributions such as Debian and RedHat would qualify as "dumbing down" in such an interpretation. The fact that you started off building your own system from scratch is a testament to your computer knowledge/skill. Most people would rather start with a pre-made general-purpose distro and go up from there. Still others won't mess with RedHat, but would install Linux on a firewall or MP3 player in their car. Eventually, they will become curious enough to install a main distro on their PC and then maybe even build one from scratch, as you have done.
These are great, and I use tomsrtbt regularly, but where is Linux Router Project?
Anyways, I have a few ideas for linux distros:
Web Terminal Linux: Requires 486 with 8mb RAM. Boots from a floppy, all files on CD (since 486's can't boot from CD). Runs Konqueror-embedded and a PPP/dialup program. Turns your old pc into a web terminal.
MP3 Player Linux: Requires 486/Pentium with minimal RAM. Comes with parts list from Radio Shack to add LCD screen and basic frontend. Runs MP3 player and NFS/Samba to access files over home network. Or, accesses files on CD-ROM for in-car use.
I know these (almost) already exist in one form or another. I just think the main advantage of using a floppy or cd distro is putting it on that old 486 in the closet and getting some use out of it.
I don't think this is that far off. If not "surrounded by combines", most midwesterners parents were at least exposed to a farm environment. If they were not, then they migrated there from (guess where!) the northeast. I would bet that midwesterners are more likely to work on their own cars, or to at least know someone who works on his/her own car, thus contributing to their confidence that technology is not impossibly complicated.
Re:Now we know where to land
on
Lots of Ice On Mars
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
(most terrestrial crops would actually like the CO2 atmosphere of Mars better than our own) sorry to nitpick, but actually, most crops would be poisoned by the CO2 atmosphere of Mars as it stands now. It would take decades of terraforming before any "colonists" could grow things outside of greenhouses on Mars.
Dammit. I had a nice little reply written up and my damn browser lost it. Well, suffice it to say, I'm pretty sure you're wrong. An unmanaged, purely logical network such as gnutella is not comparable to the telephone network, in which connections go "up" one side and "down" another, routed by a higher authority with knowledge of the network topology. Gnutella is dynamic, and optimised for redundancy and stability, if anything. The article does not argue that a hyper-whatever topology is more efficient than such a laid-out and managed network as the phone companies'. It does argue that a "blind" p2p network should be arranged in such a way as to minimise the "distance" from one end of the network to the other given the maximum number of connections per node. This would give the highest overall efficiency, although less than that of an externally managed and catalouged network such as Napster, while maintaining the "collective" and hence infinitely redundant nature of the Gnutella network.
I hate to see such a wonderful philosopher attacked in such a way. This group, under the aegis of Ann Rand, apparently is trying to apply her arguments for the basis of human rights to ethereal entities known as corporations.
The fact is that incorporated bodies do not have fundamental rights. All of this groups' arguments are completely valid and supported by Ms. Rand when applied to ACTUAL HUMANS. Yet it is not actual humans who are on trial here. Actual humans have the right to work and to engage in commerce with other actual humans. One person will never become a monopoly.
Corporations with patent/copyrights and liability from suit can and do become harmful monopolies. I also want to point out that the only thing on trial here is Microsoft's contractual agreements, which are inherently contingent upon government for enforcement. In this case, government has every right to deny enforcement and even to reverse the effects of those agreements if they are found to be unlawful.
mirror ISOs with more reasonable bandwidth limits
on
Non-Profit Colocation?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I would say that the best contribution to the linux community that you could make, assuming that you have the bandwidth, is to mirror distributions in ISO format like www.linuxiso.org does.
I have had nothing but trouble trying to download ISO images due to several problems that higher server bandwidth would have certainly fixed.
eg. Some servers require HTTP downloads, including www.linuxiso.org (??). Downloading a huge file for days at a time in Windows is just asking for an error. Also, the RedHat server always "resets" my FTP connections in the middle of the night. And, most FTP servers have bandwidth restrictions, even during off-peak times, that are not dependent upon the server load.
I would guess that load on these types of servers would be greatly reduced if people could download what they need quickly, without having to abort downloads and restart from scratch.
I was 2nd in the US in Latin reading comprehension in high school precisely because I used to record class lectures and replay them while doing my homework. I was lucky enough to have an open-minded teacher who didn't regard this as cheating. This is a very cheap, useful technique that is VERY BENEFICIAL in foreign language classes. Plus, it would save the students the hassle of buying a recorder and sitting at the front of the class to get a good recording.
Great Idea! I was going to say: let students volunteer to set up open-source wireless access points, but paying them minimum wage for their time is much better! I have a feeling at my school, though, that they would rather pay out the nose for commercial solutions instead of having cutting-edge software and paying some of that money back to their students.:(
Personally, I had a horrid time at college my freshman year because of three things: no money, too much free time, and no opportunity to get a work-study position between classes. I go to a small school, so the classes I took were spread out over the whole day. I still have a difficult time scheduling classes around my part-time job.
This is not just a win-win-win, but also a win-win-win-win situation: student gets paid, university gets useful software, open-source grows, AND student gets hands-on experience, something most universities have a hard time offering.
I can't believe I'm explaining this on SlashDot, but: The conversion to a hydrogen-fuel-based society will make space travel affordable because it will link terrestrial fuels and their always-favorable economics to the fuel of space travel, liquid Oxygen and Hydrogen.
Here's the thing I don't see being discussed here: DVD Audio formats.
Does anyone know anything about these? Are they subject to DeCSS? If so, is the recording industry just trying to move from CDs (IQ required to copy: 80) to CSS-encrypted DVD-Audio (IQ required: 120)? Is that also why Philips would be opposed to such measures? Would hastening the adoption of DVD-Audio also hasten the (future) adoption of a more rigorously copy-protected format?
Personally, I kind of like the idea of STOPPING the entire process of switching to a new audio standard every ten years. I don't see that DVD-Audio formats offer anything over and above regular audio CDs similar to what audio CDs offered over Tapes. I'd like to hear if anyone thinks they do...
These are salespeople, not *techies*. Assuming it's not fake, the language of the letter was very motivational and had a conversational tone, not subject to *strict* rules of grammar.
Would you pay more attention to "C'mon, guys, lets go out there and try to quickly sell more copies of Windows!" or "Felicitations, salespersons. The agenda for this week consists of the following tasks: selling Windows, spying on customers, and following the Microsoft chain-of-command."? (I know, my grammar isn't that great, either)
The point is that these are not nerds who know how to punctuate their sentences in e-mails. These are ex-football-player-types who are able to convince people to buy Windows, IN PERSON, using common phrases, not through e-mail using technically correct grammar.
ALSO, if I was fat like he is I would have avoided the use of the word fat
OR, if I was fat I would have just been reminded of that fact by my family members over the holidays and would be defensive enough about it to denounce "fatness" to everyone I know. Think about it...
I am, as you say "intensifyingly bright". I have noticed that most of the people who read and comment on SlashDot are also very bright.
If you know of a school such as the one this guy is looking for, why don't you just do him a favor and tell us?
Don't assume that since he doesn't want to go through all the crap of two years of boring electives that he is not "intensifyingly bright". After all, his salary is increasing at a rate greater than Moore's Law; which makes me wonder why the hell he wants to go back to school in the first place.:)
From what I can tell of this case, it's a lot like something that one of our former "consultants" did once.
I work for a law firm, and back before we had our nifty Linux firewall and DSL connection, one of the attorneys had (ugh!) a modem and dialled-up directly to the internet every so often to check her personal e-mail.
One day (so I'm reminded every month or so), our then "computer-guy" came in to set up something and ended up walking out with the attorney's modem. It just so happens that he re-sells old computer parts and that's probably what he intended to do with it, but I (to this day) will defend what he did because I would probably do the same.
The point is: his job, even though he was an outside consultant, was to take care of our computer systems, including the information on them. Having someone dialling out on the internet without even firewalling their machine (this was before we had virus scanners, too) was not in our best interests.
Had he tried to explain this to either the boss (just now learned to use e-mail) or the attorney in question (would be damned to not have the best computer in the place), he would have been answered with blank stares. More importantly, though, it would have been his fault when the entire network got a virus and all of our client files were lost. Like I said, I would have done the same thing, no explanation or permission necessary;
because the status quo these days is to assume that management and employees are all morons, actively trying to defeat whatever security you have in place to protect them, and without the knowledge or wherewithal to actually learn why "Pre$ident" is just as bad a password as none at all.
you'd think something this would have happened after, say, the second "ILOVEYOU"-style worm brought corporate mailservers around the country to a screeching halt-- during an administration that was actually prosecuting Microsoft for its monopolistic misdeeds.
I agree, but as much as I love that this is happening now, it's ONLY happening now because of the recent emphasis on terrorism. The Democrats, as much as they would have liked to, wouldn't have just let the FBI and Pentagon (no less!) go around making "suggestions" even to evil corporations like Microsoft.
This is the only post I've seen yet that gets at the real crux of this situation. The insanity of most copyright laws is just this: that in a wired world, most copyright laws PREVENT the spread of information instead of ENCOURAGING (or subsidizing) it, as they were intended. The Napster case showed this very clearly. Even though Napster did not profit from the distribution of MP3s, they were found guilty of copyright infringement under legal precedents that treat "devaluation" of property rights the same way as outright theft. It's like Microsoft suing UPS because someone ships a copy of Windows through it. (Okay, I know it's not exactly the same, but in extreme cases, such as this one, legal theories such as those involving "devaluation" demonstrate their limitations.) What happens when DVD's can be translated by computer and the Consortium's "Region" classifications become the same sort of bottleneck to progress?
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think this qualifies as "dumbing down", as in Windows/DOS, where configuration options are gradually "lost" and replaced with Wizards or automatic-configuration. This demonstrates the flexibility of the open-source model, whereby branches such as these can exist concurrently with the main Linux kernel. Heck, even distributions such as Debian and RedHat would qualify as "dumbing down" in such an interpretation. The fact that you started off building your own system from scratch is a testament to your computer knowledge/skill. Most people would rather start with a pre-made general-purpose distro and go up from there. Still others won't mess with RedHat, but would install Linux on a firewall or MP3 player in their car. Eventually, they will become curious enough to install a main distro on their PC and then maybe even build one from scratch, as you have done.
For a distro in english, try DemoLinux. It has Gnome, KDE and StarOffice.
Anyways, I have a few ideas for linux distros:
Web Terminal Linux: Requires 486 with 8mb RAM. Boots from a floppy, all files on CD (since 486's can't boot from CD). Runs Konqueror-embedded and a PPP/dialup program. Turns your old pc into a web terminal.
MP3 Player Linux: Requires 486/Pentium with minimal RAM. Comes with parts list from Radio Shack to add LCD screen and basic frontend. Runs MP3 player and NFS/Samba to access files over home network. Or, accesses files on CD-ROM for in-car use.
I know these (almost) already exist in one form or another. I just think the main advantage of using a floppy or cd distro is putting it on that old 486 in the closet and getting some use out of it.
Ha! This is almost as good as The Linux Gay Conspiracy
"I just ran a Google/Yahoo! search and came up with X webpages that answer your question. Next time, do your own F*&@ing search!"
I don't think this is that far off. If not "surrounded by combines", most midwesterners parents were at least exposed to a farm environment. If they were not, then they migrated there from (guess where!) the northeast. I would bet that midwesterners are more likely to work on their own cars, or to at least know someone who works on his/her own car, thus contributing to their confidence that technology is not impossibly complicated.
(most terrestrial crops would actually like the CO2 atmosphere of Mars better than our own)
sorry to nitpick, but actually, most crops would be poisoned by the CO2 atmosphere of Mars as it stands now. It would take decades of terraforming before any "colonists" could grow things outside of greenhouses on Mars.
We are the music-makers,
and we are the dreamers of dreams.
-Willy Wonka
Dammit. I had a nice little reply written up and my damn browser lost it. Well, suffice it to say, I'm pretty sure you're wrong. An unmanaged, purely logical network such as gnutella is not comparable to the telephone network, in which connections go "up" one side and "down" another, routed by a higher authority with knowledge of the network topology. Gnutella is dynamic, and optimised for redundancy and stability, if anything. The article does not argue that a hyper-whatever topology is more efficient than such a laid-out and managed network as the phone companies'. It does argue that a "blind" p2p network should be arranged in such a way as to minimise the "distance" from one end of the network to the other given the maximum number of connections per node. This would give the highest overall efficiency, although less than that of an externally managed and catalouged network such as Napster, while maintaining the "collective" and hence infinitely redundant nature of the Gnutella network.
I hate to see such a wonderful philosopher attacked in such a way. This group, under the aegis of Ann Rand, apparently is trying to apply her arguments for the basis of human rights to ethereal entities known as corporations.
The fact is that incorporated bodies do not have fundamental rights. All of this groups' arguments are completely valid and supported by Ms. Rand when applied to ACTUAL HUMANS. Yet it is not actual humans who are on trial here. Actual humans have the right to work and to engage in commerce with other actual humans. One person will never become a monopoly.
Corporations with patent/copyrights and liability from suit can and do become harmful monopolies. I also want to point out that the only thing on trial here is Microsoft's contractual agreements, which are inherently contingent upon government for enforcement. In this case, government has every right to deny enforcement and even to reverse the effects of those agreements if they are found to be unlawful.
I have had nothing but trouble trying to download ISO images due to several problems that higher server bandwidth would have certainly fixed.
eg. Some servers require HTTP downloads, including www.linuxiso.org (??). Downloading a huge file for days at a time in Windows is just asking for an error. Also, the RedHat server always "resets" my FTP connections in the middle of the night. And, most FTP servers have bandwidth restrictions, even during off-peak times, that are not dependent upon the server load.
I would guess that load on these types of servers would be greatly reduced if people could download what they need quickly, without having to abort downloads and restart from scratch.
Your government, whatever it is, does what our government says anyways. You may as well have a say in it.
I was 2nd in the US in Latin reading comprehension in high school precisely because I used to record class lectures and replay them while doing my homework. I was lucky enough to have an open-minded teacher who didn't regard this as cheating. This is a very cheap, useful technique that is VERY BENEFICIAL in foreign language classes. Plus, it would save the students the hassle of buying a recorder and sitting at the front of the class to get a good recording.
Personally, I had a horrid time at college my freshman year because of three things: no money, too much free time, and no opportunity to get a work-study position between classes. I go to a small school, so the classes I took were spread out over the whole day. I still have a difficult time scheduling classes around my part-time job.
This is not just a win-win-win, but also a win-win-win-win situation: student gets paid, university gets useful software, open-source grows, AND student gets hands-on experience, something most universities have a hard time offering.
and so it begins
I did :)
I can't believe I'm explaining this on SlashDot, but: The conversion to a hydrogen-fuel-based society will make space travel affordable because it will link terrestrial fuels and their always-favorable economics to the fuel of space travel, liquid Oxygen and Hydrogen.
have developed a photocatalyst that uses optical radiation - which makes up 43% of solar energy
Your expertise in "known" solid state laser gain substances doesn't mean jack if you can't realize that this is a heretofore UNKNOWN substance.
Read the article. It precludes EVERY ONE of your points.
Does anyone know anything about these? Are they subject to DeCSS? If so, is the recording industry just trying to move from CDs (IQ required to copy: 80) to CSS-encrypted DVD-Audio (IQ required: 120)? Is that also why Philips would be opposed to such measures? Would hastening the adoption of DVD-Audio also hasten the (future) adoption of a more rigorously copy-protected format?
Personally, I kind of like the idea of STOPPING the entire process of switching to a new audio standard every ten years. I don't see that DVD-Audio formats offer anything over and above regular audio CDs similar to what audio CDs offered over Tapes. I'd like to hear if anyone thinks they do...
Would you pay more attention to "C'mon, guys, lets go out there and try to quickly sell more copies of Windows!" or "Felicitations, salespersons. The agenda for this week consists of the following tasks: selling Windows, spying on customers, and following the Microsoft chain-of-command."? (I know, my grammar isn't that great, either)
The point is that these are not nerds who know how to punctuate their sentences in e-mails. These are ex-football-player-types who are able to convince people to buy Windows, IN PERSON, using common phrases, not through e-mail using technically correct grammar.
ALSO, if I was fat like he is I would have avoided the use of the word fat
OR, if I was fat I would have just been reminded of that fact by my family members over the holidays and would be defensive enough about it to denounce "fatness" to everyone I know. Think about it...
If you know of a school such as the one this guy is looking for, why don't you just do him a favor and tell us?
Don't assume that since he doesn't want to go through all the crap of two years of boring electives that he is not "intensifyingly bright". After all, his salary is increasing at a rate greater than Moore's Law; which makes me wonder why the hell he wants to go back to school in the first place. :)
I work for a law firm, and back before we had our nifty Linux firewall and DSL connection, one of the attorneys had (ugh!) a modem and dialled-up directly to the internet every so often to check her personal e-mail.
One day (so I'm reminded every month or so), our then "computer-guy" came in to set up something and ended up walking out with the attorney's modem. It just so happens that he re-sells old computer parts and that's probably what he intended to do with it, but I (to this day) will defend what he did because I would probably do the same.
The point is: his job, even though he was an outside consultant, was to take care of our computer systems, including the information on them. Having someone dialling out on the internet without even firewalling their machine (this was before we had virus scanners, too) was not in our best interests.
Had he tried to explain this to either the boss (just now learned to use e-mail) or the attorney in question (would be damned to not have the best computer in the place), he would have been answered with blank stares. More importantly, though, it would have been his fault when the entire network got a virus and all of our client files were lost. Like I said, I would have done the same thing, no explanation or permission necessary;
because the status quo these days is to assume that management and employees are all morons, actively trying to defeat whatever security you have in place to protect them, and without the knowledge or wherewithal to actually learn why "Pre$ident" is just as bad a password as none at all.
I agree, but as much as I love that this is happening now, it's ONLY happening now because of the recent emphasis on terrorism. The Democrats, as much as they would have liked to, wouldn't have just let the FBI and Pentagon (no less!) go around making "suggestions" even to evil corporations like Microsoft.
must... continue... to mistrust.. gov't.. despite... indication... that.. FBI... cares... about.. us...
This is the only post I've seen yet that gets at the real crux of this situation. The insanity of most copyright laws is just this: that in a wired world, most copyright laws PREVENT the spread of information instead of ENCOURAGING (or subsidizing) it, as they were intended. The Napster case showed this very clearly. Even though Napster did not profit from the distribution of MP3s, they were found guilty of copyright infringement under legal precedents that treat "devaluation" of property rights the same way as outright theft. It's like Microsoft suing UPS because someone ships a copy of Windows through it. (Okay, I know it's not exactly the same, but in extreme cases, such as this one, legal theories such as those involving "devaluation" demonstrate their limitations.) What happens when DVD's can be translated by computer and the Consortium's "Region" classifications become the same sort of bottleneck to progress?