A particularly clueless guy I know who "fancied himself a computer tech" ran out and bought a GeForce 2 AGP card when they were brand new. I knew the system he was using, and I wished him luck installing the card, because his mobo did not have AGP slots.
Sure enough, a few hours later this same clueless guy is calling to inform me that he's returning his card, because it is DOA. I asked him where he managed to cram it onto the motherboard, and his reply was "it fit in the big black slot no problem!"
I forget how many different names I called him for stuffing an AGP card in an ISA slot.
The scariest part of the story? Last I heard, this guy was working tech support at a local ISP.
Where did the dots appear in Underworld? I saw it on opening weekend too, but I don't remember seeing the dots... Mind you, we were seated so close to the screen that I couldn't see the whole screen without turning my head, so maybe I just missed them.
Also, I don't live in the U.S., so I wonder if this isn't going on everywhere?
We've got a couple of those signs in my town too. They drive me nuts. One of them is at the middle of an intersection rumoured to have the current North American record for most traffic lights at one intersection, and the other is right as you pull into town, straight off the highway.
The distraction factor is pretty bad, but even that isn't as bad as having your night vision totally obliterated when the thing switches to one of the many very, very bright ads just as you get reasonably close to it.
My original plan was to either hook a game system up to it, or loop some porn on it, but I believe I've come up with a low-tech, yet effective solution:
The installer gave me a rough time because instead of the Mozilla executable being in/usr/bin/mozilla/ (or something like that), mine was in/usr/bin/mozilla-1.4/
As soon as I tracked that down, everything went nice & smooth.
I don't know about anti-grav, but haven't there been a few points on the planet found where gravity is "weaker" (for lack of a better word)?
I seem to remember something about one being found off the coast of India a little while ago.
It's not quite as convenient as having your payload float to orbit, but maybe we could take advantage of the weaker gravity and use these places as launch points.
The GUI thing wasn't a huge hurdle for me. When I switched, I started out with Gnome, because at the time it made more sense to me.
I experimented mostly with Gnome & KDE, but also checked out some of the other ones (Ice, and one or two others that I can't recall due to low caffeine levels), and I found Gnome to have most things where I would expect them to be, lots of settings to play with, etc.
After a while of Gnome, I decided to switch over to KDE for a change of pace. Neither GUI is especially challenging to get around in, and both have a bunch of fun & powerful features.
IMHO, we definitely do not need a standard GUI. Both KDE and Gnome are simple yet robust enough to provide the new user with everything they need.
As new users get more comfortable with their new environment, they will want to explore more. They will get curious about this other GUI they've heard so much about online, do a quick google for how to add it into their system, try it out, and discover a whole new facet of the Linux world.
I could keep going, but I have a feeling this is getting rant-y, so I'm just going to say this:
Choice is a very important part of Linux, and a very powerful magnet for users who are not used to having much choice. Reducing that choice could be a big hinderance to attracting curious new users.
Not so much a success story, because I've gone a total of one time so far, but that's my plan to lose a bit of flab.
I don't know about anyone else here, but "working out" has never been very appealing to me. I just can't get that excited about doing something so repetitive I guess. Last weekend some friends wanted to try rock climbing, so we did that for about 3 hours.
It was easily the most physically intense thing I've ever done! More work than sailing, mountain biking, sex, skateboarding, or snowboarding. Not that I plan on giving up any of those activities anytime soon... I'm just going to have to make room in my schedule for rock climbing on a regular basis.
Besides the physical workout, I found it to be an interesting mental challenge too. Watching what hand-holds are coming up, plotting out the path you're going to take up the wall, coming up with an alternate plan when you just can't get a grip on that all-important foot-hold, etc.
When you're not climbing, you're working the rope for someone who is on the wall, so you get excersize no matter what.
What about having some kind of condenser (condensor?) built in? Then as the water evaporates, it just gets recycled as fresh insulating water. That could also be used to take care of shedding excess heat, like what we were talking about earlier.
But now we're getting back to a bulky suit, which sorta defeats the purpose...
Also, what about adding lead traces to the water so that it serves as a small level of additional radiation protection too?
"I'm not sure if overheating or freezing would be the main problem..."
That's what I wasn't too sure about as well. The whole basis of a wetsuit is that it is a semi-permeable membrane that fills with water when it gets wet. The water trapped in the suit then gets heated up to body temperature by your body, so you stay nice and comfy.
But going into space with one... it's pretty cold out there, and I don't know if your body would be able to keep the water warm.
Another thought on wetsuits: the colder the water is that you are planning on going into, the thicker your suit needs to be. My wetsuit that I wear sailing is a whole lot thinner than what I wear SCUBA diving. I wonder how bulky the suit would have to be for going into space?
Maybe a dry-suit might be more suited to the task, but I don't know a lot about dry-suits, so I can't really comment.
I know where you can get a cheap LCD touch-screen:
Look up Softfield Technologies. I think the URL is www.softfield.com.
I recently picked one up from them for around $40 CDN to replace the one on my PDA. It isn't colour, but I haven't had any trouble with brightness, and the price is mighty good. You might have to rig your own connector to hook one of their screens up to a Mini-ITX machine, but I've heard from a friend that Softfield is really good about providing pinouts and other technical specs upon request.
Good luck, be sure to post an article about it when you're done!
I haven't used Lindows, so I can't say much about it, but I can tell you, as a not-too-long-ago newbie, that you don't have much to fear with regards to learning at least basic use of your shiny new OS.
Besides Lindows, you might want to check out Mandrake as well. Easy installer, very nice package management, helpful enough that relatively computer illiterate members of my family can use the computer without major difficulties, and you don't need to pay anything for it.
As for which GUI to pick, I started with Gnome, moved to Gnome + Enlightenment, and have recently started using KDE a lot more. All of them are very nice, but when just starting out I found Gnome easier to get around in. YMMV.
I just took a quick visit to googlefight and Linux Desktop absolutely trounced Apple Desktop!
2 690 000 for Linux Desktop, and 1 490 000 for Apple Desktop.
So, depending on how much value you place on amount of hits from a search engine, it looks like Linux has already got a decided victory:)
In all seriousness though, I'm pretty comfortable with the idea of Apple and Linux sharing the desktop scene. So long as somebody beats out MS, I'm happy.
Slashdot Mirror
I avoid ISP tech support like the plague, mostly due to knowing a couple of people, and their level of knowledge, who have worked as ISP tech support.
A particularly clueless guy I know who "fancied himself a computer tech" ran out and bought a GeForce 2 AGP card when they were brand new. I knew the system he was using, and I wished him luck installing the card, because his mobo did not have AGP slots.
Sure enough, a few hours later this same clueless guy is calling to inform me that he's returning his card, because it is DOA. I asked him where he managed to cram it onto the motherboard, and his reply was "it fit in the big black slot no problem!"
I forget how many different names I called him for stuffing an AGP card in an ISA slot.
The scariest part of the story? Last I heard, this guy was working tech support at a local ISP.
Think 4 foot skateboard with big soft wheels, built for bombing hills and cruising around town.
:)
For some fine examples of these beautiful beasts, check this out!
They look slick, are easily stored, and make those scooters look like the toys they are
(Disclaimer: I own a skateboard shop, and have recently fallen in love with longboarding myself)
Where did the dots appear in Underworld? I saw it on opening weekend too, but I don't remember seeing the dots... Mind you, we were seated so close to the screen that I couldn't see the whole screen without turning my head, so maybe I just missed them.
Also, I don't live in the U.S., so I wonder if this isn't going on everywhere?
Even easier: just look for the can with the antenna!
That's closer to what I was thinking, but I prefer this system :)
Great examples of it's effectiveness on varying surfaces are available here, along with some very inexpensive, very interchangeable print heads.
I think it has now become abundantly clear that we Linux users as a community need to begin a new Octopus-training initiative.
Yeah, that one got me too.
Mean Streets was a pretty weird game. Never did finish that one... Damn, now I've gotta track down a DOS emulator!
I'm pretty sure Mean Streets was one of the games I got with my first x86. That and Crime Wave.
We've got a couple of those signs in my town too. They drive me nuts. One of them is at the middle of an intersection rumoured to have the current North American record for most traffic lights at one intersection, and the other is right as you pull into town, straight off the highway.
:)
The distraction factor is pretty bad, but even that isn't as bad as having your night vision totally obliterated when the thing switches to one of the many very, very bright ads just as you get reasonably close to it.
My original plan was to either hook a game system up to it, or loop some porn on it, but I believe I've come up with a low-tech, yet effective solution:
Black paint and a big paint roller
I knew that directory didn't look quite right when I was done typing it up!
I guess that's the peril of straying too far from my linux box here at work: I can't look at my filesystem for the reference I'm trying to think of.
Good job on the correction, thx for pointing it out.
What exactly is screwing up for you?
/usr/bin/mozilla/ (or something like that), mine was in /usr/bin/mozilla-1.4/
The installer gave me a rough time because instead of the Mozilla executable being in
As soon as I tracked that down, everything went nice & smooth.
I don't know about anti-grav, but haven't there been a few points on the planet found where gravity is "weaker" (for lack of a better word)?
I seem to remember something about one being found off the coast of India a little while ago.
It's not quite as convenient as having your payload float to orbit, but maybe we could take advantage of the weaker gravity and use these places as launch points.
I think it's really too bad The Grid hasn't made it into many more arcades, nevermind a PC port!
Thinking about it though.... oooohhhhh man would I love to get a PC port of that game for some LAN-party action!
It's like a Quake gameshow!
Bill Watterson's work on Calvin & Hobbes was absolutely brilliant.
I was really saddened when the strip came to an end.
Any word on what he's up to now?
The GUI thing wasn't a huge hurdle for me. When I switched, I started out with Gnome, because at the time it made more sense to me.
I experimented mostly with Gnome & KDE, but also checked out some of the other ones (Ice, and one or two others that I can't recall due to low caffeine levels), and I found Gnome to have most things where I would expect them to be, lots of settings to play with, etc.
After a while of Gnome, I decided to switch over to KDE for a change of pace. Neither GUI is especially challenging to get around in, and both have a bunch of fun & powerful features.
IMHO, we definitely do not need a standard GUI. Both KDE and Gnome are simple yet robust enough to provide the new user with everything they need.
As new users get more comfortable with their new environment, they will want to explore more. They will get curious about this other GUI they've heard so much about online, do a quick google for how to add it into their system, try it out, and discover a whole new facet of the Linux world.
I could keep going, but I have a feeling this is getting rant-y, so I'm just going to say this:
Choice is a very important part of Linux, and a very powerful magnet for users who are not used to having much choice. Reducing that choice could be a big hinderance to attracting curious new users.
Oh man...
:)
I dropped the ball on that one
I knew I shoulda previewed that post first!
FYI...
:)
The president's main lackey is the artist better known as Tricky
Just makes the movie that much cooler
How about the Wizard Wrestling Federation?
Not so much a success story, because I've gone a total of one time so far, but that's my plan to lose a bit of flab.
I don't know about anyone else here, but "working out" has never been very appealing to me. I just can't get that excited about doing something so repetitive I guess. Last weekend some friends wanted to try rock climbing, so we did that for about 3 hours.
It was easily the most physically intense thing I've ever done! More work than sailing, mountain biking, sex, skateboarding, or snowboarding. Not that I plan on giving up any of those activities anytime soon... I'm just going to have to make room in my schedule for rock climbing on a regular basis.
Besides the physical workout, I found it to be an interesting mental challenge too. Watching what hand-holds are coming up, plotting out the path you're going to take up the wall, coming up with an alternate plan when you just can't get a grip on that all-important foot-hold, etc.
When you're not climbing, you're working the rope for someone who is on the wall, so you get excersize no matter what.
Good luck!
The video you are looking for is Summoner Geeks. Usually found as summonergeeks.avi.
:)
Oh, and the big monster guy is looking for a Mountain Dew.
And I agree, it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen
What about having some kind of condenser (condensor?) built in? Then as the water evaporates, it just gets recycled as fresh insulating water. That could also be used to take care of shedding excess heat, like what we were talking about earlier.
But now we're getting back to a bulky suit, which sorta defeats the purpose...
Also, what about adding lead traces to the water so that it serves as a small level of additional radiation protection too?
"I'm not sure if overheating or freezing would be the main problem..."
That's what I wasn't too sure about as well. The whole basis of a wetsuit is that it is a semi-permeable membrane that fills with water when it gets wet. The water trapped in the suit then gets heated up to body temperature by your body, so you stay nice and comfy.
But going into space with one... it's pretty cold out there, and I don't know if your body would be able to keep the water warm.
Another thought on wetsuits: the colder the water is that you are planning on going into, the thicker your suit needs to be. My wetsuit that I wear sailing is a whole lot thinner than what I wear SCUBA diving. I wonder how bulky the suit would have to be for going into space?
Maybe a dry-suit might be more suited to the task, but I don't know a lot about dry-suits, so I can't really comment.
I know where you can get a cheap LCD touch-screen:
Look up Softfield Technologies. I think the URL is www.softfield.com.
I recently picked one up from them for around $40 CDN to replace the one on my PDA. It isn't colour, but I haven't had any trouble with brightness, and the price is mighty good. You might have to rig your own connector to hook one of their screens up to a Mini-ITX machine, but I've heard from a friend that Softfield is really good about providing pinouts and other technical specs upon request.
Good luck, be sure to post an article about it when you're done!
I haven't used Lindows, so I can't say much about it, but I can tell you, as a not-too-long-ago newbie, that you don't have much to fear with regards to learning at least basic use of your shiny new OS.
Besides Lindows, you might want to check out Mandrake as well. Easy installer, very nice package management, helpful enough that relatively computer illiterate members of my family can use the computer without major difficulties, and you don't need to pay anything for it.
As for which GUI to pick, I started with Gnome, moved to Gnome + Enlightenment, and have recently started using KDE a lot more. All of them are very nice, but when just starting out I found Gnome easier to get around in. YMMV.
I hope that's at least a little helpful.
I just took a quick visit to googlefight and Linux Desktop absolutely trounced Apple Desktop!
:)
2 690 000 for Linux Desktop, and 1 490 000 for Apple Desktop.
So, depending on how much value you place on amount of hits from a search engine, it looks like Linux has already got a decided victory
In all seriousness though, I'm pretty comfortable with the idea of Apple and Linux sharing the desktop scene. So long as somebody beats out MS, I'm happy.