Too old? Bah! What a load! Tell that to my friend's mom, who drove a school bus all of her adult life. She had to be at least 50 years old when she got her *NIX certification -- and let me just state for the record that Mrs. F gets as excited as a teenager with root access when she tells folks about her new skills.
An EE prof told our class of grad students last fall that universities can't horde top-level domain names, but I called bullshite on that little factoid. Looks like Drexel proves that was a crock -- universities can do what they damn well please.
I've since dropped the program because they were clueless about what they wanted to teach, couldn't communicate amongst themselves or with students, and now I'm skeptical of anything I didn't pick up on my own during that experience. If ye olde prof is actually right about this one, someone please tell us all who regulates something trivial like this?
Server Tax, Black Slacks, and a New Hairdo
on
Quicktime In Linux
·
· Score: 1
That was an extremely lucid observation until the "it's a shame" bit... Sorenson codec, 'nuff said. Yeah, Apple should probably seriously consider releasing QuickTime for Linux, if for no other reason than to keep from essentially saying, "I don't give a good flying fsck that you no-good commie open-source pinkos can't see view/see/hear content in this format." But it's not so cut and dry, or else folks wouldn't keep bringing up the Sorenson codec point over and over in these threads today. I'll just go ahead and show my arse by asking a question: who's out there developing open-source A/V codecs? Those are the guys who deserve some serious patronage, but that's another story entirely.
But what about the server tax? Am I missing something here? How about free, as in beer and speech. Let me get this straight: I can go to Apple's site and download the source code and/or compiled binaries for QuickTime Streaming Server 3 (Darwin Streaming Server 3) that will work under Windows, FreeBSD, and Red Hat Linux 6.2? WTF am I missing here? I guess all I'm missing is about $60k per server from Real, but I might be wrong....
Um, what the reviewer said ....
on
Breaking Windows
·
· Score: 1
History is often written by the winners, but in some ways the middle of this book is history written by the losers.
I work in PR (don't throw stones, it's higher education) and I can't help but come to the early conclusion that this book offers an extremely jaded view of what happens at Microsoft. Sure, I bet some of the horror stories are true enough -- people are territorial by nature and it helps to wonder how it would feel if that was your projects/ideas/etc. being scrutinized/killed/etc. But this is the real world folks -- let's not forget that we could all be worrying about other things: food, shelter, mating, etc. Even education and non-profits are run like for-profit megacorps -- organizations can not exist if they fail to balance the books and stay on track (hence the spawn of many nearly worthless mission statements;-).
So, how am I on target here? Here's how: everyone is always debating how money can be made on Linux. What's the difference between some of the Linux business-related horror stories I've read about on/. and the horror stories in this book? Work with me here -- I'm not trolling, I work in higher education PR and normally ask the "So... why is this news worthy?" kind of questions, and I'm starting a thread on an otherwise dead page. Is there anything that the Linux community can learn from this book (things to avoid, things to do religiously, situations and incidents that offer a specific insight, reasons why middle management should or should not exist in a Linux-based company, how/why the democratic nature of Linux can or can not prevail over these situations/incidents, etc.)?
In other news, I'd wet my britches if I could pimp Linux to the popular media. Enquiring minds want to know!
If the female trekkies of the universe think like the female trekkies I work with (and the one I'm married to;-), they're all in agreement that Scott Bakula is "a major hottie." Even middle-aged women agree: Scott Bakula flat-out turns on the ladies.
YMMV, of course, as this heterosexual/.er was caught off-guard when his female boss dropped this bomb. Before the trolls come out of the woodwork, I have to issue the standard disclaimer: as a guy, I don't check out other guys, blah blah blah. So, after a rather unscientific poll of the females I know, I've come to the conclusion that chicks dig Scott Bakula. QED.
Would the ladies of/. care to help prove this whack theory of mine?
I hate to "me too" but Caballero is right on the money. I got a similar rig at the local Sam's (Wal-mart wholesale), each shelf in mine is rated to 500 pounds, it has lockable caster wheels (have a friend help you move it around), and here's what it holds: three AT desktop cases (stacked) and three midtower ATX cases on the bottom row; two keyboards and two mice w/ switchbox on next shelf; three 17" monitors on the next shelf; three 14"-15" monitors on the next shelf; and two printers (inkjet and monster dot matrix) on the top.
Basically, if people give you a lot of shit (how many/.ers also have this problem?), you have to have some way to stack it.
Try using zip ties to keep your cables in check (at least on the boxes you don't mess with;-). You can get them for about 1000 for $10 or so. These shelving units also make a good place to display your old hardware (second unit of mine has Atari 400, Apple IIe, Epson QX/10, etc.).
Every year, American coal-burning power plants use approximately 800 million tons (source: UAB Magazine; one of the older issues that isn't online or I'd give a URL) -- that's a lot of ash to dump on an annual basis. Now imagine instead of dumping that ash, you use it as a matrix in your concrete. And for the folks in marketing: imagine you can sell your waste instead of paying someone to haul it off. Example stucture of the day: the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Interesting tidbit about fly ash in concrete: new federal nitrogen oxide emission standards have forced power plants to install different burners -- this gives the ash a higher carbon content that isn't ideal for building materials. One of our researchers and his students are working on methods to use the high-carbon ash -- so if you're into this kind of thing, I highly recommend checking out the numerous journal articles written by Dr. Fouad H. Fouad.
Felinoid brings up an interesting point: his mom is quite happy with a 486 laptop. I think many of us are forgetting that we've become accustomed to bigger, better, faster... while there are always folks in our lives who do not use a computer because they are afraid of them.
My point? If it runs and can get on the Internet, set it up for someone like your mom, aunt, sister, brother, etc. My mom's first computer was a Mac IIsi with 8 MB of RAM -- LAST CHRISTMAS! Flame on -- all I had to do was teach her to use the mouse and explain a Web browser to her. Say whatever you want about Macs, I could care less -- all she has to do is hit the power button like an appliance to turn it on and off because it's set up to start Netscape, which makes the modem dial out, and then takes her straight into her Hotmail account as her homepage. Sure, it's slower than Hades and would be the butt of too many jokes if a/.er was using it as their daily rig -- but she only uses it for e-mail. And besides -- I was given the Mac by a friend at Lockheed Martin, so it's pretty cool knowing that my mom (who hadn't used a PC since my dad's CP/M machine finally died in 1990) is using a computer formerly owned by a rocket science. No joke.
By her next birthday or Christmas, she'll be ready for something new and the old Mac II goes back in the museum, er, spare bedroom....
I'm in one of Dr. Robert Hyatt's classes this month, honing my Linux chops. The whole idea of setting up my own chess server on your home network is killer, especially because it is an example of open-source technologies that can have an "omigosh" effect on normal folks (RTFM if you want Crafty to work with other chess apps... it's all on the FTP server, of course).
Want a copy of Crafty or find out if it will run on your OS? Stop by the University of Alabama at Birmingham's CIS department or find a mirror: ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/
FWIW, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology serves a 900 square-mile area of Northern Virginia outside of Washington, D.C. (three counties and several cities -- some cities may have bailed on the program since it started in 1986). When the first class graduated in 1989, many had problems getting into college because their geeky courses had non-standard names (POT -- principles of technology; POM -- principles of mathematics; plenty of us freaked out our folks when we said we had POT for third period;-). This place is/was geek heaven -- I think there were only three or four fights during my time there, no one was ever picked on unless they really asked for it. I graduated from the third class (1991), back when I only had to beat out two or three kids for one of the 400 spots in my class. I hear that somewhere between 10 and 20 kids now compete for a spot since everyone's parents make them apply these days. When I graduated, my class split into four quarters: those going to UVA, those going to Virginia Tech, those going to William & Mary, and those going to other big name schools. Before the trolls start saying, "So? Like this matters?" I should roll out the quick laundry list of selling points. They had a supercomputer in 1988 (the county didn't have the money to fix the fiber optic line when the roof started leaking about five years ago and I'm not sure if they ever fixed it). Two of the guys who won the supercomputer placed in the state wrestling tournament (one kicked my butt regularly for two years). My buddies were doing insane things with 3D graphics back when most of the world hadn't seen Windows yet. Everyone has to take four years of math (with AP calculus to graduate), four years of science (bio, chem, physics, geoscience), they get their history and English combined into humanities (what a concept... teach both at the same time with two teachers), and I believe TJ was one of the pioneers of the activity period. Also, imagine going to odd classes on one day for twice as long and even-numbered periods on another day for twice as long. The American education system could learn quite a bit from good ole' TJHSST.edu. Anyone from TJ on/.? Drop me a line. I wouldn't be surprised if they were on the Internet before most colleges, but that was after my time.
Slashdot Mirror
Too old? Bah! What a load! Tell that to my friend's mom, who drove a school bus all of her adult life. She had to be at least 50 years old when she got her *NIX certification -- and let me just state for the record that Mrs. F gets as excited as a teenager with root access when she tells folks about her new skills.
An EE prof told our class of grad students last fall that universities can't horde top-level domain names, but I called bullshite on that little factoid. Looks like Drexel proves that was a crock -- universities can do what they damn well please.
I've since dropped the program because they were clueless about what they wanted to teach, couldn't communicate amongst themselves or with students, and now I'm skeptical of anything I didn't pick up on my own during that experience. If ye olde prof is actually right about this one, someone please tell us all who regulates something trivial like this?
That was an extremely lucid observation until the "it's a shame" bit ... Sorenson codec, 'nuff said. Yeah, Apple should probably seriously consider releasing QuickTime for Linux, if for no other reason than to keep from essentially saying, "I don't give a good flying fsck that you no-good commie open-source pinkos can't see view/see/hear content in this format." But it's not so cut and dry, or else folks wouldn't keep bringing up the Sorenson codec point over and over in these threads today. I'll just go ahead and show my arse by asking a question: who's out there developing open-source A/V codecs? Those are the guys who deserve some serious patronage, but that's another story entirely.
....
But what about the server tax? Am I missing something here? How about free, as in beer and speech. Let me get this straight: I can go to Apple's site and download the source code and/or compiled binaries for QuickTime Streaming Server 3 (Darwin Streaming Server 3) that will work under Windows, FreeBSD, and Red Hat Linux 6.2? WTF am I missing here? I guess all I'm missing is about $60k per server from Real, but I might be wrong
I work in PR (don't throw stones, it's higher education) and I can't help but come to the early conclusion that this book offers an extremely jaded view of what happens at Microsoft. Sure, I bet some of the horror stories are true enough -- people are territorial by nature and it helps to wonder how it would feel if that was your projects/ideas/etc. being scrutinized/killed/etc. But this is the real world folks -- let's not forget that we could all be worrying about other things: food, shelter, mating, etc. Even education and non-profits are run like for-profit megacorps -- organizations can not exist if they fail to balance the books and stay on track (hence the spawn of many nearly worthless mission statements
So, how am I on target here? Here's how: everyone is always debating how money can be made on Linux. What's the difference between some of the Linux business-related horror stories I've read about on
In other news, I'd wet my britches if I could pimp Linux to the popular media. Enquiring minds want to know!
If the female trekkies of the universe think like the female trekkies I work with (and the one I'm married to ;-), they're all in agreement that Scott Bakula is "a major hottie." Even middle-aged women agree: Scott Bakula flat-out turns on the ladies.
/.er was caught off-guard when his female boss dropped this bomb. Before the trolls come out of the woodwork, I have to issue the standard disclaimer: as a guy, I don't check out other guys, blah blah blah. So, after a rather unscientific poll of the females I know, I've come to the conclusion that chicks dig Scott Bakula. QED.
/. care to help prove this whack theory of mine?
YMMV, of course, as this heterosexual
Would the ladies of
I hate to "me too" but Caballero is right on the money. I got a similar rig at the local Sam's (Wal-mart wholesale), each shelf in mine is rated to 500 pounds, it has lockable caster wheels (have a friend help you move it around), and here's what it holds: three AT desktop cases (stacked) and three midtower ATX cases on the bottom row; two keyboards and two mice w/ switchbox on next shelf; three 17" monitors on the next shelf; three 14"-15" monitors on the next shelf; and two printers (inkjet and monster dot matrix) on the top.
/.ers also have this problem?), you have to have some way to stack it.
;-). You can get them for about 1000 for $10 or so. These shelving units also make a good place to display your old hardware (second unit of mine has Atari 400, Apple IIe, Epson QX/10, etc.).
Basically, if people give you a lot of shit (how many
Try using zip ties to keep your cables in check (at least on the boxes you don't mess with
Every year, American coal-burning power plants use approximately 800 million tons (source: UAB Magazine; one of the older issues that isn't online or I'd give a URL) -- that's a lot of ash to dump on an annual basis. Now imagine instead of dumping that ash, you use it as a matrix in your concrete. And for the folks in marketing: imagine you can sell your waste instead of paying someone to haul it off. Example stucture of the day: the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Interesting tidbit about fly ash in concrete: new federal nitrogen oxide emission standards have forced power plants to install different burners -- this gives the ash a higher carbon content that isn't ideal for building materials. One of our researchers and his students are working on methods to use the high-carbon ash -- so if you're into this kind of thing, I highly recommend checking out the numerous journal articles written by Dr. Fouad H. Fouad.
Felinoid brings up an interesting point: his mom is quite happy with a 486 laptop. I think many of us are forgetting that we've become accustomed to bigger, better, faster ... while there are always folks in our lives who do not use a computer because they are afraid of them.
/.er was using it as their daily rig -- but she only uses it for e-mail. And besides -- I was given the Mac by a friend at Lockheed Martin, so it's pretty cool knowing that my mom (who hadn't used a PC since my dad's CP/M machine finally died in 1990) is using a computer formerly owned by a rocket science. No joke.
....
My point? If it runs and can get on the Internet, set it up for someone like your mom, aunt, sister, brother, etc. My mom's first computer was a Mac IIsi with 8 MB of RAM -- LAST CHRISTMAS! Flame on -- all I had to do was teach her to use the mouse and explain a Web browser to her. Say whatever you want about Macs, I could care less -- all she has to do is hit the power button like an appliance to turn it on and off because it's set up to start Netscape, which makes the modem dial out, and then takes her straight into her Hotmail account as her homepage. Sure, it's slower than Hades and would be the butt of too many jokes if a
By her next birthday or Christmas, she'll be ready for something new and the old Mac II goes back in the museum, er, spare bedroom
I'm in one of Dr. Robert Hyatt's classes this month, honing my Linux chops. The whole idea of setting up my own chess server on your home network is killer, especially because it is an example of open-source technologies that can have an "omigosh" effect on normal folks (RTFM if you want Crafty to work with other chess apps ... it's all on the FTP server, of course).
t ml
Want a copy of Crafty or find out if it will run on your OS? Stop by the University of Alabama at Birmingham's CIS department or find a mirror: ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/
Want to find out more about Dr. Robert Hyatt? Go here: http://www.cis.uab.edu/info/faculty/hyatt/hyatt.h
FWIW, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology serves a 900 square-mile area of Northern Virginia outside of Washington, D.C. (three counties and several cities -- some cities may have bailed on the program since it started in 1986). When the first class graduated in 1989, many had problems getting into college because their geeky courses had non-standard names (POT -- principles of technology; POM -- principles of mathematics; plenty of us freaked out our folks when we said we had POT for third period ;-). This place is/was geek heaven -- I think there were only three or four fights during my time there, no one was ever picked on unless they really asked for it. I graduated from the third class (1991), back when I only had to beat out two or three kids for one of the 400 spots in my class. I hear that somewhere between 10 and 20 kids now compete for a spot since everyone's parents make them apply these days. When I graduated, my class split into four quarters: those going to UVA, those going to Virginia Tech, those going to William & Mary, and those going to other big name schools. Before the trolls start saying, "So? Like this matters?" I should roll out the quick laundry list of selling points. They had a supercomputer in 1988 (the county didn't have the money to fix the fiber optic line when the roof started leaking about five years ago and I'm not sure if they ever fixed it). Two of the guys who won the supercomputer placed in the state wrestling tournament (one kicked my butt regularly for two years). My buddies were doing insane things with 3D graphics back when most of the world hadn't seen Windows yet. Everyone has to take four years of math (with AP calculus to graduate), four years of science (bio, chem, physics, geoscience), they get their history and English combined into humanities (what a concept ... teach both at the same time with two teachers), and I believe TJ was one of the pioneers of the activity period. Also, imagine going to odd classes on one day for twice as long and even-numbered periods on another day for twice as long. The American education system could learn quite a bit from good ole' TJHSST.edu. Anyone from TJ on /.? Drop me a line. I wouldn't be surprised if they were on the Internet before most colleges, but that was after my time.