I've tried Rosegarden a couple of times - looks to be a very promising package - i've even contributed some stuff to the project. Last time i tried it though (probably 6-12 months ago) it had a tendancy to die unexpectedly rendering it fairly useless for anything serious. Its good to see its now approaching a final release. I will be trying this out to see how its been coming along - and maybe... just maybe I can actually write some tunes under linux...
Of course you are right. we are in a transitional phase . The music industry is changing and evolving. Consumers and musicians are realising that it is too driven by money and not by talent. Its extremely difficult to break into the industry and actually make it a profitable career. You either have to be in the right place at the right time or be a maleable male/female idol / stereotype...
So what happens to all the genuinely talented musicians out there - the ones that are experimenting and doing things differently. They dont get a look in! With all the hyper marketed manufactured psuedo-pop out there its not surprising that consumers and artists who appreciate music for enjoyment and artistic merit are looking elsewhere for tunes.
The music industry is changing - sites like this one are the places new and upcoming artists are going to be exhibiting their wares. I beleive this is a trend set to continue. The internet has made it possible for unsigned artists to get their music heard all over the world. Musicians and artists have more control and are freer from the shackles of restrictive licensing and regardless of what some A&R man thinks. What happens in the long run? We get a more diverse selection of music to listen to, the artists get what they deserve and the old bricks and mortar labels have to figure out a way to change - just like all those closed source software companies are trying to find a way to work with / or against the open source movement.
Its easy enough to find your favorite bands tunes to download legally or illegally. But if you want to discover music and new bands for yourself its places like this where you are going to find the interesting stuff.
I think that the point of the article is to discuss the problem of spyware and the problem of security on windows. Great so you were able to remove spyware much quicker than the next person. The fact of the matter is whether it takes 30minutes or 5hours - depending on the degree of infestation i might add ! Its still a damned inconvieniece - and one that should not be there in the first place. Your response is implying that this guy is wrong - spyware is "OK" and since it only takes you 30mins to repair an infestation its "not a problem". Well i have news for you buddy, its not "OK" and it is a major problem not just for windows users but anyone who shares bandwidth with them.
Thats why i've switched other family members to linux now , and its also why i have to tech support much less than before.
An "Interface designer and IE ex-developer"... (we all know about that browser). Is making suggestions about how we can build a better browser? Given the security history and general stagnation of the browser he helped to develop - should we really be following his advice on how to build a better one?
What worries me about this is that people who associate "Free Software" with Open Source - they might begin to make similar assumptions about Open Source.
Making a distinction nowadays between Power and PPC is like saying "Ahah your OS may run on Pentium 4 CPU's, but will it run on Pentium 3 cpus?"
Well , that really depends on whether or not the OS in question utilises processor extensions and optimisations only found on the P4.Consider the difference Altivec makes to PPC's for example. While the os may run on both architectures there will be noticable speed differences and improvements even though both chips have a similar heritage. You shouldnt assume - particularly in the case of game consoles that these chips will be running a generic OS/Kernel that will run on multiple different incarnations of a specific processor family. It is far, far more likely that it will be tailored specifically to take advantage of the wonders that the Cell processor used in PS3 has to offer, and that is when the differences between a Power and Cell really start to matter.
How about since over the past few years Europe has gotten more and more channels all showing repeats, TV shopping and other crap. Only a couple of subscription only channels who make the money purchase all the decent films leaving nothing for the BBC and friends. New material just rarely happens because there is no money to pay for good writers and actors. Id much rather have less quantity and more quality when it comes to channels.
So while im sure it is true that TV viewing figures are dropping. Broadband is making it easier to obtain stuff to watch. I download a lot of stuff, burn to cd/dvd and watch it on my DiVX/DVD player on the TV. How do they account for these people?
Maybe the crap on TV is the reason for dropping figures and people are only making use of their Broadband to fill their time in more interesting ways.
I rarely watch TV - The odd film or documentary because quite frankly id rather stimulate my mind than spend my spare time wasting away in front of the TV.
Damn right... I was about to write a similar post. Whats so damn special about the SNES audio processor when compared to the MOOG of retro sound chips - the SID ?
Urm surely its up to the porn websites to include the right meta-tags that prevent search engines from spidering pages that they wish not to be spidered.
This page has a good explanation of how you can use the robots meta-tag to prevent search engines from indexing pages.
For what is tipped at a next-gen handheld im a little dissappointed at the quality of the graphics in those screenshots - looks kinda like a low resolution N64 - lots of primary colors I cant say it blows me away.
Im sure even so it will sell after all its still a "Gameboy" and thats not just a product its a brand. Things should hot up a little when the PSP arrives on the scene which technologically blows the DS out of the water. I doubt sony will compete on price though, it remains to be seen what happens- none the less the future has to start somewhere....
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/Spreadsheets/ An amazing tool google... you ought to try it sometime....
OTOH Gnumeric and / or OOo would be a good place to start. OOo xls compatibility is very good in my experience. Havent used Gnumeric for a while last time (several yrs ago) its xls compatibility was a tad ropey - Im sure its improved by now though!
While you are correct in saying that for such a short distance it seems somewhat a long time to get from point A to point B to use such a propulsion system to travel a huge distance it becomes a much more viable proposition. In terms of acceleration we are talking slow, but over a larger distance it becomes significantly more economic in terms of efficiency. You can travel large distances with greater overall speed compared to traditional means because it will just keep on accelerating.
Lets see though how many features are missing from internet explorer? Tabbed browsing ? Popup Blocking? decent standards compliancy?
I can't say I use IE regularly in any shape or form these days - Mainly because I run Linux exclusively. When I do run IE (under wine for testing websites) I am amazed at how old fashioned, lacklustre and dated the whole experience is. Most of the alternative browsers these days have far more to offer than IE IMHO.
If Microsoft really beleive that Firefox is not a huge improvement on IE they must be just plain dumb. If that is also the case then dont expect them to add great features like those I mentioned earlier because that would be admitting that they were wrong...
Of course they probably will make improvements to IE at some stage but mark my words Tabbed Browsing will be hailed as a revolutionary innovation from Redmond and so forth - but then maybe im just a cynic!
Me too !, Im a gentoo user by day, but having recently been required to set up a laptop for a family member and not wanting the chore of maintaining a windows box - I thought I'd give Xandros open circulation edition a try. It was an IBM Thinkpad T22 - and as you describe the installation was flawless all the hardware was detected perfectly and there was no requirement to go through the driver installation - reboot cylcle once the main installation had taken place (unlike windows). I will add though i had to perform some cunning in order to get some additional hardware to work - A belkin wireless pcmcia card using the broadcom chipset which required installation of ndiswrapper- but that is my fault for choosing a hokey wifi card encumbered by top secret features bound by law.. That wasnt a big deal to set up though.
I am extremely impressed with Xandros Open Circulation as a general purpose distro. Its somewhat bare essentials install is also great for those who are overwhelmed by the usual tack of distro's to install everything under the sun. A very tidy and clean setup.
However I did find that some of the packages were a little outdated - which resulted in my having to download and compile stuff from source. I had a hell of a time getting Gimp 2.0 installed for example. None the less Xandros is great if you want to switch a family member to linux and dispense with the Windows pain!
Xandros is my first foray into the debian world and from what I can see the package management "Xandros Networks" system seems pretty cool however dont try and install a lot of non Xandros ".deb" files or you will quickly break the system. I would like to see a debian based system, with the ease of Xandros that is not so heavily tied to a single vendors set of packages - but has the eas of use and installation that Xandros does.
Bottom line Xandros is a great distro for general purpose use, but if you want something a little more bleeding edge with stuff like kde 3.3 and all the trimmings you might be dissappointed.
I remember reading something along these lines on the register or was it here on slashdot
It is certainly true to say that IBM are having to do with the new cell chip- but it is also doing this in partnership with hitachi and sony.
If the PS3 is to be using G5's (which are available now) then how come they are specifically branding it as CELL, plouging development costs into it when the chip already exists? Its idle speculation - and who knows who this infomation anway it could be IBM's tea boy for all we know...
Offtopic - I know --- but looking at your website- I am compelled to ask a couple of questions...
How good is that flash-player for Voyager ? Is the source code available? Would it be a good base for an Open Source flash player compatible with Linux?
If Jim Carey had been a Linux user, he would have used Slackware.Like Jim Carey's films Slackware users always remain the same, performing the same tried and trusted techniques time and time again. Like gentoo users they like to live close to the metal, but are loath to try new things or anything that tries to do things differently. Many feel that Slackware users are simply trying to be hardcore for the sake of being hardcore. Many slackware users have been noted for saying "I dont use a gui -it just gets in the way" even when using might actually make them more productive. And dont even think about discussing emacs or vi. They always want to have the same routine even if it might not be the best. The official Slackware motto is, "If your not using slackware you dont know shit"...
Thats a nice fun and lighthearted article for a saturday afternoon. Makes a change from all the serious stuff!
I wonder though what about people who use multiple different distributions? For example:- I've got a couple of higher spec machines I use for gentoo- but I also run Xandros (Open Circulation Ed.) on this laptop (which is for family use) and I've got my mother running Libranet on her aging K6.
I suppose technically speaking Xandros and Libranet are Debian based - but so is Linspire - Where does this leave me?
Im in a twisted state of being neither here nor there help me... please!!!!
I am afraid that is simply not the case Most PC's are bought by companies fitting out their offices with servers and general purpose desktops.
In fact, it is widely beleived that the PC as a gaming platform is declining due to rising problems with piracy and the market dominance of consoles such as the Gamecube, PS2 and XBox by an large offer a much better return on investment than PC games.
DirectX games do not rule the world. DirectX is a facilitator for games. It doesnt matter whether a game uses Direct3D or OpenGL its the game, and its gameplay that matters most. Also you might have noticed that many of the next gen card manufacturers (NVidia & ATI) are offering OpenGL support in addition to DirectX. You might also notice that many of your favorite 3D games have a video setting for OpenGL. This is something you will find more and more often as it is much easier for software developers to write a Crossplatform/console game using an Open/Crossplatform 3D graphics library than it is with a closed one such as D3D.
Slashdot Mirror
In your own words ...
I just can't see this technology being common when you need special media - sorry, try again.
I just buy inkjet coated CDR/DVDRs now.
No further comment...
ooooh! that sounds nice...
I've tried Rosegarden a couple of times - looks to be a very promising package - i've even contributed some stuff to the project. Last time i tried it though (probably 6-12 months ago) it had a tendancy to die unexpectedly rendering it fairly useless for anything serious. Its good to see its now approaching a final release. I will be trying this out to see how its been coming along - and maybe ... just maybe I can actually write some tunes under linux...
eg:
...
the ultimate torrent search
are they going shut down google now ?
nick...
Of course you are right.
we are in a transitional phase . The music industry is changing and evolving. Consumers and musicians are realising that it is too driven by money and not by talent. Its extremely difficult to break into the industry and actually make it a profitable career. You either have to be in the right place at the right time or be a maleable male/female idol / stereotype...
So what happens to all the genuinely talented musicians out there - the ones that are experimenting and doing things differently. They dont get a look in! With all the hyper marketed manufactured psuedo-pop out there its not surprising that consumers and artists who appreciate music for enjoyment and artistic merit
are looking elsewhere for tunes.
The music industry is changing - sites like this one are the places new and upcoming artists are going to be exhibiting their wares. I beleive this is a trend set to continue. The internet has made it possible for unsigned artists to get their music heard all over the world. Musicians and artists have more control and are freer from the shackles of restrictive licensing and regardless of what some A&R man thinks. What happens in the long run? We get a more diverse selection of music to listen to, the artists get what they deserve and the old bricks and mortar labels have to figure out a way to change - just like all those closed source software companies are trying to find a way to work with / or against the open source movement.
Its easy enough to find your favorite bands tunes to download legally or illegally. But if you want to discover music and new bands for yourself its places like this where you are going to find the interesting stuff.
I think that the point of the article is to discuss the problem of spyware and the problem of security on windows. Great so you were able to remove spyware much quicker than the next person. The fact of the matter is whether it takes 30minutes or 5hours - depending on the degree of infestation i might add ! Its still a damned inconvieniece - and one that should not be there in the first place. Your response is implying that this guy is wrong - spyware is "OK" and since it only takes you 30mins to repair an infestation its "not a problem". Well i have news for you buddy, its not "OK" and it is a major problem not just for windows users but anyone who shares bandwidth with them.
Thats why i've switched other family members to linux now , and its also why i have to tech support much less than before.
An "Interface designer and IE ex-developer" ... (we all know about that browser). Is making suggestions about how we can build a better browser? Given the security history and general stagnation of the browser he helped to develop - should we really be following his advice on how to build a better one?
What worries me about this is that people who associate "Free Software" with Open Source - they might begin to make similar assumptions about Open Source.
Making a distinction nowadays between Power and PPC is like saying "Ahah your OS may run on Pentium 4 CPU's, but will it run on Pentium 3 cpus?"
Well , that really depends on whether or not the OS in question utilises processor extensions and optimisations only found on the P4.Consider the difference Altivec makes to PPC's for example. While the os may run on both architectures there will be noticable speed differences and improvements even though both chips have a similar heritage. You shouldnt assume - particularly in the case of game consoles that these chips will be running a generic OS/Kernel that will run on multiple different incarnations of a specific processor family. It is far, far more likely that it will be tailored specifically to take advantage of the wonders that the Cell processor used in PS3 has to offer, and that is when the differences between a Power and Cell really start to matter.
How about since over the past few years Europe has gotten more and more channels all showing repeats, TV shopping and other crap. Only a couple of subscription only channels who make the money purchase all the decent films leaving nothing for the BBC and friends. New material just rarely happens because there is no money to pay for good writers and actors. Id much rather have less quantity and more quality when it comes to channels.
/DVD player on the TV. How do they account for these people?
So while im sure it is true that TV viewing figures are dropping. Broadband is making it easier to obtain stuff to watch. I download a lot of stuff, burn to cd/dvd and watch it on my DiVX
Maybe the crap on TV is the reason for dropping figures and people are only making use of their Broadband to fill their time in more interesting ways.
I rarely watch TV - The odd film or documentary because quite frankly id rather stimulate my mind than spend my spare time wasting away in front of the TV.
Damn right ... I was about to write a similar post. Whats so damn special about the SNES audio processor when compared to the MOOG of retro sound chips - the SID ?
Nick...
Bats have been using this method of navigation for thousands of years!
Do these things have real SID chips and Filters inside ? If so it would be worth buying a bucket load of these things for those chips alone.
Urm surely its up to the porn websites to include the right meta-tags that prevent search engines from spidering pages that they wish not to be spidered.
s .html
...
This page has a good explanation of how you can use the robots meta-tag to prevent search engines from indexing pages.
http://web-support.csx.cam.ac.uk/webliaison/robot
Im assuming google are adhering to this policy and if so then its up to the porn site to put the relevent measures in place to prevent image poaching.
Nick
For what is tipped at a next-gen handheld im a little dissappointed at the quality of the graphics in those screenshots - looks kinda like a low resolution N64 - lots of primary colors I cant say it blows me away.
Im sure even so it will sell after all its still a "Gameboy" and thats not just a product its a brand. Things should hot up a little when the PSP arrives on the scene which technologically blows the DS out of the water. I doubt sony will compete on price though, it remains to be seen what happens- none the less the future has to start somewhere....
True, True , but you know .. why not get it Desktop Linux Certified with codeweavers programme?
e rt ify/
http://www.codeweavers.com/site/compatibility/c
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/Spreadsheets/
... you ought to try it sometime....
An amazing tool google
OTOH Gnumeric and / or OOo would be a good place to start. OOo xls compatibility is very good in my experience. Havent used Gnumeric for a while last time (several yrs ago) its xls compatibility was a tad ropey - Im sure its improved by now though!
Nick
While you are correct in saying that for such a short distance it seems somewhat a long time to get from point A to point B to use such a propulsion system to travel a huge distance it becomes a much more viable proposition. In terms of acceleration we are talking slow, but over a larger distance it becomes significantly more economic in terms of efficiency. You can travel large distances with greater overall speed compared to traditional means because it will just keep on accelerating.
One feature Firefox is missing
...
Lets see though how many features are missing from internet explorer? Tabbed browsing ? Popup Blocking? decent standards compliancy?
I can't say I use IE regularly in any shape or form these days - Mainly because I run Linux exclusively. When I do run IE (under wine for testing websites) I am amazed at how old fashioned, lacklustre and dated the whole experience is. Most of the alternative browsers these days have far more to offer than IE IMHO.
If Microsoft really beleive that Firefox is not a huge improvement on IE they must be just plain dumb. If that is also the case then dont expect them to add great features like those I mentioned earlier because that would be admitting that they were wrong...
Of course they probably will make improvements to IE at some stage but mark my words Tabbed Browsing will be hailed as a revolutionary innovation from Redmond and so forth - but then maybe im just a cynic!
Nick
Me too ! ,
...
Im a gentoo user by day, but having recently been required to set up a laptop for a family member and not wanting the chore of maintaining a windows box - I thought I'd give Xandros open circulation edition a try. It was an IBM Thinkpad T22 - and as you describe the installation was flawless all the hardware was detected perfectly and there was no requirement to go through the driver installation - reboot cylcle once the main installation had taken place (unlike windows). I will add though i had to perform some cunning in order to get some additional hardware to work - A belkin wireless pcmcia card using the broadcom chipset which required installation of ndiswrapper- but that is my fault for choosing a hokey wifi card encumbered by top secret features bound by law.. That wasnt a big deal to set up though.
I am extremely impressed with Xandros Open Circulation as a general purpose distro. Its somewhat bare essentials install is also great for those who are overwhelmed by the usual tack of distro's to install everything under the sun. A very tidy and clean setup.
However I did find that some of the packages were a little outdated - which resulted in my having to download and compile stuff from source. I had a hell of a time getting Gimp 2.0 installed for example. None the less Xandros is great if you want to switch a family member to linux and dispense with the Windows pain!
Xandros is my first foray into the debian world and from what I can see the package management "Xandros Networks" system seems pretty cool however dont try and install a lot of non Xandros ".deb" files or you will quickly break the system. I would like to see a debian based system, with the ease of Xandros that is not so heavily tied to a single vendors set of packages - but has the eas of use and installation that Xandros does.
Bottom line Xandros is a great distro for general purpose use, but if you want something a little more bleeding edge with stuff like kde 3.3 and all the trimmings you might be dissappointed.
nick
I remember reading something along these lines on the register or was it here on
...
slashdot
It is certainly true to say that IBM are having to do with the new cell chip- but it is also doing this in partnership with hitachi and sony.
If the PS3 is to be using G5's (which are available now) then how come they are specifically branding it as CELL, plouging development costs into it when the chip already exists? Its idle speculation - and who knows who this infomation anway it could be IBM's tea boy for all we know
Nick...
Offtopic - I know --- but looking at your website- I am compelled to ask a couple of questions...
How good is that flash-player for Voyager ?
Is the source code available?
Would it be a good base for an Open Source flash player compatible with Linux?
Missing Description
* Slackware users
If Jim Carey had been a Linux user, he would have used Slackware.Like Jim Carey's films Slackware users always remain the same, performing the same tried and trusted techniques time and time again. Like gentoo users they like to live close to the metal, but are loath to try new things or anything that tries to do things differently. Many feel that Slackware users are simply trying to be hardcore for the sake of being hardcore. Many slackware users have been noted for saying "I dont use a gui -it just gets in the way" even when using might actually make them more productive. And dont even think about discussing emacs or vi. They always want to have the same routine even if it might not be the best. The official Slackware motto is, "If your not using slackware you dont know shit"...
Thats a nice fun and lighthearted article for a saturday afternoon. Makes a change from all the serious stuff!
:- I've got a couple of higher spec machines I use for gentoo- but I also run Xandros (Open Circulation Ed.) on this laptop (which is for family use) and I've got my mother running Libranet on her aging K6.
... please!!!!
...
I wonder though what about people who use multiple different distributions? For example
I suppose technically speaking Xandros and Libranet are Debian based - but so is Linspire - Where does this leave me?
Im in a twisted state of being neither here nor there help me
Nick
I am afraid that is simply not the case Most PC's are bought by companies fitting out their offices with servers and general purpose desktops.
In fact, it is widely beleived that the PC as a gaming platform is declining due to rising problems with piracy and the market dominance of consoles such as the Gamecube, PS2 and XBox by an large offer a much better return on investment than PC games.
DirectX games do not rule the world. DirectX is a facilitator for games. It doesnt matter whether a game uses Direct3D or OpenGL its the game, and its gameplay that matters most. Also you might have noticed that many of the next gen card manufacturers (NVidia & ATI) are offering OpenGL support in addition to DirectX. You might also notice that many of your favorite 3D games have a video setting for OpenGL. This is something you will find more and more often as it is much easier for software developers to write a Crossplatform/console game using an Open/Crossplatform 3D graphics library than it is with a closed one such as D3D.