Sometimes I feel like dropping out, like you said.
Alot like that guy in Lawnmower Man 2 that created the Kyron chip. Just, up and give up on it all, just get a cabin and put the computer into a hole in the floorboards lol.
the idea of hiding to the final user the application layer may be a good one. If this was done openly (i.e. documenting the API that each class of applications should have and allowing administrators to switch one application with another, from a different vendor, without troubles), could be a good step to make computers easier to use.
They already have tried something like this, they called it Windows. However, the documentation of the API was, and still is, a little on the iffy side. Administrators can switch one application with another from different vendors under Windows, sometimes without troubles. Putting another layer on TOP of the extra layer is akin to having Mozilla open on top of KDE, and writing XUL code for all of your apps. (inside of the mozilla instance)
What people need to realize is we already have the abstraction layer in place with Windows. It just needs to be usable:) (It's hard to be usable by non-computer literate and still be useful for computer-literate people, need to pick and choose your target I guess)
I know this was supposed to be funny, but one would have to be knowledgable in assembler to really get it. If I had mod points, I'd mod you up as funny, but you'll have to settle with a pat on the back and a grin.
I have something like that, already. I purchased it about 3 years ago or so, from GPS America. It's a computer inside of a container (black ovular thing), and has a microphone/speaker you speak into. You start off the sentence with "Navigator", then using a sequence of keywords you can extract information from it. I used it primarily for addresses and locations (both of which are on CD inside of it). Surprisingly, it never skipped at all! but, the technology is already here, just as you said, limited. I need to hook it back up to my car, though with all the changes that have gone on since then, it'd be kinda funny having it inside of a 1983 Camaro. (originally had it in my 1999 Neon, oh how things change)
The problem is, when people know you have a cell phone they always say "why didn't you answer the phone, you have a phone by your side at all times!"
It's a double-edged sword sometimes. (I've been there, had a Cricket phone for a number of months until I got sick of people calling me, knowing I had it with me.)
I'm normally not a spelling nazi, but that just was begging for it. (when I don't know how to spell a word, and I know that I don't, I always check it out on dictionary.com...)
If you think "spanning tree protocols" are anywhere near a standard (despite numerous RFCs), then you haven't done much (multi-vendor)internetworking at layer 2.
See, that's the problem. Anybody who integrates a network knows to use the same brand of router for a certain piering point.
No, that's not what's stopping me. A package is not a backup. A package is a means to install the software. What I want is to be able to install Gentoo in fifteen minutes, then rebuild all the parts in the background while I'm surfing slashdork.
Well, technically that can't be done, but you can always install another distribution and use that to compile gentoo. Then, you can surf while you compile. I know it's a pain, but hey... that's how Gentoo is.. a compiled-on-your-system distro.
It does me no good to build it on my harddrive, dump it to a CD, then copy the CD back to my harddrive. What's the sense in that?
It saves you the trouble of doing it again, when you want to format/reinstall for some reason. (or hardware failures, etc.) Or if you just want to retouch your system completely because of a break-in.
Inside that slice, you can partition to your heart's content. All other OS's see only a single BSD partition, which makes things very nice, neat, and tidy.
I meant on-the-fly like LVM does.. not just the methodology.
Oh, the cost of Windows comes around to $34, which is a typical license fee Dell pays to install it. By the way, how much would it cost me to purchase one year of Linux technical support?
Buying Windows doesn't mean you have technical support. If you purchased a Dell with Windows on it, you have technical support for a certain alloted amount of time from the manufacturer, as is right. It's also the case if you purchase a computer with Linux on it, or a Redhat/Mandrake/Suse/insert-your-favourite-boxed-d istribution-here.
Technical Support costs if you pick up Linux or Windows from the store:
Windows XP: $245/Per incident (or you can get a package, but the price is still high) or the online technical support for $99/Per incident. Information taken from: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh; en-us;Prodoffer02a
Redhat: If you go beyond the timeframe of the technical support that comes with the box set, you can use the "support on demand" for $40/per incident. (information from Redhat salesperson on telephone) Mandrake: Phone support after your tech support is up that came with the box-set: $50/per incident. Information from http://new.mandrakestore.com/mdksa/index.php?LANG_ =en&tab_x=tab_1#menu_1_text_tab_1 Suse: Phone support after your tech support is up that comes with the box-set: $39/Per incident. Information from http://www.suse.com/us/private/support/private_sup port/index.html Lycoris: (for completeness) You can pick up a Lycoris/LX License Certificate for $24.95 which entitles you to their normal technical support for 60 days via email. ( I couldn't find anything in regards to Phone support from them) Information from http://www.lycoris.com/support/
End result: You don't have to be a coder to get advantages out of Linux. It's just one of those freedoms that you can have when you choose it. (without spending $200+ for the coding environment) I for one haven't coded in C or C++ to make anything on my system in years. (and that was just for fun) I do however do scripting, but that's only to create my own custom stuff, and I'm picky as hell about that.
You're talking about your Freedom? How come you don't consider Joe User's freedom to enjoy his spare time, to be free from crappy software that does what he needs?
You're barking in parellel, my friend. That's what we are all talking about at the same time when we are advocating the GNU cause and Linux. To be free from crappy software, and use software that does what we need.
(ob-herasy)It works well on the Old Testament, too!(*lightning bolt*)
Makes no difference if you read that or not, because the New Testament is a revamp of it. Alot like knowing C, then trying to learn C++:P I guess that's how the Spanish Inquisition came around. Someone decided to put the two codes together into the same program.
Because of Solar Flares the whole idea of sending someone to Mars, to me, seems like sending someone to their death.
A solar flare will release such huge amounts of radiation that if one happens when people are on the moon they will most likely die of radiation poisoning.
And these flares happen with a frequency that there is little to no chance that a manned mission to Mars would be less than a death mission.
We do have the ability (and do so continuously) to shield our people from those issues. If we didn't.. well.. our instrumentation would be fried on our satellites, and any probes sent to other planets/moons would be fried instantly. (DirecTV satellites are a great example. They are exposed to solar flares a great deal, and the only thing that happens is a breakdown in communications due to the transmission being garbled by the radiation.)
Think about these things... we have common things in our everyday life that answer questions brought up by these skeptics.
For example, if the space suits that nasa had in the 60s were good enough to allow a person to pass through the van allen belt, then why are they not good enough to allow someone to don one and clean up Three Mile Island?
The amount of radiation released from Three Mile Island was minute. There wasn't much to clean up, if anything... If there was, I'd have cancer and probably hairless right now, considering when it happened and where I was.
Although I'm beginning to see signs of conspiracy theorist (General paranoia, distrust of my own government, a sinking feeling that all my civil liberties are disappearing quickly, a belief that my government values the greed of corporations over the needs of its people, etc) in myself,
Isn't it wierd how in todays world, you notice the truth and your a conspiracy theorist? LOL Makes one worry about the state of affairs.
I know someone who thinks the moon landing was a hoax - she's a friend's mother.. she was a doubter WAY before the TV show aired (I heard her talk about it in the late 1980s) and truth be told, I don't think she even watched the TV show, as she doesn't have a TV..
I knew a guy (a father of a girl I knew) who just out of the blue started talking about that at me. I was fixing his computer at the time and started talking about how this technology is getting out of control, and how it's even a wonder we've gotten this far considering we never even got off this planet. (on with how we've never even touched orbit, much less touched the moon.) It was sooo hard to keep working on his computer, because my bottom lip was starting to hurt from biting it! LOL... I wanted to start laughing so badly, because it flew in the face of all common logic. (who here has been outside at night in a very isolated location, looked up and saw satellites. I have, I consider that to be a low orbit)
The TV show was pretty funny - but I don't think that it was powerful enough to change anyone's mind - if you don't believe the landing was real now, then I think it would have taken a little more than a single TV show - the seeds must have been planted before that..
My mother's upstairs neighbor saw the TV show (I never watched it, but saw reviews of it) and from that moment on swore that everything she sees about the moon and the space program is a crock of hewey. (read: not true) I tried reasoning with her a little, but she just thought I was brainwashed by them. *boggle* I'm waiting for people to start saying that the Martian landers never made it to Mars.. In pieces or in one piece LOL!
The names are Cristovan Colombo and Fernão de Magalhães, you fucktards.
Could care less about the later case, but Chris Columbus was nothing more than a murderous bastard that wanted nothing more than to pillage and kill. His own people were killed in retalliation after he left by the natives of the said country. Good riddence in my opinion.
All the Apollo missions landed on the earth-facing side of the moon. I guess it was just simpler that way;)
yeah, propelling a vehicle in a straight line towards earth after taking off from the moon tends to be the easiest way, ya know. (Apollo took off straight up when it launched from the moon)
However, the Apollo command modules passed behind the moon on many occasions, and so far NASA has presented no evidence that they weren't up to something while conveniently out of sight of Earth.
Umm... yeah, they passed behind the moon. So? What the hell would they be up to, other than floating ominously above the moon, waiting for the proper deceleration, alignment for the landing point, and getting back into radio contact with NASA. They call it "Black out".
Should NASA manage to prove to everyone's satisfaction that astronauts did in fact land on the moon in the late sixties, we should undoubtedly re-focus our efforts on finding out what exactly it was that the CM pilot was up to while hidden from earth.
Sitting on their duffs, drinking beer, and waiting for NASA to work the remote controls properly. Everyone knows they were just there for the publicity! (joking) What type of stupid idea is it to think that they were "Up to something" when they were hidden from earth? What could they do, anyway? Considering it's a vacuum, and at that time no one had really done a spacewalk.
Would you really want to use a duron850 with 128mb on a pos mobo for a media center?
A media center only plays AVI/DiVX/whathaveyou... It doesn't do any sort of rendering or anything. I have successfully (successfully == done so without any complaints and very lovely results) used my old 450mhz celeron (300 overclocked to 450) as a media center with no problems whatsoever. Pretty much, after you get over 200-300 mhz, it just doesn't matter, anymore.
There are a couple of very cheap 3d accelerated cards that have TV-out (RCA) jacks. I had one in my old PC until I finally bit the bullet and picked up an NVidia gforce2/mx.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow, touche.. I didn't expect there to be more than ONE!
Sometimes I feel like dropping out, like you said.
Alot like that guy in Lawnmower Man 2 that created the Kyron chip. Just, up and give up on it all, just get a cabin and put the computer into a hole in the floorboards lol.
It does wear at your last nerve...
the idea of hiding to the final user the application layer may be a good one. If this was done openly (i.e. documenting the API that each class of applications should have and allowing administrators to switch one application with another, from a different vendor, without troubles), could be a good step to make computers easier to use.
:) (It's hard to be usable by non-computer literate and still be useful for computer-literate people, need to pick and choose your target I guess)
They already have tried something like this, they called it Windows. However, the documentation of the API was, and still is, a little on the iffy side. Administrators can switch one application with another from different vendors under Windows, sometimes without troubles. Putting another layer on TOP of the extra layer is akin to having Mozilla open on top of KDE, and writing XUL code for all of your apps. (inside of the mozilla instance)
What people need to realize is we already have the abstraction layer in place with Windows. It just needs to be usable
I know this was supposed to be funny, but one would have to be knowledgable in assembler to really get it.
If I had mod points, I'd mod you up as funny, but you'll have to settle with a pat on the back and a grin.
I have something like that, already. I purchased it about 3 years ago or so, from GPS America. It's a computer inside of a container (black ovular thing), and has a microphone/speaker you speak into. You start off the sentence with "Navigator", then using a sequence of keywords you can extract information from it. I used it primarily for addresses and locations (both of which are on CD inside of it). Surprisingly, it never skipped at all! but, the technology is already here, just as you said, limited. I need to hook it back up to my car, though with all the changes that have gone on since then, it'd be kinda funny having it inside of a 1983 Camaro. (originally had it in my 1999 Neon, oh how things change)
The problem is, when people know you have a cell phone they always say "why didn't you answer the phone, you have a phone by your side at all times!"
It's a double-edged sword sometimes. (I've been there, had a Cricket phone for a number of months until I got sick of people calling me, knowing I had it with me.)
Nemesis.
s
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=nemesi
I'm normally not a spelling nazi, but that just was begging for it.
(when I don't know how to spell a word, and I know that I don't, I always check it out on dictionary.com...)
If you think "spanning tree protocols" are anywhere near a standard (despite numerous RFCs), then you haven't done much (multi-vendor)internetworking at layer 2.
See, that's the problem. Anybody who integrates a network knows to use the same brand of router for a certain piering point.
ahh my bad.
My apologies... I just didn't see it!
No, that's not what's stopping me. A package is not a backup. A package is a means to install the software. What I want is to be able to install Gentoo in fifteen minutes, then rebuild all the parts in the background while I'm surfing slashdork.
Well, technically that can't be done, but you can always install another distribution and use that to compile gentoo. Then, you can surf while you compile. I know it's a pain, but hey... that's how Gentoo is.. a compiled-on-your-system distro.
It does me no good to build it on my harddrive, dump it to a CD, then copy the CD back to my harddrive. What's the sense in that?
It saves you the trouble of doing it again, when you want to format/reinstall for some reason. (or hardware failures, etc.)
Or if you just want to retouch your system completely because of a break-in.
Inside that slice, you can partition to your heart's content. All other OS's see only a single BSD partition, which makes things very nice, neat, and tidy.
I meant on-the-fly like LVM does.. not just the methodology.
I don't remember anymore :)
I put that signature on there years ago when I was listening to the song. It may well be
Worst part is, it actually sounded like one of the excuses made...
lol
Oh, the cost of Windows comes around to $34, which is a typical license fee Dell pays to install it. By the way, how much would it cost me to purchase one year of Linux technical support?
d istribution-here.
; en-us;Prodoffer02a
_ =en&tab_x=tab_1#menu_1_text_tab_1p port/index.html
Buying Windows doesn't mean you have technical support. If you purchased a Dell with Windows on it, you have technical support for a certain alloted amount of time from the manufacturer, as is right. It's also the case if you purchase a computer with Linux on it, or a Redhat/Mandrake/Suse/insert-your-favourite-boxed-
Technical Support costs if you pick up Linux or Windows from the store:
Windows XP: $245/Per incident (or you can get a package, but the price is still high) or the online technical support for $99/Per incident.
Information taken from: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh
Redhat:
If you go beyond the timeframe of the technical support that comes with the box set, you can use the "support on demand" for $40/per incident.
(information from Redhat salesperson on telephone)
Mandrake:
Phone support after your tech support is up that came with the box-set: $50/per incident.
Information from http://new.mandrakestore.com/mdksa/index.php?LANG
Suse:
Phone support after your tech support is up that comes with the box-set: $39/Per incident.
Information from http://www.suse.com/us/private/support/private_su
Lycoris: (for completeness)
You can pick up a Lycoris/LX License Certificate for $24.95 which entitles you to their normal technical support for 60 days via email. ( I couldn't find anything in regards to Phone support from them)
Information from http://www.lycoris.com/support/
End result: You don't have to be a coder to get advantages out of Linux. It's just one of those freedoms that you can have when you choose it. (without spending $200+ for the coding environment)
I for one haven't coded in C or C++ to make anything on my system in years. (and that was just for fun) I do however do scripting, but that's only to create my own custom stuff, and I'm picky as hell about that.
You're talking about your Freedom? How come you don't consider Joe User's freedom to enjoy his spare time, to be free from crappy software that does what he needs?
You're barking in parellel, my friend. That's what we are all talking about at the same time when we are advocating the GNU cause and Linux. To be free from crappy software, and use software that does what we need.
(ob-herasy)It works well on the Old Testament, too!(*lightning bolt*)
:P I guess that's how the Spanish Inquisition came around. Someone decided to put the two codes together into the same program.
Makes no difference if you read that or not, because the New Testament is a revamp of it. Alot like knowing C, then trying to learn C++
LOL
Because of Solar Flares the whole idea of sending someone to Mars, to me, seems like sending someone to their death.
A solar flare will release such huge amounts of radiation that if one happens when people are on the moon they will most likely die of radiation poisoning.
And these flares happen with a frequency that there is little to no chance that a manned mission to Mars would be less than a death mission.
We do have the ability (and do so continuously) to shield our people from those issues. If we didn't.. well.. our instrumentation would be fried on our satellites, and any probes sent to other planets/moons would be fried instantly. (DirecTV satellites are a great example. They are exposed to solar flares a great deal, and the only thing that happens is a breakdown in communications due to the transmission being garbled by the radiation.)
Think about these things... we have common things in our everyday life that answer questions brought up by these skeptics.
For example, if the space suits that nasa had in the 60s were good enough to allow a person to pass through the van allen belt, then why are they not good enough to allow someone to don one and clean up Three Mile Island?
The amount of radiation released from Three Mile Island was minute. There wasn't much to clean up, if anything...
If there was, I'd have cancer and probably hairless right now, considering when it happened and where I was.
Although I'm beginning to see signs of conspiracy theorist (General paranoia, distrust of my own government, a sinking feeling that all my civil liberties are disappearing quickly, a belief that my government values the greed of corporations over the needs of its people, etc) in myself,
Isn't it wierd how in todays world, you notice the truth and your a conspiracy theorist? LOL
Makes one worry about the state of affairs.
I know someone who thinks the moon landing was a hoax - she's a friend's mother.. she was a doubter WAY before the TV show aired (I heard her talk about it in the late 1980s) and truth be told, I don't think she even watched the TV show, as she doesn't have a TV..
I knew a guy (a father of a girl I knew) who just out of the blue started talking about that at me. I was fixing his computer at the time and started talking about how this technology is getting out of control, and how it's even a wonder we've gotten this far considering we never even got off this planet. (on with how we've never even touched orbit, much less touched the moon.) It was sooo hard to keep working on his computer, because my bottom lip was starting to hurt from biting it! LOL... I wanted to start laughing so badly, because it flew in the face of all common logic. (who here has been outside at night in a very isolated location, looked up and saw satellites. I have, I consider that to be a low orbit)
The TV show was pretty funny - but I don't think that it was powerful enough to change anyone's mind - if you don't believe the landing was real now, then I think it would have taken a little more than a single TV show - the seeds must have been planted before that..
My mother's upstairs neighbor saw the TV show (I never watched it, but saw reviews of it) and from that moment on swore that everything she sees about the moon and the space program is a crock of hewey. (read: not true) I tried reasoning with her a little, but she just thought I was brainwashed by them. *boggle*
I'm waiting for people to start saying that the Martian landers never made it to Mars.. In pieces or in one piece LOL!
The names are Cristovan Colombo and Fernão de Magalhães, you fucktards.
Could care less about the later case, but Chris Columbus was nothing more than a murderous bastard that wanted nothing more than to pillage and kill.
His own people were killed in retalliation after he left by the natives of the said country. Good riddence in my opinion.
All the Apollo missions landed on the earth-facing side of the moon. I guess it was just simpler that way ;)
yeah, propelling a vehicle in a straight line towards earth after taking off from the moon tends to be the easiest way, ya know. (Apollo took off straight up when it launched from the moon)
However, the Apollo command modules passed behind the moon on many occasions, and so far NASA has presented no evidence that they weren't up to something while conveniently out of sight of Earth.
Umm... yeah, they passed behind the moon. So? What the hell would they be up to, other than floating ominously above the moon, waiting for the proper deceleration, alignment for the landing point, and getting back into radio contact with NASA. They call it "Black out".
Should NASA manage to prove to everyone's satisfaction that astronauts did in fact land on the moon in the late sixties, we should undoubtedly re-focus our efforts on finding out what exactly it was that the CM pilot was up to while hidden from earth.
Sitting on their duffs, drinking beer, and waiting for NASA to work the remote controls properly. Everyone knows they were just there for the publicity! (joking)
What type of stupid idea is it to think that they were "Up to something" when they were hidden from earth? What could they do, anyway? Considering it's a vacuum, and at that time no one had really done a spacewalk.
You've been paying for organizations to beat you into submission for much longer, so whats the problem?
FBI, CIA, White House, Congress..
I've seen more lies coming out of those organizations than NASA even if the whole space thing is a sham.
Would you really want to use a duron850 with 128mb on a pos mobo for a media center?
A media center only plays AVI/DiVX/whathaveyou... It doesn't do any sort of rendering or anything. I have successfully (successfully == done so without any complaints and very lovely results) used my old 450mhz celeron (300 overclocked to 450) as a media center with no problems whatsoever. Pretty much, after you get over 200-300 mhz, it just doesn't matter, anymore.
There are a couple of very cheap 3d accelerated cards that have TV-out (RCA) jacks. I had one in my old PC until I finally bit the bullet and picked up an NVidia gforce2/mx.