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User: Stinking+Pig

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  1. Re:Need more data on Writing Apps for GNOME *and* KDE? · · Score: 3

    Okay, you asked :-)

    I want apps from both camps to support drag-n-drop, copy and paste operations from/to each other, with the same key bindings. I also want docks, start buttons, iconbars, and clickable desktop icons to go away or be easily turned off (not hidden). Like the kfm -w command.

    I'd also like the eye-candy stuff on themes.org to have links to cloned themes, so you could download two themes and have both Gnome and KDE apps use pretty much the same look, but that's not important :-)

    I use K and G apps under XFce and WindowMaker.

  2. Re:What's wrong with bc? on Linus Looks at His Crystal Ball · · Score: 1

    rxvt is pretty nice, but it can't display reversed text correctly (at least not on a pixmapped background which is how I use it). I'm edging towards gnome-terminal for the gtk+ tie-in. konsole is cool, especially the ability to switch to/from mc mode quickly.

  3. Re:GPL violations on Ask Havoc Pennington · · Score: 1

    You know what they say, never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Having worked for and with a lot of large corporations, I find that the people in them who get things done are operating in an atmosphere of information-starvation and idiocy. It's a rare project that inspires the people who get things done to go out of their way (read outside of the company, aka personal time) to look for stuff and get answers.

  4. Re:Visio bought by Microsoft on Visio to be bought by Microsoft · · Score: 1

    I think they're just continuing their expansionistic policy -- it's a market they haven't conquered yet, so they want it. They're already snuggly with Visio, so purchase makes sense.

    I doubt that they view StarOffice as competition -- the only thing it has going for it is that it runs on Linux (sort of) and reads/writes MSOffice formats (sort of). It's slow and crash-prone, SOffice on my P200/64MB reminds me of WordPerfect 6.1 on my 486-33/4MB, 5 years ago.

    Now if Corel ports the whole PerfectOffice suite to Linux, they may get worried. If Lotus ports SmartSuite, they'll definitely be a little worried -- but not too much, because they've succeeded in making MSOffice file formats the de facto standard in almost every industry (please don't waste bandwidth responding to let everyone know that your dinky company doesn't use MSOffice file formats because MS sux and you're too cheap or poor to buy commercial software -- no one cares). And if Sun succeeds in making SOffice a true network app, they'll definitely be worried. But what's most likely to happen is:

    Sun will run SOffice into the ground -- they'll issue two "network-enabled" betas (Q2'00 and Q1'01), then formally halt development by H2'01.

    Corel will have a fully native Linux office suite for Perfect Office 9, which will capture and keep ~40% of the emerging Linux desktop market -- a brief return to the days when no one's file formats match.

    A startup will produce an MSOffice look-and-work-alike for Linux which sells for $49/seat and takes the other 40% of the desktop market. (Must remember the 10% who won't give up vi, emacs, or clay tablets, and the 10% who run the latest beta of the Next Big Thing.)

    Too much coffee? Nonsense! What are you trying to say?

  5. Re:XFCE on KDE 1.1.2 is out · · Score: 1

    What, you can't figure out how to change icons?

    I don't like the CDE icons either, so I switched to kiwi icons. So did Olivier, the principal XFce programmer, so now they come built-in.

    1) prepare a stopwatch and time the login sequence of each subsequent step:
    2) start kde. log out.
    3) start xfce. log out.
    4) start gnome. log out. rm -r core.
    5) rpm -e gnome* and wait for a stable release. Then run xfce as your primary wm and use kde for the extra goodies like kpilot.

  6. Re:1.1.2 is a step up... on KDE 1.1.2 is out · · Score: 1

    If I wasn't hooked on XFce, KDE would be my second choice.

  7. Re:Two different (sort of) ways of doing things. on KDE 1.1.2 is out · · Score: 1

    Please God, someone write a stable and nice looking email applet that handles multiple POP accounts and PGP signatures!

    Balsa/Spuce/whatever shows promise.
    kmail is alright... but I like my GTK+ themes :-)
    Netscape? Would be okay if there were multiple accounts.

    oh well...

  8. Re:Well there is SOME good thinking here on Linux Lite? · · Score: 1

    Last night I felt like playing a game. I went to www.linuxgames.com and poked around, Orbit looked cool. Downloaded it in rpm format, noted it required mesa, which is already installed because of Wine. RPM installed. I then tried to run the executable, and it crashed because GLUT wasn't installed. 30 minutes of research later, I find that GLUT is an OpenGL development library from SGI. I download the source and try to compile, but it requires an X script (xmkmkf or something) which isn't included in XFree86. Well, that was exciting. Back to linuxgames, download another game in RPM format, find that to install it correctly one needs to compile and run a pair of tools that are only included in the source tar.gz download.

    Never mind...

  9. Re:not necessarily a good idea on Linux Lite? · · Score: 1

    Yeah it's the right idea, but RH doesn't implement it as well as they could, because the user's account has *no* rights to anything except /home/username. They can't mount their Windows partition or use files on it, they can't configure or install software packages, they can't even dial the modem or mount a cd-rom without logging in as root. That's why many users run as root all the time -- it's easier than figuring out permissions. chmod is not terribly intuitive, and I have yet to find an explanation of the numbers.

    A single-user workstation needs to, by default, let that user do most workstation tasks, just about anything except deleting the kernel or unmounting the swap partition.

  10. Ah, but Java had a little problem... on Will Linux have the same fate as Java? · · Score: 2

    It is slow. It was introduced for world domination consideration when the Pentium 200 was a super power user CPU. Most people were still shifting from 486/100 to Pentium 133 or 166. Also, MS was able to put their full effort into extend and embrace, while Sun attempted to maintain control over every single aspect introduced by smaller companies/programmers.

    With Linux, there's a performance gain (in server use, still a hit for desktop use). Linux's biggest problem is the trolls who think they're advocating. There's so many people out there posting flame and counterflame over some poor newbie's "how do I get X working?" that the newsgroups haven't got bandwidth for beyond-newbie questions any more (such as "how do I make my IDE CD-ROM and CD-RW work at the same time?").

    my 2 cents

  11. Re:All I want... on How to Build a Clear Computer Case · · Score: 1

    Looks like a ProLiant 3000 with the plastic crap pulled off, spray-painted black.

  12. Re:All I want... on How to Build a Clear Computer Case · · Score: 1

    IBM had a cool idea for the Aptivas a while ago, though I don't know if it ever hit production. It was a two box design -- one laptop sized chunk that sat under the monitor and held the floppy /cdrom / lights / power button. A second minitower case held the mobo / ram / hard drives /expansion cards / power supply, which you could shove behind the desk and forget about.

    Of course ideally it would be built into the desk...

  13. Re:Clear Case on How to Build a Clear Computer Case · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I use one of these -- I especially like being able to slide the motherboard and cards out on one tray, and pull the hard drives out as a single unit.

    w/r/t some previous comment about screws -- we don't need no stinking screws!

  14. Re:State Attorneys General on Ask Slashdot: What can we do about UCITA? · · Score: 1

    Hey buddy, who are you accusing of thinking ahead!?

    I was busy slamming my head into the wall repeatedly, that's why I didn't jump in earlier. But now that I'm here, L1nuX R001Z!

  15. Re:Linux In Elementry Schooles (LIES) on Ask Slashdot: Computer Charities for the Children? · · Score: 1

    I've been doing some of this for my mom, too -- I don't know any programming, but I can sure get XFCE and a bunch of games/web browser/notepad stuff going. Unfortunately the school sysadmin is a control-freak machead and refuses to give any support (including IP addresses) to those classrooms stepping out of the fold. The number of classrooms doing so is growing, though :-)

    w/r/t protection from the internet, I think it's the parent's responsibility, of course. I tend to doubt that parents shirk the responsibility as much as people say, though. Remember how much of that bad news comes from traditional media. Now remember traditional media's core message: The world is a dangerous place full of cons, killers, and freaks, so you'd better stay home and watch TV.

  16. Re:Good Idea? on Customized Red Hat Boot Disks · · Score: 1

    I think it's a grain. Left in such a situation I'd rather use Ghost or a shell script to zap the partitions over.

  17. Re:Good Start! on Customized Red Hat Boot Disks · · Score: 1

    kernel panic: failed to mount vfs at 08:30

    Try searching www.deja.com and find out what happened to cause this after package selection during an RH6.0 FTP install, on a Compaq 486/33 with 12mb RAM and a 350mb HDD.

    You won't find it -- I didn't. I gave up and used Linux Router Project instead.

  18. Re:This is great, but why? on PalmPilot as fetish · · Score: 1

    I am unable to remember phone numbers. I spend a lot of time on the road (systems engineer). Traffic is brutal in Silicon Valley, so a lot of the time on the road I spend making and taking phone calls.

    a) paper dayplanner -- don't make me laugh, sucks for so many reasons, but lack of backup and search capability top the list.

    b) keep my laptop with me and open it on the passenger seat. Worked for a while, but it's slow and heavy, screen can't be read in bright sunlight, and battery life is about an hour.

    c) keep my pilot with me and open it on my lap. Look up phone numbers. Jot notes and to-do's. It beeps when I'm supposed to be on a scheduled call and gives my the dial-in and access numbers.

  19. Re:I'm lame -- Genius on PalmPilot as fetish · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure that you could top the original display of perfection...


  20. Re:Nihilistic technofetishists on PalmPilot as fetish · · Score: 1

    Flamebait is better when it has a kernel of truth in it -- please try again. Attack my on my attempts to use Linux for writing MS Office apps, and you might get somewhere.

    Anyway, I always thought SUV stood for Suburban Utility Vehicle?

  21. Re:Yeah, right. on NYT Magazine Says No Network Is Secure · · Score: 1

    >By your criteria, the only computers that ought to be hooked to the Internet are the vast majority of home machines that are used for games and web-surfing.

    And how many of those have a copy of Quicken or MS Money on them?

  22. Re:Very Balanced Article on NYT Magazine Says No Network Is Secure · · Score: 1

    I like this idea -- the mongo company I work for tends towards the "lock-it-down-then-review-user-needs-in-five-years " side of the spectrum. They use SMS to prevent installation of useful software, which interestingly did not save them from Melissa, CIH, or the Explorer worm. I say them because it takes very little time at all for the many power users to subvert the system, either by networking the computer to insecure but uable systems or by partitioning the disk and creating their own stealth version of the "standard desktop."

    All the crackdown really accomplishes is user hostility towards MIS, because it is inflexible and the reasoning behind it isn't open to discussion.

  23. Re:Wrong... on Feature: The Broadband Wars · · Score: 1

    Ah, but SBC takes expansion of ADSL quite seriously (or else they wouldn't be undercutting the market price by 60% and giving away installation of inside wire, Alcatel bridge, and Ethernet NIC, while pouring millions of dollars into the biggest infrastructure buildout since... CATV!).

    No guarantees (which is essentially what the services reps told you) but as long as your neighborhood isn't mux-hell, you'll get hooked up sooner rather than later. SBC would rather spend cash now and get you hooked on their service than wait until AT&T spends the cash and gets you hooked on cable, because someday (like now if you live in Orange County, CA) that coax will be able to provide voice service as well as data and video.

    I estimate we're six to twelve months from seeing deployments of some sort of DSL repeater...

  24. SBC DSL on ADSL Bandwidth Limiting? · · Score: 1

    Your bandwidth is limited via ATM PCR to 1.544Mbps if you bought the basic, 6.0Mbps if you bought advanced.

    However, since it's ATM and you get a PVC worth that much bandwidth, you'll probably find your DSL line is faster than your 8-port 100Base-TX hub workgroup hub...

  25. Re:News in the slashdot decade on Feature:News in the Slashdot Decade · · Score: 1



    And because they were truly benevolent, they always stepped down after the crisis was over and returned power to a senate or council... Cincinnatus is the Roman version ( Li vy's Early History on project gutenberg), but I can't remember the name of the Greek original. Any other liberal arts students?