or/dev/random YMMV depending on your OS...
write random data to it and re-use it.
i know this is off topic a bit, but perhaps apropos...
but the thing that amazes me the most is full-blown working computers(cpu, monitor, keyboard, mouse and sometimes even printers)left in alleys as garbage. in the last three years i've rescued, repaired and given away/sold nearly a dozen computers which have been left in the alleys as garbage for pickup by the gabage men(or someone like myself). most of the time these computers are heavily infected with virii and spyware, which is probably the reason why the original owners just left them for dead. i hate seeing not-so-modern(and usually capable) equipment being dumped in favor of something brand-new-and-shiny just because the former owner was too stupid to know how to take care of their own tools, not to mention the environmental impact tossing electronics into a landfill.
i admit in the beginning i used to take a look at what data is left behind: sometimes a few dirty pictures, bookmarks with saved passwords, and all sorts of misc personal cruft. after the first couple salvages, i realized i didn't have time to be a datavoyeur, and i don't even bother looking anymore i just go right into rebuilt: boot off of CD, format drive and lay a fresh os(lately been ubuntu, osx for capable macs). i'll run it for a few days, exercise the harddrive using dd(or compile some app, or use some type of stress tester), make sure base household apps are available(ooo, browser, games) and either give it away or sell it at a garage sale.
why bother? there are plenty of less fortunate folks out there who still don't have a computer, and they're happy to get a working hand-me-down instead of having to go to the public library, school, etc. using open source software on older equipment is a nice way to be environmentally friendly, and socially responsible by helping the less fortunate become computer capable. . . .
so what can you do with your stock of misc old hard drives? tear apart and destroy the ones that don't have any usable life(i.e. full height 5.25" 12LB 9GB narrow SCSI Seagate, prolly a good candidate for destruction). take the usable drives(6-40GB are pretty common in my old hardrive pile), perform a mkfs, dd random data to the drive, and do a full install of your fav distro. next time someone ask you about linux, give them the drive that's preloaded. or slap it in an old machine that's getting donated or headed for the trash heap.
IMHO the most important aspects of a file server is uptime and network connectivity. my most recent home server has ftp, nfs, http, ssh, rsync, smb and afp running... on top of openbsd.
i chose the mini-itx because of the small form factor and low power usage, on-board network/video/sound, without totally sacrificing cpu power. since i use it purely for file storage and retrieval, nothing else, so an 800mhz cpu is fast enough.
YMMV, but i've run a home fileserver in one form or another for the last 10 years, and i've had better reliability and uptime in the last 6 years with openbsd than any distro of linux(or qnx, solaris, or mac os). i attribute the stability mainly to the source code audits that are performed to discover security bugs. in the course of eliminating security bugs, the secondary effect is more stable builds.
it was/is an apple design guide for the mac os interface. addison wesley was the publisher when it first came out.
IMHO the mac gui through it's various permutations (mac os 9/next/os x) is still one of the best gui's out there. sure there are other gui's that have a lot of bells and whistles that the mac os is missing(3d desktop and jello effects of beryl/compiz,desktop gadgets of vista, better multi-button integration) but as far as consistency, user feedback, and ease of use, the mac gui still wins hands down.
since all your options seem to have some part of manufacturing in china, and typically in the greater south east asian sector. perhaps you can base it on component manufacturers(nvidia, seagate, samsung, etc). frankly i'd lean towards a macbook pro, even if you're running windows only. or if your absolutely deadset against owning an apple product, you can build your own using a barebones/whitebook kit, specifying your components, and installing only what you need without the bloatware that come bundled with all retail pc's.
use isdn; get two lines if you can afford it. you should be able to trunk/bond them together for a fatter pipe, and smaller isp's should have special deals available to isdn customers with multipler dail-ups to the same account. depending on your location to the dial-up connection, if you're on the same intralata as your isp, and the cost to dial-in can be a single call charge despite the length of the call(provided it's not considered an intralata long distance call)... but YMMV, it's been years since i had to do this.
get yourself a nice telescope, and spend all your money on the optics. you might even purchase the optics from edmund scientific or other such low cost option, and opt to make your own lens/mirror mounts and adjusters(old micrometers) as well as the tubes(concrete forming sonotubes perhaps).
reflective vs refractive? personally i'd choose a reflective(parabolic mirror, single fold; fewer surfaces for distortion/abbaration) over refractive, but that's a matter of what you can purchase at the time. at the end of the day it's all about bending as much light as possible... the bigger the optics, the brighter the image. if you do choose to go the refractive route, make sure you are purchasing achromatic optics, to minimize chromatic abbarations. if you choose the reflective route, consider a mirror with 1/4 or 1/2 wave flatness versus 1/10 wave for cost reasons. colter and mead are two possible brands for mirrors.
grind your own? i was actually looking into this myself a few years ago. in chicago, the adler planetarium held classes(more like a club) for mirror grinding: material ordering, grinding stand, flatness checking, vacuum deposition contractor. for a nominal fee, you could take a class, learn to grind a mirror, and get professional astronomy advise for building your own telescope... sounds like your moving to the boonies, but maybe your close enough to a metro city to have access to periodic visits to an academic center that might have offers of this sort.
i received one of those postcards the other day as well.
sad to see samag bite the dust.
to me, samag was one of those just-in-time publications... often publishing topics just when i was boning up on those exact topics. there are several features of the magazine that i applaud:
+ table of contents is on the front cover (similar to vintage national geographics)
+ the authors were sysadmins and not journalists
+ samag was not a monthly ad circular with a few articles, but a monthly publication with articles and features with a few ads
+ articles are not editorialized ads like mainstream computer publications
+ articles are not lacking in technical information like mainstream computer publications
closing down this magazine without transforming it into an online publication is a real shame and and prolly a pretty stupid move on the publishers part. as with all things that have a strong following that meet an early and untimely demise(delorean, napster, radio shack model 100), samag will likely reincarnate in some fashion or another.
pick a project you can appreciate; one that will you use regularly, here's a few suggestion: network filesharing, content management system, firewall, i.e. samba, netatalk, geeklog, joomla, smoothwall, m0n0wall. if you don't have coding skills, but you have writing skills, help out with documentation. or grpahics. you're a coder? maybe you can help in the code auditing process. there are plenty of good existing projects out there, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. by the way, expect that as a new comer to any project, just volunteering will not be recieved with a standing ovation: prove you worth first by fixing/contributing even if it's answering forum questions. you're actions will get noticed. good luck m8.
i think the advise you've received so far is spot on. first pick a couple projects you're interested and have a vested interest (i.e. you actually use the software on a daily/semi-regular basis) and join the forums. i wouldn't worry about the slang right off the bat, most of that will come with time and participation. join the discussions with suggestions and help if you can provide it, or ask questions regarding configurations, installation, etc if you're a new comer.
regarding posting in discussion groups: if your asking questions, be thorough in you description of problems you're experiencing, be ready to provide logs and details regarding your system and installation, and be courteous. nothing worse than a call for help on a forum: "i'n a new user, don't know what i'm doing, but i need help. and if you can't help me this software sucks!" i've seen many calls for help that go unanswered because of the issue listed above.
if you are offering help and/or suggestions, be thorough in your answers, don't be insulting("RTFM newb!"), and give realistic options. i've seen responses that are overly terse in tone that makes the response seem like it's an annoyance or statements that have an air of arrogance that have turned users away from FOSS projects.
the point of joining the discussion groups is to see if there is a fit for your skills. is the delevopment team in need of your abilities, or do they have too many contributors? is the process of contribution thru an individual or comittee? is the project in active development, or has it been obsfucated by another project? only way to answer some of these questions is to join and read the discussions. then you can make a better decision as to which project to join.
figure out what you want to join first before deciding what you want to do with the project. if your commited to the project, theres a way to find your niche.
pov MAY be released under a different license with ver 4... if they can replace all the bits of code from all the contributors. i actually consider pov as a modeller. pov may not be a modeller in the same way that blender or wings are, but it does build scenes: with text, not mouse movements. you can export files from/to other modellers (including blender) and pov. moray is a graphical front end bolted on to pov as a backend. at the end of the day it's about describing vectors in 3d space, and rastering the scene into a graphic file.
i stand corrected regarding the licensing issue, you are correct it is open-ish(pov license) with regards to downloading of app/source, re-distribution, modification, etc. it's not open source cause it's not using an osi recognized license(povray is pre gpl), however it is written and distributed in the spirit of open source. that being said, i mentioned pov as an example of another(non-commercial) 3d modeller.
here here! i concur. "staying in the zone" is important when the creativity is flowing. any obstruction can potentially dry up/alter the "stream of conscienceness" way that creativity can manifest itself. like a concert pianist not having to look at their hands, shortcuts are a path towards pofessionalism in the world of computer graphic arts(2d or 3d). my wife is a graphic artist with 12+ years using illutrator and photoshop, and it's always amazing to watch her work. she uses maybe 50% of the keyboard shortcuts available, but using the shortcuts allows her to move fluidly thru her work. it would take me 3-5X the time to do the same work she does, since i don't know where the keyboard equivalents are. interesting you mention modo in one of your other comments, it reminded me that my.blend is based on jimmacs modo color scheme...
you need to learn the "stupid" keyboard shortcut in any graphic app to get reasonably effecient. take any application open source or commercial, and you'll see that they all have keyboard equivelants to menu items. believe it or not blenders many shortcuts are fairly well organized.
yeah it's a hurdle, but if you want to be good at anything, you need to clear a few hurdles.
why is it flawed? because it takes effort to learn? come on...
your question isn't so much a question as much as it is whinging... maya and lightwave and studiomax are also showing their age based on a mature code base, but consistency in the user experience, incorporating improvements into the base application without jepordizing usability are stilll very important. and just as these applications have improved over the years, so has blender. i haven't seen alot of improvements with AOI...
Blender probably "owns" the open source 3D graphical modeling scene because it's the most complete, full fledged, and the most mature of all the applications out there, with the exception of POVray. aside from blender(combined with yafray), the only other apps i use(and would consider recommending) would be wings3d(currently testing sunflow). typically i'll start with wings, import into blender, and use yafray for rendering. this combo seems to work well, wings is superior to blender in certain types of modelling. i don't think the other apps you mentioned play well with other apps, maybe that's the problem...
i've tried many of the OSS 3D apps out there(including AOI, have not tried k3d or moonlight thou) and the problem was often that the user interface was clumsy, the code was only available on one platform(i.e. moray), or the project was not mature enough for real work.
blender is'nt the easiest 3d app to work with, but then again 3d modelling in and of itself is not an easy task. since this discussion is about 3d modellers, it's important that an artist is able to navigate, switch tools, and move around an application in as smooth and fluid like as possible. it might seem like an oxymoron, but it is possible to do this in wings and blender(i never thought it would be). blender especially is a steep curve application, but once you get to know the most basic commands of edge/vector/face selection, creation and editing of primitives and vertices, things start moving quite well. there is a lot of thought that went into both blender and wings UI to make them easy to use. can you say that about k3d/aoi/moonlight?
you complain about the underlying architecture, but it's not the code that a user is interfacing with, and the interface is what is driving a highly graphical app like blender. it helps when architecture and UI are both well conceived.
tell him the truth. tell your boss it's illegal. tell him that the cost of X bootleg copies of office = XX,XXX,XXX,XXX dollars in fines. show him examples of companies who have been caught in the past(new york post). give him an option of how to get into commpliance, i.e. five seats a year until compliance is met, plus updates to keep existing licenses current. give him this information via email, and bcc: your personal email. make sure you have good documentation(email) that shows that you recommended the purchase of X copies of office for an equivelant number of workstations(or some plan to bring the company into grace). do what you need to do to get the response in writing(email). save all your emails(and) with full headers, forward to your personal email, and call it a day.
obviously there's the practicality of keeping employed, so if you get pushed into a corner, do what he asks, but start building your firekit if the boss is that much of a dick. collect examples of other offenses that the company might have made. take that red stapler home with you. get your shit in order and prepare to leave or get fired. and if there are any threats(do this or i'm going to fire you) check with your local government labor department website. certain types of intimidation and coersion is illegal. also, depending on how much of a dread software-pirate roberts your boss is, you might consider contacting the fbi.
think of it this way: you work in a bank, and your boss has instructed you to use a round off calculation to shave a penny off of every account in the bank(on a daily basis) into a seperate account held by the bank. when the bank gets caught, who do you think is in trouble? the guy who runs the bank, or the guy who implemented the penny shaving scheme? you are the hands, and the only way to clear your name is to have good docs showing your knowledge that the request is illegal, and that you were instructed otherwise.
wow. i can't believe so many people are complaining about the no iso policy.
how do you support you favorite OSS project as an end user? do you donate equipment, time and money? or do you just download and evangelize? i support several projects by donating via paypal, or buying t-shirts/stickers/etc... openbsd is not being snarky, they tell you where the money is going:funding the project. what's wrong with that?
i don't think that refusing iso images to encourage cd sales is a 'tude issue, silly or arbitary. it's more of a cultural perspective, one of getting something physical in return for making a small donation to a software project. it also makes the end user a little more socially responsible by explaining that the money goes to the funding of said project when a purchase is made. you get a lot of bang for the buck when you purchase the disc set(you favorite OS for many hardware platforms, stickers, a song), but you also get the satisfaction of monitarily supporting the folks that put a lot of effort into making the the openbsd project what it is:a solid fucking OS that's stable and secure.
i've installed a lot of different os's in the last 12 years, and i will admit that the openbsd install is one one of the more archaic installers... slightly more arcane than a solaris console install. having said that, an openbsd install is quick and easy, especially with the ftp/http install. in fact, i prefer to do ftp/http installs of openbsd. i wish more distros would follow the model: download only what you need to install when you install it. don't get me wrong, gui installers are great. i love them when they work, but i hate the fact that they tend to slow down the install process, just to have a chance to compete in the windows-centric market.
g5 osx is a primary box, since we support several hundred mac users, with all of teh usual graphic arts applications. a windows box as a general purpose utility box, and a vmware instance of openbsd (on the windows box)for the actual X11 and ssh connectivity to our various solaris systems. it seems like i should be able to use the osx box for most things(including X11), but i've recently concluded that some R&D work that i've been doing requires more reboots on the g5 than i would prefer, hence the break out of several systems... frankly the bsd instance gets the most use, so i use it mostly in fullscreen mode. i really don't notice that i'm even in a vm, since 100% of the work is never graphic heavy.
the final word on this topic.
on
Define - /etc?
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· Score: 1
i would like to submit this to be the final word on this topic. according to one of the progenitors of unix, namely dennis ritchie,/etc stands for et cetera.
------ Originally it was just et cetera, with things like the password file, init, and whatnot. Some config things I suppose. The executable ones like init and getty were put apart there because they weren't intended to be executed directly by the user accidentally.
I know that various systems have loaded it up with other stuff, and thus they might have different explanations of their use of the original name.
granted the whole firing bit might have been a little strong handed, but we're talking 1995, and the folks concerned were union table-strippers in a printing/color house. if you didn't hit these guys over the head, they didn't pay attention...
actually, i like your suggestion. having transparency at that level will help self monitoring by the user base.
and get a computer science degree if you want to work in the computing and network arena. if programming isn't your bag, look into an information services degree(usually a masters). i've been doing IT for the last 15 years without a CS or MIS degree(bachelors of science, industrial design), and most of the folks i know professionally don't have computer/network specific degrees or certs... we all learned from the school of hard knocks. what did help was the college experience and the ability to explore, make friends, have fun, get laid a by hot college girls(or boys) and generally fuck around.
on a side note: since your from down unda, you should know that you country has a pretty interesting tech history... one of the first ATT system 6 unix non-PDP ports came out of wollongong university.
filtering is typically a waste of time. you start content filtering, or using a filtering service to keep blocked site lists up to date, but if your employees don't have enough to do, blocking them out of sites will only cause them to look elsewhere... you'll always be busy blocking one site after another... what might make more sense is to control the quality of service for certain protocols or hosts, i.e. www=10% bandwidth or 15 kb/s... having a good policy that allows you workers to police themselve also helps.
years ago we had a policy of "no butt surfing or risk getting fired". banking, online shopping, etc was tolerated, but since we were running a trade shop, most of the employees wouldn't let a co-worker getaway with "gold bricking" while everyone else was busy working. and to make the no porn policy stick, the first person that was caught surfing porn was fired, no exceptions. after the one guy was fired, porn surfing literally dropped.
i always loved the thinkpad line. solid fucking laptops. i used a 760cd years ago, upgraded to another system, passed it on to a co-worker, and when it had any issues, we contacted ibm one day, received a shipping box the next day, shipped it out the following day, and would get it returned within a couple of days. i was impressed with the build quality and service. but that was then...
i'll cite you my own experience regarding lower quality... actually it should be lower quality control. last month i had a client request that i deploy three brand spanking new lenovo's in his organization: two x60's and one t60. simple configs: install office, install anti-virus, configure network and mail, transfer data from older laptops. simple or so i thought.
the first x60 was not only DOA(hard drive failure) but it was missing the power adapter(we ended up using one from the other x60). i broke the lenovo seal at the customer site, so it was odd, missing power supply, but we went ahead and RMA'ed the DOA x60 back to CDW for a replacement unit. the second x60 install went without a hitch, as did the t60.
the replacement x60 to the first DOA unit started out fine, but within an hour of powering the unit up, it started blue screening. after a couple of recovery disk system reloads and other attempts to determine the nature of the problem, i was finally able to trace the error to a physical memory problem. since this was a new unit, we RMA'ed it AGAIN.
the final replacement unit worked great. that's one customer, 50% failure rate. in both instances, the DOA units had physical problems that might have been caused by shipping, i.e. rough handling causing HDD problems or misalignment of the memory... who knows. i never had a failure rate that high at one location, desktop or laptop. i think lenovo's quality control has gone down.
i feel your pain and internal conflict... in the last 5 job/17 years i've always given 2-4 weeks notice, i've never been a lame duck during my notice period, i've always left detailed instructions for all important logins and passwords(and the need to change them after i leave). i've worked very hard to keep everything i've done well documented and above board. and i never stabbed any of my employers in the back with back-biting and nay-saying during my notice. this has served me well without any backfires, EVEN when i went to work for the competition... i've had nothing but great relationships with all of my old employers(i'm on speaking terms with the last 4, i still do freelance for a couple of them). too bad about your former employer, sounds as if they really screwed the pooch on this one. escorting employees out the door and suing them just promote a sore loser mentality
if you didn't sign any special work agreement, you should be considered an "at-will" employee, which offers no guarantee for employement to you(length of time, notice of termination, reason for termination, etc). this is a two way street, so you also are not required to offer any reason or any time for notice. you might consider looking at employment information sites such as employment law information network to read up on the guidelines in your state. this site would prolly have some convenient links to labor law legal services in your state as well...
often times employees are asked to sign a non-compete or non-disclosure agreement regarding business practices, technology, etc. some of the more draconian non-competes that i've been asked to sign even went on to list specific competitors that i could not leave to work for... non-competes are hard to enforce because it's fundamentally not very moral(and possibly illegal) to prevent someone from making a living, even if you are leaving one company and going to their competition. they are usually enforeable when sometype of theft is involved.
the burden of proof would be on your old employer to show that you are stealing from them(knowledge, technology, software, etc) and taking the stolen asset to your new employer(the competitor). there may be very specific enforceable instances i.e. you developed specific technology at old company ON company time as part of your job, and didn't finish the project, joined the new company, taking the technology you started at old company to fiinish at new company.
remember even microsoft had a hard time getting a non-compete enforced against kai-fu lee... they did get an injunction(for a short period of time, but it didn't stop the hiring process or the ability to work), but consider the size of the organizations and the money involved, your scene is trivial in comparison(not trying to flame you, just putting it into perspective).
do yourself a big fucking favor, hire a lawyer who specialized in labor law. i bet this whole thing disappears quickly, once the company lawyer(who is prolly NOT specialized in labor law) is contacted by you lawyer... my labor law specialized lawyer can beat up your general corporate lawyer with one hand tied behind his back...
i've asked my wife to set the alarm clock to blowjob instead of alarm. for some reason she's hasn't figured it out yet... all kidding asided, last year we started the day with a 30 minute run on the beach, followed with a simple breakfast of fruit, egg, and bread(sometimes substituting the bread for oatmeal).
Slashdot Mirror
i know this is off topic a bit, but perhaps apropos...
but the thing that amazes me the most is full-blown working computers(cpu, monitor, keyboard, mouse and sometimes even printers)left in alleys as garbage. in the last three years i've rescued, repaired and given away/sold nearly a dozen computers which have been left in the alleys as garbage for pickup by the gabage men(or someone like myself). most of the time these computers are heavily infected with virii and spyware, which is probably the reason why the original owners just left them for dead. i hate seeing not-so-modern(and usually capable) equipment being dumped in favor of something brand-new-and-shiny just because the former owner was too stupid to know how to take care of their own tools, not to mention the environmental impact tossing electronics into a landfill.
i admit in the beginning i used to take a look at what data is left behind: sometimes a few dirty pictures, bookmarks with saved passwords, and all sorts of misc personal cruft. after the first couple salvages, i realized i didn't have time to be a datavoyeur, and i don't even bother looking anymore i just go right into rebuilt: boot off of CD, format drive and lay a fresh os(lately been ubuntu, osx for capable macs). i'll run it for a few days, exercise the harddrive using dd(or compile some app, or use some type of stress tester), make sure base household apps are available(ooo, browser, games) and either give it away or sell it at a garage sale.
why bother? there are plenty of less fortunate folks out there who still don't have a computer, and they're happy to get a working hand-me-down instead of having to go to the public library, school, etc. using open source software on older equipment is a nice way to be environmentally friendly, and socially responsible by helping the less fortunate become computer capable.
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so what can you do with your stock of misc old hard drives? tear apart and destroy the ones that don't have any usable life(i.e. full height 5.25" 12LB 9GB narrow SCSI Seagate, prolly a good candidate for destruction). take the usable drives(6-40GB are pretty common in my old hardrive pile), perform a mkfs, dd random data to the drive, and do a full install of your fav distro. next time someone ask you about linux, give them the drive that's preloaded. or slap it in an old machine that's getting donated or headed for the trash heap.
IMHO the most important aspects of a file server is uptime and network connectivity. my most recent home server has ftp, nfs, http, ssh, rsync, smb and afp running... on top of openbsd.
i chose the mini-itx because of the small form factor and low power usage, on-board network/video/sound, without totally sacrificing cpu power. since i use it purely for file storage and retrieval, nothing else, so an 800mhz cpu is fast enough.
YMMV, but i've run a home fileserver in one form or another for the last 10 years, and i've had better reliability and uptime in the last 6 years with openbsd than any distro of linux(or qnx, solaris, or mac os). i attribute the stability mainly to the source code audits that are performed to discover security bugs. in the course of eliminating security bugs, the secondary effect is more stable builds.
it was/is an apple design guide for the mac os interface. addison wesley was the publisher when it first came out.
IMHO the mac gui through it's various permutations (mac os 9/next/os x) is still one of the best gui's out there. sure there are other gui's that have a lot of bells and whistles that the mac os is missing(3d desktop and jello effects of beryl/compiz,desktop gadgets of vista, better multi-button integration) but as far as consistency, user feedback, and ease of use, the mac gui still wins hands down.
since all your options seem to have some part of manufacturing in china, and typically in the greater south east asian sector. perhaps you can base it on component manufacturers(nvidia, seagate, samsung, etc). frankly i'd lean towards a macbook pro, even if you're running windows only. or if your absolutely deadset against owning an apple product, you can build your own using a barebones/whitebook kit, specifying your components, and installing only what you need without the bloatware that come bundled with all retail pc's.
use isdn; get two lines if you can afford it. you should be able to trunk/bond them together for a fatter pipe, and smaller isp's should have special deals available to isdn customers with multipler dail-ups to the same account. depending on your location to the dial-up connection, if you're on the same intralata as your isp, and the cost to dial-in can be a single call charge despite the length of the call(provided it's not considered an intralata long distance call)... but YMMV, it's been years since i had to do this.
get yourself a nice telescope, and spend all your money on the optics. you might even purchase the optics from edmund scientific or other such low cost option, and opt to make your own lens/mirror mounts and adjusters(old micrometers) as well as the tubes(concrete forming sonotubes perhaps).
reflective vs refractive? personally i'd choose a reflective(parabolic mirror, single fold; fewer surfaces for distortion/abbaration) over refractive, but that's a matter of what you can purchase at the time. at the end of the day it's all about bending as much light as possible... the bigger the optics, the brighter the image. if you do choose to go the refractive route, make sure you are purchasing achromatic optics, to minimize chromatic abbarations. if you choose the reflective route, consider a mirror with 1/4 or 1/2 wave flatness versus 1/10 wave for cost reasons. colter and mead are two possible brands for mirrors.
grind your own? i was actually looking into this myself a few years ago. in chicago, the adler planetarium held classes(more like a club) for mirror grinding: material ordering, grinding stand, flatness checking, vacuum deposition contractor. for a nominal fee, you could take a class, learn to grind a mirror, and get professional astronomy advise for building your own telescope... sounds like your moving to the boonies, but maybe your close enough to a metro city to have access to periodic visits to an academic center that might have offers of this sort.
sad to see samag bite the dust.
to me, samag was one of those just-in-time publications... often publishing topics just when i was boning up on those exact topics. there are several features of the magazine that i applaud:
+ table of contents is on the front cover (similar to vintage national geographics)
+ the authors were sysadmins and not journalists
+ samag was not a monthly ad circular with a few articles, but a monthly publication with articles and features with a few ads
+ articles are not editorialized ads like mainstream computer publications
+ articles are not lacking in technical information like mainstream computer publications
closing down this magazine without transforming it into an online publication is a real shame and and prolly a pretty stupid move on the publishers part. as with all things that have a strong following that meet an early and untimely demise(delorean, napster, radio shack model 100), samag will likely reincarnate in some fashion or another.
note: the parent sage advice comes from AC.
pick a project you can appreciate; one that will you use regularly, here's a few suggestion: network filesharing, content management system, firewall, i.e. samba, netatalk, geeklog, joomla, smoothwall, m0n0wall. if you don't have coding skills, but you have writing skills, help out with documentation. or grpahics. you're a coder? maybe you can help in the code auditing process. there are plenty of good existing projects out there, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. by the way, expect that as a new comer to any project, just volunteering will not be recieved with a standing ovation: prove you worth first by fixing/contributing even if it's answering forum questions. you're actions will get noticed. good luck m8.
i think the advise you've received so far is spot on. first pick a couple projects you're interested and have a vested interest (i.e. you actually use the software on a daily/semi-regular basis) and join the forums. i wouldn't worry about the slang right off the bat, most of that will come with time and participation. join the discussions with suggestions and help if you can provide it, or ask questions regarding configurations, installation, etc if you're a new comer.
regarding posting in discussion groups:
if your asking questions, be thorough in you description of problems you're experiencing, be ready to provide logs and details regarding your system and installation, and be courteous. nothing worse than a call for help on a forum: "i'n a new user, don't know what i'm doing, but i need help. and if you can't help me this software sucks!" i've seen many calls for help that go unanswered because of the issue listed above.
if you are offering help and/or suggestions, be thorough in your answers, don't be insulting("RTFM newb!"), and give realistic options. i've seen responses that are overly terse in tone that makes the response seem like it's an annoyance or statements that have an air of arrogance that have turned users away from FOSS projects.
the point of joining the discussion groups is to see if there is a fit for your skills. is the delevopment team in need of your abilities, or do they have too many contributors? is the process of contribution thru an individual or comittee? is the project in active development, or has it been obsfucated by another project? only way to answer some of these questions is to join and read the discussions. then you can make a better decision as to which project to join.
figure out what you want to join first before deciding what you want to do with the project. if your commited to the project, theres a way to find your niche.
pov MAY be released under a different license with ver 4... if they can replace all the bits of code from all the contributors. i actually consider pov as a modeller. pov may not be a modeller in the same way that blender or wings are, but it does build scenes: with text, not mouse movements. you can export files from/to other modellers (including blender) and pov. moray is a graphical front end bolted on to pov as a backend. at the end of the day it's about describing vectors in 3d space, and rastering the scene into a graphic file.
i stand corrected regarding the licensing issue, you are correct it is open-ish(pov license) with regards to downloading of app/source, re-distribution, modification, etc. it's not open source cause it's not using an osi recognized license(povray is pre gpl), however it is written and distributed in the spirit of open source. that being said, i mentioned pov as an example of another(non-commercial) 3d modeller.
here here! i concur. "staying in the zone" is important when the creativity is flowing. any obstruction can potentially dry up/alter the "stream of conscienceness" way that creativity can manifest itself. like a concert pianist not having to look at their hands, shortcuts are a path towards pofessionalism in the world of computer graphic arts(2d or 3d). my wife is a graphic artist with 12+ years using illutrator and photoshop, and it's always amazing to watch her work. she uses maybe 50% of the keyboard shortcuts available, but using the shortcuts allows her to move fluidly thru her work. it would take me 3-5X the time to do the same work she does, since i don't know where the keyboard equivalents are. interesting you mention modo in one of your other comments, it reminded me that my .blend is based on jimmacs modo color scheme...
you need to learn the "stupid" keyboard shortcut in any graphic app to get reasonably effecient. take any application open source or commercial, and you'll see that they all have keyboard equivelants to menu items. believe it or not blenders many shortcuts are fairly well organized.
yeah it's a hurdle, but if you want to be good at anything, you need to clear a few hurdles.
why is it flawed? because it takes effort to learn? come on...
i agree. once you master the basic navigation, creation and editing functions down, it's amazingly efficient.
your question isn't so much a question as much as it is whinging... maya and lightwave and studiomax are also showing their age based on a mature code base, but consistency in the user experience, incorporating improvements into the base application without jepordizing usability are stilll very important. and just as these applications have improved over the years, so has blender. i haven't seen alot of improvements with AOI...
Blender probably "owns" the open source 3D graphical modeling scene because it's the most complete, full fledged, and the most mature of all the applications out there, with the exception of POVray. aside from blender(combined with yafray), the only other apps i use(and would consider recommending) would be wings3d(currently testing sunflow). typically i'll start with wings, import into blender, and use yafray for rendering. this combo seems to work well, wings is superior to blender in certain types of modelling. i don't think the other apps you mentioned play well with other apps, maybe that's the problem...
i've tried many of the OSS 3D apps out there(including AOI, have not tried k3d or moonlight thou) and the problem was often that the user interface was clumsy, the code was only available on one platform(i.e. moray), or the project was not mature enough for real work.
blender is'nt the easiest 3d app to work with, but then again 3d modelling in and of itself is not an easy task. since this discussion is about 3d modellers, it's important that an artist is able to navigate, switch tools, and move around an application in as smooth and fluid like as possible. it might seem like an oxymoron, but it is possible to do this in wings and blender(i never thought it would be). blender especially is a steep curve application, but once you get to know the most basic commands of edge/vector/face selection, creation and editing of primitives and vertices, things start moving quite well. there is a lot of thought that went into both blender and wings UI to make them easy to use. can you say that about k3d/aoi/moonlight?
you complain about the underlying architecture, but it's not the code that a user is interfacing with, and the interface is what is driving a highly graphical app like blender. it helps when architecture and UI are both well conceived.
does that answer your question(s)?
tell him the truth. tell your boss it's illegal. tell him that the cost of X bootleg copies of office = XX,XXX,XXX,XXX dollars in fines. show him examples of companies who have been caught in the past(new york post). give him an option of how to get into commpliance, i.e. five seats a year until compliance is met, plus updates to keep existing licenses current. give him this information via email, and bcc: your personal email. make sure you have good documentation(email) that shows that you recommended the purchase of X copies of office for an equivelant number of workstations(or some plan to bring the company into grace). do what you need to do to get the response in writing(email). save all your emails(and) with full headers, forward to your personal email, and call it a day.
obviously there's the practicality of keeping employed, so if you get pushed into a corner, do what he asks, but start building your firekit if the boss is that much of a dick. collect examples of other offenses that the company might have made. take that red stapler home with you. get your shit in order and prepare to leave or get fired. and if there are any threats(do this or i'm going to fire you) check with your local government labor department website. certain types of intimidation and coersion is illegal. also, depending on how much of a dread software-pirate roberts your boss is, you might consider contacting the fbi.
think of it this way: you work in a bank, and your boss has instructed you to use a round off calculation to shave a penny off of every account in the bank(on a daily basis) into a seperate account held by the bank. when the bank gets caught, who do you think is in trouble? the guy who runs the bank, or the guy who implemented the penny shaving scheme? you are the hands, and the only way to clear your name is to have good docs showing your knowledge that the request is illegal, and that you were instructed otherwise.
wow. i can't believe so many people are complaining about the no iso policy.
how do you support you favorite OSS project as an end user? do you donate equipment, time and money? or do you just download and evangelize? i support several projects by donating via paypal, or buying t-shirts/stickers/etc... openbsd is not being snarky, they tell you where the money is going:funding the project. what's wrong with that?
i don't think that refusing iso images to encourage cd sales is a 'tude issue, silly or arbitary. it's more of a cultural perspective, one of getting something physical in return for making a small donation to a software project. it also makes the end user a little more socially responsible by explaining that the money goes to the funding of said project when a purchase is made. you get a lot of bang for the buck when you purchase the disc set(you favorite OS for many hardware platforms, stickers, a song), but you also get the satisfaction of monitarily supporting the folks that put a lot of effort into making the the openbsd project what it is:a solid fucking OS that's stable and secure.
i've installed a lot of different os's in the last 12 years, and i will admit that the openbsd install is one one of the more archaic installers... slightly more arcane than a solaris console install. having said that, an openbsd install is quick and easy, especially with the ftp/http install. in fact, i prefer to do ftp/http installs of openbsd. i wish more distros would follow the model: download only what you need to install when you install it. don't get me wrong, gui installers are great. i love them when they work, but i hate the fact that they tend to slow down the install process, just to have a chance to compete in the windows-centric market.
g5 osx is a primary box, since we support several hundred mac users, with all of teh usual graphic arts applications. a windows box as a general purpose utility box, and a vmware instance of openbsd (on the windows box)for the actual X11 and ssh connectivity to our various solaris systems. it seems like i should be able to use the osx box for most things(including X11), but i've recently concluded that some R&D work that i've been doing requires more reboots on the g5 than i would prefer, hence the break out of several systems... frankly the bsd instance gets the most use, so i use it mostly in fullscreen mode. i really don't notice that i'm even in a vm, since 100% of the work is never graphic heavy.
i would like to submit this to be the final word on this topic. /etc stands for et cetera.
according to one of the progenitors of unix, namely dennis ritchie,
------
Originally it was just et cetera, with things like the
password file, init, and whatnot. Some config things
I suppose. The executable ones like init and getty
were put apart there because they weren't intended to
be executed directly by the user accidentally.
I know that various systems have loaded it up
with other stuff, and thus they might have
different explanations of their use of the original
name.
Dennis Ritchie
------
granted the whole firing bit might have been a little strong handed, but we're talking 1995, and the folks concerned were union table-strippers in a printing/color house. if you didn't hit these guys over the head, they didn't pay attention...
actually, i like your suggestion. having transparency at that level will help self monitoring by the user base.
and get a computer science degree if you want to work in the computing and network arena. if programming isn't your bag, look into an information services degree(usually a masters). i've been doing IT for the last 15 years without a CS or MIS degree(bachelors of science, industrial design), and most of the folks i know professionally don't have computer/network specific degrees or certs... we all learned from the school of hard knocks. what did help was the college experience and the ability to explore, make friends, have fun, get laid a by hot college girls(or boys) and generally fuck around.
on a side note: since your from down unda, you should know that you country has a pretty interesting tech history... one of the first ATT system 6 unix non-PDP ports came out of wollongong university.
filtering is typically a waste of time. you start content filtering, or using a filtering service to keep blocked site lists up to date, but if your employees don't have enough to do, blocking them out of sites will only cause them to look elsewhere... you'll always be busy blocking one site after another... what might make more sense is to control the quality of service for certain protocols or hosts, i.e. www=10% bandwidth or 15 kb/s... having a good policy that allows you workers to police themselve also helps.
years ago we had a policy of "no butt surfing or risk getting fired". banking, online shopping, etc was tolerated, but since we were running a trade shop, most of the employees wouldn't let a co-worker getaway with "gold bricking" while everyone else was busy working. and to make the no porn policy stick, the first person that was caught surfing porn was fired, no exceptions. after the one guy was fired, porn surfing literally dropped.
i always loved the thinkpad line. solid fucking laptops.
i used a 760cd years ago, upgraded to another system, passed it on to a co-worker, and when it had any issues, we contacted ibm one day, received a shipping box the next day, shipped it out the following day, and would get it returned within a couple of days. i was impressed with the build quality and service. but that was then...
i'll cite you my own experience regarding lower quality... actually it should be lower quality control.
last month i had a client request that i deploy three brand spanking new lenovo's in his organization: two x60's and one t60. simple configs: install office, install anti-virus, configure network and mail, transfer data from older laptops. simple or so i thought.
the first x60 was not only DOA(hard drive failure) but it was missing the power adapter(we ended up using one from the other x60). i broke the lenovo seal at the customer site, so it was odd, missing power supply, but we went ahead and RMA'ed the DOA x60 back to CDW for a replacement unit. the second x60 install went without a hitch, as did the t60.
the replacement x60 to the first DOA unit started out fine, but within an hour of powering the unit up, it started blue screening. after a couple of recovery disk system reloads and other attempts to determine the nature of the problem, i was finally able to trace the error to a physical memory problem. since this was a new unit, we RMA'ed it AGAIN.
the final replacement unit worked great. that's one customer, 50% failure rate.
in both instances, the DOA units had physical problems that might have been caused by shipping, i.e. rough handling causing HDD problems or misalignment of the memory... who knows. i never had a failure rate that high at one location, desktop or laptop. i think lenovo's quality control has gone down.
i feel your pain and internal conflict... in the last 5 job/17 years i've always given 2-4 weeks notice, i've never been a lame duck during my notice period, i've always left detailed instructions for all important logins and passwords(and the need to change them after i leave). i've worked very hard to keep everything i've done well documented and above board. and i never stabbed any of my employers in the back with back-biting and nay-saying during my notice. this has served me well without any backfires, EVEN when i went to work for the competition... i've had nothing but great relationships with all of my old employers(i'm on speaking terms with the last 4, i still do freelance for a couple of them). too bad about your former employer, sounds as if they really screwed the pooch on this one. escorting employees out the door and suing them just promote a sore loser mentality
if you didn't sign any special work agreement, you should be considered an "at-will" employee, which offers no guarantee for employement to you(length of time, notice of termination, reason for termination, etc). this is a two way street, so you also are not required to offer any reason or any time for notice. you might consider looking at employment information sites such as employment law information network to read up on the guidelines in your state. this site would prolly have some convenient links to labor law legal services in your state as well...
often times employees are asked to sign a non-compete or non-disclosure agreement regarding business practices, technology, etc. some of the more draconian non-competes that i've been asked to sign even went on to list specific competitors that i could not leave to work for... non-competes are hard to enforce because it's fundamentally not very moral(and possibly illegal) to prevent someone from making a living, even if you are leaving one company and going to their competition. they are usually enforeable when sometype of theft is involved.
the burden of proof would be on your old employer to show that you are stealing from them(knowledge, technology, software, etc) and taking the stolen asset to your new employer(the competitor). there may be very specific enforceable instances i.e. you developed specific technology at old company ON company time as part of your job, and didn't finish the project, joined the new company, taking the technology you started at old company to fiinish at new company.
remember even microsoft had a hard time getting a non-compete enforced against kai-fu lee... they did get an injunction(for a short period of time, but it didn't stop the hiring process or the ability to work), but consider the size of the organizations and the money involved, your scene is trivial in comparison(not trying to flame you, just putting it into perspective).
do yourself a big fucking favor, hire a lawyer who specialized in labor law. i bet this whole thing disappears quickly, once the company lawyer(who is prolly NOT specialized in labor law) is contacted by you lawyer... my labor law specialized lawyer can beat up your general corporate lawyer with one hand tied behind his back...
i've asked my wife to set the alarm clock to blowjob instead of alarm. for some reason she's hasn't figured it out yet... all kidding asided, last year we started the day with a 30 minute run on the beach, followed with a simple breakfast of fruit, egg, and bread(sometimes substituting the bread for oatmeal).