Actually, I talked a retiree on a very limited budget into a TigerDirect Wintergreen $240 computer a couple weeks ago. Replaced Lindows with Fedora Core 1 -- so lets count the linux-to-linux installs!
After her circa '97 Mac died, she realized a learning curve would be in order, so, yes thank you, she is adapting well. Webbing and emailing. And very unlikely to get mucked up with spyware, trojans and viruses.
Since the article is talking "shipped", maybe 2% is fair in that context if people understand that the 5% linux figure can also be true since 3% of older machines and home built machines may be retrofitted with linux.
Yeah, one way to have nightmares for a week is to actually read the federal register and your state's register to see what sort of insanity regularly gets a committee hearing.
But it doesn't mean all the insane ideas get trapped there.
I believe politicians will consistently tell you they aren't scientists and therefore benefit from the experience of corporate experts (aka lobbyists).
After all, nobody actually reads, much less understands, the bills they vote on. They say that these days like it actually is a defensible excuse.
How many of those contacts log as starting out with "C:/windows/cmd.exe" by some script kiddy? They don't seem to have done any breakdown of what sort of hit the IP got. Therefore, their figures of actual pr0n cruisers is probably exaggerated 10/1.
Which would be typical of pop media sociological reporting. One of my old soc profs wrote a book called Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists. His favorite quote was "Every year since 1950, the number of American children gunned down has doubled". Which, of course, meant that if a kid did, in fact, get gunned down in 1950, we must have hit a billion child gun deaths by 1980.
Yeah. I figured that was the point of a Slashdot reference!
Credit where credit is due, it seems like a well-designed web site actually.
Now that I'm registered with them, I think we should have a Slashdot poll on how many international intelligence agencies would be monitoring my web mail from this site should I whimsically decide to use such.
Let this be a lesson. 1) do research 2) do more research than is possible 3) don't be cheap
Oh, all right -- given all three. I was going to say even following the requirements won't work, but _more_ research will. I've been traumatized that the last two AMD XP systems I've built have both been unstable with "lower" name brand ram at the rated speed. Run memtest for hours with no errors but they'd consistently crash programs in practice. Premium overclocker's memory, or just memory rated at a speed faster, and both have been fine.
Seems like one of those things a person has to learn by hard experience. Can't trust the motherboard manual. Found a web page at AMD that "recommends" premium memory. But there you are -- how many people are going to research the requirements of _each_ component?
They need an environment safe from crime, corruption & pollution. They need clean water. They need to stop getting aids.
Well, there is that.
But native language support may be less dire than you think. Check out: http://www.translate.org.za/ Doesn't matter whether Microsoft is interested in Sotho if linux empowers people to modify the computer system themselves for Sotho.
I can remember when China bought about a million Timex Sinclair computers for schools: tiny little 16K doorstops with an uppercase membrane keyboard and a TV connection for a 40-character x c. 23 line display.
And why not. My first computer where I learned BASIC. And I LIKED IT!
I don't understand the Windows kernel API talk? OS/2 had license access to Win 3.1 source and could run 16 bit apps but that doesn't mean it _was_ a Windows variant. I think it was more analogous to linux running Windows programs with WINE.
Well, of course, there are a couple discussions going on here -- the GUI and the underlying OS.
OS/2 Warp hit the stores nearly a year before Win 95 and the Win 95 GUI was a pale and weakened creature to the beauty of OS/2. In the analogies of the time, if linux was a jeep and Windows was an MG, I always thought of OS/2 as a pimped up Caddy will all the options. Put a strain on the engine but it was a joy to drive.
I'm aware of the official VMS line. It seems difficult to believe that IBM taught Microsoft nothing about 32-bit preemptive multitasking, but it is also clear that there was fresh thinking in areas like NTFS. I'm sure there are honest web archives somewhere thoughtfully demonstrating that NT was superior to OS/2 in most** areas.
But OS/2 was superior to Windows 95.
** I would dual boot both OS/2 and (rarely) NT. I could play 16-24k streams while simultaneously cruising at home on a modem with OS/2 -- Never a hiccup. Preemptive load balancing? NT? Not the same pleasant experience. (And OS/2 had some USB drivers.)
Speaking of which, is anyone over the age of 30 just amazed at what a different world this is from the 80's? Sure, communist menace is substituted by 'terrorist menace' but at least MAD is less likely.
A decade of peace and prosperity. Now the biggest threat to mankind is the current U.S. government.
Give me smallpox over radiation sickness and burns. And without the blast damage there would at least be grossly overcrowded hospitals and overworked doctors instead of rubble.
>2600 is entertaining still and I buy it regularly (don't want to be on that subscription list though *GASP*!) although some of the articles list tech information that's just nowhere near correct.
Isn't that the truth. But that breathless amateur enthusiasm is part of its charm. Yeah, I usually still pick up 2600 and it is as much entertainment as information.
You know, there actually was a Playboy Press. And it had some cool stuff: How to be Rich, and How to be an Executive (or something like that) both by J. Paul Getty, 20,000 Alarms about what it was like to be an NYC Fireman (years ago), one on how to be a house burgler, and a bunch of books on investing and stocks.
Pretty useful stuff, although I can't vouch for the house burgler book.
What you have to ask yourself, is why the govenrment are litterally pushing people to buy SUV's.
Population control?
The kicker is that they aren't even particularly safe since they give the phrase "rolling down the highway" a sinister connotation. But in a TWO car accident, the SUV wins. Maybe the juxtaposition of those two statistics says something really weird about our society?
Perhaps they are inspired by KS Robinson's gigantic Mars machines that can house people for weeks? But the effort to get a few of them up and running in the first place!
If they think the moon is so dangerous they have to go this route, then it does start to seem like a _real_ space station as a platform to Mars makes as much sense in the near to medium future.
Me think analog good thing. Disaster happen. Say chemical plant go boom. People go quick!! But only, me say, maybe eight police in whole small town!!!! Amateur people trained in MARS unit (funny name, huh?) help evacuate people. Good thing!
Unfortunately, broadband over power lines isn't win-win if it means another form of communication is rendered useless. The FCC doesn't support an amateur radio service just because "we're the one's what love freedom!" Amateur radio operators routinely perform volunteer services in emergencies. The amateur service encourages a pool of people self-trained in communications equipment. It has social value and it is inappropriate to think of eliminating it as akin to the passing of the neanderthal.
Cue the "Gee I'm glad I use FireFox on Linux" posts. "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Well -- yeah.
With a couple of these things that have come around recently, I'd only use a Windows machine for off-line gaming. Why shouldn't these threats be taken seriously?
Never worked at a theater. Mall multiscreens plan that flexibility and use it often?
Still doesn't seem right. Show time promptly matched the advertised time of the tickets I got through the internet a couple days earlier. And they had us all waiting in line for that "sold out" showing until they started ripping tickets -- all three dozen of us.
And we (most of the "crowd" actually) were there 1/2-an-hour early. Probably would have seen them letting in a "main group" if we became last minute "overflow".
No. Still weird. "Sold out" show with three dozen or so attendees.
All Saturday shows were "sold out". Yet my wife and I saw the 7:30 p.m. show with about 3-4 dozen people in a theater that could easily hold 10 times that many. I kid you not. Nobody -- not ONE person -- in the ten rows in front of us. 5 p.m. B-movie matinee time for an opening Saturday night.
Conspiracy theorists, choose your weapons, fire at 20 paces. Either:
1. Supporters bought up all the tickets so it would get good PR and broader distribution. They'll actually see it in a couple weeks when the crowds thin.
or:
2. Republicans are so insanely terrorized of this movie that they are stemming the bleeding of opening weekend by buying up blocks of showings so the Monday morning water cooler talk isn't going to hit like a sledge hammer across the country.
I haven't decided which I believe yet -- so go for it!
Slashdot Mirror
Where can I buy a copy of Linux OS?
Microcenter. I have a retail store within walking distance. Red Hat Pro is on sale at $59.95 'til Monday if memory serves.
I don't think it is that hard to buy a boxed copy if you don't want to download and burn a copy.
Actually, I talked a retiree on a very limited budget into a TigerDirect Wintergreen $240 computer a couple weeks ago. Replaced Lindows with Fedora Core 1 -- so lets count the linux-to-linux installs!
After her circa '97 Mac died, she realized a learning curve would be in order, so, yes thank you, she is adapting well. Webbing and emailing. And very unlikely to get mucked up with spyware, trojans and viruses.
Since the article is talking "shipped", maybe 2% is fair in that context if people understand that the 5% linux figure can also be true since 3% of older machines and home built machines may be retrofitted with linux.
There I go not reading the actual article....
Yeah, one way to have nightmares for a week is to actually read the federal register and your state's register to see what sort of insanity regularly gets a committee hearing.
But it doesn't mean all the insane ideas get trapped there.
I believe politicians will consistently tell you they aren't scientists and therefore benefit from the experience of corporate experts (aka lobbyists).
After all, nobody actually reads, much less understands, the bills they vote on. They say that these days like it actually is a defensible excuse.
How many of those contacts log as starting out with "C:/windows/cmd.exe" by some script kiddy? They don't seem to have done any breakdown of what sort of hit the IP got. Therefore, their figures of actual pr0n cruisers is probably exaggerated 10/1.
Which would be typical of pop media sociological reporting. One of my old soc profs wrote a book called Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists. His favorite quote was "Every year since 1950, the number of American children gunned down has doubled". Which, of course, meant that if a kid did, in fact, get gunned down in 1950, we must have hit a billion child gun deaths by 1980.
Probably like bible camp. You're right. Horrible.
Yeah. I figured that was the point of a Slashdot reference!
Credit where credit is due, it seems like a well-designed web site actually.
Now that I'm registered with them, I think we should have a Slashdot poll on how many international intelligence agencies would be monitoring my web mail from this site should I whimsically decide to use such.
Let this be a lesson.
1) do research
2) do more research than is possible
3) don't be cheap
Oh, all right -- given all three. I was going to say even following the requirements won't work, but _more_ research will. I've been traumatized that the last two AMD XP systems I've built have both been unstable with "lower" name brand ram at the rated speed. Run memtest for hours with no errors but they'd consistently crash programs in practice. Premium overclocker's memory, or just memory rated at a speed faster, and both have been fine.
Seems like one of those things a person has to learn by hard experience. Can't trust the motherboard manual. Found a web page at AMD that "recommends" premium memory. But there you are -- how many people are going to research the requirements of _each_ component?
Perhaps a federal "network tax" on these machines if they appear in the U.S. -- to compensate Microsoft for their loss?
They need an environment safe from crime, corruption & pollution. They need clean water. They need to stop getting aids.
Well, there is that.
But native language support may be less dire than you think. Check out: http://www.translate.org.za/ Doesn't matter whether Microsoft is interested in Sotho if linux empowers people to modify the computer system themselves for Sotho.
You think you are "kidding"!
I can remember when China bought about a million Timex Sinclair computers for schools: tiny little 16K doorstops with an uppercase membrane keyboard and a TV connection for a 40-character x c. 23 line display.
And why not. My first computer where I learned BASIC. And I LIKED IT!
I don't understand the Windows kernel API talk? OS/2 had license access to Win 3.1 source and could run 16 bit apps but that doesn't mean it _was_ a Windows variant. I think it was more analogous to linux running Windows programs with WINE.
Well, of course, there are a couple discussions going on here -- the GUI and the underlying OS.
OS/2 Warp hit the stores nearly a year before Win 95 and the Win 95 GUI was a pale and weakened creature to the beauty of OS/2. In the analogies of the time, if linux was a jeep and Windows was an MG, I always thought of OS/2 as a pimped up Caddy will all the options. Put a strain on the engine but it was a joy to drive.
I'm aware of the official VMS line. It seems difficult to believe that IBM taught Microsoft nothing about 32-bit preemptive multitasking, but it is also clear that there was fresh thinking in areas like NTFS. I'm sure there are honest web archives somewhere thoughtfully demonstrating that NT was superior to OS/2 in most** areas.
But OS/2 was superior to Windows 95.
** I would dual boot both OS/2 and (rarely) NT. I could play 16-24k streams while simultaneously cruising at home on a modem with OS/2 -- Never a hiccup. Preemptive load balancing? NT? Not the same pleasant experience. (And OS/2 had some USB drivers.)
But considering how polarized the country is right now, arena red states vs. blue states might be better than a civil war.
Speaking of which, is anyone over the age of 30 just amazed at what a different world this is from the 80's? Sure, communist menace is substituted by 'terrorist menace' but at least MAD is less likely.
A decade of peace and prosperity. Now the biggest threat to mankind is the current U.S. government.
Give me smallpox over radiation sickness and burns. And without the blast damage there would at least be grossly overcrowded hospitals and overworked doctors instead of rubble.
>2600 is entertaining still and I buy it regularly (don't want to be on that subscription list though *GASP*!) although some of the articles list tech information that's just nowhere near correct.
Isn't that the truth. But that breathless amateur enthusiasm is part of its charm. Yeah, I usually still pick up 2600 and it is as much entertainment as information.
You know, there actually was a Playboy Press. And it had some cool stuff: How to be Rich, and How to be an Executive (or something like that) both by J. Paul Getty, 20,000 Alarms about what it was like to be an NYC Fireman (years ago), one on how to be a house burgler, and a bunch of books on investing and stocks.
Pretty useful stuff, although I can't vouch for the house burgler book.
What you have to ask yourself, is why the govenrment are litterally pushing people to buy SUV's.
Population control?
The kicker is that they aren't even particularly safe since they give the phrase "rolling down the highway" a sinister connotation. But in a TWO car accident, the SUV wins. Maybe the juxtaposition of those two statistics says something really weird about our society?
How would the state test for emission compliance?
I'm trying to get my mind around the idea.
Perhaps they are inspired by KS Robinson's gigantic Mars machines that can house people for weeks? But the effort to get a few of them up and running in the first place!
If they think the moon is so dangerous they have to go this route, then it does start to seem like a _real_ space station as a platform to Mars makes as much sense in the near to medium future.
Me think analog good thing. Disaster happen. Say chemical plant go boom. People go quick!! But only, me say, maybe eight police in whole small town!!!! Amateur people trained in MARS unit (funny name, huh?) help evacuate people. Good thing!
Unfortunately, broadband over power lines isn't win-win if it means another form of communication is rendered useless. The FCC doesn't support an amateur radio service just because "we're the one's what love freedom!" Amateur radio operators routinely perform volunteer services in emergencies. The amateur service encourages a pool of people self-trained in communications equipment. It has social value and it is inappropriate to think of eliminating it as akin to the passing of the neanderthal.
Must have a hair trigger on that database. I hear that can blow enough sectors out of a cylinder to take down a domain at full gallop.
Cue the "Gee I'm glad I use FireFox on Linux" posts.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Well -- yeah.
With a couple of these things that have come around recently, I'd only use a Windows machine for off-line gaming. Why shouldn't these threats be taken seriously?
Never worked at a theater. Mall multiscreens plan that flexibility and use it often?
Still doesn't seem right. Show time promptly matched the advertised time of the tickets I got through the internet a couple days earlier. And they had us all waiting in line for that "sold out" showing until they started ripping tickets -- all three dozen of us.
And we (most of the "crowd" actually) were there 1/2-an-hour early. Probably would have seen them letting in a "main group" if we became last minute "overflow".
No. Still weird. "Sold out" show with three dozen or so attendees.
Off topic.
You haven't explained why the theater was "sold out".
All Saturday shows were "sold out". Yet my wife and I saw the 7:30 p.m. show with about 3-4 dozen people in a theater that could easily hold 10 times that many. I kid you not. Nobody -- not ONE person -- in the ten rows in front of us. 5 p.m. B-movie matinee time for an opening Saturday night.
Conspiracy theorists, choose your weapons, fire at 20 paces. Either:
1. Supporters bought up all the tickets so it would get good PR and broader distribution. They'll actually see it in a couple weeks when the crowds thin.
or:
2. Republicans are so insanely terrorized of this movie that they are stemming the bleeding of opening weekend by buying up blocks of showings so the Monday morning water cooler talk isn't going to hit like a sledge hammer across the country.
I haven't decided which I believe yet -- so go for it!