Linux is non-graphical, people. X is separate from Linux - it runs on many Unices.
I keep seeing, "Linux on the desktop" articles. This is moronic. The day when Linus puts a graphical desktop environment into the tree is the day that this becomes valid. Until then, we should be seeing articles about "*nix on the desktop" or "X on the desktop". These aren't specific to Unix.
Sheesh... I'd rather run and support X on BSD since it allows for some relief of the GPL headaches. Go ahead and try to get that binary video driver onto newbie's PC over the phone.
The fact that IBM has yet to release a native client only shows how uninformed they are. The only reason that they use Linux in the first place is because it saves them from spending development dollars on their own *nix solution. While I'm certainly not complaining about this (both OSS and IBM benefit from this relationship), I'd really like them to be a 'pioneer' like they claim to be.
And why does this story have anything to do with Linux, which has nothing in the way of a graphical environment merged into the tree, as of yet. KDE/X and Gnome/X are the current leaders here. And those can be used on more than just Linux.
Gratuitous alternative desktop environment suggestion: don't let applications save user documents to 'just anywhere' like Windows does. Then, create a user-level system browser that keeps the user out of the stuff that is irrelevant to them.
With the current Windows environment, I see the same thing all the time. Although recent versions of Windows Explorer will tell user's that they shouldn't be picking around in PROGRAM FILES, the SAVE feature doesn't. So Joe User decides to start saving his office documents in C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT OFFICE because that makes sense to him when he/she becomes accustomed to the PC for the first time. If this person only had the choice of saving it to a document store (of all or some of the PC's user's), this confusion wouldn't be there.
Then create a system-level browser that can view things at the file level - for people who need to do this. I certainly don't need this functionality more than 5% of the time and I support this for a living. Separate the user-level and system-level browsing.
And don't even get me started on a standard for program installs. Currently, a Windows install can put crap in the following places:
1) Start Menu 2) Task Bar 3) Quick Launch 4) Desktop
Not to mention the fact that most menus and folders are full of gratuitous advertising. There's no reason that Easy CD Creator needs to add a ROXIO folder in the Program Files or in the Start Menu. As a matter of fact, the start menu should have a UTILTIES folder in it and the program should be required to install a shortcut there and only there. A splash screen could accomodate the uninstall shortcut and related documentation. There's no reason that every software package get it's own start menu group...
Am I rambling? How do I contribute to usability improvements? Linux is at its infancy and has the chance to do everything right.
They have their own tools but all of a sudden, Linux comes along. Because most middle-management add it to their dictionary of buzzword compliance, IBM simply replaces their existing tools with Linux. Their prices don't change and, all-of-a-sudden, IBM becomes synonymous with buzzword compliancy. And they get to milk developers who work for free!
IBM actually distributes a "maintenance and care" flyer with their new Thinkpad's. It clearly states that the battery is a consumable item with performance tapering over the useful life. As far as I am concerned, the 600 series batteries lasted much longer than the Compaq's or Dell's, which go bad after about a year.
Since the battery warranty is only good for one year, it helps to simply call it in for repair at this point. Or get the Best Buy 4-year service contract. I've had them replace a stack of 600 series batteries over this kind of time frame.
In a recent issue of "Meat & Poultry" magazine, editors quoted from "Feathers," the publication of the California Poultry Industry Federation, telling the following story:
It seems the US Federal Aviation Administration has a unique device for testing the strength of windshields on airplanes. The device is a gun that launches a dead chicken at a plane's windshield at approximately the speed the plane flies.
The theory is that if the windshield doesn't crack from the carcass impact, it'll survive a real collision with a bird during flight. It seems the British were very interested in this and wanted to test a windshield on a brand new, speedy locomotive they're developing.
They borrowed the FAA's chicken launcher, loaded the chicken and fired. The ballistic chicken shattered the windshield, went through the engineer's chair, broke an instrument panel and embedded itself in the back wall of the engine cab. The British were stunned and asked the FAA to recheck the test to see if everything was done correctly.
The FAA reviewed the test thoroughly and had one recommendation:
"Use a thawed chicken."
Obligatory letter from the ATF Re: Spud Guns
on
Potato Bazookas
·
· Score: 5, Informative
People keep on forgetting that Intel chips do a whole lot less with each clock cycle than PowerPC chips.
Doesn't Linux run on both PowerPC and Intel hardware? Then why doesn't some enterprising individual go put together some various benchmarks comparing the two on this type of level playing field? I want to believe that the PowerPC is faster clock-for-clock, but I can't until I see some good benchmarks.
I just google'ed for some and all that I could find were some ancient BYTEMARKS.
Would it be possible to hack the unit and put in a bigger hard drive (ala TIVO hacks)?
I would imagine that it is definitely possible. However, don't expect reliability. This unit probably has an undustrial-strength drive that will survive under the most gruelling conditions. I would imagine that the clearance between the heads and the platters reduces the areal density. The hard drive industry needs to come up with a standard for this type of drive so people can "hack" this functionality while retaining durability. There are too many portable devices out there that could use a hard drive (automobiles, especially).
While they are at it, I'd like to see an open laptop standard as well. Stick a mini-itx mobo in an open laptop chassis and shove in a compliant LCD monitor...
The damn gov't can't even get eFiling straightened out. Why should they venture into more eCrap. I tried to eFile yesterday and it is all crap. Why can't they just buy one of the software vendors and GIVE the software away for FREE? Whoops... that might take away some valuable tax revenue.
Does anyone know of a good country to which I should move? I'm getting married soon and my wife-to-be and I have made the conscious decision that children are out of the question unless we find a legitimate country to live in.
I think that processors were too slow for widespread adoption of some killer apps. MS killing it for a few years was a great thing for Java. Now, I can program my multi-platform apps to my heart's content and not have to worry about run-time load speeds (well... for dial-up...).
you can stream Real and MP3 for free, non-commerically.
I'm talking about the ability to play a RealAudio or RealVideo clip with a legitimate media player that doesn't consume every aspect of the OS. It will never happen (they might talk about it, but it will never happen). And eventually, I can get rid of my bastard software partition.
Exactly... I have a partition dedicated to inferior software such as the Real Player. If I *really* need to play a Real Media File, then I will boot into it but that is becoming rare these days so I have a feeling that others feel this way, too. They are shooting themselves in the foot if they don't supply a codec for free.
Slashdot Mirror
Linux is heading in the right direction
Linux is non-graphical, people. X is separate from Linux - it runs on many Unices.
I keep seeing, "Linux on the desktop" articles. This is moronic. The day when Linus puts a graphical desktop environment into the tree is the day that this becomes valid. Until then, we should be seeing articles about "*nix on the desktop" or "X on the desktop". These aren't specific to Unix.
Sheesh... I'd rather run and support X on BSD since it allows for some relief of the GPL headaches. Go ahead and try to get that binary video driver onto newbie's PC over the phone.
An "Outlook/Exchange killer".
Lotus Notes.
The fact that IBM has yet to release a native client only shows how uninformed they are. The only reason that they use Linux in the first place is because it saves them from spending development dollars on their own *nix solution. While I'm certainly not complaining about this (both OSS and IBM benefit from this relationship), I'd really like them to be a 'pioneer' like they claim to be.
And why does this story have anything to do with Linux, which has nothing in the way of a graphical environment merged into the tree, as of yet. KDE/X and Gnome/X are the current leaders here. And those can be used on more than just Linux.
Gratuitous alternative desktop environment suggestion: don't let applications save user documents to 'just anywhere' like Windows does. Then, create a user-level system browser that keeps the user out of the stuff that is irrelevant to them.
With the current Windows environment, I see the same thing all the time. Although recent versions of Windows Explorer will tell user's that they shouldn't be picking around in PROGRAM FILES, the SAVE feature doesn't. So Joe User decides to start saving his office documents in C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT OFFICE because that makes sense to him when he/she becomes accustomed to the PC for the first time. If this person only had the choice of saving it to a document store (of all or some of the PC's user's), this confusion wouldn't be there.
Then create a system-level browser that can view things at the file level - for people who need to do this. I certainly don't need this functionality more than 5% of the time and I support this for a living. Separate the user-level and system-level browsing.
And don't even get me started on a standard for program installs. Currently, a Windows install can put crap in the following places:
1) Start Menu
2) Task Bar
3) Quick Launch
4) Desktop
Not to mention the fact that most menus and folders are full of gratuitous advertising. There's no reason that Easy CD Creator needs to add a ROXIO folder in the Program Files or in the Start Menu. As a matter of fact, the start menu should have a UTILTIES folder in it and the program should be required to install a shortcut there and only there. A splash screen could accomodate the uninstall shortcut and related documentation. There's no reason that every software package get it's own start menu group...
Am I rambling? How do I contribute to usability improvements? Linux is at its infancy and has the chance to do everything right.
We would normally have live coverage but our on-site reporter is currently busy trying to catch all the monkeys that are flying out of his butt.
Violet! You're turning violet, violet!
Nye Thermodynamics
Nothing like the sound of the afterburner kicking in. I want to make a jet ski hovercraft out of these one day...
They have their own tools but all of a sudden, Linux comes along. Because most middle-management add it to their dictionary of buzzword compliance, IBM simply replaces their existing tools with Linux. Their prices don't change and, all-of-a-sudden, IBM becomes synonymous with buzzword compliancy. And they get to milk developers who work for free!
IBM actually distributes a "maintenance and care" flyer with their new Thinkpad's. It clearly states that the battery is a consumable item with performance tapering over the useful life. As far as I am concerned, the 600 series batteries lasted much longer than the Compaq's or Dell's, which go bad after about a year.
Since the battery warranty is only good for one year, it helps to simply call it in for repair at this point. Or get the Best Buy 4-year service contract. I've had them replace a stack of 600 series batteries over this kind of time frame.
In a recent issue of "Meat & Poultry" magazine, editors quoted from "Feathers," the publication of the California Poultry Industry Federation, telling the following story:
It seems the US Federal Aviation Administration has a unique device for testing the strength of windshields on airplanes. The device is a gun that launches a dead chicken at a plane's windshield at approximately the speed the plane flies.
The theory is that if the windshield doesn't crack from the carcass impact, it'll survive a real collision with a bird during flight. It seems the British were very interested in this and wanted to test a windshield on a brand new, speedy locomotive they're developing.
They borrowed the FAA's chicken launcher, loaded the chicken and fired. The ballistic chicken shattered the windshield, went through the engineer's chair, broke an instrument panel and embedded itself in the back wall of the engine cab. The British were stunned and asked the FAA to recheck the test to see if everything was done correctly.
The FAA reviewed the test thoroughly and had one recommendation:
"Use a thawed chicken."
Here's a letter from the ATF regarding the legality of the "spud gun". Note the date - September 12, 1995.
Definitely old news...
and I hope to work in computers until the day I die.
You must be really small. Especially with the integration that is anticipated.
Seriously...
Here's a good example of a life'er:
A few years back, IBM was reevaluating the FAA systems for Y2K compliance and they came to a conclusion:
There is nobody left who understands the system.
Moral?
Work hard and then fuck the documentation when nobody is looking.
Grown by Amish farmers? Hmm... Something about this doesn't smell right. ;-)
Believe it or not... Its true! I heard it straight from the horse's mouth over at AmishDot.
Take that, root server statistic log!
People keep on forgetting that Intel chips do a whole lot less with each clock cycle than PowerPC chips.
Doesn't Linux run on both PowerPC and Intel hardware? Then why doesn't some enterprising individual go put together some various benchmarks comparing the two on this type of level playing field? I want to believe that the PowerPC is faster clock-for-clock, but I can't until I see some good benchmarks.
I just google'ed for some and all that I could find were some ancient BYTEMARKS.
It sure looks like it would be faster...
Would it be possible to hack the unit and put in a bigger hard drive (ala TIVO hacks)?
I would imagine that it is definitely possible. However, don't expect reliability. This unit probably has an undustrial-strength drive that will survive under the most gruelling conditions. I would imagine that the clearance between the heads and the platters reduces the areal density. The hard drive industry needs to come up with a standard for this type of drive so people can "hack" this functionality while retaining durability. There are too many portable devices out there that could use a hard drive (automobiles, especially).
While they are at it, I'd like to see an open laptop standard as well. Stick a mini-itx mobo in an open laptop chassis and shove in a compliant LCD monitor...
I've been looking for a PC based MPEG4 motion picture recording device for some time. Does anyone know where one might exist?
The damn gov't can't even get eFiling straightened out. Why should they venture into more eCrap. I tried to eFile yesterday and it is all crap. Why can't they just buy one of the software vendors and GIVE the software away for FREE? Whoops... that might take away some valuable tax revenue.
Does anyone know of a good country to which I should move? I'm getting married soon and my wife-to-be and I have made the conscious decision that children are out of the question unless we find a legitimate country to live in.
This sucks.
If the authors actually thought how the DNS works they would realise the reason for this.
So you're trying to tell me that you've never accidentally typed slashdot.elvis instead of slasdot.org?
I always get those two mixed up!
About 12 percent of the queries received by the root server on Oct. 4, were for nonexistent top-level domains, such as ".elvis"
Now there's your 2 percenter right there!
I think that processors were too slow for widespread adoption of some killer apps. MS killing it for a few years was a great thing for Java. Now, I can program my multi-platform apps to my heart's content and not have to worry about run-time load speeds (well... for dial-up...).
you can stream Real and MP3 for free, non-commerically.
I'm talking about the ability to play a RealAudio or RealVideo clip with a legitimate media player that doesn't consume every aspect of the OS. It will never happen (they might talk about it, but it will never happen). And eventually, I can get rid of my bastard software partition.
I'm currently running xft2+XFree86 4.2.99 on gentoo, and the fonts look better on my lcd than in WindowsXP.
Is this new AA legal or do I have to break the law and recompile after switching on the AA in the code?
Without free codecs, this is useless anyway
Exactly... I have a partition dedicated to inferior software such as the Real Player. If I *really* need to play a Real Media File, then I will boot into it but that is becoming rare these days so I have a feeling that others feel this way, too. They are shooting themselves in the foot if they don't supply a codec for free.
Stop keeping logs of users. Just issue DHCP at random and be done with it.
This kind of thing always seems to happen after I burn a new release of something.
Sigh...
Just release Notes already. I realize that it runs under wine but...