I used to think like you do, then I asked myself, "What happens to my friends and family's data if I die?" None of them have an inkling about how to maintain something like you describe, and they would be hard-pressed to find someone else who could do it for a reasonable fee. The reality is that hardware and software changes too quickly for most people to keep up, and any installed appliance will be quickly outdated.
If all of your family's apps are provided as a service that they access via a thin client, they don't need a technical guru to do the things they need to do. If the thin client breaks, they go buy a new one for $100 at Walmart. If they can't figure out how some piece of software works at 3AM, they click on the live help icon in that app and a nice man from India walks them through it, instead of bugging their son in the middle of the night.
The more people who use Firefox, the more webmasters are motivated to fix their sites to work correctly with Firefox. So, Firefox does benefit from some network effect, which I have certainly noticed over the last few years.
My el-cheapo ralink-based cardbus wireless was set up automagically under Kubuntu Breezy Badger. Also, under Hoary the card worked perfectly even though I had to compile the drivers.
The information you consider junk may be very useful to future archaeologists. Think about how significant it is today when we find some scrap of parchment with an ancient Egyptian's grocery list. Archaeologists would would LOVE to have access to an actual conversation between two common people from 1000 years ago. Such a record would reveal a lot about how the language was being used, and about what people were interested in.
I dual boot using Windows-only and Ubuntu-only hard disks. The problem with this setup is that now I am ready to go Linux-only, but the MBR is on the Windows HD.
So now I have to figure out how to make a valid MBR on the linux HD. As long as I am willing to leave the 2 HDs in, it isn't a problem though.
I had most of AutoCAD 2005 working under a Power User account on three different XP Pro computers. Obviously it must be installed as Admin, and I recommend temporarily bumping the user account to Admin the first time it is run as that user. The only thing that really did not work under Power User - once it was set up - was the online updating, which makes sense.
Why do I use the past tense? I had to bump the users to Admin privs because of the batch printing utility that came with our new plotter.
Because you administer Linux instead of Windows, it is obvious that there are far fewer calls to the help desk (you) to fix problems. This deceives the owners/users into thinking that you are not valuable to the company. Maybe you need to have some carefully planned computer problems occur during the week when you are on vacation to remind them of how smoothly you keep things running.
I am in a similar situation to you, but I keep a couple of Windows boxes around so that I have things to fix. I am also lucky to have a boss who realizes that fewer calls to me means that I am doing a good job of keeping the rest of the employees productive (which I consider my primary task).
I can see $300 if the user did not have legal OS and Office CDs. If they went to an honest shop that would not load those things without legal CDs it could easily run to $300 just in software.
Some phones are filthy, and people stick that right against their ear. I doubt that any studies have taken into account the possibility of phone germs causing some diseases.
Remember what happened when they shipped all the phone sanitizers off-planet?
Certain things are facts (George Washington was the 1st president of the US)
Actually, Samuel Huntington was the first President of the United States. George Washington was the first President of the United States under the Constitution.
Criminal penalties could be watt-based instead of time-based! The lazy criminals would spend longer in jail than those willing to ride the bikes for 12 hours/day.
This doesn't even seem cruel or unusual to me. Many people subject themselves to this voluntarily!
Also, the prisons would not be such a drain on society if they could sell the power they create.
Of course, if we become too dependant on this source of power, we would have to be concerned about a prisoner strike.
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I used to think like you do, then I asked myself, "What happens to my friends and family's data if I die?" None of them have an inkling about how to maintain something like you describe, and they would be hard-pressed to find someone else who could do it for a reasonable fee. The reality is that hardware and software changes too quickly for most people to keep up, and any installed appliance will be quickly outdated.
If all of your family's apps are provided as a service that they access via a thin client, they don't need a technical guru to do the things they need to do. If the thin client breaks, they go buy a new one for $100 at Walmart. If they can't figure out how some piece of software works at 3AM, they click on the live help icon in that app and a nice man from India walks them through it, instead of bugging their son in the middle of the night.
The more people who use Firefox, the more webmasters are motivated to fix their sites to work correctly with Firefox. So, Firefox does benefit from some network effect, which I have certainly noticed over the last few years.
My el-cheapo ralink-based cardbus wireless was set up automagically under Kubuntu Breezy Badger. Also, under Hoary the card worked perfectly even though I had to compile the drivers.
The information you consider junk may be very useful to future archaeologists. Think about how significant it is today when we find some scrap of parchment with an ancient Egyptian's grocery list. Archaeologists would would LOVE to have access to an actual conversation between two common people from 1000 years ago.
Such a record would reveal a lot about how the language was being used, and about what people were interested in.
I thought everyone in Louisiana owned their own swamp boat!
Do you have sources for this? I am seriously interested.
Do you really want the speeding guy yakking on his cell phone while chomping on a Big Mac trying to do division in his head?
Ah. Well then I suppose we should go ahead and have a little talk.
Denny, is that you?
I didn't know you could even use the Internet!
I dual boot using Windows-only and Ubuntu-only hard disks. The problem with this setup is that now I am ready to go Linux-only, but the MBR is on the Windows HD. So now I have to figure out how to make a valid MBR on the linux HD. As long as I am willing to leave the 2 HDs in, it isn't a problem though.
The solution I use for this same problem comes from Thunderbird. Instead of filtering on 'Subject contains', I filter on 'Subject begins with'.
When the [SPAM] is a forward from someone inside the company, the subject starts with 'Fwd: [SPAM]', so it is not caught by the filter.
I was unable to do this with Outlook Express, but Thunderbird provides the different filter.
Ubuntu Horny on her laptop.
I love your comment paired with your sig.
There were knives before metals. Stone knives have been around longer than Homo sapiens.
If there is no wind, they could swing around their heads like Crocodile Dundee's bullroarer!
I had most of AutoCAD 2005 working under a Power User account on three different XP Pro computers. Obviously it must be installed as Admin, and I recommend temporarily bumping the user account to Admin the first time it is run as that user. The only thing that really did not work under Power User - once it was set up - was the online updating, which makes sense.
Why do I use the past tense? I had to bump the users to Admin privs because of the batch printing utility that came with our new plotter.
I believe sleep-clicking is the problem here, not sleep-walking. Of course, I am assuming you sleep with your computer in the bed like the rest of us.
Because you administer Linux instead of Windows, it is obvious that there are far fewer calls to the help desk (you) to fix problems. This deceives the owners/users into thinking that you are not valuable to the company. Maybe you need to have some carefully planned computer problems occur during the week when you are on vacation to remind them of how smoothly you keep things running.
I am in a similar situation to you, but I keep a couple of Windows boxes around so that I have things to fix. I am also lucky to have a boss who realizes that fewer calls to me means that I am doing a good job of keeping the rest of the employees productive (which I consider my primary task).
It has to stop at Sanitation Engineers. You can't email your garbage to India ...
I can see $300 if the user did not have legal OS and Office CDs. If they went to an honest shop that would not load those things without legal CDs it could easily run to $300 just in software.
I used that last year and it was very simple and fast. I now recommend it to anyone who asks me about doing taxes on their computer.
Some phones are filthy, and people stick that right against their ear. I doubt that any studies have taken into account the possibility of phone germs causing some diseases.
Remember what happened when they shipped all the phone sanitizers off-planet?
I'm thinking a prehensile tail might not be so clumsy. And it would only be in the way when you try to sit down.
Certain things are facts (George Washington was the 1st president of the US)
Actually, Samuel Huntington was the first President of the United States. George Washington was the first President of the United States under the Constitution.
Props to Michael Badnarik for pointing that out to me in his book It's Good To Be The King: The Foundations of Freedom .
Criminal penalties could be watt-based instead of time-based! The lazy criminals would spend longer in jail than those willing to ride the bikes for 12 hours/day.
This doesn't even seem cruel or unusual to me. Many people subject themselves to this voluntarily!
Also, the prisons would not be such a drain on society if they could sell the power they create.
Of course, if we become too dependant on this source of power, we would have to be concerned about a prisoner strike.