"if wi1) gain some experience as a Windows admin and try backing up and restoring a windows XP box with, say, 5 users to a larger hard drive. Enjoy the experience of getting all their mail, settings, files, etc. transferred correctly, and all applications working as before, including various activation issues, punching in software license keys, etc."
Can you tell me in real simple terms how to do this in Linux? (That's not a challenge, I'm genuinely curious.)
"2) gain some an experience as a linux admin and try changing to a larger hard drive. note the difference in experience, whether it's 5 users or 500 users."
So? If that happens like once every six months, how can you even dream of comparing that to the daily hustle and bustle of using a computer like I was?
"Why people crow about Windows and Windows XP in particular is beyond me. Just migrating users and applications to a larger hard drive can be a nightmare...and that's with all CDs, ghost, and activation keys in hand."
That's like saying "How can anybody crow about Linux? Just setting setting up Dual Monitors is a nightmare!". You'd be shaking your head saying "but you only do that once!" and tell me there are other strengths like migrating 4 billion users to another machine. Same boat. Everyday annoyances and speedbumps eat up more time than a migration to a larger hard drive.
'if you have an OEM XP install...and no CDs for all the apps.."
Yep, just like you're doomed if you have no gas in your car. Most desktop users have a restore CD etc. If you don't, your beef's not with Microsoft, it's with the smells-like-ass company that you bought your machine from.
"doom awaits you."
Hey! You're right! So does Vice City. I'm going to go play now.
"That's true, but it's nowhere near how bad it is in Linux. If your only standard for comparison is the way Windows looks, desktop Linux is never going to improve. And regardless, the vast majority of Windows apps DO look the same and use native widgets, have buttons in the same place, have the same menu items, use the same keyboard shortcuts, and can copy-paste damn near anything between each other. The Linux offerings don't come close, because they won't standardize."
Just to add to this point: Windows users such as myself are spoiled because of this. I've tried to adopt Linux a couple of times, but these very problems that were mentioned made me throw my arms up in defeat. It really is hard to switch to Linux when a.) It's an uphill battle all the way and b.) Windows has actually achieved a decent computing experience. (If you're shaking your head, make a BSOD comment and watch how quickly you're corrected.)
Feel free to dismiss me as a newb or a dumb-shit or whatever. I have no problem with that. I didn't put hours and hours into Linux. Niether will a lot of 'desktop' people that Linux is going after. This is why I'm so critical of having to edit.CONF files etc.
I do want to mention something, though: Knoppix is headed in the right direction. I used it about a year ago and was stunned that a.) it auto-detected everything just fine, b.) I had no problem finding what I needed, c.) It more or less behaved like Windows. I wish I could be more specific, but it was the first time that I ever used Linux and didn't feel like I was lugging around a ball and chain. So I don't want to sound like Linux will never improve, obviously it is. I just hope one day a little more thought in the direction of "Microsoft's already trained 10s of millions of peoples how to use a computer..." happens.
"This morning I woke up and the skies were coloured of sackcloth, and the sun coloured as blood, and there was this distinct crunching sound on the floor as I walked over a carpet of locusts, and there were these strange markings on the outside of my door.... now I know why."
Just remember: if anybody asks if you're a god, you say... YES!
"I actually asked a girl at a club how she would rate me on a scale of 3 to 18. She said 17 so I pulled out a 20 sider and rolled. Then I said I passed my charisma check so you have to dance with me. It actually worked! That's what happens when you start the night with drinking and D&D before going to the club."
Heh. Apple considers a 2-button mouse but the real discussion going on here is about Dungeons and Dating. *Sigh* Nerds are going the way of the dodo.
"According to a study by Macrovision one in five console gamers is a pirate, or uses pirated software. Interestingly the study, detailed on GamesIndustry.biz, also found that "three quarters of them would have paid for the games if they hadn't been available for free." "
Funny, the console market is pretty darn strong. You'd think all this piracy would mean that this year would be a real drag for console game publishers.
" If he were running OS X, I'd tell him to just install his apps into/User/Applications and back up/User, but this is WIndows and it's just not that simple..."
You're right. Thanks to Windows and it's stupid Registry, it's not so easy to back up the apps. At that point, it depends on the Apps. You'll never get Office to do this (that I know of...) but I do have my own setup like this. I have a drive letter that stays the same no matter what machine I'm on. If I move to a new machine, I create that drive letter and dump everything from that drive over. Blammo, I'm ready to go. Most of my apps, believe it or not, will work without having to have the install run. Sadly, Office wasn't one of them. Eh, bfd, re-installing it makes me go out and get the most recent updates.
As I said, you are right, but it's not insurmountable. Now I have a network-friendly folder of stuff I can easily dump to other machines and get moving. No need for ghost or for having a particular drive in a particular type of bay. Rather, I just need to dump a folder over. Your mileage may vary, however.
Well, an alternative would be to choose a laptop brand that supports swapping of drives. My ex-boss has an IBM laptop with a removable tray that a laptop HD can be plopped into. That was one of the reasons she went with IBM: That particular external drive bay worked on most IBM brand laptops. I can also personally recommend Dell. I have an Inspiron 8200 and I have an external HD bay for it. In theory, I can buy a modern Inspiron and that bay will work on it, too. (Note: I cannot verify this, I could easily be wrong.) However, I'd just make sure my next laptop supports 2 drives. Fixed with a little screwdriver work.
I'll be honest, though, I'm not sure you're approaching this the right way. Though that's not for me to decide (my apologies if I sound condescending) but I'd recommend using either firewire or network backup. It may not be as convenient in some ways, but there are some benefits:
1.) A network (even wireless) backup could happen automatically and sent to a machine with ridiculous amounts of storage.
2.) If you go with the PCMCIA solution, you risk losing the backup if you lose the machine. (i.e. stolen or dropped in water or something.) Basically, it'd be resilient against broader circumstances.
3.) You'd be able to approach this with already available technology, and you probably wouldn't need to buy anything extra.
Both found and downloaded via Opera. What you don't get is Automatic Update. Can't argue that, but it's not like the updates you need aren't accessible without IE.
"I can't believe that 20,000 people visit Adam Seifer's site every week, just to see pictures of his meals. It's such a useless thing, and fotolog.net just has countless, random pictures."
Heh I can't believe you don't realize you're one of those 20,000 hits today.
"Divx/Xvid/avi/mpg are standards that are more widespread and viewable using readily available software"
When did DivX exceed Quicktime in terms of already being installed? I'm not sure if you care much about that, but that really is a huge stumbling block in getting a movie getting published on the web. Average Joes aren't keen on installing codecs just to watch a movie.
Because it was a CG class that made the movie. That'd be like having med students use the game of Operation. Granted, in the case of using Legos, they'd be learning some fundamentals of animation. However, they went to Dave School to learn how to use Lightwave.
"...any money spent on R&D in the OLED dept would be recovered fairly quickly."
Assuming HP makes these displays and patents don't prevent them from doing that. In the mean time, they've come up with an improvement for existing LCDs and other manufacturers like Samsung could potentially license the technology and generate money without having to actually produce anything. From a business perspective it's simpler, quicker, and more profitable.
Don't get me wrong, I'd like OLEDs too, but that's not to say that HP made a non-sensical move, here.
No. An OLED simply doesn't have this problem, it doesn't make the problem of an LCD go away. Why am I being so obnoxiously literal? Honestly, I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything. I'm pointing it out because a.) OLED's are not mass-market yet, b.) They're likely to be more expensive than LCD's eat least intially, c.) There will likely be other reasons why a manufacturer of a portable device would pick an LCD over an LED.
I may or may not be right in this particular case since LCDs and OLEDs are likely to have quite a bit of overlap in how they're used. But I figured the worst case scenario is that this sort of evolution of technology isn't completely ignored simply because the promise of better technology on the horizon.
"A)yes i can judge, as a human being i am allowed to do that."
Okay, fine, as a human I judge that you're an ass.
"B)no thats not tragic, if you got on that bandwagon, and lost it all. overpaid for 2 years, underpaid for 2 years... nope no sympathy for the devil, you buy the ticket, you take the ride."
None of the people I mentioned were overpaid. You might be thinking of a segment of the workforce, but since you're being so general you're inviting this sort of rebuttal. In any event, you can hardly blame the work-force for accepting high paying jobs.
"C) i dont want an economy like that. it wasnt strong, it was predicated on bullshit. it wasnt ever a strong economy, it fell apart so easily."
Half-right. The economy was strong but on a weak foundation. However, during that time, unemployment was low, stocks were high, and people were generally happy. It crumbled when it under-delivered. Pity that happened, if it didn't, there'd be a bigger job market for a lot of us.
My problem with your post isn't that we disagree (we agree more than you'd realize), but rather you've got such a broad opinion that you're including a lot of uninvolved people in your harsh opinion. Your implication that some sort of soul-selling happened isn't terribly insightful, either. Hype / trends != deal with the devil.
"how was it tragic? a bunch of people that shouldnt have had jobs in the first place got canned."
A.) That's not for you to judge. Those people that shouldn't have had jobs in the first place hired people rightly qualified for the work. I know several software engineers that were laid off.
B.) A lot of people being out of work for over a year is tragic no matter how judgement was passed.
C.) We all would have liked for the economy and job market to remain that strong.
Slashdot Mirror
"if wi1) gain some experience as a Windows admin and try backing up and restoring a windows XP box with, say, 5 users to a larger hard drive. Enjoy the experience of getting all their mail, settings, files, etc. transferred correctly, and all applications working as before, including various activation issues, punching in software license keys, etc."
Can you tell me in real simple terms how to do this in Linux? (That's not a challenge, I'm genuinely curious.)
"2) gain some an experience as a linux admin and try changing to a larger hard drive. note the difference in experience, whether it's 5 users or 500 users."
So? If that happens like once every six months, how can you even dream of comparing that to the daily hustle and bustle of using a computer like I was?
"Why people crow about Windows and Windows XP in particular is beyond me. Just migrating users and applications to a larger hard drive can be a nightmare...and that's with all CDs, ghost, and activation keys in hand."
That's like saying "How can anybody crow about Linux? Just setting setting up Dual Monitors is a nightmare!". You'd be shaking your head saying "but you only do that once!" and tell me there are other strengths like migrating 4 billion users to another machine. Same boat. Everyday annoyances and speedbumps eat up more time than a migration to a larger hard drive.
'if you have an OEM XP install...and no CDs for all the apps.."
Yep, just like you're doomed if you have no gas in your car. Most desktop users have a restore CD etc. If you don't, your beef's not with Microsoft, it's with the smells-like-ass company that you bought your machine from.
"doom awaits you."
Hey! You're right! So does Vice City. I'm going to go play now.
"It'd be nice if there were reference pages made by the standards committees, so a browser could be simply deemed compliant or not."
It'd also be nice if the standards developed by said committe weren't ambiguous to the point that every fricken browser ever made didn't violate them.
"Has anyone (even Opera) managed to create a browser that does what all the web designers want it to do?"
I can't answer your question but I can tell you that it is very seldom that I have to fire up another browser because Opera isn't rendering properly.
Normally I wouldn't bring it up, but I seriously doubt the sites I visit even consider testing with Opera.
"Well if its legal, meaning, the owners of the video purposely used this as advertisting, then who cares?"
All I know is that I liked it and now I plan on either watching it on TV or buying the DVD, whatever happens first here in my corner of the USA.
It's a pity the *AA would like to throw their new customers in jail.
Just to add to this point: Windows users such as myself are spoiled because of this. I've tried to adopt Linux a couple of times, but these very problems that were mentioned made me throw my arms up in defeat. It really is hard to switch to Linux when a.) It's an uphill battle all the way and b.) Windows has actually achieved a decent computing experience. (If you're shaking your head, make a BSOD comment and watch how quickly you're corrected.)
Feel free to dismiss me as a newb or a dumb-shit or whatever. I have no problem with that. I didn't put hours and hours into Linux. Niether will a lot of 'desktop' people that Linux is going after. This is why I'm so critical of having to edit
I do want to mention something, though: Knoppix is headed in the right direction. I used it about a year ago and was stunned that a.) it auto-detected everything just fine, b.) I had no problem finding what I needed, c.) It more or less behaved like Windows. I wish I could be more specific, but it was the first time that I ever used Linux and didn't feel like I was lugging around a ball and chain. So I don't want to sound like Linux will never improve, obviously it is. I just hope one day a little more thought in the direction of "Microsoft's already trained 10s of millions of peoples how to use a computer..." happens.
"This morning I woke up and the skies were coloured of sackcloth, and the sun coloured as blood, and there was this distinct crunching sound on the floor as I walked over a carpet of locusts, and there were these strange markings on the outside of my door.... now I know why."
Just remember: if anybody asks if you're a god, you say... YES!
"I actually asked a girl at a club how she would rate me on a scale of 3 to 18. She said 17 so I pulled out a 20 sider and rolled. Then I said I passed my charisma check so you have to dance with me. It actually worked! That's what happens when you start the night with drinking and D&D before going to the club."
Heh. Apple considers a 2-button mouse but the real discussion going on here is about Dungeons and Dating. *Sigh* Nerds are going the way of the dodo.
"According to a study by Macrovision one in five console gamers is a pirate, or uses pirated software. Interestingly the study, detailed on GamesIndustry.biz, also found that "three quarters of them would have paid for the games if they hadn't been available for free." "
Funny, the console market is pretty darn strong. You'd think all this piracy would mean that this year would be a real drag for console game publishers.
"For all we know, this could be a scare tactic by MS to worry people back to their side of the fence."
I wouldn't rule out Romulan involvement...
"t will be when your 14 year old boy searches for something for his research paper and gets redirected to pr0n instead."
... Porn!?!"
"Son! What are you looking at? Is that
"I told you! I'm working on a report!"
"With naked women?!"
"It's a History report, so I hit the History button on your computer!"
" If he were running OS X, I'd tell him to just install his apps into /User/Applications and back up /User, but this is WIndows and it's just not that simple..."
You're right. Thanks to Windows and it's stupid Registry, it's not so easy to back up the apps. At that point, it depends on the Apps. You'll never get Office to do this (that I know of...) but I do have my own setup like this. I have a drive letter that stays the same no matter what machine I'm on. If I move to a new machine, I create that drive letter and dump everything from that drive over. Blammo, I'm ready to go. Most of my apps, believe it or not, will work without having to have the install run. Sadly, Office wasn't one of them. Eh, bfd, re-installing it makes me go out and get the most recent updates.
As I said, you are right, but it's not insurmountable. Now I have a network-friendly folder of stuff I can easily dump to other machines and get moving. No need for ghost or for having a particular drive in a particular type of bay. Rather, I just need to dump a folder over. Your mileage may vary, however.
Well, an alternative would be to choose a laptop brand that supports swapping of drives. My ex-boss has an IBM laptop with a removable tray that a laptop HD can be plopped into. That was one of the reasons she went with IBM: That particular external drive bay worked on most IBM brand laptops. I can also personally recommend Dell. I have an Inspiron 8200 and I have an external HD bay for it. In theory, I can buy a modern Inspiron and that bay will work on it, too. (Note: I cannot verify this, I could easily be wrong.) However, I'd just make sure my next laptop supports 2 drives. Fixed with a little screwdriver work.
:)
I'll be honest, though, I'm not sure you're approaching this the right way. Though that's not for me to decide (my apologies if I sound condescending) but I'd recommend using either firewire or network backup. It may not be as convenient in some ways, but there are some benefits:
1.) A network (even wireless) backup could happen automatically and sent to a machine with ridiculous amounts of storage.
2.) If you go with the PCMCIA solution, you risk losing the backup if you lose the machine. (i.e. stolen or dropped in water or something.) Basically, it'd be resilient against broader circumstances.
3.) You'd be able to approach this with already available technology, and you probably wouldn't need to buy anything extra.
Good luck.
"You CAN'T just remove IE. You need it. Just try to update office on firefox for example:"
No problem. Office XP SP 3 coming right up!"
And here is Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Both found and downloaded via Opera. What you don't get is Automatic Update. Can't argue that, but it's not like the updates you need aren't accessible without IE.
"I can't believe that 20,000 people visit Adam Seifer's site every week, just to see pictures of his meals. It's such a useless thing, and fotolog.net just has countless, random pictures."
Heh I can't believe you don't realize you're one of those 20,000 hits today.
" wish animators would resist this "all star cast" crap."
I doubt that the animators (students) decided who would do the voices.
"Divx/Xvid/avi/mpg are standards that are more widespread and viewable using readily available software"
When did DivX exceed Quicktime in terms of already being installed? I'm not sure if you care much about that, but that really is a huge stumbling block in getting a movie getting published on the web. Average Joes aren't keen on installing codecs just to watch a movie.
"Why not some old REAL lego blocks?"
Because it was a CG class that made the movie. That'd be like having med students use the game of Operation. Granted, in the case of using Legos, they'd be learning some fundamentals of animation. However, they went to Dave School to learn how to use Lightwave.
"I think maybe you need to re-think your criteria."
I think you maybe need to re-think whether or not I was joking.
"Wow, I think that's the most insightful first post I have EVER read on /."
It certainly is a refreshing change from the default "Here's the painfully obvious quip about why it's bad" +4 Insightful post.
"...any money spent on R&D in the OLED dept would be recovered fairly quickly."
Assuming HP makes these displays and patents don't prevent them from doing that. In the mean time, they've come up with an improvement for existing LCDs and other manufacturers like Samsung could potentially license the technology and generate money without having to actually produce anything. From a business perspective it's simpler, quicker, and more profitable.
Don't get me wrong, I'd like OLEDs too, but that's not to say that HP made a non-sensical move, here.
"Won't these problems be solved with OLEDs?"
No. An OLED simply doesn't have this problem, it doesn't make the problem of an LCD go away. Why am I being so obnoxiously literal? Honestly, I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything. I'm pointing it out because a.) OLED's are not mass-market yet, b.) They're likely to be more expensive than LCD's eat least intially, c.) There will likely be other reasons why a manufacturer of a portable device would pick an LCD over an LED.
I may or may not be right in this particular case since LCDs and OLEDs are likely to have quite a bit of overlap in how they're used. But I figured the worst case scenario is that this sort of evolution of technology isn't completely ignored simply because the promise of better technology on the horizon.
"Maybe if they put some money in OLED research, they wouldn't need to worry about backlights at all."
You're right, they should just spend a good deal more money to solve the same problem.
"battery life of your cell phone can be extended by
TURNING THE FUCKING PHONE OFF"
Insightful? I'm really sick of agenda-pushing-moderations. Some cell phone users have annoyed you, get over it.
"A)yes i can judge, as a human being i am allowed to do that."
Okay, fine, as a human I judge that you're an ass.
"B)no thats not tragic, if you got on that bandwagon, and lost it all. overpaid for 2 years, underpaid for 2 years... nope no sympathy for the devil, you buy the ticket, you take the ride."
None of the people I mentioned were overpaid. You might be thinking of a segment of the workforce, but since you're being so general you're inviting this sort of rebuttal. In any event, you can hardly blame the work-force for accepting high paying jobs.
"C) i dont want an economy like that. it wasnt strong, it was predicated on bullshit. it wasnt ever a strong economy, it fell apart so easily."
Half-right. The economy was strong but on a weak foundation. However, during that time, unemployment was low, stocks were high, and people were generally happy. It crumbled when it under-delivered. Pity that happened, if it didn't, there'd be a bigger job market for a lot of us.
My problem with your post isn't that we disagree (we agree more than you'd realize), but rather you've got such a broad opinion that you're including a lot of uninvolved people in your harsh opinion. Your implication that some sort of soul-selling happened isn't terribly insightful, either. Hype / trends != deal with the devil.
"how was it tragic? a bunch of people that shouldnt have had jobs in the first place got canned."
A.) That's not for you to judge. Those people that shouldn't have had jobs in the first place hired people rightly qualified for the work. I know several software engineers that were laid off.
B.) A lot of people being out of work for over a year is tragic no matter how judgement was passed.
C.) We all would have liked for the economy and job market to remain that strong.