Not much. My dad's a weatherman and a school teacher. My mom's a school teacher. I'm a geek who hated school and feels cheated out of a decent K-12 education. I don't blame my parents, just the beast they work for. Maybe I'm a "special case," but I'm not interested in most of the things my parents are interested in. Oh, you were referring to children? Well, I'd say up until about age 5, when kids go to school, children will like most of the same things their parents like.
I had my first web page when I was 11 or 12. I couldn't convince my dad to get an Internet account, so I signed up for a 10 hour free trial with the local BBS to show my dad how cool it was. Finally, I convinced him to get a paying account. I turned 13 a few months before COPPA came into effect, but my friend wasn't so lucky -- his birthday was 1 month after, so Geocities deleted his site. I'm 17 now, and I no longer have my own webpage (Webjump went under, XOOM, turned into NBC, don't care to pay for hosting). At any rate, I would have loved this book as a child. I learned to program at age 8 or 9, I think, in gw-basic. I started building computers when I was 7 or 8. My mom taught me how to play Road Rally USA when I was 4 (she worked at a school), and I went from there... Taught myself DOS,... Lots of fun. I think that this society should, rather than cater to the vast majority of morons out there whose idea of fun is sitting in their deep couch whilst inhaling "Cheesy Poofs" and watching the Dallas Steroids whomp on the Greenbay Poppers. I feel cheated out of an education. I'm cynical. So what?
This has been in XFree86 for quite some time now (although it's not called ClearType). Have a look around XFree86.org. It has a much more detailed explanation of it. It actually gives some numbers.
Stupid slashdot formkeys error... This is the second time posting this. Why am I making it a habit to select all text and Ctrl-Copy every time I post?
There is no X in the Greek alphabet. It starts with Alpha and ends with Omega, 23 letters. Alpha corresponds to the Latin A, and Omega corresponds to the Latin W. X falls beyond the Greek alphabet for transliteration. If XP really does mean "Cairo," then it's probably based on similar appearance to the Greek letter khai, rather than letter order. Could someone please describe what a khai looks like?
There is no X in the greek alphabet. There are 23 letters, alpha-omega. Alpha transliterates to the latin A, and Omega transliterates to the latin W. X falls beyond the greek alphabet, and if XP really does mean Khai-Rho, then it would probably be a character that looks similar to X, but is actually earlier in the alphabet.
There are three reasons for a kernel panic:
1. Buggy drivers that were downloaded from some site which required babelfish to read, and hadn't been updated in a year...
2. Hardware failure: i.e. overheated CPU/RAM, bad RAM (download the badram patch!!!), etc.
3. Experimental subsystems: trying to load vesafb, tdfxfb, and atyfb all at the same time, then unload them all... That's probably cost the wosrt of my like... 10 total panics. The rest were direct results of overheats. My Cyrix CPU is especially sensitive to temperatures over 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
First off, if you have a million windows open, it consolidates them on the taskbar into menus by application
And Linux doesn't? I mean, come on... Is GNOME/KDE actually AHEAD of Microsoft in the UI department? I've been doing that with both for quite a while. Maybe someone should've patented it or something with the terms "for use in open source software only" somewhere near the end.
But best of all! You can switch users! It's excellent! I don't mean you can log out and log in as someone else, but rather you can log in a second time, and the first user's applications are still running in the background.
Wow, what a nifty feature... They finally decided to implement something that UNIX has had since, what, 1978? I mean, how hard is it to use your handy-dandy virtual terminal switcher (CTRL-ALT-RIGHT_ARROW), and start up another X display? Or, if you aren't interested in CLI, I'm sure that it's possible for someone to write a utility to automatically start multiple X sessions using KDM/GDM/XDM, without having to edit any text config files.
Yeah, Linux proves that a powerful system can be stupidly simple. Compare regedit with vim/etc/* (or similar). It's a lot harder to do custom configurations with Windows. Most of the settings don't even have any defaults set so you don't know if that setting even exists, whereas on UNIX there are man pages and HOWTOs that explain all the details. Not to mention configuration utilities like Linuxconf, YaST, DrakConf, etc.
...to write a program that would automatically store daily diffs of/etc and archive them to a safe partition, then present a graphical menu to select a configuration to go back to? Hasn't this already been done? I mean, I could write one heck of a "go back" utility for Linux (or other UNIXes) just using existing tools like diff and patch, and even present a graphical display of the changes so that certan sections of the patch could be reapplied or something. It wouldn't be hard at all.
Actually, I believe Memphis or Chicago (one of the two) was the codename for Windows 95, but you could be referring to Win32s, so I dunno. XP is also supposed to stand for eXPerience in Windows' case, or eXtended Performance in the case of the Athlon XP. But I'd never heard the Cairo thing before.
What about GUI vs GUI? It took me FOREVER to get my grandma to use Windows 95. This was a couple years ago before they had to put her on morphine because of the cancer... She was going from a simple DOS-based menu system (Anyone remember Direct Access?) and Word Perfect 5.0 on a DEC 8MHz PC clone (with TURBO!) to a 486-100 with Windows 95b and Novell Word Perfect Office 6.1. If Windows is so easy to use, it should've been easier for my grandma, a writer and psychologist (before the morphine), to learn it since she already had computer experience. My sister, on the other hand (an overwhelmingly average teenager), had absolutely no trouble using Linux to do her Internet browsing and check her e-mail on Hotmail. In fact, she even figured out (by watching me I guess) how to log in from console mode, start up X, and log back out when she was done.
Quite an interesting and well-supported argument. One might dispute, however, that you are simply trying to stroke your own ego, by placing command line users above mouse addicts intellectually. I would tend to agree with you, though. It's too bad I don't know enough experienced Windows and UNIX people to do a very large test, but someone with a lot of surveying power could make a very effective stab at whichever method is proven to be slower. At any rate, I think that stimulating the mind is more important that finishing a task in three fewer milliseconds, as that yields increased intelligence (or increased confidence, perhaps) and productivity when engaged in mentally challenging tasks. I suppose that arguably either method, GUI or CLI, becomes easier as one's fingers "remember" the correct keying order to type a particular command, or as the hand "learns" exactly how far to move to get to a particular menu item, reducing or eliminating the need to read and search through an unfamiliar menu.
What about anarchy? No apparent form of government other than peoples' self-will... Next thing you know Microsoft will start preaching that OSS usage will result in total anarchy and your toaster trying to eat you and your electric shaver mowing your lawn (and head) (Simpsons, Y2K).
Everyone likes to program for the PS2. It's a MIPS R5900 CPU at 294MHz. MIPS is one of the easiest CPUs to program for in assembly language. You must be a Visual Basic script kiddie or something, because most real programmers I know (real meaning using a real language (C, or one of its many variants and cousins, or ASM) and a real OS (UNIX-style)) agree that MIPS is possibly the easiest ASM ever. What you don't understand is that processor speed (in clocks) is unimportant -- my dad (although somewhat computer illiterate) produces graphics for one of the local TV stations using SGI O2's with IRIX on them, and those CPUs are 180MHz. They kick the CRAP out of any Wintel box I've seen under 1GHz. They've been on pretty much 24/7 for the last year since they got their new system. MIPS CPUs are fast inside, the clock speed is (almost) meaningless.
Thank-you for disproving yourself. You point out all these extensions to the X protocol, well none of them are really X. They are XFree86 specific for the most part, and they exist because the underlying system is inherently flawed in this respect (multimedia). In DirectFB, everything is native and fast.
DirectFB will be *superior* to X in functionality. The X compatibility layer will allow non-ported Qt, GTK+, Athena, Motif, etc. applications to run on DirectFB with equal speed of XFree86, and native DirectFB and GTk+2.0 applications will run on DirectFB with lightning speed and breathtaking appearance.
As for your comment about gaming, I don't see how it's such a backward step. Gaming is probably the most I/O and CPU intenstive task for a computer aside from running a GB+ database server, so optimizing for gaming will also improve server and database performance, multimedia support and functionality, vendor support (more purchases), etc. Frankly, I think that Linus's drive to take over supercomputing is what's a step backwards (DISCLAIMER: This is not a troll, merely a justified opinion. Linux is great, I use it to watch movies on my TV, play games, etc. and I'm not trying to dis anyone's idol!!!).
The problem with X is that it's a 20 year old system that has been extended and hacked on to try and force it to survive. When you're playing Q3A etc. or watching a video, you're not even using the X protocol anymore, you're using a feature in XFree86 that allows direct hardware access. DirectFB eliminates the "middle-man" TCP protocol for faster everything. X doesn't support window masks (i.e. odd window shapes), which are done as a hack by grabbing an image of the screen and then making that the window border to simulate an odd window,... X is a dying system in this modern world of anti-aliasing, translucency, fades, blending, etc, none of which X makes provisions for. X is intended as a network GUI interface, and for that it does excellently. Besides, when the X server for DirectFB is finished, you'll be able to continue to ssh to your favorite boxen and use your local display.
DirectFB is designed from the ground up for the hardware, whereas X is designed from the ground up for networking. Frankly, I think that the framebuffer is more fun anyway (I wrote much of libfbx, so I would know.), and performance is much better when you don't have to send every single widget over 127.0.0.1, even though it is just a local loopback, that's still unnecessary overhead.
Essentially, we need to move to hardware-oriented technologies like DirectFB if we are going to continue to keep up and surpass other operating systems in terms of appearance and performance. Why use blackbox on X (which I do regularly), when I can have clear windows, animated widgets, 3D effects, and more with DirectFB?
I thought that gcc's inline asm features were capable of register selection on MIPS, but even if not, MIPS has many registers, and registers can be reused if done carefully. However, I must agree that making a better C compiler will make a better overall system increase, especially on Linux where like 90%+ of the system is C code.
Agreed. MIPS asm is hardly more obfuscated than C (I'll admit that's a slight exaggeration). For example, to load an integer into a register you just liregister value (or is it value register? I'm pretty sure it's register value). It's so(ooo) simple, especially when compared to x86 ASM. MIPS asm is a dream. Besides, why would Sony make gcc their standard compiler on the $10000 PS2 SDK's if it was entirely useless. FWIW, I'm using a 233MHz CPU to play Quake 3.
Well, all the PS2 developer SDK's are based on Linux, and gcc is the PS2's default (or only) compiler, so it would make sense for it to be using ELF binaries.
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Yeah, but ... SHUT UP!!!
Really, it's something that should've been done many years ago to all OSes.
Not much. My dad's a weatherman and a school teacher. My mom's a school teacher. I'm a geek who hated school and feels cheated out of a decent K-12 education. I don't blame my parents, just the beast they work for. Maybe I'm a "special case," but I'm not interested in most of the things my parents are interested in. Oh, you were referring to children? Well, I'd say up until about age 5, when kids go to school, children will like most of the same things their parents like.
I had my first web page when I was 11 or 12. I couldn't convince my dad to get an Internet account, so I signed up for a 10 hour free trial with the local BBS to show my dad how cool it was. Finally, I convinced him to get a paying account. I turned 13 a few months before COPPA came into effect, but my friend wasn't so lucky -- his birthday was 1 month after, so Geocities deleted his site. I'm 17 now, and I no longer have my own webpage (Webjump went under, XOOM, turned into NBC, don't care to pay for hosting). At any rate, I would have loved this book as a child. I learned to program at age 8 or 9, I think, in gw-basic. I started building computers when I was 7 or 8. My mom taught me how to play Road Rally USA when I was 4 (she worked at a school), and I went from there... Taught myself DOS, ... Lots of fun. I think that this society should, rather than cater to the vast majority of morons out there whose idea of fun is sitting in their deep couch whilst inhaling "Cheesy Poofs" and watching the Dallas Steroids whomp on the Greenbay Poppers. I feel cheated out of an education. I'm cynical. So what?
This has been in XFree86 for quite some time now (although it's not called ClearType). Have a look around XFree86.org. It has a much more detailed explanation of it. It actually gives some numbers.
There is no X in the Greek alphabet. It starts with Alpha and ends with Omega, 23 letters. Alpha corresponds to the Latin A, and Omega corresponds to the Latin W. X falls beyond the Greek alphabet for transliteration. If XP really does mean "Cairo," then it's probably based on similar appearance to the Greek letter khai, rather than letter order. Could someone please describe what a khai looks like?
There is no X in the greek alphabet. There are 23 letters, alpha-omega. Alpha transliterates to the latin A, and Omega transliterates to the latin W. X falls beyond the greek alphabet, and if XP really does mean Khai-Rho, then it would probably be a character that looks similar to X, but is actually earlier in the alphabet.
There are three reasons for a kernel panic: 1. Buggy drivers that were downloaded from some site which required babelfish to read, and hadn't been updated in a year... 2. Hardware failure: i.e. overheated CPU/RAM, bad RAM (download the badram patch!!!), etc. 3. Experimental subsystems: trying to load vesafb, tdfxfb, and atyfb all at the same time, then unload them all... That's probably cost the wosrt of my like... 10 total panics. The rest were direct results of overheats. My Cyrix CPU is especially sensitive to temperatures over 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
And Linux doesn't? I mean, come on... Is GNOME/KDE actually AHEAD of Microsoft in the UI department? I've been doing that with both for quite a while. Maybe someone should've patented it or something with the terms "for use in open source software only" somewhere near the end.
Wow, what a nifty feature... They finally decided to implement something that UNIX has had since, what, 1978? I mean, how hard is it to use your handy-dandy virtual terminal switcher (CTRL-ALT-RIGHT_ARROW), and start up another X display? Or, if you aren't interested in CLI, I'm sure that it's possible for someone to write a utility to automatically start multiple X sessions using KDM/GDM/XDM, without having to edit any text config files.
Yeah, Linux proves that a powerful system can be stupidly simple. Compare regedit with vim /etc/* (or similar). It's a lot harder to do custom configurations with Windows. Most of the settings don't even have any defaults set so you don't know if that setting even exists, whereas on UNIX there are man pages and HOWTOs that explain all the details. Not to mention configuration utilities like Linuxconf, YaST, DrakConf, etc.
...to write a program that would automatically store daily diffs of /etc and archive them to a safe partition, then present a graphical menu to select a configuration to go back to? Hasn't this already been done? I mean, I could write one heck of a "go back" utility for Linux (or other UNIXes) just using existing tools like diff and patch, and even present a graphical display of the changes so that certan sections of the patch could be reapplied or something. It wouldn't be hard at all.
...eXtacy Popper...
Kids, don't do drugs. Teens, don't do drugs. Parents, don't let your kids do drugs. What message is the media trying to send?
Actually, I believe Memphis or Chicago (one of the two) was the codename for Windows 95, but you could be referring to Win32s, so I dunno. XP is also supposed to stand for eXPerience in Windows' case, or eXtended Performance in the case of the Athlon XP. But I'd never heard the Cairo thing before.
What about GUI vs GUI? It took me FOREVER to get my grandma to use Windows 95. This was a couple years ago before they had to put her on morphine because of the cancer... She was going from a simple DOS-based menu system (Anyone remember Direct Access?) and Word Perfect 5.0 on a DEC 8MHz PC clone (with TURBO!) to a 486-100 with Windows 95b and Novell Word Perfect Office 6.1. If Windows is so easy to use, it should've been easier for my grandma, a writer and psychologist (before the morphine), to learn it since she already had computer experience. My sister, on the other hand (an overwhelmingly average teenager), had absolutely no trouble using Linux to do her Internet browsing and check her e-mail on Hotmail. In fact, she even figured out (by watching me I guess) how to log in from console mode, start up X, and log back out when she was done.
LOL... definitely amusing
Quite an interesting and well-supported argument. One might dispute, however, that you are simply trying to stroke your own ego, by placing command line users above mouse addicts intellectually. I would tend to agree with you, though. It's too bad I don't know enough experienced Windows and UNIX people to do a very large test, but someone with a lot of surveying power could make a very effective stab at whichever method is proven to be slower. At any rate, I think that stimulating the mind is more important that finishing a task in three fewer milliseconds, as that yields increased intelligence (or increased confidence, perhaps) and productivity when engaged in mentally challenging tasks. I suppose that arguably either method, GUI or CLI, becomes easier as one's fingers "remember" the correct keying order to type a particular command, or as the hand "learns" exactly how far to move to get to a particular menu item, reducing or eliminating the need to read and search through an unfamiliar menu.
What about anarchy? No apparent form of government other than peoples' self-will... Next thing you know Microsoft will start preaching that OSS usage will result in total anarchy and your toaster trying to eat you and your electric shaver mowing your lawn (and head) (Simpsons, Y2K).
Well, almost 2 months huh? Is that less than 52 days? Look forward to a crash right about.... NOW! Your time is about up. CODITO ERGO SUM
Everyone likes to program for the PS2. It's a MIPS R5900 CPU at 294MHz. MIPS is one of the easiest CPUs to program for in assembly language. You must be a Visual Basic script kiddie or something, because most real programmers I know (real meaning using a real language (C, or one of its many variants and cousins, or ASM) and a real OS (UNIX-style)) agree that MIPS is possibly the easiest ASM ever. What you don't understand is that processor speed (in clocks) is unimportant -- my dad (although somewhat computer illiterate) produces graphics for one of the local TV stations using SGI O2's with IRIX on them, and those CPUs are 180MHz. They kick the CRAP out of any Wintel box I've seen under 1GHz. They've been on pretty much 24/7 for the last year since they got their new system. MIPS CPUs are fast inside, the clock speed is (almost) meaningless.
Thank-you for disproving yourself. You point out all these extensions to the X protocol, well none of them are really X. They are XFree86 specific for the most part, and they exist because the underlying system is inherently flawed in this respect (multimedia). In DirectFB, everything is native and fast.
As for your comment about gaming, I don't see how it's such a backward step. Gaming is probably the most I/O and CPU intenstive task for a computer aside from running a GB+ database server, so optimizing for gaming will also improve server and database performance, multimedia support and functionality, vendor support (more purchases), etc. Frankly, I think that Linus's drive to take over supercomputing is what's a step backwards (DISCLAIMER: This is not a troll, merely a justified opinion. Linux is great, I use it to watch movies on my TV, play games, etc. and I'm not trying to dis anyone's idol!!!).
DirectFB is designed from the ground up for the hardware, whereas X is designed from the ground up for networking. Frankly, I think that the framebuffer is more fun anyway (I wrote much of libfbx, so I would know.), and performance is much better when you don't have to send every single widget over 127.0.0.1, even though it is just a local loopback, that's still unnecessary overhead.
Essentially, we need to move to hardware-oriented technologies like DirectFB if we are going to continue to keep up and surpass other operating systems in terms of appearance and performance. Why use blackbox on X (which I do regularly), when I can have clear windows, animated widgets, 3D effects, and more with DirectFB?
Interesting, to say the least... Quite a romantic idea. Every geek's dream girl's dream ;p
I thought that gcc's inline asm features were capable of register selection on MIPS, but even if not, MIPS has many registers, and registers can be reused if done carefully. However, I must agree that making a better C compiler will make a better overall system increase, especially on Linux where like 90%+ of the system is C code.
Agreed. MIPS asm is hardly more obfuscated than C (I'll admit that's a slight exaggeration). For example, to load an integer into a register you just li register value (or is it value register ? I'm pretty sure it's register value ). It's so(ooo) simple, especially when compared to x86 ASM. MIPS asm is a dream. Besides, why would Sony make gcc their standard compiler on the $10000 PS2 SDK's if it was entirely useless. FWIW, I'm using a 233MHz CPU to play Quake 3.
Well, all the PS2 developer SDK's are based on Linux, and gcc is the PS2's default (or only) compiler, so it would make sense for it to be using ELF binaries.
BTW: mod parent +2 informative or interesting