Why bother installing? Make a RAM disk and install to there. The only reason I could see to use the hard drive is to do e-mail attachments, and Linux supports FAT pretty well... --
I showed this to a couple of Cow Orkers and they did understand why this is such a huge deal. Most of the opinions I heard were basicly "Why would someone smart enough to use Linux use AOL?" Let me break it down:
AOL is competing with Microsoft. Microsoft is yet again pushing MSN, which means that the two are in direct competition. One thing you don't want to do in business is give money to your competitors. AOL recognizes that Linux is a viable option, and are building a strategy around this.
AOL is also working on a set top box (with Gateway IIRC). The TiVo proved that Linux works on the TV, and AOL can't wait to get to the people too dumb to click Start. Remember, newbies are AOL's bread and butter. If AOL can break into the WebTV market, they're going to soar.
Now obviously they aren't going to set the user in front of a Login: prompt and expect the user to log in, type startx, and figure out how to start AOL and run pppd with a chatscript. They'll be using the Linux kernel, without most of the GNU tools that Linux users are used to. One of the things I could see them doing is distribute the AOL client with their own AOL distribution of Linux on those coasters^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H CDs that they give out to everyone in the US. Then you just boot from the CD-ROM and voila! Instant AOL.
I'm just glad that a big company finally "gets it" about what you can do with a stable, open source operating system. --
Ah ha ha! You posted this knowing full well that it would be moderated funny, discrediting the truth behind VA owning Malda! You are using reverse-reverse-psychology! You're probably invested in Andover and use Microsoft Windows and hate Linux to boot! The truth is out there! Aliens are posting on slashdot! New coke was a government mind contol test! --
http://speechbot.research.compaq.com/ "SpeechBot is an experimental index of popular US radio shows, based on state-of-the-art speech recognition technology*. SpeechBot currently indexes 5423 hours of content from 5652 programs."
I remembered seeing it on/. a while ago... December 8th, 1999 is an impressive recall time for someone who has to check his driver's licence to see his birthday <G> --
Wow, I'd love to use this system to publish the Publius PDF. That way people could anonymously learn how to set up their own censorship resistant networks.
It's not like MS forces OEMs to sell you boxes with windows preinstalled.
Wasn't that a big sticking point in the trial? I seem to recall something about the CEO from Compaq on the stand testifying that MS had forced them to buy a copy of Windows for every computer they shipped, regardless of what OS was on it. Anyone know if my memory is corrupted or not? Damn I which my brain had a checkbit. --
I don't understand. You mean to tell me that this isn't a black and white issue? Am I to believe that this isn't a case between a huge, evil, immoral corporate giant and a small, cute, helpless, company that has never even crossed against the light? I hardly think that a complex issue like rethinking intellectual property laws should require us to consider that there are no good guys or bad guys, only people serving their own interests.
So, mp3 have brought me: 1. wiser choices 2. less deceptions
Well no wonder the RIAA doesn't like it. They need to sell albums, and how are they going to do that if you can tell the cream from the crap? Remember that 90% of everything is crap, so that means that they'll lose 90% of their artists. So buy a boy band CD today and help the poor little RIAA! --
I don't think Microsoft needs any help insulting their customers' intelligence. They do it themselves, with every "For Dummies" or "For the Complete Idiot" or "For the Barely Verbal" book they purchase.
I've never quite understood why people would buy these books, and still be insulted when I told them that they were a complete idiot on the tech support line:) --
H is actually spelled "Aitch". The reason I know this is because I was watching a spelling bee on ESPN of all channels, and they got to the finals. The poor girl was given the word "H". It was sadly pathetic to watch her ask for it to be used in a sentence, ask it's etamology, etc. So that's how I know how to spell "Aitch."
This is coming from someone who's/. sig used to be "I hate spelling and grammar nazis". Then again, there are two spelling errors in this message, and one paradox. --
The easiest way to get laws passed in the US is to show the lawmakers how they are affected by them. Case in point: your video store records are more protected than your financial information, because about 15 years ago a politician was publicly embarassed when a newspaper got a list of videos he/she had rented.
So what to do about it? Well dig up dirt. Compile it. Share it. Let the world know Richard Nixon's social security number. Find out exactly what George W. Bush had for breakfast, and call him on his home phone number to let him know. Let the politicos understand why privacy is important and they will make the laws.
If we don't get privacy from them, why should they get privacy from us? --
Can anyone point me to a nice, level headed comparison between PHP and Cold Fusion? Does one have a higher overhead? Does one cache database results? We're going to be choosing a web application development language at work soon, and if I can say "Well Cold Fusion is nice, but..." I'd be happier with the open source solution. --
The web is supposed to be linked together. That's why you put something on the web instead of publishing it in a 'zine or a book or any other form of printed materials. Just because you don't want or need one click access to relevent information doesn't mean that it shouldn't be there. Would you still visit slashdot if it didn't link to the articles it talked about? Would suck be any good without links?
I'm not arguing for linking to random information just because you can, but informative linking is why hypertext has the hyper. --
Re:Regexps and... what DOES ++@_[0]; do?
on
The Perl Black Book
·
· Score: 2
++@_[0]; will increment the first argument that a subroutine is given.
++$var; will add 1 to $var, @_ is the array where arguments are stored, and @array[0] will be the first member of an array.
Hope this helps demystify Perl a little for you! --
Why do we need this? We've already got Red Hat to define the standard. Take a look at all the software that only runs on Red Hat Linux. Geez, why don't you just give up running incompatible distributions, and use the one true distro? I don't understand why people can't just follow the group. No, they have to do their own thing. These people are ruining Linux for the rest of us! --
"You must take reasonable security precautions, at least as great as the precautions you take to protect your own confidential information."
Since we release our source code for the world to see, we should take the same precautions with their specifications, right? Since the precaution we take is by applying the GPL to our source, the same should be done with their spec. I guess they forgot that not everyone has been assimilated yet. --
I don't think IBM would appreciate him selling/licensing their ViaVoice to other people. Maybe I read that wrong, but it looks to me like he's using ViaVoice... --
I got the letter from Netpliance, and before I even opened it, I had a pretty good idea what was inside. Sure enough, it was a letter telling me that my I-Opener would be a different model, and that new terms of sale had been imposed.
The interesting thing is that the letter is dated April 14, while I bought my I-Opener a week after the/. story ran (sometime in March). More amused then frightened, I called up two of my friends who also bought I-Openers and they both got "the letter" as well.
The next day I called up Netpliance, and left a voice mail for the woman who was dealing with this. She gave me a call back about 30 minutes later, and I discussed the letter with her. She said that since I had already purchased my I-Opener, the letter didn't apply to me. Fine by me. I then asked her about my name, address and credit card information.
She told me that Circuit Sh^H^HCity was selling them for Netpliance and that as a reseller, I had actually bought my I-Opener from Netpliance. Aparently I had still given my credit card to CC because she claimed that they didn't have that, only my name and address.
A couple interesting points:
A friend of mine who put down his money for an I-Opener, and then cancelled got the letter too. He cancelled his order after 4 weeks, and finding out that CC had been selling the stock they got in on the floor, without saving stock for people who had already put their money down. This is a good reason to get a credit card. I've got a debit card, so if they decide to pull $500 out of my account for not using their ISP, I'll be in big trouble. My bank also won't let me block individual companies from making charges to the debit card. What was that Linux credit card again?:)
Actually, I think that an older way to help novices make a new web page "look alive" is the tag. It adds movement, it adds whiz bang flash boom, and it catches the eye. But for some reason, people don't seem to like it. I wonder why that is...
The probelm with the <BLINK> and <MARQUEE> tags is that there is rarely a good use for them. <BLINK> is supposed to catch the eye, and it does, but in a painful manner. Plus, if you're trying to read something, it is more time consuming because of the time the text is spent "off."
Similarly, the <MARQUEE> tag distracts in a painful manner. Most of the time I see it being used, the font is set so high that the text flickers. But my real peeve with the <MARQUEE> tag is that it slows down my reading considerably.
Instead of reading and scrolling at my own pace, the <MARQUEE> tag makes me wait for the information to come up. And it's like a watched pot, the longer you stare at it, the longer each second feels. It only slows down my information absorbtion, and that tends to tick me off a lot.
Personally, I hope that the <MARQUEE> tag never becomes standard and people who use it get their Geocities account revoked. --
Slashdot Mirror
Why bother installing? Make a RAM disk and install to there. The only reason I could see to use the hard drive is to do e-mail attachments, and Linux supports FAT pretty well...
--
I showed this to a couple of Cow Orkers and they did understand why this is such a huge deal. Most of the opinions I heard were basicly "Why would someone smart enough to use Linux use AOL?" Let me break it down:
AOL is competing with Microsoft. Microsoft is yet again pushing MSN, which means that the two are in direct competition. One thing you don't want to do in business is give money to your competitors. AOL recognizes that Linux is a viable option, and are building a strategy around this.
AOL is also working on a set top box (with Gateway IIRC). The TiVo proved that Linux works on the TV, and AOL can't wait to get to the people too dumb to click Start. Remember, newbies are AOL's bread and butter. If AOL can break into the WebTV market, they're going to soar.
Now obviously they aren't going to set the user in front of a Login: prompt and expect the user to log in, type startx, and figure out how to start AOL and run pppd with a chatscript. They'll be using the Linux kernel, without most of the GNU tools that Linux users are used to. One of the things I could see them doing is distribute the AOL client with their own AOL distribution of Linux on those coasters^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H CDs that they give out to everyone in the US. Then you just boot from the CD-ROM and voila! Instant AOL.
I'm just glad that a big company finally "gets it" about what you can do with a stable, open source operating system.
--
Ah ha ha! You posted this knowing full well that it would be moderated funny, discrediting the truth behind VA owning Malda! You are using reverse-reverse-psychology! You're probably invested in Andover and use Microsoft Windows and hate Linux to boot! The truth is out there! Aliens are posting on slashdot! New coke was a government mind contol test!
--
http://speechbot.research.compaq.com/
/. a while ago... December 8th, 1999 is an impressive recall time for someone who has to check his driver's licence to see his birthday <G>
"SpeechBot is an experimental index of popular US radio shows, based on state-of-the-art speech recognition technology*. SpeechBot currently indexes 5423 hours of content from 5652 programs."
I remembered seeing it on
--
Wow, I'd love to use this system to publish the Publius PDF. That way people could anonymously learn how to set up their own censorship resistant networks.
Oh wait, the PDF is 233k...
--
Are we men or are we mice people?
I like the distinction between men and mice people. I prefer a command line, but when doing stuff in X I use a trackball. Viva la command line!
(Score: -3, Funny)
--
$ lynx -dump http://windows.oreilly.com/news/hejlsberg_0800.htm l | grep innovat | wc -l
8
$
--
It's not like MS forces OEMs to sell you boxes with windows preinstalled.
Wasn't that a big sticking point in the trial? I seem to recall something about the CEO from Compaq on the stand testifying that MS had forced them to buy a copy of Windows for every computer they shipped, regardless of what OS was on it. Anyone know if my memory is corrupted or not? Damn I which my brain had a checkbit.
--
I don't understand. You mean to tell me that this isn't a black and white issue? Am I to believe that this isn't a case between a huge, evil, immoral corporate giant and a small, cute, helpless, company that has never even crossed against the light? I hardly think that a complex issue like rethinking intellectual property laws should require us to consider that there are no good guys or bad guys, only people serving their own interests.
Slashdot is no place for unbiased reporting.
</SARCASM>
--
Well no wonder the RIAA doesn't like it. They need to sell albums, and how are they going to do that if you can tell the cream from the crap? Remember that 90% of everything is crap, so that means that they'll lose 90% of their artists. So buy a boy band CD today and help the poor little RIAA!
--
I don't think Microsoft needs any help insulting their customers' intelligence. They do it themselves, with every "For Dummies" or "For the Complete Idiot" or "For the Barely Verbal" book they purchase.
:)
I've never quite understood why people would buy these books, and still be insulted when I told them that they were a complete idiot on the tech support line
--
H is actually spelled "Aitch". The reason I know this is because I was watching a spelling bee on ESPN of all channels, and they got to the finals. The poor girl was given the word "H". It was sadly pathetic to watch her ask for it to be used in a sentence, ask it's etamology, etc. So that's how I know how to spell "Aitch."
/. sig used to be "I hate spelling and grammar nazis". Then again, there are two spelling errors in this message, and one paradox.
This is coming from someone who's
--
Never trust the client. You should know that HTTP headers can be forged with the hacker tool 'telnet'
OTOH, I've been trying how to WAP enable my house's X-10 system securely, and haven't come across a better mechanism to do this.
--
The easiest way to get laws passed in the US is to show the lawmakers how they are affected by them. Case in point: your video store records are more protected than your financial information, because about 15 years ago a politician was publicly embarassed when a newspaper got a list of videos he/she had rented.
So what to do about it? Well dig up dirt. Compile it. Share it. Let the world know Richard Nixon's social security number. Find out exactly what George W. Bush had for breakfast, and call him on his home phone number to let him know. Let the politicos understand why privacy is important and they will make the laws.
If we don't get privacy from them, why should they get privacy from us?
--
... http://www.eatdifferent.com/
:)
Of course Apple isn't exactly in opposition to PETA's ideals...
--
Can anyone point me to a nice, level headed comparison between PHP and Cold Fusion? Does one have a higher overhead? Does one cache database results? We're going to be choosing a web application development language at work soon, and if I can say "Well Cold Fusion is nice, but..." I'd be happier with the open source solution.
--
I hope this is a troll that I'm falling for.
The web is supposed to be linked together. That's why you put something on the web instead of publishing it in a 'zine or a book or any other form of printed materials. Just because you don't want or need one click access to relevent information doesn't mean that it shouldn't be there. Would you still visit slashdot if it didn't link to the articles it talked about? Would suck be any good without links?
I'm not arguing for linking to random information just because you can, but informative linking is why hypertext has the hyper.
--
++@_[0]; will increment the first argument that a subroutine is given.
++$var; will add 1 to $var, @_ is the array where arguments are stored, and @array[0] will be the first member of an array.
Hope this helps demystify Perl a little for you!
--
Why do we need this? We've already got Red Hat to define the standard. Take a look at all the software that only runs on Red Hat Linux. Geez, why don't you just give up running incompatible distributions, and use the one true distro? I don't understand why people can't just follow the group. No, they have to do their own thing. These people are ruining Linux for the rest of us!
--
Since we release our source code for the world to see, we should take the same precautions with their specifications, right? Since the precaution we take is by applying the GPL to our source, the same should be done with their spec. I guess they forgot that not everyone has been assimilated yet.
--
I don't think IBM would appreciate him selling/licensing their ViaVoice to other people. Maybe I read that wrong, but it looks to me like he's using ViaVoice...
--
I got the letter from Netpliance, and before I even opened it, I had a pretty good idea what was inside. Sure enough, it was a letter telling me that my I-Opener would be a different model, and that new terms of sale had been imposed.
/. story ran (sometime in March). More amused then frightened, I called up two of my friends who also bought I-Openers and they both got "the letter" as well.
:)
The interesting thing is that the letter is dated April 14, while I bought my I-Opener a week after the
The next day I called up Netpliance, and left a voice mail for the woman who was dealing with this. She gave me a call back about 30 minutes later, and I discussed the letter with her. She said that since I had already purchased my I-Opener, the letter didn't apply to me. Fine by me. I then asked her about my name, address and credit card information.
She told me that Circuit Sh^H^HCity was selling them for Netpliance and that as a reseller, I had actually bought my I-Opener from Netpliance. Aparently I had still given my credit card to CC because she claimed that they didn't have that, only my name and address.
A couple interesting points:
A friend of mine who put down his money for an I-Opener, and then cancelled got the letter too. He cancelled his order after 4 weeks, and finding out that CC had been selling the stock they got in on the floor, without saving stock for people who had already put their money down.
This is a good reason to get a credit card. I've got a debit card, so if they decide to pull $500 out of my account for not using their ISP, I'll be in big trouble. My bank also won't let me block individual companies from making charges to the debit card. What was that Linux credit card again?
--
If you want to do it yourself, check out http://www.directron.com/bookpc.html.
Tasty little boxes, with S-Video, AV and VGA out, plus 4 channel stereo. I'm definatly considering one of these.
--
Actually, I think that an older way to help novices make a new web page "look alive" is the tag. It adds movement, it adds whiz bang flash boom, and it catches the eye. But for some reason, people don't seem to like it. I wonder why that is...
The probelm with the <BLINK> and <MARQUEE> tags is that there is rarely a good use for them. <BLINK> is supposed to catch the eye, and it does, but in a painful manner. Plus, if you're trying to read something, it is more time consuming because of the time the text is spent "off."
Similarly, the <MARQUEE> tag distracts in a painful manner. Most of the time I see it being used, the font is set so high that the text flickers. But my real peeve with the <MARQUEE> tag is that it slows down my reading considerably.
Instead of reading and scrolling at my own pace, the <MARQUEE> tag makes me wait for the information to come up. And it's like a watched pot, the longer you stare at it, the longer each second feels. It only slows down my information absorbtion, and that tends to tick me off a lot.
Personally, I hope that the <MARQUEE> tag never becomes standard and people who use it get their Geocities account revoked.
--
...Or, in the case of Amazon...multiply by -1770
--