I've always enjoyed these Google toys
on
Google's new toys
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· Score: 3, Informative
My favorite is Google Sets. I use it to look for new musical artists. For example, if I type in a few band names in a similar genre that I like it returns a list containing other similar bands. If there's a name there I don't recognize, I dig up their music and usually it's pretty good.
Don't think Robert Redford reads Slashdot ...
on
239 MPG Car
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· Score: 3, Interesting
I also took Roomba home with me to see how it would do in a somewhat more sedate setting. Once again, Roomba did its thing with a minimum of noise or fuss.
Hmmm... I don't see any mention of what exactly "its thing" was... ewww.
With Windows, I had to go through... like... three... or like... four menus to find the "automatically configure my network" button. With Linux, it's like... I just need to add 'iface eth0 inet dhcp' in/etc/network/interfaces and a couple of ifconfig commands later, I'm up and running... like, it's so easy!
I suspect that it's a software change (perhaps when the database is down?).
I first noticed it a few weeks ago -- when it came back up after that
incident it contained some new links on the preferences page for friends,
foes, etc.
On Linux, Phoenix has a long way to go before it fetches me away from
Galeon. However, it's the first browser on Win32 that's really compelled me
to consider switching from IE. While Mozilla is technically faster on Win32,
to me it's never really 'felt' faster than IE. Phoenix wipes the floor with
Mozilla and IE in the speed department.
If you're running Win32, you can use StrokeIT for mouse gestures on this
otherwise feature-lite browser.
Some went so far as to ask how I became employed at Microsoft - I was just a regular user like them, but my choice to use English correctly made them assume that I was someone who knew what they were talking about.
Ummm... I don't think they were implying that you knew what you were talking about in suggesting that you were a Microsoft employee...
I certainly don't disagree that there might in fact be 250,000 copies out there. However, you're assuming that the 150,000 people who pirated the game would have purchased it if it was not convenient to steal it. I agree that a percentage of them would probably purchase the game if it were not convenient to pirate it, but I think it would be closer to 10% than the 100% you've assumed in your calculations.
Also, I know a number of pirates who obtain illegal copies of software with the intent to purchase if they enjoy it. So there is also a chance that a percentage of the legal owners were also pirates at some point.
Again, I do not condone piracy in any form. It's illegal, and it should be. I do, however, think that the negative effects of piracy are overblown by the industry groups representing the software publishers.
So the mission pack outsold the game by 1.5x? Assuming that the extra.5 were all pirates -- as you've implied -- they made more money because of the pirates purchasing the expansion pack.
Let's say they make $1 per copy. If they sold 100k legal copies of the original, and 50k of them got pirated, they made $100k. If none were pirated, they still made $100k. On to the expansion pack -- with 150k copies of the original game, they make $150k at the same price. Otherwise, they make $100k. Yes, this does assume that the pirates would not have dropped the $1 on the game had it not been convenient to pirate it, but I think this is generally true.
Total with piracy -- $250k -- without -- $200k.
Not to mention the fact that piracy could certainly have increased the number of legal copies purchased of the first game (the RIAA would disagree, of course). I know tons of pirates who are considered the definitive source of information on what games to play.
I'm not condoning piracy, it is illegal. But I don't think the mentioned example proves that it is as unhealthy to the industry as the SPA and co would like us to believe.
IIRC, HttpUnit interacts with the site it is testing entirely at the HTTP protocol level. There is an object model for parsing elements of web pages to check values, set form elements, etc. While the tests themselves are written in Java (not to mention the tool), I believe the tool is capable of testing sites created using other tools and frameworks. I've not used it myself, but it does seem pretty capable from the docs and things I've heard from folks who have.
AB: You might say that we Americans have forgotten how to enjoy the simple things in life. With our hectic schedules, the constant pressures of society, and the plethora of fast food options, people tend to forget about one of the most simple and pleasurable of ingredients -- psychedelic mushrooms.
Now I know what you're thinking. Psychedelic mushrooms? Wait a second... aren't those... well, you know... [Cut to Paul in the background in a Tye-Dye T-Shirt, being arrested and carried away by the police.]... kind of disgusting?
Well, my fine friend, you have never truly applied science to the equation. Now, this isn't as difficult as it might seem. If you want difficult, try preparing some crank on a bed of lava... but... well, that's another show. Now I'm not a nutritional anthropologist, but fortunately you don't need to be in order to well... get messed up... and enjoy some fine flavors on the way.
So join us as we journey through the world of psychedelic mushroom preparation, not to mention a journey to some other worlds, as we turn psychedelic mushrooms into... Good Eats.
Well, let's hope Ximian has a better year than the Red Sox...
Re:Installation not so hard -- and not so importan
on
Libranet 2.7 Released
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· Score: 1
I've said this before. The Debian installation just isn't that hard. I'd like to hear some specific points about what makes it difficult other than that it isn't X based, but rather console based.
In addition to the other points mentioned, it's probably worth noting that a good portion of Microsoft's NT/2000 OS setup (not sure about XP) is still console based. Specifically, the portions where partitions are selected and managed, and file locations are provided. Most consider the NT installation pretty simple, so I don't think this is a huge issue for people migrating from Windows (read: most).
Easy Debian installation is a nice idea, but I think Stormix did a wonderful job when they existed. It was my first Debian installation experience -- they did everything right. It wasn't just (X) eye candy either, they actually added some neat features like auto-detection of Windows partitions and lilo configuration for such things. I had a dual boot system without even so much as glancing at/etc/lilo.conf. I can't imagine this distro is doing anything better (technically, at least) than Stormix, but I wish them luck.
... for the show American Indie: The search for a group of people who smell bad and play music only appreciated by a small percentage of the population. Fox would probably pick it up.
Better mouse gestures. Currently, mouse gestures won't get recognized until the current page is fully loaded. This is horribly frustrating when you try to issue a 'stop loading' mouse gesture that doesn't register until... well, you get it.
Less slow down when working with many tabs. When I have > 15 or so tabs (I won't mention the circumstances when this might happen... hehe), every Galeon operation takes forever, even though system resources are readily available. Maybe a Mozilla issue.
Per-frame page magnification adjustments. Currently changing the setting applies to all frames, would be nice to only affect the one with current focus.
A new name. I'm sick of people calling my favorite browser 'Gay Leon' (not that there's anything wrong with that!).
Slashdot Mirror
My favorite is Google Sets. I use it to look for new musical artists. For example, if I type in a few band names in a similar genre that I like it returns a list containing other similar bands. If there's a name there I don't recognize, I dig up their music and usually it's pretty good.
... but he does have some comments on the issue.
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2002/09/kitty.html ;)
... they should've waited for the point release!
I also took Roomba home with me to see how it would do in a somewhat more sedate setting. Once again, Roomba did its thing with a minimum of noise or fuss.
... I don't see any mention of what exactly "its thing" was ... ewww.
Hmmm
and easy access to the Internet, of course.
... like ... three ... or like ... four menus to find the "automatically configure my network" button. With Linux, it's like ... I just need to add 'iface eth0 inet dhcp' in /etc/network/interfaces and a couple of ifconfig commands later, I'm up and running ... like, it's so easy!
With Windows, I had to go through
I suspect that it's a software change (perhaps when the database is down?). I first noticed it a few weeks ago -- when it came back up after that incident it contained some new links on the preferences page for friends, foes, etc.
Addendum to note to self:
If creating rocket belt with two psychotic friends, make three.
This is an easy problem to fix. All these people need to do is search for "Virus Protection" on Google and ... oh wait ...
On Linux, Phoenix has a long way to go before it fetches me away from Galeon. However, it's the first browser on Win32 that's really compelled me to consider switching from IE. While Mozilla is technically faster on Win32, to me it's never really 'felt' faster than IE. Phoenix wipes the floor with Mozilla and IE in the speed department.
If you're running Win32, you can use StrokeIT for mouse gestures on this otherwise feature-lite browser.
Awe c'mon, Microsoft spends lots of time checking their STL code ... really! Truly scary stuff.
Some went so far as to ask how I became employed at Microsoft - I was just a regular user like them, but my choice to use English correctly made them assume that I was someone who knew what they were talking about.
... I don't think they were implying that you knew what you were talking about in suggesting that you were a Microsoft employee ...
Ummm
I certainly don't disagree that there might in fact be 250,000 copies out
there. However, you're assuming that the 150,000 people who pirated the game
would have purchased it if it was not convenient to steal it. I agree that a
percentage of them would probably purchase the game if it were not
convenient to pirate it, but I think it would be closer to 10% than the 100%
you've assumed in your calculations.
Also, I know a number of pirates who obtain illegal copies of software with
the intent to purchase if they enjoy it. So there is also a chance that a
percentage of the legal owners were also pirates at some point.
Again, I do not condone piracy in any form. It's illegal, and it should be.
I do, however, think that the negative effects of piracy are overblown by
the industry groups representing the software publishers.
So the mission pack outsold the game by 1.5x? Assuming that the extra .5 were all pirates -- as you've implied -- they made more money because of the pirates purchasing the expansion pack.
Let's say they make $1 per copy. If they sold 100k legal copies of the original, and 50k of them got pirated, they made $100k. If none were pirated, they still made $100k. On to the expansion pack -- with 150k copies of the original game, they make $150k at the same price. Otherwise, they make $100k. Yes, this does assume that the pirates would not have dropped the $1 on the game had it not been convenient to pirate it, but I think this is generally true.
Total with piracy -- $250k -- without -- $200k.
Not to mention the fact that piracy could certainly have increased the number of legal copies purchased of the first game (the RIAA would disagree, of course). I know tons of pirates who are considered the definitive source of information on what games to play.
I'm not condoning piracy, it is illegal. But I don't think the mentioned example proves that it is as unhealthy to the industry as the SPA and co would like us to believe.
IIRC, HttpUnit interacts with the site it is testing entirely at the HTTP
protocol level. There is an object model for parsing elements of web pages
to check values, set form elements, etc. While the tests themselves are
written in Java (not to mention the tool), I believe the tool is capable of
testing sites created using other tools and frameworks. I've not used it
myself, but it does seem pretty capable from the docs and things I've heard
from folks who have.
AB: You might say that we Americans have forgotten how to enjoy the
... ... well, you know ... [Cut to Paul in the background in a Tye-Dye T-Shirt, being arrested and ... kind of disgusting?
... but ... ... get messed up ... and
... Good Eats.
simple things in life. With our hectic schedules, the constant pressures of
society, and the plethora of fast food options, people tend to forget about
one of the most simple and pleasurable of ingredients -- psychedelic
mushrooms.
Now I know what you're thinking. Psychedelic mushrooms? Wait a second
aren't those
carried away by the police.]
Well, my fine friend, you have never truly applied
science to the equation. Now, this isn't as difficult as it might seem. If
you want difficult, try preparing some crank on a bed of lava
well, that's another show. Now I'm not a nutritional anthropologist, but
fortunately you don't need to be in order to well
enjoy some fine flavors on the way.
So join us as we journey through the world of psychedelic mushroom
preparation, not to mention a journey to some other worlds, as we turn
psychedelic mushrooms into
Well, let's hope Ximian has a better year than the Red Sox ...
I've said this before. The Debian installation just isn't that hard. I'd like to hear some specific points about what makes it difficult other than that it isn't X based, but rather console based.
In addition to the other points mentioned, it's probably worth noting that a good portion of Microsoft's NT/2000 OS setup (not sure about XP) is still console based. Specifically, the portions where partitions are selected and managed, and file locations are provided. Most consider the NT installation pretty simple, so I don't think this is a huge issue for people migrating from Windows (read: most).
Easy Debian installation is a nice idea, but I think Stormix did a wonderful job when they existed. It was my first Debian installation experience -- they did everything right. It wasn't just (X) eye candy either, they actually added some neat features like auto-detection of Windows partitions and lilo configuration for such things. I had a dual boot system without even so much as glancing at /etc/lilo.conf. I can't imagine this distro is doing anything better (technically, at least) than Stormix, but I wish them luck.
... for the show American Indie: The search for a group of people who smell bad and play music only appreciated by a small percentage of the population. Fox would probably pick it up.
Correct -- it also supports arguments to these property accessors, which allows statements such as:
label.words(3).font.bold = true;
foo.setSize (getSize () + 1);
Actually, this should read:
foo.setSize (foo.getSize() + 1);
I suppose they were trying to drive their point home by including a syntax error.
And imagine Ron Jeremy on the big screen? Yikes.
...
If I ever visit your theater, remind me to sit behind you
Is that DDR is also a great way to meet the neighbors that live below you ... :)