Huh?!? It doesn't have any "releases", but it is under active development and can be downloaded through CVS. It's all nicely laid out in their documentation, and any Linux user with command-line experience should find it a breeze. It's a great alternative to KaZaA for Linux users (myself included)!
Some people have had good experience using KaZaA Lite under Wine... Googling for "kazaa linux wine" should do the trick. I couldn't get it to work, so I finally gave up and checked out giFT/openFT, a KaZaA/FastTrack workalike for Linux systems. Wine is really more of a stopgap measure, IMHO.
giFT has the same bugs/features (eg. not being able to search for the files you share), but operates as a daemon, is infinitely configurable, and has several quality UIs; plus, it's GPL'd and doesn't have spyware. It does require some command-line work, but they spell it out pretty well for you. I've been pleased, though. It could use more files, so the more users the better!
Yeah, obviously the 5kryp7 k1dd33z are so horrified at seeing pornography involving people their own age that they would just *have* to launch a DDoS attack. (/sarcasm) Actually, they probably *enjoy* it....
I am NOT, in any way, shape, or form, condoning child pornography! I just think you shouldn't blame the victim (DalNet) for "provoking" the attacks. I would really rather have DalNet without the crap too, but I don't really think the content they carry has anything to do with it. It's more the prestige of taking down someone big, which is why eBay, Microsoft, the RIAA, and DalNet are common targets.
Actually, if someone would sic[1] the FBI onto those channels, the people that frequent them might be in the Big House in a hurry.
[1] Note to spelling/grammar mods: this is indeed the correct way to spell "sic", not "sick" as some on this site would have it!
You have this problem too? My sister (who is *not* a geek) liked my Linux box because of all the cool free games... FreeCiv, twenty solitaire variants, etc. I actually gave her her own user account on my system, and she spent a lot of time configuring it to her taste. She's actually dual-booting RedHat 8.0 and Windows XP on her new system now (Windows primarily) -- I haven't seen her on Linux recently, but she doesn't have a whole lot of free time. Not that Windows is bad -- she's been playing "spider solitaire" on XP, and I think it has its own market niche -- it's the idea that Linux can appeal to people who aren't afraid of it.
It's great that your boys are using Linux without getting hung up on the fact that it "isn't Windows". Ah, the innocence of childhood... before people learn to fear newness and change.
No rational manufacturer would ever ignore such obvious demand. So where are they?
Ebay. Seriously. Search for "Northgate Omnikey" -- among the best keyboards on the planet. Tactile feedback, reprogrammable, weighs ten pounds, the whole nine yards. Only reason I don't use mine is that I type papers late at night and don't want to wake anybody up. (grin)
Ironic addendum: at my school, last year's AP Calculus class scored *lowest* on the *calculator use* part of the exam, not the conceptual stuff. Myself, (taking AP Calc this year) I find myself just automatically resorting to pencil and paper because I don't need the calculator anymore. Feels liberating!
(And a rousing "Amen!" to the "Technology isn't a magic bullet" theme that's been running through this thread; we were preaching it years ago, but nobody listened.)
The Saxon method, much as I hate it, works *well* for learning the process of math. Whether you get the concepts behind it is up to you. The flash cards are a good idea, too, since Saxon *doesn't* stress the memorization aspects of simple arithmetic enough (6*7 is 42, 6*8 is 48...) I hated it at the time, but it has stood me in good stead later on.
I wouldn't worry overmuch about your daughter's learning abilities, however. Just keeping involved is the best thing you can do.:)
(For the record, I'm currently working on the Saxon method's Calculus book, which I find rather enjoyable. "One dee two plus two dee one", and so on. I like Calc, for some reason.)
Re:I am sooooooo tired of plastic!!!
on
Waterproof Books
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· Score: 1
And then there's my mom, who washes her plastic silverware after each picnic...
Whatever works, I guess! (I agree with you, by the by, it's just always seemed somewhat... ironic.)
"Word", short for "word processor", is a generic term referring to software more powerful than a text editor but less powerful than professional page-layout software.
Huh? Since when is this?
"Word processor" is a generic term. *A* "word" is a component of language. But "Word" is the Microsoft word-processing product.
Umm, with regard to number 2...? Have you installed Windows lately???
As in, if I *ever* reinstall that PoS *one* *more* *time* (any incarnation!) I swear I am going to go postal. I call it the Driver Disk Shuffle:
Pop in the Windows CD-ROM, boot to it. Pop in a previous version to prove I'm legal. Once it's done its magic, pop it out and boot up. Then dig around in closets for an hour finding drivers for the sound, network, video, mouse, keyboard, etc. ad nauseum. Linux has, in my experience, better native-on-the-disk hardware support than Windows, and I have less trouble with its installation. Problem of course being that if the drivers *aren't* on the disk, they probably don't exist or won't work without blood sacrifices. (*cough*ALSA*cough*) That's another post, though.
If you want totally no-intervention installation (as in no installation at all) may I suggest Knoppix?
Grrr... sorry. That *almost* ruined the movie for me -- this grand, epic film and then... "whee, let's watch Legolas's arrow hit an orc between the eyes." Hrmpf.
It's still a marvellous film, that just *really* annoyed me.
Is this the same thing as all those XP menus that basically say, "I want to..." and then have a list of tasks (ie. "Check e-mail", "Chat with a friend", "Feed the dog", "Install Linux", etc.)?
Linux would certainly benefit from including this kind of thing, I think. Even in the installer: "I want to... 1) run Windows *and* Linux, 2) run only Linux", etc. and then autopartition or whatever. It's very intuitive for experts and new users alike -- the latest PartitionMagic 8.0 is a good example, though it almost has too many options.
So, yeah, it would make Linux more like Windows, but in a positive way. In a way, it goes all the way back to MS-DOS menus way back in the Elder Days. (grin)
(Aside, off-topic: Has anybody else noticed that grip's interface is *sinfully* ugly and barely usable?)
A Video User Interface. Dear God -- just what the world needs. This is a good idea *how*???
*Maybe* it's a nice thing to show off to your friends, but how practical will it be? Honestly? And how much hardware will I need to upgrade to make it work?
Frankly, I don't care how "like" or "unlike" Windows Linux is, since you can of course configure it however you want. It's a moot point. There are enough alternative window managers for Linux that if Mr. Dvorak wants something different he can get it. And there are a lot of ways in which my Linux box has taken the Windows paradigm and gone one step better -- for example, MP3 and OGG previewing in Nautilus.
Myself, though, I have yet to seen something better than the desktop-WIMP paradigm. There are some *refinements* that could still be made, but no alternative-WM killer app.
Huh. Didn't know that. Wish they would include a prominent link to that Multimedia page on their initial "do you want to register?" web page.
Their "revamped" RPM manager makes me grouchy too, since it can only see those packages that the installation program installed, and not anything I add later. Grr... At least there's always the command-line.
I dunno... a *lot* of people I know are still using spyware-infested KaZaa because they haven't heard about KaZaa Lite. Marketing, marketing, marketing!
Ehrm, sorry about that. Got a nasty cold right now. (/me wipes germ-filled spittle off my face.)
YMMV, but I think that RedHat 8.0 is really surprisingly usable, though it does take a little bit of tweaking. Unifying the desktops was a brilliant move, Bluecurve is servicable (certainly better than Luna!), and they're working at eliminating the complexity of install and configuration. Now if they would fix that @#$*!!! menu structure (!!Extras!!), reduce the number of separate configuration applets I need to wade through to do darn near *anything*, and reinclude MP3 support. (Licensing schmicensing.)
For that matter, it would be nice if they'd include xine or mplayer (preferably with QT and WMA support), RealPlayer, and Flash for those who gotta get their Flash game fix. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know -- it ain't OSS. While we're wishing, maybe RedHat could fund open-source alternatives?
Still, it's the largest step in the right direction I've seen a distro take. It isn't there yet, but it's closer. Don't knock it.:)
Re:By the way, where the hell is Neal Stephenson?
on
Deadly Perversions
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I believe Stephenson is putting the finishing touches on Quicksilver, a sort-of prequel to Cryptonomicon.
William Gibson has a new novel Pattern Recognition coming out Real Soon Now.
Okay, I'm looking forward to the new 64-bitters from AMD -- I'm a big fan of the Alpha. (a little sob now at its passing)
Can AMD's desktop-targeted 64-bit chips run, say, a standard x86 RedHat 8.0? Or do they need specially-compiled OSes like the Alpha did? I would presume they'll need a special motherboard.
I'd love to replace my current 32-bit machine with a new 64-bit AMD one to complement my Alpha...
In it, he specifically condemns people (both pro and con accessibility) who think that "making your site available to the disabled" == "making your site ugly and text-only".
This, of course, leads me to my perennial complaint about the Web Accessibility Initiative and accessibility advocates generally: They've got no style. They have no understanding of graphic design and typography, and they project this ignorance onto the rest of the world.
To use one of my maxims, accessibility opponents think accessibility means a text-only Web site and hate the idea, while accessibility advocates also think it means a text-only site and love the idea. They're both wrong.
Would it work (hypothetically, IANAL, & other misc. caveats) to distribute the OSS stuff on the CD with a convenient graphical tool to install the proprietary stuff... y'know, "hit this button to install WMA codec", which then goes and downloads the CVS version, the codecs, does whatever manipulations it takes to put it in usable form, and installs it? In essence it automates what you would already do?
As a (sort-of quasi-)librarian, (since I don't have the degree) I'm still trying to help kids do stuff besides 'Net and Parent-Approved-Fluff (eg. Babysitters' Club) books.
A girl comes in with her mother, who is obviously not library-literate. Her daughter wants to check out one of the books we have as prizes for the Summer Reading program, a junior historical fiction novel of some depth. We already had a copy in the library, which was checked out.
Me: "I can reserve it for you if you'd like." Mom: Blank stare... "Oh, I'll just get some Babysitters' Club books for her." Me: GRRRR...
I reserved it for her anyway... never did find out if she'd picked it up.
Our school librarian especially doesn't stand for censorship at all -- Huck Finn, Harry Potter, the works. (We do have filters on the school computers, but that's a whole 'nother story.) Public library where I work does have some censorship (mostly nosy librarians) and less subversive literature, sadly. I agree that the first two books (plus maybe 1984, and in my ultra-mega-Christian-conservative-wacko area, Harry Potter:) are wonderfully subversive. Haven't heard about the last one, so I'll have to read that! Thank you!
He had landed in America - an island in the Caribbean to be precise - and believed himself to be in India. His second great mistake, the fact that America was, in fact, America, and not India, was first realised after his death when Magellan circumnavigated the globe.
Actually, according to Lies My Teacher Told Me , Columbus recognized America as a separate continent before he died -- on his third voyage, I think.
Slightly off-topic, but the book is a fascinating read -- everything American history textbooks got wrong. It was recommended to me, ironically, by my American history teacher! The author's bias is somewhat left-of-center, but he's honest about that and is careful to point out that a textbook could be written from a conservative viewpoint and still retain a frankness about history. It's infinitely more engaging than anything else I've read about history.
Hmmm... Maybe I'll use lynx for all my browsing from now on! Would certainly save on the download times, and since I can use it without stealing *and* without seeing popup ads, all the better!
It's not my fault they insist on using popups (Yay Mozilla!) instead of Google-esque textads that I may actually click on once in a while. If I'm blocking popups, do you think I'm gonna buy stuff through them? When I'm using IE and they come up I just close them as soon as I see them -- am I stealing then, too?
Note to Visa: I'm *never* going to buy a CapitalOne card *specifically* because you advertise it with popup ads. Take that!
Slashdot Mirror
Huh?!? It doesn't have any "releases", but it is under active development and can be downloaded through CVS. It's all nicely laid out in their documentation, and any Linux user with command-line experience should find it a breeze. It's a great alternative to KaZaA for Linux users (myself included)!
Some people have had good experience using KaZaA Lite under Wine... Googling for "kazaa linux wine" should do the trick. I couldn't get it to work, so I finally gave up and checked out giFT/openFT, a KaZaA/FastTrack workalike for Linux systems. Wine is really more of a stopgap measure, IMHO.
giFT has the same bugs/features (eg. not being able to search for the files you share), but operates as a daemon, is infinitely configurable, and has several quality UIs; plus, it's GPL'd and doesn't have spyware. It does require some command-line work, but they spell it out pretty well for you. I've been pleased, though. It could use more files, so the more users the better!
Yeah, obviously the 5kryp7 k1dd33z are so horrified at seeing pornography involving people their own age that they would just *have* to launch a DDoS attack. (/sarcasm) Actually, they probably *enjoy* it....
I am NOT, in any way, shape, or form, condoning child pornography! I just think you shouldn't blame the victim (DalNet) for "provoking" the attacks. I would really rather have DalNet without the crap too, but I don't really think the content they carry has anything to do with it. It's more the prestige of taking down someone big, which is why eBay, Microsoft, the RIAA, and DalNet are common targets.
Actually, if someone would sic[1] the FBI onto those channels, the people that frequent them might be in the Big House in a hurry.
[1] Note to spelling/grammar mods: this is indeed the correct way to spell "sic", not "sick" as some on this site would have it!
You have this problem too? My sister (who is *not* a geek) liked my Linux box because of all the cool free games... FreeCiv, twenty solitaire variants, etc. I actually gave her her own user account on my system, and she spent a lot of time configuring it to her taste. She's actually dual-booting RedHat 8.0 and Windows XP on her new system now (Windows primarily) -- I haven't seen her on Linux recently, but she doesn't have a whole lot of free time. Not that Windows is bad -- she's been playing "spider solitaire" on XP, and I think it has its own market niche -- it's the idea that Linux can appeal to people who aren't afraid of it.
It's great that your boys are using Linux without getting hung up on the fact that it "isn't Windows". Ah, the innocence of childhood... before people learn to fear newness and change.
From the Flash-applet-from-Hell dept... heh.
No rational manufacturer would ever ignore such obvious demand. So where are they?
Ebay. Seriously. Search for "Northgate Omnikey" -- among the best keyboards on the planet. Tactile feedback, reprogrammable, weighs ten pounds, the whole nine yards. Only reason I don't use mine is that I type papers late at night and don't want to wake anybody up. (grin)
Ironic addendum: at my school, last year's AP Calculus class scored *lowest* on the *calculator use* part of the exam, not the conceptual stuff. Myself, (taking AP Calc this year) I find myself just automatically resorting to pencil and paper because I don't need the calculator anymore. Feels liberating!
(And a rousing "Amen!" to the "Technology isn't a magic bullet" theme that's been running through this thread; we were preaching it years ago, but nobody listened.)
The Saxon method, much as I hate it, works *well* for learning the process of math. Whether you get the concepts behind it is up to you. The flash cards are a good idea, too, since Saxon *doesn't* stress the memorization aspects of simple arithmetic enough (6*7 is 42, 6*8 is 48...) I hated it at the time, but it has stood me in good stead later on.
:)
I wouldn't worry overmuch about your daughter's learning abilities, however. Just keeping involved is the best thing you can do.
(For the record, I'm currently working on the Saxon method's Calculus book, which I find rather enjoyable. "One dee two plus two dee one", and so on. I like Calc, for some reason.)
And then there's my mom, who washes her plastic silverware after each picnic...
Whatever works, I guess! (I agree with you, by the by, it's just always seemed somewhat... ironic.)
"Word", short for "word processor", is a generic term referring to software more powerful than a text editor but less powerful than professional page-layout software.
Huh? Since when is this?
"Word processor" is a generic term. *A* "word" is a component of language. But "Word" is the Microsoft word-processing product.
Umm, with regard to number 2...? Have you installed Windows lately???
As in, if I *ever* reinstall that PoS *one* *more* *time* (any incarnation!) I swear I am going to go postal. I call it the Driver Disk Shuffle:
Pop in the Windows CD-ROM, boot to it. Pop in a previous version to prove I'm legal. Once it's done its magic, pop it out and boot up. Then dig around in closets for an hour finding drivers for the sound, network, video, mouse, keyboard, etc. ad nauseum. Linux has, in my experience, better native-on-the-disk hardware support than Windows, and I have less trouble with its installation. Problem of course being that if the drivers *aren't* on the disk, they probably don't exist or won't work without blood sacrifices. (*cough*ALSA*cough*) That's another post, though.
If you want totally no-intervention installation (as in no installation at all) may I suggest Knoppix?
EVEN FELLOWSHIP OF THE RINGS!!!
Grrr... sorry. That *almost* ruined the movie for me -- this grand, epic film and then... "whee, let's watch Legolas's arrow hit an orc between the eyes." Hrmpf.
It's still a marvellous film, that just *really* annoyed me.
Is this the same thing as all those XP menus that basically say, "I want to..." and then have a list of tasks (ie. "Check e-mail", "Chat with a friend", "Feed the dog", "Install Linux", etc.)?
Linux would certainly benefit from including this kind of thing, I think. Even in the installer: "I want to... 1) run Windows *and* Linux, 2) run only Linux", etc. and then autopartition or whatever. It's very intuitive for experts and new users alike -- the latest PartitionMagic 8.0 is a good example, though it almost has too many options.
So, yeah, it would make Linux more like Windows, but in a positive way. In a way, it goes all the way back to MS-DOS menus way back in the Elder Days. (grin)
(Aside, off-topic: Has anybody else noticed that grip's interface is *sinfully* ugly and barely usable?)
A Video User Interface. Dear God -- just what the world needs. This is a good idea *how*???
*Maybe* it's a nice thing to show off to your friends, but how practical will it be? Honestly? And how much hardware will I need to upgrade to make it work?
Frankly, I don't care how "like" or "unlike" Windows Linux is, since you can of course configure it however you want. It's a moot point. There are enough alternative window managers for Linux that if Mr. Dvorak wants something different he can get it. And there are a lot of ways in which my Linux box has taken the Windows paradigm and gone one step better -- for example, MP3 and OGG previewing in Nautilus.
Myself, though, I have yet to seen something better than the desktop-WIMP paradigm. There are some *refinements* that could still be made, but no alternative-WM killer app.
Huh. Didn't know that. Wish they would include a prominent link to that Multimedia page on their initial "do you want to register?" web page.
Their "revamped" RPM manager makes me grouchy too, since it can only see those packages that the installation program installed, and not anything I add later. Grr... At least there's always the command-line.
I dunno... a *lot* of people I know are still using spyware-infested KaZaa because they haven't heard about KaZaa Lite. Marketing, marketing, marketing!
*cough*RedHat8.0*cough*
:)
Ehrm, sorry about that. Got a nasty cold right now. (/me wipes germ-filled spittle off my face.)
YMMV, but I think that RedHat 8.0 is really surprisingly usable, though it does take a little bit of tweaking. Unifying the desktops was a brilliant move, Bluecurve is servicable (certainly better than Luna!), and they're working at eliminating the complexity of install and configuration. Now if they would fix that @#$*!!! menu structure (!!Extras!!), reduce the number of separate configuration applets I need to wade through to do darn near *anything*, and reinclude MP3 support. (Licensing schmicensing.)
For that matter, it would be nice if they'd include xine or mplayer (preferably with QT and WMA support), RealPlayer, and Flash for those who gotta get their Flash game fix. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know -- it ain't OSS. While we're wishing, maybe RedHat could fund open-source alternatives?
Still, it's the largest step in the right direction I've seen a distro take. It isn't there yet, but it's closer. Don't knock it.
I believe Stephenson is putting the finishing touches on Quicksilver, a sort-of prequel to Cryptonomicon.
William Gibson has a new novel Pattern Recognition coming out Real Soon Now.
Okay, I'm looking forward to the new 64-bitters from AMD -- I'm a big fan of the Alpha. (a little sob now at its passing)
Can AMD's desktop-targeted 64-bit chips run, say, a standard x86 RedHat 8.0? Or do they need specially-compiled OSes like the Alpha did? I would presume they'll need a special motherboard.
I'd love to replace my current 32-bit machine with a new 64-bit AMD one to complement my Alpha...
Ehrm... you didn't read the article, did you?
In it, he specifically condemns people (both pro and con accessibility) who think that "making your site available to the disabled" == "making your site ugly and text-only".
This, of course, leads me to my perennial complaint about the Web Accessibility Initiative and accessibility advocates generally: They've got no style. They have no understanding of graphic design and typography, and they project this ignorance onto the rest of the world.
To use one of my maxims, accessibility opponents think accessibility means a text-only Web site and hate the idea, while accessibility advocates also think it means a text-only site and love the idea. They're both wrong.
Jeez, people.
Would it work (hypothetically, IANAL, & other misc. caveats) to distribute the OSS stuff on the CD with a convenient graphical tool to install the proprietary stuff... y'know, "hit this button to install WMA codec", which then goes and downloads the CVS version, the codecs, does whatever manipulations it takes to put it in usable form, and installs it? In essence it automates what you would already do?
AMEN!!!
:) are wonderfully subversive. Haven't heard about the last one, so I'll have to read that! Thank you!
As a (sort-of quasi-)librarian, (since I don't have the degree) I'm still trying to help kids do stuff besides 'Net and Parent-Approved-Fluff (eg. Babysitters' Club) books.
A girl comes in with her mother, who is obviously not library-literate. Her daughter wants to check out one of the books we have as prizes for the Summer Reading program, a junior historical fiction novel of some depth. We already had a copy in the library, which was checked out.
Me: "I can reserve it for you if you'd like." Mom: Blank stare... "Oh, I'll just get some Babysitters' Club books for her."
Me: GRRRR...
I reserved it for her anyway... never did find out if she'd picked it up.
Our school librarian especially doesn't stand for censorship at all -- Huck Finn, Harry Potter, the works. (We do have filters on the school computers, but that's a whole 'nother story.) Public library where I work does have some censorship (mostly nosy librarians) and less subversive literature, sadly. I agree that the first two books (plus maybe 1984, and in my ultra-mega-Christian-conservative-wacko area, Harry Potter
Umm... you haven't read the rest of the comments, have you?
ie., you just met one. Me.
Ooh, so close!
:-)
He had landed in America - an island in the Caribbean to be precise - and believed himself to be in India. His second great mistake, the fact that America was, in fact, America, and not India, was first realised after his death when Magellan circumnavigated the globe.
Actually, according to
Lies My Teacher Told Me , Columbus recognized America as a separate continent before he died -- on his third voyage, I think.
Slightly off-topic, but the book is a fascinating read -- everything American history textbooks got wrong. It was recommended to me, ironically, by my American history teacher! The author's bias is somewhat left-of-center, but he's honest about that and is careful to point out that a textbook could be written from a conservative viewpoint and still retain a frankness about history. It's infinitely more engaging than anything else I've read about history.
All right... done with the book review.
Hmmm... Maybe I'll use lynx for all my browsing from now on! Would certainly save on the download times, and since I can use it without stealing *and* without seeing popup ads, all the better!
It's not my fault they insist on using popups (Yay Mozilla!) instead of Google-esque textads that I may actually click on once in a while. If I'm blocking popups, do you think I'm gonna buy stuff through them? When I'm using IE and they come up I just close them as soon as I see them -- am I stealing then, too?
Note to Visa: I'm *never* going to buy a CapitalOne card *specifically* because you advertise it with popup ads. Take that!
Heh. Yeah... sorry about the incoherence.