Actually, I straddle the line between Republican and Libertarian. As most Libertarians are also very Conservative, I simply say I'm a COnservative and leave it at that.
Re:Other Columns in WorldTechTribune
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Sun To Sell Linux PCs
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I should preface this.. I am a conservative. I've voted for George W. Bush 3 times now (2 times for Texas Governor, and once for President.) As a Conservative, the idea that conservative = Microsoft really pisses me off, for a number of reasons. For one: I am a free market capitalist.
Arguably, a PC running Windows is a platform that runs applications.
Unfortunately, Microsoft, due to undocumented API's, are able to do things with their software that ordinary windows developers like myself cannot. For example, if I were to write a spreadsheet application, chances are it would not perform as well as Excel in simple matters such as SCROLLING the window. (In fact, this is the case, try it yourself). So, that is an uneven playing field, in fact it's uneven whenever your application has to compete with a similar application from Microsoft (as I'm sure the Netscape guys would agree).
Linux, on the other hand, being Open Source and Free means that the "PC running Linux" platform for running applications means that no company can leverage the core OS to it's own advantage for very long. The competition among competing applications becomes "Who can write the best app" not "Can we keep up with Microsoft's undocumented API's". That is competition at it's finest, and the end result is better, faster, cheaper applications for consumers. The result of competing with Microsoft in a similar application space is usually sell out or die (Netscape is irrelevant now, Real is likely next, WordStar, Lotus, etc have all been crushed by MS Applications.)
So, as a conservative, and as an application developer, I would like nothing better then to see MS get it's ass handed to it by Linux. And yes, an acceptable alternative would be to open up the Windows codebase, but we all know it will be a cold day in hell before that happens.
The goal is for a truly level playing field in the software application market, on home and office desktops and servers. Linux is the way to have that level playing field.
If getting Linux as the dominant platform on PC hardware takes Sun's help to do it by handing out free PC's running Linux to schools, that's fine with me. I seem to remember reading something about Red Hat doing the exact same thing, and I think it's a good idea.
But still, the goal remains an Open Source Operating System running on an Open Hardware specification as the market leader. It is a very good thing. Let the browser wars be fought by who writes the better browser, Mozilla or Opera (Or IE running on Linux). Let the desktop wars be fought by KDE and GNOME and anyone else. But nobody can leverage Linux to an uncompetitive advantage the way Microsoft can.
With that stated, it's easy for Conservatives to see that to truly free the market and allow innovation and competition to flourish, that unfortunately, Microsoft, the convicted monopolist, as it exists today, must cease to be.
Re:Reasons for the CD...
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UT2003 LiveCD
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· Score: 2
I agree. Of course, I said essentially the same thing here:
Think about it - if your PC has to connect to a server to ask for permission to run a file you have purchased the rights for, what happens if the server goes down, gets hacked, whatever? Does *anyone* really trust Microsoft to get this right?
I don't know about that - my parents had a Buick Electra that had the transmission crap out on them after 70,000 miles. But, my best friend has a Buick Regal and loves it... of course, he's only got 12,000 miles on it.
I bought a Pontiac because I *really* wanted a Firebird, and when it's in working order, the Firebird is incredibly fun to drive, and I really like the body style of it. I think it's a sharp car..
But, next time I want a sports car, I'm going to get either a Ford Mustang or maybe a Mercury Cougar, or a Dodge Viper.
As far as a Cadillac, I'm 26 - too young to be driving a Caddy... maybe in 30 years I'll look at a Caddy..
This is great, as I've got a lot of hope for Fuel Cell cars as a technology, but I'll never buy another GM car again. I've had nothing but problems with them.
I have a 1999 Pontiac Firebird. Just after 30,000 miles the Alternator went out - not a big deal, I replaced it myself. Now, it's in the shop - after 52,000 miles the transmission blew. Something about a "Reaction Sunshell" that split wide open. There's $1500+ I didn't want to spend.
Maybe GM should worry about rolling cars that aren't lemons off the assembly line before trying to develop fuel cell cars. Fuel Cell doesn't do you any good if you can't get the damn thing to shift into gear...
I think that one of the reasons the Star Trek franchise has been successful is the character development. Characters in the Star Trek series have tended to have much better depth then characters on many other shows. Fans of the Trek series learn character's backgrounds, and gain insight as to WHY a character would react a certain way. The series also does not ignore culture, but makes it a part of that character (Spock and Worf, for example).
Many of my favorite Star Trek episodes are the ones that take place almost entirely on the bridge - almost Shakesperean in the lack of different sets. The story is character driven, not event driven. The story becomes more about how the characters react to the situation, and how they interact with one another, and less about "Hey the Romulans just shot as us".
An earlier poster is right, plot is defined as a struggle - whether it's man vs. man, man vs. nature, or man vs. himself. While unfortunately the Next Generation did use a lot of technobabble to save the day during the plot's climax, it's mostly forgivable - For the sake of the storyline we're supposed to accept the fact that Geordi LaForge and Data are *extremely smart*... Same goes for Spock on the Original Series. Other stories where the climax was resolved a different way, like through a violent confrontation it was usually Riker and Worf (or Kirk) who kicked ass and took names. When it was a tactical battle, it was Picard (or Kirk) who used his superior strategy to save the day. When it was a medical crisis, you could count on Pulaski or Crusher to handle it. (Or Bones..) There are a finite number of ways to resolve a conflict, and Star Trek seems to use all of them - even running away and asking Q to get them the hell away from the Borg.
Other television shows, in my humble opinion, would be wise to take some cues from Star Trek and become more character driven and less event driven.
"Squishy" DRM or any other kind of DRM just isn't going to work. For one, it's too easy to just record the audio output to another medium without DRM. How many of your stereo's have tape decks? How many of you have ever recorded the output of a soundcard straight to a wav file? Or recorded it on another sound card on your second PC?
Besides, this messes with the consumer when 6 months after they download this DRMP3 file, they find that they have to reinstall Windows. *poof* there goes your music.
Give the RIAA / MPAA enough rope, and they're bound to hang themselves with it. I don't think they *really* understand where they're being hurt by piracy. It isn't by teenagers trading mp3's on-line (who weren't going to buy it anyways), it's the major pirates that press bootleg CD's and sell them at Flea Markets that does damage to their business.
Same goes for software. One kid burning a CD for a friend is NOTHING compared to the major illegal pirates. These clowns are trying to blow out a birthday candle when they've got a forest fire in their backyard.
Ah - screw them (the RIAA / MPAA). Their pure, unadulterated idiocy will be their downfall.
Ripping off a Dick Morris quote, but the reason CD sales have fallen is the lack of innovation in the music. Can a casual listener really tell the difference between the Backdoor Boys and N'STYNC? Or between Britney Spears and the clones of her? The difference between Drowning Pool and Disturbed? The real problem is that there's no true variety in new music these days. Current rock bands sound like other rock bands, current pop bands sound like all the other pop bands, the music is just cookie-cutter, corporate crap.
As proof of this, let's look at the top 20 selling albums of all time as an example:
1. Eagles: Greatest Hits
2. Michael Jackson: Thriller
3. Pink Floyd: The Wall
4. Led Zeppelin IV
5. Billy Joel: Greatest Hits
6. AC/DC: Back in Black
7.Shania Twain: Come on Over
8.Beatles: White Album
9.Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
10.The Bodyguard Motion Picture Soundtrack
11.Boston: Boston
12.Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill
13.Garth Brooks: No Fences
14.Hootie and the Blowfish: Cracked Rear View
15.Eagles: Hotel California
16.Beatles: Beatles
17.Bruce Springsteen: Born in the USA
18.Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon
19.Guns N Roses: Appetite For Destruction
20.Elton John: Greatest Hits
The list is a little rock-heavy, but look at the difference bewteen the bands. There's a huge variety of musical styles here. In other words, the exact opposite of what's being sold now. Listening to the same carbon copy crap is boring, and the opposite of entertaining. Until the RIAA and the record companies start releasing albums from artists who are willing to experiment musically, then sales will not increase.
Personally, the last CD's I purchased were Ozzy Osbourne: Live at Budokan (and the remaster / reissues he's released this year), and Black Sabbath's Past Lives. I doubt I buy any more CD's this year.
Something to think about - at 24 bit color depth, which is 16,777,216 colors for the math challenged, we've already vastly surpassed the amount of colors that the human eye can distinguish between.
So at what PPI do we surpass the ability of the human eye to distinguish the individual pixels? I run my desktop at 1600 x 1200 and it's *very* tough to see the individual pixels. At what point does it become impossible?
Incredibly good functionality really isn't enough to make the average user go out of their way to get it.
I don't know about that. I recently built a new PC for myself, and I ran IE exactly once - long enough to go to opera.com and download Opera.
To date, I've convinced my parents, my in-laws, and my brother to dump IE for either Opera or Mozilla.
I've also converted the entire office staff at my church to running Mozilla.
The point? YOU CAN DO THIS, TOO! Tell anyone who will listen the virtues of Opera and/or Mozilla. When they gripe about the hundreds of pop-up ads, then tell them Opera and Mozilla can squelch them.
Even better, is when they get comfortable running Opera / Mozilla, they'll be more willing to try OpenOffice instead of M$ Office, and then you're 75% of the way there (if not more) to getting them to dump Windows altogether.
I think you have a very valid point. People are generally inclined toward laziness, they'll gravitate toward the path of least resistance for their entertainment. When listening to music becomes too much of a hassle due to Digital Rights Denial, people will quit buying CD's, and instead will just listen to the radio, buy cassette tapes, go see a live performance or better yet they'll learn to play an instrument.
Same goes for movies - when watching a DVD becomes to cumbersome people will instead read a book or see live theater, whatever is easiest for that person to do.
As far as books go, though, I'd also recommend anything by J.R.R. Tolkein, anything by C.S. Lewis, or just about anything from Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy.
If non fiction's your bag, then I'd recommend Slander by Ann Coulter, Let Freedom Ring by Sean Hannity, Bias by Bernard Goldberg, or anything by Scott Adams.
Is the cost even worth it?
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XBox Linux HOWTOs
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· Score: 3, Interesting
While I absolutely love the irony of running Linux on a MS box, I have to wonder if the hardware cost of the XBOX even worth getting one to run Linux?
In a recent Fry's ad, I saw an ad for a AMD Duron 1Ghz processor and motherboard for $79, and the motherboard had on board sound / video. Add some RAM, a hard drive, etc, and you can build a more powerful machine for probably around $300, and you don't have to solder in anything or void your warranty.
Anyone have a really compelling reason to run Linux on an XBOX? I'm sure there's at least one... maybe small machine footprint? XBOX is huge for a console compared to PS2 / Gamecube, but it's still small compared to even a midtower PC.
And yes, I'll accept "Because it's fun" as an answer:)
Did any of you ever play the Sierra game "Torin's Passage?" It was designed by Al Lowe..
Anyways, there is a scene in the game where Torin must cross a slippery, grassy area. And the grass talks to you while you move your cursor to select where Torin should jump. When it's in the wrong spot, shrill, high-pitched, annoyingly LOUD voices shriek at you saying:
"Nope! Not Here! No Way! Nope! Unh-uh"
If I had to hear that while trying to assemble a computer desk or an entertainment center or something, I'd probably use the tools included to stab out my ear drums.
WineX is a very well done piece of technology, but I have to agree with an earlier post that said that if WineX really takes off, that there won't be any reason to port / develop games for Linux. For the short term, it's great. For long term, it's not enough. Companies want to sell as many copies of their games as possible, and the best way to do that is to target the vast majority of users, who unfortunately at this point are running a flavor of Windows.
The way I see it, one or both of the following scenarios needs to happen before we see a lot of Linux games - and we'll see more Linux games as the installed base gets larger.
Scenario 1: AOL/Linux. Seriously. As soon as the millions of AOL sheep get a new version of AOL that uses Linux, many of them will switch. There's countless numbers of people who buy the latest "whiz-bang" PC and all they use it for is Web / Email, and maybe an occasional game. The Operating System to them is irrelevant, they just want to email their friends and family. Many of them already think that they're just running AOL, and that AOL = internet. The game market for this crowd isn't as large as it could be, but it still changes the "numbers" of the installed base.
Scenario 2: The next killer game is Linux only. What would happen if say... Doom 3, or something similar, was Linux only? And what would happen if in the box with the game, was a Linux distribution? Given that I have an installation of Windows 98SE to play games on at home, how many people would be willing to install Linux in order to play Doom 3? I'd suggest there would be a lot. Or, what about a Linux Distro that just booted from CD, effectively treating your PC like a high powered console when you want to play a game?
Once one or both of these happens, then the installed user base gets larger and companies are going to be willing to eat the up front development costs to produce a game. And there will be a cost, as not every Windows developer has ever run g++ to build something, but in the long run it becomes much cheaper to develop on Linux then it does paying the MS tax over and over again. Even if Linux can get 40% of home users, then companies will be willing to develop native games. And then, WineX will be around to support old games, while the new stuff will run natively.
If a company is going to totally restrict what you do during work hours then they shouldn't expect any favours back - especially when a better job comes along as you'll be the first out of the door.
Quite honestly, you should do that anyways. Company loyalty is a complete farce. Most companies treat people as "human resources" anyways, and in most companies your employment is "at will".
Quit giving your lives and your hearts and your souls to a company like that. You'll be much happier if you think of yourselves as mercenaries - do honest work for honest pay. If you think a management decision is stupid, as long as it's legal / ethical, then kick back and remember that they're paying you to work, they're not paying you to care. Example: Say some pointy haried boss wants you to implement a horrible User Interface. You know it's a bad idea, that it'll be clunky. GO AHEAD AND GIVE THE PHB WHAT HE/SHE WANTS! Let them deal with any consequences. If a company starts reading your private email, then quit. Find something else.
And this isn't a bad attitude. When you're at work, you should perform your duties to the best of your ability. However, when you're not at work, forget about work. And if someone offers you a better job, then TAKE IT. Start putting yourselves and your families over your jobs. Ultimately, your own self and your family is far more important then a company that's here today, gone tomorrow.
Look what company loyalty got employees at Enron and WorldCom.
is beyond me, and it's also beyond the creators of C#.. C# will actually catch this mistake at compile time.
I can't think of any reason to do this. Any reason that anyone else can come up with can be argued that there's a clearer, cleaner way to accomplish the same task. But my point remains, it's quicker for me to find that bug if I'm not wading through line after line of useless comments. If the code is written is a good style, preferably using Hungarian notation, then I don't need over-commenting.
Actually, I'd have to agree. There is such a thing as comment overkill. If you can't understand the language to a certain degree, then you need to study it harder. Comments are mainly useful to me when I'm looking at source and trying to determine the algorithm behind a function. I understand the language enough to where I really don't need every line commented. For example, I really don't need to see stuff like this:
// increment the counter
i++;
Also, it's my personal preference, but I don't want to have to wade through line after line of comments to find that the person who checked in the source file wrote:
if (n = 0)
instead of
if (n == 0)
Overcommenting like this just slows me down, and as a professional developer, I HAVE DEADLINES.
This is stupid. All this move does is kill new development. How many free mp3 players have already been released? There's no taking them back now... considering WinAmp, RealPlayer, X11Amp, Noatune, etc, are already out there, there's no stopping them.
If they wanted to make money off of mp3 then they should have been charging decoder licenses from the start... it's too late to get cat back into the bag.
I might need to start wearing a tinfoil hat after suggesting this, but part of me wonders if maybe they were paid money by a certain Redmond Giant to do this, in order to kill off mp3 in favor of WMA. Hey, is that a black army cia helicopter on whisper mode?;)
Either way, it looks like it's time to see if there's a good mp3 --> Ogg converter out there.
Anyone know of any?
This couldn't possibly be Constitutional, could it? It seems to me that by invading the privacy of those who "may" break the law, they are violating Equal Protection under the Law. It's also unethical. Just because a person comes from a high risk crime group, doesn't mean that the person in question is going to commit a crime. What, are they going to put every single male inner city kid in this database, along with probably 80% of the kids in the suburbs?
That, and isn't this collection of data an unlawful search? Especially when the person in question has no criminal record?
Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for keeping tabs on people who have previously broken the law, as unfortunately many felons are repeat offenders. However, there's no way you can convince me that keeping a database of people who "may be inclined" to commit a crime is a fair idea.
Besides, let's be honest, we've all though about committing a crime. Who hasn't wanted to beat the snot out of that jerk that just cut you off in traffic?
Using the logic of this, then the next step is that everyone with a driver's license should be tagged in a database as a possible assault perpetrator.
Illustrating absurdity by being absurd:
Most serial killers are middle class white men in their 20's who have trouble with relationships with women. DEAR GOD! SLASHDOT IS FULL OF POSSIBLE SERIAL KILLERS!
True, but look at the vast difference in performance for the high end cards. The Radeon 9700 is *supposedly* 40% faster then the Geforce4.. now, compare either card to the top of the line cards of a few years ago, like when the Voodoo3 3500 card came out. Even my Voodoo5, which was a very fast card at one point, is simply no match for either the latest Radeon / Geforce cards.
So in a way, you're cost has gone down, because you're getting more value for your money.
If ATI and NVIDIA can start leapfrogging each other then way AMD and Intel have, then the end result is simply going to be faster, more powerful, and less expensive video cards for us.
If RenderMonkey is better the Cg, then great! Cg can then try to leapfrog RenderMonkey, and then the API for both just gets faster, more reliable, and easier for developers to use.
[rant]
I'm going to be building myself a new PC shortly, and I'm going to put an ATI Radeon 9700 in it.
Personally, I've been pretty upset with NVIDIA ever since they bought out 3dfx and told Voodoo owners to go screw themselves, that they weren't releasing any new drivers or supporting any Voodoo products. I bought a Voodoo5, instead of a Geforce2 - due to the stability of the Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 I had owned, and due to reading the complaints about NVIDIA's drivers... and a week later 3dfx went under. D'OH!
This is a good opportunity to show just how enforcable the GPL is. If Sigma is using GPL'd code, and not giving proper credit and opening the source, then civil action should be taken.
This sucks.. I've had people claim my code as their own and it just deflates your morale. Looks like it deflated XVID to the point where they pulled a Cartman*.
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Actually, I straddle the line between Republican and Libertarian. As most Libertarians are also very Conservative, I simply say I'm a COnservative and leave it at that.
Arguably, a PC running Windows is a platform that runs applications.
Unfortunately, Microsoft, due to undocumented API's, are able to do things with their software that ordinary windows developers like myself cannot. For example, if I were to write a spreadsheet application, chances are it would not perform as well as Excel in simple matters such as SCROLLING the window. (In fact, this is the case, try it yourself). So, that is an uneven playing field, in fact it's uneven whenever your application has to compete with a similar application from Microsoft (as I'm sure the Netscape guys would agree).
Linux, on the other hand, being Open Source and Free means that the "PC running Linux" platform for running applications means that no company can leverage the core OS to it's own advantage for very long. The competition among competing applications becomes "Who can write the best app" not "Can we keep up with Microsoft's undocumented API's". That is competition at it's finest, and the end result is better, faster, cheaper applications for consumers. The result of competing with Microsoft in a similar application space is usually sell out or die (Netscape is irrelevant now, Real is likely next, WordStar, Lotus, etc have all been crushed by MS Applications.)
So, as a conservative, and as an application developer, I would like nothing better then to see MS get it's ass handed to it by Linux. And yes, an acceptable alternative would be to open up the Windows codebase, but we all know it will be a cold day in hell before that happens.
The goal is for a truly level playing field in the software application market, on home and office desktops and servers. Linux is the way to have that level playing field. If getting Linux as the dominant platform on PC hardware takes Sun's help to do it by handing out free PC's running Linux to schools, that's fine with me. I seem to remember reading something about Red Hat doing the exact same thing, and I think it's a good idea.
But still, the goal remains an Open Source Operating System running on an Open Hardware specification as the market leader. It is a very good thing. Let the browser wars be fought by who writes the better browser, Mozilla or Opera (Or IE running on Linux). Let the desktop wars be fought by KDE and GNOME and anyone else. But nobody can leverage Linux to an uncompetitive advantage the way Microsoft can.
With that stated, it's easy for Conservatives to see that to truly free the market and allow innovation and competition to flourish, that unfortunately, Microsoft, the convicted monopolist, as it exists today, must cease to be.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=38977&c id=4169301
Think about it - if your PC has to connect to a server to ask for permission to run a file you have purchased the rights for, what happens if the server goes down, gets hacked, whatever? Does *anyone* really trust Microsoft to get this right?
I bought a Pontiac because I *really* wanted a Firebird, and when it's in working order, the Firebird is incredibly fun to drive, and I really like the body style of it. I think it's a sharp car..
But, next time I want a sports car, I'm going to get either a Ford Mustang or maybe a Mercury Cougar, or a Dodge Viper.
As far as a Cadillac, I'm 26 - too young to be driving a Caddy... maybe in 30 years I'll look at a Caddy..
I have a 1999 Pontiac Firebird. Just after 30,000 miles the Alternator went out - not a big deal, I replaced it myself. Now, it's in the shop - after 52,000 miles the transmission blew. Something about a "Reaction Sunshell" that split wide open. There's $1500+ I didn't want to spend.
Maybe GM should worry about rolling cars that aren't lemons off the assembly line before trying to develop fuel cell cars. Fuel Cell doesn't do you any good if you can't get the damn thing to shift into gear...
Many of my favorite Star Trek episodes are the ones that take place almost entirely on the bridge - almost Shakesperean in the lack of different sets. The story is character driven, not event driven. The story becomes more about how the characters react to the situation, and how they interact with one another, and less about "Hey the Romulans just shot as us".
An earlier poster is right, plot is defined as a struggle - whether it's man vs. man, man vs. nature, or man vs. himself. While unfortunately the Next Generation did use a lot of technobabble to save the day during the plot's climax, it's mostly forgivable - For the sake of the storyline we're supposed to accept the fact that Geordi LaForge and Data are *extremely smart*... Same goes for Spock on the Original Series. Other stories where the climax was resolved a different way, like through a violent confrontation it was usually Riker and Worf (or Kirk) who kicked ass and took names. When it was a tactical battle, it was Picard (or Kirk) who used his superior strategy to save the day. When it was a medical crisis, you could count on Pulaski or Crusher to handle it. (Or Bones..) There are a finite number of ways to resolve a conflict, and Star Trek seems to use all of them - even running away and asking Q to get them the hell away from the Borg.
Other television shows, in my humble opinion, would be wise to take some cues from Star Trek and become more character driven and less event driven.
Besides, this messes with the consumer when 6 months after they download this DRMP3 file, they find that they have to reinstall Windows. *poof* there goes your music.
Give the RIAA / MPAA enough rope, and they're bound to hang themselves with it. I don't think they *really* understand where they're being hurt by piracy. It isn't by teenagers trading mp3's on-line (who weren't going to buy it anyways), it's the major pirates that press bootleg CD's and sell them at Flea Markets that does damage to their business.
Same goes for software. One kid burning a CD for a friend is NOTHING compared to the major illegal pirates. These clowns are trying to blow out a birthday candle when they've got a forest fire in their backyard.
Ah - screw them (the RIAA / MPAA). Their pure, unadulterated idiocy will be their downfall.
As proof of this, let's look at the top 20 selling albums of all time as an example:
1. Eagles: Greatest Hits
2. Michael Jackson: Thriller
3. Pink Floyd: The Wall
4. Led Zeppelin IV
5. Billy Joel: Greatest Hits
6. AC/DC: Back in Black
7.Shania Twain: Come on Over
8.Beatles: White Album
9.Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
10.The Bodyguard Motion Picture Soundtrack
11.Boston: Boston
12.Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill
13.Garth Brooks: No Fences
14.Hootie and the Blowfish: Cracked Rear View
15.Eagles: Hotel California
16.Beatles: Beatles
17.Bruce Springsteen: Born in the USA
18.Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon
19.Guns N Roses: Appetite For Destruction
20.Elton John: Greatest Hits
The list is a little rock-heavy, but look at the difference bewteen the bands. There's a huge variety of musical styles here. In other words, the exact opposite of what's being sold now. Listening to the same carbon copy crap is boring, and the opposite of entertaining. Until the RIAA and the record companies start releasing albums from artists who are willing to experiment musically, then sales will not increase.
Personally, the last CD's I purchased were Ozzy Osbourne: Live at Budokan (and the remaster / reissues he's released this year), and Black Sabbath's Past Lives. I doubt I buy any more CD's this year.
So at what PPI do we surpass the ability of the human eye to distinguish the individual pixels? I run my desktop at 1600 x 1200 and it's *very* tough to see the individual pixels. At what point does it become impossible?
I don't know about that. I recently built a new PC for myself, and I ran IE exactly once - long enough to go to opera.com and download Opera.
To date, I've convinced my parents, my in-laws, and my brother to dump IE for either Opera or Mozilla.
I've also converted the entire office staff at my church to running Mozilla.
The point? YOU CAN DO THIS, TOO! Tell anyone who will listen the virtues of Opera and/or Mozilla. When they gripe about the hundreds of pop-up ads, then tell them Opera and Mozilla can squelch them.
Even better, is when they get comfortable running Opera / Mozilla, they'll be more willing to try OpenOffice instead of M$ Office, and then you're 75% of the way there (if not more) to getting them to dump Windows altogether.
Same goes for movies - when watching a DVD becomes to cumbersome people will instead read a book or see live theater, whatever is easiest for that person to do.
As far as books go, though, I'd also recommend anything by J.R.R. Tolkein, anything by C.S. Lewis, or just about anything from Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy.
If non fiction's your bag, then I'd recommend Slander by Ann Coulter, Let Freedom Ring by Sean Hannity, Bias by Bernard Goldberg, or anything by Scott Adams.
And put Triple H through a table.
In a recent Fry's ad, I saw an ad for a AMD Duron 1Ghz processor and motherboard for $79, and the motherboard had on board sound / video. Add some RAM, a hard drive, etc, and you can build a more powerful machine for probably around $300, and you don't have to solder in anything or void your warranty.
Anyone have a really compelling reason to run Linux on an XBOX? I'm sure there's at least one... maybe small machine footprint? XBOX is huge for a console compared to PS2 / Gamecube, but it's still small compared to even a midtower PC.
And yes, I'll accept "Because it's fun" as an answer :)
Anyways, there is a scene in the game where Torin must cross a slippery, grassy area. And the grass talks to you while you move your cursor to select where Torin should jump. When it's in the wrong spot, shrill, high-pitched, annoyingly LOUD voices shriek at you saying:
"Nope! Not Here! No Way! Nope! Unh-uh"
If I had to hear that while trying to assemble a computer desk or an entertainment center or something, I'd probably use the tools included to stab out my ear drums.
The way I see it, one or both of the following scenarios needs to happen before we see a lot of Linux games - and we'll see more Linux games as the installed base gets larger.
Scenario 1: AOL/Linux. Seriously. As soon as the millions of AOL sheep get a new version of AOL that uses Linux, many of them will switch. There's countless numbers of people who buy the latest "whiz-bang" PC and all they use it for is Web / Email, and maybe an occasional game. The Operating System to them is irrelevant, they just want to email their friends and family. Many of them already think that they're just running AOL, and that AOL = internet. The game market for this crowd isn't as large as it could be, but it still changes the "numbers" of the installed base.
Scenario 2: The next killer game is Linux only. What would happen if say... Doom 3, or something similar, was Linux only? And what would happen if in the box with the game, was a Linux distribution? Given that I have an installation of Windows 98SE to play games on at home, how many people would be willing to install Linux in order to play Doom 3? I'd suggest there would be a lot. Or, what about a Linux Distro that just booted from CD, effectively treating your PC like a high powered console when you want to play a game?
Once one or both of these happens, then the installed user base gets larger and companies are going to be willing to eat the up front development costs to produce a game. And there will be a cost, as not every Windows developer has ever run g++ to build something, but in the long run it becomes much cheaper to develop on Linux then it does paying the MS tax over and over again. Even if Linux can get 40% of home users, then companies will be willing to develop native games. And then, WineX will be around to support old games, while the new stuff will run natively.
Quite honestly, you should do that anyways. Company loyalty is a complete farce. Most companies treat people as "human resources" anyways, and in most companies your employment is "at will".
Quit giving your lives and your hearts and your souls to a company like that. You'll be much happier if you think of yourselves as mercenaries - do honest work for honest pay. If you think a management decision is stupid, as long as it's legal / ethical, then kick back and remember that they're paying you to work, they're not paying you to care. Example: Say some pointy haried boss wants you to implement a horrible User Interface. You know it's a bad idea, that it'll be clunky. GO AHEAD AND GIVE THE PHB WHAT HE/SHE WANTS! Let them deal with any consequences. If a company starts reading your private email, then quit. Find something else.
And this isn't a bad attitude. When you're at work, you should perform your duties to the best of your ability. However, when you're not at work, forget about work. And if someone offers you a better job, then TAKE IT. Start putting yourselves and your families over your jobs. Ultimately, your own self and your family is far more important then a company that's here today, gone tomorrow.
Look what company loyalty got employees at Enron and WorldCom.
if (i = 0)
is beyond me, and it's also beyond the creators of C#.. C# will actually catch this mistake at compile time.
I can't think of any reason to do this. Any reason that anyone else can come up with can be argued that there's a clearer, cleaner way to accomplish the same task. But my point remains, it's quicker for me to find that bug if I'm not wading through line after line of useless comments. If the code is written is a good style, preferably using Hungarian notation, then I don't need over-commenting.
i++;
Also, it's my personal preference, but I don't want to have to wade through line after line of comments to find that the person who checked in the source file wrote:
if (n = 0)
instead of
if (n == 0)
Overcommenting like this just slows me down, and as a professional developer, I HAVE DEADLINES.
So we could all send them 75,000,000 Lira. Niiiice....
If they wanted to make money off of mp3 then they should have been charging decoder licenses from the start... it's too late to get cat back into the bag.
I might need to start wearing a tinfoil hat after suggesting this, but part of me wonders if maybe they were paid money by a certain Redmond Giant to do this, in order to kill off mp3 in favor of WMA. Hey, is that a black army cia helicopter on whisper mode? ;)
Either way, it looks like it's time to see if there's a good mp3 --> Ogg converter out there. Anyone know of any?
That, and isn't this collection of data an unlawful search? Especially when the person in question has no criminal record?
Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for keeping tabs on people who have previously broken the law, as unfortunately many felons are repeat offenders. However, there's no way you can convince me that keeping a database of people who "may be inclined" to commit a crime is a fair idea.
Besides, let's be honest, we've all though about committing a crime. Who hasn't wanted to beat the snot out of that jerk that just cut you off in traffic?
Using the logic of this, then the next step is that everyone with a driver's license should be tagged in a database as a possible assault perpetrator.
Illustrating absurdity by being absurd:
Most serial killers are middle class white men in their 20's who have trouble with relationships with women. DEAR GOD! SLASHDOT IS FULL OF POSSIBLE SERIAL KILLERS!
So in a way, you're cost has gone down, because you're getting more value for your money.
If RenderMonkey is better the Cg, then great! Cg can then try to leapfrog RenderMonkey, and then the API for both just gets faster, more reliable, and easier for developers to use.
[rant]
I'm going to be building myself a new PC shortly, and I'm going to put an ATI Radeon 9700 in it.
Personally, I've been pretty upset with NVIDIA ever since they bought out 3dfx and told Voodoo owners to go screw themselves, that they weren't releasing any new drivers or supporting any Voodoo products. I bought a Voodoo5, instead of a Geforce2 - due to the stability of the Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 I had owned, and due to reading the complaints about NVIDIA's drivers... and a week later 3dfx went under. D'OH!
This sucks.. I've had people claim my code as their own and it just deflates your morale. Looks like it deflated XVID to the point where they pulled a Cartman*.
*"Screw you guys, I'm going home."