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User: Jay+Bratcher

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  1. Re:Something I've been wondering... on The Atlas of Middle Earth · · Score: 1

    The Hobbit is somewhat of a children's book, but don't dismiss it. It's fairly short, so it doesn't take long to read, and the background it provides really adds to The Lord of The Rings. As for The Silmarillion, it is a separate story from the first two books. The Silmarillion can also be rather dry compared to LOTR, so I would recommend reading it last...

  2. Re:IBM press releases are too early on Stretched Silicon Speeds Semiconductors · · Score: 1

    How about SOI (silicon on insulator) or Copper chips? These are both available right now....

  3. IT unions will not work because of freelancers on IT Unions? · · Score: 1

    How many of you work in a position where your job affects more than just the company you work for? I would guess quite a few of you are contractors of some type, or work on an account for your employer. I do. If I went on strike for a month, my customer would be gone when I got back. The same goes for a lot of large companies.

    You also have to remember that I can freelance in this business. The first time you guys go on strike, I'll be hotter than a dot-com in late 1999. Hmmm... now that I think about it, why don't you go form your union :-)

  4. Re:Intel uses (or used to use) Sun hardware? :) on Schwartz Case Upheld on Appeal · · Score: 1

    So does Dell - I heard they even cover the Sun logos at Dell so that customers and business partners touring the plant will not know they use Sun equipment. Of course, I also heard they are replacing the Sun boxes with new 16 - way NT / Win2K machines which are tagged Dell, but are actually manufactured by someone else (I forget who at the moment)...

  5. On konqueror on KDE 2.0.1 is out · · Score: 1

    I grabbed KDE2 a couple of weeks ago, and started building it on my PPro 200 system. True to everything I heard, it took a good 10 hours over 5 days to get it installed, but I have to say that I am impressed. It is not quite as snappy as Helix Gnome, but it is acceptable on my PPro.

    Something that doesn't seem to be mentioned much is the MUCH improved font support. KDE2 allows font selection not only by specific size, but by small / medium / large. This allows those of us with reasonably modern graphic cards to run web browsers. Konqueror handles fonts WAY better than Netscape (use www.altavista.com for a comparison). Of course, this would not be an issue if MS Truetype fonts were sized correctly (Hint: 6 point fonts are very difficult to read on an average monitor).

    That being said, it seems that th 2.0 release of konqueror is prone to crashing, though I notice it mainly on exit. It also has some minor issues with rendering, but overall is quite impressive.

  6. Speaking of DoS... on Linux Blamed for DDoS Attacks · · Score: 1

    I can't get to their site right now. That begs the question, what is the difference between a distributed Denial of Service and not having enough bandwidth to handle your traffic? Could Slashdot be held liable if a site was slashdotted, and "real customers" could not get to a site?

    Something to think about...

  7. What about the funny quotes from the article? on Zhirinovsky to "Send Viruses to the West" · · Score: 2

    I like this quote:

    "Russia is a heavy drinking nation which is struggling to catch up with economically-advanced countries on the use of new technologies, such as the Internet, but a lack of resources and poor infrastructure confines progress to big cities."

    So how is this different from here in the good ol' U.S. of A? Everyone knows Ted Kennedy can drink any Russian under the table, and I haven't seen many rural areas benefiting from (or even using) new technologies such as the Internet.

  8. Get real on Ask Slashdot: Is the United States Postal Service Obsolete? · · Score: 1

    The US postal service will not be replaced by e-mail. First, I still cannot e-mail signed documents (or packages). That may change eventually, but right now, electronic signatures can easily be forged (so can real signatures, but they can be detected. But I still cannot e-mail packages).

    Second, although UPS or Fed-Ex may (or may not) be more reliable / convenient / whatever than the post office, they still do not deliver packages to my house unless I am there to receive them.

    Finally, the post office is more convenient than UPS of Fed-Ex. I live about a mile from the post office, and about 30 miles from my Fed-Ex office. Given that I don't run a business out of my house (and therefore they will not pick up from my house), I just can't see going to Fed-Ex to ship every package I send out. USPS is much more convenient.

  9. Re:Are these things PPC based? on RS/6000 Linux Box · · Score: 1

    To answer your question, no, they are not PowerPC based. IBM and Motorola do not jointly develop the PowerPC any more, and the new RS/6000 workstations actually use IBM's Power3 architecture. This is good though, because the Power3 is faster, and 64 bit. If you really want RS/6000 though (at least for home use), I would recommend looking for auctions selling older PowerPC based RS/6000 machines. The performance is not as good as the new ones, but the price will be much more agreeable.

    As far as AIX goes, I think it is great. I could ramble on forever about it's virtues (especially the Logical Volume Manager). However, I would recommend trying it yourself. After all, it would only be my opinion :^).

    --
    I speak for myself, not my employer

  10. We don't need a client on Lotus Offers a Peek Into Linux plans · · Score: 1

    Think about it - Notes is primarily server software. The only thing the client does is display your information for you, and perform archives if you so desire. Everything else is a basic web browser function. I haven't seen it in Notes yet, but Exchange has an option to use a web browser as a client. It's ugly and slow (hey, it's Microsoft!), but it isn't any worse than a comparable Notes client for Unix. If Notes R5 can do this, it makes the whole idea of a groupware client obsolete, even for Windows users.

  11. Slackware = flexibility on SlackWare 4.0 is available · · Score: 1

    This is great - Although I am writing this from a RedHat install, I started on Slackware, and still like it because I can always pick a minimal number of packages, download them in one evening via my 28.8 modem, stick all of them on a zip disk, and have a very useable Linux system the next morning. If you ever need a quick and dirty Linux installation, Slackware is the way to go.

    . There is a slight lag in features, but nothing that can't be downloaded and easily adapted. Slackware embodies the spirit of Linux (fly by the seat of your pants and figure it out yourself - failing that, turn to your peers), and encourages learning, hacking, and "thinking outside the box." I owe much of my Unix knowledge to using Slackware, and for that I am thankful.

  12. The web got its start by fsking over gopher on Red Hat Backlash? · · Score: 1

    Personally, I don't think you talked to anyone. You read an interview with Patrick Volkerding, in which he stated that there was omce an agreement with SuSE that would prevent them from selling in the U.S.

  13. Not new, not proprietary on Yet Another New Image Format · · Score: 1

    Wavelets are hardly new - the idea has been around for at least 3 years. I don't recall where I first heard about them (Scientific American?) but AT&T had a large interest a couple of years ago. In fact, a quick search for "wavelet" on altavista turned up wavelet.org, which is sponsored by Lucent Technologies. Other pages turned up included papers written about wavelets, and wavelet related source code. As I write this, I am downloading a package called wavelet.0.3.tar.gz - it is essentially a wavelet construction kit (grayscale only). The file is dated 1/29/97. It's about 700k, and there is no copyright notice / license on the page I'm downloading it from, nor in the source code.

    So what we have is an old image format which hasn't caught on yet. I find it hard to believe that a community like the one here at Slashdot has never heard of this before, much less played with the freely available source code.

  14. um, still no. on IBM is going to support Linux · · Score: 1

    Go look at IBM's hardware page. Look at the 43P series of servers - these are the entry level systems (and the newer ones are REALLY nice). While this page makes them out as a workgroup server, they tend to be used as workstations. Even better, they start at under (US)$6000 (with AIX). From what I understand, PPC Linux slides very easily into these boxes.

    Of course, this is a basic box with no video, but they have PCI slots. I think we will see a lot of IBM / Linux workstations in the near future, especially if Lotus ports the Notes client. At any rate, I see myself buying a new IBM later this year.

  15. Cobol on Review:Year 2000 In A Nutshell · · Score: 1

    On the contrary, a natural instinct would be that in 50 years, your software would be obsolete (and it should be - for example, Unix today is not the same as Unix in 1971). Why bother with algorithms to calcualte dates from 16 bit data, when the language (COBOL) allows you to more easily manipulate digits? It's not the programmers fault - it' managements fault for not having the foresight to replace outdated software. If you use a modern computer with an operating system, you know that over time, functionality changes, and new / better ways are developed to handle situations. I remember a few years ago, change management (or risk management) was a very popular subject with managers. Basically, change management deals with the process of evolution in business. I think it's funny that nobody mentions change / risk management when discussing Y2k problems, because that exact management should have dealt with the problem years ago.

    By the way, 2038 is only a problem if your Unix is still 32-bit. I believe Linux (and other Unices as well) on 64 bit platforms has already solved that problem. If you are still using a 32 bit system in 39 years, you deserve what you get.

  16. Loaded question on MS Responds to Rebate Day · · Score: 1

    I had to vote "No" because I don't have a copy of Windows (at least not that I paid for). Had I actually paid for Windows at some time in my life, I might actually do this though. Now that I think about it, I have only paid for 2 Microsoft products in my life: VB5 and Flight Simulator for Macintosh. I got VB 5 for $99 (studnet discount) and it came with NT Workstation 4.0. Oddly enough, I still feel robbed. Maybe I should return it as a gesture...