I agree that there are plenty of options for saving content, but we're missing the point.
Or rather, site designers are.
The whole point of a website is to promulgate its content. Introducing caveats such as "You May Only Look At This Content When It Suits Us To Give It To You" where copyright or reproduction restrictions are (for practical purposes) irrelevant is an unnecessary addition of complexity to the online experience. Locking up the content so that it is only visible under prescribed conditions is really quite silly. They might just as well publish the content on paper or optical media at a price.
I believe most Flash is done wrong simply because the site designers value form over content.
Useful or pertinent information (if it is manifest at all) usually has the appearance of being inserted as an afterthought. That's why the sites I visit most often tend to be based primarily on simple markup such as HTML, which despite its various drawbacks is at least easy to maintain (and therefore more likely to be maintained), and does not have the noli-me-tangere character of a cast-bronze SWF presentation.
I apologise for coming across as a luddite, but it is distinctly tiresome to be subject to the whim of some mentally adolescent graphics designer poking glitzy, time-consuming displays in my eye rather than allowing the information I'm looking for to be easily found. Which is why I think Flashblock is the best thing since unsliced bread.
Another interesting thing is that these machines are being loaded with Enlightenment as a default "lightweight" environment. Time was (only 10 years ago) when Enlightenment was regarded as CPU and graphics-heavy and was only used as a window manager under Gnome (default option for RedHat 5.x and 6.x comes to mind). Just goes to show...
I'm sure linux has probably gotten a little better on some of those fronts, but even if so its still just playing catchup and not providing a reason to switch, and I know its not catching up on software.
*yawn*, another troll...
Instead of just guessing, how about you try it for a while and see just how far along Linux for the Desktop has come. You might be surprised.
Getting multiple graphics cards working is a piece of piss (I've been doing it for years). If you know enough to want/need 2 screens, you know enough to make a few simple entries in a config file. Getting sound working hasn't been a problem for at least 7 years. There's plenty of software available of equal or better quality than current offerings for Windows.
How often do most of you start over from scratch (re-synce the config back to default?) I imagine that make oldconfig after awhile results in a dirty kernel as I keep pulling configs with me from old kernels.
If you're vigourous enough in stomping on unused code, I suppose the answer would be almost never.
Until recently, I have been building from a config based on one that I synced when 2.6.0 first came out. But since I just built myself a new computer with radically different hardware, I started from scratch again a few days ago, using Slackware's 2.6.21.5-smp as a template.
Incidentally, I often find it convenient to use menuconfig, loading the config file from outside the kernel tree in order to play with options if required.
Has anyone found bluetooth to be reliable for them? Any success stories?
Not sure, but I have a strange situation with a Plantronics 910 bluetooth earbug that I use with its associated USB dongle for Skype. (Incidentally, it's apparently also capable of being used with mobile phones, but I haven't tried this.)
Anyway, I have a lot of drop-outs and white noise when used with my computer and USB2.0, but on my old computer at work, which only has USB1.1, reception and transmission are crystal clear. Go figure. Maybe it's just this machine, but I won't know until I've tried it with more candidates.
Incidentally, the slide rule at the site mentioned in the submission looks very much as if it was modelled on the Aristo Scholar slipstick I had when I was a boy.
Circular ones can sometimes be quite valuable. Even more so are the tubular ones. I once saw a tubular rule that was nearly 6 feet long. I've forgotten how many digits it would work to, but I guess it wouldn't have been quick.
How do people learn to use them so easily, anyway?
Like this. When I was at high school, the use of slide-rules wasn't actively discouraged, and electronic calculators were not permitted (and in any case were still prohibitively expensive). We were expected to be able to use books of tables. Not much fun, and that in itself was motivation to learn how to use a slide-rule.
It's still worth knowing. In my first year at Uni, the batteries in my HP48G+ died in the middle of an exam, but I was able to get by with my K&E Log-Log Decitrig slide-rule.
It should have been obvious to anybody with half a brain that Apple would wipe any code that doesn't suit them with the first firmware update. And they are, as you say, legitimately entitled to do so.
The real idiocy here is where so many people have been sucked in by the marketroids into paying big bucks for a bloody phone with all its caveats. I too have an antique iPod (just a Mini) which is a squeeze for storage space but still works far too well to justify replacing it, and probably will for years to come. Same goes for my current phone. And I get to choose my own mobile service provider, without having to resort to stupid hacks.
Jumping on the bandwagon of the New Big Thing is wasteful and doomed to eternal disappointment as soon as the Next Big Thing appears on the horizon.
In any case, I don't see what the OP is on about with Linus (plus his supposed "minions") "squaring off against Con Kolivas".
As far as I was aware, all Kolivas does is to cherry-pick among the patches Linus (OK, and his minions) produce to make a useful machine for the desktop.
If it happens to be true that Linus doesn't like that, perhaps he needs to take a break from working on the kernel.
Unisys are just another tech dinosaur that never made it out of the seventies.
FWIW, Unisys didn't exist in the seventies. I was there. I worked on both types of kit (in those days you either went with the herd and learned to use IBM, or you learned to be versatile).
IIRC it came about via the merging of Burroughs and Sperry/UNIVAC in about 1986 (in fact, to be specific, I think Burroughs swallowed Sperry).
[Quick disclaimer here: I am not new to Linux. I have tried a number of distros, and have used Slackware since it was SLS.]
I made several attempts a few weeks ago to install Feisty on an oldish but useful, well-supported box.
Try as I might, I could not get the thing to boot properly, despite having let the installer take default options for almost everything. However, on boot-up, it bitched and moaned about my bog-standard IDE hard drives, which presumably due to some idiocy perpretrated on initrd showed up as sdxx rather than hdxx.
Eventually, after bullying the thing through the boot process, I then set about building my kernel, using a.config i know to work well on that hardware. Again it spat the dummy. At this point, so did I.
I think I had an easier time of it with Linux From Scratch; at least my idiocies are my own. Needless to say, that machine is now happily running on Slackware again.
My point is that in this case, Ubuntu is entirely comparable to a number of versions of Windows that I have encountered, and I was disappointed because I had expected better. No-one expects Slackware to be intuitive for the novice, and I am comfortable with that. But a distribution ostensibly designed to be approachable to the novice should at least boot out of the box.
In my old truck you had to stop, get out, go over to the front wheels, and lock the hubs in order to get 4WD.
Is that old? I'm still driving a Suzuki Vitara (I think it might be a Sidekick in the US) built in 1990 that has this feature. It really doesn't take long - probably much less than 30 seconds.
The car might be getting on a bit, but it's always fun to see those great big lumbering, expensive Toymotor Landcruisers stuck in the sand where the Suzi just bounces across the surface. And I use only a fraction of the amount of petrol.
The main reason why I haven't replaced it (other than the fact that it still runs perfectly well) is because Suzuki seem to be making their machines much bigger now. The older 1.6L 4-cylinder has plenty of grunt to tow quite heavy loads, so I don't need the overhead of a 6-cylinder.
In any case, for once, I agree with Telstra. I've been laughing at them every time they've called in an attempt to get my business for the last few years, but kudos to them for telling the Mob to fuck off.
Given the obvious deficiences in technical skills on the part of Skype staff, I am very much inclined to doubt if they would be capable of providing such a capability for surveillance. Although I'm sometimes quick to jump on a conspiracy theory bandwagon, I think we are safe (in this regard) for now.
I'm playing devil's advocate here, since I prefer Linux, but IIRC there is a setting that allows you to update your Windoze box as and when you feel like it (or, if you prefer, not at all). I would have thought that most IT techs at hospitals would (or should) have the sense to lock down their machines a bit better than that.
And this would be a perfect example of why centralised networks are a Stupid Idea.
Hmmm. I was using the Linux version of the Skype client throughout this "downtime" with no problems whatsoever. Sure, centralised networks have their drawbacks, but Skype's roaming profile and contacts list is a big plus in its favour.
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I agree that there are plenty of options for saving content, but we're missing the point.
Or rather, site designers are.
The whole point of a website is to promulgate its content. Introducing caveats such as "You May Only Look At This Content When It Suits Us To Give It To You" where copyright or reproduction restrictions are (for practical purposes) irrelevant is an unnecessary addition of complexity to the online experience. Locking up the content so that it is only visible under prescribed conditions is really quite silly. They might just as well publish the content on paper or optical media at a price.
I believe most Flash is done wrong simply because the site designers value form over content.
Useful or pertinent information (if it is manifest at all) usually has the appearance of being inserted as an afterthought. That's why the sites I visit most often tend to be based primarily on simple markup such as HTML, which despite its various drawbacks is at least easy to maintain (and therefore more likely to be maintained), and does not have the noli-me-tangere character of a cast-bronze SWF presentation.
I apologise for coming across as a luddite, but it is distinctly tiresome to be subject to the whim of some mentally adolescent graphics designer poking glitzy, time-consuming displays in my eye rather than allowing the information I'm looking for to be easily found. Which is why I think Flashblock is the best thing since unsliced bread.
Yep. Usually gamma radiation.
Hmmm. Guess I'll find out how good the interface to Time Machine is as soon as I get past Leopard's shiny new Blue Screen interface.
;-D
*ducks*
Another interesting thing is that these machines are being loaded with Enlightenment as a default "lightweight" environment. Time was (only 10 years ago) when Enlightenment was regarded as CPU and graphics-heavy and was only used as a window manager under Gnome (default option for RedHat 5.x and 6.x comes to mind). Just goes to show...
I'm sure linux has probably gotten a little better on some of those fronts, but even if so its still just playing catchup and not providing a reason to switch, and I know its not catching up on software.
*yawn*, another troll...
Instead of just guessing, how about you try it for a while and see just how far along Linux for the Desktop has come. You might be surprised.
Getting multiple graphics cards working is a piece of piss (I've been doing it for years). If you know enough to want/need 2 screens, you know enough to make a few simple entries in a config file. Getting sound working hasn't been a problem for at least 7 years. There's plenty of software available of equal or better quality than current offerings for Windows.
How often do most of you start over from scratch (re-synce the config back to default?) I imagine that make oldconfig after awhile results in a dirty kernel as I keep pulling configs with me from old kernels.
If you're vigourous enough in stomping on unused code, I suppose the answer would be almost never.
Until recently, I have been building from a config based on one that I synced when 2.6.0 first came out. But since I just built myself a new computer with radically different hardware, I started from scratch again a few days ago, using Slackware's 2.6.21.5-smp as a template.
Incidentally, I often find it convenient to use menuconfig, loading the config file from outside the kernel tree in order to play with options if required.
Has anyone found bluetooth to be reliable for them? Any success stories?
Not sure, but I have a strange situation with a Plantronics 910 bluetooth earbug that I use with its associated USB dongle for Skype. (Incidentally, it's apparently also capable of being used with mobile phones, but I haven't tried this.)
Anyway, I have a lot of drop-outs and white noise when used with my computer and USB2.0, but on my old computer at work, which only has USB1.1, reception and transmission are crystal clear. Go figure. Maybe it's just this machine, but I won't know until I've tried it with more candidates.
Incidentally, the slide rule at the site mentioned in the submission looks very much as if it was modelled on the Aristo Scholar slipstick I had when I was a boy.
Circular ones can sometimes be quite valuable. Even more so are the tubular ones. I once saw a tubular rule that was nearly 6 feet long. I've forgotten how many digits it would work to, but I guess it wouldn't have been quick.
How do people learn to use them so easily, anyway?
Like this. When I was at high school, the use of slide-rules wasn't actively discouraged, and electronic calculators were not permitted (and in any case were still prohibitively expensive). We were expected to be able to use books of tables. Not much fun, and that in itself was motivation to learn how to use a slide-rule.
It's still worth knowing. In my first year at Uni, the batteries in my HP48G+ died in the middle of an exam, but I was able to get by with my K&E Log-Log Decitrig slide-rule.
It should have been obvious to anybody with half a brain that Apple would wipe any code that doesn't suit them with the first firmware update. And they are, as you say, legitimately entitled to do so.
The real idiocy here is where so many people have been sucked in by the marketroids into paying big bucks for a bloody phone with all its caveats. I too have an antique iPod (just a Mini) which is a squeeze for storage space but still works far too well to justify replacing it, and probably will for years to come. Same goes for my current phone. And I get to choose my own mobile service provider, without having to resort to stupid hacks.
Jumping on the bandwagon of the New Big Thing is wasteful and doomed to eternal disappointment as soon as the Next Big Thing appears on the horizon.
It might work. Just think of the possibilities...
New Police Act, Rule #1:
All policemen must wear clown suits...
So what's wrong with that? I still use mine.
But I was going to suggest an abacus...
In any case, I don't see what the OP is on about with Linus (plus his supposed "minions") "squaring off against Con Kolivas".
As far as I was aware, all Kolivas does is to cherry-pick among the patches Linus (OK, and his minions) produce to make a useful machine for the desktop.
If it happens to be true that Linus doesn't like that, perhaps he needs to take a break from working on the kernel.
Unisys are just another tech dinosaur that never made it out of the seventies.
FWIW, Unisys didn't exist in the seventies. I was there. I worked on both types of kit (in those days you either went with the herd and learned to use IBM, or you learned to be versatile).
IIRC it came about via the merging of Burroughs and Sperry/UNIVAC in about 1986 (in fact, to be specific, I think Burroughs swallowed Sperry).
Like a certain other phone, it will be reverse-engineered so that it may be used on other networks.
Only if anyone wants the damn thing. I know I don't...
Hmmm. Useful link (not):
"Access denied".
[Quick disclaimer here: I am not new to Linux. I have tried a number of distros, and have used Slackware since it was SLS.]
.config i know to work well on that hardware. Again it spat the dummy. At this point, so did I.
I made several attempts a few weeks ago to install Feisty on an oldish but useful, well-supported box.
Try as I might, I could not get the thing to boot properly, despite having let the installer take default options for almost everything. However, on boot-up, it bitched and moaned about my bog-standard IDE hard drives, which presumably due to some idiocy perpretrated on initrd showed up as sdxx rather than hdxx.
Eventually, after bullying the thing through the boot process, I then set about building my kernel, using a
I think I had an easier time of it with Linux From Scratch; at least my idiocies are my own. Needless to say, that machine is now happily running on Slackware again.
My point is that in this case, Ubuntu is entirely comparable to a number of versions of Windows that I have encountered, and I was disappointed because I had expected better. No-one expects Slackware to be intuitive for the novice, and I am comfortable with that. But a distribution ostensibly designed to be approachable to the novice should at least boot out of the box.
In my old truck you had to stop, get out, go over to the front wheels, and lock the hubs in order to get 4WD.
Is that old? I'm still driving a Suzuki Vitara (I think it might be a Sidekick in the US) built in 1990 that has this feature. It really doesn't take long - probably much less than 30 seconds.
The car might be getting on a bit, but it's always fun to see those great big lumbering, expensive Toymotor Landcruisers stuck in the sand where the Suzi just bounces across the surface. And I use only a fraction of the amount of petrol.
The main reason why I haven't replaced it (other than the fact that it still runs perfectly well) is because Suzuki seem to be making their machines much bigger now. The older 1.6L 4-cylinder has plenty of grunt to tow quite heavy loads, so I don't need the overhead of a 6-cylinder.
the 2008 Accord, an all-new vehicle that is redesigned to meet California emission standards
Maybe I'm just being picky, but if the car is "all-new" (as opposed to partially-new?) why does it need to be redesigned?
In any case, for once, I agree with Telstra. I've been laughing at them every time they've called in an attempt to get my business for the last few years, but kudos to them for telling the Mob to fuck off.
Given the obvious deficiences in technical skills on the part of Skype staff, I am very much inclined to doubt if they would be capable of providing such a capability for surveillance. Although I'm sometimes quick to jump on a conspiracy theory bandwagon, I think we are safe (in this regard) for now.
I'm playing devil's advocate here, since I prefer Linux, but IIRC there is a setting that allows you to update your Windoze box as and when you feel like it (or, if you prefer, not at all). I would have thought that most IT techs at hospitals would (or should) have the sense to lock down their machines a bit better than that.
And this would be a perfect example of why centralised networks are a Stupid Idea.
Hmmm. I was using the Linux version of the Skype client throughout this "downtime" with no problems whatsoever. Sure, centralised networks have their drawbacks, but Skype's roaming profile and contacts list is a big plus in its favour.