I used to carry a knoppix CD, but after I mislaid my last one I never got around to burning a new one. I just carry around disc#1 of the current Slackware set, which I use to boot from. I can then mount any partitions necessary, then chroot as required. Sure, knoppix might be a friendlier way of getting around, but it's not necessary if you know what you are doing...
What would be the recommended distro by Slashdotters? Ubuntu?
Nothing wrong with that, I've heard, but my choice is Slackware; it's more fun. Or if you've got time, Linux from Scratch. Just don't confuse the latter with Gentoo, which is a cookbook.
The last Nikon camera I used (back in the day) was the old Nikkormat FTN 35mm SLR, a popular choice among professionals at one time. That thing had stupendously good lenses, but was heavy to carry, being made largely of brass. It was tough, though. Mine got dropped 60 feet down a granite cliff into 15 foot of seawater. I climbed down and dived for it, and it still worked perfectly after a perfunctory rinse under a tap. The film was still OK, too. I bet any digital machine wouldn't stand for that...
But the DSLR comes along on quite a few little trips now that I have a bag small enough and easy enough to "just bring".
Agreed, and I do the same when I remember. However, I would miss an awful lot of good shots doing it that way. I have a PAS camera with a superb lens (a now ageing Olympus C-740) which follows me around all the time, and it does very well, since the real trick (not secret) to getting good images is in the brain of the photographer, not in the expensive hardware.
With a little bit of care (which means having RTFM), I can get an image on my PAS that is at least as good as default settings on the majority of DSLR machines. The main caveat here is the size of the image; my PAS only goes to 3.2 MPx, but I mostly don't go in for huge enlargements.
Well, I bought a Mac about a year and a half ago, and at this point I utterly LOATHE it. Why? Because I don't know how to get things done with it. Yes, yes I know. I can get all sorts of software for it that allows me to to whatever I used to do with a PC...
I don't like it either, but not because of issues with software. Installing software on a Mac isn't really that much different from doing so on Winbloze, and cost isn't too much of an issue since I tend to opt for GPL (or similar) apps. What I find irritating is the way the Apple developers try to jam everybody into the same box with just one style of interface, and then tell them they're different from the rest of the herd. I know there are other themes and stuff available on the net, but that does nothing to address my issues with things such as their windowing system.
Well, I've got news for Apple. I am very happy with my ageing iBook G4, but I don't run OS X on it, I run Linux, so Iget to decide how I like to work.
As for Linux, the thought of wrestling around trying to figure out where to find drivers for the peripherals I currently own, well...no thanks.
Hmmm. I was sort of under the impression that most modern distributions include drivers for most common hardware out of the box. Hell, my desktop machine needs nothing more than the first CD of the Slackware set to get up and running with all my hardware, and that has been the case ever since Slackware started being packaged on CDROM.
This is a US specific phenomenon which does not exist elsewhere. For some reason in the US you are expected to wreak havoc and behave like a sociopathic delinquent.
It does so exist elsewhere.
This happened to me in 1990 in Perth, Australia. The overlords decided it was easier to sack me from my sysadmin job than fix a plethora of endemic problems within the organisation. I had my keys taken off me, and was driven home so that they could reclaim their modems and terminals.
Well, I personally don't find it necessary to update my kernel weekly. I tend to do so when there appears to be something worthwhile in the changelogs, and nVidia appear to have no trouble keeping up. The only time I have seen any real issue between nVidia and the kernel was when the latter ticked over into the 2.6 version, and even then there was plenty of help from the nvidia developers to get it working.
I am indifferent to most of your post too, but your claim that "There are no feasible replacements for something as simple as Office-style programs available on the web" indicates to me that you've either been living in a barrel for the last few years or have been well and truly sucked in by the marketing machine.
Windows is still far and away the leader in that field, and there's a number of improvements they can make in security, efficiency, clarity in the user interface, etc.
Make up your mind. If Microsoft are the leaders, why haven't they made their improvements? It's no use clinging to the upturned hull of their moribund ship claiming that all those others sailing past are just playing catch-up. No-one is really prepared to believe that any more.
I switched directly from Windows 3.1 to Linux on my own machines years ago, and have never been tempted back. Back then, the most mature distribution was Slackware, and that's what I still use, since I like its simplicity. Couple this with Dropline Gnome and you've got a much slicker desktop machine than any offering from Redmond.
even Linux recovers better from crapped out video driver installs, and this is saying a LOT
Is it? The only time I've had a bad time with graphics cards on Linux was back in 1997 when I was trying to get an on-board SiS chipset to work. Sure, some cards (and their drivers) are better than others, but that's got nothing to do with Linux.
No thanx, we'll wait...for linux to get it's shit together...
Why wait? Just do yourself a favour and get an nVidia card.
Apparently so. I've been getting a lot of spam lately where the text message is encapsulated in an image, and there doesn't seem to be an easy way around this.
2. nowadays, lots of mail slips through, because it contains words related to programming languages.
I used to be very happy with the spam filtering that came with Thunderbird (after some preprocessing at the ISP's end). Now, however, most of the spam I'm seeing in my inbox is of text encapsulated in a single image which seems to fool the filter quite successfully. Not too sure how to get around this without having to sit down and spend some time working on it, which really means the spammers have won.:-(
I've been using ReiserFS on almost all partitions on several machines with no hiccups at all, even where I *know* the drive is marginally dodgy. (The "almost" refers to the fact that I use separate boot partitions mounted read-only - so no journalling, so they get ext2.)
IE7 will be installed almoust every windows machine because it will come as security update.
...And in any case, nobody ever installs the updates. This is a personal observation; there's apparently something about having a shiny CDROM with all the Microsoft logos over it that seems to lead people to think their system will remain as inviolate as their reflective plastic.
Hmmm. There's an awful lot of hot air floating around here...
I was under the impression Slashcode was open source. That being the case, all this lady has to do is fork the code, set up a site and see what survives. If her ideas are not without merit, that's a good thing, everybody gets to enjoy the benefits. Otherwise her theories will be consigned to oblivion.
Nothing personal, and nothing to get steamed up about.
The straight razor, like most cheap ones when I shave myself, invariably left my face bleeding and tender. Not nicks, just raw.
In that case, it probably wasn't sharp enough. It takes a bit of a knack to get a proper edge on a straight razor, but then I used to be a blacksmith, so I know quite a lot about cutting edges...
I've always just used the same soap for shaving as I use for all my other ablutions. OK, I'm a bit picky about my soap (I prefer Pear's) but it's at least as good as any aerosol nostrum.
I've always thought this multi-blade cult a bit foolish. I get just as close a shave with a single edge on a straight razor (sometimes known as a cut-throat) as I ever did with a twin-blade, without having to feed the idiotic loop generated by the marketroids. But I guess if people want to get sucked into paying money for disposable blades, that's up to them. My straight razors would work perfectly well for my grandchildren (if I had any), and that would amount to a lot of money spent on throw-away blades.
Slashdot Mirror
I used to carry a knoppix CD, but after I mislaid my last one I never got around to burning a new one. I just carry around disc#1 of the current Slackware set, which I use to boot from. I can then mount any partitions necessary, then chroot as required. Sure, knoppix might be a friendlier way of getting around, but it's not necessary if you know what you are doing...
What would be the recommended distro by Slashdotters? Ubuntu?
Nothing wrong with that, I've heard, but my choice is Slackware; it's more fun. Or if you've got time, Linux from Scratch. Just don't confuse the latter with Gentoo, which is a cookbook.
What they don't say is that anyone stupid enough to leave this tracking enabled isn't going to have any friends.
Not for long, anyway...
"Thai software slammed as useless and full of bugs. OSS community says 'keep your code, we don't want to see the source'."
You know what else was "reliably predicted for weeks"^H^H^H^H^H^Hmonths"? The debacle in Iraq.
It was indeed, but lots of people at the time weren't listening. Including, as I recall, a very large redneck contingent on Slashdot.
My, some people have short memories...
The last Nikon camera I used (back in the day) was the old Nikkormat FTN 35mm SLR, a popular choice among professionals at one time. That thing had stupendously good lenses, but was heavy to carry, being made largely of brass. It was tough, though. Mine got dropped 60 feet down a granite cliff into 15 foot of seawater. I climbed down and dived for it, and it still worked perfectly after a perfunctory rinse under a tap. The film was still OK, too. I bet any digital machine wouldn't stand for that...
But the DSLR comes along on quite a few little trips now that I have a bag small enough and easy enough to "just bring".
Agreed, and I do the same when I remember. However, I would miss an awful lot of good shots doing it that way. I have a PAS camera with a superb lens (a now ageing Olympus C-740) which follows me around all the time, and it does very well, since the real trick (not secret) to getting good images is in the brain of the photographer, not in the expensive hardware.
With a little bit of care (which means having RTFM), I can get an image on my PAS that is at least as good as default settings on the majority of DSLR machines. The main caveat here is the size of the image; my PAS only goes to 3.2 MPx, but I mostly don't go in for huge enlargements.
Well, I bought a Mac about a year and a half ago, and at this point I utterly LOATHE it. Why? Because I don't know how to get things done with it. Yes, yes I know. I can get all sorts of software for it that allows me to to whatever I used to do with a PC...
I don't like it either, but not because of issues with software. Installing software on a Mac isn't really that much different from doing so on Winbloze, and cost isn't too much of an issue since I tend to opt for GPL (or similar) apps. What I find irritating is the way the Apple developers try to jam everybody into the same box with just one style of interface, and then tell them they're different from the rest of the herd. I know there are other themes and stuff available on the net, but that does nothing to address my issues with things such as their windowing system.
Well, I've got news for Apple. I am very happy with my ageing iBook G4, but I don't run OS X on it, I run Linux, so Iget to decide how I like to work.
As for Linux, the thought of wrestling around trying to figure out where to find drivers for the peripherals I currently own, well...no thanks.
Hmmm. I was sort of under the impression that most modern distributions include drivers for most common hardware out of the box. Hell, my desktop machine needs nothing more than the first CD of the Slackware set to get up and running with all my hardware, and that has been the case ever since Slackware started being packaged on CDROM.
This is a US specific phenomenon which does not exist elsewhere. For some reason in the US you are expected to wreak havoc and behave like a sociopathic delinquent.
It does so exist elsewhere.
This happened to me in 1990 in Perth, Australia. The overlords decided it was easier to sack me from my sysadmin job than fix a plethora of endemic problems within the organisation. I had my keys taken off me, and was driven home so that they could reclaim their modems and terminals.
And have it break every weekly kernel update...
Well, I personally don't find it necessary to update my kernel weekly. I tend to do so when there appears to be something worthwhile in the changelogs, and nVidia appear to have no trouble keeping up. The only time I have seen any real issue between nVidia and the kernel was when the latter ticked over into the 2.6 version, and even then there was plenty of help from the nvidia developers to get it working.
I am indifferent to most of your post too, but your claim that "There are no feasible replacements for something as simple as Office-style programs available on the web" indicates to me that you've either been living in a barrel for the last few years or have been well and truly sucked in by the marketing machine.
Windows is still far and away the leader in that field, and there's a number of improvements they can make in security, efficiency, clarity in the user interface, etc.
Make up your mind. If Microsoft are the leaders, why haven't they made their improvements? It's no use clinging to the upturned hull of their moribund ship claiming that all those others sailing past are just playing catch-up. No-one is really prepared to believe that any more.
I switched directly from Windows 3.1 to Linux on my own machines years ago, and have never been tempted back. Back then, the most mature distribution was Slackware, and that's what I still use, since I like its simplicity. Couple this with Dropline Gnome and you've got a much slicker desktop machine than any offering from Redmond.
even Linux recovers better from crapped out video driver installs, and this is saying a LOT
Is it? The only time I've had a bad time with graphics cards on Linux was back in 1997 when I was trying to get an on-board SiS chipset to work. Sure, some cards (and their drivers) are better than others, but that's got nothing to do with Linux.
No thanx, we'll wait...for linux to get it's shit together...
Why wait? Just do yourself a favour and get an nVidia card.
I would have thought a more appropriate response to "news" of an imminent release would be "who cares?". :-}
lucky me, I guess =)
Apparently so. I've been getting a lot of spam lately where the text message is encapsulated in an image, and there doesn't seem to be an easy way around this.
2. nowadays, lots of mail slips through, because it contains words related to programming languages.
:-(
I used to be very happy with the spam filtering that came with Thunderbird (after some preprocessing at the ISP's end). Now, however, most of the spam I'm seeing in my inbox is of text encapsulated in a single image which seems to fool the filter quite successfully. Not too sure how to get around this without having to sit down and spend some time working on it, which really means the spammers have won.
I've been using ReiserFS on almost all partitions on several machines with no hiccups at all, even where I *know* the drive is marginally dodgy. (The "almost" refers to the fact that I use separate boot partitions mounted read-only - so no journalling, so they get ext2.)
You might think the US is bad, but look at the alternative. Cripes, the EU can't even agree on a Constitution.
Hmmm. If you reason like that, then you can't reason at all.
IE7 will be installed almoust every windows machine because it will come as security update.
...And in any case, nobody ever installs the updates. This is a personal observation; there's apparently something about having a shiny CDROM with all the Microsoft logos over it that seems to lead people to think their system will remain as inviolate as their reflective plastic.
Hmmm. There's an awful lot of hot air floating around here...
I was under the impression Slashcode was open source. That being the case, all this lady has to do is fork the code, set up a site and see what survives. If her ideas are not without merit, that's a good thing, everybody gets to enjoy the benefits. Otherwise her theories will be consigned to oblivion.
Nothing personal, and nothing to get steamed up about.
The straight razor, like most cheap ones when I shave myself, invariably left my face bleeding and tender. Not nicks, just raw.
In that case, it probably wasn't sharp enough. It takes a bit of a knack to get a proper edge on a straight razor, but then I used to be a blacksmith, so I know quite a lot about cutting edges...
Yeah, but the downside is that you look like a bit of a dick.
I have my own name for the style. I call it a merkin.
It might not be in every dictionary, but Dr Johnson defines it as "counterfeit hair for women's privy parts".
I've always shaved while showering.
So did I at one stage, but that's a lot of water down the drain for no very good reason. Here, in Australia, that can be a real issue.
I've always just used the same soap for shaving as I use for all my other ablutions. OK, I'm a bit picky about my soap (I prefer Pear's) but it's at least as good as any aerosol nostrum.
I've always thought this multi-blade cult a bit foolish. I get just as close a shave with a single edge on a straight razor (sometimes known as a cut-throat) as I ever did with a twin-blade, without having to feed the idiotic loop generated by the marketroids. But I guess if people want to get sucked into paying money for disposable blades, that's up to them. My straight razors would work perfectly well for my grandchildren (if I had any), and that would amount to a lot of money spent on throw-away blades.
Pretty anit-climatic if you ask me.
Could you please explain in what way Firefox 2.0 is damaging to the climate?