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User: ObviousGuy

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  1. What is a Linux product? on How Not To Sell Linux Products · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is a lame product like Walmart's Linux PC it?

    Or is TiVo it?

    Linux products are all over the place, usually concealing the fact that they are based on Linux. Just because Linux and its standard UI are not popular in consumer devices doesn't mean that Linux itself is not used and the products based on it aren't successful.

  2. If this were Fark on Mozilla Cracks Down On Merchandise Sellers · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This article would get an Ironic tag.

    This, like the GFDL, is one of those aspects of some aspects of the OSS movement that doesn't seem to really follow the tenets of the whole OSS movement.

  3. Bob just chose all the default selections on Debian Installer Beta 3 Usability Review · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why not have a single selection at the beginning that says "Install all defaults"? Hit that, let the installer figure out all your hardware settings, and come back an hour later with a fully installed OS.

    Maybe throw in a warning that the whole disk will be wiped out, but how much user interaction does an installer really need?

  4. Isn't this more a threat to Perl than .Net? on Groovy JSR: A New Era for Java? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Having a glue language to tie together Java objects is definitely cool, as is having the scripting language compile down to bytecode for easy deployment.

    I guess in some obscene way, one could infer that Java is somehow a threat to .Net because its set of tools has grown a little, but Groovy itself seems to be more a threat to Perl and Python and other scripting languages rather than anything Microsoft is doing (except for WSH, but is anyone really using that?) Having a scripting language that can reach directly into Java bytecode without having to invoke a separate VM is a great improvement over the current methods of running external Java programs.

    Frankly, to me, it doesn't matter which 'platform' succeeds. Both frameworks exist on many platforms, so whichever wins, we all benefit.

  5. Where's the games at? on Expert Opinions On Linux Gaming's Future · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's nice to talk about creating a "gaming OS", but the key component here is that you need some games.

    Sokoban and Mahjongg only get you so far..

    OpenGL exists on Linux, what else are game developers missing?

  6. Re:Separate windows are fine on GTK 2.4.0 Released · · Score: 1

    No, I meant what I said. The multiple processes of GIMP forces most WMs to create separate window ICONS along the application bar. I have no problem with the multiple window interface (which can neither be called SDI nor MDI, I think), but do have a problem with the single application creating multiple window icons where a single one would be fine.

    This may be a holdover from the UNIX philosophy of tying together smaller, simpler processes into a larger, more complex application system. This works great in a CLI world where extra processes are relatively invisible to the user. However in a GUI world where each process gets its own icon, it can get wieldy.

    The solution to "get a WM to group the icons together" is a hack and puts the onus on the user to work around a problem in the misbehaving application.

  7. Rule #1 on Are Game Magazines Turning Into Men's Magazines? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Know your audience.

  8. Separate windows are fine on GTK 2.4.0 Released · · Score: -1, Troll

    But is there any way to get GIMP to fit into a single process so that we don't get window icons littered across the application bar?

  9. Umm... on Lifting The Lid On Computer Filth · · Score: 0, Troll

    Would a tubgirl link be appropriate here?

  10. What is the HB ID? on New Patent Legislation Makes Some Headway · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How do we know that this wasn't just some insignificant rider on some more important "terrorist fighting legislation"?

    What is the House Bill number?

  11. This story brings to mind fat, lonely nerds on Retro Vision · · Score: 5, Funny

    Worst story ever.

  12. Take an art course on Courses on Making Professional, Usable Websites? · · Score: 4, Informative

    Learn what your pallete is and how to work within the boundaries of it. The best website design houses are staffed not with computer programmers, but with folks with degrees in art.

    If you're serious about becoming a front end designer, you ought to think seriously about getting further education and possibly a degree in art from a nearby college.

  13. Fraud? Really? on Did HP Defraud the Canadian Government? · · Score: -1, Insightful

    The government is made up of people who couldn't get jobs in the private sector. They also have job security for life. This encourages the worst in government employees, attracting the laziest and least skilled among the working populace.

    HP is known as a very smart company. Its employees are all selected through an interview process designed to select the best and brightest minds. The threat of termination always hangs over the heads of HP employees. This encourages the best performance from HP employees because subpar performance leads to being kicked out to the streets, especially in these bad economic times.

    So who to believe?..

  14. Yep, they're out of ideas on Robotcop III Set to Fight Crime in Hong Kong · · Score: 1, Troll

    Policing HK has become a nightmare. The Chinese mafia has essentially taken over the islands and controls crime and legitimate business from the top rungs of society down to the street gutters.

    This is more of an acknowledgement of the lack of police power than some dream-like Robocop thing.

    What's more sad is that the romanticizing of the gangster lifestyle there has lured some of the best and brightest of HK into the underworld where there is more money to be made than in the legitimate world. The parallels between the HK gangster culture and the US rapper/gangster culture are striking and both seem to have a significant detrimental effect on the Chinese and ethnic American communities.

  15. So the news is that there is no news? on Yellowstone Super-Eruption Threat Debunked · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Thank god! I was worried there might be something important happening.

  16. Plot by virus scan companies? on Comcast Cuts Infected PCs' Network Connections · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Doesn't this force those users to go out to CompUSA and buy a copy of McAfee or Norton antivirus?

    Blocking web access also means that those users aren't able to download good, free virus scanners like Grisoft's AVG.

  17. I am not for these laws at all on EU Passes Nasty IP Law · · Score: -1, Redundant

    But sometimes I wonder what it is like from the other side: the side that creates rather than uses. What is it like to create and then have your creation ripped off and given away for free?

    If I were in the creator's shoes, what steps would I do to protect myself? What kinds of protections would I require?

  18. Don't believe them on Recovering Secret HD Space · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm here to protect you from the terrible secret of space.

  19. Kodak probably has those patents too on Kodak Sues Sony Over Digital Camera Patents · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Kodak, for the past several years, has been pouring money and effort into churning out digital camera IP because they have been having their ass handed to them in the film market. Their film cameras have gone nowhere fast, mostly squashed by Polaroid. Even their digital cameras are being crushed by camera giants Canon and Nikon.

    Kodak may still have the lead in medium format and larger digital photography, but this market is much smaller than the DSLR and consumer digicam markets. But with dwindling numbers of customers for their primary product, mostly lured away by the better quality product of FujiFilm, Kodak has pledged to focus on their digital lineup from here on out.

    So they've got these patents in hand, and it is indicative of actual patent violation on Sony's part that Sony is the only defendant here. Sony is hardly the largest digicam maker. If Kodak really wanted to go after a company that was making these digital photography and storage devices, they would go after Canon. However, they are not, going after Sony instead. This leads me to believe that Sony is either in violation of Kodak's patents or Sony has some IP that Kodak wants to cross license. Perhaps the 4 color CCD?

  20. Sure, for computers, for now on The Command Line - Best Newbie Interface? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But you think a command line would make using a digicam easier? A microwave? A thermostat?

    The computer as a non-specific device is a fundamentally flawed (though useful) contraption. The command line, GUI, and other UI creations are all hacks to help users get around the problem of genericity of the machine.

    As computers get more powerful and more 'intelligent', computer user interfaces like these will wither away and something more straightforward like controls for a camera, microwave, or thermostat become the primary UI of the computer. This means that innovations in computer operating system design must be made so that the OS can guess what the user wants to do and present an appropriate, simple interface.

    I really look forward to the day when the concept of the PC disappears.

  21. Top down is the way things work on Doc Searls On Fixing Tradeshows · · Score: 3, Funny

    Take a look at Slashdot some time and see how information drizzles down from those of us who are more knowledgeable about certain topics to those of you who are not as knowledgeable. This is the way education works, in fact. Either a person is taught something or discovers something themselves.

    A group of ignorant blabbermouths take about the same amount of time to come to a coherent, correct conclusion as a group of elephants takes to swim across the Pacific ocean.

  22. Use a computer? No thanks on New HP Drive Lets You Burn Your Own Label · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The real leap forward will occur when this is built into camcorders and other media recording devices. The whole idea behind connecting the camera to a computer just so you can save the data on a disc that won't be played on a computer anyway, not to mention printing labels for the disc, is crazy and redundant. Though it is a necessary stopgap until we get these technologies into the cameras, the computer is just another barrier to the development of user-created media.

  23. No clamor on GE Reaches OLED Milestone · · Score: -1, Troll

    You've got to wonder what's driving some of these projects where there is no discernable market and no clamor for such a technology. As far as a pure research project, it doesn't seem to hold any new insight into anything. It attempts to fill gaps that simply don't exist.

  24. The alternative is MacOS or Linux on Is Windows Worth $45? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So either you get users pissed off that they have to spend MORE to get similar functionality, or you get them bitching about how user-unfriendly Linux is (though free).

    Not much of a choice between all three, really. What there ought to be is a free OS that is as comfortable an environment as MacOS and supports as much software as Windows.

    They say I'm a dreamer, but my heart's of gold...

  25. You want me to pay for that? on The Universal Card · · Score: 5, Insightful

    200 bucks for you to know everything about me?

    How about YOU pay ME.