I'll settle for just a client, most quicktime movies I view are embedded in HTML documents, I don't need a feature-full player to enjoy short clips. Right now I can't enjoy those clips at all in linux. I would prefer something that can play QuickTime movies in Linux to nothing at all. Since it is extremely unlikely that Apple will release either an open source, or even a general closed-source codec library, I will settle for what I can get, and still praise it as a step in the right direction. Spyky
If they are being abused, then why don't they press charges? Wait a minute, you are just throwing out the word abuse for effect
No, I did not use the word abuse "just for effect". I don't mean physical abuse, though that happens way too often too. The statics of women who actually do press charges following physical abuse speak for themselves in this matter. However, that is not what I am referring to at all, but rather emotional abuse, if you will allow me to use that word. How would you like it if many of your peers treated you as inferior, because of your sex. Even if it doesn't happen as often as I seem to think, the threat of it is enough to make females stay away from situations like it, and hence, not choose technical majors.
I love how your definition of "even ratio" means signifigantly more women than men.
Please do not put words into my mouth. I certainly do not mean more girls then guys is an even ratio. I mean exactly what I said, a more equal ratio. More women, even 15%/85% would make a major like computer engineering a more attractive major for females entering college. Eventually, perhaps, increasing the ratio to equal, 50%/50%.
Are you telling us to be celibate for the rest of our lives? Become homosexuals? What? How are we supposed to date women if we don't ask? Of course you forget how women refuse to date us for our career choices. If they aren't willing to change for us, why should we change our behavior (which isn't bigoted in the first place) for them?
I do not in any way suggest celibacy or homosexuality are even options for a straight male. Simply respect your female counterparts for their abilities in your field, not because you want to get into their pants, which many (I didn't say you in particular) guys I know, do not. The girl will respect that far more then you hitting on her to get laid, and who knows you might get laid anyway. Actually what I find bigoted is this nonsense that a guy has to do the asking to get a date. Not that you can't ask, but its not the only way anymore.
I am a male in my second year as a computer engineering student at Rochester Institute of Technology. My entire school has a population of probably 70%/30% guys/girls. In fields like computer engineering, its probably more like 95%/5%. It creates a certain inhospitable atmosphere for females, especially if they are attractive, they are likely to have guys swarming them. I have made a point to never "hit on" a girl who I don't know well at this school. They are either completely promiscuous or they are constantly and unwelcomely bombarded by horny guys who can't get a date. This activity doesn't end at college. The same ratios are found in the workplace afterwards, for obvious reasons.
Its frustrating to me, as a guy who tries as much as possible to be unlike the "typical college guy", because females are so abused by so many males that they choose not to enter fields where males dominate. Its very dissapointing that all of my female friends are from majors like english or psychology. I think most girls now know that the traditional, men are better at science is bullshit, but it doesn't change the field they choose. Even though there are as many girls as guys who are capable of handling a technical major, they DON'T choose it for the reasons above. They would rather be in a situation were they feel more accepted, one with a more even ratio of girls and guys. I can't say I blame them. Its almost enough to make me want to quit this and go be a professional chef or something.
The problem is, how do we make things change? It's such powerful self sustaining cycle. I am encouraged, because fields like Information Technology (which is considered the "easy" technical major) are beginning to approach that even ratio of 50%/50% girls/guys. Hopefully as years pass this effect will "trickle up" into more involved mathematics and engineering based majors like CS, computer engineering, microelectronics, electrical engineering, etc... But it will be too late for me to see it. The best I can say to fellow slashdot readers is, please do your part. Encourage female friends to be different, take a chance, make a stand in this male dominated field, and most of all, don't be a bigot yourself. Accept people for their skills, and don't deride them for their differences. I see this entirely too often, and its disgusting and utterly disenhearting.
The author of this inane article, that slanders the wonderful and intelligent people who found a loophole in a poorly designed system, brings up yet another thoughtless point when he compares decription-free DVD equal to MP3s. The only reason digital music (in the form of MP3s) has had such an explosion in recent years is that people can copy 5MB files with relative ease. Even a modem can download these files overnight. But DVDs take 9GB or more, and its already compressed! Illegal videos ripped from DVDs are not going to start flying across the "internet" like this journalist implies. As for stopping the Average Joe from copying DVDs at home, why bother? Sure, I suppose I could burn a copy of my favorite DVD for a friend, supposing I felt like spending $10 for the media and an hour burning something that costs $19.95 new. On top of $500+ drive. That's like copying a $3.99 "bargain rack" (ie. stuff that doesn't sell) to a $2 CDR. The movie industry better be scared now. Suggesting replacing all of the firmware is the most ludicrous idea yet. Do you know how much it would cost to, first, come up with a new better standard, update all the existing players, and impliment recalls to replace them. Far more then they have to worry about from the Average Joe copying movies at his house. Sure I don't want the movie studios to wait longer to release my favorite movies (Star Wars, Back to the Future, Braveheart...), but we don't need ignorant journalists raising fears of piracy that won't happen. The movie studios need to realize what their priorities are, making the fortune they could on as-yet-unreleased films, or taking excessive measures at preventing small change pirating.
Actually I find this too be helpful. I am prone to loseing $2 notebooks, nearly as often as I lose my pens and pencils. However, I keep much better track of my $300 Palm, and haven't lost it yet.
I am referring the performance hit caused by requiring 3 writes instead of one to modify any part of the filesystem. One of the major problems, is that the log is usually stored in some physical part of the disk that is not necessarily near the data being written, requiring the head to travel across the disk twice for just one write. In large file servers this can be fixed by hardware means, having multiple disks, etc. But in a desktop this is not the case. You may be right about "not noticing" the hit while doing standard desktop operations (browsing, WPing, etc.), I don't really know how much of a problem it causes, or if it will be significant in this case, its just a though...:-) As for the problems with ext2, I haven't really had any problems. Granted I don't do mission critical stuff on my linux machine, yet... Then again I don't do mission critical stuff:-) I don't think it has any more inherent flaws the HPFS or NTFS.
First, this is great news because in addition to adding enterprise level (pardon my buzzwords) features to Linux, it also shows SGI's commitment to Linux. Hopefully they will continue to release some of their code (and develop new code) under the GPL.
I wonder though, at the intent to REPLACE the ext2 filesystem for linux. Yes, I agree that having a journaling filesystem is great for large Linux fileservers, webservers and database servers. Slashdot would certainly benefit from such a system;-) However, I wonder at the performance hit caused by logging. If I remember correctly, most logging systems work by writing a message to a "log" before changing the filesystem and another after the change is complete. This would greatly increase the disk usage overhead on a desktop (single disk) Linux system like mine. Having such a robust filesystem isn't NECESSARY on my desktop. Is there a way to turn logging off (and remove the performance hit) when using this filesytem. Otherwise I will stick to ext2. Any thoughts?
That is not entirely correct. As I said, there is no consumer soundcard that supports Dolby Digital (true dolby digital encoding). Most DVD decoders have an SPDIF dolby digital output. However, the Soundblaster Live! soundcard uses Creative Labs proprietary Environmental Audio (which requires games or audio programs to support it) to output sound to 4 speakers. To the best of my knowledge, this cannot be output with the SPDIF connector to a dolby digital decoder, even if it can, its not a "true" dolby digital system.
At any rate, the cambridge soundworks set you mention, I said is not a true Dolby Digital system. That is incorrect, it does support true dolby digital (5.1) decoding, as well as Creative's proprietary Environmental Audio. However its quality is below that of even an ultra-cheap Sony reciever and Radio Shack speakers. If you don't wish to replace your Aiwa system (don't even get me started:-) ) I recommend getting a traditional decoder. Many brands have cheap (~$250) decoders, that are designed to work with their dolby digital "ready" systems. Try your local consumer audio store. They should have several models that will be much better then the cambrige system, since you don't need the speakers/amp anyway. Again, make sure it has SPDIFs, preferably two, so you can use your MPEG decoder card out too.
Too the best of my knowledge (I've looked around a bit) there are no consumer level products that support true Dolby Digital format (preferably with a digital output). Creative labs Live cards support 4 speakers, but not a true 5.1 dolby digital, though they sometimes make it seem like it does by advertising their speakers (cambridge soundworks) as Dolby Digital or whatever. They are not. But the card does have an SPDIF output, which will allow you to connect it to a high quality stereo with a good D/A converter.
I recommend what a previous poster had said, get a high quality Dolby Digital reciever (or seperate components if you can afford them). Regular Sony models and most other basic brands Marantz, Harmon-Kardon and others for good quality sound which can be had for around $1000 (US), or less. I have a Proceed system, but expect to pay $10k+ for something of that caliber (along with Krell and others).
If you get such a reciever, make sure it has at least 2 (preferably more) RCA SPDIF inputs. That way you can use the SPDIF (Dobly Digital) output from your MPEG decoder that the DVD is attached to and the SPDIF of a soundcard to the reciever using a RCA cable. This will move the digital to analog processing OUT of the computer, into the reciever, which has much higher quality components and a much reduced noise floor.
Combine the reciever will a high quality set of speakers and a subwoofer and you have an incredible home theater system. Important: Don't skimp on speakers any more then the reciever. DO NOT BUY BOSE SPEAKERS!!! There are far better quality and better sounding brands that cost less money. Bose, like Microsoft, is based on marketing, the quality of their products is inferior to many others. Go for a traditional bookshelf or floor standing speaker as opposed to Bose type mini cubes (if you get floor standers you may be able to forgo getting a subwoofer initially, though it is recommended). B&W offers some of the finest loudspeakers available, from $250 to $40,000. I highly recommend the 300 and 600 series for an affordable home theater. Match it with a Velodyne subwoofer, and you have a system to die for.
Sorry if I rambled a little off topic here, but Audio is hobby of mine:-) I have a similar situation in my dorm room. Next I want to get a video projecter with a d-sub or RGB input so I can connect my computer to it and project my DVD's on a huge screen!
will tech support "tech support?" I know that their warranty policy is very stodgy, and that if you want your computer fixed, they expect it to be in the original configuration as you got it.
I've owned several Dell computers (2 actually) and on one a sound card fried. The tech had no problem coming to my dorm to install a new card (it was during the first year with on-site service), and didn't blink an eye when he saw my fairly heavily modified system (new modem, SCSI card, hard drive, CD burner, and of course, OS:-) ). In fact I had the system open and sitting out when he arrived, so he didn't have to take the time to unscrew it. I would have prefered that they just overnight me the card but during the first year of next-day on-site service, they want to install it themselves I guess.
Sufice it to say, I have absolutely no complaints about their service or machines. They are both great! and if Dell has announced that they are offering Linux pre-installed, I have faith that they will tweak it to your custom hardware (within the options they offer, of course, which is adaquete for most users). They may use a distro like Redhat, we'll see. I'm also certain that they will offer the same high quality tech support that I am used to recieving from Dell. I hope they lower the price of the system by $50 or so if you choose linux over Winblows, but would be happy enough if they just kept it the same price.
This article seems to imply that Dell knows something everyone else doesn't know. It can't be the value of *linux* the OS can it, ZDNET? No, they suspect that Microsoft is involved. Riiiight. At any rate, I think it is *incredibly, hugely unlikely* that Microsoft is going to release MS Office on Linux. Never saw MS Office for OS/2 did we? Don't think we are going to see one for linux. Linux competes for too directly with Windows for them to ever do it. Enough bashing ZDNET for shoddy reporting and baseless implications. Dell is selling their machines with Linux pre-loaded because it sees potential in the operating system, they wan't to be the "first" big company to offer it. I say its great for us, the more companies who do this, the more alternatives will continue to gain support. Also, Dell produces top-quality machines, I have a year old PII/400 from them, wonderful stuff, a year before that I had a PII/266, now that I am boycotting M$ I can buy my *next* machine from them too, without paying an M$ tax. Kudos to Dell!
Its where the Linux users of the world today are. The bleeding edge. We love technology for so many reasons, most not explainable to our wives, girlfriends, or others. We run Linux because its fast, it makes us feel powerful, part of the elite few who understand cryptic commands. We run Linux for all the reasons we hate that "other" OS from a company in Redmond, Washington. Who's to say what will happen to Linux as it becomes ever more commercialized. Will it lose that "bleeding edge" feeling? Only if people aren't still releasing the latest versions of the kernal, or pre-releasing unstable code. The average user can have their tried-and-true, easy to install Redhat distrib, and we can have our heavily hacked hybrid of the latest distribs, and the bugfixes downloaded that morning. As long as Linux retains that ability to be on the bleeding edge, a lot of us will still use Linux, and some will use other operating systems too, but we do now (FreeBSD, BeOS...)
Good idea, I'm suprised something like the FSF or another organization hasn't offered something like that. It seems most open source developers are, in a educational community, can develop outside a 9-5 job or work for a really cool company that pays them to develop (Redhat, Transmeta). If you are in none of these sets, you must have inherited wealth, because how you pay for food, rent, and computer hardware to hack on, I dunno. Anyway, my point is, for people who would benefit from this, ie, people with neither inherited wealth or a job at a company like Redhat, I would certainly donate a small amount of my personal money to your cause. Hey, maybe I can even get my company to donate a bit! They use Linux on their servers, why shouldn't they!
Another idea. Someone could start an not for profit organization, that can sell a distribution (perhaps just a package of debian or something), in retail boxes, for a price similar to redhat, and all of the money after the cost of distribution could be distributed among needy open source developers:-)
I use a commercial X-Server, yes I know its not free, but its cheaper then RedHat 6.0. For $39 I have Metro-X. It's a bit smoother (ie faster) then XFree86 and easier to configure. It also supports dual headed on a limited array of Matrox video cards (and maybe some others). I have 2 Millenium II's and it works great, it feeds my 15" and my new 21". Sure it has its problems... but its as good as 4.0 will be, now!
Spyky
No I am not affiliated in any way with MetroLink, they just make a nice X Server.
Sorry about the poor format of my post, I forgot to put br's in since I used HTML formatting.
Then the parents should be the only ones allowed to take children into a movie which is rated 'R'. Since it is the parents' job, they should be required to stay with their children throughout the movie.
I agree, its a parents responsibility to decide. Why is a parents permission not good enough? If they don't want to accompany their child, they shouldn't have to, they probably aren't going to offer any constructive guidance anyway. As for the retarded children comment, I forgot about it, yes I did read it. I guess I didn't pick up on that. I think what the original writer was, not so eloquently, trying to say, is that he is responsible enough to offer guidance to mentally handicapped children, yet not judged responsible enough to see a woman's behind. It does seem rather silly to put it that way. But the idea is that the writer is annoyed at the double standard, that judges him mature enough for some things, and not mature enough for something else. I think any 16 year old (or 17 year old in this case) is mature enough to see a movie like eyes Wide Shut, if they are anything but home schooled, they have seen/heard/know about far worse sexual acts. But ultimately it is the parents job, and in the case of a 17 year old, certainly not the movie theaters job.
I may be younger then you, but I am not a child, not even in the legal sense. I think that your blanket statement "the movies that are restricted are intended for adults, and have adult themes" isn't terribly useful. How do you define child? Is it up to you do define this age for children other then your own? Who decides what qualifies as an "adult theme"? Surely you don't think that the MPAA isn't the ultimate and unfailing authority when deciding whether a movie is appropriate for children. As for movies like American Pie, I don't think there is anything in that movie that a child of 14 hasn't already seen. Trust me, it wasn't so long ago that I don't remember. Does that mean that you have to let your children see it without your supervision? No. Does that mean that you have a right to require theaters to enforce it. I hope you are not so arrogant as to think that yours is the *only* possible opinion. Please don't treat my like a child by saying that I should "grow up". I am 19 years old. Old enough to drink (well not legally, but that wouldnt' stop me if I wanted to drink), smoke, vote, die in a war, drive a car and make responsible decisions. And most importantly, think for myself. Am I irresponsible because the MPAA placed arbitrary restrictions on me? No, I'm not irresponsible, and the theaters didn't enforce these rules when they applied to me:-)
It doesn't matter how many thousands of emails you got from CHILDREN. They are still children. They are still the responsibility of their parents. They are NOT adults nor have the achieved the maturity necessary for the decisions on what is good or bad for them. What is a child? Is it 14? 16? 17? At exactly what age do children have the maturity to make decisions about what is good for them. Is it the magical age of 17, or 18, or 21? Seems to me there is increasing responsibility with age. A mature 14 year old can handle a movie like American Pie or even Eyes Wide Shut, maybe an immature 25 year old can't. Who are you to judge? Isn't that a parents job? You want an example? Teenage males are the worst drivers according to insurance records. They make stupid decisions. Even when they've been trained on the correct actions (read safe). Teenage males and females are both "bad" drivers according to insurance records. For a few (this applies to adults too) it is because of agressive behavior. For most, it is due to inexperience, leading to minor fender benders, waiting too long to brake on a wet surface, etc. Would waiting until they are 21 change this, probably not they still, at the age of 21, would have the same lack of experience. Of course they are going to support your position that they have more freedom. Big deal. They can support you all you want but they don't have any authority. No authority. So at that magical age of 18 this authority gets placed upon them. Gee, as a parent, that seems like a great idea, lets dump them out into the real world at 18 with all that responsibility and authority, and see how well they do. Children have authority and responsibility long before then. Look to your example letters. What does helping retarded children have to do with watching erotica (Kidman's butt)? What retarded children? What are you talking about. And is seeing Kidman's butt really going to hurt any 14 year old? A 16 year old? Get a clue. Get a life Spyky
Exactly, mostly kids. As an adult, you should know that kids don't always see the whole picture. You, however should be able to.
Adults like you certainly don't see the whole picture either. Who are you to say no if some parent wants their 14 year old to be able to see R rated movies. Surely you admit that they will anyway when it arrives on VHS or DVD. Why shouldn't they be able to see it in a theater? Why should their parents have to be with them? They might not be when they bring home the same movie on video. As an adult, if you try to place arbitrary (little regard to actual "dangerous" content or maturity of viewer) rules on a teenager, you are more likely to incite him/her to rebel, rather then obey. If they are determined to do something, they will do it, with or without your approval. Sure kids don't know everything, and they certainly don't see the whole picture, but neither do adults. I find your point particuarly worthless, say something constructive.
I deal with mainstream computer users every day as a network administrator. Many of them have a fear of their computer, anything outside their limited experience is, to them, impossible. To get them to learn a new program is extremely difficult. Some "experts" say that trying to get users like them to use Linux will be next to impossible. Linux is too complicated for the average user. Is Windows 95/98/NT any less complicated I ask? Even Windows, which is pretty dumbed down to the average user, still mystifies a novice. It randomly stops working, a program stops responding, this happens far too often for the novice user. More advanced users know enough to reboot the machine when it locks, but a novice user doesn't understand why it stopped functioning, and this just increases the users fear of computer technology. To them, it shouldn't break! A 1969 Jaguar E-type is more reliable then windows! It amazes me that so many people use windows, after all the frustration of inconvenient malfunctions every user experiences. This is because of three main reasons, they aren't aware of the alternatives, they *think* the alternatives are too complicated or lastly, everyone else they know uses Windows so they *think* they have to too.
Our entry into the mainstream market will be begun by someone (like Corel) providing a distribution that shields a user from the command line, yet still provides the bulk of Linux's power with GUI tools, and allows advanced users to access all of what makes Linux great. This is much sooner then you think. Hopefully before Windows 2000 hits the shelf. Next in the battle is mainstream apps, not just games like Quake. We need an app like Quicken (I would like this too, so I don't have to reboot too winblows), educational software, etc. Also, a unified installer would be nice. A lot of windows apps use install shield, a graphical version of a Makefile would be great. Anyway just thought I'd throw out some ideas.
MP3.com IPOed at $28, and hit the markets that day at around $92. To be fair, Redhat is a VERY different company. One built on an acual profitable machine. What could be more profitable then taking a free product, and value adding services. In the eyes of savvy investors, Redhat has potential, MP3.com is just a buzzword.
I don't think there is going to be a commercial interest in retrieving oil anytime soon. The cost of transporting oil (which is really quite cheap by volume) makes it a ludicrous proposal. Space technology will probably never become so cheap that it will be a cost savings to transport it from ANOTHER planet as opposed to Saudi Arabia. Maybe it will be useful as a heat source when we started expanding past the planet Earth.
Because Linux doesn't crash makes it great for simple boxes and non-casual users. When was the last time your VCR crashed? Casual users won't by an appliance that doesn't work the way it should, this is for people who aren't buying PCs now, for that very reason.
A properly pre-configured and idiot proofed (by the manufacturer) Easy-PC with just about any window manager makes the PERFECT set top box. Microsoft doesn't have any advantage as far as GUIs go, there isn't much difference between modern GUIs at all. The most important factor, not paying a Micro$oft tax = cheaper boxes.
In addition, the point of the article wasn't to say that Linux is the perfect EasyPC right now, the point is, that it is a perfect platform to start developing an EasyPC that will be ready by next Christmas, and could be a better alternative to the product microsoft plans to have by then.
I totally agree, I listen to MP3s rarely, because the quality is so apparent. Especially on my very pricy audiophile system. On a cheap bookshelf system it's not a big deal, but on high-quality components its VERY noticable. Before you all start telling this guy that he's a loser and no one can possibly hear it, try it yourself. Here is a simple test that shouldn't take too long. Take any CD with a song that has lots of detail, preferablly something you know well. Just about anything thats not thrash metal or should work well. Take a song of the CD, MP3 it (try a couple different bitrates, the standard 128 is a lot worse then 256), and record it to a blank CDR. Now go to a stereo store that sells nice stuff. The nicer the equipment, the more revealing of the source limitations it is. Play both the original CD, and the MP3 on CD. Tell me which one sounds better.
There are other formats out there that are MUCH better vqf is one of my favorites, too bad there is no linux player:-( I think the reason why is mostly due to the licensing agreements (Yamaha owns the tech, but its free). Maybe someone can look into that more. Hopefully MP4, which uses a conglomeration of AAC (another better format) and VQF will improve the quality of MP3s.
I don't mean to be redundant, several people have pointed out that Linux already supports hot-swappable drives. This is true, to an extent. In a RAID configuration, the RAID controller is responsible for handling drives that are swapped in and out. In our Compaq ProLiant 3000 server, we have 3 X 9 GIG SCSI hard drives in a RAID 5 array. This server could run almost ANY OS (ours runs NetWare), providing that support for the RAID controller is available. Of course, in order to handle hot swapping it also requires that the hardware like drive bays, drives, and cables adhere to the standard used by the RAID controller. The Compaq Proliant has drives with nice lights on the front and tabs that allow the drives to be removed without tools, and a modular cage to hold them. As far as I know these are primarily proprietary solutions specific to each of many server vendors (HP/Compaq/IBM and others). In order for hot swap ability, a company like SGI has to offer hardware designed to work together (which they already do on their other server lines). They would then have to write or modify a driver to allow Linux to use the RAID controller, it doesn't require any great change in the OS. While its great news for Linux that SGI is building servers with Linux pre-installed, they haven't contributed any significant amount to the OSS. However, I hope that they will contribute to, and perhaps speed development on making Linux more SMP capable.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll settle for just a client, most quicktime movies I view are embedded in HTML documents, I don't need a feature-full player to enjoy short clips. Right now I can't enjoy those clips at all in linux. I would prefer something that can play QuickTime movies in Linux to nothing at all. Since it is extremely unlikely that Apple will release either an open source, or even a general closed-source codec library, I will settle for what I can get, and still praise it as a step in the right direction. Spyky
If they are being abused, then why don't they press charges? Wait a minute, you are just throwing out the word abuse for effect
No, I did not use the word abuse "just for effect". I don't mean physical abuse, though that happens way too often too. The statics of women who actually do press charges following physical abuse speak for themselves in this matter. However, that is not what I am referring to at all, but rather emotional abuse, if you will allow me to use that word. How would you like it if many of your peers treated you as inferior, because of your sex. Even if it doesn't happen as often as I seem to think, the threat of it is enough to make females stay away from situations like it, and hence, not choose technical majors.
I love how your definition of "even ratio" means signifigantly more women than men.
Please do not put words into my mouth. I certainly do not mean more girls then guys is an even ratio. I mean exactly what I said, a more equal ratio. More women, even 15%/85% would make a major like computer engineering a more attractive major for females entering college. Eventually, perhaps, increasing the ratio to equal, 50%/50%.
Are you telling us to be celibate for the rest of our lives? Become homosexuals? What? How are we supposed to date women if we don't ask? Of course you forget how women refuse to date us for our career choices. If they aren't willing to change for us, why should we change our behavior (which isn't bigoted in the first place) for them?
I do not in any way suggest celibacy or homosexuality are even options for a straight male. Simply respect your female counterparts for their abilities in your field, not because you want to get into their pants, which many (I didn't say you in particular) guys I know, do not. The girl will respect that far more then you hitting on her to get laid, and who knows you might get laid anyway. Actually what I find bigoted is this nonsense that a guy has to do the asking to get a date. Not that you can't ask, but its not the only way anymore.
Spyky
I am a male in my second year as a computer engineering student at Rochester Institute of Technology. My entire school has a population of probably 70%/30% guys/girls. In fields like computer engineering, its probably more like 95%/5%. It creates a certain inhospitable atmosphere for females, especially if they are attractive, they are likely to have guys swarming them. I have made a point to never "hit on" a girl who I don't know well at this school. They are either completely promiscuous or they are constantly and unwelcomely bombarded by horny guys who can't get a date. This activity doesn't end at college. The same ratios are found in the workplace afterwards, for obvious reasons.
Its frustrating to me, as a guy who tries as much as possible to be unlike the "typical college guy", because females are so abused by so many males that they choose not to enter fields where males dominate. Its very dissapointing that all of my female friends are from majors like english or psychology. I think most girls now know that the traditional, men are better at science is bullshit, but it doesn't change the field they choose. Even though there are as many girls as guys who are capable of handling a technical major, they DON'T choose it for the reasons above. They would rather be in a situation were they feel more accepted, one with a more even ratio of girls and guys. I can't say I blame them. Its almost enough to make me want to quit this and go be a professional chef or something.
The problem is, how do we make things change? It's such powerful self sustaining cycle. I am encouraged, because fields like Information Technology (which is considered the "easy" technical major) are beginning to approach that even ratio of 50%/50% girls/guys. Hopefully as years pass this effect will "trickle up" into more involved mathematics and engineering based majors like CS, computer engineering, microelectronics, electrical engineering, etc... But it will be too late for me to see it. The best I can say to fellow slashdot readers is, please do your part. Encourage female friends to be different, take a chance, make a stand in this male dominated field, and most of all, don't be a bigot yourself. Accept people for their skills, and don't deride them for their differences. I see this entirely too often, and its disgusting and utterly disenhearting.
Spyky
why thats is completely and utterly INCONCIEVABLE!
:-)
Spyky
The author of this inane article, that slanders the wonderful and intelligent people who found a loophole in a poorly designed system, brings up yet another thoughtless point when he compares decription-free DVD equal to MP3s. The only reason digital music (in the form of MP3s) has had such an explosion in recent years is that people can copy 5MB files with relative ease. Even a modem can download these files overnight. But DVDs take 9GB or more, and its already compressed! Illegal videos ripped from DVDs are not going to start flying across the "internet" like this journalist implies.
As for stopping the Average Joe from copying DVDs at home, why bother? Sure, I suppose I could burn a copy of my favorite DVD for a friend, supposing I felt like spending $10 for the media and an hour burning something that costs $19.95 new. On top of $500+ drive. That's like copying a $3.99 "bargain rack" (ie. stuff that doesn't sell) to a $2 CDR. The movie industry better be scared now.
Suggesting replacing all of the firmware is the most ludicrous idea yet. Do you know how much it would cost to, first, come up with a new better standard, update all the existing players, and impliment recalls to replace them. Far more then they have to worry about from the Average Joe copying movies at his house.
Sure I don't want the movie studios to wait longer to release my favorite movies (Star Wars, Back to the Future, Braveheart...), but we don't need ignorant journalists raising fears of piracy that won't happen. The movie studios need to realize what their priorities are, making the fortune they could on as-yet-unreleased films, or taking excessive measures at preventing small change pirating.
Spyky
Actually I find this too be helpful. I am prone to loseing $2 notebooks, nearly as often as I lose my pens and pencils. However, I keep much better track of my $300 Palm, and haven't lost it yet.
Spyky
I am referring the performance hit caused by requiring 3 writes instead of one to modify any part of the filesystem. One of the major problems, is that the log is usually stored in some physical part of the disk that is not necessarily near the data being written, requiring the head to travel across the disk twice for just one write. In large file servers this can be fixed by hardware means, having multiple disks, etc. But in a desktop this is not the case. You may be right about "not noticing" the hit while doing standard desktop operations (browsing, WPing, etc.), I don't really know how much of a problem it causes, or if it will be significant in this case, its just a though... :-) As for the problems with ext2, I haven't really had any problems. Granted I don't do mission critical stuff on my linux machine, yet... Then again I don't do mission critical stuff :-) I don't think it has any more inherent flaws the HPFS or NTFS.
Spyky
First, this is great news because in addition to adding enterprise level (pardon my buzzwords) features to Linux, it also shows SGI's commitment to Linux. Hopefully they will continue to release some of their code (and develop new code) under the GPL.
;-) However, I wonder at the performance hit caused by logging. If I remember correctly, most logging systems work by writing a message to a "log" before changing the filesystem and another after the change is complete. This would greatly increase the disk usage overhead on a desktop (single disk) Linux system like mine. Having such a robust filesystem isn't NECESSARY on my desktop. Is there a way to turn logging off (and remove the performance hit) when using this filesytem. Otherwise I will stick to ext2. Any thoughts?
I wonder though, at the intent to REPLACE the ext2 filesystem for linux. Yes, I agree that having a journaling filesystem is great for large Linux fileservers, webservers and database servers. Slashdot would certainly benefit from such a system
Spyky
That is not entirely correct. As I said, there is no consumer soundcard that supports Dolby Digital (true dolby digital encoding). Most DVD decoders have an SPDIF dolby digital output. However, the Soundblaster Live! soundcard uses Creative Labs proprietary Environmental Audio (which requires games or audio programs to support it) to output sound to 4 speakers. To the best of my knowledge, this cannot be output with the SPDIF connector to a dolby digital decoder, even if it can, its not a "true" dolby digital system.
:-) ) I recommend getting a traditional decoder. Many brands have cheap (~$250) decoders, that are designed to work with their dolby digital "ready" systems. Try your local consumer audio store. They should have several models that will be much better then the cambrige system, since you don't need the speakers/amp anyway. Again, make sure it has SPDIFs, preferably two, so you can use your MPEG decoder card out too.
At any rate, the cambridge soundworks set you mention, I said is not a true Dolby Digital system. That is incorrect, it does support true dolby digital (5.1) decoding, as well as Creative's proprietary Environmental Audio. However its quality is below that of even an ultra-cheap Sony reciever and Radio Shack speakers. If you don't wish to replace your Aiwa system (don't even get me started
Spyky
Too the best of my knowledge (I've looked around a bit) there are no consumer level products that support true Dolby Digital format (preferably with a digital output). Creative labs Live cards support 4 speakers, but not a true 5.1 dolby digital, though they sometimes make it seem like it does by advertising their speakers (cambridge soundworks) as Dolby Digital or whatever. They are not. But the card does have an SPDIF output, which will allow you to connect it to a high quality stereo with a good D/A converter.
:-) I have a similar situation in my dorm room. Next I want to get a video projecter with a d-sub or RGB input so I can connect my computer to it and project my DVD's on a huge screen!
I recommend what a previous poster had said, get a high quality Dolby Digital reciever (or seperate components if you can afford them). Regular Sony models and most other basic brands Marantz, Harmon-Kardon and others for good quality sound which can be had for around $1000 (US), or less. I have a Proceed system, but expect to pay $10k+ for something of that caliber (along with Krell and others).
If you get such a reciever, make sure it has at least 2 (preferably more) RCA SPDIF inputs. That way you can use the SPDIF (Dobly Digital) output from your MPEG decoder that the DVD is attached to and the SPDIF of a soundcard to the reciever using a RCA cable. This will move the digital to analog processing OUT of the computer, into the reciever, which has much higher quality components and a much reduced noise floor.
Combine the reciever will a high quality set of speakers and a subwoofer and you have an incredible home theater system. Important: Don't skimp on speakers any more then the reciever. DO NOT BUY BOSE SPEAKERS!!! There are far better quality and better sounding brands that cost less money. Bose, like Microsoft, is based on marketing, the quality of their products is inferior to many others. Go for a traditional bookshelf or floor standing speaker as opposed to Bose type mini cubes (if you get floor standers you may be able to forgo getting a subwoofer initially, though it is recommended). B&W offers some of the finest loudspeakers available, from $250 to $40,000. I highly recommend the 300 and 600 series for an affordable home theater. Match it with a Velodyne subwoofer, and you have a system to die for.
Sorry if I rambled a little off topic here, but Audio is hobby of mine
Spyky
will tech support "tech support?" I know that their warranty policy is very stodgy, and that if you want your computer fixed, they expect it to be in the original configuration as you got it.
:-) ). In fact I had the system open and sitting out when he arrived, so he didn't have to take the time to unscrew it. I would have prefered that they just overnight me the card but during the first year of next-day on-site service, they want to install it themselves I guess.
I've owned several Dell computers (2 actually) and on one a sound card fried. The tech had no problem coming to my dorm to install a new card (it was during the first year with on-site service), and didn't blink an eye when he saw my fairly heavily modified system (new modem, SCSI card, hard drive, CD burner, and of course, OS
Sufice it to say, I have absolutely no complaints about their service or machines. They are both great! and if Dell has announced that they are offering Linux pre-installed, I have faith that they will tweak it to your custom hardware (within the options they offer, of course, which is adaquete for most users). They may use a distro like Redhat, we'll see. I'm also certain that they will offer the same high quality tech support that I am used to recieving from Dell. I hope they lower the price of the system by $50 or so if you choose linux over Winblows, but would be happy enough if they just kept it the same price.
Spyky
This article seems to imply that Dell knows something everyone else doesn't know. It can't be the value of *linux* the OS can it, ZDNET? No, they suspect that Microsoft is involved. Riiiight. At any rate, I think it is *incredibly, hugely unlikely* that Microsoft is going to release MS Office on Linux. Never saw MS Office for OS/2 did we? Don't think we are going to see one for linux. Linux competes for too directly with Windows for them to ever do it. Enough bashing ZDNET for shoddy reporting and baseless implications. Dell is selling their machines with Linux pre-loaded because it sees potential in the operating system, they wan't to be the "first" big company to offer it. I say its great for us, the more companies who do this, the more alternatives will continue to gain support. Also, Dell produces top-quality machines, I have a year old PII/400 from them, wonderful stuff, a year before that I had a PII/266, now that I am boycotting M$ I can buy my *next* machine from them too, without paying an M$ tax. Kudos to Dell!
Spyky
Its where the Linux users of the world today are. The bleeding edge. We love technology for so many reasons, most not explainable to our wives, girlfriends, or others. We run Linux because its fast, it makes us feel powerful, part of the elite few who understand cryptic commands. We run Linux for all the reasons we hate that "other" OS from a company in Redmond, Washington. Who's to say what will happen to Linux as it becomes ever more commercialized. Will it lose that "bleeding edge" feeling? Only if people aren't still releasing the latest versions of the kernal, or pre-releasing unstable code. The average user can have their tried-and-true, easy to install Redhat distrib, and we can have our heavily hacked hybrid of the latest distribs, and the bugfixes downloaded that morning. As long as Linux retains that ability to be on the bleeding edge, a lot of us will still use Linux, and some will use other operating systems too, but we do now (FreeBSD, BeOS...)
Spyky
Good idea, I'm suprised something like the FSF or another organization hasn't offered something like that. It seems most open source developers are, in a educational community, can develop outside a 9-5 job or work for a really cool company that pays them to develop (Redhat, Transmeta). If you are in none of these sets, you must have inherited wealth, because how you pay for food, rent, and computer hardware to hack on, I dunno. Anyway, my point is, for people who would benefit from this, ie, people with neither inherited wealth or a job at a company like Redhat, I would certainly donate a small amount of my personal money to your cause. Hey, maybe I can even get my company to donate a bit! They use Linux on their servers, why shouldn't they!
:-)
Another idea. Someone could start an not for profit organization, that can sell a distribution (perhaps just a package of debian or something), in retail boxes, for a price similar to redhat, and all of the money after the cost of distribution could be distributed among needy open source developers
Spyky
I use a commercial X-Server, yes I know its not free, but its cheaper then RedHat 6.0. For $39 I have Metro-X. It's a bit smoother (ie faster) then XFree86 and easier to configure. It also supports dual headed on a limited array of Matrox video cards (and maybe some others). I have 2 Millenium II's and it works great, it feeds my 15" and my new 21". Sure it has its problems... but its as good as 4.0 will be, now!
Spyky
No I am not affiliated in any way with MetroLink, they just make a nice X Server.
Sorry about the poor format of my post, I forgot to put br's in since I used HTML formatting.
Then the parents should be the only ones allowed to take children into a movie which is rated 'R'. Since it is the parents' job, they should be required to stay with their children throughout the movie.
I agree, its a parents responsibility to decide. Why is a parents permission not good enough? If they don't want to accompany their child, they shouldn't have to, they probably aren't going to offer any constructive guidance anyway. As for the retarded children comment, I forgot about it, yes I did read it. I guess I didn't pick up on that. I think what the original writer was, not so eloquently, trying to say, is that he is responsible enough to offer guidance to mentally handicapped children, yet not judged responsible enough to see a woman's behind. It does seem rather silly to put it that way. But the idea is that the writer is annoyed at the double standard, that judges him mature enough for some things, and not mature enough for something else. I think any 16 year old (or 17 year old in this case) is mature enough to see a movie like eyes Wide Shut, if they are anything but home schooled, they have seen/heard/know about far worse sexual acts. But ultimately it is the parents job, and in the case of a 17 year old, certainly not the movie theaters job.
Spyky
I may be younger then you, but I am not a child, not even in the legal sense. I think that your blanket statement "the movies that are restricted are intended for adults, and have adult themes" isn't terribly useful. How do you define child? Is it up to you do define this age for children other then your own? Who decides what qualifies as an "adult theme"? Surely you don't think that the MPAA isn't the ultimate and unfailing authority when deciding whether a movie is appropriate for children. As for movies like American Pie, I don't think there is anything in that movie that a child of 14 hasn't already seen. Trust me, it wasn't so long ago that I don't remember. Does that mean that you have to let your children see it without your supervision? No. Does that mean that you have a right to require theaters to enforce it. I hope you are not so arrogant as to think that yours is the *only* possible opinion. Please don't treat my like a child by saying that I should "grow up". I am 19 years old. Old enough to drink (well not legally, but that wouldnt' stop me if I wanted to drink), smoke, vote, die in a war, drive a car and make responsible decisions. And most importantly, think for myself. Am I irresponsible because the MPAA placed arbitrary restrictions on me? No, I'm not irresponsible, and the theaters didn't enforce these rules when they applied to me :-)
Spyky
It doesn't matter how many thousands of emails you got from CHILDREN. They are still children. They are still the responsibility of their parents. They are NOT adults nor have the achieved the maturity necessary for the decisions on what is good or bad for them. What is a child? Is it 14? 16? 17? At exactly what age do children have the maturity to make decisions about what is good for them. Is it the magical age of 17, or 18, or 21? Seems to me there is increasing responsibility with age. A mature 14 year old can handle a movie like American Pie or even Eyes Wide Shut, maybe an immature 25 year old can't. Who are you to judge? Isn't that a parents job? You want an example? Teenage males are the worst drivers according to insurance records. They make stupid decisions. Even when they've been trained on the correct actions (read safe). Teenage males and females are both "bad" drivers according to insurance records. For a few (this applies to adults too) it is because of agressive behavior. For most, it is due to inexperience, leading to minor fender benders, waiting too long to brake on a wet surface, etc. Would waiting until they are 21 change this, probably not they still, at the age of 21, would have the same lack of experience. Of course they are going to support your position that they have more freedom. Big deal. They can support you all you want but they don't have any authority. No authority. So at that magical age of 18 this authority gets placed upon them. Gee, as a parent, that seems like a great idea, lets dump them out into the real world at 18 with all that responsibility and authority, and see how well they do. Children have authority and responsibility long before then. Look to your example letters. What does helping retarded children have to do with watching erotica (Kidman's butt)? What retarded children? What are you talking about. And is seeing Kidman's butt really going to hurt any 14 year old? A 16 year old? Get a clue. Get a life Spyky
Exactly, mostly kids. As an adult, you should know that kids don't always see the whole picture. You, however should be able to.
Adults like you certainly don't see the whole picture either. Who are you to say no if some parent wants their 14 year old to be able to see R rated movies. Surely you admit that they will anyway when it arrives on VHS or DVD. Why shouldn't they be able to see it in a theater? Why should their parents have to be with them? They might not be when they bring home the same movie on video. As an adult, if you try to place arbitrary (little regard to actual "dangerous" content or maturity of viewer) rules on a teenager, you are more likely to incite him/her to rebel, rather then obey. If they are determined to do something, they will do it, with or without your approval. Sure kids don't know everything, and they certainly don't see the whole picture, but neither do adults. I find your point particuarly worthless, say something constructive.
Spyky
Go John Katz!
I deal with mainstream computer users every day as a network administrator. Many of them have a fear of their computer, anything outside their limited experience is, to them, impossible. To get them to learn a new program is extremely difficult. Some "experts" say that trying to get users like them to use Linux will be next to impossible. Linux is too complicated for the average user. Is Windows 95/98/NT any less complicated I ask? Even Windows, which is pretty dumbed down to the average user, still mystifies a novice. It randomly stops working, a program stops responding, this happens far too often for the novice user. More advanced users know enough to reboot the machine when it locks, but a novice user doesn't understand why it stopped functioning, and this just increases the users fear of computer technology. To them, it shouldn't break! A 1969 Jaguar E-type is more reliable then windows! It amazes me that so many people use windows, after all the frustration of inconvenient malfunctions every user experiences. This is because of three main reasons, they aren't aware of the alternatives, they *think* the alternatives are too complicated or lastly, everyone else they know uses Windows so they *think* they have to too.
Our entry into the mainstream market will be begun by someone (like Corel) providing a distribution that shields a user from the command line, yet still provides the bulk of Linux's power with GUI tools, and allows advanced users to access all of what makes Linux great. This is much sooner then you think. Hopefully before Windows 2000 hits the shelf. Next in the battle is mainstream apps, not just games like Quake. We need an app like Quicken (I would like this too, so I don't have to reboot too winblows), educational software, etc. Also, a unified installer would be nice. A lot of windows apps use install shield, a graphical version of a Makefile would be great. Anyway just thought I'd throw out some ideas.
Spyky
MP3.com IPOed at $28, and hit the markets that day at around $92. To be fair, Redhat is a VERY different company. One built on an acual profitable machine. What could be more profitable then taking a free product, and value adding services. In the eyes of savvy investors, Redhat has potential, MP3.com is just a buzzword.
Spyky
I don't think there is going to be a commercial interest in retrieving oil anytime soon. The cost of transporting oil (which is really quite cheap by volume) makes it a ludicrous proposal. Space technology will probably never become so cheap that it will be a cost savings to transport it from ANOTHER planet as opposed to Saudi Arabia. Maybe it will be useful as a heat source when we started expanding past the planet Earth.
Spyky
Because Linux doesn't crash makes it great for simple boxes and non-casual users. When was the last time your VCR crashed? Casual users won't by an appliance that doesn't work the way it should, this is for people who aren't buying PCs now, for that very reason.
A properly pre-configured and idiot proofed (by the manufacturer) Easy-PC with just about any window manager makes the PERFECT set top box. Microsoft doesn't have any advantage as far as GUIs go, there isn't much difference between modern GUIs at all. The most important factor, not paying a Micro$oft tax = cheaper boxes.
In addition, the point of the article wasn't to say that Linux is the perfect EasyPC right now, the point is, that it is a perfect platform to start developing an EasyPC that will be ready by next Christmas, and could be a better alternative to the product microsoft plans to have by then.
Spyky
I totally agree, I listen to MP3s rarely, because the quality is so apparent. Especially on my very pricy audiophile system. On a cheap bookshelf system it's not a big deal, but on high-quality components its VERY noticable. Before you all start telling this guy that he's a loser and no one can possibly hear it, try it yourself. Here is a simple test that shouldn't take too long. Take any CD with a song that has lots of detail, preferablly something you know well. Just about anything thats not thrash metal or should work well. Take a song of the CD, MP3 it (try a couple different bitrates, the standard 128 is a lot worse then 256), and record it to a blank CDR. Now go to a stereo store that sells nice stuff. The nicer the equipment, the more revealing of the source limitations it is. Play both the original CD, and the MP3 on CD. Tell me which one sounds better.
:-( I think the reason why is mostly due to the licensing agreements (Yamaha owns the tech, but its free). Maybe someone can look into that more. Hopefully MP4, which uses a conglomeration of AAC (another better format) and VQF will improve the quality of MP3s.
There are other formats out there that are MUCH better vqf is one of my favorites, too bad there is no linux player
Spyky
I don't mean to be redundant, several people have pointed out that Linux already supports hot-swappable drives. This is true, to an extent. In a RAID configuration, the RAID controller is responsible for handling drives that are swapped in and out. In our Compaq ProLiant 3000 server, we have 3 X 9 GIG SCSI hard drives in a RAID 5 array. This server could run almost ANY OS (ours runs NetWare), providing that support for the RAID controller is available. Of course, in order to handle hot swapping it also requires that the hardware like drive bays, drives, and cables adhere to the standard used by the RAID controller. The Compaq Proliant has drives with nice lights on the front and tabs that allow the drives to be removed without tools, and a modular cage to hold them. As far as I know these are primarily proprietary solutions specific to each of many server vendors (HP/Compaq/IBM and others).
In order for hot swap ability, a company like SGI has to offer hardware designed to work together (which they already do on their other server lines). They would then have to write or modify a driver to allow Linux to use the RAID controller, it doesn't require any great change in the OS. While its great news for Linux that SGI is building servers with Linux pre-installed, they haven't contributed any significant amount to the OSS. However, I hope that they will contribute to, and perhaps speed development on making Linux more SMP capable.
Spyky