Concerning the title of your post, I disagree. It's a problem of the user, not of the OS. The OS is good. It is pure. It is made by people who know what they're doing for people that know what they're doing. Everything else is an indulgence.
I know this must sound a bit arrogant but I don't really want a Linux that's easy to use*) because in the end what it means is that you end up with an open source Windows, and in sharp contrast to some, I do not believe this to be a good thing. I for one use Linux specifically because it treats me like an adult user. The Open Sourcieness is a very very nice benefit, but it's not the main reason for me.
* "Easy to use" meaning limited options to avoid confusion, being led around by the hand at all times and hiding "unncessary details" from the user
I can agree to some of the things said by this guy, but all in all, it's rubbish. Sure, response times are one thing and I think they've been addressed very well by preemption features and configurable scheduler frequency, but to blame a slow desktop experience on the kernel is just stupid. Really stupid. If you wonder where all your megahurzes go, try looking at your KDEs and Gnomes first, your animated gizmos, your 3d desktop gimmicks and applets and your java crap.
It may look like the real thing as far as the graphical design goes, but if you look at all the bullshit they're putting in it it can make you puke - provided you're an old school Fallout fan. A handheld nuke catapult? Portable phonebooth-sized shelters? Exploding cars with nuclear reactors? Super mutants that survive nuclear explosions? More idiotic minigames instead of character skills? Oblivion style dialog?
Me thinks the one fact that could save my life (or rather soul) isn't there: don't buy this pseudo RPG really-just-a-shooter crap.
Knock yourself out, mod me down. But I'm telling you, this thing'll suck ass to anyone other than the Generation X-Box kids.
I'm a big Fallout fan and I'm decidedly unexcited. This trailer shows no gameplay and doesn't lay to rest any of my fears concerning dialog, meaningful choices with consequences, good story, good game mechanics etc etc etc. Yeah, the setting and feel is important, but it's only a part of it. If they only get that right and none of the rest, basically it wouldn't be more than a STALKER clone.
Tell me again why this isn't covered by freedom of speech? Also, isn't Hollywood already able to have their movie characters say whatever they want, whenever they want? I don't get it.
Rolston: Usability. I was shocked to discover how difficult getting started in Oblivion was for some casual gamers, and even for some experienced fans of the genre.
W..T..F? I think now he's finally lost it. He was never on my list of favorite games designers, mainly for his obsession with everything having to be a metaphor for something, and his complete refusal of ever having an NPC betray the player, but this really sounds like a very very very bad joke to me. Difficult? This dumbed down hackfest? You have got to be kidding me!
For reference, here's a snippet from an interview with former TES designer Doug Goodall:
Sinder Velvin:
Can you remember any other rules that Ken Rolston had?
Douglas Goodall:
There were quite a few of them, but since I didn't understand most of them, this is something you ought to ask Ken if you get the chance. The only ones I'm sure I understood were "no betrayal" and "everything must be a metaphor/everything must be based on something."
"No betrayal" meant that key NPCs couldn't turn on the player, lie to the player if they were honest in the past, nor could an NPC steal an item from the player, etc. This is good as a general rule, but it's the kind of rule that begs for exceptions.
"Everything must be a metaphor" is how the quirky Cyrodiil of Daggerfall and the alien Cyrodiil of the Pocket Guide became the Roman Empire, how the Bretons got French names, etc. I felt Tamriel had been moving away from generic fantasy and medieval history with every game until Morrowind. I wanted this trend to continue and resented having to squeeze a Hermaeus Mora-shaped Vvardenfell into a Roman Province-shaped space. I think Ken uses historical examples to make the world more believable. If you just make stuff up, there's a good chance you'll make something wrong and break suspension of disbelief. That's true, but I'd argue that if you use an inappropriate or easily recognized metaphor, you have the same risk. Besides, making stuff up is more fun for both the creators and consumers. Did I mention I enjoy arguing?
All you really need is a kernel, some startup scripts and busybox. That way you can have pretty much everything you need in less than 4mb of flash, and it's all free! (as in beer and speech)
It happens elsewhere. Now, what do Germany and the US have in common? Two things. For one, yes, guns are easy to get. Some people will say that someone could just as well grab a knife, but you can't convince me that you can do as much damage with that. For one thing, you can physically resist someone attacking you with a knife, fending them off with a chair if must be. Can't do that with a gun because they're probably some distance away when they end your life.
The other thing which is probably more at the root of the problem is the school system. While both school systems have very little in common, both put a great amount of pressure on some of the students. In the case of the Erfurt massacre, the shooter felt he had been robbed of all perspective in life. In this case? Who knows. Wouldn't be surprised if it was something similar.
To reduce the no-load power requirements of transformers, you're going to have to drastically increase the price of each unit.
If there's no load, it shouldn't be connected to the mains at all. That's what the right kind of power switch will do, cut it off from the mains altogether.
If you want to actually save a non-trivial amount of energy, the solutions aren't easy or glamorous. Better home insulation will make a huge difference. Turn down your heater, so your refrigerator doesn't have to work as hard. Dry your clothes on a line. Compost all your own garbage. Get the entire world to drive mopeds to work (hopefully with 4-stroke engines). etc. Hell, in warmer climates, you'll probably save hundreds of dollars each years on air conditioning if you spend a few minutes, and $20 to duct the hot exhaust from your refrigerator, directly outdoors.
Those are actually very good points. Pitty I didn't think of them at the time; my only excuse is a) that I was a little pressed for time and b) I neither drive a car nor a moped nor even a bike, I usually walk to places, and despite an exceedingly hot and very humid summer the last few years, I'm not even contemplating getting an air condition. But that aside, very good points indeed, especially about the house insulation.
If you consider things like indoor plumbing a convenience, then yes, lots of energy is wasted on modern conveniences. If you instead consider that a necessity, then no, relatively very little energy is wasted on conveniences.
I think you will agree that example was a bit over the top. Obviously anyone will agree that indoor plumbing is a necessity in this day and age:)
But there are still many ways in which energy is wasted, as you yourself have just explained rather well. And yes, I don't think everyone will drop all of their energy wasting habbits - or even know and understand all of them - but I'm seeing at least some light on the horizon. Everyone right now is talking about it, about global warming and what it means for humanity and what can be done to stop it, and a lot of people are thinking of how they can help to stop it or at least slow it down, so there's definitely more awareness of the problem then say five years ago. This also means -hopefully- that people will be wanting more energy efficient electronics as well. Thinks like video cards for instance waste an incredible amount of energy, and most desktop CPUs do, too. Hell, just the other day I heard of a computer that can work on four watts. While I agree that that's probably a rather extreme example and that that computer will probably be far from full-featured, I have to wonder if it's really necessary to waste 400 watts just for writing a letter?
I also agree that consumer awareness and behaviour is only part of the solution. Stronger regulations on an international level are required as well to cut back on energy wasting in the industry. Of course if that is to happen, it will only happen against extreme resistance.
And even if you cut out all completely non-essential human activity, we'll have the same issues with power that we have now. Even when you're burning less of it, coal is still toxic, oil is still expensive, etc.
Sure, and rat poison is rat poison. Still, the amounts can make a huge difference. And yes, obviously we have to get away from these forms of energy, but it can't be the only measure. The solution to this problem will not be that painless. Sacrifices will have to be made if all are to be safed </drama>
Oh, and how is that going to work? Unlike oil pipelines, you can't just have a power cable running around the earth for 1000s of miles. If it was that easy, we could just plaster all the deserts with solar power cells and never think about charcoal or uranium ever again.
I have to wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. A so-called "IT professional" shouldn't have any problem building their own box, it's really not rocket science. So how you can proclaim that we are forced to buy Windows is beyond me. I really have to wonder why nobody tagged this article FUD. Because that's what it is.
Here's a crazy novel idea for you: Why just not stop wasting so much energy in the first place? If you need less energy, you need not worry as much about where you will get it from. Let's be honest, a lot of the energy used today is senselessly wasted on matters of pure convenience. We have standby circuits in many electronics products that needlessly waste energy, we leave our computers running all the time even if we're not around, same for light; we waste gigantic amounts of energy to produce things like tin foil, and the list goes on and on. Surely, at least in a few of those areas, we could do with less wasting?
Coming back to the topic, this incident just proves again that no matter how glorious and good your technology is, there's always a (big) risk as long as humans are involved. I'm not sure if you've heard of it, but there was a long string of accidents and problems in Sweden's NPPs too, one as critical as the one that was covered up in Japan: they got within 15 minutes of meltdown, and it was only by pure luck they managed to stop it. In the long run, the only alternative is to use 'alternative' energy sources that don't destroy the planet, and at the same time stop to waste so much energy.
Flash Player 7 for Linux used OSS. This required loading the ALSA-OSS compatibility modules, or or using aoss. Both methods had occasional quirks. I'll be glad to get rid of my last OSS application. Good for you, bad for me. It now works with ALSA excusively, which means I no longer get any sound. I'd have switched to ALSA, but after trying it out, it seemed to me that the mixer controls made absolutely no sense with my soundcard, so I switched back to OSS. Now I guess I'll just have to downgrade again.
Definitely not the same thing. AFAIK the members of a jury under US law only preside in one specific case, whilst a Schöffe is elected for a period of four years and basically is an honorary judge with the same rights as the presiding judge in a trial. Trials involving Schöffen usually have one professional judge presiding over the precedings and two Schöffen, in some cases two Schöffen and three professionals. Their role is most likely a much more active one than that of the juror.
Well, I'll be laughing my ass off when the first worm or trojan comes along that plays a small sample of protected content in a continuous loop, just to piss people off. Maybe even one you can't see or hear. But the effect will be there nevertheless - devices being switched off, quality degradation, the full package.
Slashdot Mirror
They may look stupid and it takes a while to get used to them but they work... at least for me.
Anir mouse
3M equivalent
Concerning the title of your post, I disagree. It's a problem of the user, not of the OS. The OS is good. It is pure. It is made by people who know what they're doing for people that know what they're doing. Everything else is an indulgence.
I know this must sound a bit arrogant but I don't really want a Linux that's easy to use*) because in the end what it means is that you end up with an open source Windows, and in sharp contrast to some, I do not believe this to be a good thing. I for one use Linux specifically because it treats me like an adult user. The Open Sourcieness is a very very nice benefit, but it's not the main reason for me.
* "Easy to use" meaning limited options to avoid confusion, being led around by the hand at all times and hiding "unncessary details" from the user
I can agree to some of the things said by this guy, but all in all, it's rubbish. Sure, response times are one thing and I think they've been addressed very well by preemption features and configurable scheduler frequency, but to blame a slow desktop experience on the kernel is just stupid. Really stupid. If you wonder where all your megahurzes go, try looking at your KDEs and Gnomes first, your animated gizmos, your 3d desktop gimmicks and applets and your java crap.
Me thinks the one fact that could save my life (or rather soul) isn't there: don't buy this pseudo RPG really-just-a-shooter crap.
Knock yourself out, mod me down. But I'm telling you, this thing'll suck ass to anyone other than the Generation X-Box kids.
Are you crazy? It'll only come back stronger, totally fearless and ready for action!!!
I'm a big Fallout fan and I'm decidedly unexcited. This trailer shows no gameplay and doesn't lay to rest any of my fears concerning dialog, meaningful choices with consequences, good story, good game mechanics etc etc etc. Yeah, the setting and feel is important, but it's only a part of it. If they only get that right and none of the rest, basically it wouldn't be more than a STALKER clone.
Tell me again why this isn't covered by freedom of speech? Also, isn't Hollywood already able to have their movie characters say whatever they want, whenever they want? I don't get it.
W..T..F? I think now he's finally lost it. He was never on my list of favorite games designers, mainly for his obsession with everything having to be a metaphor for something, and his complete refusal of ever having an NPC betray the player, but this really sounds like a very very very bad joke to me. Difficult? This dumbed down hackfest? You have got to be kidding me!
For reference, here's a snippet from an interview with former TES designer Doug Goodall:
All you really need is a kernel, some startup scripts and busybox. That way you can have pretty much everything you need in less than 4mb of flash, and it's all free! (as in beer and speech)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_massacre
It happens elsewhere. Now, what do Germany and the US have in common? Two things. For one, yes, guns are easy to get. Some people will say that someone could just as well grab a knife, but you can't convince me that you can do as much damage with that. For one thing, you can physically resist someone attacking you with a knife, fending them off with a chair if must be. Can't do that with a gun because they're probably some distance away when they end your life.
The other thing which is probably more at the root of the problem is the school system. While both school systems have very little in common, both put a great amount of pressure on some of the students. In the case of the Erfurt massacre, the shooter felt he had been robbed of all perspective in life. In this case? Who knows. Wouldn't be surprised if it was something similar.
One word: Boothbabes.
If there's no load, it shouldn't be connected to the mains at all. That's what the right kind of power switch will do, cut it off from the mains altogether.
Those are actually very good points. Pitty I didn't think of them at the time; my only excuse is a) that I was a little pressed for time and b) I neither drive a car nor a moped nor even a bike, I usually walk to places, and despite an exceedingly hot and very humid summer the last few years, I'm not even contemplating getting an air condition. But that aside, very good points indeed, especially about the house insulation.
I think you will agree that example was a bit over the top. Obviously anyone will agree that indoor plumbing is a necessity in this day and age :)
But there are still many ways in which energy is wasted, as you yourself have just explained rather well. And yes, I don't think everyone will drop all of their energy wasting habbits - or even know and understand all of them - but I'm seeing at least some light on the horizon. Everyone right now is talking about it, about global warming and what it means for humanity and what can be done to stop it, and a lot of people are thinking of how they can help to stop it or at least slow it down, so there's definitely more awareness of the problem then say five years ago. This also means -hopefully- that people will be wanting more energy efficient electronics as well. Thinks like video cards for instance waste an incredible amount of energy, and most desktop CPUs do, too. Hell, just the other day I heard of a computer that can work on four watts. While I agree that that's probably a rather extreme example and that that computer will probably be far from full-featured, I have to wonder if it's really necessary to waste 400 watts just for writing a letter?
I also agree that consumer awareness and behaviour is only part of the solution. Stronger regulations on an international level are required as well to cut back on energy wasting in the industry. Of course if that is to happen, it will only happen against extreme resistance.
Sure, and rat poison is rat poison. Still, the amounts can make a huge difference. And yes, obviously we have to get away from these forms of energy, but it can't be the only measure. The solution to this problem will not be that painless. Sacrifices will have to be made if all are to be safed </drama>Oh, and how is that going to work? Unlike oil pipelines, you can't just have a power cable running around the earth for 1000s of miles. If it was that easy, we could just plaster all the deserts with solar power cells and never think about charcoal or uranium ever again.
I have to wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. A so-called "IT professional" shouldn't have any problem building their own box, it's really not rocket science. So how you can proclaim that we are forced to buy Windows is beyond me. I really have to wonder why nobody tagged this article FUD. Because that's what it is.
Here's a crazy novel idea for you: Why just not stop wasting so much energy in the first place? If you need less energy, you need not worry as much about where you will get it from. Let's be honest, a lot of the energy used today is senselessly wasted on matters of pure convenience. We have standby circuits in many electronics products that needlessly waste energy, we leave our computers running all the time even if we're not around, same for light; we waste gigantic amounts of energy to produce things like tin foil, and the list goes on and on. Surely, at least in a few of those areas, we could do with less wasting?
Coming back to the topic, this incident just proves again that no matter how glorious and good your technology is, there's always a (big) risk as long as humans are involved. I'm not sure if you've heard of it, but there was a long string of accidents and problems in Sweden's NPPs too, one as critical as the one that was covered up in Japan: they got within 15 minutes of meltdown, and it was only by pure luck they managed to stop it. In the long run, the only alternative is to use 'alternative' energy sources that don't destroy the planet, and at the same time stop to waste so much energy.
I predict you will get exactly all of what you don't care about and none of what you do care about. Prove: Look at Oblivion.
Ghoul: I saw a radscorpion today. Nasty creatures
Mutant: I avoid them whenever I can
Ghoul: I've heard others say the same
3D, real time, and it will have the "bloody mess" perk. If that's Fallout enough for you, then full steam ahead.
Everyone else, expect an average FPS with good design.
Don't they know that a base on the moon is just going to be overrun by Cybermen? Duh!
They are making a sequal and believe me, you don't want that.
'cause... Bethesda is making it.
Disclaimer: IANAL.
We don't have juries here.
You heard me. Yeah, it's full of bugs, but oh well. Still a pretty good game, best of 2006 for me personally.
Well, I'll be laughing my ass off when the first worm or trojan comes along that plays a small sample of protected content in a continuous loop, just to piss people off. Maybe even one you can't see or hear. But the effect will be there nevertheless - devices being switched off, quality degradation, the full package.