ESR also had pretty stupid comments regarding BeOS, claiming it was doomed since it's not Open Source, and basically foreseeing the doom of all closed source OSes and apps.
He's also sent some very nasty emails to a Be developer friend of mine. You ever get the feeling this is starting to be about feeding ESR's ego? This "piece" (I suppose you can call it that for reasons scatalogical) reeked to the high heavens.
This is good for Russia since God knows they need the money. So far they've been less than diligent in keeping up with their end of the ISS.
This is potentially bad, because if you keep up with your Mir history (I recommend reading _Dragonfly_, it's by the same guy who did _Barbarians at the Gate_, it'll get you started) - the Russian cosmonauts had to film ads for various companies while on Mir, sometimes distracting them from real work they should have done instead (like fix Mir).
So, by spending millions on the ad they get a free thread ad in Slashdot (known to be a place where people who order pizza hang out). So as we all post about Pizza Hut, our minds become engraven with the words Pizza Hut. And we order Pizza more and thus they pay for the ad. Ingenious, Scully!
Yep. It's called mindshare. You'd do well to listen to Negativland's album _Dispepsi_.
4) Expand your horizons: Believe it or not there are more things you can do with a compuiter than surfing the web looking for warez you can burn to CD's. Why not try and pick up a programming language or two?
Some people want to use their computers to accomplish their goals, not change them. In other words, some people don't want to become computer programmers.
Besides the fact that you're preaching to the converted, offering places to get Linux tips on Slashdot.:)
When I started reading your post, it was marked score 1. When I clicked to read the full thing, it was up to 2. Would that I were a moderator, it'd be a 3. There is a definite ivory tower vibe to a lot of what gets posted here because people lack perspective. Yes, we all may be cool, hip, happening compustuds, but we are far outnumbered.
Myself, I don't use Linux at home because I haven't got the time. I have a shell account that went from Linux to FreeBSD and I like that (elm, tin, ircII - they all rule, they are the right way to do stuff for the most part). But I don't have the time to sit down and learn the admin end at home. I do tech support all day, I get home, I just want my computer to do things and do them relatively quickly.
And yes, I have installed Windows. 95, 98. On different machines, not just my 350 at home. They almost all went painlessly. I usually recommend to friends that they grab 98 now if they want to install one since it has newer drivers, even. Sort of like the difference between a 1.3 and a 2.3.:)
The point has been raised a few times now: most of you want Linux to be everywhere. So work towards it in some tangible way if you really want it that bad. And don't expect the users to do the work, because they won't. It's like asking people to do the 30 mile commute to work on a bike. Yes, it's better for the environment... (and don't take this too literally, it may have more to do with enduser perception when you tell them there's plenty of docs instead of them just clicking Next).
_Finding The Way Home_, also known as _Mittleman's Hardware_, filmed in Denton, Texas. Almost as good as _Necessary Roughness_. Took forever to come out and was a TV movie. Whee!
There was a guy on the newsgroups a few years back giving away a CD called "Dog Pound Found Sounds" or something similar. It's basically two CDs of sounds from a pound. Unlistenable, and I can listen to almost anything. It was somewhat equivalent to open source music, in that the guy had no copyright and wanted it sampled, spread as far as possible, etc. If you email me and keep me on it, I'll see if I can find it. I think I gave it to a friend, but you might be able to still get a copy.
I had actually heard of this release before on a music mailing list (IDM). My understanding was that it was really limited (like 500 copies), and I wanted to get it, but it's 50 dollars, and it's just numbers, so I put it low on my list. I'd figure it's sold out by now, but your favorite IDM outlets may still have a copy.
AFAIK, a lot (most? more?) of ATM's you use are self-contained PC's in their own right. I think I've even seen a picture someplace of a Windows blue-screen on one...
This used to be one of OS/2's big markets... a grocery store I used to go to all the time had an ATM running OS/2, and did something funky one time and dropped to an OS/2 prompt.
There were two types of DX?/100. The DX3, 33Mhz * 3 = 99Mhz + 1MarketingHz and the DX4, 25Mhz * 4 = 100Mhz.
Um, no. There was only one - the DX4/100, which was actually a tripled chip. The reason behind it was because Intel wanted to keep trademark and did it to throw off the court by somehow indicating that the number after DX had nothing to do with the speed multiplier.
Do you work in a lousy cubicle where you have no real work but have to tap the keys and pretend to be busy? Do you have a clueless boss who only tries to "keep you busy" but who doesn't (and can't) understand what you do?
About a minute after I read this, I got the "Life In Hell" reference.:)
2) telnet. Most places don't bother to monitor telnet. I was at a place that scanned web/e-mail. The first thing I did was login to my ISP's shell account. Once in telnet, I used lynx, irc, pine, etc. to spend the entire day in blissful entertainment. This is one of the best options left.
Would that my company didn't block telnet like 2 years ago - I used to be able to when I was on this network ring. Then they split my project onto a different network ring - telnet blocked. Now I'm on a different project, but telnet is still blocked over here. But now I can bring in a modem!:) They did just put in a fucked up (redundant?) proxy server, though. And you should see the things I have to do to get Bovine working, since it refuses to work through port 80 for some reason.
I disagree. I'd say that most corporate workplaces use NT. Win 95/98 is NOT for the workplace and MS says this explicitly.
Microsoft may say that 95/98 is not for the workplace, but it's there, and that's a good thing. Try imagining teaching people NT over 95 or 98. No, real people.
- PlayStation has a much bigger following than Nintendo and Sega outside of North America
That's debatable on earlier systems, and while clearer on the last gen (N64/Saturn or Dreamcast/Playstation), it's still debatable.
- For a change, Sony has produced real quality with their Playstation, and hopefully with the sequel. How long has Playstation been around? Ages. Sega and Nintendo have inundated the market with various "revisions" of their machines, all trying (STILL!) to beat the old workhorse, the Playstation.
Playstation is going on about 5 years at this point, IIRC. While Sega's machine release practices have been a bit less than stellar, Nintendo has had a pretty smooth path. I'd hardly call the N64 a "revision" of the Super Nintendo, or the SNES a "revision" of the NES 8-bit machine. By the same token, there is a pretty clear cut difference between Sega Master System, Genesis, and Saturn. Why is it ok if Sony wants to do this, but not the other guys?
- Sony's licensing for games is practically nonexistant. Look at the myriad of playstation titles out there... They definately don't have to go through the hoops that game developers have to produce Nintendo and, to a lesser degree, Sega games.
You know not of what you speak. Sony of America has to approve all games for release in America, though sometimes crap like Fantastic Four gets through. It may be easier to release games than Nintendo, but there are hurdles.
That's my take, anyways... Not that I really _use_ consoles.:) long live interactive fiction!
Obviously. Get yourself a subscription to Next Gen or check out their website at next-generation.com - they'll help you see the error of your ways. I myself am platform agnostic - I like pretty much any gaming system I've played with. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. In my house, we have a good chunk of the mainstream systems from 2600 on. My roommate has pre-ordered a Dreamcast (Sega Jesus) from 3 different places to make sure he can get one. He and I won't be living together when the Sony Jesus (PSX2) comes out, so I'm sure we'll both buy one.:) We don't have a Saturn right now, been looking for a good cheap one now that they're discontinued. We have never actually had an N64, but that's mostly due to lack of games.
As far as Infocom goes, while I was never very good at them (or any RPG or similar game), I can't deny they were fun. Anyway, this is all about games. Good games are good games, right?
I looked all over the ZDnet page as best I could and couldn't see anything other than the 3 video files on the front page. I can't view them from work, but that hardly seems like anything special. Are there video files of the various fights, or what?
One that stands out in my mind is 5,724,226: Housing Access Door Construction for a Portable Computer Docking Station. I didn't think emachines made either portables or docking stations.
IIRC, there's a door on the front that covers the front USB and joystick ports. Very nifty.
Looking over the rest of the patents... this is bullshit. Compaq doesn't have a leg to stand on. But a lot of cash.
Well, eMachines ain't gonna get outta this one alive. Not that they don't make *CRAP* systems. (CYRIX PROCESSORS?! STILL!? Gods.) But they're going to take one HELL of a PR beating.
I'm no fan of Cyrix and their processors, but I think you're counting emachines out a little early. So far, we don't even know that there's any substance to these claims. The things COmpaq suggests as infringing sound like everyone under the sun has infringed that.
E-boxes are not meant to be a really high end PC/Workstation... Just a decent mom and pop PC. So if you go buy one just be sure to get a decent modem too.
Oh.. and yes Linux likes it just fine;-)
One friend with emachine is my roommate, and he doesn't have a use for the modem, we have DSL. One friend seems to have no problem with hers connecting to her ISP.
As for Linux, don't know, I expect it would work okay except the USB? I do know that the manual says it's okay and even encourages opening the case if you need to. Installing a network card was a snap for my roomie, but then he's always been more of a hardware guy than I am. I keep buying machines with NICs in them already.:)
Unfortunately people don't learn from others mistakes, and we now have eMachines and the like. Ohwell haven't actually seen one yet, maybe they're not as bad as the previous sub-$1000 computers from CTX, Acer, Packard Bell etc.
The emachines are not without their quirks and weirdness, but I have two friends who own them, and overall, they're worth if it you don't/can't spend a lot of money on a computer. I've thought about getting one for a Starcraft box for around the house, since it would probably be cheaper than me building my own.
They're cheap, but not as horrible as the other cheapo machines I've dealt with.
The iMac has sold almost 2 million units in one year! If Apple had not created the iMac, can you name any company that would have created a computer that would have caputured so much attention (from ORDINARY first time computer buying people?)
So, with all the money Be has burned through, how exactly do you propose they make it back and become profitable while giving away their software for free?
Red Hat's not turning a profit either. Businesses exist to make money, not give the world free software.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, I guess Wozniak had his plane, but Ferraris aren't exactly "not flashy".
He's also sent some very nasty emails to a Be developer friend of mine. You ever get the feeling this is starting to be about feeding ESR's ego? This "piece" (I suppose you can call it that for reasons scatalogical) reeked to the high heavens.
This is good for Russia since God knows they need the money. So far they've been less than diligent in keeping up with their end of the ISS.
This is potentially bad, because if you keep up with your Mir history (I recommend reading _Dragonfly_, it's by the same guy who did _Barbarians at the Gate_, it'll get you started) - the Russian cosmonauts had to film ads for various companies while on Mir, sometimes distracting them from real work they should have done instead (like fix Mir).
Yep. It's called mindshare. You'd do well to listen to Negativland's album _Dispepsi_.
Some people want to use their computers to accomplish their goals, not change them. In other words, some people don't want to become computer programmers.
Besides the fact that you're preaching to the converted, offering places to get Linux tips on Slashdot. :)
When I started reading your post, it was marked score 1. When I clicked to read the full thing, it was up to 2. Would that I were a moderator, it'd be a 3. There is a definite ivory tower vibe to a lot of what gets posted here because people lack perspective. Yes, we all may be cool, hip, happening compustuds, but we are far outnumbered.
:)
Myself, I don't use Linux at home because I haven't got the time. I have a shell account that went from Linux to FreeBSD and I like that (elm, tin, ircII - they all rule, they are the right way to do stuff for the most part). But I don't have the time to sit down and learn the admin end at home. I do tech support all day, I get home, I just want my computer to do things and do them relatively quickly.
And yes, I have installed Windows. 95, 98. On different machines, not just my 350 at home. They almost all went painlessly. I usually recommend to friends that they grab 98 now if they want to install one since it has newer drivers, even. Sort of like the difference between a 1.3 and a 2.3.
The point has been raised a few times now: most of you want Linux to be everywhere. So work towards it in some tangible way if you really want it that bad. And don't expect the users to do the work, because they won't. It's like asking people to do the 30 mile commute to work on a bike. Yes, it's better for the environment... (and don't take this too literally, it may have more to do with enduser perception when you tell them there's plenty of docs instead of them just clicking Next).
_Finding The Way Home_, also known as _Mittleman's Hardware_, filmed in Denton, Texas. Almost as good as _Necessary Roughness_. Took forever to come out and was a TV movie. Whee!
There was a guy on the newsgroups a few years back giving away a CD called "Dog Pound Found Sounds" or something similar. It's basically two CDs of sounds from a pound. Unlistenable, and I can listen to almost anything. It was somewhat equivalent to open source music, in that the guy had no copyright and wanted it sampled, spread as far as possible, etc. If you email me and keep me on it, I'll see if I can find it. I think I gave it to a friend, but you might be able to still get a copy.
This Hell recording sounds intriguing/amusing...
I had actually heard of this release before on a music mailing list (IDM). My understanding was that it was really limited (like 500 copies), and I wanted to get it, but it's 50 dollars, and it's just numbers, so I put it low on my list. I'd figure it's sold out by now, but your favorite IDM outlets may still have a copy.
This used to be one of OS/2's big markets... a grocery store I used to go to all the time had an ATM running OS/2, and did something funky one time and dropped to an OS/2 prompt.
Um, no. There was only one - the DX4/100, which was actually a tripled chip. The reason behind it was because Intel wanted to keep trademark and did it to throw off the court by somehow indicating that the number after DX had nothing to do with the speed multiplier.
About a minute after I read this, I got the "Life In Hell" reference. :)
2) telnet.
Most places don't bother to monitor telnet. I was at a place that scanned web/e-mail. The first thing I did was login to my ISP's shell account. Once in telnet, I used lynx, irc, pine, etc. to spend the entire day in blissful entertainment. This is one of the best options left.
Would that my company didn't block telnet like 2 years ago - I used to be able to when I was on this network ring. Then they split my project onto a different network ring - telnet blocked. Now I'm on a different project, but telnet is still blocked over here. But now I can bring in a modem! :) They did just put in a fucked up (redundant?) proxy server, though. And you should see the things I have to do to get Bovine working, since it refuses to work through port 80 for some reason.
Getting a life is always an option...
I disagree. I'd say that most corporate workplaces use NT. Win 95/98 is NOT for the workplace and MS says this explicitly.
Microsoft may say that 95/98 is not for the workplace, but it's there, and that's a good thing. Try imagining teaching people NT over 95 or 98. No, real people.
That's debatable on earlier systems, and while clearer on the last gen (N64/Saturn or Dreamcast/Playstation), it's still debatable.
- For a change, Sony has produced real quality with their Playstation, and hopefully with the sequel. How long has Playstation been around? Ages. Sega and Nintendo have inundated the market with various "revisions" of their machines, all trying (STILL!) to beat the old workhorse, the Playstation.
Playstation is going on about 5 years at this point, IIRC. While Sega's machine release practices have been a bit less than stellar, Nintendo has had a pretty smooth path. I'd hardly call the N64 a "revision" of the Super Nintendo, or the SNES a "revision" of the NES 8-bit machine. By the same token, there is a pretty clear cut difference between Sega Master System, Genesis, and Saturn. Why is it ok if Sony wants to do this, but not the other guys?
- Sony's licensing for games is practically nonexistant. Look at the myriad of playstation titles out there... They definately don't have to go through the hoops that game developers have to produce Nintendo and, to a lesser degree, Sega games.
You know not of what you speak. Sony of America has to approve all games for release in America, though sometimes crap like Fantastic Four gets through. It may be easier to release games than Nintendo, but there are hurdles.
That's my take, anyways... Not that I really _use_ consoles. :) long live interactive fiction!
Obviously. Get yourself a subscription to Next Gen or check out their website at next-generation.com - they'll help you see the error of your ways. I myself am platform agnostic - I like pretty much any gaming system I've played with. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. In my house, we have a good chunk of the mainstream systems from 2600 on. My roommate has pre-ordered a Dreamcast (Sega Jesus) from 3 different places to make sure he can get one. He and I won't be living together when the Sony Jesus (PSX2) comes out, so I'm sure we'll both buy one. :) We don't have a Saturn right now, been looking for a good cheap one now that they're discontinued. We have never actually had an N64, but that's mostly due to lack of games.
As far as Infocom goes, while I was never very good at them (or any RPG or similar game), I can't deny they were fun. Anyway, this is all about games. Good games are good games, right?
I looked all over the ZDnet page as best I could and couldn't see anything other than the 3 video files on the front page. I can't view them from work, but that hardly seems like anything special. Are there video files of the various fights, or what?
Except for that the Linux fanatics would probably scream and moan about the work not being GPLed.
What exactly will this loud music entail? Even though I can't even be there, I'm far more interested in that than in beer.
One that stands out in my mind is 5,724,226: Housing Access Door Construction for a Portable Computer Docking Station. I didn't think emachines made either portables or docking stations.
IIRC, there's a door on the front that covers the front USB and joystick ports. Very nifty.
Looking over the rest of the patents... this is bullshit. Compaq doesn't have a leg to stand on. But a lot of cash.
Would your friends exchange their *wunderbar* Emachines to my F8%4@ EMachine...
Bullshit..I do not how the these bastards sell some thing called a computer branded as "Emachi" and get away with it...Emachine you rot in Hell!!!!
My friends were also smart enough to buy the 3 month deal so they weren't up a creek without a paddle.
Well, eMachines ain't gonna get outta this one alive. Not that they don't make *CRAP* systems. (CYRIX PROCESSORS?! STILL!? Gods.) But they're going to take one HELL of a PR beating.
I'm no fan of Cyrix and their processors, but I think you're counting emachines out a little early. So far, we don't even know that there's any substance to these claims. The things COmpaq suggests as infringing sound like everyone under the sun has infringed that.
E-boxes are not meant to be a really high end PC/Workstation... Just a decent mom and pop PC.
;-)
:)
So if you go buy one just be sure to get a decent modem too.
Oh.. and yes Linux likes it just fine
One friend with emachine is my roommate, and he doesn't have a use for the modem, we have DSL. One friend seems to have no problem with hers connecting to her ISP.
As for Linux, don't know, I expect it would work okay except the USB? I do know that the manual says it's okay and even encourages opening the case if you need to. Installing a network card was a snap for my roomie, but then he's always been more of a hardware guy than I am. I keep buying machines with NICs in them already.
Unfortunately people don't learn from others mistakes, and we now have eMachines and the like. Ohwell haven't actually seen one yet, maybe they're not as bad as the previous sub-$1000 computers from CTX, Acer, Packard Bell etc.
The emachines are not without their quirks and weirdness, but I have two friends who own them, and overall, they're worth if it you don't/can't spend a lot of money on a computer. I've thought about getting one for a Starcraft box for around the house, since it would probably be cheaper than me building my own.
They're cheap, but not as horrible as the other cheapo machines I've dealt with.
The iMac has sold almost 2 million units in one year! If Apple had not created the iMac, can you name any company that would have created a computer that would have caputured so much attention (from ORDINARY first time computer buying people?)
emachines.
So, with all the money Be has burned through, how exactly do you propose they make it back and become profitable while giving away their software for free?
Red Hat's not turning a profit either. Businesses exist to make money, not give the world free software.