Casual user A has a Mac running Linux and the Mozilla framework
No, by definition, a casual users is using what was on the PC when he bought it. (OSX or Windows). The term for the user above is 'geek'. So the scenario really plays out:
Geek A has a Mac running Linux and the Mozilla framework. User A finds a cool app on the framework and wants to share it with his buddy, User B. User B is running Windows, couldn't give a flying fuck about what some nerd thinks is 'neato', finishes reading his e-mail, and goes to play Buffy on XBox.
This isn't a "linux would have saved the day" story.. This same quote is reiterated and paraphrased throughout the article:
"She said many poll workers did not wait for the full six-minute activation procedure to occur and then became nervous and uncertain."
The workers just don't know how to use the machines. Either that or Jan the Man wants to play the "I didnt really lose! it was the hanging chads!" game.
Perhaps Florida is hopelessly stupid. Something to do with a close proximity to DisneyWorld. (that explains the lesser but omni-present stupidity in California too. DisneyLand isn't as big.)
How about a "blink once for yes, blink twice for no" system?
Or set up a "Honk if you love Reno!" sign and count the horns.
Or something involving hot grits or business plans or a beowulf cluster "of these"
I can't hear the word 'gubernatorial' without giggling.
Next story please.. I used up too much karma on this one.
Thing is, the media industry is worth about 20 billion dollars a year. The tech industry is worth about 600 billion a year.
The motivation for this is the need for a more secure platform. If it placates the whiney peons in Hollywood, so be it, but I don't see them as the force driving this forward.
I'd much sooner expect to see this type of thing on corporate networks (Office Palladium), not on your desktop.
It's an all-or-nothing solution. It's either on or off in hardware. So if your video-game-publisher, and you require Palladium, you require end users to 'break' everything on their system. Same with the music/movie publisher to require it.
Would you throw away everything on your current system just to play the latest Britney tune, or watch a downloaded copy of Harry Potter? Neither would I. Neither would most. DIVX-jr.
I see this re-forking the MS Windows code tree. After all the work to merge 9x and NT, now there will be Palladium for business and secure systems, "Something Else" for home use.
My concern is that the "Something Else" will be a crippled version of the Palladium OS, as XP Home is to XP Pro.
All in all, the genie is out of the bottle. (ironic that the same line we all used to flaunt MP3 in the face of the RIAA can bite us in the ass)
This tech's long overdue. I'm not going to lose any sleep, neither should you.
the San Francisco Chronicle doesn't publish another I-hate-technology-and-computers article?
Seriously, this "newspaper" is starting to read like the Unabombers manifesto.
They hate everything that plugs in or lights up or beeps, and constantly portray the companies behind them as though they are satan's personal lackies.
While this coincides with slashdot's "if'n its ain't free beer then its ain't none no good" agenda, but sheesh..
Is this article any different than mitsubishi claiming that this glorified go-kart I'm driving can get 'up to' 36 MPG? (it does BTW.. when I'm pushing it)
Though, I'm sure the think-green lobby in California hates the auto industry too..
Whether you call it 'good marketing' or 'fraudulent lying' depends on how much you love or hate the company, I suppose.
I just can't take anything this tabloid prints seriously anymore.
This is my pet peeve as well. Well, in particular:
It's gotten to the point that I can't discuss linux on its merits in my workplace, even when it truly is the right tool for the job.
People are starting to equate linux advocacy with 'M$ windoze is hella lame! I want free stuff'. This is the message that's leaking to the mainstream. This is what filters past the geeks and ends up in the users (and managers, marketers, etc) psyche.
This is now applying itself to the concept of Open Source in general.
I'm not pro anything, I'd love the freedom to use the most appropriate tools for the task on hand. I find myself limited to Microsoft solutions, not because of any sort of 'monopolistic demon powers', but because, frankly, the linux/gnu community has made jackasses of themselves.
*sigh* better get on topic.
hooray! another piece of software was released for linux!
This just reads like a tiny little abstract about SP1. I don't see the one-sidedness at all. It says to me 'Microsoft is being more fair than it has been'. This is true.
It doesn't try and pin a halo on Microsoft, it doesn't advocate them. It just says that they've complied with part of the DoJ bargain, and SP1 ships Sept 9th.
IMO, saying that MS is now 'more fair', reinforces that they've been completely unfair in the past. In that sense, it's a slam more than a boost.
Its just a blurb, theres not enough room to be one-sided. There's not enough to even quote.
Is it that any news item about computers that doesn't rant about 'MS world domination conspiracy theories' like a homeless schizophrenic is one-sided?
All the mods replace the original XBOX bios with a hacked derivitave. A "clean" linux bios supposedly exists, but this makes your xbox into a linux box exclusively. Which isn't what most want to do in the real world. They dont want to give up "backing up" the software they rent from blockbuster.
This in itself is piracy. You cant sell a hacked BIOS image any more than you can sell hacked copies of Windows XP.
The DMCA is not an issue.
Re:Mod Chip ON/OFF switch?
on
XBox Linux HOWTOs
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
2 bucks and a trip to radio shack and this is easily accomplished. (SPST or DPDT micro toggle, depending on the style of mod)
Thing is, people want to mod so they can swap in a 100 gig hard drive (anything bigger xbox cant use) and copy everything they rent from blockbuster to it. Or swap in a PC DVD drive which will read CD-R(W)/DVD-R(W). (The xbox has trouble with cdr)
Same thing with linux. It wastes up yer hard drive, putting it 'back the way it was' isn't so easy.
Much harder to switch. Though, not impossible.
Re:Where, exactly, is modding prohibited?
on
XBox Linux HOWTOs
·
· Score: 1
Barring theoretical arguments about the DMCA..
Every 'mod', save the complete linux kernel version, is basically replacing the original BIOS code with a hacked derivative thereof.
So selling/buying a mod is an act of piracy in itself, since the BIOS is copyrighted just like any other software.
It would seem if you used a chip with the 'written from scratch' linux bios, it'd be legal. If you use a conventional mod, and the XBE bootloader method of getting linux up, it's not.
Kind of like its legal to start your own car with a screwdriver if you lost the keys. But if you stole the screwdriver, it's irrelevant.
99-149 for a mod? Dooood.. Yer getting ripped off.
Mods on lik-sang range from 49.99 to 59.99 for the reflashable openxbox.
Or you can homebrew yer own for the price of a 1M flashrom (2-5 bucks)
A usb keyboard is about 20 bucks. Xbox wont work with the fancy ones with built in hubs, so no reason to splurge here.
There is a point to using a real PC if you want to run linux. But the really cool thing about linux on xbox is how you can legally code up a divx player, emulator, mp3 player, whatever.. The "homebrew" stuff floating around now is truly illegal.
What's a waste of cash is all on your point of view.
I may like linux for certain tasks, but that doesn't mean I'm an anti-MS zealot. That's just idiocy. It behooves me not to be so close-minded.
Sony are not the "good guys". Nor are Nintendo, nor Sega. They're all running the same race towards the same finish line.
I own all 3 current systems, because I love video games. All 3 have exclusive titles that I want to play. End of story.
Sheesh.. Nerds spend 500 bucks on the latest whiz-bang video card, then talk about a 200 dollar console being 'a waste of cash'. I dont like PC gaming in general, so I'd rather spend the 500 to own all 3 current consoles (and I did). It's just a matter of taste.
Btw, this comment is idiotic.. >>"some games that were "exclusives" only because MS bought up their producers for that reason"
Thats how the industry works, goofball. You act like its some evil conspiracy, sheesh.
Nintendo bought exclusive rights to resident evil, Sony bought exclusive rights to GTA3, MS bought exclusive rights to DOA3 and Halo.
you probably shouldn't be wrapping 'em in plexiglass - its an insulator, not what you want. If you must macgyver together a bay for 'em try old paint cans or something metal that will conduct heat away.
That said, they did announce the 38% thinner drives. In a standard bay, thats 38% more room for air to circulate.
Heat will be an issue so long as there are moving parts.
With RAM tech. so cheap, why cant we have 20gig or so solid-state drives to run the system off, and use these tanks as cold storage? Is it perhaps the same reason we still have 30 year old floppy drives in our P4 Xeon mega-machines?
Even in a conventional drive bay, the thinner profile means more air circulation around the drives. You may have noticed all the whining about how 'hot' drives get. Can't hurt.
Actually, alot of the public does care, once made to understand.
Personally, I'm furious that I can't legally make a copy of Steamboat Willie to show to my kids. It's a piece of culture. It's history. It's not a commodity anymore. I should be able to say "look kids, here's the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon". But I can't do so unless Disney both decides to sell it, and I can afford it.
Just this weekend I explained this to an untechnical friend of mine. As soon as I explained that Steamboat Willie (and countless other pieces of culture) should belong to EVERYONE, not do Disney, he was confused. He truly did not understand the concept of 'Public Domain'.
His response was 'they can profit off Mickey Mouse, so they should keep it'
To which I replied, "Mark Twain's ancestors could profit off of Huckleberry Finn, but it's public domain. Profit isn't an issue. Copyright is a favor we grant creators. We own it. They stole it. This was exactly the same situation the founders of this country set up the law to prevent: a handful of corporations owning and controlling what we see, read and hear."
I actually watched as the hamster turned the wheels in his head. In an instant he was as pissed about the situation as I was.
This is our culture. This is our history. Whether any one person thinks any one piece of film, text, or music is trivial is irrelevant.
Fact is, in 100 years, when some kid needs to write a book report on 20th century culture, he'll be paying royalties.
So, in the end, we just need to increase public awareness, be it one person at a time. Your average Johnny Lunchpail doesn't realise what Public Domain is. They think copyright is forever.
That said, 1 million dollars to pay a bunch of future lobbyists isn't, IMO, the answer. 1 million dollars for a TV or radio campaign would be much better spent.
People are pissed when they understand the problem. We've all been taken advantage of.
What sort of jurisdiction does the UN have over the moon to settle the matter? The moon isn't a member nation, I didn't bother to see if the US was a signatory in its goofy 'moon rules'
I think the old-timey notion of 'we got here first' applies to the moon, so far as the moon as a piece of real estate.
btw, my favorite part of the UN agreement is:
"All activities on the moon, including its exploration and use, shall be carried out in accordance with... Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations."
Sure! Because we dont want to piss off the moon people!
This isn't a duplicate of the story about hardware based Ogg Vorbis decoders you read about yesterday.
This is a story about CNET doing a story about the hardware based Ogg Vorbis decoders you read about yesterday.
Jumped-Up-Joey-Jeremiah, pay attention, will ya?
Re:To increase the number of Linux-hacked Xboxes
on
Lulu Tech Circus
·
· Score: 0
I doubt you burst anyones bubble.
whether you paid for it or not, it still got payed for, and still "enriched" MS.
You'd think the linux zealot would want to support Sony, who stands behind linux on its console. Then again, you'd think the linux zealot could think for himself.
I swear to god the trolls are the only ones posting anything worth reading on this "news site" lately
Slashdot Mirror
they already have the densest management.
Casual user A has a Mac running Linux and the Mozilla framework
No, by definition, a casual users is using what was on the PC when he bought it. (OSX or Windows). The term for the user above is 'geek'. So the scenario really plays out:
Geek A has a Mac running Linux and the Mozilla framework. User A finds a cool app on the framework and wants to share it with his buddy, User B. User B is running Windows, couldn't give a flying fuck about what some nerd thinks is 'neato', finishes reading his e-mail, and goes to play Buffy on XBox.
This isn't a "linux would have saved the day" story.. This same quote is reiterated and paraphrased throughout the article:
"She said many poll workers did not wait for the full six-minute activation procedure to occur and then became nervous and uncertain."
The workers just don't know how to use the machines. Either that or Jan the Man wants to play the "I didnt really lose! it was the hanging chads!" game.
Perhaps Florida is hopelessly stupid. Something to do with a close proximity to DisneyWorld. (that explains the lesser but omni-present stupidity in California too. DisneyLand isn't as big.)
How about a "blink once for yes, blink twice for no" system?
Or set up a "Honk if you love Reno!" sign and count the horns.
Or something involving hot grits or business plans or a beowulf cluster "of these"
I can't hear the word 'gubernatorial' without giggling.
Next story please.. I used up too much karma on this one.
It is, and will be in the forseeable future..
Thing is, the media industry is worth about 20 billion dollars a year. The tech industry is worth about 600 billion a year.
The motivation for this is the need for a more secure platform. If it placates the whiney peons in Hollywood, so be it, but I don't see them as the force driving this forward.
I'd much sooner expect to see this type of thing on corporate networks (Office Palladium), not on your desktop.
It's an all-or-nothing solution. It's either on or off in hardware. So if your video-game-publisher, and you require Palladium, you require end users to 'break' everything on their system. Same with the music/movie publisher to require it.
Would you throw away everything on your current system just to play the latest Britney tune, or watch a downloaded copy of Harry Potter? Neither would I. Neither would most. DIVX-jr.
I see this re-forking the MS Windows code tree. After all the work to merge 9x and NT, now there will be Palladium for business and secure systems, "Something Else" for home use.
My concern is that the "Something Else" will be a crippled version of the Palladium OS, as XP Home is to XP Pro.
All in all, the genie is out of the bottle. (ironic that the same line we all used to flaunt MP3 in the face of the RIAA can bite us in the ass)
This tech's long overdue. I'm not going to lose any sleep, neither should you.
the San Francisco Chronicle doesn't publish another I-hate-technology-and-computers article?
Seriously, this "newspaper" is starting to read like the Unabombers manifesto.
They hate everything that plugs in or lights up or beeps, and constantly portray the companies behind them as though they are satan's personal lackies.
While this coincides with slashdot's "if'n its ain't free beer then its ain't none no good" agenda, but sheesh..
Is this article any different than mitsubishi claiming that this glorified go-kart I'm driving can get 'up to' 36 MPG? (it does BTW.. when I'm pushing it)
Though, I'm sure the think-green lobby in California hates the auto industry too..
Whether you call it 'good marketing' or 'fraudulent lying' depends on how much you love or hate the company, I suppose.
I just can't take anything this tabloid prints seriously anymore.
This is my pet peeve as well. Well, in particular:
It's gotten to the point that I can't discuss linux on its merits in my workplace, even when it truly is the right tool for the job.
People are starting to equate linux advocacy with 'M$ windoze is hella lame! I want free stuff'. This is the message that's leaking to the mainstream. This is what filters past the geeks and ends up in the users (and managers, marketers, etc) psyche.
This is now applying itself to the concept of Open Source in general.
I'm not pro anything, I'd love the freedom to use the most appropriate tools for the task on hand. I find myself limited to Microsoft solutions, not because of any sort of 'monopolistic demon powers', but because, frankly, the linux/gnu community has made jackasses of themselves.
*sigh* better get on topic.
hooray! another piece of software was released for linux!
This just reads like a tiny little abstract about SP1. I don't see the one-sidedness at all. It says to me 'Microsoft is being more fair than it has been'. This is true.
It doesn't try and pin a halo on Microsoft, it doesn't advocate them. It just says that they've complied with part of the DoJ bargain, and SP1 ships Sept 9th.
IMO, saying that MS is now 'more fair', reinforces that they've been completely unfair in the past. In that sense, it's a slam more than a boost.
Its just a blurb, theres not enough room to be one-sided. There's not enough to even quote.
Is it that any news item about computers that doesn't rant about 'MS world domination conspiracy theories' like a homeless schizophrenic is one-sided?
I do all those things with my Radeon card with the latest drivers without a hitch.
I'd imagine you just don't know how to operate your system correctly.
It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools.
Noone seems to get it.
All the mods replace the original XBOX bios with a hacked derivitave. A "clean" linux bios supposedly exists, but this makes your xbox into a linux box exclusively. Which isn't what most want to do in the real world. They dont want to give up "backing up" the software they rent from blockbuster.
This in itself is piracy. You cant sell a hacked BIOS image any more than you can sell hacked copies of Windows XP.
The DMCA is not an issue.
2 bucks and a trip to radio shack and this is easily accomplished. (SPST or DPDT micro toggle, depending on the style of mod)
Thing is, people want to mod so they can swap in a 100 gig hard drive (anything bigger xbox cant use) and copy everything they rent from blockbuster to it. Or swap in a PC DVD drive which will read CD-R(W)/DVD-R(W). (The xbox has trouble with cdr)
Same thing with linux. It wastes up yer hard drive, putting it 'back the way it was' isn't so easy.
Much harder to switch. Though, not impossible.
Barring theoretical arguments about the DMCA..
Every 'mod', save the complete linux kernel version, is basically replacing the original BIOS code with a hacked derivative thereof.
So selling/buying a mod is an act of piracy in itself, since the BIOS is copyrighted just like any other software.
It would seem if you used a chip with the 'written from scratch' linux bios, it'd be legal. If you use a conventional mod, and the XBE bootloader method of getting linux up, it's not.
Kind of like its legal to start your own car with a screwdriver if you lost the keys. But if you stole the screwdriver, it's irrelevant.
99-149 for a mod? Dooood.. Yer getting ripped off.
Mods on lik-sang range from 49.99 to 59.99 for the reflashable openxbox.
Or you can homebrew yer own for the price of a 1M flashrom (2-5 bucks)
A usb keyboard is about 20 bucks. Xbox wont work with the fancy ones with built in hubs, so no reason to splurge here.
There is a point to using a real PC if you want to run linux. But the really cool thing about linux on xbox is how you can legally code up a divx player, emulator, mp3 player, whatever.. The "homebrew" stuff floating around now is truly illegal.
anti-stealth mods? huh?
No need. Don't modify your hard drive, and put a switch on your current mod. *bingo* your console is back to its virgin state. It's quite easy to do.
Or, like me, you can live quite happily without another lame-duck online service. XBL is another marketing gimmick to me..
You dont want modchips on XBL anyways. Unless you like playing with cheaters. If they didn't block cheaters the linux set would be crying foul there.
There's just no pleasing zealots.
What's a waste of cash is all on your point of view.
I may like linux for certain tasks, but that doesn't mean I'm an anti-MS zealot. That's just idiocy. It behooves me not to be so close-minded.
Sony are not the "good guys". Nor are Nintendo, nor Sega. They're all running the same race towards the same finish line.
I own all 3 current systems, because I love video games. All 3 have exclusive titles that I want to play. End of story.
Sheesh.. Nerds spend 500 bucks on the latest whiz-bang video card, then talk about a 200 dollar console being 'a waste of cash'. I dont like PC gaming in general, so I'd rather spend the 500 to own all 3 current consoles (and I did). It's just a matter of taste.
Btw, this comment is idiotic..
>>"some games that were "exclusives" only because MS bought up their producers for that reason"
Thats how the industry works, goofball. You act like its some evil conspiracy, sheesh.
Nintendo bought exclusive rights to resident evil, Sony bought exclusive rights to GTA3, MS bought exclusive rights to DOA3 and Halo.
Meh, I shouldn't be feeding trolls.
you probably shouldn't be wrapping 'em in plexiglass - its an insulator, not what you want. If you must macgyver together a bay for 'em try old paint cans or something metal that will conduct heat away.
That said, they did announce the 38% thinner drives. In a standard bay, thats 38% more room for air to circulate.
Heat will be an issue so long as there are moving parts.
With RAM tech. so cheap, why cant we have 20gig or so solid-state drives to run the system off, and use these tanks as cold storage? Is it perhaps the same reason we still have 30 year old floppy drives in our P4 Xeon mega-machines?
Even in a conventional drive bay, the thinner profile means more air circulation around the drives. You may have noticed all the whining about how 'hot' drives get. Can't hurt.
A 17 inch monitor or a 4 button mouse, perhaps?
Seriously, a product press release from $COMPANY's marketing dept. isn't news.
The warranty thing is just business as usual. What they name the drives doesn't mean anything.
Unless I'm missing something this is just another hard drive. Whoop-de-do. Correct me if I fail to see some groudbreaking technology here.
Actually, alot of the public does care, once made to understand.
Personally, I'm furious that I can't legally make a copy of Steamboat Willie to show to my kids. It's a piece of culture. It's history. It's not a commodity anymore. I should be able to say "look kids, here's the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon". But I can't do so unless Disney both decides to sell it, and I can afford it.
Just this weekend I explained this to an untechnical friend of mine. As soon as I explained that Steamboat Willie (and countless other pieces of culture) should belong to EVERYONE, not do Disney, he was confused. He truly did not understand the concept of 'Public Domain'.
His response was 'they can profit off Mickey Mouse, so they should keep it'
To which I replied, "Mark Twain's ancestors could profit off of Huckleberry Finn, but it's public domain. Profit isn't an issue. Copyright is a favor we grant creators. We own it. They stole it. This was exactly the same situation the founders of this country set up the law to prevent: a handful of corporations owning and controlling what we see, read and hear."
I actually watched as the hamster turned the wheels in his head. In an instant he was as pissed about the situation as I was.
This is our culture. This is our history. Whether any one person thinks any one piece of film, text, or music is trivial is irrelevant.
Fact is, in 100 years, when some kid needs to write a book report on 20th century culture, he'll be paying royalties.
So, in the end, we just need to increase public awareness, be it one person at a time. Your average Johnny Lunchpail doesn't realise what Public Domain is. They think copyright is forever.
That said, 1 million dollars to pay a bunch of future lobbyists isn't, IMO, the answer. 1 million dollars for a TV or radio campaign would be much better spent.
People are pissed when they understand the problem. We've all been taken advantage of.
What sort of jurisdiction does the UN have over the moon to settle the matter? The moon isn't a member nation, I didn't bother to see if the US was a signatory in its goofy 'moon rules'
... Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations."
I think the old-timey notion of 'we got here first' applies to the moon, so far as the moon as a piece of real estate.
btw, my favorite part of the UN agreement is:
"All activities on the moon, including its exploration and use, shall be carried out in accordance with
Sure! Because we dont want to piss off the moon people!
Who sez the UN is a waste of time?
I dunno. If the instructions (even if sparse) aren't enough, maybe Ikea isn't the place for you.
I thought the whole point of DIY or unfinished furniture was to lower the overall price.. This sounds like something gimmicky to jack it up.
Whoever modded that up as funny needs to be dragged out and beaten.
Those lame ass jokes haven't been funny in years.
Before everyone rants about how superior the *format* is, has anyone actually heard what Tremor can *output*?
.ogg, doesn't mean it can do so well. Espescially since it took this long to be possible at all on a non-FPU device.
Just because it can playback
I'm thinking of mp3 playback on a 486 downgraded to 11khz mono so minesweeper still has a few cycles left over.
Yeah, I'm questioning the quality of an open source project, and I'll get modded down for it. Big deal.
This isn't a duplicate of the story about hardware based Ogg Vorbis decoders you read about yesterday.
This is a story about CNET doing a story about the hardware based Ogg Vorbis decoders you read about yesterday.
Jumped-Up-Joey-Jeremiah, pay attention, will ya?
I doubt you burst anyones bubble.
whether you paid for it or not, it still got payed for, and still "enriched" MS.
You'd think the linux zealot would want to support Sony, who stands behind linux on its console. Then again, you'd think the linux zealot could think for himself.
I swear to god the trolls are the only ones posting anything worth reading on this "news site" lately
WIN XBOX!
..
Tech Circus is giving away a XBOX to one lucky winner from the first 1000 paid registrants.
I thought this was to be another linux-powered Gates-hating circle jerk?
Seems like if you ever had anything to do with linux at all Slashdot will advertise whatever you send 'em.
Karma shmarma.. Insightful/Flamebait or Funny/Troll are subject to the intelligence of the moderator, not the poster.