Basic research is very valuable and worth investing in. But NASA's manned space program does the most expensize and lowest volume basic research in the world. I'm not denying that some some research only possible in space, but would it not be more productive to give the roughly $10 billion dollars per year to the National Science Foundation?
The money wasted in the manned space program could be funding thousands of scientist and educators on the ground.
But how inthe hell are people to know that these "missing features" are there?
Yes, this is a problem and there are two answers. First the no brainer, more documentation. A better solution will be "tweaker" program under Preferences. In fact it was assumed early on that this would happen and it probably will but nobody has done it yet, AFAIK.
Come on, people, you don't hear Microsoft advising you to fire up the registry editor
Umm... many, many directions in MS knowdlge base tell you to use regedit. I've even had MS tech support tell me to use it. But yes, average users should not have to use it, nor should they have to use gconf-editor. But gconf-editor is much easier to use then regedit and is ment for advanced users.
This is one reason that you'll never see GNOME on the desktop other than on Unix geeks' boxes
Well this is a differnce of opinion. GNOME developers feel that it is better not to expose all options to the average user. Rather they are taking a cue from Apple and focusing making it "just work". The developers don't want to make users wade through dialogs with too many preferences.
I know that programmers are proud of their lazyness, but this is ridiculous.
If there is one thing the GNOME developers are not it is lazy. You just see things differntly. If you don't like it, don't use GNOME. KDE is good too.
instead of trying to blow smoke up my ass by telling me that it's there, but it's not there
Well the functionality is there, I was just trying to point this guy in the right direction
When version numbers go up, the software is supposed to get BETTER and EASIER to use.
Again a differnce of opinion, I think that GNOME2 is far better and easier then GNOME1. Maybe you'd be happer with XFCE or KDE, it is your choice.
I like the look of GTK and that most of the software I use is GTK/GNOME based.
So do I. Luckily progress is being made on cross dektop theming. Someday soon SVG based themes may become the standard, at which time qt and gtk+ will be able to share.
[Cancel][Delete] THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE.
This being delt with under the Human Interface Design standard, but it is up to individual developers to follow the guidelines. The most recent development version of Galeon have been fixed, when the GNOME2 version comes out you should find it much more consistent.
Disclamer: I am not a GNOME developer. These comments are based my own understanding and views on GNOME development.
Small perturbations often have disproportional large consequences, as your DNA example illustrates. Paradoxically, as Lanier suggests, complex systems can also be amazingly fault tolerant. This is in fact the nature of complex, or chaotic, systems and some say life. However, we cannot, in general, predict which sort of behavior a complex system is likely to exhibit. Lanier seems to miss this entirely. So while his ideas are intriguing I don't think he has a good grasp of the real issues in designing "complex" software systems.
Why We bought Ximian
on
Inside Ximian
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
My research lab has bought Redcarpet subscriptions for all our linux workstations. There are several good reasons for this over the alternatives you suggest:
Ximian's Gnome really is tidiest and most frequently updated Gnome distribution. Although they have fallen behind some others with Gnome2, I expect things to get back to normal when they do release.
Redcarpet does much more than update Gnome; you can use it to manage software installation accross a network. It has channels for updating several linux distros, StarOffice, Codeweavers stuff, VMWare, etc. None of the other automatic update tools really compare in content or in ease of use.
If you purchase you can have automatic updates and use redcarpet to manage installation of your own software.
If you only manage one computer, and you like to spend your time installing and updating software, then you probably don't really need to pay for Ximian. But it is great if you've got other things to do then worrying about keeping a mess of workstations updated.
However, if you like a company's product you should buy it. By purchasing from Ximian we are helping to support Gnome development. It is just self-interest. Gnome is good for us, so we pay for Gnome.
Home videos. Of course you can forget being able to use your favorite MP3s for the sound track, or splicing in clips from TV shows. Basically forget any fair use of copyrighted material. That's way you should NEVER EVER EVER BUY crippled crap like this. These corporations are trying to destroy your rights in the name of protecting and extending their business models.
After a tornado destroyed a town a few years back, Clinton (it might have been Gore) promised to devote federal money to research on preventing tornadoes in the American Midwest.
It'll be a cold Olympics in China before we can do anything even remotely like controling the weather. (For you global warming guys: control is different then modify)
The hubris (and ignorance) of large bureaucracies can really be mind-boggling sometimes.
Walter McCrone (who just passed away) was widely known as a pioneer in chemical microscopy.
Back in the 70s his analysis of the ink on the Vinland map showed that it was almost certainly a modern fake.
Now this article suggests that McCrone's analysis was faulty (or at least limited). It is very interesting to see these types debates evolve with the science. Maybe someday DNA analysis even will be able to prove that OJ did it... or maybe not.
Although the article really says nothing about Linux, I think this is one of those times to be picky about the difference between Linux and Linux distributions. Many people do not understand the distinction, and that can be used against Linux.
In this case someone interested in discrediting Linux could choose to run their decay tests on a prone distribution. Or more likely, they would run a number of distros and choose to report the worst performer.
Doesn't (didn't?) Microsoft even officially recommend rebooting win 9x system daily?
Not sure if MS did, but ever windows admin I've ever known does (and NT/2000 once a week)
IMHO the main difference between decay in Linux and Windows, is that its seems to happen naturally (and despite my best efforts) in Windows whereas in Linux it is a result of poor system management.
And this is technically a distribution problem, not a Linux problem.
An artificial personality would help it iteract with people. They should get with
these guys.
And name it Marvin.
Re:Other products using Java-based OS?
on
Motorola's i95cl
·
· Score: 1
Wow someone really likes Java. Maybee I don't write code that is going to run on an asics chip. Maybee I know Java (and -gasp- like Java), but still find C more usefull for what I do. And you know, I think they can implant a sense of humor now. Try it, you'll live longer.
Motorola, you bad boy, have you been hanging around with Steve again?
Other products using Java-based OS?
on
Motorola's i95cl
·
· Score: 1
Hey whatever floats your boat... you'll have to pry the keyboard from my cold,dead hands before I give up C. But I would like to know what other products use this OS.
Zing, point taken, now what I need to be working on this grammar of mine. Anyways, what I lack in spelling I make up for in good looks, charm, and self-conceit.
"Primitive computers"... hmmm 1969, no opportunities for deriding MS here, too bad.
For sure ... and we won't know until we try!
on
Back to the Moon?
·
· Score: 1
On the moon we can push that boundary to reach the point of confidence in sending off the robots that will be needed to prepare on Mars
I think Mars is the real prize here. From the point of species survival we would probably be alot better off not putting all our eggs on one planet (hey is that a double pun?)
Re:Moon base may make more sense than the ISS
on
Back to the Moon?
·
· Score: 1
You're joking, right? The distance to the moon is like 400,000 km. The distance to the ISS is like 400 km, which make the moon 1000 times further away. The logistics of making that trip is exponentially more difficult.
No I'm not joking, but it really depends on what your goals are. I still think that most difficult part of going to the moon is getting off the Earth. Once in orbit the physics of getting to the moon is not that bad. Most of the distance is empty space, just point yourself in the right direction and wait (ok it is not that simple, but it almost is). Remember they did it in '69 with rather primative computers. Now you could argue that space flight is dangerous and the longer you are in transit the more you put yourselft at risk, but it seems to me that you have the same risks in Earth orbit. And once you are on the moon, the lack of atmosphere and low gravity makes it easy to get off again.
Now the logistics of moving large amounts of mass (thinking moon factories here) back to Earth is probably not worth the trouble. But for doing long term research, moon would probably provide a less hostile environment for people (as long as you're ok with being serveral days away from Earth).
Getting into a zero-g environment isn't an issue at all
You really missed the point here, and your reasoning is a bit off. As far as the reasons for going into "zero-g", I'm just going by what the NASA types say (that "zero-g" research and manufactuing will save the world), and I agree that most of it could be done on Earth. However my point was that being in "zero-g" (or or whatever you want to call it) environment of space is not good for your health. In orbit you will not expernce a normal (Earth surface) "downward" force! Your body is ment to function on the Earth's surface; in space the lack of a net "downwand" force causes a number of bad side effects, most notably a loss bone mass, a redistribution of muscle mass, and cardiovascular changes (still not well understood). This is all well documented, NASA just prefers not to emphisize it.
Now I'm going to cover my ass... this whole argument depends on the low-g environment of the moon being the primary factor in maintain good health (comparied to zero-g). This is the theory, no one really knows... and there are probably other hazards of living on the moon we have no idea about,:)
I want a PDA built into a slide rule... even usable when the batteries die.
Moon base may make more sense than the ISS
on
Back to the Moon?
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
The jury may still be out on the International Space Station (ISS), but the primary problem with all zero-g environments its that they really screws up human physiology. On the moon you don't have this problem, making long term habitation a much better prospect.
NASA does not like to publicize the extent to which even short space flights negatively effect an astronaut's health. We evolved in gravity and our bodies depend on it to function properly... and no amount of research is likely to change this fact. However, low gravity environments (like the moon) are thought to be ok.
The moon is not that hard to get to, and once there its much easier to get into a zero-g environment, if thats what you want (for research, manufacturing, etc). If the goal is to have long term habitiation off Earth, then going back to the moon is a very good idea.
Of course, knowing Microsoft, they may not have learned from the past, so.....
Very true... and the more games MS plays with its formats the more bad will it will generate.
IMHO closed file formats are an immoral business tactic designed to lock you into a particular product. Why immoral? Because your data belongs to YOU not the software provider, in most cases the reason for having closed formats is to block competition and lock in users. Infringing upon your customers' rights is very sleazy.
Sadly, most users are totally oblivous to this, thereby allowing software companies to take advantage of them.
Slashdot Mirror
From Ximian support:
Question
On what operating systems can I install Ximian Desktop 2?
Answer
Ximian Desktop 2 is supported on the following distributions:
* Red Hat 7.3, 8.0 and 9 (Intel)
* SuSE 8.2
Of course you can always roll your own.
The money wasted in the manned space program could be funding thousands of scientist and educators on the ground.
Yes, this is a problem and there are two answers. First the no brainer, more documentation. A better solution will be "tweaker" program under Preferences. In fact it was assumed early on that this would happen and it probably will but nobody has done it yet, AFAIK.
Come on, people, you don't hear Microsoft advising you to fire up the registry editor
Umm
This is one reason that you'll never see GNOME on the desktop other than on Unix geeks' boxes
Well this is a differnce of opinion. GNOME developers feel that it is better not to expose all options to the average user. Rather they are taking a cue from Apple and focusing making it "just work". The developers don't want to make users wade through dialogs with too many preferences.
I know that programmers are proud of their lazyness, but this is ridiculous.
If there is one thing the GNOME developers are not it is lazy. You just see things differntly. If you don't like it, don't use GNOME. KDE is good too.
instead of trying to blow smoke up my ass by telling me that it's there, but it's not there
Well the functionality is there, I was just trying to point this guy in the right direction
When version numbers go up, the software is supposed to get BETTER and EASIER to use.
Again a differnce of opinion, I think that GNOME2 is far better and easier then GNOME1. Maybe
you'd be happer with XFCE or KDE, it is your choice.
I like the look of GTK and that most of the software I use is GTK/GNOME based.
So do I. Luckily progress is being made on cross dektop theming. Someday soon SVG based themes may become the standard, at which time qt and gtk+ will be able to share.
[Cancel][Delete] THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE.
This being delt with under the Human Interface Design standard, but it is up to individual developers to follow the guidelines. The most recent development version of Galeon have been fixed, when the GNOME2 version comes out you should find it much more consistent.
Disclamer: I am not a GNOME developer. These comments are based my own understanding and views
on GNOME development.
Small perturbations often have disproportional large consequences, as your DNA example illustrates. Paradoxically, as Lanier suggests, complex systems can also be amazingly fault tolerant. This is in fact the nature of complex, or chaotic, systems and some say life. However, we cannot, in general, predict which sort of behavior a complex system is likely to exhibit. Lanier seems to miss this entirely. So while his ideas are intriguing I don't think he has a good grasp of the real issues in designing "complex" software systems.
If you only manage one computer, and you like to spend your time installing and updating software, then you probably don't really need to pay for Ximian. But it is great if you've got other things to do then worrying about keeping a mess of workstations updated.
However, if you like a company's product you should buy it. By purchasing from Ximian we are helping to support Gnome development. It is just self-interest. Gnome is good for us, so we pay for Gnome.
Home videos. Of course you can forget being able to use your favorite MP3s for the sound track, or splicing in clips from TV shows. Basically forget any fair use of copyrighted material. That's way you should NEVER EVER EVER BUY crippled crap like this. These corporations are trying to destroy your rights in the name of protecting and extending their business models.
I believe the program you are referring to is by American Radio Works, and was broadcast on NPR stations starting in Nov of 2001.
now I know why people use <sarcasm>
And to be fair, he probably mispoke (but I thought it was funny as hell).
So what's your secrete?
But serisoully, I never use windows long enough to have a real opinion on the subject, so I bow to your experence.
And Gentoo is shweet!
It'll be a cold Olympics in China before we can do anything even remotely like controling the weather.
(For you global warming guys: control is different then modify)
The hubris (and ignorance) of large bureaucracies can really be mind-boggling sometimes.
Now this article suggests that McCrone's analysis was faulty (or at least limited). It is very interesting to see these types debates evolve with the science. Maybe someday DNA analysis even will be able to prove that OJ did it ... or maybe not.
More info on McCrone's analysis from his site.
In this case someone interested in discrediting Linux could choose to run their decay tests on a prone distribution. Or more likely, they would run a number of distros and choose to report the worst performer.
Not sure if MS did, but ever windows admin I've ever known does (and NT/2000 once a week)
IMHO the main difference between decay in Linux and Windows, is that its seems to happen naturally (and despite my best efforts) in Windows whereas in Linux it is a result of poor system management.
And this is technically a distribution problem, not a Linux problem.
An artificial personality would help it iteract with people. They should get with these guys.
And name it Marvin.
Wow someone really likes Java.
Maybee I don't write code that is going to run on an asics chip.
Maybee I know Java (and -gasp- like Java), but still find C more usefull for what I do.
And you know, I think they can implant a sense of humor now. Try it, you'll live longer.
Motorola, you bad boy, have you been hanging around with Steve again?
Hey whatever floats your boat ... you'll have to pry the keyboard from my cold,dead hands before I give up C. But I would like to know what other products use this OS.
(Yes, it is not in the story, but my post is thin without it)
"Primitive computers" ... hmmm 1969, no opportunities for deriding MS here, too bad.
I think Mars is the real prize here. From the point of species survival we would probably be alot better off not putting all our eggs on one planet (hey is that a double pun?)
No I'm not joking, but it really depends on what your goals are. I still think that most difficult part of going to the moon is getting off the Earth. Once in orbit the physics of getting to the moon is not that bad. Most of the distance is empty space, just point yourself in the right direction and wait (ok it is not that simple, but it almost is). Remember they did it in '69 with rather primative computers. Now you could argue that space flight is dangerous and the longer you are in transit the more you put yourselft at risk, but it seems to me that you have the same risks in Earth orbit. And once you are on the moon, the lack of atmosphere and low gravity makes it easy to get off again.
Now the logistics of moving large amounts of mass (thinking moon factories here) back to Earth is probably not worth the trouble. But for doing long term research, moon would probably provide a less hostile environment for people (as long as you're ok with being serveral days away from Earth).
Getting into a zero-g environment isn't an issue at all
You really missed the point here, and your reasoning is a bit off. As far as the reasons for going into "zero-g", I'm just going by what the NASA types say (that "zero-g" research and manufactuing will save the world), and I agree that most of it could be done on Earth. However my point was that being in "zero-g" (or or whatever you want to call it) environment of space is not good for your health. In orbit you will not expernce a normal (Earth surface) "downward" force! Your body is ment to function on the Earth's surface; in space the lack of a net "downwand" force causes a number of bad side effects, most notably a loss bone mass, a redistribution of muscle mass, and cardiovascular changes (still not well understood). This is all well documented, NASA just prefers not to emphisize it.
Now I'm going to cover my ass ... this whole argument depends on the low-g environment of the moon being the primary factor in maintain good health (comparied to zero-g). This is the theory, no one really knows ... and there are probably other hazards of living on the moon we have no idea about, :)
I want a PDA built into a slide rule ... even usable when the batteries die.
NASA does not like to publicize the extent to which even short space flights negatively effect an astronaut's health. We evolved in gravity and our bodies depend on it to function properly ... and no amount of research is likely to change this fact. However, low gravity environments (like the moon) are thought to be ok.
The moon is not that hard to get to, and once there its much easier to get into a zero-g environment, if thats what you want (for research, manufacturing, etc). If the goal is to have long term habitiation off Earth, then going back to the moon is a very good idea.
Very true ... and the more games MS plays with its formats the more bad will it will generate.
IMHO closed file formats are an immoral business tactic designed to lock you into a particular product. Why immoral? Because your data belongs to YOU not the software provider, in most cases the reason for having closed formats is to block competition and lock in users. Infringing upon your customers' rights is very sleazy.
Sadly, most users are totally oblivous to this, thereby allowing software companies to take advantage of them.