Sorry, but that's not fair. While I take your point about RMS being eccentric, you have to give him credit for being a visionary, almost invariably right, and genuinely good person. Furthermore, he is a talented coder, and wrote the GPL - I think that counts as leadership.
Linus himself is a genius as a leader - he manages, almost without exception to be able to defuse any problem with grace and humour (I think Bitkeeper was an exception), and keep a whole bunch of programmers (aka cats!) in the same team (herd!).
Also, I think you miss two key points: i)There is no such thing as a perfect leader, nor any human without feet of clay.
ii)OSS doesn't need a leader per se. Not in the same way that, say MS/Sun/HP do, anyway. We need vision, and inspiration, but we don't usually need instructions. The best thing to do is write good code, and be judged on its merits. For all the good that a "perfect leader" could do, I believe that the actual code counts for more. To pick just one example, Klaus Knopper has done more for "Linux evangelism" by producing Knoppix than he ever could by standing on a soap box.
Lotus Organizer is really great. It even runs under Linux (thanks to Wine). Unfortunately, it's showing its age (the last release was 1999, and IBM seems to have abandoned it). Does anyone here know a good way to migrate the data to something like korganiser?
They have measured the (absolute) celcius temperature of a well-cooled system, without quoting the ambient temperature. Then, concluding that the temperature hasn't droppped much, they assume the power hasn't dropped much.
The correct measurement is the *difference* in temperature between the CPU and the ambient air. Power dissipation is linearly proportional to this.
I agree that this is barbaric, but it is correct English. Try reading it thus (I've re-arranged the sentence to make it easier to parse, but haven't changed the grammar):
Firefox, the spawn of Netscape, has never been more popular, and is poised to beat Microsoft in the browser market.
What I'd really like would be for the arrow keys to be in a hollow plus configuration, rather than inverted-T. That would make it so much easier to locate down_arrow (I always end up with left-arrow), and essential when moving around editors.
Incidentally, the IBM ultranav, with inbuilt trackpoint is wonderful (and I modded it to give me a scroll-wheel too). This means I can use keyboard/mouse without always moving hands.
I'd like to see a film about "thought prevention". In this, person A comes up with something creative (an invention, or an artwork, or whatever). But although A did it entirely independently, their creation was "stolen" from them because B has a patent on it.
----
While there might be a shred of justification for preventing patent infringement via reverse engineering, there is no way it is moral to condemn those who independently invent their own solution.
I find this sort of cooler much more useful: http://www.quietpc.com/uk/harddrive.php#z m2hc2
The heatpipes per se only make a small difference to the temperature (perhaps 6-10 degrees?), but the rubber mounts do a fabulous job of reducing the noise.
One useful solution is to put just one copy of MS office on a computer running VNCserver. Then, in the occasional event of someone really needing to use MS Office, they can just connect via VNC. It's a good backup option.
Also, if you want lighter-weight/faster, especially for older machines, try abiword/gnumeric. Abiword is available for Windows (and there is an initial port of gnumeric too).
I actually measured the spectral purity of some LEDs for a physics project. Result:
Red LEDs really do have a sharp spectrum (about 3nm wide). Yellow and Orange are quite sharp (10nm ish), but not so good. Green is much wider.
Blue LEDs have much more of a continuum, containing significant amounts even of red light, as well as some UV.
This of course, depends on the LED - they are various types of eg Green. However, it seems that
Red-Orange-Yellow LEDs are completely different to
Green-Blue-White LEDs in their chemistry. The ROY are less efficient (at least to the human eye, they are dramatically less bright per Watt), but have much sharper spectral peaks than the GBW.
It seems to me that the most important thing (on a single user desktop) isn't really the file ownership, but whether it can be executed.
Most viruses etc would be killed at a stroke if files were not executable by default.
(As for admin vs user, on a single-owner desktop machine, it doesn't really matter as much - after all, the user's private files are far more valuable the the OS.)
This is the point. 911 was tragic, dreadfully so. But the response has been completely wrong for several reasons:
1) 3000 lives is a tragic loss, but it is far less than died fighting in, say WW2 to save our freedoms. We should not give up our freedoms so lightly. It seems to me that, if those 3000 died to maintain freedom, it was not in vain; but if their own government gives up on what they believed in, their deaths were all the more tragic, since the terrorists have won.
2) Over the last 10 years, more people have been killed by lightening than by terrorism. The current state of panic is unjustified, yet a scared population will give away its rights too easily. (Think Germany in 1933 and the "Enabling Law".)
3)It wouldn't be quite so bad if the "antiterror measures" actually made any difference to the real risk. They may reduce "perceived risk", but if anything, the real risk is increased.
4)I strongly believe that the USA should aim to be a beacon of democracy and freedom, and that the rest of the world should seek to emulate this. That, in the end, is the only way to obtain peace.
[My view is that the USA's foreign policy response to 911 was basically correct (i.e invade Afghanistan, scare Syria/Iran...), albeit that the execution was not quite perfect. However, the domestic response should have been to do *nothing*. At the moment, the US at home is doing all the terrorists could have dreamed of. You go about in fear, your systems are inefficient and more expensive because of "security", and you have given up many of your liberties. And my government is copying this.]
Yes, but it is on the way. For example,
* Guantanamo and detention without trial.
* Stupid, bureaucratic "security" regulations.
* Pervasive requirements for identity documents when travelling or in finance.
* IP "colonisation" and the destruction of the public domain by large corporates.
* Politicians who take advantage of a frightened populace.
* Widespread surveillance of communications; what privacy the government does not invade is invaded by the likes of choicepoint.
* Official xenophobia to the extent that even your allies are discouraged from travelling to the USA.
Several of these are indeed tyrannical, to the extent that the founding fathers used that word.
Incidentally, I like the USA, have visited many times before, I believe in the founding ideals of the USA (which the government seems to have abandoned), and I supported the Iraq war.
Needless to say, we in Europe have many of the same problems. However, I believe that the USA has badly lost its way, and has slipped from the moral high-ground. I am saddened to see this.
No offense intended - I never claimed that we are any better! Fortunately, the ID card bill seems to be on its way out, but I agree about the dreadfulness of CCTV, and how pervasive it has become. That's one thing which you are still fortunate about.
However, I disagree about the records - in Europe, we do have some fairly decent data protection rules which, despite problems do often do what they are meant to.
[I think you've probably overstated the significance of the Royal Assent to Elections; it's a historical convention, nothing more.]
Personally, as a British citizen (and one involved in the fight against ID cards here), I resent the prospect of being fingerprinted, and treated like a common criminal, so much that I will not travel to the USA. I have nothing to hide, but I know that once fingerprints are on record, they will never be deleted, and I value my privacy. As a consequence, our family has not holidayed in the USA since, and this will cost the USA $10,000+ in lost income over a few years. Hopefully, the Democrats will change the policy back when GWB is finally kicked out.
What happened to the USA? It was a free country with ideals, and now it is becoming a tyranny.
These URLS helped me - so for anyone else reading this thread, I'm posting them here. http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Font-HOWTO/fix.ht ml#free type http://convexhull.com/mandrake_fonts.html
There is one other great joy about the suite that FF/TB do not have: clear, sharp, crisp fonts.
I realise this is personal, but cannot bear antialiased fonts - they appear blurry and out of focus, and they give me eye strain. Yes, FF/TB let you switch off antialiasing (as configured by the gnome control panel), but then you get the spidery mess that results from scaled, non anti-aliased true type fonts.
BUT, in the suite, (using then non-XFT builds), I can have perfect, sharp fonts using the old fashioned 100dpi (bitmap) fonts. This makes Mozilla so much easier to read!
Other problems with TB/FF: the extensions do not play nice with rpm/urpmi; the keys (Ctrl-[1-5] and Ctrl-N/M don't work (eg no keyboard accelerator in TB to open a new window in FF); less functionality; hidden dependence on the gnome-control-panel (for default browser/fonts); less effective toolbar (google/URL are in separate bars).
I wonder whether a suitable monkey-wrench could be obtained by a change to the GPL. Something (in legalese) like:
If you sue anyone for patent infringement, you lose your right to use patented techniques under the GPL. i.e. anyone else who wrote GPL software can then sue you.
This could be made to work, since when someone releases GPL software, they are essentially granting a free license to everyone to use any patented methods within the software. If that right were revoked for those starting lawsuits, it could be a useful start.
It could, in principle, fix the problem of large real companies (eg Microsoft) trying to crush smaller ones. What is left unresolved is how to deal with the really bad guys: "pure IP organisations" such as Eolas.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought that this sort of tying of one product to another wasn't actually legal? Please correct me if I have misunderstood.
Sorry, but that's not fair. While I take your point about RMS being eccentric, you have to give him credit for being a visionary, almost invariably right, and genuinely good person. Furthermore, he is a talented coder, and wrote the GPL - I think that counts as leadership.
Linus himself is a genius as a leader - he manages, almost without exception to be able to defuse any problem with grace and humour (I think Bitkeeper was an exception), and keep a whole bunch of programmers (aka cats!) in the same team (herd!).
Also, I think you miss two key points:
i)There is no such thing as a perfect leader, nor any human without feet of clay.
ii)OSS doesn't need a leader per se. Not in the same way that, say MS/Sun/HP do, anyway. We need vision, and inspiration, but we don't usually need instructions. The best thing to do is write good code, and be judged on its merits. For all the good that a "perfect leader" could do, I believe that the actual code counts for more. To pick just one example, Klaus Knopper has done more for "Linux evangelism" by producing Knoppix than he ever could by standing on a soap box.
Lotus Organizer is really great. It even runs under Linux (thanks to Wine). Unfortunately, it's showing its age (the last release was 1999, and IBM seems to have abandoned it). Does anyone here know a good way to migrate the data to something like korganiser?
Ah. I am impressed!
Not, however very useful. Because if you want to exploit this, you'd need messages which aren't about Gaul and Caesar!
They have measured the (absolute) celcius temperature of a well-cooled system, without quoting the ambient temperature. Then, concluding that the temperature hasn't droppped much, they assume the power hasn't dropped much.
The correct measurement is the *difference* in temperature between the CPU and the ambient air. Power dissipation is linearly proportional to this.
I agree that this is barbaric, but it is correct English. Try reading it thus (I've re-arranged the sentence to make it easier to parse, but haven't changed the grammar):
Firefox, the spawn of Netscape, has never been more popular, and is poised to beat Microsoft in the browser market.
What I'd really like would be for the arrow keys to be in a hollow plus configuration, rather than inverted-T. That would make it so much easier to locate down_arrow (I always end up with left-arrow), and essential when moving around editors.
Incidentally, the IBM ultranav, with inbuilt trackpoint is wonderful (and I modded it to give me a scroll-wheel too). This means I can use keyboard/mouse without always moving hands.
I'd like to see a film about "thought prevention". In this, person A comes up with something creative (an invention, or an artwork, or whatever). But although A did it entirely independently, their creation was "stolen" from them because B has a patent on it. ---- While there might be a shred of justification for preventing patent infringement via reverse engineering, there is no way it is moral to condemn those who independently invent their own solution.
I hate to think what happens after 6 months when the rubber perishes! *Crash*
I find this sort of cooler much more useful:z m2hc2
http://www.quietpc.com/uk/harddrive.php#
The heatpipes per se only make a small difference to the temperature (perhaps 6-10 degrees?), but the rubber mounts do a fabulous job of reducing the noise.
One useful solution is to put just one copy of MS office on a computer running VNCserver. Then, in the occasional event of someone really needing to use MS Office, they can just connect via VNC. It's a good backup option.
Also, if you want lighter-weight/faster, especially for older machines, try abiword/gnumeric. Abiword is available for Windows (and there is an initial port of gnumeric too).
I actually measured the spectral purity of some LEDs for a physics project. Result: Red LEDs really do have a sharp spectrum (about 3nm wide). Yellow and Orange are quite sharp (10nm ish), but not so good. Green is much wider. Blue LEDs have much more of a continuum, containing significant amounts even of red light, as well as some UV. This of course, depends on the LED - they are various types of eg Green. However, it seems that Red-Orange-Yellow LEDs are completely different to Green-Blue-White LEDs in their chemistry. The ROY are less efficient (at least to the human eye, they are dramatically less bright per Watt), but have much sharper spectral peaks than the GBW.
It seems to me that the most important thing (on a single user desktop) isn't really the file ownership, but whether it can be executed. Most viruses etc would be killed at a stroke if files were not executable by default. (As for admin vs user, on a single-owner desktop machine, it doesn't really matter as much - after all, the user's private files are far more valuable the the OS.)
This is the point. 911 was tragic, dreadfully so. But the response has been completely wrong for several reasons:
1) 3000 lives is a tragic loss, but it is far less than died fighting in, say WW2 to save our freedoms. We should not give up our freedoms so lightly. It seems to me that, if those 3000 died to maintain freedom, it was not in vain; but if their own government gives up on what they believed in, their deaths were all the more tragic, since the terrorists have won.
2) Over the last 10 years, more people have been killed by lightening than by terrorism. The current state of panic is unjustified, yet a scared population will give away its rights too easily. (Think Germany in 1933 and the "Enabling Law".)
3)It wouldn't be quite so bad if the "antiterror measures" actually made any difference to the real risk. They may reduce "perceived risk", but if anything, the real risk is increased.
4)I strongly believe that the USA should aim to be a beacon of democracy and freedom, and that the rest of the world should seek to emulate this. That, in the end, is the only way to obtain peace.
[My view is that the USA's foreign policy response to 911 was basically correct (i.e invade Afghanistan, scare Syria/Iran...), albeit that the execution was not quite perfect. However, the domestic response should have been to do *nothing*. At the moment, the US at home is doing all the terrorists could have dreamed of. You go about in fear, your systems are inefficient and more expensive because of "security", and you have given up many of your liberties. And my government is copying this.]
Yes, but it is on the way. For example, * Guantanamo and detention without trial. * Stupid, bureaucratic "security" regulations. * Pervasive requirements for identity documents when travelling or in finance. * IP "colonisation" and the destruction of the public domain by large corporates. * Politicians who take advantage of a frightened populace. * Widespread surveillance of communications; what privacy the government does not invade is invaded by the likes of choicepoint. * Official xenophobia to the extent that even your allies are discouraged from travelling to the USA. Several of these are indeed tyrannical, to the extent that the founding fathers used that word. Incidentally, I like the USA, have visited many times before, I believe in the founding ideals of the USA (which the government seems to have abandoned), and I supported the Iraq war. Needless to say, we in Europe have many of the same problems. However, I believe that the USA has badly lost its way, and has slipped from the moral high-ground. I am saddened to see this.
No offense intended - I never claimed that we are any better! Fortunately, the ID card bill seems to be on its way out, but I agree about the dreadfulness of CCTV, and how pervasive it has become. That's one thing which you are still fortunate about.
However, I disagree about the records - in Europe, we do have some fairly decent data protection rules which, despite problems do often do what they are meant to.
[I think you've probably overstated the significance of the Royal Assent to Elections; it's a historical convention, nothing more.]
Personally, as a British citizen (and one involved in the fight against ID cards here), I resent the prospect of being fingerprinted, and treated like a common criminal, so much that I will not travel to the USA. I have nothing to hide, but I know that once fingerprints are on record, they will never be deleted, and I value my privacy. As a consequence, our family has not holidayed in the USA since, and this will cost the USA $10,000+ in lost income over a few years. Hopefully, the Democrats will change the policy back when GWB is finally kicked out.
What happened to the USA? It was a free country with ideals, and now it is becoming a tyranny.
Thank you - I have now got it working!
t ml#free type
These URLS helped me - so for anyone else reading this thread, I'm posting them here.
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Font-HOWTO/fix.h
http://convexhull.com/mandrake_fonts.html
Thank you very much. That is most helpful, and I shall try it.
There is one other great joy about the suite that FF/TB do not have: clear, sharp, crisp fonts.
I realise this is personal, but cannot bear antialiased fonts - they appear blurry and out of focus, and they give me eye strain. Yes, FF/TB let you switch off antialiasing (as configured by the gnome control panel), but then you get the spidery mess that results from scaled, non anti-aliased true type fonts.
BUT, in the suite, (using then non-XFT builds), I can have perfect, sharp fonts using the old fashioned 100dpi (bitmap) fonts. This makes Mozilla so much easier to read!
Other problems with TB/FF: the extensions do not play nice with rpm/urpmi; the keys (Ctrl-[1-5] and Ctrl-N/M don't work (eg no keyboard accelerator in TB to open a new window in FF); less functionality; hidden dependence on the gnome-control-panel (for default browser/fonts); less effective toolbar (google/URL are in separate bars).
Or even (shock) Linus actually deciding to write it in the first place!!
I wonder whether a suitable monkey-wrench could be obtained by a change to the GPL. Something (in legalese) like:
If you sue anyone for patent infringement, you lose your right to use patented techniques under the GPL. i.e. anyone else who wrote GPL software can then sue you.
This could be made to work, since when someone releases GPL software, they are essentially granting a free license to everyone to use any patented methods within the software. If that right were revoked for those starting lawsuits, it could be a useful start.
It could, in principle, fix the problem of large real companies (eg Microsoft) trying to crush smaller ones. What is left unresolved is how to deal with the really bad guys: "pure IP organisations" such as Eolas.
If you look here: http://ffii.org/ there's some possibly better news.
There was a move afoot a while back that the BBC would make all its archives available for download. I don't know what happened to that...