Recently my parents wanted a computer to internet and MS Office on, and asked me for help. I gave them an old machine of mine...P3 800 with a Geforce 2 and 512MB RAM. I was getting ready to put XP on it when I realized I can't find my XP CD. After looking everywhere with no luck, I decided to conduct an experiment. I installed Ubuntu 6.10, Flash, Wine, Office, and VLC.
Initial impressions: My dad didn't care, he only goes to motorcycle forums and youtube, therefore the only thing he noticed is the icon for Firefox is in a different place. But my mom was like "This isn't Windows! I need to learn Windows! I need to learn Office!". I calmed her down and explained that she can do exactly what she needs with this setup, just the things she wants to click are in different places. After pointing out where Firefox was, how to save stuff to her home folder, how to find her USB memory stick, and what to click to open MSword, she was on her way. One day she said "This is fine but when I tell people at work I don't have Windows they keep saying I have a Mac and I'm pretty sure this isn't a Mac". I told her "Just say you run Linux, and see what their reaction is". I talked to her a few days later and she said their jaws dropped, and they were asking her a bunch of questions. I said "Congratulations mom, you are now l33t". A few months have passed since then and she still tells me how suprised she is that she doesn't use Windows, and everyone else does, yet she can still do what she needs to do. I even talked her through installing some stuff with apt-get over the phone. Incredible.
So yeah, in certain cases, I hereby certify Linux as "So easy your parents can use it". I never thought I would say that. I suppose in some way I may be doing more harm than good by stunting her Windows aptitude, but for what she does, it doesn't really matter. She just has to remember the icons she clicks and where she saves stuff are in different places.
Have fun guys. Good luck getting a console at launch and spending some time with it. Myself, my brother, and friends agree this is the most fun we've had with a console since the SNES. Don't forget to order some component cables though, it makes a pretty big difference if you're running an HDTV.
And then he died in a crappy way years later. If I recall correctly, he was in a car accident, stepped out of the car, and was hit by another car. Crappy way to die, especially for a brilliant guy who designed the Game and Watch and the Game Boy. The DS is mimicking a design he imagined almost 15 years ago. I wonder what Nintendo would be putting out today if he were still around...
I actually liked the Lynx, moreso than the Game Gear. I once played Xenophobe on that thing while my family drove across Texas (6 hours). I had a car adaptor, of course. But anyway, it didn't have many games, and some of them were real stinkers, but the few good titles it did have I played a lot. I also liked how you could turn the screen backlight on and off, which sounds like a small feature but really helped out. Pausing the game for a while? Turn the volume down and turn the backlight off. It would stay paused for hours like that on batteries. It had serious potential, and it could have easily kicked the ass of Game Gear if Atari hadn't screwed up and not put out any decent software for it.
I will not argue in the Jaguar's defense, however. Total buzzkill of a system. The only game worth playing on it is Doom, and even that's not very good. Why Atari? Why?
While I was living in China I was having trouble finding all the new PSP games that were coming out. I ended up ordering several games and some screen protectors through Lik-Sang. They were quick to ship and had great customer service. When one of my packages was held by the Chinese government for inspection, Lik-Sang notified me before the shipping company did.
I don't fully understand why Sony would take such heavy-handed actions against a reputable internet retailer who helps gamers around the world buy Sony products? In some parts of the world it's hard to find games even if they are sold there, Lik-Sang was providing a great service to those who were in such situations.
Oh well, one more reason I won't be buying their macro-priced PS3. Sony, did you really think this would help you in a PR sense? I hope you get your ass handed to you by the Wii and the 360. Oh, and to hell with Bluray...I won't be jumping on that ship either.
I've had an LG VX4400 since last November and it's taken all sorts of physical abuse since I use it a lot at work. I've been telling my friends to get one based on their durability for a while. Well, last week it was put to the ultimate test.
I was using the bathroom when my dad called. I flushed the toilet, grabbed the phone, and pulled up the antenna. As I did that it slipped from my hand and went right into the toilet. It swirled around and went into the hole, and I quickly snatched it out by its antenna before it could go all the way down. The thing had water all up inside it and in the screen. It was trying to boot and making a squealing noise from the ringer. I yanked the battery off, blew out as much water as I could with compressed air, and put it in a drawer for a few days.
Eventually I put the battery back on and powered it up. Damn thing works fine, just like nothing ever happened. Speaker is still loud, screen is OK, signal is still great, and battery life hasn't changed. I wiped it off with some rubbing alcohol in a lousy attempt to disinfect it from the toilet water. If you need a tough phone, try the LG VX4400.
Because this has been asked before. Just like "Dude, Gigahertz? Why would we even need that?", and "50 gig hard drive? What the hell would you fill that up with?". The answer is: We'll know what to do with it when we get there.
It's funny, AT&TW was so inept and screwed-up, yet I never had ANY problems with them when I had the service. I had them for about 4 years until last November when I moved to Verizon. Their coverage was great, reception was clean, customer service was good, I was pretty happy with them. Then all this stuff happened and all I hear is horror stories of mistreated customers and network problems. It's strange. I live in Texas, so maybe they were just more efficient down here for some reason. As for Verizon, I am VERY happy with them. They have a nice selection of phones, their Texas coverage is excellent, and their customer service reps are incredibly friendly and helpful. I once was very late on a payment due to financial problems, and after I talked to the rep about it, she removed the late fees without resistance. So, if you're on AT&TW and trying to escape, check them out.
"The machines that we use are not all that great, P4 1.7Ghz with 2 year old NVidia graphics cards, so Quake and the likes are out of the question." i have a P3 450Mhz crapbox with 256MB RAM and a TNT2 vid card in my livingroom that runs Q3 and other games quite well. maybe you should try Duke Nukem 3D or the original Doom?
can it sustain a rototiller attack by some broke-ass farmer in central Texas?
SWBell: "You've severed a major fiber pipeline!"
farmer: "Que?"
SWBell: "..."
well, i was worried about doing it. if you look at the services that depend on it there are quite a few. but i did it anyway and had no problems while i cleaned up the mess. just be sure to turn it back to the default setting when you are finished.
Start\Settings\Control Panel - Administrative Tools. Services. right-click "Remote Procedure Call (RPC)" hit Properties. click the Recovery tab. set "First Failure", "Second Failure", and "Subsequent Failures" to "Take No Action".
that will keep it from trying to reboot as you clean. good luck.
i knew this would happen, but it still infuriates me. think the internet sucks now? wait about 5 years. these days will shine by comparison. fuck you, mister bush.
i just finished digital circuits, and now here come digital DNA circuits. i imagine the lab fees will be pretty high for that one. i suppose i'll have to buy a biological protoboard too. d'oh!
apple, just put another button and a scroll wheel on there, admit the other mice were stupid, and apologize to all the mac users forced to buy ridiculously overpriced art-boxes and then have to buy new mice for them. they finally get with the program, but decide to over-engineer the friggin' thing.
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Recently my parents wanted a computer to internet and MS Office on, and asked me for help. I gave them an old machine of mine...P3 800 with a Geforce 2 and 512MB RAM. I was getting ready to put XP on it when I realized I can't find my XP CD. After looking everywhere with no luck, I decided to conduct an experiment. I installed Ubuntu 6.10, Flash, Wine, Office, and VLC.
Initial impressions: My dad didn't care, he only goes to motorcycle forums and youtube, therefore the only thing he noticed is the icon for Firefox is in a different place. But my mom was like "This isn't Windows! I need to learn Windows! I need to learn Office!". I calmed her down and explained that she can do exactly what she needs with this setup, just the things she wants to click are in different places. After pointing out where Firefox was, how to save stuff to her home folder, how to find her USB memory stick, and what to click to open MSword, she was on her way. One day she said "This is fine but when I tell people at work I don't have Windows they keep saying I have a Mac and I'm pretty sure this isn't a Mac". I told her "Just say you run Linux, and see what their reaction is". I talked to her a few days later and she said their jaws dropped, and they were asking her a bunch of questions. I said "Congratulations mom, you are now l33t". A few months have passed since then and she still tells me how suprised she is that she doesn't use Windows, and everyone else does, yet she can still do what she needs to do. I even talked her through installing some stuff with apt-get over the phone. Incredible.
So yeah, in certain cases, I hereby certify Linux as "So easy your parents can use it". I never thought I would say that. I suppose in some way I may be doing more harm than good by stunting her Windows aptitude, but for what she does, it doesn't really matter. She just has to remember the icons she clicks and where she saves stuff are in different places.
Have fun guys. Good luck getting a console at launch and spending some time with it. Myself, my brother, and friends agree this is the most fun we've had with a console since the SNES. Don't forget to order some component cables though, it makes a pretty big difference if you're running an HDTV.
And then he died in a crappy way years later. If I recall correctly, he was in a car accident, stepped out of the car, and was hit by another car. Crappy way to die, especially for a brilliant guy who designed the Game and Watch and the Game Boy. The DS is mimicking a design he imagined almost 15 years ago. I wonder what Nintendo would be putting out today if he were still around...
I actually liked the Lynx, moreso than the Game Gear. I once played Xenophobe on that thing while my family drove across Texas (6 hours). I had a car adaptor, of course. But anyway, it didn't have many games, and some of them were real stinkers, but the few good titles it did have I played a lot. I also liked how you could turn the screen backlight on and off, which sounds like a small feature but really helped out. Pausing the game for a while? Turn the volume down and turn the backlight off. It would stay paused for hours like that on batteries. It had serious potential, and it could have easily kicked the ass of Game Gear if Atari hadn't screwed up and not put out any decent software for it.
I will not argue in the Jaguar's defense, however. Total buzzkill of a system. The only game worth playing on it is Doom, and even that's not very good. Why Atari? Why?
While I was living in China I was having trouble finding all the new PSP games that were coming out. I ended up ordering several games and some screen protectors through Lik-Sang. They were quick to ship and had great customer service. When one of my packages was held by the Chinese government for inspection, Lik-Sang notified me before the shipping company did. I don't fully understand why Sony would take such heavy-handed actions against a reputable internet retailer who helps gamers around the world buy Sony products? In some parts of the world it's hard to find games even if they are sold there, Lik-Sang was providing a great service to those who were in such situations. Oh well, one more reason I won't be buying their macro-priced PS3. Sony, did you really think this would help you in a PR sense? I hope you get your ass handed to you by the Wii and the 360. Oh, and to hell with Bluray...I won't be jumping on that ship either.
If they don't make the "DREGALARABADRAB-DEAGALARBAB" sound like they did in Star Wars, I'll bee disappointed no matter what the scientific outcome.
Nah, man. As it was landing at your table it blow away your papers and any shake you had laying out.
I've had an LG VX4400 since last November and it's taken all sorts of physical abuse since I use it a lot at work. I've been telling my friends to get one based on their durability for a while. Well, last week it was put to the ultimate test.
I was using the bathroom when my dad called. I flushed the toilet, grabbed the phone, and pulled up the antenna. As I did that it slipped from my hand and went right into the toilet. It swirled around and went into the hole, and I quickly snatched it out by its antenna before it could go all the way down. The thing had water all up inside it and in the screen. It was trying to boot and making a squealing noise from the ringer. I yanked the battery off, blew out as much water as I could with compressed air, and put it in a drawer for a few days.
Eventually I put the battery back on and powered it up. Damn thing works fine, just like nothing ever happened. Speaker is still loud, screen is OK, signal is still great, and battery life hasn't changed. I wiped it off with some rubbing alcohol in a lousy attempt to disinfect it from the toilet water. If you need a tough phone, try the LG VX4400.
Because this has been asked before. Just like "Dude, Gigahertz? Why would we even need that?", and "50 gig hard drive? What the hell would you fill that up with?". The answer is: We'll know what to do with it when we get there.
It's funny, AT&TW was so inept and screwed-up, yet I never had ANY problems with them when I had the service. I had them for about 4 years until last November when I moved to Verizon. Their coverage was great, reception was clean, customer service was good, I was pretty happy with them. Then all this stuff happened and all I hear is horror stories of mistreated customers and network problems. It's strange. I live in Texas, so maybe they were just more efficient down here for some reason.
As for Verizon, I am VERY happy with them. They have a nice selection of phones, their Texas coverage is excellent, and their customer service reps are incredibly friendly and helpful. I once was very late on a payment due to financial problems, and after I talked to the rep about it, she removed the late fees without resistance. So, if you're on AT&TW and trying to escape, check them out.
wouldn't that be the first step SCO should have done in their little crusade?
it's all over eDonkey too.
"The machines that we use are not all that great, P4 1.7Ghz with 2 year old NVidia graphics cards, so Quake and the likes are out of the question." i have a P3 450Mhz crapbox with 256MB RAM and a TNT2 vid card in my livingroom that runs Q3 and other games quite well. maybe you should try Duke Nukem 3D or the original Doom?
2 more years of college, and i'm outta here. love my country, hate my government...
see! you got +modded after all. i guess i'll see it in Waco instead of making a trip to the digitheater in Plano. g'night.
k,thx. BUT... is it digitally filmed?
can it sustain a rototiller attack by some broke-ass farmer in central Texas? SWBell: "You've severed a major fiber pipeline!" farmer: "Que?" SWBell: "..."
when does it come out? this year? anyone care to inform a drunken slashdotter? (you'll get a +mod!)
well, i was worried about doing it. if you look at the services that depend on it there are quite a few. but i did it anyway and had no problems while i cleaned up the mess. just be sure to turn it back to the default setting when you are finished.
Start\Settings\Control Panel - Administrative Tools. Services. right-click "Remote Procedure Call (RPC)" hit Properties. click the Recovery tab. set "First Failure", "Second Failure", and "Subsequent Failures" to "Take No Action". that will keep it from trying to reboot as you clean. good luck.
i knew this would happen, but it still infuriates me. think the internet sucks now? wait about 5 years. these days will shine by comparison. fuck you, mister bush.
i just finished digital circuits, and now here come digital DNA circuits. i imagine the lab fees will be pretty high for that one. i suppose i'll have to buy a biological protoboard too. d'oh!
apple, just put another button and a scroll wheel on there, admit the other mice were stupid, and apologize to all the mac users forced to buy ridiculously overpriced art-boxes and then have to buy new mice for them. they finally get with the program, but decide to over-engineer the friggin' thing.
you could just download it, it's already floating around out there...
i remember those...damn i totally forgot. i actually have some in my garage.