I shouldn't have even asked, if I had known it would turn into a "Misquote the Guide"-fest.
The answer is 42. The program (Earth) to find the question had a bug (Golgafrinchans, a.k.a. humans), so it came up with the wrong question. Base 13 has nothing to do with it, as said by Adams himself. --
Very good idea. You should go tell that to the people who think they'll get an advantage out of embedding Windows 2000 in their copy machine. (funny... copy machines always worked fine without a gigabyte hard disk before.) --
Okay. So why does your toaster need a windowing system in the first place?
I agree that a toaster with X would be a bad thing. If your toaster was misconfigured, it would hang and never eject the toast. The "Black Toast of Death". --
Well, while I'm being picky, I'll clarify that "all" means all of the content of this post, which obviously isn't very much. I'm sure it would be quite a breakthrough to discover the subject line that sums up the entire Universe. --
Maybe you misunderstood something though. KDE has the browser Konqueror, which is missing certain features but crashes less than Netscape and requires almost no time to load.
Of Lynx, Konqueror, and Netscape, I use all three. It depends on what kind of site I'm going to. --
Amen! Plus, in Lynx I can read a slashdot page as it loads. What a novel idea! And when I'm going BACK to a page, it doesn't even need to reload the whole thing like Netscape does. --
I don't believe this will happen. See, Best Brains Inc., who produce MST3K, would like it to continue. The Sci-Fi channel is most likely getting rid of it so that they have 2 more hours in their schedule to show more depressing TV series and cheesy movies (ones that would probably end up on MST3K if it continued:)
I personally believe that the Sci-Fi channel is underestimating the popularity of MST3K, and shooting themselves in the foot.
Anyway, Sci-Fi keeps saying how absolutely positively final their decision is, so it's time to look elsewhere. There are rumors that AMC will pick up the series, which I think is a very strange fit, but I'm not complaining.
We can test the "Infinite Number of Monkeys" theory. Various computers would generate random ASCII characters in their spare CPU cycles, and then the resulting sequences would be compared to the works of Shakespeare.
So there wouldn't quite be an infinite number of computers involved... but computers are faster than monkeys anyway. --
I'd like to throw something in here as the Linux newbie. I got Caldera OpenLinux 2.2, and yes, it's really graphical and friendly (though you can still get a regular text login screen by pressing ctrl-alt-F2), and it makes just about everything I do easier -- EXCEPT installing software.
(Warning: rant ahead)
I tried to install a frontend to MPG123 because I'm sick of listening to my mp3's in alphabetical order. It told me there were two libraries I had to install first (of course, it didn't say that in configure; I had to look in the README). So I try to find these other libraries using the ftp addresses provided. One of the sites is down so I have to hunt around for it elsewhere. One of the libraries requires two MORE libraries. I get those. I install everything, mixing up the order a couple of times, sometimes being baffled before realizing I forgot to 'su root' before typing 'make install', and the last library ends up not being able to find the other one anyway. In other programs, even though I have all the libraries and it can find them, they still don't compile, telling me to edit the Makefile, most of which I don't understand, and God forbid that I should have to edit some file in/etc, because I can't do it without logging out and re-logging in as root because Caldera took out all the non-graphical text editors, except vim, which requires a half-hour tutorial to learn to use it.
I thought I could get around this by downloading.rpm files instead. But the only.rpm files that have EVER worked, instead of dying instantly, are the ones on the Caldera CD itself. And to install those I have to quit everything I'm doing and log in as root.
Even if the inexperienced user moves to Linux and gets the package system working, I can bet you'll have most people using their root account to do everything, because it's too much of a pain to switch to it to install stuff. I know that this is not a good idea.
I know that all of this is more powerful than running setup.exe in Windows. But if the average user finds some nifty new software, having a Windows version with setup.exe and an 'everything else' version requiring a process resembling the above, they're going to stick with Windows.
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Re:That system has been running in Canada for year
on
Beaming Money
·
· Score: 1
I can see why this would be a good alternative to the play stuff that passes for cash in Canada.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to insult Canadians, just their money. I just remember being in a Canadian arcade, and it was obviously much easier to get one of the arcade's own special cards than to come up with $2.75 in change per game.
($2.75? Remember to take not only the exchange rate into account, but the fact that everyone loves making tourists pay through the nose, especially if they have no clue how much their money is actually worth.)
Okay, okay, this is getting more and more off-topic by the second. I'll stop now. --
AOL is clearly in the wrong here because they are inhibiting the open source/standard approach to software.
About a week ago I would have disagreed with you. After all, there's TiK (the tcl/tk version of AIM) which is open source, communicates perfectly with AOL users, has more features, and has no ads. It made me think that AOL might be getting a clue.
But now I see this article, and I also see that the TiK pages on aol.com and aim.aol.com have been removed.
So, let's look at the options we have here... Micro(insert pun here) is evil. AOL is evil. Yahoo is formerly evil and nobody uses their messaging software anyway. IRC is 99.99% porn. And my MUX keeps going down.
I hate Netscape, because sometimes if I'm just waiting for a page to load to click on a quick link, netscape just shows a blank page. Hitting the stop button then shows all the stuff that could have been rendered as netscape was waiting for a network connection. I'd rather have it allocate spaces for the pictures, and put the text as it gets it.
I agree, if it can render when you hit "stop", why can't it render along the way? Even if it rendering automatically would be too difficult or too annoying (I see half-loaded tables jumping all over the place), there should at least be a button that shows what's loaded so far without stopping. --
I'd hate to live on another planet... there would be many minutes of lag in trying to connect to any Earth website.
Of course, if Slashdot put mirror sites on different planets, it wouldn't be that bad. In fact, they should do that now, I bet the slimy things on Europa are really deprived... --
Calm down. The HHGTTG is a book as well, so instead of picking up all kinds of arbitrary items to set up in an elaborate system, you need only read to chapter 5. And presumably keep reading, because the book/series is so addictive. --
Try to implant mp3 players directly into browsers and replace midi, midi sucks anyway.
Um. Right. I think I'll go try to plug an MP3 file into my digital keyboard now. Then when the keyboard starts making all kinds of horrible noises and the neighbors complain, I'll tell them whose idea it was. --
Life spans keep getting longer. Why do you assume that you won't be alive in 100 years?
Of course, remember the words of Scott Adams... "The average person alive today will experience 80 complaint-free years of life. Unfortunately, they will live to be 160." Or something like that. --
How about every time a new kind of computer is mentioned on Slashdot, we take it as a given that a Beowulf cluster of them would be cool? Then moderators can mark posts like this as "Redundant" and everyone saves a little bandwidth. --
In the same vein, I think embedding HTML functionality into everything is stupid. I hate getting those bloat laden HTML messages from people in Pine, which I have to decipher for myself. Sometimes these messages include two attachments: one HTML attachment for bloated email readers, and one plain text attachment for normal ISO8859_1 readers. Over double the bandwandth of the simple plain text message. Most people don't even know this feature is on when they sprinkle bold, italic, and font tags all through there 1 line message and 6 line sig.
I agree completely. The current bloatware idea of "Let's make everything like the Internet!" is completely moronic. The Internet is unstructured, redundant, and limited by bandwidth. These qualities are necessary on the Internet, but do not belong in a word processor or an OS.
On a similar note, who's seen what happens when you click a hyperlink (another thing that doesn't belong in a word-processing document!) in Word97? Word and Internet Explorer actually combine, to form the most butt-ugly interface I've ever seen. Also, your document disappears and is buried in the Back menu where no sane person would think of looking for it. To most people, it would look like the document had been closed.
Who asked for that feature? Put him in line ahead of the paperclip guy. --
Slashdot Mirror
I shouldn't have even asked, if I had known it would turn into a "Misquote the Guide"-fest.
The answer is 42. The program (Earth) to find the question had a bug (Golgafrinchans, a.k.a. humans), so it came up with the wrong question. Base 13 has nothing to do with it, as said by Adams himself.
--
Very good idea. You should go tell that to the people who think they'll get an advantage out of embedding Windows 2000 in their copy machine.
(funny... copy machines always worked fine without a gigabyte hard disk before.)
--
Okay. So why does your toaster need a windowing system in the first place?
I agree that a toaster with X would be a bad thing. If your toaster was misconfigured, it would hang and never eject the toast. The "Black Toast of Death".
--
Last I knew, support for turning off Caps Lock is included in Linux.
--
Well, while I'm being picky, I'll clarify that "all" means all of the content of this post, which obviously isn't very much. I'm sure it would be quite a breakthrough to discover the subject line that sums up the entire Universe.
--
Netscape for KDE? No.
Maybe you misunderstood something though. KDE has the browser Konqueror, which is missing certain features but crashes less than Netscape and requires almost no time to load.
Of Lynx, Konqueror, and Netscape, I use all three. It depends on what kind of site I'm going to.
--
Amen!
Plus, in Lynx I can read a slashdot page as it loads. What a novel idea! And when I'm going BACK to a page, it doesn't even need to reload the whole thing like Netscape does.
--
I don't believe this will happen. See, Best Brains Inc., who produce MST3K, would like it to continue. The Sci-Fi channel is most likely getting rid of it so that they have 2 more hours in their schedule to show more depressing TV series and cheesy movies (ones that would probably end up on MST3K if it continued :)
I personally believe that the Sci-Fi channel is underestimating the popularity of MST3K, and shooting themselves in the foot.
Anyway, Sci-Fi keeps saying how absolutely positively final their decision is, so it's time to look elsewhere. There are rumors that AMC will pick up the series, which I think is a very strange fit, but I'm not complaining.
--
Uh, speaking of intelligence... The average IQ, by definition, is 100. So where'd you get that "algorithm"?
It's like that quote: "My god! Our educational system is terrible! Half of the students are performing below the median!"
--
And now... the Ender's Game Movie CAST FROM HELL
Ender: Jake Lloyd
Valentine: Natalie Portman
Peter: Jim Carrey
Mazer Rackham: Pauly Shore
The Buggers: The Gungans (as in Jar Jar Binks)
--
So there wouldn't quite be an infinite number of computers involved... but computers are faster than monkeys anyway.
--
And if you turn the monitor OFF at night, it uses a whole 0 watts!
--
Certain experiences have come close. I direct you to the story What Not To Write On Your Security Clearance Form.
--
I'd like to throw something in here as the Linux newbie. I got Caldera OpenLinux 2.2, and yes, it's really graphical and friendly (though you can still get a regular text login screen by pressing ctrl-alt-F2), and it makes just about everything I do easier -- EXCEPT installing software.
/etc, because I can't do it without logging out and re-logging in as root because Caldera took out all the non-graphical text editors, except vim, which requires a half-hour tutorial to learn to use it.
.rpm files instead. But the only .rpm files that have EVER worked, instead of dying instantly, are the ones on the Caldera CD itself. And to install those I have to quit everything I'm doing and log in as root.
(Warning: rant ahead)
I tried to install a frontend to MPG123 because I'm sick of listening to my mp3's in alphabetical order. It told me there were two libraries I had to install first (of course, it didn't say that in configure; I had to look in the README). So I try to find these other libraries using the ftp addresses provided. One of the sites is down so I have to hunt around for it elsewhere. One of the libraries requires two MORE libraries. I get those. I install everything, mixing up the order a couple of times, sometimes being baffled before realizing I forgot to 'su root' before typing 'make install', and the last library ends up not being able to find the other one anyway. In other programs, even though I have all the libraries and it can find them, they still don't compile, telling me to edit the Makefile, most of which I don't understand, and God forbid that I should have to edit some file in
I thought I could get around this by downloading
Even if the inexperienced user moves to Linux and gets the package system working, I can bet you'll have most people using their root account to do everything, because it's too much of a pain to switch to it to install stuff. I know that this is not a good idea.
I know that all of this is more powerful than running setup.exe in Windows. But if the average user finds some nifty new software, having a Windows version with setup.exe and an 'everything else' version requiring a process resembling the above, they're going to stick with Windows.
--
I can see why this would be a good alternative to the play stuff that passes for cash in Canada.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to insult Canadians, just their money. I just remember being in a Canadian arcade, and it was obviously much easier to get one of the arcade's own special cards than to come up with $2.75 in change per game.
($2.75? Remember to take not only the exchange rate into account, but the fact that everyone loves making tourists pay through the nose, especially if they have no clue how much their money is actually worth.)
Okay, okay, this is getting more and more off-topic by the second. I'll stop now.
--
About a week ago I would have disagreed with you. After all, there's TiK (the tcl/tk version of AIM) which is open source, communicates perfectly with AOL users, has more features, and has no ads. It made me think that AOL might be getting a clue.
But now I see this article, and I also see that the TiK pages on aol.com and aim.aol.com have been removed.
So, let's look at the options we have here... Micro(insert pun here) is evil. AOL is evil. Yahoo is formerly evil and nobody uses their messaging software anyway. IRC is 99.99% porn. And my MUX keeps going down.
You just can't win.
--
Wow. This guy reminds me of some people I know, who think that inventive uses of swear words ("Yippity FUCK") make the point more credible.
(pause as Bob wanders around the site)
Okay, I just went to look at more of that site. The whole site is like that. It's kind of like the Onion, except it's not funny. Hmm.
--
I agree, if it can render when you hit "stop", why can't it render along the way? Even if it rendering automatically would be too difficult or too annoying (I see half-loaded tables jumping all over the place), there should at least be a button that shows what's loaded so far without stopping.
--
I'd hate to live on another planet... there would be many minutes of lag in trying to connect to any Earth website.
Of course, if Slashdot put mirror sites on different planets, it wouldn't be that bad. In fact, they should do that now, I bet the slimy things on Europa are really deprived...
--
Calm down. The HHGTTG is a book as well, so instead of picking up all kinds of arbitrary items to set up in an elaborate system, you need only read to chapter 5. And presumably keep reading, because the book/series is so addictive.
--
Try to implant mp3 players directly into browsers and replace midi, midi sucks anyway.
Um. Right. I think I'll go try to plug an MP3 file into my digital keyboard now. Then when the keyboard starts making all kinds of horrible noises and the neighbors complain, I'll tell them whose idea it was.
--
Life spans keep getting longer. Why do you assume that you won't be alive in 100 years?
Of course, remember the words of Scott Adams... "The average person alive today will experience 80 complaint-free years of life. Unfortunately, they will live to be 160." Or something like that.
--
This is getting quite repetitive.
How about every time a new kind of computer is mentioned on Slashdot, we take it as a given that a Beowulf cluster of them would be cool? Then moderators can mark posts like this as "Redundant" and everyone saves a little bandwidth.
--
I agree completely. The current bloatware idea of "Let's make everything like the Internet!" is completely moronic. The Internet is unstructured, redundant, and limited by bandwidth. These qualities are necessary on the Internet, but do not belong in a word processor or an OS.
On a similar note, who's seen what happens when you click a hyperlink (another thing that doesn't belong in a word-processing document!) in Word97? Word and Internet Explorer actually combine, to form the most butt-ugly interface I've ever seen. Also, your document disappears and is buried in the Back menu where no sane person would think of looking for it. To most people, it would look like the document had been closed.
Who asked for that feature? Put him in line ahead of the paperclip guy.
--
Who said that stupidity and scroll-texts were mutually exclusive?
--