Why don't the developers design a system so that the skin authors don't have to do that? Let's see... hundreds of skin authors updating their skin every new release or Mozilla devs come up with a new skinning system that undertakes backwards compatability. Once it's done it's done and the complaints stop.
Your point is well taken, but consider the fact that Mozilla is very much complete. It's got tabbed browsing, popup blocking, and a boatload of other little features. AND it doesn't crash like certain other browsers we're familiar with. What needs help now is the skinning system. The very least they could do is come up with a new skinning system that won't break backwards compatability every time a new version is released.
It's been my experience that Cases's Ladder is not the best way to do PVP ranking. Years ago I played Worms2 and participated in the Case's Ladder Worms2 Roper's section and found that it was nearly impossible to rise to the top even though I was a good player. People used to rampantly cheat on Case's and never report their losses. So if I played 10 games and won 9, 1 person might be honest about his loss and I'd have a 1:1 ratio officially even though I had a 9:1 ratio in reality. I don't know if it's gotten any better lately or if this widespread dishonesty was a Worms2 thing. But I can tell you one thing. The whole experience put a bad taste in my mouth and I'll never use Case's "honor system" ever again.
Okay while I agree with everything you said, your post seems terribly manufactured. I mean come on, everyone on Slashdot that's been here for at least 6 months knows Mozilla and open source are DaShiet(tm) and surely as someone with a UID that much lower than mine you already knew all this stuff. So do you make these kinds of posts every time there's a Mozilla article? Cause this is the first one I've seen.;)
As much as I love Mozilla as a regular user both in Windows and in Linux (using it now) I really wish they would fix backwards compatability with older skins. There's some really nice KDE skins out there (one in particular on KDElook that I love) that I wish I could use.
You make good points, but that little part at the end is needlessly and childishly insulting and makes some presumptuous false assumptions such as assuming I write webpages for a living when I don't and assuming all I know is HTML (and Javascript).
Ignoring the final part of your post and despite the rest of its good points, my point remains valid. HTML may not fit in the literal definition of a programming language due to its lack of flow control, but its very complicated for a simple markup language and is often used as the gateway language to programming in languages that do have flow control. Understanding elements, attributes, and properties goes a long way toward helping learning to understand if statements, loops, and functions.
With that being said, one "codes" HTML just as one "codes" C which in and of itself proves that in general, the use of HTML is considered to be a form of programming which makes HTML a (informal?) programming language, albeit and admittedly a lesser one.
HyperText Markup Language is indeed a programming language. Just because it's child's play compared to C doesn't make it not a programming language. There are only two fundamental differences between coding HTML and coding C:
HTML has an element, attribute, property structure instead of functions, if statements, etc. If this is your basis behind calling it not a programming language, throw out xml and all its variants while you're at it.
HTML is interpreted, not compiled. If that's your basis behind calling it not a programming language, then throw out php and other serversides while you're at it.
Secondly, it takes years to learn how to program WELL in a complex language like C++. You may know the basic syntax for ten different languages, but that doesn't mean you're an expert programmer in all.
Yes, it takes years to get good. Where the hell do most people get their years of programming experience? At a job. You don't get a nice progrmaming job by putting on your resume that you have nothing but an understanding of syntax. You say you know the languages then when you get hired, you look up information you don't know so you can get the job done.
Half the reason the job market is so bad right is because people like you don't give new guys a chance. If they don't have 10 years of experience they're instant crap in your eyes. Well unless someone gives'm a chance, all they're going to get is 10 years of experience in being unemployed.
Learn by doing. Do by working. Embelished resumes are a fact of life.
No, a sedentary lifestyle contributes to obesity. Video games are usually sedentary therefore they indirectly contribute to obesity like any other sedentary activity.
A particular issue focused on is "the growing issue of screen time as it relates to the obesity epidemic"
People are getting fat! Blame TV! Blame video games! I'm no doctor but it doesn't take one to realize that people are not fat for those reasons. If you're lucky enough to have a godlike metabolism like me, you can sit on your ass all day and still weight 120lb. If not, diet, eat healthier, or exercise. Or don't bitch that you're fat. Video games have nothing directly to do with being fat. The combination of a bad metabolism, eating too much, or not eating healthy, COMBINED WITH a sedentary lifestyle produces obesity. And you know what? Some people are just fat. They eat right, they exercise, and they're still fat. It's a fucking fact of life people, get over it.
You can unlock the Centurion Guard with a key (physical key). Then you can do whatever you want to the machines at it'll save the changes until you reboot which relocks the computer. We usually do this at the college once every few months or so to update the virus protection. You're right though, it will keep getting the same viruses unless we do these updates. You just have to stay on top of it. Still, it's a lot easier than managing unprotected computers.
Unfortunately, we have no way of deploying updates simultaneously across all the computers. My superiors haven't provided me with that. So when updates are done it's one by one.
I'm a supervisor at a similar computer lab at a college and all my machines have the Centurion Guard. No matter how badly the students screw up the computers every day, one press of the reset button solves all the problems. They all run WinXP (shudder). I'll tell you one thing though. The Centurion Guard is one way to keep a Windows box totally virus free. As for me, when I'm supervising the lab, I run Knoppix on top of one of the WinXP machine so I can get my coding done. It sure is nice being able to work on personal projects and not actually have to supervise what people are doing. Just reboot the computers once (or more) a day.;)
Maybe the best solution is to perfect both the large repository system and the all-in-one-file file method and offer the end user both methods of installing the software. That way if s/he chooses to store their favorite programs' install files on a CD for reinstall emergencies or offline distributive purposes it can be done while not scrapping the idea of less bloated apt/portage system for those who actually have decent internet connections. The idea in Linux is choice after all, right?
All of these package management systems assume you have a stable connection to the internet though. Many people don't. Having a personal library of self-contained install files is preferable because that way if you have to reinstall, you already have all the packages you need without ever going online. Too much dependence on centralized repositories is a failing in Linux package management.
Well let's consider a simplified example. A lot of people find repositories like apt and portage to be obscure and their centralized nature to be in contradiction to the decentralized philosophy of Linux. This is why systems like rpm are still widely popular. Instead of finding gaim on your giant overwhelming repository, you go to gaim.sourceforge.net and download gaim.rpm, double click it, and it installs. Or at least that's how it should be. Most rpm distros can't auto solve dependencies which is what make apt and portage fundamentally better.
Now let's consider grandma on dialup or anybody with a substandard internet connection. Things like apt and portage are generally not good for them. If their hard drive failed and they had to reinstall Linux, if they had a CD full of install files for programs they use all the time then it would be a lot easier to resetup the system because they wouldn't have to struggle with their bad internet connection. And for the moment, let's pretend that gaim is not on apt or portage. Now the only way to install it is to manually compile from source, which as you pointed out, is not preferable.
The point is, repositories like apt and portage cannot possibly contain all the useful software that exists for Linux. A decentralized system of downloadable binaries that just run or downloadable binary install files that either compile code automatically or just move files where they need to be is preferable. This system has been proven to work on Windows and Mac. We in the Linux world need to embrace it and standardize it. Central repositories just don't work in the long run.
There's nothing wrong with a frontend/backend system. It's the whole apt/portage/rpm system that is fundamentally flawed. Like I said before, I like portage. The idea of an ebuild and a system that automatically solves its own dependencies is a good idea. But none of the major package management systems (rpm/apt/portage) come close to making software installation as easy as downloading an installation file and double clicking it like Windows or downloading a precompiled program bundled with everything it needs that just runs like Mac OSX.
In short, IMO Linux package management needs help more than any other area. Grandma can use KDE. Grandma can can use OpenOffice. Grandma can use Mozilla. But Grandma can't install software in Linux and that's just how it is.
But the most important thing about installers is that they are run once. People base entire distribution reviews on the installer, which is just stupid.
Not me. Installers are important, but package management is way more important. I'm a Gentoo user. I think portage is superior to apt. But I also think both apt and portage don't cut it. What we need is a better package management system that even grandma could use. Is UserLinux going to try and solve that problem or just slap a frontend on apt and call it good to go?
That's all well and good but I don't want to run an NTFS partition if I don't have to because only Windows can write to it. Killing two birds with one stone would be running Windows on an ext partition and Linux and a separate ext partition. Both can talk to eachother that way.
For the record, I dual boot. Windows for games and Linux for everything else. hda = FAT32 20gb Win2k hdb = ext3 40gb Gentoo Linux hdc = NTFS 80gb no operating system
I'd like to make hda and hdc Linux drives that Windows has no problem read/writing to but I can't.
The best thing for Linux would be ntfs2ext2,3,reiserfs, whatever, and a Windows ext2/3/reiserfs driver.
Get people converted to an open filesystem, I say.
I can read Linux file systems from Windows and I can read Windows file systems from Linux but the write capacity of one to the other is marginal. What we need is to improve on the drivers so that they have full read/write access then write a program that can convert an NTFS hard drive into an ext2/3 hard drive and let Windows boot it. If you could run windows on an ext2/3 partition, it would go a long way toward solving people's dual booting problems.
Great for schools? Maybe. But you know what's better for schools? Centurion Guard. You can format the hard drive, install another OS, then when you hit the reset button everything is magically restored. Sure it's not the open source solution to all our problems we'd like to see, but it works. My college runs Windows on all the lab machines and we've never had a virus survive more than a few hours. Why? All you have to do when you get one is hit the reset button.;)
It makes my job as the lab supervisor a lot easier. If someone fubars a machine, hit the reset button and everything works.
Slashdot Mirror
Your point is well taken, but consider the fact that Mozilla is very much complete. It's got tabbed browsing, popup blocking, and a boatload of other little features. AND it doesn't crash like certain other browsers we're familiar with. What needs help now is the skinning system. The very least they could do is come up with a new skinning system that won't break backwards compatability every time a new version is released.
It's been my experience that Cases's Ladder is not the best way to do PVP ranking. Years ago I played Worms2 and participated in the Case's Ladder Worms2 Roper's section and found that it was nearly impossible to rise to the top even though I was a good player. People used to rampantly cheat on Case's and never report their losses. So if I played 10 games and won 9, 1 person might be honest about his loss and I'd have a 1:1 ratio officially even though I had a 9:1 ratio in reality. I don't know if it's gotten any better lately or if this widespread dishonesty was a Worms2 thing. But I can tell you one thing. The whole experience put a bad taste in my mouth and I'll never use Case's "honor system" ever again.
After you've had your's, you can tell me when it's my turn.
Okay while I agree with everything you said, your post seems terribly manufactured. I mean come on, everyone on Slashdot that's been here for at least 6 months knows Mozilla and open source are DaShiet(tm) and surely as someone with a UID that much lower than mine you already knew all this stuff. So do you make these kinds of posts every time there's a Mozilla article? Cause this is the first one I've seen. ;)
Warning, this is semi offtopic.
As much as I love Mozilla as a regular user both in Windows and in Linux (using it now) I really wish they would fix backwards compatability with older skins. There's some really nice KDE skins out there (one in particular on KDElook that I love) that I wish I could use.
You make good points, but that little part at the end is needlessly and childishly insulting and makes some presumptuous false assumptions such as assuming I write webpages for a living when I don't and assuming all I know is HTML (and Javascript).
Ignoring the final part of your post and despite the rest of its good points, my point remains valid. HTML may not fit in the literal definition of a programming language due to its lack of flow control, but its very complicated for a simple markup language and is often used as the gateway language to programming in languages that do have flow control. Understanding elements, attributes, and properties goes a long way toward helping learning to understand if statements, loops, and functions.
With that being said, one "codes" HTML just as one "codes" C which in and of itself proves that in general, the use of HTML is considered to be a form of programming which makes HTML a (informal?) programming language, albeit and admittedly a lesser one.
HTML has an element, attribute, property structure instead of functions, if statements, etc. If this is your basis behind calling it not a programming language, throw out xml and all its variants while you're at it.
HTML is interpreted, not compiled. If that's your basis behind calling it not a programming language, then throw out php and other serversides while you're at it.
Yes, it takes years to get good. Where the hell do most people get their years of programming experience? At a job. You don't get a nice progrmaming job by putting on your resume that you have nothing but an understanding of syntax. You say you know the languages then when you get hired, you look up information you don't know so you can get the job done.Half the reason the job market is so bad right is because people like you don't give new guys a chance. If they don't have 10 years of experience they're instant crap in your eyes. Well unless someone gives'm a chance, all they're going to get is 10 years of experience in being unemployed.
Learn by doing. Do by working. Embelished resumes are a fact of life.
The mods are getting a wee bit too confy with that redundant modifier these days. I'll see you in meta mod land!
No, a sedentary lifestyle contributes to obesity. Video games are usually sedentary therefore they indirectly contribute to obesity like any other sedentary activity.
You can unlock the Centurion Guard with a key (physical key). Then you can do whatever you want to the machines at it'll save the changes until you reboot which relocks the computer. We usually do this at the college once every few months or so to update the virus protection. You're right though, it will keep getting the same viruses unless we do these updates. You just have to stay on top of it. Still, it's a lot easier than managing unprotected computers.
Unfortunately, we have no way of deploying updates simultaneously across all the computers. My superiors haven't provided me with that. So when updates are done it's one by one.
I'm too busy enjoying playing Ultima Online and not paying for it because I play on unofficial servers. ;)
I'm a supervisor at a similar computer lab at a college and all my machines have the Centurion Guard. No matter how badly the students screw up the computers every day, one press of the reset button solves all the problems. They all run WinXP (shudder). I'll tell you one thing though. The Centurion Guard is one way to keep a Windows box totally virus free. As for me, when I'm supervising the lab, I run Knoppix on top of one of the WinXP machine so I can get my coding done. It sure is nice being able to work on personal projects and not actually have to supervise what people are doing. Just reboot the computers once (or more) a day. ;)
Maybe the best solution is to perfect both the large repository system and the all-in-one-file file method and offer the end user both methods of installing the software. That way if s/he chooses to store their favorite programs' install files on a CD for reinstall emergencies or offline distributive purposes it can be done while not scrapping the idea of less bloated apt/portage system for those who actually have decent internet connections. The idea in Linux is choice after all, right?
All of these package management systems assume you have a stable connection to the internet though. Many people don't. Having a personal library of self-contained install files is preferable because that way if you have to reinstall, you already have all the packages you need without ever going online. Too much dependence on centralized repositories is a failing in Linux package management.
Well let's consider a simplified example. A lot of people find repositories like apt and portage to be obscure and their centralized nature to be in contradiction to the decentralized philosophy of Linux. This is why systems like rpm are still widely popular. Instead of finding gaim on your giant overwhelming repository, you go to gaim.sourceforge.net and download gaim.rpm, double click it, and it installs. Or at least that's how it should be. Most rpm distros can't auto solve dependencies which is what make apt and portage fundamentally better.
Now let's consider grandma on dialup or anybody with a substandard internet connection. Things like apt and portage are generally not good for them. If their hard drive failed and they had to reinstall Linux, if they had a CD full of install files for programs they use all the time then it would be a lot easier to resetup the system because they wouldn't have to struggle with their bad internet connection. And for the moment, let's pretend that gaim is not on apt or portage. Now the only way to install it is to manually compile from source, which as you pointed out, is not preferable.
The point is, repositories like apt and portage cannot possibly contain all the useful software that exists for Linux. A decentralized system of downloadable binaries that just run or downloadable binary install files that either compile code automatically or just move files where they need to be is preferable. This system has been proven to work on Windows and Mac. We in the Linux world need to embrace it and standardize it. Central repositories just don't work in the long run.
There's nothing wrong with a frontend/backend system. It's the whole apt/portage/rpm system that is fundamentally flawed. Like I said before, I like portage. The idea of an ebuild and a system that automatically solves its own dependencies is a good idea. But none of the major package management systems (rpm/apt/portage) come close to making software installation as easy as downloading an installation file and double clicking it like Windows or downloading a precompiled program bundled with everything it needs that just runs like Mac OSX.
In short, IMO Linux package management needs help more than any other area. Grandma can use KDE. Grandma can can use OpenOffice. Grandma can use Mozilla. But Grandma can't install software in Linux and that's just how it is.
Thanks! :)
That's all well and good but I don't want to run an NTFS partition if I don't have to because only Windows can write to it. Killing two birds with one stone would be running Windows on an ext partition and Linux and a separate ext partition. Both can talk to eachother that way.
For the record, I dual boot. Windows for games and Linux for everything else.
hda = FAT32 20gb Win2k
hdb = ext3 40gb Gentoo Linux
hdc = NTFS 80gb no operating system
I'd like to make hda and hdc Linux drives that Windows has no problem read/writing to but I can't.
How can I create an 80gb FAT32 partition? I was hoping to use an 80gb FAT32 drive as universal storage for both my Windows and Linux installations.
Forget the accomplishment, it's amazing that he "endured" actually playing DDR that long!
Great for schools? Maybe. But you know what's better for schools? Centurion Guard. You can format the hard drive, install another OS, then when you hit the reset button everything is magically restored. Sure it's not the open source solution to all our problems we'd like to see, but it works. My college runs Windows on all the lab machines and we've never had a virus survive more than a few hours. Why? All you have to do when you get one is hit the reset button. ;)
It makes my job as the lab supervisor a lot easier. If someone fubars a machine, hit the reset button and everything works.