I wish that it had some Apt-Get sort of thing (besides Swaret/Slapt-get which have a low package base in comparison. They don't have even bzflag if I remember correctly(correct me if I'm wrong)).
This is Slackware... who needs packages?
Just download the source, configure using --prefix=/whereveryouwanttoputtheprogram, build it, install it, static link the binary in one of the bin directories and run the silly program.
I keep hearing about how the packaging system in Slackware sucks but I've never run into a program I couldn't run on Slack.
Re:I have 4 kids, nothing violent is . . .
on
Modding Laser Tag Gear?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I have two children and my wife feels pretty much the same way you do about guns and children.
My own view is a little more realistic. We live in a world where violence, whether we like it or not, is a reality. While I have never owned an actual projectile weapon (what purpose would it serve in suburbia other than to get into trouble shooting holes in things?) I did however have plenty of toy guns growing up. Later, I fired weapons (M-16s) while in the Air Force.
Amazingly enough, though I've never been sat down and explained the nature and dangers of guns, my exposure to such things (including the main topic of laser tag guns) hasn't yielded a psychotic lunatic nor even a mild gun fanatic. To be honest I'm with the crowd that was able to figure out what a gun was on his own (kids really aren't stupid if you give them half a chance) and will take them one way or the other. A weapon in the hands of someone with no morales is a bad thing. A weapon in the hands of a responsible person is a good thing. A toy in the hands of anyone is still just a toy.
I suppose the question is, do you fear weapons or do you fear your children can't make correct decisions on their own?
Microsoft has done it. They produce the premier Operating System installed on millions of desktops around the world. This doesn't mean they're just another application you can choose to use or not. It means that for millions of users, ignorant or not, they are THE FUCKING OPERATING SYSTEM. Windows IS computing to 95% of the people out there and they're being told that it's easy, it's fun, and everyone should do it.
Alright, so we've established that Windows is the premier OS. Now, what would we like to do next? We'll make Internet Explorer the premier web-browser! How? We'll bundle it with the premier desktop OS! How simple!
Guess what? When you push to become THE only choice most people have for using their (in many cases) thousand to two thousand dollar computers YOU'D BETTER DAMNED WELL BE ABLE TO PROTECT THEM.
Look, if I set up a tent on a bridge and charge $5 a head to see what's in the tent, I'd better damned well either let them know there's a hole in the floor or put a grate over it if not before I take their money at least before they go into the tent. Microsoft'll take your money, wait for you to fall and then throw you a free life preserver. Unfortunately the life-preserver has no air due to some unfortunate holes but they'd be glad to sell you one that has fewer holes once it's ready. Until then if you could just keep treading water you're sure to be amazed by their shiny new life-preserver due out sometime next year...
Microsoft's responsibility does not end at shipping a functioning OS, browser, etc... to their customers. They have (and ignore) their moral responsibility to protect as best they can those people they sell their product to, especially when they go to great lengths to make it seem like they're the only choice out there.
And yes, users such as the many who frequent Slashdot will argue that there are tons of choices! Just use Linux! Just use Mozilla!
Well I have news for you. Not all users out there read Slashdot and not all of them search the internet looking for alternatives to the ones they are led to believe are their only choices.
By making statements like that you're just as guilty as Microsoft at ignoring those who don't necessarily understand computers all that well but still want theirs to work and don't want to have to worry about all that other crap (hell there are times I wish I didn't have to worry about it).
"Yeah," said Zaphod, stepping into it, "what else do you do besides talk?"
"I go up," said the elevator, "or down."
"Good," said Zaphod, "We're going up."
"Or down," the elevator reminded him.
"Yeah, OK, up please."
There was a moment of silence. "Down's very nice," suggested the elevator hopefully.
"Oh yeah?"
"Super."
"Good," said Zaphod, "Now will you take us up?"
"May I ask you," inquired the elevator in its sweetest, most reasonable voice, "if you've considered all the possibilities that down might offer you?"...
Damn futuristic elevators... 62,000 miles of that? No, thanks!
Do yourself a favor. It takes literally ten minutes to install. Where words will fail, experience will win the day. When you've become a true believer you can come back and answer your own question.
* Actually I take that back.. feel free to reply with what you think is good or not good with slack.
There are bad things about Slackware?
I wanted to learn linux about a year and half ago. The first distro I'd picked up (the one you heard most about) was Redhat. The install was easy enough and everything was very Windows-like which surprised me not knowing what to expect from this linux animal. Then after about a week my display suddenly went south. I logged in to find there was no gui in my gui.
So after a bit of tooling around and a couple of reinstalls which always resulted in the same problem (fonts, buttons, toolbars all failing to show up) I gave up and tried Mandrake. It was nice and all but still way too much like Redhat and Windows for my liking. Besides that I wasn't learning anything about the infamous command-line everyone's so hyped about.
At that point (about a month in) I ditched linux for a while and went with FreeBSD which worked really great! At the same time I still found a lot of programs that I couldn't use with it so I once again began a search for another distro.
I found Slackware after reading an article about Linux in the workplace wherein the author got a new job and immediately ditched windows for his favorite linux distro, Slackware. Intrigued (ya gotta admit the name is cool) I sought it out and found out (by reading reviews) that it was difficult to install and had a steep learning curve which made it even more appealing to me.
I have to say, Slackware was just as easy (if not easier) to install than any of the previous three OS's and the dreaded "steep learning curve" is really more of a gentle slope. Slack uses not only its own packaging system but also has an RPM installer as well as the ability to convert RPMs to TGZs. As for a gui, you can install Gnome with a minimum of fuss using Dropline Gnome.
With the recent addition of Swaret to keep your distro current, Slackware really has the advantage of being an easy to use, EXTREMELY stable linux distro that is not only functional but also serves as a gentle introduction to the command line.
You know what they say... once you go Slack, you never go back!
You would think it would be much easier but at the same time, this girl couldn't even find the desktop.
Getting her to a command prompt and then explaining how to type in ipconfig/all is more difficult than it sounds. They will invariably put spaces where it looks like there should be...
me: type ipconfig, all one word
them:::: ip config::: okay
me: then space forward slash
them:::: space::: where is the forward slash? Oh I got it...::: \:::
me: okay, then type all
them: okay, now what?
me: so, you have i-p-c-o-n-f-i-g/all?
them::::look at screen ip config space \all::: yes
me: okay, hit the Enter key
them: okay
me: now look for Physical Address
them: I don't see that
me: it'll be the third entry down under Ethernet Local Adapter
them: I don't see that either
me: well, what does the screen say
them: ip is not recognized as an internal command...
and so on.
Then, once you do get her to type it correctly you have to get her to give you the correct string of "wierd characters" in what she thinks is a jumbled mess that makes her head swim.
Trust me, taking her through a lot of point-and-clicks is the better way to go.
There is no point in game companies spending a lot of time developing games with no 3D graphics support.
Once the reliable hardware support for the platform is there the consumers will follow. Once the consumers are there the game companies will see potential profit in developing games for that platform.
One of the main reasons Windows grew so big so fast was its ability as a gaming platform not its performance as a business machine.
The main reasons half of those in the *nix community even keep Windows around is due to the games they can't play on Linux (myself included).
Maybe it's just because I much prefer CorelDraw/Photopaint to the Adobe products that I find GIMP to be somewhat useful and fairly simple to learn (and I'm NOT a graphics designer though I can draw better than most).
The only thing I agree with is that the interface sucks. Seperate windows for everything and a bunch of right click menus just doesn't cut it.
(and if any of you GIMP guys are reading this, for God's sake fix the damned contiguous regions tool so it'll actually subtract from the current selection!)
First off, porting old games is a moot point. The handful of people who're die hard about older games aren't going to matter in the long run. Nobody's sitting around saying, "if I can't run Warcraft 2 then I don't want it!" because if they were Windows XP would be dead in the water as most old games won't work without a lot of messing around that the majority of computer gamers won't spend just to play old games with crappy graphics.
The point, as I gathered it, was to start making games not based on Windows games but native exclusively to Linux. The Linux community has already proven it's capable of making an OS superior to Windows, why should it not be able to develop games that are also superior?
Games are also where you're going to get noticed. People get upset about lack of driver support in Linux but the people buying high end hardware (fast graphics cards, sound cards, etc...) aren't running office suites and checking email. They're gaming. You want driver support? Offer the companys providing the drivers some business in the form of gamers. You make them money and they'll jump through their assholes to support you.
Bottom line, if you offer people high end current games to play (whether for money or free) they'll start to take interest in Linux and the companies who want their money will in turn take interest.
You forgot the best part... who's going to set the payscale and who's going to handle raises?
My parents went in with my Aunt and Uncle (dad's brother) and my Aunt's brother and his wife on a grocery store in a very small town in Ohio back in the early 70s.
By the time they were finished, my Aunt's brother and his wife were divorced and battling over their part of the store, my Aunt and Uncle decided one day to go out and buy a car through the business and not tell anyone. My Aunt worked there for maybe 2 of the 20 years it was open, paid herself under the table and no one knew (or could ask without questioning their trust in her and ruining the relationship) how much she made.
By the time they finally sold the store (something they couldn't all agree on as my uncle viewed it as his store) they only got about a third of what it had been worth when they started discussing selling it and my parents and my Aunt and Uncle don't speak anymore.
This was only a brief rundown of the high points of the last years. There was the time my Aunt's brother fired my brother (working as a meat cutter there) which put my dad in an awkward place. All sorts of fun when you mix family with business.
My advice? If you're going to do it regardless of all the warnings you're given here, if you do nothing else hire an impartial accountant to keep the books for you.
I hope it isn't premature. I worry about generating a lot of hype about an elevator, and then have it go nowhere, or have a high-profile experiment/test fail. I don't want to see it go the way of cold fusion, where everyone knows what it is, and thinks its a joke, so you can never get funding for it again.
Or worse! The elevator does work but the funding is cut as soon as everyone realizes just how long an elevator ride that is! Dear God is that Debbie Boone again?!!!
Personally I'm of the opinion that Windows ME came out to "break" Windows.
Users were getting too comfortable with Windows 98 (I still know a few who would rather go back to it than upgrade to XP) and 2000 (terrible for games) was right around the corner.
Well, if you wanted to play most of your old games you had to either go back to 98 or stick with ME (which you just shelled out money for). Most stuck with ME and hated it.
Then (tada!) Windows XP comes out as the "most secure ever!"; look at the pretty new interface!;
Play all your games on this platform, it even has a compatibility mode for all your old games! (:::cough:::BULLSHIT:::cough:::)
Thus it came as no surprise that "Longhorn" was pushed back to 2005 to make room for Windows XP "Reloaded". Watch, it'll take the existing XP and make it run like crap. Odds are they'll say something like it's "optimized for the new 64 bit processors!" or some crap and use that as an explanation for all the new bugs... ahem... features. People will buy it and run it because they just paid a lot of money for it despite the fact that it sucks. Then a shiny new Longhorn (the most secure ever!; look at the pretty new interface!; 64 bit OS but it will still play all your old games!) will appear to save them from the "outdated" Windows XP.
Yes, well, I think there are reasonable explanations for nearly all the things in your opinion, and rather than look for what those explanations might be, I think the readers might be somewhat biased in favor of a sweeping opinion of what this administration is all about, and I just don't think that's justified.
In 1981 I was 8 years old and this whole fucking thread is a moot point.
Do try to get back on topic and stop reminiscing about forgotten times that have no bearing on where we are now.
Sorry ahead of time but I believe this needs saying...
What in the hell are you rambling on about and how in the hell does this have anything to do with the topic at hand?!
Who gives a fuck what Bill Gates said or didn't say twenty years ago?
It has no bearing on the present. NO ONE could have predicted even ten years ago just how much the world of personal computers would grow.
Look, Bill Gates is a fucking BILLIONAIRE. Do you really think he gives a fuck about what he said years ago or what he misjudged in his predictions?
What he believes is inconsequential beside the fact that he became the richest man in the world by marketing an inferior product to a majority of clueless people.
Speaking as a "holier-than-thou genius-of-all-tech" IT Support person, I have to disagree.
IT Support people can be condescending, I agree. It usually happens when we're asked to perform someone else's job when we're called upon to help. This tends to come in such terms as, "I don't understand, can't you just DO it?" and my favorite, "I don't care how it works, just fix it!"
Perhaps if the "informed boss" would take a few moments to actually listen rather than grumble that he doesn't have time and then condescendingly wave us away after we've fixed his no-brainer we might be a little less tempted to laugh at his stupidity.
I for one have no problem helping someone who WANTS TO LEARN and given the years it has taken me to learn what I know I can't be condescending towards those who know less in my particular field.
On the other hand, if you take a job as an Administrative Assistant to the lead Sales Manager of the East Coast and you put on your resume that you know Word and Excel, do NOT call me five times asking me to fix your first assignment because you think spacing over to the far end of the page is the way to create columns in a Word document.
I'm still trying to Ctl-Alt-Del and End Task on the ice machine (which is of course "not responding") and reboot my refridgerator so I can make dinner!
Slackware is like... well... like floating on a cloud of titties...
It's the dream you wake up from and rush to get back to.
It's the climax at the end of the orgasm.
It's also the best damned Linux distro ever put together.
I too have tried all the big ones searching for the distro that made linux fun and easy. With Slackware everything is right where you'd expect it to be. You can run it from a command line (which Mandrake and Redhat try to hide) or you can boot up into one of the best damned desktops I've ever seen (Gnome 2.4 fsckin rocks!).
When I first started with Linux a little over a year ago I had absolutely no idea which one to use. I tried Redhat first (too much like Windows), I tried Mandrake (too much like Redhat!) , Debian, Suse, and even Dragon (well the name sounded cool anyway...), and then left and went with FreeBSD (from which I learned quite a bit about the command line) and loved it!
Just one problem. You can't use all the software available to linux in FreeBSD. Then I read an article written about a guy trying to use Linux in a Windows work environment (I'm a Sys Admin and was looking to do just that) and he mentioned Slackware. I downloaded it, installed it and have never looked back since. I've learned more about Linux (and oddly enough about Windows) from installing and running Slackware than any other distro I'd tried.
Also, the Slackware community is unbelievably helpful and arguably one of the most knowledgable in existence many having been around since Slackware 1.
I for one welcome Patrick, our reigning Slackware maintaining overlord! May the hair on his toes never fall out!
And if a user's computer is "broken" due to some patch that was installed for them by MS, you can bet that those people will start looking for alternatives.
I think you're overestimating most casual users. I work for a company helpdesk with users who have been operating PCs for 5 years and will wait two and three weeks to report that their computer is "broken" (usually they've just deleted their email icon from their desktop).
The point is, when their computers break, they're not scrambling for an alternative simply because they don't really care all that much. I doubt you'll ever see a user go buy a Mac just because their streaming audio stopped working or they can't open that ebook anymore. As for the casual user turning to Linux, dream on. To use Linux you have to be able to install Linux. You may or may not be surprised at how many people don't even know how to install Windows much less Linux.
When you're clueless and your $1500 to $2000 box stops working the way it once did you simply turn it off and go watch TV.
No thanks.
While it may be that these ultra-low sounds cause a range of sensations in human emotion does that really prove that any and all paranormal activity can be simply explained away?
Aside from the obvious technical problems are the practical issues involved. Do we really need to explain away all of our dreams and fantasies until they're no more than mundane neural processes and heretofore unexplained natural phenomena?
Trick or treating on Halloween "Oh, don't worry kids. That house isn't really haunted. That's just an ultra-low frequency sound causing you to have a negative emotional response. Nothing at all to be frightened of..."
Either that or Old Mr. McCavity has really bad gas... (SBDs, is that smell real or the result of ultra-low frequency toots?)
Slashdot Mirror
I wish that it had some Apt-Get sort of thing (besides Swaret/Slapt-get which have a low package base in comparison. They don't have even bzflag if I remember correctly(correct me if I'm wrong)).
This is Slackware... who needs packages?
Just download the source, configure using --prefix=/whereveryouwanttoputtheprogram, build it, install it, static link the binary in one of the bin directories and run the silly program.
I keep hearing about how the packaging system in Slackware sucks but I've never run into a program I couldn't run on Slack.
I have two children and my wife feels pretty much the same way you do about guns and children.
My own view is a little more realistic. We live in a world where violence, whether we like it or not, is a reality. While I have never owned an actual projectile weapon (what purpose would it serve in suburbia other than to get into trouble shooting holes in things?) I did however have plenty of toy guns growing up. Later, I fired weapons (M-16s) while in the Air Force.
Amazingly enough, though I've never been sat down and explained the nature and dangers of guns, my exposure to such things (including the main topic of laser tag guns) hasn't yielded a psychotic lunatic nor even a mild gun fanatic. To be honest I'm with the crowd that was able to figure out what a gun was on his own (kids really aren't stupid if you give them half a chance) and will take them one way or the other. A weapon in the hands of someone with no morales is a bad thing. A weapon in the hands of a responsible person is a good thing. A toy in the hands of anyone is still just a toy.
I suppose the question is, do you fear weapons or do you fear your children can't make correct decisions on their own?
BULLSHIT!
Microsoft has done it. They produce the premier Operating System installed on millions of desktops around the world. This doesn't mean they're just another application you can choose to use or not. It means that for millions of users, ignorant or not, they are THE FUCKING OPERATING SYSTEM. Windows IS computing to 95% of the people out there and they're being told that it's easy, it's fun, and everyone should do it.
Alright, so we've established that Windows is the premier OS. Now, what would we like to do next? We'll make Internet Explorer the premier web-browser! How? We'll bundle it with the premier desktop OS! How simple!
Guess what? When you push to become THE only choice most people have for using their (in many cases) thousand to two thousand dollar computers YOU'D BETTER DAMNED WELL BE ABLE TO PROTECT THEM.
Look, if I set up a tent on a bridge and charge $5 a head to see what's in the tent, I'd better damned well either let them know there's a hole in the floor or put a grate over it if not before I take their money at least before they go into the tent. Microsoft'll take your money, wait for you to fall and then throw you a free life preserver. Unfortunately the life-preserver has no air due to some unfortunate holes but they'd be glad to sell you one that has fewer holes once it's ready. Until then if you could just keep treading water you're sure to be amazed by their shiny new life-preserver due out sometime next year...
Microsoft's responsibility does not end at shipping a functioning OS, browser, etc... to their customers. They have (and ignore) their moral responsibility to protect as best they can those people they sell their product to, especially when they go to great lengths to make it seem like they're the only choice out there.
And yes, users such as the many who frequent Slashdot will argue that there are tons of choices! Just use Linux! Just use Mozilla!
Well I have news for you. Not all users out there read Slashdot and not all of them search the internet looking for alternatives to the ones they are led to believe are their only choices. By making statements like that you're just as guilty as Microsoft at ignoring those who don't necessarily understand computers all that well but still want theirs to work and don't want to have to worry about all that other crap (hell there are times I wish I didn't have to worry about it).
Everything you listed is just a download away. I fail to see the problem.
Hell, with Windows some programs even download themselves! Now that's service!
Damn futuristic elevators... 62,000 miles of that? No, thanks!
Do yourself a favor. It takes literally ten minutes to install. Where words will fail, experience will win the day. When you've become a true believer you can come back and answer your own question.
* Actually I take that back.. feel free to reply with what you think is good or not good with slack. There are bad things about Slackware? I wanted to learn linux about a year and half ago. The first distro I'd picked up (the one you heard most about) was Redhat. The install was easy enough and everything was very Windows-like which surprised me not knowing what to expect from this linux animal. Then after about a week my display suddenly went south. I logged in to find there was no gui in my gui.
So after a bit of tooling around and a couple of reinstalls which always resulted in the same problem (fonts, buttons, toolbars all failing to show up) I gave up and tried Mandrake. It was nice and all but still way too much like Redhat and Windows for my liking. Besides that I wasn't learning anything about the infamous command-line everyone's so hyped about.
At that point (about a month in) I ditched linux for a while and went with FreeBSD which worked really great! At the same time I still found a lot of programs that I couldn't use with it so I once again began a search for another distro.
I found Slackware after reading an article about Linux in the workplace wherein the author got a new job and immediately ditched windows for his favorite linux distro, Slackware. Intrigued (ya gotta admit the name is cool) I sought it out and found out (by reading reviews) that it was difficult to install and had a steep learning curve which made it even more appealing to me.
I have to say, Slackware was just as easy (if not easier) to install than any of the previous three OS's and the dreaded "steep learning curve" is really more of a gentle slope. Slack uses not only its own packaging system but also has an RPM installer as well as the ability to convert RPMs to TGZs. As for a gui, you can install Gnome with a minimum of fuss using Dropline Gnome.
With the recent addition of Swaret to keep your distro current, Slackware really has the advantage of being an easy to use, EXTREMELY stable linux distro that is not only functional but also serves as a gentle introduction to the command line.
You know what they say... once you go Slack, you never go back!
You would think it would be much easier but at the same time, this girl couldn't even find the desktop.
/all is more difficult than it sounds. They will invariably put spaces where it looks like there should be...
me: type ipconfig, all one word
them: ::: ip config ::: okay
me: then space forward slash
them: ::: space ::: where is the forward slash? Oh I got it... ::: \ :::
me: okay, then type all
them: okay, now what?
me: so, you have i-p-c-o-n-f-i-g /all?
them: :::look at screen ip config space \all::: yes
me: okay, hit the Enter key
them: okay
me: now look for Physical Address
them: I don't see that
me: it'll be the third entry down under Ethernet Local Adapter
them: I don't see that either
me: well, what does the screen say
them: ip is not recognized as an internal command...
and so on.
Getting her to a command prompt and then explaining how to type in ipconfig
Then, once you do get her to type it correctly you have to get her to give you the correct string of "wierd characters" in what she thinks is a jumbled mess that makes her head swim.
Trust me, taking her through a lot of point-and-clicks is the better way to go.
At the Tocqueville Institution site here [adti.net], try clicking accomplishments. ;)
Heh, you think that's funny? Try reading the Mission Statement...
There is no point in game companies spending a lot of time developing games with no 3D graphics support.
Once the reliable hardware support for the platform is there the consumers will follow. Once the consumers are there the game companies will see potential profit in developing games for that platform.
One of the main reasons Windows grew so big so fast was its ability as a gaming platform not its performance as a business machine.
The main reasons half of those in the *nix community even keep Windows around is due to the games they can't play on Linux (myself included).
Maybe it's just because I much prefer CorelDraw/Photopaint to the Adobe products that I find GIMP to be somewhat useful and fairly simple to learn (and I'm NOT a graphics designer though I can draw better than most).
The only thing I agree with is that the interface sucks. Seperate windows for everything and a bunch of right click menus just doesn't cut it.
(and if any of you GIMP guys are reading this, for God's sake fix the damned contiguous regions tool so it'll actually subtract from the current selection!)
That is all.
I think you're missing the point.
First off, porting old games is a moot point. The handful of people who're die hard about older games aren't going to matter in the long run. Nobody's sitting around saying, "if I can't run Warcraft 2 then I don't want it!" because if they were Windows XP would be dead in the water as most old games won't work without a lot of messing around that the majority of computer gamers won't spend just to play old games with crappy graphics.
The point, as I gathered it, was to start making games not based on Windows games but native exclusively to Linux. The Linux community has already proven it's capable of making an OS superior to Windows, why should it not be able to develop games that are also superior?
Games are also where you're going to get noticed. People get upset about lack of driver support in Linux but the people buying high end hardware (fast graphics cards, sound cards, etc...) aren't running office suites and checking email. They're gaming. You want driver support? Offer the companys providing the drivers some business in the form of gamers. You make them money and they'll jump through their assholes to support you.
Bottom line, if you offer people high end current games to play (whether for money or free) they'll start to take interest in Linux and the companies who want their money will in turn take interest.
You forgot the best part... who's going to set the payscale and who's going to handle raises?
My parents went in with my Aunt and Uncle (dad's brother) and my Aunt's brother and his wife on a grocery store in a very small town in Ohio back in the early 70s.
By the time they were finished, my Aunt's brother and his wife were divorced and battling over their part of the store, my Aunt and Uncle decided one day to go out and buy a car through the business and not tell anyone. My Aunt worked there for maybe 2 of the 20 years it was open, paid herself under the table and no one knew (or could ask without questioning their trust in her and ruining the relationship) how much she made.
By the time they finally sold the store (something they couldn't all agree on as my uncle viewed it as his store) they only got about a third of what it had been worth when they started discussing selling it and my parents and my Aunt and Uncle don't speak anymore.
This was only a brief rundown of the high points of the last years. There was the time my Aunt's brother fired my brother (working as a meat cutter there) which put my dad in an awkward place. All sorts of fun when you mix family with business.
My advice? If you're going to do it regardless of all the warnings you're given here, if you do nothing else hire an impartial accountant to keep the books for you.
I hope it isn't premature. I worry about generating a lot of hype about an elevator, and then have it go nowhere, or have a high-profile experiment/test fail. I don't want to see it go the way of cold fusion, where everyone knows what it is, and thinks its a joke, so you can never get funding for it again.
Or worse! The elevator does work but the funding is cut as soon as everyone realizes just how long an elevator ride that is! Dear God is that Debbie Boone again?!!!
Could also be a misspelling of "Aural density". The measure of the amount of bullshit in any given sentence.
No, that's "Anal Density".
Am I the only one not surprised by this?
:::cough:::)
Personally I'm of the opinion that Windows ME came out to "break" Windows.
Users were getting too comfortable with Windows 98 (I still know a few who would rather go back to it than upgrade to XP) and 2000 (terrible for games) was right around the corner.
Well, if you wanted to play most of your old games you had to either go back to 98 or stick with ME (which you just shelled out money for). Most stuck with ME and hated it.
Then (tada!) Windows XP comes out as the "most secure ever!"; look at the pretty new interface!; Play all your games on this platform, it even has a compatibility mode for all your old games! (:::cough:::BULLSHIT
Thus it came as no surprise that "Longhorn" was pushed back to 2005 to make room for Windows XP "Reloaded". Watch, it'll take the existing XP and make it run like crap. Odds are they'll say something like it's "optimized for the new 64 bit processors!" or some crap and use that as an explanation for all the new bugs... ahem... features. People will buy it and run it because they just paid a lot of money for it despite the fact that it sucks. Then a shiny new Longhorn (the most secure ever!; look at the pretty new interface!; 64 bit OS but it will still play all your old games!) will appear to save them from the "outdated" Windows XP.
Yes, well, I think there are reasonable explanations for nearly all the things in your opinion, and rather than look for what those explanations might be, I think the readers might be somewhat biased in favor of a sweeping opinion of what this administration is all about, and I just don't think that's justified.
In 1981 I was 8 years old and this whole fucking thread is a moot point. Do try to get back on topic and stop reminiscing about forgotten times that have no bearing on where we are now.
Sorry ahead of time but I believe this needs saying... What in the hell are you rambling on about and how in the hell does this have anything to do with the topic at hand?!
Who gives a fuck what Bill Gates said or didn't say twenty years ago?
It has no bearing on the present. NO ONE could have predicted even ten years ago just how much the world of personal computers would grow.
Look, Bill Gates is a fucking BILLIONAIRE. Do you really think he gives a fuck about what he said years ago or what he misjudged in his predictions?
What he believes is inconsequential beside the fact that he became the richest man in the world by marketing an inferior product to a majority of clueless people.
Speaking as a "holier-than-thou genius-of-all-tech" IT Support person, I have to disagree.
IT Support people can be condescending, I agree. It usually happens when we're asked to perform someone else's job when we're called upon to help. This tends to come in such terms as, "I don't understand, can't you just DO it?" and my favorite, "I don't care how it works, just fix it!"
Perhaps if the "informed boss" would take a few moments to actually listen rather than grumble that he doesn't have time and then condescendingly wave us away after we've fixed his no-brainer we might be a little less tempted to laugh at his stupidity.
I for one have no problem helping someone who WANTS TO LEARN and given the years it has taken me to learn what I know I can't be condescending towards those who know less in my particular field.
On the other hand, if you take a job as an Administrative Assistant to the lead Sales Manager of the East Coast and you put on your resume that you know Word and Excel, do NOT call me five times asking me to fix your first assignment because you think spacing over to the far end of the page is the way to create columns in a Word document.
I'm still trying to Ctl-Alt-Del and End Task on the ice machine (which is of course "not responding") and reboot my refridgerator so I can make dinner!
Slackware is like... well... like floating on a cloud of titties... It's the dream you wake up from and rush to get back to. It's the climax at the end of the orgasm. It's also the best damned Linux distro ever put together. I too have tried all the big ones searching for the distro that made linux fun and easy. With Slackware everything is right where you'd expect it to be. You can run it from a command line (which Mandrake and Redhat try to hide) or you can boot up into one of the best damned desktops I've ever seen (Gnome 2.4 fsckin rocks!). When I first started with Linux a little over a year ago I had absolutely no idea which one to use. I tried Redhat first (too much like Windows), I tried Mandrake (too much like Redhat!) , Debian, Suse, and even Dragon (well the name sounded cool anyway...), and then left and went with FreeBSD (from which I learned quite a bit about the command line) and loved it! Just one problem. You can't use all the software available to linux in FreeBSD. Then I read an article written about a guy trying to use Linux in a Windows work environment (I'm a Sys Admin and was looking to do just that) and he mentioned Slackware. I downloaded it, installed it and have never looked back since. I've learned more about Linux (and oddly enough about Windows) from installing and running Slackware than any other distro I'd tried. Also, the Slackware community is unbelievably helpful and arguably one of the most knowledgable in existence many having been around since Slackware 1. I for one welcome Patrick, our reigning Slackware maintaining overlord! May the hair on his toes never fall out!
And if a user's computer is "broken" due to some patch that was installed for them by MS, you can bet that those people will start looking for alternatives.
I think you're overestimating most casual users. I work for a company helpdesk with users who have been operating PCs for 5 years and will wait two and three weeks to report that their computer is "broken" (usually they've just deleted their email icon from their desktop).
The point is, when their computers break, they're not scrambling for an alternative simply because they don't really care all that much. I doubt you'll ever see a user go buy a Mac just because their streaming audio stopped working or they can't open that ebook anymore. As for the casual user turning to Linux, dream on. To use Linux you have to be able to install Linux. You may or may not be surprised at how many people don't even know how to install Windows much less Linux.
When you're clueless and your $1500 to $2000 box stops working the way it once did you simply turn it off and go watch TV.
No thanks. While it may be that these ultra-low sounds cause a range of sensations in human emotion does that really prove that any and all paranormal activity can be simply explained away? Aside from the obvious technical problems are the practical issues involved. Do we really need to explain away all of our dreams and fantasies until they're no more than mundane neural processes and heretofore unexplained natural phenomena? Trick or treating on Halloween "Oh, don't worry kids. That house isn't really haunted. That's just an ultra-low frequency sound causing you to have a negative emotional response. Nothing at all to be frightened of..." Either that or Old Mr. McCavity has really bad gas... (SBDs, is that smell real or the result of ultra-low frequency toots?)
How long can the people of Iceland tread water?