The future home desktop is a cell phone sitting in a docking station running vncviewer (or similar) to a session server available for a monthly fee. The applications are pretty much the same - you just don't have to worry about system configuration, backups, hardware/software upgrades, power outages, computing resource limitations, spyware, or virus protection. Anywhere you go, you'll be able to access this data and your session will never end.
I create aliases with a "g" suffix to grep the results and an "w" suffix to "which" the 1st argument for commands that I commonly grep or which. For tcsh, some examples are:
alias hg history \| grep \!^ alias envg env \| grep \!^
alias lsw ls -l \`which \!^\` alias viw vim \`which \!^\` alias llw ls -l \`which \!^\`
Another set of useful aliases to use the directory stack:
alias bk popd alias cd pushd alias d dirs -v alias godir pushd +\!^ alias go pushd +\!^
And the most commonly executed alias to list the 10 most recent files in dir:
Ideas themselves are not as valuable if you are not willing to take any risk with them. The first step you could take would be to get it patented as somebody already suggested. Another step might be to invest the money to see it designed and manufactured. Each step you risk more time and money, the value of your idea grows because its profitability is closer to reality and there are less unknowns.
I think that the belief that an idea by itself is has monetary value without risk is somewhat of a myth. Chances are, somebody else has already come up with a similar idea and it was shot down for as too risky or not profitable enough. There are lots of people with good ideas, but few willing to do the hard work to realize them. I think the value is more in the work than the idea.
But if you are actually willing to put your time and money behind your idea, more power to you!
One easy and effective way to motivate is to show some interest in what your co-workers are working on. By interest, I don't mean a status meeting every other week in which you point a finger at them and say "What have you done?" I mean some general day-to-day chat about their portion of the project. It's amazing how hard people will work on something when they know that another person is waiting for the output and cares about the quality of results. The opposite is equally as true.
Look for a way to make your co-workers succeed rather than putting effort into documenting their failures. Otherwise, you'll perceive yourself as working with "idiots" the rest of your career.
Possible solution: when in X, WM should keep track of processes and the windows they are attached to. When an app has no windows open (or the main window is not open), the WM should attempt to kill them (first normally, then with -9)
I suppose this is his idea of a "killer app" for Linux!:]
Seriously though, I hope he meant to say that the user would be prompted prior to executing the kill command a la (gulp) Windows "task not responding."
I can just imagine this killer app getting confused and taking out a window named "Open Office: thesis_final_draft.sxw".:]
I tried to migrate to Star Writer 5.1a from Word and here is what I found:
- Simple (grid-like)tables seem to import/export without problems - Complex tables (anything containing a merged cell) import with varying degrees of success. You usually have to spend a few minutes with each table to cleaning them up. - Star office is able to import some corrupted Word files that cause Word to crash - Heading tags import but sometimes the numbering is messed up (easy to fix) - Fields, headers, and footer imported well - Pictures came over but were messed up. Some of the lines were missing and boxes appeared around all of the text. Also, it was impossible to edit the pictures once they were on the Star Office side. - I tried to use the Master Document feature but it crashed with the second document I tried to link in. - Exporting back to word, none of the pictures made it. - Exporting back to word, complex tables were converted to newline separated text.
In short, as much as I like Star Office and see its potential IMHO it isn't ready for industrial strength corporate use yet (neither is Word for that matter). For individual documents created and edited by Star Office, it seemed quite stable and robust but don't expect to convert from Word without a lot of pain unless your document is pure text. I certainly hope they get the bugs ironed out since the general concepts, look, feel, and design are excellent. In the meantime, we're looking at Framemaker.
Buy ten small boxes and you've just increased the chance that your system will go down by a factor of ten. I wouldn't look forward to doing any sort of driver, BIOS, or software update on the 10 small boxes let alone take each one apart and upgrade memory or processor.
I also think it will be difficult to come up with a simple Redundant Array of PCs (RAP?) solution where any single system can fail and the others will take over seamlessly. However, if you achieve this in a few lines of perl please post the source.:]
My 2 cents - buy that big fancy server. Pay extra for features like redundant power supplies, fans, and RAID 5. Get a rack mount. Add capacity by adding RAID enclosures.
Slashdot Mirror
The future home desktop is a cell phone sitting in a docking station running vncviewer (or similar) to a session server available for a monthly fee. The applications are pretty much the same - you just don't have to worry about system configuration, backups, hardware/software upgrades, power outages, computing resource limitations, spyware, or virus protection. Anywhere you go, you'll be able to access this data and your session will never end.
Lets you edit any textbox with your favorite editor. Also good for Wikis and submitting comments, feedback, or questions. Check it out:
http://mozex.mozdev.org/
Other favorites have already been mentioned: all-in-one gestures, flash block, and Googlebar.
I create aliases with a "g" suffix to grep the results and an "w" suffix to "which" the 1st argument for commands that I commonly grep or which. For tcsh, some examples are:
alias hg history \| grep \!^
alias envg env \| grep \!^
alias lsw ls -l \`which \!^\`
alias viw vim \`which \!^\`
alias llw ls -l \`which \!^\`
Another set of useful aliases to use the directory stack:
alias bk popd
alias cd pushd
alias d dirs -v
alias godir pushd +\!^
alias go pushd +\!^
And the most commonly executed alias to list the 10 most recent files in dir:
alias lst 'ls -1t \!* | head -10'
Ideas themselves are not as valuable if you are not willing to take any risk with them. The first step you could take would be to get it patented as somebody already suggested.
Another step might be to invest the money to see it designed and manufactured. Each step you risk more time and money, the value of your idea grows because its profitability is closer to reality and there are less unknowns.
I think that the belief that an idea by itself is has monetary value without risk is somewhat of a myth. Chances are, somebody else has already come up with a similar idea and it was shot down for as too risky or not profitable enough. There are lots of people with good ideas, but few willing to do the hard work to realize them. I think the value is more in the work than the idea.
But if you are actually willing to put your time and money behind your idea, more power to you!
Look for a way to make your co-workers succeed rather than putting effort into documenting their failures. Otherwise, you'll perceive yourself as working with "idiots" the rest of your career.
Die stray processes, die!
Possible solution: when in X, WM should keep track of processes and the windows they are attached to. When an app has no windows open (or the main window is not open), the WM should attempt to kill them (first normally, then with -9)
I suppose this is his idea of a "killer app" for Linux! :]
Seriously though, I hope he meant to say that the user would be prompted prior to executing the kill command a la (gulp) Windows "task not responding."
I can just imagine this killer app getting confused and taking out a window named "Open Office: thesis_final_draft.sxw". :]
Can't wait to download v0.2 from SourceForge! :]
"Any experts out there think it's hype?"
Say it slowly and the answer is revealed:
Hype-yer-Chip
:]
I tried to migrate to Star Writer 5.1a from Word and here is what I found:
- Simple (grid-like)tables seem to import/export without problems
- Complex tables (anything containing a merged cell)
import with varying degrees of success. You usually have to spend a few
minutes with each table to cleaning them up.
- Star office is able to import some corrupted Word files that cause Word
to crash
- Heading tags import but sometimes the numbering is messed up
(easy to fix)
- Fields, headers, and footer imported well
- Pictures came over but were messed up. Some of the lines were missing
and boxes appeared around all of the text. Also, it was impossible to edit
the pictures once they were on the Star Office side.
- I tried to use the Master Document feature but it crashed with the second
document I tried to link in.
- Exporting back to word, none of the pictures made it.
- Exporting back to word, complex tables were converted to newline
separated text.
In short, as much as I like Star Office and see its potential IMHO it isn't
ready for industrial strength corporate use yet (neither is Word for that
matter). For individual documents created and edited by Star Office, it
seemed quite stable and robust but don't expect to convert from Word
without a lot of pain unless your document is pure text. I certainly hope they
get the bugs ironed out since the general concepts, look, feel, and design
are excellent. In the meantime, we're looking at Framemaker.
Buy ten small boxes and you've just increased the chance that your system will go down by a factor of ten. I wouldn't look forward to doing any sort of driver, BIOS, or software update on the 10 small boxes let alone take each one apart and upgrade memory or processor.
:]
I also think it will be difficult to come up with a simple Redundant Array of PCs (RAP?) solution where any single system can fail and the others will take over seamlessly. However, if you achieve this in a few lines of perl please post the source.
My 2 cents - buy that big fancy server. Pay extra for features like redundant power supplies, fans, and RAID 5. Get a rack mount. Add capacity by adding RAID enclosures.