Well, that's good - 2.6 is testing. That means that it will only be, what, like 4 or 5 years until Debian puts 2.6 in their stable tree?:P And yet, I still won't switch to something else. It's just too good (plus, I have the advantage of not necessarily needing to be 100% stable:).
This is an interesting article, in light of the one a couple of weeks ago about browser innovation being dead. That article almost seemsed to talk about the idea that in order for any browser to come out on top, a new interface for browsing would be necessary. This article, however, is more focussed on stability and standards conformity as the way to win the "Browser Wars."
I don't know as I can say what people really want more - stable browsers, or new [useful] features. I know I'm all for the stable/reliable/unified/etc. browser design, but then again, I'm not a M$-using consumer whore.:P
Personally, I'm just surprised that this guy allowed his name to be printed in mass media. It's enough that the government knows who he is, where he sleeps, etc. But, to let everyone else know? With all of the fanatics in the world (Bin Laden related and non-BL related), I'd be scared for my life.
I'm sure someone will reply with both "safest possible disguise is wide out in the open" and "security through obscurity is no security at all", but somehow neither of those really register in my mind as the best idea in this case.
Then again, the most cloak-and-dagger thing I typically do is surprise my girlfriend by showing up unexpectedly at her door with flowers.
True, but I know I've played a number of pick-up touch football games with somewhat random people. They have usually seemed to work pretty well. So, while you probably wouldn't have a great precision team all the time, it may still be fun.
Personally, I think one of the big things that would be missing from the multi-player on-line sports arena is voice. I know voice over IP continues to improve, but I don't think it's yet able to handle something like that, and I would have to say that yelling "I'm open" or "pass play" or "fake" or whatever is extremely helpful.
I also don't think you'd ever be able to map all of the useful sayings to "remote taunts" or whatever they're calling them these days (that's what they used to be in Terminal Velocity and Duke 3D) - especially not when you're limited by the buttons on a console controller.
In short, I think this looks like a very cool demo feature, and might be great if I had 10 real human teammates to play with, so I wouldn't worry about switching players. However, that doesn't seem to be the goal
Are you sure they're not getting ready to throw that feature into an Xbox Live version? 22-person gaming is pretty much common-place in PC on-line gaming, maybe they're moving toward the same on consoles.
Note: Try not to flame me too hard - I haven't been a console gamer since the NES (outside of a couple of games for a few minutes here and there), so I'm a bit out of the loop.
Am I the only one who considers the "old" Athlon to be the "Athlon" (i.e. not the Athlon XP/MP)? Geez - I was all excited to maybe boost my 700Mhz proc a bit, but alas, no. ...still thinking about making a mini (albeit mostly useless) beowulf out of the four SPARCstations I have sitting on my shelf... :)
There's all this talk about "ELDis", but I can't seem to find them on the net. Anyone have an URL for them?
Also, I remember an article in Scientific American a couple of years ago about trying to create a display that was made of small particles, which could be rotated (or something like that) into the proper position to show the proper color. It was proposed as a great idea for e-books. First, because b&w was easiest. Second, because once the particles where in the proper position, no more power needed to be applied to the screen, they would just stay put, which meant that the only power consumption was in turning pages. Anyway, anyone know whatever happened to that project?
Simpler just to say "if you have a problem with this visual test, please call xxxxx to be assisted by our operator.
Thank you! I was waiting for someone to suggest this. Anything to the effect of, "Why not just call your non-blind friend?" I mean, if your hand is broken, you can't use a hammer. Guess what you do? You ask someone for help.
I mean for crying out loud - if they added a "sound option", then someone would complain that people that are blind AND deaf wouldn't be able to use it.
I understand that it is probably inconvenient for handicapped people to have to get help from someone else. But, ya' know, it's been this way for hundreds (thousands? don't remember how old the human race is said to be know) of years now.
This is quite an interesting development, especially after California's Security Breach Information Act just went into effect. If you want a concrete example of how a hacked website could cost people money - think about this. Not only is time lost in recovery of the site, but money is spent to notify people of the break-in, and customers may be lost due to security worries.
This guy is a moron. He's just some guy that "remembers the glory days" of keyboards. I'll agree with him that there are new, cheap keyboards that are crap. But, notice that he's only comparing his old keyboard to these cheap ones because he can get a version of his old one from a flea market or garage sale for $5? If he were to compare them to something decent these days, he would find that there are plenty of good, new keyboards out there. You just have to be willing to fork over the cash.
And another thing, concerning his deal about "but I have always been a believer that ergonomic keyboards not only hinder a typist, but also do not relieve any stress from typing. I never proved that of course, but I've always felt more 'natural' with standard keyboards." He's just absolutely wrong here (and, btw, you should go read the BBC article he points to - complete B.S.). The reason he feels more "natural" with standard keyboards is because that's all he's used. I guarantee you he has never used an ergonomic keyboard for more than a couple of minutes. If he would use one for any amount of time longer, he would come to appreciate their comfort. I, personally, made the switch to ergonomic keyboards about 2 years ago. I had a mild case of CTS, and was urged to do so by a doctor. It did take some getting used to, but now I'll never go back. It really is just so much more comfortable. Now "standard" keyboards feel small and cramped to me. Oh, and I haven't had a single CTS problem since.
By the way, the ergonomic keyboard I use currently is the Microsoft Natural (unfortunately, this link is to the "Natural Elite", which sucks with its small arrow keys). Yes, I agree that the stupid function buttons are useless (especially since I run Debian), but it's not like they get in my way. I actually do use the USB connectors on the back of the keyboard, as the back of my machine is kind of hard to get to. There are only two complaints I would make about it. First, the space bar has worn in a little, so if you're off-center by more than an inch and a half or so, it may not trigger. This is very seldomly a problem, however. Second is that the Function keys are a bit small. Not that function keys are usually a big part of my keyboard use, but it would be nice to have them be the same size as the rest of the letter keys.
I do wish that I had the money to try out one of those cool-looking Kinesis keyboards, though.:)
Not to even mention the problem with the first picture. The problem that person is having is that they haven't put their hands in the proper position for typing. Am I the only one who actually took a typing class and learned that you are not supposed to rest your hands on the keyboard, that you should have slightly convexly curved fingers such that you are pressing straight down on the key, rather than off to the side, etc.? This article is BS.
I suppose he's shocked that after decades of research, cars still come with a steering wheel and a gas pedal, instead of something futuristic.
Actually, there have been many attempts to put joysticks in cars in place of steering wheels. Just because it hasn't been done yet, doesn't mean the innovation isn't there.
Also, there's always tank-style controls (two sticks, each controls forward/backward of a tread)
More on-topic: there have been other innovations in car control. For instance, electronic manual transmission. Also anti-lock brakes. Rear-wheel drive. Admittedly, these have been around for a few years now, but I don't think anyone would say that car innovation is dead.
I guess my point (yes, there actually is one here somewhere) is that browser innovation is most likely in more of a lull than it is dead. Give a guy a couple of years to think, and he'll put something in there that will be new, and eventually useful.
The device includes secret digital keys -- large binary numbers -- that cannot easily be altered.
Easily? They would probably say that Windoze is an OS that could not easily be replicated as well.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I know quite a few people who will poor their lives into doing something that someone else says "cannot be done easily." (...and will almost definitely succeed) (begin M$-Rant)
Also, I believe Microsoft falls under Murphy's Law, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he [Bill] will find it." (end M$-Rant)
Dammit - stop attaching files in the first place. Instead, post them somewhere (your webpage, personal FTP server, AIM, friggin' windoze network, etc.), and then send a link. It's much nicer - the person on the other end doesn't have to worry about waiting for a long download, and you won't have to worry about your e-mail getting filtered.
The Redhat discs come with programs other than just "Redhat" (i.e. KDE, Gnome, Apache, Emacs, Perl, etc. - although I haven't taken a look at the actual content in a while, so one or more of these may be wrong). What does Windows XP come with? IE, minesweeper, wordpad, solitaire, some screensavers. Bah!
Linare will try to offer better technical support than do current $200 PC makers by outsourcing technical support to employees in India who don't cost as much to hire.
Yeah, but have you ever called the tech support line for a company who does this? I don't know about you, but I can hardly understand what the techie is saying. I mean no offense to the Indian readers of Slashdot, but some of the accents I just can not understand. I think there are a lot of people [in the US] who are the same way. For this reason, I think the hopes of this company "bringing Linux to the common man" are misplaced. If a common guy (read Windows user) can't understand the guy who is trying to tell him how to configure his Linux box, then he'll just get frustrated, damn Linux to hell, and go back to Windows.
One more thing if I may. There was a comment made about these guys [Linare] making a donation toward Linux, and another one made about how they won't be able to do that for the price they're selling the systems. Well, I used to work for a computer distributor, and this is absolutely true. Manufacturers sell machines at a very low profit. What most of them count on is the profit they will make from the tech support. It is common for small distributors to charge $40-$60 or more just for a diagnosis of a problem. Now, if Linare is planning on outsourcing their tech support and doing it really cheaply, perhaps they can make some money there. It all depends on what they charge the customer for it.
Guys, c'mon. What you really need to do is wait a month or so (I know it's tough, but deal). At that time, some of the other independent testers we all know and love will test these machines themselves. They'll do things like run Quake III, Photoshop, and SQL Servers on them. You know - the programs that most of us use everyday and have a little bit of experience with. Then we'll be able to see how doing things on these G5's really compares to x86's from the end user's point of view.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, that's good - 2.6 is testing. That means that it will only be, what, like 4 or 5 years until Debian puts 2.6 in their stable tree? :P And yet, I still won't switch to something else. It's just too good (plus, I have the advantage of not necessarily needing to be 100% stable :).
Correct - announcement of this received loud applause at Linuxtag on Saturday :)
This is an interesting article, in light of the one a couple of weeks ago about browser innovation being dead. That article almost seemsed to talk about the idea that in order for any browser to come out on top, a new interface for browsing would be necessary. This article, however, is more focussed on stability and standards conformity as the way to win the "Browser Wars."
:P
I don't know as I can say what people really want more - stable browsers, or new [useful] features. I know I'm all for the stable/reliable/unified/etc. browser design, but then again, I'm not a M$-using consumer whore.
Personally, I'm just surprised that this guy allowed his name to be printed in mass media. It's enough that the government knows who he is, where he sleeps, etc. But, to let everyone else know? With all of the fanatics in the world (Bin Laden related and non-BL related), I'd be scared for my life.
I'm sure someone will reply with both "safest possible disguise is wide out in the open" and "security through obscurity is no security at all", but somehow neither of those really register in my mind as the best idea in this case.
Then again, the most cloak-and-dagger thing I typically do is surprise my girlfriend by showing up unexpectedly at her door with flowers.
Ask the guys who also want the Toshiba with the 17" screen. :P
True, but I know I've played a number of pick-up touch football games with somewhat random people. They have usually seemed to work pretty well. So, while you probably wouldn't have a great precision team all the time, it may still be fun.
Personally, I think one of the big things that would be missing from the multi-player on-line sports arena is voice. I know voice over IP continues to improve, but I don't think it's yet able to handle something like that, and I would have to say that yelling "I'm open" or "pass play" or "fake" or whatever is extremely helpful.
I also don't think you'd ever be able to map all of the useful sayings to "remote taunts" or whatever they're calling them these days (that's what they used to be in Terminal Velocity and Duke 3D) - especially not when you're limited by the buttons on a console controller.
In short, I think this looks like a very cool demo feature, and might be great if I had 10 real human teammates to play with, so I wouldn't worry about switching players. However, that doesn't seem to be the goal
Are you sure they're not getting ready to throw that feature into an Xbox Live version? 22-person gaming is pretty much common-place in PC on-line gaming, maybe they're moving toward the same on consoles.
Note: Try not to flame me too hard - I haven't been a console gamer since the NES (outside of a couple of games for a few minutes here and there), so I'm a bit out of the loop.
Am I the only one who considers the "old" Athlon to be the "Athlon" (i.e. not the Athlon XP/MP)? Geez - I was all excited to maybe boost my 700Mhz proc a bit, but alas, no.
...still thinking about making a mini (albeit mostly useless) beowulf out of the four SPARCstations I have sitting on my shelf...
:)
Using Old Hardware and Loving It
There's all this talk about "ELDis", but I can't seem to find them on the net. Anyone have an URL for them?
Also, I remember an article in Scientific American a couple of years ago about trying to create a display that was made of small particles, which could be rotated (or something like that) into the proper position to show the proper color. It was proposed as a great idea for e-books. First, because b&w was easiest. Second, because once the particles where in the proper position, no more power needed to be applied to the screen, they would just stay put, which meant that the only power consumption was in turning pages. Anyway, anyone know whatever happened to that project?
IIRC, this idea was in the aforementioned Asmiov tales.
Simpler just to say "if you have a problem with this visual test, please call xxxxx to be assisted by our operator.
Thank you! I was waiting for someone to suggest this. Anything to the effect of, "Why not just call your non-blind friend?" I mean, if your hand is broken, you can't use a hammer. Guess what you do? You ask someone for help.
I mean for crying out loud - if they added a "sound option", then someone would complain that people that are blind AND deaf wouldn't be able to use it.
I understand that it is probably inconvenient for handicapped people to have to get help from someone else. But, ya' know, it's been this way for hundreds (thousands? don't remember how old the human race is said to be know) of years now.
Deal.
This is quite an interesting development, especially after California's Security Breach Information Act just went into effect. If you want a concrete example of how a hacked website could cost people money - think about this. Not only is time lost in recovery of the site, but money is spent to notify people of the break-in, and customers may be lost due to security worries.
so it shouldn't have a name that makes me automatically assume it's a troll
Good point - I'll remember that next time.
Also, if I might ask, which Kinesis did you end up with? I surf their website from time to time, but I can never decide which model to try.
This guy is a moron. He's just some guy that "remembers the glory days" of keyboards. I'll agree with him that there are new, cheap keyboards that are crap. But, notice that he's only comparing his old keyboard to these cheap ones because he can get a version of his old one from a flea market or garage sale for $5? If he were to compare them to something decent these days, he would find that there are plenty of good, new keyboards out there. You just have to be willing to fork over the cash.
:)
And another thing, concerning his deal about "but I have always been a believer that ergonomic keyboards not only hinder a typist, but also do not relieve any stress from typing. I never proved that of course, but I've always felt more 'natural' with standard keyboards." He's just absolutely wrong here (and, btw, you should go read the BBC article he points to - complete B.S.). The reason he feels more "natural" with standard keyboards is because that's all he's used. I guarantee you he has never used an ergonomic keyboard for more than a couple of minutes. If he would use one for any amount of time longer, he would come to appreciate their comfort. I, personally, made the switch to ergonomic keyboards about 2 years ago. I had a mild case of CTS, and was urged to do so by a doctor. It did take some getting used to, but now I'll never go back. It really is just so much more comfortable. Now "standard" keyboards feel small and cramped to me. Oh, and I haven't had a single CTS problem since.
By the way, the ergonomic keyboard I use currently is the Microsoft Natural (unfortunately, this link is to the "Natural Elite", which sucks with its small arrow keys). Yes, I agree that the stupid function buttons are useless (especially since I run Debian), but it's not like they get in my way. I actually do use the USB connectors on the back of the keyboard, as the back of my machine is kind of hard to get to. There are only two complaints I would make about it. First, the space bar has worn in a little, so if you're off-center by more than an inch and a half or so, it may not trigger. This is very seldomly a problem, however. Second is that the Function keys are a bit small. Not that function keys are usually a big part of my keyboard use, but it would be nice to have them be the same size as the rest of the letter keys.
I do wish that I had the money to try out one of those cool-looking Kinesis keyboards, though.
Not to even mention the problem with the first picture. The problem that person is having is that they haven't put their hands in the proper position for typing. Am I the only one who actually took a typing class and learned that you are not supposed to rest your hands on the keyboard, that you should have slightly convexly curved fingers such that you are pressing straight down on the key, rather than off to the side, etc.? This article is BS.
I suppose he's shocked that after decades of research, cars still come with a steering wheel and a gas pedal, instead of something futuristic.
Actually, there have been many attempts to put joysticks in cars in place of steering wheels. Just because it hasn't been done yet, doesn't mean the innovation isn't there.
Also, there's always tank-style controls (two sticks, each controls forward/backward of a tread)
More on-topic: there have been other innovations in car control. For instance, electronic manual transmission. Also anti-lock brakes. Rear-wheel drive. Admittedly, these have been around for a few years now, but I don't think anyone would say that car innovation is dead.
I guess my point (yes, there actually is one here somewhere) is that browser innovation is most likely in more of a lull than it is dead. Give a guy a couple of years to think, and he'll put something in there that will be new, and eventually useful.
The device includes secret digital keys -- large binary numbers -- that cannot easily be altered.
Easily? They would probably say that Windoze is an OS that could not easily be replicated as well.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I know quite a few people who will poor their lives into doing something that someone else says "cannot be done easily." (...and will almost definitely succeed)
(begin M$-Rant)
Also, I believe Microsoft falls under Murphy's Law, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he [Bill] will find it."
(end M$-Rant)
Dammit - stop attaching files in the first place. Instead, post them somewhere (your webpage, personal FTP server, AIM, friggin' windoze network, etc.), and then send a link. It's much nicer - the person on the other end doesn't have to worry about waiting for a long download, and you won't have to worry about your e-mail getting filtered.
Dude - Xine+Mplayer - I watch movies on Linux all the time. Then, of course, I use Debian, not Redhat. :)
If you've got the trump card against IBM, why wouldn't you play it right away instead of engaging in this kind of game they've been playing?
Anyone ever hear the phrase, "Even bad publicity is good publicity"?
Here I was expecting to see a police car on Amazon's banner, or a watermark of Artoo in the background, or a magic pi ball somewhere.
Dammit.
P.S. Go here if you don't get this post.
The Redhat discs come with programs other than just "Redhat" (i.e. KDE, Gnome, Apache, Emacs, Perl, etc. - although I haven't taken a look at the actual content in a while, so one or more of these may be wrong). What does Windows XP come with? IE, minesweeper, wordpad, solitaire, some screensavers. Bah!
*ahem* Not to mention the crazy high prices you could pay for something like SunOS, AIX, or UNIX. :P
Linare will try to offer better technical support than do current $200 PC makers by outsourcing technical support to employees in India who don't cost as much to hire.
Yeah, but have you ever called the tech support line for a company who does this? I don't know about you, but I can hardly understand what the techie is saying. I mean no offense to the Indian readers of Slashdot, but some of the accents I just can not understand. I think there are a lot of people [in the US] who are the same way. For this reason, I think the hopes of this company "bringing Linux to the common man" are misplaced. If a common guy (read Windows user) can't understand the guy who is trying to tell him how to configure his Linux box, then he'll just get frustrated, damn Linux to hell, and go back to Windows.
One more thing if I may. There was a comment made about these guys [Linare] making a donation toward Linux, and another one made about how they won't be able to do that for the price they're selling the systems. Well, I used to work for a computer distributor, and this is absolutely true. Manufacturers sell machines at a very low profit. What most of them count on is the profit they will make from the tech support. It is common for small distributors to charge $40-$60 or more just for a diagnosis of a problem. Now, if Linare is planning on outsourcing their tech support and doing it really cheaply, perhaps they can make some money there. It all depends on what they charge the customer for it.
Guys, c'mon. What you really need to do is wait a month or so (I know it's tough, but deal). At that time, some of the other independent testers we all know and love will test these machines themselves. They'll do things like run Quake III, Photoshop, and SQL Servers on them. You know - the programs that most of us use everyday and have a little bit of experience with. Then we'll be able to see how doing things on these G5's really compares to x86's from the end user's point of view.