Now I'm not for the camera's but I also don't necessarily think that the argument in the article is necessarily a stellar example of fighting it with numbers.
I mean crime stats decreasing in areas due to successfully identifying the offender is one kind of win measurement, but I'd also like to put forward that if a crime remains unsolved because the camera's were able to clear people that might have been collared for it due to biased/lazy investigation then that is another kind of win. I'm not saying that this is the case or a reflection of what is really happening, I'm just putting it out there that identifying the offender and identifying the innocent should be seen as outcomes.
while I found some of his points posing some interesting opinion that I felt inclined to, the one that really stood out as rubbish to me was the package management point.
The add/remove software is a great place for new users to browse.. it's simple to use and doesn't bombard you with libs and low level stuff. It doesn't claim to do everything (a point that he held against it) and lets the user know where to go to do the "harder" stuff. My younger sister was able to add software to her ubuntu system without any help or prompting from me and without knowing the names of project.. she browsed through categories that interested her (multimedia in this case) and then using their description (some of them weren't great, but most were pretty good to excellent), where two packages sounded very similar she looked at the bottom of the description where it says "this works well with (k)ubuntu desktops" and then if she couldn't decide she looked at the number of stars. She calls me the next day and tells me proudly that she has made the computer do what she wants without having to search the world - it was all there from the very beginning. My 16yo sister that has no interest at all in computers beyond getting her school work done and her music projects, became the best advertisement for ubuntu (and linux in general) for her peers.
6 months on and she is eagerly awaiting Gusty and will be upgrading it by herself.
There is nothing bad about having the choice between multiples tools especially if they engage with their audience at the appropriate level.
After all we could all still (and many do) just use vi to do everything in - that is not enough reason to put down the various gui text editors and IDE's etc.
Couldn't one just change the GPL'd OS source to in effect ignore or work around the closed sourced one? Unless they can also split the hardware control effectively neutering the device unless the closed OS is used?
Whether it is a rootkit or not, I'll let others more knowledgeable than me decide that but the comments in the article basically has the author admit that he ties the word rootkit and the game together to get better SEO. Not only is the article light on actual technical detail it declares fire where there may be a hint of smoke for the purpose of driving traffic. I know I must be new here..
Maybe giving feedback like this is the only way that they will think about such silly divisive programs like this in the future.
I will be feedbacking along the lines of "such tools as this highlight to me that Microsoft does not value partnering with my business for our uniqueness, rather it would rather pidgeon hole me into wallet size. You have me made me rethink the value of a continuing relationship with Microsoft."
It's not even a matter of "smart enough" it's a matter of familiarity and frequency of use as you've already identified.
The "average" person is maybe going to install a piece of software every few months once their computer is set up. This is not frequent enough to warrant learning the command. I would suspect that in reality the average person install software even less than that.
I love the CLI and I would not use and OS that didn't include a decent CLI but I write scripts and other shell based automation to make my geek-life easier. The CLI is not necessarily efficient to learn if all you use the computer for is some word processing and web browsing or game playing.
One of the great power features of CLI ways of life is that it generally makes no assumptions about how the end user will use it. String together commands in myriad ways for powerful new tools is great and all but when my mother sits down to write a letter she wants the software to make certain assumptions on her behalf ie lay it out as a letter with margins at x and page size y and font "blah" etc. In the same way when my brother wants to play game x on computer y he is under that same kind of task focussed assumption. I've gotten off track.
At the end of the day apt-get and the repository structure makes installing software easier because it puts it all in the one easy place to get at. If we use that as a feature over say windows where you have to find the driver/app then we should be consistent we should try not to have some drivers installed easily through the system install tool and other drivers installed by CLI, the only people it's hurting is the ones making/packaging the distro, the average person isn't going to get political and write angry letters to ATI demanding them to make their drivers more open, they are just going to stop using the OS.
What you need is one of your fathers work retainers to break into the house, steal some of their files in front of their very eyes but lose an arm in the attempt while exclaiming "And that's why you need to log out when you're not using the computer!"
I'd like for someone to design a desktop rack. Modular yet small enough for a PC or two with some space for firewalls and smallish patch panels etc. just something that can be used to keep things tidy without the size (and weight) of commercial racks.
"Obviously, computers can't have an opinion. What comptuers are very good at, though, is scanning through text to deduct human opinions from factual information."
I would say that comptuers (sic) aren't very good at deducting human opinions yet. They _may_ become better. Are humans good at deducting other humans opinion yet?
How do we know that this copy was actually correct? Would it not be possible that one of the reasons why it was scrapped clean is that it was poorly copied/translated or simply one of many copies floating about at the time and there were other uses for the space?
I almost referred to them exactly as that but I didn't feel that they had reached that venerable age yet to get the "*".
I have (and still do) use both ubuntu and kubuntu on different machines and while I felt there was a difference in the early kubuntu days (it started out much rougher and buggy than ubuntu) these days they are in step enough that I don't think they necessarily need a different designation from a technical standpoint (however it is necessary from a legal/cultural/identity point of view).
I personally like the idea of keeping a single CD install with the desktop flavour being a primary reason for choosing which CD you are going to torrent. I've found that supporting it using this scheme is generally easier (for example - which distro are you running? Kubuntu - well I can make a fairly safe assumption that they are running KDE etc.) Some distro's imply a desktop (eg. mandriva or suse etc) while others don't.
On the long weekend I spent some time testing it and was rather impressed. As a fairly solid user of the previous two versions I can testify that the speed improvements were very obvious in practical ways (boot times in particular were alot faster). I tested it on a computer that was two years older than my current desktop (running breezy) and even with the older hardware it was feeling just as snappy. I haven't run any compiling tests or done any serious poking around improvements in networking etc but I can say that I noticed the difference in general desktop related usage.
I'm having first year comp sci flashback!
I remember at the time being taught Eiffel as my first OO langage used to teach OO techniques and design - I hated it back then it felt clunky, overly protective and claustraphobic.
Now after almost 10 years as a programmer every so often I crack open the old textbooks and think "wow.. that is rather elegent and expressive". Eiffel is engineered/designed - it is deliberately not suited if all you want to do is hack about.
It's funny, only yesterday I was using Eiffel as an example to my IT team as a language that forced strong contractual based interfaces.
I also have started trying to get this concept through to a couple of people here in Sydney, Australia. The idea of OpenSource Cinema/Theatre has a great deal of potential in my opinion - people would be free to film the bits they want to film, cut and mash the bits how they want, re-write, localise etc. I know cinema has big budgets but it doesn't have to be like that. Good stuff will naturally get enough attention to be taken to the next stage given enough time. An an exercise I started scripting P.K Dick's The Man in the High Castle into a shooting script. I didn't get nearly as far through it as I wanted to, but imagine if there were half a dozen writers that were equally as keen, we could have a decent enough draft to start refining. The Man in the High Castle couldn't be done Open Source, but you get the drift... I hope?
I moved to Linux about 3 years ago. I also got My gf a computer and installed linux on it and set it up (she had an very old computer that was just falling apart). At first she was "how do I do stuff?" and so I just had to show her the windows equivalents of the applications, within a few hours she was fine and rolling along. I'd administer it when I was over but I tried not to do anything else that would move things around.
When she'd come over to my place and she wanted to check her email I'd show her how to change the shell to her own user context and type in oowriter & or mozilla & etc. and she'd run her apps side by side with mine. I din't really have time to set up anything more fancy but within a few visits she was able to do it herself.
A few weeks ago I moved from Mandrake to Ubuntu and this time (while I was sick at home) I set up nice icons on my desktop that would just launch her apps as her so there was a Evolution/Writer/Mozilla/Kopete icon sitting there ready to go. I noticed when she came over and I showed her the icons she continued using the shell. I asked her why and she said that she just felt it was faster to her and that she felt that she could see what was really happening. She felt in command of what she was doing. She still doesn't use the prompt for file system stuff but she really doesn't need to.
I suppose the moral of the story is that the best interface is the one where you the user feel the most in control of your tools what ever they may be and in the end it's not about how the program is launched but whether the program does the task that you need to do in the way you need it done.
it's time to have OSS compete by introducing a crippled version of a linux distro for a cheaper price.. oh wait..
From the start I have always felt that this was some cheap marketing ploy that sounds better than it really is - it's selling emerging markets on a dream and then leaving them stranded in some "almost there but not really" hell.
I mean think about it. Many other posters have already noted the extremely (and needlessly) crippled nature of the underlying engine so what exactly is Microsoft selling? Their interface. They are trying to further entrench Windows as a desktop standard but this time in some crazy "practice OS". That's right Brasil, step up and learn how to do things the MS way and then when you have totally bought into it emotionally (through familiarity) then you are more likely to buy into it financially. This is purely and simply MS Windows Brand awareness in sheeps clothing.
I Sincerely hope that the Governments of the markets that this product is being pushed into see it for what it is and forbide any govt. dept. from investing in this crazy scheme of dependence.
They should call is Microsoft Windows "My First Computer" edition at least it doesn't try to hide the belittling nature of it.
Is there any kind of LUG organisation where by there can be a regional register of support contracts for a particular distro (maybe Ubuntu) of linux that is sold for say $30 and that includes a certain degree of support that is covered by a local registered LUG and profits are distributed to the LUGS themselves. Different support contracts have different prices and different support agreements and skill levels depending on the circumstance
I know this is an extremely broad description and that in itself it isn't enough to answer the whole problem but I would be interested in seeing such organisations develop that honestly wants to foster a feeling of good will about technology while giving people the tools they need to succeed.
Maybe one day OSS might also mean Open Source Support who knows?
Slashdot Mirror
Now I'm not for the camera's but I also don't necessarily think that the argument in the article is necessarily a stellar example of fighting it with numbers. I mean crime stats decreasing in areas due to successfully identifying the offender is one kind of win measurement, but I'd also like to put forward that if a crime remains unsolved because the camera's were able to clear people that might have been collared for it due to biased/lazy investigation then that is another kind of win. I'm not saying that this is the case or a reflection of what is really happening, I'm just putting it out there that identifying the offender and identifying the innocent should be seen as outcomes.
while I found some of his points posing some interesting opinion that I felt inclined to, the one that really stood out as rubbish to me was the package management point.
The add/remove software is a great place for new users to browse.. it's simple to use and doesn't bombard you with libs and low level stuff. It doesn't claim to do everything (a point that he held against it) and lets the user know where to go to do the "harder" stuff. My younger sister was able to add software to her ubuntu system without any help or prompting from me and without knowing the names of project.. she browsed through categories that interested her (multimedia in this case) and then using their description (some of them weren't great, but most were pretty good to excellent), where two packages sounded very similar she looked at the bottom of the description where it says "this works well with (k)ubuntu desktops" and then if she couldn't decide she looked at the number of stars. She calls me the next day and tells me proudly that she has made the computer do what she wants without having to search the world - it was all there from the very beginning. My 16yo sister that has no interest at all in computers beyond getting her school work done and her music projects, became the best advertisement for ubuntu (and linux in general) for her peers.
6 months on and she is eagerly awaiting Gusty and will be upgrading it by herself.
There is nothing bad about having the choice between multiples tools especially if they engage with their audience at the appropriate level.
After all we could all still (and many do) just use vi to do everything in - that is not enough reason to put down the various gui text editors and IDE's etc.
Couldn't one just change the GPL'd OS source to in effect ignore or work around the closed sourced one? Unless they can also split the hardware control effectively neutering the device unless the closed OS is used?
Whether it is a rootkit or not, I'll let others more knowledgeable than me decide that but the comments in the article basically has the author admit that he ties the word rootkit and the game together to get better SEO. Not only is the article light on actual technical detail it declares fire where there may be a hint of smoke for the purpose of driving traffic. I know I must be new here..
Maybe giving feedback like this is the only way that they will think about such silly divisive programs like this in the future.
I will be feedbacking along the lines of "such tools as this highlight to me that Microsoft does not value partnering with my business for our uniqueness, rather it would rather pidgeon hole me into wallet size. You have me made me rethink the value of a continuing relationship with Microsoft."
It's not even a matter of "smart enough" it's a matter of familiarity and frequency of use as you've already identified. The "average" person is maybe going to install a piece of software every few months once their computer is set up. This is not frequent enough to warrant learning the command. I would suspect that in reality the average person install software even less than that. I love the CLI and I would not use and OS that didn't include a decent CLI but I write scripts and other shell based automation to make my geek-life easier. The CLI is not necessarily efficient to learn if all you use the computer for is some word processing and web browsing or game playing. One of the great power features of CLI ways of life is that it generally makes no assumptions about how the end user will use it. String together commands in myriad ways for powerful new tools is great and all but when my mother sits down to write a letter she wants the software to make certain assumptions on her behalf ie lay it out as a letter with margins at x and page size y and font "blah" etc. In the same way when my brother wants to play game x on computer y he is under that same kind of task focussed assumption. I've gotten off track. At the end of the day apt-get and the repository structure makes installing software easier because it puts it all in the one easy place to get at. If we use that as a feature over say windows where you have to find the driver/app then we should be consistent we should try not to have some drivers installed easily through the system install tool and other drivers installed by CLI, the only people it's hurting is the ones making/packaging the distro, the average person isn't going to get political and write angry letters to ATI demanding them to make their drivers more open, they are just going to stop using the OS.
What you need is one of your fathers work retainers to break into the house, steal some of their files in front of their very eyes but lose an arm in the attempt while exclaiming "And that's why you need to log out when you're not using the computer!"
The one the internet and printer is connected to?
I'd like for someone to design a desktop rack. Modular yet small enough for a PC or two with some space for firewalls and smallish patch panels etc. just something that can be used to keep things tidy without the size (and weight) of commercial racks.
I would say that comptuers (sic) aren't very good at deducting human opinions yet. They _may_ become better. Are humans good at deducting other humans opinion yet?
HP Chairwoman "Send in the shadowrunners"
How do we know that this copy was actually correct? Would it not be possible that one of the reasons why it was scrapped clean is that it was poorly copied/translated or simply one of many copies floating about at the time and there were other uses for the space?
Echo's of "QUAD DAMAGE" and "J00 CAMPING SOB" in the Halls of Justice.
I can just see it now:
"Gentlemen and eerr.. gentlemen...
In the Vi Corner....
In the Emacs Corner...
"
I have (and still do) use both ubuntu and kubuntu on different machines and while I felt there was a difference in the early kubuntu days (it started out much rougher and buggy than ubuntu) these days they are in step enough that I don't think they necessarily need a different designation from a technical standpoint (however it is necessary from a legal/cultural/identity point of view).
I personally like the idea of keeping a single CD install with the desktop flavour being a primary reason for choosing which CD you are going to torrent. I've found that supporting it using this scheme is generally easier (for example - which distro are you running? Kubuntu - well I can make a fairly safe assumption that they are running KDE etc.) Some distro's imply a desktop (eg. mandriva or suse etc) while others don't.
anyway back to work..
Thanks (u|k|x|edu)buntu devs.
Yup.. I had similar experiences - except I ended up in Macquarie Fields, not Bee Croft. Rob Rist - Where are you now?
I'm having first year comp sci flashback! I remember at the time being taught Eiffel as my first OO langage used to teach OO techniques and design - I hated it back then it felt clunky, overly protective and claustraphobic. Now after almost 10 years as a programmer every so often I crack open the old textbooks and think "wow.. that is rather elegent and expressive". Eiffel is engineered/designed - it is deliberately not suited if all you want to do is hack about. It's funny, only yesterday I was using Eiffel as an example to my IT team as a language that forced strong contractual based interfaces.
If I had Mod points you'd get some from me. That book was a fascinating re-telling of the Count of Monte Cristo and a great book in it's own right.
I also have started trying to get this concept through to a couple of people here in Sydney, Australia. The idea of OpenSource Cinema/Theatre has a great deal of potential in my opinion - people would be free to film the bits they want to film, cut and mash the bits how they want, re-write, localise etc. I know cinema has big budgets but it doesn't have to be like that. Good stuff will naturally get enough attention to be taken to the next stage given enough time. An an exercise I started scripting P.K Dick's The Man in the High Castle into a shooting script. I didn't get nearly as far through it as I wanted to, but imagine if there were half a dozen writers that were equally as keen, we could have a decent enough draft to start refining. The Man in the High Castle couldn't be done Open Source, but you get the drift... I hope?
Maybe they want to play on servers that aren't so scrutinized by Chinese Govt officials?
yup.. that would be it. Thanks Doctor - do you still bulk bill?
but what's the catch? I have no evidence but my gut is telling me that this is diversion from something more insidious.
When she'd come over to my place and she wanted to check her email I'd show her how to change the shell to her own user context and type in oowriter & or mozilla & etc. and she'd run her apps side by side with mine. I din't really have time to set up anything more fancy but within a few visits she was able to do it herself.
A few weeks ago I moved from Mandrake to Ubuntu and this time (while I was sick at home) I set up nice icons on my desktop that would just launch her apps as her so there was a Evolution/Writer/Mozilla/Kopete icon sitting there ready to go. I noticed when she came over and I showed her the icons she continued using the shell. I asked her why and she said that she just felt it was faster to her and that she felt that she could see what was really happening. She felt in command of what she was doing. She still doesn't use the prompt for file system stuff but she really doesn't need to.
I suppose the moral of the story is that the best interface is the one where you the user feel the most in control of your tools what ever they may be and in the end it's not about how the program is launched but whether the program does the task that you need to do in the way you need it done.
From the start I have always felt that this was some cheap marketing ploy that sounds better than it really is - it's selling emerging markets on a dream and then leaving them stranded in some "almost there but not really" hell.
I mean think about it. Many other posters have already noted the extremely (and needlessly) crippled nature of the underlying engine so what exactly is Microsoft selling? Their interface. They are trying to further entrench Windows as a desktop standard but this time in some crazy "practice OS". That's right Brasil, step up and learn how to do things the MS way and then when you have totally bought into it emotionally (through familiarity) then you are more likely to buy into it financially. This is purely and simply MS Windows Brand awareness in sheeps clothing.
I Sincerely hope that the Governments of the markets that this product is being pushed into see it for what it is and forbide any govt. dept. from investing in this crazy scheme of dependence.
They should call is Microsoft Windows "My First Computer" edition at least it doesn't try to hide the belittling nature of it.
Is there any kind of LUG organisation where by there can be a regional register of support contracts for a particular distro (maybe Ubuntu) of linux that is sold for say $30 and that includes a certain degree of support that is covered by a local registered LUG and profits are distributed to the LUGS themselves. Different support contracts have different prices and different support agreements and skill levels depending on the circumstance
I know this is an extremely broad description and that in itself it isn't enough to answer the whole problem but I would be interested in seeing such organisations develop that honestly wants to foster a feeling of good will about technology while giving people the tools they need to succeed.
Maybe one day OSS might also mean Open Source Support who knows?