>> Getting any pc to do decent tv-out is a nightmare (Modeline Hell as he calls it).
This sounds like you're trying to use some horrible analog interconnect like S-video or something. Last time I remember modelines was on my Amiga.
Funny how connecting my PC to my TV has never ever been a problem for me. But then I have always used newer (nVidia) videocards, and have a TV that also supports DVI.
If you really want decent TV-out then upgrade to 1990's tech and get a video card and a TV that supports DVI or HDMI and use that instead. All your modeline problems will go away too.
I don't know if you're one of them, but the number of friends I see still using legacy analog interconnections rather than digital even though their TV and other boxes already have digital connectors is frustrating.
I was thinking of buying an appletv and running a mythtv frontend on it until I discovered that Apple's hardware doesn't support 1080i. THey're one of the shyster companies who advertise products as being HD-compatable but conveniently neglect to mention that it can't be seen at native res. There should be a class-action against all these companies for purposely misleading advertising.
You've partly answered yourself already in your question. It seems you already view everything as just a market so you won't understand the value of an altruistic over an intrinsically commercialist internet.
One negative aspect of commercialising the internet means bandwidth for personal over commercial traffic then just beomes a war of money, with the poorest always loosing out regardless of the relative human value of their traffic.
Also there are groups on the internet that provide more altruistic or community-serving services , which I appreciate a lot and want to do everything I can to keep that possible.
Add in the problem that in the US at least, wideband ISPs have a virtual monopoly on geographic areas. For example, Cox is the only cable service I can get here in Phoenix. Now combine that with tiered internet is just a massive mechanism to allow then to exploit us for even more cash for the same service.
I'm already having to pay like $50 month just for most basic broadband internet package, when most of my activities are low-bandwidth anyway, like occasional surfing and emails. Now you want me to pay even more so that the odd time I do play network games like Unreal Tournament I get enough low-latency that I don't die every 5 seconds, just because some company down the road has a bulk deal for their junk emails?.... I think not...
Point them at the relative numbers of known security breaches, outstanding known security loopholes and relative times to patch, between IE and, say, Firefox. Ditto the number of virusses and other security loopholes between Windows and Linux.
Its so nice to see Microsoft's continued attempts to promote Linux and alienate their own userbase by removing usability and adding artificial limitations like DRM and now this to their biggest product.
I can imagine that any users getting a work-issued laptop with this on it will think there's a bug or something wrong with Windows 7 when they try to open more than 3 apps. They probably won't understand the whole notion of an intended marketing limitation, especially as they're already well used to being able to open as many apps as they like with every older version of Windows.
This latest move will make Linux (and even XP) look even more like an attractive alternative to 'upgrading' (translation: downgrading) to Windows 7.
>> Under the bill, authorities would supposedly destroy samples and DNA profiles from people who weren't charged, were found not guilty or whose convictions were overturned.
Baloney. If this was actually true, they would only bother to collect samples from people after they were found guilty.
Amazing how you can criticise someone for trying to help cure a disease affecting millions, Yet consider yourself morally superior by promoting a blanket judgement against all pregnant women, regardless of their individual situations or circumstances. For example what about someone who was raped? or someone who is in a medically life-threatening situation made potentially fatal by being pregnant? They're just examples off the top of my head. I'm sure there are many many even better justifications for abortion in real life, something your hopelessly narrow-minded philosophy always fails to deal with.
I remember a place where I worked once got 7 new Sun servers. There was a competition to see who could come up with suggestions for good host names. The winning suggestion was to name them after the 7 dwarfs. The next day I logged in and saw IT had added the 7 new servers to the network. They had named them dwarf1, dwarf2, dwarf3...
why is there such a big assumption that aliens will necessarily use the electromagnetic spectrum to communicate? Has anyone even tried looking for alternaitves? Perhaps there is at least one other mechanism/medium which many other alien species out there have discovered and use exclusively, possibly because they didn't ever discover radio or even if they did, they only use the alternative because it has less limitations. Perhaps we dumb earthlings are actually quite unusual in not having discovered the alternative yet, because we haven't even looked because we're so invested in 'good enough' radio technology. Given such a scenario is even possible, it would seem incredibly naieve of us to presume "no radio emissions == no aliens".
and you shouldn't make sweeping assumptions. Actually I'm an immigrant too. OH and FYI, Economics 101, Yes it DOES matter to the economy where you spend your after-tax money.
>> To contribute to a society that didnt invest a penny in them
Sorry but most of the Indians I've worked with aren't contributing to the US at all. In fact mostly they send as much of their pay packet to India as they can, so are taking money out of the US economy.
I wonder what the need for something like this is at all, when its still quicker and more accurate to do directly on the command line all the functionality these tools implement.
>> Users who install software on their workstations. >> In a perfect world, software makers wouldn't write software that demands that it run with administrator privileges.
Both of the above statements seem to indicate that you're running MS Windows. If I were you I'd be thinking about how to change that. Linux has a much stronger security model and generally does not require users to run apps as root. Also, 99.999% of virusses are windows-only. Also, most basic users aren't even going to be able to get their favorite windows apps running under Linux anyay.
Thats exactly my point. Microsoft GUIs explicitly don't show you what your options are, or even tell you clearly what those options are going to do before you choose them. With terminals, once you know "man" and "info" you can quickly grow from there.
Why is the terminal a bad thing? What I think is WAAAY more confusing and non-intuitive is the Microsoft interface. All the random and hidden places you have to look for even basic system-related stuff. It should be front and centre instead of hidden under a massive hierarchy of menu options and "advanced" tabs. All windows wants to do is keep shoving media players, photo viewers and useless workflow models in your face.
Also they way Microsoft decided to dispense with accurate/detailed technical terminology and information and replace it with "you're too dumb to understand this" marketing terminology. How useful is an error pop-up that just says "A system error has occurred" ? Even for non-techy types wouldn't it be more useful to know some detail like what failed and why?
Why do you assume I'm not overclocking? I have a core 2 extreme so of course I overclock. Also ny memory is overclocked, both vid. cards are OC versions, I have 2 10k rpm drives, Yet still, I'm dragging only slightly over 500w at the wall under full load (3dmark running a benchmark). I've checked this with a power monitor and 2 different multimeters and they all agree. Explain that. BTW my PSU is a galaxy extreme 1000w.
Its fundamental to the way Microsoft do things. All their products have always been a triumph of marketing and corporate-lock-in over actual substance.
Windows GUIs have been getting successively dumbed-down and functionally worse over each new windows version, with ever more and more crap and bloatware getting in the way of workflow. IT will soon get to the point where there's so many toolbars, ribbons, status bars etc. on your screen there's actually no room for what you're working on. Actual usability of Vista is terrible compared to XP, the amount of times you have to tell it you actually do know what you are doing is ridiculous, even with that retarded user-security thing tuned off. Plus they keep hiding the basic computer functionality under more and more layers of abstraction and with system dialogs having ever more vague terms unless you've paid for the correct MS cert course.
Microsoft are locked into a stupid mindset of assuming the user is an inexperienced idiot, and that bloat==better. I can't believe Windows 7 will truly buck the trend. I'm way more expecting that its just Vista with different art, more DRM, extra "are you sure" dialogs, and another 2 or 3 times the memory/cpu requirement than Vista.
>>If you are going to go with a Tri-SLI-Setup, you will probably need a 1200W power supply,
Baloney. I have a 8800GTX SLI setup. It draws 400W at the wall, which goes up to 500W under full load. Furthermore its watercooled os includes all the pumps etc. Seems to me that 8800GTX draws at most 180W. That means if I put another 8800GTX in my box to get 3-way, it would still olny consume 650W under load. The GTX285 cards are 55nm so draw even less power. Even allowing for some overhead an 800W PSU would still be overkill.
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>> Getting any pc to do decent tv-out is a nightmare (Modeline Hell as he calls it).
This sounds like you're trying to use some horrible analog interconnect like S-video or something. Last time I remember modelines was on my Amiga.
Funny how connecting my PC to my TV has never ever been a problem for me. But then I have always used newer (nVidia) videocards, and have a TV that also supports DVI.
If you really want decent TV-out then upgrade to 1990's tech and get a video card and a TV that supports DVI or HDMI and use that instead. All your modeline problems will go away too.
I don't know if you're one of them, but the number of friends I see still using legacy analog interconnections rather than digital even though their TV and other boxes already have digital connectors is frustrating.
I was thinking of buying an appletv and running a mythtv frontend on it until I discovered that Apple's hardware doesn't support 1080i.
THey're one of the shyster companies who advertise products as being HD-compatable but conveniently neglect to mention that it can't be seen at native res. There should be a class-action against all these companies for purposely misleading advertising.
You've partly answered yourself already in your question. It seems you already view everything as just a market so you won't understand the value of an altruistic over an intrinsically commercialist internet.
One negative aspect of commercialising the internet means bandwidth for personal over commercial traffic then just beomes a war of money, with the poorest always loosing out regardless of the relative human value of their traffic.
Also there are groups on the internet that provide more altruistic or community-serving services , which I appreciate a lot and want to do everything I can to keep that possible.
Add in the problem that in the US at least, wideband ISPs have a virtual monopoly on geographic areas. For example, Cox is the only cable service I can get here in Phoenix. Now combine that with tiered internet is just a massive mechanism to allow then to exploit us for even more cash for the same service.
I'm already having to pay like $50 month just for most basic broadband internet package, when most of my activities are low-bandwidth anyway, like occasional surfing and emails. Now you want me to pay even more so that the odd time I do play network games like Unreal Tournament I get enough low-latency that I don't die every 5 seconds, just because some company down the road has a bulk deal for their junk emails?.... I think not...
Point them at the relative numbers of known security breaches, outstanding known security loopholes and relative times to patch, between IE and, say, Firefox.
Ditto the number of virusses and other security loopholes between Windows and Linux.
Its so nice to see Microsoft's continued attempts to promote Linux and alienate their own userbase by removing usability and adding artificial limitations like DRM and now this to their biggest product.
I can imagine that any users getting a work-issued laptop with this on it will think there's a bug or something wrong with Windows 7 when they try to open more than 3 apps. They probably won't understand the whole notion of an intended marketing limitation, especially as they're already well used to being able to open as many apps as they like with every older version of Windows.
This latest move will make Linux (and even XP) look even more like an attractive alternative to 'upgrading' (translation: downgrading) to Windows 7.
>> Under the bill, authorities would supposedly destroy samples and DNA profiles from people who weren't charged, were found not guilty or whose convictions were overturned.
Baloney. If this was actually true, they would only bother to collect samples from people after they were found guilty.
You're right that its the RIAA not the lawyer, but it still marks him an opportunistic worm that has no scruples.
Amazing how you can criticise someone for trying to help cure a disease affecting millions, Yet consider yourself morally superior by promoting a blanket judgement against all pregnant women, regardless of their individual situations or circumstances.
For example what about someone who was raped? or someone who is in a medically life-threatening situation made potentially fatal by being pregnant? They're just examples off the top of my head. I'm sure there are many many even better justifications for abortion in real life, something your hopelessly narrow-minded philosophy always fails to deal with.
I came across Zarafa the other day: Its not OSS but it does seem to be a viable Linux-based alternative to exchange:
http://www.zarafa.com/?q=en/content/products
(I'm not associated with product or comapny)
I remember a place where I worked once got 7 new Sun servers.
There was a competition to see who could come up with suggestions for good host names. The winning suggestion was to name them after the 7 dwarfs.
The next day I logged in and saw IT had added the 7 new servers to the network.
They had named them dwarf1, dwarf2, dwarf3...
why is there such a big assumption that aliens will necessarily use the electromagnetic spectrum to communicate? Has anyone even tried looking for alternaitves?
Perhaps there is at least one other mechanism/medium which many other alien species out there have discovered and use exclusively, possibly because they didn't ever discover radio or even if they did, they only use the alternative because it has less limitations. Perhaps we dumb earthlings are actually quite unusual in not having discovered the alternative yet, because we haven't even looked because we're so invested in 'good enough' radio technology. Given such a scenario is even possible, it would seem incredibly naieve of us to presume "no radio emissions == no aliens".
and you shouldn't make sweeping assumptions. Actually I'm an immigrant too.
OH and FYI, Economics 101, Yes it DOES matter to the economy where you spend your after-tax money.
>> To contribute to a society that didnt invest a penny in them
Sorry but most of the Indians I've worked with aren't contributing to the US at all. In fact mostly they send as much of their pay packet to India as they can, so are taking money out of the US economy.
>>> then it would be awfully tough for Bill Gates to come back to the Hill and urge an H-1B increase, wouldn't it?'
Yes, especially as he doesn't work for Microsoft any more.
I wonder what the need for something like this is at all, when its still quicker and more accurate to do directly on the command line all the functionality these tools implement.
Totally agree. Mod parent up.
I bet you'll find that hard drive firmware won't even let you read bad blocks in the first place, so hacking the IDE driver will get you nothing.
Dude just re-download your pr0n. 60GB isn't that much :-)
>> Users who install software on their workstations.
>> In a perfect world, software makers wouldn't write software that demands that it run with administrator privileges.
Both of the above statements seem to indicate that you're running MS Windows. If I were you I'd be thinking about how to change that.
Linux has a much stronger security model and generally does not require users to run apps as root.
Also, 99.999% of virusses are windows-only.
Also, most basic users aren't even going to be able to get their favorite windows apps running under Linux anyay.
Thats exactly my point. Microsoft GUIs explicitly don't show you what your options are, or even tell you clearly what those options are going to do before you choose them.
With terminals, once you know "man" and "info" you can quickly grow from there.
Why is the terminal a bad thing?
What I think is WAAAY more confusing and non-intuitive is the Microsoft interface.
All the random and hidden places you have to look for even basic system-related stuff. It should be front and centre instead of hidden under a massive hierarchy of menu options and "advanced" tabs. All windows wants to do is keep shoving media players, photo viewers and useless workflow models in your face.
Also they way Microsoft decided to dispense with accurate/detailed technical terminology and information and replace it with "you're too dumb to understand this" marketing terminology. How useful is an error pop-up that just says "A system error has occurred" ? Even for non-techy types wouldn't it be more useful to know some detail like what failed and why?
Give me Linux and a terminal any day.
I actually have it, and its definately a failure.
Why do you assume I'm not overclocking? I have a core 2 extreme so of course I overclock. Also ny memory is overclocked, both vid. cards are OC versions, I have 2 10k rpm drives, Yet still, I'm dragging only slightly over 500w at the wall under full load (3dmark running a benchmark).
I've checked this with a power monitor and 2 different multimeters and they all agree.
Explain that.
BTW my PSU is a galaxy extreme 1000w.
>> listen to music, watch movies, or play games for free. I don't see what economic model is going to squeeze profit out of that.
Funny how the same model works so well for Red Hat and many others.
Its fundamental to the way Microsoft do things. All their products have always been a triumph of marketing and corporate-lock-in over actual substance.
Windows GUIs have been getting successively dumbed-down and functionally worse over each new windows version, with ever more and more crap and bloatware getting in the way of workflow. IT will soon get to the point where there's so many toolbars, ribbons, status bars etc. on your screen there's actually no room for what you're working on. Actual usability of Vista is terrible compared to XP, the amount of times you have to tell it you actually do know what you are doing is ridiculous, even with that retarded user-security thing tuned off. Plus they keep hiding the basic computer functionality under more and more layers of abstraction and with system dialogs having ever more vague terms unless you've paid for the correct MS cert course.
Microsoft are locked into a stupid mindset of assuming the user is an inexperienced idiot, and that bloat==better.
I can't believe Windows 7 will truly buck the trend. I'm way more expecting that its just Vista with different art, more DRM, extra "are you sure" dialogs, and another 2 or 3 times the memory/cpu requirement than Vista.
>>If you are going to go with a Tri-SLI-Setup, you will probably need a 1200W power supply,
Baloney. I have a 8800GTX SLI setup. It draws 400W at the wall, which goes up to 500W under full load. Furthermore its watercooled os includes all the pumps etc. Seems to me that 8800GTX draws at most 180W. That means if I put another 8800GTX in my box to get 3-way, it would still olny consume 650W under load.
The GTX285 cards are 55nm so draw even less power.
Even allowing for some overhead an 800W PSU would still be overkill.