I recently bought Running Linux - Second Edition by Matt Welsh and Lar Kaufman. Despite being 4 years old, if it was as good as i'd heard, i figured it might still be relevant. Failing that, it might at least provide a few good laughs (it was also super cheap).
Although I have it finished it yet, most of what i have read seems to be general enough to avoid obsolescence. However, when Welsh delves into system specifics, the book's age becomes immediately apparent.
"You should have at least 2 MB of RAM; however, it's strongly suggested that you have 4 MB."
"...an 8-MB swap partition should suffice."
"You can run a complete system with all of the bells and whistles in 80 MB or less."
...So it's a tad out-dated, but for AUS$20 it was a bargain, and i'm learning a hell of a lot. The erroneous specs (by today's standards anyway) seem to be only locate in the chapters on installation.
I like my computer because it doesn't judge me. So why would I want another loved one constantly monitoring the attention it receives?
I can just imagine...
I grab a snack from the kitchen and return to my box to see the following error message:
Where the hell did you go? Is it too hard to leave a note telling me where you're going? Not even a phone call? I'm really not sure you're committed to this relationship
Re:C++ as a teaching language/programming obscure?
on
Who's Afraid Of C++?
·
· Score: 1
...computers don't think in objects.
Humans, however, do think in objects. Relatively, I'm a programming newbie. I've learnt a bit of c, and now I'm learning some c++. As hard as people say c++ is, it makes more sense to me. To be more accurate, OOP makes a lot of sense to me, because i think in objects. Not to say that learning c isn't interesting and worthwhile. I still want to learn languages of other conceptual designs. For instance, learning Haskell last semester was a fun experience.
What language a "normal user" should first learn really depends on how far they want to go with their programming. If writing malicious email worms is your thing, then go learn VBS. If on the other hand, you're more inclined to uber-cool kernel hacking, learn c or (insert traditional kernel-hacking language here). Between these two extremes of worthwhileness, lies many potential programming goals Joe Hacker could strive for.
I take no credit for this, I just feel it's appropriate. If the owner is reading, feel free to take all credit for it.
"I'd like to announce the adopt-a-coder program. After many long hours debugging why their program segfaults when given an input of 64910 characters long, but only if it doesn't contain the letter a and it's an even-numbered day, some programmers understandably... lose it.
You see, this is where the adopt-a-program comes in... after these poor souls go mad, somebody else needs to work on the code... and then they go mad, and so on. Eventually the program will be put into a usable state, but there's an excess number of insane programmers out there.
Here's what I suggest: Adopt-a-coder. For $10 per day, you can help feed an insane coder. All you need is a 12 pack of cola and cold pizza and/or ramen noodles. Provide him/her with a dedicated DSL liine, and rehabilitate him. It's a hard job, but it's also rewarding. You see, most people don't know that programming has little to do with computers, and more to do with large quantities of caffeine and memory loss. Unfortunately, the fallout from this is very serious.
PLEASE, help an insane coder. It's the least you can do."
Is it too late to legally change my name to pikachu? C'mon i'm sure there's enough/. readers willing to change their names so we can get all the pokemon off the market.
Everything seems to have passed smoothly in Australia; in the eastern states at least. Power, telephone services, water, etc, still work. I sincerely hope everyone else around the globe experiences a equally trouble-free rollover at midnight wherever you may be. I wish a very Happy New Year to everyone. See you all 2000!
I think you're referring to Caravan Of Courage. It's not such a bad movie when you realise it's aimed at kids. You can't seriously expect a movie based around ewoks to be aimed at the typical starwars crowd.
Mmmmm.... desserted island. I can sit around with the other 15 contestants eating banana splits and drinking wine from a coconut while sitting under an enlarged cocktail umbrella...
Hopefully someone will release a kiddie puter with a Mr. Potato-head theme so the ankle-biters can learn how to connect their hardware. Just watch out for the kids who tend to make a picasso of the normal Mr. Potato-head: "No billy, the coax doesn't connect directly to the main power output..."
*Chuckle* as i look upon the linuxchix mascot. Do all female linux users dress in such a navel-exposing fashion? Maybe I should go to a meeting. But seriously... This chix thing is definitely a good thing as far as i'm concerned. An industry run on testosterone is a one-sided industry. You're right about girls not being encouraged to participate in anything technical. This kind of bias is extremely obvious at my school where the librarians will instinctively turn to the nearest male student when they encounter a 'problem' with a puter. I fear that the educational system has unknowingly brainwashed me (and others) into thinking that only guys are proficient at technical stuff. Hence, I was surprised when more than one of my friends(chix) told me they wanted to do comp sci next year at uni or something equally technical. The subsequent discussions we had on techy stuff was refreshing to say the least. ie, refreshing from the usual dribble I hear from guys. From my observations, it seems that technically-adept guys i know talk about their puters like a bunch of rev-heads talking about cars. They always boast about how they managed to clock an extra 33mH from their new celeron, etc. The chix I talk to tend to talk more about how puters can actually be used for cool stuff. (interesting to note that more than half the users on icq are female, but maybe this is related to something else). Don't get me wrong, I love a good discussion on making my machine work as fast as physically possible in order to get that extra fps in q3test. But it's nice to hear someone whose opinions aren't testosterone-induced. Viva la chix! BTW, I'm a guy...
Hmmm, only 51 mins till midnight so I've decided to wait it out in hope of witnessing the end of the world. Be assured all those/.ers in timezones after mine (gmt+9:30), i'll send you a post-apocalyptic postcard as soon as 9/10/99 ticks over. Should read something like "Greetings from downunder, where we just can't wait any longer to start our armageddon-esque celebrations. As a glance out through the melting glass of my window, I obsevere that the land is engulfed in fire and brimstone and gravity seems to have been reversed. ... Wish you were here!"
Blizzard may have ripped-off Games Workshop in the past, but let's not pretend for a minute that GW come up with all their own ideas. They've been ripping-off Tolkien and various medieval folk stories since they began.
"Citizens of Australia, shortly you will all be supplied with a pair of scissors and a bulk amount of liquid paper. Under new laws, you are now forc... uh... required to use the liquid paper on all undesirable words in your dictionaries. The scissors must be used to remove any and all images of suspicious wizards who may be smoking unindentified herbs in works by JRR Tolkien.
If you choose not to comply with our dema... uh... restrictions, a government official will be at your residence momentarily to remove your eyeballs from their sockets lest you accidently find yourself gazing at some young girl's exposed ankles.
That is all, now return your usual, sheltered, naive lives."
Slashdot Mirror
Go ogle it.
Seems those miniature scribes are out of business. You can now grow entire rice crops with your name printed on each grain.
I'd still be impressed to see someone engrave the entire rice genome onto a single grain of rice. Long-grain will be accepted.
Sort of like owning a $100,000 ferrari and only driving it through parking lots.
So whether you're driving a ferrari through a parking lot or using linux to check your mail, deep down you know it's for exactly the same reason.
To impress chicks.
I recently bought Running Linux - Second Edition by Matt Welsh and Lar Kaufman. Despite being 4 years old, if it was as good as i'd heard, i figured it might still be relevant. Failing that, it might at least provide a few good laughs (it was also super cheap).
...So it's a tad out-dated, but for AUS$20 it was a bargain, and i'm learning a hell of a lot. The erroneous specs (by today's standards anyway) seem to be only locate in the chapters on installation.
Although I have it finished it yet, most of what i have read seems to be general enough to avoid obsolescence. However, when Welsh delves into system specifics, the book's age becomes immediately apparent.
"You should have at least 2 MB of RAM; however, it's strongly suggested that you have 4 MB."
"...an 8-MB swap partition should suffice."
"You can run a complete system with all of the bells and whistles in 80 MB or less."
I knew it was only a matter of time before scientific research yielded the answer...
We are more than 6 degrees away from Kevin Bacon.
"Is that a UTP socket in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"
I like my computer because it doesn't judge me. So why would I want another loved one constantly monitoring the attention it receives?
I can just imagine...
I grab a snack from the kitchen and return to my box to see the following error message:
Where the hell did you go? Is it too hard to leave a note telling me where you're going? Not even a phone call? I'm really not sure you're committed to this relationship
...computers don't think in objects.
Humans, however, do think in objects.
Relatively, I'm a programming newbie. I've learnt a bit of c, and now I'm learning some c++. As hard as people say c++ is, it makes more sense to me. To be more accurate, OOP makes a lot of sense to me, because i think in objects.
Not to say that learning c isn't interesting and worthwhile. I still want to learn languages of other conceptual designs. For instance, learning Haskell last semester was a fun experience.
What language a "normal user" should first learn really depends on how far they want to go with their programming.
If writing malicious email worms is your thing, then go learn VBS.
If on the other hand, you're more inclined to uber-cool kernel hacking, learn c or (insert traditional kernel-hacking language here).
Between these two extremes of worthwhileness, lies many potential programming goals Joe Hacker could strive for.
... can detect excessive skintones
so i finally can filter out images of zit-covered, pubescent 15 year-olds?
I take no credit for this, I just feel it's appropriate. If the owner is reading, feel free to take all credit for it.
"I'd like to announce the adopt-a-coder program. After many long hours debugging why their program segfaults when given an input of 64910 characters long, but only if it doesn't contain the letter a and it's an even-numbered day, some programmers understandably... lose it.
You see, this is where the adopt-a-program comes in... after these poor souls go mad, somebody else needs to work on the code... and then they go mad, and so on. Eventually the program will be put into a usable state, but there's an excess number of insane programmers out there.
Here's what I suggest: Adopt-a-coder. For $10 per day, you can help feed an insane coder. All you need is a 12 pack of cola and cold pizza and/or ramen noodles. Provide him/her with a dedicated DSL liine, and rehabilitate him. It's a hard job, but it's also rewarding. You see, most people don't know that programming has little to do with computers, and more to do with large quantities of caffeine and memory loss. Unfortunately, the fallout from this is very serious.
PLEASE, help an insane coder. It's the least you can do."
Lars Achieves Monetary Empowerment
NASA's plan should work just fine... until these robo-snakes encounter an exterrestrial civilisation that celebrates whacking day.
At last, something that Shockwave can adequately handle: 10 year old game designs.
One can find statistics to back just about anything
35% of all people know that.
Sure, it's all fun and games with your personal clones until they start demanding their own account on your machine...
/]# adduser froz /]# adduser froz2 /]# adduser froz47
[root@localhost
adduser: user froz exists
[root@localhost
adduser: user froz2 exists
[root@localhost
adduser: user froz47 exists
Is it too late to legally change my name to pikachu? /. readers willing to change their names so we can get all the pokemon off the market.
C'mon i'm sure there's enough
Gotta sue 'em all!
Everything seems to have passed smoothly in Australia; in the eastern states at least. Power, telephone services, water, etc, still work.
I sincerely hope everyone else around the globe experiences a equally trouble-free rollover at midnight wherever you may be. I wish a very Happy New Year to everyone. See you all 2000!
jesler
I think you're referring to Caravan Of Courage. It's not such a bad movie when you realise it's aimed at kids. You can't seriously expect a movie based around ewoks to be aimed at the typical starwars crowd.
Just think of the applications besides a virtual keyboard.
Gives new meaning to the term 'air guitar'.
Mmmmm.... desserted island. I can sit around with the other 15 contestants eating banana splits and drinking wine from a coconut while sitting under an enlarged cocktail umbrella...
Hopefully someone will release a kiddie puter with a Mr. Potato-head theme so the ankle-biters can learn how to connect their hardware.
Just watch out for the kids who tend to make a picasso of the normal Mr. Potato-head: "No billy, the coax doesn't connect directly to the main power output..."
*Chuckle* as i look upon the linuxchix mascot. Do all female linux users dress in such a navel-exposing fashion? Maybe I should go to a meeting. But seriously...
This chix thing is definitely a good thing as far as i'm concerned. An industry run on testosterone is a one-sided industry. You're right about girls not being encouraged to participate in anything technical. This kind of bias is extremely obvious at my school where the librarians will instinctively turn to the nearest male student when they encounter a 'problem' with a puter. I fear that the educational system has unknowingly brainwashed me (and others) into thinking that only guys are proficient at technical stuff. Hence, I was surprised when more than one of my friends(chix) told me they wanted to do comp sci next year at uni or something equally technical.
The subsequent discussions we had on techy stuff was refreshing to say the least. ie, refreshing from the usual dribble I hear from guys.
From my observations, it seems that technically-adept guys i know talk about their puters like a bunch of rev-heads talking about cars. They always boast about how they managed to clock an extra 33mH from their new celeron, etc.
The chix I talk to tend to talk more about how puters can actually be used for cool stuff. (interesting to note that more than half the users on icq are female, but maybe this is related to something else).
Don't get me wrong, I love a good discussion on making my machine work as fast as physically possible in order to get that extra fps in q3test. But it's nice to hear someone whose opinions aren't testosterone-induced.
Viva la chix!
BTW, I'm a guy...
Hmmm, only 51 mins till midnight so I've decided to wait it out in hope of witnessing the end of the world. /.ers in timezones after mine (gmt+9:30), i'll send you a post-apocalyptic postcard as soon as 9/10/99 ticks over.
Be assured all those
Should read something like
"Greetings from downunder, where we just can't wait any longer to start our armageddon-esque celebrations. As a glance out through the melting glass of my window, I obsevere that the land is engulfed in fire and brimstone and gravity seems to have been reversed.
... Wish you were here!"
Blizzard may have ripped-off Games Workshop in the past, but let's not pretend for a minute that GW come up with all their own ideas. They've been ripping-off Tolkien and various medieval folk stories since they began.
"Citizens of Australia, shortly you will all be supplied with a pair of scissors and a bulk amount of liquid paper. Under new laws, you are now forc... uh... required to use the liquid paper on all undesirable words in your dictionaries. The scissors must be used to remove any and all images of suspicious wizards who may be smoking unindentified herbs in works by JRR Tolkien.
If you choose not to comply with our dema... uh... restrictions, a government official will be at your residence momentarily to remove your eyeballs from their sockets lest you accidently find yourself gazing at some young girl's exposed ankles.
That is all, now return your usual, sheltered, naive lives."
Froz
joelesler@optusnet.com.au
ICQ: 532856