I don't know how some of you guys are using it so regularly. I grabbed the M13 build and it wouldn't stay running more than 5 minutes. And I wasn't even pushing it.
If this is real then digital paper is finally here. This little screen has a better dpi resolution than a laser printer, which means the text could be as clean and readable as a paper book. The resolution of text is the biggest obstacle to digital reading, because low res just puts too much strain on the eyes. (Have you tried to read an entire book on a computer screen? It can be done, but the low resolution of the screen slows you down and can even give you monster headaches.) The only question is whether they are able to make displays larger than one inch. If they can, the digital book is just around the corner!
I can see the device already, 4x6 inches, the size of a paperback, a few navigation buttons at the bottom for turning pages. It would actually open like a book and you could put it in your pocket. Download dozens of books at a time, and when you are done with them, just flash it and dump some more! You could even subscribe to a newspaper and have it downloaded into your digital book every day! Same with magazines. Connect it to a PCS or cellular modem and you can get to the whole library, no matter where you are. A true information appliance!
If somebody isn't working on this already, they are all slackers!
In-place editing is not such a great idea. One editing error can screw up your whole production web site. When I was asked to help a non-savvy friend with her web site, I set her up with FTP Explorer. It looks and works just like Windows explorer. I helped her type in the URL and password, and then I explained: Save your files from word in folder X on your computer. Then open FTP Explorer, and drag all the files into your WWW folder. She's been cruising merrily ever since.
On the other hand, for my intranet server, I just mounted/home/httpd via NFS (since my server and workstation are both Linux) so it acts just like home! (I wouldn't recommend this for the Internet if security is a major concern, or for a production server with newbie users).
This will no doubt be a very unpopular opinion in light of the recent tragedy, but I firmly believe that some people are so incredibly moronic that they honestly do not understand any language but pain. I got picked on all the time in school. Once I was beaten up by a gang of five guys. I know all about the receiving end. But experience has taught me that the only way to stop the madness is to shed some blood. Bullies pick on people who are "freebies", ones that won't fight back, ones that are "safe".
The day the other kids stopped picking on me was the day I finally cracked and busted one in the chops. The sight of one's own blood is apparently a powerful deterrent. Sure I got my ass kicked. So what? I was getting my ass kicked anyway. But I made it clear that if I was going down, I would not be the only one.
Likewise the last time my father hit me was the day I hit back. Didn't hurt him much, but he got the message. It was the same with everyone who ever tried to exercise power over me, right down to the US Marines.
Now I definitely recommend against fire-arms and bombs. If you think high school sucks, you don't want to ever be in prison. And suicide isn't really an option: you either go to Hell and have to hang with the same assholes you hated on earth, or you get reincarnated and have to live through high school all over again. In general, violence is a very bad idea. But sometimes you just have to kick somebody's ass. Call this attitude irresponsible, reprehensible, insane, anti-social, whatever you want. But I bet you won't say it to my face, and I guarantee I will never be bullied again.
The writer here is talking specifically about Debian, and Debian has an interest in keeping the "clueless" out. As a Linux distribution created and maintained by its user base, Debian doesn't need to attract beginners. They would dilute the developer base and reduce the overall quality of the distribution.
Other distributions (Red Hat has been mentioned) cater to "newbies" and make money trying to educate them. More power to them. If these newbies can learn enough, they may come to appreciate what Debian has to offer and begin to contribute. For those confused about "World Domination", the idea is to make the world conform to Linux, not make Linux conform to the world. In other words, Linux doesn't become so "user friendly" that any non-geek can use it... rather, everybody becomes so geeky that they all love Linux!
Maybe when Linux achieves world domination, everyone will use (and contribute to) Debian. Until then, the elite can have it, and let Red Hat or Caldera or whoever sop up the rest of the users, the ones who have an interest but a low skill level.
Obviously, at some point the essential "clues" have to get transfered down from the ivory tower hackers to the little guys, if we are ever to be free from the great slobbering beast of MS Mediocrity 2000. But then again, for some folks, mediocre is good enough, and for them, MS is a good thing. Those seeking higher standards will convert to Linux, and while they probably should be discouraged from using Debian (and bothering its maintainers), there are plenty of other Linux options available to them as stepping stones.
If you're a newbie, don't be discouraged by all this. Just know that you MUST learn what you are doing. Sometimes it seems scary, but it's not really that hard, it's just different from what you know now. If you are willing to learn, there are plenty of folks out there willing to teach you. Don't be afraid to ask for help, but be responsible for finding out who to ask about what.
And don't use Debian until you know what you are doing!
flames >/dev/null
Vince
The Real Joke: What if it's a DUMB IDEA?
on
1984, today.
·
· Score: 1
Wouldn't it just serve them right if they went through a decade of litigation to get ahold of this idea and it turned out to be stupid?
This does sound like a patent on Baloney Sandwiches, doesn't it? What they actually patented was a "business model" of transacting a download in exchange for an online transfer of money. I'm no patent lawyer, but I thought that business models were outside the scope of patents.
If anybody feels like researching it a little bit (I'm afraid I just don't have the time this week), there's plenty of info on The US Patent and Trademark Office.
And nobody can make a baloney sandwich with out licensing patent number 3,14159,666 from Microsoft.
Like most others here, I think this sucks. There is obviously no chance of anyone confusing Yahoo with YaHooka. I say we let Yahoo know that we don't like this. Here's a list of Yahoo's executives and the URL where I found it. Their email addresses are not listed, but if I find them I'll post them here. There are a couple of feedback forms on their site, too. I've also looked up the companies phone number and the snail mail address, for those who figure their "two cents worth" is worth 32 cents or more.
Street Address Yahoo! Inc. 3420 Central Expressway, 2nd Floor Santa Clara, CA 95051 Phone (408) 731-3300 Fax (408) 731-3301
Office Hours 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST
Jerry Yang - Chief Yahoo! and Director David Filo - Chief Yahoo! Tim Koogle - President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Mallett - Chief Operating Officer John Place - General Counsel Anil Singh - Senior Vice President of Sales Karen Edwards - Vice President, Brand Marketing Gary Valenzuela - Senior V.P. of Finance & Administration and Chief Financial Officer Farzad Nazem - Senior V.P. of Product Development & Operations, Chief Technical Officer James Nelson - Vice President, Finance Timothy Brady - Vice President, Production Heather Killen - Vice President, International Geoff Ralston - Vice President, Development and Communciations Ellen Siminoff - Vice President, Business Development Srinija Srinivasan - Vice President, Editor in Chief Arthur Kern - Director Michael Moritz - Director Eric Hippeau - Director
The choice of whether or not to go to college is almost purely socio-economic. All that is required to educate oneself is a desire to learn and access to knowledge. University can provide that access. So can a library card and a web browser. But college cannot give you the desire to learn and think. Without that, college is just four years of beer and parties.
So the college decision has little to do with whether you want to learn, but more: 1. What kind of job do you want? Some jobs require college (like teaching!) 2. What kind of social groups do you want to be in? Some snobby groups won't take you if you aren't Dr. you. Others will look at you cross-eyed if you have parchment. 3. Money. Who's paying? If you are, can you afford it? Could you make more working in the long run?
For me, nothing was more frustrating than being forced into classes where the teacher knew less than I did, and grades were not based on intelligence or knowledge but attendance and sycophancy, and I have no desire to work for a corporation that embraces such policies. Keeping to contracts and independant work will never make me rich, but I'm far happier doing what I want.
And BTW, 20 years into your life is far too late to "learn how to think". If you haven't been thinking critically since you learned to speak, your education is already a decade behind. Still, better late than never.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know how some of you guys are using it so regularly. I grabbed the M13 build and it wouldn't stay running more than 5 minutes. And I wasn't even pushing it.
-Vince
If this is real then digital paper is finally here. This little screen has a better dpi resolution than a laser printer, which means the text could be as clean and readable as a paper book. The resolution of text is the biggest obstacle to digital reading, because low res just puts too much strain on the eyes. (Have you tried to read an entire book on a computer screen? It can be done, but the low resolution of the screen slows you down and can even give you monster headaches.) The only question is whether they are able to make displays larger than one inch. If they can, the digital book is just around the corner!
I can see the device already, 4x6 inches, the size of a paperback, a few navigation buttons at the bottom for turning pages. It would actually open like a book and you could put it in your pocket. Download dozens of books at a time, and when you are done with them, just flash it and dump some more! You could even subscribe to a newspaper and have it downloaded into your digital book every day! Same with magazines. Connect it to a PCS or cellular modem and you can get to the whole library, no matter where you are. A true information appliance!
If somebody isn't working on this already, they are all slackers!
Vince
In-place editing is not such a great idea. One editing error can screw up your whole production web site. When I was asked to help a non-savvy friend with her web site, I set her up with FTP Explorer. It looks and works just like Windows explorer. I helped her type in the URL and password, and then I explained: Save your files from word in folder X on your computer. Then open FTP Explorer, and drag all the files into your WWW folder. She's been cruising merrily ever since.
/home/httpd via NFS (since my server and workstation are both Linux) so it acts just like home! (I wouldn't recommend this for the Internet if security is a major concern, or for a production server with newbie users).
On the other hand, for my intranet server, I just mounted
Anyway, good luck!
Vince
This will no doubt be a very unpopular opinion in light of the recent tragedy, but I firmly believe that some people are so incredibly moronic that they honestly do not understand any language but pain. I got picked on all the time in school. Once I was beaten up by a gang of five guys. I know all about the receiving end. But experience has taught me that the only way to stop the madness is to shed some blood. Bullies pick on people who are "freebies", ones that won't fight back, ones that are "safe".
The day the other kids stopped picking on me was the day I finally cracked and busted one in the chops. The sight of one's own blood is apparently a powerful deterrent. Sure I got my ass kicked. So what? I was getting my ass kicked anyway. But I made it clear that if I was going down, I would not be the only one.
Likewise the last time my father hit me was the day I hit back. Didn't hurt him much, but he got the message. It was the same with everyone who ever tried to exercise power over me, right down to the US Marines.
Now I definitely recommend against fire-arms and bombs. If you think high school sucks, you don't want to ever be in prison. And suicide isn't really an option: you either go to Hell and have to hang with the same assholes you hated on earth, or you get reincarnated and have to live through high school all over again. In general, violence is a very bad idea. But sometimes you just have to kick somebody's ass. Call this attitude irresponsible, reprehensible, insane, anti-social, whatever you want. But I bet you won't say it to my face, and I guarantee I will never be bullied again.
Vince
The writer here is talking specifically about Debian, and Debian has an interest in keeping the "clueless" out. As a Linux distribution created and maintained by its user base, Debian doesn't need to attract beginners. They would dilute the developer base and reduce the overall quality of the distribution.
/dev/null
Other distributions (Red Hat has been mentioned) cater to "newbies" and make money trying to educate them. More power to them. If these newbies can learn enough, they may come to appreciate what Debian has to offer and begin to contribute. For those confused about "World Domination", the idea is to make the world conform to Linux, not make Linux conform to the world. In other words, Linux doesn't become so "user friendly" that any non-geek can use it... rather, everybody becomes so geeky that they all love Linux!
Maybe when Linux achieves world domination, everyone will use (and contribute to) Debian. Until then, the elite can have it, and let Red Hat or Caldera or whoever sop up the rest of the users, the ones who have an interest but a low skill level.
Obviously, at some point the essential "clues" have to get transfered down from the ivory tower hackers to the little guys, if we are ever to be free from the great slobbering beast of MS Mediocrity 2000. But then again, for some folks, mediocre is good enough, and for them, MS is a good thing. Those seeking higher standards will convert to Linux, and while they probably should be discouraged from using Debian (and bothering its maintainers), there are plenty of other Linux options available to them as stepping stones.
If you're a newbie, don't be discouraged by all this. Just know that you MUST learn what you are doing. Sometimes it seems scary, but it's not really that hard, it's just different from what you know now. If you are willing to learn, there are plenty of folks out there willing to teach you. Don't be afraid to ask for help, but be responsible for finding out who to ask about what.
And don't use Debian until you know what you are doing!
flames >
Vince
Wouldn't it just serve them right if they went through a decade of litigation to get ahold of this idea and it turned out to be stupid?
I'll never sign a contract again. Sheesh.
Vince
This does sound like a patent on Baloney Sandwiches, doesn't it? What they actually patented was a "business model" of transacting a download in exchange for an online transfer of money. I'm no patent lawyer, but I thought that business models were outside the scope of patents.
If anybody feels like researching it a little bit (I'm afraid I just don't have the time this week), there's plenty of info on The US Patent and Trademark Office.
And nobody can make a baloney sandwich with out licensing patent number 3,14159,666 from Microsoft.
Vince
Like most others here, I think this sucks. There is obviously no chance of anyone confusing Yahoo with YaHooka. I say we let Yahoo know that we don't like this. Here's a list of Yahoo's executives and the URL where I found it. Their email addresses are not listed, but if I find them I'll post them here. There are a couple of feedback forms on their site, too. I've also looked up the companies phone number and the snail mail address, for those who figure their "two cents worth" is worth 32 cents or more.
Suggestions
The Yahoo! Experience
Investor Relations: Directors & Officers
Street Address
Yahoo! Inc.
3420 Central Expressway, 2nd Floor
Santa Clara, CA 95051
Phone
(408) 731-3300
Fax
(408) 731-3301
Office Hours
8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST
Jerry Yang - Chief Yahoo! and Director
David Filo - Chief Yahoo!
Tim Koogle - President and Chief Executive Officer
Jeffrey Mallett - Chief Operating Officer
John Place - General Counsel
Anil Singh - Senior Vice President of Sales
Karen Edwards - Vice President, Brand Marketing
Gary Valenzuela - Senior V.P. of Finance & Administration and Chief Financial Officer
Farzad Nazem - Senior V.P. of Product Development & Operations, Chief Technical Officer
James Nelson - Vice President, Finance
Timothy Brady - Vice President, Production
Heather Killen - Vice President, International
Geoff Ralston - Vice President, Development and Communciations
Ellen Siminoff - Vice President, Business Development
Srinija Srinivasan - Vice President, Editor in Chief
Arthur Kern - Director
Michael Moritz - Director
Eric Hippeau - Director
Happy Hunting!!
Vince V.
The choice of whether or not to go to college is almost purely socio-economic. All that is required to educate oneself is a desire to learn and access to knowledge. University can provide that access. So can a library card and a web browser. But college cannot give you the desire to learn and think. Without that, college is just four years of beer and parties.
So the college decision has little to do with whether you want to learn, but more:
1. What kind of job do you want? Some jobs require college (like teaching!)
2. What kind of social groups do you want to be in? Some snobby groups won't take you if you aren't Dr. you. Others will look at you cross-eyed if you have parchment.
3. Money. Who's paying? If you are, can you afford it? Could you make more working in the long run?
For me, nothing was more frustrating than being forced into classes where the teacher knew less than I did, and grades were not based on intelligence or knowledge but attendance and sycophancy, and I have no desire to work for a corporation that embraces such policies. Keeping to contracts and independant work will never make me rich, but I'm far happier doing what I want.
And BTW, 20 years into your life is far too late to "learn how to think". If you haven't been thinking critically since you learned to speak, your education is already a decade behind. Still, better late than never.
-Vince