...a clean default interface. If its Windows or Mac software, it should use the current default for that system. One of the things I've always hated about WinAMP, Quicktime, etc, is all the flash and eyecandy they wrap their stuff in.
I also want to know things like what's the memory footprint of the program (approximately), how it deals with SMP and dual core systems and what bizarre external dependencies it has. Of course, those aren't really screenshot items.:D
Yeah. You're kinda missing the point. The ArsTechnica systems guides aren't about pushing a built-box solution. They're for people who are going to go and build a system from off-the-shelf parts. When you get that, you don't get any of the volume discounts that a company like Dell can get.
Of course, most of those $300-400 systems from Dell don't have monitors, and use proprietary motherboards and other proprietary parts.
Fuck me dead. Let me lend Jander some backup here. I was the NT admin at AIT when the stuff with Jander went down. It was ridiculous. Not long after, Clarence had me giving him access to people's Exchange accounts and breaking into their PCs so he could get at their files on the grounds they might "betray" him. That's the word Clarence used. Clarence went so far as to show up at one guy's (Ray, it was) WITH A SHERRIFF and demand access to the guy's home computer.
The final straw for me was when he wanted every one of the *nix and NT administrators to provide financial disclosures not only on themselves, but their immediate family members as well. I got off relatively easily: I only had to pay clarence about $5300 to keep him off my back. A guy who left after me MOVED TO BAHRAIN to get away from Clarence.
FOAD Briggs, indeed.
Anyway, Jander, how things are going better for you and your family.
Some other geek might disagree, but I'd say that's not going to happen, mainly because the photons aren't going to impact enough air molecules for that to happen. Even if they did, the air is fluid and can expand rapidly, removing most of the mass from the beam's volume.
I'm interested to see what countermeasures are deployed against this? Lead munitions in a volley dropping massive aerosol clouds of some highly refractive liquid, or some such?
Why erect non-human readable signs where they get in the way? What are the benefits of me being able to see this large thing other than to know something is there? You start with an inherently flawed question. You make a rather silly assumption that such barcodes would be used entirely divorced from traditional 2d media. It makes perfect sense to put a semacode block on a movie poster at the local mall, allowing the distributor to lure the potential audience to a targetted website, and perhaps convincing them to go see the movie. Not a perfect analogy, but I think it will do.
And I know I'll be shouted down for this, but isn't this a much better application for something like RFID? (technical issues, notwithstanding) What's wrong with having this information in the airwaves and some kind of small indicator that a signal is being transmitted? Why add more RF to an area, when a simple splatter of ink will do just as well?
Sharp SL-5500 Zaurus. Sure, its only a 320x240 screen, but its cheaper than almost every other PDA out there.
I always thought I couldn't stand to read ebooks, and never gave them much thought, until I lost my job and needed another way to feed my book addiction. Surprisingly, I found that reading on my Zaurus was an absolute joy.
I've been reading my way through the Baen Free Library CDs on it. I use Plucker to pluck the frameless version of the books I want to read. Before that I, wrote a perl scrip to rtf2txt it, then split the file on criteria I specified. I read these files on the magnificent OpieReader, which is as full featured as you could possibly want.
I've found that I use three light settings. In the dark, or minimal light, I used the lowest light setting. The Zaurus has a continuous life of about five or six hours this way. In the mornings, in bed, reading my plucked streams before facing the world, I have to crank the light to max. Of course, I'm next to an outlet the entire time there. You'll get about an hour untethered time this way. Finally in pretty much any other lighting condition, I can just turn the light completely off. You'll want to embolden the text if you do this, mind you. You'll be able to read for days on end this way.
One might expect that 320x240 might strain the eyes during long reading, but I have found that it doesn't bother me at all. If its problematic for you, you can always crank the font size up with the touch of a button.
If I decide to encode a song as a text file containing the bit-string of a song and slap that on a web server, what is this software going to do? Oh, sure, the size of that MP3 just jumped by a factor of sizeof(char), but its out there. Maybe it'll be smar t and read the first X bytes of any file it passes? What if the file is multiple parts? I can serve it on my web server. I can toss it up on NNTP.
In short, the only way this software can stop filesharing is to block the network connection entirely. This is perfectly obvious even to a dimwit like me.
The nice thing about/usr/ports is that the packages are built from it. That means that even if you DO decide to install a package under FreeBSD, you know that you're getting everything laid out the same way you would if you built it from source. Further, your packages and ports installed applications will play well with each other, unless you go out of your way to break something.
You ask, "how am I better than every Debian developer combined?" and I say that you've asked the wrong question. The proper question is, "how are any of the Debian developers better than me for knowing my own environment or needs?"
Consider, for a moment, the situation of a Windows administrator: he gets what Microsoft gives him. He has needs (software that does X) but he has to bow to the whims of some anonymous developer somewhere who thinks that he doesn't just need X, but needs a bunch of other functionality, too. Further, the anonymous developer might have different security priorities or prefer the EMACS-style kitchen sink approach to compiling in features.
Contrast this with a Unix administrator. He's got his needs and there's plenty of software out there for him. If he wants to install a package, he's got the option to go with a package maintainer's idea of what he needs, or he's got the option to tailor that package's source to provide EXACTLY what he needs. If he wants, he can aggressively optimize the software--something package maintainer simply cannot do, because he has to supply a broadly useful package.
When asking questions about systems administration, you simply cannot think about silly things like 'insulting' the delicate sensibilities of the people who work on software. You cannot think of whether or not anonymous people who have no stake in the functioning of your network have your needs in mind. You must simply do what is best for your specific systems, which might include using prepackaged binaries or building from source, on a case by case basis.
Faster internet access and a fatter media [sewage] pipe into the home!
Forget health care, social security, education! All we need is to be able to download pr0n faster and to be able to watch sixteen hundred channels of HOME IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMMING.
Yeah, Mr. Bush. Way to get those priorities straight.
I don't know. I do a lot of modelling in Lightwave. I've got all of my most commonly used commands remapped to use the left side of the keyboard, including shift and control. I don't have to use my right hand on the keyboard for anything except, of all things, the number pad. I'd rather have it on the left side of my keyboard, honestly.
My big complaint about most 3d modelling interfaces is that they're incredibly dumb. I have yet to find one that will let me remap the axes of my mouse (or other controller) arbitrarily. X/Y on the mouse makes sense, but I'd like to be able to hold a key and turn my X/Y (and Z, really, since I have a wheel) into some of the more common transforms. CTRL+mouse would be object movement, or some such. ALT+mouse would be object rotation. CTRL-ALT+mouse would be view panning.
Hell, I'd actually be willing to settle for more 3d apps recognizing my mouse wheel as a Z-axis input.
"Keep in mind that GNU/Linux has mainly been taking market share from commercial unices. This is to be expected, as it has much in common with those and their technical strengths and weaknesses are very similar."
I think you're missing the point. It seems, from where I sit, that a good 50% of the driving force behind Linux innovation is the "Beat Microsoft!" mentality. That is, if you can really call most of what we refer to as 'linux' innovative. Its a lot of stuff copied--and, admittedly, improved upon--from other companies.
Without Microsoft, Linux quite likely would still just be Linus Torvald's pet project, and most of us would have seen his original newsgroup post and thought, "Oh look, another toy Unix..." and gone on with our day on whichever flavor of real Unix we were using.
Slashdot Mirror
...a clean default interface. If its Windows or Mac software, it
:D
should use the current default for that system. One of the things
I've always hated about WinAMP, Quicktime, etc, is all the flash
and eyecandy they wrap their stuff in.
I also want to know things like what's the memory footprint of the
program (approximately), how it deals with SMP and dual core systems
and what bizarre external dependencies it has. Of course, those
aren't really screenshot items.
Emulation is the only reason I would want a PSP actually.
That's exactly where I stopped playing, strangely enough. I simply don't want to play the game anymore.
I think you will find it was the grandparent that brought up bosses and clergy, not the reply to which you are responding.
Yeah. You're kinda missing the point. The ArsTechnica
systems guides aren't about pushing a built-box solution.
They're for people who are going to go and build a system
from off-the-shelf parts. When you get that, you don't get
any of the volume discounts that a company like Dell can
get.
Of course, most of those $300-400 systems from Dell don't
have monitors, and use proprietary motherboards and other
proprietary parts.
At risk of burning karma, I have to ask: wouldn't the source material have to be good before you could make a 'good' move based off of it?
Um. You DON'T have to read about Paris Hilton every other day. You have the ability to close your eyes any time you want. Go ahead. Try it.
Fuck me dead. Let me lend Jander some backup here. I was the NT admin at AIT when the stuff with Jander went down. It was ridiculous. Not long after, Clarence had me giving him access to people's Exchange accounts and breaking into their PCs so he could get at their files on the grounds they might "betray" him. That's the word Clarence used. Clarence went so far as to show up at one guy's (Ray, it was) WITH A SHERRIFF and demand access to the guy's home computer.
The final straw for me was when he wanted every one of the *nix and NT administrators to provide financial disclosures not only on themselves, but their immediate family members as well. I got off relatively easily: I only had to pay clarence about $5300 to keep him off my back. A guy who left after me MOVED TO BAHRAIN to get away from Clarence.
FOAD Briggs, indeed.
Anyway, Jander, how things are going better for you and your family.
Christ. I hope they don't get rid of the smoking bans. Its the damned smoke I object to, not the fact that it might cause cancer.
Finally a bit of sense in the courts. :D
I read that title and said to myself, "They've gone too far! They can't get away with tracking my Blackberry as it moves through the airport!"
Not that the REAL story isn't as worrying.
I'd say go one step further. Use a DB interface layer that groks small, internal stuff like DBM etc., as well as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS-SQL, etc.
That way the administrator has the flexibility to work his DNS the way he wants.
Gaming... Laptops?
Houston, we've found the new item for the grand list of Oxymorons.
Your opinion has been duly filed away with the rest of the braying and neighing of barnyard animals.
Hey NanoGator! :) (Mik@LWG here)
Some other geek might disagree, but I'd say that's not going to happen, mainly because the photons aren't going to impact enough air molecules for that to happen. Even if they did, the air is fluid and can expand rapidly, removing most of the mass from the beam's volume.
I'm interested to see what countermeasures are deployed against this? Lead munitions in a volley dropping massive aerosol clouds of some highly refractive liquid, or some such?
Why erect non-human readable signs where they get in the way? What are the benefits of me being able to see this large thing other than to know something is there?
You start with an inherently flawed question. You make a rather silly assumption that such barcodes would be used entirely divorced from traditional 2d media. It makes perfect sense to put a semacode block on a movie poster at the local mall, allowing the distributor to lure the potential audience to a targetted website, and perhaps convincing them to go see the movie. Not a perfect analogy, but I think it will do.
And I know I'll be shouted down for this, but isn't this a much better application for something like RFID? (technical issues, notwithstanding) What's wrong with having this information in the airwaves and some kind of small indicator that a signal is being transmitted?
Why add more RF to an area, when a simple splatter of ink will do just as well?
Sharp SL-5500 Zaurus. Sure, its only a 320x240 screen, but its cheaper than almost every other PDA out there.
I always thought I couldn't stand to read ebooks, and never gave them much thought, until I lost my job and needed another way to feed my book addiction. Surprisingly, I found that reading on my Zaurus was an absolute joy.
I've been reading my way through the Baen Free Library CDs on it. I use Plucker to pluck the frameless version of the books I want to read. Before that I, wrote a perl scrip to rtf2txt it, then split the file on criteria I specified. I read these files on the magnificent OpieReader, which is as full featured as you could possibly want.
I've found that I use three light settings. In the dark, or minimal light, I used the lowest light setting. The Zaurus has a continuous life of about five or six hours this way. In the mornings, in bed, reading my plucked streams before facing the world, I have to crank the light to max. Of course, I'm next to an outlet the entire time there. You'll get about an hour untethered time this way. Finally in pretty much any other lighting condition, I can just turn the light completely off. You'll want to embolden the text if you do this, mind you. You'll be able to read for days on end this way.
One might expect that 320x240 might strain the eyes during long reading, but I have found that it doesn't bother me at all. If its problematic for you, you can always crank the font size up with the touch of a button.
... this software cannot block file sharing.
If I decide to encode a song as a text file containing the bit-string of a song and slap that on a web server, what is this software going to do? Oh, sure, the size of that MP3 just jumped by a factor of sizeof(char), but its out there. Maybe it'll be smar t and read the first X bytes of any file it passes? What if the file is multiple parts? I can serve it on my web server. I can toss it up on NNTP.
In short, the only way this software can stop filesharing is to block the network connection entirely. This is perfectly obvious even to a dimwit like me.
Mmmm. FreeBSD. :)
The nice thing about /usr/ports is that the packages are built from it. That means that even if you DO decide to install a package under FreeBSD, you know that you're getting everything laid out the same way you would if you built it from source. Further, your packages and ports installed applications will play well with each other, unless you go out of your way to break something.
It's only insulting if you choose for it to be.
You ask, "how am I better than every Debian developer combined?" and I say that you've asked the wrong question. The proper question is, "how are any of the Debian developers better than me for knowing my own environment or needs?"
Consider, for a moment, the situation of a Windows administrator: he gets what Microsoft gives him. He has needs (software that does X) but he has to bow to the whims of some anonymous developer somewhere who thinks that he doesn't just need X, but needs a bunch of other functionality, too. Further, the anonymous developer might have different security priorities or prefer the EMACS-style kitchen sink approach to compiling in features.
Contrast this with a Unix administrator. He's got his needs and there's plenty of software out there for him. If he wants to install a package, he's got the option to go with a package maintainer's idea of what he needs, or he's got the option to tailor that package's source to provide EXACTLY what he needs. If he wants, he can aggressively optimize the software--something package maintainer simply cannot do, because he has to supply a broadly useful package.
When asking questions about systems administration, you simply cannot think about silly things like 'insulting' the delicate sensibilities of the people who work on software. You cannot think of whether or not anonymous people who have no stake in the functioning of your network have your needs in mind. You must simply do what is best for your specific systems, which might include using prepackaged binaries or building from source, on a case by case basis.
I wish I had mod points to give you. :D
+1 Flawless Victory! Finish him!
I suppose advocating health care over a fat pipe is a -1 (Troll) on Slashdot.
Looks like the moderator needs to reconsider his priorities too.
Faster internet access and a fatter media [sewage] pipe into the home!
Forget health care, social security, education! All we need is to be able to download pr0n faster and to be able to watch sixteen hundred channels of HOME IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMMING.
Yeah, Mr. Bush. Way to get those priorities straight.
I don't know. I do a lot of modelling in Lightwave. I've got all of my most commonly used commands remapped to use the left side of the keyboard, including shift and control. I don't have to use my right hand on the keyboard for anything except, of all things, the number pad. I'd rather have it on the left side of my keyboard, honestly.
My big complaint about most 3d modelling interfaces is that they're incredibly dumb. I have yet to find one that will let me remap the axes of my mouse (or other controller) arbitrarily. X/Y on the mouse makes sense, but I'd like to be able to hold a key and turn my X/Y (and Z, really, since I have a wheel) into some of the more common transforms. CTRL+mouse would be object movement, or some such. ALT+mouse would be object rotation. CTRL-ALT+mouse would be view panning.
Hell, I'd actually be willing to settle for more 3d apps recognizing my mouse wheel as a Z-axis input.
"Keep in mind that GNU/Linux has mainly been taking market share from commercial unices. This is to be expected, as it has much in common with those and their technical strengths and weaknesses are very similar."
I think you're missing the point. It seems, from where I sit, that a good 50% of the driving force behind Linux innovation is the "Beat Microsoft!" mentality. That is, if you can really call most of what we refer to as 'linux' innovative. Its a lot of stuff copied--and, admittedly, improved upon--from other companies.
Without Microsoft, Linux quite likely would still just be Linus Torvald's pet project, and most of us would have seen his original newsgroup post and thought, "Oh look, another toy Unix..." and gone on with our day on whichever flavor of real Unix we were using.