It is truly amazing to me how many people equate the PC with Microsoft. People, come on! Using a PC does *not* mean you have to use Microsoft products. You do not need a Mac to escape Microsoft. All you need is broadband, Or, if you go with Ubuntu Linux (my prefered choice) all you need is a mailing address. They will ship you a quantity of installation and liveCDs at no charge, they even pay the shipping. I'd like to see apple try to beat the price on that!
We just switched over from php4 to php5. The result was that a few things broke, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be corrected.
The major odvantages of PHP5 lay in it's new bundled features such as the improved object model, integrated simplexml (anyone who has had to deal with the other XML parsers will really appreciate this!), and sqlite. There is of course more, but I'll leave that for you to discover;)
Unfortunatly, it's not as easy for the newbies to install. Particularly where mysql is concerned because of the issues surrounding (the lack of) bundled client libraries for mysql. This has made it a little frustrating for us at #php/freenode, since we have to walk a lot of the new people through it.
On a down-note, I sort of wish they had taken the plunge and broken backwards compatibility to fix some of the more perennial issues with php, like it's lack of consistant naming conventions, and lack of key OOP functionality. We still don't have proper namespacing, or argument overloading, or multiple inheritance.
This book is probably a great idea for experienced programmers thinking of making the switch. Other good reading material: PHP5 OOP and Migrating from PHP4 to PHP5
If someone told you that you wern't allowed to say 'foo' (and there was no viable reason, other than retaining more than his/her fair share of power) would it matter at all if it wasn't enforced/used? Wouldn't it make you mad that someone had the right to violate your free speech at all?
This is about the principle of the law. It allows governments, at will, to violate your rights. While it may not be immediatly proveable that they are abusing it, the *very fact* that it's there is a threat to americans.
I have a customer that got a Dell with a 90 warranty...Ouch!
sounds like a "buyer beware" issue
I have another that has a four year parts warranty...not bad.
Most companies will sell you extended warranties. What's your point?
How about the Dell Laptops that are shipping with touchpads that conflict with the USB2 ports...HMMM
Who said you should buy a Dell? If I remember what I posted correctly, I was discouraging people from buying Dells.
What kind of health care does Dell supply their employees?
What does this have to do with anything?
I am glad that people are buying Dells. I make a lot money fixing them.
So?
My "nuclear" family has 1 toshiba laptop(winXP), 3 Homebrew wintels, 1 powerbook, 1 Mac-mini, and 1 averatec laptop(winxp/suse). I don't think I will buy anymore macs after linux improves.
"Nuclear family"? Do they glow in the dark? Incidently, linux is usable right now. No need to buy another mac at all.
The guy did a nice job modding his Volkswagon, a lot better than complaining about Apple on slahdot.
What kind of job he did was never in debate. At least, not by me.
Which is why you don't buy Dell, which is another overpriced label. Something does smell bad in your story though, your Dell fried out, and it had no warranty? After only one year? Most places I've dealt with give you at least 2 years parts and labour. I might have to call bullshit there.
Anyhow, back to the point. You build your own box, out of superior parts that *you* pick out. I see building a PC as a lot like OSS - you can pick and choose what you want in your setup. You're not limited to what Apple wants to sell you. Hardware lock-in isn't my cup of tea.
It's called math! It's been opensource for years now, and is 100% free. Granted it's not as user friendly as the alternatives, but we should be used to this kind of kludgy interface by now.
I'm hoping they fix the obvious usability issues in the next version.
This just in! Torvalds switches toilet paper brands from a bulk no-name to purex. Slashdot users awed! - Why does it matter at all what he runs? This isn't even news worthy.
All this time trying to get the wifi (nifi?) to talk to a standard 802.11b AP still hasn't produced anything useful for the end user.
I don't know about the rest of you, but that's really what I want. Not a passthrough. It would probably make uploading software to the DS a whole lot easier too, considering you could use an existing interface instead of hacking a new one together.
Well, lets see. Black and White comes to mind as an innovative and creative style of play. There is always the Sims, which introduces some interesting gaming dynamics, albiet living a life when you already have one doesn't appeal to some. I particularly liked sacrifice by shiney, which tried to combine elements of a shooter with those of a RTS style game. Not to mention, Homeworld, which was a really polished completely 3d space RTS which was entertaining for weeks instead of an afternoon.
Not all of these concepts are original, but the execution and quality brought forth in each is lightyears better than anything the opensource community has ever produced. With the possible exception of Nethack, which is so complex and addictive that it remains one of my favorites.
Nethack, hoever, is the exception. Not the rule. Further, as a person who grew up on infocom adventures, I don't appreciate being called a kid. I played all the classics. And guess what? The best ones then were commercial too! I mean, Elite! Pirates gold! Sundog! Ooo! and who could forget Dungeons of Daggorath on the old trash-80? Not to mention the entire Sierra adventure set when it was still owned by Ken and Roberta Williams. In fact, I'd be willing to bet my computer gaming experience goes back farther than yours. I even owned an original pong tabletop arcade machine (that took quarters) - you don't get much more retro than that.
In closing - most opensource games DO suck. They're mostly clones of the same boring time-wasters lots of us are sick of. How many times can you play tetris, breakout, solitare and worthless little puzzle games before you want a new experience? So what if some of us crave some icing? Good graphics and sound add to the experience. It's not our fault you're stuck in 1981.
Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour Battlefield: Vietnam Battlefield: 1942 Need for Speed: Underground 1/2 Star Wars: Republic Commando Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Sacrifice
While I understand these are not all shooters, this is a random cross-section of games that I play when the mood strikes me. The only option is transgaming, which *might* work and costs money. Frankly, I'm not paying more money to play games I paid money for on the idea that it "might" work. I've found their compatibility list less than accurate.
I remember trying to run Black and White on transgaming. They said "works with some minor issues". That translated in to: "Works, but you have to sit through the long intro video, which you can't skip, and is going to play at 2fps". I also remember trying vice city. Transgaming didn't even have a working mechanism to put disk 2 in. You had to image the second disk to the drive to make it work. What a joke. Gaming on linux, easy? I think not.
Either Linux needs better emulation for windows software, or software manufacturers need to start developing a larger selection of games to be cross-platform.
I feel compelled to agree with the parent's colourful analysis. While I'm sure there are a few gems in there, opensource games are largely unrefined. They simply can't stack up to the quality of commercial games.
[..]an embarrassing slip-up for a space agency that once lost a Mars spacecraft because engineers mixed up metric and imperial units.
Which wouldn't be a problem if the US would get with the program and switch to metric. Most of the rest (if not all of the rest) of the world has already done it. I don't know how scientists and engineers there can stand having to deal with that outmoded, ridiculous imperial system.
I'd say the article as it is written on the front page is entirely FUD. They're making it look like intel blatantly ripped apple off. I'll have to remember not to store my things in the same size cardboard box you do, I sure wouldn't want to be accused of ripping off your storage idea.
Not at all - if you want to use a Mac, that's fine by me. But please, quit trying to make it look like apple is the only company that does anything right. While you're at it, quit trying to make it look like they're the only company who invents anything. Apple has "borrowed" it's fair share of ideas. A smaller box isn't exactly a new concept. Drinking your own cup of STFU might be in order.
Come on, this is so much FUD it's amazing. I mean, just because apple comes out with a small footprint box, that means that nobody else is allowed to do it?
There have been *many* small footprint PCs in the past, including the mini-itx boards, and the nano-itx boards at costs acceptable to those on shoestring a budget. They've been around a lot longer than the mac mini too. Perhaps we should be looking at who apple took the idea from instead of immediatly jumping on others because they released one around the same time apple did.
Forgive me for saying so, but it all screams of the standard apple zealotry I've come to expect.
Slashdot Mirror
If they throw in the dog bark translator I'll buy two! No, make that three!
When is the useless feature creep in cell phones going to stop, and the research on actually making the batteries last longer going to start?
It is truly amazing to me how many people equate the PC with Microsoft. People, come on! Using a PC does *not* mean you have to use Microsoft products. You do not need a Mac to escape Microsoft. All you need is broadband, Or, if you go with Ubuntu Linux (my prefered choice) all you need is a mailing address. They will ship you a quantity of installation and liveCDs at no charge, they even pay the shipping. I'd like to see apple try to beat the price on that!
Using a PC doesn't mean using Microsoft software. This post is made from a machine running ubuntu and 0% Microsoft software.
This suggests to me that your reasoning is flawed.
We just switched over from php4 to php5. The result was that a few things broke, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be corrected.
The major odvantages of PHP5 lay in it's new bundled features such as the improved object model, integrated simplexml (anyone who has had to deal with the other XML parsers will really appreciate this!), and sqlite. There is of course more, but I'll leave that for you to discover ;)
Unfortunatly, it's not as easy for the newbies to install. Particularly where mysql is concerned because of the issues surrounding (the lack of) bundled client libraries for mysql. This has made it a little frustrating for us at #php/freenode, since we have to walk a lot of the new people through it.
On a down-note, I sort of wish they had taken the plunge and broken backwards compatibility to fix some of the more perennial issues with php, like it's lack of consistant naming conventions, and lack of key OOP functionality. We still don't have proper namespacing, or argument overloading, or multiple inheritance.
This book is probably a great idea for experienced programmers thinking of making the switch. Other good reading material: PHP5 OOP and Migrating from PHP4 to PHP5
So .. let me get this right. I'm supposed to pay you for the chance to do YOUR job FOR you?
;)
Am I the only one who finds this ironic?
If someone told you that you wern't allowed to say 'foo' (and there was no viable reason, other than retaining more than his/her fair share of power) would it matter at all if it wasn't enforced/used? Wouldn't it make you mad that someone had the right to violate your free speech at all?
This is about the principle of the law. It allows governments, at will, to violate your rights. While it may not be immediatly proveable that they are abusing it, the *very fact* that it's there is a threat to americans.
I have a customer that got a Dell with a 90 warranty...Ouch!
..not bad.
sounds like a "buyer beware" issue
I have another that has a four year parts warranty.
Most companies will sell you extended warranties. What's your point?
How about the Dell Laptops that are shipping with touchpads that conflict with the USB2 ports...HMMM
Who said you should buy a Dell? If I remember what I posted correctly, I was discouraging people from buying Dells.
What kind of health care does Dell supply their employees?
What does this have to do with anything?
I am glad that people are buying Dells. I make a lot money fixing them.
So?
My "nuclear" family has 1 toshiba laptop(winXP), 3 Homebrew wintels, 1 powerbook, 1 Mac-mini, and 1 averatec laptop(winxp/suse). I don't think I will buy anymore macs after linux improves.
"Nuclear family"? Do they glow in the dark? Incidently, linux is usable right now. No need to buy another mac at all.
The guy did a nice job modding his Volkswagon, a lot better than complaining about Apple on slahdot.
What kind of job he did was never in debate. At least, not by me.
Which is why you don't buy Dell, which is another overpriced label. Something does smell bad in your story though, your Dell fried out, and it had no warranty? After only one year? Most places I've dealt with give you at least 2 years parts and labour. I might have to call bullshit there.
Anyhow, back to the point. You build your own box, out of superior parts that *you* pick out. I see building a PC as a lot like OSS - you can pick and choose what you want in your setup. You're not limited to what Apple wants to sell you. Hardware lock-in isn't my cup of tea.
I wonder how he intends to enforce such a tax, considering any time your computer recieves data, it could be considered a 'download'.
It's called math! It's been opensource for years now, and is 100% free. Granted it's not as user friendly as the alternatives, but we should be used to this kind of kludgy interface by now.
I'm hoping they fix the obvious usability issues in the next version.
... What are you smoking?
This just in! Torvalds switches toilet paper brands from a bulk no-name to purex. Slashdot users awed!
-
Why does it matter at all what he runs? This isn't even news worthy.
All this time trying to get the wifi (nifi?) to talk to a standard 802.11b AP still hasn't produced anything useful for the end user.
I don't know about the rest of you, but that's really what I want. Not a passthrough. It would probably make uploading software to the DS a whole lot easier too, considering you could use an existing interface instead of hacking a new one together.
Well, lets see. Black and White comes to mind as an innovative and creative style of play. There is always the Sims, which introduces some interesting gaming dynamics, albiet living a life when you already have one doesn't appeal to some. I particularly liked sacrifice by shiney, which tried to combine elements of a shooter with those of a RTS style game. Not to mention, Homeworld, which was a really polished completely 3d space RTS which was entertaining for weeks instead of an afternoon.
Not all of these concepts are original, but the execution and quality brought forth in each is lightyears better than anything the opensource community has ever produced. With the possible exception of Nethack, which is so complex and addictive that it remains one of my favorites.
Nethack, hoever, is the exception. Not the rule. Further, as a person who grew up on infocom adventures, I don't appreciate being called a kid. I played all the classics. And guess what? The best ones then were commercial too! I mean, Elite! Pirates gold! Sundog! Ooo! and who could forget Dungeons of Daggorath on the old trash-80? Not to mention the entire Sierra adventure set when it was still owned by Ken and Roberta Williams. In fact, I'd be willing to bet my computer gaming experience goes back farther than yours. I even owned an original pong tabletop arcade machine (that took quarters) - you don't get much more retro than that.
In closing - most opensource games DO suck. They're mostly clones of the same boring time-wasters lots of us are sick of. How many times can you play tetris, breakout, solitare and worthless little puzzle games before you want a new experience? So what if some of us crave some icing? Good graphics and sound add to the experience. It's not our fault you're stuck in 1981.
How about:
Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour
Battlefield: Vietnam
Battlefield: 1942
Need for Speed: Underground 1/2
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Sacrifice
While I understand these are not all shooters, this is a random cross-section of games that I play when the mood strikes me. The only option is transgaming, which *might* work and costs money. Frankly, I'm not paying more money to play games I paid money for on the idea that it "might" work. I've found their compatibility list less than accurate.
I remember trying to run Black and White on transgaming. They said "works with some minor issues". That translated in to: "Works, but you have to sit through the long intro video, which you can't skip, and is going to play at 2fps". I also remember trying vice city. Transgaming didn't even have a working mechanism to put disk 2 in. You had to image the second disk to the drive to make it work. What a joke. Gaming on linux, easy? I think not.
Either Linux needs better emulation for windows software, or software manufacturers need to start developing a larger selection of games to be cross-platform.
I feel compelled to agree with the parent's colourful analysis. While I'm sure there are a few gems in there, opensource games are largely unrefined. They simply can't stack up to the quality of commercial games.
[..]an embarrassing slip-up for a space agency that once lost a Mars spacecraft because engineers mixed up metric and imperial units.
Which wouldn't be a problem if the US would get with the program and switch to metric. Most of the rest (if not all of the rest) of the world has already done it. I don't know how scientists and engineers there can stand having to deal with that outmoded, ridiculous imperial system.
I'd say the article as it is written on the front page is entirely FUD. They're making it look like intel blatantly ripped apple off. I'll have to remember not to store my things in the same size cardboard box you do, I sure wouldn't want to be accused of ripping off your storage idea.
And you're an anti-Apple zealot. Whoop de do.
Not at all - if you want to use a Mac, that's fine by me. But please, quit trying to make it look like apple is the only company that does anything right. While you're at it, quit trying to make it look like they're the only company who invents anything. Apple has "borrowed" it's fair share of ideas. A smaller box isn't exactly a new concept. Drinking your own cup of STFU might be in order.
"Intel Flaunts Mac mini Knock-off"
Come on, this is so much FUD it's amazing. I mean, just because apple comes out with a small footprint box, that means that nobody else is allowed to do it?
There have been *many* small footprint PCs in the past, including the mini-itx boards, and the nano-itx boards at costs acceptable to those on shoestring a budget. They've been around a lot longer than the mac mini too. Perhaps we should be looking at who apple took the idea from instead of immediatly jumping on others because they released one around the same time apple did.
Forgive me for saying so, but it all screams of the standard apple zealotry I've come to expect.
*pulls out Services for Unix*
Right-o. So, a cheese sandwich with no cheese is still a cheese sandwich.
Gotcha.
...that it's a very, very, very slow news day?
Or, they could give the money to an improvished school so that they could enough money for a desent computer lab.
Or, they could have given the money to an impoverished school so that they could have enough money for a decent spelling and grammar class.
Is this mentioned anywhere else? Color me skeptical, but that's a very pro-mac site. Any place a little more unbiased maybe?