Kids can be cruel. We had this teacher in 8th grade, a little old lady, short, had white fuzzy hair. Students used to draw pictures of goats and put them on the front of her desk, or make "baaaaaahh" sounds. One time, she was standing over a kid yelling at him about something and he kept twitching every few seconds. After she walked away he commented that her nose hairs were tickling his face. I'm not sure if she caught on to that. She was a nice teacher though.
How exactly is that easier than using Windows Update or allowing Automatic Updates to do it all without any intervention at all?
It certainly is easier to allow Automatic Updates to just run. However, without auto-updates...
1. Log onto Windows as Administrator 2. Open Internet Explorer 3. Browse to windowsupdate.microsoft.com 4. Click 'express' or 'custom' 4a. Before previous step, you may need to click a few buttons to upgrade the Windows Installer 5. If 'express' click 'install' and next a few times. If 'custom' select what you want to install and continue. 6. Reboot when done.
Windows Update is graphical, but not necessarily easier. Also, as other people have pointed out, WU only updates the core OS, IE, and WMP. I can drop to a console, 'emerge --sync && emerge -uD world' and have my entire OS distribution, including all installed packages (in the portage tree), upgraded to the latest stable version. If I want this done automatically, I can set up a cron job. Other distributions have similar tools, but they are also restricted to versions of the OS (e.g., Fedora Core 4).
I certainly do not want to simply meet the cost of living. If that's what I have to do, then that's what I have to do. My point was that it's not a paycut for someone that already lives in a rural area. If it costs me $35,000 a year to live comfortably in my rural home town, then I surely don't need $80,000 a year salary like some people may in the big cities. Since I already live in that rural area, it's not a pay cut for me to, say, take the same position as the person making $80,000 but work for $50,000 instead.
If you look at the other side of the coin, from the perspective of the person who does live in that big city and makes $80,000, if that individual were to move to a rural community where it costs $35,000 a year to live, then taking a paycut to make $50-60k a year might not be so bad.
There are indeed some of us skilled technical people that already live in rural areas of the country and willing to work for less money than those who live in major cities. I don't need $80,000 a year for a programmer position.
I have enough problems trying to keep spyware/adware ads from displaying on my Windows desktop. Now you want the OS itself to support the displaying of ads?! I can see a lot of users not realizing they have spyware then. Oh that ad? it's just Windows advertising.
I've always just typed 'gmail.google.com' (without the quotes) to check my gmail account. That always redirects me to https://mail.google.com/mail/... I noticed though when I enter my user/pass and click 'login' the URL quickly jumps to http:// and then immediately back to https:// and stays there for the rest of the session.
Being the cynic that I am, I tend not to think that Apple had done research proving a fixed menu bar is the best for large displays. Instead, they keep it around because it's a Mac visual trademark that distinguishes them from the competition.
I seem to remember a setting in KDE to enable a "MacOS like menu bar". I can even put one of those in Windows, albeit with third-party software.
That's like asking "why can't I go out and buy a (ONE) video game and have it work flawlessly on PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, Nintendo Revolution, Sega Dreamcast, and Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)?"
Perhaps, for one, because Windows, OSX, Solaris, Linux.... have different kernels, and therefore different APIs. Even if the APIs were written the same, the kernels themselves are not the same. If they were the same, they would just all be one single operating system.
What's so difficult to write "yum install application_name"?
Well of course, that's easy enough for anyone to do. You want firefox? "yum install firefox". However, each distro works differently, which some might see as a problem (I really don't because you're not running Linux, you're running Red Hat or Gentoo or Mandrake or Slackware... Linux is just the kernel). So do you run "yum install firefox", "urpmi firefox", "apt-get install firefox", or "emerge firefox"?
It can be a problem for new users though. I've seen a lot of users come into different forums asking essentially "I want to try linux. What's a good distro for a newbie?" Maybe that confusion would go away some if people would stop referring to all the distros as "linux" and refer to them by their name. True, they're all compatible with each other, but I'm sure the different unix's are somewhat compatible too (solaris, true64, etc.)
Well if your IT department doesn't want it used, they could always block port 5190 at the firewall. Alternatively, let users use GAIM or Trillian to avoid issues with the actual AIM software.
I'd really like a low cost virtualization option so that I could run Linux without rebooting.
I've actually been using VMware for that. I realize VMware workstation isn't free, but VMware just recently released VMware Player for free. I have a dual-boot XP/Gentoo system at home. I created a virtual machine under VMware workstation 5 that I use to access my Gentoo system under VMware, even though Gentoo itself is installed _outside_ VMware. So I can either boot into XP, boot into Gentoo, or boot into XP and run the same Gentoo install under VMware. Since VMware player is free, if you can get a virtual machine created, you should be able to use it under the Player to access your Linux system without rebooting. It works great for me, but that's under VMware Workstation, not the player.
If corporate policy won't let you install Linux, why would it let you install Linux under a virtual machine? In the end, you're still running a Linux system on the corporate network. This system may have it's own IP address or be NAT'd behind your host OS, but it's still there.
As far as VMware performance, I haven't run into much problem running it on my system. I'm running an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 512 megs RAM. This system is dual-boot with XP Pro and Gentoo Linux. I have VMware installed in XP and use it to host Windows 2000 Server (for evaluation and testing) and also have VMware set up to boot my Gentoo system directly from my hard drive partitions (XP and Gentoo on same drive). My system does slow down a bit if I have more than 1 OS running under VMware, but for general use with a single guest OS, it's not bad. For example, I've booted my Gentoo system under VMware to upgrade the world files and with all the compiling, I was still able to use XP (the host OS without much of a problem). However, YMMV.
I agree. I think the whole point of copyright law is to prevent other people from copying your work _and_ claiming it as their own. If you write a novel and I copy a few chapters, you lose nothing. If however, I put those chapters into my own novel and make money off of it, I'm making money off of your work. Wasn't that the original intent of copyright law? To prevent people from taking credit for someone else's work?
Agreed! The only thing you need IE for anymore is to download OS updates through Windows Update, and maybe a few websites that rely so heavily on ActiveX. Microsoft should have a separate tool for OS updates. Since when is a web browser supposed to be used as an OS patcher? Linux has emerge, apt-get, urpmi, yum, and others. I have yet to use Firefox or Konqueror to update my non-windows OS. Microsoft shouldn't need IE to do that. Just have a Windows Update applet that specifically visits windowsupdate, fetches the updates, and installs them.
What I'd like to see, someday, is a way to completely remove IE from the system. (like that will ever happen!) If I don't want to use it, it shouldn't be there. I know you can use the "set program access and defaults" or "add/remove windows components" to "remove" IE, but it seems to only remove the icons for it. There's nothing stopping a user from going to My Computer and browsing to a website from there.
6. Ban the teaching of religion on any and all school grounds. AND ENFORCE IT!!! Religion has it's place in society, but not in schools!
Yes, because more ignorance of the beliefs of others is what we really need. I would prefer to have at least the top 3-5 religions in the area and the top 3-5 religions in the world taught by actual practitioners of the religion whenever possible. Suppressing religious expression without good reason is never justified, and in the US at least it is actually unconstitutional.
I completely agree. I never understood why people say school is no place for religion. Religion is a huge part of millions of people's lives. Having classes in various religions would help show students just how different people are around the world. Classes don't have to be run in a way that would teach them "you must believe this" but instead "this is what many believe." It would enable students to better understand people from different religions and cultures, allowing them to more easily interact with people out in the "real world." I always thought that's what school was (at least partly) all about. We want to prepare these students for life, give them street smarts, not just book smarts.
This new version went from 1.0.6 to 1.0.7. Usually if the minor version number increases (.6 to.7) it is because of minor bug/security fixes. Major changes to the application would warrent a change in the first (or maybe second) part of the version number.
Most of the distros I've installed have you create a normal user account during installation. Now, if a user installs Linux, and knows he created an account, he is likely to use that account. Then, through normal use, if he tries to run something that needs root privileges, he is either denied, or prompted for the root password (depending on the distro setup).
Installing an app as root has nothing to do with running it as root. Apps usually get installed as root, but most users will not run said app as root. So, the app only has the rights/permissions of the user _running_ the app. This at least provides protection against screwing up your entire system from a malicious program.
Slashdot Mirror
Kids can be cruel. We had this teacher in 8th grade, a little old lady, short, had white fuzzy hair. Students used to draw pictures of goats and put them on the front of her desk, or make "baaaaaahh" sounds. One time, she was standing over a kid yelling at him about something and he kept twitching every few seconds. After she walked away he commented that her nose hairs were tickling his face. I'm not sure if she caught on to that. She was a nice teacher though.
Lloyd: Hey, wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?
Lloyd: aaiaiaiaghghhhghghiaaahhhiiiiiaghghghghg!!!!!
It certainly is easier to allow Automatic Updates to just run. However, without auto-updates...
1. Log onto Windows as Administrator
2. Open Internet Explorer
3. Browse to windowsupdate.microsoft.com
4. Click 'express' or 'custom'
4a. Before previous step, you may need to click a few buttons to upgrade the Windows Installer
5. If 'express' click 'install' and next a few times. If 'custom' select what you want to install and continue.
6. Reboot when done.
Windows Update is graphical, but not necessarily easier. Also, as other people have pointed out, WU only updates the core OS, IE, and WMP. I can drop to a console, 'emerge --sync && emerge -uD world' and have my entire OS distribution, including all installed packages (in the portage tree), upgraded to the latest stable version. If I want this done automatically, I can set up a cron job. Other distributions have similar tools, but they are also restricted to versions of the OS (e.g., Fedora Core 4).
I certainly do not want to simply meet the cost of living. If that's what I have to do, then that's what I have to do. My point was that it's not a paycut for someone that already lives in a rural area. If it costs me $35,000 a year to live comfortably in my rural home town, then I surely don't need $80,000 a year salary like some people may in the big cities. Since I already live in that rural area, it's not a pay cut for me to, say, take the same position as the person making $80,000 but work for $50,000 instead.
If you look at the other side of the coin, from the perspective of the person who does live in that big city and makes $80,000, if that individual were to move to a rural community where it costs $35,000 a year to live, then taking a paycut to make $50-60k a year might not be so bad.
There are indeed some of us skilled technical people that already live in rural areas of the country and willing to work for less money than those who live in major cities. I don't need $80,000 a year for a programmer position.
Well, there IS an IT Security company in Fairmont, WV that specializes in steganography...
I have enough problems trying to keep spyware/adware ads from displaying on my Windows desktop. Now you want the OS itself to support the displaying of ads?! I can see a lot of users not realizing they have spyware then. Oh that ad? it's just Windows advertising.
I've always just typed 'gmail.google.com' (without the quotes) to check my gmail account. That always redirects me to https://mail.google.com/mail/... I noticed though when I enter my user/pass and click 'login' the URL quickly jumps to http:// and then immediately back to https:// and stays there for the rest of the session.
if(Cleavage.Checked() == true)
{
Breasts.Count = 2;
}
else
{
Breasts.Count = 0;
}
Well it's been a long day. Besides, you forgot the and tags :-P
That's like asking "why can't I go out and buy a (ONE) video game and have it work flawlessly on PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, Nintendo Revolution, Sega Dreamcast, and Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)?"
Perhaps, for one, because Windows, OSX, Solaris, Linux.... have different kernels, and therefore different APIs. Even if the APIs were written the same, the kernels themselves are not the same. If they were the same, they would just all be one single operating system.
Well if your IT department doesn't want it used, they could always block port 5190 at the firewall. Alternatively, let users use GAIM or Trillian to avoid issues with the actual AIM software.
If corporate policy won't let you install Linux, why would it let you install Linux under a virtual machine? In the end, you're still running a Linux system on the corporate network. This system may have it's own IP address or be NAT'd behind your host OS, but it's still there.
As far as VMware performance, I haven't run into much problem running it on my system. I'm running an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 512 megs RAM. This system is dual-boot with XP Pro and Gentoo Linux. I have VMware installed in XP and use it to host Windows 2000 Server (for evaluation and testing) and also have VMware set up to boot my Gentoo system directly from my hard drive partitions (XP and Gentoo on same drive). My system does slow down a bit if I have more than 1 OS running under VMware, but for general use with a single guest OS, it's not bad. For example, I've booted my Gentoo system under VMware to upgrade the world files and with all the compiling, I was still able to use XP (the host OS without much of a problem). However, YMMV.
Just my $0.02
I agree. I think the whole point of copyright law is to prevent other people from copying your work _and_ claiming it as their own. If you write a novel and I copy a few chapters, you lose nothing. If however, I put those chapters into my own novel and make money off of it, I'm making money off of your work. Wasn't that the original intent of copyright law? To prevent people from taking credit for someone else's work?
Agreed! The only thing you need IE for anymore is to download OS updates through Windows Update, and maybe a few websites that rely so heavily on ActiveX. Microsoft should have a separate tool for OS updates. Since when is a web browser supposed to be used as an OS patcher? Linux has emerge, apt-get, urpmi, yum, and others. I have yet to use Firefox or Konqueror to update my non-windows OS. Microsoft shouldn't need IE to do that. Just have a Windows Update applet that specifically visits windowsupdate, fetches the updates, and installs them.
What I'd like to see, someday, is a way to completely remove IE from the system. (like that will ever happen!) If I don't want to use it, it shouldn't be there. I know you can use the "set program access and defaults" or "add/remove windows components" to "remove" IE, but it seems to only remove the icons for it. There's nothing stopping a user from going to My Computer and browsing to a website from there.
Take a look at Google Moon and zoom in all the way. I TOLD YOU the moon is made of cheese!
Sweet! Make friends with enough stable owners and you can have your Camry running on 500+ horses! Might make some sports car owners jealous.
This new version went from 1.0.6 to 1.0.7. Usually if the minor version number increases (.6 to .7) it is because of minor bug/security fixes. Major changes to the application would warrent a change in the first (or maybe second) part of the version number.
Most of the distros I've installed have you create a normal user account during installation. Now, if a user installs Linux, and knows he created an account, he is likely to use that account. Then, through normal use, if he tries to run something that needs root privileges, he is either denied, or prompted for the root password (depending on the distro setup).
Installing an app as root has nothing to do with running it as root. Apps usually get installed as root, but most users will not run said app as root. So, the app only has the rights/permissions of the user _running_ the app. This at least provides protection against screwing up your entire system from a malicious program.