I 'upgraded' from a P3-1 ghz to a P4-2.26 ghz and noticed hardly any difference. I upgraded from my P4 to an Athlon64 3400+ and it not only smokes it, it also has a variable clock speed which only ramps up when needed.
I've been a loyal intel user since the Pentium 90 came out, but after building several cheap and stable AMD systems for friends and family I took the plunge myself, and I'm more than happy.
Andromeda Spaceways uses IRC
on
Is IRC All Bad?
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· Score: 1
I'm involved in the running of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, an Australian science fiction and fantasy mag. There are 21 members of the editorial team spread across every part of Australia, we print an issue of the mag every 2 months and we only meet on IRC. Sure, we have a mailing list for general stuff, but IRC is vital to us because it's cross-platform and easy to use via java clients or Mozilla.
Occasionally some of us meet up at a convention, but the only time the entire team has been in one place at the same time was June 2001, for the launch of Issue #1.
Incidentally, (plug plug) ASIM is an SF fiction magazine but we've also interviewed some interesting people - Neal Stephenson, Miranda Otto, Cecilia Dart-Thornton might be familiar to US/.ers - and we also print science articles and book reviews.
Re:Not hard to figure out why LoTR is #1.
on
Top 50 DVDs
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· Score: 1
It's funny, I bought the EE version of Return of the King before Christmas and watched the documentaries in one sitting. Sad to say, I haven't watched the actual film yet;-)
I used to send out chm files with all my programs, then I discovered they were useless under Wine. (The apps were fine, but users couldn't view help because it uses the IE engine.)
So, all my help files are now html files in the HELP folder, with images in a subfolder. From within the program, they open in your default browser but you can also open them manually in any browser. While indexing isn't possible you can still use Ctrl-F to search. (When the help file resides on the local computer, there's no problem sticking it all in one big file with a TOC and lots and lots of 'return to table of contents' links.)
I know the spacebar autocomplete is a weak example. More important to me was the lack of treeview and listview (I think those were the missing controls?) I'm sure there are alternatives, but the brief time I had available to look it over showed up too many incompatibilities or missing essential pieces for my own use. Others will have their own requirements, and I'm sure it's a fine solution for many projects.
Ok, I've written several online shops & ordering systems in PHP - I have no problem with this language, it's great. It's my first choice for anything to do with the web, but I can't write an ebook reader in it. (My yBook program has just been named one of the Windows apps of the year in a UK computer mag - they just asked me whether they could include the software on their cover CD.)
Programming software I've developed in since 1983? ZX81 basic, Sinclair Basic, ST basic, GFA Basic, Quickbasic 4.5 (I wrote a multiuser accounts and manufacturing control system in this), Powerbasic, Visual Basic 1.0 for Dos (converted the accounts to this), Visual Basic 3.0 for Windows, VB 4.0 for Windows (Another accounts prog), VB 5.0 for Windows (yet another accounts prog), VC++ 5.0, Java (A couple of small projects with no GUI), Visual Basic 6.0 (A multiuser accounts prog which we're still using at work), VC++ 6.0 (I use this for DLLs with my VB apps when extra speed is required - e.g. calculating stock market indicators in my charting app.)
Others I have tried & discarded: Realbasic, Borland Kylix, Kdevelop with QT, Anjuta IDE, Mono with Monodevelop, Gambas, Glade(?), writing complete apps in Visual C++, and a few others I can't remember.
One of the biggest problems is the big library of routines and dlls I've built up which I can include individually in any VB project. They represent a lot of work, they're debugged to the nth degree and I know they work. I have frameworks for loading and saving program settings, connecting to the web to check for updated versions, html conversion, etc etc. (Over 100 source files, many many routines.)
Using that framework I can write a new program pretty quickly (e.g. roughly 1/2 a day for a web site building program which generates all the pages from template & include files.) That's one of the things I meant when I said I can work efficiently. I realise there are frameworks included with other programs to do many/most of these things, but there are always other issues like Windows-only, Linux-only, expensive licenses (QT Windows), etc, etc.
Back on topic - I've just tried Gambas and it's really good. It seems to be an abstract layer on top of QT, which will suit me fine - when Linux has about 97% of the desktop market;-)
The reliability of apps written in VB has nothing to do with the language, and everything to do with the programmer. If you slap some code together, run it to make sure there are no syntax errors and then release it as version 1.0 how is that a fault with Visual Basic?
Without wanting to blow my own trumpet, I get many emails thanking me for my useful, stable programs, every one of which is written in VB. They're not simple apps, either - my major project is over 6 megs of source code.
VB allows me to code efficiently, quickly and with a minimum of errors, and until I come across something which allows me to code even quicker, even more efficiently and with even less errors I'm sticking with it.
I'm not claiming to be some guru level programmer, I'm just pointing out that it's a bit hard blaming VB for bad software just because beginners can dash in and code the World's Best Program in their lunch break.
Anyway, look on the positive side: If all those beginners started out with C# you'd have thousands of crappy, bug-ridden programs written in that language, and the 'VB generates crap' argument would go up in smoke.
I've evaluated it twice, and it's not close enough to VB for me to use. Just stupid things like having to press TAB to autocomplete instead of space (which is right under your thumb)
I took a real good look at it, I love the idea of cross-compiling but the environment is too alien. (I write and release most of my apps freeware: www.spacejock.com so I'm not going to spend big bucks on an IDE I won't use.)
Anyway, Gambas is no use to me unless it will either:
A) run natively on Windows too or
B) compile VB6 projects unedited on Linux.
I'll add a vote: I read and enjoyed the list too. I can see why many of the changes had to be made, I wasn't fussed about changes to Faramir (I can't remember him much from the books, probably because he's one character in a cast of thousands) and I thought David Wenham was great in the part. (Actually, the cast were terrific right across the board. If you don't think so, just start a thread listing the actors you'd LEAST like to see in a particular role. E.g. Tom Hanks as Aragorn.)
I didn't miss the Taming of the Shire - I can read the books for that. What the films have done is to put the scenery and characters firmly in my mind, so that when I do read the books again I'm expecting to enjoy them even more.
I run Gentoo as well, but I still use XP for gaming. Reason being, I have a fileserver with Virtual CDs of all my games disks, in Windows I can mount them and run them (no patching or NOCD etc), whereas in Linux I need the physical disk.
In an ideal world, there would be a linux (or PointToPlay) client for virtual CD, which would allow me to mount those copy-protected disks and install/use the games. Probably still need No-cd, but at least there wouldn't be any messing with physical media. If Cedega had that I'd resubscribe right away.
And can you imagine flying long-haul, Aus to UK, with a mindless ringtone erupting every five bloody minutes? 19 hours stuck in a cabin with that? I would go stark raving psycho, and I'm a mild-mannered guy. (When you're 6'4" and 15 stone you can afford to be laid back. I reckon anger pulses take longer to reach the extremities.)
I know I would either
A) quit flying or
B) buy tickets on Non-smoking, No-cellphone flights or
C) go on a smash-the-cellphone rampage along the aircraft.
But aren't you missing the point? Some guys like Windows. They like its interface. But like RMS, they demand freedom.
Another reason I would look at Reactos: Legacy apps. We're running an inhouse accounting program which works fine on Win98 workstations, we have zero need for Win2K or XP or Longhorn or any other tarted-up consumer OS.
If Reactos gets to the stage where it can run legacy apps reliably on new hardware, then it would be worth a look. Win98 has issues with machines over 2ghz when they have a NIC (I think it's 2ghz), MS has a patch but it seems you have to phone them for it. I'd be just as happy with a locked-down minimal install of Reactos as Linux in a business environment.
It's been about three years since I've seen anybody take notes on a palmtop in a meeting, and if somebody did they would probably be laughed at.
Three years ago, I was using pen and paper and laughing at people struggling to write on a tiny screen with a plastic toothpick.
Electronic note-taking is the pits - it's much easier to rip a sheet from a pad and clip it to the relevant report than it is to scroll through hundreds of files called 'minutes of meeting x', opening each one up to see what Bob thought about trading in the old copier.
Then again, my laptop is a P200MMX and my mobile phone is a Nokia 5110 with a dodgy screen. What would I know about portable technology?
Specifically, this product is forked from the source code for Red Hat's _Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3_ product under the terms and conditions of it's EULA."
Might want to correct the "it's", it'll look better to any apostrophe pedants browsing your web site.
What I'm worried about is that someone whose kids are benefiting from computer use will read this study and take away the PCs to make their kids 'smarter'. It's the sort of thing my parents might have done (They're still convinced computers are bad, it could be a generational thing, but I had to save for my first $100 PC and then fight to actually be allowed to buy it. That was 22 years ago now, and it still lurks at the back of my mind when I upgrade my kids' PCs to Pentium III 1ghz with Geforce video cards, 15" LCD monitors and 80gb hard drives.)
Some things are beyond doubt. Smoking and too much sun are bad for you, for example. But the brain is a bloody complicated device, and when the experts start telling us what helps and hinders learning based on studying samples of the population, they're shooting in the dark IMO. There's no place in their methodology for self-motivation, for motivated (or de-motivated) parents, for TV and DVD watching, type of computer use, etc etc. I agree that changing over all Maths or English classes to a two-hour session on Google would be dumb, but I also believe that a few weeks on Morrowind would help any kid with their spelling and reading ability. (There's no speech, you have to read everything to work out what's going on.) There's enough action to keep the arcade generation happy, and enough quests and side plots to engage the brain.
Obviously, my analysis is based on a sample of 2 children and is therefore statistically worthless. I think generalising that computers=dumber kids is also pretty lame.
Saying this, I remember when the first affordable home computers became available in the UK - the $100 ZX81 I mentioned above (and later, the ZX Spectrum). Kids told their parents they would 'help with homework', and the same excuse has been used ever since;-)
We have a network in the house, my daughters (7 and 9) each have their own Windows PC with a bunch of stuff. Favourites include Black & White, Morrowind and Age of Empires - role playing, strategy type games. They don't play arcade style games for more than 5 minutes at a time. We have a playstation and a bunch of games, and that setup has an inch of dust on top.
They also have OpenOffice and the Gimp, plus Firefox for the web. (I use Squidguard on a Linux firewall to only allow them a whitelist of sites & urls to visit. E.g. my eldest will be changing to senior school within 2 years, so I've put up the web pages for all the local secondary schools for her to browse at her leisure)
Both kids are years ahead of their age level in reading, math and spelling, and while I'm not saying that's related to their computer use, it certainly hasn't held them back. I have 2 degrees, my wife has a degree, and we have a house positively stuffed with books so we both appreciate the importance of learning and education.
The PC doesn't dominate their free time, either. They spend more time playing in the back garden, or drawing, or doing craft, or writing stories than sitting at their computers. Sure, they might get hooked on Morrowind for a day or two, but then they'll avoid the computer for a week and do something else. One thing they never do is watch TV.
They're both bright, creative kids, and I'm more than happy to feed them challenging PC games. (The same linux server mentioned above has a 120gb drive with images of all my games CDs on, and I've got a networked version of Virtual CD. No damaged disks here;-) There are complete sets of Cluefinders, Pajama Sam, Putt putt, Jumpstart, Monkey Island, Magic School bus, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Freddi Fish etc etc just waiting for them to enjoy, and they're capable of installing and patching them for themselves. (Shared games patches folder, too)
What it is to have a network admin for a parent...
On the other hand, for the past 2 days I've only received 3 or 4 spam emails instead of the usual 40-60 per day. I don't know if this is related to the Lycos initiative, but if so they have my thanks.
You don't hear much about blocking the sending end of the problem, but everyone is mad keen to sell filtering and blocking tools at the user's end.
I'm not saying I agree with this kind of vigilante action, I'm just noting that something is drying up the spam right now.
Slashdot Mirror
So you'd rather he was snapped up by Microsoft?
Lucky, that. I run Gentoo Linux on my aforementioned Athlon64...
I 'upgraded' from a P3-1 ghz to a P4-2.26 ghz and noticed hardly any difference. I upgraded from my P4 to an Athlon64 3400+ and it not only smokes it, it also has a variable clock speed which only ramps up when needed.
I've been a loyal intel user since the Pentium 90 came out, but after building several cheap and stable AMD systems for friends and family I took the plunge myself, and I'm more than happy.
I'm involved in the running of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, an Australian science fiction and fantasy mag. There are 21 members of the editorial team spread across every part of Australia, we print an issue of the mag every 2 months and we only meet on IRC. Sure, we have a mailing list for general stuff, but IRC is vital to us because it's cross-platform and easy to use via java clients or Mozilla.
Occasionally some of us meet up at a convention, but the only time the entire team has been in one place at the same time was June 2001, for the launch of Issue #1.
Incidentally, (plug plug) ASIM is an SF fiction magazine but we've also interviewed some interesting people - Neal Stephenson, Miranda Otto, Cecilia Dart-Thornton might be familiar to US
It's funny, I bought the EE version of Return of the King before Christmas and watched the documentaries in one sitting. Sad to say, I haven't watched the actual film yet ;-)
I used to send out chm files with all my programs, then I discovered they were useless under Wine. (The apps were fine, but users couldn't view help because it uses the IE engine.)
So, all my help files are now html files in the HELP folder, with images in a subfolder. From within the program, they open in your default browser but you can also open them manually in any browser. While indexing isn't possible you can still use Ctrl-F to search. (When the help file resides on the local computer, there's no problem sticking it all in one big file with a TOC and lots and lots of 'return to table of contents' links.)
I know the spacebar autocomplete is a weak example. More important to me was the lack of treeview and listview (I think those were the missing controls?) I'm sure there are alternatives, but the brief time I had available to look it over showed up too many incompatibilities or missing essential pieces for my own use. Others will have their own requirements, and I'm sure it's a fine solution for many projects.
Ok, I've written several online shops & ordering systems in PHP - I have no problem with this language, it's great. It's my first choice for anything to do with the web, but I can't write an ebook reader in it. (My yBook program has just been named one of the Windows apps of the year in a UK computer mag - they just asked me whether they could include the software on their cover CD.)
;-)
Programming software I've developed in since 1983? ZX81 basic, Sinclair Basic, ST basic, GFA Basic, Quickbasic 4.5 (I wrote a multiuser accounts and manufacturing control system in this), Powerbasic, Visual Basic 1.0 for Dos (converted the accounts to this), Visual Basic 3.0 for Windows, VB 4.0 for Windows (Another accounts prog), VB 5.0 for Windows (yet another accounts prog), VC++ 5.0, Java (A couple of small projects with no GUI), Visual Basic 6.0 (A multiuser accounts prog which we're still using at work), VC++ 6.0 (I use this for DLLs with my VB apps when extra speed is required - e.g. calculating stock market indicators in my charting app.)
Others I have tried & discarded: Realbasic, Borland Kylix, Kdevelop with QT, Anjuta IDE, Mono with Monodevelop, Gambas, Glade(?), writing complete apps in Visual C++, and a few others I can't remember.
One of the biggest problems is the big library of routines and dlls I've built up which I can include individually in any VB project. They represent a lot of work, they're debugged to the nth degree and I know they work. I have frameworks for loading and saving program settings, connecting to the web to check for updated versions, html conversion, etc etc. (Over 100 source files, many many routines.)
Using that framework I can write a new program pretty quickly (e.g. roughly 1/2 a day for a web site building program which generates all the pages from template & include files.) That's one of the things I meant when I said I can work efficiently. I realise there are frameworks included with other programs to do many/most of these things, but there are always other issues like Windows-only, Linux-only, expensive licenses (QT Windows), etc, etc.
Back on topic - I've just tried Gambas and it's really good. It seems to be an abstract layer on top of QT, which will suit me fine - when Linux has about 97% of the desktop market
I can never understand this attitude towards VB.
The reliability of apps written in VB has nothing to do with the language, and everything to do with the programmer. If you slap some code together, run it to make sure there are no syntax errors and then release it as version 1.0 how is that a fault with Visual Basic?
Without wanting to blow my own trumpet, I get many emails thanking me for my useful, stable programs, every one of which is written in VB. They're not simple apps, either - my major project is over 6 megs of source code.
VB allows me to code efficiently, quickly and with a minimum of errors, and until I come across something which allows me to code even quicker, even more efficiently and with even less errors I'm sticking with it.
I'm not claiming to be some guru level programmer, I'm just pointing out that it's a bit hard blaming VB for bad software just because beginners can dash in and code the World's Best Program in their lunch break.
Anyway, look on the positive side: If all those beginners started out with C# you'd have thousands of crappy, bug-ridden programs written in that language, and the 'VB generates crap' argument would go up in smoke.
I've evaluated it twice, and it's not close enough to VB for me to use. Just stupid things like having to press TAB to autocomplete instead of space (which is right under your thumb)
I took a real good look at it, I love the idea of cross-compiling but the environment is too alien. (I write and release most of my apps freeware: www.spacejock.com so I'm not going to spend big bucks on an IDE I won't use.)
Anyway, Gambas is no use to me unless it will either:
A) run natively on Windows too or
B) compile VB6 projects unedited on Linux.
A is more likely, in my opinion.
We're still seeing positive growth in our traffic, so they just aren't going to budge.
Haven't they realised 90% of their 'registered' readers have the same name but a zillion different IP addresses?
I'll add a vote: I read and enjoyed the list too. I can see why many of the changes had to be made, I wasn't fussed about changes to Faramir (I can't remember him much from the books, probably because he's one character in a cast of thousands) and I thought David Wenham was great in the part. (Actually, the cast were terrific right across the board. If you don't think so, just start a thread listing the actors you'd LEAST like to see in a particular role. E.g. Tom Hanks as Aragorn.)
I didn't miss the Taming of the Shire - I can read the books for that. What the films have done is to put the scenery and characters firmly in my mind, so that when I do read the books again I'm expecting to enjoy them even more.
what did you really expect from the people who brought us Microsoft Bob?
Actually, they tried to bring us Bob but we didn't want it. So now we have Clippy, just because some ideas are too damned good to kill off.
Only with a 'costume failure' at every public appearance.
I run Gentoo as well, but I still use XP for gaming. Reason being, I have a fileserver with Virtual CDs of all my games disks, in Windows I can mount them and run them (no patching or NOCD etc), whereas in Linux I need the physical disk.
In an ideal world, there would be a linux (or PointToPlay) client for virtual CD, which would allow me to mount those copy-protected disks and install/use the games. Probably still need No-cd, but at least there wouldn't be any messing with physical media. If Cedega had that I'd resubscribe right away.
This strikes me as more of a vanity move than a real marketing move.
;-)
Appropriate. Don't forget, they appealed to people's vanity to raise the money. (And yes, my name's in the ad
And can you imagine flying long-haul, Aus to UK, with a mindless ringtone erupting every five bloody minutes? 19 hours stuck in a cabin with that? I would go stark raving psycho, and I'm a mild-mannered guy. (When you're 6'4" and 15 stone you can afford to be laid back. I reckon anger pulses take longer to reach the extremities.)
I know I would either
A) quit flying or
B) buy tickets on Non-smoking, No-cellphone flights or
C) go on a smash-the-cellphone rampage along the aircraft.
But aren't you missing the point? Some guys like Windows. They like its interface. But like RMS, they demand freedom.
Another reason I would look at Reactos: Legacy apps. We're running an inhouse accounting program which works fine on Win98 workstations, we have zero need for Win2K or XP or Longhorn or any other tarted-up consumer OS.
If Reactos gets to the stage where it can run legacy apps reliably on new hardware, then it would be worth a look. Win98 has issues with machines over 2ghz when they have a NIC (I think it's 2ghz), MS has a patch but it seems you have to phone them for it. I'd be just as happy with a locked-down minimal install of Reactos as Linux in a business environment.
It's been about three years since I've seen anybody take notes on a palmtop in a meeting, and if somebody did they would probably be laughed at.
Three years ago, I was using pen and paper and laughing at people struggling to write on a tiny screen with a plastic toothpick.
Electronic note-taking is the pits - it's much easier to rip a sheet from a pad and clip it to the relevant report than it is to scroll through hundreds of files called 'minutes of meeting x', opening each one up to see what Bob thought about trading in the old copier.
Then again, my laptop is a P200MMX and my mobile phone is a Nokia 5110 with a dodgy screen. What would I know about portable technology?
This is only a minor nit, but ...
Specifically, this product is forked from the source code for Red Hat's _Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3_ product under the terms and conditions of it's EULA."
Might want to correct the "it's", it'll look better to any apostrophe pedants browsing your web site.
What I'm worried about is that someone whose kids are benefiting from computer use will read this study and take away the PCs to make their kids 'smarter'. It's the sort of thing my parents might have done (They're still convinced computers are bad, it could be a generational thing, but I had to save for my first $100 PC and then fight to actually be allowed to buy it. That was 22 years ago now, and it still lurks at the back of my mind when I upgrade my kids' PCs to Pentium III 1ghz with Geforce video cards, 15" LCD monitors and 80gb hard drives.)
;-)
Some things are beyond doubt. Smoking and too much sun are bad for you, for example. But the brain is a bloody complicated device, and when the experts start telling us what helps and hinders learning based on studying samples of the population, they're shooting in the dark IMO. There's no place in their methodology for self-motivation, for motivated (or de-motivated) parents, for TV and DVD watching, type of computer use, etc etc. I agree that changing over all Maths or English classes to a two-hour session on Google would be dumb, but I also believe that a few weeks on Morrowind would help any kid with their spelling and reading ability. (There's no speech, you have to read everything to work out what's going on.) There's enough action to keep the arcade generation happy, and enough quests and side plots to engage the brain.
Obviously, my analysis is based on a sample of 2 children and is therefore statistically worthless. I think generalising that computers=dumber kids is also pretty lame.
Saying this, I remember when the first affordable home computers became available in the UK - the $100 ZX81 I mentioned above (and later, the ZX Spectrum). Kids told their parents they would 'help with homework', and the same excuse has been used ever since
We have a network in the house, my daughters (7 and 9) each have their own Windows PC with a bunch of stuff. Favourites include Black & White, Morrowind and Age of Empires - role playing, strategy type games. They don't play arcade style games for more than 5 minutes at a time. We have a playstation and a bunch of games, and that setup has an inch of dust on top.
;-) There are complete sets of Cluefinders, Pajama Sam, Putt putt, Jumpstart, Monkey Island, Magic School bus, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Freddi Fish etc etc just waiting for them to enjoy, and they're capable of installing and patching them for themselves. (Shared games patches folder, too)
They also have OpenOffice and the Gimp, plus Firefox for the web. (I use Squidguard on a Linux firewall to only allow them a whitelist of sites & urls to visit. E.g. my eldest will be changing to senior school within 2 years, so I've put up the web pages for all the local secondary schools for her to browse at her leisure)
Both kids are years ahead of their age level in reading, math and spelling, and while I'm not saying that's related to their computer use, it certainly hasn't held them back. I have 2 degrees, my wife has a degree, and we have a house positively stuffed with books so we both appreciate the importance of learning and education.
The PC doesn't dominate their free time, either. They spend more time playing in the back garden, or drawing, or doing craft, or writing stories than sitting at their computers. Sure, they might get hooked on Morrowind for a day or two, but then they'll avoid the computer for a week and do something else. One thing they never do is watch TV.
They're both bright, creative kids, and I'm more than happy to feed them challenging PC games. (The same linux server mentioned above has a 120gb drive with images of all my games CDs on, and I've got a networked version of Virtual CD. No damaged disks here
What it is to have a network admin for a parent...
On the other hand, for the past 2 days I've only received 3 or 4 spam emails instead of the usual 40-60 per day. I don't know if this is related to the Lycos initiative, but if so they have my thanks.
You don't hear much about blocking the sending end of the problem, but everyone is mad keen to sell filtering and blocking tools at the user's end.
I'm not saying I agree with this kind of vigilante action, I'm just noting that something is drying up the spam right now.
... fiction writers are brainy people. (Ok, biased observation)
The comet fired first...