5 for 9 is a normal price of those frozen dinners, even at that brand. Without that brand though, the same TV dinner costs less. Half gallon of Orange Juice for 2.25 USD? Drop the brand and you'll find a gallon for 1 USD - less if you live in a citrus state. Shredded cheese (assuming Cheddar): I think I've seen 4 USD before in normal grocery stores not on sale. Of course, it was a different brand...
The 'brand consciousness' of the US Public is disturbing to me, to say the least. On some things, it matters - toilet paper is actually different from brand to brand, as an example. On things like cheese and orange juice though? Doesn't matter at all.
Probably because they were very, very expensive to a lot of computer people compared to standard PCs in the US. It caught on great in Europe by comparison, where PC prices were much higher.
Very expensive, but I honestly don't know much about it. I moved out of S. Florida (mostly - I'm there a month a year and at college for the other 11) a few years ago, so I don't know about the situation there right now.
Last I heard though, minimum 60 USD/month. That's a lot of dough.
Take my example, back when I lived in South Florida. Bellsouth is the local bell, Adelphia the local cable provider.
Adelphia refused to offer two way cable service in my area - meaning that I'd have a cable modem for downstream and DIALUP for upstream. Not acceptable. Bellsouth offered very high priced DSL - at the time, 40 USD/month got you 256kbits down, 128kbits up (or 10 more got you 1500/256 - I know it is less now, but I know more about the situation then). You could also get DSL service from any number of companies.... that all charged more than Bellsouth. Why? Because Bellsouth would lease their lines for.... you guessed it, 40 USD/month. Meaning no matter what, EVERY ISP you'd choose would have a higher price than BS, pay BS, and get even worse support. For an anecdotal piece of evidence, a friend of mine didn't have his DSL hooked up for 4 months - all because BS decided to not hook it up in a timely manner since a compeditor was using their lines.
Unless you live in one of the areas that has WiFi service, or in an area with a competant Cable company (from what I hear, they are finally thinking about offering two-way in my area - at like 60 USD/month), you CAN'T switch. Bellsouth is a local monopoly, plain and simple. You have bellsouth or dialup. A lovely choice if I do say so myself.
That tends to happen when CS gets taught by engineering departments rather than mathematics departments. Originally, all CS departments were an extension of the mathematics departments. Later on, most shifted towards engineering. Of those that shifted to engineering, the CS fields are taught more from an engineering point of view (design/build your code and produce the product) rather than a mathematics/science point of view (learn of the theories of your code, think about how to design some abstract concept instead of a final product). In the former point of view, mathematics ends up being skimmed over more than the latter.
Not to say that all engineering departments are like that - obviously there are quite a few exceptions. However, that's how it is - Engineering is applied mathematics after all. My CS degree consisted of probably just as much math as computers, if not more. Calc 1/2/3 and lots of mathematical electives.
Ironically, she's actually one of the BEST physical fighters late in the game, as her whip does huge damage to all enemies - much more than her spells even. That being the problem. Her spells, save defensive/buffing spells, are completely useless at the end of the game.
Note: My favorite game of all time is SMAC.
Civ4 introduced a lot of SMAC elements in to Civ. For example, instead of government types, you have the social choices similar to how SMAC works.
As I've put it before, it is a great game from what I've played. Too bad the coders royally screwed it up with their showstopping bugs, extreme slowdowns, and bloated code. Seriously, when I see my VCard driver BSOD from playing Civ4, something is wrong. I refuse to run that thing again (luckily, I just borrowed it from my next door neighbor while he was playing Call of Duty 2 still) until I can be completely assured that it won't do that crap again.
Seriously, it isn't that hard. A software firewall installed on the PC would do in a pinch, I guess, but I typically don't like running a machine without something protecting it ANYWAY. Heck, since it is a laptop, when you get back, just ask a friend if you can plug it in his/her router and update from there, if you don't have one yourself.
Strange, I'm certain I've hit dependency hell on all of the above. Especially when your little GUI tool doesn't find the package I want.
Oh wait, you didn't include those little programs that aren't included in repositories, did you? Look back at what I said - a single file downloaded to install on a Linux machine.
I will admit though. You picked two very good examples as packages that are close to working how they should - I can install Opera successfully on any modern linux distro that I personally have touched without dependency hell, and this is a good thing. That's one (two including Skype). I can think of a few others that go along with it. Congrats, you've got 10 programs that have close to the proper technique. Now go take a look at everything else. Now you see the problem. Heck, even with Opera, did you notice that different distros have different installation methods/formats/files? Why? The end result is basically the same thing, why should there be different methods inbetween?
Oh really? Now, after you installed.net, did you have any problems? Yes,.net is a dependency in Windows - one of the few still left and a large annoyance to myself. Of course, if there were only 3 dependency packages required in the Linux world for the vast majority of applications, it would be a moot point there too. Of course, if application developers were smart, in their install they would install.NET also. In fact, quite a few applications already do this. And after you install.NET, will something break if you install a new version of.NET because one program requires older libraries and one program requires newer libraries?
A single counterexample does not make a point. Of course, saying "Linux users who stick with their distro's repositories will have less trouble than Windows users and their software will be easier to keep up to date." is kind of like saying "Windows users who stick with downloading only Microsoft Certified products and products pre-approved of on a certain list maintained by an external source will have less trouble...". You realize my whole point was downloading a random program joeuser wants from "Teh Intarwebs" and installing it. What if that program isn't in their distro's repository? Are they supposed to switch distros just because of that? Are they supposed to not use their favorite program because of that? Are they supposed to expect to have very large difficulties because of that? I certainly hope the answer should be no to all of the above - and right now, the answer is yes to at least one of the above. That is the whole point.
And... how does that matter? That isn't a unified standard installer, that is someone thoughtful enough to include an installation script, which is FAR from the majority of programs joeshmoe wants to use.
I think you might be missing the forest for the trees here. The method of installation doesn't matter - joeuser doesn't care if it is installshield, a script running, or a simple DOS batchfile. They care about how THEY do it - doubleclick on the icon, run a single command in a CLI, et cetra. They care that if it works on janeuser's computer running Linux it will also install on their computer running Linux. Not all Windows programs do that, but the vast majority do. I can't quite say that about Linux, especially since the vast majority use different methods of installation, let alone methods that don't vary from distro to distro.
Double click on the self-installer, follow directions onscreen. That's all that joeuser cares about - from their end, that is simple (admittedly, that isn't to say that it couldn't be better, but somehow I doubt dropping to a command line and running multiple commands is easier).
That works with 2000 and XP (some with 95 all the way up with XP), assuming the program runs on those particular versions. No distro-specific measures, no dependencies, nothing - and that was my original point.
Linux Max Uptime: 73 days, 2 hours, 32 minutes (and still going, but I'm entering power outage season, so I doubt it'll go much higher).
Windows Max Uptime: 62 days, 3 hours (stopped from a power outage lasting longer than my UPS allows).
Same machine, same hardware.
Hrm, seems to me that someone just can't run Windows worth crap or blames things on Windows that should be blamed on other sources (like faulty drivers for hardware, or PEBKAC.). To me, I set up an XP box and I can sit it in the corner - it will work until I screw something up on it or until external influences (hardware failure, power failure, et cetra). In fact, I can install things that I know and trust and have absolutely no problems, no need for dependencies, no need to freaking compile the thing from source, no need to set certain list locations to pull from, I can just grab a CD with the programs I want, run the installers right off the CD and they work. Or, I can even create my own installer that will install everything I want to the XP machine correctly, the first time, in the way I want to, and have it all set up in the identical settings I want the first time, with the lovely methods of executing the programs appearing exactly where I want them in an applications menu.
Why the hell can't I do that in Linux? Yes, I know more about Windows than Linux, just as you obviously know more about Linux than Windows. I'm not exactly half bad at Linux, but the fustration of dependency hell or trying to install a specific xyz program has driven me away from it time and time again except in certain instances (Communications server runs Linux and my laptop runs Linux - neither have any problems with them, and the server at least just sits in a corner and is only accessed through Synergy when I feel like speaking in IRC).
It doesn't seem to me that rpms are flawless. I download a RPM, try to install, and I have a dependency issue. That is something that simply doesn't happen (some exceptions apply, just as some RPMs work great the first time) under Windows (and OSX, but I'm not as sure on that since my OSX knowledge is about as great as your apparent Windows knowledge). Compiling from source is slow and has the same dependency issues that RPMs have. apt-get doesn't have everything, it is essentially a white list of programs that work from the sources you choose. When I want xyz program offered up on a website for download, I want to just download an installer, have it install, and have it work. Nothing more.
This one though is a classic:
there are another BILLION program you get the tar/gz, unpack it, configure, make, and run. Hey, it's open source, you get the source. do what you want with it. Windows doesn't have this, so stop griping.
Yeah. You know, those compiler things MUST be Linux only. Just ignore the compilers installed on the Windows machine I'm typing this from, of course, and ignore that I have more open source programs currently running on this Windows machine than the Linux machine sitting right next to me.
Who cares about quantity of programs? I certainly don't - I have specific requirements for computers, just like joeuser (although joeuser probably doesn't know what programs would satisfy those requirements, but similar concept). I want a program that does xyz, so I want to download it and install it. How the hell does a billion variations on a text editor help me when I want xyz?
I'm not saying Windows is superior in all ways - no way in hell would I want a webserver running Windows 2003 Server, I'd want a Linux box or a BSD box. However, if Linux as a whole wants to go after a general user market, let it actually be able to be used by general users!
I can do the same under Windows, yet Windows has a central installation architecture. Why is that? Dependencies, for one. If a program has no dependencies or externals, I can just extract and run the binary (in fact, a lot more programs under Windows work this way than one would think).
The OS should ensure that applications are installed before they can be executed. I don't know of any OS that requires that one. However, that isn't an arguement against the former part of the excerpt, which is the only part I'm addressing.
Linux as a whole needs one. Something that lets joeuser download a file (ONE) from the net, run the file, and it installs everything needed for the program downloaded and runs correctly the first time on any modern linux platform. I still can't do that on SUSE even for most programs. Compare to the Windows world. You can download a single file (a self-installing executable file) from the net and assume it will work on any modern windows platform (2K/XP/2K3). In fact, the only things I can think of as exceptions off the top of my head are ports from Linux to Windows.
Easy. LCDs take up less space and (well, not the really crappy low end ones or some crappy midranged ones) look better. Anyone who has to move around a whole bunch can appreciate the whole size (and weight) thing. I've had to move around the TV in my livingroom (furnished, so it isn't mine) quite often. It scratches up the center and weighs a ton. I'd much prefer a smaller LCD to such a large TV.
I can vouch for the anime. While it wasn't quite drawn in the standard anime style and it wasn't quite the type of anime I normally like, it was still facinating, full of plot, and containing both humor and drama.
Re:Where's the role playing?
on
Review: Dragonshard
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· Score: 2, Informative
Planescape: Torment would be about as close as you get to what you are saying - every action affects you in some ways, your character becomes YOU. It is entirely possible to go wading through thousands of enemies annihilating all in your path as it is to fight only when absolutely necessary (which is really rare). In essence, it is what a lot of DMs want to see in a Roleplaying game. Yes, it is still bound by some restrictions - this is a computer game, last I checked everything on a computer at this time has at least some restrictions.
The Snowman level is infinite, as is the solar system level. However, the Eternal levels do not exist as they once did, sadly. You do, however, have more levels that have no time limit.
Computer Science? Sure! A CS major's job in coding is in algorithms - how they work, how to create them, and how to improve them. However, they don't look at the big picture all that often. Software Engineer? Heck no. They are code monkeys. Yes, they can put together complicated code, but their building blocks are bigger than that of a CS. They do, however, get to see that big picture.
At least, that is how it works in the university that I'm in right now.
Wouldn't that be more of a question on what the hell Dell was doing and not MS?
Personally, I'd love an eBook as a textbook.
on
Textbooks With EULAs
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· Score: 1
One that... 1) Cost less than buying the book new online. What is the point if it isn't less? 2) Has no DRM crap, or a method of changing ownership with NO OTHER RESTRICTIONS. Do you hear this textbook publishers? The reason why the eBook idea failed miserably is because they DRMed the stupid thing! 3) Will open on Linux, namely since that is what my laptop runs.
This isn't rocket science 101 people, this is simply what the market demands (well, probably not point 3 of mine, but point 1 and 2), and if you don't provide it for the market, you won't get our money.
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5 for 9 is a normal price of those frozen dinners, even at that brand. Without that brand though, the same TV dinner costs less.
Half gallon of Orange Juice for 2.25 USD? Drop the brand and you'll find a gallon for 1 USD - less if you live in a citrus state.
Shredded cheese (assuming Cheddar): I think I've seen 4 USD before in normal grocery stores not on sale. Of course, it was a different brand...
The 'brand consciousness' of the US Public is disturbing to me, to say the least. On some things, it matters - toilet paper is actually different from brand to brand, as an example. On things like cheese and orange juice though? Doesn't matter at all.
Probably because they were very, very expensive to a lot of computer people compared to standard PCs in the US.
It caught on great in Europe by comparison, where PC prices were much higher.
Very expensive, but I honestly don't know much about it. I moved out of S. Florida (mostly - I'm there a month a year and at college for the other 11) a few years ago, so I don't know about the situation there right now.
Last I heard though, minimum 60 USD/month. That's a lot of dough.
And that's the whole problem with the deal.
Take my example, back when I lived in South Florida. Bellsouth is the local bell, Adelphia the local cable provider.
Adelphia refused to offer two way cable service in my area - meaning that I'd have a cable modem for downstream and DIALUP for upstream. Not acceptable.
Bellsouth offered very high priced DSL - at the time, 40 USD/month got you 256kbits down, 128kbits up (or 10 more got you 1500/256 - I know it is less now, but I know more about the situation then).
You could also get DSL service from any number of companies.... that all charged more than Bellsouth. Why? Because Bellsouth would lease their lines for.... you guessed it, 40 USD/month. Meaning no matter what, EVERY ISP you'd choose would have a higher price than BS, pay BS, and get even worse support. For an anecdotal piece of evidence, a friend of mine didn't have his DSL hooked up for 4 months - all because BS decided to not hook it up in a timely manner since a compeditor was using their lines.
Unless you live in one of the areas that has WiFi service, or in an area with a competant Cable company (from what I hear, they are finally thinking about offering two-way in my area - at like 60 USD/month), you CAN'T switch. Bellsouth is a local monopoly, plain and simple. You have bellsouth or dialup. A lovely choice if I do say so myself.
That tends to happen when CS gets taught by engineering departments rather than mathematics departments. Originally, all CS departments were an extension of the mathematics departments. Later on, most shifted towards engineering. Of those that shifted to engineering, the CS fields are taught more from an engineering point of view (design/build your code and produce the product) rather than a mathematics/science point of view (learn of the theories of your code, think about how to design some abstract concept instead of a final product). In the former point of view, mathematics ends up being skimmed over more than the latter.
Not to say that all engineering departments are like that - obviously there are quite a few exceptions. However, that's how it is - Engineering is applied mathematics after all. My CS degree consisted of probably just as much math as computers, if not more. Calc 1/2/3 and lots of mathematical electives.
(Disclaimer: I'm a CS/Math major)
Ironically, she's actually one of the BEST physical fighters late in the game, as her whip does huge damage to all enemies - much more than her spells even.
That being the problem. Her spells, save defensive/buffing spells, are completely useless at the end of the game.
Note: My favorite game of all time is SMAC.
Civ4 introduced a lot of SMAC elements in to Civ. For example, instead of government types, you have the social choices similar to how SMAC works.
As I've put it before, it is a great game from what I've played. Too bad the coders royally screwed it up with their showstopping bugs, extreme slowdowns, and bloated code. Seriously, when I see my VCard driver BSOD from playing Civ4, something is wrong. I refuse to run that thing again (luckily, I just borrowed it from my next door neighbor while he was playing Call of Duty 2 still) until I can be completely assured that it won't do that crap again.
Seriously, it isn't that hard. A software firewall installed on the PC would do in a pinch, I guess, but I typically don't like running a machine without something protecting it ANYWAY. Heck, since it is a laptop, when you get back, just ask a friend if you can plug it in his/her router and update from there, if you don't have one yourself.
No, you don't. Throw them on the install CD to begin with like most Windows Admins [should] do, using something like nLite.
So all 'Art' is only coming from so-called Starving Artists?
:P)
I don't buy that. Take music. Music is produced for entertainment purposes and is considered to be works of art (or torture, depending on the piece
Strange, I'm certain I've hit dependency hell on all of the above. Especially when your little GUI tool doesn't find the package I want.
Oh wait, you didn't include those little programs that aren't included in repositories, did you? Look back at what I said - a single file downloaded to install on a Linux machine.
I will admit though. You picked two very good examples as packages that are close to working how they should - I can install Opera successfully on any modern linux distro that I personally have touched without dependency hell, and this is a good thing. That's one (two including Skype). I can think of a few others that go along with it. Congrats, you've got 10 programs that have close to the proper technique. Now go take a look at everything else.
Now you see the problem.
Heck, even with Opera, did you notice that different distros have different installation methods/formats/files? Why? The end result is basically the same thing, why should there be different methods inbetween?
Oh really? Now, after you installed .net, did you have any problems? .net is a dependency in Windows - one of the few still left and a large annoyance to myself. Of course, if there were only 3 dependency packages required in the Linux world for the vast majority of applications, it would be a moot point there too. .NET also. In fact, quite a few applications already do this. And after you install .NET, will something break if you install a new version of .NET because one program requires older libraries and one program requires newer libraries?
Yes,
Of course, if application developers were smart, in their install they would install
A single counterexample does not make a point. Of course, saying "Linux users who stick with their distro's repositories will have less trouble than Windows users and their software will be easier to keep up to date." is kind of like saying "Windows users who stick with downloading only Microsoft Certified products and products pre-approved of on a certain list maintained by an external source will have less trouble...".
You realize my whole point was downloading a random program joeuser wants from "Teh Intarwebs" and installing it. What if that program isn't in their distro's repository? Are they supposed to switch distros just because of that? Are they supposed to not use their favorite program because of that? Are they supposed to expect to have very large difficulties because of that? I certainly hope the answer should be no to all of the above - and right now, the answer is yes to at least one of the above.
That is the whole point.
And... how does that matter? That isn't a unified standard installer, that is someone thoughtful enough to include an installation script, which is FAR from the majority of programs joeshmoe wants to use.
I think you might be missing the forest for the trees here. The method of installation doesn't matter - joeuser doesn't care if it is installshield, a script running, or a simple DOS batchfile. They care about how THEY do it - doubleclick on the icon, run a single command in a CLI, et cetra. They care that if it works on janeuser's computer running Linux it will also install on their computer running Linux. Not all Windows programs do that, but the vast majority do. I can't quite say that about Linux, especially since the vast majority use different methods of installation, let alone methods that don't vary from distro to distro.
Compare with Windows.
Double click on the self-installer, follow directions onscreen. That's all that joeuser cares about - from their end, that is simple (admittedly, that isn't to say that it couldn't be better, but somehow I doubt dropping to a command line and running multiple commands is easier).
That works with 2000 and XP (some with 95 all the way up with XP), assuming the program runs on those particular versions. No distro-specific measures, no dependencies, nothing - and that was my original point.
Windows Max Uptime: 62 days, 3 hours (stopped from a power outage lasting longer than my UPS allows). Same machine, same hardware.
Hrm, seems to me that someone just can't run Windows worth crap or blames things on Windows that should be blamed on other sources (like faulty drivers for hardware, or PEBKAC.). To me, I set up an XP box and I can sit it in the corner - it will work until I screw something up on it or until external influences (hardware failure, power failure, et cetra). In fact, I can install things that I know and trust and have absolutely no problems, no need for dependencies, no need to freaking compile the thing from source, no need to set certain list locations to pull from, I can just grab a CD with the programs I want, run the installers right off the CD and they work. Or, I can even create my own installer that will install everything I want to the XP machine correctly, the first time, in the way I want to, and have it all set up in the identical settings I want the first time, with the lovely methods of executing the programs appearing exactly where I want them in an applications menu.
Why the hell can't I do that in Linux? Yes, I know more about Windows than Linux, just as you obviously know more about Linux than Windows. I'm not exactly half bad at Linux, but the fustration of dependency hell or trying to install a specific xyz program has driven me away from it time and time again except in certain instances (Communications server runs Linux and my laptop runs Linux - neither have any problems with them, and the server at least just sits in a corner and is only accessed through Synergy when I feel like speaking in IRC).
It doesn't seem to me that rpms are flawless. I download a RPM, try to install, and I have a dependency issue. That is something that simply doesn't happen (some exceptions apply, just as some RPMs work great the first time) under Windows (and OSX, but I'm not as sure on that since my OSX knowledge is about as great as your apparent Windows knowledge). Compiling from source is slow and has the same dependency issues that RPMs have. apt-get doesn't have everything, it is essentially a white list of programs that work from the sources you choose. When I want xyz program offered up on a website for download, I want to just download an installer, have it install, and have it work. Nothing more.
This one though is a classic:
Yeah. You know, those compiler things MUST be Linux only. Just ignore the compilers installed on the Windows machine I'm typing this from, of course, and ignore that I have more open source programs currently running on this Windows machine than the Linux machine sitting right next to me.
Who cares about quantity of programs? I certainly don't - I have specific requirements for computers, just like joeuser (although joeuser probably doesn't know what programs would satisfy those requirements, but similar concept). I want a program that does xyz, so I want to download it and install it. How the hell does a billion variations on a text editor help me when I want xyz?
I'm not saying Windows is superior in all ways - no way in hell would I want a webserver running Windows 2003 Server, I'd want a Linux box or a BSD box. However, if Linux as a whole wants to go after a general user market, let it actually be able to be used by general users!
I can do the same under Windows, yet Windows has a central installation architecture. Why is that? Dependencies, for one. If a program has no dependencies or externals, I can just extract and run the binary (in fact, a lot more programs under Windows work this way than one would think).
The OS should ensure that applications are installed before they can be executed.
I don't know of any OS that requires that one. However, that isn't an arguement against the former part of the excerpt, which is the only part I'm addressing.
Linux as a whole needs one. Something that lets joeuser download a file (ONE) from the net, run the file, and it installs everything needed for the program downloaded and runs correctly the first time on any modern linux platform. I still can't do that on SUSE even for most programs.
Compare to the Windows world. You can download a single file (a self-installing executable file) from the net and assume it will work on any modern windows platform (2K/XP/2K3). In fact, the only things I can think of as exceptions off the top of my head are ports from Linux to Windows.
I know Linux supports the AMD equivilent, but, alas, I don't have any way of monitoring power outside of my laptop at the moment.
Easy. LCDs take up less space and (well, not the really crappy low end ones or some crappy midranged ones) look better.
Anyone who has to move around a whole bunch can appreciate the whole size (and weight) thing. I've had to move around the TV in my livingroom (furnished, so it isn't mine) quite often. It scratches up the center and weighs a ton. I'd much prefer a smaller LCD to such a large TV.
Besides, why does anyone need such a large TV?
I can vouch for the anime. While it wasn't quite drawn in the standard anime style and it wasn't quite the type of anime I normally like, it was still facinating, full of plot, and containing both humor and drama.
Planescape: Torment would be about as close as you get to what you are saying - every action affects you in some ways, your character becomes YOU. It is entirely possible to go wading through thousands of enemies annihilating all in your path as it is to fight only when absolutely necessary (which is really rare).
In essence, it is what a lot of DMs want to see in a Roleplaying game. Yes, it is still bound by some restrictions - this is a computer game, last I checked everything on a computer at this time has at least some restrictions.
The Snowman level is infinite, as is the solar system level.
However, the Eternal levels do not exist as they once did, sadly. You do, however, have more levels that have no time limit.
Yes, they do, depending on your specialty.
Computer Science? Sure! A CS major's job in coding is in algorithms - how they work, how to create them, and how to improve them. However, they don't look at the big picture all that often.
Software Engineer? Heck no. They are code monkeys. Yes, they can put together complicated code, but their building blocks are bigger than that of a CS. They do, however, get to see that big picture.
At least, that is how it works in the university that I'm in right now.
Wouldn't that be more of a question on what the hell Dell was doing and not MS?
One that...
1) Cost less than buying the book new online. What is the point if it isn't less?
2) Has no DRM crap, or a method of changing ownership with NO OTHER RESTRICTIONS. Do you hear this textbook publishers? The reason why the eBook idea failed miserably is because they DRMed the stupid thing!
3) Will open on Linux, namely since that is what my laptop runs.
This isn't rocket science 101 people, this is simply what the market demands (well, probably not point 3 of mine, but point 1 and 2), and if you don't provide it for the market, you won't get our money.
Nearly all learning can be fun from what I've seen, it all depends on how you approach it.