I once had a static electricity discharge go from my body to my PDA which was connected to my laptop via a USB cable.
The laptop turned off immediately, in some futile attempt to save itself, I suppose. It did turn back on, but then proceeded to function strangely (unexpected reboots, taking too long to start up, or not starting up at all) until it finally died completely 3 or 4 days later.
The guys at the shop said it was a burnt motherboard, but I can't vouch for their expertise. For all I know it was a single burnt capacitor, or some such, but my point is, a single weak static discharge managed to destroy my laptop, so I guess a car battery would be able to do much worse.
There's a solution for that. I know it because I had to fix that on both my laptop and my media center.
Unfortunately I can't tell you the solution because I deleted the link after re-installing Ubuntu 10.04 (after a botched 10.10 instal due to bad nvidia drivers) two weeks ago, and noticing that the problem was magically gone.
The solution was something about creating a config file for either pulse or alsa but I can't find it now (I still have it done on my media center). Maybe this will help you search for it.
Sorry that I can't be of more help, but now at least you know there's a solution:-)
What I read somewhere was that flash video is much more complex than simply showing a video, because it needs to be able to composite vector animation on top of the video.
This was from a post from a adobe engineer working on flash AFAIR.
I don't understand enough about this in order to say otherwise, but compiz sure seems to be able to compose HD video on my desktop without any problems.
Well, consider it an expensive lesson learned: never buy a Samsung phone.
I learned the same lesson shortly after buying the original Samsung Galaxy. We got our update to 1.6 after 2.0 was out, and even then the software was riddled with bugs. Fortunately, the open source community jumped in to fix the broken stuff, and now we have a functional 1.6 and a semi-functional (getting better by the day) 2.2 (for those interested: search for Galaxo or GAOSP).
Browse the market someday, and notice how many apps' descriptions say that they are having problems with some Samsung device or other. Samsung is fond of using quirky hardware and software configurations, and then -surprise- things break.
It's too bad, too, because they have some of the best hardware around.
Still, I'm going with HTC for my next buy, and I don't think I'll ever buy a Samsung smartphone again in my life.
2. Why does it have to be limited to 140 characters?
This seems arbitrary, but it's a key part of why Twitter is good. You can't post long, boring diatribes. You have to be snappy and concise.
Though I agree with you, I always thought the 140 character limit wasn't arbitrary, but a limitation imposed by the fact that many people at the time were getting Twitter updates over SMS.
I know that's why my friends and I originally got onto Twitter. At that time, mobile internet was expensive and web integration in mobile phones wasn't anything to write home about (for example, most phones wouldn't allow a background service checking your twitter feed on the internet).
Nowadays, that's changed. I suspect that now most people are reading and posting to Twitter over the internet, especially in Europe where the SMS service was canceled due to high costs some years ago.
Having said that, I agree that this process should be made much easier (and in the default instalation, like under a properties menu for that partition). As everything in Ubuntu, I'm sure that will get taken care of, eventually.
This *will* ruin things for some people - they'll go on Wiki to look up the play before they go to see it and, bam, the whole plot of the play is ruined.
Oh come on. First of all, usually the plots in Wikipedia are under a section called "Plot". If you're going to see the play, you'll probably try to avoid that section. (In fact, I would, and usualy do, avoid the entire article before I see a play/movie/read a book/etc. Why risk ruining it?)
Even if you do start reading the plot by mistake, just how quickly do you read anyway? It's not like the killed is announced at the beginning of the plot in big red bold letters.
Seriously, I tried them all, and they all had problems of one kind or another. Particularly problematic were some pieces of software which did not respect the standard windows guidelines (i.e. using custom controls instead of the default ones).
BTW, some of that software is from Microsoft, so you can't say it's not their fault.
In the end, virtual desktop software for Windows is a hack, and as all hacks, it doesn't work 100% right.
I know you already got a lot of answers to your question, but if you're using Ubuntu (I guess so, since you have the window buttons on the left side), then I recommend you install Ubuntu Tweak.
That software is amazing in discovering what you can do with your Ubuntu instalation. And of course, it also has a 1-click solution to the window button problem.
I think the point is that it's nice to have the possibility, if you want it.
In windows, you have no choice. In Linux, you can set it however you preffer -- setting a single desktop has no effect whatsoever on your experience (i.e. the system never assumes that you have multiple desktops).
Because the receiver is also on a communicator, and as far as I remember, it was a little bit of metal on the wearer's shirt without any user interface.
When you call someone you have the choice to start speaking immediately and have to identify yourself, or have the communicator say "%name is calling" before you're able to answer.
Speaking of which, there is an app for Android which does just that -- substitutes (or overlays) your ring with the caller's name. It's called SayMyName: http://code.google.com/p/roadtoadc
If HP's financial performance suffers without Hurd, they could lose tens of billions of dollars in market cap. If that happens I have to think that investors are going to question whether that $20k was worth it.
I think it was Warren Buffet who said that you can't do good business with bad people.
If I were an HP investor, I'd know if the $20k was worth it.
The only complaint I have is the App store. There is a big delay after I select something before it downloads and then it usually downloads slowly even when using the phone on wifi.
What is up with that? The typical app is smaller than a multimedia laden webpage, since when does google have no bandwidth?
I can't comment on the lack of bandwidth. It usually downloads quite fast for me on wifi, not so fast on 3G and quite slow on 2G, but I guess that's expected.
But I wanted to comment on the fact that sometimes the download takes a while to start, or doesn't start at all. Apparently, the Android Market is tied to the Google Talk app, and if GT loses it's connection for some reason, you won't be able to install apps from the Market.
The trick is to open GT and login (you may logout immediately afterwards, it's just to start that connection going again).
It's really anoying because I don't use GT and tried to uninstall it once (I have root). You can do it, but the Market will stop working.
Anyway, that may not be your specific problem, but I just wanted to get that information out there.
The point is that by having a custom rom, I am in a better position to be free of commercial interests interfering with my phone's usage.
For example, with a custom rom, no one's going to disable sideloading apps, like it's already happening with some carriers in the US. Likewise, there is less crap preinstalled apps which you can't uninstall (and as root, you can always fix the few that are left).
It's true that your ROM cooker could hide a piece of malicious code inside the ROM, but: 1. these projects usualy consist of more than one hacker 2. there are many people not directly involved, but following the repository changes (I'm doing this) 3. as I said before: if I notice any weird behaviour, I'll ask the project maintainers in the public forum, so any maintainers will be able to check what's going on
The question is, how is "6 random dudes on the internet who've looked at the source code say it's okay" any different from "6 random dudes who work for some company say the source code is okay."
The difference is, when you spot weird behaviour, on an open-source app you can go and check it yourself, or point it out to someone who can.
That's a clear difference. If you can't see it, I don't know what else to tell you.
"I CAN look at the source code" is meaningless if you don't have the expertise or requisite interest TO look at the source code - without verification, it's still an exercise in trusting to the benevolence of strangers.
You will never be 100% safe. But you will be safer with open-source software than closed source, because there will be at least one more avenue open for checking that it's working as intended.
This argument always comes up in an open-source vs. closed source security discussion.
Let me see, standard reply #12, I choose you: No, but I don't need to. In a large community only one person with expertise need to notice something weird and look at the code.
Or should I go with SR #3?: Considering that you can inject malicious code from the source down to the compiler, down to the silicon, you can never be really sure, but at least with open source you can dig deeper if you need to.
Slashdot Mirror
I once had a static electricity discharge go from my body to my PDA which was connected to my laptop via a USB cable.
The laptop turned off immediately, in some futile attempt to save itself, I suppose.
It did turn back on, but then proceeded to function strangely (unexpected reboots, taking too long to start up, or not starting up at all) until it finally died completely 3 or 4 days later.
The guys at the shop said it was a burnt motherboard, but I can't vouch for their expertise. For all I know it was a single burnt capacitor, or some such, but my point is, a single weak static discharge managed to destroy my laptop, so I guess a car battery would be able to do much worse.
Thanks. :-)
I'll try that just as soon as I finish creating this startup pen drive
Can you run Compiz on the Nouveau drivers?
I heard you couldn't, and I'm getting hell trying to install the nVidia drivers on my 10.10 installation.
I'm currently running 10.04 just because of that...
Did you do something special to install/activate yours? I might give it a try here :-)
How about a gas tank which you can "trickle fill" in your garage during the night, or quickly fill at the gas station?
There's a solution for that. I know it because I had to fix that on both my laptop and my media center.
Unfortunately I can't tell you the solution because I deleted the link after re-installing Ubuntu 10.04 (after a botched 10.10 instal due to bad nvidia drivers) two weeks ago, and noticing that the problem was magically gone.
The solution was something about creating a config file for either pulse or alsa but I can't find it now (I still have it done on my media center). Maybe this will help you search for it.
Sorry that I can't be of more help, but now at least you know there's a solution :-)
What I read somewhere was that flash video is much more complex than simply showing a video, because it needs to be able to composite vector animation on top of the video.
This was from a post from a adobe engineer working on flash AFAIR.
I don't understand enough about this in order to say otherwise, but compiz sure seems to be able to compose HD video on my desktop without any problems.
what is real?
Futureal
Well, consider it an expensive lesson learned: never buy a Samsung phone.
I learned the same lesson shortly after buying the original Samsung Galaxy. We got our update to 1.6 after 2.0 was out, and even then the software was riddled with bugs.
Fortunately, the open source community jumped in to fix the broken stuff, and now we have a functional 1.6 and a semi-functional (getting better by the day) 2.2 (for those interested: search for Galaxo or GAOSP).
Browse the market someday, and notice how many apps' descriptions say that they are having problems with some Samsung device or other. Samsung is fond of using quirky hardware and software configurations, and then -surprise- things break.
It's too bad, too, because they have some of the best hardware around.
Still, I'm going with HTC for my next buy, and I don't think I'll ever buy a Samsung smartphone again in my life.
This seems arbitrary, but it's a key part of why Twitter is good. You can't post long, boring diatribes. You have to be snappy and concise.
Though I agree with you, I always thought the 140 character limit wasn't arbitrary, but a limitation imposed by the fact that many people at the time were getting Twitter updates over SMS.
I know that's why my friends and I originally got onto Twitter. At that time, mobile internet was expensive and web integration in mobile phones wasn't anything to write home about (for example, most phones wouldn't allow a background service checking your twitter feed on the internet).
Nowadays, that's changed. I suspect that now most people are reading and posting to Twitter over the internet, especially in Europe where the SMS service was canceled due to high costs some years ago.
This can easily be done following this guide. The automatic method using pysdm worked perfectly for me: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AutomaticallyMountPartitions
Having said that, I agree that this process should be made much easier (and in the default instalation, like under a properties menu for that partition). As everything in Ubuntu, I'm sure that will get taken care of, eventually.
This *will* ruin things for some people - they'll go on Wiki to look up the play before they go to see it and, bam, the whole plot of the play is ruined.
Oh come on.
First of all, usually the plots in Wikipedia are under a section called "Plot".
If you're going to see the play, you'll probably try to avoid that section. (In fact, I would, and usualy do, avoid the entire article before I see a play/movie/read a book/etc. Why risk ruining it?)
Even if you do start reading the plot by mistake, just how quickly do you read anyway? It's not like the killed is announced at the beginning of the plot in big red bold letters.
It doesn't work right.
Seriously, I tried them all, and they all had problems of one kind or another.
Particularly problematic were some pieces of software which did not respect the standard windows guidelines (i.e. using custom controls instead of the default ones).
BTW, some of that software is from Microsoft, so you can't say it's not their fault.
In the end, virtual desktop software for Windows is a hack, and as all hacks, it doesn't work 100% right.
I know you already got a lot of answers to your question, but if you're using Ubuntu (I guess so, since you have the window buttons on the left side), then I recommend you install Ubuntu Tweak.
That software is amazing in discovering what you can do with your Ubuntu instalation.
And of course, it also has a 1-click solution to the window button problem.
http://ubuntu-tweak.com/
I think the point is that it's nice to have the possibility, if you want it.
In windows, you have no choice. In Linux, you can set it however you preffer -- setting a single desktop has no effect whatsoever on your experience (i.e. the system never assumes that you have multiple desktops).
What does this do for Linux?
More users = more developers = more contributions to the kernel = better kernel = more users
Reminds me of IBM's Linux commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwL0G9wK8j4
Airplane mode probably won't allow you to receive GPS, unfortunately, but you can at least turn off wireless, data connections, etc.
Actually, at least in my Android phone, Airplane mode does not disable GPS.
Maybe that varies by manufacturer, but since the GPS radio is passive, it makes sense to me that it'd continue working as normal.
It doesn't even boot on any real-world hardware that I'm aware of - just some emulator.
From this phrase alone one can tell you know nothing about what you're talking about.
http://www.androidx86.org/
http://www.android-x86.org/
But please, don't let me stop you.
Because the receiver is also on a communicator, and as far as I remember, it was a little bit of metal on the wearer's shirt without any user interface.
When you call someone you have the choice to start speaking immediately and have to identify yourself, or have the communicator say "%name is calling" before you're able to answer.
Speaking of which, there is an app for Android which does just that -- substitutes (or overlays) your ring with the caller's name.
It's called SayMyName: http://code.google.com/p/roadtoadc
Works very, very well.
If HP's financial performance suffers without Hurd, they could lose tens of billions of dollars in market cap. If that happens I have to think that investors are going to question whether that $20k was worth it.
I think it was Warren Buffet who said that you can't do good business with bad people.
If I were an HP investor, I'd know if the $20k was worth it.
The only complaint I have is the App store. There is a big delay after I select something before it downloads and then it usually downloads slowly even when using the phone on wifi.
What is up with that? The typical app is smaller than a multimedia laden webpage, since when does google have no bandwidth?
I can't comment on the lack of bandwidth. It usually downloads quite fast for me on wifi, not so fast on 3G and quite slow on 2G, but I guess that's expected.
But I wanted to comment on the fact that sometimes the download takes a while to start, or doesn't start at all. Apparently, the Android Market is tied to the Google Talk app, and if GT loses it's connection for some reason, you won't be able to install apps from the Market.
The trick is to open GT and login (you may logout immediately afterwards, it's just to start that connection going again).
It's really anoying because I don't use GT and tried to uninstall it once (I have root). You can do it, but the Market will stop working.
Anyway, that may not be your specific problem, but I just wanted to get that information out there.
The point is that by having a custom rom, I am in a better position to be free of commercial interests interfering with my phone's usage.
For example, with a custom rom, no one's going to disable sideloading apps, like it's already happening with some carriers in the US. Likewise, there is less crap preinstalled apps which you can't uninstall (and as root, you can always fix the few that are left).
It's true that your ROM cooker could hide a piece of malicious code inside the ROM, but:
1. these projects usualy consist of more than one hacker
2. there are many people not directly involved, but following the repository changes (I'm doing this)
3. as I said before: if I notice any weird behaviour, I'll ask the project maintainers in the public forum, so any maintainers will be able to check what's going on
I thought we were discussing Android.
In any case, I don't buy anything from Apple, and it's not because I'm paranoid -- I just don't like their current business strategy.
The question is, how is "6 random dudes on the internet who've looked at the source code say it's okay" any different from "6 random dudes who work for some company say the source code is okay."
The difference is, when you spot weird behaviour, on an open-source app you can go and check it yourself, or point it out to someone who can.
That's a clear difference. If you can't see it, I don't know what else to tell you.
"I CAN look at the source code" is meaningless if you don't have the expertise or requisite interest TO look at the source code - without verification, it's still an exercise in trusting to the benevolence of strangers.
You will never be 100% safe. But you will be safer with open-source software than closed source, because there will be at least one more avenue open for checking that it's working as intended.
Really?
You're going to go with that?
If I was that paranoid I wouldn't be able to live in society.
You trust strangers everytime you get in a transport, put your money in the bank, eat food you didn't grow yourself, take a bath, etc etc etc.
Maybe you like living as a hermit in a cave, but I prefer to risk a little bit more, and have the benefits of living in a functioning society.
I knew it!
This argument always comes up in an open-source vs. closed source security discussion.
Let me see, standard reply #12, I choose you:
No, but I don't need to. In a large community only one person with expertise need to notice something weird and look at the code.
Or should I go with SR #3?: Considering that you can inject malicious code from the source down to the compiler, down to the silicon, you can never be really sure, but at least with open source you can dig deeper if you need to.
So many options!