I was thinking the exact same thing. When I try to take all the media spin out of it, the whole copyright aspect may be just a nice smoke-screen to keep people calm.
In all likelihood, the truth will never be known, they'll find what they were looking for, and probably find some petty copyright infrindgement on the side to keep the plausability of the initial story intact.
If I had to wager, I'd say it probably had something to do with that whole "war on terror" thing, but they don't want people to panic so... Let's call it a copyright infringement case so as to teach the younger generation that we really mean business.
Again... I'm just speculating... Like everyone else...
What? This looks like a red herri-- Oh look! A nice shiney penny! Ooooooo!
Damn... Make a guy feel old. I remember taping off the radio myself, and it was a skill I performed with exacting precision. Can anyone else recall the difference between Type I, Type II and Type IV tapes?
"CD's? Bah... Who needs 'em! They cost twice as much as the cassettes and LP's, and you've got to be some kind of music nut if you think you can actually hear that much of a difference. Besides that, you're just going to end up making a tape of it anyway so you can play it in your car."
My impression is that the peer from the extraterrestrial treaty is holding most of the patents already so we're prohibited to produce such things until we came up with a _really_ new universally-right idea.
Uh huh... Explain how that theory fits in with all the different memory card formats.
Don't forget to vote with your dollars as well. Support companies that don't ship work overseas, and don't purchase products or services from those that do. I know that it's not always practical, but an honest effort will go further than apathy.
It may be a little more costly, but no one said defending principles or even freedom would come cheap.
Brainstorm a list of all the things you would like to put into a robots.txt (or robots.xml, if we have to go that route).
I just did in the 3rd paragraph of my original post: "Search on Wednesday, make it fast, do a thorough job, and don't come back for a week." (Wednesdays are usually slow days for my server.) I suppose you could format it something like this: Agent=*, DaysAllowed=(Wed), Speed=Fast, Method=Complete, Recheck=10080
Find like-minded people who can help you refine and prioritize your list of "wants".
And that's the main reason why I posted what I did. I don't work in the tech sector, so my real-life friends wouldn't know fdisk from fsck or grep from grub.
if everybody is going to say "only check my site on Wednesdays", then search engines that adopt the new conventions will have unused bandwidth on other days of the week; this would mean that they would have to purchase a lot more bandwidth to achieve the same level of service.
Oh... Oh... Oh... Sorry, you just touched a nerve... Don't worry, I won't bite.;-)
I don't *CARE* if those search engines search my site or don't. They aren't under any obligation to search me (as I don't pay them) and they aren't necessarily entitled to search me (as they don't pay me). If I want to restrict the time or the day to which I want to be "searched" and it's not convenient for them, then I guess I just won't be searched. Oh sure... the world loses out on not being able to find the text of that joke I posted... Boo hoo. There's lot's of other fish in the sea.
But if they've got the time and bandwidth, that's when I say it's OK. Otherwise, I'll use what tools I can and disallow the crawler entirely. I don't need 5, 10, 50 different spiders crawling my server at any given time. I don't host websites for those machines. I host my sites for the enjoyment of people.
I imagine that most people who run webservers do it "for-profit" They practically have to BEG the search engines to come to their sites and give them high rankings. They pay big money for people to sit down and analyze this stuff to get the gods of Google to favor them at any given time.
I'm just taking a guess, but maybe this is why crawlers tend to favor visiting me... I don't have the time or resources to dream up schemes to get my site at the top of a search, my links are clearly posted and easily read because most people get lost trying to find their cursor. Maybe that's what search engines are really looking for.
And for the curious: If I scrape off all the search bots, code red worms, and the 404's from external references, I get *MAYBE* about 200 hits per day. Not unique visitors. Not page hits. We're talking total site hits on a good day.
Webserving for me is a hobby. I know the limits of what I can do, and I'm not ashamed of them. If I was doing what I'm doing now for a living, I'd have died of starvation a long time ago. But it's fun, you know? Some people think it's nice, others scoff or ignore, but still- some think it's nice, and I don't necessarily have to care about what the other people think.
In closing, if a programmer in this field is reading this, the argument I present should be fairly obvious, and the potential benefit should be obvious too. I'm not a programmer, but with what little I have dabbled in it, I'm guessing that implementing the suggestion would be of intermediate difficulty to a professional in this field. I'm not saying it's easy, but if it can be quickly and clearly stated, it's not impossible. either... Though they may argue, "It's too much to ask."
If that's their stance, then I've got my own reply:
robots.txt
User-agent: *
Disallow:/
Re:Have to wonder
on
SimChurch
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I mean, i thought that meeting up in church wasn't just about the worship but was about the social interaction with others - the feeling of unity with your peers.
Yes, but many times the social interaction can be an absolute detriment to the practice of actually worshipping. As strongly as I believe in Christianity, I've found that some within that religion have managed to take over many of the sanctuaries with petty politics, and general thought control, and it's either under the nose or with the consent of the minister.
Sadly, the message of Christianity gets twisted, misunderstood, or just plain lost under the din of the congregation.
The virtual Church is novel, and certainly not for everyone, but then such is every flavor of religion in general. Faith is a very personal decision.
My favorite response to those who claim to be a Christian because they go to church comes from Joyce Meyer: "I can sit in my garage; it doesn't make me a car."
I've added Ship of Fools to my bookmarks.;-)
--
General disclaimer: I'm not pushing my faith on you. Thank you for not pushing yours on me.
Having a webserver hobby, I see the search engines crawl through my site daily. Of course in the beginning they hungrily tripped through the pages, taking in as much as could be found. Of course as time went on it seemed like some of the search engines had a new method of just grabbing a page or two every hour or so. I imagine this was to prevent over-taxing my box, but it made the first glance at my logs look artificially inflated as if people were visiting the site instead of just a crawler working its way through... slowly and painfully.
I'd just prefer it if search engines would have enhanced rules for the robot.txt file so a webmaster could tell them more specifically how they want to be searched.
Yes, I know you can put in a delay between page searches, and you can deny access to parts or all of the site, and you can even tell some or all crawlers to take a flying leap, but I'd like to tell them at the front door, "Search on Wednesday, make it fast, do a thorough job, and don't come back for a week."
I'm still of the mind that this is an April Fools joke that went too far.
Even if they found a way to restrict it, there is always someone out there with enough incentive to script their way into using multiple accounts and accessing them through proxy lists. The most obvious use would be for the paranoid who's got data they want to store, but have no possible way for it to be confiscated.
I'm not saying that people can't do this already with other internet services, but since Google is practically guaranteeing that your e-mail (data) will never go away, it makes for a very tempting one stop shop.
I imagine they probably will come up with several methods to detect and deter such uses, but the very concept makes such abuse far too tempting to ignore.
Not anymore. I watched (in absolute amazement) that it went all the way up to +5, now dropped like a brick. As of this post it's at +1,offtopic. I fully expect it to fall into the -1 abyss soon, but I'm cool with it no matter.
In hindsight, I probably should have changed the subject line before I hit "Submit". I just didn't think of it.
I still can't get over the fact that it even got modded up in the first place!
You forgot the razor wire, the minefield, the 18 foot tall concrete wall, and the ant-aircraft guns. Oh, and don't forget about the B-1 Bomber fleet with a heaping pile of MOAB's... While we're at it, let's throw in some propaganda and tactical nukes and some chemical and biological--
Oh wait... This is just getting plain silly.
Firewalls, patches, and frequent monitoring for suspicious activities... yep... Along with a prayer, that's about the best you can do.
Over here it isn't just Linux magazines that have Distros as cover disks, more general computer magazines have them every now and again.
Must be a geographical climate difference then... It's not as if Linux is "difficult" to acquire over here, but it isn't widely publicized for the average Joe.
You shouldn't ever have to download 3 cd iso images!
And while technically you are correct, the problem I see is that when I go to try out a new distro, I want everything at my fingertips. That means *all* available ISO's burned and ready to slide into the drive. Call me spoiled, but I'm not going to start an install only to have it stare at me with the message "Please insert disk #2 and press enter". I can never be sure then if it was a flakey distro or me being "Mr. Unprepared". Better safe than sorry when you can download at twice the speed of light.
30 to 40 hours even on a 56k isn't too unreasonable
No... That's unreasonable. Tying up a phone line for two days is not acceptable, and ISP's over here tend to drop carrier at random, so the likelihood of a successful, uncorrupted DL is slim to none, and the likelihood to use the phone otherwise is pretty high.
The hardware isn't what's done it, it's the amount of time we have now had with hardware thats good enough and the fact that installation/hardware setup just keeps getting easier and easier.
I agree, the installers are MUCH better than they were before, but those nice installers really do demand 64MB RAM or you're going to have headaches. While a vanilla kernal doesn't need much itself, a useable Desktop GUI is going to want a respectable 128MB. This is not unreasonable for non-upgraded hardware that's 2 to 3 years old.
As for broadband and sneaker net, many magazines (at least in Ireland/UK) have had Linux distros on cover disks
Well, on the other side of the pond, the US has been dragging its heels to adopt Linux. Since Linus originally created his work in Finland, I'm taking a blind guess that Linux has always had a higher support base in the EU. There really aren't that many Linux magazines on the stand here in Ohio, and the ones I've seen aren't selling to Joe Sixpack, or dishing out the distro of the month.
With bittorrent I suspect even 56k modem downloads just became a lot more tolerable!
I disagree. When most major distros are released in 3 (or more) CD's, 56k is never tolerable. Bit torrent doesn't have magical properties to speed up 56k. It only reduces the load on the original server by distributing the load across the network. Under the best possible conditions, a 56k modem is still a 56k modem.
IMO, Linux hasn't changed that greatly, it's just easier for non-geeks to get ahold of it. There aren't (m)any new resources; it's just that resources that existed before are easier to get ahold of.
Well, yes... and no... In spite of what most people claim, about 5 years ago in 1999, the typical Joe Sixpack computer had about 16 megs of ram and ran either Win95b or Win98(fe). They had hard drives that were frequently still measured in Megabyts, and clock speeds below 266MHz. No one had broadband access, network cards were only for business use, and many people had these new fangled "WinModems" that barely worked even under Windows.
To make a long story short: The typical computer only 5 years ago was a joke by today's standards! Now that the hardware has caught up with what Linux really needs to breath, it didn't have to go that much further to be a dynamite desktop contender when stacked against the bloat-hog known as Windows XP.
So yeah... The accessibility of it via broadband is a major help too. Linux and sneaker-net wasn't going to cut it... Have you ever tried to meet a Linux geek in person when you're an outsider? You might as well be salmon fishing in an isolated pond!
BTW: Linux on the Desktop is here already. Just because it doesn't have the worlds biggest user base, doesn't mean it's not ready for prime time.
I usually try to avoid these off-topic discussions, but I'd just like to add that in the last couple of years, the number of computers has exploded thanks to Best Buy, Circuit City, etc... Those always come pre-installed with WinXP and the people who buy those machines aren't really knowledgeable enough to install anything themselves.
The obvious conclusion is that it's less likely that Linux is dying, when it's more likely that Windows has infected a class of consumers that were previously computer illiterate and normally content to breath through their mouths. So really what we're seeing is a lot of new people on the internet who just barely know how to use Google that are diluting the original computer enthusiasts and professionals who actually know that everyday people can program a computer and create their own applications that work as well (if not better) than what the corperate overlords dictate through their bloated, phone-home, crap-ware.
To bring it slightly back on topic: If you want easy TV and DVD support in one box, use an ATI AIW card under Windows.
If you want TV and DVD on a nice Linux box, grab a Haupauge and a nice non-NVidia card.
If you want to do WinEX gaming with DVD get an NVidia card.
If you want it all and more, then I suggest you start building and coding your own. Then tell us all how you did it on your home page so we can all/. your site.
"Maybe we really should have the "Bill Gates" moderation option, next to troll."
Personally I think it would be nice to be able to mod your own posts down beyond the "[x] No Karma Bonus" option for times when you know that what you're going to say isn't going to be popular, but you still feel it needs to be said even if it's not as widely heard. That way people wouldn't waste mod points modding down everything they think is "overrated", "off-topic", "troll", or "flamebait", and you don't have to worry about being branded off-topic or unpopular.
Naturally, if you have terrible karma, you'll have -1 scores no matter what, but those are the breaks. You've got to expect some penalties for being an obvious arse. But some people with better karma would like to sign their names to stuff they know isn't their best work, but just don't have the guts to risk their precious karma. Ah... but those are the breaks as well.
And yes, at the time of this post my karma was excellent, but given the choice, I'd gladly have posted this at -1 without bias and let other people decide if it needed to be heard.
Answer:
D) Your monitor shows a blue screen with white text and the keyboard and mouse completely stop reacting to anything you do forcing you to hit the reset button and sit there for half an hour while it runs scandisk.
Of course that's the proper response for just about anything you do under Windows.:-P
It's idyllic, but that's really not that realistic...
When I started using Mandrake, I thought the clean polish of the Keramic and Galaxy themes were just fantastic. I played around with all the different themes and widgits I could find, but as time went on, I just wanted that good ol' Redmond look'n'feel. Sad to say it, but my Linux box looks and acts pretty much like a Windows 98 machine.
If someone were to come along and make me use a "different" desktop because that's what everyone else has decided we'd use, then I'd probably start looking for a utility to get back to the way *I* want it to look.
Some think it's ugly... I think it's comfortable. Let the users keep their choices, and if you want your box to look like XP, then more power to you.
You just can't tell people they have no choice. They will ignore you and choose another person to which they will listen.
Don't tell that to the local news/meteorologist in my neighborhood:
"For the most accurate, up to date, team coverage that affects your life: Turn to the most dependable weather station in the area!"
These guys really understand the weather! I mean, they're right almost 51% of the time!
Um... you don't have to unplug them at all. You just pick them up off the table, move them, and presto-changeo, alakazzam, poof!
Wait. You're grinning. Oh no! No! You mean you were just messing with me the whole time to see if I'd take the bait? Oh man!!! I can't believe I fell for that!
Uh huh. And I guess every government in the world is in on this conspiracy?
Doubtful. Corporations keep governemnts on a "need to know basis", it's just convenient to let the population think the governement can actually contain the multinational corporates that sponsor the Mickey Mouse legislation. And what conspiracy? There may be secrets, but to be blunt, no one is breaking any laws.
When stationary it will be plugged in as usual. You only need the fuel cell on the move. For someone that commutes a couple of hours a day, that's around 3 weeks on one refill.
For someone who commutes a couple hours a day, they could just plug it in and it will re-charge itself while they use it with conventional rechargeables. No need to buy a refill once a month, just a new battery once a year. Hell, the device is obsolete by then anyway.
It won't leak unless it's manufactured badly (like a cigarette lighter). There's no reason it should explode. And yes you can take it on a plane. They can manufacturer laptops where the CPU you can fry an egg on won't burn you so I'm sure they can do the same for the fuel cell.
Yes, but World Weekly News readers are convinced that cell phones are rotting brains! (It's true, I read the article.) As far as rebutting every example of what people will perceive as a potential hazzard, you might as well sword fight with a ghost. Think hydrogen - result HINDENBURG! Not a great PR scenario.
Not true. You CAN generate it from less clean energies if you desire, or from clean ones such as solar, wind, or even algae. Your choice.
Ever make a solar (photovoltaic) cell from scratch? No? It's not cheap. Wind? Hmmm... Hope you've got a lot of realestate on that tiny island of yours to farm that air. Algae? WTF?! Are we all supposed to get a degree in Bio-Chem to use a battery?! The general population does NOT have easy access to environmentally clean resources. If you want to take off and live in your own private Walden facility, then more power to you, but in the real world, I can hear my next door neighbor fart, and I know exactly what time everyone goes to work from the sound their SUV's make when they start them.
So now it's moved from science fiction into fact, it's no longer interesting to you? Well, your choice.
Fuel cell technology has been around since the early 1900s, so it's never exactly been "Sci-Fi". The lack of interest you perceive stems from the one minor detail you can't seem to grasp: Corporations are going to release this technology in the most proprietary, and obfuscated way possible, so the user of the technology is completely oblivious to how it works, and totally dependant upon the corporate manufacturer for its perpetual maintenance.
You may not be convinced by my arguments, but it still won't negate their effects. This technology is coming. I certainly don't have any illusion that my rant will stop its deployment. I'm just warning people up front that those who market and capitalise this product on the environmental angle are going to be very disappointed when they find out that the product is not as earth-friendly as they thought. I'm just letting people know that it will not be as inexpensive as refilling a butane lighter. I'm also letting people know they can expect endless controversies over the silliest aspects of this technology, but mostly I'm reminding people that those in power never give you anything without taking away something more precious.
I'll let you ponder what your sacrifice will be on your own.
...they've even included a downloadable checklist for confused people
"Damn... It's in this weird PDF file format... PDF... Um... Penguinne Data File? Argh!!! I have to have Linux running before I can install it now!"
Looking back, I was a waddling Linux basket case nightmare, and you guys spouting "RTFM" and slinging insults weren't exactly helpful either.
Best experience a noob could have. Thanks.;-)
Today I know that Linux isn't just "good enough" or "free if your time is worthless". I didn't learn those lessons by someone daintily holding my hand and cooing nursery rhymes in my ears. I was subjected to inflamatory attacks and brutally senseless trolls.
I also learned that Linux doesn't mean you have to be a total geekwad that couldn't get laid even by a concrete mixer... Although I'm under no obligations either.
I learned everything a guy could ever hope to learn from the one true beacon of light and hope for all the world: Slashdot.
(No, seriously... no one put me up to this... What do you mean I've got something on my nose? Where?)
OK, so this isn't new, but I love pulling this one any time of the year. In the one office we have two PC's that sit next to each other. Just criss-cross the mice. It's fast, it's simple, it's annoying as hell to the mark, but it's non-destructive, and no one gets in trouble.
The other prank idea involves Christopher Walken and a crowbar, but it's kind of hard to play that one off so everybody can have a good laugh.
Fuel cells won't make any corporations worry one bit. First of all, the typical corporation has "Covenants Not To Compete", so the only way they will displace existing technology is if the biggest corporate powers deem it to be in their best interests.
That being said, the cost of using these devices will undoubtedly be familiar to purchasing printer ink. 40 hours my seem like a long time, but that can be used up in less than 2 days. There's also the "depending on the device load" clause that will no doubt be bundled into the EULA. Oh... You forgot to mention that you had to agree to terms and conditions just to use a new-fangled battery.
But wait! They've got this stuff all laid out! If you thought the price of conventional batteries would drop... BZZZZZZZT! Nope. They've got a dual edged blade on this one. "Well the demand for conventional batteries has decreased, so we can't make them in the volumes like we used to, so the price has to increase." Oh yeah, so the fuel cell cost will drop? BZZZZZZT! "Due to the increasing demands and the difficulty in producing the PIM material we have no choice but to raise consumer prices." I hate to break it to you, but it's not a carrot on a stick. It's an orange turd!
Will it leak? Will it explode? Can I take it on a plane? Will the exhaust (steam) burn you?
These are all questions that will work to artificially keep the price high. The manufactuers will whine ad nauseum that the FUD is holding them back, and they need to be subsidized and then de-demonized by the evil-libral-media-machine.
Legislatures will have endless uses for this technology as well... in the red herring department. "Oh look! Someone just effed up the rights of millions of people! Quick! Let's stir up some controversy over fuel cell technology so people won't notice!"
Of course you've go the whole chicken vs. egg hydrogen economy issue as well. Since hydrogen is derived from less clean energies, then it's already tainted. Nya-nya-nya-nya-nya-nya!
I used to be waaaaaaaaay optimistic about the whole fuelcell revolution, but now that it's future has already been carefully laid out by corporations, it hardly thrills me as anything more than one more piece of technology that will somehow eventually be used against me or perhaps even you when you most depend upon it, and least expect it.
Sorry so long, and I know it's not very optimistic, but thanks for listening... Try to have a nice day.:-)
Ignore her is the best option. Don't offer her any advice if you can help it. Don't offer to help her in any way. This may seem difficult, because you do love your mother. (I know, I love mine too.)
Believe it or not, unless you are specially trained in training people (and even then it's "iffy"), you can actually make it worse for them.
Many times people (and more frequently older people) equate quality, value, and cost. and since you (the good child that you are) are only going to provide assistance non-gratis, your help will be considered the same value as your commensuration.
The person (parent) eventually figures this out on their own and finds someone else to help them. Now they've come to their own (cold) conclusion that you just aren't up to the task. Thanks, Mom!
I'm all for free (libre) software and information, but sometimes people have to pay good money before they learn anything. To quote an episode of Matlock: "I charge my clients a lot of money so they'll do what I tell them."
I'm not suggesting you charge your Mother. I'm suggesting you find someone who will.
Then stay out of it. Make up some excuse about how your employer made you sign a non-compete contract that prohibits you from showing even relatives how to use a computer. Whatever it takes!
Ultimately, your mother will find what she needs on her own, and you'll gain valuable insite into what it's like to "let go" too.;.)
Slashdot Mirror
In all likelihood, the truth will never be known, they'll find what they were looking for, and probably find some petty copyright infrindgement on the side to keep the plausability of the initial story intact.
If I had to wager, I'd say it probably had something to do with that whole "war on terror" thing, but they don't want people to panic so... Let's call it a copyright infringement case so as to teach the younger generation that we really mean business.
Again... I'm just speculating... Like everyone else...
What? This looks like a red herri-- Oh look! A nice shiney penny! Ooooooo!
"CD's? Bah... Who needs 'em! They cost twice as much as the cassettes and LP's, and you've got to be some kind of music nut if you think you can actually hear that much of a difference. Besides that, you're just going to end up making a tape of it anyway so you can play it in your car."
Ah... Them memories... <sigh>
Uh huh... Explain how that theory fits in with all the different memory card formats.
Damn... my tinfoil hat must be busted today.
It may be a little more costly, but no one said defending principles or even freedom would come cheap.
I just did in the 3rd paragraph of my original post: "Search on Wednesday, make it fast, do a thorough job, and don't come back for a week." (Wednesdays are usually slow days for my server.) I suppose you could format it something like this: Agent=*, DaysAllowed=(Wed), Speed=Fast, Method=Complete, Recheck=10080
Find like-minded people who can help you refine and prioritize your list of "wants".
And that's the main reason why I posted what I did. I don't work in the tech sector, so my real-life friends wouldn't know fdisk from fsck or grep from grub.
if everybody is going to say "only check my site on Wednesdays", then search engines that adopt the new conventions will have unused bandwidth on other days of the week; this would mean that they would have to purchase a lot more bandwidth to achieve the same level of service.
Oh... Oh... Oh... Sorry, you just touched a nerve... Don't worry, I won't bite. ;-)
I don't *CARE* if those search engines search my site or don't. They aren't under any obligation to search me (as I don't pay them) and they aren't necessarily entitled to search me (as they don't pay me). If I want to restrict the time or the day to which I want to be "searched" and it's not convenient for them, then I guess I just won't be searched. Oh sure... the world loses out on not being able to find the text of that joke I posted... Boo hoo. There's lot's of other fish in the sea.
But if they've got the time and bandwidth, that's when I say it's OK. Otherwise, I'll use what tools I can and disallow the crawler entirely. I don't need 5, 10, 50 different spiders crawling my server at any given time. I don't host websites for those machines. I host my sites for the enjoyment of people.
I imagine that most people who run webservers do it "for-profit" They practically have to BEG the search engines to come to their sites and give them high rankings. They pay big money for people to sit down and analyze this stuff to get the gods of Google to favor them at any given time.
I'm just taking a guess, but maybe this is why crawlers tend to favor visiting me... I don't have the time or resources to dream up schemes to get my site at the top of a search, my links are clearly posted and easily read because most people get lost trying to find their cursor. Maybe that's what search engines are really looking for.
And for the curious: If I scrape off all the search bots, code red worms, and the 404's from external references, I get *MAYBE* about 200 hits per day. Not unique visitors. Not page hits. We're talking total site hits on a good day.
Webserving for me is a hobby. I know the limits of what I can do, and I'm not ashamed of them. If I was doing what I'm doing now for a living, I'd have died of starvation a long time ago. But it's fun, you know? Some people think it's nice, others scoff or ignore, but still- some think it's nice, and I don't necessarily have to care about what the other people think.
In closing, if a programmer in this field is reading this, the argument I present should be fairly obvious, and the potential benefit should be obvious too. I'm not a programmer, but with what little I have dabbled in it, I'm guessing that implementing the suggestion would be of intermediate difficulty to a professional in this field. I'm not saying it's easy, but if it can be quickly and clearly stated, it's not impossible. either... Though they may argue, "It's too much to ask."
If that's their stance, then I've got my own reply:
robots.txt
User-agent: * /
Disallow:
Yes, but many times the social interaction can be an absolute detriment to the practice of actually worshipping. As strongly as I believe in Christianity, I've found that some within that religion have managed to take over many of the sanctuaries with petty politics, and general thought control, and it's either under the nose or with the consent of the minister.
Sadly, the message of Christianity gets twisted, misunderstood, or just plain lost under the din of the congregation.
The virtual Church is novel, and certainly not for everyone, but then such is every flavor of religion in general. Faith is a very personal decision.
My favorite response to those who claim to be a Christian because they go to church comes from Joyce Meyer: "I can sit in my garage; it doesn't make me a car."
I've added Ship of Fools to my bookmarks. ;-)
--
General disclaimer: I'm not pushing my faith on you. Thank you for not pushing yours on me.
I'd just prefer it if search engines would have enhanced rules for the robot.txt file so a webmaster could tell them more specifically how they want to be searched.
Yes, I know you can put in a delay between page searches, and you can deny access to parts or all of the site, and you can even tell some or all crawlers to take a flying leap, but I'd like to tell them at the front door, "Search on Wednesday, make it fast, do a thorough job, and don't come back for a week."
Too much to ask, right?
Even if they found a way to restrict it, there is always someone out there with enough incentive to script their way into using multiple accounts and accessing them through proxy lists. The most obvious use would be for the paranoid who's got data they want to store, but have no possible way for it to be confiscated.
I'm not saying that people can't do this already with other internet services, but since Google is practically guaranteeing that your e-mail (data) will never go away, it makes for a very tempting one stop shop.
I imagine they probably will come up with several methods to detect and deter such uses, but the very concept makes such abuse far too tempting to ignore.
In hindsight, I probably should have changed the subject line before I hit "Submit". I just didn't think of it.
I still can't get over the fact that it even got modded up in the first place!
It was on display on the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard."
Sorry... It just reminded me so much of that quote.
This was actually my first time getting an ogg stream (using VLC) and I must admit, it sounded VERY good... Until it just shut down..
You forgot the razor wire, the minefield, the 18 foot tall concrete wall, and the ant-aircraft guns. Oh, and don't forget about the B-1 Bomber fleet with a heaping pile of MOAB's... While we're at it, let's throw in some propaganda and tactical nukes and some chemical and biological--
Oh wait... This is just getting plain silly.
Firewalls, patches, and frequent monitoring for suspicious activities... yep... Along with a prayer, that's about the best you can do.
Must be a geographical climate difference then... It's not as if Linux is "difficult" to acquire over here, but it isn't widely publicized for the average Joe.
You shouldn't ever have to download 3 cd iso images!
And while technically you are correct, the problem I see is that when I go to try out a new distro, I want everything at my fingertips. That means *all* available ISO's burned and ready to slide into the drive. Call me spoiled, but I'm not going to start an install only to have it stare at me with the message "Please insert disk #2 and press enter". I can never be sure then if it was a flakey distro or me being "Mr. Unprepared". Better safe than sorry when you can download at twice the speed of light.
30 to 40 hours even on a 56k isn't too unreasonable
No... That's unreasonable. Tying up a phone line for two days is not acceptable, and ISP's over here tend to drop carrier at random, so the likelihood of a successful, uncorrupted DL is slim to none, and the likelihood to use the phone otherwise is pretty high.
I think bittorrent would have made me happier!
Of that, I have no doubt! ;-)
I agree, the installers are MUCH better than they were before, but those nice installers really do demand 64MB RAM or you're going to have headaches. While a vanilla kernal doesn't need much itself, a useable Desktop GUI is going to want a respectable 128MB. This is not unreasonable for non-upgraded hardware that's 2 to 3 years old.
As for broadband and sneaker net, many magazines (at least in Ireland/UK) have had Linux distros on cover disks
Well, on the other side of the pond, the US has been dragging its heels to adopt Linux. Since Linus originally created his work in Finland, I'm taking a blind guess that Linux has always had a higher support base in the EU. There really aren't that many Linux magazines on the stand here in Ohio, and the ones I've seen aren't selling to Joe Sixpack, or dishing out the distro of the month.
With bittorrent I suspect even 56k modem downloads just became a lot more tolerable!
I disagree. When most major distros are released in 3 (or more) CD's, 56k is never tolerable. Bit torrent doesn't have magical properties to speed up 56k. It only reduces the load on the original server by distributing the load across the network. Under the best possible conditions, a 56k modem is still a 56k modem.
Well, yes... and no... In spite of what most people claim, about 5 years ago in 1999, the typical Joe Sixpack computer had about 16 megs of ram and ran either Win95b or Win98(fe). They had hard drives that were frequently still measured in Megabyts, and clock speeds below 266MHz. No one had broadband access, network cards were only for business use, and many people had these new fangled "WinModems" that barely worked even under Windows.
To make a long story short: The typical computer only 5 years ago was a joke by today's standards! Now that the hardware has caught up with what Linux really needs to breath, it didn't have to go that much further to be a dynamite desktop contender when stacked against the bloat-hog known as Windows XP.
So yeah... The accessibility of it via broadband is a major help too. Linux and sneaker-net wasn't going to cut it... Have you ever tried to meet a Linux geek in person when you're an outsider? You might as well be salmon fishing in an isolated pond!
BTW: Linux on the Desktop is here already. Just because it doesn't have the worlds biggest user base, doesn't mean it's not ready for prime time.
The obvious conclusion is that it's less likely that Linux is dying, when it's more likely that Windows has infected a class of consumers that were previously computer illiterate and normally content to breath through their mouths. So really what we're seeing is a lot of new people on the internet who just barely know how to use Google that are diluting the original computer enthusiasts and professionals who actually know that everyday people can program a computer and create their own applications that work as well (if not better) than what the corperate overlords dictate through their bloated, phone-home, crap-ware.
To bring it slightly back on topic: If you want easy TV and DVD support in one box, use an ATI AIW card under Windows.
If you want TV and DVD on a nice Linux box, grab a Haupauge and a nice non-NVidia card.
If you want to do WinEX gaming with DVD get an NVidia card.
If you want it all and more, then I suggest you start building and coding your own. Then tell us all how you did it on your home page so we can all /. your site.
"Maybe we really should have the "Bill Gates" moderation option, next to troll."
Personally I think it would be nice to be able to mod your own posts down beyond the "[x] No Karma Bonus" option for times when you know that what you're going to say isn't going to be popular, but you still feel it needs to be said even if it's not as widely heard. That way people wouldn't waste mod points modding down everything they think is "overrated", "off-topic", "troll", or "flamebait", and you don't have to worry about being branded off-topic or unpopular.
Naturally, if you have terrible karma, you'll have -1 scores no matter what, but those are the breaks. You've got to expect some penalties for being an obvious arse. But some people with better karma would like to sign their names to stuff they know isn't their best work, but just don't have the guts to risk their precious karma. Ah... but those are the breaks as well.
And yes, at the time of this post my karma was excellent, but given the choice, I'd gladly have posted this at -1 without bias and let other people decide if it needed to be heard.
Of course that's the proper response for just about anything you do under Windows. :-P
I'm only kidding! It was A, right?
When I started using Mandrake, I thought the clean polish of the Keramic and Galaxy themes were just fantastic. I played around with all the different themes and widgits I could find, but as time went on, I just wanted that good ol' Redmond look'n'feel. Sad to say it, but my Linux box looks and acts pretty much like a Windows 98 machine.
If someone were to come along and make me use a "different" desktop because that's what everyone else has decided we'd use, then I'd probably start looking for a utility to get back to the way *I* want it to look.
Some think it's ugly... I think it's comfortable. Let the users keep their choices, and if you want your box to look like XP, then more power to you.
You just can't tell people they have no choice. They will ignore you and choose another person to which they will listen.
Don't tell that to the local news/meteorologist in my neighborhood:
"For the most accurate, up to date, team coverage that affects your life: Turn to the most dependable weather station in the area!" These guys really understand the weather! I mean, they're right almost 51% of the time!
Wait. You're grinning. Oh no! No! You mean you were just messing with me the whole time to see if I'd take the bait? Oh man!!! I can't believe I fell for that!
Doubtful. Corporations keep governemnts on a "need to know basis", it's just convenient to let the population think the governement can actually contain the multinational corporates that sponsor the Mickey Mouse legislation. And what conspiracy? There may be secrets, but to be blunt, no one is breaking any laws.
When stationary it will be plugged in as usual. You only need the fuel cell on the move. For someone that commutes a couple of hours a day, that's around 3 weeks on one refill.
For someone who commutes a couple hours a day, they could just plug it in and it will re-charge itself while they use it with conventional rechargeables. No need to buy a refill once a month, just a new battery once a year. Hell, the device is obsolete by then anyway.
It won't leak unless it's manufactured badly (like a cigarette lighter). There's no reason it should explode. And yes you can take it on a plane. They can manufacturer laptops where the CPU you can fry an egg on won't burn you so I'm sure they can do the same for the fuel cell.
Yes, but World Weekly News readers are convinced that cell phones are rotting brains! (It's true, I read the article.) As far as rebutting every example of what people will perceive as a potential hazzard, you might as well sword fight with a ghost. Think hydrogen - result HINDENBURG! Not a great PR scenario.
Not true. You CAN generate it from less clean energies if you desire, or from clean ones such as solar, wind, or even algae. Your choice.
Ever make a solar (photovoltaic) cell from scratch? No? It's not cheap. Wind? Hmmm... Hope you've got a lot of realestate on that tiny island of yours to farm that air. Algae? WTF?! Are we all supposed to get a degree in Bio-Chem to use a battery?! The general population does NOT have easy access to environmentally clean resources. If you want to take off and live in your own private Walden facility, then more power to you, but in the real world, I can hear my next door neighbor fart, and I know exactly what time everyone goes to work from the sound their SUV's make when they start them.
So now it's moved from science fiction into fact, it's no longer interesting to you? Well, your choice.
Fuel cell technology has been around since the early 1900s, so it's never exactly been "Sci-Fi". The lack of interest you perceive stems from the one minor detail you can't seem to grasp: Corporations are going to release this technology in the most proprietary, and obfuscated way possible, so the user of the technology is completely oblivious to how it works, and totally dependant upon the corporate manufacturer for its perpetual maintenance.
You may not be convinced by my arguments, but it still won't negate their effects. This technology is coming. I certainly don't have any illusion that my rant will stop its deployment. I'm just warning people up front that those who market and capitalise this product on the environmental angle are going to be very disappointed when they find out that the product is not as earth-friendly as they thought. I'm just letting people know that it will not be as inexpensive as refilling a butane lighter. I'm also letting people know they can expect endless controversies over the silliest aspects of this technology, but mostly I'm reminding people that those in power never give you anything without taking away something more precious.
I'll let you ponder what your sacrifice will be on your own.
Enjoy your commute.
"Damn... It's in this weird PDF file format... PDF... Um... Penguinne Data File? Argh!!! I have to have Linux running before I can install it now!"
Looking back, I was a waddling Linux basket case nightmare, and you guys spouting "RTFM" and slinging insults weren't exactly helpful either.
Best experience a noob could have. Thanks. ;-)
Today I know that Linux isn't just "good enough" or "free if your time is worthless". I didn't learn those lessons by someone daintily holding my hand and cooing nursery rhymes in my ears. I was subjected to inflamatory attacks and brutally senseless trolls.
I also learned that Linux doesn't mean you have to be a total geekwad that couldn't get laid even by a concrete mixer... Although I'm under no obligations either.
I learned everything a guy could ever hope to learn from the one true beacon of light and hope for all the world: Slashdot.
(No, seriously... no one put me up to this... What do you mean I've got something on my nose? Where?)
The other prank idea involves Christopher Walken and a crowbar, but it's kind of hard to play that one off so everybody can have a good laugh.
That being said, the cost of using these devices will undoubtedly be familiar to purchasing printer ink. 40 hours my seem like a long time, but that can be used up in less than 2 days. There's also the "depending on the device load" clause that will no doubt be bundled into the EULA. Oh... You forgot to mention that you had to agree to terms and conditions just to use a new-fangled battery.
But wait! They've got this stuff all laid out! If you thought the price of conventional batteries would drop... BZZZZZZZT! Nope. They've got a dual edged blade on this one. "Well the demand for conventional batteries has decreased, so we can't make them in the volumes like we used to, so the price has to increase." Oh yeah, so the fuel cell cost will drop? BZZZZZZT! "Due to the increasing demands and the difficulty in producing the PIM material we have no choice but to raise consumer prices." I hate to break it to you, but it's not a carrot on a stick. It's an orange turd!
Will it leak? Will it explode? Can I take it on a plane? Will the exhaust (steam) burn you?
These are all questions that will work to artificially keep the price high. The manufactuers will whine ad nauseum that the FUD is holding them back, and they need to be subsidized and then de-demonized by the evil-libral-media-machine.
Legislatures will have endless uses for this technology as well... in the red herring department. "Oh look! Someone just effed up the rights of millions of people! Quick! Let's stir up some controversy over fuel cell technology so people won't notice!"
Of course you've go the whole chicken vs. egg hydrogen economy issue as well. Since hydrogen is derived from less clean energies, then it's already tainted. Nya-nya-nya-nya-nya-nya!
I used to be waaaaaaaaay optimistic about the whole fuelcell revolution, but now that it's future has already been carefully laid out by corporations, it hardly thrills me as anything more than one more piece of technology that will somehow eventually be used against me or perhaps even you when you most depend upon it, and least expect it.
Sorry so long, and I know it's not very optimistic, but thanks for listening... Try to have a nice day. :-)
Believe it or not, unless you are specially trained in training people (and even then it's "iffy"), you can actually make it worse for them.
Many times people (and more frequently older people) equate quality, value, and cost. and since you (the good child that you are) are only going to provide assistance non-gratis, your help will be considered the same value as your commensuration.
The person (parent) eventually figures this out on their own and finds someone else to help them. Now they've come to their own (cold) conclusion that you just aren't up to the task. Thanks, Mom!
I'm all for free (libre) software and information, but sometimes people have to pay good money before they learn anything. To quote an episode of Matlock: "I charge my clients a lot of money so they'll do what I tell them."
I'm not suggesting you charge your Mother. I'm suggesting you find someone who will.
Then stay out of it. Make up some excuse about how your employer made you sign a non-compete contract that prohibits you from showing even relatives how to use a computer. Whatever it takes!
Ultimately, your mother will find what she needs on her own, and you'll gain valuable insite into what it's like to "let go" too. ;.)