Slashdot Mirror


User: LocoMan

LocoMan's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
330
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 330

  1. Re:Great on Linux Preinstalled Dell Available Soon · · Score: 1

    Volume is one reason... if you have to do the same support and upgrade guarantees for 10,000 computers it'll cost more than if you have to do the same for 10,000,000 computers (numbers pulled out of my behind.. :) )

  2. Re:So what's included ? on Introducing GNU/Linux Via Applications · · Score: 1

    Well, from what I've read in the comments (not RTFA... I'm at work with mozilla open in the background checking from time to time) the general idea is to use F/OSS in windows as a way to ease eventually going over to linux, so an open AV wouldn't be needed for that particular case, since on linux wouldn't be needed anyway.

    At least that's how I see it, since, at least for me, an AV works the best if I just have to set it up and then forget about it at all (so far I've found the free AVG to work nicely like that).

  3. Re:Keep on waiting... on MS Trying To Spur Vista Sales With Discounts · · Score: 1

    One big reason why I don't have linux on my main computer is that lots of programs I use are windows only, and I don't do dual boots because I don't like having to reboot my computer (insert joke about windows, rebooting and BSoD here)... so for now linux (ubuntu) is installed on a secondary computer I built with what was left after I upgraded my main computer...

    Best way to have me (at least) never to get or try a game would be to make me have to reboot anytime I want to play it... :)

  4. Re:no NO NO! on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn - Desktop Linux Matured · · Score: 1

    I have to agree there... that might be the year of the linux as a graphic/video production computer, but not really the desktop.

    At least here in Venezuela, much more important than adobe apps would be IM's, specifically MSN. And yes, I know Gaim can connect to MSN, but I mean the whole deal, webcams, animated smileys, everything that they come with, and as soon as they come with, or they'll be heading back to windows as soon as they get a "your friend tried to send you a (insert shiny thing here) but you need the latest version of MSN to view it that is available only for windows" message.

  5. Re:I'm sure I'm not alone on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn - Desktop Linux Matured · · Score: 1

    One difference, though (from what I've seen at least) is that those names get lost once the product arrives, while in the forums I still see most people calling different ubuntu versions "edgy", "dapper" and so on (I usually have a hard time when searching on the ubuntu forums to know which version is the one I have installed and which is the latest). Not trying to troll here, though (and I'd add the regular "posting here from an ubuntu computer" if I was at home, but since I'm at work, posting from OSX then.. :) )

  6. Re:Why does it matter if it's free? on Why You Can't Buy a Naked PC · · Score: 1

    HP sure has heard of firefox... but firefox most likely didn't pay HP to be included on their notebooks and netscape did.. :)

  7. Re:Ignorance is just so wonderful to see in action on Why Dell Won't Offer Linux On Its PCs · · Score: 1

    That is one of the biggest roadblocks of linux adoption here in Venezuela. At least in my case, I don't see linux actually moving into the casual user's desktop until there's a 100% compatible MSN client for it. And yes, I know of GAIM and simmilar, but I mean supporting EVERYTHING MSN does (webcams, animated smileys and the like).

  8. Re:Bad past experiences can mold the gamer on 'Losing For The Win' In Games · · Score: 1

    eeer.. make that king's quest 5... king's quest 4 was the one with Rosella as the main character (that one also had quite a few times where you could get stuck too if you hadn't picked everything you needed before going to the main baddie's castle).

  9. Re:Bad past experiences can mold the gamer on 'Losing For The Win' In Games · · Score: 1

    I do remember that in king's quest 4 you had to save an ants colony from a dog that was digging, and later a bee colony from a bear that was trying to get their honey. You had two items you could throw at the dog, an old shoe or a fish, either of them would hit the dog and make it run away, but the bear only left the bees alone if you threw him the fish, so if you used the fish at the dog instead of the shoe, it would be impossible to finish the game since later in the game both the ants and the bees helped you continue.

  10. Re:Apples moves into VM on Microsoft Slugs Mac Users With Vista Tax · · Score: 1

    That's how I understand it too. It says that you can't run on a VM the software installed on a licensed machine, which IMHO means that once the windows is installed on a machine, you can't run it on a VM on the same or another machine. I'd think it would be on the clear if you get a copy of windows specifically to run in a VM, since the VM then becomes the licensed machine.

    It's just the way it has always been only that they changed the wording to specify VMs. If any from a legal standpoint they actually gave more options by including an extra license for VMs on one version. Of course you could install windows in as many computers (and VMs) as you could, just as I guess you will be able to with vista when it's cracked (if it hasn't been already, chances are it has), but from the EULA's standpoint it has always been 1 license for each computer (counting a VM as a computer too)

  11. Re:Good money after bad on OS Comparisons From the BBC · · Score: 1

    To be fair, there are also free (as in beer and sometimes even as in speech) alternatives for each of these problems available for windows too.

  12. Re:ntoskrnl.exe on Inside the Windows Vista Kernel · · Score: 1

    Well, sometimes I wish OSX did that.

    Where I work (video editing) we have a file of logos of clients (and no clients too in case they're needed) in vector format. I don't know who created them, since they were handed to us by someone else, but there are several that have no extension. We have both windows and OSX computers, and in the windows computers, freehand opens them just fine just by renaming the extension to .ai (adobe illustrator format), while the OSX ones tags them as something different (system related or something like that) and it just doesn't even let me select them on freehand (or any other program)'s open or import dialogs.

    There's probably a solution somewhere, though... I've just been too lazy to look for it since anytime I've needed one of those I just import them in windows freehand and export as ai (for maya) or TGA (for photoshop).. :)

  13. Re:This is not news. on Dell Sells Open Source Computers · · Score: 1

    I'm guessing another difference is that the no OS/linux computers are a different assembly line (or whatever they call it) than the windows ones, so they might treat is as a different set of computers they put together but that sells less than the windows ones, so the economies of scale work against them.

  14. Re:The Long Tail of speculation! on The Decline of the PS3 Grey Market · · Score: 1

    On the ticketmaster thing... not sure how it works in the US, but here in Venezuela the one that sells the ticket is the producer, the band doesn't have anything to do with them (directly, at least).

    The company I work for rents stuff to shows (projection/plasma screens and lighting and sound systems). Basically the way it works is that you have a producer that sees a chance to bring an artist, so they contact them and pay them a set amount to play at a specific date and place, then rents the place, promotes the show and sells the ticket. He's also the one that takes the risk, if ticket sales don't bring in enough money to cover for all the expenses, the band still gets paid just as much (except for cases where they negotiate a % of the ticket sales, but at least here it's not common... and even then the band doesn't lose money, just get less), but the producer loses money. I've actually seen some producers having to close down because a big show they invested lots of money in didn't bring any profit.

    There are some bands that do their own producing, though... but at least in my experience they're rare and usually leave the entire business of producing the live shows to companies that specialize in that.

  15. Re:Does he promote IE over Firefox? on Firefox Creator No Longer Trusts Google · · Score: 1

    Last time I checked (it's been several months since I used opera, though), it worked perfectly but some features like the rich text tools only showed up in firefox.

  16. Re:Just Open Source It? on Google Book Scanning Efforts Not Open Enough? · · Score: 1

    There's also the thing of wether they can open it at all (the content, I mean, not the system). They get away with it because of the fair use laws that (IIRC from what I've read a long time ago) allows you to show a sample of a work but not the entire work (like online CD vendors do when they let you hear 15 seconds or so of each song). They can't open something the don't own the copyright of in the first place, unless they only did it with public domain works only (like what the project guttemberg was/is doing... are they still around?)

  17. Re:Cost cutting a little out of control? on Microsoft Sued Over Fall Update Issues · · Score: 1

    IIRC that (the changing from horizontal to vertical thing) happens in almost any desk CD player out there, it's just the way they work, which is why portable players have a different way to put the CD on (where you have to "pop" the CD into place). I read it a long time ago, though, and by now don't even remember if it was online or on a magazine.

  18. Re:But... on Firefly MMORPG Announced · · Score: 1

    I'm guessing (though never read any book about it) that speed would also be a factor in getting to the shortest distance. Maybe there are areas that you can't go trough without going fast enough to be able to get out of the gravitational force of a black hole before getting pulled into the point of no return, so that only ships fast enough can make the 12 parsecs route. Still George Lucas screwed it up when putting that in the movie and left us to try to tweak things around to make it look like he didn't.. :)

  19. Re:W00t - not. on EMI Experiments With DRM-free MP3's · · Score: 1

    This is getting off topic (or already is), but I do remember reading somewhere that in most asian countries they use the atlantic ocean to cut off the map, leaving asia around the middle of the map, the americas to the right and europe to the left.

  20. Re:Tom Clancy BS on U.S. Warns of Possible Cyber Biz Attack · · Score: 1

    Of course over there "planes" should have been "plans".. :)

  21. Re:Tom Clancy BS on U.S. Warns of Possible Cyber Biz Attack · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Actually, I'd think either the terrorists or intelligence agencies are picking random Tom Clancy plots for their planes. Debt of Honor had the crashing of stock markets by the japanese using a backdoor, the plane crashing at the pentagon killing almost all of the chain of command, and also a focused laser disguised into a camera that was aimed at cockpit of airplanes when they were landing to make them crash, which, IIRC, was also warned as a possible terrorist act sometime ago.. :)

  22. Re:FINALLY on Judge Says U.S. Money Violates Rights of the Blind · · Score: 2, Informative

    Venezuelan money does too (though not sure for how long it has had it). The denomination number is raised, as is the face and other features to help blind people distinguish them, and it really helps... I've seen blind people recognize the bills as fast as non blind by rubbing their thumb on the bills as they receive them.

    The coins also have different ridges on the sides for that (the 50Bs. coin has ridges, the 100 one has a smooth edge, and the 500 one has alternating ridged and smooth areas).

  23. Re:cost of porting on More Bioware For Linux? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's the thing. NWN is a very popular game, and they've gotten up to 1000 requests (according to the summary).... so that means they would make up to $50,000, assuming everyone that expressed interest actually buys it when it comes out and doesn't wait until it goes down in price, torrents it, or just says "but I already have this in windows, I'll buy this other new game instead". If that covers the amount of work needed to make the port (even if it's just recompiling), testing, reproduction of a separate version, change in the packaging (to reflect that it's the linux version), sales and post-sale support (now every patch has to be tested twice, for example), I'd think it would just cover it barely.

    Even then, I'd bet companies that are interested in porting their games have their sights set on consoles that are a much bigger market than on alternate OSs, specially in a market as competitive as games where the window to make money off a product is so small, and even one big failure can be enough to doom an entire company. I guess the only big chance to really get gaming companies to notice alternate OSs regularly is to actually get more people using them... which leaves us in the perpetual catch 22, since gamers aren't really willing to use linux only unless there are more games for it.

  24. Re:Ultraman vision of the future. on 40 Years of Ultraman · · Score: 1

    Another venezuelan here... I remember all the fun times with the friends playing ultraman and doing the cross palms thing. Also I remember Goldar (and how I wanted them to show full shots of how that girl and kid transformed into rockets!!!), also Robot Gigante (a quick googling shows it was called Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot in the US) and on the animated front, Capitán Centella (Gekko Kamen), Capitán Futuro, Galáctico (Starzingers) and of course the whole collection of giant robots, Mazinger Z, Vengador (Kotetsu Jeeg), Gladiador (Gaiking), Supermagnetrón (magetorobo ga-keen... the worlds first bisexual robot.. :) )... aaaaaah... fun times back when cartoons didn't have a problem showing people getting killed.. :)

  25. Re:Functionality Display on Optimus OLED Keyboard Pre-Orders Start Dec. 12 · · Score: 1

    I have to agree here. At least that isn't particularly useful for me, since I very rarely look at the keyboard at all to begin with. On most apps I use regularly (photoshop, premiere, final cut pro and others), once I learnt the shortcuts I always either click on the tools with the mouse or hit the shortcut keys without looking at the keyboard. Same for games (specially FPSs). I usually configure the keyboard so that I can click on the most common actions without having to look at it at all (usually using sdfe instead of asdw and setting everything else on the keys next to those).

    Not to say it won't be useful to anyone, there are some special uses already mentioned where this keyboard would be very useful (regularly switching different languages, for example), but at least as far as I'm concerned it would be just a very expensive and rather useless tool (and one with a limited life too, according to what I read about it a looong time ago on the life of the little screens... did they improve on that? haven't RTFA).