This is probably not the place, and I don't mean to flame, but why is it that almost every Dell I've worked on has been so irreparably slow? Laptop and desktop alike, for the specifications of the machines I've worked on, the computers have always been much slower than they should. I remember a P4 2Ghz with 1GB Ram and a fresh install of Windows XP, and the thing chugged along. Again, I'm not trying to dog on Dell, just posting my observations. Any ideas on why this might be?
This is still an update to that version, and it now includes the one feature I wished for before..."Stay on top of other windows". This lets me have the sidebar always open, without permanently using my screen real-estate, or having to set it to auto hide and having it pop out unexpectedly when scrolling. Well done Google.
As I get further into my college career, I have to disagree with you. I think the problem with many teaching styles now is that it's all about the facts and details, rather than the concepts. Teachers seem to stress memorization of formulas, dates, facts, etc., in many fields which are rapidly changing.
I am in college to learn how to think, and how to *learn* new ideas...not just how to memorize from a teacher or out of a textbook. Computer science is a great example of one of those ever changing fields. I probably won't be using the C++ syntax I am learning now down the road, but I am sure I will be using the concepts behind it as well as the ability to learn new languages.
Teachers need to start stressing ideas and thinking ability. Students need to stop memorizing and parroting material, and focus on what that material has that *can* benefit them down the road. I hardly think this is too much to ask of our educational system, but sadly I doubt it will ever happen.
-wolf- 1. Save every Free Credit Card Offer you get, Put it in pile A
-wolf- 2. Save every Free Coupon You get, put that in pile B
-wolf- 3. Now open the credit card mail from pile A and find the Business Reply Mail Envelope.
-wolf- 4. Take the coupons from pile B and stuff them in the envelope you hold in your hand.
-wolf- 5. Drop the stuffed to the brim envelopes in your mail and walk away whistling.
-wolf- I have now received two phone calls from the credit card companies telling me that they received a stuffed envelope with coupons rather then my application. They informed me that it they are not pleased that they footed the bill for the crap I sent them. I reply with "It says Business Reply Mail" I'm suggesting coupons to you to ensure that your business is more successful. They promptly hang up on me.
-wolf- Now, I did this for about a month before it got boring, so I got an added idea! I added exactly 33 cents worth of pennies to the envelope so they paid EXTRA due to the weight. I got a call informing me about the money, I said it was a mistake and I demanded my change back. After yelling at the clerk and then to the supervisor they agreed to my demands and cut me a check for the money. I hold in my hand at this very moment a check from GTE Visa for exactly 33 cents.
Man: You've gotta start selling this for more than a dollar a bag. We lost four more men on this expedition.
Apu: If you can think of a better way to get ice, I'd like to hear it.
With that said, computer labs full of 1024x768 native res flat panel displays all set at 800x600 is one of the worst tech atrocities in the world.
Worse still are the labs full of any CRT set to 65hz, or lower. The combined flickering is almost like a high-powered strobe light screwing with my eyes. Terrible.
With all these posts about how easily DRM schemes are circumvented and how useless they are, I feel inclined to point out that not everyone will find it as easy to work around these. While this is Slashdot and most users here probably view these protections as a joke since we know how easy they are to get around, the average Joe probably will not. I know the majority of my non-computer savvy friends use a one-click rip solution (Windows Media Player) without any attention payed to quality or how the thing actually works. If, due to a DRM copy protection, WMP refuses to rip the CD, many of these people will have no idea how else to rip the CD and will simply give up.
IMHO, this is not snake oil. While there are many tech-savvy people out there ready to get around the DRM, and overall proficiency with computers is increasing, these protections are effective at stopping the average user from copying a CD--for the time being.
One of my custom Knoppix discs had the Captive NTFS project installed with it. I've used it quite a few times without a problem.
It's available here: http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/
Something like this already exists...www.allofmp3.com. Sure, the target audience may be more foreigners than Russians, but the prices at which they sell music equal out to about the same as iTunes, on a Russian salary.
Because cheaply is not equal to free. Allofmp3.com is dang cheap (at an average of 5c a song), but I still blow through money like there's no tomorrow. Cheap is good, free is better.
From their site: "DOOM 3 Deathmatch is coming to QuakeCon 2004, and there has never been a more level playing field. With DOOM 3 launching this summer, there won't be anyone who has had time to practice or master the game..."
What about the leaked betas out there? I havn't spent the time to download them and see if they're real, but there's two downloads of Doom III Beta 2 on suprnova.org. I'm willing to bet that, if those are real, some planning to attend this event are already practicing.
While I'm definitely not pro-Windows, I think many people miss the point. I've been running a Windows XP Pro box with no Antivirus, no true firewall (only a DSL router that acts somewhat as a firewall), and few updates. In the year and a half I've had this PC, I've gotten one minor virus, and two dinky spyware programs. When the Blaster worm came out, it took me a month to install that patch, with no problems in the meantime. Is this purely luck? No.
The main reason viruses run so rampant on Windows is because of user stupidity. Learn what links and applets are safe, and you'll be much better off. When (if?) Linux goes mainstream to the average Joe's computer, we'll see the same thing. Users who know at least a bit about what they're doing will have few problems, while those who open those "Re:fwd:re:I Love You" emails will.
Again, I'm not pro-Windows, and I like and use Linux much more than Windows, I just live in the real world.
According to the Anandtech review at http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1927&p =2, even an Athlon XP 1700+ outperformes the Celeron 2.6Ghz in most tests, and the 1700+ is only $50 compared to the Celery at $90.
What's this about needing a new processor to compete? Even the older Athlon XP's can take on the Celerons!
Could this possibly be the answer to gaming on Linux? As an avid gamer, the main thing that has kept me from using Linux as my primary OS is the fact that its support for the games I grew up loving is very limited. While I love the newer open source games, I'm just too attached to my old games to fully migrate to Linux...
Wait a second. I can see the threat of a released virus being stomped out by using Knoppix, but what about when the gaming begins? Are they just going to play what is available on the CD?
Slashdot Mirror
This is probably not the place, and I don't mean to flame, but why is it that almost every Dell I've worked on has been so irreparably slow? Laptop and desktop alike, for the specifications of the machines I've worked on, the computers have always been much slower than they should. I remember a P4 2Ghz with 1GB Ram and a fresh install of Windows XP, and the thing chugged along. Again, I'm not trying to dog on Dell, just posting my observations. Any ideas on why this might be?
This is still an update to that version, and it now includes the one feature I wished for before..."Stay on top of other windows". This lets me have the sidebar always open, without permanently using my screen real-estate, or having to set it to auto hide and having it pop out unexpectedly when scrolling. Well done Google.
As I get further into my college career, I have to disagree with you. I think the problem with many teaching styles now is that it's all about the facts and details, rather than the concepts. Teachers seem to stress memorization of formulas, dates, facts, etc., in many fields which are rapidly changing.
I am in college to learn how to think, and how to *learn* new ideas...not just how to memorize from a teacher or out of a textbook. Computer science is a great example of one of those ever changing fields. I probably won't be using the C++ syntax I am learning now down the road, but I am sure I will be using the concepts behind it as well as the ability to learn new languages.
Teachers need to start stressing ideas and thinking ability. Students need to stop memorizing and parroting material, and focus on what that material has that *can* benefit them down the road. I hardly think this is too much to ask of our educational system, but sadly I doubt it will ever happen.
Reminds me of this quote. This kid is brilliant!
-wolf- 1. Save every Free Credit Card Offer you get, Put it in pile A
-wolf- 2. Save every Free Coupon You get, put that in pile B
-wolf- 3. Now open the credit card mail from pile A and find the Business Reply Mail Envelope.
-wolf- 4. Take the coupons from pile B and stuff them in the envelope you hold in your hand.
-wolf- 5. Drop the stuffed to the brim envelopes in your mail and walk away whistling.
-wolf- I have now received two phone calls from the credit card companies telling me that they received a stuffed envelope with coupons rather then my application. They informed me that it they are not pleased that they footed the bill for the crap I sent them. I reply with "It says Business Reply Mail" I'm suggesting coupons to you to ensure that your business is more successful. They promptly hang up on me.
-wolf- Now, I did this for about a month before it got boring, so I got an added idea! I added exactly 33 cents worth of pennies to the envelope so they paid EXTRA due to the weight. I got a call informing me about the money, I said it was a mistake and I demanded my change back. After yelling at the clerk and then to the supervisor they agreed to my demands and cut me a check for the money. I hold in my hand at this very moment a check from GTE Visa for exactly 33 cents.
Reminds me of that Simpsons episode (1F01)...
1 f01.shtml
Man: You've gotta start selling this for more than a dollar a bag. We lost four more men on this expedition.
Apu: If you can think of a better way to get ice, I'd like to hear it.
http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/episodeguide/season5/
With that said, computer labs full of 1024x768 native res flat panel displays all set at 800x600 is one of the worst tech atrocities in the world.
Worse still are the labs full of any CRT set to 65hz, or lower. The combined flickering is almost like a high-powered strobe light screwing with my eyes. Terrible.
However, if you are curious and want to try out the NASA version, there is a torrent available from their server.
r ent
http://opensource.arc.nasa.gov/torrents/ww131.tor
With all these posts about how easily DRM schemes are circumvented and how useless they are, I feel inclined to point out that not everyone will find it as easy to work around these. While this is Slashdot and most users here probably view these protections as a joke since we know how easy they are to get around, the average Joe probably will not. I know the majority of my non-computer savvy friends use a one-click rip solution (Windows Media Player) without any attention payed to quality or how the thing actually works. If, due to a DRM copy protection, WMP refuses to rip the CD, many of these people will have no idea how else to rip the CD and will simply give up.
IMHO, this is not snake oil. While there are many tech-savvy people out there ready to get around the DRM, and overall proficiency with computers is increasing, these protections are effective at stopping the average user from copying a CD--for the time being.
One of my custom Knoppix discs had the Captive NTFS project installed with it. I've used it quite a few times without a problem.
It's available here: http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/
Something like this already exists...www.allofmp3.com. Sure, the target audience may be more foreigners than Russians, but the prices at which they sell music equal out to about the same as iTunes, on a Russian salary.
Why steal when you can buy cheaply?
Because cheaply is not equal to free. Allofmp3.com is dang cheap (at an average of 5c a song), but I still blow through money like there's no tomorrow. Cheap is good, free is better.
From their site: "DOOM 3 Deathmatch is coming to QuakeCon 2004, and there has never been a more level playing field. With DOOM 3 launching this summer, there won't be anyone who has had time to practice or master the game..."
What about the leaked betas out there? I havn't spent the time to download them and see if they're real, but there's two downloads of Doom III Beta 2 on suprnova.org. I'm willing to bet that, if those are real, some planning to attend this event are already practicing.
While I'm definitely not pro-Windows, I think many people miss the point. I've been running a Windows XP Pro box with no Antivirus, no true firewall (only a DSL router that acts somewhat as a firewall), and few updates. In the year and a half I've had this PC, I've gotten one minor virus, and two dinky spyware programs. When the Blaster worm came out, it took me a month to install that patch, with no problems in the meantime. Is this purely luck? No.
The main reason viruses run so rampant on Windows is because of user stupidity. Learn what links and applets are safe, and you'll be much better off. When (if?) Linux goes mainstream to the average Joe's computer, we'll see the same thing. Users who know at least a bit about what they're doing will have few problems, while those who open those "Re:fwd:re:I Love You" emails will.
Again, I'm not pro-Windows, and I like and use Linux much more than Windows, I just live in the real world.
Though I guess this is Slashdot.
According to the Anandtech review at http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1927&p =2, even an Athlon XP 1700+ outperformes the Celeron 2.6Ghz in most tests, and the 1700+ is only $50 compared to the Celery at $90.
What's this about needing a new processor to compete? Even the older Athlon XP's can take on the Celerons!
Let the hacking begin!
----------
Could this possibly be the answer to gaming on Linux? As an avid gamer, the main thing that has kept me from using Linux as my primary OS is the fact that its support for the games I grew up loving is very limited. While I love the newer open source games, I'm just too attached to my old games to fully migrate to Linux...
Wait a second. I can see the threat of a released virus being stomped out by using Knoppix, but what about when the gaming begins? Are they just going to play what is available on the CD?