Amen to that. If, for any reason, in doubt after reading the e-mail correspondence, check also his personal profile on the government website, and notice how he has personally elected to use the font which is truly the finality of signs of 22 years of computer experience: Comic Sans MS. To top it all off, he even managed to color it blue -- black text is, as all know, just too readable.
The city of Tuttle; Where people grow -- friendly!
What I'm really hoping is now that Beagle is so easy to install (yum install beagle -- ought to work out of the box in FC5, no need to add repo's), it will expose it to more people and motivate development.
It's easier than that -- it comes installed and enabled by default. They've even added support for it in Nautilus. No need to do anything at all.
I'm not the GP, but I still don't quite get the point.
1) Like Debian, has apt, there is so no dependency hell when you install new packages or upgrade
People keep bringing this up, but I never understand it. In what distro does one actually experience dependency hell these days? Using RPM on FC without using it through yum would be just as wise as using dpkg on Ubuntu without using it through apt. I don't know about Mandriva or Suse, but I'd be guessing that that's what urpmi and yast do. Portage certainly handles it well on Gentoo.
2) Unlike Debian, has regular releases (every 6mo or so), so you can regularly get quality-tested new software. Plus the Ubuntu unstable is usually usable three months into development.
On the other hand, that is true for FC as well, and I don't think anyone has ever recommended Debian to newbs. Admittedly, I don't know how Suse or Mandriva does in this regard, though.
3) Newb-friendly community; people will go out of their way to help newbs, not flame them. Yes, even if they did not RTFM. They believe that you deserve help even if you don't RTFM. Can you imagine that?
4) Plus, the forums provide an environment that newbs are comfortable in. Check out the other distro's forums and you'll see the difference. Admittedly this is tied to their considerable financial resources.
OK, that is cool, but I have to wonder: How large percentage of newbs go to the forums anyway? I can't say I know, but I just can't imagine it to be too large a ratio.
4) Most people (including myself) report superior hardware detection to Fedora/Suse. On my laptop it detected everything perfectly. I am not sure how it compares to Debian.
Well, I've experienced that as well, but I've experienced the opposite as well. Just as often as Ubuntu handles something which FC doesn't handle, FC seems to handle something else which Ubuntu doesn't. In my experience, they're pretty much tied in this area.
5) They will mail you a free CD. Anywhere you are in the world. And the whole distro fits on a single CD. It truly aims to be a universal distribution, for everyone.
Last I installed Ubuntu, that wasn't quite true. It did install the base system from one CD, but then it got the rest from apt, which obviously requires Internet access. I'd imagine that might be quite a problem on e.g. a laptop on which it doesn't recognize the WiFi interface or in similar situations. Don't know if they might have changed this lately, though. I didn't really think about it too deeply when I installed 6.04 Flight 5. As for the free CD, it's definitely cool, but I for one would rather download an ISO image in less than an hour than wait for two weeks for that package to arrive from South Africa (that's about as long as it took the two times I've tried it).
On the other hand, Fedora Core has the excellent NetworkManager program, which makes it at all possible for newbs to move between different wireless networks. Ubuntu will have that in 6.04, but that isn't released yet.
If anything, I can definitely say that Ubuntu is positioning itself for the "ease of use" kind of stuff. They have definitely made headway into creating package manager front ends that are easy to use, and I absolutely adore their use of sudo instead of su. They also have graphical admin tools that I'd imagine are quite nice, but I can't say that I can truly imagine how a newb would think about them. FC seems much more targeted at the corporate desktop or Linux enthusiast to me (in other words, something which a newb can use, but not install or administrate). On the other hand, I can't say that I think that Ubuntu 5.10 has come far enough to match FC's polish. Hopefully, Ubuntu 6.04 will be better.
but this is one area where Windows beats Linux hands down
I don't know about Ubuntu, but in Fedora Core, if you only install the Chinese (or other) locales, then perfectly working input method support comes without further ado -- if you log in with the Chinese or Japanese locale settings (selectable through gdm, or during installation), it's even turned on by default. I even got Japanese input working without any problems in Gentoo.
I definitely did have greater problems getting it to work in Ubuntu, though, but it was quite a while ago, and I don't recall what I did anymore.
Azureus:
Note: Using an old Java version or having more than one installed may cause severe problems like 100% CPU usage!
The latest official Java is version 1.5 Update 6.
That sure sounds like telling you to use a specific version to me.
Really? To me, it seems that they're saying to use a specified version or later. They aren't saying to use 1.5-6, but just not to use one that isn't too old, such as 1.5-6.
The absolute prerequisite is a correctly installed Java 1.4.x or 1.5.x.
Yep, no dictating specific versions there.
I can't really tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but since 1.5.x is the latest version, that's the same as saying "1.4 or later".
Funny. Usually I've seen "Use this version of JAVA or NEWER or all hell will break loose."
That probably the GP's point. You only ever see "use this version or newer", never "use this particular version". Sometimes, programmers have to rely on newer features introduced in a later version, but programs written for older versions won't fail, even on newer JVMs. That means that you might have to upgrade your JVM every once in a while, but you won't have to port any applications you have to the new JVM. They'll go on working just as they always did.
I don't know about the G4s in the laptops, but at least the G5s were made by IBM. There was an article on Slashdot a few months ago (can't find it right now, though, but it was a while after Apple had announced the switch to Intel) about IBM being about to release new G5 products: One dual-core variant, and one low-power variant for use in laptops. I believe that same dual-core CPU is currently used by the current PowerMacs. It seems Apple never got to use the low-power one, though. If only they had done it earlier...
Regardlessly of whether water molecules resonate at 2.4 GHz or not, I still think that the GP's point is valid: EM waves at 2.4 GHz affects water enough to warm it. Of course, as the GP also did point out, the difference in transmission strength between a WiFi antenna and a microwave oven makes it a non-issue anyway, even ignoring the fact that just because it warms your body, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's cancerous.
Re:GNOME's audio backend GStreamer to use DRM
on
A Look at GNOME 2.14
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I may be ignorant, but I don't think I understand. Either that, or you don't understand the LGPL. The LGPL most definitely requires access to the source code of the library it governs. If the DRM'd plugins are licensed under the LGPL, it is perfectly possible to alter them like any other open source library or program.
What the LGPL does, is allow LGPL'd libraries to be used by non F/OSS programs. Even then, it requires access to the source code and build system, so that the LGPL'd parts of that program can be changed and then replaced to be used by the program, even if the program is compiled statically. The LGPL does not in any way permit hiding the source of those libraries themselves. Thus, it is perfectly possible to rip out the DRM parts of any LGPL licensed GST plugins.
Did you not know this, or did I miss your point? I can agree that it could have been wise to license GST under the GPL, but I don't see it being for the reasons that you describe. Also, as I see it, it is better if any proprietary programs can use GST, because that still gives a better user experience in the end (since the user won't have to maintain several plugin repositories).
DVI isn't really an alternative to PDF. DVI wasn't ever intended as a file format to distribute documents, but rather as an intermediate file format used within a complete TeX system. I'd say it is more or less comparable to object files, as generated by e.g. C compilers. It doesn't embed either fonts or external graphics. It's just a list of instructions for typesetting the final document, whether it is as PostScript, PDF, printer output or on a user's screen. It's not really meant to be copied between systems, however.
PostScript and PDF, on the other hand, contain everything about the document they describe in one single file, which is completely independent of external sources (although they can reference external fonts if so instructed, and usually do for the most common ones).
However, MSN isn't advertising anywhere near as aggressively as Google is.
Really? In my experience, the reverse is true. I just tried a few queries on both (with no high-profile or buzzword keywords), and while Google didn't display a single ad in either case, MSN displayed ads both above and to the side of the results in all cases.
"If I were asked to trim it down, I'd have a hard time nixing anything that wouldn't get me in trouble with a LOT of people."... "The main problem that Java still has is a large memory footprint."... "loading all those libraries into memory at startup."... "Thankfully, systems today have tons of memory and disk space."
So basically, you agree that it's bloated?:)
Personally, I'm having a hard time seeing how a language which makes a "Hello World" program take a tenth of a second of CPU time and 50 MB of VM size to execute could be considered un-bloated, whatever arguments you may have. The fact that you say that making Java an OS component is the best way to solve the problem doesn't exactly make it better.
Neither Windows Media Player or QuickTime support these formats and codecs, so they'd might as well be proprietary. I'm not about to tell users that they have to download VLC to view our content.
Neither should you have to. What's preventing you from simply offering both? Also, the OGG, Vorbis, Theora and Speex codecs are all available as DirectShow filters with a Windows installer from Xiph.org, so users don't have to leave WMP just to view content.
Most definitely. OGG, Theora, Vorbis and Speex (obviously;) are all streamable. There is also Icecast, which is a GPL server implementation for streaming these protocols over HTTP (Wikipedia page).
Now we have a comparison of a single operating system (Windows) + apps running on it with at least 12 distinct operating systems + 10x the number of apps that was counted for windows. The result is rather surprising: there are JUST 4x more bugs in 12 operating systems + 10x more apps than in windows + windows apps alone! This result is much more unfavorable for Microsoft than to any Unix/Linux OS!
Actually, it's far worse than that. If you filter out the "Updated" entries for each vulnerability, it lands on 672 for Windows and 892 for the so called "Unix/Linux" category, which means a mere 32% more vulnerabilities for 12 systems + 10x more apps than in Windows + Windows apps alone!
Of course, the problem isn't normally so much infected downloaded files as it is scripting/image/rendering/whatever vulnarabilites in IE. In those cases, a sandbox certainly helps.
Indeed, and the reason why really isn't that hard to guess. If there is a word for something, it's usually quite simply because there's a need for it. Most anime fans agree that there is a large difference between comics from Japan and comics from more or less the rest of the world. Thus, they need a word for it, when they need to talk about it. It really isn't harder than that.
If you argue that they should be called "Japanese comics" rather than "Manga", I believe another poster has already pointed out that that's a more than 100% increase in the number of syllables.
Sorry to ruin your fun, but you should at the very least get your physics right:
* While Santa could be smeared out for one knowing his momentum vector exactly enough, the Santa waveform would collapse at the very least as he attempts to deliver a gift (and that is disregarding interacting with anything else, such as air molecules). And while I'm on the subject, for the positional uncertainty of Santa's waveform to reach an order of magnitude of 1e7 meters (the circumference of the Earth), his momentum would have to be determined with an uncertainty less than 1e-41 kgm/s. I don't think the GP intended to say that his velocity would be exactly 650 miles/s.
* A pitiful 650 miles/s isn't even remotely enough to detect any relativistic effects. The Lorentz factor at that speed would be only about 0.0006% above Newtonian. Also, unless Santa truly does take action to change his particle state from Tardyonic to Tachyonic (actions which aren't even defined by any quantum field theories -- possibly explainable in string theory if Santa had found a way to change the vibrational state of his constituent strings), relativistic effects do not allow Santa to travel backwards in time. If Santa indeed travelled superluminally despite having real mass and energy, he would still not have a velocity vector with a negative time component, but rather an imaginary such.
Slashdot Mirror
The city of Tuttle; Where people grow -- friendly!
On the other hand, Fedora Core has the excellent NetworkManager program, which makes it at all possible for newbs to move between different wireless networks. Ubuntu will have that in 6.04, but that isn't released yet.
If anything, I can definitely say that Ubuntu is positioning itself for the "ease of use" kind of stuff. They have definitely made headway into creating package manager front ends that are easy to use, and I absolutely adore their use of sudo instead of su. They also have graphical admin tools that I'd imagine are quite nice, but I can't say that I can truly imagine how a newb would think about them. FC seems much more targeted at the corporate desktop or Linux enthusiast to me (in other words, something which a newb can use, but not install or administrate). On the other hand, I can't say that I think that Ubuntu 5.10 has come far enough to match FC's polish. Hopefully, Ubuntu 6.04 will be better.
I definitely did have greater problems getting it to work in Ubuntu, though, but it was quite a while ago, and I don't recall what I did anymore.
I think you got that translation wrong. It seems to me that it means that they have finally decided to offer Microsoft Linux.
The resource hungry programs are all part of Gnome, and I'm having a very hard time imagining that they'd use Gnome in an embedded distro.
I don't know about the G4s in the laptops, but at least the G5s were made by IBM. There was an article on Slashdot a few months ago (can't find it right now, though, but it was a while after Apple had announced the switch to Intel) about IBM being about to release new G5 products: One dual-core variant, and one low-power variant for use in laptops. I believe that same dual-core CPU is currently used by the current PowerMacs. It seems Apple never got to use the low-power one, though. If only they had done it earlier...
So it is, but Yahoo might not enjoy being the medium of your expression of that, and it's their choice to accept or deny users.
Regardlessly of whether water molecules resonate at 2.4 GHz or not, I still think that the GP's point is valid: EM waves at 2.4 GHz affects water enough to warm it. Of course, as the GP also did point out, the difference in transmission strength between a WiFi antenna and a microwave oven makes it a non-issue anyway, even ignoring the fact that just because it warms your body, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's cancerous.
What the LGPL does, is allow LGPL'd libraries to be used by non F/OSS programs. Even then, it requires access to the source code and build system, so that the LGPL'd parts of that program can be changed and then replaced to be used by the program, even if the program is compiled statically. The LGPL does not in any way permit hiding the source of those libraries themselves. Thus, it is perfectly possible to rip out the DRM parts of any LGPL licensed GST plugins.
Did you not know this, or did I miss your point? I can agree that it could have been wise to license GST under the GPL, but I don't see it being for the reasons that you describe. Also, as I see it, it is better if any proprietary programs can use GST, because that still gives a better user experience in the end (since the user won't have to maintain several plugin repositories).
External references: The LGPL and the GPL.
PostScript and PDF, on the other hand, contain everything about the document they describe in one single file, which is completely independent of external sources (although they can reference external fonts if so instructed, and usually do for the most common ones).
And that creates an interesting point: What prevents junk mailers from paying Goodmail for the privilege of sending messages to AOL users?
Personally, I'm having a hard time seeing how a language which makes a "Hello World" program take a tenth of a second of CPU time and 50 MB of VM size to execute could be considered un-bloated, whatever arguments you may have. The fact that you say that making Java an OS component is the best way to solve the problem doesn't exactly make it better.
While I do agree with your point, I also think that it was a tad further back than ten years that Compaq reverse-engineered the PC BIOS.
Indeed, that's why I said he should offer both.
Of course, the problem isn't normally so much infected downloaded files as it is scripting/image/rendering/whatever vulnarabilites in IE. In those cases, a sandbox certainly helps.
If you argue that they should be called "Japanese comics" rather than "Manga", I believe another poster has already pointed out that that's a more than 100% increase in the number of syllables.
* While Santa could be smeared out for one knowing his momentum vector exactly enough, the Santa waveform would collapse at the very least as he attempts to deliver a gift (and that is disregarding interacting with anything else, such as air molecules). And while I'm on the subject, for the positional uncertainty of Santa's waveform to reach an order of magnitude of 1e7 meters (the circumference of the Earth), his momentum would have to be determined with an uncertainty less than 1e-41 kgm/s. I don't think the GP intended to say that his velocity would be exactly 650 miles/s.
* A pitiful 650 miles/s isn't even remotely enough to detect any relativistic effects. The Lorentz factor at that speed would be only about 0.0006% above Newtonian. Also, unless Santa truly does take action to change his particle state from Tardyonic to Tachyonic (actions which aren't even defined by any quantum field theories -- possibly explainable in string theory if Santa had found a way to change the vibrational state of his constituent strings), relativistic effects do not allow Santa to travel backwards in time. If Santa indeed travelled superluminally despite having real mass and energy, he would still not have a velocity vector with a negative time component, but rather an imaginary such.