I like this discussion, but it seems to me that English is a general term for a language group which covers countless variations in grammar spelling and pronunciation. Language is continually evolving.
Trying to define a particular English variant is difficult if not impossible, British English is a term to refer to a standard of English usage in Britain or perhaps "School English" that is taught in Britain however outside of the class room many variations occur. I would think USA Schools teach an American English form which is distinctly different from British English School form and different from local usage as well.
I would be surprised if all Welsh speakers used (outside of School) the same Welsh variant.
Legal English is yet another variant which attempts to hold language to a standard which is distinctly different to that spoken by the general population.
Programming languages closest relative in the outside world is probably Legal English. The usage of a semi-natural language, such as C C++ Java Pascal Lisp ect, is held to precise standards (within a particular compiler at least) and I think this is why there are so many people who foam at the mouth within forums such as slashdot when they see syntax errors within other peoples postings.
I can't help but wonder if there is a correlation between the favoured choice of programming language of an individual and the amount of ire felt by them whilst reading the syntactically error prone postings on slashdot. (I would guess assembly coders might be at one extreme and VB programmers at the other).
perhaps this also gets to the core of native vs jit arguements the problem with Jit is that it is dependent on the implimentation of the interperator.
"Around this time Symbolics (Notfsker's company) began operations- it had been hindered by Noftsker's promise to give Greenblatt a year's head start, and by severe delays in procuring venture capital. Symbolics still had the major advantage that while 3 or 4 of the AI Lab hackers had gone to work for Greenblatt, a solid 14 other hackers had signed onto Symbolics, the lion's share of the AI Lab's hackers. There would be two exceptions, two AI Lab people who did not get hired by either: Richard Stallman, and Marvin Minsky."
I'd like to see this reach the mainstream press,seriously the coverage of this story by p2p.net slashdot and hill times is pretty meaningless. Thier readership are already well informed about the issues.
The majority of the canadian people who already pay the levy on blank media, who will be criminalised for the benefit of multi-nationals, they need to be informed.
The CRIA and the Politicians will not feel any heat until canadian citizens are enraged about this, canadians who know about this story need to bring it to the attention of mainstream canadian media and start writing to thier representatives. If questions are raised about this in the canadian parliment and the mainstream press raises the awareness of the average canadian about this issue, then canadians might actually stand a chance of mitigating the effects of this lobby group.
Canada is not an American State and doesn't wish to become one - does it?
i think a cool way to go is ubuntu and vmware. Ghost your existing windows setup unpack in a virtual disk in VMWare run windows when you have too (in a window or full screen ctrl alt to switch) Dual boot could still be useful if you really need windows for gaming. Personally I don't find I need windows very much on a day to day basis.
I like VMware I really do, It's letting me get rid of windows as my primary OS, instead now I can use ubuntu as default and only run windows when I haven't a convenient alternative.
Maybe some of the VMware people reading here could answer a few questions?
1) any plans to make a.deb installation package instead of tar.gz or rpm (admittedly tar.gz works ok in ubuntu I just wonder what its done to my package management).
2)Are there any plans to improve support for OSX in a virtual machine, (graphically it's a bit sluggish compared to native on the same hardware) on the otherhand adding a network controller to the VM as NAT gave network access to OSX as a wired network card (even though it was wireless in reality:)
3) any chance of VMware workstation being made freely available for a single vm or some other limited use. I wouldn't want to see VMware cut its own throat but it seems the money for them is in commercial servers not an individual trying to break thier windows habit.
4)which is quicker windows in a vm hosted on windows or windows in a vm hosted on linux?
ubuntu and VMware make a great combination, it's something that should be tried by any windows user, who wants to escape the limitations of windows but needs windows compatability (at least initially) although ubuntu and remote desktop is another working alternative (video is slow thou).
Anyway to any of the VMWare team reading this you guys rock.
ok given that 98 me 95 are not going to be supported, what can we recommend instead for lets say a base machine of a p166 with 48 meg of ram I think 2000 will install on that but what linux distro would give an equivilent experience to 98se (which the P166 in question is running currently)? personally I like ubuntu but I think it wouldnt run gnome on that hardware config.
"The tool, part of the Redmond company's bid to thwart widespread piracy, is being distributed gradually to people who have signed up to receive Windows security updates. The company expects to have offered it to all users worldwide by the end of the year.
Lazar said that so far, about 60 percent of users who were offered the piracy check decided to install it. Once installed, the program checks to make sure the version of Windows a user is running is legitimate, and gathers information such as the computer's manufacturer and the language and locale it is set for.
That information-gathering is disclosed in a licensing agreement. But the agreement does not make clear that the program also is designed to "call home" to Microsoft's servers, to make sure that it should keep running.
At least every 90 days, the tool also checks again to see if the copy of Windows is legitimate. Lazar said that's because the company sometimes discovers that a copy of Windows that it thought was legitimate is actually pirated.
When Microsoft believes a copy of Windows is pirated, the user begins to get a series of reminders that the copy isn't genuine. Such users also are barred from downloading noncritical updates, such as the new version of its Internet Explorer browser. But anyone who has signed up to automatically receive security updates, which repair flaws to prevent Internet attacks, will still get those fixes."
first off while 60% of users may have agreed to have it installed, how much choice did they have? windows update doesn't work without genuine advantage does it. The alternative is to manually find patches that may or may not exist.
My answer to the windows problem is Ubuntu and VMWare, once installed in a virtual machine all your windows applications are available to you concurently with all your linux applications is there any reason to give a windows install net access anyway. I can carry on using most of my windows tools as before and use linux for all my internet access. automatix takes care of file formats i am likely to find that are 'non free'. The only way to take back our computers is to remove windows from the equation or minimise its use and relegating its use to a virtual machine does that. sure theres a performance overhead in using a VM but not one that makes a huge difference to me or most other users. Maybe Gamers would find it preferable to maintain a native windows install as well so a reboot later and you have your XP at full speed on your hardware. Why run windows by default when its just a buggy malware and virus prone mess. Treat windows as an application that you run when you need it only and you will find you need it less and less.
I started down this path with Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice and later alternative messaging clients such as gaim and aMSN. I realised that Vista was going to be the OS that was going to give me nothing but grief and take away the freedom to do as I please on my hardware. I've been trying Linux distro's on and off for a while now SUSE 8 SUSE 9, Knoppix Xebian and now finally Ubuntu. Ubuntu is the replacement for windows I have been looking for. Its easy to use well documented and plenty of pages exist that give you step by step guidance when its needed.
The closest thing to ubuntu has to be OSX but its not free and not officially sanctioned by Apple yet on non apple hardware. probably has more driver issues with non-apple hardware than ubuntu and it seems every little thing is shareware or commercial.
The other great thing about Ubuntu is that most of the free alternatives I have been using in windows are here in ubuntu and work just the same.
if your dissatisified with whats being put out by redmond try ubuntu. nothing to lose and a lot to gain.
wireless card recognised but not working eh, sounds familiar. basically whats happened is the kernal has support built in for your wireless card but coz of 'restrictions' can't actually ship with the driver.
I have a smallish website that i've had running on a pda for quite some time (currently off line as the pda is doing gps duty) why stick a website on a pda? For a low traffic site (but with upto 1 gig of files availabe) the pda sits drawing about 10 watts an hour max silently
I could run a pc as a webserver with its continually running fan and considerably larger power drain but why when it's a site of little interest to more than a few friends.
on the otherhand unless you have essentially free data transfer (which i have with wireless) on a cell phone its not much use at all.
I just installed ubuntu and one of the best reasons for using ubuntu is automatix, followed by the ubuntu wiki and forums.
One of the big problems with linux is the problems of nonfree formats. simple reasuring things like the ability to play an MP3 or watch a dvd are stumbling blocks for new adopters of linux.
I understand the free and open principles and how mp3 has legal problems while obvorbis is patent free and anyone can use it. It still doesn't help much when you want to play an MP3 or play a DVD.
Automatix solves the problem for ubuntu by not including it in the distro the distro is kept clean however automatix allows the individual user to choose what they want supported in thier desktop. 30 minutes of automated downloads and pretty much everything you can do out of the box with windows is on your desktop with ubuntu (and then some).
That and the wiki and the ubuntu forum is what makes that distro special.
I've used suse and while yast and the "network neighborhood"(I forget what suse calls it) are useful it doesnt help me much to do regular user things which is why I don't use that PC much.
Back to standards thou, lets get the paths fixed. Agree on something so installers can work across different linux versions. I don't care if i need half of kde installed so i can use some kde apps on my desktop- i'll take the other half of kde as well. As long as i get to use what I like, when i like.
Anything that is shared by different applications must go in standard locations and if we can't reach an agreement lets get Linus to decide for us.
I feel I should respond to some of your points, incidentally written on a laptop running ubuntu, and using firefox.
Firstly antipiracy opinions are not modded down automatically I read your post at +5 (although I do upgrade insightful and interesting posts and downgrade unfunny funny posts).
Propiracy opinions exist on slashdot so do proponants of free software and people who think everything should be properly paid for and licienced....Maybe like my ubuntu install:) finally a linux version that is easy to use
There is a whole spectrum of opinion here, but how can anyone support the actions of Sony in creating a root kit on millions of peoples computers or the actions of the RIAA and MPAA victimising some grandma or a teenage kid.
When someone gets forced to sign an agreement to pay the RIAA 15,000 dollars or face being landed with a legal bill even if successfully defended against. In reality your taking thier life away. Because this huge debt now has to be serviced- ahead of everyother thing in life. Grandma might now have to skip buying the medication she needs, the kids clothes will just have to last them just that little bit longer because of what a desire to listen to some muusic watch a film.
Now if you have ever been in a law court the sentence that is passed quite often will take into account the circumstances of the person charged with the offence. I mean what would be reasonable a $500 dollar fine and confiscating the computer equipment used in this kind of case. It depends on the circumstances, and thats not what the RIAA or MPAA take into account.
When an artist creates a piece of work they do it for what the money or to bring some joy into the world? making people's lives a misery isn't what Music, Films or software is about. I don't think anyone other than a lawyer would stand up and say they support the RIAA/MPAA distroying someones life for the sake of a few songs or movies... Art in general is about appreciation if someone feels the need to reward an artist they can, generally by buying the product that they enjoy.
iTunes works well because it lets people pay for the tracks they personally enjoy and not buy the ones that suck. It would be even better if it wasn't restricted by DRM but then people would just pirate the music, some might say. Wake up! Every track thats on itunes is freely available in a DRM free format somewhere on the internet and available to you on your computer within minutes in some cases but people still buy music from itunes, why ? perhaps its because they see a value in the service that the musicians have performed in bringing that sound into thier lifes...
On the otherhand when someone or a company is profiting out of someones work without compensating them for it now thats wrong. Feel free to bust the market traders, offices and companys that are doing this.
Lets address another issue here as well, You do realise that the clothes you wear the food you eat a large proportion of it is produced by people in grinding poverty working on minimum wage in western countrys and far less in other countrys. Maybe we should be paying a bit more for the things we consume. It is not like they can just press copy on a CD burner or download another shirt or duplicate another bunch of banana's. Replicators are still only in Startrek.
One more thing i have problems with is what producers of software do to the people who buy thier products.
A case in point Techland produces some some software called English Translator 3 I have use for this program although no perfect I bought it, without saying anything they used product activation which ties in with the serial number of the partition of the harddrive its installed on. Reformatting the hard drive resulted in it being impossible to reinstall and all corrospondence with the company goes unanswered and basically I as a paying customer get the shaft.
I appreciate the product, I do not appreciate the company and so thanks techland incident
Hi Steve, I am glad to see you still read slashdot and feel honoured that I get the chance to write something that you might actually read.
I am wondering what your viewpoint is on the subject of nonapple computers running osx86.
I don't know if you have seen it running on non Apple hardware but given the right hardware it works very well indeed.
I'd really like to buy OSX86 and run it legally on non-Apple hardware and I think there is quite a large number of people doing so already. One specialist site has around 24,000 members already all trying to achieve this and I think a large proportion of them would be quite happy to pay for the OS if Apple were prepared to sell it to them.
There is a huge base of people working to get OSX86 running on a wide range of hardware. Theres 2 ways of looking at them really pirates or evangelists currently I think Apple see's them as pirates, however they are actually a group of people who will in fact grow Apples market share.
In the windows world there are a large number of users who understand very little and a smaller group of people who get called upon to sort out the others problems. probably most slashdot members are called upon to sort out friends and relatives and co workers PC's on a fairly regular basis. To be honest it sucks up a lot of our free time.
Now for the general windows users, technical minded people who can sort out windows problems are essential, we save thier data kill thier viri, clean the malware and provide the unofficial support network that these people need.
Without the support a lot of them would drown in issues regarding windows, the revolutionary thing about osx86 is now the same people who have been supporting windows (for far too long) can now gain experience of OSX and will soon be providing help for Apple users when they need some help.
It's a revolution 2006 is the start of something new, windows is not the only game in town anymore I think there can be a huge jump in marketshare for apple if apple will let us hardcore computer geeks get familiar with OSX and plug it at every opportunity. Each PC Clone is different, OSX86 runs with varying success on nonApple hardware. For the run of the mill computer user, running OSX will mean running it on Apple branded hardware.
non-apple hardware is for the geek in someones life:)
So already there is an army of geeks getting into OSX for the first time in thier lives and wanting to be able to be legitimate.
I'd love to hear your opinion on this. It's a great time to be into computers Mr Gates and Mr Balmer have had control of the desktop computer market for far too long linux and OSX have been minor irritations just big enough to say no we don't have a monopoly on the desktop. Linux has always been too hard for the average user, Apple hardware too expensive. Now something new is happening in the space of an hour or two a Windows PC Clone can become a MAC Clone running OSX. Users can switch and still keep XP to fall back on. Seriously right now Apple can make a few million just by allowing liciences to be issued for osx on non apple hardware just from people running it now.
lets be honest here doesnt it give you a buzz just to think of several million PC's running Windows XP switching over to OSX. suddenly the bottom falls out of Microsofts user base. Vista becomes a white Elephant 5 years development and no one wants it. OSX market share goes through the roof. Hardware manufacturers clamour to be able to make drivers so thier hardware is OSX compatible. Don't you just want to see the value of microsoft plummit and apple soar - It can happen.
Maybe this is Apples Game plan already, whats happening now is seeds are being sown for the revolution. Perhaps you know already and to say anything now would spoil the surprise.
Anyway thankyou for reading this and I hope you find we do indeed live in interesting times:)
There are a few things that have changed over the years and I think that's why the end of the PC is being heralded.
The key things are wireless networking, remote desktop access, osx86, linux and VMware.
And the thing which is bringing windows downfall security and DRM.
firstly let me start by saying how I am writing this. Remotely from a dodgy ole laptop to a 3Ghz XP Pro server (which supports 3 concurrent users).
My laptop provides a mouse screen and keyboard which i can physically use anywhere on my LAN The XP Server gives the grunt that this laptop hasn't got for cpu intensive tasks. without me having to sit near the thing.
I enjoy that freedom i resent having to put a cd or dvd in the server (usually to burn something).
now i also have a linux box also accessed remotely which runs my little webserver and lets me explore linux as an alternative (right now I'm primarily a windows user).
I have 2 big crt monitors hooked upto the xp pro system but they are rarely on because i don't work directly with it.
Work uses cytrix (So basically most pc's are glorified terminals).
now I placed an order last night for an inexpensive laptop which is capable of running osx86. When i get it the first osx86 program will be a remote desktop client so i can keep windows compatability.
I have big hopes of osX86 and one of them is to retire my windows boxen to a cupboard somewhere. To be used when i need cpu muscle and windows compatability.
now to any Linux OS developers out there i need a better remote desktop solution for linux. because the way i see it is that a linux desktop shouldn't be expected to run locally by default and I want sound from my linux desktop to where i am working.
Vmware may actually help me consolidate the operating systems i run to a single physical x86 with grunt and all access from a light weight use anywhere laptop.
Pda/pdaphone they are nice when your on the go you can take your music with you write letters (slowly) video random events navigate your car. but the screen is too small to replace a pc in most circumstances. most aps are designed with a larger screen in mind so remoting from a pda is a pain.
Windows Vista- why for me it fails. 1)I do not want my rights to be managed. In theory it is supposed to bring security to windows (at last) which is a plus but in reality having my freedom taken away my rights managed is not something I am willing to trade off.
The Future - from my viewpoint it has to be lightweight laptop systems running OSX86 or Linux with a home/work server supplying grunt and storage capacity when its needed.
Working directly on a Desktop or Tower system seems so clunky to me. its like a throwback to the mainframe systems of old. The laptop gives you the freedom to work anywhere and with any os you choose.
So maybe its true the PC ERA is coming to an end.
A local household server running Linux and a widescreen laptop with a processor that doesnt burn too much power ( my new laptop offers 4- 4.5 hours battery life.) this seems like a good way of working to me, what do you think?
"t never hurts to talk to your neighbors first to try and resolve the problem."
I think that depends on the neighbor. I know of one case in Lincoln uk in an area called st giles where two neighbors fell out over a hedge. The end result one of them killed the other.
As for domestic violence as its quaintly called, yes call the police everytime. There are a lot of women put up with this kind of violence by their husbands a lot of children terrified by thier fathers. Every occurance that is reported will be recorded and when the wife or children are eventually damaged enough for the situation to no longer be ignored and a prosecution made. Then there is a history of violence that the judge will be able to see when deciding what sentence to impose.
you have a very valid point there, now if google will take this on board and give the option to restrict results to.eu domains when I am searching for something then european suppliers now have a better chance of increased europe wide sales.
This is ideal for countrys using the Euro and still pretty good for any EEC member country citizens.
postage from germany for example to the uk is generally in the order of 3 days.
This eu domain could be very valuble to the average consumer in europe.
There are reasons for wearing a suit and reasons not too A Sweaty person in a suit with halitosis trying to sell me something forget it.
I must admit I hate sales men, i'd rather talk to an engineer, suits just make me think parasite.
I think non suit people tend to scare the suit types because they have proven value. This is why they are not yoked in suits and ties. They are the idea's people who make the products and create the solutions for suits to work with.
On the other hand women tend to like the look of a man in a suit, smart and freshly shaved and smelling nice. The only good reason to want to wear a suit:) So presentation does matter, It just depends who wants what from who.
is a lot clearer the first diagram appeared to show two pistons attached to the wobble plate in reality they are pushed against the plate by springs and the pistons track in and out following the contour of the wobble plate.
Did they really lose a Sale? you say you would buy from them again you probably bought other sharp equipment due to a good prior experience. you also might already have recommended sharp as a good brand to buy. People reading your comment may buy a Sharp Tv, knowing you have had a good experience with Sharp products.
Incidentally I don't tend to look at brand names but I have a sharp vcr. I bought this new so long ago I don't remember maybe mid 90's its never had a problem in all that time it just works.
Sharp may have made a quality product for you and for me but I don't think they have lost a sale, just reduced the sales of other brand equipment.
"they are not maximising profits" not in the short term but in the long term they may be ensuring they have a future (perhaps by now the products are not so good) but now they are a recognised quantity in the market.
meeting a need is not a bad thing, I don't really want to buy crappy products, do you ?
I wonder is it practical to use the spare space on a block for data?
perhaps with a 32k cluster size a dummy file might use 3k leaving 29k free for encrypted data if you had the program to access and decript the free space on a usb key say you could have potentially a very secure system especially if the key could be overwritten if the wrong password was entered. the hd would look clean the key might even just monitor a key sequence without even offering a prompt.
or perhaps the key might be a jpg that would need to be copied to a specific location on the harddrive. probably needs to be automatically erased once access has been granted
Slashdot Mirror
I like this discussion, but it seems to me that English is a general term for a language group which covers countless variations in grammar spelling and pronunciation. Language is continually evolving.
Trying to define a particular English variant is difficult if not impossible, British English is a term to refer to a standard of English usage in Britain or perhaps "School English" that is taught in Britain however outside of the class room many variations occur. I would think USA Schools teach an American English form which is distinctly different from British English School form and different from local usage as well.
I would be surprised if all Welsh speakers used (outside of School) the same Welsh variant.
Legal English is yet another variant which attempts to hold language to a standard which is distinctly different to that spoken by the general population.
Programming languages closest relative in the outside world is probably Legal English. The usage of a semi-natural language, such as C C++ Java Pascal Lisp ect, is held to precise standards (within a particular compiler at least) and I think this is why there are so many people who foam at the mouth within forums such as slashdot when they see syntax errors within other peoples postings.
I can't help but wonder if there is a correlation between the favoured choice of programming language of an individual and the amount of ire felt by them whilst reading the syntactically error prone postings on slashdot. (I would guess assembly coders might be at one extreme and VB programmers at the other).
perhaps this also gets to the core of native vs jit arguements the problem with Jit is that it is dependent on the implimentation of the interperator.
interesting reference i liked this section
:)
"Around this time Symbolics (Notfsker's company) began operations- it had been hindered by Noftsker's promise to give Greenblatt a year's head start, and by severe delays in procuring venture capital. Symbolics still had the major advantage that while 3 or 4 of the AI Lab hackers had gone to work for Greenblatt, a solid 14 other hackers had signed onto Symbolics, the lion's share of the AI Lab's hackers. There would be two exceptions, two AI Lab people who did not get hired by either: Richard Stallman, and Marvin Minsky."
where have i heard these names before
I'd like to see this reach the mainstream press,seriously the coverage of this story by p2p.net slashdot and hill times is pretty meaningless. Thier readership are already well informed about the issues.
The majority of the canadian people who already pay the levy on blank media, who will be criminalised for the benefit of multi-nationals, they need to be informed.
The CRIA and the Politicians will not feel any heat until canadian citizens are enraged about this, canadians who know about this story need to bring it to the attention of mainstream canadian media and start writing to thier representatives. If questions are raised about this in the canadian parliment and the mainstream press raises the awareness of the average canadian about this issue, then canadians might actually stand a chance of mitigating the effects of this lobby group.
Canada is not an American State and doesn't wish to become one - does it?
i think a cool way to go is ubuntu and vmware. Ghost your existing windows setup unpack in a virtual disk in VMWare run windows when you have too (in a window or full screen ctrl alt to switch) Dual boot could still be useful if you really need windows for gaming. Personally I don't find I need windows very much on a day to day basis.
I like VMware I really do,
.deb installation package instead of tar.gz or rpm (admittedly tar.gz works ok in ubuntu I just wonder what its done to my package management).
:)
It's letting me get rid of windows as my primary OS, instead now I can use ubuntu as default and only run windows when I haven't a convenient alternative.
Maybe some of the VMware people reading here could answer a few questions?
1) any plans to make a
2)Are there any plans to improve support for OSX in a virtual machine, (graphically it's a bit sluggish compared to native on the same hardware) on the otherhand adding a network controller to the VM as NAT gave network access to OSX as a wired network card (even though it was wireless in reality
3) any chance of VMware workstation being made freely available for a single vm or some other limited use.
I wouldn't want to see VMware cut its own throat but it seems the money for them is in commercial servers not an individual trying to break thier windows habit.
4)which is quicker windows in a vm hosted on windows or windows in a vm hosted on linux?
ubuntu and VMware make a great combination, it's something that should be tried by any windows user, who wants to escape the limitations of windows but needs windows compatability (at least initially) although ubuntu and remote desktop is another working alternative (video is slow thou).
Anyway to any of the VMWare team reading this you guys rock.
ok given that 98 me 95 are not going to be supported,
what can we recommend instead for lets say a base machine of a p166 with 48 meg of ram I think 2000 will install on that but what linux distro would give an equivilent experience to 98se (which the P166 in question is running currently)?
personally I like ubuntu but I think it wouldnt run gnome on that hardware config.
from the article
"The tool, part of the Redmond company's bid to thwart widespread piracy, is being distributed gradually to people who have signed up to receive Windows security updates. The company expects to have offered it to all users worldwide by the end of the year.
Lazar said that so far, about 60 percent of users who were offered the piracy check decided to install it. Once installed, the program checks to make sure the version of Windows a user is running is legitimate, and gathers information such as the computer's manufacturer and the language and locale it is set for.
That information-gathering is disclosed in a licensing agreement. But the agreement does not make clear that the program also is designed to "call home" to Microsoft's servers, to make sure that it should keep running.
At least every 90 days, the tool also checks again to see if the copy of Windows is legitimate. Lazar said that's because the company sometimes discovers that a copy of Windows that it thought was legitimate is actually pirated.
When Microsoft believes a copy of Windows is pirated, the user begins to get a series of reminders that the copy isn't genuine. Such users also are barred from downloading noncritical updates, such as the new version of its Internet Explorer browser. But anyone who has signed up to automatically receive security updates, which repair flaws to prevent Internet attacks, will still get those fixes."
first off while 60% of users may have agreed to have it installed, how much choice did they have? windows update doesn't work without genuine advantage does it. The alternative is to manually find patches that may or may not exist.
My answer to the windows problem is Ubuntu and VMWare, once installed in a virtual machine all your windows applications are available to you concurently with all your linux applications is there any reason to give a windows install net access anyway. I can carry on using most of my windows tools as before and use linux for all my internet access. automatix takes care of file formats i am likely to find that are 'non free'.
The only way to take back our computers is to remove windows from the equation or minimise its use and relegating its use to a virtual machine does that.
sure theres a performance overhead in using a VM but not one that makes a huge difference to me or most other users. Maybe Gamers would find it preferable to maintain a native windows install as well so a reboot later and you have your XP at full speed on your hardware. Why run windows by default when its just a buggy malware and virus prone mess.
Treat windows as an application that you run when you need it only and you will find you need it less and less.
I started down this path with Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice and later alternative messaging clients such as gaim and aMSN. I realised that Vista was going to be the OS that was going to give me nothing but grief and take away the freedom to do as I please on my hardware. I've been trying Linux distro's on and off for a while now SUSE 8 SUSE 9, Knoppix Xebian and now finally Ubuntu. Ubuntu is the replacement for windows I have been looking for. Its easy to use well documented and plenty of pages exist that give you step by step guidance when its needed.
The closest thing to ubuntu has to be OSX but its not free and not officially sanctioned by Apple yet on non apple hardware. probably has more driver issues with non-apple hardware than ubuntu and it seems every little thing is shareware or commercial.
The other great thing about Ubuntu is that most of the free alternatives I have been using in windows are here in ubuntu and work just the same.
if your dissatisified with whats being put out by redmond try ubuntu.
nothing to lose and a lot to gain.
wireless card recognised but not working eh, sounds familiar. basically whats happened is the kernal has support built in for your wireless card but coz of 'restrictions' can't actually ship with the driver.
m ode=linear
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1071920&
that should do the trick
(breezy you used the ndiswrapper to use the windows driver)
I have a smallish website that i've had running on a pda for quite some time (currently off line as the pda is doing gps duty)
why stick a website on a pda?
For a low traffic site (but with upto 1 gig of files availabe) the pda sits drawing about 10 watts an hour max silently
I could run a pc as a webserver with its continually running fan and considerably larger power drain but why when it's a site of little interest to more than a few friends.
on the otherhand unless you have essentially free data transfer (which i have with wireless) on a cell phone its not much use at all.
Desktop I386 is extremely fast from here.
does anyone know a mirror for automatix? seems the main ubuntu sites are suffering the slashdot effect
I just installed ubuntu and one of the best reasons for using ubuntu is automatix, followed by the ubuntu wiki and forums.
One of the big problems with linux is the problems of nonfree formats. simple reasuring things like the ability to play an MP3 or watch a dvd are stumbling blocks for new adopters of linux.
I understand the free and open principles and how mp3 has legal problems while obvorbis is patent free and anyone can use it. It still doesn't help much when you want to play an MP3 or play a DVD.
Automatix solves the problem for ubuntu by not including it in the distro the distro is kept clean however automatix allows the individual user to choose what they want supported in thier desktop. 30 minutes of automated downloads and pretty much everything you can do out of the box with windows is on your desktop with ubuntu (and then some).
That and the wiki and the ubuntu forum is what makes that distro special.
I've used suse and while yast and the "network neighborhood"(I forget what suse calls it) are useful it doesnt help me much to do regular user things which is why I don't use that PC much.
Back to standards thou, lets get the paths fixed. Agree on something so installers can work across different linux versions. I don't care if i need half of kde installed so i can use some kde apps on my desktop- i'll take the other half of kde as well. As long as i get to use what I like, when i like.
Anything that is shared by different applications must go in standard locations and if we can't reach an agreement lets get Linus to decide for us.
I feel I should respond to some of your points, incidentally written on a laptop running ubuntu, and using firefox.
...Maybe like my ubuntu install:) finally a linux version that is easy to use
Firstly antipiracy opinions are not modded down automatically I read your post at +5 (although I do upgrade insightful and interesting posts and downgrade unfunny funny posts).
Propiracy opinions exist on slashdot so do proponants of free software and people who think everything should be properly paid for and licienced.
There is a whole spectrum of opinion here, but how can anyone support the actions of Sony in creating a root kit on millions of peoples computers or the actions of the RIAA and MPAA victimising some grandma or a teenage kid.
When someone gets forced to sign an agreement to pay the RIAA 15,000 dollars or face being landed with a legal bill even if successfully defended against. In reality your taking thier life away. Because this huge debt now has to be serviced- ahead of everyother thing in life. Grandma might now have to skip buying the medication she needs, the kids clothes will just have to last them just that little bit longer because of what a desire to listen to some muusic watch a film.
Now if you have ever been in a law court the sentence that is passed quite often will take into account the circumstances of the person charged with the offence. I mean what would be reasonable a $500 dollar fine and confiscating the computer equipment used in this kind of case. It depends on the circumstances, and thats not what the RIAA or MPAA take into account.
When an artist creates a piece of work they do it for what the money or to bring some joy into the world? making people's lives a misery isn't what Music, Films or software is about. I don't think anyone other than a lawyer would stand up and say they support the RIAA/MPAA distroying someones life for the sake of a few songs or movies...
Art in general is about appreciation if someone feels the need to reward an artist they can, generally by buying the product that they enjoy.
iTunes works well because it lets people pay for the tracks they personally enjoy and not buy the ones that suck. It would be even better if it wasn't restricted by DRM but then people would just pirate the music, some might say. Wake up!
Every track thats on itunes is freely available in a DRM free format somewhere on the internet and available to you on your computer within minutes in some cases but people still buy music from itunes, why ?
perhaps its because they see a value in the service that the musicians have performed in bringing that sound into thier lifes...
On the otherhand when someone or a company is profiting out of someones work without compensating them for it now thats wrong. Feel free to bust the market traders, offices and companys that are doing this.
Lets address another issue here as well, You do realise that the clothes you wear the food you eat a large proportion of it is produced by people in grinding poverty working on minimum wage in western countrys and far less in other countrys. Maybe we should be paying a bit more for the things we consume. It is not like they can just press copy on a CD burner or download another shirt or duplicate another bunch of banana's. Replicators are still only in Startrek.
One more thing i have problems with is what producers of software do to the people who buy thier products.
A case in point Techland produces some some software called English Translator 3 I have use for this program although no perfect I bought it, without saying anything they used product activation which ties in with the serial number of the partition of the harddrive its installed on.
Reformatting the hard drive resulted in it being impossible to reinstall and all corrospondence with the company goes unanswered and basically I as a paying customer get the shaft.
I appreciate the product, I do not appreciate the company and so thanks techland incident
Hi Steve,
:)
:)
I am glad to see you still read slashdot and feel honoured that I get the chance to write something that you might actually read.
I am wondering what your viewpoint is on the subject of nonapple computers running osx86.
I don't know if you have seen it running on non Apple hardware but given the right hardware it works very well indeed.
I'd really like to buy OSX86 and run it legally on non-Apple hardware and I think there is quite a large number of people doing so already. One specialist site has around 24,000 members already all trying to achieve this and I think a large proportion of them would be quite happy to pay for the OS if Apple were prepared to sell it to them.
There is a huge base of people working to get OSX86 running on a wide range of hardware. Theres 2 ways of looking at them really pirates or evangelists currently I think Apple see's them as pirates, however they are actually a group of people who will in fact grow Apples market share.
In the windows world there are a large number of users who understand very little and a smaller group of people who get called upon to sort out the others problems. probably most slashdot members are called upon to sort out friends and relatives and co workers PC's on a fairly regular basis. To be honest it sucks up a lot of our free time.
Now for the general windows users, technical minded people who can sort out windows problems are essential, we save thier data kill thier viri, clean the malware and provide the unofficial support network that these people need.
Without the support a lot of them would drown in issues regarding windows, the revolutionary thing about osx86 is now the same people who have been supporting windows (for far too long) can now gain experience of OSX and will soon be providing help for Apple users when they need some help.
It's a revolution 2006 is the start of something new, windows is not the only game in town anymore I think there can be a huge jump in marketshare for apple if apple will let us hardcore computer geeks get familiar with OSX and plug it at every opportunity. Each PC Clone is different, OSX86 runs with varying success on nonApple hardware. For the run of the mill computer user, running OSX will mean running it on Apple branded hardware.
non-apple hardware is for the geek in someones life
So already there is an army of geeks getting into OSX for the first time in thier lives and wanting to be able to be legitimate.
I'd love to hear your opinion on this. It's a great time to be into computers Mr Gates and Mr Balmer have had control of the desktop computer market for far too long linux and OSX have been minor irritations just big enough to say no we don't have a monopoly on the desktop. Linux has always been too hard for the average user, Apple hardware too expensive. Now something new is happening in the space of an hour or two a Windows PC Clone can become a MAC Clone running OSX. Users can switch and still keep XP to fall back on. Seriously right now Apple can make a few million just by allowing liciences to be issued for osx on non apple hardware just from people running it now.
lets be honest here doesnt it give you a buzz just to think of several million PC's running Windows XP switching over to OSX. suddenly the bottom falls out of Microsofts user base. Vista becomes a white Elephant 5 years development and no one wants it. OSX market share goes through the roof. Hardware manufacturers clamour to be able to make drivers so thier hardware is OSX compatible. Don't you just want to see the value of microsoft plummit
and apple soar - It can happen.
Maybe this is Apples Game plan already, whats happening now is seeds are being sown for the revolution. Perhaps you know already and to say anything now would spoil the surprise.
Anyway thankyou for reading this and I hope you find we do indeed live in interesting times
There are a few things that have changed over the years and I think that's why the end of the PC is being heralded.
/pdaphone
The key things are wireless networking, remote desktop access, osx86, linux and VMware.
And the thing which is bringing windows downfall security and DRM.
firstly let me start by saying how I am writing this. Remotely from a dodgy ole laptop to a 3Ghz XP Pro server (which supports 3 concurrent users).
My laptop provides a mouse screen and keyboard which i can physically use anywhere on my LAN The XP Server gives the grunt that this laptop hasn't got for cpu intensive tasks. without me having to sit near the thing.
I enjoy that freedom i resent having to put a cd or dvd in the server (usually to burn something).
now i also have a linux box also accessed remotely which runs my little webserver and lets me explore linux as an alternative (right now I'm primarily a windows user).
I have 2 big crt monitors hooked upto the xp pro system but they are rarely on because i don't work directly with it.
Work uses cytrix (So basically most pc's are glorified terminals).
now I placed an order last night for an inexpensive laptop which is capable of running osx86. When i get it the first osx86 program will be a remote desktop client so i can keep windows compatability.
I have big hopes of osX86 and one of them is to retire my windows boxen to a cupboard somewhere. To be used when i need cpu muscle and windows compatability.
now to any Linux OS developers out there i need a better remote desktop solution for linux. because the way i see it is that a linux desktop shouldn't be expected to run locally by default and I want sound from my linux desktop to where i am working.
Vmware may actually help me consolidate the operating systems i run to a single physical x86 with grunt and all access from a light weight use anywhere laptop.
Pda
they are nice when your on the go you can take your music with you write letters (slowly) video random events navigate your car. but the screen is too small to replace a pc in most circumstances. most aps are designed with a larger screen in mind so remoting from a pda is a pain.
Windows Vista- why for me it fails.
1)I do not want my rights to be managed. In theory it is supposed to bring security to windows (at last) which is a plus but in reality having my freedom taken away my rights managed is not something I am willing to trade off.
The Future - from my viewpoint
it has to be lightweight laptop systems running OSX86 or Linux with a home/work server supplying grunt and storage capacity when its needed.
Working directly on a Desktop or Tower system seems so clunky to me. its like a throwback to the mainframe systems of old. The laptop gives you the freedom to work anywhere and with any os you choose.
So maybe its true the PC ERA is coming to an end.
A local household server running Linux and a widescreen laptop with a processor that doesnt burn too much power ( my new laptop offers 4- 4.5 hours battery life.) this seems like a good way of working to me, what do you think?
Miles per gallon isn't the critical thing its cost per mile that matters.
For example here LPG gets around 10% less miles per litre than petrol however the cost of LPG means its less than half the cost of running on petrol.
I just watched brazil yesterday,
funny how your comment made me think of all the faulty technology in the film brazil and how everybody (almost) ignored its faults.
yep long time windows user and hater and worse people get me to fix their windows problems.
I do work without a completed 27b/6
"t never hurts to talk to your neighbors first to try and resolve the problem."
I think that depends on the neighbor. I know of one case in Lincoln uk in an area called st giles where two neighbors fell out over a hedge. The end result one of them killed the other.
As for domestic violence as its quaintly called, yes call the police everytime. There are a lot of women put up with this kind of violence by their husbands a lot of children terrified by thier fathers.
Every occurance that is reported will be recorded and when the wife or children are eventually damaged enough for the situation to no longer be ignored and a prosecution made. Then there is a history of violence that the judge will be able to see when deciding what sentence to impose.
So call please , call everytime.
you have a very valid point there, .eu domains when I am searching for something then european suppliers now have a better chance of increased europe wide sales.
now if google will take this on board and give the option to restrict results to
This is ideal for countrys using the Euro and still pretty good for any EEC member country citizens.
postage from germany for example to the uk is generally in the order of 3 days.
This eu domain could be very valuble to the average consumer in europe.
unbathed!!
not wearing a suit doesn't mean you go unbathed!
There are reasons for wearing a suit and reasons not too
A Sweaty person in a suit with halitosis trying to sell me something forget it.
I must admit I hate sales men, i'd rather talk to an engineer, suits just make me think parasite.
I think non suit people tend to scare the suit types because they have proven value. This is why they are not yoked in suits and ties. They are the idea's people who make the products and create the solutions for suits to work with.
On the other hand women tend to like the look of a man in a suit, smart and freshly shaved and smelling nice.
The only good reason to want to wear a suit:)
So presentation does matter, It just depends who wants what from who.
it's the itunes music service which deliver music to ipods
not the apple music service delivering to the apple pod.
in general references are made to mac's not even apple mac's
This law suit is bogus. hopefully apple corp will lose this one.
There is no confusion except possibly in the minds of aging exbeatles
the previous link wasn't very clear in how it was supposed to work.
o sitive%20Displacement.html
2 003.html
http://www.roymech.co.uk/Related/Pumps/Rotary%20P
is a lot clearer the first diagram appeared to show two pistons attached to the wobble plate in reality they are pushed against the plate by springs and the pistons track in and out following the contour of the wobble plate.
armed with this information
http://www.eaa.org/benefits/sportaviation/october
shows some engines developed using wobble plates
and heres a better animated one
http://www.mcmastermotor.com/technical.htm
it claims on this page this engine in equivilent to an 8 cylinder engine.
see heret m
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/pumpglos/wobble.h
then explain how this linkage works I still cant see how it rotates with two pistons fastened to it
Did they really lose a Sale?
you say you would buy from them again
you probably bought other sharp equipment due to a good prior experience. you also might already have recommended sharp as a good brand to buy.
People reading your comment may buy a Sharp Tv, knowing you have had a good experience with Sharp products.
Incidentally I don't tend to look at brand names but I have a sharp vcr. I bought this new so long ago I don't remember maybe mid 90's its never had a problem in all that time it just works.
Sharp may have made a quality product for you and for me
but I don't think they have lost a sale, just reduced the sales of other brand equipment.
"they are not maximising profits" not in the short term but in the long term they may be ensuring they have a future (perhaps by now the products are not so good) but now they are a recognised quantity in the market.
meeting a need is not a bad thing, I don't really want to buy crappy products, do you ?
seriously melinda isn't going to be happy with him
she spends all that time trying to make him a decent human being and he throws it back.
you know what would have had wow factor if instead of mocking this project he put some money into it.
so what if it doesnt run windows surely there's no need to assimulate or destroy everything.
now that would have been good publicity and maybe improve microsofts image.
wonder what mr jobs take is on the 100 dollar laptop..
I wonder is it practical to use the spare space on a block for data?
:)
perhaps with a 32k cluster size a dummy file might use 3k leaving 29k free for encrypted data if you had the program to access and decript the free space on a usb key say you could have potentially a very secure system especially if the key could be overwritten if the wrong password was entered.
the hd would look clean the key might even just monitor a key sequence without even offering a prompt.
or perhaps the key might be a jpg that would need to be copied to a specific location on the harddrive. probably needs to be automatically erased once access has been granted
just a thought
there must be ways and means