Ever tried to set up a 56k modem in linux? Don't go there. Get a printer working under CUPS? Faster to ask your neighbour to print it. Firewire support in Fedora. Don't get me started.
Migration to Linux has never been easy. Sure the tools are advanced, but you regularly need 2+ years of a computing course just to begin to understand them. Not only that but most have (en)crypt(ic/ed) names like xmms,cups,esd and mdadm. And when you get right down to it, what the hell does hpjs DO anyway? The situation is made worse by that ONE guy on the messageboard who will always provide the genius solution of recompiling the kernel. I side with the majority here and say, I do not want to do that. All I want is for yum to work. Pity up2date dosen't, I actually knew what that stood for. (Sigh).
Windows is like a flashy SUV. Looks great, illusion of safety,easy to drive, buts WILL tip over at a moments notice. Linux is like a Space Rocket. Yes it can get you home, hell it can get you into space. there's just a hell of a lot of buttons, and controls, and warnings and a NASA geek on the radio telling you to recompile the booster rocket software.
Still, the good ship Linux, against all reason, marches on.:E
During any given week, between ALL of the channels, there will only be 3-4 hours of quality television. I get about 15 channels over here, perhaps it could increase for people who get more channels, but I garauntee the increase will _NOT_ be linear.
Most shows on TV are fairly cheap, in every sense of the word. Even when a good show come out the network usually squeezes the life out of it and then tosses the dry carcess aside.
I think they created a lot of these new channels because they figured that more specific programming would cater to more specific people. Didn't work out. People still won't like shows just because they're on a different channel. It turns out people just want good TV, not cheap TV.
Perhaps if the media began to create more quaility programming, rather than keep playing to the lowest common denominator, I might actually watch TV. However in recent years I've abandoned it, like I abandoned radio years ago.
Considering how we're all supposed to be moving to web based interfaces rather than rich clients, wouldn't the old dumb terminal method suit us better.
Perhaps a method were PCs, ACT like dumb terminals. They are some kind of 'Resource' or extra limb of one 'Computer', running unix?
Might do a hell of a lot to improve security and administration in the long run.
And people are attempting to change these rules, for just the reasons that this debaukle has highlighted, regarding both the reversal of the parliments decisions by the council and the reversal of the dutch vote.
Of course some games will crash and burn. If the industry insists on fixed pricing, then it is inevitable that consumers will only buy the most publisised games, as this is the only criteria, other than biased reviews that they have. Whereas if some games were cheaper they could take that into consideration when buying.
If studios are worried, then they should cut the prices of their games. That way more will sell. Better than none selling at all.
Given that the Dalek's were robots(they were wern't they?) wouldn't the BBC be liable for copyright infrigment if they attempted to recreate the Dalek Software?
RFID scanning is the equilvilent of an illegal search. RFID's primary purpose is to track the buying and movement habits of consumers. Retailers and marketers in paticular are pushing this technology, because in essence, they want to know everything about you. They claim it's for inventory and supply chain purposes but they're lying. They _Want_ your data, and will do whatever it takes to rape you for it.
Remember the Ad scence in Miority Report. Imagine that, but with ads personalised to you: "Morning Sir! Why not buy your favourites! TechUniverse Magazine and Playster Mag Together with your favourite cola, Kolka-Kola!" "Good day sir!! See as how you have One--Hundred--And--Thirty--Dollars on you why not buy seat covers for that Forelet car you bought last week." "Oh sorry sir. Only people without RFID blockers can enter. Please turn off yours now so we can find out who you are and where you got it and can report your subversive ass to Homeland Security."
RFID offers minimal advantages over barcodes for inventory purposes and does nothing for supply chains, as when goods are purchased, the transaction is logged anyway. Their _Primary_ purpose is to spy on us. RFID tags have now been developed to survive washing, when the clothes they're in are placed in the machine. Now why would you need that if you only wanted it for inventory purposes.
Of course governments love all this, because when your luggage(and indeed you) go through the airport, they can examine every single item you have, analysie it's history, where it was bought, who owned it, how much it's worth. They'll be able to track everyone, everywhere, everytime. And for anyone who thinks this won't affect anyone in the US or EU, spare a thought for the people living under the current Chinese administration. You think the party _Won't_ use this technoloy?
Hands up everyone who DOESN'T think these RFID systems will be used to track peoples movements.
Also Hands up everyone who thinks these measure make us in any way safer.
The idea of restricting CPU's, or ANY form of computer software for that matter, is completly without justification. States do not require Pentium IVs to launch nuclear missiles or detonate nuclear bombs. These systems were deployed in the seventies with primitive CPUs and little memory or storage space.
Anyone determined to launch a missile, develop a weapons program, or design a new figher jet, is going to get their hands on computing power and software very easily. All that will end up happening is exports will be stifled as Joe bloggs in RougeStateistan won't fork over cash to US companies to pay for that PC he wanted so he could send email, browse the web and type up documents. Instead he'll give it to a european or russian company.
You can see the reason for this. The Pentagon is annoyed that foreign governments are using clusters to build supercomputers. Which means that they could start snooping on Pentagon comms instead of the other way around.
Obviously someone dropped a line like, "Terrorists use Computers to build a-bombs", in the House of Representatives caffeteria. Cue the assembled polititions nodding in agreement and shuffling off to draft a law to "protect the free world".
Just before lunch was the best time to drop this as their next meal was only seconds away. They still can't think past it!
Slashdotted after 20mins. Exerpt: MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes.
EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059
HC: 71d61b13
I suppose that's what happens when you use ASP.Net and get a showing on the main index. Shouldn't they have expected this? I mean it's microsoft, not ask jeeves! On the plus side, I get they're getting loads of search data.
Wait a minute. With all this slashdot related input at an early stage could it be permenently biased in favour of Open Source, IT, Trolling and Pr0n?
I was wondering when this would come about. A lot of other compnaies, notably Creative, have ventured onto the HDD walkman market already. But with a big player like Sony involved, maybe we could see a little competition in this market.
Although in exchange for cheaper walkmen we could be subjected to DRM Hell.
This story possibly has reprecussions for the entire IT industry. Just because it concerns a game company down't mean it should be restricted to the games section.
There are plenty of programmers who have been forced to pull an all nighter while the boss goes home to count his stock options.
True, it's best not to let non-techies hear the word 'Linux'. They run. I know a few that did.
However they should find some way of advertising the (possible) interconnectivity and compatability of these devices. Maybe someday your watch will be able to talk to your video and TV via your cellphone attached to your PDA. This can probobly be done already by a tech head with too much time on his hands.
Considering Sony are involved, will this mean that the next playstation will run on embedded linux? Maybe a small sony distro embedded?
MS is already moving down the embedded devices market with Home media center I think.
I agree. This is a problem with modern freeroamers. It's rather tragic that the designers give you so much space to play around in, but nothing to do in it. Once you've finished all the missions in GTA, the game kind of loses it's shine. The same with, Jak2 and True Crime, very tragicly in the latter's case as the world it gave you was so HUGE!
This problem does go all the way back to Elite. Even the "jobs" of Frontier First encounters didn't offer much once the main missions were over. There was simply no real incentive to play anymore.
This is becoming more unforgivable. I think game designers should come up with, at least, more sophisticated random mission generators. The missions should be based on some kind of randomly generated 'super' subplot. Like a gang gaining power, or a war breaking out in FFE for example. Essentially what I think would be best was if the world/universe 'evolved' around you, organically, with you being directly, but not overly easily, able to influence the outcomes.
This might sound like a tall order, but given the sophistication of simulations nowadays, I don't think it is beyond the capabilities of programmers. Maybe companies don't want this as such a game would distract the player from all those new purchaces?
Just to clean up this thread, the autodisconnect bug only appears to emerge if IE is on at the same time as firefox. I ran them together to compare and contrast(gifs look different in FireFox btw, or in IE, [point of view]). Autodisconnect will popup if IE has not been used for a while.
Autodisconnect must be 'tied' to IE so that if IE senses that IT hasn't been used it prompts autodisconnect. Maybe it thinks that if your not browsing on IE then you must be trippin' !:E
However autodisconnect will run properly with no IE. it will popup after ~5 mins of inactivity anyway.
This isn't restricted to the phone companies of the country that the dialer is calling. Eircom, the irish ISP, actually charge additional rates of up to 6 euro a minutes when one of the known dialer numbers is called!
Everyone nods their heads solomly when someone argues that children need to be protected from the dangers of the net at all costs. But should they?
There is view that the net is predominatly a smut loving, pedophile and cracker infested den of iniquity. It isn't(for the most part anyway). That view is perpetuated by people who don't like the net and what it represents(i.e. change).
Lets get some facts straight.
1) Kids are not going to 'stumble' across pr0n. They are going to go out looking for it. 2) The primary responsibility for children who browse the net, lies not with the government, or lawmakers, or ISPs, or pr0n websites, or even the owner of the computer. It lies with their parents. 3) Pr0n is not the work of satan, despite what many(including 4 S.C. judges) believe. People need a more mature attidude towards sex. 4) No matter WHAT gets put on the net and no matter WHAT the children see and do on it, we should NEVER sacrafice our liberties for the sake of piece of mind.
The most shocking part of the entire article( apart from the fact that Fox reported on it:E) was that 4 of the justices thought that the Law, which really would have curtailed freedom of speech due to its obsurity(see this article), was a good thing. Who the hell are these judges and how the hell did they ever get to where they are, let alone law degrees.
Yet another case of society being threatened by people not thinking past their next meal. We need intravinous feeding now
They'd grow a lot faster if they engaged in real competition in Europe as well.
Forget the price of the console. It's the price of the games that concerns me more. If games were 30 euros instead of 60 euros, I'd buy one a week, instead of one a month. 60 euros is a big risk for something that could be crap.
If MS want sales of their console to rocket. Cut game prices in half. I'd buy an Xbox tomorrow if they did.
Slashdot Mirror
Excuse me. I'm being punished.
:E
Ever tried to set up a 56k modem in linux? Don't go there.
Get a printer working under CUPS? Faster to ask your neighbour to print it.
Firewire support in Fedora. Don't get me started.
Migration to Linux has never been easy. Sure the tools are advanced, but you regularly need 2+ years of a computing course just to begin to understand them. Not only that but most have (en)crypt(ic/ed) names like xmms,cups,esd and mdadm. And when you get right down to it, what the hell does hpjs DO anyway? The situation is made worse by that ONE guy on the messageboard who will always provide the genius solution of recompiling the kernel. I side with the majority here and say, I do not want to do that. All I want is for yum to work. Pity up2date dosen't, I actually knew what that stood for. (Sigh).
Windows is like a flashy SUV. Looks great, illusion of safety,easy to drive, buts WILL tip over at a moments notice.
Linux is like a Space Rocket. Yes it can get you home, hell it can get you into space. there's just a hell of a lot of buttons, and controls, and warnings and a NASA geek on the radio telling you to recompile the booster rocket software.
Still, the good ship Linux, against all reason, marches on.
During any given week, between ALL of the channels, there will only be 3-4 hours of quality television.
I get about 15 channels over here, perhaps it could increase for people who get more channels, but I garauntee the increase will _NOT_ be linear.
Most shows on TV are fairly cheap, in every sense of the word. Even when a good show come out the network usually squeezes the life out of it and then tosses the dry carcess aside.
I think they created a lot of these new channels because they figured that more specific programming would cater to more specific people. Didn't work out. People still won't like shows just because they're on a different channel. It turns out people just want good TV, not cheap TV.
Perhaps if the media began to create more quaility programming, rather than keep playing to the lowest common denominator, I might actually watch TV. However in recent years I've abandoned it, like I abandoned radio years ago.
Considering how we're all supposed to be moving to web based interfaces rather than rich clients, wouldn't the old dumb terminal method suit us better.
Perhaps a method were PCs, ACT like dumb terminals. They are some kind of 'Resource' or extra limb of one 'Computer', running unix?
Might do a hell of a lot to improve security and administration in the long run.
The only reason that the vote was passed in the first place was because the then European presidency in Ireland was being sponsered by Microsoft.
And people are attempting to change these rules, for just the reasons that this debaukle has highlighted, regarding both the reversal of the parliments decisions by the council and the reversal of the dutch vote.
Of course some games will crash and burn. If the industry insists on fixed pricing, then it is inevitable that consumers will only buy the most publisised games, as this is the only criteria, other than biased reviews that they have. Whereas if some games were cheaper they could take that into consideration when buying.
If studios are worried, then they should cut the prices of their games. That way more will sell. Better than none selling at all.
I never knew that.
So you DO live and learn! Danm those agnostics!! *shakes fist*
So even back in the 80's the programming "slaves" still couldn't even fill up a 20x20 sprite and need to call in a pro.
What hope now for those of use who wan to make a game, but need to draw 300+ sprites in high resolution. Maybe I should take art classes.
Given that the Dalek's were robots(they were wern't they?) wouldn't the BBC be liable for copyright infrigment if they attempted to recreate the Dalek Software?
;E
So under OS X typing:
while [1]; do say "Exterminate" done
could get you sued!!
RFID scanning is the equilvilent of an illegal search.
RFID's primary purpose is to track the buying and movement habits of consumers. Retailers and marketers in paticular are pushing this technology, because in essence, they want to know everything about you. They claim it's for inventory and supply chain purposes but they're lying. They _Want_ your data, and will do whatever it takes to rape you for it.
Remember the Ad scence in Miority Report. Imagine that, but with ads personalised to you:
"Morning Sir! Why not buy your favourites! TechUniverse Magazine and Playster Mag Together with your favourite cola, Kolka-Kola!"
"Good day sir!! See as how you have One--Hundred--And--Thirty--Dollars on you why not buy seat covers for that Forelet car you bought last week."
"Oh sorry sir. Only people without RFID blockers can enter. Please turn off yours now so we can find out who you are and where you got it and can report your subversive ass to Homeland Security."
RFID offers minimal advantages over barcodes for inventory purposes and does nothing for supply chains, as when goods are purchased, the transaction is logged anyway. Their _Primary_ purpose is to spy on us. RFID tags have now been developed to survive washing, when the clothes they're in are placed in the machine. Now why would you need that if you only wanted it for inventory purposes.
Of course governments love all this, because when your luggage(and indeed you) go through the airport, they can examine every single item you have, analysie it's history, where it was bought, who owned it, how much it's worth. They'll be able to track everyone, everywhere, everytime. And for anyone who thinks this won't affect anyone in the US or EU, spare a thought for the people living under the current Chinese administration. You think the party _Won't_ use this technoloy?
Hands up everyone who DOESN'T think these RFID systems will be used to track peoples movements.
Also Hands up everyone who thinks these measure make us in any way safer.
The idea of restricting CPU's, or ANY form of computer software for that matter, is completly without justification. States do not require Pentium IVs to launch nuclear missiles or detonate nuclear bombs. These systems were deployed in the seventies with primitive CPUs and little memory or storage space.
Anyone determined to launch a missile, develop a weapons program, or design a new figher jet, is going to get their hands on computing power and software very easily. All that will end up happening is exports will be stifled as Joe bloggs in RougeStateistan won't fork over cash to US companies to pay for that PC he wanted so he could send email, browse the web and type up documents. Instead he'll give it to a european or russian company.
You can see the reason for this. The Pentagon is annoyed that foreign governments are using clusters to build supercomputers. Which means that they could start snooping on Pentagon comms instead of the other way around.
Obviously someone dropped a line like, "Terrorists use Computers to build a-bombs", in the House of Representatives caffeteria. Cue the assembled polititions nodding in agreement and shuffling off to draft a law to "protect the free world".
Just before lunch was the best time to drop this as their next meal was only seconds away. They still can't think past it!
Slashdotted after 20mins.
Exerpt:
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.
Please try again in a few minutes.
EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059
HC: 71d61b13
I suppose that's what happens when you use ASP.Net and get a showing on the main index. Shouldn't they have expected this? I mean it's microsoft, not ask jeeves! On the plus side, I get they're getting loads of search data.
Wait a minute. With all this slashdot related input at an early stage could it be permenently biased in favour of Open Source, IT, Trolling and Pr0n?
My work here... is done.
I was wondering when this would come about. A lot of other compnaies, notably Creative, have ventured onto the HDD walkman market already. But with a big player like Sony involved, maybe we could see a little competition in this market.
Although in exchange for cheaper walkmen we could be subjected to DRM Hell.
P.S.
What happened that other story?
This story possibly has reprecussions for the entire IT industry. Just because it concerns a game company down't mean it should be restricted to the games section.
There are plenty of programmers who have been forced to pull an all nighter while the boss goes home to count his stock options.
I believe this was the method used in part by Phantasy Star Online.
True, it's best not to let non-techies hear the word 'Linux'. They run. I know a few that did.
However they should find some way of advertising the (possible) interconnectivity and compatability of these devices. Maybe someday your watch will be able to talk to your video and TV via your cellphone attached to your PDA. This can probobly be done already by a tech head with too much time on his hands.
Considering Sony are involved, will this mean that the next playstation will run on embedded linux? Maybe a small sony distro embedded?
MS is already moving down the embedded devices market with Home media center I think.
I type with my nose you insensitive clod!!
I agree. This is a problem with modern freeroamers. It's rather tragic that the designers give you so much space to play around in, but nothing to do in it. Once you've finished all the missions in GTA, the game kind of loses it's shine. The same with, Jak2 and True Crime, very tragicly in the latter's case as the world it gave you was so HUGE!
This problem does go all the way back to Elite. Even the "jobs" of Frontier First encounters didn't offer much once the main missions were over. There was simply no real incentive to play anymore.
This is becoming more unforgivable. I think game designers should come up with, at least, more sophisticated random mission generators. The missions should be based on some kind of randomly generated 'super' subplot. Like a gang gaining power, or a war breaking out in FFE for example. Essentially what I think would be best was if the world/universe 'evolved' around you, organically, with you being directly, but not overly easily, able to influence the outcomes.
This might sound like a tall order, but given the sophistication of simulations nowadays, I don't think it is beyond the capabilities of programmers. Maybe companies don't want this as such a game would distract the player from all those new purchaces?
Gentlemen, Gentlemen please!
This is an MS Works project
That's Insightful FUD if you please AC
"You gotta be fucking kidding me!"
- Palmer, right before McReady toasts the walking spider head!!
Considering that they disassembled a copyrighted piece of software, can they get sued under the DMCA?
In fact can people get sued for even the simple possesion of a disassembler?
Just to clean up this thread, the autodisconnect bug only appears to emerge if IE is on at the same time as firefox.
:E
I ran them together to compare and contrast(gifs look different in FireFox btw, or in IE, [point of view]). Autodisconnect will popup if IE has not been used for a while.
Autodisconnect must be 'tied' to IE so that if IE senses that IT hasn't been used it prompts autodisconnect. Maybe it thinks that if your not browsing on IE then you must be trippin' !
However autodisconnect will run properly with no IE. it will popup after ~5 mins of inactivity anyway.
This isn't restricted to the phone companies of the country that the dialer is calling. Eircom, the irish ISP, actually charge additional rates of up to 6 euro a minutes when one of the known dialer numbers is called!
Still, free email addresses. Can't beat that.
Everyone nods their heads solomly when someone argues that children need to be protected from the dangers of the net at all costs. But should they?
:E) was that 4 of the justices thought that the Law, which really would have curtailed freedom of speech due to its obsurity(see this article), was a good thing. Who the hell are these judges and how the hell did they ever get to where they are, let alone law degrees.
There is view that the net is predominatly a smut loving, pedophile and cracker infested den of iniquity. It isn't(for the most part anyway). That view is perpetuated by people who don't like the net and what it represents(i.e. change).
Lets get some facts straight.
1) Kids are not going to 'stumble' across pr0n. They are going to go out looking for it.
2) The primary responsibility for children who browse the net, lies not with the government, or lawmakers, or ISPs, or pr0n websites, or even the owner of the computer. It lies with their parents.
3) Pr0n is not the work of satan, despite what many(including 4 S.C. judges) believe. People need a more mature attidude towards sex.
4) No matter WHAT gets put on the net and no matter WHAT the children see and do on it, we should NEVER sacrafice our liberties for the sake of piece of mind.
The most shocking part of the entire article( apart from the fact that Fox reported on it
Yet another case of society being threatened by people not thinking past their next meal. We need intravinous feeding now
They'd grow a lot faster if they engaged in real competition in Europe as well.
Forget the price of the console. It's the price of the games that concerns me more. If games were 30 euros instead of 60 euros, I'd buy one a week, instead of one a month. 60 euros is a big risk for something that could be crap.
If MS want sales of their console to rocket. Cut game prices in half. I'd buy an Xbox tomorrow if they did.