[http://www.internetgovernance.org/pdf/xxx-foiapag e.pdf]
are a very interesting read and show how the US Government changed its mind from neutrality to influencing the decision. Probably due to pressure from conservative family-oriented politicans...
Imho Linux itself is not the problem. Just take a look at a recent Suse Distribution. I would even say that the whole system is much easier to control and configure with such tools as Yast.
However there is just a lack of software under Linux. Sure there are a lot of programs. But people usually want to have a choice and they want the program to be as easy to use as possible. Most people are then even willingly to pay money for that, just to avoid the hassle. To make a program very usable and to think about terms as User Interface etc... that's just the stuff that's quite boring and tedious and Open Source programmers usually avoid it and try to do the more "edgy" stuff. Or why are there dozens of distributions available but very very few solutions for online-banking?
Sometimes the Opensource model comes to its limit and that's where the commercial software development comes in, which is especially true for End-User Desktop software.
I take myself as an example: If I look through my programs that I have installed on my windows box there are several things where I don't have a nice linux solution:
1.) Games
2.) PaintshopPro. Sure there is Gimp, but I'm using Psp since 1996 or so and I just don't WANT to learn a new software
3.) JWPce - a tool for learning Japanese
4.) Hauppauge WinTV Software - last time I've checked it was very difficult to get it running under Linux and I just want to watch TV...
5.) sensor software to read out CPU temp etc. - I just don't have the time to fiddle around with lmsensors...
List could go on... We need more software software software... simple as that imho
is that it's not just the CPU and GPU of the system that runs hot. Most modern motherboards are designed so that the capacitors around the cpu need the airflow of the cpu-cooler. It's not that heavy cooling is needed, more like a little airflow around. However besides the CPU cooler, a fan is quite difficult to attach in that region.
So if you just use watercooling and have no fan in the case, those capacitors might heat up to 80, 90 degree centigrade and their life cycle is heavily shortened. Plus it's very difficult to replace them on modern 4-layer boards. Once they blow, they can take not only the motherboard but the CPU and RAM with them...
It wasn't Scott McNealy who is single-handedly responsible for making network computing a reality. That's obviously Al Gore. Schwartz is trying to rewrite history here!
So you basically say that we can f*** up everything and shouldn't care because in the end it doesn't matter at all?
I just don't get this type of thinking. Look at it from a computer scientist standpoint:
1.) Let's assume that there might or might not be a direct link between greenhouse emissions and global warming
a) Say we do nothing and there is no direct link -> We f*** up big time
b) Say we do something and there is a direct link -> We might have chance
c) Say we do something and there is no direct link ->
Then global warming would still occur but we would be more efficient with energy, would be able to get our energy from more cleaner sources, would be less dependent on oil from the middle east etc. etc. The USofA have by far the biggest energy-per-capita consumption world wide. Other developed nations i.e. Europe doesn't even come close. I mean its not that we would have to do great sacrifices to cut down energy consumption. Switching from an SUV to a more efficient car is not that hard.
Then the costs for our economy. People always say that saving energy would come at a loss of economical growth. That is very difficult to predict. All we would do is to artifically increase the price of one good (energ). It does not neccesarily mean that this would cost jobs. Some industries may suffer but there is the chance that other industries will grow or complete new industries will develop i.e. companys that will focus and help others to be more efficient in energy consumption, companies that develop solar panels that specialise in wind energy etc etc.
is not usability or hardware support or people having trouble installing linux. The big problem that somehow noone really figures is the lack of applications. The lack of commercial applications, especially.
There are a lot of kinds of applications where OpenSource works great. "Standard" stuff like mail clients etc. But the more specific an application gets the more it is likely that it is commerically developed. Photoshop, Games, Autocad, Dreamweaver etc. etc.
And even then there are some issues concerning application deployment, especially if the source is not available...
I've tried to build exactly such a system. However my experience was not that positive.
As it is already mentioned in the article, you pay a decent premium for the small size. But that's not the main issue. The biggest problem is cooling. Sure the EPIA processors are quite tolerant, but for a media center silence is the main issue. The cooling fan, 40x40mm is non-standard as is the whole cooling unit. So you can't buy one of the many excellent standard silent coolers.
He replaced it with a custom 40mm fan, but I personally highly doubt that it is really silent with 3000rpm. Plus one has also to consider the airflow compared to the original fan. When I built my system, I was unable to find a similar fan with the same airflow, even considering Papst and Verax.
Another thing is, that the 1GHz CPU is really slow. I ran into problem when playing DivX or XVid movies. Then under Linux (at least at the time I was building the system, dunno where they are at this point) there were no drivers for the Hardware-MPEG2 accelerator, so DVD playbay wasn't possible.
My conculsion is: If you go for MicroATX instead, you'll have just a slightly bigger case, however Standard components. There are zillion of cheap, reliable and silent CPU coolers, Power Supplies etc. Plus any decent CPU, even a Pentium III 1 GHz is faster than this VIA processor.
checking content for the Chinese government and censor it accordingly. Watching P0rn from 9 to 5 at work... hm wait, that's not that different to my current job...
User Account Protection. Like working without admin-rights and doing it hassle-free. In Windows XP this is practicaly impossible (tried once but it makes you insane).
In an age where fruits are expected before blooming and a lot seems to be despised because it does not immediately heal wounds, manure the fields or powers mill-wheels,... one forgets that sciences have an inner reason - and looses the real literary interest, the striving for cognizance . Math cannot loose any of its dignity if it is seen as just a pure object of speculation, unusable to solve any practical problems.
Because: Everything that expands the limits of our knowledge, and gives the intellect new things of consciousness or new relations betweens them are important.
(Alexander von Humboldt)
just a rough translation but I think you got the point...
This article made me think about it. I mean Microsoft is shipping an operating system without a compiler included. Isn't that strange, that everyone takes this as normal? Isn't a compiler an integral part of an operating system.
I mean sure, a nice IDE is something different, and with those Express Editions things have changed now, but still... if you buy a computer out of the box you can't program it. Not even a simple compiler, Basic or whatever. In the good ol' days that would have been unthinkable...
Even though it might be a little offtopic (But hey, this is slashdot;-) :
Unfortunately that's not correct. Cars in Germany are quite expensive. If you compare the prices in Germany with those in the US for typical german brands like BMW, Mercedes, Audi you will notice that in fact those cars are usually cheaper in the US.
Concerning SUVs: I never understood why those cars with heavily overpowered engines are so popular in the US. I mean a typcial car with a 1.6 16V engine will have around 110 hp. That's enough to drive speeds up to ~200km/h (I think around 125mp/h?!) so it's sufficient to drive on the autobahns. And you can actually drive these speeds!
In the US, what's the usual speed limit? Like 90 mp/h? Why do you need such a strong engine, then? You can't use it anyway!
http://www.xitimonitor.com/etudes/equipement7.asp
I'm just wondering why the market share in Europe is so much higher? I mean, I doubt that there is such a different user basis?! (The linked article talks about 20% market-share in Germany and Poland...)
There's a german fun mail circulating the net for some time and I think it pretty sums up my experience with SAP.
(rough translation)
MARKETING
You go to a party and see an attractive girl on the other side of the room. You go to her and say: "Hey, I'm great in bed, what about us two?"
That's called "Direct Marketing"
You go to a party and see an attractive girl on the other side of the room. You give 100 bucks to a female friend. She goes to the girl and says: "Hey, my friend there is great in bed, what about you two?"
That's "advertisement".
You go to a party and see an attractive girl on the other side of the room. You give two female friends of you each 100 bucks. They stay in hearing-distance of that certain girl and start to talk about how great you are in bed and how nice and hot you are.
That's called "Public Relations".
You go to a party and see an attractive girl on the other side of the room. You recognise her (you've met her some time ago). You go to her, refresh her memory, maker her laugh and everything. And then you suddenly throw in: "Hey, I'm great in bed, what about us?"
That's "Customer Relationship Management".
You go to a party and see an attractive girl at the other side of the room. You are perfectly dressed, you start to run a around and play Mr. "I am so important and busy right now". You set up your very best smile, walk around and try to be as nice and friendly as possible, basically you're Mr. Nice Guy, the perfect Gentleman. You're making conversation with your soft and smooth voice.
Then you go to that girl and aks: "Hey, I'm great in bed, what about us?"
That's called "Hard Selling".
You go to a party and see an attractive girl on the other side of the room. SHE comes over and says: "Hey, I've heared that you're great in bed. What about us?"
Well, THAT, my dear friends, is the "POWER OF THE BRAND"
You go to a party. You bore everybody there with your bunch of meanlingless stupid stuff. A bunch of hot girls comes to you and the say:
"Hey, we've heared that you aren't really great in bed, yet though everybody sleeps with you. There must be something about you. We pay every price - but please we want to have sex with you!"
And thats... my dear wondering audience... that's SAP
The first Star Trek series where the Federation wasn't the only superpower in the galaxy, where there's no black and white and you can't force others to do the "right thing", but instead have to deal and negotiate with others and sometimes accept other cultures and different behaviour that you don't like
I understand that this isn't very popular in the US;-)
Basically I spent a lot of money and ended up very disappointed.
I wanted to create some kind of multimedia/streaming-box, capable of turning into a complete PVR for DVB-T oder DVB-S.
The problem is: To have a smooth DivX - Playbay in any event you have to go for the 1GHz CPU at least. But even though the VIA EPIA platform is considered low-power, the CPU is cooled by this noisy 6000rpm spinning fan. Since the VIA EPIA platform is completely custom, it is very very difficult to replace this fan (and get another fan with appropriate cooling capabilities) or even cool this thing without a fan. Sure there are ways, but the point is that you're gonna spend much much more compared to a standard ATX oder microATX Board with a nice medium power CPU (Athlon XP, mobile Sempron) and an CPU Cooler with a low-spinning 80mm fan.
The system turned out to be extremely hot (even with the stock fan), slow (sometimes smooth DivX playbay was not possible) too noisy to be a working solution. Linux was a problem, too, because the MPEG2 Accelerator Chip wasn't supported and DVD-Playbay was not possible because of this (the CPU alone is too slow for a smooth DVD playback).
My 2 cents: If you don't really really need the form factor and want to build a nice PVR, go for a typical standard ATX system.
Slashdot Mirror
[http://www.internetgovernance.org/pdf/xxx-foiapag e.pdf]
are a very interesting read and show how the US Government changed its mind from neutrality to influencing the decision. Probably due to pressure from conservative family-oriented politicans...
Imho Linux itself is not the problem. Just take a look at a recent Suse Distribution. I would even say that the whole system is much easier to control and configure with such tools as Yast.
However there is just a lack of software under Linux. Sure there are a lot of programs. But people usually want to have a choice and they want the program to be as easy to use as possible. Most people are then even willingly to pay money for that, just to avoid the hassle. To make a program very usable and to think about terms as User Interface etc... that's just the stuff that's quite boring and tedious and Open Source programmers usually avoid it and try to do the more "edgy" stuff. Or why are there dozens of distributions available but very very few solutions for online-banking?
Sometimes the Opensource model comes to its limit and that's where the commercial software development comes in, which is especially true for End-User Desktop software.
I take myself as an example: If I look through my programs that I have installed on my windows box there are several things where I don't have a nice linux solution:
1.) Games
2.) PaintshopPro. Sure there is Gimp, but I'm using Psp since 1996 or so and I just don't WANT to learn a new software
3.) JWPce - a tool for learning Japanese
4.) Hauppauge WinTV Software - last time I've checked it was very difficult to get it running under Linux and I just want to watch TV...
5.) sensor software to read out CPU temp etc. - I just don't have the time to fiddle around with lmsensors...
List could go on... We need more software software software... simple as that imho
is that it's not just the CPU and GPU of the system that runs hot. Most modern motherboards are designed so that the capacitors around the cpu need the airflow of the cpu-cooler. It's not that heavy cooling is needed, more like a little airflow around. However besides the CPU cooler, a fan is quite difficult to attach in that region. So if you just use watercooling and have no fan in the case, those capacitors might heat up to 80, 90 degree centigrade and their life cycle is heavily shortened. Plus it's very difficult to replace them on modern 4-layer boards. Once they blow, they can take not only the motherboard but the CPU and RAM with them...
but I don't know, I think the article is right, I have to agree.
It wasn't Scott McNealy who is single-handedly responsible for making network computing a reality. That's obviously Al Gore. Schwartz is trying to rewrite history here!
So you basically say that we can f*** up everything and shouldn't care because in the end it doesn't matter at all?
I just don't get this type of thinking. Look at it from a computer scientist standpoint:
1.) Let's assume that there might or might not be a direct link between greenhouse emissions and global warming
a) Say we do nothing and there is no direct link -> We f*** up big time
b) Say we do something and there is a direct link -> We might have chance
c) Say we do something and there is no direct link ->
Then global warming would still occur but we would be more efficient with energy, would be able to get our energy from more cleaner sources, would be less dependent on oil from the middle east etc. etc.
The USofA have by far the biggest energy-per-capita consumption world wide. Other developed nations i.e. Europe doesn't even come close. I mean its not that we would have to do great sacrifices to cut down energy consumption. Switching from an SUV to a more efficient car is not that hard.
Then the costs for our economy. People always say that saving energy would come at a loss of economical growth. That is very difficult to predict. All we would do is to artifically increase the price of one good (energ). It does not neccesarily mean that this would cost jobs. Some industries may suffer but there is the chance that other industries will grow or complete new industries will develop i.e. companys that will focus and help others to be more efficient in energy consumption, companies that develop solar panels that specialise in wind energy etc etc.
is not usability or hardware support or people having trouble installing linux. The big problem that somehow noone really figures is the lack of applications. The lack of commercial applications, especially.
There are a lot of kinds of applications where OpenSource works great. "Standard" stuff like mail clients etc. But the more specific an application gets the more it is likely that it is commerically developed. Photoshop, Games, Autocad, Dreamweaver etc. etc. And even then there are some issues concerning application deployment, especially if the source is not available...
Well, I wouldn't call it knowledge exactly ...
>Who has financed the internet into what it has become today. Who developed
>the technology and who operates the largest backbone?
That's Al Gore obviously. He should be in charge alone!
haven't read someting funny like this for a long time
I've tried to build exactly such a system. However my experience was not that positive.
As it is already mentioned in the article, you pay a decent premium for the small size. But that's not the main issue. The biggest problem is cooling. Sure the EPIA processors are quite tolerant, but for a media center silence is the main issue. The cooling fan, 40x40mm is non-standard as is the whole cooling unit. So you can't buy one of the many excellent standard silent coolers.
He replaced it with a custom 40mm fan, but I personally highly doubt that it is really silent with 3000rpm. Plus one has also to consider the airflow compared to the original fan. When I built my system, I was unable to find a similar fan with the same airflow, even considering Papst and Verax.
Another thing is, that the 1GHz CPU is really slow. I ran into problem when playing DivX or XVid movies. Then under Linux (at least at the time I was building the system, dunno where they are at this point) there were no drivers for the Hardware-MPEG2 accelerator, so DVD playbay wasn't possible.
My conculsion is: If you go for MicroATX instead, you'll have just a slightly bigger case, however Standard components. There are zillion of cheap, reliable and silent CPU coolers, Power Supplies etc. Plus any decent CPU, even a Pentium III 1 GHz is faster than this VIA processor.
and I always thought that germans are known to have no sense of humor...
checking content for the Chinese government and censor it accordingly.
Watching P0rn from 9 to 5 at work... hm wait, that's not that different to my current job...
I'm from overseas. First time I've heared about Dick Chaney I thought they were talking about a porn actor.
User Account Protection. Like working without admin-rights and doing it hassle-free. In Windows XP this is practicaly impossible (tried once but it makes you insane).
In an age where fruits are expected before blooming and a lot seems to be despised because it does not immediately heal wounds, manure the fields or powers mill-wheels, ... one forgets that sciences have an inner reason - and looses the real literary interest, the striving for cognizance . Math cannot loose any of its dignity if it is seen as just a pure object of speculation, unusable to solve any practical problems.
Because: Everything that expands the limits of our knowledge, and gives the intellect new things of consciousness or new relations betweens them are important.
(Alexander von Humboldt)
just a rough translation but I think you got the point...
This article made me think about it. I mean Microsoft is shipping an operating system without a compiler included. Isn't that strange, that everyone takes this as normal? Isn't a compiler an integral part of an operating system.
I mean sure, a nice IDE is something different, and with those Express Editions things have changed now, but still... if you buy a computer out of the box you can't program it. Not even a simple compiler, Basic or whatever.
In the good ol' days that would have been unthinkable...
Would be interesting too. Browser stats, OS stats ...
Even though it might be a little offtopic (But hey, this is slashdot ;-) :
Unfortunately that's not correct. Cars in Germany are quite expensive. If you compare the prices in Germany with those in the US for typical german brands like BMW, Mercedes, Audi you will notice that in fact those cars are usually cheaper in the US.
Concerning SUVs: I never understood why those cars with heavily overpowered engines are so popular in the US. I mean a typcial car with a 1.6 16V engine will have around 110 hp. That's enough to drive speeds up to ~200km/h (I think around 125mp/h?!) so it's sufficient to drive on the autobahns. And you can actually drive these speeds!
In the US, what's the usual speed limit? Like 90 mp/h? Why do you need such a strong engine, then? You can't use it anyway!
http://www.xitimonitor.com/etudes/equipement7.asp
I'm just wondering why the market share in Europe is so much higher? I mean, I doubt that there is such a different user basis?! (The linked article talks about 20% market-share in Germany and Poland...)
There's a german fun mail circulating the net for some time and I think it pretty sums up my experience with SAP. (rough translation)
... that's SAP
MARKETING
You go to a party and see an attractive girl on the other side of the room. You go to her and say: "Hey, I'm great in bed, what about us two?"
That's called "Direct Marketing"
You go to a party and see an attractive girl on the other side of the room. You give 100 bucks to a female friend. She goes to the girl and says: "Hey, my friend there is great in bed, what about you two?"
That's "advertisement".
You go to a party and see an attractive girl on the other side of the room. You give two female friends of you each 100 bucks. They stay in hearing-distance of that certain girl and start to talk about how great you are in bed and how nice and hot you are.
That's called "Public Relations".
You go to a party and see an attractive girl on the other side of the room. You recognise her (you've met her some time ago). You go to her, refresh her memory, maker her laugh and everything. And then you suddenly throw in: "Hey, I'm great in bed, what about us?"
That's "Customer Relationship Management".
You go to a party and see an attractive girl at the other side of the room. You are perfectly dressed, you start to run a around and play Mr. "I am so important and busy right now". You set up your very best smile, walk around and try to be as nice and friendly as possible, basically you're Mr. Nice Guy, the perfect Gentleman. You're making conversation with your soft and smooth voice. Then you go to that girl and aks: "Hey, I'm great in bed, what about us?"
That's called "Hard Selling".
You go to a party and see an attractive girl on the other side of the room. SHE comes over and says: "Hey, I've heared that you're great in bed. What about us?"
Well, THAT, my dear friends, is the "POWER OF THE BRAND"
You go to a party. You bore everybody there with your bunch of meanlingless stupid stuff. A bunch of hot girls comes to you and the say: "Hey, we've heared that you aren't really great in bed, yet though everybody sleeps with you. There must be something about you. We pay every price - but please we want to have sex with you!"
And thats... my dear wondering audience
The first Star Trek series where the Federation wasn't the only superpower in the galaxy, where there's no black and white and you can't force others to do the "right thing", but instead have to deal and negotiate with others and sometimes accept other cultures and different behaviour that you don't like
;-)
I understand that this isn't very popular in the US
Basically I spent a lot of money and ended up very disappointed. I wanted to create some kind of multimedia/streaming-box, capable of turning into a complete PVR for DVB-T oder DVB-S. The problem is: To have a smooth DivX - Playbay in any event you have to go for the 1GHz CPU at least. But even though the VIA EPIA platform is considered low-power, the CPU is cooled by this noisy 6000rpm spinning fan. Since the VIA EPIA platform is completely custom, it is very very difficult to replace this fan (and get another fan with appropriate cooling capabilities) or even cool this thing without a fan. Sure there are ways, but the point is that you're gonna spend much much more compared to a standard ATX oder microATX Board with a nice medium power CPU (Athlon XP, mobile Sempron) and an CPU Cooler with a low-spinning 80mm fan. The system turned out to be extremely hot (even with the stock fan), slow (sometimes smooth DivX playbay was not possible) too noisy to be a working solution. Linux was a problem, too, because the MPEG2 Accelerator Chip wasn't supported and DVD-Playbay was not possible because of this (the CPU alone is too slow for a smooth DVD playback). My 2 cents: If you don't really really need the form factor and want to build a nice PVR, go for a typical standard ATX system.
instead of Eastcoast vs. Westcoast. I wonder when first casualties occur...
No, I'm sure. I'd rather like to play "Global thermonuclear war".