It sounds like you may be a digital packrat. If you are, I sympathize as I was one too after I got broadband. I stopped after realizing how much time/money I was wasting on crap that really didn't improve my quality of life. Now I buy new hard drives for my file server once every three years instead of every three months. Following are some of the things that helped me.
1) Download less porn/warez. Or put off downloading more until you've watched/run/played what you have. If you're just one person cranking through that much space that quickly, then you're downloading things just to have them. Stop that.
2) Go through and 'rm -rf' files and directories that you haven't accessed in a year. Don't keep obsolete versions of operating systems around, because you won't use them. As soon as you download a CD image, burn it and rm the ISO.
3) Archive on external media anything that's sentimental but rarely accessed.
4) Make it a routine to burn stuff to CD/DVD at least once a week. Eventually, you'll get tired of wasting time burning crap that you don't use and this will help you realize that you really don't need it at all.
5) If you do a lot of video editing or webmastering that requires huge amounts of data, and you're making money at it, then you need to invest in a proper server to keep all that. Be sure to make backups too. If you do this for a company, have them take responsibility for this.
6) Take a page from Linus's book: Upload it to an FTP server and let the world mirror it.
Of course, if the shield could also be an induction coil to sap power for my house, that wouldn't suck either..."
1) That is theft. Even induced current isn't free.
2) I believe the coil would have to be placed pystically around the transformer, and the train company would be bound to notice that at some point. See #1.
If I want to buy the latest white-stripes album I can only buy it from one label: V2 Records. Sure I can go to different stores to try and hunt down a lower prices but V2 set the price. The consumer only has one choice: buy it, or don't buy it.
No, there is still one other option: Listen to something cheaper.
And Google is getting one huge f***** free ride for the "service" they're providing
So then you assume that the department running Google Print, the managers who plan and oversee it, the employees that do the hard work by tediously scanning and OCR'ing pages, the hardware needed to process and store the information, the bandwidth required to serve the information to end-users... you're saying Google got all that for "f****** free"? It all just materialized out of thin air miraculously never shows up on the quarterly budget?
Get a grip, dude.
Here we have Google making money (from ads), the publishers and authors making money (from selling books), and the general populace get better access to more information. If that isn't the definition of innovation, I'm not sure what is.
Unless this is some kind of specialized application that serves a tiny niche market, just puting a source or binary tarball up on the web is usually good enough. If there's enough demand for the application, somebody will pick it up to create and maintain a package for their distro. That's how 99% of the software gets into Gentoo, Red Hat, Debian, etc.
I can't get anywhere near 54mbps on my wireless if I put my Powerbook right next to the wireless router!
Because 54mbps is the speed you'd get under ideal circumstances. In order to achieve maximum performance from your wireless equipment, you have to ensure that you eliminate all possible causes of interference including microwaves, telephones, trees, walls, and air. Your best bet to get the maximum wireless speeds possible is to directly connect the powerbook's antenna to the router via a short length of cable. Then your data should fly.
Before I get lambasted with troll mods and flames, I just want to note that I really have nothing against the Debian people and their excellent work. It's just a little funny how they go on the Stallmanesque defensive whenever a Debian fork makes the headlines.
"Hello world, we released an open source operating system so that all may benefit from our efforts and... Oh noes! People are modifying it to suit their needs! Evil! Strike them down!"
You didn't plan - or suggest to the company to plan - for new hires getting a Linux orientation? Did you think they were going to hire Linux experts - or even people with ANY Linux experience - to do clerical work?
Yes, we did train them. Specifically, I trained them as part of my job in the project as a whole. Their work didn't require Linux training specifically (they never touch a command line), just familiarization with the KDE desktop and OpenOffice. They caught on remarkably well at first, but after the new manager came on board and started her anti-Linux tirade, the employees followed suit and started calling us up for every trivial little question that they could have figured out by reading the docs, Googling, or just hunting around the application menus for a few seconds.
This sounded suspiciously like a troll post masquerading as a Linux supporter, except I clicked on the Web site link and I see you're running Slackware 8.1 - so you're not a Windows shill.
We have had great success with Linux and FreeBSD on back-end systems like servers and firewalls, but we've basically retired the idea of Linux desktops in most business settings. Your average desk jockey is just too hooked on Windows and Microsoft Office. We'd really like to experiment with OS X desktops, but the cost is too prohibitive for most businesses. (I wonder if OS X has a terminal server solution...)
The web page hasn't been updated in years... I used to run Slackware for everything but now use Gentoo for workstations and laptops and FreeBSD on servers.
Terminating the present contract just leaves the company high and dry and will seriously damage your credibility with anybody who hears about it.
At this point, sticking around much longer would only give them more time to find more ammunition to build a bad case against us. We've literally done everything we can think of to appease them, but they remain obstinate. At any rate, they've already threatened to terminate the contract themselves several times.
Converting an established office would actually be easier in this regard since you can get acquainted with the employees and triage who's the power user, who's the scaredy-cat, etc. and plan the conversion appropriately.
Oh, how I would love to do this. But quite honestly, my boss is a big-picture kind of guy and doesn't see things this way. We're in the process right now of migrating an office to a Windows 2003 terminal server and it's just taking forever because printers, peripherals, etc were not taken into account beforehand. Next time, though, I'm going to put the pressure on him to let me or someone else actually go in and create a migration plan instead of plowing ahead blind like we did with this office.
Just like many other posters here, I'm going to side with them when I say, "don't do it." I work for a company that sells Linux solutions. Together, the four of us have at least 45 years of Unix/Linux/FreeBSD experience. And I can tell you from some of the jobs that we've done, suddenly converting a decently-sized Windows office to an exclusively Linux one will end your career.
We recently outfit a new office with an insanely fast Linux terminal server running KDE, Firefox, OpenOffice, the whole nine yards. Two laser printers, a scanner, Asterisk for the phone system, and a VoIP phone on every desk. We all thought it was pretty slick and were ready to phone up the presses and magazines so they could run stores on how much money we were able to save the customer by using Linux.
Until they started hiring employees.
Now, all of us here have happily used Linux pretty well exclusively on the desktop for years, so we sure didn't see this kind of backlash coming. For awhile there, it was just about daily that the tech support line would ring with an angry user on the end. "How do you duplex print on this thing?" "Where's Internet Explorer?" "My Mariah Carey CD won't play!" "I renamed my document to.idiot and now I can't see it!" "How do I get to my AOL?" "Why did you bastards take away Minesweeper!?" Etc, etc.
I am not even close to joking. We may end up terminating the contract early just to end all the abuse we've taken from the employees and managers. They had not a single good thing to say about the system because they were your typical bottom-rung white-collar office temps who had only ever used Windows and were not afraid to tell you how stupid you were for trying to make them learn something new.
Don't think you're going to do nearly this well when you try to convert an established office to Linux.
Then again, they said the same thing about Windows XP. We saw heaps of pundits insisting that the combined force of considerable hardware requirements and draconian product activation scheme would push Linux head-first into the desktop arena.
Obviously, that didn't happen.
While Linux has made great strides since the launch of XP, it hasn't even come close to putting any kind of dent in the prevalence of Microsoft on the business desktop. As much as I hate to say it, I don't see the situation changing much with Vista. When Microsoft says jump, most of the I.T. departments in the world start bouncing around like buffoons.
I would like to add one more to make it a baker's definitive dozen on the PS1:
Wipeout XL.
Insanely great racing game that was nothing like other racing games at the time. Or since, for that matter, since nothing so far as been able to quite match it.
I believe you're looking for a Panasonic Toughbook. These are standard issue in the Air Force for any portable computer not confined to an office setting. They even make one that's designed to military specifications. They are a bit expensive, but I've even seem some with armoured keyboards. They should be able to handle desert abuse with little problem.
I haven't been able to locate the official legal document that this supposedly came from, but the guy runningthis blog apparently has and quotes the line.
Currently, Microsoft office can't read or write either of these formats[1]. So which is Microsoft going to add?
If I know Microsoft, they'll probably cave to government demands by releasing an Office suite with support for an open document format. BUT, it will only be just enough to convince the government not to dump Microsoft Office. They actually could do this but still not come even close to our definition of "open."
Microsoft releases a Government Edition of the next Office suite. This Government Edition is capable of both reading and writing some "open" format (which can't be selected as the default), while all the other editions would be capable of only reading this format. They could even release free (closed-source) document readers for all version of Windows and Mac and provide an open-source utility that converts documents in the "open" format to PDF. But ultimately, the format would be poorly designed, inefficient, and lacking in features. Microsoft's implementation doubly so.
The "open" format specification itself would be posted in some obscure corner of the MSDN site and would occasionally disappear entirely. Because the format is technically "open," OSS developers could hack support for it into OpenOffice and even figure out ways to fix parts of it. But, Microsoft's implementation will always be broken so whatever you fix will only wind up breaking compatibility with MS Office.
It's a little sad that you have to explicitly mark opinion as such. I guess I've just always taken for granted that everything I read or hear is somebody's opinion unless there's some kind of proof behind it.
Come on MS finish what you start before you do something else.
More to the point, it would be nice if their reactionary projects were able to exceed or at least equal those that came before. (Think MSN search, IE 7, etc.)
On the whole, I don't see it as such a bad thing that Microsoft keeps trying to nose its way into markets and technologies that others have already pioneered and then claimed that they were in fact the innovators. For starters, anyone who matters sees through this and knows that Microsoft has always been the follower in every market it enters.
Second, as long Microsoft keeps it up, they will eventually spread themselves too thin and collapse under the weight of having to manage 43 gazillion of their "me too" projects.
"The Internet is not your personal stump to beat up people."
You mean, if I were to say this:
"Daniel Perry is a two-bit fucktard who plainly doesn't understand what the Internet is all about. He spreads lies, deceit, and only wants to sue people for their hard-earned money while he accepts fat checks from his clients. What a worm, that guy."
That would mean Slashdot might be held liable in a lawsuit, amiright?
Also, if you're not allowed to make negative comments about people on the Internet, then about 98% of all blogs ever written would be in violation of the law.
It's quite interesting when they post ads asking for experts in 'Windows 97' or 'Novel Netwear'.
Heh, that brings back a memory or two. High school, 1997. The frail, old, mean-spirited librarian would think of any excuse she could to keep us pesky kids off of the only Internet-connected computers in the whole school. (Yes, she was the type who removed all the books on puberty and wicca from the shelves and made you bring in a note from a parent in order to check them out.) At any rate, the two most memorable things she ever said to me was:
Librarian: Young man, that computer on the end is shut down for a reason. Me: It seems to be working fine. Look, Microsoft Works opened up okay. Librarian: No, it was acting slower than the others this morning. I think it's because it's running Windows 94 instead of Windows 95. Better turn it off for now.
Another one. Funnier, but not related to the topic:
Me: Could I do some research on the computer for my paper in $some_class? Librarian: Sorry, the Internet's acting funny today. Me: Acting funny? Librarian: Yes, it isn't coming in well at all. Me: You mean you can't go to Yahoo or anything? Librarian: I just couldn't get a clear picture of it on the screen no matter what I clicked. Just static. Your research will have to wait until tomorrow.
The problem is that while single documents may be marked unclassified or for official use only, gathering a large number of those documents could actually be marked secret.
Well, perhaps. The main problem is that military leadership have become extremely dependent on computer technology just as much as any business leadership certainly has by now. A tremendous amount of information is created, saved, and passed along in the form of email and Microsoft Word documents. Couple that with buttloads of really, really insecure networks running 100% Microsoft kit administered by cranky old enlisted retirees working for Lockheed Martin and you've got a recipe for easy pickins. Sure, there are programs like COMPUSEC that preach the gospel of basic security practices to end users, but end users are not the problem.
This is pretty much the story in the flying squadron that I am assigned to, and I imagine the rest of the Air Force is the same way. The Air Force simply does not have any grasp of how to put together quality, efficient, and secure networks. Every detail of our flying operations is stored on the base network and on various desktop computers. A reasonably skilled hacker could have access to ALL of it.
About the only really important thing they would never be able to download is the encryption ciphers used for authentication and secure voice because those are currently still stored on paper tape. But there are plans already underway to move them to a computer...
Uh, no. Going there will give you a "Google Account", but not a GMail account. You still need an invitation. Fortunately, now that Google is giving them away like candy, there are hundreds of invites stockpiled over here:
Slashdot Mirror
It sounds like you may be a digital packrat. If you are, I sympathize as I was one too after I got broadband. I stopped after realizing how much time/money I was wasting on crap that really didn't improve my quality of life. Now I buy new hard drives for my file server once every three years instead of every three months. Following are some of the things that helped me.
1) Download less porn/warez. Or put off downloading more until you've watched/run/played what you have. If you're just one person cranking through that much space that quickly, then you're downloading things just to have them. Stop that.
2) Go through and 'rm -rf' files and directories that you haven't accessed in a year. Don't keep obsolete versions of operating systems around, because you won't use them. As soon as you download a CD image, burn it and rm the ISO.
3) Archive on external media anything that's sentimental but rarely accessed.
4) Make it a routine to burn stuff to CD/DVD at least once a week. Eventually, you'll get tired of wasting time burning crap that you don't use and this will help you realize that you really don't need it at all.
5) If you do a lot of video editing or webmastering that requires huge amounts of data, and you're making money at it, then you need to invest in a proper server to keep all that. Be sure to make backups too. If you do this for a company, have them take responsibility for this.
6) Take a page from Linus's book: Upload it to an FTP server and let the world mirror it.
Of course, if the shield could also be an induction coil to sap power for my house, that wouldn't suck either..."
1) That is theft. Even induced current isn't free.
2) I believe the coil would have to be placed pystically around the transformer, and the train company would be bound to notice that at some point. See #1.
If I want to buy the latest white-stripes album I can only buy it from one label: V2 Records. Sure I can go to different stores to try and hunt down a lower prices but V2 set the price. The consumer only has one choice: buy it, or don't buy it.
No, there is still one other option: Listen to something cheaper.
(And better. ZING!)
And Google is getting one huge f***** free ride for the "service" they're providing
So then you assume that the department running Google Print, the managers who plan and oversee it, the employees that do the hard work by tediously scanning and OCR'ing pages, the hardware needed to process and store the information, the bandwidth required to serve the information to end-users... you're saying Google got all that for "f****** free"? It all just materialized out of thin air miraculously never shows up on the quarterly budget?
Get a grip, dude.
Here we have Google making money (from ads), the publishers and authors making money (from selling books), and the general populace get better access to more information. If that isn't the definition of innovation, I'm not sure what is.
Unless this is some kind of specialized application that serves a tiny niche market, just puting a source or binary tarball up on the web is usually good enough. If there's enough demand for the application, somebody will pick it up to create and maintain a package for their distro. That's how 99% of the software gets into Gentoo, Red Hat, Debian, etc.
I can't get anywhere near 54mbps on my wireless if I put my Powerbook right next to the wireless router!
Because 54mbps is the speed you'd get under ideal circumstances. In order to achieve maximum performance from your wireless equipment, you have to ensure that you eliminate all possible causes of interference including microwaves, telephones, trees, walls, and air. Your best bet to get the maximum wireless speeds possible is to directly connect the powerbook's antenna to the router via a short length of cable. Then your data should fly.
Before I get lambasted with troll mods and flames, I just want to note that I really have nothing against the Debian people and their excellent work. It's just a little funny how they go on the Stallmanesque defensive whenever a Debian fork makes the headlines.
"Hello world, we released an open source operating system so that all may benefit from our efforts and... Oh noes! People are modifying it to suit their needs! Evil! Strike them down!"
You didn't plan - or suggest to the company to plan - for new hires getting a Linux orientation? Did you think they were going to hire Linux experts - or even people with ANY Linux experience - to do clerical work?
Yes, we did train them. Specifically, I trained them as part of my job in the project as a whole. Their work didn't require Linux training specifically (they never touch a command line), just familiarization with the KDE desktop and OpenOffice. They caught on remarkably well at first, but after the new manager came on board and started her anti-Linux tirade, the employees followed suit and started calling us up for every trivial little question that they could have figured out by reading the docs, Googling, or just hunting around the application menus for a few seconds.
This sounded suspiciously like a troll post masquerading as a Linux supporter, except I clicked on the Web site link and I see you're running Slackware 8.1 - so you're not a Windows shill.
We have had great success with Linux and FreeBSD on back-end systems like servers and firewalls, but we've basically retired the idea of Linux desktops in most business settings. Your average desk jockey is just too hooked on Windows and Microsoft Office. We'd really like to experiment with OS X desktops, but the cost is too prohibitive for most businesses. (I wonder if OS X has a terminal server solution...)
The web page hasn't been updated in years... I used to run Slackware for everything but now use Gentoo for workstations and laptops and FreeBSD on servers.
Terminating the present contract just leaves the company high and dry and will seriously damage your credibility with anybody who hears about it.
At this point, sticking around much longer would only give them more time to find more ammunition to build a bad case against us. We've literally done everything we can think of to appease them, but they remain obstinate. At any rate, they've already threatened to terminate the contract themselves several times.
Converting an established office would actually be easier in this regard since you can get acquainted with the employees and triage who's the power user, who's the scaredy-cat, etc. and plan the conversion appropriately.
Oh, how I would love to do this. But quite honestly, my boss is a big-picture kind of guy and doesn't see things this way. We're in the process right now of migrating an office to a Windows 2003 terminal server and it's just taking forever because printers, peripherals, etc were not taken into account beforehand. Next time, though, I'm going to put the pressure on him to let me or someone else actually go in and create a migration plan instead of plowing ahead blind like we did with this office.
Just like many other posters here, I'm going to side with them when I say, "don't do it." I work for a company that sells Linux solutions. Together, the four of us have at least 45 years of Unix/Linux/FreeBSD experience. And I can tell you from some of the jobs that we've done, suddenly converting a decently-sized Windows office to an exclusively Linux one will end your career.
We recently outfit a new office with an insanely fast Linux terminal server running KDE, Firefox, OpenOffice, the whole nine yards. Two laser printers, a scanner, Asterisk for the phone system, and a VoIP phone on every desk. We all thought it was pretty slick and were ready to phone up the presses and magazines so they could run stores on how much money we were able to save the customer by using Linux.
Until they started hiring employees.
Now, all of us here have happily used Linux pretty well exclusively on the desktop for years, so we sure didn't see this kind of backlash coming. For awhile there, it was just about daily that the tech support line would ring with an angry user on the end. "How do you duplex print on this thing?" "Where's Internet Explorer?" "My Mariah Carey CD won't play!" "I renamed my document to
I am not even close to joking. We may end up terminating the contract early just to end all the abuse we've taken from the employees and managers. They had not a single good thing to say about the system because they were your typical bottom-rung white-collar office temps who had only ever used Windows and were not afraid to tell you how stupid you were for trying to make them learn something new.
Don't think you're going to do nearly this well when you try to convert an established office to Linux.
Then again, they said the same thing about Windows XP. We saw heaps of pundits insisting that the combined force of considerable hardware requirements and draconian product activation scheme would push Linux head-first into the desktop arena.
Obviously, that didn't happen.
While Linux has made great strides since the launch of XP, it hasn't even come close to putting any kind of dent in the prevalence of Microsoft on the business desktop. As much as I hate to say it, I don't see the situation changing much with Vista. When Microsoft says jump, most of the I.T. departments in the world start bouncing around like buffoons.
Not only that, but didn't they steal the Web 2.0 moniker from something else, like W3C?
I would like to add one more to make it a baker's definitive dozen on the PS1:
Wipeout XL.
Insanely great racing game that was nothing like other racing games at the time. Or since, for that matter, since nothing so far as been able to quite match it.
I believe you're looking for a Panasonic Toughbook. These are standard issue in the Air Force for any portable computer not confined to an office setting. They even make one that's designed to military specifications. They are a bit expensive, but I've even seem some with armoured keyboards. They should be able to handle desert abuse with little problem.
I haven't been able to locate the official legal document that this supposedly came from, but the guy runningthis blog apparently has and quotes the line.
Of course, because I do not have a multimillion dollar marketing budget, there is nothing I can do to get the word out about it.
I often find that just a simple link to the product's web site helps.
Currently, Microsoft office can't read or write either of these formats[1]. So which is Microsoft going to add?
If I know Microsoft, they'll probably cave to government demands by releasing an Office suite with support for an open document format. BUT, it will only be just enough to convince the government not to dump Microsoft Office. They actually could do this but still not come even close to our definition of "open."
Microsoft releases a Government Edition of the next Office suite. This Government Edition is capable of both reading and writing some "open" format (which can't be selected as the default), while all the other editions would be capable of only reading this format. They could even release free (closed-source) document readers for all version of Windows and Mac and provide an open-source utility that converts documents in the "open" format to PDF. But ultimately, the format would be poorly designed, inefficient, and lacking in features. Microsoft's implementation doubly so.
The "open" format specification itself would be posted in some obscure corner of the MSDN site and would occasionally disappear entirely. Because the format is technically "open," OSS developers could hack support for it into OpenOffice and even figure out ways to fix parts of it. But, Microsoft's implementation will always be broken so whatever you fix will only wind up breaking compatibility with MS Office.
Mark my words. Mark my words...
It's a little sad that you have to explicitly mark opinion as such. I guess I've just always taken for granted that everything I read or hear is somebody's opinion unless there's some kind of proof behind it.
Come on MS finish what you start before you do something else.
More to the point, it would be nice if their reactionary projects were able to exceed or at least equal those that came before. (Think MSN search, IE 7, etc.)
On the whole, I don't see it as such a bad thing that Microsoft keeps trying to nose its way into markets and technologies that others have already pioneered and then claimed that they were in fact the innovators. For starters, anyone who matters sees through this and knows that Microsoft has always been the follower in every market it enters.
Second, as long Microsoft keeps it up, they will eventually spread themselves too thin and collapse under the weight of having to manage 43 gazillion of their "me too" projects.
"The Internet is not your personal stump to beat up people."
You mean, if I were to say this:
"Daniel Perry is a two-bit fucktard who plainly doesn't understand what the Internet is all about. He spreads lies, deceit, and only wants to sue people for their hard-earned money while he accepts fat checks from his clients. What a worm, that guy."
That would mean Slashdot might be held liable in a lawsuit, amiright?
Also, if you're not allowed to make negative comments about people on the Internet, then about 98% of all blogs ever written would be in violation of the law.
It's quite interesting when they post ads asking for experts in 'Windows 97' or 'Novel Netwear'.
Heh, that brings back a memory or two. High school, 1997. The frail, old, mean-spirited librarian would think of any excuse she could to keep us pesky kids off of the only Internet-connected computers in the whole school. (Yes, she was the type who removed all the books on puberty and wicca from the shelves and made you bring in a note from a parent in order to check them out.) At any rate, the two most memorable things she ever said to me was:
Librarian: Young man, that computer on the end is shut down for a reason.
Me: It seems to be working fine. Look, Microsoft Works opened up okay.
Librarian: No, it was acting slower than the others this morning. I think it's because it's running Windows 94 instead of Windows 95. Better turn it off for now.
Another one. Funnier, but not related to the topic:
Me: Could I do some research on the computer for my paper in $some_class?
Librarian: Sorry, the Internet's acting funny today.
Me: Acting funny?
Librarian: Yes, it isn't coming in well at all.
Me: You mean you can't go to Yahoo or anything?
Librarian: I just couldn't get a clear picture of it on the screen no matter what I clicked. Just static. Your research will have to wait until tomorrow.
Ford Prefect...
You know Slashdots going downhill when the article starts with "This LiveJournal entry by Nugget..."
Agreed. But moreso for the "Nugget" part than the LiveJournal part. Zing!
The problem is that while single documents may be marked unclassified or for official use only, gathering a large number of those documents could actually be marked secret.
Well, perhaps. The main problem is that military leadership have become extremely dependent on computer technology just as much as any business leadership certainly has by now. A tremendous amount of information is created, saved, and passed along in the form of email and Microsoft Word documents. Couple that with buttloads of really, really insecure networks running 100% Microsoft kit administered by cranky old enlisted retirees working for Lockheed Martin and you've got a recipe for easy pickins. Sure, there are programs like COMPUSEC that preach the gospel of basic security practices to end users, but end users are not the problem.
This is pretty much the story in the flying squadron that I am assigned to, and I imagine the rest of the Air Force is the same way. The Air Force simply does not have any grasp of how to put together quality, efficient, and secure networks. Every detail of our flying operations is stored on the base network and on various desktop computers. A reasonably skilled hacker could have access to ALL of it.
About the only really important thing they would never be able to download is the encryption ciphers used for authentication and secure voice because those are currently still stored on paper tape. But there are plans already underway to move them to a computer...
Uh, no. Going there will give you a "Google Account", but not a GMail account. You still need an invitation. Fortunately, now that Google is giving them away like candy, there are hundreds of invites stockpiled over here:
http://b10m.swal.org/cgi-bin/gmail_invites.cgi