Could some one please explain? I'm not talking about internet access but broadband specifically.
I've heard this statistic in one form or another for a while now. Is it "America just has to be better?" or is there something more important going on?
"Consistent ? I will give it to him that across distributions linux is not consistent but businesses use RHEL or Novell against which all major applications like Oracle are certified.Within these distributions things are largely consistent."
The author does make a good point here...
People not in the know often find that linux is not consistent. They sit down at a Red hat box, suse box, ubuntu box and everything is different. They don't realize they are using different distributions. They may not even understand what a distribution is. They just know they are using Linux (tm).
I participated in the southern regional ACM programming contest. GaTech won with Florida coming in second. The questions are extremely hard. We solved one problem. They give you 5 lines of test data but when the judges test it they will use hundreds of lines of test data. Not only must your program be correct it must also be fast (less than 3 minutes)
oh and honorable mention means you didn't solve any. Take that Tech!;)
Many of the posts above say Hurd is a waste of time. I suspect the Hurd team just enjoys hacking. I really don't think they care if its a "waste" of time. They just love what they do. I think it's awesome to be so dedicated to your craft. Even if the Hurd never works... I bet they will still look back on the whole experience as something pretty cool.
My own personal experience: I worked on an 8 month student project that in many ways failed in the end. But I would never consider that a waste of time. I learned so much and had a blast doing it.
"On a personal level I'd love to see VB6 die a quick and merciless death, but on a professional level i think it is stupid to throw away years of investment in a reasonably mature platform because it isn't fashionable anymore."
A slashdotter with a heart! you sir, are NOT the usual cold calus (sp?) hacker that i have come to expect!
" Google, on the other hand, is a simple and elegant interface where you only get what you ask for.....If you're not looking for the weather, it's not going to clutter your screen with it."
The myyahoo portal is actually very customizable and it sports a RSS reader that is very handy. If I don't want the weather I dont get it. If I want to link up to the slashdot rss then I can get that too.
personally, I prefer yahoo's mail over google any day. Besides gmail's excellent search feature, its just playing catch-up to yahoo and other web mails.
I want to say I saw a commercial, at least a year ago, with shaq running around his mansion trying to find his cellphone. Then in the next seen he just plugs his cell phone in a cradle and all the house phone rings....
"Commercial Firewall + antivirus blocks 99% of it
"
I'm sure you just said "99%" to get your point across but...
I have a fully patched system with a firewall. I just scanned my windows xp box and ran across 12 adwares. 0 viruses.
If that is just 1% I really should be getting around 1188 adwares. Which is actually very close to the number of adware that my friends computer had when it was unpatched and running with out a firewall or anti-adware!
"Do you have to patch your brakes"
No, but I have to get new brake pads.
"update your steering defintions on your car "
No, but I do have to get the wheels realigned.
Bottom line: Computers (and cars:) need maintenance.
Law of entropy: Shit always breaks
If you are going to use any product you just have to be a smart consumer! I don't expect my saturn to run just fine and by never giving it an oil change. Should I expect saturn to build cars that don't need oil changes? The bottom line: Users just have to be carful with their computer and know what they are doing. Get a firewall, get virus protection, get antiadware. Don't know how to drive? expect a wreck.
"You know, there didn't used to be a big "firewall-everything" mentality on the net"...and then more viruses and more adware was released and people had to start putting up firewalls.
"it's a shame that inferior products have convinced people that they need extra layers of frivilous security "
Talk to any security professional and they all tell you that security is about layers. My linux box has a firewall. I bet if it didn't It would be owned just like my windows box with out a firewall.
The only people that call a helpdesk are people with computer problems. You only see broken computers.
My own experience: I work at a company of about 300 people and the IT staff (excluding programmers) is 2. They always have free time.
Windows is *not* a problem where I work.
Offtopic:
In fact we are fazing out our UNIX machines in favor of Windows. We couldn't find anyone to run the UNIX machines.
I was a tutor myself. We changed from C++ in visual studio 6.0 to Java in BlueJ. It became so much easier to teach and help students to code. It is a very gental introduction to programming and softens the learning curve.
From what I learned in Catholic high school science class:
God used Evolution as his tool to create humans. Nothing was by chance. Evolution happened and it was God that made sure it happened that way. Humans just didn't appear and God said, "lets give them souls".
My experience has been very disappointing with the google desktop search. I saved some files for a computer network class. I search for "computer network doc" and it found some word docs but not a computer network document. The standard search functionality of windows xp is better than this.
It turns out that once I did find them, two of the documents were called "computer_networks1.doc" and "computer_networks_may.doc". Now how much more obvious could that be? I wonder why google didn't find them?
Its funny too because I tell this to people and they think Im lying because google is just infaluble or something....
And lately even web results seem to be less accurate. Is this just me? I really hope to see some real innovation in the basic search soon.
I watched some CNET videos of the unvailing of the mac mini. Everyone cheered when the price of $499 was shown. But you know thats not the whole price. Did he not think about mouse, keyboard or monitor? Looking at the back of the imac I dont see anywhere I can plug my VGA monitor? Oh and were do I plug my ps/2 mouse and keyboard? These are still standard inputs for new computers.
He mentions that this computer will encourage people to switch. I have three reasons for not doing so:
1)Usually it is only new computers that will have a usb keyboard and mouse. If I already have a new computer why buy another?
2)If I had an old computer I would have to by all new input and output devices to hook up to this thing because older computers are less likely to have usb mouse keyboards and VGA/DVI monitors.
3)I went to the apple site to "buy" one and I don't even see monitor as an option to add to this computer. Sure I can buy a 20inch LCD from apple but then its not "just" $499 anymore is it?
"System requirements: PC: Pentium® III 800 MHz or higher, Windows 98 SE (with driver downloaded from ARCHOS web-site), ME, 2000 or XP. 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended) with USB port and CD-ROM drive Mac: 9.2 or X (10.2.4) USB Manager version 1.2 or higher with USB port and CD-ROM drive "
Maybe Im not understanding what you mean by marketing (I've never had a business class) but AOL has some very funny and smart commercials. Certainly better than Microsoft's commercials.
Slashdot Mirror
Could some one please explain? I'm not talking about internet access but broadband specifically.
I've heard this statistic in one form or another for a while now. Is it "America just has to be better?" or is there something more important going on?
-Brian
"Consistent ? I will give it to him that across distributions linux is not consistent but businesses use RHEL or Novell against which all major applications like Oracle are certified.Within these distributions things are largely consistent."
The author does make a good point here...
People not in the know often find that linux is not consistent. They sit down at a Red hat box, suse box, ubuntu box and everything is different. They don't realize they are using different distributions. They may not even understand what a distribution is. They just know they are using Linux (tm).
I participated in the southern regional ACM programming contest. GaTech won with Florida coming in second. The questions are extremely hard. We solved one problem. They give you 5 lines of test data but when the judges test it they will use hundreds of lines of test data. Not only must your program be correct it must also be fast (less than 3 minutes)
;)
oh and honorable mention means you didn't solve any. Take that Tech!
-Brian
The government spent 7 years on a project and _only_ used 1 million dollars. That's very frugal by government standards.
Many of the posts above say Hurd is a waste of time. I suspect the Hurd team just enjoys hacking. I really don't think they care if its a "waste" of time. They just love what they do. I think it's awesome to be so dedicated to your craft. Even if the Hurd never works... I bet they will still look back on the whole experience as something pretty cool.
My own personal experience: I worked on an 8 month student project that in many ways failed in the end. But I would never consider that a waste of time. I learned so much and had a blast doing it.
-bdb
"On a personal level I'd love to see VB6 die a quick and merciless death, but on a professional level i think it is stupid to throw away years of investment in a reasonably mature platform because it isn't fashionable anymore."
A slashdotter with a heart! you sir, are NOT the usual cold calus (sp?) hacker that i have come to expect!
I applaud you!
" Google, on the other hand, is a simple and elegant interface where you only get what you ask for.....If you're not looking for the weather, it's not going to clutter your screen with it."
The myyahoo portal is actually very customizable and it sports a RSS reader that is very handy. If I don't want the weather I dont get it. If I want to link up to the slashdot rss then I can get that too.
personally, I prefer yahoo's mail over google any day. Besides gmail's excellent search feature, its just playing catch-up to yahoo and other web mails.
I want to say I saw a commercial, at least a year ago, with shaq running around his mansion trying to find his cellphone. Then in the next seen he just plugs his cell phone in a cradle and all the house phone rings....
:/
or maybe i was all just a dream
"Commercial Firewall + antivirus blocks 99% of it "
I'm sure you just said "99%" to get your point across but...
I have a fully patched system with a firewall. I just scanned my windows xp box and ran across 12 adwares. 0 viruses.
If that is just 1% I really should be getting around 1188 adwares. Which is actually very close to the number of adware that my friends computer had when it was unpatched and running with out a firewall or anti-adware!
99% may actually be very close.
BillyG the herder? slave to the OS? yolk of oppression? resistence will be futile?
Are you serious dude? You gave me a good laugh there with the "end-of-the-world-melodramatic-speech".
Chill out. It will be alright
" MAJORITY are just too complacent with their lives"
Maybe they are too busy living and enjoying themselves and not bothering with things like Mac vs Windows vs Linux
I think the MAJORITY just likes to watch some football, drink beer, shop for shoes and have sex with their wife/husband.
Doesn't sound so terrible to me?
"mention OS X or Linux to them and they immediately go on the defensive, as if you are quetioning them and their decision making abilities"
Mention using windows to a Mac user and they make you feel stupid and mod you down.
"Do you have to patch your brakes" :) need maintenance.
No, but I have to get new brake pads.
"update your steering defintions on your car "
No, but I do have to get the wheels realigned.
Bottom line: Computers (and cars
Law of entropy: Shit always breaks
Equivalent? You're taking an analogy too far. Running virus protection, and a firewall does not equate to wearing body armor.
If you are going to use any product you just have to be a smart consumer! I don't expect my saturn to run just fine and by never giving it an oil change. Should I expect saturn to build cars that don't need oil changes? The bottom line: Users just have to be carful with their computer and know what they are doing. Get a firewall, get virus protection, get antiadware. Don't know how to drive? expect a wreck.
"You know, there didn't used to be a big "firewall-everything" mentality on the net" ...and then more viruses and more adware was released and people had to start putting up firewalls.
"it's a shame that inferior products have convinced people that they need extra layers of frivilous security "
Talk to any security professional and they all tell you that security is about layers. My linux box has a firewall. I bet if it didn't It would be owned just like my windows box with out a firewall.
The only people that call a helpdesk are people with computer problems. You only see broken computers. My own experience: I work at a company of about 300 people and the IT staff (excluding programmers) is 2. They always have free time. Windows is *not* a problem where I work. Offtopic: In fact we are fazing out our UNIX machines in favor of Windows. We couldn't find anyone to run the UNIX machines.
I was a tutor myself. We changed from C++ in visual studio 6.0 to Java in BlueJ. It became so much easier to teach and help students to code. It is a very gental introduction to programming and softens the learning curve.
From what I learned in Catholic high school science class:
God used Evolution as his tool to create humans. Nothing was by chance. Evolution happened and it was God that made sure it happened that way. Humans just didn't appear and God said, "lets give them souls".
"Is this really rocket science?"
No, its not rocket science for me. But for most Neophytes it is.
But maybe thats no who apple is targeting...
My experience has been very disappointing with the google desktop search. I saved some files for a computer network class. I search for "computer network doc" and it found some word docs but not a computer network document. The standard search functionality of windows xp is better than this.
It turns out that once I did find them, two of the documents were called "computer_networks1.doc" and "computer_networks_may.doc". Now how much more obvious could that be? I wonder why google didn't find them?
Its funny too because I tell this to people and they think Im lying because google is just infaluble or something....
And lately even web results seem to be less accurate. Is this just me? I really hope to see some real innovation in the basic search soon.
BTW, bring back the old google groups!
I watched some CNET videos of the unvailing of the mac mini. Everyone cheered when the price of $499 was shown. But you know thats not the whole price. Did he not think about mouse, keyboard or monitor? Looking at the back of the imac I dont see anywhere I can plug my VGA monitor? Oh and were do I plug my ps/2 mouse and keyboard? These are still standard inputs for new computers.
He mentions that this computer will encourage people to switch. I have three reasons for not doing so:
1)Usually it is only new computers that will have a usb keyboard and mouse. If I already have a new computer why buy another?
2)If I had an old computer I would have to by all new input and output devices to hook up to this thing because older computers are less likely to have usb mouse keyboards and VGA/DVI monitors.
3)I went to the apple site to "buy" one and I don't even see monitor as an option to add to this computer. Sure I can buy a 20inch LCD from apple but then its not "just" $499 anymore is it?
-brian
"System requirements: PC: Pentium® III 800 MHz or higher, Windows 98 SE (with driver downloaded from ARCHOS web-site), ME, 2000 or XP. 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended) with USB port and CD-ROM drive Mac: 9.2 or X (10.2.4) USB Manager version 1.2 or higher with USB port and CD-ROM drive "
...runs linux but requires windows/mac. :(
My friend's dad works at that plant. I live about 30 minutes from Opelika, AL, in Columbus, GA.
Am I the only one that even knows someone that works there?
"don't have the marketing that Micrsoft has"
Maybe Im not understanding what you mean by marketing (I've never had a business class) but AOL has some very funny and smart commercials. Certainly better than Microsoft's commercials.