Can you recommend any decent free news hosts? I've been looking for a while as my ISP (Be) seems to have essentially looked at the "problem" of binary newssgroups, and reacted by simply not having a news server. I don't care about the binary groups, I just want the text ones (a few alt. groups, and maybe a rec. group or two), but I do want to be able to post as well as read. I don't mind signing up for an account, as long as it's free. Speed would be nice, but as it's just text, that's not really a major concern.
If you can recommend a server, it would be very much appreciated!
The problem with this argument is that Windows (XP, I've not touched Vista) doesn't play DVDs out of the box either. If you buy a machine from, say, Dell then the odds are good that they'll have installed PowerDVD or similar, so it will, but the default install won't. So, is there any real difference between Dell installing PowerDVD on their Windows machines and an equivalent on their Linux machines?
I'm not so sure about this. I've seen badly written Flash or Java apps consume vast amounts of CPU power, pegging the system permanently at 100% CPU usage. When I ran Windows (XP), whenever this happened, the entire system would become sluggish and virtually unusable as there was no processing time left for the GUI. Now that I'm running Linux, I've seen that happen a couple of times, and the only reason I've realised is because my laptop fan spun up. The performance of the desktop and other apps was fine, it was only by looking in top that I spotted the problem.
So, the OS can manage programs which are using too much CPU. You just need an effective scheduler. Network usage is a different, but similar issue. By implementing local QoS or scheduling, you could ensure that no one application is allowed to hog all the bandwidth if other apps are trying to use it.
It's not hugely popular. As a geek, I've been a fairly early adopter of the tech! I think there are only a few ISPs offering it (I'm with Be, who've recently been purchased by O2, but no sign of problems from that so far, touch wood!) and it's only available in relatively limited areas, partly due to the few ISPs using it, and also because you have to be fairly close to the exchange for it to be worth it.
Be's service is very much dependant on your distance from the exchange - as I said, I get 15Mbps 'cos I'm quite close, I know people who get around 10 because they're further away, but it's still faster than the alternatives. That said, I actually get my 15Mbps, it doesn't seem to drop at busy times or because I torrent too much, and I have an effectively static IP and run servers with no complaints. To be honest, I'm astounded at how good they are, and how cheap compared to every other ISP I've had.
I think a major advantage we've got over here, compared to in the States, is that we have a lot of ISPs competing to offer DSL of one variety or another since we've had the local loops unbundled, meaning any ISP can stick their DSLAMS in the exchange. The Cable companies are all fairly grim, and from the sound of it quite similar to the ones in the US, and they do have a monopoly on cable.
I'm using a standard ADSL2+ package - it comes down the phone line to my house, and I pay £18/month for it. It's advertised as "up to 24megabits/s, depending on distance from exchange, line quality etc" and I'm getting actual sustained speeds of around 15Mb/s.
If I lived closer to the exchange (to be honest, probably virtually inside it) then I would be able to get a standard broadband package that was over 22Mbit.
I'm in the UK, by the way, as you could probably tell from me listing the price in pounds.
Seconded. I'm running at 1380x800 (cheap widescreen laptop), and I'm using Tree Style Tab with the tabs on the left hand side, and everything displays properly, with the exception of a few photos, which're generally too big for the screen anyway!
I think most websites are still designed for 1024x768, so as long as the tab bar takes up less than 300 pixels, it's fine!
I've also got my Gnome Panel on the left, because vertical space is much more valuable on a widescreen monitor than horizontal. I'm also looking forward to the day Avant can be placed at the side too!
There's an extension for Firefox which does tree style tabs (called Tree Style Tab). It's not perfect (sometimes it loses track of which tabs are inside others when you restart Firefox) but it works pretty well, I've found!
It has lead to me having a lot more tabs open than I used to though - when you can find them so easily, there's less of an incentive to close them as you go. Whether this is a good thing or not is open to debate!
Weeeeeeeeeeeellllllllll.....
Vista's a bitch, it's a big fat bitch, it's the biggest bitch in the whole wide world, it's a mean old bitch and it has stupid flair, it's a bitch to all the boys and girls...
That's a pretty good reason not to! Yes, I bullied my work into getting me the extra 2 gig 'cos Linux felt noticably slower when I had the Windows VM running as well with only 1 gig. I think you're right that with 512 total, it'd be almost completely unusable. Shame the RAM upgrades are so difficult - I'm used to RAM being easy, and now cheap!
Long answer: Yes, as long as you get the Personal Use and Evaluation version, rather than the Open Source Edition. However, it's not perfect, I've had a few issues with card readers not being picked up correctly, but I think that might be mostly down to not having it set up properly for every specific card reader. I've not tried it with more complicated stuff, like webcams.
Have you considered using a VM? I've been using Linux as much as possible for the last year and a half, and much prefer it, but there are a couple of programs I need for work which are Windows only, and we've not been able to get running under Wine. After a while of duel booting (and given the current topic, I feel more justified than ever in spelling it "duel") I started using Virtualbox in seamless mode. This means I can run all the Windows stuff quite happily, and still be able to use Linux for everything else.
The only downsides I've found are that it eats RAM and battery to have to OSes running, but I've upgraded to 3GB (plenty! and only £30 for the extra 2 gig these days) and the USB support's a little dodgy (in the full version, missing entirely in the OSE version).
There's no way I'd pay £13 to see a film... I'd expect to own it for that! The cinemas near me charge around £7-8, which is still a bit high, unless I really really want to see that film.
So, this is where Orange Wednesdays come in. If you've got a phone on the Orange network, you can send a text (10p), and get a text back with a code for 2 tickets for the price of 1 on a Wednesday. This brings the cost down to £3.50 to £4 ($7-$8, if anyone's keeping track), which I think is much more acceptable!
So much so, in fact, that as I don't have an Orange phone, I actually bought an Orange sim card (free, as long as you put £5 credit on it) and stuck it in an old spare phone. Since then, I've used it about 8 times, so saved about £60. Not bad for a £5 investment!
(grrr, "wait more time between comments" - yes I can type this much (and have a conversation about who the Stig really is in less than 4 minutes...)
The problem I've found with that is that as a film gets older, it drifts through the multiplex to the smaller screens... So if you see it the week it comes out, you might get a decent sized screen, but wait a month or two, and you end up seeing it on a screen that's about the size of a bedsheet.
My experience with my laptop, using battery life as a measure of resource hunger (I know, it's not entirely accurate, but it gives a rough idea!) is that Ubuntu without Compiz (metacity) lasts about 2 hours, Ubuntu with Compiz about an hour and a half. Windows XP lasts about an hour and a half too, and I haven't tried Vista or Ubuntu headless.
So, my experience, granted using a rather unscientific measure, is that Ubuntu with Compiz is comparable to Windows XP standard install.
In all cases, this is with relatively light use; reading webpages, file management etc. No gaming or video playback.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks. :-) I'll take a look at them!
Can you recommend any? I've been trying to find a decent free news server which allows posting for a while, and not had any luck
Thanks!
Can you recommend any decent free news hosts? I've been looking for a while as my ISP (Be) seems to have essentially looked at the "problem" of binary newssgroups, and reacted by simply not having a news server. I don't care about the binary groups, I just want the text ones (a few alt. groups, and maybe a rec. group or two), but I do want to be able to post as well as read. I don't mind signing up for an account, as long as it's free. Speed would be nice, but as it's just text, that's not really a major concern. If you can recommend a server, it would be very much appreciated!
Other than reduced sensitivity and needing lubricant to masturbate? (Or so I've heard! Not had bits of my cock chopped off!)
The problem with this argument is that Windows (XP, I've not touched Vista) doesn't play DVDs out of the box either. If you buy a machine from, say, Dell then the odds are good that they'll have installed PowerDVD or similar, so it will, but the default install won't. So, is there any real difference between Dell installing PowerDVD on their Windows machines and an equivalent on their Linux machines?
I'm not so sure about this. I've seen badly written Flash or Java apps consume vast amounts of CPU power, pegging the system permanently at 100% CPU usage. When I ran Windows (XP), whenever this happened, the entire system would become sluggish and virtually unusable as there was no processing time left for the GUI. Now that I'm running Linux, I've seen that happen a couple of times, and the only reason I've realised is because my laptop fan spun up. The performance of the desktop and other apps was fine, it was only by looking in top that I spotted the problem.
So, the OS can manage programs which are using too much CPU. You just need an effective scheduler. Network usage is a different, but similar issue. By implementing local QoS or scheduling, you could ensure that no one application is allowed to hog all the bandwidth if other apps are trying to use it.
It's not hugely popular. As a geek, I've been a fairly early adopter of the tech! I think there are only a few ISPs offering it (I'm with Be, who've recently been purchased by O2, but no sign of problems from that so far, touch wood!) and it's only available in relatively limited areas, partly due to the few ISPs using it, and also because you have to be fairly close to the exchange for it to be worth it.
Be's service is very much dependant on your distance from the exchange - as I said, I get 15Mbps 'cos I'm quite close, I know people who get around 10 because they're further away, but it's still faster than the alternatives. That said, I actually get my 15Mbps, it doesn't seem to drop at busy times or because I torrent too much, and I have an effectively static IP and run servers with no complaints. To be honest, I'm astounded at how good they are, and how cheap compared to every other ISP I've had.
I think a major advantage we've got over here, compared to in the States, is that we have a lot of ISPs competing to offer DSL of one variety or another since we've had the local loops unbundled, meaning any ISP can stick their DSLAMS in the exchange. The Cable companies are all fairly grim, and from the sound of it quite similar to the ones in the US, and they do have a monopoly on cable.
I'm using a standard ADSL2+ package - it comes down the phone line to my house, and I pay £18/month for it. It's advertised as "up to 24megabits/s, depending on distance from exchange, line quality etc" and I'm getting actual sustained speeds of around 15Mb/s.
If I lived closer to the exchange (to be honest, probably virtually inside it) then I would be able to get a standard broadband package that was over 22Mbit.
I'm in the UK, by the way, as you could probably tell from me listing the price in pounds.
I think GP meant that with two people, A has to like B and B has to like A. Two relationships.
With three people:
A>B
A>C
B>A
B>C
C>A
C>B
Just because A likes C doesn't mean C likes A. If it was that simple, we'd have a lot less stalkers!
Seconded. I'm running at 1380x800 (cheap widescreen laptop), and I'm using Tree Style Tab with the tabs on the left hand side, and everything displays properly, with the exception of a few photos, which're generally too big for the screen anyway!
I think most websites are still designed for 1024x768, so as long as the tab bar takes up less than 300 pixels, it's fine!
I've also got my Gnome Panel on the left, because vertical space is much more valuable on a widescreen monitor than horizontal. I'm also looking forward to the day Avant can be placed at the side too!
There's an extension for Firefox which does tree style tabs (called Tree Style Tab). It's not perfect (sometimes it loses track of which tabs are inside others when you restart Firefox) but it works pretty well, I've found!
It has lead to me having a lot more tabs open than I used to though - when you can find them so easily, there's less of an incentive to close them as you go. Whether this is a good thing or not is open to debate!
But since he's doing a direct comparison between a Dell Windows machine and a Dell Ubuntu machine, it makes sense to say it's equivalent to Ubuntu.
Well, Francey that!
If these get any worse, I'm going to kick you Indonesia git...
Weeeeeeeeeeeellllllllll..... Vista's a bitch, it's a big fat bitch, it's the biggest bitch in the whole wide world, it's a mean old bitch and it has stupid flair, it's a bitch to all the boys and girls...
Maybe "hip" as in "hip replacement"
I'm James Robinson, and so's my wife
Heh. I'm the opposite way around. My TV /is/ my computer screen.
At least, my media server computer's screen... But it does get used as a computer from time to time.
That's a pretty good reason not to! Yes, I bullied my work into getting me the extra 2 gig 'cos Linux felt noticably slower when I had the Windows VM running as well with only 1 gig. I think you're right that with 512 total, it'd be almost completely unusable. Shame the RAM upgrades are so difficult - I'm used to RAM being easy, and now cheap!
Short answer: Yes, with PUEL
Long answer: Yes, as long as you get the Personal Use and Evaluation version, rather than the Open Source Edition. However, it's not perfect, I've had a few issues with card readers not being picked up correctly, but I think that might be mostly down to not having it set up properly for every specific card reader. I've not tried it with more complicated stuff, like webcams.
Have you considered using a VM? I've been using Linux as much as possible for the last year and a half, and much prefer it, but there are a couple of programs I need for work which are Windows only, and we've not been able to get running under Wine. After a while of duel booting (and given the current topic, I feel more justified than ever in spelling it "duel") I started using Virtualbox in seamless mode. This means I can run all the Windows stuff quite happily, and still be able to use Linux for everything else.
The only downsides I've found are that it eats RAM and battery to have to OSes running, but I've upgraded to 3GB (plenty! and only £30 for the extra 2 gig these days) and the USB support's a little dodgy (in the full version, missing entirely in the OSE version).
There's no way I'd pay £13 to see a film... I'd expect to own it for that! The cinemas near me charge around £7-8, which is still a bit high, unless I really really want to see that film.
So, this is where Orange Wednesdays come in. If you've got a phone on the Orange network, you can send a text (10p), and get a text back with a code for 2 tickets for the price of 1 on a Wednesday. This brings the cost down to £3.50 to £4 ($7-$8, if anyone's keeping track), which I think is much more acceptable!
So much so, in fact, that as I don't have an Orange phone, I actually bought an Orange sim card (free, as long as you put £5 credit on it) and stuck it in an old spare phone. Since then, I've used it about 8 times, so saved about £60. Not bad for a £5 investment!
(grrr, "wait more time between comments" - yes I can type this much (and have a conversation about who the Stig really is in less than 4 minutes...)
The problem I've found with that is that as a film gets older, it drifts through the multiplex to the smaller screens... So if you see it the week it comes out, you might get a decent sized screen, but wait a month or two, and you end up seeing it on a screen that's about the size of a bedsheet.
Some people. Not all people. Only people using those six ISPs. And to be honest, they're all ISPs I'd avoid anyway for plenty of other reasons.
My experience with my laptop, using battery life as a measure of resource hunger (I know, it's not entirely accurate, but it gives a rough idea!) is that Ubuntu without Compiz (metacity) lasts about 2 hours, Ubuntu with Compiz about an hour and a half. Windows XP lasts about an hour and a half too, and I haven't tried Vista or Ubuntu headless.
So, my experience, granted using a rather unscientific measure, is that Ubuntu with Compiz is comparable to Windows XP standard install.
In all cases, this is with relatively light use; reading webpages, file management etc. No gaming or video playback.
Yeah. You're only as old as the woman you feel.