...of a line from Les Mis: “If I speak, I am condemned / If I stay silent, I am damned.” Maybe I'm the only one here who cares, but doesn't it strike you as oddly fitting the whole thing? (Well, other than the fact that Les Mis = French != British, and there's nothing to do with China anywhere in the ething, but even then, there's the whole Europe thing going.)
Who knows. Maybe it's just me.
Not sure about the book...
on
User Mode Linux
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· Score: 5, Interesting
But the technology itself kicks ass. For example, my Web site is hosted by Linode.com, which offers User Mode Linux-based servers for very low prices, which means you can have full root access without needing a dedicated server – not trying to get off topic or advertise or anything, just mentioning a very good example of the technology in use.
Normally I'd be against any big company refusing to license standards like this, but the hell with it – this is Microsoft we're talking about, and I'd have to say that siding with Adobe on this one's probably the lesser of two evils. I have to agree with them, really – Microsoft really is just overstepping their lines, and I hope that eventually one of the anti-trust things finally does succeed against them.
I was actually (somewhat) supporting these – I've reached the point where I'd be willing to take up religion just so the Grand Theft Auto guys can burn in hell – but by now they're just getting obnoxious. What happened to actually getting stuff done?
...until someone starts illegally copying this Web site, maybe putting a mirror up on BitTorrent. In fact, I think I'll fire up wget and do it myself right now!
Yeah, I know. (8 bits/byte, etc.) I was just choosing an example to show how it could be different depending on how you measured it. It was around midnight or so when I posted this, so I was somewhat tired and I may be totally wrong here, but I figure it more or less works, even if it is wildly inaccurate.
And it can also depend heavily on the speed of the equipment, as well as the protocol or program used for testing. Just some random example – my own home network is mostly wireless, but I have a few machines hard-wired into the network. I occassionally copy files between the machines using scp. The average speed between two of the hardwired machines tends to be around 5-10 mbps, even though both network cards and the router are both rated for 100mbps. (This is with both machines on the same router – I have two of the things.)
As for those bandwidth tests – if I'm not mistaken, those can also depend on how much bandwidth is available to whatever machine's running the test. For example, if you have a lot of firewalling programs on your system, or are running heavily network-intensive processes in the background, you may not get good results. I did a quick test on my own connection just now; almost all the machines are running, but only one of them was actually accessing the Internet at once, and there were no active network connections – so my results were about the same as my ISP advertises. So it really all depends.
By the way, if you've ever tried downloading from Slackware's FTP server, ftp.slackware.com, you'll see the same thing – it's supposed to be on a T1 connection, but the typical download rates are only around 8-9kbps.
Actually, I was going for "5, Funny" – apparently none of the mods ever notice my posts any more, which is just a little bit annoying... my real root password's 36 characters, upper- and lowercase:-P
“But it would've been nice to see a comparision between MMCache and eAccelerator as well.”
I'd have to agree with you on this one – I've never used eAccelerator, and in fact I've never even heard of it up until just now, but I happen to like MMcache a great deal. I know that Wikipedia uses MMcache, and I've been using it extensively on my own server as well, because it's a slow server and literally everything on there is generated by some PHP script or other...
I'd have to say I recommend AVG from what little experience I've had working with Windows lately (a couple years ago I ditched my last Windows 98 install for Linux, and haven't had anything Microsoft branded on any of my own machines ever since). Not only is it a very high-quality free virus scanner, it's also got probably the most colorful interface I've ever seen – if you've seen all their Easter Island-ish clipart images, you'll know what I mean. Highly recommended.
Although if you get tired of Windows, I know this great little Linux distribution that's got your name written all over it... well, maybe not, but it has my name everywhere;-)
Maybe it's just a matter of personal preference – not sure about anyone else here, but I've tried both IDE and ordinary text-editor setups, and have always found that I just prefer working with good old vim. Once you get used to all the commands it's addictive – sometimes I find myself trying to [ESC]:wq a Web form, I'm that used to it now – and not to mention just so much faster.
(Most of the time I tend to work with PHP, Python, and shell scripts, if it helps)
Actually, I've never had any problems with Linux on any of the laptops I've used. Although then again, my new laptop was made around 1998... either way, I've used both VMware and QEMU on various different machines of mine, and have had no problem with either running under Linux on a P233/96MB Latitude CP. Don't use it very often on the laptop, of course, but it is useful if I want to play with something like OpenBSD and don't have a spare system to try it "natively" on.
And if your laptop's a more modern one, you definitely won't have any problems:-)
I don't care, honestly; I guess it depends not so much on personal preference but on the site itself. The program I wrote to run my personal homepage and a few other sites, Überpage, just mixes all the code together, because it's a really simple program and not intended for heavy-duty re-designing. On the other hand, I'd have to say that something more complex like WordPress probably would be best separating the code and content, because it makes designing custom themes so much simpler.
Either way, though, I still have one golden rule: Content and presentation stay separate. PHP and HTML is fine, but HTML and CSS, or even worse table formatting? No way!
I may be completely wrong here, because my newest laptop is from around 1998, but I don't really think that a brand-new machine should pose much of a problem for Linux. I've got a couple laptops, both running Linux, and most of the difficult setup work was mostly because of older ISA sound cards (probably nonexistent in modern machines).
Few quick tips from someone who's been there, done that:
I'm not too sure about built-in wireless, but if you have an external adapter I find that NETGEAR makes pretty good ones. I just use the NdisWrapper module, too lazy to switch to anything else.
The video card is likely to be the trickiest thing on newer machines. Try finding one with either an ATI or nVidia chipset, because they tend to be the best-supported on Linux; if the open-source drivers don't work, they have their own proprietary ones that will likely work.
Sound shouldn't be too difficult; ALSA should have no problem.
If the machine has a built-in Ethernet port, it should be fine, but beware of modems. Most of the modems sold these days are really cheap ones designed to work with Windows only, so I'd say try finding an older PCMCIA modem if your machine still has the slot. I recommend a Motorola Montana, my own 33.6k one is more than enough for when I'm traveling away from a wireless network.
You may want to try a few LiveCD's out on your machine; some distributions may work better than others – I recommend Ultima Linux, mostly because it's my distro, but others are good too. May also be worth checking out EmperorLinux, they sell laptops pre-loaded with Linux so they're practically guaranteed to work.
Personally, I think the hardest thing with new machines isn't the software, it's just re-adjusting to where everything is. I tend to like having the CD drive on the front, one of the "full-size"-ish keyboards that keeps that little block above the arrow keys intact, and the PCMCIA slot on the left hand side, but maybe that's just me.
IIRC, OpenOffice (for whatever stupid reason) doesn't have the ability to start out in "Show" mode - I actually went into the/usr/bin/soffice shell script and looked, there isn't anything there. Annoying as hell, but fortunately I don't use PowerPoint-ish programs that much anyway, so it's not that that big of a problem. And starting in "Edit" mode is probably a good thing anyway, you can check for errors, etc. before showing.
I think one of the worse things about OOo, though, is playing media files on Linux. Their stupid media player program, which is written in Java, requires a whole bloody media framework package installed, and of course the only place you see this is a single footnote in the help (and only if you can be bothered to look). And then, of course, you've got to deal with the sound architectures - naturally, Java still hasn't been updated to support ALSA like every other program written this century...
No, actually, the worst thing – just try converting one of their Linux RPM's to Slackware format. Looks staightforward enough, putting everything in/opt/openoffice.org2.0, except that it expects everything to be in/opt/openoffice.org-2.0 [with a dash],/etc/openoffice.org2.0 [WTF?], and/etc/openoffice.org-2.0 [shoot me dammit!]. Makes me wonder who packages the thing, but at least it beats the hell out of building the source code on a 700MHz Duron w/256MB RAM.
In short, all office programs suck. OpenOffice.org just sucks marginally less.:-)
Actually, I guess I am kind of weird... I'm an IB student, a Linux hacker, the Webmaster of what seems like three million Web sites (all validated;-), a would-be author... and I actually still have time for my life! [TIP: Most of the hacking stuff can be done really late on weekends...]
Slashdot Mirror
...of a line from Les Mis : “If I speak, I am condemned / If I stay silent, I am damned.” Maybe I'm the only one here who cares, but doesn't it strike you as oddly fitting the whole thing? (Well, other than the fact that Les Mis = French != British, and there's nothing to do with China anywhere in the ething, but even then, there's the whole Europe thing going.)
Who knows. Maybe it's just me.
But the technology itself kicks ass. For example, my Web site is hosted by Linode.com, which offers User Mode Linux-based servers for very low prices, which means you can have full root access without needing a dedicated server – not trying to get off topic or advertise or anything, just mentioning a very good example of the technology in use.
Normally I'd be against any big company refusing to license standards like this, but the hell with it – this is Microsoft we're talking about, and I'd have to say that siding with Adobe on this one's probably the lesser of two evils. I have to agree with them, really – Microsoft really is just overstepping their lines, and I hope that eventually one of the anti-trust things finally does succeed against them.
I was actually (somewhat) supporting these – I've reached the point where I'd be willing to take up religion just so the Grand Theft Auto guys can burn in hell – but by now they're just getting obnoxious. What happened to actually getting stuff done?
...until someone starts illegally copying this Web site, maybe putting a mirror up on BitTorrent. In fact, I think I'll fire up wget and do it myself right now!
Yeah, I know. (8 bits/byte, etc.) I was just choosing an example to show how it could be different depending on how you measured it. It was around midnight or so when I posted this, so I was somewhat tired and I may be totally wrong here, but I figure it more or less works, even if it is wildly inaccurate.
And it can also depend heavily on the speed of the equipment, as well as the protocol or program used for testing. Just some random example – my own home network is mostly wireless, but I have a few machines hard-wired into the network. I occassionally copy files between the machines using scp. The average speed between two of the hardwired machines tends to be around 5-10 mbps, even though both network cards and the router are both rated for 100mbps. (This is with both machines on the same router – I have two of the things.)
As for those bandwidth tests – if I'm not mistaken, those can also depend on how much bandwidth is available to whatever machine's running the test. For example, if you have a lot of firewalling programs on your system, or are running heavily network-intensive processes in the background, you may not get good results. I did a quick test on my own connection just now; almost all the machines are running, but only one of them was actually accessing the Internet at once, and there were no active network connections – so my results were about the same as my ISP advertises. So it really all depends.
By the way, if you've ever tried downloading from Slackware's FTP server, ftp.slackware.com, you'll see the same thing – it's supposed to be on a T1 connection, but the typical download rates are only around 8-9kbps.
Actually, I was going for "5, Funny" – apparently none of the mods ever notice my posts any more, which is just a little bit annoying... my real root password's 36 characters, upper- and lowercase :-P
How'd that guy find out my root password!?
I'd have to agree with you on this one – I've never used eAccelerator, and in fact I've never even heard of it up until just now, but I happen to like MMcache a great deal. I know that Wikipedia uses MMcache, and I've been using it extensively on my own server as well, because it's a slow server and literally everything on there is generated by some PHP script or other...
Says who that the NSA doesn't have something like TRANSLTR?
It sounds like the Ask Slashdot from hell. (Sorry if that's redundant ;-)
But the RetroActive store across the boardwalk is better, 'cause they have a Pac-Man machine and Jolt Cola :-)
Dammit! You mean my entire life so far's been in vain??
You won't BELIEVE what I would do to get rid of Comic Sans MS, and not to mention my favorite thing in the world to hate – WordArt.
But what's really bad is when the teachers use it, too.
I'd have to say I recommend AVG from what little experience I've had working with Windows lately (a couple years ago I ditched my last Windows 98 install for Linux, and haven't had anything Microsoft branded on any of my own machines ever since). Not only is it a very high-quality free virus scanner, it's also got probably the most colorful interface I've ever seen – if you've seen all their Easter Island-ish clipart images, you'll know what I mean. Highly recommended.
;-)
Although if you get tired of Windows, I know this great little Linux distribution that's got your name written all over it... well, maybe not, but it has my name everywhere
Maybe it's just a matter of personal preference – not sure about anyone else here, but I've tried both IDE and ordinary text-editor setups, and have always found that I just prefer working with good old vim. Once you get used to all the commands it's addictive – sometimes I find myself trying to [ESC] :wq a Web form, I'm that used to it now – and not to mention just so much faster.
(Most of the time I tend to work with PHP, Python, and shell scripts, if it helps)
Actually, I've never had any problems with Linux on any of the laptops I've used. Although then again, my new laptop was made around 1998... either way, I've used both VMware and QEMU on various different machines of mine, and have had no problem with either running under Linux on a P233/96MB Latitude CP. Don't use it very often on the laptop, of course, but it is useful if I want to play with something like OpenBSD and don't have a spare system to try it "natively" on.
:-)
And if your laptop's a more modern one, you definitely won't have any problems
Ha! Then I now have third post! So there, consecutively numbered trolls!
I don't care, honestly; I guess it depends not so much on personal preference but on the site itself. The program I wrote to run my personal homepage and a few other sites, Überpage, just mixes all the code together, because it's a really simple program and not intended for heavy-duty re-designing. On the other hand, I'd have to say that something more complex like WordPress probably would be best separating the code and content, because it makes designing custom themes so much simpler.
Either way, though, I still have one golden rule: Content and presentation stay separate. PHP and HTML is fine, but HTML and CSS, or even worse table formatting? No way!
I may be completely wrong here, because my newest laptop is from around 1998, but I don't really think that a brand-new machine should pose much of a problem for Linux. I've got a couple laptops, both running Linux, and most of the difficult setup work was mostly because of older ISA sound cards (probably nonexistent in modern machines).
Few quick tips from someone who's been there, done that:
You may want to try a few LiveCD's out on your machine; some distributions may work better than others – I recommend Ultima Linux, mostly because it's my distro, but others are good too. May also be worth checking out EmperorLinux, they sell laptops pre-loaded with Linux so they're practically guaranteed to work.
Personally, I think the hardest thing with new machines isn't the software, it's just re-adjusting to where everything is. I tend to like having the CD drive on the front, one of the "full-size"-ish keyboards that keeps that little block above the arrow keys intact, and the PCMCIA slot on the left hand side, but maybe that's just me.
Hope you find a machine you like :-)
See? All office suites suck. My point exactly :-)
IIRC, OpenOffice (for whatever stupid reason) doesn't have the ability to start out in "Show" mode - I actually went into the /usr/bin/soffice shell script and looked, there isn't anything there. Annoying as hell, but fortunately I don't use PowerPoint-ish programs that much anyway, so it's not that that big of a problem. And starting in "Edit" mode is probably a good thing anyway, you can check for errors, etc. before showing.
/opt/openoffice.org2.0, except that it expects everything to be in /opt/openoffice.org-2.0 [with a dash], /etc/openoffice.org2.0 [WTF?], and /etc/openoffice.org-2.0 [shoot me dammit!]. Makes me wonder who packages the thing, but at least it beats the hell out of building the source code on a 700MHz Duron w/256MB RAM.
:-)
I think one of the worse things about OOo, though, is playing media files on Linux. Their stupid media player program, which is written in Java, requires a whole bloody media framework package installed, and of course the only place you see this is a single footnote in the help (and only if you can be bothered to look). And then, of course, you've got to deal with the sound architectures - naturally, Java still hasn't been updated to support ALSA like every other program written this century...
No, actually, the worst thing – just try converting one of their Linux RPM's to Slackware format. Looks staightforward enough, putting everything in
In short, all office programs suck. OpenOffice.org just sucks marginally less.
Actually, I guess I am kind of weird... I'm an IB student, a Linux hacker, the Webmaster of what seems like three million Web sites (all validated ;-), a would-be author... and I actually still have time for my life! [TIP: Most of the hacking stuff can be done really late on weekends...]
Sorry about the screwy line breaks, by the way, I keep forgetting the stupid "Plain Old Text" thing...