the chances of seeing a Java application whose GUI actually blends in the slightest with the OS upon which it runs are slim to none
FUDfest. Java 6 will have some desktop support.
Sure, and C# 2021 will be the most secure and intelligent programming language... I agree with GP about this point, not that I really care but it is something that has bothered me about Java from the first time I used it, every GUI toolkit they offer has as a property Ugliness (in fact wth JSwing the JFrame class has a property called setUgliness(unisgned int)).
You seem to not know that the most use of Java is actually in server side apps, like web apps, web services, enterprise server... and mobile phones of course. You forgot one which is the reason I use Java 99% of the time these days. Research. I think Java is one of the best programming languages for research because of the quantity of libraries (both free and non free) available. For example, I myself use RepastJ (multi agent system simulator), and recently started to use JSci (math and science library) among with lots of other libraries.
The CompSci community uses java a lot. That is something Microsoft will have *hard* time getting into if they wanted. The main reason is that there are lots of scientific tools that are *just there* and would need to be reimplemented in whatever other language.
And as you said, if you really need something else, there is also JNI (I used JNI to interface between a MAS in JADE [java agent development environment] and a neural network in C++) so with Java we scientists have everything we need.
At my university the bookstore sells XP Pro for $10. You can download Office Pro off of the website for free. Do you think MS is doing that to support higher education? I doubt it. I'm more certain that they see it as a cheap way of indoctrinating people to use MS products so that when they get out of college they are so used to using MS, that they don't even stop to think of anything else existing
They do the same thing at my Uni, and guess what, the newspapers do the same. I have seen a lot of people coming to buy the newspapers (im in UK) near the campus because it is cheaper than in other places, the reason (the seller told me)? they want to make students "interested" and issued to their newspaper in order to make it a habit for students so they *need* to read it after they get out of the Uni.
So yeah, at least in that sense it is not an exclusive tactic of Microsoft... not that it is right (but hey as a student any discount cant be bad no?)
And to make things worse, "I like" does not means "Me gusto" but "Me gusta" as the first person conjucation of the verb.
So, what great parent wrote as "I like iceream" would be translated as "Me gusta el helado" and "I like, I scream" would be "Me gusta, yo grito".
I agree with GP about the speech recognition problem being one of the problems to cope before having a real-time translation tool. Some have said that the current technology (Dragon Speaking 9, etc) achieve 90% of accuaracy, but the issue is that the 90% is on ideal conditions, try the experiment of recording a Friends show (or simpsons or any other tv program) and try to introduce it with those programs. There is so much noise and variation in the speech that they cant make any sense.
Of course the translation problem is another difficult problem. Now my question is, isnt it possible to avoid the Speech to Text conversion in translation? wouldnt it be possible to translate directly from voice? it would mean translating a specific sound to a equivalent sound in another language which would mean having huge sound databases but hey, that might work and you will have to beat only one problem.
Or a subscription to MAKE, CRAFT, National Geographic, or some other magazine?
I asked "santa" for a subscription of WoW.
In the letter I stated "If you bring me the subscription to WoW I wont do anything [bad] for one year". And of course next year I would ask for another subscription.
If GDM or a service crashes it will restart. If nautilus crashes you can restart it by clicking the Home folder button in the dropdown menu. At least when Nautilus crashes the taskbar doesn't go, along with IE, like it does with explorer.exe which leaves you staring at your wallpaper and hoping it'll start back up.
Well I dunno about that but the first time I installd Ubunty 6.06 and tried to log in the taskbar will stay blank (without the icons) and only the desktop would show the icons. It just wont work even if I restarted X-window and tried again so I could not get into my computer (having removed completely XP)...
I had to install Kubuntu and work with that (but KDE stability sucks bigs ball in my experience).
Oh, and about your Nvidia instrucitons
1) Add universal repositories in Synaptic package manager. 2) Type this in in the terminal: sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel-common sudo nvidia-glx-config enable 3) Type Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to restart your display, or reboot if you prefer.
. But I do think Linux is as easy to use for a newcomer as Windows, HAHAHAAHHHahahahahahahaahahahahha
BTW, the guide which you linked to is quite scary:
How to install Graphics Driver (NVIDIA)
(sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel-common;sudo nvidia-glx-config enable;sudo gedit/etc/X11/xorg.conf;and replacing "nv" with "nvidia"; Read #How to restart GNOME without rebooting computer;Enable XvMC by creating the nVidia XvMC configuration file;sudo gedit/etc/X11/XvMCConfig;Insert the following line into the new configuration file, to tell the players the name of the nVidia XvMC shared library:libXvMCNVIDIA_dynamic.so.1 ; * To use XvMC to accelerate video playback, use the following flags. See [[2]] for more details. xine -V xxmc filename.ts mplayer -vo xvmc -vc ffmpeg12mc filename.ts
While in the horrible crappy Windows XP you have to: Download, click OPEN, click I AGREE, click next, next next, next... DONE
Pleeease. I like linux, in fact I am writing this from a half usable ubuntu laptop (I removed WinXP because the activation shit pissed me off for the last time, and yes my computer has a XP Proff sticker under it). But in no FUCKING WAY is Linux simpler than Windows. At least not Ubuntu which is *supposed to be* one of the simplest Linux out there. Maybe Xandros, Linspire or one of them but hey, I am a cheap bastard and wont pay for something I can get for free.
Well that is not all, not so long ago I was planning a trip to Birmingham and while looking for the bullring I was amazed to see that it had been destroyed..
Fortunately for me, it seems the pictures at google were wrong, as when I arrived I could get into the place withour problems.
Although we know you are sorry [sorryeverybody.com] and even more people than the ones who voted against your current regime are sorry now, now it is the time for you to make the difference.
Please go out and vote, and if you know someone who does not want to vote please convince him/her to vote. It is on your hands the power to finish the war and terrorism. Vote to remove the totalitarian regime from your beautiful country and to start restoring the rights your government has removed from you.
I am not from USA, but I KNOW there is good people there. Please go out and vote, we need you, people from the USA, we need you to stop the injustice.
I think one of the most important points here is the Operating System. I think it could be an option, if you *really* need to run specific applications on Win98 platform, to install such insecure operating system inside a virtual machine as VMware. I dont care if the operating system is WindwsXP or Linux, but I am sure it will be easier to fix the security hole if you have the OS inside the VM sandbox.
On the other side, it could be the case (it has been in lots of places were I am from) that such machines are not "cutting edge" (say Pentium 3, or even Pentium) and they wont support WindowsXP as the base OS. For that, I would recommend a slim Linux distribution (Xubuntu, or DSL maybe) and then install your licensed copy of Windows98 inside Vmware.
Now, I do not have the specific reasons why virtualizing that will help, but I know it helps. Although maybe I am just trying to solve the problem throwing virtualization (and if it does not works just virtualize the second base OS =op)
you assume people have the time to be smart. Which is exactly what most people refuse to give these days.
People is smart, the issue is that not all of us are smart in the same things. And that is good. See, there is a guy called Victor who is my lawyer, he is VERY smart and always enlightens me when I have a question about the legal some issue.
There's this lady, she is Josefina, she is also quite smart, she was my accountant when I had a small PC sell/repair buisness. Then there is my girlfriend who is really intelligent, she has a master in manufacturing, and she is manager in a factory.
All of these people are intelligent at what they do, the fact that they chose not to be "smart" at computers isn't something bad. I myself give a computer game 10 mintues to let me play, most of them do not pass that threshold and hence I dont play them.
The same with my car, I am not "smart" at my car, I just want it to take from one place to another. However, with Linux, I CHOOSE to "be smart" at it, ant hence I have spent *A LOT* of time to make Ubuntu work in my Laptop (all the hardware and whatnot unsupported things...).
The difference between Windows and Linux is that with Linux you MUST spend some time to make it work, for the 90% of things that most people do you have to make some effort whereas in Windows you do not need to.
I have heard lots of times that Linux is easier to install than Linux, or that Linux has better support applications or whatever, but the point is that for that 90% of things that the "average joe" do, Linux does not "just work".
We, as computer "experts" notice the lacks of Windows but the average user does not, and it works. I just completely removed Windows XP from my laptop and installed Ubuntu, it was quite interesting when my girlfirend asked me "what are the advantages of Linux?", the only thing I could tell her is that on Linux there are no viruses. Although that was not very convinzing for her because she has WinXP SP2 and AVG antivirus installed, she hasn't had a virus in a looong time (in fact never since she bought her computer).
Instead, I also had to tell them that the problems with Linux is the lack of hardware compatibility, of course I told her the hardware manufacturers are the ones to blame but, really, for the Joe or Jane Average that just does not matters, the only things that matter is whether it works or it does not works.
As an specific example, she was amazed at all the issues I had to go in order to make my playstation mat work on Linux. I had it installed on windows and it was as easy as install the PsxPad (just double click and next, next,next). and then connect the psx2parallel cable I made and then fire stepmania. On linux I had to look for the kernel modules to see if it was installed (of course command line), and then because it was NOT installed I had to add it with modprobe gamecon=0,7,0,0,0 where the 7 was specific for the psxpad and then it refused to work for some strange reason but I somehow managed to make it work.
After that I went with the trouble of making stepmania have sound, sound was just not working (ubuntu 6.06 here) and I had to get into the ini file and try to play with the values.
She asked me why was it that hard and why was I doing it that way when it was working before (in Windows).
Do not get me wrong, I enjoy doing all that but I am certain there is no way someone without knowledge will go trough all that (the console!!) to make their dance mat work, and this is just ONE example, I am sure there are hundreds and hundreds of issues, not only hardware but software. The truth is that with Linux there are 2 ends (and GNOME is expert in that), you rather cant do anything using the graphical interfaces or you can do a lot but you *must* know about the config files and whatever.
Not making any conclusion, just giving my thoughts
As other people already noted, I agree with parent.
However I believe it is easy andgnome-nettool completely possible to go a step ahead, instead of say, creating a big firefox installer with lots of extensions that could be enabled at installation time, I know it would be possible to offer a configuration web page where the downloader could add or remove extensions BEFORE downloading Firefox, thus personalyzing its packet.
That way, you (Mozilla developers) could make *some use* of the extension signature (I have YET to see a "signed extension"...) by allowing only signed and 100% tested / working hight quality extensions to be "published" in the homepage, and who knows, maybe even a link to the extension homepage (which will incite developers to put google ads and get some $$$ while creating those great extensions).
In that way, firefox extensions would be promoted to the people that donwload firefox. Imagine the download page as it is now with an option called "Personalize your Browser" (or something more buzzworthy) where you can select (via simple checkboxes) which extensions would you like to add to your firefox browser (to be installed by default).
I know this is possible as it is already done in Eclipse (at least the Yoxos eclipse distribution lets you select on the webpage and dinamically creates your package). I believe it will be trivial to do on windows (via installing script) but on Linux it might not be as easy (god, I still cant install Firefox 2.0 for all users on my Ubuntu distribution =o()
Oh yeah, thats the Linux culture. It just happened to me as I migrated my laptop from Windows XP to Ubuntu 6.06. Neither Wireless or sound worked (I had to install a PCMCIA wireless card... which is stupid). And the sound as great parent said is terribly bad. Neither ESD (ubuntu-gnome sounds system) nor arts (kde sound system) are worth a dime, they crash every 5 mintues, you cant, as the GP stated play sound with 2 applications at the same time (trying to use AMAROK + KOPETE for example, with BOTH using ALSA just cause an ARTS message saying "sound buffer overflow" and the processor goes crazy). ESD has similar behaviour.
Anyway, to stay ontopic. I have programmed both on SDL-OpenGL and DirecX. I preffer the way to do things in OpenGL, however as someone else posted, to program in DirectX is so cool because you have a complete SOLUTION. That buzzword has a lot of value (for me at least). You only install VisualC++ IDE and install DirectX package and there you go, ready to program. Whereas to setup a complete game development environment to SDL+OpenGL you have to compile and run yourself all the SDL support libraries (libsdlmixer, libsdimage, etc). Last time I tried setting up SDL on Windows (my laptop now runs Ubuntu only) I spent like 3 hours configuring and compiling everything. DevCpp devpaks were quite helpful but it has been discontinued for a long time.
So, as lots other programmers, we game developers want to develop games, and not to develop whatever library is supposed to be available.
This is ridiculous. The central problem with global warming is the the results of an increased temperature -
Grand parent was right, you have to fight THE CAUSES not the CONSEQUENCES. But of course americans can not do better, it is exactly what you are doing to fight your "terrorism", instead of looking at what are the issues that cause people to go crash at your buildings you preffer to go and kill all those people without understanding that as long as THE CAUSE (hint, mind your own business) is there the problem will return.
Similarly in order to stabilise the earth's temperature we must attack the issues that are CAUSING it, as grand parent said, we do not need half baked ideas that will only make the problem go for 10 years when it will return worse.
Amarok is a little piece of crap that crashes every 5 minutes along with whatever sound system you use (alsa, esd, etc, via xine engine or other).
I liked the idea and the nice features as lyrics and all that, but it is completely unusable at least for Ubuntu 6.06 (no I wont upgrade to 6.10 after reading theres a 33% chance to get my system ruined).
I use Xmms all the time, it is not as fancy as amarok or all that but it just works.
I agree with one of your points, and it is one of the main problems I have seen with the several Linux distributions I have tried. I am writing this from my Ubuntu 6.06 laptop installation. I just recently removed Windows completely on favour of Ubuntu after it told me that "Windows cant prove the legality of this installation" and it did not allowed me to enter to MY computer even in the so called "safe mode" after I added 1GB of ram (WinXP).
The previous is to show you pissed off I *am* of Microsoft offerings... and my Windows XP is so legal I've got a sticker under my laptop with windows serial number for WinXP. Thats stupid behaviour.
But now, returning to Linux, at least to Ubuntu. Since I installed I have had so *many* problems specifically with one of the things you say, the software is flakey, it is terribly unstable. The hibernating function works half the time and the suspend does not work (you see a whole paragraph stating that it is "experimental").
My wireless card is *supposed* to be supported and although it IS detected (broadcom 4093) it does not work so I had to add a PCMCIA card, neither ALSA or ESD work 100%, they hang half the time consuming 99% of processor, Amarok sucks as it is terribly buggy, some random applications just "die" in the middle of use without any message (the window just *disappears*).
I pondered on upgrading to 6.10 but then I saw all the reviews and issues people has been having. If you go to Ubuntu forum you can see a poll where there among 1/3 of the users are having issues, 1/3 are having major problems and 1/3 say everything is alright hence upgrading is playing roulette and if you lose your system might become unusuable (with a probability of 33%).
I would give good money for a replacement of Windows, I would love it to be based on Linux but I need it to JUST WORK. I know OSX might be what I am looking for, unfortunately it is not available for my platform of choice (HP Pavilion notebook) so I cant get it.
I love linux, I work in it more than 8 hours a day (at work and at home) but I believe it strength is also it weakness, as someone else wrote on the Ubuntu slashdot story we need a distribution that enforces TERRIBLY STRONG QA policies for its packages, I do not care if it doesnot provides the bleeding edge useless 3D-cube-rotating effects but I like it to WORK.
I wont update to 6.10, I wont make a clean install neither (as someone else said, if you have to reinstall your OS each time it is updated then it is broken); i do not have time to spend "working for my operating system" I need an operating system that lets me do my work.
The ubuntu setup I have let me do this at 70%, Microsoft Windows is not an option (that fuckers telling me my installation is pirated when it came in my HP NOTEBOOK). I have come to understand what a friend of mine said once when I asked "which OS do you preffer?" and he told me he did not like any of them. Oh well lets wait other 10 years, we might get to somewhere.
Is anyone here as frustrated as I am? or is it really too much to ask what I want?
That's right. OH GNOHS, Nintendo stopped Lik-Sang from selling devices MADE SOLELY TO PIRATE THEIR SOFTWARE (and run homebrew). Sony, on the other hand, has stopped Lik-Sang from selling their *FIRST PARTY* CONSOLES, SOFTWARE, and ACCESSORIES to other markets. These are not anywhere NEAR the same thing, at all. .
Behold, slashdot zealotry in all its glory.
First, "Solely" means "Entirely; exclusively, Alone; singly:" if the hardware can be used to run homebrew then it is not "made solely to pirate their software". Second, both "software pirating" and exporting without permission are illegal actions. It really does not matter what *kind of actions* they are (law is blind), they are illegal and as such the companies have all the rights to fight for them. Both companies made whatever they found necessary to prevent the violation of their rights. Third, my previous comment does not mean I agree with neither of both companies practises; but it means I do not agree with the law and although I can get pissed all I want it does becomes less illegal.
So I now ask you politely, could you go back to digg to spam with your thirteen year old "leet" vocabulary and leave the mature conversation for slashdot?, really, we do not need you.
Well, thanks a lot. I am ready to help you (or any other geek:)) to go to that place. Mostly if you do appreciate the culture and dont go only for the "cheap beer, women and policeman" like Cancun or Los Cabos tourism.
I know some people there and I can make contact with IT people that live in Merida (good friends from high school). And hey there is always a good chance to do a nice project.
Anyway, if by any chance you need some info or help about Mexico just write me an email mynick@gmail.com
the system rejects noncorrupted, as the system is built on a gigantic Mexican standoff where everybody must be able to trash anybody else in a sort of mutual-assured-destruction way. That's what comes out of endemic corruption. Of course there are bunches of honest people, but they are far away from power and kept there.
Hey Amigo! Salud!
Haha, that has been the best description of corruption I have read in some time. It is interesting to know from where did you got the "Mexican standoff" corruption idea. Not that it is not true, it is as truely as it gets in my Mexican opinion:)
That is something I hate about USA people. I do not like to generalise so the disclaimer is that this might not be true for all of them and I might be very lucky to always manage to find the bad americans.
The issue is that every non english spoken country I have been (Mexico, France, Germany and even UK) I always manage to find an American who is tried to be "noted" in the bad way. They get to this country and try to make everyone serve them and expect everyone to speak their language. It happened a lot of times in Mexico (I am from there), lots of americans go there on vacation without knowing A WORD of spanish, and they get ANGRY when you dont speak them in English or when you dont understand them.
Then, in Paris, I went to a McDonalds and although I dont speak french I tried to ask for a hamburger with "Je voudre un...", of course the girl at the till did not understand me and she answered "Sorry?", then I repeated in english and Voila!. Just at my side (at the same moment) an american (yes after 2 years in UK I can identify the accent of an american, australian [my supevisor is australian] and british) lady just went to the next ill and said "I'd like 2 big macs and 2 cokes and large fries for them", in some *strange* way assuming that the girl at the till spoke english (no, she didnt hear my conversation with the other girl). The girl at the till just stayed with a WHAT? face and answered "Sorry?" in french and the american got angry and started to yell again IN ENGLISH.
And some time after that I went to the Madam Tussade wax museum (in London) and while we were enjoying all the artists etc, suddenly a big fat guy with its "New York Cabs" (or whichever baseball team) cap started yelling something like "OMG what is this, terrible terrible, are they crazy, get out people".
I know not all americans are like that, I met an american lady who was doing a masters here who is really nice (still maintain contact with her and she might come visit in November) and just now the guy at the desk in my side (at my PhD office) is an American who bought Corn Flour for Tortillas (pretty difficult to find that in UK) and we had a great chat talking about food and we might join to make tortillas:).
But the majority of people in USA seem to be really annoying.
Mexico's problem is really corruption. Massive amounts of it. I mean you may complain about the US and well the UN, but Latin America is trying to Silver Medal in the Global Corruption Olympics (Africa is the out and out Gold Medal winner.) And this creates Mexico's problem. Why do anything if corruption is just going to take away your hard work? So, you are left with two choices (a) be lazy, or (b) leave.
Although the other poster disagreed with you (calling you racist) I completely agree. People wont understand how deeply is corruption mixed in Mexican's mind. I am a Mexican and I can see it. It is when you live or visit other countries were you find out that in my country corruption has become a natural way of life.
I marked in bold the statement you wrote which has been my feeling a lot of times in ACADEMIA. The first time it happened to my mom who is a teacher at a Mexico's university, she is the founder (and was the coordinator) of the Biology career in certain University. Everything was allright when she founded the career (with the backup of the maximum authority of the university called the "Rector" in Mexico). Then as soon as this person was changed, the department director started to make things hard because he thought that my mom wanted his place. My mom would NEVER going to be department director because that purely administrative.
The other was when I was in the bachelors degree; one of my teachers was daughter of the Rector (in another university). The department was basically divided in two groups, one where the Computer Scientists were and the other where the Soft. Eng. people where (this groups is where the daughter was).
I had a lot of problems in the last years because I used to talk and meet a lot with the Comp. Sci. people. The Soft. Eng. people were trying to get some permanent positions in the department (called "plaza") and they made a very dirty war against the Comp Sci. people.
Anyway, corruption is frustrating in Mexico, but as I stated in another post, it is that way because most people have learnt to live with it and to get something from it.
Gosh I got so many comments to answer to on this thread!!!
I will only give you my point of view of course. There are several problems with Mexicans. I can summarise it like "The Mexican is its own Enemy" which is the name of a really nice book (in Spanish) which shows different stories that would *only* happen in Mexico. Mexico would be a far better place if more stayed and tried to make it a better place. By leaving, they only ensure that their corrupt government stays in power, this is why they encourage it so much (not to mention remittances).
The problem in Mexico is this as follows: half of the population is poor, from this half, the 20% is in misery. The other half of course is not rich, you have a *really big* "medium class" which I think (from the deepest of my ass of course) it is something like 40%. The medium class are the families in which the father works from monday to friday (sometimes saturday) from 7 to 4 (sometimes 7) to get food for the 3 children in the house. Of course, the income of these people is among $1,000 monthly and that is a GREAT salary.
Now, what does this have to do with what you said?, well, usually people in Mexico are VERY BUSY working to feed their family to make something about corruption.
The other problem is corruption itself, I had a discussion with another Mexican friend who also came to do his PhD (he know a lot about current Mexican situation, his PhD is in "sustained development" and is expert in Chiapas issues Chiapas is a state where the poorest people lives, where the Comandante Marcos is from and a state with HUGE natural resources). So, the main problem is that Mexicans like corruption. Really, we are always whining about corrupt government and corrupt police and whatever, BUT when the policeman stops you because of speeding or whatever, it is the PEOPLE the ones that should enforce the police to give them the ticket and leave. Of course they preffer the "dame pal café" exit and give US$5 to the policemen.
Now, about the ones that get out of there. Believe me, as me, there are other (at least) 4 or 5 hundred Mexicans who are doing some postgraduate course funded by the Mexican Science Council. A lot of us have the desire to return to Mexico and do something for our country. But the reality is that I, as a "Computer Scientist" can not do too much besides doing my work RIGHT. Then there are politicians (I met a guy who is doing his PhD in some social thing, he is son of one of the helpers of Luis Donaldo Colosio, a president candidate who was murdered some years sago in Mexico), now he is one that can make a difference *in politics*.
We love our country, lot of us. I dont know if you are aware but, there is an exception which is the people in the border that go to USA and try to "wash out" their Mexican status, the funny thing is that they are neither accepted by the USA people (what we call gringos) and they become "hated" by Mexicans. This is the people that lives in the border (usually in the USA side). Of course NOT all of them are like that, just a fraction.
Slashdot Mirror
the chances of seeing a Java application whose GUI actually blends in the slightest with the OS upon which it runs are slim to none
FUDfest. Java 6 will have some desktop support.
Sure, and C# 2021 will be the most secure and intelligent programming language...
I agree with GP about this point, not that I really care but it is something that has bothered me about Java from the first time I used it, every GUI toolkit they offer has as a property Ugliness (in fact wth JSwing the JFrame class has a property called setUgliness(unisgned int)).
You seem to not know that the most use of Java is actually in server side apps, like web apps, web services, enterprise server... and mobile phones of course.
You forgot one which is the reason I use Java 99% of the time these days. Research. I think Java is one of the best programming languages for research because of the quantity of libraries (both free and non free) available. For example, I myself use RepastJ (multi agent system simulator), and recently started to use JSci (math and science library) among with lots of other libraries.
The CompSci community uses java a lot. That is something Microsoft will have *hard* time getting into if they wanted. The main reason is that there are lots of scientific tools that are *just there* and would need to be reimplemented in whatever other language.
And as you said, if you really need something else, there is also JNI (I used JNI to interface between a MAS in JADE [java agent development environment] and a neural network in C++) so with Java we scientists have everything we need.
At my university the bookstore sells XP Pro for $10. You can download Office Pro off of the website for free.
Do you think MS is doing that to support higher education? I doubt it. I'm more certain that they see it as a cheap way of indoctrinating people to use MS products so that when they get out of college they are so used to using MS, that they don't even stop to think of anything else existing
They do the same thing at my Uni, and guess what, the newspapers do the same. I have seen a lot of people coming to buy the newspapers (im in UK) near the campus because it is cheaper than in other places, the reason (the seller told me)? they want to make students "interested" and issued to their newspaper in order to make it a habit for students so they *need* to read it after they get out of the Uni.
So yeah, at least in that sense it is not an exclusive tactic of Microsoft... not that it is right (but hey as a student any discount cant be bad no?)
And to make things worse, "I like" does not means "Me gusto" but "Me gusta" as the first person conjucation of the verb.
So, what great parent wrote as "I like iceream" would be translated as "Me gusta el helado" and "I like, I scream" would be "Me gusta, yo grito".
I agree with GP about the speech recognition problem being one of the problems to cope before having a real-time translation tool. Some have said that the current technology (Dragon Speaking 9, etc) achieve 90% of accuaracy, but the issue is that the 90% is on ideal conditions, try the experiment of recording a Friends show (or simpsons or any other tv program) and try to introduce it with those programs. There is so much noise and variation in the speech that they cant make any sense.
Of course the translation problem is another difficult problem. Now my question is, isnt it possible to avoid the Speech to Text conversion in translation? wouldnt it be possible to translate directly from voice? it would mean translating a specific sound to a equivalent sound in another language which would mean having huge sound databases but hey, that might work and you will have to beat only one problem.
. Not sure what I'm supposed to do with it.
:)
Sell it on Ebay! or any other place. Seriosly you could start the auction at 0 and whatever you win will be an extra
Or a subscription to MAKE, CRAFT, National Geographic, or some other magazine?
I asked "santa" for a subscription of WoW.
In the letter I stated "If you bring me the subscription to WoW I wont do anything [bad] for one year". And of course next year I would ask for another subscription.
Well I dunno about that but the first time I installd Ubunty 6.06 and tried to log in the taskbar will stay blank (without the icons) and only the desktop would show the icons. It just wont work even if I restarted X-window and tried again so I could not get into my computer (having removed completely XP)...
I had to install Kubuntu and work with that (but KDE stability sucks bigs ball in my experience).
Oh, and about your Nvidia instrucitons
. But I do think Linux is as easy to use for a newcomer as Windows,
HAHAHAAHHHahahahahahahaahahahahha
BTW, the guide which you linked to is quite scary:
How to install Graphics Driver (NVIDIA)
(sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel-common;sudo nvidia-glx-config enable;sudo gedit
While in the horrible crappy Windows XP you have to:
Download, click OPEN, click I AGREE, click next, next next, next... DONE
Pleeease. I like linux, in fact I am writing this from a half usable ubuntu laptop (I removed WinXP because the activation shit pissed me off for the last time, and yes my computer has a XP Proff sticker under it). But in no FUCKING WAY is Linux simpler than Windows. At least not Ubuntu which is *supposed to be* one of the simplest Linux out there. Maybe Xandros, Linspire or one of them but hey, I am a cheap bastard and wont pay for something I can get for free.
Well that is not all, not so long ago I was planning a trip to Birmingham and while looking for the bullring I was amazed to see that it had been destroyed..
Fortunately for me, it seems the pictures at google were wrong, as when I arrived I could get into the place withour problems.
I want to try it, can someone post the direct link for the Linux client?
Or the torrent!
Although we know you are sorry [sorryeverybody.com] and even more people than the ones who voted against your current regime are sorry now, now it is the time for you to make the difference.
Please go out and vote, and if you know someone who does not want to vote please convince him/her to vote. It is on your hands the power to finish the war and terrorism. Vote to remove the totalitarian regime from your beautiful country and to start restoring the rights your government has removed from you.
I am not from USA, but I KNOW there is good people there. Please go out and vote, we need you, people from the USA, we need you to stop the injustice.
I think one of the most important points here is the Operating System. I think it could be an option, if you *really* need to run specific applications on Win98 platform, to install such insecure operating system inside a virtual machine as VMware. I dont care if the operating system is WindwsXP or Linux, but I am sure it will be easier to fix the security hole if you have the OS inside the VM sandbox.
On the other side, it could be the case (it has been in lots of places were I am from) that such machines are not "cutting edge" (say Pentium 3, or even Pentium) and they wont support WindowsXP as the base OS. For that, I would recommend a slim Linux distribution (Xubuntu, or DSL maybe) and then install your licensed copy of Windows98 inside Vmware.
Now, I do not have the specific reasons why virtualizing that will help, but I know it helps. Although maybe I am just trying to solve the problem throwing virtualization (and if it does not works just virtualize the second base OS =op)
you assume people have the time to be smart. Which is exactly what most people refuse to give these days.
,next). and then connect the psx2parallel cable I made and then fire stepmania. On linux I had to look for the kernel modules to see if it was installed (of course command line), and then because it was NOT installed I had to add it with modprobe gamecon=0,7,0,0,0 where the 7 was specific for the psxpad and then it refused to work for some strange reason but I somehow managed to make it work.
People is smart, the issue is that not all of us are smart in the same things. And that is good. See, there is a guy called Victor who is my lawyer, he is VERY smart and always enlightens me when I have a question about the legal some issue.
There's this lady, she is Josefina, she is also quite smart, she was my accountant when I had a small PC sell/repair buisness. Then there is my girlfriend who is really intelligent, she has a master in manufacturing, and she is manager in a factory.
All of these people are intelligent at what they do, the fact that they chose not to be "smart" at computers isn't something bad. I myself give a computer game 10 mintues to let me play, most of them do not pass that threshold and hence I dont play them.
The same with my car, I am not "smart" at my car, I just want it to take from one place to another. However, with Linux, I CHOOSE to "be smart" at it, ant hence I have spent *A LOT* of time to make Ubuntu work in my Laptop (all the hardware and whatnot unsupported things...).
The difference between Windows and Linux is that with Linux you MUST spend some time to make it work, for the 90% of things that most people do you have to make some effort whereas in Windows you do not need to.
I have heard lots of times that Linux is easier to install than Linux, or that Linux has better support applications or whatever, but the point is that for that 90% of things that the "average joe" do, Linux does not "just work".
We, as computer "experts" notice the lacks of Windows but the average user does not, and it works. I just completely removed Windows XP from my laptop and installed Ubuntu, it was quite interesting when my girlfirend asked me "what are the advantages of Linux?", the only thing I could tell her is that on Linux there are no viruses. Although that was not very convinzing for her because she has WinXP SP2 and AVG antivirus installed, she hasn't had a virus in a looong time (in fact never since she bought her computer).
Instead, I also had to tell them that the problems with Linux is the lack of hardware compatibility, of course I told her the hardware manufacturers are the ones to blame but, really, for the Joe or Jane Average that just does not matters, the only things that matter is whether it works or it does not works.
As an specific example, she was amazed at all the issues I had to go in order to make my playstation mat work on Linux. I had it installed on windows and it was as easy as install the PsxPad (just double click and next, next
After that I went with the trouble of making stepmania have sound, sound was just not working (ubuntu 6.06 here) and I had to get into the ini file and try to play with the values.
She asked me why was it that hard and why was I doing it that way when it was working before (in Windows).
Do not get me wrong, I enjoy doing all that but I am certain there is no way someone without knowledge will go trough all that (the console!!) to make their dance mat work, and this is just ONE example, I am sure there are hundreds and hundreds of issues, not only hardware but software. The truth is that with Linux there are 2 ends (and GNOME is expert in that), you rather cant do anything using the graphical interfaces or you can do a lot but you *must* know about the config files and whatever.
Not making any conclusion, just giving my thoughts
As other people already noted, I agree with parent.
However I believe it is easy andgnome-nettool completely possible to go a step ahead, instead of say, creating a big firefox installer with lots of extensions that could be enabled at installation time, I know it would be possible to offer a configuration web page where the downloader could add or remove extensions BEFORE downloading Firefox, thus personalyzing its packet.
That way, you (Mozilla developers) could make *some use* of the extension signature (I have YET to see a "signed extension"...) by allowing only signed and 100% tested / working hight quality extensions to be "published" in the homepage, and who knows, maybe even a link to the extension homepage (which will incite developers to put google ads and get some $$$ while creating those great extensions).
In that way, firefox extensions would be promoted to the people that donwload firefox. Imagine the download page as it is now with an option called "Personalize your Browser" (or something more buzzworthy) where you can select (via simple checkboxes) which extensions would you like to add to your firefox browser (to be installed by default).
I know this is possible as it is already done in Eclipse (at least the Yoxos eclipse distribution lets you select on the webpage and dinamically creates your package). I believe it will be trivial to do on windows (via installing script) but on Linux it might not be as easy (god, I still cant install Firefox 2.0 for all users on my Ubuntu distribution =o()
What?? no Honey Peach?
Bah, it only shows that the Wii is not an "adult" console...
Oh yeah, thats the Linux culture. It just happened to me as I migrated my laptop from Windows XP to Ubuntu 6.06. Neither Wireless or sound worked (I had to install a PCMCIA wireless card... which is stupid). And the sound as great parent said is terribly bad. Neither ESD (ubuntu-gnome sounds system) nor arts (kde sound system) are worth a dime, they crash every 5 mintues, you cant, as the GP stated play sound with 2 applications at the same time (trying to use AMAROK + KOPETE for example, with BOTH using ALSA just cause an ARTS message saying "sound buffer overflow" and the processor goes crazy). ESD has similar behaviour.
Anyway, to stay ontopic. I have programmed both on SDL-OpenGL and DirecX. I preffer the way to do things in OpenGL, however as someone else posted, to program in DirectX is so cool because you have a complete SOLUTION. That buzzword has a lot of value (for me at least). You only install VisualC++ IDE and install DirectX package and there you go, ready to program. Whereas to setup a complete game development environment to SDL+OpenGL you have to compile and run yourself all the SDL support libraries (libsdlmixer, libsdimage, etc). Last time I tried setting up SDL on Windows (my laptop now runs Ubuntu only) I spent like 3 hours configuring and compiling everything. DevCpp devpaks were quite helpful but it has been discontinued for a long time.
So, as lots other programmers, we game developers want to develop games, and not to develop whatever library is supposed to be available.
This is ridiculous. The central problem with global warming is the the results of an increased temperature -
Grand parent was right, you have to fight THE CAUSES not the CONSEQUENCES. But of course americans can not do better, it is exactly what you are doing to fight your "terrorism", instead of looking at what are the issues that cause people to go crash at your buildings you preffer to go and kill all those people without understanding that as long as THE CAUSE (hint, mind your own business) is there the problem will return.
Similarly in order to stabilise the earth's temperature we must attack the issues that are CAUSING it, as grand parent said, we do not need half baked ideas that will only make the problem go for 10 years when it will return worse.
Amarok is a little piece of crap that crashes every 5 minutes along with whatever sound system you use (alsa, esd, etc, via xine engine or other).
I liked the idea and the nice features as lyrics and all that, but it is completely unusable at least for Ubuntu 6.06 (no I wont upgrade to 6.10 after reading theres a 33% chance to get my system ruined).
I use Xmms all the time, it is not as fancy as amarok or all that but it just works.
I agree with one of your points, and it is one of the main problems I have seen with the several Linux distributions I have tried. I am writing this from my Ubuntu 6.06 laptop installation. I just recently removed Windows completely on favour of Ubuntu after it told me that "Windows cant prove the legality of this installation" and it did not allowed me to enter to MY computer even in the so called "safe mode" after I added 1GB of ram (WinXP).
The previous is to show you pissed off I *am* of Microsoft offerings... and my Windows XP is so legal I've got a sticker under my laptop with windows serial number for WinXP. Thats stupid behaviour.
But now, returning to Linux, at least to Ubuntu. Since I installed I have had so *many* problems specifically with one of the things you say, the software is flakey, it is terribly unstable. The hibernating function works half the time and the suspend does not work (you see a whole paragraph stating that it is "experimental").
My wireless card is *supposed* to be supported and although it IS detected (broadcom 4093) it does not work so I had to add a PCMCIA card, neither ALSA or ESD work 100%, they hang half the time consuming 99% of processor, Amarok sucks as it is terribly buggy, some random applications just "die" in the middle of use without any message (the window just *disappears*).
I pondered on upgrading to 6.10 but then I saw all the reviews and issues people has been having. If you go to Ubuntu forum you can see a poll where there among 1/3 of the users are having issues, 1/3 are having major problems and 1/3 say everything is alright hence upgrading is playing roulette and if you lose your system might become unusuable (with a probability of 33%).
I would give good money for a replacement of Windows, I would love it to be based on Linux but I need it to JUST WORK. I know OSX might be what I am looking for, unfortunately it is not available for my platform of choice (HP Pavilion notebook) so I cant get it.
I love linux, I work in it more than 8 hours a day (at work and at home) but I believe it strength is also it weakness, as someone else wrote on the Ubuntu slashdot story we need a distribution that enforces TERRIBLY STRONG QA policies for its packages, I do not care if it doesnot provides the bleeding edge useless 3D-cube-rotating effects but I like it to WORK.
I wont update to 6.10, I wont make a clean install neither (as someone else said, if you have to reinstall your OS each time it is updated then it is broken); i do not have time to spend "working for my operating system" I need an operating system that lets me do my work.
The ubuntu setup I have let me do this at 70%, Microsoft Windows is not an option (that fuckers telling me my installation is pirated when it came in my HP NOTEBOOK). I have come to understand what a friend of mine said once when I asked "which OS do you preffer?" and he told me he did not like any of them. Oh well lets wait other 10 years, we might get to somewhere.
Is anyone here as frustrated as I am? or is it really too much to ask what I want?
That's right. OH GNOHS, Nintendo stopped Lik-Sang from selling devices MADE SOLELY TO PIRATE THEIR SOFTWARE (and run homebrew). Sony, on the other hand, has stopped Lik-Sang from selling their *FIRST PARTY* CONSOLES, SOFTWARE, and ACCESSORIES to other markets. These are not anywhere NEAR the same thing, at all. .
Behold, slashdot zealotry in all its glory.
First, "Solely" means "Entirely; exclusively, Alone; singly:" if the hardware can be used to run homebrew then it is not "made solely to pirate their software".
Second, both "software pirating" and exporting without permission are illegal actions. It really does not matter what *kind of actions* they are (law is blind), they are illegal and as such the companies have all the rights to fight for them. Both companies made whatever they found necessary to prevent the violation of their rights.
Third, my previous comment does not mean I agree with neither of both companies practises; but it means I do not agree with the law and although I can get pissed all I want it does becomes less illegal.
So I now ask you politely, could you go back to digg to spam with your thirteen year old "leet" vocabulary and leave the mature conversation for slashdot?, really, we do not need you.
Well, thanks a lot. I am ready to help you (or any other geek :)) to go to that place. Mostly if you do appreciate the culture and dont go only for the "cheap beer, women and policeman" like Cancun or Los Cabos tourism.
I know some people there and I can make contact with IT people that live in Merida (good friends from high school). And hey there is always a good chance to do a nice project.
Anyway, if by any chance you need some info or help about Mexico just write me an email mynick@gmail.com
Tell that to the Puritans that emmigrated to north america in 1617
the system rejects noncorrupted, as the system is built on a gigantic Mexican standoff where everybody must be able to trash anybody else in a sort of mutual-assured-destruction way. That's what comes out of endemic corruption. Of course there are bunches of honest people, but they are far away from power and kept there.
:)
Hey Amigo! Salud!
Haha, that has been the best description of corruption I have read in some time. It is interesting to know from where did you got the "Mexican standoff" corruption idea. Not that it is not true, it is as truely as it gets in my Mexican opinion
cheers,
A mexican
I think it's fascinating how many Americans measure happiness in wealth
Remember the saying that goes:
"Wealth does not makes happiness, it buys it made"
Cheers,me
GREAT Comment.
...", of course the girl at the till did not understand me and she answered "Sorry?", then I repeated in english and Voila!. Just at my side (at the same moment) an american (yes after 2 years in UK I can identify the accent of an american, australian [my supevisor is australian] and british) lady just went to the next ill and said "I'd like 2 big macs and 2 cokes and large fries for them", in some *strange* way assuming that the girl at the till spoke english (no, she didnt hear my conversation with the other girl). The girl at the till just stayed with a WHAT? face and answered "Sorry?" in french and the american got angry and started to yell again IN ENGLISH.
:).
That is something I hate about USA people. I do not like to generalise so the disclaimer is that this might not be true for all of them and I might be very lucky to always manage to find the bad americans.
The issue is that every non english spoken country I have been (Mexico, France, Germany and even UK) I always manage to find an American who is tried to be "noted" in the bad way. They get to this country and try to make everyone serve them and expect everyone to speak their language. It happened a lot of times in Mexico (I am from there), lots of americans go there on vacation without knowing A WORD of spanish, and they get ANGRY when you dont speak them in English or when you dont understand them.
Then, in Paris, I went to a McDonalds and although I dont speak french I tried to ask for a hamburger with "Je voudre un
And some time after that I went to the Madam Tussade wax museum (in London) and while we were enjoying all the artists etc, suddenly a big fat guy with its "New York Cabs" (or whichever baseball team) cap started yelling something like "OMG what is this, terrible terrible, are they crazy, get out people".
I know not all americans are like that, I met an american lady who was doing a masters here who is really nice (still maintain contact with her and she might come visit in November) and just now the guy at the desk in my side (at my PhD office) is an American who bought Corn Flour for Tortillas (pretty difficult to find that in UK) and we had a great chat talking about food and we might join to make tortillas
But the majority of people in USA seem to be really annoying.
Mexico's problem is really corruption. Massive amounts of it. I mean you may complain about the US and well the UN, but Latin America is trying to Silver Medal in the Global Corruption Olympics (Africa is the out and out Gold Medal winner.) And this creates Mexico's problem. Why do anything if corruption is just going to take away your hard work? So, you are left with two choices (a) be lazy, or (b) leave.
Although the other poster disagreed with you (calling you racist) I completely agree. People wont understand how deeply is corruption mixed in Mexican's mind. I am a Mexican and I can see it. It is when you live or visit other countries were you find out that in my country corruption has become a natural way of life.
I marked in bold the statement you wrote which has been my feeling a lot of times in ACADEMIA. The first time it happened to my mom who is a teacher at a Mexico's university, she is the founder (and was the coordinator) of the Biology career in certain University. Everything was allright when she founded the career (with the backup of the maximum authority of the university called the "Rector" in Mexico). Then as soon as this person was changed, the department director started to make things hard because he thought that my mom wanted his place. My mom would NEVER going to be department director because that purely administrative.
The other was when I was in the bachelors degree; one of my teachers was daughter of the Rector (in another university). The department was basically divided in two groups, one where the Computer Scientists were and the other where the Soft. Eng. people where (this groups is where the daughter was).
I had a lot of problems in the last years because I used to talk and meet a lot with the Comp. Sci. people. The Soft. Eng. people were trying to get some permanent positions in the department (called "plaza") and they made a very dirty war against the Comp Sci. people.
Anyway, corruption is frustrating in Mexico, but as I stated in another post, it is that way because most people have learnt to live with it and to get something from it.
Gosh I got so many comments to answer to on this thread!!!
I will only give you my point of view of course. There are several problems with Mexicans. I can summarise it like "The Mexican is its own Enemy" which is the name of a really nice book (in Spanish) which shows different stories that would *only* happen in Mexico.
Mexico would be a far better place if more stayed and tried to make it a better place. By leaving, they only ensure that their corrupt government stays in power, this is why they encourage it so much (not to mention remittances).
The problem in Mexico is this as follows: half of the population is poor, from this half, the 20% is in misery. The other half of course is not rich, you have a *really big* "medium class" which I think (from the deepest of my ass of course) it is something like 40%. The medium class are the families in which the father works from monday to friday (sometimes saturday) from 7 to 4 (sometimes 7) to get food for the 3 children in the house. Of course, the income of these people is among $1,000 monthly and that is a GREAT salary.
Now, what does this have to do with what you said?, well, usually people in Mexico are VERY BUSY working to feed their family to make something about corruption.
The other problem is corruption itself, I had a discussion with another Mexican friend who also came to do his PhD (he know a lot about current Mexican situation, his PhD is in "sustained development" and is expert in Chiapas issues Chiapas is a state where the poorest people lives, where the Comandante Marcos is from and a state with HUGE natural resources).
So, the main problem is that Mexicans like corruption. Really, we are always whining about corrupt government and corrupt police and whatever, BUT when the policeman stops you because of speeding or whatever, it is the PEOPLE the ones that should enforce the police to give them the ticket and leave. Of course they preffer the "dame pal café" exit and give US$5 to the policemen.
Now, about the ones that get out of there. Believe me, as me, there are other (at least) 4 or 5 hundred Mexicans who are doing some postgraduate course funded by the Mexican Science Council. A lot of us have the desire to return to Mexico and do something for our country. But the reality is that I, as a "Computer Scientist" can not do too much besides doing my work RIGHT. Then there are politicians (I met a guy who is doing his PhD in some social thing, he is son of one of the helpers of Luis Donaldo Colosio, a president candidate who was murdered some years sago in Mexico), now he is one that can make a difference *in politics*.
We love our country, lot of us. I dont know if you are aware but, there is an exception which is the people in the border that go to USA and try to "wash out" their Mexican status, the funny thing is that they are neither accepted by the USA people (what we call gringos) and they become "hated" by Mexicans. This is the people that lives in the border (usually in the USA side). Of course NOT all of them are like that, just a fraction.