Really, each Ubuntu upgrade is shittier than the previous one.
They should extend their "beta" period in 2 months (or call it "gamma" period) so that they have the chance to fix all the bugs they supply in the release CD.
Seriously, for each new upgrade I have to download like 300MB of patches just a month after it is released. WTF
Re:Linux has the same drag as Mac in business
on
Desktop Linux Is Dead
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
There aren't any business databases available for either OS.
Wow... indeed the summary and the title of the article is quite trollish. I guess the reason is that that is what sells nowadays.
Nevertheless the author makes several insightful criticisms to the Linux community. (yeah I RTFA so sue me!)
In general the criticisms are the same old we have been hearing since the beginning of the "Linux on the desktop" days. The thing is... people don't *understand* how the Linux community work. They cannot see how Linux has been steadily gaining a share of the desktop in all these years.
Moreover, the term "linux on the desktop" has always been very ambiguous. In general, I believe what people mean is "the day some Linux variant gets 10% share of home PCs".
The *only* way this will happen is when a company gets Linux and tries to achieve such an objective.
The closest we were to that was when Lindows appeared; and it is very well known the backlash from the "open source community".
You might find Gnumeric useful. Whereas I also find Calc to be really crappy, I usually use Gnumeric or fast non-serious data analysis, before going to awk/python/rkward. I found Gnumeric quite useful and complete.
Now, if I am in Windows I definitely use Excel instead of Calc. Of course for the other work I still use awk/python/R, etc.
Is it possible to open 2 different Powerpoint presentations in two different windows in Office 2007 or 2010?
This is one of my main frustrations in Office 2003.
The other is the stupid Word formatting preventing you to set a paragraph style in the paragraph after a page-break without said page-break having the same style (thus, if want a "Heading" after a page-break I need to leave an extra paragraph mark to prevent the page-break appearing in my Table of Contents).
Of course, the last time I used OpenOffice Org I found a lot of similar (but worse) small details (paper cuts) that prevented me from using it. The only thing I now use is Open Office draw.
Oh and btw I hope that now that they are changin OO.o to LibreOffice they take the time to separate the huge beast into smaller programs (no need to load all the OO shit to use only Impress)
Funny, I have yet to find anyone (except me...as I just hate it) in my workplace (research institute) who does not like the new ribbon interface.
Frankly, it comes over even more toyish, more "Please treat me as a dumb user". It's aggravating.
Well... that might be for your self aggravating ego; for the majority of users it means an interface that gets out of their way.
quoting from TFA:
After doing a little digging, we found that these quotes are actually from case studies and press articles from the last four years,
What I would really like to hear is equivalent quotes of companies who successfully migrated from MS Office to OO.o. Is there any? (no, not/. pseudonym-"in my office"-anecdotes, but real company names)
The UK has always been a terrible place for scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs trying to develop new technology.
Wow... have you actually made science in a UK University/Institute or are you talking out of our ass?
I made my PhD and graduated from a UK University (5 and my experience is completely the opposite. In my department, there was a complete freedom on what researchers wanted to do.
In addition, funds where available without any trouble and in my case (self-funded by my government) I even had the chance to participate in a research project with other 2 universities and other 3 industry partners (actually, I always thought that it would be better if the Universities focused on more applied research... because the industrial partners were not interested in the theory we were researching).
In comparison to say, Mexico (where I am from) or Germany (where I am currently doing a Post-Doc) I can tell you that doing research in the UK was a complete pleasure. As researchers we had EVERYTHING at our fingertips (eg., huge library, or access to scopus.com and ANY periodical or proceeding I wanted).
I hurts me reading this news, as even though I know some people (back in Mexico) who does science with very restricted means; I appreciate the possibilities opened by having enough resources.
Uhmmm maybe not. The article mentions an ex-FBI saying that this is an older version of the device. He mentions that newer devices do not include battery packs, and are connected directly to the battery.
People who don't like guessing what the picture is supposed to represent. "Does that S-shaped picture mean save, search, snake, or something else entirely
Mhmmm we must invent a tool that allows people to get a tip of what each button does when they position the mouse over it... let's call it a tooltip!
It's all very well to shout "IT'S NO DIFFERENT TO A MAINFRAME" every time cloud computing is mentioned -- but in terms of user experience it's a world of difference from using a VT220 (every keystroke is sent to the server) or a 3270 (Your UI is EBCDIC panels or nothing).
Indeed, in terms of user experience it is a world of difference between the cirppled Google Docs word-processor interface and what OpenOffice Write can offer.
I hate webapps of today. They offer half of the functionality of real applications and the only "features" they have is that you have your data in an external server.
I just want to add to my reply focusing on the actual questions by the submitter:
A couple other questions that might help those students: what non-academic methods would you recommend to students looking for a career in the games industry? What projects and tools are good starting points for learning the ropes?
In no particular order - Learn to program C and C++ (no not C/C++, learn their differences) - Learn some scripting language (Lua is used in game programming a lot, Python is also OK) - As other have said, learn to use tools like Blender, mainly so that they *understand* what does it mean to make a game. - Work in an Open Source game. Just browse around SourceForge and look for a game... (start with simple games like http://www.wormux.org/ before going all the way to 3D). - Redo old games... everytime I want to learn a new programming language (or platform like Wii or DS) I do a Tetris clone. Doing a game which is "predesigned" will allow you to focus on the actual *programming* so that you ensure you learn the needed skills. Additionally, you can keep improving the game by adding new stuff as you learn about the platform.. 3D tetris, etc). - Read books. There are lots of books about programming (e.g. game programming all in one) for very low prices. In the beginning it does not matter if the book is a bit old.
- Finally, after you have tested all that, choose in what part of the game development process you want to specialize. Do you *really* like coding?... or you prefer doing the 3D models? do you like designing the scenarios? or do you prefer the sound? Do you like to create the NPCs AI?. You must have in mind that in commercial games each of these aspects is foreseen by a different person (or group of persons) so it is very likely you will have to specialize.
Back in the day (around 1992, the time of MK, Wolf3d, UltimaVII, etc.) when I was 10 years old I wanted to be a game developer with all my heart.
I knew also wanted to be into computer programming, and knew how to program in GWBASIC. I made my own very simple games while learning C/C++.
Fast forward to Univesrity, I gladly chose Comp. Sci. course but, after reading a lot (I used to buy the GameDev magazine which was overpriced in Mexico) about the state of the videogame development industry (it is like the American dream... you can be reaaaally successful [like John Carmack, etc] but the 99% of people will get miserable jobs) I chose to do something else.
Nowadays I do computer models and simulations (similar in some ways to the part of games I liked) for research (I've got my PhD in Comp. Sci) AND I develop homebrew games in my spare time (I'm right now into DS Homebrew).
This path has ensured me that I still have fun developing games and I earn money doing something that pays pretty well, allows me to travel (right now living in Germany!, last week visited Czech Republic!) and I am quite free with my working time:)
It's no worse in that regard, although the user experience is some better.
I don't know about the user experience. The non-computer experts I support feel that XP is more user friendly mainly because it is as a "second nature" to them at last! after 10 years of battling against the XP interface, they already know how things work and where to find stuff.
After trying Win7 they tend to ask me to change to Windows XP, mainly because in Seven everything is "hidden" "out of place".
yeah, you guessed these are mainly "grumpy old guys".
My suggestion is to stay with a well configured XP until you get a new computer. And even then, if you feel Seven is odd, just install XP if you have less than 4GB of memory (you could still use XP64..) and lack of SSD.
Hehe... I had the same impression after reading (yeah, all of the text, I am bored at work) the two links provided by GP.
The reality is that the sum of Vista and XP "new features" are worth at most an "upgrade" price (say, $30 like OSX) and not the $70 to $200 that is currently selling at.
You have a bunch of shitty new themes, fonts, etc. As GP said, stuff has been moved around (re-sorted for "better" access... which mainly pisses of users who knew their clickway through) and mainly attaching the ribbon to the small number of apps that come included (like paint and wordpad).
After seeing the new features, it is confirmed to me that it is OK to stay with XP unless you have an SSD or more than 4GB in RAM...
I recommend you to use virtual desktops (I use the open-source VirtuaWin http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/ ) to organize all your windows.
I myself frequently have as many windows as you have open (including Internet [email, firefox, etc], Code, Writing [word or latex], Research [R, Excel, Gnumeric, etc])
I have 5 virtual desktops where I distribute all my applications according to a specific theme. This not only helps me "declutter" the taskbar (which I use vertically as I appreciate my reading space, and can handle more windows) but also allows me to have all the programs I need to finish one task I am doing at a certain point.
Man... if you really want to be an advanced Windows user you should try AutoHotkey.
BTW, a not well known "trick" in Win7 is that you can start any application pinned in the "superbar" (or whatever is it called) using WIN+{NUMBER_KEY} where NUMBER_KEY is the position of the icon from left to right.
BTW, am I the only one who *hates* this "superbar"? I hated window "grouping" in XP and I hate it in 7 a bit more. I hate that if I have say, MSN Messenger open (with 1 conversation window) it *always* displays 2 windows (even after I tried to close the main MSN window).
I hate that the "superbar" icons get completely screwed (specially those with Java apps, like FreeRapid).
In general I do not like Windows 7... The only reason I see to use Windows 7 is for the SSD enhancements and the more than 4GB memory. Of course since I do not have any of those two I happily continue using WinXP SP3 + Launchy+VirtuaWin+AutoHotkey.
My wife actually dislikes Windows 7 Wifi interface.
See, in Windows XP you had a button called "Repair" which made a complete disable-enable-configure cycle for the Wifi... whereas in Windows 7 you have something called "Diagnose" which is a complete crap that does not work.
Yup, I still use Windows XP and could not be happier!
In this 21st century 2010 year I would expect to have a program like Process Explorer (or taskman) which allows me to right-click on any running process and limit the amount of: - CPU cycles - Physical Memory (yah, this one is dangerous) - Upload Network Bandwidth - Download network bandwidth - Sound (yay for Windows 7!... nay for PulseAudio aberration)
Among other resources. Why hasn't nobody came with this kind of solution I do not know.
Slashdot Mirror
So...
What games does your typewriter comes with?
It was Dead on Arrival...
Really, each Ubuntu upgrade is shittier than the previous one.
They should extend their "beta" period in 2 months (or call it "gamma" period) so that they have the chance to fix all the bugs they supply in the release CD.
Seriously, for each new upgrade I have to download like 300MB of patches just a month after it is released. WTF
There aren't any business databases available for either OS.
Oough...
these guys beg to differ with you.
Wow... indeed the summary and the title of the article is quite trollish. I guess the reason is that that is what sells nowadays.
Nevertheless the author makes several insightful criticisms to the Linux community. (yeah I RTFA so sue me!)
In general the criticisms are the same old we have been hearing since the beginning of the "Linux on the desktop" days. The thing is... people don't *understand* how the Linux community work. They cannot see how Linux has been steadily gaining a share of the desktop in all these years.
Moreover, the term "linux on the desktop" has always been very ambiguous. In general, I believe what people mean is "the day some Linux variant gets 10% share of home PCs".
The *only* way this will happen is when a company gets Linux and tries to achieve such an objective.
The closest we were to that was when Lindows appeared; and it is very well known the backlash from the "open source community".
Just a tip:
You might find Gnumeric useful. Whereas I also find Calc to be really crappy, I usually use Gnumeric or fast non-serious data analysis, before going to awk/python/rkward. I found Gnumeric quite useful and complete.
Now, if I am in Windows I definitely use Excel instead of Calc. Of course for the other work I still use awk/python/R, etc.
Is it possible to open 2 different Powerpoint presentations in two different windows in Office 2007 or 2010?
This is one of my main frustrations in Office 2003.
The other is the stupid Word formatting preventing you to set a paragraph style in the paragraph after a page-break without said page-break having the same style (thus, if want a "Heading" after a page-break I need to leave an extra paragraph mark to prevent the page-break appearing in my Table of Contents).
Of course, the last time I used OpenOffice Org I found a lot of similar (but worse) small details (paper cuts) that prevented me from using it. The only thing I now use is Open Office draw.
Oh and btw I hope that now that they are changin OO.o to LibreOffice they take the time to separate the huge beast into smaller programs (no need to load all the OO shit to use only Impress)
Funny, I have yet to find anyone (except me...as I just hate it) in my workplace (research institute) who does not like the new ribbon interface.
Frankly, it comes over even more toyish, more "Please treat me as a dumb user". It's aggravating.
Well... that might be for your self aggravating ego; for the majority of users it means an interface that gets out of their way.
quoting from TFA:
After doing a little digging, we found that these quotes are actually from case studies and press articles from the last four years,
What I would really like to hear is equivalent quotes of companies who successfully migrated from MS Office to OO.o. Is there any? (no, not /. pseudonym-"in my office"-anecdotes, but real company names)
Except that MS should focus on LibreOffice now... didn't they got the memo?
Or is it because they know Larry Ellison hates Microsoft...
Hey Ballmer! how is the new batch of squirting zunes going?
I also remember the fact that the original iPod was IEEE 1394 only, wasn't it?
Come on, if they had waited until it was finished, it would have been good. Just look at Duke Nukem Forever.
ough now that was too easy!
The UK has always been a terrible place for scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs trying to develop new technology.
Wow... have you actually made science in a UK University/Institute or are you talking out of our ass?
I made my PhD and graduated from a UK University (5 and my experience is completely the opposite. In my department, there was a complete freedom on what researchers wanted to do.
In addition, funds where available without any trouble and in my case (self-funded by my government) I even had the chance to participate in a research project with other 2 universities and other 3 industry partners (actually, I always thought that it would be better if the Universities focused on more applied research... because the industrial partners were not interested in the theory we were researching).
In comparison to say, Mexico (where I am from) or Germany (where I am currently doing a Post-Doc) I can tell you that doing research in the UK was a complete pleasure. As researchers we had EVERYTHING at our fingertips (eg., huge library, or access to scopus.com and ANY periodical or proceeding I wanted).
I hurts me reading this news, as even though I know some people (back in Mexico) who does science with very restricted means; I appreciate the possibilities opened by having enough resources.
Uhmmm maybe not. The article mentions an ex-FBI saying that this is an older version of the device. He mentions that newer devices do not include battery packs, and are connected directly to the battery.
Ahh... I saw this on Reddit some days ago.
A friend of the guy actually asked in Reddit to know what the device (the fact that he didn't asked here in /. shows...)
And yesterday this news broke.
And there is an update on the issue now.
People who don't like guessing what the picture is supposed to represent. "Does that S-shaped picture mean save, search, snake, or something else entirely
Mhmmm we must invent a tool that allows people to get a tip of what each button does when they position the mouse over it... let's call it a tooltip!
It's all very well to shout "IT'S NO DIFFERENT TO A MAINFRAME" every time cloud computing is mentioned -- but in terms of user experience it's a world of difference from using a VT220 (every keystroke is sent to the server) or a 3270 (Your UI is EBCDIC panels or nothing).
Indeed, in terms of user experience it is a world of difference between the cirppled Google Docs word-processor interface and what OpenOffice Write can offer.
I hate webapps of today. They offer half of the functionality of real applications and the only "features" they have is that you have your data in an external server.
I just want to add to my reply focusing on the actual questions by the submitter:
A couple other questions that might help those students: what non-academic methods would you recommend to students looking for a career in the games industry? What projects and tools are good starting points for learning the ropes?
In no particular order
- Learn to program C and C++ (no not C/C++, learn their differences)
- Learn some scripting language (Lua is used in game programming a lot, Python is also OK)
- As other have said, learn to use tools like Blender, mainly so that they *understand* what does it mean to make a game.
- Work in an Open Source game. Just browse around SourceForge and look for a game... (start with simple games like http://www.wormux.org/ before going all the way to 3D).
- Redo old games... everytime I want to learn a new programming language (or platform like Wii or DS) I do a Tetris clone. Doing a game which is "predesigned" will allow you to focus on the actual *programming* so that you ensure you learn the needed skills. Additionally, you can keep improving the game by adding new stuff as you learn about the platform.. 3D tetris, etc).
- Read books. There are lots of books about programming (e.g. game programming all in one) for very low prices. In the beginning it does not matter if the book is a bit old.
- Finally, after you have tested all that, choose in what part of the game development process you want to specialize. Do you *really* like coding?... or you prefer doing the 3D models? do you like designing the scenarios? or do you prefer the sound? Do you like to create the NPCs AI?. You must have in mind that in commercial games each of these aspects is foreseen by a different person (or group of persons) so it is very likely you will have to specialize.
THIS.
Back in the day (around 1992, the time of MK, Wolf3d, UltimaVII, etc.) when I was 10 years old I wanted to be a game developer with all my heart.
I knew also wanted to be into computer programming, and knew how to program in GWBASIC. I made my own very simple games while learning C/C++.
Fast forward to Univesrity, I gladly chose Comp. Sci. course but, after reading a lot (I used to buy the GameDev magazine which was overpriced in Mexico) about the state of the videogame development industry (it is like the American dream... you can be reaaaally successful [like John Carmack, etc] but the 99% of people will get miserable jobs) I chose to do something else.
Nowadays I do computer models and simulations (similar in some ways to the part of games I liked) for research (I've got my PhD in Comp. Sci) AND I develop homebrew games in my spare time (I'm right now into DS Homebrew).
This path has ensured me that I still have fun developing games and I earn money doing something that pays pretty well, allows me to travel (right now living in Germany!, last week visited Czech Republic!) and I am quite free with my working time :)
It's no worse in that regard, although the user experience is some better.
I don't know about the user experience. The non-computer experts I support feel that XP is more user friendly mainly because it is as a "second nature" to them at last! after 10 years of battling against the XP interface, they already know how things work and where to find stuff.
After trying Win7 they tend to ask me to change to Windows XP, mainly because in Seven everything is "hidden" "out of place".
yeah, you guessed these are mainly "grumpy old guys".
My suggestion is to stay with a well configured XP until you get a new computer. And even then, if you feel Seven is odd, just install XP if you have less than 4GB of memory (you could still use XP64..) and lack of SSD.
Hehe... I had the same impression after reading (yeah, all of the text, I am bored at work) the two links provided by GP.
The reality is that the sum of Vista and XP "new features" are worth at most an "upgrade" price (say, $30 like OSX) and not the $70 to $200 that is currently selling at.
You have a bunch of shitty new themes, fonts, etc. As GP said, stuff has been moved around (re-sorted for "better" access... which mainly pisses of users who knew their clickway through) and mainly attaching the ribbon to the small number of apps that come included (like paint and wordpad).
After seeing the new features, it is confirmed to me that it is OK to stay with XP unless you have an SSD or more than 4GB in RAM...
I recommend you to use virtual desktops (I use the open-source VirtuaWin http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/ ) to organize all your windows.
I myself frequently have as many windows as you have open (including Internet [email, firefox, etc], Code, Writing [word or latex], Research [R, Excel, Gnumeric, etc])
I have 5 virtual desktops where I distribute all my applications according to a specific theme. This not only helps me "declutter" the taskbar (which I use vertically as I appreciate my reading space, and can handle more windows) but also allows me to have all the programs I need to finish one task I am doing at a certain point.
Man... if you really want to be an advanced Windows user you should try AutoHotkey.
BTW, a not well known "trick" in Win7 is that you can start any application pinned in the "superbar" (or whatever is it called) using WIN+{NUMBER_KEY} where NUMBER_KEY is the position of the icon from left to right.
BTW, am I the only one who *hates* this "superbar"? I hated window "grouping" in XP and I hate it in 7 a bit more. I hate that if I have say, MSN Messenger open (with 1 conversation window) it *always* displays 2 windows (even after I tried to close the main MSN window).
I hate that the "superbar" icons get completely screwed (specially those with Java apps, like FreeRapid).
In general I do not like Windows 7... The only reason I see to use Windows 7 is for the SSD enhancements and the more than 4GB memory. Of course since I do not have any of those two I happily continue using WinXP SP3 + Launchy+VirtuaWin+AutoHotkey.
Mhmmm... I should start selling a copy of Launchy Ultimate for half the price of Windows 7 home basic =o)
My wife actually dislikes Windows 7 Wifi interface.
See, in Windows XP you had a button called "Repair" which made a complete disable-enable-configure cycle for the Wifi... whereas in Windows 7 you have something called "Diagnose" which is a complete crap that does not work.
Yup, I still use Windows XP and could not be happier!
In this 21st century 2010 year I would expect to have a program like Process Explorer (or taskman) which allows me to right-click on any running process and limit the amount of:
- CPU cycles
- Physical Memory (yah, this one is dangerous)
- Upload Network Bandwidth
- Download network bandwidth
- Sound (yay for Windows 7!... nay for PulseAudio aberration)
Among other resources. Why hasn't nobody came with this kind of solution I do not know.