Re:So much for free!
on
Ubuntu Kung Fu
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· Score: 1, Insightful
I've had great success as well. Usually one can find the problems. But the true novice (I was in a college course with them... I took it for an easy A and for some of the more advanced stuff, but it started with how to install Linux...) is going to be doing these weird random console commands and has NO clue what he's doing. And of course, it doesn't always work, there will be something slightly different that makes one of the commands not verbatim, user has no idea, it doesn't work, now what?
My main point, as I just posted to the AC above, is this. In order for Linux to be actually "user friendly" and "replace Windows," most people aren't going to want to have to learn the inner workings of how Linux works so they are able to do a variety of commands in the console to, say, install a printer. In Windows, you plug it in, and it works. Or, you put in the CD, install the drivers, and it works. On Linux, sometimes you have to do some really weird things to get this or that printer to work. Even package management can be a real pain, with this or that dependency missing. What's a dependency? Why doesn't it install? Why is this so confusing, why can't they just make it so I download something and install it and it works, like on Windows?
If you haven't heard those last few questions, then the novices you speak of aren't really "novices," at least in my terminology.:)
Anyways. Point is that the documentation for those that know enough to use it (even if "documentation" equals "google") is pretty good. But having to BUY "documentation" (e.g., a book) because you have no clue about this whole Linux thing, you just got tired of having Windows crash with spyware, adware, and viruses... I don't know. IMO, that documentation is pretty bad if you don't know enough to barely know what to look for..:)
Then again, I guess paying $100-$150 for Windows to have it "just work" is basically paying for the documentation, just you don't have to read it;)
Re:Free Linux Docs Re:So much for free!
on
Ubuntu Kung Fu
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· Score: 3, Insightful
I knew about howtoforge, linuxmanpages, etc. Linux man pages are oh-so-user-friendly! Of course, I actually do use them and am not a blithering idiot when it comes to Linux. I guess my point was that if we want to get Linux into mainstream OS stuff, it will either have to "just work" (like Windows typically does) or the FREE documentation is going to have to be perhaps a bit more standardized, easier to find, easier to use, etc.
It is hard to "sell" (heh) something as free when you then have to ask them to get a $XX book because they are going to have on clue how to use it, it's not what they are used to, and it doesn't just work.:)
For those of us that ARE comfortable looking at random pages in google to find out how to do some weird Linux stuff, that's cool. For those that are switching to Linux, for the first time, and want to know how to get their Canon MP210 printer to work... well, they've got issues at the moment.
So much for free!
on
Ubuntu Kung Fu
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
It seems silly to pay for a how-to book for a free operating system. I wonder if there's an online "Linux Documentation for the Masses" type of thing. Linux documentation online, at least from what I have seen, tends to be geared not so much for the same audience that books tend to be, unfortunately.
Private vs. Public roads (I suppose GPS can figure that out, but still).
Seems like this would significantly hamper transportation services if they have to pay per mile now, too.
GPS in every car sounds very privacy-invasive. I wonder how they're going to start keeping up sidewalks? Personal GPS systems to see who uses them the most and charge them?:P
May as well put in a digital speedometer so that the GPS can figure out what the max speed is, the speedometer can report when your car goes over that speed, and you get an automatic ticket...
While the part about needing to be $299 to compete was interesting (but it was in a comment), is this really newsworthy? Now, if the price of the parts went down and the price of the system DIDN'T go down, that might be more worth it. But how interesting is a news flash telling us that the price of electronic components has reduced in price over the last few years? Hmmm.
On the other hand, I did find the pricing interesting, as those prices are a lot cheaper than I get for my computer. I wonder if that's because computer parts are marked up more, or because the PS3 components aren't t as powerful (what a very relative, subjective, and non-descript word... sorry) as my computer components.
In my political science class we had to do a news bias exercise. Most of my classmates in the California junior college thought that the majority of news organizations were right-wing biased, and that the more liberally-biased news organizations (according to me, at any rate) were neutral.
Of course, they're opinions even disagreed with that news bias reporting website thingy that I forgot the name of, and most of them didn't bother to think during the majority of the class, but I think the "CNN is right-wing" isn't that uncommon of an opinion.
Of course, I guess in a lot of history books, events aren't even mentioned as happening, so maybe I shouldn't expect kids that go through that education system to think very often? Who knows.
Perhaps I should rephrase then... successful games in the past had to rely on something else. I'm not implying that games relying on the newest technology, whether that was improved graphics, a new controller, or whatever, didn't exist... but I don't think they were as easily successful. Hence bringing up the gaming culture of then and now. Just look at TV and the garbage people watch - I think the culture of today is satisfied (or at least, thinks they are?) with low-quality games, as long as there is a visual stimulus (e.g., new graphics).
It's not that I am particularly blaming the game companies, it's the people that buy the games and give that marketing strategy some validity...:)
It seems that a lot of the success of a resurrection of an old game depends on the gameplay (how it transitions to modern graphics, modern controls, modern gameplay expectations) and on the nostalgia associated with the game.
As an example of the latter, I would actually likely dislike a remake of The Secret of Monkey Island (MI 1).
Gameplay seems to be important though. Some of the classic games relied on gameplay, whilst others relied on story, etc. It doesn't seem like the gameplay from 1990 always transitions well into modern games. The culture of the gamer has shifted, as have the expectations. Graphics alone can almost make a game successful these days, although not completely; whereas back in 1990, graphics seemed to play a small role. Sure, it did to some extent, but I think it was less "realistic graphics" that was of interest back then(Commander Keen != realistic, even a classic like Loom wasn't realistic, although it was certainly colorful and "pretty").
As for successes that I have personally played, I think the continuation of Prince of Persia appears to have done fairly well.
There are only a few recent games that I have any lasting nostalgic impressions about, but there are quite a few old games that do. One reason is personal taste, of course, but I think games in the past had to rely on something else than games typically do now. Of course, everyone has heard this 500x, but that's ok.:)
One game that I wish WAS remade with more modern engines was Baldur's Gate. I loved the game (granted, it was my first CRPG, a genre I have since come to really enjoy more than any other), the story, the characters, etc... but I think if it were remade and put into even the Aurora 2 engine, it would do alright as a remake.
After all, when was the last time you needed to use capslock? Never.
About five seconds ago, while typing some Python regular expressions that searched for "PROPERTY: value" pairs (character case as shown) from the output of a command line utility. It sure beats having to type "maxstatfilesize" while holding down shift... along with ~10 other property names.
I guess you were supposed to move the cursor over the link and pause, waiting for a preview of the linked article to appear, and read it. Maybe the/. editor is subtly promoting the usage of a proprietary Firefox expansion!! [/conspiracy theory]
Agreed about every bias except neutral. I just complain more about the biases I disagree with... although it gets significantly more annoying when they claim such titles as "All Things Considered."
I agree that it is not a depression and would have to get much worse. There are still those that remember the great depression, and it seems like it would be somewhat insulting to most of them to liken this recession to that. Some of the more accurate figures that I have seen hearken back to around 2002 or 2004, not the Great Depression (e.g., unemployment)... which I just now saw you mentioned at the end of your comment that I am already replying to, -1 Stupid.;)
Unfortunately, it appears that politicians are simply using this economic problem as a means to gain more control and get more tax money, which is nothing new but is just as annoying and frustrating. The ideas that FDR propounded as a fix for the Great Depression (spend more taxpayer money, basically?) are being pushed now with the bailouts, etc...
No, defaulting isn't bad! The government can always bailout the company with the government's own hard-earned money! (It DOES take a lot of work to collect all those taxes, it's a good thing we're not the ones paying fo.... wait...)
It will be the great depression until a President that NPR likes is in office. Then it will only be a depression in looking back at who caused it.
Media bias is interesting and tricky, especially when it uses different "subtle" terminology in different contexts of different people to throw spins. Example being "recession" vs. "depression" vs. "setback" vs. "economic trouble" vs. "economic crisis." "Fee" vs. "tax." "Lawsuit" vs. "challenge." You get the idea.
IMO, Amazon's success, if they are being honest which I will give them the benefit of the doubt for, makes sense. I don't think this economic crisis is as bad as most politicians would have us believe (they're still getting paid, right?), and most people still bought gifts... but they might have not gone to Macy's or other "expensive" stores and rather looked for the cheaper options. Tighter money often drives people to look for better deals, not necessarily buy fewer items.
Now, if there was a sudden 50% drop of Americans' TV service, that might point to a serious recession. (for the record, I don't own a TV nor is there one in my house...)
Like iTunes? Buying a Mac is so much cheaper, I suppose, since it's so easy to buy whatever hardware you want and put OS X on it. "Can I use my iPod?" or "Can I use iTunes?" is a common question with regard to Linux. Amarok is cool, but iPod and iTunes DRM stuff is still an issue. Unless you want to personally spend your time getting rid of the iTunes DRM on a ton of music and transferring it..
There's also Windows Server stuff? Yes, I know there are other server OS's out there, but Windows Server 2003/2008 has its perks as well.
And they do make some other things that ARE desirable. Lots of people use hotmail still. It appears to be getting better from what it used to be, too. I know people that like the xbox. MS Office is way better, still, than openoffice 3 is, even to the extent that I have never gotten OpenOffice Impress to display very well (and I personally use it, by the way, and not MS Office, due to expense).
For a lot of geeks, MS products may not be desirable; but a lot of other people actually like MS products.
Like DerekLyons, I know lots of people that work Christmas Eve. I had to take it off. I don't get what the huge crime is, and I AM a Christian and celebrate Christmas.
I haven't been able to find it in my brief perusal of the link... does anyone know offhand if the MIT students asked permission first, or if they just did it, planned the talk, and then got in trouble?
If the former, MBTA is messed up. If the latter, I would have to honestly say that the MIT students should have thought about what they were doing and asked before they decided to hack something and tell others how to do it.
If someone asked me if they could do a security audit on my house and I said sure, that'd be cool. If they broke in, were going to give a talk about it to some other dudes and THEN I found out about it, I'd be a bit upset, too. Would I want to fix my security, sure, but I'd be kinda mad they did it without asking. Just because you CAN break in doesn't mean you have a right to do it, it's still MY property, not yours...
Agreed. Especially since RAM is so much cheaper now. I know the chip is expensive, and the graphics card, but $4500 is a lot of money to get 6GB RAM with, and a 7200rpm hard drive...
Since you appear to dislike any "pretty" desktop-type stuff, RAM swapping, indexing, etc., you would be a perfect candidate to use Linux and rain down your hate upon Compiz, KDE, Beagle, and GUIs in general. After all, it's a waste of that awfully expensive $25-for-4GB RAM.
Meanwhile, some of us may enjoy having a cool looking desktop. If the OS actually interferes with your foregrounded tasks by doing cpu, ram, or disk intensive background tasks, that's a problem. But it sounds like you are conjecturing that it does that because it's obviously a horrible product because it was made by Microsoft, as opposed to an open source community.
On the other hand, I know firsthand that Linux's X windows system/KDE, especially wiht something like Compiz, pretty much uses as much RAM as it can, because RAM does NO GOOD if it is sitting empty. Why can't Windows do that?
I don't like Vista, either, much prefer XP, and like Linux (albeit I prefer SuSE over RedHat, but use both at work), but let's critique OS's on an equal level, without the preconceived it-has-to-be-bad-because-it's-Microsoft junk...
I think the scientist's and my definition of "car" is significantly different. I wonder what exactly they mean by "car" and why they chose that term. Self-powered vehicle? Does it need gas? How does one drive it, or does it drive itself? How is it programmed to do this or that? etc...
And good music, in any genre, DOES take that amount of work.
Since I'm a classical musician, I'll use them as an example. Many of the great classical composers were not only highly intelligent, but worked VERY hard at their craft (music) and were usually gifted in other areas as well (e.g., Mendelssohn was an accomplished visual artist as well as composer, and an excellent pianist as well; Bach engraved his own music in addition to writing it, and he wrote profusely. He was also a very gifted organist).
Examples abound of musicians that work HARD at their music, practice long hours, and frankly probably have a harder, more exhausting work week than I do as a software engineer.
And of course, examples abound of people that just float on top of the stupid celebrity/heart-throb loving crowd, can't really sing or play that well, but make tons of money. I would blame that on the public rather than the "musician.":)
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I've had great success as well. Usually one can find the problems. But the true novice (I was in a college course with them... I took it for an easy A and for some of the more advanced stuff, but it started with how to install Linux...) is going to be doing these weird random console commands and has NO clue what he's doing. And of course, it doesn't always work, there will be something slightly different that makes one of the commands not verbatim, user has no idea, it doesn't work, now what?
My main point, as I just posted to the AC above, is this. In order for Linux to be actually "user friendly" and "replace Windows," most people aren't going to want to have to learn the inner workings of how Linux works so they are able to do a variety of commands in the console to, say, install a printer. In Windows, you plug it in, and it works. Or, you put in the CD, install the drivers, and it works. On Linux, sometimes you have to do some really weird things to get this or that printer to work. Even package management can be a real pain, with this or that dependency missing. What's a dependency? Why doesn't it install? Why is this so confusing, why can't they just make it so I download something and install it and it works, like on Windows?
If you haven't heard those last few questions, then the novices you speak of aren't really "novices," at least in my terminology. :)
Anyways. Point is that the documentation for those that know enough to use it (even if "documentation" equals "google") is pretty good. But having to BUY "documentation" (e.g., a book) because you have no clue about this whole Linux thing, you just got tired of having Windows crash with spyware, adware, and viruses... I don't know. IMO, that documentation is pretty bad if you don't know enough to barely know what to look for.. :)
Then again, I guess paying $100-$150 for Windows to have it "just work" is basically paying for the documentation, just you don't have to read it ;)
I knew about howtoforge, linuxmanpages, etc. Linux man pages are oh-so-user-friendly! Of course, I actually do use them and am not a blithering idiot when it comes to Linux. I guess my point was that if we want to get Linux into mainstream OS stuff, it will either have to "just work" (like Windows typically does) or the FREE documentation is going to have to be perhaps a bit more standardized, easier to find, easier to use, etc.
It is hard to "sell" (heh) something as free when you then have to ask them to get a $XX book because they are going to have on clue how to use it, it's not what they are used to, and it doesn't just work. :)
For those of us that ARE comfortable looking at random pages in google to find out how to do some weird Linux stuff, that's cool. For those that are switching to Linux, for the first time, and want to know how to get their Canon MP210 printer to work... well, they've got issues at the moment.
It seems silly to pay for a how-to book for a free operating system. I wonder if there's an online "Linux Documentation for the Masses" type of thing. Linux documentation online, at least from what I have seen, tends to be geared not so much for the same audience that books tend to be, unfortunately.
Private vs. Public roads (I suppose GPS can figure that out, but still).
Seems like this would significantly hamper transportation services if they have to pay per mile now, too.
GPS in every car sounds very privacy-invasive. I wonder how they're going to start keeping up sidewalks? Personal GPS systems to see who uses them the most and charge them? :P
May as well put in a digital speedometer so that the GPS can figure out what the max speed is, the speedometer can report when your car goes over that speed, and you get an automatic ticket...
While the part about needing to be $299 to compete was interesting (but it was in a comment), is this really newsworthy? Now, if the price of the parts went down and the price of the system DIDN'T go down, that might be more worth it. But how interesting is a news flash telling us that the price of electronic components has reduced in price over the last few years? Hmmm.
On the other hand, I did find the pricing interesting, as those prices are a lot cheaper than I get for my computer. I wonder if that's because computer parts are marked up more, or because the PS3 components aren't t as powerful (what a very relative, subjective, and non-descript word... sorry) as my computer components.
Come to think of it, I remember playing Desert Strike. It actually was rather fun.
In my political science class we had to do a news bias exercise. Most of my classmates in the California junior college thought that the majority of news organizations were right-wing biased, and that the more liberally-biased news organizations (according to me, at any rate) were neutral.
Of course, they're opinions even disagreed with that news bias reporting website thingy that I forgot the name of, and most of them didn't bother to think during the majority of the class, but I think the "CNN is right-wing" isn't that uncommon of an opinion.
Of course, I guess in a lot of history books, events aren't even mentioned as happening, so maybe I shouldn't expect kids that go through that education system to think very often? Who knows.
Perhaps I should rephrase then... successful games in the past had to rely on something else. I'm not implying that games relying on the newest technology, whether that was improved graphics, a new controller, or whatever, didn't exist... but I don't think they were as easily successful. Hence bringing up the gaming culture of then and now. Just look at TV and the garbage people watch - I think the culture of today is satisfied (or at least, thinks they are?) with low-quality games, as long as there is a visual stimulus (e.g., new graphics).
It's not that I am particularly blaming the game companies, it's the people that buy the games and give that marketing strategy some validity... :)
It seems that a lot of the success of a resurrection of an old game depends on the gameplay (how it transitions to modern graphics, modern controls, modern gameplay expectations) and on the nostalgia associated with the game.
As an example of the latter, I would actually likely dislike a remake of The Secret of Monkey Island (MI 1).
Gameplay seems to be important though. Some of the classic games relied on gameplay, whilst others relied on story, etc. It doesn't seem like the gameplay from 1990 always transitions well into modern games. The culture of the gamer has shifted, as have the expectations. Graphics alone can almost make a game successful these days, although not completely; whereas back in 1990, graphics seemed to play a small role. Sure, it did to some extent, but I think it was less "realistic graphics" that was of interest back then(Commander Keen != realistic, even a classic like Loom wasn't realistic, although it was certainly colorful and "pretty").
As for successes that I have personally played, I think the continuation of Prince of Persia appears to have done fairly well.
There are only a few recent games that I have any lasting nostalgic impressions about, but there are quite a few old games that do. One reason is personal taste, of course, but I think games in the past had to rely on something else than games typically do now. Of course, everyone has heard this 500x, but that's ok. :)
One game that I wish WAS remade with more modern engines was Baldur's Gate. I loved the game (granted, it was my first CRPG, a genre I have since come to really enjoy more than any other), the story, the characters, etc... but I think if it were remade and put into even the Aurora 2 engine, it would do alright as a remake.
Yes. Click the "print" link at the bottom of the second paragraph of the first page of the article. It's fairly human-usable. as was the link ;)
After all, when was the last time you needed to use capslock? Never.
About five seconds ago, while typing some Python regular expressions that searched for "PROPERTY: value" pairs (character case as shown) from the output of a command line utility. It sure beats having to type "maxstatfilesize" while holding down shift... along with ~10 other property names.
opening its source would let me fix that bug that keeps reminding me I missed the same meeting reminders over and over again.
If you could find the bug :)
I guess you were supposed to move the cursor over the link and pause, waiting for a preview of the linked article to appear, and read it. Maybe the /. editor is subtly promoting the usage of a proprietary Firefox expansion!! [/conspiracy theory]
Agreed about every bias except neutral. I just complain more about the biases I disagree with... although it gets significantly more annoying when they claim such titles as "All Things Considered."
I agree that it is not a depression and would have to get much worse. There are still those that remember the great depression, and it seems like it would be somewhat insulting to most of them to liken this recession to that. Some of the more accurate figures that I have seen hearken back to around 2002 or 2004, not the Great Depression (e.g., unemployment)... which I just now saw you mentioned at the end of your comment that I am already replying to, -1 Stupid. ;)
Unfortunately, it appears that politicians are simply using this economic problem as a means to gain more control and get more tax money, which is nothing new but is just as annoying and frustrating. The ideas that FDR propounded as a fix for the Great Depression (spend more taxpayer money, basically?) are being pushed now with the bailouts, etc...
No, defaulting isn't bad! The government can always bailout the company with the government's own hard-earned money! (It DOES take a lot of work to collect all those taxes, it's a good thing we're not the ones paying fo.... wait...)
It will be the great depression until a President that NPR likes is in office. Then it will only be a depression in looking back at who caused it.
Media bias is interesting and tricky, especially when it uses different "subtle" terminology in different contexts of different people to throw spins. Example being "recession" vs. "depression" vs. "setback" vs. "economic trouble" vs. "economic crisis." "Fee" vs. "tax." "Lawsuit" vs. "challenge." You get the idea.
IMO, Amazon's success, if they are being honest which I will give them the benefit of the doubt for, makes sense. I don't think this economic crisis is as bad as most politicians would have us believe (they're still getting paid, right?), and most people still bought gifts... but they might have not gone to Macy's or other "expensive" stores and rather looked for the cheaper options. Tighter money often drives people to look for better deals, not necessarily buy fewer items.
Now, if there was a sudden 50% drop of Americans' TV service, that might point to a serious recession. (for the record, I don't own a TV nor is there one in my house...)
They ARE the online largest retailer, according to wikipedia, with three times the volume of sales of the runner up, which is Staples.
Like iTunes? Buying a Mac is so much cheaper, I suppose, since it's so easy to buy whatever hardware you want and put OS X on it. "Can I use my iPod?" or "Can I use iTunes?" is a common question with regard to Linux. Amarok is cool, but iPod and iTunes DRM stuff is still an issue. Unless you want to personally spend your time getting rid of the iTunes DRM on a ton of music and transferring it..
There's also Windows Server stuff? Yes, I know there are other server OS's out there, but Windows Server 2003/2008 has its perks as well.
And they do make some other things that ARE desirable. Lots of people use hotmail still. It appears to be getting better from what it used to be, too. I know people that like the xbox. MS Office is way better, still, than openoffice 3 is, even to the extent that I have never gotten OpenOffice Impress to display very well (and I personally use it, by the way, and not MS Office, due to expense).
For a lot of geeks, MS products may not be desirable; but a lot of other people actually like MS products.
Like DerekLyons, I know lots of people that work Christmas Eve. I had to take it off. I don't get what the huge crime is, and I AM a Christian and celebrate Christmas.
I haven't been able to find it in my brief perusal of the link... does anyone know offhand if the MIT students asked permission first, or if they just did it, planned the talk, and then got in trouble?
If the former, MBTA is messed up. If the latter, I would have to honestly say that the MIT students should have thought about what they were doing and asked before they decided to hack something and tell others how to do it.
If someone asked me if they could do a security audit on my house and I said sure, that'd be cool. If they broke in, were going to give a talk about it to some other dudes and THEN I found out about it, I'd be a bit upset, too. Would I want to fix my security, sure, but I'd be kinda mad they did it without asking. Just because you CAN break in doesn't mean you have a right to do it, it's still MY property, not yours...
Agreed. Especially since RAM is so much cheaper now. I know the chip is expensive, and the graphics card, but $4500 is a lot of money to get 6GB RAM with, and a 7200rpm hard drive...
Since you appear to dislike any "pretty" desktop-type stuff, RAM swapping, indexing, etc., you would be a perfect candidate to use Linux and rain down your hate upon Compiz, KDE, Beagle, and GUIs in general. After all, it's a waste of that awfully expensive $25-for-4GB RAM.
Meanwhile, some of us may enjoy having a cool looking desktop. If the OS actually interferes with your foregrounded tasks by doing cpu, ram, or disk intensive background tasks, that's a problem. But it sounds like you are conjecturing that it does that because it's obviously a horrible product because it was made by Microsoft, as opposed to an open source community.
On the other hand, I know firsthand that Linux's X windows system/KDE, especially wiht something like Compiz, pretty much uses as much RAM as it can, because RAM does NO GOOD if it is sitting empty. Why can't Windows do that?
I don't like Vista, either, much prefer XP, and like Linux (albeit I prefer SuSE over RedHat, but use both at work), but let's critique OS's on an equal level, without the preconceived it-has-to-be-bad-because-it's-Microsoft junk...
I think the scientist's and my definition of "car" is significantly different. I wonder what exactly they mean by "car" and why they chose that term. Self-powered vehicle? Does it need gas? How does one drive it, or does it drive itself? How is it programmed to do this or that? etc...
Nonetheless, it's cool.
I don't either...
And good music, in any genre, DOES take that amount of work.
Since I'm a classical musician, I'll use them as an example. Many of the great classical composers were not only highly intelligent, but worked VERY hard at their craft (music) and were usually gifted in other areas as well (e.g., Mendelssohn was an accomplished visual artist as well as composer, and an excellent pianist as well; Bach engraved his own music in addition to writing it, and he wrote profusely. He was also a very gifted organist).
Examples abound of musicians that work HARD at their music, practice long hours, and frankly probably have a harder, more exhausting work week than I do as a software engineer.
And of course, examples abound of people that just float on top of the stupid celebrity/heart-throb loving crowd, can't really sing or play that well, but make tons of money. I would blame that on the public rather than the "musician." :)