Those are my biggest "sigh, Windows does it better" issues too. Windows did duel monitors right almost 10 years ago, so it always shocks me when it just never works right in Ubuntu. Little things like audio shouldn't be a problem either, but they are for me, especially on my laptop.
These are the kinds of things that need fixing first if Ubuntu (and Linux) ever wants to be taken seriously.
I remember when Slashdot was the cutting edge for technology and technology news, and the majority of posters, all into their own things, were pretty accepting of new tech. Now the vast majority of the comments here sound like the "get off my lawn" patrol.
Is Twitter new and very possibly a passing fad? Sure. Maybe it'll stick around, maybe it won't. I find it useful for keeping up with authors and companies I like, but not everyone's into the microblogging format. But to listen to most of you, it's some newfangled horseless carriage that you don't understand. You don't have to like it, but don't be jealous that it's more popular than your favorite flavor of Linux this week.
I also remember these exact same discussions about the term "blog" - it's stupid, it doesn't mean anything, it'll never catch on, etc. I'm sure in 30 years some things will have stuck, while others will sound dated. But watch any movie from the 40s or 50s. Read popular lit of any past decade. It's full of terms you don't hear anymore.
If you can, check out the newspapers from the 30s and 40s - it's full of popular language that we cringe at today (especially when referring to minorities, but also in general usage). I get to do quite a bit of that for my job. Journalism's golden age, it was not.
In a given year, I probably watch several hundred different shows, as well as sports and quite a few other programs that aren't on DVD. Because of my tastes, the shows I really enjoy are on channels like Discovery, Science Channel, Sci-Fi, and the like. Add to this my wife and kid's tastes, and cable really isn't a bad idea for a year's worth of entertainment.
Every major newspaper in the country keeps an archive nowadays, and libraries still, traditionally, keep active subscriptions to local papers. In addition, almost all papers still microfilm their editions, and the papers, some libraries, the LOC (usually), and the microfilming companies themselves all keep copies. It's possible it'll disappear, eventually, but compared to a website like legacy.com, it's solid.
Where do you see spam on Facebook? I'm a pretty heavy user of the site, and besides 1-2 odd friend requests every month (usually devoid of info, not selling me something), I don't get anything unsolicited there.
I'd say there's a good chance Google will still be around in 10 years. I'd say there's very little chance Facebook is. And I'd say there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that Twitter is around in 5 years, never mind 10.
Do you have any evidence for these statements, or do you just happen to like Google and hate the other two(like a good/.er should)?
Google's likely to stick around because it's so large, and still trends very well. They do a lot of innovative things, and lots of us are using them for our email. They'll very likely change, and we might not think of them as a Search company (exclusively) anymore, but they'll be around. So here, I agree with you.
Facebook is huge, but then again, so was Myspace in 2003. Of course, Myspace hasn't gone anywhere - it's just not as trendy as Facebook. I agree that social networking will lose some luster, but for huge numbers of the internet population, social networking of some sort is a prime reason to be online. This is especially true in the younger set, and there's just going to be more of them. Facebook might not be a big player in 10 years. Maybe it'll adapt/create some sort of open standard for social networking. There's no way it'll just be gone.
Twitter's interesting - it's a very new service and an honestly new type of thing online. I think it'll change and might be unrecognizable by users today, but there's no reason to think it'll disappear - it's very useful for its intended purpose, and there's a lot of evidence to support that it's in a prime position to replace group chat (think IRC, chatrooms, etc). It certainly has a lot of the same functionality.
If you'd asked people in 2000 about some crazy new thing called "blogging" (especially people on slashdot), a bunch would have said it was just a boring trend that would disappear before long. It's evolved, and so will Twitter and Facebook. Don't let the irrational slashdot hate of the two services cloud your judgment.
Small and medium sized newspapers are rarely owned by what you perceive as "big media", and are one of the last remaining sources for local news. Don't go wishing for their death too quickly (unless you're just trying to sound cool by hatin' on the media).
It's not that hard. You just add one line to your xorg.conf (something like "Virtual 2048 768" to the Display Subsection of your Screen section). Then you do a `xrandr --output VGA-0 --left-of DVI-0'. This gives you one X screen split across your two monitors. I have this working fine on multiple machines with the open source radeon drivers. The only hiccup from compiz is that if your total screen size if bigger than the maximum texture size of your card, you get some strange artifacts in the extra screen area. It's still quite usable, and a reasonable workaround is to just stick some window there pinned to all workspaces (I use an Eterm tailling/var/log/messages pinned using devilspie).
Right...compared to Windows, where all I've ever had to do is plug in my monitor. I'm a linux newbie, and while I understood the basics of what you typed, I can't believe you tried to justify that explanation with "It's not that hard". You're a very funny person.
There's a difference between a web service that, like all others, may be susceptible to government intrusion and one that's open to ANYONE who can intercept your packets, such as at a wi-fi hotspot or at your ISP. We all pretty much know that Google could sell us out to the government, but that doesn't mean I want every script kiddie getting access to my email.
What value could you possibly bring to the discussion then?
Perhaps that we fly too much as a culture, and a protest with our dollars might have some effect?
I haven't flown since 2000. For a while I didn't care to, but now I won't - I won't support the TSA or put up with their searches. I realize that some people must fly for various reasons, but it's certainly not a necessity for many of us.
I'm a news/information researcher for a media company. I use Nexis every day for both news archive searches and public records/legal information.
Most of the search engines have "hidden" or "advanced" features like proximity searches and truncation, but none do it as well as Nexis, at least in terms of being able to get very exact in your searches. TFA's example is extreme, but the w/# and pre/# are amazingly helpful for specifying how terms appear together (there's also w/s for sentence and w/p for paragraph), and their truncation and wildcarding is fantastic. You can specify exactly where (body text, headline, byline, publication field, index terms, etc) you search, and do multiple at once. This can be done in forms or using query language.
There's also a "search within results" box that allows you to refine inside any search you do, in order to drill down results - very very helpful. Interestingly enough, the only thing Nexis doesn't do well (and it tried with its "Easy Search", but failed) is standard phrase or topic-based, google-style searching - I've never found them useful or helpful. Nexis is the most powerful tool I use, but Google (and Yahoo) are right behind.
Years ago in my tech startup days, I remember spending hours just using our about-to-launch web application, doing my best to break it. Things are a bit different when you're not web-based, but doing this on a variety of computers is still a good way to find bugs, note slowdowns, discover any issues with running it concurrently with other software, etc. This is also a nice (and sometimes fun) way to involve ALL of your staff -- not just IT -- because there's going to be a wider variety of user experience levels there.
I hope you don't want a mortgage (or any other financial service), then. Or vote. Or have any account with just about any company.
I wouldn't say it's impossible to not do business with companies that sell your information, but it's as close as you get in the real world. You also have to take into account all the public records that go into these databases. While public and not all-encompassing on their own, combined together they can paint a pretty good picture of who you are.
The *only* way companies will ever learn to properly secure consumer data is if consumers drive them out of business when they fuck it up.
A good number of the data leaks/thefts have happened at companies that rarely, if ever, deal with the people whose info they've lost (data resellers, information storehouses/providers, etc). How does someone who's had their information "misplaced" stop supporting a company they've never done business with in the first place?
Slashdot Mirror
Um, no, actually. That really was me.
No mod points, so I'll reply.
Those are my biggest "sigh, Windows does it better" issues too. Windows did duel monitors right almost 10 years ago, so it always shocks me when it just never works right in Ubuntu. Little things like audio shouldn't be a problem either, but they are for me, especially on my laptop.
These are the kinds of things that need fixing first if Ubuntu (and Linux) ever wants to be taken seriously.
Every day, when I go to work, my neighbors know my house is empty!
I'm not too worried if the people I CHOOSE to know my location know that I'm out getting a burrito.
I remember when Slashdot was the cutting edge for technology and technology news, and the majority of posters, all into their own things, were pretty accepting of new tech. Now the vast majority of the comments here sound like the "get off my lawn" patrol.
Is Twitter new and very possibly a passing fad? Sure. Maybe it'll stick around, maybe it won't. I find it useful for keeping up with authors and companies I like, but not everyone's into the microblogging format. But to listen to most of you, it's some newfangled horseless carriage that you don't understand. You don't have to like it, but don't be jealous that it's more popular than your favorite flavor of Linux this week.
I also remember these exact same discussions about the term "blog" - it's stupid, it doesn't mean anything, it'll never catch on, etc. I'm sure in 30 years some things will have stuck, while others will sound dated. But watch any movie from the 40s or 50s. Read popular lit of any past decade. It's full of terms you don't hear anymore.
If you can, check out the newspapers from the 30s and 40s - it's full of popular language that we cringe at today (especially when referring to minorities, but also in general usage). I get to do quite a bit of that for my job. Journalism's golden age, it was not.
In a given year, I probably watch several hundred different shows, as well as sports and quite a few other programs that aren't on DVD. Because of my tastes, the shows I really enjoy are on channels like Discovery, Science Channel, Sci-Fi, and the like. Add to this my wife and kid's tastes, and cable really isn't a bad idea for a year's worth of entertainment.
That's fine, except no one says you HAVE to buy an iPhone, either. If you have one, then yes, you're restricted.
Every major newspaper in the country keeps an archive nowadays, and libraries still, traditionally, keep active subscriptions to local papers. In addition, almost all papers still microfilm their editions, and the papers, some libraries, the LOC (usually), and the microfilming companies themselves all keep copies. It's possible it'll disappear, eventually, but compared to a website like legacy.com, it's solid.
I remember people saying that about the internet, yet here you are, being an old man on it.
Where do you see spam on Facebook? I'm a pretty heavy user of the site, and besides 1-2 odd friend requests every month (usually devoid of info, not selling me something), I don't get anything unsolicited there.
Yep - and if I'm that good and that determined, digging through your google search history is probably pretty low on my list of ways to fuck with you.
Oh yeah? How?
I'd say there's a good chance Google will still be around in 10 years. I'd say there's very little chance Facebook is. And I'd say there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that Twitter is around in 5 years, never mind 10.
Do you have any evidence for these statements, or do you just happen to like Google and hate the other two(like a good /.er should)?
Google's likely to stick around because it's so large, and still trends very well. They do a lot of innovative things, and lots of us are using them for our email. They'll very likely change, and we might not think of them as a Search company (exclusively) anymore, but they'll be around. So here, I agree with you.
Facebook is huge, but then again, so was Myspace in 2003. Of course, Myspace hasn't gone anywhere - it's just not as trendy as Facebook. I agree that social networking will lose some luster, but for huge numbers of the internet population, social networking of some sort is a prime reason to be online. This is especially true in the younger set, and there's just going to be more of them. Facebook might not be a big player in 10 years. Maybe it'll adapt/create some sort of open standard for social networking. There's no way it'll just be gone.
Twitter's interesting - it's a very new service and an honestly new type of thing online. I think it'll change and might be unrecognizable by users today, but there's no reason to think it'll disappear - it's very useful for its intended purpose, and there's a lot of evidence to support that it's in a prime position to replace group chat (think IRC, chatrooms, etc). It certainly has a lot of the same functionality.
If you'd asked people in 2000 about some crazy new thing called "blogging" (especially people on slashdot), a bunch would have said it was just a boring trend that would disappear before long. It's evolved, and so will Twitter and Facebook. Don't let the irrational slashdot hate of the two services cloud your judgment.
Small and medium sized newspapers are rarely owned by what you perceive as "big media", and are one of the last remaining sources for local news. Don't go wishing for their death too quickly (unless you're just trying to sound cool by hatin' on the media).
Indeed! I read that when I was unsure of the root of the word, but felt an explanation in the short-and-sweet post might ruin it =)
Phoenix? Minneapolis? It looks like its really all the same.
Greek names?
Since you added them as friends, and can control what you see from each user, it's not really "Spam", is it?
Your half-hearted attempt to be a cool hater is recognized, but ultimately fails.
It's not that hard. You just add one line to your xorg.conf (something like "Virtual 2048 768" to the Display Subsection of your Screen section). Then you do a `xrandr --output VGA-0 --left-of DVI-0'. This gives you one X screen split across your two monitors. I have this working fine on multiple machines with the open source radeon drivers. The only hiccup from compiz is that if your total screen size if bigger than the maximum texture size of your card, you get some strange artifacts in the extra screen area. It's still quite usable, and a reasonable workaround is to just stick some window there pinned to all workspaces (I use an Eterm tailling /var/log/messages pinned using devilspie).
Right...compared to Windows, where all I've ever had to do is plug in my monitor. I'm a linux newbie, and while I understood the basics of what you typed, I can't believe you tried to justify that explanation with "It's not that hard". You're a very funny person.
This is odd, though:
http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=%22Sarah+Palin%22 ("Sarah Palin") returns no results for me, but http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=palin+Wasilla (palin Wasilla) returns quite a few, including many with the term "Sarah Palin" in them.
Any thoughts?
You're all talking about it. That's the point of any advertising.
There's a difference between a web service that, like all others, may be susceptible to government intrusion and one that's open to ANYONE who can intercept your packets, such as at a wi-fi hotspot or at your ISP. We all pretty much know that Google could sell us out to the government, but that doesn't mean I want every script kiddie getting access to my email.
What value could you possibly bring to the discussion then?
Perhaps that we fly too much as a culture, and a protest with our dollars might have some effect?
I haven't flown since 2000. For a while I didn't care to, but now I won't - I won't support the TSA or put up with their searches. I realize that some people must fly for various reasons, but it's certainly not a necessity for many of us.
I'm a news/information researcher for a media company. I use Nexis every day for both news archive searches and public records/legal information.
Most of the search engines have "hidden" or "advanced" features like proximity searches and truncation, but none do it as well as Nexis, at least in terms of being able to get very exact in your searches. TFA's example is extreme, but the w/# and pre/# are amazingly helpful for specifying how terms appear together (there's also w/s for sentence and w/p for paragraph), and their truncation and wildcarding is fantastic. You can specify exactly where (body text, headline, byline, publication field, index terms, etc) you search, and do multiple at once. This can be done in forms or using query language.
There's also a "search within results" box that allows you to refine inside any search you do, in order to drill down results - very very helpful. Interestingly enough, the only thing Nexis doesn't do well (and it tried with its "Easy Search", but failed) is standard phrase or topic-based, google-style searching - I've never found them useful or helpful. Nexis is the most powerful tool I use, but Google (and Yahoo) are right behind.
Nothing beats using it.
Years ago in my tech startup days, I remember spending hours just using our about-to-launch web application, doing my best to break it. Things are a bit different when you're not web-based, but doing this on a variety of computers is still a good way to find bugs, note slowdowns, discover any issues with running it concurrently with other software, etc. This is also a nice (and sometimes fun) way to involve ALL of your staff -- not just IT -- because there's going to be a wider variety of user experience levels there.
I hope you don't want a mortgage (or any other financial service), then. Or vote. Or have any account with just about any company.
I wouldn't say it's impossible to not do business with companies that sell your information, but it's as close as you get in the real world. You also have to take into account all the public records that go into these databases. While public and not all-encompassing on their own, combined together they can paint a pretty good picture of who you are.
The *only* way companies will ever learn to properly secure consumer data is if consumers drive them out of business when they fuck it up.
A good number of the data leaks/thefts have happened at companies that rarely, if ever, deal with the people whose info they've lost (data resellers, information storehouses/providers, etc). How does someone who's had their information "misplaced" stop supporting a company they've never done business with in the first place?