I'm not sure where I heard this tidbit exactly; I think it was a video documentary about cats. Anyway, it seems that cats by themselves do not meow to each other or to animals other than humans -- it's something that they only do with us.
It's not only a parental thing handed down the line either -- we have one cat that was separated at birth from her mother, and she is very good at indicating when she wants affection, a trip outside, or food. As to her emotional needs beyond that short list, I'm afraid I'm not evolved enough to pick those up. The other cat, being a glutton, only asks for food whenever possible, though she does trill a lot.
they are outdated. I have worked in three countries (Canada, Japan and the UK), and the policies in North America fall somewhere in between Japan and Europe.
Note that there is considerable variation within Europe itself (ie/ the UK was thought the 'workaholic' of the EU -- strange but true), between Canadian provinces and between US states. Moreover, it would make more sense to speak of a spectrum of vacation attitudes and sensibilities.
To generalise though, there is a stronger work ethic in the US than in Canada and Europe. Calvinist Protestantism at one time was thought to be a prime source (cf. Weber), as well as the free-market capitalist orientation. In my personal experience the European attitude is preferable, as I feel that living in a culture goes beyond the confines of just working, working, working all the time. It is much more in tune with how I would like to be. Others may differ, and that's fair enough.
In all honesty, I'm going back the first chance I get. You *can* have the best of all worlds.
< sarcasm off > Um, could someone quickly enlighten me as the precise relationship of Sun to AOL-TW? Are they a full component of AOL now? Were they ever? How does that relate to Netscape and so forth?
From the article AOL owns Netscape wholly, but I still don't really see how Sun fits in. Anyone with a cluestick, comments greatly appreciated.
One problem is that 'content driving distribution' ends up looking like trying to play monopoly (in general terms, not the board game), especially when the 'synergistic' entity restricts content competition on distribution channels. Remember the ABC cable fiasco from a couple of years ago, when they wouldn't let one channel show up on people's tv screens?
Another is not restricting access to avoid the public/governmental response outlined above: where's the 'synergy'? If there is no 'synergy', why bother?
AOL-TW is just the biggest failure, not the only one. And to be honest, the prospect of seeing this kind of 21st century 'new' mercantilism fail actually doesn't bother me a whit.
That is, a rebranding, for a niche market (though I am at a loss to say exactly what that niche would be). I am in agreement with you -- perhaps they're trying for venture capital? Seems needless to me too. It would make sense (maybe) if they re-badged an existing proprietary product, or if the size of the original proved impossible to download cleanly through a fast connection. Perhaps the Bezier curves capability mentioned by another poster is much improved over OOffice. I don't know as I've not used that part too much at all. In that case, however, it would make much more sense to just simply release the filters/modules/whatever for this part as an upstream add-on to OOffice and let everyone know about it. Oh well. I won't switch, at any rate.
Always thought I'd buy one, then got laid off. Now, though I'm working on contract, I still cannot afford one. Not complaining, though I am curious: Are they really that convenient/useful? On the one hand, pen & paper are more convenient, what with the concerns mentioned above. On the other, the memory and connectivity aspects are intriguing.
Judging from the comments in general, it sounds like you really only need one if
Lots of other people in your organisation have one too (cf. network aspects in reference to utilities of one fax machine on the phone system v. many) --or--
You need that memory store interacting with that of others, where a laptop is impractical or useless (ie/ at functions, entertainment or otherwise) --or--
Your memory (in your head, that is) is totally hopeless (as mine became on the job!) --or--
You have some other need I haven't thought of (and I'm sure there are many)
To digress -- do people find the Zaurus or other Linux-capable PDAs better or worse than the Windows ones? If I ever were to buy one, it'd have to be a Linux-compatible one. Yes, I know you can sync a Palm Pilot or whatever they're called now to Linux PCs.
So what do Slashdot readers think? Worth it? Idle minds like mine want to know...
Well, I hadn't started my experimenting with X 'til five years ago, but I distinctly remember buying a crappy PC at the time with low-end onboard video and having to wait six weeks for the X guys to write drivers for it. Man, that was painful! (What did I know, eh?)
Also lacking a proper connection at home, later on I stole literally hundreds of floppies from work to get X, Gnome and Enlightenment onto it. God, I loved that eyecandy. Anyway.
The Flash Gordon homage I didn't know about and stand (somewhat) corrected. I still object, however, as the Federation characters were portrayed as being considerably more spineless than they needed to be.
As far as your giving Lucas the benefit of the doubt is concerned, you're a better person than me. Nonetheless, I do think he was being unconsciously conservative to the point of racism (and I should mention that most of this derives from David Brin's comments on Star Wars):
The most craven characters in Episode I are the Trade Fed emissaries and the slave-owner. All they do is act like money-grubbing bastards.
The monarchy and aristocracies are noble in character; the democratic ones are decidedly not.
In response to your Lion King example, I'll mention this: I know, Samuel L Jackson probably wouldn't take it either. Natalie Portman is in fact Israeli. However, do they have real creative control the way Lucas does? Given the length of time Lucas had to work on the film, isn't it fair to say *someone* would have noticed this? I'm not the biggest SW fan. The bias is subtle, but I believe it is definitely there.
But thanks for nothing, you dicks. CDB, aren't you on the West Coast? Do yourselves a favour and don't bother writing anything else about the X-Files 'til the Monday morning after the series finale, at the very least.
Pretty amazing, the lack of consideration from the editors... it's actually getting worse every week. Watching Global in BC at the moment, and they just had a promo saying, 'We can't tell you how this episode ends, but... '
The trade federation is, I think, meant to be Chinese, not Japanese (I'm part-Japanese myself). As well, Anakin's flitting slave-owner is supposed to be vaguely eastern European / Jewish, near as I can tell (accented, haggles over money, big nose -- I mean, Jesus Christ!).
To be honest, it annoyed me first time I saw the film, and it only got worse with repeat viewings. If Lucas meant to make the film to satisfy himself only, as has been claimed by others at Slashdot (sorry, can't be arsed to find the reference), you have to wonder just what the fuck he was thinking when he wrote the screenplay.
To address your last comment, though, Tolkien wrote LOTR many years ago. Lucas doesn't really have that excuse, and in my view, doesn't deserve an out. Just my opinion.
A discussion here at Slashdot on how ppl became Unix admins was a good starting point for me. Before this, my old firm standardised on Solaris on Intel. Granted, there are few advantages aside from the ones already mentioned, but I do think it helps to see how other entities (the BSDs, commercial and OSS) as well as Sun approach the Unix methodology and architecture differently.
I had always meant to download Solaris8 from Sun, and I stupidly missed doing so by some two days. If this happens, I intend to reactivate my Solaris license and rip that sucker to disk, just so I can mess around with it. Practical, no. Interesting enough, definitely.
There's also the 'hire me' factor - I'm sure that while there is no shortage of Linux/BSD-capable admins, HR-robots probably generally don't consider this when they look for people with Solaris abilities. Not a good thing, but that's life.
I have worked in both locations, and from my perspective the UK was far better for this kind of decision. It is more cut-throat in the US, and I think the comments here generally reflect that.
When I announced to my UK employers that I wanted to return to Canada permanently, a number of my superiors questioned the logic of my decision. But they didn't stop me, and there were absolutely no hard feelings. This was three years ago now, and I am still in contact (happily so, in nearly all cases) with both colleagues and superiors.
In sum, don't feel like you have to trumpet your intentions right now to everyone. Other people have said it well -- things might change. But if the topic comes up, be honest, matter-of-fact, and genial. I think it will be very much appreciated.
but you'll have to forgive me for not believing it. On the one hand, open-minded businesses will act to create a marketplace for this type of service. However, the reality is that the expenditures necessary to maintain this kind of network will, in the long run, favour only the well-heeled. By definition, they will be few in number. Counted on one hand with a couple of fingers missing.
I don't think the corporate partners mentioned will make it easy for a 'ecosystem' of different ISPs to arise.
Yup, this is the method I use as well (inna overview-stylee). I should mention that all the methods described by sheldon & DeadMeat above, as well as tweek's comments in this thread, work pretty much the same way (DeadMeat's proviso that WP does it internally notwithstanding).
Another point. Once you shovel on Ghostscript and a generic printer PS driver (I use Adobe's own myself on Windows) on either OS, pretty much *any* application that has a print option should be able to create a PDF.
Last point: As to electroniceric's original question on editing PDFs after the fact, that I don't know. I suspect there aren't such things around. Please post if you know differently.
Both StarOffice and OpenOffice *can* create PDFs in both Windows and Linux: I've been using this method for about eight months with no major difficulty.
In a nutshell, the applications rely on farming out the task to Ghostscript. It's not perfect -- TrueType fonts will sometimes result in uncorrectable errors (most often with apostrophes), and of course you may lack the ability to generate indexes and searchable documents, but for the most part, it's more than workable. It's been a godsend for me.
Finally, both Star/OpenOffices include (on the Linux side, anyway) instructions on how to do this yourself. Use the HTML reference above as a guide, and you should have no difficulties.
As far as I can tell using this solution is not an option for commercial services, but I am no legal expert, so use this at your own risk if this is the case.
Good luck.
Re: Parenthetical comment (last one)
on
Netscape 6 is Spyware?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I wonder if there could be some way to represent the information in the article to users. The EULA would be the ideal place to put this, in the true sense of the word. Where 'ideal' meant 'never reflected in reality'. People wouldn't read it.
The point is, people aren't even really given the opportunity to find out about this. Only the technically-minded have found out about it, and only they will do something to address the situation. Shouldn't AOL/Netscape tell you what they are doing?
want to see the Burnaby Public Library passed off as an American government office, again?
I will confess that during my time in London, the hype around this show seven years ago was crazy. I watched the 'murderous office building' episode and could not believe it was filmed in Vancouver. And the acting was terrible.
To my lament, I was hooked. These days I feel X-Files viewers are being punished for their loyalty. Like heroin addicts.
Do you really think bringing it back here would be worth it? The show would still suck.
... unfortunately will require a bit more than just having Duchovny on board for the finale. His presence will ensure that something will develop. Whether it will develop into a non-smelly/uncrap finish, on the other hand, is another matter altogether.
After all the storytelling bullshit that's been going on in the show, I watch it more out of a bored bad habit than anything else. And it was so entertaining before...
Sorry about the headline, I couldn't think of a short-enough one that'd fit.
BitMover also has a clause to help free software developers in the event of the company going out of business, located
here (Correct me if I am wrong).
It says, '5. CONVERSION TO THE GPL
The BitKeeper Software will be made available under the terms of the GPL in the event that all Open Logging servers cease to function for a continuous period of 180 days starting on or after June 1st 2000.'
This looks to be applicable to the free-as-in-beer version only, as far as I can tell, but still, it's not exactly a big problem.
I take your points about forking, but as a counter-example I'd think about the BSDs instead. They all operate under the same license, all forks from roughly the same code base.
The advantage here is that with three BSDs you have three separately-tuned operating systems that attack different problems very well, yet maintain a certain level of commonality and compatibility.
Call me a starry-eyed optimist, but my exposure to this open source fad started with the Wired article in the autumn of 1997. In it the writer painted a picture of a 'computing epic', one collectively started and maintained. I still think that metaphor is accurate and useful.
... to me, that is, remains Robotron 2084. The fact that I can still play it now on a reasonable PC, losing none of the speed and insanity of the original, is just marvelous to me. When I first discovered MAME and its variants I think I played Robotron every day for something like 6 months. I've never tired of it.
Anyway. I also enjoyed Deus Ex, SimCity3000 [the fact that I don't have to reboot into Windows is a relief], as well as all the Myst games out. Just my 2c.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not sure where I heard this tidbit exactly; I think it was a video documentary about cats. Anyway, it seems that cats by themselves do not meow to each other or to animals other than humans -- it's something that they only do with us.
It's not only a parental thing handed down the line either -- we have one cat that was separated at birth from her mother, and she is very good at indicating when she wants affection, a trip outside, or food. As to her emotional needs beyond that short list, I'm afraid I'm not evolved enough to pick those up. The other cat, being a glutton, only asks for food whenever possible, though she does trill a lot.
A recent Globe and Mail article on the subject is here.
they are outdated. I have worked in three countries (Canada, Japan and the UK), and the policies in North America fall somewhere in between Japan and Europe.
Note that there is considerable variation within Europe itself (ie/ the UK was thought the 'workaholic' of the EU -- strange but true), between Canadian provinces and between US states. Moreover, it would make more sense to speak of a spectrum of vacation attitudes and sensibilities.
To generalise though, there is a stronger work ethic in the US than in Canada and Europe. Calvinist Protestantism at one time was thought to be a prime source (cf. Weber), as well as the free-market capitalist orientation. In my personal experience the European attitude is preferable, as I feel that living in a culture goes beyond the confines of just working, working, working all the time. It is much more in tune with how I would like to be. Others may differ, and that's fair enough.
In all honesty, I'm going back the first chance I get. You *can* have the best of all worlds.
< sarcasm off > Um, could someone quickly enlighten me as the precise relationship of Sun to AOL-TW? Are they a full component of AOL now? Were they ever? How does that relate to Netscape and so forth?
From the article AOL owns Netscape wholly, but I still don't really see how Sun fits in. Anyone with a cluestick, comments greatly appreciated.
"Synergies": dot.com-speak for "We don't know what the hell we are going to do next".
Don't believe me? Look at Margaret Wente's commentary on BCE's chair resigning at the Globe and Mail, Michael Posner's comments on Vivendi's fall from grace, and perhaps most damagingly, a recent NYT comment (registration, blah blah).
One problem is that 'content driving distribution' ends up looking like trying to play monopoly (in general terms, not the board game), especially when the 'synergistic' entity restricts content competition on distribution channels. Remember the ABC cable fiasco from a couple of years ago, when they wouldn't let one channel show up on people's tv screens?
Another is not restricting access to avoid the public/governmental response outlined above: where's the 'synergy'? If there is no 'synergy', why bother?
AOL-TW is just the biggest failure, not the only one. And to be honest, the prospect of seeing this kind of 21st century 'new' mercantilism fail actually doesn't bother me a whit.
That is, a rebranding, for a niche market (though I am at a loss to say exactly what that niche would be). I am in agreement with you -- perhaps they're trying for venture capital? Seems needless to me too. It would make sense (maybe) if they re-badged an existing proprietary product, or if the size of the original proved impossible to download cleanly through a fast connection. Perhaps the Bezier curves capability mentioned by another poster is much improved over OOffice. I don't know as I've not used that part too much at all. In that case, however, it would make much more sense to just simply release the filters/modules/whatever for this part as an upstream add-on to OOffice and let everyone know about it. Oh well. I won't switch, at any rate.
Always thought I'd buy one, then got laid off. Now, though I'm working on contract, I still cannot afford one. Not complaining, though I am curious: Are they really that convenient/useful? On the one hand, pen & paper are more convenient, what with the concerns mentioned above. On the other, the memory and connectivity aspects are intriguing.
Judging from the comments in general, it sounds like you really only need one if
So what do Slashdot readers think? Worth it? Idle minds like mine want to know...
Well, I hadn't started my experimenting with X 'til five years ago, but I distinctly remember buying a crappy PC at the time with low-end onboard video and having to wait six weeks for the X guys to write drivers for it. Man, that was painful! (What did I know, eh?)
Also lacking a proper connection at home, later on I stole literally hundreds of floppies from work to get X, Gnome and Enlightenment onto it. God, I loved that eyecandy. Anyway.
- It's available to US & Cdn. end users only
- You get more if you supply them with old ATI cards, I believe (about $50 US/Cdn, depending on where you are).
The FAQ is available here and applies to both PC and Mac architectures.Even the moderators have lost their minds around here... I suppose they've lost the capacity to think critically too.
After all this, I decided to watch the hockey instead. And Vancouver lost. Now I'm really depressed...
As far as your giving Lucas the benefit of the doubt is concerned, you're a better person than me. Nonetheless, I do think he was being unconsciously conservative to the point of racism (and I should mention that most of this derives from David Brin's comments on Star Wars):
But thanks for nothing, you dicks. CDB, aren't you on the West Coast? Do yourselves a favour and don't bother writing anything else about the X-Files 'til the Monday morning after the series finale, at the very least.
... '
Pretty amazing, the lack of consideration from the editors... it's actually getting worse every week. Watching Global in BC at the moment, and they just had a promo saying, 'We can't tell you how this episode ends, but
Again, to Slashdot editors, thanks.
The trade federation is, I think, meant to be Chinese, not Japanese (I'm part-Japanese myself). As well, Anakin's flitting slave-owner is supposed to be vaguely eastern European / Jewish, near as I can tell (accented, haggles over money, big nose -- I mean, Jesus Christ!).
To be honest, it annoyed me first time I saw the film, and it only got worse with repeat viewings. If Lucas meant to make the film to satisfy himself only, as has been claimed by others at Slashdot (sorry, can't be arsed to find the reference), you have to wonder just what the fuck he was thinking when he wrote the screenplay.
To address your last comment, though, Tolkien wrote LOTR many years ago. Lucas doesn't really have that excuse, and in my view, doesn't deserve an out. Just my opinion.
A discussion here at Slashdot on how ppl became Unix admins was a good starting point for me. Before this, my old firm standardised on Solaris on Intel. Granted, there are few advantages aside from the ones already mentioned, but I do think it helps to see how other entities (the BSDs, commercial and OSS) as well as Sun approach the Unix methodology and architecture differently.
I had always meant to download Solaris8 from Sun, and I stupidly missed doing so by some two days. If this happens, I intend to reactivate my Solaris license and rip that sucker to disk, just so I can mess around with it. Practical, no. Interesting enough, definitely.
There's also the 'hire me' factor - I'm sure that while there is no shortage of Linux/BSD-capable admins, HR-robots probably generally don't consider this when they look for people with Solaris abilities. Not a good thing, but that's life.
... but it may have something to do with integrating the Digital Rights Management scheme further, so that ordinary users cannot rip CDs.
I hope to be proved wrong on this. Wouldn't put it past MS, though.
I have worked in both locations, and from my perspective the UK was far better for this kind of decision. It is more cut-throat in the US, and I think the comments here generally reflect that.
:)
When I announced to my UK employers that I wanted to return to Canada permanently, a number of my superiors questioned the logic of my decision. But they didn't stop me, and there were absolutely no hard feelings. This was three years ago now, and I am still in contact (happily so, in nearly all cases) with both colleagues and superiors.
In sum, don't feel like you have to trumpet your intentions right now to everyone. Other people have said it well -- things might change. But if the topic comes up, be honest, matter-of-fact, and genial. I think it will be very much appreciated.
I'm plotting my UK comeback tour as we speak
but you'll have to forgive me for not believing it. On the one hand, open-minded businesses will act to create a marketplace for this type of service. However, the reality is that the expenditures necessary to maintain this kind of network will, in the long run, favour only the well-heeled. By definition, they will be few in number. Counted on one hand with a couple of fingers missing.
I don't think the corporate partners mentioned will make it easy for a 'ecosystem' of different ISPs to arise.
Yup, this is the method I use as well (inna overview-stylee). I should mention that all the methods described by sheldon & DeadMeat above, as well as tweek's comments in this thread, work pretty much the same way (DeadMeat's proviso that WP does it internally notwithstanding).
Another point. Once you shovel on Ghostscript and a generic printer PS driver (I use Adobe's own myself on Windows) on either OS, pretty much *any* application that has a print option should be able to create a PDF.
Last point: As to electroniceric's original question on editing PDFs after the fact, that I don't know. I suspect there aren't such things around. Please post if you know differently.
Thanks.
Both StarOffice and OpenOffice *can* create PDFs in both Windows and Linux: I've been using this method for about eight months with no major difficulty.
In a nutshell, the applications rely on farming out the task to Ghostscript. It's not perfect -- TrueType fonts will sometimes result in uncorrectable errors (most often with apostrophes), and of course you may lack the ability to generate indexes and searchable documents, but for the most part, it's more than workable. It's been a godsend for me.
Finally, both Star/OpenOffices include (on the Linux side, anyway) instructions on how to do this yourself. Use the HTML reference above as a guide, and you should have no difficulties.
As far as I can tell using this solution is not an option for commercial services, but I am no legal expert, so use this at your own risk if this is the case.
Good luck.
I wonder if there could be some way to represent the information in the article to users. The EULA would be the ideal place to put this, in the true sense of the word. Where 'ideal' meant 'never reflected in reality'. People wouldn't read it.
The point is, people aren't even really given the opportunity to find out about this. Only the technically-minded have found out about it, and only they will do something to address the situation. Shouldn't AOL/Netscape tell you what they are doing?
want to see the Burnaby Public Library passed off as an American government office, again?
I will confess that during my time in London, the hype around this show seven years ago was crazy. I watched the 'murderous office building' episode and could not believe it was filmed in Vancouver. And the acting was terrible.
To my lament, I was hooked. These days I feel X-Files viewers are being punished for their loyalty. Like heroin addicts.
Do you really think bringing it back here would be worth it? The show would still suck.
... unfortunately will require a bit more than just having Duchovny on board for the finale. His presence will ensure that something will develop. Whether it will develop into a non-smelly/uncrap finish, on the other hand, is another matter altogether.
After all the storytelling bullshit that's been going on in the show, I watch it more out of a bored bad habit than anything else. And it was so entertaining before...
Sorry about the headline, I couldn't think of a short-enough one that'd fit.
BitMover also has a clause to help free software developers in the event of the company going out of business, located here (Correct me if I am wrong).
It says, '5. CONVERSION TO THE GPL
The BitKeeper Software will be made available under the terms of the GPL in the event that all Open Logging servers cease to function for a continuous period of 180 days starting on or after June 1st 2000.'
This looks to be applicable to the free-as-in-beer version only, as far as I can tell, but still, it's not exactly a big problem.
I take your points about forking, but as a counter-example I'd think about the BSDs instead. They all operate under the same license, all forks from roughly the same code base.
The advantage here is that with three BSDs you have three separately-tuned operating systems that attack different problems very well, yet maintain a certain level of commonality and compatibility.
Call me a starry-eyed optimist, but my exposure to this open source fad started with the Wired article in the autumn of 1997. In it the writer painted a picture of a 'computing epic', one collectively started and maintained. I still think that metaphor is accurate and useful.
Anyway. I also enjoyed Deus Ex, SimCity3000 [the fact that I don't have to reboot into Windows is a relief], as well as all the Myst games out. Just my 2c.