I just spent 3 weeks on jury duty, and while I would have probably agreed with you before that, I have to disagree. We have a fantastic justice system, and while it may not be perfect, it does work.
I was a firm believer that the MS Office ribbon was the stupidest, clunkiest UI to come along in ages, until I tried it for the first time about a month ago when work updated their software finally. Took me a few days to get used to it, but I have to admit I was wrong. It is intuitive and easy to use and learn, and I actually do prefer it to the old menu/toolbar setup. I'm not sure that OO.o necessarily needs (or even should) mimic MS, but I think that if there are good ideas, or new ideas, out there about how to approach to UI in a program, it's worth investigating at least. Maybe we won't end up with something like MS Office. Maybe we'll get something even better!
I never got that to work for me for one reason or another. Maybe it was the ATI drivers I had installed, maybe it was my card, maybe it was problems with X... I'm not really sure, but I've never found the display properties GUI to be a fix-all solution for me, unfortunately. Every time I've wanted to do dual-monitors in the past I've had to go in and, through trial and error, set up my xorg.conf file. I don't mind doing it myself, but I know a lot of people who wouldn't put up with it if they had to do that every time they got a new PC.
Tie Fighter! Or any of the same ilk. Updated graphics would be nice, but it would totally be worth going out and buying a joystick if they brought the space sims back even in their original form.
"...there will be some practical issues to overcome, such as preventing the creation of artificial black holes, as well as catastrophic warp bubble collapse when the power is switched off."
Best practical issues to overcome EVER! Man, I wish my day job involved figuring out how to overcome the creation of artificial black holes.
Yes, yes, yes... everyones suggestions on this thread are all well and good, but you're forgetting the most important part of advent calendars. The candy! Sadly, I think the technology for turning USB sticks into chocolate is a few years off. I'll never give up hope though. Every man has to have a dream.
My experience has actually been the opposite. With Linux, I swap to disk so infrequently that I have a noticibly longer amount of time which I can use my laptop (about 30 mins, which considering my battery only typically lasts about 2 1/2 hrs is significant to me). On Windows, even when I disable to page file, the OS still seems to access the disk quite a bit and it seems to drain the battery faster as a result.
Screw based CFLs are the ones with the power factor problem. With pin-based you can get whatever ballast you want and generally those ballasts have >.9 PF, with most being around.97 or.98. Check out Advance Transformer's offerings.
For retrofits, screw based CFLs are certainly easier to swap out for your old incandescents, but for new construction or significant renovations there's no reason not to switch your fixtures out to accommodate pin based CFLs. Pin based have the added advantage of being able to be dimmed properly (provided you have the right ballast and controls... a simple rheostat won't do it).
Hey..speaking of mythtv, I've got a question. I'm currently renting, and wanting to go do the mythtv client server route in the house. I was at this point (renting) hoping to avoid running cat5 all over the place. Can wireless work fast enough now for a myth client server system? For HD content? I've got my server with a HDHomerun pulling QAM off the cable, and ATSC over the air...
I used wireless for awhile on a little frontend box that was away from the master backend and it worked fine for SD content. When I switched out my tuner to HD though I started getting some stuttering and then broke down and just decided to figure out how to run a twisted pair to the box. I was using wireless G at the time... don't know if N would be good enough to eliminate the stuttering, but it's possible it might.
I tend to agree with you, but I'm not expecting Linux to really take off as soon as I think you are.
I recently came into a few old laptops and threw Xubuntu on them just to play around (one of them had been running Windows 2000 and the other was 98). I ended up giving them away to two friends who needed PCs (neither of which are very computer savvy and had only used XP a handful of times before) and they loved them and learned to use them right away really easily. These are the kind of people who will be easy to convert, but they're kind of a rarity in this day and age.
My wife, on the other hand, has been using XP or 2000 for as long as she could remember, and it took her longer to get used to using Ubuntu on my media center PC (I don't know how many times I heard the phrase "but that's not how you do it in Windows"), but now she uses both Windows and Ubuntu pretty comfortably even though she still prefers Windows. I think that a lot more people fall into my wife's category and, unfortunately, without someone there to help them along and show them how to do stuff in Linux that they long ago learned to do in Windows, not many people in this category will switch over.
In any event, I kind of hope Linux doesn't take off in a huge way just because I like being a part of a smaller, closer-nit community. A friend of mine took the time to show me Linux way back when and it was his patience and help that made me want to stick with it and see what all could be done with Linux. From there, community forums and IRC channels helped when I had a problem I couldn't figure out. I think that if Linux grows too big too fast that some of that same sense of community will be lost.
My drivers install just fine (Radeon x800 series card), but I'm right there with you on the dual monitors. I've tried Ubuntu's screen manager, ATI's amdcccle utility, and the command line and I have yet to successfully configure dual monitors. The closest I've gotten is trying ATI's "big desktop" which produces some truly psychedelic effects.
Other than that though, I haven't encountered a problem yet I can't solve using a gui tool in Ubuntu (although as other users have noted, often it is more expedient to use the terminal), so I can't complain too much. Besides, the main joy I get from computers is from fiddling with them and trying to make things work, so I think without an issue like this to keep me busy I wouldn't truly be happy. That's not to say that it isn't a problem that I'm sure angers plenty of users.
I apologize if this is a ridiculously simplistic question, but how do you have a LAN with IPv6? If I want to connect to my file server from my laptop now, I just use a local 192.x.x.x address now and it goes straight to my server. Is there something like that for IPv6 so that I don't have to go all the way out to the internet to get back to my file server? I'm assuming there is but I'm a novice when it comes to some of this networking stuff.
A Google search for "LAN over IPv6" turned up the following, but it's mostly a lot of technical jargon that I don't really understand:
But it just doesn't pass the wife acceptance factor test for intuitive user interface.
I think your problem is that you're running on wife 0.78. I just upgraded to wife 0.92 in July and she very much appreciates the interface and finds it pretty intuitive (and she gets giddy when she thinks about the web interface).
My wife is absolutely addicted to her blackberry and I, being a firm believer in getting the hell off my lawn, just have a plain old vanilla cell phone. One night she and I were getting ready for bed and I noticed that her blackberry kept blinking so I asked her if there was a way to stop it from blinking (Those things put out a lot more light than you'd imagine when you're trying to get to sleep). She had no idea, so picked it up and scrolled through the options and finally figured out how to make it stop blinking. Go me!
When we got up in the morning she picked it up to see if she had received any emails and she started to panic. The thing was dead and she couldn't understand why since she was charging it all night long. She immediately turned to me and I thought she was going to strangle me. "What did you do?!? YOU BROKE IT!!"
Now, I'm fairly savvy with all things electronic, so I told her I'd take a look at it and try and fix it, so I took it and fiddled around with it for awhile, got it working and gave it back to her, for which she was eternally grateful.
To this day I don't think she realized that I just turned it off and turned it back on. In fact, I think most crackberry addicts don't realize that the damn things actually have an off button, so that's my useful little tip.
You don't necessarily need to make that first backup painful. Rsync while you've got both servers in the same room over a LAN, and from then on you just have to deal with the delta and don't need to worry so much about bandwidth.
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I just spent 3 weeks on jury duty, and while I would have probably agreed with you before that, I have to disagree. We have a fantastic justice system, and while it may not be perfect, it does work.
I was a firm believer that the MS Office ribbon was the stupidest, clunkiest UI to come along in ages, until I tried it for the first time about a month ago when work updated their software finally. Took me a few days to get used to it, but I have to admit I was wrong. It is intuitive and easy to use and learn, and I actually do prefer it to the old menu/toolbar setup. I'm not sure that OO.o necessarily needs (or even should) mimic MS, but I think that if there are good ideas, or new ideas, out there about how to approach to UI in a program, it's worth investigating at least. Maybe we won't end up with something like MS Office. Maybe we'll get something even better!
The only thing you need to know for a successful marriage, regardless of personality types, is one simple phrase: "Yes, dear."
I never got that to work for me for one reason or another. Maybe it was the ATI drivers I had installed, maybe it was my card, maybe it was problems with X... I'm not really sure, but I've never found the display properties GUI to be a fix-all solution for me, unfortunately. Every time I've wanted to do dual-monitors in the past I've had to go in and, through trial and error, set up my xorg.conf file. I don't mind doing it myself, but I know a lot of people who wouldn't put up with it if they had to do that every time they got a new PC.
Tie Fighter! Or any of the same ilk. Updated graphics would be nice, but it would totally be worth going out and buying a joystick if they brought the space sims back even in their original form.
There's a Library of Congress of Porn?!?!?! I take back every bad thing I've ever said about the government and wasteful spending...
"...there will be some practical issues to overcome, such as preventing the creation of artificial black holes, as well as catastrophic warp bubble collapse when the power is switched off."
Best practical issues to overcome EVER! Man, I wish my day job involved figuring out how to overcome the creation of artificial black holes.
Yes, yes, yes... everyones suggestions on this thread are all well and good, but you're forgetting the most important part of advent calendars. The candy! Sadly, I think the technology for turning USB sticks into chocolate is a few years off. I'll never give up hope though. Every man has to have a dream.
human... robot... i think everyone loses in that game
Call me when they teach robot footballers to head butt.
My experience has actually been the opposite. With Linux, I swap to disk so infrequently that I have a noticibly longer amount of time which I can use my laptop (about 30 mins, which considering my battery only typically lasts about 2 1/2 hrs is significant to me). On Windows, even when I disable to page file, the OS still seems to access the disk quite a bit and it seems to drain the battery faster as a result.
Screw based CFLs are the ones with the power factor problem. With pin-based you can get whatever ballast you want and generally those ballasts have >.9 PF, with most being around .97 or .98. Check out Advance Transformer's offerings.
For retrofits, screw based CFLs are certainly easier to swap out for your old incandescents, but for new construction or significant renovations there's no reason not to switch your fixtures out to accommodate pin based CFLs. Pin based have the added advantage of being able to be dimmed properly (provided you have the right ballast and controls... a simple rheostat won't do it).
Hey..speaking of mythtv, I've got a question. I'm currently renting, and wanting to go do the mythtv client server route in the house. I was at this point (renting) hoping to avoid running cat5 all over the place. Can wireless work fast enough now for a myth client server system? For HD content? I've got my server with a HDHomerun pulling QAM off the cable, and ATSC over the air...
I used wireless for awhile on a little frontend box that was away from the master backend and it worked fine for SD content. When I switched out my tuner to HD though I started getting some stuttering and then broke down and just decided to figure out how to run a twisted pair to the box. I was using wireless G at the time... don't know if N would be good enough to eliminate the stuttering, but it's possible it might.
I tend to agree with you, but I'm not expecting Linux to really take off as soon as I think you are.
I recently came into a few old laptops and threw Xubuntu on them just to play around (one of them had been running Windows 2000 and the other was 98). I ended up giving them away to two friends who needed PCs (neither of which are very computer savvy and had only used XP a handful of times before) and they loved them and learned to use them right away really easily. These are the kind of people who will be easy to convert, but they're kind of a rarity in this day and age.
My wife, on the other hand, has been using XP or 2000 for as long as she could remember, and it took her longer to get used to using Ubuntu on my media center PC (I don't know how many times I heard the phrase "but that's not how you do it in Windows"), but now she uses both Windows and Ubuntu pretty comfortably even though she still prefers Windows. I think that a lot more people fall into my wife's category and, unfortunately, without someone there to help them along and show them how to do stuff in Linux that they long ago learned to do in Windows, not many people in this category will switch over.
In any event, I kind of hope Linux doesn't take off in a huge way just because I like being a part of a smaller, closer-nit community. A friend of mine took the time to show me Linux way back when and it was his patience and help that made me want to stick with it and see what all could be done with Linux. From there, community forums and IRC channels helped when I had a problem I couldn't figure out. I think that if Linux grows too big too fast that some of that same sense of community will be lost.
The first rule of PC Load Letter is you don't talk about PC Load Letter.
My drivers install just fine (Radeon x800 series card), but I'm right there with you on the dual monitors. I've tried Ubuntu's screen manager, ATI's amdcccle utility, and the command line and I have yet to successfully configure dual monitors. The closest I've gotten is trying ATI's "big desktop" which produces some truly psychedelic effects.
Other than that though, I haven't encountered a problem yet I can't solve using a gui tool in Ubuntu (although as other users have noted, often it is more expedient to use the terminal), so I can't complain too much. Besides, the main joy I get from computers is from fiddling with them and trying to make things work, so I think without an issue like this to keep me busy I wouldn't truly be happy. That's not to say that it isn't a problem that I'm sure angers plenty of users.
no, no, no... he said mr. bill
I apologize if this is a ridiculously simplistic question, but how do you have a LAN with IPv6? If I want to connect to my file server from my laptop now, I just use a local 192.x.x.x address now and it goes straight to my server. Is there something like that for IPv6 so that I don't have to go all the way out to the internet to get back to my file server? I'm assuming there is but I'm a novice when it comes to some of this networking stuff.
A Google search for "LAN over IPv6" turned up the following, but it's mostly a lot of technical jargon that I don't really understand:
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2464.txt
http://www-uxsup.csx.cam.ac.uk/courses/ipv6_basics/x84.html
Now if only they'd develop BOTH sugar-free and fat-free products. Oh well. One step at a time.
They have this already, although marketing "taste-free" products hasn't really taken off yet
But it just doesn't pass the wife acceptance factor test for intuitive user interface.
I think your problem is that you're running on wife 0.78. I just upgraded to wife 0.92 in July and she very much appreciates the interface and finds it pretty intuitive (and she gets giddy when she thinks about the web interface).
Did I, or did I not clearly state that you're to get the hell off my lawn?
"Bedside mode" ... Pshaw!
My wife is absolutely addicted to her blackberry and I, being a firm believer in getting the hell off my lawn, just have a plain old vanilla cell phone. One night she and I were getting ready for bed and I noticed that her blackberry kept blinking so I asked her if there was a way to stop it from blinking (Those things put out a lot more light than you'd imagine when you're trying to get to sleep). She had no idea, so picked it up and scrolled through the options and finally figured out how to make it stop blinking. Go me!
When we got up in the morning she picked it up to see if she had received any emails and she started to panic. The thing was dead and she couldn't understand why since she was charging it all night long. She immediately turned to me and I thought she was going to strangle me. "What did you do?!? YOU BROKE IT!!"
Now, I'm fairly savvy with all things electronic, so I told her I'd take a look at it and try and fix it, so I took it and fiddled around with it for awhile, got it working and gave it back to her, for which she was eternally grateful.
To this day I don't think she realized that I just turned it off and turned it back on. In fact, I think most crackberry addicts don't realize that the damn things actually have an off button, so that's my useful little tip.
You don't necessarily need to make that first backup painful. Rsync while you've got both servers in the same room over a LAN, and from then on you just have to deal with the delta and don't need to worry so much about bandwidth.
damn you got your vi skills cheap. i had to sell my coolness, my sense of humour and my dead sexy body... i got ripped off.
yes, but how many times did they reboot it?