It only works as a meme if you have a snappy soundbite-style reason for refusing. A five minute discourse on privacy will not sufficiently impress the person behind you in line to "infect" them with the meme you're describing.
In
The Inmates are Running the Asylum, Cooper argues that the easiest application install of all is implemented by a web-browser, and that no application install needs to be harder than that.
There is a single specification of the "application" you want to run, whether that be clicking a link or entering a URL, and then the browser does the rest of the work.
I agree with this. Any well-written application should be able to determine reasonable defaults based on context. Therefore, on general principles, there is no need for an interactive installation process.
The only exception I can think of right now is for security. Even there, digital signatures can go a long way towards streamlining the "install" process.
So if I point out a flaw in debian then I'm "anti-debian"
You do not need to be opposed to something to hear and understand the arguments of those who are. Again, thank you for raising this argument of the anti-Debian camp in a manner which promotes rational discussion.
No, there isn't (at least not how you are implying). There is a testing distro called "testing". It doesn't provide security updates, and things have to be "tested" before they get there.
Technically, things are in Testing in order to _be_ tested subsequent to their promotion from Unstable. My point is that nearly everybody that I know who uses Debian/Testing uses it in the sense that I implied; that it is current. The itch that is being scratched is the desire to use current packages, not the desire to help test Debian, although that's nice too.
All I'm trying to say is that Debian's distributions should be named to reflect the actual usage patterns. I apologize if you think I can't and shouldn't use Testing as my desktop distribution, but I _do_, as do others. Currency is dangerous -- but it's nice to have the choice.
Pardon me if I sound a little harsh in my rebuttal, but you have done an excellent job of summarizing the most common arguments of the anti-Debian camp.
one of the number one reasons i don't like debian is that packages in the stable branch are typically full point releases behind
The definition of "Stable" requires them to be that old.
Anti-stable whiners need to stop talking about it the way they do, and treat it as if there were two completely separate distributions from the Debian project; one called "Debian/Stable" and one called "Debian/Current". It just so happens that the "current" distro is called "Testing." A bad name for an excellent collection of software. Are you listening, Bruce? You'll win if you fix the name.
i sysadmin 5 debian machines at work, and all i gotta say about debian is this:
1995 called. they want their linux machines back.
You're running 8-year-old hardware as production machinery and complaining about it? Dude, your OS must SUCK!
however, i do feel very comfortable configuring debian. it's exactly like redhat 5.2, but with a good package management system.
This is in direct conflict with your statements above. If you like Apt, you should know how to use its Pin option. It's not easy to use, but it does sort of cancel the whining about the age of the packages in Stable.
If there is one good reason to refrain from using Debian, it is that Pin is confusing, poorly documented, and hard to use.
personally, i'm going to stay the redhat route and use Fedora on my workstations (using freshRPMS as my apt respository).
And you'll be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
An amusing idea. Supposedly one can get a correct answer to an unknowable question, simply by polling enough people with enough knowledge of the subject to have an opinion. I loved Brunner's description of it:
"Even though nobody knows what's going on around here, everybody knows what's going on around here."
That sounds spectacularly cool, but difficult to implement. I can think of a bunch of ways to do it, none perfect.
The highest profile example is Mozilla's terrible "voting" system, where I must already know the bug's number before I can be annoyed by it.
The most promising example that I've seen so far is bugs.kde.org, wherein a user attempting to report a bug is presented with a list of likely preexisting matches. If users were encouraged to add a noiseless "me too" to a bug database of that sort, it might lend itself to meaningful analysis.
My favorite is mldonkey, which hits a whole bunch of different networks, including FastTrack (which Kazaa uses). The gui is separate from the p2p application, so you can turn off your workstation but leave your downloads running on your server in the basement.
I'm utterly impressed with it. Very easy to use, and I really like being able to hit all the differnt networks at once. It's also pretty cool having native guis available for linux AND windows.
If the same amount of time and effort was spent making the gui ergonomic and "keyboard accessible", I suspect that you would find that their speeds were about equivalent.
1. Thanks for moving to my neighborhood. If you give me $100, I'll refrain from giving your address to my morally-impaired crack-addict friends.
2. Thanks for subscribing to our phone service. If you give us $2, we'll refrain from giving all of your contact information to our ethically-impaired telemarketer clients. For now.
Sadly, I'm a debian user, so my setup procedure consisted largely of running apt-get. The other parts were adding a crontab entry and writing a simplistic bash script to send me the email. Here's the step-by-step:
1.#> apt-get install unison-gtk
2. crontab -e 55 * * * * ~/bin/unisonify
3. vi ~/bin/unisonify
[clip from here] #!/bin/bash MAXERR=0 ERRMSG=/tmp/unierr.t xt
I use it to sync a couple of desktops and a laptop to my server. Back when I had a job, I also had a couple of workside home directories in the loop.
It's not Coda-formerly-AFS, not by any means, but it was far, far easier to set up. I've tried and failed with Coda several times, and found it impossible to screw up with Unison, nor even to lose files.
With the addition of a frequent cronjob to synchronize, it provides pretty much all of the features I want. Conflicts aren't resolved; I receive an email informing me of the issue courtesy of cron, and run the gui utility to manually choose the direction of the overwrite. Quite frankly, I wouldn't trust it to be more automatic than that.
Never send a cronjob to do the work of a mad engineer.
Ontariotek uses Debian, and their tech staff is competent and helpful.
They are based in Toronto, Ontario, but they're happy to take your yankee dollars.
Their accounting staff seemed to have a little trouble figuring out that I no longer wanted to be the contact, nor to be billed for a client's website, but I suppose that it's my fault for failing to make it simple for them.
Good idea! Ironically enough, the Ursus Mark VI failed because of mobility problems. I won't spoil the plot of the amazingly fine movie by telling any more.
I hear he's working on Mark VII right now. I can hardly wait for Project Grizzly II.
The housing isn't as cheap as all that if you don't want to be way out in one of the suburbs.
I had the misfortune of moving to town during the September rush, and it took me two solid weeks of looking to find a reasonable 1 BR apartment. Even then, I still ended up paying C$750 / month, which was more than I had been paying in Toronto.
That said, it's been a good switch. The social atmosphere is really pleasant here. So much so that I often find myself being nice to people just by accident!
I want to believe you, not having made the models myself, but I aced statics and dynamics, back in the day. Your "rotation torque" example is fallacious; a torque at the pivot point(?) would have no effect on a string-mass pendulum. Nevertheless, a string-mass pendulum DOES swing.
Bear with me. For a rocket at, say, 45 degrees off vertical, resolve the thrust vector into an irrelevant horizontal and a vertical component at the nose. The vertical component is fighting gravity (at the centre of mass). Now do you see the righting torque?
To further illustrate, imagine the case where the thrust exactly balanced gravity. OF COURSE it will "hang" from the thrust point, and fight small perturbations. How could it not?
I don't have a good enough model to discuss the aerodynamic effects, but I suspect you can neglect them in a sufficiently slow, massive system. Besides, I sucked at Fluid Mechanics. I would suggest, however, that they might explain went wrong with the models you constructed.
I stand by my statement: the physical dynamics of the model are correct, if not the aerodynamics.
Slashdot Mirror
It only works as a meme if you have a snappy soundbite-style reason for refusing. A five minute discourse on privacy will not sufficiently impress the person behind you in line to "infect" them with the meme you're describing.
Got one?
I agree with this. Any well-written application should be able to determine reasonable defaults based on context. Therefore, on general principles, there is no need for an interactive installation process.
The only exception I can think of right now is for security. Even there, digital signatures can go a long way towards streamlining the "install" process.
You do not need to be opposed to something to hear and understand the arguments of those who are. Again, thank you for raising this argument of the anti-Debian camp in a manner which promotes rational discussion.
Technically, things are in Testing in order to _be_ tested subsequent to their promotion from Unstable. My point is that nearly everybody that I know who uses Debian/Testing uses it in the sense that I implied; that it is current. The itch that is being scratched is the desire to use current packages, not the desire to help test Debian, although that's nice too.
All I'm trying to say is that Debian's distributions should be named to reflect the actual usage patterns. I apologize if you think I can't and shouldn't use Testing as my desktop distribution, but I _do_, as do others. Currency is dangerous -- but it's nice to have the choice.
An amusing idea. Supposedly one can get a correct answer to an unknowable question, simply by polling enough people with enough knowledge of the subject to have an opinion. I loved Brunner's description of it:
"Even though nobody knows what's going on around here, everybody knows what's going on around here."
That sounds spectacularly cool, but difficult to implement. I can think of a bunch of ways to do it, none perfect.
The highest profile example is Mozilla's terrible "voting" system, where I must already know the bug's number before I can be annoyed by it.
The most promising example that I've seen so far is bugs.kde.org, wherein a user attempting to report a bug is presented with a list of likely preexisting matches. If users were encouraged to add a noiseless "me too" to a bug database of that sort, it might lend itself to meaningful analysis.
The bugs that drive me nuts don't result in crashes. Mozilla, for example, stops handling keystrokes when you open a tab on an unresponsive page.
This project does nothing at all to deal with the bugs which are most annoying and difficult to report.
Perhaps it should be called it the Cooperative Crash Isolation project.
If I had sunk so low as to need a job similar to the ones these people are doing, I would
a) Have a responsibility to my employer which would probably mean campaigning against the DNC list, and
b) Still really hate getting calls at dinnertime, and
c) Expect that my presence on that list would be sufficiently private that I could sign up without fearing for my job.
WHY THE HELL ISN'T THIS LIST PRIVATE?
If you'll look for the 100pk spindles at this vendor in Toronto, you'll notice $0.39 cd-r media.= MER
http://www.sonnam.com/parts.asp?prod_code
Not much room for profit there after remitting the $0.79 tax, hmm?
My favorite is mldonkey, which hits a whole bunch of different networks, including FastTrack (which Kazaa uses). The gui is separate from the p2p application, so you can turn off your workstation but leave your downloads running on your server in the basement.
I'm utterly impressed with it. Very easy to use, and I really like being able to hit all the differnt networks at once. It's also pretty cool having native guis available for linux AND windows.
Anyone know of a decent home-use scanner with a letter-size sheetfeeder?
Can it also take a stack of 4x5 photos?
If the same amount of time and effort was spent making the gui ergonomic and "keyboard accessible", I suspect that you would find that their speeds were about equivalent.
It's called "extortion".
Differentiate between:
1. Thanks for moving to my neighborhood. If you give me $100, I'll refrain from giving your address to my morally-impaired crack-addict friends.
2. Thanks for subscribing to our phone service. If you give us $2, we'll refrain from giving all of your contact information to our ethically-impaired telemarketer clients. For now.
Sadly, I'm a debian user, so my setup procedure consisted largely of running apt-get. The other parts were adding a crontab entry and writing a simplistic bash script to send me the email. Here's the step-by-step:
t xt
1.#> apt-get install unison-gtk
2. crontab -e
55 * * * * ~/bin/unisonify
3. vi ~/bin/unisonify
[clip from here]
#!/bin/bash
MAXERR=0
ERRMSG=/tmp/unierr.
unison default > $ERRMSG
ERRLST=$?
MAXERR=$(( $ERRLST || $MAXERR ))
if [ $MAXERR -ne 0 ]; then
mail -s "`uname -n` unison errors" $USER@localhost $ERRMSG;
else
rm -f $ERRMSG;
fi
I use it to sync a couple of desktops and a laptop to my server. Back when I had a job, I also had a couple of workside home directories in the loop.
It's not Coda-formerly-AFS, not by any means, but it was far, far easier to set up. I've tried and failed with Coda several times, and found it impossible to screw up with Unison, nor even to lose files.
With the addition of a frequent cronjob to synchronize, it provides pretty much all of the features I want. Conflicts aren't resolved; I receive an email informing me of the issue courtesy of cron, and run the gui utility to manually choose the direction of the overwrite. Quite frankly, I wouldn't trust it to be more automatic than that.
Never send a cronjob to do the work of a mad engineer.
A distro that's easy to install.
/me is vastly amused by Moderator failure to catch your double usage of the word "sound".
That's a little harsh. I once met a lawyer who wasn't a complete tool.
But you wouldn't have to groff nearly that many of them to get a complete set of man pages for the unix command set.
They are based in Toronto, Ontario, but they're happy to take your yankee dollars.
Their accounting staff seemed to have a little trouble figuring out that I no longer wanted to be the contact, nor to be billed for a client's website, but I suppose that it's my fault for failing to make it simple for them.
Good idea! Ironically enough, the Ursus Mark VI failed because of mobility problems. I won't spoil the plot of the amazingly fine movie by telling any more.
I hear he's working on Mark VII right now. I can hardly wait for Project Grizzly II.
The housing isn't as cheap as all that if you don't want to be way out in one of the suburbs.
I had the misfortune of moving to town during the September rush, and it took me two solid weeks of looking to find a reasonable 1 BR apartment. Even then, I still ended up paying C$750 / month, which was more than I had been paying in Toronto.
That said, it's been a good switch. The social atmosphere is really pleasant here. So much so that I often find myself being nice to people just by accident!
Carmack is correct.
Honor falls like crimson leaves;
Zero moment arm.
You are a gentleman, sir, but you leave me no option but seppuku. Might take a while. All I've got is this bent fork.
Thanks, though!
I want to believe you, not having made the models myself, but I aced statics and dynamics, back in the day. Your "rotation torque" example is fallacious; a torque at the pivot point(?) would have no effect on a string-mass pendulum. Nevertheless, a string-mass pendulum DOES swing.
Bear with me. For a rocket at, say, 45 degrees off vertical, resolve the thrust vector into an irrelevant horizontal and a vertical component at the nose. The vertical component is fighting gravity (at the centre of mass). Now do you see the righting torque?
To further illustrate, imagine the case where the thrust exactly balanced gravity. OF COURSE it will "hang" from the thrust point, and fight small perturbations. How could it not?
I don't have a good enough model to discuss the aerodynamic effects, but I suspect you can neglect them in a sufficiently slow, massive system. Besides, I sucked at Fluid Mechanics. I would suggest, however, that they might explain went wrong with the models you constructed.
I stand by my statement: the physical dynamics of the model are correct, if not the aerodynamics.
Imagine a string with a weight on it (A pendulum by any other name) and think about what you just wrote.
The force vector representing tension in the string is ALWAYS along the string. It has to be, because strings don't transmit shear real well.
The force vector representing gravity is always straight down. By definition.
There ought to be a (Mod -1: Just Plain Wrong).