As we all know, at first Mandrake was little more than a repackaged version of RedHat. That's changed a bit with the newer versions. My question is this: to what degree will Mandrake continue to differ from RedHat and will there ever be a "developer" version (i.e. one that is centered towards those who are a bit more technically competant)?
Brad Johnson --We are the Music Makers, and we are the Dreamers of Dreams
I for one am estatic about the LDP. For a long time, How-To's weren't really in an organized place, and were often hard to find. Having them in a centralized location really helps to make them much more available to newbies (and even veterans who occasionally need some help).
I have no doubt that this will do for Linux documentation what Freshmeat has done for Linux software. By announcing these as they come out, we'll also be able to keep everyone updated. Kudos to the LDP!
In retrospect, the LDP would have been an excellent nomination for a beanie for best Linux advocate! Hindsight's 20/20, I guess!
Brad Johnson --We are the Music Makers, and we are the Dreamers of Dreams
I think that this should send us the way of the all - in - one device. Think of this: your pager is your cellphone is your PDA is everything else you need!
You could be walking down the street and do anything you want with just one device. Use your AIOD to telnet back and forth, send e-mail, even ssh into your automated house and start dinner. All without missing phone calls or pages. Don't forget that this doesn't need to be any bigger than current palmtops. That's what the Crusoe (and MobileLinux) can do for us!
But don't stop there! Add a portable DVD player and you'll never be bored again. Use a HUD and you'll have almost hands-free access. With it integrated into your cellphone, you never have to worry about finding dial-up access.
I don't know about y'all, but I can't wait to get my hands on one!
Brad Johnson --We are the Music Makers, and we are the Dreamers of Dreams
Why should we replace computers? I can think of several reasons.
My guess is that it all started with Apple. Before that, computers were used just for business. Nobody had a need for a computer at home (an IMHO, very few do now). Instead, computers were used for complex calculations and such that people couldn't (or shouldn't waste their time) doing on their on. Now, everybody's got a computer so that they can print greeting cards, e-mail their Aunt Sue, or play backgammon on Yahoo! Games. They all think that it's economical because paper costs less than Halmark cards, e-mail is cheaper than postage stamps or telephone calls, and you don't have to actually own a backgammon board. Instead, let's spend a thousand dollars on a computer, twenty bucks a month for Internet, and we won't have to buy a Halmark card for $1.50 or a stamp for $0.32.
The truth is that most computers are used for nothing more than fancy typewriters that can check your computer. Very few people actually use their Gateway or Dell for anything more than you could do much cheaper with simpler equipment. Programmers (what would we program for?), Hackers (what would there be to hack?) and businesses are the only true computer users these days.
So if Sony wants their Playstation 2 to replace home computers, then by all means let them do it! I think that I'll be content with the four that I have as I write webpages. But then again, I just might not have a job if it weren't for all the people in the world who absolutely have to be on the Internet and have to have something to look at once they get there.
Brad Johnson --We are the Music Makers, and we are the Dreamers of Dreams
Well, Hellvis, the bandwidth that I sited in my comment was circa September. I agree that Clemson hasn't always been as great as it could be, but I do believe that it's gotten better. To tell you the truth (and I may be mistaken here) I think that at the time Carolina Online had dual T-1s as well.
Alot of the improvement at Clemson can be contributed to infrastructure. As someone said in a seperate post, they are now using all Cisco routers. I did a traceroute from my ISP (carolina online) and it took four hops, including my side and theirs. Then I did an nslookup on the hop one up from them, but couldn't find a DNS entry, so I'm not sure who they get their bandwidth from now.
In other news, did you see that Dell is now offering
Brad Johnson --We are the Music Makers, and we are the Dreamers of Dreams
Sorry that I didn't get in on the first article that this topic covered, but I would like to say a few things about Clemson that you may or may not know.
I was once a student at Clemson University, and during that time, I edited one of the campus newspapers (the independent one). Of course, I had my own run-ins with DCIT, and from that I learned a great deal about the way that their organization works.
First of all, there's no problem with Clemson's bandwidth. Just a few months ago, I could sit in my office in the early evening (5p.m. EST) and download.iso images at around an average of 200k per second, topping out at 400k per second. Much better than I get at my current job, where our bandwidth comes from a pair of T-1s. I don't know what Clemson has now, but it does provide massive bandwidth. I was in front of the firewall, but I know for a fact that dorm access isn't much slower.
Secondly, Clemson has a contract with WorldCom (formerly MCI) for all of their telecommunications (which I believe includes their bandwidth). If you ask me, them banning dialpad.com (a competitor of MCI) is akin to monopilistic practices.
Thirdly, as some people mentioned, textbooks are sold on campus. However, the University does not directly profit from their sales. Barnes & Noble rents space in their student union and handles all transactions.
These are just a few of the things that I have retained and thought that I would pass along. I do agree that it was quite awful for them to ban any Internet site, especially when they can only benefit from doing so. Chris Duckenfield has been a thorn in my side for a long while. If you pay attention, you'll see him screw up again sooner or later.
Brad Johnson --We are the Music Makers, and we are the Dreamers of Dreams
DNS at their ISP is probably fine, but the DNS at your own ISP isn't! It takes up to two days for some DNS boxes to update, depending on what your local server admin has it set to. If you want to know for sure, you can set your local Linux box up to be a small-time DNS server, and poll the root name servers (the official ones). Check the How-To's to find out how!
Brad Johnson --We are the Music Makers, and we are the Dreamers of Dreams
You know, it's not just Apple that has patents on fonts. Adobe, Microsoft, Corel, and others all do the same things. As far as Adobe's and Microsoft's patents go, you must actually own a legal copy of the software if you want to be able to print anything utilizing one of their fonts.
I've recently started a project where I work where we are moving all of our Macintosh users (yuk!) over to Windows NT (double yuk!). They used their computers for making owner's manuals for products, and the biggest headache is getting all of the fonts that they are in desperate need of. Therefore, I can understand the headaches that the Freetype guys are having.
After hearing this, I fully support the Freetype project. Does anyone know if there is some way for me to change some of my nominations?
Brad Johnson Webmaster http://mrpenguin.org johnsonb@ryobi.com
Well, to be true, I don't think Stewart really has a British accent.
In ST:TNG, his accent was supposed to be pseudo-French (Jean-Luc Picard). I've seen him in other features where he had no accent at all (or, as some refer to it, a Hollywood accent). Any good actor can drop whatever accent that they want to, if they try.
Oh, and BTW, I've never watched ST, so don't label me as a Trekkie.
Brad Johnson Webmaster http://mrpenguin.org johnsonb@ryobi.com
Even though the article says it's true, I can't help but believe that this might just be another rumor. People have been talking about a major Spiderman motion picture since the '70's (I've got an old issue of Amazing where Stan Lee gives a list of cast members already signed), but we haven't seen anything yet. And then again, the only Marvel character that got a decent film was Blade.
I'm going to keep waiting, but I won't be surprised if this turns out to be a dead end for the film industry. Buton did a helluva job on Batman, but the ones that followed sucked! My hope is that this Spiderman, and hopefully the upcoming X-Men will give a renewed vigor to the comics-to-big screen drive that we once knew. Personally, I think that the Hulk should make a silver-screen debut.
One more word on The X-Men: they did a damn good job of choosing Professor X! I couldn't think of anyone better than Patrick Stewart!
Brad Johnson Webmaster http://mrpenguin.org johnsonb@ryobi.com
Well, there are credits in Excel 95, which you can get to after playing an Easter Egg that's like a 3d maze, and there are credits in Windows 95, or in Excel 97 if you press F5, type X97:L97, press "TAB," and press "make graph option." So, yes, M$ does put credits in lots of their products. I bet that if you went through, probably all of their software has some sort of credits in it.
I think that the most important thing that you should incorporate should be GIMP. Why? There are several reasons.
Superiority. GIMP is better than Photoshop, mainly because of things like Script-Fu.
Ease of Use. GIMP is much easier to use than Photoshop.
Attractiveness. GIMP is capable of making extremely beautiful graphics.
Freedom. Remember that the spirit and point of Open Source is freedom. Freedom to see the code, freedom to use it, and freedom to change it. GIMP can only get better.
Right now, GIMP is one of the best things that Linux has going for it (besides Apache), and it is definately the most user-friendly program on the OS. Brad Johnson Advisory Editor
Well, the problem with preloading a hard drive is that it will not have detected the proper hardware during installation, the best time for hardware detection. RedHat is doing dome great things with Kudzu (the program, not the plant), but it is still in preliminary stages.
The only true hope for Linux is to simplify it enough and to build enough support for it that people like HP, Compaq, Packard Bell, eMachines, and all of the other user-oriented manufacturers feel just as confident in Linux as they do in a Microsoft product. Brad Johnson Advisory Editor
And right now, there's a group of rednecks in Alabama with a dozen bearcat scanners trying to intercept wireless communications. They think the Miller Lite they're drinking is going to help them.
It's interesting how the world's work ethic is changing now. It used to be that we put in a forty hour week and drew a check, and after that, we went home. Now, the individual worker has the attitude of an artist, that the work he does should be a value to others. We take that pride in what we do, and although we might become workaholics because of it, the entire society benefits? Why? Because of the inevitable increase in quality.
I read a statistic last week that said on average, Americans work more than any other group of people in the world. This was shocking, because the Japanese have held this title for years now. It would be neat if someone could link the results of this statistic to the booming success of Open Source.
But seriously, I think that what has happened to the world to make us proud of our work is for the best. We are a group of people who are producing quality products at quicker rates and we are doing it for free. The Open Source Community is setting the stage for a change over the entire world!
For the longest time, IBM has produced a sub-par PC and lived off of the fact that they have the bi9ggest name in the computer industry. Aptiva PC's are full of low-quality, entirely proprietary parts. Try getting the Aptiva with the SCSI-wannabe connector (the one that holds the CD-ROM drive and the floppy drive, as well as the power button, in a different box from everything else) to work in Linux. I'll bet a dollar to a dime it can't be done.
I have said many times that IBM is the worst computer manufacturer in the business because of this. Imagine if Linus sold his name to MS to be packaged with Windows! We'd freak! This couldn't be better! Brad Johnson Advisory Editor
I don't really know if it would be in everybody's best interest for the FCC to butt out. Why? Because I want broadband and it's not available!
I've checked in my area, and it'll be approximately two years before either cable or DSL will become available. This is ridiculous. The way I see it, the FCC could step in, run the lines, and then turn the business end of it over to the cable or phone companies. This wouldn't be the first time something like this has taken place. The governement helped to get electricity and telephones spread across the country. Broadband Internet access isn't as big a commodity as either of those, but it's certainly useful!
Also, if the FCC were to run the lines, then monthly charges should be cheaper. That's because the phone or cable companies wouldn't have to have an enormous amount of capital to the the program off (or rather under) the ground. Then, broadband would become so much popular.
The way I see it, if the FCC were to step in and take control, then the popularity of broadband would supersede that of dial-up. Then, the entire country's telephone lines clear up and become less suggested. In the end, it would save amazing amounts of money!
I was talking to my fiancee yesterday and the conversation happened to turn to Bill Gates. The thought came into my mind that everyday, no matter what we do, Bill Gates somehow has something to do with it. If we go to the grocery store, the checkout line is probably running some of his software. If we watch TV, MS probably owns part of the station. He owns so much that there isn't any thing he can't make money off of.
What brought this up was the fact that we were talking about the South Park movie and how they picked on him in one particular scene. My fiancee wondered if he took offense to such a scene. Then, it crossed my mind that MS, or some subsidary of theirs, probably owns shares in the studio that made the film. I'm sure they probably used his software in the making of the movie. So, even if they pick on him, he's still making money off of it and loving it.
I wonder if this is healthy for America. Should we give a person the opportunity to control our daily lives? No way! Should we do everything that we can to stop him? Of course! The Linux movement really needs to take on this philosophy. But there is no way that the US could ever file an antitrust suit against Linux because it is free. That would be like them trying to sue God for being the sole provider of life, but making it free.
I've got to go now, my MS Coffee Maker is buzzing. It's either done or locked up now.
I know that everyone's going to start jumping into a hissy fit because a beloved character is dying, but take a moment to consider a few things. First of all, death is a natural occurance, and while few things in the Star Wars universe are completely natural, we cannot expect for death to be avoidable. If authors are going to continue the saga that Lucas began, then eventually we are going to have to come to terms with the fact that all of our favorite characters are going to die. Remember: Yoda only lived to be 900.
One day, even Luke and Han may pass on, so we should be prepared for it. Come to terms with it before it happens and then it won't be so hard to cope with. I know that we all love the series and would like for it to last forever, but it can't. Eventually, every story comes to an end.
Maybe there will eventually be new characters that can take the place of those that we have already come to know and love. Perhaps Lucas will sit down one day and write the rest of the story for us to read. I think that would be a treat. Maybe someone other than Lucas will want to continue the theatrical series. The future of Star Wars has unlimited possibilities.
I, too, wish that Jar Jar would be the one to bite the bullet, but consider this: he doesn't appear in episode IV, so maybe we will be afforded the chance to actually see it happen! That will be a fine day in the galaxy for sure!
The really sad aspect of this story is what the people involved are being advised to do. I have heard reports that the Japanese government has issued an announcement that everyone should stay inside their houses and keep the doors locked. I am sure that is incredibly effective against radiation. Also, people have been advised that if they are to get any radioactive matter on their skin, they should wash it off immediately with soap and water. To me, that sounds useless. I don't think it would do any good. Brad Johnson Advisory Editor
Slashdot Mirror
As we all know, at first Mandrake was little more than a repackaged version of RedHat. That's changed a bit with the newer versions. My question is this: to what degree will Mandrake continue to differ from RedHat and will there ever be a "developer" version (i.e. one that is centered towards those who are a bit more technically competant)?
Brad Johnson
--We are the Music Makers, and we
are the Dreamers of Dreams
I have no doubt that this will do for Linux documentation what Freshmeat has done for Linux software. By announcing these as they come out, we'll also be able to keep everyone updated. Kudos to the LDP!
In retrospect, the LDP would have been an excellent nomination for a beanie for best Linux advocate! Hindsight's 20/20, I guess!
Brad Johnson
--We are the Music Makers, and we
are the Dreamers of Dreams
And how about Gecko the Geek? Personalize it a bit! Or maybe Geeko the Gecko?
Brad Johnson
--We are the Music Makers, and we
are the Dreamers of Dreams
You could be walking down the street and do anything you want with just one device. Use your AIOD to telnet back and forth, send e-mail, even ssh into your automated house and start dinner. All without missing phone calls or pages. Don't forget that this doesn't need to be any bigger than current palmtops. That's what the Crusoe (and MobileLinux) can do for us!
But don't stop there! Add a portable DVD player and you'll never be bored again. Use a HUD and you'll have almost hands-free access. With it integrated into your cellphone, you never have to worry about finding dial-up access.
I don't know about y'all, but I can't wait to get my hands on one!
Brad Johnson
--We are the Music Makers, and we
are the Dreamers of Dreams
C'mon Rob, when we going to see them? Sorry, but I just couldn't be on hand for the ceremony!
Brad Johnson
--We are the Music Makers, and we
are the Dreamers of Dreams
My guess is that it all started with Apple. Before that, computers were used just for business. Nobody had a need for a computer at home (an IMHO, very few do now). Instead, computers were used for complex calculations and such that people couldn't (or shouldn't waste their time) doing on their on. Now, everybody's got a computer so that they can print greeting cards, e-mail their Aunt Sue, or play backgammon on Yahoo! Games. They all think that it's economical because paper costs less than Halmark cards, e-mail is cheaper than postage stamps or telephone calls, and you don't have to actually own a backgammon board. Instead, let's spend a thousand dollars on a computer, twenty bucks a month for Internet, and we won't have to buy a Halmark card for $1.50 or a stamp for $0.32.
The truth is that most computers are used for nothing more than fancy typewriters that can check your computer. Very few people actually use their Gateway or Dell for anything more than you could do much cheaper with simpler equipment. Programmers (what would we program for?), Hackers (what would there be to hack?) and businesses are the only true computer users these days.
So if Sony wants their Playstation 2 to replace home computers, then by all means let them do it! I think that I'll be content with the four that I have as I write webpages. But then again, I just might not have a job if it weren't for all the people in the world who absolutely have to be on the Internet and have to have something to look at once they get there.
Brad Johnson
--We are the Music Makers, and we
are the Dreamers of Dreams
Alot of the improvement at Clemson can be contributed to infrastructure. As someone said in a seperate post, they are now using all Cisco routers. I did a traceroute from my ISP (carolina online) and it took four hops, including my side and theirs. Then I did an nslookup on the hop one up from them, but couldn't find a DNS entry, so I'm not sure who they get their bandwidth from now.
In other news, did you see that Dell is now offering
Brad Johnson
--We are the Music Makers, and we
are the Dreamers of Dreams
I was once a student at Clemson University, and during that time, I edited one of the campus newspapers (the independent one). Of course, I had my own run-ins with DCIT, and from that I learned a great deal about the way that their organization works.
First of all, there's no problem with Clemson's bandwidth. Just a few months ago, I could sit in my office in the early evening (5p.m. EST) and download .iso images at around an average of 200k per second, topping out at 400k per second. Much better than I get at my current job, where our bandwidth comes from a pair of T-1s. I don't know what Clemson has now, but it does provide massive bandwidth. I was in front of the firewall, but I know for a fact that dorm access isn't much slower.
Secondly, Clemson has a contract with WorldCom (formerly MCI) for all of their telecommunications (which I believe includes their bandwidth). If you ask me, them banning dialpad.com (a competitor of MCI) is akin to monopilistic practices.
Thirdly, as some people mentioned, textbooks are sold on campus. However, the University does not directly profit from their sales. Barnes & Noble rents space in their student union and handles all transactions.
These are just a few of the things that I have retained and thought that I would pass along. I do agree that it was quite awful for them to ban any Internet site, especially when they can only benefit from doing so. Chris Duckenfield has been a thorn in my side for a long while. If you pay attention, you'll see him screw up again sooner or later.
Brad Johnson
--We are the Music Makers, and we
are the Dreamers of Dreams
DNS at their ISP is probably fine, but the DNS at your own ISP isn't! It takes up to two days for some DNS boxes to update, depending on what your local server admin has it set to. If you want to know for sure, you can set your local Linux box up to be a small-time DNS server, and poll the root name servers (the official ones). Check the How-To's to find out how!
Brad Johnson
--We are the Music Makers, and we
are the Dreamers of Dreams
I've recently started a project where I work where we are moving all of our Macintosh users (yuk!) over to Windows NT (double yuk!). They used their computers for making owner's manuals for products, and the biggest headache is getting all of the fonts that they are in desperate need of. Therefore, I can understand the headaches that the Freetype guys are having.
After hearing this, I fully support the Freetype project. Does anyone know if there is some way for me to change some of my nominations?
Brad Johnson
Webmaster
http://mrpenguin.org
johnsonb@ryobi.com
In ST:TNG, his accent was supposed to be pseudo-French (Jean-Luc Picard). I've seen him in other features where he had no accent at all (or, as some refer to it, a Hollywood accent). Any good actor can drop whatever accent that they want to, if they try.
Oh, and BTW, I've never watched ST, so don't label me as a Trekkie.
Brad Johnson
Webmaster
http://mrpenguin.org
johnsonb@ryobi.com
I'm going to keep waiting, but I won't be surprised if this turns out to be a dead end for the film industry. Buton did a helluva job on Batman, but the ones that followed sucked! My hope is that this Spiderman, and hopefully the upcoming X-Men will give a renewed vigor to the comics-to-big screen drive that we once knew. Personally, I think that the Hulk should make a silver-screen debut.
One more word on The X-Men: they did a damn good job of choosing Professor X! I couldn't think of anyone better than Patrick Stewart!
Brad Johnson
Webmaster
http://mrpenguin.org
johnsonb@ryobi.com
Well, there are credits in Excel 95, which you can get to after playing an Easter Egg that's like a 3d maze, and there are credits in Windows 95, or in Excel 97 if you press F5, type X97:L97, press "TAB," and press "make graph option." So, yes, M$ does put credits in lots of their products. I bet that if you went through, probably all of their software has some sort of credits in it.
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor
I think that the most important thing that you should incorporate should be GIMP. Why? There are several reasons.
Superiority. GIMP is better than Photoshop, mainly because of things like Script-Fu.
Ease of Use. GIMP is much easier to use than Photoshop.
Attractiveness. GIMP is capable of making extremely beautiful graphics.
Freedom. Remember that the spirit and point of Open Source is freedom. Freedom to see the code, freedom to use it, and freedom to change it. GIMP can only get better.
Right now, GIMP is one of the best things that Linux has going for it (besides Apache), and it is definately the most user-friendly program on the OS.
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor
Well, the problem with preloading a hard drive is that it will not have detected the proper hardware during installation, the best time for hardware detection. RedHat is doing dome great things with Kudzu (the program, not the plant), but it is still in preliminary stages.
The only true hope for Linux is to simplify it enough and to build enough support for it that people like HP, Compaq, Packard Bell, eMachines, and all of the other user-oriented manufacturers feel just as confident in Linux as they do in a Microsoft product.
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor
And right now, there's a group of rednecks in Alabama with a dozen bearcat scanners trying to intercept wireless communications. They think the Miller Lite they're drinking is going to help them.
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor
Official Sun Roadmap
1. Read Business at the Speed of Thought by William Gates
2. Determine competition.
3. Imitate competition and buy everyone.
4. Start e-mail chain and give all recipients of the e-mail an Ultra-5.
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor
That's kinda cool, but Doom's really "yesterday." Do you think that we could do the same for Q3Test? And can I use the BFG to blast Netscape away?
Seriously, this could potentially bring a lot of fun to something that has been an annoying process.
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor
It's interesting how the world's work ethic is changing now. It used to be that we put in a forty hour week and drew a check, and after that, we went home. Now, the individual worker has the attitude of an artist, that the work he does should be a value to others. We take that pride in what we do, and although we might become workaholics because of it, the entire society benefits? Why? Because of the inevitable increase in quality.
I read a statistic last week that said on average, Americans work more than any other group of people in the world. This was shocking, because the Japanese have held this title for years now. It would be neat if someone could link the results of this statistic to the booming success of Open Source.
But seriously, I think that what has happened to the world to make us proud of our work is for the best. We are a group of people who are producing quality products at quicker rates and we are doing it for free. The Open Source Community is setting the stage for a change over the entire world!
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor
For the longest time, IBM has produced a sub-par PC and lived off of the fact that they have the bi9ggest name in the computer industry. Aptiva PC's are full of low-quality, entirely proprietary parts. Try getting the Aptiva with the SCSI-wannabe connector (the one that holds the CD-ROM drive and the floppy drive, as well as the power button, in a different box from everything else) to work in Linux. I'll bet a dollar to a dime it can't be done.
I have said many times that IBM is the worst computer manufacturer in the business because of this. Imagine if Linus sold his name to MS to be packaged with Windows! We'd freak! This couldn't be better!
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor
I don't really know if it would be in everybody's best interest for the FCC to butt out. Why? Because I want broadband and it's not available!
I've checked in my area, and it'll be approximately two years before either cable or DSL will become available. This is ridiculous. The way I see it, the FCC could step in, run the lines, and then turn the business end of it over to the cable or phone companies. This wouldn't be the first time something like this has taken place. The governement helped to get electricity and telephones spread across the country. Broadband Internet access isn't as big a commodity as either of those, but it's certainly useful!
Also, if the FCC were to run the lines, then monthly charges should be cheaper. That's because the phone or cable companies wouldn't have to have an enormous amount of capital to the the program off (or rather under) the ground. Then, broadband would become so much popular.
The way I see it, if the FCC were to step in and take control, then the popularity of broadband would supersede that of dial-up. Then, the entire country's telephone lines clear up and become less suggested. In the end, it would save amazing amounts of money!
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor
I was talking to my fiancee yesterday and the conversation happened to turn to Bill Gates. The thought came into my mind that everyday, no matter what we do, Bill Gates somehow has something to do with it. If we go to the grocery store, the checkout line is probably running some of his software. If we watch TV, MS probably owns part of the station. He owns so much that there isn't any thing he can't make money off of.
What brought this up was the fact that we were talking about the South Park movie and how they picked on him in one particular scene. My fiancee wondered if he took offense to such a scene. Then, it crossed my mind that MS, or some subsidary of theirs, probably owns shares in the studio that made the film. I'm sure they probably used his software in the making of the movie. So, even if they pick on him, he's still making money off of it and loving it.
I wonder if this is healthy for America. Should we give a person the opportunity to control our daily lives? No way! Should we do everything that we can to stop him? Of course! The Linux movement really needs to take on this philosophy. But there is no way that the US could ever file an antitrust suit against Linux because it is free. That would be like them trying to sue God for being the sole provider of life, but making it free.
I've got to go now, my MS Coffee Maker is buzzing. It's either done or locked up now.
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor
I know that everyone's going to start jumping into a hissy fit because a beloved character is dying, but take a moment to consider a few things. First of all, death is a natural occurance, and while few things in the Star Wars universe are completely natural, we cannot expect for death to be avoidable. If authors are going to continue the saga that Lucas began, then eventually we are going to have to come to terms with the fact that all of our favorite characters are going to die. Remember: Yoda only lived to be 900.
One day, even Luke and Han may pass on, so we should be prepared for it. Come to terms with it before it happens and then it won't be so hard to cope with. I know that we all love the series and would like for it to last forever, but it can't. Eventually, every story comes to an end.
Maybe there will eventually be new characters that can take the place of those that we have already come to know and love. Perhaps Lucas will sit down one day and write the rest of the story for us to read. I think that would be a treat. Maybe someone other than Lucas will want to continue the theatrical series. The future of Star Wars has unlimited possibilities.
I, too, wish that Jar Jar would be the one to bite the bullet, but consider this: he doesn't appear in episode IV, so maybe we will be afforded the chance to actually see it happen! That will be a fine day in the galaxy for sure!
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor
It sure would be nice if these links worked. Salon.com is found here.
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor
The really sad aspect of this story is what the people involved are being advised to do. I have heard reports that the Japanese government has issued an announcement that everyone should stay inside their houses and keep the doors locked. I am sure that is incredibly effective against radiation. Also, people have been advised that if they are to get any radioactive matter on their skin, they should wash it off immediately with soap and water. To me, that sounds useless. I don't think it would do any good.
Brad Johnson
Advisory Editor