That's nice. Never seems to work for me. Well, that is, unless I go to the CLI, and grab a few more packages. If you are trying to do some WORK (as opposed to farting around on the computer) then it's a drag.
Thanks for the thorough post, and I understand what you are saying.
I know you can google for stuff. I enjoy playing with Linux and have done quite a few things with it. Also, I am not some noob. I have been a software developer for a long time and have done some stuff with the CLI on UNIX, AIX, and various Linux distros.
Here's my problem: often when I want to do something mundane in Linux it's such a pain. The other day I was trying to find something on YouTube. I found a video that seemed like a match for what I was looking for and went there. No sound! I checked my sound settings, tested playing an mp3, etc, it all checked out. I googled for a fix (I assumed it had something to do with the flash player, and was right.) I found some potential work-arounds that involved involved going to the CLI, installing some packages, and so on. But all I wanted to do was watch a flipping video. I didn't want to monkey around with the CLI at that time. Screw that. I went over to the Windows XP PC and did what I needed to do. In Windows, if I don't have a flash player, all I have to do is click on the little puzzle piece icon and it. just. works.
I know my particular issue is a problem with the Flash player. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. Yes, it doesn't matter whose fault it is. Next time someone comes to me asking me to "fix" their old Windows 98 box, I'd just love to install xubuntu and be done with it. I'd proudly tell them that the OS I've just installed is totally free, better than what you can pay for, and developed by some very bright people around the world. But I cannot do that if simple stuff doesn't even work. To a *real* user (as in, not some geek), all that matters is that when I "reprogrammed" their computer it no longer works.
And that is where the Linux community falls flat with all the RTFM crap. They're users, and until all this snide "RTFM" crap dies, nobody will care about "that busted operating system for nerds." Sure, I wouldn't want to help someone who is being rude. But if you view that person as a customer, then you need to.
Great, if you just want skype. Now what about everything else? I never said it wasn't feasible to easily install apps in Linux, it's just that it's never implemented.
Yeah, good points. Part of Windows problem is precisely that it is SO easy for any luser to download and install software.
I get irritated when I want to DL something and install it on my ubuntu box and I have to go to the CLI. Sure, I can use the CLI. But sometimes I don't want to mess with it. I just want it to work so that I can get back to what I was doing.
That's what annoys me. Overall, synaptic and apt-get are nice. If only that functionality was wrapped into downloadable program installers like you get with Windows.
"If you want people to listen to you, you have to do more than just complain without using swears and epithets, you actually have to say something meaningful and non-rhetorical."
Not when you are a customer. Yes, Linux is F/OSS. But if you want users, then treat them as customers. If you ignore people, lose bug reports, call them stupid, tell them to RTFM, or tell them to fix it themselves, don't be surprised when you lose them.
kubuntu or KDE anything is not quite what I'd personally call usable. I prefer gnome distros, obviously my personal preference. KDE errs on the side of giving too much information, and that makes it much harder to use. Everywhere you move the mouse, some popup appears with useless customization options. Or try opening your sound properties to adjust the levels of various things (like in Windows you can turn up things like CD player, wav, mp3, line in, etc.) For me, I get so many options that the screen cannot even hold them all. What ever happened to presenting the *right* options? It's the 80/20 rule, 80% of the time people will need to use a, b, and c. Hide d-z in an advanced tab or something.
"There is absolutely nothing that is more seamless and braindead simple for installing, removing, and managing your system than apt." Sure there is. Download a windows program and run it. It just works. Try doing that with a tarball or some debian package. Doesn't work the same way. I like Linux, but don't pretend it's as easy for average users to install stuff.
Apt-get, synaptic and the like are nice, but it's not exactly easy to find stuff in there and more importantly, separate out the meaningful stuff from the other junk.
You're absolutely right that you shouldn't just on board with the masses. They have been and will continue to be wrong.
But if you think mans environmental footprint is negligible, then you are probably living in the US. It's also awfully hard to believe that 1/5th of the world's population doesn't have access to clean water when you can go to your kitchen, turn on the tap, and have a drink. If you really want to see man's negative impact on the environment, you need to leave the US. Or at least visit a place in the US that *is* grappling with some very real environmental issues.
"Fuck the planet. After we're done raping this rock for every resource, we'll move on to the next one."
Oh, sure. Screw this big dumb rock we all call home. We'll just, like, go buy another one with all those hummer tax breaks! Brilliant thinking! You sir, deserve a pat on the back.
In one of your old posts, I saw a reference to the misuse and negative connotation of the word "fundamentalist". I wonder if you are a religious fundamentalist? You seem to toe the party line there. Why do religious fundamentalists of today sound like industrialists of the 19th century?
"the whole CO2 warms the planet nonsense started from a paper written by a britsh climatologist (the name escapes me right now)"
Oh, well that just settles it, doesn't it?
Good on you for debunking the greenhouse effect. Your well researched post can now serve as the definitive argument against climate change as proffered by those damn hippie environmentalists. Give yourself a big gold star.
You know, you could argue against climate change, global warming, etc. But arguing against the Greenhouse effect?
Good point, except that I already told the guy that I didn't have much experience with PHP. What I do have is several years experience and had done some very advanced things with with ASP, ColdFusion, Oracle, MSSQL, Javascript, xhtml, css, then all the stuff like AJAX (with prototype), lightbox, behavior, etc. I know my stuff and have had a very successful career thus far. He just didn't know what else to ask, that's all. He shouldn't have been interviewing me.
Have I ever done anything real with PHP? Nah. Could I do something substantial with the language? You bet. I know this stuff and how to learn what I don't know. I think that if you are working in such a technical field (like a programmer of some stripe) then your most important skill is the willingness and the ability to learn new things. Without that, you'll soon be unemployed, and rightfully so.
True story: I just interviewed at a very small company. I already had another job offer on the table, mind you, and just went for the interview because a friend/former coworker had just gotten hired there. So it wasn't a big deal to me if I got the job or not. But I really did want to work with my friend again.
The job was a LAMP dev position. I have been a web developer for 8 years and have loads of experience with some very hot skill sets, lots of successes under my belt, plus the all important aptitude and desire to learn new things all the time. Don't have a lot of PHP experience, though the consulting firm made me take an online test and I scored 80% on it. Why? Because I know how to program, and PHP is just another language that lets you write web pages. So I used my existing programming knowledge to do well on a PHP test. I scored perfectly on another test given me by the firm.
I disclosed all of this to the interviewer because I don't want to get a job on false pretenses. The tool proceeded to ask me reference manual questions like "What does function x do?"
This isn't sour grapes about not getting the job; I had another one waiting (ironically using another technology I don't have much experience with, got it on the strength of other skills) and I don't know if I would have taken it anyhow after seeing the place. I laughed afterwards that this guy's idea of an interview was to ask me ref manual questions as a way of determining my programming aptitude. I hope he gets someone who knows every PHP function and still doesn't know how to write decent code. That'd serve him right. You get what you ask for.
I am sure there is a point of diminishing returns in there somewhere. Wood is very resonant (sorry, not even sure if that's a measurable term.) I am not sure how well crystal or any other very hard substance would work. I'd bet that wood is hard enough, but is also "loose" enough (you know, composed of fibers and sections that vibrate at different rates).
Are we really in danger of running out of zinc? If it were in such limited supply then it would be expensive. Yet, zinc is used in places where a cheap, rust resistant metal is needed.
All pennies made after 1983 are made of zinc.
Anything that is galvanized is electroplated with zinc. That includes just about every screw, bolt, nut, nail, etc that you can buy from a hardware store (and the zinc plated ones are the cheapest you can get.)
Everything, even the kitchen zinc (har har!) has zinc in it.
well yes, there's that too. But I live in St Louis city. The yuppies are still too scared to come down into the city often (even though it is getting to be somewhat gentrified in places).
They're the jerks that when I have to contend with when I have to venture out to homogenized suburbia-land, which is rare cause I don't often get the hankering to shop at the Pottery Barn or eat at the fine restaurants which characterize suburbia like Olive Garden and Chili's. Yuppies are so predictable. When you put on your blinker, it becomes a pissing content to see if they can stop you from getting over. For that, I have a simple solution: just don't use the blinker.
I am in the US. Here, we drive on the right side of the road (as opposed to the left). On an interstate highway, there are usually three or four or more lanes all going in the same direction. There is typically a divider between the traffic moving in the opposite direction. There are speed limits here. Slower traffic is supposed to stay in the rightmost lanes. The leftmost lane is the passing lane. Slow drivers have no business in the passing lane. Signs on the highway even direct slower traffic to keep right. In the passing lane, people will typically exceed the speed limits, if only temporarily for things like getting around an 18 wheeler that is throwing up rocks and so forth.
Here too, the person who rear ends another is usually ruled to be at fault. But it's in nobody's best interest to do so, so anyone with sense doesn't slam on their brakes to cause someone to hit them.
"My list tends to be similar, with the exception of #1." Dude, watch the Pontiacs. The life you save could be your own;)
I seriously think there are advantages to having IL plates. I think they don't pay sales tax or something, and living in other states that do means they get to avoid the sales tax and buy cheaper gas (cause IL puts additional taxes on the gasoline IIRC.)
I have my own "study", that is at least as scientific as the one in TFA. I live in St Louis and have compiled a list of bad drivers. See if you notice this next time some idiot cuts you off. Bad drivers, in descending order:
1) anyone driving a Pontiac. They drive crazy stupid, cut you off, and are the most belligerent of the bad drivers. 2) anyone with stuffed animals, beanie babies, etc on the back dashboard. These folks are oblivious to everything around them and are a danger to themselves and others. These are the idiots who pull in front of you doing 5mph when you are doing 40. 3) anyone with Illinois plates, ESPECIALLY IL temp tags (in St Louis). In IL, people with IL plates drive just fine. It's just when in St Louis. These folks usually have expired tags and are often illegal aliens. Something about loopholes in IL laws make these super easy to get. 4) anyone driving a Mustang. These are the idiots who always want to race and leave streaks of rubber at every light. Mustangs suck. Stop gunning your engine. Nobody is impressed. 5) anyone driving a dodge neon (or a comparable car) with *any* aftermarket "bling" parts. It's a piece of crap, and those $20 k-mart plastic "chrome" hubcaps complete with spinners do nothing but draw attention to that fact.
In your case, I'll bet it was either a Pontiac or a Mustang that cut you off.
It depends on which lane you were in. Were you in the far right lane? Or were you in another lane?
Slower traffic should keep right. if you are doing 50 on an interstate, you are slower traffic (slowest traffic.) I can understand wanting to go slow, but if there's one thing I hate it's some "hall monitor" who decides that since the speed limit is 60mph, he has the right to do 50 in the far left lane (because, as he reasons, 60 is the *limit* ). I usually run into this guy in the passing lane when I am late for something and need to do 70. Of course, I wouldn't tailgate him, I'd just go around and sneer at him.
Please tell me you aren't *that* guy.
I'll make one exception: those semi trucks that do like 80mph. They need the stinking hall monitors to band together and stop them. The police sure aren't.
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That's nice. Never seems to work for me. Well, that is, unless I go to the CLI, and grab a few more packages. If you are trying to do some WORK (as opposed to farting around on the computer) then it's a drag.
Thanks for the thorough post, and I understand what you are saying.
I know you can google for stuff. I enjoy playing with Linux and have done quite a few things with it. Also, I am not some noob. I have been a software developer for a long time and have done some stuff with the CLI on UNIX, AIX, and various Linux distros.
Here's my problem: often when I want to do something mundane in Linux it's such a pain. The other day I was trying to find something on YouTube. I found a video that seemed like a match for what I was looking for and went there. No sound! I checked my sound settings, tested playing an mp3, etc, it all checked out. I googled for a fix (I assumed it had something to do with the flash player, and was right.) I found some potential work-arounds that involved involved going to the CLI, installing some packages, and so on. But all I wanted to do was watch a flipping video. I didn't want to monkey around with the CLI at that time. Screw that. I went over to the Windows XP PC and did what I needed to do. In Windows, if I don't have a flash player, all I have to do is click on the little puzzle piece icon and it. just. works.
I know my particular issue is a problem with the Flash player. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. Yes, it doesn't matter whose fault it is. Next time someone comes to me asking me to "fix" their old Windows 98 box, I'd just love to install xubuntu and be done with it. I'd proudly tell them that the OS I've just installed is totally free, better than what you can pay for, and developed by some very bright people around the world. But I cannot do that if simple stuff doesn't even work. To a *real* user (as in, not some geek), all that matters is that when I "reprogrammed" their computer it no longer works.
And that is where the Linux community falls flat with all the RTFM crap. They're users, and until all this snide "RTFM" crap dies, nobody will care about "that busted operating system for nerds." Sure, I wouldn't want to help someone who is being rude. But if you view that person as a customer, then you need to.
That's all I'm saying.
Great, if you just want skype. Now what about everything else? I never said it wasn't feasible to easily install apps in Linux, it's just that it's never implemented.
*shrugs*
Not for me. Windows downloads just work. You must have something misconfigured.
Yeah, good points. Part of Windows problem is precisely that it is SO easy for any luser to download and install software.
I get irritated when I want to DL something and install it on my ubuntu box and I have to go to the CLI. Sure, I can use the CLI. But sometimes I don't want to mess with it. I just want it to work so that I can get back to what I was doing.
That's what annoys me. Overall, synaptic and apt-get are nice. If only that functionality was wrapped into downloadable program installers like you get with Windows.
Are you an elitist or a fanboy? Mu. You are both.
Ignore your users and they are sure to go away. Then you won't have to worry about those pesky users with their stupid bug reports.
"If you want people to listen to you, you have to do more than just complain without using swears and epithets, you actually have to say something meaningful and non-rhetorical."
Not when you are a customer. Yes, Linux is F/OSS. But if you want users, then treat them as customers. If you ignore people, lose bug reports, call them stupid, tell them to RTFM, or tell them to fix it themselves, don't be surprised when you lose them.
kubuntu or KDE anything is not quite what I'd personally call usable. I prefer gnome distros, obviously my personal preference. KDE errs on the side of giving too much information, and that makes it much harder to use. Everywhere you move the mouse, some popup appears with useless customization options. Or try opening your sound properties to adjust the levels of various things (like in Windows you can turn up things like CD player, wav, mp3, line in, etc.) For me, I get so many options that the screen cannot even hold them all. What ever happened to presenting the *right* options? It's the 80/20 rule, 80% of the time people will need to use a, b, and c. Hide d-z in an advanced tab or something.
"There is absolutely nothing that is more seamless and braindead simple for installing, removing, and managing your system than apt."
Sure there is. Download a windows program and run it. It just works. Try doing that with a tarball or some debian package. Doesn't work the same way. I like Linux, but don't pretend it's as easy for average users to install stuff.
Apt-get, synaptic and the like are nice, but it's not exactly easy to find stuff in there and more importantly, separate out the meaningful stuff from the other junk.
You're absolutely right that you shouldn't just on board with the masses. They have been and will continue to be wrong.
But if you think mans environmental footprint is negligible, then you are probably living in the US. It's also awfully hard to believe that 1/5th of the world's population doesn't have access to clean water when you can go to your kitchen, turn on the tap, and have a drink. If you really want to see man's negative impact on the environment, you need to leave the US. Or at least visit a place in the US that *is* grappling with some very real environmental issues.
"Fuck the planet. After we're done raping this rock for every resource, we'll move on to the next one."
Oh, sure. Screw this big dumb rock we all call home. We'll just, like, go buy another one with all those hummer tax breaks! Brilliant thinking! You sir, deserve a pat on the back.
In one of your old posts, I saw a reference to the misuse and negative connotation of the word "fundamentalist". I wonder if you are a religious fundamentalist? You seem to toe the party line there. Why do religious fundamentalists of today sound like industrialists of the 19th century?
"the whole CO2 warms the planet nonsense started from a paper written by a britsh climatologist (the name escapes me right now)"
Oh, well that just settles it, doesn't it?
Good on you for debunking the greenhouse effect. Your well researched post can now serve as the definitive argument against climate change as proffered by those damn hippie environmentalists. Give yourself a big gold star.
You know, you could argue against climate change, global warming, etc. But arguing against the Greenhouse effect?
Good point, except that I already told the guy that I didn't have much experience with PHP. What I do have is several years experience and had done some very advanced things with with ASP, ColdFusion, Oracle, MSSQL, Javascript, xhtml, css, then all the stuff like AJAX (with prototype), lightbox, behavior, etc. I know my stuff and have had a very successful career thus far. He just didn't know what else to ask, that's all. He shouldn't have been interviewing me.
Have I ever done anything real with PHP? Nah. Could I do something substantial with the language? You bet. I know this stuff and how to learn what I don't know. I think that if you are working in such a technical field (like a programmer of some stripe) then your most important skill is the willingness and the ability to learn new things. Without that, you'll soon be unemployed, and rightfully so.
True story: I just interviewed at a very small company. I already had another job offer on the table, mind you, and just went for the interview because a friend/former coworker had just gotten hired there. So it wasn't a big deal to me if I got the job or not. But I really did want to work with my friend again.
The job was a LAMP dev position. I have been a web developer for 8 years and have loads of experience with some very hot skill sets, lots of successes under my belt, plus the all important aptitude and desire to learn new things all the time. Don't have a lot of PHP experience, though the consulting firm made me take an online test and I scored 80% on it. Why? Because I know how to program, and PHP is just another language that lets you write web pages. So I used my existing programming knowledge to do well on a PHP test. I scored perfectly on another test given me by the firm.
I disclosed all of this to the interviewer because I don't want to get a job on false pretenses. The tool proceeded to ask me reference manual questions like "What does function x do?"
This isn't sour grapes about not getting the job; I had another one waiting (ironically using another technology I don't have much experience with, got it on the strength of other skills) and I don't know if I would have taken it anyhow after seeing the place. I laughed afterwards that this guy's idea of an interview was to ask me ref manual questions as a way of determining my programming aptitude. I hope he gets someone who knows every PHP function and still doesn't know how to write decent code. That'd serve him right. You get what you ask for.
I am sure there is a point of diminishing returns in there somewhere. Wood is very resonant (sorry, not even sure if that's a measurable term.) I am not sure how well crystal or any other very hard substance would work. I'd bet that wood is hard enough, but is also "loose" enough (you know, composed of fibers and sections that vibrate at different rates).
from TFA: "But we can't exactly set up a reservation somewhere where the supply of gallium and hafnium can quietly replenish itself."
Don't we have lots of Indium reservations throughout the American southwest? Why don't we, you know, just use that?
Are we really in danger of running out of zinc? If it were in such limited supply then it would be expensive. Yet, zinc is used in places where a cheap, rust resistant metal is needed.
All pennies made after 1983 are made of zinc.
Anything that is galvanized is electroplated with zinc. That includes just about every screw, bolt, nut, nail, etc that you can buy from a hardware store (and the zinc plated ones are the cheapest you can get.)
Everything, even the kitchen zinc (har har!) has zinc in it.
Holy crap! If I could mod you +1 Witty Smackdown I would!
Depends on the color of the duct tape!
well yes, there's that too. But I live in St Louis city. The yuppies are still too scared to come down into the city often (even though it is getting to be somewhat gentrified in places).
They're the jerks that when I have to contend with when I have to venture out to homogenized suburbia-land, which is rare cause I don't often get the hankering to shop at the Pottery Barn or eat at the fine restaurants which characterize suburbia like Olive Garden and Chili's. Yuppies are so predictable. When you put on your blinker, it becomes a pissing content to see if they can stop you from getting over. For that, I have a simple solution: just don't use the blinker.
So I gotta drive with the ghetto pontiac drivers.
I'm not sure which is worse.
Well, geez. Looks like there are a lot of mustang and pontiac drivers with mod points today. Mod me down, but you still suck.
I am in the US. Here, we drive on the right side of the road (as opposed to the left). On an interstate highway, there are usually three or four or more lanes all going in the same direction. There is typically a divider between the traffic moving in the opposite direction. There are speed limits here. Slower traffic is supposed to stay in the rightmost lanes. The leftmost lane is the passing lane. Slow drivers have no business in the passing lane. Signs on the highway even direct slower traffic to keep right. In the passing lane, people will typically exceed the speed limits, if only temporarily for things like getting around an 18 wheeler that is throwing up rocks and so forth.
Here too, the person who rear ends another is usually ruled to be at fault. But it's in nobody's best interest to do so, so anyone with sense doesn't slam on their brakes to cause someone to hit them.
"My list tends to be similar, with the exception of #1." ;)
Dude, watch the Pontiacs. The life you save could be your own
I seriously think there are advantages to having IL plates. I think they don't pay sales tax or something, and living in other states that do means they get to avoid the sales tax and buy cheaper gas (cause IL puts additional taxes on the gasoline IIRC.)
"when some POS blue car "
What kind of car was it?
I have my own "study", that is at least as scientific as the one in TFA. I live in St Louis and have compiled a list of bad drivers. See if you notice this next time some idiot cuts you off. Bad drivers, in descending order:
1) anyone driving a Pontiac. They drive crazy stupid, cut you off, and are the most belligerent of the bad drivers.
2) anyone with stuffed animals, beanie babies, etc on the back dashboard. These folks are oblivious to everything around them and are a danger to themselves and others. These are the idiots who pull in front of you doing 5mph when you are doing 40.
3) anyone with Illinois plates, ESPECIALLY IL temp tags (in St Louis). In IL, people with IL plates drive just fine. It's just when in St Louis. These folks usually have expired tags and are often illegal aliens. Something about loopholes in IL laws make these super easy to get.
4) anyone driving a Mustang. These are the idiots who always want to race and leave streaks of rubber at every light. Mustangs suck. Stop gunning your engine. Nobody is impressed.
5) anyone driving a dodge neon (or a comparable car) with *any* aftermarket "bling" parts. It's a piece of crap, and those $20 k-mart plastic "chrome" hubcaps complete with spinners do nothing but draw attention to that fact.
In your case, I'll bet it was either a Pontiac or a Mustang that cut you off.
It depends on which lane you were in. Were you in the far right lane? Or were you in another lane?
Slower traffic should keep right. if you are doing 50 on an interstate, you are slower traffic (slowest traffic.) I can understand wanting to go slow, but if there's one thing I hate it's some "hall monitor" who decides that since the speed limit is 60mph, he has the right to do 50 in the far left lane (because, as he reasons, 60 is the *limit* ). I usually run into this guy in the passing lane when I am late for something and need to do 70. Of course, I wouldn't tailgate him, I'd just go around and sneer at him.
Please tell me you aren't *that* guy.
I'll make one exception: those semi trucks that do like 80mph. They need the stinking hall monitors to band together and stop them. The police sure aren't.