seriously, i'm not a linux zealot. i like linux, but i generally use windows b/c of more software (especially games) and such. but windows 98 really is a pain in the ass, after 3-5 months of running it i'd usually have to reinstall just because it was so bogged down with a huge registry and crap.. now i'm using 2k and am much happier... regardless of your thoughts on linux, you can't tell me 98 doesn't suck.
i work in tech support.. i spend all day fixing problems with windows 98, and could name thousands of ways in which it sucks.. and these obviously aren't people who go around messing with stuff.. windows just *breaks* randomly. that's not what I call a good OS.
Yeah, about the same here. My karma's up around 15 mostly through metamoderation.. I rarely post, I just read to find news that I'm too lazy to look for myself, and the occasional interesting comment.
And, if I'm really bored, I scroll to the bottom and read the trolls. Almost always good for a laugh.
I turned down a job offer for roughly twice what I'm making now, because it was far away and I didn't want to relocate to an area where I knew no-one and there was basically nothing to do. I think anyone who knows what's good for them would do the same - having friends you can hang out with and places you can go is better than making tons of money and having nothing to do with it.
Then again, I'm young (19), so maybe I'm just idealistic.
Can't belive I missed this topic.. damn.
So I'm a little late, maybe someone will notice this.
I had so much nogalstia I decided to ressurect, in a sense, an old BBS I used to go on. It's running Worldgroup (i.e. MBBS), which is hard to get ahold of nowadays. You can telnet to it, or go via web, at tgc2.net. Sadly, a lot of the software is still hundreds of dollars to license, and I don't have that kind of money - hell, right now it's only running off my DSL. But it's still neat, I got a lot of the original people on and we've got a pretty quirky community. Anyone interested is welcome.
That might be the case, but it'd still be inaccurate to say 'ICQ caught on even though it had a different protocol'. They developed at least concurrently, and from my experiance ICQ's userbase grew much faster than AIM's (aside from AOL users, of course) initially. MSN or Yahoo messenger might be a valid case, but they still don't have the userbase of AIM. Basically, I'm willing to submit to the evil AOL empire for the sake of being able to contact people easily - almost everyone I know uses AIM, even if they have another messenging service, for the same reason - everyone they know uses AIM. It's hard to take a userbase like that and convert it, because most people don't want to change from what they're used to. For instance, I didn't go on AIM until ICQ started to really suck.
Just my thoughts - I don't see any new IMs catching on as quickly as AIM and ICQ did, because they were the first (or first mainstream) ones availiable.
I've noticed people saying that the data is going over the telco's lines, thus causing them to 'lose out'. How so? You're still paying them your monthly fee to make local phone calls. Unless your telco is also your LD provider, they're not being robbed of any buisness. What they're really afraid of is people internet connections that don't rely on their lines, and using VoIP entirely, completely removing the telco from the loop. True, it's not happening tomorrow, but it is a possiblity, and quite possibly something we WILL see in the future - Why use two different networks for communcations when you can put everything on one (hold off on the comments about the net being clogged up already, this is a forward-looking statement).
So, I don't think the true issue here is fair usage of telco equipment - that's not what it's about at all. It's the telco being afraid of losing their monopoly on voice communications. They damn well should be afraid, but this is not how they should deal with it.
OSDN = Open Source Development Network.
Slashdot is owned by Andover.
Andover is owned by VA Linux.
VA Linux owns OSDN.
It's amazing what a couple clicks can tell you.
The speakers by themselves are decent, the subwoofer adds a lot (I think that the surround system has a better sub). The main advantage of it is that it used the (unfortunitly) propriatary miniDIN output, and splits it into 5.1Ch format (basically, it has 5.1 output, and just comes with 5.1 speakers). Nothing says you have to use those speakers (though you do have to pay for them).
See my post below. The SBLive can do digital output. It's PCM, which AFAIK can do the same thing as dolby digital but without the brand name. I don't have a DD reciever to play around with, though, so I'm not sure.
Also, I haven't played around too much with the SBLive linux drivers.. they play sound, and that's fine for me. I don't think they are open source, but I could be wrong. I haven't looked into it in a while.
The software would be the easy part - making all the hardware work together and function how you want it to seems harder.
Most modern ATX motherboards have IR pins on them. Just get an IR reciever and you're good to go.
And for audio, get an SBLive! with a LiveDrive2 or Digital I/O Card 2 - It has Optical and Coax in/out for digital sound. I don't think it's Dolby digital.. I'm not sure how well 4 speakers works with it, I've never used it. (I have one, but I only use the optical output for my Minidisc recorder). Then again, you wouldn't have to worry about the output, really. Get the $300 Cambridge Soundworks digital home theater system (which I have, excellent speaker set) and you've got digital sound. The digital input should handle DVD audio fine. Granted, if you want to input from more than two digital sources (one optical, one coax) you're SOL.
It would make a decent all-purpose AV system though.
If anyone has more info on Dolby Digital with SBLive, let me know, I'm interested.
So we go from one button to none. Great progression. More seriously, this seems interesting, but I don't know if it's really that great... I've never felt that my mouse didn't have enough functions, but then, I'm a keyboard junkie. Then again, I never thought I'd need a wheel on my mouse, but damn, do I love my Intellieye! =)
8173618965 Here is your navigator : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows 98) Just a security hole of Slashdot. You can find this kind of hole in all sites which has a forum. I think that in site like e-trade you can make some people asks for stocks. You can contact me there : Krakus.Irus@voila.fr If you want to retry. If you want to know more.
Right, but the average user can't do that kind of thing, unfortunitly. I've seen people migrating from Mac to PC just stare at the screen wondering what the hell to do...
Hey, just because I'm better than everyone else doesn't make me self-important;)
Anyway, it just ticks me off when someone posts a bunch of crap and try to sound like they know what they're talking about. Then again, you're right, they probably knew they were wrong, and were just being a troll.
Yeah, I guess some moderator managed to pick up the inherent self-righteousness and stupidity in the post that I missed. Silly me, I thought it might actually be an innocent confused person.
We're talking UI, not OS. But I won't argue that point much, it's not worth it.
Unfortunately there is no such thing as a UI without a learning curve. All UIs are learnt. Sit down with a truly novice user some time.
I was going to argue this point, citing consumer devices as an example. However, your point -is- valid. The first time you use a phone, you have to learn how to dial it. The first time you use a radio, or a television, same thing. The difference: most consumer level devices are very similar in design. For example, a TV or a tuner - the down button is on the left, the up on the right. I don't think I've ever seen it the other way. But GUIs, they move things around a lot from one to another. They change the appearance of things, and generally make it confusing to learn a new GUI. Thus, the lack of conformaty in UIs makes it so you have to re-learn each UI instead of being able to apply previous knowledge and pick it up quickly.
Kind of rediculous that this is moderated as a 'Troll' - The guy just genuinly doesn't know what he's talking about. You would think our goal would be to educate people like this, not punish them (although I realize since he ACd it doesn't matter to him). I'd think we'd want -more- people to read this comment, because it personifies what the average corporate professional thinks about Linux, and how wrong it is. If you find this reply, mister AC, a few things you should know: QNX/AIX are not 'variations' of Linux. Debian -is-, in the since you put it, although all Linux distros are fairly standard if all you want to do is run it out of the box, and download the occasional piece of software (differences exist in binaries, however, I personally think anyone serious about linux -should- compile from source whenever possibile). AIX is IBM's version of Unix, and it's been around for quite a while. It's completely independant and incompatable with Linux (binary-wise, source is portable usually). QNX is something entirely different. It's a real-time operating system designed for mostly mission-critical systems. It also is useful for its light footprint, which is why it is used in ATMs and the like (I'm sure no one cares if it takes -exactly-.5 seconds to verify your PIN or whatever). AIX is usually used on IBM mainframes and servers, and really isn't a personal operating system at all.
Freeware is also quite the wrong word to use. 'Freeware' has been around for a long time, before Linux. It's basically any software that is free to use. Although a lot of linux software falls into this category, the phenomenon is not based around that, so much as the open source development model. I suggest you do some more reading about the different flavors of Unix, and the OSS model.
"From what I've heard about it, XFree86 4.0 server binaries work on all operating systems written for the same architecture so the Linux binary should work with *BSD."
note 'the same architecture'.. PPC is not the same architecture as x86, sorry.
Slashdot Mirror
you must never do anything.
seriously, i'm not a linux zealot. i like linux, but i generally use windows b/c of more software (especially games) and such. but windows 98 really is a pain in the ass, after 3-5 months of running it i'd usually have to reinstall just because it was so bogged down with a huge registry and crap.. now i'm using 2k and am much happier... regardless of your thoughts on linux, you can't tell me 98 doesn't suck.
i work in tech support.. i spend all day fixing problems with windows 98, and could name thousands of ways in which it sucks.. and these obviously aren't people who go around messing with stuff.. windows just *breaks* randomly. that's not what I call a good OS.
Yeah, about the same here. My karma's up around 15 mostly through metamoderation.. I rarely post, I just read to find news that I'm too lazy to look for myself, and the occasional interesting comment.
And, if I'm really bored, I scroll to the bottom and read the trolls. Almost always good for a laugh.
I turned down a job offer for roughly twice what I'm making now, because it was far away and I didn't want to relocate to an area where I knew no-one and there was basically nothing to do. I think anyone who knows what's good for them would do the same - having friends you can hang out with and places you can go is better than making tons of money and having nothing to do with it.
Then again, I'm young (19), so maybe I'm just idealistic.
Can't belive I missed this topic.. damn.
So I'm a little late, maybe someone will notice this.
I had so much nogalstia I decided to ressurect, in a sense, an old BBS I used to go on. It's running Worldgroup (i.e. MBBS), which is hard to get ahold of nowadays. You can telnet to it, or go via web, at tgc2.net. Sadly, a lot of the software is still hundreds of dollars to license, and I don't have that kind of money - hell, right now it's only running off my DSL. But it's still neat, I got a lot of the original people on and we've got a pretty quirky community. Anyone interested is welcome.
telnet://tgc2.net
http://tgc2.net
That might be the case, but it'd still be inaccurate to say 'ICQ caught on even though it had a different protocol'. They developed at least concurrently, and from my experiance ICQ's userbase grew much faster than AIM's (aside from AOL users, of course) initially. MSN or Yahoo messenger might be a valid case, but they still don't have the userbase of AIM. Basically, I'm willing to submit to the evil AOL empire for the sake of being able to contact people easily - almost everyone I know uses AIM, even if they have another messenging service, for the same reason - everyone they know uses AIM. It's hard to take a userbase like that and convert it, because most people don't want to change from what they're used to. For instance, I didn't go on AIM until ICQ started to really suck.
Just my thoughts - I don't see any new IMs catching on as quickly as AIM and ICQ did, because they were the first (or first mainstream) ones availiable.
I've noticed people saying that the data is going over the telco's lines, thus causing them to 'lose out'. How so? You're still paying them your monthly fee to make local phone calls. Unless your telco is also your LD provider, they're not being robbed of any buisness. What they're really afraid of is people internet connections that don't rely on their lines, and using VoIP entirely, completely removing the telco from the loop. True, it's not happening tomorrow, but it is a possiblity, and quite possibly something we WILL see in the future - Why use two different networks for communcations when you can put everything on one (hold off on the comments about the net being clogged up already, this is a forward-looking statement).
So, I don't think the true issue here is fair usage of telco equipment - that's not what it's about at all. It's the telco being afraid of losing their monopoly on voice communications. They damn well should be afraid, but this is not how they should deal with it.
I loved willis in fifth element. Damn good movie, too.
ICQ was around long before AIM.
Wow, dynamism.com has to be the coolest rich geek store I've seen. Now I just need to get rich :(
I could do with one of those 50" plasmas.. and a sony glasstron.. and the vaio GT1.. and everything else they sell. =P
If the hostname you typed into your browser doesn't match the certificate you got, browsers warn you. See https://www.palp.org for an example.
OSDN = Open Source Development Network.
Slashdot is owned by Andover.
Andover is owned by VA Linux.
VA Linux owns OSDN.
It's amazing what a couple clicks can tell you.
The speakers by themselves are decent, the subwoofer adds a lot (I think that the surround system has a better sub). The main advantage of it is that it used the (unfortunitly) propriatary miniDIN output, and splits it into 5.1Ch format (basically, it has 5.1 output, and just comes with 5.1 speakers). Nothing says you have to use those speakers (though you do have to pay for them).
Didn't TiVo say they were relasing some or all of their software? I'm pretty sure at least their kernel modifications..
See my post below. The SBLive can do digital output. It's PCM, which AFAIK can do the same thing as dolby digital but without the brand name. I don't have a DD reciever to play around with, though, so I'm not sure.
Also, I haven't played around too much with the SBLive linux drivers.. they play sound, and that's fine for me. I don't think they are open source, but I could be wrong. I haven't looked into it in a while.
The software would be the easy part - making all the hardware work together and function how you want it to seems harder.
Most modern ATX motherboards have IR pins on them. Just get an IR reciever and you're good to go.
And for audio, get an SBLive! with a LiveDrive2 or Digital I/O Card 2 - It has Optical and Coax in/out for digital sound. I don't think it's Dolby digital.. I'm not sure how well 4 speakers works with it, I've never used it. (I have one, but I only use the optical output for my Minidisc recorder). Then again, you wouldn't have to worry about the output, really. Get the $300 Cambridge Soundworks digital home theater system (which I have, excellent speaker set) and you've got digital sound. The digital input should handle DVD audio fine. Granted, if you want to input from more than two digital sources (one optical, one coax) you're SOL.
It would make a decent all-purpose AV system though.
If anyone has more info on Dolby Digital with SBLive, let me know, I'm interested.
So we go from one button to none. Great progression. More seriously, this seems interesting, but I don't know if it's really that great... I've never felt that my mouse didn't have enough functions, but then, I'm a keyboard junkie. Then again, I never thought I'd need a wheel on my mouse, but damn, do I love my Intellieye! =)
8173618965
Here is your navigator : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows 98)
Just a security hole of Slashdot. You can find this kind of hole in all sites which has a forum. I think that in site like e-trade you can make some people asks for stocks.
You can contact me there : Krakus.Irus@voila.fr
If you want to retry.
If you want to know more.
http://www.empeg.com
Seems like what you're asking for.
Right, but the average user can't do that kind of thing, unfortunitly. I've seen people migrating from Mac to PC just stare at the screen wondering what the hell to do...
Hey, just because I'm better than everyone else doesn't make me self-important ;)
Anyway, it just ticks me off when someone posts a bunch of crap and try to sound like they know what they're talking about. Then again, you're right, they probably knew they were wrong, and were just being a troll.
Yeah, I guess some moderator managed to pick up the inherent self-righteousness and stupidity in the post that I missed. Silly me, I thought it might actually be an innocent confused person.
A few more things an OS should let you do:
We're talking UI, not OS. But I won't argue that point much, it's not worth it.
Unfortunately there is no such thing as a UI without a learning curve. All UIs are learnt. Sit down with a truly novice user some time.
I was going to argue this point, citing consumer devices as an example. However, your point -is- valid. The first time you use a phone, you have to learn how to dial it. The first time you use a radio, or a television, same thing. The difference: most consumer level devices are very similar in design. For example, a TV or a tuner - the down button is on the left, the up on the right. I don't think I've ever seen it the other way. But GUIs, they move things around a lot from one to another. They change the appearance of things, and generally make it confusing to learn a new GUI. Thus, the lack of conformaty in UIs makes it so you have to re-learn each UI instead of being able to apply previous knowledge and pick it up quickly.
Sorry about the spelling, I'm at work and in a rush, and don't have the time to proofread what I write.
;)
Like you said, I'm on internet time
Hell, you knew what I meant. Is spelling that important? I'm not writing a book here.
Kind of rediculous that this is moderated as a 'Troll' - The guy just genuinly doesn't know what he's talking about. You would think our goal would be to educate people like this, not punish them (although I realize since he ACd it doesn't matter to him). I'd think we'd want -more- people to read this comment, because it personifies what the average corporate professional thinks about Linux, and how wrong it is. .5 seconds to verify your PIN or whatever). AIX is usually used on IBM mainframes and servers, and really isn't a personal operating system at all.
If you find this reply, mister AC, a few things you should know:
QNX/AIX are not 'variations' of Linux. Debian -is-, in the since you put it, although all Linux distros are fairly standard if all you want to do is run it out of the box, and download the occasional piece of software (differences exist in binaries, however, I personally think anyone serious about linux -should- compile from source whenever possibile). AIX is IBM's version of Unix, and it's been around for quite a while. It's completely independant and incompatable with Linux (binary-wise, source is portable usually). QNX is something entirely different. It's a real-time operating system designed for mostly mission-critical systems. It also is useful for its light footprint, which is why it is used in ATMs and the like (I'm sure no one cares if it takes -exactly-
Freeware is also quite the wrong word to use. 'Freeware' has been around for a long time, before Linux. It's basically any software that is free to use. Although a lot of linux software falls into this category, the phenomenon is not based around that, so much as the open source development model. I suggest you do some more reading about the different flavors of Unix, and the OSS model.
"From what I've heard about it, XFree86 4.0 server binaries work on all operating systems written for the same architecture so the Linux binary should work with *BSD."
note 'the same architecture'.. PPC is not the same architecture as x86, sorry.