Sure, the manual "OS+applications on SSD, porn and torrents on HDD" tactic works more or less alright; but having humans wasting their time doing a (lousy) attempt at a machine's job seems like such a pity. Handling the messy details of physical storage location, in order to achieve best apparent performance with lowest burden on the operator, is exactly the sort of abstraction that our computers should be handling for us.
Very well said! What is boils down to is that you shouldn't have to be a major geek or expend a lot of effort administering your system simply to have and use a fast, efficient computer. Modern operating systems have taken a lot of the thought and need for specialized knowledge out of the equation, but SSDs (largely due to their low capacity or capacity/price ratio) are confusing to some and require more work. Laptops with single drive bays are another consideration, and no one really wants to use an external drive.
6, 7, 8? Bah, that's nothing. Slackware is up to 13.37 and they only skipped a couple of numbers. Thanks Mozilla, you're not confusing average users one bit!
> "Depending on hardware capabilities there are heavyweight (Gnome, KDE) and lightweight (Xfce, LXDE) versions."
The Xfce version has moved to Debian (which you "strongly advise against").
Oh, SNAP! You sure got him there! Except that Mint Xfce WAS based on Ubuntu not too long ago and he clearly just wasn't aware of the switch. But the main Mint is great, as is the Debian-based edition, which you don't really address. If your only quibble with Mint is "the GUI package manager doesn't allow you to change to a mirror located nearer to you," it must be one fine OS! And it is.
Just go with Ubuntu. Its designed to be friendlier for beginners...
And Mint is based on Ubuntu and even friendlier and more complete for beginners. #2 on Distrowatch hit ranking, just behind Ubuntu and ahead of Fedora, Debian, openSUSE and everything else, and not by accident or as a shiny new John ny-come-lately.
I agree! Mint has been my main OS for 3+ years, and it has bcome very easy to use and install, very stable, and fetaure-packed. Previously I tried lots of distros (all the main ones and some of the smaller names) but none of them appealed to me on a daily basis. I've tried lots of recent releases as well, thinking one might surpass Mint, but that has yet to occur. Now I only use Windows at work (I have no choice sometimes) and once in a while for games (rarely). I am decidely not a CS major or tech wizard, though I am very comfortable with it and feel I can recommend Mint to anyone even thinking about Linux as a Windows replacement.
I would say it is the first of its kind, but you will only ever need one like it, so it is TEH botnet coded and maintained by Chuck Norris. Totally indestructible, Skynet is jealous. OMG phear dis one nothing will evar be betr lol
Don't forget about Mexican bashing, a la Lou Dobbs. Or there's the more general imigrant bashing, which is quite popular these days. And don't forget the Chinese.
Oh, how I long for the 80's, when things were simple and so much more clear: we all hated the evil Ruskies, and we didn't need to stereotype and hate anyone else on a large scale.
Does such a tool exist or does the RIAA seriously expect me to sift through 60 GB of music, remember which are pirated, and delete them by hand?
No, they expect you to pay. Or delete your whole collection and start over, buying each song again at their very reasonable prices, of course. And I expect them to burn for all eternity, or perhaps be slowly eaten by particularly surly badgers.
It's baffling to see Rodney King taken as an example of an innocent victim of police brutality. Look into it, get the full story. He was driving while drunk, refused to pull over (a DUI would violate his robbery parole), gave chase, resisted arrest, and tried to attack the policemen.
It doesn't matter what the fuck he did, it is not okay for the cops to beat the shit out of a suspect and kick him while he is lying on the ground, ever. It is not the job of the police to pass judgement nor inflict punishment upon a suspect, ever. We have due process and courts for that, last time I checked.
Since then, he has been arrested for drunk driving and domestic violence.
So what? It appears as if you are saying that the dirty, racist LAPD cops involved were right to beat a man to within an inch of his life for something he was going to do in the future. What King did in later years, or even before the incident we all know, absolutely does not justify what was done to him by the law enforcement officers who were breaking the law more than enforcing it. I don't want to see that happen ever again, even to you, though it happens all too freuently. Fortunately it doesn't usually result in city-wide riots. Or maybe more civil dissent would keep that shit from occuring so much?
It's ironic -- sure the LAPD was notoriously violent, but the case that gets everyone's attention is the one in which the use of force was justified!
Force, yes, perhaps. Beating a man repeatedly while he pleads for mercy is not "force," or justifiable in ANY way. Those cops could have been charged with even more crimes than they were, and should have been found guilty of all of them, imprisoned, and found themselves jobless when they got out. What they did was far worse than anything Mr. King could have been charged with. I hope you are never subjected to such abuse. May you never be pulled over for not using a turn signal, yanked out of your car for laughing at the officer, then beaten and arrested for saying "WTF." It could happen, and does.
Also, since you defend the LAPD, ever heard of the Rampart scandal? Another incident (many, many inceidents really) of major, intentional wrong-doing by the LAPD, and a big effort to cover it up. But I suppose you think they were just trying too hard, or using unorthodox tactics, not breaking numerous laws on a regular basis.
I also feel compelled to say that I have the utmost respect for our police officers and thank them for doing a very difficult job, and doing so without proper pay and recognition. I hold degrees in criminal justice and law, and I think I know what I'm talking about. However, in respecting our law enforcement officers we must also hold them to the same standard as the people they are employed to protect and serve. We owe it to the good cops (the vast majority) to demand that bad cops (who are a small minority) be dismissed and prosecuted, when applicable.
This isn't about fair trade or free speech, unfortunately. Record companies around the world developed a sense of entitlement because their business model worked very well for a few decades. Now that consumers and artists alike have grown tired of the record companies only serving their own interests while screwing everyone else, no one wants to support the old business model. Force legislation down our throats to protect a bad, dying model is not the way to go.
Don't allow the big corporations to tell you what you must buy and how much, and they will be forced to adapt if they want to survive.Take Apple: they went through some very tough times (because there were no laws designed specifically to protect them), so they innovated, adapted, gave people what they wanted, and now they are thriving. The case with Ford in the US is somewhat similar - they were bailed out, yes, but their competitors were not banned or handcuffed; Ford is once again producing quality products that people want and can afford, and they are doing remarkably well as a company. I'm considering buying a new Ford for the first time in my life, though I see little reason to spend $18 on crappy CDs using 1980 technology, which I can not return or test drive. I also never buy movies anymore, since $20-30 for new releases I will only watch once or twice more, and am legally (though not technologically) unable to back-up. Ford didn't screw me or push restrictive laws to force all cars look and perform like a 1989 Ford Taurus forever, they went back to the drawing board (after borrowing a few bucks, which they have repaid, of course).
I'm a couple of generations removed from Finland, but I doubt this will go over well there, arguably the most "free" country in the world. Besides, iTunes is proof that a legal market can exist and thrive amidst piracy. And you'll never eliminate piracy entirely - they just keep making it more inconvenient, and some one else keeps finding ways to make it easier. Folks will revert to analog copies if digital-digital copies are ever somehow made impossible.
Yes, maybe it is possible that cigs are "less damaging" than weed, when compared toke for toke. But how many cigs does the average tobacco addict smoke every day, 10? 15? Many smoke much more than that. Pot is strong these days, right? So how much, by weight/mass/joints, do typical potheads smoke every day? A hell of a lot less than 10-15 joints. If it is of high quality, probably less than the weight of one cigarette. Ounce for ounce, yes, MAYBE ganja is worse than tobacco, but aside from rastafarians no one (not counting all the wannabe gangsters who claim to smoke 75 blunts a day) consumes THAT much herbage a day.
Think about it: heavy tobacco smokers light up every 30-60 minutes if they can, while dope aficionados don't get high more than a few times a day, often less, and shouldn't need a fat cigarette worth per person every time, so this is not an apples-apples comparison.
Pretty please stop giving crackpots publicity and attention. This guy has gotten way, way too much attenion from the mainstream media already. He's pulled this stunt before (and been wrong, obviously) but just has a big radio audience now. You should only get to predict the apocalypse or rapture or whatever once, then if you try again you should get kicked in the crotch until you stop talking. I can't wait for Sunday just so we can stop hearing about this shit.
"Surfacings" like this tell me that Microsoft sees the value in crowdsourced opinion gathering far more than they're sometimes given credit for.
Yeah, they like to listen to what everyone has to say, then they listen to the most vocal, stupidest fucking idiots, and inocrporate their preferences into the final releases, with as many bugs as possible left in tact.
I haven't gotten the hang of tagging slashdot stories yet, so how do I tag this one "Out of control law enforcement, excessive use of SWAT teams, and careless prosecution with questionable warrants"?
Are assault rifles really necessary when attempting to aprehend a suspect kiddie porn hoarder when they know he is home? Sure, if he's guilty, lock him up, but how often do they get it wrong? Playing around unnecessarily with guns that put innocent bystanders as much at risk as the [often not dangerous] suspects is a bad idea. Here's a good idea: do better detective work and investigate as much as possible before busting down doors. Surely this raid garnered some publicity, and was probably enough of a scene to scare the bejesus out of the guilty neighbor.
Again, string up the guilty party, that's fine. But please be damn careful who else you traumatize along the way. What if the wrongly-acused had moved to toss his cell phone aside as he hit the floor and Deputy Dimwit got an itchy trigger finger? Dead for not being able to set up a router properly? That punishment may fit the crime for slashdotters, but isn't apropriate for non-nerds.
We'll have this in the USA soon, with a monthly cap you can hit in about three hours. Then it reverts to a generous 56kbps (actual speeds may vary) for unlimited downloads.
They built a clandestine paramilitary operation device. which has no purpose other than to smuggle insurgens into an American school in America, where our children are, and you support them? When you hear the knock, it won't be the Spanish Inquisition, it will be Homeland Scurity coming to shut down your sleeper cell!
How can one not know whether his/her rocket is capable of making it to Mars?
Probably because his rocket, like any rocket, would not actually ever go to Mars. However, it is capable of lobbing something pretty damn big and heavy into orbit, perhaps enabling an efficiently-designed interplanatary vehicle to make the rest of the trip. No lift vehicle is designed to complete the trip, but a good one gets you off the ground, which is the first step.
So I guess we're going to need a lot of highly-enriched uranium jewelry? With all the chaos going on over there now, maybe we can convince the Libyans to give us some plutonium. Surely they won't find us if we promise to build them a bomb and then stiff them.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, the manual "OS+applications on SSD, porn and torrents on HDD" tactic works more or less alright; but having humans wasting their time doing a (lousy) attempt at a machine's job seems like such a pity. Handling the messy details of physical storage location, in order to achieve best apparent performance with lowest burden on the operator, is exactly the sort of abstraction that our computers should be handling for us.
Very well said! What is boils down to is that you shouldn't have to be a major geek or expend a lot of effort administering your system simply to have and use a fast, efficient computer. Modern operating systems have taken a lot of the thought and need for specialized knowledge out of the equation, but SSDs (largely due to their low capacity or capacity/price ratio) are confusing to some and require more work. Laptops with single drive bays are another consideration, and no one really wants to use an external drive.
6, 7, 8? Bah, that's nothing. Slackware is up to 13.37 and they only skipped a couple of numbers. Thanks Mozilla, you're not confusing average users one bit!
Reports have begun to surface that I am projecting the end of PayPal as soon as 2012. Wishful thinking, most likely.
Dear Microsoft, I want a pony. Screwoff.
Wait... Gentoo, for a beginner? Really!?!? Haha, good one, you almost got me there.
> "Depending on hardware capabilities there are heavyweight (Gnome, KDE) and lightweight (Xfce, LXDE) versions."
The Xfce version has moved to Debian (which you "strongly advise against").
Oh, SNAP! You sure got him there! Except that Mint Xfce WAS based on Ubuntu not too long ago and he clearly just wasn't aware of the switch. But the main Mint is great, as is the Debian-based edition, which you don't really address. If your only quibble with Mint is "the GUI package manager doesn't allow you to change to a mirror located nearer to you," it must be one fine OS! And it is.
Just go with Ubuntu. Its designed to be friendlier for beginners...
And Mint is based on Ubuntu and even friendlier and more complete for beginners. #2 on Distrowatch hit ranking, just behind Ubuntu and ahead of Fedora, Debian, openSUSE and everything else, and not by accident or as a shiny new John ny-come-lately.
I agree! Mint has been my main OS for 3+ years, and it has bcome very easy to use and install, very stable, and fetaure-packed. Previously I tried lots of distros (all the main ones and some of the smaller names) but none of them appealed to me on a daily basis. I've tried lots of recent releases as well, thinking one might surpass Mint, but that has yet to occur. Now I only use Windows at work (I have no choice sometimes) and once in a while for games (rarely). I am decidely not a CS major or tech wizard, though I am very comfortable with it and feel I can recommend Mint to anyone even thinking about Linux as a Windows replacement.
June, not July, not that it matters either way. Maybe it was another Minuteman launch in March that they forgot to mention.
I would say it is the first of its kind, but you will only ever need one like it, so it is TEH botnet coded and maintained by Chuck Norris. Totally indestructible, Skynet is jealous. OMG phear dis one nothing will evar be betr lol
Don't forget about Mexican bashing, a la Lou Dobbs. Or there's the more general imigrant bashing, which is quite popular these days. And don't forget the Chinese.
Oh, how I long for the 80's, when things were simple and so much more clear: we all hated the evil Ruskies, and we didn't need to stereotype and hate anyone else on a large scale.
Does such a tool exist or does the RIAA seriously expect me to sift through 60 GB of music, remember which are pirated, and delete them by hand?
No, they expect you to pay. Or delete your whole collection and start over, buying each song again at their very reasonable prices, of course. And I expect them to burn for all eternity, or perhaps be slowly eaten by particularly surly badgers.
It's baffling to see Rodney King taken as an example of an innocent victim of police brutality. Look into it, get the full story. He was driving while drunk, refused to pull over (a DUI would violate his robbery parole), gave chase, resisted arrest, and tried to attack the policemen.
It doesn't matter what the fuck he did, it is not okay for the cops to beat the shit out of a suspect and kick him while he is lying on the ground, ever. It is not the job of the police to pass judgement nor inflict punishment upon a suspect, ever. We have due process and courts for that, last time I checked.
Since then, he has been arrested for drunk driving and domestic violence.
So what? It appears as if you are saying that the dirty, racist LAPD cops involved were right to beat a man to within an inch of his life for something he was going to do in the future. What King did in later years, or even before the incident we all know, absolutely does not justify what was done to him by the law enforcement officers who were breaking the law more than enforcing it. I don't want to see that happen ever again, even to you, though it happens all too freuently. Fortunately it doesn't usually result in city-wide riots. Or maybe more civil dissent would keep that shit from occuring so much?
It's ironic -- sure the LAPD was notoriously violent, but the case that gets everyone's attention is the one in which the use of force was justified!
Force, yes, perhaps. Beating a man repeatedly while he pleads for mercy is not "force," or justifiable in ANY way. Those cops could have been charged with even more crimes than they were, and should have been found guilty of all of them, imprisoned, and found themselves jobless when they got out. What they did was far worse than anything Mr. King could have been charged with. I hope you are never subjected to such abuse. May you never be pulled over for not using a turn signal, yanked out of your car for laughing at the officer, then beaten and arrested for saying "WTF." It could happen, and does.
Also, since you defend the LAPD, ever heard of the Rampart scandal? Another incident (many, many inceidents really) of major, intentional wrong-doing by the LAPD, and a big effort to cover it up. But I suppose you think they were just trying too hard, or using unorthodox tactics, not breaking numerous laws on a regular basis.
I also feel compelled to say that I have the utmost respect for our police officers and thank them for doing a very difficult job, and doing so without proper pay and recognition. I hold degrees in criminal justice and law, and I think I know what I'm talking about. However, in respecting our law enforcement officers we must also hold them to the same standard as the people they are employed to protect and serve. We owe it to the good cops (the vast majority) to demand that bad cops (who are a small minority) be dismissed and prosecuted, when applicable.
This isn't about fair trade or free speech, unfortunately. Record companies around the world developed a sense of entitlement because their business model worked very well for a few decades. Now that consumers and artists alike have grown tired of the record companies only serving their own interests while screwing everyone else, no one wants to support the old business model. Force legislation down our throats to protect a bad, dying model is not the way to go.
Don't allow the big corporations to tell you what you must buy and how much, and they will be forced to adapt if they want to survive.Take Apple: they went through some very tough times (because there were no laws designed specifically to protect them), so they innovated, adapted, gave people what they wanted, and now they are thriving. The case with Ford in the US is somewhat similar - they were bailed out, yes, but their competitors were not banned or handcuffed; Ford is once again producing quality products that people want and can afford, and they are doing remarkably well as a company. I'm considering buying a new Ford for the first time in my life, though I see little reason to spend $18 on crappy CDs using 1980 technology, which I can not return or test drive. I also never buy movies anymore, since $20-30 for new releases I will only watch once or twice more, and am legally (though not technologically) unable to back-up. Ford didn't screw me or push restrictive laws to force all cars look and perform like a 1989 Ford Taurus forever, they went back to the drawing board (after borrowing a few bucks, which they have repaid, of course).
I'm a couple of generations removed from Finland, but I doubt this will go over well there, arguably the most "free" country in the world. Besides, iTunes is proof that a legal market can exist and thrive amidst piracy. And you'll never eliminate piracy entirely - they just keep making it more inconvenient, and some one else keeps finding ways to make it easier. Folks will revert to analog copies if digital-digital copies are ever somehow made impossible.
Anti-pot propaganda alert!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, maybe it is possible that cigs are "less damaging" than weed, when compared toke for toke. But how many cigs does the average tobacco addict smoke every day, 10? 15? Many smoke much more than that. Pot is strong these days, right? So how much, by weight/mass/joints, do typical potheads smoke every day? A hell of a lot less than 10-15 joints. If it is of high quality, probably less than the weight of one cigarette. Ounce for ounce, yes, MAYBE ganja is worse than tobacco, but aside from rastafarians no one (not counting all the wannabe gangsters who claim to smoke 75 blunts a day) consumes THAT much herbage a day.
Think about it: heavy tobacco smokers light up every 30-60 minutes if they can, while dope aficionados don't get high more than a few times a day, often less, and shouldn't need a fat cigarette worth per person every time, so this is not an apples-apples comparison.
Pretty please stop giving crackpots publicity and attention. This guy has gotten way, way too much attenion from the mainstream media already. He's pulled this stunt before (and been wrong, obviously) but just has a big radio audience now. You should only get to predict the apocalypse or rapture or whatever once, then if you try again you should get kicked in the crotch until you stop talking. I can't wait for Sunday just so we can stop hearing about this shit.
"Surfacings" like this tell me that Microsoft sees the value in crowdsourced opinion gathering far more than they're sometimes given credit for.
Yeah, they like to listen to what everyone has to say, then they listen to the most vocal, stupidest fucking idiots, and inocrporate their preferences into the final releases, with as many bugs as possible left in tact.
I haven't gotten the hang of tagging slashdot stories yet, so how do I tag this one "Out of control law enforcement, excessive use of SWAT teams, and careless prosecution with questionable warrants"? Are assault rifles really necessary when attempting to aprehend a suspect kiddie porn hoarder when they know he is home? Sure, if he's guilty, lock him up, but how often do they get it wrong? Playing around unnecessarily with guns that put innocent bystanders as much at risk as the [often not dangerous] suspects is a bad idea. Here's a good idea: do better detective work and investigate as much as possible before busting down doors. Surely this raid garnered some publicity, and was probably enough of a scene to scare the bejesus out of the guilty neighbor. Again, string up the guilty party, that's fine. But please be damn careful who else you traumatize along the way. What if the wrongly-acused had moved to toss his cell phone aside as he hit the floor and Deputy Dimwit got an itchy trigger finger? Dead for not being able to set up a router properly? That punishment may fit the crime for slashdotters, but isn't apropriate for non-nerds.
...and linux uses are smarter, better looking, and generally superhuman. So what?
We'll have this in the USA soon, with a monthly cap you can hit in about three hours. Then it reverts to a generous 56kbps (actual speeds may vary) for unlimited downloads.
They built a clandestine paramilitary operation device. which has no purpose other than to smuggle insurgens into an American school in America, where our children are, and you support them? When you hear the knock, it won't be the Spanish Inquisition, it will be Homeland Scurity coming to shut down your sleeper cell!
Dude, nobody needs that to sneak drugs into high schools. That's what pockets, backpacks, and art teachers are for.
How can one not know whether his/her rocket is capable of making it to Mars?
Probably because his rocket, like any rocket, would not actually ever go to Mars. However, it is capable of lobbing something pretty damn big and heavy into orbit, perhaps enabling an efficiently-designed interplanatary vehicle to make the rest of the trip. No lift vehicle is designed to complete the trip, but a good one gets you off the ground, which is the first step.
In the future, they should standardize them all to USB then, I guess.
So I guess we're going to need a lot of highly-enriched uranium jewelry? With all the chaos going on over there now, maybe we can convince the Libyans to give us some plutonium. Surely they won't find us if we promise to build them a bomb and then stiff them.