Whether or not we can keep our California site from moving to Nebraska or some such is another question...
Hey, don't knock Nebraska. You might like it there. They have a governor. Gas is probably $0.40 a gallon cheaper. No two hour commutes. And all the corn you can look at.
I can't stand IBM keyboards. Let me rephrase that: I fucking hate them. What you call tactile feedback, I call suppressing fire. Before I got my first PC in college, I went to the lab to type my papers. There was one PC that had one of these infernal keyboards and it was always the last one anyone sat at. Never failed that when I showed up to the lab, the only machine open was the one with the clangboard.
It took many years to get over--WHAT? YES, MASTER I'LL DO THY BIDDING!--hrm, get over that keyboard.
I prefer to stick with the laptop keyboard, because it frees up some desk space and means one less peripheral to deal with. Where I work, we buy from Gateway. For a few years I had a 9300 Solo. An okay PC with a swank 15" screen.
I loved that keyboard. Butter soft. Almost no resistance in the keys; just enough to spring back up. Nothing like the old IBM keyboards of yore. CLANG-CLACK. CLANG-CLACK.
The warranty ran out on that and I now have some fucking model I despise. The thickness of the laptop means the keys are roughly 1" above the surface that the laptop rests on. I have to really get over the machine to type now. The ergonomics of this thing are the suck. My left wrist rests on the front left corner of the laptop and is getting worn smooth from the contact.
But the worst part about this damned keyboard is the action. You have to put your weight into every keystroke. The keys almost stick to your fingers they're so stiff. It's as if my alter ego called up Gateway and complained about the soft keyboard of the 9300, and Gateway caved. I hate those fucking people for it. I stick pins in little dolls that look like people who like stiff keyboards.
I agree with what you said, but apparently McNealy and crew aren't focused enough on Sun. SUNW has spent too much time in court trying to subvert MSFT; granted MSFT deserves a swift kick in the butt, but I'd rather Sun and similar companies stick to what they do best: engineer.
Well if the majority of web servers on the Net run Apache + Linux, then sure, because my web server continues to absorb Code Red hits looking for an exploitable Microsoft IIS server.
There's Pyzzle. I stumbled upon this while considering a go at developing a Myst engine for Linux/PC/whatever. I'm not a Python hack or fan, but this looks pretty good as far as a true to Myst game engine is concerned.
I've spent the last two weeks revising all of my mail related Perl scripts to play nice with our mail server which is a moving target now as our mail admin tries to block spam and virii. I'm barely half done.
I get 160+ spam messages a day in from my original ISP given mail account. None worth my time.
I need to get out more, because at this rate, I'm going to remember 2003 most for the way e-mail was rendered useless.
I haven't seen Spiderman, The Hulk, Daredevil, League of Extraordinairy Gentlemen, or any of them. You see the money spent on these flicks could have gone into other productions, but didn't. So I'm lamenting the prevalence of comic book inspired movies where a variety of creative efforts could have flourished.
I'm not a comic book fan, but I am a movie fan, and I am fucking exhausted from the comic book movie genre. Enough, please. Stop. Cease and desist. Come up with an idea to call your own, hire human beings to act, point the camera, and roll.
What industry/art form/creative outlet will Hollywood exploit and photocopy next?
For Alsa drivers, the Audigy2 uses the emu10k1 driver. I've done this several times with a P4 2.4Ghz desktop and P4 1.2Ghz laptop both running Gentoo. Sound quality is *excellent*. One caveat for multi-channel users (5.1 or 6.1 speakers), you only get front channels. There's no surround sound support...yet. Anybody have some success with multi-channel from your Audigy2?
Too bad it's still $150 at Compusa, I'm waiting for it to hit $75 or so and then I plan to pick one up.
You'll never buy a soundcard you truly want then. By the time the Extigy hits $75, you'll be cumshotting the next generation soundcard which will go for $150 or so.
I picked up an Audigy2 over the holidays and paired it with Creative's 6.1 speaker system...beautiful. The soundcard and speakers made Ghost Recon, a good game to begin with, 400% better. When an AI-controlled squad mate opens up on the enemy with his MG3 or OICW, it wakes you up. Love my Audigy2 on both Linux (w/ Alsa drivers) and Windows XP.
I also hit the graphics card sweet spot with that Radeon 9700 Pro. For all the bitching on/. about driver support for Linux, I get 6000+ fps in glxgears with a 2.4Ghz P4 with 512MB RAM. But that is neither here nor there.
Get that card now! You want it! You know you want it!
I agree with your assessment of Metacity. For example, I cannot minimize file transfer dialogs spawned from Mozilla. I am given no choice to do so. So I either have to stare at them or drag them away so I can see the browser window. I also wish Mozilla would integrate better. Every time I log into my machines, I have a terminal on each of two workspaces, Evolution on the fourth workspace, and Mozilla opens on whatever workspace I'm on when it starts instead of workspace three. Perhaps some bug reports would get the ball rolling on these...
At least in a long while. My folks live in Kansas City, and they've had nothing but high 80's to mid 90's heat and no rain most of the late summer. I live in Lexington, Kentucky, and we've had a good amount of rain and moderate temps in the mid 70's to low 80's during that time. Today was the first day we approached 90 in a long while, same in these areas without power today, and it does not surprise me that this happened today.
Now for a quick opinion on air conditioning. Is it just me, or have people confused refrigeration with air conditioning? Crikey. I walk into some large supermarkets, stores, restaurants, etc., and I have to watch my appendages for frostbite. Where I work, the hotter it is outside, the colder it is inside. Some staff have resorted to wearing sweaters, sweatshirts, and run space heaters!
It's just my opinion, but if you can't live at least around 72 degrees (and is a dry, conditioned 75 that bad?), then you should consider a move beyond the polar circles for the summer.
Bob McKenzie: Fleshy headed mutant, are you friendly? Doug McKenzie (As the fleshy headed mutant): No way, eh! Ra-radiation has made me an enemy of civilization!
This screws Flash, Java applets, and all kinds of other things.
Fine by me. I can't stand Flash or Java applets in my browser anyways. Too often these things are abused by advertisements. I hope this expedites their disappearance for all time.
Why does running Linux, wearing ThinkGeek gear, and anything else computer related qualify you for governor of California or any other political office?
<PERSONAL OPINION> Like William F. Buckley, I'd rather be ruled or governed by the Everyman than I would by an increasing number of deep pocketed haves. That said, I'm not giving anybody a free pass, because they play the part of the geek or legit geeks. I want candidates to put forward a comprehensive platform. Programs they will execute. Priorities for their budgets. Don't placate me by "feeling my pain" or reciting the terms of the GPL. <SUBOPINION ON CALIFORNIA> If the marijuana legalization and gay marriage are the acid tests for your gubernatorial candidates, then you have a serious problem. These are journalistic issues, issues that sell papers and give the cable news talking heads something to babble about. In reality, these issues (in addition to file sharing, the RIAA, and IP infringement) affect minor assortments of people. They do not belong in the realm of public policy making where budget crises, transportation gridlock, and energy shortages will determine California's future. These affect homosexuals and heterosexuals, virgin lungs and potheads, and Windows neophytes and Linux zealots with no prejudice. </SUBOPINION ON CALIFORNIA> </POLITICAL OPINION>
What the? The Feds arrested a guy for something incriminating. He admitted to it in a court of law. Guilty. Over.
Why does this mean innocents are going to go down? Jesus, can the Slashdot crowd get any more clueless? You people, which I somehow am one of, can't accept the fact that law enforcement has a purpose especially when it involves a "geek." Wake up and smell the latte, folks. The bad guys, and I'm not talking about the blackhats, aren't going to wear armbands and shirts with epaulets and stand opposed from the other side of the battlefield waving their banner (Windows logo superimposed over AK-47s).
I get the impression that the "geek" crowd would be a perfect place for a terrorist to lay low. Don't need a social life. Access to technology. Co-workers and comrades whose principles (or lack thereof) dismiss responsibility and reality. Simply perfect.
I was going to mod you down, but decided to respond instead. We are not headed towards 1980's East Germany. Please, people, don't make overreaching statements like this. I agree that _sometimes_ law enforcement agencies break the rules. But that doesn't mean our women's swim team will also contend for Mr. Olympia next year.
There's several tools related to digital/online filmmaking that are evolving nicely. First, sound tools:
Ardour is a multichannel hard disk recorder (HDR) and digital audio workstation (DAW).
Audacity is a free audio editor. You can record sounds, play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, and MP3 files, and more.
JACK Rack is an effects "rack" for the JACK low latency audio API. The rack can be filled with LADSPA effects plugins and can be controlled using the ALSA sequencer. It's phat; it turns your computer into an effects box.
Second, video capture and editing:
Kino is a non-linear DV editor for GNU/Linux. It features excellent integration with IEEE 1394 for capture, VTR control, and recording back to the camera. It captures video to disk in AVI format in both type-1 DV and type-2 DV (separate audio stream) encodings.
Cinerella combines most of the basic functions needed to produce motion pictures with a capable compositing system. Advanced editing, YUV compositing, and realtime effects are some of the things Cinelerra does. Cinelerra's 16 bit YUV compositing engine has been optimized for multiple CPU's, reduces generation loss, and significantly reduces compression time. Capturing from IEEE1394, Video4Linux, Motion JPEG, and screenshots is supported.
Third, animation:
Blender is an open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback.
Fourth, post-processing:
CinePaint(formerly Film Gimp) CinePaint is a free open source painting and image retouching program designed to work best with 35mm film and other high resolution high dynamic range images.
I have used Kino, Cinerella, and Blender (a little) and was impressed with each of them. The audio tools look promising and CinePaint has some Hollywood titles to its credit. Maybe I'm a fool, but it seems that the "digital revolution" is giving open source, non-proprietary software tools a chance. Moviemaking is requiring more and more geeks. Being free got OSS in the door. Now, they're getting some much deserved polish.
I agree with you in a lot of cases. The quality of the video can take you away from the subject in the movie. But this isn't always the case. Check out Personal Velocity (WARNING: chick flick but interesting still). This was shot with a couple Sony PD-150's, and the color is excellent. Though noticibly different from typical 35mm films, picture quality was not a distraction. No, it's not 35mm, and just about anything short of HD is going to come up short, but Personal Velocity shows you what can be done with a DV camcorder and some post-processing. Read more about the DP's and director's work on it. I think with some effort you can get a quality on par with 16mm film. Good lighting goes a long way (though the PD-150 kicks @ss in low light).
I recently bought a PD-150, and the color depth is remarkable. I'm hoping to get some documentary work in addition to filming some screenplays I've written (small cast and no budget stuff). The least of my concerns is the DV quality.
I wouldn't give up on "artsy" movies so easily, including Pi director Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream. I thought this was the better of the two drug related movies of 2000 including Traffic. I felt closer to Aronofsky's characters in Requiem. What Traffic was to macroeconomics, Requiem was on a microeconomic level.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, don't knock Nebraska. You might like it there. They have a governor. Gas is probably $0.40 a gallon cheaper. No two hour commutes. And all the corn you can look at.
I can't stand IBM keyboards. Let me rephrase that: I fucking hate them. What you call tactile feedback, I call suppressing fire. Before I got my first PC in college, I went to the lab to type my papers. There was one PC that had one of these infernal keyboards and it was always the last one anyone sat at. Never failed that when I showed up to the lab, the only machine open was the one with the clangboard.
It took many years to get over--WHAT? YES, MASTER I'LL DO THY BIDDING!--hrm, get over that keyboard.
I prefer to stick with the laptop keyboard, because it frees up some desk space and means one less peripheral to deal with. Where I work, we buy from Gateway. For a few years I had a 9300 Solo. An okay PC with a swank 15" screen.
I loved that keyboard. Butter soft. Almost no resistance in the keys; just enough to spring back up. Nothing like the old IBM keyboards of yore. CLANG-CLACK. CLANG-CLACK.
The warranty ran out on that and I now have some fucking model I despise. The thickness of the laptop means the keys are roughly 1" above the surface that the laptop rests on. I have to really get over the machine to type now. The ergonomics of this thing are the suck. My left wrist rests on the front left corner of the laptop and is getting worn smooth from the contact.
But the worst part about this damned keyboard is the action. You have to put your weight into every keystroke. The keys almost stick to your fingers they're so stiff. It's as if my alter ego called up Gateway and complained about the soft keyboard of the 9300, and Gateway caved. I hate those fucking people for it. I stick pins in little dolls that look like people who like stiff keyboards.
We have?
I agree with what you said, but apparently McNealy and crew aren't focused enough on Sun. SUNW has spent too much time in court trying to subvert MSFT; granted MSFT deserves a swift kick in the butt, but I'd rather Sun and similar companies stick to what they do best: engineer.
I'd say the Linux drivers for my ATI card get it done.
Well if the majority of web servers on the Net run Apache + Linux, then sure, because my web server continues to absorb Code Red hits looking for an exploitable Microsoft IIS server.
There's Pyzzle. I stumbled upon this while considering a go at developing a Myst engine for Linux/PC/whatever. I'm not a Python hack or fan, but this looks pretty good as far as a true to Myst game engine is concerned.
Anybody else looking at a lot of whitespace between the blurb and the threaded responses?
They're Javanesians, not Javites.
I get 160+ spam messages a day in from my original ISP given mail account. None worth my time.
I need to get out more, because at this rate, I'm going to remember 2003 most for the way e-mail was rendered useless.
I haven't seen Spiderman, The Hulk, Daredevil, League of Extraordinairy Gentlemen, or any of them. You see the money spent on these flicks could have gone into other productions, but didn't. So I'm lamenting the prevalence of comic book inspired movies where a variety of creative efforts could have flourished.
What industry/art form/creative outlet will Hollywood exploit and photocopy next?
For Alsa drivers, the Audigy2 uses the emu10k1 driver. I've done this several times with a P4 2.4Ghz desktop and P4 1.2Ghz laptop both running Gentoo. Sound quality is *excellent*. One caveat for multi-channel users (5.1 or 6.1 speakers), you only get front channels. There's no surround sound support...yet. Anybody have some success with multi-channel from your Audigy2?
You'll never buy a soundcard you truly want then. By the time the Extigy hits $75, you'll be cumshotting the next generation soundcard which will go for $150 or so.
I picked up an Audigy2 over the holidays and paired it with Creative's 6.1 speaker system...beautiful. The soundcard and speakers made Ghost Recon, a good game to begin with, 400% better. When an AI-controlled squad mate opens up on the enemy with his MG3 or OICW, it wakes you up. Love my Audigy2 on both Linux (w/ Alsa drivers) and Windows XP.
I also hit the graphics card sweet spot with that Radeon 9700 Pro. For all the bitching on /. about driver support for Linux, I get 6000+ fps in glxgears with a 2.4Ghz P4 with 512MB RAM. But that is neither here nor there.
Get that card now! You want it! You know you want it!
I agree with your assessment of Metacity. For example, I cannot minimize file transfer dialogs spawned from Mozilla. I am given no choice to do so. So I either have to stare at them or drag them away so I can see the browser window. I also wish Mozilla would integrate better. Every time I log into my machines, I have a terminal on each of two workspaces, Evolution on the fourth workspace, and Mozilla opens on whatever workspace I'm on when it starts instead of workspace three. Perhaps some bug reports would get the ball rolling on these...
Now for a quick opinion on air conditioning. Is it just me, or have people confused refrigeration with air conditioning? Crikey. I walk into some large supermarkets, stores, restaurants, etc., and I have to watch my appendages for frostbite. Where I work, the hotter it is outside, the colder it is inside. Some staff have resorted to wearing sweaters, sweatshirts, and run space heaters!
It's just my opinion, but if you can't live at least around 72 degrees (and is a dry, conditioned 75 that bad?), then you should consider a move beyond the polar circles for the summer.
Bob McKenzie: Fleshy headed mutant, are you friendly?
Doug McKenzie (As the fleshy headed mutant): No way, eh! Ra-radiation has made me an enemy of civilization!
Fine by me. I can't stand Flash or Java applets in my browser anyways. Too often these things are abused by advertisements. I hope this expedites their disappearance for all time.
Why does running Linux, wearing ThinkGeek gear, and anything else computer related qualify you for governor of California or any other political office?
<PERSONAL OPINION>
Like William F. Buckley, I'd rather be ruled or governed by the Everyman than I would by an increasing number of deep pocketed haves. That said, I'm not giving anybody a free pass, because they play the part of the geek or legit geeks. I want candidates to put forward a comprehensive platform. Programs they will execute. Priorities for their budgets. Don't placate me by "feeling my pain" or reciting the terms of the GPL.
<SUBOPINION ON CALIFORNIA>
If the marijuana legalization and gay marriage are the acid tests for your gubernatorial candidates, then you have a serious problem. These are journalistic issues, issues that sell papers and give the cable news talking heads something to babble about. In reality, these issues (in addition to file sharing, the RIAA, and IP infringement) affect minor assortments of people. They do not belong in the realm of public policy making where budget crises, transportation gridlock, and energy shortages will determine California's future. These affect homosexuals and heterosexuals, virgin lungs and potheads, and Windows neophytes and Linux zealots with no prejudice.
</SUBOPINION ON CALIFORNIA>
</POLITICAL OPINION>
Why does this mean innocents are going to go down? Jesus, can the Slashdot crowd get any more clueless? You people, which I somehow am one of, can't accept the fact that law enforcement has a purpose especially when it involves a "geek." Wake up and smell the latte, folks. The bad guys, and I'm not talking about the blackhats, aren't going to wear armbands and shirts with epaulets and stand opposed from the other side of the battlefield waving their banner (Windows logo superimposed over AK-47s).
I get the impression that the "geek" crowd would be a perfect place for a terrorist to lay low. Don't need a social life. Access to technology. Co-workers and comrades whose principles (or lack thereof) dismiss responsibility and reality. Simply perfect.
I was going to mod you down, but decided to respond instead. We are not headed towards 1980's East Germany. Please, people, don't make overreaching statements like this. I agree that _sometimes_ law enforcement agencies break the rules. But that doesn't mean our women's swim team will also contend for Mr. Olympia next year.
Ardour is a multichannel hard disk recorder (HDR) and digital audio workstation (DAW).
Audacity is a free audio editor. You can record sounds, play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, and MP3 files, and more.
JACK Rack is an effects "rack" for the JACK low latency audio API. The rack can be filled with LADSPA effects plugins and can be controlled using the ALSA sequencer. It's phat; it turns your computer into an effects box.
Second, video capture and editing:Kino is a non-linear DV editor for GNU/Linux. It features excellent integration with IEEE 1394 for capture, VTR control, and recording back to the camera. It captures video to disk in AVI format in both type-1 DV and type-2 DV (separate audio stream) encodings.
Cinerella combines most of the basic functions needed to produce motion pictures with a capable compositing system. Advanced editing, YUV compositing, and realtime effects are some of the things Cinelerra does. Cinelerra's 16 bit YUV compositing engine has been optimized for multiple CPU's, reduces generation loss, and significantly reduces compression time. Capturing from IEEE1394, Video4Linux, Motion JPEG, and screenshots is supported.
Third, animation:
Blender is an open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback.
Fourth, post-processing:
CinePaint(formerly Film Gimp) CinePaint is a free open source painting and image retouching program designed to work best with 35mm film and other high resolution high dynamic range images.
I have used Kino, Cinerella, and Blender (a little) and was impressed with each of them. The audio tools look promising and CinePaint has some Hollywood titles to its credit. Maybe I'm a fool, but it seems that the "digital revolution" is giving open source, non-proprietary software tools a chance. Moviemaking is requiring more and more geeks. Being free got OSS in the door. Now, they're getting some much deserved polish.I recently bought a PD-150, and the color depth is remarkable. I'm hoping to get some documentary work in addition to filming some screenplays I've written (small cast and no budget stuff). The least of my concerns is the DV quality.
I wouldn't give up on "artsy" movies so easily, including Pi director Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream. I thought this was the better of the two drug related movies of 2000 including Traffic. I felt closer to Aronofsky's characters in Requiem. What Traffic was to macroeconomics, Requiem was on a microeconomic level.