World domination - not a joke, really
on
Linux vs. Windows
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Rearding this:
Says the Open Source Initiative's Eric Raymond, 'The sinister plan for world domination is right on schedule.' All right!"... there is a bit of truth in every joke. He is not fully joking here.
From what you described, it sounds like MS Windows is not the OS you should choose. Apples are also quite expensive. Another option is Linux, and I see others have already provided links to various terminal-only distributions and other library-oriented packages.
I wanted to suggest something else. The issue for you may be setting up those Linux terminals, as you may not have the required knowledge. However, it is likely that your town/city has a LUG (Linux User Group). My suggestion would be to find them, get in touch with them, find a few knowledgeable LUG members, and recruit them to help you set things up. The advantage of Linux over something like Windows is that it tends to stay stable, once you set it up proprely. That means that you may need some help with initial setup, but from there on, you'll be better of than on Windows.
Again, find out if there is a LUG where your library will be, and recruit 1-2 people to help you out. I think that will be more interesting and cheapter (time and money-wise) than if you went the Windows route.
Funny, I was just thinking about projecting video onto clouds the other day. You probably couldn't cut code using clouds as your gigant display unit, but you could probably watch some 'herbal movies' on them...
Imagine The Blue Screen of Death on that! Scary...
... and Sun's potential acquisition of Novell
on
Sun Rays For Linux
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· Score: 5, Interesting
This is VERY interesting, considering there are rumours about Sun thinking about buying Novell (which recently bought SuSe). Time to hit trading accounts!:)
Re:503 Errors Out the Wazoo Today!
on
Sun Rays For Linux
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
I'm surprised nobody mention this... but is this a well-timed pres release from Redmond, or what! I wonder what that will do to GOOG's IPO price. It's good to have competition.
It's as simple as the subject. Open-source software is just another option. Don't like it? Buy the commerical software, or pay for its development by a trusted company or agency. However, governments DO use closed-source software from companies and people they do not know. Who says Microsoft is not paid by X government that, through mass-adoption of Windows and other MS applications around the planet, now has control over a laaaaaarge number of computers in all countries of this world? In other words, simply buying commerical software is not any more secure. What's worse, there is not way you will be able to check the sources. With OSS you have that option, and it is up to you, the user of the software, to check it or not check it.
I would venture to say that if Microsoft were smart and if they could lose some of their stubborn pride, they would adopt a UNIX kernel the way Apple did.
Before that move, Apple's Mac OSes were a joke - constantly crashing, freezing, etc. They integrated BSD kernel and built their pretty UI and nice apps on top. Good move by Steve Jobs. Apple lost nothing. This is the real reason why MacOS is so popular among the 'computer owners elite' today.
Microsoft could do the same and really hurt all of their competition whose existence is based on the fragility of various/all Windows versions.
Of course, MS could also just make their own Linux distro (MS Linux), make it better than RedHat and 100% free. That's an easy way to get all other Linux distro companies out of business. With their thick bank accounts holding over 30 billion USD, they could offer it for free for a looong looong time. On the other hand, that's Linux distro companies' bread and butter.
8 hours of work is still 8 hours of work, regardless of whether it is parallel to your own 8 hours of work or serial. 8+8=16, regardless of the time zone. However, the same or very close time zone allows for much better communication, same day turn-around, instead of 2-day turn-around.
Imagine being in California and having workers in Shanghai. That is 15 hours difference. By the time you get to work, workers in China are already gone for the day. Even if you send them email to do X at 6 AM, they will still be long gone from their offices, which means they won't get to X until tomorrow.
Here I was reading Slashdot, opened a link mentioned in Slashdot in another tab. Accidentally closed Firefox. Started Firebox again. Now, what was that link again? I wish Firefox allowed me to save all opened tabs in some fashion (e.g. ask confirmation on close or add preference to turn that on/off or ask me if I want to use the old set of tabs on start, etc.)
1. and 2. are already sort of done by sites like Simpy (see link in sig), with additional advantage of that searchable bookmark index residing on a server, which makes it easy for people to get to their index from *anywhere*.
I find it sad that it's so much about money. What about 'the meaning'? What about having the knowledge to pass onto your children? What about applying the knowledge to make the world a better place? Money cannot buy this.
No matter that that study says and what people here think, I know that whenever I look at PhD programs in the U.S. I always see a LOT of foreign names, lots of Chinese, lots of Indians, some Europeans, and very few American-sounding names.
However, U.S. has nothing to fear - they've always been on the lookout for exceptional individuals, and when they found them they usually made them an offer they could not refuse. Perhaps they didn't do a good job with Charlie Chaplin.:(
Slashdot Mirror
Rearding this:
... there is a bit of truth in every joke. He is not fully joking here.
Says the Open Source Initiative's Eric Raymond, 'The sinister plan for world domination is right on schedule.' All right!"
From what you described, it sounds like MS Windows is not the OS you should choose. Apples are also quite expensive. Another option is Linux, and I see others have already provided links to various terminal-only distributions and other library-oriented packages.
I wanted to suggest something else. The issue for you may be setting up those Linux terminals, as you may not have the required knowledge. However, it is likely that your town/city has a LUG (Linux User Group). My suggestion would be to find them, get in touch with them, find a few knowledgeable LUG members, and recruit them to help you set things up. The advantage of Linux over something like Windows is that it tends to stay stable, once you set it up proprely. That means that you may need some help with initial setup, but from there on, you'll be better of than on Windows.
Again, find out if there is a LUG where your library will be, and recruit 1-2 people to help you out. I think that will be more interesting and cheapter (time and money-wise) than if you went the Windows route.
I haven't been to Disney World in 20 years.... :)
What do these sheets of water look like? Water-fall like? White and foamy? Smooth and blue/clear?
Funny, I was just thinking about projecting video onto clouds the other day. You probably couldn't cut code using clouds as your gigant display unit, but you could probably watch some 'herbal movies' on them...
If there is a 1-hand keyboard, is there a 2-hand mouse?
I asked Google, and interestingly enough, it gave me just the opposite - a 0-hand mouse: No Hand Mouse.
Yeah, cca. 2TB difference. :(
So do Microsoft, IBM, and a few other gigants. But I don't think that is anything to fear...
If the number of IT titles/jobs/workers went down, what went up? What kind of titles are in now? Anyone knows?
Is this the first OS to go beyond version 10? I know there is MacOS X, but that's kind of randomly chosen name (more than a version number), no?
hydrogen == supposedly more environment friendly
SUV == environement unfriendly
Does a Hydrogen SUV make sense then?
Do we really really need SUVs?
Imagine The Blue Screen of Death on that! Scary...
This is VERY interesting, considering there are rumours about Sun thinking about buying Novell (which recently bought SuSe). Time to hit trading accounts! :)
Recursive Slashdot effect?
I'm surprised nobody mention this... but is this a well-timed pres release from Redmond, or what! I wonder what that will do to GOOG's IPO price. It's good to have competition.
It's as simple as the subject. Open-source software is just another option. Don't like it? Buy the commerical software, or pay for its development by a trusted company or agency.
However, governments DO use closed-source software from companies and people they do not know. Who says Microsoft is not paid by X government that, through mass-adoption of Windows and other MS applications around the planet, now has control over a laaaaaarge number of computers in all countries of this world?
In other words, simply buying commerical software is not any more secure. What's worse, there is not way you will be able to check the sources. With OSS you have that option, and it is up to you, the user of the software, to check it or not check it.
$249.99? Are they kidding?
I would venture to say that if Microsoft were smart and if they could lose some of their stubborn pride, they would adopt a UNIX kernel the way Apple did.
Before that move, Apple's Mac OSes were a joke - constantly crashing, freezing, etc. They integrated BSD kernel and built their pretty UI and nice apps on top. Good move by Steve Jobs. Apple lost nothing. This is the real reason why MacOS is so popular among the 'computer owners elite' today.
Microsoft could do the same and really hurt all of their competition whose existence is based on the fragility of various/all Windows versions.
Of course, MS could also just make their own Linux distro (MS Linux), make it better than RedHat and 100% free. That's an easy way to get all other Linux distro companies out of business. With their thick bank accounts holding over 30 billion USD, they could offer it for free for a looong looong time. On the other hand, that's Linux distro companies' bread and butter.
It would be interesting to see a summary listing spots that are the most extreme in any way.
Jelsa, Hvar, Croatia. :)
Tourists: don't bother coming here, it's really, really awful here! Baaaaaaad!
8 hours of work is still 8 hours of work, regardless of whether it is parallel to your own 8 hours of work or serial. 8+8=16, regardless of the time zone. However, the same or very close time zone allows for much better communication, same day turn-around, instead of 2-day turn-around.
Imagine being in California and having workers in Shanghai. That is 15 hours difference. By the time you get to work, workers in China are already gone for the day. Even if you send them email to do X at 6 AM, they will still be long gone from their offices, which means they won't get to X until tomorrow.
That is why the same time zone is better.
I read an interesting article the other day. This article was describing Canada as a great place for the U.S. to outsource its jobs, because:
...
1. same time zone
2. same language
3. similar work ethics and culture
4. lower wages
5. highly educated
6. geographically closer
Makes sense, eh?
Here I was reading Slashdot, opened a link mentioned in Slashdot in another tab. Accidentally closed Firefox. Started Firebox again. Now, what was that link again? I wish Firefox allowed me to save all opened tabs in some fashion (e.g. ask confirmation on close or add preference to turn that on/off or ask me if I want to use the old set of tabs on start, etc.)
Simpy (c.f. sig) uses that approach, and it works great! Does Google categorize pages? No, you simply drill down to pages you need by doing a search.
Try Simpy demo, and you'll see.
1. and 2. are already sort of done by sites like Simpy (see link in sig), with additional advantage of that searchable bookmark index residing on a server, which makes it easy for people to get to their index from *anywhere*.
I find it sad that it's so much about money. What about 'the meaning'? What about having the knowledge to pass onto your children? What about applying the knowledge to make the world a better place? Money cannot buy this.
:(
No matter that that study says and what people here think, I know that whenever I look at PhD programs in the U.S. I always see a LOT of foreign names, lots of Chinese, lots of Indians, some Europeans, and very few American-sounding names.
However, U.S. has nothing to fear - they've always been on the lookout for exceptional individuals, and when they found them they usually made them an offer they could not refuse. Perhaps they didn't do a good job with Charlie Chaplin.