If we were discussing gun control, and I spun out a fairy tale about some old lady using her sainted husband's old.45 to defend herself from a slavering gang of would-be rapists, I'd be (justly) blasted for presenting a picture of life that was wildly out of sync with reality.
Actually, this happens all the time. I can give you newspaper references if you like.
Royal DaVinci's price point is $100 and they're not eating the market alive. 'Course they don't have a Linux based unit (though they've been promising one... hold your breath!)
...to get me to read the news paper again is actual, honest, unbiased reporting.
Far too often, I've heard the "right wing establishment" moan and complain about the "elite left wing media" and how they "stiffle and control content to have a strongly liberal slant." At first, this sounded absurd, then I started paying attention and found that if is far more true than not.
Today's techno-geek is far less interested in towing the democratic-liberal line nor very interested in right-wing conservatism except as it applies to them. The techno-geek is synical (honest?) about ever growing the role of government in their technological lives and the fact that the media continues to pander to that goal. Take for instance any article on "hacking" in any standard newspaper. It is always portrayed as "those evil techno-geeks trying to steal your credit card numbers" and how there doesn't seem to be any way to stop them but the government is "talking about doing something, I hope they do it soon!" As example, President Clinton's (*laugh*) recent Internet Security Summit (*big laugh*). How worthless was that as far as actually doing something about this supposed problem? Most techno-geeks realize that it's nothing more than a launchpad for yet more government controles and bureaucracy into "cyberspace."
And where was the "elitest left-wing media" in all this? Right there cheering it on while the average, non-techno-geek readers accept it as a "good thing." Frankly, it scares most tech-savy people.
As a result of this obvious bias, most tech-savy/techno-geeks have come to distrust "traditional" reporting institutions, including the newspapers and have turned to web reporting to get their information.
Web reporting, in contrast tends to more closely follow the "openness" typified of internet residents. In web reporting, techno-geeks feel that they can get a truely unbiased report, free from the hinderances of political, union, or other pressures.
Therefore, the only thing that will get me and other technical people to even consider reading something as quaint as a newspaper again is to start rebuilding our trust in it. Start with fair reporting.
I know that this will probably never happen. The powers that hold and control newspapers are strong and will refuse to let go. A popular saying the martial art Aikido is "once your oponent has given you something, never give it back" is well learned by the newspapers masters. I'll be real sorry when the grand old institutions of the newspapers die. Rest In Peace.
Open Source Software -is- capatalistic, or at least Free Market. In a Free Market system, goods and services are exchanged for something of value (typically other goods and services).
Simply put, no exchange of goods or services will occure unless both parties benefit. In OSS, the services (writing code) is exchanged for what benefit (Hint: Cath. & Baz.). It is exchanged for either that happy-fuzzy feeling of helping someone else, or for status among the comunity. And status is -very- important. I know an exectutive who makes almost $150,000 yearly on -just- his salary who got pissed off and threw a hissy over a $500 car allowance. Why? Status. Heck, that's the only reason I have biz. cards at work, 'cause it's a status symbol. Corner office anyone?
Here's some suggested reading for all of those people who think that OSS is "comunistic": The Cathedral The Bazzar (duh!), Free To Choose (by Economist & Nobel Laureate, Milton Friedman, ISBN: 0-15-633460-7)
Read the fine print on LinuxCAD. Last time I checked, all the modules, including DXF-in/out and plotting were at additional cost (hopefully they've changed since then). 'Course, even at the additional cost, it's still cheaper than AutoCAD. Still doesn't do AutoLISP scripting though so your AutoCAD LISP utilities are just so much wasted time (last time I checked). peace favor your sword
After working as a sysadmin in CAD shops for 5 years, I can say with certainty that 2D CAD is still used quite extensively and 3D CAD is often looked on as needlessly complex for many tasks.
The biggest barier to Linux CAD solutions being deployed in existing shops is not the lack of acceptable CAD programs (there are a few) but rather the lack of compatibility. File compatibility is achieved through native DXF and DWG tralation, but must AutoCAD shops have thousands of custom AutoLISP programs to automate various tasks. I've never seen a Linux CAD prog. that even had a scripting feature much less any degree of compatibility to AutoLISP. My current shop certainly wouldn't switch. Sure it costs us $2,000+ per seat of AutoCAD, but our LISP routines make customizing, editing, marking-up, plotting, etc. a snap and save us hundreds of man hours -PER PERSON- a year. Until a linux CAD prog can do that, it won't be replacing AutoCAD.
Note: Microstation -is- available for Linux, but only as the Student Version (not available to biz.) I know. I talked to them personally.
Here is a list of the Linux CAD progs/projects that I've come across:
Slashdot Mirror
The "fluidics" in that story was as a response to EMP vulnerabilities in electronics.
Peace favor your sword
Peace favor your sword
Royal DaVinci's price point is $100 and they're not eating the market alive. 'Course they don't have a Linux based unit (though they've been promising one... hold your breath!)
...to get me to read the news paper again is actual, honest, unbiased reporting.
Far too often, I've heard the "right wing establishment" moan and complain about the "elite left wing media" and how they "stiffle and control content to have a strongly liberal slant." At first, this sounded absurd, then I started paying attention and found that if is far more true than not.
Today's techno-geek is far less interested in towing the democratic-liberal line nor very interested in right-wing conservatism except as it applies to them. The techno-geek is synical (honest?) about ever growing the role of government in their technological lives and the fact that the media continues to pander to that goal. Take for instance any article on "hacking" in any standard newspaper. It is always portrayed as "those evil techno-geeks trying to steal your credit card numbers" and how there doesn't seem to be any way to stop them but the government is "talking about doing something, I hope they do it soon!" As example, President Clinton's (*laugh*) recent Internet Security Summit (*big laugh*). How worthless was that as far as actually doing something about this supposed problem? Most techno-geeks realize that it's nothing more than a launchpad for yet more government controles and bureaucracy into "cyberspace."
And where was the "elitest left-wing media" in all this? Right there cheering it on while the average, non-techno-geek readers accept it as a "good thing." Frankly, it scares most tech-savy people.
As a result of this obvious bias, most tech-savy/techno-geeks have come to distrust "traditional" reporting institutions, including the newspapers and have turned to web reporting to get their information.
Web reporting, in contrast tends to more closely follow the "openness" typified of internet residents. In web reporting, techno-geeks feel that they can get a truely unbiased report, free from the hinderances of political, union, or other pressures.
Therefore, the only thing that will get me and other technical people to even consider reading something as quaint as a newspaper again is to start rebuilding our trust in it. Start with fair reporting.
I know that this will probably never happen. The powers that hold and control newspapers are strong and will refuse to let go. A popular saying the martial art Aikido is "once your oponent has given you something, never give it back" is well learned by the newspapers masters. I'll be real sorry when the grand old institutions of the newspapers die. Rest In Peace.
Kirk Lawson
lklawson@heapy.com
Maybe the coders could add a filter that automatically would automatically throw away any "first post" worthless crap.
peace favor your sword
Open Source Software -is- capatalistic, or at least Free Market. In a Free Market system, goods and services are exchanged for something of value (typically other goods and services).
Simply put, no exchange of goods or services will occure unless both parties benefit. In OSS, the services (writing code) is exchanged for what benefit (Hint: Cath. & Baz.). It is exchanged for either that happy-fuzzy feeling of helping someone else, or for status among the comunity. And status is -very- important. I know an exectutive who makes almost $150,000 yearly on -just- his salary who got pissed off and threw a hissy over a $500 car allowance. Why? Status. Heck, that's the only reason I have biz. cards at work, 'cause it's a status symbol. Corner office anyone?
Here's some suggested reading for all of those people who think that OSS is "comunistic": The Cathedral The Bazzar (duh!), Free To Choose (by Economist & Nobel Laureate, Milton Friedman, ISBN: 0-15-633460-7)
Read the fine print on LinuxCAD. Last time I checked, all the modules, including DXF-in/out and plotting were at additional cost (hopefully they've changed since then). 'Course, even at the additional cost, it's still cheaper than AutoCAD. Still doesn't do AutoLISP scripting though so your AutoCAD LISP utilities are just so much wasted time (last time I checked). peace favor your sword
The biggest barier to Linux CAD solutions being deployed in existing shops is not the lack of acceptable CAD programs (there are a few) but rather the lack of compatibility. File compatibility is achieved through native DXF and DWG tralation, but must AutoCAD shops have thousands of custom AutoLISP programs to automate various tasks. I've never seen a Linux CAD prog. that even had a scripting feature much less any degree of compatibility to AutoLISP. My current shop certainly wouldn't switch. Sure it costs us $2,000+ per seat of AutoCAD, but our LISP routines make customizing, editing, marking-up, plotting, etc. a snap and save us hundreds of man hours -PER PERSON- a year. Until a linux CAD prog can do that, it won't be replacing AutoCAD.
Note: Microstation -is- available for Linux, but only as the Student Version (not available to biz.) I know. I talked to them personally.
Here is a list of the Linux CAD progs/projects that I've come across:
http://www.qcad.org/index.php3
http://www.cycas.de/
http://www.microform.se/index.htm#VAR
http://ftp.arl.mil/brlcad//
http://www.fpa-engineers.com/OD/
http://pw2.netcom.com/~iamcliff/FREEdraft.html
http://www.octree.de/
peace favor your sword