I'm writing this from the City of Sheffield in the UK, about 200 miles away from where I live. I just drove up this morning. On 3 occasions I called the Orange traffic info line to check what was happening on the motorways (freeways) ahead of me. Apart from getting info on specific motorways (punching the number in on the car keypad) one option is to get traffic information near to where I am. It takes only a couple of seconds, then they announce the A road or motorway I'm traveling on, the direction I'm traveling in, and then proceed to give me a full report on what happening ahead of me and in the surrounding area. It's bloody useful.
It's also possible to be too paranoid about things to you own detriment !!
My team are not office based. We travel around a lot, so a web based solution doesn't really fit. Hula looks promising (we looked at that already) but its not production ready yet. Scalix looked to be the best solution, as an Exchange replacement. But in the end we got a packaged Exchange solution Fasthosts.co.uk as its way cheaper than buying a server, renting computer room space, etc, etc.
If you want shared calendaring, email and contacts with good integration between the three, there isn't really anything else in one package with good client support that matches Exchange or one of the OSS Exchange replacements. That was the conclusion we came to anyway.
And I hope that someone comes out with a 150-200GB disk for laptops pretty soon so I can fit all this lot on one system. My 100GB PowerBook hard drive is already 83% full.
I don't think this is true. Sure there are lots of Linux distributions out there, but most of them only exist because they satisfy the needs of specific niches. In reality market forces and developer resources have already paired down the choices most end users will make down to just two: Redhat and SuSE; with Ubuntu being a possible third. No disrespect intended to Mandriva but they don't have the marketing mindshare to compete with the big boys, and its mindshare that counts the most. Having two or three main competing distros is not a bad thing, its a good thing as it helps to keep them sharp and focused on quality and innovation. And having a choice of two or three is not too much to ask. It certainly doesn't do any harm.
Unfortunately I'm a consultant who's specialised in Alpha and Tru64/TruClusters since their inception. I'm still getting regular work in this field but its on the decline now and I've been breaking out into HP-UX (PA-RISC/Itanium) and Linux to make up the slack. It would actually be better for me if Itanium and HP-UX succeeded rather than failed, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Intel don't screw up completely. HP-UX (though I don't like it as much as Tru64) is especially dependent on Itanium. If it failed they would have to port to x86-64, but frankly I couldn't see it surviving against Linux.
Just to check, I started up a Gnome app while running KDE. No problem. The other way works fine too.
So you started a Gnome app while running KDE, big deal. Does your Gnome app integrate seamlessly with KDE's changes in look 'n feel, or drag 'n drop, or cut 'n paste as well as another KDE app would? Or does it work with the desktop as well as it would on Gnome? Nah, I didn't think so.
The parent poster hit the nail on the head. A customer gets a much better user experience from a unified desktop than one which is fragmented. Whether you like it or not the commercial *ix industry is standardizing on Gnome. It doesn't matter whether Gnome is better than KDE or not right now. It only matters that they do standardize for those people who want Linux to be a serious competitor on the commercial and consumer desktop. KDE won't die. It'll still chug along in the background supported by talented enthusiasts, but it won't be the outward face of Linux to the buying public.
Yeah, that's what turned me off KDE too. As much as I think its a superior design under the hood, and is more flexible, etc, etc. At the end of the day I just wanted to use a simple clean interface with one of each type of app on display in the menus at any one time, by default, as I move from one customer system to the next. Gnome pretty much gives you that "out of the box" and KDE doesn't, at least the last time I looked. So guess what, when customers ask me for a recommended Linux distro, I suggest one that focuses primarily on GNOME. That's pretty much ruled out SuSE until now.
Well actually DEC/Compaq/HP cranked the Alpha handle a little further than that. You can still buy Alpha servers with up to 64 1.3GHz 21364 (EV7z) chips in them.
Had Compaq stuck to the product roadmap instead of snuggling up to Intel over Itanium, then the EV79 would have been out in 2004, shrunk to 0.13mics + SOI, and available at speeds of 1.6GHz and 1.7GHz.
God only know what an EV8 on todays fabrication technology would have been capable of. What a total waste of ingenuity. And all thanks to a bunch of idiot box shifting bean counters at Compaq, with no imagination, no vision, and no concept of what a quality product would look like if it slaped them round the head.
Yes, I know all that, and I'm quite comfortable using h,j,k,l when editing files. Sometimes I switch between them and the arrow keys without even realising it if my fingers happen to be nearer. But for command line editing it's not as intuitive, nor is it as quick when you have to use two key strokes and two hands just to recall previous commands and edit/execute them. The arrow keys are there on your keyboard for a good reason. Most people are more productive when they use them!
As for using an inputrc file; I'm a consultant and regularly move between many customer sites and systems. I don't think its practical or proper that I should have to create and populate an inputrc file where ever I go in order to be able to more intuitively navigate the command line. Besides which the presence of an unexpected inputrc file could present other users of the systems (i.e. the customers) with an unpleasant surprise if they're not expecting it and/or don't like my choice of keybindings.
You can't do a whole lot of typing on the command line then either. I've never bothered to learn to use the Emacs editor (tried about 15 years ago and hated it) so I always use the vi editor... but when it comes to command line editing, "emacs mode" whoops "vi mode" totally. Being able to use the arrow keys to scroll back commands or navigate the command line, along with ^a (beginning of line) ^e (end of line) ^r (to search for strings in your command history)... "esc." (that's "dot" not a full stop, to recall the last field in the previous command string, etc, etc, etc....
The only time I've had to use vi mode for command line editing is on HP-UX, where the lack of a modern shell by default and crap emacs mode support have forced me into it. The usability difference is horribly noticeable.
I'm quite amazed that the ever invasive presence of Spyware and Viruses on Windows hasn't factored into your decision. Don't you get fed up of having to deal with that shit?
Yep. That WAP site is the home page on my mobile, and I probably use their traffic info page more than the others. I use it almost daily when walking to the car to check for reports of problems on the M4 before going to/from work.
I had a pet rat a few years ago too, an albino. I inherited him off my brother after my brother developed an allergic reaction to him (he was his second rat). At first I only took him on because my brother knew I liked animals and would treat him well. I knew nothing about rats before then. But I soon learned that as well as being playful and inquisitive, domestic rats are very social creatures, and enjoy human contact. Mine never bit me once. On the contrary, he would sit there quietly and close his eyes when I tickled him behind his ears, then he'd reciprocate by holding my fingers in his front paws and licking them. He was extremely affectionate. I had to have him put down in the end because he developed a tumor in his spine and lungs and started loosing the ability to use his back legs. One of the most upsetting moments of my life.
Actually I'm hoping that VMware will port their products to the new osx86 when it ships. I'd love to have the choice to run Linux & Windows in VMware on my first x86 Apple Mac when I get one.
On the contrary, I think that Apple may be tapping into a potential gold mine. There isn't much of a retail industry around online music video content at the moment. Certainly not in the same way that there is for music. If they can make the online purchase of music videos as ubiquitous as they have done for music, they stand to make a mint.
Then there's "porn in your pocket, anytime, anywhere". Could be just the thing to spice up marital play time after the kids have gone to bed;-)
Unless you are a poultry worker or otherwise handle wild fowl you are not at risk. This disease is spread bird to man but not man to man.
Not yet. But what's keeping the scientists and politicians across Europe awake at night is the possibility that someone already infected with human influenza will contract H5N1 and it will mutate. The message we're getting from the scientific community over here in Europe is that it's not a case of if, but when. Its being taken so seriously that here in the UK plans are already being explored by Government on what to do when the first cases of human to human transmitted H5N1 arrives. Depending on how fast the virus spreads and how fast we do or don't react to it, the death toll could be anywhere between 50,000 to 750,000 people. Here's another BBC Article on the subject, published just today !!
Interesting discussion thread. He doesn't actually answer the question though, but never the less its interesting to know other people are thinking along the same lines.
Ditto. Wind speeds change dramatically as you go higher. The jet stream for example can vary between 60-200mph depending on the location and time of year. How do they plan to cope with this and stop the top of the elevator from whipping around up there with all the forces being exerted on the cables below.
I'm extremely skeptical that this can be done safely.
I wonder how long it would take a hypersonic vehicle then, like an hour and a half?
And I wonder what it would be like to be a passenger in one. By that I mean the experience has to be comfortable right. You have to limit the max acceleration so that your passengers aren't pinned to the back of their seats or throwing up all over the place, or people would be too frightened to fly in the thing. Same goes for slowing down.
I'm guessing you'd spend most of a trans-atlantic flight either accelerating or decelerating and not very much time at all cruising.
The article was biased, content, structure and choice of words make that clear.
No they don't. Prove it.. quote the paragraphs you think are biased.
TTTech says he reported them after it was clear that he was going to be fired.
Oh of cause, how silly of us all to get the wrong end of the stick. TTTech would never lie about anything would they, they're all innocent church going Execs who would never slander anyone else's reputation or do anything criminal or wrong. You should start a petition to get Bernard Ebbers released from Jail as he was obviously wrongly convicted.
You should contact the Austrian authorities and inform them of your verdict, we all know your decisions based on newspaper articles are infallible.
If he was blackmailing them, then where's the evidence? You obviously know something we don't so lets have your insight. Show us how this nasty man was blackmailing poor innocent TTTech!
In fact I wonder why those Senator guys went through all the troubles with finding a new Chief Justice. All they have to do is post Roe v. Wade on/. and a day later they can read what Lord of Truth and Justice Macka(9338) decrees.
And the new Chief Justice must sleep very soundly at night knowing he's got Super Sleuth nutScrape(557890) on hand to investigate his cases for him.
If there is a out-of-court settlement with TTTech (which they offered but three months pay doesn't sound like much) or some organisation (say "Aviation Industry Officials for Truth and Security" with its seat in Everett, Washington) pays him a few millions for his just fight...
You've totally missed the point. He's not accepted any cash because there's a higher moral imperative at stake here i.e. people's lives! Fortunately there are some people in this world who can't be brought off.
The article says that he was fired after he reported his findings to the European aviation authorities. There is nothing in the article that hints he was going to get fired before he blew the whistle. Nor is there any evidence that he was blackmailing them other than their baseless claim in court; no doubt as a tactic to try and discredit him and tarnish his reputation.
There has got to be something to what this guy is saying. Why else would any sane individual put himself and his family through this kind of financial hell and risk his own liberty?
He's not the one spreading FUD here, its his former employer!
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I'm writing this from the City of Sheffield in the UK, about 200 miles away from where I live. I just drove up this morning. On 3 occasions I called the Orange traffic info line to check what was happening on the motorways (freeways) ahead of me. Apart from getting info on specific motorways (punching the number in on the car keypad) one option is to get traffic information near to where I am. It takes only a couple of seconds, then they announce the A road or motorway I'm traveling on, the direction I'm traveling in, and then proceed to give me a full report on what happening ahead of me and in the surrounding area. It's bloody useful.
It's also possible to be too paranoid about things to you own detriment !!
My team are not office based. We travel around a lot, so a web based solution doesn't really fit. Hula looks promising (we looked at that already) but its not production ready yet. Scalix looked to be the best solution, as an Exchange replacement. But in the end we got a packaged Exchange solution Fasthosts.co.uk as its way cheaper than buying a server, renting computer room space, etc, etc.
If you want shared calendaring, email and contacts with good integration between the three, there isn't really anything else in one package with good client support that matches Exchange or one of the OSS Exchange replacements. That was the conclusion we came to anyway.
And what do you suggest for a shared Calendaring solution without Exchange ?
And I hope that someone comes out with a 150-200GB disk for laptops pretty soon so I can fit all this lot on one system. My 100GB PowerBook hard drive is already 83% full.
I don't think this is true. Sure there are lots of Linux distributions out there, but most of them only exist because they satisfy the needs of specific niches. In reality market forces and developer resources have already paired down the choices most end users will make down to just two: Redhat and SuSE; with Ubuntu being a possible third. No disrespect intended to Mandriva but they don't have the marketing mindshare to compete with the big boys, and its mindshare that counts the most. Having two or three main competing distros is not a bad thing, its a good thing as it helps to keep them sharp and focused on quality and innovation. And having a choice of two or three is not too much to ask. It certainly doesn't do any harm.
Unfortunately I'm a consultant who's specialised in Alpha and Tru64/TruClusters since their inception. I'm still getting regular work in this field but its on the decline now and I've been breaking out into HP-UX (PA-RISC/Itanium) and Linux to make up the slack. It would actually be better for me if Itanium and HP-UX succeeded rather than failed, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Intel don't screw up completely. HP-UX (though I don't like it as much as Tru64) is especially dependent on Itanium. If it failed they would have to port to x86-64, but frankly I couldn't see it surviving against Linux.
Just to check, I started up a Gnome app while running KDE. No problem. The other way works fine too.
So you started a Gnome app while running KDE, big deal. Does your Gnome app integrate seamlessly with KDE's changes in look 'n feel, or drag 'n drop, or cut 'n paste as well as another KDE app would? Or does it work with the desktop as well as it would on Gnome? Nah, I didn't think so.
The parent poster hit the nail on the head. A customer gets a much better user experience from a unified desktop than one which is fragmented. Whether you like it or not the commercial *ix industry is standardizing on Gnome. It doesn't matter whether Gnome is better than KDE or not right now. It only matters that they do standardize for those people who want Linux to be a serious competitor on the commercial and consumer desktop. KDE won't die. It'll still chug along in the background supported by talented enthusiasts, but it won't be the outward face of Linux to the buying public.
Yeah, that's what turned me off KDE too. As much as I think its a superior design under the hood, and is more flexible, etc, etc. At the end of the day I just wanted to use a simple clean interface with one of each type of app on display in the menus at any one time, by default, as I move from one customer system to the next. Gnome pretty much gives you that "out of the box" and KDE doesn't, at least the last time I looked. So guess what, when customers ask me for a recommended Linux distro, I suggest one that focuses primarily on GNOME. That's pretty much ruled out SuSE until now.
Well actually DEC/Compaq/HP cranked the Alpha handle a little further than that. You can still buy Alpha servers with up to 64 1.3GHz 21364 (EV7z) chips in them.
Had Compaq stuck to the product roadmap instead of snuggling up to Intel over Itanium, then the EV79 would have been out in 2004, shrunk to 0.13mics + SOI, and available at speeds of 1.6GHz and 1.7GHz.
God only know what an EV8 on todays fabrication technology would have been capable of. What a total waste of ingenuity. And all thanks to a bunch of idiot box shifting bean counters at Compaq, with no imagination, no vision, and no concept of what a quality product would look like if it slaped them round the head.
Yes, I know all that, and I'm quite comfortable using h,j,k,l when editing files. Sometimes I switch between them and the arrow keys without even realising it if my fingers happen to be nearer. But for command line editing it's not as intuitive, nor is it as quick when you have to use two key strokes and two hands just to recall previous commands and edit/execute them. The arrow keys are there on your keyboard for a good reason. Most people are more productive when they use them!
As for using an inputrc file; I'm a consultant and regularly move between many customer sites and systems. I don't think its practical or proper that I should have to create and populate an inputrc file where ever I go in order to be able to more intuitively navigate the command line. Besides which the presence of an unexpected inputrc file could present other users of the systems (i.e. the customers) with an unpleasant surprise if they're not expecting it and/or don't like my choice of keybindings.
I like vim for command line.....
You can't do a whole lot of typing on the command line then either. I've never bothered to learn to use the Emacs editor (tried about 15 years ago and hated it) so I always use the vi editor
The only time I've had to use vi mode for command line editing is on HP-UX, where the lack of a modern shell by default and crap emacs mode support have forced me into it. The usability difference is horribly noticeable.
Don't forget Bonjour (aka Rendezvous)
Shame you wrote this anonymously. You deserve to be +5 for a well thought out and factual post like that, but most people won't even get to see it.
I'm quite amazed that the ever invasive presence of Spyware and Viruses on Windows hasn't factored into your decision. Don't you get fed up of having to deal with that shit?
Yep. That WAP site is the home page on my mobile, and I probably use their traffic info page more than the others. I use it almost daily when walking to the car to check for reports of problems on the M4 before going to/from work.
Ditto. Thats exactly what I do. He may mention something about this on the other pages in his blog, but I can't tell cos of the
I had a pet rat a few years ago too, an albino. I inherited him off my brother after my brother developed an allergic reaction to him (he was his second rat). At first I only took him on because my brother knew I liked animals and would treat him well. I knew nothing about rats before then. But I soon learned that as well as being playful and inquisitive, domestic rats are very social creatures, and enjoy human contact. Mine never bit me once. On the contrary, he would sit there quietly and close his eyes when I tickled him behind his ears, then he'd reciprocate by holding my fingers in his front paws and licking them. He was extremely affectionate. I had to have him put down in the end because he developed a tumor in his spine and lungs and started loosing the ability to use his back legs. One of the most upsetting moments of my life.
Actually I'm hoping that VMware will port their products to the new osx86 when it ships. I'd love to have the choice to run Linux & Windows in VMware on my first x86 Apple Mac when I get one.
On the contrary, I think that Apple may be tapping into a potential gold mine. There isn't much of a retail industry around online music video content at the moment. Certainly not in the same way that there is for music. If they can make the online purchase of music videos as ubiquitous as they have done for music, they stand to make a mint.
Then there's "porn in your pocket, anytime, anywhere". Could be just the thing to spice up marital play time after the kids have gone to bed
Unless you are a poultry worker or otherwise handle wild fowl you are not at risk. This disease is spread bird to man but not man to man.
Not yet. But what's keeping the scientists and politicians across Europe awake at night is the possibility that someone already infected with human influenza will contract H5N1 and it will mutate. The message we're getting from the scientific community over here in Europe is that it's not a case of if, but when. Its being taken so seriously that here in the UK plans are already being explored by Government on what to do when the first cases of human to human transmitted H5N1 arrives. Depending on how fast the virus spreads and how fast we do or don't react to it, the death toll could be anywhere between 50,000 to 750,000 people. Here's another BBC Article on the subject, published just today !!
Interesting discussion thread. He doesn't actually answer the question though, but never the less its interesting to know other people are thinking along the same lines.
Ditto. Wind speeds change dramatically as you go higher. The jet stream for example can vary between 60-200mph depending on the location and time of year. How do they plan to cope with this and stop the top of the elevator from whipping around up there with all the forces being exerted on the cables below.
I'm extremely skeptical that this can be done safely.
I wonder how long it would take a hypersonic vehicle then, like an hour and a half?
And I wonder what it would be like to be a passenger in one. By that I mean the experience has to be comfortable right. You have to limit the max acceleration so that your passengers aren't pinned to the back of their seats or throwing up all over the place, or people would be too frightened to fly in the thing. Same goes for slowing down.
I'm guessing you'd spend most of a trans-atlantic flight either accelerating or decelerating and not very much time at all cruising.
The article was biased, content, structure and choice of words make that clear.
No they don't. Prove it
TTTech says he reported them after it was clear that he was going to be fired.
Oh of cause, how silly of us all to get the wrong end of the stick. TTTech would never lie about anything would they, they're all innocent church going Execs who would never slander anyone else's reputation or do anything criminal or wrong. You should start a petition to get Bernard Ebbers released from Jail as he was obviously wrongly convicted.
You should contact the Austrian authorities and inform them of your verdict, we all know your decisions based on newspaper articles are infallible.
If he was blackmailing them, then where's the evidence? You obviously know something we don't so lets have your insight. Show us how this nasty man was blackmailing poor innocent TTTech!
In fact I wonder why those Senator guys went through all the troubles with finding a new Chief Justice. All they have to do is post Roe v. Wade on
And the new Chief Justice must sleep very soundly at night knowing he's got Super Sleuth nutScrape(557890) on hand to investigate his cases for him.
If there is a out-of-court settlement with TTTech (which they offered but three months pay doesn't sound like much) or some organisation (say "Aviation Industry Officials for Truth and Security" with its seat in Everett, Washington) pays him a few millions for his just fight...
You've totally missed the point. He's not accepted any cash because there's a higher moral imperative at stake here i.e. people's lives! Fortunately there are some people in this world who can't be brought off.
The article says that he was fired after he reported his findings to the European aviation authorities. There is nothing in the article that hints he was going to get fired before he blew the whistle. Nor is there any evidence that he was blackmailing them other than their baseless claim in court; no doubt as a tactic to try and discredit him and tarnish his reputation.
There has got to be something to what this guy is saying. Why else would any sane individual put himself and his family through this kind of financial hell and risk his own liberty?
He's not the one spreading FUD here, its his former employer!