Cheap, milky plastic over a cheap metal case. Bah!
Now what I want is a keyboard with lighted letters. I don't mean that Star Trek Wrath of Kahn transulect blue keys. What I want is a regular looking keyboard with lit letters on the keys. That way I could see the keys while playing Quake with the lights off.:)
Intel does not provide a public network. They pay for the systems that provide those services within their company, and as such are responsible for the information flowing on those systems. I think Intel is well within their rights to enjoin this private individual from utilizing the resources of their company.
I hate adds in software. A few years ago Sierra decided to put ads for Sprint in Space Quest 5 (every time you used the "video phone" it ended with a Sprint splash). I returned the game for a refund and have not purchased any Sierra software since (with the exception of Half-Life (I'm indignant, not stupid)).
I tolerate banner ads on web pages as long as they are done in moderation (Slashdot's banner ads are a good example) but will not bother to visit sites who's ads bring up a popup (Xoom and GeoCities) or otherwise make my use of that page painfull (I'm still on a 33.6).
IF the software is "free" give it to me free. If you want money for it (and I think it's worth using) I'll pay money for it. This whole "it's free but you gotta watch some adds to use it" crap reminds me a bit too much of that Channel 1 school oriented cable crap a few years ago (they offered the schools free TV's with cable access in return for ad space on the TV durring classroom use. Evil.)
On the other hand, many people are as stupid as the day they were born and will go for it.:(
It's very simple to anyone who works in a business environment. Those in charge (be they Pointy Haired Bosses or cool dudes) require the one thing that Linux cannot deliver: Accountability.
If you buy a commercial *nix and it pukes on you, you have legal recourse with the vender for repairs. If Linux (or FreeBSD or any other "free" OS) pukes on you, you are sh!t out of luck. Maybe it can be fixed, and maybe that bug gets addressed in three years. There is NO ONE you can put pressure on to "get it fixed and get it fixed now!".
Businessmen (and women) know that with purchasing dollars comes the power to withhold that money. To many of them Linux is not an acceptable solution no matter what it's technical merits may be.
As someone who has been in the business sector (from computer sales to banking) it is easy for me to see the reasons why corporations act the way they do.
If I was setting up a non-mission critical server in my workplace (say an intranet WWW server or some such), or in a school I'd suggest Linux from the word go.
If I was setting up a mission critical server (or system) in a business environment I wouldn't touch Linux.
The needs of business are not the same as many of you. They can't afford to take chances.
Way back in fall of 1993 temnsions were running very high in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action as DOOM was running late and everyone (at least quite a few of us) was frothing at the mouth waiting for it to come out.
The number of DOOM related posts were starting to down out the posts for all other games combined. Someone made the comment that DOOM would not have the high buzz factor if it had a dorky name like "Spashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles of Putrid Debris".
A spark hit the gasoline. Withing hours posts began flying around about this new game referred to as SPISPOPD that was to DOOM what the atmoic bomb was to a sharp stick. The descriptions ranged from fully 3D Quake-like worlds with ruby and neon lasers to how to beat Linus Van Pelt (Peanuts), herald of The Great Pumpkin.
Seth Cohn created the "Official SPISPOPD FAQ" filled with many of these posts and the history of Ego Software. I have a copy of the FAQ around here somewhare...
The guys at id head all the SPISPOPD hubbub and Dave "DDT" Taylor wrote named the no-clipping cheat "idspispopd" (later changed to "idclip" in DOOM2).
After DOOM was released Jamul Software (two guys in a college dorm room) wrote an Atari 2600ish top down game called SPISPOPD in about 48 hours. It was nothing like the Legendary SPISPOPD but it was very fun.
One one hand it is too bad they didn't go by the original workingt title: "It's Green And It's Pissed". On the other hand "DOOM" is a real catchy name that sums up the entire game.
Quake and it's offspring, cousins and ripoffs may have more technologically advanced engines but DOOM had gameplay and atmosphere. DOOM is the only game ever to scare me. I don't ever remember trying to peak around a corner in a room by staring into a moniter at an angle in Quake, Quake 2, Unreal, Half-Life, etc.. like I did in DOOM.
Okay, try this: I give you a gun and you go target shooting with it. I didn't bother to tell you that the nice wood-grain platic handle is actually made of C4 and that when that first shot is fired the whole thing is going to explode and turn your arm into ground beef. Is this okay?
Or how about I distribute a new, and very complex code library for Linux that does really cool stuff and then when your not looking it suddenly fills your network with so much garbage traffic it bombs your network?
How about this. Some large, strong and very mean dude comes over and kicks your teeth right out of your ass. Is this okay because all the time you spent using the computer you should have been in the gym getting stronger and at the dojo learning how to fight?
Pull your head out of your butt and _THINK_ for once.
Personally I've been using computers for about 19 years now and it never ceases to amaze me the number of hateful, immature cretins who are out there who think it is fine to victemize those who know less than they do.
What happens when people who care not for these values cross over into the Free Software world? They care little about the code, but more about the image, and the fact that everything is gratis.
This has already happened. Just look in almost ANY story on/. about any OS other than Linux and you will see plenty of nitwits complaining about an OS you have to Pay Money For *shudder*.
Too many of the "If it's not free it's crap!" people mean "free beer" not "free speech".
I LIKE Be. It is fast, stable and easy to configure. It even has a bash shell. I HATE Unix (no offence to those who like it).
And before you accuse me of not trying Linux, I have tried Linux again and again from kernel 0.9x (an SLS distro) all the wat to RedHat 5.0, as well as FreeBSD, HP/UX, Solaris, and IBM AIX. I hate them all.
All I know is that no one named Larry Greenberg should be allowed anywhere NEAR Pluto, regardless if it is a planet or just a lost moon of Uranus smacked out of orbit a billion years ago by some out of control alien spaceship.
Yes, Furbies (ick!) have no storage to record sounds or data. But they have microphones. How much work would it really take to patch a transmitter to the microphone in that things head? A few minutes with a soldering iron. And it's not like there isn't room to hide small transmitter in the things body.
The point is that the NSA can't afford to take chances, period. You want a small, furry thing on your desk to releave the monotony of cubicle life? Bring in a dogbert plushy.
"I did figure one thing out -- I was always a little curious why the early BeOS advocates were so enthusiastic. Coming from a NEXTSTEP background, BeOS looked to me like a fairly interesting little system, but nothing special. To a mac developer, it must have looked like the promised land..."
Well, gosh, the State Library system in my state (Alaska) hates MicroSoft products so they use OS/2 and WordPErfect office suites for OS/2. Send them word files? Tough luck, pal.
There are choices. Too bad the Pointy-Haired idiots who makes these purchasing choices can't be held responcible for the lost productivity their lack of integrety causes.:(
If you like radio commedy, or commedy records, then the latest Firesign Theatre album (er, CD); Give me Immortality or Give Me Death might be your cup of tea. The theme of this one is a radio station broadcast on Dec 31, 1999.
Not only is it Y2K relavent, and their first album in years, it is also (IMHO) their best work since Don't Crush That Dwarf Hand Me The Plyers.
Slashdot Mirror
Cheap, milky plastic over a cheap metal case. Bah!
:)
Now what I want is a keyboard with lighted letters. I don't mean that Star Trek Wrath of Kahn transulect blue keys. What I want is a regular looking keyboard with lit letters on the keys. That way I could see the keys while playing Quake with the lights off.
And THIS is the crux of the whole matter.
I hate adds in software. A few years ago Sierra decided to put ads for Sprint in Space Quest 5 (every time you used the "video phone" it ended with a Sprint splash). I returned the game for a refund and have not purchased any Sierra software since (with the exception of Half-Life (I'm indignant, not stupid)).
:(
I tolerate banner ads on web pages as long as they are done in moderation (Slashdot's banner ads are a good example) but will not bother to visit sites who's ads bring up a popup (Xoom and GeoCities) or otherwise make my use of that page painfull (I'm still on a 33.6).
IF the software is "free" give it to me free. If you want money for it (and I think it's worth using) I'll pay money for it. This whole "it's free but you gotta watch some adds to use it" crap reminds me a bit too much of that Channel 1 school oriented cable crap a few years ago (they offered the schools free TV's with cable access in return for ad space on the TV durring classroom use. Evil.)
On the other hand, many people are as stupid as the day they were born and will go for it.
So you don't have a TV plugged in, who cares?
But then again, I remember when the cable companies wanted to charge extra for people who had a TV _AND_ a VCR plugged into the cable!
(the old RatBastard runs for cover whilst slipping on his fireproof underpants).... :)
It's very simple to anyone who works in a business environment. Those in charge (be they Pointy Haired Bosses or cool dudes) require the one thing that Linux cannot deliver: Accountability.
If you buy a commercial *nix and it pukes on you, you have legal recourse with the vender for repairs. If Linux (or FreeBSD or any other "free" OS) pukes on you, you are sh!t out of luck. Maybe it can be fixed, and maybe that bug gets addressed in three years. There is NO ONE you can put pressure on to "get it fixed and get it fixed now!".
Businessmen (and women) know that with purchasing dollars comes the power to withhold that money. To many of them Linux is not an acceptable solution no matter what it's technical merits may be.
As someone who has been in the business sector (from computer sales to banking) it is easy for me to see the reasons why corporations act the way they do.
If I was setting up a non-mission critical server in my workplace (say an intranet WWW server or some such), or in a school I'd suggest Linux from the word go.
If I was setting up a mission critical server (or system) in a business environment I wouldn't touch Linux.
The needs of business are not the same as many of you. They can't afford to take chances.
I remember that period very well.
Way back in fall of 1993 temnsions were running very high in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action as DOOM was running late and everyone (at least quite a few of us) was frothing at the mouth waiting for it to come out.
The number of DOOM related posts were starting to down out the posts for all other games combined. Someone made the comment that DOOM would not have the high buzz factor if it had a dorky name like "Spashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles of Putrid Debris".
A spark hit the gasoline. Withing hours posts began flying around about this new game referred to as SPISPOPD that was to DOOM what the atmoic bomb was to a sharp stick. The descriptions ranged from fully 3D Quake-like worlds with ruby and neon lasers to how to beat Linus Van Pelt (Peanuts), herald of The Great Pumpkin.
Seth Cohn created the "Official SPISPOPD FAQ" filled with many of these posts and the history of Ego Software. I have a copy of the FAQ around here somewhare...
The guys at id head all the SPISPOPD hubbub and Dave "DDT" Taylor wrote named the no-clipping cheat "idspispopd" (later changed to "idclip" in DOOM2).
After DOOM was released Jamul Software (two guys in a college dorm room) wrote an Atari 2600ish top down game called SPISPOPD in about 48 hours. It was nothing like the Legendary SPISPOPD but it was very fun.
Half-Life is the only post-Quake game (IMO) to create the same atmosphere as DOOM (at least until Xen where I lost interest).
As for DOOM era games my favorite non-DOOM FPS game would have to be Dark Forces. Damned fine game.
I tried System Shock. Hated it. It was technologically advance compaired to DOOM but just bored me to death.
But hey, some like Coke and some like Pepsi.
One one hand it is too bad they didn't go by the original workingt title: "It's Green And It's Pissed". On the other hand "DOOM" is a real catchy name that sums up the entire game.
Quake and it's offspring, cousins and ripoffs may have more technologically advanced engines but DOOM had gameplay and atmosphere. DOOM is the only game ever to scare me. I don't ever remember trying to peak around a corner in a room by staring into a moniter at an angle in Quake, Quake 2, Unreal, Half-Life, etc.. like I did in DOOM.
Blame the victem. You sound like a Scientologist.
Okay, try this: I give you a gun and you go target shooting with it. I didn't bother to tell you that the nice wood-grain platic handle is actually made of C4 and that when that first shot is fired the whole thing is going to explode and turn your arm into ground beef. Is this okay?
Or how about I distribute a new, and very complex code library for Linux that does really cool stuff and then when your not looking it suddenly fills your network with so much garbage traffic it bombs your network?
How about this. Some large, strong and very mean dude comes over and kicks your teeth right out of your ass. Is this okay because all the time you spent using the computer you should have been in the gym getting stronger and at the dojo learning how to fight?
Pull your head out of your butt and _THINK_ for once.
Personally I've been using computers for about 19 years now and it never ceases to amaze me the number of hateful, immature cretins who are out there who think it is fine to victemize those who know less than they do.
I like the way people try to blame the victem for the actions of those who attack them. No wonder our society is going down the toilet.
Is the trusting old lady at fault when she gets swindled by a con artist?
Is the college coed at fault when some psycho rapes her in the park?
Are you at fault when someone bigger and stronger than you kicks your ass just because he feels like it?
The fault always lies with those who victemize others. They _CHOSE_ to commit acts againts others (be it voilent or otherwise).
This has already happened. Just look in almost ANY story on /. about any OS other than Linux and you will see plenty of nitwits complaining about an OS you have to Pay Money For *shudder*.
Too many of the "If it's not free it's crap!" people mean "free beer" not "free speech".
It used to be that the biggest security hole in any network was a badly configured firewall (or lack thereof), now it's MS Word and MS Outlook!
...
I can just see the day this was decided at The Collective
[Insert wavy flashback effect]
Five of Seven: "Hey, Three of Five, let's give Word the ability to run external executables!"
Three of Five: "Cool! But let's make it so that it can do this from within a macro!"
Five: "Sounds good. How about we add a startup macro that launches when the document is opened?"
Three: "Hmm, should we allow the user to turn off startup macros?"
Five: "Hahaha! What for? No one is going to use this for evil! This is a Good Thing[tm]!"
[Fade back to present]
Sad, just plain goddam sad.
Your point is irrelavent. Free speech is free speech. That's the problem woth freedom of speech; you have to put up with opinions you don't like.
We play Quake, Quake2 and DOOM.
And before you accuse me of not trying Linux, I have tried Linux again and again from kernel 0.9x (an SLS distro) all the wat to RedHat 5.0, as well as FreeBSD, HP/UX, Solaris, and IBM AIX. I hate them all.
It is explained in the article.
I hate all flavors of Unix.
I like Be. It is fast and stable (its GUI kicks the snot out of XFree86, that's for damned sure).
All I know is that no one named Larry Greenberg should be allowed anywhere NEAR Pluto, regardless if it is a planet or just a lost moon of Uranus smacked out of orbit a billion years ago by some out of control alien spaceship.
Hmm, bandersnach burgers!
Yes, Furbies (ick!) have no storage to record sounds or data. But they have microphones. How much work would it really take to patch a transmitter to the microphone in that things head? A few minutes with a soldering iron. And it's not like there isn't room to hide small transmitter in the things body.
The point is that the NSA can't afford to take chances, period. You want a small, furry thing on your desk to releave the monotony of cubicle life? Bring in a dogbert plushy.
"I did figure one thing out -- I was always a little curious why the early BeOS advocates were so enthusiastic. Coming from a NEXTSTEP background, BeOS looked to me like a fairly interesting little system, but nothing special. To a mac developer, it must have looked like the promised land..."
Hehe. I'm such a bastard.
Well, gosh, the State Library system in my state (Alaska) hates MicroSoft products so they use OS/2 and WordPErfect office suites for OS/2. Send them word files? Tough luck, pal.
:(
There are choices. Too bad the Pointy-Haired idiots who makes these purchasing choices can't be held responcible for the lost productivity their lack of integrety causes.
Not only is it Y2K relavent, and their first album in years, it is also (IMHO) their best work since Don't Crush That Dwarf Hand Me The Plyers.