In the future, hopefully in the not too distant future, we will begin to utilise the moon.
Do you think that it will be possible to extend the terrestrial internet to encompass the moon?
Would you envisage if that happened that it would be using an extended version of TCP?
Or do you think that there would have to be two separate internets one on each body?
I used to run KDE3 and it worked well for me. Had a big hiccup with the transition to KDE4 which was when Linus decided to go back to Gnome2. I stuck with KDE4 until the semantic desktop kicked in and my computer started to freeze as KDE4 began to prepare it's symantic database. I sat looking at my laptop with 100% cpu activity and the fan at full pelt for something I didn't ask for, and I thought,
hmm, this is like running windows
So I went back to using a window manager rather than a desktop manager
If you want an extremely light window manager packaged up with a good collection of programs then choose lxde desktop IMHO.
However if you only want a window manager rather than an entire ecosystem then there are a few alternatives like fluxbox and icewm.
I have gone back to icewm which I feel I have complete control of, with wicd for networking and pcman for a file manager, and a dropdown terminal guake.
You can also pull in whatever KDE / Gnome / XFCE programs you might like.
The nice thing about icewm is that all your window manager settings are stored in easy to use text files in your ~/.icewm directory, and you can back these up and use them in your other PCs so you only have to set it up once.
Unfortunately, Sony in all their "stop piracy" wisdom made it almost impossible to transfer digital content OFF a disc.
That was the problem I had with the format. The only reason that I bought the unit is was for quick recording in the field, mainly for my wife's work. It would have been handy for her to be able to record hour long interviews and then transfer them to our computer for editing down to an interesting 10 minutes or so. However having to import the recordings through the the analogue input made the unit a real hassle to use.
I sent some query emails to Sony because I was sure that this must be a mistake, why would a company make the process of using their device so awkward? Eventually I got a reply from Sony asking me why I wanted to circumvent their proprietary system, as if I was trying to break into their property!
Yes they are priced too high. I have gone through the points from the article:
1) Digital preparation. The cost of changing the digital formating from original format to an ebook format. That is what computers are for it should not be an expensive task.
2) QA. Yes that is needed. Automatic convertion should manage the conversions. Ebooks are not the same as physical books, the text / diagrams / and footnotes should flow differently for each ebook magnification and for each different type of ebook. Setting the layout and typesetting exactly is for physical books, ebooks should be done automatically. However having someone give the book a once over is needed.
3)Distribution and updates.
These should again be achieved using software and limited human involvement.
This again should be automated via software.
I think the writter Michael Hyatt is so bedded with the process of the physical book that he is applying the same techniques to digital.
I like physical books. A well prepared physical book is beautiful, each page layed out optimally on the page, great care taken that any illustrations and notes look good, typeset so that even the shape of the writing is a pleasure.
However that is not what an ebook is about. The ebook just has the material, formated for the convenience of your device. That an illustration lands on page 75 rather than 63 is of no consequence.
So Mr Hyatt is either creating a smokescreen to cover the high cost charged for Digital Books, or there is a more serious problem and he does not understand what an ebook is.
And if he takes more money than is needed to produce an ebook, then his business will not survive.
Yes that is a good comment, and hopefully those smaller publishing houses will illustrate by their success that a fair model of electronic book distribution is the way forward. By fair I mean reasonable price and no DRM.
Barry: This is a critical point. There’s a huge data set proving that digital books are a price-sensitive market, and that maximum revenues are achieved at a price point between $.99 and $4.99. So the question is: why aren’t publishers pricing digital books to maximize digital profits?
Joe: Because they're protecting their paper sales.
Barry: Exactly.
Joe: It's awfully dangerous for an industry to ignore (or even blatantly antagonize) their customers in order to protect self-interest.
This is one thing that puts me off buying ebooks. At the moment they are overpriced.
Another problem is that they come with DRM, and running a free operating system I cannot read them and have to resort to other methods to obtain a free copy. I would much rather purchase a reasonably priced ebook with no DRM so that some money goes to the author.
We are left with the same untenable situation with ebooks as there was with the music industry, that is that you get a better ebook for free which is flexible and can be read on any ereader than you get by purchasing for £12 from an official ebook retailer.
There have been chat bots online for a while now, elbot http://www.elbot.com/ is an amusing example.
When the chatbots develop so that they pass the Turing Test http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test then this will be a comfort to lonely nerds everywhere.
Actually it can be fun to chat to chatbots, it is interesting when they are realistic.
Uh... "for future disruption"? What does that mean?
I think he means disruption as in disruptive technologies i.e. technologies that make present tech redundant. So the iPhone was a disruptive technology in that it changed the market for mobile smart phones.
I think that the statement is meant to imply that Meego was being kept so that they can produce a product in the future that was disruptive to the competition in the mobile market
Whether that is a genuine possibility or a carrot to retain staff is open to speculation
Re: All immediately after the N900 gets Android apps
That's what I was thinking. Access to Android apps gives the phone access to the wider ecosystem that Nokia seeks.
Now they have to start to build from scratch with W7. I think they made the wrong jump.
Yes I agree. There is some content in the fine article which is fair such as
governments should make sure that the two forms of software compete on a level playing field and can comingle efficiently. One way of doing this would be to promote open standards to ensure that proprietary incumbents do not abuse a dominant position.
I believe that open standards would certainly help break certain proprietary software monopolies.
I can also highly recommend the OU. I have been studying with them since 2006 and I will be getting an Honours Degree in Information and Communication Technologies completed in the 2nd half of this year.
I have found most of the courses pretty enjoyable, and the most recent section on computers is very well set out and a pleasure to do.
That is a thought, what do the people who have not practised their handwriting do when they have to do a written examination in a hall, with a time limit.
During my college days studying for my diploma I had many such tests, not all of the papers were purely mathematical, and speed of legible handwriting was very important.
Now that I am doing a degree by correspondence course all the course work can be typed, but there is still a set end of course written exam in each subject so good handwriting ability is a real asset if a high mark is required.
I have studied here in the UK, so my question is this: don't they have written tests in the USA, since it appears from many posters here that hand writing skills are not considered to be required there?
Cursive deserves to die -- it often results in illegible scrawl.
True about the often results in a scrawl part. But this is down to the choice of the writer, and how important the legibility is to him.
In my job I have to complete a daily handwritten log. Because my actions impact on safety this log has to be handwritten and legible so that if something goes wrong there is a document to refer to which cannot easily be tampered with.
Of the three log fillers one of us is only semi-legible, that person writes in block capitals. After some time concentrating hard on the log book I can decipher the writing, but it is an effort.
The other log writer also uses block capitals, which are large and clear, although rather shouty looking.
I myself was taught, or rather forced to learn, italic script by an old monk in my younger years (it's a long story), so I fill out my part of the log in Italic script. This form of cursive writing is very legible, but also pleasant to read. People hunting through the log for details of an incident breath a sigh of relief when they come to those sections.
So while I sympathise with the person finding cursive writing can be a scrawl, I would add that it can also be the best form of writing to read.
This post is surely the best kind of post... purely anecdotal.
Good story number one Government not doing enough to protect our children
Good story number two Overbearing government puts red tape obstacle in path of those working with children
I feel that society is now becoming paranoid about risks to children, but it is not the government that causes this, in fact I believe that it is a result of the magnification effect of salacious reporting in the media.
I also feel bad because I have recommended people to use them. So in addition to removing myself from LastFm I have to apologise to several friends and advise them to leave also.
It's not that I have any exposure from them it's rather that I have lost all trust in them. What's next, do they sell my details to spammers?
I very quickly swapped my Xandros for the the DebianEee install, and it has been a really good experience.
Having the Eee able to use software from the Debian repository is great.
On the subject of the default distro putting users off. A year ago I attended a course on our Telephone exchanges. The lecturer ( a very experienced Tel. exchange guy which means familiarity with their proprietary Unix like telephone OS ) had just purchased an Asus Eee so that he didn't have to carry a large Laptop on his travels. So the idea is that he has the Eee in front of him, connected to a projector for the class to watch the commands he is putting into the exchanges. We all have dumb terminals for the exchanges, and he is telnetting into our exchanges to demonstrate and correct our programming.
Only problem is that the Eee comes with this sort of Linux thing which doesn't do telnet.
Fortunately I also have the same Eee so I could start him on the road add the repository which contains such extras as telnet, and give him some Linux tuition so that by the end of the course he was starting to appreciate that he actually could use Linux and that it would work for him.
So I agree with many posters here in that the netbook manufacturers have not put the best Linux into their Laptops. They would be better with mainstream distros with a large software repository already available.
I travel with an Asus Eee and I keep a selection of SD cards with me for data-backups on the move, watching movies, and some more for mucking about with several operating systems.
This reminds me of the policies surrounding passwords I've seen at many companies; limiting the set of choices by making password creation requirements, and forcing them to change so often that people end up writing them down and leaving them on their desk. Defeats much of the purpose of having them in the first place.
Yes that is so commmon on the North Sea offshore platforms where I work. A large number of the PCs have user names and passwords on stickers on their monitors. The stickers are changed once a month as IT impose a password change.
I'm a horrible at judging music the first time I listen to it.
Sometimes I can get new music first time, but then again sometimes it takes a while for me to warm to something. It is a strange thing but I think pretty much the norm.
I'm sort of accepting that the way the world functions doesn't financially support all the musical artists who want to be
I think that you are right. There are too many artists for people to invest the time to fully evaluate each one.
A lot of music grows on people over repeated listens. But it is not practicable for most people to spend the required time for this other than with a small number of artists.
Having been an enthusiastic amateur musician for many years, played small pubs and halls, usually supporting more established artists I have observed how hard it is for an audience to enjoy new music at first listen.
Slashdot Mirror
In the future, hopefully in the not too distant future, we will begin to utilise the moon.
Do you think that it will be possible to extend the terrestrial internet to encompass the moon? Would you envisage if that happened that it would be using an extended version of TCP? Or do you think that there would have to be two separate internets one on each body?
hmm, this is like running windows
So I went back to using a window manager rather than a desktop manager
If you want an extremely light window manager packaged up with a good collection of programs then choose lxde desktop IMHO.
However if you only want a window manager rather than an entire ecosystem then there are a few alternatives like fluxbox and icewm. I have gone back to icewm which I feel I have complete control of, with wicd for networking and pcman for a file manager, and a dropdown terminal guake. You can also pull in whatever KDE / Gnome / XFCE programs you might like.
The nice thing about icewm is that all your window manager settings are stored in easy to use text files in your ~/.icewm directory, and you can back these up and use them in your other PCs so you only have to set it up once.
Icewm, the cool window manager
Unfortunately, Sony in all their "stop piracy" wisdom made it almost impossible to transfer digital content OFF a disc.
That was the problem I had with the format. The only reason that I bought the unit is was for quick recording in the field, mainly for my wife's work. It would have been handy for her to be able to record hour long interviews and then transfer them to our computer for editing down to an interesting 10 minutes or so. However having to import the recordings through the the analogue input made the unit a real hassle to use.
I sent some query emails to Sony because I was sure that this must be a mistake, why would a company make the process of using their device so awkward? Eventually I got a reply from Sony asking me why I wanted to circumvent their proprietary system, as if I was trying to break into their property!
I have never bought anything from Sony since.
1) Digital preparation. The cost of changing the digital formating from original format to an ebook format. That is what computers are for it should not be an expensive task.
2) QA. Yes that is needed. Automatic convertion should manage the conversions. Ebooks are not the same as physical books, the text / diagrams / and footnotes should flow differently for each ebook magnification and for each different type of ebook. Setting the layout and typesetting exactly is for physical books, ebooks should be done automatically. However having someone give the book a once over is needed.
3)Distribution and updates. These should again be achieved using software and limited human involvement. This again should be automated via software.
I think the writter Michael Hyatt is so bedded with the process of the physical book that he is applying the same techniques to digital. I like physical books. A well prepared physical book is beautiful, each page layed out optimally on the page, great care taken that any illustrations and notes look good, typeset so that even the shape of the writing is a pleasure.
However that is not what an ebook is about. The ebook just has the material, formated for the convenience of your device. That an illustration lands on page 75 rather than 63 is of no consequence. So Mr Hyatt is either creating a smokescreen to cover the high cost charged for Digital Books, or there is a more serious problem and he does not understand what an ebook is.
And if he takes more money than is needed to produce an ebook, then his business will not survive.
Yes that is a good comment, and hopefully those smaller publishing houses will illustrate by their success that a fair model of electronic book distribution is the way forward. By fair I mean reasonable price and no DRM.
This is one thing that puts me off buying ebooks. At the moment they are overpriced.
Another problem is that they come with DRM, and running a free operating system I cannot read them and have to resort to other methods to obtain a free copy. I would much rather purchase a reasonably priced ebook with no DRM so that some money goes to the author.
We are left with the same untenable situation with ebooks as there was with the music industry, that is that you get a better ebook for free which is flexible and can be read on any ereader than you get by purchasing for £12 from an official ebook retailer.
There have been chat bots online for a while now, elbot http://www.elbot.com/ is an amusing example. When the chatbots develop so that they pass the Turing Test http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test then this will be a comfort to lonely nerds everywhere. Actually it can be fun to chat to chatbots, it is interesting when they are realistic.
I think he means disruption as in disruptive technologies i.e. technologies that make present tech redundant. So the iPhone was a disruptive technology in that it changed the market for mobile smart phones.
I think that the statement is meant to imply that Meego was being kept so that they can produce a product in the future that was disruptive to the competition in the mobile market
Whether that is a genuine possibility or a carrot to retain staff is open to speculation
That's what I was thinking. Access to Android apps gives the phone access to the wider ecosystem that Nokia seeks. Now they have to start to build from scratch with W7. I think they made the wrong jump.
I believe that open standards would certainly help break certain proprietary software monopolies.
The sig is loading
I have found most of the courses pretty enjoyable, and the most recent section on computers is very well set out and a pleasure to do.
During my college days studying for my diploma I had many such tests, not all of the papers were purely mathematical, and speed of legible handwriting was very important.
Now that I am doing a degree by correspondence course all the course work can be typed, but there is still a set end of course written exam in each subject so good handwriting ability is a real asset if a high mark is required.
I have studied here in the UK, so my question is this: don't they have written tests in the USA, since it appears from many posters here that hand writing skills are not considered to be required there?
True about the often results in a scrawl part. But this is down to the choice of the writer, and how important the legibility is to him.
In my job I have to complete a daily handwritten log. Because my actions impact on safety this log has to be handwritten and legible so that if something goes wrong there is a document to refer to which cannot easily be tampered with.
Of the three log fillers one of us is only semi-legible, that person writes in block capitals. After some time concentrating hard on the log book I can decipher the writing, but it is an effort.
The other log writer also uses block capitals, which are large and clear, although rather shouty looking.
I myself was taught, or rather forced to learn, italic script by an old monk in my younger years (it's a long story), so I fill out my part of the log in Italic script. This form of cursive writing is very legible, but also pleasant to read. People hunting through the log for details of an incident breath a sigh of relief when they come to those sections.
So while I sympathise with the person finding cursive writing can be a scrawl, I would add that it can also be the best form of writing to read.
This post is surely the best kind of post ... purely anecdotal.
Good story number one Government not doing enough to protect our children
Good story number two Overbearing government puts red tape obstacle in path of those working with children
I feel that society is now becoming paranoid about risks to children, but it is not the government that causes this, in fact I believe that it is a result of the magnification effect of salacious reporting in the media.
I also feel bad because I have recommended people to use them. So in addition to removing myself from LastFm I have to apologise to several friends and advise them to leave also.
It's not that I have any exposure from them it's rather that I have lost all trust in them. What's next, do they sell my details to spammers?
Having the Eee able to use software from the Debian repository is great.
On the subject of the default distro putting users off. A year ago I attended a course on our Telephone exchanges. The lecturer ( a very experienced Tel. exchange guy which means familiarity with their proprietary Unix like telephone OS ) had just purchased an Asus Eee so that he didn't have to carry a large Laptop on his travels. So the idea is that he has the Eee in front of him, connected to a projector for the class to watch the commands he is putting into the exchanges. We all have dumb terminals for the exchanges, and he is telnetting into our exchanges to demonstrate and correct our programming.
Only problem is that the Eee comes with this sort of Linux thing which doesn't do telnet.
Fortunately I also have the same Eee so I could start him on the road add the repository which contains such extras as telnet, and give him some Linux tuition so that by the end of the course he was starting to appreciate that he actually could use Linux and that it would work for him.
So I agree with many posters here in that the netbook manufacturers have not put the best Linux into their Laptops. They would be better with mainstream distros with a large software repository already available.
The Xandros however is a pig. It strikes me that some of the Linuxes pre-installed on netbooks are hard to love
I bought two cases which look like this one http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/images/products/prod_7daycase.jpg
I have used these for 6 months and they have and coped well with my travels.
My other sig is witty.
Yes that is so commmon on the North Sea offshore platforms where I work. A large number of the PCs have user names and passwords on stickers on their monitors. The stickers are changed once a month as IT impose a password change.
Hmmm just wait. I've been married considerably longer, if I kiss my wife my youngest daughter (13) goes "yuch, old people kissing, how disgusting".
here is a petition for net neutrality, I think that fits for this http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Netneutrality/
Yes that is a good idea.
Also there is a petition for net neutrality up at the government site:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Netneutrality/
Has the government not thought about the possible flaw in their plan to turn 6 million uk voters against them?
I think that you are right. There are too many artists for people to invest the time to fully evaluate each one.
A lot of music grows on people over repeated listens. But it is not practicable for most people to spend the required time for this other than with a small number of artists.
Having been an enthusiastic amateur musician for many years, played small pubs and halls, usually supporting more established artists I have observed how hard it is for an audience to enjoy new music at first listen.
That opens me up to an obvious repost ;-)
Anyway the site was broken for me, so the XO webserver hack needs a bit more work.