Slackware was my first permanent distro and I loved it.
Quirky, sure, but I learned more in a month than I did with any other distro I tried.
I don't think you're crazy at all. I think you should be modded up.
PCLinuxOS is probably my favorite newbie distro, though. The hardware support is great, and package management is unbelievably easy with Synaptic. Also, the overall configuration is easy - it uses the Mandrake configuration wizard deal - I don't remember what it's called.
PCLinuxOS. Lousy name, but it is really a great distro to learn with.
I like to use the "pots and pans" cycle even when there are no pots or pans in the load. I think it's more secure aginst streaks, spots, and other malcleaning. It also protects against the trojan spaghetti sauce that tends to stick after a "normal" cycle.
I know the detergent makers usually only support "normal" wash, but I've found that to be typical Cascade FUD - most of the time I can use exactly the same detergent, or in a pinch I can make my own.
I've tried and tried to get my aunts and uncles to switch over to "pots and pans" so they'll stop calling me when food remains stuck to their dishes, but they always forget and just set the dial to "normal" as soon as I leave. I never should have let on that I know anything about dishwashers.
Consumer Reporter: Good evening, and welcome to the holiday edition of "Consumer Probe". Our topic tonight is unsafe toys for children. For instance, this little bow and arrow set. [ holds up ] Pull the rubber suctions off, and the arrows become deadly missiles.
We have with us tonight, Mr. Irwin Mainway, President of Mainway Toys. Uh, Mr. Mainway, your company manufactures the following so-called harmless playthings: Pretty Peggy Ear-Piercing Set, Mr. Skin-Grafter, General Tron's Secret Police Confession Kit, and Doggie Dentist. And what about this innocent rubber doll, which you market under the name Johnny Switchblade? [ holds up doll ] Press his head, and two sharp knives spring from his arms. [ demonstrates ] Mr. Mainway, I'm afraid this is, by no means, a very safe toy.
Irwin Mainway: Okay, Miss, I wanna correct you, alright. The full name of this product, as it appears in stores all over the county, is Johnny Switchblade: Adventure Punk. I mean, nothing goes wrong.. little girls buy 'em, you know, they play games, they make up stories, nobody gets hurt. I mean, so Barbie takes a knife once in a while, or Ken gets cut. You know, there's no harm in that. I mean, as far as I can see, you know?
Consumer Reporter: Alright. Fine. Fine. Well, we'd like to show you another one of Mr. Mainway's products. It retails for $1.98, and it's called Bag O' Glass. [ holds up bag of glass ] Mr. Mainway, this is simply a bag of jagged, dangerous, glass bits.
Irwin Mainway: Yeah, right, it's you know, it's glass, it's broken glass, you know? It sells very well, as a matter of fact, you know? It's just broken glass, you know?
Consumer Reporter: [ laughs ] I don't understand. I mean, children could seriously cut themselves on any one of these pieces!
Irwin Mainway: Yeah, well, look - you know, the average kid, he picks up, you know, broken glass anywhere, you know? The beach, the street, garbage cans, parking lots, all over the place in any big city. We're just packaging what the kids want! I mean, it's a creative toy, you know? If you hold this up, you know, you see colors, every color of the rainbow! I mean, it teaches him about light refraction, you know? Prisms, and that stuff! You know what I mean?
Consumer Reporter: So, you don't feel that this product is dangerous?
Irwin Mainway: No! Look, we put a label on every bag that says, "Kid! Be careful - broken glass!" I mean, we sell a lot of products in the "Bag O'" line.. like Bag O' Glass, Bag O' Nails, Bag O' Bugs, Bag O' Vipers, Bag O' Sulfuric Acid. They're decent toys, you know what I mean?
Consumer Reporter: Well, I guess we could say that all of your toys are really unsafe and should rightfully be banned from the market. I guess I would just like to know what happened to the good ol' teddy bear.
Irwin Mainway: Hold on a minute, sister. I mean, we make a teddy bear. It's right here. [ picks up giant teddy bear ] It's got a nice little feature here, you see? I'll hold it up here. We call it a Teddy Chainsaw Bear. [ revs chainsaw in teddy bear's stomach ] I mean, a kid plays with saws, he can cut logs with it, you know what I mean.
Consumer Reporter: Well, this is certainly a very sad situation. One of the precious joys of Christmas warped by a ruthless profiteer like yourself.
Irwin Mainway: Well, that's just your opinion, you know what I mean?
Consumer Reporter: Well, I just don't understand why you can't make harmelss toys like these alphabet blocks. [ points to blocks ]
Irwin Mainway: C'mon, this is harmless? Alright, okay, you call this harmless? [ holds block in hand ] I mean.. [ plays with block and fakes injury ] Aagghh!! I got a splinter in here, look at that! This is wood! This is unsanded wood, it's rough!
Consumer Reporter: Alright, that's enough of this ridiculous display. [ holds toy phone ] Here is another creative toy, safe enough for a baby!
Irwin Mainway: [ grabs phone ] You say it's safe, I mean, look at this cord.. the kid is on the phone - "Hello
The fact is that this is bullshit, plain and simple. If this guy goes down or gets fined, I hope all nerds with any discretionary cash pony up a little to help him out. He did nothing wrong. As a matter of fact, a pretty persuasive argument could be made that he did something very right.
So, what's the message these kind of reactions from the authorities send?
You are no longer being governed, you are being ruled.
I'll second that one. Every once in awhile when the CEO loses his post-it note with his new password on it, it pays to be able to reset it quickly and painlessly. I have been using that disc for a couple of years and I love it.
I usually keep a copy of the UBCD around to test out SMART failures, flaky memory, etc. and fix boot problems and other miscellaneous junk.
Apart from those, I also have to give the nod to Knoppix or the STD Knoppix for other types of recovery.
What compelled Noah not to include a pair of every dinosaurs on the arc however, is beyond me...
Obviously he couldn't fit them in there. Do you have any idea how big 300 cubits is? Not long enough to fit a bunch of freakin' T-rexes and stuff on, that's for sure. Oh well, at least he managed to bring the bees. I love a little honey in my tea.
I can't tell if you're agreeing with me or not, but just in case you're not. Here's why:
Top 5 Online Populations by Country, Among Visitors Age 15+ March 2006 Total Worldwide - All Locations Source: comScore World Metrix
Worldwide Total 694,260 United States 152,046 China 74,727 Japan 52,100 Germany 31,813 United Kingdom 30,190
When 4% of the world's population represents over 20% of the world's online presence, it's safe to assume they are an extremely important market for software.
The point is this - of course pedophiles and terrorists are bad. Real pedophiles and terrorists that is, not the spectres of terrorism and pedophilia that are held up and shaken around in front of your eyes as boogeymen of the week to keep you in line.
If you really think any of the thinly disguised rights-grabbing that's going on these days has anything to do with actual threats - brother, you have got some waking up to do.
Well, there is something we can do, but we have to do it together.
People around here are (rightfully) always quoting the Constitution. Allow me to take a line or two from one of our other venerated documents.
--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
See? They promise not to abuse their power, so it's all okey-dokey. They won't put all your information in a huge database and track your every move until the day you lie deep in the cold, cold ground and are no longer a threat.
In the US the police need "probable cause" but they usually just make that up if you object to a search or some other privacy infringing action.
Probable cause? What a quaint, old-fashioned notion! Today, if you really piss them off, they can just call you an enemy combatant and disappear your ass to Gitmo. You can talk to your extreme renditioner "Mr Smith" about probable cause all day long while he's making you think you're going to drown and hooking your nuts up to a car battery. Don't fret, though. If you haven't done anything wrong, then you don't have anything to worry about. Just sit back, relax, and watch your rights sail out the window like everyone else's while we band together to bring those big bad terrorists, immigrants, uninsured motorists, pedophiles, deadbeat dads, and jaywalkers to justice.
Jebus, people. This is really getting out of control.
he point is that any nation that has the ability to move an asteroid (read that as the US, the US, and the US) already has the ability to wipe out cities at will. At the stupidly insane cost of moving an asteroid, you might as well just build a few thousand cruise missiles and level the city that way.
You're missing the point.
Cruise missiles, unlike asteroids, have no super-villain street cred. Hurling giant space rocks at people displays a lot more panache.
That's like saying anyone who can build a weather machine to grief his enemies probably already has guns he could shoot him with.
Slashdot Mirror
Not so. They have open source desktops now. You get it with FreeDOS I think, and then you are free to load your distro of choice.
Unreasonable like without a warrant or probable cause?
There, fixed your bullshit for you.
Slackware was my first permanent distro and I loved it.
Quirky, sure, but I learned more in a month than I did with any other distro I tried.
I don't think you're crazy at all. I think you should be modded up.
PCLinuxOS is probably my favorite newbie distro, though. The hardware support is great, and package management is unbelievably easy with Synaptic. Also, the overall configuration is easy - it uses the Mandrake configuration wizard deal - I don't remember what it's called.
PCLinuxOS. Lousy name, but it is really a great distro to learn with.
I like to use the "pots and pans" cycle even when there are no pots or pans in the load. I think it's more secure aginst streaks, spots, and other malcleaning. It also protects against the trojan spaghetti sauce that tends to stick after a "normal" cycle.
I know the detergent makers usually only support "normal" wash, but I've found that to be typical Cascade FUD - most of the time I can use exactly the same detergent, or in a pinch I can make my own.
I've tried and tried to get my aunts and uncles to switch over to "pots and pans" so they'll stop calling me when food remains stuck to their dishes, but they always forget and just set the dial to "normal" as soon as I leave. I never should have let on that I know anything about dishwashers.
Oh well.
Consumer Reporter: Good evening, and welcome to the holiday edition of "Consumer Probe". Our topic tonight is unsafe toys for children. For instance, this little bow and arrow set. [ holds up ] Pull the rubber suctions off, and the arrows become deadly missiles.
We have with us tonight, Mr. Irwin Mainway, President of Mainway Toys. Uh, Mr. Mainway, your company manufactures the following so-called harmless playthings: Pretty Peggy Ear-Piercing Set, Mr. Skin-Grafter, General Tron's Secret Police Confession Kit, and Doggie Dentist. And what about this innocent rubber doll, which you market under the name Johnny Switchblade? [ holds up doll ] Press his head, and two sharp knives spring from his arms. [ demonstrates ] Mr. Mainway, I'm afraid this is, by no means, a very safe toy.
Irwin Mainway: Okay, Miss, I wanna correct you, alright. The full name of this product, as it appears in stores all over the county, is Johnny Switchblade: Adventure Punk. I mean, nothing goes wrong.. little girls buy 'em, you know, they play games, they make up stories, nobody gets hurt. I mean, so Barbie takes a knife once in a while, or Ken gets cut. You know, there's no harm in that. I mean, as far as I can see, you know?
Consumer Reporter: Alright. Fine. Fine. Well, we'd like to show you another one of Mr. Mainway's products. It retails for $1.98, and it's called Bag O' Glass. [ holds up bag of glass ] Mr. Mainway, this is simply a bag of jagged, dangerous, glass bits.
Irwin Mainway: Yeah, right, it's you know, it's glass, it's broken glass, you know? It sells very well, as a matter of fact, you know? It's just broken glass, you know?
Consumer Reporter: [ laughs ] I don't understand. I mean, children could seriously cut themselves on any one of these pieces!
Irwin Mainway: Yeah, well, look - you know, the average kid, he picks up, you know, broken glass anywhere, you know? The beach, the street, garbage cans, parking lots, all over the place in any big city. We're just packaging what the kids want! I mean, it's a creative toy, you know? If you hold this up, you know, you see colors, every color of the rainbow! I mean, it teaches him about light refraction, you know? Prisms, and that stuff! You know what I mean?
Consumer Reporter: So, you don't feel that this product is dangerous?
Irwin Mainway: No! Look, we put a label on every bag that says, "Kid! Be careful - broken glass!" I mean, we sell a lot of products in the "Bag O'" line.. like Bag O' Glass, Bag O' Nails, Bag O' Bugs, Bag O' Vipers, Bag O' Sulfuric Acid. They're decent toys, you know what I mean?
Consumer Reporter: Well, I guess we could say that all of your toys are really unsafe and should rightfully be banned from the market. I guess I would just like to know what happened to the good ol' teddy bear.
Irwin Mainway: Hold on a minute, sister. I mean, we make a teddy bear. It's right here. [ picks up giant teddy bear ] It's got a nice little feature here, you see? I'll hold it up here. We call it a Teddy Chainsaw Bear. [ revs chainsaw in teddy bear's stomach ] I mean, a kid plays with saws, he can cut logs with it, you know what I mean.
Consumer Reporter: Well, this is certainly a very sad situation. One of the precious joys of Christmas warped by a ruthless profiteer like yourself.
Irwin Mainway: Well, that's just your opinion, you know what I mean?
Consumer Reporter: Well, I just don't understand why you can't make harmelss toys like these alphabet blocks. [ points to blocks ]
Irwin Mainway: C'mon, this is harmless? Alright, okay, you call this harmless? [ holds block in hand ] I mean.. [ plays with block and fakes injury ] Aagghh!! I got a splinter in here, look at that! This is wood! This is unsanded wood, it's rough!
Consumer Reporter: Alright, that's enough of this ridiculous display. [ holds toy phone ] Here is another creative toy, safe enough for a baby!
Irwin Mainway: [ grabs phone ] You say it's safe, I mean, look at this cord.. the kid is on the phone - "Hello
I think we should name them the Kazak Mountains.
Or the Winston Range.
How do they taste?
Not as good as California Condor, but much better than Giant Panda.
You are no longer being governed, you are being ruled.
...pray...for...mojo...
Oh yeah, I almost forgot Darik's Boot and Nuke to wipe the hell out of hard drives.
I'll second that one. Every once in awhile when the CEO loses his post-it note with his new password on it, it pays to be able to reset it quickly and painlessly. I have been using that disc for a couple of years and I love it.
I usually keep a copy of the UBCD around to test out SMART failures, flaky memory, etc. and fix boot problems and other miscellaneous junk.
Apart from those, I also have to give the nod to Knoppix or the STD Knoppix for other types of recovery.
I'm pretty sure the GP was referring to the other kind of DJ.
You know, the "throw your hands in the air" type who mixes, scratches, and crossfades?
Not the one who spun "The Chicken Dance" at your cousin's wedding.
Obviously he couldn't fit them in there.
Do you have any idea how big 300 cubits is?
Not long enough to fit a bunch of freakin' T-rexes and stuff on, that's for sure.
Oh well, at least he managed to bring the bees. I love a little honey in my tea.
I can't tell if you're agreeing with me or not, but just in case you're not. Here's why:
Top 5 Online Populations by Country, Among Visitors Age 15+
March 2006
Total Worldwide - All Locations
Source: comScore World Metrix
Worldwide Total 694,260
United States 152,046
China 74,727
Japan 52,100
Germany 31,813
United Kingdom 30,190
When 4% of the world's population represents over 20% of the world's online presence, it's safe to assume they are an extremely important market for software.
Yeah, good point.
Especially if that one country has a population roughly half the size of your entire continent.
Screw 'em, we don't need their business or support.
I was being wry.
The point is this - of course pedophiles and terrorists are bad. Real pedophiles and terrorists that is, not the spectres of terrorism and pedophilia that are held up and shaken around in front of your eyes as boogeymen of the week to keep you in line.
If you really think any of the thinly disguised rights-grabbing that's going on these days has anything to do with actual threats - brother, you have got some waking up to do.
People around here are (rightfully) always quoting the Constitution. Allow me to take a line or two from one of our other venerated documents.
See? They promise not to abuse their power, so it's all okey-dokey. They won't put all your information in a huge database and track your every move until the day you lie deep in the cold, cold ground and are no longer a threat.
Probable cause? What a quaint, old-fashioned notion! Today, if you really piss them off, they can just call you an enemy combatant and disappear your ass to Gitmo. You can talk to your extreme renditioner "Mr Smith" about probable cause all day long while he's making you think you're going to drown and hooking your nuts up to a car battery. Don't fret, though. If you haven't done anything wrong, then you don't have anything to worry about. Just sit back, relax, and watch your rights sail out the window like everyone else's while we band together to bring those big bad terrorists, immigrants, uninsured motorists, pedophiles, deadbeat dads, and jaywalkers to justice.
Jebus, people. This is really getting out of control.
Thanks a million for that essay. It was awesome.
You're missing the point.
Cruise missiles, unlike asteroids, have no super-villain street cred. Hurling giant space rocks at people displays a lot more panache.
That's like saying anyone who can build a weather machine to grief his enemies probably already has guns he could shoot him with.
Oops.
In my haste to offer you a good-natured ribbing, I sort of glossed over the part where you explained how you're not a retard.
I guess that makes me the retard today.
I think you mean apocryphal :)
Rough day?
Also check out Azimov's "The Red Queen's Race".
That one is a real mind bender.
I'll buy that for a dollar.
A Family Guy reference on
Try 9 out of 10.