I'm just starting on using a nice shiny new powerbook. Frankly a lot of the damn thing is a mystery to me. No eject button for the cd? command-e to eject, okay that's fine. But (in a desktop I was working with) the drive is closed with no cd. No eject command on the command line. Couldn't find anything offhand in finder. Do a google search for how to eject an empty cd tray. "F12" why in heck would F12 eject the cd. I even had tried mashing F keys to see. Try it again -- hold it down extra-long and there it goes.
Why yes, they're quite easy to use.
Oh, and I've also been watching an Apple Engineer trying to get Xserves to talk to each other, use their central authentication db, etc. Took two days before things were working right.
Not saying that linux would necessaraly be better, but I'm saying Apple ain't there either.
Salaried employees are paid to do a job. Not their job and bob the lazy asses job. Not their job and joe who they fired 6 months ago for "downsizing to produce a more dynamic workforce".
My job is to manage the contracts I have, and do some programming work for my group on the side. If I have more than a week where I can't get it done in 40 hours, unless I'm slacking off it's not my problem, it's my management's fault for not having enough staff to handle the workload.
Beautiful oversimplicification. Now back to the real world...
PCs hardware varies widely. Extremely widely. Displays are large enough to show more than one application. Heck, the most compelling thing is that PCs don't do just one thing. Yes you can load bells and whistles and crap on your palm or cell phone. It's still just a calender/notes taker, and a phone.
People try to do wierd things with a PC. Connect it to a modem, dsl, cable modem, ethernet/lan, isdn, wifi, usb/firewire null-modem type cable, etc. Your little simple cell phone "OS" is going to crap it's pants and that's only talking about networking connectivity, much less bridging/NAT, or even multi-hard drives in a raid, multi-heading, true-to-life/print colors on their displays, wierd input devices, or wierd audio out, etc.
I'm not arguing that OSes could be simplified from what they are now, but I am arguing that your idea of the one true OS is a load of bunk.
Case in point. Mac OS X, with a Logitech marble mouse connected via a Belkin switch, via USB. Can't install the logitech drivers because the mac says, "hey that ain't a logitech mouse", so I can't flip the buttons on use the scroll buttons. (yes I can probably find a different tool, but I don't use the mac on my desk much at all... yet)
How's the OS supposed to deal with that case above? The mouse is hidden behind another device. If it was linux I could just force it into using the driver I wanted. I haven't (yet) found how to do that on the Mac, if that's even possible.
Actually no it's the gaming companies that suck. They should be providing equivilant services, rather than catering to the whims of a few loudmouthed brats who scrape their $15/month together to sweat and slave in their parents basement then get upset when someone else buys a level 245 character.
There is a demand for this sort of service to go on. The world of MMOs is getting crouded, and sooner or later some publisher is going to latch on to the idea (actually, Second Life already has but sooner or later the pack will get a clue) that your character in a MMO is yours and not theirs and they'll let you treat it as your property, sell it, trade it, etc.
I mean, on one hand I agree with you clueless noobs buying a level 245 are annoying. But are they any less annoying as level 1 clueless newbs begging for items and buffs? No. It doesn't matter what level they are they're still clueless noobs. Better they be 245 and don't drive off your actual new player population by pissing them off.
It's as bad as whineing that people with $$BIG BUX$$ and faster connections/computers own your ass at quake. Life isn't fair. Games aren't either. Learn to cope.
*: Note, some bitterness in this post may be due to missing out on selling game items by the poster due to finally quitting a game that also happens to have recently banned the sale of items period.
As always, the Turbine MMO rule remains: exploit early, exploit often. Enjoy D&D and MEO.
Have you ever wanted to play a copy-protected game on an ultraportable (aka external cd drive) laptop? Pain in the ass to carry that cd around, with the game's cd, plugged in, just so it can say, "okay you can do that."
Why are all these governments endorsing and planning to use OSS on one hand, and then passing retarded laws that could cause serious problems for OSS on the other? Hello Mr. Foot this is Mr. Hand and his gun to shoot you.
It's a Phillip K. Dick novel. Nobody'd know what the hell was going on anyway. Unless maybe they were on some bad drugs at the time they were watching it, in which case you can debate if they're seeing the movie or something else.
I work at a university as well, and though my group is theoretically a unix sysadmin group, I've probably spent 75% of my time doing coding or something other than plain boring sysadmin stuff.
Oh and my boss is way too cool. She walks around at 5 pm and says, "go home!" to people. And she means it, too.
Or better yet, non-DRM'd digital players. S/PDIF out soundcards, for example.
Re:Start by banning plastics for consumables
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
So instead we should make them out of metals like aluminum, which requires what sort of power put in to it to get it to a can-like form?
And where does that power come from? Could it be fossil fuels?
Right.
Plastics need a lot less heat energy applied to them -- they might actually be cheaper, volume for volume than metals. Less mineing, less hauling, less heat needed... it probably adds up. (note I haven't bothered to search or get any rough numbers, just a gut feeling)
People people people. This is a good thing. Encourage it.
Look at those components. Look at that price. Fairly competitive at retail, especially if you can run non-xp on it. Now look 6 months down the line when the nearest suburban family bought it and the kids got bored with it. Where's the system now? $10 at their garage sale.
Skill in solving simple puzzles like tetris? That are extremly open to cheating through a loop the vendor could never detect?
I've seen demos at EoH at UIUC of a video camera rigged up to a computer to do image processing on a tetris game and play the game by inputting keystrokes. Do you really think a human could beat a lightning-fast computer who can punch "right" 5 times before you can identify the peice?
Slashdot Mirror
Like Final Fantasy Tactics?
Oh wait, just as rabid a fan base. Nevermind.
I need ammo!
We need an engineer!
I'm just starting on using a nice shiny new powerbook. Frankly a lot of the damn thing is a mystery to me. No eject button for the cd? command-e to eject, okay that's fine. But (in a desktop I was working with) the drive is closed with no cd. No eject command on the command line. Couldn't find anything offhand in finder. Do a google search for how to eject an empty cd tray. "F12" why in heck would F12 eject the cd. I even had tried mashing F keys to see. Try it again -- hold it down extra-long and there it goes.
Why yes, they're quite easy to use.
Oh, and I've also been watching an Apple Engineer trying to get Xserves to talk to each other, use their central authentication db, etc. Took two days before things were working right.
Not saying that linux would necessaraly be better, but I'm saying Apple ain't there either.
F9/11 comes out as a torrent.
Sen. Hatch tries to ban p2p again.
Hmm.
Salaried employees are paid to do a job. Not their job and bob the lazy asses job. Not their job and joe who they fired 6 months ago for "downsizing to produce a more dynamic workforce".
My job is to manage the contracts I have, and do some programming work for my group on the side. If I have more than a week where I can't get it done in 40 hours, unless I'm slacking off it's not my problem, it's my management's fault for not having enough staff to handle the workload.
Salaried does not mean slave.
Beautiful oversimplicification. Now back to the real world...
PCs hardware varies widely. Extremely widely. Displays are large enough to show more than one application. Heck, the most compelling thing is that PCs don't do just one thing. Yes you can load bells and whistles and crap on your palm or cell phone. It's still just a calender/notes taker, and a phone.
People try to do wierd things with a PC. Connect it to a modem, dsl, cable modem, ethernet/lan, isdn, wifi, usb/firewire null-modem type cable, etc. Your little simple cell phone "OS" is going to crap it's pants and that's only talking about networking connectivity, much less bridging/NAT, or even multi-hard drives in a raid, multi-heading, true-to-life/print colors on their displays, wierd input devices, or wierd audio out, etc.
I'm not arguing that OSes could be simplified from what they are now, but I am arguing that your idea of the one true OS is a load of bunk.
Case in point. Mac OS X, with a Logitech marble mouse connected via a Belkin switch, via USB. Can't install the logitech drivers because the mac says, "hey that ain't a logitech mouse", so I can't flip the buttons on use the scroll buttons. (yes I can probably find a different tool, but I don't use the mac on my desk much at all... yet)
How's the OS supposed to deal with that case above? The mouse is hidden behind another device. If it was linux I could just force it into using the driver I wanted. I haven't (yet) found how to do that on the Mac, if that's even possible.
Actually no it's the gaming companies that suck. They should be providing equivilant services, rather than catering to the whims of a few loudmouthed brats who scrape their $15/month together to sweat and slave in their parents basement then get upset when someone else buys a level 245 character.
There is a demand for this sort of service to go on. The world of MMOs is getting crouded, and sooner or later some publisher is going to latch on to the idea (actually, Second Life already has but sooner or later the pack will get a clue) that your character in a MMO is yours and not theirs and they'll let you treat it as your property, sell it, trade it, etc.
I mean, on one hand I agree with you clueless noobs buying a level 245 are annoying. But are they any less annoying as level 1 clueless newbs begging for items and buffs? No. It doesn't matter what level they are they're still clueless noobs. Better they be 245 and don't drive off your actual new player population by pissing them off.
It's as bad as whineing that people with $$BIG BUX$$ and faster connections/computers own your ass at quake. Life isn't fair. Games aren't either. Learn to cope.
*: Note, some bitterness in this post may be due to missing out on selling game items by the poster due to finally quitting a game that also happens to have recently banned the sale of items period.
As always, the Turbine MMO rule remains: exploit early, exploit often. Enjoy D&D and MEO.
Or closer to home for the poster:
Have you ever wanted to play a copy-protected game on an ultraportable (aka external cd drive) laptop? Pain in the ass to carry that cd around, with the game's cd, plugged in, just so it can say, "okay you can do that."
I'm still pissed that CivIII is copyprotected.
Don't forget lakes you can fish in. ;-)
I used to enjoy fishing in Fermi with my dad when I was younger.
Why are all these governments endorsing and planning to use OSS on one hand, and then passing retarded laws that could cause serious problems for OSS on the other? Hello Mr. Foot this is Mr. Hand and his gun to shoot you.
It's a Phillip K. Dick novel. Nobody'd know what the hell was going on anyway. Unless maybe they were on some bad drugs at the time they were watching it, in which case you can debate if they're seeing the movie or something else.
Given some of the CS students I've seen leaving both the BS and MS portions of UIUC's CS program for microsoft, not very good.
Ding.
I work at a university as well, and though my group is theoretically a unix sysadmin group, I've probably spent 75% of my time doing coding or something other than plain boring sysadmin stuff.
Oh and my boss is way too cool. She walks around at 5 pm and says, "go home!" to people. And she means it, too.
Irrelevance is only true if we didn't learn anything from the BeOS.
After all, Xerox PARC's windowing and networking system wasn't really a success either...
> I must be very lucky because I typically go weeks without rebooting.
You mean 4 weeks or less, as you have to reboot for (practically) every new security update they issue?
I usually make about a week myself before my games-only XP box has to reboot. Might be nvidia's fault. Might be MS's. Hard to say.
Or better yet, non-DRM'd digital players. S/PDIF out soundcards, for example.
So instead we should make them out of metals like aluminum, which requires what sort of power put in to it to get it to a can-like form?
And where does that power come from? Could it be fossil fuels?
Right.
Plastics need a lot less heat energy applied to them -- they might actually be cheaper, volume for volume than metals. Less mineing, less hauling, less heat needed... it probably adds up. (note I haven't bothered to search or get any rough numbers, just a gut feeling)
The moon isn't that far, I bet a high-grade amature telescope could probably sight the rover remnants up there.
Of course then you'd just have the mind-control orbital sattelites messing with his head so he thinks he sees the rover.
People people people. This is a good thing. Encourage it.
Look at those components. Look at that price. Fairly competitive at retail, especially if you can run non-xp on it. Now look 6 months down the line when the nearest suburban family bought it and the kids got bored with it. Where's the system now? $10 at their garage sale.
Do the math.
Toms Hardware's review was not nearly so glowing. I just happened to read it this morning and it's worth a look.
n de x.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/display/20040413/i
/0 is like a divide-by-zero error, actually.
\0 is like a period.
Skill in solving simple puzzles like tetris? That are extremly open to cheating through a loop the vendor could never detect?
I've seen demos at EoH at UIUC of a video camera rigged up to a computer to do image processing on a tetris game and play the game by inputting keystrokes. Do you really think a human could beat a lightning-fast computer who can punch "right" 5 times before you can identify the peice?
Look at the record companies and say, "we did what we could" perhaps?
1) Buy a bunch of Atari 800s
2) Connect to internet
3) Spam for $1/CPU hour
4) Profit!
Alternatly, just run about 10000 copies of UML on one P200. You'll need to tank it up on memory tho.
So split the stream and train DSPAM in parallel to whatever spam tools you use now. When it's accuracy gets high enough to be worthwhile, swap over.
Not rocket science.