> (in case your not using it, check out dag wieer's > apt repository, very nice, and it cross links with > others such as freshrpms.)
No, I'm not using it, and for the very same reason. If I were to download binaries, I would need much more bandwidth and would have no sources, meaning that if I need to recompile with some different option (like if I just added a library it can use), I'd have to download all over again. Even more frustrating are broken downloads; if I'm downloading by ftp and the line goes down, I can just redial and reget.
"X is good because Y is no better" is really not much of an argument. People should really stop using it and create absolutes instead, which are good no matter how bad or good the competition happens to be.
I wouldn't care if the drivers were binary, but why not allow OpenGL to be used on more targets than just X. MesaGL works just fine on the framebuffer, on SDL, even on aalib; why can't nVidia's version do the same? And support the regular framebuffer console _with_mode_switching_ (which VESA fb does not do). Is this really so hard?
> They call their contribution Open Source Software.
People write free software for their own pleasure, but they give it away because it costs them nothing. They would never be able to sell it, since most OSS is not good enough for anyone to buy, so there is little reason for them not to give it away. Sharing code that has no value does not impoverish the sharer in any way.
> Most people who create things do so because it gives them pleasure.
True, but they will create those things for themselves, not for you. In case of free software, it is pretty much the same thing, since they lose nothing by giving it out, but the material products they will just keep to themselves and let you starve.
> The reason Socialism always fails is that > productive people soon figure this out, and the > non-productive are helpless without them.
That is not the reason. The reason is that eventually non-productive people create enough legislation, police, and excessive population, that productive people find that either their labor is completely devalued, or hated (as it was in the early days of the Soviet Union), or legally impossible (ever tried starting an airline?). So they go out of business; but I doubt that most of them ever figure it out.
> the conflict between those who contribute to society and those who consume from society > you could also put into becoming a creator of value for society
But would you really want to create value for society which only consumes and gives you nothing in return?
> And even politicians have learned that you don't bite the hand that feeds you.
You shouldn't count on this. Politicians do not necessarily know which hand feeds them, and they certainly do not know how it does it.
It is no different than USENET; nobody reads newsgroups any more. There used to be some content, while people were just discovering it in the 90s, but now there is nothing but idiots and spammers.
So what's the problem? You tell them how much money you want, they send you a check, and you print out a license that says they bought 1000 copies. Everybody would be happy. Are you asking how much to charge? In that case you are in the wrong place since Slashdot is full of people who never pay for software. Are you asking whether your contract is legal? Does it matter in this case, since your customer is obviously quite happy to pay you? Just draw up another one.
Green text on black background is the most tranquil combination. White is just too bright.
> Use a dark grey, non-flashy color scheme for the legacy GUI applications you still need
GUI applications usually assume black on white for everything, so you might have better luck with using a medium background, like the title bar color in Windows' "Rainy Day" scheme, and keeping the text black.
Quite an understatement there:) Confident, flippant, tough as nails, and able to look the captain in the eye and tell him to mind his own business. If you find a better woman in this world, let me know.
> was (as all movie stars are) quite attractive.
You really are the master of understatement...
> Ro played a character that had personal and professional problems
She didn't have personal or professional problems on TNG; others had personal and professional problems with her, which is understandable in the pseudo-military conformist and priggish atmosphere of Starfleet.
> putting the role of women into stereotyped containers > (think: low cut short-skirts on Troi in season 1)
I always thought Troi's costumes fit her role perfectly. Her character is excessively emotional and insecure, and it is not too farfetched that she would try to augment her own dumpy looks with revealing outfits, like many women do thinking lust will make up for their other defects.
Underwater craft have already reached the bottom of the ocean without any need for any "amorphous steel". Mariana trench exploration happened quite a while ago with technology much more primitive.
It doesn't eat copper, it just accumulates it. This means that it can only absorb copper ions that are already dissolved, even if only in low concentration. If such bacteria got onto your motherboard, the effect would be cleansing, rather than destructive.
If you keep making predictions...
on
Is This The Big One?
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
If you keep making predictions, eventually one of them will come true.
Now this is even worse; it goes against language conventions. For example, if you were to write the numbers out, you would get "one thousand point one, one thousand point two, and one thousand point three", with the numbers separated by commas. Then if you change to digits, you would also have to change your commas to semicolons and it would not be readable at all. Europeans...
But I do! I play games in Windows, I print from Windows, but I work in Linux. If you are happy with requiring users of Linux to reboot into Windows to do anything, well, quit your bitching about nobody using Linux on the desktop.
The ugly API. I write for the framebuffer because I can get a cleaner API there. Not that this is a popular attitude - slashdotters hate the Windows monopoly, but consider it a heresy to not use OpenGL for graphics. Just try saying you still use a console and it's a guaranteed Troll mod.
The second objection is that nVidia binary drivers don't work with the console framebuffer (see their driver FAQ). And for me, given the choice between giving up the framebuffer console and giving up gaming on Linux (which I still don't believe is possible), I will choose the console, no contest.
The third objection is that nVidia drivers work with a specific kernel version; if you upgrade, you are out of luck. Then you'll have to reboot into a different kernel image just to play games, and I can boot into Windows for that.
> But, if you demand to use the text console to > play games, or the frame buffer than you have > nothing to complain about -- you've gotten what you wished for!
And this response illustrates perfectly the reason people do not switch to Linux in droves. It's so apt, the "you weirdo!" accusation. I thought Linux was the place for weirdos, while Windows only supported conformists, but I guess I was wrong.
I always wondered, how do europeans tell decimal commas from number separating commas? In this list, for instance: 1,2,334,5,663,1,323,1,44,11 is it 1.2 334 5.663 1 323 1.44 11 or 1 2.334 5 663.1 323.1 44.11
Surely, you can't use periods to separate your list elements.
Patience to dig through piles of documentation that simply list hundreds of configuration file options, without ever mentioning which ones apply to the most common case - I'm on a home desktop and what to set up networking with other Windows machines to share files and printers (why can't this problem be solved by the install script?)
Thick skin - to be able to absorb all the replies to questions posted to Linux forums. It takes a lot of hide to bear out all the "newbie", "what a moron", "didn't you RTFM?", "can't you use an editor?", etc.
Self-esteem - to survive the multitude of failures that precedes each success. To accept that understanding is really beyond you and the only option in many cases is to just try each option and see if it makes things work.
Good memory - to remember the exact syntax of those oh-so-human-readable configuration files for at least as long as it takes to close the man page and open the offending file in an editor.
Time - to get things working. Sure, Linux might be able to do anything, but it takes so much TIME to configure it. You can be pretty sure that any major app can not be installed by simply typing 'make install'. To actually use it you always need to wade through documentation to see what options you need to enable. After all, configurability is so important, that the developer just does not dare to set some reasonable defaults to configure the application to the most common case (the home desktop; there are considerably more of these than servers)
I don't know about you, but if I have problems installing something, I don't always RTFM either. For example: I tried many many times to get wine to work, and every time failed. It crashes, or can't find some config file, or just doesn't do anything at all. Why didn't I RTFM? Because it is BIG and I just don't want to waste all that time to figure out just what options I need to type into the darn config file. Instead, I just boot into Windows to play games. Much simpler, not wasted time, no strange crashes, and everything is supported, including my nVidia card. Another example: printing. My machine can not print right now because the printer is networked from a Windows machine and magicfilter crashes for some reason when used in the smbprint script. Could I debug it? Probably, but why waste time? If I need to print a letter, I can just boot into Windows and use Word to type it and print it. Much simpler than spending hours messing with unfamiliar code in gdb (don't you just _hate_ gdb? It's another example, by the way. It is simpler to just put some printfs into the code and recompile than to figure out why it suddenly loses all my symbols ["can't find class string as reported by C++ RTTI"]). So, as you can see, unless the failing program does something vital to me, it is much simpler to just boot into Windows for a while, do it, and then reboot again and go on living.
Slashdot Mirror
> (in case your not using it, check out dag wieer's
> apt repository, very nice, and it cross links with
> others such as freshrpms.)
No, I'm not using it, and for the very same reason. If I were to download binaries, I would need much more bandwidth and would have no sources, meaning that if I need to recompile with some different option (like if I just added a library it can use), I'd have to download all over again. Even more frustrating are broken downloads; if I'm downloading by ftp and the line goes down, I can just redial and reget.
> I'm running 'apt-get dist-upgrade' right now :)
I wish people would stop gloating over their broadband connections...
"X is good because Y is no better" is really not much of an argument. People should really stop using it and create absolutes instead, which are good no matter how bad or good the competition happens to be.
I wouldn't care if the drivers were binary, but why not allow OpenGL to be used on more targets than just X. MesaGL works just fine on the framebuffer, on SDL, even on aalib; why can't nVidia's version do the same? And support the regular framebuffer console _with_mode_switching_ (which VESA fb does not do). Is this really so hard?
> So now all those who have criticised Hubble should be sorry.
Maybe they should be really sorry and name the next telescope "Humble"
> If this doubles the number of known planets, does this make Earth half as significant?
If someone discovered six billion people living on Mars, would that make your life drop in value by half?
> They call their contribution Open Source Software.
People write free software for their own pleasure, but they give it away because it costs them nothing. They would never be able to sell it, since most OSS is not good enough for anyone to buy, so there is little reason for them not to give it away. Sharing code that has no value does not impoverish the sharer in any way.
> Most people who create things do so because it gives them pleasure.
True, but they will create those things for themselves, not for you. In case of free software, it is pretty much the same thing, since they lose nothing by giving it out, but the material products they will just keep to themselves and let you starve.
> The reason Socialism always fails is that
> productive people soon figure this out, and the
> non-productive are helpless without them.
That is not the reason. The reason is that eventually non-productive people create enough legislation, police, and excessive population, that productive people find that either their labor is completely devalued, or hated (as it was in the early days of the Soviet Union), or legally impossible (ever tried starting an airline?). So they go out of business; but I doubt that most of them ever figure it out.
> the conflict between those who contribute to society and those who consume from society
> you could also put into becoming a creator of value for society
But would you really want to create value for society which only consumes and gives you nothing in return?
> And even politicians have learned that you don't bite the hand that feeds you.
You shouldn't count on this. Politicians do not necessarily know which hand feeds them, and they certainly do not know how it does it.
It is no different than USENET; nobody reads newsgroups any more. There used to be some content, while people were just discovering it in the 90s, but now there is nothing but idiots and spammers.
So what's the problem? You tell them how much money you want, they send you a check, and you print out a license that says they bought 1000 copies. Everybody would be happy. Are you asking how much to charge? In that case you are in the wrong place since Slashdot is full of people who never pay for software. Are you asking whether your contract is legal? Does it matter in this case, since your customer is obviously quite happy to pay you? Just draw up another one.
> Use white text on black background
Green text on black background is the most tranquil combination. White is just too bright.
> Use a dark grey, non-flashy color scheme for the legacy GUI applications you still need
GUI applications usually assume black on white for everything, so you might have better luck with using a medium background, like the title bar color in Windows' "Rainy Day" scheme, and keeping the text black.
> Ro was known for being ... independently minded,
:) Confident, flippant, tough as nails, and able to look the captain in the eye and tell him to mind his own business. If you find a better woman in this world, let me know.
Quite an understatement there
> was (as all movie stars are) quite attractive.
You really are the master of understatement...
> Ro played a character that had personal and professional problems
She didn't have personal or professional problems on TNG; others had personal and professional problems with her, which is understandable in the pseudo-military conformist and priggish atmosphere of Starfleet.
> putting the role of women into stereotyped containers
> (think: low cut short-skirts on Troi in season 1)
I always thought Troi's costumes fit her role perfectly. Her character is excessively emotional and insecure, and it is not too farfetched that she would try to augment her own dumpy looks with revealing outfits, like many women do thinking lust will make up for their other defects.
Underwater craft have already reached the bottom of the ocean without any need for any "amorphous steel". Mariana trench exploration happened quite a while ago with technology much more primitive.
I know it's still svgalib, but it is the best picture viewer ever. zgv rules!
Starving new IT graduate.
Knows how to use computers.
Will work for food.
Have passport, can relocate.
It doesn't eat copper, it just accumulates it. This means that it can only absorb copper ions that are already dissolved, even if only in low concentration. If such bacteria got onto your motherboard, the effect would be cleansing, rather than destructive.
If you keep making predictions, eventually one of them will come true.
> 1.000,1;1.000,2;1.000,3
Now this is even worse; it goes against language conventions. For example, if you were to write the numbers out, you would get "one thousand point one, one thousand point two, and one thousand point three", with the numbers separated by commas. Then if you change to digits, you would also have to change your commas to semicolons and it would not be readable at all. Europeans...
> Or you can use Windows and quit your bitching.
But I do! I play games in Windows, I print from Windows, but I work in Linux. If you are happy with requiring users of Linux to reboot into Windows to do anything, well, quit your bitching about nobody using Linux on the desktop.
> What is the aversion to using X?
The ugly API. I write for the framebuffer because I can get a cleaner API there. Not that this is a popular attitude - slashdotters hate the Windows monopoly, but consider it a heresy to not use OpenGL for graphics. Just try saying you still use a console and it's a guaranteed Troll mod.
The second objection is that nVidia binary drivers don't work with the console framebuffer (see their driver FAQ). And for me, given the choice between giving up the framebuffer console and giving up gaming on Linux (which I still don't believe is possible), I will choose the console, no contest.
The third objection is that nVidia drivers work with a specific kernel version; if you upgrade, you are out of luck. Then you'll have to reboot into a different kernel image just to play games, and I can boot into Windows for that.
> But, if you demand to use the text console to
> play games, or the frame buffer than you have
> nothing to complain about -- you've gotten what you wished for!
And this response illustrates perfectly the reason people do not switch to Linux in droves. It's so apt, the "you weirdo!" accusation. I thought Linux was the place for weirdos, while Windows only supported conformists, but I guess I was wrong.
I always wondered, how do europeans tell decimal commas from number separating commas? In this list, for instance:
1,2,334,5,663,1,323,1,44,11
is it
1.2 334 5.663 1 323 1.44 11
or
1 2.334 5 663.1 323.1 44.11
Surely, you can't use periods to separate your list elements.
Patience to dig through piles of documentation that simply list hundreds of configuration file options, without ever mentioning which ones apply to the most common case - I'm on a home desktop and what to set up networking with other Windows machines to share files and printers (why can't this problem be solved by the install script?)
Thick skin - to be able to absorb all the replies to questions posted to Linux forums. It takes a lot of hide to bear out all the "newbie", "what a moron", "didn't you RTFM?", "can't you use an editor?", etc.
Self-esteem - to survive the multitude of failures that precedes each success. To accept that understanding is really beyond you and the only option in many cases is to just try each option and see if it makes things work.
Good memory - to remember the exact syntax of those oh-so-human-readable configuration files for at least as long as it takes to close the man page and open the offending file in an editor.
Time - to get things working. Sure, Linux might be able to do anything, but it takes so much TIME to configure it. You can be pretty sure that any major app can not be installed by simply typing 'make install'. To actually use it you always need to wade through documentation to see what options you need to enable. After all, configurability is so important, that the developer just does not dare to set some reasonable defaults to configure the application to the most common case (the home desktop; there are considerably more of these than servers)
I don't know about you, but if I have problems installing something, I don't always RTFM either. For example: I tried many many times to get wine to work, and every time failed. It crashes, or can't find some config file, or just doesn't do anything at all. Why didn't I RTFM? Because it is BIG and I just don't want to waste all that time to figure out just what options I need to type into the darn config file. Instead, I just boot into Windows to play games. Much simpler, not wasted time, no strange crashes, and everything is supported, including my nVidia card. Another example: printing. My machine can not print right now because the printer is networked from a Windows machine and magicfilter crashes for some reason when used in the smbprint script. Could I debug it? Probably, but why waste time? If I need to print a letter, I can just boot into Windows and use Word to type it and print it. Much simpler than spending hours messing with unfamiliar code in gdb (don't you just _hate_ gdb? It's another example, by the way. It is simpler to just put some printfs into the code and recompile than to figure out why it suddenly loses all my symbols ["can't find class string as reported by C++ RTTI"]). So, as you can see, unless the failing program does something vital to me, it is much simpler to just boot into Windows for a while, do it, and then reboot again and go on living.