Oh I wish somebody would run a "spear" campaign against her. If you meant "smear" campaign though you are right. Just give her a microphone and let her do it herself.
While I personally agree with the stated mission of both of those organizations aren't they just going to cancel each other out, spending most of your membership dues on campaign donations on opposite sides from one another?
It's easy to tell if they someone has been going through the private pictures on her computer. Check the log of their sick days. I don't care what kind of torture resistance training they have been through. Nobody has a stomache that strong!
What you really need to believe is that GPUs with decent X support are becoming ubiquitious. Devices where the GPU becomes a paper weight the moment you try to run X because the maker doesn't want to supply any info might as well not have GPUs.
Actually there are times I want full multitasking on my Android phone. I didn't know it was an option to run regular Windows apps on it. Thanks for enlightening me! Now please, teach me how!
I'll use X until it is pried from my cold dead hands. Or until Wayland has network transparency at least on par with X. Whichever happens first.
Recently I was re-installing my desktop (Gentoo) from scratch and decided to have a go at not installing any big heavy desktop environment. I already used Ratpoison when I am connected over VNC and have memorized most of the key combos so I thought I would try Ratpoison on the local desktop. Completely banishing KDE I switched from KDM to XDM.
I still have a stock XDM config. I think it's hilarious seing that 80s vintage login on an almost modern machine and having it lead to perfectly up to date applications. Maybe some day I will take the time to pretty it up. I have seen screen shots that show XDM can be made to look nice. But... it's only there until I log in. Why bother?
Prove to me that the entire universe wasn't created 10 seconds ago with all the (fake) memories of the rest of our lives already in our heads, all the fossils already in the ground, even the genes in our bodies written to look like they had evolved, etc....
Now show me a shred of evidence that it actually was created 10 seconds ago!
I've installed Linux on computers for various non-computer oriented relatives. None were my grandma but for the sake of this discussion they may as well have been. My annecdotal experience is this:
If they were previously using Windows it will not work. It's not a matter of Windows being more user friendly than Linux. It's just amazing the level of detail with which a non-computer person will memorize the interface they are used to. You can try some desktop manager that attempts to clone the Windows look. Even if you don't see the difference yourself your relative will. Non-computer people learn to use a computer differently. Where we learn a generalized concept of what the various parts of a user interface are and quickly recognize variations on the same theme they only memorize exact instructions. Click on this. It looks like that. Now click there. It's a horribly painful process and once they have learned it once they DO NOT want to do it again!
Otherwise they will be happy with Linux at least for a while. So long as their friends aren't using computers. If their friends are using computers then eventually one will show them some shiny thing (usually a silly game) which is Windows only. Then your relative HAS to have it. It doesn't even matter if there are a dozen equivalents that are only an "apt-get install" away. They want what their friend has and they want it now! Despite what one might think desire to conform to the herd is no less strong in the elderly than it is in a high school teenager. This is actually the one exception to that first rule, that they don't want learn how to do things over again. They will do so to learn Windows so they can run that stupid little app that their friend has. Then they will distrust you and always take the exact opposite of your advice for leading them down a different path in the first place.
For my relative where I experienced this it was silly time wasting Flash games. That was back when there was no up to date version of Flash for Linux. We even tried Crossover but it didn't work for everything. Thankfully now there is an up to date Flash for Linux. Even better Flash is dying. DIE DIE DIE Flash! As applications move from the desktop to the browser the opportunities to hit this problem are getting smaller. Maybe there is hope!
But for now... if they don't have friends (on computers). And they haven't already been exposed to Windows... then just about any easy to use desktop environment that "gets the job done" will do just fine!
If you haven't guessed, each of these scenarios represents one relative that I have attempted to put on Linux. So far I am 1 for 3. Better luck to you!
Yeah, I can definitely see how waiting for compiles could discourage people from trying things. I've adopted a mode of ssh to home first thing in the morning from work, start a screen session, start something big emerging". Then I can sign out, focus on work and when I get home I have something new to play with. If I think the compile will take longer than that, and I think I will want to use my computer that night I just set it to some low priority nice level. That way I can go on using my computer for every day stuff while it continues to build. It can finish whatever day it finishes.
This routine works for me but I can imagine it isn't for everyone. For me it has been better than the issues I had back when I used binary packages. But.. It's also not something I want to do on multiple machines.
Maybe it would help if they offered to takeCongress along with them for the ride. While they are at it there is no reason to leave the whitehouse out. They can even save some fuel by not bringing them back!
A long time ago I was a big Debian fan. I had two problems with it, eventually I became pissed off and moved on to Gentoo. I still love Gentoo on my desktop but would like something less labor intensive for any and every other computer I might have to maintain. I am wondering if Debian has improved and if I might want to use it for this.
My first problem was packages asking for user input during installation. I wanted to start a dist-upgrade and walk away. Often I would do so, coming back hours later expecting all 100s of packages to be updated only to find that it only got a few down it's list, started asking some stupid question about something I didn't even care about and stopped there, waiting for me to press a key.
Then there were the repos. Debian's package repos were pretty conservative, prefering stable over bleeding edge. Overall that is a good thing. But it meant there were always specific packages, especially when using Debian as a desktop where I just had to get a more recent version from somewhere else.
If you wanted to keep everything neat, tidy and managed by apt-get and dpkg the best way was to add third party repos. Again, not a problem. I don't mind doing that. My problem was that the third party repos didn't always stay in sync very well with the official Debian ones. The result was that often, once a few third party repos are added and the install is no longer pure official Debian, when trying to update one package Debian would suddenly want to un-install many many othes. It was easy to miss a message, press the 'Y' key and before you know it half your system is gone! This was especially bad given my first Debian problem, looking for an unattended upgrade. I was pretty prone to just pushing 'Y'.
So, anyway, my point isn't to complain about Debian. That was over 10 years ago! What I want to know is "has it improved?".
Sorry. What are those thiings he both flies around and shoots things with? Some form of ion engine? Somebody might be able to almost build it now. But.. the power source would be somewhere around a ton and he would be tethered to it. This very well may never change.
>>Devil's advocate: What part of the United States Constitution (or even the Constitution of one of the 50 States) authorizes the >>Government to compel vaccination?
>Devil's respondent: the first sentence, the part saying "to promote the general Welfare"."
Oh no! I'm very pro vaccination but using your logic politicians can make any decision they want for the population. They just have to state that they believe it is for people's good.
Then you are part of a very small percentage of the population. If everyone was vaccinated except for people such as yourself you would likely be safe as unvaccinated people would statistically be unlikely to be in contact with one another and thus have no one to catch the disease from.
If there were a simple gene involved in this kind of stupidity herd immunity wouldn' t prevent it from being selected against. Even though a large number of non-immunized people running around does increase the risk for all of us the risk is still greater for those without immunizations. Thus.. natural selection would still work against those with the stupid gene. Loss of herd immunity would just slow the effect a bit.
There is no way a brick and mortar store is going to compare with component prices on places like Ebay or Deal Extreme. Even competing with Mouser and Digikey is probably asking too much. But.... the Rat Shack's prices on components are frequently 100 or more times the price of purchasing the same thing online. Having a part in hand when you want it IS worth extra money. It is rarely worth THAT MUCH money!
2) Compete with Arduino
Hey, it's awesome that they cary Arduinos and various pre-built shields now. They should continue that. But... most people aren't going to be frequent repeat buyers of Arduinos. They are great for getting ones feet wet. But.. as a hobbyist who makes new projects frequently (the kind of people who come in and buy often) they are too expensive. An Arduino is good for re-using one Arduino in many temporary projects. Or it's good for early prototype stages of a permanent project. It's overkill to actually leave one in whatever you just built and go buy another for the next project.
The Rat Shack shoudl be selling their own brand of cheap Boarduino. AND... they should sell raw Atmega chips (preferrably with the Arduino bootloader on them). AND they should sell little clock parts bundles to go with them (crystals and caps). Unpopulated Boarduino PCBs where the user can populate just the parts they need would be awesome too.
3) Enough with the little 2-component baggies! The packaging probably costs more overhead than the part inside!
For the most common resistor and capacitor values just sell them on tape. (At least do this for 1k, 10k ohm,.01,.1uf and some value electrolytic (not too critical))
You want to really get some attention? Don't even bother counting them, sell them by weight. Just have big rolls of the stuff in a spool. Let the customer rip off the length they want. Yes, I know, that method will totally screw with their inventory records. So what? I'm only talking about super common 1/4 watt resistors and a few values of super common capacitors. They are what,.01 cent a piece from the factory?
For extra bonus points, do the same thing or similar for a couple really common transistors (2n2222 and 2n2907) and a rectifier diode (1n400... something or other). This should reduce overhead.
Maybe other, less common parts could be sold in tape too but rather than have big spools pre-cut them in lenths of 5 parts or so. Sell those at considerably lower price than the crappy little 1 or 2 part baggies are marked today.
4) PCB fabrication, 3d printing service. Those would be pretty cool things to have too. There is no way Rat Shack can put them in so many stores. They could centralize it but don't just put it in one place (I guess it would be Texas) and make every store's customers wait for the shipping.
Instead, start building "Super Stores". There should eventually be one per metro area. Customers can go into a "Super Store" and get their PCB etched with in an hour (just like the old 1 hour photo stores). Or.. they could have something printed, maybe they can even watch it print!
Customers who go to a non-super store could still submit a design to be printed at the nearest Super Store and shipped.
5) Keep closing stores
Sorry, I don't want to say this. There really are too many though. I can think of 4 near where I live, I bet there are others I am not even aware of. That just isn't necessary.
Slashdot Mirror
To be fair, had they made that investment all those people would still be no less dead.
ewwww
I'm willing to feel bad for anyone who's boss made them read about her personal life. Many times more so if there were pictures!
Oh I wish somebody would run a "spear" campaign against her. If you meant "smear" campaign though you are right. Just give her a microphone and let her do it herself.
While I personally agree with the stated mission of both of those organizations aren't they just going to cancel each other out, spending most of your membership dues on campaign donations on opposite sides from one another?
It's easy to tell if they someone has been going through the private pictures on her computer. Check the log of their sick days. I don't care what kind of torture resistance training they have been through. Nobody has a stomache that strong!
They could enclose the yard. I'm imagining chain link fencing ran horizontally between the top of the existing fence and the roof of the building.
What you really need to believe is that GPUs with decent X support are becoming ubiquitious. Devices where the GPU becomes a paper weight the moment you try to run X because the maker doesn't want to supply any info might as well not have GPUs.
Actually there are times I want full multitasking on my Android phone. I didn't know it was an option to run regular Windows apps on it. Thanks for enlightening me! Now please, teach me how!
I'll use X until it is pried from my cold dead hands. Or until Wayland has network transparency at least on par with X. Whichever happens first.
Recently I was re-installing my desktop (Gentoo) from scratch and decided to have a go at not installing any big heavy desktop environment. I already used Ratpoison when I am connected over VNC and have memorized most of the key combos so I thought I would try Ratpoison on the local desktop. Completely banishing KDE I switched from KDM to XDM.
I still have a stock XDM config. I think it's hilarious seing that 80s vintage login on an almost modern machine and having it lead to perfectly up to date applications. Maybe some day I will take the time to pretty it up. I have seen screen shots that show XDM can be made to look nice. But... it's only there until I log in. Why bother?
Prove to me that the entire universe wasn't created 10 seconds ago with all the (fake) memories of the rest of our lives already in our heads, all the fossils already in the ground, even the genes in our bodies written to look like they had evolved, etc....
Now show me a shred of evidence that it actually was created 10 seconds ago!
Yeah.. it's like that...
I've installed Linux on computers for various non-computer oriented relatives. None were my grandma but for the sake of this discussion they may as well have been. My annecdotal experience is this:
If they were previously using Windows it will not work. It's not a matter of Windows being more user friendly than Linux. It's just amazing the level of detail with which a non-computer person will memorize the interface they are used to. You can try some desktop manager that attempts to clone the Windows look. Even if you don't see the difference yourself your relative will. Non-computer people learn to use a computer differently. Where we learn a generalized concept of what the various parts of a user interface are and quickly recognize variations on the same theme they only memorize exact instructions. Click on this. It looks like that. Now click there. It's a horribly painful process and once they have learned it once they DO NOT want to do it again!
Otherwise they will be happy with Linux at least for a while. So long as their friends aren't using computers. If their friends are using computers then eventually one will show them some shiny thing (usually a silly game) which is Windows only. Then your relative HAS to have it. It doesn't even matter if there are a dozen equivalents that are only an "apt-get install" away. They want what their friend has and they want it now! Despite what one might think desire to conform to the herd is no less strong in the elderly than it is in a high school teenager. This is actually the one exception to that first rule, that they don't want learn how to do things over again. They will do so to learn Windows so they can run that stupid little app that their friend has. Then they will distrust you and always take the exact opposite of your advice for leading them down a different path in the first place.
For my relative where I experienced this it was silly time wasting Flash games. That was back when there was no up to date version of Flash for Linux. We even tried Crossover but it didn't work for everything. Thankfully now there is an up to date Flash for Linux. Even better Flash is dying. DIE DIE DIE Flash! As applications move from the desktop to the browser the opportunities to hit this problem are getting smaller. Maybe there is hope!
But for now... if they don't have friends (on computers). And they haven't already been exposed to Windows... then just about any easy to use desktop environment that "gets the job done" will do just fine!
If you haven't guessed, each of these scenarios represents one relative that I have attempted to put on Linux. So far I am 1 for 3. Better luck to you!
How does that prove anything?
Yeah, I can definitely see how waiting for compiles could discourage people from trying things. I've adopted a mode of ssh to home first thing in the morning from work, start a screen session, start something big emerging". Then I can sign out, focus on work and when I get home I have something new to play with. If I think the compile will take longer than that, and I think I will want to use my computer that night I just set it to some low priority nice level. That way I can go on using my computer for every day stuff while it continues to build. It can finish whatever day it finishes.
This routine works for me but I can imagine it isn't for everyone. For me it has been better than the issues I had back when I used binary packages. But.. It's also not something I want to do on multiple machines.
I'm curious, how much time in court is spent debating wether something was "clearly done" for a specific purpose?
Of course more accidents happen there. Safety is hard! Why bother when you have an endless supply of easily replaceable grad assistants?
Maybe it would help if they offered to takeCongress along with them for the ride. While they are at it there is no reason to leave the whitehouse out. They can even save some fuel by not bringing them back!
It did! So did Ubuntu. What is your point?
A long time ago I was a big Debian fan. I had two problems with it, eventually I became pissed off and moved on to Gentoo. I still love Gentoo on my desktop but would like something less labor intensive for any and every other computer I might have to maintain. I am wondering if Debian has improved and if I might want to use it for this.
My first problem was packages asking for user input during installation. I wanted to start a dist-upgrade and walk away. Often I would do so, coming back hours later expecting all 100s of packages to be updated only to find that it only got a few down it's list, started asking some stupid question about something I didn't even care about and stopped there, waiting for me to press a key.
Then there were the repos. Debian's package repos were pretty conservative, prefering stable over bleeding edge. Overall that is a good thing. But it meant there were always specific packages, especially when using Debian as a desktop where I just had to get a more recent version from somewhere else.
If you wanted to keep everything neat, tidy and managed by apt-get and dpkg the best way was to add third party repos. Again, not a problem. I don't mind doing that. My problem was that the third party repos didn't always stay in sync very well with the official Debian ones. The result was that often, once a few third party repos are added and the install is no longer pure official Debian, when trying to update one package Debian would suddenly want to un-install many many othes. It was easy to miss a message, press the 'Y' key and before you know it half your system is gone! This was especially bad given my first Debian problem, looking for an unattended upgrade. I was pretty prone to just pushing 'Y'.
So, anyway, my point isn't to complain about Debian. That was over 10 years ago! What I want to know is "has it improved?".
Thanks!
Sorry. What are those thiings he both flies around and shoots things with? Some form of ion engine? Somebody might be able to almost build it now. But.. the power source would be somewhere around a ton and he would be tethered to it. This very well may never change.
>>Devil's advocate: What part of the United States Constitution (or even the Constitution of one of the 50 States) authorizes the >>Government to compel vaccination?
>Devil's respondent: the first sentence, the part saying "to promote the general Welfare"."
Oh no! I'm very pro vaccination but using your logic politicians can make any decision they want for the population. They just have to state that they believe it is for people's good.
More likely there are a lot of them!
Then you are part of a very small percentage of the population. If everyone was vaccinated except for people such as yourself you would likely be safe as unvaccinated people would statistically be unlikely to be in contact with one another and thus have no one to catch the disease from.
If there were a simple gene involved in this kind of stupidity herd immunity wouldn' t prevent it from being selected against. Even though a large number of non-immunized people running around does increase the risk for all of us the risk is still greater for those without immunizations. Thus.. natural selection would still work against those with the stupid gene. Loss of herd immunity would just slow the effect a bit.
1) Lower the prices on components
There is no way a brick and mortar store is going to compare with component prices on places like Ebay or Deal Extreme. Even competing with Mouser and Digikey is probably asking too much. But.... the Rat Shack's prices on components are frequently 100 or more times the price of purchasing the same thing online. Having a part in hand when you want it IS worth extra money. It is rarely worth THAT MUCH money!
2) Compete with Arduino
Hey, it's awesome that they cary Arduinos and various pre-built shields now. They should continue that. But... most people aren't going to be frequent repeat buyers of Arduinos. They are great for getting ones feet wet. But.. as a hobbyist who makes new projects frequently (the kind of people who come in and buy often) they are too expensive. An Arduino is good for re-using one Arduino in many temporary projects. Or it's good for early prototype stages of a permanent project. It's overkill to actually leave one in whatever you just built and go buy another for the next project.
The Rat Shack shoudl be selling their own brand of cheap Boarduino. AND... they should sell raw Atmega chips (preferrably with the Arduino bootloader on them). AND they should sell little clock parts bundles to go with them (crystals and caps). Unpopulated Boarduino PCBs where the user can populate just the parts they need would be awesome too.
3) Enough with the little 2-component baggies! The packaging probably costs more overhead than the part inside!
For the most common resistor and capacitor values just sell them on tape. (At least do this for 1k, 10k ohm, .01, .1uf and some value electrolytic (not too critical))
You want to really get some attention? Don't even bother counting them, sell them by weight. Just have big rolls of the stuff in a spool. Let the customer rip off the length they want. Yes, I know, that method will totally screw with their inventory records. So what? I'm only talking about super common 1/4 watt resistors and a few values of super common capacitors. They are what, .01 cent a piece from the factory?
For extra bonus points, do the same thing or similar for a couple really common transistors (2n2222 and 2n2907) and a rectifier diode (1n400... something or other). This should reduce overhead.
Maybe other, less common parts could be sold in tape too but rather than have big spools pre-cut them in lenths of 5 parts or so. Sell those at considerably lower price than the crappy little 1 or 2 part baggies are marked today.
4) PCB fabrication, 3d printing service. Those would be pretty cool things to have too. There is no way Rat Shack can put them in so many stores. They could centralize it but don't just put it in one place (I guess it would be Texas) and make every store's customers wait for the shipping.
Instead, start building "Super Stores". There should eventually be one per metro area. Customers can go into a "Super Store" and get their PCB etched with in an hour (just like the old 1 hour photo stores). Or.. they could have something printed, maybe they can even watch it print!
Customers who go to a non-super store could still submit a design to be printed at the nearest Super Store and shipped.
5) Keep closing stores
Sorry, I don't want to say this. There really are too many though. I can think of 4 near where I live, I bet there are others I am not even aware of. That just isn't necessary.
That's true of any components store. I still know of some succesful ones that are not named Radio Shack. Why can't the Rat Shack do whatever they do?