I had many of the same issues with my circa 2003 G3 iBook. It got very, very hot after an hour or two of use, and the logic board had to be replaced four times. There was also an issue with the lcd backlight flickering because the sharp plastic moulding used in the hinges abraided the wire.
I spent around $1000, and it lasted less than a year. AppleCare also isn't available in my state for some reason, so it wasn't an option. Apple finally admitted to the logic board issue, but so far they haven't admitted that using thin wire with sharp plastic was a bad idea. I've never had an IBM-compatible machine (even a cheap Dell) ship with flaws like that.
Heck, my Dell notebook was thrown 30 feet in a bus accident and Dell fixed it under warranty.
I love OSX, but I have no idea how Apple stays in business with such dodgy hardware; if I had bought 30 iBooks for the private school I worked with at the time, I probably would've cried myself to sleep at night.
Unfortunately, Apple and bad hardware seem to go together.
It would be nice to see an OSS Flash solution; I'm not currently aware of any, and Flash is sometimes required on certain sites, so it's necessary for the moment.
FlashBlock is, IMO, a lot better than the IE solution. Flashblock replaces the flash content with its own (a play button) and allows the user to decide which flash content to load on each page. On sites I visit frequently, that's very handy.
You don't appear to be the OP, ergo it's fallacious to assume I was referring in any way to your back problems. From the OP's description of his own problem, good posture and some common sense things (like taking breaks and "ergonomic exercises") will probably alleviate much of his discomfort.
If the OP has conditions for which an ergonomic chair is needed, Slashdot is probably the wrong place to be asking, but his question centered around time spent at his desk and his posture. In no way did I imply that ergonomic chairs are never appropriate, but IMO in this case the OP doesn't need to spend £87-126 on a chair.
Developing good posture will alleviate your need for an ergonomic chair like this. In my experience, these chairs tend to be uncomfortable after an hour or two. Take frequent breaks and exercise, in addition to developing good posture, and you'll not find yourself quite so uncomfortable.
That said, zafu and zabuton (cushions traditionally used in meditation and for sitting in general) are very good for helping to develop good posture; the loft and angle of the cushions forces the spine into alignment, which relieves pressure. There's nothing to support your back for you, so you'll eventually be able to sit with better posture without relying on the back of a chair to do it for you.
Camp directors are attempting to do two things, according to the article: treat the symptoms of a problem and censor negative opinions about their organizations.
If photographs of a camp and its attendees have managed to wind their way onto an adult website, I have no qualms with the camp in questions taking action to have the material removed, however, it seems the camp might want to devote more resources to educating attendees about safety. I also don't see any issue with confiscating digital cameras, even though many children who've gone to camp in the past were able to take photographs.
I certainly take issue with camps' attempts to censor negative opinion and activities which take place outside of the camp and are unrelated to the camp. The article makes it seem like these camps are asking both attendees and counselors to censor their outside activities so as not to make the camp "look bad."
ACPI is hit or miss. As of 2.6.16.20, an Inspiron 1000 still will not wake from a sleep state. Suspend2 will work, so it's not a complete loss. It's cheap hardware; I didn't expect ACPI to work with it. I brought up the ACPI issue to illustrate the point that Linux's problems aren't desktop readiness but rather portable/laptop/notebook readiness. I'm also not sure how it was off topic, but hey, can't win them all.
However, the moderator seems to have missed the point of my post entirely: It should be no surprise that individuals or corporations will use the tool which will allow them to get the job done with the least amount of effort. Expending the effort to make an in-house solution do something an existing product can already do, and do well, does not make sense for any corporation with a desire to be profitable.
I really don't understand why this counts as news. As much as I, and many members of the Slashdot community, dislike Microsoft's business practices, Microsoft generally makes business decisions which are good for Microsoft and Microsoft's shareholders. In this case, in particular, Microsoft is showing that they're able to use the best tool for the job they need to have done.
They may try to say that Linux isn't ready for the desktop, but I somehow doubt that's the point. Linux is fine on the desktop; Linux currently has trouble on laptops, and that's where Linux developers need to focus. Windows XP Professional works better, at least where power management is concerned, on my cheap Dell Inspiron; As an undergraduate, money is at a premium, I buy the machine which is both within my budget and which will meet my needs.
Currently, I have few qualms (aside from GSA) with Windows XP, and it meets my needs better than Linux does where the power-management features of my laptop are concerned. ACPI functions poorly, at best, on my Inspiron. I can't close the lid and have it reliably enter a sleep state (and it never wakes correctly). I also cannot use OneNote, and there's no OSS equivalent to OneNote at the moment; OneNote makes organizing my notes from lectures and seminars much easier.
All that said, Linux runs on my desktop machine. I do think folks are overreacting quite a lot about Linux running on some WiFi appliances in Redmond. You use the best tool for the job, or you're not going to be able to get the job done as efficiently.
While I'm certainly more technically inclined than a number of people I know, I wouldn't describe myself as much more than a Linux power-user. I'm an Anthropology major with severe dyscalculia and have had little inclination to learn much more than Python, a little Lisp, and HTML + CSS; I'm not the 'typical' programmer geek or system administrator, but I wouldn't say that Slackware is any more difficult to use than SuSE, RedHat or FedoraCore.
I originally started using Slackware (3.2) because I was careless with my Windows 95 installation media, and I couldn't re-install it after I had to replace the harddrive. It was pretty hellacious back then, but I was still using AOL for dialup and had never touched *nix of any flavour before. I ended up going right back to Windows. However, when Slackware 7 was released I decided to give it another go.
On my circa 1997 PC, I didn't even have to recompile the kernel. Everything in the install worked out of the box (including X). Eventually, as I began to learn more about how Linux functioned, I taught myself how to re-compile the kernel and to do various other basic system administration tasks; I'm not sure I would've managed to learn quite as much about Linux had I started off using a distribution with an integrated package manager and so-called "hand holding" system administration utilities.
I'm writing this post on a low-end Inspiron running Slackware-current. Yeah, it took me longer to configure the Slackware install than it did the XP install or the Ubuntu install, but Slackware is very easy to configure once you learn how.
I gave my largley computer-illiterate mother an old desktop running Slackware with IceWM (I later switched it to KDE), and she hasn't had many problems with it. I doubt she could configure the system herself, beyond the options in KDE's control center, but it's certainly as easy to use as any other OS.
I've been a Bank of America customer since 2002, and I'm going to join you in refusing to do business with them any longer.
Now to find a bank that isn't doing this.
I have no idea what *nix-based operating systems you use at work, and, thusly, I have no idea which sorts of *nix you'd really like to learn; please do keep that in mind.
Pick a Linux distribution that doesn't hold your hand with graphical installers and graphical system administration tools, and preferably one without a crutch like apt-get or rpm. I would recommend Slackware, because it's one of the best distributions for learning how to run a Linux system. Google is your friend, alongside forums like Linux Questions. You might give a basic book like O'Rielly's Running Linux a look, as well, but the actual learning is going to come from your experience.
Next, pick a BSD distribution and do the same thing. FreeBSD is pretty popular, but you might also want to try OpenBSD.
Going to conferences and symposia probably wont teach you very much, unless they're intensive introduction to Linux/BSD/*nix flavour events.
Slashdot Mirror
I had many of the same issues with my circa 2003 G3 iBook. It got very, very hot after an hour or two of use, and the logic board had to be replaced four times. There was also an issue with the lcd backlight flickering because the sharp plastic moulding used in the hinges abraided the wire. I spent around $1000, and it lasted less than a year. AppleCare also isn't available in my state for some reason, so it wasn't an option. Apple finally admitted to the logic board issue, but so far they haven't admitted that using thin wire with sharp plastic was a bad idea. I've never had an IBM-compatible machine (even a cheap Dell) ship with flaws like that. Heck, my Dell notebook was thrown 30 feet in a bus accident and Dell fixed it under warranty. I love OSX, but I have no idea how Apple stays in business with such dodgy hardware; if I had bought 30 iBooks for the private school I worked with at the time, I probably would've cried myself to sleep at night. Unfortunately, Apple and bad hardware seem to go together.
It would be nice to see an OSS Flash solution; I'm not currently aware of any, and Flash is sometimes required on certain sites, so it's necessary for the moment.
FlashBlock is, IMO, a lot better than the IE solution. Flashblock replaces the flash content with its own (a play button) and allows the user to decide which flash content to load on each page. On sites I visit frequently, that's very handy.
You might want to try using the FlashBlock extension for Firefox.
You don't appear to be the OP, ergo it's fallacious to assume I was referring in any way to your back problems. From the OP's description of his own problem, good posture and some common sense things (like taking breaks and "ergonomic exercises") will probably alleviate much of his discomfort.
If the OP has conditions for which an ergonomic chair is needed, Slashdot is probably the wrong place to be asking, but his question centered around time spent at his desk and his posture. In no way did I imply that ergonomic chairs are never appropriate, but IMO in this case the OP doesn't need to spend £87-126 on a chair.
MOD PARENT DOWN
Developing good posture will alleviate your need for an ergonomic chair like this. In my experience, these chairs tend to be uncomfortable after an hour or two. Take frequent breaks and exercise, in addition to developing good posture, and you'll not find yourself quite so uncomfortable.
That said, zafu and zabuton (cushions traditionally used in meditation and for sitting in general) are very good for helping to develop good posture; the loft and angle of the cushions forces the spine into alignment, which relieves pressure. There's nothing to support your back for you, so you'll eventually be able to sit with better posture without relying on the back of a chair to do it for you.
Camp directors are attempting to do two things, according to the article: treat the symptoms of a problem and censor negative opinions about their organizations.
If photographs of a camp and its attendees have managed to wind their way onto an adult website, I have no qualms with the camp in questions taking action to have the material removed, however, it seems the camp might want to devote more resources to educating attendees about safety. I also don't see any issue with confiscating digital cameras, even though many children who've gone to camp in the past were able to take photographs.
I certainly take issue with camps' attempts to censor negative opinion and activities which take place outside of the camp and are unrelated to the camp. The article makes it seem like these camps are asking both attendees and counselors to censor their outside activities so as not to make the camp "look bad."
ACPI is hit or miss. As of 2.6.16.20, an Inspiron 1000 still will not wake from a sleep state. Suspend2 will work, so it's not a complete loss. It's cheap hardware; I didn't expect ACPI to work with it. I brought up the ACPI issue to illustrate the point that Linux's problems aren't desktop readiness but rather portable/laptop/notebook readiness. I'm also not sure how it was off topic, but hey, can't win them all.
However, the moderator seems to have missed the point of my post entirely: It should be no surprise that individuals or corporations will use the tool which will allow them to get the job done with the least amount of effort. Expending the effort to make an in-house solution do something an existing product can already do, and do well, does not make sense for any corporation with a desire to be profitable.
I really don't understand why this counts as news. As much as I, and many members of the Slashdot community, dislike Microsoft's business practices, Microsoft generally makes business decisions which are good for Microsoft and Microsoft's shareholders. In this case, in particular, Microsoft is showing that they're able to use the best tool for the job they need to have done.
They may try to say that Linux isn't ready for the desktop, but I somehow doubt that's the point. Linux is fine on the desktop; Linux currently has trouble on laptops, and that's where Linux developers need to focus. Windows XP Professional works better, at least where power management is concerned, on my cheap Dell Inspiron; As an undergraduate, money is at a premium, I buy the machine which is both within my budget and which will meet my needs.
Currently, I have few qualms (aside from GSA) with Windows XP, and it meets my needs better than Linux does where the power-management features of my laptop are concerned. ACPI functions poorly, at best, on my Inspiron. I can't close the lid and have it reliably enter a sleep state (and it never wakes correctly). I also cannot use OneNote, and there's no OSS equivalent to OneNote at the moment; OneNote makes organizing my notes from lectures and seminars much easier.
All that said, Linux runs on my desktop machine. I do think folks are overreacting quite a lot about Linux running on some WiFi appliances in Redmond. You use the best tool for the job, or you're not going to be able to get the job done as efficiently.
While I'm certainly more technically inclined than a number of people I know, I wouldn't describe myself as much more than a Linux power-user. I'm an Anthropology major with severe dyscalculia and have had little inclination to learn much more than Python, a little Lisp, and HTML + CSS; I'm not the 'typical' programmer geek or system administrator, but I wouldn't say that Slackware is any more difficult to use than SuSE, RedHat or FedoraCore. I originally started using Slackware (3.2) because I was careless with my Windows 95 installation media, and I couldn't re-install it after I had to replace the harddrive. It was pretty hellacious back then, but I was still using AOL for dialup and had never touched *nix of any flavour before. I ended up going right back to Windows. However, when Slackware 7 was released I decided to give it another go. On my circa 1997 PC, I didn't even have to recompile the kernel. Everything in the install worked out of the box (including X). Eventually, as I began to learn more about how Linux functioned, I taught myself how to re-compile the kernel and to do various other basic system administration tasks; I'm not sure I would've managed to learn quite as much about Linux had I started off using a distribution with an integrated package manager and so-called "hand holding" system administration utilities. I'm writing this post on a low-end Inspiron running Slackware-current. Yeah, it took me longer to configure the Slackware install than it did the XP install or the Ubuntu install, but Slackware is very easy to configure once you learn how. I gave my largley computer-illiterate mother an old desktop running Slackware with IceWM (I later switched it to KDE), and she hasn't had many problems with it. I doubt she could configure the system herself, beyond the options in KDE's control center, but it's certainly as easy to use as any other OS.
Ah, well, I failed in my quest to be funny.
When has anyone ever been receptive to RMS?
I've been a Bank of America customer since 2002, and I'm going to join you in refusing to do business with them any longer. Now to find a bank that isn't doing this.
I have no idea what *nix-based operating systems you use at work, and, thusly, I have no idea which sorts of *nix you'd really like to learn; please do keep that in mind.
Pick a Linux distribution that doesn't hold your hand with graphical installers and graphical system administration tools, and preferably one without a crutch like apt-get or rpm. I would recommend Slackware, because it's one of the best distributions for learning how to run a Linux system. Google is your friend, alongside forums like Linux Questions. You might give a basic book like O'Rielly's Running Linux a look, as well, but the actual learning is going to come from your experience.
Next, pick a BSD distribution and do the same thing. FreeBSD is pretty popular, but you might also want to try OpenBSD.
Going to conferences and symposia probably wont teach you very much, unless they're intensive introduction to Linux/BSD/*nix flavour events.