Once you've owned one, you understand. It really is worth the money.
I have to agree strongly here. While I adore my PIII powerhouse Linux machine, I'm on a Mac crusade. My experiences so far have been exteremly pleasant.
However my problem is this: despite the OSX Carbon layer (its carbon thats the 'emulation' layer, right?) I want native apps. And not just high-end rendering things, I mean, Office 2k and so forth, and I want them native, not pumped through a new API (I don't trust MS enough to learn an API that isn't theirs). We're seriously looking at some Mac hardware, but its gotta run that killer app of killer apps, Office.
>My question is this: what will happen to Linux when it is done playing catch-up? I'm not in the prognostication business. I would assume we would work on things like usability, improving performance, whatever. We'll do whatever our customers and our community needs.
> Grow some nuts and actually innovate. Please tell me you're being sarcastic.
Generations of Unix geeks have been thrilled with pine, elm, and mutt.
My father, a latecomer to the whole computer thing, will never use mutt, pine, or elm.
My boss wants Free Agent. He loves Free Agent. He worships Free Agent. He won't read news with any *nix newsreader that isn't an exact Free Agent clone. He boots into Windows just to read news. If I clone Free Agent, I have just done a great service to the free software community: one less instance of Windows being loaded.
I fail to see how approaching a valid market segment is bad.
Although, PLEASE, lets not give it its own awful colour scheme!
Its important that/. not become a total entity of the web - namely, no memory. Taco asked on GIS when/. started to suck: I say it started to pull itself back together when it started following up on stories.
Although its probably been asked before, exactly HOW do you prove its pirated music? Lets assume they sniff my activity and see that I am downloading a file thats "pirated". So they come to my house and try to bust me. As soon as I see the cops coming up, I grab my roommate's copy of the record. Them: "We're here to bust you. You downloaded illegal music." (looks at HD) Me: Nope, just ripped it myself, bought the CD with cash so there's no record.
OK, so maybe they have irrefutable proof I downloaded it from someone. I can't claim I ripped it. Maybe *he* ripped it, and sent me a copy - after all, we're both legitimate owners of the CD and there's no law against that (is there?). Don't you, at some point, have to find EVERY SINGLE PERSON who uses Napster, look at their CD collection, and then figure out who's actually stealing, and who (like me, often) is downloading because I'm too lazy to waste CPU ripping CD's?
Interestingly his page continually warns me that I am not using linux.... his page script says if (navigator.platform != "LinuxELF2.0") How very interesting. Has Navigator ever said that? I thought it said X11; Linux as the string. KFM satisfies it, though.
Offtopic but what the hell, it bothered me.
Re:What about VA/MD residents?
on
Fighting UCITA
·
· Score: 2
>Your plaint is legitimate. You should write your elected officials, from the state level down to the local. I have and I did. Fat lot of good it did. >I don't mean to bash you; I just want you to realize that you have to make your state legislators realize that there's a cost associated with UCITA. Perhaps they understand >the concept of brain drain. They don't and they won't. After all: I have very strong reasons to stay. My fiance is here, finishing med school. My job - which I love - is here. My friends are here. Staying is part of the plan. I wish I could make them understand without having to uproot. And Iowa? Well, Slipknot is from there, so I guess they think they're a music centre, and now they'll become an Internet centre as well.
Re:What about VA/MD residents?
on
Fighting UCITA
·
· Score: 2
>Emigrate to a state that isn't completely run by >big software interests. Statements like this bother me. I happen to have a house, a good internet connection, friends, and a sense of community. So now, because my lawmakers are stupid, I have to move? While that makes a certain amount of sense, its also a complete load of bullshit. If I move, I will give up a lot - local contacts, the aforementioned material and personal things. If I stay, I am risking my career - people won't want to work with/for me, since I live in VA and we're controlled by big software interests. So I guess its off to Silicon Valley, WHERE THERE ARE NO BIG SOFTWARE INTERESTS, huh.
I have been reading dozens of articles from various places that Judge Jacksons *doesn't* want a breakup, that its the corporate equivalent of the death penalty. States didn't want a breakup, either. Now, suddenly, a breakup is part of the plan?
You hit the nail on the head. Electronic devices produce heat; modern armies have thermal detectors for spotting people. So thats one strike.
You mentioned electronic emissions; another strike. Apparently now the average grunt (ok, ok, not the average grunt, but still) can be picked up with HFDF and have a couple 105's dropped on his head.
Its frightening and makes me glad I'm out. They gave me a rifle and told me to go kill bad guys. Thats as complicated as it got.
.... I had, as an infantryman, exactly one job: wait around until told to go somewhere and kill the enemy. I had one tool: Uncle Sam gave me an M16A2, for use the said job (sure, I had others, but that was what my main tool was).
Lets not forget, I believe it was Heinlen, who basically said "The more gadgets you load a grunt down with, the easier it is for someone to walk up and bash his head in with a rock". See above; my life as an infantryman was simple and uncomplicated. I can bet you I was much more effective than anyone trying to locate map points w/ a PDA and calling for help on a cell phone. We relied on maps, and each other. Primitive, huh.
Given, also, that my main tool - my weapon - was fragile and sensitive to even the most minor of abuses that occur in the field, do they really think something like a PDA and a CELL PHONE are going to survive a grunt's life?
Lets assume for a moment that free software becomes the way business happens. Every company, if it wants to keep shareholder value anyway, opens up the source, makes their softwre free. What's next? Where do you go from there? What do you do for an encore? Or is that the "end of the war" and at that point, GPL protecting our freedoms, you go back to coding?
So, if I download Darwin (or shell out the $20 for the CD) does that mean I get all the install tools (ie bootdisk) and can install it? Are there things in the core that make it not work as a stand-alone system? Why use Darwin when you can just get Mach and BSD, anyway?
A lot of people are complaining how they don't want integrated this, bundled that, and installed-alongside the-other. Well, thats too bad, because lots of people - how many millions are on AOL now? - do.
Look, I'm all for tiny, I dislike all these features that to me are useless. But Netscape is trying to regain browser share, and if they release a "next generation" browser without the ability to read mail/news, search, and feed the cat, they'll get crucified in the press and the legions of (l)users out there won't think twice about forgoing the download and double-clicking on IE. Blame M$, blame AOL, blame whomever you want. If you don't want all these "features" then don't use it! Use W3-mode, use Lynx, use NetPositive, whatever. Its a sad state of affairs but I don't fault Netscape one bit.
The Mac version is nice.... Takes a friggin month to start, but its nice otherwise. Wish it had more of the native widgets; I get them on my Linux machine, why can't I have them on my Mac??
I have kinds had this conspiracy theory about IBM. I think that they see Linux, and open source, as a way to have M$ levels of power without the problems. If challenged, they could just say "Well, the code is out there, why didn't YOU think it up? Neener neener," and go back to world domination. They create nifty hardware hacks which they release - after all, they aren't of much use unless you have a mainframe to begin with (which you come to them for). They supply code to a standards-based Web server (and release that, too). Monopoly? Heck no, we gave you the source code!
Well, that business model kept Netscape alive for some time. Also, the idea that mp3 will ruin the artists is just bunk. Every time technology changes, the industry rants and raves, OH, this new technology is going to destroy music (and our jobs). And you know what? It never has, and the industry just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Please explain how THIS particular technological terror will actually be the one that destroys the business and forces the hordes of surly, unkempt musicians (me included) into the streets.
Not flamebait: I just am waiting for someone to give a reasoned response.
While I am only taking my first foray into ambient and electronica, it seems to me that the same rules apply. Go to places. Talk to established DJs and get them to play your tapes. Go with a loss-leader business plan: distribute your music widely, over the internet, until people like to so much they'll pay for it.
(slightly on topic) I work with someone who was in a band, one with a major label contract, and they got totally fscked over; I was in a band for many years, too, and while we never got a contract, we released a few records on our own and toured and gigged all over the country. Same end result; we're both working on debugging a piece of code.
Maybe thats why I am into free software. The one thing I wanted, when I was in a band, was to have control over my business. Yet I knew, in the back of my mind, that at one point I would have to make the haul to LA or NYC and pitch myself, and my band, as a product. I'd have to talk about sales figures, fan base, and marketability (and boy were we some ugly dudes. I'd have to sell myself to a huge company, since they controlled the means of production and promotion (other than working for less than minimum wage, at triple the hours, which is all we ever managed). I see the two as intrinsicly linked, or at the very least strongly related. MP3 and Napster is a threat not to the musicians, who will make money on tours and web-based merchandising, but on the profits of the media conglomerate. Free Software is a threat to companies that are firmly entrenched in old-school thought. Hell, Microsoft relies on brick-and-mortar, a lot (along with corrupt deals...)
Does anyone still care about Daikatana? I mean, we have Soldier Of Fortune, where you can spend a pleasant afternoon knee-capping miscreants; Quake 3 itself, run-run-run-kill-kill-die-shit!-respawn-repeat, if thats your thing. Half-Life already has its first expansion out (which I didn't like as much but hey, its Half Life, so it was pretty good, even if it was bad). I just keep asking myself, even if its a decent game, will anyone even care anymore? So many good games have already captured attention, people want HomeWorld 2 more than Daikatana.
We're hearing about Delphi a lot, but everyone here is clamoring BIG TIME for C++ Builder. They're all crazy for it. I heard a while back that it was up and running on Linux... When will we get big news about that?
I'm all for Delphi, but we have a project that we're working on in MSVC6 that we will have to port to Linux sometime this year, and porting to to Borland is an interim decision that would, in theory, make the Linux port much easier (if the compiler is upwards of 95% compatible between Linux and Win32).
Downloaded everything. My first impression can be summed up in two works:
Segmentation fault
Oh well. I'm having a bad overall weekend: Linux has, for the first time, bit me. Sawmill upgrade is fscked up, lots of other things are breaking all over the place. ACK! A pal of mine called with his ruined NT machine (added a modem, won't boot anymore) so I guess its not so bad.
Sorry, off-topic. Has anyone got the package installer to work?
Preface: I am typing this on my Frankenstein Intel-architecture Red Hat 6.1 machine, running the latest GNOME stuff. Its my main line machine: other than my laptop, a junky Toshiba running Corel Linux. All my servers run Debian or Red Hat.
I don't think Linux is ready for the desktop. In fact, I am going to buy a Mac to supplement my desktop needs.
Why? Well, first, I can't stomach buying a supplemental Windows machine. Second, the state of the Linux desktop art is lagging behind in areas that I need it, right now and today. Not things where I can donate my time (which I do), not things that I can contribute code to (which I want to), but things I need, right now, this minute, in order to get my work done and get paid.
The sad thing about this is my machine - this here Linux box - is the best computer I have had, both in terms of hardware and software, I think. I play Quake3, I do network administration, web design, programming, and I have a killer MP3 collection. I talk to my friends on ICQ - at least, when they aren't busy rebooting their Windows machines.
In other words, I get 98% of my work tasks done, and no one cares, no one complains, and they're quite happy with my performance and could care less about what my machine is running.
That other 2%, is when they send me a proposal in Word to review: and not a grocery list, but a huge document with lots of Word cruft. When I can't read it properly, I get yelled at. I have filed bug reports and Abiword, stressed Star Office to its wits end, and run Applix ragged. If I can't get 100% accuracy, I have to work that much harder (fiddling with VMWare, for instance). I have to be able to do EVERYHING that my co-workers do (except reboot/reinstall!) and if that means "straying from the flock" for a while, then I will have to do that.
Don't get my wrong: I love fiddling with VMWare as much as I love Quake3. I love hacking away happily on my machine, optimizing it as much as I can, I love Linux and support it every chance I get. Its the best thing to come along and I consider my self a good supporter of free software, open source, and Linux. Its a time of serious cognitive dissonance in my life.
So anyway, I need something for the simple things: Word/Excel (Lord how I hate it), scheduling, calendar, PIM, etc. I don't want it to require a single minute of fiddling, I don't want it to work at it. I want it to work for me. So I seriously see a little tranlucent blue potty in my future.
I still intend to support Linux, and strive to improve the things that are lacking. I would never have NT, not for all the tea in China. But I think there are certain facts of life that we ignore.
Note: No, no dual booting. I can't close down the 900 things on my desktop to look up a phone number. Why ruin good uptime, anyway?
Slashdot Mirror
I have to agree strongly here. While I adore my PIII powerhouse Linux machine, I'm on a Mac crusade. My experiences so far have been exteremly pleasant.
However my problem is this: despite the OSX Carbon layer (its carbon thats the 'emulation' layer, right?) I want native apps. And not just high-end rendering things, I mean, Office 2k and so forth, and I want them native, not pumped through a new API (I don't trust MS enough to learn an API that isn't theirs). We're seriously looking at some Mac hardware, but its gotta run that killer app of killer apps, Office.
...will be the extreme RUSH of people to register sex, football, unix, and god.
>My question is this: what will happen to Linux when it is done playing catch-up?
I'm not in the prognostication business. I would assume we would work on things like usability, improving performance, whatever. We'll do whatever our customers and our community needs.
> Grow some nuts and actually innovate.
Please tell me you're being sarcastic.
Generations of Unix geeks have been thrilled with pine, elm, and mutt.
My father, a latecomer to the whole computer thing, will never use mutt, pine, or elm.
My boss wants Free Agent. He loves Free Agent. He worships Free Agent. He won't read news with any *nix newsreader that isn't an exact Free Agent clone. He boots into Windows just to read news. If I clone Free Agent, I have just done a great service to the free software community: one less instance of Windows being loaded.
I fail to see how approaching a valid market segment is bad.
Although, PLEASE, lets not give it its own awful colour scheme!
/. not become a total entity of the web - namely, no memory. Taco asked on GIS when /. started to suck: I say it started to pull itself back together when it started following up on stories.
Its important that
Note: This post free of Metallica puns.
Although its probably been asked before, exactly HOW do you prove its pirated music? Lets assume they sniff my activity and see that I am downloading a file thats "pirated". So they come to my house and try to bust me. As soon as I see the cops coming up, I grab my roommate's copy of the record.
Them: "We're here to bust you. You downloaded illegal music." (looks at HD)
Me: Nope, just ripped it myself, bought the CD with cash so there's no record.
OK, so maybe they have irrefutable proof I downloaded it from someone. I can't claim I ripped it. Maybe *he* ripped it, and sent me a copy - after all, we're both legitimate owners of the CD and there's no law against that (is there?). Don't you, at some point, have to find EVERY SINGLE PERSON who uses Napster, look at their CD collection, and then figure out who's actually stealing, and who (like me, often) is downloading because I'm too lazy to waste CPU ripping CD's?
Interestingly his page continually warns me that I am not using linux.... his page script says
if (navigator.platform != "LinuxELF2.0")
How very interesting. Has Navigator ever said that? I thought it said X11; Linux as the string. KFM satisfies it, though.
Offtopic but what the hell, it bothered me.
>Your plaint is legitimate. You should write your elected officials, from the state level down to the local.
I have and I did. Fat lot of good it did.
>I don't mean to bash you; I just want you to realize that you have to make your state legislators realize that there's a cost associated with UCITA. Perhaps they understand
>the concept of brain drain.
They don't and they won't. After all: I have very strong reasons to stay. My fiance is here, finishing med school. My job - which I love - is here. My friends are here. Staying is part of the plan. I wish I could make them understand without having to uproot. And Iowa? Well, Slipknot is from there, so I guess they think they're a music centre, and now they'll become an Internet centre as well.
>Emigrate to a state that isn't completely run by >big software interests.
Statements like this bother me. I happen to have a house, a good internet connection, friends, and a sense of community. So now, because my lawmakers are stupid, I have to move? While that makes a certain amount of sense, its also a complete load of bullshit. If I move, I will give up a lot - local contacts, the aforementioned material and personal things. If I stay, I am risking my career - people won't want to work with/for me, since I live in VA and we're controlled by big software interests. So I guess its off to Silicon Valley, WHERE THERE ARE NO BIG SOFTWARE INTERESTS, huh.
I have been reading dozens of articles from various places that Judge Jacksons *doesn't* want a breakup, that its the corporate equivalent of the death penalty. States didn't want a breakup, either. Now, suddenly, a breakup is part of the plan?
You hit the nail on the head. Electronic devices produce heat; modern armies have thermal detectors for spotting people. So thats one strike.
You mentioned electronic emissions; another strike. Apparently now the average grunt (ok, ok, not the average grunt, but still) can be picked up with HFDF and have a couple 105's dropped on his head.
Its frightening and makes me glad I'm out. They gave me a rifle and told me to go kill bad guys. Thats as complicated as it got.
.... I had, as an infantryman, exactly one job: wait around until told to go somewhere and kill the enemy. I had one tool: Uncle Sam gave me an M16A2, for use the said job (sure, I had others, but that was what my main tool was).
Lets not forget, I believe it was Heinlen, who basically said "The more gadgets you load a grunt down with, the easier it is for someone to walk up and bash his head in with a rock". See above; my life as an infantryman was simple and uncomplicated. I can bet you I was much more effective than anyone trying to locate map points w/ a PDA and calling for help on a cell phone. We relied on maps, and each other. Primitive, huh.
Given, also, that my main tool - my weapon - was fragile and sensitive to even the most minor of abuses that occur in the field, do they really think something like a PDA and a CELL PHONE are going to survive a grunt's life?
Lets assume for a moment that free software becomes the way business happens. Every company, if it wants to keep shareholder value anyway, opens up the source, makes their softwre free. What's next? Where do you go from there? What do you do for an encore? Or is that the "end of the war" and at that point, GPL protecting our freedoms, you go back to coding?
So, if I download Darwin (or shell out the $20 for the CD) does that mean I get all the install tools (ie bootdisk) and can install it? Are there things in the core that make it not work as a stand-alone system? Why use Darwin when you can just get Mach and BSD, anyway?
(flame? probably)
A lot of people are complaining how they don't want integrated this, bundled that, and installed-alongside the-other. Well, thats too bad, because lots of people - how many millions are on AOL now? - do.
Look, I'm all for tiny, I dislike all these features that to me are useless. But Netscape is trying to regain browser share, and if they release a "next generation" browser without the ability to read mail/news, search, and feed the cat, they'll get crucified in the press and the legions of (l)users out there won't think twice about forgoing the download and double-clicking on IE. Blame M$, blame AOL, blame whomever you want. If you don't want all these "features" then don't use it! Use W3-mode, use Lynx, use NetPositive, whatever. Its a sad state of affairs but I don't fault Netscape one bit.
The Mac version is nice.... Takes a friggin month to start, but its nice otherwise. Wish it had more of the native widgets; I get them on my Linux machine, why can't I have them on my Mac??
I have kinds had this conspiracy theory about IBM. I think that they see Linux, and open source, as a way to have M$ levels of power without the problems. If challenged, they could just say "Well, the code is out there, why didn't YOU think it up? Neener neener," and go back to world domination. They create nifty hardware hacks which they release - after all, they aren't of much use unless you have a mainframe to begin with (which you come to them for). They supply code to a standards-based Web server (and release that, too). Monopoly? Heck no, we gave you the source code!
Slightly off topic but its been on my mind.
Well, that business model kept Netscape alive for some time. Also, the idea that mp3 will ruin the artists is just bunk. Every time technology changes, the industry rants and raves, OH, this new technology is going to destroy music (and our jobs). And you know what? It never has, and the industry just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Please explain how THIS particular technological terror will actually be the one that destroys the business and forces the hordes of surly, unkempt musicians (me included) into the streets.
Not flamebait: I just am waiting for someone to give a reasoned response.
While I am only taking my first foray into ambient and electronica, it seems to me that the same rules apply. Go to places. Talk to established DJs and get them to play your tapes. Go with a loss-leader business plan: distribute your music widely, over the internet, until people like to so much they'll pay for it.
(slightly on topic)
I work with someone who was in a band, one with a major label contract, and they got totally fscked over; I was in a band for many years, too, and while we never got a contract, we released a few records on our own and toured and gigged all over the country. Same end result; we're both working on debugging a piece of code.
Maybe thats why I am into free software. The one thing I wanted, when I was in a band, was to have control over my business. Yet I knew, in the back of my mind, that at one point I would have to make the haul to LA or NYC and pitch myself, and my band, as a product. I'd have to talk about sales figures, fan base, and marketability (and boy were we some ugly dudes. I'd have to sell myself to a huge company, since they controlled the means of production and promotion (other than working for less than minimum wage, at triple the hours, which is all we ever managed). I see the two as intrinsicly linked, or at the very least strongly related. MP3 and Napster is a threat not to the musicians, who will make money on tours and web-based merchandising, but on the profits of the media conglomerate. Free Software is a threat to companies that are firmly entrenched in old-school thought. Hell, Microsoft relies on brick-and-mortar, a lot (along with corrupt deals...)
Does anyone still care about Daikatana? I mean, we have Soldier Of Fortune, where you can spend a pleasant afternoon knee-capping miscreants; Quake 3 itself, run-run-run-kill-kill-die-shit!-respawn-repeat, if thats your thing. Half-Life already has its first expansion out (which I didn't like as much but hey, its Half Life, so it was pretty good, even if it was bad). I just keep asking myself, even if its a decent game, will anyone even care anymore? So many good games have already captured attention, people want HomeWorld 2 more than Daikatana.
We're hearing about Delphi a lot, but everyone here is clamoring BIG TIME for C++ Builder. They're all crazy for it. I heard a while back that it was up and running on Linux... When will we get big news about that?
I'm all for Delphi, but we have a project that we're working on in MSVC6 that we will have to port to Linux sometime this year, and porting to to Borland is an interim decision that would, in theory, make the Linux port much easier (if the compiler is upwards of 95% compatible between Linux and Win32).
Downloaded everything. My first impression can be summed up in two works:
Segmentation fault
Oh well. I'm having a bad overall weekend: Linux has, for the first time, bit me. Sawmill upgrade is fscked up, lots of other things are breaking all over the place. ACK! A pal of mine called with his ruined NT machine (added a modem, won't boot anymore) so I guess its not so bad.
Sorry, off-topic. Has anyone got the package installer to work?
This was basically the crux of my argument (located below, "Voice of a Heretic").
I need things RIGHT NOW. I need things that aren't "this feature is 80% implemented" or tedious workarounds to get the same thing.
Looks like we're in the same boat. I'm going Mac, as I can't stomach buying a 100% MS machine (seems like giving in too much).
Preface: I am typing this on my Frankenstein Intel-architecture Red Hat 6.1 machine, running the latest GNOME stuff. Its my main line machine: other than my laptop, a junky Toshiba running Corel Linux. All my servers run Debian or Red Hat.
I don't think Linux is ready for the desktop. In fact, I am going to buy a Mac to supplement my desktop needs.
Why? Well, first, I can't stomach buying a supplemental Windows machine. Second, the state of the Linux desktop art is lagging behind in areas that I need it, right now and today. Not things where I can donate my time (which I do), not things that I can contribute code to (which I want to), but things I need, right now, this minute, in order to get my work done and get paid.
The sad thing about this is my machine - this here Linux box - is the best computer I have had, both in terms of hardware and software, I think. I play Quake3, I do network administration, web design, programming, and I have a killer MP3 collection. I talk to my friends on ICQ - at least, when they aren't busy rebooting their Windows machines.
In other words, I get 98% of my work tasks done, and no one cares, no one complains, and they're quite happy with my performance and could care less about what my machine is running.
That other 2%, is when they send me a proposal in Word to review: and not a grocery list, but a huge document with lots of Word cruft. When I can't read it properly, I get yelled at. I have filed bug reports and Abiword, stressed Star Office to its wits end, and run Applix ragged. If I can't get 100% accuracy, I have to work that much harder (fiddling with VMWare, for instance). I have to be able to do EVERYHING that my co-workers do (except reboot/reinstall!) and if that means "straying from the flock" for a while, then I will have to do that.
Don't get my wrong: I love fiddling with VMWare as much as I love Quake3. I love hacking away happily on my machine, optimizing it as much as I can, I love Linux and support it every chance I get. Its the best thing to come along and I consider my self a good supporter of free software, open source, and Linux. Its a time of serious cognitive dissonance in my life.
So anyway, I need something for the simple things: Word/Excel (Lord how I hate it), scheduling, calendar, PIM, etc. I don't want it to require a single minute of fiddling, I don't want it to work at it. I want it to work for me. So I seriously see a little tranlucent blue potty in my future.
I still intend to support Linux, and strive to improve the things that are lacking. I would never have NT, not for all the tea in China. But I think there are certain facts of life that we ignore.
Note: No, no dual booting. I can't close down the 900 things on my desktop to look up a phone number. Why ruin good uptime, anyway?