I think that's why they said "in the short term". In the long term, it'll show the rest of the country that third party is just fine. In the short term it's not really affecting the outcome much, except for splitting more. In the case of the Green party, the right unites for Republican, and left splits with Green and Dem making the Republicans larger. If the Libertarians had a separate candidate as well, that'd be more even. Then there'd be two forms of "right" and two forms of "left" depending on just how far each way each one wants to go. As it is though, the Libertarians seem content to meld with the Republicans because it makes a more united front.
I'm all for voting 3rd party and helping it be less of a fringe thing, but this year I'm voting for Democrats. Instead of voting on party lines, I'm voting for what's the best choice. If my options are Rick Santorum, Bob Casey, or some other guy, I'm voting Casey. I want to get Santorum out of office, and Casey deviates from the Democratic party on one topic (gay rights) that pushes him a bit further left than the rest of the Dems. I *could* vote on party lines for the 3rd guy, but then I'd be weakening the left side and giving Santorum a fighting chance. At the moment the battle is to shift to the left. Once liberalism is more accepted, then we can make the move toward more specific goals within each smaller party than toward a general "left-ish" goal that we have now.
I think what it is is that Flash 7 is the last one for Linux. Flash 8 files get picture and no sound. Flash 9 files get sound, but no text. At least, that's the pattern I've noticed.
While I totally understand the anarchy thing (throw some communism into the deal and I'll join ya), the thing is, we've got no chance of that happening any time really soon. So, until it's possible, I'd go with voting. It can help. If more than 1/4 of people actually voted, things COULD change. If you're not voting, you're actually part of the problem. Like they say "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". I'm not sure who all I'm voting for, but I know I'm voting for Bob Casey for Senate--no way Santorum would ever get my vote. Those rights are only able to be stolen from you because you and so many others don't vote. That is the biggest problem we have: a "majority" is now something like 20% due to so much voter apathy. Voting is the only way to make a change (aside from a revolution which would be difficult given the government's size).
Good call.
Windows code is too complicated. It's not the components themselves, it's their interdependencies. An architectural diagram of Windows would suggest there are more than 50 dependency layers (never mind that there also exist circular dependencies). After working in Windows for five years, you understand only, say, two of them. Add to this the fact that building Windows on a dual-proc dev box takes nearly 24 hours, and you'll be slow enough to drive Miss Daisy.
^^^wow...that (almost) made sense, but the "why" didn't even come close
I just want to point out that ALL error codes on Windows are "generic". My computer switched into 640x480 with 8-bit color and it told me "there was an error" like it wasn't really obvious.
I can't really help you though.
So, MS takes "only" 8 days to release a patch, and Firefox gets patches out in a day...which seems better: having exploits running around for over a week being hacked at or having it fixed immediately?
You know, I've been on a messageboard that has a Firefox banner at the bottom of it, and had people on there saying they'd never heard of Firefox. It's amazing. On my computers at home, I changed the name on Mozilla to "USE FOR INTERNET" and took the IE shortcuts off the desktop. My mom probably doesn't know what the blue e is, now. She knows we use Mozilla, and it's been at least 3 years since I switched to it. My dad's girlfriend is one of those people who gets confused by Mozilla instead of a blue e. She thinks it's slower--and yes, it does load slower because it doesn't start as soon as your computer turns on, but it doesn't need to open a new window every time either. She knows how to get to the internet on that computer though, so hey, she figured it out.
Basically, just change the names of the icon to "INTERNET" and they'll figure it out after a few minutes...probably.
But if they're going to be mandatorily put in a computer class every year through 8th grade, at least teach them something useful instead of repeating the same damn "this is how you resize fonts in Microsoft Office" crap every year. It's not like they'd be missing some other class for it--they have to take computer classes either way, why not put something that's actually going to come in handy in those classes?
I think they meant for the search engine to know what you mean. For instance, I read a comic where the one guy is trying to find straight edge hardcore music info. His friend thought he was looking up porn because he typed "xxx" which is an abbreviation for straight edge (1 X is for drugs including nicotine, 1 X is drinking, and 1 X is promiscuity--the three things straight edge says not to do). The friend said he wasn't specific enough, so he typed "xxx hardcore". We all know what will come up, but hey, the point stands. We've all tried to Google something and not been able to find what we wanted because it was being misinterpretted.
Sorry, line breaks all disappeared! Where did the whitespace go?!
a stupid user will find a way to screw up their computer
Exactly. Maybe instead of reteaching Microsoft Word every year in school computer classes (was it really necessary to learn every year from the time Windows 95 hit my school until 2002?), they could teach computer literacy. It seems the bar for computer literacy is much lower than it should be. My siblings are "computer literate" because they can send emails, instant message, and type term papers (albeit not with odd formatting). Once students are old enough to understand it, why not start mandatorily teaching them how to fix common problems on multiple operating systems? That'd be true computer literacy.
By 6th grade, kids should be taught how to install a program, run a virus scan, update a virus scan, and clear cookies and temporary internet files. They should be able to do all of that on Windows. They should be able to find the program they want to run while using other OSes.
By 8th grade, they should be able to realise there's a problem, check the running processes, and Google for each process to determine which one is malware, then use those Google results to fix the problem. To the average person, that sounds like a lot of work, but we all know it's really easy. On other OSes, they should be able to Google for whatever problem they're having and follow the directions to fix it. They should have some familiarity with the shell on Linux and *BSD in case they manage to crash X-windows (this applies to Mac too now, right? OS X is Unix-based).
By the end of high school, they should be taught about security. Now you can move away from the "fixing" stuff which they hopefully remember, and teach the things that they are about to move into. When they were 12, they didn't need to worry about credit card numbers. High school students do. This is the time for teaching how to protect yourself against security threats, spyware attacks, identity theft, etc.
I'll admit that I have no idea how to fix a Mac. I get the "hey, you're good with computers, right? Can you help me?" question quite a bit being in a dorm. My first reaction is "is it a Mac?" because I know I'm useless on those. efore the end of high school, they should at least be exposed to other OSes. I may not be able to fix a Mac, but I can tell you I used a Mac pretty often back in 1994 because there were a lot of Macs at my school (I was 6, so don't turn that into "oh well 12 years of experience")--I don't get totally lost. I can function. I just don't have repair skills on a Mac. Maybe I should get a Mac just to learn that stuff. I know as much about fixing Windows as I do because every time my family broke the computer, they wanted me to fix it (oldest of my generation thing). I, unlike the vast majority of computer-users, am willing to poke and prod until I break something and then hope I can fix it. That is how I learn to fix computers: hands on. Most people won't risk breaking their computer, so they don't ever put themselves in a situation where they are forced to figure it out and make it work. If they were taught enough before to know how to fix small things, they could work up to larger fixes. Because they were never taught, they are still afraid of their computers. They need to lose that fear! That's the only way they can ever master their computers. What kills fear? Knowledge. So educate them. Teach them what they need to know to work through their computer problems, and they'll have a lot less problems in the long run (even if it does mean a few headaches in the beginning). The most important thing about educating people to fix it themselves is that you don't tell them what they would hypothetically do; you make them actually do it.
Then again, if everyone else knew how to really use a computer, everyone in IT would be out of a job.
a stupid user will find a way to screw up their computer
Exactly. Maybe instead of reteaching Microsoft Word every year in school computer classes (was it really necessary to learn every year from the time Windows 95 hit my school until 2002?), they could teach computer literacy. It seems the bar for computer literacy is much lower than it should be. My siblings are "computer literate" because they can send emails, instant message, and type term papers (albeit not with odd formatting). Once students are old enough to understand it, why not start mandatorily teaching them how to fix common problems on multiple operating systems? That'd be true computer literacy.
By 6th grade, kids should be taught how to install a program, run a virus scan, update a virus scan, and clear cookies and temporary internet files. They should be able to do all of that on Windows. They should be able to find the program they want to run while using other OSes.
By 8th grade, they should be able to realise there's a problem, check the running processes, and Google for each process to determine which one is malware, then use those Google results to fix the problem. To the average person, that sounds like a lot of work, but we all know it's really easy. On other OSes, they should be able to Google for whatever problem they're having and follow the directions to fix it. They should have some familiarity with the shell on Linux and *BSD in case they manage to crash X-windows (this applies to Mac too now, right? OS X is Unix-based).
By the end of high school, they should be taught about security. Now you can move away from the "fixing" stuff which they hopefully remember, and teach the things that they are about to move into. When they were 12, they didn't need to worry about credit card numbers. High school students do. This is the time for teaching how to protect yourself against security threats, spyware attacks, identity theft, etc.
I'll admit that I have no idea how to fix a Mac. I get the "hey, you're good with computers, right? Can you help me?" question quite a bit being in a dorm. My first reaction is "is it a Mac?" because I know I'm useless on those. efore the end of high school, they should at least be exposed to other OSes. I may not be able to fix a Mac, but I can tell you I used a Mac pretty often back in 1994 because there were a lot of Macs at my school (I was 6, so don't turn that into "oh well 12 years of experience")--I don't get totally lost. I can function. I just don't have repair skills on a Mac. Maybe I should get a Mac just to learn that stuff. I know as much about fixing Windows as I do because every time my family broke the computer, they wanted me to fix it (oldest of my generation thing). I, unlike the vast majority of computer-users, am willing to poke and prod until I break something and then hope I can fix it. That is how I learn to fix computers: hands on. Most people won't risk breaking their computer, so they don't ever put themselves in a situation where they are forced to figure it out and make it work. If they were taught enough before to know how to fix small things, they could work up to larger fixes. Because they were never taught, they are still afraid of their computers. They need to lose that fear! That's the only way they can ever master their computers. What kills fear? Knowledge. So educate them. Teach them what they need to know to work through their computer problems, and they'll have a lot less problems in the long run (even if it does mean a few headaches in the beginning). The most important thing about educating people to fix it themselves is that you don't tell them what they would hypothetically do; you make them actually do it.
Then again, if everyone else knew how to really use a computer, everyone in IT would be out of a job.
It's just that we never use the word "compile" on Windows. Those "installer wizards" keep words like that off the page. I did recompile the kernel on my Linux box once--because I have a dual core processor and wanted to set it up to make better use of that. I'd rather do that once than have to manually mandate which program goes where on a dual core in Windows.
The gamers I know refuse to use Vista. Unless you have really really high specs that exceed M$'s "premium recquirements", it'll mess with your gaming. Vista is such a resource hog it'd slow the games down. Gamers are better off sticking to XP rather than trying to strip down Vista's eye candy so that it's not bogging down their system. Heck, a large chunk of Vista's appeal is the eye-candy factor. Once they've got that off to speed up their computers, it'll be like running XP again anyway.
The girl in the next room over in my dorm just tried to install M$ Office. She was using the Windows XP cd. Oops. It's formatted and reinstalled now. I told her if there wasn't M$ Office on there when she bought the computer, then she didn't pay for Office and it'd cost her about $150, but I just looked on microsoft.com and it said $399 for Office 2003:-O (it's that expensive? holy crap!!!) I told her to use Open Office because it's free. Come on, poor college student does not need to be spending food money on software when there's a free alternative.
"It's stupid copyright crap that makes your songs expire and not work and unable to move and all that stuff that M$ put in your WMP to make life difficult" doesn't work?
OOo has a reference thing, doesn't it? I haven't played with it much. I'll have to look. I hope it does MLA (I have no idea what APA or ALA or whatever it all is format their references as) since that's what we always (5th grade through uni) use for school.
Slashdot Mirror
I think that's why they said "in the short term". In the long term, it'll show the rest of the country that third party is just fine. In the short term it's not really affecting the outcome much, except for splitting more. In the case of the Green party, the right unites for Republican, and left splits with Green and Dem making the Republicans larger. If the Libertarians had a separate candidate as well, that'd be more even. Then there'd be two forms of "right" and two forms of "left" depending on just how far each way each one wants to go. As it is though, the Libertarians seem content to meld with the Republicans because it makes a more united front.
I'm all for voting 3rd party and helping it be less of a fringe thing, but this year I'm voting for Democrats. Instead of voting on party lines, I'm voting for what's the best choice. If my options are Rick Santorum, Bob Casey, or some other guy, I'm voting Casey. I want to get Santorum out of office, and Casey deviates from the Democratic party on one topic (gay rights) that pushes him a bit further left than the rest of the Dems. I *could* vote on party lines for the 3rd guy, but then I'd be weakening the left side and giving Santorum a fighting chance. At the moment the battle is to shift to the left. Once liberalism is more accepted, then we can make the move toward more specific goals within each smaller party than toward a general "left-ish" goal that we have now.
That's what I thought when I saw this headline on Geeks Are Sexy yesterday.
I think what it is is that Flash 7 is the last one for Linux. Flash 8 files get picture and no sound. Flash 9 files get sound, but no text. At least, that's the pattern I've noticed.
Linus Torvalds runs Linux on a Mac.
:) Aw thanks!
so the next person who says girls can't use Linux gets slapped, right?
Do I have to post a picture of me and a screenshot of my desktop? Or should I just smack you now?
a ndshane.jpgo sidesscreen.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v472/macoafi/me
Me, my boyfriend (also here on slashdot...somewhere)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v472/macoafi/tw
My desktop...yeah, it's Gnome not KDE. I like Gnome. The point remains: it's Linux, I'm a girl (and you may decide for yourself what you think of my looks)
While I totally understand the anarchy thing (throw some communism into the deal and I'll join ya), the thing is, we've got no chance of that happening any time really soon. So, until it's possible, I'd go with voting. It can help. If more than 1/4 of people actually voted, things COULD change. If you're not voting, you're actually part of the problem. Like they say "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". I'm not sure who all I'm voting for, but I know I'm voting for Bob Casey for Senate--no way Santorum would ever get my vote. Those rights are only able to be stolen from you because you and so many others don't vote. That is the biggest problem we have: a "majority" is now something like 20% due to so much voter apathy. Voting is the only way to make a change (aside from a revolution which would be difficult given the government's size).
Good call. Windows code is too complicated. It's not the components themselves, it's their interdependencies. An architectural diagram of Windows would suggest there are more than 50 dependency layers (never mind that there also exist circular dependencies). After working in Windows for five years, you understand only, say, two of them. Add to this the fact that building Windows on a dual-proc dev box takes nearly 24 hours, and you'll be slow enough to drive Miss Daisy. ^^^wow...that (almost) made sense, but the "why" didn't even come close
And what about the redundancy of "blatantly obvious"? "Blatant" means "obviously"; therefore, it says "obviously obvious" which is redundant.
I just want to point out that ALL error codes on Windows are "generic". My computer switched into 640x480 with 8-bit color and it told me "there was an error" like it wasn't really obvious.
I can't really help you though.
So, MS takes "only" 8 days to release a patch, and Firefox gets patches out in a day...which seems better: having exploits running around for over a week being hacked at or having it fixed immediately?
A mall was built by my house in 2001 or 2002 (it was right after we moved in in August 2001).
You know, I've been on a messageboard that has a Firefox banner at the bottom of it, and had people on there saying they'd never heard of Firefox. It's amazing. On my computers at home, I changed the name on Mozilla to "USE FOR INTERNET" and took the IE shortcuts off the desktop. My mom probably doesn't know what the blue e is, now. She knows we use Mozilla, and it's been at least 3 years since I switched to it. My dad's girlfriend is one of those people who gets confused by Mozilla instead of a blue e. She thinks it's slower--and yes, it does load slower because it doesn't start as soon as your computer turns on, but it doesn't need to open a new window every time either. She knows how to get to the internet on that computer though, so hey, she figured it out.
Basically, just change the names of the icon to "INTERNET" and they'll figure it out after a few minutes...probably.
But if they're going to be mandatorily put in a computer class every year through 8th grade, at least teach them something useful instead of repeating the same damn "this is how you resize fonts in Microsoft Office" crap every year. It's not like they'd be missing some other class for it--they have to take computer classes either way, why not put something that's actually going to come in handy in those classes?
and every one of their friends...if they have any...well, they must because I understand it and I'm not a gamer
I think they meant for the search engine to know what you mean. For instance, I read a comic where the one guy is trying to find straight edge hardcore music info. His friend thought he was looking up porn because he typed "xxx" which is an abbreviation for straight edge (1 X is for drugs including nicotine, 1 X is drinking, and 1 X is promiscuity--the three things straight edge says not to do). The friend said he wasn't specific enough, so he typed "xxx hardcore". We all know what will come up, but hey, the point stands. We've all tried to Google something and not been able to find what we wanted because it was being misinterpretted.
Sorry, line breaks all disappeared! Where did the whitespace go?!
a stupid user will find a way to screw up their computer
Exactly. Maybe instead of reteaching Microsoft Word every year in school computer classes (was it really necessary to learn every year from the time Windows 95 hit my school until 2002?), they could teach computer literacy. It seems the bar for computer literacy is much lower than it should be. My siblings are "computer literate" because they can send emails, instant message, and type term papers (albeit not with odd formatting). Once students are old enough to understand it, why not start mandatorily teaching them how to fix common problems on multiple operating systems? That'd be true computer literacy.
By 6th grade, kids should be taught how to install a program, run a virus scan, update a virus scan, and clear cookies and temporary internet files. They should be able to do all of that on Windows. They should be able to find the program they want to run while using other OSes.
By 8th grade, they should be able to realise there's a problem, check the running processes, and Google for each process to determine which one is malware, then use those Google results to fix the problem. To the average person, that sounds like a lot of work, but we all know it's really easy. On other OSes, they should be able to Google for whatever problem they're having and follow the directions to fix it. They should have some familiarity with the shell on Linux and *BSD in case they manage to crash X-windows (this applies to Mac too now, right? OS X is Unix-based).
By the end of high school, they should be taught about security. Now you can move away from the "fixing" stuff which they hopefully remember, and teach the things that they are about to move into. When they were 12, they didn't need to worry about credit card numbers. High school students do. This is the time for teaching how to protect yourself against security threats, spyware attacks, identity theft, etc.
I'll admit that I have no idea how to fix a Mac. I get the "hey, you're good with computers, right? Can you help me?" question quite a bit being in a dorm. My first reaction is "is it a Mac?" because I know I'm useless on those. efore the end of high school, they should at least be exposed to other OSes. I may not be able to fix a Mac, but I can tell you I used a Mac pretty often back in 1994 because there were a lot of Macs at my school (I was 6, so don't turn that into "oh well 12 years of experience")--I don't get totally lost. I can function. I just don't have repair skills on a Mac. Maybe I should get a Mac just to learn that stuff. I know as much about fixing Windows as I do because every time my family broke the computer, they wanted me to fix it (oldest of my generation thing). I, unlike the vast majority of computer-users, am willing to poke and prod until I break something and then hope I can fix it. That is how I learn to fix computers: hands on. Most people won't risk breaking their computer, so they don't ever put themselves in a situation where they are forced to figure it out and make it work. If they were taught enough before to know how to fix small things, they could work up to larger fixes. Because they were never taught, they are still afraid of their computers. They need to lose that fear! That's the only way they can ever master their computers. What kills fear? Knowledge. So educate them. Teach them what they need to know to work through their computer problems, and they'll have a lot less problems in the long run (even if it does mean a few headaches in the beginning). The most important thing about educating people to fix it themselves is that you don't tell them what they would hypothetically do; you make them actually do it.
Then again, if everyone else knew how to really use a computer, everyone in IT would be out of a job.
a stupid user will find a way to screw up their computer Exactly. Maybe instead of reteaching Microsoft Word every year in school computer classes (was it really necessary to learn every year from the time Windows 95 hit my school until 2002?), they could teach computer literacy. It seems the bar for computer literacy is much lower than it should be. My siblings are "computer literate" because they can send emails, instant message, and type term papers (albeit not with odd formatting). Once students are old enough to understand it, why not start mandatorily teaching them how to fix common problems on multiple operating systems? That'd be true computer literacy. By 6th grade, kids should be taught how to install a program, run a virus scan, update a virus scan, and clear cookies and temporary internet files. They should be able to do all of that on Windows. They should be able to find the program they want to run while using other OSes. By 8th grade, they should be able to realise there's a problem, check the running processes, and Google for each process to determine which one is malware, then use those Google results to fix the problem. To the average person, that sounds like a lot of work, but we all know it's really easy. On other OSes, they should be able to Google for whatever problem they're having and follow the directions to fix it. They should have some familiarity with the shell on Linux and *BSD in case they manage to crash X-windows (this applies to Mac too now, right? OS X is Unix-based). By the end of high school, they should be taught about security. Now you can move away from the "fixing" stuff which they hopefully remember, and teach the things that they are about to move into. When they were 12, they didn't need to worry about credit card numbers. High school students do. This is the time for teaching how to protect yourself against security threats, spyware attacks, identity theft, etc. I'll admit that I have no idea how to fix a Mac. I get the "hey, you're good with computers, right? Can you help me?" question quite a bit being in a dorm. My first reaction is "is it a Mac?" because I know I'm useless on those. efore the end of high school, they should at least be exposed to other OSes. I may not be able to fix a Mac, but I can tell you I used a Mac pretty often back in 1994 because there were a lot of Macs at my school (I was 6, so don't turn that into "oh well 12 years of experience")--I don't get totally lost. I can function. I just don't have repair skills on a Mac. Maybe I should get a Mac just to learn that stuff. I know as much about fixing Windows as I do because every time my family broke the computer, they wanted me to fix it (oldest of my generation thing). I, unlike the vast majority of computer-users, am willing to poke and prod until I break something and then hope I can fix it. That is how I learn to fix computers: hands on. Most people won't risk breaking their computer, so they don't ever put themselves in a situation where they are forced to figure it out and make it work. If they were taught enough before to know how to fix small things, they could work up to larger fixes. Because they were never taught, they are still afraid of their computers. They need to lose that fear! That's the only way they can ever master their computers. What kills fear? Knowledge. So educate them. Teach them what they need to know to work through their computer problems, and they'll have a lot less problems in the long run (even if it does mean a few headaches in the beginning). The most important thing about educating people to fix it themselves is that you don't tell them what they would hypothetically do; you make them actually do it. Then again, if everyone else knew how to really use a computer, everyone in IT would be out of a job.
It's just that we never use the word "compile" on Windows. Those "installer wizards" keep words like that off the page. I did recompile the kernel on my Linux box once--because I have a dual core processor and wanted to set it up to make better use of that. I'd rather do that once than have to manually mandate which program goes where on a dual core in Windows.
The gamers I know refuse to use Vista. Unless you have really really high specs that exceed M$'s "premium recquirements", it'll mess with your gaming. Vista is such a resource hog it'd slow the games down. Gamers are better off sticking to XP rather than trying to strip down Vista's eye candy so that it's not bogging down their system. Heck, a large chunk of Vista's appeal is the eye-candy factor. Once they've got that off to speed up their computers, it'll be like running XP again anyway.
The girl in the next room over in my dorm just tried to install M$ Office. She was using the Windows XP cd. Oops. It's formatted and reinstalled now. I told her if there wasn't M$ Office on there when she bought the computer, then she didn't pay for Office and it'd cost her about $150, but I just looked on microsoft.com and it said $399 for Office 2003 :-O (it's that expensive? holy crap!!!) I told her to use Open Office because it's free. Come on, poor college student does not need to be spending food money on software when there's a free alternative.
Well, I can think of one format that can't be DRMd: vinyl :)
"It's stupid copyright crap that makes your songs expire and not work and unable to move and all that stuff that M$ put in your WMP to make life difficult" doesn't work?
Uh, since when? I can definitely rip to 128 bit-rate mp3 using WMP on my computer. What are you using? WMP7? WMP 10 does 128 bit-rate.
How'd he turn audio files into video files? Where'd the pictures come from?
OOo has a reference thing, doesn't it? I haven't played with it much. I'll have to look. I hope it does MLA (I have no idea what APA or ALA or whatever it all is format their references as) since that's what we always (5th grade through uni) use for school.