Recent Posts

1426

Living Room / Re: Gadgets that make you look like a jerk

« Last post by zridling on January 24, 2009, 08:13 PM »

neck beard is funny.

-superboyac (January 23, 2009, 06:11 PM)

I'm thinking of growing one. Any downside? It would match my back-beard.

1427

Living Room / Re: Gadgets that make you look like a jerk

« Last post by zridling on January 23, 2009, 05:02 PM »

Which one doesn't fit the list? Obviously Linux, which is not a gadget at all. And TiVo is just a brand name for any other DVR device. When was the last time you heard anyone bragging about their DVR? And I'd love to have a BlackBerry; they look like endless fun.

1428

Living Room / Re: Obama staffers find no Mac love among White House computers

« Last post by zridling on January 23, 2009, 04:58 PM »

This stories cycles every eight years. Remember all the stories about the FBI computer debacles from the Clinton years? The state of government computers at that time was dangerous by all accounts. We lived through it, but not before some companies made large fortunes from their bids to update them. Then the story promptly died.

1429

Living Room / Gadgets that make you look like a jerk

« Last post by zridling on January 23, 2009, 07:51 AM »

Surprise, surprise, the news channel MSNBC (I think you know what the MS stands for) claims its hatred of Linux. They also threw down some nasties on Apple gadgets. (Trivia: less than 10% of Apple's revenue now comes from computer sales; it's a confirmed gadget company now.)



The gadgets making their list and their snarks:

• BlackBerry (You need an intervention)
  
• Bluetooth (Do you mind? People are trying not to hear about your life over here!)
  
• TiVo (Not a big deal at all.)
  
• Apple's MacBook Air (You're a self-indulgent boob)
  
• iPod accessories (Buying molded white plastic schlock isn't going to hip up your dorm room or office)
  
• Linux (You feel your mastery of computers excuses your inability to control a neck-beard)
  
• Segway (Used primarily by tour groups, visibly embarrassed police or postal officers, and very rich people)

1430

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by zridling on January 23, 2009, 06:27 AM »

Is it true you can dock the taskbar on the side of the screen like KDE allows?

1431

General Software Discussion / Re: RedHat Linux: Fedora 9

« Last post by zridling on January 23, 2009, 06:22 AM »

Yea, I'd forget RedHat, too for a netbook. Those 7 CDs include the extras, which are tons of drivers and all the extra software (so that you don't have to download them). However, I presume you're not going to be using your netbook as you would a full laptop or desktop, so why not consider a lean cloud-centered distro like gOS?



The latest beta (3.1) works fine and though it sets up a number of gadgets on the open desktop, you can close or dock them. If you need a Gmail/Google account, email me at [email protected] and I'll send you an invitation.

1432

Living Room / Re: Obama staffers find no Mac love among White House computers

« Last post by zridling on January 23, 2009, 06:11 AM »

To me, it's a simple cost issue. The government is broke. Its citizenry is broke. The whole world is broke. As Deozaan said, be happy with XP and Office 2003; they're paid for. Build your uber-cool videos and play with your Facebook and other social software on campaign money (and time), not taxpayer money. Otherwise, don't take a job with the government. You'll always be disappointed with its efficiency, whether it's 1705 or 2009.

1433

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by zridling on January 22, 2009, 03:06 PM »

I like it, too. Isn't this what we all hoped Vista would have been two years ago? Imagine living in that world. But this is what Microsoft has always done. They build something, and then they make it better. But since XP had outlived itself, the pain caused by Vista was acute, since most businesses didn't adopt it.

A nice ancillary benefit? Since netbook hardware is quickly growing in power, Win7 should run fine on them.

1434

General Software Discussion / Re: The Worst Downloads of 2008 (CNET)

« Last post by zridling on January 22, 2009, 03:02 PM »

Nice find, and an interesting list of infamy.

1435

Living Room / Re: aNobii

« Last post by zridling on January 22, 2009, 03:00 PM »

Odd, the buy links point to Amazon, where there are far more book reviews.

1436

Living Room / Obama staffers find no Mac love among White House computers

« Last post by zridling on January 22, 2009, 02:50 PM »

I'm not sure how I feel about this story:

Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.... What does that mean in 21st-century terms? No Facebook to communicate with supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No instant messaging. Hard adjustments for a staff that helped sweep Obama to power through, among other things, relentless online social networking....

One member of the White House new-media team came to work on Tuesday, right after the swearing-in ceremony, only to discover that it was impossible to know which programs could be updated, or even which computers could be used for which purposes. The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing. The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos.

• First, this is the way the rest of us work in the real world. Companies generally do not let employees surf and play freely on their computers. One person where I work recently took down an entire room of networked computers because she had to have her iPod fix and installed a bunch of Apple software on Windows computers.
  
• Second, well over 50% of the workforce uses XP (an 8-year old OS now). Most businesses have skipped Vista as we know. And they still can't afford Macs in the workplace.
  
• Third, most companies do not allow outside log-ins to external email, social website, or IM software. Those are time sinks that no one is going to pay you to do at work. Get caught and you're sacked.
  
• Fourth, at this point in our economic climate, I personally don't think taxpayers should be paying Microsoft for any software, period. Use free, open source software or pay for it yourself. I'm not advocating for Linux; I just don't want my taxes to be used for something it doesn't need.

Are the Obama staffers spoiled, or should they have Win7 and Macs?

1437

Living Room / Re: TV via broadband ?

« Last post by zridling on January 22, 2009, 02:08 PM »

Great list, Edvard. You can also buy access internet broadcast to entire seasons of some sports leagues like Major League Baseball (US) and the NFL (only replays for the NFL though). I'm not sure about DirectTV, but Dish now allows you to watch programming through your PC or smartphone w/software installed.

1438

General Software Discussion / Re: Incredibly funny parody of Linux first experiences :)

« Last post by zridling on January 21, 2009, 05:22 PM »

Oh god, that's hilarious! This string especially:

>>> I not a programmer!

  File "<stdin>", line 1
     I not a programmer!
           ^
      Of course you are!

>>> quit
Python can not quit.
>>>
Python is now quitting.

1439

General Software Discussion / Re: Another Linux Thread :-P

« Last post by zridling on January 21, 2009, 05:17 PM »

Jim, welcome to Linux, my man! I'll defer to the others here, since I'm still learning so much. However, there are a few websites to arm yourself with:

GrokDoc's Switching to Linux (A repository of Switching tips)
http://www.grokdoc.n...p/Switching_to_Linux

IBM's Windows-to-Linux Roadmap (A big picture of the larger process)
http://www.ibm.com/d...brary/l-roadmap.html

HowToForge Linux Tutorials (Step-by-step learning)
http://www.howtoforge.org/howtos/linux

Free Software Daily (THE source for news, tips, & articles, along with DIGG's Linux page)
http://www.fsdaily.com/

Linux Forums (Great news, tips, and user forum)
http://www.linuxforums.org/

LinuxCommand.org (Learn the command line and the shell)
http://www.linuxcommand.org/

Common command cheat sheet (Command line tips)
http://www.pixelbeat.org/cmdline.html

1440

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by zridling on January 21, 2009, 04:48 PM »

No matter how much good press Win7 gets, as Carol warns, I wouldn't go near it until all drivers are ready to go for my existing hardware. I'm tired of [not] learning that lesson.

1441

Living Room / Re: Can a Linux man survive in Windows Land?

« Last post by zridling on January 21, 2009, 04:45 PM »

...if somebody like me (who is bright and technically astute, but by no means a genius) can straddle both environments without breaking a sweat - why does the press feel so obliged to continuously harp on the non-existent chasm between the two platforms?

-40hz (January 18, 2009, 01:02 PM)

I understand the deeper implications of free software arguments vs. proprietary ones. However, maybe it's a stage the computer world is going through. Other comparisons aren't as intense (BMW vs. Mercedes, for example). Or perhaps it's like addiction vs. a former addict. I used to smoke (use Windows), now I don't; but "I want everyone in the world to know that smokers suck."

Maybe we'll eventually grow out of it.

1442

General Software Discussion / Re: REQUEST: Add input to a topic I made in Opera's forum

« Last post by zridling on January 17, 2009, 05:45 AM »

Paul, could you summarize this in one paragraph? My reading time is limited today; too many tasks!

1443

Living Room / Re: Can a Linux man survive in Windows Land?

« Last post by zridling on January 17, 2009, 05:43 AM »

Man, I understood almost nothing of the author's blog posts there. Meanwhile, one Wall Street Journal blogger and ZDNet's Chris Dawson dropped Apple for Linux this week because of costs. Dawson could no longer afford to pay $2800 for a Macbook and still buy food, surprise surprise.

And Apple seems to be seriously threatened by Psystar with a release of how to install OS X on any regular PC hardware. If they are able to decouple OS X from Apple hardware, then Apple becomes a husk. Android phones will eat into its iPhone market this year for sure.

1444

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by zridling on January 15, 2009, 01:19 AM »

Wow, great link, nontroppo! Thanks for sharing.

1445

Living Room / Re: Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 drives failing at alrming rate?

« Last post by zridling on January 15, 2009, 01:15 AM »

[superboyac]: Do the NS drives come with 5-year warranty?
______________
Yes! Check here.

1446

Living Room / Re: Switching to Linux for a week

« Last post by zridling on January 15, 2009, 01:08 AM »

[urlwolf]: I still think trying linux for a week is bound to fail. You need long-term commitment for that to work out well. In a week you will not learn enough to see the advantages, and you sure as hell will see the downside.

I think that within a mere week, you're still sorting through the differences. It took me a good month to really begin to change habits from Windows to Linux. And the most difficult habit to break? I kept wanting to reboot after installations and updates. I couldn't believe that Linux didn't need that.

@Paul:
It's still Linux, whether it's within the Ubuntu family or every other distro. I don't consider Ubuntu "the pioneer of spreading Linux to the desktop," but that's just me. Canonical has done a fine job of marketing "Ubuntu," and to a lesser extent, Linux. I just don't recommend it as a diving board for jumping into Linux. There are friendlier distros out there that give you the same OS under the hood, and a smoother ride than Ashley experienced in these posts.

1447

Living Room / Re: The last Mac vs. PC video?

« Last post by zridling on January 15, 2009, 12:50 AM »

Fantastic. Thanks!!

1448

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft Songsmith

« Last post by zridling on January 13, 2009, 09:20 PM »

I feel like killing myself now. Those people have no dignity. Here's how I feel right now after watching that:

Let's see. You sing at Songsmith and it creates horrible muzak to accompany you. I don't care what you say. This is a jump-the-shark moment for Microsoft. I thought the Seinfeld ads were bad, then the 'I'm a PC' ads. But this, this is horrific. The father in the ad is actually one of the developers, Dan Morris. The guy in the coffee shop is another developer, but I don't know his name.

1449

Living Room / Re: Switching to Linux for a week

« Last post by zridling on January 13, 2009, 05:42 PM »

Nice to see she was finally won over, but Day One was a disaster of her own making. I read that and thought, "Oh hell girl, you're just trying to frick it up, c'mon!" Install an OS to an external drive?!

Also, I wish she had tried something/anything other than Ubuntu. It's nice, but for all Windows users, please don't think that Linux = Ubuntu. It doesn't. Mepis, PCLinuxOS, sidux, and openSUSE all would have saved her from her Day One meltdown.

1450

Living Room / Re: Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 drives failing at alrming rate?

« Last post by zridling on January 13, 2009, 04:59 PM »

I agree, and I've relied on Seagate for years. Difference is, though, I always spend the extra for the NS drives, which are built to run 24/7 for at least a million hours. Haven't had a problem yet, but that doesn't mean this isn't bad news for Seagate. Failure cannot be tolerated in a HD!