Recent Posts

351

Living Room / Re: Sean Connery ain't Apple's bitch!

« Last post by zridling on June 22, 2011, 01:20 AM »

Apple had Forrest Gump, why did they need Connery? Ha! (my second link is that story behind its fakitude.)

352

Living Room / Sean Connery ain't Apple's bitch!

« Last post by zridling on June 21, 2011, 05:35 AM »

Steve Jobs asks Sean Connery to appear in an Apple ad. Here is his reply...



(via http://twitpic.com/5emlf7)
More of the story:
http://scoopertino.c...ter-that-almost-was/

353

Living Room / Re: A New Twist in Wikipedia?

« Last post by zridling on June 21, 2011, 01:09 AM »

Haven't seen it either, but not sure I'd trust the rating until I read the article (assuming I was expert on the subject).

354

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone here using TMUX over GNU Screen?

« Last post by zridling on June 20, 2011, 02:16 PM »

@40hz, yea, those are just screen grabs from online. I don't have it on my system, but was wondering what others' experiences so far have been with TMUX.

355

General Software Discussion / Anyone here using TMUX over GNU Screen?

« Last post by zridling on June 20, 2011, 05:19 AM »

Is tmux the GNU Screen killer? by Chad Perrin
http://www.techrepub...u-screen-killer/1901

Terminal multiplexer applications are a great boon to Unix and Linux sysadmins all over the world. They allow sysadmins to start long-running tasks on remote machines, terminate the SSH session to that machine, then connect to the machine again and resume watching the task or check its results very easily. They also allow sysadmins to run several shell sessions within a single virtual terminal, which is of great use for remote administration as well. The uses to which a terminal multiplexer can be put are numerous and, at times, indispensable.

By far, the best known terminal multiplexer is GNU Screen. In fact, many people who use it in their day to day work are not familiar with the term “terminal multiplexer”, in much the same way that many people who use Microsoft Windows every day are not familiar with the term “operating system”. GNU Screen has been around for a long time, and to many it is synonymous with the very concept of a terminal multiplexer application.

This is changing somewhat, however. A relatively new terminal multiplexer, known simply as tmux, is beginning to gain some traction in the world of open source Unix-like operating systems. Those who try it out often find that it is actually the superior terminal multiplexer for their use.
____________________


Sorry screen, tmux is better by Tyler Mulligan
http://www.doknowevi...-screen-lik-hotkeys/

TMUX – The Terminal Multiplexer by Cody
http://blog.hawkhost...erminal-multiplexer/

356

Living Room / Re: A rant on religiousness about OSes

« Last post by zridling on June 20, 2011, 01:33 AM »

Good points on Linux, when you consider the point of interaction for everyone coming to Linux is the particular Desktop Environment -- Xfce, KDE, Gnome, Unity, Enlightenment, etc. If you like one of those, you'll likely enjoy "Linux" in the broad sense. I just need a handful of icons on the desktop and about a dozen in the taskbar. Nothing more complex than one-click and I'm good to go.

357

General Software Discussion / Re: Google's ChromeOS Laptops for $20/month

« Last post by zridling on June 20, 2011, 01:22 AM »

A lot of companies nowadays relay on web applications that run on some local intranet servers. A device that contain the bare minimum to fire up a browser seems to be just perfect for a scenario like that.

-Mark0 (June 18, 2011, 06:06 PM)

Exactly the case with my wife's massive company (over 150,000 employees). Why they're still using full PCs over some form of thin client I've no idea. It's not MS Office 2003 they're still using that's tying them down, that's for sure. (I've seen the idiotic way they compose their spreadsheets; as if they forgot to read the Excel book.) IT is a "get along" expense that no company really wants to spend money on until they absolutely have to.

358

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by zridling on June 18, 2011, 05:31 PM »

I'm about half-way through "Behind Deep Blue", the accidental story of the Deep Blue, the first computer chess machine to get good enough to beat the world's best human chess players.  It's written by the engineer who led the team (Feng-hsiung Hsu).

-mouser (June 01, 2011, 07:58 AM)

After IBM's 100th anniversary last week, this book just got more interesting to me. IBM's ability to adapt over the decades has allowed it survive where most tech companies rise quickly only to flame out.

359

Living Room / Re: Which is more important: the gadget, or the software and apps that runs it?

« Last post by zridling on June 18, 2011, 01:56 AM »

A friend of mine got a shiny new sales job and was able to bring home both a new Motorola Xoom and iPad2. Couldn't believe how much each of them weighed, and was very surprised how responsive and quick the Xoom was. The iPad was impressive in a Apple way, but its basic apps were pretty basic (calendar, notes, etc.). On the iPad2, I had to touch the screen several times to get an app to close or to get one to open. And sometimes when I scrolled a page in Safari, the iPad would grab the entire browser and move it. I'm sure it was my fat fingers, though the Xoom didn't do the same thing.

If I were to further pare back my computer use, I could really -- REALLY -- go for a tablet. Both wanted at least $20/month for a minimal wireless contract. But since they only take Wi-fi and not a wired cable connection, I'm not buying a gadget that only allows one type of connection access. Oh well, I don't have the money anyway.

360

Living Room / Re: Friends: Brace yourselves for another economic turn.

« Last post by zridling on June 16, 2011, 02:07 AM »

We've had the biggest global financial and bank crises since the Great Depression in the last 3.7 years. Call it "The Second Great Contraction." That was followed by a crushing (ongoing) recession in which nothing has been done to remove the bad debt (loss of housing equity) from the books of banks around the world. China is "growing," but only in the sense it is still spending nonstop on infrastructure. The US should be spending on infrastructure, but we just gave the zillionaires another tax break last November. Oy.

Get used to this for a while. We're in it for at least another ten years. And no, when we come out, things won't be better.
-- Governments will continue to restrict and criminalize internet use.
-- Copyright, DRM, and patent insanity show no glimpse of letting up.
-- Wealth disparity policies will continue (the rich will be given more at the expense of the rest), and with the middle class being immobile, turning many advanced economies into Banana Republics.

Whether I'm a pessimist or realist, all I know is that the glass is just about empty! 

361

Living Room / Re: Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by zridling on June 15, 2011, 01:42 PM »

What are these solutions? I've never defended DRM, but I still don't see an alternative for ebook authors. How do you generate a reliable income stream for ebook authors without some form of DRM (and copy protection falls under the banner of DRM)?

-johnk (June 14, 2011, 08:17 PM)

The simple answer is: "by writing the next book." Consider that historically, authors make most of their money from a book soon after it's released, and that by how many hardcovers it sold. However, DRM is self-defeating and this is proven over and over. Gaga recently sold over a million copies for 99 cents of 'Born This Way' on Amazon (mind you, Amazon paid for the privilege), but I found this old Slashdot link in my bookmarks:

"Electronic copyright infringement is something that can only become an 'economic epidemic' under certain conditions. Any one of the following: 1) The products they want... are hard to find, and thus valuable. 2) The products they want are high-priced, so there's a fair amount of money to be saved by stealing them. 3) The legal products come with so many added-on nuisances that the illegal version is better to begin with. Those are the three conditions that will create widespread electronic copyright infringement, especially in combination. Why? Because they're the same three general conditions that create all large-scale smuggling enterprises. And... Guess what? It's precisely those three conditions that DRM creates in the first place. So far from being an impediment to so-called 'online piracy,' it's DRM itself that keeps fueling it and driving it forward." (Yep)
__________________________
One key property of printed books is that it is very hard to modify them. However, digital books are easy to rewrite, provided they are released under a licence that permits that. Back to Richard Stallman. He was unhappy with some of the misleading and incorrect things in the interview book "Free as in Freedom," but since he had published it under the GNU Free Documentation License, he was able to go back last year and offer his own take on the text and facts (PDF). Now it's "Free as in Freedom 2.0."

As 40hz says, forget the publishers for now. Authors have control if they will only exercise it. Making a living off of book writing is a very recent --- and still rare -- phenomenon (19th Century).

362

Living Room / Re: More Copyright Nuttiness - 10 Strikes? Go to jail. Do not pass go...

« Last post by zridling on June 15, 2011, 01:11 PM »

...how safe is the signup to tell congress no bit on the top right of that page?? Do we know/trust the site well enough to all jump in and fire off a letter through it?

-Stoic Joker (June 15, 2011, 06:46 AM)

Good question. In this modern world, I'd expect someone to show up with a subpoena if you did. How good are you with proxification!! 

363

Living Room / Re: More Copyright Nuttiness - 10 Strikes? Go to jail. Do not pass go...

« Last post by zridling on June 15, 2011, 02:24 AM »

What a timely post, Renegade. I was just reading a post on a blog about the World Copyright Summit, where the "public" is never mentioned except the "respect" of the public for the monopolies of the rights holders. All other references are to monetizing the rights of owners to "consumers":

Several initiatives around the world have attempted to connect rights holders – and primarily creators – to consumers in order to promote values such as the respect of copyright. This session looks at some of those projects which are aiming to bring creators and consumers closer together.

Copyright laws are passed that take from the public and never give, just as copyright is always extended, never shortened. The public was not invited to the World Copyright Summit, nor do we have a say. Seventy years after the author dies? How about 700? Wow, it's an industry talking to itself, reinforcing its own prejudices and delusions, and unwilling to accept that the world has changed utterly under the impact of digital technologies; unable even to mention the idea that it's time to engage with those seven billion people -- not merely as consumers.

364

Living Room / Re: Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by zridling on June 14, 2011, 06:21 PM »

EDIT: Erm, I guess this is off topic for this thread. Oops!

-Deozaan (June 14, 2011, 04:23 PM)

Related in that I'm not buying any one company's devices -- Apple or Amazon at present -- just to read or access books on their service. You've got a handful of mega-corporations that are working night and day to wall off the internet; that is, you must buy their devices and buy in to their EULAs, their online services, their proprietary formats, their pricing schemes (pay PER-view?), and so on. Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, and Google are working this angle hard. As Deozaan referenced, most these companies would be more than happy to maximize every dime by charging you for the rest of your life to listen, view, read anything and everything through their networks.

In return, you get the privilege of every keystroke being spied on. (Next up, facial recognition!)

...for me Google Music is much way ahead of iCloud because I don't use iTunes and I don't own an iDevice.

-Deozaan (June 14, 2011, 04:23 PM)

And that's why I've purchased a few books from the Google eBookstore. For now, it allows me to read books on the widest number of devices, though they won't let me save my puchased .ePUB books to my own HD.

365

Living Room / Re: Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by zridling on June 14, 2011, 05:38 AM »

On a related note, technology is forcing the music industry to reinvent itself -- or embrace annihilation:
http://www.economist.../digitallyremastered

Similar take:
http://www.zdnet.com...=mantle_skin;content

366

Living Room / Re: Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by zridling on June 13, 2011, 03:45 PM »

I've had a kindle for a long while now and I have bought maybe 2 books from Amazon. I use Calibre to convert from other formats like pdf. epub, rtf, text etc etc to mobi then load them on the Kindle when I want them. If you haven't seen Calibre then you must! It is first class software and free, but welcomes contributions. It also has Plug-ins that make managing the Kindle a breeze.

-elvisbrown (June 13, 2011, 05:59 AM)

Calibre is great -- multi-platform open source software. I also agree the Kindle is remarkable and I'm glad Jeff Bezos stuck with it. Unlike the iPod, however, soon Kindles will likely be given away for "free" if you agree to buy 10 books with it or something. The big fat problem with Kindle is a word I dislike most when it comes to formats: proprietary. As 40hz writes above:
It wasn't until "open" formats like the standard 33 and 45 vinyl records came out that the entire industry really took off and everybody came out ahead. It was a win for the artists, the recording companies, the equipment manufacturers - and the customers. And all because they dropped their proprietary and restrictive formats.

One last thing about books. I agree with most things said previously about real, books but consider this. I can buy a book then pass it on and it gets passed on etc etc with as many as let's say 100 readers. What does the author get for that? She/he certainly doesn't get 100 payments. If there is an upside to DRM it is that authors will get better paid for their work. As a reader I say that's bloody good, it means that good authors will get rewarded more.

-elvisbrown (June 13, 2011, 05:59 AM)

I understand the sentiment, but if more people reading your book made you broke, then romance writers would have died off decades ago. Those paperbacks get traded and passed back and forth for a generation or more! Also, if you're in the book-writing business to make money, being an author is the wrong end of it. Prolific and popular tech writers are by no means millionaires. Maybe a few, but most aren't. Like records anymore, if you sell a half million copies, you're wildly successful. But after taxes, the profit from those copies are extremely disappointing.

From the place that shakes and shakes with endless quakes...peace from Christchurch NZ

-elvisbrown (June 13, 2011, 05:59 AM)

Sat through my first baby earthquake last week (3.4) after living through tornado hell, and it was very weird. Unlike a sonic boom, the ground rumbled from deep and upward, as if the Earth was cutting a long, rumbling fart. Cannot imagine what ChristChurch felt like. Here are a few photos from that week:
http://www.boston.co...urch_earthquake.html

367

Living Room / Re: Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by zridling on June 11, 2011, 03:54 PM »

Is Nook also enforcing DRM deletion like kindle ?

-mahesh2k (June 11, 2011, 02:44 AM)

No, but Barnes&Noble typically charges slightly more for books than Amazon.

It's ironic that if someone posts a nude picture online, it's permanent. But if I want to buy an ebook, I'm the last one who has control over it, from DRM to which device I can download it to, read it on, whether I can save it onto my HD and then transfer it to another device of mine, whether I can donate it or give it to a friend or pass it on to the next generation, what happens if the company loses my purchase data -- how can I get access to the book again? and at least a dozen other issues no one in the industry wants to talk about. Stallman's point is that the distribution and control of ebooks already go far beyond copyright law.

368

General Software Discussion / Re: Google's ChromeOS Laptops for $20/month

« Last post by zridling on June 11, 2011, 03:46 PM »

To me a google netbook won't mean storing more stuff online it just means having a managed device.

-rgdot (June 11, 2011, 09:42 AM)

Good point. I have an exquisite porn collection (all legal), but almost no one is going to allow me to store it online without some self-righteous admin coming along and deleting it "accidentally." Besides, who would ever want to keep their porn collection online! And then there are other things, such as files I have with key personal/financial info in them that I could never trust being online. It would be one LulzSec hack attack away from wiping me out. (No, I don't have any money, but I am always one paycheck away from instant poverty.)

I could go on, but the advantage of the Chromebook would be to take it to the burger joint to read the news while eating. (My small town does not sell newspapers anymore except inside Walmart and one large gas station.)

369

General Software Discussion / Re: Not bad article on The Sins of Ubuntu

« Last post by zridling on June 10, 2011, 03:00 PM »

I use Xubuntu because it was the first distro I used that I didn't have to fight with in order to get and use software that didn't come bundled with the distro.... Sorry Zaine, nothing against you, but I just cannot stand KDE no matter how many times I try to use it, and Gnome consistently insults my intelligence. Xfce is my DE of choice and I'm quite glad I have that freedom.

-Edvard (June 10, 2011, 12:31 PM)

No problem. You base your response on experience. Your statement is the core of Linux: freedom (to choose something else).

370

General Software Discussion / Re: Google's ChromeOS Laptops for $20/month

« Last post by zridling on June 10, 2011, 02:55 PM »

@app103:
WebTV, oh boy, that brings back memories. Saw a movie the other day where a character was using an Apple Newton. Good ideas that didn't have the chips to back them up at the time.

371

Living Room / Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by zridling on June 10, 2011, 05:10 AM »

That old guy Richard Stallman makes the case against ebooks vs. print because they go far beyond copyright restrictions (and I agree):
http://www.pcworld.c...are_bad_for_you.html

-- Books printed on paper can be purchased anonymously with cash without signing any kind of license that restricts the purchaser's use of the book, Stallman notes. No proprietary technology is required, and it's sometimes even lawful under copyright to scan and copy the book.
-- Once it's paid, the purchaser owns the book, and no one has the power to destroy it.
-- Contrast that situation with Amazon e-books, where users are not only required to identify themselves to purchase an e-book, but also to accept "a restrictive license" on their use of it, Stallman notes.
-- "In some countries, Amazon says the user does not own the e-book," he asserts. "The format is secret, and only proprietary user-restricting software can read it all."
-- Copying such e-books is "impossible due to Digital Restrictions Management in the player," he adds, "and prohibited by the license, which is more restrictive than copyright law."
-- Not only that, but Amazon can remotely delete purchased e-books through a back door, Stallman points out, much the way it did in 2009 on "thousands of copies of George Orwell's 1984."

372

General Software Discussion / Re: Not bad article on The Sins of Ubuntu

« Last post by zridling on June 10, 2011, 04:31 AM »

Here's Adam Overa's in-depth review of Ubuntu 11.04, including the inefficiencies of the Unity desktop environment:
http://www.tomshardw...ty-narwhal,2943.html

373

General Software Discussion / Re: Not bad article on The Sins of Ubuntu

« Last post by zridling on June 10, 2011, 03:00 AM »

Saw this article last week and 40hz pulled its essence. I've long been critical of Ubuntu, one, because I don't think it's where newbies should start when coming to Linux. As the author states, if they have a bad experience with Ubuntu, they tend to conclude that other distros must be worse! Two, the Ubuntu community lulls into thinking "this is as good as Linux gets." Nothing could be further. Although I've enjoyed openSUSE for years, Fedora runs circles around Ubuntu year after year. And if you want to stay in the Debian family, Mint fixes some of the worst annoyances that Ubuntu ignores. Speaking of that, and this is my biggest peeve: Canonical is all too happy to ignore the same problems ("issues") version after version after version. Makes you want to ask: "What the hell are you people doing over there!"

Finally, Canonical head Mark Shuttleworth wrote a lot of checks in the past five years his company and millions couldn't cash. It's not that Ubuntu failed per se, it's that Ubuntu never measured up to the standard it set for itself.

374

General Software Discussion / Re: Google's ChromeOS Laptops for $20/month

« Last post by zridling on June 09, 2011, 06:06 PM »

No hard cable connection, though? (I didn't see it.) What if I don't want to buy wi-fi?

375

General Software Discussion / Re: Google's ChromeOS Laptops for $20/month

« Last post by zridling on June 09, 2011, 06:05 PM »

So they're not going to log my search history and demographic oriented searches ? or even some personal mails ? pattern of site visits or search ? I doubt it.

-mahesh2k (June 09, 2011, 03:03 PM)

That's good for a laugh. Wonder what the default settings are! (All your keystrokes belong to us.) Still, given the economy, these would be great for too many lower income students I know in my town.