Recent Posts

501

General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu: Where Did the Love Go?

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 24, 2011, 09:10 AM »

It will all get worked out eventually. But until then, "bigass apps" are something we'll have to live with.

Is this specific to corporate software?

From my personal knowledge as well as the software I have tried, I can't help but think there aren't any bigass apps anymore.

This doesn't mean there aren't any bloated software but setting aside "secret, only if you know about it" software like MS Office - I can't help but complain that often times all the bigass software I've used are well... not bigass but just wrongly bloated.

What I mean by this are things like project managers. I can't help but bang my head at how some programs like Chandler sell themselves as a suite but they can't even offer such basic features as how RemembertheMilk works. This is especially glaring because a more featureful free version that is bigass compared to RTM is Toodledo and yet all they needed to do was add "sub-folders".

Here's another example, Outlook and Thunderbird. Good apps but if Gmail had a cloud version with the same interface + some of the lab add-ons they have - which is the more advanced desktop client? That thing with it's flags or that thing where you can change the color of the labels and treat them as tags?

PIMS - which is more advanced? Simple applications like TreeSheets, InfoQube and Surfulator that revolve around one idea or ...well... name any other powerful alternatives that not only confuses you without really giving a way for you to replicate those apps' full simple features.

502

General Software Discussion / Re: 20 New User Misconceptions about Linux

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 24, 2011, 08:54 AM »

fodder your comments made me think:

Donationware - Where Douchebags Can't Be Part of the Niche

503

Living Room / Small Finnish Company wants to turn any city into a RPG game with runaround mage

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 24, 2011, 03:55 AM »

Source

504

Living Room / Leaving Trails to your Front Door

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 24, 2011, 03:02 AM »

Source: http://torrentfreak....r-front-door-110215/

Following the publication of a paper which investigates how using the same username across multiple web sites may expose Internet users to scammers, TorrentFreak decided to apply the same research idea to a random sampling of file-sharers, with some eye-opening results.

A team of researchers from the French National Institute of Computer Science (INRIA) has just published their study of over 10 million usernames collected from Google profiles, eBay accounts and other sources. They discovered that around half of the usernames could be linked to another matching online profile, which could enable scammers to build up a more detailed profile of individuals they wish to target.

“A scammer could use this information to build a profile of a person and then target them with convincing phishing messages—perhaps referring to specific purchases on another website,” writes TechnologyReview in response to the study.

But while this research is certainly relevant to Internet users in general, it is also of great interest to those who may be sharing files online without the copyright holder’s permission.

TorrentFreak learned last year, perhaps unsurprisingly, that anti-piracy companies are increasingly using profiling techniques to identify and track the habits of the more prolific file-sharers, in particular initial uploaders.

However, while it’s unclear to what use this gathered data is being put, we can confirm 100% that users targeted in so-called Speculative Invoicing (we caught you sharing files, pay us money to go away) campaigns are being tracked through their general Internet use and comments they have made used as leverage against them.

In several cases last year, Internet users caught up in ACS:Law’s pay-up-or-else sweep asked for advice on how to respond to the law firm using online forums. The usernames they used were not unique. In fact they corresponded perfectly with ones they used on other forums where they had been less careful about disguising who they were.

In at least one case a user even discussed downloading the material he was accused of, albeit some months earlier. In another there was general talk about file-sharing, hardly proof of infringement, but it doesn’t help a case longer term.

Another person, who contacted TorrentFreak with his plight, had previously emailed ACS:Law using the same email address. We Googled that and found a site where the person mentioned his website, which led to a WHOIS which, coupled with his forename posted freely on the forum, conveniently supplied his surname and address.

From that information we were able to discover not that he had infringed, but had just come into some money – valuable information to a law firm looking to screw someone for hard cash.

In another recent case which ended particularly badly for one confirmed file-sharer, armed with nothing but an email address and a forum post we were able to follow a trail which led into highly personal aspects of the individual’s life. Our deep suspicions, without compromising this person’s privacy further, is that this same trail was cynically exploited by copyright holders to extract a very sizeable settlement.

Today, while writing this post, we spent just an hour on a private torrent tracker researching the site’s top 20 uploaders. In 13 cases we were able to find the users on other sites, including YouTube, Last.fm, eBay and any number of non-filesharing related forums. In 4 cases we were able to quickly identify real names. Given more time the exposure would almost certainly prove greater.

As the INRIA researchers note, people using unique and easily identifiable usernames are more vulnerable to cross-site profiling. Others with common usernames are far more difficult to track down and in our quick tests we have to agree.

505

Living Room / Re: The Lost Thing (Video)

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 24, 2011, 02:58 AM »

Well, unless I made a mistake, I originally posted this in GOE 2009 so to me it's about productivity and getting organized.

However the quality of the video is that it can be anything to anyone hence literally...the "Lost" Thing.

506

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome continues to ruin standard user interface

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 24, 2011, 12:34 AM »

I don't see the utility of the "Switch-to-Tab" extension when Ctrl+Tab does the same (or a mouse-over). Guess I'm not getting it. To me the gorilla in the browser room is the memory load of multiple extensions. Just like Firefox, by the time you get 6-12 of your favs loaded, suddenly the browser is a hog.

It's for CLI users and pure keyboard users. My guess is that just as the KDE file manager combined both file browser and web browser, Chrome will do this + a terminal.

Also, setting aside AutoPager, I haven't found any of Chrome's extensions to be huge memory hogs. This is more due to the limitations of things like being unable to add an extra toolbar but on my side, without using the betas, Chrome becomes more of a memory hog due to Flash and other plug-ins which constantly crashes. (Chrome also has tons of directory extensions compared to Firefox which reduces opening anything - like almost all their extensions treat storage as bookmarks rather than separate extension specific storages)

507

Living Room / Re: Power Ranger Punches Kid for Accusing Him of Stealing Gloves

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 24, 2011, 12:22 AM »

I can't hear the youtube audio right now, so this post might be redundant (but still might be useful for others who can't or don't want to wade through a vid)...

I don't know if this is accurate, but it seems to fit and seems a pretty likely explanation of the phrase:

Close but the video explains the inspiration behind the phrase.

Since when is a 22 year old man a "kid"? And the guy is an actor who used to play a Power Ranger. He wasn't officially working under the Power Ranger brand.

Misleading headline, without which nobody would care about this story.

True the headline can be less sensationalistic especially about the kid but you do realize the Green Power Ranger, despite not being officially working as a Power Ranger, is THE most popular Power Ranger of all time?

It's like saying Arnold isn't the Terminator because he's not playing the Terminator anymore.

Form the thread in the second link -

Yep. To be fair though, it's not confirmed and there are lots of questionable statements on both sides so it's not set in stone that this is what really happened.

508

Living Room / Margart Atwood on the Skeleton and History of Publishing

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 24, 2011, 12:16 AM »

Source: http://www.metafilte...-sandwiches-required

509

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Chaos as a key to Getting Organized

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 11:52 AM »

Basic capitalism stuff but I realize I haven't made a thread that links the keys of capitalism to the keys of making a system that will get you organized.

Obviously for many this may seem obvious while others may simply view chaos as proof of a "lack of a system" rather than the existence of one but I'll leave it up to you guys on how you want to agree/disagree in the replies:

Source: http://www.metafilte...sm-for-the-Long-Term

Do you truly believe the market as it exists in reality (not in a textbook) is genuinely objective?

In terms of single transactions, no. In the aggregate, yes. It is not optimized for any particular result, and is only as good as its participants' collective ability to think ahead. For years I thought that planned economies were almost bound to be superior to such a chaotic approach, and yet industrial planning has a terribly poor record.

Don't get the idea that I'm opposed to regulation, though, or think that only private capital's preferences matter. I'm basically a Keynesian and think government has a variety of important roles to play, and probably does a better job by rationing healthcare and so on than the market can, because there are limits on the market's ability to price things accurately. What I'm objecting to is the idea that capitalism can't do anything right, when it's abundantly clear that it does a lot of things better than central planning does. So when I see the CEO of McKinsey saying that business needs to take a more holistic approach to capital investment and so on I'm pleased, because it suggests more resources will be devoted to looking at the business value of sustainability, specifically finding better ways to measure it.

Note that I disagree with Keynesian economics so I'm not in favor of his brand of capitalism but it's still an underrated discussion still. When GTD was released we went from the so-called theory to practicality but shortly after that we went into making excuses for why our systems doesn't work.

Not that it means most of the excuses are bs but capitalism in my opinion is one good example where many of the modified concepts like Keynesian economics are just wrong but most everyone is looking at a fictional bs of a system that is non-bs vs. that is bs. For capitalism, it's mostly the debate outside of capitalism's own -ism into a sort of vs. socialism/vs. communism/vs. corporatism/vs. hard fascism illusion overriding the more subtle Hayek vs. Keynes debate and other fundamental principles like capitalism that's greed in the Miltonian sense vs. greed in the Steve Jobs sense.

For productivity systems, it's the illusion that a productivity system's inability to solve your problems being equivalent to productivity systems being dependent upon each other and thus all productivity systems either all work or all don't work - as long as nobody has to admit that one system is wrong over the other. Sort of the opposite of how programming languages are adopted into software development.

510

Living Room / Re: Power Ranger Punches Kid for Accusing Him of Stealing Gloves

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 11:16 AM »

On a side note, isn't Tapping Out just a Pro Sports way of crying uncle/ to concede the match and avoid further injury?

Yes, tongue-in-cheek-wise, it's also a macho way of proving one's heart or dedication and basically symbolizes an act where you don't give up until your body gives out.

I've put the image in a spoiler but really it's pointless. Once you click on the youtube link and see the first comment underneath - it's the same sans image. It's really the best just not to link to the youtube video directly at all.

511

General Software Discussion / Re: Let's Fork The Thread! Linux Notetaking Thread!

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 10:37 AM »

Thanks bob99. That is strange. Rednotebook has been widely advertised elsewhere that I had assumed the topic had included this already.

512

Living Room / Re: Power Ranger Punches Kid for Accusing Him of Stealing Gloves

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 10:34 AM »

err...that's actually an image linked to the forum where the quote is coincidentally linked to the first comment underneath that youtube reply which coincidentally is being linked here because err... because some posters where wondering about the origins of the Jesus Doesn't Tap message without fully checking the sources.

I'm not supportive of the message nor of the poster but if I didn't post those in a reply - the thread would risk being discussed out of context.

513

Living Room / Re: Power Ranger Punches Kid for Accusing Him of Stealing Gloves

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 09:33 AM »

err...guys...it's in the thread:

Youtube of Jesus Doesn't Tap:

Plus it's not tasteless, it's funny.

Spoiler

514

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Question: Would You consider this a good standard for a quality system?

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 08:58 AM »

I'm thinking of verifying the effectiveness of a productivity system by subjecting it to RSS feeds?

Now before you guys say this is pretty much what you do with Inbox Zero-ing, this is the quote that inspired my thought:

As a college student, I "like" something because I get something out of it. For example, I "like" a design site so that I can get updates in my newsfeed, much like an RSS feed. I also "like" a shopping site because I got a coupon code, but I then immediately unliked it, because I got what I wanted out of that transaction.

Because of this transaction taking place, I've always viewed "like" as a bit of a misnomer. While "likes" are (usually) a good indication of popularity, I don't think it's supposed to hold any indication of quality. Perhaps it's like Google in this regard - often, people see a top result as being a good quality site, when really it just means it has bunch of links. While links often do mean quality, they don't have to.

I'm also interested in this from a marketing standpoint. I recently started work at an ecommerce site, and we regularly do goofy things to get you "like" us. We'll do coupon codes mainly, but also free stuff and a few other random things. We're doing this not for the "likes", per se, but rather for the relationship that creates. Once you "like" us, you see our updates, and that's just as good as paying for an ad on the side of Facebook. Next time you need $product, you're already thinking of us.


Honestly, besides seeing "like" as a misnomer, I've really seen it as a kind of newspeak, and I guess it's working. I don't actually like Blockbuster Express all that much, but I'll certainly "like" it for a free rental. All of a sudden though that relationship has been co-opted into a positive endorsement, which certainly isn't my intention in getting a coupon code. Maybe we just need a greasemonkey script to replace "like" with "connected".

Source

I'm not talking about manually hiding and shifting RSS feeds into folders or tags.

I mean a system where I basically have this massive RSS feed - organize them - read them all - and catch up to the latest articles.

Sort of like a race where the unread RSS feeds gets a head start and you have to sprint and then catch up until a certain set is down to zero. Would you consider that a good barometer for a good productivity system or is it inherently flawed because tons of systems do that already or tons of tasks require more strategic thinking compared to just reading and marking something as read?

515

Living Room / Rubel Suggests SEO Change

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 08:38 AM »

http://www.steverube...ce-links-as-the-webs

For years the mighty hypertext link has served as the web's traffic signal network. Links guide where our clicks, attention and, therefore, money flows. It has given rise to multi-billion-dollar businesses and even entire industries. As the blockbuster AOL/HuffingtonPost deal shows, we truly do live in what Jeff Jarvis calls "The Link Economy." But maybe just maybe that economy could be peaking.
More recently it appears that an equally powerful network of signals has emerged just as certain kinds of links are being called into question in the mainstream press.

Still, this poses an interesting question: could the like, one day come to dominate links as the primary way we find and engage with content? Is Facebook's EdgeRank the new Google PageRank? It may seem improbable now but history is filled with metaphors.

The irony?

#1: More data analyzers has been done on Twitter users than Facebook users.

#2: Like is worse than Up and Down arrows and StumbleUpon has/is been gamed.

#3: Mark as spam besides a Google search is basically Like minus the requirement to have multiple fake users pad up the numbers to create a difference

The good:

#1: Like used in conjunction with Follow is win as evidence by services such as Mashable Follow/FriendFeed and BlogLuvin

#2: Spammers vs. Rabid Fans = better than just spammers

#3: Like is closer to the concept of a Semantic Web tag compared to search

The horrible:

Outdated concept that is still being under-discussed by people who just happen to look too closely into Facebook and nothing else.

516

Site/Forum Features / Re: Revisiting the idea of simplifying the DC big app license key stuff

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 08:25 AM »

Let the users set the pop-up based on date or program usage frequency with an option to disable the pop-up.

517

General Software Discussion / Google Chrome continues to ruin standard user interface

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 05:52 AM »

Note: Sorry if this is written like a fanboy post. For a more critical to Google post of mine, see this other thread.

Google first talked about the Omnibox API back in August of last year, but at that time, it was experimental. But today they’ve done a new post on the Chromium Blog to highlight the option. And developers are wasting little time getting extensions working for it.

Source (also one or two extensions are mentioned)

The idea isn't new and you could argue FARR and other things do this all the time but I just thought since I made that other thread, it's worth noting how seemingly bad ideas can turn out great. However this is more like the reverse, great ideas turning bad but being perceived as good by developers.

What I mean by this is that eventually more and more web services would have a monopoly over user attention kind of like how google is the default search box and the more services do this, the more it's just going to be another add this to your browser's homepage button that empowers only the services with most of your attention. (even if every service can have a place in the omnibar, imagine people wanting to remember the search aliases in anything but Google, Twitter, Facebook, Quora, Youtube...sorry I already forgot small service #99)

Still kudos to Google for taking all these risks despite being a huge company and not needing to experiment much on Chrome's interface. Especially since some of the things they are doing can alienate casual browser users while others would turn away tech users and the pay-off is very little to basic on initial implementation.

518

Living Room / Power Ranger Punches Kid for Accusing Him of Stealing Gloves

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 04:59 AM »

(Houston, Tx) - On February 18, 2011 at the House of Blues during the Legacy Amateur Series MMA show, there was a backstage altercation involving a member of the Legacy event staff and former Mighty Morphin Power Ranger, and owner of the popular MMA clothing line Jesus Didn’t Tap, Jason David Frank.

Multiple sources told TheCageDoor.net that words were exchanged between Frank and the worker in charge of collecting the gloves from the fighters after each fight. According to our sources, the Legacy employee was looking to get the gloves back from one of Franks fighters and after asking several times with no results, he told Frank “C’mon man, Jesus didn’t steal gloves.”

“It’s always a problem getting the gloves back from those guys. I guess he didn’t like my comment so he got in my face,” the 22 year old Legacy employee told TheCageDoor.net via phone.

“I left to go walk the next fighters out and when I come back in, right when I entered the locker room he was right there in my face. He was about an inch away from me. He’s a big guy and I weigh about 150 pounds. I put my hand up in front of me and said, hey man your like twice my size.

As I looked away I saw his fist coming so I clinched up and then he popped me a few more times.”

According to the employee, one of the punches caused his tooth to pierce his lip and required several stitches. He also said that he filed a police report following the altercation.

Frank told TheCageDoor.net via phone that the issue arose after one of his fighter’s gloves came up missing and he was accused of taking the gloves even though he didn’t have them.  After words were exchanged between Frank and the employee, Frank said he warned the employee not to touch him several times.

“He bumped his chest out, put his hands on me and that’s when I defended myself,” Frank said of the altercation.

Mick Maynard, who owns Legacy, said of the incident, “Legacy stance is, no matter what happens you just can’t go around punching people. There are so many better alternatives than punching guys in the face.

Our guys have to be protected, but at the same time they shouldn’t be saying things to provoke people. If there is a problem with ANY of our Legacy Staff, I’m very accessible.”

Source

Source

519

General Software Discussion / Re: Portable hyperlinker

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 04:34 AM »

Well...I'm sort of confused by what portable hyperlinks are but it seems like what you're looking for instead is a portable indexer like Everything Search Engine or Locate32 or a portable taskbar like ASuite.

I'm still not quite sure though. It seems like one of the requirements is that the shortcut should be smart enough that if you move the source file in a different location on a different computer that the shortcut will auto-search for the file. Is this correct?

Seems quite advanced. If it's just a menu, again there's portable launchers that support categories but a shortcut that can be intelligent enough to align with the right situation? I don't think that exists.

520

Living Room / Re: Should I be concerned that my wife opened a Facebook account?

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 04:27 AM »

...it's not yet April's Fools... (Sorry if thread is supposed to be serious)

521

General Software Discussion / Re: 20 New User Misconceptions about Linux

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 04:21 AM »

ehh... IMO ED still has the best Linux article for newbies out of all these types of articles. Link NSFW obviously

Few to no Linux for newbie articles contain such classic truths as:

Pedobuntu, one of the most popular Lunix distros.

Linus Torvalds picked out a penguin to be the mascot, because:

• Tux, Linus Torvalds and several pieces by Erik Satie all are pear-shaped.
  Did I mention he smells like a yak (and his wife can kick your ass)?
  

Type of Linux Users:

Penguinista: A penguinista is a Lunix user who hides the fact that he dual boots into Windows to play Doom. During his free time, he tries to write a program that will make Windows programs run natively in Lunix. This will never happen. Some people have come close, but by the time they have 16 bit Windows emulated everyone else has moved on to 64 bit Windows. Oh yeah... they also use GIMP to collect welfare.

Much like Civic fag-boys will often times claim that they've witnessed Honda Civics beating Lamborghinis and rocket ships in drag races, Lunix fans will often times claim that Lunix can out-perform the corporate flagships of the OS world (ie. Windows, Solaris, etc.), when in reality, most people couldn't even be paid to use Lunix.

Many of the Interwebs' greatest retards are in fact Windows users. Mainly due to the fact that introducing home-user lunix machines onto the internet would be like infecting a cancer patient with AIDS, Lunix limits the numbers of them automagically by offering horribly written, utterly unusable wifi card drivers (which are still distributed as if they actually were functional. By the way, does someone truly believe that open source software written by idle teens who can't get even a computing related summer-job is somehow bound to be of good quality?).

If the subject of distros comes up, reply, "Yes, but what can [insert distro name] do that Ubuntu can't do?

Ask "But can it run BSD?"

If the subject of CLI comes up, reply, "But you could do that with DOS twenty years ago!"

Tell everyone that Lunix isn't ready for grandma

Reply: "Don't want grandma finding your porn...

Make it known that $699 (the fee you legally owe SCO Novell if you use Lunix) is $300 more than the price Windows Server 2003 Web Edition, which has more features, greater stability, and has been shown time and time again to have a higher ROI.

"Yes, it´s very dificult to install programs,that´s why there is so much people that use windows, instead of lunix, if the lunix developers make it easy like the .exe on windows,everybody will switch to lunix."

Lunix can be a great tool for haxoring your school's computer lab. Not only do most distributions take up minimal hard drive space, many can also be booted quickly from a LiveCD. LiveCDs can be configured via their ISO image then burned to disk to create your bootable LiveCD. Once you are booted into Lunix it's possible for some distributions to install themselves onto small memory devices such as USB drives or memory cards. You can then take the newly created USB - which can be as small as around 256MB depending on the distribution you're using - and plug it into almost any PC. Once the device is plugged in use the following steps to boot into your Lunix distribution:

Shut off the PC.
Turn on the PC.
Wait for the manufacturer's logo (ie: Dell).
Hit F12 repeatedly until the logo goes away.
Select your Lunix device as the boot device.
Hit enter.
The computer will then boot into Lunix instead of Windows effectively bypassing any security measures that Windows would usually put in place during bootup - this includes most file restrictions. Please keep in mind that internet filters are usually not handled in Windows but on the organization's Server. If you're at work or in school, chances are you will still be blocked from certain websites. Finally you can mount and access the C Drive.

Make you rich because there are three rich guys who used Lunix

Make you attractive to women because Bill Gates' wife is hot (note: Bill Gates uses Windows) (2nd note: make $50 billion, and she won't give a flying fuck what operating system you use)

Make you smarter

Make you lose weight (note: Lunix, Mountain Dew, Nasal Spray and Pop Tarts are not proper diet and lifting one of your many massive Lunix user-guide type books does not count as exercise)

Make you superior to the human race. Superiority is not defined by the number of gutted computer carcasses in your home, or the depth of your basement, or by how many operating systems you can fit on your hard drive

Reformat and install another distribution. (People have been known to do this continuously for weeks. Hint: they all suck. Stop wasting your time.)

Read countless manuals to do the simplest of tasks. And still fail

Say you use Lunix (which will get your ass kicked, even by other Lunix users.)

Run a virtual instance of Windows so you can play games, while at the same time saying how much you hate Microsoft.

Argue that KDE is better than GNOME.
Argue that GNOME is better than KDE.
Argue that both GNOME and KDE are inferior to your chosen environment.

Depend on easy to use programs like vi.

Installing Lunix on your Computer

Lunix can be installed on any desktop, laptop, cellphone, iphone, gaming system, wristwatch, or large dildo in just a few simple steps:

Download your chosen "flavor" of Lunix using windows because if you're downloading it from an existing Lunix install you won't be able to burn cd's or make bootable usb drives.

Boot into the distro and expect one of the following to happen:

• Won't boot
• Graphics are fucked
• Network isnt working
• Keyboard/mouse not working
• Random lockups

Guess at the problem / Manually type the errors into google that you have open on a working Windows machine. Do this for at least three days.

Start a thread on the distro's forum asking for help with excruciating detail of your system layout and troubleshooting case results.

Resolve the problem with the help of dumb luck.

Return to the thread and let them know you fixed it. DO NOT share how you fixed it.

Bragging rights are yours! Let your buddies know you're a full fledged hacker!

Cut yourself to relieve the tension.

Congratulations you are now a Lunix guru!

Becoming a master of lunix/unix requires a lifetime of dedication. You've heard of monks of various religious that take vows of chastity to show that they have risen above lust. Monks that grow long beards to prove they have risen above vanity. Monks that abstain from the impurities of the world and sit in near total darkness starring at a small light like a candle flame or an electronic equivalent. Often these people are religious hermits.

It is this spiritual dedication that makes one a master of lunix/unix.

When you use Lunix, you will become so frustrated that you will constantly fight with windows, mac, and even other lunix users.

Lunix doesn't get viruses because they are pre-installed and dynamically create themselves.

Modern desktop distributions include a wide variety of software packages, pre-compiled for the major processor architectures, so no compiling for the average person. These don't include Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, or Adobe Photoshop, but they do include Wine, which lets you whine about how Lunix can't run your favorite applications.

Hardware drivers are a bit difficult to get if not included already, but most are already there -- But if you've got an ATI or Nvidia card and install the proprietary drivers that actually work, fundie Lunix users will start bawwing at you for violating the GPL and deliberately introduce changes into the next kernel to break those drivers.

Lunix gamers do install windows and dual boot, but pretty much just to game -- And find out why the latest round of updates broke their X server.

As of 2010 or so, most of the kernel is written by paid developers from the hardware industry -- Except most of their users are running servers hosting furry porn in their mother's basements.

Discussion page:

It's not called Lunix. It's called Linux. Josh1492 02:13, 29 April 2010 (UTC)Josh1492

Linux is a typo. --  DerSquirrel   02:22, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Linux isn't UNIX. I hate Linux regardless.

Quotes are written in tongue-in-cheek form sure but the reality is most of these other articles are so outdated and over-stated that you could make a "20 New Geek Misconceptions about Facebook" and the contents would probably be far more original,insightful (and most importantly CORRECT for the year 2011) which just shows how sad the situation is.

The Internet: Where we've gone from sharing knowledge to giving AIDs to everyone who wants knowledge.

522

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is Software for Hardware Always Sucky?

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 03:53 AM »

Because it's mostly closed software/specs.

Software for hardware is one of those things that few companies realize would boost their sales if it is further open-sourced.

Not only will it get rid of them needing to support everything - it's a good start for them to finally start acknowledging their customer service support rather than constantly hiding behind obscurity.

Unfortunately this is another area that seems like it's waiting for a large tech company like Google to "Android" about. There's firmware like Tomato and DD-WRT but companies know few people know anything about these things and the ones who do... well it's not like the hardware are as cool or as exposed as Apple's gadgets.

Also crappy shiny interface means the illusion of making minor upgrades seem like major steps. Neither the casuals nor the non-casuals really notice this but hell it's like your average best seller. Initial sales and then after that just hardware:

To quote 40hz:

https://www.donation....msg238241#msg238241

I think this is just another classic case of a bright non-technical newcomer, who is thinking outside the culture, coming face to face with and older and established "tech & coding" crowd who don't feel a need to automatically go along with everything they're being cajoled into doing.

Shuttleworth no doubt feels unappreciated and not getting the respect he should. And the old guard are likely feeling that somebody who's mostly talk and charisma is trying to coopt or dominate the work they've dedicated hundreds of unpaid man years developing.

Sad thing is, they're both right and wrong in feeling the way they do about each other.

It's a complicated set of issues. Unfortunately, Bruce Byfield can't seem to see much beyond what's directly in front of him when he wrote his article.

And when I see people like inkscapee wondering whether it's "fanboy fickleness" or Canonical being "more into serving their own interests than creating a great Linux distro" I just have to laugh.

Canonical HAS created a great Linux distro. One which did more to successfully popularize Linux than the rest of the combined community was ever able to do. So to make a comment like that is (to be polite) somewhat misinformed.

Maybe he should try writing for the WSJ or the NYT? They're where you go to read tech columnists who show a talent for getting a story almost right.

I personally think the biggest problem for some dragons in the Linux community is that Shuttleworth is not out to personally destroy Microsoft, or humble Bill Gates, like they are. (Not that Shuttleworth's such a prize package either.)

Ah well...growing pains, real issues, and geek politics - combined with just a dash of green eyes. That's what makes the NIX world go round.

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Living Room / The Lost Thing (Video)

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 23, 2011, 03:37 AM »

Source: MetaFilter

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The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Re: Survey: What are the ingredients of your system/list/notes/reminders?

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 22, 2011, 10:03 AM »

Thanks tomos.

Yep, I've always liked your index system mouser. I'm using a modified system of it for a certain task and I just dare not yet share it with the forum because I'm not sure I've milked it yet but in the context of recipes - I think future posts could benefit from following this template:

Ingredients:

• brand of label maker
• number of index cards per day or per set
• average number of groups per size of tasks
• 1 trash can (add additional if size of house is too big or size of heart is too lazy)

Directions:

Step 1: Write down lists on index cards. Preferably short lists

Warning: If your list looks wrong, you're doing it wrong.

Step 2: Group Index Cards

Step 3: Batch review index cards per group and throw out finished cards when necessary

Size per serving: Thick, hidden, small items, lots of white space

It's not that this format is much clearer than your own but, to me, the value of app's words lies not in her analogy but in the recipe format's ability to transcend and convey images of our actions generalized towards our own systems.

I am being hypocritical though in that I am not serving a recipe so ehh...

...but really methinks it's one of the better ways to have a standard outline for presenting our systems to each other without pushing forward too much of our own idealism and hopefully in doing so, we could have a GOE database that can fit on a document without heavy systems overriding light systems or concepts blurring what is needed to act the system out at a glance.

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The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Re: Mark Forster's Autofocus system becomes *Superfocus*

« Last post by Paul Keith on February 22, 2011, 09:39 AM »

Thanks, I think I missed that part. I thought it was - if you can't do one of the right parts, move it back to the left column on the next page and then re-ask yourself whether you want to move it to the right side again.

As far as prioritizer, again I feel it can't be helped. So few systems respect priorities. Then there's the opposite, so many systems overvalue arbitrary priorities.

Whenever you get a truer prioritizer that's accepted by the masses, it often involves things like the two minute rule or the 15-30 day habit before dropping something rule and it just seems like a prioritizer is you already knowing what your priorities are and just re-organizing it in a linear top down model with few to no standard template of costs and effects outside of the users' own instincts.

P.S. Thank you for giving me a chance to clarify myself without going on full ignore mode.

Edit: In fairness though, SuperFocus does have a truer priority system but it's more of a backup mode:

When you visit a page which is full (i.e. both Column 1 and Column 2 are full), all Column 1 tasks on that page must be either actioned or dismissed.

Edit #2: On further magnifying on the image of Forster's notes though, it seems the right column is being a bit deceptive.

It's not just for unfinished and urgent tasks, it's for recurring habitual tasks.

The first entry seems to just be a crossed out entry of the word "Eat".

Now it may have sub-tasks and I can't verify this since I can't read the next few words but it seems unlikely considering the way SuperFocus Works.