Linux-Advocacy Digest #44, Volume #31 Sun, 24 Dec 00 07:13:04 EST
Contents:
Re: This group should rename itself (Yatima)
Re: An Entire Day With Linux (Yukkkkk!!!) (Yatima)
Re: A Microsoft exodus! ("Tom Wilson")
Re: Red hat becoming illegal? ("Tom Wilson")
Re: I concede (Windows back on my machine) ("Tom Wilson")
Re: Linux lacks ("Tom Wilson")
Re: Linux lacks ("Tom Wilson")
Re: Is Windows an operating system like Linux? ("Tom Wilson")
Re: My pet peeve: Developers who don't furnish a complete application package.
("Tom Wilson")
Re: What's in a name? ("Tom Wilson")
Re: Red hat becoming illegal? ("Tom Wilson")
Re: Red hat becoming illegal? ("Tom Wilson")
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Yatima)
Subject: Re: This group should rename itself
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:25:32 GMT
On 24 Dec 2000 17:25:36 +1100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Yikes.... Uhm, its very much a home-grown solution. I hacked mpg123 a bit
>(originally for my other MP3 player, in the lounge room, which has a 4 line
>LCD output, with two buttons attached to it). mpg123 simply writes out
>the directory and track number it is currently playing, and then sends
>another process a signal.
>In the case of the X-background thingie, that other process is "sleep",
>called from a shell script which waits for it to exit. When that happens,
>the script grabs the info mpg123 saved, gathers a title list from that
>directory, converts that list (and another, one-element list with the
>current title) from ascii into pbm files (through another small program
>I custom-wrote for it, as I couldn't be bothered searching for one on
>the net), and then simply puts the cover (a pgm) and the title info
>into the X root window through xsetbg (an alias of xli).
That's really neat. I think I'll be lazy and stick to good ol' XMMS :)
>It's *great*. I can't imagine anymore having a keyboard and mouse for
>each machine, or not being able to freely program which machine each
>keypress goes to. Makes life a bit hard when I have to use other people's
>computers.... I use the top row on the numeric keypad to switch between
>my 4 machines, and on other people's machines I often have extra '/', '*'
>or '-' characters when first starting to use them ;-)
Very nice. I'm definitely not skilled enough to be trying that but it
sounds like you've got a great setup!
Thanks for the info.
--
yatima
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Yatima)
Subject: Re: An Entire Day With Linux (Yukkkkk!!!)
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:32:11 GMT
On Sun, 24 Dec 2000 09:43:44 +0000, Pete Goodwin
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>Tell Aaron that. He does it all the time.
I know. That's one of the many reasons why he's in my killfile.
Take care.
--
yatima
------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.unix.advocacy
Subject: Re: A Microsoft exodus!
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:59:38 GMT
"Russ Lyttle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> "Aaron R. Kulkis" wrote:
> >
> > Bob Hauck wrote:
> > >
> > > On Wed, 20 Dec 2000 01:02:02 GMT, Russ Lyttle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> > >
> > > > Anyone out there make a Selectric style keyboard for PCs?
> > >
> > > I have an old Northgate keyboard with that layout that I bought at a
> > > church yard sale for $3. It even clicks when you type, the better to
> > > drive your office-mates batty <g>.
> > >
> > > I think the Happy Hacking keyboard is probably the closest thing in
> > > current production.
> > >
> > > And please don't quote the Kulkis-sig. He gets way too much publicity
> > > as it is.
> >
> > heh heh heh
> >
> > >
> > > --
> > > -| Bob Hauck
> > > -| Codem Systems, Inc.
> > > -| http://www.codem.com/
> >
> > --
> > Aaron R. Kulkis
> > Unix Systems Engineer
> > DNRC Minister of all I survey
> > ICQ # 3056642
> >
> >>Sig Sniped hee hee<<
> Got a link? I haven't seen any in the local stores. I'll do a search
> later. Anything is better than another windows keyboard and all my old
> IBMs are going bad.
If you decide to try one, post the results.
PS: Fujitsu still makes some solid, high-end keyboards. They cost a bit
though.
--
Tom Wilson
Sunbelt Software Solutions
------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
alt.destroy.microsoft,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: Red hat becoming illegal?
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:59:39 GMT
"Donovan Rebbechi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> On Wed, 20 Dec 2000 18:05:08 -0700, John W. Stevens wrote:
> >Chris Ahlstrom wrote:
>
> >Just today, Molly Ivins (an old-style liberal) states in her news paper
> >column that actually upholding and following the Constitution is "the
> >most frightening thing I've ever seen".
> >
> >This, from a party that repeatedly claimed to support the rule of law?
>
> Woah ! You've gone from a single person to a party in one line.
It was justified. The Democratic party is made up of Ms. Ivins'.
I'm a Former Democratic campaigner and supporter. The left wing of the party
has pretty much taken over. The left doesn't like set-in-stone rules they
can't dance or litigate around. The "Constitution is un-American" rhetoric
is to be expected.
>
> >I'm disgusted by the whole thing, but I'm especially disgusted by people
> >who loudly claim that Al Gore won.
>
> This is a straw man.
...Who isn't alone in his disgust. A lot of Tennesseans (Gore's home state)
share it.
>
> >I'm disgusted by any and all references to "the national popular vote".
> >
> >Such references are either indications of someone who is wildly
> >ignorant, or who does not uphold the Constitution of the USA.
> >
> >THE NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE IS AS MEANINGFUL IN A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AS
> >THE NUMBER OF Z's IN A CANDIDATES LAST NAME.
>
> Not at all. It's a good indicator of the level of support for a candidate.
> It just so happens that it's not the indicator that is used to determine
> the outcome of the election. (I'm not saying that it should be either).
> It also points to the fact that the outcome of the election was close
> enough to be determined more by technicalities and errors than anything
> else.
The election results were determined by a system that foresaw close
elections and litigated outcomes and worked despite the best efforts of the
Democrats to monkey-wrench it.
>
> However, the "will of the people" if there is such a thing is clearly
> bipartisan government, and I think the outcome of the election (including
> a split senate and a relatively moderate republican) will result in this.
>
> >In short,
> >
> >AL GORE LOST THE NATIONAL VOTE.
>
> On technicalities.
...No, by constitutional law.
>
> >Why are the Democrats unwilling to talk truthfully about this issue?
> >
> >I'm especially disgusted by claims that "Al Gore would have won if all
> >the votes had been counted!"
> >
> >ALL THE VOTES WERE COUNTED!
> >
> >What was left were BALLOTS, not VOTES. As Justice O'Connor said: the
> >only real standard for defining a "vote", in place at the time the
> >election was held was what the counting machines implemented. And the
> >machines did not consider those ballots to have votes on them
>
> That's if you're prepared to accept the machine's definition. It sounds
> like a perfectly reasonable definition. However, it also seems that error
> margins exceeded the margin of victory (I believe one of the judges said
> something to this effect)
The rate of error will remain high, in an election, no matter how you go
about it. At least with machines, you don't have to worry about one having a
left or right bias. As for mistakenly cast votes....RTFB!
>
> >The Democrats are calling for the imposition of an outright tyranny. Do
> >we really want to do this?
>
> Both sides were furiously attempting to gerrymander the result in their
> favour, the Democrats by selectively recounting, the Reps by suppressing
> recounts. Personally, I'm not the least bit surprised.
>
> BTW, IMO Gore should have won, not because of the popular vote, but
because
> he was ahead on the two-candidate preferred (meaning that I think it's
stupid
> that third party candidates can syphon votes of a major candidate)
Likewise,
> I think Bush Sr should have beaten Clinton.
Denying alternate parties a political voice would be reprehensible. They
have as much right to campaign and lobby as the major parties do.
>
> But while I think electoral reform is due, it needs to be performed in an
> even handed manner, and not in an ad-hoc manner during counts
Any system will break when you abuse it via the judiciary. That's one of the
reasons a state's Legislature has the final say in appointing electoral
representatives. The courts have NOTHING to do with it nor should they.
--
Tom Wilson
Sunbelt Software Solutions
------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: I concede (Windows back on my machine)
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:59:40 GMT
"Donovan Rebbechi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> On Fri, 22 Dec 2000 21:19:52 GMT, John Smith wrote:
> >
> >"Donovan Rebbechi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> >news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> >
> >> I just did a search for "C++" on dice.com and most of the matches were
> >> actually UNIX.
> >
> > You are only fooling yourself. In the world of computers (especially
> >development), 99.9% runs on Windows.
>
> Go do the search yourself if you don't believe me. If the target platform
> is UNIX, they're not going to use MFC and VC++ are they ? FYI I haven't
had
> any trouble getting job offers programming on UNIX.
Same here.
--
Tom Wilson
Sunbelt Software Solutions
"Bugs? We've got those!"
------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux lacks
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:59:42 GMT
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> On Fri, 22 Dec 2000 17:29:07 -0500, T. Max Devlin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
>
>
> >dBase IV was out years before Access was. There was a lengthy time
> >period, not unusual in real software markets, where the two versions
> >co-existed, because a competitive software developer has absolutely no
> >reason to cut off customers who want to maintain compatibility in order
> >to support those who want new features. Having used both, I can tell
> >you that there was no real difference, and dBase IV wasn't "awful"
> >outside of the worst hyperbole. It just wasn't dBase III, which many
> >customers were quite happy with. This was before there were any decent
> >RDBMS' for Windows. (Well, there still aren't, but that's a different
> >issue.)
>
> Are you kidding?
> dBase IV when it was first released was one of the buggiest piles of
> junk ever written. Customers were SCREAMING at Ashton Tate at the
> time. They tried to use a gui which was a mess and importing dBase III
> files was a mixed bag.
>
> dBase IV was the straw that eventually put Aston Tate at the bottom of
> the sea.
While I disagree with nearly everything you spew forth in your posts, I'll
side with you on this.
DBIV was a very unfunny joke and I never gave an Ashton-Tate product a
second glance from that point forward. If I could lay hands on a box with a
5 1/4" drive, I'd format over the floppies (Still have them somewhere) out
of principal like I did with OS/2 2.0.
--
Tom Wilson
Sunbelt Software Solutions
"You Want It When????"
------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux lacks
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:59:44 GMT
"T. Max Devlin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Said [EMAIL PROTECTED] in comp.os.linux.advocacy on Sat, 23 Dec 2000
> >On Fri, 22 Dec 2000 17:29:07 -0500, T. Max Devlin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >wrote:
> >
> >>dBase IV was out years before Access was. There was a lengthy time
> >>period, not unusual in real software markets, where the two versions
> >>co-existed, because a competitive software developer has absolutely no
> >>reason to cut off customers who want to maintain compatibility in order
> >>to support those who want new features. Having used both, I can tell
> >>you that there was no real difference, and dBase IV wasn't "awful"
> >>outside of the worst hyperbole. It just wasn't dBase III, which many
> >>customers were quite happy with. This was before there were any decent
> >>RDBMS' for Windows. (Well, there still aren't, but that's a different
> >>issue.)
> >
> >Are you kidding?
> > dBase IV when it was first released was one of the buggiest piles of
> >junk ever written. Customers were SCREAMING at Ashton Tate at the
> >time. They tried to use a gui which was a mess and importing dBase III
> >files was a mixed bag.
>
> I'd hardly say Base IV used a GUI. Customers mostly didn't like the
> 'application builder', which is what you're referring to, because they
> didn't understand it.
I understood it, well enough. So much tweeking and fiddling had to be done
with the code it generated, it kind of defeated the purpose of generating it
in the first place. Clarion Developer actually did a far better job than
DBIV in that area. Neither did a great job.
> It was more buggy than dBase III, but only about
> as buggy as dBase III+; new versions of software do tend to have new
> bugs. In the rush to FUD dBase to death, a lot was made of its
> 'bugginess', but it was not even really a particularly troublesome
> product.
Not so much troublesome as mediocre. III was much better, IMHO.
> Though this was in the days before Microsoft lowered
> everyone's expectations of software so grievously, so there certainly
> was plenty to complain about.
<LOL>
That's true! We were used to getting what we were promised back then. What
the hell happened?
>
> >dBase IV was the straw that eventually put Aston Tate at the bottom of
> >the sea.
>
> Microsoft is what put dBase at the bottom of the sea, along with
> WordPerfect and Lotus 123, using FUD and churn and predatory development
> and bundling with WinDOS.
Ashton Tate kind of brought themselves to the edge of the cliff, Gates & Co.
simply pushed. There wasn't enough room in the market for two mediocre
database platforms.
--
Tom Wilson
Sunbelt Software Solutions
Where White Slavery is Alive and Well
------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Is Windows an operating system like Linux?
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:59:44 GMT
"Tim Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> On Mon, 18 Dec 2000 16:52:46 -0500, mlw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >You seem to be confusing Windows 9x with NT. I refer you to Andrew
> >Schulman's book "Unauthorized Windows 95, Developers Resource Kit" or
> >"Inside Windows 95" by Adrian King. (MS Press). Or you could download
> >the Windows DDK and read the help files.
>
> It is customary to only cite sources you've read.
Well then, cite some of your own to the contrary...
--
Tom Wilson
Sunbelt Software Solutions
------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: My pet peeve: Developers who don't furnish a complete application
package.
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:59:46 GMT
"Aaron R. Kulkis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> mlw wrote:
> >
> > This is one of those good/bad trade-off things about open source. We do
> > not live in an ideal world.
> >
> > I am a software developer, and sometimes I don't do the documentation.
> > The issue is that I am not as productive doing docs as I am doing
> > software.
>
> The key is: Document AS you code, not afterwards.
I have an unusual approach. I write the docs before I even start on the
code. It tends to keep me focused and on track. If I didn't do this, I'd
wind up writting business applications with silly shit like Hardware
accelerated pie-charts and surround sound. I have the same problem with my
code that some women do with their thighs. <g>
--
Tom Wilson
Sunbelt Software Solutions
------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: What's in a name?
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:59:47 GMT
"Spicerun" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > Has it ever occurred to anyone that the Linux
> > operating system is named after its kernel, while
> > Windows is named after its GUI?
>
> Silly me. I thought Linux was named after/by Linus.
The author of said kernel.
So, he's correct by a technicality.
It'd be funny to find out that Linus is Finnish for Window <G>
--
Tom Wilson
Sunbelt Software Solutions
------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
alt.destroy.microsoft,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: Red hat becoming illegal?
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:59:49 GMT
"Chris Ahlstrom" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 21 Dec 2000 14:45:55 GMT, Chris Ahlstrom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> > >"Aaron R. Kulkis" wrote:
> > >>
> > >> In case you haven't noticed, EVERY able-bodied male citizen of
> > >> Switzerland between the ages of 17 and 45 is not only in the
military,
> > >> but, if not on active duty, REQUIRED to maintain his (full automatic)
> > >> service rifle AT HOME.
> > >
> > >Good point.
> > >
> > >Now quit selfishly clogging the net with that big-ass signature.
> > >Thank God for compression.
> >
> > Comparied to girlie pics, mp3's, videos and other
> > forms of binaries, this fellow's abuse of bandwidth
> > is inconsequential.
>
> Yeah, but at least there are some variations in those files.
> His sig almost never changes!
What variations?
A pair of tits and 3 chords in all of 'em!
------------------------------
From: "Tom Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
alt.destroy.microsoft,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: Red hat becoming illegal?
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:59:48 GMT
"Replacement Tommel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:91tj7g$j2b$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>
> >In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> > Chris Ahlstrom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > "Aaron R. Kulkis" wrote:
> > >
> > > In case you haven't noticed, EVERY able-bodied male citizen of
> > > Switzerland between the ages of 17 and 45 is not only in the
> >>military,
> > > but, if not on active duty, REQUIRED to maintain his (full
> >>automatic)
> > > service rifle AT HOME.
> >
> > Good point.
> >
> > Now quit selfishly clogging the net with that big-ass signature.
> > Thank God for compression.
> >
> > Chris
> >
>
> For bonus points, ask Aaron who "Tammy Hahn" is...
A friend of Jessica Baker's no doubt! :)
------------------------------
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