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The Random Sh*t Thread Pt 2
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phantombudgie
Doesn't have much of a life
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 1:45 pm Posts: 994
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Only if he falls in 
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Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:45 pm |
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AlunD
Site Admin
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:12 am Posts: 7011 Location: Wiltshire
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 very droll 
_________________ <input type="pickmeup" name="coffee" value="espresso" />
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Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:02 am |
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l3v1ck
What's a life?
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 10:21 am Posts: 12700 Location: The Right Side of the Pennines (metaphorically & geographically)
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The big day has arrived. The Snowboard Asylum sale is now on. I've finally been able to order the jacket and trousers I wanted. There was no way I was going to pay full price for them. Even now it's still quite pricey. That's the last of my Christmas money gone now. They're both in this photo. 
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Fri Mar 12, 2010 11:16 am |
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saspro
Site Admin
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:53 pm Posts: 8603 Location: location, location
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The apple store is closed. New product time.
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Fri Mar 12, 2010 12:40 pm |
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rustybucket
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 5:10 pm Posts: 5836
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Something I posted on another site:  |  |  |  | Quote: There is another problem with Linux as well. The freedom agenda has meant that, instead of having one tool that does one job well, we have ended up with a lot of tools that show potential, but very few that are fully functional.
I'm all for enabling choice but not if it means that silly basic things don't work out of the box and confuse the user/developer. For instance, Gnome apps still don't skin properly under KDE and vice versa and KMix functionality is still variable. We still have several packaging formats and buggy/incomplete configuration tools that work fine one minute and then randomly bork core files.
Worst of all though, worst of all, the command line still hasn't died. Unless the function being performed involves an engineer, a priest, a chicken and a stone altar, the end user should NEVER ever see or require the command line. Instead of being able to install basic things by a single point-and-click action and then having the damned thing work, end-users have to trawl forums to find the correct phrase to type in. You daren't ask a question and if you do some self-righteous tit jumps down your throat. Oh and you can't copy and paste it into Konsole because there might be non-printing characters that'll stuff it.
GTK/Gnome fanboys argue with Qt/KDE fanboys over whose is better, raining down fire and brimstone on anyone that disagrees. Little do they realise that most users (and potential users) simply don't care. I'll repeat that: most of us simply don't care. What I want is for the bl**dy thing to just work! I really don't give a toss what toolkit or which GPl version was used. If it works I'll use it, if it doesn't I won't.
And the old "if you think you can do better do it yourself" cr*p doesn't wash either. The vast majority of users simply cannot, repeat CANNOT, make their own applications.
Frankly, there are a myriad of reasons why serious software companies are avoiding and will continue to avoid Linux. Chief amongst these is that Linux is the IT equivalent of the Church of England. Too many voices, too many little empires, too much factionalism, too many precious Marys ready to get offended, no clear overall direction, no clear overall leadership, no unity and total confusion for those on the outside looking in.
Linux needs to start making hard decisions:
1. Which ONE body is in charge? 2. Which ONE body is answering technical questions? 3. Which ONE packaging format is to be standard? 4. Which ONE Sound API is to be standard? 5. Which ONE Graphics API is to be standard? 6. Which ONE set of configuration tools is be standard? 7. By what date must all the major GUIs be fully interoperable? 8. When is X going to get a kick in the bum? 9. When is the GNU toolchain going to get a kick in the bum? 10. Which location(s) for system, app and config files is to be standard? 11. When will we stop moving the goalposts?
Choice and Standards are not mutually exclusive; it is strong standards frameworks that promote real choice by making things easier. At the moment we pretend to offer choice, but in making things so technical, involved and difficult, we force non-technical users to stay with Windows and hence, in the real world, we offer no choice at all.
Yes we can solve some of the technical issues (such as bugs and API shortages) in the same way we do now. If, however, we want to make a serious OS that really is right for the innocent non-technical end-user, we need to make root-and-branch reform to our hierarchies, our methods and, most importantly, our attitudes.
We need to stop living in cloud cuckoo land |  |  |  |  |
_________________Jim
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Fri Mar 12, 2010 12:47 pm |
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timark_uk
Moderator
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:11 pm Posts: 12143 Location: Belfast
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Really pleased as I just found a full set of RAW images from a shoot that I thought I'd lost.
Mark
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Fri Mar 12, 2010 6:18 pm |
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timark_uk
Moderator
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:11 pm Posts: 12143 Location: Belfast
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I just got an image posted on the Flickr blog. http://blog.flickr.net/en/2010/03/12/if ... ky-enough/*grin* Mark
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Fri Mar 12, 2010 6:58 pm |
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phantombudgie
Doesn't have much of a life
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 1:45 pm Posts: 994
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+10^(big number) The Linux fanboys always forget that the reason Microsoft and Apple do so well is that they are easy to use and (in almost all cases) damn well work. I tried dual-booting with Linux, not because I thought it would be easy, but because I thought it would be an interesting, tough challenge to even get it working. It was. But then I stopped using it because I spend too much time playing PC games compared to other stuff. It's easier to stay in windows than switch OS. Now the second HDD is an internal backup drive, although the GRUB loader has trashed the master boot record. People are human  above all they will change habits when the new alternative is easier. However, the developer community are too busy making variations on wallpapers to actually get the stupid thing to work without in-depth maintenance just to get the wireless adapter and graphics card running.
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Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:12 pm |
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Amnesia10
Legend
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:02 am Posts: 29240 Location: Guantanamo Bay (thanks bobbdobbs)
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There is always the investment in one OS. If you have a lot of software then it can be very expensive to switch. If you have had a fire then you can start again and switching is a lot easier.
_________________Do concentrate, 007... "You are gifted. Mine is bordering on seven seconds." https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTg5MzczNTkhttp://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwx404couk-21
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Fri Mar 12, 2010 10:49 pm |
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phantombudgie
Doesn't have much of a life
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 1:45 pm Posts: 994
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Fri Mar 12, 2010 11:04 pm |
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Amnesia10
Legend
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:02 am Posts: 29240 Location: Guantanamo Bay (thanks bobbdobbs)
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No I had an event a few years ago when made it much easier for me to start again this time with macs. No insurance pay out involved. I still took a year before I bought my first mac. I read up on all the differences and the what the mac equivalents of Windows software was available. I was subscribing to three windows magazines and three Apple magazines. Then I bought my mac just before the start of the upswing of mac sales.
_________________Do concentrate, 007... "You are gifted. Mine is bordering on seven seconds." https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTg5MzczNTkhttp://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwx404couk-21
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Fri Mar 12, 2010 11:28 pm |
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pcernie
Legend
Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:30 pm Posts: 45931 Location: Belfast
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_________________Plain English advice on everything money, purchase and service related:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:59 am |
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Coref
Occasionally has a life
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2009 6:20 pm Posts: 446 Location: ~/
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_________________ I was nickholway on the old boards.
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:08 am |
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Coref
Occasionally has a life
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2009 6:20 pm Posts: 446 Location: ~/
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_________________ I was nickholway on the old boards.
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:24 am |
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forquare1
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:36 pm Posts: 5157 Location: /dev/tty0
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Personally, I think more operating systems should actively encourage users to use command line utilities and other time saving devices. Your average computer user is terribly lazy, it's only when you put a geek in a secretaries job that you realise how little real people know about computers and how slow they are, because they are using the computer as if it were a fancy typewriter and not as an automating, calculating, work-doing machine. Just a couple examples: In my previous job I had to fill in a number of forms which detailed various files. Most files had the same or similar attributes. With some Visual Basic Scripts, Excel, Word and mail-merge and a load of Macros, I managed to generate around 800 an hour, whereas my colleague doing the same job did 80 a day by hand. Because the command prompt had been blocked, batch files were blocked and people who once may have known have now forgotten anyway, people were putting on tech support for lists of files on servers so they could print the list out and re-copy parts of the information back into various documents. Again, it took a few hours to put together some scripts and bam, I'm doing more of this in my lunch break than my colleague did in a day... And those aren't just localised examples, similar things have happened in other places where I have worked, and do happen where my Mum works, where Dad works, where my brother works, up here in the uni...Why? Because people have been given a computer and not properly trained. Why haven't they been trained? Because computers are easy to use  </rant>
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:33 am |
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