Out of curiosity I did a quick scan back through the archives to take a stab at when I joined. Judging by my UID it must have been around 10/2000. Five years ago.

It feels really weird to be reading and posting on the same site for that long, unnatural, really. I don't feel so much sentimental as much...odd.

No real insights, sorry. Anyways, from time to time a good story comes up with comments that justify hanging around here.

Still...five years....eeeewwwwwwww

Quoth the Net:

code such as:

#include int main()
        {
        cout << "Hello world!" << endl;
        }

        results in errors such as: incl.cc:5: error: 'cout' was not declared in this scope

        This is becuase C++ 1998 requires cout and endl be called 'std::cout' and 'std::endl', or that a proper using directives such as 'using namespace std;' be used.

Other than that, not much going on. I have found and played with gambas, which is sort of like visual basic; but missing a few important (eg: "mesgbox") functions. I've also tried my hand at using ProjectBuilder and Gorm from the GNUStep guys; both are pretty impressive for those who know what they are doing.

That would not happen to be me, however. I like to 'talk the talk', but in all honesty I have no clue what the fuck I'm doing.

On another front, I'm slowly succumbing to the siren song of gvim. To me, there's (usually) no reason to use vi except for those rare times when you're using a rescue floppy and it's all there is, period. It's saving grace is that it's small and fast - which means that tacking GTK2 and a slew of functions (syntax highlighting, multiple windows, etc) onto it rather defeats the point, in my mind. But today I actually was curious (having seen so many people advocate for it as an IDE here on /.) so I pulled up gvim to enter and run that snippet of code up there and it wasn't bad.

To me, however, it and emacs both fail in terms of being an IDE because neither one (to the best of my knowelge) provide any mechanisms for handling projects or even automatically creating your own makefiles.

On the other hand, though, for small one or two file projects, gvim might not be so bad. I do like the automatic syntax highlighting and how easy it is to make (^Wn) and delete(^Wc) new windows.

I want try out python, and gvim may end up being ideal for that.

Links for today:
Non-programmers tutorial for Python

flat assembler which has a great list of OS Development-related links in their forum.

That's about it for today.

I am finally running Linux 2.6(.12). I may have been wrong about what the culprit was all along, too.

As I mentioned in this thread I am very disgruntled with Linux 2.6, and have been since I tried it in slackware (I want to say in slackware 9; but I'm not sure). I've tried it on three computers and finally I have it working on my new one.

The problem was twofold. One, Linux keeps choking on apic, so I had to add these two entries into the boot parameters:

noapic nolapi

The 'nolapic' is the signifigant one, I hadn't tried that previously. The following the boot parameters I'm using to get ubuntu 5.1 to boot:

noinotify noapic nolapic pci=noacpi noagp noagpgart

The other half of the problem surprised me, to be honest: it was hotplug. After I hammered out the above boot line I noticed that Linux mysteriously hung (with no errors) after loading hotplug. So I booted an old knoppix cd, mounted the linux install and made the /etc/init.d/hotplug* files non-executable.

I'd like to say it's worked like a charm, but this being Linux life is not so simple. Networking mysteriously failed to work, so I had to add a dhclient command to /etc/init.d/networking.

Also X failed to configure itself on my ubuntu install so after trying different things (including finding out that the x-window-system package is broken on ubuntu) I found a guide on ubuntuguide.org how to set up the NVidia graphics driver.

All of that and I'm still not done. Because of licensing issues (which, ironically, don't seem to bother other software distributions) Ubuntu doesn't ship support for playing mp3s, so I have to fuck around with reading preachy guides and trying to puzzle out where to grab codecs from. Bleah, BSD is, imho, far simply (pkg_add -v xmms beats reading guides and going on a mad scavenger hunt).

Been up since 4am I'm going to try to make sense of the guide and if the words dance too much I'll fuck with it later.

[Update 9/27/12:31mst]
I added ac_97=yes to the boot parameters (I suspect it's superfluous, though) and after fucking around with searching I -on a whim- did a 'MAKEDEV audio' in /dev and now I have sound.

Bleah bleah bleah.

It's more likely than I had thought!

I thought I had been rtbl'd for one thing or another since it's been four years since I have had them. I've spent three out of five of my points on this thread, where eno2001 has single-handedly brought back the venerable tradition of Troll Tuesday.

If there's a list of classic threads, that should be on it. I'd encourage everyone to mod it up (remember, under-rated cannot be m2'd).

Myself? I'm ip banned (have been for a while now) because of flaming about bittorrent. Of course, that makes my recieveing mod points a bit on the odd and ironic side; but oh well.

Anyways; bye for now, journal; see ya next year!

It is official - Netcraft now confirms: Humanity is dying

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Human community when IDC confirmed that Human market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all things on the net. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Humans has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Humanity is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last [samag.com] in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

You don't need to be a Kreskin [amazingkreskin.com] to predict Humanity's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Humanity faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Humanity because Humanity is dying. Things are looking very bad for Humans. As many of us are already aware, Humanity continues to lose market share. Blood flows like a river of red ink.

"Smart People"(tm) are the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core reproducers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time people Stephen King and Feynman only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Humanity is dying.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
Human watchdog organisation BBC states that there are around 42,140 nuclear warheads poised to annihilate Humanity . How many People are there? Let's see. The number 6,382,978,111 was given by http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/popclockw. Therefore there are about 6,383,000,000 humans. Therefore there are about 6,400,000,000 people. A recent article put China's population at about 20 percent of the world population. Therefore there are about 1,261,832,482 chinese people. This is consistent with the number of people in china.

Due to the troubles of world politics, abysmal birth rates in Japan and Italy, germ warfare, natural plauges, famine, and so on, people are largely screwed. Now more people are dead, and with the death rate holding at a steady 100% there's little hope.

All major surveys show that Humans are pretty damn stupid. Humanity is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Humanity is to survive at all it will be through space travel. Earth continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Humanity is dead.

Fact: Humanity is dying

...once in mid to late 2001, and never again since then. Weird, I don't think I participated in the thread of doom; but not having the link handy, I can't check. I've made enough off-color (and downright trolling) posts in the past that it is likely I'm $rtbled (hell, I had michael foed for ages, so there you go). I don't really care (haven't, really), but it just amazes me when I see people be so casual about "well, I have mod points", like they just come and go for them.

On a totally different subject, I'm on the free-trail for Rhapsody and so far I think it's worth the $6/mo to subscribe to. There's shitloads that's missing, however. (no real King Crimson, no Black Flag, and no Dead Kennedys available for "on demand listening", though they can be played on your station if you set it up.)

Slashdot was doing so well there for a while. I remember when I first started reading (and posting AC) in 99 or thereabouts and the groupthink was so thick you were left with only one of two choices:

1)troll
2)do your best to guess (and tow) the party line

Some time around 2002 it seemed as though Slashdot was genuinely making a good-faith attempt at cleaning up the groupthink, and whatever they've done has made a considerable difference. I'm no longer shocked when I see a pro-microsoft comment or a strongly liberal or republican comment modded up.

Once in a while, the groupthink rears its' ugly head, however. It did in this comment. At the time of this writing, I can afford the hit, but it's still offensive given that my criticism was tempered, and born from experience.

What's amazing is that I actually took it easy on slackware, too. The reason behind the X/Console freeze is a well-known bug in X.org; which Pat has (god knows why) prematurely decided to include in Slackware. I don't know what the console font problem was all about, and maybe if I had removed the vga= line from lilo.conf (as one poster suggested) that might have fixed it.

It's a shame. I won't be discouraged from posting (though I may investigate proxies and go AC for any "controversial" critiques) but it is a damned shame.

We've come so far, but Jamie and crew have so much further still to go (if they choose to do so).

For instance, this gem from last summer is still open for commenting; just in case you haven't had your fill of |\/|$-bashing recently. ;)

(To prove this (mostly to myself) I replied to one of my posts here)

Seriously, I have no idea what that is about, there is one other story (I think from 1969? at least that's the date on it) that also is able to be commented to.

Bug? Feature? Temporal inconsistencies in the time-space continuum? Your guess is as good as mine.

I'm curious to know what led to your decision to turn off the 'willing to moderate' checkbutton.

Please share your stories inside.

and that's for the trolls.

Anonymous Coward has hooked me up with some free compiler tools to run on windows.

This is a relief as I was afraid that now that Microsoft has 'just cause' to shut down the OSS movment, I would be left without any free development tools to run under windows 98.

Once again: Thanks AC!

[blatantly ripped off from here and stored for posterity].

It is now official - Iowa voters have confirmed: The Howard
Dean campaign is dying

Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered Howard Dean campaign when recent polls confirmed that Howard Dean accounts for less than a fraction of 15 percent of all voters. Coming
on the heels of the latest Iowa caucus which plainly states that the Howard Dean campaign has lost more vote share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. The Howard Dean campaign is collapsing in complete disarray,
as fittingly exemplified by failing dead third in the recent Iowa caucus.

You don't need to be a Bill Schneider [cnn.com] to predict the Howard
Dean campaign's future. The
hand writing is on the wall: the Howard Dean campaign faces a bleak
future.
In fact there won't be any future at all for the Howard Dean campaign
because the Howard Dean campaign is dying.
Things are looking very bad for the Howard Dean campaign. As many of us
are already aware, the Howard Dean campaign continues to lose vote
share. Angry, lunatic rants flow like a river. Howard Dean's voice is
the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its volume due to
his apish shreiks. The sudden and unpleasant departure of long time
campaign contributor George Soros only serves to underscore the point
more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: the Howard Dean
campaign is dying.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

Polling leader Zogby states that 38% of democrats support John
Kerry.
How many supporters of John Edwards are there? Let's see. The number of
John Kerry versus John Edwards posts on Usenet is roughly in
ratio of 19 to 16. Therefore about 32% of democrats support John
Edwards. John Edwards posts on Usenet are about twice the volume of
Wesley Clark posts. Therefore about 16% of democrats support Wesley
Clark. A recent caucus put Dick Gephardt at about 11% of democrat
voters. Therefore about 1.00 - (.38 + .32 + .16
+ .11) = 3% of democrats support Howard Dean. This
is consistent with the number of Howard Dean votes in Iowa.

Due to the troubles of Howard Dean, temper tantrums and so on,
Howard Dean's voters went to other candidates and were taken
over by Dick Gephardt who sells another failed tax-and-spend
philosophy. Now the Dick Gephardt campaign is also dead, its
voters turned over to even less desirable candidates.

All major surveys show that the Howard Dean campaign has steadily
declined in vote share. The Howard Dean campaign is very sick and its
long term survival prospects are very dim. If the Howard Dean campaign
is to survive at all it will
be among far left peaceniks. The Howard Dean campaign continues to
decay. Nothing short of a miracle could
save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, the Howard
Dean campaign is dead.

Fact: The Howard Dean campaign is dead

That sentence is: THIS SHIT DON'T WORK!

Seriously, I've tried 5.0, 5.1 and now the 20 meg iso (hell, after all the crap you don't seriously think I'm going to spend 6 days d/l'ing a full iso, do you?) of 5.2-rc1 and don't NONE of them boot for SHIT

I don't know wtf crack these freaks are smoking, but it definately shows two things:

A)The trolls are just as right about BSD as they are about slashdot politics in general

B)Jordon Hubbard, Matt Dillon and the rest of the FreeBSD escapees represent not a few lone voices of dissent, but a true and honest brain drain.

Here is my suggestion for those few talented hackers left on the FreeBSD team.

Listen up you two:

a)drop the 5.x branch, merge Dragonfly BSD together with what reamins of the 4_Release tree and call it 6.x

b)pronounce FreeBSD dead and join a worthwhile gnulinux project.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

This person deserves your complete and total support.

This person deserves your complete and total condemnation.

Rumour once had it that This person is a total babe.

It's almost a forgone conclusion that This Person has a MUCH bigger penis than you do.

1. 
   I believe I've gotten one before, but this is the first one I've bothered to record.
2. 
   I have been in a deep blue funk since reading this story on the fourth. Today, I had it pointed out to me by my older brother that the main difference between that happening here and it happening IN SOVIET RUSSIA is that here, you get to read about it. I guess I feel better now; knowing that for being as fucked (or not) as we are...we don't have to hear about it only through some neferious underground.
3. 
   You're probably wondering why I'm here. So am I...
   Em Emalb posted an excellent journal entry asking for people's opinions of /.
   I would like to take that one half of a step further and ask those who think "it sucks" what the appeal is in coming back? If it sucks, what is the appeal that draws you to waste your time here? Is it inertia? Is it a hope for change? Are you riding out a bad /. cycle..or is it something else? Feel free to comment.

I doubt I'll write many journal entries, as I honestly don't have much to say [in general]...but time will tell.