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Comment Long-Term? (Score 4, Insightful) 314

How long can he keep it up and what about long-term compatibility with GNOME 3 apps? Eventually I'm sure their "lineage" will drift far enough apart that you're either pulling in multiple families of libraries that do the same thing or you get GNOME 4 apps that don't work on Cinnamon 4 and vice-versa.

Anyway, I'm typing this on Arch Linux 64-bit with GNOME 3.2.1 and a few (needed!) shell extensions. I find it fine and I thought I would be a GNOME 3 hater but I'm actually not.

Comment Re:Gmail problem (Score 2, Interesting) 147

I don't even bother to moderate anymore. I read the comments at -1 because that is the only way to combat moderator abuse. It happens too often that you see a completely worthwhile comment moderated -1. Slashdot's game has been fixed. I blame the "Friend/Foe" system: that let's you instantly know whether to mod up/down if you were so inclined.

Submission + - ZDNet and UEFI Secure Boot FUD (zdnet.com)

headkase writes: There is an article countering the FSF's Secure Boot petition over on ZDNet. That article seems to paint Linux users with a broad brush. I don't think that many Linux users are against Secure Boot in itself. Rather we would just like it to be a mandatory part of the UEFI standard that you have the choice to turn it off.

Of course, if you don't wish to ever install Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, or yes, any version of Linux, BSD, or Hackin'Tosh then this is not an issue for you. The question simply is: do you presume to actually own the computer you bought?

Comment Dell Graphics Cards. (Score 1) 386

Here's what I don't like about "secure boot" (from this article): "...The end user is not guaranteed that their system will include the signing keys that would be required for them to swap their graphics card for one from another vendor ..."

So, given that major OEM's tend to ship as minimal as possible BIOS/UEFI options: If you buy a Dell computer and cannot turn off secure boot, are you limited by hardware signing to Dell branded (and priced) graphics cards and etc?

Comment The first rule of international manipulation is.. (Score 1) 152

"I would like to learn more about Artificial Intelligence and Game Theory. I know these are both large areas of study; however, my main interest is in how these affect decisions in the world. This would include politicians, business people, and general society. I'm not looking for a career or anything; this is just a personal interest of mine. Where are good places to start in these areas for somebody new to them? I'm aware of the Stanford on-line classes, but those don't work with my current schedule."

Do you really understand how unwise it is to put those words together in that manner? Don't interfere.

Comment Scarcity. (Score 1) 496

This is just another scarcity that is being encroached on. Scarcity of labor. Once all scarce needs of humans are met by a self-sustaining system then we will be in the "Star Trek Economy" future where you just do what you want and status is what you fight over by being exceptionally good at something. Like providing "status" human-made (not robot made!) food.

Comment Re:RTFA. (Score 1) 145

Sorry man, didn't mean to put you on a defensive: I was more babbling about love of "geek" stuff! ;) If you have a spare Windows license lying around: you can get VirtualBox for a Linux host too! You could try it the other way: see how Aero performs if you have a Vista or 7 license. It's not going to be up-to-par for Windows games I would think but the equivalent compiz:aero should work good enough for you to try? Best part: delete a file when you're done and it's gone!

Comment Re:RTFA. (Score 1) 145

This is a fairly new machine (obviously!) and when I built it support for a 6870 just wasn't any good. It may have changed but I'm already having the best of all worlds to change. I have 8GB of RAM in it. The host is Windows 7 64-bit, and the guest is Ubuntu 11.04 64-bit. I'm not kidding when I say video performance and performance in general is extremely good: it is. A part of it is because my processor supports hardware virtualization features such as nested-pages. That helps for running programs faster. The video wasn't always as good but is now since VirtualBox added 3D support and therefore the ability to use composited desktops, which again, run perfectly fine. I have a 64GB disk image for Ubuntu - which is plenty because I just use it for web-browsing and programming. My hard drive on the host is 1TB. And it's full of Windows games. When I'm in Ubuntu - at full speed - the CPU (measured from Windows 7) is sitting between 1-3% usage idle. So it's not a resource hog. I give the VM 4GB of RAM. I have a shared machine folder between the guest and host so transferring files is super simple. And here's the best part: when a new version of Ubuntu comes out (or just another distro I'd like to toy with): No reinstall. Put the files I want to transfer to the new version through the machine folder into the host and then back through a different machine folder into a new guest. It's just all around awesome! I get games and trouble-free-whatever-distro(s)-I-want at the same time. What makes it perfect is that the virtualization for the guest is just so darn good. I remember when that wasn't the case. It is now!

Comment Re:RTFA. (Score 4, Informative) 145

I have the opposite situation. My hardware is too new. 6870 Radeon, intel Core i5. Doesn't work right. But, I'm running inside of VirtualBox and it abstracts all that hardware away. It even supports 3D with a guest addition to expose that to OpenGL. My desktop right now in front of me is composited with compiz and plays video, wobbly windows and all just fine.

I know there are barriers when you go to upgrade old hardware: change piece A and you need to change piece B and such, but, really, leave it at a text console as a server or just pick up a cheap $299 laptop that a modern Linux will run just fine with intel video drivers. Intel video drivers over the years surprisingly have given me the fewest issues and they support compiz just fine too.

Comment First impressions, too late. (Score 1) 961

It doesn't matter. It's too late.


Beneficiaries to ignorance around climate change such as a, not related to the article, Koch Brother's have come out on top in the debate. People won't see this retraction and even if they did they are already biased against it. Besides, put on some shorts: there is no way climate change will change the pursuit of billions of dollars in profits. And the fact is those profits would have to be severely curtailed to make a difference. That's not the way the world works. Forget about it and just be happy you have a decent chance of adapting to climate change with our Western infrastructures in a fairly good position to handle the disruptions. Those people in Africa? Yeah, apparently the answer to them is: fuck off and die of drought.

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