justthinkit - Slashdot User

Submission + - What gadgets go on your pedalled ride? (just-think-it.com)

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justthinkit

on Tuesday July 22, 2008 @08:45AM

justthinkit writes: "Bicycle ridership is rising faster than the Shuttle, but is safety (and comfort) improving as quickly? What toys and tools are you using to have a safe, more comfortable commute? Anyone using the compressed air horn that fits in your closed fist and taps a supply of air in a bottle the size of a water bottle? I could see semis & dump trucks flipping over when they heard it. How about an electric motor add-on — is it worth the weight? Share your best bike secrets and maybe save a life."

Submission + - What does Ubuntu mean to you?

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justthinkit

on Tuesday June 03, 2008 @07:18PM

justthinkit writes: "Apparently, Ubuntu means a lot more than "easy to use Linux" to Doc Rivers and the Boston Celtics. For the NBA team it has become a rallying cry. Translated as "I am because we are", the Celtics break huddles with UBUNTU! (and have made it all the way to the NBA final as a result). So what does Ubuntu mean to you? Is "collective success over individual achievement" what Linux is all about? Or is this moment going to be more like what happened to Tux at Indy?"

Submission + - Favorite application of all time? (just-think-it.com)

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justthinkit

on Monday July 23, 2007 @11:52AM

justthinkit writes: "Slashdot readers, you are the most technical people on Earth. You probably average a decade or more of computing experience. What, in all your years of hacking, have you found to be your favorite application of all? What is the one program you would like to have with you on a desert island? And why?

The catch is it has to be a single file and no dependencies other than what the OS of its day provided by default. This is a blast-from-the-past seeker. I am sick of OSes today shipping with hundreds of thousands of files, on install DVDs. I am looking for the most useful yet tiniest ever. Small is indeed beautiful (and Word.exe's chief architect should be President).

I'll kick things off by stating mine — Microsoft Word for DOS, version 5.0a [Version 5.5, patched for Y2K, is available from MS for free]. My choice: Word.exe, 622,428 bytes.

Some of the reasons I love Word.exe? Ran native on OS/2, had a shallow mouse-and-keyboard accessible menu tree (that negated the need for obscure WP-like macros or keyboard templates, although it had one of the best keytemps ever), integrated support for a powerful yet readable macro language, RTF support, embeddable images, CR or CR-LF text file support, changeable screen resolutions (including a half readable graphics mode), first DOS application with native mouse support. And practical things like a hefty 8MB file size limit, auto-created backup files, auto-generated "DOC" file extension, automatic on-screen pagination and absolute 100.0% stability. Pity that XP broke the clipboard access...

At one point I worked at a 500 person engineering firm that was still running Word.exe right into the Windows 98 era. I've written applications that depended on automated calls to Word.exe. Low tech, high age friends of mine use Word.exe to write, manage contact lists and convert documents — for almost 20 years now [timeline]. They bought a new printer 6 or 7 years ago and the dealer installed Windows to install the printer drivers. On their next trip to British Columbia, on route to Hawaii, I was called upon to put it back to "just DOS + Word" for them. Word.exe keeps on keeping on.

If we allow more than a single file but still limiting things to what shipped with the core application, then I would also cite: postscript support (30KB), superb help file (105KB), the most complete spell check database at that time — that allowed user and global add-on dictionaries (180KB), full thesaurus (320KB), excellent tutorial system for mouse and keyboard (900KB)]. Heck, if you excluded the thesaurus & tutorials you could be fit it all on a single bootable 3.5" floppy.

Ok, I think I set the bar pretty high but I am really looking forward to other all-star submissions."

Submission + - Dvorak rants about Windows copying

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justthinkit

on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @11:49AM

justthinkit writes: "John C. Dvorak is at it again, but this time he might be making sense. In a brief piece on pcmag.com he writes about Windows copy issues, calling the words "Preparing to copy" the "Windows' words of doom". His observations range from show-stopping bugs like the "The Long-Filename Anomaly" to annoyances like poor time-to-completion estimates. He doesn't add Vista's new copy slowdown feature to the list, probably hoping that Vista will just go away altogether. So is it time to cut him some slack?"

Submission + - Microsoft claims 40 million Vistas sold

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justthinkit

on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @11:39AM

justthinkit writes: "ZDNet reports that "Microsoft has sold nearly 40 million copies of Windows Vista in the first 100 days, twice as fast as the introduction of Windows XP, Microsft [sic] chairman Bill Gates said in a keynote address Tuesday." Is it just me or do the words "Reality distortion field" come to mind? Bill Gates then added that "sales of Vista in the first five weeks have matched 'the entire installed base of similar software'. Given there are 300 million+ computers in operation, each of which has an operating system, what are we to make of such a bizarre statement?"

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