GNU is Not Unix

Bundled Applications for GNU/Linux? 148

munehiro asks: "As an addicted GNU/Linux and Mac OS X user I recently tried to install binaries and libraries on a Linux box using an approximation of the elegant and clean approach known as the Mac OS X bundle (everything about each app or lib under a different directory) as opposed to the Linux standard approach 'everything under a common prefix' (normally /usr or /usr/local) with applications and libraries mixed in the standard subdirs bin, lib, share and so on, and found administration life much easier. What do other, more experienced readers think about the problems and improvements related to dropping the current Linux approach for a 'bundle-like' one in Linux distributions?"
Graphics

Smart, Intelligent, Flatbed-like Scanners? 41

MessageDrivenBean asks: "In a Windows-based terminal client environment, I'm looking for a smart flatbed-like scanner. It is okay to connect a scanner to a local USB-port and tunnel that scanner to the remote application on the terminal server. But actually scanning a page produces a lot of data and with a small bandwidth connection it takes like 10 minutes to get all the data in the application. Besides, I only need 2 specific small parts of the page in 300dpi, and JPEG is just fine, no need the get raw data. Does Slashdot know of an intelligent scanner that exposes some sort of API to be efficient in a low-bandwidth terminal client environment?"
Editorial

What Makes a Game Review a Game Review? 63

An anonymous reader writes "Kotaku asks Do Game Reviews Have to Be Puerile? in a short editorial about the state of game reviews. The article points to a recent story in The New Gamer about Silent Hill 4 as an "experiential piece of writing about the emotions and thoughts that swirl through a gamer's head as they play a game over time" The Kotaku article ends on this note: 'The problem with many reviews is that both their writers and readers expect a formula. They don't want to be challenged, instead, they want to have the ideas swirling in the writer's head synthesized and explained. But critical thought, in its truest form, should be something that inspires others to think critically, not just accept what has been handed to them.' What are your thoughts on game reviews? Do they need to have scores and a summary of what's good or bad about the game to be counted? Is experiential commentary more or less useful than a breakdown of the game's design?"
Handhelds

Inexpensive Handhelds for Linux? 50

Dr. Manhattan asks: "My PDA was stolen on a business trip, and I'm looking for a replacement. I've enjoyed Palms for their simplicity and long battery life, but I'm not afraid to program and I'm considering something that can run Linux. However, my budget is rather limited; $150 is all I can spend. Relatively obsolete tech is fine, but I'm looking for: good battery life (my old Palm could run for weeks on a charge; I'm hoping for double-digit hours), dual expansion slots, all of the onboard hardware solidly supported by Linux. Does such a beast exist in my price range?"
Displays

Laptops, Headless Servers and KVMs? 397

Administration of headless machines can be a pain, and working on multiple machines can also be a bit of a bother. KVM boxes solve some of the problem, but sometimes finding a keyboard and a monitor to lug around to these machines is most of the problem. Is there a portable solution that might solve both of these problems? Wouldn't it be nice to carry around a specialized laptop that could act as both a portable display and input device? Does something like this currently exist?
PHP

PHP Automated Administrivia? 61

wikinerd asks: "I am sure all of you know what PHP is and many of you may even use it on your websites, like me. Some of you may have read a this article from Linux.com article that gives some examples on how to use PHP to automate your server administration tasks (or to say it with one word: administrivia). I wonder whether there are any Slashdot users that have already used PHP in their administrivia, and what the results are. Is PHP appropriate for this task? If you have written useful PHP scripts, would you consider to publish their source code here? I am sure that posting your scripts can be beneficial to many new (and old) admins, so let's share our work!"
Bug

Worst Bug or Shortcomings in a Standard? 270

Alastair asks: "Just curious what the Slashdot crowd thinks are the worst bugs ever to creep into a standard? For mine, the various security vulnerabilities in WEP would make the grade. Also perhaps the lack of a protocol field in HDLC, and which most implementations added in a non-compatible way. I'm thinking here about bugs which result in partial or total irrelevance of the standard itself, as opposed to just a lack of interest in adopting it."
Wireless Networking

Cutting Through a Wi-Fi Traffic Jam? 531

eric3xxx asks: "A week or so after Christmas, I tried to connect to my home wireless network and while I could see my access point I could not connect. After scanning the network, it turned out that there were at least twenty new access points in my apartment building (and in the surrounding buildings). Most of them had names such as 'linksys' and were all set on their respective vendors default channel (apparently a lot of people received 802.11b/g WAPs as presents). I tried changing the channel on my access point, starting at 1 and continuing through all of the channels, and none of them worked (probably since the channels overlap). In any case, I have no clear solution to this problem. I suppose I could boost the signal, however, that also increases noise. Perhaps I could convince my neighbors to put together a shared wireless network. I may just switch to 802.11a since it isn't as widely used." Has anyone else had success in configuring their APs to work in an areas of heavy wireless traffic?
The Internet

Is eBay the Promised Land? 106

johnny.shz asks: "Even the politicians were claiming: millions of people are making a living off eBay. eBay does have millions of people selling at any given time, but how many are actually making a living? I've sold many things on eBay, mostly junk. My feeling is that I'm making eBay richer (all fees plus PayPal account about 10%), but certainly not myself. Despite all the hoopla of the new promised land, I don't see the promise on eBay. How many of you are making a living off eBay? How many of you actually know someone who does?"

CBS Cleans House In Wake of Erroneous Story 217

An independent review panel gave CBS News a scathing rebuke for its story last fall about President Bush's national guard service. The report noted that in a story that was neither fair nor accurate, and did a "disservice" to the American public, the CBS News staff had a "myopic zeal" to get the story first and gave a "rigid and blind defense" after it aired. The story's producer, Mary Mapes, was fired. Three other executives were asked to resign. The network, noting that he was scheduled for retirement from CBS Evening News in a couple of months, recommended no action be taken against Dan Rather.
Software

Scheduling Software for Large Organisations? 60

DrCJM asks: "My wife works for a large hospital here in Australia, where her main role is building, managing and (where needed!) enforcing a schedule for all the junior doctors. This schedule covers several campuses, different specialty streams, different expertise levels, and so on. I'm sure there's a scheduling software package out there that can do all of the basic scheduling much faster than their current method of sitting down with very large bits of paper and lots of coloured pens. What software have Slashdot readers encountered that might do the job? Open Source would be great, but commercial efforts are acceptable too."
Education

Advice for Returning to School After Long Break? 580

arohann asks: "A few months ago, I quit my secure, well-paying (but boring) job as a software engineer in India and have been applying to graduate schools in the US, Canada and the UK. My aim is to get back to computer engineering studies (my undergrad major) as a grad student. However, after a 5 year break from academics I'm not sure about my decision and could do with some advice from Slashdot users."
Programming

Open Source Project Management for Beginners? 56

aendeuryu asks: "So I've been getting the programming bug again, and I started up a Sourceforge project for a game I'm trying to write. Development is going really well so far, but I've quickly realized that programming in my own personal vaccuum for my own personal pleasure is completely different from programming for the community at large. Things I never needed to worry about -- applying patches, writing documentation, license requirements, creating autoconf files for Linux compatibility -- are suddenly my responsibility. Now, I'm trained in programming in several languages, using databases and specialized libraries, etc. but when it comes to deployment for, and interacting with, the Open Source community at large, I know just about nothing. So, to all the veterans out there, where is a good place to go to get your feet wet on this? Is there any good advice for people who are getting started in OS project management?"

Slashdot Top Deals