Saturday Night Thread

First? Se

First? Se

Vista is the biggest piece of shit rip off every produced by that evil rat bastard Gates and his cretinous minions.My question is what does Bill Gates run on his fucking computer. I bet it ain’t Vista!

Vista is the biggest piece of shit rip off every produced by that evil rat bastard Gates and his cretinous minions.My question is what does Bill Gates run on his fucking computer. I bet it ain’t Vista!

GO WINGS!!!!That’s all I got.

GO WINGS!!!!That’s all I got.

Good Evening All!Having a fab day. Wish you a grand evening here in the PTT.

Good Evening All!Having a fab day. Wish you a grand evening here in the PTT.

What I want to know is how the book signing went, if Bob got to see any of the rest of the expo, or any of the rest of New York City. I forgot to tell Bob to take the train into Brooklyn and stop by Juniors (ok, ok, I know there’s a Juniors on 38th or something like it, on the West Side in Manhattan, but that’s not the REAL deal), and grab some cheesecake. But in any event, I want to hear all about Bob’s trip! And, I want advanced notice of the next time he, or Lee, or Elvis is in my hometown!!!QT

What I want to know is how the book signing went, if Bob got to see any of the rest of the expo, or any of the rest of New York City. I forgot to tell Bob to take the train into Brooklyn and stop by Juniors (ok, ok, I know there’s a Juniors on 38th or something like it, on the West Side in Manhattan, but that’s not the REAL deal), and grab some cheesecake. But in any event, I want to hear all about Bob’s trip! And, I want advanced notice of the next time he, or Lee, or Elvis is in my hometown!!!QT

Mr. Gates uses a Mac. True story. No shit. True story.You should use Red Flag Linux, or Ubuntu.Red Flag is the official OS of the PRC government. They don’t trust windows to keep their secrets safe. Neither do I. Neither does the NSA the NSA uses security enhanced Linux which is built into Red Hat and Suse Linux (and probably others like Mandriva and TurboLinux) but can also be obtained from the NSA’s public website.Red Flag is very easy to get in the PRC, they hand out install DVDs for free all over the place as part of the stop software piracy effort. You can’t pirate Linux since the Copyright License allows unlimited copying at no charge.Neil Stephenson wrote a short book “In the beginning was the command line” he makes it available in text form for free at that link. It is well written, as is everything Neil writes and is a very entertaining read.Here’s some of my favorite parts.

Imagine a crossroads where four competing auto dealerships are situated. One of them (Microsoft) is much, much bigger than the others. It started out years ago selling three-speed bicycles (MS-DOS); these were not perfect, but they worked, and when they broke you could easily fix them.

There was a competing bicycle dealership next door (Apple) that one day began selling motorized vehicles–expensive but attractively styled cars with their innards hermetically sealed, so that how they worked was something of a mystery.

… snip …

Eventually the big dealership came out with a full-fledged car: a colossal station wagon (Windows 95). It had all the aesthetic appeal of a Soviet worker housing block, it leaked oil and blew gaskets, and it was an enormous success. A little later, they also came out with a hulking off-road vehicle intended for industrial users (Windows NT) which was no more beautiful than the station wagon, and only a little more reliable.

Since then there has been a lot of noise and shouting, but little has changed. The smaller dealership continues to sell sleek Euro-styled sedans and to spend a lot of money on advertising campaigns. They have had GOING OUT OF BUSINESS! signs taped up in their windows for so long that they have gotten all yellow and curly. The big one keeps making bigger and bigger station wagons and ORVs.

On the other side of the road are two competitors that have come along more recently.

One of them (Be, Inc.) is selling fully operational Batmobiles (the BeOS). They are more beautiful and stylish even than the Euro-sedans, better designed, more technologically advanced, and at least as reliable as anything else on the market–and yet cheaper than the others.

With one exception, that is: Linux, which is right next door, and which is not a business at all. It’s a bunch of RVs, yurts, tepees, and geodesic domes set up in a field and organized by consensus. The people who live there are making tanks. These are not old-fashioned, cast-iron Soviet tanks; these are more like the M1 tanks of the U.S. Army, made of space-age materials and jammed with sophisticated technology from one end to the other. But they are better than Army tanks. They’ve been modified in such a way that they never, ever break down, are light and maneuverable enough to use on ordinary streets, and use no more fuel than a subcompact car. These tanks are being cranked out, on the spot, at a terrific pace, and a vast number of them are lined up along the edge of the road with keys in the ignition. Anyone who wants can simply climb into one and drive it away for free.

Customers come to this crossroads in throngs, day and night. Ninety percent of them go straight to the biggest dealership and buy station wagons or off-road vehicles. They do not even look at the other dealerships.

Of the remaining ten percent, most go and buy a sleek Euro-sedan, pausing only to turn up their noses at the philistines going to buy the station wagons and ORVs. If they even notice the people on the opposite side of the road, selling the cheaper, technically superior vehicles, these customers deride them as cranks and half-wits.

The Batmobile outlet sells a few vehicles to the occasional car nut who wants a second vehicle to go with his station wagon, but seems to accept, at least for now, that it’s a fringe player.

The group giving away the free tanks only stays alive because it is staffed by volunteers, who are lined up at the edge of the street with bullhorns, trying to draw customers’ attention to this incredible situation. A typical conversation goes something like this:

Hacker with bullhorn: “Save your money! Accept one of our free tanks! It is invulnerable, and can drive across rocks and swamps at ninety miles an hour while getting a hundred miles to the gallon!”

Prospective station wagon buyer: “I know what you say is true…but…er…I don’t know how to maintain a tank!”

Bullhorn: “You don’t know how to maintain a station wagon either!”

Buyer: “But this dealership has mechanics on staff. If something goes wrong with my station wagon, I can take a day off work, bring it here, and pay them to work on it while I sit in the waiting room for hours, listening to elevator music.”

Bullhorn: “But if you accept one of our free tanks we will send volunteers to your house to fix it for free while you sleep!”

Buyer: “Stay away from my house, you freak!”

Bullhorn: “But…”

Buyer: “Can’t you see that everyone is buying station wagons?”

And so it continues just like Neil describes. This was written before MicroSoft finished killing BeOS. Be Inc. was murdered by the monopoly. Linux survives because there is no company to kill.You should download and read the whole thing. Neil is a great writer. If you’ve never read Cryptonomicon I highly recommend it. It’s one of the best novels I’ve ever read. It’s up there with the best of Niven, Heinlein, Asamov, and Clarke. It’s not really science fiction like the classics, I think it’s classified as cyberpunk.

Mr. Gates uses a Mac. True story. No shit. True story.You should use Red Flag Linux, or Ubuntu.Red Flag is the official OS of the PRC government. They don’t trust windows to keep their secrets safe. Neither do I. Neither does the NSA the NSA uses security enhanced Linux which is built into Red Hat and Suse Linux (and probably others like Mandriva and TurboLinux) but can also be obtained from the NSA’s public website.Red Flag is very easy to get in the PRC, they hand out install DVDs for free all over the place as part of the stop software piracy effort. You can’t pirate Linux since the Copyright License allows unlimited copying at no charge.Neil Stephenson wrote a short book “In the beginning was the command line” he makes it available in text form for free at that link. It is well written, as is everything Neil writes and is a very entertaining read.Here’s some of my favorite parts.

Imagine a crossroads where four competing auto dealerships are situated. One of them (Microsoft) is much, much bigger than the others. It started out years ago selling three-speed bicycles (MS-DOS); these were not perfect, but they worked, and when they broke you could easily fix them.

There was a competing bicycle dealership next door (Apple) that one day began selling motorized vehicles–expensive but attractively styled cars with their innards hermetically sealed, so that how they worked was something of a mystery.

… snip …

Eventually the big dealership came out with a full-fledged car: a colossal station wagon (Windows 95). It had all the aesthetic appeal of a Soviet worker housing block, it leaked oil and blew gaskets, and it was an enormous success. A little later, they also came out with a hulking off-road vehicle intended for industrial users (Windows NT) which was no more beautiful than the station wagon, and only a little more reliable.

Since then there has been a lot of noise and shouting, but little has changed. The smaller dealership continues to sell sleek Euro-styled sedans and to spend a lot of money on advertising campaigns. They have had GOING OUT OF BUSINESS! signs taped up in their windows for so long that they have gotten all yellow and curly. The big one keeps making bigger and bigger station wagons and ORVs.

On the other side of the road are two competitors that have come along more recently.

One of them (Be, Inc.) is selling fully operational Batmobiles (the BeOS). They are more beautiful and stylish even than the Euro-sedans, better designed, more technologically advanced, and at least as reliable as anything else on the market–and yet cheaper than the others.

With one exception, that is: Linux, which is right next door, and which is not a business at all. It’s a bunch of RVs, yurts, tepees, and geodesic domes set up in a field and organized by consensus. The people who live there are making tanks. These are not old-fashioned, cast-iron Soviet tanks; these are more like the M1 tanks of the U.S. Army, made of space-age materials and jammed with sophisticated technology from one end to the other. But they are better than Army tanks. They’ve been modified in such a way that they never, ever break down, are light and maneuverable enough to use on ordinary streets, and use no more fuel than a subcompact car. These tanks are being cranked out, on the spot, at a terrific pace, and a vast number of them are lined up along the edge of the road with keys in the ignition. Anyone who wants can simply climb into one and drive it away for free.

Customers come to this crossroads in throngs, day and night. Ninety percent of them go straight to the biggest dealership and buy station wagons or off-road vehicles. They do not even look at the other dealerships.

Of the remaining ten percent, most go and buy a sleek Euro-sedan, pausing only to turn up their noses at the philistines going to buy the station wagons and ORVs. If they even notice the people on the opposite side of the road, selling the cheaper, technically superior vehicles, these customers deride them as cranks and half-wits.

The Batmobile outlet sells a few vehicles to the occasional car nut who wants a second vehicle to go with his station wagon, but seems to accept, at least for now, that it’s a fringe player.

The group giving away the free tanks only stays alive because it is staffed by volunteers, who are lined up at the edge of the street with bullhorns, trying to draw customers’ attention to this incredible situation. A typical conversation goes something like this:

Hacker with bullhorn: “Save your money! Accept one of our free tanks! It is invulnerable, and can drive across rocks and swamps at ninety miles an hour while getting a hundred miles to the gallon!”

Prospective station wagon buyer: “I know what you say is true…but…er…I don’t know how to maintain a tank!”

Bullhorn: “You don’t know how to maintain a station wagon either!”

Buyer: “But this dealership has mechanics on staff. If something goes wrong with my station wagon, I can take a day off work, bring it here, and pay them to work on it while I sit in the waiting room for hours, listening to elevator music.”

Bullhorn: “But if you accept one of our free tanks we will send volunteers to your house to fix it for free while you sleep!”

Buyer: “Stay away from my house, you freak!”

Bullhorn: “But…”

Buyer: “Can’t you see that everyone is buying station wagons?”

And so it continues just like Neil describes. This was written before MicroSoft finished killing BeOS. Be Inc. was murdered by the monopoly. Linux survives because there is no company to kill.You should download and read the whole thing. Neil is a great writer. If you’ve never read Cryptonomicon I highly recommend it. It’s one of the best novels I’ve ever read. It’s up there with the best of Niven, Heinlein, Asamov, and Clarke. It’s not really science fiction like the classics, I think it’s classified as cyberpunk.

Cool, Git! I’m a great Sephenson fan myself. I just finished the Baroque Cycle. Cryptonomicon was my first I read by him. Check this out.Yeah, Microsoft really is a douche company. I don’t know if there is a way to retrofit this laptop with another OS, but I’m heading back to the states soon for a few weeks and the first stop is Seattle to visit my kid who is a code monkey for Google.Most machines I see here have XP, much of it pirated. Yaaaaaar!

I’m an openSUSE user and I love it! Linux just keeps getting better and easier. I love Free! I use Puppy Linux as well and it is sooo easy and fast, way fast. Just download the puppy, burn a cd, throw it in and walla, fast all in ram OS that screams!Now I just need an electric car, hmmm.

I’m an openSUSE user and I love it! Linux just keeps getting better and easier. I love Free! I use Puppy Linux as well and it is sooo easy and fast, way fast. Just download the puppy, burn a cd, throw it in and walla, fast all in ram OS that screams!Now I just need an electric car, hmmm.