Disqus - Latest Comments for spuffler

Re: How a Microsoft veteran learned to love Linux, and why it matters

spuffler — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:28:14 -0000

IMTHO, the only thing Microsoft has innovated lately is crowd control.

All the bells and whistles being added to the OS (and other software) aren't intended for the masses, and from the amount of difficulty with Vista, users have concluded, loudly, that Vista lost their interests (2 definitions of the word interest applies here). Similar for MS Office - I have been trained on (and am 'certified' on) Office 97, back in the day; today, I still do not use web integration, nor any collaboration nor embeddings. These features aren't used in the offices where I've been employed. I say 2 people per hundred felt that some subsequent version of Office had an improvement they personally needed to use, and when their output documents were unreadable to subordinates and clients (with older versions of Office).... well, the lazy 2 percenters, in effect, propagated the upgrade waves for version after version of MS Office. Not opinion: IT veeps of 2 different companies told me this was the reason for the upgrades being installed on my corporate PC (by name in each instance - each wanted the latest and greatest despite the impact). Little did one IT veep know, not until I told him, that I hadn't booted the OS on the hard disk for weeks. All my compatible documents, all my email, etc., had been generated using a live Linux distribution called Knoppix, it running from the CDROM drive and using the local hard dis only for storage; this was back in 2001.

More, Microsoft isn't about innovation, it is about twisting. Microsoft usually 'innovates' by purchasing existing software (Excel and Visio, to name two titles that come to my mind). So when I spend $240 for retail versions of a full install of Office, what exactly am I getting that Open Office is not presently providing to me? Scratch the reference to OO, I can still edit my resume (RTF) with Abiword, Applixware, etc.

A newer abomination I ran into (years ago, now) is the .NET framework. An application that one version earlier just barely fit on a bootable floppy now needs 8+ megs of 'framework', and the application alone couldn't fit on two floppies. Did performance gain as a result of the changes needed? Can't tell, I decided .NET was .NOT for me.

In any case, my PC is not owned by Microsoft, I'm glad to have functional choices of operating system and office suite.

Re: Stop Firefox Resizing Windows

spuffler — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:12:33 -0000

The key is also on the install cd in a specific folder. Use Google.

Re: The Twitter Avatar Roast: 10 Types of Profile Images.

spuffler — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:10:58 -0000

How about this one: needing a blog all to themselves, folks go and create one, and then they jump on the 'You must be a member to comment' bandwagon. Gotta love those.... do those folks really think I want to join something just so I can point out the blatant flaws in the logic of a blog post? Let them whither in their stupidity, I'll not be their editor.

Re: Yale Grad Student's Off-Grid Tiny House

spuffler — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:18:50 -0000

Hmm. This is too big for a Toyota Prius and why drag it around with a fuel inefficient truck/SUV/Xover? Why not put it on a foundation and just call it 'home'? Hmmm? Yah, I know: they have laws, and code requirements, and whatnot....

I saw the Tumbleweed collection a few months back and it helped me realized just how much crap I really DO possess. I believe I actually COULD do a more minimalist house thing (I have a 2100 sq ft Split/Ranch right now, and am SO hating it).

Re: OpenOffice.org: Play StarWars Galaxy (Easter Egg) | OpenOffice | Tech-Recipes

spuffler — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:36:31 -0000

Huh. Written in German, I think. Must be hanging on from the years before Sun forked Star Office into GPL.

Re: Sharp Mebius Netbook Offers Second Display

spuffler — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:24:14 -0000

For less than the price of this, I can get a full blown notebook..... with almost 2x screen area versus the total of this netbook. Why pay extra for eyestrain and cramped keyboards?

Re: Dieter Rams 10 Principles for Good Design

spuffler — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:30:54 -0000

11.. Good design puts function above form.
I have a humidifier that has a removable water bottle which is flipped upside down to be refilled. The top becomes the bottom when refilling. The top is so slanted that someone MUST hold it all the time it is being refilled. Rules 1, 2, 5, 8 and 10 all got violated when that humidifier was released to production.

12. Good design is easily repaired.
Haven't seen this in a while; Can't have rule 7 if skip this rule.

13. Good design doesn't irritate the user
Design awards can be won with 50% solutions. Examples I've seen: A fully featured MP3 player with only enough room for 10 MP3s; an Espresso machine without a steaming function, Pozidrive screws used to assemble electronic items but no tools in retails sales so users can remove them, knobs that are so tiny or are so badly located that elven fingers struggle to operate the knob, etc.

Re: …Blue Blood and Husqvarna are making motorcycles?

spuffler — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:21:33 -0000

Husqy made dirt bikes in the 70s, no surprise here.

Re: DIY Bendy Straws

spuffler — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:24:27 -0000

WANT!

Re: Kim–A Major Upgrade of SoundCloud

spuffler — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:51:57 -0000

How does this site show anything to john q public? I'm not an artist, what does it do for ME?

Re: Underwater Fountains of St. Petersburg

spuffler — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:24:44 -0000

Disney in Orlando Florida has projected video onto a curtain of water sprayed upwards from below. The Disney situation was used for entertaining an audience situated on both sides of the waterscreen!

Re: Do All mp3 Players Sound Alike?

spuffler — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:51:42 -0000

Pardon my lack of interest: test methods seem to be missing. Was the testing conducted using the same headphones in all players, and always comparing the exact same file? Seems obvious that sonic soundstages are vastly different for comparing a joint stereo 22KHz MP3 of Vivaldi played on any player using $10 earbuds to a 2 channel rip from an LP as played on full sennheiser headphones. Best is relative: what is 'best' to you is not 'best' for me.

Re: Acid3 Browser Test Now Live

spuffler — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:29:18 -0000

Problem is, almost nobody leaves their browser at 'default' settings.

Re: Acid3 Browser Test Now Live

spuffler — Fri, 02 May 2008 22:16:21 -0000

Ok, I forgot to ask.... "If my browser is failing specific tests that only Internet Explorer can pass, failing because the extensions were added to normal HTML by Microsoft's insistence, is that necessarily a bad thing?"

We tend to forget that Microsoft web suites can create web pages that only Internet Explorer can proper interpret.

http://www.news.com/2100-1023-274998.html

Re: 50 Reasons to Switch From Mac to PC

spuffler — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:30:30 -0000

I will stay with Linux on generic X86.

I have all the widgets I need, I have the games I want, I have the office suite I prefer, I have all I need regarding wants.

Next, I have the ability to use generic x86 hardware and 90% of the time, it works without extra fidgeting, without junkware being installed alongside any necessary 'drivers', without the need for an Apple logo. I don't have to pay $80 for a mouse, I'm using a $18 trackball, have used the same $9 mouse for years on another Linux box.

I do not need nor want to upgrade every 3 months, so I can still perform the tasks I need by retaining the services of a Pentium 3. Those people that feel they need to use Silverlight alongside Flash and 3 versions of Java are not who I am.

Re: On Call Street Lights: Light By Phone Saves Energy and City Budgets

spuffler — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:02:42 -0000

thespyofcharles seems to be on the right track. One obvious problem in my area would be the street lights themselves. Whether Mercury Vapor or High Pressure Sodium (both are common in my area), 2 issues arise. Firstly, it takes time for these lights to get fully brightened. Secondly, turning them on and off many times in a single night will seriously shorten the life expectancy of those lamps. Ok, you can counter with the idea that on certain nights when nobody activates them, leaving the lights off could ultimately compensate, depending on circumstances, but these lamps each cost several hundred dollars to completely replace (installation costs often exceed the cost of the lamp, but neither cost is measured in tens of dollars per lamp, more like well over a hundred dollars per fully replaced lamp). Even the downward facing sensor idea leaves the lamps as being used in a less than beneficial manner.

Another problem with calling a telephone number to activate street lights would be being unfamiliar with the area through which I travel. Yes, I can follow route signs, so the argument about 'how can you drive through unknown areas' goes out the window. Hypothesis: I drive into a nearby city to dine out for an evening meal, and I live in a rural area many miles away. Will I know all the activation methods and all the details which these multiple light groups will need? Will there be ONE standard call in number or will each community use a different number, and how will I know which number to call? Will communities convert these services into "900" numbers which in the US are calls which charge me money for each call?

@ Clem Guttata: sell advertising space on the phone call? No, thanks. I do not wish to be a captive audience to yet another advertiser.

Re: Luxim Plasma Light Bulb Kicks Some Serious LED Butt

spuffler — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:28:25 -0000

Someone thinks we need to add stray RF energy to our list of environmental hazards.

The cost to create that RF energy will be a factor. I saw a hybridized circuit. Figure about $35 per cubic inch of RF generator, if it is a hybrid. Sure, the RF box SHOULD be reusable for many capsules, but it is not to a consumers advantage to gamble that way with newly mass-produced technologies. RF devices aren't well suited for 120 volt power mains, as MOSFETs of appropriate voltage levels aren't able to oscillate that quickly, and common RF power devices rarely exceed 28 Volts rated breakdown voltages.

Furthermore, why is this BETTER than standard commercial arc-discharge lamps where electrical terminals ARE required? AD lamps can be operated at DC through 400 Hz depending on lamp technology one chooses, far below the realms where a ferrite puck is needed to 'act as a lens'. I worked in the endoscopic lighting and stage lighting industry, the details are not well hidden: ask Osram.

I can't justify cooking chocolate bars in my shirt pocket (ala that Raytheon employee who discovered that microwaves can be used to cook) as I walk from room to room, in order to justify such intense illumination in each room.

Well, maybe I could, if there was a central illuminator of say 10000 lumens, and we can pipe (using fiber or light pipe) a portion of that illumination into our individual rooms. But that adds yet more expense to an already expensive situation.

These lights need RF generator/feedback devices and Ferrite pucks, CFLs still need microballasts, but LEDs could be the least risky illuminator paradigm.

I vote for totally safe, not conditionally safe illumination. CFLs have mercury to think of, and right there in my lamp socket, too. These RF devices just reek of conditional issues. Could you hand me that LED?

Re: On Call Street Lights: Light By Phone Saves Energy and City Budgets

spuffler — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:02:42 -0000

@ Clem Guttata: sell advertising space on the phone call? No, thanks. I do not wish to be a captive audience to yet another advertiser.

Re: Something is going on….

spuffler — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:18:06 -0000

NEVER had a version of Ubuntu that worked properly on my 6 bit Celeron system.
Ubuntu has never done well by me. PCLinuxOS works flawlessly on it.

FWIW, the wireless dropout problem can be fixed, but YOU need to research how. Mine works fine.

Re: Something is going on….

spuffler — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:20:03 -0000

64 bit celeron (hello? site admin? could you please enable us editing our posts?)

Re: Top 10 Apps that Boosts Ubuntu’s User Experience

spuffler — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:17:31 -0000

"Songbird is an attractive and adaptable music app for Ubuntu" No, Songbird is a multiOS application, not just Ubuntu, not just Linux.

In fact, nearly everything here will also be available for other versions of Linux, not JUST for Ubuntu.

FWIW, UNetBootin never wrote to my Sandisk Cruzer USB flashdrive; UNetBootin failed as a Windows app, failed in Linux under 2 distributions, no feedback from development team.

Anyways, thanks for the screenshots, some of these apps need a visual.