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Warren Baird
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10 months ago
in Want to Help Socialize OpenWorld? on Oracle AppsLab
> Now, if only I could get a hotel room in the city and skip the 30 minute drive
> up from the airport hotel where I’m currently installed. Ideas?
check back at the OOW housing page *often*. a co-worker clued me in to a better hotel yesterday, and I managed to get moved from near the airport to hotel just a couple of km from Moscone... But it was the *only* open room at the hotel...
I was contemplating writing a screen-scraper that'd check for better rooms every five minutes and notify me if it found anything - but (as is so often the case) the old-fashioned approach won first.
> up from the airport hotel where I’m currently installed. Ideas?
check back at the OOW housing page *often*. a co-worker clued me in to a better hotel yesterday, and I managed to get moved from near the airport to hotel just a couple of km from Moscone... But it was the *only* open room at the hotel...
I was contemplating writing a screen-scraper that'd check for better rooms every five minutes and notify me if it found anything - but (as is so often the case) the old-fashioned approach won first.
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11 months ago
in Measuring the Cost of a Computer on Oracle AppsLab
Yeah, I agree with the comments about hardware not necessarily being a commodity.
When I bought my macbook pro - I would have been fairly open to buying a non-apple laptop and running linux on it. However, my criteria included:
<ul>
<li> 15" display, with graphics card powerful enough to drive a 30" 2560x1600 monitor
<li> no more than about 6 lbs weight
<ul>
That was enough to narrow it down to the mbp (which has about 3 hours battery life), or an alienware laptop that reportedly got about 45 minutes of battery life.
Now, maybe my requirements aren't that common, and this was 8 months ago, so the landscape may have changed, but I went through a very similar process when I bought a 12" ibook about 4 years ago.
Certainly every laptop I've bought, the decision has been primarily made on hardware considerations rather than OS.
When I bought my macbook pro - I would have been fairly open to buying a non-apple laptop and running linux on it. However, my criteria included:
<ul>
<li> 15" display, with graphics card powerful enough to drive a 30" 2560x1600 monitor
<li> no more than about 6 lbs weight
<ul>
That was enough to narrow it down to the mbp (which has about 3 hours battery life), or an alienware laptop that reportedly got about 45 minutes of battery life.
Now, maybe my requirements aren't that common, and this was 8 months ago, so the landscape may have changed, but I went through a very similar process when I bought a 12" ibook about 4 years ago.
Certainly every laptop I've bought, the decision has been primarily made on hardware considerations rather than OS.
1 reply
Jake
The common thread here is h/w requirements driven by experienced users, and as in assaf's case, a fair comparison of h/w tells a different story when comparing Win and Mac.
I also agree w/his assertion that the "research" was thrown out to troll for commentary.
I also agree w/his assertion that the "research" was thrown out to troll for commentary.
11 months ago
in OS X, Ubuntu and Other Fun Stuff on Oracle AppsLab
The problem with PC's is that the "same hardware" isn't. My laptop is a dell d410, and when I was offered it through work, I checked the linux hardware compatibility pages, and it was listed as having a fully supported wireless chipset (Don't remember if it was intel or atheros).
When I got mine however, it had a broadcom chipset, so I had months of futzing with it before I could get wireless working reliably. Fortunately Broadcom support has improved a lot since then.
The problem is that unless you roll your own hardware, you generally have no idea what mobo, chipset, video, etc you are going to get if you go with a big name box...
IMO that's one of the advantages of Apple - they don't just shove whatever's cheapest that week in the box, you get very consistent hardware from machine to machine...
When I got mine however, it had a broadcom chipset, so I had months of futzing with it before I could get wireless working reliably. Fortunately Broadcom support has improved a lot since then.
The problem is that unless you roll your own hardware, you generally have no idea what mobo, chipset, video, etc you are going to get if you go with a big name box...
IMO that's one of the advantages of Apple - they don't just shove whatever's cheapest that week in the box, you get very consistent hardware from machine to machine...
1 reply
Jake
Very true, and with Apple, you don't have to inspect the BIOS to get the real story about what's under the hood.
11 months ago
in OS X, Ubuntu and Other Fun Stuff on Oracle AppsLab
well - if you find a solution to the multiple monitor thing - definitely let me know. I've heard that the Xorg people are making strides in that direction - but I don't think they've solved the problem yet...
1 reply
Jake
Will do and vice versa. Another plus for Linux, frequent updates to the core features and more major releases. So, problems tend to resolve more quickly than with packaged for profit O/S.
11 months ago
in OS X, Ubuntu and Other Fun Stuff on Oracle AppsLab
I think my experience has somewhat mirrored Rich's --- I've used linux since the bad-old-days of kernel 0.9.x on a 386, and I must admit that when I moved to a macbook pro for my personal machine - I didn't miss *at all* the mucking around with config files, and recompiling kernel modules I had to do on linux.
That being said, it is true that Ubuntu is getting closer and closer to the point where you don't need to mess about too much. but it still has a long way to go.
Just one small example - external monitors. I can plug my mbp into an external monitor, and after a moment my desktop automatically grows to include the new monitor, and I can continue working. it almost always guesses the right resolution, and it's easy to tell it the orientation, and it remembers the orientation and resolution if I connect to a similar monitor later.
With Linux (Ubuntu 7.10 at least), the only approach I've found that works is to edit the Xorg.conf file to have configurations and layouts for all my monitors - and then I have to kill my X session and start a new X session manually with the correct layout. Not my idea of 'usable'.
That being said, it is true that Ubuntu is getting closer and closer to the point where you don't need to mess about too much. but it still has a long way to go.
Just one small example - external monitors. I can plug my mbp into an external monitor, and after a moment my desktop automatically grows to include the new monitor, and I can continue working. it almost always guesses the right resolution, and it's easy to tell it the orientation, and it remembers the orientation and resolution if I connect to a similar monitor later.
With Linux (Ubuntu 7.10 at least), the only approach I've found that works is to edit the Xorg.conf file to have configurations and layouts for all my monitors - and then I have to kill my X session and start a new X session manually with the correct layout. Not my idea of 'usable'.
1 reply
Jake
Exactly my top problem now. I had XP working on a dual monitor setup, but Ubuntu has no idea how to make that work. I had to start fresh with a new xorg.conf b/c it got so borked.
Even now, it's a bit cranky about changing resolutions.
OS X, no problems at all with the laptop screen plus a monitor, even better than XP, which always reset itself when I rebooted, probably a DVI/VGA thing.
So, some things are very frustrating, while others just work. I hadn't used Linux since Red Hat in 99 so this was a huge improvement for me. I love Ubuntu.
Even now, it's a bit cranky about changing resolutions.
OS X, no problems at all with the laptop screen plus a monitor, even better than XP, which always reset itself when I rebooted, probably a DVI/VGA thing.
So, some things are very frustrating, while others just work. I hadn't used Linux since Red Hat in 99 so this was a huge improvement for me. I love Ubuntu.
11 months ago
in OS X, Ubuntu and Other Fun Stuff on Oracle AppsLab
actually - vpnc can connect to Cisco VPN. Out of the box it won't work with Oracle's VPN, since the support for certificates is turned off, but I understand that if you build from source and turn on certificate support it works fine with Oracle's VPN. I plan on trying it sometime soon - I'll let you know if it works.
1 reply
manalang
I'd love to see if you can get this to work. I spent many hours trying to get this to work by installing from source and applying Oracle's certs to no avail. I think it had something to do with a failed hybrid implementation... please post a comment if you get it to work.
1 year ago
in Play Name the Platform on Oracle AppsLab
Out of curiosity - why not stick with either mix or connect? Both are great names for the concept.
I think it's quite defensible and not confusing to call the platform 'Mix', and to describe 'Connect' as an internal deployment of Mix. Or vice-versa. :-)
I think it's quite defensible and not confusing to call the platform 'Mix', and to describe 'Connect' as an internal deployment of Mix. Or vice-versa. :-)
1 reply
Jake
Maybe, but I think each instance has been around enough to have its own karma, which creates confusion. I agree, both are good and descriptive. If I had it to do over, I would pick one or the other as the platform name.
What would I call Mix then, if the platform were named Mix? I think it's better to go another route.
What would I call Mix then, if the platform were named Mix? I think it's better to go another route.
Maybe socializing OpenWorld should focus on getting me a better hotel room.