* Posts by asdf

6570 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Apr 2007

Wasn't it all supposed to be so different by now, Meg?

asdf
Mushroom

one positive

Not a big fan of Meg myself but you do have to admit the complete ass hatry of the fairly recent past with a new CEO every 9 months and the board facing criminal charges has quieted down a bit the last couple of years (though they are still flinging shit trying to cover not doing their jobs back then). She may not save HP but she at least as reduced the dumpster fire to a smoldering heap.

We have a winner! Fresh Linux Mint 17.1 – hands down the best

asdf

Re: Herd of cats.

>Not likely to happen, unless systemd clearly beats all other init systems by its merits

Hardly. It just needed to get enough other software dependent on it especially in gtk land so that most major distros switch to it (mission accomplished already). Amazing how easily a billion dollar company can get their cancer infecting other packages. I will say unfortunately a lot of people who didn't know better (you mean there are *nix besides Linux?) or just were lazy and didn't care about portability took the easy way out so this is not all RH's fault.

>There is no way the herd of cats that is the "Linux community" is going to be forced into any single solution

Yes there will be some holdouts (fewer though than I expected at this stage of the game) but eventually they will find themselves in the same boat as the BSD (and other UNIX) folks where a lot of software won't be portable without systemd. It will happen slower but it will happen.

asdf

Re: asdf mousepads...

>little bit more FUD from the BSD switcher, perhaps unintentional, but the functionality is there in Linux.

No if you read I said that there was warnings about it but it ran rock solid on both Linux and Mac OS for me. FUD about systemd and the freedesktop.borg perhaps but if you want a tightly coupled hairball OS then use Windows. Enjoy the homogeneity coming to your favorite Linux distro.

asdf
Unhappy

Re: asdf mousepads...

>The Linux it runs on

will someday have systemd forced upon it. FIFY. Sadly meanwhile it will just become impossible to port a lot of the Linux stuff to more sane operating systems. RedHat's plan all along.

asdf

Re: asdf mousepads...

ZFS was really useful for me because its one of the better portable file systems between Mac OS, Linux, BSD, and other UNIX (plus it came with PC-BSD by default which is why I got into it in the first place). Granted many platforms don't support it out of the box but its still viable from what I see on all of them once installed.

asdf

Re: asdf mousepads...

Yes yes fine BTRFS is great (sure took long enough to be production ready though). I was more comparing to standard ext4 with the pain in the ass that is LVM. Also really wasn't talking enterprise and wasn't talking Linux only as well. Not quite geek enough to run raid at home.

asdf

Re: mousepads...

Yes NTFS has compression too but its impact on performance is much more noticeable. In addition ZFS will compress things behind the scenes not put up a progress bar for some operation that will take 27 hours and slow the crap out of your machine until done.

asdf

Re: mousepads...

>The main reason for me not to use ZFS is that it is perfect until something goes wrong. The complexity seems above my understanding.

Complex? Its rather easy for home use for non windows users. If you are responsible for production storage in enterprise and are complaining of complexity of ZFS then I am glad I am not on call for your company.

Ok perhaps if you are in a pure windows environment then ZFS doesn't make sense. In any Unix environment backing up ZFS is like backing up any other filesystem (ie dump, tar, dd etc) which saves your bacon from fugups like the one you mention. Addtionally ZFS has snapshots which are NOT a replacement for backups but are great from recovering from fugups (think restore points in windows but for the whole FS). Additionally ZFS supports any kind of raid scenario you can think of and protects your data from minor hardware failures far better than any other FS. Not to mention having transparent compression that is actually transparent (not a protection but a really nice to have feature). FYI bringing up NTFS in a Linux article as the preferred option is going to get you skewered.

asdf

Re: Mint 17 here

>Cinnamon is much more configurable, and strangely even more stable from my experience.

What's strange about it? Clem (and team) is a better dev than most of the gnome yahoos (takes their best stuff) and he actually listens to his users.

asdf

Re: XFCE

XFCE with whisker menu does rock. It is also one of the most portable of the modern full DE experiences between different distos and even other UNIX (ie what you see here is what you can have there).

asdf
Megaphone

Re: mousepads...

Shouty time. I love Mint (ran LMDE which morphed into debian testing forever) but finally I couldn't take the systemd debacle any longer (which will eventually overwhelm all of Linux, FU Red Hat you asshats) and made the switch to PC-BSD 10.1 (seems to be the most desktopy BSD imho). I must say it was a bit of work and BSD on the desktop definitely has some worts ( still relatively minor issues but expect to have to troubleshoot some issues so definitely not an option for grandma) but is much more viable now than in the past. Also a little bit of a performance hit and trust me for your own sanity forget trying to run anything WM/DE gnome 3 based (cinnamon, etc) as its just not worth the trouble glitch wise (gnome is the co conspirator in the great Linux rape after all). As an aside XFCE (yes I know gtk2 based but back then gnome was still sane) rocks when it comes to a portable UNIX DE (there are many others too) and KDE also comes by default (won't comment). Needless to say so far so good on meeting my desktop needs and its so nice to have a more pure Unix experience largely guaranteed free of being poettering up if you so choose (still comes with yucky pulseaudio by default but can be removed).

The other thing I will say right now is if you use ZFS for even a single weekend you will soon find it is the only filesystem you will ever use again. Its so much more than a filesystem. It makes the whole concept of partitions and the pain they bring largely disappear. It also requires only learning two commands which are some of the most intuitive I have ever seen for a filesystem. ZFS support in Linux and even Mac OS looks sketchy but is actually rock solid from what I have seen. Easy to say ZFS has too much overhead for my needs but if you use it you will kick yourself for not using it sooner.

What a Mesa: Apple vows to re-use titsup GT sapphire glass plant

asdf

Arizona being a rabidly red state full of old people already has a fairly business friendly climate so the tax breaks Apple got aren't that out of the ordinary for the area. The low tax base is also why our schools rank near the very bottom in the US. Great for luring call center jobs (or manufacturing if we are lucky) but the next silicon valley here. Don't think so. That actually takes good colleges (as opposed to ASU where dumb rich kids come to party).

asdf

>Think I could move to Mesa and score a deal like that? Never mind, it's in the middle of the desert and I imagine the sushi isn't the freshest.

#1 - Mesa sucks but not for the reasons you mention. At least west Mesa is relatively dirty, has fairly high crime compared to the rest of the East Valley (and an especially high concentration of sex offenders). East Mesa is nicer but it is sleepy as hell suburbs full of Mormons (so not exactly a paradise for pub crawling).

#2 - Middle of desert on google maps perhaps but middle of urban area of 5 million people.

#3 - You can actually get pretty good sushi here (yes I know you were making a joke). Granted its not bay area quality but you are better off getting sushi here than you would be in Iowa or even in most rural areas even a few hours from the coast.

asdf

Re: Apple already owned the plant!

>The plant was ALWAYS Apple's to do with what they want.

Yep and the beauty is they still were able to find management in another company dumb enough to take on a lot of the initial risk with little change of reward. Sounds great on paper as long as their other suppliers don't grow some brains.

asdf

Re: sensationalize much?

Exactly as any local can tell you that city is huge (stretches from 101 to nearly Apache Junction) and is largely suburbs anyway. Glendale on the other hand if had to guess future looks a lot more shaky due to bad leadership.

Attack reveals 81 percent of Tor users but admins call for calm

asdf

tor is great

As long as your internet usage ranks up there with Grandma's. tor rules. Its nice its an option but its latency and bandwidth constraint alone makes sure it will never be very mainstream. First time Joe Q Public tries Netflix through it they will be calling their ISP bitching which is too bad because more users would probably make this attack harder.

asdf

Re: The scum leading the dumb

Yep you can use tor all you want but if you post your real name associated with some illegal website then yeah the coppers will probably give you a visit.

Simon's says quantum computing will work

asdf

Re: Why bother?

>will computers really amount to anything? Either it's going to be too late, or else it's going to be too expensive for anything actually useful, except by Big Government and Big Corporation. Really, does anyone expect a computer priced like a typewriter?

Is this what your father/grandfather said in the 1940s?

Far Cry 4 review: It's a far cry from Far Cry 3

asdf

Re: Elephant

But the elephant in the room is what an epic fail the release of AC Unity was. Ubisoft already has two strikes against them in my book so even though I enjoyed FC2 won't be buying any of their games in the first month of release anytime soon.

GT sapphire glaziers: You signed WHAT deal with Apple?

asdf

Re: Aren't Apple just a bit stupid too?

>Aren't Apple just a bit stupid too?

Somewhat but unlike GT they had a backup plan. The iPhone 6 might not have sapphire all over but considering how hard it was to get one through Verizon they'll be alright.

asdf

Re: I can see how this happened...

>The sexiness of having Apple (or some other A-list brand) as a major customer is extremely seductive to many 'executives

Especially with their golden parachutes and bonuses mostly based on the next quarters performance only. When these deals go down its seldom upper management left holding the bag even if they caused it. I heard GT was actively hiring people almost right up until the bankruptcy filing, with it often being those leaving positions with other manufacturers in the area.

asdf
Megaphone

Re: Apple's dealings with suppliers

Sadly an awful lot of big companies openly prey on the small fry because business as much as anything else is rigged against the little guy (not least of which is look who has the money to lobby). I have seen plenty of small shops that end up actually losing money on a big contract to a big player but rely so much on saying brand X is one of customers for other business they suck it up and soldier on. You learn quickly in industry when to watch for this and avoid working on that project at all costs. I have also seen plenty of cases where several small fry compete for the big boy and give the big boy all kinds of goodies up front for free and under cut each other to shit just to stick it to other small fry. Its just a shame the small fry end up employing most workers. Oh well half a career of busting butt (seeing both the mom and pop and mega corp side) at least has gotten me to that perfect medium of a decent mid-sized corporation that is big enough to not be beholden to any one customer for more than low single digit sales but has flat enough hierarchy so I am not just another nameless number. Probably until I hear in the news we have been bought (before I have enough of their stock in the bank). Sigh here's to working the day you die.

Walmart's $99 crap-let will make people hate Windows 8.1 even more

asdf

Re: Hmm, it's small

Yep something like slitaz would fly even on this underpowered dog but for how long is the question. I was not impressed with the build quality on most netbooks forget this thing.

asdf
Trollface

Re: When crap hardware meets crap software

True 99% of the time but then again you always have systemd.

Assassin's Creed bugs shift setting to LSD-drenched 1960s Paris

asdf

Re: No way!

Its a good thing nobody ever plays a console without hooking it up to the internet huh?

asdf

DRM karma

In the words of Ridley Scott, Ubisoft is more EA than EA.

Could YOU identify these 10 cool vintage mobile phones?

asdf
Trollface

Re: Vintage?

Guess you had to be there. Or as the kids would say cool story bro.

Judge: Terror bomb victims CAN'T seize Iran's domain name as compensation

asdf

Re: Simpler argument?

Wasn't it the ITU or its predecessor that mandated 48+5 for the ATM cell size for lame political reasons. You know just about the worse size possible for a tcp ack packet (with ppp) which is the majority of packets on the internet (number wise). Design by committee with an extra heaping of politics. Win, win.

asdf

Re: Simpler argument?

Don't get me wrong the internet registry in the hands of any one country/corporation is a bad idea but when has the UN ever did anything but spread Cholera?

asdf

Re: @ Christoph

> Perhaps that lesson is still tickling 'em late at night while they sleep.

Bah most history challenged Americans didn't even remember the lesson of Vietnam when we invaded Iraq so forget worrying about something 2 centuries ago, back when the UK was still a relevant world power.

Facebook's plain English data policy: WE'LL SELL YOU LIKE A PIG at a fair

asdf

Umm

Who the hell still uses Facebook and doesn't understand their modus operandi by now?

Why did men evolve map-reading skills? They were PAID BY BONK - study

asdf

Re: Some men have never left their local housing estate

Funny my first thought on reading that post where not of poshness but of the white trash dude and his son sleeping around the local area at the beginning of the movie Idiocracy.

Microsoft .NET released from its Windows chains... but what ABOUT MONO?

asdf

Re: Licence

> GPL3 and other licenses that attempt to restrict developer flexibility and creativity.

You mean like Microsoft and friends software patents?

asdf

Re: The last throw of the dice?

Javascript lol exactly. Graphic design software development what's the difference?

asdf

Re: Reap what you sow

Lol now I am in full rant mode best description of systemd ever below. The Svchost of Linux. So much for a program doing one thing and doing it well. You know pretty much the philosophy that built Unix and has kept it relevant for four decades.

"systemd is becoming the Svchost of Linux—which I don't think most Linux folks want. You see, systemd is growing, like wildfire, well outside the bounds of enhancing the Linux boot experience. systemd wants to control most, if not all, of the fundamental functional aspects of a Linux system—from authentication to mounting shares to network configuration to syslog to cron. It wants to do so as essentially a monolithic entity that obscures what's happening behind the scenes."

asdf

Re: Reap what you sow

Not really defending Microsoft as i tend to agree with you at this point they are irrelevant outside the enterprise as far as I am personally concerned. I am more disgusted with the direction Linux is heading which is why I have become an OpenBSD (once I wipe my last Debian testing box) man at home. Sadly I see systemd not only ruining Linux but many other open source projects as well before all is said and done which does affect more than just Linux the pretend Unix.

asdf

Re: Reap what you sow

Systemd is a cancer, a Linux only hairball creeping more and more as a required dependency into other open source projects. RedHat doesn't make their bones supporting other UNIX/BSDs so they are fine with that. Linux is becoming a pig that walks like a man ala Animal Farm. A tightly coupled hairball like Windows except even Windows seems to value portability and interoperability more these days as shown by this article. I guess the three Es can be done to open source code as well if you get enough distros/developers to go along with you.

Microsoft: It's TIME at LAST. Yes - .NET is going OPEN and X-PLATFORM

asdf

Re: Clearly MS read Elop's memo...

Note also I am being generous and considering closet windows email, print, and file servers as being in production.