On 7/29/13 6:55 PM, in article
Post by mach2Post by SnitPost by mach2Thank you Snit & Flatfish. Your comments are appreciated.
I am sincere in my wish that you stick around for a while. I am sure we will
run into places where we disagree, but you have not been "tainted" by the
ongoing fights and debates and other nonsense and seem to have a fairly
balanced view and a wide range of knowledge.
I'm pretty easy going as long as someone is outright calling me names
for no reason.
I suspect you meant "as long as someone is *not*"... :)
Even then I do not *generally* sink to the name calling I get. Notice how
the COLA "advocates" and Bilk often call me names - but they do not show
actual examples. Ask them to try. They will either dodge or will make claims
they cannot back. They are a fearful and narrow-minded group.
Post by mach2We all have our own beliefs based on our own life experiences. And people do
change their spots from time to time. At least I do. If you'd have talked to
me in 1996 I would have told you Microsoft was nothing but a big virus waiting
to happen. A year later I was getting an MCSE. LOL. I was a huge fan of
NetWare for many years. Then pretty much dropped it all of the sudden. I swore
ethernet sucked so much ass and Token Ring was king. What am I token on? :-)
I have changed my mind on things as well. It is a sign of learning. I also
am accused of being an "iCultist" by RonB and the like because I use a Mac
and *generally* think Apple offers a decent solution. On the other hand, I
also talk about how OS X (and the programs running on it) all too often lack
"advanced" features and give examples (such as with numbering on Pages -
supports it fine when you import from MS Office but no UI to set it up...
why not? And why can't I name "Spaces"... I could on older versions!). I
also find Apple mice to be horrible... hate the things. I use a third part
mouse and even with that it does not have an OS X driver so I use a driver
from yet another company. I think Steve Jobs was a complete *ss in his
treatment of Woz as he lied to him in stories from the early years of Apple
and think his reported comments about Android were over-stated (Samsung has
been copying Apple too much... Android, maybe in some areas - maybe not, but
nothing like Jobs is reported to have said).
I also speak of how Linux is a great solution for web servers (it is all I
use and every one of my clients uses it instead of Windows, many based on my
suggestion) and it is great in embedded devices, phones, etc. I also speak
of where I think Windows offers the best solution (many business
applications, quilting software, games, etc.). Even on the desktop there are
places where I think Linux is the best choice (where cost is a big factor
and you have hardware already, where you need mostly a web kiosk, where you
largely use the command line, where you have a limited number of mostly
custom apps, etc.). And even where people disagree with me I say use what
works best for you.
Yet I am deemed horribly anti-Linux and a "liar", even though they cannot
actually quote any lies. It is rather amazing.
Post by mach2I often describe myself by saying I am caught in a loop. The one constant I
have is that I like and dislike everything. I can easily play both sides
because I use them all and I see their strengths and weaknesses in given
situations. I like iPhone because of its elegance and polish. And I don't like
the iPhone because of its lack of a file system, which creates complexity when
trying to work around that deficiency. Don't be upset. I do it for Android and
Microsoft too.
This is what I call "informed computing": you look to learn at least the
basics of the major solutions and know the pros and cons. I am sure there
are places we disagree but overall I think you are right with what you say.
I do not know Android as well as I do iOS, but from what I have seen I
prefer iOS. Still, iOS lacks the ability for me to set a default email
client (etc.). This is a pain... esp. when I think the Apple email client on
OS X sucks pretty bad (it does not allow you to "delete all" - how stupid is
that!). Yeah, I know, I am an iCultist all the way! :)
Post by mach2I like Android for its complete customization. I can swap the rom, sub in my
own keyboard, SMS, phone dialer, launcher and on and on. What's not to like?
Lack of polish, the store is better now but wasn't always. Many of the apps
look and feel unpolished and lacking some how.
I agree with the lack of polish... and also find it to be slower and
jerkier, even comparing newer phones to my older iPod Touch. But, yes, being
able to customize it more is a good thing. And I think Apple's security
features with app installation on OS X is a good thing... their model on iOS
takes it too far and is as much about them getting a cut from every app as
it is about making things secure.
Post by mach2Microsoft.
The registry... Please... Whomever thought that needs to be quartered
and fed to the dogs.
Absolutely agree. On both OS X and Windows sometimes settings go "wonky". On
OS X you go to the Preferences folder, sort by date, find the relevant ones
near the top (or just do a search), and toss them out. Relaunch the app and
all is good (though, of course your preferences have to be reset). On
Windows... an utter mess.
Post by mach2One minute your network works, the next minute it thinks you're on an unknown
network so it cut you off and gave you limited access. You have to go back and
tell it this is a trusted network. I've not had any issues with viruses or
malware so that to me a non-issue.
I have not myself but I see customers with it often. Had a guy the other day
who had a warning from "the FBI" that he was downloading child porn and had
to pay a fine to make it go away. Of course he was not, and had he been the
FBI would not handle it that way! I was able to clean it off for him, but he
was quite scared... he does download things from torrent sites and thought
maybe he had gotten something that had child porn in it. Windows and Android
are the only OSs with any significant risk of malware.
Post by mach2In general I find it flexible but difficult to fix should something go wrong.
It's one of those OSes that is great as long as everything is okay. If
something is not okay and can be more trouble trying to fix it than it is
worth. Likely easier to re-install. And that bothers me because if you have a
lot of activation software as I do, then you have to remember to deactivate
and reactivate.
Yes... and if you re-install the OS you have to re-install most apps. Had
someone with a Mac a couple weeks ago who had things getting really bizarre.
Tried a few things and decided to just re-install the OS. Did so from the
repair partition... and not a thing was lost. If they had some low-level
drivers those would need to be re-installed, but for most people this is a
non-issue.
Post by mach2Some apps, like QuarkXPress make this difficult. Adobe makes it somewhat
easy.
On OS X, Adobe is one of the few companies that spews files all over the
place like is the norm on Windows.
Oh, and what is it with Windows installers wanting to put toolbars and other
junk on your computer. NO! Arg. It is annoying.
Post by mach2And Microsoft, until recently made it non existent. I have found myself on the
phone calling them to explain my machine had a problem and essentially asking
them to allow me to activate again software that I legally licensed from them.
And I dislike that, which brings me to Linux.
Yes: having to call and ask for permission to use the software you already
paid for is a bit insane... though sometimes unavoidable. But, yes, with
open source you do not have to worry about that.
Post by mach2I could go on all day about why I love Linux. I love the open model. I love
that it is dependable. And I mean that more than just that the install on your
machine works day after day. Only Linux lets me install on virtually anything
with no cost for the software and minimal cost for the hardware.
Yes: cost is a big reason to like Linux.
Post by mach2It's pretty damn cool that you can pick up a bunch of parts at your local chop
shop computer hardware store and have Linux up and running with browser,
office suite, FTP, IRC, GIMP, Inkscape, Shotwell, TrueCrypt, KeePass,
Thunderbird, Banshee and more all for free. You can make a pretty high value
machine for next to nothing.
Yes. These are generally hobby machines, but they are another niche where
desktop Linux makes sense.
Post by mach2I'm learning BASH script right now. And the Mac has these .DS_Store files it
sticks everywhere. On the G5 I have, I need to make DDP images for
manufacturing, but I need to get rid of those .DS_Store files peppered all
over the place. Once of the nice things about the Mac is that is BSD based
with a BASH shell. So...
#!/bin/bash
echo "Enter Folder Name under which you want to remove files:";
read fname
echo "Enter the pattern to remove (.DS_Store)";
read name1
echo "Total Count of files found on the pattern" $name1;
find $fname -type f -name "$name1" | xargs wc -l
find $fname -type f -name "$name1" -exec rm {} \;
Now I drop this little script on my Mac and no matter where they are I
can quickly and easily eradicate them.
You can also run this command:
sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \;
Also have seen:
sudo find . -name '*.DS_Store' -type f -delete
Either should work... as will all sorts of other options you can find here:
<http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20031121213814221>. Can even
use Automator or whatever to make it a system service and run it with a
couple clicks. The same link also points to some programs that do it
automatically, such as "Chop": <http://zenonez.com/chop/>.
I do not have that, but one thing I have seen with Mountain Lion is it
doubles things in the launch services sometimes. No idea why. I used
Automator to create a System Service and run it... takes a few seconds and
all is well... no more duplicates in the "Open With..." dialog.
Post by mach2http://youtu.be/7XTHdcmjenI
Thank you... excellent video I had not seen before. His stock chart, though,
is very selectively done. Especially like how he brings out how Apple uses a
lot of open source components. It show how absurd the claims from some in
COLA are when they say I am an "iCultist" but hate open source. Huh? Makes
no sense.
Another good point comes in the comments about how viciously defending ideas
and disagreement is *good*. I would love to see COLA grow in this direction
- instead too many run away from ideas the do not like and refuse to even
try to defend their ideas. Do not know how much you have been following the
discussions about comparing Linux to the competition, but it started with
Bilk and I. He claimed Linux offered a better experience... I offered a fair
and reasonable way to compare. And Bilk freaked out, refused to do so, and
just resorted to name calling, insults, accusations, and worse. Just a
shame.
I often speak of Linus Torvalds, Jim Zemlin, and Mark Shuttleworth as
reasonable people in the open source world. Wish the COLA "advocates" where
more like that.
Then there is Stallman... love the GPL and some of his other work, but the
guy supports some truly repulsive things. To even mention that though is
heresy in COLA. Amazing how fearful the "advocates" are of even thinking of
his poor behavior and comments.
Post by mach2There is much to like out there. An amazing opportunity for those that
want to grab it.
--
"Maybe it wouldn't be quite as good, but we would all be okay."
- Richard Stallman, speaking about if his ideas were followed
