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Firefox XP Tweak
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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Nickelplate on Thu Sep 15th at 5:24am 2005

Yeah, there was a guy with the Linux penguin as a tattoo.

What the world needs now... is more computer literacy taught in such a way that kids wont want to make viruses all the time..

that owuld get eh ball rolling on the way to better PC environments




I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Crono on Thu Sep 15th at 5:30am 2005

Actually, a lot of viruses (not incredibly bad ones) get made on accident. And if you're in the field ... there are classes to take that teach you how to write a virus. To be honest, having that knowledge would just mean you have more commandment of the programming constructs and the hardware you work on. Whether or not you actually do terrible things with it is another topic.

However, honestly, I don't think most viruses are written by people who would have ever used their talents for productive things. You really have to be a dick or have some weird ass fetish to really want to make viruses (I mention fetishes, since a lot of viruses are used to break servers and change things, like web pages)

There's a good chance, those people aren't thinking like they should.

With the Linux penguin ... a tattoo? That's overboard. However, I do like the keyboards that replaced the windows/apple key with a penguin key.

I wonder if anyone else here actually gives two s**ts about what we're talking about. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_lol.gif">


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Nickelplate on Thu Sep 15th at 5:47am 2005

? quoting Crono

I wonder if anyone else here actually gives two s**ts about what we're talking about.

I really don't think they do. This is mostly like a really slow IM session for us more or less.

You obviously know your Linux stuff better than I know mine, or else you know your Wikipedia. Lol. TBH, I don't think I'll ever use Linux Except for Knoppix. Simply because I'm happy where I'm at with Windows XP with the idiot-proof stuff turned off, and being careful what sites i go to. I can do anything i've ever wanted to do in windows, because I've worked with it so long.

If anything ever happens, I have backups and stuff. I have been thinking lately, and even though I LOVE my computer and i spend a lot of time on it, it's still not worth stressing out about most times. Life's too short to worry about so much trivial stuff like SPAM, you know?




I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by wil5on on Thu Sep 15th at 8:21am 2005

I run WinXP, because I play games. If I were to run Linux, it would be more of a fun project with a spare computer than for day-to-day use. If I have an assignment due tomorrow, I dont want to have to recompile my kernel because I've been fiddling with it too much (and I know I would...)


&quot;If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?&quot;
- My yr11 Economics teacher



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Crono on Thu Sep 15th at 9:20am 2005

That or you'd keep backups like a good programmer. image

A slow instant message ... that's an oxymoron if I ever saw one.

The reason I have Unix-ish stuff is really for ease of development.

But yeah, the only reason I have Windows at all are games.The thing is now though, not only do games require Direct X they were also developed in a .NET environment, so they need that framework too! image

I suppose I could always switch a machine to Lindows or something, so I could keep compatibility and still have a shell that isn't across the Internet.

As for word processing .. I use Open Office anyway and that comes with most Linux suites (Star Office is the older version).

The IDE I use (if any) is eclipse ... which was a Unix first type deal ... no problem there.

Yeah, just games. I could emulate things like Photoshop, or little programs here and there, but I'm sure .NET requirement would be the kicker.


On a complete side note, though, I HATE how some hardware manufacturer's are "Windows Only". It pisses me off so much. They don't give many clues on how to write a new driver for their product (You'd have to disassemble the current, Windows, driver) and it's just really annoying. This is so common with Wireless cards, it's not even funny.

The only "no work done by me" ways I've found require wrappers (which makes sense) but the wrapper programs cost money. It's kind of like, "Do you know who your market is?"


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Nickelplate on Fri Sep 16th at 2:52am 2005

in conclusion: I want everyone to download my firefox windows tweak, so that they will all be happy.


I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by mazemaster on Fri Sep 16th at 11:19am 2005

? quote:

On a complete side note, though, I HATE how some hardware manufacturer's are "Windows Only". It pisses me off so much. They don't give many clues on how to write a new driver for their product (You'd have to disassemble the current, Windows, driver) and it's just really annoying. This is so common with Wireless cards, it's not even funny.

The only "no work done by me" ways I've found require wrappers (which makes sense) but the wrapper programs cost money. It's kind of like, "Do you know who your market is?"


So true... When I first installed Ubuntu (supposedly a "just-works" distro), it took forever to get everything working. First my USB phoneline network card has windows only drivers, so I have to check around for fixes. Can't connect via ethernet as the room is not wired up for it. Sooo... I search around the web for a few hours from another computer trying to figure it out. Finally I get ndiswrapper which I set up.

Oh, wait now I have to recompile the kernel (!?!) Got to go figure out how to do that. Ok, so I recompiled the kernel, got ndiswrapper using the windows drivers, set it up to load on boot. I restart, and guess what? It doesn't work. Apparently ndiswrapper doesn't work correctly for my specific card. Doh.

Alright so then I want to play my .mp3's or divx movies. Just load up the default media player, right? Nope, Ubuntu decided not to support those closed formats, so I have to go stfw and get all the necessary stuff.

Now I want to play games. Oh wait, they are windows only. Got to go get poor quality emulators, or pay for something like WINE.

To top it off, Gnome has this annoying mouse acceleration, but the thing is that you can't turn it off without making the sensitivity ridiculously low. For me thats practically a showstopper for me right there (like the lack of alt-click context menus in mac software). Sure I have the source so I could probably mess around and change the mouse acceleration/sensitivity issue, but that would take a ridiculous amount of work.

My point is that I had a ton of difficulty getting basic functionality out of a supposedly "easy" Linux distro despite the fact that I am rather computer savvy, have experience with Unix and have no problem dropping a terminal/command prompt.


http://maze5.net



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Underdog on Fri Sep 16th at 11:42am 2005

Annoying though it may be, its a typical marketing ploy. Windows is the top dog in shear numbers, so what exactly would entice any corporation to invest in the smaller numbers?

Case in point. I had a fairly top dollar surround sound system with its own DVD. I also had a mid-level DVD/VCR combo. I was forced to purchase a no nothing bargain DVD to play all the features I required. I will not specify which, sufice it to say the option was slightly illegal.

Moral, the cheaper brand had options no name brand has, so as to entice more people to buy it.

I ask you this, you seem to complain incessantly about windows things, why do you NOT complain that your hardware not come with the necessary drivers to mesh the two properly? Would it not more be the responsibility of the hardware people, than the windows software ones to provide functionality?

I get the impression that you guys have a hard on for the Microsoft corp. and will stop at nothing to bellyache about them.

If I misread or misjudged you, I beg your forgiveness. Perhaps I misjudged you the same as you do Microsoft.




There is no history until something happens, then there is.



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Crono on Fri Sep 16th at 8:06pm 2005

[update]I apologize for the length.[/update]

No, actually, a lot of developers would create Linux support, but the thing is ... Microsoft licenses. Saying "this product will only work out of the box for Windows [version number]".

Don't think Microsoft has no say in it, because they do. However, yes, some manufactures simply don't support it. But, you never know which reason it is, because there's nothing explicitly out there saying so.

Also, most of the gripes I have in regards to Microsoft is 100% their fault, since it's their practices. Even when I mentioned that hardware issue ... I blamed the manufacture.

Ndiswrapper is exactly what i tried using. Guess what! Once you get it up and running THEN it decides to say, "To purchase a key go here" ... what kind of underhanded s**t is that? I think it was the distro you were using. I've never had THAT much trouble. Just trouble with games and the wireless card.

The point is, the "minority" as you put it isn't as large of a minority as you might think.
Have you seen the numbers that has MS's panties in a twist? It's their "Piracy" numbers. It's in the billions, I think. But, basically ... they're misleading with the number, who ever has Internet access (since they wouldn't really know about you otherwise) and doesn't use windows ... or has an un registered version of windows is considered "a loss to piracy". That means, all the Unix/Linux and Mac users. Not to mention the slew of other machines out there.

I'd honestly say that probably 58% to 64% percent of the populous of Earth use Windows exclusively. That would be a guess though. But billions of people use something else, so, don't think it's a major minority of like 2% or something that wouldn't be worth profiting off of. There's a reason why so many Linux distributions stay alive even though they're free. If you want proof that there is enough demand, look at video card drivers. They support ALL kinds of operating systems. Even when they were making the Cg languages, incorporating DirectX was kind of a separate thing from the rest of the language. No one wants a singular operating system, the goal was to have everything working together in harmony ... but .. it is't.

The thing that really takes the cake is that, the very principles that the Microsoft corporation were founded on are exactly the same principles they ignore! The entire point of windows was to make the operating system independent of the hardware. AND the hardware independent of the operating system. And it's just coming full circle. However, it's not as bad as it was ... oh geez.
But, that's really the point, I think. At some point they decided they rather have money and put out a shoddy product. Since, Windows 95 was, at least, decent for being one of the first heavily graphical operating systems (as in, 32-bit color and all that jazz). The really big flaws started when people wanted to go online with it ... when they developed another Windows for network use ... NT. It wasn't as easy to use though, but, for the most part, it had the kind of security and protection needed to open your computer up to the online world ... You see where it's come out to now.

Anyway, I've never come out and just said, "Microsoft sucks". I always give valid and, whether anyone realizes it or not, IMPORTANT points about the company. They're probably one of the largest examples of an "evil" corporation that still exists. Even all the other "evil" corporations, in the technology world, aren't as "evil" anymore. Look at IBM for example. They used to be the big bad guys ... they had complete market control and all this other stuff ... I believe it bit them in the ass and forced them to change their ideology.

It just comes to a point where you have to ask yourself, "Do I really want to get money from raping people, or should I rather, get the same amount of money and better the industry?" Because as it stands, MS isn't really trying to better the industry, they're trying to control it. I know they've backed off in the last few years, but figuratively speaking, a change over five or so years doesn't mean much. It's the change over 20 years that matters. And, I doubt they'll change for the better.

I don't know how else to explain it.

Oh, I just thought of something else. Microsoft, until a few years ago, openly bashed opensource, period. The thing I never understood is they never talked about Unix (since it isn't open, natively) but, they went to town on Linux ... and it's like, "They're the same thing!". They tried to make a PR move to discredit a competitor. That isn't okay, in fact, business ethics says it isn't okay. Which is a large part of running a successful business. It's especially not okay, because it was unfounded. They lied.

But, something else they've done, to limit compatibilities and force people to use Windows is: On a lot of printers (mostly photo) they use specific languages to interface with the computer. Microsoft licenced ... or created, or something, a new language and paid people to use it in their printers. Well, Windows is the only OS that outputted in a compatible language. (CDC, I think it's called ... not sure though). I know some manufactures would create other drivers, more like wrappers, for Mac OS, just because, honestly, that's a larger printer market, but, there was no all around support. A 3rd party group had to develop a wrapper so printers could work with other OS'. And, you may see that as not a big deal, but it's an example of their ideology and their practices. It's the same reason they made DirectX the way they did (It could have been an easy to use suite ... but it's not, it's a fully integrated type of deal). It's the same reason they made .NET the way it is. The idea is good: make it easy to write one piece of software seamlessly between many languages ... you need a framework ... which only runs on Windows. Then you pay developers to use .NET.

Now, the only people that don't see how that isn't okay are people who really have little knowledge in the area. They see it as, "Okay, so it's good business practice, so what?" and the "so what" part is that, as a consumer, it screws you. It'd be very similar if gas companies were paid to slowly stop offering regular, or something like that. (I know that's a bad example, since that's ridiculous, but, it is a representation of what I'm talking about. The point is, in this theoretical situation, the fuel would no longer be compatible with your current car)

I like using cars as examples, because it's very easy to conceptualize how frustrating this would be. And then there'd always be the people who would say, "So what? Just buy a new car!" ... but, let's say the cars that use that special fictitious gas cost $60,000 and up. It's pretty much the same type of situation, the numbers are higher, just to amplify my point and make it clearer ... and I hope it is clearer and not more confusing. image


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Underdog on Fri Sep 16th at 9:34pm 2005

? quoting Crono
I apologize for the length.

O.K. I accept.

I do not doubt you but in all honesty, of the people I know (the numbers only extend into a few 1,000) I have met maybe 3 people who do not use windows at all, and maybe 10 who use something other, sometime.

I am hardly in the know, but I am thinking maybe 80% of the USA uses windows exclusively. Remember, 90% of the world is not computer savvy and buy right out of the box. At least 90% of my world does. As far as I know, I am one of the few whom dares to buy machines in pieces and builds my machines to suit myself. Everyone else I know buys from Wal-mart or Bestbuy.

Anyway, as I said, I am hardly in the know. I doubt if we could even poll this because most here probably own some form of a gaming PC. I doubt 10% own an out of the box PC. Has it been polled yet? Anyone know?




There is no history until something happens, then there is.



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Crono on Fri Sep 16th at 9:59pm 2005

It's really hard to count the numbers. But considering the amount of distributions sold and downloaded. It's a fair estimate. You're also not considering businesses.

And also ... have you interacted with even 10% of the people on the planet? I really doubt it image

There are roughly 6200 Million people. a good 80 to 90% of that has technology. (Just looking at statistics and making some guesses)

So, I don't think it's impossible, but I also said "exclusive". If you wanted to say "who uses windows" that's something else. I was just speaking exclusively because those are the only people I were talking about.

I don't think we should poll it. Because, you have to understand something else, you wont get many on the "Non-Windows" options simply because, this is a HL mapping site ... HL1 sort of worked with other platforms, but needed a lot of tweaking.

It's really impossible, which still makes you wonder where MS gets their numbers. They also, as you should know, force companies (or used to, don't know about anymore) to buy a copy of windows for each computer, with a company with what? 100,000 machines ... that counts as 100,000 sales, or people using Windows. That's inaccurate though because of the circumstance.

I pulled the "non-windows" percentage out of my ass. It's just a guess based on the frequency of download and popularity of the retail version of Linux and Macintosh products.


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Underdog on Fri Sep 16th at 10:53pm 2005

No I do not have access to 6.2 billion peoples computers.

I did say "In my world", specifically, the one I interact with daily. I may not be totally informed, but I do not work in a cave either. I did take business into account, and last time I looked, those I saw switched to Win2000 cause of its compatibility handling.

Still, I bow to your obvious knowledge base.




There is no history until something happens, then there is.



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Nickelplate on Fri Sep 16th at 10:55pm 2005

Hey, they still DO make you buy ONE liscence for each computer... AND it's only officially legal if you put the CDKEY sticker ON the case of the machine. We now own 400 copies of windows 2000 AND windows XP for the same damn computers!


I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Crono on Fri Sep 16th at 11:41pm 2005

Ouch. That's 800 "people" who "use Windows" <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_lol.gif">

I don't like people telling me "they bow out" ... it's a discussion, not an argument.

I think I'm losing about 4 people as friends (in my real life) because of this point. Whenever I explain something, some people just automatically think I'm condescending them ... when I'm not. It's very frustrating, because they basically go, "you need to change" ... not to mention the list of s**t they've done to me, but I digress and want to iterate

I don't think I'm better than anyone else. If I explain something, don't take it as an elitist attitude or something like that. I really do want to help! Otherwise I wouldn't say anything, or I'd just "Troll". Which I know I don't do. Sorry, this has really been getting to me lately. Sometimes, it seems like, it doesn't matter how many times I explain that I'm not being condescending ... but it doesn't matter because of whoevers opinion of me. Whatever I say becomes condescending, unless I agree with them of course, then it's absolutely fine.

I'm sorry, this has really pissed me off for the last couple days, It's not in regards to anyone here really.


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Nickelplate on Fri Sep 16th at 11:52pm 2005

Hey, crono, I feel it too. Most ppl at work think I'm a condescending asshole for trying to explain things to them in "layman's terms" but when I use technical terms, they think I'm trying to "doublespeak them."

Also ppl on here a lot of times, think I am jsut being a know-it-all, but i really DO know about all the stuff I claim to. It doesnt make me any better than anyone else, just smarter than some. no big deal right? I don't try to insult anyone except Windows98 and maybe Fatstrings now and again. But ppl seem to take offense.

We can cry together, Crono. Get on IRC, my channel is #nickelplate.




I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com



Quote
 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Crono on Sat Sep 17th at 12:07am 2005

Ha ha. nice to know I'm not alone. Thankfully though, the one person who doesn't think this is 'my woman'. So, that's good, yeah? It just really gets to me because the people saying this to me I've known for years.

My IRC doesn't work now because of my ISP. Apparently, comcast.net stuff is being blocked without making a something server identity or something who ever? I don't know, I barely use IRC and there's no option for in chatzilla, which is what I use. I know this is why I haven't been on #snarkpit in a long time, quakenet refuses me.

I'm rejected <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_cry.gif">

Alright, no more about real life! Someone might trick me on the Internet and try to molest me.


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Underdog on Sat Sep 17th at 12:20am 2005

? quoting Crono


Alright, no more about real life! Someone might trick me on the Internet and try to molest me.

Which reminds me of a sick joke I heard on the radio last week. It went something like this.

Doomed to go to hell by having internet sex and finding out its your mother on another PC.

Somehow, the idea of you being molested ethereally is just to kinky to comprehend. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/repuke.gif">




There is no history until something happens, then there is.



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Nickelplate on Sat Sep 17th at 12:24am 2005

So, Crono, you want to meet me at the Portland International Airport? Ur so hott. I'll bring candy, and a puppy. don't you want to see the puppy?


I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Crono on Sat Sep 17th at 2:00am 2005

I love puppies.

<img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_lol.gif"> ethereally? Clever.


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Firefox XP Tweak
Posted by Underdog on Sat Sep 17th at 2:14am 2005

? quoting Crono


ethereally? Clever.

Laugh all you want, but it passed my spell checker as legit. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/heee.gif">




There is no history until something happens, then there is.




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