meriadoc

Wouldn't bother me, they'd get pretty bored watching me download linux distributions. Although at the same time it would bother me hearing that tax dollars are allocated to such an activity. Any thoughts on what they could possibly gain from this practice? Probably another useless study costing who knows how much.

It does sort of stretch the boundaries of what most would consider traditional science. However, if you take a look at it as Behavioral Science then you are in the zone. Apparently it was noteworthy enough to be written up as an article at livescience.com. To tell you the truth its the first time I've this site. Looks like a lot of different categories to check out. We can conduct a survey right now. What's your reaction to this? :angry:

Good explaination ninjagaiden. There was a MythBusters episode on this where they tried to get an insanely high fountain of Coke to shoot out of the bottle. It was pretty cool. The episode wasn't really going after a busted, plausible, or confirmed rating, but just trying to explain the reaction. You'll find a summary of all the other contributing factors in Episode 57.

I have heard of it, but don't know a great deal about it. There was a short video presentation on the microsoft site, but unfortunately I can't find the link for it. It looked like the next step, but at the same time almost an extension of what we already have. I'm sure it would be very useful for some applications. However, I would think that there are still limitations to this being useful. If you put a significantly large number of icons or applications on the forward plane things would get pretty tricky for spotting the one you want to work with even when zooming in or out. To me, unlimited is sort of like infinity and you really shouldn't define it that way. I've seen Beryl and Compiz. I like the look and think it is pretty cool. When you get down to it though how different is concept compared to having multiple workspaces like in Gnome or KDE? I don't want to say it is just eye candy because there is clearly more to it than that. However, there are limits to the number of things I can keep track of and as I grow older the simpler life is the more I like it.

Here are my thoughts. If they forego ethics are they really bettering themselves? I would think that while they might achieve financial gain or a higher status they are making themselves less desirable in a social context. No one would have the desire to associate with someone that steps on others to get what they want (especially those being stepped on). The old adage, although used more in scientific circles, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction", seems to apply to this situation. By not paying attention to ethics and norms they would become a societal outcast in the process of bettering themself in other ways. In fact, don't you feel that society would still be stopping them from bettering themselves? Not by using laws that say, "Hey, you can't do that!", but by using pure social pressure and lack of meaningful relationships.

Thanks for the complement JcX, I think. While I don't believe I am obsessed with Philosophy, I do believe in putting some thought behind my posts. A number of postings don't seem to have much in the way of content or look like a simplified answer to save a few minutes. Please don't anyone take that the wrong way, there's nothing wrong with posting in that manner. It shows involvement in the community and the willingness to share your thoughts with those around you. Part of my definition of the meaning of life is expanding on what I already know or improving oneself and the people I come in contact with. We all learn from coming in contact with others (unless of course they are a mass murderer, then there could be problems beyond the scope of this topic). I enjoy reading and learning new things so some of what I write may actually reflect what little I retain.

Found this in the April 2008 issue of Smithsonian magazine and thought it was worth passing along. When asked to add some angels to a picture, Gustave Courbet replied, "I have never seen angels. Show me an angel, and I will paint one."

1221 One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty One Anywhere else it would probably be spamming, but I guess it is just for fun. Someone really ought to put a stop to this. Just kidding!

Personally, my favorite Doctor Who of all time has to be Tom Baker. He was the Doctor during the mid-70's early 80's. I didn't see the show until the late 80's early 90's when they had it on PBS and sort of got hooked on it. He had this way about him that really fit the part. Probably the best sequence of shows during his reign were the Keys of Time. I have still have a number of those episodes on VHS. Have you seen that they are coming out with a sort of spin off? The Sarah Jane Adventures. Interesting to note that Sarah Jane Smith was a cast member during 3rd and 4th seasons when Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker were the Doctor. She was a memorable companion to the Doctor. I was a little bummed when Rose left. Martha was good too. Traveling in time must take a real toll on humans.

No, that's not quite right. That is the answer to, "What is the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything?" Surely it must be some derivative of 42 that we haven't quite figured out yet. On the other hand we could just watch the movie, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, or look it up on the Internet (Wikipedia to the rescue). There are some interesting viewpoints out there and I'm sure just about everyone can find one that they like. It certainly is a tough question though and difficult to pick just one answer that encompasses everything you believe or feel about life.

I tried using the Quiz link at the store and it looks like there is a problem with the database. Here is the message that comes up. IPS Driver Error There appears to be an error with the database. You can try to refresh the page by clicking here

You may have seen this already, but there is a significant amount written about Bobby Fischer in Wikipedia. Believe it or not I'm old enough to remember him winning the tournament. I also remember how many people became interested in Chess after the match. Many schools formed Chess Clubs and I even joined one for a short time. I respect his ability to play the game of chess and the amount of training and matches it must have taken to get to that level of play. An achievement like that takes a tremendous amount of determination and love for the game. What I can't respect were his political views and disregard for authority. I'm disappointed that he never played Garry Kasparov for the title. My thoughts are that he should have played the match following the rules established by FIDE. Those rules were in place when he earned the title, why should he have the ability to change them? The rematch with Spassky was also a mess. Once again, he felt he was above the law. That could of been handled much better on his part. I really don't have much of an opinion about the impact of his death. It is sad when anyone dies, but it is a fact of life. With the exception of a few headlines, he became relatively obscure during the years following 1972. Who knows, maybe he wanted it that way.

The basic idea of a continuing story is that anyone can join in to write a piece of the story. This concept originally came about on Freenet when the Internet was all text based and newsgroups started taking off. Anyone that wanted to could contribute to the newsgroup and keep the story moving and taking shape. I'm going to borrow some of the setup material from one of the original stories to get us started. The story can be a combination of Comedy, Mystery, Romance, Action, etc. Each author should develop there own character and use that character as the focus of their action while writing for the story. Here is the setting: The principal setting for our story writing free-for-all will be Castle Kernehaven, a picturesque and HUGE castle set well back in the Scottish highlands. Castle Kernhaven (whose name means something like "Altered Home") is built on the side of a mountain known locally as the Punwa and overlooks the valley of the river Kerne besides whose banks sits the village of Punwa-an-Kerne. This castle is distinguished for several reasons: 1) It's big. I mean "really" big. If you have ever read Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" trilogy, we're talking that kind of big. If you haven't, trust me - this is one BIG castle. The advantage of this is that you (as authors) have a great many locale's available to you for settings, etc, within the confines of the castle, and can probably manage to arrange things so that your characters never have to bump into each other. 2) It's also very old. Therefore you can use just about any period in history you want to use as long as you're willing to adjust the use of the castle to the period you're dealing with. For example, in the 13th century the castle would probably be used for the defense of the surrounding countryside. In times of war the local population would retreat to the castle along with their livestock, etc, to seek protection from the invaders. In later times (late 18th century, for example) it may have been turned into a hotel where the activities of the guests might lead to a lot of interesting situations. Here are a few general guidelines: 1) Invent your own characters so as to avoid conflicts. It is actually fun to interact with other peoples characters, but you should refrain from putting too many words into their mouths or put them in awkward situations like knocking them off in a back room. 2) Pay attention to what others have written, and try to avoid writing things which directly conflict with or contradict what others have already said. 3) Try to be historically plausible. Machine guns in the eighteenth century would be implausible, since the technology didn't exist. Mini skirts in the sixteenth century would probably get you burned at the stake. 4) Be original. Think. Be creative. 5) Have Fun!

It just doesn't seem like this question would bring about much in the way of Philosophical Discussions and Debates or Politics. Perhaps we can debate whether or not the question really belongs here. One might argue that it has nothing to do with debating or philosophy. We could justify its presence here by saying that at a subconscious level the original poster wanted to bring the questions' merit up for debate. Then again, where I am from is really not much of a debate topic unless we put different parameters around the question. At a specific point in time I may be at a different x, y, z coordinate therefore that information could change from one moment to the next. We would have to better clarify the question by perhaps saying, "Where are you from most of the time?" In reality the question itself would be a mute point if everyone filled out their profiles with a location. With that information freely available it would not be necessary to ask. Fitting the category that you post in should not be that difficult, but what is the most appropriate forum to ask this question in? Community seems to come to the top of my list, but maybe we should ask HelioNet to establish a new category for Silly Questions. Although Just for Fun and The Unregulated Forum seem to bode well for silly questions. We also need to take a look at the Philosophical side of this question. Logic dictates that we should answer the question rather than changing the topic. Then again there are ethical implications that this question poses. Is it morally correct to ask someone where they are from even if you really don't care? What purpose does this question serve other than to get a few helions? Does it really increase the level of knowledge of those around us by asking it? Will answering this question take me to a higher plane of existence and closer to enlightenment? I'm from Ohio, USA and just earned a few helions!

pine

I'm looking for opinions from people that have used or continue to use Nvu as their Web Authoring System of choice. So far I've only taken a cursory look at the product and it appears to have many of the features found in Frontpage. What do you think of it? Did you have any trouble installing it? Have you encountered any problems while using it? None of the binary packages on the web site matched up with my Linux distribution (Fedora 7 or 8) so I attempted to compile from source. Getting the source was a little tricky because the link on the web site isn't exactly correct. I have yet to compile without it resulting in an error. I need to go through the steps again and make sure I didn't forget something critical. If you have any hints or tips please pass them on. One of the things that surprised me was that the source looked like a complete version of Mozilla or one of its sister products. In the meantime I have installed Seamonkey with its Composer. Seamonkey looks almost exactly like the version of Netscape Navigator I installed 5 years ago on RHL 7.3. I know the whole Mozilla story, but I would have expected a few more changes to have occurred since then.

Other worlds being colonized by individual nations? In my opinion it could happen, but I doubt it ever will. Although our world is not even close to being united the current trend seems to be a more global direction. The global economy for example is lead by the majority of nations understanding that trade barriers and restrictions make it more expensive to do business. Not everyone believes this point of view, but that is their prerogative. Not all nations can produce what they need on their own. It is better to let individual countries produce goods and services where the skills and resources exist to make it cost effective. Another example is the International Space Station. Here is a project that any one nation would have had trouble with coming up with the resources to make happen. Sure, one nation could have built a smaller version, but nothing compared to the current scale. All the involved nations saw that it was a project worthy of their efforts. By working together these nations will all benefit and produce a much better station. Maybe I'm being too much of an optimist, but I would envision the world of the future becoming a better place to live and this view eventually spreading out to other planets. Hopefully people will realize that working together for the common good is a much better goal than get as much as you can no matter what the cost. I'm also hopeful that people will come to the realization that the Earth's resources have their limits. There are so many wasteful people and practices out there. Imagine the impact if everyone did their part at recycling.

pipe

I couldn't agree with you more. Content is King. I loved your analogy of the bird looking for shiny objects. The HTML Hell Page provides some great tips in a humorous way. My number one peave would be blinking text and I was not suprised that it appeared first. One thing that didn't get mentioned are sites that are outdated or appear abandoned. Something along the lines of site last updated June 14, 2001. Kind of like reading an old newspaper to find out what's playing at the local theater. These sites usually come with the obligatory, "check back soon for regular updates." Another one I didn't see was the old "Click here" for news about ... link. Most intelligent surfers know what a link looks like or that when their cursor changes they have just gone over a link. We can go on and on about HTML hell and continue to find more annoying features.

Was doing a little browsing and found VirtueMart: A virtual ecommerce solution. It appears to integrate nicely with Joomla! I haven't tried it myself yet, but am looking at this as well as Joomla! The presentation on Joomla! at the Ohio LinuxFest was well done. I didn't know much much about CMS before their presentation. They kept it at a level I understood and showed a number of features along with its ability to easily handle extentions. Looks like an active community working on Joomla!

This topic comes up quite often on linux forums. You'll find many opinions already posted and probably still be just as confused when it comes to picking one since everyone has their own point of view. Hardware is normally not an issue, it will do fine with just about any availabe distribution. One suggestion would be to try out some of the LiveCD's that are available and pick one you like. I'm sure a google search of Linux LiveCD will bring out plenty of hits. Other things you might want to consider is where are you going from here? If you are just out to explore most likely any distribution would fit your needs. If you would like to learn about Linux for a possible job in the future I know RHEL and SUSE are in use at many businesses. There are others of course, but that is what I've seen. My personal opinion is Fedora, but I'm a little biased having started with Red Hat Linux 4.2 back in 1997. I've tried Ubuntu, SUSE, Gentoo, Whitebox, and a few others. I always seem to come back to Fedora. Probably because of familiarity and a helpful user community. An active and friendly user community is important. I've found Ubuntu and Gentoo communities good as well. I can't comment on the others.

Firefox has really come a long way since the days of Mozilla. Internet Explorer does a pretty good job as well. The one thing I find frustrating with browsers is the differences in the Document Object Model that cause display or functionality problems. I have a form that needs tweaking to work correctly on Firefox. I'm sure if I developed it over there things would be fine for FF, but maybe not IE. Another one I noticed was on tvguide.com were FF had trouble with their menus. Part of the menu would get layered underneath an image or box on the other page making it difficult to navigate. Checking today it looks like the problem has been taken care of. Long live Firefox!

I run Linux as well, but know more about asp and asp.NET than php. I just started reading about Mono - http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page. It appears to have quite a few features. If you are ever interested in porting a .NET application or working with asp and asp.NET it might be worth a look see.