Newgroups line corrected to remove extraneous space. In comp.os.linux.advocacy, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:15:41 -0800 (PST) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > One thing that drew me to computers from the start > was going to computer clubs and seeing the cool hacks > that people had managed to get working using their > computers. For instance, I once saw a VIC-20 with > a "real" 80x25 video card, for instance, and a guy > who created his own OS.
One of my contributions to coolness -- if one can call it that -- is a modification to an 1861 (1802-based video chip; good luck finding it using Google nowadays!) that allowed for a 512 x 192 monochrome pixel display. That might have been cool back in the mid-80's (if then); of course nowadays it verges on the ridiculously anachronistic, as I'm working on a laptop with 1024x768x16M colors (plus alpha) which is itself not all that cool since it's several years old. In short, it's the timing. [snip] > I am not convinced that truly cool things > are happening any longer, because I am not > seeing barriers being broken through at least > in the area of software. Indeed, nor in hardware. > Everyone involved in Linux seems to be using > a hot-rod system that offers no barriers. > Where is the cool? > Microsoft will do their damndest to make Silverlight cool, I suspect. Personally, I'm not sure Silverlight is all that cool (although .NET -- the freeware/Mono part, anyway -- has some interesting features, which make it a little cooler than, but a lot more problematic as well than, Java). If one wants really cool, perhaps, one can look into things such as highly efficient "Linux sticks". Of course "cool" might be taken a wee bit too literally in that case; "green" is arguably the new fad -- though one hopes it becomes a lasting one. -- #191, [EMAIL PROTECTED] /dev/signature: Resource temporarily unavailable -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
