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Probably still RH/Fedora... by Etcetera · 2004-07-12 16:21 · Score: 5, Interesting · on Netcraft: Red Hat Still Top Linux Server Distro

So if all versions were known, what would be the #1 distro for hosting?

Probably still RedHat/Fedora. It's quick, easy to set up, well supported, has decent-to-good administration tools, and gives good Karma to both you and your boss.

We use Fedora for both our dedicated servers (to be leased/rented to clients) and for internal use. We theoretically offer FreeBSD installs as well, but no one has ever taken us up on that offer (I wonder why)...

RH's kickstart and anaconda features are godsends, the text-only and curses utilities are more than adequate when needed, and with Yum I know longer have to care about RPM dependancy hell.

Gentoo? Give me my three days back, please.

Debian? I suppose... but something smells "stagnant" to me and it's not just the water.

*BSD? Too complex for most customers, and a headache I'd rather not have to deal with on our production machines. There's very little that the BSDs can offer me (for the time invested in learning all the "oddities" (from my perspective)) that's worth it for me to move over.

Your mileage may vary, but mine stays pretty constant.

Re:Judge vs jury by trifakir · 2004-07-11 00:35 · Score: 3, Interesting · on The Good Old Patent Law - Revisited

Don't you think that you have relatively higher chance of explaining what is a "nanotube" to someone who is sufficiently educated, even in law, than to a group of housewives and computer technicians?

Re:I "Read"... by RealAlaskan · 2004-06-30 09:29 · Score: 2, Interesting · on What Magazines Do You Read?

I *read* Playboy. No, really...it's for the articles!!

I always said that the worst sort of perverts were the ones who read the articles instead of looking at the pictures.

From what I've heard of the articles, I was probably right. Since Playboy stopped publishing the works of Kilgore Trout, it's all been downhill.

Linux on the iPod by SKPhoton · 2004-06-29 09:13 · Score: 1 · on iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

And now for the obligatory question, "Does it tell you how to put Linux on your iPod?"

Re:I don't believe Ken Brown wrote that book by RPoet · 2004-06-08 10:07 · Score: 2, Funny · on Tanenbaum Rebuts Ken Brown

this independant research report agrees with you -- there is no way Ken Brown could have written that book from scratch.

Re:Criticism without Solution by Graff · 2004-05-31 12:28 · Score: 1 · on Bruce Sterling On Lovelock's Pro-Nuclear Stance

Sterling's objections seemed pretty incoherent to me.

Heh, when reading this part of the article:

"Opposition to nuclear energy is based on irrational fear fed by Hollywood-style fiction, the Green lobbies and the media. (((No it isn't.))) These fears are unjustified, (((oh no they're not)))

I immediately thought of the Monty Python argument skit:

M: An argument isn't just contradiction.
A: It can be.
M: No it can't. An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.
A: No it isn't.
M: Yes it is! It's not just contradiction.
A: Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a contrary position.
M: Yes, but that's not just saying 'No it isn't.'
A: Yes it is!
M: No it isn't!
M: Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of any statement the other person makes.
(short pause)
A: No it isn't.

Get this off the ground quick. by pragma_x · 2004-05-26 01:54 · Score: 1 · on Renewable Energy From Algae?

Seems to me that if the ultimate end-product of this energy produciton method is vegetable oil, then perhaps using it to produce food grade oil might be a good first step for this technology to gain widespread adoption. Without all the hassle of using farmland to raise, spray, harvest and process corn, there's bound to be huge gains in store (instead of grains in store) for companies like Riceland Foods, Cargill Foods, and Archer Daniel Midland.

That is, should they be able to adapt quickly enough...

A little googling turned up this essay that references the aforementioned companies. It suggests that something like what we're talking about here might actually cause them some trouble:

The major problem that would force the Vegetable Oil Industry to disintegrate would be technology based. For example, genetically engineered products are becoming more popular.

IMO, although algae is a loose fit for 'genetically engineered [crops]', the impact would be profound for industry outside of fuel production.

Slackware with default install by snerfu · 2004-05-24 08:35 · Score: 0 · on The Best Linux Distro for a New User?

I would not have recommended this to new users up until about 3 weeks ago, when I installed version 9.1 for the first time. It has changed quite a bit from what I remember, and if you perform the install with the default options, it will give you quite a bit including java runtime and alsa by default. I haven't looked at fedora core 2 yet, but you definately didn't get this with fedora core 1 or debian. The one problem is that the sound is still muted by default, which could throw some people off. But other than that, it has those two really big things people want in the default install, and if they choose to use gnome or kde, they will have a rich windows compatable desktop ready to use. Also there is a very simple and new user friendly book/manual

Re:Slashdotted already? by ameoba · 2004-05-20 06:29 · Score: 1 · on Fedora Core 2 Review

What's wrong with the torrents?

It'd make a lot more sense to start up a BT client and seed than to sacrifice your bandwidth to FTPs..

Re:Ack - Good DVD iso's hard to find by ps_inkling · 2004-05-18 07:25 · Score: 2, Informative · on Fedora Core 2 Officially Available

Many of the mirrors do not have the DVD iso....

The original article points to a web page with a list of links to various ISO images, including x86 64 DVD and i386 DVD images.

Granted, it's not a mirror, it's a bittorrent. Using it is not painful or difficult. For large files, bittorrent is the current distribution method. Would you want to host a 4.1 GB file for download? Even for one or two users at a time?

Re:Ack - Good DVD iso's hard to find by ps_inkling · 2004-05-18 07:25 · Score: 2, Informative · on Fedora Core 2 Officially Available

Many of the mirrors do not have the DVD iso....

The original article points to a web page with a list of links to various ISO images, including x86 64 DVD and i386 DVD images.

Granted, it's not a mirror, it's a bittorrent. Using it is not painful or difficult. For large files, bittorrent is the current distribution method. Would you want to host a 4.1 GB file for download? Even for one or two users at a time?

Re:Ack - Good DVD iso's hard to find by ps_inkling · 2004-05-18 07:25 · Score: 2, Informative · on Fedora Core 2 Officially Available

Many of the mirrors do not have the DVD iso....

The original article points to a web page with a list of links to various ISO images, including x86 64 DVD and i386 DVD images.

Granted, it's not a mirror, it's a bittorrent. Using it is not painful or difficult. For large files, bittorrent is the current distribution method. Would you want to host a 4.1 GB file for download? Even for one or two users at a time?

Re:CD iso's available? by TyrelHaveman · 2004-05-18 05:33 · Score: 1 · on Fedora Core 2 Officially Available

All you have to do is look at the download page or the torrents to see what you need...

Re:Exactly by leinhos · 2004-05-18 03:19 · Score: 1 · on Follow Up to "Linux's Achilles Heel"

I just wish something just like apt-get existed for the rpm world that made it just as easy to update. However, I've read of projects in the works just for that so I'm sure "rpm hell" will be over a lot sooner than "dll hell" lasted.

I believe the apt system also handles rpms now. Also, checkout YUM (from the ppc distro), which uses apt-get to manage rpm dependencies.

Fedora uses yum as well

Re:Familiar pair for atheists. by s20451 · 2004-05-17 11:56 · Score: 4, Insightful · on Fathers of Linux Revealed: Tooth Fairy & Santa Claus

Education has the highest correlation coefficient to lack of belief in a personal god. By most surveys, more than 90% of professional scientists don't believe in a personal god.

I can buy the second statement, but not necessarily the first. There are plenty of people with higher education who are not scientists.

In fact in most churches a prerequisite to joining the clergy is an advanced degree. Furthermore, the "professional degree" that you need to be a priest or pastor is a Master of Divinity, which normally requires an undergraduate degree, much like a law degree. There are no shortage of top universities that have excellent theology or divinity departments. Some of the world's most influential and interesting thinkers have been theologians.

As for the "90% of scientists" claim, I think that's a nasty prejudice on the part of scientists, rather than something to be proud of. Think about it: science and religion explore orthogonal aspects of life, neither of which is any less real than the other. Science tells us about what we can observe and test; religion illuminates things that are by nature untestable, like morality, ethics, compassion, and love for our fellow man.

In spite of what some might say, science can't really illuminate our understanding of God very much, because by nature you can't perform an experiment on God. Furthermore God can easily escape whatever assumptions a scientist may make (or, as one Vatican astronomer put it, "God is not a boundary condition"). By the same token our understanding of God can't do much to illuminate science, because when (for example) the bible contradicts a scientific observation, the observation must win. Fortunately most mainline religions acknowledge this, it's just the loudmouth conservative wackos who perpetuate the stereotype that a Christian believes the world is four thousand years old.

In fact my opinion is that the existence of God is an axiom. This fits because axioms are initial assumptions that cannot be tested, and as yet nobody has even developed a convincing test for the existence of God. One either believes that God exists or doesn't exist, and that belief affects the remaining propositions in one's life as any other axiom might. In no way is this incompatible with a career in science. In fact, if one believes (as I do) that God exists, what we know about the universe contributes to a sense of awe concerning the greatness of God. And, as one theologian suggests, this is one important aspect of religion: the "fear" of God puts you and your petty problems into perspective.

Religion really isn't about heaven, or hell, or converting as many atheists as possible, or strapping a bomb to yourself and blowing up a cafe. Religion is about suppressing your own ego and having compassion for those around you, which is something that a lot of scientists could sorely use.

Re:Yum by BlowChunx · 2004-05-16 08:46 · Score: 1 · on Fedora Core 2 released to Mirrors, Bittorrent

Try this to fix the unneeded space in 'hints' above...

Re:DVD Version? by LnxAddct · 2004-05-16 07:18 · Score: 1 · on Fedora Core 2 released to Mirrors, Bittorrent

I personally like apt-rpm but I am also a big fan of yum. yum kind of took the best parts of apt and improved them, kinda like emerge did too.I run debian and fedora, and apt is superior at some things but yum holds its own in many areas as well, its also a bit easier to use. Assuming you already know enough about apt, here is a link to read about yum.
Regards,
Steve

Re:where to get bit-torrent RPM? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-05-16 03:28 · Score: 2, Informative · on Fedora Core 2 released to Mirrors, Bittorrent

and then looked for a bit torrent RPM for to use on my Fedora system, I learned that ... there doesn't seem to be such an RPM available.

Look harder - http://torrent.dulug.duke.edu/btrpms/

Bumps are vortex generators by Spamalamadingdong · 2004-05-13 08:07 · Score: 3, Informative · on Whale Flippers Make Better Airplane Wings

From the article:

As whales move through the water, the tubercles disrupt the line of pressure against the leading edge of the flippers. The row of tubercles sheers the flow of water and redirects it into the scalloped valley between each tubercle, causing swirling vortices that roll up and over the flipper to actually enhance lift properties. "The swirling vortices inject momentum into the flow," said Howle. "This injection of momentum keeps the flow attached to the upper surface of the wing and delays stall to higher wind angles."

This has been known to aerodynamicists for some time; there are vortex generators on many aircraft, including on the vertical stabilizers of many Cessnas (to improve the ability to resist turning forces during engine-out operations), on the leading edges of wings (to improve the attachment of airflow over the wings at high angles of attack and thereby increase the control effectiveness of the ailerons behind them), on the insides of the fan shrouds on the Boeing 757, and in other places.

This is not to say that this research doesn't show us anything we didn't already know, but it isn't exactly a huge revelation either.

Re:For god's sake by ebyrob · 2004-05-12 09:24 · Score: 1 · on Tocqueville Blames U.S. IT Troubles On Free Software

Even if the future isn't going to sway against copyright anytime soon, does that mean we should all just switch to the "winning" side?

Of course not.

Personally I see the draconian measures as a sign of desperation.

I hope you're correct, but there are those who have compared modern Intellectual Property trends with a second enclosure movement and unfortunately, even many in the F/OSS movement seem to prefer more control over their creative works.

I have a hope that the people will eventually rise against them and get rid of them, preferably peacefully.

I'm sure freedom will win out long-term, but the short term has been gearing up to be rather nasty.

Re:Oh no! by Kalak · 2004-05-10 05:42 · Score: 1 · on Winny P2P Software Creator Arrested

I currently have 2 torrents open on a development server here at work. Fedora Core 2 Test 3 (we're not even talking release software) has from this machine alone, uploaded 199GB. I also have Knoppix 3.4 English with 48BG.

Sounds like someone is using it for good use. You can probably look that the individual torrents page for FC2T3 and Knoppixv3.4_EN and see with just these two examples.

Re:Only reason I'm on XP... by Morosoph · 2004-05-07 10:39 · Score: 1 · on Microsoft Security Updates for Pirated Windows?

Ximian Red Carpet is the way to go, if you're using Red Hat or SuZE.

If you mean just the original installation, download the ISOs (this one's Red Hat Fedora, but you can Google for another) using bittorrent (I use Azureus). I believe that the Knoppix Live CD distro has its own installer.

Re:Language shouldn't matter! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-05-05 14:39 · Score: 0 · on First Java AP Computer Science Exam Complete

Not sure if This Fool still has anything to do with AP CS, but his AP CS book was probably the worst computer related book I've ever read (littered with errors, for starters).

Read the last sentence of that page?
I don't get it. I mean, WTF.

Re:Language shouldn't matter! by pyite · 2004-05-05 11:04 · Score: 5, Insightful · on First Java AP Computer Science Exam Complete

OS Design? Fascinating, but ultimately irrelevant for 99% of coders. Implementing your own hashtables? Useful to gain an insight into how they work, but virtually any development platform people work in except raw C these days will provide highly tuned and optimized hashtable implementations. If anything you shouldn't roll your own, as it'll make your code less readable, more bloated and probably slower.

No offense, but people like you are the reason I'm glad I didn't major in CS. If you can't see the value of OS design and learning how hash tables work, stop, do not pass go, do not collect your diploma, it's utterly wasted on you. I'm amazed at how many CS graduates I've spoken with that have never heard the name Donald Knuth or at least borrowed a copy of The Art of Computer Programming. The fact that Computer Science is a MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE seems to elude most people who'd rather worry about how good of programmers they are than about knowing how the hell things work. None of the coding I learned came from a school, and frankly, I'm quite happy about that, as too many schools are all about the "latest and greatest" technology. The AP exam is a PERFECT example. Not sure if This Fool still has anything to do with AP CS, but his AP CS book was probably the worst computer related book I've ever read (littered with errors, for starters).

It seems no one cares how things work. The "black box" analogy was emphasized in AP Computer Science from Day 1 when I took it. The worst possible thing you can be telling budding Computer Scientists is that we don't care how it works, it just does. That's fine when you've proven your ability to perform and are working in an environment where it's literally impossible to know how everything works. It's not acceptable, however, when you know nothing and the sole purpose of a course is to teach you. OK, I've gotten myself quite angry over this post, so I'm ending it now.

mmm, tasty by Triumph+The+Insult+C · 2004-04-30 09:53 · Score: 2, Informative · on Red Hat Linux 9 Reaches End-of-Life

yum is a very tasty treat for keeping rh9 boxes up to-date. using it to keep some SAP workstations (for the rovers) running

two words... by trick-knee · 2004-04-30 05:15 · Score: 2, Informative · on Turn Your PC into a 'Moblogger'

what do you use on your Mac or Linux machines to post images automatically?

cron

scp

Re:BitTorrent by AstroDrabb · 2004-04-27 14:49 · Score: 1 · on Fedora Core 2 Test 3 Released

Did you grab your torrents from here? I started the binary torrent about 1 hour ago and have only 1 hour left. I have had a constant 2Mbs or so on my cable modem. I am on the tampabay.rr.com network.

Re:Debian and Fedora... by Alizarin+Erythrosin · 2004-04-27 11:59 · Score: 2, Insightful · on Fedora Core 2 Test 3 Released

Then use a BitTorrent link to download it.

Torrent link by vinit79 · 2004-04-27 11:46 · Score: -1, Redundant · on Fedora Core 2 Test 3 Released

If u want to really download it use the Bittorrent link or wait for 2 days.