Domain: linuxjournal.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to linuxjournal.com.
Comments · 1,048
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Some interesting partsHere are the parts that I found interesting:
On USL's preliminary motion to stop distribution of BSDI on the basis of copyright infringement:
Consequently, I find that Plaintiff has failed to demonstrate a likelihood that it can successfully defend its copyright in 32V. Plaintiff's claims of copyright violations are not a basis for injunctive relief.The judge ruled that since many copies of 32V source code (books, manuals, etc) existed before USL applied for copyright on that code, it cannot bar BSDI from distributing Net2 because USL failed to protect its copyright. This kind of parallels SCO claims in that some of the code that has been revealed are trivial school book type code that most of the programming world alreay knows about.
On USL's preliminary motion to bar BSDI distribution based on trade secret misappropriation:
Since Plaintiff has failed to provide enough evidence to establish a "reasonable probability" that Net2 or BSD/386 contain trade secrets, I find that Plaintiff has failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of its claim for misappropriation of trade secrets. No preliminary injunction will issue.The judge ruled that USL's previous work with BSDI and third parties negates trade secret since all work done is in the public domain. Since UNIX development occured in an open manner with research papers, books, and technical manuals publishing methodology, source code, and programming techniques of UNIX (some of which was published by USL and its predecessors), USL cannot claim trade secrets misappropriation and cannot have Net2 barred from distribution.
SCO's release of Linux mirrors this. If SCO released the source code of Linux with their distributions, they cannot claim copyright infringement because they have essentially made the code open source. Some attorneys may claim that since SCO didn't know that the code was stolen from them, this doesn't negate their copyright. However, it is the responsibility of the publisher (SCO) to review any code before releasing it. Even if it was stolen, they still released it.
After the ruling, it was basically over for USL. I don't know when SCO will drag it out. Hopefully IBM will countersue them into oblivion.
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Re:Beowulf cluster jokes...
You might be able to find this book in the remainder bins. Alas, the publisher has recalled it, for some reason.
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Re:What about the NDA?
The NDA explicitly permits the person who views the code to provide a ``general, brief summary.'' The NDA can be seen in a Linux Journal article.
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Re:More icing on the Cake...
I saw the code, and I didn't say that their claims aren't FUD. I said it wasn't clear, and that the one piece of allegedly copied code they showed me proved little. See my writeup at the Linux Journal or on my own server.
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Re:What do you use python for?
it doesn't have the breadth of pre-built modules as older languages like Perl have.
Maybe not quite as many modules as Perl, but the standard Python library provides interfaces for a lot of different tasks. It's not skimpy, in case any of you potential Python users was worried.
There's good reason the motto is "Batteries Included".
I've found Python useful for all kinds of tasks and love the clean, short syntax devoid of punctuation characters.
If you need more of a recognized authority to recommend how great and wonderful is Python, then listen to Bruce Eckel or Eric Raymond.
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Re:What do you use python for?
I've barely begun to investigate Python, but this article is the one that convinced me it was worth a look. That, and anecdotes from half a dozen acquaintences who said essentially the same thing Eric Raymond did...
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Old Tech?
> Windows XP has USB 2.0
linux-usb.org
Linux seems to have had this since June 2001
>it has low-latency audio
this depends on the kernel, but there are already distributions focused on this
Linux Journal
> it can play DVDs, MPEG-4 media player
MPlayer is faster than the WMP and plays video better, IMHO
> it has translucent windows
I guess everyone misses this...
> built-in NAT
What is built in? automatic you mean?
> drag-and-drop CD recording
have you ever tried the _Built-in_ Nautilus cd burner? gnome.ftp
> it has an encrypted
Last I checked this is also built in, take a look at the Linux Kernel
> compressed file system
same as before, but it is not automatic and takes more setup, but CramFS, cloop, etc have been in use for a while
> they have fine-grained access controls
I guess the Journaled, enterprise file-systems don't count?
XFS
JSF
> they have a common language runtime
They are pushing and developing modern programming languages so that we aren't all stuck programming in C.
Take a look at Pel 6, Jython
> (I also know that most of this stuff is available on linux, but it's also kind of a pain in the ass.)
Most of it is pretty simple, mplayer or Xine are genrally default in Distributions, there are distributions _just_ for sound, and anyone look at the alcs and encryption can gereally configure them
On the other hand, I install new things really easily with Gentoo
`emerge new_cool_app` -
Re:Linux Quality
Both actually. The machines are running Linux and using Linux based apps. Maya for 3D I believe, and they have a propietary tool for 2D cell painting which was used last year in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.
LinuxJournal had coverage on this:
GFX: DreamWorks Feature Linux and Animation
Linux Dreamworks Redux -
Re:Linux Quality
Both actually. The machines are running Linux and using Linux based apps. Maya for 3D I believe, and they have a propietary tool for 2D cell painting which was used last year in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.
LinuxJournal had coverage on this:
GFX: DreamWorks Feature Linux and Animation
Linux Dreamworks Redux -
Re:My Wife and Kids (slightly OT)
This article includes references to educational linux software. Overall it's a great article.
You may also try looking at the Linux Journal topic Linux in Education.
In addition, there is a Knoppix remaster that's intended for schools.
Have you tried Wine? -
Re:My Wife and Kids (slightly OT)
This article includes references to educational linux software. Overall it's a great article.
You may also try looking at the Linux Journal topic Linux in Education.
In addition, there is a Knoppix remaster that's intended for schools.
Have you tried Wine? -
A list of candidatesThere tends to be confusion in these discussions because of lack of agreement on what the term "Exchange replacement" means. At one extreme, something qualfies only if it accepts Microsoft-proprietary RPC connections from MS-Outlook for MAPI transactions providing 100% of the functions the Outlook / Exchange Server combination du jour supports. At the other extreme, Web-based access (e.g., Sherpath) and glorified BBSes (First Class, Citadel/UX) are deemed worthy of consideration. Anyhow, here's a list I maintain as part of http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/linux-info/groupware:
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MS Exchange Server (server end; NT only), MS Outlook (client end; Win32, MacOS). Very limited support of open-protocol clients (IMAP, webmail?). Microsoft Corp. wants to sell you Exchange 2000, these days, but Exchange 5.5 is still very common.
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Lotus Notes / Domino (server end, Linux supported), Lotus Notes (client end; Win32, MacOS). Limited webmail access (iNotes).
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Novell Groupwise. http://www.novell.com/products/groupwise/ Server end runs on either Novell NetWare 5/6 or WinNT. Client end is proprietary Win32 client or webmail. A native Linux client is under development.
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SuSE Linux Openexchange Server (formerly SuSE Linux eMail Server). Standard, good open-source components (Postfix, Apache, Cyrus IMAP, OpenLDAP, OpenSSL) preconfigured to work well with one another, plus a couple of proprietary components: YaST2 for graphical administration, and SkyrixGreen for integrated scheduling and group discussions (shared folders). Client access from any OS, including but not limited to webmail. A full-functional trial version (lacking only "maintenance") is available for US $20 at http://www.suse.com/openexchange/slox_eval_form.ht ml . Sites are known to scale well to at least 1,000 users per site. The largest deployment yet known (March 2003) is 1,900 users.
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Bynari Insight Server, http://www.bynari.net/ . Server end is Linux-based. Intended as a plug-compatible replacement for MS-Exchange Server, based on POP3, IMPA, SMTP, and LDAP, but also with full support for all the special, proprietary MS-Exchange Server RPC-based protocols for group discussion, scheduling, contact management, task lists, etc., when used with MS-Outlook clients. Review: http://linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6734
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Bynari InsightConnector, http://www.bynari.net/ . Extensions that load into MS-Outlook clients to let them perform MS-Exchange-type functions (scheduling, contact-management, public folders) without needing an MS-Exchange server, using only open-standard IMAP, SMTP, and LDAP servers, instead.
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Samsung Contact (formerly HP Openmail), http://samsungcontact.com/en/ . Server end can be Linux-based (or Solaris/AIX). Based on SMTP, IMAP, POP3, LDAP. Supports proprietary protocols for e-mail, scheduling, etc. native to Samsung's Contact client (which is available on Linux and Win32). Webmail access. Implements Microsoft's (documented, for a change) MAPI protocol for scheduling, public folders, offline folders.
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Oracle Collaboration Suite, http://www.oracle.com/ip/deploy/cs/ . Formerly Steltor CorporateTime, http://www.steltor.com/, until that firm's recent acquisition by Oracle. (That product is said to have emerged from Netscape Calendar.) Does IMAP, POP3, SMTP, E-mail, real-time conferences, voicemail, scheduling. Apparently implements all of the special, proprietary MS-Exchange Server RPC-based protocols for group discussion, scheduling, contact management,
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Re:I think you got the wrong "it"
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5406
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2093314,00. html
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2093314,00. html
http://linuxtoday.com/high_performance/20010208009 06PSCDHE"
http://www.practical-tech.com/infrastructure/i0331 2003.htm
http://www.practical-tech.com/business/b06122003.h tm
http://www.eweek.com/print_article/0,3668,a=43186, 00.asp -
Aren't we just helping SCO......by continually continueing to spread any news having anything to do with this case? After all, the strategy of SCO seems to create as many news as possible to transmit their FUD.
Once it stopped appearing daily on all the news sites around, everything would calm down a bit, and the case would generally be seen as a private law suit about trade secrets between two companies having a long history of cross-licensing agreements, i.e. nothing that extraordinary.
But I see that at least some news sites seem to have started understanding this already:
We unsuccessfully tried to ignore the SCO v. IBM fracas, mostly because
...and
We know just how you feel (lwn.net commenting on the above quote from Linux journal...)
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Fight Spam with SpamProbe
I wrote an article on how to set up SpamProbe on a server, and make it easy to train. You could also use Bogofilter or any other trainable spam filter, set up the same way.
I get at least 100 spam messages a day now, and I only see about a half-dozen or so. SpamProbe deals with the rest, and I don't have any problems with false positives. (SpamAssassin thinks that ads for LinuxWorld Expo are spam, but as I have it trained, SpamProbe doesn't.)
steveha -
Re:What has been said all along
SCO is NOT claiming that Linux is a derivative of Unix, only that it contains code THAT IS.
I think you should read this (specifically the part entitled "Derivative Works") before making claims like that. -
Re:Wrong fight RMS
Where do they claim that? Can you quote it?
Read this article, where the author makes that claim in the first paragraph under the heading "Derivative Works":
SCO basically is arguing that any code developed on top of Unix is a derivative work of Unix
There is no exact quote, but the author mentions that he asked them about it, and they said "that's for the courts to decide."
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Re:I have
80 lines of code makes quite a case? The NDA is to see 80 lines of code.
Here is an essay from a person that signed the NDA. Here is a bit you may find interesting:
Here is what I think I can say about the code I saw. The code is fairly trivial--the kind of stuff I wrote in school. The similar portions of the code were some 80 lines or so. Looking around the Net, I found close variants of the code, with the same comments and variable names, in sources other than Linux distributions. The code is not in a central part of the Linux kernel. The code does not appear to have been contributed to Linux by SCO or Caldera. The code exists in current versions of the Linux kernel.
Doesn't sound like much of a case to me. Perhaps you mean if hundreds of thousands of lines of code, that would make it quite a case. -
Re:Perl, not "PERL"
From an interesting interview with Larry Wall - 1999..
Marjorie: Well, that certainly answered the question fully. I must admit I didn't expect you to go back as far as the beginning of the Universe. :-) How'd you come up with that name?
Larry: I wanted a short name with positive connotations. (I would never name a language ``Scheme'' or ``Python'', for instance.) I actually looked at every three- and four-letter word in the dictionary and rejected them all. I briefly toyed with the idea of naming it after my wife, Gloria, but that promised to be confusing on the domestic front. Eventually I came up with the name ``pearl'', with the gloss Practical Extraction and Report Language. The ``a'' was still in the name when I made that one up. But I heard rumors of some obscure graphics language named ``pearl'', so I shortened it to ``perl''. (The ``a'' had already disappeared by the time I gave Perl its alternate gloss, Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister.)
Another interesting tidbit is that the name ``perl'' wasn't capitalized at first. UNIX was still very much a lower-case-only OS at the time. In fact, I think you could call it an anti-upper-case OS. It's a bit like the folks who start posting on the Net and affect not to capitalize anything. Eventually, most of them come back to the point where they realize occasional capitalization is useful for efficient communication. In Perl's case, we realized about the time of Perl 4 that it was useful to distinguish between ``perl'' the program and ``Perl'' the language. If you find a first edition of the Camel Book, you'll see that the title was Programming perl, with a small ``p''. Nowadays, the title is Programming Perl. -
Re:Open source solution?
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Re:What does the NDA encompass?
As previously posted on Slashdot - the NDA is at LinuxJournal.
-j -
eGovOS: Clean Hands
This article makes for some interesting reading. Are they really after Open Source? Or is the MS version ("Shared Source") their aim?
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SCO contribution
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Re:Transmeta, Linus and Marketing...Wrong!!! Transmeta hiring Linus was not merely for publicity. They needed his coding expertise. Unless, of course, you say that he was party to this, just to justify your speculation - after he was allowed to speak about what Transmeta is doing (it was secret for years) he spoke in superlative terms about the innovation and excitement involved in creating the code-morphing technology that Transmeta implemented in their Crusoe chips.
As Torvalds tells it, "The first day
Read the rest here. Also, this might also be of interest. So no, he was not just a posterboy there. ... when they were giving me a feel for what went on at Transmeta. I went back to the hotel that evening and I thought, "These people are CRAZY!" This was more than three years ago, when Transmeta had not a single chip. The simulations ran at GLACIAL speed. Still, The next day, I basically decided that, if I am to go to work for a company, I want to go to work for a company that does something fun - something interesting. And the first, initial reaction that, 'These people are crazy!' is a positive reaction in that sense." So why choose a chip company, when every Linux start-up in the world was after him? Torvalds explains, "I've obviously gotten a lot of job offers from Linux companies, but I didn't want to polarize the Linux market. I'm really happy being an engineer at a company that is very interested in Linux, but is not seen as a Linux company. We're a chip company where Linux is seen as part of a much larger strategy - and that's something I find very comfortable. Besides, Transmeta has been able to give me opportunities that I wouldn't otherwise have had. It's also a very cool vehicle for doing debugging, when you control the whole chip!" And Torvalds' skill as a debugger is legendary around Transmeta. "He's a god," says Dave Taylor, a co-developer of the original Quake who gave up being CEO of his own company to work for Transmeta. "He can look at a Linux display and somehow predict, just from the way it misbehaves, exactly where, in 100,000 lines of code, the problem is. And, nine times out of 10, he's right." -
Re:Interesting
SCO did seem to make some kind of effort to to merge Linux and SCO Unix
And they also contributed stuff to Linux (there was/is a list on their site, but in case that disappears): Link 1 Link 2 -
Re:SCO isnt showing anyone the code...
No, SCO isn't showing anyone the code because there is no code.
OR
Maybe it was part of SCO's effort to merge Linux and Unix
OR
Maybe their programmers wrote it into Linux: Link 1 Link 2 -
Recommended reading!
Uncanny similarities between SCO and Linux:
Here appears to be another reason why, according to SCO's previous CEO (note the date):
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5406 -
Part of a live ISO PVR?
Not that the video codec is the only important part of this, but the fact that unlike most, Ogg Theora is completely free of patent / royalty issues.
Imagine (it's not a great stretch anymore, though it might have been a few years ago) being able to assemble a box with a hard drive, motherboard, memory, then popping in a CD ala Knoppix or Gentoo Live, and BOOM there's a DVR. Movix is one side of the instant multi-media computer, but does not offer capture / record functions.
Built-to-purpose, such a computer ought to have a TV-out (and the live ISO would have to support it ;) -- including well-designed menus like the ones for freevo and mythTV, suitable for low-res TV screens -- so it could be used without a conventional monitor attached).
timothy
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Re:Good to see
You want lots of integration. Give it time; it will come. The free software world is made up of a bunch of unconnected projects; people add features on. One of these days, people will start adding the integration features. GNOME 2.x certainly has the plumbing for the sort of app-to-app communication you are wishing for; in fact, if you look at what the initials G-N-O-M-E stand for, it's the Network Object Model that will make this integration possible.
Read Miguel's famous rant "Let's Make UNIX not Suck".
As for how to train bogofilter which emails are spam, may I humbly recommend you read my own article on the Linux Journal web site:
Fight Spam with SpamProbe
I used SpamProbe but you can use the same approach to use BogoFilter.
steveha -
Re:...and in related news...
Toaster PC Reference to "Linux Fridge" In 2nd paragraph.
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Stupidity and desperation: similar, not identity
Even I don't think SCO is that stupid.
They may well be that desperate. Desperate can be roughly equivalent to mindless.
all SCO could do is sue Linux companies and users to cease further infringement, not monetary damages. They couldn't even recoup legal costs for the cases.
I think I'll start encouraging other people to invite SCO to sue them - oops, too late.
Before SCO even do that, they have to serve notice on those people and give them a reasonable time to cease. Which to me sounds like a fine reason to update, no complaints there.
This is stating the obvious, but "cease further infringement" is precisely what the vast majority of Linux kernel developers are aching to do, if and when they are shown some genuine infringing code.
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The Story on the NDA
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Re:Thank God
Um... Did you read any of that?!
If not, let me fill you in: this isn't over, it got worse. A SCO paralegal "discovered" a legal document saying SCO owns UNIX copyrights. (How you can simply "discover" a document this important at the last minute... I don't know.)
SCO also got some sap to say that SCO's evidence is credible. She made this statement based on source code comments, just like this guy predicted. -
Advice from the HA-Linux list
Alan Robertson, who maintains the heartbeat package and works for IBM, recently posted to the ha-linux list on this subject.
Alan does not accept patches to the heartbeat code that were developed on company time unless he receives a disclaimer from somebody at the company.
This is obviously spoofable, but it's probably a good way to legally protect the code -- Alan can honestly say he received it in good faith, which keeps IBM's lawyers' from breathing down his neck. It's kind of weird for me, though, I have to send a disclaimer giving myself permission to send in a patch....
So, to answer your question: explain to your CEO why helping the OSS community helps you to help your company, and get her/him to sign off on a policy that allows you to do so. Ask for legal authority to be delegated to yourself (or your boss) to license or assign corporate intellectual property to open-source projects. Then have HR propagate the policy to your co-workers. -
Text of the SCO NDA
Yes, here it is.
The agreement as written is extremely generous to SCO, potentially including as Confidential Information items that are already public knowledge.
Sometimes companies propose overbroad NDAs as ambit claims just to see if you'll sign. If you really wanted to see their stinking source you might by able persuade them to strike some of the more onerous clauses. Or perhaps not.
I would be *extremely* leery of signing an NDA with a desparate and litigious company that has shown so much willingness to screw its previous friends.
If I really wanted to do this, I would get rock-solid legal advice (and possibly a second legal opinion) beforehand.
You really have to ask yourself, though, what are you going to gain from examining it? The community panel is not legally binding, and SCO has the freedom to show only part of the evidence. At best it will be inconclusive, which allows SCO to keep spreading FUD. At worst, you get sued as well.
SCO have made very serious accusations against the developer community. The onus is on them to substantiate those claims with more than a few vague sentences.
If SCO want to try this in the court of public opinion then they need to produce some evidence. If they want to hold onto the evidence until discovery in court then they should shut up and wait for the trial. -
Over 20 years in an Aerospace Research Lab ...
... and all I've got to show for it is this lousy Linux Journal Article
Although we use LabView on Windows for most of our low-level instrument control, we couldn't get through a single day's testing without Perl, Linux, and Apache. -
Re:Now that that's taken care of
The May 2003 issue of Linux Journal features Linux and sound. Check out Linux Journal then navigate to the May 2003 issue in the archive section. The ones they mention are still in beta or development stages but some are useful, according to the articles.
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Re:VCDJ
Though this doessn't solve the issue of physical CD storage, it is an elegant solution to gain access to all of your CD data at any time without needing to locate the CD.
Build a Virtual CD Jukebox. -
Spambayes
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Linux suggests DiBona for SCO panel
So goes the heading.... Quote Linux Journal: DiBona said in an e-mail interview that he is willing to look at SCO's evidence, and he does not have any legal "taint" from previous development work that would make him unable to do so. As an experienced programmer with a background in regression testing and security software, DiBona says he would have to consider the possibility that similar code could be evidence of convergence, not infringement.
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Linux Journal (June '03) Review
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Re:Hard lessons
I remembered an article on setting up a server to replace exchange in a Linux Journal a couple months back, and sure enough it used Insight Server which like the parent mentioned is expensive. But if you are interested here is the link http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6734
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Re:"read or execute" flag?
Read or execute may only be a problem because when we want to allow stack access with read/write permissions, we wind up granting execute/write permissions. I think OpenBSD is working on getting rid of having both write and execute permissions on the same memory region. However, Linux may not be able to follow suit due to the use of trampoline functions (as described here). How OpenBSD plans to get around this, I'm not sure, it is possible that I have a faulty memory regarding OpenBSD's avoidance of write/execute in the kernel.
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Re:SpamStopyou can use your MTAs TLS functionality to do the same and TLS is supported by MTAs on many operating systems and MTAs
I have TLS enabled on my MTA (sendmail) and observe the occasional connection that uses it (aside from my own). But, I didn't know how to require encrypted connections. I poked around a bit on the 'Net and found this:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=4823
It appears that you can use the access map to require encypted connections. Of course, the same map could be used to restrict unencrypted connections to certain servers, as well.
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Re:Internet and BC Outbreak
Researchers in BC were also, with the help of Linux able to make many of the first breakthrough's in examining the genome of this disease.
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Re:3 words: Car Ogg Player
"...and does floating point, so Ogg is possible."
If you will recall, the XIPH team re-wrote the Ogg decoder so that it can run on systems that can only do integer math. "Several optimizations were made that resulted in the decoder being twice as fast. We've also tuned the code to be tolerant for those who implement Vorbis using integer-only math. This allows hardware and embedded devices to more easily support Ogg Vorbis playback." http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=4416. -
No, that's Red Flag Linux.
Red Flag Linux (Chinese), read a review here.
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Re:Serious Question
Most of them do and have for a while...and if not they are currently starting the switch.
Digital Domain, Disney, Double Negative, Dreamworks, Flash Film Works, Hammerhead Industrial Light & Magic, Pixar, Rhythm & Hues, Sony Pictures, Tippett, Weta Digital
Linux was also used on movies such as Harry Potter, Stuart Little, Scooby-Doo and many many more.
check out these links:
linuxmovies.org
movieeditor.com/linux.movies.html
any of these LJ artilces:
Robin Rowe LJ Articles
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Re:That's All Nice and Dandy, But...
A while back, I did some experimentation with the "nv" driver, and apparently XFree86 4.2.1 and later include DVI support with the "nv" driver (which would be used during the RedHat install). However, the config file needs to be adjusted before installation (I guess), or output will be redirected to the VGA port instead of the DVI port.
In the video card section of the XFree86 config file, add:
Option "FlatPanel" "true"
Theoretically this could be setup for a massive deployment by Hacking Red Hat Linux Kickstart. -
Re:Double-Edged Sword
Rather than another of Steve Jobs proprietary projects, how about something that's open source?
While I don't know if the code has been made publicly available, there is a guy who has built up his own studio automation system. Linux Journal featured Bill Goldsmith in this article on KPIG.com and Radio Paradise. In the print article, there was talk of making his studio software available, it might be worth contacting him for details.
I know that if I were in the radio biz, I'd much rather have a system as much under my control as possible. This also includes scrapping mp3 in favor of Ogg as this recording studio professional did (while the article is supposed to be about Linux, the deeper story is about the use of Ogg files).