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Audio Download: Linux Kernel to be on Radio

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the at-every-mistake-they-have-to-drink dept.

cyber_rigger writes: "The Linux Kernel is to have a (spoken) reading on Radio Free Linux and some other regular radio station throughout the world. http://radioqualia.va.com.au/freeradiolinux/ I guess this makes Linux offically 'free as in speech.' 'The Linux kernel contains 4,141,432 lines of code. Reading the entire kernel will take an estimated 14253.43 hours, or 593.89 days. Free Radio Linux begins transmission on February 3, 2002, the fourth anniversary of the term "Open Source."'" If only the mysterious numbers stations would open their source as well.

16 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. What Kernel revision? by mESSDan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Also, can we submit bug reports to the radio station now? Heh.

    --

    -- Dan
    1. Re:What Kernel revision? by Molina+the+Bofh · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah. I imagine some guy calling the radio station:

      DJ: Hi, you're live now. What's your name?

      guy: David.

      DJ: And what music do you want, son ?

      guy: I want the preemptible kernel patch.

      DJ: Oh, so you like low latency, uh ?

      guy: Yep. I sure do.

      DJ: Ok, here it goes. We'll now play Preemptible Kernel Patch Opus 1, No. 1. Trio Sonata in E Minor

      --

      -
      Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
  2. In other news today... by Pollux · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...the PI channel, a channel dedicated to dictating the sequencial numbers of pi, went off the air today. Apparently, their Neilson ratings dropped to zero five seconds after they went on the air. No later had the digits "1415926" been read before the plug was pulled.

    "I don't understand," says Ira Tional, promotional manager of the PI channel. "I thought everyone loved pi, and they could now get it 24-7!" Tional thought that perhaps if they had started the channel with guest stars doing the reading, such as Drew Carey or Britany Spears, the PI channel wouldn't have come to such an abbrupt halt. "But for some reason, they told me I was being too irrational."

    1. Re:In other news today... by wsloand · · Score: 5, Funny

      "I thought everyone loved pi, and they could now get it 24-7!"

      If only they had realized that people can only take pi about 22/7. 24/7 is just more than people want it.

  3. what kernel ? by XPulga · · Score: 5, Funny
    turns radio on

    slash kernel slash sched dot c slash asterisk line break asterisk (...) 1998-12-28 Implemented better SMP scheduling by Ingo Molnar

    Dang! It's the vanilla kernel where are user mode Linux and Alan's cool toys ?

    switches station

    ...Then Iluvatar arose, and the Ainur perceived that he smiled; and he lifted up his left hand, and a new theme began amid the storm...

    Silmarillion. Spoken. Again.

    switches station again

    eight dot three four six minus a dash greather than c zero wb zero yn dot eat...

    Yay, they've got Reiser in this one, but they're still reciteing the console driver, it'll be 3 days before we get to the filesystem

    switches stations frantically

    hash include less-than linux slash config dot h NO NO GET OUT OF HERE WHAT ARE YOU DOING ?

    Hello, I am Richard M. Stallman and you are being deceived, for it takes much more than a kernel to get a computer going. Here are 3 billion lines of GNU code that this radio hasn't read aloud yet. [DOOR SLAMS] Tee hee, and how do you think you get those tiny little icons on the screen ? Here's the XFree86 source to be read.

    turns off radio, goes to slashdot, picks cowboyneal option on poll

    1. Re:what kernel ? by Bios_Hakr · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I haven't tuned in as of yet (just woke up at work and cannot find the power supply for my speakers), but it seems to me that they would be reading the algorithym, not the code.

      Reading the code symbol for symbol would seem to me to be slightly, well, geeky. But not in that good way.

      On a side note, has anyone thought about calling Guiness ( the records guys, not the beer guys) for a note in The Book? This has to be the longest online reading ever.

      On second thought, call the beer guys too. It might be harder to understand, but it would be a hellava lot more fun. And I can always get the written transcripts later:)

      --
      I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
  4. Whaaaat? by damas · · Score: 4, Funny

    Kernel.org is down again?

  5. Well hot shit! by Wakko+Warner · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know what I'M gonna be listening to for the next year and a half.

    Before this, it was test patterns. I consider this a lateral move.

    - A.P.

    --
    "Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
  6. I wonder... by Briareos · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just how many people will be listening to this all day long, waiting to hear "fsck me gently with a chainsaw" (arch/sparc/kernel/ptrace.c) on public radio for the first time? ^_^

    Also, how long will it then take before "concerned parents" get the project off the air? >_<

    np: Phonem - Decay (Arovane/Phonem - Aer (Valid))

    --

    "I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole

  7. Not that good by komet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I listened in for a bit and it was very confusing. The punctuation marks especially have very confusing names and not enough pause between them. =( came out as: equals..... signpar-en-the-sis ... very confusing. And why "traditional hyphen"?

    It also mispronounced "Linus Torvalds". How hard would it have been to sample Linus' name properly?

    Of course, these are all things that can be improved as time goes on and I do hope they will actually do so.

    --
    Any technology which is distinguishable from magic is not sufficiently advanced.
  8. What a waste of time... by weave · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This seems a horrible waste of resources. And what do they hope to gain or prove by this?

    I'd be more impressed if they steered the bot so it began reading out loud the DeCSS code and other forbidden code over and over. Then it really would be about free speech...

  9. Why not Gutenberg? by heyetv · · Score: 4, Interesting



    Why the linux kernel???

    Why not start reading from the Project Gutenberg files instead, something that would support 'open' and 'free' concepts, but at the same time be useful and improving...

  10. Icecast2 is pretty impressive by Querty · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm surprised noone has notices that the station still hasn't been slashdotted! They are streaming with the experimental icecast2 server. I'd say that's pretty impressive.

    Thanks to all who are making this possible. Especially Monty, Ogg/Vorbis rocks!

  11. What the hell is the point?? by t_allardyce · · Score: 3, Funny

    To fund it, their gonna hide advertising in the code - e.g. "printf("This kernel sponsered by Pepsi, for a coders everywhere");"

    After the first month, all the advertisers will pull out because the listener base = 5.

    When they've finished, someone will ring up telling them that they made a mistake in line 2,432,243 it was "x" instead of "y".

    And Microsoft will probably have something to say about it all being evil...

    --
    This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
  12. /* Kernel Marketing Patch */ by Grax · · Score: 3, Funny

    /*
    USB support sponsored by
    KFC - Try the Kernel's special recipe today
    Pepsi - The Choice of a GNU Generation
    Raid - Kills bugs dead
    */

    --
    Coding Blog
  13. I'm auditioning for this!!! by erroneus · · Score: 4, Funny

    I want to play the part of a memory manager or an interrupt handler. That'd be SO COOL!