Slashback: Tableturkey, Stromlo, Mandrake

Slashback tonight with followups on previous stories about tablet computers, the fire at Mt.Stromlo, and Mandrake Linux -- read below for the details. Update: 01/24 00:08 GMT by T : One more update added below, regarding the post earlier this week on nVidia's new video card.

The silver lining.dragonsister writes "Regarding the recent slashdot story on Mount Stromlo Observatory being hit by fire, it seems the damage is not nearly as extensive as it might have been. The Australian National University has posted details here. In particular, the office buildings were spared, meaning that the work of staff and students is safe, and the many years worth of data collected should still be usable. The main question remaining in my mind is whether or not there were backups of the data on the computers that were actually located in the telescope buildings themselves, as these contained information crucial to the interpretation of some of the data. The importance of off-site backups has just been demonstrated. Everybody backup now!"

And blakduk writes "We were able to enter the site and retrieve computing equipment that survived the fire. This enabled us to set up our servers and have all staff back on-line within 24 hours."

Other than that, how was the parade? Back in November, I posted an article about the DocuNote, an inexpensive tablet PC available with Linux. According to richardbondi , maybe "cheap" would be a better word. He writes:

"I bought one, it arrived today. It was clearly used, not new, and didn't work. If you tilted it, it hung. I gave up after a dozen reboots. Only purchasable from www.microsono.com, where all sales are final.

The handwriting recognition software turned out to be trialware.

And although the stepupcomputing.com site says it works with Windows 2000, it came with a note that said now it has to be OEM installed.

One user's bad experience -- bad hardware, deceptive advertising re software."

Looks nice over two monitors, too. Znonymous Coward writes "Mandrake is trying to prove it's not dead yet. Yesterday[Note: the 19th, that is], they released Beta 2 of Mandrake 9.1. You can get the 2 ISO images from the usual mirrors." There's a (critical but mostly positive) review of this 2nd beta running at DistroWatch, too.

Once this starts it always gets messy. Per Hansson writes

"Yesterday we at Techspot posted a Interview with Nvidia plus high-resolution pictures of the Geforce FX.

A few sites rightfully claimed that this material had been stolen from Nordichardware however this was not the case, we interviewed Nvidia at the same time and therefore our Interviews looks so similar."

Anton Nilsson, assistant editor in chief of Nordic Hardware writes, in contrast,

"... [I]t seems as if they have used my material as found here.

I've spoken to the TechSpot staff and the person who reported the news item to you and it seems as if they overheard me doing my interview with nVidia at Comdex. Since they didn't want to bug nVidia with the same questions again they later on read the interview at my page and then posted it on theirs. Still that doesn't make up a fair excuse in my opinion."

You'll have to make up your own mind on this.

Comments

All Sales are Final

[duffbeer703]

Does not jive with the warranty. A sale is either final or not final.

If you have a problem with this device, contact your friendly credit-card issuer to dispute the charge or take them to small claims court.

GeForce FX

[kmac06]

Anyone know when the GeForce FX is scheduled to come out? I looked for it but couldn't find a release date/window

Trying to decide if I should buy the GeForce4 Ti4200 now or when the FX ships and ths price drops...

Re:In the DotSlash alternate universe

[mmol_6453]

Weren't tablet PCs supposed to change the geometry from portrait to landscape (and back) when the display was tilted in the appropriate direction?

Sounds like buggy X drivers, to me. My laptop resizes the geometry fine when I switch from the LCD display to the external VGA port.

Re:Astronomical data

[astrobabe]

You know the whole backup thing at the 90 inch only works if you remember to bring tapes up with you (which I forget on a regular basis but you know I'm a closet blonde). I just sftp my data back to multiple computers back at Steward to take care of the problem :0 The KPNO system is very nice- the Save the Bits archive makes multiple tapes of the data that get stored in the 4 meter and down in town and data gets ftp'd down to one of the NOAO Tucson servers as well. So it's on hard drive in multiple places as well as on tape in multiple places as well. As to Stromlo- somebody brought down all the backup tapes to Canberra on Friday (the day before the fire) so most of the data was saved. Unfortunately though a lot of us astro people are going to suffer in the near future when DAT drives stop being the best way to store our data. . .hell I have a desk drawer of DAT and DLT tapes as well as CD ROMs with data right now!

Stromlo fire. . .

[astrobabe]

What I think is the most impressive quote from the Stromlo emails I've seen lately: "The telescopes are all still "hanging" on their mounts, but are not recoverable. The 50" looks like it is parked, but the lower end of the mount is melted and the mirror is a pile of goo on the floor, the Yale lens is on the floor, and the 74" mirror is damaged far beyond repair. " The amount of heat needed to flash melt a 50" diameter piece of glass that was probably about a foot thick is impressive and ungodly at the same time. . .

Re:Stromlo fire. . .

[dragonsister]

I have another friend involved with facilities at Stromlo. He has described the process of making mirrors for telescopes such as these. The final polishing involves:
Setting up an interferometer to detect variations in the height of the surface at the sub-wavelength level;
Someone wearing silk gloves brushing lightly over the raised places on the mirror;
Coming back several hours later when the thermal effects have settled down, to repeat the process.

The mirror takes about a year to make. Most telescopes are three years from money to installation. My friend's company may get a telescope back on Stromlo as early as July, simply and solely because it was already coming, and the mirror is already made.

Anyway. The point I'm looking to make here is - it doesn't take much to ruin a telescope's mirror.

Photographs of the damage to the landscape, the buildings, and the telescopes were made available today, at http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/colless/StromloFire/. I find it interesting that the trees are all still standing - less only their leaves!

DragonSister

Re:Don't forget the Housotn story

[fermion]

I did not follow this story closesly, but what I do know is that a lot of people in Houston now have access to a computer through the public library. I also know that the BSA can exact a steep penalty for any software piracy, penalties that could reach into the millions. I do not think that it is reasonable to expose the city to that liability.

What i also know is that the model promoted by the BSA and MS is unworkable for widely distributed PCs. They would want the city to 100% liable for any unlicensed software that may be found on your machine. They want the right to have root access to all your machines, have at will acess to your technicians, and have the ability to arbitrarily inconvience any of your employees at any time. I have seen it.

It's not that unusual

[hayden]

I find it interesting that the trees are all still standing - less only their leaves!

Eucalytus trees evolved to survive all but the most extreme bushfires. The generally accepted theory is that the soil is so poor in Australia that the best time to germinate is just after a bushfire where the ground is covered in nutrients from the burned trees and bushes.

Re:It's not that unusual

[DHam]

While it's true that the oil in Eucalypts can produce some spactacular effects, the trees themselves are pretty fire-hardy and have fire-triggered regrowth behaviour which helps them recover. Many of the parts of Canberra which have been badly affected are actually near pine plantations which are much more of a fire hazard than the natural bush. (This also applies to Mt. Stromlo - the trees on the hill itself are Eucalypts but the hill is in the middle of a pine plantation). The locations of pine plantations near Canberra are being reassessed due to the fires (or so says the Canberra Times).

Re:In the DotSlash alternate universe

[stinky wizzleteats]

Sir, you are smoking crack.

Uh, well, no, actually, I'm not. We could trade unsubstantiated personal anecdotes until we're blue in the face, but from my experience working on PCs to my systems integration work to my involvement on several large implementation projects to my experience as an MIS manager at a large law firm, I've been personally responsible for the operation of untold tens of thousands of computers running Windows (3x-2000). My statements of Windows' legendary instability derive directly from that experience. It's one thing to shoot your mouth off on slashdot about a technology or operating system; quite another to develop a workstation image plan to mitigate the staggering instability of said technology and have your job depend on how appropriately designed and well executed that plan is.

In short, I've been in the position of putting my money where my mouth is with regard to Windows, and my professional advice has served both myself and my customers well - backup often, and know where your reinstall discs are!

Or did you think that the BSOD is a cultural meme because of widespread socioeconomic envy toward Bill Gates?

Re:In the DotSlash alternate universe

[Afrosheen]

I don't think it's the sole reason people *use* linux, but it's probably one of the biggest reasons people *try* linux. Since there are no hard numbers it's all speculation anyway, but from my experience with linux and with others who have tried it, getting away from Windows instability/frustration factor has always been the primary motivator. Your mileage, and that of others, will vary.