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Linux.conf.au Talks Available Online

Posted by timothy on from the use-dash-flip-as-necessary dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Despite the floods, linux.conf.au 2011 went ahead in Brisbane. Videos of the talks given at the conference are available via blip.tv. Highly recommended are Vint Cerf's keynote and Keith Packard's talk on X and the future of Linux graphics."

33 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Sad ... by Schwarzy · · Score: 2, Informative

    ... that I need access to a computer with ADOBE Flash installed to watch this.

    1. Re:Sad ... by ludwigf · · Score: 1

      ... that I need access to a computer with ADOBE Flash installed to watch this.

      Too bad google didn't sponsor the event. youtube's html5 video player works pretty well.

    2. Re:Sad ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      no you dont. there is an ogg version if you look on the page. its a drop down box

    3. Re:Sad ... by DarthJohn · · Score: 3, Informative

      Wait, what?

      "I see play episode as:" followed by a combo box with three different formats to choose from: flv, ogg and mp4.

      Also, off to the right is "Files and Links." I expanded that and right clicked on the ogg links and am downloading about 5 videos now. I plan to watch them with totem.

    4. Re:Sad ... by Schwarzy · · Score: 1

      Thanks !! I just stopped on the "missing plugin" message. I wonder why they do not switch automatically on ogg or other when Flash is not present.

    5. Re:Sad ... by Ysangkok · · Score: 1

      ... that I need access to a computer with ADOBE Flash installed to watch this.

      Not true. See the "Play episode as..." dropdown below the description. There is also a HTML5 option.

    6. Re:Sad ... by Inf0phreak · · Score: 2

      You know you can download the videos from blip.tv, right? And they play perfectly fine in mplayer or vlc.

      --
      ________
      Entranced by anime since late summer 2001 and loving it ^_^
    7. Re:Sad ... by DaVince21 · · Score: 1

      Blip.tv has a HTML5 player (and it automatically activated for me). Problem is... the video didn't want to play in it.

      --
      I am not devoid of humor.
    8. Re:Sad ... by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      Well, maybe you shouldn't be using an ipad.

  2. Transcripts by Lproven · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Bugger the video formats, where are the transcripts?

    I could either spend half a day watching them or 5-10 min reading. You guys may have all day; I don't.

    --
    Liam P. ~ "Intelligence is a lethal mutation." (me)
    1. Re:Transcripts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Flash only? What about Ogg!"
      "They have Ogg stuff up, but what about transcripts?"
      "They have transcripts up, but what about transcript translations?"
      "They have transcripts up in all major languages, but what about captions?"
      "What about captions in other languages?"
      "What about translations to Esperanto and Latin for future posterity?"
      "Can someone write a MMIX player so these videos will be playable anytime into the future?"

    2. Re:Transcripts by trawg · · Score: 1

      Yep, transcripts are great - I always prefer reading because I can absorb information so much faster than video. Generally, any video I want to watch now I try to download locally and play back in VLC at 1.2-1.5x faster - highly recommended.

      But I understand why they don't do transcripts - because it takes a lot of effort. We do transcripts for all videos that we produce on our website (blatant example plug) and doing it properly takes a surprising amount of effort. It's really easy to make mistakes, it's really time consuming to type it all up, etc. I believe there's some software which purports to automatically generate transcriptions - I haven't used it, but have seen the results - terribad.

      We've tried various options - like having juniors do it or volunteers - but usually the only way we can consistently get good quality transcriptions is to have them done by the person who actually did the video.

      Next step is actually doing it as closed captioning but that's another whole area of effort!

    3. Re:Transcripts by spongman · · Score: 1

      no need, Keith Packard already talks at least 1.5x faster. great talk.

    4. Re:Transcripts by Anthony · · Score: 1

      This post should be Moderated "Ungrateful sod". A bunch of volunteers pull out all stops to put together a conference against some daunting odds and you expect someone to type up a transcript for you? How much are you going to pay for it?

      --
      Slashdot: Where nerds gather to pool their ignorance
    5. Re:Transcripts by miknight · · Score: 1

      My thoughts exactly.

  3. So where is all the documentation? by Chemisor · · Score: 1

    Gee, I'd love to ditch the bloated monster of OpenGL and X and just use DRI. Only there is absolutely no documentation on how to do it. From what I have read so far I'm under impression I'd have to write a whole graphics driver, which, needless to say, is INSANELY difficult. Trying to look up API documentation and examples on anything but OpenGL is impossible. I am not even sure which API they are trying to promote, or what they all are for. For instance, is GEM a replacement to EGL or its backend? Is DRI an alternative to GEM, or an implementation of it? Then you have EXA, Gallium3D, Vdpau, DRM, and God knows how many alphabet soup APIs, all without a shred of documentation or a even a simple example. I don't know about you, but I'll just wait until the driver people figure out what the hell it is they want to do and then see what the API is then. Maybe they'll even write an example. Maybe then we'll finally have games written for Linux.

    1. Re:So where is all the documentation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      That's because you're a fucking tool.

      FYI You're one of those guys who just doesn't get it.

    2. Re:So where is all the documentation? by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure you're a "tool" per se but you are guilty of running off at the mouth. Perhaps you are not aware that DRI was created mainly to handle OpenGL better? Granted, the net is not overflowing with links to technical details. Because it is pretty low level stuff, with a very small core of developers of maybe a couple dozen. But the information is out there.

      GEM is a low level component of DRI that manages rendering objects in memory, while EGL is a cross platform API for creating and managing OpenGL drawing surfaces, a potential replacement for GLX on Linux and WGL on Windows. Not quite there yet in terms of general availability. Working from the above link you should be able to find your way to the answers you seek, all of which is pretty well documented but not necessarily heavily linked from every Facebook home page.

      --
      Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
  4. Graphics? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Also talk about the future of Linux gaming and how to get devs to port modern games to it without having to use WINE, and more end-users like myself would take interest.

    Linux does everything I want, except gaming. I have no desire to go back and forth between Win and Lin just to browse the web, so make Linux capable of doing everything a Win system can and I'll make the switch right away.

    1. Re:Graphics? by loufoque · · Score: 1

      The actor in the video clearly said that the new architecture wasn't really compatible with binary blobs.
      Expect a mess unless you have an Intel GPU in the near future.

  5. This one got me... by toxygen01 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "We have removed 5 hundred thousand lines from X server core, did anybody notice?"

    1. Re:This one got me... by jbernardo · · Score: 1

      If you were trying to maintain a binary blob (like intel's infamous psb drivers) you surely noticed.

    2. Re:This one got me... by Beelzebud · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah and then he mentioned that there was still around 500,000 lines of code that "isn't doing very much". It was a great talk overall. I am actually very happy to see that the X server finally seems to be in the process of being phased out, or at least made less mandatory for a desktop system. Things like removing keyboard and mouse input from it are music to my ears.

    3. Re:This one got me... by JonJ · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I chuckled a bit at the response he got: "Yeah, they showed up in the kernel!"

      --
      -- Linux user #369862
    4. Re:This one got me... by Eil · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One downside to continually removing functionality from X and putting it into the kernel is that X becomes far less capable on non-Linux platforms. The BSDs, Solaris, even Darwin have benefited from OS-independent hardware support in X.

      Also, I remember a time when Linux kernel and X developers derided Microsoft for integrating their kernel and graphics layers so tightly...

    5. Re:This one got me... by _Shad0w_ · · Score: 1

      What came next was perhaps the bit which amused me most:

      Voice from the crowd: Yes, it all turned up in the kernel.

      Keith Packard: Thank you for managing my problem, Linus.

      --

      Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.

    6. Re:This one got me... by elkto · · Score: 1

      Indeed, I need multiple Video cards, a feature he described as not functional at this time in GEM and 'hard' to implement. He also berates the socket/network interfaces to the server, which I use heavily. He seems to view judisious memory use in low regard.

      But that said, there are is allot to be said for tidying up decades worth of code bloat, and revisiting the general graphics structure.

  6. Vint Cerf by sydneyfong · · Score: 1

    http://totallylookslike.icanhascheezburger.com/2008/09/29/vint-cerf-totally-looks-like-the-architect/

    Interesting coincidence I found out recently. Might be well known to those who is familiar with him, but it got a laugh out of me.

    --
    Don't quote me on this.
  7. Direct Download, FTW. by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

    Screw that flash laden b/s.

    Point your download accelerators at these links, and watch them in a proper video player.

    Vint Cerf Keynote

    X and the Future of Linux Graphics

    (right click, save as...)

  8. Interesting, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I don't understand how he can just say they don't care about NVidia. If it weren't for NVidia and their graphics solutions that actually work and provide good gaming performance, I would still be using Windows. 2001-era 3D support isn't adequate for all of us.

  9. Probably Off-topic, but... by mvdw · · Score: 1

    Can anyone who went to LCA this year tell me where it's going to be held next year?

    1. Re:Probably Off-topic, but... by rusty · · Score: 1

      Ballarat: http://lcaunderthestars.org.au/

      Looking forward to it!
      Rusty.

  10. Window managing in the kernel by jabjoe · · Score: 1

    I thought the criticism wasn't so much about the graphics drivers being in the kernel, as the windowing/GUI. No one is talking about moving windowing into the Linux kernel, just all the drivers. Well there is FBUI, but I think that is on the fringe. X could almost be thought of as a separate operating system on top at the moment, changing it to be just an app that deals with windows is a win to everyone. Especially the poor X developers.