Michael Tiemann recently took some time to do an email interview with LinuxQuestions.org (Thanks Michael!). As you can probably tell from some of the questions, this interview is a touch old. If you have a question that you'd like answered, post it in this thread. I'll send a few of the best questions, as followups, to Michael.
LQ) Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from, where did you go to school and the other basics. MT) When most people ask this question, they mean "where did you get your degree?" I got my BS CSE from the Moore School at the University of Pennsylvania. That's the final resting place for several chunks of the first all-digital computer, the ENIAC. But I started learning about computers at home, about 1974, when my father bought and assembled an IMSAI 8080, then later a Cromemco Z2-D with three or four 64KB banks of RAM and a 10MB winchester hard disk. As I recall, the Z2-D computer cost as much as our station wagon. And that's when I started to learn BASIC, PL/I, Pascal, C, FORTH, LISP, and many other programming languages. It was a passion of mine since I was 12 to write a compiler, and after writing a few toy compilers in CS class, I got my chance in 1987 to transform the GNU C Compiler into the GNU C++ compiler, and later, to merge it as part of the GNU Compiler Collection.
Believe it or not, the Z2-D from 1976 was my PC in college (1982-1986). With my summer job at Cromemco, I'd upgraded it with parts from the scrap heap: a 68020 processor, 1.5 MB of RAM (3 512KB modules), a 48KB two-port graphics card. I also bought a shiny new 50MB harddisk which consumed my entire summer earnings.
LQ) What's the hostname of your favorite linux box and why is it named that? Also, if you couldn't use Red Hat or Fedora, which distribution would you use? MT) I haven't paid attention to hostnames in forever, but if I were not using Red Hat or Fedora, I'd probably use Mandrake. Mandrake seems to have a very large number of RPMs available for it.
LQ) What was your first introduction to Linux? What was the reason behind you using Linux and was anyone in particular responsible for turning you on to Linux? MT) My first introduction was via Adam Richter, creator of the Yggdrasil distribution. He called me up and took me to lunch one day, mainly to try to understand whether what I'd learned at Cygnus (the world's first company to commercialize free software) could be applied to the business he was thinking about starting. I didn't think so: we were selling support contracts for $35,000 to more than $1M per year, and he wanted to sell CDs for $99 (or perhaps even less). The two models could not have been more different.
I forgot about Linux until I got a call from Larry McVoy, telling me that there was this software company in North Carolina (software company in North Carolina!?) that had about 15 people and was growing by leaps and bounds. It was committed to free software, and Cygnus should look at acquiring it. While I was not that excited about Yggdrasil, I did become excited about Red Hat. We held a board meeting to discuss spending 10% of our equity in 1995 to acquire Red Hat but I could not convince the two other co-founders to make an offer. Four years later, Red Hat acquired Cygnus with 10% of their equity. Sigh.
LQ) I remember reading an interview with you in late 2000 in which you answered the question "Which distribution do you feel is your main competitor?" with "Right now our main competitors are Sun Solaris and Microsoft." Fast forward to today, do you think that same answer still applies? MT) Moreso than ever.
LQ) Now that the dust from the initial Fedora announcement has settled and FC has a couple releases under its belt, would you say the project is as successful as Red Hat had hoped? In what areas would you say it really shines and what do you think are its biggest shortcomings? MT) The project has been incredibly successful, and we have a lot of people outside of Red Hat to thank for that. What Red Hat must now do is to f
what happens when they reverse engineer the reverse engineering you did on the virus they originally wrote? if we look into the biological field, fighting viruses only makes them stronger. Not that we shouldn't but the better the anti virus writer becomes, the better the virus writer already is.
I could make a joke about this helping evacuation plans, but really it's just good news what with hurricanes pounding the southern part of the U.S and the Caribbean. A more accurate ETA of storms would be tremendously helpful to business and civilians alike.
I'd put it in my car. While (possibly) helping with my insurance, the data that this would retrieve would be interesting as it pertains to the mileage I'm getting and so forth.
If I was a law abiding (i.e slow) driver, I'd like this more since it's hard evidence I can show my insurance company with possible and unknown rewards. However, as a young, hotheaded twenty something, my premiums would only go up;)
- 'Congratulations Mr.Johnson, according to our records you haven't gone above the speed limit in four years.' - 'And what does that entitle me to?' - '$30 off your next payment.....oh wait, see here - 1 year ago you went 2 miles over the limit. Make that $15.' - 'Um...thanks.'
Okay, I've set up my MP3 server, now what do I do with the other 4 233Mhz boxes I have?
What I've done is donate their cpu cycles to projects like Seti@Home That 233 pig can chug through Fast Fourier calculations all day for all I care. Don't even need a montior hooked up to it either.
Re:why not 'online for dummies'?
on
Online! The Book
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· Score: 1
the kind of people who get fired as soon as their companies find out how useless they really are
these people don't get fired? They get made CIO/CEO's.
Well I'm not sure where my school lies on what the data I make or use on there network but I do know how they intend on limiting my usage of the internet. I'm from a small liberal arts school ( about 3,000 students) in VA. I'm not sure if has anything to do with the state or what but for some reason the system adminstrators feel is nessacary to have a firewall that blocks EVERY port plus does some other goodies (It filters or slows UDP packets so when I play online fps it makes me choppy for one). Why would they do this? Why our friendly DOS attacks have the admins in such a fret that if they let a port open where doomed. Now don't get me wrong. I am sure the school is hit by hackers looking for an open system to bounce from or just to screw with but there has to be a better way to do this.
I recently bought Gamevoice so I could play with my friends online (yeah boo hiss M$ its actually pretty cool). problem is you need ports open. So I asked the Director of Network Services if it was possible to open the neccasary ports (I've also talked to him about hosting servers, ftp, http, game, or whatever, no dice. we are not allowed. period). I told him it would cause little bandwidth usage. He said he would present it to the Internet Committee (yes we have a committee who decides what happens with our internet access, oh and they meet once every two months..). Of course they said no. I know its only for gaming purposes but still.
This is my only isp. I am paying a technology fee for the use of it. If this were a regular ISP no one would sign up (well maybe they would for the t1 speed but during the day thats drained like you wouldn't believe).
My question would be is there a possible alternative than this ahem anal way of protection? Or would this just be the policy of my colleges administration? Anyone else have this problem?
Oh, and on one last note. The school is suppose to provide a newsgroup service. However this is on hold because someone on the committee wanted a complete listing of all newsgroups so they could filter out which ones are inapporiate...
yeah I'm thinking about transfering. and yes the internet does mean that much to me.
"Time is the best teacher. Unfortunately, it eventually kills all of it's pupils."
I'd buy a copy. So you have three preorders now. what publishing company could resist that media hype?
Re:It's a mobile suit, IT'S A GUNDAM!!
on
Essential Anime
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· Score: 1
My Anime knowledge is limited do to the fact that all I see is what is on Cartoon Network.
Gundam Wing: out of the two this is better in terms of animation. Also its plot is a little more plausable (although not by much) then DBZ. a little to much light though.
DragonBallZ:I agree CmdrTaco in that this is a anime, WWF style. They destroy planets for godsake without blinking an eye. It is the anime action flick.The animation is pretty good but I will admit could be better.
Other suggestions of cartoons that are like this are welcome.
"It's a mobile suit, It's A GUNDAM!!!!" -an Oz guard about to be killed by one of the Gundams (not really important which Gundam). not sure which episode. I think its in most of them.:)
A good breakdown of the debate in my opinion. Here is my solution (noteworthy or not): -include a manual with the software. This manual should be enough to get the user setup and running and fairly familar with the program. The huge documents should be stored online - By storing online the company should decide whether to provide the documents on a consumer only server (one must have bought the software, which would require a key or password) or a public server (where the general public is allowed to access the materials). - If a person is not connected to the web (which seems to be a low occurence now) then the company should have seperate boxes with full manuals. - While this would require more work by the company, I think the reduction of costs in terms of materials saved would balance this out. -Teiresias (The day is mine Trebek!)
For anyone with knowledge of computers (i.e Linux and other O.S besides Windows) shouldn't be too suprised Microsoft is guilty. To be honest I don't much care if Microsoft is guilty. But since they are, they are. What I am interested in is what will happen. Whether we believe or not Microsoft effects all of us computer users so whatever is done to Microsoft will have an effect on us. Scary huh. -Teiresias:he was the blinde seer of Thebes who despite being blinde knew more than the man with sight. -Oedipus Rex
Slashdot Mirror
Michael Tiemann recently took some time to do an email interview with LinuxQuestions.org (Thanks Michael!). As you can probably tell from some of the questions, this interview is a touch old. If you have a question that you'd like answered, post it in this thread. I'll send a few of the best questions, as followups, to Michael.
LQ) Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from, where did you go to school and the other basics.
MT) When most people ask this question, they mean "where did you get your degree?" I got my BS CSE from the Moore School at the University of Pennsylvania. That's the final resting place for several chunks of the first all-digital computer, the ENIAC. But I started learning about computers at home, about 1974, when my father bought and assembled an IMSAI 8080, then later a Cromemco Z2-D with three or four 64KB banks of RAM and a 10MB winchester hard disk. As I recall, the Z2-D computer cost as much as our station wagon. And that's when I started to learn BASIC, PL/I, Pascal, C, FORTH, LISP, and many other programming languages. It was a passion of mine since I was 12 to write a compiler, and after writing a few toy compilers in CS class, I got my chance in 1987 to transform the GNU C Compiler into the GNU C++ compiler, and later, to merge it as part of the GNU Compiler Collection.
Believe it or not, the Z2-D from 1976 was my PC in college (1982-1986). With my summer job at Cromemco, I'd upgraded it with parts from the scrap heap: a 68020 processor, 1.5 MB of RAM (3 512KB modules), a 48KB two-port graphics card. I also bought a shiny new 50MB harddisk which consumed my entire summer earnings.
LQ) What's the hostname of your favorite linux box and why is it named that? Also, if you couldn't use Red Hat or Fedora, which distribution would you use?
MT) I haven't paid attention to hostnames in forever, but if I were not using Red Hat or Fedora, I'd probably use Mandrake. Mandrake seems to have a very large number of RPMs available for it.
LQ) What was your first introduction to Linux? What was the reason behind you using Linux and was anyone in particular responsible for turning you on to Linux?
MT) My first introduction was via Adam Richter, creator of the Yggdrasil distribution. He called me up and took me to lunch one day, mainly to try to understand whether what I'd learned at Cygnus (the world's first company to commercialize free software) could be applied to the business he was thinking about starting. I didn't think so: we were selling support contracts for $35,000 to more than $1M per year, and he wanted to sell CDs for $99 (or perhaps even less). The two models could not have been more different.
I forgot about Linux until I got a call from Larry McVoy, telling me that there was this software company in North Carolina (software company in North Carolina!?) that had about 15 people and was growing by leaps and bounds. It was committed to free software, and Cygnus should look at acquiring it. While I was not that excited about Yggdrasil, I did become excited about Red Hat. We held a board meeting to discuss spending 10% of our equity in 1995 to acquire Red Hat but I could not convince the two other co-founders to make an offer. Four years later, Red Hat acquired Cygnus with 10% of their equity. Sigh.
LQ) I remember reading an interview with you in late 2000 in which you answered the question "Which distribution do you feel is your main competitor?" with "Right now our main competitors are Sun Solaris and Microsoft." Fast forward to today, do you think that same answer still applies?
MT) Moreso than ever.
LQ) Now that the dust from the initial Fedora announcement has settled and FC has a couple releases under its belt, would you say the project is as successful as Red Hat had hoped? In what areas would you say it really shines and what do you think are its biggest shortcomings?
MT) The project has been incredibly successful, and we have a lot of people outside of Red Hat to thank for that. What Red Hat must now do is to f
what happens when they reverse engineer the reverse engineering you did on the virus they originally wrote? if we look into the biological field, fighting viruses only makes them stronger. Not that we shouldn't but the better the anti virus writer becomes, the better the virus writer already is.
the mummies of the digital age. we're like treasure hunters only instead of jewels and crowns we're looking for gold lined circuit boards.
my towel and I are ready!
I could make a joke about this helping evacuation plans, but really it's just good news what with hurricanes pounding the southern part of the U.S and the Caribbean. A more accurate ETA of storms would be tremendously helpful to business and civilians alike.
And you thought space was a rare commodity in Tokyo....those are some close neighbors errrr transistors :)
as long as my Space Age House has a Space Age refrigerator thats connected to the internet so it can order my groceries for me........
read "rare-earth metal oxides" = higher price.
as soon as you can converge (real life) sex and gaming than you have a convergence I'll buy.
so now I can I walk a great distance without actually going anywhere and never leaving the comfort of my computer (and by extension pr0n)!
Finally, an excerise program I can get onboard with!
I'd put it in my car. While (possibly) helping with my insurance, the data that this would retrieve would be interesting as it pertains to the mileage I'm getting and so forth.
;)
If I was a law abiding (i.e slow) driver, I'd like this more since it's hard evidence I can show my insurance company with possible and unknown rewards. However, as a young, hotheaded twenty something, my premiums would only go up
- 'Congratulations Mr.Johnson, according to our records you haven't gone above the speed limit in four years.'
- 'And what does that entitle me to?'
- '$30 off your next payment.....oh wait, see here - 1 year ago you went 2 miles over the limit. Make that $15.'
- 'Um...thanks.'
Why would you blitz the general public? I don't think your average Mom walking down the street wants Java shoved at her unless it's in a cup and warm.
Okay, I've set up my MP3 server, now what do I do with the other 4 233Mhz boxes I have?
What I've done is donate their cpu cycles to projects like Seti@Home That 233 pig can chug through Fast Fourier calculations all day for all I care. Don't even need a montior hooked up to it either.
the kind of people who get fired as soon as their companies find out how useless they really are
these people don't get fired? They get made CIO/CEO's.
wow this is brilliant.
musta taken them months to think this up.
Well I'm not sure where my school lies on what the data I make or use on there network but I do know how they intend on limiting my usage of the internet. I'm from a small liberal arts school ( about 3,000 students) in VA. I'm not sure if has anything to do with the state or what but for some reason the system adminstrators feel is nessacary to have a firewall that blocks EVERY port plus does some other goodies (It filters or slows UDP packets so when I play online fps it makes me choppy for one). Why would they do this? Why our friendly DOS attacks have the admins in such a fret that if they let a port open where doomed. Now don't get me wrong. I am sure the school is hit by hackers looking for an open system to bounce from or just to screw with but there has to be a better way to do this. I recently bought Gamevoice so I could play with my friends online (yeah boo hiss M$ its actually pretty cool). problem is you need ports open. So I asked the Director of Network Services if it was possible to open the neccasary ports (I've also talked to him about hosting servers, ftp, http, game, or whatever, no dice. we are not allowed. period). I told him it would cause little bandwidth usage. He said he would present it to the Internet Committee (yes we have a committee who decides what happens with our internet access, oh and they meet once every two months..). Of course they said no. I know its only for gaming purposes but still. This is my only isp. I am paying a technology fee for the use of it. If this were a regular ISP no one would sign up (well maybe they would for the t1 speed but during the day thats drained like you wouldn't believe). My question would be is there a possible alternative than this ahem anal way of protection? Or would this just be the policy of my colleges administration? Anyone else have this problem? Oh, and on one last note. The school is suppose to provide a newsgroup service. However this is on hold because someone on the committee wanted a complete listing of all newsgroups so they could filter out which ones are inapporiate... yeah I'm thinking about transfering. and yes the internet does mean that much to me. "Time is the best teacher. Unfortunately, it eventually kills all of it's pupils."
I'd buy a copy. So you have three preorders now. what publishing company could resist that media hype?
Gundam Wing: out of the two this is better in terms of animation. Also its plot is a little more plausable (although not by much) then DBZ. a little to much light though.
DragonBallZ:I agree CmdrTaco in that this is a anime, WWF style. They destroy planets for godsake without blinking an eye. It is the anime action flick.The animation is pretty good but I will admit could be better.
Other suggestions of cartoons that are like this are welcome.
"It's a mobile suit, It's A GUNDAM!!!!" -an Oz guard about to be killed by one of the Gundams (not really important which Gundam). not sure which episode. I think its in most of them. :)
A good breakdown of the debate in my opinion. Here is my solution (noteworthy or not): -include a manual with the software. This manual should be enough to get the user setup and running and fairly familar with the program. The huge documents should be stored online - By storing online the company should decide whether to provide the documents on a consumer only server (one must have bought the software, which would require a key or password) or a public server (where the general public is allowed to access the materials). - If a person is not connected to the web (which seems to be a low occurence now) then the company should have seperate boxes with full manuals. - While this would require more work by the company, I think the reduction of costs in terms of materials saved would balance this out. -Teiresias (The day is mine Trebek!)
For anyone with knowledge of computers (i.e Linux and other O.S besides Windows) shouldn't be too suprised Microsoft is guilty. To be honest I don't much care if Microsoft is guilty. But since they are, they are. What I am interested in is what will happen. Whether we believe or not Microsoft effects all of us computer users so whatever is done to Microsoft will have an effect on us. Scary huh. -Teiresias :he was the blinde seer of Thebes who despite being blinde knew more than the man with sight. -Oedipus Rex