I would recommend starting in London of course.
Natural History Museum (via the tube, you must use the tube!),
Science Museum,
British Museum,
London Tower,
HMS Belfast
But don't just stay in London!
Roman Bath's + Cheddar Gorge.
Rather than Stone Henge, perhaps my favourite ancient ruin is Grimspound in Dartmoor. Dartmoor itself as moody wind swept moorland is worth seeing (and hiking!). You will find many ancient ruins in Dartmoor.
I would also recommend Corfe Castle, it is a proper ye old castle with peasant village at it's foot. It's state will be your introduction to Cromwell.
A still running old Steam Railway, there are quite a few.
The Lake District, my favourite national park, with Helvellyn striding edge being on of my favourite walks, that and Great Gable.
Jodrell bank is quite interesting, the visit centre is tiny, but the dish itself is interesting, with it's battle ship parts and history.
Not been to Bletchley Park myself, but I feel I should.
In fact, sod it, look in The Geek Atlas, loads in the UK. http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596523213
Mildly evil?
Have you read the halloween documents?
MS's embrace, extend extinguish policy have caused no end of standardization problems, especially IE6 and the failed attempt to do this to the open web. They are a text book anti competitive virtual monopoly, peaking at explorer development stopping for years when there was no firefox, and the bloat of Vista before Linux netbooks scared the willies out them. They have done good yes, but I'm sure purely by accident, so has Murdoch. MS is only mildly evil compared with Murdoch depending on how you rate IT's importance.
He did quite a bit of work, then gave it away because he thought it was best for his work and thought others would like to play with it. He puts the technology first above everything. He's not going to become insanely rich, but we as a global society should reward him in some way. Not sure peace price is right, but it's not wholly wrong either. Maybe not just him, but RMS for the creation of the GPL. I'm sure there are others. We should reward people who put progress/technology/people/freedom before themselves and wealth. If we don't, what does that say about us? Isn't that how we want people to behave?
If you don't back your mail up in a way you can always get at, then it's your fault it you loose that mail. Services go wrong, or get shutdown etc etc. I've lost data twice online from believing in this cloud rubbish (it was called something else at the time) and Deja lost my mail for me twice. Just a few months ago I read about AOL pulling the plug on web hosting service they where providing to their users, without notice, and those who didn't have local copies of their site lost it. If you are tied to the working and survival of a service outside of your control, you are asking to be made a mug of. It's not different this time, just like it wasn't different every other time. Sure webmail is really useful, but don't leave important data only there, and because of security, best not their at all. Listen to the old dudes, the world isn't that different now, people are still people, computers are still computers and companies are still companies.
You would still be stuck with IE6 otherwise.
You lucky Linux netbooks came along or you still be stuck with Vista.
In fact, the fear free software creates inside MS you owe much too....:-)
As a dyslexic I resent the idea my spelling is related to the quality of my code. Maybe because of my dyslexia, I have feelings about over commenting. If you want to write a book, write a book, but don't write it in your code! What I can't stand is when I can't read the code for the comments, or when the comments are wrong or pointless, i.e. the variable/function name tells you already or code and comment don't match. You end up with two sources in the same file, one real one, one for humans, why not aim for one for both? Two is asking for trouble. If you must write a lot of comments, please put it above the function so it's out the way. I feel software is organic, it evolves, it's farmed as much as designed. It quickly gets beyond what we can design. By trying to formalize it, you're sucking all the joy out and slowing down development and removing the creativity. There is a balance, you go one way it's crazy bat shit, you go the other and is slow and everyone leaves for something more fun because life is too short for such drudgery. Write as clearly as you can, comment where it's needed, automate what testing you can (without slowing everything to a point both users and developers get frustrated), then test it on as many users as you can. We all use programs written like this. I've never even seen this perfectly commented code ivory tower types rant about. If there is an open source example please point to it so I can see it. What I see if that when people first start programming, or start in a new language, they comment a lot, but that dies off as reading the code becomes easier. The other group who comment a lot are ivory tower types, and some are good, some are bad, so I don't think it helps them. I would rather good code without comments, then bad code with lots of comments.
After doing an art course BTEC I went on to uni to a Virtual Reality course. It was a joke, mostly really a web site design course. We had a "professional" 3d animator, who didn't know what IK or skinning was. The software we were to use couldn't do shading and texturing at the same time, and was really really slow. They were paying top dollar for OpenGL cards that just weren't as fast as much cheaper gaming cards. After the first year, over the summer I wrote a software 3D engine on my old computer, when I went back I just couldn't relate to the tutors or students. I dropped out, spent 6 months moving myself to Windows and OpenGL, and then got a job programming, speeding up a start ups 3D engine. Not looked back for 9 years, until recently, I can see without a degree to my name there is a glass ceiling. But with kid on the way and getting a bit to old to be a whiz kid anymore, even if I could stomach it, going to uni isn't an option. I've not found any quick path course for someone like me. Did some maths with the Open University, but it was easy and I struggled to force myself to complete it (though I did and got 91%). I never stopped teaching myself, got into OSs and Linux in the last few years and am just about to finish Lions Unix Commentary (a master piece!). I have worked with many who do have degrees, some are good, some are crap, I seen one guy who was a CS doctor and was crap, but I think I'm stuck with out this bit of paper.
All true. But you saying you don't use any software you know have a bad code base? We all use software with bad code bases, most of the time we don't even know the quality of the code base. If there comes a point where you have to decide about something nice for the code base or nice for the user, the user should win every time.
Many more people will run code many more times then they will read or write it. They won't care how readable the code is. Would you use software just because the code is readable? NOBODY does this for everything, bar those 100% free Linux distros (because only open is readable) and even then, how do you know each component has been chosen for its readability (beyond being readable at all because it's open) over its speed or functionality? Readability is important, but when the chips are down, it's less so then the running app, which is why great apps can have terrible code bases, but we all use them anyway.
Seriously, does anyone techy wait for programs they want to watch to be broadcasted in their country?
Everyone techy (and more of the young are techy), at least that I know, watches what they want, when they want. Some old stuff I watch I don't think you can even legally get hold of! Streaming cuts it for some, but not myself as I like to watch in my media player of choice, streaming doesn't fit into my net use and I'm damned if I'll download it again to watch it again.
Bit of a sweeping statement for a single case. So open source software isn't perfect either, course not, it's programmed by monkeys in shoes like all other software. But if you look at the statistics, even weighting for market scale, open comes out on top. This is actually a example of why, exploits are easier to find as researchers can look at, debug, pull apart, the source, unlike when it's a closed box. The fix will be done quickly (maybe in multiple ways by multiple people, until one stands out as best) and then backported to anything required, not only for what makes business sense to the company with the source.
I really don't think it's that bad. It is acceptable to mock majority groups with power because they cann't be described as being oppressed. It's just not the same for minority groups as they will be uncertain enough about their place already. It's just a case of show a little empathy. And that's before you bring the tangled mess of history into it. If you're a adult, male, white, middle-class, heterosexual and well-educated, in the west at least, you are at such a tremendous advantage (because those with power are like you) you just can't ask for the same protections as a old jewish lesbian from Ghana.
The Windows kernel is like X and Linux in one. Explorer is just a file manager with multiple windows as multiple instances, with a special window that is the taskbar. So of course killing it doesn't kill you apps (well End Process Tree can). It's not like X at all. In Linux, if you kill X, you are killing graphics. The closest thing to killing Explorer on Linux would be to kill Thunar/nautilus and kill xfce4-panel/gnome-panel. None of which will take out all your applications either.
I'm not sure how far I go with making X save everything and restart on a X panic... But X is in the middle of some interesting developments, and this kind of thing will be easier on the other side of those developments, but X crashes should be reduced as result of X being simplified, so maybe it won't be needed... The only problem is the closed graphics drivers people not joining in....
The two species lived side by side long enough that mating (and rapes?) must have happened. It is quite possible this was often enough, and the species close enough, that a fertile off spring was born. It's also quite possible these fertile hybrids had children and so and so on, but it's also possible all that happened, but no trace is left in modern humans. If there is any traces, they aren't common enough to have shown up yet. A rare gene here and there that's not yet been sequenced. When personal sequencing is cheap enough to be done for personalized medicine, that's when a few genes might turn up. But it is possible we might hit the jackpot with a mitochondria (a maternal line).
Ok,
1) you don't have the source to recompile. It's not like you just have a repository to recompile. It lots of different companies that must work together, and they are only going to do what they see will be profitable. So only a selection defined by what the owners see as profitable will be ported.
2) the first port of software is the hardest and most Windows software has never been ported. Much of Windows software is written to just one implimentation of the API, so problems go hidden. You'll find old Windows software which should run on a different version of Windows but won't because the API has been reimplimented and isn't 100% the same. Porting would be a nightmare. How ever portable software is more reliable because it's run in a wider range of setup so problems have less places to hide.
3) The bulk of windows users aren't technical and will never understand why the can't install the software they have and must buy it again.
Windows for ARM won't happen and Wintel doesn't have the bully power anymore. ARM and other architectures and creeping in with Linux. My bet is with the other architectures Windows loosing its grip with accelerate. Smartbooks might just be the start. Servers are often Linux already, but what if you could have ARM Linux servers, you get massive power savings at lower costs. Windows will stop even being an option. As a Linux and ARM fan it's all very exciting.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding Steam, but it seams all well and good now, but what about in a decade or two, will the game still be available, will you be able to run them in a VM, or what if as business it all goes to the wall.
If Steam couldn't be cracked (but I'm sure it has) then you'll never be able to play those games again.
I'm not saying you shouldn't be able to rent, but I am saying you should always be able to buy when you wish to ensure you always have a copy, under your control. Just like with books and libraries, or video and video rental. Copying? Well you will NEVER be able to stop people making copies. The more you lock down, the more people copy to avoid your lock down. Locking down is spending money to loose more money. Only way to fight is to make it cheap enough customers don't mind paying, and make sure the money goes to the people the customers want it to go to. Also, there is money to be made from the eye ball count.
It's that time in the cycle where we talk about thin clients and the mainframe again. Own nothing, rent everything, submit to central control. You know what, just like the last few times, I'll pass.
With all that shared code, sounds like I should completely give up on the idea it will ever be openned, or fit in properly.:-(
I'm keen on the idea of Gallium3D, KMS and moving drivers out of X, stripping X down to something managable. NVidia aren't going to help at all.
Linux users, both X bashers and X fans both loose out with NVidia. If your a X fan, you won't get the X developments, if your a X basher, you won't be able to have a X replacement. Both require things to be stripped from X and abstracted.
No, I'm buying a ATI next time. Maybe it's not as fast or stable, but it's at least beginning to move with X development. In the long run, it's a better choice.
I really don't see what's wrong with just putting a interface version in the filename. It's simple and clear.
Change the version part of the name of the DLL if you are changing the interface. If you are not changing the interface, you want applications to use the updated DLL.
I really don't like the manifest. It seams to me an attempt to prevent programmers doing stupid things, but by stopping people doing stupid things, you stop them doing smart things too. Also, who want stupid programmers!?;-)
I think your wrong. It's different this time round. First the market is normal consumers, secondly, much of what people do now is on the web, so doesn't matter what platform you on (bar the whole Flash issue, but there is a ARM Flash). If it's cheap, has a long battery life, plays music and videos, some games, has a web browser so they can get on facebook, they will be more than happy. Windows big draw is it's software base, but that matters less and less as the free stuff is so good now, and so much is web anyway. If anything Windows biggest weakness is it's software base, much of it is fat, people install crap from all other the place, and before you know it a new machine is uselessly slow.
I'll ignore the insult. I think you misunderstand what I mean. I mean, if it's done in kernel space, there is less work being done, so it's faster. You context switch in, process and context switch out. Plus, during the "process" stage you can ensure the process isn't interrupted. This boils down to micro-kernel vs monolithic kernel argument. Using FUSE as my reference, I admit that userspace filesystems can be fast, but I'm unconvinced they wouldn't be faster in the kernel without the extra context switching. If you have some papers to point me to "enlighten" me by all means point me to them.
Of course not, but it can ensure it doesn't get interrupted until it's done. Which means it can get the work done faster than it would if interrupted. I'm thinking context switching. If it's done uninterrupted in kernel, that is less context switching then if it's done in user space.
Where do you think is the fastest place to process, kernel or userspace?
Do you want fast audio?
Want network sound? Do it properly, with X, http://www.chaoticmind.net/~hcb/murx/xaudio/
Don't put sound and video through completely unrelated paths.
Lucky you. So what about 340GB then? Min of 48h, probably quicker to post it. Also, how far you sending this 170GB? You sure it's quicker to do it over the network? For instance, if it's down the street, you would be mad not to stick it on a external drive and walk.
Slashdot Mirror
I would recommend starting in London of course.
Natural History Museum (via the tube, you must use the tube!),
Science Museum,
British Museum,
London Tower,
HMS Belfast
But don't just stay in London!
Roman Bath's + Cheddar Gorge.
Rather than Stone Henge, perhaps my favourite ancient ruin is Grimspound in Dartmoor. Dartmoor itself as moody wind swept moorland is worth seeing (and hiking!). You will find many ancient ruins in Dartmoor.
I would also recommend Corfe Castle, it is a proper ye old castle with peasant village at it's foot. It's state will be your introduction to Cromwell.
A still running old Steam Railway, there are quite a few.
The Lake District, my favourite national park, with Helvellyn striding edge being on of my favourite walks, that and Great Gable.
Jodrell bank is quite interesting, the visit centre is tiny, but the dish itself is interesting, with it's battle ship parts and history. Not been to Bletchley Park myself, but I feel I should. In fact, sod it, look in The Geek Atlas, loads in the UK.
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596523213
Mildly evil?
Have you read the halloween documents?
MS's embrace, extend extinguish policy have caused no end of standardization problems, especially IE6 and the failed attempt to do this to the open web. They are a text book anti competitive virtual monopoly, peaking at explorer development stopping for years when there was no firefox, and the bloat of Vista before Linux netbooks scared the willies out them. They have done good yes, but I'm sure purely by accident, so has Murdoch. MS is only mildly evil compared with Murdoch depending on how you rate IT's importance.
He did quite a bit of work, then gave it away because he thought it was best for his work and thought others would like to play with it. He puts the technology first above everything. He's not going to become insanely rich, but we as a global society should reward him in some way. Not sure peace price is right, but it's not wholly wrong either. Maybe not just him, but RMS for the creation of the GPL. I'm sure there are others. We should reward people who put progress/technology/people/freedom before themselves and wealth. If we don't, what does that say about us? Isn't that how we want people to behave?
If you don't back your mail up in a way you can always get at, then it's your fault it you loose that mail. Services go wrong, or get shutdown etc etc. I've lost data twice online from believing in this cloud rubbish (it was called something else at the time) and Deja lost my mail for me twice. Just a few months ago I read about AOL pulling the plug on web hosting service they where providing to their users, without notice, and those who didn't have local copies of their site lost it. If you are tied to the working and survival of a service outside of your control, you are asking to be made a mug of. It's not different this time, just like it wasn't different every other time. Sure webmail is really useful, but don't leave important data only there, and because of security, best not their at all. Listen to the old dudes, the world isn't that different now, people are still people, computers are still computers and companies are still companies.
You would still be stuck with IE6 otherwise. :-)
You lucky Linux netbooks came along or you still be stuck with Vista.
In fact, the fear free software creates inside MS you owe much too....
As a dyslexic I resent the idea my spelling is related to the quality of my code. Maybe because of my dyslexia, I have feelings about over commenting. If you want to write a book, write a book, but don't write it in your code! What I can't stand is when I can't read the code for the comments, or when the comments are wrong or pointless, i.e. the variable/function name tells you already or code and comment don't match. You end up with two sources in the same file, one real one, one for humans, why not aim for one for both? Two is asking for trouble. If you must write a lot of comments, please put it above the function so it's out the way. I feel software is organic, it evolves, it's farmed as much as designed. It quickly gets beyond what we can design. By trying to formalize it, you're sucking all the joy out and slowing down development and removing the creativity. There is a balance, you go one way it's crazy bat shit, you go the other and is slow and everyone leaves for something more fun because life is too short for such drudgery. Write as clearly as you can, comment where it's needed, automate what testing you can (without slowing everything to a point both users and developers get frustrated), then test it on as many users as you can. We all use programs written like this. I've never even seen this perfectly commented code ivory tower types rant about. If there is an open source example please point to it so I can see it. What I see if that when people first start programming, or start in a new language, they comment a lot, but that dies off as reading the code becomes easier. The other group who comment a lot are ivory tower types, and some are good, some are bad, so I don't think it helps them. I would rather good code without comments, then bad code with lots of comments.
After doing an art course BTEC I went on to uni to a Virtual Reality course. It was a joke, mostly really a web site design course. We had a "professional" 3d animator, who didn't know what IK or skinning was. The software we were to use couldn't do shading and texturing at the same time, and was really really slow. They were paying top dollar for OpenGL cards that just weren't as fast as much cheaper gaming cards. After the first year, over the summer I wrote a software 3D engine on my old computer, when I went back I just couldn't relate to the tutors or students. I dropped out, spent 6 months moving myself to Windows and OpenGL, and then got a job programming, speeding up a start ups 3D engine. Not looked back for 9 years, until recently, I can see without a degree to my name there is a glass ceiling. But with kid on the way and getting a bit to old to be a whiz kid anymore, even if I could stomach it, going to uni isn't an option. I've not found any quick path course for someone like me. Did some maths with the Open University, but it was easy and I struggled to force myself to complete it (though I did and got 91%). I never stopped teaching myself, got into OSs and Linux in the last few years and am just about to finish Lions Unix Commentary (a master piece!). I have worked with many who do have degrees, some are good, some are crap, I seen one guy who was a CS doctor and was crap, but I think I'm stuck with out this bit of paper.
All true. But you saying you don't use any software you know have a bad code base? We all use software with bad code bases, most of the time we don't even know the quality of the code base. If there comes a point where you have to decide about something nice for the code base or nice for the user, the user should win every time.
Many more people will run code many more times then they will read or write it. They won't care how readable the code is. Would you use software just because the code is readable? NOBODY does this for everything, bar those 100% free Linux distros (because only open is readable) and even then, how do you know each component has been chosen for its readability (beyond being readable at all because it's open) over its speed or functionality? Readability is important, but when the chips are down, it's less so then the running app, which is why great apps can have terrible code bases, but we all use them anyway.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1720068211869162779#
Seriously, does anyone techy wait for programs they want to watch to be broadcasted in their country? Everyone techy (and more of the young are techy), at least that I know, watches what they want, when they want. Some old stuff I watch I don't think you can even legally get hold of! Streaming cuts it for some, but not myself as I like to watch in my media player of choice, streaming doesn't fit into my net use and I'm damned if I'll download it again to watch it again.
Bit of a sweeping statement for a single case. So open source software isn't perfect either, course not, it's programmed by monkeys in shoes like all other software. But if you look at the statistics, even weighting for market scale, open comes out on top. This is actually a example of why, exploits are easier to find as researchers can look at, debug, pull apart, the source, unlike when it's a closed box. The fix will be done quickly (maybe in multiple ways by multiple people, until one stands out as best) and then backported to anything required, not only for what makes business sense to the company with the source.
I really don't think it's that bad. It is acceptable to mock majority groups with power because they cann't be described as being oppressed. It's just not the same for minority groups as they will be uncertain enough about their place already. It's just a case of show a little empathy. And that's before you bring the tangled mess of history into it. If you're a adult, male, white, middle-class, heterosexual and well-educated, in the west at least, you are at such a tremendous advantage (because those with power are like you) you just can't ask for the same protections as a old jewish lesbian from Ghana.
The Windows kernel is like X and Linux in one. Explorer is just a file manager with multiple windows as multiple instances, with a special window that is the taskbar. So of course killing it doesn't kill you apps (well End Process Tree can). It's not like X at all. In Linux, if you kill X, you are killing graphics. The closest thing to killing Explorer on Linux would be to kill Thunar/nautilus and kill xfce4-panel/gnome-panel. None of which will take out all your applications either.
I'm not sure how far I go with making X save everything and restart on a X panic... But X is in the middle of some interesting developments, and this kind of thing will be easier on the other side of those developments, but X crashes should be reduced as result of X being simplified, so maybe it won't be needed... The only problem is the closed graphics drivers people not joining in....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapedo_child
The two species lived side by side long enough that mating (and rapes?) must have happened. It is quite possible this was often enough, and the species close enough, that a fertile off spring was born. It's also quite possible these fertile hybrids had children and so and so on, but it's also possible all that happened, but no trace is left in modern humans. If there is any traces, they aren't common enough to have shown up yet. A rare gene here and there that's not yet been sequenced. When personal sequencing is cheap enough to be done for personalized medicine, that's when a few genes might turn up. But it is possible we might hit the jackpot with a mitochondria (a maternal line).
Ok,
1) you don't have the source to recompile. It's not like you just have a repository to recompile. It lots of different companies that must work together, and they are only going to do what they see will be profitable. So only a selection defined by what the owners see as profitable will be ported.
2) the first port of software is the hardest and most Windows software has never been ported. Much of Windows software is written to just one implimentation of the API, so problems go hidden. You'll find old Windows software which should run on a different version of Windows but won't because the API has been reimplimented and isn't 100% the same. Porting would be a nightmare. How ever portable software is more reliable because it's run in a wider range of setup so problems have less places to hide.
3) The bulk of windows users aren't technical and will never understand why the can't install the software they have and must buy it again.
Windows for ARM won't happen and Wintel doesn't have the bully power anymore. ARM and other architectures and creeping in with Linux. My bet is with the other architectures Windows loosing its grip with accelerate. Smartbooks might just be the start. Servers are often Linux already, but what if you could have ARM Linux servers, you get massive power savings at lower costs. Windows will stop even being an option. As a Linux and ARM fan it's all very exciting.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding Steam, but it seams all well and good now, but what about in a decade or two, will the game still be available, will you be able to run them in a VM, or what if as business it all goes to the wall.
If Steam couldn't be cracked (but I'm sure it has) then you'll never be able to play those games again.
I'm not saying you shouldn't be able to rent, but I am saying you should always be able to buy when you wish to ensure you always have a copy, under your control. Just like with books and libraries, or video and video rental. Copying? Well you will NEVER be able to stop people making copies. The more you lock down, the more people copy to avoid your lock down. Locking down is spending money to loose more money. Only way to fight is to make it cheap enough customers don't mind paying, and make sure the money goes to the people the customers want it to go to. Also, there is money to be made from the eye ball count.
It's that time in the cycle where we talk about thin clients and the mainframe again. Own nothing, rent everything, submit to central control. You know what, just like the last few times, I'll pass.
With all that shared code, sounds like I should completely give up on the idea it will ever be openned, or fit in properly. :-(
I'm keen on the idea of Gallium3D, KMS and moving drivers out of X, stripping X down to something managable. NVidia aren't going to help at all.
Linux users, both X bashers and X fans both loose out with NVidia. If your a X fan, you won't get the X developments, if your a X basher, you won't be able to have a X replacement. Both require things to be stripped from X and abstracted.
No, I'm buying a ATI next time. Maybe it's not as fast or stable, but it's at least beginning to move with X development. In the long run, it's a better choice.
I really don't see what's wrong with just putting a interface version in the filename. It's simple and clear.
;-)
Change the version part of the name of the DLL if you are changing the interface. If you are not changing the interface, you want applications to use the updated DLL.
I really don't like the manifest. It seams to me an attempt to prevent programmers doing stupid things, but by stopping people doing stupid things, you stop them doing smart things too. Also, who want stupid programmers!?
The iPhone is a ARM processor.....
I think your wrong. It's different this time round. First the market is normal consumers, secondly, much of what people do now is on the web, so doesn't matter what platform you on (bar the whole Flash issue, but there is a ARM Flash). If it's cheap, has a long battery life, plays music and videos, some games, has a web browser so they can get on facebook, they will be more than happy. Windows big draw is it's software base, but that matters less and less as the free stuff is so good now, and so much is web anyway. If anything Windows biggest weakness is it's software base, much of it is fat, people install crap from all other the place, and before you know it a new machine is uselessly slow.
I'll ignore the insult. I think you misunderstand what I mean. I mean, if it's done in kernel space, there is less work being done, so it's faster. You context switch in, process and context switch out. Plus, during the "process" stage you can ensure the process isn't interrupted. This boils down to micro-kernel vs monolithic kernel argument. Using FUSE as my reference, I admit that userspace filesystems can be fast, but I'm unconvinced they wouldn't be faster in the kernel without the extra context switching. If you have some papers to point me to "enlighten" me by all means point me to them.
Of course not, but it can ensure it doesn't get interrupted until it's done. Which means it can get the work done faster than it would if interrupted. I'm thinking context switching. If it's done uninterrupted in kernel, that is less context switching then if it's done in user space.
Where do you think is the fastest place to process, kernel or userspace?
Do you want fast audio?
Want network sound? Do it properly, with X, http://www.chaoticmind.net/~hcb/murx/xaudio/
Don't put sound and video through completely unrelated paths.
Lucky you. So what about 340GB then? Min of 48h, probably quicker to post it. Also, how far you sending this 170GB? You sure it's quicker to do it over the network? For instance, if it's down the street, you would be mad not to stick it on a external drive and walk.