Let me comment on the export ban by the Japanese government on the PS2 by stating categorically that it was a move planned at SOny and only incidentally carried out by the government. It had nothing to do with whether the PS2 could be used for a weapons system and everything to do with whether third parties could export it independently to the US and other countries for resale. F'chrissakes, they allowed people to take a maximum of one out of the country; how many do terrorists using that kind of technology (if there are any) need to reverse engineer it?
One other thing: It's a well-known fact in Japan that the ban will be lifted just a little earlier than the US release of the PS2.
Another tip: Copy the URL from your browser, paste it into an xterm after typing "lynx ", hit Ctrl-Right button and select "Large" from the menu. Much better than reading it in 3-point Flyspeck.
I'm not sure who you're referring to with your use of "you"; it's obviously not me, since I'm not the one that got moderated down. Also, since you seem unable to put your name to your post, it would appear that either you have never been a moderator, or you are indeed a coward.
Sorry, but I have to speak up on this moderation. The post above is not a troll, it's a PERFECTLY VALID OPINION (albeit one that I don't necessarily agree with). He's certainly at least partly right, so don't knock him down just because you happen to like watching thirteen OVA's in a row every Saturday night. That's censorship, pure and simple.
IIRC, there was an article right here on/. about a 2.4GHz wireless DIY project a while ago... or maybe that was kuro5hin...
Anyway, if you have line-of-sight between the two houses, I'd go for wireless (preferably RF/microwave rather than 802.11 or other shorter-range types). Here's a list of links that you might want to take a look at:
I've eaten raw horse. I've eaten (deliberately) half-cooked chicken. As I recall, raw salmon (that hasn't been flash-frozen and thawed, or otherwise processed) is a lot more dangerous than almost anything except raw pork.
I've noticed that many Americans are overweight (in many cases, grossly so), and I've also noticed the amount of food on plates in restaurants. Hate to tell you, but most Americans are fat because they eat TOO MUCH meat, not because meats are inherently fattening.
He's talking about the proprietary compression format used on MD audio disks. It's rather similar to MP3 "psychoacoustic" compression in that it tries to remove frequencies that it thinks you can't hear.
Just to correct myself - a Yahoo article linked below mentions that Matsushita "has shown an interest in participating in the consortium". Which means that it would have close to 100% coverage of the Japanese electronics industry.
It does, however, also contain this disturbing line: "The consortium members, who will have free access to the OS that they can modify for use in their own digital electronics and mobile phones..." That would tend to indicate that non-members of the consortium (i.e. you, me and everyone else here) would not be given free access to the OS (presumably they mean the sourcecode). Hmmm...
I think they're just using the name "Linux" as a general term - it's quite possible that theymight choose RTLinux instead of the mainline kernel. However, one thing to remember (and something that Linus has mentioned recently) is that for many tasks, the Linux kernel's latency is low enough that you don't need a real-time kernel. (Of course, this could change when you're talking about an embedded system for cars or industrial robots...)
OK, sorry for the bogus link to the Nikkei English site - I didn't know that their registration policy requires a credit-card number (!), even for a free trial. It seems that the only English article around at the moment is here at CNNfn; they have a reasonable summary of the situation, but it's slightly different in content from the Nikkei article, so for your edification, I've included my translation of the Japanese Nikkei piece. (My comments are in italics.)
OS development collaboration for digital home electronics 23 Japanese electronic and telecommunications companies, including Toshiba, Sony and NEC, in addition to two universities, including Waseda University, have reached a basic agreement on collaborative development of an OS for controlling digital home electronics, mobile phones, car navigation systems and other products. Utilizing the rapidly-spreading free (This is "free" as in "free beer") OS, Linux, the OS will be made available to the public to use freely (This "free" is "libre"), and is expected to contribute to lower product development cost. The group will also call for participation from overseas corporations in an effort to make the OS a global de facto standard. Microsoft currently controls the world market for PC-based operating systems, but the Japanese group will join together to create a common infrastructure for an OS for next-generation information devices, such as digital home electronics, which are anticipated to undergo rapid growth in the future. A controlling organization, the Japan Embedded Linux Consortium, will be founded on the 13th of this month. Other than Toshiba, etc., Fujitsu, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric will also participate. In addition to software companies such as TurboLinux and Elmic Systems, Waseda University's engineering department (Waseda is one of the top two or three private universities in Japan) and the Toyohashi University of Technology will take part.
One nuance that doesn't come through well in translation is the bit where they say the OS will be freely available - an exaggerated interpretation would be something like "the consortium is planning to be so gracious as to make the OS freely available to the public", an interesting bit of spin considering that they would have to make at least the kernel, and quite possibly much of userland, available, thanks to the GPL.
One other important point is the absence of Matsushita (and thereby National/Panasonic and Aiwa) from the consortium, which foreshadows the possibility of yet another Beta/VHS war. One has to wonder what Matsushita are going to do in reply to this (I very much doubt that they would just ignore it).
And what if your user needs include providing a cross-platform application that presents an identical interface to the user, no matter what platform they're using? Sure, platform-dependent usability works, but what happens when you have to go back and retrain your users because of the differences in your application between platforms? Support costs go up, and it's all going to have to be redone when the fixes go in to Java anyway.
4. If you download code for the mac it's almost always in an.mcp format. Heck, even Apple does this... not a great vote of confidence for MPW. Mind you, with java it's not such a big deal, but it's helped ingrain CW into the Mac psyche.
This really comes from the time of the introduction of the PPC - IIRC, there were no Mac compilers, other than Metrowerks' CodeWarrior, that were capable of compiling PPC code properly.
Well, I think Borland were absolutely right in not providing platform-specific workarounds. That's why I use Java - so I don't have to worry about all the niggling little differences between platforms that you end up having to deal with when using normal GUI toolkits.
Before the development of mass-produced paper, writing materials were very expensive and hard to come by, so it's not particularly unusual to find valuable documents written on materials that have been used two, three or even more times.
Shit. "manages to have" should read "manage to put", and "bookstores" should be "publishing houses". I really have to reread my posts before hitting that button...
I never said that O'Reilly is anti-BSD; merely pointed out that many smaller countries in a country with a much smaller potential customer base still manages to have more BSD-related publications on the shelves at one time than US bookstores have ever produced in the last twenty years.
BTW, hate to tell you, but 4.4BSD is gone. It's like someone trying to sell a Linux book about the 1.3 kernel series; it's dead in the water before it even ships to the bookstores. It might give you some insights into ancient history, but it won't sell to people who just want to try installing OpenBSD because they've heard that it's secure.
I buy BSD Magazine - it's really very good. They have a continuing series about dissecting the kernel; I believe last issue covered device drivers.
WRT the PC98 "standard" - (A) it's dead (NEC killed it in favour of a normal AT architecture) and (B) it ran Windows on Intel chips (although there were some using NEC-made Intel-compatible CPUs a long time ago), so I'm not quite sure how that proves that Japan isn't in Wintel's grip, but yes, Windows isn't as universally accepted as the "default" as it is in some other countries.
Walk into any medium-to-large bookstore in Japan. You'll find, n the Computer section, several shelves of Unix-related books. Among them, you will see many along the lines of "Build a Linux server", "Play with Linux", etc. etc. You will also see a nearly equivalent number of *BSD-related publications, everything from "Running MacBSD-68K" to "OpenBSD Security". There are beginners' books and weighty tomes on BSD kernel internals. And all this in a country with a population of half that of the US, and which is basically unable to export books to other countries because of the expense involved in translation (not to mention the "lag time" it adds).
My question is, "Why hasn't O'Reilly already published BSD books?" There's certainly enough potential interest to make it worth their while if they can put out books on Lego, f'Chrissakes.
Not a chance. Microsoft wants the X-Box to be seen as a completely unique and revolutionary platform by consumers (although it presents a familiar face to developers). They'd never go for something like a PS emulator simply because it would make the average consumer view it as "that PS compatible that also plays some PC games". That's the last thing that MS would want to happen. The only way you'd see something like that would be (A) if some third party developer ports an emulator or (B) after the X-Box has been on the market for a while and has started to lose the "new product" gloss.
Slashdot Mirror
Let me comment on the export ban by the Japanese government on the PS2 by stating categorically that it was a move planned at SOny and only incidentally carried out by the government. It had nothing to do with whether the PS2 could be used for a weapons system and everything to do with whether third parties could export it independently to the US and other countries for resale. F'chrissakes, they allowed people to take a maximum of one out of the country; how many do terrorists using that kind of technology (if there are any) need to reverse engineer it?
One other thing: It's a well-known fact in Japan that the ban will be lifted just a little earlier than the US release of the PS2.
Another tip: Copy the URL from your browser, paste it into an xterm after typing "lynx ", hit Ctrl-Right button and select "Large" from the menu. Much better than reading it in 3-point Flyspeck.
Let's see: Memepool and RobotWisdom spring to mind... Also ArsTechnica, Kuro5hin and KernelTraffic (which isn't only about the kernel; the Samba summaries are also very good).
I'm not sure who you're referring to with your use of "you"; it's obviously not me, since I'm not the one that got moderated down.
Also, since you seem unable to put your name to your post, it would appear that either you have never been a moderator, or you are indeed a coward.
Sorry, but I have to speak up on this moderation. The post above is not a troll, it's a PERFECTLY VALID OPINION (albeit one that I don't necessarily agree with). He's certainly at least partly right, so don't knock him down just because you happen to like watching thirteen OVA's in a row every Saturday night. That's censorship, pure and simple.
Shit... forgot to close the second-to-last href tag. Try here for that last link (which also happens to be the most useful).
IIRC, there was an article right here on /. about a 2.4GHz wireless DIY project a while ago... or maybe that was kuro5hin...
/. (not the one I was looking for, but oh well...) about boosting Apple's AirPort to give better range.
/. earlier this year. This guy knows what he's doing, and it's not too expensive either.
Anyway, if you have line-of-sight between the two houses, I'd go for wireless (preferably RF/microwave rather than 802.11 or other shorter-range types). Here's a list of links that you might want to take a look at:
Wireless Projects, Vendors, and Products: Big collection of links on all sorts of wireless networking. If you can't find something here, give up.
This is a general outline of wireless LAN.
Ah, here's a bit from
..Ah, here we are - the DIY 10Mbit/s microwave project that was linked from
Hope these help...
Could have problems with ground loops if you just hook the two places up with Cat5...
I've eaten raw horse. I've eaten (deliberately) half-cooked chicken. As I recall, raw salmon (that hasn't been flash-frozen and thawed, or otherwise processed) is a lot more dangerous than almost anything except raw pork.
I've noticed that many Americans are overweight (in many cases, grossly so), and I've also noticed the amount of food on plates in restaurants. Hate to tell you, but most Americans are fat because they eat TOO MUCH meat, not because meats are inherently fattening.
He's talking about the proprietary compression format used on MD audio disks. It's rather similar to MP3 "psychoacoustic" compression in that it tries to remove frequencies that it thinks you can't hear.
Just to correct myself - a Yahoo article linked below mentions that Matsushita "has shown an interest in participating in the consortium". Which means that it would have close to 100% coverage of the Japanese electronics industry.
It does, however, also contain this disturbing line: "The consortium members, who will have free access to the OS that they can modify for use in their own digital electronics and mobile phones..."
That would tend to indicate that non-members of the consortium (i.e. you, me and everyone else here) would not be given free access to the OS (presumably they mean the sourcecode). Hmmm...
I think they're just using the name "Linux" as a general term - it's quite possible that theymight choose RTLinux instead of the mainline kernel.
However, one thing to remember (and something that Linus has mentioned recently) is that for many tasks, the Linux kernel's latency is low enough that you don't need a real-time kernel. (Of course, this could change when you're talking about an embedded system for cars or industrial robots...)
OK, sorry for the bogus link to the Nikkei English site - I didn't know that their registration policy requires a credit-card number (!), even for a free trial.
It seems that the only English article around at the moment is here at CNNfn; they have a reasonable summary of the situation, but it's slightly different in content from the Nikkei article, so for your edification, I've included my translation of the Japanese Nikkei piece. (My comments are in italics.)
OS development collaboration for digital home electronics
23 Japanese electronic and telecommunications companies, including Toshiba, Sony and NEC, in addition to two universities, including Waseda University, have reached a basic agreement on collaborative development of an OS for controlling digital home electronics, mobile phones, car navigation systems and other products. Utilizing the rapidly-spreading free (This is "free" as in "free beer") OS, Linux, the OS will be made available to the public to use freely (This "free" is "libre"), and is expected to contribute to lower product development cost. The group will also call for participation from overseas corporations in an effort to make the OS a global de facto standard. Microsoft currently controls the world market for PC-based operating systems, but the Japanese group will join together to create a common infrastructure for an OS for next-generation information devices, such as digital home electronics, which are anticipated to undergo rapid growth in the future.
A controlling organization, the Japan Embedded Linux Consortium, will be founded on the 13th of this month. Other than Toshiba, etc., Fujitsu, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric will also participate. In addition to software companies such as TurboLinux and Elmic Systems, Waseda University's engineering department (Waseda is one of the top two or three private universities in Japan) and the Toyohashi University of Technology will take part.
One nuance that doesn't come through well in translation is the bit where they say the OS will be freely available - an exaggerated interpretation would be something like "the consortium is planning to be so gracious as to make the OS freely available to the public", an interesting bit of spin considering that they would have to make at least the kernel, and quite possibly much of userland, available, thanks to the GPL.
One other important point is the absence of Matsushita (and thereby National/Panasonic and Aiwa) from the consortium, which foreshadows the possibility of yet another Beta/VHS war. One has to wonder what Matsushita are going to do in reply to this (I very much doubt that they would just ignore it).
And what if your user needs include providing a cross-platform application that presents an identical interface to the user, no matter what platform they're using?
Sure, platform-dependent usability works, but what happens when you have to go back and retrain your users because of the differences in your application between platforms? Support costs go up, and it's all going to have to be redone when the fixes go in to Java anyway.
4. If you download code for the mac it's almost always in an .mcp format. Heck, even Apple does this... not a great vote of confidence for MPW. Mind you, with java it's not such a big deal, but it's helped ingrain CW into the Mac psyche.
This really comes from the time of the introduction of the PPC - IIRC, there were no Mac compilers, other than Metrowerks' CodeWarrior, that were capable of compiling PPC code properly.
Well, I think Borland were absolutely right in not providing platform-specific workarounds. That's why I use Java - so I don't have to worry about all the niggling little differences between platforms that you end up having to deal with when using normal GUI toolkits.
Before the development of mass-produced paper, writing materials were very expensive and hard to come by, so it's not particularly unusual to find valuable documents written on materials that have been used two, three or even more times.
Shit. "manages to have" should read "manage to put", and "bookstores" should be "publishing houses". I really have to reread my posts before hitting that button...
s/countries/companies/
I never said that O'Reilly is anti-BSD; merely pointed out that many smaller countries in a country with a much smaller potential customer base still manages to have more BSD-related publications on the shelves at one time than US bookstores have ever produced in the last twenty years.
BTW, hate to tell you, but 4.4BSD is gone. It's like someone trying to sell a Linux book about the 1.3 kernel series; it's dead in the water before it even ships to the bookstores. It might give you some insights into ancient history, but it won't sell to people who just want to try installing OpenBSD because they've heard that it's secure.
I buy BSD Magazine - it's really very good. They have a continuing series about dissecting the kernel; I believe last issue covered device drivers.
WRT the PC98 "standard" - (A) it's dead (NEC killed it in favour of a normal AT architecture) and (B) it ran Windows on Intel chips (although there were some using NEC-made Intel-compatible CPUs a long time ago), so I'm not quite sure how that proves that Japan isn't in Wintel's grip, but yes, Windows isn't as universally accepted as the "default" as it is in some other countries.
Walk into any medium-to-large bookstore in Japan. You'll find, n the Computer section, several shelves of Unix-related books. Among them, you will see many along the lines of "Build a Linux server", "Play with Linux", etc. etc. You will also see a nearly equivalent number of *BSD-related publications, everything from "Running MacBSD-68K" to "OpenBSD Security". There are beginners' books and weighty tomes on BSD kernel internals. And all this in a country with a population of half that of the US, and which is basically unable to export books to other countries because of the expense involved in translation (not to mention the "lag time" it adds).
My question is, "Why hasn't O'Reilly already published BSD books?" There's certainly enough potential interest to make it worth their while if they can put out books on Lego, f'Chrissakes.
Not a chance. Microsoft wants the X-Box to be seen as a completely unique and revolutionary platform by consumers (although it presents a familiar face to developers). They'd never go for something like a PS emulator simply because it would make the average consumer view it as "that PS compatible that also plays some PC games". That's the last thing that MS would want to happen. The only way you'd see something like that would be (A) if some third party developer ports an emulator or (B) after the X-Box has been on the market for a while and has started to lose the "new product" gloss.
Well, considering it was based/i> on "WCRIFYW", that wouldn't be surprising, would it?