Ever read that whole Torvalds vs. Tanenbaum flamewar? (Read up on it here)
Basically, AST had some very stuffy ideas about OS design. Torvalds just wanted a kernel people (well, himself actually, but besides that) could use and learn from now and for free. Well, the whole thread speaks for itself. Basically,
The whole point is that Linux was not meant to be written, studied and then left to rot on some CS grad's harddisk. It was meant to be used.
Do you know what a piece of dung Minix is compared to Linux in terms of usefullnes? I rather not start. It's a great teaching tool, but nothing more than that. And it's not even Free (tm).
So be glad Linus did not listen to AST. Else you wouldn't be posting from your pretty KDE/GNOME desktop right now.
I've met AST in person. He's still quite pompous and rigid about stuff. I know from first hand AST heavily resisted against Linux being installed on computers at the CWI in Amsterdam, but he just couldn't stop it. Go figure.
sorry for the offtopicness (hey it's that kind of a day again... sheesh. Oh my poor karma...)
Then CmndrTaco would win it. The program is called "SlashCode", it runs on slashdot.org. It is very capable of beating operating systems into submission. Some hold out better than others, but usually it will DDoS the said machine out of existence. There is no known patch, but the workaround is usually something that entails buying mode bandwidth, or install something more stable for a webserver/OS/whatever seems to break. Another workaround is just to stop posting cool stuff on your website the dreaded Slashdot might pick up on...
(yes this was ment to be humorous, if you don't get it, scroll on and forget you ever saw this)
The "strange line-noise" packet is what you could get when you poor fresh coffee into your router as it shorts out...
Well.. actually, I haven't a clue what the hell that was, but I thought it was funny...
But on a more serious note, interesting packets can be created with tools like hping and just futzing about with raw etherframes. I bet I can create junk like that programatically:-)
The one on the end that got fixed by replacing the cable was interesting, I wonder what weird stuff reflections from coiled up UTP/BNC can display in your favourite network traffic analyzer...
There actually is no reason why DVD decoding should be done in hardware. The specs of the x-box make it suitable enough to do DVD decoding in software easily. Maybe the video decoding hardware is for TV output or input. Maybe one could convert the X-box into some tivo-like appliance?
If digital video playback is done in software (I'm talking MPEG here folks), it might be possible to get this thing to decode DiVX;-) or other digital video formats as well.
Or am I too far off base here?
Re:Bad screenshots for showing anti-aliasing
on
KDE 3.0 Screenshots
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· Score: 1
Duh, of course I was kidding... I was shooting for a 'Funny' moderation...
I _know_ methanol can lead to blindness when you ingest it. That's why they add it to cleaning alcohol (spiritus is what we call it in.nl) so people won't drink that. It also helps keep the price down since pure unpoluted alochol is quite expensive. The two mixed are impossible to seperate through distillation because the boiling points of both are so close to each other.
In other words, to open an MS Word document, you'd not just need an RTF reader, but also WINE, Ximian's Mono and similar emulations for MS Word; MSIE etc..
Uhm, unless the document isn't stored on your own hard-disk/floppy/whatever, this will usually work:
strings < some.doc | less
You see, all that stuff you talk about is just GUI fluff;-)
You are using 2 different formats that both use totally different algorythms for which you use 2 different decoding engines (they are both in the same app, but they are different dll's).
Ogg is very cool and has some things implemented as part of the original spec that were also _hacked_ into mp3 (e.g. VBR). It supports dynamic bitrate reduction (you can stream at different botrates from only 1 stream) and it's sample based (which is handy for cutting and editing). There's probably more.
Don't dismiss ogg like that. You forget also, that it's _FREE_. So it chews up a bit more resources than mp3 does. So what? It costs nothing and you don't have to license jack shit. And with the speed of current hardware, that resource muck you are talking about is also quite moot, as most serious gamer types probably have machines that make you and me drool.
I used to make ANSI graphics like that for my BBS that ran under DOS. After that came TheDraw, which did the coloring for me. I still fondly rememble those ANSI animations...
Oh, and of course my first run-in with Borland's Turbo Pascal... Man, those were the times...
Why isn't that in the form of a warning on the webpage with +100 size font and blinking letters?
As you can see from some of the/. reading public, they tried it anyway, so somewhere someone didn't get it (and neither did I).
Why is everyone in this discussion going on about curl and wget on OSX? Makes me think I'm not the only one here that didn't get it.
Needless to say, it should be more obvious that this upgrade script is not intended vor OSX. Maybe a few tests can be built into the script, to prevent running on a OSX system?
Why is it trolling? I'm just warning people that they should not run that script with reckless abandon. I read the script and there is stuff in there that is just beyond me. Replacing the OSX shipped fileutil-like tools with GNU versions is a bad idea. if the OSX user is running on a HFS+ partition (as many do. Mac OS Classic and Carbon apps have some issues with UFS, because the directory delimiter on HFS is ':' and UFS uses '/'. This seriously confuses some apps. Same goes for some GNU utils that just don't take the proprietary HFS+ filesystem features into account, which is understandable, since the HFS+ fs isn't really open. You needn't replace them because they're not broken. Oh, and not everyone has the same setup. Some people use UFS, some with HFS+. Some people run with classic, some without. Some run OS X 10.0.4, and some run 10.1. That's a lot of variables. So it might work on your system, but not on someone else's. However, the people that _do_ end up with a hosed machine should mail you guys about what setup they have, what version OSX they use, if they use HFS+ or UFS etc. etc. That install script can go a long way as you get more input about systems on which it doesn't work. That's Finnagle's law for ya.
Nevertheless, what you guys are doing with the free Darwin system is very cool, I will heartily agree with that, but "upgrading" my existing OSX system with your script is a bit dangerous. There's another comment in this discussion somewhere that talks about that as well. Maybe you could provide a version of the script that only installs the rootless X stuff and the GNOME bits, and maybe a script that transforms an Aqua system to a GNU/Darwin one. The possibilities are endless here, as are the wishes of the people that wish to run those nifty OSS X11 apps on their Aqua setup. I would like to help, but I have priorities elsewhere that take up most (if not all) of my scarse free time. I will definately try GNU/Darwin on my Mac, but I'll just play safe and set a partition aside for it, so I won't hose my Aqua system.
You guys are doing a great job, but the OSX install script has issues (and it even says 'untested' in the script header somewhere). I am not trolling, and I am not attacking your project. I am merely warning people that they should be careful.... That's all... You guys keep on going. You are doing some cool stuff. But a YMMV is definately in order here.
So people, just try the upgrade script, but your mileage may vary. Oh, if it somehow screws up your machine, please send bugreports to the GNU/Darwin people and don't forget to report what setup you have and what the problems were so they can fix it.
Indeed... Wow, sensible people at slashdot. Who would have thought that?;-)
Instead of instantly running to my Mac OS X machine to type in the command line so I could have GNU/Darwin on my OSX installation I first _READ_ the script.
Again... YMMV to all who try this out. Don't whine if it breaks. I can not stress this enough: back up your important files first.
I wish Taco took more care in posting stories like this without slapping a big YMMV on it. Someone actually might try it out and render his system unusable. I'm waiting for the horror stories already.
Oh, I would like to mention that GNU/Darwin is very cool, I have no gripes with it (yeah, well I got some, but they are merely small things I needn't bother anyone with and which I can easily solve myself) but I am always weary of "ready to run" upgrade scripts that run right off the web. It makes me think of a comment Wietse Venema once made about security and running scripts in a hapless fashion without checking what it actually does.
So... again... YMMV... If it breaks, well, you have been warned. Now go and have fun. GNU/Darwin is seriously cool. Try it. (but back up your files, just in case).
It replaces everything with GNU darwin stuff if you run it on Mac OS X. How do they know that doesn't break anything? e.g. GNU ls is different from the BSD type ls Mac OS X has installed default. I think a big YMMV is in place here.
That said, I'll just download the ISO and free up a partition to run it alongside Mac OS X and Aqua. That way my normal OSX system is guaranteed not to break. My mac is a test machine anyway. I run different operating systems on it depending on what I need to test. I urge everyone that wants to test this on their machine that runs important stuff to BACK UP THEIR IMPORTANT FILES, just to be safe.
Oh.. another thing: it's BETA. It might break. So be a little cautious, and be prepared to pull up your sleeves and do some work if it breaks, but hey, that's what being bleeding edge is all about, right?
But anyway: Great work guys! I'll seriously check it out. I'm downloading the iso as you read this comment.
Uhm, I like Opera, but not because of the 'gestures' thing. It might be nice if you use it for a laptop with one of those glidepoint thingeys, but otherwise it's just another vehicle towards the dreaded RSI (IMHO). Gestures won't work on anything else than a PDA or some other handheld device.
Uhm I was one of the people that complained about extending tags:). Right now I don't care all too much, although the web usability issue does strike a chord with me (I used to administer a network where at least 2 persons were visually impaired, yes they used Linux, since their braille lines seemed to work better with it. Blind and/or partially blind people have no use for anyhing with the word 'graphical' in it.). Sticking with w3c standards helps of course, but doing simple stuff like using alt with img tags goes a long way. Trying to refrain from using frames helps too. (and there's a myriad of other things you can do to make a site accessible)
It's important that a site works with something like lynx or links or any other browser out there. CSS is cool because it degrades so nicely. I really don't know what hit me when I decided to put MSIE unfriendly PHP code in my site. Must've been a serious brainfart.
Well.. I recently blocked MSIE from my webpage. Every other browser is welcome, but not MSIE.
But based on what Mr. Berners-Lee says I feel kinda awkward now. Indeed, the web should be accessible by everyone and everything. There's more reasons why TBL is right, and Microsoft is at fault there as well (MS extended HTML tags anyone?). But that's probably another story and that's offtopic.
I will remove the ban on MSIE from my site when I have the time... What the hell was I thinking?
Well... They made threats. The funny thing about a threat is that you actually don't have to do it. That's called an empty threat, and it usually makes you look more silly if that's obvious.
So they threatened mosfet, but they can't live up to it because they cannot pay the legal costs, which makes it an empty threat, as mosfet correctly states. And yes, it does make them look pretty silly. I wouldn't take them seriously, and I am glad that Mandrakesoft didn't take them seriously as well.
Actually, this saddenes me a bit to see people take advantage of the incredible amount of work and effort that someone puts into his/her work, and not even pay the friggin' invoice if they hired that person to do that work for them. Mosfet is absolutely in his right here. If they were successful in removing mosfet's site I would have mirrored it everywhere. Heck, I might even donate money so he will get his money without the help of that screwy company.
Actually, I had almost given up on him. The last time I checked out his site before this article appeared there was nothing there. I'm glad Mosfet joined our ranks again, since he's a good programmer. He's responsible for a lot of stuff you use if you use KDE 2.
Well, I'll probably get the beef that I'm no better than them, but...
I just blocked all MSIE browsers from my site. They get a lengthy story about why MSIE is bad and that there are good alternatives for them. If you want to read it, just go here with MSIE or just read the page they get redirected to here
It will probably severely cut the amount of visitors, but I don't advertise anything (I don't have banners) and I don't sell anything. So I got nothing to lose. Microsoft can take their browser and go to hell for all I care. My target audience will probably never notice.
Slashdot Mirror
Basically, AST had some very stuffy ideas about OS design. Torvalds just wanted a kernel people (well, himself actually, but besides that) could use and learn from now and for free. Well, the whole thread speaks for itself. Basically,
The whole point is that Linux was not meant to be written, studied and then left to rot on some CS grad's harddisk. It was meant to be used.
Do you know what a piece of dung Minix is compared to Linux in terms of usefullnes? I rather not start. It's a great teaching tool, but nothing more than that. And it's not even Free (tm).
So be glad Linus did not listen to AST. Else you wouldn't be posting from your pretty KDE/GNOME desktop right now.
I've met AST in person. He's still quite pompous and rigid about stuff. I know from first hand AST heavily resisted against Linux being installed on computers at the CWI in Amsterdam, but he just couldn't stop it. Go figure.
sorry for the offtopicness (hey it's that kind of a day again... sheesh. Oh my poor karma...)
(yes this was ment to be humorous, if you don't get it, scroll on and forget you ever saw this)
Well.. actually, I haven't a clue what the hell that was, but I thought it was funny...
But on a more serious note, interesting packets can be created with tools like hping and just futzing about with raw etherframes. I bet I can create junk like that programatically :-)
The one on the end that got fixed by replacing the cable was interesting, I wonder what weird stuff reflections from coiled up UTP/BNC can display in your favourite network traffic analyzer...
There actually is no reason why DVD decoding should be done in hardware. The specs of the x-box make it suitable enough to do DVD decoding in software easily. Maybe the video decoding hardware is for TV output or input. Maybe one could convert the X-box into some tivo-like appliance?
If digital video playback is done in software (I'm talking MPEG here folks), it might be possible to get this thing to decode DiVX ;-) or other digital video formats as well.
Or am I too far off base here?
That's what /etc/X11/XftConfig is for.
I _know_ methanol can lead to blindness when you ingest it. That's why they add it to cleaning alcohol (spiritus is what we call it in .nl) so people won't drink that. It also helps keep the price down since pure unpoluted alochol is quite expensive. The two mixed are impossible to seperate through distillation because the boiling points of both are so close to each other.
But that's a whole different topic :)
Neat! :)
Uhm, unless the document isn't stored on your own hard-disk/floppy/whatever, this will usually work:
strings < some.doc | less
You see, all that stuff you talk about is just GUI fluff ;-)
You are using 2 different formats that both use totally different algorythms for which you use 2 different decoding engines (they are both in the same app, but they are different dll's).
Ogg is very cool and has some things implemented as part of the original spec that were also _hacked_ into mp3 (e.g. VBR). It supports dynamic bitrate reduction (you can stream at different botrates from only 1 stream) and it's sample based (which is handy for cutting and editing). There's probably more.
Don't dismiss ogg like that. You forget also, that it's _FREE_. So it chews up a bit more resources than mp3 does. So what? It costs nothing and you don't have to license jack shit. And with the speed of current hardware, that resource muck you are talking about is also quite moot, as most serious gamer types probably have machines that make you and me drool.
I live in the netherlands....
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..............
(I wish those companies that are selling those cool things were a little more global-minded)
That way you won't have the prompt to type 'y' to save you. I used this once in a batchfile for 'jumpstarting' MS-DOS/win3.11 systems.
I remember DOS, and how it worked quite clearly still, although I haven't used it in 5 years orso ;)
Oh, and of course my first run-in with Borland's Turbo Pascal... Man, those were the times...
As you can see from some of the /. reading public, they tried it anyway, so somewhere someone didn't get it (and neither did I).
Why is everyone in this discussion going on about curl and wget on OSX? Makes me think I'm not the only one here that didn't get it.
Needless to say, it should be more obvious that this upgrade script is not intended vor OSX. Maybe a few tests can be built into the script, to prevent running on a OSX system?
Nevertheless, what you guys are doing with the free Darwin system is very cool, I will heartily agree with that, but "upgrading" my existing OSX system with your script is a bit dangerous. There's another comment in this discussion somewhere that talks about that as well. Maybe you could provide a version of the script that only installs the rootless X stuff and the GNOME bits, and maybe a script that transforms an Aqua system to a GNU/Darwin one. The possibilities are endless here, as are the wishes of the people that wish to run those nifty OSS X11 apps on their Aqua setup. I would like to help, but I have priorities elsewhere that take up most (if not all) of my scarse free time. I will definately try GNU/Darwin on my Mac, but I'll just play safe and set a partition aside for it, so I won't hose my Aqua system.
You guys are doing a great job, but the OSX install script has issues (and it even says 'untested' in the script header somewhere). I am not trolling, and I am not attacking your project. I am merely warning people that they should be careful.... That's all... You guys keep on going. You are doing some cool stuff. But a YMMV is definately in order here.
So people, just try the upgrade script, but your mileage may vary. Oh, if it somehow screws up your machine, please send bugreports to the GNU/Darwin people and don't forget to report what setup you have and what the problems were so they can fix it.
Instead of instantly running to my Mac OS X machine to type in the command line so I could have GNU/Darwin on my OSX installation I first _READ_ the script.
Again... YMMV to all who try this out. Don't whine if it breaks. I can not stress this enough: back up your important files first.
I wish Taco took more care in posting stories like this without slapping a big YMMV on it. Someone actually might try it out and render his system unusable. I'm waiting for the horror stories already.
Oh, I would like to mention that GNU/Darwin is very cool, I have no gripes with it (yeah, well I got some, but they are merely small things I needn't bother anyone with and which I can easily solve myself) but I am always weary of "ready to run" upgrade scripts that run right off the web. It makes me think of a comment Wietse Venema once made about security and running scripts in a hapless fashion without checking what it actually does.
So... again... YMMV... If it breaks, well, you have been warned. Now go and have fun. GNU/Darwin is seriously cool. Try it. (but back up your files, just in case).
Hey, I learn something new everyday :) Yup, OBJECT is pretty neat.
That said, I'll just download the ISO and free up a partition to run it alongside Mac OS X and Aqua. That way my normal OSX system is guaranteed not to break. My mac is a test machine anyway. I run different operating systems on it depending on what I need to test. I urge everyone that wants to test this on their machine that runs important stuff to BACK UP THEIR IMPORTANT FILES, just to be safe.
Oh.. another thing: it's BETA. It might break. So be a little cautious, and be prepared to pull up your sleeves and do some work if it breaks, but hey, that's what being bleeding edge is all about, right?
But anyway: Great work guys! I'll seriously check it out. I'm downloading the iso as you read this comment.
Uhm, I like Opera, but not because of the 'gestures' thing. It might be nice if you use it for a laptop with one of those glidepoint thingeys, but otherwise it's just another vehicle towards the dreaded RSI (IMHO). Gestures won't work on anything else than a PDA or some other handheld device.
While I'll probably won't do such a thing, you _did_ give me an idea for an extra theme for my site though :)
You are forgetting the lowsrc tag with IMG, in which you can specify a lower quality image if the one in the src tag cannot be displayed.
It's important that a site works with something like lynx or links or any other browser out there. CSS is cool because it degrades so nicely. I really don't know what hit me when I decided to put MSIE unfriendly PHP code in my site. Must've been a serious brainfart.
Ah well.. fuhgeddaboudit... :)
But based on what Mr. Berners-Lee says I feel kinda awkward now. Indeed, the web should be accessible by everyone and everything. There's more reasons why TBL is right, and Microsoft is at fault there as well (MS extended HTML tags anyone?). But that's probably another story and that's offtopic.
I will remove the ban on MSIE from my site when I have the time... What the hell was I thinking?
So they threatened mosfet, but they can't live up to it because they cannot pay the legal costs, which makes it an empty threat, as mosfet correctly states. And yes, it does make them look pretty silly. I wouldn't take them seriously, and I am glad that Mandrakesoft didn't take them seriously as well.
Actually, this saddenes me a bit to see people take advantage of the incredible amount of work and effort that someone puts into his/her work, and not even pay the friggin' invoice if they hired that person to do that work for them. Mosfet is absolutely in his right here. If they were successful in removing mosfet's site I would have mirrored it everywhere. Heck, I might even donate money so he will get his money without the help of that screwy company.
Actually, I had almost given up on him. The last time I checked out his site before this article appeared there was nothing there. I'm glad Mosfet joined our ranks again, since he's a good programmer. He's responsible for a lot of stuff you use if you use KDE 2.
I just blocked all MSIE browsers from my site. They get a lengthy story about why MSIE is bad and that there are good alternatives for them. If you want to read it, just go here with MSIE or just read the page they get redirected to here
It will probably severely cut the amount of visitors, but I don't advertise anything (I don't have banners) and I don't sell anything. So I got nothing to lose. Microsoft can take their browser and go to hell for all I care. My target audience will probably never notice.
Oh, and take it easy on that web server :)
Clever people, those people from Omniweb. :)