Re:What is Real Time exactly?
on
RT Linux Patches
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· Score: 2, Informative
Can this be run on my Pentium4? What is it?
Real Time means that you can write a program that is guaranteed to get say 100 CPU cycles every second, without fail, no exceptions. You usually need Real Time OSs when you're writing things like factory robot controllers and other cool stuff like that.
The downside of Real Time is that it can make the system less efficient overall (more time is spent idling the CPU while waiting for a realtime deadline). So for a desktop or a server, there usually isn't any need. For people building Tivos and high-end audio workstations, it might have more value.
But it's not a simple checkbox. The software has to be written to use the realtime features. Think of this as an incredibly cool thing for the embedded Linux developers but absolutely nothing that you or I need to worry about. It's newsworthy because this is Linux encroaching on a lucrative market once dominated by QNX and VxWorks. Linux is well on track for World Domination in 2005! 8-)
Sadly, they don't have enough manpower because they're too busy trying to make money off of people driving 5mph over the speed limit. How about they get traffic cops to start working on real crimes?
Speeding is a real crime. If you're travelling at 35mph then an increase of 5mph (14.3%) will increase your braking distance by 30%. The distance travelled during your reaction time is also increased by 14% however the reaction and braking distances are in different scales so cannot be simply added together. At any rate, the combined stopping distance at 40mph is something in excess of 30% more than at 35mph. That could easily mean the difference between life and death.
The Great Lie of motoring is that 5mph isn't a big deal. It's not a real crime. Surely driver attention, skill level, quality of car, surface conditions, they all outweigh the dangers of speeding. I'm a better driver than everybody else; I should be allowed to speed. Cops should be arresting those Real Criminals instead of poor little old me when I was only exceeding the speed limit by 5mph in my 2500kg V8 4WD truck.
Anybody who seriously believes those arguments should have their license immediately revoked. You only have to look at real world case studies to see that speed reduction on USA highways was the major factor in 9000 fewer road deaths in 1974.
In 2002 the USA road toll exceeded 43,000 deaths. One-sixth of those deaths were solely due to unsafe driving speeds and speed was a contributing factor in more than one-half of the fatalities
Speeding is a crime because it results in deaths. It harms society. Not only because of the human cost (which is the most tragic loss) but also because of the wasted time and money spent cleaning the spilled blood off the roads.
Do you mean THE Doom? The original one from the mid-90's? How is that proving the capabilities of anything?
It's bloody awesome news. If Doom works then that means OpenXDK can read the gamepad inputs plus generate 2D output. There are a number of otherwise free Xbox utilities that need nothing more than that but because of the Microsoft Xbox SDK licensing, the authors are unable to distribute those Xbox utilities. So even though the source code is GPL, by linking with Microsoft's Xbox SDK you forego your publishing rights. That sucks, don't you agree? These people are forced to "warez trade" their own utilities that they wrote!
For example, go to xs.com and count how many utilities cannot be distributed due to XDK licensing. The very worst example is Xbox Media Center; an absolutely outstanding piece of Xbox software (built around Python and Mplayer) that is encumbered by the Microsoft XDK.
Now with OpenXDK at least some of these free and open-source utilities can be published on websites. It is great news for the Xbox developer scene.
Have you had any success with using a USB wireless dongle under Linux?
Yes. I'm using one right now.
Have you by chance encountered a USB dongle natively (and without tweaking) supported by Yellow Dog, or any other Linux distro? If so, which one?
I use a D-Link DWL-122 and Debian/PPC. Debian provides the userspace tools in a package (linux-wlan-ng) but you must compile the kernel module yourself.
That's not a recommendation though. It's only 11Mbps, no WPA, and the dongle sometimes needs to be pulled and reinserted a few times before the driver initialises it correctly. It does work reliably once it gets going.
The 20 gig iPod holds 10,000 songs. At a buck a song, that's $10,000 to fill it up.
Hang on. Your sizes seem a bit off. 20GB holding 10,000 songs? That's only 2MB a song. I just did a quick sample of my music directory (du and find | wc) and I'm averaging 6MB per song. So I'd only manage 3000 songs on that iPod.
God, what a bunch of fucking liars and hypocrites! In the last few years, I haven't met a single computer geek who hadn't a huge collection of downloaded MP3s.
Maybe you're hanging around in the wrong circles.
I won't deny that I know many people who are grade-A pirates. They download music like it's going out of style. I can't imagine that they're listening to even one-tenth of it because they download far more than they'll ever need.
But one thing I've noticed in common with all the people I know who "steal" music; they're Windows users. I have a theory that many Linux users are exceptionally sensitive to copyright infringement. I think it might be due to the realisation that they have a complete OS, no strings attached, $0. It makes it difficult to justify "stealing" a $10 album when you've just received a gift equivalent of $1000 in basic OS and office software.
All of the very hard-core Linux users I know (myself included) are strictly anti-piracy. It also helps that we have decent jobs; it's harder to justify "stealing" a $10 album when you can easily afford to buy it. That's not to say that Linux-using pirates don't exist. I simply have never met any. Windows users often seem to have stolen copies of games, movies, software, etc. They have a culture of piracy that we thankfully don't seem to have in Linux circles.
And I assure you, I'm being truthful with these answers.
1) Roughly what percent of your music collection is unauthorized files from P2P like Kazaa, FTP, etc.?
0%.
2) Roughly what percent of your music collection comes from sources like iTunes Music Store, eMusic, etc?
0% (iTunes won't sell to Australia).
3) Roughly what percent of your music collection comes from shareable sources like Creative Commons-licensed music?
0% (I tried Gnomoradio and didn't like what I heard).
4) Roughly what percent of your music collection comes from rips of your own CDs?
100% (all OGG).
5) Roughly what percent of your music collection comes from rips of friends' CDs?
0%.
There's simply no point in "stealing" music. It's already cheap and plentiful without having to resort to online "piracy". Local stores are selling CDs that I like for $5 on their bargain tables. It's simply more convenient to buy the music in CD format and rip it.
That's fsckin' tragic! I'm a UK citizen^Wsubject and even I managed 6/6 (OK, I cheated on the 200K question 'cos you'd already told us the answer - but it's also about the same point where our third parties think we should have a 50% tax rate, so I might have chosen 200K anyway).
I only got 5/6. I also didn't know the 200k question. I'm Australian.
Makes me think I'm more qualified to vote in the US election than most US voters.
I have to say I'm also struggling to work out what niche Linux for OS X machines fills. If you want Linux, there's cheaper hardware to run it on,
Not all of us are driven to buy the cheapest option available. Some of us buy the snappier suits, the fancier cars, the better quality furniture, and the more stylish laptops.
Apple produces the most stylish laptop in the market. The benefit of running Linux is that I'm not confined to x86; I was able to jump to Apple hardware without changing my software.
Till someone does something about the Airport Extreme problem, Linux is worthless on the new Powerbooks.
It's not worthless. I'm running Linux on a new PowerBook and although it's annoying that the wireless doesn't work, I can remember 5 years ago I didn't even have the option of wireless and computers weren't worthless back then. I can live with the loss in functionality until a driver is written.
You always have the option of a USB or PCMCIA wireless dongle.
Until then, I'll buy CDs, burn them and give away or sell the worthless shell to somebody else.
You are not allowed to keep the ripped versions once you've sold or given away the "worthless shell". You might as well be downloading the music off eDonkey because what you propose is just as illegal.
So Linux is not an os but an application that runs on the operating system?
No, Linux runs directly on the Xbox hardware. There is a tiny application that boots up Linux. It is 100% analogous to LOADLIN.EXE that people once used to bootstrap Linux from DOS. Once the Linux kernel is running that application is not used anymore (it is overwritten in memory).
I'm about to install a sprinkler system for my lawn. There are lots of timers and computers out there to automate the watering of your lawn. However, before I go out and buy something, I wanted to know if there are any interesting open source projects for watering lawns. I've heard about smart sprinklers that get weather from the internet/satellite and water accordingly. What have other Slashdot readers done?
Ask yourself if you really want a lawn. I suspect most people don't but they've never stopped and considered the alternatives. Consider these problems with lawns...
Incredibly high maintenance. You'll be mowing that lawn every weekend during summer, removing patches of crabgrass, reseeding the dead spots, fertilising twice a year, etc.
High water usage. Not only does a lawn have a large surface area but it also provides very little protection for the soil. You're the number one contributor to ground salination and rising water tables when you have a lawn.
Usefulness? Lawn really isn't that useful. It isn't pretty. It doesn't shade the house, or hide your ugly brick walls from the street. You can't sit outside on the grass without looking silly. Some people claim they have grass so their kids can run around on it, but there are sports ovals for that. Why do you want a private oval in your backyard?
The silliest thing about grass is that it's an artificially stunted plant. The grass wants to grow long but by mowing it you are cropping it to the roots. The grass is permanently kept in the juvenille state. Why bother?
So what did I do? I got rid of my grass. A few mounds of dirt to give the garden a bit of privacy. Woodchip on top to shade the soil and blanket the roots. I put in some native bushes, flowers and trees. Built a nice path through the garden. Then I built a paved area where I can put some chairs and a small table. Now I can sit in my garden and enjoy the beautiful scenery. I don't have to see the neighbour's laundry hanging on their washing line. I also don't have to water it more than once a week because of the woodchip. Native birds, lizards and insects love my garden; it's a healthy thriving ecosystem. Meanwhile my neighbours waste 3 hours of every weekend mowing their ugly lifeless lawns.
Just like Linux. You have the dictator in charge (Linus), and a great peer review system. It works great. Same with Groklaw. You have a dictator in charge (PJ), and a grreat peer review system. It works great.
There is no peer review on Groklaw because PJ deletes comments she dislikes. If PJ is the only person who gets to review a comment then there's no peer review. If I can not read the "offensive comment" and make up my own mind, then I have no faith in the system or the leader. I simply turn my attention elsewhere (which is what I did many months ago).
But don't put down Groklaw just because it's on the side of FOSS.
Groklaw is on the side of PJ. Whether PJ is on the side of FOSS or not is a matter of opinion. I think the FOSS community has many different opinions and it's rather naive to claim that PJ has the definitive opinion.
Give me the Groklaw approach every day of the week. You do wrong, you get called out. You do right, you get praised
The problem with that model is that it relies on the perfection of the dictator in charge. There is no peer review. It is the exact opposite of FOSS development where peer review is paramount.
I don't want to play the MSFT apologist at all, in fact if I got to design a desktop interface, I'd do it very differently. I just want to point out that UI design can be very difficult,
No, it really isn't. You just think it is because you've never tried.
as it involves figuring out what's going on in the minds of complete strangers. Even though you don't like the word 'Start' and think that for you your suggestions make more sense, they really don't.
Microsoft later put the words "Click Here" on the taskbar with an arrow pointing to the Start button. Obviously my first suggestion was not picked at random; I based it on what Microsoft ended up doing to correct their stupid UI design.
Actually at least -some- PC manufacturers definitely void the warranty based on opening the case. Anything from those funky self-destructing stickers to case intrusion switches can detect this, and they make way too much use of them.
If your opening of the case didn't cause the damage then they have to honour the warranty. It doesn't matter how many stickers or warnings they stick on the case. Manufacturers can't absolve themselves of legally required warranties with hyperbole and holographic stickers. Extended warranties might be a different matter because they are contracts.
This "you open the case, you have no warranty" belief is an urban myth. It's right up there with the popular belief that stores have the right to search your bags just by sticking up a sign "a condition of entry is that we can search your bags". Nope. They still can't search your bags. They can't negate your right to privacy with a sign.
Obviously 40GB isn't enough. There's no such thing as too much storage. If they gave me a terabyte I'm sure I'd find a use for it.
But 40GB is too much for the current interface designs used on players. Even the "best" designs like the iPod make it too cumbersome to find songs when you've got 2000+ songs. There needs to be improvements in the interface before they start worrying about even more disk.
First it was anything but $0.99/track is not cheap enough. Then $0.99 is not enough,.. Now people are not even willing to spend a whole quarter for a song?
Different people. Even when some people were saying "$0.99/track is OK" there were others saying "no way, that's the same as CD, I'd rather just buy the CD'.
Here's a hint. At the top of each message is a name. That name indicates a different person. By reading those names you can see that different people say different things. I can see how it might have confused you with lots of people saying different things on Slashdot. You clearly thought it was a single person with schizophrenia. But armed with this helpful hint you should now be able to distinguish different participants. HTH.
I think there are some people here who will still be complaining when they are free, just because they aren't encoded at a high enough bitrate!
That's a pretty safe prediction because those sorts of people have already said as much in previous stories. Many of them want FLAC instead of a lossy MP3 or AAC format. Zero Nostradamus points for you, I'm afraid!
So someone had to come up with a short piece of text that clues newbies in, and it worked rather well (in usability tests). 'Start' may not be optimal, but has anyone thought of something better? (Not that is matters anymore.)
Well, actually...yeah. Given that the only documentary evidence of misconduct that anybody has ever been able to cough up has turned out to be forged, yes, this basically means that the "Bush went AWOL" non-story can finally be put to bed once and for all.
Uhh, no, illogical conclusion. Absence of evidence is not evidence of non-absence:-)
There are idiots out there who will fight to keep it alive, of course, but there are people who insist we never landed on the moon, either.
Who really cares if someone forged, misrepresented or just misunderstood the nature of this document? The point is that Bush dropped the ball when he was supposed to be defending the country in the 1970's, a job he got by virtue of being his father's son in the first place.
Are you serious? Are you really suggesting that it's OK to forge documents to prove a point that you think is true? Would you also advocate planting falsified evidence on somebody you're certain is guilty of another crime?
Heavens to Betsy, there is something seriously defective in the ethical centre of your brain.
I wonder if governments will be permitted to publish documents describing the file formats? If so, this could be the biggest benefit of the source code being made available to them.
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Real Time means that you can write a program that is guaranteed to get say 100 CPU cycles every second, without fail, no exceptions. You usually need Real Time OSs when you're writing things like factory robot controllers and other cool stuff like that.
The downside of Real Time is that it can make the system less efficient overall (more time is spent idling the CPU while waiting for a realtime deadline). So for a desktop or a server, there usually isn't any need. For people building Tivos and high-end audio workstations, it might have more value.
But it's not a simple checkbox. The software has to be written to use the realtime features. Think of this as an incredibly cool thing for the embedded Linux developers but absolutely nothing that you or I need to worry about. It's newsworthy because this is Linux encroaching on a lucrative market once dominated by QNX and VxWorks. Linux is well on track for World Domination in 2005! 8-)
Speeding is a real crime. If you're travelling at 35mph then an increase of 5mph (14.3%) will increase your braking distance by 30%. The distance travelled during your reaction time is also increased by 14% however the reaction and braking distances are in different scales so cannot be simply added together. At any rate, the combined stopping distance at 40mph is something in excess of 30% more than at 35mph. That could easily mean the difference between life and death.
The Great Lie of motoring is that 5mph isn't a big deal. It's not a real crime. Surely driver attention, skill level, quality of car, surface conditions, they all outweigh the dangers of speeding. I'm a better driver than everybody else; I should be allowed to speed. Cops should be arresting those Real Criminals instead of poor little old me when I was only exceeding the speed limit by 5mph in my 2500kg V8 4WD truck.
Anybody who seriously believes those arguments should have their license immediately revoked. You only have to look at real world case studies to see that speed reduction on USA highways was the major factor in 9000 fewer road deaths in 1974.
In 2002 the USA road toll exceeded 43,000 deaths. One-sixth of those deaths were solely due to unsafe driving speeds and speed was a contributing factor in more than one-half of the fatalities
Speeding is a crime because it results in deaths. It harms society. Not only because of the human cost (which is the most tragic loss) but also because of the wasted time and money spent cleaning the spilled blood off the roads.
So the message is clear: STOP SPEEDING.
It's bloody awesome news. If Doom works then that means OpenXDK can read the gamepad inputs plus generate 2D output. There are a number of otherwise free Xbox utilities that need nothing more than that but because of the Microsoft Xbox SDK licensing, the authors are unable to distribute those Xbox utilities. So even though the source code is GPL, by linking with Microsoft's Xbox SDK you forego your publishing rights. That sucks, don't you agree? These people are forced to "warez trade" their own utilities that they wrote!
For example, go to xs.com and count how many utilities cannot be distributed due to XDK licensing. The very worst example is Xbox Media Center; an absolutely outstanding piece of Xbox software (built around Python and Mplayer) that is encumbered by the Microsoft XDK.
Now with OpenXDK at least some of these free and open-source utilities can be published on websites. It is great news for the Xbox developer scene.
Yes. I'm using one right now.
I use a D-Link DWL-122 and Debian/PPC. Debian provides the userspace tools in a package (linux-wlan-ng) but you must compile the kernel module yourself.
That's not a recommendation though. It's only 11Mbps, no WPA, and the dongle sometimes needs to be pulled and reinserted a few times before the driver initialises it correctly. It does work reliably once it gets going.
Hang on. Your sizes seem a bit off. 20GB holding 10,000 songs? That's only 2MB a song. I just did a quick sample of my music directory (du and find | wc) and I'm averaging 6MB per song. So I'd only manage 3000 songs on that iPod.
Maybe you're hanging around in the wrong circles.
I won't deny that I know many people who are grade-A pirates. They download music like it's going out of style. I can't imagine that they're listening to even one-tenth of it because they download far more than they'll ever need.
But one thing I've noticed in common with all the people I know who "steal" music; they're Windows users. I have a theory that many Linux users are exceptionally sensitive to copyright infringement. I think it might be due to the realisation that they have a complete OS, no strings attached, $0. It makes it difficult to justify "stealing" a $10 album when you've just received a gift equivalent of $1000 in basic OS and office software.
All of the very hard-core Linux users I know (myself included) are strictly anti-piracy. It also helps that we have decent jobs; it's harder to justify "stealing" a $10 album when you can easily afford to buy it. That's not to say that Linux-using pirates don't exist. I simply have never met any. Windows users often seem to have stolen copies of games, movies, software, etc. They have a culture of piracy that we thankfully don't seem to have in Linux circles.
And I assure you, I'm being truthful with these answers.
0%.
0% (iTunes won't sell to Australia).
0% (I tried Gnomoradio and didn't like what I heard).
100% (all OGG).
0%.
There's simply no point in "stealing" music. It's already cheap and plentiful without having to resort to online "piracy". Local stores are selling CDs that I like for $5 on their bargain tables. It's simply more convenient to buy the music in CD format and rip it.
I only got 5/6. I also didn't know the 200k question. I'm Australian.
Makes me think I'm more qualified to vote in the US election than most US voters.
Not all of us are driven to buy the cheapest option available. Some of us buy the snappier suits, the fancier cars, the better quality furniture, and the more stylish laptops.
Apple produces the most stylish laptop in the market. The benefit of running Linux is that I'm not confined to x86; I was able to jump to Apple hardware without changing my software.
It's not worthless. I'm running Linux on a new PowerBook and although it's annoying that the wireless doesn't work, I can remember 5 years ago I didn't even have the option of wireless and computers weren't worthless back then. I can live with the loss in functionality until a driver is written.
You always have the option of a USB or PCMCIA wireless dongle.
You are not allowed to keep the ripped versions once you've sold or given away the "worthless shell". You might as well be downloading the music off eDonkey because what you propose is just as illegal.
IT IS "LOSING" WITH A SINGLE "O" YOU MOTHER FUCKING CRETIN.
No, Linux runs directly on the Xbox hardware. There is a tiny application that boots up Linux. It is 100% analogous to LOADLIN.EXE that people once used to bootstrap Linux from DOS. Once the Linux kernel is running that application is not used anymore (it is overwritten in memory).
Ask yourself if you really want a lawn. I suspect most people don't but they've never stopped and considered the alternatives. Consider these problems with lawns...
The silliest thing about grass is that it's an artificially stunted plant. The grass wants to grow long but by mowing it you are cropping it to the roots. The grass is permanently kept in the juvenille state. Why bother?
So what did I do? I got rid of my grass. A few mounds of dirt to give the garden a bit of privacy. Woodchip on top to shade the soil and blanket the roots. I put in some native bushes, flowers and trees. Built a nice path through the garden. Then I built a paved area where I can put some chairs and a small table. Now I can sit in my garden and enjoy the beautiful scenery. I don't have to see the neighbour's laundry hanging on their washing line. I also don't have to water it more than once a week because of the woodchip. Native birds, lizards and insects love my garden; it's a healthy thriving ecosystem. Meanwhile my neighbours waste 3 hours of every weekend mowing their ugly lifeless lawns.
There is no peer review on Groklaw because PJ deletes comments she dislikes. If PJ is the only person who gets to review a comment then there's no peer review. If I can not read the "offensive comment" and make up my own mind, then I have no faith in the system or the leader. I simply turn my attention elsewhere (which is what I did many months ago).
Groklaw is on the side of PJ. Whether PJ is on the side of FOSS or not is a matter of opinion. I think the FOSS community has many different opinions and it's rather naive to claim that PJ has the definitive opinion.
The problem with that model is that it relies on the perfection of the dictator in charge. There is no peer review. It is the exact opposite of FOSS development where peer review is paramount.
No, it really isn't. You just think it is because you've never tried.
Microsoft later put the words "Click Here" on the taskbar with an arrow pointing to the Start button. Obviously my first suggestion was not picked at random; I based it on what Microsoft ended up doing to correct their stupid UI design.
If your opening of the case didn't cause the damage then they have to honour the warranty. It doesn't matter how many stickers or warnings they stick on the case. Manufacturers can't absolve themselves of legally required warranties with hyperbole and holographic stickers. Extended warranties might be a different matter because they are contracts.
This "you open the case, you have no warranty" belief is an urban myth. It's right up there with the popular belief that stores have the right to search your bags just by sticking up a sign "a condition of entry is that we can search your bags". Nope. They still can't search your bags. They can't negate your right to privacy with a sign.
Obviously 40GB isn't enough. There's no such thing as too much storage. If they gave me a terabyte I'm sure I'd find a use for it.
But 40GB is too much for the current interface designs used on players. Even the "best" designs like the iPod make it too cumbersome to find songs when you've got 2000+ songs. There needs to be improvements in the interface before they start worrying about even more disk.
Different people. Even when some people were saying "$0.99/track is OK" there were others saying "no way, that's the same as CD, I'd rather just buy the CD'.
Here's a hint. At the top of each message is a name. That name indicates a different person. By reading those names you can see that different people say different things. I can see how it might have confused you with lots of people saying different things on Slashdot. You clearly thought it was a single person with schizophrenia. But armed with this helpful hint you should now be able to distinguish different participants. HTH.
That's a pretty safe prediction because those sorts of people have already said as much in previous stories. Many of them want FLAC instead of a lossy MP3 or AAC format. Zero Nostradamus points for you, I'm afraid!
Click Me. Menu. Actions. Tasks. Open Here.
Any of those make more sense than "Start".
Uhh, no, illogical conclusion. Absence of evidence is not evidence of non-absence :-)
Poisoning the well... interesting.
Are you serious? Are you really suggesting that it's OK to forge documents to prove a point that you think is true? Would you also advocate planting falsified evidence on somebody you're certain is guilty of another crime?
Heavens to Betsy, there is something seriously defective in the ethical centre of your brain.
They got their freedom of speech. That doesn't mean we have to listen.
A marathon starts with the first step.
I wonder if governments will be permitted to publish documents describing the file formats? If so, this could be the biggest benefit of the source code being made available to them.