I don't know much about the Japanese port, so I may be asking questions with obvious answers here. But if I am, please provide URLs!
Is this Linux port worth anything?
* Will I be able to burn my own Linux CD according to Sony's specifications, and boot whatever kernel I want on the PS2? * Will I be able to get the GNU compiler set up at home, according to Sony's specifications, so I can recompile the kernel and other applications to run on the PS2?
Both statements are true *today* with the Sega Dreamcast console (except that the instructions came from the community, not from Sega), which means I can run Linux (http://linuxdc.org), or anything else I want to on it by simply burning a CDR.
If Sony's hardware remains sufficiently closed such that it won't let me do on the PS2 what I can already do on the Dreamcast, then I'm not interested.
Demonstrations of this stuff have been around since stealth aircraft themselves. They use "backscatter" to track the energy (radio waves at pretty much any frequency) the aircraft reflects in all directions as it travels through an RF field (which the Roke guys are setting up with mobile phones, but just about any kind of transmitter will work).
This necessarily doesn't spell the end of stealth aircraft, though, because what also makes them stealthy is that they don't reflect much energy from single-point RF sources back to the source itself, which means they're very hard for a missle to track and hit if it is guided by an onboard radar system. And as the US's own Patriot system demonstrates, remotely-guided high-speed munitions aren't all that effective yet.
I teach for the Embedded Systems Conference, and there are literally a *ton* of vendors there hawking lots of hardware that appears to fit your requirements. If you can't attend, go to http://www.embedded.com and check out their PC-104 buyer's guides.
I doubt someone like Lineo is going to be value-added for you, because their speciality will be along the lines of extreme kernel mods or getting the kernel running on obscure hardware--- which you can avoid needing if you pick something mainstream like a basic PC-104 setup.
What's left is just application-specific general programming, and Lineo et al won't be any better than you are already for that.
By your question, I suspect that you're new to Linux altogether. Take a course like Red Hat's RHD248 (which I wrote and teach, btw) before you get too far along with your Linux evaluation. Focusing an entire week on embedding GNU, Linux and eCos will set you on the right path faster than $$$ for a Linux disto, and you'll understand more of what's going on to boot.
... I *am* an independent consultant specializing in embedded development with open source and Free tools.
I obviously spend a lot of time watching my overhead--- the expenses that your employer covers with their "cut" of your billing rate. So while I can't answer what a reasonable cut is, I *can* tell you a little about what you're getting out of it.
Aside: always make sure your salary stays up with the going rate for people with similar skills in your GEOGRAPHIC AREA (salaries vary widely with location in the U.S.). Befriend a few salaried locals with similar job descriptions, and find out what they're getting. Factor into that what you get for benefits and security--- less paycheck security *should* translate to a higher wage, for example.
Office space runs from $10-$100/ft2, depending on where you are. Bandwidth and other utilities are usually extra.
Then there's your computer and office furniture. They may not seem like much, but if they're leased then the lessor is paying $50-$200/mo for them, at least. (Aside: I spent $14k of my own money in 2000 for computers and related equipment.)
If you really are on a W2, then your employer has to pay taxes to cover Workmans Compensation (i.e. unemployment benefits) and Social Security. These aren't deductions from your paycheck, these are deductions from their *profit*--- the tax laws are designed like this, to prevent the employer from penalizing your existence with these expenses.
You've already mentioned your benefits package. I have a wife and three kids, so mine runs about $700/mo. Young, unmarried and single will definitely get you a better rate, however.
I also have to carry additional life, property and liability insurance. I can get sued if I screw something up, just like your employer can. These policies can total a few $100's a month, depending on the nature of the work you're involved in.
And then there are the obvious costs associated with secretaries, managers, and salesmen. Without them, nobody finds you any work to do. And there's also the savings needed to pay people when they're "between jobs". And does your company cover training?
If you have a reasonable employer, and they don't think you're out to screw them over, then they'll probably be open to explaining their cost structure to you. Especially if they sense that you're trying to understand their business better, in hopes of making them (and you!) more profitable.
I'm not trying to talk sour grapes here, but you're doing *very* well if you are bringing home 80% of your billing rate. Myself, I figure my effective take-home is more like 60%. And I manage my costs *very* aggressively, because I am a company of *one*.
NetBSD's strength is in its portability. It already runs perfectly well on x86 platforms (doesn't it?), but since embedded systems and workstations are increasingly non-x86 (the former more so than the latter, but give it time), porting to any generally available hardware is a Good Thing.
Besides, an SH evaluation kit with less firepower than the DC is about $4k, and since the SH is as good as the StrongArm for PDA and other nifty applications, having an el-cheapo development environment is a huge bonus for those of us who want to design hardware on a budget.
Why do I want the source for the engine controller in my car?
Because it may contain code that you wrote, taken from something you posted under a BSD (or similar) license.
[But being the embedded hacker type, I can think of a lot more reasons, too!;^)]
It isn't so much the fact that someone might *take* my code that troubles me, it's that they may use it as a starting point for some kind of legitimate improvement, and then not give it *back*. They get rich, while the people who actually did the hard part, creating the code, get shafted.
I don't see relevance; most GPL and BSD-licensed work is not for embedded systems deep in an every day appliance.
Don't tell Lineo or Monta Vista that!:^)
Deep embedded is *exactly* the market that they're shooting for. In fact, Lineo's marketing current marketing tagline is "Put Linux Anywhere".
And LinuxWorks used to be Lynx, a company that produced an embedded RTOS with a POSIX API, i.e. an embedded Linux lookalike targeted for deeply embedded systems (although it predates Linux by a number of years, I think).
The Day for embedded Linux is coming, if it isn't here already. I'm glad to see that it won't turn out like Jim Ready's previous company, where I had to pay >$10k for the priviledge of running his buggy, bloated and poorly documented RTOS, vxworks. On one product. Never again.
b.g.
I just noticed, we haven't mentioned Natalie Portman in this entire thread. Oops!:^)
The GPL doesn't force distribution of code. So MontaVista could have kept the Linux code to themself.
It *does* force disclosure if they "distribute" the product, i.e. offer it for sale. Which is what Jim Ready's former company (Microtec Research, Inc., vxworks RTOS) was all about.
So really only stupid programmers wouldn't release back in that scenario, and try to take FreeBSD "head-on".
It happens all the time in embedded systems work, albeit I haven't yet found any FreeBSD examples specifically. I do know of several companies who based their hardware on the "freely available" (i.e. OS-compatible license) and very popular RTOS, uC/OS, and at least one RTOS vendor redistributed uC/OS as its own code!
Yet the uC/OS authors and contributors saw not a penny for their work, and the rest of us didn't see any source code at all!
The GPL thrives on the delusion that someone who programs for a living (or their bosses, etc) is a monopolistic idiot that can't embrace open source.
But unfortunately, at the moment much (most?) software is being developed and released by those "monopolistic idiots" in exactly the fashion you describe. When was the last time you saw the source code for the engine controller in your car, for example?
The GPL protects "us" from "them": by Linus' releasing of Linux as GPL, "monopolistic idiots" (we both agree they're out there) can't abscond with the Linux source code, enhanced or otherwise, whether Linus gets hit by a bus or not. For once, the sharks are on our side!
BSDL et al can't claim that. So until the majority take a more enlightened view towards software licensing, there's the GPL.
The BSDL doesn't require changes to the licensed work to be subsequently released in source form. So, Monta Vista could legally make similar changes to FreeBSD and keep the source code all to itself.
So what I'm talking about *is* GPL-specific, and the ignorance of the common man is *exactly* the reason why we need the FSF.
The nicest thing about all of this is that even if Linus rejects MontaVista's changes, there's nothing stopping anyone who wants to use those patches from getting the code. While it's true that Linus owns the Linux(tm), the truth is that we all own the code, by virtue of the GPL, and we can all do what we want to with our own copies, whether Linus approves or not.
Contrast this with a non-GPL work, where if a single marketdroid decides to quit selling it (even if it is a good product), all the product's users are permanently and irrevocably screwed.
People can bitch all they want about the GPL, but it is clearly working to everyone's advantage here. Thanks, RMS!
Try putting your computers on UPS's. It may be that what's killing them is actually EMF on the electric lines caused by the motors in the chillers. A UPS would both spot that, and correct for it.
Next, try putting "power factor correctors" and/or "soft starters" on the power lines to the chiller motors (I think that's what they're called, anyway). The basic idea is that they help correct the EMF problem at the source (and can sometimes save electricity bills too!).
Make sure the chiller motors are properly grounded, and that all their hardware (starting capacitors, etc.) are functioning properly. Also make sure that the wiring in the office is up to code--- if you don't have proper grounding, *everything* in your office will be sensitive to electric noise of all types. My office used to be next to some large electric motors (also in chillers, but also in some seriously freeeeeky RF equipment my employer was into), and it was no problem, even though the building was nearly 100 years old (extensive remodeling/rewiring, though).
Get on a different electrical circuit than the chiller motors.
Finally, it may be easier to put a grounded steel box around the chiller motors, rather than on your whole floor.
I use procmail (http://www.procmail.org) to sort incoming mail into Maildir (http://qmail.org) directories, instead of mbox files. I sort by subject, sender, etc. This lets me use grep, etc. and get a better fix of where the message I'm interested in is located.
I also use Mutt (http://www.mutt.org), and since it knows about the Maildir format, mail is pre-sorted before I even see it!
After a few years, however, even this approach runs out of steam... but it's still more automatic than by deliberately saving mail into different folders as you read it, and there's virtually no scripting/coding required.
Clearly, the world that Stallman envisioned fifteen years ago, when he founded the FSF, is fully upon us (although I have believed that for some time).
I co-lo my own equipment at http://www.ssi.net, whom I picked after shopping around for several months. I even visited their site before installing my hardware, and was very pleased.
These guys have been very good to me, they know what they're doing, they've got decent bandwidth, and I think they would be happy to help you out.
The internet's major strengths are redundancy and diversity. Let's hope that neither of those go away.
... which is precisely why I think my next workstation will be StrongARM-, Mips-, or Alpha-based. True they're more expensive than converting a Wintel box to Linux, but the value of the diversity to be gained isn't to be underestimated...
Actually, the original poster is right: computers with that kind of performance *are* classified as munitions by DTRA, and their use is closely monitored. I should know, I'm getting ready to fly a Hitachi SH-2 microprocessor (about 14 MIPS, a far cry from a PowerMac), and am having to jump through major hoops to do it.
My situation is more complicated because the hardware is being exported and becomes the posession of a non-US entity before launch, something that doesn't seem to be the case for SkyCorp.
Slashdot Mirror
*finally*, some test data I can actually use! :^)
I don't know much about the Japanese port, so I may be asking questions with obvious answers here. But if I am, please provide URLs!
Is this Linux port worth anything?
* Will I be able to burn my own Linux CD according to Sony's specifications, and boot whatever kernel I want on the PS2?
* Will I be able to get the GNU compiler set up at home, according to Sony's specifications, so I can recompile the kernel and other applications to run on the PS2?
Both statements are true *today* with the Sega Dreamcast console (except that the instructions came from the community, not from Sega), which means I can run Linux (http://linuxdc.org), or anything else I want to on it by simply burning a CDR.
If Sony's hardware remains sufficiently closed such that it won't let me do on the PS2 what I can already do on the Dreamcast, then I'm not interested.
b.g.
Demonstrations of this stuff have been around since stealth aircraft themselves. They use "backscatter" to track the energy (radio waves at pretty much any frequency) the aircraft reflects in all directions as it travels through an RF field (which the Roke guys are setting up with mobile phones, but just about any kind of transmitter will work).
This necessarily doesn't spell the end of stealth aircraft, though, because what also makes them stealthy is that they don't reflect much energy from single-point RF sources back to the source itself, which means they're very hard for a missle to track and hit if it is guided by an onboard radar system. And as the US's own Patriot system demonstrates, remotely-guided high-speed munitions aren't all that effective yet.
b.g.
I teach for the Embedded Systems Conference, and there are literally a *ton* of vendors there hawking lots of hardware that appears to fit your requirements. If you can't attend, go to http://www.embedded.com and check out their PC-104 buyer's guides.
I doubt someone like Lineo is going to be value-added for you, because their speciality will be along the lines of extreme kernel mods or getting the kernel running on obscure hardware--- which you can avoid needing if you pick something mainstream like a basic PC-104 setup.
What's left is just application-specific general programming, and Lineo et al won't be any better than you are already for that.
By your question, I suspect that you're new to Linux altogether. Take a course like Red Hat's RHD248 (which I wrote and teach, btw) before you get too far along with your Linux evaluation. Focusing an entire week on embedding GNU, Linux and eCos will set you on the right path faster than $$$ for a Linux disto, and you'll understand more of what's going on to boot.
b.g.
... I *am* an independent consultant specializing in embedded development with open source and Free tools.
/ft2, depending on where you are. Bandwidth and other utilities are usually extra.
I obviously spend a lot of time watching my overhead--- the expenses that your employer covers with their "cut" of your billing rate. So while I can't answer what a reasonable cut is, I *can* tell you a little about what you're getting out of it.
Aside: always make sure your salary stays up with the going rate for people with similar skills in your GEOGRAPHIC AREA (salaries vary widely with location in the U.S.). Befriend a few salaried locals with similar job descriptions, and find out what they're getting. Factor into that what you get for benefits and security--- less paycheck security *should* translate to a higher wage, for example.
Office space runs from $10-$100
Then there's your computer and office furniture. They may not seem like much, but if they're leased then the lessor is paying $50-$200/mo for them, at least. (Aside: I spent $14k of my own money in 2000 for computers and related equipment.) If you really are on a W2, then your employer has to pay taxes to cover Workmans Compensation (i.e. unemployment benefits) and Social Security. These aren't deductions from your paycheck, these are deductions from their *profit*--- the tax laws are designed like this, to prevent the employer from penalizing your existence with these expenses.
You've already mentioned your benefits package. I have a wife and three kids, so mine runs about $700/mo. Young, unmarried and single will definitely get you a better rate, however.
I also have to carry additional life, property and liability insurance. I can get sued if I screw something up, just like your employer can. These policies can total a few $100's a month, depending on the nature of the work you're involved in.
And then there are the obvious costs associated with secretaries, managers, and salesmen. Without them, nobody finds you any work to do. And there's also the savings needed to pay people when they're "between jobs". And does your company cover training?
If you have a reasonable employer, and they don't think you're out to screw them over, then they'll probably be open to explaining their cost structure to you. Especially if they sense that you're trying to understand their business better, in hopes of making them (and you!) more profitable.
I'm not trying to talk sour grapes here, but you're doing *very* well if you are bringing home 80% of your billing rate. Myself, I figure my effective take-home is more like 60%. And I manage my costs *very* aggressively, because I am a company of *one*.
HTH,
b.g.
NetBSD's strength is in its portability. It already runs perfectly well on x86 platforms (doesn't it?), but since embedded systems and workstations are increasingly non-x86 (the former more so than the latter, but give it time), porting to any generally available hardware is a Good Thing.
Besides, an SH evaluation kit with less firepower than the DC is about $4k, and since the SH is as good as the StrongArm for PDA and other nifty applications, having an el-cheapo development environment is a huge bonus for those of us who want to design hardware on a budget.
b.g.
I normally install the sources for things, I use rpm only rarely.
Apart from the deb vs. rpm thing, then, what's in Debian for me? I'm looking for an excuse to switch (from RH 6.x), but haven't found one yet...
Thanks!
b.g.
Why do I want the source for the engine controller in my car?
;^)]
:^)
:^)
Because it may contain code that you wrote, taken from something you posted under a BSD (or similar) license.
[But being the embedded hacker type, I can think of a lot more reasons, too!
It isn't so much the fact that someone might *take* my code that troubles me, it's that they may use it as a starting point for some kind of legitimate improvement, and then not give it *back*. They get rich, while the people who actually did the hard part, creating the code, get shafted.
I don't see relevance; most GPL and BSD-licensed work is not for embedded systems deep in an every day appliance.
Don't tell Lineo or Monta Vista that!
Deep embedded is *exactly* the market that they're shooting for. In fact, Lineo's marketing current marketing tagline is "Put Linux Anywhere".
And LinuxWorks used to be Lynx, a company that produced an embedded RTOS with a POSIX API, i.e. an embedded Linux lookalike targeted for deeply embedded systems (although it predates Linux by a number of years, I think).
The Day for embedded Linux is coming, if it isn't here already. I'm glad to see that it won't turn out like Jim Ready's previous company, where I had to pay >$10k for the priviledge of running his buggy, bloated and poorly documented RTOS, vxworks. On one product. Never again.
b.g.
I just noticed, we haven't mentioned Natalie Portman in this entire thread. Oops!
The GPL doesn't force distribution of code. So MontaVista could have kept the Linux code to themself.
It *does* force disclosure if they "distribute" the product, i.e. offer it for sale. Which is what Jim Ready's former company (Microtec Research, Inc., vxworks RTOS) was all about.
So really only stupid programmers wouldn't release back in that scenario, and try to take FreeBSD "head-on".
It happens all the time in embedded systems work, albeit I haven't yet found any FreeBSD examples specifically. I do know of several companies who based their hardware on the "freely available" (i.e. OS-compatible license) and very popular RTOS, uC/OS, and at least one RTOS vendor redistributed uC/OS as its own code!
Yet the uC/OS authors and contributors saw not a penny for their work, and the rest of us didn't see any source code at all!
The GPL thrives on the delusion that someone who programs for a living (or their bosses, etc) is a monopolistic idiot that can't embrace open source.
But unfortunately, at the moment much (most?) software is being developed and released by those "monopolistic idiots" in exactly the fashion you describe. When was the last time you saw the source code for the engine controller in your car, for example?
The GPL protects "us" from "them": by Linus' releasing of Linux as GPL, "monopolistic idiots" (we both agree they're out there) can't abscond with the Linux source code, enhanced or otherwise, whether Linus gets hit by a bus or not. For once, the sharks are on our side!
BSDL et al can't claim that. So until the majority take a more enlightened view towards software licensing, there's the GPL.
b.g.
The BSDL doesn't require changes to the licensed work to be subsequently released in source form. So, Monta Vista could legally make similar changes to FreeBSD and keep the source code all to itself.
So what I'm talking about *is* GPL-specific, and the ignorance of the common man is *exactly* the reason why we need the FSF.
b.g.
The nicest thing about all of this is that even if Linus rejects MontaVista's changes, there's nothing stopping anyone who wants to use those patches from getting the code. While it's true that Linus owns the Linux(tm), the truth is that we all own the code, by virtue of the GPL, and we can all do what we want to with our own copies, whether Linus approves or not.
Contrast this with a non-GPL work, where if a single marketdroid decides to quit selling it (even if it is a good product), all the product's users are permanently and irrevocably screwed.
People can bitch all they want about the GPL, but it is clearly working to everyone's advantage here. Thanks, RMS!
b.g.
Try putting your computers on UPS's. It may be that what's killing them is actually EMF on the electric lines caused by the motors in the chillers. A UPS would both spot that, and correct for it.
Next, try putting "power factor correctors" and/or "soft starters" on the power lines to the chiller motors (I think that's what they're called, anyway). The basic idea is that they help correct the EMF problem at the source (and can sometimes save electricity bills too!).
Make sure the chiller motors are properly grounded, and that all their hardware (starting capacitors, etc.) are functioning properly. Also make sure that the wiring in the office is up to code--- if you don't have proper grounding, *everything* in your office will be sensitive to electric noise of all types. My office used to be next to some large electric motors (also in chillers, but also in some seriously freeeeeky RF equipment my employer was into), and it was no problem, even though the building was nearly 100 years old (extensive remodeling/rewiring, though).
Get on a different electrical circuit than the chiller motors.
Finally, it may be easier to put a grounded steel box around the chiller motors, rather than on your whole floor.
Good luck...
b.g.
I use procmail (http://www.procmail.org) to sort incoming mail into Maildir (http://qmail.org) directories, instead of mbox files. I sort by subject, sender, etc. This lets me use grep, etc. and get a better fix of where the message I'm interested in is located.
I also use Mutt (http://www.mutt.org), and since it knows about the Maildir format, mail is pre-sorted before I even see it!
After a few years, however, even this approach runs out of steam... but it's still more automatic than by deliberately saving mail into different folders as you read it, and there's virtually no scripting/coding required.
b.g.
Clearly, the world that Stallman envisioned fifteen years ago, when he founded the FSF, is fully upon us (although I have believed that for some time).
b.g.
I co-lo my own equipment at http://www.ssi.net, whom I picked after shopping around for several months. I even visited their site before installing my hardware, and was very pleased.
These guys have been very good to me, they know what they're doing, they've got decent bandwidth, and I think they would be happy to help you out.
Ask for Brad Niemcek.
The internet's major strengths are redundancy and diversity. Let's hope that neither of those go away.
... which is precisely why I think my next workstation will be StrongARM-, Mips-, or Alpha-based. True they're more expensive than converting a Wintel box to Linux, but the value of the diversity to be gained isn't to be underestimated...
b.g.
Actually, the original poster is right: computers with that kind of performance *are* classified as munitions by DTRA, and their use is closely monitored. I should know, I'm getting ready to fly a Hitachi SH-2 microprocessor (about 14 MIPS, a far cry from a PowerMac), and am having to jump through major hoops to do it.
My situation is more complicated because the hardware is being exported and becomes the posession of a non-US entity before launch, something that doesn't seem to be the case for SkyCorp.
Lucky for them.
b.g.