Using Cron while having the computer powered down
on
Can Linux Do it?
·
· Score: 1
So they want RedHat to write a new version of Cron that will operate when the computer is turned off?
No, they were probably asking for another package such as anacron to be a more visible option. anacron gives you most of the goodies of cron without having to keep the system powered up at all times.
The same thing came up earlier on debian-devel.
Sacramento Bee is also current, and easier.
on
Linux on Dilbert
·
· Score: 1
If you sign yourself up with NY Times OnLine, which is free, you can read Dilbert in sync with the dead trees.
Viewing the comics without the ad frames is left as an exercise to the reader.
I found a cheaper version!? Not!
on
Mini Board PC
·
· Score: 1
For those who care, the $180 figure comes from this page.
But, I think you're misreading their site: it says, "Price reduced up to", not "Price reduced to".
i.e., they've knocked some amount less than or equal to $180 off the regular price of the board. I still want to build my own car MP3 player with something similar, though.
I'll start with a few technical pros (and this is specifically for the stable releases):
Upgradability. apt, the new replacement for dselect can let you easily keep your system up to date with the latest fixes for all your installed packages, automatically.
Let me digress about apt for a bit here. This program kicks much ass. It can pull packages from local filesystems, local CDs, ftp and http mirrors. It automatically determines the latest version of a given piece of software and installs it when you ask. It also installs all packages that your desired package depends upon, and sets them up
before installing your target package. I have one minor beef in that there appears to be no way of having it automatically install "suggested" or "recommended" packages, just dependent ones, but that's relatively minor.
Bulletproofing. Strong dependency checking means no incompatible libraries, conflicting packages, etc. Lots of testing before a release is considered "stable" means you're not likely to have (or need) as many post-release patches and hotfixes. Yesterday I installed Slink on a 10-year old Sparc1 (new architecture for Debian), and it went nearly flawlessly (the two minor glitches I had are listed elsewhere, and really minor).
Choice. Don't like sendmail? Use smail, exim, zmailer, or try the source package for qmail. Don't like apache? Try roxen, boa, thttpd, or possibly others. Don't want to run through the huge list of available packages? We've got one of those "pick your system's function, and we'll figure out the packages you probably want for it" functions, too.
Lightweight. Hamm installed off 7 floppies into 27MB, and gave you enough to get out on the network and grab anything else you needed. No CDs required, though they're handy.
Yes, there are political pros and cons, too, but I'll let others flame about them. From a purely technical standpoint, Debian rocks.
Debian doesn't release ENOUGH. Debian needs to release MORE.
Um, no, they shouldn't, at least in my opinion. I like knowing that the machines I keep on the current stable version are nigh bug-free and security-tight.
And I don't follow how "simpler install" corresponds with some ungodly high load on your laptop. I just yesterday installed a clean 2.1 on a Sparc1 (a new architecture for Debian, though this particular model is 10 years old, and probably slower than your laptop)
No trouble except one missing symlink in/dev and a setserial error, both which might have been my fault, and have already been reported to the Sparc developers. A base system, X, and ssh inside of 55MB. And no use of the oft-maligned dselect.
Besides, if you want more cutting-edge stuff, you're more than welcome to ride the unstable tree.
1) Their reluctance to make iso cd images readilly available for non-production releases (slink, potato).
I think that if you have a local mirror, that there is a package designed to make iso images from that mirror. I always do ftp installs, so I'm not certain of the procedure. Anything I need for an initial install I can download overnight; my house gateway runs diald, so disconnects aren't an issue, either.
2) The fact that X is still at 3.3.2
As someone who just yesterday installed a 3.3.3.1-only card in a slink system with X3.3.2, all I had to do was to download the new 3DLabs X server from Xfree86.org, stick it/usr/local/bin, and change my Xservers config file to use it instead of the stock SVGA one.
4) The installation is still a chore -- numerous questions to answer, etc.
Work in progress. The planning time in designing a database that won't need to be ripped out right after potato is extensive.
5) No convinient way to build machines "in batch"
dpkg --get-selections and dpkg --set-selections, I think, handle these. Or, you could simply use the old tar/untar pipe procedure.
Slashdot Mirror
No, they were probably asking for another package such as anacron to be a more visible option. anacron gives you most of the goodies of cron without having to keep the system powered up at all times.
The same thing came up earlier on debian-devel.
Or, you can hit the Sacramento Bee comics page -- no registration required at all.
Viewing the comics without the ad frames is left as an exercise to the reader.
But, I think you're misreading their site: it says, "Price reduced up to", not "Price reduced to".
i.e., they've knocked some amount less than or equal to $180 off the regular price of the board. I still want to build my own car MP3 player with something similar, though.
I'll start with a few technical pros (and this is specifically for the stable releases):
Yes, there are political pros and cons, too, but I'll let others flame about them. From a purely technical standpoint, Debian rocks.
Um, no, they shouldn't, at least in my opinion. I like knowing that the machines I keep on the current stable version are nigh bug-free and security-tight.
And I don't follow how "simpler install" corresponds with some ungodly high load on your laptop. I just yesterday installed a clean 2.1 on a Sparc1 (a new architecture for Debian, though this particular model is 10 years old, and probably slower than your laptop)
No trouble except one missing symlink in /dev and a setserial error, both which might have been my fault, and have already been reported to the Sparc developers. A base system, X, and ssh inside of 55MB. And no use of the oft-maligned dselect.
Besides, if you want more cutting-edge stuff, you're more than welcome to ride the unstable tree.
1) Their reluctance to make iso cd images readilly available for non-production releases (slink, potato).
I think that if you have a local mirror, that there is a package designed to make iso images from that mirror. I always do ftp installs, so I'm not certain of the procedure. Anything I need for an initial install I can download overnight; my house gateway runs diald, so disconnects aren't an issue, either.
2) The fact that X is still at 3.3.2
As someone who just yesterday installed a 3.3.3.1-only card in a slink system with X3.3.2, all I had to do was to download the new 3DLabs X server from Xfree86.org, stick it /usr/local/bin, and change my Xservers config file to use it instead of the stock SVGA one.
4) The installation is still a chore -- numerous questions to answer, etc.
Work in progress. The planning time in designing a database that won't need to be ripped out right after potato is extensive.
5) No convinient way to build machines "in batch"
dpkg --get-selections and dpkg --set-selections, I think, handle these. Or, you could simply use the old tar/untar pipe procedure.
Apparently Jon never thought of putting explore2fs into his toolkit. 0.17 is really stable and good for my uses, anyway.
Perhaps a bit self-aggrandizing, but pretty cool. Loved the bit about "nervous henchman Vinod".