Many times, in Free Software, the underlying system, the lower level development is made by the most competent developers, and so is robust, stable, actually the best out there, but the front ends, well, they just don't have the same quality, so, for the unexperienced user, it looks like crap.
I myself am always pleased by software with documentation that
1) lists all possible options 2) lists their possible values 3) lists the default value for every option 4) of course explains the option
and finally the program itself should be able to dump a listing of all options and their current values. The list could optionally be used directly as a config file again. That is software I like. Think Postfix for example and postconf specifically.
For software with potentially very complex/confusing scenarios there should be some intro that gives an overview. I find Postfix a bit lacking wrt that. Sendmail style virtual domains, Postfix style virtual domains, virtual mailbox domains, uh? All you can find is "tutorials" that spit some options in your face and basically tell you: "Do it like this and that. I won't explain, just do as I say"
Apache is another thing. I wish Apache had a tool that would graph all the options that apply to a given url/vhost/file. I hate climbing the dependency tree in my head every time since I can't seem to manage to fully grasp the whole thing. Its documentation complies to the above points very well, though.
To summarize: good documentation together with an overall clean design of the program is the most important thing.
Heck, if you really just want to study the software-side of it why not use VMware on a fat box to simulate a dozen boxes? I heard the VMware 4.5 beta even has PXE support..
Better use the terms "bandwidth" and "traffic". "datatransfer" is telling me nothing without any more context whereas most ISP people understand "traffic". Just a suggestion.
Where could one read about this stuff? Let's say I care that a decoded MP3 or an AC3 stream ends up at the digital interface 1:1 without any "mangling". What cards are good for this? Does Windows even allow this etc.?
#234 rule on slashdot: never mention something you think is oldskool. Some old fart will come along and tell you about stuff that's been even less desireable to have owned. And they won't stop! Please, make it stop!
One could hope for redundancy within the "disk". Since it seems to contain 4 250GB disks it's on the same stupidity level as the 1TB firewire setup of that guy in a story some time ago.
2.) The WMAs are smaller in file size (even at the same bit encoding). This is nice. Especially if you plan to put the songs on some sort of MP3 player with limited memory.
How so? The bitrate implicitely fixes the size of the file. If it's 128kbps MP3 it will be 16000 bytes per second played. Same for WMA or whatever. If it's exactly the same playing time but different file size, then it's not the same bitrate*. Period.
*Only taking into account "raw" audio data. MP3 could have id tags that increase file size by some bytes without adding to playing time. Point remains.
You should never edit/etc/passwd or/etc/master.passwd by hand. Use vipw(8) which also cares about proper locking and rebuilding of the database versions of these files.
If you talk about links in this story you're right of course. But the author is encouraging other webmasters to embed a (hidden) snippet in their site to use visitors' CPU cycles.
It isn't like he is doing anything "tricky" or using some "bug" to pull this off.
The fact that it's a hidden applet - or rather that it can be and is encouraged to be a hidden one - is "tricky" in my book.
Just take that sentence as quoted earlier: "Distributed computing without installing anything...and without people knowing you're stealing their idle CPU time.;)" He may not have malicious intentions but this one pissed me off already.
You run an Applet, it reports to us the search results. Distributed computing without installing anything...and without people knowing you're stealing their idle CPU time.;)
I don't know about you but I wouldn't lean out the window with the fact that I'm stealing from others.
Idle CPU time might be unused but I still want to know what my box is doing and why.
Slashdot Mirror
Why the picture and the imagination of interest? I can talk to myself without that just fine.
Many times, in Free Software, the underlying system, the lower level development is made by the most competent developers, and so is robust, stable, actually the best out there, but the front ends, well, they just don't have the same quality, so, for the unexperienced user, it looks like crap.
Ever taken a look at NetBSD? Seriously.
I myself am always pleased by software with documentation that
1) lists all possible options
2) lists their possible values
3) lists the default value for every option
4) of course explains the option
and finally the program itself should be able to dump a listing of all options and their current values. The list could optionally be used directly as a config file again. That is software I like. Think Postfix for example and postconf specifically.
For software with potentially very complex/confusing scenarios there should be some intro that gives an overview. I find Postfix a bit lacking wrt that. Sendmail style virtual domains, Postfix style virtual domains, virtual mailbox domains, uh? All you can find is "tutorials" that spit some options in your face and basically tell you: "Do it like this and that. I won't explain, just do as I say"
Apache is another thing. I wish Apache had a tool that would graph all the options that apply to a given url/vhost/file. I hate climbing the dependency tree in my head every time since I can't seem to manage to fully grasp the whole thing. Its documentation complies to the above points very well, though.
To summarize: good documentation together with an overall clean design of the program is the most important thing.
Heck, if you really just want to study the software-side of it why not use VMware on a fat box to simulate a dozen boxes? I heard the VMware 4.5 beta even has PXE support..
Been sitting on lame puns for too long?
Better use the terms "bandwidth" and "traffic". "datatransfer" is telling me nothing without any more context whereas most ISP people understand "traffic". Just a suggestion.
And no peer to peer networking limitations (3 on home, 5 on pro).
What exactly are you talking about?
Mod parent up. He is right.
Uh, so your ISP engages in political issues by arbitrarily modifying his infrastructure to give you a different view of the net than it really is?
I suggest you switch ISP and tell your current one why you did.
You can do other related things that supposedly make you blind.
Dilbert!
Where could one read about this stuff? Let's say I care that a decoded MP3 or an AC3 stream ends up at the digital interface 1:1 without any "mangling". What cards are good for this? Does Windows even allow this etc.?
Blowfish as in the encryption algorithm. Get it?
#234 rule on slashdot: never mention something you think is oldskool. Some old fart will come along and tell you about stuff that's been even less desireable to have owned. And they won't stop! Please, make it stop!
This is what I meant.
Non-whoring AC.
What will they think of next?
One could hope for redundancy within the "disk". Since it seems to contain 4 250GB disks it's on the same stupidity level as the 1TB firewire setup of that guy in a story some time ago.
2.) The WMAs are smaller in file size (even at the same bit encoding). This is nice. Especially if you plan to put the songs on some sort of MP3 player with limited memory.
How so? The bitrate implicitely fixes the size of the file. If it's 128kbps MP3 it will be 16000 bytes per second played. Same for WMA or whatever. If it's exactly the same playing time but different file size, then it's not the same bitrate*. Period.
*Only taking into account "raw" audio data. MP3 could have id tags that increase file size by some bytes without adding to playing time. Point remains.
My family's peace of mind is certainly worth someone else's life.
I can see it.
*dad empties gun into intruder's head*
*blood is everywhere*
*little son was watching, now has blood all over him*
*dad and son smile peacefully*
The quoted sentence is a very nice example for the way-out-of-proportion-thinking of you sickos over there.
Nice vicious circle, too. You _have_ to suspect everyone to carry a gun because.. uh.. everyone carries a gun.
You should never edit /etc/passwd or /etc/master.passwd by hand. Use vipw(8) which also cares about proper locking and rebuilding of the database versions of these files.
What has Slashdot come to? Suggesting throwing cash at a problem that can be solved over "many weekends of hard labor"?
Next you suggest to pay for an operating system instead of writing your own?
Tss..
Who clicked on the link?
;)" He may not have malicious intentions but this one pissed me off already.
If you talk about links in this story you're right of course. But the author is encouraging other webmasters to embed a (hidden) snippet in their site to use visitors' CPU cycles.
It isn't like he is doing anything "tricky" or using some "bug" to pull this off.
The fact that it's a hidden applet - or rather that it can be and is encouraged to be a hidden one - is "tricky" in my book.
Just take that sentence as quoted earlier: "Distributed computing without installing anything...and without people knowing you're stealing their idle CPU time.
Yes, perhaps you should stop talking about forests and trees and little fairies and gnomes and stuff.
What's this Dotslash you talk about?
This way, you don't have to bother installing something and hope it doesn't fsck up your computer.
Last time I checked Mozilla didn't come with a JVM.
From the link:
;)
You run an Applet, it reports to us the search results. Distributed computing without installing anything...and without people knowing you're stealing their idle CPU time.
I don't know about you but I wouldn't lean out the window with the fact that I'm stealing from others.
Idle CPU time might be unused but I still want to know what my box is doing and why.