The question is what instruction set? If it's custom, then they are introuble (unless they expidite work on ports of Linux, GCC, X, etc). If it's instruction set is based on something current but not quite mainstream (Alpha, M68k) then they will be in decent shape. If it runs the x86 (IA-32) instruction set, then they've got a good chance. If it is something else (IA-64 or x86-64) then I'm not quite sure. But of those two, I think they would have a better chance if they went with AMD's x86-64. But whatever the instruction set, I think that we've seen that an easy way to get into the market fast is to embrace Linux and other open source projects head on. Transmeta works great (it supports IA-32 and can run Windoze, which is part), nVidia has done great because of great hardware and IMHO Linux support. ATI could have cared less, but then they got their act together, suppored Linux, and they are doing great now.
I've used just about every major linux distribution under the sun at one time or another. I'm still basically a newbie to linux but here are my recomendations:
Don't get RedHat, it's not that great. It's more suited to servers/businesses
Debian is by far the best and most powerfull distro. The problem is there is a HUGE learning curve. Get some expiriance under your belt before attemping it.
For a newbie or home user, the best distro (IMNTBHO) is Mandrake. Don't bother trying anythin eles. Mandrake has easy setup, good support community, lots of software, and works without a hitch.
This is great! Pending the approval of his family and all, Fox could put all those great Simpsons charicters back on that were voiced by Phil Hartman includeing (but not limited to) Actor Troy McClure. You might remember him from episodes such as "A Fish Called Selma" or the one where he hosts the Simpsons Spinoffs like "The Love-Matic Grampa" and "Simpson Family Sime Time Variety Hour".
Well, I for one am glad to see this. I don't own any LCD monitors because in my opinion they are inferior to CRTs. Only a few LCDs look good out side of their native resolution, and CRTs don't have that problem where moveing your head changes the contrast in diffrent parts of the screen. Also, without a glorified light bulb infront of me, how can I show someone from the past how much more advanced we are than them if I get a time machine and go get one?
OK, what could I possibly say about this? How 'bout "DUH!". Anyone who plays video games a lot could have told you this. It's the old "video games build hand-eye co-ordiation" thing. The other thing that doesn't seem to be mentioned is how RPG, puzzel games, and especially the Zelda series (at least for me) build logic skills and skills of observation that I think would be hard to get in other places.
Yes, having the government knowing how we spend all our money is a little scary, but what about anonymous statistics? Think how could it would be to see a list of every place your dollar bill has ever been used, or to find out where it's been used most? Also this would allow us to prove that real geeks only use $5 bills in drink machines:). There would be all sorts of interesting statistics we could get, like how many times that $20 in your pocket has been used to snort cocaine! Weird but wonderful!
But is it possible to change the licence underwhich a program is produced from the GPL to something else if it is federally funded? As far as I know it's not. So the government would have to start all over from scratch because useing any of the code from the origional project would necisitate the new one being released under the GPL also. So basically the government would have to drop everything it's doing and start all over again. First of all this makes no sense, and second with the government having decided Microsoft is a monopoly and working out a punishment, why would they take their advice on what to do if it A) costs them more and B) is to Microsoft's benifit?
But if a security flaw is found, because the web server is part of the kernel, a h4x0r could take out the whole server. Then the only way to get it back would be a hard reset by a watchfull sysadmin, or a watchdog card. Dangers about young kernel users.
I think that this is a good thing to do. It's not like they are keeping tabs on where you go and fineing you for going into bad parts of town. By doing this you are (somewhat) less likely to speed. If you don't speed, there is a smaller chance of you being in/causing an accident. If less rental car drivers cause accidents, then the company's insurance goes down and they don't have to take cars out of service as often.
Sounds like a good idea but I hope they do a better job than the software modems/printers (WinModems...) that we all think are terrible. But would it tie up my sound card? What good is DSL if I can't listen to the MP3s I download?
Friends, today we can finally say that (along with the open source movement) have developed the ultimate tool: the Linux Coaster! Capeable of processing Seti@Home data faster than any mere mortal coaster! Drinks of the world unite!
Seriously, this things looks awesome. It's small, has a great processor/etc, and you could fit a server farm in a fridge! The only real problem is the lack of any kind of ethernet. Yes, you could use the USB port and a dongle to get one but still, I think it should be built in. Or an option between that and the modem (modems are pase anyway!). This would make a perfect bookshelf MP3 player. It's got sound and with the S-Video out you could put the playlist/visualsations on your TV. You could also use it to watch streaming video on your TV. I can think of lots of great stuff this could be used for. To find out, send me some and I'll come up with interesting uses for them! The address is...
If linux is a cancer I think that it's time we infect a certain Redmond WA. based company! I've been useing linux for a year or two now, and all I can say is that if linux is a cancer, then riddle my computer with it.
OK. AOL did something stupid/bad/annoying/lame/strage/etc. Wow, didn't see that comeing. Let's try to see what we can DO about it.
So first up, who can sue them? I don't see how the GNU organization can because the are not directly involved in things, the only people that I can think who would be able to are the people who make the linux distro/etc. I think that it would be very hard for one of the programmers to get a suit even infront of a judge about this, at least in the US (strange considdering all the "pay me $1 mil because your manual didn't say I couldn't dry off my cat in the microwave and now you've caused me untold emotional damage" suits.)
But as has already been said there is a good chance that they didn't have to change anything to make it run on the hardware. The only thing they probably did was not use the default install options (what to install and where), and if that is a violation of the GPL, I think most/.ers are violaters too. As for applicatoins they added, those aren't covered under the GPL, otherwise companies like MetroWorks with their CodeWarrior product would be required to give it away (and I could get some great commercial software with my budget).
My suggestion of what we ACTUALLY do is this: scare them. We all know that if they did indeed violate the GPL (we don't know they did for sure) then something has to be done otherwise peverbial hell could break loose. Red hat would be able to change one line of code in the Linux kernel, for example, get a pattent on it (with one-click pattents, etc this can't be too hard) then sue everyone else who makes a Linux distro. Given RedHat is nicer than that but I know a few Redmonians who might not be...
So how can we scare them? Petitions are good but there is nothing like (inter)national media to get the job done. Surely someone out there has a job in the news industry (even just a small local reporter). If so I think you should try to get the facts and write an unbiased article on it (which we don't have yet, because that isn't journalism through that link, it's an editorial masked as news). Maybe get a blurb on CBS News (not that Dan Rather is unbiased, but that's another story) or even The Daily Show or the news segment on SNL. If you can't do that then I suggest that all us/.ers do what we've been doing ever since we got brain cells: persuadeing everyone we know to give up AOL and any company they partner with (like Gateway in this case) and basically boycott them.
PS: I realize some of the things I've said here (Dan Rather, etc.) you guys would probably like to discuss further, but this topic in this form is not the place. E-Mail me if you really care about it that much.
I'm glad we're getting family guy back (that was (dare i say it?) better than the simpsons! (maybe i shouldn't have said that)). Anyway, i LOVE the lone gunman, how 'bout someone starts a petition to get it back!
OK, here are my 2 cents on why it's stupid to put injuctions up on linking to things:
Throwing a brick into someone's window and breatking it is illegal. Is it just me or in this case, they are not only trying to make bricks illegal, but saying where to BUY or even FIND INFORMAITON about bricks illegal. Drugs are illegal but information about them and their effects are FREELY distributed by THE GOVERNMENT. So even if DeCSS is made illegal, they can't make information about it illegal.
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Let's face it, just because you link to DeCSS doesn't mean the person will download it. And just because they download it doesn't mean they will use it. And just because they use it doesn't mean that they will use it for illegal purposes.
Thanks for listening, hope these arguements help, and good luck! Tune in next time for "A, B, C, DeCSS" or "They are the weakest linkage (argumenet wise:)"
I think that this would be a great thing. Besides the fact that it would make competition, there are great features of both OSes that could to ported to the other. For example anyone who's used Be much knows it has a kick-arse file system and it excelent for multimedia. Linux has trillions of apps and supports way more hardware than Be.
Here are my entires:
$300 or less - Nothing like another 128MB more RAM.
$301 to $1500 - Mommy, can I have a Pentium 4 or a Geforce Ultra?
Unlimited - Anyone want to buy me a supercomputer???
It doesn't matter anyway. As we all know RH is a good dist but it always has HORRIBLE problems untill the ".2" release. 4.2, 5.2, 6.2 were/are all great. 4.0/4.1/5.0/5.1/6.0/6.1 all had big problems. So it's not like anyone should be jumping on this anyways. PS. No flame wars over this please. It's just my oppinion.
So what is going on here. This is the first time I've ever heard of this and I must say that it is totally amazing. But what are things like from a 17yo geek's point of view? Well here are just a few things to ponder: 1. First of all because they broadcast (mostly) 24/7, they obviously have a computer with samples for each number/etc (1.wav, 2.wav....) so why does one person have to sit there recording it? Can't a computer be taught to listen and compare the samples to get the numbers for us? The samples never change (for a given station) so why not? 2. Not only are the codes probably one time only, but how do we know what language they are meant for? Just because a station's voice is in French doesn't mean the data is in English, Pig-Latin, or a totally invented language that is not natively spoken anywhere. It could even be a language that is now dead and was never recorded. If an old computer of sort is doing this stuff automatically, what's to say that any of it is still readable? 3. Has anyone compared the numbers being listed from different stations at the same time (say midnight GMT), or at the same time local (like 5pm from wherever the station is broadcasting) to see if they are the same? Maybe you must do something with the different sequences from multiple stations (such as XORing). 4. Do the numbers go to a certain range? Do they stop at 8? 32? 109324? Maybe if the base isn't 10 then converting it would cause it to make much more sense. 5. Who says the numbers represent words/letters? What if the represent syllables? What if it depends on the hour you tune in? Maybe the letters/words/syllables are reversed! Or alternating? 6. What is the prize? Simple! You'll be world famous for being the geek who cracked what might possibly be the world's most pointless code (see below). Maybe it's a subliminal message. 7. What could it possibly say? Good question! What if it's just variations of "Drink Coca-Cola all the time" or even something as out-dated as "Cure the flu with a Marlboro or two!" There are just points to ponder. Have fun!
Here is the question that is burning in my mind, and in my pocket too:
IE is currently free. And it is also, IMHO, the best browser for the Windows platform. I'm not trying to start a war, I just like it better than Netscape and all the others. But the question remains: If IE becomes it's own company, will it still be free??? Here are the options I see:
It stays free, company goes under, and we lose IE.
It stays free, but we are all forced to watch adds all the time.
They make us PAY for it. Either we must pay to use it, or we must pay for the techsupport (like netscape was all those years ago).
It goes open source (Ha. Like that will happen) and then what happens from there could be anything:
It thrives
It dies
Something else happens
Or worst of all: the new company is sold and from there is another blurr as to what will happen.
Well this is just something to ponder. I still say MS should stay as it is. It's a monopoly because until very recently no other OS has been nearly as good. But now we have a new hero: Tux!
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, but it can do Seti@HOME data units in only two cycles.
To sum up:
- Don't get RedHat, it's not that great. It's more suited to servers/businesses
- Debian is by far the best and most powerfull distro. The problem is there is a HUGE learning curve. Get some expiriance under your belt before attemping it.
- For a newbie or home user, the best distro (IMNTBHO) is Mandrake. Don't bother trying anythin eles. Mandrake has easy setup, good support community, lots of software, and works without a hitch.
Hope this helps. In summary: MANDRAKEThis is great! Pending the approval of his family and all, Fox could put all those great Simpsons charicters back on that were voiced by Phil Hartman includeing (but not limited to) Actor Troy McClure. You might remember him from episodes such as "A Fish Called Selma" or the one where he hosts the Simpsons Spinoffs like "The Love-Matic Grampa" and "Simpson Family Sime Time Variety Hour".
Irrational Pi,
Use the magic formula.
This post is worthless!
Well, I for one am glad to see this. I don't own any LCD monitors because in my opinion they are inferior to CRTs. Only a few LCDs look good out side of their native resolution, and CRTs don't have that problem where moveing your head changes the contrast in diffrent parts of the screen. Also, without a glorified light bulb infront of me, how can I show someone from the past how much more advanced we are than them if I get a time machine and go get one?
OK, what could I possibly say about this? How 'bout "DUH!". Anyone who plays video games a lot could have told you this. It's the old "video games build hand-eye co-ordiation" thing. The other thing that doesn't seem to be mentioned is how RPG, puzzel games, and especially the Zelda series (at least for me) build logic skills and skills of observation that I think would be hard to get in other places.
Yes, having the government knowing how we spend all our money is a little scary, but what about anonymous statistics? Think how could it would be to see a list of every place your dollar bill has ever been used, or to find out where it's been used most? Also this would allow us to prove that real geeks only use $5 bills in drink machines :). There would be all sorts of interesting statistics we could get, like how many times that $20 in your pocket has been used to snort cocaine! Weird but wonderful!
But is it possible to change the licence underwhich a program is produced from the GPL to something else if it is federally funded? As far as I know it's not. So the government would have to start all over from scratch because useing any of the code from the origional project would necisitate the new one being released under the GPL also. So basically the government would have to drop everything it's doing and start all over again. First of all this makes no sense, and second with the government having decided Microsoft is a monopoly and working out a punishment, why would they take their advice on what to do if it A) costs them more and B) is to Microsoft's benifit?
But if a security flaw is found, because the web server is part of the kernel, a h4x0r could take out the whole server. Then the only way to get it back would be a hard reset by a watchfull sysadmin, or a watchdog card. Dangers about young kernel users.
I think that this is a good thing to do. It's not like they are keeping tabs on where you go and fineing you for going into bad parts of town. By doing this you are (somewhat) less likely to speed. If you don't speed, there is a smaller chance of you being in/causing an accident. If less rental car drivers cause accidents, then the company's insurance goes down and they don't have to take cars out of service as often.
Sounds like a good idea but I hope they do a better job than the software modems/printers (WinModems...) that we all think are terrible. But would it tie up my sound card? What good is DSL if I can't listen to the MP3s I download?
Seriously, this things looks awesome. It's small, has a great processor/etc, and you could fit a server farm in a fridge! The only real problem is the lack of any kind of ethernet. Yes, you could use the USB port and a dongle to get one but still, I think it should be built in. Or an option between that and the modem (modems are pase anyway!). This would make a perfect bookshelf MP3 player. It's got sound and with the S-Video out you could put the playlist/visualsations on your TV. You could also use it to watch streaming video on your TV. I can think of lots of great stuff this could be used for. To find out, send me some and I'll come up with interesting uses for them! The address is...
If linux is a cancer I think that it's time we infect a certain Redmond WA. based company! I've been useing linux for a year or two now, and all I can say is that if linux is a cancer, then riddle my computer with it.
So first up, who can sue them? I don't see how the GNU organization can because the are not directly involved in things, the only people that I can think who would be able to are the people who make the linux distro/etc. I think that it would be very hard for one of the programmers to get a suit even infront of a judge about this, at least in the US (strange considdering all the "pay me $1 mil because your manual didn't say I couldn't dry off my cat in the microwave and now you've caused me untold emotional damage" suits.)
But as has already been said there is a good chance that they didn't have to change anything to make it run on the hardware. The only thing they probably did was not use the default install options (what to install and where), and if that is a violation of the GPL, I think most /.ers are violaters too. As for applicatoins they added, those aren't covered under the GPL, otherwise companies like MetroWorks with their CodeWarrior product would be required to give it away (and I could get some great commercial software with my budget).
My suggestion of what we ACTUALLY do is this: scare them. We all know that if they did indeed violate the GPL (we don't know they did for sure) then something has to be done otherwise peverbial hell could break loose. Red hat would be able to change one line of code in the Linux kernel, for example, get a pattent on it (with one-click pattents, etc this can't be too hard) then sue everyone else who makes a Linux distro. Given RedHat is nicer than that but I know a few Redmonians who might not be...
So how can we scare them? Petitions are good but there is nothing like (inter)national media to get the job done. Surely someone out there has a job in the news industry (even just a small local reporter). If so I think you should try to get the facts and write an unbiased article on it (which we don't have yet, because that isn't journalism through that link, it's an editorial masked as news). Maybe get a blurb on CBS News (not that Dan Rather is unbiased, but that's another story) or even The Daily Show or the news segment on SNL. If you can't do that then I suggest that all us /.ers do what we've been doing ever since we got brain cells: persuadeing everyone we know to give up AOL and any company they partner with (like Gateway in this case) and basically boycott them.
PS: I realize some of the things I've said here (Dan Rather, etc.) you guys would probably like to discuss further, but this topic in this form is not the place. E-Mail me if you really care about it that much.
I'm glad we're getting family guy back (that was (dare i say it?) better than the simpsons! (maybe i shouldn't have said that)). Anyway, i LOVE the lone gunman, how 'bout someone starts a petition to get it back!
- Throwing a brick into someone's window and breatking it is illegal. Is it just me or in this case, they are not only trying to make bricks illegal, but saying where to BUY or even FIND INFORMAITON about bricks illegal. Drugs are illegal but information about them and their effects are FREELY distributed by THE GOVERNMENT. So even if DeCSS is made illegal, they can't make information about it illegal.
- You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Let's face it, just because you link to DeCSS doesn't mean the person will download it. And just because they download it doesn't mean they will use it. And just because they use it doesn't mean that they will use it for illegal purposes.
Thanks for listening, hope these arguements help, and good luck! Tune in next time for "A, B, C, DeCSS" or "They are the weakest linkage (argumenet wiseHave you seen monster controls? It's what CIHost uses. It's nice :)
I think that this would be a great thing. Besides the fact that it would make competition, there are great features of both OSes that could to ported to the other. For example anyone who's used Be much knows it has a kick-arse file system and it excelent for multimedia. Linux has trillions of apps and supports way more hardware than Be.
Here are my entires: $300 or less - Nothing like another 128MB more RAM. $301 to $1500 - Mommy, can I have a Pentium 4 or a Geforce Ultra? Unlimited - Anyone want to buy me a supercomputer???
I know it's not selling. My local MicroCenter has had 5 copies of Quake3 for linux in the limited edition tin box for months now.
It doesn't matter anyway. As we all know RH is a good dist but it always has HORRIBLE problems untill the ".2" release. 4.2, 5.2, 6.2 were/are all great. 4.0/4.1/5.0/5.1/6.0/6.1 all had big problems. So it's not like anyone should be jumping on this anyways. PS. No flame wars over this please. It's just my oppinion.
So what is going on here. This is the first time I've ever heard of this and I must say that it is totally amazing. But what are things like from a 17yo geek's point of view? Well here are just a few things to ponder: 1. First of all because they broadcast (mostly) 24/7, they obviously have a computer with samples for each number/etc (1.wav, 2.wav....) so why does one person have to sit there recording it? Can't a computer be taught to listen and compare the samples to get the numbers for us? The samples never change (for a given station) so why not? 2. Not only are the codes probably one time only, but how do we know what language they are meant for? Just because a station's voice is in French doesn't mean the data is in English, Pig-Latin, or a totally invented language that is not natively spoken anywhere. It could even be a language that is now dead and was never recorded. If an old computer of sort is doing this stuff automatically, what's to say that any of it is still readable? 3. Has anyone compared the numbers being listed from different stations at the same time (say midnight GMT), or at the same time local (like 5pm from wherever the station is broadcasting) to see if they are the same? Maybe you must do something with the different sequences from multiple stations (such as XORing). 4. Do the numbers go to a certain range? Do they stop at 8? 32? 109324? Maybe if the base isn't 10 then converting it would cause it to make much more sense. 5. Who says the numbers represent words/letters? What if the represent syllables? What if it depends on the hour you tune in? Maybe the letters/words/syllables are reversed! Or alternating? 6. What is the prize? Simple! You'll be world famous for being the geek who cracked what might possibly be the world's most pointless code (see below). Maybe it's a subliminal message. 7. What could it possibly say? Good question! What if it's just variations of "Drink Coca-Cola all the time" or even something as out-dated as "Cure the flu with a Marlboro or two!" There are just points to ponder. Have fun!
IE is currently free. And it is also, IMHO, the best browser for the Windows platform. I'm not trying to start a war, I just like it better than Netscape and all the others. But the question remains: If IE becomes it's own company, will it still be free??? Here are the options I see:
Well this is just something to ponder. I still say MS should stay as it is. It's a monopoly because until very recently no other OS has been nearly as good. But now we have a new hero: Tux!
I thought that the episode was so-so. The plot was bad but then again the way mulder was written into the episode was haliarious!