I can't get an internet feed in my car. I have a radio. I'm not paying $XX/month for a satellite.
I like my local station, http://www.wumb.org./ I listen mostly in my car but occasionally on the internet feed at work or the Tivo at home via Shoutcast (the air signal doesn't work in the house too well).
Yes, I am a member. If you like folk music, it's the only station in the country doing folk 24hrs a day.
I had a Zenith Z-100 with Zenith's modified MS-DOS. Zdos 1.25 did hard drives and didn't let you do format c: w/o asking a question. MS-DOS let you do that for quite awhile.
The Z-100 was not PC compatible. There was a version of MS-Windows 1.0 for it eventually. The serial stuff didn't work; it had a different UART then PCs.
The Z also ran CPM-85, CPM-86, Concurrent CPM, MPM, UCSD pSystem. It was a good system for its time.
The DOSshell that MS-DOS 5.0 used was Zenith developed for a mini PC they later sold. Zenith had lots of cool stuff in the DOS era before the market consolodated.
1) Like Debian, has apt, there is so no dependency hell when you install new packages or upgrade
I call bullshit on this issue. It's FUD pure and simple. There are many reasons to like Debian vs Redhat but the packaging isn't it. It's the repositories and update managers that wrap the packages
Debian has.deb packages and apt to manage updates.
Mandriva has.rpm packages and rpmdrake.
Fedora has.rpm packages and yum.
Redhat has.rpm and didn't have anything until recently: up2date. That got abandoned for yum.
Solaris has SysV.4 packages and ummm...:-( (one reason to prefer linux to solaris)
If you stick to the official repositories, you don't get the dependency hell. If you start installing packages from elsewhere, you deserve what you get. And this will start happening with.deb based distros unless the packagers keep things in sync with the official repros.
This isn't a bash on debian. I have Ubuntu on my laptop and desktop after using Fedora (3 & 4), Mandrake, RedHat, Slackware, SLS and Solaris in the past. rpmdrake and yum are great tools that give similar function to apt. And while I have had dependency hell, it was always when I tried other repositories and didn't have something like apt or yum or rpmdrake managing it.
I grew up near a number of ski areas. When I bought skis at the shop, I'd ask the sales guy what he used. Because he was a ski salesman so he could get cheap/free tickets and discounts on equipment.
When I went to buy a motorcycle I asked the sales guy what he rode. One guy said he didn't have a motocycle license. I took my business elsewhere. I'd do the same at a car dealer. Or car stereo dealer (he better be ableto tell me about his car's stereo).
Sure, you can sell skis, motorcycles, cars, etc even if you don't use them. But how much can you know about them and why *this* one is better then that one?
A computer to work on. One for the wife/gf/bf/SO. One for each kid.
A common place to store things on.
file server
web server
media server
Firewall to NAT the internet
wireless for laptops
Printing
print server
networked printers
Hobby stuff the whole family might use
X10 stuff
Stereo stuff
PVR/Tivo
MP3 playing
Photography storage
old computers
gaming consoles/computers
So what do I have?
2 laptops with wirless
2 tivos on network
1 family computer w/ DVD burner/scanner/color printer
1 networked laser printer (ink is expensive)
1 wireless AP
1 firewall (might combine with AP)
1 server (dual PII)
file server
me, wife, photo storage
web server for digital pictures
galleon for extra tivo function Hobby systems
1 older PC to run Mr House for X10 control
timer for outside lights
platform for future control and sensing
1 Sun system to run Solaris 10
1 SGI running IRIX
a PC running windows or linux or solaris or xBSD
a sparc running xBSD
several old 68k macintoshes
several old PCs
several old Sparc systems
I might play with iSCSI on the old PCs to give the file server more storage. I want to scan in old photos that are not in digital format. I want sensors to see if the basement is flooded, the sump pump is working, etc. Maybe a weather station. Maybe a webcam for a baby monitor. I want my kids to see that the world is not all PCs.
When I hire a sysadmin, I want someone who is inquisitive and interested in the job. Someone who doesn't play with computers at home in this day and age, isn't interested. I want someone who thinks about things after work. Who plays with these issues at home, even if it's just in his mind.
Given the prices of computers (and used ones and free ones), cost isn't a factor. Given that, if you don't have a computer at home, you're not interested.
They guys that says "I have a PC the kids play with" is probably just going to do what the manuals and training say. He's not going to write shell scripts or look for free software to solve problems. When things don't work the way the manual says they will, he won't be able to fix them.
Who do you want working on your car? The guy with his own shop (and the factory training) who races cars on the weekend or the guy at the dealer with the factory training? The racer will probably know a bunch of tricks that let him work faster, find issues faster, etc that will cost you less $$$.
If you're a General Contractor, hiring carpenters, you want the guy that built his own house/barn/garage/shed. You're not going to hire the guy that doesn't have a hammer & saw at home.
More then 36 photos before changing media "Free" developing White balance ISO switching per photo No scanning to get photos into photoshop No waiting for developing (think news photogs) Feedback via the histogram and LCD Archiving to CD takes less space then negatives Less expensive long term (at the cost of up front) Smaller image circle so lens quality at edges less a factor (Digital only lenses excluded)
Film advantages: "Sensor" gets replaced w/ each shot so duct isn't an issue Wide angle lenses Better resolution (Though Pop Photo showed the Canon 1Ds (?) beating iso 100 film) Archiving - those negatives last "forever" Better color capture Less expensive startup costs
Where is the lock in? I don't see it in either example. The lock in is present only in the file format, not the player itself. With MP3 formated files, I can move from any one player to any other player. Buying an iPod does not force me to buy from iTMS. Likewise, buying a Microsoft player does not lock me into WMA files.
I have an older MP3 player. It can play WMA files. I have never downloaded MP3 online to it. I buy CDs and rip them to MP3s to listen to on my player.
iTMS is one distributor. My local music store is another. I don't have to use iTMS to get music on an iPod.....
My Dr's office has been using tablet PCs for 3-4 years now. It's perfect for them.
"Your Cholesterol is high this time. Hmm, but it's been at roughly the same level for the last 3 years."
Do that with paper! Oh, if I need a prescription, he taps a bit & it's faxed to my pharmacy. No more deciphering handwriting!
On another note, I have one (HP tc1100) at work to go with my desktop. For the most part it's a giant PDA for me. I bring it to meetings to take notes, usually with the keyboard. I bring it home for remote access. It's very small, even with the keyboard. It's too slow for most of what I do.
For web surfing at home it's awesome. A small lightweight screen to read websites w/ a minimum of input needed. Bring it anywhere like you would a book. My 2 yr old loves the pen for tapping.
I probably would've liked it in college for taking notes (engineering w/ lots of figures and equations) but text works most of the time for me. A palm PDA w/ a keyboard would be enough 90% of the time.
1) The home user who buys wireless for home doesn't care as long as it works. This is most of the market. This also includes many ISPs (cable companies, DSL providers) that sell a wireless addon for the internet connection.
2) The geek buys one to hack at home. How big is this market?
3) The ISP that uses modified firmware. How many units do they buy?
It's probably more the case of saving money. If VxWorks can run with half the RAM and half the Flash, that's considerable savings.
Certainly makes sense to me. I wonder how much they save on the hardware to make up for the cost of redeveloping the firmware.
Not to mention, they don't have to deal with hacking Linux to work on their hardware, they can have an OS company deal with that. Sometimes, rolling your own just doesn't make much business sense.
I'm not sure replacing an existing, working, Linux firmware with a VxWorks firmware that you have to develop. Maybe VxWorks has done some of the development, but you're still going to need to do much yourself.
Porting from embedded Linux to VxWorks is probably similar to porting Linux to Windows. Some things will just work, some things will need to change because the methods/model for doing things are different.
Of course, there's the issue with how are the linux firmwares competing with the higher end stuff from Cisco, the parent company. From other posts here, it looks like Linksys will continue selling the Linux version as WRT54LG so that's probably not as much as a factor.
I beg to differ. The button layout is very nice. The shape of the remote is ok until you put it down.
1st, it will slide off whatever you put it on unless it's perfectly flat. Mine finally fell off the chair back & broke.
2nd, when you pick it up you have a 50% chance of it being upside down. It's symetrical. You'll hit forward when you meant backwards.
I like my 3rd part universal remote better. It doesn't slide off the couch/table/pile of magazines and it's asymetric. I know if it's upside down as soon as I pick it up.
I'm pretty similar. I used DOS on an 8088 Z100 then later a 80286 Z248. I was using LaTeX, DOS.bat files, C, emacs, vi, awk, make.
When I got to use a unix box (with Usenix) in '87 I knew I wanted real Unix. I got Minix. *sigh* Too many limits.
I was doing work with Excel, LaTeX on MacOS 7 and Windows 3.0 around now. Some awk, Turbo C and gnuplot on DOS too.
I got a 486 with OS/2. Lots of ported GNU tools w/o the limits of DOS. *sigh*
Downloaded 386BSD 0.1 and it wouldn't boot (30-50 360k floppies!). *sigh*
Downloaded SLS with Linux kernel 0.92pl5. Hey! This Works! LaTeX. Better scripting. X11, games. Internet.
Around this point ('92) I got a job as a Unix Sysadmin. Linux looked enough like my SunOS 4.1.3 sparc 1 that I could do shell scripting, etc. I could even run olvwm so the desktop looked similar. The only thing really lacking compared to the Sun (for a home user) was an internet connection so I could use this new Mozilla thing.
Sure, MacOS 7 and Windows 3.1 were out but they were not as good for my use as Unix.
I imagine many of us here, growing up, took things apart. We took apart radios, bicycles, computers, legos, train tracks, games, the kitchen stove, the toilet, etc. Basically anything we can get our hands on.
The engineers in generation will too. You go back farther and include disecting animals.
It all depends on what's around & what you can learn by taking it apart. And if you need to.
I don't need to recompile the kernel anymore. (I did w/ 0.95 and Minix before that). If I was starting today I'd never add that to my skills.
The non engineers will not take things apart. If it's not working "the way it should be" they'll adapt. Engineers adapt thier environment.
The reason people pay high prices for UMD-format movies?
Typical twelve year old:They bought a PSP and, Hey! Something else you can do with it for $20. And I can bring it with me in the car. Like I do with my PSP anyways. And school and to my friends and...
I don't have $80 to buy a DVD player but I do have $20 to bring that cool movie with me everywhere. Which I can't do with the DVD I have at home.
I have a nephew (12) who is heavily into video games. He's got all the nintendo consoles and handhelds (gameboy, color, advance, DS) plus PS2 and PSP. Oh, and an iPod mini. He doesn't have his own computer or wireless and his parent like it that way because they can monitor his 'net usage in the livingroom. He also has a Juicebox, the VideoNow(?) player, Hit Clips and media for them.
He's bought a few UMD titles. He's the typical target audience for this kind of stuff. He's a consumer.
He doesn't play games on the PC (it's a bit underpowered for games) and there isn't going to be a 2nd computer setup in the house.
So, any suggestions?
My wife misses pawing through the photos, so she's still partial to film.
We have 2 SLRs. 1 film, one digital. In 2 years, I've put 14,000 photos through the digital. The film has probably gone through 10 rolls (. This gives me a static web page with thumnails & navigation that can be read on any system w/ a web browser. I archive everything to CD and keep it online. Sometimes I burn CDs for friends.
I do worry about the longevity of the CDs. I also have a DVD burner & wonde how that compares. I currently have 20GB of pictures so that'd save lots of CDs!
I don't think most people think about longevity of the media in general. Look at camcorders, PC backups, etc. I think most people don't keep the negatives they get back with photos.
About 5-7 years ago, my wife took a photography class. All film SLR, some color, some black & white. There was some darkroom work, but there was more emphasis on scanning your photos into photoshop. Spend 2 hours in the dark room or 20 minutes in photoshop.
Some photography schools have even closed down their darkrooms.
MCI used to call all the time to upsell me when I was a customer.
I finally said: I'm on the DNC list in my state and nationally. I know that you are exempt from these because we have a business relationship. Call me again & I will no longer be a customer.
Slashdot Mirror
Traditional radio is needed.
I can't get an internet feed in my car. I have a radio. I'm not paying $XX/month for a satellite.
I like my local station, http://www.wumb.org./ I listen mostly in my car but occasionally on the internet feed at work or the Tivo at home via Shoutcast (the air signal doesn't work in the house too well).
Yes, I am a member. If you like folk music, it's the only station in the country doing folk 24hrs a day.
I had a Zenith Z-100 with Zenith's modified MS-DOS. Zdos 1.25 did hard drives and didn't let you do format c: w/o asking a question. MS-DOS let you do that for quite awhile.
The Z-100 was not PC compatible. There was a version of MS-Windows 1.0 for it eventually. The serial stuff didn't work; it had a different UART then PCs.
The Z also ran CPM-85, CPM-86, Concurrent CPM, MPM, UCSD pSystem. It was a good system for its time.
The DOSshell that MS-DOS 5.0 used was Zenith developed for a mini PC they later sold. Zenith had lots of cool stuff in the DOS era before the market consolodated.
I call bullshit on this issue. It's FUD pure and simple. There are many reasons to like Debian vs Redhat but the packaging isn't it. It's the repositories and update managers that wrap the packages
.deb packages and apt to manage updates. .rpm packages and rpmdrake. .rpm packages and yum. .rpm and didn't have anything until recently: up2date. That got abandoned for yum. :-( (one reason to prefer linux to solaris)
Debian has
Mandriva has
Fedora has
Redhat has
Solaris has SysV.4 packages and ummm...
If you stick to the official repositories, you don't get the dependency hell. If you start installing packages from elsewhere, you deserve what you get. And this will start happening with .deb based distros unless the packagers keep things in sync with the official repros.
This isn't a bash on debian. I have Ubuntu on my laptop and desktop after using Fedora (3 & 4), Mandrake, RedHat, Slackware, SLS and Solaris in the past. rpmdrake and yum are great tools that give similar function to apt. And while I have had dependency hell, it was always when I tried other repositories and didn't have something like apt or yum or rpmdrake managing it.
I'm not a Bill Gates apologist, but I think he knows about 3rd world issues: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10415553/site/newsweek
I grew up near a number of ski areas. When I bought skis at the shop, I'd ask the sales guy what he used. Because he was a ski salesman so he could get cheap/free tickets and discounts on equipment.
When I went to buy a motorcycle I asked the sales guy what he rode. One guy said he didn't have a motocycle license. I took my business elsewhere. I'd do the same at a car dealer. Or car stereo dealer (he better be ableto tell me about his car's stereo).
Sure, you can sell skis, motorcycles, cars, etc even if you don't use them. But how much can you know about them and why *this* one is better then that one?
A computer to work on. One for the wife/gf/bf/SO. One for each kid.
A common place to store things on.
file server
web server
media server
Firewall to NAT the internet
wireless for laptops
Printing
print server
networked printers
Hobby stuff the whole family might use
X10 stuff
Stereo stuff
PVR/Tivo
MP3 playing
Photography storage
old computers
gaming consoles/computers
So what do I have?
2 laptops with wirless
2 tivos on network
1 family computer w/ DVD burner/scanner/color printer
1 networked laser printer (ink is expensive)
1 wireless AP
1 firewall (might combine with AP)
1 server (dual PII)
file server
me, wife, photo storage
web server for digital pictures
galleon for extra tivo function
Hobby systems
1 older PC to run Mr House for X10 control
timer for outside lights
platform for future control and sensing
1 Sun system to run Solaris 10
1 SGI running IRIX
a PC running windows or linux or solaris or xBSD
a sparc running xBSD
several old 68k macintoshes
several old PCs
several old Sparc systems
I might play with iSCSI on the old PCs to give the file server more storage. I want to scan in old photos that are not in digital format. I want sensors to see if the basement is flooded, the sump pump is working, etc. Maybe a weather station. Maybe a webcam for a baby monitor. I want my kids to see that the world is not all PCs.
I've been on both sides of the question.
When I hire a sysadmin, I want someone who is inquisitive and interested in the job. Someone who doesn't play with computers at home in this day and age, isn't interested. I want someone who thinks about things after work. Who plays with these issues at home, even if it's just in his mind.
Given the prices of computers (and used ones and free ones), cost isn't a factor. Given that, if you don't have a computer at home, you're not interested.
They guys that says "I have a PC the kids play with" is probably just going to do what the manuals and training say. He's not going to write shell scripts or look for free software to solve problems. When things don't work the way the manual says they will, he won't be able to fix them.
Who do you want working on your car? The guy with his own shop (and the factory training) who races cars on the weekend or the guy at the dealer with the factory training? The racer will probably know a bunch of tricks that let him work faster, find issues faster, etc that will cost you less $$$.
If you're a General Contractor, hiring carpenters, you want the guy that built his own house/barn/garage/shed. You're not going to hire the guy that doesn't have a hammer & saw at home.
There's alot of advantage to DSLRs vs film:
More then 36 photos before changing media
"Free" developing
White balance
ISO switching per photo
No scanning to get photos into photoshop
No waiting for developing (think news photogs)
Feedback via the histogram and LCD
Archiving to CD takes less space then negatives
Less expensive long term (at the cost of up front)
Smaller image circle so lens quality at edges less a factor (Digital only lenses excluded)
Film advantages:
"Sensor" gets replaced w/ each shot so duct isn't an issue
Wide angle lenses
Better resolution (Though Pop Photo showed the Canon 1Ds (?) beating iso 100 film)
Archiving - those negatives last "forever"
Better color capture
Less expensive startup costs
Where is the lock in? I don't see it in either example. The lock in is present only in the file format, not the player itself. With MP3 formated files, I can move from any one player to any other player. Buying an iPod does not force me to buy from iTMS. Likewise, buying a Microsoft player does not lock me into WMA files. I have an older MP3 player. It can play WMA files. I have never downloaded MP3 online to it. I buy CDs and rip them to MP3s to listen to on my player. iTMS is one distributor. My local music store is another. I don't have to use iTMS to get music on an iPod.....
It looks like Bittorrent the tool won't be attacked. They'll go after infringers instead of the protocol/tool (I hope).
I've used BT to get Linux distributions. It works well. I'd hate to lose that because something thinks BT is for illegal stuff only.
Kudos to all involved.
My Dr's office has been using tablet PCs for 3-4 years now. It's perfect for them.
"Your Cholesterol is high this time. Hmm, but it's been at roughly the same level for the last 3 years."
Do that with paper! Oh, if I need a prescription, he taps a bit & it's faxed to my pharmacy. No more deciphering handwriting!
On another note, I have one (HP tc1100) at work to go with my desktop. For the most part it's a giant PDA for me. I bring it to meetings to take notes, usually with the keyboard. I bring it home for remote access. It's very small, even with the keyboard. It's too slow for most of what I do.
For web surfing at home it's awesome. A small lightweight screen to read websites w/ a minimum of input needed. Bring it anywhere like you would a book. My 2 yr old loves the pen for tapping.
I probably would've liked it in college for taking notes (engineering w/ lots of figures and equations) but text works most of the time for me. A palm PDA w/ a keyboard would be enough 90% of the time.
1) The home user who buys wireless for home doesn't care as long as it works. This is most of the market. This also includes many ISPs (cable companies, DSL providers) that sell a wireless addon for the internet connection.
2) The geek buys one to hack at home. How big is this market?
3) The ISP that uses modified firmware. How many units do they buy?
2 & 3 will be able to buy the WRT54LG.
So we're going to see 2 pieces of hardware: One OSS, one propriary. It will be interesting to see what the marketplace reveals.
I hope the OSS version outsells the VxWorks version. Or the profits for Linksys are higher. Money talks.
Certainly makes sense to me. I wonder how much they save on the hardware to make up for the cost of redeveloping the firmware.
Not to mention, they don't have to deal with hacking Linux to work on their hardware, they can have an OS company deal with that. Sometimes, rolling your own just doesn't make much business sense.
I'm not sure replacing an existing, working, Linux firmware with a VxWorks firmware that you have to develop. Maybe VxWorks has done some of the development, but you're still going to need to do much yourself.
Porting from embedded Linux to VxWorks is probably similar to porting Linux to Windows. Some things will just work, some things will need to change because the methods/model for doing things are different.
Of course, there's the issue with how are the linux firmwares competing with the higher end stuff from Cisco, the parent company. From other posts here, it looks like Linksys will continue selling the Linux version as WRT54LG so that's probably not as much as a factor.
I beg to differ. The button layout is very nice. The shape of the remote is ok until you put it down.
1st, it will slide off whatever you put it on unless it's perfectly flat. Mine finally fell off the chair back & broke.
2nd, when you pick it up you have a 50% chance of it being upside down. It's symetrical. You'll hit forward when you meant backwards.
I like my 3rd part universal remote better. It doesn't slide off the couch/table/pile of magazines and it's asymetric. I know if it's upside down as soon as I pick it up.
I look for all the samizdat cartoons. You know "I've got one Nerve Left..." "Bang Head Here"
Anyone know how to google these? I had a link to an archive once.....
I'm pretty similar. I used DOS on an 8088 Z100 then later a 80286 Z248. I was using LaTeX, DOS .bat files, C, emacs, vi, awk, make.
When I got to use a unix box (with Usenix) in '87 I knew I wanted real Unix. I got Minix. *sigh* Too many limits.
I was doing work with Excel, LaTeX on MacOS 7 and Windows 3.0 around now. Some awk, Turbo C and gnuplot on DOS too.
I got a 486 with OS/2. Lots of ported GNU tools w/o the limits of DOS. *sigh*
Downloaded 386BSD 0.1 and it wouldn't boot (30-50 360k floppies!). *sigh*
Downloaded SLS with Linux kernel 0.92pl5. Hey! This Works! LaTeX. Better scripting. X11, games. Internet.
Around this point ('92) I got a job as a Unix Sysadmin. Linux looked enough like my SunOS 4.1.3 sparc 1 that I could do shell scripting, etc. I could even run olvwm so the desktop looked similar. The only thing really lacking compared to the Sun (for a home user) was an internet connection so I could use this new Mozilla thing.
Sure, MacOS 7 and Windows 3.1 were out but they were not as good for my use as Unix.
Word started out as a DOS application.
Word for Macintosh was ported to Windows (WfW), not the DOS version.
Don't forget that Excel became established on Macintosh before it was on Windows. There was never a DOS version of Excel like there was for Word.
123 on Macintosh (and Lotus Jazz) never went anywhere.
I imagine many of us here, growing up, took things apart. We took apart radios, bicycles, computers, legos, train tracks, games, the kitchen stove, the toilet, etc. Basically anything we can get our hands on.
The engineers in generation will too. You go back farther and include disecting animals.
It all depends on what's around & what you can learn by taking it apart. And if you need to.
I don't need to recompile the kernel anymore. (I did w/ 0.95 and Minix before that). If I was starting today I'd never add that to my skills.
The non engineers will not take things apart. If it's not working "the way it should be" they'll adapt. Engineers adapt thier environment.
Typical twelve year old:They bought a PSP and, Hey! Something else you can do with it for $20. And I can bring it with me in the car. Like I do with my PSP anyways. And school and to my friends and...
I don't have $80 to buy a DVD player but I do have $20 to bring that cool movie with me everywhere. Which I can't do with the DVD I have at home.
Think target audience....
I have a nephew (12) who is heavily into video games. He's got all the nintendo consoles and handhelds (gameboy, color, advance, DS) plus PS2 and PSP. Oh, and an iPod mini. He doesn't have his own computer or wireless and his parent like it that way because they can monitor his 'net usage in the livingroom. He also has a Juicebox, the VideoNow(?) player, Hit Clips and media for them. He's bought a few UMD titles. He's the typical target audience for this kind of stuff. He's a consumer. He doesn't play games on the PC (it's a bit underpowered for games) and there isn't going to be a 2nd computer setup in the house. So, any suggestions?
My wife misses pawing through the photos, so she's still partial to film. We have 2 SLRs. 1 film, one digital. In 2 years, I've put 14,000 photos through the digital. The film has probably gone through 10 rolls (. This gives me a static web page with thumnails & navigation that can be read on any system w/ a web browser. I archive everything to CD and keep it online. Sometimes I burn CDs for friends. I do worry about the longevity of the CDs. I also have a DVD burner & wonde how that compares. I currently have 20GB of pictures so that'd save lots of CDs! I don't think most people think about longevity of the media in general. Look at camcorders, PC backups, etc. I think most people don't keep the negatives they get back with photos.
About 5-7 years ago, my wife took a photography class. All film SLR, some color, some black & white. There was some darkroom work, but there was more emphasis on scanning your photos into photoshop. Spend 2 hours in the dark room or 20 minutes in photoshop.
Some photography schools have even closed down their darkrooms.
MCI used to call all the time to upsell me when I was a customer.
I finally said: I'm on the DNC list in my state and nationally. I know that you are exempt from these because we have a business relationship. Call me again & I will no longer be a customer.
I didn't get another call again.