I'd like to see uClinux fit into 512kB Flash and 64k SRAM. None of these seem to have any access method to external memory.
If you can fit it in, I'd be interested; I was all excited because a product I use at work has a Hitachi H8 processor... sadly 1M Flash and 128k RAM isn't enough.:-(
It comes out to $2.50 a print. Premium paper brings the cost to about $4 per print. Go to a store and it is much more expensive.
I dunno, I get 8x10s on real film with no fading issues for about CDN$10, which is approximately US$6/print. Still dirt cheap to me, and I get 4x6s for $0.50/print at the same place (Black's). For the $2/print it's simply not worth arsing around with the printer and ink and all that hassle. I don't print all that many 8x10s anyway, maybe a dozen a year.
I don't even think the high quality printers are worth it. Our Epson Sylus Photo 1280 can't print high quality for shit, and it's supposed to be a damn fine photo-quality printer. It doesn't seem to matter if we use Epson inks and paper or refill inks and third party photo paper; the ink seems to "pill" on the page sometimes, the dithering blows goats and generally the quality sucks. Adjusting the printing properties in the win32 driver doesn't seem to do a whole lot to help, either.
Anyway, I always wondered why NASA didn't foresee these types of issues and BUILD IN workarounds, like little wipers for the solar panels!?
This has been discussed again and again and again - it was considered, and discounted. These units are already well over their designed lifetime. Armchair quarterbacks such as yourself could only hope to have such a successful mission.
... Postgres isn't stopping any of that. If you want two databases, pay for 'em and the host will give you two, over which you can have full control.
I dunno; to me it seems perfectly logical that the only person who can create databases is the "root" of the DB system, just as the only person who can create accounts is someone with root access.
Why on earth would a vhost user ever need to create databases? You create their db when you create their account, give them control over their db and they can create as many tables as their little heart desires.
Hell with namespaces it can appear like they have completely separate databases if they really need that illusion.
Um -- the engine is still going to be turning, you will definitely have power steering and very likely brakes too even with the engine off but turning. I'm not an automotive guru but I'm fairly confident this is true.
I don't see any reason why dewatered sludge couldn't be fed through an anything-into-oil plant and converted to energy more cleanly than by incineration.
Equipment I designed does the heavy lifting for the heater jackets used in that stuff. A year ago I was sent down to Carthage, MO to the first large-scale facility these guys built for Butterball... It was a mixed emotion trip... I was thrilled that I got to see this stuff up close and that something I'd designed was in it, but at the same time the reason I was there was because the stuff I built wasn't working right.:-)
Using antibiotic soap, wipes, laundry detergent, etc. isn't helping. You don't want to implement a eugenics program; i.e., all the stronger bugs survive and there are no weaker bugs around to help you build up an immunity.
Actually the antibiotic agents in soap and such are chemical antibiotics (i.e. chlorine, alcohol, etc.) and not antibiotic agents such as pennicilin. The bugs won't build up a defence against those until they figure out how to make armour.
LCD mostly, but CRT sometimes; does it matter? Antialiased everything sucks ass no matter what it's showing on. I use the subpixel antialias on the LCD but even ClearType on XP on an LCD looks like ass when everything's antialiased.
Unfortunately for the most part you are right. People who antialias everything should be shot.
One of the first things I do on any fresh install is alter the fonts.conf to only antialias below 8 and above 14pt, and to always antialias italic or bold text. Everything else is not. Then I grab the standard MS fontpack and use those fonts, although bitstream is slowling coming over. A lot of work was put into the MS fontpack (I think it was monotype who did it actually) to make the hinting right.
OH yes, and then I spend an hour screwing around with the latest freetype to turn ON the bytecode interpreter and disable autohinting because, no matter what they say, I think that the autohinter's output looks like pure ass.
Re:You can hack anything.
on
Port-A-Nuke
·
· Score: 1
Here's an idea: block transmissions from these units in six wideley-dispersed locations at once!
I don't think that that would be too big a problem; I had assumed that you'd deploy a small military unit to see what was going on when a unit stopped responding correctly. I see where you're headed though with the DoS idea; at some point you can cause enough of a problem that they don't know which one is being stolen/tampered with and haven't the resources to check them all.
Slashdot is full of very intelligent people, who foolishly believe in technological solutions for every problem.
Agreed there; technology is a wonderful tool but it is by no means the only tool nor the best tool for every situation.
Re:You can hack anything.
on
Port-A-Nuke
·
· Score: 1
Pah.
Satellites track these units and upon the absence of a signal the alarm goes off. Classic failsafe system/dead-man switch that has been in use in dozens of industries for more than a hundred years.
Now I agree with you that the responsibility still rests on those supposed to be doing the policing, but monitoring hundreds of reactors for tamper really isn't rocket science. Hell it ain't even nuclear science.:-)
Actually the nonrepeating code transmit/receive chips I used had built in safeguards -- the receiver would listen for not only the current code, but the next 'x' codes as well so it could automatically resync if the transmitter was keyed out of range.
Meh. This is why I'm putting my money and energy into Exchange4Linux -- it's a MUCH better Exchange Server replacement than anything else I've tried, and that includes SLOX, Bynari, OGO, Kroupware, Samsung Contact and whatever else I've forgotten. Server is free and totally open-source (written in Python) and runs Postgres for the backend. Outlook connectors are reasonably priced, too.
You have no idea how wonderful it is to just drag and drop the user's store into E4L and then be able to use straight SQL to pull data out. I haven't yet tried inserting data but it looks to be just as straightforward. And no goofy-ass web-based crap is involved.:-)
There's no such thing as predatory pricing? Such as playing a war of attrition to buy your way in to a market using a warchest from a different market?
In our shop we have a test setup for our solid state DC motor drives that has two 40 H.P. DC motors connected back to back with one of them being a generator with its armature connected to a resistor bank serving as a load for the motor being driven. We adjust the mechanical load by selecting different configurations of the load resistor.
We do the same thing with a pair of AC motors -- the motor connected to the unit under test is mechanically coupled to a second AC motor connected to a VFD with a regenerative braking system -- spin up the test motor and then bring the drive up -- the difference in speed between the systems equates to your test load. Typically you run the VFD under 60Hz so you are regenerating like a crazy man.:-)
I don't understand why everyone wants to use DC motors. Brushes, commutators and maintenance hassles, the lot of 'em.:-)
A 75-125HP plain old AC induction motor would be far less maintenance and the VFD to drive it would not introduce much loss (4% I imagine) to the system. Use a decent drive and you get sensorless vector control (i.e. decent low-speed torque without voltage boost) and regeneration. Not to mention that a 125HP motor is cheap and would be far, far more powerful than an equivalent IC. (i.e. you can produce full torque at any speed, not just within the narrow power band that an IC has). AC motor + VFD is far more practical than DC motor, IMO.
Disclaimer: I am a power electronics field applications engineer. I deal with these things every day.:-)
Re:So that's what you do with them
on
Banana Power!
·
· Score: 1
I believe the correct quote is "Time flies line an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." - much better.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
I'd like to see uClinux fit into 512kB Flash and 64k SRAM. None of these seem to have any access method to external memory.
If you can fit it in, I'd be interested; I was all excited because a product I use at work has a Hitachi H8 processor... sadly 1M Flash and 128k RAM isn't enough. :-(
You can get an 8x10 on film paper for $0.75? Bullshit.
It comes out to $2.50 a print. Premium paper brings the cost to about $4 per print. Go to a store and it is much more expensive.
I dunno, I get 8x10s on real film with no fading issues for about CDN$10, which is approximately US$6/print. Still dirt cheap to me, and I get 4x6s for $0.50/print at the same place (Black's). For the $2/print it's simply not worth arsing around with the printer and ink and all that hassle. I don't print all that many 8x10s anyway, maybe a dozen a year.
I don't even think the high quality printers are worth it. Our Epson Sylus Photo 1280 can't print high quality for shit, and it's supposed to be a damn fine photo-quality printer. It doesn't seem to matter if we use Epson inks and paper or refill inks and third party photo paper; the ink seems to "pill" on the page sometimes, the dithering blows goats and generally the quality sucks. Adjusting the printing properties in the win32 driver doesn't seem to do a whole lot to help, either.
Anyway, I always wondered why NASA didn't foresee these types of issues and BUILD IN workarounds, like little wipers for the solar panels!?
This has been discussed again and again and again - it was considered, and discounted. These units are already well over their designed lifetime. Armchair quarterbacks such as yourself could only hope to have such a successful mission.
... Postgres isn't stopping any of that. If you want two databases, pay for 'em and the host will give you two, over which you can have full control.
I dunno; to me it seems perfectly logical that the only person who can create databases is the "root" of the DB system, just as the only person who can create accounts is someone with root access.
Why on earth would a vhost user ever need to create databases? You create their db when you create their account, give them control over their db and they can create as many tables as their little heart desires.
Hell with namespaces it can appear like they have completely separate databases if they really need that illusion.
Um -- the engine is still going to be turning, you will definitely have power steering and very likely brakes too even with the engine off but turning. I'm not an automotive guru but I'm fairly confident this is true.
Out in the boonies it's very common to run oil for heat (in addition to wood).
I don't see any reason why dewatered sludge couldn't be fed through an anything-into-oil plant and converted to energy more cleanly than by incineration.
Equipment I designed does the heavy lifting for the heater jackets used in that stuff. A year ago I was sent down to Carthage, MO to the first large-scale facility these guys built for Butterball... It was a mixed emotion trip... I was thrilled that I got to see this stuff up close and that something I'd designed was in it, but at the same time the reason I was there was because the stuff I built wasn't working right. :-)
Using antibiotic soap, wipes, laundry detergent, etc. isn't helping. You don't want to implement a eugenics program; i.e., all the stronger bugs survive and there are no weaker bugs around to help you build up an immunity.
Actually the antibiotic agents in soap and such are chemical antibiotics (i.e. chlorine, alcohol, etc.) and not antibiotic agents such as pennicilin. The bugs won't build up a defence against those until they figure out how to make armour.
Do you use an LCD or CRT monitor?
LCD mostly, but CRT sometimes; does it matter? Antialiased everything sucks ass no matter what it's showing on. I use the subpixel antialias on the LCD but even ClearType on XP on an LCD looks like ass when everything's antialiased.
Unfortunately for the most part you are right. People who antialias everything should be shot.
One of the first things I do on any fresh install is alter the fonts.conf to only antialias below 8 and above 14pt, and to always antialias italic or bold text. Everything else is not. Then I grab the standard MS fontpack and use those fonts, although bitstream is slowling coming over. A lot of work was put into the MS fontpack (I think it was monotype who did it actually) to make the hinting right.
OH yes, and then I spend an hour screwing around with the latest freetype to turn ON the bytecode interpreter and disable autohinting because, no matter what they say, I think that the autohinter's output looks like pure ass.
Exchange4Linux does the same thing, but with Python and PostgreSQL. At first I hated the idea but man it does work remarkably well.
Here's an idea: block transmissions from these units in six wideley-dispersed locations at once!
I don't think that that would be too big a problem; I had assumed that you'd deploy a small military unit to see what was going on when a unit stopped responding correctly. I see where you're headed though with the DoS idea; at some point you can cause enough of a problem that they don't know which one is being stolen/tampered with and haven't the resources to check them all.
Slashdot is full of very intelligent people, who foolishly believe in technological solutions for every problem.
Agreed there; technology is a wonderful tool but it is by no means the only tool nor the best tool for every situation.
Pah.
Satellites track these units and upon the absence of a signal the alarm goes off. Classic failsafe system/dead-man switch that has been in use in dozens of industries for more than a hundred years.
Now I agree with you that the responsibility still rests on those supposed to be doing the policing, but monitoring hundreds of reactors for tamper really isn't rocket science. Hell it ain't even nuclear science. :-)
Actually the nonrepeating code transmit/receive chips I used had built in safeguards -- the receiver would listen for not only the current code, but the next 'x' codes as well so it could automatically resync if the transmitter was keyed out of range.
at x+1, though, you were screwed. :-)
When there are collisions in the algorithm, the checksum cannot prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the data has not been tampered with.
Uh... all hashing algorithms will have collisions. It's a simple fact of life when digesting x bits in to y bits, given that y << x.
I eagerly await all the agonizing, cliche OSS moments that will come from this product.
:-) I agree the name sucks ass but it's better than its other name: BILL Open Workgroup Project.
Meh. This is why I'm putting my money and energy into Exchange4Linux -- it's a MUCH better Exchange Server replacement than anything else I've tried, and that includes SLOX, Bynari, OGO, Kroupware, Samsung Contact and whatever else I've forgotten. Server is free and totally open-source (written in Python) and runs Postgres for the backend. Outlook connectors are reasonably priced, too.
You have no idea how wonderful it is to just drag and drop the user's store into E4L and then be able to use straight SQL to pull data out. I haven't yet tried inserting data but it looks to be just as straightforward. And no goofy-ass web-based crap is involved. :-)
That's hilarious.
There's no such thing as predatory pricing? Such as playing a war of attrition to buy your way in to a market using a warchest from a different market?
technically speaking, if they take a loss on every one sold you are not helping them grow.
In our shop we have a test setup for our solid state DC motor drives that has two 40 H.P. DC motors connected back to back with one of them being a generator with its armature connected to a resistor bank serving as a load for the motor being driven. We adjust the mechanical load by selecting different configurations of the load resistor.
We do the same thing with a pair of AC motors -- the motor connected to the unit under test is mechanically coupled to a second AC motor connected to a VFD with a regenerative braking system -- spin up the test motor and then bring the drive up -- the difference in speed between the systems equates to your test load. Typically you run the VFD under 60Hz so you are regenerating like a crazy man. :-)
I don't understand why everyone wants to use DC motors. Brushes, commutators and maintenance hassles, the lot of 'em. :-)
A 75-125HP plain old AC induction motor would be far less maintenance and the VFD to drive it would not introduce much loss (4% I imagine) to the system. Use a decent drive and you get sensorless vector control (i.e. decent low-speed torque without voltage boost) and regeneration. Not to mention that a 125HP motor is cheap and would be far, far more powerful than an equivalent IC. (i.e. you can produce full torque at any speed, not just within the narrow power band that an IC has). AC motor + VFD is far more practical than DC motor, IMO.
Disclaimer: I am a power electronics field applications engineer. I deal with these things every day. :-)
I believe the correct quote is "Time flies line an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." - much better. :-)