The 2.0 series had real stability. In 6 years I had just one or two 2.0 kernel crash mainly when using X or the sparse superblock patch. The 2.4 series has more features but I've much less stability. I've lost count of how many crashes I've had even without using X, or beta quality optional kernel code, or devfsd. The most annoying ones are the module load/unload lockups still present in 2.4.19 and up:
# lsmod Module Size Used by isa-pnp 21381 0 (unused)
# insmod etherpro
# lsmod Module Size Used by etherpro100 13413 0
# rmmod epic100 Jun 27 11:32:03 koyuki kernel: unregister_netdevice: waiting for eth0 to become free. Usage count = 4
At this point, the kernel module code is unsalvageable. A reboot is required.
There is still another debate to be had apart from the one on the IEEE author copyright agreement. It has to do with the IEEE copyright policy for their digital publications.
As an IEEE member who pays for subscriptions to several journals I get to keep paper copies of the journals. I can do what I like with them. In particular, I can annotate interesting papers. I can give (or sell as used) my journals to anyone I like, including any annotations I may have made. That's fine but paper takes up shelf space and it would be better if I could do the same things with electronic copies as I do with paper copies. In fact, the IEEE and various sub-groups like the Computer Society are strongly pushing for members to take out the Digital Library subscription which gives access to digital copies of the journals.
Problem: if you read their copyright policy, you are not allowed to do any of the things I can do with a paper journal subscription. Among many other restrictions:
You may not download and archive copies of their digital journals.
If you cease to be an IEEE member, you do not have access anymore to any of the digital journals you paid to see during your membership.
You cannot and may not modify or otherwise annotate digital journals.
In November 2000, I talked to the IEEE copyright officer. I explained that the IEEE is a society that exists to promote scientific research and should not be imposing obstacles on researchers wishing to access and use research articles. He said that he sympathised with my argument but that it was basically the Marketing Department of IEEE who had almost total control over their digital copyright strategy and policy. The board of directors has always rubberstamped the Marketing Department peoples' proposals. The marketing people are from non-technical backgrounds with large corporations. They are trying to maximise revenue for the IEEE by designing restrictive copyright policies. They do not consider the wider benefits of the IEEE to science. He said the only way it would change is if many other IEEE members were to start requesting the IEEE offer equal terms of access to digital and paper materials.
I knew an eminent blind person and researcher at a university who was often called upon to comment on or even to test artificial vision equipment being developed at the university. His usual response was that nothing beats a good guide dog. This demoralised some folks at the university who were trying to develop and get funding for a guide robot for blind people. That latter project made the headlines when it was the subject of a hilarious cartoon in a BMVA Newsletter a few years ago entitled "Guide Dogs for Blind Robots" (no online copy found).
These phenomena are connected. The speed of the Moon orbiting around the Earth is increasing as the Earth's angular momentum is transferred to the Moon's orbital kinetic energy.
What's happening is the Earth-Moon system is connected by gravitational force which distorts the shape of the oceans from being roughly spherical into being a bulge pointed towards the Moon. The Earth rotates faster than the Moon orbits around the Earth. This means the tidal bulge is always being pulled forwards because of the frictional forces between oceans and Earth. This slight shift in the bulge slightly alters the overall gravitational field of the Earth thus pulling on the Moon and weakly accelerating it in its orbit to higher speed and causing it to drift slowly away from Earth at about 4cm/year. This is also explained well here.
Slashdot Mirror
The 2.0 series had real stability. In 6 years I had just one or two 2.0 kernel crash mainly when using X or the sparse superblock patch. The 2.4 series has more features but I've much less stability. I've lost count of how many crashes I've had even without using X, or beta quality optional kernel code, or devfsd. The most annoying ones are the module load/unload lockups still present in 2.4.19 and up:
# lsmod
Module Size Used by
isa-pnp 21381 0 (unused)
# insmod etherpro
# lsmod
Module Size Used by
etherpro100 13413 0
# rmmod epic100
Jun 27 11:32:03 koyuki kernel: unregister_netdevice: waiting for eth0 to become free. Usage count = 4
At this point, the kernel module code is unsalvageable. A reboot is required.
There is still another debate to be had apart from the one on the IEEE author copyright agreement. It has to do with the IEEE copyright policy for their digital publications.
As an IEEE member who pays for subscriptions to several journals I get to keep paper copies of the journals. I can do what I like with them. In particular, I can annotate interesting papers. I can give (or sell as used) my journals to anyone I like, including any annotations I may have made. That's fine but paper takes up shelf space and it would be better if I could do the same things with electronic copies as I do with paper copies. In fact, the IEEE and various sub-groups like the Computer Society are strongly pushing for members to take out the Digital Library subscription which gives access to digital copies of the journals.
Problem: if you read their copyright policy, you are not allowed to do any of the things I can do with a paper journal subscription. Among many other restrictions:
In November 2000, I talked to the IEEE copyright officer. I explained that the IEEE is a society that exists to promote scientific research and should not be imposing obstacles on researchers wishing to access and use research articles. He said that he sympathised with my argument but that it was basically the Marketing Department of IEEE who had almost total control over their digital copyright strategy and policy. The board of directors has always rubberstamped the Marketing Department peoples' proposals. The marketing people are from non-technical backgrounds with large corporations. They are trying to maximise revenue for the IEEE by designing restrictive copyright policies. They do not consider the wider benefits of the IEEE to science. He said the only way it would change is if many other IEEE members were to start requesting the IEEE offer equal terms of access to digital and paper materials.
Wills
I knew an eminent blind person and researcher at a university who was often called upon to comment on or even to test artificial vision equipment being developed at the university. His usual response was that nothing beats a good guide dog. This demoralised some folks at the university who were trying to develop and get funding for a guide robot for blind people. That latter project made the headlines when it was the subject of a hilarious cartoon in a BMVA Newsletter a few years ago entitled "Guide Dogs for Blind Robots" (no online copy found).
The guy said he worked for "a large company outside of the technology sector (financial services)."
Financial services companies generally do not sell IP. They are designed to make profits from selling financial services.
2) the Earth's rotation is slowing.
These phenomena are connected. The speed of the Moon orbiting around the Earth is increasing as the Earth's angular momentum is transferred to the Moon's orbital kinetic energy.
What's happening is the Earth-Moon system is connected by gravitational force which distorts the shape of the oceans from being roughly spherical into being a bulge pointed towards the Moon. The Earth rotates faster than the Moon orbits around the Earth. This means the tidal bulge is always being pulled forwards because of the frictional forces between oceans and Earth. This slight shift in the bulge slightly alters the overall gravitational field of the Earth thus pulling on the Moon and weakly accelerating it in its orbit to higher speed and causing it to drift slowly away from Earth at about 4cm/year. This is also explained well here.
Will