If fire up my Ham radio transmitter I had better not be causeing interference to other services on the ether. In fact I have to have a licence to operate this thing first. There are penalties for misbehaving.
So I wonder how it is that after all these months my PC is still getting hit with CodeRed/Nimda attacks. The operators of these "transmitters" have no liability for, or even knowlege of what thay do.
OK. I'm going to try this question again as me.
Please let me know how you got Q3 working with kernel 2.4test10 and XFree 4.0.1 ?
I've been trying every which way with no luck on my voodoo 3.
michael.rychlik@pp.inet.fi
Despite what your user info implies you DO have something interesting to say !
A tad off topic I know but does anyone know why I can't use the glide library from the consol, why do I have to run glide only progs from within X. As far as I know the glide library goes straight to the video hardware and needs no support from X. If this is just a case of getting I/O privs how do I arrange that ? SVGA is great but glide would be.. well different. Cheers.
The SB Live does work under Linux. Creative have just released the driver, open source too. Check out opensource.creative.com Not all features supported yet but enough to play CDs, MP3s, Quake Unreal etc.
Whilst it is disappointing that they pulled the Linux code, I can't really find fault with their decision. As far as I know there is no "out of the box" Linux distributions that will run OpenGL or Glide software accelerated on a 3D card (Correct me if I'm wrong) So we can't expect them to release a product for a non-existent platform ! I guess things will change rapidly when RedHat etc comes with the next version of X Windows including drivers for 3D accelerators. Can't wait.
You seem to be making a post in support of the GPL which has enabled all this free software to develop. But then you call RMS a jerk. RMS invented the GPL for Gods sake. He started all this. That makes him a hero in my book !
Some time ago I read an article about a meeting of BSD developers. The one thing that stuck in my mind was a quote from one guy during a conversation about the rise of Linux. "Those penquins are starting to get to me", he said. Does anyone have a link to this article or know to whom I can attribute the quote ?
Well I'm running Mandrake 6.1, a new installation on a clean disk. If I use KDE themes, X locks up good and solid at random. Usually when trying to move a window. I don't blame my hardware because this machine has been running different versions of RedHat for over a year with no problems. The net result of all this is just as bad as a Windows BSOD, and is really embarrasing in the face of all this "Linux is so stable" talk. So, does anyone else have this problem and or know how to fix it ? I would be happier if there was an easy emergency exit to a console, assuming anything is still running, how do I do that ?
Actually what I want is some way to connect by boxe's Turbo button to some interrupt that would cause the kernel to kill X and return to the console !
I have just installed Mandrake 6.1 (After using Redhat for some time) because I liked the idea of a Redhat distro compiled for Pentium with some of the new goodies included like Kdevelop. Problem is the KDE does not behave well. It keeps switching desktops at random when I move the cursor over the panel, the task bar flashes on and off when I move the mouse there and worst of all it hangs totally when moving windows around. Does anyone know what is wrong with this ?
LDP = Linux Documentation Project. You can find a link to it from kernelnotes.org There's a mind bendingly huge amount of documentation, HOWTOs etc there. Happy hunting !
Actually your thinking is good. If you want high availability think of Aircraft Flight Control Sytems. I did some work for the Boeing 777. This has 4 Flight computers. If any one fails the others keep going. In addition each computer (In a traditional "Black Box" contains 3 different processor boards. So if there is a bug in a particular processor or compiler only one falls over. There is a piece of mathematics called the Byzantine Generals Problem which states that in order to tolerate a single failure of a computer or the communications links in a redundant system you really need 4 fully interconnected computers. And in general for n failures you need 3n + 1 computers all fully cross-connected. How you apply anything like this to WEB servers etc I'm not sure.
And don't worry about flying a 777. Even if the computers give up the pilot can still fly the thing using the analogue electronics.
I can't believe that I'm seeing lots of opposition to this brilliant idea from the open source crazed, free beer drunk slashdot community ! For them to go with QNX is a total non-starter because it a) costs money in licencing b) will never get the support of the hardware vendors who have only just got used to the idea of linux as on option and c) well it's closed and we have grown out of that trap. So here are some ideas as to what I would like to see from them:
Firstly the s/w
1. Whatever hardware architecture they come up with must be capable of running everything I expect to run on my RedHat box now inc. clunky old X etc. 2. Whatever proprietory 'Amiga' stuff they run should be in addition to the above. I expect some nice fast direct to hardware video etc. 3. Must be able to run all the old Amiga software(or even new I guess)
This gives them a huge lot of stuff to get started with and the prospect that forward thinking game makers will provide the likes of Quake 3 for this architecture. You can't have an Amiga without games can you ?
Secondly H/W
1. This has to be very pretty, and SMALL. The likes of the Cobolt Cube and Netwinder show what can be done with imagination. 2. Put the graphics (Voodoo or whatever) and networking and all on one board like the good old days. 3. Add some zippy video stuff MPEG decoders etc 4. Can we get rid of the fans ? I want to use this as a high quality sound as well as video system in my living room so I don't want any fans werring. 5. Some how this has to be cheap !
Ahh dreaming, dreaming...
By the way I used to have a Atari because at the time the Amiga was so expensive. This has depressed me for years because the Amiga was so superior to the ST and it's 68000 version of DOS.
I'm trying but they seem to be slashdoted !! I think this would be great. It's a few years since I use Borland C++ but I remember having a good time with it.
I am an English man currently working in Finland. The contrast between the Finns and the French is amazing, Most people here who aren't over 40 learn to speak at least two other languages besides Finnish at school. Swedish, because that is the second official language, and English. On top of that many will learn German. They are very proud of Finland and it's language but at the same time open minded about other languages an cultures. They are quite happy to work in English in high tech companies like Nokia but there is no sign of the Finnish fading away yet. Thankfully for me they do not dub English movies into Finnish, just add subtitles. Now where would Linux be if Linus was as arrogant as the French ? Would anybody have bothered to try to understand all those Finnish variable names and documentation ? (Actually I think Linus may well have used Swedish).
Speaking as a Brit. I think you will find that the majority of UK residents are happy to pay for the exceptional quality of the BBC and the luxury of not having you favorite progs. screwed up with commercials.
Hey I really feel for your position, so I have a plan for you.
a)Quit that job. b)Get married. c)Have a Honeymoon in Europe.
HOW ?
Get a contract thats how. With your experience and everyones Y2K problems you could be on contract in Europe till the end of this year for 100,000 pounds sterling.
For starters checkout http://www.freelanceinformer.co.uk This is a magazine for the freelance community in England. This will lead you to many freelance agencies.
Contact Real-Time Consultants Limited contract@rtc.co.uk This is a big agency for freelance staff, despite their name they deal in all areas of computing. They are also good at getting people into positions outside the UK.
Please note that I am not in anyway connected to either of these organizations.
Act NOW ! Good luck. And if you have any success (or if you want to know more) e-mail me.
I always enjoy a debate about AI because it seems to pull in everybody. The mathematicians, computer scientists all kinds of religious views etc.
I have come to the conclusion that nobody here has the slightest idea what they are talking about.
We can't even seem to agree on the definitions of the words. When someone thinks that a baby has no "intelligence" but somehow grows it with age. Then they have either never spent any time with children or they have a different meaning if the word than I do.
But lets start at the beginning. What do we mean by "Artificial Intelligence" ?
I have a vague notion of intelligence as the ability to learn and solve problems. So if someone or something has this capability then it is intelligent. There is nothing artificial about it. So let's dump "artificial".
So we come to "learn" and "solve problems"
Well a data logger collects a lot of information and could be said to "learn" but that is not a lot of use to it unless it unless it can use that information to solve problems.
Well what does it mean to "solve problems". Exactly what is a problem and what is a solution ?
A mathematician may devise a problem like - what is the value of x when y is zero for some function y = f(x) but these logical exercises are only a "problem" if there is a desire or a need to solve it.
I may have only one can of beans in my kitchen and no can opener. But that is only a problem if I am hungry. If I don't desire to eat then there is no problem the can can stay closed.
So it seems there are no problems except where there is some desire, want, or need involved. Any state of the universe is as good as any other state until there is some desire to change it. That "desire" creates the "problem".
But what the hell is "desire", "want", etc. These are emotions. Things that I feel and experience. Maybe you have them to, although I can't prove it.
So it seems there is no intelligence with out emotion.
I said that I cannot prove to myself that you have emotions. And I am totally convinced that a light switch has no emotions. Well a computer is just a huge collection of switches so I can't bring myself to think that there will ever be emotion in a computer.
So to summarize: Intelligence is problem solving, problems only exist if there is emotion, computers have no emotion, so computers can never be intelligent Q.E.D.
All this talk about emotions brings us to the consciousness and souls and God arguments at which point we all lose the plot.
DAMN IT ! I by reversing the above argument I could say that if you can demonstrate intelligent behavior then you must have emotions !
Like I say no one knows what they are talking about here. But at least we all feel something !
There was a time when these "benchmarks" did not matter. Now they do and here is why.
In the time of innocence when Linus and others put the fruits of their labours out onto the net and invited anyone who was interested to see what they thought of it and do what they liked with it. There was no great launch or fanfare or hype. The code spoke for itself and under the freedom of the GPL and other licences has spread like wild fire.
Under those circumstances anyone could try this stuff and decide it was rubbish and maybe tell whoever they liked that it was rubbish. Of course most thinking people who come into contact with it have come to take the opposite view, for reasons that I hope all slashdotter's are intimately familiar with, and will do all they can to propel it forward.
There was a chance that Microsoft or whoever could now be running any kind of "benchmark" they like and publishing any results that they dream up and it really would not matter. As the Mindcraft test shows nobody is taken in by this nonsense and it only makes the perpetrators look stupid or desperate or evil or all of those things.
Unfortunately things have gotten a little out of hand. When Linus is quoted as wanting "world domination" and using phrases like "we will crush them" etc. then he is throwing down the challenge, not Mindcraft or Microsoft. And this gets everyone into this mess. As I say in the past, before becoming famous for is rhetoric, these tests could have been simply ignored.
So now Linus and co. have to be man enough to live up to their words. Some how they have to "keep face" no matter what the outcome. It may have been wiser to have kept quite and let the code speak for itself , which it does so effectively.
Now I'm sounding a bit negative and I can't imagine how they should handle this but I have every confidence that they will come out OK.
When Eric Raymond wrote his piece about Linus and his merry men in Sherwood Forest going to challenge the Sheriff of Nottingham a few months ago I would never have believed that it would become reality so quickly !!
Slashdot Mirror
If fire up my Ham radio transmitter I had better not be causeing interference to other services on the ether. In fact I have to have a licence to operate this thing first. There are penalties for misbehaving.
So I wonder how it is that after all these months my PC is still getting hit with CodeRed/Nimda attacks. The operators of these "transmitters" have no liability for, or even knowlege of what thay do.
OK. I'm going to try this question again as me.
Please let me know how you got Q3 working with kernel 2.4test10 and XFree 4.0.1 ?
I've been trying every which way with no luck on my voodoo 3.
michael.rychlik@pp.inet.fi
Despite what your user info implies you DO have something interesting to say !
A tad off topic I know but does anyone know why I can't use the glide library from the consol, why do I have to run glide only progs from within X. As far as I know the glide library goes straight to the video hardware and needs no support from X.
If this is just a case of getting I/O privs how do I arrange that ?
SVGA is great but glide would be.. well different.
Cheers.
The SB Live does work under Linux. Creative have just released the driver, open source too. Check out opensource.creative.com
Not all features supported yet but enough to play CDs, MP3s, Quake Unreal etc.
Whilst it is disappointing that they pulled the Linux code, I can't really find fault with their decision. As far as I know there is no "out of the box" Linux distributions that will run OpenGL or Glide software accelerated on a 3D card (Correct me if I'm wrong) So we can't expect them to release a product for a non-existent platform !
I guess things will change rapidly when RedHat etc comes with the next version of X Windows including drivers for 3D accelerators. Can't wait.
I've always enjoyed this gamed as well.
Where I work now I can log into:
achilles
bismarck
tirpitz
airbus
murphy
pompei
jerico
mir
mururoa
All named after famous disasters and crashes.
There used to be a "titanic" but I guess that must have gone down.
Sorry.
You seem to be making a post in support of the GPL which has enabled all this free software to develop. But then you call RMS a jerk. RMS invented the GPL for Gods sake. He started all this. That makes him a hero in my book !
Some time ago I read an article about a meeting of BSD developers. The one thing that stuck in my mind was a quote from one guy during a conversation about the rise of Linux. "Those penquins are starting to get to me", he said.
Does anyone have a link to this article or know to whom I can attribute the quote ?
Well I'm running Mandrake 6.1, a new installation on a clean disk. If I use KDE themes, X locks up good and solid at random. Usually when trying to move a window. I don't blame my hardware because this machine has been running different versions of RedHat for over a year with no problems.
The net result of all this is just as bad as a Windows BSOD, and is really embarrasing in the face of all this "Linux is so stable" talk.
So, does anyone else have this problem and or know how to fix it ? I would be happier if there was an easy emergency exit to a console, assuming anything is still running, how do I do that ?
Actually what I want is some way to connect by boxe's Turbo button to some interrupt that would cause the kernel to kill X and return to the console !
By the way this problem also exists in RedHat &.1
I have just installed Mandrake 6.1 (After using Redhat for some time) because I liked the idea of a Redhat distro compiled for Pentium with some of the new goodies included like Kdevelop. Problem is the KDE does not behave well. It keeps switching desktops at random when I move the cursor over the panel, the task bar flashes on and off when I move the mouse there and worst of all it hangs totally when moving windows around. Does anyone know what is wrong with this ?
Dosn't this Murphy guy have a law ?
Maybe this is an example of it.
When we look harder at this problem it will go away.
The web site says this thing requires 65k colors.
Does anyone know if this rules out using acceleration under a Voodoo 3 ?
I think I'm going to be sick.
Anyway I would prefer to see Bill Gate's head on a stick.
LDP = Linux Documentation Project.
You can find a link to it from kernelnotes.org
There's a mind bendingly huge amount of documentation, HOWTOs etc there. Happy hunting !
Well actually in Linus's Finnish home land "Linus" does rhyme with "Penis".
Actually your thinking is good. If you want high availability think of Aircraft Flight Control Sytems. I did some work for the Boeing 777. This has 4 Flight computers. If any one fails the others keep going. In addition each computer (In a traditional "Black Box" contains 3 different processor boards. So if there is a bug in a particular processor or compiler only one falls over.
There is a piece of mathematics called the Byzantine Generals Problem which states that in order to tolerate a single failure of a computer or the communications links in a redundant system you really need 4 fully interconnected computers. And in general for n failures you need 3n + 1 computers all fully cross-connected.
How you apply anything like this to WEB servers etc I'm not sure.
And don't worry about flying a 777. Even if the computers give up the pilot can still fly the thing using the analogue electronics.
I can't believe that I'm seeing lots of opposition to this brilliant idea from the open source crazed, free beer drunk slashdot community ! For them to go with QNX is a total non-starter because it a) costs money in licencing b) will never get the support of the hardware vendors who have only just got used to the idea of linux as on option and c) well it's closed and we have grown out of that trap.
...
So here are some ideas as to what I would like to see from them:
Firstly the s/w
1. Whatever hardware architecture they come up with must be capable of running everything I expect to run on my RedHat box now inc. clunky old X etc.
2. Whatever proprietory 'Amiga' stuff they run should be in addition to the above. I expect some nice fast direct to hardware video etc.
3. Must be able to run all the old Amiga software(or even new I guess)
This gives them a huge lot of stuff to get started with and the prospect that forward thinking game makers will provide the likes of Quake 3 for this architecture. You can't have an Amiga without games can you ?
Secondly H/W
1. This has to be very pretty, and SMALL. The likes of the Cobolt Cube and Netwinder show what can be done with imagination.
2. Put the graphics (Voodoo or whatever) and networking and all on one board like the good old days.
3. Add some zippy video stuff MPEG decoders etc
4. Can we get rid of the fans ? I want to use this as a high quality sound as well as video system in my living room so I don't want any fans werring.
5. Some how this has to be cheap !
Ahh dreaming, dreaming
By the way I used to have a Atari because at the time the Amiga was so expensive. This has depressed me for years because the Amiga was so superior to the ST and it's 68000 version of DOS.
Good luck Amiga.
For me the past is not over yet.
THIS is UNIX ? I'm confused.
I'm trying but they seem to be slashdoted !!
I think this would be great. It's a few years since I use Borland C++ but I remember having a good time with it.
I am an English man currently working in Finland. The contrast between the Finns and the French is amazing, Most people here who aren't over 40 learn to speak at least two other languages besides Finnish at school. Swedish, because that is the second official language, and English. On top of that many will learn German. They are very proud of Finland and it's language but at the same time open minded about other languages an cultures. They are quite happy to work in English in high tech companies like Nokia but there is no sign of the Finnish fading away yet. Thankfully for me they do not dub English movies into Finnish, just add subtitles. Now where would Linux be if Linus was as arrogant as the French ? Would anybody have bothered to try to understand all those Finnish variable names and documentation ? (Actually I think Linus may well have used Swedish).
Speaking as a Brit. I think you will find that the majority of UK residents are happy to pay for the exceptional quality of the BBC and the luxury of not having you favorite progs. screwed up with commercials.
Hey I really feel for your position, so I have a plan for you.
a)Quit that job.
b)Get married.
c)Have a Honeymoon in Europe.
HOW ?
Get a contract thats how. With your experience and everyones Y2K problems you could be on contract in Europe till the end of this year for 100,000 pounds sterling.
For starters checkout http://www.freelanceinformer.co.uk
This is a magazine for the freelance community in England. This will lead you to many freelance agencies.
Contact Real-Time Consultants Limited
contract@rtc.co.uk
This is a big agency for freelance staff, despite their name they deal in all areas of computing. They are also good at getting people into positions outside the UK.
Please note that I am not in anyway connected to either of these organizations.
Act NOW ! Good luck. And if you have any success
(or if you want to know more) e-mail me.
Don't forget Al Gore also invented the algorithm !
I always enjoy a debate about AI because it seems to pull in everybody. The mathematicians, computer scientists all kinds of religious views etc.
I have come to the conclusion that nobody here has the slightest idea what they are talking about.
We can't even seem to agree on the definitions of the words. When someone thinks that a baby has no "intelligence" but somehow grows it with age. Then they have either never spent any time with children or they have a different meaning if the word than I do.
But lets start at the beginning. What do we mean by "Artificial Intelligence" ?
I have a vague notion of intelligence as the ability to learn and solve problems. So if someone or something has this capability then it is intelligent. There is nothing artificial about it. So let's dump "artificial".
So we come to "learn" and "solve problems"
Well a data logger collects a lot of information and could be said to "learn" but that is not a lot of use to it unless it unless it can use that information to solve problems.
Well what does it mean to "solve problems". Exactly what is a problem and what is a solution ?
A mathematician may devise a problem like - what is the value of x when y is zero for some function y = f(x) but these logical exercises are only a "problem" if there is a desire or a need to solve it.
I may have only one can of beans in my kitchen and no can opener. But that is only a problem if I am hungry. If I don't desire to eat then there is no problem the can can stay closed.
So it seems there are no problems except where there is some desire, want, or need involved. Any state of the universe is as good as any other state until there is some desire to change it. That "desire" creates the "problem".
But what the hell is "desire", "want", etc. These are emotions. Things that I feel and experience. Maybe you have them to, although I can't prove it.
So it seems there is no intelligence with out emotion.
I said that I cannot prove to myself that you have emotions. And I am totally convinced that a light switch has no emotions. Well a computer is just a huge collection of switches so I can't bring myself to think that there will ever be emotion in a computer.
So to summarize: Intelligence is problem solving, problems only exist if there is emotion, computers have no emotion, so computers can never be intelligent Q.E.D.
All this talk about emotions brings us to the consciousness and souls and God arguments at which point we all lose the plot.
DAMN IT ! I by reversing the above argument I could say that if you can demonstrate intelligent behavior then you must have emotions !
Like I say no one knows what they are talking about here. But at least we all feel something !
There was a time when these "benchmarks" did not matter. Now they do and here is why.
In the time of innocence when Linus and others put the fruits of their labours out onto the net and invited anyone who was interested to see what they thought of it and do what they liked with it. There was no great launch or fanfare or hype. The code spoke for itself and under the freedom of the GPL and other licences has spread like wild fire.
Under those circumstances anyone could try this stuff and decide it was rubbish and maybe tell whoever they liked that it was rubbish. Of course most thinking people who come into contact with it have come to take the opposite view, for reasons that I hope all slashdotter's are intimately familiar with, and will do all they can to propel it forward.
There was a chance that Microsoft or whoever could now be running any kind of "benchmark" they like and publishing any results that they dream up and it really would not matter. As the Mindcraft test shows nobody is taken in by this nonsense and it only makes the perpetrators look stupid or desperate or evil or all of those things.
Unfortunately things have gotten a little out of hand. When Linus is quoted as wanting "world domination" and using phrases like "we will crush them" etc. then he is throwing down the challenge, not Mindcraft or Microsoft. And this gets everyone into this mess. As I say in the past, before becoming famous for is rhetoric, these tests could have been simply ignored.
So now Linus and co. have to be man enough to live up to their words. Some how they have to "keep face" no matter what the outcome. It may have been wiser to have kept quite and let the code speak for itself , which it does so effectively.
Now I'm sounding a bit negative and I can't imagine how they should handle this but I have every confidence that they will come out OK.
When Eric Raymond wrote his piece about Linus and his merry men in Sherwood Forest going to challenge the Sheriff of Nottingham a few months ago I would never have believed that it would become reality so quickly !!