I'm still using Slack 12.2 on my work laptop. The trouble is that VMware Workstation has to work, and new kernel versions inevitably cause problems for VMware until they catch up. Pain in the ass, really.
At home, I migrated over to BSD years ago, which was easy to do after learning all of Linux's internals running Slackware.
This idea was actually discussed in this recent book called "Traffic" (http://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307264785/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237323737&sr=8-1)
It also talks about the article's premise that safer roads and cars cause complacency, which leads to accidents. A very interesting book if you're into this kind of thing.
For any of you folks who have only seen some of MC's movies, don't judge his storytelling ability without reading the books first. The Andromeda Strain is clearly a classic, but some of his later books like "Airframe" and "The Rising Sun" are good reads too.
I've don't know why, but for whatever reasons, Hollywood has slaughtered just about every title they tried to turn into a movie. The ~1970 Andromeda Strain is probably about the only one where they came close (including Jurassic Park).
I've used Textmaker/Planmaker on Linux since 2003. The new trial version is the first one I've seen that doesn't have full functionality. ALso, they are suppossedly working on the ability to export to ODT.
THe suite works quite well on Linux. Give the trial version a spin. I still use OpenOffice from time to time, but the import/export in the new versions of Text/Planmaker appears to be as good as OO.
I work in the business of doing this type of control in large buildings. Typical home thermostats are grossly inadequate for larger buildings. The type of products we manufacture allow any kind of custom programming you can dream up and although the "language" is something like BASIC, I have seen products that can execute Python scripts (see original story comment).
Normally this stuff isn't used in residential buildings because of the cost and complexity, but that didn't stop me.:)
Drop me an email at greg@.@holloway@gmail@.@com (with a few less at's) if you'd like to know more. The trouble is that at regular prices, you'd be over $1000 in no time, which takes a lot of energy saving to pay back. However, the neat thing is the "predictive" things that can be done with a bit of intelligence. For example, my furnace won't start today if yesterday afternoon was warm.
Oh and yes, you would be able to access your home controls over the Internet.
Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these parts.
When my wife and I are travelling (small RV pulled by my truck), she always has the Powerbook going either queing up tunes, or checking maps, or doing a few adjustments to the fuel injection computer (aftermarket programmable unit).
It's not like she can sit in the backseat (there is none), and I can't read the screen anyway since the angle is so oblique.
How come you guys aren't better known in North America? It seems that whenever someone rattles off a list of Linux/BSD/? office software, they always hit the same ones: OO/StarOffice/KOffice/Abiword. I never see TextMaker come up, but I like TM a lot more than the times I've tried Abiword, or KWord.
What about for people who aren't in the workforce?
My retired parents use a computer for light word-processing, and they have no need for 90% of Word's features, plus having next to nil income makes Office at $500 even less attractive.
Then how about school aged kids whose parents don't use computers (or at least Office) at work? The kids just need to bang out reports, essays and the like at home.
Plus, there's also non-profit organizations. These places are cut to the bone on IT expenses (my wife used to work for one).
Granted, this is not the majority of the marketplace, but it might make a nice niche market for a smaller company to play in (the non-corporate marketplace).
A German company called Softmaker is also working on an Office compatible suite. They have the word-processor done at this point (TextMaker). The benefit for a lot of us is that there are Windows/Linux/FreeBSD(!) versions.
I had never heard of them either, but I gave the free trial a spin, and it's a heck of a lot faster than OO. The Word import capability isn't quite as good as OO, but it's more than acceptable for most docs (and being improved).
I'm not connected to the company in any way, but I am a customer of the Linux version.
I'm in the HVAC controls industry. Many sensors are required in ventilation systems (primarily air handlers) to control them properly. This is costly, not because of the cost of the sensor, but because of the wiring and conduit required to reach the sensor. We have little choice about the location of the sensor (it has to be able to do its job).
There has been talk of trying to build wireless sensors (some do exist) and actuators, but the killer is the power. It either needs to be brought in on wires or battery powered. Batteries are not very good because they don't last that long (these systems are designed to run for over 10 years) and some sensors are difficult to access.
So, this could be looked at as an enabling technology, in that it could allow wireless sensors to become practical (by running off the ductwork vibration).
In a mid-sized office building, the installation savings from this would be around $100k. Look around at how many buildings there are...
I keep wondering why slashcode has the nearly useless lameness filter, but still cannot detect duplicate posts for itself (and tell Rob he's being an idiot again:)
No kiddin. My headless P100 MP3 player/server has been 2.2.19 since that kernel was released and it's never gone down (except for having to move the machine a few times).
It's behind my 2.4.20 firewall, so I'm not too concerned about security updates or patches on the old box.
So, in the end, a 2.4 upgrade would provide nothing, and waste a day of my time. There's your reason.
I really like slackware's simplicity. I agree. Myself, I went from DOS to slackware (in the 1.2 kernel days). Configuration flipped from editing autoexec.bat/config.sys to rc.d files.
Using slackware in those early days made me LEARN how the whole system works (since, like today, there are no GUI tools for anything). Over time I've tried most of the other distros, but I keep coming back to slack because I know what file to edit to get the job done.
Don't get me wrong, GUI tools are great and are required to bring Linux to a larger audience. However, they never quite have the flexibility, and at times are unusable (shell only).
My question for the/. crowd would be why someone chooses Debian over slack or vice versa. I'm not trying to start a "which is better" war, but although I've tried Debian, I keep coming back to slack.
My application is outside line-of-sight to avoid having to trench communication cables. Does this book cover this (anybody read it yet?), or is it a strictly indoor only reference?
dreamed of taking parts other people threw away and build a robot. Used computers are a goldmine for these parts.
Another good source is old photocopiers. Not the new fandangled ones, older, totally mechanical beasts. They had small belt drives, chain drives, gear sets, limit switches, etc. There couldn't possibly be so much "good stuff" in another box that size...:)
These numbers come from estimating a person's average salary and the number of years they have left to earn that salary. That is their worth to the economy. Alas, it's disheartening to think that a value can be placed on a life, but it needed to be done if only for comparison.
As in, we have $10 million to spend on safety improvements at the airport. Our predictions show that we will save 10 lives because of these improvements. Therefore, since 20 million saved > 10 million spent, this is a good investment.
Interestingly enough, this same method can be used to show that ground safety crews at airports (fire trucks, ambulances, etc.) are NOT a good investment, but most people would flip out if these measures were stopped....
I "discovered" the clothes drying ability of a nuker on a skiing trip when the place I was staying had a microwave, but no dryer. Dried my ski boot liners great!
Anyway, to be really effective I agree that a vacuum applied would lower the boiling point of water and increase the evaporation rate considerably. Plus, the heat is only being applied to wet areas, so I suspect the efficiency would have to be higher than any conventional dryer.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm still using Slack 12.2 on my work laptop. The trouble is that VMware Workstation has to work, and new kernel versions inevitably cause problems for VMware until they catch up. Pain in the ass, really.
At home, I migrated over to BSD years ago, which was easy to do after learning all of Linux's internals running Slackware.
Keep up the great work Patrick!
Frickin slashdot 2! I meant to mod you Informative, because you are quite correct about the X-frame design of that time.
This idea was actually discussed in this recent book called "Traffic" (http://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307264785/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237323737&sr=8-1)
It also talks about the article's premise that safer roads and cars cause complacency, which leads to accidents. A very interesting book if you're into this kind of thing.
For any of you folks who have only seen some of MC's movies, don't judge his storytelling ability without reading the books first. The Andromeda Strain is clearly a classic, but some of his later books like "Airframe" and "The Rising Sun" are good reads too.
I've don't know why, but for whatever reasons, Hollywood has slaughtered just about every title they tried to turn into a movie. The ~1970 Andromeda Strain is probably about the only one where they came close (including Jurassic Park).
Rest in peace, Mr. Crichton.
I've used Textmaker/Planmaker on Linux since 2003. The new trial version is the first one I've seen that doesn't have full functionality. ALso, they are suppossedly working on the ability to export to ODT.
THe suite works quite well on Linux. Give the trial version a spin. I still use OpenOffice from time to time, but the import/export in the new versions of Text/Planmaker appears to be as good as OO.
I work in the business of doing this type of control in large buildings. Typical home thermostats are grossly inadequate for larger buildings. The type of products we manufacture allow any kind of custom programming you can dream up and although the "language" is something like BASIC, I have seen products that can execute Python scripts (see original story comment).
:)
Normally this stuff isn't used in residential buildings because of the cost and complexity, but that didn't stop me.
Drop me an email at greg@.@holloway@gmail@.@com (with a few less at's) if you'd like to know more. The trouble is that at regular prices, you'd be over $1000 in no time, which takes a lot of energy saving to pay back. However, the neat thing is the "predictive" things that can be done with a bit of intelligence. For example, my furnace won't start today if yesterday afternoon was warm.
Oh and yes, you would be able to access your home controls over the Internet.
GRH
Debugging a program is at least twice as hard as writing the program in the first place.
Therefore, if you write programs to the limit of your ability, you are by definition not smart enough to debug your own program!
Can't help but think of Python....
Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing.
When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these parts.
Yup. I've had a 4L for 10 years too. Changed the toner maybe twice in all that time and it still prints fine today.
LCD flat panel displays :)
When my wife and I are travelling (small RV pulled by my truck), she always has the Powerbook going either queing up tunes, or checking maps, or doing a few adjustments to the fuel injection computer (aftermarket programmable unit).
It's not like she can sit in the backseat (there is none), and I can't read the screen anyway since the angle is so oblique.
GRH
How come you guys aren't better known in North America? It seems that whenever someone rattles off a list of Linux/BSD/? office software, they always hit the same ones: OO/StarOffice/KOffice/Abiword. I never see TextMaker come up, but I like TM a lot more than the times I've tried Abiword, or KWord.
How's PlanMaker coming along?
GRH
People want to use at home what they use at work.
What about for people who aren't in the workforce?
My retired parents use a computer for light word-processing, and they have no need for 90% of Word's features, plus having next to nil income makes Office at $500 even less attractive.
Then how about school aged kids whose parents don't use computers (or at least Office) at work? The kids just need to bang out reports, essays and the like at home.
Plus, there's also non-profit organizations. These places are cut to the bone on IT expenses (my wife used to work for one).
Granted, this is not the majority of the marketplace, but it might make a nice niche market for a smaller company to play in (the non-corporate marketplace).
GRH
A German company called Softmaker is also working on an Office compatible suite. They have the word-processor done at this point (TextMaker). The benefit for a lot of us is that there are Windows/Linux/FreeBSD(!) versions.
I had never heard of them either, but I gave the free trial a spin, and it's a heck of a lot faster than OO. The Word import capability isn't quite as good as OO, but it's more than acceptable for most docs (and being improved).
I'm not connected to the company in any way, but I am a customer of the Linux version.
GRH
I'm in the HVAC controls industry. Many sensors are required in ventilation systems (primarily air handlers) to control them properly. This is costly, not because of the cost of the sensor, but because of the wiring and conduit required to reach the sensor. We have little choice about the location of the sensor (it has to be able to do its job).
There has been talk of trying to build wireless sensors (some do exist) and actuators, but the killer is the power. It either needs to be brought in on wires or battery powered. Batteries are not very good because they don't last that long (these systems are designed to run for over 10 years) and some sensors are difficult to access.
So, this could be looked at as an enabling technology, in that it could allow wireless sensors to become practical (by running off the ductwork vibration).
In a mid-sized office building, the installation savings from this would be around $100k. Look around at how many buildings there are...
GRH
I keep wondering why slashcode has the nearly useless lameness filter, but still cannot detect duplicate posts for itself (and tell Rob he's being an idiot again :)
GRH
Any of you guys remember the "rake gag" on the Simpsons? (oh, make that The Thompsons [sorry to blow your cover, Homer])
It went through the same progression:
2nd rake (dupe): funny,
3rd, 4th, 5th rake: dumb
6th-20th rake: hilarious!
If this keeps up, I'm going to gotten the square root of fsck-all done today!
GRH
I need onboard GPS!
Have a look at:
http://www.panasonic.com/toughbook
for a super tough laptop that has 802.11b and GPS.
I was looking at them at a show a couple of months ago and they are designed to take a 4 foot drop. Prices range from $3000 to $8000.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
No kiddin. My headless P100 MP3 player/server has been 2.2.19 since that kernel was released and it's never gone down (except for having to move the machine a few times).
It's behind my 2.4.20 firewall, so I'm not too concerned about security updates or patches on the old box.
So, in the end, a 2.4 upgrade would provide nothing, and waste a day of my time. There's your reason.
First you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women...
I really like slackware's simplicity. I agree. Myself, I went from DOS to slackware (in the 1.2 kernel days). Configuration flipped from editing autoexec.bat/config.sys to rc.d files.
/. crowd would be why someone chooses Debian over slack or vice versa. I'm not trying to start a "which is better" war, but although I've tried Debian, I keep coming back to slack.
Using slackware in those early days made me LEARN how the whole system works (since, like today, there are no GUI tools for anything). Over time I've tried most of the other distros, but I keep coming back to slack because I know what file to edit to get the job done.
Don't get me wrong, GUI tools are great and are required to bring Linux to a larger audience. However, they never quite have the flexibility, and at times are unusable (shell only).
My question for the
My application is outside line-of-sight to avoid having to trench communication cables. Does this book cover this (anybody read it yet?), or is it a strictly indoor only reference?
Thx
dreamed of taking parts other people threw away and build a robot. Used computers are a goldmine for these parts.
:)
Another good source is old photocopiers. Not the new fandangled ones, older, totally mechanical beasts. They had small belt drives, chain drives, gear sets, limit switches, etc. There couldn't possibly be so much "good stuff" in another box that size...
the FAA values it around $2 million.
These numbers come from estimating a person's average salary and the number of years they have left to earn that salary. That is their worth to the economy. Alas, it's disheartening to think that a value can be placed on a life, but it needed to be done if only for comparison.
As in, we have $10 million to spend on safety improvements at the airport. Our predictions show that we will save 10 lives because of these improvements. Therefore, since 20 million saved > 10 million spent, this is a good investment.
Interestingly enough, this same method can be used to show that ground safety crews at airports (fire trucks, ambulances, etc.) are NOT a good investment, but most people would flip out if these measures were stopped....
I've had the same idea...
I "discovered" the clothes drying ability of a nuker on a skiing trip when the place I was staying had a microwave, but no dryer. Dried my ski boot liners great!
Anyway, to be really effective I agree that a vacuum applied would lower the boiling point of water and increase the evaporation rate considerably. Plus, the heat is only being applied to wet areas, so I suspect the efficiency would have to be higher than any conventional dryer.