How do you restart X without affecting all your GUI apps? If you can't restart X without bringing down your GUI apps, I don't see the point for the target audience.
If you are using something like Gnome or KDE, it can probably save your GUI session. Individual applications will have to deal with their contents, but many of them already do that. At least Firefox and Openoffice can restore their sessions after being terminated.
I still have some marginally useful PPC linux builds. FF won't release builds for PPC linux anymore, and iceweasel is way far behind, and to compile my own is rather... painful.
I use Gentoo on a Powerbook. Firefox 3.6.3 compiled just fine, which was better than my experience on x86. Openoffice is even better in that it provides a Linux PPC binary -- a collection of RPMs, but also possible to install in Gentoo.
With FFMPEG working with these codecs which is essentially part of almost every FOSS media player out there, do you really think projects like Gnash couldn't use it?
Gnash uses ffmpeg, so that's not the problem. Nevertheless, most of the Flash sites I have tested do not work with Gnash. Of course, given that
'We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs,'
I should have no need for Gnash, I should just download and install Flash for my PPC Linux.
No, true fix = stop forcing us all to use widescreen screens even when we don't want to.
I recently switched from a 4:3 laptop to a somewhat widescreen 3:2. I had been wondering this widescreen craze for years, but now I realize it actually makes some sense with the overall form factor of laptops. Especially with netbooks, the main limiting factor is the keyboard, so widescreen is a natural match.
Of course, it is a different question with desktops. There is probably some marketing spin about how the new widescreen makes you more sexy than the old and clunky 4:3, but I guess the real reason is more frugal. For a given diagonal, a square has the largest area, and the wider the aspect ratio, the smaller the area.
Then again, if you are mostly watching movies, the extra area in the black bands would go to waste, in terms of backlight energy as well as the overall cost.
Subpixel font rendering works best with vertical subpixels -- at least for Western alphabet, where vertical lines dominate. If you rotate your monitor, the subpixels become horizontal.
A nice compromise would be a widescreen monitor with horizontal subpixels. That way, the vertical orientation would be ideal for text, and the horizontal would be fine for watching movies, since no subpixel rendering is used there.
CD-Rs I can kind of understand, since the reflective surface is applied to the top and often uncoated.
Proper CDs have exactly the same structure, with the data layer on top of the bulk plastic, and a thin coating on the surface. There cannot be much difference between CDs and CDRs in this respect, since they must be readable by the same optics. It's much better to scratch CDs on the shiny side, because there's plenty of plastic you can polish off, but scratch the label side and you peel away the data.
DVDs improved on this design, by putting the data layers exactly in the middle of the bulk plastic. Blu-ray is worse again, since the data layers are even closer to the laser side, leaving only 0.1 mm of protection. However, there is supposedly a harder coating.
There is absolutely no excuse for using PDF unless you need the Flashy extra features like forms. As a device-independent printable format, PostScript and DVI are superior as well as devoid of code execution or networking features.
Ironically, PostScript is a full programming language. Does it count as networking, if there are web servers written in it?
As regards the support of DDR3 memory, it's unlikely to make any measurable performance difference over DDR2 given the relatively anaemic CPU performance of the Atom. The reason is far more prosaic. DDR3 is now cheaper than DDR2 and that trend will continue so Intel are doing the right thing in moving the chipset support over to the less expensive memory. In a budget platform anything else would be foolish.
Also, memory latency has not improved since regular SDRAM. DDR doubled the throughput, DDR2 doubled it once more, and so on, but the latency has stayed the same. Latency numbers such as CL are roughly doubled at each generation to reflect the roughly constant time, as measured in clock cycles.
On the other hand, successive RAM generations use lower voltages, so there may be some power savings in using DDR3.
Honestly if you're working on papers on your computer most of the time, flip the monitor to vertical.
Subpixel font rendering usually assumes vertical subpixels, such that monitors have in their normal (horizontal) orientation. Even if you can change it, the effect works best with vertical subpixels, since Western fonts have more vertical lines.
First, thank you for teaching me something new. I didn't know about $@ and that is a good one to know. (Is that POSIX standard, or a GNU extension?)
I only know it from Bash, so it may not be anything standard.
Fourth, yes, I agree with you: use the safer form all the time, even when you don't need to. It's like when I wrote my Python example of running an external program; I used subprocess.check_run() instead of os.system(). I like the convenience of os.system() but I generally want my scripts to stop on an error, and os.system() doesn't raise an exception on error.
I often use something like os.spawnvp for launching processes in Python. Of course, one reason is the process control issues you also mention. However, having to specify the arguments separately in a list, means that there is no shell in the middle. Whereas os.system launches a shell that parses the command line, and in turn runs the process. I've had one case where the latency was noticeable, and there is the potential memory penalty as well.
It's not unlike DRM: they develop new technologies in order to take our current technology backwards. The result is a lesser product that they sell for more money.
Knowing the difference between $* and $@ is an enormous help when you deal with multiple files with spaces. For example,
$ myscript.sh "my file one" "my file two"
Here, "$*" expands to "my file one my file two", whereas "$@" gives the intended result of "my file one" "my file two". Nowadays I always use $@, even when there is zero risk of spaces in filenames, to keep things consistent for me.
Being able to pick/choose CPU is more about power management than anything else.
Need a ten hour battery life for an iPad? Choose an ARM.
Need a CPU for a desktop machine? Choose an Intel.
I don't think choosing Intel is a question of power management at all. If "desktop" means "Windows", then x86 is chosen due to compatibility, no matter what the power consumption. For sheer computational power and/or efficiency, there are better choices, though they tend to be more expensive than x86.
Now where are all those cool ARM and MIPS netbooks? Or laptops, even; there's nothing about a full-size keyboard and a decent screen that requires all the x86 baggage.
Would you buy a toaster based on wattage used, types of heater elements, what kind of processor is used for the timing mechanism? Or do you buy a toaster to make toast? Apple is making toasters;
There are power supplies designed to be fanless. In addition, you can use laptop HDs and CPUs; for the latter you generally need a specialized motherboard (usually Mini-ITX), but it's a great way to save power and hence cooling requirements.
"Laptop" CPUs are pretty much the same as their "desktop" counterparts, except they are the best picks of the lot to allow lower voltages, and you can usually undervolt them further.
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How do you restart X without affecting all your GUI apps? If you can't restart X without bringing down your GUI apps, I don't see the point for the target audience.
If you are using something like Gnome or KDE, it can probably save your GUI session. Individual applications will have to deal with their contents, but many of them already do that. At least Firefox and Openoffice can restore their sessions after being terminated.
I still have some marginally useful PPC linux builds. FF won't release builds for PPC linux anymore, and iceweasel is way far behind, and to compile my own is rather ... painful.
I use Gentoo on a Powerbook. Firefox 3.6.3 compiled just fine, which was better than my experience on x86. Openoffice is even better in that it provides a Linux PPC binary -- a collection of RPMs, but also possible to install in Gentoo.
With FFMPEG working with these codecs which is essentially part of almost every FOSS media player out there, do you really think projects like Gnash couldn't use it?
Gnash uses ffmpeg, so that's not the problem. Nevertheless, most of the Flash sites I have tested do not work with Gnash. Of course, given that
I should have no need for Gnash, I should just download and install Flash for my PPC Linux.
From now on, I think I'll call it gamma, after its location in the middle of GHB.
No, true fix = stop forcing us all to use widescreen screens even when we don't want to.
I recently switched from a 4:3 laptop to a somewhat widescreen 3:2. I had been wondering this widescreen craze for years, but now I realize it actually makes some sense with the overall form factor of laptops. Especially with netbooks, the main limiting factor is the keyboard, so widescreen is a natural match.
Of course, it is a different question with desktops. There is probably some marketing spin about how the new widescreen makes you more sexy than the old and clunky 4:3, but I guess the real reason is more frugal. For a given diagonal, a square has the largest area, and the wider the aspect ratio, the smaller the area.
Then again, if you are mostly watching movies, the extra area in the black bands would go to waste, in terms of backlight energy as well as the overall cost.
True fix: get a rotatable monitor!
Subpixel font rendering works best with vertical subpixels -- at least for Western alphabet, where vertical lines dominate. If you rotate your monitor, the subpixels become horizontal.
A nice compromise would be a widescreen monitor with horizontal subpixels. That way, the vertical orientation would be ideal for text, and the horizontal would be fine for watching movies, since no subpixel rendering is used there.
CD-Rs I can kind of understand, since the reflective surface is applied to the top and often uncoated.
Proper CDs have exactly the same structure, with the data layer on top of the bulk plastic, and a thin coating on the surface. There cannot be much difference between CDs and CDRs in this respect, since they must be readable by the same optics. It's much better to scratch CDs on the shiny side, because there's plenty of plastic you can polish off, but scratch the label side and you peel away the data.
DVDs improved on this design, by putting the data layers exactly in the middle of the bulk plastic. Blu-ray is worse again, since the data layers are even closer to the laser side, leaving only 0.1 mm of protection. However, there is supposedly a harder coating.
Maybe so, but Butterflies has a tricky UI, so I generally use Emacs as a convenient frontend.
There is absolutely no excuse for using PDF unless you need the Flashy extra features like forms. As a device-independent printable format, PostScript and DVI are superior as well as devoid of code execution or networking features.
Ironically, PostScript is a full programming language. Does it count as networking, if there are web servers written in it?
Where is the 150, 500g ARM netbook with an optimized OS running 12 hours without recharge???
I think this comes pretty close, and this is also quite interesting. Neither is close to 500 g, but at least you can buy one right now.
As regards the support of DDR3 memory, it's unlikely to make any measurable performance difference over DDR2 given the relatively anaemic CPU performance of the Atom. The reason is far more prosaic. DDR3 is now cheaper than DDR2 and that trend will continue so Intel are doing the right thing in moving the chipset support over to the less expensive memory. In a budget platform anything else would be foolish.
Also, memory latency has not improved since regular SDRAM. DDR doubled the throughput, DDR2 doubled it once more, and so on, but the latency has stayed the same. Latency numbers such as CL are roughly doubled at each generation to reflect the roughly constant time, as measured in clock cycles.
On the other hand, successive RAM generations use lower voltages, so there may be some power savings in using DDR3.
At least two European online stores sell them:
http://lemote.kd85.com/
http://www.tekmote.nl/epages/61504599.sf/nl_NL/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61504599/Categories/%22Lemote%20linux%20PC%20and%20Linux%20laptops%22
You can get a MIPS64 netbook today, it's called Lemote Yeeloong.
Honestly if you're working on papers on your computer most of the time, flip the monitor to vertical.
Subpixel font rendering usually assumes vertical subpixels, such that monitors have in their normal (horizontal) orientation. Even if you can change it, the effect works best with vertical subpixels, since Western fonts have more vertical lines.
If I have been able to see further, it is due to being surrounded by midgets.
Finland only had the industrial revolution after WW2. Yet we don't go around killing everyone who swears against Nokia and Linux.
First, thank you for teaching me something new. I didn't know about $@ and that is a good one to know. (Is that POSIX standard, or a GNU extension?)
I only know it from Bash, so it may not be anything standard.
Fourth, yes, I agree with you: use the safer form all the time, even when you don't need to. It's like when I wrote my Python example of running an external program; I used subprocess.check_run() instead of os.system(). I like the convenience of os.system() but I generally want my scripts to stop on an error, and os.system() doesn't raise an exception on error.
I often use something like os.spawnvp for launching processes in Python. Of course, one reason is the process control issues you also mention. However, having to specify the arguments separately in a list, means that there is no shell in the middle. Whereas os.system launches a shell that parses the command line, and in turn runs the process. I've had one case where the latency was noticeable, and there is the potential memory penalty as well.
It's not unlike DRM: they develop new technologies in order to take our current technology backwards. The result is a lesser product that they sell for more money.
Knowing the difference between $* and $@ is an enormous help when you deal with multiple files with spaces. For example,
Here, "$*" expands to "my file one my file two", whereas "$@" gives the intended result of "my file one" "my file two". Nowadays I always use $@, even when there is zero risk of spaces in filenames, to keep things consistent for me.
Linux = free. What's a re-format?
Being able to pick/choose CPU is more about power management than anything else.
Need a ten hour battery life for an iPad? Choose an ARM.
Need a CPU for a desktop machine? Choose an Intel.
I don't think choosing Intel is a question of power management at all. If "desktop" means "Windows", then x86 is chosen due to compatibility, no matter what the power consumption. For sheer computational power and/or efficiency, there are better choices, though they tend to be more expensive than x86.
Now where are all those cool ARM and MIPS netbooks? Or laptops, even; there's nothing about a full-size keyboard and a decent screen that requires all the x86 baggage.
Would you buy a toaster based on wattage used, types of heater elements, what kind of processor is used for the timing mechanism? Or do you buy a toaster to make toast? Apple is making toasters;
NetBSD on the iPad, anyone?
The various Pirate Parties are independent, there is no hierachy.
Aren't you forgetting something, such as the Pirate Lords and their Brethren Court? Now that's hierARRRRchy.
Is that the direction of current or electron flow?
There are power supplies designed to be fanless. In addition, you can use laptop HDs and CPUs; for the latter you generally need a specialized motherboard (usually Mini-ITX), but it's a great way to save power and hence cooling requirements.
"Laptop" CPUs are pretty much the same as their "desktop" counterparts, except they are the best picks of the lot to allow lower voltages, and you can usually undervolt them further.