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User: Doc+Ruby

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  1. Re:Not bad specs, with one exception: on How to Turn a PlayStation 3 Into a Linux PC · · Score: 1

    The X/MPlayer video driver plays 1080p video through the HDMI port, accelerated on the Cell's SPUs.

    The limited RAM is still a problem. But not for playing video, which streams from either disk or the Gb-e LAN. And there are other hacks, including some HW hacks, if you need more RAM for more serious computing that isn't based on the stream model.

  2. Re:obligatory on How to Turn a PlayStation 3 Into a Linux PC · · Score: 2, Informative

    There is an X/MPlayer video driver that runs 2D on the Cell's SPUs, while the Cell's PPC core runs Linux and regular Linux apps. It needs some more work, and 3D functions are yet to be added to the Cell SW. But although the PS3 GPU is indeed a 1.8TFLOPS nVidia chip, I'd say that the 204GFLOPS Cell is "where all the power is" now, and several times as fast as your PC.

    BTW, the PS3 runs PS1 games under the Sony GameOS in SW emulation at full (or greater) speed, without using Linux.

  3. Re:On what planet is this 'news'? on How to Turn a PlayStation 3 Into a Linux PC · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Cell's SPUs are used as video accelerators by the X/MPlayer video driver, while Linux and other apps run on the Cell's 3.2GHz PPC core without slowing for the video.

    The WiFi, Bluetooth and all the other snappy onboard HW is also now running under Ubunuto.

    You are judging the platform on its initial Linux support from 2 years ago, when the machine was released (rushed to market). Since then, the platform has come of age. It still needs testing and packaging help to be "grandma ready", but that's why geeks like Slashdotters should get into it now: Linux is a community effort, and the community should try it now that it's at critical mass.

    And, as a Cell dev kit, it's a $500 platform that can develop Linux apps that can run on $million supercomputers. And it plays games.

  4. Re:On what planet is this 'news'? on How to Turn a PlayStation 3 Into a Linux PC · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is an X/MPlayer video driver that plays 1080p HD video on the Cell's SPUs quite nicely, while the Cell's PPC core runs the Linux kernel without distraction.

    To use PPC apps, you don't have to "compile them yourself". This is Ubuntu. All you do is apt-get install them from a source package.

  5. It's News That It Works Now on How to Turn a PlayStation 3 Into a Linux PC · · Score: 5, Informative

    What's "news" is that this isn't the release version of Linux on PS3 that you installed back then, and that now it actually works.

    There is indeed now a X/MPlayer video driver that runs full 1080p HD right on the Cell CPU.

    And I don't know why you think the Cell CPU "really isn't designed for general purpose computing". That Cell includes a 3.2GHz multithreaded PowerPC that runs all PPC distro Linux SW right out of the distro, as apt-get'able binaries. And there are drivers and apps that use the Cell's 200GFLOPS of onboard DSPs for real computing, like that driver to which I just linked. The Cell is being used by IBM as the CPU in its highest end workstations and blade servers, as well as some of the fastest supercomputers on the drawing board - all running Linux compatible with the one on the Cell.

    Look, I understand that 2 years ago the PS3's initial Linux support was more of a novelty, when the PS3 itself had been rushed to market before even the HW was really ready. But the past 2 years has seen its Linux support pass the stage where it's just a "dancing poodle" to where it's more like a husky sleighdog or a border collie. And the reason is that interested people have helped upgrade its Linux support. Linux is open-source so that users can improve it. Which people have done. It still needs a lot of help, but mainly because its potential is so huge, with the onboard supercomputer and built-in WiFi/Bluetooth/Blu-Ray/HDMI/7.1-audio/Gb-ethernet, all for $500. And that chance for volunteers to continue to shape the platform is exciting news for a lot of people, many of whom are exactly the kinds of geeks who read Slashdot.

    And I hear it plays games, too.

  6. PSUbuntu.com on How to Turn a PlayStation 3 Into a Linux PC · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is an entire community dedicated to running Ubuntu on a PS3, at PSUbuntu.com. And you don't have to upgrade your HD from whatever size your PS3 came with, although of course it's easy and you can do it. The PS3 HW works right out of the box.

    Right now is a good time to join the PSUbuntu.com community, because a new wave of developers on the ubuntu-cell maillist have just joined, and are uniting with the users at PSUbuntu.com to test and smooth out the PS3/Ubuntu distro.

    And there is also a fairly new X/MPlayer driver that will render full 1080p HD video on the PS3's Cell CPU, that also needs just a little testing and integration.

    What I really want to see is a PS3 running Ubuntu using the PlayTV PVR device that Sony is releasing this year. With Ubuntu running it, the PS3 could be quite the killer platform for all home entertainment.

    And I hear it plays games, too.

  7. Here's the Toolkit for Spotting Fraud on How To Spot E-Vote Tampering? · · Score: 0, Troll

    I don't think Republicans can learn anything new about stealing elections.

    But for everyone else, BlackBoxVoting.org has just published a new toolkit for spotting rigged elections as they happen, and in evaluating their aftermath.

    BBV.o is run by Bev Harris, who can be difficult to work with, but her entire operation is an "open source" style project that hands out tools and info to anyone who wants to DIY. Try it at home!

  8. Ask Your Boss on How To Spot E-Vote Tampering? · · Score: 0, Troll

    Everyone knows the Republican National Committee wrote the book on rigging elections. You're just not going to the right meetings.

  9. Re:Article I Makes Congress More Powerful on McCain Supports Warrantless Domestic Surveillance · · Score: 1

    The Truong case is not definitive in the case of indiscriminately wiretapping millions of Americans, and indeed does not cover wiretapping any Americans inside the US.

    The FISA Court is currently composed of practically all Bush and Reagan appointees, especially after several resigned in protest of its operations.

    The Federal verdict that Bush violated the FISA was overturned on appeal, though the appeal did not controvert any of the legal arguments in the original Federal district decision, and is yet another transparent Republican cabal end-run around the Constitution.

    Mark Klein knew that he was passing all the AT&T network's massive traffic into the secret scanning room. And if they were clean, they wouldn't be pushing so hard for so long for amnesty.

    I'll grant that your use invocation the ACLU's "deep pockets" was probably a misunderstanding on my part. But if you're going to defend the unjust warrantless wiretapping by saying it's too expensive to sue the telcos, you're not really arguing for justice.

    My strongest argument is not that you're Republican. That's just a summary, and your biggest flaw. The strongest argument is the bigger picture, where I show that you're just cherrypicking convenient arguments defending the telcos which are violating the 4th Amendment and our rights that it protects, when it it blatantly obvious that they are doing so, and terrified that they might now not find Congressional cover to get away with it. Which is what Republicans do, as part of an even bigger picture, that doesn't require you to be a member of their Party to be part of their fascist attack on America.

  10. Re:O'Connor Voted for "No Child Left Behind" on Former Supreme Court Justice Switches to Video Games · · Score: 1

    Please continue. Your ceasing to post bullshit at me would therefore reduce it towards 0%.

  11. Re:O'Connor Voted for "No Child Left Behind" on Former Supreme Court Justice Switches to Video Games · · Score: 1

    Thanks for volunteering to stay home in November. That copout is the Republican last resort. If you don't think that blowing over a $TRILLION in Iraq, the 4100+ Americans killed, the dozens of thousands maimed for life, the million or more Mideasterners killed and maimed, the $130 barrels of oil, the $1.50 Euros, the rise of Iran and China, the $10 TRILLION in Federal debt, plus the $20 TRILLION city/state/local debt, the $10 TRILLION mortgage debt, all that extra CO2 pumped into the air, the tortured prisoners that the world holds against us, the litany of crimes that could take all day just to list is all the fault of Bush and his Republicans...

    then you should have voted for Gore, just for laughs.

    But of course you didn't. You voted for Bush. And now you've got the insanity to pretend that you don't have blood on your hands.

  12. Re:O'Connor Voted for "No Child Left Behind" on Former Supreme Court Justice Switches to Video Games · · Score: 1

    Oh, right, a "libertarian" or something that can't admit its a "Republican", because that scam is dead now.

    You voted for Bush. You're a Republican. Who cares.

  13. Re:O'Connor Voted for "No Child Left Behind" on Former Supreme Court Justice Switches to Video Games · · Score: 1

    No, she screwed my country, as I detailed. But I guess you can't tell the difference, even when it's spelled out for you.

  14. Re:O'Connor Voted for "No Child Left Behind" on Former Supreme Court Justice Switches to Video Games · · Score: 1

    I wonder how many stories of Republican political crimes I could drag up, if I were to reach back a half century, before practically everyone on Slashdot, or their parents even, were even born.

    Hey, Lincoln was a Republican, and he was honest. I guess if that's all you've got, that's all you can run on.

  15. Re:O'Connor Voted for "No Child Left Behind" on Former Supreme Court Justice Switches to Video Games · · Score: 1

    Moderation 0
        50% Flamebait
        50% Informative

    TrollMods want more whitewash, and less facts about O'Connor's career.

  16. Re:O'Connor Voted for "No Child Left Behind" on Former Supreme Court Justice Switches to Video Games · · Score: 1

    Yeah, "fixed" as in "rigged", the way you Republicans love it.

  17. Re:Obama is Against Warrantless Wiretaps on McCain Supports Warrantless Domestic Surveillance · · Score: 1

    As I said, I'm not going to waste any more time arguing with you on facts, since you're proving that doesn't work.

    But why not have some fun pointing out that "you can't handle the truth" is the line used by a rogue colonel who's covering up murder by soldiers. That's the Republican respect for "facts" at work right there, buried deep in your corrupt culture of "evil by any means necessary".

  18. Re:O'Connor Voted for "No Child Left Behind" on Former Supreme Court Justice Switches to Video Games · · Score: 0, Troll

    I just posted cited facts in a restrained tone.

    You just posted exactly the kind of bullshit that you projected on me with your post, like a loyal Republican. You people never quit, do you? Unless it's quitting a lifetime obligation to rake in some private sector money, with your sick spouse as your excuse.

  19. Re:McCain Never IM'ed on How Tech-Savvy Will the Next President Be? · · Score: 1, Insightful

    His policies suck. But it should be obvious that McCain personally isn't tech-savvy, and not just from his publicly stated policies (from which he also has a history of reversing himself). That's what this article is about: savvy. And McCain obviously ain't, even if he does occasionally get some lobbyist to shove a tech whitepaper at him, even if that whitepaper is wrong.

  20. Re:I Miss the Soviet Union on Sweden On Verge of Passing Sweeping Wiretap Plan · · Score: 1

    You're right. I had mixed feelings as I posted that "I miss the Soviet Union". I don't. I get mad when I see people wearing T-shirts with a hammer and sickle logo, or "CCCP", as some kind of "ironic" fashion statement. If they wore a swastika, it wouldn't be funny, either, but about as hideous, and for a much longer duration of cruelty to a much larger number of people, and a much closer threat to destroying human freedom on Earth.

    I'm sorry I didn't at least post my mixed feelings, or mention that "missing" the Soviets was a sarcastic statement about how much we've forgotten, take for granted and abandon without a tear.

  21. O'Connor Voted for "No Child Left Behind" on Former Supreme Court Justice Switches to Video Games · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    When O'Connor voted to tell Florida in 2000 it couldn't count all its ballots and thereby decide how to assign its Electoral College votes, she voted to install Bush as president, along with all his baggage. That included "No Child Left Behind". And it included a seemingly endless list of Bush abuses of justice and the law.

    Then O'Connor quit her "lifetime" appointment, so Bush could install a rightwing Supreme Court justice young enough to stick on the Court for another 30-40 years, while Bush still had a Republican Senate to confirm them. O'Connor said she had to take care of her sick husband, but instead she spent her time helping whitewash Bush's Iraq escalation. Now she's going to spend it playing videogames.

    I hope kids learn as little as possible from O'Connor's ideas about how justice should work in this country.

  22. McCain Never IM'ed on How Tech-Savvy Will the Next President Be? · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Do you really think that John McCain even reads email on a screen? Or isn't he just one of thousands of decrepit old guys who have their emails printed out for someone to read to them.

    Which of McCain or Obama is more likely to say "newfangled"?

    To which of these two people, the guy who remembers silent movies in theaters firsthand, or the guy who went to Columbia University while the kermit terminal app was being developed there, is going to recognize technology opportunities and pitfalls? And which is the guy who's letting an AT&T lobbyist run his campaign, because he doesn't know (or care, really) the first thing about technology?

  23. Re:Article I Makes Congress More Powerful on McCain Supports Warrantless Domestic Surveillance · · Score: 1

    The FISA says that US persons may not be wiretapped without a warrant, even though others may be.

    The indiscriminate tapping was witnesed by Mark Klein, the AT&T tech who they had install the network lines into the tapping room. But it's hard to prove what is being suppressed, including all evidence and witnesses, by fraudulent "national security" and "executive privilege" claims that are just covering up criminals, and endangering the national security, not protecting it.

    The verdict of a Federal judge that Bush's wiretapping broke the law many times makes it impeachable.

    The problem with finding a lawyer to challenge it is precisely the Republican activism to give telcos retroactive immunity - amnesty - to preempt legal cases citing those violations.

    Oh, and talking about the ACLU (and it's fictional "deep pockets") as if its the boogeyman is really sleazy. Republican sleazy.

    You Republicans aren't content with ruining the country with 7-14 years of this kind of Nixonian tyranny. You're still trying to make the rubble bounce, even after everything has left you but your trusty keyboards.

  24. Re:Obama is Against Warrantless Wiretaps on McCain Supports Warrantless Domestic Surveillance · · Score: 1

    What's the matter is that you've posted a ton of bullshit lies that I've already taken time to debunk, but that hasn't shut you up. You're not even posting under a real userID. I'm not wasting any more time with you lying trolls.

  25. Re:Obama is Against Warrantless Wiretaps on McCain Supports Warrantless Domestic Surveillance · · Score: 1

    Oh, you're a "libertarian", which is how you post-Bush Republican losers now spell yourselves. Fuck you. The worst part of your disgusting posts is how you accuse Obama of all kinds of terrible things (that are lies), but you say you've got nothing against it, even as you complain about it. Evil.

    You started this out with a pack of lies. I'm not going to bother wasting any more time debunking more of them, because that won't stop you. It's left as an exercise for the reader. As if anyone needs to look any further for proof of your kind of sleaze.