Background music, perhaps, although my notion of background music is along the lines of chamber music. Foreground music, not any time soon.
The last concert I went to was Haydn's Creation played by a good symphony orchestra and sung by a good choir (with exceptional soloists). Before that it was Mahler's 6th (Tragic) played by an outstanding symphony orchestra. I suspect that I'll be long dead and buried (burnt or composted) before anything like those sounds can be produced electronically, or even reproduced electronically (recordings are still pale reflections). Given that, I don't see any reason why it won't eventually happen.
I was wondering why the last upgrade (Debian) on my server resulted (unhappily) in LibreOffice being installed.
Owncloud is very useful. I use it for file syncing, calendar, contacts, firefox (iceweasel) sync, etc. I've been using it for about 6 months, and, so far, it has been reliable.
One of the neat things about having relatively powerful computers is that we can have standards in infrastructure while being able to tailor the interface to reflect our preferences. So, for example, I can use imap for e-mail, but have a wide variety of interfaces available. I use a full feature interface on a desktop (could be icedove; could be mutt), but a lighter interface on an Android device (K-9 mail). So, standardization across users is very well in its place, but its place isn't across the user interface. Thanks, Debian folks, for providing lots and lots of alternatives. (I use awesome window manager + rxvt + gnuit/gitfm +....)
I have linux installed on my Asus Fonepad side by side with Android, allowing me to turn my phone/tablet into a nifty little netbook (using a bluetooth keybord). I like having a full LaTeX installation available, if I want to do some writing. It isn't clear to me that I could do this without root (especially if I want to run services on privileged ports). If I can't do this with Android 4.3, I will have to rethink upgrading to it, when it becomes available.
I suspect that you are correct. That certainly describes my situation and my wife's. I built a desktop with an Intel i3 2100 and SSD storage when Sandybridge mini-itx boards became available. I've no desire or motivation to change it. It does what I want. I run a lightweight "roll your own" desktop, using the awesome window manager as the base.
However, I have bought a number of computers since then: An Intel DM2800MT motherboard to build a router/NAS/owncloud/music streamer/etc., 2 x Raspberry PI's for dedicated NTP servers, 2 x Nokia N800 devices (used) for streaming music, 2 x Allwinner A10 based Android tablets for streaming music, and an Asus Fonepad for phone, tablet, ereader and netbook. (In netbook mode, the Fonepad runs full-fat linux and I use a bluetooth keyboard).
In the near future, I can see myself buying more low power (both in energy use and CPU goodness) computers for specialized tasks.much more easily than seeing myself buying another full-fledged desktop.
I switched to linux from CP/M (ZCPR) when a linux distribution became available. One gets settled in one's ways and finds it difficult to switch to an OS using a completely different paradigm.
One of the things I've liked most about linux (and other *nix systems, such as FreeBSD) is that a system is build up of small programs that you can combine in various ways to get someone that pleases you, the user. That's the unix way. For example, my "desktop" is a combination of a number of programs, including a display manager, window manager, terminal, and file manager. It turns out that I can replace one part (for whatever reason) and get an overall desktop that works in the same way. And it has looked the same for some time. Some might think it reflects an unwillingness to change, others might think it reflects a desire for some consistency and predictability. Take your pick.
This consistency over time is difficult to maintain with the monolithic, graphically orientated programs such as firefox/iceweasel, thunderbird/icedove[1], and the Gimp. This is sad making. What would be nice is if firefox provided basic services, e.g., a first rate rendering engine/Gecko, while making most of the rest of it (e.g., interface) simply a set of addons. That would be the unix way.
[1] For a variety of reasons, I had to move from using mutt and remind to icedove and iceowl. This was over a year ago, and I'm still trying to recover from the shock.
Surely having high standards in teaching means making yourself a better teacher, naturally resulting in a high completion rate and pass rate? Low completion rate means there's gaps in your teaching. Yes, there's gaps in everybody's teaching, and it's our job to fill the gaps...
Many courses have prerequisites and/or require a certain ability or talent. Not everyone will have the require prerequisites, ability and talent. Even good teaching can't overcome a lack of all of these.
Having easy access means that people can have a go, even if it looks, on paper, that they aren't qualified for the particular course. What matters is that they think they can do the work, or, at least, they hope they can do the work. The hope educationally is that some will succeed who wouldn't meet standard admissions criteria, and that more people will take the chance who wouldn't if the costs in time (including fitting it in with other responsibilities) and money were much higher.
My view is that we want to lower the risks to the students and the folks offering the courses while retaining very high standards.
Easy access, high standards and high completion rate. Pick any two.
Although, I teach at a place with high standards and a high completion rate, but with a very selective admissions policy, I think that another good strategy is to have easy access and high standards, even at the cost of a high completion rate. That's what these sort of courses might provide.
I'm not keen on dropping standards in favour of easy access and a high completion rate. However, there is always a pressure to improve the completion rate so that the money looks well spent. Completion rate is easier to measure than, say, how much the course helps the people taking it to flourish.
I'm happy to see the story. I regularly look at 4 or 5 websites, only 2 of which have anything to do with computing technology, and this is one of them, which I've been following for quite a while. So, although it may not be ideal, I still get most of my technology updates on slashdot. (Other than ones in which I'm professionally interested, the site I spend most time on also deals with technology, but of a different sort: mechanical watches.)
Very kind of you. I would never turn up my nose at a medal.
That it is inexpensive is what makes it interesting. I can afford to dedicate an Allwinner A10 tablet as a glorified remote control/streamer for MPD, one with the ability to check my mail and browse. I also use it to shut down various computers when I leave the house. I can take one apart, without worrying too much about whether I can get it back together. I would be much less inclined to use it this way if it were more expensive.
As for the Raspberry PI, also inexpensive and relatively underpowered (although I've run webservers on computers that had less get up and go), I can dedicate one to experiments using a GPS time receiver with PPS to discipline the Raspberry's system clock in order to have my own stratum 1 timeserver.
These may not be things you are inclined to do, which is fair enough.
I have a couple of tablets with Allwinner A10 SOC. Even better, there are development boards available with SOC, and some of them are Open Hardware, well documented boards. If you look at Wikipedia's list of Single Board Computers, you will find the Allwinner on a number of development boards, such as the A13-OLinuXino, Cubieboard, Gooseberry, and Hackberry. In addition to Allwinner tablets, I have a couple of Raspberry PI SBCs. I'm hoping to get one of the Allwinner based development boards in order to see how it compares to the Raspberry.
It would be interesting to know whether there is anyone who holds both of the following positions.
1. The German finding is unfair to Apple because Apple, quite reasonably, shouldn't be required to follow the law of every land in which it does business.. 2. Criticising Apple for caving in to the censorship requirements of the Chinese government is unfair to Apple because Apple, quite reasonably, should be required to follow the law of every land in which it does business.
What if one is happy with one's desktop setup from last century? Mine has, more or less, looked the same since about 1998, although I've updated the underlying packages, e.g., I now use awesome window manager rather than icewm, and I now use rxvt with unicode. I still use gnuit as my file manager (the name changed from git because of the popularity of version control program). I've tried various other things on occasion, such as Gnome/KDE/XFCE/LDXE, but I always go back to my home rolled "desktop". I'm not a programmer (academic in the humanities), but still appreciate the control this combination gives me using my very rudimentary ability to write scripts using such languages such as bash and lua.
I have a couple of cheap tablets with the Allwinner A10 SOC. One is running Ice Cream Sandwich, and one is running Jelly Bean. The Ice Cream Sandwich one could be running Jelly Bean, if it were worth the bother. So, they are reasonably up to date. Use? One is used mostly as a glorified remote control for MPD[1]. But it also lets me know when I have emails (I go to a real computer to deal with the emails) and is used as a clock. The other is used as a clock, and both a MPD remote control and streamer. Very useful they are. I can only afford to use them like this because they are reasonably inexpensive. (I even have an old Nokia N800 in the shed (garage) which I use as a MPD remote control and streamer.)
They are fine when used in this way, and I think that the touch interface helps to make them ideal MPD remote controls.
[1] I used to use it for steaming as well, but now have a Raspberry PI with pulseaudio in place of it, so I can have the music in that room in sync with the music in other rooms.
I don't know the bios version off the top of my head. For the wireless access point, I'm using an Atheros AR9285 for 2.4GHz, and AR9390 for 5GHz. They are both used with hostapd. One needs a separate configuration file for each, but that can be set in/etc/default/hostapd.
This combination is what I use at home. Debian has all the software one needs. The DN2800MT can take a couple of mini pcie cards, and a pcie card. This gives me two radios (5/2.4GHz) and an extra ethernet port (total 2). It has plenty of SATA connectors for NAS (2x1TB 2.5" drives). I have the whole thing in a tiny M300 case. Power consumption after boot is about 14W under normal use. It is about 11W when idle, and 18W when hammered. It doesn't have a slew of ethernet ports, so I have to add 6W (v. active)/3W (idle) for a managed switch.
I looked at open WRT, but thought "why not go whole hog?".
I've always wanted a dedicated NTP server. I now have one using a Raspberry PI, using a GPS receiver with PPS (pulse per second) clock discipline. I use the on board UART to communicated with the receiver, a GPIO line for the PPS signal, and SDA/SDC (i2c) lines for the thermal monitor attached to the system crystal (allowing the time program, chrony, to compensate for the crystal running differently at different temperatures).
(I do wish that ethernet was separate from USB.)
In any case, it wasn't until I could have a cheap, low power computer with lots of lots of I/O options that I was in a place to get the thing up and running. It works well,
----- cut here -----
Reference ID : 80.80.83.48 (PPS0) Stratum : 1 Ref time (UTC) : Tue Apr 23 14:58:27 2013 System time : 0.000000036 seconds fast of NTP time Last offset : 0.000000053 seconds RMS offset : 0.000000112 seconds
I use LaTeX for almost everything from articles to memos, and have been doing so since the late 1980s. Last year I needed to print part of my dissertation, which is from 1990. With my current system, using a modern version of LaTeX, but including the special macros I used for the dissertation, it formatted the same in 2012 as it did in 1990. Try that with MSWord.:)
In addition, having text files with macros certainly makes storage/searching/organizing much easier. The files compress well, and searches, etc., can be done using standard tools such as grep.
One is a dedicated NTP (Network Time Protocol) server, with an attached GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver (Trimble Resolution T). The receiver puts a PPS (Pulse Per Second) on a GPIO (General Purpose In Out) pin. Using out-of-the-box NTP software, it is aligned to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) with an offset of less than 1 microsecond. I had the GPS receiver in a much busier computer, but there was too much fluctuation, so the accuracy wasn't as good. In particular, the other box did CPU stepping, which is bad for for this sort of thing.
The other Raspberry PI is also a single purpose appliance (for now). Using some of the features of pulseaudio, I stream music via multicast and RTP (Real Time Protocol). A Raspberry PI is hooked up to some active speakers (via a USB soundcard). The Raspberry sits around listening for the multicast, and plays what it gets. I did it this way, using pulseaudio multicast, so that all the music players in the house are in sync (as far as my hearing can tell).
From my point of view, what makes the Raspberry PI attractive is that it is reasonably inexpensive, reasonably power frugal, reasonably well documented, and has strong support. All this makes it pretty much ideal when turning a general purpose computer into an appliance, with the possibility of changing its use in the future, or adding uses.
F-Droid is a very good thing. Nowadays, I'm disinclined to use an app that isn't available on F-Droid. I've been weeding out non F-Droid apps, and am down to one or two.
(I don't have a Google account, so Google Play has never been available to me.)
If one is a known sending or receiving station for messages sent with a one time pad, one needs to make the pad storage and pad transfer procedures safe (I've transferred pads, by hand, while, unusually, armed). Then it is probably best to send messages of exactly the same length at exactly the same intervals, or, perhaps even better, (semi) random lengths at (semi) random intervals, making sure that the shortest length is greater than the longest needed message, and the longest interval is shorter than the time sensitivity of the message.
Slashdot Mirror
These are too big, too obvious.
Best wishes,
Bob
Background music, perhaps, although my notion of background music is along the lines of chamber music. Foreground music, not any time soon.
The last concert I went to was Haydn's Creation played by a good symphony orchestra and sung by a good choir (with exceptional soloists). Before that it was Mahler's 6th (Tragic) played by an outstanding symphony orchestra. I suspect that I'll be long dead and buried (burnt or composted) before anything like those sounds can be produced electronically, or even reproduced electronically (recordings are still pale reflections). Given that, I don't see any reason why it won't eventually happen.
Best wishes,
Bob
I was wondering why the last upgrade (Debian) on my server resulted (unhappily) in LibreOffice being installed.
Owncloud is very useful. I use it for file syncing, calendar, contacts, firefox (iceweasel) sync, etc. I've been using it for about 6 months, and, so far, it has been reliable.
Best wishes,
Bob
One of the neat things about having relatively powerful computers is that we can have standards in infrastructure while being able to tailor the interface to reflect our preferences. So, for example, I can use imap for e-mail, but have a wide variety of interfaces available. I use a full feature interface on a desktop (could be icedove; could be mutt), but a lighter interface on an Android device (K-9 mail). So, standardization across users is very well in its place, but its place isn't across the user interface. Thanks, Debian folks, for providing lots and lots of alternatives. (I use awesome window manager + rxvt + gnuit/gitfm + ....)
Best wishes,
Bob
More the bowdlerized version.
Best wishes,
Bob
I have linux installed on my Asus Fonepad side by side with Android, allowing me to turn my phone/tablet into a nifty little netbook (using a bluetooth keybord). I like having a full LaTeX installation available, if I want to do some writing. It isn't clear to me that I could do this without root (especially if I want to run services on privileged ports). If I can't do this with Android 4.3, I will have to rethink upgrading to it, when it becomes available.
Best wishes,
Bob
There are lots of licenses around, but I would say that if you can't fork it, it isn't open source.
Best wishes,
Bob
I suspect that you are correct. That certainly describes my situation and my wife's. I built a desktop with an Intel i3 2100 and SSD storage when Sandybridge mini-itx boards became available. I've no desire or motivation to change it. It does what I want. I run a lightweight "roll your own" desktop, using the awesome window manager as the base.
However, I have bought a number of computers since then: An Intel DM2800MT motherboard to build a router/NAS/owncloud/music streamer/etc., 2 x Raspberry PI's for dedicated NTP servers, 2 x Nokia N800 devices (used) for streaming music, 2 x Allwinner A10 based Android tablets for streaming music, and an Asus Fonepad for phone, tablet, ereader and netbook. (In netbook mode, the Fonepad runs full-fat linux and I use a bluetooth keyboard).
In the near future, I can see myself buying more low power (both in energy use and CPU goodness) computers for specialized tasks.much more easily than seeing myself buying another full-fledged desktop.
Best wishes,
Bob
I switched to linux from CP/M (ZCPR) when a linux distribution became available. One gets settled in one's ways and finds it difficult to switch to an OS using a completely different paradigm.
Best wishes,
Bob
One of the things I've liked most about linux (and other *nix systems, such as FreeBSD) is that a system is build up of small programs that you can combine in various ways to get someone that pleases you, the user. That's the unix way. For example, my "desktop" is a combination of a number of programs, including a display manager, window manager, terminal, and file manager. It turns out that I can replace one part (for whatever reason) and get an overall desktop that works in the same way. And it has looked the same for some time. Some might think it reflects an unwillingness to change, others might think it reflects a desire for some consistency and predictability. Take your pick.
This consistency over time is difficult to maintain with the monolithic, graphically orientated programs such as firefox/iceweasel, thunderbird/icedove[1], and the Gimp. This is sad making. What would be nice is if firefox provided basic services, e.g., a first rate rendering engine/Gecko, while making most of the rest of it (e.g., interface) simply a set of addons. That would be the unix way.
[1] For a variety of reasons, I had to move from using mutt and remind to icedove and iceowl. This was over a year ago, and I'm still trying to recover from the shock.
Best wishes,
Bob
Surely having high standards in teaching means making yourself a better teacher, naturally resulting in a high completion rate and pass rate? Low completion rate means there's gaps in your teaching. Yes, there's gaps in everybody's teaching, and it's our job to fill the gaps...
Many courses have prerequisites and/or require a certain ability or talent. Not everyone will have the require prerequisites, ability and talent. Even good teaching can't overcome a lack of all of these.
Having easy access means that people can have a go, even if it looks, on paper, that they aren't qualified for the particular course. What matters is that they think they can do the work, or, at least, they hope they can do the work. The hope educationally is that some will succeed who wouldn't meet standard admissions criteria, and that more people will take the chance who wouldn't if the costs in time (including fitting it in with other responsibilities) and money were much higher.
My view is that we want to lower the risks to the students and the folks offering the courses while retaining very high standards.
Best wishes,
Bob
Easy access, high standards and high completion rate. Pick any two.
Although, I teach at a place with high standards and a high completion rate, but with a very selective admissions policy, I think that another good strategy is to have easy access and high standards, even at the cost of a high completion rate. That's what these sort of courses might provide.
I'm not keen on dropping standards in favour of easy access and a high completion rate. However, there is always a pressure to improve the completion rate so that the money looks well spent. Completion rate is easier to measure than, say, how much the course helps the people taking it to flourish.
Best wishes,
Bob
I'm happy to see the story. I regularly look at 4 or 5 websites, only 2 of which have anything to do with computing technology, and this is one of them, which I've been following for quite a while. So, although it may not be ideal, I still get most of my technology updates on slashdot. (Other than ones in which I'm professionally interested, the site I spend most time on also deals with technology, but of a different sort: mechanical watches.)
Best wishes,
Bob
Very kind of you. I would never turn up my nose at a medal.
That it is inexpensive is what makes it interesting. I can afford to dedicate an Allwinner A10 tablet as a glorified remote control/streamer for MPD, one with the ability to check my mail and browse. I also use it to shut down various computers when I leave the house. I can take one apart, without worrying too much about whether I can get it back together. I would be much less inclined to use it this way if it were more expensive.
As for the Raspberry PI, also inexpensive and relatively underpowered (although I've run webservers on computers that had less get up and go), I can dedicate one to experiments using a GPS time receiver with PPS to discipline the Raspberry's system clock in order to have my own stratum 1 timeserver.
These may not be things you are inclined to do, which is fair enough.
Best wishes,
Bob
I have a couple of tablets with Allwinner A10 SOC. Even better, there are development boards available with SOC, and some of them are Open Hardware, well documented boards. If you look at Wikipedia's list of Single Board Computers,
you will find the Allwinner on a number of development boards, such as the A13-OLinuXino, Cubieboard, Gooseberry, and Hackberry. In addition to Allwinner tablets, I have a couple of Raspberry PI SBCs. I'm hoping to get one of the Allwinner based development boards in order to see how it compares to the Raspberry.
Best wishes,
Bob
It would be interesting to know whether there is anyone who holds both of the following positions.
1. The German finding is unfair to Apple because Apple, quite reasonably, shouldn't be required to follow the law of every land in which it does business..
2. Criticising Apple for caving in to the censorship requirements of the Chinese government is unfair to Apple because Apple, quite reasonably, should be required to follow the law of every land in which it does business.
Best wishes,
Bob
What if one is happy with one's desktop setup from last century? Mine has, more or less, looked the same since about 1998, although I've updated the underlying packages, e.g., I now use awesome window manager rather than icewm, and I now use rxvt with unicode. I still use gnuit as my file manager (the name changed from git because of the popularity of version control program). I've tried various other things on occasion, such as Gnome/KDE/XFCE/LDXE, but I always go back to my home rolled "desktop". I'm not a programmer (academic in the humanities), but still appreciate the control this combination gives me using my very rudimentary ability to write scripts using such languages such as bash and lua.
Best wishes,
Bob
I have a couple of cheap tablets with the Allwinner A10 SOC. One is running Ice Cream Sandwich, and one is running Jelly Bean. The Ice Cream Sandwich one could be running Jelly Bean, if it were worth the bother. So, they are reasonably up to date. Use? One is used mostly as a glorified remote control for MPD[1]. But it also lets me know when I have emails (I go to a real computer to deal with the emails) and is used as a clock. The other is used as a clock, and both a MPD remote control and streamer. Very useful they are. I can only afford to use them like this because they are reasonably inexpensive. (I even have an old Nokia N800 in the shed (garage) which I use as a MPD remote control and streamer.)
They are fine when used in this way, and I think that the touch interface helps to make them ideal MPD remote controls.
[1] I used to use it for steaming as well, but now have a Raspberry PI with pulseaudio in place of it, so I can have the music in that room in sync with the music in other rooms.
Best wishes,
Bob
I don't know the bios version off the top of my head. For the wireless access point, I'm using an Atheros AR9285 for 2.4GHz, and AR9390 for 5GHz. They are both used with hostapd. One needs a separate configuration file for each, but that can be set in /etc/default/hostapd.
Best wishes,
Bob
This combination is what I use at home. Debian has all the software one needs. The DN2800MT can take a couple of mini pcie cards, and a pcie card. This gives me two radios (5/2.4GHz) and an extra ethernet port (total 2). It has plenty of SATA connectors for NAS (2x1TB 2.5" drives). I have the whole thing in a tiny M300 case. Power consumption after boot is about 14W under normal use. It is about 11W when idle, and 18W when hammered. It doesn't have a slew of ethernet ports, so I have to add 6W (v. active)/3W (idle) for a managed switch.
I looked at open WRT, but thought "why not go whole hog?".
Best wishes,
Bob
I've always wanted a dedicated NTP server. I now have one using a Raspberry PI, using a GPS receiver with PPS (pulse per second) clock discipline. I use the on board UART to communicated with the receiver, a GPIO line for the PPS signal, and SDA/SDC (i2c) lines for the thermal monitor attached to the system crystal (allowing the time program, chrony, to compensate for the crystal running differently at different temperatures).
(I do wish that ethernet was separate from USB.)
In any case, it wasn't until I could have a cheap, low power computer with lots of lots of I/O options that I was in a place to get the thing up and running. It works well,
----- cut here -----
Reference ID : 80.80.83.48 (PPS0)
Stratum : 1
Ref time (UTC) : Tue Apr 23 14:58:27 2013
System time : 0.000000036 seconds fast of NTP time
Last offset : 0.000000053 seconds
RMS offset : 0.000000112 seconds
----- cut here -----
Best wishes,
Bob
I use LaTeX for almost everything from articles to memos, and have been doing so since the late 1980s. Last year I needed to print part of my dissertation, which is from 1990. With my current system, using a modern version of LaTeX, but including the special macros I used for the dissertation, it formatted the same in 2012 as it did in 1990. Try that with MSWord. :)
In addition, having text files with macros certainly makes storage/searching/organizing much easier. The files compress well, and searches, etc., can be done using standard tools such as grep.
Best wishes,
Bob
One is a dedicated NTP (Network Time Protocol) server, with an attached GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver (Trimble Resolution T). The receiver puts a PPS (Pulse Per Second) on a GPIO (General Purpose In Out) pin. Using out-of-the-box NTP software, it is aligned to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) with an offset of less than 1 microsecond. I had the GPS receiver in a much busier computer, but there was too much fluctuation, so the accuracy wasn't as good. In particular, the other box did CPU stepping, which is bad for for this sort of thing.
The other Raspberry PI is also a single purpose appliance (for now). Using some of the features of pulseaudio, I stream music via multicast and RTP (Real Time Protocol). A Raspberry PI is hooked up to some active speakers (via a USB soundcard). The Raspberry sits around listening for the multicast, and plays what it gets. I did it this way, using pulseaudio multicast, so that all the music players in the house are in sync (as far as my hearing can tell).
From my point of view, what makes the Raspberry PI attractive is that it is reasonably inexpensive, reasonably power frugal, reasonably well documented, and has strong support. All this makes it pretty much ideal when turning a general purpose computer into an appliance, with the possibility of changing its use in the future, or adding uses.
Best wishes,
Bob
F-Droid is a very good thing. Nowadays, I'm disinclined to use an app that isn't available on F-Droid. I've been weeding out non F-Droid apps, and am down to one or two.
(I don't have a Google account, so Google Play has never been available to me.)
Best wishes,
Bob
Depending on circumstances, one might also garner information by doing traffic analysis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_analysis
If one is a known sending or receiving station for messages sent with a one time pad, one needs to make the pad storage and pad transfer procedures safe (I've transferred pads, by hand, while, unusually, armed). Then it is probably best to send messages of exactly the same length at exactly the same intervals, or, perhaps even better, (semi) random lengths at (semi) random intervals, making sure that the shortest length is greater than the longest needed message, and the longest interval is shorter than the time sensitivity of the message.
Best wishes,
Bob