I, right now, own a very simple, small digital audio recorder and two quality microphones. I can record, into a single device, up to six simultaneous audio inputs. It is trivial to set up a situation in which each speaker in a 5+1 audio setup is in a seperate audio chamber so each can be independently, yet simultaneously recorded.
Even if I have to upgrade my player, cabling, and speakers, I already own everything I need to make high quality recordings of any music. It might be slightly lower quality than an original digital DRM format; but, I can make it still very high quality with the only loss in quality something 99.999% of music consumers could never discern...and it would now be free of DRM.
No hacked hardware or software required and hardly what anyone would call "vintage" tape recording.
Why would you assume anybody would use a PC to make a quality recording of anything to begin with? ADCs in PCs are usually not very good quality and PCs are noisy as hell.
Actually, it's a strikingly similar conclusion. I don't believe IBM's ever been after the home market. But Linux on desktop machines is something they're very much after...for business. Businesses need a better desktop: one with less security problems, easy management, reliability, power, etc.
That's what I believe they're trying for with a new Linux+Power based workstation. But they're going for more than just developers and engineers. They're looking at it as a solution for the entire gamut of a corporation's workstation needs...from the front desk to the engineering lab to the CEO.
And it's minus Microsoft and Intel. Notice they are very close with AMD as well. The recent hints/rumors about Apple+IBM are also interesting and I wonder how they'll pan out. It could get very interesting very soon.
I first saw this on technocrat.net but didn't comment on it. However, I immediately wondered about the ramifications of this when you also consider all of this:
I know it's tinfoil hat talk, but I must wonder if IBM isn't about to make an end run around Intel AND Microsoft for a new generation of desktop computing...Linux on POWER.
HP getting out of bed with Intel could free it up from certain obligations it had to them and open them up to using the Power architecture.
I know, I know...it's just too crazy to think it's anything more than coincidence...
So, if next week I go to the gas station to fill up and while there they give me a free "no-strings-attached" Dr. Pepper it isn't really free because I had to spend money to get there, even though I was already going to the gas station for a totally unrelated transaction?
I reply because this is a pet peeve of mine. If the Dr. Pepper is contingent on you buying gas, it is not free. If they are handing out Dr. Peppers to any shmuck who walks in the door, no purchase required, then it could truly be called "no-strings-attached" and then I'd say, yes, it's free.
However, if ANY money is required to change hands as a condition of the "giveaway" then it is NOT free. You are paying for it. The cost of the item is built in. If you have to buy gas, you are not getting a free Dr. Pepper...you are getting a Dr. Pepper bundled with your gas. It's a package deal.
I own six original Neuros USB 1.1 devices. Five of them are 128MB Flash units. One is the 20GB HDD unit.
One of these does have a problem...apparently with the flash memory. I've updated firmwares in the rest of them and they work well. I am quite fond of my Neuros units.
It may be you got a bad unit. It does happen.
On another note, I just realized that since I have multiple of them, I really ought to figure out what the plural of Neuros is...
90% of videos I've downloaded off of the Internet have been for shows that I cannot get in any other way. They are not presently licensed for distribution here...so nobody distributes them. And, they are not on video yet anyway. I cannot have the videos imported from any country because they are not for sale in any country. I am willing to accept that my actions may still be wrong in some ethical way; but, I'm hard pressed to see how I'm causing any financial harm.
6. Because it's still in theatres and you'd like to know if it's worth fifty bucks *before* you're out the fifty bucks. (This is about 1% of my Internet downloading.)
I have downloaded a few movies (8 to be precise) that were still showing in theatres to preview and decide whether or not they were decent movies (5 I went on to see in the theatre or rented when they came out on video) or to decide whether or not they were appropriate for my children to view (Shrek, for instance, which we decided was ok and took our children to see it in the theatre).
I would think movie studios and the MPAA would see a market here and realize they can release a low quality version of a movie for a couple dollars so people can preview the thing and decide for themselves whether the movie's worth seeing...I suppose they don't want to do this because they realize the majority of their movies ARE NOT WORTH SEEING.
7. Few people want their porn viewing to be on the record. <g>
(Admittedly, I did not RTFA.) That little bit of text appears to be the problem to me. In a rapidly growing universe, it seems a "desirable piece or real estate" can be generated at will and a new one likely will soon...thereby making *any* piece of "real estate" less desirable.
Right after he gets settled into his island, a new one will pop up a few miles from his...and the next person will pay less than $26,500...bringing down the value of his island.
I suppose it's a matter of how much you trust the people/company that runs Entropia not to mismanage your "investment" and do you trust them more than whatever group/person is behind your other investment options.
I think John Taylor Gatto has a very credible perspective. I can't say he references "studies" so much as history...including references, though...not just anecdotal stories about history.
Also, you can pretty much read the entire book from the second link online...as well as the third link I gave, which includes many references to other publications to support itself.
When kids don't want to learn, no amount of education will reach them.
No amount of American education will matter. Our entire educational system was/is designed around a simple plan: churn out a working class.
And it's been doing an admirabe job at that. The problem is, a working class in America is now defined less and less as industrial/manufacturing/agricultural based and more an information/knowledge based.
Our primary schools are by design not capable of churning out intellectuals. The intellectuals who make it are either going to private schools or just smart enough to survive public education.
That's right: you don't receive a public education, you survive it.
...I need to understand what you're trying to argue.
What I'm arguing is your definition of "operating system" is wrong. Now, I don't mean that in any disparaging way. I just think we will have to disagree. I pointed out that book as it is often used as a textbook in OS classes, and while it acknowledges there is debate about the definition, it defines an Operating System as "the one program running at all times on the computer" and goes on to basically clarify that as meaning the kernel...with everything else being either a system program or an application program.
There is a general view that an OS is everything that comes "pre-installed" on the box...or in Linux's case, everything that you get when you install a distro. But the thinking (and teaching) in post-graduate level work seems to me to be that the kernel and its modules (if it's indeed modular) is the OS.
I think this thinking is also quite true in the embedded space. Yes, an OS needs some kind of user interface; but, as I mentioned in another post: I am developing an embedded application that will boot Linux (the kernel) and immediately launch my app, not init. It will not have most (if any) of the typical GNU toolset and will not have a command-line or graphical user interface. It will control an LCD panel and a barcode reader (multiple of each, actually) and even without all the other things people tend to believe are what makes it an OS, it will still be running Linux...the operating system. Only it will just be a re-compiled, cut-down, non-modular, minimalist kernel without those system utilities and shells and such programs that you say are part of the operating system and I say are not.
Several times it's been said the kernel is useless without all that other stuff; but, I *can* do much that is useful with just the kernel (and the necessary drivers) because I can write an app to do what I want without having to re-write an OS to control the hardware. So what I'm saying is all those other things aren't what makes it an OS. They make up an environment that many people refer to as an OS...but I argue that nomenclature is flawed.
The drivers and whatnot all being crammed into the kernel just make it a specific type of kernel called a 'monolithic' kernel, that's all.
Uh, yeah. That's what I said. Remember: "They can be built as modules if you prefer (as most do) but can be compiled directly into a monolithic kernel if you want."
In addition, there's nothing special about the kernel accepting commands. It takes commands from programs all the time, there's no reason you can't give it the same commands.
Uhhh...OK. But...umm...you're losing me here. What's your point? It's not an OS because it takes commands? Or I can give it commands?
The minute you load another application, such as 'sh', however, you are no longer working with just the kernel - you have an OS.
sh runs in userspace. It is a user application that communicates with the OS so *you* can do stuff. The underlying operating system (you know, Linux) handles all the rest.
No it isn't. By itself it's worthless. There at least needs to be some amount of "distribution" that goes along side of it. (init, c library, etc)
I humbly submit that to many many developers out there, that by itself it is of great value. For instance: In an embedded app I am currently developing, I need one single app running on my system ever...and that's it. The user interface is an LCD panel and a barcode reader. I don't need bash, X, init, c libraries, or any of that stuff you seem to think is required in an operating system. But, I could write my own operating system to interface with this hardware, or (thankfully) I can use the Linux kernel (which is an entire operating system in and of itself) to load my app, provide me with easy access to various file systems, network interfaces, the LCD panel and barcode readers themselves. I can furthermore (again, thankfully) use Linux (the kernel that is an OS) to provide me easy access to a complete IP stack, RAMdisk support, and a myriad of other facilities that are available to me in the Linux OS (not including a shell, X, a mouse driver, or, as you put it, a "way to interface programs to your video card").
The operating system, on the other hand, is responsible for not only interfacing with the hardware (via a kernel), it is responsible for loading and managing user level applications such as shells and mouse daemons and whatnot.
First, you say Linux is just a kernel; but, then you say the operating system is responsible for loading and managing user level applications such as shells. That's exactly what Linux does.
It is possible to load Linux with nothing other than kernel components and bash running. It is possible to load just Linux (that is, everything that one might find in a linux kernel tarball) and a single app. It is surprising to me that so many people seem to think Linux isn't an operating system...it's just a "kernel" and needs other components to be considered an OS. It's just not true.
Boot linux sometime and pass the kernel this parameter:
init=/bin/bash
You do realize that those file system drivers, network card drivers, USB drivers, mouse drivers and all that other stuff are part of Linux...the kernel, right? They're not add-ons you get from a distro provider. They can be built as modules if you prefer (as most do) but can be compiled directly into a monolithic kernel if you want. Mouse support and all.
The GNU utilities (shell, C library, etc.) are what make Linux useful to a lot of folks...but it's not required to make it an operating system.
In fact, in a Linux embedded space, a lot of that stuff is removed. But it's still an OS without it.
Redhat owns no Linux. Linux is the kernel. It is provided by GNU license by Linus Torvalds.
That's odd. If Red Hat owns no "Linux" then why does a search through a local copy of the kernel (2.4.18) find 308 files mentioning Red Hat at least once, including a listing in the overall CREDITS file of seven RedHat contributors and fifteen mentions in MAINTAINERS?
Red Hat retains its copyright, you know.
Linux is not an operating system, it's the kernel on which multiple operating systems are built.
??
The kernel *is* the operating system. Linux is most definitely an operating system...upon which multiple distributions or what one might refer to as operating *environments* are built. Basically, Windows is both an operating system (NTKRNLPA.EXE, NTOSKRNL.EXE, etc.) and operating environment (EXPLORER.EXE, IEXPLORE.EXE, etc.) bundled together...which compares to where the Red Hat, SuSE, Debian, etc. folks come in: bundling the operating system with an operating environment. (Frankly, I like Core Linux for an operating system and environment bundle.)
Windows does compare to Linux (infavorably, imho). It is perfectly legitimate to compare the various parts of the operating system. It's like saying the Chevy 454 engine is better than some gasoline-electric hybrid engine.
It just so happens that Microsoft has tightly coupled a bunch of things into its operating system that Linus, et. al., have left to third parties...prefering instead to make an awesome engine around which a car can be built (using your analogy). Microsoft just decides the cigarette lighter should be embedded in their engine...where many might believe it doesn't belong.
All that aside, let us not forget: the job of the operating system is to be an interface between the hardware and the applications the user wishes to run...Linux, all by its lonesome, is that. If one of the apps you want to run is X or bash or something else, fine.
Slashdot Mirror
I, right now, own a very simple, small digital audio recorder and two quality microphones. I can record, into a single device, up to six simultaneous audio inputs. It is trivial to set up a situation in which each speaker in a 5+1 audio setup is in a seperate audio chamber so each can be independently, yet simultaneously recorded.
Even if I have to upgrade my player, cabling, and speakers, I already own everything I need to make high quality recordings of any music. It might be slightly lower quality than an original digital DRM format; but, I can make it still very high quality with the only loss in quality something 99.999% of music consumers could never discern...and it would now be free of DRM.
No hacked hardware or software required and hardly what anyone would call "vintage" tape recording.
Why would you assume anybody would use a PC to make a quality recording of anything to begin with? ADCs in PCs are usually not very good quality and PCs are noisy as hell.
Actually, it's a strikingly similar conclusion. I don't believe IBM's ever been after the home market. But Linux on desktop machines is something they're very much after...for business. Businesses need a better desktop: one with less security problems, easy management, reliability, power, etc.
That's what I believe they're trying for with a new Linux+Power based workstation. But they're going for more than just developers and engineers. They're looking at it as a solution for the entire gamut of a corporation's workstation needs...from the front desk to the engineering lab to the CEO.
And it's minus Microsoft and Intel. Notice they are very close with AMD as well. The recent hints/rumors about Apple+IBM are also interesting and I wonder how they'll pan out. It could get very interesting very soon.
- IBM selling its PC business
- Cell workstations
- POWER5 amazing benchmark records
- IBM incents Linux on Power app development
- Launches a Power architecture coalition
- IBM and Red Hat begin certifying apps for Linux
- IBM ups its Desktop Linux push
I know it's tinfoil hat talk, but I must wonder if IBM isn't about to make an end run around Intel AND Microsoft for a new generation of desktop computing...Linux on POWER.HP getting out of bed with Intel could free it up from certain obligations it had to them and open them up to using the Power architecture.
I know, I know...it's just too crazy to think it's anything more than coincidence...
Breakin' the law! Breakin' the law!
Breakin' the law! Breakin' the law!
That's all well and good; but, at what level do we master the super mega death shadow technique?
Because I use them for recording. Sometimes, I record six different things in six different rooms (*gasp*) simultaneously!
However, if ANY money is required to change hands as a condition of the "giveaway" then it is NOT free. You are paying for it. The cost of the item is built in. If you have to buy gas, you are not getting a free Dr. Pepper...you are getting a Dr. Pepper bundled with your gas. It's a package deal.
And that, sir, is not free (as in gratis).
NO
I own six original Neuros USB 1.1 devices. Five of them are 128MB Flash units. One is the 20GB HDD unit.
One of these does have a problem...apparently with the flash memory. I've updated firmwares in the rest of them and they work well. I am quite fond of my Neuros units.
It may be you got a bad unit. It does happen.
On another note, I just realized that since I have multiple of them, I really ought to figure out what the plural of Neuros is...
5. Because it's not available any other way.
90% of videos I've downloaded off of the Internet have been for shows that I cannot get in any other way. They are not presently licensed for distribution here...so nobody distributes them. And, they are not on video yet anyway. I cannot have the videos imported from any country because they are not for sale in any country. I am willing to accept that my actions may still be wrong in some ethical way; but, I'm hard pressed to see how I'm causing any financial harm.
6. Because it's still in theatres and you'd like to know if it's worth fifty bucks *before* you're out the fifty bucks. (This is about 1% of my Internet downloading.)
I have downloaded a few movies (8 to be precise) that were still showing in theatres to preview and decide whether or not they were decent movies (5 I went on to see in the theatre or rented when they came out on video) or to decide whether or not they were appropriate for my children to view (Shrek, for instance, which we decided was ok and took our children to see it in the theatre).
I would think movie studios and the MPAA would see a market here and realize they can release a low quality version of a movie for a couple dollars so people can preview the thing and decide for themselves whether the movie's worth seeing...I suppose they don't want to do this because they realize the majority of their movies ARE NOT WORTH SEEING.
7. Few people want their porn viewing to be on the record. <g>
Right after he gets settled into his island, a new one will pop up a few miles from his...and the next person will pay less than $26,500...bringing down the value of his island.
I suppose it's a matter of how much you trust the people/company that runs Entropia not to mismanage your "investment" and do you trust them more than whatever group/person is behind your other investment options.
yeah...it's unlikely. Yet, there are a lot of things one would think could never happen but do.
Doesn't matter. They'll still get a patent on it.
I think John Taylor Gatto has a very credible perspective. I can't say he references "studies" so much as history...including references, though...not just anecdotal stories about history.
Also, you can pretty much read the entire book from the second link online...as well as the third link I gave, which includes many references to other publications to support itself.
Go from there.
How 'bout you read a few and find out? There are a lot of references to a lot of sources of information in there.
How about a few books on the topic:
- Dumbing Us Down
- Another Gatto book
- An online write-up
- Many Children Left Behind.
- Saving Our Schools
I could go on...And it's been doing an admirabe job at that. The problem is, a working class in America is now defined less and less as industrial/manufacturing/agricultural based and more an information/knowledge based.
Our primary schools are by design not capable of churning out intellectuals. The intellectuals who make it are either going to private schools or just smart enough to survive public education.
That's right: you don't receive a public education, you survive it.
There is a general view that an OS is everything that comes "pre-installed" on the box...or in Linux's case, everything that you get when you install a distro. But the thinking (and teaching) in post-graduate level work seems to me to be that the kernel and its modules (if it's indeed modular) is the OS.
I think this thinking is also quite true in the embedded space. Yes, an OS needs some kind of user interface; but, as I mentioned in another post: I am developing an embedded application that will boot Linux (the kernel) and immediately launch my app, not init. It will not have most (if any) of the typical GNU toolset and will not have a command-line or graphical user interface. It will control an LCD panel and a barcode reader (multiple of each, actually) and even without all the other things people tend to believe are what makes it an OS, it will still be running Linux...the operating system. Only it will just be a re-compiled, cut-down, non-modular, minimalist kernel without those system utilities and shells and such programs that you say are part of the operating system and I say are not.
Several times it's been said the kernel is useless without all that other stuff; but, I *can* do much that is useful with just the kernel (and the necessary drivers) because I can write an app to do what I want without having to re-write an OS to control the hardware. So what I'm saying is all those other things aren't what makes it an OS. They make up an environment that many people refer to as an OS...but I argue that nomenclature is flawed.
Read.
It is possible to load Linux with nothing other than kernel components and bash running. It is possible to load just Linux (that is, everything that one might find in a linux kernel tarball) and a single app. It is surprising to me that so many people seem to think Linux isn't an operating system...it's just a "kernel" and needs other components to be considered an OS. It's just not true.
Boot linux sometime and pass the kernel this parameter:
init=/bin/bash
You do realize that those file system drivers, network card drivers, USB drivers, mouse drivers and all that other stuff are part of Linux...the kernel, right? They're not add-ons you get from a distro provider. They can be built as modules if you prefer (as most do) but can be compiled directly into a monolithic kernel if you want. Mouse support and all.
The GNU utilities (shell, C library, etc.) are what make Linux useful to a lot of folks...but it's not required to make it an operating system.
In fact, in a Linux embedded space, a lot of that stuff is removed. But it's still an OS without it.
The kernel *is* the operating system. Linux is most definitely an operating system...upon which multiple distributions or what one might refer to as operating *environments* are built. Basically, Windows is both an operating system (NTKRNLPA.EXE, NTOSKRNL.EXE, etc.) and operating environment (EXPLORER.EXE, IEXPLORE.EXE, etc.) bundled together...which compares to where the Red Hat, SuSE, Debian, etc. folks come in: bundling the operating system with an operating environment. (Frankly, I like Core Linux for an operating system and environment bundle.)
Windows does compare to Linux (infavorably, imho). It is perfectly legitimate to compare the various parts of the operating system. It's like saying the Chevy 454 engine is better than some gasoline-electric hybrid engine.
It just so happens that Microsoft has tightly coupled a bunch of things into its operating system that Linus, et. al., have left to third parties...prefering instead to make an awesome engine around which a car can be built (using your analogy). Microsoft just decides the cigarette lighter should be embedded in their engine...where many might believe it doesn't belong.
All that aside, let us not forget: the job of the operating system is to be an interface between the hardware and the applications the user wishes to run...Linux, all by its lonesome, is that. If one of the apps you want to run is X or bash or something else, fine.