It's a shame the work of the OLPC kernel developers / volunteers who made the Xtra Ordinary distro possible don't get any credit. The "debxo" distribution http://wiki.laptop.org/go/DebXO has been going for a long time and has done all the hard work (i.e., XO-1-specific work) of getting debian to work on the XO-1.
> In a few years if not now there will be greater penetration of actual sub 100 laptops instead of the OLPC initiative.
Penetration where? In the developed world? Sure! But 750,000 laptops (or so) shipped in two years is pretty good...or are you confusing OLPC with a consumer laptop vendor?
> cell phones['s hardware] is better than OLPC
It's not, and that's a pretty ridiculous statement. Oh wait, there's more:
> Economy of scale is still not as cheap as scavenging
You mean, paying a non-zero amount of money is more expensive than paying nothing? Please step out from your modest cloak of anonymity so I can send you money for more unique insights like this.
> OLPC is about as sophisticated as a speak and spell
This is false, and...
> [rest of sentence]...is pretty incomprehensible.
Hardware details -- it's like a chef not wanting to talk about his latest recipie, because that's the big secret. Sure, you and I probably don't have the cookware (hardware fab plant), but other restaurants (AMD and Qualcomm) would probably be very interested.
Windows 3.1 can run acceptably on a 486/33 with 4MB ram. I think in 2004 one can safely call $500 iPAQs with 32 MB of RAM, 128MB flash/hard disk, and 400Mhz processors "memory- & CPU-limited."
If you don't think so, I have a 750Mhz Duron machine with 128MB of RAM and a 4GB HD I can sell you for the same price as that "non-limited" iPAQ:).
Some research: freedesktop's X server is derived from x.org's and according to the developers, can't be used with XFree86 because of significant driver differences. This makes it non-trivial to get it up and running if you use Fedora, RH, Debian, or other XFree86-based distros.
My final question is wheter anybody on slashdot is running freedesktop's new xserver and, if they are, their experiences with it. I was thinking about installing it on my fedora core install.
Same here...it doesn't look like it's just an rpm / make install job...
I agree with the OP and disagree with your interpretation. Where do you see the bias? If you're talking about this sentence:
E-mail spam and the growing laws against it have provided additional inspiration for the high-tech ambulance chasers, though e-mail senders are harder to track down than junk faxers.
...then I suggest you reconsider: there is no sympathy for fax.com and the spammers, just a bit of looking down on the "ambulance chasers."
I don't think articles about real ambulance chasers are generally accused of bias against the people who cause accidents vs. the people hurt by them.
And though elsewhere there may be a bit of disdain for activists wasting their time with such small amounts/offenses, there's no implication of them being outside of their rights nor of the laws being bad for companies doing legal business.
1. "Windows is about choice...[you can mix & match music software & hardware]"
vs.
2. "Over time, however, customers will want industry standard choices."
Given "industry standard choices" is doublespeak for "choices MS likes", these great quotes contradict both themselves and the customers that have voted with their money.
And even better that the other offerings for windows don't satisfy his first (compatibility) criterion!
The bandwidth limitations you highlight and the others mentioned in other papers by Grinspun are probably similar to quantum-computing limitations: e.g., in GPUs you can read some read-only registers, multiply/add them (in parallel) tons of times, and then write to some other write-only registers in the GPU; in quantum computing you can take some atoms whose state you knew, applying tons of (parallel) quantum operations, and then observing the results (so they're useless for more quantum computations).
What most people do not realize is that today's cars with catalytic converters surpass LEV parameters -- _except_ for the first mile or so while the catalytic converter warms up.
A granny in Scandanavia suggested that cars have a inflatable bag that stores the first mile's (dirty) exhaust, then re-filter it through the catalytic converter once it has warmed up.
Seems to meet most of the requirements -- LEV, low cost, simplicity, etc...
Agreed about the expansion slots -- as you said, it is obvious there is nothing in it for the console manufacturer.
But why does that make it wrong for someone to buy the console and use it in a different way than intended? It certainly is OK to get something for nothing at a corporation's expense. People have no resposibility to the console manufacturer to fit into their revenue projections, just like the console manufacturer does not have to fit into people's expectations if it sees no business benefit.
With Carmack basically staying the course on PC development, it seems that nothing really has changed; all the games developers are sticking with their core platform direction.
Though this is a good thing, the other news in the article was much more interesting.
The unwritten story is the Linux-on-a-console initiative that has more promise than the recent Linux-on-a-watch stories.
How about some sites that get Linux on a PS2/Dreamcast? Byebye rooting around for cheap PC hardware, just buy the latest subsidized console and get some very respectable hardware with the company taking the loss (Sony was selling PS2's at a huge loss, mostly because of the DVD player),
...of the tools, otherwise they are either too dumb for the complex task, or only incrementally more usable than the raw config files.
If there were either an integrated help system or a larger vision -- providing a single-user, hardened configuration assuming a compatibly configured server infrastructure -- this would be interesting.
Trouble is, when the goals are too small/general people just say "edit the files yourself," but when the goals are too big, you ask "how is that different from Windows?"
Slashdot Mirror
It's a shame the work of the OLPC kernel developers / volunteers who made the Xtra Ordinary distro possible don't get any credit. The "debxo" distribution http://wiki.laptop.org/go/DebXO has been going for a long time and has done all the hard work (i.e., XO-1-specific work) of getting debian to work on the XO-1.
Are you trolling?
> In a few years if not now there will be greater penetration of actual sub 100 laptops instead of the OLPC initiative.
Penetration where? In the developed world? Sure! But 750,000 laptops (or so) shipped in two years is pretty good...or are you confusing OLPC with a consumer laptop vendor?
> cell phones['s hardware] is better than OLPC
It's not, and that's a pretty ridiculous statement. Oh wait, there's more:
> Economy of scale is still not as cheap as scavenging
You mean, paying a non-zero amount of money is more expensive than paying nothing? Please step out from your modest cloak of anonymity so I can send you money for more unique insights like this.
> OLPC is about as sophisticated as a speak and spell
This is false, and...
> [rest of sentence] ...is pretty incomprehensible.
OLPC is still shipping laptops with F/OSS software to kids in developing countries, and is about to start another Give One, Get One program.
But don't let the facts get in the way of that tasty pie-spinning metaphor.
Yeah, but they're also embracing, extending, and extinguishing that project: http://radian.org/notebook/paradox-of-choice
Hardware details -- it's like a chef not wanting to talk about his latest recipie, because that's the big secret. Sure, you and I probably don't have the cookware (hardware fab plant), but other restaurants (AMD and Qualcomm) would probably be very interested.
As to PDAs being PC replacements, I'd seriously consider the Sharp Zaurus CL-760 (laptop-like) or the SL-6000 (integrated 802.11b).
If you don't think so, I have a 750Mhz Duron machine with 128MB of RAM and a 4GB HD I can sell you for the same price as that "non-limited" iPAQ :).
Some research: freedesktop's X server is derived from x.org's and according to the developers, can't be used with XFree86 because of significant driver differences. This makes it non-trivial to get it up and running if you use Fedora, RH, Debian, or other XFree86-based distros.
Same here...it doesn't look like it's just an rpm / make install job...
This tiny version of X is called "KDrive" and it ships with XFree86. Read more about it here and here.
And stop talking about "choice" when you don't even know what choices X offers.
I agree with the OP and disagree with your interpretation. Where do you see the bias? If you're talking about this sentence:
I don't think articles about real ambulance chasers are generally accused of bias against the people who cause accidents vs. the people hurt by them.
And though elsewhere there may be a bit of disdain for activists wasting their time with such small amounts/offenses, there's no implication of them being outside of their rights nor of the laws being bad for companies doing legal business.
Am I missing something?
1. "Windows is about choice...[you can mix & match music software & hardware]"
2. "Over time, however, customers will want industry standard choices."
Given "industry standard choices" is doublespeak for "choices MS likes", these great quotes contradict both themselves and the customers that have voted with their money.
And even better that the other offerings for windows don't satisfy his first (compatibility) criterion!
The bandwidth limitations you highlight and the others mentioned in other papers by Grinspun are probably similar to quantum-computing limitations: e.g., in GPUs you can read some read-only registers, multiply/add them (in parallel) tons of times, and then write to some other write-only registers in the GPU; in quantum computing you can take some atoms whose state you knew, applying tons of (parallel) quantum operations, and then observing the results (so they're useless for more quantum computations).
What's with the sizing range going from 200 to 300 pounds? Seems like the average geek isn't able to move, let alone power jump...
Wouldn't it be funny if Pong was just a myth made up to convince us all proving the law that:
The suggested policies may be a Good Thing (tm), but they raise the barriers-to-package a lot higher.
Line of site conversations? Across-the-room whispers? Let's get a wrist-watch sized transmitter...
What most people do not realize is that today's cars with catalytic converters surpass LEV parameters -- _except_ for the first mile or so while the catalytic converter warms up.
A granny in Scandanavia suggested that cars have a inflatable bag that stores the first mile's (dirty) exhaust, then re-filter it through the catalytic converter once it has warmed up.
Seems to meet most of the requirements -- LEV, low cost, simplicity, etc...
But why does that make it wrong for someone to buy the console and use it in a different way than intended? It certainly is OK to get something for nothing at a corporation's expense. People have no resposibility to the console manufacturer to fit into their revenue projections, just like the console manufacturer does not have to fit into people's expectations if it sees no business benefit.
Though this is a good thing, the other news in the article was much more interesting.
The unwritten story is the Linux-on-a-console initiative that has more promise than the recent Linux-on-a-watch stories.
How about some sites that get Linux on a PS2/Dreamcast? Byebye rooting around for cheap PC hardware, just buy the latest subsidized console and get some very respectable hardware with the company taking the loss (Sony was selling PS2's at a huge loss, mostly because of the DVD player),
But for the cool factor, let's all beat a path to those download sites...
Certainly -- but what about the sysadmins who want more control -- you are back to two distros (tgz + installshield).
If there were either an integrated help system or a larger vision -- providing a single-user, hardened configuration assuming a compatibly configured server infrastructure -- this would be interesting. Trouble is, when the goals are too small/general people just say "edit the files yourself," but when the goals are too big, you ask "how is that different from Windows?"