Alright, that explains why the load average on my server is up to 30 and 40. There is just an old Sparc4 doing the bulk of the converstion. If things go slowly, now you know.
Normally I don't reply to language flames, but this one is called for. Person A uses a phrase to describe an event. Person B requests clarification on how that phrase is relevant. Person A declares B is ignornat for not already understanding the context. In my opinion, if you can't explain to someone why you used a phrase/concept/code segment/idea, then your understanding of that phrase/concept/code segment/idea in context must be flawed. Why is copying GBA games "rude"? Is it morally offensive? If so, who's morals is it offending? How does this effect the manufacturers? The owners of the games? How about a person who wants to play a game that is out of print? Is copying "being rude" to them?
From what I hear tell, you can do things like change the screen depth/resolution, install and remove programs and install and remove drivers without a reboot. There is also a claim that stability has increased, but that has to be seen.
It takes so long for a patch to make it's way out in to the world because they have to verify that all the actual features in the code didn't break. That is an expensive and time consuming operation that the *nix does not go through in as much force. Remember, automatic regression testing will only get you so far.
This is old news, at least to me. December of 2000 the lawyers came knocking on my door. If you do a google search for deinonychus purple barney, one of my pages comes up first. A story about Barney meeting his relatives from Jurassic Park. Fun story. Anyway, they sent me a letter asking me to cease and desist. Since anyone can send fakemail these days, I ignored it as a hoax. Even if it wasn't a hoax, I didn't want to give the lawyers billable time. A few days later, the head admin at my university was sent a similar letter. He asked if I was going to take it down. I refused. We waited.
Time passed, and I got a second warning. The head admin forwarded the letter to the legal dept who replied to the Barney Lawyers something to the effect of "Yeah, we agree it is offensive but it is not illegal." Haven't heard from them since. I have this all written up here.
Where is the source code? What is the license terms? (given CMU's lack of willingness to use BSD style license....Strike 2)
This kind of automatic "Give me the source, give me the BSD style license" makes me sick. Not everything has to be free and open to make it useful.
Also, this is a research project. Not a proposed standard, not a cog on someone else's wheel, but a project to answer a real world problem. To quote the grad's web page "[m]y thesis research is focusing on providing connectivity across Internet networks of heterogeneous address spaces." You know, doing something useful as opposed to just writing some hack and giving it to the world.
If it was just "angle brackets" that made the world go round, people would have creamed thier pants when SGML came out and the revolution would have happened years ago. XML is angle brackets with a description of what is inside the damn brackets.
As for HTTP, most firewalls will let it through so sys admins won't have to start opening up new ports for this newborn system.
There are other ways of doing this, such as CORBA. Look how that caught on like wildfire!
Simple request: I'd like a browser that can render html 4.0 and deal with javascript without crashing. I have one browser that even comes close, and that is lynx.
I could deal with Mosaic's rendering bugs because it was "new". I was amused that Netscape 1 had the same bugs. I still have a copy of Netscape 2 on one of my NT boxes because it was the last of the small browsers. Netscape 3 just left me cold. Netscape 4 has been around for too long without a proper update. I've tried using Netscape 6 beta and M16 (which I'm using now till it crashes again) and I'm still not impressed. Pretty widgets don't matter when moving the mouse inside window will cause my machine to reboot! I will be content when javascript, the bane of the universe, fails to crash my browser. If it wasn't for the security problems, I'd be using IE, and if M17 doesn't get here soon I might just have to. </BITTER>
I can see one use of these. Once the power requirements are reduced, Sony will be placing them inside thier Mavica line of digital cameras. That market is much more profitable then the commodity computer parts market. They might even put digital music on it if they can be sure it will not be "copied".
Why are we using disks anymore anyway? Hasn't anyone noticed that you don't need disks anymore when you have a network? Where are the cameras with a built-in FTP/file server and Ethernet, 802.11, or Bluetooth links?
Last time I went out to the local zoo with my point and shot camera, there was no wireless network for me to dump digital pictures to. USB/ethernet/Bluetooth will only be good for moving the persistant data from the camera to another machine. The camera will still need some kind of persistant storage media such as Flash, WORM, or disk.
Lesson learned from this one is that only people who can shout loudly can state thier opinions. If you don't have access to a megaphone (large network pipe), any band of opponents can stifle your voice by DoS-ing your ISP and forcing them to knock you off. This is a sad day for the those who think the first amendment is a good concept.
To play the devil's advocate, if an ISP sees a DDoS agains one client, and the removal of that client will allow hundreds of other clients to retain access, the ISP should remove the one for the good of the many.
When was the last time you lost track of tethered mouse while it was connected to the machine? Ok, now tell me where all of the remote controls in your house are. Take your time looking for each one.
Unless this device has the a static footprint like a trackball or trackpad it is going to get lost very easily. And if these wireless devices find thier way into school or libraries (like lots of apple equiptment) the non tethered devices will disappear like free candy.
$1000 seems pretty steep when you can get a SIMM-sized computer for $50 from Dallas Semiconductor. It's called TINI (get it?). If you haven't seen it before, take a look; it runs Java and includes an ethernet connection and an interface to their iButton components.
Some projects require more then just a processor with a tiny bit of ram. I'd like streaming MPEG-1 video encoding and 802.11 ethernet. TIQIT is much closer to that goal then TINI.
Faster chips are nice, but what I really want is a faster front side bus. I've been working on a long running project that deals with processing lots of large multimedia data. Even though our CPUs have been getting faster, our processing isn't taking less time because we are being IO limited.
I'd much rather have a 400 Mhz cpu with a 400 Mhz bus then a 1.5 Ghz box sitting over a 133 Mhz bus.
I run a service that converts (read: translates) files from some random format to another format. Can a site decided it does not like how it's web page is formated when people do the html->pdf or pdf->text conversion and sue me? What is the difference between encoding a text with MIME base64 and encoding a text with JIVE or VALLEY GIRL? Where will this stop?
The speed of light is about 1864 miles per second (3e6 meters/sec)*(3.2 feet/meter)*( 1/5280 miles/feet). So the time to travel 100 miles is about 0.0536 seconds. Add in some time for electronics to switch states, and it goes up. IIRC, this is faster then the theorical max speed for copper wire, since you have to play fun games with internal resistance and the like. Also faster then your woody station wagon with tapes.
Before you start shouting bloody murder, read the FAQ on the page. DivX is Microsoft's implmention of the MPEG-4 video standard that has been embraced and extended. DIVX is that awful DVD scheme from Circut City. You have been warned.
It would cost very little for a company to release the documenation for obsolete hardware and allow the Open Source community to maintain it. The problem is they would lose sales for new products. Without the new sales, they can't improve the product line more, and they fall by the wayside. That is a bit extreme, but it is something that should be considered.
...it is just the answer most of the time. I have found perl to be useful for quick prototypes of server behaviour and good for little hacks. Once the main ideas are flushed out, it is time to implement the code in C if you really care about speed. I'm old school, so I like working with C.
Perl and Java are good for things that use databases. Maybe python too. Lisp is good for algorithms. C is good for speed. VBASIC is useful for windows dependant stuff.
Avoid shell scripts. Use safe_perl, safe_python or the equiv. Use lots of ASSERTS in you C if you do that. Watch for NULL obects in Java. Let someone else warn you about BASIC-like languages. Then use the language you are most comfortable with.
It was mentioned that one of the papers was interested in using bar codes of URLs as part of classified ads. Honest people would use it to include extra information about the item being sold. Dishonest people (and they do exists) would use the URLs to point to pages filled with p0rn banner ads, paid for by the click-through. Happens all the time with online classified, why not this.
I also hate to bring this up here, but, look at what happened in Miami last week-end. The federal government had NO LEGAL AUTHORITY to do what they did, but they had 150 men with HK MP5 sub-machineguns so who could have stopped them?
Since when does the government need anything more then a warrent signed by a judge? A court order was ignored by those citizens, and the remafication were inforced. Just like Citizen Mitnick broke the laws of land, the ramifications are being enforced.
Banner ads on movies is just wrong from the point of view of the content provider. They have a product they want you to watch and they want your attention for the full experience. If halfway through the production, you see a banner ad for "myMonkey.com" and decide to leave to view that, they just lost you. If there are any ads, expect them to come at the begining or the end of the film.
Lets say Celera does finish the mapping before the Genome project can. Celera then sells to researches data from the mapping. What happens when the Genome project completes and gives the information away? Can Celera call it theft of intelectual property?
However - and here's my big complaint - there's still no SMP Athalon! That really, really sucks. Considering that the Athalon is down to $1 a mhz for the mid-range speeds (eg, 700mhz or so), it's almost a crime that there's no SMP motherboard available. A two or four processor Athalon system costing less than $2000 could probably do the same amount of rendering as a $10,000+ Alpha system. It's a REAL shame.
The processor must have on chip support for SMP. If they never allocated the die space for those SMP command, no amount of begging, praying or hacking will give you SMP. Since the Athalon has been out for a while and no one has produced an SMP machine from them, I'll say they never planned on it. Can someone else back me up or shot me down?
Slashdot Mirror
You can find it on the bottom of this link. If you can't get there, it is
SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. Gifu Plant
180 Ohmori, Anpachi-cho, Anpachi-gun, Gifu
Alright, that explains why the load average on my server is up to 30 and 40. There is just an old Sparc4 doing the bulk of the converstion. If things go slowly, now you know.
Normally I don't reply to language flames, but this one is called for. Person A uses a phrase to describe an event. Person B requests clarification on how that phrase is relevant. Person A declares B is ignornat for not already understanding the context. In my opinion, if you can't explain to someone why you used a phrase/concept/code segment/idea, then your understanding of that phrase/concept/code segment/idea in context must be flawed.
Why is copying GBA games "rude"? Is it morally offensive? If so, who's morals is it offending? How does this effect the manufacturers? The owners of the games? How about a person who wants to play a game that is out of print? Is copying "being rude" to them?
From what I hear tell, you can do things like change the screen depth/resolution, install and remove programs and install and remove drivers without a reboot. There is also a claim that stability has increased, but that has to be seen.
It takes so long for a patch to make it's way out in to the world because they have to verify that all the actual features in the code didn't break. That is an expensive and time consuming operation that the *nix does not go through in as much force. Remember, automatic regression testing will only get you so far.
Time passed, and I got a second warning. The head admin forwarded the letter to the legal dept who replied to the Barney Lawyers something to the effect of "Yeah, we agree it is offensive but it is not illegal." Haven't heard from them since. I have this all written up here.
This kind of automatic "Give me the source, give me the BSD style license" makes me sick. Not everything has to be free and open to make it useful.
Also, this is a research project. Not a proposed standard, not a cog on someone else's wheel, but a project to answer a real world problem. To quote the grad's web page "[m]y thesis research is focusing on providing connectivity across Internet networks of heterogeneous address spaces." You know, doing something useful as opposed to just writing some hack and giving it to the world.
What have you contributed to open source?
As for HTTP, most firewalls will let it through so sys admins won't have to start opening up new ports for this newborn system.
There are other ways of doing this, such as CORBA. Look how that caught on like wildfire!
I could deal with Mosaic's rendering bugs because it was "new". I was amused that Netscape 1 had the same bugs. I still have a copy of Netscape 2 on one of my NT boxes because it was the last of the small browsers. Netscape 3 just left me cold. Netscape 4 has been around for too long without a proper update. I've tried using Netscape 6 beta and M16 (which I'm using now till it crashes again) and I'm still not impressed. Pretty widgets don't matter when moving the mouse inside window will cause my machine to reboot! I will be content when javascript, the bane of the universe, fails to crash my browser. If it wasn't for the security problems, I'd be using IE, and if M17 doesn't get here soon I might just have to. </BITTER>
I can see one use of these. Once the power requirements are reduced, Sony will be placing them inside thier Mavica line of digital cameras. That market is much more profitable then the commodity computer parts market. They might even put digital music on it if they can be sure it will not be "copied".
Last time I went out to the local zoo with my point and shot camera, there was no wireless network for me to dump digital pictures to. USB/ethernet/Bluetooth will only be good for moving the persistant data from the camera to another machine. The camera will still need some kind of persistant storage media such as Flash, WORM, or disk.
To play the devil's advocate, if an ISP sees a DDoS agains one client, and the removal of that client will allow hundreds of other clients to retain access, the ISP should remove the one for the good of the many.
Unless this device has the a static footprint like a trackball or trackpad it is going to get lost very easily. And if these wireless devices find thier way into school or libraries (like lots of apple equiptment) the non tethered devices will disappear like free candy.
Some projects require more then just a processor with a tiny bit of ram. I'd like streaming MPEG-1 video encoding and 802.11 ethernet. TIQIT is much closer to that goal then TINI.
Faster chips are nice, but what I really want is a faster front side bus. I've been working on a long running project that deals with processing lots of large multimedia data. Even though our CPUs have been getting faster, our processing isn't taking less time because we are being IO limited.
I'd much rather have a 400 Mhz cpu with a 400 Mhz bus then a 1.5 Ghz box sitting over a 133 Mhz bus.
A starved CPU does no math.
I run a service that converts (read: translates) files from some random format to another format. Can a site decided it does not like how it's web page is formated when people do the html->pdf or pdf->text conversion and sue me? What is the difference between encoding a text with MIME base64 and encoding a text with JIVE or VALLEY GIRL? Where will this stop?
The speed of light is about 1864 miles per second (3e6 meters/sec)*(3.2 feet/meter)*( 1/5280 miles/feet). So the time to travel 100 miles is about 0.0536 seconds. Add in some time for electronics to switch states, and it goes up. IIRC, this is faster then the theorical max speed for copper wire, since you have to play fun games with internal resistance and the like. Also faster then your woody station wagon with tapes.
Before you start shouting bloody murder, read the FAQ on the page. DivX is Microsoft's implmention of the MPEG-4 video standard that has been embraced and extended. DIVX is that awful DVD scheme from Circut City. You have been warned.
It would cost very little for a company to release the documenation for obsolete hardware and allow the Open Source community to maintain it. The problem is they would lose sales for new products. Without the new sales, they can't improve the product line more, and they fall by the wayside. That is a bit extreme, but it is something that should be considered.
Perl and Java are good for things that use databases. Maybe python too. Lisp is good for algorithms. C is good for speed. VBASIC is useful for windows dependant stuff.
Avoid shell scripts. Use safe_perl, safe_python or the equiv. Use lots of ASSERTS in you C if you do that. Watch for NULL obects in Java. Let someone else warn you about BASIC-like languages. Then use the language you are most comfortable with.
It was mentioned that one of the papers was interested in using bar codes of URLs as part of classified ads. Honest people would use it to include extra information about the item being sold. Dishonest people (and they do exists) would use the URLs to point to pages filled with p0rn banner ads, paid for by the click-through. Happens all the time with online classified, why not this.
Since when does the government need anything more then a warrent signed by a judge? A court order was ignored by those citizens, and the remafication were inforced. Just like Citizen Mitnick broke the laws of land, the ramifications are being enforced.
Banner ads on movies is just wrong from the point of view of the content provider. They have a product they want you to watch and they want your attention for the full experience. If halfway through the production, you see a banner ad for "myMonkey.com" and decide to leave to view that, they just lost you. If there are any ads, expect them to come at the begining or the end of the film.
Lets say Celera does finish the mapping before the Genome project can. Celera then sells to researches data from the mapping. What happens when the Genome project completes and gives the information away? Can Celera call it theft of intelectual property?
However - and here's my big complaint - there's still no SMP Athalon! That really, really sucks. Considering that the Athalon is down to $1 a mhz for the mid-range speeds (eg, 700mhz or so), it's almost a crime that there's no SMP motherboard available. A two or four processor Athalon system costing less than $2000 could probably do the same amount of rendering as a $10,000+ Alpha system. It's a REAL shame.
The processor must have on chip support for SMP. If they never allocated the die space for those SMP command, no amount of begging, praying or hacking will give you SMP. Since the Athalon has been out for a while and no one has produced an SMP machine from them, I'll say they never planned on it. Can someone else back me up or shot me down?