This weekend I went to my local Radio Shack and asked for their "free barcode scanner". Took it home, hooked it up. Downloaded a cuecat "driver" (not really a driver, just reads data from keyboard port where cuecat is plugged in). Didn't work. Also my mouse stopped responding until I went to a non-X virtual terminal and back. After a while, I realized it wouldn't work under X. I also noticed that the cat's "mouth light" stays on continuously.
Does the "real" driver fix any of this? Will it let me use the cat under X and will it let me shut off the light? If not, this thing is probably going in the trash. I'm not switching terminals (and re-logging in) just to scan an item--especially since I can't then launch any X apps from the data I scan. --
His dire predictions of acid rain and recommendation to colonize space is just a ploy to get all out of reach of Earth's gravity where his disability will no longer affect him--and he can crush us like bugs with his mighty exoskeleton! --
SDMI is supposedly watermarking the signal via inaudible frequencies, right? Check out this marketing:
SDMI: the new technology that can encode digital music data beyond the range of human hearing! Today's CD players can't match that and MP3's are a vague shadow. For quality you can't beat, use SDMI! --
Get a job in tech support. Your odd accents and peculiar word choices are perfect match to detailed instructions and technical vocabulary that the common person needs to understand. --
"Watermarking is steganography, and steganography works..."
Simple steg works on the level of obscurity: "I've put some secret values in some of the bits of this jpeg but I'm not going to tell you which bits." This is easy to defeat, especially if ALL jpegs have the same watermark (or watermarking system). Just find those bits or better yet, modify ALL the bits.
More complex steg would involve calculating some value based on a key and stegging from there (presumably in a way that would require destroying the "wrapper" data to destroy the steg). Then the recipient needs the decoder. Great system---except that we'll all have decoders. Every SDMIMan (like WalkMan) will have one built in. Just reverse engineer this device and boom, you have decoded your music.
And since each song only needs to be decoded once for freedom to reign....we'll, you get the picture. --
I don't mean to dis the hardware you obviously love--I like it too. I'm also not trying to say you (and the other Alpha Linux gurus) aren't doing a good job. I'm just saying that you don't have the critical mass needed to absorb very many news users at once--which keeps your numbers low in a viscious circle. With more users you get more questions and then more answers. Further new users doing searches find those answers and can jump in easily.
When I search for the answer to a problem with Intel Linux, I eventually find the answer among the hundreds of hits. When I search for the answer to a problem with Alpha Linux, I often don't find the answer among the dozens of hits.
As a datapoint: I've been using Linux for 4-5 years on Intel. I'm very comfortable installing it. I've been using Alpha Linux for 6 months and I've installed it on 3 machines (multiple times on 2 of them). On all 3 machines I struggled for at least a day (and in one case multiple weeks) trying to get Linux installed. Yes, I did eventually get it, with many thanks going to the efforts of the AlphaLinux people (and mailing lists). But it's still nowhere like as well-documented as Intel. --
What an interesting phrase. Note how scientists are encouraged/enabled to share ideas/data/information. Note how the hoi polloi are not. What's the diff? Not money--we all know how much money a good scientific discovery can make.
The difference is that when scientists starting publicizing their ideas for the purposes of testing and priority, they also unwittingly tapped into the REAL benefit (to society): knowledge is power. Sure, you can make money off of things that you know that I don't. But that's chump change compared to what we can do if we share what we know. Non-scientific fields have yet to figure this out.
The first society to allow (mandate?) free sharing of ideas to everyone (while still giving scientific-priority-style credit to the originator) is going to look back at us and laugh: "They thought they could advance by keeping secrets! What fools!" --
"Judging the entire Alpha line of boxen by it's first incarnation (the jensen) is not a fair comparision."
I'm not "judging the entire Alpha line...by...the jensen...". I am saying that lack of documentation of the Jensen is an example of lack of documentation in general.
And if you think that HOWTO is worth the electrons it's printed on, you have another think coming. When I was searching for information on how to install on the Jensen I found no fewer than three mutually contradictory sets of instructions (none of which was complete or completely accurate) along with numerous incorrect links to further information and even a bad firmware (?) file hosted on Digital's own FTP server.
As an(other) example of poor docs: During a RH install on an SRM-booting, "generic" Alpha how do you fdisk? With Disk Druid or with fdisk? Wrong! You use the "bsd mode" of fdisk--except that doesn't seem to always work. Don't bother responding with corrections to this, the fact that I haven't been able to find the answer in existing docs is the issue here, not this particular problem. --
Somehow I had gottten this rosy picture that engineers (especially software engineers), being people who were paid to think, would be smarter than to use drugs. I personally don't do drugs (scared of needles), drink (hate the taste of alchohol), smoke (allergic to tobacco smoke) or gamble (inefficient).
Now that I look over that list of reasons, none of them is "because I'm smart". Maybe thinking has nothing to do with it. --
"Not to mention that they have the support in place to handle what large companies demand."
And ONLY what large companies demand. Of those large companies using Linux, how many are using it on Sparc? Few to none, is my guess.
Furthermore, it's easy to see why. Linux on Intel is easy to install and find support on the Internet for. But I've done a few Linux on Alpha installs, and let me tell you that once you leave the warmth and light of the x86 world you are on your own. This isn't to say that AlphaLinux is no good--far from it. I like the hardware and the software. But the support is hard to come buy--if the mailing list doesn't respond or doesn't know you are pretty much toast. Sparc Linux, being even more rare is probably 10 times worse.
I'm sure to be marked as "flamebait" unless I include some examples, so here we are:
Installing on a Jensen.
Using MILO (I've read and re-read the howto and damned if I can figure it out)
The many many (many) patches and updates you need to install after getting a distro (say, RedHat) installed (system clock date to 2020, net-tools, etc).
Again, I'm not saying the above problems make Alpha Linux bad--I'm saying that the poor documentation of the above problems makes Alpha Linux scary. --
1) I didn't intend to be condescending, although I DID mean to spank. Either Rob doesn't understand what the biggest problem is OR he's giving the wrong impression to the less knowledgeable among us.
2) "...weren't selling our data to anyone for profit."
No, but the data still got out. Is that somehow better because Slashdot didn't make a profit on the deal. Yes, it makes them less evil--but it doesn't make them smarter.
Why can't someone create a webpad that isn't a User Experience? Why not just create a simple "remote display" pad? That way the user can use whatever programs (and processing power) they already have on their desktop (which they have already customized or at least gotten used to).
The only answer I can think of is: distance. If it's just a remote display, you can't tote it around outside the house. I have two responses:
1) So what? It would still be a useful product--wireless will get you pretty far (the yard and maybe even next door).
2) Ubiquitous wireless: People say how great it would be if they could be "always on" but never mention the problems of synching up your palm with your car with your phone with your desktop. So why not integrate all these things: Your house has a "computer center" (a regular desktop would do) and all your remote devices are just displays from that center. Now synchronization in time (when I switch devies) AND in space (when I'm using device A and wifey is using device B) is automatic.
Of course, given that only Linux (with it's multi-user, multi-processing, remote display-enabled X server) is well-placed to provide this need is just a plus... --
The poster isn't asking them to release for free. He isn't even asking them to release electronically with the hidden motive of making free copies. He's asking them to make money the old-fashioned way: Print On Paper. --
I'm poorly managed but probably in a different sense than many of you are thinking. I don't have a bad manager--heck, I barely HAVE a manager. That's the problem. I spend a lot of my time haring off on things that either don't need doing or don't need doing by me. I've finally learned to just look blank when the tech support person comes over with questions about how to make NT work: "I dunno," I say, and go back to programming (on Linux, thank God). In some ways I like this (freedom, and not just to mess around, but to do the stuff that I know needs doing) but in other ways I hate it (no "roadmap").
In my previous job (as a "team leader") I tried to take a more active role in managing the programmer's time. I always had a mental list of every project each person (3 of them) were working on and a rough idea as to status. Once in a while (every couple days) I pop in and make sure my head matched reality. It seemed to work pretty well--I didn't have any complaints and even got one compliment (from a programmer). Just think of the team as a furnace that needs a constant supply of coal--boredom is 90% of the problem. (the rest is variety--color some of your coal read 8^)) --
We are only now re-discovering technology that the ancients (people in the early 1990's) were already well aware of.
Seriously, I remember reading about this same technology in 1994 (in plastic). Furthermore, we've seen stories like this before on Slashdot (in paper). In fact, the paper one had a website where you could order the object you wanted and have it shipped to you.
Why is the/. readership more in tune with the archives than the/. editorship? --
I didn't actually READ the story, but I skimmed it and the quote about "we'd pretty much release anything the Linux community wants" (which was in big letters in the middle of a page) jumped right out at me. "Uh oh", I thought, "when Slashdot runs this story (which they are guaranteed to do, if only to get people to buy the mag and thus see the interview with Taco and Hemos) it's Abuse City".
For instance, how about this, IBM: Release the software you used to run the Olympics.
Now, I'm not accusing IBM of jumping on the bandwagon--I think their Linux support has been great (practically) and genuine (philosophically). But that doesn't warrant crazy statements that imply Gerstner is ESR or RMS's bitch. For good or for ill, IBM's goals do not correspond with mine--therefore not everything they do will make me happy. They'd be more honest (and thus keep their good rep clean) if they just admitted this. --
"If you think you're l33t at using buzzwords, try Alan Sokal."
If I could have remembered this guy's name I would have posted the same link. And I fully agree with your assessment of Wired, although I came to the same conclusion after just 6 months (I was probably a little older and they were probably much more obvious).
I think Wired would be a lot more entertaining if they had "about the author" bits that were honest: "Joe Schmoe wrote this entire column on CyberPeople but deletes stuff from his harddrive when he runs low on 'memory'." --
Maybe King should think twice before blaming (non-)buyers. Maybe the real issue is that a lot of people paid for the first one, thought the quality wasn't worth the price but downloaded the second "just to see how it came out". I'd like to see the same experiment tried with someone who still has a few good stories left: imagine the next 3 Harry Potter books as electronic. --
Slashdot Mirror
This weekend I went to my local Radio Shack and asked for their "free barcode scanner". Took it home, hooked it up. Downloaded a cuecat "driver" (not really a driver, just reads data from keyboard port where cuecat is plugged in). Didn't work. Also my mouse stopped responding until I went to a non-X virtual terminal and back. After a while, I realized it wouldn't work under X. I also noticed that the cat's "mouth light" stays on continuously.
Does the "real" driver fix any of this? Will it let me use the cat under X and will it let me shut off the light? If not, this thing is probably going in the trash. I'm not switching terminals (and re-logging in) just to scan an item--especially since I can't then launch any X apps from the data I scan.
--
Enough is enough. The madness must end. We need to organize a letter writing campaign with one aim in mind:
Make Slashdot stop posting stupid patent stories.
--
Hawking On Earth's Lifespan
cchcchcch...ptoo. Take that, Earth's lifespan.
--
His dire predictions of acid rain and recommendation to colonize space is just a ploy to get all out of reach of Earth's gravity where his disability will no longer affect him--and he can crush us like bugs with his mighty exoskeleton!
--
SDMI is supposedly watermarking the signal via inaudible frequencies, right? Check out this marketing:
SDMI: the new technology that can encode digital music data beyond the range of human hearing! Today's CD players can't match that and MP3's are a vague shadow. For quality you can't beat, use SDMI!
--
Get a job in tech support. Your odd accents and peculiar word choices are perfect match to detailed instructions and technical vocabulary that the common person needs to understand.
--
"Watermarking is steganography, and steganography works..."
Simple steg works on the level of obscurity: "I've put some secret values in some of the bits of this jpeg but I'm not going to tell you which bits." This is easy to defeat, especially if ALL jpegs have the same watermark (or watermarking system). Just find those bits or better yet, modify ALL the bits.
More complex steg would involve calculating some value based on a key and stegging from there (presumably in a way that would require destroying the "wrapper" data to destroy the steg). Then the recipient needs the decoder. Great system---except that we'll all have decoders. Every SDMIMan (like WalkMan) will have one built in. Just reverse engineer this device and boom, you have decoded your music.
And since each song only needs to be decoded once for freedom to reign....we'll, you get the picture.
--
"...print moves a little slower then us."
That's because print takes time to proofread.
--
I don't mean to dis the hardware you obviously love--I like it too. I'm also not trying to say you (and the other Alpha Linux gurus) aren't doing a good job. I'm just saying that you don't have the critical mass needed to absorb very many news users at once--which keeps your numbers low in a viscious circle. With more users you get more questions and then more answers. Further new users doing searches find those answers and can jump in easily.
When I search for the answer to a problem with Intel Linux, I eventually find the answer among the hundreds of hits. When I search for the answer to a problem with Alpha Linux, I often don't find the answer among the dozens of hits.
As a datapoint: I've been using Linux for 4-5 years on Intel. I'm very comfortable installing it. I've been using Alpha Linux for 6 months and I've installed it on 3 machines (multiple times on 2 of them). On all 3 machines I struggled for at least a day (and in one case multiple weeks) trying to get Linux installed. Yes, I did eventually get it, with many thanks going to the efforts of the AlphaLinux people (and mailing lists). But it's still nowhere like as well-documented as Intel.
--
What an interesting phrase. Note how scientists are encouraged/enabled to share ideas/data/information. Note how the hoi polloi are not. What's the diff? Not money--we all know how much money a good scientific discovery can make.
The difference is that when scientists starting publicizing their ideas for the purposes of testing and priority, they also unwittingly tapped into the REAL benefit (to society): knowledge is power. Sure, you can make money off of things that you know that I don't. But that's chump change compared to what we can do if we share what we know. Non-scientific fields have yet to figure this out.
The first society to allow (mandate?) free sharing of ideas to everyone (while still giving scientific-priority-style credit to the originator) is going to look back at us and laugh: "They thought they could advance by keeping secrets! What fools!"
--
"Judging the entire Alpha line of boxen by it's first incarnation (the jensen) is not a fair comparision."
I'm not "judging the entire Alpha line...by...the jensen...". I am saying that lack of documentation of the Jensen is an example of lack of documentation in general.
And if you think that HOWTO is worth the electrons it's printed on, you have another think coming. When I was searching for information on how to install on the Jensen I found no fewer than three mutually contradictory sets of instructions (none of which was complete or completely accurate) along with numerous incorrect links to further information and even a bad firmware (?) file hosted on Digital's own FTP server.
As an(other) example of poor docs: During a RH install on an SRM-booting, "generic" Alpha how do you fdisk? With Disk Druid or with fdisk? Wrong! You use the "bsd mode" of fdisk--except that doesn't seem to always work. Don't bother responding with corrections to this, the fact that I haven't been able to find the answer in existing docs is the issue here, not this particular problem.
--
Somehow I had gottten this rosy picture that engineers (especially software engineers), being people who were paid to think, would be smarter than to use drugs. I personally don't do drugs (scared of needles), drink (hate the taste of alchohol), smoke (allergic to tobacco smoke) or gamble (inefficient).
Now that I look over that list of reasons, none of them is "because I'm smart". Maybe thinking has nothing to do with it.
--
"Not to mention that they have the support in place to handle what large companies demand."
And ONLY what large companies demand. Of those large companies using Linux, how many are using it on Sparc? Few to none, is my guess.
Furthermore, it's easy to see why. Linux on Intel is easy to install and find support on the Internet for. But I've done a few Linux on Alpha installs, and let me tell you that once you leave the warmth and light of the x86 world you are on your own. This isn't to say that AlphaLinux is no good--far from it. I like the hardware and the software. But the support is hard to come buy--if the mailing list doesn't respond or doesn't know you are pretty much toast. Sparc Linux, being even more rare is probably 10 times worse.
I'm sure to be marked as "flamebait" unless I include some examples, so here we are:
Installing on a Jensen.
Using MILO (I've read and re-read the howto and damned if I can figure it out)
The many many (many) patches and updates you need to install after getting a distro (say, RedHat) installed (system clock date to 2020, net-tools, etc).
Again, I'm not saying the above problems make Alpha Linux bad--I'm saying that the poor documentation of the above problems makes Alpha Linux scary.
--
Samba. Store and encrypt the files on Linux (or even Win2k) and then share them out to NT4 for work.
--
1) I didn't intend to be condescending, although I DID mean to spank. Either Rob doesn't understand what the biggest problem is OR he's giving the wrong impression to the less knowledgeable among us.
2) "...weren't selling our data to anyone for profit."
No, but the data still got out. Is that somehow better because Slashdot didn't make a profit on the deal. Yes, it makes them less evil--but it doesn't make them smarter.
--
Which is easier:
Sniffing 10,000 network connections to get 100,000 passwords
Getting one big password file
--
Why can't someone create a webpad that isn't a User Experience? Why not just create a simple "remote display" pad? That way the user can use whatever programs (and processing power) they already have on their desktop (which they have already customized or at least gotten used to).
The only answer I can think of is: distance. If it's just a remote display, you can't tote it around outside the house. I have two responses:
1) So what? It would still be a useful product--wireless will get you pretty far (the yard and maybe even next door).
2) Ubiquitous wireless: People say how great it would be if they could be "always on" but never mention the problems of synching up your palm with your car with your phone with your desktop. So why not integrate all these things: Your house has a "computer center" (a regular desktop would do) and all your remote devices are just displays from that center. Now synchronization in time (when I switch devies) AND in space (when I'm using device A and wifey is using device B) is automatic.
Of course, given that only Linux (with it's multi-user, multi-processing, remote display-enabled X server) is well-placed to provide this need is just a plus...
--
The poster isn't asking them to release for free. He isn't even asking them to release electronically with the hidden motive of making free copies. He's asking them to make money the old-fashioned way: Print On Paper.
--
At my previous job, there were days when I literally did nothing but read Slashdot all day. Many many of these days. Many.
Even now (at a job I largely enjoy) I keep a Slashdot windows open at all times--to peruse while code compiles, etc.
--
I'm poorly managed but probably in a different sense than many of you are thinking. I don't have a bad manager--heck, I barely HAVE a manager. That's the problem. I spend a lot of my time haring off on things that either don't need doing or don't need doing by me. I've finally learned to just look blank when the tech support person comes over with questions about how to make NT work: "I dunno," I say, and go back to programming (on Linux, thank God). In some ways I like this (freedom, and not just to mess around, but to do the stuff that I know needs doing) but in other ways I hate it (no "roadmap").
In my previous job (as a "team leader") I tried to take a more active role in managing the programmer's time. I always had a mental list of every project each person (3 of them) were working on and a rough idea as to status. Once in a while (every couple days) I pop in and make sure my head matched reality. It seemed to work pretty well--I didn't have any complaints and even got one compliment (from a programmer). Just think of the team as a furnace that needs a constant supply of coal--boredom is 90% of the problem. (the rest is variety--color some of your coal read 8^))
--
We are only now re-discovering technology that the ancients (people in the early 1990's) were already well aware of.
/. readership more in tune with the archives than the /. editorship?
Seriously, I remember reading about this same technology in 1994 (in plastic). Furthermore, we've seen stories like this before on Slashdot (in paper). In fact, the paper one had a website where you could order the object you wanted and have it shipped to you.
Why is the
--
I didn't actually READ the story, but I skimmed it and the quote about "we'd pretty much release anything the Linux community wants" (which was in big letters in the middle of a page) jumped right out at me. "Uh oh", I thought, "when Slashdot runs this story (which they are guaranteed to do, if only to get people to buy the mag and thus see the interview with Taco and Hemos) it's Abuse City".
For instance, how about this, IBM: Release the software you used to run the Olympics.
Now, I'm not accusing IBM of jumping on the bandwagon--I think their Linux support has been great (practically) and genuine (philosophically). But that doesn't warrant crazy statements that imply Gerstner is ESR or RMS's bitch. For good or for ill, IBM's goals do not correspond with mine--therefore not everything they do will make me happy. They'd be more honest (and thus keep their good rep clean) if they just admitted this.
--
"If you think you're l33t at using buzzwords, try Alan Sokal."
If I could have remembered this guy's name I would have posted the same link. And I fully agree with your assessment of Wired, although I came to the same conclusion after just 6 months (I was probably a little older and they were probably much more obvious).
I think Wired would be a lot more entertaining if they had "about the author" bits that were honest: "Joe Schmoe wrote this entire column on CyberPeople but deletes stuff from his harddrive when he runs low on 'memory'."
--
Maybe King should think twice before blaming (non-)buyers. Maybe the real issue is that a lot of people paid for the first one, thought the quality wasn't worth the price but downloaded the second "just to see how it came out". I'd like to see the same experiment tried with someone who still has a few good stories left: imagine the next 3 Harry Potter books as electronic.
--
I did a search for "Bogo" to find the BogoMIPS and found this:
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Feh, I thought, either Alpha's REALLY suck or (more likely) there's a bug there. Then I took a closer look:
SMP starting up secondaries.
Calibrating delay loop... 1493.17 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1493.17 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1493.17 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
SMP: Total of 31 processors activated (46170.90 BogoMIPS).
Oh.
--