Anything that weakens our (US) patent system can't be all bad. If it also strengthen's States' Rights as a consequence, even better. The reasons for its creation (history, anyone?) was to protect ants (like us) from giants and to protect innovation.
It its current form, it serves mainly towards the obverse of both. Innovation is thwarted by vague terms and legal entanglements. Our court system was meant to serve as an equalizing ground in which justice is blind. As for the flavor of our court system applied to patents, the best attorney (or panel of them) often wins. For cases in which the ant cannot lose, the giant's skilled panel of lawyers can delay a decision for years.
Hence, my (radical) conclusion: if your hand goes bad, its best to cut it off...
This post truly strikes at the heart of the matter, Goggle Displays. Enumerating the weaknesses of perl (of course it has some) really helps to illuminate things (ha-ha).
Personally, I'm a C-programmer/SysAdmin, but perl certainly has its place.
Everyone, please. More opinions about C-vs-Perl. Here's as good a place as any...
As to the Gerber Multiplier, the design of its locking mechanisms is much better. The pliers are much more comfortable to use and capable of greater force (suitable (in a pinch) for crimping). This comes at a cost, economy of size.
The "good ol'" Leatherman is much handier and definitely has size on its side. However, after lots of use the intergrated "locking spring" loses its strength. I can't count the number of times I've banged my fingers trying to loosen a tight phillips-head.
Spyderco... I got a Spyderco knife (as a gift), and where it is very wierd looking, the blade steel is high quality (good tensile, not brittle, keeps an edge). As far as the "Spyderco Wrench" goes, It looks like something straight out of R'lyeh (nearly went insane looking at it). This might make for a better knife, a better screwdriver, etc. than either the Leatherman or Gerber, but it sure doesn't look "handy".
Fully stocked toolboxes... Obviously better than any belt-device, albeit unwieldy to strap to one's waist. I guess the realy question is: "How far are you willing to go?":)
Noting that these "children" wore depressing colors and played violent games with scary names (ie. Doom) is important.
It is also very important to note that:
95% of murderers have eaten ice-cream at one point in their troubled lives.
99% of murderers have seen at least three episodes of a TV sitcom.
Clearly,
Scary Games and dreary attire must be discouraged, but...
Our true enemies are TV-sitcoms and ice-cream. Someone put an end to these killers.
In short, both the public and the media have a need to find simple explanations and comfortable correlations for anything uncomfortable. To say the truth (that these changelings were wacko looney sicko's)just doesn't fit neatly into a PC world view.
The unknown is scary, and to the majority, Doom, the Internet and other non-appliance technologies represent that scary unknown. Here's how it all happens:
Compaq released ("free") fast-math libraries for AlphaLinux, along with plans for optimized compilers.
Almost every (new) document about Compaq/Alpha mentioned linux (ie: "New for Tru64 and Linux".)
Compaq announced product lines targeted at the Linux-market (DS10).
Summary: There was never that level of linux-committment from Intel. Go to IBM's site, and they'll tell you that Linux is the perfect-fit for low-end/low-demand systems, in stark contrast with AIX.
Alpha: Lets pretend it doesn't exist
Even the "old"(21164) Alpha's beat new Intel's in integer perf. Comparing fp-perfs isn't even fair.
21164's also easily beat the other "best-of-breed" (Sparc/Mips) in both integer and fp, as well as having a dramatically lower unit cost.
21264 (new+expensive) offers significantly better performance than any other cpu, while remaining price-competitive with Sparc/Mips.
Microsoft (non_intel==fringe) People thinking within the mainstream is a critical element to MS's success. As soon as a consumer's mind wanders outside the NT/Intel sandtrap (even into NT/Alpha), who knows where it might go next? No wonder MS ignored the Alpha.
Summary: Alpha has been the enemy of the computer industry giants since inception.
Whereas the author's logical constructs fit together nicely, these theories merely "look good on paper". We also can't underemphasize: the author slept through the (libre != gratis) portion of the lecture.
This whole "best of both worlds" (commercial and free s/w) scheme (started by Sun(?)) should be ignored or opposed, as it will serve only to dilute what the GPL(and similar) has brought us. The growth we are witnessing now is because the code was unshackled. Now we hear of a complex, restrictive system that seeks a middle-ground. Partly free is not free. That which has "the best" of both an apple and an orange is neither.
Likewise, ("once again") I meant no offense, and I took none. ( after all, I don't decide what's newsworthy:-) ).
By all means, express yourself, that's what forums are for. It just so happens someone (me) disagrees, no big deal. Millions of people disagree with me on a daily basis...
On the flip side, "I don't want to see this" posts do kinda' bug me, and I'm just expressing myself.
All of this is a moot point anyway. You can filter it all away...
Likewise, I think all of the changes I've noticed of late have been either fair, good or downright terrific.
Not meaning to offend anyone either, but I'm "quite sick" of people saying "I'm sick of seeing this". Some of the other posts mention changing your prefs, but even that shouldn't be necessary. Seriously,/. always has less than 50 posts per day. Saying "yeah, who cares" and scrolling down shouldn't be a problem.
Maybe I'm sick of hearing about BeOS (I'm not, really). 1000's of other readers may have keen interest. Maybe 1000's more hate hearing about BeOS. Should we then remove it (or nestle it away in a sub-sub-page)? This can lead only one place: Slashdot representing only the lowest common denominator.
Personally, I have only passing interest in BeOS, but I'm glad for the diversity that adds.
(sorry for the top level post, there were too many good points raised and I don't have time to reply to them all individually)
Vehicle vs. Passenger In a production environment, one should think of an OS as a vehicle for your applications ( first off, my preferred vehicle is Linux ). If the choices were:
{ OS=Linux, APP=Oracle }
{ OS=Sparc-Solaris, APP=Oracle }
{ OS=ix86-Solaris, APP=Oracle }
I'd say "Go with Linux." with little hesitation ( see Scaling ). In reality, however, the real choices are:
{ OS=Linux, APP=Oracle-Linux }
{ OS=Sparc-Solaris, APP=Oracle-Sparc }
{ OS=ix86-Solaris, APP=Oracle-ix86 }
So, assuming all else is equal, you've got to ask, "is Oracle-Linux a good motorist?" I don't know the answer.
Scaling As far as Oracle scaling goes, you're pretty much stuck with the (ugly+expensive) vertical scaling. ( that means you can't install PVM on a bunch of machines and sit back ).
With x86 hardware, you can't get much more than: (4x)xeon, (2x)wide-diff-ctlr, (1x)internal-scsi, (35x)disk
With Sparc hardware (for example), we've got an SunOS-UltraE4000 at work with: (8x)cpu, 8gb-ram, (2x)fibre-scsi-ctrl, (1x)wide-diff-ctlr, (64x)(SSA)disk, (9x)(bay)disk. It would be a no-brainer to add two more fibre-controllers and another 64 disks (an expensive no-brainer).
The obverse is usually the case: unless you're doing something weird, you probably will see gains
For example, running netscape involves at least two processes, netscape (duh) and the X server, both of which are major cpu consumers. The same easily applies to X-based games, transparent terminal windows, Word Perfect and even more easily to apache (where even a single client parallelizes requests).
This presents a chicken/egg problem. "From scratch" implies from the source. To build what you need, you'll need a system with a compiler to compile the compiler needed to compile your compiler so you can compile your system. Nevertheless, this is a meaningful goal.
Start with modern (glibc) based distribution. For the sake of argument (no flames, please), say RedHat. (or debian)
Do the most minimal "expert" install possible and boot your machine when done.
Read the rpm man page. Use 'rpm -qa' to list packages then 'rpm -e pkgname' to remove unwanted packages.
Above will surely fail on dependencies. Simply remove those first. Iterate above until almost nothing is left.
In order to have a baseline system, you'll need at least the following: glibc, init, initscripts, bash, mount, bzip2, gzip, tar, textutils, fileutils, sh-utils, util-linux, etc.
In order to build stuff, you'll need a compiler. Install egcs/gcc (whatever x86 boxes use??), binutils, and whatever they need.
If you don't want to install from a cdrom, you'll have to grab stuff from the net, so if you aren't connected, make sure that pppd is working.
You'll be better off trying this if you have two linux machines networked:
One "fully-loaded" with docs/readers, development tools, vi, X, etc.
The other as the subject of your grim experiments.
Perspective: all you really need is '/sbin/init', '/etc/inittab', '/dev' files, and whatever you want init to start.
I'm involved in admin'ing a few of these sleek, slick, mean monsters. To sum it up: (8x)~300mhz + 8gb-ram = $250k. Unless you have very specific needs, you don't need one.
For less than $80k you can fill a rack with 20 600mhz Alphas (512mb-ram each, dual ether, 2U cases) and get a few decent switches. That's a total of 12000mhz of Alpha and 10gb-ram for less than 1/3 the price. Even after you factor out ovehead, the o2k cost:performance falls way short. On the other hand, "Origin" is a cool name and they come in a very shiny contoured plastic box.
Nevertheless, having NUMA-kernel support can't be a bad thing. Who knows where it might come in handy?
Offtopic:On another note, as one who has a (small) cluster, I've finally gotten sick of the word beowulf being tossed around. Does anyone have even a faint idea what a beowulf is? All beowulfs are clusters, but the obverse is not true. For an explanation, visit http://www.beowulf.org and actually read their docs.
For some time now, U.S. mass-media, politicians and intelligence agencies have been crying wolf about "cyber-terrorism", even though no real-world examples existed. Now we have one. Expect our "electronic freedoms" to be even more serverely curtailed very soon.
This inane security blunder will be bad for all of us. Likely these comm-satellites have lower security than other military systems, but that won't make it to press.
Expect "Cyber-Space-Terrorism" on 60 Minutes and all of the other "edu-tainment" shows. The question of the month will be:
"What if this happened to a weapons platform? I'm scared!" And the answer will likely be:
"We must crack down on these computer nerd types. There is too much freedom on the internet. Encryption is a powerful weapon used (by evil men) to elude (warm-n-fuzzy) officials. We need sniffers everywhere."
If the world's fastest seach engine is running on the fastest processor under Linux, the point may be subtle, but it is indeed a triumph. This would prove Compaq's commitment to AlphaLinux.
Community Source? Though looking under the SunOS hood might be interesting, this intentionaly warm and fuzzy term is fundamentally different from GPL. At this point in time, Linux is more of a specific threat to commercial/commodity unixes than WinNT.
Lets not get too bent out of shape here. RedHat is Linux (which of course does not mean Linux is always RedHat). Some people are always going to be confused by the difference between equivalence and equality relations, that's why bleach has warning labels. No reason outlaw the statement "RedHat is Linux" just because some might misinterpret it.
Like it or not, RedHat is the predominant "modern" distribution, and by numbers will get more press. Remember, they aren't "the other team". No need to boo and hiss. So long as RedHat remains an open-source distribution, their gains ultimately help the source, which should be the most important factor to all of us (if not to exclusion). Its how we got where we are.
Fatally Flawed Concept (was: DOS Attack...)
on
Linux 2.2.2 Released
·
· Score: 1
For the following reasons (to start)
Long-time users of linux
Many who follow the "bleeding-edge" have multiple machines.
The majority don't follow the "bleeding edge" anyway.
21164-series Alphas have the highest cost:performance ratio(int and fp) of any non-x86 processor(that exists), far higher than Sparc and Mips.
21264-series chips have thehighest performance of any cpu's, and still have a higher cost:perf than other commercial unix offerings. (dual cpu systems can be had for ~$15k)
Intel has "monopoly-like" influence, and has been seeking to extend that influence in ways that threaten our privacy.
Overall, probably the best article I've seen from the mainstream press. They got the facts mostly straight except for the bit about usage (the 0x6ACFC0 user count is kinda' old), "copyleft" (is not a "new" kind of license) and use of the word program (the kernel itself could be called a program, but the "Linux-OS" is a collection of programs)
I was glad to see a historic perspective (most treat linux like it was written yesterday), due credit given to RMS (no flames, please), the brief mentions about Beowulf and Apache and that they didn't try to get technical (which the mainstream always blunders).
Offtopic: How about linGnuX or liGnuX? If the G was silent(??), you wouldn't even have to pronounce it differently. 8]
Slashdot Mirror
Anything that weakens our (US) patent system can't be all bad. If it also strengthen's States' Rights as a consequence, even better. The reasons for its creation (history, anyone?) was to protect ants (like us) from giants and to protect innovation.
It its current form, it serves mainly towards the obverse of both. Innovation is thwarted by vague terms and legal entanglements. Our court system was meant to serve as an equalizing ground in which justice is blind. As for the flavor of our court system applied to patents, the best attorney (or panel of them) often wins. For cases in which the ant cannot lose, the giant's skilled panel of lawyers can delay a decision for years.
Hence, my (radical) conclusion: if your hand goes bad, its best to cut it off...
This post truly strikes at the heart of the matter, Goggle Displays. Enumerating the weaknesses of perl (of course it has some) really helps to illuminate things (ha-ha).
Personally, I'm a C-programmer/SysAdmin, but perl certainly has its place.
Everyone, please. More opinions about C-vs-Perl. Here's as good a place as any...
As to the Gerber Multiplier, the design of its locking mechanisms is much better. The pliers are much more comfortable to use and capable of greater force (suitable (in a pinch) for crimping). This comes at a cost, economy of size.
The "good ol'" Leatherman is much handier and definitely has size on its side. However, after lots of use the intergrated "locking spring" loses its strength. I can't count the number of times I've banged my fingers trying to loosen a tight phillips-head.
Spyderco... I got a Spyderco knife (as a gift), and where it is very wierd looking, the blade steel is high quality (good tensile, not brittle, keeps an edge). As far as the "Spyderco Wrench" goes, It looks like something straight out of R'lyeh (nearly went insane looking at it). This might make for a better knife, a better screwdriver, etc. than either the Leatherman or Gerber, but it sure doesn't look "handy".
Fully stocked toolboxes... Obviously better than any belt-device, albeit unwieldy to strap to one's waist. I guess the realy question is: "How far are you willing to go?" :)
In short, both the public and the media have a need to find simple explanations and comfortable correlations for anything uncomfortable. To say the truth (that these changelings were wacko looney sicko's)just doesn't fit neatly into a PC world view.
The unknown is scary, and to the majority, Doom, the Internet and other non-appliance technologies represent that scary unknown. Here's how it all happens:
- Under Pfeiffer's tenure at Compaq:
- A DS20(DP264) was donated to Linus Torvalds.
- An AS1200 was donated to ALO
- Compaq released ("free") fast-math libraries for AlphaLinux, along with plans for optimized compilers.
- Almost every (new) document about Compaq/Alpha mentioned linux (ie: "New for Tru64 and Linux".)
- Compaq announced product lines targeted at the Linux-market (DS10).
- Summary: There was never that level of linux-committment from Intel. Go to IBM's site, and they'll tell you that Linux is the perfect-fit for low-end/low-demand systems, in stark contrast with AIX.
- Alpha: Lets pretend it doesn't exist
- Even the "old"(21164) Alpha's beat new Intel's in integer perf. Comparing fp-perfs isn't even fair.
- 21164's also easily beat the other "best-of-breed" (Sparc/Mips) in both integer and fp, as well as having a dramatically lower unit cost.
- 21264 (new+expensive) offers significantly better performance than any other cpu, while remaining price-competitive with Sparc/Mips.
- Microsoft (non_intel==fringe)
- Summary: Alpha has been the enemy of the computer industry giants since inception.
I hear a death-knell... Anyone else?(and since the DEC acquisition)
People thinking within the mainstream is a critical element to MS's success. As soon as a consumer's mind wanders outside the NT/Intel sandtrap (even into NT/Alpha), who knows where it might go next? No wonder MS ignored the Alpha.
Whereas the author's logical constructs fit together nicely, these theories merely "look good on paper". We also can't underemphasize: the author slept through the (libre != gratis) portion of the lecture.
This whole "best of both worlds" (commercial and free s/w) scheme (started by Sun(?)) should be ignored or opposed, as it will serve only to dilute what the GPL(and similar) has brought us. The growth we are witnessing now is because the code was unshackled. Now we hear of a complex, restrictive system that seeks a middle-ground. Partly free is not free. That which has "the best" of both an apple and an orange is neither.
This "letter from Alan Cox" is clearly a hoax, which in no way indicates that the original newsitem from sengan is either true or false.
Likewise, ("once again") I meant no offense, and I took none. ( after all, I don't decide what's newsworthy :-) ).
By all means, express yourself, that's what forums are for. It just so happens someone (me) disagrees, no big deal. Millions of people disagree with me on a daily basis...
On the flip side, "I don't want to see this" posts do kinda' bug me, and I'm just expressing myself.
All of this is a moot point anyway. You can filter it all away...
I actually sent him an e-mail, but I might as well jump on the "Happy Birthday Post Bandwagon", so here it goes...
Happy Birthday
Likewise, I think all of the changes I've noticed of late have been either fair, good or downright terrific.
Not meaning to offend anyone either, but I'm "quite sick" of people saying "I'm sick of seeing this". Some of the other posts mention changing your prefs, but even that shouldn't be necessary. Seriously, /. always has less than 50 posts per day. Saying "yeah, who cares" and scrolling down shouldn't be a problem.
Maybe I'm sick of hearing about BeOS (I'm not, really). 1000's of other readers may have keen interest. Maybe 1000's more hate hearing about BeOS. Should we then remove it (or nestle it away in a sub-sub-page)? This can lead only one place: Slashdot representing only the lowest common denominator.
Personally, I have only passing interest in BeOS, but I'm glad for the diversity that adds.
In a production environment, one should think of an OS as a vehicle for your applications ( first off, my preferred vehicle is Linux ). If the choices were:
- { OS=Linux, APP=Oracle }
- { OS=Sparc-Solaris, APP=Oracle }
- { OS=ix86-Solaris, APP=Oracle }
I'd say "Go with Linux." with little hesitation ( see Scaling ).In reality, however, the real choices are:
- { OS=Linux, APP=Oracle-Linux }
- { OS=Sparc-Solaris, APP=Oracle-Sparc }
- { OS=ix86-Solaris, APP=Oracle-ix86 }
So, assuming all else is equal, you've got to ask, "is Oracle-Linux a good motorist?" I don't know the answer.As far as Oracle scaling goes, you're pretty much stuck with the (ugly+expensive) vertical scaling. ( that means you can't install PVM on a bunch of machines and sit back ).
The obverse is usually the case: unless you're doing something weird, you probably will see gains
For example, running netscape involves at least two processes, netscape (duh) and the X server, both of which are major cpu consumers. The same easily applies to X-based games, transparent terminal windows, Word Perfect and even more easily to apache (where even a single client parallelizes requests).
For some time now, U.S. mass-media, politicians and intelligence agencies have been crying wolf about "cyber-terrorism", even though no real-world examples existed. Now we have one. Expect our "electronic freedoms" to be even more serverely curtailed very soon.
This inane security blunder will be bad for all of us. Likely these comm-satellites have lower security than other military systems, but that won't make it to press.
Expect "Cyber-Space-Terrorism" on 60 Minutes and all of the other "edu-tainment" shows. The question of the month will be:
"What if this happened to a weapons platform? I'm scared!"
And the answer will likely be:
"We must crack down on these computer nerd types. There is too much freedom on the internet. Encryption is a powerful weapon used (by evil men) to elude (warm-n-fuzzy) officials. We need sniffers everywhere."
Hold on to your seats, we're in for a rough ride.
If the world's fastest seach engine is running on the fastest processor under Linux, the point may be subtle, but it is indeed a triumph. This would prove Compaq's commitment to AlphaLinux.
Community Source? Though looking under the SunOS hood might be interesting, this intentionaly warm and fuzzy term is fundamentally different from GPL. At this point in time, Linux is more of a specific threat to commercial/commodity unixes than WinNT.
Lets not get too bent out of shape here.
RedHat is Linux (which of course does not mean Linux is always RedHat). Some people are always going to be confused by the difference between equivalence and equality relations, that's why bleach has warning labels. No reason outlaw the statement "RedHat is Linux" just because some might misinterpret it.
Like it or not, RedHat is the predominant "modern" distribution, and by numbers will get more press. Remember, they aren't "the other team". No need to boo and hiss. So long as RedHat remains an open-source distribution, their gains ultimately help the source, which should be the most important factor to all of us (if not to exclusion). Its how we got where we are.
Unlike 2.2.2-pre5, it builds on Alpha(164LX, at least).
I'm rebooting now to see if it works...
Yes, I am a broken record.
Duh, I meant it as a joke, so laugh.
Okay, maybe it wasn't funny, so don't laugh.
In any event, take a pill and a deep breath.
Overall, probably the best article I've seen from the mainstream press. They got the facts mostly straight except for the bit about usage (the 0x6ACFC0 user count is kinda' old), "copyleft" (is not a "new" kind of license) and use of the word program (the kernel itself could be called a program, but the "Linux-OS" is a collection of programs)
I was glad to see a historic perspective (most treat linux like it was written yesterday), due credit given to RMS (no flames, please), the brief mentions about Beowulf and Apache and that they didn't try to get technical (which the mainstream always blunders).
Offtopic: How about linGnuX or liGnuX? If the G was silent(??), you wouldn't even have to pronounce it differently. 8]
For the most part...