Or even better, when Redhat sets the default homepage for netscape (I don't know if this happens) to redhat.com, they could probably have a form to sign into the counter on their page.
Actually, this is a very good idea.
It's the easiest to implement for sure.
SuSE sets the default homepage to www.suse.de and I would imagine Red Hat does the same.
- A message saying that it exists (This is one of the emails to root that Slackware automatically installs)
- A client program to make it easy to register which could be integrated into the system's install/configuration tools (eg: a menu in YaST or Linuxconf)
I agree that forcing it would be a very bad thing.
AFAIK, Slackware is the only major distrib that encourages people to participate in the counter project.
I've installed RH, SuSE, Debian, Mandrake, and Caldera and have gotten no such message.
Considering the number of Slackware installations compared to the bigger guys, and the fact that not all Slackware users have registered (I registered years ago when it first started) I think I know of one reason that number is so ridiculously low.
Imagine if Red Hat had a message in there at the end of the install.
Hmmm, what about a "counter server" that lets a client program to add/change information about a user? How about integrating that into the installer?
For some reason, people see "embedded RTOS" and assume it's great for all embedded systems.
Now I've never done embedded systems such as PDAs, set tops, etc but I have done machines and instrumentation. That's where it's *really* useful.
ABS system in a car: real-time, unless you're an idiot.
Robotic factory machines (which I've done): real-time. You don't want that gripper to grip a little too early/late or you'll risk damage. You have to make sure that the analysis you're doing from sensor input (load cell, etc) doesn't screw up your timing. Priorities are your friend.
PDA/set-top box: Traditional OS. Real-time will give you no advantage.
Well, unless someone can give me a good reason. Remember that I've never done a set-top or PDA before. I may be missing something.
Road cases rock. Most sound companies make their own, and will make custom ones for customers if asked. If you're looking for an excellent case for anything fragile, it might be worth your while to give those guys a visit.
Also, many case companies (I can think of Zero and Pelican off the top of my head) sell cases which come full of a big chunk of foam. The foam can be be modified by ripping cubes out it, giving a customised fit for your equipment.
I bought a cheap model (~$100) for carrying my electronic equipment around. Except my scope of course...
This one also has divider sections so I can haul out the entire block of foam, put in the dividers, and put my notebook in there and have lots of space for other things.
I usually carry my notebook around in my Kensington Saddlebag. I searched high and low trying to find a case that allowed me to put my notebook *and* at least two binders or books simultaneously. The only ones I could find locally were too big, designed for putting changes of clothes in there.
I used to have a job where rugged computers would have been nice to have. I ended up unplugging everything and moving the table away before any physical work was done on the machines. I later replaced it with a regular notebook, because it was easier to move out of the way.
Here are some appropriate excerpts from Dave Barry's "READ THIS FIRST!" The full text is included in the sci.electronics FAQ and can be read here.
WARNING: DO NOT EVER AS LONG AS YOU LIVE THROW AWAY THE BOX OR ANY OF THE PIECES OF STYROFOAM EVEN THE LITTLE ONES SHAPED LIKE PEANUTS.
If you attempt to return the device to the store, and are missing one single peanut, the store personnel will laugh in the chilling manner exhibited by Joseph Stalin after he enslaved Eastern Europe.
Besides the device, the box should contain: ... Eight rectangular snippets of paper that say "WARNING"
... ...
WARNING: WHEN YOU ARE LAYING THE PLUG ON THE FLOOR, DO NOT HOLD A SHARP OBJECT IN YOUR OTHER HAND AND TRIP OVER THE CORD AND POKE YOUR EYE OUT, AS THIS COULD VOID YOUR WARRANTY.
... ...
WARNING: WE MANUFACTURE ONLY THE ATTRACTIVE DESIGNER CASE. THE ACTUAL WORKING CENTRAL PARTS OF THE DEVICE ARE MANUFACTURED IN JAPAN. THE INSTRUCTIONS WERE TRANSLATED BY MRS. SHIRLEY PELTWATER OF ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE, WHO HAS NEVER ACTUALLY BEEN TO JAPAN BUT DOES HAVE MOST OF "SHOGUN" ON TAPE.
... ...
WARNING: IT MAY BE A VIOLATION OF SOME LAW THAT MRS. SHIRLEY PELTWATER HAS "SHOGUN" ON TAPE.
Never gets old. It's in his book, "Dave Barry's Greatest Hits." A staple of my library.
In the course of conceiving this paragraph, I checked my e-mail three times and fired off four responses. I took a phone call, visited a few Web sites -- simultaneously, I might add, on two computers -- and perused some posts on an online bulletin board. I snuck a peek at the latest news wires, gobbled some take-out Thai food, read a press release. I did this all while switching back and forth between two Internet radio stations, which I listened to through headphones.
This paragraph doesn't seem right.
He said he did all of those things *while conceiving that very paragraph*.
Umm, wouldn't doing all of that be *part* of writing it. I do a lot of things simultaneously (actually it's more of a task-switching mechanism in my brain) but I don't go quite that nuts, even when programming:-)*
This guy is falling into a common journalistic trap: going overboard in an attempt to prove a point. A point I, personally, am not worried about. Knowledge is a joy, I crave it.
It's like the local news stations putting "spin" on stories. Embellishing boring items on slow days. I saw a 5 minute bit on a local station (which I despise, btw) about a traffic light in a very low traffic area that briefly kept the red light on when it went green. They waited until the end to say that no accidents ensued. Really, I've seen really dumb people, but none of them were *that* dumb (with the exception of these NTV people that did the story).
Is there some joke I don't know about? Is PEZ some crazy geek icon like Spam? Who the hell embedded "PEZ" in their code?
There are a number of people who collect PEZ (Oh, Pez people please don't sue me for using it here!!!) much like people collect Beanie Babies. They trade and sell them rampantly on the net (no, I have no link, I don't care).
I have a feeling this is what the Pez people are mad about.
Ok, these people are insane. Then again, they probably think I'm insane for collecting computers nobody else wants (Hey, dumb terminals!).
Actually, I just got an old Sun 3/80 workstation. All I need now is a cable to connect the monitor and an ethernet x-ceiver...
Actually, I don't think this will hold any water, else Hormel would have gotten really pissed long ago due to the negative connotations associated with the word "spam."
I went to the site hoping to find something truly interesting, like a QNX demo disk-like thing that was BSD, so that I could modify it and do what I want with it (mmmm, cheap X-terminals).
Call me when you have X on there.
I tried the QNX disk, and was extremely impressed. Ever since then, I've wanted to buy a copy. Alas, I cannot currently budget for it.
Hmmm, what about those "mini" X servers I heard about a long time ago? What's happened to them? We can do some really neat stuff with those.
First off, I'm glad to see an end to those ultra-annoying question mark comments.:-)*
Interestingly enough, my KDE setup happens to have that Mac look as well. I find it quite funny when people end up maximising windows they intended to close.
With KDE (and GNOME), many, many people are getting into Linux. The cable modem installer came by a while back and grabbed my mouse to setup the IP settings. I told him that I should probably do that. He was dumbfounded when I told him that it was a Linux box. I guess he thought I had a dock on the right side of my screen a la Norton Utilities. It was, in fact my KDE bar.
Hey, my mom can use it, and prefers it...
Oh yeah, since you're on KDE, Jon, I'll have to make a couple of app recommendations:
- KNotes, quite useful - KDeskView, which lets you get to those desktop icons covered by open windows really quickly. I use it constantly - Geheimnis, an easy to use crypto app. The docking one encrypts/decrypts from the clipboard. - If you ever learn C/C++, KDevelop is excellent - KLyX, sort of a TeX frontend. What You See Is What You *Mean* - KPackage gives you all sorts of nifty information about installed packages
and if you really want to impress people, get the XScreensaver distrib from www.jwz.org and put it in your autostart with the '-root' option. I have 'xmatrix -root' in there. It freaks people out. Maybe I should write a shell script to run a random one in there.
Sorry to hear about your network troubles, though. I'm sure someone here has some good suggestions, I haven't used PPP in years, and back then I used dip...
I have to agree with you there. Sony's products haven't been the most reliable. They are cheap, and mass produced.
My brother opened up our PSX and tried to pull a cable out of a socket on the mainboard and successfully managed to liberate the socket as well. I was angry because it only a day old at the time. I looked at it and the connector was SMT and the solder joints were very "cold."
Ho hum, grab my solder station, fix it, and do a little more "modification" while I'm at it.
My brother's SONY CD changer (which I'm still making fun of him for buying) sometimes glitches and he has to shut off his van and restart it to get it working. Essentially, he has to reboot his van. That's pretty sad.
Basically, it comes down to how many units you can produce in a short time. Often, doing a good job comes second. I've been in the process control business and that is the focus of development in that area.
My PSX is a newer "dual shock" model. There are more plastic parts in the CD mechanism in the newer ones. I'm already getting FMV skipping on some CDs.
However, I'll have to give SONY quite a few kudos for the recent quality of some of their ideas such as the PSX, the AIBO, and the VAIO.
Brazil just happens to be on ShowCase right now. For you americans, it's a station that plays a lot of foreign/domestic shows and films, mostly really good.
This showing of Brazil came on right after Quadrophenia (nothing beats watching Sting kicking the crap out of cops).
It's quite a coincidence this story came up when it did. The fresnel enhanced monitors in Brazil would definitely drive me nuts.
Then again, lenses would be least of my troubles in that particular dystopia.
Slashdot Mirror
If you're using a version of Lynx that isn't horrendously outdated try typing av/?text=y
Good ol' Lynx.
Or even better, when Redhat sets the default homepage for netscape (I don't know if this happens) to redhat.com, they could probably have a form to sign into the counter on their page.
Actually, this is a very good idea.
It's the easiest to implement for sure.
SuSE sets the default homepage to www.suse.de and I would imagine Red Hat does the same.
Oh, I would never suggest forcing participation.
I was thinking of things along the lines of:
- A message saying that it exists (This is one of the emails to root that Slackware automatically installs)
- A client program to make it easy to register which could be integrated into the system's install/configuration tools (eg: a menu in YaST or Linuxconf)
I agree that forcing it would be a very bad thing.
AFAIK, Slackware is the only major distrib that encourages people to participate in the counter project.
I've installed RH, SuSE, Debian, Mandrake, and Caldera and have gotten no such message.
Considering the number of Slackware installations compared to the bigger guys, and the fact that not all Slackware users have registered (I registered years ago when it first started) I think I know of one reason that number is so ridiculously low.
Imagine if Red Hat had a message in there at the end of the install.
Hmmm, what about a "counter server" that lets a client program to add/change information about a user? How about integrating that into the installer?
The participation rate would greatly increase.
I have a pizzabox computer.
Mine says "Sun" on it, though...
I'd have to agree.
For some reason, people see "embedded RTOS" and assume it's great for all embedded systems.
Now I've never done embedded systems such as PDAs, set tops, etc but I have done machines and instrumentation. That's where it's *really* useful.
ABS system in a car: real-time, unless you're an idiot.
Robotic factory machines (which I've done): real-time. You don't want that gripper to grip a little too early/late or you'll risk damage. You have to make sure that the analysis you're doing from sensor input (load cell, etc) doesn't screw up your timing. Priorities are your friend.
PDA/set-top box: Traditional OS. Real-time will give you no advantage.
Well, unless someone can give me a good reason. Remember that I've never done a set-top or PDA before. I may be missing something.
SuSE did this some years ago, bu then they switched to 4.x
:-)*
SuSE started at 4.2.
SuSE's YaST started at 0.42.
See a pattern? Gee, I wonder...
Road cases rock. Most sound companies make their own, and will make custom ones for customers if asked. If you're looking for an excellent case for anything fragile, it might be worth your while to give those guys a visit.
Also, many case companies (I can think of Zero and Pelican off the top of my head) sell cases which come full of a big chunk of foam. The foam can be be modified by ripping cubes out it, giving a customised fit for your equipment.
I bought a cheap model (~$100) for carrying my electronic equipment around. Except my scope of course...
This one also has divider sections so I can haul out the entire block of foam, put in the dividers, and put my notebook in there and have lots of space for other things.
I usually carry my notebook around in my Kensington Saddlebag. I searched high and low trying to find a case that allowed me to put my notebook *and* at least two binders or books simultaneously. The only ones I could find locally were too big, designed for putting changes of clothes in there.
I used to have a job where rugged computers would have been nice to have. I ended up unplugging everything and moving the table away before any physical work was done on the machines. I later replaced it with a regular notebook, because it was easier to move out of the way.
Never gets old. It's in his book, "Dave Barry's Greatest Hits." A staple of my library.
You're right on that one. That's why there's a link to it at developer.kde.org.
My favourite is the AutoCAD tooltip...
Server Message Block, I believe. Protocol used in Windows networking.
IIRC, I think it's Session Message Block.
But then again, I could be wrong as well.
Watch men and women climbing ropes for big cash prizes and to avoid certain, agonizing death in...
Climbing for Dollars!
Thursdays at 9:00 after The Running Man!
In the course of conceiving this paragraph, I checked my e-mail three times and fired off four responses. I took a phone call, visited a few Web sites -- simultaneously, I might add, on two computers -- and perused some posts on an online bulletin board. I snuck a peek at the latest news wires, gobbled some take-out Thai food, read a press release. I did this all while switching back and forth between two Internet radio stations, which I listened to through headphones.
:-)*
This paragraph doesn't seem right.
He said he did all of those things *while conceiving that very paragraph*.
Umm, wouldn't doing all of that be *part* of writing it. I do a lot of things simultaneously (actually it's more of a task-switching mechanism in my brain) but I don't go quite that nuts, even when programming
This guy is falling into a common journalistic trap: going overboard in an attempt to prove a point. A point I, personally, am not worried about. Knowledge is a joy, I crave it.
It's like the local news stations putting "spin" on stories. Embellishing boring items on slow days. I saw a 5 minute bit on a local station (which I despise, btw) about a traffic light in a very low traffic area that briefly kept the red light on when it went green. They waited until the end to say that no accidents ensued. Really, I've seen really dumb people, but none of them were *that* dumb (with the exception of these NTV people that did the story).
Maybe I'm too cynical.
pez in rot13: crm
You know what's scary, I just installed the BSD games package *just for that*.
Wow, I'm sad. I need a job. Anybody know of any electronics/programming/admin jobs in Newfoundland?
Is there some joke I don't know about? Is PEZ some crazy geek icon like Spam? Who the hell embedded "PEZ" in their code?
There are a number of people who collect PEZ (Oh, Pez people please don't sue me for using it here!!!) much like people collect Beanie Babies. They trade and sell them rampantly on the net (no, I have no link, I don't care).
I have a feeling this is what the Pez people are mad about.
Hmm, maybe I should try a google search of "Pez is more evil than Satan himself"
Ok, these people are insane. Then again, they probably think I'm insane for collecting computers nobody else wants (Hey, dumb terminals!).
Actually, I just got an old Sun 3/80 workstation. All I need now is a cable to connect the monitor and an ethernet x-ceiver...
Actually, I don't think this will hold any water, else Hormel would have gotten really pissed long ago due to the negative connotations associated with the word "spam."
2000 Flushes, the toilet cleaning product, will be known as "One flush for every year since Christ was born."
(ripped uncerimoniously from Conan O'Brian)
There are also one disk Linuces.
I went to the site hoping to find something truly interesting, like a QNX demo disk-like thing that was BSD, so that I could modify it and do what I want with it (mmmm, cheap X-terminals).
Call me when you have X on there.
I tried the QNX disk, and was extremely impressed. Ever since then, I've wanted to buy a copy. Alas, I cannot currently budget for it.
Hmmm, what about those "mini" X servers I heard about a long time ago? What's happened to them? We can do some really neat stuff with those.
The story we all like to hear.
:-)*
First off, I'm glad to see an end to those ultra-annoying question mark comments.
Interestingly enough, my KDE setup happens to have that Mac look as well. I find it quite funny when people end up maximising windows they intended to close.
With KDE (and GNOME), many, many people are getting into Linux. The cable modem installer came by a while back and grabbed my mouse to setup the IP settings. I told him that I should probably do that. He was dumbfounded when I told him that it was a Linux box. I guess he thought I had a dock on the right side of my screen a la Norton Utilities. It was, in fact my KDE bar.
Hey, my mom can use it, and prefers it...
Oh yeah, since you're on KDE, Jon, I'll have to make a couple of app recommendations:
- KNotes, quite useful
- KDeskView, which lets you get to those desktop icons covered by open windows really quickly. I use it constantly
- Geheimnis, an easy to use crypto app. The docking one encrypts/decrypts from the clipboard.
- If you ever learn C/C++, KDevelop is excellent
- KLyX, sort of a TeX frontend. What You See Is What You *Mean*
- KPackage gives you all sorts of nifty information about installed packages
and if you really want to impress people, get the XScreensaver distrib from www.jwz.org and put it in your autostart with the '-root' option. I have 'xmatrix -root' in there. It freaks people out. Maybe I should write a shell script to run a random one in there.
Sorry to hear about your network troubles, though. I'm sure someone here has some good suggestions, I haven't used PPP in years, and back then I used dip...
It could have articles and documents about the software design process that programmers can learn from and send to their managers.
Some interesting topics:
It would be a great first step to cluefulness.
I'd be more than willing to help out in any way possible. I've had a lot of success with bosses in my own professional endeavours.
But then again, my bosses have all been experienced engineers who actually listen to me and respect what I say. I guess I'm very lucky.
I have to agree with you there. Sony's products haven't been the most reliable. They are cheap, and mass produced.
My brother opened up our PSX and tried to pull a cable out of a socket on the mainboard and successfully managed to liberate the socket as well. I was angry because it only a day old at the time. I looked at it and the connector was SMT and the solder joints were very "cold."
Ho hum, grab my solder station, fix it, and do a little more "modification" while I'm at it.
My brother's SONY CD changer (which I'm still making fun of him for buying) sometimes glitches and he has to shut off his van and restart it to get it working. Essentially, he has to reboot his van. That's pretty sad.
Basically, it comes down to how many units you can produce in a short time. Often, doing a good job comes second. I've been in the process control business and that is the focus of development in that area.
My PSX is a newer "dual shock" model. There are more plastic parts in the CD mechanism in the newer ones. I'm already getting FMV skipping on some CDs.
However, I'll have to give SONY quite a few kudos for the recent quality of some of their ideas such as the PSX, the AIBO, and the VAIO.
Here's the link:
http://www.handykey.com/
I haven't used it myself, but I've heard people rave about it.
In any school I've been to or heard of, this was punishable by death (well, not quite, but you'd look pretty dumb).
I never even *thought* of leaving out a unit. That way lies madness...
Boring?
Remember that not all of us use Linux simply for perusing Slashdot and playing Quake.
I found the DSP Shell article really interesting. I sent a link to a machine vision company I used to work for.
Brazil just happens to be on ShowCase right now. For you americans, it's a station that plays a lot of foreign/domestic shows and films, mostly really good.
This showing of Brazil came on right after Quadrophenia (nothing beats watching Sting kicking the crap out of cops).
It's quite a coincidence this story came up when it did. The fresnel enhanced monitors in Brazil would definitely drive me nuts.
Then again, lenses would be least of my troubles in that particular dystopia.