Would you like Linus as your boss? Larry Wall as your supervisor? Brian Behendorf as your team leader? Now, would you like RMS as your co-worker?
Yes, Yes, Yes and... Yes.
RMS is a hard liner, there is no doubt about it. What people seem to forget, however, is that it took a hard liner like RMS to get the ball rolling. RMS was necessary in the grand scheme of things, without RMS or another hard liner who stuck to his guns and just plain simply refused to give an inch we'd not have all the wonderful choices we have today, we'd all be running Windows 95 (because there'd be no reason for MS to improve its OS, no competition), shelling out hundreds, thousands of dollars for unreliable proprietary software, and being locked into vendors.
People around here don't give RMS enough credit, and condemn him for doing the very thing that started this whole movement.
I'd like to share with everyone here, what I think to be, a striking revelation. As I sit here and read these comments, all filled with "IANAL", but still being quite insightful and informed on the laws of the land, I realized something.
Companies can't pass off intellectual property legal FUD on our community.
Then I wondered why this was, and the answer was right under my nose. Because our whole community is based on knowing intellectual property laws. From reverse engineering drivers, to open source licenses, the whole community is dependant in knowing these laws and using them for the betterment of the community. Without knowing the laws none of this would have been possible, not the GNU General Public License, not reverse engineering a printer driver, not building some of the most technically advanced operating systems amd tools in the world (*BSD, Linux, GCC, etc).
So this is just a small whack in the head with the cluestick for all you would be Digital Convergence's out there:
Intellectual Property Law FUD doesn't fly here.
(neither does most FUD, but thats a whole other story)
It is a company's sad obligation to go after everyone who is violating one of these IP laws, lest they lose protection under the law
Wrong, this is only true if there is an infringement of a trade secret or a trademark. Copyrights and Patents do not lose their clout if undefended, they can be successfully selectively enforced.
You dont seem to understand. I, not being an idiot, am accustomed to things such as command lines, multiple mouse buttons, etc. The lack of them reduces my productivity.
As a platform, we have LinuxPPC, which totally blows away the x86 platform in terms of performance.
I'd like to see you back that claim up. Last time I checked the Macs only had wimpy ATI graphics cards, which means PCs blow Macs away for 3D, not to mention PCs significant clock advantage, which in and of itself is not a benchmark, but when you start having gaps of 500mhz.... well, you get the idea. And don't try to regurgitate Apple marketing (G4's are supercomputers!) as truth, it's not.
Hell, unless we see a comparable suite of tools, along the lines of Adobe products, Linux cannot take the desktop market.
You must be talking about some desktop market I don't know about, because in the PC desktop market, no one hardly ever uses Adobe tools. Joe Schmoe isn't going to use Photoshop when he can go download shareware Paint Shop Pro, or use that knockoff Ulead graphics program which came with his scanner. Photoshop is just too expensive, they'd rather spend that money on games.
Whether you believe it or not, there are some things I dont use Linux for. Especially in the server area. There are much more secure and easier to use DNS Servers for MacOS. BIND and named are fine, but, ease of use is not something that springs to mind when you think of them.
You use MacOS as a server? My God! Step out of the darkages man. I bet your MacOS server stays up less than an NT box. Hell, all I have to do is leave my Mac alone for an hour, doing nothing, and it'll crash itself! When you're setting up a DNS server ease of use should be of the LEAST concern to you.
Gnome and GTK are cool, but, in all actuality, they have a mucho long way to go before they can even come close to what the Mac UI has attained. Eazel is cool, but, same rule applies.
I dont like the Mac UI, it's geared for idiots, I am not an idiot, therefore it is not easy for me. When I want to do something, I want to do it. I've found times where the UI has held me back from performaning a task.
Im an Open Source fan as much as the next guy, but, for myself, and indeed, for my client's bottom line, I will always choose the tool that is most stable, and most dependable at that paticular time, for that paticular job.
Really? Maybe you should rethink that whole DNS server on MacOS thing...
Sure - Rare if you get yourself a computer that is built well. However, Joe Computer is going to buy himself that spiffy Compaq he's had his eye on. Compaq is NOTORIOUS for shoddy computer equipment. (I speak from experience.)
I agree with you, Compaq is notorious for selling crap, however the law should not protect people from their own stupidity. Computers are major purchases topping out over $1000 usually. You'd think these people would try to be informed, if I know Compaq sucks, and you know Compaq sucks and Joe Schmoe Computer Buyer goes out, without trying to inform himself about the products, and buys a Compaq, then its his own damn fault.
Everybody by now has heard of the Firestone tire recalls, if you hear about these and go out and buy firestone tires anyways then get in a car accident because the treads of your tires came apart, thats your own damn fault and the law should not protect you for it.
This law is a BAD idea.
-- iCEBaLM
Re:Free Software = Pompous Bores, discuss
on
Men of Zeal
·
· Score: 2
With your logic, nothing is original, not only that, you have no idea what some of these actually do.
Ogg Vorbis is a patentable audio codec which is superior to mp3, but he never patented it...
Perl is (arguably) the most powerful scripting language ever, and is quite original in a lot of its functionality.
OpenAL is not "drivers for soundcards" it is an advanced 3D sound abstraction layer, completely open, which can work with *any* soundcard, never been done before.
Nobody has ever attempted a project like FreeNet before, sure, the idea was spurred by learning of Napster, but Napster and FreeNet are completely different.
DRI, when was the last time you saw 3D graphics support in an OS's kernel?
It is true that most projects are "copies", however, creativity and originality are out there, they may be subtle, they may have been spurred from other ideas, but if we are to exclude the original parts because it may have been built on something unoriginal, than nothing is original.
-- iCEBaLM
Re:Free Software = Pompous Bores, discuss
on
Men of Zeal
·
· Score: 4
Nobody has yet come up with an explanation of why it is that "The Community" has never, once, come up with a major original piece of work.
Actually, the analogy fits rather well. You could probably find a bunch of "car experts" who would reassure you that, indeed, it is a car.
You could then go out on the street and get laughed at for suggesting that a plank, wheels and a motor make a car.
Essentially, the de facto definition of an OS has changed. It will still be a decade or two before the experts catch up.
Thats wrong. Experts are indeed experts, lay people are not. The car may not be a *GOOD* car, defined by social standards (which is why you're getting laughed at), however it is still a car.
The same applies with operating systems, an OS without, say, a printing subsystem may not be a *GOOD* operating system, but it indeed is still an operating system.
Darwinism at its finest, the "bad" operating systems get left by the wayside and the "good" ones thrive, however just because an OS doesn't have a graphical user interface doesn't make it any less of an OS, if so, my Commodore 64 ran without an operating system!
It goes without saying that the author has a very strong Mac bias here, but he can't go around redefining terms just because of his bias.
Operating System
<operating system> (OS) The low-level software which handles the interface to peripheral hardware, schedules tasks, allocates storage, and presents a default interface to the user when no application program is running.
Source: the Free Online Dictionary of Computing
Nowhere do I see "browser", "graphical user interface". "media player", "control panel", "extension", etc in that definition.
The author enjoys making an analogy between cars and operating systems. So be it, lets run with that one shall we?
So, by the late 80s, calling a kernel plus a shell an "operating system" was anachronistic; today it is prehistoric. It would be like calling a motor, transmission and a suspension a car; there's a lot more to making a car (or an operating system) nowadays.
No, it'd be more like calling a plank of wood with wheels and a motor a car, and it would be. It may not be the nicest car, but it is still a car.
Listen you can buy an old used beat up chevette or a brand new jaguar. Right, the jaguar has a cd player, air conditioning, power locks/windows, electronic adjustable heating/massaging seats which bring you to orgasm on the interstate, the whole deal, but the chevette is still a car, and you can't say that just because the chevette doesn't have cruise control that it isn't.
Unix, with its kernel and shell, is still an operating system.
Boy I wish people would read the article before posting...
Now, I don't have PacBell DSL, so I'm not certain of their terms and conditions, but I can pretty much guarantee that the CIR (committed information rate) of 384kbps is to the DSLAM.
The article states:
SBC guarantees a minimum access rate of 384 kilobits per second for its DSL service but not for newsgroups, which are provided by SBC's Internet subsidiaries, which include Southwestern Bell, said SBC spokesman Michael Coe. Newsgroups are Internet sites where individuals can exchange and download material such as large graphic files.
However, e-mail access is guaranteed at a minimum of 384 kilobits per second, he said.
While I understand how the plaintiffs feel in this case, and intentionally lowering speeds might not be a nice thing for a DSL company to do, I can't see how a suit like this could be taken seriously. Has a law been passed that I'm not familiar with which outlaws such an action?
If a company offers you a service and they say they are going to GUARANTEE 384kbit/s to email, they kindof have to abide by that, it's simple contract law. If at any time that speed goes under 384kbit/s, regardless of cause (act of god notwithstanding), they can be held liable.
If people aren't happy with their DSL service, why can't they just switch providers?
In many cases there is only one high speed provider in the area, a "virtual monopoly" if you will. Sure, you can switch providers... but it'll be dialup.
This is right, the word was mokusatsu, and the definition is correct. The japanese linguist however explained that a man of the Prime Ministers stature might have meant to use the word in the following context: Say you want to buy my shoes, you offer $50 for them, but they are clearly worth $500, instead of insulting you I would simply say nothing in hopes that you would realise your error and adjust your offer. Truman didn't accept this possibility however, and went forward with the bombings.
I've also heard, but it's not necessarily true, that a Japanese communiqué was dispatched that would have convinced the Americans not to bomb Hiroshima, but due to a double-entendre, the meaning did not get through.
I watched a two part documentary entitled "Hiroshima" on the nuclear bombings and the events that led up to it recently and actually what did happen was this:
1. The Emperor, the Japanese Prime Minister, and basically everyone in the Japanese Government except the Army wanted to end the war and accept the allies unconditional surrender, but the Army seemed to have a stiff control over the government.
2. The Japanese Prime Minister addressed the millitary over the radio, and when asked what he thought of the allies unconditional surrender ultimatum he used the word (if I remember correctly) Matsato, he said it to appease the troops and didn't think the allies would listen. He wanted to end the war.
3. The allies were listening and couldn't immediately translate it, they brought in a Japanese linguist who said the word meant "to silently refuse", or it could have meant "to silently refuse in hopes of a better offer", but that was unlikely, Truman accepted the first meaning, and then signed off on dropping the bombs.
1. The Windows version was available first and you could just download the Linux binaries later.
2. The Linux version wasn't as widely distributed as the Windows version (bn.com didn't have it nor did most online "etailers", local software places here didn't have it, etc)
3. Linux 3D video card support *at the time* wasn't very good, it has improved with the NVidia drivers, XF86 4, DRI, etc. Gamers would buy the Windows version as their hardware would work there, then once it worked in Linux download the Linux binaries.
No, OpenGL/GLX doesn't give specifications of the card's capabilities (At least last time I looked). Like for example, I might want to enable bump mapping for better quility, but if the card doesn't support that in hardware, I'd prefer to disable it for the speed.
Let the user decide what he wants enabled and/or disabled, don't dictate. As for capabilities about the card, GL Extensions could be used for this, and would work if card makers created their own GL implimentation, but that rarely happens in the Linux world, It does with with nvidia cards, but for things that need mesa I'm not too sure, anything not hardware accellerated it may do in software.
Don't know a lot about DRI. Does it still require X?
It shouldn't require X, the DRM is a kernel interface which anything can use, the dri modules are in the XF86 tree and open, it is theoretically possible that you could write a non-X app to use DRI, but it would be a lot of work I think.
Strange that the chip makers don't give specs. The whole of the Amiga's custom hardware was public, and there was never a clone of that.
They're all paranoid, they don't want to lose their cash cow. If another company really wanted to clone your hardware they'd reverse engineer it, register level specs is an insignificant help in that regard.
Well, this is a good start. Perhaps now we can add some of the other things that gamers like - for example an ability to change resolution and depth when not running as root.
Resolution switching is already there, color depth is a problem, I agree.
And how about a 3D API that allow you to optimise speed for the capabilities of the graphics card.
Like, for instance, OpenGL/GLX?
Or some low level support for 3D cards in the frame buffer device (which could solve both these problems quite easily)
Which wouldn't be dissimilar to DRI's DRM?
The architecture exists already, everything that is needed for great 3D in Linux is already there, it just needs to be USED and IMPLIMENTED. The big problem is getting graphics chip specs from graphics chip makers.
You might wish to try the IRC channel #nvidia on irc.openprojects.net as we have very experienced users there that can help you with most installation problems, as well one of the nvidia linux developers is a regular. We often get between release "experimental" drivers which fix some bugs and help with final releases, as well as a set of pentiumpro+ optimized drivers which seem to boost 2D performance significantly and 3D performance somewhat, YMMV.
There are some pretty bad bugs in the current drivers which were fixed previously but crept back in somehow.
I dunno - I've been regrading content for rulespace. The meta-crawler grabbed maybe 10,000+ porn sites and I only found maybe 10 false positives (which were training it against). I think its very smart - and I've worked on dumber systems like Cyber Patroll and the like.
I see, so you're an employee of this system, no wonder you like it so much. And no doubt these numbers are skewed, which I can't verify as you no doubt keep your blocked site lists closed.
One thing your forgetting is that computers are designed to compute - we often forget that these things can do a lot if we put our minds to it and just design better software. I'll agree with you that its not 100% accurate, but, I think its a lot more accurate then most censor software out there.
I'm forgetting this? No, I'm really not, thats the whole basis of my argument. Computers are very sophisticated and fast calculators. They can add numbers blazingly fast and accurate, but you try to get them to discern the meaning behind typed text or to analyze a picture to try to figure out what it is and they simply can't do it, and won't be able to for a very long time. This is why filtering doesn't work, especially on the scale we're talking about here.
The biggest reason why you probably haven't seen this in use in ISP's or Schools is because our primary client is currently big corperations. Sometime next year one of America's biggest ISPs will switch over to our system - then you'll get a chance to see it in action.
And I hope I never see it in ISP's or schools. The day we quit thinking for ourselves and allow a machine to tell us the information we can and cannot access is the day I give up on humanity as a whole, as it has truely become too lazy to sustain itself.
Slashdot Mirror
Would you like Linus as your boss? Larry Wall as your supervisor? Brian Behendorf as your team leader? Now, would you like RMS as your co-worker?
Yes, Yes, Yes and... Yes.
RMS is a hard liner, there is no doubt about it. What people seem to forget, however, is that it took a hard liner like RMS to get the ball rolling. RMS was necessary in the grand scheme of things, without RMS or another hard liner who stuck to his guns and just plain simply refused to give an inch we'd not have all the wonderful choices we have today, we'd all be running Windows 95 (because there'd be no reason for MS to improve its OS, no competition), shelling out hundreds, thousands of dollars for unreliable proprietary software, and being locked into vendors.
People around here don't give RMS enough credit, and condemn him for doing the very thing that started this whole movement.
-- iCEBaLM
I'd say it's time to start using GNUPG.
-- iCEBaLM
I'd like to share with everyone here, what I think to be, a striking revelation. As I sit here and read these comments, all filled with "IANAL", but still being quite insightful and informed on the laws of the land, I realized something.
Companies can't pass off intellectual property legal FUD on our community.
Then I wondered why this was, and the answer was right under my nose. Because our whole community is based on knowing intellectual property laws. From reverse engineering drivers, to open source licenses, the whole community is dependant in knowing these laws and using them for the betterment of the community. Without knowing the laws none of this would have been possible, not the GNU General Public License, not reverse engineering a printer driver, not building some of the most technically advanced operating systems amd tools in the world (*BSD, Linux, GCC, etc).
So this is just a small whack in the head with the cluestick for all you would be Digital Convergence's out there:
Intellectual Property Law FUD doesn't fly here.
(neither does most FUD, but thats a whole other story)
-- iCEBaLM
It is a company's sad obligation to go after everyone who is violating one of these IP laws, lest they lose protection under the law
Wrong, this is only true if there is an infringement of a trade secret or a trademark. Copyrights and Patents do not lose their clout if undefended, they can be successfully selectively enforced.
-- iCEBaLM
Whatever happened to that little internet tax moratorium thing? I thought they wern't going to try to tax the net for 5 years or something.
-- iCEBaLM
You dont seem to understand. I, not being an idiot, am accustomed to things such as command lines, multiple mouse buttons, etc. The lack of them reduces my productivity.
-- iCEBaLM
Moderator is on CRACK, how in the HELL was that flamebait?
-- iCEBaLM
As a platform, we have LinuxPPC, which totally blows away the x86 platform in terms of performance.
I'd like to see you back that claim up. Last time I checked the Macs only had wimpy ATI graphics cards, which means PCs blow Macs away for 3D, not to mention PCs significant clock advantage, which in and of itself is not a benchmark, but when you start having gaps of 500mhz.... well, you get the idea. And don't try to regurgitate Apple marketing (G4's are supercomputers!) as truth, it's not.
Hell, unless we see a comparable suite of tools, along the lines of Adobe products, Linux cannot take the desktop market.
You must be talking about some desktop market I don't know about, because in the PC desktop market, no one hardly ever uses Adobe tools. Joe Schmoe isn't going to use Photoshop when he can go download shareware Paint Shop Pro, or use that knockoff Ulead graphics program which came with his scanner. Photoshop is just too expensive, they'd rather spend that money on games.
Whether you believe it or not, there are some things I dont use Linux for. Especially in the server area. There are much more secure and easier to use DNS Servers for MacOS. BIND and named are fine, but, ease of use is not something that springs to mind when you think of them.
You use MacOS as a server? My God! Step out of the darkages man. I bet your MacOS server stays up less than an NT box. Hell, all I have to do is leave my Mac alone for an hour, doing nothing, and it'll crash itself! When you're setting up a DNS server ease of use should be of the LEAST concern to you.
Gnome and GTK are cool, but, in all actuality, they have a mucho long way to go before they can even come close to what the Mac UI has attained. Eazel is cool, but, same rule applies.
I dont like the Mac UI, it's geared for idiots, I am not an idiot, therefore it is not easy for me. When I want to do something, I want to do it. I've found times where the UI has held me back from performaning a task.
Im an Open Source fan as much as the next guy, but, for myself, and indeed, for my client's bottom line, I will always choose the tool that is most stable, and most dependable at that paticular time, for that paticular job.
Really? Maybe you should rethink that whole DNS server on MacOS thing...
-- iCEBaLM
Sure - Rare if you get yourself a computer that is built well. However, Joe Computer is going to buy himself that spiffy Compaq he's had his eye on. Compaq is NOTORIOUS for shoddy computer equipment. (I speak from experience.)
I agree with you, Compaq is notorious for selling crap, however the law should not protect people from their own stupidity. Computers are major purchases topping out over $1000 usually. You'd think these people would try to be informed, if I know Compaq sucks, and you know Compaq sucks and Joe Schmoe Computer Buyer goes out, without trying to inform himself about the products, and buys a Compaq, then its his own damn fault.
Everybody by now has heard of the Firestone tire recalls, if you hear about these and go out and buy firestone tires anyways then get in a car accident because the treads of your tires came apart, thats your own damn fault and the law should not protect you for it.
This law is a BAD idea.
-- iCEBaLM
With your logic, nothing is original, not only that, you have no idea what some of these actually do.
Ogg Vorbis is a patentable audio codec which is superior to mp3, but he never patented it...
Perl is (arguably) the most powerful scripting language ever, and is quite original in a lot of its functionality.
OpenAL is not "drivers for soundcards" it is an advanced 3D sound abstraction layer, completely open, which can work with *any* soundcard, never been done before.
Nobody has ever attempted a project like FreeNet before, sure, the idea was spurred by learning of Napster, but Napster and FreeNet are completely different.
DRI, when was the last time you saw 3D graphics support in an OS's kernel?
It is true that most projects are "copies", however, creativity and originality are out there, they may be subtle, they may have been spurred from other ideas, but if we are to exclude the original parts because it may have been built on something unoriginal, than nothing is original.
-- iCEBaLM
Nobody has yet come up with an explanation of why it is that "The Community" has never, once, come up with a major original piece of work.
perl
Ogg Vorbis
Freenet
DRI
OpenAL
-- iCEBaLM
Actually, the analogy fits rather well. You could probably find a bunch of "car experts" who would reassure you that, indeed, it is a car.
You could then go out on the street and get laughed at for suggesting that a plank, wheels and a motor make a car.
Essentially, the de facto definition of an OS has changed. It will still be a decade or two before the experts catch up.
Thats wrong. Experts are indeed experts, lay people are not. The car may not be a *GOOD* car, defined by social standards (which is why you're getting laughed at), however it is still a car.
The same applies with operating systems, an OS without, say, a printing subsystem may not be a *GOOD* operating system, but it indeed is still an operating system.
Darwinism at its finest, the "bad" operating systems get left by the wayside and the "good" ones thrive, however just because an OS doesn't have a graphical user interface doesn't make it any less of an OS, if so, my Commodore 64 ran without an operating system!
-- iCEBaLM
Nowhere do I see "browser", "graphical user interface". "media player", "control panel", "extension", etc in that definition.
The author enjoys making an analogy between cars and operating systems. So be it, lets run with that one shall we?
No, it'd be more like calling a plank of wood with wheels and a motor a car, and it would be. It may not be the nicest car, but it is still a car.
Listen you can buy an old used beat up chevette or a brand new jaguar. Right, the jaguar has a cd player, air conditioning, power locks/windows, electronic adjustable heating/massaging seats which bring you to orgasm on the interstate, the whole deal, but the chevette is still a car, and you can't say that just because the chevette doesn't have cruise control that it isn't.
Unix, with its kernel and shell, is still an operating system.
-- iCEBaLM
Boy I wish people would read the article before posting...
Now, I don't have PacBell DSL, so I'm not certain of their terms and conditions, but I can pretty much guarantee that the CIR (committed information rate) of 384kbps is to the DSLAM.
The article states:
SBC guarantees a minimum access rate of 384 kilobits per second for its DSL service but not for newsgroups, which are provided by SBC's Internet subsidiaries, which include Southwestern Bell, said SBC spokesman Michael Coe. Newsgroups are Internet sites where individuals can exchange and download material such as large graphic files.
However, e-mail access is guaranteed at a minimum of 384 kilobits per second, he said.
-- iCEBaLM
While I understand how the plaintiffs feel in this case, and intentionally lowering speeds might not be a nice thing for a DSL company to do, I can't see how a suit like this could be taken seriously. Has a law been passed that I'm not familiar with which outlaws such an action?
If a company offers you a service and they say they are going to GUARANTEE 384kbit/s to email, they kindof have to abide by that, it's simple contract law. If at any time that speed goes under 384kbit/s, regardless of cause (act of god notwithstanding), they can be held liable.
If people aren't happy with their DSL service, why can't they just switch providers?
In many cases there is only one high speed provider in the area, a "virtual monopoly" if you will. Sure, you can switch providers... but it'll be dialup.
-- iCEBaLM
This is right, the word was mokusatsu, and the definition is correct. The japanese linguist however explained that a man of the Prime Ministers stature might have meant to use the word in the following context: Say you want to buy my shoes, you offer $50 for them, but they are clearly worth $500, instead of insulting you I would simply say nothing in hopes that you would realise your error and adjust your offer. Truman didn't accept this possibility however, and went forward with the bombings.
-- iCEBaLM
I've also heard, but it's not necessarily true, that a Japanese communiqué was dispatched that would have convinced the Americans not to bomb Hiroshima, but due to a double-entendre, the meaning did not get through.
I watched a two part documentary entitled "Hiroshima" on the nuclear bombings and the events that led up to it recently and actually what did happen was this:
1. The Emperor, the Japanese Prime Minister, and basically everyone in the Japanese Government except the Army wanted to end the war and accept the allies unconditional surrender, but the Army seemed to have a stiff control over the government.
2. The Japanese Prime Minister addressed the millitary over the radio, and when asked what he thought of the allies unconditional surrender ultimatum he used the word (if I remember correctly) Matsato, he said it to appease the troops and didn't think the allies would listen. He wanted to end the war.
3. The allies were listening and couldn't immediately translate it, they brought in a Japanese linguist who said the word meant "to silently refuse", or it could have meant "to silently refuse in hopes of a better offer", but that was unlikely, Truman accepted the first meaning, and then signed off on dropping the bombs.
-- iCEBaLM
Severely offtopic, but one of the funnier quotes Andy made in this thread was thus:
"Of course 5 years from now that will be different, but 5 years from now everyone will be running free GNU on their 200 MIPS, 64M SPARCstation-5."
No one can predict the future.
-- iCEBaLM
1. The Windows version was available first and you could just download the Linux binaries later.
2. The Linux version wasn't as widely distributed as the Windows version (bn.com didn't have it nor did most online "etailers", local software places here didn't have it, etc)
3. Linux 3D video card support *at the time* wasn't very good, it has improved with the NVidia drivers, XF86 4, DRI, etc. Gamers would buy the Windows version as their hardware would work there, then once it worked in Linux download the Linux binaries.
-- iCEBaLM
No, OpenGL/GLX doesn't give specifications of the card's capabilities (At least last time I looked). Like for example, I might want to enable bump mapping for better quility, but if the card doesn't support that in hardware, I'd prefer to disable it for the speed.
Let the user decide what he wants enabled and/or disabled, don't dictate. As for capabilities about the card, GL Extensions could be used for this, and would work if card makers created their own GL implimentation, but that rarely happens in the Linux world, It does with with nvidia cards, but for things that need mesa I'm not too sure, anything not hardware accellerated it may do in software.
Don't know a lot about DRI. Does it still require X?
It shouldn't require X, the DRM is a kernel interface which anything can use, the dri modules are in the XF86 tree and open, it is theoretically possible that you could write a non-X app to use DRI, but it would be a lot of work I think.
Strange that the chip makers don't give specs. The whole of the Amiga's custom hardware was public, and there was never a clone of that.
They're all paranoid, they don't want to lose their cash cow. If another company really wanted to clone your hardware they'd reverse engineer it, register level specs is an insignificant help in that regard.
-- iCEBaLM
Well, this is a good start. Perhaps now we can add some of the other things that gamers like - for example an ability to change resolution and depth when not running as root.
Resolution switching is already there, color depth is a problem, I agree.
And how about a 3D API that allow you to optimise speed for the capabilities of the graphics card.
Like, for instance, OpenGL/GLX?
Or some low level support for 3D cards in the frame buffer device (which could solve both these problems quite easily)
Which wouldn't be dissimilar to DRI's DRM?
The architecture exists already, everything that is needed for great 3D in Linux is already there, it just needs to be USED and IMPLIMENTED. The big problem is getting graphics chip specs from graphics chip makers.
-- iCEBaLM
You might wish to try the IRC channel #nvidia on irc.openprojects.net as we have very experienced users there that can help you with most installation problems, as well one of the nvidia linux developers is a regular. We often get between release "experimental" drivers which fix some bugs and help with final releases, as well as a set of pentiumpro+ optimized drivers which seem to boost 2D performance significantly and 3D performance somewhat, YMMV.
There are some pretty bad bugs in the current drivers which were fixed previously but crept back in somehow.
-- iCEBaLM
But it doesn't beat filtering out none.
-- iCEBaLM
Then you would block pictures of squash, peaches, mohogany wood, chocolate, roses, gold and other metals, etc.
Haven't you heard? A company is trying to do this, and they are finding that it's impossible.
-- iCEBaLM
I dunno - I've been regrading content for rulespace. The meta-crawler grabbed maybe 10,000+ porn sites and I only found maybe 10 false positives (which were training it against). I think its very smart - and I've worked on dumber systems like Cyber Patroll and the like.
I see, so you're an employee of this system, no wonder you like it so much. And no doubt these numbers are skewed, which I can't verify as you no doubt keep your blocked site lists closed.
One thing your forgetting is that computers are designed to compute - we often forget that these things can do a lot if we put our minds to it and just design better software. I'll agree with you that its not 100% accurate, but, I think its a lot more accurate then most censor software out there.
I'm forgetting this? No, I'm really not, thats the whole basis of my argument. Computers are very sophisticated and fast calculators. They can add numbers blazingly fast and accurate, but you try to get them to discern the meaning behind typed text or to analyze a picture to try to figure out what it is and they simply can't do it, and won't be able to for a very long time. This is why filtering doesn't work, especially on the scale we're talking about here.
The biggest reason why you probably haven't seen this in use in ISP's or Schools is because our primary client is currently big corperations. Sometime next year one of America's biggest ISPs will switch over to our system - then you'll get a chance to see it in action.
And I hope I never see it in ISP's or schools. The day we quit thinking for ourselves and allow a machine to tell us the information we can and cannot access is the day I give up on humanity as a whole, as it has truely become too lazy to sustain itself.
-- iCEBaLM