Back in early 1997 I wrote a small chat application in Delphi called Kelvchat that allow me to talk to multiple friends as they weren't always running irc clients. The interface was quite similar in operation to AIM/ICQ. Alas I lost the exe and sourcecode in a HDD failure in 1998. The only proof of existance is an archived page kept by the Wayback machine at archive.org.
Oh silly me! What was I thinking?? I should have patented the way my app worked back then and hit AOL/Mirabilis/Yahoo with patent infringement last week. I'd be rich!;)
Seriously though, something needs to be done about those registering such patents and the idiots at USPTO that let them get away with it.
Re:Fuel economy is good - forget about the money
on
239 MPG Car
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· Score: 1
I moved from the UK to the US a couple of years ago. My new location is quite spread out and devoid of mass transit and it is very evident that the car is king here.
Regardless of what is right or wrong, it's hard to blame the locals given the way things are laid out for them...
Turn on the TV.. Advertising for SUVs and gas guzzling trucks is thrown at you every couple of minutes through a TV show.
When filling up at the gas station for $1.20(+/-30c) a gallon it hardly hurts the wallets of those who bought the SUVs & trucks.
In this city at least, there is no train service and the bus service is barely used, leaving little alternative.
As a pedestrian, trying to cross the 4 lane streets is frustrating when crossings are a mile apart and you're in the middle somewhere. No bridges or subways. Many of the streets don't have pavements or sidewalks.
Back in the UK I didn't own a car, and had no reason to want one as I could go anywhere I wanted by other means.
You can take the bus into nearly any town or village.
The bus is usually full rather than empty as above.
You can take a train around the country, and between most towns.
You can cycle to places as it's not nearly so spread out as the US, though you can hardly blame the US for that. Plus you get exercise!
The place is so much more pedestrian friendly, with zebra crossings, bridges and subways where traffic is heavy (in most places)
Having said that, there is still road congestion in the UK but hey it'd be a hell of a lot worse without the bus or train.
I dread to think what this city will be like in 20 years and wish the city planners could have thought ahead and perhaps taken notes from across the pond.
Our LAN consists of about 40 PCs, previously running Win98,2k,XP. After trying out many distros (based on management wanting some level of support) we gradually moved to RedHat Linux (various versions) + OpenOffice. The servers run Slackware Linux 8.1.
There has been mixed success so far..
The good...
Significant drop in costs.
Users are able to do their jobs still:)
Retained document compatibility with other companies.
The email viruses are history now.
Etc, etc
The bad...
The older staff members had a hard time learning the new system. They are getting there though.
Certain custom systems were not immediately portable.
Overall I'd say it has been quite successful, for us at least:)
"Acorn was an English Arm-based home computer of the late 80's that competed (none to sucessfully, outside Britain at least) against Amiga an Atari."
To say just late 80s is selling Acorn short, plus you gave the wrong name to the machine in question;p
Acorn was the name of the company responsible for the ARM based 32bit machines, starting with the Archimedes range (A305 to A440, A540 (which could run RiscIX)) running Arthur and then RiscOS 2 (3 with upgrade), the A3000 (ARM2) 3010 (ARM250) (ooh green function keys!) & 3020 (ARM 250) which were similar in their general look to the Amiga/Atari ST range, the A4000, A5000, A7000, RiscPC (ARM6), RiscPC (StrongARM 110) but alas they died out before they could finish the RiscPC2 (Phoebe).
Acorn actually started in the late 70s, with their first machine being the Acorn Atom. They then hooked up with the BBC and were commissioned to produce the BBC Microcomputer (models A & B, B+, Master and Master Compact.. 8 bit 6502 cpu, varying ram & expansion) which were incredibly successful right through the 80s and early 90s in UK schools, colleges and universities, indeed there are many educational establishments still actively using them because a) they are so easy to interface devices to and b) they never die. Acorn also released the Electron (relative of the BBC, cut down with no mode 7/teletext, limited sound and expandability).
The problem with the Beeb (as it was known), and the later Archimedes/RISCOS systems was not a technical one but a marketing one. Like Apple now, Acorn then charged a hefty price for the hardware. At launch the BBC model A and B were released at 299.99 and 399.99 (UK pounds) respectively, the later ARM systems e.g. A3000 aimed at home users for 649.99 (UK pounds). This is what hurt Acorn most IMHO and led to the lack of market penetration outside the UK. Why would Joe public (who wouldn't know better) bother with them when they could get a Sinclair Spectrum (ZX/+2/+3), C64/128, Amstrad, etc or later Amiga 500/Atari 520ST/1040 for half the respective price? As a knock on effect the software houses of the time (Ocean, US Gold, etc) were slow to release conversions of their games for the Beeb & Arc as they didn't think the market was there (thank you Krisalis!)
Having said all that it's great that the developers weren't all talk when they took over development of ARM based systems/RISCOS where Acorn left off. I wish them every success.
Now if someone would just write something to convert DesktopTracker mod files to XM/S3M so I could revive the hundreds of songs I wrote on my A3000 I'd be super happy!:)
chiller2
Re:Similar Questions: ARM-powered Desktop?
on
Build Your Own PowerPC?
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· Score: 3, Informative
A number of companies from the Acorn scene (yes there are still a few) are working on newer ARM based hardware.
You should check the following links out...
Castle Technologies (UK) - The Iyonix PC. It runs RISCOS 4 but can use ArmLinux/etc if you want it to. They've also brought out a USB podule for older Acorn systems.
Castle site
Aleph One have a line of StrongARM based evaluation boards, and ARMLinux related info. Lots of info for ARM developers.
Uffenkamp (DE) sell Acorn/ARM hardware and software and I guess would be easier for you to get to. See their site.
RiscStation (UK) have their own RISCOS/ARM based systems you can check out. See the RiscStation homepage for more info.
You can get a good idea of the ARM hardware out there by following the Acorn/ARM news sites.
I must admit I thought this would be a pain at first, but you do get some breathing space with being able to register_globals in the php config until such time as you've either upgraded the old style code. The new system is much better. Plus reading/setting your session variables can be done in the same way.
$_SESSION['somevariable']="blah"; echo $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']; echo $_GET['pageno'];... and so on.
chiller2 ------ LoHost - www.lohost.com - dev hosting accounts with smtp auth & mysql root access
Re:The same music over and over again
on
Homogenized Music
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· Score: 1
In Tulsa OK the Clearchannel owned stations are so repetitive I can name the station by the first second of the song playing.
Slogan...
"Mix '96 - 50 minutes of music every hour"
Yes, the SAME 50 minutes of music every hour!
Slogan..
"The best music of the 60s,70s,80s,90s and Today!"
The miserable list they play is certainly not the best.
KISS FM is no better.. Pink's party crap, the same Linkin park song over and over (In the end), etc.
Rock 102.3 and The Edge have sadly gone downhill in the past couple of years too.
I've taken to avoiding the radio altogether while in the car, and instead listening to CDs.
Yup, you got me... I've not tried Mandrake since 7.0, RH since 6.2, SuSE since 6.2, etc. I imagine they're totally different now.
My point was that Slack was barebones and you built what you wanted on it. With the install options of the advanced distros you still mostly have to put up with a particular scenario setup ie oh you're running a server, you want x,y,z, or oh you're running your desktop, have a,b,c,d... you still have to mess around taking stuff out after.
Slack does everything I want it to. It has up to date packages for most things, easy to put in, if not, the source compile is no biggie. If I need a webserver, I grab the latest apache and assorted goodies (php,mysql,etc). If I want a mailserver, sendmail, dns server? grab bind. Done.
I don't have to spend time deinstalling all the extra crap these so called 'advanced' distros put on.
Then again, I use Slack for servers. If you want your pretty (?) little KDE'd desktop all there with gui tools for doing things, then great, but don't diss Pats work. It's good stuff.
So the article was not something you were interested in? Rob can't please everyones literary tastes. It was just a harmless story to say somebody in the public eye has their site hosted with our beloved OS.
Did it ever occur to you to just skip onto something else? Your post served only to get on peoples nerves. It doesn't surprise me at all that you're a 'anonymous coward'.
Total agreement there, it is an ignorant statement.
Maybe he believes because the bulk of the Internet is still American that the software running most of it has the greatest impact there too, and hence that's where it counts.
I don't agree with that, but I think it might be where he's coming from (assuming 1 braincell instead of none):)
Slashdot Mirror
Back in early 1997 I wrote a small chat application in Delphi called Kelvchat that allow me to talk to multiple friends as they weren't always running irc clients. The interface was quite similar in operation to AIM/ICQ. Alas I lost the exe and sourcecode in a HDD failure in 1998. The only proof of existance is an archived page kept by the Wayback machine at archive.org.
;)
Oh silly me! What was I thinking?? I should have patented the way my app worked back then and hit AOL/Mirabilis/Yahoo with patent infringement last week. I'd be rich!
Seriously though, something needs to be done about those registering such patents and the idiots at USPTO that let them get away with it.
Regardless of what is right or wrong, it's hard to blame the locals given the way things are laid out for them...
- Turn on the TV.. Advertising for SUVs and gas guzzling trucks is thrown at you every couple of minutes through a TV show.
- When filling up at the gas station for $1.20(+/-30c) a gallon it hardly hurts the wallets of those who bought the SUVs & trucks.
- In this city at least, there is no train service and the bus service is barely used, leaving little alternative.
- As a pedestrian, trying to cross the 4 lane streets is frustrating when crossings are a mile apart and you're in the middle somewhere. No bridges or subways. Many of the streets don't have pavements or sidewalks.
Back in the UK I didn't own a car, and had no reason to want one as I could go anywhere I wanted by other means.- You can take the bus into nearly any town or village.
- The bus is usually full rather than empty as above.
- You can take a train around the country, and between most towns.
- You can cycle to places as it's not nearly so spread out as the US, though you can hardly blame the US for that. Plus you get exercise!
- The place is so much more pedestrian friendly, with zebra crossings, bridges and subways where traffic is heavy (in most places)
Having said that, there is still road congestion in the UK but hey it'd be a hell of a lot worse without the bus or train.I dread to think what this city will be like in 20 years and wish the city planners could have thought ahead and perhaps taken notes from across the pond.
There has been mixed success so far..
The good...
- Significant drop in costs.
- Users are able to do their jobs still
:)
- Retained document compatibility with other companies.
- The email viruses are history now.
- Etc, etc
The bad...- The older staff members had a hard time learning the new system. They are getting there though.
- Certain custom systems were not immediately portable.
Overall I'd say it has been quite successful, for us at least"Acorn was an English Arm-based home computer of the late 80's that competed (none to sucessfully, outside Britain at least) against Amiga an Atari."
;p
:)
To say just late 80s is selling Acorn short, plus you gave the wrong name to the machine in question
Acorn was the name of the company responsible for the ARM based 32bit machines, starting with the Archimedes range (A305 to A440, A540 (which could run RiscIX)) running Arthur and then RiscOS 2 (3 with upgrade), the A3000 (ARM2) 3010 (ARM250) (ooh green function keys!) & 3020 (ARM 250) which were similar in their general look to the Amiga/Atari ST range, the A4000, A5000, A7000, RiscPC (ARM6), RiscPC (StrongARM 110) but alas they died out before they could finish the RiscPC2 (Phoebe).
Acorn actually started in the late 70s, with their first machine being the Acorn Atom. They then hooked up with the BBC and were commissioned to produce the BBC Microcomputer (models A & B, B+, Master and Master Compact.. 8 bit 6502 cpu, varying ram & expansion) which were incredibly successful right through the 80s and early 90s in UK schools, colleges and universities, indeed there are many educational establishments still actively using them because a) they are so easy to interface devices to and b) they never die. Acorn also released the Electron (relative of the BBC, cut down with no mode 7/teletext, limited sound and expandability).
The problem with the Beeb (as it was known), and the later Archimedes/RISCOS systems was not a technical one but a marketing one. Like Apple now, Acorn then charged a hefty price for the hardware. At launch the BBC model A and B were released at 299.99 and 399.99 (UK pounds) respectively, the later ARM systems e.g. A3000 aimed at home users for 649.99 (UK pounds). This is what hurt Acorn most IMHO and led to the lack of market penetration outside the UK. Why would Joe public (who wouldn't know better) bother with them when they could get a Sinclair Spectrum (ZX/+2/+3), C64/128, Amstrad, etc or later Amiga 500/Atari 520ST/1040 for half the respective price? As a knock on effect the software houses of the time (Ocean, US Gold, etc) were slow to release conversions of their games for the Beeb & Arc as they didn't think the market was there (thank you Krisalis!)
Having said all that it's great that the developers weren't all talk when they took over development of ARM based systems/RISCOS where Acorn left off. I wish them every success.
Now if someone would just write something to convert DesktopTracker mod files to XM/S3M so I could revive the hundreds of songs I wrote on my A3000 I'd be super happy!
chiller2
You should check the following links out...
Castle Technologies (UK) - The Iyonix PC. It runs RISCOS 4 but can use ArmLinux/etc if you want it to. They've also brought out a USB podule for older Acorn systems. Castle site
Aleph One have a line of StrongARM based evaluation boards, and ARMLinux related info. Lots of info for ARM developers.
Uffenkamp (DE) sell Acorn/ARM hardware and software and I guess would be easier for you to get to. See their site.
RiscStation (UK) have their own RISCOS/ARM based systems you can check out. See the RiscStation homepage for more info.
You can get a good idea of the ARM hardware out there by following the Acorn/ARM news sites.
- Acorn Cybervillage
- Riscos.org
There is a lot more but that should be enough to get you startedI must admit I thought this would be a pain at first, but you do get some breathing space with being able to register_globals in the php config until such time as you've either upgraded the old style code. The new system is much better. Plus reading/setting your session variables can be done in the same way.
... and so on.
$_SESSION['somevariable']="blah";
echo $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
echo $_GET['pageno'];
chiller2
------
LoHost - www.lohost.com - dev hosting accounts with smtp auth & mysql root access
In Tulsa OK the Clearchannel owned stations are so repetitive I can name the station by the first second of the song playing. Slogan... "Mix '96 - 50 minutes of music every hour" Yes, the SAME 50 minutes of music every hour! Slogan.. "The best music of the 60s,70s,80s,90s and Today!" The miserable list they play is certainly not the best. KISS FM is no better.. Pink's party crap, the same Linkin park song over and over (In the end), etc. Rock 102.3 and The Edge have sadly gone downhill in the past couple of years too. I've taken to avoiding the radio altogether while in the car, and instead listening to CDs.
It was actually the Amulet processor. For more reading check out the Amulet group website.
:)
Kelv
(...who read about the Amulet way back when in an old issue of Acorn User)
Yup, you got me... I've not tried Mandrake since 7.0, RH since 6.2, SuSE since 6.2, etc. I imagine they're totally different now.
My point was that Slack was barebones and you built what you wanted on it. With the install options of the advanced distros you still mostly have to put up with a particular scenario setup ie oh you're running a server, you want x,y,z, or oh you're running your desktop, have a,b,c,d... you still have to mess around taking stuff out after.
chiller2
Quantify your statement.
Slack does everything I want it to. It has up to date packages for most things, easy to put in, if not, the source compile is no biggie. If I need a webserver, I grab the latest apache and assorted goodies (php,mysql,etc). If I want a mailserver, sendmail, dns server? grab bind. Done.
I don't have to spend time deinstalling all the extra crap these so called 'advanced' distros put on.
Then again, I use Slack for servers. If you want your pretty (?) little KDE'd desktop all there with gui tools for doing things, then great, but don't diss Pats work. It's good stuff.
chiller2
Mr Anonymous,
So the article was not something you were interested in? Rob can't please everyones literary tastes. It was just a harmless story to say somebody in the public eye has their site hosted with our beloved OS.
Did it ever occur to you to just skip onto something else? Your post served only to get on peoples nerves. It doesn't surprise me at all that you're a 'anonymous coward'.
Best wishes,
Brit who'd kick your ass
Total agreement there, it is an ignorant statement.
:)
Maybe he believes because the bulk of the Internet is still American that the software running most of it has the greatest impact there too, and hence that's where it counts.
I don't agree with that, but I think it might be where he's coming from (assuming 1 braincell instead of none)