I once worked 3 days straight on a project, with no sleep. There were some slow parts where I just sorta stared at the screen blankly for an hour or two, but for the most part, we were *wired* and pumping out good code.
The project was worth a couple million, and was quoted by various sundry consultants as taking a couple of months. We (me an 3 others) got it done in a week.
The worst part about it was the following days after we'd all recuperated... there's nothing quite like the rush of having shipped a product that you've worked so hard on...
That used to be a fairly popular SGI user interface demo a while back... you'd navigate through a hierarchy of 'buttons' that spin through 3D space, sort of like a flashy 3d program manager.
Okay, so if I could take my copy of Windows that MS refused to give me a refund for, and install it in a Linux dir somewhere (like I did with Softwindows for Irix a few years back), and then be able to run Windows apps within Wine, I'd be marginally happier.
But then again, I could just get that new OS switcher app (forgot what it's called) and run that as well...
I have two SGI Indy's, been a big fan of the Indy since it was released and I scrounged together enough cash to get an entry-level system which I've progressively upgraded over the years.
Where's a good place to buy 2nd hand SGI gear these days? I've considered getting an O2, but I figure if there is a cheap resource for Indigo2's I could always just go that route too...
While I certainly do like my PalmPilot Pro, and have used Palm products since they were first released, I've been sitting here thinking about these new Pilots this evening.
The decision I've been trying to make is whether or not to upgrade to a Palm V/IIIx, or to wait until the rumoured 'color' Pilots are released later in the year.
I'm essentially not happy with these new product offerings from 3COM. From my perspective, they are basically the same old thing, repackaged and made more 'sellable' from the same perspective as car manufacturers - in other words, they're using the same basic guts, but with 'luxury' accessories such as a metal case, rechargeable battery, or 'convenience' accessories such as extra RAM and expansion capabilities -but being produced and delivered in a MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE fashion! ARRRGGH!!
I've even thought about going over to the dark side and getting a WinCE machine. I could really use color for some of the applications I'm developing. WinCE just doesn't do it for me though, because I'd have to use more of the Win32 API than my decision at the beginning of the year to leave Win32 programming behind would allow.
I've been watching the Itsy stuff in hopes that it'll come out of the Digital/Compaq woodwork and be released as a product, but alas that's not looking like its going to happen any time soon.
So what we need is an OPEN DESIGN (software/hardware) project to develop a palm-held computer with *real* features. Make the *DESIGN* available, and let people pick their own part, based on rough guidelines.
This sort of concept has worked well in the past, and I have experienced it - I develop music software and run my own little studio, and last year I built an ASM1 analog synthesizer based on an Open Design, picking my own parts and getting it all working in just a few weeks. More info about the ASM1 can be found here, if any slashdott'ers are interested:
Click the "Front Panel Design" link to get to the main info.
The point I'm making with the ASM1 project is that it *worked* as a fundamental OPEN project - Gene opened up his design for people to use in building an Analog Modular synthesizer, and many people have made them - some have contributed back to the design in area's that were lacking such as the front panel implementation, or additions/modifications that can be made to various modules to make interesting features available to the end-musician.
So why not something like this for a palm-based computing platform? People (such as a core section of the slashdot demographic) are getting more and more willing to deal with technology at a more intense level - though this project certainly wouldn't be for *everyone* - and as such, we could end up designing a more satisfactory platform for the end-user/hacker.
Anyway, I am personally willing to devote resources and time to a project with the goal to build the ultimate palm-based computer system for use by the hacking community to build and refine.
I know that there are some projects out there already that have started to get the Linux kernel running on interesting small, low-power platforms, and I will dig through my bookmarks and make a page of links to those projects.
These projects are useful and interesting - but what I foresee is a central site that someone could come to, download the plans, read the FAQ, get a shopping list of parts together, get it all together, build the system, and get help from a DIY-type community to get the final thing debugged and running.
Is this of *any* use at all? I know there are already sites out there that do this, but what we need is a central one that has links to all the references.
If you'd like to help, or have suggestions, send me e-mail with your advice/comments and I will pool it all together and get a basic web page running with the details... (use jv@teklab.com)
Appreciate it. I'll wait for the K7 before I decide on non-Intel chips for my uses.
In the meantime, might be interesting to overclock my PPro, if it's possible...
Hmmm... decisions decisions.
on
K6-3 on Monday
·
· Score: 1
I am currently running a PPro/200 machine, primarily for developing music software.
I'm definitely at the point where I want more horsepower - so these articles on Slashdot are very interesting.
Does this new AMD chip do floating point anywhere near decent? Is it going to ever catch up with the Intel line in terms of FP power, or am I just better off sticking with Intel for my FP-hungry apps?
I don't know too much about the non-Intel alternatives... I got this PPro/200 a few years ago because it was the best thing for my music stuff... if there's an alternative, I'd sure like to know.
Another solution would be to set a cap on how much a company can charge for an operating system, like is done with the telco industry. Regulate the prices so that no matter what, you will always be able to buy Linux -or- Windows -or- BeOS for exactly the same price. (Say, $25)
That way, OS growth is based on features and value to the end-consumer in terms of service, rather than being based on which company can make the best deals with distribution agreements, etc.
I can see the logic in this clause, as brain-dead as it may be.
The idea being that there needs to be *no* possibility that any of the work done for them could be considered derivatives of GPL'ed software - and therefore, Sprints license for the delivered works is safe from, intellectual-property wise.
Sprint is a big corp. Big corps have lawyers. Lawyers are essentially useless members of society, and they know it - they're scared of people waking up and realizing this. So they do things to make themselves seem important - such as add clauses 'that will protect the future investments and assets of this company'.
Oh well. I guess this Sprint contractor will just have to re-invent the wheel(s). Again.
All of those stories were cool, except for the one where the guy tortures a kitten with a Sun E10k... not my idea of 'cool'.
He should've just shut the system down and let it come out, instead of trying to fry it. What a lamer. And he uses a Linux distro as a prying tool to 'save a kitten and an E10k'...
"A trivial degree of mischief was performed before the emulation was rendered unavailable to subsequent attackers due to institution of a root password."
Hah hah, your stupid story would've been semi-believable until I read this.
It wasn't because of a root password, it was because of a certain fun command involving/proc/kmem...
10 points for trying, anyway. Okay, make that 8, no 7...
You're X-CORP, a large PC manufacturer. You need to buy a couple million motherboards for your production. Lets just say you need to buy a million motherboards (not too unrealistic), and you want to buy them for $55 each.
Do you spend $55 million, or do you spend $56 million, for the mobo's with the Apple firewire port?
I think he meant IDE, not SCSI, because he was referring to a Master/Slave configuration, which doesn't exist in the SCSI world.
With SCSI, *any* device on the SCSI bus can talk to *any* other device. It's just that the technology has been used from the standpoint of having a single host adapter interface in a computer, and having that computer tell all the other devices what to do.
Right now, I have two complete SCSI buses in my PC - one of which has multiple 'initiators' on it, working just fine. I routinely transfer data between one initiator and the other, or both initiators transferring data from separate storage devices, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
:)
I once worked 3 days straight on a project, with no sleep. There were some slow parts where I just sorta stared at the screen blankly for an hour or two, but for the most part, we were *wired* and pumping out good code.
The project was worth a couple million, and was quoted by various sundry consultants as taking a couple of months. We (me an 3 others) got it done in a week.
The worst part about it was the following days after we'd all recuperated... there's nothing quite like the rush of having shipped a product that you've worked so hard on...
That used to be a fairly popular SGI user interface demo a while back... you'd navigate through a hierarchy of 'buttons' that spin through 3D space, sort of like a flashy 3d program manager.
Don't remember any 3d window managers, though...
... from Microsoft.
Okay, so if I could take my copy of Windows that MS refused to give me a refund for, and install it in a Linux dir somewhere (like I did with Softwindows for Irix a few years back), and then be able to run Windows apps within Wine, I'd be marginally happier.
But then again, I could just get that new OS switcher app (forgot what it's called) and run that as well...
What's the difference?
I have two SGI Indy's, been a big fan of the Indy since it was released and I scrounged together enough cash to get an entry-level system which I've progressively upgraded over the years.
Where's a good place to buy 2nd hand SGI gear these days? I've considered getting an O2, but I figure if there is a cheap resource for Indigo2's I could always just go that route too...
While I certainly do like my PalmPilot Pro, and have used Palm products since they were first released, I've been sitting here thinking about these new Pilots this evening.
The decision I've been trying to make is whether or not to upgrade to a Palm V/IIIx, or to wait until the rumoured 'color' Pilots are released later in the year.
I'm essentially not happy with these new product offerings from 3COM. From my perspective, they are basically the same old thing, repackaged and made more 'sellable' from the same perspective as car manufacturers - in other words, they're using the same basic guts, but with 'luxury' accessories such as a metal case, rechargeable battery, or 'convenience' accessories such as extra RAM and expansion capabilities -but being produced and delivered in a MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE fashion! ARRRGGH!!
I've even thought about going over to the dark side and getting a WinCE machine. I could really use color for some of the applications I'm developing. WinCE just doesn't do it for me though, because I'd have to use more of the Win32 API than my decision at the beginning of the year to leave Win32 programming behind would allow.
I've been watching the Itsy stuff in hopes that it'll come out of the Digital/Compaq woodwork and be released as a product, but alas that's not looking like its going to happen any time soon.
So what we need is an OPEN DESIGN (software/hardware) project to develop a palm-held computer with *real* features. Make the *DESIGN* available, and let people pick their own part, based on rough guidelines.
This sort of concept has worked well in the past, and I have experienced it - I develop music software and run my own little studio, and last year I built an ASM1 analog synthesizer based on an Open Design, picking my own parts and getting it all working in just a few weeks. More info about the ASM1 can be found here, if any slashdott'ers are interested:
http://lab1.teklab.com/~jay/ASM1/
Click the "Front Panel Design" link to get to the main info.
The point I'm making with the ASM1 project is that it *worked* as a fundamental OPEN project - Gene opened up his design for people to use in building an Analog Modular synthesizer, and many people have made them - some have contributed back to the design in area's that were lacking such as the front panel implementation, or additions/modifications that can be made to various modules to make interesting features available to the end-musician.
So why not something like this for a palm-based computing platform? People (such as a core section of the slashdot demographic) are getting more and more willing to deal with technology at a more intense level - though this project certainly wouldn't be for *everyone* - and as such, we could end up designing a more satisfactory platform for the end-user/hacker.
Anyway, I am personally willing to devote resources and time to a project with the goal to build the ultimate palm-based computer system for use by the hacking community to build and refine.
I know that there are some projects out there already that have started to get the Linux kernel running on interesting small, low-power platforms, and I will dig through my bookmarks and make a page of links to those projects.
These projects are useful and interesting - but what I foresee is a central site that someone could come to, download the plans, read the FAQ, get a shopping list of parts together, get it all together, build the system, and get help from a DIY-type community to get the final thing debugged and running.
Is this of *any* use at all? I know there are already sites out there that do this, but what we need is a central one that has links to all the references.
If you'd like to help, or have suggestions, send me e-mail with your advice/comments and I will pool it all together and get a basic web page running with the details... (use jv@teklab.com)
Thanks, I'll check into it. It may be fun, though this system already overheats if I don't turn on the drive-bay fans I've installed ...
Appreciate it. I'll wait for the K7 before I decide on non-Intel chips for my uses.
In the meantime, might be interesting to overclock my PPro, if it's possible...
I am currently running a PPro/200 machine, primarily for developing music software.
I'm definitely at the point where I want more horsepower - so these articles on Slashdot are very interesting.
Does this new AMD chip do floating point anywhere near decent? Is it going to ever catch up with the Intel line in terms of FP power, or am I just better off sticking with Intel for my FP-hungry apps?
I don't know too much about the non-Intel alternatives... I got this PPro/200 a few years ago because it was the best thing for my music stuff... if there's an alternative, I'd sure like to know.
Yeah, in fact you can see where the Quake III image was pasted, there's a faint outline around it.
Was a bit disappointed to see this, actually. What's the deal here, are Be doing an MS-video type demonstration?
Another solution would be to set a cap on how much a company can charge for an operating system, like is done with the telco industry. Regulate the prices so that no matter what, you will always be able to buy Linux -or- Windows -or- BeOS for exactly the same price. (Say, $25)
That way, OS growth is based on features and value to the end-consumer in terms of service, rather than being based on which company can make the best deals with distribution agreements, etc.
I can see the logic in this clause, as brain-dead as it may be.
The idea being that there needs to be *no* possibility that any of the work done for them could be considered derivatives of GPL'ed software - and therefore, Sprints license for the delivered works is safe from, intellectual-property wise.
Sprint is a big corp. Big corps have lawyers. Lawyers are essentially useless members of society, and they know it - they're scared of people waking up and realizing this. So they do things to make themselves seem important - such as add clauses 'that will protect the future investments and assets of this company'.
Oh well. I guess this Sprint contractor will just have to re-invent the wheel(s). Again.
What's it going to take for these things to become affordable to real people?
OR hit "Flat Mode", that usually works for me.
I'm all for alternatives. And if yours works, then let it reign supreme.
Just curious, I don't really know that much about 'em.
http://www.earthlink.net/about/papers/evolution.ht ml
This time from a 'net visionary'...
Heh heh.
Was it written in Java?
Is this the sign of things to come - a truly cross-platform interactive book-on-CD that is not platform dependent?
Seems like a good use of Java technology to me - interactive publishing...
All of those stories were cool, except for the one where the guy tortures a kitten with a Sun E10k... not my idea of 'cool'.
He should've just shut the system down and let it come out, instead of trying to fry it. What a lamer. And he uses a Linux distro as a prying tool to 'save a kitten and an E10k'...
Kinda dumb story.
Coz that air you're using, it was at some point, cycled through the engines of a military jet.
...
And probably contains particles that were farted from the ass of some Marine somewhere.
So, I'd stop breathing, if I were you
Standard Oil, New York.
"A trivial degree of mischief was performed before the emulation was rendered unavailable to subsequent attackers due to institution of a root password."
/proc/kmem ...
...
Hah hah, your stupid story would've been semi-believable until I read this.
It wasn't because of a root password, it was because of a certain fun command involving
10 points for trying, anyway. Okay, make that 8, no 7
Think of it this way.
You're X-CORP, a large PC manufacturer. You need to buy a couple million motherboards for your production. Lets just say you need to buy a million motherboards (not too unrealistic), and you want to buy them for $55 each.
Do you spend $55 million, or do you spend $56 million, for the mobo's with the Apple firewire port?
I think he meant IDE, not SCSI, because he was referring to a Master/Slave configuration, which doesn't exist in the SCSI world.
With SCSI, *any* device on the SCSI bus can talk to *any* other device. It's just that the technology has been used from the standpoint of having a single host adapter interface in a computer, and having that computer tell all the other devices what to do.
Right now, I have two complete SCSI buses in my PC - one of which has multiple 'initiators' on it, working just fine. I routinely transfer data between one initiator and the other, or both initiators transferring data from separate storage devices, etc.
Thanks ...
...
/. effect on a few sites, he deserves it.
*THWAP*!
Rob says that so that companies that read his reviews might be swung towards *actually* sending him stuff
Not a bad strategy, for one who tirelessly puts everything into SlashDot and gets very little out of it.
After all, what with Rob turning the ol'