Re:This will kill X in the long term.
on
DRI Comes to DirectFB
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· Score: -1, Offtopic
Big iron just got bigger. I bet the 'big iron' under your desktop doesn't have 1/100 of the power of the High Performance Cluster of Sun machines we have here. And we do run apps on there with graphical output, so we need remote X displays.
You kiddies can play with your little iron under your desk, we grownups will always want to work with bigger stuff.
Ballmer says "The fact is that if you want to do some kind of integrated innovation that touches the kernel, that touches the user interface--there is no way.", because of the way Linus controls the kernel and someone else controls the user interface.
What he doesn't point out is that if you want to do anything - *ANYTHING* - with the Windows kernel or the Windows luser interface you either have to work for the company or sign your soul to them.
And he's also plain *wrong*. If you want to change the kernel and the user interface, and ooh, lets add, integrate the filesystem into your new UI/kernel integrated innovation, you can. Just do it. You've got the source. Do it, release it, its done. Linus might not like it, and you might not be able to call it Linux, but call it 'Xinul' or something. Freedom - aaah, smell it.
Chop it horizontally into a load of slices, drill a big hole in the middle, build three poles big enough to stand it on, then execute the recursive Tower-Of-Hanoi algorithm, thus reducing the problem to one with a known solution.
I think I have the inverse problem. I middle-click on something in Mozilla to get it in a new tab, and the scroll wheel activates just enough so that the mouse pointer is no longer over the link. So it ends up pasting whatever was in my copy-buffer into Mozilla, which then tries to find it.
So I might try and click on a www.slashdot.org link and it jumps to www.freshmeat.net cos that was in my copy buffer! Most confusing!!! Aarrrgh.
Okay, so maybe the rolling exhaust box is CGI, but what about the sound? I bet most of that was put on in postproduction, samplers and synths. Fake, all of it:)
Ten years ago I wrote some code for spatial data analysis using the Splus package. I called it 'splancs', which stood for 'spatial analysis code in S-plus', but also included the 'lancs' part from Lancaster University which is where I work. Double bonus.
So this summer I get invited over to University Of Western Australia to work on a similar project. We argue for days over the name! Eventually I realise we need a name that keeps the 'splancs' nature.
SpUWA.
I even designed a logo - a big yellow splodge representing the area of a point pattern of data composed of small orange and green chunks. But strangely this was too coarse even for the Australians. Pah. We agreed to call it 'Rasp' (R Analysis of Spatial Patterns) but in true Mozilla fashion, pronounce it 'Spuwa!'.
"So I got this story posted on slashdot after that time gigabytes of bandwidth got used up by that fake porn spam address, and so the site got slashdotted and that used up even more bandwidth until my ISP decided to limit my access, so I got another story posted under 'YRO' on slashdot about that and...."
Well if they kill me it says in my will to disconnect their network point completely.
Bear in mind that under our Uni rules they have no right to a network point at all. I've already stepped over the line for them and asked them nicely not to abuse the connection with Kazaa et al.
Of course, calling me an obnoxious twat makes you seem more the arsehole. And a coward.
I just set up a NAT box for a room full of students with their own laptops. I cant control the software on them, but I can control the network. I let through webproxy and ssh ports, which is all they can really ask for in order to do their work.
But the traffic is large and constant. Are they streaming radio, Kazaa'ing? I dont know. But they do want IMAP access to mailservers - doing SSH to a unix box and running 'pine' isn't enough for them - they want clicky clicky. So here's the deal. If that constant traffic goes, and it just looks like you are browsing, I'll enable IMAP access. Streaming traffic disappears.
All I need do is keep an eye on the packet counts. And save a stick for later - they're bound to want to use our printers at thesis-delivery time...
Armando Iannucci had a comedy show on UK TV. In one sketch he explained how scientists were sending him his very own DNA code in weekly installmants, in the form of strips of paper that he was pasting up on his wall as a sort of decorative frieze. He explained how DNA contained the secrets to life, and the camera panned round the lengthening strings of letters as Armando read them off:
ADDGCTCTCTDONTPISSITAWAYAGGGDTTDONTPISSITAWAYGGG CC
Yeah, and a phone jack as well for those without RJ45s but with modems. Better make sure we install European and US power sockets as well as UK ones for those people without UK power adaptors.
Would be nice to just have wired network access, and to save all the spaghetti how about network cables that reel back into the desk when not in use?
We've considered working with wireless access technology in lectures for our students. The problem - battery life. Friends tell me that when you've got a wireless card talking away you might get an hour or so of battery life. Someone coming to a lecture with a half-charged battery is going to be in trouble when asked to download the homework questions at the end...
The solution? Well, why not put power sockets in the desks? So much for wire-less. Might as well put network sockets in as well and give the kiddies 10Mb each instead of sharing an AP or two.
And with TCP/IP being a reliable transport medium, there's no chance of 'Tuttle' becoming 'Buttle'! [*]
We've named one of the forms we use in our department a 27B/6 in honour of the film. We refuse to buy any equipment until someone has filled one in.
Baz
[*] part of the plot of the film is that Mr Buttle gets mistakenly arrested instead of Mr Tuttle because a swatted fly falls into the machines that are typing out names of people to be arrested.
Fantastic stuff. Meccano for grown ups. People have built entire staircases out of it. We just built ten little shelves to fit behind desks in our new lab to hide the little Wyse Xterms we bought. I'm very tempted to build a mini-rack out of it for some of our other gear.
Someone recently brought up this 'trust' business in our coffee room the other day over closed-source statistics software. He was saying that he trusted the authors of some stats package because he knew them, they worked at a major university etc etc.
Sure, you may trust them, but if the source is closed they clearly dont trust you! Quite literally not one bit.
Slashdot Mirror
Big iron just got bigger. I bet the 'big iron' under your desktop doesn't have 1/100 of the power of the High Performance Cluster of Sun machines we have here. And we do run apps on there with graphical output, so we need remote X displays.
You kiddies can play with your little iron under your desk, we grownups will always want to work with bigger stuff.
Ballmer says "The fact is that if you want to do some kind of integrated innovation that touches the kernel, that touches the user interface--there is no way.", because of the way Linus controls the kernel and someone else controls the user interface.
What he doesn't point out is that if you want to do anything - *ANYTHING* - with the Windows kernel or the Windows luser interface you either have to work for the company or sign your soul to them.
And he's also plain *wrong*. If you want to change the kernel and the user interface, and ooh, lets add, integrate the filesystem into your new UI/kernel integrated innovation, you can. Just do it. You've got the source. Do it, release it, its done. Linus might not like it, and you might not be able to call it Linux, but call it 'Xinul' or something. Freedom - aaah, smell it.
Baz
Chop it horizontally into a load of slices, drill a big hole in the middle, build three poles big enough to stand it on, then execute the recursive Tower-Of-Hanoi algorithm, thus reducing the problem to one with a known solution.
Baz
I think I have the inverse problem. I middle-click on something in Mozilla to get it in a new tab, and the scroll wheel activates just enough so that the mouse pointer is no longer over the link. So it ends up pasting whatever was in my copy-buffer into Mozilla, which then tries to find it.
So I might try and click on a www.slashdot.org link and it jumps to www.freshmeat.net cos that was in my copy buffer! Most confusing!!! Aarrrgh.
Okay, so maybe the rolling exhaust box is CGI, but what about the sound? I bet most of that was put on in postproduction, samplers and synths. Fake, all of it :)
Baz
.. you are really just hoping she'll bring you back a really cool new one fresh from Japan when she returns :)
Baz
I'd always avoided mixing green and blue on my monitor because I know you can make cyanide from those two colours....
Bazman
Ten years ago I wrote some code for spatial data analysis using the Splus package. I called it 'splancs', which stood for 'spatial analysis code in S-plus', but also included the 'lancs' part from Lancaster University which is where I work. Double bonus.
So this summer I get invited over to University Of Western Australia to work on a similar project. We argue for days over the name! Eventually I realise we need a name that keeps the 'splancs' nature.
SpUWA.
I even designed a logo - a big yellow splodge representing the area of a point pattern of data composed of small orange and green chunks. But strangely this was too coarse even for the Australians. Pah. We agreed to call it 'Rasp' (R Analysis of Spatial Patterns) but in true Mozilla fashion, pronounce it 'Spuwa!'.
Baz
Its 'Antibiotic-resistant' - a compound adjective, so it is hyphenated. I had to read the header twice to figure out what it meant.
Its the same difference as 'Man eating shark' (in a restaurant) and 'Man-eating shark' (in trouble).
Baz
My Short Life as A Slashdotted Person
"So I got this story posted on slashdot after that time gigabytes of bandwidth got used up by that fake porn spam address, and so the site got slashdotted and that used up even more bandwidth until my ISP decided to limit my access, so I got another story posted under 'YRO' on slashdot about that and...."
Well if they kill me it says in my will to disconnect their network point completely.
Bear in mind that under our Uni rules they have no right to a network point at all. I've already stepped over the line for them and asked them nicely not to abuse the connection with Kazaa et al.
Of course, calling me an obnoxious twat makes you seem more the arsehole. And a coward.
I just set up a NAT box for a room full of students with their own laptops. I cant control the software on them, but I can control the network. I let through webproxy and ssh ports, which is all they can really ask for in order to do their work.
But the traffic is large and constant. Are they streaming radio, Kazaa'ing? I dont know. But they do want IMAP access to mailservers - doing SSH to a unix box and running 'pine' isn't enough for them - they want clicky clicky. So here's the deal. If that constant traffic goes, and it just looks like you are browsing, I'll enable IMAP access. Streaming traffic disappears.
All I need do is keep an eye on the packet counts. And save a stick for later - they're bound to want to use our printers at thesis-delivery time...
Baz
Surely if you're in your right mind you dont _need_ brain surgery, be it Linux, Windows, or steam-powered!
Baz
I would rather pay $200 to a lawyer or the FSF to fight for my free use of Linux than pay $96 extortion money to SCO...
I'm sure there's a logic in there somewhere.
Bazman
Armando Iannucci had a comedy show on UK TV. In one sketch he explained how scientists were sending him his very own DNA code in weekly installmants, in the form of strips of paper that he was pasting up on his wall as a sort of decorative frieze. He explained how DNA contained the secrets to life, and the camera panned round the lengthening strings of letters as Armando read them off:
G CC
ADDGCTCTCTDONTPISSITAWAYAGGGDTTDONTPISSITAWAYGG
Yeah, and a phone jack as well for those without RJ45s but with modems. Better make sure we install European and US power sockets as well as UK ones for those people without UK power adaptors.
Would be nice to just have wired network access, and to save all the spaghetti how about network cables that reel back into the desk when not in use?
Baz
We've considered working with wireless access technology in lectures for our students. The problem - battery life. Friends tell me that when you've got a wireless card talking away you might get an hour or so of battery life. Someone coming to a lecture with a half-charged battery is going to be in trouble when asked to download the homework questions at the end...
The solution? Well, why not put power sockets in the desks? So much for wire-less. Might as well put network sockets in as well and give the kiddies 10Mb each instead of sharing an AP or two.
Baz
And with TCP/IP being a reliable transport medium, there's no chance of 'Tuttle' becoming 'Buttle'! [*]
We've named one of the forms we use in our department a 27B/6 in honour of the film. We refuse to buy any equipment until someone has filled one in.
Baz
[*] part of the plot of the film is that Mr Buttle gets mistakenly arrested instead of Mr Tuttle because a swatted fly falls into the machines that are typing out names of people to be arrested.
They probably had enough of people wanting to kill themselves because of Windows crashing. And that was just the Samaritans staff!
Baz
Pheonix?
Baz
What a bizarre-looking bird. Looks like it can be used to provide aircon in the hangers when its not flying.
Baz
Dangerous server rooms
A Howto Here
Someone recently brought up this 'trust' business in our coffee room the other day over closed-source statistics software. He was saying that he trusted the authors of some stats package because he knew them, they worked at a major university etc etc.
Sure, you may trust them, but if the source is closed they clearly dont trust you! Quite literally not one bit.
Baz