How can OSDN earn money ?
Web banners ? Ad banners on Slashdot and Freshmeat are all for other OSDN services (valinux, sourceforge, thinkgeek or free software) .
And OSDN needs a lot of bandwidth. I guess all that bandwidth isn't provided for free.
On the other hand, when I walk through alleys of server farms, I always see a lot of VA Linux racks. They are easy to distinguish with their blue leds. So I thought that VA Linux was selling a lot of hardware. And selling hardware bring money. SGI is also selling VA Linux hardware (they just add their sticker) .
I can't understand their decision. They just can't *loose* money. VA Linux hardware is expensive compared to the same hardware built by your own. And it's selling. And well, according to what I saw in racks.
Compaq drops Alpha processors, Mandrake runs out of money, Netscape focuses on a stupid web portal, VA Linux stops hardware... That's bad. Really bad times for the world of Unix and free software.
--
Pure FTP server - Upgrade your FTP server to something simple and secure.
Myth III looks beautiful. But I've never had fun with these games. I had much fun on Atari playing Dungeon Master, Bombjack, Maupiti Island, Double Dragon, Shinobi, Wings of death, Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, IK+, Ultima 3, R-Type, etc, etc.
--
Pure FTP server - Upgrade your FTP server to something simple and secure.
Many people are using OpenBSD for firewalls and masquerading gateways. When the removal of ipf was announced, half the people said "ok, I'll have to stick with 2.9 forever:(", and the other half said "ok, I'm gonna drop OpenBSD for NetBSD or FreeBSD".
It was very bad for the popularity of OpenBSD.
The new packet filter is excellent news, and I just can say "good luck" to the team.
OpenBSD 3.0 will be released in 6 months. The challenge is : will they be able to complete pf for that date ?
--
Pure FTP server - Upgrade your FTP server to something simple and secure.
These boxes are very cute. So small, so powerful. But is it really ok to have them run 24/24h for a server ?
Laptops aren't designed to run 24/24h. Too much heat, components designed to be small, not very resistant,...
As these boxes are looking like a laptop without screen, I'd like to know whether it's really possible to use them in a server farm, running 24/24h.
I can't agree more. Videolan is the best DVD player now available for Unix and BeOS. I tried other alternatives like Xine, but Videolan looks more stable and needs less CPU time than other players.
Great work !
Actually, GUI for kernel configuration are great. I like to 'make menuconfig' instead of editing a long configuration file.
But the Linux kernel already had that.
Is there a change to see CML2 ported to BSD kernels ? I love BSD, but kernel configuration is something I really hate on these systems. It's very difficult and non user-friendly.
I'm not pro-Macintosh, and I myself have only PC at home (ehm, Psion and Atari ST, too) .
But lately, my father wanted to buy a computer to discover Internet, print photographs of my daughter, and do some word processing. I suggested him to buy an iMac.
He's 60 years old, and he has absolutely no experience with computing (even using a tape recorder is difficult for him:)
I had to configure the internet dial-up parameters, install Realplayer, and show him the basics of internet. What are search engines (I gave him only search engines in his native language, as he's english is very poor), how to save pictures, how to print them, how to read and send mail, how to launch the word processor, how to play a DVD. I also bought him a book (something like Macintosh for dummies) .
Now he really enjoys his computer. It took about 1 month for him to be autonomous. Now he's still discovering things, but he doesn't need help from anyone any more.
I'd still suggest an iMac for beginners. MacOS is easy to use. It's eye-candy. There are less viruses than in the Windows world. And for stability... well, sometimes it crashed. But it's doesn't stop working for no reason. Sometimes with Windows, after installing new software or after a crash, things are ceasing to work, and it's very difficult to fix (my Windows 2000 box doesn't work more than 2 minutes since I installed the DVD drivers, I don't know how to revert that) . So far, things like that never happened to him. His Macintosh is still running the default install with no problem so far.
Another great thing about Macintosh hardware, especially iMacs : they aren't noisy. Older people (at least my mother) find noisy PC fans really annoying. iMacs are silents, especially when the hard disk is in standby. And a last great thing about Macintosh hardware : they are easy to plug. No need for a lot of cable, and this is also very good for older people.
Multiple versions of the same library aren't that problematic, because libraries are versionned (xxx.so.version) . The real problem is that developpment headers (you know that include /.h files) aren't versionned. So when you upgrade a library, the new headers overwrite the old ones. And if backward-compatibilty isn't provided (#ifdef everywhere), some older software depending on older versions of the library won't compile any more.
When installing a new library that might conflict with what is already installed on your system, use a different prefix than/usr/local or/usr. For instance, configure with./configure --prefix=/usr/local/libalsa0.9 .
Include files will be in/usr/local/libalsa0.9/include, and libraries in/usr/local/libalsa0.9/lib .
No, add/usr/local/libalsa0.9/lib in/etc/ld.so.conf if you found that most existing programs are compiling and working with that version.
And if some programs are incompatibles :
- Set LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/libalsa/lib" and CFLAGS="-I/usr/local/libalsa-/include" in your environement variables.
- Compile with that.
- For pre-compiled binaries, use LD_LIBRARY_PATH. This environment variable can specify alternative paths to search for libraries. It isn't a global setting like/etc/ld.so.conf. It just affects programs launched when LD_LIBRARY_PATH contains a path.
You can easily write little shell script wrappers that will set LD_LIBRARY_PATH before launching an application.
Object-oriented languages are difficult to understand when you have no previous programming knowledge.
I used to work as a programming teaching in a CS school, (Supinfo Paris) and some people learned only OO-languages (C++ and Java) . The problem is that they were only able to think OO. They had a lot of pain to code in C language, they created a lot of structures and functions for nothing, and inefficient code. They were unable to solve simple problems with simple code, because they always wanted to solve problems with objects.
On the other hand, people who are already familiar with non-OO languages are mastering the iterative programming basics : loops, structures, tests, types, etc. And they can switch to OO-languages easily by thinking that classes are just structures with functions in them.
The lessons were in the following order : C, C++, (OpenGL, GTK, sockets, SDL, etc), Java, Java assembly, Perl.
Every time we started a new language, we started with the same examples so that people can easily understand the special concepts of every language. And they were quite amazed to see that 3 lines of Perl were doing the same thing that what needed 200 lines of C before:)
It worked quite well. Most people who weren't familiar with CS understood every step.
My ideal is that everybody starts with raw assembly language, so that when we then use compilers and virtual machines, they can really understand WHAT THE MACHINE IS DOING, not only abstract algorithms. This is important for optimizations, and to understand the concept of memory pointers. Ironically, as I did only assembly programming for years, I can hardly work without pointers. Java and Perl gave me pain, because I couldn't understand that an "array" isn't a buffer and that handles aren't address. And today, people don't like to learn assembler, that's a pity.
I strongly advise you to teach OpenGL, whatever language you are teaching (there are bindings for a lot of languages and platforms) . OpenGL is simple to understand, produces eye-candy results, and students love this.
I don't want to run RC5 clients until the source code is released.
I'd like to have it run on older computers (Atari ST), and even on my Timex watch so that if I ever win, people read "yeah, the RC5 challenge was found by a watch !" .
It's unlikely to happen, but it would rock.
Have another computer act as a proxy/firewall/masquerading gateway.
The firewall will protect a bit the workstation, and the proxy will log every request, so that you can know what your children downloaded. And you will save bandwidth:)
Portscans are illegal... ok.
Let's call a machine "ftp.publicftp.com", "www.supermegasexy.com", "napsterhq.napsterhq.com", "irc.ircnetwork.com" etc. Post various usenet news with these URLs, buy banners, etc.
But don't run any service on these machines. Just log connection attemps, and have a lawyer sit besides you.
Then, sue everyone in courts, and get rich.
Build your own hardware (incompatible with existing architectures), write your own operating system (do *not* conform to any standard), write your own language (keep it totally incompatible with C, Perl, etc.) and write your own apps with that. And write that in a bloated and complicated manner. Strip all comments. And if you want to write man pages, write them in your own language, don't use english.
That way, if you ever have a virus on your campus, you can be sure that *YOU* wrote it.
Have you ever heard about Logo ? Logo is a simple iterative visual language. You have a "turtle" that you can move with simple commands. And that turtle has a pen to draw geometric forms.
It's ludic and very instructive, and I loved this language when I was a kid. It also teach you the basics of programming, and even optimization.
Check out Toby , a free Java Logo implementation. It doesn't come with extensive documentation, but just peek at the source code, you will see the list of supported commands.
Once again, IBM claims to have invented a new amazing technology. Every time I read something about IBM on Slashdot, it's always something very promising, like new dense storage mediums.
But I'm still waiting to see any product that uses their discoveries. It's so disapointing "yeah, we have something that really rocks. But you can't buy it now".
IBM does a marvellous research work, but maybe their press releases are coming too early, they give us fale hopes.
I'm not very familiar with PAM, but isn't PAM only for authentication (can you get user name, shell, unix uid, home dir, etc. with PAM ?) .
nss_ldap also from the PADL guys, makes this possible, but your whole system becomes LDAP dependant, and you can't have different servers / search methods for every daemon (and this is ofen needed, for instance to separate POP/FTP users and those with shell or admin access, or site-local and remote users, or...) .
Slashdot Mirror
I just installed JFS to benchmark it. It seems to be a bit buggy : sometimes the keyboard blo
-- Pure FTP server - Upgrade your FTP server to something simple and secure.
How can OSDN earn money ? Web banners ? Ad banners on Slashdot and Freshmeat are all for other OSDN services (valinux, sourceforge, thinkgeek or free software) .
And OSDN needs a lot of bandwidth. I guess all that bandwidth isn't provided for free.
On the other hand, when I walk through alleys of server farms, I always see a lot of VA Linux racks. They are easy to distinguish with their blue leds. So I thought that VA Linux was selling a lot of hardware. And selling hardware bring money. SGI is also selling VA Linux hardware (they just add their sticker) .
I can't understand their decision. They just can't *loose* money. VA Linux hardware is expensive compared to the same hardware built by your own. And it's selling. And well, according to what I saw in racks.
Compaq drops Alpha processors, Mandrake runs out of money, Netscape focuses on a stupid web portal, VA Linux stops hardware... That's bad. Really bad times for the world of Unix and free software.
-- Pure FTP server - Upgrade your FTP server to something simple and secure.
Myth III looks beautiful. But I've never had fun with these games. I had much fun on Atari playing Dungeon Master, Bombjack, Maupiti Island, Double Dragon, Shinobi, Wings of death, Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, IK+, Ultima 3, R-Type, etc, etc.
-- Pure FTP server - Upgrade your FTP server to something simple and secure.
Many people are using OpenBSD for firewalls and masquerading gateways. When the removal of ipf was announced, half the people said "ok, I'll have to stick with 2.9 forever :(", and the other half said "ok, I'm gonna drop OpenBSD for NetBSD or FreeBSD".
It was very bad for the popularity of OpenBSD.
The new packet filter is excellent news, and I just can say "good luck" to the team.
OpenBSD 3.0 will be released in 6 months. The challenge is : will they be able to complete pf for that date ?
-- Pure FTP server - Upgrade your FTP server to something simple and secure.
These boxes are very cute. So small, so powerful. But is it really ok to have them run 24/24h for a server ? ...
Laptops aren't designed to run 24/24h. Too much heat, components designed to be small, not very resistant,
As these boxes are looking like a laptop without screen, I'd like to know whether it's really possible to use them in a server farm, running 24/24h.
...hear the Java program that interpret DNA sequence into music ?
I can't agree more. Videolan is the best DVD player now available for Unix and BeOS. I tried other alternatives like Xine, but Videolan looks more stable and needs less CPU time than other players.
Great work !
Actually, GUI for kernel configuration are great. I like to 'make menuconfig' instead of editing a long configuration file.
But the Linux kernel already had that.
Is there a change to see CML2 ported to BSD kernels ? I love BSD, but kernel configuration is something I really hate on these systems. It's very difficult and non user-friendly.
I've got some troubles with the newly compiled kernel. Sometimes, the kerboard blo
Is it safe to compile the Linux kernel with GCC 3.0 ?
I'm not pro-Macintosh, and I myself have only PC at home (ehm, Psion and Atari ST, too) . :)
But lately, my father wanted to buy a computer to discover Internet, print photographs of my daughter, and do some word processing. I suggested him to buy an iMac.
He's 60 years old, and he has absolutely no experience with computing (even using a tape recorder is difficult for him
I had to configure the internet dial-up parameters, install Realplayer, and show him the basics of internet. What are search engines (I gave him only search engines in his native language, as he's english is very poor), how to save pictures, how to print them, how to read and send mail, how to launch the word processor, how to play a DVD. I also bought him a book (something like Macintosh for dummies) .
Now he really enjoys his computer. It took about 1 month for him to be autonomous. Now he's still discovering things, but he doesn't need help from anyone any more.
I'd still suggest an iMac for beginners. MacOS is easy to use. It's eye-candy. There are less viruses than in the Windows world. And for stability... well, sometimes it crashed. But it's doesn't stop working for no reason. Sometimes with Windows, after installing new software or after a crash, things are ceasing to work, and it's very difficult to fix (my Windows 2000 box doesn't work more than 2 minutes since I installed the DVD drivers, I don't know how to revert that) . So far, things like that never happened to him. His Macintosh is still running the default install with no problem so far.
Another great thing about Macintosh hardware, especially iMacs : they aren't noisy. Older people (at least my mother) find noisy PC fans really annoying. iMacs are silents, especially when the hard disk is in standby. And a last great thing about Macintosh hardware : they are easy to plug. No need for a lot of cable, and this is also very good for older people.
Multiple versions of the same library aren't that problematic, because libraries are versionned (xxx.so.version) . The real problem is that developpment headers (you know that include / .h files) aren't versionned. So when you upgrade a library, the new headers overwrite the old ones. And if backward-compatibilty isn't provided (#ifdef everywhere), some older software depending on older versions of the library won't compile any more.
/usr/local or /usr. For instance, configure with ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/libalsa0.9 .
/usr/local/libalsa0.9/include, and libraries in /usr/local/libalsa0.9/lib .
/usr/local/libalsa0.9/lib in /etc/ld.so.conf if you found that most existing programs are compiling and working with that version.
/usr/local/libalsa/lib" and CFLAGS="-I /usr/local/libalsa-/include" in your environement variables.
- Compile with that.
- For pre-compiled binaries, use LD_LIBRARY_PATH. This environment variable can specify alternative paths to search for libraries. It isn't a global setting like /etc/ld.so.conf. It just affects programs launched when LD_LIBRARY_PATH contains a path.
You can easily write little shell script wrappers that will set LD_LIBRARY_PATH before launching an application.
When installing a new library that might conflict with what is already installed on your system, use a different prefix than
Include files will be in
No, add
And if some programs are incompatibles : - Set LDFLAGS="-L
Yeah ! More ideas of nice hacks for Xscreensaver !
The article doesn't tell what software they use to play 64kbps MP3. Xmms ?
Object-oriented languages are difficult to understand when you have no previous programming knowledge. :)
I used to work as a programming teaching in a CS school, (Supinfo Paris) and some people learned only OO-languages (C++ and Java) . The problem is that they were only able to think OO. They had a lot of pain to code in C language, they created a lot of structures and functions for nothing, and inefficient code. They were unable to solve simple problems with simple code, because they always wanted to solve problems with objects.
On the other hand, people who are already familiar with non-OO languages are mastering the iterative programming basics : loops, structures, tests, types, etc. And they can switch to OO-languages easily by thinking that classes are just structures with functions in them.
The lessons were in the following order : C, C++, (OpenGL, GTK, sockets, SDL, etc), Java, Java assembly, Perl.
Every time we started a new language, we started with the same examples so that people can easily understand the special concepts of every language. And they were quite amazed to see that 3 lines of Perl were doing the same thing that what needed 200 lines of C before
It worked quite well. Most people who weren't familiar with CS understood every step.
My ideal is that everybody starts with raw assembly language, so that when we then use compilers and virtual machines, they can really understand WHAT THE MACHINE IS DOING, not only abstract algorithms. This is important for optimizations, and to understand the concept of memory pointers. Ironically, as I did only assembly programming for years, I can hardly work without pointers. Java and Perl gave me pain, because I couldn't understand that an "array" isn't a buffer and that handles aren't address. And today, people don't like to learn assembler, that's a pity.
I strongly advise you to teach OpenGL, whatever language you are teaching (there are bindings for a lot of languages and platforms) . OpenGL is simple to understand, produces eye-candy results, and students love this.
I don't want to run RC5 clients until the source code is released.
I'd like to have it run on older computers (Atari ST), and even on my Timex watch so that if I ever win, people read "yeah, the RC5 challenge was found by a watch !" .
It's unlikely to happen, but it would rock.
Have another computer act as a proxy/firewall/masquerading gateway. :)
The firewall will protect a bit the workstation, and the proxy will log every request, so that you can know what your children downloaded. And you will save bandwidth
Yeah, with these new screens, we will soon be able to have real-size p0rn ! If only they added some holography...
What's the difference between this piece of crap and launching a big "grep" on network mounted filesystems ?
Portscans are illegal ... ok.
Let's call a machine "ftp.publicftp.com", "www.supermegasexy.com", "napsterhq.napsterhq.com", "irc.ircnetwork.com" etc. Post various usenet news with these URLs, buy banners, etc.
But don't run any service on these machines. Just log connection attemps, and have a lawyer sit besides you.
Then, sue everyone in courts, and get rich.
Use optical fiber, not ethernet. Because virii live in the dark.
Build your own hardware (incompatible with existing architectures), write your own operating system (do *not* conform to any standard), write your own language (keep it totally incompatible with C, Perl, etc.) and write your own apps with that. And write that in a bloated and complicated manner. Strip all comments. And if you want to write man pages, write them in your own language, don't use english.
That way, if you ever have a virus on your campus, you can be sure that *YOU* wrote it.
Have you ever heard about Logo ? Logo is a simple iterative visual language. You have a "turtle" that you can move with simple commands. And that turtle has a pen to draw geometric forms.
It's ludic and very instructive, and I loved this language when I was a kid. It also teach you the basics of programming, and even optimization.
Check out Toby , a free Java Logo implementation. It doesn't come with extensive documentation, but just peek at the source code, you will see the list of supported commands.
Once again, IBM claims to have invented a new amazing technology. Every time I read something about IBM on Slashdot, it's always something very promising, like new dense storage mediums.
But I'm still waiting to see any product that uses their discoveries. It's so disapointing "yeah, we have something that really rocks. But you can't buy it now".
IBM does a marvellous research work, but maybe their press releases are coming too early, they give us fale hopes.
I'm not very familiar with PAM, but isn't PAM only for authentication (can you get user name, shell, unix uid, home dir, etc. with PAM ?) .
nss_ldap also from the PADL guys, makes this possible, but your whole system becomes LDAP dependant, and you can't have different servers / search methods for every daemon (and this is ofen needed, for instance to separate POP/FTP users and those with shell or admin access, or site-local and remote users, or...) .