If you didn't have a sysadmin, who do you scream at if the e-mail server goes down? Who do you accuse of being inefficient when backups hang up a system for an hour or so?
Why the guy who chose the software, of course. Since EULAs disclaim liability...
Care to share the the "power button set to restart X" trick?
Sure. I don't have it in front of me (that box is at home, and is without an internet connection.), but I can describe how you do it.
First, make sure your kernel has ACPI support, including support for the power button.
acpid will run a script in response to ACPI events. Just write the script to restart X.
It'll look something like this:
kill -9 $( ps ax | grep X | cut '-d ' -f1 )
(Or something like that.)
Then xdm, gdm, kdm (or whatever display manager you run) will notice that X died, and will restart it.
It's even easier if you run Debian "sarge"...the acpid package comes with the script to do it.:)
At some point, I want to write a program that intererets the power button in morse code, then runs whatever I type. ( the power button is a one-shot event, so each dit would have to be a "press-press", and each dash would have to be a "press-pause-press" )
I don't think "think tanks" are generally corrupt in the way you describe. They probably study a problem and return a finding. It's up to the people paying for the study to decide if it agrees with what they want to say.
And if you don't get the answer you want, you go to another thinktank and pay for another study.
I'm sure Sun expected it. And I also figured on how they could get around it: Rewrite any portion SCO may think they have license to. Don't worry too much about taking a performance hit on any general mechanisms SCO might try to lay claim to; just replace them with something else.
There are two reasons to have a free-enterprise economy. First, people can earn a living on merit. Second, consumers get decent products at a decent price.
Unfortunately, some (though admittedly few) controls have to be in place to gaurantee the latter. The FDA exists so that we don't get fed shoddy food and medicines. The FCC exists in part so that radio stations don't fry all the electronic equipment within a ten mile radius. The FTC exists in part to keep both consumers and shareholders from getting shafted.
Well, at least it's getting better. It used to be I couldn't run RTCW...now the only problem is that some GL screensavers cause X to freeze. However, with the power button set to restart X (through acpid), it's not as much of a problem now.
Aren't most people who sit in the waiting room to talk to politicians?
The only flaw here is that he's the president of a think tank that's being paid to say something. But maybe that's common knowledge, too. I just don't know.
That would keep me from ever applying for a patent. I've come up with a lot of neat ideas. When I tell someone who's been working in the field about them, I find out that, yeah, they've been doing that for years.
For example, at ten or eleven years old, I thought of storing video as only the differences between each frame. I'd never heard of it before, but it sounded like a good idea to me. Then I came to find out they've been doing that for a long time.
Or another example...I recently posted a journal entry about a roleplaying tool I want to write. Someone mentioned that that tool was pretty much a stripped-down MUD with some side features. I've never used a MUD before, and I'm not familiar with their features.
I'd also given thought about using interference between two inaudible waveforms to produce an audible signal. Well, we've seen that one posted on Slashdot.
I've about given up trying to come up with original ideas...someone else has already had them. And if you fine me for trying to patent something I think is original, it becomes completely uneconomical for me to try to come up with ideas for money.
except there is no scientific method for dating code
Sure there is. Look for deprecated system calls, or relatively new "requirements" (such as stdafx.h in C++ programs in Visual Studio. That really pisses me off.)...If you're examining the raw data off the disk, look at the encoding. Is it big-endian or little-endian? Or is it ASCII or EBCDIC?
Then there's less reliable methods such as timestamps
It still requires some knowledge of how coding practices have changed, though.
People in some churches used to see time travelers with some frequency. They'd go away for ten years, and be out of touch with everything but their missions for years.
Come back after ten years, and see how much has changed. Ten years ago, the Internet wasn't a household name. Clinton hadn't become the second President impeached. The.bomb hadn't occured.
Computers are everywhere...imagine coming back after all that.
Slashdot Mirror
If you didn't have a sysadmin, who do you scream at if the e-mail server goes down? Who do you accuse of being inefficient when backups hang up a system for an hour or so?
Why the guy who chose the software, of course. Since EULAs disclaim liability...
I don't tinker with pewter...It detracts from the value of the original art, IMO.
I haven't seen any benchmarks that manage to directly compare an x86 system and a PowerPC system.
Perhaps running linpack on a single machine?
Everyone's waving the "Innovative" flag about their product design.
I suppose what's really innovative about it is that this is the first time I've ever heard of a major manufacturer shipping systems liquid-cooled.
Care to share the the "power button set to restart X" trick?
:)
Sure. I don't have it in front of me (that box is at home, and is without an internet connection.), but I can describe how you do it.
First, make sure your kernel has ACPI support, including support for the power button.
acpid will run a script in response to ACPI events. Just write the script to restart X.
It'll look something like this:
kill -9 $( ps ax | grep X | cut '-d ' -f1 )
(Or something like that.)
Then xdm, gdm, kdm (or whatever display manager you run) will notice that X died, and will restart it.
It's even easier if you run Debian "sarge"...the acpid package comes with the script to do it.
At some point, I want to write a program that intererets the power button in morse code, then runs whatever I type. ( the power button is a one-shot event, so each dit would have to be a "press-press", and each dash would have to be a "press-pause-press" )
I don't think "think tanks" are generally corrupt in the way you describe. They probably study a problem and return a finding. It's up to the people paying for the study to decide if it agrees with what they want to say.
And if you don't get the answer you want, you go to another thinktank and pay for another study.
I'm sure Sun expected it. And I also figured on how they could get around it: Rewrite any portion SCO may think they have license to. Don't worry too much about taking a performance hit on any general mechanisms SCO might try to lay claim to; just replace them with something else.
*shrug*
There are two reasons to have a free-enterprise economy. First, people can earn a living on merit. Second, consumers get decent products at a decent price.
Unfortunately, some (though admittedly few) controls have to be in place to gaurantee the latter. The FDA exists so that we don't get fed shoddy food and medicines. The FCC exists in part so that radio stations don't fry all the electronic equipment within a ten mile radius. The FTC exists in part to keep both consumers and shareholders from getting shafted.
unexplained crashes and unpredictability
You don't run X, do you?
Well, at least it's getting better. It used to be I couldn't run RTCW...now the only problem is that some GL screensavers cause X to freeze. However, with the power button set to restart X (through acpid), it's not as much of a problem now.
To bad his consultant didn't demand a clause in their contract requiring his results to be included, unedited, in an appendix of KB's book.
...is that his own consultant says he's full of it.
Aren't most people who sit in the waiting room to talk to politicians?
The only flaw here is that he's the president of a think tank that's being paid to say something. But maybe that's common knowledge, too. I just don't know.
Yeah, and I bet you rolled them uphill both ways, too.
Wait a second...rolled?
Damn...where's that patent application form?!
How about any phone that works over VoIP and SSL?
AFAIK, there aren't any yet, but it's a simple solution.
The middle one always comes out that way.
Hell. No.
That would keep me from ever applying for a patent. I've come up with a lot of neat ideas. When I tell someone who's been working in the field about them, I find out that, yeah, they've been doing that for years.
For example, at ten or eleven years old, I thought of storing video as only the differences between each frame. I'd never heard of it before, but it sounded like a good idea to me. Then I came to find out they've been doing that for a long time.
Or another example...I recently posted a journal entry about a roleplaying tool I want to write. Someone mentioned that that tool was pretty much a stripped-down MUD with some side features. I've never used a MUD before, and I'm not familiar with their features.
I'd also given thought about using interference between two inaudible waveforms to produce an audible signal. Well, we've seen that one posted on Slashdot.
I've about given up trying to come up with original ideas...someone else has already had them. And if you fine me for trying to patent something I think is original, it becomes completely uneconomical for me to try to come up with ideas for money.
I disagree. I think you should encourage people of heavy academic and practical training to become patent clerks.
I know it's a job I'd be interested in. Imagine seeing new ideas constantly flowing across your desk.
I know you're being sarcastic, but one way to prevent forged IP addresses is to require the user to "preview" their comment before posting.
But I don't have any way to prove I owned the original.
...comes with Debian. Install the "bb" package.
Unfortunately, my old CD was so scratched up I ended up throwing it away. Know where I can get a new (legal) one?
except there is no scientific method for dating code
...If you're examining the raw data off the disk, look at the encoding. Is it big-endian or little-endian? Or is it ASCII or EBCDIC?
Sure there is. Look for deprecated system calls, or relatively new "requirements" (such as stdafx.h in C++ programs in Visual Studio. That really pisses me off.)
Then there's less reliable methods such as timestamps
It still requires some knowledge of how coding practices have changed, though.
I can see some of them. They're just really faint.
Anyone care to create an animation that fades from the first image to the second, and back?
I really miss Day of the Tentacle.
Tentacle Bowling!
People in some churches used to see time travelers with some frequency. They'd go away for ten years, and be out of touch with everything but their missions for years.
.bomb hadn't occured.
Come back after ten years, and see how much has changed. Ten years ago, the Internet wasn't a household name. Clinton hadn't become the second President impeached. The
Computers are everywhere...imagine coming back after all that.