Given that not everyone can "install" an OS, and somehow deal with the hardware issues, PC makers are able to offer such low prices (yes they are) on powerful PC's IF they can sell them to everyone, most of whom are not able to install...etc. Volume = a chance at profit.
So, all these people buying 3 GB Dual Core 256 MB video 320 GB HDD machines want (and expect) only one thing, that it "boot up to a graphical desktop" that is ready for them to use. So Microsoft still has the market for OEM installs sewed up, we get Vista. Not to bad, really, we get extra-powerful machines for under a grand, to "install linux" on.
Hard drives so big we can "dual boot".
(Anyone here dual booted Ubuntu 8.04 and Vista?)
I dual boot my Knoppix Remaster and Ubuntu 7.10.
(I like XMMS for some reason, so I'm sticking with 7.10)
Actually, I can triple-boot, from a menu, into my Knoppix Remaster running from a USB drive, from the HDD, or Ubuntu from the HDD.
The average buyer of PC's is not going to want to figure out how I do that. They want their OS, that "came with the computer" to just boot up to that expected graphical desktop. With a nice wallpaper.
Now, if we want a PC preloaded with Linux, same thing applies, only the average buyers expect "lower prices" still. The manufacturers go along with that, and use "odd processors" that don't have the familiar Intel Inside sticker, or at least an AMD one. Also, forget the 3 GB of RAM.
Sure, if you look around in the Dell website, you can find a powerful computer with Ubuntu on it. I just lied. I have not actually found it, or at least one that stayed with Ubuntu throughout the "Build it" process.
Also, are there a few obscure PC builders out there that have a dual boot Windows/Linux machine to sell? I saw one once upon a time.
Considering the "livecd" OS, the Dell Inspiron line can easily run Ubuntu 8.04, connect wirelessly, and have the desktop screen resolution done right also. Does not affect your Vista install, I tested it. The average PC buyer probably won't do that, but if Vista refuses to boot one day, that is a temporary solution.
I have a Ubuntu 7.10 install, with KDE, that won't update anymore. I have tried and tried, now have 30 or so items in the update list. Once, I got one to update, but when I tried all 30, it just sat there and did nothing.
So, I'll probably have to start over, now upgrading to the newest Ubuntu. Download the.iso, format and install, I suppose. The 7.10 updater won't let me use it to upgrade to latest version, although it did figure out that a new version is available.
I'm running a HP 8250 with maximum RAM, and a 160GB 7200 HDD, with Comcast cable modem. Not the fastest, but does work well with Ubuntu 7.10.
Here's a screenshot.
That one was taken before KDE was added.
I don't see the point in moving stuff onto the web that's better placed on one's desk or laptop
Sure, if your application is not very "self-contained", and requires constant access to the internet to work, then you have problems in "no-internet-access" zones. Too tightly integrated to work all the time. But, as one can get automatic updates to Vista, XP, and browsers such as Firefox, we have the reverse going on, in that updated code is placed on your computer for various, mostly useful purposes. Done all in one download session, but not requiring constant internet access.
Microsoft and Mozilla, in this example have moved stuff onto the web for the purpose of allowing your machine to download it, then your OS waits for the next time to repeat the download. That's about as "integrated" as it will get.
I have heard of a few instances where a Vista installation crashed, and a "restore point" was needed. Some of that restoration information might be something like Firefox bookmarks, and that would be a good thing to stick somewhere on the web, for the day when you need it. The idea of "you and your machine" and the "internet" being two separate storage places is expanded here at my computer setup in the following manner:
I use a SanDisk ReadyBoost USB Drive, either a 2 or 4 GB one to run the entire operating system. (In the link, I have a readme with the details) So, here we have a setup where "you and your machine" can be various PC's and laptops that you have access to. You just plug the USB drive into the PC you want to work with.
Although the livecd linux operating system discussed in the readme is "in the cd", and not really upgradeable, I do have one application that is upgradeable, as long as the system is set up with a persistent home directory, knoppix style. It is the "Station Selector for XMMS", a graphical front end with car-radio style buttons for some popular internet radio stations. Here is a screenshot.
The hard-coded radio station internet addresses in the Station Selector could go bad, if the radio station went off the air, so to speak. So, I fixed it up so the user can easily download an up-to-date copy, and have it each time the operating system is booted up, as long as a persistent home directory is being used. The update portion of the application takes care of everything for you, and keeps you informed as to what is going on. (You don't have to know any code)
The success of this depends on me keeping the Station Selector up-to-date, so it can be downloaded by users. You can get your own copy here.
Here is a screenshot of the application running on Ubuntu 7.10. (One has to install xmms and tcl-tk in Ubuntu so it'll run)
So, I really need the ability to "blend" the "internet" with my own PC, just like Microsoft and Mozilla need to do that, to keep their applications up-to-date on your machine. For me, it is handy to use the Sandisk drive setup, because I only have to update one PC, so the speak, as I can just plug the little drive into another computer or laptop to get the benefit of the updated downloads. No tight "integration" web/PC here, however.
Sure, I can move lots of data onto the web, my rapidweather.com server, if I want to, and I suppose an entire "persistent home directory" with all of my stuff could be zipped and put up there, and then downloaded onto a new computer's hard drive, or a fresh, just formatted USB drive, and unzipped into place in the "persistent home directory filesystem. The emelFM dual-pane file manager I have in my Knoppix Remaster makes that very easy to do. That's easier I suppose than plugging
I think it's been a while since Opera updated their browser. I'm running Opera version 9.25 now in my Knoppix remaster. I like Opera when running on older computers, it does seem faster. Not so much on my remaster, but if I run Ubuntu 7.10 on this same box, a HP Pavilion 8250, Firefox seems very slow, and Opera is a welcome relief. I actually had to install Opera in Ubuntu for that reason, really. It's the 2.6 kernel, I have a 2.4 kernel in my remaster, and that runs much better on older boxes. Here is a screenshot of Ubuntu on that box, and here is a screenshot of my remaster running on that box. (I put these in here just to make this post more interesting) But, neither screenshot shows the current topic, Opera vs Firefox, performance on older boxes... (sorry).
I do wish Opera would take this update opportunity to fix their toolbar so it looks similar to IE and Firefox, in that the blank space, where Opera used to have their advertisement bar, is removed, and filled with browser controls like the others have. To me, the greatest thing is Firefox having the toolbar editor, so the user can set it up like they want.
Take a look at the files I have for download here.
The "menu_files_usb.tar.gz" contains a readme, in addition to the loadlin and msdos batch files you need to access a usb stick from a computer that cannot look to a usb drive as a bootable drive, i.e. older computers, such as the Gateway 2000 Pentium II that I am now using. I use this system to boot my linux distro, Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux., running on a partitioned Sandisk USB drive, either 2 or 4 GB. You will need a copy of the Rapidweather Remaster CD to set it all up. Although CDROM drives are handy, one is not needed in this situation. I did have to install an add-on PCI USB card, these usually come with 5 ports, 4 external, and one inside the box, on the card. Perfect place to put your USB drive, to keep people from unplugging it, and running off with it. Your older PC does need a very small hard drive, with MSDOS on it in it's normal/dev/hda1 partition. The hard drive will only be used by the system for a brief period, then it can be "parked", there is a "hard_drive_sleep.sh" script in the/download area above that can be used to do that for you. The latest version of Rapidweather Remaster has that script in the "Admin-Tools section of the menu. Not really necessary, however. As you can see from the readme in the tarball, the USB drive will have 4 partitions, you can easily handle the partitioning required using the QTparted program included in Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux. The 4 partitions are:
The main Knoppix filesystem.
A Persistent Home Directory partition. This will act like a real hard drive, it is your/ramdisk, known as/home/knoppix. (Without it, your installed memory is your/ramdisk)
A storage area, this partition does not contain active filesystem files, such as a browser cache. You can use it for saving documents, files, images, etc. You may, however, use it for a temporary GIMP or KB3 swap area. You just set up a directory in this partition,/gimp or/k3b, and tell the applications to use it.
A swap area. This is needed by the linux system, especially if you only have 128 MB of RAM or so.
How about the reliability of these little SanDisk drives? I have had perfect results, but they are somewhat slower than a 7500 rpm hard drive. I do not use them when I run my remastering script, to make a new ISO from a master copy in a given partition, that I have been working on. One item that separates Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux from ordinary knoppix remasters is the heavy use of symlinks in the/ramdisk area, to reduce the "df" figure to way less than 1%. For instance, I have a.fonts-cache-1 file of about 304.70 KB, with every font I could find, so my system can display web pages, etc. with the highest quality fonts, way more than what a standard knoppix will have. But, I symlink it, and the actual file in/ramdisk is only 32 bytes. There are a lot more. The point to the fonts item is that you do not have to have a cheap-looking system if you run from a USB drive. Compared to using Internet Explorer on Windows XP, to view web pages, I have them beat, mine looks a lot better. Cost? PC: $20.00, memory $50.00, add-on PCI USB card, $40.00, nice graphics card $60.00, 19" MAG monitor, $15.00 at a thrift store, network card, $20.00, extra light-up cooling fan $15.00, the SanDisk USB drive, $20.00. The PC and monitor were extra-clean when I got them, so the appearance of the setup is good. One big advantage of a USB drive, is that you can unplug it, move it to another PC to update to latest Rapidweather Remaster version, or just run your system on another PC that is equipped with the files and MSDOS setup in the tarball above. No, the USB drive will not boot by itself,
Seems like we've slashdotted the Pen Drive Linux site.
Ok, I'm running my linux (see screenshots, below) from a 2 GB SanDisk Micro Cruzer drive at this time, on a Gateway 2000 Pentium II. Use these files to kick off the Flash Drive, using loadlin. You have to have a small msdos drive in the computer, or a partition on a larger drive with msdos, put the files there. Documentation is included in the tarball, also, a copy of the Rapidweather Remaster CD is needed also.
Well, the CD is a backup, isn't it. Assuming you are running Vista, and you have yet to have something go wrong where you "cannot get to your files", then you do have your CD. I did find one Vista install that did just that, but the owner reported to me that using my knoppix remaster (see screenshots below) to recover the Quicken files, and others, and save them to a USB stick took a long time. I suppose the stick was formatted for either XP or Vista use, so that may be the cause. The emergency backup was successful, however. Vista on Dell does have an image install, that being a snapshot of the OS when the machine shipped out to the user. So, it would "restore" the system, but all of the later files, such as Quicken, etc. would need to be supplied from backups. Apparently, those backup were not done in a timely manner, so the need to use knoppix to get the files. My remaster uses emelFM, a very nice double-pane file manager no one should be without, so I put it in there. Sorry I do not have a screenshot for emelFM, I tend to take it for granted.
Well, they are talking about a $2,500 car. We have plenty of those in the USA, they are called "used cars".
Fix a few things on them, and you have a nice car.
No, No, you don't start out with a $2,500 new car, it is supposed to cost $18,500 or something like that, then after a bunch of miles, some used car lot gets ahold of it, and has some guy in the back fix whatever is wrong with it, and then it goes on sale for $2,500.
That's not what you pay, however, you are supposed to let the car lot finance it, and then you wind up paying a lot more.
Don't think they will just let you hand them $2,500 and walk away with the car, that car is money to them, another car loan, that over time, will bring in maybe $10,000.
Some used car lots charge $450.00 for a "repo" where you get so far behind that they come late at night and take your car back to the used car lot.
So, to get your car back, they tack on the $450.00.
Remember, it is not what a car costs, it is "how much per month".
We don't need a wonderful little car made in India for $2,500 coming to America, we have the cheap car problem all figured out.
Some used car lots have hundreds to choose from, all nice looking, and most will fix little problems if you are willing to put up with comments like "What did you do to it, anyway?", and take a day off work to chase down the people at the car lot that can authorize repairs once you jump through a few hoops. You'll find that all of a sudden, no one at the used car lot can authorize anything except the SOB that is really good at making repair-seeking customers feel like criminals.
They will fix 'em, but after the experience, you'll think twice before letting anything break down on your used car the next time. What is the justification in all of this? Well, you didn't go buy a new car, you only have so much to spend each month, and decided to see if you could get a nice used car.
Some people have been through this before, and decided to take their tiny car budget dollars to the new car dealer, and see if they can come away with a new car, only to find out that the new car is tiny too.
Fitting several hundred pounds of people in a car with tiny tires and tiny seats. But, it is new, and has a warranty. Welcome to America.
I believe the comment "VERY VERY close" is used here when one considers that a small change in one or more of the variables (measurements) would put it spot on to the surface of the Earth. To put it in more familiar terms, one sneeze and some location on Earth is toast.
And yes, there have been some asteroids that were only seen or discovered to have been very close to an Earth impact when they were going the other way, away from us, as if we were looking out the back window of a car or bus. "Gee, that thing could have hit us, too bad we didn't know about it until 2 weeks later!"
So, the Big One that finally hits us within our lifetimes may just be a complete surprise. Some of the speeds of these things are such (15,000 mph) that the popular movie scenario where the asteroid enters the atmosphere, blazing through the sky while the actors have time to say their lines, would not be happening. So fast, that a quick "Holy Sh_t" wouldn't fit. BOOM and you're done is more like it.
However, having said that, I note that the 1908 Tunguska event was seen as follows: (Quoting from Wikipedia) "On the 17th of June, around 9 in the AM, we observed an unusual natural occurrence. In the N Karelinski village (200 verst N of Kirensk) the peasants saw to the North-West, rather high above the horizon, some strangely bright (impossible to look at) bluish-white heavenly body, which for 10 minutes moved downwards. The body appeared as a "pipe", i.e. a cylinder"
Apparently, the "10 minutes" referred to was viewable time above our atmosphere. Outside of where an asteroid might "catch on fire", or flame in contact with our atmosphere.
Maybe that's what we'll get when the asteroid with our name on it makes an appearance. Also, the "strangely bright (impossible to look at) bluish-white" object that the peasants saw reminds me of an arc that a welding torch would make, i.e. "impossible to look at".
With the current high level of science allowing us to come up with all sorts of discoveries and predictions concerning asteroid impacts, the old Tunguska event is getting lots of press nowadays, after staying in the shadows for 100 years. Imagine actually having a Rover on a planet that just might get clobbered. Mars, too, of all places.
Isn't it going to take a long time for the signals to get there?
By that time, will we be gone?
Surely by the time they get "here", we'll be gone.
Unless of course they can travel through space faster than we now think is possible, to get here and do whatever it is they are going to do to us. Our signals, however, take their time getting there, they can't do anything about that. Do you suppose there is a reason so called "intelligent civilizations" throughout space are "placed" so far apart?
The dream that Mars would have "beings" has gone up in smoke long ago, if that had been true, then a short trip, "War of the Worlds" style would have been our undoing.
All the other creatures out there in space are too far away, really far away, to interact with us in any way.
Only recently, in the history of man, have we been "sending out radio signals". Anyone have an idea of some possible locations, star systems, etc. in the Universe these signals have already been passing by, available for "them" to decode?
I have a neutered male cat named "BeBe". That's because he has a bb in his behind, put there by an obviously non-animal lover, who was handy with a Red Rider BB Gun. Now, on the the intelligent part... He is constantly on the lookout for "enemy cats" that want to move in on his territory. So, he has no problem with that normal cat function. Food gathering... Open the Refrigerator, or try and make something to eat, and he suddenly appears, telling you that he is a good cat, and deserves some of whatever you are fixing. Gets in the way, you have to step over him. He gets "dry" cat food, it keeps, since he won't eat anything that has "Yesterday" written on it, even if it is still tasty. Mice, Rats and Squirrels are not food, they are something he kills to bring to you to bolster his case that he is, indeed, a "good cat". Still wants whatever you are having for dinner tonight. Picture sorting?, well I didn't want to mention this, but he has a unique method for sorting the Sunday newspaper according to the advertisement flyers therein for Office Depot, Circuit City, and others that might be hawking Big Screen Televisions, or his personal favorite, those external USB Hard Drives. He's still having real difficulty telling the 160 GB ones from the 250 GB ones, but he and I are working on it. Biggest problem he seems to have is holding the Sharpie Permanent Marker pen that he likes to use to circle the Drives that he thinks I need to take a closer look at, perhaps doing some online research, to uncover any apparent bugs that any may have, that would affect the overall quality of the product. Time and Time again, BeBe has given me a "cat-o-gram" concerning the Per-GB cost factor. Big problem in the Cat World, having ones master pay too much for a given Techno-Toy, only to short the budget for necessary Veterinary care, yearly vaccinations including annual physical exams, intestinal worm tests, heartworm tests, and the all important annual wellness screens. The Method, You Say?
1. Prepare his litter pan with newspaper advertisement flyers. 2. Wait. 3. Your results will be ready in the morning.
Then one day it won't boot, and you are too busy trying to fix it that you don't tell the world about it, and don't get counted as "someone who has a problem with Vista". Good thing Dell Vista boxes have the "image restore" setup, but then how are you going to recover your data you put on the machine since day one? Or in some cases, "day two" if it has "failed to boot" before.
Good thing you never failed to back everything up to an external hard drive or a usb memory stick. Bringing this up on Slashdot is probably a waste of time, it is all those Vista users that have never heard of Slashdot that need to be reminded to back up their data, because Vista will fail to boot at least a couple of times a year. Anyone here remember when we were told "never to turn the computer off", leave it on 24x7, for it might not boot back up. Windows 3.1?
What's funny is they left the monitors on too, blazing away all night long.
And, I decided to put it in my knoppix remaster, replacing version 2.0.0.9. Yes, I skipped over 2.0.0.10, since Slashdot did not tell me about it. I did test it for a while before I put it in the CD.
And, no "upgrade" is really necessary, Vista comes preinstalled on all new PC's! At the cost of "upgrading" your old PC, you can get a new box with much more power than you need! (now, where is that Open SuSE installation CD...) Got to hand it to those Novell people, that's a nice OS! Anyone here manage to get Vista and Open SuSE to "dual boot", and if so, any issues?
Guess I don't need to be asking what the bogomips are. They would probably be so high I would not be able to comprehend it, or translate it into what sort of improvement the new processor would have over my current 700 bogomips setup. Would probably be overkill, since Firefox stalls anyway on some web pages with all sorts of extra advertisements, etc. that have to be fetched. Want to see, however, since a big, fast processor might just be what's needed to suck the required content out of all of the various servers to complete the web page to the "done" point. What I am seeing with Firefox may just be my dated processor/mb setup. Once, I took a Mac LC II, and fixed it up with a Quadra HDD, with Mac OS 7.5.3, and then tried to surf the web with the LC II. Got turned away from most servers, since I had a processor the size of a postage stamp. Government text-only weather pages downloaded OK, but that was about it for the LC II. If this new processor gets to market, the web page designers will really load their pages up with all sorts of content we have to download to get the page to the aforementioned "done" point. Several reasons to toss our current hardware and upgrade, Windows wants more power, Bill Gates said it would. Not just "Windows", but the applications that run on it. Also, the internet content will require more powerful computers to be able to view the web pages. That is not so much of a problem, yet.
Reminds me of the setup I use with my Knoppix Remaster where the ~/.mozilla, ~/.opera and ~/.flock are not loaded into ramdisk until the user wants to start the browser. Then a "default, but preconfigured set up" ~/.mozilla etc is loaded before the browser itself starts. (no, these are not libraries) So, if you don't want to take up ramdisk space with browser files that you won't need today, that's what you get. Then, when the browser is closed, ~/.mozilla etc is deleted entirely. No trace. No cookies, no history, even though the browser zero's these out on close if you want, deletion is the only way to "be sure". For a livecd linux that just might be run without a "persistent home directory partition", this is one way to go to preserve memory on systems that might only have 128 MB of RAM, for instance.
Don't throw those old boxes away, they will still run Firefox 2.0.0.9!
Oh, and what Hard Drive? I'm using a SanDisk 2 GB USB drive to run the OS with FF now. (4 partitions) The hard drives have been "put to sleep". File is here, help yourself, it's fully commented.
Try Debian 4.0. I found it to be easy to use and install. I did the network installation since I have a broadband connection. One I did not have much success with is Fedora 7, I'm sticking to Fedora Core 6, which is on a par with Debian 4.0 as far as easy of use, and setting it up the way you want. Debian's network installer is the best, however.
OK, I have some bad software I want you to look over: This is an internet radio station selector for Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux. (See screenshots, below, there are some showing this working.) You may get a copy here, be sure and chmod +x station* to get it working. http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/station_selector.tcl This thing is a front end for XMMS, and works alright as long as the addresses of the internet radio stations are vaild. If they are not, then XMMS will lock up, and cause a runaway process, actually a few of them. I just "updated it", and it seems to work fine last time I checked. The Station Selector works much faster than just using a browser, viewing ShoutCast, to "change stations". I know, of course, that it is only a matter of time before the stations get out of date, causing XMMS to lock up, etc. if one of the buttons is pressed. I did get this to work in Kanotix linux, For any other linux OS, you need XMMS to be able to play MP3 streams, which some do not, without fixes. Namely Fedora Core 6. Must also have TCL-TK, to run the interface. I have it working in FC6, but the "update" feature does not work, that script is only in Rapidweather Remaster. You get the download one, and that's it anyway. Although it's bad software, when it works, it changes radio stations really quick, lots of fun. You can put your own stations in it, simple to do. Changing the interface somewhat can be a real chore, as placement of the buttons takes a bit of work to get them right. If the radio stations would stay put, then this would work for a long time. Some really good stations have just disappeared, rendering that button on the interface useless. Some times, with an XMMS lockup, I have to use KDE system guard to get all the XMMS processes out of the running linux system. I did write a short script that goes with the "Stop the Radio" button on the interface, sometimes that works, mostly not if one has had the misfortune to hit a dead station. I can run that script separately via the IceWM menu in the Remaster, that works sometimes if you close the Station Selector interface first. That's mostly how I get along with this software, so all in all, it comes across as "bad".
I've been looking forward to these fast solid state drives, wondering when they would be ready for market. I run my Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux (See Screenshots, below) on a little 2 GB SanDisk Cruzer drive, it is a little slower booting up than an ordinary hard drive, but so portable! Just plug it in, and boot up, and all your files are there. I have 4 partitions on it, even a swap. When I run Debian 4.0 from the hard drive, that swap gets picked up too. Often, Office Depot has these drives for about $25.00. I understand that Dell is offering some solid state hard drives as an option now, but they are very expensive. They did say those drives are faster, which I just gotta see, since the Cruzer is slower. Could be that I use a PCI USB card, rather than a "real" USB interface directly into the motherboard. I'm using an old Gateway 2000 PII, with 512K cache, so it's able to run both OS's just fine, even Rapidweather Remaster from the USB drive. To get the SanDisk running, it is necessary to have these files on the hard drive, in a MSDOS or Windows 95/98 partition: http://www.rapidweather.com/download (free download) When there, pick the usb tarball. Everything necessary to boot from a usb drive running Rapidweather Remaster is there, and a detailed readme is included. Look at that to see all the details. The older PC's can't boot directly from a USB drive, so the files are necessary to provide a menu, and get the SanDisk running. Any old small hard drive will do, as long as you can install MSDOS on it.
Searching around using Google, I found the quotation this way also:
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
How about a bicycle setup, with generator or alternator, battery, and laptop. Pedal the bike for a while, charge up the battery, then run the laptop off the 12 V RV battery just like you would if you were in a car, with an adapter. An RV battery is designed for a long discharge, not a high peak voltage output like a car battery. The plates in the battery are spaced farther apart. Also, exercise bicycles are fairly cheap. just mount the alternator up where the fan usually is. The OS for the laptop should be able to keep tabs on your battery's voltage, you can also get a LCD voltmeter to do that.
The Air Force has been flying B-52's with atom bombs in them since the 1950's. I was in one once, and there's a chart on the wall of the bomb bay on how to stack 'em.
Kinda scary though, the cruise missle types hang under the wings, and could fall off. No bang, however, unless you count the non-nuke explosives in one. Could scatter the "ingredients" around, however. Plutonium in your wheatfield, anyone? Tomato field? Glow-in-the-dark strawberries?
Slashdot Mirror
Given that not everyone can "install" an OS, and somehow deal with the hardware issues, PC makers are able to offer such low prices (yes they are) on powerful PC's IF they can sell them to everyone, most of whom are not able to install...etc. Volume = a chance at profit. So, all these people buying 3 GB Dual Core 256 MB video 320 GB HDD machines want (and expect) only one thing, that it "boot up to a graphical desktop" that is ready for them to use. So Microsoft still has the market for OEM installs sewed up, we get Vista. Not to bad, really, we get extra-powerful machines for under a grand, to "install linux" on. Hard drives so big we can "dual boot". (Anyone here dual booted Ubuntu 8.04 and Vista?) I dual boot my Knoppix Remaster and Ubuntu 7.10. (I like XMMS for some reason, so I'm sticking with 7.10) Actually, I can triple-boot, from a menu, into my Knoppix Remaster running from a USB drive, from the HDD, or Ubuntu from the HDD. The average buyer of PC's is not going to want to figure out how I do that. They want their OS, that "came with the computer" to just boot up to that expected graphical desktop. With a nice wallpaper. Now, if we want a PC preloaded with Linux, same thing applies, only the average buyers expect "lower prices" still. The manufacturers go along with that, and use "odd processors" that don't have the familiar Intel Inside sticker, or at least an AMD one. Also, forget the 3 GB of RAM. Sure, if you look around in the Dell website, you can find a powerful computer with Ubuntu on it. I just lied. I have not actually found it, or at least one that stayed with Ubuntu throughout the "Build it" process. Also, are there a few obscure PC builders out there that have a dual boot Windows/Linux machine to sell? I saw one once upon a time. Considering the "livecd" OS, the Dell Inspiron line can easily run Ubuntu 8.04, connect wirelessly, and have the desktop screen resolution done right also. Does not affect your Vista install, I tested it. The average PC buyer probably won't do that, but if Vista refuses to boot one day, that is a temporary solution.
I have a Ubuntu 7.10 install, with KDE, that won't update anymore. I have tried and tried, now have 30 or so items in the update list. Once, I got one to update, but when I tried all 30, it just sat there and did nothing. So, I'll probably have to start over, now upgrading to the newest Ubuntu. Download the .iso, format and install, I suppose. The 7.10 updater won't let me use it to upgrade to latest version, although it did figure out that a new version is available.
I'm running a HP 8250 with maximum RAM, and a 160GB 7200 HDD, with Comcast cable modem. Not the fastest, but does work well with Ubuntu 7.10.
Here's a screenshot.
That one was taken before KDE was added.
Sure, if your application is not very "self-contained", and requires constant access to the internet to work, then you have problems in "no-internet-access" zones. Too tightly integrated to work all the time.
But, as one can get automatic updates to Vista, XP, and browsers such as Firefox, we have the reverse going on, in that updated code is placed on your computer for various, mostly useful purposes. Done all in one download session, but not requiring constant internet access.
Microsoft and Mozilla, in this example have moved stuff onto the web for the purpose of allowing your machine to download it, then your OS waits for the next time to repeat the download. That's about as "integrated" as it will get.
I have heard of a few instances where a Vista installation crashed, and a "restore point" was needed. Some of that restoration information might be something like Firefox bookmarks, and that would be a good thing to stick somewhere on the web, for the day when you need it. The idea of "you and your machine" and the "internet" being two separate storage places is expanded here at my computer setup in the following manner:
I use a SanDisk ReadyBoost USB Drive, either a 2 or 4 GB one to run the entire operating system.
(In the link, I have a readme with the details)
So, here we have a setup where "you and your machine" can be various PC's and laptops that you have access to. You just plug the USB drive into the PC you want to work with.
Although the livecd linux operating system discussed in the readme is "in the cd", and not really upgradeable, I do have one application that is upgradeable, as long as the system is set up with a persistent home directory, knoppix style.
It is the "Station Selector for XMMS", a graphical front end with car-radio style buttons for some popular internet radio stations. Here is a screenshot.
The hard-coded radio station internet addresses in the Station Selector could go bad, if the radio station went off the air, so to speak. So, I fixed it up so the user can easily download an up-to-date copy, and have it each time the operating system is booted up, as long as a persistent home directory is being used.
The update portion of the application takes care of everything for you, and keeps you informed as to what is going on. (You don't have to know any code)
The success of this depends on me keeping the Station Selector up-to-date, so it can be downloaded by users. You can get your own copy here.
Here is a screenshot of the application running on Ubuntu 7.10. (One has to install xmms and tcl-tk in Ubuntu so it'll run)
So, I really need the ability to "blend" the "internet" with my own PC, just like Microsoft and Mozilla need to do that, to keep their applications up-to-date on your machine. For me, it is handy to use the Sandisk drive setup, because I only have to update one PC, so the speak, as I can just plug the little drive into another computer or laptop to get the benefit of the updated downloads. No tight "integration" web/PC here, however.
Sure, I can move lots of data onto the web, my rapidweather.com server, if I want to, and I suppose an entire "persistent home directory" with all of my stuff could be zipped and put up there, and then downloaded onto a new computer's hard drive, or a fresh, just formatted USB drive, and unzipped into place in the "persistent home directory filesystem. The emelFM dual-pane file manager I have in my Knoppix Remaster makes that very easy to do.
That's easier I suppose than plugging
I like Opera when running on older computers, it does seem faster. Not so much on my remaster, but if I run Ubuntu 7.10 on this same box, a HP Pavilion 8250, Firefox seems very slow, and Opera is a welcome relief. I actually had to install Opera in Ubuntu for that reason, really. It's the 2.6 kernel, I have a 2.4 kernel in my remaster, and that runs much better on older boxes. Here is a screenshot of Ubuntu on that box, and here is a screenshot of my remaster running on that box.
(I put these in here just to make this post more interesting)
But, neither screenshot shows the current topic, Opera vs Firefox, performance on older boxes... (sorry).
I do wish Opera would take this update opportunity to fix their toolbar so it looks similar to IE and Firefox, in that the blank space, where Opera used to have their advertisement bar, is removed, and filled with browser controls like the others have. To me, the greatest thing is Firefox having the toolbar editor, so the user can set it up like they want.
The "menu_files_usb.tar.gz" contains a readme, in addition to the loadlin and msdos batch files you need to access a usb stick from a computer that cannot look to a usb drive as a bootable drive, i.e. older computers, such as the Gateway 2000 Pentium II that I am now using. I use this system to boot my linux distro, Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux., running on a partitioned Sandisk USB drive, either 2 or 4 GB. You will need a copy of the Rapidweather Remaster CD to set it all up. Although CDROM drives are handy, one is not needed in this situation. I did have to install an add-on PCI USB card, these usually come with 5 ports, 4 external, and one inside the box, on the card. Perfect place to put your USB drive, to keep people from unplugging it, and running off with it. Your older PC does need a very small hard drive, with MSDOS on it in it's normal
This will act like a real hard drive, it is your
How about the reliability of these little SanDisk drives? I have had perfect results, but they are somewhat slower than a 7500 rpm hard drive. I do not use them when I run my remastering script, to make a new ISO from a master copy in a given partition, that I have been working on. /ramdisk area, to reduce the "df" figure to way less than 1%. For instance, I have a .fonts-cache-1 file of about 304.70 KB, with every font I could find, so my system can display web pages, etc. with the highest quality fonts, way more than what a standard knoppix will have. But, I symlink it, and the actual file in /ramdisk is only 32 bytes. There are a lot more. The point to the fonts item is that you do not have to have a cheap-looking system if you run from a USB drive. Compared to using Internet Explorer on Windows XP, to view web pages, I have them beat, mine looks a lot better.
One item that separates Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux from ordinary knoppix remasters is the heavy use of symlinks in the
Cost? PC: $20.00, memory $50.00, add-on PCI USB card, $40.00, nice graphics card $60.00, 19" MAG monitor, $15.00 at a thrift store, network card, $20.00, extra light-up cooling fan $15.00, the SanDisk USB drive, $20.00.
The PC and monitor were extra-clean when I got them, so the appearance of the setup is good.
One big advantage of a USB drive, is that you can unplug it, move it to another PC to update to latest Rapidweather Remaster version, or just run your system on another PC that is equipped with the files and MSDOS setup in the tarball above.
No, the USB drive will not boot by itself,
Seems like we've slashdotted the Pen Drive Linux site.
Ok, I'm running my linux (see screenshots, below) from a 2 GB SanDisk Micro Cruzer drive at this time,
on a Gateway 2000 Pentium II. Use these files to kick off the Flash Drive, using loadlin. You have to have a small msdos drive in the computer, or a partition on a larger drive with msdos, put the files there. Documentation is included in the tarball, also, a copy of the Rapidweather Remaster CD is needed also.
Well, the CD is a backup, isn't it.
Assuming you are running Vista, and you have yet to have something go wrong where you "cannot get to your files", then you do have your CD.
I did find one Vista install that did just that, but the owner reported to me that using my knoppix remaster (see screenshots below) to recover the Quicken files, and others, and save them to a USB stick took a long time.
I suppose the stick was formatted for either XP or Vista use, so that may be the cause. The emergency backup was successful, however. Vista on Dell does have an image install, that being a snapshot of the OS when the machine shipped out to the user. So, it would "restore" the system, but all of the later files, such as Quicken, etc. would need to be supplied from backups. Apparently, those backup were not done in a timely manner, so the need to use knoppix to get the files. My remaster uses emelFM, a very nice double-pane file manager no one should be without, so I put it in there. Sorry I do not have a screenshot for emelFM, I tend to take it for granted.
Well, they are talking about a $2,500 car. We have plenty of those in the USA, they are called "used cars". Fix a few things on them, and you have a nice car. No, No, you don't start out with a $2,500 new car, it is supposed to cost $18,500 or something like that, then after a bunch of miles, some used car lot gets ahold of it, and has some guy in the back fix whatever is wrong with it, and then it goes on sale for $2,500. That's not what you pay, however, you are supposed to let the car lot finance it, and then you wind up paying a lot more. Don't think they will just let you hand them $2,500 and walk away with the car, that car is money to them, another car loan, that over time, will bring in maybe $10,000. Some used car lots charge $450.00 for a "repo" where you get so far behind that they come late at night and take your car back to the used car lot. So, to get your car back, they tack on the $450.00. Remember, it is not what a car costs, it is "how much per month". We don't need a wonderful little car made in India for $2,500 coming to America, we have the cheap car problem all figured out. Some used car lots have hundreds to choose from, all nice looking, and most will fix little problems if you are willing to put up with comments like "What did you do to it, anyway?", and take a day off work to chase down the people at the car lot that can authorize repairs once you jump through a few hoops. You'll find that all of a sudden, no one at the used car lot can authorize anything except the SOB that is really good at making repair-seeking customers feel like criminals. They will fix 'em, but after the experience, you'll think twice before letting anything break down on your used car the next time. What is the justification in all of this? Well, you didn't go buy a new car, you only have so much to spend each month, and decided to see if you could get a nice used car. Some people have been through this before, and decided to take their tiny car budget dollars to the new car dealer, and see if they can come away with a new car, only to find out that the new car is tiny too. Fitting several hundred pounds of people in a car with tiny tires and tiny seats. But, it is new, and has a warranty. Welcome to America.
I believe the comment "VERY VERY close" is used here when one considers that a small change in one or more of the variables (measurements) would put it spot on to the surface of the Earth.
To put it in more familiar terms, one sneeze and some location on Earth is toast.
And yes, there have been some asteroids that were only seen or discovered to have been very close to an Earth impact when they were going the other way, away from us, as if we were looking out the back window of a car or bus. "Gee, that thing could have hit us, too bad we didn't know about it until 2 weeks later!"
So, the Big One that finally hits us within our lifetimes may just be a complete surprise.
Some of the speeds of these things are such (15,000 mph) that the popular movie scenario where the asteroid enters the atmosphere, blazing through the sky while the actors have time to say their lines, would not be happening.
So fast, that a quick "Holy Sh_t" wouldn't fit. BOOM and you're done is more like it.
However, having said that, I note that the 1908 Tunguska event was seen as follows:
(Quoting from Wikipedia)
"On the 17th of June, around 9 in the AM, we observed an unusual natural occurrence. In the N Karelinski village (200 verst N of Kirensk) the peasants saw to the North-West, rather high above the horizon, some strangely bright (impossible to look at) bluish-white heavenly body, which for 10 minutes moved downwards. The body appeared as a "pipe", i.e. a cylinder"
Apparently, the "10 minutes" referred to was viewable time above our atmosphere.
Outside of where an asteroid might "catch on fire", or flame in contact with our atmosphere.
Maybe that's what we'll get when the asteroid with our name on it makes an appearance.
Also, the "strangely bright (impossible to look at) bluish-white" object that the peasants saw reminds me of an arc that a welding torch would make, i.e. "impossible to look at".
With the current high level of science allowing us to come up with all sorts of discoveries and predictions concerning asteroid impacts, the old Tunguska event is getting lots of press nowadays, after staying in the shadows for 100 years.
Imagine actually having a Rover on a planet that just might get clobbered.
Mars, too, of all places.
Let's see... Somewhere in this old box of parts there are:
The Raytheon CK722 and the G E 2N107.
Isn't it going to take a long time for the signals to get there?
By that time, will we be gone?
Surely by the time they get "here", we'll be gone.
Unless of course they can travel through space faster than we now think is possible, to get here and do whatever it is they are going to do to us. Our signals, however, take their time getting there, they can't do anything about that.
Do you suppose there is a reason so called "intelligent civilizations" throughout space are "placed" so far apart?
The dream that Mars would have "beings" has gone up in smoke long ago, if that had been true, then a short trip, "War of the Worlds" style would have been our undoing.
All the other creatures out there in space are too far away, really far away, to interact with us in any way.
Only recently, in the history of man, have we been "sending out radio signals". Anyone have an idea of some possible locations, star systems, etc. in the Universe these signals have already been passing by, available for "them" to decode?
I have a neutered male cat named "BeBe". That's because he has a bb in his behind, put there by an obviously non-animal lover, who was handy with a Red Rider BB Gun.
Now, on the the intelligent part...
He is constantly on the lookout for "enemy cats" that want to move in on his territory. So, he has no problem with that normal cat function.
Food gathering...
Open the Refrigerator, or try and make something to eat, and he suddenly appears, telling you that he is a good cat, and deserves some of whatever you are fixing. Gets in the way, you have to step over him.
He gets "dry" cat food, it keeps, since he won't eat anything that has "Yesterday" written on it, even if it is still tasty. Mice, Rats and Squirrels are not food, they are something he kills to bring to you to bolster his case that he is, indeed, a "good cat". Still wants whatever you are having for dinner tonight.
Picture sorting?, well I didn't want to mention this, but he has a unique method for sorting the Sunday newspaper according to the advertisement flyers therein for Office Depot, Circuit City, and others that might be hawking Big Screen Televisions, or his personal favorite, those external USB Hard Drives. He's still having real difficulty telling the 160 GB ones from the 250 GB ones, but he and I are working on it. Biggest problem he seems to have is holding the Sharpie Permanent Marker pen that he likes to use to circle the Drives that he thinks I need to take a closer look at, perhaps doing some online research, to uncover any apparent bugs that any may have, that would affect the overall quality of the product. Time and Time again, BeBe has given me a "cat-o-gram" concerning the Per-GB cost factor. Big problem in the Cat World, having ones master pay too much for a given Techno-Toy, only to short the budget for necessary Veterinary care, yearly vaccinations including annual physical exams, intestinal worm tests, heartworm tests, and the all important annual wellness screens.
The Method, You Say?
1. Prepare his litter pan with newspaper advertisement flyers.
2. Wait.
3. Your results will be ready in the morning.
Then one day it won't boot, and you are too busy trying to fix it that you don't tell the world about it, and don't get counted as "someone who has a problem with Vista".
Good thing Dell Vista boxes have the "image restore" setup, but then how are you going to recover your data you put on the machine since day one?
Or in some cases, "day two" if it has "failed to boot" before.
Good thing you never failed to back everything up to an external hard drive or a usb memory stick.
Bringing this up on Slashdot is probably a waste of time, it is all those Vista users that have never heard of Slashdot that need to be reminded to back up their data, because Vista will fail to boot at least a couple of times a year.
Anyone here remember when we were told "never to turn the computer off", leave it on 24x7, for it might not boot back up. Windows 3.1?
What's funny is they left the monitors on too, blazing away all night long.
Fortune Magazine on 6 August, 2007 reported that Carlos Slim Helú had topped Bill Gates' position as the wealthiest person in the world.
Go to Wikipedia, and search "List of billionaires (2007)".
And, I decided to put it in my knoppix remaster, replacing version 2.0.0.9.
Yes, I skipped over 2.0.0.10, since Slashdot did not tell me about it. I did test it for a while before I put it in the CD.
And, no "upgrade" is really necessary, Vista comes preinstalled on all new PC's!
At the cost of "upgrading" your old PC, you can get a new box with much more power than you need!
(now, where is that Open SuSE installation CD...)
Got to hand it to those Novell people, that's a nice OS!
Anyone here manage to get Vista and Open SuSE to "dual boot", and if so, any issues?
Guess I don't need to be asking what the bogomips are.
They would probably be so high I would not be able to comprehend it, or translate it into what sort of improvement the new processor would have over my current 700 bogomips setup.
Would probably be overkill, since Firefox stalls anyway on some web pages with all sorts of extra advertisements, etc. that have to be fetched. Want to see, however, since a big, fast processor might just be what's needed to suck the required content out of all of the various servers to complete the web page to the "done" point. What I am seeing with Firefox may just be my dated processor/mb setup. Once, I took a Mac LC II, and fixed it up with a Quadra HDD, with Mac OS 7.5.3, and then tried to surf the web with the LC II. Got turned away from most servers, since I had a processor the size of a postage stamp. Government text-only weather pages downloaded OK, but that was about it for the LC II.
If this new processor gets to market, the web page designers will really load their pages up with all sorts of content we have to download to get the page to the aforementioned "done" point.
Several reasons to toss our current hardware and upgrade, Windows wants more power, Bill Gates said it would. Not just "Windows", but the applications that run on it.
Also, the internet content will require more powerful computers to be able to view the web pages. That is not so much of a problem, yet.
Reminds me of the setup I use with my Knoppix Remaster where the ~/.mozilla, ~/.opera and ~/.flock are not loaded into ramdisk until the user wants to start the browser. Then a "default, but preconfigured set up" ~/.mozilla etc is loaded before the browser itself starts. (no, these are not libraries)
So, if you don't want to take up ramdisk space with browser files that you won't need today, that's what you get.
Then, when the browser is closed, ~/.mozilla etc is deleted entirely. No trace. No cookies, no history, even though the browser zero's these out on close if you want, deletion is the only way to "be sure".
For a livecd linux that just might be run without a "persistent home directory partition", this is one way to go to preserve memory on systems that might only have 128 MB of RAM, for instance.
Don't throw those old boxes away, they will still run Firefox 2.0.0.9!
Oh, and what Hard Drive? I'm using a SanDisk 2 GB USB drive to run the OS with FF now. (4 partitions)
The hard drives have been "put to sleep". File is here, help yourself, it's fully commented.
Rapidweather
Diesel-electric? Isn't that World War I technology?
If it had been a nuclear sub, it would not have had to "pop up" to the surface.
Try Debian 4.0. I found it to be easy to use and install. I did the network installation since I have a broadband connection. One I did not have much success with is Fedora 7, I'm sticking to Fedora Core 6, which is on a par with Debian 4.0 as far as easy of use, and setting it up the way you want.
Debian's network installer is the best, however.
OK, I have some bad software I want you to look over:
This is an internet radio station selector for Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux. (See screenshots, below, there are some showing this working.)
You may get a copy here, be sure and chmod +x station* to get it working.
http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/station_selector.tcl
This thing is a front end for XMMS, and works alright as long as the addresses of the internet radio stations are vaild. If they are not, then XMMS will lock up, and cause a runaway process, actually a few of them.
I just "updated it", and it seems to work fine last time I checked.
The Station Selector works much faster than just using a browser, viewing ShoutCast, to "change stations".
I know, of course, that it is only a matter of time before the stations get out of date, causing XMMS to lock up, etc. if one of the buttons is pressed. I did get this to work in Kanotix linux,
For any other linux OS, you need XMMS to be able to play MP3 streams, which some do not, without fixes.
Namely Fedora Core 6. Must also have TCL-TK, to run the interface. I have it working in FC6, but the "update" feature does not work, that script is only in Rapidweather Remaster. You get the download one, and that's it anyway.
Although it's bad software, when it works, it changes radio stations really quick, lots of fun.
You can put your own stations in it, simple to do. Changing the interface somewhat can be a real chore, as placement of the buttons takes a bit of work to get them right.
If the radio stations would stay put, then this would work for a long time. Some really good stations have just disappeared, rendering that button on the interface useless.
Some times, with an XMMS lockup, I have to use KDE system guard to get all the XMMS processes out of the running linux system. I did write a short script that goes with the "Stop the Radio" button on the interface, sometimes that works, mostly not if one has had the misfortune to hit a dead station. I can run that script separately via the IceWM menu in the Remaster, that works sometimes if you close the Station Selector interface first.
That's mostly how I get along with this software, so all in all, it comes across as "bad".
-- Rapidweather
I've been looking forward to these fast solid state drives, wondering when they would be ready for market.
I run my Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux (See Screenshots, below) on a little 2 GB SanDisk Cruzer drive, it is a little slower booting up than an ordinary hard drive, but so portable! Just plug it in, and boot up, and all your files are there. I have 4 partitions on it, even a swap. When I run Debian 4.0 from the hard drive, that swap gets picked up too. Often, Office Depot has these drives for about $25.00.
I understand that Dell is offering some solid state hard drives as an option now, but they are very expensive.
They did say those drives are faster, which I just gotta see, since the Cruzer is slower. Could be that I use a PCI USB card, rather than a "real" USB interface directly into the motherboard. I'm using an old Gateway 2000 PII, with 512K cache, so it's able to run both OS's just fine, even Rapidweather Remaster from the USB drive. To get the SanDisk running, it is necessary to have these files on the hard drive, in a MSDOS or Windows 95/98 partition:
http://www.rapidweather.com/download
(free download)
When there, pick the usb tarball. Everything necessary to boot from a usb drive running Rapidweather Remaster is there, and a detailed readme is included. Look at that to see all the details.
The older PC's can't boot directly from a USB drive, so the files are necessary to provide a menu, and get the SanDisk running. Any old small hard drive will do, as long as you can install MSDOS on it.
How about a bicycle setup, with generator or alternator, battery, and laptop. Pedal the bike for a while, charge up the battery, then run the laptop off the 12 V RV battery just like you would if you were in a car, with an adapter. An RV battery is designed for a long discharge, not a high peak voltage output like a car battery. The plates in the battery are spaced farther apart.
Also, exercise bicycles are fairly cheap. just mount the alternator up where the fan usually is.
The OS for the laptop should be able to keep tabs on your battery's voltage, you can also get a LCD voltmeter to do that.
The Air Force has been flying B-52's with atom bombs in them since the 1950's.
I was in one once, and there's a chart on the wall of the bomb bay on how to stack 'em.
Kinda scary though, the cruise missle types hang under the wings, and could fall off. No bang, however, unless you count the non-nuke explosives in one. Could scatter the "ingredients" around, however.
Plutonium in your wheatfield, anyone? Tomato field? Glow-in-the-dark strawberries?