BTW, the only time I ever had a kernel panic on Linux was when I had faulty RAM... about 7 years ago.
I had that happen a few days ago when I added a couple of sticks of memory to a machine, got it to boot up, only to have linux crash the same way during testing. Have to watch stuff like that, nothing to do with the OS, just me tinkering around, trying to get more RAM into a box. Wasn't really a kernel panic, I was able to get to the desktop, then later problems popped up. Couldn't continue, had to do something. Good news, though. The RAM worked perfectly on another motherboard, so not all was lost.
I have added some memory to an old Pentium Pro server I have, with two processors, and had problems arise after a while. I removed the latest added memory, and put the sticks I did have there, back in, and everything's fine again. Took the offending two sticks and put them in another machine, and they worked fine there, same OS. Strange thing with the Dual Pentium Pro machine was that the bios and OS booted ok with the memory being tried out, then aways failed when I tried to change window managers. That's when X dropped out, and sometimes the OS just decided to go to halt or shut down. So, it always takes some testing to get all your valuable memory used somewhere. Can't always blame OS crashes on the motherboard or processor, or graphics card, even though it's X that fails. One has to do lots of testing to sort some of these problems out. I thought to myself, "I sure would have been barking up the wrong tree if I thought the crashes where due to the OS itself, and not to a hardware (mis)configuration."
We'll break that method up into smaller more logical chunks later.
I have to comment while I cook it up, or I don't know what is supposed to do what.
Maybe I can polish it up some, maybe a lot, while I get it to do what I want. So what code I do write gets commented up pretty good. I don't do anything like anybody else does, so most of my applications are unusual to say the least. If you have the time, you can look through this document for details on some of my stuff. Here's the Blog, where I discuss other projects also. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go look through the Comcast TV guide to find the Larry King - Paris Hilton interview.
I do have this setup, been tested with a 2 GB USB drive, but requires an older computer that has a USB port, and a small hard drive with MSDOS or Windows 3.1, 95 or 98 on it. Works well with 128 MB of RAM, and a 266 MHZ or better processor. None of those computers can boot directly from a USB drive, so we have to have a MSDOS and loadlin setup with a selection menu that comes up, started from the C:\autoexec.bat file. You can carry the USB drive around with you, and plug it into a specially prepared computer, and you have linux. (See screenshots, below) For starters, you get Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.4, Opera and Flock for web browsers. Details are in the Getting Started Guide. The files you need for the computer are here. There is a Readme packaged in the tarball.
Also, you will need a copy of the CD, obtainable here.
Opera used to have an advertisement area on the right side of the toolbar, now a blank area. All of the control buttons are still over on the left side. I wonder when they will fix that. Opera is a very good browser, and I have placed it in my Knoppix remaster for a long time now. I have it loaded up with a bunch of RSS feeds. Opera handles these better than Firefox 2.0.0.4, you get a summary of the story in Opera, in Firefox you only get the title of the story, and sometimes that is shortened. Much better in Opera. Also, Opera continues to notify you when new stories are downloaded, using a pop-up notice on the right-bottom of whatever desktop you are on. I have 4 in IceWM, my default WM.
Oh, no, they were doing it as a "test". They know there is an interest out there in linux, and wanted to prove a point or something. Looks like someone at Microsoft is trying to come up with something new, probably because of too many meetings, where one is supposed to offer up new ideas. After all, Vista is "married" to the hardware, and there are all kinds of decent linux distros out there that run on almost anything. Right now, I am running my knoppix remaster (screenshots below) on a usb drive, here is my blog post with details, downloads on exactly how that is done. So many of the computers in existence today are not able to boot directly from a usb drive, so I came up with a method to briefly use the installed hard drive, Windows or MSDOS, to get the OS up and running from the usb drive in a few seconds. I use loadlin and a menu. I can see where Microsoft would want to test the waters, Ubuntu can be run as a livecd linux, so they point everyone in that direction, as a test, of course. My problem with Ubuntu is that they use a newer, current kernel, which runs slowly, if at all, on many of the older computers still around today. I have experienced boot times of 10 minutes to get to the desktop. In my remaster, I use the 2.4 kernel from Knoppix 3.4, which runs very well on 128MB RAM, and 400 MHZ processor. A lot of Windows 98 boxes were made, quite a few running Pentium II's, at 266 MHZ, and capable of using several 128 MB memory sticks. Those machines come with usb ports, just what I need to plug in my usb drive, and get linux up and running, with the latest web browsers, firewall, GIMP, emelFM, and other applications made just for my remaster, details here. Security? Just power down, unplug the usb drive, and put it in your pocket.
Perhaps Dell's reluctance to sell Ubuntu Dell's to Business has something to do with the level of support Ubuntu requires vs Windows. There's a lot of tinkering being enjoyed by all us linux users, I get a big kick myself out of creating applications for my Knoppix remaster, Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux. (See screenshots, below) Windows, on the other hand, is pretty much tinker-proof, nobody knows the source code, let alone fix anything by rewriting the scripts that make it up. If I have something that does not work like I want it to in my Remaster, then I get to it, and fix it like I want.
The Dell-Ubuntu-Windows situation might be compared to a Automobile dealership, that has a sports car on the showroom floor to "attract sales traffic", but does not really want to wind up fixing these cars constantly, since they are being bought by "boy racers", and others that are running the tar out of them. The dealers will go to any lengths to get traffic in the showrooms, they will have a NASCAR racer displayed out front, even have a driver signing autographs. The dealership is only making money if they sell cars to a bunch of old ladies that just drive the cars like they were supposed to be, and not racing them around.
Are we "racing linux around", trying to get it to break, overheat, and spin out in the curve? Sure we are. We all laugh at the "blue screen of Death". Same thing happens in Linux, but it does not go to a "blue screen". We can back out, and "kill" the offending process, and bring the system back up to normal, without a reboot. You just have to know how to do it, just like a race car owner has to know how to get the most out of his car. Is Dell doing the race car out front thing by offering "Ubuntu"? Are they just keeping the linux zelots "happy", but not really wanting to have thousands of business support calls on Ubuntu systems, which could be a nightmare. For Vista, Dell offers that neat restoration Image that is made just as the machine leaves the factory floor, with all of your software, so you can "restore" your Vista Dell machine to "factory fresh" condition if it gets fouled up. Usually by adding software, such as LabVIEW 7.1 that is not really Vista compatible, but designed for XP. That can bring a Vista box to a real "no boot" condition fast! As far as the linux tinkering goes, just look at my Getting Started Guide, it really tends to show that I have tinkered Knoppix into something that no longer remotely resembles the original Knoppix 3.4 in many ways. (One can actually do some work with it now) My latest fun thing is having it run off Sandisk USB drives, both 2 and 4 GB. Check my blog for information on that. (I'm running it now from a 4 GB USB drive, persistent home, swap, everything needed to ditch the HD ) Dell wouldn't want to have to do "support" for my Remaster any more than they do for Ubuntu.
When Hurricane Katrina came along, the weather satellites provided everyone with an image of it, and I could see that this was the perfect storm, nothing was going to stand in it's way. Even with the warnings and pictures, I was not impressed with the general outlook on the part of the public. They really had no idea of what was to happen. Then when Katrina showed up on my doorstep, and the trees came crashing down, cutting off power, all I had left was a scanner, which I hooked up to a car battery. The scanner was out of date, so all I got was the city services, the people who go out to unstop storm drains, etc., so most of what the Fire Department and Police were doing was second hand. Two men got swept off their roofs near by, fell off when trying to put some sort of covering over a hole in the roof caused by a falling tree. One man was paralyzed from the neck down. I got out in the storm to move my car to an open school yard, and could not get back, winds were so strong, my family sent a truck out to pick me up. We spent the whole day looking out the windows, hoping the trees we had standing would remain so. Heard crashes nearby, however, of other trees.
So, the satellites are nice to have, you can see the storms coming, but once they show up, and your power goes off, you can't use that anymore. Did have an 80 year old Taylor barometer, and watched that to see if the storm would ever move away. When the barometer finally started rising, I noticed also that my pet cat started to breathe a sign of relief. Up till then, he stayed under the table, and came out at that point. Apparently he could somehow sense the rise in the barometric pressure I saw reflected in the Taylor barometer.
Once Katrina finally moved on, I could get out in my car and go to work. Worse thing I saw was the people coming up from the Gulf Coast. On foot, mostly, as their cars gave out, apparently. Terrible to see an old lady, overweight, trying to run up the road. There was nothing ahead for her to go to for miles and miles. Still terrified from the day before. People sitting on church steps, waiting for someone to come and do something for them. You never forget those sights. I did see some helicopters in the sky heading South toward New Orleans, and the Gulf Coast, but did not see that many. There is a base near by, so I figured some would stop there to refuel on their way South. Did not see any military convoys going South, either. Guess they were all somewhere else. No TV for a week, so I didn't know.
After Hurricane Camille, in 1969, I was told by a DC-3 pilot that flew missions into Biloxi that the people there chased his airplane down the runway when he landed, knowing that he brought water. They did not have any water, and after a few days, became desperate. I helped load water onto the DC-3 when it came, sometimes in the middle of the night. Went to a drugstore and bought $400 worth of supplies, such as toilet paper, diapers, bug repellant, and other things the pilot said they needed down there. Put it all in a big cardboard box and put it on the DC-3. Took me a while to pay that bill off, I just put it on my credit card. I never saw any of the people, though, like I did when Katrina forced them to come up the highway.
I always liked 400 speed film, it gave reasonable results while still being fast. There was always the idea that you could capture "moving" subjects with that, or do some night time pictures, which I did in the '50's.
The really cool stuff was below 100 speed, so you could get nice detail, like in this photograph of Marilyn Monroe. I don't know what speed this film was, probably was not 400 speed.
Marilyn photographed well regardless, as she always did.
Favorite Marilyn Quote:
I've been on a calendar, but never on time.
Although it is possible, and certainly was with the Automobile and the Airplane, someone else might have come up with the idea sooner or later. Who would have known, that no matter how lofty the original purposes and goals were, the internet would evolve into a place where we could all find spirit-uplifting images like this one?
And on those days when you just can't get some odd software you are working on to actually work as intended,
you can turn to another hand-picked image like this one also, to give you a little bright spot to enjoy.
The perfect girl for your average computer nerd. Not at all standoffish. She's unusual, but so down-to-earth. Who wouldn't feel right at home with her? A little off the wall for her to be hawking some complicated computer software, I have no idea what is was supposed to do from the advertisement. Must have been something from the old days before Netscape, when computers were supposed to do "office" and "business" stuff. To see how far we have come, the decendants of Netscape are used everyday, all day in every office and business out there. Nevermind that the new-found purpose is to look on the internet for nice-looking girls like Elvira. To prove my point, here are a few links to Elvira images for your enjoyment:
Here's one. Appears to be an autographed picture of Elvira, no doubt sent to some lonely nerd.
This one appears to be another advertisement featuring Elvira.
In this shot, an impersonator does Elvira, right down to the creepy eye-plastic-surgery, which by the way would be a good conversation starter topic for anyone lucky enough to get a date with Elvira.
Here we have Elvira on/in a game. Perhaps some of you have wasted your money on this one.
Supposedly this is a picture of Elvira's car, apparently a T-Bird, with some spooky changes.
OK, now we take "safesearch" off, and see what we get:
This one was taken in 2003, you can tell it's really Elvira, because of the little dagger on her belt, with the red and green gemstones. (Elvira has been in show business for a while now, and she is not as young as she used to be, but who cares)
Here is a photo of Elvira with her pet snake. Lots of wannabe Elvira's felt they had to have a snake too, mostly a bad idea, only Elvira herself knows how to handle the little varmits.
OK, here's the best for last, showing lots of Elvira's legs, and her car. As you can see, that's a real car, based on a T-Bird, and those are real legs too.
Here's a screenshot of some Elvira software. I have no idea what it does, and am returning to the image above, much more interesting.
The computers were up and running briefly early Thursday, said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations. But since engineers are still troubleshooting, they were expected to go down and come back up throughout the day.Complete story here.
Here is my original post concerning the possibility of a "ground fault", brought up by Sanat (702)'s post.
Now that's a good answer. How about "taking the solar panels loose from the ISS" and putting a volt-meter between the two. Is current flowing, this being outside of the connectors? Very hard to do out in space, considering the size of the panels and ISS. Easy to do in your drive-way, when working on your old car.
Automotive electrical system trouble-shooters have this sort of problem, voltage where it is not supposed to be, coming from the wrong source. I thought today that it might just be something like "wrong voltage" coming from the new solar panels, but that too simple. Something is wrong somewhere, though, and now that the computers are perhaps fried, this is going to be a hard one to fix. Additionally, these computers supposedly controlled the rockets that are used to quickly move the ISS out of the way of oncoming "space junk", so without that system working, something could hit the ISS, perhaps, and do some damage. All that money and time spent, now in trouble. It's not like we have a whole bunch of projects like this in near space, the ISS is the main show in town, outside of the Shuttle. During the time the Shuttles were out of service, the only way the ISS kept going was the Russian rockets, equipment and efforts. IMHO, this is no reflection on the quality of the Russian computers, any delicate piece of equipment has serious problems with "bad voltage". When all is said and done, this one might come down as being blamed on the new solar panels, as they interface with the ISS.
Could be that Google, who's stock is now selling for about $500 a share, is trying to come up with their own OS. But, how will they get it on the PC's? The consumers are going to be confused if they tried to get it on PC's in the stores. "Google OS" you say? The average consumer knows nothing about any OS but Microsoft's, and a boxed PC with "Google OS" on it would be intrepreted as just being a "Google Toolbar" or something like that. Impossible hurdle, all the Linux people have been trying to hop over that for a long time now. Check out my blog post entitled "Assisting Windows Vista". That's a true story, just proving that Vista is not "all powerful", and can leave it's users in the lurch just like earlier versions of Windows did. Sure, the same sort of thing can happen to a linux OS, but in this particular case, a livecd linux came to the rescue of a PC with Vista Home Premium on it, and quickly accomplished what this PC could not do. Not to say that all PC's with Vista have this same problem, but this one did.
Let me say that I thank Slashdot a thousand times over for the simple "To confirm you're not a script," words in the image. This time, mine is "cheering" which I could plainly see although the person drawing the zig-zigs over it tried his/her best to obscure the word. Sometimes, I'm not so lucky, I have had to guess words that I really could not fantom, so I just took a stab at it, and by golly, I was let in! Apparently, there is a built-in tolerance for errors, maybe a letter or two can be wrong, and Slashdot forgives you instantly, and lets you post!
What wonderful people! They are making a game of it, and always let you win!
One has to be honest about it, or you lose credibility. After that, one simply becomes another salesman, undoubtedly with a boss standing over you wanting you to sell more, regardless of the honesty of it all. I have my blog, where I talk about what I am doing with my Knoppix remaster (see screenshots, below). I have gotten over the fact that it hurts to say exactly what is not working right. I know I'm not perfect, and my remaster is not perfect, either. (Ask anyone who has tried to connect with a wireless card)
Having said that I would now like to relate a very recent Vista experience:
The Dell Vista OEM install crashed after a week to the point where it would not boot, and had to be "restored" to the factory image in the hidden partition, losing some Excel data in the process. Unfortunately, I could not get to the machine to use a Knoppix CD on it, to get the files saved to a USB drive. Dell has improved the process, when the machine leaves the factory, the "image" has everything in it, unlike the XP setup where nearly 60% of the drivers were not restored, and had to be obtained from the Dell website however you could. You got a minimal XP restoration, not what was shipped by Dell. They have, then, improved with the Vista image, that has everything you paid for, all the software, such as Office. The point here is that Vista did crash so soon, not something that my knoppix remaster does at all. Sure, I've had an application crash, but the OS is still there, and will come back up tomorrow also. This particular Vista install did not measure up in this regard. I can run my remaster entirely from a 2 GB Sandisk Cruzer, partitioned to include even a linux swap. I'm doing that right now. To be honest, the "host" computer needs a small HD, with MSDOS, and these files, to be able to boot the USB drive. The small HD will only run for 30 seconds or so, then that's it for today, now we run from the USB drive. I'm talking "older computers" here, This box is a HP Pavilion 8250, with RAM maxed out. Every old Windows 98 PC can run the USB drive's OS, need at least 128 MB of RAM and perhaps 266 MHZ or better processor. It is cool to be able to move your OS and your own downloaded files, email, etc. to another computer so quickly, as long as those files (link above) are installed on the new computer. Sure, I'm going back on my word and selling something here, but at least I do believe in it.
This entire post has just gotten censored (self censorship), I am still hoping for a free copy of Vista from Microsoft for posting "favorable" comments on Slashdot.
Not their idea, mine. Leaving no stone unturned, I say.
If I did actually get a free copy of Vista, I'd put it on the living room table right next to the picture of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826).
His picture is on the Two Dollar Bill laying there.
As you can see, I am horribly bored this evening, but I am doing a test:
I'm running the linux OS you see in the Screenshots link below on a SanDisk 2 GB Cruzer Micro, partitioned like this:
SDA1 700 MB for Knoppix (the CD itself)
SDA5 700 MB for Persistent Home Directory
SDA6 400 MB for GIMP and K3B swap, additional storage also.
SDA7 150 MB linux swap.
Here is the output from TOP:
Tasks: 42 total, 1 running, 41 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 5.5% user, 3.9% system, 0.0% nice, 90.6% idle
Mem: 385800k total, 218864k used, 166936k free, 6456k buffers
Swap: 155192k total, 0k used, 155192k free, 130392k cached
(Uptime not shown, is 2:05)
This PC is a HP Pavilion 8250, Celeron 267 MHZ.
To get the USB drive booted up, I use a small HDD with MSDOS 6.21, and
these files.
The small "boot" drive only runs for about 20 seconds, the Menu comes up, you make a choice, then the Linux OS runs entirely from the USB drive.
The necessary "loadlin" command line is:
loadlin vmlinuz initrd=miniroot.gz BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix xmodule=s3virge fromhd=/dev/sda1 home=/dev/sda5
I just can't imagine the idea that the manufacturers "overproduced" ram hoping that customers with older PC's, wanting Vista would just upgrade their PC, buy a copy of Vista, go home and install everything.
With the high prices of the various levels of Vista, it is way cheaper, and more of a sure thing, to just buy a new PC with Vista preinstalled, and adequate RAM. Perhaps the manufacturers hoped those with minimal RAM in their new PC with Vista would immediately return to the store and get another stick. No, it's not easy for someone who has never added a memory stick to do that. There's a trick to it, getting it installed, and we all figured it out the first couple of times we added RAM to a PC. We keep quiet about the times we "installed" the RAM, and it did not want to boot, so we took the stick out, held our mouth right this time, and put it back in there. New car dealers are always "overstocked". We are supposed to feel sorry for them, and run down and buy a car to ease their pain. Now we are supposed to hang around the store and wait for "cheap RAM". RAM will be always be "cheaper" compared to RAM you needed to buy last year. We all want to forget the $800.00 we paid for 16 MB of RAM back in the day. Sweep that one under the rug also. There were stories that Vista was slow, people "know" that from hearsay, never having worked with a real Vista PC. Well, with the 2 GB of RAM, and dual core processor, Vista doesn't disappoint in the speed category. It even boots up quick, too. It seems just fine to me, if I ignore the outside possibility of virus infection (It is Windows, the No. 1 Target). Also, the upgrade process from XP to Vista can be done successfully, although one chap I know was up to 3:30 AM getting everything to work. Bill Gates said we would need more powerful PC's to run Vista, and that is what the manufacturers have provided for us, in the stores today, ready for immediate purchase. Good prices too. I always thought new Windows computers would sell for at least $2.000, maybe more, even back in the days of 486's and Windows 3.1. Now, we can get one for about $800.00 or so, loaded down with features and crapware. We can spend our days uninstalling crapware, or just reinstalling (clean) Vista.
I've been laughing so hard as I wrote this that my damn old kitty-cat has gotten up off his chair (having a cat-nap) and come over to me wanting to be petted. This is a big (neutered) male cat, and they do pick one person as their cat-person, and stick with that. 99% of the time it's all about Food, however. Whatever you're having, he have some too.
The only choice you have made that I really like is the Paris Hilton one. I'd watch all of the newscasts she appears in, and not listen to a word she says, although she is a thoughtful and fairly intelligent young woman to be so good looking. Did I mention "Good Looking", good, I'm glad you noticed, as visions of her loveliness float in your head. In case you don't exactly remember what she looks like, here she is. Thank you.
I have an anti-nano cat. A kitty-cat, mind you. He's big, but not fat. Some cats are small, sorta nano-like, but not him. Like Spider-Man, he can jump up on cars, etc. in order to get a better view of his territory. Looking out for Enemy cats, and for the occasional mouse. Sometimes those turn out to be rats, so you have to watch where you step as he will bring killed rats to you, expecting praise, and a few minutes alone with the refrigerator, you having opened the door for him, and are asked to look the other way. Cat naps? Instantly ended if that refrigerator door is opened. Same thing if the can-opener is handled, making a small sound as it's metal parts get ready for action. Nevermind that you intend to use it to open a can of tomato sauce, of no use to a cat, but it's worth the chance that it may be Tuna. Once it was Tuna, so, in cat-logic, it could be Tuna again. Cats do have a vocabulary, mostly variations on "meow", but each "word" full of complicated meaning. Full range of communication skills, so much so, he is asking for his own cell phone. Not to worry about the text messages, he cannot spell, having focused his intellectual energies on verbal communication. Cats do curse, usually in response to the threat of being shooed away from the refrigerator. Every anti-nano cat has a right to stand in front of the refrigerator.
To generate the vast amounts of electricity needed for electric vehicles that would replace all/most of the gasoline powered vehicles in use today, Atomic power plants are the answer. Here's a car that is not yet in full production, but would need a lot of electricity, rather than solar-cell generated power. This particular car boasts 0-60 in 4 seconds, and has so much torque that it can burn the tires off of it. This is an extreme example, most electric cars of the future will need to be much more conservative, and less dangerous than this one.
When you get older, there is a "fat" layer under your skin that, for the most part, disappears. That's why old ladies, and men, show the "veins" through the skin, and "look ugly", more or less. That "fat" layer is what insulates younger people from the cold, and enables them to swim in cold water, for instance. Older people can no longer do that, without the cold hurting quite a bit. So, older people really like those sweaters, etc. that you send them for Christmas. It's one of the joys of old age to dress warmly in cold weather, with wool socks, hats, and so forth. I heard that the elderly population in Alaska is very small, those who can afford it have moved to Florida.
Adding my two cents worth, as you can tell, I did not RTFA.
Slax does not seem like a "lite" disto, because it runs a 2.6 kernel, kinda slow on many older PC's still in use today. A 2.4 kernel is much "lighter". Size (installed apps) does not matter as long as it fits on the CD, since you are not going to use all the applications at once.
Any Knoppix distro, or remaster of Knoppix, like mine, (see screenshots, below) can be used to work with an XP install that is having problems. You don't need a linux distro on a USB stick to do that, the CD will work, and will run on computers that don't have the USB boot option in the bios. Look through a copy of Knoppix Hacks, by Kyle Rankin for all that Knoppix can do for Windows. Most bookstores have a copy you can look at for free. The book in the link has Knoppix based on Version 3.4, which will boot on almost any computer. I did remaster that, and have much improved it over the past two years of development. For instance, for a boot: prompt, I have bright yellow on a black background, Knoppix has pale grey on a black background. (that's the logo16 file) Hard to see, especially if you have to enter a long series of commands and Knoppix cheatcodes.
I have fixed a Dell Inspiron 1505 with it, repartitioning the hard drive, and assisting with an XP reinstall by obtaining necessary Dell drivers. Be advised, that the Dell restoration CD does not contain all of the drivers for a particular PC, and you may have to get nearly 60% of them from Dell via download. the Knoppix CD can do that for you until you get XP restored to the point where it can get it's own drivers. One item to remember with Knoppix, it can see inside all partitions on the PC, whereas XP may not in all cases. You need to know what is on the PC, and in what partition. Important on Dell PC's where Media Direct is installed on the machine in a partition, and also the all-important Restoration Partition (caps mine) that you will need to sucessfully use the Dell restoration CD.
Now for a shameless plug: (kindly bear with me) Since I placed all of the Debian font packages (that are compatible) in my Knoppix Remaster, the web pages look better on Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux using Firefox 2.0.0.4 (yes, I can run that) than on XP. Or Vista, for that matter. For most users, it's how the web pages look that matters. Later versions of Knoppix have cut the fonts down too much for me, same is true for Damn Small Linux. So, their desktops, browsers don't look as good as they need to be.
Didn't I read somewhere that Bill Gates stopped all of his code writers for nearly a month, so they could learn how to comment their code, so others in the Microsoft organization could make sense of it?
I try to comment my code to the extreme, since it's mine anyway, and I want the thing to be self-contained, in that a readme is in there. Here is an example you can see.
I'm not a professionally trained programmer, but I dog it along until it does what I want.
Slashdot Mirror
I had that happen a few days ago when I added a couple of sticks of memory to a machine, got it to boot up, only to have linux crash the same way during testing. Have to watch stuff like that, nothing to do with the OS, just me tinkering around, trying to get more RAM into a box. Wasn't really a kernel panic, I was able to get to the desktop, then later problems popped up. Couldn't continue, had to do something.
Good news, though. The RAM worked perfectly on another motherboard, so not all was lost.
I have added some memory to an old Pentium Pro server I have, with two processors, and had problems arise after a while. I removed the latest added memory, and put the sticks I did have there, back in, and everything's fine again. Took the offending two sticks and put them in another machine, and they worked fine there, same OS.
Strange thing with the Dual Pentium Pro machine was that the bios and OS booted ok with the memory being tried out, then aways failed when I tried to change window managers. That's when X dropped out, and sometimes the OS just decided to go to halt or shut down.
So, it always takes some testing to get all your valuable memory used somewhere. Can't always blame OS crashes on the motherboard or processor, or graphics card, even though it's X that fails. One has to do lots of testing to sort some of these problems out. I thought to myself, "I sure would have been barking up the wrong tree if I thought the crashes where due to the OS itself, and not to a hardware (mis)configuration."
Rapidweather
I have to comment while I cook it up, or I don't know what is supposed to do what.
Maybe I can polish it up some, maybe a lot, while I get it to do what I want.
So what code I do write gets commented up pretty good. I don't do anything like anybody else does, so most of my applications are unusual to say the least. If you have the time, you can look through this document for details on some of my stuff.
Here's the Blog, where I discuss other projects also.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go look through the Comcast TV guide to find the Larry King - Paris Hilton interview.
Rapidweather
I do have this setup, been tested with a 2 GB USB drive, but requires an older computer that has a USB port, and a small hard drive with MSDOS or Windows 3.1, 95 or 98 on it. Works well with 128 MB of RAM, and a 266 MHZ or better processor. None of those computers can boot directly from a USB drive, so we have to have a MSDOS and loadlin setup with a selection menu that comes up, started from the C:\autoexec.bat file.
You can carry the USB drive around with you, and plug it into a specially prepared computer, and you have linux. (See screenshots, below) For starters, you get Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.4, Opera and Flock for web browsers. Details are in the Getting Started Guide.
The files you need for the computer are here.
There is a Readme packaged in the tarball.
Also, you will need a copy of the CD, obtainable here.
Rapidweather
Opera used to have an advertisement area on the right side of the toolbar, now a blank area. All of the control buttons are still over on the left side. I wonder when they will fix that. Opera is a very good browser, and I have placed it in my Knoppix remaster for a long time now. I have it loaded up with a bunch of RSS feeds. Opera handles these better than Firefox 2.0.0.4, you get a summary of the story in Opera, in Firefox you only get the title of the story, and sometimes that is shortened. Much better in Opera. Also, Opera continues to notify you when new stories are downloaded, using a pop-up notice on the right-bottom of whatever desktop you are on. I have 4 in IceWM, my default WM.
- Rapidweather
Oh, no, they were doing it as a "test". They know there is an interest out there in linux, and wanted to prove a point or something. Looks like someone at Microsoft is trying to come up with something new, probably because of too many meetings, where one is supposed to offer up new ideas. After all, Vista is "married" to the hardware, and there are all kinds of decent linux distros out there that run on almost anything. Right now, I am running my knoppix remaster (screenshots below) on a usb drive, here is my blog post with details, downloads on exactly how that is done.
So many of the computers in existence today are not able to boot directly from a usb drive, so I came up with a method to briefly use the installed hard drive, Windows or MSDOS, to get the OS up and running from the usb drive in a few seconds. I use loadlin and a menu.
I can see where Microsoft would want to test the waters, Ubuntu can be run as a livecd linux, so they point everyone in that direction, as a test, of course.
My problem with Ubuntu is that they use a newer, current kernel, which runs slowly, if at all, on many of the older computers still around today.
I have experienced boot times of 10 minutes to get to the desktop.
In my remaster, I use the 2.4 kernel from Knoppix 3.4, which runs very well on 128MB RAM, and 400 MHZ processor. A lot of Windows 98 boxes were made, quite a few running Pentium II's, at 266 MHZ, and capable of using several 128 MB memory sticks. Those machines come with usb ports, just what I need to plug in my usb drive, and get linux up and running, with the latest web browsers, firewall, GIMP, emelFM, and other applications made just for my remaster, details here. Security? Just power down, unplug the usb drive, and put it in your pocket.
Perhaps Dell's reluctance to sell Ubuntu Dell's to Business has something to do with the level of support Ubuntu requires vs Windows. There's a lot of tinkering being enjoyed by all us linux users, I get a big kick myself out of creating applications for my Knoppix remaster, Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux. (See screenshots, below)
Windows, on the other hand, is pretty much tinker-proof, nobody knows the source code, let alone fix anything by rewriting the scripts that make it up. If I have something that does not work like I want it to in my Remaster, then I get to it, and fix it like I want.
The Dell-Ubuntu-Windows situation might be compared to a Automobile dealership, that has a sports car on the showroom floor to "attract sales traffic", but does not really want to wind up fixing these cars constantly, since they are being bought by "boy racers", and others that are running the tar out of them.
The dealers will go to any lengths to get traffic in the showrooms, they will have a NASCAR racer displayed out front, even have a driver signing autographs.
The dealership is only making money if they sell cars to a bunch of old ladies that just drive the cars like they were supposed to be, and not racing them around.
Are we "racing linux around", trying to get it to break, overheat, and spin out in the curve? Sure we are. We all laugh at the "blue screen of Death". Same thing happens in Linux, but it does not go to a "blue screen". We can back out, and "kill" the offending process, and bring the system back up to normal, without a reboot. You just have to know how to do it, just like a race car owner has to know how to get the most out of his car.
Is Dell doing the race car out front thing by offering "Ubuntu"? Are they just keeping the linux zelots "happy", but not really wanting to have thousands of business support calls on Ubuntu systems, which could be a nightmare. For Vista, Dell offers that neat restoration Image that is made just as the machine leaves the factory floor, with all of your software, so you can "restore" your Vista Dell machine to "factory fresh" condition if it gets fouled up. Usually by adding software, such as LabVIEW 7.1 that is not really Vista compatible, but designed for XP. That can bring a Vista box to a real "no boot" condition fast!
As far as the linux tinkering goes, just look at my Getting Started Guide, it really tends to show that I have tinkered Knoppix into something that no longer remotely resembles the original Knoppix 3.4 in many ways. (One can actually do some work with it now)
My latest fun thing is having it run off Sandisk USB drives, both 2 and 4 GB.
Check my blog for information on that. (I'm running it now from a 4 GB USB drive, persistent home, swap, everything needed to ditch the HD )
Dell wouldn't want to have to do "support" for my Remaster any more than they do for Ubuntu.
Even with the warnings and pictures, I was not impressed with the general outlook on the part of the public.
They really had no idea of what was to happen.
Then when Katrina showed up on my doorstep, and the trees came crashing down, cutting off power, all I had left was a scanner, which I hooked up to a car battery. The scanner was out of date, so all I got was the city services, the people who go out to unstop storm drains, etc., so most of what the Fire Department and Police were doing was second hand. Two men got swept off their roofs near by, fell off when trying to put some sort of covering over a hole in the roof caused by a falling tree. One man was paralyzed from the neck down.
I got out in the storm to move my car to an open school yard, and could not get back, winds were so strong, my family sent a truck out to pick me up. We spent the whole day looking out the windows, hoping the trees we had standing would remain so. Heard crashes nearby, however, of other trees.
So, the satellites are nice to have, you can see the storms coming, but once they show up, and your power goes off, you can't use that anymore. Did have an 80 year old Taylor barometer, and watched that to see if the storm would ever move away. When the barometer finally started rising, I noticed also that my pet cat started to breathe a sign of relief. Up till then, he stayed under the table, and came out at that point. Apparently he could somehow sense the rise in the barometric pressure I saw reflected in the Taylor barometer.
Once Katrina finally moved on, I could get out in my car and go to work. Worse thing I saw was the people coming up from the Gulf Coast. On foot, mostly, as their cars gave out, apparently. Terrible to see an old lady, overweight, trying to run up the road. There was nothing ahead for her to go to for miles and miles. Still terrified from the day before. People sitting on church steps, waiting for someone to come and do something for them. You never forget those sights.
I did see some helicopters in the sky heading South toward New Orleans, and the Gulf Coast, but did not see that many. There is a base near by, so I figured some would stop there to refuel on their way South.
Did not see any military convoys going South, either. Guess they were all somewhere else. No TV for a week, so I didn't know.
After Hurricane Camille, in 1969, I was told by a DC-3 pilot that flew missions into Biloxi that the people there chased his airplane down the runway when he landed, knowing that he brought water. They did not have any water, and after a few days, became desperate. I helped load water onto the DC-3 when it came, sometimes in the middle of the night. Went to a drugstore and bought $400 worth of supplies, such as toilet paper, diapers, bug repellant, and other things the pilot said they needed down there. Put it all in a big cardboard box and put it on the DC-3. Took me a while to pay that bill off, I just put it on my credit card.
I never saw any of the people, though, like I did when Katrina forced them to come up the highway.
-- Rapidweather
The really cool stuff was below 100 speed, so you could get nice detail, like in this photograph of Marilyn Monroe. I don't know what speed this film was, probably was not 400 speed. Marilyn photographed well regardless, as she always did.
Favorite Marilyn Quote: I've been on a calendar, but never on time.
And on those days when you just can't get some odd software you are working on to actually work as intended, you can turn to another hand-picked image like this one also, to give you a little bright spot to enjoy.
Here's what you might find when you get them up and running.
Elvira.
The perfect girl for your average computer nerd. Not at all standoffish. She's unusual, but so down-to-earth.
Who wouldn't feel right at home with her? A little off the wall for her to be hawking some complicated computer software, I have no idea what is was supposed to do from the advertisement. Must have been something from the old days before Netscape, when computers were supposed to do "office" and "business" stuff.
To see how far we have come, the decendants of Netscape are used everyday, all day in every office and business out there. Nevermind that the new-found purpose is to look on the internet for nice-looking girls like Elvira.
To prove my point, here are a few links to Elvira images for your enjoyment:
OK, now we take "safesearch" off, and see what we get:
-- Rapidweather
The computers were up and running briefly early Thursday, said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations. But since engineers are still troubleshooting, they were expected to go down and come back up throughout the day.Complete story here.
Here is my original post concerning the possibility of a "ground fault", brought up by Sanat (702)'s post.
Now that's a good answer.
How about "taking the solar panels loose from the ISS" and putting a volt-meter between the two. Is current flowing, this being outside of the connectors? Very hard to do out in space, considering the size of the panels and ISS. Easy to do in your drive-way, when working on your old car.
Automotive electrical system trouble-shooters have this sort of problem, voltage where it is not supposed to be, coming from the wrong source. I thought today that it might just be something like "wrong voltage" coming from the new solar panels, but that too simple. Something is wrong somewhere, though, and now that the computers are perhaps fried, this is going to be a hard one to fix.
Additionally, these computers supposedly controlled the rockets that are used to quickly move the ISS out of the way of oncoming "space junk", so without that system working, something could hit the ISS, perhaps, and do some damage.
All that money and time spent, now in trouble. It's not like we have a whole bunch of projects like this in near space, the ISS is the main show in town, outside of the Shuttle. During the time the Shuttles were out of service, the only way the ISS kept going was the Russian rockets, equipment and efforts.
IMHO, this is no reflection on the quality of the Russian computers, any delicate piece of equipment has serious problems with "bad voltage".
When all is said and done, this one might come down as being blamed on the new solar panels, as they interface with the ISS.
Here's one of the stories that is available.
Could be that Google, who's stock is now selling for about $500 a share, is trying to come up with their own OS.
But, how will they get it on the PC's?
The consumers are going to be confused if they tried to get it on PC's in the stores. "Google OS" you say? The average consumer knows nothing about any OS but Microsoft's, and a boxed PC with "Google OS" on it would be intrepreted as just being a "Google Toolbar" or something like that.
Impossible hurdle, all the Linux people have been trying to hop over that for a long time now.
Check out my blog post entitled "Assisting Windows Vista".
That's a true story, just proving that Vista is not "all powerful", and can leave it's users in the lurch just like earlier versions of Windows did. Sure, the same sort of thing can happen to a linux OS, but in this particular case, a livecd linux came to the rescue of a PC with Vista Home Premium on it, and quickly accomplished what this PC could not do. Not to say that all PC's with Vista have this same problem, but this one did.
Let me say that I thank Slashdot a thousand times over for the simple "To confirm you're not a script," words in the image. This time, mine is "cheering" which I could plainly see although the person drawing the zig-zigs over it tried his/her best to obscure the word. Sometimes, I'm not so lucky, I have had to guess words that I really could not fantom, so I just took a stab at it, and by golly, I was let in!
Apparently, there is a built-in tolerance for errors, maybe a letter or two can be wrong, and Slashdot forgives you instantly, and lets you post!
What wonderful people! They are making a game of it, and always let you win!
-Rapidweather
I have my blog, where I talk about what I am doing with my Knoppix remaster (see screenshots, below).
I have gotten over the fact that it hurts to say exactly what is not working right. I know I'm not perfect, and my remaster is not perfect, either. (Ask anyone who has tried to connect with a wireless card)
Having said that I would now like to relate a very recent Vista experience:
The Dell Vista OEM install crashed after a week to the point where it would not boot, and had to be "restored" to the factory image in the hidden partition, losing some Excel data in the process.
Unfortunately, I could not get to the machine to use a Knoppix CD on it, to get the files saved to a USB drive.
Dell has improved the process, when the machine leaves the factory, the "image" has everything in it, unlike the XP setup where nearly 60% of the drivers were not restored, and had to be obtained from the Dell website however you could. You got a minimal XP restoration, not what was shipped by Dell. They have, then, improved with the Vista image, that has everything you paid for, all the software, such as Office.
The point here is that Vista did crash so soon, not something that my knoppix remaster does at all. Sure, I've had an application crash, but the OS is still there, and will come back up tomorrow also. This particular Vista install did not measure up in this regard.
I can run my remaster entirely from a 2 GB Sandisk Cruzer, partitioned to include even a linux swap. I'm doing that right now. To be honest, the "host" computer needs a small HD, with MSDOS, and these files, to be able to boot the USB drive.
The small HD will only run for 30 seconds or so, then that's it for today, now we run from the USB drive.
I'm talking "older computers" here, This box is a HP Pavilion 8250, with RAM maxed out. Every old Windows 98 PC can run the USB drive's OS, need at least 128 MB of RAM and perhaps 266 MHZ or better processor.
It is cool to be able to move your OS and your own downloaded files, email, etc. to another computer so quickly, as long as those files (link above) are installed on the new computer.
Sure, I'm going back on my word and selling something here, but at least I do believe in it.
- Rapidweather
Not their idea, mine. Leaving no stone unturned, I say.
If I did actually get a free copy of Vista, I'd put it on the living room table right next to the picture of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). His picture is on the Two Dollar Bill laying there.
As you can see, I am horribly bored this evening, but I am doing a test:
I'm running the linux OS you see in the Screenshots link below on a SanDisk 2 GB Cruzer Micro, partitioned like this:
SDA1 700 MB for Knoppix (the CD itself)
SDA5 700 MB for Persistent Home Directory
SDA6 400 MB for GIMP and K3B swap, additional storage also.
SDA7 150 MB linux swap.
Here is the output from TOP:
Tasks: 42 total, 1 running, 41 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 5.5% user, 3.9% system, 0.0% nice, 90.6% idle
Mem: 385800k total, 218864k used, 166936k free, 6456k buffers
Swap: 155192k total, 0k used, 155192k free, 130392k cached
(Uptime not shown, is 2:05)
This PC is a HP Pavilion 8250, Celeron 267 MHZ.
To get the USB drive booted up, I use a small HDD with MSDOS 6.21, and these files.
The small "boot" drive only runs for about 20 seconds, the Menu comes up, you make a choice, then the Linux OS runs entirely from the USB drive. The necessary "loadlin" command line is:
loadlin vmlinuz initrd=miniroot.gz BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix xmodule=s3virge fromhd=/dev/sda1 home=/dev/sda5
Browser is Firefox 2.0.0.4
Thanks for listening...
Rapidweather
I just can't imagine the idea that the manufacturers "overproduced" ram hoping that customers with older PC's, wanting Vista would just upgrade their PC, buy a copy of Vista, go home and install everything.
With the high prices of the various levels of Vista, it is way cheaper, and more of a sure thing, to just buy a new PC with Vista preinstalled, and adequate RAM. Perhaps the manufacturers hoped those with minimal RAM in their new PC with Vista would immediately return to the store and get another stick. No, it's not easy for someone who has never added a memory stick to do that. There's a trick to it, getting it installed, and we all figured it out the first couple of times we added RAM to a PC. We keep quiet about the times we "installed" the RAM, and it did not want to boot, so we took the stick out, held our mouth right this time, and put it back in there.
New car dealers are always "overstocked". We are supposed to feel sorry for them, and run down and buy a car to ease their pain.
Now we are supposed to hang around the store and wait for "cheap RAM".
RAM will be always be "cheaper" compared to RAM you needed to buy last year.
We all want to forget the $800.00 we paid for 16 MB of RAM back in the day. Sweep that one under the rug also.
There were stories that Vista was slow, people "know" that from hearsay, never having worked with a real Vista PC. Well, with the 2 GB of RAM, and dual core processor, Vista doesn't disappoint in the speed category. It even boots up quick, too.
It seems just fine to me, if I ignore the outside possibility of virus infection (It is Windows, the No. 1 Target).
Also, the upgrade process from XP to Vista can be done successfully, although one chap I know was up to 3:30 AM getting everything to work.
Bill Gates said we would need more powerful PC's to run Vista, and that is what the manufacturers have provided for us, in the stores today, ready for immediate purchase. Good prices too. I always thought new Windows computers would sell for at least $2.000, maybe more, even back in the days of 486's and Windows 3.1.
Now, we can get one for about $800.00 or so, loaded down with features and crapware.
We can spend our days uninstalling crapware, or just reinstalling (clean) Vista.
I've been laughing so hard as I wrote this that my damn old kitty-cat has gotten up off his chair (having a cat-nap) and come over to me wanting to be petted. This is a big (neutered) male cat, and they do pick one person as their cat-person, and stick with that. 99% of the time it's all about Food, however. Whatever you're having, he have some too.
Thanks for listening...
Rapidweather
(For this, pretend that I am "Hawkeye" from M.A.S.H. The whole thing will sound better.)
The only choice you have made that I really like is the Paris Hilton one.
I'd watch all of the newscasts she appears in, and not listen to a word she says, although she is a thoughtful and fairly intelligent young woman to be so good looking. Did I mention "Good Looking", good, I'm glad you noticed, as visions of her loveliness float in your head.
In case you don't exactly remember what she looks like, here she is.
Thank you.
I have an anti-nano cat. A kitty-cat, mind you.
He's big, but not fat. Some cats are small, sorta nano-like, but not him. Like Spider-Man, he can jump up on cars, etc. in order to get a better view of his territory.
Looking out for Enemy cats, and for the occasional mouse. Sometimes those turn out to be rats, so you have to watch where you step as he will bring killed rats to you, expecting praise, and a few minutes alone with the refrigerator, you having opened the door for him, and are asked to look the other way.
Cat naps? Instantly ended if that refrigerator door is opened. Same thing if the can-opener is handled, making a small sound as it's metal parts get ready for action. Nevermind that you intend to use it to open a can of tomato sauce, of no use to a cat, but it's worth the chance that it may be Tuna. Once it was Tuna, so, in cat-logic, it could be Tuna again.
Cats do have a vocabulary, mostly variations on "meow", but each "word" full of complicated meaning. Full range of communication skills, so much so, he is asking for his own cell phone. Not to worry about the text messages, he cannot spell, having focused his intellectual energies on verbal communication. Cats do curse, usually in response to the threat of being shooed away from the refrigerator. Every anti-nano cat has a right to stand in front of the refrigerator.
- Rapidweather
To generate the vast amounts of electricity needed for electric vehicles that would replace all/most of the gasoline powered vehicles in use today, Atomic power plants are the answer.
Here's a car that is not yet in full production, but would need a lot of electricity, rather than solar-cell generated power. This particular car boasts 0-60 in 4 seconds, and has so much torque that it can burn the tires off of it. This is an extreme example, most electric cars of the future will need to be much more conservative, and less dangerous than this one.
That's why old ladies, and men, show the "veins" through the skin, and "look ugly", more or less.
That "fat" layer is what insulates younger people from the cold, and enables them to swim in cold water, for instance. Older people can no longer do that, without the cold hurting quite a bit.
So, older people really like those sweaters, etc. that you send them for Christmas. It's one of the joys of old age to dress warmly in cold weather, with wool socks, hats, and so forth.
I heard that the elderly population in Alaska is very small, those who can afford it have moved to Florida.
Adding my two cents worth, as you can tell, I did not RTFA.
- Rapidweather
Any Knoppix distro, or remaster of Knoppix, like mine, (see screenshots, below) can be used to work with an XP install that is having problems. You don't need a linux distro on a USB stick to do that, the CD will work, and will run on computers that don't have the USB boot option in the bios.
Look through a copy of Knoppix Hacks, by Kyle Rankin for all that Knoppix can do for Windows. Most bookstores have a copy you can look at for free. The book in the link has Knoppix based on Version 3.4, which will boot on almost any computer. I did remaster that, and have much improved it over the past two years of development. For instance, for a boot: prompt, I have bright yellow on a black background, Knoppix has pale grey on a black background. (that's the logo16 file) Hard to see, especially if you have to enter a long series of commands and Knoppix cheatcodes.
I have fixed a Dell Inspiron 1505 with it, repartitioning the hard drive, and assisting with an XP reinstall by obtaining necessary Dell drivers. Be advised, that the Dell restoration CD does not contain all of the drivers for a particular PC, and you may have to get nearly 60% of them from Dell via download. the Knoppix CD can do that for you until you get XP restored to the point where it can get it's own drivers.
One item to remember with Knoppix, it can see inside all partitions on the PC, whereas XP may not in all cases. You need to know what is on the PC, and in what partition. Important on Dell PC's where Media Direct is installed on the machine in a partition, and also the all-important Restoration Partition (caps mine) that you will need to sucessfully use the Dell restoration CD.
Now for a shameless plug: (kindly bear with me)
Since I placed all of the Debian font packages (that are compatible) in my Knoppix Remaster, the web pages look better on Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux using Firefox 2.0.0.4 (yes, I can run that) than on XP. Or Vista, for that matter. For most users, it's how the web pages look that matters. Later versions of Knoppix have cut the fonts down too much for me, same is true for Damn Small Linux. So, their desktops, browsers don't look as good as they need to be.
-Rapidweather
Didn't I read somewhere that Bill Gates stopped all of his code writers for nearly a month, so they could learn how to comment their code, so others in the Microsoft organization could make sense of it?
I try to comment my code to the extreme, since it's mine anyway, and I want the thing to be self-contained, in that a readme is in there. Here is an example you can see.
I'm not a professionally trained programmer, but I dog it along until it does what I want.