They are actually balls o' solder. Unlike the intel or AMD chips which have gold connects punched into them at the front end (you've seen the robot do it on PBS or whateva). IBM developed, and patented, the balls technique that the two transmeta chips are using.
They have a little grid that lines up with the Copper (maybe, but more likely aluminum) connects on the chip, and kind of floats on a pool of solder. Then they stick the chip onto the grid, and through the natural adhesion of the solder, the little balls come up with the chip when they remove it.
Rather ingenious, and one step ahead of the other big chip makers. They can now use dialectrics with lower strength, because they don't have to stand up to being punched.
I know this, cause I was up at IBMs T.J. Watson research facility yesterday for a class. Crusoe will obviously have balls to spare, and they won't be schweaty.
Also, if this leads to a better wm-spec, the world will be a kinder, happier place. Where all programs and windowmanagers can get along and share their bells and whistles, creating a joyous cacophonic r(o)ar.
But, I think some of upper management is still trying to shake this Linux thing off. I can't wait to show them this, just to make them lose sleep. Oh and now open source projects with $10 mil. in VC off the bat... that's what I'm talkin' about.
Miss Congeniality wrote: After reading all the posts, I guess I regret not hitting the Andover party but hey, it's finals season.
If it weren't for finals, I would have been at the bazaar getting drunk with Ralph Nader, and challenging the andover crew to try various and sundry illegal substances, all of this after having a long drawn out conversation with RMS about the virtues of xemacs vs. fsf emacs.
Finally after all but the most hard core had passed out at the bar, or in the street (CmdrTaco) and it was just me, Jay Sulzberger, some random uber-hacker, Bob Young, and Nate Oostendorp; I would take them all on a rousing Vespa scooter tour of Manhattan island ending up at the Cloisters as the sun rose (and Nate suddenly became a bodhisattva). There we would all clamourously shout at the giant structure "Flaaaaaargh!!!!" and smoke a 3 foot bong in honor of Carl Sagan. At which point I would lead them to the M4 bus, ditching the scooters, and we would ride back to our respective destinations silent pondering all of the cool five character smileys we thought of during the scooter tour, smileys that can really express one's inner being. Ya know?
Of course, that didn't happen, and now I am at home recuperating from the little bit of partying I did fit in after finals.
-Rich
PS they should've called it the Linuxeroticon '99: the bizarre, that would've gotten a lot more people to come, even during finals.
Word! Since you guys use it (RealNetworks stuff), I figure you would be complaining if you didn't like it. I didn't know that they devoloped RealServer on Linux. And I never even thought about Windows Media Player, yikes!
Sometimes you actually learn something on/., huh.
BTW the sync rocks for hosting geeks in space, the most freaky and funny talk show I've ever listened too. With this Andover business, the show needs to lay down some cash to get a call in section, so all of the geeks across the nation (err, umm globe, sorry) can call in and be nerdy with the kings.
Not bad. Too bad my windows partition vanished a long time ago... Which, too be honest, reduced my real world productivity to near zero, but I can use emacs and vi really well. Plus I am learning LaTeX, which puts me somewhere before WordStar on the evolution of word processing, but the formulas look nice. I also use cron as an alarm clock, and have root on more linux boxen than I could've ever imagine when I first found out about this crazy linux thing some time ago. One of these days, I am sure it will catch on and like get big and umm, like stuff... heh.
Before this gets too offtopic, I would almost install realplayer in so pseudo fat32 directory and try to get it too work under wine, but I have yet to see a single thing in a ~200x200 pixel box that was the least bit interesting. They'd put it up in mpeg format if it was, right?
Back to the grind...
Also, about the first line of my original post, I really don't know why "does" appeared between the "But" and the "where." I think my brain to text mechanism was on the fritz. And I did use preview, I swear!!
\rant{But does where is realaudio at? The company itself is worse (in its smaller domain) than microsoft, I mean their version numbering (5,G2,7) is absurd, their website pushes you to download the plus version of their player (ie the one you have to pay for), and their monopoly on video (and most of the sound) on the web lets them get away with it. I believe they have an ok product, but their marketing schemes are stuck in mid-nineties "pay-for-this-better-version-now-even-though-a-bet ter-free-one-will-be-out-in-three-months."
Things like pointcast have died due to this type of scheme, but real is still staying strong. The linux (unix) install scenario, and html documentation is absurd as well, and to be honest the reason for this rant. We'll just have to wait until some sort of disruptive technology forces real to compete, instead of stagnate.}
As far as the implications of this technology, echelon, etc. I just can't wait until I can do boolean searches through my old phone calls. Not like they're listening anyway...
Personally, I like nyc because there are still a million places that a person on crutches (let alone a wheelchair) couldn't access. There needs to be some crazy whacked out sites like whatever hell.com or something (kind of preposterous in the first place). But if a group is preposterous enough to call themselves america online (Hey I had an account back when the fam had geoworks ensemble), they should try to at least be somewhat compatible with some of the accessibility standards.
"This page does not yet meet the requirements for Bobby Approved status." is what bobby says about www.aol.com. Sure, not that many sites are (including the venerable/. in full-on mode, but I bet the stripped version passes (check your user config)), but the major service providers should at least think about making their sites accessible to all.
Of course this goes against free enterprise or something, but hey this is the good ol' U. S. of A. goshdarnit. Let the people complain.
I know my homepage rocks in w3-mode, and hence emacspeak, but I don't think a single blind person has ever checked it out.
Oh yeah, check out www.ssdp.org, the times they are a changin'.
You say you believe in an open market for drugs. Does that include heroin, cocaine, and other "hard" drugs?
Well... yeah. There already is a black market in all of these drugs, unregulated, so that my 14 year old niece could get some PCP through friends at school, and her parents wouldn't even know. If the market in drugs was regulated (what I meant by an open market, such as trade in alcohol or firearms), the laws could be formulated such that only responsible adults could purchase and use drugs.
This is may sound idealistic, but I believe it is a more reasonable goal than complete eradication of all drug use by the U.S./U.N. war on drugs.
People shouldn't need to be using heroin or cocaine any more than Prozac or Benzedrine. but we must realize that before these drugs (heroin and cocaine) were prohibited, they were existant in consumer products with much lower potency. There was abuse of those products, and the legislators turned to all out prohibition to stop the abuse. If they had merely regulated the sale and use (i.e. make it illegal to use drugs and operate heavy machinery, babysit, etc.) we would be in a much better situation today. Chewing of the coca leaf, for example, is a stimulant similiar to coffee. In the form of cocaine (of cut with other junk like baby laxatives) it can be a dangerous drug.
Hard alcohol wasn't nearly as prevelant before prohibition as it was after. People couldn't buy a case of beers (modern terminology) because they couldn't conceal it (for smuggling). A bottle of everclear was a different story. Same with a vial of coke vs. a bag of coca leaves.
Just another two cents on the issue. Dialog is important. And trust me, I know for a fact I am not right on this issue, I merely want to provoke discussion.
Marijuana or any drug, when used with heavy machinery can be dangerous. Marijuana, though, does not kill brain cells. Besides huffing (or other "recreational" activities which deprive the brain of oxygen) the only drug which kills brain cells is alcohol. Ask your doctor.
Cirrhosis of the liver, fetal alcohol syndrom, etc. are all dangers from drinking.
Essentially the only danger from smoking marijuana is lung irritation, and so far no studies have shown an increase in risk of lung cancer or emphysema, but bronchitis is still a danger.
The biggest problem with drugs (and a lot of other things) is ignorance, on the part of users and law enforcement. For example, an average cigar contains enough nicotine to kill several people, but I could still get one. The U.S. sends billions to Cuba, Peru, and Bolivia to eradicate their coca fields using firepower and herbicides. And still I could get as much coke as I want in a matter of minutes with just a phone call (in NYC). What a collassal waste of manpower, tax payer dollars, and lives.
Users are of course no better. Children romanticize drug use, and get far to caught up in catching highs and spending their parents money. All of our prohibitive laws regarding naturally occuring drugs (and now designer drugs) are based on the idea of protect the children, but have the effect of arresting minorities and adults while kids can pick up whatever they want in school. Except of course alcohol, you have to go outside of school to get that.
For people interested in learning more about drug laws and the problems they cause, check out the following URLs.
Dmoz on drugs for everything I can't put in this post
Please people stay informed and don't hurt yourself with drugs or anything. Fun comes with moderation. Anyone who has gone to college (or probably high school) has seen people who have taken things a bit too far. Don't do that, but also don't castigate people for seeing things differently than you. I am a firm believer in an open market in drugs, but I know that in reality a comprimise must be reached that takes into consideration all points of view, not just my own.
Sorry for the long post, but I felt the record needed to be set straight. Carl Sagan smoked herb, cool, too bad he wasn't able to stand up for it while he was alive.
I just set up a similiar system at work with one old AMD k5 and three microso~ win95 boxes. The AMD linux box is a samba server, gateway, and fax server. It runs hylafax which isn't too hard to install. The sucky machines which crash alot run WHFC. This works like a charm, you can print from WordPerfect and it brings up a little window asking you what the number is. You hit send, and it emails you if the fax went through (or if it didn't). It really put my boss over the edge with enthusiasm for Linux. Email me if you have specific questions on how to get this to work.
If this list of replies is to be as human centric as the essay itself, I will dare to write the following.
In his book On Liberty, John Stuart Mill proposes the idea that no ideas should be censored so that the dialogue of ideas can contain the largest number of voices, and in turn encompass a greater amount of truth. In many ways, closed source software is self-censored software. How are we to know what great innovations (if any) are hidden within the code for Win 98 or NT (release xyz7000)? And more importantly, a point which JSM makes, what errors are there in the microso~ code? Bad programming habits, UI design, etc. that should have been weeded out a decade ago, but prolonged through the tacit nature of closed source.
Such timidity in admitting what exactly is done behind the black box that is a closed source product is exactly what makes the bugs and errors inherent in them so agregious. They could be fixed, if only they were allowed to be seen, discussed, and played with.
That is the beauty of open code software which lures the best coders (and users) to it. At least there is someone to complain to, and chances are, they will respond with something more than a busy signal or a request that you hold on for another ten minutes so that you can pay them $95 dollars for an incident (read bug) that they essentially wrote into their secret code.
-Rich
Check out carnegie, especially if you are in college.
My only question is, is the backspace two keys wide or one? There is a nice one at work that has a small backspace key, which I personally can't get used too. There is also a focus keyboard there which is reall nice and super clicky (ie the one I use). -Rich
As soon as GNOME 1.0 is out, linux in general will change for the better (or worse depending on your opinion of GUI, etc). But Slink doesn't make me want to uninstall redhat 5.2 w/ 2.2.1, despite my love/hate relationship with rpms.
Slashdot Mirror
They are actually balls o' solder. Unlike the intel or AMD chips which have gold connects punched into them at the front end (you've seen the robot do it on PBS or whateva). IBM developed, and patented, the balls technique that the two transmeta chips are using.
They have a little grid that lines up with the Copper (maybe, but more likely aluminum) connects on the chip, and kind of floats on a pool of solder. Then they stick the chip onto the grid, and through the natural adhesion of the solder, the little balls come up with the chip when they remove it.
Rather ingenious, and one step ahead of the other big chip makers. They can now use dialectrics with lower strength, because they don't have to stand up to being punched.
I know this, cause I was up at IBMs T.J. Watson research facility yesterday for a class. Crusoe will obviously have balls to spare, and they won't be schweaty.
Microsoft completey denies those statements were ever made.
here
Funny that reuters and slashdot just posted opposite stories.
-Rich
Also, if this leads to a better wm-spec, the world will be a kinder, happier place. Where all programs and windowmanagers can get along and share their bells and whistles, creating a joyous cacophonic r(o)ar.
But, I think some of upper management is still trying to shake this Linux thing off. I can't wait to show them this, just to make them lose sleep. Oh and now open source projects with $10 mil. in VC off the bat... that's what I'm talkin' about.
Here are some photos from times square, in the middle of things...
Not too exciting, but hey, maybe someone will get a kick out of them. And maybe someday I will thumbnail'em and stuff...
-Rich
This is a great one, but it will be close against usb.
After reading all the posts, I guess I regret not hitting the Andover party but hey, it's finals season.
If it weren't for finals, I would have been at the bazaar getting drunk with Ralph Nader, and challenging the andover crew to try various and sundry illegal substances, all of this after having a long drawn out conversation with RMS about the virtues of xemacs vs. fsf emacs.
Finally after all but the most hard core had passed out at the bar, or in the street (CmdrTaco) and it was just me, Jay Sulzberger, some random uber-hacker, Bob Young, and Nate Oostendorp; I would take them all on a rousing Vespa scooter tour of Manhattan island ending up at the Cloisters as the sun rose (and Nate suddenly became a bodhisattva). There we would all clamourously shout at the giant structure "Flaaaaaargh!!!!" and smoke a 3 foot bong in honor of Carl Sagan. At which point I would lead them to the M4 bus, ditching the scooters, and we would ride back to our respective destinations silent pondering all of the cool five character smileys we thought of during the scooter tour, smileys that can really express one's inner being. Ya know?
Of course, that didn't happen, and now I am at home recuperating from the little bit of partying I did fit in after finals.
-Rich
PS they should've called it the Linuxeroticon '99: the bizarre, that would've gotten a lot more people to come, even during finals.
As an NYC resident, I wish I'd known even 24hrs sooner, so I could actually go to the event.
I actually knew about the darn thing, and could've gotten free tickets, too bad it all took place during the dreaded finals week!
Congrats to all, and I am truly sorry I am not out drinking with the blockstackers crew right now.
Word! Since you guys use it (RealNetworks stuff), I figure you would be complaining if you didn't like it. I didn't know that they devoloped RealServer on Linux. And I never even thought about Windows Media Player, yikes!
Sometimes you actually learn something on /., huh.
BTW the sync rocks for hosting geeks in space, the most freaky and funny talk show I've ever listened too. With this Andover business, the show needs to lay down some cash to get a call in section, so all of the geeks across the nation (err, umm globe, sorry) can call in and be nerdy with the kings.
-Rich
Not bad. Too bad my windows partition vanished a long time ago... Which, too be honest, reduced my real world productivity to near zero, but I can use emacs and vi really well. Plus I am learning LaTeX, which puts me somewhere before WordStar on the evolution of word processing, but the formulas look nice. I also use cron as an alarm clock, and have root on more linux boxen than I could've ever imagine when I first found out about this crazy linux thing some time ago. One of these days, I am sure it will catch on and like get big and umm, like stuff... heh.
Before this gets too offtopic, I would almost install realplayer in so pseudo fat32 directory and try to get it too work under wine, but I have yet to see a single thing in a ~200x200 pixel box that was the least bit interesting. They'd put it up in mpeg format if it was, right?
Back to the grind...
Also, about the first line of my original post, I really don't know why "does" appeared between the "But" and the "where." I think my brain to text mechanism was on the fritz. And I did use preview, I swear!!
-Rich
\rant{But does where is realaudio at? The company itself is worse (in its smaller domain) than microsoft, I mean their version numbering (5,G2,7) is absurd, their website pushes you to download the plus version of their player (ie the one you have to pay for), and their monopoly on video (and most of the sound) on the web lets them get away with it. I believe they have an ok product, but their marketing schemes are stuck in mid-nineties "pay-for-this-better-version-now-even-though-a-bet ter-free-one-will-be-out-in-three-months ."
Things like pointcast have died due to this type of scheme, but real is still staying strong. The linux (unix) install scenario, and html documentation is absurd as well, and to be honest the reason for this rant. We'll just have to wait until some sort of disruptive technology forces real to compete, instead of stagnate.}
As far as the implications of this technology, echelon, etc. I just can't wait until I can do boolean searches through my old phone calls. Not like they're listening anyway...
-Rich
Here is my /etc/X11/xinit/Xmodmap to get control instead of caps lock
!
! Swap Caps_Lock and Control_L
!
clear Lock
remove Control = Control_L
!remove Lock = Caps_Lock
keycode 0x1A = e E currency
keycode 0x36 = c C cent
keycode 66 = Control_L
keycode 37 = Control_L
keycode 115 = Caps_Lock
add Lock = Caps_Lock
add Control = Control_L
keycode 0x40 = Alt_L Meta_L
keycode 0x71 = Alt_R Meta_R
Also, changing the keyboard map to emacs2 fits with this. The above changes the dreaded window$ key to caps lock... Far enough out of the hemisphere?
-Rich
Personally, I like nyc because there are still a million places that a person on crutches (let alone a wheelchair) couldn't access. There needs to be some crazy whacked out sites like whatever hell.com or something (kind of preposterous in the first place). But if a group is preposterous enough to call themselves america online (Hey I had an account back when the fam had geoworks ensemble), they should try to at least be somewhat compatible with some of the accessibility standards.
"This page does not yet meet the requirements for Bobby Approved status." is what bobby says about www.aol.com. Sure, not that many sites are (including the venerable /. in full-on mode, but I bet the stripped version passes (check your user config)), but the major service providers should at least think about making their sites accessible to all.
Of course this goes against free enterprise or something, but hey this is the good ol' U. S. of A. goshdarnit. Let the people complain.
I know my homepage rocks in w3-mode, and hence emacspeak, but I don't think a single blind person has ever checked it out.
Oh yeah, check out www.ssdp.org, the times they are a changin'.
Listen, dude, if you need help with your experiment man, like I can like totally help you out.
You gotta be careful w/ the blue crystals.
You say you believe in an open market for drugs. Does that include heroin, cocaine, and other "hard" drugs?
Well... yeah. There already is a black market in all of these drugs, unregulated, so that my 14 year old niece could get some PCP through friends at school, and her parents wouldn't even know. If the market in drugs was regulated (what I meant by an open market, such as trade in alcohol or firearms), the laws could be formulated such that only responsible adults could purchase and use drugs.
This is may sound idealistic, but I believe it is a more reasonable goal than complete eradication of all drug use by the U.S./U.N. war on drugs.
People shouldn't need to be using heroin or cocaine any more than Prozac or Benzedrine. but we must realize that before these drugs (heroin and cocaine) were prohibited, they were existant in consumer products with much lower potency. There was abuse of those products, and the legislators turned to all out prohibition to stop the abuse. If they had merely regulated the sale and use (i.e. make it illegal to use drugs and operate heavy machinery, babysit, etc.) we would be in a much better situation today. Chewing of the coca leaf, for example, is a stimulant similiar to coffee. In the form of cocaine (of cut with other junk like baby laxatives) it can be a dangerous drug.
Hard alcohol wasn't nearly as prevelant before prohibition as it was after. People couldn't buy a case of beers (modern terminology) because they couldn't conceal it (for smuggling). A bottle of everclear was a different story. Same with a vial of coke vs. a bag of coca leaves.
Just another two cents on the issue. Dialog is important. And trust me, I know for a fact I am not right on this issue, I merely want to provoke discussion.
Marijuana or any drug, when used with heavy machinery can be dangerous. Marijuana, though, does not kill brain cells. Besides huffing (or other "recreational" activities which deprive the brain of oxygen) the only drug which kills brain cells is alcohol. Ask your doctor.
Cirrhosis of the liver, fetal alcohol syndrom, etc. are all dangers from drinking.
Essentially the only danger from smoking marijuana is lung irritation, and so far no studies have shown an increase in risk of lung cancer or emphysema, but bronchitis is still a danger.
The biggest problem with drugs (and a lot of other things) is ignorance, on the part of users and law enforcement. For example, an average cigar contains enough nicotine to kill several people, but I could still get one. The U.S. sends billions to Cuba, Peru, and Bolivia to eradicate their coca fields using firepower and herbicides. And still I could get as much coke as I want in a matter of minutes with just a phone call (in NYC). What a collassal waste of manpower, tax payer dollars, and lives.
Users are of course no better. Children romanticize drug use, and get far to caught up in catching highs and spending their parents money. All of our prohibitive laws regarding naturally occuring drugs (and now designer drugs) are based on the idea of protect the children, but have the effect of arresting minorities and adults while kids can pick up whatever they want in school. Except of course alcohol, you have to go outside of school to get that.
For people interested in learning more about drug laws and the problems they cause, check out the following URLs.
Please people stay informed and don't hurt yourself with drugs or anything. Fun comes with moderation. Anyone who has gone to college (or probably high school) has seen people who have taken things a bit too far. Don't do that, but also don't castigate people for seeing things differently than you. I am a firm believer in an open market in drugs, but I know that in reality a comprimise must be reached that takes into consideration all points of view, not just my own.
Sorry for the long post, but I felt the record needed to be set straight. Carl Sagan smoked herb, cool, too bad he wasn't able to stand up for it while he was alive.
I just set up a similiar system at work with one old AMD k5 and three microso~ win95 boxes. The AMD linux box is a samba server, gateway, and fax server. It runs hylafax which isn't too hard to install. The sucky machines which crash alot run WHFC. This works like a charm, you can print from WordPerfect and it brings up a little window asking you what the number is. You hit send, and it emails you if the fax went through (or if it didn't). It really put my boss over the edge with enthusiasm for Linux. Email me if you have specific questions on how to get this to work.
If this list of replies is to be as human centric as the essay itself, I will dare to write the following.
In his book On Liberty, John Stuart Mill proposes the idea that no ideas should be censored so that the dialogue of ideas can contain the largest number of voices, and in turn encompass a greater amount of truth. In many ways, closed source software is self-censored software. How are we to know what great innovations (if any) are hidden within the code for Win 98 or NT (release xyz7000)? And more importantly, a point which JSM makes, what errors are there in the microso~ code? Bad programming habits, UI design, etc. that should have been weeded out a decade ago, but prolonged through the tacit nature of closed source.
Such timidity in admitting what exactly is done behind the black box that is a closed source product is exactly what makes the bugs and errors inherent in them so agregious. They could be fixed, if only they were allowed to be seen, discussed, and played with.
That is the beauty of open code software which lures the best coders (and users) to it. At least there is someone to complain to, and chances are, they will respond with something more than a busy signal or a request that you hold on for another ten minutes so that you can pay them $95 dollars for an incident (read bug) that they essentially wrote into their secret code.
-Rich
Check out carnegie, especially if you are in college.
My only question is, is the backspace two keys wide or one? There is a nice one at work that has a small backspace key, which I personally can't get used too.
There is also a focus keyboard there which is reall nice and super clicky (ie the one I use).
-Rich
As soon as GNOME 1.0 is out, linux in general will change for the better (or worse depending on your opinion of GUI, etc). But Slink doesn't make me want to uninstall redhat 5.2 w/ 2.2.1, despite my love/hate relationship with rpms.
So bored, that I had to post.
Freebirth is fun. Thanks for putting it in the quickies. It can make some pretty raw (a la Aphex Twin) sounds. And it can only get better.