I have to admit, I'm one of those that actually shelled out for the ad-free version of Opera. I didn't pay for it because the ads were that intrusive, I paid for it because I wanted to support their efforts. I like the fact they don't just make versions for Windows and Macs, they make versions for Linux and FreeBSD (among others). Like it or not, commercial software development is important for *BSD and Linux; if for no other reason than to get more people developing for those platforms.
And when you get right down to it, Opera is just a damn good browser. The fact I can get native versions for Linux and FreeBSD is just gravy.:)
I agree, and I also think it helps to have the nice shiny boxed set available with documentation, etc.
Speaking from my own experience trying to introduce Linux to coworkers, the more packaged it looks the better. Just yesterday I offered a coworker a couple of options for buying a bootable Linux CD, and he opted to bypass the $2.95 versions in favour of the more expensive CD with training videos bundle.
Especially their crawler-full of hilarity.
I was watching their very early coverage of the Shuttle explosion, and the crawler said something like "Was travelling at twice the speed of light when it exploded" (wish I had a screen capture of it!).
Of the two I use PRCS all the time for production code. Superversion's still a very new project but I think it shows a lot of promise, and well worth a periodic look.
Hear hear! I've been in the U.S. for a couple months shy of 5 years now, and I've noticed WAY more difference between East-West than Canada-U.S. I'm originally from Northwestern Ontario, far enough west that it's almost due North of where I live in Texas right now. And I had a lot more to adjust to in moving to Toronto than I had moving to Texas. 'Cept for the heat of course.:)
The last time I checked, the tax treaty between the U.S. and Canada was based on residency, so you get taxed in whatever country somebody (not you) decides you live in. It's based on obvious things like where your home address is, but also on where you have a driver's license, etc. And after all that, they still look at how much time you spend in either country. Can't remember how it works exactly, but I believe if you spend more than 6 months a year in one country that's the one you get taxed in.
I think you're right-I'm a Canadian in the U.S., and I first got here under the TN-1 (NAFTA) visa. It's a one-year visa, can be renewed unlimited times, and there's no competition or lottery as there is for the H-1 program.
IIRC, if you're on the list of NAFTA visa jobs (mainly scientific / technical), the procedure for an American to work in Canada is basically the same as it was for me to work here: find an employer willing to sponsor you, and apply at the border. The same should also hold true if you're Mexican and want to do something similar, or if you want to work in Mexico.
I noticed this the other day while Swaret was running-I kept getting "Welcome To Slackware 10!" emails after it finished. Had me confused for a while there-guess that's what I get for updating against current.:)
Hats off to both the Slackware and the Swaret crews-I use my old Slackware 9.0 CD all the time for installs. For whatever reason, my Linux installation success rate (which I define as "going from fdisk through to working X in one attempt") is highest when I use it, across all the computers I've ever tried it on. Then it's a quick swaret install for updates, and I'm up and running.
...not really a security measure, but if it makes a potential crook look for an easier target it has done its job.
I live in an apartment complex, and I was stunned to see not only how many people had wireless, but how many ran w/o WEP and w/o changing defaults-last count in my largish apartment complex, better than 20 visible from street level (i.e. not right under their bedroom windows) and a good 40-50% of those completely unprotected. I use WEP and I changed the defaults but I'm under no illusions that this makes me safe. What I think helps, though, is that in my case there are at least 4 other WiFi users in my apartment building alone that are wide open. So as long as there are easier targets, I think WEP's done its job as well.
Decided this time around I'd do the responsible thing and actually *gasp!* pre-order a copy of 9.1 to support a Linux company. Comes with the install CDs and the live CD to boot. Already got delivered and sitting at home-this clock at work really needs to hurry the hell up.
I think I'll count my donation to SuSE as my charitable donation for the year.
Working through university one summer-first job was to crawl inside the saw at a saw mill and pull the build-up of gunk out of it. Three of us started on the same day-two weeks later I was the only one not on disability.
Same summer-quit the saw mill job, got job at the local hospital. Part of job was to throw medical waste (needles, body parts, etc.) into incinerator.
Few years ago, one of the Chem guys in my current job was running tests on jet fuel. Test involved burning massive quantities of the stuff, inside our office (paraphrased quote-he'd have used the Chem offices, but that stuff makes you sick!). Entire office gets good and loopy, I managed to hold out the entire workday.
Last year, power goes off in Austin TX in June. No AC, no coffee. Office is on wellwater, so now no water and no bathrooms. Left after 20 minutes.
It's all been a learning experience. The first two taught me what kind of job I might have if I dropped out-stay in school, kids! The second two taught me I can handle just about anything as long as the coffee, AC and toilets hold out.:-)
From reading what others are doing I tend to think that there are two markets for embedded devices, and I think Linux won't be able to make much of a dent in one (at least for now) but will come to rule the other.
In embedded systems like traffic lights, I don't think that Linux will be able to make much inroads. To me that's along the lines of the embedded app you mention-bare bones OS, running a pretty tight control system, doesn't necessarily need some or all of the niceties Linux can offer. For now-it could be five, ten years from now that somebody does come up with the need.
The other market is more like what I'm doing-there what you're really doing is miniaturizing a full-fledged PC. Similar to internet appliances, those fancy new photocopiers, etc. In this kind of market Linux really shines because (in my experience anyway) you'd be surprised how often you think you've figured out everything you need only in six months to say "wouldn't it be great if..." And Linux has you covered.
Anyway, my personal experience is that manufacturers for embedded hardware that hadn't heard of Linux three years ago now have at least rudimentary support for it. Even over the past year I've noticed a rapid uptake of Linux support-there must be a lot of us clamoring for it.:)
Good thing I read the article, now I know to drop the last two years' worth of work and get a "real" OS!
Sarcasm aside, while I could maybe grant that there isn't a very large market in commercial compilers for Linux in the embedded space, there is definitely a market for Linux itself in the embedded space.
I just finished a proof of concept project in December. Now that we're moving towards a commercial system, we're looking to reduce power draw and size. Because we're using Linux, I can switch to a different SBC with a different processor and architecture without too much trouble (the compiler toolset was provided by the SBC manufacturer, basically just a cross-compiling GCC).
My application isn't a real-time system, so I can't comment on whether Linux is applicable as a real-time OS, but on the other hand I need to be able to resolve time on the nanosecond scale, and Linux/GCC does that just fine. So despite the article I think I'll stick with what works for me.
I wonder if maybe one factor driving their decision was demographics, or the perceptions of demographics.
It almost seems as though Bollywood's perception is that their core Indian market won't be affected by offering the movies online-the original article quotes something like 1 million out of 1 billion people in India have Internet access. So from their point of view, putting movies online can't really parasitize their existing market because it isn't connected. So they can only win-even if somebody finds a way around any protection on the movies, it still can only increase their customer base to reach people they haven't been able to in the past. In other words, even if only 1 out of 100 people actually buy the movie rather than watch any cracked version, that's still 1 more customer than they would have had otherwise.
In contrast, Hollywood seems to perceive their customers as more connected Internet-wise, and so putting movies online will parasitize their existing market. Using the same 1 out of 100 people idea, Hollywood sees it as losing 99 rather than gaining 1.
I'm not saying either or both is right or wrong, it just seems to me to be a difference in how each sees their core market.
Slightly off topic, but...does anybody know off hand if any of the BSD's support parallel port CD-RWs? I have an older laptop that doesn't have a CD-I managed to shoehorn a small Linux distro on but I'd like to look at using a BSD. Older desktops always seemed to be a bit snappier under BSD than Linux, and the only thing holding me back is whether or not my Microsolutions parallel port CD-RW would be supported.
I agree, that's why I try to use PC/104 for my projects at work. The temperature range is great, but what usually sells it for me in harsh environments is the shock and vibration tolerance.
I think the best thing about PC/104 is the "vendor depth," i.e. how many companies are out there with PC/104 products. If I need a data acquisition card, or a UPS, or an ARINC-429 communications card (for avionics), I can Google and find somebody that sells them. That way I can concentrate on the software and the whole system, not in trying to cobble together the hardware.
I've had pretty good luck with EMAC in terms of getting a good price on PC/104 SBC's. Big fan of the NS Geode 300 MHz SBC's-they work great. Now if I could just find a cheap high-speed PC/104 DAQ card (2+ channels simultaneous sampling, at least 1 MSa/s per channel) I'd be happy.:-)
It seems like the major argument against the DNC list is that it will cost a lot of jobs. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. I don't think we'll know until after the fact. I suspect some will be lost, but along the same lines of logic we never should have made cars legal because it put blacksmiths out of work-no more horses to shoe. Things change, jobs lost here will be replaced by jobs somewhere else. That's just the nature of things.
All I know is that telemarketing is a huge invasion of my peace and quiet. I look forward to coming home, closing the door behind me, and leaving the noise behind me on the other side. And I can't do that anymore. I've had to resort to leaving the ringer off the phone 24/7.
I shouldn't have to have people harassing me if I don't want them to. I have to be exposed to that the second I step out of my house, turn on the TV, read the paper, etc. I should be able to have one tiny little corner of the universe where I don't have to hear anyone else's voice except mine and my family's.
I agree. I have a friend in the office who recently asked me what all "this Linux stuff is." So I gave him a Knoppix CD. No instruction other than "put it in your CD drive, give it a spin." That was a month ago. Now, he's rounded up 5 PC's at work he wants to exclusively run Linux on, not to mention his own personal laptop.
It's also great for installing Linux yourself, because it's got some of the best hardware detection capabilities around.
True story-heard from a Chinese friend working in Canada-he was supposed to go for a job interview with GE in the U.S. but it was derailed at the border.
Why? Because he was a mechanical engineer, and as the immigration officer noted, "Why would General Electric need a mechanical engineer?"
(My emphasis-the immigration officer figured GE should only need EE's)
I can't speak to the not hiring Americans in America situation, but as for getting jobs overseas sometimes it really depends on the trade treaties in place between the two countries. In North America for example you have the NAFTA visa-Americans are eligible for work in Canada and Mexico and vice versa.
Well, that's it. Yesterday on All Things Considered on NPR they were talking with an industry analyst who said that until recently most people didn't have any impression of the recording industry, good or bad. People were starting to acquire a negative opinion of the industry; the analyst went further and said they risked alienating not just their customers but the public as well.
So they decide to sue a 12 year old girl. Brilliant PR move. Might as well use orphans for firewood.
The industry is blaming poor box office numbers because basically the stink of a bad movie travels faster than ever nowadays. I wouldn't be even a little surprised to see them ban cell phones in the theatres.
It'd be easy. Just claim people are making bootleg copies of the movie with their camera phones. Ridiculous, yeah, but you just need an excuse, any excuse. Then say you can't tell the difference between cell phones, so ban phones in the theatre entirely. Voila.
At least until everybody leaves the theatre, anyway. It'll buy them what, maybe a couple of hours? It still won't get them to the good old days before cells and the Internet when it took days for word to get out.
And nowhere will you see anybody from the industry thinking maybe they need to put out a better product, and that that would solve their problem. That in a nutshell is what's wrong with the MPAA, RIAA, etc.
I've been thinking about physical access security myself. I think that if I were to, say, pick up a couple of stay-at-home assistants I might feel a little better about the security/access issue. They don't even have to do anything, just be very visible.
It might not completely rule out unauthorized physical access, but it'd be damn hard to get the evidence of the access hidden by the time I got home!
come up with something else. Like Phoenix + Firebird + e = the Phoebe browser. Or PhoeBE-the Phoenix Browsing Experience/Environment/Extravaganza. Whatever.
There's so many other things to rant and rave about.
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I have to admit, I'm one of those that actually shelled out for the ad-free version of Opera. I didn't pay for it because the ads were that intrusive, I paid for it because I wanted to support their efforts. I like the fact they don't just make versions for Windows and Macs, they make versions for Linux and FreeBSD (among others). Like it or not, commercial software development is important for *BSD and Linux; if for no other reason than to get more people developing for those platforms.
And when you get right down to it, Opera is just a damn good browser. The fact I can get native versions for Linux and FreeBSD is just gravy. :)
I agree, and I also think it helps to have the nice shiny boxed set available with documentation, etc.
Speaking from my own experience trying to introduce Linux to coworkers, the more packaged it looks the better. Just yesterday I offered a coworker a couple of options for buying a bootable Linux CD, and he opted to bypass the $2.95 versions in favour of the more expensive CD with training videos bundle.Especially their crawler-full of hilarity. I was watching their very early coverage of the Shuttle explosion, and the crawler said something like "Was travelling at twice the speed of light when it exploded" (wish I had a screen capture of it!).
Here's a couple to have a look at:
PRCSSuperversion
Of the two I use PRCS all the time for production code. Superversion's still a very new project but I think it shows a lot of promise, and well worth a periodic look.
Hear hear! I've been in the U.S. for a couple months shy of 5 years now, and I've noticed WAY more difference between East-West than Canada-U.S. I'm originally from Northwestern Ontario, far enough west that it's almost due North of where I live in Texas right now. And I had a lot more to adjust to in moving to Toronto than I had moving to Texas. 'Cept for the heat of course. :)
The last time I checked, the tax treaty between the U.S. and Canada was based on residency, so you get taxed in whatever country somebody (not you) decides you live in. It's based on obvious things like where your home address is, but also on where you have a driver's license, etc. And after all that, they still look at how much time you spend in either country. Can't remember how it works exactly, but I believe if you spend more than 6 months a year in one country that's the one you get taxed in.
I think you're right-I'm a Canadian in the U.S., and I first got here under the TN-1 (NAFTA) visa. It's a one-year visa, can be renewed unlimited times, and there's no competition or lottery as there is for the H-1 program.
IIRC, if you're on the list of NAFTA visa jobs (mainly scientific / technical), the procedure for an American to work in Canada is basically the same as it was for me to work here: find an employer willing to sponsor you, and apply at the border. The same should also hold true if you're Mexican and want to do something similar, or if you want to work in Mexico.I noticed this the other day while Swaret was running-I kept getting "Welcome To Slackware 10!" emails after it finished. Had me confused for a while there-guess that's what I get for updating against current. :)
Hats off to both the Slackware and the Swaret crews-I use my old Slackware 9.0 CD all the time for installs. For whatever reason, my Linux installation success rate (which I define as "going from fdisk through to working X in one attempt") is highest when I use it, across all the computers I've ever tried it on. Then it's a quick swaret install for updates, and I'm up and running.I live in an apartment complex, and I was stunned to see not only how many people had wireless, but how many ran w/o WEP and w/o changing defaults-last count in my largish apartment complex, better than 20 visible from street level (i.e. not right under their bedroom windows) and a good 40-50% of those completely unprotected. I use WEP and I changed the defaults but I'm under no illusions that this makes me safe. What I think helps, though, is that in my case there are at least 4 other WiFi users in my apartment building alone that are wide open. So as long as there are easier targets, I think WEP's done its job as well.
Decided this time around I'd do the responsible thing and actually *gasp!* pre-order a copy of 9.1 to support a Linux company. Comes with the install CDs and the live CD to boot. Already got delivered and sitting at home-this clock at work really needs to hurry the hell up.
I think I'll count my donation to SuSE as my charitable donation for the year.My worst job environments / moments:
- Working through university one summer-first job was to crawl inside the saw at a saw mill and pull the build-up of gunk out of it. Three of us started on the same day-two weeks later I was the only one not on disability.
- Same summer-quit the saw mill job, got job at the local hospital. Part of job was to throw medical waste (needles, body parts, etc.) into incinerator.
- Few years ago, one of the Chem guys in my current job was running tests on jet fuel. Test involved burning massive quantities of the stuff, inside our office (paraphrased quote-he'd have used the Chem offices, but that stuff makes you sick!). Entire office gets good and loopy, I managed to hold out the entire workday.
- Last year, power goes off in Austin TX in June. No AC, no coffee. Office is on wellwater, so now no water and no bathrooms. Left after 20 minutes.
It's all been a learning experience. The first two taught me what kind of job I might have if I dropped out-stay in school, kids! The second two taught me I can handle just about anything as long as the coffee, AC and toilets hold out.In embedded systems like traffic lights, I don't think that Linux will be able to make much inroads. To me that's along the lines of the embedded app you mention-bare bones OS, running a pretty tight control system, doesn't necessarily need some or all of the niceties Linux can offer. For now-it could be five, ten years from now that somebody does come up with the need.
The other market is more like what I'm doing-there what you're really doing is miniaturizing a full-fledged PC. Similar to internet appliances, those fancy new photocopiers, etc. In this kind of market Linux really shines because (in my experience anyway) you'd be surprised how often you think you've figured out everything you need only in six months to say "wouldn't it be great if..." And Linux has you covered.
Anyway, my personal experience is that manufacturers for embedded hardware that hadn't heard of Linux three years ago now have at least rudimentary support for it. Even over the past year I've noticed a rapid uptake of Linux support-there must be a lot of us clamoring for it.Sarcasm aside, while I could maybe grant that there isn't a very large market in commercial compilers for Linux in the embedded space, there is definitely a market for Linux itself in the embedded space.
I just finished a proof of concept project in December. Now that we're moving towards a commercial system, we're looking to reduce power draw and size. Because we're using Linux, I can switch to a different SBC with a different processor and architecture without too much trouble (the compiler toolset was provided by the SBC manufacturer, basically just a cross-compiling GCC).
My application isn't a real-time system, so I can't comment on whether Linux is applicable as a real-time OS, but on the other hand I need to be able to resolve time on the nanosecond scale, and Linux/GCC does that just fine. So despite the article I think I'll stick with what works for me.It almost seems as though Bollywood's perception is that their core Indian market won't be affected by offering the movies online-the original article quotes something like 1 million out of 1 billion people in India have Internet access. So from their point of view, putting movies online can't really parasitize their existing market because it isn't connected. So they can only win-even if somebody finds a way around any protection on the movies, it still can only increase their customer base to reach people they haven't been able to in the past. In other words, even if only 1 out of 100 people actually buy the movie rather than watch any cracked version, that's still 1 more customer than they would have had otherwise.
In contrast, Hollywood seems to perceive their customers as more connected Internet-wise, and so putting movies online will parasitize their existing market. Using the same 1 out of 100 people idea, Hollywood sees it as losing 99 rather than gaining 1.
I'm not saying either or both is right or wrong, it just seems to me to be a difference in how each sees their core market.Slightly off topic, but...does anybody know off hand if any of the BSD's support parallel port CD-RWs? I have an older laptop that doesn't have a CD-I managed to shoehorn a small Linux distro on but I'd like to look at using a BSD. Older desktops always seemed to be a bit snappier under BSD than Linux, and the only thing holding me back is whether or not my Microsolutions parallel port CD-RW would be supported.
I think the best thing about PC/104 is the "vendor depth," i.e. how many companies are out there with PC/104 products. If I need a data acquisition card, or a UPS, or an ARINC-429 communications card (for avionics), I can Google and find somebody that sells them. That way I can concentrate on the software and the whole system, not in trying to cobble together the hardware.
I've had pretty good luck with EMAC in terms of getting a good price on PC/104 SBC's. Big fan of the NS Geode 300 MHz SBC's-they work great. Now if I could just find a cheap high-speed PC/104 DAQ card (2+ channels simultaneous sampling, at least 1 MSa/s per channel) I'd be happy.All I know is that telemarketing is a huge invasion of my peace and quiet. I look forward to coming home, closing the door behind me, and leaving the noise behind me on the other side. And I can't do that anymore. I've had to resort to leaving the ringer off the phone 24/7.
I shouldn't have to have people harassing me if I don't want them to. I have to be exposed to that the second I step out of my house, turn on the TV, read the paper, etc. I should be able to have one tiny little corner of the universe where I don't have to hear anyone else's voice except mine and my family's.It's also great for installing Linux yourself, because it's got some of the best hardware detection capabilities around.
Why? Because he was a mechanical engineer, and as the immigration officer noted, "Why would General Electric need a mechanical engineer?"
(My emphasis-the immigration officer figured GE should only need EE's)I can't speak to the not hiring Americans in America situation, but as for getting jobs overseas sometimes it really depends on the trade treaties in place between the two countries. In North America for example you have the NAFTA visa-Americans are eligible for work in Canada and Mexico and vice versa.
So they decide to sue a 12 year old girl. Brilliant PR move. Might as well use orphans for firewood.
It'd be easy. Just claim people are making bootleg copies of the movie with their camera phones. Ridiculous, yeah, but you just need an excuse, any excuse. Then say you can't tell the difference between cell phones, so ban phones in the theatre entirely. Voila.
At least until everybody leaves the theatre, anyway. It'll buy them what, maybe a couple of hours? It still won't get them to the good old days before cells and the Internet when it took days for word to get out.
And nowhere will you see anybody from the industry thinking maybe they need to put out a better product, and that that would solve their problem. That in a nutshell is what's wrong with the MPAA, RIAA, etc.It might not completely rule out unauthorized physical access, but it'd be damn hard to get the evidence of the access hidden by the time I got home!
Check out EMAC's page for more info on running Linux. You know with a name like that they must support Linux! ;)
There's so many other things to rant and rave about.