> I hope the journalist just spiced up the quote - because most professors >
> wouldn't be caught dead saying something like that.
actually, no.
he's not just a professor. he's a researcher. a LOT of research is *heavily* influenced by applicability toward practical use/commercial applications/marketability.
I've read through substantial portions of the book and think it's very good. HOWEVER - keep in mind that the book is definitely not meant to show you how to use linux and barely even to show you how to use debian for mundane tasks.
It largely shows you what is behind debian and how it is made up. It really gives you a sneak peak of what the inner-core of the debian community is like. I liked the one chapter that shows a map of how a program gets turned into a debian package. It shows what steps are done manually and what is done automatically with scripts. The book also goes into detail on debian-specific user an developer tools.
My lasting impression is that the book reveals how a tight developer and package maintainer community is really what delivers such a great product. If you have no interest in this topic, this book is not for you.
"AMD beating Intel at anything, by any metric, would have been laughable."
This is rhetoric. I guess it's fair that it's modded "Interesting" rather than "Insightful" or "Informative".
cheap + OLED display + linux compat + avail now
on
No Video iPod Coming?
·
· Score: 1
... if you know where to look. Slap the "ipod" brand name, make it completely white, install restrictive firmware + jack up price 2x.
Description: Take music, pictures, and even movies with you ANYWHERE! Measuring only about 2 1/2 inches long this tiny little package packs some serious features. Plays MP3's, WMA, WAV and more! Supports video formats MP1, MP2, WMV and ASF. Records from a microphone as a voice recorder. Browse through JPEG's! There's even an FM Radio. All this in a device that fits in the palm of your hand. Take it anywhere! With it's stylish design and small size you can even wear it on your neck!
Features:
- Easy Carrying, pocket-size design - 1GB on board memory - USB interface - Display: 1" LCD - Built-in Microphone - Supports MP1, MP2, MP3, WMA, WMV, ASF, WAV, and JPG - Software converter converts multiple video file formats into MPEG4 compatible - USB Storage
Package Includes:
- Installation CD - Owners Manual - USB cable - Earphone
Product Requirements:
- Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP - Mac OS X - Linux 2.4.2
"Why couldn't you pair with subversion for all that? Just mount your subversion file system as a web folder and save your files there."
Does Openoffice have the "Track Changes" capability? We use word among us engineers, especially when writing an official document and collaborating since we can see who crontributed what and all the insertions and deletions are explicit and color coded according to the author. You can even configure it to show the marked up version or the final verion, while editing or not, during printing or not. It's pretty nifty. If OOo has such capability, I'd say that'd be a big step forward. No need to mount subversion file systems. All changes are contained in one document. And the changes can be accepted or rejected depending on your editing decisions.
My wife is a classical pianist... and for some time, I've lamented the fact that she can only expect to make a fraction of my salary as an engineer.
But after working in R&D for 4 years now, I can see that I'll never make as much as those who went into law or business.
"Indeed, Cohen, 29, recently relocated from Seattle to San Francisco, and he and his chief operating officer are making the rounds on Sand Hill Road looking for venture capital for their new company, BitTorrent. They've forged a partnership with paid-search provider Ask Jeeves, and recently the duo flew to Burbank for high-level talks with the Motion Picture Association of America."
Whatever your opinion is of torrents or Bram, you have to be in awe of just how "hobby" coding can make you filthy rich (granted, this probably is a very rare exception to the rule). Now I realize that congratulations to Bram are pre-mature, but I think he's very much on his way. And when he does get rich, with a head for numbers and the stock market, I'm sure he'll stay that way. I do suppose, however, it's a bit too early to take down that paypal-donation link on the bittorrent site (http://www.bittorrent.com/donate.html).
Favorite Onion article: MS patent 1 and 0's
on
The Onion in 2056
·
· Score: 1
Obligatory list of mirrors of my favorite techy Onion article:
Here's where I think linux has potential:
put a server in every household.
As long as people's computers are predomentantly their desktops - MS will dominate for a long time coming. Yes linux in the desktop widespread will come, but by that time - noone will won't care and maybe there won't even be a "linux community" like there is today.
RIght now the consumer behaviour more/less is to interact with a single computer at home period. But as we do more interesting things with computers, it makes more and more sense for people to actually have their own *server* for sharing files with friends and families, automated data backups**, media streaming, storage. These functions require a very different level of interaction that linux is very well positioned to provide.
As an example - the idea of having two cars in the family is not uncommon. One sedan and one truck/minivan/heap/whatever. Obviously it's not entirely analogous, but you the idea (hopefully?).
**its freightening to see how people don't really backup their data, but as we get more reliant on computers - it will be as natural as the air we breathe
I was astonished to learn that all his IC patents (and, consequently, his Nobel Prize) were based on his notarized notebook entries and not on publications (those came later).
You shouldn't be astonished. This is the way it is done. If it is published, it's in the public domain and cannot be patented. Notebooks (paper and pen/pencil) is the way ideas have always been recorded for IP documentation (at least for the "hardware" innovation that I'm familiar with, like nanotech) and will probably continue to be for a long time.
If you are working for a company, publications are for teaching everyone else how to do it once you have the patent, or if you think it'll go nowhere (like IBM thought about Relational databases, till Oracle picked it up)
This tagging and labeling thing is out of hand
on
The Death of Folders?
·
· Score: 1
Call me old fashioned, but look... if tagging and labelling were the way things were done intially for decades and along came this really cool thing called folders - people would go apeshit over that.
For those with short attention span, change is better than substance.
It's called thoughtfully organizing your work people. It works. Use it.
While many complain about the long cycle time for major debian releases, I'd just like to voice the opinion that I *like*.. no *LOVE*...the fact that it doesn't change often.
As a hobbyist - I really enjoy *using* linux to serve webpages for recreational use, mp3s, ssh sessions, downloading torrents and learning about unix.
If I have to keep up with a continual stream of what I feel to be cosmetic and superfluous updates, that leaves me less time to do the things I enjoy. As far as security updates, debian does a great job of notifying users of security updates with their mailing list, debian-security-announce. When ever I get an e-mail from that list - I just run apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade, and all is well.
Then again, I'm the type of person who takes great delight in installing linux on a crusty old (but wireless enabled) laptop with no X and just alt-F[1-4]'ing for my 'window environment'. I don't *need* the latest release of gwingding or kflipflop depending on the latest libraries of whatever, so I am probably in the minority here.
Re:Massive processor, not much for graphics though
on
The Xbox 360 Unveiled
·
· Score: 1
- IMB PowerPC based CPU with three cores at 3.2 Ghz apiece (...dang!)
Does this mean it's got three processors? What does triple core mean? I dunno - I'm asking.
I look at my 256MB 400MHz AMDK6II server (circa 1998) running woody which lets me stream all my mp3s to anywhere with an internet connection , rip cd's to mp3s , upload photos through a web interface and post them to a photo gallery for friends and family, download bittorrents, etc.. I could do this with fancier software (and hardware), but why should I? I'd be putting in more and not getting anything extra out.
Debian Woody lets me do all the above with minimal effort. Are there other ways to do it? sure! But, for my needs (which admittedly are fairly simple and recreational) - I have found that it is the best (and easiest) solution.
"Is a site that shares old Stevie Nicks, Frank Sinatra, and Ian Hunter live shows really that much of a threat to the music industry?"
EZTree also allowed you to download live music from artists like Norah Jones, Simon & Garfunkel 2003 tour, Billy Joel, you name it.... the way this post is written is an example of how some proponents of bittorrent try to justify entirely illegitimate uses of the technology. The truly legit bittorrent sites for live music like archive.org (which also has central http download servers) and bt.etree.org don't make music from such non-tape-trader-friendly bands available since the users are militantly against posting of such bands. The flame wars that start up when an ear-in-monitor recording of Dave Matthews set are quite entertaining.
There's got to be other factors other than transistors per unit area. These displays are made up of many different layers. Getting 5-10 micron features to line up perfectly from layer to layer over 2 meters can be nontrivial. Also, I've heard that the glass sheets used to make the active matrix of transistors can begin to behave like paper when they get that large (i.e. they can bend quite easily).
Also - the transistors are still photolithographically defined... which means they have to spin coat a photoresist. The wafers used to make your pentium chips are about a 1ft (.3m) in diameter. These are nearly 7 times larger and are not circular. So... imagine a rectangular piece of glass 2m in one dimension spinning at 3000 revolutions per minute.
How does this effect yield? I don't know. But one thing I'm pretty sure about is that larger is not easier.
I know this is off topic, but..
"Methodology" is a pretentious way of saying "method". Literally translated means "study of methods" which is rarely what is intended.
I hear it used all the time by intelligent people, but if you stop and think about it for a second, it really is pretty silly.
Slashdot Mirror
> I hope the journalist just spiced up the quote - because most professors > > wouldn't be caught dead saying something like that. actually, no. he's not just a professor. he's a researcher. a LOT of research is *heavily* influenced by applicability toward practical use/commercial applications/marketability.
It largely shows you what is behind debian and how it is made up. It really gives you a sneak peak of what the inner-core of the debian community is like. I liked the one chapter that shows a map of how a program gets turned into a debian package. It shows what steps are done manually and what is done automatically with scripts. The book also goes into detail on debian-specific user an developer tools.
My lasting impression is that the book reveals how a tight developer and package maintainer community is really what delivers such a great product. If you have no interest in this topic, this book is not for you.
... tell that to google groups
"AMD beating Intel at anything, by any metric, would have been laughable." This is rhetoric. I guess it's fair that it's modded "Interesting" rather than "Insightful" or "Informative".
... if you know where to look. Slap the "ipod" brand name, make it completely white, install restrictive firmware + jack up price 2x.
a uv.html
http://store.yahoo.com/surpluscomputers/1gbmp3mp4
Warranty: 90 Days
Description: Take music, pictures, and even movies with you ANYWHERE! Measuring only about 2 1/2 inches long this tiny little package packs some serious features. Plays MP3's, WMA, WAV and more! Supports video formats MP1, MP2, WMV and ASF. Records from a microphone as a voice recorder. Browse through JPEG's! There's even an FM Radio. All this in a device that fits in the palm of your hand. Take it anywhere! With it's stylish design and small size you can even wear it on your neck!
Features:
- Easy Carrying, pocket-size design
- 1GB on board memory
- USB interface
- Display: 1" LCD
- Built-in Microphone
- Supports MP1, MP2, MP3, WMA, WMV, ASF, WAV, and JPG
- Software converter converts multiple video file formats into MPEG4 compatible
- USB Storage
Package Includes:
- Installation CD
- Owners Manual
- USB cable
- Earphone
Product Requirements:
- Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP
- Mac OS X
- Linux 2.4.2
WTF???
Hate to say it... but... told you so. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=157847&cid=132 24736
- Upload a huge honking zip file of compressed images and create an album
- Integrated "Publish to Your-Special-Gallery" from WindowsXP "My Pictures" folder
- Easy to customize permissions
This (along with gnump3d) are my two FAVORITE web apps for linux.of how silly Sun's logo is
"Why couldn't you pair with subversion for all that? Just mount your subversion file system as a web folder and save your files there."
Does Openoffice have the "Track Changes" capability? We use word among us engineers, especially when writing an official document and collaborating since we can see who crontributed what and all the insertions and deletions are explicit and color coded according to the author. You can even configure it to show the marked up version or the final verion, while editing or not, during printing or not. It's pretty nifty. If OOo has such capability, I'd say that'd be a big step forward. No need to mount subversion file systems. All changes are contained in one document. And the changes can be accepted or rejected depending on your editing decisions.
My wife is a classical pianist... and for some time, I've lamented the fact that she can only expect to make a fraction of my salary as an engineer. But after working in R&D for 4 years now, I can see that I'll never make as much as those who went into law or business.
"Indeed, Cohen, 29, recently relocated from Seattle to San Francisco, and he and his chief operating officer are making the rounds on Sand Hill Road looking for venture capital for their new company, BitTorrent. They've forged a partnership with paid-search provider Ask Jeeves, and recently the duo flew to Burbank for high-level talks with the Motion Picture Association of America."
Whatever your opinion is of torrents or Bram, you have to be in awe of just how "hobby" coding can make you filthy rich (granted, this probably is a very rare exception to the rule). Now I realize that congratulations to Bram are pre-mature, but I think he's very much on his way. And when he does get rich, with a head for numbers and the stock market, I'm sure he'll stay that way. I do suppose, however, it's a bit too early to take down that paypal-donation link on the bittorrent site (http://www.bittorrent.com/donate.html).
Obligatory list of mirrors of my favorite techy Onion article:
t s.htm
n es.html
a th=5_12&products_id=80
http://home.att.net/~jbcole/humor/Microsoft_paten
http://www.ece.villanova.edu/~thanneru/zeroesAndO
http://www.gleitsmann.com/Frame3x3long.htm
And here's a link for a shirt:
http://subscribe.theonion.com/product_info.php?cP
As long as people's computers are predomentantly their desktops - MS will dominate for a long time coming. Yes linux in the desktop widespread will come, but by that time - noone will won't care and maybe there won't even be a "linux community" like there is today.
RIght now the consumer behaviour more/less is to interact with a single computer at home period. But as we do more interesting things with computers, it makes more and more sense for people to actually have their own *server* for sharing files with friends and families, automated data backups**, media streaming, storage. These functions require a very different level of interaction that linux is very well positioned to provide.
As an example - the idea of having two cars in the family is not uncommon. One sedan and one truck/minivan/heap/whatever. Obviously it's not entirely analogous, but you the idea (hopefully?).
**its freightening to see how people don't really backup their data, but as we get more reliant on computers - it will be as natural as the air we breathe
If you are working for a company, publications are for teaching everyone else how to do it once you have the patent, or if you think it'll go nowhere (like IBM thought about Relational databases, till Oracle picked it up)
Call me old fashioned, but look... if tagging and labelling were the way things were done intially for decades and along came this really cool thing called folders - people would go apeshit over that. For those with short attention span, change is better than substance. It's called thoughtfully organizing your work people. It works. Use it.
While many complain about the long cycle time for major debian releases, I'd just like to voice the opinion that I *like*.. no *LOVE*...the fact that it doesn't change often.
As a hobbyist - I really enjoy *using* linux to serve webpages for recreational use, mp3s, ssh sessions, downloading torrents and learning about unix.
If I have to keep up with a continual stream of what I feel to be cosmetic and superfluous updates, that leaves me less time to do the things I enjoy. As far as security updates, debian does a great job of notifying users of security updates with their mailing list, debian-security-announce. When ever I get an e-mail from that list - I just run apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade, and all is well.
Then again, I'm the type of person who takes great delight in installing linux on a crusty old (but wireless enabled) laptop with no X and just alt-F[1-4]'ing for my 'window environment'. I don't *need* the latest release of gwingding or kflipflop depending on the latest libraries of whatever, so I am probably in the minority here.
Does this mean it's got three processors? What does triple core mean? I dunno - I'm asking.
http://www.xenatera.com/bunnie/proj/anatak/xboxnex t_security.pdf
I look at my 256MB 400MHz AMDK6II server (circa 1998) running woody which lets me stream all my mp3s to anywhere with an internet connection , rip cd's to mp3s , upload photos through a web interface and post them to a photo gallery for friends and family, download bittorrents, etc.. I could do this with fancier software (and hardware), but why should I? I'd be putting in more and not getting anything extra out. Debian Woody lets me do all the above with minimal effort. Are there other ways to do it? sure! But, for my needs (which admittedly are fairly simple and recreational) - I have found that it is the best (and easiest) solution.
EZTree also allowed you to download live music from artists like Norah Jones, Simon & Garfunkel 2003 tour, Billy Joel, you name it.... the way this post is written is an example of how some proponents of bittorrent try to justify entirely illegitimate uses of the technology. The truly legit bittorrent sites for live music like archive.org (which also has central http download servers) and bt.etree.org don't make music from such non-tape-trader-friendly bands available since the users are militantly against posting of such bands. The flame wars that start up when an ear-in-monitor recording of Dave Matthews set are quite entertaining.
Finally, an article where most people have RTFA
Also - the transistors are still photolithographically defined... which means they have to spin coat a photoresist. The wafers used to make your pentium chips are about a 1ft (.3m) in diameter. These are nearly 7 times larger and are not circular. So... imagine a rectangular piece of glass 2m in one dimension spinning at 3000 revolutions per minute. How does this effect yield? I don't know. But one thing I'm pretty sure about is that larger is not easier.
like I said .. pretentious
I know this is off topic, but.. "Methodology" is a pretentious way of saying "method". Literally translated means "study of methods" which is rarely what is intended. I hear it used all the time by intelligent people, but if you stop and think about it for a second, it really is pretty silly.