But wouldnt that be add with carry, and not a straight add? Just being pedantic here mind you, because you do get the carry pretty much for free when making an alu, and stick a multiplexor on the carry line and you have the add instruction almost for free as well.
Come to think of it, is there any advantage to having a straight add instruction over an add with carry? (Aside from preserving the carry bit for the next instruction, but that would be some weird programming)
have to have java smeared all over it? Sure its nice, and (hopefully) has the advantage of being easy to port games to from other mobiles, but unless you compiled it somehow, you would end up with a lot slower phone (my biggest gripe with my t68i is that its slow). I also happen to think that java is a horrible language, but that doesnt have much bearing on its inclusion, except to say that I am biased on this subject.
What I really like about the idea of running linux on a phone though would be the ability to completely change the way it works - install a scripting language, and start writing all manner of hacks. Some ideas I can come up with off the top of my head:
- an sms spam filter
- general sms filter to say have a different ringtone for family members, or simply forward to a seperate inbox without notifying you when your gf annoyingly messages you during lectures (okay thats wishful thinking about the having a gf part).
- (assuming it has bluetooth / GPS) different profiles depending on where you are - say turn off the ringer automatically when in a lecture theatre/meeting room (GPS), or turning up the ring volume when leaving your room (bluetooth going out of range).
- Making your own games (nethack anyone). Sorry, just had to put that one in.
- SMS auto responder
- SMS compressor/expander - converts your text in2 sms spk tht nobdy cn undrstnd 2 fit more on a line, and more importantly, translate back what little it can understand of anyone elses sms speak. On a similar note.. proper compression (gzip?) and encryption - a bit less useful re phone compatbility.
- IM client (again on the better SMS theme) - using GPRS/bluetooth/3g/whatever connection it can get.
- A console app... no linux box/brick is complete without this one, although typing in 5557777 to get a listing would be far to much hassle.
Oh yeah.. phones have voice capability as well dont they?
- encrypted voice phones (James bond anyone)
- Voice changer - phones already have a dsp in there.. if they made it easy to access....
- Client side voice mail - a lot more configurable - different messages for different callers, call fielding like traditional answering machines (listen to their message then pick up).
- Okay, completely off the wall... access the radio transceiver and use the phone as a broadcast receiver, ham/cb handheld, gps receiver, weather station etc.. etc.. not feasable atm, but with the advent of software radios, and being able to access the internals of the phone (heres where the linux on phone bit comes in), it may not always be this way.
A lot of these would require subsantial hacks, but if someone implemented linux properly on the phone and made it easy to access properly, I doubt it would be that hard to do at least some of those ideas. The big advantage however, is that everyone can have the phone customised their own way (those who dont know how to program could say just download a spam filter/voice mail system).
the university I go to claims to have received several letters from the *AA (and yes, I dont even live in america, but presumably they have also had letters from the UK equivalents) not naming individuals, but just effectively telling the university to get their act together.
In resposne to this, the university simply monitors the amount of outgoing traffic, and if this goes over an amount deemed 'excessive' (I'd guess somewhere around a gig over a day/week, possibly a little less) then they cut you off without warning (the 'warnings' come in the form of regular reminders of the rules), in the first case until the end of the month, and in subsequent cases for the rest of the year at the person in charge's discretion.
Now my argument here is that this _is not_ a bad/evil thing that curtails my rights.
Under the terms and conditions, servers are not allowed without permission from the university, and there arent any cases I can think of that would require a lot of outgoing traffic. Any traffic to and from the university computers doesnt count, which nageates uploading large amounts of work to the university. And if there were cases that did require that you had a large amount of outgoing traffic, then okay, you get disconnected once, and explain it to the network administrator, and sort out the mistake.
And guess what, this policy actually worked. Most people have stopped using p2p software, and those that do keep their usage low. (I should point out here that the main reason for the crackdon was that the network was saturated to the point that it became unusable - 10 second pings anyone?, and the distribution of copyrighted materials was the main reason the network was being saturated. However even widespread legal use of p2p software would have caused problems), and the network is useable once more (putting in a faster line is in the works, but if anyone knows a way of getting it installed in less than a week with university beuracracy or however you spell it, let me know)
Now presumably the university referenced in the article also has a similar policy. Sure the rules may not specifically say that the university HAS to make detailed checks, but I would be surprised if they simply disconnect people without warning. The rules are probably written that way to be a deterrent. And if they do, the student simply has to ask, and sign a document saying they arent using kazaa etc.. any more (and if they were disconnected by mistake, never were).
Sure, the system is open to abuse, but I can think of a lot easier and more fun ways to piss off someone I dont like.
But to higlight an example, the 3d graphics course in 3rd year is revised each year to adapt to new developments in the past year. For example, pixel shaders are taught in the current 3rd year course, and who knows what else next year. However, the second year introductory graphics course has stayed mostly the same, introducing the basic concepts which are applicable to more than one situation, and dont change very often.
I would assume that a lot of the concepts, if not the specifics, would stay the same even between say RS-232 and USB. Sure, there are a lot of differences in protocol specifics, and a lot of extra features of USB (otherwise there wouldnt be much point to using it), but the general idea of transmitting a signal down the wire, and having to deal with flow control, error correction, and whatever else (now I _know_ I didnt revise hard enough - memory's failing me here).
Of course, updating the specifics can help, but not at the expense of clouding the basic concepts, or just for the sake of something being newer and more in fashion at the moment (think replacing a C course with a java course, losing any concept of memory management with free(), and confusing students no end when they finally do come to c/c++ ). Tomorrow, USB will be obsolete, and all the specifics learnt today will also be obsolete, but the next big thing that replaces it will use the same basic concepts, have the same problems to deal with, just at a higher speed, and with more features.
Yeah I guess, in the case of the halls of residence where I'm at, the distance between the admin and the switch is next to nothing, so I thought nothing of having him get a little exercise when removing somebodys net access.
However, as has already been mentioned I think, it is possible to have the port disconnected remotely also (well it would be switched off.. although a nice little robot arm to do the unplugging would be pretty funky).
Thats what they do at our university (Univeristy of Manchester, UK), but one thing I've always wondered, why not simply pull the plug at the switch? No worries about mac address spoofing (although if the router is configured to block all macs on a certain port, then I guess it wouldnt matter).
In the terms and conditions, they also have a whole load of draconian rules such as, dont run servers of any kind without permission, dont use NAT.. etc.. etc.. which translates in practise to - 'do what you like, but if you screw up the network, prepare to face our wrath, oh, and by the way, kazaa is EEEEEVILLL'.
The university also 'recommends' installing a virus scanner (as usual), but they actually provide one for you unser their site license. Of course you still have the problem of making students install it, but its one step further than many other places I've seen.
With regard to worms etc, I dont see the problem with blanket blocking of certain ports from the outside, perhaps allowing access to those who requested it provided they could demonstrate that they were competent enough to regularly install updates/patches. I dont pretend to understand how to implement that however (ensuring that those with full access actually installed patches and kept up to date would be problematic, and then theres the problem of new attacks, making complete port blocking seem easier), but the suggestion is there.
Ultimately, you need to come up with a solution which protects/limits those who dont know/care about securing their own computers (default case), while allowing 'power users' (assuming you want to cater for their needs, which from the tone of your post you do) to have restrictions lifted in the special case.
The poster didnt mention anything about how many arts/science students there are in the college, which could influence the decision considerably. Put simply, science based students would be expected to cope with more technical systems (especially CS students), whereas arts students may not be expected to have/gain any more knowledge other than is required to type up documents in a word processor. Okay, I admit its not that simple, but if the college leant more towards the science side, then there is a better case for switching, based only on the 'linux is less user friendly' argument.
The counter argument to that is however, that students who only want to type documents would be perfectly served well by a KDE/GNOME based desktop and one of the myriad of office suites that are usable out there. It doenst have to be word and excel.
Some other posts I've seen mentioned the lack of CS students learning Visual studio etc. but even in departments with windows/linux combined, visual studio isnt always taught - e.g. I'm currently half way through my 2nd year of a CS degree and havent ever been exposed to any of the visual studio tools (as part of the course at least), although I'm sure there are options in the third year that involve it. The point being that when being taught a language, say C++, it is much more instructive to learn the basics, and the standard form of the language, and then learn the Microsoft API's later if neccesary. If taught about say.. function callbacks in general, that can be applied to many situations, including microsoft api's (disclaimer, I dont know visual C++/Windows API so I could be mistaken here). Whereas learning that you need to do CreateWindowEx(blah) or whatever to create a window is extremely limited in scope, and I dont believe that limiting the system to linux would hinder students learning if they are taught general, transferrable (argh I hate that word.. just cant think of anything better) skills.
Of course, the same argument could be made in favour of a complete windows system, and on that basis alone, the argument would be valid. However, another factor that is extremely important is that most students who have had any exposure to computers at all at least have some familiarity with windows based systems, and while it is nice to have familiar systems to work with, the students wont be exposed to anything new. Remember here that the students who only want to use office based tools will have a mostly familiar interface to work with (Stick a label on the bottom left of the screen saying start and they wont know the difference:P and no I'm not serious there).
In the end though it really does come down to money, because all of the advantages to using linux mentioned (except money/moral issues) are still present if both systems are used, while all the disadvantages of going linux only are solved by having dual systems. Now moral issues (well religious wars really) are the province of slashdot and linux evangelists (of which I am one), and probably not likely to be a convincing argument for a university board. Which leaves money, and as has already been mentioned, this is likely to fall the wrong way for the linux-only solution.
Theyre gonna change the ip of all _7_ computers to 10.0.0.blah and unplug the modem. Wow.. a really innovative idea.. why didnt I think of that? Oh wait.. I did!
Seriously though, even with a network completely separate form the internet, there will inevitably be a need to connect to the network from the outside, probably via dialup, and this will be the networks downfall. Even if this doesnt happen, all it takes is one person to install wifi, leave a modem connected, or decide they want to browse slashdot from one of these machines, and there is an entry point, which some skilled hac^H^H^Hidiot could gain access.
Sure, disconnecting computers from the internet will help matters, but if this makes people complacent - 'Oh, I dont need to install the sendmail patch, 'cause I'm not on the internet!' (The logic of running sendmail on a non connected computer ignored at this point), then it would have been better to leave the possibility of machines being connected, and have people be more vigilant with patches.
But the thing is.. the article DID get slashdotted, and unless there is a google cache available (Not likely if this is a new post), then this actually helped. Actually, how is this different from a google cache? Its a mirror of the article, it helps people when the original article was no longer available. And before you claim lost adverising revenue or some such drivel, I, and others presumably, couldnt get to the site anyway, so no adverts would have been served. I would like to know what on earth is wrong with my browsing preferences that the post ends up half way down the page however. (Browsing at +2, Nested, Highest score first)
A KARAOKE MACHINE?!?!
So on top of having to listen to phones ring in cinemas, and restaurants, we have to put up with tone dumb idiots singing along to the movies theme music to their loved ones (soon to not be anymore after hearing that godawful singing)!
Personally I want a hunter-seeker mobile phone, that will find all those annoying features of mobile phones, like ya know, ringing tones, and voice capabilites, and obliterate them with tiny laaaazzer beams attached to the little aerial.
..so when I'm playing quake and move my head to try and see round the corner, or lean over when my sister leans over when playing some daft driving game, it will actualy work as opposed to making the game player simply look stupid.
Pretty much all of the messages I send get through, actually I can't think of a time when one hasn't.
On most phones, theres an option to request a delivery report, where you get a message back saying when the other user has recevied the message. It works pretty well, to the point that if the person has their phone switched off, you only get the message when they switch their phone on and actually receive the message. Not sure if its available on all networks, but it works fine on vodafone UK, even when sending cross-network.
Slashdot Mirror
But wouldnt that be add with carry, and not a straight add? Just being pedantic here mind you, because you do get the carry pretty much for free when making an alu, and stick a multiplexor on the carry line and you have the add instruction almost for free as well.
Come to think of it, is there any advantage to having a straight add instruction over an add with carry? (Aside from preserving the carry bit for the next instruction, but that would be some weird programming)
Or simply another battery compartment, connected in parallel. Granted, wouldnt work well for watches, but there are places it would work.
have to have java smeared all over it? Sure its nice, and (hopefully) has the advantage of being easy to port games to from other mobiles, but unless you compiled it somehow, you would end up with a lot slower phone (my biggest gripe with my t68i is that its slow). I also happen to think that java is a horrible language, but that doesnt have much bearing on its inclusion, except to say that I am biased on this subject.
What I really like about the idea of running linux on a phone though would be the ability to completely change the way it works - install a scripting language, and start writing all manner of hacks. Some ideas I can come up with off the top of my head:
- an sms spam filter
- general sms filter to say have a different ringtone for family members, or simply forward to a seperate inbox without notifying you when your gf annoyingly messages you during lectures (okay thats wishful thinking about the having a gf part).
- (assuming it has bluetooth / GPS) different profiles depending on where you are - say turn off the ringer automatically when in a lecture theatre/meeting room (GPS), or turning up the ring volume when leaving your room (bluetooth going out of range).
- Making your own games (nethack anyone). Sorry, just had to put that one in.
- SMS auto responder
- SMS compressor/expander - converts your text in2 sms spk tht nobdy cn undrstnd 2 fit more on a line, and more importantly, translate back what little it can understand of anyone elses sms speak. On a similar note.. proper compression (gzip?) and encryption - a bit less useful re phone compatbility.
- IM client (again on the better SMS theme) - using GPRS/bluetooth/3g/whatever connection it can get.
- A console app... no linux box/brick is complete without this one, although typing in 5557777 to get a listing would be far to much hassle.
Oh yeah.. phones have voice capability as well dont they?
- encrypted voice phones (James bond anyone)
- Voice changer - phones already have a dsp in there.. if they made it easy to access....
- Client side voice mail - a lot more configurable - different messages for different callers, call fielding like traditional answering machines (listen to their message then pick up).
- Okay, completely off the wall... access the radio transceiver and use the phone as a broadcast receiver, ham/cb handheld, gps receiver, weather station etc.. etc.. not feasable atm, but with the advent of software radios, and being able to access the internals of the phone (heres where the linux on phone bit comes in), it may not always be this way.
A lot of these would require subsantial hacks, but if someone implemented linux properly on the phone and made it easy to access properly, I doubt it would be that hard to do at least some of those ideas. The big advantage however, is that everyone can have the phone customised their own way (those who dont know how to program could say just download a spam filter/voice mail system).
That is the sort of phone I would like to see.
Wow... you mean I'll finally be able to use vi to send my text messages?!?!
*runs out and buys one*
Oh yeah, you missed one:
Q: ??
A: modprobe voice_phone_call_sys
the university I go to claims to have received several letters from the *AA (and yes, I dont even live in america, but presumably they have also had letters from the UK equivalents) not naming individuals, but just effectively telling the university to get their act together.
In resposne to this, the university simply monitors the amount of outgoing traffic, and if this goes over an amount deemed 'excessive' (I'd guess somewhere around a gig over a day/week, possibly a little less) then they cut you off without warning (the 'warnings' come in the form of regular reminders of the rules), in the first case until the end of the month, and in subsequent cases for the rest of the year at the person in charge's discretion.
Now my argument here is that this _is not_ a bad/evil thing that curtails my rights.
Under the terms and conditions, servers are not allowed without permission from the university, and there arent any cases I can think of that would require a lot of outgoing traffic. Any traffic to and from the university computers doesnt count, which nageates uploading large amounts of work to the university. And if there were cases that did require that you had a large amount of outgoing traffic, then okay, you get disconnected once, and explain it to the network administrator, and sort out the mistake.
And guess what, this policy actually worked. Most people have stopped using p2p software, and those that do keep their usage low. (I should point out here that the main reason for the crackdon was that the network was saturated to the point that it became unusable - 10 second pings anyone?, and the distribution of copyrighted materials was the main reason the network was being saturated. However even widespread legal use of p2p software would have caused problems), and the network is useable once more (putting in a faster line is in the works, but if anyone knows a way of getting it installed in less than a week with university beuracracy or however you spell it, let me know)
Now presumably the university referenced in the article also has a similar policy. Sure the rules may not specifically say that the university HAS to make detailed checks, but I would be surprised if they simply disconnect people without warning. The rules are probably written that way to be a deterrent.
And if they do, the student simply has to ask, and sign a document saying they arent using kazaa etc.. any more (and if they were disconnected by mistake, never were).
Sure, the system is open to abuse, but I can think of a lot easier and more fun ways to piss off someone I dont like.
A lot of the courses had already been changed.
But to higlight an example, the 3d graphics course in 3rd year is revised each year to adapt to new developments in the past year. For example, pixel shaders are taught in the current 3rd year course, and who knows what else next year.
However, the second year introductory graphics course has stayed mostly the same, introducing the basic concepts which are applicable to more than one situation, and dont change very often.
I would assume that a lot of the concepts, if not the specifics, would stay the same even between say RS-232 and USB. Sure, there are a lot of differences in protocol specifics, and a lot of extra features of USB (otherwise there wouldnt be much point to using it), but the general idea of transmitting a signal down the wire, and having to deal with flow control, error correction, and whatever else (now I _know_ I didnt revise hard enough - memory's failing me here).
Of course, updating the specifics can help, but not at the expense of clouding the basic concepts, or just for the sake of something being newer and more in fashion at the moment (think replacing a C course with a java course, losing any concept of memory management with free(), and confusing students no end when they finally do come to c/c++ ). Tomorrow, USB will be obsolete, and all the specifics learnt today will also be obsolete, but the next big thing that replaces it will use the same basic concepts, have the same problems to deal with, just at a higher speed, and with more features.
Software pirates make the pubs shut early?
Yeah I guess, in the case of the halls of residence where I'm at, the distance between the admin and the switch is next to nothing, so I thought nothing of having him get a little exercise when removing somebodys net access. However, as has already been mentioned I think, it is possible to have the port disconnected remotely also (well it would be switched off.. although a nice little robot arm to do the unplugging would be pretty funky).
Thats what they do at our university (Univeristy of Manchester, UK), but one thing I've always wondered, why not simply pull the plug at the switch? No worries about mac address spoofing (although if the router is configured to block all macs on a certain port, then I guess it wouldnt matter).
In the terms and conditions, they also have a whole load of draconian rules such as, dont run servers of any kind without permission, dont use NAT.. etc.. etc.. which translates in practise to - 'do what you like, but if you screw up the network, prepare to face our wrath, oh, and by the way, kazaa is EEEEEVILLL'.
The university also 'recommends' installing a virus scanner (as usual), but they actually provide one for you unser their site license. Of course you still have the problem of making students install it, but its one step further than many other places I've seen.
With regard to worms etc, I dont see the problem with blanket blocking of certain ports from the outside, perhaps allowing access to those who requested it provided they could demonstrate that they were competent enough to regularly install updates/patches. I dont pretend to understand how to implement that however (ensuring that those with full access actually installed patches and kept up to date would be problematic, and then theres the problem of new attacks, making complete port blocking seem easier), but the suggestion is there.
Ultimately, you need to come up with a solution which protects/limits those who dont know/care about securing their own computers (default case), while allowing 'power users' (assuming you want to cater for their needs, which from the tone of your post you do) to have restrictions lifted in the special case.
its called a mouse and keyboard, and imho beats the crap out of any console controller there is.
The poster didnt mention anything about how many arts/science students there are in the college, which could influence the decision considerably. Put simply, science based students would be expected to cope with more technical systems (especially CS students), whereas arts students may not be expected to have/gain any more knowledge other than is required to type up documents in a word processor.
:P and no I'm not serious there).
Okay, I admit its not that simple, but if the college leant more towards the science side, then there is a better case for switching, based only on the 'linux is less user friendly' argument.
The counter argument to that is however, that students who only want to type documents would be perfectly served well by a KDE/GNOME based desktop and one of the myriad of office suites that are usable out there. It doenst have to be word and excel.
Some other posts I've seen mentioned the lack of CS students learning Visual studio etc. but even in departments with windows/linux combined, visual studio isnt always taught - e.g. I'm currently half way through my 2nd year of a CS degree and havent ever been exposed to any of the visual studio tools (as part of the course at least), although I'm sure there are options in the third year that involve it.
The point being that when being taught a language, say C++, it is much more instructive to learn the basics, and the standard form of the language, and then learn the Microsoft API's later if neccesary.
If taught about say.. function callbacks in general, that can be applied to many situations, including microsoft api's (disclaimer, I dont know visual C++/Windows API so I could be mistaken here). Whereas learning that you need to do CreateWindowEx(blah) or whatever to create a window is extremely limited in scope, and I dont believe that limiting the system to linux would hinder students learning if they are taught general, transferrable (argh I hate that word.. just cant think of anything better) skills.
Of course, the same argument could be made in favour of a complete windows system, and on that basis alone, the argument would be valid. However, another factor that is extremely important is that most students who have had any exposure to computers at all at least have some familiarity with windows based systems, and while it is nice to have familiar systems to work with, the students wont be exposed to anything new. Remember here that the students who only want to use office based tools will have a mostly familiar interface to work with (Stick a label on the bottom left of the screen saying start and they wont know the difference
In the end though it really does come down to money, because all of the advantages to using linux mentioned (except money/moral issues) are still present if both systems are used, while all the disadvantages of going linux only are solved by having dual systems. Now moral issues (well religious wars really) are the province of slashdot and linux evangelists (of which I am one), and probably not likely to be a convincing argument for a university board. Which leaves money, and as has already been mentioned, this is likely to fall the wrong way for the linux-only solution.
how are they going to read slashdot and look at 1n73rn37 pr0n?!?!
Theyre gonna change the ip of all _7_ computers to 10.0.0.blah and unplug the modem. Wow.. a really innovative idea.. why didnt I think of that? Oh wait.. I did! Seriously though, even with a network completely separate form the internet, there will inevitably be a need to connect to the network from the outside, probably via dialup, and this will be the networks downfall. Even if this doesnt happen, all it takes is one person to install wifi, leave a modem connected, or decide they want to browse slashdot from one of these machines, and there is an entry point, which some skilled hac^H^H^Hidiot could gain access. Sure, disconnecting computers from the internet will help matters, but if this makes people complacent - 'Oh, I dont need to install the sendmail patch, 'cause I'm not on the internet!' (The logic of running sendmail on a non connected computer ignored at this point), then it would have been better to leave the possibility of machines being connected, and have people be more vigilant with patches.
But the thing is.. the article DID get slashdotted, and unless there is a google cache available (Not likely if this is a new post), then this actually helped.
Actually, how is this different from a google cache? Its a mirror of the article, it helps people when the original article was no longer available.
And before you claim lost adverising revenue or some such drivel, I, and others presumably, couldnt get to the site anyway, so no adverts would have been served.
I would like to know what on earth is wrong with my browsing preferences that the post ends up half way down the page however. (Browsing at +2, Nested, Highest score first)
a beowulf cluster of these! Oh, wait..
A KARAOKE MACHINE?!?! So on top of having to listen to phones ring in cinemas, and restaurants, we have to put up with tone dumb idiots singing along to the movies theme music to their loved ones (soon to not be anymore after hearing that godawful singing)! Personally I want a hunter-seeker mobile phone, that will find all those annoying features of mobile phones, like ya know, ringing tones, and voice capabilites, and obliterate them with tiny laaaazzer beams attached to the little aerial.
..so when I'm playing quake and move my head to try and see round the corner, or lean over when my sister leans over when playing some daft driving game, it will actualy work as opposed to making the game player simply look stupid.
Not to go taking money from theKompany, but xmms-embedded will also run on the zaurus, and play ogg files.
is that there are just so many of them.
Pretty much all of the messages I send get through, actually I can't think of a time when one hasn't. On most phones, theres an option to request a delivery report, where you get a message back saying when the other user has recevied the message. It works pretty well, to the point that if the person has their phone switched off, you only get the message when they switch their phone on and actually receive the message. Not sure if its available on all networks, but it works fine on vodafone UK, even when sending cross-network.