better the computer gets slow, because its swapping, than the computer starts killing random processes because its running out of memory.
Not in my case. I would MUCH rather my machine kill a huge memory-hog process rather than let my 8GB desktop machine thrash and die. If a process is going to start swapping, then it will take FOREVER to finish. I would rather have it die. That way, I can tell what is happening and still control my computer. Then, I can throw the job on one of grid machines with 64GB and get back to work.
I am not really a Linux guru, but I added this to my startup scripts: ulimit -m 7000000 I did a bunch of googling, and this is SUPPOSED to kill jobs that go over about 7 gigs or so (not getting into the giga vs. gibi nonsense). I have not had any really huge jobs lately, but one mis-coded Verilog construct can cause a simulator to suck infinite memory. Been there, done that.
No, you probably CAN'T play games. Really, I just played around with it. Close to useless.
For example, nedit won't start. Emacs won't start. You CAN start an xterm, and then have access to all terminal goodness, but there are SSH clients for Android that will do just as well.
The feat if truly impressive, but not enough of "X" is implemented to make it much more than a toy.
When you try to run something serious, this is what you get:
X Error: BadImplementation (server does not implement operation) 17
Major opcode: 20 (X_GetProperty)
Resource id: 0x0 X Error: BadLength (poly request too large or internal Xlib length error) 16
Major opcode: 72 (X_PutImage)
Resource id: 0x0
Cool concept, but it needs more work to be truly usable for anything beyond "xeyes" or "xclock."
If you have a monitor with built-in speakers, and a built-in USB hub, that is all you need. Plug the Pi into the USB hub as both master (to control USB) and slave (to suckle power from the USB hub). Plug Ethernet into the Pi. Plug wireless keyboard/mouse dongle into the USB hub. Add one HDMI cable to the monitor.
Then, use *** DOUBLE SIDED FOAM TAPE ** to attach the Pi to the back of the monitor. Simple, elegant computer. If you tidy up the cables in the back, then the only cables you see are monitor power and ethernet. That is nice for the price.
You mentioned "Does it run Linux?" Does it? Really?
I know that it CAN run Linux. However, looking on their home page, I do not see any sort of link to download an ISO image, or any sort of software to make a properly-formatted SD card.
As it seems now, this device is great for people who know how to cross-compile to ARM, and make their own distros. For somebody who just wants to write a SD card and boot into a desktop, it looks like there is still some work to be done.
If I am wrong, please post a link to the download page.
25% now? That would explain why the costs are so high despite the quality of the accessories not being anything to write home about. At least, compared to the 90% cheaper Chinese knockoffs that manage to hold up just as well.
I don't know about that. I have a couple of their cases (for the Nook, as I avoid the Kindle), and the quality has been excellent. M-Edge is now my go-to for reader cases, party for great customer service, party because the quality is great, and partly because I love their light system than they have developed.
The only problem with M-Edge is that they cannot seem to keep the Black Executive case in stock for the Nook Touch. Seriously, who wants PURPLE? Yuk.
I have no problems with the big guys being bit, as long as they do not use their power to step on the little players. I am looking to buy a new case today, and I guess that I will **NOT** be ordering it from Amazon.
Well, I would imagine that this is so that you can use any old USB power supply that you have on hand. You know, the same ones used by all decent modern phones, the Nook, some cameras, etc. If you shop around, you can score a 120V to USB power supply for well under $5, and most everybody has a micro-USB cable lying around.
Some monitors even have USB hubs built-in. Easy enough to hook a cable from the monitor to the Raspberry PI for power, and another cable from the Raspberry Pi to the monitor for USB connectivity. Add a mouse and keyboard, and instant computer with a minimum of parts.
I have never heard of this before, but, after doing some reading, the BeagleBone does not really fill the same niche, and is targeted for a different audience.
The BeagleBone does NOT have any sort of standard I/O other than USB, and Ethernet, and roll-your-own digital I/O. You have to buy a separate board in order to drive a monitor. Great for embedded stuff, but not really good for a cheap, low-cost, general-purpose PC.
I wish you and your group all the best. Thanks for being open and honest. And might I add that once the programmers have had their fun, I would love to grab one of the 2nd batch, once all the hardware and software bugs are gone. My Verilog is much, much better than my C, so jumping in right now does not make much sense for me.
Maybe because that list is full of routers that are old and not currently available from places like Best Buy and Newegg. Knowing that DD-WRT works great on a router that I cannot actually buy is pretty useless. Also, many routers have multiple versions, and DD-WRT only works on some of them. Yes, that list would have what you need, but the work needed to go though the list to find something easily available would be a LOT of work.
Since it is a modular driver, it will IIRC execute nothing at all until the module is pulled in by udev. So there's no need to audit much if you're not using the hardware in question. And if you have physical access to the server, there are ways of subverting it other than hooking up hardware that has security holes in the drivers. So no need for paranoia.
Ummm. Isn't this sort of like saying "Don't worry about the screen door on this submarine. As long as nobody uses it, we are OK."
Well, I remember when I was a kid, the computer world was very fragmented. Apple was incompatible with Atari was incompatible with Commodore was incompatible with IBM. Need I mention the other minor players, such as Franklin, Acorn, TI, Sinclair, etc.? Great game came out? Odds are it won't run on the system that YOU have. As much as I generally dislike the major players, at least there are only three major platforms that you have to develop for. In fact, you can develop a game for only one market, and still have the opportunity to make quite a bit of money.
Also, if you SELL products with FPGAs in them, it makes it harder to make a profit if somebody decides to reverse-engineer your stuff. Really, all this is good for is cracking into a design that somebody else made. Once you GET the actual bitstream, there are really two things that you can do with it...
1) Make copies of the FPGA. Boards are not that hard to reverse-engineer, so you could copy somebody else's design completely.
2) Reverse engineer the code. However, you will NOT have anything that would help you do this, like net names or hierarchies. This will make actual reverse-engineering in order to change something or learn something very challenging.
This doe NOT make FPGAs any more useful, since you can easily download free development software from every FPGA vendor and put whatever you want on there. Really, the only thing that you CAN'T do with the free software is stuff related to licensed IP (processor cores, various controllers for things like Ethernet, SATA, etc.). While you COULD pull that out of an encrypted bitstream, using it without any sort of documentation or the configuration wizards would be very challenging and, 9 times out of 10, it is just easier to pony up the money to license the cores in the first place.
Everybody has buttons to push. What is the package were named: "kill_all_(insert racial slur here)." No reaction? How about the "Jesus_is_Lord" sorting algorithm, all nicely packaged for your use. Maybe "(insert_political_part)_are_idiots." I could go on and on, but I am sure that you see my point. Given enough effort, it is possible to piss off anybody.
I fully support the entire US bill or rights, including (and especially) the 1st amendment. A person should have the freedom to say whatever they want. However, I also have the right to consider any such person a jerk or moron if I wish, and my choose to have nothing to do with them.
The question then becomes: what is the best way for a software community to behave: like adults, or like a 13-year-old who just learned a handful of bad words. This is not about "freedom," but more a case of "what does it take to get along with others and build a community." You have the freedom to insult every person in the world, alphabetically, if you like, but do not expect to have many friends if you do.
Personally, I do not like Python much, being a PERL guy myself. Something about the language's use of white-space just rubs me the wrong way. So It is fine with me if the Python fans shoot themselves in the foot...;-)
Gumstix does not appear to come with any sort of connection to the real world other than Wi-Fi and bluetooth, out-of-the-box. You can probably add a bluetooth mouse and keyboard, but if you want video-out (HDMI), then you need to buy more stuff.
Hmmm. I love all of these claims of "civilian" deaths. Over there, US soldiers wear uniforms, so you know when a soldier dies. However, how do you prove that you have killed a "fighter" or a "civilian?" They both wear the same clothes.
Also, I would strongly suspect that suicide bombers have killed far more civilians than the US military has. Muslims appear to be their own worst enemies. I once tried to Google the numbers, but was not able to find anything useful. It is late now, and I am to tired to try again. If anybody very skilled at Google-fu wants to point to links of # civilians killed in suicide bombs and # of civilians killed as a result of US military actions, I would appreciate it.
The first thing to realize is that when the Census Bureau decided to go the route of a hand-held unit for field workers, the iPhone had not even been announced. The "smart" phones at that time were primitive. At that time (say, 2004), you could ASSUME that cell technology would march forward, but what platform do you develop software for? Who knows what the winner will be in six years? No iPhone yet, no Android yet. Blackberry was the biggest thing going at this time. Would they still be in business in 2010? Would they change operating systems, requiring a re-design of the software?
Would you be willing to bet the farm on a big complicated project, and just assume that the hardware and software will be there in six years?
Another thing to keep in mind is that if mass-purchased regular smart phones were used, how many do you think would quickly wind up on eBay.
Can someone comment on ANY technical advantages that Tcl would have over Javascript (ignore the licensing stuff). I do not know Javascript (I started learning Java, but stopped once Oracle consumed Sun), but as a part of my job I am forced to use Tcl for some stuff -- and I hate it. PERL is much more powerful and easy to use than Tcl is. Tcl also is not object-oriented (but there are "add-ons" that do this).
So, I guess that I don't get what the purpose is, other than maybe for those people who know Tcl and do not want to learn Javascript.
Isn't that what demos are for? I would have no problems paying for ANY game if they all just released demos. That way I could try the first level and see if it is worth it.
dev/null is useful if you have output in software that you want to get rid up. You have to have SOMETHING to redirect the output to in order to tell the shell to discard it.
In hardware, this is done by just not hooking up the wires to anything.
Slashdot Mirror
Not in my case. I would MUCH rather my machine kill a huge memory-hog process rather than let my 8GB desktop machine thrash and die. If a process is going to start swapping, then it will take FOREVER to finish. I would rather have it die. That way, I can tell what is happening and still control my computer. Then, I can throw the job on one of grid machines with 64GB and get back to work.
I am not really a Linux guru, but I added this to my startup scripts:
ulimit -m 7000000
I did a bunch of googling, and this is SUPPOSED to kill jobs that go over about 7 gigs or so (not getting into the giga vs. gibi nonsense). I have not had any really huge jobs lately, but one mis-coded Verilog construct can cause a simulator to suck infinite memory. Been there, done that.
No, you probably CAN'T play games. Really, I just played around with it. Close to useless.
For example, nedit won't start. Emacs won't start. You CAN start an xterm, and then have access to all terminal goodness, but there are SSH clients for Android that will do just as well.
The feat if truly impressive, but not enough of "X" is implemented to make it much more than a toy.
When you try to run something serious, this is what you get:
X Error: BadImplementation (server does not implement operation) 17
Major opcode: 20 (X_GetProperty)
Resource id: 0x0
X Error: BadLength (poly request too large or internal Xlib length error) 16
Major opcode: 72 (X_PutImage)
Resource id: 0x0
Cool concept, but it needs more work to be truly usable for anything beyond "xeyes" or "xclock."
Case? Where we're going, we don't need cases...
If you have a monitor with built-in speakers, and a built-in USB hub, that is all you need.
Plug the Pi into the USB hub as both master (to control USB) and slave (to suckle power from the USB hub). Plug Ethernet into the Pi. Plug wireless keyboard/mouse dongle into the USB hub. Add one HDMI cable to the monitor.
Then, use *** DOUBLE SIDED FOAM TAPE ** to attach the Pi to the back of the monitor. Simple, elegant computer. If you tidy up the cables in the back, then the only cables you see are monitor power and ethernet. That is nice for the price.
You mentioned "Does it run Linux?" Does it? Really?
I know that it CAN run Linux. However, looking on their home page, I do not see any sort of link to download an ISO image, or any sort of software to make a properly-formatted SD card.
As it seems now, this device is great for people who know how to cross-compile to ARM, and make their own distros. For somebody who just wants to write a SD card and boot into a desktop, it looks like there is still some work to be done.
If I am wrong, please post a link to the download page.
I don't know about that. I have a couple of their cases (for the Nook, as I avoid the Kindle), and the quality has been excellent. M-Edge is now my go-to for reader cases, party for great customer service, party because the quality is great, and partly because I love their light system than they have developed.
The only problem with M-Edge is that they cannot seem to keep the Black Executive case in stock for the Nook Touch. Seriously, who wants PURPLE? Yuk.
I have no problems with the big guys being bit, as long as they do not use their power to step on the little players. I am looking to buy a new case today, and I guess that I will **NOT** be ordering it from Amazon.
Well, I would imagine that this is so that you can use any old USB power supply that you have on hand. You know, the same ones used by all decent modern phones, the Nook, some cameras, etc. If you shop around, you can score a 120V to USB power supply for well under $5, and most everybody has a micro-USB cable lying around.
Some monitors even have USB hubs built-in. Easy enough to hook a cable from the monitor to the Raspberry PI for power, and another cable from the Raspberry Pi to the monitor for USB connectivity. Add a mouse and keyboard, and instant computer with a minimum of parts.
I live in Colorado (although not near any drilling sites), and I approve of this. Public safety > trade secrets.
I have never heard of this before, but, after doing some reading, the BeagleBone does not really fill the same niche, and is targeted for a different audience.
The BeagleBone does NOT have any sort of standard I/O other than USB, and Ethernet, and roll-your-own digital I/O. You have to buy a separate board in order to drive a monitor. Great for embedded stuff, but not really good for a cheap, low-cost, general-purpose PC.
I wish you and your group all the best. Thanks for being open and honest. And might I add that once the programmers have had their fun, I would love to grab one of the 2nd batch, once all the hardware and software bugs are gone. My Verilog is much, much better than my C, so jumping in right now does not make much sense for me.
Maybe because that list is full of routers that are old and not currently available from places like Best Buy and Newegg. Knowing that DD-WRT works great on a router that I cannot actually buy is pretty useless. Also, many routers have multiple versions, and DD-WRT only works on some of them. Yes, that list would have what you need, but the work needed to go though the list to find something easily available would be a LOT of work.
Maybe, but the point still stands: don't throw stuff in the kernel without a very good reason to do so.
Ummm. Isn't this sort of like saying "Don't worry about the screen door on this submarine. As long as nobody uses it, we are OK."
Well, I remember when I was a kid, the computer world was very fragmented. Apple was incompatible with Atari was incompatible with Commodore was incompatible with IBM. Need I mention the other minor players, such as Franklin, Acorn, TI, Sinclair, etc.? Great game came out? Odds are it won't run on the system that YOU have. As much as I generally dislike the major players, at least there are only three major platforms that you have to develop for. In fact, you can develop a game for only one market, and still have the opportunity to make quite a bit of money.
Also, if you SELL products with FPGAs in them, it makes it harder to make a profit if somebody decides to reverse-engineer your stuff. Really, all this is good for is cracking into a design that somebody else made. Once you GET the actual bitstream, there are really two things that you can do with it...
1) Make copies of the FPGA. Boards are not that hard to reverse-engineer, so you could copy somebody else's design completely.
2) Reverse engineer the code. However, you will NOT have anything that would help you do this, like net names or hierarchies. This will make actual reverse-engineering in order to change something or learn something very challenging.
This doe NOT make FPGAs any more useful, since you can easily download free development software from every FPGA vendor and put whatever you want on there. Really, the only thing that you CAN'T do with the free software is stuff related to licensed IP (processor cores, various controllers for things like Ethernet, SATA, etc.). While you COULD pull that out of an encrypted bitstream, using it without any sort of documentation or the configuration wizards would be very challenging and, 9 times out of 10, it is just easier to pony up the money to license the cores in the first place.
Everybody has buttons to push. What is the package were named: "kill_all_(insert racial slur here)." No reaction? How about the "Jesus_is_Lord" sorting algorithm, all nicely packaged for your use. Maybe "(insert_political_part)_are_idiots." I could go on and on, but I am sure that you see my point. Given enough effort, it is possible to piss off anybody.
I fully support the entire US bill or rights, including (and especially) the 1st amendment. A person should have the freedom to say whatever they want. However, I also have the right to consider any such person a jerk or moron if I wish, and my choose to have nothing to do with them.
The question then becomes: what is the best way for a software community to behave: like adults, or like a 13-year-old who just learned a handful of bad words. This is not about "freedom," but more a case of "what does it take to get along with others and build a community." You have the freedom to insult every person in the world, alphabetically, if you like, but do not expect to have many friends if you do.
Personally, I do not like Python much, being a PERL guy myself. Something about the language's use of white-space just rubs me the wrong way. So It is fine with me if the Python fans shoot themselves in the foot... ;-)
Gumstix does not appear to come with any sort of connection to the real world other than Wi-Fi and bluetooth, out-of-the-box. You can probably add a bluetooth mouse and keyboard, but if you want video-out (HDMI), then you need to buy more stuff.
Hmmm. I love all of these claims of "civilian" deaths. Over there, US soldiers wear uniforms, so you know when a soldier dies. However, how do you prove that you have killed a "fighter" or a "civilian?" They both wear the same clothes.
Also, I would strongly suspect that suicide bombers have killed far more civilians than the US military has. Muslims appear to be their own worst enemies. I once tried to Google the numbers, but was not able to find anything useful. It is late now, and I am to tired to try again. If anybody very skilled at Google-fu wants to point to links of # civilians killed in suicide bombs and # of civilians killed as a result of US military actions, I would appreciate it.
The first thing to realize is that when the Census Bureau decided to go the route of a hand-held unit for field workers, the iPhone had not even been announced. The "smart" phones at that time were primitive. At that time (say, 2004), you could ASSUME that cell technology would march forward, but what platform do you develop software for? Who knows what the winner will be in six years? No iPhone yet, no Android yet. Blackberry was the biggest thing going at this time. Would they still be in business in 2010? Would they change operating systems, requiring a re-design of the software?
Would you be willing to bet the farm on a big complicated project, and just assume that the hardware and software will be there in six years?
Another thing to keep in mind is that if mass-purchased regular smart phones were used, how many do you think would quickly wind up on eBay.
Can someone comment on ANY technical advantages that Tcl would have over Javascript (ignore the licensing stuff). I do not know Javascript (I started learning Java, but stopped once Oracle consumed Sun), but as a part of my job I am forced to use Tcl for some stuff -- and I hate it. PERL is much more powerful and easy to use than Tcl is. Tcl also is not object-oriented (but there are "add-ons" that do this).
So, I guess that I don't get what the purpose is, other than maybe for those people who know Tcl and do not want to learn Javascript.
Isn't that what demos are for? I would have no problems paying for ANY game if they all just released demos. That way I could try the first level and see if it is worth it.
Awesome! Thanks.
dev/null is useful if you have output in software that you want to get rid up. You have to have SOMETHING to redirect the output to in order to tell the shell to discard it.
In hardware, this is done by just not hooking up the wires to anything.
Reminds me of the old joke "write only memory." Pretty funny for the hardware types.
Datasheet available HERE..
On a side note, I do now know if this link will be available long-term since TI purchased National Semi.
Sunglasses are only linearly polarized -- never circularly polarized.
The funny thing is that these glasses could actually be made for the SAME cost as regular 3D movie glasses.
Regular movie glasses have two circularly-polarized lenses -- one clockwise and one counter-clockwise.
As you would expect, all that you have to do is make both lenses have the same polarization, and the 3D magically goes away.