"trying to figure out why the left wing wants to implement an creeping nanny state and why the right wing wants to implement an authoritarian big daddy state"
"if there's one thing that the left and right can vigorously agree upon, it's how much people like us are unwelcome in todays sharing and caring western "society"."
Where's the mod category for "+1 Sad" ?
It seems a lot of people, even intelligent people, are all too keen to shout them on and ban everything they don't approve of, restrict freedoms and give up liberty wherever they can due to a variety of "others" defined by government, media, church etc.
I don't smoke the stuff (any more) but I still want it legalised.
1. I don't want my taxes paying for the persecution of people who are doing nobody any harm (except possibly themselves)
2. I don't think it's the government's place to regulate what they can and can't do
3. It is a blatant authoritarian restriction, with no real evidential backing. I don't like irrational lawmaking and government should not be able to get away with making laws restricting what people can and can't do without a bloody good reason.
I'll address your last point there - your tax bill would go down with MJ legalisation due to reduced prison, police and court costs. Health problems from its use pale in comparison to those.
BTW, it's much more easy to demonstrate harm with those other substances. Everyone knows coke turns you into a grade A asshole and heroin turns you into a slave, but putting people in prison for using them is not helpful. Education and rehab ARE helpful.
As for the rest on health services, get a brain. Transfat is not in the same league, it's a totally unnecessary carcinogen that serves no purpose but to keep some junk food cheap. Nobody out there actively wants trans fat. Or do you? Do you just love that hydrogenated chemical taste? Weirdo. You can still have freedom and responsibility whilst providing healthcare for people that need it. Hell, look at the Netherlands, they have liberal attitudes on most stuff, drugs included, AND universal healthcare.
"For every petition I agree with, there's plenty I'd hate to see acted on."
Oh hells yes, there are some real crackpot things that get voted up on that thing. That site is a great argument against direct democracy (or mob rule at any rate).
And it embodies, IMHO, a wider question about the freedom of the people to act as they wish without *very* good reason from the government and without demonstrable harm to other folks.
Shame it'll just be written off with excuses like it always is all over the world.
As the other responder said - the speeds haven't climbed back up, they've massively surpassed the old P4. Just because the P4 had a fast clock speed doesn't mean it was faster.
It's not. Core 2 at a lower speed can far outpace it. Quit believing the old MHz thing, that's only relevant when comparing apples to apples, not apples to out of date architectures.
On the one hand it does change user behaviour by making them hit a different key area, but OTOH it also reduces the liklihood of hitting the wrong key because the sense area for the next key across is not right next to what they're trying to hit.
Of course this may make it frustrating to use compared to a more intelligent keyboard, as you miss the key totally if you're a bit off centre... hmmm.
Well, yes you can, you just have to design your software competently. And I'm pretty sure that today's chip designs allow them to be faster per core than your old 3.5GHz P4, just by the massively improved branch prediction, faster/integrated memory bus etc.
I don't know why games tend to still be single threaded. I would think video encoding could be parallelised quite nicely too. It'll just take some work.
Actually, after a quick google - avidemux, ffmpeg and mencoder have supported threads for some time.
Threaded programming has been around for many years now, and multi-process computing has been around for decades. If you can't utilise multiple cores by now you're way behind the curve.
That said, I will watch the progress of these languages designed specifically for the task, though I don't see them unseating C/C++/Java any time soon.
Yeah. Having followed a couple of links from the comments here I wish I'd got it's big brother. For only twice the money (still only 200 dollars) you can get the version with 7 USB ports, eSATA, sound, VGA and a variety of other outputs. Many of which are present on the plug but not connected to anything. shame.
That is an irritation with the NSLU2, though there was an always-on hardmod.
AFAICT with the sheevaplug, when it has power it's on. Even shutdown -hP from linux doesn't switch it off, just halt the OS. So yes, when the juice hits the board, it starts up.
"The NSLU2 software distributions are also crippled (stripped down versions of utilities that break things like CPAN). Hopefully this one is more standardized and less unique."
I take it you never tried Debian on the NSLU2 then? That worked fine and was completely standard. I never tried the the various uNSLUng, SlugOS, Openslug and other distros so I've no idea what they were like.
Martin Michlmayr is a debian contributor/porter/activist/whatever with a keen interest in these sorts of devices, he published some early power use figures.
But in short, yes, I think you'd save a lot of power. Though you'd have to buy an HDD caddy and take the power consumption of that into account. We're still likely talking about a lot less than a full PC.
As for it being possible - Using samba, a linux box can appear to windows machines in much the same way a windows machine does - with exposed shared directories and shared printers. It's fairly simple, though I've not done the printer bit for some time.
Torrentflux-b4rt (with transmission underneath) runs adequately on an NSLU2. On the Sheevaplug it runs very nicely indeed, with plenty of resources left over for mediatomb and a whole load of other stuff. And all for a few watts.
I suppose so, though the Apple TV has various video outputs, this doesn't, and (correct me if I'm wrong) probably has a much large power draw. Mine's a media server in the sense that it serves media to other machines, like the PS3 and Xbox360.
I don't really see the revolution here - it's a small headless server. A bit like an NSLU2 only a lot faster. They're pretty cool.
They also seem to suffer from dodgy NAND memory, which is a shame, and booting from SDHC is not yet very well supported. That said, they come with Ubuntu server pre-installed and it was trivial to turn it into a media server.
It's a problem because I want to simply watch the output of my Video Card and perhaps record it. MythTV wanted to install everything and the kitchen sink just to do that. If you can't see why 124 dependencies is a bad thing, then there's no hope for you. Especially as if just 1 of those 124 breaks, you may be screwing up other applications on your system.
That's not how it works.
These aren't simply just.dlls or extra support files included in the original installation package, they are complete installations of other applications just so MythTV can sit on top of them and utilize their functionality.
I bet they were mostly DLLs though.
MySQL Server just to store program listings ?
MythTV is an entire PVR system, not just a TV player. You should have tried something else if all you wanted was
The whole of the X-Windows system just to use some graphics capabilities? Come on.
X-windows IS the graphical interface system, you don't have a windowing system without it. What, you wanted to watch TV in in 30x80 ASCII art or something?
(The above are off the top of my head, I may be mistaken about X-Windows. But the sheer fright of seeing massive applications and systems required for some simple functionality WAS scary nethertheless).
Slashdot Mirror
Where's the mod category for "+1 Sad" ?
It seems a lot of people, even intelligent people, are all too keen to shout them on and ban everything they don't approve of, restrict freedoms and give up liberty wherever they can due to a variety of "others" defined by government, media, church etc.
I don't smoke the stuff (any more) but I still want it legalised.
1. I don't want my taxes paying for the persecution of people who are doing nobody any harm (except possibly themselves)
2. I don't think it's the government's place to regulate what they can and can't do
3. It is a blatant authoritarian restriction, with no real evidential backing. I don't like irrational lawmaking and government should not be able to get away with making laws restricting what people can and can't do without a bloody good reason.
That work for you?
Nice incoherent rant. +1, would lol again.
I'll address your last point there - your tax bill would go down with MJ legalisation due to reduced prison, police and court costs. Health problems from its use pale in comparison to those.
BTW, it's much more easy to demonstrate harm with those other substances. Everyone knows coke turns you into a grade A asshole and heroin turns you into a slave, but putting people in prison for using them is not helpful. Education and rehab ARE helpful.
As for the rest on health services, get a brain. Transfat is not in the same league, it's a totally unnecessary carcinogen that serves no purpose but to keep some junk food cheap. Nobody out there actively wants trans fat. Or do you? Do you just love that hydrogenated chemical taste? Weirdo. You can still have freedom and responsibility whilst providing healthcare for people that need it. Hell, look at the Netherlands, they have liberal attitudes on most stuff, drugs included, AND universal healthcare.
"For every petition I agree with, there's plenty I'd hate to see acted on."
Oh hells yes, there are some real crackpot things that get voted up on that thing. That site is a great argument against direct democracy (or mob rule at any rate).
And it embodies, IMHO, a wider question about the freedom of the people to act as they wish without *very* good reason from the government and without demonstrable harm to other folks.
Shame it'll just be written off with excuses like it always is all over the world.
As the other responder said - the speeds haven't climbed back up, they've massively surpassed the old P4. Just because the P4 had a fast clock speed doesn't mean it was faster.
It's not. Core 2 at a lower speed can far outpace it. Quit believing the old MHz thing, that's only relevant when comparing apples to apples, not apples to out of date architectures.
On the one hand it does change user behaviour by making them hit a different key area, but OTOH it also reduces the liklihood of hitting the wrong key because the sense area for the next key across is not right next to what they're trying to hit.
Of course this may make it frustrating to use compared to a more intelligent keyboard, as you miss the key totally if you're a bit off centre... hmmm.
Well, yes you can, you just have to design your software competently. And I'm pretty sure that today's chip designs allow them to be faster per core than your old 3.5GHz P4, just by the massively improved branch prediction, faster/integrated memory bus etc.
I don't know why games tend to still be single threaded. I would think video encoding could be parallelised quite nicely too. It'll just take some work.
Actually, after a quick google - avidemux, ffmpeg and mencoder have supported threads for some time.
Not really.
Threaded programming has been around for many years now, and multi-process computing has been around for decades. If you can't utilise multiple cores by now you're way behind the curve.
That said, I will watch the progress of these languages designed specifically for the task, though I don't see them unseating C/C++/Java any time soon.
That's true, but you don't get the small/quiet/low power thing with an old PC. Though old laptops have some of that advantage.
Me, I'm a geek and I like the idea of an ARM chip and the plug form factor.
No, you're an idiot because a bunch of dependencies scared you. Did you get scared when word said it was going to take X amount of your hard drive?
Just because you can't see it in windows doesn't make it better or easier.
Yeah. Having followed a couple of links from the comments here I wish I'd got it's big brother. For only twice the money (still only 200 dollars) you can get the version with 7 USB ports, eSATA, sound, VGA and a variety of other outputs. Many of which are present on the plug but not connected to anything. shame.
True.
Ideally, of course, the sheevaplug would have contained the variant with the FPU, as they do have some. Guess they cost more though.
That is an irritation with the NSLU2, though there was an always-on hardmod.
AFAICT with the sheevaplug, when it has power it's on. Even shutdown -hP from linux doesn't switch it off, just halt the OS. So yes, when the juice hits the board, it starts up.
"The NSLU2 software distributions are also crippled (stripped down versions of utilities that break things like CPAN). Hopefully this one is more standardized and less unique."
I take it you never tried Debian on the NSLU2 then? That worked fine and was completely standard. I never tried the the various uNSLUng, SlugOS, Openslug and other distros so I've no idea what they were like.
Yeah, I know, it's got issues. Mine has stopped booting.
Actually I wish I'd got its big brother - http://globalscaletechnologies.com/t-openrdcdetails.aspx
Production OS?
I've been running Debian on ARM for a few years now, it's great :)
Sorry, you can get a router with half a gig of internal storage, half a gig of RAM, a 1.2GHz chip and a USB port for less than 99 bucks?
I call bullshit.
As mentioned further up http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/p-22-sheevaplug-dev-kit.aspx
I got mine from them, I'm in the UK.
Though that's the original SheevaPlug dev kit, not the PogoPlug that TFA talks about. Same hardware, different software.
Take a look at this page.
Martin Michlmayr is a debian contributor/porter/activist/whatever with a keen interest in these sorts of devices, he published some early power use figures.
But in short, yes, I think you'd save a lot of power. Though you'd have to buy an HDD caddy and take the power consumption of that into account. We're still likely talking about a lot less than a full PC.
As for it being possible - Using samba, a linux box can appear to windows machines in much the same way a windows machine does - with exposed shared directories and shared printers. It's fairly simple, though I've not done the printer bit for some time.
Torrentflux-b4rt (with transmission underneath) runs adequately on an NSLU2. On the Sheevaplug it runs very nicely indeed, with plenty of resources left over for mediatomb and a whole load of other stuff. And all for a few watts.
I suppose so, though the Apple TV has various video outputs, this doesn't, and (correct me if I'm wrong) probably has a much large power draw. Mine's a media server in the sense that it serves media to other machines, like the PS3 and Xbox360.
It's got USB and an SD slot. You can get wireless devices that fit in either, so I should think it'll be ok.
I don't really see the revolution here - it's a small headless server. A bit like an NSLU2 only a lot faster. They're pretty cool.
They also seem to suffer from dodgy NAND memory, which is a shame, and booting from SDHC is not yet very well supported. That said, they come with Ubuntu server pre-installed and it was trivial to turn it into a media server.
It's a problem because I want to simply watch the output of my Video Card and perhaps record it. MythTV wanted to install everything and the kitchen sink just to do that. If you can't see why 124 dependencies is a bad thing, then there's no hope for you. Especially as if just 1 of those 124 breaks, you may be screwing up other applications on your system.
That's not how it works.
These aren't simply just .dlls or extra support files included in the original installation package, they are complete installations of other applications just so MythTV can sit on top of them and utilize their functionality.
I bet they were mostly DLLs though.
MySQL Server just to store program listings ?
MythTV is an entire PVR system, not just a TV player. You should have tried something else if all you wanted was
The whole of the X-Windows system just to use some graphics capabilities? Come on.
X-windows IS the graphical interface system, you don't have a windowing system without it. What, you wanted to watch TV in in 30x80 ASCII art or something?
(The above are off the top of my head, I may be mistaken about X-Windows. But the sheer fright of seeing massive applications and systems required for some simple functionality WAS scary nethertheless).
You're an idiot.
And where would one find that? I thought it was only available as part of a media-centre PC?
Well, the point is moot, I like teh linux now.