And the real reason that RHDB will take off is because it keeps the license police out of your server room, *especially* for stuff like data warehousing. Oracle license police are very real (at least the idea is), and is one of the major reasons we decided against Oracle here at work.
Oracle charges per MhZ, and per CPU, which is a 'license to run' their software. If you want to have a hot backup available... um... just be careful. Running Oracle on two machines is twice as expensive as running it on one. The more you want to do with Oracle, the more you have to pay Oracle, when PostgreSQL or MySQL (packaged in a $999.95 RedHat box, with 90 days support) would be more than adequate for many many tasks.
You can (mostly) under linux, if you're using the right distribution.
apt-get -y install gnucash; gnucash
Type that into any command prompt or whoknowswhat run dialog, and gnucash will automatically be installed and run. Oh, you have to be 'root' to do it, I'm sorry. Linux has this nice thing called 'permissions', so that you can't break anything unless you've logged in as root.
No need to show folders, or double-click anything, etc... Debian's Advanced Package Tool will automagically put an icon in Start->Programs->Applications->GNUCash, so it's even easier than what you're describing.
I'd love to spend some time wiring up a few scripts to "apt-cache search", "apt-cache show", and "apt-get install", with a nice GUI interface, so that it *would* be as easy as double-clicking. Ahhh... a project for another day.
Streaming is an important component of Vorbis. The format has been designed from the ground-up to be easily streamable. The designers of Vorbis are working alongside the creators of Icecast streaming media software to make Icecast Vorbis-compatible. We are also working on player support for streaming Ogg files. Streaming Ogg files from the web will be supported by the player plugins at the 1.0 Vorbis release.
What unique features does Ogg Vorbis have?
Vorbis has a well defined comment header that is easy to use and extensible and obviates the need for clunky hacks like ID3 tags. Vorbis has bitrate scaling - a feature that lets you adjust the bitrate of a Vorbis file or stream without reencoding; just chop the packets up in the sizes you want them. Vorbis files can be sliced and edited with sample granularity. Vorbis has support for many channels, not just 1 or 2. Vorbis files can be logically chained together.
Vorbis is not "token"... even the beta sound encoders at default encoding (~128k variable) sound much better than all the 128k MP3's I've heard.
In addition, Vorbis has a *neat* feature that if you have a 256k OGG file (OGG ~= MP3), then you can stream a 128k file just by chopping each packet in half. This is "realtime downprocessing", and you *can't* do that with MP3's. To stream a 256k MP3 at 128k, you'd have to do something like: mpg123 blah.mp3 -o [stdout] | lame [stdin] -br128 | shoutcast... basically expanding an mp3 out to a wav, then re-encoding it (which can be an expensive operation on slower computers).
In addition, Opera (aka, the little browser that could) has a new feature called OperaShow
which lets you use opera like you would use Power Point.
I've tried it under Linux, but it still seemed a little buggy. However, it does have potential to be used within the business context (especially with cvs/diffing)
Having worked with ASP/VB as well as PHP, and Java Application programming, PHP falls down as far as debugging goes.
I've been told that VB is fully supported by MS debugging tools (Visual Studio?), but when using PHP, you'll get very used to die(serialize($var));...or "echo ""; print_r( $var ); echo "";".
Zend.com (the "commercial" version of PHP) supposedly has an interactive debugging tie-in, but I have not had a chance to work with it. It's also a "for-pay" item, and it is worth noting.
1) You create program "Foo v1.0", release under GPL
2) You change string "Hello World" to "Goodbye World", and release "Foo v2.0", under MS-License.
You are totally within all your rights to do this. You "own" Foo, and release it to *OTHERS* under GPL. When you make changes to *your* code, and re-release, life is good.
However, consider the following:
1.5) HelpfulUser submits a modification to you which adds a feature. They give you license to use that code as GPL.
...in this case, you *cannot* relicense your code with their code under a more proprietary license than the GPL. That's because it's not all your code.
For your last question: "Why can't a user of the Windows version sue for the source code, citing the GPL on the *NIX version? Why doesn't the GPL on the *NIX version trump the proprietary license on the Windows version?"
From m-w: License:a permission granted by competent authority to engage in a business or occupation or in an activity otherwise unlawful
It is unlawful to run code that belongs to other people without their permission. Usually companies give users a license (permission) to use their code, and it is totally legit for the *owner* of the code to discriminate (or place restrictions on it's use) when letting other people use it.
If you go back and read what Lucas has been saying, you'll realize that this Lucas guy wasn't 100% sure about the business terms for what he wanted to do, so he just called it a business where he'd be the one running it. (since he *would* be the one running it).
In our case, we're planning to use a standard and fair margin of 10 - 15%. Meaning, if the Cooperative buys something at around $34 each, it sells for $3.40 - $5.10 extra, in turn, going directly into expenses. Money after expenses is donated to the FSF and Debian
Personally I think all these conspiracy theories about Spindl3top are just as funny as the "Taco/Hemos controlling Microsoft through the minions of laced Taco Bell tacos, and subliminal messages in Toy Story 2, etc...", but it's too bad that some people think they're real.
In summary: Don't give money to anybody you don't trust. Personally, I don't ~trust~ Spindl3top yet, so I'm going to take their blackbird source files (can't get the link now, cuz the site is down) and buy/build the components it myself.
Whee that was a fun way to learn vim scripting syntaxes. Save the following out to a text file, like ~/pymove.vim and do a:source ~/pymove.vim from within vim. Magically, the ",u", or ",d" keystrokes will move you up and down based on indentation. It could use some work but *I* think it's kindof cool.:^)=
:":source ~/GPL.txt, etc...
:func! Safeup()
:if line('.') != 0
: return line('.') - 1
:else
: return line('.')
:endif
:endfunc
:func! Safedown()
:if line('.') != line('$')
: return line('.') + 1
:else
: return line('.')
:endif
:endfunc
:func! Moveup()
: let new_line = Safeup()
: exec ':' . new_line
: let first_indent = indent( line('.') )
: while indent( line('.') ) == first_indent || indent( line('.') ) > first_indent
: let new_line = Safeup()
: exec ':' . new_line
: endwhile
: return( new_line )
:endfunc
:func! Movedown()
: let new_line = Safedown()
: exec ':' . new_line
: let first_indent = indent( line('.') )
: while indent( line('.') ) == first_indent || indent( line('.') ) > first_indent
: let new_line = Safedown()
: exec ':' . new_line
: endwhile
: return( new_line )
:endfunc
:
:" moves the cursor to position found by 'Movedown()'
:map,d:exec ':' . Movedown()
:" moves the cursor to position found by 'Moveup()'
:map,u:exec ':' . Moveup()
You might even be able to go steal some sounds from the Windows "Jungle" theme... crickets, birds, chirps, wildlife. It's much easier on the ears than random dings.
And the comparison to KVM switches is flat wrong. A KVM switch takes multiple inputs and only displays one output at a time. A *mixer* takes multiple inputs, and combines them into one output (in this case, headphones). Mixers can be expensive (I've looked) but you can maybe find a used one for ~$50-100. Much too expensive for a "throwaway" project, and with a cheap mixer you'll be lucky to get 2 (maybe four) inputs.
Perhaps a little better would be to wire up each ear of a set of old stereo headphones to 2 different boxes. Ask some engineering types how to do it, and they'll probably be glad to help. Maximum price is $10 at Radio Shack, but you'll only be able to combine 2 boxes into one set of headphones.
An observation about K5 v./. moderation:
On K5, the latest front page story has 60 comments. Some statistics:
50 are topical, 10 are editorial.
of the 50 topical, 35 have been rated.
of the 35 rated, only 8 were rated by just one user. the other 27 were rated by multiples users.
On/., only 2 comments out of the 85 comments made on this story have made it above a 3.
K5 lets any user rate any comment at any time. As you can see, it means that a significant portion of posts *do* get rated. Yeah, K5's way is probably more intensive on the server, but it seems that more comments getting ratings can only mean good things for readers.
I have these same problems described in the article, and I'm almost positive that it's related to copy protection. The Princess Bride plays crystal clear, many of my other movies have little pink lines, especially noticeable when on a red background.
I've been told by "one who knows" that many early movies by WB didn't have this specific form of copy protection on it, because WB didn't want to pay the licensing fees to "license" this form of copy protection.
So if you can't check it with The Princess Bride (regularly $14.99 almost everywhere), you might check other WB movies.
Believe it or not, this happens for me when reading slashdot (on linux) with M18, mozilla nightlies, galeon, as well as konqueror.
When reading slashdot, I can always get through no matter which browser if I visit http://www.slashdot.org (notice the "www"), but always get a "Connection refused from http://slashdot.org" error when I try to leave off the hostname.
It does not give me problems if I use Netscape 4.75, or Netscape PR3 (at last count). If it's a bug, it's a really persistent (and easy to make?) error in handling redirects.
I've been meaning to investigate bugzilla about this, but It'd be nice to hear that I'm not hallucinating from somebody else.
Linux 2.2.16 #1 Fri Jun 30 21:10:22 CDT 2000 i586 unknown
My primary email account is handled as a web-application. It's hosted by a company known for it's reliability, and I can get to it from anywhere.
Surprisingly enough, mail.yahoo.com works. Due to all their crazy convergence stuff, I also use notepad.yahoo.com when I'm talking to somebody on the phone. Security aside, I'd rather store directions to their house online than on a scrap of paper I'll throw away.
Don't even get me started on addresses.yahoo.com. I would never store phone numbers and addresses in a rolodex on my desk, because I'll never need the phone numbers when I'm there! I'll need them when I'm visiting a friend, or some other time when I'm not at home.
Web/hosted applications are good for what they are good at. They are not good for everything else. Like someone else said, the concept is a tool that you should use if it is appropriate
Slashdot Mirror
...but haven't you heard of data warehousing?
http://www.dwinfocenter.org/defined.html
http://www.dwinfocenter.org/casefor.html
And the real reason that RHDB will take off is because it keeps the license police out of your server room, *especially* for stuff like data warehousing. Oracle license police are very real (at least the idea is), and is one of the major reasons we decided against Oracle here at work.
Oracle charges per MhZ, and per CPU, which is a 'license to run' their software. If you want to have a hot backup available... um... just be careful. Running Oracle on two machines is twice as expensive as running it on one. The more you want to do with Oracle, the more you have to pay Oracle, when PostgreSQL or MySQL (packaged in a $999.95 RedHat box, with 90 days support) would be more than adequate for many many tasks.
--Robert
It might get at least one more if you'd post some linkage ;^)=
--Robert
You can (mostly) under linux, if you're using the right distribution.
apt-get -y install gnucash; gnucash
Type that into any command prompt or whoknowswhat run dialog, and gnucash will automatically be installed and run. Oh, you have to be 'root' to do it, I'm sorry. Linux has this nice thing called 'permissions', so that you can't break anything unless you've logged in as root.
No need to show folders, or double-click anything, etc... Debian's Advanced Package Tool will automagically put an icon in Start->Programs->Applications->GNUCash, so it's even easier than what you're describing.
I'd love to spend some time wiring up a few scripts to "apt-cache search", "apt-cache show", and "apt-get install", with a nice GUI interface, so that it *would* be as easy as double-clicking. Ahhh... a project for another day.
--Robert
What about streaming in Ogg Vorbis format?
Streaming is an important component of Vorbis. The format has been designed from the ground-up to be easily streamable. The designers of Vorbis are working alongside the creators of Icecast streaming media software to make Icecast Vorbis-compatible. We are also working on player support for streaming Ogg files. Streaming Ogg files from the web will be supported by the player plugins at the 1.0 Vorbis release.
What unique features does Ogg Vorbis have?
Vorbis has a well defined comment header that is easy to use and extensible and obviates the need for clunky hacks like ID3 tags. Vorbis has bitrate scaling - a feature that lets you adjust the bitrate of a Vorbis file or stream without reencoding; just chop the packets up in the sizes you want them. Vorbis files can be sliced and edited with sample granularity. Vorbis has support for many channels, not just 1 or 2. Vorbis files can be logically chained together.
From: http://www.vorbis.com/faq.html#stream
--Robert
Vorbis is not "token" ... even the beta sound encoders at default encoding (~128k variable) sound much better than all the 128k MP3's I've heard.
... basically expanding an mp3 out to a wav, then re-encoding it (which can be an expensive operation on slower computers).
In addition, Vorbis has a *neat* feature that if you have a 256k OGG file (OGG ~= MP3), then you can stream a 128k file just by chopping each packet in half. This is "realtime downprocessing", and you *can't* do that with MP3's. To stream a 256k MP3 at 128k, you'd have to do something like: mpg123 blah.mp3 -o [stdout] | lame [stdin] -br128 | shoutcast
Don't be so quick to dismiss OGG just yet.
--Robert
I've tried it under Linux, but it still seemed a little buggy. However, it does have potential to be used within the business context (especially with cvs/diffing)
--Robert
Having worked with ASP/VB as well as PHP, and Java Application programming, PHP falls down as far as debugging goes.
...or "echo ""; print_r( $var ); echo "";".
I've been told that VB is fully supported by MS debugging tools (Visual Studio?), but when using PHP, you'll get very used to die(serialize($var));
Zend.com (the "commercial" version of PHP) supposedly has an interactive debugging tie-in, but I have not had a chance to work with it. It's also a "for-pay" item, and it is worth noting.
--Robert
1) You create program "Foo v1.0", release under GPL
2) You change string "Hello World" to "Goodbye World", and release "Foo v2.0", under MS-License.
You are totally within all your rights to do this. You "own" Foo, and release it to *OTHERS* under GPL. When you make changes to *your* code, and re-release, life is good.
However, consider the following:
1.5) HelpfulUser submits a modification to you which adds a feature. They give you license to use that code as GPL.
...in this case, you *cannot* relicense your code with their code under a more proprietary license than the GPL. That's because it's not all your code.
For your last question: "Why can't a user of the Windows version sue for the source code, citing the GPL on the *NIX version? Why doesn't the GPL on the *NIX version trump the proprietary license on the Windows version?"
From m-w: License: a permission granted by competent authority to engage in a business or occupation or in an activity otherwise unlawful
It is unlawful to run code that belongs to other people without their permission. Usually companies give users a license (permission) to use their code, and it is totally legit for the *owner* of the code to discriminate (or place restrictions on it's use) when letting other people use it.
--Robert
If you go back and read what Lucas has been saying, you'll realize that this Lucas guy wasn't 100% sure about the business terms for what he wanted to do, so he just called it a business where he'd be the one running it. (since he *would* be the one running it).
-- Lucas Wagner, announcing his ideaPersonally I think all these conspiracy theories about Spindl3top are just as funny as the "Taco/Hemos controlling Microsoft through the minions of laced Taco Bell tacos, and subliminal messages in Toy Story 2, etc...", but it's too bad that some people think they're real.
In summary: Don't give money to anybody you don't trust. Personally, I don't ~trust~ Spindl3top yet, so I'm going to take their blackbird source files (can't get the link now, cuz the site is down) and buy/build the components it myself.
--Robert
:help >
:help shiftwidth
Go to any single line of code, and do ">>" to indent it, or "" or "" to shift.
Enjoy.
--Robert
Whee that was a fun way to learn vim scripting syntaxes. Save the following out to a text file, like ~/pymove.vim and do a :source ~/pymove.vim from within vim. Magically, the ",u", or ",d" keystrokes will move you up and down based on indentation. It could use some work but *I* think it's kindof cool. :^)=
,d :exec ':' . Movedown()
,u :exec ':' . Moveup()
:":source ~/GPL.txt, etc...
:func! Safeup()
:if line('.') != 0
: return line('.') - 1
:else
: return line('.')
:endif
:endfunc
:func! Safedown()
:if line('.') != line('$')
: return line('.') + 1
:else
: return line('.')
:endif
:endfunc
:func! Moveup()
: let new_line = Safeup()
: exec ':' . new_line
: let first_indent = indent( line('.') )
: while indent( line('.') ) == first_indent || indent( line('.') ) > first_indent
: let new_line = Safeup()
: exec ':' . new_line
: endwhile
: return( new_line )
:endfunc
:func! Movedown()
: let new_line = Safedown()
: exec ':' . new_line
: let first_indent = indent( line('.') )
: while indent( line('.') ) == first_indent || indent( line('.') ) > first_indent
: let new_line = Safedown()
: exec ':' . new_line
: endwhile
: return( new_line )
:endfunc
:
:" moves the cursor to position found by 'Movedown()'
:map
:" moves the cursor to position found by 'Moveup()'
:map
--Robert
--Robert (the k5 karma whore ;^)=
You might even be able to go steal some sounds from the Windows "Jungle" theme... crickets, birds, chirps, wildlife. It's much easier on the ears than random dings.
And the comparison to KVM switches is flat wrong. A KVM switch takes multiple inputs and only displays one output at a time. A *mixer* takes multiple inputs, and combines them into one output (in this case, headphones). Mixers can be expensive (I've looked) but you can maybe find a used one for ~$50-100. Much too expensive for a "throwaway" project, and with a cheap mixer you'll be lucky to get 2 (maybe four) inputs.
Perhaps a little better would be to wire up each ear of a set of old stereo headphones to 2 different boxes. Ask some engineering types how to do it, and they'll probably be glad to help. Maximum price is $10 at Radio Shack, but you'll only be able to combine 2 boxes into one set of headphones.
--Robert
The metamoderators, of course ;^)=
--Robert
Reminds me of playing Sierra's old "Red Baron" on a 386 and taking out the zeppelins. Everything old is new again?
--Robert
An observation about K5 v. /. moderation:
/., only 2 comments out of the 85 comments made on this story have made it above a 3.
On K5, the latest front page story has 60 comments. Some statistics:
50 are topical, 10 are editorial.
of the 50 topical, 35 have been rated.
of the 35 rated, only 8 were rated by just one user. the other 27 were rated by multiples users.
On
K5 lets any user rate any comment at any time. As you can see, it means that a significant portion of posts *do* get rated. Yeah, K5's way is probably more intensive on the server, but it seems that more comments getting ratings can only mean good things for readers.
--Robert
I have these same problems described in the article, and I'm almost positive that it's related to copy protection. The Princess Bride plays crystal clear, many of my other movies have little pink lines, especially noticeable when on a red background.
I've been told by "one who knows" that many early movies by WB didn't have this specific form of copy protection on it, because WB didn't want to pay the licensing fees to "license" this form of copy protection.
So if you can't check it with The Princess Bride (regularly $14.99 almost everywhere), you might check other WB movies.
--Robert
Macromedia flash is a great example of "emulating the set top" on the computer. Just as dumb, just as easy to use ;^)=
--Robert
Greeeeat. Finally a use for those Cu3::C@ts.
Where's more stories on those, I haven't been able to laugh at work lately.
--Robert
Believe it or not, this happens for me when reading slashdot (on linux) with M18, mozilla nightlies, galeon, as well as konqueror.
When reading slashdot, I can always get through no matter which browser if I visit http://www.slashdot.org (notice the "www"), but always get a "Connection refused from http://slashdot.org" error when I try to leave off the hostname.
It does not give me problems if I use Netscape 4.75, or Netscape PR3 (at last count). If it's a bug, it's a really persistent (and easy to make?) error in handling redirects.
I've been meaning to investigate bugzilla about this, but It'd be nice to hear that I'm not hallucinating from somebody else.
Linux 2.2.16 #1 Fri Jun 30 21:10:22 CDT 2000 i586 unknown
--Robert
Hey-
My primary email account is handled as a web-application. It's hosted by a company known for it's reliability, and I can get to it from anywhere.
Surprisingly enough, mail.yahoo.com works. Due to all their crazy convergence stuff, I also use notepad.yahoo.com when I'm talking to somebody on the phone. Security aside, I'd rather store directions to their house online than on a scrap of paper I'll throw away.
Don't even get me started on addresses.yahoo.com. I would never store phone numbers and addresses in a rolodex on my desk, because I'll never need the phone numbers when I'm there! I'll need them when I'm visiting a friend, or some other time when I'm not at home.
Web/hosted applications are good for what they are good at. They are not good for everything else. Like someone else said, the concept is a tool that you should use if it is appropriate
--Robert
(plus Kuro5hin readers wisely voted this story section only, probably where it belongs)
--Robert
Doesn't this exactly describe /. karma?
They're in more trouble than they thought.
Here's some stuff (in PHP) I did to get a web interface to XMMS:
$ cat /etc/sudoers
/usr/bin/X11/xmms
/usr/bin/X11/xmms -p" ); /usr/bin/X11/xmms -u" ); /usr/bin/X11/xmms -f" ); /usr/bin/X11/xmms -r" ); /usr/bin/X11/xmms -s" );
www-data ALL = (rames) NOPASSWD:
$ cat ~/public_html/control_xmms.php | grep [important stuff]
if( $operation == "play" ) {
exec( "sudo -u rames
echo "Play >\n";
} else if( $operation == "pause" ) {
exec( "sudo -u rames
echo "Pause ||\n";
} else if( $operation == "fwd" ) {
exec( "sudo -u rames
echo "Fwd >>\n";
} else if( $operation == "rev" ) {
exec( "sudo -u rames
echo "Fwd <<\n";
} else if( $operation == "stop" ) {
exec( "sudo -u rames
} else {
echo "INVALID XMMS OPERATION.";
}
Thought you might find it interesting or useful.
--Robert
Dude. The guy was obviously using the built-in camera, and set up the gizmo in front of a mirror to take pictures of itself. Even cooler, eh?
--Robert