I remember spotting a computer, probably a link off of LinuxDevices, that was the size of a credit card. It was mostly SMT solder-down components with a mini-PCI-like card connector at one end that was used to connect to a daughtercard full of ports and whatnot. I went looking for it yesterday, but couln't find it. Any ideas? I wanted to imagine a Beowulf cluster of them, but needed a visual reference for aid.
I wonder if PearPC will run in Virtual PC on a Mac. I mean, not that you'd want to, but it would be an interesting experiment: PPC running OSX --> Emulated x86 running Windows --> Emulated PPC running OSX.
Oh, I didn't say that I thought they would, or even that I would in their position. I might, but I don't know for sure. As it is, how much do you think they charge Dell and Compaq (now HP, btw) for an OS license? Last I heard it's around $35. And, even if MS released the core OS for free, but continued to charge $35 to OEMs for the full package, the OEMs would continue to buy that. It's easier to do that than create a software development division and then the support agency to go with it.
I almost agree with you. It's that little "apart from license and money reasons" thing that gets me. Of course, apart from money reasons, I'd be using a PowerBook 17".
Really, I can almost like XP, so long as I can switch the interface back to "Classic Mode" it's fairly usable. But if I don't like the way MS' designers decided that people should use computers, I'm out of luck for changing it. With Linux, I can do a lot at the command line, where I'm comfortable (if not talented), and when running KDE (which is most of the time), I can configure it to do a lot of stuff that I can't do (or it costs money to add the software for) on Windows.
And, as far as the "just works" part, so do a lot of Linux distros. Pick any one of the major distros and you've got a fully-confgured, ready to run system about twenty minutes after starting your installation. The basic software is good (Open Office, Mozilla, Evolution, etc.), and a user that just wants to get by with whatever they're handed is not left wanting for much. And, mind you, I don't say that derisively. With any modern OS (okay, the major three: Windows, MacOS, Linux), the basic distro includes enough software for most users. On Windows you should really add MS Works and on MacOS add AppleWorks and the iLife packages, but without ranging too far or spending an exhorbitant amount of money, lots of functionality is at hand.
But for me, supporting freedom in an OS is important. Microsoft would go a long way toward dowsing the fire of contempt that's burning at their door if they released their core OS (without any add-ons like Paint or Wordpad or any of the myriad extras they put into their distro) as Open Source and sold what are now XP Home, Pro and Server as commercialized add-on packages with support options.
But that's just me. I'm really looking forward to what Novell is going to do once they've integrated SUSE, Ximian and their previous software (NetWare, NDS, GroupWise, etc) into one software line.
Is there any value to the manuals? I bought 9.0 Personal and, while I found it nice to have a two-paragraph description of each package in written form, the manual doesn't do me much good. And I'm fairly new to Linux. For instance, I wanted to know how to figure out which Network Controller (of the three listed) was the 10/100 port in the back of my laptop. The manual told me that a network controller was something to help me get connected to a network, and that I could use Advanced to configure it manually. Not much else in there. I ended up randomly selecting a port, configuring it, and seeing if I could route over it. Eventually I got connectivity. Now if I can just figure out which one of those other two ports is my wireless card, and then what the hell the third one is (I only know of the wireless card and the 10/100 port), I'll be in business...
To expand on that, newtons would come into play in figuring this out, but it would be more to find out how hard you're going to hit that telephone pole over there because your brakes don't work anymore.
Great, then someone will come up with a hack that spoofs the receivers, creating "traffic jams" on deserted roads, "icy conditions" in the desert and many other, more nefarious things.
Not that I'm necessarily advocating "Big Brother"-type, camera-on-every-lightpost monitoring, but it would be foolish to rely on people correctly reporting what their vehicle is doing at all times.
but I can't get to their site to find out for sure.
Try getting there some other way than clicking a link on a Slashdot page. I think they're refusing referrals from Slashdot. They probably got swamped.
I went to the article, read that (!!), then put ignalum.com in the address line of my browser. It put me right in.
I note that their release number is 9. Seems artificially high for a product still in beta. I suppose they're trying to compete with Red Hat and SUSE. They're still running Linux 2.4 on KDE 3.1, though.:-\
How about going down into the crater, finding out what's there, and naming the crater based on what you find. Then we can all hope for a "Cephalopod Crater.":^)
That's exactly what I thought, too. It looks to me like a glacier face in the fall, when the wind and sun have eroded it heavily all summer, and the wind has frosted it with dust along all the peaks.
And those tendrils, as someone else pointed out, look to be seepage flowing out onto the surface and freezing. Eventually it would work its way downhill (gravity and all) as the water continued to push out, the stuff coming later protected, even for the barest few moments, by the ice that was just formed. It wouldn't take long for a tendril to reach the bottom of the crater, where the cycle would continue, pushing the ice upward as newly formed material flows in at the bottom.
I'd wager that a quick examination of that mound shows that it's water ice. If that's true, then it's going to set off a huge race for manned missions to Mars, because free flowing water, at whatever temperature, is probably the best place to look for life.
Slashdot Mirror
My favorite, often on the November ballot: Marijuana Initiative.
Very nifty. Not the thing I was thinking of, but essentially the same situation. Do you happen to know how much the development kits sell for?
Um, no, but that's really cool.
I remember spotting a computer, probably a link off of LinuxDevices, that was the size of a credit card. It was mostly SMT solder-down components with a mini-PCI-like card connector at one end that was used to connect to a daughtercard full of ports and whatnot. I went looking for it yesterday, but couln't find it. Any ideas? I wanted to imagine a Beowulf cluster of them, but needed a visual reference for aid.
My DSL router/modem IS an AP. Lucky that it has WEP, MAC filtering, and other security measures built in.
I always heard it pronounced "wye-fye" rather than "wifey." I still prefer "wireless," though. BTW, great website you run there. Thanks.
Cool. Which cube in Palo Alto is his?
Um... RTFP. He said "Before X there was W," meaning, W comes before X.
When did the term "X-Windows" come into play? It seems to me that therein lies the root of a good legal standing on the subject.
I wonder if PearPC will run in Virtual PC on a Mac. I mean, not that you'd want to, but it would be an interesting experiment: PPC running OSX --> Emulated x86 running Windows --> Emulated PPC running OSX.
Okay, enough caffeine for me today.
Oh, I didn't say that I thought they would, or even that I would in their position. I might, but I don't know for sure. As it is, how much do you think they charge Dell and Compaq (now HP, btw) for an OS license? Last I heard it's around $35. And, even if MS released the core OS for free, but continued to charge $35 to OEMs for the full package, the OEMs would continue to buy that. It's easier to do that than create a software development division and then the support agency to go with it.
I almost agree with you. It's that little "apart from license and money reasons" thing that gets me. Of course, apart from money reasons, I'd be using a PowerBook 17".
Really, I can almost like XP, so long as I can switch the interface back to "Classic Mode" it's fairly usable. But if I don't like the way MS' designers decided that people should use computers, I'm out of luck for changing it. With Linux, I can do a lot at the command line, where I'm comfortable (if not talented), and when running KDE (which is most of the time), I can configure it to do a lot of stuff that I can't do (or it costs money to add the software for) on Windows.
And, as far as the "just works" part, so do a lot of Linux distros. Pick any one of the major distros and you've got a fully-confgured, ready to run system about twenty minutes after starting your installation. The basic software is good (Open Office, Mozilla, Evolution, etc.), and a user that just wants to get by with whatever they're handed is not left wanting for much. And, mind you, I don't say that derisively. With any modern OS (okay, the major three: Windows, MacOS, Linux), the basic distro includes enough software for most users. On Windows you should really add MS Works and on MacOS add AppleWorks and the iLife packages, but without ranging too far or spending an exhorbitant amount of money, lots of functionality is at hand.
But for me, supporting freedom in an OS is important. Microsoft would go a long way toward dowsing the fire of contempt that's burning at their door if they released their core OS (without any add-ons like Paint or Wordpad or any of the myriad extras they put into their distro) as Open Source and sold what are now XP Home, Pro and Server as commercialized add-on packages with support options.
But that's just me. I'm really looking forward to what Novell is going to do once they've integrated SUSE, Ximian and their previous software (NetWare, NDS, GroupWise, etc) into one software line.
Is there any value to the manuals? I bought 9.0 Personal and, while I found it nice to have a two-paragraph description of each package in written form, the manual doesn't do me much good. And I'm fairly new to Linux. For instance, I wanted to know how to figure out which Network Controller (of the three listed) was the 10/100 port in the back of my laptop. The manual told me that a network controller was something to help me get connected to a network, and that I could use Advanced to configure it manually. Not much else in there. I ended up randomly selecting a port, configuring it, and seeing if I could route over it. Eventually I got connectivity. Now if I can just figure out which one of those other two ports is my wireless card, and then what the hell the third one is (I only know of the wireless card and the 10/100 port), I'll be in business...
To expand on that, newtons would come into play in figuring this out, but it would be more to find out how hard you're going to hit that telephone pole over there because your brakes don't work anymore.
Great, then someone will come up with a hack that spoofs the receivers, creating "traffic jams" on deserted roads, "icy conditions" in the desert and many other, more nefarious things.
Not that I'm necessarily advocating "Big Brother"-type, camera-on-every-lightpost monitoring, but it would be foolish to rely on people correctly reporting what their vehicle is doing at all times.
"Posted speed limit" is the phrase, aka "ignored arbitrary number."
Those could all be roads in Eastern Oregon as well. I guess things are tough all over.
Can you identify who you're quoting there?
Furthermore, it has no perceivable impact on the Earth.
"Hey, waitamininute, that's my stapler!"
Try getting there some other way than clicking a link on a Slashdot page. I think they're refusing referrals from Slashdot. They probably got swamped.
I went to the article, read that (!!), then put ignalum.com in the address line of my browser. It put me right in.
I note that their release number is 9. Seems artificially high for a product still in beta. I suppose they're trying to compete with Red Hat and SUSE. They're still running Linux 2.4 on KDE 3.1, though. :-\
Not only that, but the batteries never run down.
Or, at the very least, a flowing river.
How about going down into the crater, finding out what's there, and naming the crater based on what you find. Then we can all hope for a "Cephalopod Crater." :^)
And those tendrils, as someone else pointed out, look to be seepage flowing out onto the surface and freezing. Eventually it would work its way downhill (gravity and all) as the water continued to push out, the stuff coming later protected, even for the barest few moments, by the ice that was just formed. It wouldn't take long for a tendril to reach the bottom of the crater, where the cycle would continue, pushing the ice upward as newly formed material flows in at the bottom.
I'd wager that a quick examination of that mound shows that it's water ice. If that's true, then it's going to set off a huge race for manned missions to Mars, because free flowing water, at whatever temperature, is probably the best place to look for life.