The sound works perfectly on the 279 model, not sure about the newer cheaper model.
50 bucks for a keboard and mouse is insane. I usually pay 5 bucks for optical mice and 5 bucks for a keyboards at Frys.
The server is an investment, but what good is a large network without a server to manage things?
Network infrastructure is a given. Its 2005, computers arent all that useful without an internet connection.
Don't get me wrong, I'm knocking your machines. I do enjoy 3D gaming and it looks like your setups are better suited for that. Its just not as relevant for what I'm using them for. 60 thin clients do X11 over a 10/100 network well enough for web browsing, word processing, programming etc. I get centralized administration using ltsp, and junk thin clients are very low maintenace. Solid state clients are practically zero maintenance.
Have you tried one of your 4 user machines against an LTSP server? You could lower the ram, remove all the drives and still do some local apps. Might be worth looking into.
While not as nice as real thin clients, old junk machines can easily be made to be reliable with an LTSP network.
You can get a good bootable NIC for 20 bucks, remove local devices (hard drive, floppy, cdrom) and you have a pretty reliable machine. Sure the CPU fan or the power supply can go out on your dumpster pentium 166s, but its not like you can't just take the NIC and put it in another junk machine.
I've outfitted a school with 60 workstations that my company has thrown away. Pentium 133s - P2 350s.
LTSP, specifically K12LTSP has been the perfect solution. Save your money for network infrastructure, flat panel screens, and internet:)
Its been a while, but I thought one of the big 3rd-party issues to releasing open source drivers was the S3 texture compression stuff.
If S3 is mentioned in the article, does that mean the cards that they are talking about don't use this texture compression technique? A whole lot of games do.
The problem with that is what if for example you have a very graphical website, it could be difficult for the users to find the form to submit their information when all your sites images are squished into a portable devices screen.
Agreed.
Make this small and unobtrusive, but at the first part of the webpage if the cookie isn't set. Maybe move it out of the way after it is set in case it needs to be changed.
What I do is I have a link on the top of my page where users of portable devices can login. No checking for agent types or resolutions. And if the site is squished into a small screen, its easy to find.
That is exactly what i recommended against. What happens when your users use more than one device? Maybe I want slashdot on the psp AND on firefox on my desktop. This should be a cookie, and browser instance specific, not user account specific.
Checking the resolution of the screen is another way to do it (if you do not want to keep up with the different agent types), if its a very small resolution, you can assume they would need the text based version of your site instead of the very graphical site.
Interesting, but it seems to make this work uniformly against most browsers/platforms it would be as difficult as maintaining all known USER-AGENT headers.
Don't just rely on user-agent sniffing. Create a selection box on your site to allow the client to override the format your page comes down in and save it in a cookie (Not in database persisted user account prefs). USER-AGENT headers seem to be a moving target.
And remember kids, Linux is only free if your time has no value.
Man, I was feeling the post up until that jab. Had to do it huh? You can spend equally large amounts of time with operating system issues on that other platform as well. Enough to level the playing field in that respect. You can't deny the fact that the debian you've been tinker with costs less than a windows XP license from a cost of entry perspective.
Garbage collection is one of the main reasons Java and C# are so slow.
No argument there.
(Benchmarks claim only 3x. Experience shows 30x is more common, due largely to GC's effect on cache performance.)
And my experience shows that "30x" is an exaggeration by someone trying to prove a point.
Multiple inheritance costs nothing; why bring it up?
Because it leads to diamond shaped inheritance which is a maintenance nightmare. I despise that part of c++. I'm no glutton for punishment, but I do like to contribute to open source where I can. As such, I find myself less willing to read over code where this has been needlessly used. I feel the same about excessive operator overloading.
Programs written as if performance doesn't matter interfere with operation of other programs where it does.
Performance is always an issue. Coding sloppily in any language is unacceptable. That said, many of us do have bills to pay and families to feed, and acheiving the desired functionality of application's spec is almost always more important than couple of percentage points worth of application perfomance. Increase productivity and you have a better chance of reaching your goal. Thread the applcation correctly so that the parts of the application that are out of the developer's control don't affect the user's experience.
Fine we'll all switch completely to C++. Just add a garbage collector, remove multiple inheritence, and eliminate the need for header files.
Oh wait, now you have java and C#
Don't just assume that because you like C++ for everything, that everyone else does. Some things are just easier to do in java or C#. There are plenty of cases when the bottleneck in your application is something like I/O or bandwith or SQL running time. In cases like these, often the benefit of a super fast GUI doesn't outweigh the rapid development of using something slightly higher level.
C and C++ definetly have their place, but so do java and maybe even C# Just pick the right tool for the job.
Again, you're not paying attention.
Never once did I say yum was "all that".
I was simply pointing out that it was not cause and effect. Apt for redhat/fedora was around well before yum came into existence.
I personally use both. I use apt because I like the stuff that they have at freshrpms.net and its faster for the most part. I also use yum because the guys at livna.org have a nice way of installing the nvidia drivers with it. But the guys a freshrpms.net also provide their repositories for yum.
Actually FC2 had tomcat, but it was dropped in FC3
Nice to see it coming back in FC4
One really cool thing that they did with FC2 was plug tomcat into Apache with mod_jk, which always seems to be a pain. I went ahead and installed Sun's jvm and tomcat from jakarta.apache.org, but the hard part was done by redhat.
Great, Now, where in the hell is the Shockwave player for linux !?!
32-bit would be fine. This is absolute shite.
So many educational websites were duped into using shockwave(not just Flash) and it really bugs me that Macromedia doesn't have the decency to even respond to the thousands of request(yes thousands, look at the petitions)
I don't hate Flash, I hate that Macromedia is ignoring Shockwave for linux.
Teaching Linux is like teaching Esperanto: not practical in the real world. Students should be taught skills they can readily use in the real world, and with computers that means Windows. Too bad, its true.
Wow.I can see why you posted that as an AC.
What exactly are these windows specific "real world" skills that we should teach a k-12 student?
Is it that Linux looks so different that kids wouldn't be able to find their way around in windows?
I've got a "real world" story for you. Two years ago I put together one of these k12ltsp labs for a small school of about 300 students ages 5-13. I doubt very many of them had ever heard the word Linux before. Guess what? They took to it instantly. Even the older kids that were using windows for several years.
The fact is Linux (LTSP especially) is a much more economically viable option for schools.
One more thing. You have the right to your own opinion, but your analogy was weak. Esperanto provides no immediate benefit. Using Linux saved the school enough budget that they were able to purchase flat panel monitors for the entire lab this year.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm knocking your machines
Doh!
sorry about that, I'm NOT knocking your machines.
The sound works perfectly on the 279 model, not sure about the newer cheaper model.
50 bucks for a keboard and mouse is insane. I usually pay 5 bucks for optical mice and 5 bucks for a keyboards at Frys.
The server is an investment, but what good is a large network without a server to manage things?
Network infrastructure is a given. Its 2005, computers arent all that useful without an internet connection.
Don't get me wrong, I'm knocking your machines. I do enjoy 3D gaming and it looks like your setups are better suited for that.
Its just not as relevant for what I'm using them for.
60 thin clients do X11 over a 10/100 network well enough for web browsing, word processing, programming etc.
I get centralized administration using ltsp, and junk thin clients are very low maintenace. Solid state clients are practically zero maintenance.
Have you tried one of your 4 user machines against an LTSP server? You could lower the ram, remove all the drives and still do some local apps.
Might be worth looking into.
and they aren't cheaper if you're buying new hardware.
Here's a brand new and cheap fanless thin client
I've also bought a few of these and have been very happy with them.
And buying from this vendor directly supports the development of LTSP.
While not as nice as real thin clients, old junk machines can easily be made to be reliable with an LTSP network.
:)
You can get a good bootable NIC for 20 bucks, remove local devices (hard drive, floppy, cdrom) and you have a pretty reliable machine.
Sure the CPU fan or the power supply can go out on your dumpster pentium 166s, but its not like you can't just take the NIC and put it in another junk machine.
I've outfitted a school with 60 workstations that my company has thrown away. Pentium 133s - P2 350s.
LTSP, specifically K12LTSP has been the perfect solution.
Save your money for network infrastructure, flat panel screens, and internet
Its been a while, but I thought one of the big 3rd-party issues to releasing open source drivers was the S3 texture compression stuff.
If S3 is mentioned in the article, does that mean the cards that they are talking about don't use this texture compression technique? A whole lot of games do.
Than he should've renewed Steve Nash's contract.
:)
If Phoenix finishes with the best record, Nash is gonna get the MVP award.
Wow, NBA on-top in a slashdot post. Good day so far
The problem with that is what if for example you have a very graphical website, it could be difficult for the users to find the form to submit their information when all your sites images are squished into a portable devices screen.
Agreed.
Make this small and unobtrusive, but at the first part of the webpage if the cookie isn't set.
Maybe move it out of the way after it is set in case it needs to be changed.
What I do is I have a link on the top of my page where users of portable devices can login. No checking for agent types or resolutions. And if the site is squished into a small screen, its easy to find.
That is exactly what i recommended against.
What happens when your users use more than one device? Maybe I want slashdot on the psp AND on firefox on my desktop.
This should be a cookie, and browser instance specific, not user account specific.
Checking the resolution of the screen is another way to do it (if you do not want to keep up with the different agent types), if its a very small resolution, you can assume they would need the text based version of your site instead of the very graphical site.
Interesting, but it seems to make this work uniformly against most browsers/platforms it would be as difficult as maintaining all known USER-AGENT headers.
Suggestion:
Don't just rely on user-agent sniffing. Create a selection box on your site to allow the client to override the format your page comes down in and save it in a cookie (Not in database persisted user account prefs). USER-AGENT headers seem to be a moving target.
Default the one that comes down of course.
how was that flamebait?
I can confirm what the parent said.
Still not fixed, at least its not fixed as of IE version 6.0.2800.1106
And remember kids, Linux is only free if your time has no value.
Man, I was feeling the post up until that jab. Had to do it huh?
You can spend equally large amounts of time with operating system issues on that other platform as well. Enough to level the playing field in that respect.
You can't deny the fact that the debian you've been tinker with costs less than a windows XP license from a cost of entry perspective.
Garbage collection is one of the main reasons Java and C# are so slow.
No argument there.
(Benchmarks claim only 3x. Experience shows 30x is more common, due largely to GC's effect on cache performance.)
And my experience shows that "30x" is an exaggeration by someone trying to prove a point.
Multiple inheritance costs nothing; why bring it up?
Because it leads to diamond shaped inheritance which is a maintenance nightmare. I despise that part of c++.
I'm no glutton for punishment, but I do like to contribute to open source where I can. As such, I find myself less willing to read over code where this has been needlessly used. I feel the same about excessive operator overloading.
Programs written as if performance doesn't matter interfere with operation of other programs where it does.
Performance is always an issue. Coding sloppily in any language is unacceptable.
That said, many of us do have bills to pay and families to feed, and acheiving the desired functionality of application's spec is almost always more important than couple of percentage points worth of application perfomance. Increase productivity and you have a better chance of reaching your goal.
Thread the applcation correctly so that the parts of the application that are out of the developer's control don't affect the user's experience.
Fine we'll all switch completely to C++.
Just add a garbage collector, remove multiple inheritence, and eliminate the need for header files.
Oh wait, now you have java and C#
Don't just assume that because you like C++ for everything, that everyone else does.
Some things are just easier to do in java or C#.
There are plenty of cases when the bottleneck in your application is something like I/O or bandwith or SQL running time. In cases like these, often the benefit of a super fast GUI doesn't outweigh the rapid development of using something slightly higher level.
C and C++ definetly have their place, but so do java and maybe even C#
Just pick the right tool for the job.
Again, you're not paying attention.
Never once did I say yum was "all that".
I was simply pointing out that it was not cause and effect.
Apt for redhat/fedora was around well before yum came into existence.
I personally use both. I use apt because I like the stuff that they have at freshrpms.net and its faster for the most part.
I also use yum because the guys at livna.org have a nice way of installing the nvidia drivers with it.
But the guys a freshrpms.net also provide their repositories for yum.
So?
Did you read what you were replying to?
I was just pointing out that apt for redhat wasn't created in response to "how bad yum really is"
There were apt packages for redhat6.2
A proof of how bad yum really is, is that some people have independently set up Fedora repositories managed by apt-get!
Bullshit.
Freshrpms.net had apt long before yum was even around.
Actually FC2 had tomcat, but it was dropped in FC3
Nice to see it coming back in FC4
One really cool thing that they did with FC2 was plug tomcat into Apache with mod_jk, which always seems to be a pain. I went ahead and installed Sun's jvm and tomcat from jakarta.apache.org, but the hard part was done by redhat.
Of course its not free.
Windows isn't free either. Figured the parent post was willing to pay money.
I wouldn't spend the money for vmware, then again I wouldn't want to run windows on a linux box.
Use vmware then?
Look, I work for Macromedia
Great,
Now, where in the hell is the Shockwave player for linux !?!
32-bit would be fine.
This is absolute shite.
So many educational websites were duped into using shockwave(not just Flash) and it really bugs me that Macromedia doesn't have the decency to even respond to the thousands of request(yes thousands, look at the petitions)
I don't hate Flash, I hate that Macromedia is ignoring Shockwave for linux.
ahhh yeah.
Dual voodoo2 with an overclocked celeron 300->450
smokin!
yeah... well at least I got the term STP right :)
err.. 1 atmosphere, not 1 netwon. :)
Its been a while since high school
1 newton atmospheric pressure.
4 degrees centigrade.
AKA STP(standard temperature and pressure)
High school physics.
I've used both extensively.
Apples to oranges comparison on both the languages and the databases.
Pick the right tool for the job, they both have strengths and weeknesses.
Teaching Linux is like teaching Esperanto: not practical in the real world. Students should be taught skills they can readily use in the real world, and with computers that means Windows. Too bad, its true.
Wow.I can see why you posted that as an AC.
What exactly are these windows specific "real world" skills that we should teach a k-12 student?
Intenet usage?... check
Word processing? Spreadsheets? Presentations?... check check check
Programming?... check
Photo Editing?... check
Is it that Linux looks so different that kids wouldn't be able to find their way around in windows?
I've got a "real world" story for you.
Two years ago I put together one of these k12ltsp labs for a small school of about 300 students ages 5-13. I doubt very many of them had ever heard the word Linux before.
Guess what? They took to it instantly. Even the older kids that were using windows for several years.
The fact is Linux (LTSP especially) is a much more economically viable option for schools.
One more thing. You have the right to your own opinion, but your analogy was weak.
Esperanto provides no immediate benefit. Using Linux saved the school enough budget that they were able to purchase flat panel monitors for the entire lab this year.