Why does everyone put their swap on a slow harddrive ? A Gentoo running mate of mine in the pub showed me how to map the swap file into RAM: runs much faster there.
(I browsed at -1 but could not find a Topper thread, so I have started one!)
> One caveat is that most of the book is focused on working with object oriented programming languages.
Hokum Pokum new fangled OO: we support various Mission Critical legacy systems with FORTRAN-77, K&R C; we've only just leapt from VAXes to Alphas, and are moving from Solaris 6 to Solaris 8 (all forced us by non-supportive suppliers). Having said that one of our systems does have one of those new-fangled Web interface thingies, but we try not to touch that:-) Oh, and some of our new hardware came with 2 (two) CPUs, so we switched one off in order to avoid a new class of bugs !!
But I am sure other Slashdot Old Farts can do better than that ?
> I actually cannot believe how inexpensive NASA's missions are. It costs just $485M to go to Mars, and how many billions or trillions of dollars to invade Iraq?
This is true: but look at the Return on Investment: - Mars Mission: a few grainy photos and some scientific knowledge - value to gvnt supporters: minimal - Invade Iraq: a guaranteed flow of a zillion hogsheads of oil - value to gvnt supporters:...
Wow: I can't believe she made a speech like this. I was 24 and living in the UK at this time and her governments policies could not be further from what she spoke about. "The Government espouses the concept of sustainable economic development." struck me as being particularly bizarre: this was the era of Yuppies, greed is good and Loads-a-money.
> I find it worrying that people say "I don't know enough, so i don't believe it" about climate changes.
Same here. And I think in the end it comes down to who you *trust*: peer reviewed scientists or politicians and ad agencies etc. Of course you bring what knowledge you do have to help you decide but in the end everyone makes a decision: even not making a decision is a decision (ie to do nothing).
(IMHO a lot of people make decisions and then try to justify them instead of the other way around (eg I do not want to change my lifestyle therefore I do not believe in Climate Change.).)
> If the BBC is publicly funded by the British people, why the hell are they charging for their content? Isn't that a bit absurd?
Because most of the content is not *owned* by the BBC. The TV license fee covers the cost of obtaining (either commissioning or buying in from overseas) and broadcasting TV/radio. If you want the DVD then you pay extra for that, although I am sure that these sales help keep down the cost of the license fee.
> - What will this do to Firefox? If Google Chrome is successful, I suspect it'll be at Firefox's expense rather than IE - at least in the near term.
Possibly: I am not sure of the profile of the 'typical' FF user, but it seems that Adblock is usually the first add-on people install, and often the favourite. I suspect Google will do what they can to stop ad-blockers getting into 'their' browser. In fact will Chrome allow any plugins ?
I used to agree till I was given a widescreen monitor at work: there is lots of space for tabs at the side and a little more height is more useful than more width for the actual website.
> Nope, it's an entirely different company and patent. I'm guessing all the MP3 players already have licenses for the Fraunhofer patent - they usually do.
AFAIK there are multiple beneficiaries of MP3 licensing fees: I highlighted the German Fraunhofer Institute as just one of them. To which patent are you referring ? I can not see one in the article.
> What was all that shit about NASA astronauts being our best and brightest again?
It would not be hard to be a best and brightest physicist and still not know much about Windows security (especially, as we all here know, Real Work (tm) does not get done on Windows but on Solaris, Linux, or even VMS:-).
So on this thread I read that Nvidia and VIA recently announced a technical partnership and that VIA is getting out of chipsets.
Nvidia makes chipsets but not CPUs, VIA makes CPUs, mobos, not chipsets and only lowend? GPUs. Sounds like a very compatible mix, and mirroring AMD/ATI ?
> In actuality, no. They took a recent poll that showed that > > a) the Chinese people were quite happy with the direction their government is taking, and > b) Overwhelmingly the Chinese people thought that the rest of the world views china "favorably" of "very favorably".
I am no expert on China, but I guess that if I was an average Chinaman, and a government official came up to me and asked what I thought of the governments performance, then I would, err, tend to emphasize the positive !
Slashdot Mirror
640Kfloppies/sec ought to be enough for anybody.
> when you add in that the average American is as smart as a radish.
Hey: I am a radish, and I resent that remark.
> Please drive the posted limit. (It's safer for everyone)
Not for cyclists/pedestrians/horse riders it is not: slower is safer.
> Customers buy your product because they need it...
You must be new to capitalism :-)
> but what's the point of putting swap into RAM
>...
> Does it really surprise you that suspend doesn't work.
Yep: I was going for +Funny, not +Insightfull :-))
Why does everyone put their swap on a slow harddrive ? A Gentoo running mate of mine in the pub showed me how to map the swap file into RAM: runs much faster there.
(Although suspend does not seem to work now :-(
(I browsed at -1 but could not find a Topper thread, so I have started one!)
> One caveat is that most of the book is focused on working with object oriented programming languages.
Hokum Pokum new fangled OO: we support various Mission Critical legacy systems with FORTRAN-77, K&R C; we've only just leapt from VAXes to Alphas, and are moving from Solaris 6 to Solaris 8 (all forced us by non-supportive suppliers). Having said that one of our systems does have one of those new-fangled Web interface thingies, but we try not to touch that :-) Oh, and some of our new hardware came with 2 (two) CPUs, so we switched one off in order to avoid a new class of bugs !!
But I am sure other Slashdot Old Farts can do better than that ?
Being of that era, although not the fan base, I always Blame It On The Boogie.
> Did we all die from those?
No: but to quote the small print on market-based savings plans: "Past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future performance" !
> In Europe, OSS is metric
Except in the UK where it is a mixture of metric and imperial :-)
(OK: I know there are plenty of people in the UK who would rather be part of the USA then Europe !!)
> I actually cannot believe how inexpensive NASA's missions are. It costs just $485M to go to Mars, and how many billions or trillions of dollars to invade Iraq?
This is true: but look at the Return on Investment: ...
- Mars Mission: a few grainy photos and some scientific knowledge - value to gvnt supporters: minimal
- Invade Iraq: a guaranteed flow of a zillion hogsheads of oil - value to gvnt supporters:
> http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=107346
Wow: I can't believe she made a speech like this. I was 24 and living in the UK at this time and her governments policies could not be further from what she spoke about. "The Government espouses the concept of sustainable economic development." struck me as being particularly bizarre: this was the era of Yuppies, greed is good and Loads-a-money.
> I find it worrying that people say "I don't know enough, so i don't believe it" about climate changes.
Same here. And I think in the end it comes down to who you *trust*: peer reviewed scientists or politicians and ad agencies etc. Of course you bring what knowledge you do have to help you decide but in the end everyone makes a decision: even not making a decision is a decision (ie to do nothing).
(IMHO a lot of people make decisions and then try to justify them instead of the other way around (eg I do not want to change my lifestyle therefore I do not believe in Climate Change.).)
> Global warming does not imply that all areas will be warmer, just that the world, on average, will be.
Which, of course, is why a lot of people now refer to "Climate Change", not "Global warming".
> If the BBC is publicly funded by the British people, why the hell are they charging for their content? Isn't that a bit absurd?
Because most of the content is not *owned* by the BBC. The TV license fee covers the cost of obtaining (either commissioning or buying in from overseas) and broadcasting TV/radio. If you want the DVD then you pay extra for that, although I am sure that these sales help keep down the cost of the license fee.
> And that's why, ladies and gentlemen, the US plans to rely on Russian launches for our entire ISS mission programme.
Don't panic: those very clever Europeans can save the day (again): you can have a ride in the ATV :-)
> - What will this do to Firefox? If Google Chrome is successful, I suspect it'll be at Firefox's expense rather than IE - at least in the near term.
Possibly: I am not sure of the profile of the 'typical' FF user, but it seems that Adblock is usually the first add-on people install, and often the favourite. I suspect Google will do what they can to stop ad-blockers getting into 'their' browser. In fact will Chrome allow any plugins ?
> That would use too much screen space for me.
I used to agree till I was given a widescreen monitor at work: there is lots of space for tabs at the side and a little more height is more useful than more width for the actual website.
> Nope, it's an entirely different company and patent. I'm guessing all the MP3 players already have licenses for the Fraunhofer patent - they usually do.
AFAIK there are multiple beneficiaries of MP3 licensing fees: I highlighted the German Fraunhofer Institute as just one of them.
To which patent are you referring ? I can not see one in the article.
I also just checked http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/German-Customs-cracks-down-at-IFA--/111434 (English) and http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Zoll-auf-Beschlagnahmetour-Update--/meldung/115126 (German) and they suggest it is MPEG audio/ DVB-T related.
> Either that or it has something to do in common with all those devices - maybe remote control?
I guess the commonality is MP3: the German Fraunhofer Institute would like to collect it's licensing money: hence the help from German customs.
> I wonder what virus was actually the first to make it to space.
Agent Smith would say Yuri Gagarin.
> What was all that shit about NASA astronauts being our best and brightest again?
It would not be hard to be a best and brightest physicist and still not know much about Windows security (especially, as we all here know, Real Work (tm) does not get done on Windows but on Solaris, Linux, or even VMS :-).
So on this thread I read that Nvidia and VIA recently announced a technical partnership and that VIA is getting out of chipsets.
Nvidia makes chipsets but not CPUs, VIA makes CPUs, mobos, not chipsets and only lowend? GPUs. Sounds like a very compatible mix, and mirroring AMD/ATI ?
> In actuality, no. They took a recent poll that showed that
>
> a) the Chinese people were quite happy with the direction their government is taking, and
> b) Overwhelmingly the Chinese people thought that the rest of the world views china "favorably" of "very favorably".
I am no expert on China, but I guess that if I was an average Chinaman, and a government official came up to me and asked what I thought of the governments performance, then I would, err, tend to emphasize the positive !
> I've been able to sit at my PC and watch the bits I was interested in on the BBC website,
I live in Germany, you insensitive clod !