I think NT4 came with a MIPS version... I haven't the least idea how well it worked, or where in the HELL you're going to find any software for it, though.
If you have lots of Windows machines, this might make a good Samba server. Since it doesn't have graphics capabilities, but ought to make a spectacular number cruncher, get the Math/Science teachers to come up with some college-level projects to run on it. If you have CS courses, then it's a great opportunity to learn:
UNIX command line syntax
C Programming
UNIX administration
How all computers ought to be built
If you have a good Internet connection (DSL or cable modem would do), you can also provide e-mail for the students. Give them shell accounts so they can use Pine and practice UNIX skills, or setup WebMail. You've all sorts of possibilies.
The biggest problem you'll run into is the chance that you don't have SGI's development package. In that case, you're SOL unless you can find binaries for any not-already-installed programs you need. The Devel package costs, I believe, about $1000 from SGI, but they may give a high school a nice break. Check into it. Read up on SGIs. Find out how to secure them properly, but please, put this baby to good use.
Also, remember that Irix scales *very* well (though this is running an *old* version)
From Ebay:
... Running Irix v6.4...
Um, no, it's not running an old version. This would actually be pretty recent.
I would imagine that it would easily take out a PIII 800, dual or otherwise.
*sputter*
Of course it would. No, you can't play HalfLife or run MS-Word on it (not that either of those benefit from a dual P3 over a single P3), but for graphic rendering, or CAD processing, or molecular modeling, or VR work, or databases, (or... etc.) this thing would beat the hell out of any x86 machine you could think of conjuring up. Intel's architecutre simply doesn't compare.
You don't get liner notes with an MP3, nor do you get the master PCM audio data. What you get is a med. to high. quality reproduction of the audio that is good enough to enjoy listening to.
There's still added value in a CD.
Re:nVidia has incentive to remain closed-source...
on
GPL Violation - NVIDIA
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· Score: 2
I'm not getting paid either way so why try to restrict people from making money of my software. After all, Redhat has proved that it is possible to get rich off other people's code even if it is GPLed.
Dammit, that's not the point of the GPL. The point of the GPL is to enforce the openness of code. RedHat is, indeed, making money off GPL code, and it's not against the letter or the spirit of the GPL. More power to them!
You don't use the GPL in order to restrict people from making money off your work. You do it in order to see that any improvements other people make to your code are also open.
With the BSDL developers are more free...
Then why not just make it public domain?
PS: It's 4 AM and instead of studying for my Calc III final I am posting to Slashdot.
Heh, me too - except my final is in electrical engineering.
I thought the whole point of having experts was letting people specialize in fields; that way you can hire someone to come in and fix your computer, even though you don't know how.
You're right, a computer is just a tool. And people do need to know how to use it. But, people who are not into computers (at least not like I am) don't need to know how to recompile a kernel, install programs, etc.
I'm not, however, saying that Windows does a good job of this. It doesn't. MacOS, on the other hand, like BeOS, is, I think, very user friendly. They (well, BeOS at least, I have less experience with Macs) also allow the power user room to stretch his (or her) legs. They don't close off options, like Micrsoft's "wizards" do. They just hide them, until you go looking for them.
Wer is "who" in the nominative, and in this context can be taken to mean "He who..."
Nicht is a negator, and in this case negates hoeren will (sorry, I don't know how to do umlauts from this computer, so I add the e, which indicates an umlaut when it occurs right after a vowel).
Hoeren will means "wants to listen" in the third person singular. Wollen (will in the infinitive) actually has no real direct translation. It's partway between "want" and "need." My college German instructor put it best: Americans say "I want a hamburger" at McDonalds, but in Germany you're more polite: "ich moechte ein Hamburger." Moechte means "would like to have," and is basically common decency. Using "ich will" instead would pretty much be saying that you can't live without the hamburger. It's considered rude to use it, unless you really mean it.
Muss comes from muessen, and means, well, "must."
I've only seen fuehlen used to mean "feel," so I'm not sure here.
Uh, yup. Check this out, from the CYBERsitter license agreement (quoted near the end of this article):
Reverse Engineering Prohibited Unauthorized reverse engineering of the Software, whether for edcucational, fair use, or other reason is expressly forbidden. For the purposes of this license the term "reverse engineering" shall apply to any and all information obtained by such methods as decompiling, decrypting, trial and error, or activity logging.
You'd be interested in the bold part. But also, I think it's interesting that they think they can prevent "fair use." Would this really hold up in a court? How can this specific license overrule "fair use," which is a federal law, right?
I, for one, would say that's the line where "hacker" turns into "cracker." It's the difference between opening an unlocked door and trying key after key on a locked door. I'll certainly agree- there is no legitimate reason for doing such a thing.
Given that the majority of people lack the discipline to be sufficiently precise in what they say to ever be able to hack, is it not surprising that they would wish to oppose those who live by precision?
Only one thing: don't lawyers, by trade, try to live by precision? The problem I see is that they continue to attempt precision with English, which is a notoriously ambiguous language. I think we ought to make lawyers and courts use an arbitrarily chosen programming language to communicate laws. It would probably make them more readable, if anything. I've no problem reading through line after line of code, but reading "license agreements" on software packages (GNU GPL included) consistently puts me to sleep.
When? Did I miss their press releases, saying theyll be shipping Linux on G4s now? This does not constitute "fully embracing Linux." This constitutes an acknowledgement of Linux, and accepting it's presence, as opposed to Microsoft, who all but refuses to acknowledge the presence of another operating system, and who has shown no accepting of it's presence ("How to uninstall Linux," MindCraft bechmarks, and the "Linux Myths" page all jump to mind). Yes, it's better, but by no means "fully embracing" Linux.
Sentence like "But can you drag your hard drive to the trash to unmount it?" just isn't going to win any friend, you know?
I think that was an attempt at humor.
Believe it or not, Linux is still the new kid in town
Yup. Only ten years under the belt.
Snobbery doesn't win any friend. Please remember that.
No, but that's not saying we can't up the limit. Conventional digital computers can't handle umlimited numbers- we're limited by the amount of memory we have. This seems like a similar problem (as much as the two computational systems can be similar), and I've no doubt this limit will change.
Does this mean you think she was right to look through his personal information? You never did say if you thought she was right to do so or not.
I'd say that on the whole, honesty is the best policy, and she was wrong to go behind his back instead of confronting him with her suspicions. If she has questions or somesuch, bring them to him. Things are not always as they appear; people who go looking for information on their own often misinterpret what they find to fit their idea of what they're looking for, as Pete suggests his girlfriend did.
You, and Pete's girlfrind, apparently thought you were justified in snooping. You would feel the same, I presume, if someone else went through your computer files, looking through your private conversations?
I'm with Pete. I have a few things on my computer that I'd rather ceratin people (such as my roommate) did not see. I'm sure he has things on his computer he'd rather I didn't see. We respect each other's privacy, and come to each other's face with our concerns, instead of snooping through files.
On the other hand, you did question your girlfrind first; you gave it a shot. She refused to answer your questions. My question then, is why did you not dump her for keeping secrets, rather than... invade her privacy?
Microsoft, hated though it well deserves to be, can indeed take plenty credit for having propelled the computer/software industry to where it is today. The credit is not theirs alone, but there's something to be said for their having written an OS that "regular people" can easily learn, and putting it in so many homes.
As opposed, to, say, Apple? Who chose not to make underhanded deals and try to force their competition out of business? Both seem to have a monopoly on being ditributed with certain hardware platforms, but Apple only because they make the hardware. Microsoft, on the other hand, has done all they can to convince people that they produce the only O/S that exists for x86. While each "innovation" they produce has clearly existed in better forms prior to their noticing it. Active Directory? Watered-down NDS. Cleartype? Been on Apples since, oh, the early 80's.
Microsoft has propelled the industry through clever marketing, not through innovation. Sure, many more people use computers today, but so what? They can only use Windows. This sure does make them computer literate. Yet they think themselves experts, because they're "Certified Microsoft Office Advanced Users." Wow. I'm impressed. I'd rather encourage people to use Apples, which I don't like because I can't find a command line ('course, I don't use them very often).
Someone has a signature that I like: "Windows didn't increase computer literacy, it merely lowered the standard."
Ah, now we can issue penance for those who use proprietary software:
"For installing that copy of BeOS, your penance is to recite two Hail Richards, and an Our Father IGNUcius. My son, the holy church of Emacs forgives you of your sins. Go now, and use no more closed software"
I thought the idea was to, uh... "merge" the two into one product line. Well, actually drop the DOS-based, and replace it with the NT-based, without people realizing that the "new" Windows was different from the "old" Windows.
I work beside a guy who's got a Sun SparcStation, an SGI Indy, and an IBM Intel laptop on his desk. The SGI's keyboard is much like any x86 PC's... the Caps Lock beside the A, evil arrow keys and separate Insert, Home, Delete, End, etc. Frankly, I don't understand how he manages. Every once in a while, I happen to be sitting there, and I have trouble switching between the SGI and Sun, much less his laptop. I hate laptop keyboards. All mixed up. Grumble, gripe, piss, moan. I hate laptops.
Now that I'm used to the caps lock in the "wrong" place, it's hard to even use Sun keyboards. I keep hitting caps lock when I mean to hit Control. As for never using caps lock, I do have some (not much) occasion for it. Whenever I'm entering serial numbers (oddly enough, this happens somewhat often) that use capital letters and numbers- shift would shift the numbers, too, and that would piss me off.
No kidding. It took about 5 minutes for the 404 to load! Now that's service.
After trying the corrected URL I'm still waiting for the page to show up... oh, wait! "An error occurred while processing this directive. Time to reload. I hope it's as good as advertised.
As long as you want Windows solutions, I've found Tera Term to be a most excellent terminal emulator for Windows. When combined with TTSSH it makes an excellent free, secure client for Windows.
Resizing needs some help (every time you resize it, it clears the screen), but other that that, it's worlds above any other terminal emulator for Windows. Of course, I still haven't tried rxvt for Windows.
I agree with the fellow you're replying to... kinda. I don't define "Operating System." I leave that definition up to those who care (not me). I think of my computers in terms of the operating environment they provide me with, not in terms of the OS installed on them.
The solaris systems I have accounts on seem cold and distant (probably because I always access them remotely). My Linux boxes seem pretty warm and friendly (this maybe has to do with the penguin). Windows is mostly aggravating.
I guess my definition of "OS" is what the vendor packages. MS-Windows includes whatever's on the installation CD. Linux varies, each distribution is a different OS. When you customize your system, that's your own personal OS. You still refer to it as "Linux," or maybe "Debian Linux" - the name given to it by the vendor (a.k.a. the distributor). I guess I'm thinking more in terms of operating environment though.
As an afternote, it's not lame to leave the definition up to others. You're just saying that it's not a big deal to you. I am defining what I want, I just don't care so much about semantics. Does this make sense?
I'm all set to write Bitch-Slapper 1.0. Netscape really pisses me off sometimes, but there's not much I can do to it now- I'd only damage my computer!
Speaking of which, I was at a Staples last week, and they had a computer set up with a "Punch the Clown" program running. Anybody else seen this? A camera is looking at you, and if movement occurs toward the clown (which is drawn on top of the camera picture), then the clown gets "punched." A beginning, but a neat way to take out aggression toward computers.
Re:Daytrading Yucca Plant?!?
on
Quickie Fu
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· Score: 1
Well, we don't know for sure what cord that is descending from the ceiling... it could be a network connection...
Is there a web page up about this thing, or just the picture? I can't find one anywhere.
Slashdot Mirror
I think NT4 came with a MIPS version... I haven't the least idea how well it worked, or where in the HELL you're going to find any software for it, though.
If you have lots of Windows machines, this might make a good Samba server. Since it doesn't have graphics capabilities, but ought to make a spectacular number cruncher, get the Math/Science teachers to come up with some college-level projects to run on it. If you have CS courses, then it's a great opportunity to learn:
If you have a good Internet connection (DSL or cable modem would do), you can also provide e-mail for the students. Give them shell accounts so they can use Pine and practice UNIX skills, or setup WebMail. You've all sorts of possibilies.
The biggest problem you'll run into is the chance that you don't have SGI's development package. In that case, you're SOL unless you can find binaries for any not-already-installed programs you need. The Devel package costs, I believe, about $1000 from SGI, but they may give a high school a nice break. Check into it. Read up on SGIs. Find out how to secure them properly, but please, put this baby to good use.
From Ebay:
Um, no, it's not running an old version. This would actually be pretty recent.
*sputter*
Of course it would. No, you can't play HalfLife or run MS-Word on it (not that either of those benefit from a dual P3 over a single P3), but for graphic rendering, or CAD processing, or molecular modeling, or VR work, or databases, (or... etc.) this thing would beat the hell out of any x86 machine you could think of conjuring up. Intel's architecutre simply doesn't compare.
They're talking about a low-level format, guy.
Not quite right. "Sie" should have been capitalized because it is referring to "You" in the formal.
Pronouns:
auf Deutsch|auf Englisch
du:you, informal
sie:she, or they
Sie:you, formal, singular, or plural
Make sense?
Bull.
You don't get liner notes with an MP3, nor do you get the master PCM audio data. What you get is a med. to high. quality reproduction of the audio that is good enough to enjoy listening to.
There's still added value in a CD.
Dammit, that's not the point of the GPL. The point of the GPL is to enforce the openness of code. RedHat is, indeed, making money off GPL code, and it's not against the letter or the spirit of the GPL. More power to them!
You don't use the GPL in order to restrict people from making money off your work. You do it in order to see that any improvements other people make to your code are also open.
Then why not just make it public domain?
Heh, me too - except my final is in electrical engineering.
I thought the whole point of having experts was letting people specialize in fields; that way you can hire someone to come in and fix your computer, even though you don't know how.
You're right, a computer is just a tool. And people do need to know how to use it. But, people who are not into computers (at least not like I am) don't need to know how to recompile a kernel, install programs, etc.
I'm not, however, saying that Windows does a good job of this. It doesn't. MacOS, on the other hand, like BeOS, is, I think, very user friendly. They (well, BeOS at least, I have less experience with Macs) also allow the power user room to stretch his (or her) legs. They don't close off options, like Micrsoft's "wizards" do. They just hide them, until you go looking for them.
Wer nicht hören will muss fühlen!
I'd say "He who refuses to listen must suffer!"
Uh, yup. Check this out, from the CYBERsitter license agreement (quoted near the end of this article):
You'd be interested in the bold part. But also, I think it's interesting that they think they can prevent "fair use." Would this really hold up in a court? How can this specific license overrule "fair use," which is a federal law, right?
I, for one, would say that's the line where "hacker" turns into "cracker." It's the difference between opening an unlocked door and trying key after key on a locked door. I'll certainly agree- there is no legitimate reason for doing such a thing.
Only one thing: don't lawyers, by trade, try to live by precision? The problem I see is that they continue to attempt precision with English, which is a notoriously ambiguous language. I think we ought to make lawyers and courts use an arbitrarily chosen programming language to communicate laws. It would probably make them more readable, if anything. I've no problem reading through line after line of code, but reading "license agreements" on software packages (GNU GPL included) consistently puts me to sleep.
When? Did I miss their press releases, saying theyll be shipping Linux on G4s now? This does not constitute "fully embracing Linux." This constitutes an acknowledgement of Linux, and accepting it's presence, as opposed to Microsoft, who all but refuses to acknowledge the presence of another operating system, and who has shown no accepting of it's presence ("How to uninstall Linux," MindCraft bechmarks, and the "Linux Myths" page all jump to mind). Yes, it's better, but by no means "fully embracing" Linux.
I think that was an attempt at humor.
Yup. Only ten years under the belt.
True enough. Sometimes we need a reminder.
No, but that's not saying we can't up the limit. Conventional digital computers can't handle umlimited numbers- we're limited by the amount of memory we have. This seems like a similar problem (as much as the two computational systems can be similar), and I've no doubt this limit will change.
Does this mean you think she was right to look through his personal information? You never did say if you thought she was right to do so or not.
I'd say that on the whole, honesty is the best policy, and she was wrong to go behind his back instead of confronting him with her suspicions. If she has questions or somesuch, bring them to him. Things are not always as they appear; people who go looking for information on their own often misinterpret what they find to fit their idea of what they're looking for, as Pete suggests his girlfriend did.
You, and Pete's girlfrind, apparently thought you were justified in snooping. You would feel the same, I presume, if someone else went through your computer files, looking through your private conversations?
I'm with Pete. I have a few things on my computer that I'd rather ceratin people (such as my roommate) did not see. I'm sure he has things on his computer he'd rather I didn't see. We respect each other's privacy, and come to each other's face with our concerns, instead of snooping through files.
On the other hand, you did question your girlfrind first; you gave it a shot. She refused to answer your questions. My question then, is why did you not dump her for keeping secrets, rather than... invade her privacy?
As opposed, to, say, Apple? Who chose not to make underhanded deals and try to force their competition out of business? Both seem to have a monopoly on being ditributed with certain hardware platforms, but Apple only because they make the hardware. Microsoft, on the other hand, has done all they can to convince people that they produce the only O/S that exists for x86. While each "innovation" they produce has clearly existed in better forms prior to their noticing it. Active Directory? Watered-down NDS. Cleartype? Been on Apples since, oh, the early 80's.
Microsoft has propelled the industry through clever marketing, not through innovation. Sure, many more people use computers today, but so what? They can only use Windows. This sure does make them computer literate. Yet they think themselves experts, because they're "Certified Microsoft Office Advanced Users." Wow. I'm impressed. I'd rather encourage people to use Apples, which I don't like because I can't find a command line ('course, I don't use them very often).
Someone has a signature that I like: "Windows didn't increase computer literacy, it merely lowered the standard."
Ah, now we can issue penance for those who use proprietary software:
I thought the idea was to, uh... "merge" the two into one product line. Well, actually drop the DOS-based, and replace it with the NT-based, without people realizing that the "new" Windows was different from the "old" Windows.
Heh. You've got it easy.
I work beside a guy who's got a Sun SparcStation, an SGI Indy, and an IBM Intel laptop on his desk. The SGI's keyboard is much like any x86 PC's... the Caps Lock beside the A, evil arrow keys and separate Insert, Home, Delete, End, etc. Frankly, I don't understand how he manages. Every once in a while, I happen to be sitting there, and I have trouble switching between the SGI and Sun, much less his laptop. I hate laptop keyboards. All mixed up. Grumble, gripe, piss, moan. I hate laptops.
Now that I'm used to the caps lock in the "wrong" place, it's hard to even use Sun keyboards. I keep hitting caps lock when I mean to hit Control. As for never using caps lock, I do have some (not much) occasion for it. Whenever I'm entering serial numbers (oddly enough, this happens somewhat often) that use capital letters and numbers- shift would shift the numbers, too, and that would piss me off.
Now I feel like a moron. The real corrected URL is http://www.fadetoblack.com/y2k.
No kidding. It took about 5 minutes for the 404 to load! Now that's service.
After trying the corrected URL I'm still waiting for the page to show up... oh, wait! "An error occurred while processing this directive. Time to reload. I hope it's as good as advertised.
You shouldn't have left out SGI's desktop... I can't recall the name, but it's pretty cool, and should deserve to be included here.
Exactly. You don't need to re-train people to use apps, just let them learn their way around the new window manager/desktop, and all is good.
As long as you want Windows solutions, I've found Tera Term to be a most excellent terminal emulator for Windows. When combined with TTSSH it makes an excellent free, secure client for Windows.
Resizing needs some help (every time you resize it, it clears the screen), but other that that, it's worlds above any other terminal emulator for Windows. Of course, I still haven't tried rxvt for Windows.
I agree with the fellow you're replying to... kinda. I don't define "Operating System." I leave that definition up to those who care (not me). I think of my computers in terms of the operating environment they provide me with, not in terms of the OS installed on them.
The solaris systems I have accounts on seem cold and distant (probably because I always access them remotely). My Linux boxes seem pretty warm and friendly (this maybe has to do with the penguin). Windows is mostly aggravating.
I guess my definition of "OS" is what the vendor packages. MS-Windows includes whatever's on the installation CD. Linux varies, each distribution is a different OS. When you customize your system, that's your own personal OS. You still refer to it as "Linux," or maybe "Debian Linux" - the name given to it by the vendor (a.k.a. the distributor). I guess I'm thinking more in terms of operating environment though.
As an afternote, it's not lame to leave the definition up to others. You're just saying that it's not a big deal to you. I am defining what I want, I just don't care so much about semantics. Does this make sense?
I'm all set to write Bitch-Slapper 1.0. Netscape really pisses me off sometimes, but there's not much I can do to it now- I'd only damage my computer!
Speaking of which, I was at a Staples last week, and they had a computer set up with a "Punch the Clown" program running. Anybody else seen this? A camera is looking at you, and if movement occurs toward the clown (which is drawn on top of the camera picture), then the clown gets "punched." A beginning, but a neat way to take out aggression toward computers.
Well, we don't know for sure what cord that is descending from the ceiling... it could be a network connection...
Is there a web page up about this thing, or just the picture? I can't find one anywhere.