Agreed. In regards to chemistry, CSI is relatively realistic.
I'm a chemistry student, and it's nice to seem them _correctly_ using machines like a GCMS and FTIR, and correctly using common labware like separatory funnels. Most other shows just have someone popping a sample into one end of a magical machine and having full analyzed results come out the other end. In CSI, they actually show what you would really get out of an analytical device, be it a spectra or some other sorta of data.
Most universities just happen to route inter-university communications over the Internet2. Consequently, the Internet2 hub, a network for university students' file-swapping, is routed over the Internet2 and gets great speeds for it.
Sure, the i2hub users are probably not using the Internet2 for research or education, but it's not like the users are circumventing any systems to use the Internet2 - university networks are just routed that way. If you're really concerned about i2hub users wasting your valuable tax dollars, perhaps you should contact the appropriate people and convince them to implement systems to route P2P traffic over the regular Internet.
Besides, it might actually be CHEAPER for all this data to go over the Internet2...
It's only open to schools on I2, so the MPAA cannot get on to see what's going on.
So you think the MPAA can't get (read: force/bribe) a school into letting them connect a server to the Internet2?
It's not like they haven't done anything similar in the past. If you don't believe me, see what happened to the UCLA DirectConnect hub that was supposedly limited to college students...
It's not completely over campus, but there's a good chance you'll find one by walking a bit.
The survey is pretty off though. We do provide students with free web pages, and, get this, Solaris shell accounts. Furthermore, all the dorm lounges I know have at least one CAT 5 connection, with the only exception being my dorm.
our new superfast server (danube, IIRC) was bogged down running poorly written interpreted, recursive, memory-hogging programs by 500+ students all trying to get in under the wire
Not much has changed. But, we did increment the course number by one. I guess there's progress.
I have to agree with the parent post about Excel's graphing abilities. For quick and easy data plots, Excel beats every other open-source product. I mentioned this point in a post here awhile ago. For example:
Gnumeric - It can plot data points, but how about the linear regression on the same curve? Nope. Sure, you could get Gnumeric to calculate the regression and hack a regression line as another dataset on the plot, but what happens when you want to modify a single data point? You gotta do it all over again.
OpenOffice - OO is one step ahead of Gnumeric in that it supports placing the regression line on the data plot itself, but it doesn't have the option to also put the line's equation on the graph. Again, sure, you can separately calculate the regression and tack it onto the graph, but that's just annoying.
Don't get me wrong. For the most part, I hate Microsoft Office. I type pratically all my documents in LaTeX (through lyx-qt and texmacs) and stun my TAs with the clarity of the resulting reports. It's just that open-source programs need to address fundamental issues like this before they will become mainstream.
Oh, and for the critics. Yes, I know and love gnuplot, but processing data in Octave and exporting via gnuplot is nowhere as fast or as easy as using Excel to crunch the numbers and produce the plot all at once.
although you're wasting so much energy (gasp!), it doesn't matter, because it's free
You're missing the point. The energy generated by wind power would be better put to use if it was used directly (ie. providing electricity to the grid, rather than extracting hydrogen from water).
Since I didn't post AC, I obviously meant "PDFs of textbooks I already own"...
In all seriousness, though, carrying a laptop with searchable digital textbooks sure beats carrying the actual things around. Besides, you can also take notes with the laptop.
I'm suprised no one has mentioned it already, but mldonkey is a nice cross-platform edonkey client. It runs pretty nicely on Linux (and somewhat decently on Windows) and comes with a web and telnet interface (it also supports third-party GUI clients).
As an added benefit, mldonkey supports FastTrack, Gnutella 1 and 2, DirectConnect, SoulSeek, Bittorrent, OpenNap...you get the idea. I've been using it for a couple of years, and it's replaced every P2P client for me.
Oh, edonkey is a great network to find PDFs of textbooks - a godsend for students.
The last thing I would like to see is a real person replaced with a voice-recognizing computer.
The Alameda County (AC) Transit information number here in the Bay Area uses a voice recognition software to address customer inquiries. The system is very buggy and impractical:
1. Voice recognition is far from perfect. Try getting a computer to recognize the name of a destination or complicated query while you yell it over ambient noise (ex. traffic noise around a bus stop) on a cell phone.
2. The software can only recognize pre-programmed phrases and words. If a user says something that the unexpected, they'll probably get nowhere. Sure, you could present the caller with a list of options, but then why not just make them dial-in options?
Just to compound the problem, the AC Transit system doesn't even provide the option to talk to a real-person!
As a person who flies one a regular basis, I believe the ability to use cellphones on an airplane is definitely not worth the risk of interference. No phone call should be worth your life or those of your fellow 100+ passengers.
Really, you're going to be trapped in an airplane...what are you going to do if someone calls about something important? Ask to get off so you can do whatever you need to do?
You think NTFS is fast? Try deleting a complete Cygwin install (>30K files) It takes AGES, even from the command prompt. I've deleted 15K files (That's 15 THOUSAND files) on Reiser 3 on the same machine, it took a few seconds.
I totally agree. I once did this using Shift-Delete and couldn't believe it was taking so long. Although, I believe a greater problem with NTFS is its tendency to get corrupted. I think most people have sees a BSOD because the filesystem couldn't be mounted.
I don't think a modular filesystem is the solution, though. Yes, it's probably easiest to go that route, but it's also probably the least efficient, and since you seem to want to emphasize speed...
DO NOT make a database driven filesystem...until then we need SPEED.
The two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they may even prove to be complementary.
Nevertheless, I continue to use ext3. It's fast enough for me, and the important part is that there are plenty of tools around that support it, just in case something goes wrong. I value the integrity of my data much more than speed.
I know the OP originally asked for a FREE shell account, but there are plenty of low-priced shell accounts out there in the $3+/month range, depending on how many background processes, bandwidth, etc, you need.
A good place to start searching is ShellSearch.com. IIRC, they also have ratings for each shell provider.
What many of the posts here have failed to mention is the restriction Six Apart has carefully hidden in their Terms of Service:
"You may install the Software on only one (1) computer or server having a single CPU."
This presents a problem for many people who purchase webhosting; if their webhost using servers with more than one CPU (very likely), they legally cannot install/use Movable Type.
Oh, and to address the people who say to stay with version 2.6: holding back on the upgrade is only a temporary solution. The next time a Movable Type bug or security hole is discovered, I'm willing to bet that Six Apart is only going to patch the 3.0 tree.
I have a much longer rant about the license change here.
While I was visiting Portugal during the winter, I ran into many traffic lights setup in a similar fashion. They were a necessity: often times parts of a major road would run right through the center of a town. If speeding cars were allowed to pass through (mostly empty roads in the country, so speeding was not uncommon), they would put the townsfolk walking around in a lot danger.
When I read the summary, I thought someone had ACTUALLY turned a badger into a Linux computer. Sick and disgusting, yes, but not too far off from the other things people have done...
Boy, was I disappointed when I looked at the site! It isn't all that humorous, and they didn't even bother to at least include pictures like, say, a stuffed animal badger with CAT 5 cables running out of it.
I guess I'll go write an "Installing Mandrake Linux on a Dead French Poodle" article...
I'm a student at a large public university. I spend most of my computer time in Linux, and I'm a huge fan of OSS, but, for practical reasons, I find it necessary to keep an installation of Windows and MS Office on my computer.
As an engineering student, I often have to perform statistical analysis on data I collect in the laboratory. Although I have the option of doing my calculations in OO Calc or MS Excel, I usually choose the latter for two simple reasons: speed and simplicity. To this day, I haven't come across an easy way to plot data points and a best fit line on the same graph along with the equation of the best fit line using OO Calc. In Excel, it's merely the matter of a few clicks.
I realize that I could theorectically combine OO Calc with Octave and gnuplot to produce the graphs that I need, but I shudder at the thought of having to hack together a solution when Excel makes it so easy.
Excel's not perfect, either, though. It's a pain to export Excel graphs so that I can include them in TeX reports, and there's no built-in function to print multiple plots per a page (useful for getting a quick overview of data). Nevertheless, Excel is still A LOT more friendlier for a student who needs to quickly process their data.
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Agreed. In regards to chemistry, CSI is relatively realistic.
I'm a chemistry student, and it's nice to seem them _correctly_ using machines like a GCMS and FTIR, and correctly using common labware like separatory funnels. Most other shows just have someone popping a sample into one end of a magical machine and having full analyzed results come out the other end. In CSI, they actually show what you would really get out of an analytical device, be it a spectra or some other sorta of data.
Most universities just happen to route inter-university communications over the Internet2. Consequently, the Internet2 hub, a network for university students' file-swapping, is routed over the Internet2 and gets great speeds for it.
Sure, the i2hub users are probably not using the Internet2 for research or education, but it's not like the users are circumventing any systems to use the Internet2 - university networks are just routed that way. If you're really concerned about i2hub users wasting your valuable tax dollars, perhaps you should contact the appropriate people and convince them to implement systems to route P2P traffic over the regular Internet.
Besides, it might actually be CHEAPER for all this data to go over the Internet2...
It's only open to schools on I2, so the MPAA cannot get on to see what's going on.
So you think the MPAA can't get (read: force/bribe) a school into letting them connect a server to the Internet2?
It's not like they haven't done anything similar in the past. If you don't believe me, see what happened to the UCLA DirectConnect hub that was supposedly limited to college students...
It's not completely over campus, but there's a good chance you'll find one by walking a bit.
The survey is pretty off though. We do provide students with free web pages, and, get this, Solaris shell accounts. Furthermore, all the dorm lounges I know have at least one CAT 5 connection, with the only exception being my dorm.
our new superfast server (danube, IIRC) was bogged down running poorly written interpreted, recursive, memory-hogging programs by 500+ students all trying to get in under the wire
Not much has changed. But, we did increment the course number by one. I guess there's progress.
I have to agree with the parent post about Excel's graphing abilities. For quick and easy data plots, Excel beats every other open-source product. I mentioned this point in a post here awhile ago. For example:
Gnumeric - It can plot data points, but how about the linear regression on the same curve? Nope. Sure, you could get Gnumeric to calculate the regression and hack a regression line as another dataset on the plot, but what happens when you want to modify a single data point? You gotta do it all over again.
OpenOffice - OO is one step ahead of Gnumeric in that it supports placing the regression line on the data plot itself, but it doesn't have the option to also put the line's equation on the graph. Again, sure, you can separately calculate the regression and tack it onto the graph, but that's just annoying.
Don't get me wrong. For the most part, I hate Microsoft Office. I type pratically all my documents in LaTeX (through lyx-qt and texmacs) and stun my TAs with the clarity of the resulting reports. It's just that open-source programs need to address fundamental issues like this before they will become mainstream.
Oh, and for the critics. Yes, I know and love gnuplot, but processing data in Octave and exporting via gnuplot is nowhere as fast or as easy as using Excel to crunch the numbers and produce the plot all at once.
although you're wasting so much energy (gasp!), it doesn't matter, because it's free
You're missing the point. The energy generated by wind power would be better put to use if it was used directly (ie. providing electricity to the grid, rather than extracting hydrogen from water).
Why couldn't we use Wind-power to extract Hydrogen from water?
Because energy is lost to waste every time we transform it.
If you thought wind power was impractical, hydrogen generated by wind power would only be more impractical.
Since I didn't post AC, I obviously meant "PDFs of textbooks I already own"...
In all seriousness, though, carrying a laptop with searchable digital textbooks sure beats carrying the actual things around. Besides, you can also take notes with the laptop.
I'm suprised no one has mentioned it already, but mldonkey is a nice cross-platform edonkey client. It runs pretty nicely on Linux (and somewhat decently on Windows) and comes with a web and telnet interface (it also supports third-party GUI clients).
As an added benefit, mldonkey supports FastTrack, Gnutella 1 and 2, DirectConnect, SoulSeek, Bittorrent, OpenNap...you get the idea. I've been using it for a couple of years, and it's replaced every P2P client for me.
Oh, edonkey is a great network to find PDFs of textbooks - a godsend for students.
An even greater question would be how it plans on being a standard if few distributions bother to follow it...
The last thing I would like to see is a real person replaced with a voice-recognizing computer.
The Alameda County (AC) Transit information number here in the Bay Area uses a voice recognition software to address customer inquiries. The system is very buggy and impractical:
1. Voice recognition is far from perfect. Try getting a computer to recognize the name of a destination or complicated query while you yell it over ambient noise (ex. traffic noise around a bus stop) on a cell phone.
2. The software can only recognize pre-programmed phrases and words. If a user says something that the unexpected, they'll probably get nowhere. Sure, you could present the caller with a list of options, but then why not just make them dial-in options?
Just to compound the problem, the AC Transit system doesn't even provide the option to talk to a real-person!
As a person who flies one a regular basis, I believe the ability to use cellphones on an airplane is definitely not worth the risk of interference. No phone call should be worth your life or those of your fellow 100+ passengers.
Really, you're going to be trapped in an airplane...what are you going to do if someone calls about something important? Ask to get off so you can do whatever you need to do?
This must be that hyperthreading thingy I've heard about...
You think NTFS is fast? Try deleting a complete Cygwin install (>30K files) It takes AGES, even from the command prompt. I've deleted 15K files (That's 15 THOUSAND files) on Reiser 3 on the same machine, it took a few seconds.
I totally agree. I once did this using Shift-Delete and couldn't believe it was taking so long. Although, I believe a greater problem with NTFS is its tendency to get corrupted. I think most people have sees a BSOD because the filesystem couldn't be mounted.
I don't think a modular filesystem is the solution, though. Yes, it's probably easiest to go that route, but it's also probably the least efficient, and since you seem to want to emphasize speed...
DO NOT make a database driven filesystem...until then we need SPEED.
The two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they may even prove to be complementary.
Nevertheless, I continue to use ext3. It's fast enough for me, and the important part is that there are plenty of tools around that support it, just in case something goes wrong. I value the integrity of my data much more than speed.
100K of memory was alot when all you had was 640K, but 100k is nothing to most users nowadays.
The memory analogy doesn't work. 100k of memory is nothing to users these days because it can barely hold the smallest of applications.
24 MB of mail storage, on the other hand, is still a lot since mail is still mostly text.
I know the OP originally asked for a FREE shell account, but there are plenty of low-priced shell accounts out there in the $3+/month range, depending on how many background processes, bandwidth, etc, you need.
A good place to start searching is ShellSearch.com. IIRC, they also have ratings for each shell provider.
> CVS + ssh keys = godlike.
Until someone steals your ssh key. Then they will be godlike too.
Sure, ssh keys are convenient, but they don't always replace passwords.
What many of the posts here have failed to mention is the restriction Six Apart has carefully hidden in their Terms of Service:
"You may install the Software on only one (1) computer or server having a single CPU."
This presents a problem for many people who purchase webhosting; if their webhost using servers with more than one CPU (very likely), they legally cannot install/use Movable Type.
Oh, and to address the people who say to stay with version 2.6: holding back on the upgrade is only a temporary solution. The next time a Movable Type bug or security hole is discovered, I'm willing to bet that Six Apart is only going to patch the 3.0 tree.
I have a much longer rant about the license change here.
While we're on the topic of real-life PacMan,
A Cross-Dressing Stanford Ms. Pacman
Berkeley students can never resist the temptation of poking fun at the 'other school'...
I agree that this seems to be an old technology.
While I was visiting Portugal during the winter, I ran into many traffic lights setup in a similar fashion. They were a necessity: often times parts of a major road would run right through the center of a town. If speeding cars were allowed to pass through (mostly empty roads in the country, so speeding was not uncommon), they would put the townsfolk walking around in a lot danger.
When I read the summary, I thought someone had ACTUALLY turned a badger into a Linux computer. Sick and disgusting, yes, but not too far off from the other things people have done...
Boy, was I disappointed when I looked at the site! It isn't all that humorous, and they didn't even bother to at least include pictures like, say, a stuffed animal badger with CAT 5 cables running out of it.
I guess I'll go write an "Installing Mandrake Linux on a Dead French Poodle" article...
I'm a student at a large public university. I spend most of my computer time in Linux, and I'm a huge fan of OSS, but, for practical reasons, I find it necessary to keep an installation of Windows and MS Office on my computer.
As an engineering student, I often have to perform statistical analysis on data I collect in the laboratory. Although I have the option of doing my calculations in OO Calc or MS Excel, I usually choose the latter for two simple reasons: speed and simplicity. To this day, I haven't come across an easy way to plot data points and a best fit line on the same graph along with the equation of the best fit line using OO Calc. In Excel, it's merely the matter of a few clicks.
I realize that I could theorectically combine OO Calc with Octave and gnuplot to produce the graphs that I need, but I shudder at the thought of having to hack together a solution when Excel makes it so easy.
Excel's not perfect, either, though. It's a pain to export Excel graphs so that I can include them in TeX reports, and there's no built-in function to print multiple plots per a page (useful for getting a quick overview of data). Nevertheless, Excel is still A LOT more friendlier for a student who needs to quickly process their data.