I see. That is basically JIT compilation, yes? Is there a noticable delay on startup? Maybe I'll try out the latest version to see how well it works. If DOSBox doesn't use something slow like the shared memory extensions in X for video which DOSemu uses, maybe it will be faster anyway.
From what I understand, dosbox emulates the CPU as well. DOSemu should run it at your CPU's speed, but I haven't used it since Linux kernel 2.0.x days. Lately I have thought about getting some of my old DOS games going, but haven't put much effort into it. Though DOSemu seems broken on 2.6--I get "LOWRAM mmap: Invalid argument / Segmentation fault" It could be a permissions problem though...(haven't tried it as root yet) The page says it was last updated in 2007, so maybe it was updated to 2.6?
This post from the Arch Linux forums may help:
kernel 2.6.30 upgrade causes dosemu to segfault. It seems dosemu doesn't work with.30 but.31 version from git does work? Looks like they have a configuration suggestion too...
Then again, you may have problems with speed. Quite a while back, I tried Syndicate Wars, and it ran at about 10x speed. Way too fast. I think DOSbox solved that by emulating the CPU, so everything the game sees works like it did on an old computer. Though since it is emulating, it takes many processing cycles to do on emulated processing cycle, which means your 2.0 GHz computer may only be able to run it at say (just a wild guess), the same speed as a 100 MHz machine. Probably not even that. So I don't see a 1996 game working too well.
I would guess the easiest way would be to use an older computer and install FreeDOS or something on it. You know, that 900 MHz one collecting dust in your closet. Then you don't have to worry about emulating crap.;-) But then you may still run into the super speed issue. This is partly why old computers had a "turbo" switch--some programs assumed the processor was at a specific speed. Some programs assumed the MIPS / clock speed was constant. 486 was below 1 MIPS/MHz, Pentium was about 2 MIPS/MHz, todays CPUs are probably much higher before you even get to the multiple cores. I think some just detect if it is a 486 or pentium and do their calculations. They don't know anything about newer CPUs, so it doesn't work...
I don't get it. Where are the advertisements? You had a great idea, but you forgot to mix the ads in with your text--find great text with Bing! the greatest search engine made by the greatest software company in the world. <-- like this.
If you have a chance to play it, I highly recommend it. There was a sequel made for either DOS or Windows. (Dungeon Master 2) As I recall, I didn't think it was as good, but it was still fun.
What absolutely must be avoided at all cost is making the player feel like he has to consult a guidebook on how to play the game. When you have to think about how to play rather than simply play, all immersion is ruined.
This seems a strange thing to say, since in real life one has to learn how to do things (of which reading a book is helpful), and supposedly "immersion" is how closely the game resembles real life / "fools" you into thinking the game is real.
An example which really worked for me: the game Dungeon Master uses a magic system where you have to learn special symbols, and to cast spells you use these symbols to specify which spell you want. I think the spells were listed on scrolls you found in the dungeon. I had to memorize the symbols from the manual to even cast spells reliably.
I admit I haven't played a huge number of RPGs, but I think an even greater possible system would be to require the player to "write" or gesture spells with the mouse for spell casting. Do it in a methon which requires the player to learn gesturing and how to cast spells in a dynamic way, so spell casting would be based upon a player's skill instead of their avatars stats. It may be a crazy idea, but I think it would work...
But perhaps you are talking about something strange with the interface? So strange it confuses you enough you need the manual to figure it out. I see your point there. Then again, you could just be like the countless Microsoft OS(tm) users who insist every interface be like the one they are used to. If that is the case, please be tolerant of other people.;-)
Who said anything about sending Freenet to Iran? The summary just talked about it as a test case, at least how I read it. I was talking about using it in the US. Even if you don't think things are oppressive now[1], don't you believe it would be wise to have a free speech system in place for when things do get bad?
[1] I don't want to talk about stupid relativism. I know it is oppressive in North Korea and other places. It doesn't mean there are not problems here, nor can you account for every single local jurisdiction.
Significant space, inbound/outbound traffic? I haven't checked lately, but I thought you could set how much it used. Are you saying they set the default to multiple GBs now or something?
WTF does truecrypt have to do with this? Sure if they somehow figure out you are the one who published an inflammatory paper, they could prove it with your computer, but the design of Freenet was made to make it difficult to impossible for them to figure out who wrote the paper in the first place. If they already know who you are, there is no point using freenet in the first place.
If they know who you are, most goon squads don't care about proof, they just "accidentally" shoot you while they execute a search warrant. Unless they are more cowardly, then they just follow you around and try to ticket / arrest you for any excuse they can find until you can't function. Assuming they are police, anyway. Corporations, "religious" organizations, organized crime or private citizens have other ways. (False police reports, lawsuits, slander, harassing you at work to get you fired, etc)
I've been wondering something. What if the people formed lobby groups of our own to protect our interests. I suppose there are already some (such as the EFF), and plenty of people would advocate silly things without thinking, but overall, it would probably be beneficial.
Collectively, we probably have as much / more money to throw into the political system as corporate interests.
If the executables are small and efficient, then a "slow" old USB port with a "slow" sub-GHz processor shouldn't be too bad. Especially if you are used to "fast" supercomputers running bloated crap such as Vista, Gnome, or KDE with all the flashy effects turned on full. Someone already posted the image is under 400MB, it can't be that inefficient. Here is a clue: those old "slow" computers were considered fast at one time.
In the 80s, many people used floppy disks as storage which were many, many times slower than the old USB ports you talk about. Yet people used computers back then and got by. In fact, I was a kid I had an Atari 130XE and I wasn't given a storage device at all. Everytime I turned the computer off, everything disappeared. Now even the throwaway computers have a huge hard drive and a processor 100s of times faster than the one I had.
Getting an old computer with something you can use when you probably wouldn't get anything is a blessing. Not all kids are given a new $2000(us) computer every year.
Because "everybody" knows if you don't buy Microsoft software, you are "stealing" software. After all, you can't run a computer without a Microsoft, can you? An absolute certain zero-tolerance policy violation! Expulsion and jail time certain! Turn back young lad, for you have done evil.
First off, KDE and Gnome != Linux. Last time I checked they both ran on FreeBSD too. They are the real problem. When I first started playing with sound on Linux (probably 1996 or so), OSS was the established standard for the kernel. I think there were some other devices for compatibility, but Linux developers used OSS.
Then around 2000 or so, ALSA started to show up as a viable project. It supported low latency sound and was more reliable for syncing sound to video. Obviously, you want this for playing video games or watching movies. Quite a few distro maintainers jumped on it and added it to their distro before it was added into the mainline kernel. Eventually it was added, and they kept OSS for backwards compatibility.
Until recently, yes, Linux didn't support multichannel audio, but now ALSA does, and it does "just work." Most of those daemons were created to patch on support for multichannel and networking. I assume those must be the "incompatible APIs" you were talking about.
There is one daemon called jack which seems to be good for audio editing--it is a whole routing system for audio, but I doubt one would need to use it for just playing sound since ALSA seems to have all the features, and ALSA was never superseded by anything else like you implied. Jack, esd, pulseaudio, artsd (unless it uses esd), & etc all use ALSA.
Don't listen to this guy, he is an anti-Open Source troll.
A lot of people do work for "free." I find quite a few posts on slashdot as valuable, but I'm sure none of them were paid. Paid shills from Microsoft do not produce valuable posts. In fact, they take away value, just as any spammer.
Quite a few people have created valuable copyrightable works throughout time, but were never paid. Just because some want to use their works to extract money from people does not mean everyone else should have their rights trivialized. Nor should their property (such as computers) be tampered with to take away their freedom.
All covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and most major medical insurance.
This is why they are so expensive. They up and up the price because insurance companies have to pay legit claims, except of course the prices aren't really legit, but it is attached to the legit needs of the patients. Sort of like auto repair shops who reimburse customers with cash.
Even though it is essentially the spirit of embezzling, they get away with it because the system is corrupt. Most patients don't care because they don't get charged more (at least not right away), auto mechanic customers love it because they get extra cash out of their insurance claim. This is one of the major things which screwed up the medical industry and why medical care is so expensive.
From what I've seen, hearing aids are the same story. $3000(us) or so per pair. I could probably use one in my right ear, but this is too much to pay, especially since I am on disability (two strokes and kidney failure).
This may be true, but Unix / Posix is the result of decades of research for such things as security and administration on real software systems. Much of it contains features requested by admins in hostile environments trying to run and protect their systems. It may not be new and innovative, but its model works for me. I haven't seen anything better from a practical standpoint. Obviously, this doesn't mean there can't be other types of systems. There is always more than one way of doing things.
Needing a PhD to do a menial job is just another baby boomer scam. It is so they can have a different excuse than age discrimination. They did that to their elder generation by saying applicants where "overqualified." Problem is, quite a few HR idiots believe those are valid reasons now. Sometimes they are valid, but most of the time not.
"Everyone needs a college education" is a scam created by the baby boomers. They use higher and higher education / experience requirements so they can lock out the next generations from the workforce. The previous generation, they used a "overqualified" scam as an excuse to not hire older people. They also used any excuse to fire / lay off the older people to scam them out of pensions. After the bailout scam, there may not be any higher paying jobs anyway.
Be practical. Don't bother going to college unless:
you are already set up with a specific company when you graduate, and you are sure you want this career path. Preferably you will already have a deal to be a paid intern while you are taking classes. The company may even pay your way if you do it right.
You are using your education to learn how to run your own business and you already have an idea what kind of business you will run and have a good idea how you will be funded.
Otherwise you are just going to end up with huge loans to pay off while you end up flipping burgers for the rest of your life. Have fun barely surviving, while if you didn't go on to higher education, you'd at least be able to take care of yourself and maybe save some money.
Have a real plan people. Figure out what you want to do before you go on to "higher" education. Be sure going to school will fit your goal and you will get a higher paying job, which is the real reason to go to school, not some abstract notion of being "educated" and "well rounded" or following in someone's footsteps. If you want to educate yourself, read books, try things out yourself. It is much cheaper.
[They] have no idea that they're "missing" anything.
This was exactly my point. What they can access will be censored, but most people will not even have any idea, and if they ever found out, they'd be mad about it.
MS was convicted for the things they did with IE and Java. Windows Media Player and the Xbox had nothing to do with their previous conviction, they are new violations. Double jeopardy has nothing to do with them not being charged with new violations.
Unless Microsoft is doing something new that is anti-competitive, they are safe.
Is this supposed to be funny? Their entire business model is based upon being anti-competitive. Ever hear of Windows Media Player? What about the Xbox? And no, just because Sony and Nintendo do the same things with their consoles doesn't make it right or not anti-competitive.
Does everybody who bought an iPhone know it was this restricted before they bought it? I'm sure most slashdotters keep up with this sort of thing, but poor Aunt Tillie had no idea they could even do this with her new "hi-tech" phone! Then again, she probably didn't know she'd get charged insane fees for checking email with it when she visited Canada or somewhere.
Ext4 is an experimental filesystem which just came out. You are an idiot for expecting it to be perfect and stable.
If you really use the power button because proper shutdown is "too slow" (ever hear of pressing the button and walking away?), then you are an even bigger idiot. While some of the shutdown process for most Linux distros are too long because they were designed for servers, at the very least the kernel needs time to unmount the filesystems and write remaining data to disk. Cutting the power doesn't allow this to happen.
Computers aren't magic boxes. They have real physical limits. Software engineers aren't magicians. They need time to perfect their code.
They must be. From the beginning of their attacks on the Internet with Napster, they have made it obvious their intent is to keep others from using the Internet to broadcast audio. Napster was in a gray area, if not intended to help people infringe copyright, however many of the systems they attacked later through various means (lawsuits, false take down notices, and some say even trojan horse programs) were generic file transfer programs. Many of the lawsuits weren't even against people copying the supposed infringing material, but they were against people and companies who wrote networking software.
If a three strikes law passed, just like the DMCA, it will be abused to take away internet access from just about everyone who tries to publish something who is not from big media. Doesn't matter if they have the legal right to publish it or not, the media companies or trolls will get them one way or another.
Isn't this how they took over the radio spectrum? Creating laws and technicalities to make it difficult for the common person to use it? I've talked to radio enthusiasts, and from what they tell me, it is a pain in the ass to follow all the rules for talking on HAM frequencies.
Yeah, there is CB and it is lax, but that is only a few channels. When is the last time you have heard someone use CB besides a trucker? With so few channels, if everyone used it, it would be a mess. Now we have to pay absurd amounts of money for cell phone service because of this and the FCC auctioning off the airwaves. We could have massive medium range wireless networking, which would also allow cell phone like devices, so if you were just a few miles from home, you could use your landline to make calls.
Slashdot Mirror
I see. That is basically JIT compilation, yes? Is there a noticable delay on startup? Maybe I'll try out the latest version to see how well it works. If DOSBox doesn't use something slow like the shared memory extensions in X for video which DOSemu uses, maybe it will be faster anyway.
Thanks for the info.
This page has a chart of estimated speeds for a given host machine's CPU using DOSBox.
From what I understand, dosbox emulates the CPU as well. DOSemu should run it at your CPU's speed, but I haven't used it since Linux kernel 2.0.x days. Lately I have thought about getting some of my old DOS games going, but haven't put much effort into it. Though DOSemu seems broken on 2.6--I get "LOWRAM mmap: Invalid argument / Segmentation fault" It could be a permissions problem though...(haven't tried it as root yet) The page says it was last updated in 2007, so maybe it was updated to 2.6?
This post from the Arch Linux forums may help: kernel 2.6.30 upgrade causes dosemu to segfault. It seems dosemu doesn't work with .30 but .31 version from git does work? Looks like they have a configuration suggestion too...
Then again, you may have problems with speed. Quite a while back, I tried Syndicate Wars, and it ran at about 10x speed. Way too fast. I think DOSbox solved that by emulating the CPU, so everything the game sees works like it did on an old computer. Though since it is emulating, it takes many processing cycles to do on emulated processing cycle, which means your 2.0 GHz computer may only be able to run it at say (just a wild guess), the same speed as a 100 MHz machine. Probably not even that. So I don't see a 1996 game working too well.
I would guess the easiest way would be to use an older computer and install FreeDOS or something on it. You know, that 900 MHz one collecting dust in your closet. Then you don't have to worry about emulating crap. ;-) But then you may still run into the super speed issue. This is partly why old computers had a "turbo" switch--some programs assumed the processor was at a specific speed. Some programs assumed the MIPS / clock speed was constant. 486 was below 1 MIPS/MHz, Pentium was about 2 MIPS/MHz, todays CPUs are probably much higher before you even get to the multiple cores. I think some just detect if it is a 486 or pentium and do their calculations. They don't know anything about newer CPUs, so it doesn't work...
For an assembly programmer, the binaries are the source code! Mwahahaha!
I don't get it. Where are the advertisements? You had a great idea, but you forgot to mix the ads in with your text--find great text with Bing! the greatest search engine made by the greatest software company in the world. <-- like this.
I forgot the link for Dungeon Master: wikipedia.org - Dungeon_Master_(computer_game)
If you have a chance to play it, I highly recommend it. There was a sequel made for either DOS or Windows. (Dungeon Master 2) As I recall, I didn't think it was as good, but it was still fun.
The Dungeon Master Encyclopaedia explains the spell system.
A review.
This seems a strange thing to say, since in real life one has to learn how to do things (of which reading a book is helpful), and supposedly "immersion" is how closely the game resembles real life / "fools" you into thinking the game is real.
An example which really worked for me: the game Dungeon Master uses a magic system where you have to learn special symbols, and to cast spells you use these symbols to specify which spell you want. I think the spells were listed on scrolls you found in the dungeon. I had to memorize the symbols from the manual to even cast spells reliably.
I admit I haven't played a huge number of RPGs, but I think an even greater possible system would be to require the player to "write" or gesture spells with the mouse for spell casting. Do it in a methon which requires the player to learn gesturing and how to cast spells in a dynamic way, so spell casting would be based upon a player's skill instead of their avatars stats. It may be a crazy idea, but I think it would work...
But perhaps you are talking about something strange with the interface? So strange it confuses you enough you need the manual to figure it out. I see your point there. Then again, you could just be like the countless Microsoft OS(tm) users who insist every interface be like the one they are used to. If that is the case, please be tolerant of other people. ;-)
Who said anything about sending Freenet to Iran? The summary just talked about it as a test case, at least how I read it. I was talking about using it in the US. Even if you don't think things are oppressive now[1], don't you believe it would be wise to have a free speech system in place for when things do get bad? [1] I don't want to talk about stupid relativism. I know it is oppressive in North Korea and other places. It doesn't mean there are not problems here, nor can you account for every single local jurisdiction.
Significant space, inbound/outbound traffic? I haven't checked lately, but I thought you could set how much it used. Are you saying they set the default to multiple GBs now or something?
WTF does truecrypt have to do with this? Sure if they somehow figure out you are the one who published an inflammatory paper, they could prove it with your computer, but the design of Freenet was made to make it difficult to impossible for them to figure out who wrote the paper in the first place. If they already know who you are, there is no point using freenet in the first place.
If they know who you are, most goon squads don't care about proof, they just "accidentally" shoot you while they execute a search warrant. Unless they are more cowardly, then they just follow you around and try to ticket / arrest you for any excuse they can find until you can't function. Assuming they are police, anyway. Corporations, "religious" organizations, organized crime or private citizens have other ways. (False police reports, lawsuits, slander, harassing you at work to get you fired, etc)
I've been wondering something. What if the people formed lobby groups of our own to protect our interests. I suppose there are already some (such as the EFF), and plenty of people would advocate silly things without thinking, but overall, it would probably be beneficial.
Collectively, we probably have as much / more money to throw into the political system as corporate interests.
This may be true, but if encryption and steganography were the norm, the story would be different.
What if everyone used, say Freenet for publishing instead of http? The government would have much more trouble finding or censoring them.
If the executables are small and efficient, then a "slow" old USB port with a "slow" sub-GHz processor shouldn't be too bad. Especially if you are used to "fast" supercomputers running bloated crap such as Vista, Gnome, or KDE with all the flashy effects turned on full. Someone already posted the image is under 400MB, it can't be that inefficient. Here is a clue: those old "slow" computers were considered fast at one time.
In the 80s, many people used floppy disks as storage which were many, many times slower than the old USB ports you talk about. Yet people used computers back then and got by. In fact, I was a kid I had an Atari 130XE and I wasn't given a storage device at all. Everytime I turned the computer off, everything disappeared. Now even the throwaway computers have a huge hard drive and a processor 100s of times faster than the one I had.
Getting an old computer with something you can use when you probably wouldn't get anything is a blessing. Not all kids are given a new $2000(us) computer every year.
Because "everybody" knows if you don't buy Microsoft software, you are "stealing" software. After all, you can't run a computer without a Microsoft, can you? An absolute certain zero-tolerance policy violation! Expulsion and jail time certain! Turn back young lad, for you have done evil.
First off, KDE and Gnome != Linux. Last time I checked they both ran on FreeBSD too. They are the real problem. When I first started playing with sound on Linux (probably 1996 or so), OSS was the established standard for the kernel. I think there were some other devices for compatibility, but Linux developers used OSS.
Then around 2000 or so, ALSA started to show up as a viable project. It supported low latency sound and was more reliable for syncing sound to video. Obviously, you want this for playing video games or watching movies. Quite a few distro maintainers jumped on it and added it to their distro before it was added into the mainline kernel. Eventually it was added, and they kept OSS for backwards compatibility.
Until recently, yes, Linux didn't support multichannel audio, but now ALSA does, and it does "just work." Most of those daemons were created to patch on support for multichannel and networking. I assume those must be the "incompatible APIs" you were talking about.
There is one daemon called jack which seems to be good for audio editing--it is a whole routing system for audio, but I doubt one would need to use it for just playing sound since ALSA seems to have all the features, and ALSA was never superseded by anything else like you implied. Jack, esd, pulseaudio, artsd (unless it uses esd), & etc all use ALSA.
Don't listen to this guy, he is an anti-Open Source troll.
A lot of people do work for "free." I find quite a few posts on slashdot as valuable, but I'm sure none of them were paid. Paid shills from Microsoft do not produce valuable posts. In fact, they take away value, just as any spammer.
Quite a few people have created valuable copyrightable works throughout time, but were never paid. Just because some want to use their works to extract money from people does not mean everyone else should have their rights trivialized. Nor should their property (such as computers) be tampered with to take away their freedom.
This is why they are so expensive. They up and up the price because insurance companies have to pay legit claims, except of course the prices aren't really legit, but it is attached to the legit needs of the patients. Sort of like auto repair shops who reimburse customers with cash.
Even though it is essentially the spirit of embezzling, they get away with it because the system is corrupt. Most patients don't care because they don't get charged more (at least not right away), auto mechanic customers love it because they get extra cash out of their insurance claim. This is one of the major things which screwed up the medical industry and why medical care is so expensive.
From what I've seen, hearing aids are the same story. $3000(us) or so per pair. I could probably use one in my right ear, but this is too much to pay, especially since I am on disability (two strokes and kidney failure).
This may be true, but Unix / Posix is the result of decades of research for such things as security and administration on real software systems. Much of it contains features requested by admins in hostile environments trying to run and protect their systems. It may not be new and innovative, but its model works for me. I haven't seen anything better from a practical standpoint. Obviously, this doesn't mean there can't be other types of systems. There is always more than one way of doing things.
Needing a PhD to do a menial job is just another baby boomer scam. It is so they can have a different excuse than age discrimination. They did that to their elder generation by saying applicants where "overqualified." Problem is, quite a few HR idiots believe those are valid reasons now. Sometimes they are valid, but most of the time not.
"Everyone needs a college education" is a scam created by the baby boomers. They use higher and higher education / experience requirements so they can lock out the next generations from the workforce. The previous generation, they used a "overqualified" scam as an excuse to not hire older people. They also used any excuse to fire / lay off the older people to scam them out of pensions. After the bailout scam, there may not be any higher paying jobs anyway.
Be practical. Don't bother going to college unless:
Otherwise you are just going to end up with huge loans to pay off while you end up flipping burgers for the rest of your life. Have fun barely surviving, while if you didn't go on to higher education, you'd at least be able to take care of yourself and maybe save some money.
Have a real plan people. Figure out what you want to do before you go on to "higher" education. Be sure going to school will fit your goal and you will get a higher paying job, which is the real reason to go to school, not some abstract notion of being "educated" and "well rounded" or following in someone's footsteps. If you want to educate yourself, read books, try things out yourself. It is much cheaper.
This was exactly my point. What they can access will be censored, but most people will not even have any idea, and if they ever found out, they'd be mad about it.
MS was convicted for the things they did with IE and Java. Windows Media Player and the Xbox had nothing to do with their previous conviction, they are new violations. Double jeopardy has nothing to do with them not being charged with new violations.
Is this supposed to be funny? Their entire business model is based upon being anti-competitive. Ever hear of Windows Media Player? What about the Xbox? And no, just because Sony and Nintendo do the same things with their consoles doesn't make it right or not anti-competitive.
Does everybody who bought an iPhone know it was this restricted before they bought it? I'm sure most slashdotters keep up with this sort of thing, but poor Aunt Tillie had no idea they could even do this with her new "hi-tech" phone! Then again, she probably didn't know she'd get charged insane fees for checking email with it when she visited Canada or somewhere.
Computers aren't magic boxes. They have real physical limits. Software engineers aren't magicians. They need time to perfect their code.
They must be. From the beginning of their attacks on the Internet with Napster, they have made it obvious their intent is to keep others from using the Internet to broadcast audio. Napster was in a gray area, if not intended to help people infringe copyright, however many of the systems they attacked later through various means (lawsuits, false take down notices, and some say even trojan horse programs) were generic file transfer programs. Many of the lawsuits weren't even against people copying the supposed infringing material, but they were against people and companies who wrote networking software.
If a three strikes law passed, just like the DMCA, it will be abused to take away internet access from just about everyone who tries to publish something who is not from big media. Doesn't matter if they have the legal right to publish it or not, the media companies or trolls will get them one way or another.
Isn't this how they took over the radio spectrum? Creating laws and technicalities to make it difficult for the common person to use it? I've talked to radio enthusiasts, and from what they tell me, it is a pain in the ass to follow all the rules for talking on HAM frequencies.
Yeah, there is CB and it is lax, but that is only a few channels. When is the last time you have heard someone use CB besides a trucker? With so few channels, if everyone used it, it would be a mess. Now we have to pay absurd amounts of money for cell phone service because of this and the FCC auctioning off the airwaves. We could have massive medium range wireless networking, which would also allow cell phone like devices, so if you were just a few miles from home, you could use your landline to make calls.