WTF Mundie, yeoman have these things on the bridge of the Enterprise. On both TOS and TNG. That's hundreds of years of freaking "staying power." What a moron.
The OLPC needs to cost half as much, run twice as fast, with twice the memory. Then it will meet the expectations they made for it two years ago.
I know.
I own one.
Missing keys? WTF. People with pocket knives cut them out or something? It's a frigging rubber mat keyboard. How does it loose a key? What kind of trade show was this? A razor blade trade show?
Sugar sucks big time. My kids hate it, my wife hates it, I hate it. I spent the first year trying to get used to it. No dice. It sucks. Slow, totally non-intuitive, buggy. Nuked it and put Ubuntu on it. No problems now. It gets a few hours of use every day.
The OLPC has a lot of problems: too slow by a factor of 2, too power hungry by a factor of 2, too costly by a factor of 2. Early units have bad keyboards and bad touch pads. Put sugar on it and it makes me puke.
Come on Slashdot, get your conspiracy theories going!
You cut the fiber at point A so you can install a tap down the line and nobody will know.
This isn't some terrorist plot. This is a Government plot to install data taps in California at the cross-roads of the internet. Check the building next to the manhole - I bet it has 10 floors but the elevator only shows nine floors...
[Let's see, I read slashdot and I design cable testers - this looks like a chance to pretend I'm smart]
>Does the cable need replacing?
Cables are made of wires, insulation, and connectors. Generally the wire and insulation have a very long lifetime. Even the insulation used in cheap Cat-whatever cables will probably outlast you.
The lifetime drops a lot if the cable gets flexed, rubbed, exposed to heat, UV, or moisture. Under those cases the wire and insulation can fail fairly quickly (think months to a few years).
Under normal use in a good environment the key failure point is where the wire meets the connector. Those mod-jack connectors rely on insulation displacement to make the contact. They can fail fast in bad environments (hot, wet, high vibration).
Still, it's not common for general maintenance to change the cables. It's more common to replace them as they give you trouble.
I also have an XO. I use it EVERY DAY and have for the last year. There is a lot more wrong with it than most people know. Still, I like it and use it. Its major problems are:
1) Cost twice as much as promised.
2) Runs half as fast as I'd like.
3) Has half the battery life promised.
4) Uses Sugar - it's just too weird - even my kids hate it.
So, I spent $25 for an 8 Gig SD card, blew away Fedora and put Ubuntu on the OLPC. It's much more usable now.
OLPC needs to dump Sugar, embrace Ubuntu, and modernize the hardware to 2x the clock and 4x the battery capacity. That would give them a chance.
Wow are you out of the loop. Go to lego.com and see what they are making today.
They've been undergoing a major product line improvement for the last few years and they now have several key themes that are very popular among the kids.
The big ones for the kids I know are:
1) Star Wars. Loads of models based on all eras of the Star Wars saga. Very collectable.
2) Spies. Loads of models based on a James Bond like spy setup.
3) Cities. Loads of models based on a city theme. Like SimCity for legos.
4) Indy Jones. The latest movie sucked but every kid I know thinks the legos are cool.
Did any of you notice where they stored the crowbars and shotguns? I'm just making sure when they power this thing up (and create that inter-dimensional rift) that I know the layout.
I forget, has the gravity gun been invented yet. Or was that CERN2?
The XO is Fedora. The file system is normal (a $40 8 Gig sdhc card drops right in and gets some good storage space). Yes you can develop code for it. It supports python with a "kid friendly" environment that makes programming a little more accessible. Kind of reminds me of the old Commodore 64, you can hack code easily.
Check it's wiki: wiki.laptop.org
Grim Fandango - "Those dang compact cars!" My kids and I play it every Halloween.
Call of Duty UO - For over a year I've been playing Base Assault Multiplayer.
The old games I used to play:
Zork 1,2,3
The Enchanter series.
Silent Service (the original one on the spud..er.. C64)
The Killing Gameshow (Psygnosis)
The Monkey Island series (well 1, 2, and 3 anyway)
I happen to be "near this industry"...
I've met with SRB, Tank, and Orbiter people at KSC and I can tell you they really do care about the environment. I've watched the foam being applied and I can tell you the foam and it's application process was designed to be low enviro-impact. The SRB's are even low enviro-impact. They splash down and are towed back to shore. Leaving a trail of dead dolphin's as you tow one back would be bad press.
Remember - they are in the middle of wildlife refuge.
>In 18 months, the cost should go down by half.
Nope. It will not.
>Moores Law
Never said your super computer cost would half and speed double every 18 months.
Give Moore a rest.
I replay that game every Halloween-eve with my kids. The only thing the game needed was a "play the shortened version or play will all the puzzlely goodness" option. If it had it I'd take the shortened version so I could just get the plot and really cool scenes without have to take time to do all the puzzles.
Grim Fandango - Dang that was a clever plot, voice acting over the top excellent, and artwork that was spot on.
If you trimmed a few scenes it would be a great Tim Burton movie.
The final scene about killed me...
I don't get it. What does a digital signature even mean to an open source project?
Once again I prove I'm stupid so here you go:
Any scumbag spyware company can download the source code - hack it to some Firefox looking spy infested spam sending porn peddling crap and then have it signed. After all, spyware is valid business model.
Focus on MD5s and the like. Digital signatures don't do much here.
Call it what you want but it probably was working. I recorded a drop in spam that started last thursday and was proportional to the number of screen savers in operation. By the time it hit 104,000 savers in operation daily spam was down over 80%. I actually had three solid hours with no spam (that hasn't happened since 9/11). Historically spam rises during this time frame.
It's odd that attacking websites seemed to have dropped the amount of spam. Makes me wonder just how close the spam servers are to the spam website servers. Maybe the innocent victems we are so worried about are really the spammers.
Come on all you people - this was a probe - yack about good or evil and POST YOUR RESULTS!
What did this really do. I can't be the only one who tracks spam. Admins, what do you say?
Slashdot Mirror
WTF Mundie, yeoman have these things on the bridge of the Enterprise. On both TOS and TNG. That's hundreds of years of freaking "staying power." What a moron.
The OLPC needs to cost half as much, run twice as fast, with twice the memory. Then it will meet the expectations they made for it two years ago. I know. I own one.
As an OLPC owner I can say RH sucks too. Changed to Ubuntu and the the boot time was about 20% less. Overall feel of the OS is much more responsive.
Missing keys? WTF. People with pocket knives cut them out or something? It's a frigging rubber mat keyboard. How does it loose a key? What kind of trade show was this? A razor blade trade show?
Sugar sucks big time. My kids hate it, my wife hates it, I hate it. I spent the first year trying to get used to it. No dice. It sucks. Slow, totally non-intuitive, buggy. Nuked it and put Ubuntu on it. No problems now. It gets a few hours of use every day. The OLPC has a lot of problems: too slow by a factor of 2, too power hungry by a factor of 2, too costly by a factor of 2. Early units have bad keyboards and bad touch pads. Put sugar on it and it makes me puke.
You cut the fiber at point A so you can install a tap down the line and nobody will know.
This isn't some terrorist plot. This is a Government plot to install data taps in California at the cross-roads of the internet. Check the building next to the manhole - I bet it has 10 floors but the elevator only shows nine floors...
>Does the cable need replacing?
Cables are made of wires, insulation, and connectors. Generally the wire and insulation have a very long lifetime. Even the insulation used in cheap Cat-whatever cables will probably outlast you.
The lifetime drops a lot if the cable gets flexed, rubbed, exposed to heat, UV, or moisture. Under those cases the wire and insulation can fail fairly quickly (think months to a few years).
Under normal use in a good environment the key failure point is where the wire meets the connector. Those mod-jack connectors rely on insulation displacement to make the contact. They can fail fast in bad environments (hot, wet, high vibration).
Still, it's not common for general maintenance to change the cables. It's more common to replace them as they give you trouble.
>Do CAT 5(e) cables get old?
Sure, but they tend to keep working.
I also have an XO. I use it EVERY DAY and have for the last year. There is a lot more wrong with it than most people know. Still, I like it and use it. Its major problems are: 1) Cost twice as much as promised. 2) Runs half as fast as I'd like. 3) Has half the battery life promised. 4) Uses Sugar - it's just too weird - even my kids hate it. So, I spent $25 for an 8 Gig SD card, blew away Fedora and put Ubuntu on the OLPC. It's much more usable now. OLPC needs to dump Sugar, embrace Ubuntu, and modernize the hardware to 2x the clock and 4x the battery capacity. That would give them a chance.
Just add the ability to talk to a Mythbackend and output HD at 1080p and I'll get two!
Wow are you out of the loop. Go to lego.com and see what they are making today. They've been undergoing a major product line improvement for the last few years and they now have several key themes that are very popular among the kids. The big ones for the kids I know are: 1) Star Wars. Loads of models based on all eras of the Star Wars saga. Very collectable. 2) Spies. Loads of models based on a James Bond like spy setup. 3) Cities. Loads of models based on a city theme. Like SimCity for legos. 4) Indy Jones. The latest movie sucked but every kid I know thinks the legos are cool.
I can tell you from experience it's one big project from a cable assembly standpoint. We supplied the cable test equipment: http://www.cirris.com/
Did any of you notice where they stored the crowbars and shotguns? I'm just making sure when they power this thing up (and create that inter-dimensional rift) that I know the layout. I forget, has the gravity gun been invented yet. Or was that CERN2?
The XO is Fedora. The file system is normal (a $40 8 Gig sdhc card drops right in and gets some good storage space). Yes you can develop code for it. It supports python with a "kid friendly" environment that makes programming a little more accessible. Kind of reminds me of the old Commodore 64, you can hack code easily. Check it's wiki: wiki.laptop.org
You forgot. The OLPC is a freakn 1200 x 900 display. Not 800x600. It's the highest dot pitch display I've ever seen.
If you haven't read this then you haven't seen the real creative talent of these people: I personally can recommend the bottle of Uncertainty. It comes in real handy from time to time... http://putative.typepad.com/putative/2007/01/fedex_refuses_s.html
Grim Fandango - "Those dang compact cars!" My kids and I play it every Halloween. Call of Duty UO - For over a year I've been playing Base Assault Multiplayer. The old games I used to play: Zork 1,2,3 The Enchanter series. Silent Service (the original one on the spud ..er.. C64)
The Killing Gameshow (Psygnosis)
The Monkey Island series (well 1, 2, and 3 anyway)
I happen to be "near this industry"... I've met with SRB, Tank, and Orbiter people at KSC and I can tell you they really do care about the environment. I've watched the foam being applied and I can tell you the foam and it's application process was designed to be low enviro-impact. The SRB's are even low enviro-impact. They splash down and are towed back to shore. Leaving a trail of dead dolphin's as you tow one back would be bad press. Remember - they are in the middle of wildlife refuge.
>In 18 months, the cost should go down by half. Nope. It will not. >Moores Law Never said your super computer cost would half and speed double every 18 months. Give Moore a rest.
I replay that game every Halloween-eve with my kids. The only thing the game needed was a "play the shortened version or play will all the puzzlely goodness" option. If it had it I'd take the shortened version so I could just get the plot and really cool scenes without have to take time to do all the puzzles.
Grim Fandango - Dang that was a clever plot, voice acting over the top excellent, and artwork that was spot on. If you trimmed a few scenes it would be a great Tim Burton movie. The final scene about killed me...
I don't get it. What does a digital signature even mean to an open source project? Once again I prove I'm stupid so here you go: Any scumbag spyware company can download the source code - hack it to some Firefox looking spy infested spam sending porn peddling crap and then have it signed. After all, spyware is valid business model. Focus on MD5s and the like. Digital signatures don't do much here.
Call it what you want but it probably was working. I recorded a drop in spam that started last thursday and was proportional to the number of screen savers in operation. By the time it hit 104,000 savers in operation daily spam was down over 80%. I actually had three solid hours with no spam (that hasn't happened since 9/11). Historically spam rises during this time frame.
It's odd that attacking websites seemed to have dropped the amount of spam. Makes me wonder just how close the spam servers are to the spam website servers. Maybe the innocent victems we are so worried about are really the spammers.
Come on all you people - this was a probe - yack about good or evil and POST YOUR RESULTS!
What did this really do. I can't be the only one who tracks spam. Admins, what do you say?