I'll bet you recieved a tray-loading iMac; with those models you can do as you describe because the power supply, motherboard, and analog (video) board are all discrete components, and there is an internal VGA connector.
My iMac was the slot-loading type, and in that model the power supply is part of the analog board, and is so integrated with the video circuitry that power is achieved only if the CRT is working. The only way to run a slot-loading iMac without the CRT is to remove the motherboard and adapt an ATX power supply to it (which I have in fact done with the board from a dead iMac DV). Even the external mirrored SVGA connector doesn't work without the internal video connector hooked up, so I had to adapt that to a monitor cable to get useable video.
The slot-loaders are a pain to do all this with, so few have bothered. Here are a couple web pages on how to do this if anyone is interested:
Uh, that's exactly what I was talking about. You have to create separate printer queues for a single printer if you want multiple different settings; it's the same in OSX, Linux, BSD, and eny other OS that runs CUPS. It also sucks.
In Windows you only have to have ONE printer set up, and you can change the resolution, quality, paper type, and anything else in the standard print dialog any time you print something. That's what I want CUPS to be able to do.
OSX does a good job of simplifying things, but a lot of functionality is left out; to fine-tune things (such as the resolution and paper type on my Epson color inkjet), you have to use the CUPS web interface (http://localhost:631).
It's cool that it's there, but the average Mac user probably doesn't know about it, and it kinda sucks to have to have a different printer queue for each reolution/paper type. I wish those things could be set per print job as in Windows. (I know that this is a limitation of CUPS, not OSX.)
I'm always amused by people who speak of the "social contract" with those who derive revenue from advertising, and who consider ad-skipping immoral.
You see, I don't consider it my job to watch commercials. Sometimes I watch them (if they're funny or have a hot babe), but other times I go to the bathroom, grab a snack, veg out, or whatever, and I don't feel one bit guilty about it. The very idea strikes me as silly. If the program or website is freely available, then the "content" producers are simply taking a gamble that the advertising will be interesting enough to work. If not, then tough luck.
This is (supposedly) a free market; if their advertising-based business model doesn't work, then if they're smart they'll go to a subscription-based one. That's fine with me. I'll ether decide that the subscription is worth it, or I'll find something better to do with my time.
Ya know, virtual desktops and Expose aren't really in competition with each other. I'm sure a lot of people get good use out of both, simultaneously.
I personally don't use multiple desktops, even in Linux, but would never, ever consider taking away that functionality (if I had the power to do so), knowing how useful it is to so many other people. For that reason, I think it'd be a great idea for Apple to add this feature to OSX.
This is obviously just a short-term toy project - I doubt they're serious about doing any real work on this. I mean, a 10-megabit hub?
The power draw would be a problem too. I used to have an iMac DV, and even with the screen in "energy-save" mode, there was still a bit of power being drawn by the tube and accompanying electronics.
The best old Mac for clustering would be, IMHO, the Gigabit Ethernet G4. They must be fairly cheap by now, have Gigabit Ethernet (duh), take two gigabytes of RAM, and are easily processor-upgradeable if desired (G4 upgrades are getting cheap).
Perhaps they will; I doubt that this cluster is powerful enough, or long-term-interesting enough to keep around for any real length of time. I mean, they used a mere 10-megabit hub, for cryin' out loud, on machines that have 100-megabit interfaces. It's obvious that they're just toying around with this. Afterward, a charitible contribution would be a nice little tax deduction.
A friend of mine is the recipient of a transplanted kidney and pancreas (I think he's one of the first to get that combination). It cured his diabetes and kidney failure, but he obviously has to take the usual recipient's cocktail of drugs, and it's no picnic.
The immunosupressants means that he has to go to the hospital any time he gets a bad cold, infections are a constant problem and fear, and the prednisone (anti-inflammatory steroid that all recipients have to take alongside the immunosupressants for the rest of their lives) causes bloat, loss of muscle mass, sleeplessness, and the "shakes". That's just part of the story.
In his case the choice was clear: dialysis sucks bigtime. But if it was me and the choice was insulin vs. the drugs transplant recipients have to take, I'd stick with the insulin, no contest.
It all comes down to a personal decision, but her choice is not the one I would have made; I wonder if she really knew what she was in for? I certainly wish her luck. At least in her case rejection probably just means that she'll have to go back to the insulin.
A coworker of mine bought a really expensive Panasonic DVD player (he's an audio/videophile), which stopped reading DVD's. Since it was still under warranty, he took it to an authorized Panasonic repair center during a lunch break, and I went with him.
We chatted with the repair guy, who said something striking: all players, from every manufacturer, use the same cheap-ass mechanism from China, regardless of the price range. My friends player was no exception; the difference is all in the outlying electronics.
So don't go wasting your money on $300 players expecting any more reliability than an $80 model.
I do believe, however, that there is a difference in quality between the $50 or less models and ones $70 or more; I've heard nothing but bad things about the super-cheapies, such as breaking within a year.
In my own, completely unscientific observation, OSX really seems to speed up when RAM reaches 640MB. In my old iMac G3 (where speed improvements are very noticeable) going from 512Mb to 640Mb made a noticeable difference. No surprise, then, that your iBook runs well.
Is anybody actually buying into these rather transparent attacks against the GPL? Honestly, I'd
like to know just how effective these lies are.
Anybody who's in a position to be affected in any way by the GPL ought to be aware of the fact that it only applies if you're using GPL'd code. Of course, one can never underestimate stupidity.
Thanks for the informative reply. The stability problem is what I was afraid of - seems to be in keeping with Via's reputation.
Have you considered the (admittedly expensive) Pentium M board from AOpen?
Mini, slightly off-topic rant:
I love Athlon chips, but I hate the fact that for a long time just about the only chipset option available for them was from Via, and they always seemed to be buggy. I think this is why so many people are prejudiced against Athlons and recommend Intel for stability.
A few years ago I build an Athlon-based system and chose the only board I could find that had the least amount of Via components: the Asus A7M266, which has an AMD northbridge, but a Via southbridge. Guess what? The southbridge has a bug in it which can cause DMA problems between the IDE and Soundblaster Live! card, and which prevents the CPU from truly idling (so it always runs hot). Thankfully the NForce it here now (though you need to use an NVidia video card with it for 3D support under Linux).
I was just going by the requirements of MythTV (as I remember them). Sounds like it's working well for you, though. Glad the chipset is supported by Linux.
Well, the site's slashdotted and the mirror put up in another post only has the first page, so I have some questions.
First, just how well is Linux supported by this? Are there open-source drivers for the MPEG2/4 decoding hardware?
Second, there is mention of the idea of using this as a PVR; does this board have the huevos necessary for real-time encoding? I understand that the epia line is pretty wimpy in the CPU department, and MythTV, at least, requires more than I think this board can do. It has MPEG decoding, not encoding hardware.
Let's see:
Cellphone Headsets: talking when nobody is around.
This tech: gestulating wildly for no apparent reason.
I've seen some early adopters around here (pushing shopping carts for some reason); now I know what they were doing!
that there are so many Apple stories today? Must be a lot of Mac users at Slashdot. (Fine by me, I like Macs too.)
It's funny that this is the only story so far that's true! To be on-topic, isn't $29 a bit pricey for a sock??? Why not just use a regular sock? OK, I guess it's actually six socks, but still...
Hmm, I didn't realize that Ubuntu had pulled so far ahead! Seems like it was just a few days ago that Mandrake was top dog (time flies).
I'll definately give it a try. If it's as easy to update as Debian (and I'm sure it is) but as polished as the other distros, I'll start suggesting it around my work. Seems to have a good rep on Slashdot, at least.
Yeah, I've been meaning to give CentOS or Whitebox a try, just haven't got around to it yet.
I'm a little spoiled with Fedora Core 3 and apt-rpm (I get packages from freshrpms.net); are there a lot of packages available for CentOS (don't remember seeing CentOS/RH Enterprise support on freshrpms), or would I have to try the Fedora ones (or do a lot of compiling)? I like a lot of the 3D games, mplayer, xmms plugins, etc that Redhat doesn't give you.
I've been in the trenches: used Debian, on a Sparc32 platform no less, Gentoo on a Powermac 8500, and I've even built Linux from Scratch on my old VAIO laptop. I've been there, done that, and I'm tired of it. Now I want something that just works.
As for your partitioning problems, I didn't have that problem with Debian (I used it on a PC as well), so there may be something about your drive geometry setting in your BIOS that Debian doesn't like (is it "LBA"?); maybe you need to specify the drive geometry on the Kernel command line (I forget the syntax). Been a long time since I had to deal with that stuff.
I'm sure you're absolutely right. The problem that I at least have is that there are too many Debian-based distros to choose from (I guess Devo was right). I can never tell which one will stick around in the long run and which ones will fade away, and at this point I've grown tired of mucking about with Linux reinstalls.
I'd love it if just one Debian derivative would come out way ahead of the others in terms of popularity, to the level of Fedora, Suse, Mandrake, or Gentoo; then I could feel confident that it will stick around and stay up to date for the long haul.
As for Debian itself, well I used to use it (on a Sparc 10), but to have an up-to-date desktop I had to run "unstable", and occasionally things (like DNS - that was fun) would break for awhile. Now, I'm sure there's a way to have just part of the system "unstable" and the rest "stable" or "testing", but honestly I've grown tired of mucking about with the system like that (which also leaves out Gentoo for me) - nowadays I want something that just works. Yeah, I've grown lazy - deal.
I've had the best luck so far with Fedora, but I hate the fact that a full system upgrade is due twice a year. Oh well, maybe I should play with SuSe some more:)
There will be a lot of argument about whether the University should enforce restrictions on the network it owns, playing it safe in order to avoid the possibility of lawsuits from the RIAA (and others); or whether academic freedom should win out.
This is, of course, a valid argument, but I think this issue exposes a deeper problem: who do universities work for? University administrations seem to have the attitude that they're doing you a big favor by even allowing you on campus; "keep your nose clean or else!" But really, it's the students who are "customers" of the university because they're the ones who are paying (increasingly large) tuitions; so where's the "customer service"?
I'm not saying that there shouldn't be rules or academic requirements, but I do think that schools should be more willing to support and protect their high-tuition-paying students rather than treating them like criminals by default.
Slashdot Mirror
My iMac was the slot-loading type, and in that model the power supply is part of the analog board, and is so integrated with the video circuitry that power is achieved only if the CRT is working. The only way to run a slot-loading iMac without the CRT is to remove the motherboard and adapt an ATX power supply to it (which I have in fact done with the board from a dead iMac DV). Even the external mirrored SVGA connector doesn't work without the internal video connector hooked up, so I had to adapt that to a monitor cable to get useable video.
The slot-loaders are a pain to do all this with, so few have bothered. Here are a couple web pages on how to do this if anyone is interested:
http://www.ct-scan.com/iMacATX
http://pascal.monte.free.fr/imac (Frech site)
Some time I should really get around to putting my own conversion on the web.
In Windows you only have to have ONE printer set up, and you can change the resolution, quality, paper type, and anything else in the standard print dialog any time you print something. That's what I want CUPS to be able to do.
It's cool that it's there, but the average Mac user probably doesn't know about it, and it kinda sucks to have to have a different printer queue for each reolution/paper type. I wish those things could be set per print job as in Windows. (I know that this is a limitation of CUPS, not OSX.)
You see, I don't consider it my job to watch commercials. Sometimes I watch them (if they're funny or have a hot babe), but other times I go to the bathroom, grab a snack, veg out, or whatever, and I don't feel one bit guilty about it. The very idea strikes me as silly. If the program or website is freely available, then the "content" producers are simply taking a gamble that the advertising will be interesting enough to work. If not, then tough luck.
This is (supposedly) a free market; if their advertising-based business model doesn't work, then if they're smart they'll go to a subscription-based one. That's fine with me. I'll ether decide that the subscription is worth it, or I'll find something better to do with my time.
I personally don't use multiple desktops, even in Linux, but would never, ever consider taking away that functionality (if I had the power to do so), knowing how useful it is to so many other people. For that reason, I think it'd be a great idea for Apple to add this feature to OSX.
The power draw would be a problem too. I used to have an iMac DV, and even with the screen in "energy-save" mode, there was still a bit of power being drawn by the tube and accompanying electronics.
The best old Mac for clustering would be, IMHO, the Gigabit Ethernet G4. They must be fairly cheap by now, have Gigabit Ethernet (duh), take two gigabytes of RAM, and are easily processor-upgradeable if desired (G4 upgrades are getting cheap).
Perhaps they will; I doubt that this cluster is powerful enough, or long-term-interesting enough to keep around for any real length of time. I mean, they used a mere 10-megabit hub, for cryin' out loud, on machines that have 100-megabit interfaces. It's obvious that they're just toying around with this. Afterward, a charitible contribution would be a nice little tax deduction.
The immunosupressants means that he has to go to the hospital any time he gets a bad cold, infections are a constant problem and fear, and the prednisone (anti-inflammatory steroid that all recipients have to take alongside the immunosupressants for the rest of their lives) causes bloat, loss of muscle mass, sleeplessness, and the "shakes". That's just part of the story.
In his case the choice was clear: dialysis sucks bigtime. But if it was me and the choice was insulin vs. the drugs transplant recipients have to take, I'd stick with the insulin, no contest.
It all comes down to a personal decision, but her choice is not the one I would have made; I wonder if she really knew what she was in for? I certainly wish her luck. At least in her case rejection probably just means that she'll have to go back to the insulin.
We chatted with the repair guy, who said something striking: all players, from every manufacturer, use the same cheap-ass mechanism from China, regardless of the price range. My friends player was no exception; the difference is all in the outlying electronics.
So don't go wasting your money on $300 players expecting any more reliability than an $80 model.
I do believe, however, that there is a difference in quality between the $50 or less models and ones $70 or more; I've heard nothing but bad things about the super-cheapies, such as breaking within a year.
In my own, completely unscientific observation, OSX really seems to speed up when RAM reaches 640MB. In my old iMac G3 (where speed improvements are very noticeable) going from 512Mb to 640Mb made a noticeable difference. No surprise, then, that your iBook runs well.
Braggart.
Well, OK maybe not, but it's up there with: Dow -> Tweeter Racksaver -> Verari Lindows -> Linspire Blech!
Mauve... doesn't that have the most RAM?
Anybody who's in a position to be affected in any way by the GPL ought to be aware of the fact that it only applies if you're using GPL'd code. Of course, one can never underestimate stupidity.
Have you considered the (admittedly expensive) Pentium M board from AOpen?
Mini, slightly off-topic rant:
I love Athlon chips, but I hate the fact that for a long time just about the only chipset option available for them was from Via, and they always seemed to be buggy. I think this is why so many people are prejudiced against Athlons and recommend Intel for stability.
A few years ago I build an Athlon-based system and chose the only board I could find that had the least amount of Via components: the Asus A7M266, which has an AMD northbridge, but a Via southbridge. Guess what? The southbridge has a bug in it which can cause DMA problems between the IDE and Soundblaster Live! card, and which prevents the CPU from truly idling (so it always runs hot). Thankfully the NForce it here now (though you need to use an NVidia video card with it for 3D support under Linux).
And so ends of my off-topic rant about Via.
I was just going by the requirements of MythTV (as I remember them). Sounds like it's working well for you, though. Glad the chipset is supported by Linux.
First, just how well is Linux supported by this? Are there open-source drivers for the MPEG2/4 decoding hardware?
Second, there is mention of the idea of using this as a PVR; does this board have the huevos necessary for real-time encoding? I understand that the epia line is pretty wimpy in the CPU department, and MythTV, at least, requires more than I think this board can do. It has MPEG decoding, not encoding hardware.
Does the FCC's new CableCard requirement help with DirectTV access at all? And yeah, I do know it's CableCard, but still...
Let's see: Cellphone Headsets: talking when nobody is around. This tech: gestulating wildly for no apparent reason. I've seen some early adopters around here (pushing shopping carts for some reason); now I know what they were doing!
It's funny that this is the only story so far that's true! To be on-topic, isn't $29 a bit pricey for a sock??? Why not just use a regular sock? OK, I guess it's actually six socks, but still...
I'll definately give it a try. If it's as easy to update as Debian (and I'm sure it is) but as polished as the other distros, I'll start suggesting it around my work. Seems to have a good rep on Slashdot, at least.
Thanks for the info.
I'm a little spoiled with Fedora Core 3 and apt-rpm (I get packages from freshrpms.net); are there a lot of packages available for CentOS (don't remember seeing CentOS/RH Enterprise support on freshrpms), or would I have to try the Fedora ones (or do a lot of compiling)? I like a lot of the 3D games, mplayer, xmms plugins, etc that Redhat doesn't give you.
As for your partitioning problems, I didn't have that problem with Debian (I used it on a PC as well), so there may be something about your drive geometry setting in your BIOS that Debian doesn't like (is it "LBA"?); maybe you need to specify the drive geometry on the Kernel command line (I forget the syntax). Been a long time since I had to deal with that stuff.
I'd love it if just one Debian derivative would come out way ahead of the others in terms of popularity, to the level of Fedora, Suse, Mandrake, or Gentoo; then I could feel confident that it will stick around and stay up to date for the long haul.
As for Debian itself, well I used to use it (on a Sparc 10), but to have an up-to-date desktop I had to run "unstable", and occasionally things (like DNS - that was fun) would break for awhile. Now, I'm sure there's a way to have just part of the system "unstable" and the rest "stable" or "testing", but honestly I've grown tired of mucking about with the system like that (which also leaves out Gentoo for me) - nowadays I want something that just works. Yeah, I've grown lazy - deal.
I've had the best luck so far with Fedora, but I hate the fact that a full system upgrade is due twice a year. Oh well, maybe I should play with SuSe some more :)
This is, of course, a valid argument, but I think this issue exposes a deeper problem: who do universities work for? University administrations seem to have the attitude that they're doing you a big favor by even allowing you on campus; "keep your nose clean or else!" But really, it's the students who are "customers" of the university because they're the ones who are paying (increasingly large) tuitions; so where's the "customer service"?
I'm not saying that there shouldn't be rules or academic requirements, but I do think that schools should be more willing to support and protect their high-tuition-paying students rather than treating them like criminals by default.