Agreed; Sun does do a good job of supporting their machines for a long time. It's also amazing how often a no-longer supported driver for EOL'd hardware will still work in much newer versions of Solaris:-)
However, the 32bit machines really have NetBSD as the only truly viable, up-to-date OS from now on.
I used to use NetBSD (I forget which version it was at the time, now) on a Sparc IPX; 40Mhz, 64MB RAM, 1GB drive. I had an extra SBUS ethernet card in it and used it as my firewall, DNS, DHCP, and IMAP mail server (in concert with fetchmail).
Ran great until I started getting flooded with spam. SpamAssassin just couldn't keep up on that box; it'd still be processing the previous batch of mail when fetchmail grabbed the next batch.
I upgraded to a sparc 10 with dual 60Mhz processors, but had to move to Linux because NetBSD didn't yet support multiprocessor SPARC. It kept up OK, but 2.4 didn't support Sparc32 very well; the ext3 filesystem became corrupted with SMP enabled, so I had to go back to ext2. There seemed to be little remaining interest among the Linux kernel developers for Sparc32 anymore.
I think Solaris 10 is 64-bit only, so NetBSD may be the only option left to stay up to date on all those old Sparcs!
I understand what you are saying. I personally would have no moral peoblem with using software that circumvents the broadcast flag, and would have little fear of being caught using it; however, just on principal I'd rather not have it be illegal - the government has no business meddling in this. Aditionally, if someone is re-distributing content illegally, then they should be sued, not thrown in jail.
I have a big problem with the fact that if the police investigate someone for anything, they seem to have carte blanche (sp?) to go on a fishing expidition on their computers. Having this software could result in an additional charge being brought against you if you are arrested for something else. Perhaps if you are found not guilty of whatever the police were originally investigating you for, you might be found guilty of possessing this software (or something else illegal that was on your computer).
IANAL, so I don't know what the law about all this actually is; you read about horror stories all the time, though.
OK, thanks for the info; I didn't know they were putting a slower drive in the higher-end model:-(
I agree, the RPM and (especially) the cache can make a big difference, as I found when I upgraded the drive in my Dell laptop.
The Seagate Momentus ST9100823A-RK is 100GB @ 5400RPM with a 8MB cache - now that's a nice drive for the mini, but it is $200 at Newegg.com (and they're out of stock anyway). Too bad that notebook drives are so much more expensive than the regular 3.5" drives.
I think it's worth the extra $100 for the faster machine, not because of the negligible speed increase, but because of the 80GB hard drive; those drives (that I've seen anyway) all cost more than $100. I'm sure there's some fly-by-night operation on pricewatch.com that sells them cheap, but those places seem pretty dodgy if you check them out on resellerratings.com.
I'd like to know how high you can clock one of the 1.4Ghz models, though I doubt I'd do it myself if I had a Mini; those jumpers are tiny, and it's not like you can put a big ol' HSF on the CPU to compensate for the heat, at least not without ruining the Mini's appeal.
I wish the article had more detail; I'd like to know how this is supposed to work. Is it just the control software that's "reproducing", or are these robots actually constucting copies of themselves?
Robots with emotions is a cool idea in terms of fantasy/sci-fi, but is there a practical reason for it?
What is the morality of having robots do dangerous jobs instead of humans? Kind of ruins the point of building robots in the first place.
Too late I guess; it sucked at the beginning and drove viewers away (nobody likes prequels anyway), who never came back to see the improvement this season.
I'm bummed. At least there's Battlestar Galactica, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate SG1 (I'm really trying to convince myself that it hasn't jumped the shark now that O'Neill's a general and Hammond's gone.. and no more Teryl Rothery yumminess:(
People (in general) are getting lazier from being spoiled. Companies compete to provide their customers instant gratification, and people have come to expect it.
People are still capable of using the "run" menu option if the instructions tell them what to do, but they won't be happy about it. And the example you gave is still a lot easier for non-computer-types than what usually has to be done in order to install software on Linux that didn't already come with the distro, or as part of an online update.
I know a lot of people who aren't into computers all that much, but need to deal with them; I've seen this firsthand. They don't care how it works, as long as it does.
Since it's a 3D game, will there be any 3D acceleration, and if so, which Macs and how? As far as I know, there's no PPC version of NVidia's driver for Linux, which is the only one that has 3D acceleration. I'm under the impression that the same problem exists for all of the relatively recent ATI chips as well.
Unless your mac still has an old RAGE128 in it, the game might be kind of sucky, performance-wise.
I swear I heard this a year or two ago; is this a new reporting of an old study, or a duplicate study?
Anyway, no surprise at all. I don't even like someone who's sitting in the passenger seat to talk to me if I'm going through a spot of rough traffic (but then I have ADD:)
I see cell-phone-drivers do the craziest shit every day.
With your "Windows-is-perfect-centric-biased" view
If you think I'm actually promoting Windows, you've really misinterpreted my comment.
Perhaps being european you may not be not aware of these brands, but Hallmark is a huge greeting card company, and Hallmark Card Studio lets people make their own greeting cards. Nothing like this exists for Linux that I'm aware of, and certainly not with the Hallmark brand name. Just to be perfectly clear, I personally don't care about the Hallmark brand name, but I'm not a typical end user.
"Blue's Clues" is a popular kid's TV show, and there are a lot of Blues Clues educational titles available, but certainly not for Linux. I know that there are educational programs available for Linux, but they don't have the licensed characters that kids want to see, and the ones I've played with are not nearly as featured or polished.
Those, of course, were just a couple of examples.
No argument that the major distros come with a lot of stuff, but not necessarily all the stuff that regular users want to have.
In another comment someone made the point that you have to give people what they want, and I don't think most regular people want (for example) 10 text editors.
Linux is awesome for people like me (and probably you) who like to toy around with their system, write code, and generally hack. We are not typical.
Use your own analogy to really hear what any user really wants: Why oh why couldn't there just be ONE type of DVD player that'll play any DVD I buy?
That was almost the case with Divx; fortunately it didn't take off. It will be the case with Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD.
It sounds just as absurd as Joe Six Pack buying ANY computer off the shelf and being able to load Mircosoft Office and the iLife Suite on that same off the shelf computer with no compatibility issues whatsover.
I'm sure the average user would love to be able to do that (if they're even aware of iLife to begin with). But there are plenty of Windows programs that do similar things, not nearly as well; if they're "good enough", "mums and dads" don't care. Macs are for those (like me) who desire excellence, but usually it's mediocrity that wins.
Couldn't agree more with the rest of your comment.
Expecting "mums and dads" to do./configure; make; make install is really out of touch with reality.
'Mums and dads" want to go to Target, pick up Hallmark Card Studio, and Blues Clues for the kids, pop in the CD when they get home and have it all install and work automatically. They can get that with Windows.
There's too much choice in the Linux world for "mums and dads" to deal with: which distro, which user interface? People don't like choice, unless is about a topic they're really interested in. And "mums and dads" aren't interested in their computer's OS; they just want things to work. You pick out a name-brand PC (depends on which store you go to and what the salesman tells you) with Windows XP Home on it; you know that you can pick up any game or program and it'll just work, no major decision-making required.
Back when the choice included IBM PC, Macintosh, Apple ][, Commodore 64, Atari, I knew a LOT of people who complained that there were too many kinds to choose from. Why, oh why couldn't there be just ONE type of computer that'll run any program I buy? Now they've got what they wanted and they're happy, even with the virus/spyware problems. Linux, however, is all about choice.
I had major problems in Fedora Core 2, especially with X-Windows; I tried Suse 9.1 and had the same exact problem: switching virtual terminals a couple of times (or force-qutting X) would cause the whole machine to lock up completely (no response to pings either)!
This was apparently a problem with the then-new X.org server; my Dell c600 has an ATI Rage128 chip in it, fully supported by the open source X driver for years. Had to go back to Fedora Core 1. I don't think it's right that X can take down the whole machine!
Now I'm running Fedora Core 3 and everything is working perfectly! While the problems do eventually get worked out, Linux does go through some rough spells, especially when something major changes (like a new X server).
You must have good hardware that's supported by stable drivers; I definately get crashes under Linux.
My stability decreased under mid-range 2.4, then got better again with the later versions, then decreased again under 2.6. This is on a Dell Latitude C600 and my desktop (ASUS A7M266 board, SB Live, GeForce3, Athlon XP2000+, WinTV card. No problems with Windows XP on either system.
Not bashing Linux here (or you), but it isn't perfect. I get a feeling of smug complacency from a lot of Linux users that won't help it to improve.
Slashdot Mirror
However, the 32bit machines really have NetBSD as the only truly viable, up-to-date OS from now on.
I think photoshopping their heads onto people would be funnier.
Ran great until I started getting flooded with spam. SpamAssassin just couldn't keep up on that box; it'd still be processing the previous batch of mail when fetchmail grabbed the next batch.
I upgraded to a sparc 10 with dual 60Mhz processors, but had to move to Linux because NetBSD didn't yet support multiprocessor SPARC. It kept up OK, but 2.4 didn't support Sparc32 very well; the ext3 filesystem became corrupted with SMP enabled, so I had to go back to ext2. There seemed to be little remaining interest among the Linux kernel developers for Sparc32 anymore.
I think Solaris 10 is 64-bit only, so NetBSD may be the only option left to stay up to date on all those old Sparcs!
I have a big problem with the fact that if the police investigate someone for anything, they seem to have carte blanche (sp?) to go on a fishing expidition on their computers. Having this software could result in an additional charge being brought against you if you are arrested for something else. Perhaps if you are found not guilty of whatever the police were originally investigating you for, you might be found guilty of possessing this software (or something else illegal that was on your computer).
IANAL, so I don't know what the law about all this actually is; you read about horror stories all the time, though.
I agree, the RPM and (especially) the cache can make a big difference, as I found when I upgraded the drive in my Dell laptop.
The Seagate Momentus ST9100823A-RK is 100GB @ 5400RPM with a 8MB cache - now that's a nice drive for the mini, but it is $200 at Newegg.com (and they're out of stock anyway). Too bad that notebook drives are so much more expensive than the regular 3.5" drives.
I'd like to know how high you can clock one of the 1.4Ghz models, though I doubt I'd do it myself if I had a Mini; those jumpers are tiny, and it's not like you can put a big ol' HSF on the CPU to compensate for the heat, at least not without ruining the Mini's appeal.
nt
Sometimes I fantisize that the administration does something that's actually good for the economy. Then I wake up.
Sorry.
I wish the article had more detail; I'd like to know how this is supposed to work. Is it just the control software that's "reproducing", or are these robots actually constucting copies of themselves?
Robots with emotions is a cool idea in terms of fantasy/sci-fi, but is there a practical reason for it?
What is the morality of having robots do dangerous jobs instead of humans? Kind of ruins the point of building robots in the first place.
I'm bummed. At least there's Battlestar Galactica, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate SG1 (I'm really trying to convince myself that it hasn't jumped the shark now that O'Neill's a general and Hammond's gone.. and no more Teryl Rothery yumminess :(
People are still capable of using the "run" menu option if the instructions tell them what to do, but they won't be happy about it. And the example you gave is still a lot easier for non-computer-types than what usually has to be done in order to install software on Linux that didn't already come with the distro, or as part of an online update.
I know a lot of people who aren't into computers all that much, but need to deal with them; I've seen this firsthand. They don't care how it works, as long as it does.
LOL!
Unless your mac still has an old RAGE128 in it, the game might be kind of sucky, performance-wise.
Slashdot meets Sesame Street?
Anyway, no surprise at all. I don't even like someone who's sitting in the passenger seat to talk to me if I'm going through a spot of rough traffic (but then I have ADD :)
I see cell-phone-drivers do the craziest shit every day.
If you think I'm actually promoting Windows, you've really misinterpreted my comment.
Perhaps being european you may not be not aware of these brands, but Hallmark is a huge greeting card company, and Hallmark Card Studio lets people make their own greeting cards. Nothing like this exists for Linux that I'm aware of, and certainly not with the Hallmark brand name. Just to be perfectly clear, I personally don't care about the Hallmark brand name, but I'm not a typical end user.
"Blue's Clues" is a popular kid's TV show, and there are a lot of Blues Clues educational titles available, but certainly not for Linux. I know that there are educational programs available for Linux, but they don't have the licensed characters that kids want to see, and the ones I've played with are not nearly as featured or polished.
Those, of course, were just a couple of examples.
No argument that the major distros come with a lot of stuff, but not necessarily all the stuff that regular users want to have.
In another comment someone made the point that you have to give people what they want, and I don't think most regular people want (for example) 10 text editors.
Linux is awesome for people like me (and probably you) who like to toy around with their system, write code, and generally hack. We are not typical.
That was almost the case with Divx; fortunately it didn't take off. It will be the case with Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD.
It sounds just as absurd as Joe Six Pack buying ANY computer off the shelf and being able to load Mircosoft Office and the iLife Suite on that same off the shelf computer with no compatibility issues whatsover.
I'm sure the average user would love to be able to do that (if they're even aware of iLife to begin with). But there are plenty of Windows programs that do similar things, not nearly as well; if they're "good enough", "mums and dads" don't care. Macs are for those (like me) who desire excellence, but usually it's mediocrity that wins.
Couldn't agree more with the rest of your comment.
'Mums and dads" want to go to Target, pick up Hallmark Card Studio, and Blues Clues for the kids, pop in the CD when they get home and have it all install and work automatically. They can get that with Windows.
There's too much choice in the Linux world for "mums and dads" to deal with: which distro, which user interface? People don't like choice, unless is about a topic they're really interested in. And "mums and dads" aren't interested in their computer's OS; they just want things to work. You pick out a name-brand PC (depends on which store you go to and what the salesman tells you) with Windows XP Home on it; you know that you can pick up any game or program and it'll just work, no major decision-making required.
Back when the choice included IBM PC, Macintosh, Apple ][, Commodore 64, Atari, I knew a LOT of people who complained that there were too many kinds to choose from. Why, oh why couldn't there be just ONE type of computer that'll run any program I buy? Now they've got what they wanted and they're happy, even with the virus/spyware problems. Linux, however, is all about choice.
This was apparently a problem with the then-new X.org server; my Dell c600 has an ATI Rage128 chip in it, fully supported by the open source X driver for years. Had to go back to Fedora Core 1. I don't think it's right that X can take down the whole machine!
Now I'm running Fedora Core 3 and everything is working perfectly! While the problems do eventually get worked out, Linux does go through some rough spells, especially when something major changes (like a new X server).
My stability decreased under mid-range 2.4, then got better again with the later versions, then decreased again under 2.6. This is on a Dell Latitude C600 and my desktop (ASUS A7M266 board, SB Live, GeForce3, Athlon XP2000+, WinTV card. No problems with Windows XP on either system.
Not bashing Linux here (or you), but it isn't perfect. I get a feeling of smug complacency from a lot of Linux users that won't help it to improve.
Too bad the site's down; For now I guess I'll be stuck using my Dremel to ruin things.