I always wondered if one could make a.src.rpm based disro. For all those people that want special optimizations would get their few extra %'s of speed.
Another reason a.src.rpm based distro would be useful is for non-x86 based systems.
I don't see why this would be very hard to put together. Maybe people would finally work together to build proper 3rd party.spec files.
BTW, I just discovered http://www.jpackage.org/. It's a web site that provides a apt-get rpm repository for java programs.
One of the nice things about Linux (or other free unices out there) is that it is soo easy to try out different kernels. You can try the devel code, if it doesn't work out for you you can easily go back to the last known good.
For the more conservative, just stick with the productized Linux disto's.
I know what you mean. Wouldn't it be easier if the Internet had a red light district (TLD)? Makes filtering very easy. The problem is that tons of people will complain about freedom of speech restrictions. So that made the only acceptable solution a "kids only" domain. Now everyone is happy.:)
Can DjVu be a replacement for JPEG? The problem is that none of the browsers have support for DjVu images... so it would take some time for the conversion.
Not true, you only get it if you "tuned" into the "channel" sorta like TV/radio. You don't get any multicast data on your network unless at least one person has requested that stream. As other people request the same stream, they are just "tuning" into that existing stream.
For live events, IP multicasting seems to be the way to go, but where is it?! I was using the MBONE back in '94. ISP's have never configured their systems for IP multicasting. It seems to me that IP multicasting would save a ton of bandwidth!
BTW, my understanding is that Akamai internally uses IP multicasting to send data out to all it's caching boxes. Now why couldn't they get ISP's to multicast enable their networks? It would save everyone some bandwidth.
>>> font support >>Already prety damn decent, if you use freetype 2.1.1
>Yes, some display support has improved. How about printing? How about font installation? How about obtaining font metrics and outlines from the font system -- oh, wait, you have to ask X for the path and then read the font file yourself, that's right, duh.
Keith Packard seems to be working on some of this also. It seems to me that the Xft and Freetype are the official libraries to support this stuff.
>>> alpha blending support >>Keith has also included this in his set of X updates, alpha support is included
>Where? Link? I'd love to see it. All I've seen to this point is his "twm" demo, which was slow and limited (according to Keith).
Actually Xrender is supported now, thus alpha blending. I thought KDE 3.0 uses this now.
>>> usable configuration (Think Mac, Windows, ven BeOS) >>Actualy redhat, mandrake, etc are comming a long way with this. (admitedly not there, but closing in)
>This must be one of those invisible features. How do you install a driver, change the refresh rate, color depth, resolution, etc. without editing/etc/X11/XF86Config-4? Why does X require a specific definition of each suitable resolution? can't it query the current monitor like Macs and Winders do (DPMS)?
True, this is a bad spot. BUT XFree DOES support DPMS. XFree can also receive monitor setting via (DDR is it??). I've seen it do it! Very slick, you don't even know it's doing it unless you read the XFree log file.
>>> changing resolutions on the fly >>Configure your X for multiple resolutions, and switch between them with ctrl-alt +/-
>This does not change the resolution of the display, only the size of the viewport.
This is not supported yet, but Keith Packard's web site mentions he is working on this. Both for rotation and resizing. Very nice.
>>> vnc (or other RFB) server support, so I can >>view my desktop -- the one shown on the monitor from another computer >VNC was made by AT&T, had has clients & servers for almost every platform, including linux
I kinda like not having to redraw my entire desktop just to run an app, but i guess that's a personal preference.
What about this talk of oil fields refilling themselves? Maybe we don't know as much about oil as we originally thought. Does anyone have some good links on this topic?
Okay... yeah... if the codec is a derivative, then it wouldn't give us Linux users with a video player. If that is the case, then the Sorenson lawyers are idiots for allowing anything that the company makes to be almost owned by Apple.
I'd hope that the core of the FlashMX codec is not that different from the Quicktime one. Then all a person would have to do is write a parser for Quicktime (already exists), and send the stream to the.so for decoding.
Does this mean that if/when Macromedia gets FlashMX on Linux, we now have a useable library to build a native Sorenson video player on Linux? It seems like the library could be reversed engineered so that calls to the decoder can be used. Just speculation, I guess it depends on how the.so file is layed out.
Actually the bandwidth can be limited. I was looking at a UWB antenna and the guy told me that the pulse was limited to a part of the spectrum depending on the gap in the antenna. The antenna was a PCB.
I thought the preview was the showing to the test audiences. The entire movie was 'pre viewed' before the released data. The trailer is the advertising of that movie.
Re:I still haven't seen the answers I am looking f
on
Wall Street Embraces Linux
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
1) How do you work around the complete lack of server-side productivity software on Linux servers? By deploying Exchange, you can make scheduling a meeting as easy as sending an email with a time and having everyone click to confirm the meeting, which is then added to everyone's calendar. There is no solution like this without using Exchange (and I've looked.)
You can do this a couple of ways now. One is to use a Outlook with a good IMAP server. Then you configure the clients to publish their free/busy times via WebDAV. This is built into Outlook and works pretty transparently. No costly software on the server at all! This doesn't have all the features that Exchange has, but covers the biggies.
Another more complete approach is to use the software from Bynari. Complete support for Outlook with Unix servers.
2) How do you work around the lack of group policy controls in SAMBA? By this I mean forcing a computer to have the most up-to-date anti-virus software when it logs on to the domain; mapping network drives automatically; downloading OS patches automatically through a local server. AFAIK, Samba can't do any of this as well as a Windows 2000 Server can. And what about Active Directory? LDAP isn't as cohesive a solution if you are running Windows clients.
My impression was that you can use policies with Samba. You just need to use a Windows box to generate the files. Samba also allows you to run scripts on the clients to do whatever you need them to. The scripts can run based on computer name, login name, or domain name. Can be very powerful.
The other conclusion I must draw is that the companies that are migrating to Linux as a workgroup server (i.e. replacing Windows NT/2000 Server with Linux) did not have a cohesive Windows network in the first place. Unfortunately, Linux is nowhere near a solution to Exchange, and it's perhaps 25% of the way to replacing a Windows 2000 primary domain controller's capabilities.
Samba can work as a PDC quite easily now. It can also allow Unix boxes to join into the domain. Samba takes care of the SID to UID mapping. Very slick. The only thing they don't have completely done right now is Kerberos/AD support. That is coming in Samba 3.0. You can start playing with it right now.
So what servers is Merrill Lynch migrating? Linux does have its core competencies -- web servers; application servers; network storage to some degree -- but they didn't mention what part of the infrastructure they were replacing. I would thus take the words "companywide" with a grain of salt in this case.
Cisco runs all the printers in the company off of Linux. So Linux *can* do file and print quite well.
BTW, you might want to check out a little program called "Directory Administrator." It's a program that manages users in a LDAP directory. The latest version also takes care of managing Samba accounts in LDAP. You get Active Directory without Microsoft.
Part one... low level stuff:
It would be nice if distros would install a SSL cert for the system. Make the user database use LDAP. It would make it easier for people to manage the system securely. When the user want to do web publishing all they do is turn on the web server and they automatically get secure WebDAV with authentication. This is one part of integration that would really help Linux.
Part two... applications:
Get applications like StarOffice to take to other applications and to each other. Foundations like gnome-db and gstreamer are great!
Part three... iDVD!;)
Since the Ogle people have figured out most of the DVD spec it would be awesome if some programmer more experience than me in video work used gstreamer and GIMP to make a DVD authoring package. That would be awesome!
but are genetically modified foods bad?
on
Monsanto and PCBs
·
· Score: 1
Just because a company did something terribly wrong doesn't mean that the whole concept should have a black eye. GM plants could also save lives. And what about the fact that humans have been modifying plants for *ages* now. We now have the technology to make specific changes... that sounds better and more controlled to me.
Farmers don't have to buy the seeds if they don't want to. Maybe GM foods will become easier to modify and some competing company will come out with seeds that grow good seeds. GM is still a new technology and it will probably get even better.
Both are "distributed." Microsoft is trying to create their own Internet. The whole point of the Internet is the distributed nature of it. This is why I think that when a.Net-like competitor comes out that is *fully* distributed it will succeed in the long run.
Now that many Linux distro's have LDAP authentication it would be nice if there was good software to manage it. A program that would manage all the attributes that various programs (e.g. Apache WebDAV, or Samba 2.2.2) need.
What about rest of the systems in the enterprise? It would be nice if distro's shipped with Openview like management programs (maybe OpenNMS?) that monitor systems. Tell the sysadmin the health of the various systems (Linux or even Windows?) in the enterprise. This is why a friend of mine *loves* Compaq Windows server systems. The problem is that no Linux software takes advantage of all the feedback that Compaq systems have.
What would be really cool is an open source SNMP project that allows users (or the vendors themselves) to make the bitmaps of the systems with the blinky lights (e.g. Cisco's web management apps). People really like the ability to "see" systems remotely. With a powerful management system it would make managing machine in the enterprise more attractive to Windows admins.
I did read something about Sun doing this. I really hope that they intend to make it open. Pushing out a completely open source system would be the best. To make it really successful they need software that replaces the.Net parts of XP to point to the open model. This way they open the doors for the masses. Maybe even AOL would adopt it. Having it adopted by the IETF or the W3C could go a long ways (IMHO).
It seems to me that the best thing to do is make a *decentralized* version of Passport. Then get it adopted by the IETF or W3C. When I mean decentralized I mean that I could run a daemon on *my own computer* that responds to passport-like queries. Or, if my computer is not always on the Internet, I could choose who my provider should be. This could be my ISP, or my bank. It would be my choice.
I worked at a company back in mid '99 and this was it's vision. Passport before passport. It was a good vision, too bad it's not happening.
One way to compete is via cell phones. A cell phone is a very personal device. You take it everywhere. In theory you could use it to pay for stuff. For example, parking, even tickets and admittance for events. As it stands right now commerce on cell phones is heading toward keeping your data *in* the phone via a WIM module. Or you could slide in your smart credit card to pass information to the server. This is opposite of Passport. Let's push for this idea!
GPL Mono might be going in the right direction, maybe XNS.org is a better choice. Either way, we need something that keeps Microsoft from completely controlling things. We need to get these alternate solutions out there and in the press. We need to get show people that there can be options!
Is the BSD VM really that much better than the Linux VM anymore? It seems that Linux's VM is looking forward to machines with lots and lots of processors (NUMA). BSD seems to still be working out basic SMP. There was a patch for the Linux 2.4 kernel to make it behave like the BSD VM. What sets the BSD VM appart?
This is easy to get around. All the new MS operating systems are going to use Kerberos. I've personally tested changing the password on a 2000 AD box from a Linux box using Kerberos. So, I don't think that this will be too much of a problem after all.
We need to make a system of decentralized authentication. So a user can put in "bob@bob.com" and the auth system will look up authentication information by looking up the authentication host for bob.com. This will create a system in which people can use familier email addresses for ID's. This is a very simplified explanation, but I think people understand the basic idea. I *thought* that Ximian would try to do the same thing, but apparently not!
I worked at a company whose goal was to create a system like this. For now, check out www.openprivacy.org or www.xns.org! We need to create a system that competes with Passport! It's crucially important!
Once an open system like this is created then people can realize the examples in the Hailstorm white paper (e.g. automated travel reservation, etc) using a completely open and standard system. People could still make money by building applications that use this platform. For exmaple:
Automatically schedule a movie with 5 friends on Friday and send an electronic ticket to your cell phone once everyone agrees on a time.
I worked for a company that was trying to make Hailstorm back in Jan '99. It's really funny... some of the examples in Microsoft's white paper are exactly the same examples in previous CEO's speeches. Out plan had one important difference... no single datastore. We feel people would be paranoid if only one company had the possibility of seeing all the data. By splitting up the datastores a person could shop around.:)
Slashdot Mirror
I always wondered if one could make a .src.rpm based disro. For all those people that want special optimizations would get their few extra %'s of speed.
.src.rpm based distro would be useful is for non-x86 based systems.
.spec files.
Another reason a
I don't see why this would be very hard to put together. Maybe people would finally work together to build proper 3rd party
BTW, I just discovered http://www.jpackage.org/. It's a web site that provides a apt-get rpm repository for java programs.
One of the nice things about Linux (or other free unices out there) is that it is soo easy to try out different kernels. You can try the devel code, if it doesn't work out for you you can easily go back to the last known good.
For the more conservative, just stick with the productized Linux disto's.
I know what you mean. Wouldn't it be easier if the Internet had a red light district (TLD)? Makes filtering very easy. The problem is that tons of people will complain about freedom of speech restrictions. So that made the only acceptable solution a "kids only" domain. Now everyone is happy. :)
If you read the web page:
"The goal of product development was a machine that has the best possible working stability and minimum impact to the terrain."
So they are trying to make things better.
I also heard that a few years ago they started de-barking the trees on location so the chips can fertilize the ground.
Can DjVu be a replacement for JPEG? The problem is that none of the browsers have support for DjVu images... so it would take some time for the conversion.
Not true, you only get it if you "tuned" into the "channel" sorta like TV/radio. You don't get any multicast data on your network unless at least one person has requested that stream. As other people request the same stream, they are just "tuning" into that existing stream.
For live events, IP multicasting seems to be the way to go, but where is it?! I was using the MBONE back in '94. ISP's have never configured their systems for IP multicasting. It seems to me that IP multicasting would save a ton of bandwidth!
BTW, my understanding is that Akamai internally uses IP multicasting to send data out to all it's caching boxes. Now why couldn't they get ISP's to multicast enable their networks? It would save everyone some bandwidth.
>>> font support
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4? Why does X require a specific definition of each suitable resolution? can't it query the current monitor like Macs and Winders do (DPMS)?
>>Already prety damn decent, if you use freetype 2.1.1
>Yes, some display support has improved. How about printing? How about font installation? How about obtaining font metrics and outlines from the font system -- oh, wait, you have to ask X for the path and then read the font file yourself, that's right, duh.
Keith Packard seems to be working on some of this also. It seems to me that the Xft and Freetype are the official libraries to support this stuff.
>>> alpha blending support
>>Keith has also included this in his set of X updates, alpha support is included
>Where? Link? I'd love to see it. All I've seen to this point is his "twm" demo, which was slow and limited (according to Keith).
Actually Xrender is supported now, thus alpha blending. I thought KDE 3.0 uses this now.
>>> usable configuration (Think Mac, Windows, ven BeOS)
>>Actualy redhat, mandrake, etc are comming a long way with this. (admitedly not there, but closing in)
>This must be one of those invisible features. How do you install a driver, change the refresh rate, color depth, resolution, etc. without editing
True, this is a bad spot. BUT XFree DOES support DPMS. XFree can also receive monitor setting via (DDR is it??). I've seen it do it! Very slick, you don't even know it's doing it unless you read the XFree log file.
>>> changing resolutions on the fly
>>Configure your X for multiple resolutions, and switch between them with ctrl-alt +/-
>This does not change the resolution of the display, only the size of the viewport.
This is not supported yet, but Keith Packard's web site mentions he is working on this. Both for rotation and resizing. Very nice.
>>> vnc (or other RFB) server support, so I can >>view my desktop -- the one shown on the monitor from another computer
>VNC was made by AT&T, had has clients & servers for almost every platform, including linux
I kinda like not having to redraw my entire desktop just to run an app, but i guess that's a personal preference.
What about this talk of oil fields refilling themselves? Maybe we don't know as much about oil as we originally thought. Does anyone have some good links on this topic?
Okay... yeah... if the codec is a derivative, then it wouldn't give us Linux users with a video player. If that is the case, then the Sorenson lawyers are idiots for allowing anything that the company makes to be almost owned by Apple.
.so for decoding.
I'd hope that the core of the FlashMX codec is not that different from the Quicktime one. Then all a person would have to do is write a parser for Quicktime (already exists), and send the stream to the
Does this mean that if/when Macromedia gets FlashMX on Linux, we now have a useable library to build a native Sorenson video player on Linux? It seems like the library could be reversed engineered so that calls to the decoder can be used. Just speculation, I guess it depends on how the .so file is layed out.
Actually the bandwidth can be limited. I was looking at a UWB antenna and the guy told me that the pulse was limited to a part of the spectrum depending on the gap in the antenna. The antenna was a PCB.
I thought the preview was the showing to the test audiences. The entire movie was 'pre viewed' before the released data. The trailer is the advertising of that movie.
1) How do you work around the complete lack of server-side productivity software on Linux servers? By deploying Exchange, you can make scheduling a meeting as easy as sending an email with a time and having everyone click to confirm the meeting, which is then added to everyone's calendar. There is no solution like this without using Exchange (and I've looked.)
You can do this a couple of ways now. One is to use a Outlook with a good IMAP server. Then you configure the clients to publish their free/busy times via WebDAV. This is built into Outlook and works pretty transparently. No costly software on the server at all! This doesn't have all the features that Exchange has, but covers the biggies.
Another more complete approach is to use the software from Bynari. Complete support for Outlook with Unix servers.
2) How do you work around the lack of group policy controls in SAMBA? By this I mean forcing a computer to have the most up-to-date anti-virus software when it logs on to the domain; mapping network drives automatically; downloading OS patches automatically through a local server. AFAIK, Samba can't do any of this as well as a Windows 2000 Server can. And what about Active Directory? LDAP isn't as cohesive a solution if you are running Windows clients.
My impression was that you can use policies with Samba. You just need to use a Windows box to generate the files. Samba also allows you to run scripts on the clients to do whatever you need them to. The scripts can run based on computer name, login name, or domain name. Can be very powerful.
The other conclusion I must draw is that the companies that are migrating to Linux as a workgroup server (i.e. replacing Windows NT/2000 Server with Linux) did not have a cohesive Windows network in the first place. Unfortunately, Linux is nowhere near a solution to Exchange, and it's perhaps 25% of the way to replacing a Windows 2000 primary domain controller's capabilities.
Go to http://www.bynari.net/ and check out their solutions. Very nice.
Samba can work as a PDC quite easily now. It can also allow Unix boxes to join into the domain. Samba takes care of the SID to UID mapping. Very slick. The only thing they don't have completely done right now is Kerberos/AD support. That is coming in Samba 3.0. You can start playing with it right now.
So what servers is Merrill Lynch migrating? Linux does have its core competencies -- web servers; application servers; network storage to some degree -- but they didn't mention what part of the infrastructure they were replacing. I would thus take the words "companywide" with a grain of salt in this case.
Cisco runs all the printers in the company off of Linux. So Linux *can* do file and print quite well.
BTW, you might want to check out a little program called "Directory Administrator." It's a program that manages users in a LDAP directory. The latest version also takes care of managing Samba accounts in LDAP. You get Active Directory without Microsoft.
Part one... low level stuff:
;)
It would be nice if distros would install a SSL cert for the system. Make the user database use LDAP. It would make it easier for people to manage the system securely. When the user want to do web publishing all they do is turn on the web server and they automatically get secure WebDAV with authentication. This is one part of integration that would really help Linux.
Part two... applications:
Get applications like StarOffice to take to other applications and to each other. Foundations like gnome-db and gstreamer are great!
Part three... iDVD!
Since the Ogle people have figured out most of the DVD spec it would be awesome if some programmer more experience than me in video work used gstreamer and GIMP to make a DVD authoring package. That would be awesome!
Just because a company did something terribly wrong doesn't mean that the whole concept should have a black eye. GM plants could also save lives. And what about the fact that humans have been modifying plants for *ages* now. We now have the technology to make specific changes... that sounds better and more controlled to me.
Farmers don't have to buy the seeds if they don't want to. Maybe GM foods will become easier to modify and some competing company will come out with seeds that grow good seeds. GM is still a new technology and it will probably get even better.
TELSA GWYNNE " I do docs, bugs, and hassling developers. I don't code. I also make last minute decisions. "
Both are "distributed." Microsoft is trying to create their own Internet. The whole point of the Internet is the distributed nature of it. This is why I think that when a .Net-like competitor comes out that is *fully* distributed it will succeed in the long run.
Now that many Linux distro's have LDAP authentication it would be nice if there was good software to manage it. A program that would manage all the attributes that various programs (e.g. Apache WebDAV, or Samba 2.2.2) need.
What about rest of the systems in the enterprise? It would be nice if distro's shipped with Openview like management programs (maybe OpenNMS?) that monitor systems. Tell the sysadmin the health of the various systems (Linux or even Windows?) in the enterprise. This is why a friend of mine *loves* Compaq Windows server systems. The problem is that no Linux software takes advantage of all the feedback that Compaq systems have.
What would be really cool is an open source SNMP project that allows users (or the vendors themselves) to make the bitmaps of the systems with the blinky lights (e.g. Cisco's web management apps). People really like the ability to "see" systems remotely. With a powerful management system it would make managing machine in the enterprise more attractive to Windows admins.
I did read something about Sun doing this. I really hope that they intend to make it open. Pushing out a completely open source system would be the best. To make it really successful they need software that replaces the .Net parts of XP to point to the open model. This way they open the doors for the masses. Maybe even AOL would adopt it. Having it adopted by the IETF or the W3C could go a long ways (IMHO).
It seems to me that the best thing to do is make a *decentralized* version of Passport. Then get it adopted by the IETF or W3C. When I mean decentralized I mean that I could run a daemon on *my own computer* that responds to passport-like queries. Or, if my computer is not always on the Internet, I could choose who my provider should be. This could be my ISP, or my bank. It would be my choice.
I worked at a company back in mid '99 and this was it's vision. Passport before passport. It was a good vision, too bad it's not happening.
One way to compete is via cell phones. A cell phone is a very personal device. You take it everywhere. In theory you could use it to pay for stuff. For example, parking, even tickets and admittance for events. As it stands right now commerce on cell phones is heading toward keeping your data *in* the phone via a WIM module. Or you could slide in your smart credit card to pass information to the server. This is opposite of Passport. Let's push for this idea!
GPL Mono might be going in the right direction, maybe XNS.org is a better choice. Either way, we need something that keeps Microsoft from completely controlling things. We need to get these alternate solutions out there and in the press. We need to get show people that there can be options!
Is the BSD VM really that much better than the Linux VM anymore? It seems that Linux's VM is looking forward to machines with lots and lots of processors (NUMA). BSD seems to still be working out basic SMP. There was a patch for the Linux 2.4 kernel to make it behave like the BSD VM. What sets the BSD VM appart?
This is easy to get around. All the new MS operating systems are going to use Kerberos. I've personally tested changing the password on a 2000 AD box from a Linux box using Kerberos. So, I don't think that this will be too much of a problem after all.
We need to make a system of decentralized authentication. So a user can put in "bob@bob.com" and the auth system will look up authentication information by looking up the authentication host for bob.com. This will create a system in which people can use familier email addresses for ID's. This is a very simplified explanation, but I think people understand the basic idea. I *thought* that Ximian would try to do the same thing, but apparently not!
I worked at a company whose goal was to create a system like this. For now, check out www.openprivacy.org or www.xns.org! We need to create a system that competes with Passport! It's crucially important!
Once an open system like this is created then people can realize the examples in the Hailstorm white paper (e.g. automated travel reservation, etc) using a completely open and standard system. People could still make money by building applications that use this platform. For exmaple:
Automatically schedule a movie with 5 friends on Friday and send an electronic ticket to your cell phone once everyone agrees on a time.
I worked for a company that was trying to make Hailstorm back in Jan '99. It's really funny... some of the examples in Microsoft's white paper are exactly the same examples in previous CEO's speeches. Out plan had one important difference... no single datastore. We feel people would be paranoid if only one company had the possibility of seeing all the data. By splitting up the datastores a person could shop around. :)