Ask LinuxPPC Co-Founder Jason Haas 198
Jason Haas is co-founder, marketing director, and Web manager for LinuxPPC and an all-around good Linux guy. He's also majorly anti-drunk driving these days, because last March a drunk driver ran into his car and left it looking like this. Jason was left in only slightly better shape himself, but unlike his Honda, he eventually recovered (with major help and support from his wife, Cassie) and went back to work. Ask Jason what you will; about out-of-control SUVs (I don't think he likes them), Linux on PowerPCs (something he likes a lot) or anything else. Post your questions below. Tomorrow we'll forward 10 of the highest-moderated ones to him, and we'll expect his answers back in a week or so.
descisions? (Score:4)
Re:Wimpy cars? (Score:1)
Why would you even consider blaming that man? You think it is his fault when:
The only thing that could have protected him from that wreck was a tank (and I mean a military tank, not an 81 buick). I suggest you apoligize for your comment.
Other Software (Score:1)
great site for SUV haters... (Score:1)
http://poseur.4x4.org/ [4x4.org]
Drunk Driving Penalties (Score:3)
Blah.
Re:Other Software (Score:2)
It isn't going to take away anymore MacOS people as we take away Windows users...
Our friends at Apple... (Score:3)
Have they been open, honest and co-operative, or do they seem to view you and your group as something of a compeditor?
Drunk Drivers (Score:1)
I just wanted to know if your views of alcohol, in general, has changed after your accident or if you have joined any anti-drunk driving organisations (i.e. MADD)?
been a long way since Madison... (Score:1)
(BAANAANAA)
LinuxPPC CD booting breakthrough (Score:1)
Commodity Hardware? (Score:2)
I'm also PPC-clueless. Can you talk briefly about the current state of PPC hardware? (availability, capability, price, future roadmap)
SuperID
Re:Wimpy cars? (Score:1)
SUVs and false sense of safety.. (Score:1)
i have railed against SUVs and the falsely-held belief by many that they are somehow safer than other cars on slashdot and many other places. just about any time the topic comes up. but there seems to be little that can be done to combat the fad other than just trying to steer friends and relatives away from purchasing trucks and SUVs unnecessarily (trucks have genuine uses, but i fail to see any needs that a 3-ton SUV fills that a smaller and safer minivan or better yet, wagon, cannot.)
this is a social problem, it's a dangerous, stupid and wasteful fad. while i'm usually very pro-darwinism, owning an Audi TT myself, it's always a little disconcerting when an Excursion comes speeding up behind me when i'm stopped at a light.
the misconception that he is 'safer' in that excursion comes from the fact that he's safer than i am in that collision, but if he's not any more safe than he'd be if he was in say, an Accord, Camry or Taurus.
in fact, he's less safe, he's unable to stop in a reasonable distance, swerve around obstacles to avoid collisions, etc. add to that the fact that when two three ton vehicles collide the resulting impact is far more violent than say, a collision of two Festivas or even Mustangs.
what's your view, thoughts and suggestions on this issue?
...dave
Math intensive server stuff (Score:4)
Would you recommend a PPC machine over a x86 machine for a task like this? I guess this is mainly a chipset/etc... question, but i have been unable to find that sort of information elsewhere, and i figure who better to ask, 'cause you probably have a decent gut-feeling for how the architecture works in practice on real-world data =:-)
Re:Wimpy cars? (Score:1)
Re:LinuxPPC vs OS X? (Score:1)
Benefits (Score:2)
Conspiracy theory (Score:1)
Platform Issues (Score:5)
I'm currently looking into obtaining a PowerPC box to test out the current state of Linux on the PPC platform. Hopefully your answers will point me down the path of RISC utopia.
Will OSX make things easier? (Score:1)
With OSX, with its Unix-like core, coming out for the Mac soon, will this make things easier for the Linux PowerPC project when it comes to Hardware drivers and generally fitting the OS to the machine? After all, in the future new models of the Mac will be optomised for a *nix-like OS, and I would have thought that this would make things better and easier for you.
(I am only guessing;)
LinuxPPC Lite? (Score:2)
hot flaming grapes [ridiculopathy.com]
OS X (Score:3)
The Start (Score:1)
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do { Work(); PayTaxes(); Eat(); Sleep(); } while (alive)
Re:Wimpy cars? (Score:2)
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ATX motherboard availability? (Score:4)
Re:Wimpy cars? (Score:1)
Why Now? (Score:1)
My question is: Why did it take that?
I'm not militant, but I've been known to knock my friends down rather than let them drive while under the influence of anything.
</soapbox>
merge with RedHat? (Score:5)
Have you ever thought about or actually talked to RedHat as making LinuxPPC the RedHat Distro for PPC?
This would provide you with extra resources to keep LinuxPPC up to date and cleaner.
LinuxPPC and Mac Hardware (Score:1)
That said, however, I don't think that LinuxPPC is very likely to encourage people to by Mac hardware. Rather, it gives new life to old hardware. Got an old PowerMac 8500 lying around? Too slow to do much of anything useful with MacOS? That's where LinuxPPC comes in. Mac hardware is just too expensive to buy for the purpose of running Linux on.
Realistically, OS X will not change this. OS X is seriously processor-intensive stuff. It's clearly workstation-oriented: the GUI is the selling point. LinuxPPC, on the other hand, is great on all kinds of hardware for all kinds of uses.
How do you deal with apples hardware controls? (Score:1)
On Driving Laws (Score:2)
Driving age: 14-16
Legal sex age: 16-18 (?)
Marriage age: 15 (?)
Death penalty age: 14
Army age: 18
Voting age: 18
Drinking age: 21
It is amazing for how many things you are considered responsible enough for before you are allowed to drink.
That doesn't quite make much sense. Wouldn't it make much more sense having a legislation more European like? In Europe most countries have a legal drinking age 2 years lower than the driving age (Drink: 16, Drive: 18). What happens is that by the time you get to dive all the drinking hype is already gone and there are not so many accidents related to alcohol....
Would Americans trade one age for the other?
Just a thought
Re:Our friends at Apple... (Score:1)
I have followed Linux on Mac hardware since the early MkLinux. Is there any hope of Apple giving back to the Linux community
Support and POP (Score:2)
Re:Math intensive server stuff (Score:2)
If you are only doing integer work then probably an Athlon system would be better than PPC for raw number crunching. This is a rough gut feel based on using various friends' Macs and my own Athlon system in general use (doing lots of stuff like compiling etc). My feeling is the surrounding infrastructure such as the CPU bus make it more worthwhile - particularly if you can grab an Athlon with the 266MHz bus :)
Your Perception Before and After the Accident (Score:5)
First of all, I'd like to commend you and your wife for your courage and determination through your ordeal! I also hope they throw the book at the jerk who caused the accident!
My question is this: Do you find that your perception of the world and what your interests, passions and abilities are, different than before your accident? Has the accident changed your interests towards the computing industry?
Thanks,
TheNecromancer
Firestone tires (Score:1)
Does your car have Firestone tires?
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Put your feet out and stop
Re:On Driving Laws (Score:2)
That's because the system isn't based on rational premises; it's based on what the powerful want to enforce on the powerless.
BTW, did you know that voting age was 21 back during the Vietnam War, until people expressed outrage over the fact that
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Re:Drunk Drivers (goint further OT) (Score:1)
please..
I'm sure the majority of people have heard about the consequences a bazillion of times, but not everybody realizes what they mean.
Three questions I guess (Score:2)
- Got any feelings about OSX? Will there be any nifty widgets(graphic, hardware drivers, or other) that you will be modeling from OSX for LinuxPPC?
- Have you kept track of the person that crashed into you? I mean in the sense that you made sure that he was dealt with in the courts properly. I don't want to imply you are vengeful or anything but do you think they were treated properly(to lightly, to harshly or something in between)?
recovery time (Score:1)
How much of your programming skill do you think you've forgotten, and how long do you think it will take you to get back to your old speed?
Your accident lessons (Score:4)
Things like this can teach you lessons, or destroy you. From that perspective, my question is: What were the biggest lessons you learned from it? (I ask that as someone who has gone through it, and learned a lot about what is important, and what is not.)
This is more of a life question than a geek one.
-Spackler
PS: Yes, we drive big trucks now (F-150), and I'd never own a small car, even if it were given to me!
Advantage? (Score:1)
On top of that, when Macs aren't in the hands of "make this as easy as possible" guys (neophytes or people who don't care about anything but running such-and-such a program), Macs are quite often found in the hands of "graphics guys" - where, despite the fact that GIMP is great and all, there's not a ton of fantastic programs available. In other words, the majority of the Mac crowd just ain't Linux types, really.
So: when it comes down to brass tacks - where's the advantage for the average MacOS power user to use LinuxPPC over MacOS? Contrawise, where's the advantage of a Linux user to have a Mac box?
BSD-Linux mini-flame (Score:2)
Would it be possible to replace the BSD kernel in OS X with Linux, and have there been any serious discussions regarding this? I imagine you would be the point man in such an investigation.
Linux does seem to be a better choice, as it is more scalable, is about to get a journaled file system, and has a dazzling array of hardware support.
I would almost rather see Apple throw itself behind HURD than cause more fragmentation amongst the BSDs. It seems the deciding factor was the BSD liscense, and not any technical advantage (although I am probably wrong, and I don't have access to POWER equipment of any sort [not even an AS/400], so I am hardly authoritative).
I did follow the progress of your injury, and I hope your recovery is proceeding well and some good has come out of the experience.
Support for Nubus Macs (Score:1)
I know that MkLinux [mklinux.org] supports them...but if MkLinux can, then theoretically so could LinuxPPC. Is the problem a technical problem or a resource problem (no one wants to do it...) or something else?
CHRP "Open Source" motherboards? (Score:1)
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/08/24/1922212.sht
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/08/13/1658200_F.s
http://macweek.zdnet.com/1999/08/08/ibmppc.html [zdnet.com]
I recall reading something on www.linuxppc.com in which you guys indicated that you'd been talking/working with IBM about this prior to the public announcements, and that you guys were going to be supporting PPC systems based on these boards.
Soooo, what's up with that? When will I be able to pick up a reasonably cheap PPC motherboard, build up a nice system, and slap LinuxPPC on it?
-Roy
Linux and Accessibility (Score:5)
During your recovery period, did you find the need to use any accessibility tools to accomplish tasks? If so, what were your impressions? Does Linux have the tools people with alternative interface needs (like text-to-speech) need to access their information?
Congrats on your recovery progress. I'm glad to see the world hasn't lost another good person to a drunk driver's carelessness.
Convergence or Divergence (Score:1)
How does this woo the dedicated Mac User? (Score:1)
Let's see... from personal experience, I'm anti-Linux PPC. Yes, the disk boots... if you could call it that. On a G3/400 with 384 megs of RAM, it boots and hangs. On a G3/400 Powerbook (firewire) with 128 megs of RAM, DVD, and everything but the kitchen sink, it shits itself trying to load and has repeated HDA errors, aud infiintum.
Why tell the universe that the product boots on CD when this likely applies only to specific hardware? Where's the list of "it boots on THIS configuration"?
There's really no reason for me to use this over Debian, which at least boots and gets me into a formatting utility- on the Y2K powerbook, from the CD. The problem with Debian PPC, something I haven't noticed with Linux PPC because the distro barfs before it gets this far, is that the install process is, in a word, archaic. In a few more words, it's confusing as fuck, has no help of any kind, is totally ass backwards and made me laugh out loud. We're dealing with Mac hardware here folks.... the MacOS installer is the easiest damned thing in the friggin' UNIVERSE to use- start off of the CD, install on whatever drive has the free space. Or hose a drive and split it up any way you want, then install. Oh, and you have full UI functionality while you're doing this- so up until you hit the pretty "format" button, you can save your data by moving it to another hard drive or a network disk. Shit, you can install the entire OS onto an existing disk without harming any existing anything- if you have the space.
The point is, Mac users expect this. Linux users probably got their start on the PC- and considering the cheap cost of hardware, there's no real point to the vast majority of them crossing over to the Mac. So I'm assuming this is being presented as an alternative for Mac users who are interested in Linux but don't want to buy a PC... or who tried MOSX and barfed. So why shoot yourselves in the face with disks that "kinda sorta" boot, on "all PPC macs" (save my Pismo, thank you), and then expect Mac users to spend the time figuring out how to Make Linux Go when there current operating system Just Works?
I'll start running Linux fulltime as soon as...
1. It installs as easily as MacOS. [as in, I push a button and it does the rest for me, or I can tinker to my hearts content. I shouldn't be worrying about partition numbers and boot blocks and hard drive allocation blocks and the partridge in a pear tree.]
2. A distro comes packaged with a GUI that:
A. Doesn't look like Windows.
B. Has pop-up folders.
C. Has a control strip.
D. Has the equivalent of an Apple Menu and an Application Menu.
E. Has universal drag and drop.
F. Comes with anti-aliased fonts, color management comparable to colorsynch, and utilities that make managing internet and network settings as easy as the present MacOS.
3. I can do everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) I can do in Photoshop in GIMP.
still drive a honda? (Score:1)
Whazzup with MK? (Score:1)
Will LinuxPPC get stronger or weaker? (Score:1)
I was just wondering what road the LinuxPPC development team would take with the introduction of Mac OSX. Before it was either choose the Mac interface or the command line (LinuxPPC or BSD) but now people can get the best of both worlds with the introduction of Mac OSX.
Do you see LinuxPPC getting stronger or weaker in both the Mac market and the embedded market as Apple finalizes it's NeXT great OS? Do you see yourself combining efforts with Apple in any way including porting applications such as star office?
By the way, great job!Permanent Effects (Score:1)
<p>How has the accident changed you, in terms of permanent physical damage, any psychological damage, and just about anything else?</p>
<p>I would imagine that something as drastic as that car accident would change your life radically and permanently in many ways.</p>
Linux PPC & MacOS X (Score:3)
What's your take on MacOS X? As the main point-person on the biggest other Mac-based *nix I'm sure you've been keeping track of it. How do you consider what's coming out of Apple as an OS, specifically as a *nix implementation?
Next, has Apple's open-sourcing Darwin been of any advantage to Linux PPC? Has someone ever popped into their code & looked up how they handled an point or what their solution was to a Mac-specific issue?
Back to your own stuff, where do you see Linux PPC going as regards to the other linuxen? Any stuff you see as being unique strengths of Linux PPC (aside from it's hardware)?
Finally, what issues do you regularly run into being on a non-X86 platform? What could developers do to improve portability for you? What's your "I-wish-they'd" list look like?
-- Michael
Re:Permanent Effects (Score:1)
i'm dumb. i didn't set the damn thing to HTML formatted...
There's a lot of questions here regarding the accident itself, or it's psychological/emotional consequences, but i'm curious about the physical consequences, too.
How has the accident changed you, in terms of permanent physical damage, any psychological damage, and just about anything else?
I would imagine that something as drastic as that car accident would change your life radically and permanently in many ways.
Re:Drunk Drivers (goint further OT) (Score:1)
I drink alcohol and occasionally smoke both tobacco and marijuana.
Having lost an uncle to a liver failure (he was a heavy drinker) and having a friend with lung emphyzema I have no illusions about what booze and tobacco can do to me. However, it's a risk I'm willing to take to make this shitty life a bit more pleasurable.
Re:Support and POP (Score:1)
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PPC a 'minority' processor (Score:1)
- Apple's restrictive (often non-existant) licensing/OEM policy.
- Linux only reaching PPC relatively recently.
i.e.
- could linux have saved the PPC from its unfair minority fate?
FatPhil
(who happily runs AlphaLinux on another 'minority' CPU)
-- Real Men Don't Use Porn. -- Morality In Media Billboards
What do you mean by *KNOW*? (Score:1)
What else can society do to discourage this behaviour? Nothing! People KNOW it's dangerous. People know eating high-fat foods in dangerous, as is speeding, and about a bazillion other things commonly done.
The statistics are there, the odds are there, and people keep rolling the dice.
SUV's are great - for a certain audience (Score:2)
I have a 1991 Chev Suburban 2WD. I also have an Eagle Talon race car, and the trailer it fits on. The 'burban is the tow vehicle.
For long haul trips hauling a race car, three sets of tires, enough gas for the weekend, tools, spares, and all the other miscellanious sundry required, nothing beats a great big SUV. In fact, I'm in the market for a new one, and I'm having trouble finding one I consider "big enough".
But I'm not the problem here. The problem is those that buy an SUV in the belief that it renders them invincible to weather conditions. The soccer moms roaring down an unplowed Interstate at 80 MPH.
There is an element of truth here - I drive race cars, right? So I took the 'burban out onto a snowy parking lot, to see how easy it was to slide it around, what braking distances were like, and so on. There's no doubt in my mind that the limits in adverse weather are quite a bit higher in an SUV than in a "normal" passenger car. This means that an SUV in the hands of the blissfully ignorent is much less likely to lose control.
However, once control is lost, the laws of physics dictate that a heavy SUV moving at high speed will have a lot more energy and momentum to dissipate in the crash, which means a lot more damage - especially if the SUV hits a smaller vehicle.
Note that THIS is nothing new either - look at what happens when car meets semi - but your average truck driver is much more competant than Ms Soccer Mom.
The problem here is not the SUVs. The problem is people who don't understand the limits of their vehicles, and who drive in excess of those limits (or while talking on the cell phone, or whatever) Idiocy is not limited to SUV drivers.
I'll give you an example. When the tow rig is fully loaded up, the stopping distances get pretty long (trailer brakes notwithstanding) So I leave a correspondingly longer distance between myself and the vehicle in front of me - the idea being that if the car in front of me stops NOW, that I have time to react and get the rig stopped. Well, that buffer space has to be the most attractive thing on the road, because I can't count the number of times that guys in little cars (with much shorter stopping distances than the rig) will move into that buffer space. You do that, and you have taken your own life into your hands, because if you stop before I can re-establish the buffer, then all 10,000lbs of me will be eating your rear bumper if you stop.
Driving is an *active process*, but far too many people treat it as a passive routine. That's your problem.
One final point - I don't have the details about Jason's accident, but I know that every single time I cross an intersection my eyes are up checking the crosstreets for someone approaching too quickly WELL before I enter the intersection myself; green light be dammed. That extra little bit of situational awareness has saved my bacon on more than one occasion. Jason may have been able to do the same.
Assume that everyone on the road is **actively trying to kill you**, drive accordingly, and you'll never have an accident.
DG
What about caffine? (Score:1)
Re:Platform Issues (Score:1)
That being said, I have Linux PPC running on a old 180 MHz Apple clone, running X Windows for me, an AppleShare server for about 25 users, development Apache webserver, samba, and whatever else I might be fooling around with:
$ uptime
10:28am up 126 days, 9:46, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
I threw out Gnome and KDE a few years ago for fvwm, which preforms much better, especially on an old crappy machine like mine.
Life as a minority CPU (Score:1)
Given that Open Source programmers tend to have limited time and even more limited access to machines that are not sitting in their bedroom/office/whatever, how hard has it been to convince developers to support PPC systems? And for that matter, how much of a pain-in-the-ass is it to support PPC? (endian issues is about all that comes to mind)
And while we're discussing the nightmarish complexity of assembling and maintaining all the bits and pieces that comprise a Linux system, what's it like putting together a complete distribution anyway?
-Roy
Jason, I have only one question to ask: (Score:1)
With OS X being based on BSD, why even bother continuing development on LinuxPPC? BSD will be many times more stable, and will do nearly everything that LinuxPPC can, only better, more efficiently, and more reliably.
Re:Math intensive server stuff [thanks =:-)] (Score:1)
PPC (Apple Hardware) Support - LinuxPPC vs BeOS (Score:2)
Re:Math intensive server stuff (Score:2)
Things may change fairly quickly with the release of Intel's IA64 platform however. Whatever it's shortcomings, I bet it'll kick but in 64-bit integer arithmetic.
For 64-bit integer math: neither (Score:2)
I think you'll find Alpha will kick butt, with Sparc being another potential contender (probably too pricy for the net benefit).
iBook and LinuxPPC (Score:3)
Re:Math intensive server stuff (Score:5)
Altivec and MP G4's? (Score:4)
1)How much can a PPC linux distro can benefit from Altivec optimization?
2)Does LinuxPPC enjoy the same degree of improved performance from additional processors that OS-X does?
flame away...
Irresponsible automobile manufacturers (Score:2)
I agree that SUVs are very dangerous on roads, and it seems that poor drivers are often at the wheel. However, Honda is famous for (at least during the 80's and early 90's) making cars extremely light to improve fuel efficiency. Kia and Hyundai currently do this. This seems extremely irresponsible to me. While these cars can be made in such a way that they do not crush the passenger or driver (which it appears was not the case with your Honda, unfortunately), they still cannot eliminate the biggest problem with lightweight vehicles: instant acceleration. When a light car is struck by a medium to large vehicle (say, 3300 to 4000 lbs.), it accelerates instantly much faster than it would have if it weighed just a bit more. Depending on speed and many other factors, just 500 lbs. can mean the difference between 8 and 12 g-forces. That's a big difference. My car (a 1994 cavalier with a V6) was rear-ended by another vehicle going 55 mph while my vehicle was traveling at 5-7 mph. I was not injured. My sister's Toyota Celica was hit by a car going only 30 mph in front of our house. My dad and I spent 15 minutes tearing the door off to get her out, because the car was thoroughly crushed. Luckily, she recovered in a few weeks, but some people aren't so lucky. I realize that many people are convinced that Asian vehicles are more reliable, nicer, etc.; but they are designed in countries where speeds over 40 mph are very rare, and as such, they often cannot handle a collision that isn't bumper-to-bumper at low speed. I know I'm not giving any empirical evidence here, and I admit that a large part of the problem are vehicles like Suburbans and Excursions, but I won't be caught driving a Honda/Toyota/Nissan or any product of their divisions, because I have seen what happens to them in accidents.
One more bit of info about me: I have, in the past, raced cars semi-professionally. Mostly, I drag-raced, but I also raced a few races at PIR. I've been in my share of wrecks, including an end-over-end incident at 240+ mph at a dragstrip. We can blame the SUVs, but that's only part of the problem, because if I can walk away from that wreck, Japan can definitely add a few pounds of metal to their cars for our safety. I have no desire to be surrounded by plastic when my life is on the line.
Embedded Chip Support (Score:2)
It'd sure be cool to make a low-cost board that could run the real linux, with real memory management (MMU), and a pretty speedy CPU. By low cost, I'm thinking able to sell at $120-$150 for board where you add a SDRAM DIMM and use a network bootstrap or add compact flash card for a local boot. So far, it's looking like the available PPC based off-the-shelf boards are quite expensive. I probably ought to do a bit more homework, but since you're here, my question is....
What are the propects for making a really low cost PPC-based embedded linux computer? Has anyone done it or tried? Is it even possible?
Mouse (Score:2)
Why should my next purchase be a PowerPC? (Score:5)
AFAIK (which isn't far), PowerPC hardware is mostly proprietary, controlled by Apple, is more expensive, has less variety in peripherals, and you're more or less stuck buying a Macintosh just to get your PC. Not just that, but many components of many PowerPC-based computers have marginal to no support under Linux (USB is marginal, Firewire is nonexistent right now, etc).
Given all this, where is the major win in the PowerPC? Why ought my next purchase for a PC be a PowerPC running LinuxPPC/Yellow Dog/MkLinux?
I'm not trolling here; I'm just uneducated.
Re:SUV's are great - for a certain audience (Score:2)
Two good friends of mine died in a car accident a few years ago because of a drunk driver. It was at night--what time of day did Jason's accident occur? The idiot tried to drive right THROUGH them as well--but there was no way they could have avoided him; the guy DID NOT HAVE his lights on. I'm with you on this one--there are those saying Jason could have avoided the accident, and sure, he could have pulled forward--IF he saw the creep coming, IF there were a place to go out of a busy intersection, IF the guy would have even stopped if he'd pulled forward.
Also, when you're sitting at a red light, you can't always gauge how the person is coming up behind you until it's too late. My brother is an excellent driver, and while he was sitting at a red light some moron sped up behind him and trashed his rear bumper. No one was hurt, thank God. I, myself, have often jumped forward a bit at a red light when I see someone speeding up behind me--and they stop without hitting me. It's hard to gauge when your only eye contact with the vehicle coming behind you is perhaps a glance at a mirror.
Best regards to you and Jason; tell him to keep up the great work.
-"The Gimp Girl"
cool (Score:2)
IMPORTANT POINT re: Jason's Honda (Score:2)
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3rd Party PPC Hardware? (Score:2)
Re:What about caffine? (Score:2)
Granted, I was coming down a hill with very loose gravel combined with a good deal of ice, but I think my reflexes would have been better if I had been paying a bit more attention and hadn't been so shaky.
Now I never drive when I know I've had a bit much caffeine.
-"The GIMP Girl"
Drunk Driving laws (Score:2)
Being that you have been personally involved with drunk driving like this, what is your take on the current status of drunk driving laws? What kind of penalties would you like to see implemented for drunk drivers?
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Put your feet out and stop
Support during recovery (Score:2)
After reading your wife's diary of your recovery (first 8-10 weeks or so) I was amazed at her dedication to reporting your progress. I'm sure you have read those logs as well and I am curious as to your thoughts. Do you remember much if any of those early weeks? Do you have any insights into how helpful the therapists were in prodding you toward your recovery?
Evan
Not quite true (Score:2)
Presently, it's either Apple or nobody. There were shining hopes for something better, but it never appeared.
Actually, there are many non-Apple PPC computers that run Linux (though admittedly *new* non-Apple PPC hardware is hard to come by).
For example, there's the RS/6000 IBM boxes, BeBoxes, Amiga APUS, and Motorola and Bull boxes. And, of course, TiVo and other embedded platforms.
Check out http://www.linuxppc.com/about/hardware/ [linuxppc.com] for a complete list of supported hardware.
Still, the OpenPPC.org bit has been a bitter disappointment so far. Ah well, keep your fingers and toes crossed...
HTH
Ethelred [macnews.de]
SUVs vs. real transportation (Score:2)
TheGeek
Re:Your accident lessons (Score:2)
PS: Yes, we drive big trucks now (F-150), and I'd never own a small car, even if it were given to me!
hmm, so you're trying to solve the problem through escalation. Do you believe that your accident was made worse because the other driver was in a SUV? Now you're just placing 2 more large vehicles on the road which increases the chances that people in small cars get killed instead of maimed.
When will Jeep Cherokee owners start switching to something bigger because they're afraid of being hit by a suburban or a semi?
Change in Priority? (Score:2)
Since your accident, what have you noticed as far as a change in your priorities goes? I am curious with respect to your "real job" versus private research interests (e.g. PPCLinux) versus your family versus the things that you have been putting off in your life. What other changes have you seen in yourself as far as attitudes towards what sucess really is, and what you want to do with the rest of your life?
More Scalable? HEH! (Score:2)
Darwin & NetBSD influences on LinuxPPC? (Score:2)
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How do you feel towards the driver? (Score:2)
Congrats on your recovery! I can't even begin to imagine how hard it must have been for you and your wife.
My question to you is this: How do you feel towards the driver? Do you have a great malice towards him? Would you do the same thing to him as he did to you so he could know first hand what you went through? Or, on the other end of the spectrum, do you forgive him? Do you realize that he made a terrible mistake by getting behind the wheel and driving drunk and that he will be punished by the law, which while it can't equal the physical pain that you've gone through, he will be locked away from society. Or, do you forgive him completely?
All the best!
Brad
(OT) Re:SUVs vs. real transportation (Score:2)
Gee, maybe its' ranking is because the Aspire is a sardine can on wheels? Any car as small as that will be reduced to scrap metal in an accident, regardless of what hits it (SUV, pickup truck, mid-size family car, hazmat, etc).
Here's my opinion for you...get something that isn't mistaken for Ringling Bros. property.
And for the record, no, I don't own a SUV, I own a VW Jetta. Neener.
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Commercial support for PPC (Score:2)
I see companies with Linux software ignoring the Apple boxen and only supporting those with Intel (and possibly AMD, if they are a cool company).
I know that Alias is porting (has ported?) Maya to the Mac (for OSX I think...). Seeing that they have ported (beta) for Linux on x86 I would expect talk for a LinuxPPC port.
Maybe it is just because of the lack of demand. I guess what I want this question to boil down to is:
Do you see the LinuxPPC solution as being worth a company's time to port code for and to support with OSX and x86 solutions being more common?
Re:SUVs vs. real transportation (Score:2)
I live in Pittsburgh, I drove a two wheel drive sports car and in the snow it's impossible to drive effectively.
You "ban the SUVs" people would probably prohibit big penises if you could. It's not fair that someone else has something bigger and less fuel efficient than you.
LK
Re:Math intensive server stuff (Score:2)
Re:Support and POP (Score:2)
You don't even have to be subscribed to post.
Re:Three questions I guess (Score:2)
Modifying GNOME/KDE for easing MacOS transition (Score:2)
Where's the beef? (Score:2)
Power use (Score:2)
The main tangible advantage you get with a PowerPC over x86 is the lower power use, resulting in less heat and noise. Recent Macs don't even bother with a single fan at all. Going by noise and electric bill, an iMac or one of those new cubes, would make a much better server (or any other 24x7 application) than my Athlon box, which I think has a total of 7 (?!) fans and guzzles electrons like there's no tomorrow.
Another tangible (but very specialized) advantage of PowerPC would be the vector processor in the G4. If you do something that can use this, it might tip the scales in favor of PowerPC.
Then there are the intangible benefits, mainly involving the relative elegance of PowerPC compared to x86. This is probably not a significant factor for non-geeks, though, and the pragmatic and unromantic can safely ignore it.
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Re:Our friends at Apple... (Score:2)
In a word: No. They can't ever open Quicktime, because the Sorensen Codec isn't theirs to give out.
If you don't like the Quicktime situation, you should either fight software patents, or boycott the Codec (i.e. stop booting into MacOS to view Quicktime movies, and instead, do without it).
In other respects, there seems little incentive to Apple to ever "give back to the community" because they view their Mac+MacOS bundle as a single product, especially since Jobs came back. From Apple's point of view, there is no reason to aid OSes other than MacOS, because they don't see Mac sales to users-who-don't-want-MacOS as a significantly market. And judging from the lack of appearance of non-Mac PPC personal computers (e.g. POP [openppc.org]) they might be right. Apparently, the market has spoken (although IMHO, POP hasn't really been given a fair chance yet).
If someone other than Apple starts selling non-Mac PPC boxes and makes some decent sales, this would indicate a larger market for PPC-based personal computers, and maybe Apple would change their mind, and then have more incentive to accomodate non-MacOS OSes on Macs, thereby leading to them to "give back to the community."
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Re:Precious hours of relief (Score:2)
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floating point performance? (Score:2)
I've heard that x86 floating point math is sloppy at best, but does it make a real difference? Can a PPC compete despite the clock speed advantage of the x86s? Some real world examples would be nice, thanks.