Recent Comments

I think the general mandate here is science and technology, and not so much of that drama-bait being posted elsewhere, so this is a direct hit. As for Friday Distro, I'm looking around for another good one. Last couple rolls of the dice have all been "Ubuntu but with LXDE and a great theme!" type distros - boring, and not that useful!

That's true for a lot of things. I was just thinking about the quality of external CD/DVD burners. When the things first came out they were pretty solid devices. Then the rush to beat the competition in price leads to skimping on the design and build characteristics, and the later devices are chinsy and flimsy and stop working early.

Maybe the trick is to buy at the beginning of a new product's cycle, while prices are high and build quality is high.

Neither does all this relentless bitching about how the article was submitted. I'm checking the queue history to get a sense of how many articles Nadaou has submitted. I don't see a single one.

It'd be easier to be concerned about how offensive you find this write-up if you'd contribute anything to the site yourself. Instead, you're just flapping your jaw in response to one of very few individuals who has bothered to invest the time and effort to make something of this site.

I'm appalled at how many whiny bitches have decided to make Pipedot their home. You don't like the articles? Here's your money back, every cent of what you paid.

Your non-rhetorical, expertly developed, speculation-free articles are welcome. Submit button is at the top right of your screen. You know what to do.

There is more subtlety in the world than just black and white my friend, and the world is a more beautiful place for it.

oh yeah, and this:

Ian Jackson is at it again.

It doesn't add to the conversation and there's no need for it.

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http://www.xenu.net/archive/baloney_detection.html

I see it differently, and so do the BSDs which will continue to evolve new generations of init system designs which the various cross-platform daemons will remain compatible with. If you are talking about GNOME's desktop notification daemons, they are perfectly expendable in the long run. Users choosing not to use systemd will likely not feel much loss at losing the likes of PulseAudio, NetworkManager, and D-Bus too. udev could be annoying, but it's not like we haven't replaced that before in the past and so couldn't do it again.

As the resolution and others have said, even with systemd as the default init, allowing it to position itself as a non-modular single supplier not able to be replaced is a much bigger problem than its run-time deficiencies.

> but there's zero trolling in there.

specificially, I found this way over the top,

Is this vote an attempt to delay the inevitable?

and this

as second-class citizen, with many developpers choosing not to bother supporting anything that's not systemd?

the first is begging the question and a sophomoric rhetorical clichi©, the second continues the fait accompli with rampant speculation and overall comes across as mainly designed to provoke a reactionary response by pressing people's buttons (thus the trolling).

I welcome the discussion and it's healthy to have it, but let's maintain some respectful decorum. Especially here, as one of the biggest complaints about Pottering is that he continually steers these discussions away from the technical and towards the emotional using (pretty lame) manipulative rhetorical tricks.

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http://www.xenu.net/archive/baloney_detection.html

My boss says we use something called Agile but I've noted that it is a downward spiral towards failure.

Not too squarely on the main topic of technology & electronics, but it's sciency and I found it interesting enough. Plus I figured the weekend was going to be pretty dead (no Friday Distro?) and wanted to come up with something...

I think a little genetic mutation would be a good thing these days ... shake up the gene pool, a bit. I live in West Africa as I've mentioned, where malaria is a huge issue, and I've read that malarial mosquitos are currently exerting the single greatest evolutionary force on the human race at the moment, meaning so many people die from malaria that it's almost certainly causing a mutation of some sort that will hopefully work in our advantage.

Seems like the rest of the diseases are back in force and our drugs are using their potency. Back on topic, mutations like this one fascinate me. Who knows what else there is to perceive out there if we could just alter our systems a bit. Or get bitten by a spider, or whatever.

Nice one, evilviper. I wasn't aware of what's going on. I was expecting to read that somehow the combination of wind and lava were combining to exacerbate the lava's destruction however, and that's not the case:

However, there is worry that the flow may start up again, and if it does, locals may be battling natural disasters on two fronts.

That's because tropical storm Ana is still bearing down on Hawaii, and there remains a chance that it can still spin up to hurricane-force winds before making landfall.

"In addition to the high winds, high surf and storm surge may be expected as well as heavy rains and thunder showers. " the HCD reported. "We are asking Hawaii Island residents to monitor your local radio broadcasts for updates and to prepare for possible storm conditions which could begin to affect the Big Island by Friday."

In preparation for this, the US Coast Guard plans to close all Hawaii ports east of Oahu on Friday, and could also close the ports of Honolulu and Nawiliwil over the weekend, according to Hawaii News Now.

So, just dealing with lots of trouble at once - not as big a deal as I thought.

Yeah why provide any context, background, or opinion, right? Can't have anyone expressing a point of view on a topic they're submitting.

Nadaou says just provide the link and Pipe down.

I think he might be happier with automated Google News.

When I wrote that, I meant that I saw as inevitable that systemd would eventually be the only init system with decent support from developpers. It's been adopted to be at the heart of pretty much every major distro now. In that sense, by trying to make it so the next version of Debian has to offer support for other init systems, they would be delaying the inevitable, since presumably the next version after that would get rid of this support. Although I guess you could argue the delay would help transition.

Editorializing maybe, but there's zero trolling in there. I figured if my editiorializing wasn't accepted, the editor would just remove it.

Oh and story submitters, lets keep the trolling and editorializing to a minimum, eh?

To be honest I really wouldn't be sad if d-bus went away. It suffers many of the same design and philosophy clash problems that systemd does and more often than not is a major pain in the neck for sysadmins of serious workstations and servers. Creating files in /home which even root can't access? Are they nuts? I can actually put a number on the lost productivity-hours these Pottering creations have caused us and we're not an especially large outfit. NetworkManager, d-bus, systemd may be a fine solution for a personal laptop install of Fedora or Ubuntu, but that's about as far as it goes. And that's not Debian's target audience.

I could do without another systemd shouting-match...

Much better that we have our shouting matches now than the Debian project self-destructs later.

from the GR itself, section 3:

The TC's decision on the default init system for Linux in jessie stands undisturbed.

In other words, to systemd supporters: "don't panic", to systemd haters: "they're trying to find a solution that's good for everyone".

Is this vote an attempt to delay the inevitable?

On the one hand, there is no delaying systemd as the default init, that's a given. On the other hand, indeed, the main concern is that we're supposed to be only 3 weeks away from Jessie's freeze and that GR could delay the whole thing (as in a 2-month to 2-year delay depending on many factors).

It isn't just software depending on systemd, it's also projects that have been encompassed by it. Services few people even think about, like udev, dbus, and others, are being swallowed by systemd, and no longer developed as a result. A vote won't change reality, somebody is going to have to put in the time and money to pick up development of those and similar inglorious "glue" projects, to keep SystemV init working.

I could do without another systemd shouting-match...

Maybe you and I can, but can grandma?

It will have to be seamless enough for the masses. Considering the current state of encryption, that is a ways off.

"about the same quality", not true at all! The laser printers people bought twenty years ago are in many cases still running.

You cannot say the same for laser printers bought in the last 5 years.

Qualtity has plummeted.

But I suppose you meant print output quality, not build quality. ;)

Gas? Seriously? Sure to be noisy as hell and draw all kinds of attention you don't want, emit gas fumes wherever you store it, and not be allowed on trains/buses as a result.

Downside: bomb that antenna, and the city is offline.

How bomb-resistant are typical ISPs, though?

I don't imagine your average ISP sees that as something worth spending on.

True, but you can encrypt everything between the two points.

Hmm, or $500 or so gets you one of these.

http://www.wheelmanskateboard.com/

http://www.kmart.com/mototec-wheelman-v2-50cc-gas-skateboard-silver/p-004V008701848000P

Other potential issue: security. Listening or a man in the middle becomes a lot easier on wireless.

I intend to file a equal opportunity lawsuit immediately as colorblindness vs super-human sight is clearly not a equal opportunity situation. :(

That is certainly a good point, but dealing with rain/snow fade is just a matter of increasing the signal strength several percent more to compensate. At such short distances as discussed here, it should be quite easy to manage very high signal levels to the destination.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_fade

This sounds like a neat idea, but how would it handle rain/snow?

It seems like a reasonable line of inquiry, at any rate. Why invest all that time, effort, and money digging trenches and laying cable when wireless infrastructure can be put up so much more easily? Back in 2000 I had an office whose internet connection was provided by a microwave link across town to the ISP via an antenna on both roofs. Seemed like magic back then - can't imagine that technology hasn't improved scads since then.

Downside: bomb that antenna, and the city is offline. A nice move for any aspiring dictator.

I'd go for the E300S, and just detach the seat immediately. Much smoother ride that way (standing), safer, easier to stow, etc. That "ecosmart" would have bars sticking up in your way to trip you even after removing the seat.

At least this model looks more like a bicycle and not a scooter with a stick up your butt.

http://www.razor.com/products/electric-scooters/ecosmart-metro/

I agree with you actually - the Razor might be convenient in some circumstances, but if you ride one you're going to get an ass-kicking reminiscent of the 4th grade, and for the same reason. Ya look like a dork!

So how much extra effort are you willing to put in to charge it on the flats and "with the wind"? How much slower are you willing to go to charge it?

Energy's not free ams you WILL feel it.

Thanks! I was afraid they were keeping "Android L" as a marketing term and never giving us the candy. This is the first time I've heard "Lollipop". I guess they couldn't get the same sweet "no money changing hands" cross-promotional deal with Lifesavers aas they pulled off with KitKat.

Maybe because they have to have a USB port for connectivity anyway, so the wireless charge circuitry is somewhat redundant? Or perhaps the various "standards" and associated licensing costs are off-putting. I don't know, just guessing.

But it was a debarcle.

:-)

Okay, I hear you, that distinction certainly makes sense. But I'm sorry, I'm over 15 years old and that Razor is too dorky even for me. An adult in business attire (or any attire really) would look absolutely ridiculous sitting on that thing. Even a "Rascal" is better.
At least those motorized skateboards are kind of cool.

But different strokes for different dorks I guess. :)

If a cute dog wants my cookies he can have them. :) I'm not usually stupid enough to let my browser remember my passwords and... oops just remembered I use Seamonkey and I let it remember my e-mail passwords!

Down doggie, good doggie....

Very interesting article. I remember reading about it earlier, maybe even on this site? Can't remember. I don't know what they were doing up there, but "making the Chinese worry" sounds to me like a load of horse shit. Stress-testing some new technology, at a minimum, I dunno, but there are cheaper ways to make China worry than that.

Considering how badly NASA has been eviscerated (reduced to begging for rides from the Russians, oops) it's good to know there's still some research, experimentation, and scientific progress being made somewhere, even if the initial beneficiary will probably just be the military as usual.

Until the USB 3.1 chipsets come out so we can use those neat new reversible connectors: #2TA0 USB 3.0 is just unfeasable. The old-style Micro-B connector just plain sucks for a phone.

Dang it, I got poodles on both IE and Chrome at work. What an ugly looking dog! What a disappointment!

The test site shows a poodle when you're vulnerable and a jack Russell when you're not.

Really I'm probably going to hang on to my Nexus 5 for a while now. I don't think I could buy any phone without wireless charging now(why isn't that more popular?), so that shortens the list a lot. Maybe I'll look at the S6 when that comes.

Not sure how that graphic came about, but hopefully I'm not the only one who noticed that's a Jack Russell Terrier, not a Poodle.

But whatever.

Not even the stylus? Just kidding, but I loved my old Palm Treo, so maybe it's nostalgia. To be fair, you could go down one notch to a Galaxy 5 or even Galaxy 4, saving a couple hundred bucks and getting a phone that fits better in the pocket. I think the 5 is just about perfect in size.

I do miss my old flip phone though, since it fit so well in pants pockets I lost it on more than one occasion. Not enough to give up this gadget though - endless fun, and I'm just getting started.

I was willing to try it, but not for that price. The draw of the nexus for me was that is was a great phone for a middle of the line price. There's too much competition at the $600 point and nothing to really make it stand out.

Maybe I'm missing it but that article is about the SKA, not the SQA, and doesn't seem to have anything controversial involved in it aside from a little trouble with an oil company possibly messing up their radio waves. The last line of the article is telling - "The largest risk to the overall project is probably its budget, which to this datehas not been committed." But you were talking about an "SQA" - maybe it's a different thing? Wikipedia is not very helpful on the acronym, though.

Happy to keep Pipedot techie. I'm also doing my best to keep all that lefty-righty conspiracy, faux-rage stuff off the site too.

I've got less time these days though, and this site is only going to be as good as its article-submitters, editors, and commentators.

I hear you about the 'big screen.' I too used to laugh at people who had to take their phone out of their pants pockets to sit down. Then I bought a Samsung Note 3 and I love it. It's a bit big on weekends - doesn't fit well in shorts and t-shirts, etc. But during the week it fits right into a suit jacket pocket and does miracles. It's an awesome PDA (remember that word?) that just happens to also have a cellphone chip in it. I make the occasional call with it but mostly it's a tablet that's HDMA enabled, so I can do data stuff from anywhere there's a network connection. I even posted a Pipedot article from this place using it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podor That's pretty far off the beaten track by anyone's standards.

Don't knock it til you try it.