Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - xasop

Pages: < Back  1 ... 87 88 [89] 90 91 ... 123  Next >
1761
Technology & Information / Re: Getting into making an OS
« on: February 16, 2015, 11:10:35 PM »
Everybody and their brother does it from existing code.  If you really want to make an OS from scratch, expect to work on it for 3 or 4 decades.

You can get a working OS in much less time than that. I haven't done it myself, but I've considered it, and 3 or 4 weeks is much more reasonable to me.

What you can't get easily is decent hardware support. There are so many drivers in modern operating systems that no new contender will ever be able to catch up, but if you're doing it for fun, that doesn't matter.

Anyway, I wouldn't call following LFS "making" an OS. It's just a Linux distro that you compile yourself.

1762
Technology & Information / Re: I finally caved
« on: February 16, 2015, 10:24:12 AM »
My iBook is still chilling in Erlanger. I hope it's picking up lots of fried chicken to bring home for me.

1763
Technology & Information / Re: Getting into making an OS
« on: February 15, 2015, 09:56:22 PM »
I am not entirely sure what you are getting at here. Are you talking about compiling your own OS from existing code, or building an new OS from the kernel up?
Kernel up, the way LFS describes, at least.

This answer only confuses things further. LFS is about compiling your own OS from existing code.

1764
Technology & Information / Re: My weekly OpenBSD time
« on: February 15, 2015, 03:49:35 AM »
This is going to have to be deferred until later, as I need to stock up on my medication this afternoon.

1765
Technology & Information / Re: I finally caved
« on: February 14, 2015, 09:10:20 AM »
My new iBook is on a wild ride around the USA. Since the last image I posted, it's departed New York for Ohio, and has now stopped for a while in Kentucky:



Where will it go next? Tune in next week to find out!

1766
Technology & Information / Re: I finally caved
« on: February 13, 2015, 09:56:19 PM »
Aww yiss, shit is happening:


1767
Technology & Information / Re: I finally caved
« on: February 13, 2015, 09:31:03 PM »
There can be no reason other than you love filling your home full of antiquated crap.

How about the reasons I gave in my last post?

Actually, this raises a good question. I do not mean this as criticism, or anything in any way malicious, but: why did you make this thread? If it's not for an exchange of opinions, then what's the goal?

An exchange of opinions about the topic at hand, certainly, but not a one-way torrent of opinions on the OP's psychological state.

1768
Technology & Information / Re: I finally caved
« on: February 13, 2015, 12:45:31 PM »
Why would you do that?

Why wouldn't you do that?

Welcome, brother. We've been waiting for you.

I am deeply looking forward to replacing Apple's crapware with an OS worth the bytes it takes up. Am I still your brother?

Hardly over priced Lord Dave. It is ancient. 2005!

How does being ancient preclude it from being overpriced?

Even in its day it was a steaming pile and Apple eventually gave in and put Intel processors in their computers so they could compete again.

It's a good thing I don't plan to actually use the bloatware OS that comes pre-installed on it, so it might actually perform decently with a well-written OS.

I'm starting to think Parsifal is a junk hoarder. He buys cheap rubbish and fills his house with it.

As always, I care about your opinion very much. As a matter of fact, it's the main reason I made this thread.

What happened to the Chinese laptop?

Nothing. It still runs just fine, and I've been using it to learn MIPS assembly programming.

How many laptops do you need?

None at all.

You aren't a poor man. Just get one really good one.

Are you drunk again? If I were a poor man, I probably wouldn't go buying lots of different computers. The fact that I have money means I can afford to. Since I also want to, that works out rather nicely.

If you want a toy get a raspberry pi or and Intel NUC or something.

I already have three Raspberry Pis I do nothing with. Now that I'm making the switch to OpenBSD, which doesn't support closed hardware platforms like the rPi, I probably won't use them for anything. I'm probably going to sell them soon.

As for an Intel NUC... Thork, why do you still assume everyone else has the same needs and desires as you? You haven't even bothered to ask why I wanted an iBook before barging in with your amazing opinions.

A nine year old laptop ... for $200AUD with the postage. You have hoarding problems.

Is it hoarding if I actually use the hardware?

Is the experiment to see if he can corner the market in computers no one else wants to buy?

No, but now that you mention it, that sounds like a great idea. What better way to save money than to buy hardware for which there is literally zero demand?

Why would you buy an apple laptop just to replace OSX with OpenBSD? You paid more for OSX than you did the laptop's actual hardware.

Because I wanted to try out OpenBSD's macppc port. Funnily enough, that requires purchasing a PowerPC Mac, which is kind of hard to find without OS X pre-installed. I decided to go for the last (and therefore best-specced) 12-inch iBook model; I briefly considered the last PowerBook, which has slightly better specs, until I realised that the 12-inch model has NVIDIA graphics. And fuck getting a laptop bigger than 12 inches.

As for why I want to use the hardware platform; I'm interested in trying new and different hardware platforms in general, but this one in particular caught my attention for a couple of reasons. One, Apple's PowerPC systems are some of the few non-x86 commercially viable laptops produced in the past decade, and the laptop form factor is convenient because I can move it around and not have to worry about a tangled mess of VGA, serial or network cables.

The second reason is that PowerPC is a big-endian architecture. Every other computer I've ever owned has been little-endian (either x86-like, or else a little-endian MIPS or ARM variant). If I'm going to want to get more involved in OpenBSD hacking, it will be convenient to be able to test my changes on a big-endian platform, as endianness bugs are fairly common and easy to miss.

SPARC is another big-endian architecture, so I will probably also buy a SPARCbook at some point if I can find one (they were never particularly popular, and haven't been produced in some time, so that might prove difficult).

Only chumps pay for Windows.

Only chumps use Windows.

1769
Technology & Information / I finally caved
« on: February 12, 2015, 05:59:41 PM »
I just bought an Apple laptop. Specifically, an iBook G4.

I am looking forward to getting my hands on this and replacing OS X with OpenBSD.

1770
Technology & Information / Re: Joining the PC master race
« on: February 11, 2015, 01:05:35 AM »
Wait, isn't DVI the newer port whereas VGA is the shitty old type? Why would a monitor have a VGA and HDMI but not a DVI?

VGA is still the lowest common denominator when it comes to displays. A display manufacturer that uses HDMI for digital video will generally also provide a VGA port for compatibility with older hardware. It doesn't even have to be all that old to be useful; I own a few systems produced in the past decade with VGA only. I wouldn't use them for any serious graphics (they're all either laptops or headless systems), but they do exist, and sometimes it's useful to plug in a monitor.

1771
Suggestions & Concerns / Re: update the home page
« on: February 10, 2015, 12:42:32 AM »
I don't recall where I got 1864 from when I wrote that post. I'm sure I read it somewhere, or I wouldn't have written it that way.

Also, thanks for editing the article, pizaaplanet. It's currently awaiting publication, which only hasn't happened because of new and exciting problems I only discovered this morning (as is probably evident, the homepage hasn't been updated in a while). I'll get it sorted later today, one way or another.

1772
Technology & Information / Re: Joining the PC master race
« on: February 10, 2015, 12:36:33 AM »
I suppose seeing Parsifal suddenly switch gears from his constant dickery to a sanctimonious high-horse attitude in this thread angered me a bit more than usual.  But he's the only one I've really had a problem with, there's no need to project it on to anyone else.

I'm sorry you feel that way, but that's not how it looks from where I'm standing. Maybe I have been a bit on the abrasive side, but I've been trying to be helpful whenever there's something I know the answer to from memory. Having only built one computer, that isn't always.

I also don't think I have a "sanctimonious high-horse attitude". Rooster posted a comment on our chivalry (or lack thereof), and I attempted to clarify. That's all.

I apologise if I've come across any other way.

1773
Technology & Information / Re: Joining the PC master race
« on: February 09, 2015, 03:18:33 PM »
clueless.
Quote
easy target.

Distinction without a difference.

No, he makes himself an easy target by not bothering to try to learn anything for himself or ask questions, despite admitting he doesn't know anything. I lost all sympathy for him when he told Blanko he "didn't need" thermal paste.

It's one thing to be clueless and try to learn. It's quite another to be clueless and completely unconcerned about it.

1774
Technology & Information / Re: Joining the PC master race
« on: February 09, 2015, 02:15:46 PM »
If I ever build a PC, I'm just going to ask you guys to tell me what parts to buy. And then I would hope you would be more chivalrous to my attempts to build it while I act like a clueless female.

We don't make fun of Saddam because he's clueless. We make fun of him because he makes himself an easy target.

1775
Technology & Information / Re: Joining the PC master race
« on: February 09, 2015, 01:46:03 PM »
So his GPU got WAY too much power in one port.  So it could be fried.

Yes. It's also possible that his CPU has no thermal paste.

1776
Technology & Information / Re: Joining the PC master race
« on: February 09, 2015, 01:00:28 PM »
He also has an HDMI-to-HDMI cable, but doesn't want to use it because it isn't labelled as such, so he's going to buy another one.

1777
Technology & Information / Re: Joining the PC master race
« on: February 09, 2015, 11:17:51 AM »
He probably should have gotten a regular PSU instead of a modular.

You mean it would have been a good idea to do research before blindly buying the parts listed on Logical Increments? What a twist!

1778
Technology & Information / Re: Joining the PC master race
« on: February 09, 2015, 11:00:36 AM »
He was getting a "no signal" message at one point with VGA. I'm not sure if that was before or after he turned his graphics card's power cable the right way around, though.

1779
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched
« on: February 08, 2015, 12:54:21 PM »
12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam)

Caution: Spoilers!

This is the second Gilliam film I've watched (after Brazil), and while it doesn't quite capture the same exquisite oxymoron of humour and tragedy that made its elder brother so memorable, it stands quite well on its own. Unmistakeably a Gilliam, it is driven by a harsh contrast between two realities very similar to that found in Brazil, albeit this time coming closer to sci-fi and farther from dystopic satire. Indeed, the majority of the film is set in what was its own contemporary period (the 1990s), and while the dystopic future in which the framing narrative is set is a major driving force for the plot, very little is actually shown of that world.

Ultimately, and what makes this and Brazil both masterpieces in my opinion, Gilliam keeps the film interesting by his use of constant ambiguity. Right from the beginning, not enough information can be discerned in order to provide a firm sense of narrative. As the film progresses, conflicting pieces of information are given to the viewer; is the protagonist really a time traveller, or is he simply insane? This ambiguity is enhanced later in the film, when Cole himself appears to finally believe that he is insane, just as his psychiatrist (and, later, lover) begins to believe his story.

The film ends on a somewhat less ambiguous note than Brazil, with the most obvious conclusion being that Cole is indeed from the future, but there is still sufficient uncertainty to provoke speculation after viewing. And that's really the best I could hope for.

1780
Technology & Information / Re: My weekly OpenBSD time
« on: February 08, 2015, 07:06:20 AM »
Decided to have a poke at this. Turns out the sndio framework has changed a lot since this paper was published; they've adopted a simpler but less flexible architecture, so writing a DSP is going to be more challenging.

So much for Mr Cynical. An hour later, and I have a hacky but functional prototype. I rule.

Pages: < Back  1 ... 87 88 [89] 90 91 ... 123  Next >