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Comment Re:kill -1 (Score 2) 469

Heh. If you don't know the difference between "kill -1 1" and "kill -9 1", I don't want you ever touching the kill command on my systems.

Hint: one of them terminates init. The other restarts it. A highly consequential distinction.

As for "kill -9 -1", I had to look that one up. It is actually defined, though it looks like nonsense. What that one will do is kill every process in the system EXCEPT init.

Comment Re:kill -1 (Score 4, Informative) 469

Then consider yourself the recipient of valuable information. Signal #1 is SIGHUP ("hangup"). The naming is strictly historical at this point. It is probably easier to remember "kill -HUP <some-daemon's-pid>". Either way you issue it, the command restarts the daemon, or reloads the daemon's config. The precise behavior depends on the coding of the paricular daemon. There is no guarantee except what the man page for the daemon says. SIGHUP used on most non-daemon programs just terminates them. That is the default if a process is not coded to intercept and handle SIGHUP.

You're entirely right that you could go for an entire career without once using kill -1. Issuing "service <daemon> restart" strikes most people as much more natural. That will send the signal for you. Incidentally, it's high time somebody wrote "service" for systemd. A simple shell script will do it for some definition of "do it".

Comment Re:kill -1 (Score 4, Insightful) 469

reboots are years between

Really? You don't reboot after a kernel security update? I entirely agree that boot time is a non-issue, but your statement sounds either like hyperbole/exaggeration-for-effect, or you're not serious about security.

I want something that lets me admin my systems without relying on anything more than a dumb terminal

I entirely agree with this, and coming from not-a-fan of systemd, systemd can be administered with ssh just as effectively and probably as easily as sysvinit or bsdinit can be. What is necessary is some additional learning/training, as with any such change.

In sysvinit, the /etc/rc.d directories are full of symlinks to /etc/init.d scripts, with "magic" prefixes to control priority. In systemd, etc/systemd/user and /etc/systemd/system are full of symlinks to ... wait for it ... scripts in /usr/lib/systemd/user and /usr/lib/systemd/system. And the systemd scripts are simpler. In sysvinit, every single script reinvents the wheel by including a big bunch of the same boilerplate.

Like I said, I'm not a partisan fan of systemd, but (I hope that) any criticisms I have are based on reasonable grounds, not misconceptions.

Comment Re:FOSS names (Score 1) 270

So you think fsck is something besides a descriptive abbreviation for File System Check? What about ls (List), rm (Remove), cp (Copy), or touch (literally, Touch File). Oh, I see. It's a pre-teen double entendre.

Comment Re:FOSS names (Score 1) 270

I'm not impressed by what it is named. It *IS* an amulator; fact; get over it.

Emulate: reproduce the function or action of (a different computer, software system, etc.).

So it's not an instruction-set emulator like qemu (was originally). Big deal. There are other things than instruction sets you can emulate.

Comment Re:protesting downmod (Score 1) 635

I'm far from the only one talking about realities. Sucks to be you, volunteering no specifics that work.

So OK, oh wise one. What are you going to use if not carboniferous fuel? Nuclear? The sole place I can see where that is advancing is China and India. The Luddites elsewhere will never allow it, even if safety and waste disposal are ever adequately addressed, which they never have been to date. Fusion? Snort. See you in 1,000 years. Maybe. Solar and wind? They are extremely unsteady and require topping from - wait for it - carboniferous sources. And they cost vastly more. That's going to put the lower part of the 99% into energy poverty because they can't afford it. Oh, you're going to socialize and subsidize energy costs? That's going to hammer the economy into a depression.

In the real world, as in the game of Hammurabi, you have only so many resources and you can either spend them wisely and effectively, or unwisely and with sad effect..

Comment Re:I hope Sparkfun don't take a hit on this. (Score 1) 75

What makes it so?

Embedded X86? Many have done this before Intel. Few still are around because X86 isn't a compelling instruction set for this sort of thing. It's very much NOT efficient- and you don't need Windows these days on most of the stuff (which is the reason you did X86, you had a DOS/OS2/Windows application you were just simply insisting had to be embedded...).

Quite simply put, it might be dour, but the parent poster's closer to the truth than you're probably ever willing to admit. Is it better than the AVR solution Arduino's fielding? Yes. Is it better than much of any of the ARM solutions in the space? Depends. If you're talking an RPi in a non-display context, it's a push. The ecosystem's more "there" with RPi. The Edison's more powerful at the price of much higher power consumption (which, folks, CAN nuke your use of the Edison from orbit...) It isn't really in the same space as the BBB, BananaPI, pcDuino, and others- and they trounce the Edison in many of the applications in the space.

I consider it a bit of a coup for SparkFun, yes. But I think they're not going to be having the grand time of things that you're claiming they will. It's a niche within what is honestly a niche market to begin with. If you don't "need" X86 instruction set support, you're going to find a better answer with any of a number of ARM (and with Imagination Tech pushing MIPS again, MIPS...) boards out there that will be cheaper, at the same performance with a better envelope, etc.

This isn't a win for many. It's only really a win for SparkFun since I'm sure Intel showered them with MONEY and they moved to the new location on the north side of town as opposed to being over by Spine in Boulder to accomodate the new fabrication capabilities they needed to do this stuff in the first place.

You appear to have taken no trouble to acquire any knowledge at all of the subject, but are nevertheless willing to spout nonsense. Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone are both gigantic compared to Edison. They are not addressing the same segment. Arduino is absolutely collossal compared to Edison, but again it is in still a third completely different segment. At present there are zero modules that are comparable to Edison. It has its segment all to itself. That will certaimly change, but what can never change is that Intel's Edison got there first, and in stellar fashion.

Edison has a bit more processing power than Raspberry Pi and is quite close to Beaglebone, but that is not the point. The point is that it is far tinier. The fact that you can get the processing power, plus ample RAM and flash, plus WiFi, plus Bluetooth, all in the size of a GODDAM POSTAGE STAMP is a freaking amazing breakthrough.

Obviously this has nothing whatsoever to do with the x86 instruction set, and everything to do with basic capabilities vs size and cost. Don't you get it? You program in C or C++. It doesn't matter a damn what the instruction set is. What matters is the power drain, and that is entirely competitive with ARM. You're completely full of bull about the power consumption.

All Edison is doing is leveraging Intel's expertise and process technology, and it is doing a capital job of that.

Comment Re:Not ARM? (Score 1) 75

How long it takes to boot depends on what software it runs. If you choose to code in straight C or C++, it will "boot" in the blink of an eye. If you boot suitably pared-down embedded linux, I suppose it might take a second or so. There is no BIOS, which is the usual time-waster.

Comment Re:I hope Sparkfun don't take a hit on this. (Score 1) 75

Odds are, Edison will sink without trace. I'd rather it didn't take one of my favorite suppliers with it.

That is a peculiarly dour way of looking at it. For my own part, I am impressed as hell that Sparkfun landed this coup. I happen to think Edison will be one of the standout innovations of the decade.

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