What happened to the good old days? They never existed. Sure, a lot more people used to build hardware than do now, but I don't see what relevance that has to the subject, unless you plan on ditching your computer and going back to 4 track.

There are a lot of impediments to open source projects. One, which you've identified is lack of interest from the programmers in fixing certain bugs. But if that were completely true on the whole, how does an OS like linux even come to exist?

I think the bigger problem is a lack of organization/agreement on certain aspects of the OS. There are certain things which really just need a total overhaul, and that's really difficult to do in an open source scenario where not everyone agrees what needs to be done.

Well, Jack will most certainly do more than "Single pipe in/single pipe out"

I used to have my box set up running brutefir (a filter program) in jack. I would run the outputs from my buses in ardour to both channels 7-8 on my soundcard for monitoring on my headphones, as well as to the inputs of brutefir for separation into Sub/Woofer/Tweeter channels, which ran out of brutefir to channels 1-6 on my card.

That aspect of it is great. The problems are that jackd (and the apps that depend on it) crash far too easily.

The odd time that I did something really stupid and caused an underrun jack would usually crash. I'm not sure if it's jack itself that started the crash, or brutefir dropping out causing it to crash, but anyway you look at it, it meant killing all of the audio apps (which frequently hung when they lost their connection to jackd), restarting everything, and then reconnecting all of my flows.

Obviously I shouldn't be getting underruns to begin with, but if I do, I should get a report, and a botched recording, rather than a large conglomeration of crashed and hung apps.

One of the biggest things required is a consistent standard for linux audio. Maybe a jack-like framework implemented in the kernel.

Basically, we just need something that everyone can actually use, rather than varied support for the many sound daemons allowing only certain sub-sets of programs to work together without a lot of hassle.

Jack rides on top of alsa. (usually)

Jackd also crashes at the drop of a hat.

Also, it would be nice if you didn't have to dedicate a machine specifically to recording. Unfortunately, Jack is required for doing any real audio work, and yet it gets in the way of running anything else.

I used to run brutefir as a digital crossover, which I ran to my subs, woofers, and tweeters individually.

It's really awesome that you can do stuff like that, but unfortunately, application support was pretty weak. I had to run pulse's jack-sink module to make certain apps work, Native jack plugins for others, alsa's jack plugins for some.

It was so cumbersome that I eventually gave up.

Yes, but the law is wrong. Try and get the laws fixed, rather than leaving them open to interpretation.

He broke the law. It's a stupid law, so it should be changed, not ignored.

Yep, done that. It's great.

Illegal in the US though.

So, it's okay to circumvent DRM as long as the non infringing uses are "easy"?

I agree with you that most of the guys doing this are pretty much slime, but there needs to be a well defined line of what's legal and what's not. It's not a good idea to just make everything illegal, and then let off those who don't have ill intent, or pretty soon all of your freedoms are at the whim of the police/legal system.

People do write unsigned apps for all of those systems. It doesn't make it okay to make it illegal just because the average Joe isn't capable.

He wasn't "tinkering with a console", he was running a console modding business.

I totally agree that 10 years is excessive, and as an avid hardware hacker I think the anti-circumvention laws are totally crap to begin with, but painting the guy as a tinkerer casts a bad light on the rest of us tinkerers who aren't making a living off of what he knows is mostly being used for pirating games.

He's morally in the wrong, IMO, but it still shouldn't be any more illegal than manufacturing DVD-R drives/discs which also mostly used for piracy, with a small percentage used for legit purposes.

If piracy is already illegal, why not just go after the pirates directly, and avoid the gray area of anti-circumvention.

You might be confusing Stargate with 2001 a little bit.

RF moves fast enough, but it's the modulation of the digital signal, and demodulation/processing which slows things down. Nothing to do with drivers, and the bad hardware is the mouse.

I've used wireless logitechs and didn't like them. there is a lag. It's very short, but it's there. some people don't notice it, but some do and absolutely hate it.

maybe not a big issue for programming, where you won't be using it a lot, but still I think wired isn't much of a disadvantage, and avoids all the other issues.

I'd stick with optical though. Had some problems with my lachesis (4000dpi laser) My Diamondback has been perfect for many years.

Can't get high end mice with cords? Maybe you're judging high end by the price? I've never used a cordless that I've liked.

I bought an MX-1000 and couldn't stand it. It had a very short, but noticeable lag and it was tail heavy and had too long a detection depth, so if I did want to pick it up and reposition it, It would move up a bit due to the tilt on lifting it, unless I had it in a death grip. It just doesn't compare to a really good lightweight corded optical. Razer Diamondback is my favourite. (I'd stay away from the Lachesis though, I have one of those too, and it sucks)

Any geeky wireless mouse should meet the criteria you're looking for. Logitech MX1000 off the top of my head. I bought one once. Used it for a whole 40 minutes before I returned it to the store.

Favourite mouse I've ever used: Razer Diamondback.

It's exactly the opposite of everything you think you need, but probably difficult to find anything better.

Light, well balanced, has a nice thin cord, so you don't notice it's there, but still don't have to deal with wireless lag/dead batteries.

Stay away from the lachesis though. I got one of those, and it's junk compared to my old Diamondback. Tracking issues, and problems with the wheel/centre button. Twice the $, and I'd trade it for another diamondback any day.

Also, don't overlook the importance of a good keyboard. It'll make way more difference than your mouse. My favourite cheap(ish) board is the fujitsu 4725 (or 4726, etc.). If you're willing to spend the $, something with cherry microswitches is best. one of the Das Keyboards, or if you like to code in the dark, Deck legend. I have one of those and it's great. Unfortunately they only have the red with linear keys.. It's easiest on the eyes in the dark, unlike the overrated retina scorching fugly blue that's so popular lately. I'd like to get another one with the tactile keys, but I've either gotta wait until they have them in red or green, or I'm going to have to transplant the diodes myself (btw, they have the schematic for download, and don't void your warranty if your mods are competent)