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Operating Systems

Running Old Desktops Headless? 347

Posted by Soulskill from the must-be-the-new-chicken-os dept.
CajunArson writes "I recently dug up an old P4 that is in fine working order and did what any self-respecting Slashdotter would do: I slapped Linux on it to experiment with making an NFSv4 server. One other thing I did was to remove the old AGP video card to save on power, since this is a headless machine. Now, I removed the video card after the installation, and I'm doing just fine as long as the machine will boot to a state where networking works and I can SSH to it. My question: Is there a good solution to allow me to log into this box if it cannot get on the network? I'm looking for solutions other than slapping a video card back in. In my case, I will have physical access to the machine. A few caveats to make it interesting: This question is for plain old desktop/laptop systems, not network servers designed to run headless. Also, I am aware of the serial console, but even 'old' machines may only have USB, and I have not seen any good documentation on how and whether USB works as a substitute. Finally, if there is any way to access the BIOS settings without needing a video card, that would be an extra bonus, but I'm satisfied with just local OS access starting from the GRUB prompt."

Comment Re:Canada Big, Slovenia Small (Score 1) 238

by matts-reign (#27599953) Attached to: Bell Proposing Usage-Based Billing
I disagree with your statement about city water. Lots of people living in rural areas have wells and septic system. But when my old telecom provider replaced the party lines in 1998, they ran fibre instead of copper, and so now people have "cheap", reliable internet, but live 10 kilometres from the nearest water pipe. It might not even be as good as my Teksavvy DSL now that I've moved to a larger place, but it is definitely possible to have.
Programming

Best Practice For Retiring RSS Feeds? 71

Posted by timothy from the cleaning-up-in-advance dept.
GBJ writes "I work for an organisation that runs seasonal online competition events. Each event has its own news feed which becomes obsolete shortly after the event finishes. We're still getting RSS requests for some events as far back as 2004. I'd like to close a few thousand old feeds and remove the resource hit they cause, but I'm not sure what is the best approach. Currently I'm considering just returning a 404, but I have no idea if there is a better way to handle this. Uncle Google hasn't turned anything up yet, but sometimes it's hard to find something when you don't know what it's called ..."

Comment Hard drives kept online (Score 2, Insightful) 669

by matts-reign (#26102819) Attached to: Long-Term Personal Data Storage?
Hard drives, while they may fail, are still probably your best chance. Using RAID-1 or -5, you can keep the drives running (possibly intermittently) and can avoid failure. With the rate of hard drive growth, you can just replace them with bigger drives when the time comes you need more space. It isn't exactly the same as throwing them in a cold room and forgetting them, but it isn't too expensive either.

Comment Re:Misleading article (Score 1) 245

by matts-reign (#25839401) Attached to: CRTC Rules Bell Can Squeeze Downloads
If they were connecting to the DSLAM, this wouldn't be a problem. The problem is the infrastructure used to connect the ISP to the DLSAM -- this is also rented from bell, and what they claim is congested, and what is being shaped. Bell is mandated to allow access to the DSLAM as part of their monopoly, but not the network which the resellers are currently using, and where all the naughty stuff happens. I don't think any of the resellers are large enough to start laying their own cables either, so there isn't too much that can happen here other than bend over, or encrypt your traffic. Teksavvy at least allows users to use MPPPoE instead of regular PPPoE, which isn't throttled, so you can circumvent Bell that way for now.
Security

Government Begins Securing Root Zone File 198

Posted by kdawson from the not-before-time dept.
Death Metal notes a Wired piece on the US government beginning the process of securing the root zone file. This is in service of implementing DNSSEC, without which the DNS security hole found by Dan Kaminsky can't be definitively closed. On Thursday morning, a comment period will open on the various proposals on who should hold the keys and sign the root — ICANN, Verisign, or the US government's NTIA.
Google

Google's Brin Books a Space Flight 170

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-can-see-my-house-from-here dept.
coondoggie writes "Google largely conquered the Earth — now it is taking aim at space. At least co-founder Sergei Brin is. Brin today said he put down $5 million toward a flight to the International Space Station in 2011. Brin's space travel will be brokered by Space Adventures, the space outfit that sent billionaire software developer Charles Simonyi to the station in 2007. Computer game developer (and son of a former NASA astronaut) Richard Garriott is currently planning a mission to the ISS in October 2008. Garriott is paying at least $30 million to launch toward the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship according to Space Adventures." Make sure to wave when you are over Michigan, man. I'll be the one on my lawn, green with envy.
Networking

Extracting Meaning From the Structure of Networks 31

Posted by timothy from the which-outhouse-is-on-top dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Networks are used to represent the structure of complex systems, including the Internet or social networks, but often these descriptions are biased or incomplete. Now, researchers at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) have shown that it's possible to extract automatically the hierarchical structure of networks. The researchers say their results 'suggest that hierarchy is a central organizing principle of complex networks, capable of offering insight into many network phenomena.' They also think that their algorithms can be applied to almost every kind of networks, from biochemical networks (protein interaction networks, metabolic networks or genetic regulatory networks) to communities in social networks. But read more for additional references and some pictures about hierarchical networks and their applications."
Education

Pope Cancels Speech After Scientists Protest 1507

Posted by Zonk from the probably-could-have-used-a-bit-of-forethought-there dept.
Reservoir Hill writes "Pope Benedict XVI canceled a speech at Rome's La Sapienza university in the face of protests led by scientists opposed to a high-profile visit to a secular setting by the head of the Catholic Church. Sixty-seven professors and researchers of the university's physics department joined in the call for the pope to stay away protesting the planned visit recalled a 1990 speech in which the pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, seemed to justify the Inquisition's verdict against Galileo in 1633. In the speech, Ratzinger quoted an Austrian philosopher who said the ruling was 'rational and just' and concluded with the remark: 'The faith does not grow from resentment and the rejection of rationality, but from its fundamental affirmation, and from being rooted in a still greater form of reason.' The protest against the visit was spearheaded by physicist Marcello Cini who wrote the rector complaining of an 'incredible violation" of the university's autonomy. Cini said of Benedict's cancellation: 'By canceling, he is playing the victim, which is very intelligent. It will be a pretext for accusing us of refusing dialogue.'"
Robotics

i-Snake, a New Robotic Surgeon 58

Posted by CmdrTaco from the probably-picks-up-chicks-in-bars-all-weekend-too dept.
Roland Piquepaille noted coverage of the iSnake Robotic Surgeon which is basically a super flexible robot that can travel through blood vessels and repair the heart. Of course the article isn't exactly clear on what happens if they gain control of the city's sewage system and take over.
Portables (Games)

DS TV Goes on Sale in Japan 36

Posted by Zonk from the because-they-need-another-excuse-to-buy dept.
The little heard-of television adapter for the DS went on sale in Japan yesterday, retailing for ¥6,800 ($62.70). "The design is different from the prototype shown in 2004, as it features a simple aerial cartridge which plugs in the back of the handheld, and no base unit. The top screen is used for the TV picture, while the bottom screen can be used to do things such as change channels and take notes." The company has no current plans to bring the TV adapter to the US, or anywhere else.

How OSS Models Put Vendor Support on Solid Ground 45

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the just-add-water dept.
Jane Walker writes "How can vendors offer free enterprise software and be financially strong enough to provide commercial support? It's all about hybrids, says expert Julie Hanna Farris. Find out how to determine if a commercial open source vendor has the chops to support products in the long term."

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