Search results for "meeting" - WLUG

Re: WLUG Meeting Feb 11th 2021! Topic: Good question!

by Jon "maddog" Hall

John, >Yes, but I don't properly recall if the Itanium design was started >before AMD64 came or as a reaction to the AMD64. Haven't done any >research for the real timelines. Two single-line searches found that the Itanium was launched in 2001 and the AMD x64 was launched in 2003. >It's a shame the Alpha architecture didn't make it, even though it did >have some bad design decisions inside it's ISA and internal >architecture. It was still a pretty nice and clean 64-bit design. As >I recall, it's mostly the memory ordering around byte accesses that >are the problem. This is the first I have heard of these bad decisions. Would you care to elaborate? The memory ordering around byte accesses might have been because the Alpha was designed to be both little endian and big endian. So were the MIPS chips. While many vendors supported only big endian (Motorola, SPARC, etc.) DEC had been supporting little endian in their PDP-11s, VAX, MIPS and Alphas for data compatibility. DEC supported little endian because it was cheaper electronically to have the data held in that fashion. Sun made much fun of DEC for years having Unix systems that were little endian instead of big endian like "real workstations". I kept asking them about these "Intel things" which were little endian too. Sun sneered at me and told me that "Intel chips were not used in real computers".....that is until they ported Solaris to Intel and tried to mix them into their network. Then I took real glee in asking them how they had data compatibility across NFS between SPARC and Intel. As I said, you are the first to mention to me these bad decisions. I am curious to know what they are. md On Thu, Feb 4, 2021 at 4:56 PM John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> wrote: > >>>>> "Jon" == Jon \"maddog\" Hall <jon.maddog.hall(a)gmail.com> writes: > > Yes, but I don't properly recall if the Itanium design was started > before AMD64 came or as a reaction to the AMD64. Haven't done any > research for the real timelines. > > It's a shame the Alpha architecture didn't make it, even though it did > have some bad design decisions inside it's ISA and internal > architecture. It was still a pretty nice and clean 64-bit design. As > I recall, it's mostly the memory ordering around byte accesses that > are the problem. > > > Jon> Allow me translate what you said: > > Jon> "As I recall, Itanium was Intel's attempt to bi-furcate the market and > Jon> keep 32bit for desktops and such, and to make their 64bit systems for > Jon> workstations and such a seperate product so they could take more > Jon> control of the motherboard, bios, etc" > > Jon> to > > Jon> "Itanium was Intel's abortive attempt to block AMD from making a > Jon> better, faster, cheaper 64-bit CISC product." > > Jon> Shorter, and more to the point. > > > > Jon> On Thu, Feb 4, 2021 at 4:13 PM John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> wrote: > > Jon> As I recall, Itanium was Intel's attempt to bi-furcate the market > and > Jon> keep 32bit for desktops and such, and to make their 64bit systems > for > Jon> workstations and such a seperate product so they could take more > Jon> control of the motherboard, bios, etc. > > Jon> Then AMD came out with the AMD64 64-bit extenstions to the Intel > 386 > Jon> (486?) instruction set, since they had an architectural license > to the > Jon> ISA, so they just extended it and started shipping cheaper CPUs > and > Jon> chipsets that could easily suport more than 4gb of RAM, without > Jon> requiring people to do major re-compiles of their software. > Jon> Especially since it would support 32bit applications in a 64bit OS > Jon> without *any* recompile needed. > > Jon> They ate Intel's lunch. Which is why the Pentium 4 (I think) was > such > Jon> a monster chip in terms of CPU GHz and heat, because they were > trying > Jon> to catchup with the Opteron and other AMD chips. > > Jon> John > > Tim> My perspective was from working at Stratus. Continuum at the time was > our flagship line > Jon> of servers > Tim> that ran on PA-RISC and with Itanium it was clear the end of the line > for PA-RISC was > Jon> coming. > > Tim> Bob Evans and others who were more intimately involved can probably > explain it better, > Jon> but I > Tim> remember Stratus getting a couple Itanium development workstations > and my recollection > Jon> was that > Tim> the engineers weren't impressed. > Tim> It wasn't a fundamental improvement on PA-RISC as far as they could > tell. Ultimately VOS > Jon> was > Tim> ported to Xeon and the rest is history. I'm sure someone somewhere is > still happily > Jon> running > Tim> PA-RISC based Stratus servers, but I have to imagine that number > dwindles each year. > > Tim> Personally I have a hypothesis that Intel had really put it's bets on > Xeon and wasn't > Jon> really that > Tim> invested in Itanium. What it did do was get HP out of the HPC market. > It's fair to say > Jon> that Xeon > Tim> based systems running Linux pretty much put the coffin nails in MIPS, > PA-RISC and > Jon> ultimately Sparc > Tim> and likely a few others I don't know about and with it the various > operating systems that > Jon> didn't > Tim> get ported to Xeon. > > Tim> On Thu, Feb 4, 2021 at 11:44 AM Jon "maddog" Hall < > jon.maddog.hall(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Tim> I still vividly remember my boss showing me the plans for > support of Intel's Itanium > Tim> processor. > > Tim> As someone who taught operating systems and compiler design for > a number of years I > Jon> still > Tim> remember my shock that THIS was the answer for Intel's 64-bit > chip....an Ultra-Wide > Tim> Instruction set. > > Tim> I wailed away about how all of this was WRONG, WRONG, > WRONG.....mostly because I had > Jon> spent the > Tim> past six months proving why even a regular CISC system was the > wrong answer, and here > Jon> Intel > Tim> was going in the opposite direction. > > Tim> After twenty minutes of me fuming my boss simply grinned, > shrugged his shoulders and > Jon> left my > Tim> office. > > Tim> While I was proud of the fact that the Alpha processor was so > prominent in the > Jon> production of > Tim> the movie "Titanic"......now I had to deal with a real life > "Itanic"....watching it > Jon> sink. > > Tim> md > > Tim> P.S. It was only a month or so after, I think, that AMD came > out with a reasonable > Jon> extension > Tim> to the i86 architecture....which (although it was not RISC) I > was reasonably happy > Jon> with. > > Tim> On Thu, Feb 4, 2021 at 7:24 AM Tim Keller via WLUG < > wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > > Tim> Hey Everybody, > > Tim> We've got a meeting next week on the 11th at our same time > (7pm) > > Tim> As for a topic, if somebody would like to present something, > I'd be up for it. > Tim> I figure we'd all toast the depreciation of Itanium in the > linux kernel. Good > Jon> riddance! > > Tim> We'll definitely be talking about the PI4 Nano!! > > Tim> As usual, I'm sure other topics will organically surface. > > Tim> Location: Our usual Jitsu haunt: https://meet.jit.si/WlugMA > > Tim> Later, > Tim> Tim. > Tim> -- > Tim> I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers > to their constituents > Jon> as > Tim> "consumers". > Tim> _______________________________________________ > Tim> WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > Tim> To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > Tim> Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > Tim> Change Settings: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > Tim> Web Forum/Archive: > Tim> > Jon> > https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/BJNCC… > > Tim> -- > Tim> I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their > constituents as > Jon> "consumers". > > Tim> _______________________________________________ > Tim> WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > Tim> To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > Tim> Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > Tim> Change Settings: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > Tim> Web Forum/Archive: > Jon> > https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/ZDSLS… > >

4 years, 4 months

Free stuff - please reply off list

by Adam Keck

Hello All, I have some free items that I can bring to the next meeting, if anyone wants them. 2x Serial Cable 6ft: DB-25 Female to DB-25 Male 1x Serial Cable 6ft: DB-25 Male to DB-25 Male 1x Sun 13W3 to VGA Adapter 4x SCSI 2 to SCSI 3 - DB50P Male to DB68P Male 6ft 1x DB-9 Male to DB-25 Female Serial Adapter 1x SCSI 2: DB-50 Male to DB-50 Male 3ft 1x SCSI 3: DB-68 Male to Male 1ft 1x Sun 13W3 to Mac DB-15 graphics cable 1x Centronix to DB-25 SCSI 1 1x @Home Network (there's a blast from the past ;) USB Ethernet Adapter 1x SCSI 3: DB-68 Male to DB-68 Male 3ft 1x DB-68 Male to 50-pin Male 1x SCSI 3: DB-68 Male to DB-68 Male 6ft 1x 8-port 3-Com 10/100 hub 1x DLT-4 tape 1x Male to Male VGA cable 6ft 2x DB-9 Male to DB-9 Female 6ft 1x Mammoth Cleaning Tape 8mm 1x ATA-100 internal IDE cable 1x DB-15 VGA Male to Male gender changer 1x Synoptics LattisNet Model 508 10Base-T Transceiver -Adam

18 years

Windows 11 wife tech support - replacement for Veracrypt

by joel d

Haven't been able to make a LUG meeting in a few months. Hope all are well. I know it's not the focus of WLUG, but have a Windows based, wife tech support issue. She is in Finance, not technology, and therefore only uses Windows 11 laptop provided by her employer. For years she has had a TrueCrypt, and now a VeraCrypt drive she uses for 'eyes only' stuff like resume and private personal item's. Her new employer locks down Windows, not allowing running of an EXE or MSI without an admin password. So I cannot continue trend running Veracrypt as either installed or as Veracrypt portable. Size of files to secure is reasonable at about 550MB today. I am not a fan of USB thumb drives for data reliability long term. To many LT flaky or dropped in puddles. I am thinking an encrypted Internet Drive setup, something like Proton Drive or similar. Any known Windows options for me to try for my wife? Thank you, Joel

1 year

Professional networking for Bioinformatics Linux Support resource

by Kathleen McTeague

Greetings, I'm reaching out to do some professional networking to see if I can send out a unique job posting to the Worcester Linux User Group. We are looking for a seasoned Linux Admin for a unique role to work for the vaccine division of a local pharmaceutical company based here in Cambridge, MA. This position is a long-term contract approved through the end of this year with the likelihood of extending long-term, possibly perm. The role will have 'one foot' in IS, and the other in the Bioinformatics group. The focus of the role is administering a Linux cluster, supporting research scientists with some data modeling, supporting various relational databases etc. The Bioinformatics group will be moving to Cambridge so they will be replacing/upgrading the existing Linux cluster. The ideal candidate will have prior experience supporting several PhD level scientists with computational backgrounds, virology/biology as well as many other disciplines. It is a very visible role in that there is a huge initiative to strengthen the IS support specifically for the Bioinformatics organization. I've attached the job description and look forward to hearing your thoughts and interest level in exploring this opportunity. Thanks in advance for your time and if you know of anyone who might be interested, I'm available to chat live any day with some notice. The hourly pay rate range on a W-2 contract basis (will not consider 1099 candidates) and the rate range is approximately $45-75/hour based on education and experience. PROJECT DESCRIPTION* This SOW covers the costs associated with providing a Bioinformatics technical support resource in the R&D IS team as a resource to participate in and support the following R&D IS activities and projects: · Implementing, testing and and managing applications used by Scientists working in the Sanofi Pasteur R&D Global Bioinformatics and Genomics group. This group uses both commercial and proprietary scientific computing applications running on LINUX, Mac OS X, Solaris, and Windows. · Resource will be responsible for providing application support, including building applications from source, managing the deployment and scheduling of software applications on Unix/Linux clusters, migrating and configuring applications and ensuring inter-operability between applications. · Providing effective communication between the IS infrastructure team (who provide LINUX, UNIX, Windows, and Oracle support), the R&D IS team, and the business users. · Development of standardized data management (loading, updates, maintenance) and support procedures for specific applications, including Biowisdom SRS. · Providing training to users on specialized applications as needed. · Participating in the development and approval of standardized documentation for these processes, following Sanofi Pasteur documentation standards. · Maintaining a high level of client satisfaction while meeting response time guidelines. · Resolving Client Support Incidents and effectively communicate status, solutions and/or workarounds to clients. · Properly documenting actions taken on all work for Client Support Incidents. · Other specific projects to be defined by R&D IS management as needed. TIMEFRAME* The contractor is required from July 1, 2010 through to December 31, 2010, with the possibility of extension to 2011, depending on budget availability, project portfolio needs, and performance. DELIVERABLES In addition to the project-specific deliverables described in the Scope of Work, the following deliverables may be required from the contractor for each project worked on: Project Plan A high-level project plan using Microsoft Project will be developed in the early stage of each project. The plan will list high level timelines and resource requirements. This plan will be further refined once the requirements document is complete. This plan will be reviewed and approved by a Sanofi Pasteur R&D IS representative. If the contractor is not the project lead then they will provide input to this document. Requirements Document A requirements document will be developed in our IS eDoc document management system. This document will be developed through requirements gathering meetings with the business user and through requirements review sessions with the IS technical team. This document will be approved through the IS eDoc workflow process. If the contractor is not the project lead then they will need to provide input to this document. Development If the contractor is a developer on the project he/she will develop or modify the code necessary to meet the requirements document. He/she will also unit test the code that has been developed or modified prior to delivering it to the project lead and business user for user acceptance testing. If the contractor is the project lead he/she will provide direction to the developers throughout this stage. Testing The contractor will oversee the testing of the changes to the system by developing test scripts with the help of the business users. These test scripts will trace back to each individual requirement in the requirements document. These test scripts will be developed in IS eDoc and reviewed and approved through the IS eDoc workflow process. Implementation The contractor will oversee moving of the changes to the system into production. He/she will ensure all necessary documentation is approved and closed out in IS eDoc and the EPM time management system. POSITION REQUIRED (ROLE) A Technical Support Analyst with Bioinformatics experience is required for this role. Technical expertise requirements include: · Experience with Windows and Linux/UNIX operating systems are essential (Mac OS X and Solaris will be an asset), and experience with distributed computing is required. · Proficiency with RDBMS-based (MySQL, Postgresql, Oracle) applications and database concepts. · Proficiency with UNIX text processing tools and shell scripting. · Proficiency with a major programming language (e.g. C/C+); scripting languages (e.g. Perl, Python) · Understanding of web server, networking and network protocols. · Solid understanding of the software development cycle, including testing methodologies and change management control, and experience out-sourcing and managing software development, · Demonstrated previous experience supporting bioinformatics tools and applications. Examples may include molecular modeling applications, sequence analysis packages, genomic data analysis tools and data integration applications. · Able to use Microsoft Office tools. Professional requirements include: · Resourceful problem solver with excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to express technical ideas clearly · Able to work effectively within a team environment. · Good written and verbal communication skills required to deliver high quality Client Support and reliable follow-up to clients. · Demonstrated ability to promptly handle problems, providing status updates, and documenting the problem and resolution. · Present technical & functional ideas clearly while checking for client understanding. · Experience in developing technical documentation. · Experience with software testing, including development of test plans and detailed test scripts based on requirements and design documentation. SKILLS REQUIRED * The candidates must possess the following skills/education: A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or equivalent. Best, Kathleen McTeague Senior Staffing Consultant Randstad Life Science Staffing 617-354-7215 kathleen.mcteague(a)us.randstad.com<mailto:kathleen.mcteague@us.randstad.com>

14 years, 10 months

Re: [Wlug] another acronym

by Scott Venier

And, to put that joke into the context of our next meeting: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19990211 doug waud said: > Hi all > > A friend sent me the following. Thought you guys might enjoy it. > > I was having trouble with my computer. So I called the computer guy, to > come over. He clicked a couple of > buttons and solved the problem and gave me a bill for a minimum service > call. As he was walking away, I called > after him, "So, what was wrong?" > > He replied, "It was an `ID ten T' error." > > I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired: "An, ID ten T > error? What's that .... In case I need to fix > it again?" > > "Write it down," he said, "and I think you'll figure it out." > So I wrote out ...... I D 1 0 T > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

21 years, 3 months

Re: [Wlug] computer for sale

by Gregory Avedissian

Karl, Have you been able to run the Visioneer scanner under linux? If so, I'd like to know how. I haven't been able to do it with my 6100b. Greg Karl Hiramoto wrote: > I could bring this to the next meeting if anyone is interested. > > Asking $150 or best offer. Dual boot machine with windows 2000 and > Gentoo 2004.2 > > Dual Processor Pentium Pro 200mhz > 17" Viewsonic Monitor with builtin mic and speakers > DVD/CDROM dvd mpeg dxr2 decoder PCI card. > 256M RAM (EDO 72pin) > 20G hard disk (gentoo linux) > 6G disk (fat 32) > 6G disk (NTFS Windows 2000) > 10/100 network card RTL-8139 > Promise UDMA 33 PCI card > ATI all in wonder (3D rage pro) TV tuner works in windows. > Visioneer Paperport Flat bed Scanner with Parallel port cable interface > ISA Creative labs AWE 32 gold sound card with RCA outputs. > 2 USB ports > floppy > keyboard > mouse > > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

20 years, 9 months

Ipaq Help

by Wes Allen

Hi all, I realized that I missed the installfest the other month (family was sick, as I recall); so I missed a generous offer to convert my iPAQ to linux. Frankly, I'm tired of not being able to sync contacts and calendar with my laptop, and I'd like to have and ogg player in my hands as well. I'm going to try pool enough money to get an older Zaurus after Christmas, but in case I can't I'm going to convert my iPAQ. The install doesn't look that hard...but the documentation leaves a lot to be desired. Can anyone put together an "idiot's guide to converting your ipaq to linux," complete with how to stop the install of X and install qtopia instead? I'd be greatful, and I'm sure that handhelds.org would love the user-friendly documentation as well. Thanks. I'm moving out of this area sometime early next year, I'm sure going to miss this list (and the lure of meetings I never seem to get to). Wes

22 years, 6 months

Portable MP3 (and ogg) players and Linux

by Andy Stewart

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 HI gang, I'm starting to investigate the purchase of a new toy - a portable music player. My preferences would be: - - flash, not hard drive, based - - standard batteries (AA,AAA, etc) - - works reasonably well with Linux - - plays ogg (nice but not necessary - aren't the files smaller than mp3) - - plays mp3 I currently have a perfectly functional RioVolt 250 and my only complaint is that it is quite bulky relative to what is available today. I was considering some of the offerings by iRiver, as there seems to be some support by the Linux community. Does anybody own an iRiver flash based player, and what is your experience with it? Does anybody have other recommendations in this area? Maybe we should make this the topic of a meeting??? Thanks, Andy - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFC6s8qHl0iXDssISsRAm6QAJ92gZGJWjLnEHGHJejWuZiAhTZh0QCfcQpz 3EJaVxol5W6btG6a+4sRk8Y= =NZnt -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

19 years, 10 months

Re: [Wlug] Revolution OS

by Andy Stewart

On Friday 14 November 2003 4:31 pm, swillis(a)WPI.EDU wrote: > The Worcester Area Student Chapter of the ACM based at WPI will be showing > the film "Revolution OS" (www.revolution-os.com) Friday the 21st at 7:30pm > in Fuller Auditorium, on the WPI campus. We would like to invite all > those in the Worcester Linux Users' Group to join us to watch this film. > If you are unable to make this showing, we'll be showing this at the regularly scheduled WLUG meeting on Thursday, December 11th at 7:00 PM. However you do it, try to get to see this video, its really good ! > The film is a documentary about Linux and the whole open-source/free > software movement. "REVOLUTION OS features interviews with Linus > Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Bruce Perens, Eric Raymond, Brian Behlendorf, > Michael Tiemann, Larry Augustin, Frank Hecker, and Rob Malda. To view the > trailer or the first eight minutes go to the ifilm website for REVOLUTION > OS." -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

21 years, 6 months

Re: For discussion: A Worthy LUG project? (was gmail invit es)

by Bob George

Jeff Moyer wrote: >[...] >Show me the prototype, and I'll arrange for a machine to host the beta. If >anyone cared to donate a second machine, I could even setup a failover >cluster for you. > > Excellent! And thank you much, Jeff. One significant barrier falls away. Now the rest of the boatload of challenges! >So, who's taking the first crack at the design goals? > > I'm primarily a WLUG-lurker, having not made a meeting yet since moving here last year. I don't want to be presumptuous, but I had a good conversation in the IRC channel during which some good questions were posed. I'd be happy to do up a list of design goals and post them here. I'm also NOT a skilled developer (I pre-date C++, coding-skill-wise) but do quite a bit of configuration and tweaking on my own systems, so I can offer up some of the skills. Any thoughts? - Bob

20 years, 8 months

WLUG search results for query "meeting"