From humorix-bounce@nl.linux.org Thu Jun 03 03:36:39 2004 Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=humbolt) by humbolt.nl.linux.org with esmtp (Exim 4.22) id 1BVh8L-0005rS-3t; Thu, 03 Jun 2004 03:35:05 +0200 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list humorix); Thu, 03 Jun 2004 03:34:57 +0200 (CEST) Received: from capitol.mail.pas.earthlink.net ([207.217.120.180]) by humbolt.nl.linux.org with esmtp (Exim 4.22) id 1BVh7Z-0005pa-3k for humorix@mail.nl.linux.org; Thu, 03 Jun 2004 03:34:17 +0200 Received: from sdn-ap-015neomahp0313.dialsprint.net ([63.190.81.59] helo=ldd.net) by capitol.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 1BVh7U-0002hQ-00 for humorix@mail.nl.linux.org; Wed, 02 Jun 2004 18:34:13 -0700 Message-ID: <40BE7D17.3000106@ldd.net> Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2004 20:21:27 -0500 From: James Baughn User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20031015 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: humorix@mail.nl.linux.org Subject: [humorix] Linux Ported To Kitchen Sinks Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Received-SPF: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_10,RCVD_IN_NJABL,USER_AGENT_MOZILLA_UA version=2.55 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.55 (1.174.2.19-2003-05-19-exp) X-Approved-By: jbaughn@ldd.net X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: humorix-bounce@nl.linux.org Errors-to: humorix-bounce@nl.linux.org X-original-sender: jbaughn@ldd.net Precedence: bulk Reply-to: humorix-l@nl.linux.org List-help: List-unsubscribe: List-software: Ecartis version 1.0.0 List-Id: X-List-ID: List-subscribe: List-owner: List-post: List-archive: X-list: humorix Linux Ported To Kitchen Sinks June 2, 2004 Arguing that "kitchen sinks and Emacs were meant for each other," one Linux hacker has released a Linux distribution specifically designed for household plumbing. Named Pipemacs, the new system provides a complete Linux environment (including Emacs) for pipes, sinks, toilets, septic tanks, hot water heaters, and even ice makers. "We've all joked that Emacs includes everything except the kitchen sink," said Eric Fretime, the brainchild behind Pipemacs. "But despite all of the talk, nobody has actually tried to put the two together... Until now." Unfortunately, Pipemacs has fairly stringent system requirements and will not work on all plumbing hardware. "I had to upgrade the thermostat in my hot water heater to include an embedded microprocessor which can act as the central server for my plumbing network. Each node in the system communicates through the pipe hardware using the IP-over-PVC protocol. The ice machine in my refrigerator acts as the router, connecting the plumbing network to the larger Internet." While at first glance the Pipemacs platform seems rather useless, Fretime has developed several practical applications: * Security system. When the system detects a break-in, a garden hose activates and sprays the intruder with a high-pressure jet of water, knocking him down until the police arrive. * Septic system monitor. The 'methaned' daemon, running on the toilet, constantly monitors the level of methane in the system and can automatically contact a plumber if the septic tank backs up. * Personalized showers. A voice-activated shower head allows the user to set the desired water temperature and pressure. "This feature has really helped me conserve water," Fretime said. "Not only can I take faster showers without fumbling with the knobs to get the right temperature, but I can write a program in Lisp to automatically shut the hot water off after five minutes when my teenager takes a shower, preventing him from wasting water." In the future, Fretime hopes to release Pipemacs 2.0, which will include support for Mozilla and Perl. "This Linux distro isn't going to be finished until I can run the world's most bloated browser and programming language on the world's most bloated plumbing system. I want to be able to surf the Web using my outdoor sprinkler system and run regexes on my washing machine..." -- Humorix: Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/humorix/ Web site: http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/ From humorix-bounce@nl.linux.org Sun Jun 06 20:15:37 2004 Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=humbolt) by humbolt.nl.linux.org with esmtp (Exim 4.22) id 1BX29r-0004wI-JK; Sun, 06 Jun 2004 20:14:11 +0200 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list humorix); Sun, 06 Jun 2004 20:14:04 +0200 (CEST) Received: from capitol.mail.pas.earthlink.net ([207.217.120.180]) by humbolt.nl.linux.org with esmtp (Exim 4.22) id 1BX26r-0004oV-Fy for humorix@mail.nl.linux.org; Sun, 06 Jun 2004 20:11:05 +0200 Received: from sdn-ap-019neomahp0283.dialsprint.net ([63.191.97.29] helo=thecaperock.com) by capitol.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 1BX26h-0003lI-00 for humorix@mail.nl.linux.org; Sun, 06 Jun 2004 11:10:56 -0700 Message-ID: <40C35E36.10305@thecaperock.com> Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2004 13:11:02 -0500 From: James Baughn User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20031015 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: humorix@mail.nl.linux.org Subject: [humorix] Get Ready For Transparent Network Transparency Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Received-SPF: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,RCVD_IN_NJABL,RCVD_IN_ORBS,USER_AGENT_MOZILLA_UA version=2.55 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.55 (1.174.2.19-2003-05-19-exp) X-Approved-By: jbaughn@ldd.net X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: humorix-bounce@nl.linux.org Errors-to: humorix-bounce@nl.linux.org X-original-sender: jbaughn@thecaperock.com Precedence: bulk Reply-to: humorix-l@nl.linux.org List-help: List-unsubscribe: List-software: Ecartis version 1.0.0 List-Id: X-List-ID: List-subscribe: List-owner: List-post: List-archive: X-list: humorix Get Ready For Transparent Network Transparency June 6, 2004 By Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen, kamstrup [at] daimi [dot] au [dot] dk A new project called LiNukes has been announced that aspires to become the "the next generation of X." This alternative X implementation introduces a brand new concept conceived by the LiNukes team called Transparent Network Transparency (TNT). Much like Lindows/Linspire/Linwhatever, LiNukes is designed with Windows users as the target audience. In the following exclusive interview, the founder of LiNukes, Mr. H. Alfwit, talks about the new project. Q: "So how does TNT work?" A: "In all its simplicity, TNT takes a standard X implementation and wraps it up in obscure code to eliminate any signs of network transparancy. The network transparency is transparent! Using our patented TNT-API, it will be very hard to implement any graphical program that can be run on a remote server and show up on your own screen. This way we hope to attract a lot of Windows developers, since they don't have to familiarize themselves with the concept of network transparancy." Q: "Windows does have a bit of network transparancy... You are able to enter an URL in the filemanager. Do you have any features like that?" A: "It is not that network transparancy is impossible with TNT. It is just harder to implement in your application. Speaking of IE or the Windows filemanager, we have also adopted another design concept of Windows. With careful surgery-like coding, we have tied the whole desktop, filemanager, browser, e-mail client, you name it, directly into the Linux kernel. This way if anything crashes, everything crashes. This ensures that you will always know if your LiNukes operating system is fully functional. Any bug will effect the entire system, and thus will be to easier find." Q: "Doesn't the close tie between kernel and desktop lead to security issues?" A: "Not really. Any security issues related to this are outweighed by the fact that intruders can't use a GUI to crack the system from the inside. Nobody uses a terminal these days." Q: "What has been the hardest part to implement?" A: "Funny enough the whole TNT concept and kernel hacking hasn't been the hardest part. We have worked very hard to strip all debugging information from the kernel as well as applications down to 'Fatal Error.' We still have a few bugs where real debugging information might inadvertantly show up, possibly confusing the user. This will, of course, be fixed in our final release." Q: "Shouldn't you be focusing on the real bugs instead of these error-message-bugs?" A: "I have no comment on that." At the moment, LiNukes is having a financial crisis because a major sponsor recently backed out after it was revealed that the project might infringe on a patent involving the "oversimplification of failure messages." If LiNukes ever makes an official release we will of course review it here at Humorix. -- Humorix: Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/humorix/ Web site: http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/