The mother-lode of quote mines

Steven J Vaughan-Nichols has done a do-not-miss article on his experiences at Linux World NYC; here are some choice quotes:

“[...] the halls are full of top businesspeople that run their enterprises on Linux. Look closely at what I’ve just written about Linux users: businesspeople. Not programmers, not open-source fans, businesspeople.” — S J V-N

“We found that using [Linux on] the low-cost x86 hardware platform made our system run three times faster and was 90 percent cheaper than the mainframe using Unix had been.” — Robert Wiseman, CTO for Cendant Travel Distribution Service (Cheap Tickets, Orbitz, Lodging.com)

“We were able to configure multiple Linux instances across multiple mainframes and multiple databases, giving us a back-end Linux environment processing credit card transactions at a rate of between 90 and 120 transactions per second per Linux instance.” — Aaron Graves, a senior VP at Citigroup Technologies Inc

“We manage $100 billion dollars in assets, and we’re regulated by pretty much everyone on earth, what do you think?” — Josh Levine, CTO, E-Trade Financial on the “risk” of using FOSS & Linux

Comments

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

Plantagenet Penguinista

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