Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 30th Nov 2009 23:45 UTC
Yesterday (today if you're in the US), Sun released the latest version of its virtualisation solution, VirtualBox 3.1. Among speed improvements and other smaller features, the biggest news is that Virtualox 3.1 introduces something called teleportation: you can move running VMs between machines - servers or clients, different architectures, different host operating systems, it doesn't matter to VirtualBox. Coincidentally, this reminded me of an idea I once had about moving running applications between machines.
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RE[2]: Email between multiple machines
by umccullough on Tue 1st Dec 2009 01:42
in reply to "RE: Email between multiple machines"
Member since:2006-01-26
Thom's idea seems to have as much to do with preserving the entire application session in the state you left it. Fairly easy for a web app like GMail, somewhat harder for desktop apps...
Well yeah, I understand - but the likelihood that it will happen between disparate systems running different OSes (I know arguably, one could eventually run the same OS on a phone and desktop) in the next few years is pretty slim IMO.
In the meantime, I enjoy roaming Gmail chat discussions between multiple machines, and the nearly-instant availability of drafts from one machine to another.
Enter Google Wave protocol and it's even more instantaneous compared to GMail as each participant of the wave is receiving live updates instantly.
You could conceivably manage a program's running state as a Wave instead...
RE[2]: Email between multiple machines
by sbenitezb on Tue 1st Dec 2009 04:33
in reply to "RE: Email between multiple machines"
Member since:2005-07-22
RE[2]: Email between multiple machines
by Thom_Holwerda on Tue 1st Dec 2009 09:57
in reply to "RE: Email between multiple machines"
Member since:2005-06-29
Exactly. Think about this one, for instance.
I watch my television series on two computers - I have an HTPC in my bedroom as well as my living room. They both draw from the same storage space. OFten, however, I won't be able to finish watching an episode on f. ex. my bedroom HTPC before I go to sleep - so I pause. Wouldn't it be handy if instead of having to remember where I left off and scrub until that point on the other computer, I could just drag the video player to the other machine, preserving its state?
It sounds very handy to me, but it would probably require a heck of a lot of work, and I'm not sure if it is a desirable enough a feature.
Edited 2009-12-01 09:58 UTC
RE[3]: Email between multiple machines
by Tuxie on Tue 1st Dec 2009 10:58
in reply to "RE[2]: Email between multiple machines"
Member since:2009-04-22
Theoretically it could work, but as the hardware capabilities will change underneath the player during playback you'll probably have to configure it for the lowest common denominator and the limitations of VirtualBox. That means no hardware accelerated playback, no multichannel audio or AC3/DTS passthrough, no LIRC, etc. To make those things work would properly, as you say, would require a heck of a lot of work.
A much easier thing to implement would instead be a backend/frontend split where a shared backend could have many frontends.
RE[3]: Email between multiple machines
by umccullough on Tue 1st Dec 2009 15:14
in reply to "RE[2]: Email between multiple machines"
Member since:2006-01-26
Wouldn't it be handy if instead of having to remember where I left off and scrub until that point on the other computer, I could just drag the video player to the other machine, preserving its state?
Uh, seems like it would be a lot simpler if you could just drag a "bookmark" from one machine to the other... afterall, that's all you need.
So far, you're making up some pretty simple scenarios to support the notion of moving a virtualized app across multiple machines... if both machines contain the same software already, all you need to drag is the data in its current state. That data could contain the current settings/state of the app and it could pick up where it left off.
I'm glad you threw in the case of "shared storage" here, because that would have been my main sticking point on any concept of dragging a running app to another machine - what if the resources are missing. Every app has different needs, what if a DVD you're playing from is in the desktop and you want to continue watching from the laptop...
I think it's a solution looking for a problem, personally. If anything, I think you should be pushing seemless movement of application state from one machine to another. It seems nobody really focuses on this concept these days, because it's assumed you'll finish a given task on the machine you're currently using.
I suspect a machine without any local storage is the most likely to support such a notion in the future, so look for it eventually on ChromeOS
RE[3]: Email between multiple machines
by mjmoran on Tue 1st Dec 2009 18:35
in reply to "RE[2]: Email between multiple machines"
Member since:2005-08-13
RE[3]: Email between multiple machines
by phoenix on Thu 3rd Dec 2009 17:37
in reply to "RE[2]: Email between multiple machines"
Member since:2005-07-11
Exactly. Think about this one, for instance.
I watch my television series on two computers - I have an HTPC in my bedroom as well as my living room. They both draw from the same storage space. OFten, however, I won't be able to finish watching an episode on f. ex. my bedroom HTPC before I go to sleep - so I pause. Wouldn't it be handy if instead of having to remember where I left off and scrub until that point on the other computer, I could just drag the video player to the other machine, preserving its state?
It sounds very handy to me, but it would probably require a heck of a lot of work, and I'm not sure if it is a desirable enough a feature.
I watch my television series on two computers - I have an HTPC in my bedroom as well as my living room. They both draw from the same storage space. OFten, however, I won't be able to finish watching an episode on f. ex. my bedroom HTPC before I go to sleep - so I pause. Wouldn't it be handy if instead of having to remember where I left off and scrub until that point on the other computer, I could just drag the video player to the other machine, preserving its state?
It sounds very handy to me, but it would probably require a heck of a lot of work, and I'm not sure if it is a desirable enough a feature.
You want X11 with XMove. Start an X app on PC1. Then XMove it to PC2 and carry on. Then XMove it to PC3. And then back again.
Granted, the actual execution of the app always happens on PC1. But the display, which is all you really need to worry about, occurs on PC2, then PC, etc.
All it takes is a network connection. Works quite nicely. And if you add in NX for better network response, it can even work across DSL and dial-up links (although not for full-motion video at those speeds).
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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2008-08-19
While probably sufficient, that's not quite there though. You can certainly write a draft email on machine and continue it on another, but you still have to make a conscious action to fetch the email from the draft folder.
Thom's idea seems to have as much to do with preserving the entire application session in the state you left it. Fairly easy for a web app like GMail, somewhat harder for desktop apps...