Tape Drives (SCSI vrs. Parallel)
Hello again everyone, A little ways back I asked some things about Tape Drives, and I really appreciate all the responses. One last thing, though. I lot of people mentioned one with a SCSI card, but I think that I can only afford a parallel port one. Now, I know that it will be slower, but that is ok. Speed doesn't matter as much for me... My main question is about reliability. I know a SCSI is better that way, but would my backups be seriously less reliable of I use the parallel port version of the 1gig (well 2gig with compression) Iomega Ditto drive? My primary use would be for backing up program archives and datafiles (zips, movie files, pictures, etc), and probably weekly hard drive backups, so I wouldn't be using it constantly... Also, do the backup programs usually have some sort or error correction while backing up? Thanks again everyone, Shawn [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.the-spa.com/shawn.fumo/ -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: is the Creative Labs AWE64 GOLD Soundcard supported?
Nicola =)
Nicole,
A-ehm, NicolA is a male name in Italy, just think about Nicolas in the
USA.
Oops.. sorry about that! I think it was late when I wrote that
message
Yes, you're right, not nice being tied to the computer... not nice FM too
nor eating CPU cycles for soft synthesis if you want the CPU to do
something else... as you told you can use your synth-capable-keyboard for
General Midi sounds from games (though here you _are_ tied to the computer
and AWE is not bad in this case)... I think your Yamaha PSR-200 _is_
General Midi compliant by now, isn't it? How many octaves has the
keyboard, 4, 5 or 7? Did you have to buy a sustain pedal apart of it?
Yeah.. it is tied then, but I just stick it on a chair, plug in the
3 wires, and works well (two plugs for the midi connection, and a
third into my SB16's input jack, which puts it into the stereo
system along with the wave sounds).. The thing is 11 pounds, but I
guess one of those Grand Pianos would be much harder to move..hehe.
Yes, the PSR-220 (not 200), is General Midi compliant (a feature of
which it makes sure to mention many times in the manual..hehe). It
has 100 panel instruments, and a seperate GM mode for 128 more.
Well, it has 61 keys over about 5 octaves. However, you can also
adjust the whole keyboard up or down two whole octaves by changing a
simple setting (you could also split the keyboard between two
instruments and adjust each side by 2 octaves seperately).
It supports a sustain pedal, but I did not get one yet. When I get
more $$$ and I am more advanced I'll get one. I think they go for
about $20-$50US.
I think games are very nice for an OS to be more widely used, and Linux
could support both the _very_powerful_solid_graphics kind of games and
the abstract_fast_X_fascinating_graphics kind, of course both with
astonishing sounds :-) maybe in part math-generated and graphics-related
(I still have to give a look at software such as kandinsky). Maybe one day
some Debian-original ultra-eye_ear_MIND-catching game...?
Hopefully some day...
Where do you play Doom, Linux or DOS? If Linux, does it need anything else
but a properly configured kernel in order to send to the external MIDI
synth?... Maybe a doom-specific sound server does anything? Is there a
Debian package?... I can't find one on the 1.3.1. CD... I had it on my
very first Linux install years ago (or the second one...) and will give a
look at some more recent CDs I have here. I tried abuse yesterday from the
Debian package [not the one with 1.2.4, sound broken to me {but SVGA}, the
one with 1.3.1 {but only X, not SVGA it seems}] and it looks very
interesting (more than recent demos I saw in (Win)DOG with sophisticated
3d-like graphics), and sounds give a _very_ interesting taste; it seems
they chose to have no music in it.
Right now, I play it in dos, but that is only because I haven't
actually gotten the chance to install Linux yet...hehe. In the dos
version, I was just able to change the doom configuration from SB16
to Midi Out. As for Debian packages, I am not sure. I know Doom and
Wolfenstein3D are both out for Linux, though.
Shawn
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.the-spa.com/shawn.fumo/
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Re: is the Creative Labs AWE64 GOLD Soundcard supported?
Nicole, Ah, about that cheap MIDI (possibly mute) keyboard, I saw that [EMAIL PROTECTED] was talking about it too, he was looking for midi software packages and mainly for software synthesis. Well, speaking of that, this is what I settled on. I turned out getting a Yamaha PSR-220. It cost about $220US, and considering that was not much more expensive than the keyboard with no sounds of its own, was better to get that one. Including power supply, warrenty, and midi camble, turned out costing about $300US total. It has turned out working very well. It works fine in place of a sound card (sounds MUCH better than FM Synthesis), and doesn't take up the processor like soft. syn. does. (thus making it possible to play games like Doom with it). It also works very well for inputting into a sequencer, as it can sense how hard you hit keys, etc. I'd say that for a midi-comp. keyboard, this is about as low as you'd want to go. Instruments sounded much more realistic (in general) than the Casio I tried. Has no pitch-wheel, but can play pitch-bend commands (so you could always add that later in the sequencer or something). The only dumb keyboard with no sounds in it, looked fairly nice, but I don't think it'd be worth it unless you found it for like $100US. Otherwise, might as well pay a bit more for the Yamaha and get a nice built-in synthesizer, and the ability to practice without being tied to the computer... Shawn [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.the-spa.com/shawn.fumo/ -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Tape Drives?
Hello everyone, Please forgive me for a question that has probably been asked thousands of times. I've just been so busy lately that I haven't been able to do the research I usually would. Does anyone have any recommendations on a tape drive that would be compatible with Linux? My problem is I want to install Linux, but first I need to format the drive. Before I can format the drive, I need to back up everything. Unfortunately I am just out of room for backing up things. I already have a zip drive, but it has gotten to the point where much of what I am backing up is things I would only really be using as backup archives, so that continuing to buy more and more zip disks doesn't seem appropriate (especially in the wallet). I also figured that since Linux is more sensitive to things like sudden outages, a tape drive would be a good thing to have. My other problem is how much I have to spend. Around $100 is what I'd like to go for. $150 is pushing it, but should be able to manage it. I had first also considered a CD-R, since I have musical interests, but those seems to be about $300 for the cheapest models. An Iomega Ditto seems to be about the right price, and I have heard good things about it. Unfortunately I've also heard that it can't be used with Linux yet. I did find one page with a guy that seemed to have nearly everything nailed down, and the page was marked April. Has any more progress been made? Or is there another tape drive that is compatible and about the same price? I suppose that if the Ditto still isn't compatible, but people believe it will be in something like 3 months, then that'd be fine, too. It'll be a little ways before most of my stuff gets transferred to Linux... Thanks everyone! Shawn [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.the-spa.com/shawn.fumo/ -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: SB AWE 64 versus Soft. Syns. for making midi... Also, m
I figure that maybe I can spend the money on a midi-compatable keyboard instead. Anyone with exp. on using one of those under Linux? I saw a keyboard for about $170 at Electronic Boutique, which was basically one devoted to Midi, without any samples built in. That seems to be the cheapest I can find which lets you connect it to a computer? If you want to be really cool, buy a keyboard with weighted keys (feeling like a piano). Takes about $1000 :(. Seek a Keyboard with big keys (not the baby ones), and with touch sensitive keys. A pedal is nice, as are modulation and pitch bend function. You don't need any samples or demo songs (burb), but a midi connection. Good keyboards have midi anyway. When I talked to my local dealer (which apparently is the only way Roland sells things?) they said $1500 for weighted key model. Of course it had tons of sounds and other functions (many of which I wouldn't really know how to do in software). Can you even get weighted keys without all this extra stuff? What model was it you saw that went for only $1000? It seems the like to reserve this feature for their expensive models, which I think at this point is a remarkably bad strategy. Mayby it's time for a new manufacturer to enter the scene. The Roland PC-200 mkII is a pretty good MIDI keyboard for use with computers. It has bend/modulate, velocity sensitive keys, a connection for a pedal, and some other functions. The bad thing is it's keys are compact and not weighted. If you arn't a pianist, spending ~$800 more for full size weighted keys might not be worth it. Yeah, this I agree with this. Big and weighted keys are nice, but I don't think it is nescessary for most people. Actually, if you are used to typing a lot, non-weighted has a somewhat similar feel to a computer keyboard, IMHO. BTW, the $170 keyboard had bend/modulate, pitch controls, and some other things on it. Not sure about a pedal port. I think it even had some things like reverb control on it. And if you get a Software Synthesizer which has a driver that directs midi calls to it, (For win95 anyways. Not sure exactly how it works with Linux), then you should be able to do things like play the keyboard in realtime, and play tracks in a sequencer. That is with a keyboard with no sound of its own, and a non-wavetable soundcard. Shawn [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.the-spa.com/shawn.fumo/ -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
SB AWE 64 versus Soft. Syns. for making midi... Also, midi keybo
Hello everyone... Recently I have gotten interested in making my own midi music, after stumbling across some software synthesizers for Win95: WinGroove and Yamaha Soft Synthesizer. Was a mind-blowing difference in sound compared to my lowly SB16... hehe. Of course, they both had time limits and have since died on me. I'd like to try some more serious and/or Linux stuff, and was curious on some opinions for things. First of all, I noticed that the Sound Blaster AWE 64 is out, and is only about $100 in most stores. Does anyone know if this works alright under Linux/Debian yet? I have noticed there are a couple of soft. syns. available for Linux, including KMidi, TiMidity, etc. Has anyone been able to compare the quality of these to the AWE64? I know that, in general, a card is a better solution. It'll carry the sound quality over to games, and also relieve the processor. But, I don't care too much about games right now, and would be pretty much shutting down any other big processes when converting the music. I have a 100mhz and 40 megs of Ram I figure that maybe I can spend the money on a midi-compatable keyboard instead. Anyone with exp. on using one of those under Linux? I saw a keyboard for about $170 at Electronic Boutique, which was basically one devoted to Midi, without any samples built in. That seems to be the cheapest I can find which lets you connect it to a computer? Also, I wouldn't be able to afford the AWE64 Gold card, so I'd be limited to 512k of sound ram unless I bought add-ons. I should be able to add as many custom samples as I need onto the hard drive with a soft. syn, right? Well, thanks in advance, everyone. Sorry for all these newbie-ish questions, but I am sort of out of my element when it comes to this sound stuff, and been too busy lately to be able to look around as much as I'd like to. Shawn P.S. Of course if my $$$ keeps going the way it seems to be (down the drain) these questions may be moot..hehe. I fear I'll have to use a sequencer without a keyboard and a soft. syn. without a sound card. But the scary thing, is that it might actually work! ;) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.the-spa.com/shawn.fumo/ -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
K Desktop Environment
Hello everyone... I was just looking at KDE's website (http://www.kde.org), and was very impressed with some of the things I saw. I know it is still in alpha, but does anyone have experiance with how stable it is on Debian? I also saw that it is availible in deb package form... For anyone that hasn't heard of it yet, it is a windows manager + other components which run on top of X and the QT graphics toolkit. From what I could see, the current applications seem to be of high quality, and looks like it has a lot of promise... Shawn [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.the-spa.com/shawn.fumo/ -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: Linux for sale
Absolutely. Linux also needs marketing, marketing, and more marketing. I can only think of one business need that Linux based systems don't support - OCR. Everything else is available. [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: In terms of marketing, I went into two computer superstores the other day. Lo and behold, I found LINUX for sale in both chains. In a MS dominated sales enviroment, I thought I'd never see Linux available. Anyhow, one chain offered Red Hat Linux; the other offered Professional Linux. The Professional package (Walnut Creek) included Debian, Red Hat, and Slackware distributions. For curiosity, what were the names of these two superstores? I don't think I have seen Linux being sold in any stores here... (Mass.) Linux seems to be getting very strong in the book area, however. In places like Barnes and Nobel, seem to be nearly as many Linux books as those dedicated to Unix in general. Since many include distributions on CDs, still probably one of the main ways for people not in the know to get Linux... Shawn [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.the-spa.com/shawn.fumo/ -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: confusion over tcl/tk packages
Michael, I give up. What's the difference between tk4.2_4.2p2-6.deb and tk42_4.2p2-6.deb Well the package names usually go by: Name_Version-DebianPackageVersion So they are _probably_ the same thing. It is just that they included the version in package name, and listed it two different ways. On my 1.3.1 CD, all the tcl and tk stuff is listed the second way, so it might be a mistake on the ftp site. tk4.2_4.2p2-6.deb and tcl76_7.6p2-6.deb. Well, tcl is a general scripting language, while tk is a toolkit that allows tcl scripts to have a graphical (Motif-ish) look under X. You will need tcl to run tk. For more info on the versions and dependancies, don't forget to look in the PACKAGES file. A question of my own.. what does the /p1/p2/p3 stand for in the program version of tk or tcl Is that just a way of listing a minor revision under tk/tcl? Shawn [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.the-spa.com/shawn.fumo/ -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Incorporation and Version Numbering
Hello everyone. I don't want to start up this big thread again in a list it doesn't belong in, but I thought I should write something First, to Dave on the incorporation, I might not agree it is as bad a thing as you think, but I can see where you are coming from. The thing is, though, is that all of official developers seem to have been behind it, so the only way to change it now would be to have a big outcry from the users. Maybe this is why you started the thread in the user mailing list? Anyways, the responses to your outcries seemed to range from a few tentative agreements to a lot of total non-agreements. This is definately not what would be needed to undo the incorporation, now that it has already been done. So, I think it is safe to say that there isn't really anything that can be done about it now except for starting a whole new distribution... Some constructive critisms like saying that more information on the current structure of the organization should be put on website seemed good to me, and I believe Bruce agreed to do that. I think it is futile at this point to try to do anything about undoing the organization, though. So, while your arguments were interesting in the philisophical and legal standpoint, it is kind of moot now... Now, about the numbering scheme. The main critism from Dave/Paul seems to be not the x.x.x.x versus x.x.x release x, but on if it was catering to the cd companies, especially with that thing where changes were done to the current release without updating the number. Now Dave/Paul claim this is due to the CD-Rom stuff, while Bruce says it was a mistake since the guy usually overseeing the stuff is on vacation. But, personally, I don't think the motives matter at this point for those two updates. What really matters is what is going to happen from NOW ON. Bruce has been saying lately empatically that it was a mistake and won't happen again, so I don't think it can happen again without him getting in major trouble. Now Bruce, this is what I think you should do. Make a web page, maybe in the Latest News section of the site. Say on it that the last two things were a mistake, won't happen again etc., and say EXACTLY what is going to happen now. Yes stuff has been said in the list, but that is kind of fleeting, and can be changed around in memory. A stationary page says This is the official policy and it can't be strayed from without officially changing the policy. I'd recommend putting a lot of really clear-cut information. Like if what I heard about the major numbers being put on the cds, and then the release ones being downloaded from the net, then put that down. Also, what would be really nice is like a simulated timeline. Like what the numbers should be if Debian was released in the following 10 versions. The timeline would start with 1.3.1, then the official numbers for the 2 that were released without updating the version, and then a couple of made-up ones. That would make everything SO much clearer! Something like this: 1.3.1 -- Last one from the origional numbering scheme. 1.3 release 2-- Official # for the first messed up one. 1.3 release 3-- Official # for the second messed up one. 1.4 release 1-- Made up future one. 2.0 -- Made up future one. --- Even with reading everything that I did, I'm not sure if what I just put down is the way you are planing to do the numbering, or if I still have it wrong... (I, and seemingly others on the list, am especially unsure on the official #s of the two that were messed up). I don't mean to sound pushy that you need to do that Bruce, but I think it'd be a really good idea. That way you can just point to the page and say THAT is how it will be That way should also pacify some of the critics since if what is on the page looks good, and it is strayed from, then either there has been a mistake again, or they have reason to be angry since the policy has changed without saying anything. Just my $1.50 in change. =) Shawn [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.the-spa.com/shawn.fumo/ -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
