DragonFly BSD Digest

There’s an oldest file meme, first seen here, where you find the oldest files in your home directory and figure out where they came from.  The page I linked to uses a Linux-specific search, but some other pages have a scripted way to do it that should work on DragonFly.

I also found a link to a Unix History quiz from the same location, with some answers.  It’s a tough quiz.

Something I’ve been holding onto for a while and only got around to looking at tonight: A Git introduction at a Google TechTalk, via YouTube.

Anecdote: I saw Randal Schwartz, the speaker, at a Perl conference back in… 2000?  He was a decent speaker, and I went up after his talk to tell him how I was (successfully) using two programming practices he specifically deprecated during his talk.  Not that it was any better an idea because of that…

Want to look at old computer museums?  There’s a number of them to choose from.  (via)  While you’re at it: Apple ][ in a browser, now via Java (via).

In the ridiculously rare event that my old-school credentials are ever challenged, I will just point to my store-bought 5.25″ floppy of Castle Wolfenstein for the Apple ][, complete with typewritten label.

• SysV init must die (via) Someone mentioned runit in IRC the other day, I think...
• V7 Unix for x86 (also via)  Put on the bellbottoms.
• This blog has been running various sed and awk one-liner demonstrations, among other things; very useful tricks to remember.  Go through the history; there’s fun and useful stuff.

OnlineDirect has a new DragonFly mirror up in Bulgaria; it’s hosting the official ISOs at this point.

• This Coding Horror article talks about garbage collection and happens to mention an entertaining common BSD function in shutdown.c: die_you_gravy_sucking_pig_dog()
• The DCBSDCon Blog has some notes on the facilities – there will be wireless, and Jason Dixon will be giving his “BSD Is Dying” talk, too.
• An hour of Marshall Kirk McKusick’s FreeBSD kernel class (based on his book) is available now on Youtube.  (via)  Plus, more videos on other open source topics at the FOSSLC.  (via)
• This new column on GameSetWatch, The Amateur, titled “Why You Should Pay for Free“, gets into free software (like BSD) from a giveaway gaming point of view (not like BSD).  It’s an interesting take.
• ZangbandTK: Confessions of a Dungeon Hack is a new Rock, Paper, Shotgun article about playing a tiled roguelike, and quite enjoyable to read.  Check the comments for some interesting links.

For those of you thinking of installing DragonFly on a EeePC 901, Christopher Rawnsley tried, with some booting problems.  Simon ‘corecode’ Schubert has an easy fix, however.

For those going to DCBSDCon but not yet having rooms to sleep in, a cheaper Days Inn has been found a few metro stops away from the convention.

(Hotel costs kept me from making it to NYCBSDCon, for instance.)

Some extra reading: Hasso Tepper posted a link to an article talking about non-uniform memory access (NUMA).  Any article that can have diagrams labeled ‘hypercubes’ must be worthwhile.

Google’s planning a Summer of Code again for 2009, according to the still-running mailing lists from last year’s SoC event.  More will be announced at FOSDEM.

DragonFly may or may not be participating; it’s dependent on the application process same as every year.  If you’re a student, start thinking about what to do, now.

The DCBSDCon Blog announces the last 3 speakers at DCBSDCon:George Neville-Neil, one of the authors of The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System, Ken Caruso of SchmooCon Labs, and our very own Robert Luciani, talking about DragonFly and threading.