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Slashdot COMDEX Pregame Show 44

Posted by CmdrTaco from the games-people-play dept.
So as many of you know, COMDEX is in vegas next week, and for the first time, I'm actually going. Andover.Net will have a booth in the Linux Pavilion, and Hemos, CowboyNeal, Scoop, and myself will be consuming oxygen there for most of next week. So if you're going, stop in and say hi. We're going to be having a little contest (a Linux install race) and the winners will get fabulous prizes. Its going to be BYOD (Bring your own distribution) so we'll see who comes out on top. We'll have machines for people to get their news fix. We're gonna try to broadcast Geeks in Space segments live. And if any open source developers want to run BOF sessions or something about their projects, contact Josh and try to schedule some time (this is gonna be real informal). Also, if any of the distributions wanna have a rep play in the install contest, let him know too (I've already got a Sucke- I mean Vict- I mean Volunteer from Debian: Hi Shaleh..)
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Slashdot COMDEX Pregame Show More

Slashdot COMDEX Pregame Show

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  • if I boot with tomsrtbt? :)

    --
    Jeremy Katz
  • Could you move the whole /. operation down here, too? It'd be nice to get to slashdot in less than 13 hops. If it's not too much trouble. :)
  • is there going to be free beer?
  • Get an UP2000-based box for that install race. They are not only way cool machines with two of those new Alphas @ 667 MHz, but we also had two SuSE guys over, trying to figure out how to install... And look at the faces of all those bringing their Intel-only distros :-)

  • Um, (Score:1)

    by Foogle ( 35117 )
    BYOD? Why not just use one of those 1.44 mb floppy Linux distros like SmalLinux?

    -----------

    "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

  • that's the first thing i thought of...

    i don't think it counts if you just boot up from a floppy, that seems unfair.

    but there's nothing saying you can't boot from a floppy, then do a really minimal install by hand onto the hard disk. i'd give it a shot if i was going to be there...

    -garrett
  • Ok everybody! There's some REALLY NEAT STUFF at the Intel booth! Everyone go to the Intel booth! (Watch as 15,000 people surge to the Intel Booth, causing it to be trampled into the ground.)

    Ok Everybody! There's someone spreading FUD in the Ziff Davis booth! Everyone go to the Ziff Davis Booth! (Watch as 15,000 people surge to the Ziff Davis booth, causing it to be trampled into the ground.)

    Repeat for the entire week.

    Hey, it could make Comdex fun again!

  • well.. that would be nice.. slashdot at Cebit. or another place.. preferably somewhere in the netherlands. I'll even try and get you to pronounce Grolsch right.. just stay away from that ditchwater named heineken...

    //rdj
  • Ok everybody! There's some REALLY NEAT STUFF at the Intel booth! Everyone go to the Intel booth! (Watch as 15,000 people surge to the Intel Booth, causing it to be trampled into the ground.)
    Ok Everybody! There's someone spreading FUD in the Ziff Davis booth! Everyone go to the Ziff Davis Booth! (Watch as 15,000 people surge to the Ziff Davis booth, causing it to be trampled into the ground.)

    Repeat for the entire week.

    Hey, it could make Comdex fun again!



    Woohoo! Slashdot the booths! Hehehe, I can just picture someone asking
    'What happened to the Transmeta booth?'
    'They got slashdotted.'
    'What do you mean slashdotted? They are a booth!'
    'Well, that giant crowd of guys in slashdot t-shirts charged over and trampled the booth seconds after they announced that specs on their processor were available.'


    Kintanon
  • Comdex like it's parent company, Zd , sucks. When is Zd ever going to have a major show for Opensource/Linux /Free BSD/et al. Answer: Never Oh they may have a conference,here and there but nothing on a large scale .I spent 2 years at Zd as a emplyee.Enjoy your installation contest,but I would just rather stay away from ZD.

  • I love the Linux install race, but my questions are:

    1. What qualifies as a Linux install?
    2. Will there be advance notice of what the hardware is?
    3. and most importantly, can you get Andover to buy everybody copious quantities of quality beer?

    See ya guys there!

  • They've gone to comdex for as long as they've been able to afford it. Perhaps you could use a little caffine, to assist your memory?
  • Wow, Slashdot at Comdex? Cool! I think I will harrass CmdrTaco and Hemos a bit, asking them to sign my Red Hat Linux 6.1 box... :) Anyway, an install contest sounds fun.
  • Now I know we shouldn't dignify flamebait with responeses, but...

    yeah...the evil bastards are so subtle with their corporate tool that it looks EXACTLY THE SAME as before the take over. Sigh...

    Dana
  • I was thinking of Linux-FT: a defunct UK distribution. Instead of copying packages to the hdd, it used copycache. The hdd essentially became a cache for the CD. All it copies to the hdd during the install is a minimal base system and symlinks to the CD for all the apps. A demon then replaces the links with the files themselves when they are referenced. If the hard disk becomes too full, the oldest files are converted back to links.

    This leads to a very quick install of a very comprehensive system, and was useful when hdds were smaller than CDs. Of course, it clogs up your CD drive. And unfortunately, I suspect the distro is now too out of date to handle a modern machine.
  • Lets make it even more realistic by having everyone at the /. booth stop responding several times a day.
    "Hey Rob, can I get an autograph?. Rob. ROB!"
    "Give up, man, he slashdotted himself again."
    --
  • Would it be possible to get debian to do a completely unsupervised install if you had a file with what packages you'd like to install and what the parameters are?

    That would be... Neat :-)

    ---

  • Get up early (or stay up late) for the 5K Run [viagrafix.com] at the Convention Center, 6:30 am, Wednesday. http://www.viagrafix.com/shows/nevada/comdex/5krun Prizes afterwards. Beer at /.?
  • Can people less than 18 years of age go? My parents said they would fly me to a show like that and I am considering this one.
  • comdex has been annoyingly worthless for years. Give 'em an enema, guys!
  • i don't believe they are allowing minors into the show. it's possible they've changed their policy since the article about the teenaged executive which appeared here a few weeks ago, but the last i'd heard, they made a 'one time' exception for this fellow.

    you might check back through the archives.

  • For anyone doing the distribution thing, install trinux or the LINUX Router Project. Both are floppy disk distributions...
  • They're working on it.

    There are a couple of ways of doing it. One is apt-get install [list of packages], but this asks questions for each package. When debconf is more developed it will be able to answer the questions for you.

  • Re:>18? (Score:1)

    by BRTB ( 30272 )
    I actually got into Comdex Spring @ Atlanta when I was 9 or 10... took a LOT of arguing between my dad and the officials, but when I started talking about 'specific products I was going to be evaluating,' they gave me a funny look and a special badge and walked me down the escalator onto the convention floor.

    Pays to be able to spew out senseless technobabble... =]
  • LOL!

    "The average computer guy understands probability alot better than he does women."

    Can I swipe this for a .sig?
  • GNU/Linux isn't about free beer, it's about free speech!

    (Except for the freedom to say Linux without prefixing those three little inpronouncible letters.)

    Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity

  • mosch's #1 question was:

    1.What qualifies as a Linux install?

    This is important. There seem to be quite a few linux-on-a-floppy distributions. I have not used any of them, but I would imagine that at least a few are similar in intent to the QNX demo where there is a small QNX system, dialer, broswer all on one floppy.

    So would it count to slip one in the floppy drive, toggle the power switch, and say "done!"? That might sound finegally / like cheating (since the contestant wouldn't have "really" installed Linux on the computer as in put it on the hard drive), but it would create a system that was re-bootable into the GNU/Linux system as often as desired, since it's on the floppy. Just like more traditional Linux system which rely on a boot floppy.

    (I'm sure someone will correct my if I'm relying on false assumptions ...)

    So, further, What will the exact rules be?

    Will each competitor have to cWill the competitor have to connect to an ethernet network? Demonstrate the compilation of a kernel? start a game of nethack?

    I ask not as a potential competitor, but because I find the design of contests / competitions an interesting topic to me as a professional picker of nits.

    I certainly hope the results will become a feature here on /.! (Not just the results, of course, but the dynamics of the contest; who wins *offically,* who wins trickily, what clever hacks were used to create a fast install, which mainstream distribution goes on quickest in a reasonable / normal total install, which distribution's installer ...

    This is an important issue (ease-of-install) for any operating system, and one in which Linux still has percieved weaknesses. (I disagree with this perception, I'm just saying it's there.)

    This should be a good read!

    timothy


  • "The average computer guy understands probability alot better than he does women."

    I'm so glad someone out there appreciates this line as much as I did when I heard it. As chance would have it, I heard this line shortly after finishing my second course in probability.

    Swipe away!
  • Not legally they can't. You either have to have special permission, or else look like your over 18 (they don't actually check your age according to my dad). Or else you're a child star actor. I unfortuantly, will not be going because of the over 18 thing, and because I have school (the main reason I'm not going (stupid semester test exemption policy, argh)). So I'm begging my Microsoft drone dad to stop by some of the Linux booths and pick me up some distros and shirts/buttons/stickers etc. I can't wait till I'm 18.
  • Linuxfund.org [linuxfund.org] is throwing a party Wednesday November 17 at COMDEX (Zone C-8) for all interested. Drop by the linuxfund booth (624E, just around the corner from Andover) for details.

  • If you were listening to the first 45 seconds of the last Geeks in Space [thesync.com] episode, you would know the ZD is hosting Linux Business Expo [zdevents.com] to run along with COMDEX. You even get to hear Linus's COMDEX keynote if you go to the Expo.

    The Expo will have keynotes from Red Hat, Corel, and Caldera execs, plus a Linux learning center where suits can find out about Linux. VA Linux Systems is even sponsoring an "email garden".
  • I don't see myself as capable of going to LV for Comdex (I'm too busy in college in New York), but what can I do for fun in LV if I was?

    The only thing I can see myself doing in LV is to see Chicago: The Musical [chicagothemusical.com] in the Mandalay Bay hotel, being that I did the same a few times in Broadway.

    If anybody's going to Mandalay Bay during their trip to Comdex in LV (the hotel is 4.5 miles away from the Las Vegas Convention Center), can somebody tell actress Charlotte D'Amboise (from that Chicago show) that I (Kit Lo, a geek from Broadway who asked about her father) said hello?

    If I were to bring my computer along (a self-assembled Pentium II/333 OC'd to 400MHz), I guess I can find out how can I make my Linux experience easier... and play Q3Test or something...

    Besides, I am underage so I can't drink or gamble and stuff (I'm 19).
  • We smuggled in our 15 year old tech last time we went to the Chicago show. No one even asked. And he looked 12. Of course he was flanked by 2 30-somethings and wearing a "Channel Professional" badge, too.

    This will be the first Vegas show I've missed in the last 3. I'll sit in my hotel room and cry in my Michelob over missing Linus' keynote... and watch for Transmeta's new site on my laptop....
  • Excellent!!!!! When this happens, debian will be the admin's install of choice... maybe even simple enought for end users!

    yummeeeeeee :-)

    ---

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