Will Backman interviews FreeBSD Developer Kip Macy about the new FreeBSD/sun4v (UltraSparc T1) port. Kip explains the details of the T1 architecture, how mature the port is and what issues (documentation, licenses, etc.) he experienced while doing the port.
Maybe it is just a personal aversion, but I really dislike audio-only news content.
Might I request that news items be required to at least have a transcript also available before be accepted and posted here?
The link tells us that there is an interview and that the blog owner’s car got hit.
I disagree. Sometimes audio bites is all you are going to be able to get since noone will bother to transcribe it. I’d rather have news, especially when it is so convenient (no registration, etc.) to acquire, than to be clueless with what is happenning. I personally don’t see anything wrong with linking to any type of media as long as it is relevant and free for everyone to access.
On an unrelated note, anyone know what is happenning with FreeBSD 6.2 RC2? I know they had some issues with Beta2 and Broadcom/Intel NICs, but I believe all this was resolved with 6.2 RC1. Now the RC2 release is two weeks late already, which is strange when you consider the whole release process is a few months late. I myself was looking very forward to this release.
It is rather funny – I almost have the impression that they forgot about that
I’ve been checking STABLE mailing list periodically, and there is no word of any ETA, which is fine, but I also don’t see any posts tagged as SHOWSTOPPERS. If you look only at the December archives, you wouldn’t even notice that there is any release planned 
)
Not a problem for me, I’m not in a hurry since 6.1 works fine. They corrected an entry in the release schedule that puts the release of RC2 to Nov. 27. Nothing happened since then. I guess they’ll release when they’ll be ready. Probably this year
Not all of us have great hearing, you know? If people are going to submit news, they should consider the audience might not all have the ability to listen. I know a lot of hard of hearing/deaf folks that follow this site, and it’s pretty rough on them. If you’re going to submit news, go the extra mile.
… audio bites is all you are going to be able to get since noone will bother to transcribe it.
Replace “noone” with “submitter” and there is no problem. If nothing else, people should contact the folks who did the interview, so they make transcriptions available online along with the audio bites. Being disabled shouldn’t mean you are excluded, especially when it’s something so trivial to do.
I will personally transcribe everything submitted to OSAlert via audio if you agree to transfer everything submitted via text to audio for the blind people. Oh yeah, also make the entire website friendly to blind people so that they can start using it. Yeah, I hear your lame excuse that you can’t because you have trouble hearing but would you have if you didn’t have trouble hearing? Well, in that case, why not translate everything submitted in English to Russian, French, German, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish for non-native English speakers?
Realistically, I don’t see where you are coming from. Why don’t you just ignore audio only articles and let people who are able to listen to them to enjoy them? How do you not being able to hear well justify you putting such a selfish burden on others? Do you know how much time it takes to submit a news story compared to transcribing a 20 minute audio interview? Do you think everyone in the world should burst their ear drums to somehow make “the world fair?”
I didn’t submit an article, it’s not my responsibility. Nor is it yours. Have you been abused by a disabled person? You are taking this awfully personally.
PS – I’m not hard of hearing, I specifically said I know folks who are and who frequent this site. I also suspect there is a much larger portion of people hard of hearing using OSAlert than there are those without sight. Obviously you can never cater to *everybody*, but it is reasonable to expect a transcription of an audio recording. That’s why it’s common practice on all media (subtitling/close captioning.)
Also, to respond to your question, yes I am quite aware it takes half a second to submit an article. That’s exactly WHY I think it would be fair to ask people submitting audio only links to transcribe them. If it’s not worth 20 minutes of your time, it probably isn’t worth *anyone*’s time. This isn’t digg, there is no user floating/burying of stories, it’s important that “good” news is posted here, not a spam-fest of trash.
To top it off, not only can disabled people not listen, people in environments where audio would be disruptive/not permitted are also missing out.
You have a serious underlying problem, especially with your “burden”, “burst their ear drums to somehow make the world fair”, etc comments. I suggest you go see a psychologist and get your issues sorted out instead of taking it out on a group of people who haven’t done anything to you (like you seem to think they have.) I’m done here, you “win”.
Edited 2006-12-08 01:48
Wow, what’s your beef with people who are hard of hearing?
“Do you think everyone in the world should burst their ear drums to somehow make “the world fair?””
You know, I thought NotParker had made some stupid comments but this takes the cake.
I will personally transcribe everything submitted to OSAlert via audio if you agree to transfer everything submitted via text to audio for the blind people. Oh yeah, also make the entire website friendly to blind people so that they can start using it.
Wow. That’s just a little hostile, and personally directed to a fellow OSAlert reader, don’t you think?
As for your proposal, might I suggest a “reader” app, instead. You know, there are lots of those out there for the vision impared.
Would it be nice to have transcripts of audio/video interviews? Of course. However, it would be rather presumptuous of me to expect others to do that.
I might have come off a little bit harsh but I think sometimes people need to be criticized to help them get past their selfishness. I personally appreciate all the hard work people put into making this website work and it will be nice if others do so too.
It is very easy to sit back and criticize problems. It is a whole lot harder to see something that is wrong and actually work hard to fix it all the while not complaining.
PS. Unless you are a trained professional, transcribing a 20 minute interview will take closer to six hours to do than 20 minutes.
Edited 2006-12-08 08:37
Wouldn’t it be nice if the OS News listing mentioned it was audio/video only, so people who aren’t set up/able to listen or watch would know to give it a pass?
Excluding interesting content just because a transcript is not available sounds like pretty weak reasoning: on the same basis, all the radios in the world should be shut down.
A much better proposal would be to include some tag (like [Audio]) at the end of the headline, so that people who are not interested in audio content can just skip it, without all the whining.
Those T1’s sure seem like a real bargain for the sizable bang you’ll get out of one, nice to see another os choice for them.