"slowdown" - sometimes very much more effective than nice/renice

[Dan Stromberg]

I wrote a program recently I'm calling "slowdown". It's intended for very
high I/O load situations - EG, during a system backup, a filesystem
transfer to another computer, when you're generating md5sums (or more
generally, cryptographic digests - EG, tripwire, samhain, &c) or similar
for all your system binaries, and so on.

The program works by using ptrace (linux) or /proc (solaris) to sleep for
a user-specified number of seconds and fractions of seconds, each time the
monitored process performs a file or socket data transfer.

http://dcs.nac.uci.edu/~strombrg/slowdown/

I've seen it change systems from next to unusable to quite comfortable.

I hope you find it useful. :)

[Wiseguy]

Dan Stromberg <stro...@dcs.nac.uci.edu> scribbled on the stall wall:
>
> http://dcs.nac.uci.edu/~strombrg/slowdown/

Dude!

do something about the white text on black background on your webpage.

It's fryin my eyeballs...Please use something easier on the eyes, o-tay?

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[Dan Espen]

no...@uber.usachoice.net (Wiseguy) writes:

> Dan Stromberg <stro...@dcs.nac.uci.edu> scribbled on the stall wall:
>>
>> http://dcs.nac.uci.edu/~strombrg/slowdown/
>
> Dude!
>
> do something about the white text on black background on your webpage.
>
> It's fryin my eyeballs...Please use something easier on the eyes, o-tay?

Looks fine to me.

[Hugh Coomes]

Very hard to read.

I have seen many complaints about web pages with white text on a black
background, but no complaints about black text on a white (or near
white) background. Why do you suppose this is?

[Dan Espen]

Hugh Coomes <hco...@insightbb.com> writes:

MSFT brainwashing?

Most users were not introduced to computers on an IBM 3270 terminal?

Terrorists know that white backgrounds use more electricity so
they have a campaign against black backgrounds?

Google turns up results with the same unsubstantiated
opinion about most users preferences,
but an ARS Technica poll had 34% for white on black,
15% black on white.

My opinion, monitor tuning might have something to do with
it, but it's largely personal preference.

[Casper H.S. Dik]

Hugh Coomes <hco...@insightbb.com> writes:

>Very hard to read.

>I have seen many complaints about web pages with white text on a black
>background, but no complaints about black text on a white (or near
>white) background. Why do you suppose this is?

The only reason people started using white on black in the computer
screens originally were technical limitations; both wear of the phosporos
as well as the inability to make crisp letters while having a completely
green background was horrible.

But modern screens being what they are, black on (off-)white is much
more like your paper. The eye has several problems lettering on
colered backgrounds, some to do with the relative refraction of light
waves (try reading red on blue, for one, the eye can't cope specifically
at greater distances); and matters of contrast.

Casper
--
Expressed in this posting are my opinions. They are in no way related
to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
be fiction rather than truth.

[yon...@yahoo.com]

Whenever I read these Web pages, I just press ^A (Select All in most
browsers).

BTW, many people prefer white text on black background. putty or DOS
console on a PC choose that as default. But if you do a test with the
same font face and color, you'll find that black text on white is
easier to see than white text on black. Check by standing at the same
distance from your screen. (In either case, gray color is always bad.)

Yong Huang

[Hugh Coomes]

Casper H.S. Dik wrote:
> Hugh Coomes <hco...@insightbb.com> writes:
>
>
>>Very hard to read.
>
>
>>I have seen many complaints about web pages with white text on a black
>>background, but no complaints about black text on a white (or near
>>white) background. Why do you suppose this is?
>
>
> The only reason people started using white on black in the computer
> screens originally were technical limitations; both wear of the phosporos
> as well as the inability to make crisp letters while having a completely
> green background was horrible.
>
> But modern screens being what they are, black on (off-)white is much
> more like your paper. The eye has several problems lettering on
> colered backgrounds, some to do with the relative refraction of light
> waves (try reading red on blue, for one, the eye can't cope specifically
> at greater distances); and matters of contrast.
>
> Casper

Thanks for the response. This also helps explain why ink on parchment
was such a technological improvement over clay tablets. Too bad so many
web site developers have gone back to the modern equivalent of clay
tablets.

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Hugh Coomes wrote:

My browser (Netscape V7.2) renders this page as black text on a white
background!