Gabriel Sechan wrote:
> >From: "Andrew P. Lentvorski, Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >On May 18, 2005, at 1:53 PM, Gabriel Sechan wrote:
> >
> >>I actually managed one at work the other day. I still blame X at least
> >>partially. I kicked the mouse cord out and lost all IO from the
> >>keyboard and mouse (even after replugging). Unfortunately it wouldn't
> >>respond to ssh either. I was forced to hard reboot.
> >
> >Don't blame X--that's a problem with the PS/2 keyboard/mouse electrical
> >interface specification. Using USB keyboards and mice solves this
> >problem.
>
> Windows can handle the situation and recover.
Same system?
> I really don't like USB mice. Three reasons- first its overkill. Second,
> the USB protocol takes extra processor cycles.
I have not looked too deeply into the spec, but I am certain that the
USB protocl is not far worse than say the PS2 protocol.
> Third, if the USB chip fries on the motherboard, can you say single
> point of failure?
Bad choice., Most motherboards that have USB on them have two USB
systems. USB0 and USB1. So if the USB chip dies, you plug into the next
one.
Even if this is not the case, this is a very bad example. Do you have
any idea how many single points of failure a typical computer has? Let's
do a quick count: power cord. power supply. powersuppy fan. cpu. cpu
fan. north bridge. south bridge. clock. pci bus. agp bus. I think you
get the idea. Basiclly, open up the case and point to anything. Chances
are, it is a single point of failure. Even that lonely capacitor that is
not doing much of anything. Short it out and see how long things are
stable.
Don't berate a USB mouse for being a single point of failure, until you
tackle some of these others. Besides, a Linux system with a decent
window manager is still quite useful without a mouse, even in GUI
mode[1], but few[2] computers are useful with a failed north bridge.
-john
[1] I recently instaled Ubuntu and configured a Belkin wireless router
on a computer with no working mouse. I could not use lynx as 1) lynx
was not part of the Ubuntu install, and 2) the router relied on
javascript tricks, which prevented me from using lynx once I had
downloaded it.
Firefox was useful enough, even if somewhat of a pain. I would not
try to use The Gimp on such a system, though.
[2] My unscientific estimate would put that total at zero.
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