More than one year later, I finally add an entry to this diary. I am back to the Linux kernel world and I am very glad about that. I will manage to have time to try to solve some challenges in this world and I am already working on some new ideas. So far, the port of compressed caching to Linux 2.6 is not on the top of my list because I want to start working on some tasks that won't take that much of my time. Then, when I notice I will have enough time and knowledge of Linux 2.6, I will get back to compressed caching.

Today I subscribed to Linux kernel and Linux-MM mailing lists, downloaded 2.6.8 and already read a paper about the new idea I mentioned above. Now it is time to read the code and understand some recent discussions I read in the mailing list archives.

The paper I published last year about compressed caching is avaliable on my site.

Skype

Today I tested Skype in Linux and it worked perfectly. I was amazed with its sound quality and with the sound quality from a mic that came with a Sound Blaster Live! card that I bought in Canada.

GnomeMeeting

Check the text from the GnomeMeeting site about Skype:

"The main problem is not that the program is not Open Source, the problem is that Skype is locking users into a proprietary protocol. Would you imagine the Internet with a proprietary equivalent to the HTTP protocol that only a given client could browse? That's what happens with Skype. Skype also has a great marketing force, some people even think that Skype has a superior audio quality. How could Skype have a superior quality when it is using the same codec (iLBC) than software like GnomeMeeting while introducing more latency by making calls go through a 3rd party? The only real advantage of Skype is that it is easily going through any type of NAT, using a 3rd user to proxy the call. But the day when the Linux kernel NAT will natively support H.323 or SIP, Skype will have lost its only advantage... Skype is hype..."

This text was mentioned by my friend Livio.