[MPlayer-users] How to pause mencoder

[D Richard Felker III]

On Fri, Dec 26, 2003 at 12:47:07PM +1000, Adam Nielsen wrote:
> > This is rather bad design and leads to crashes, but it looks "pretty" for
> > users.
> 
> Well, I don't see how it could lead to crashes, but if your main priority is 

Have you ever written an interrupt handler? Coded an operating system?
:)

> That's what I was thinking.  When there's heavy disk use, all the time is 
> spent in the kernel waiting for disk operations which leaves little time for 
> the X server to run.  It is a little annoying though, having 0% CPU usage but 
> still being unable to type into a console window simply because you're 
> copying a large file...

If this actually happens, your hd is misconfigured. Run hdparm to
enable dma, irq unmasking, etc.

> > As for seti/distributed.net/etc., you should think about whether you really
> > want to pay a higher electric bill and wear out your hardware quicker just
> > to help them compute something. "Spare" cycles aren't spare; when they're
> > not used, the cpu powers down and conserves a lot of energy.
> 
> Well, given that I leave my computers on 24/7 anyway, often running mencoder, 
> uploading/downloading, etc. I like to have something in the background to 
> keep the CPU in use when mencoder finishes.

My exact point was that "keeping the cpu in use" is a very bad idea.
Even if you don't care about wearing out the hardware, it will cost
you money on your electric bill, waste natural resources, and
contribute to pollution.

Rich