Our new house is built with all kinds of radio-blocking "stuff." The foil Tekshield in the roof decking, radiant barrier insulation on the exterior walls, Low-E3 windows, etc. all block various forms of electromagnetic energy. WiFi is definitely not affected much - I can connect with ease a couple houses away. Cell phone signals on the other hand, are pretty soundly attenuated. I've had to get an AT&T MicroCell to assure solid coverage. 3-4 bars outside translate to 1 bar inside in the more common parts of the house.
He gets plenty of time with the 'tech, we're not cruel.:) Oddly enough, I'm his favorite Xbox buddy. If I won't go up and play, he quickly loses interest. Strange, I know. His time isn't limited by strict minute boundaries in most cases - bedtime is firm on weeknights, and he plans accordingly. Otherwise it's a simple "hey you've been in here a while, why not head outside and see what the other kids are doing?" We don't get much protest, and shortly after he's bounding down the stairs and out the door.
I'm also a big proponent of "figure it out." This weekend he mentioned his laptop didn't work, to which I simply asked "what's wrong with it?" It took a few iterations of "I don't know," to him reading out error messages, me urging him to Google what they meant (on his phone!), and a few trips up and down the stairs, but he finally researched enough to figure out the drive had failed (DRDY error, bad block counts were skyrocketing). That earned him lots of praise and a new laptop to replace his old one.
I know, it really is easy to "forget" your kids are over-doing something when they're NOT driving you nuts.:) But I digress, as parents, we need to set limits on our kids. Our 12 year old is, like most, always wanting to either be on the 'net on his laptop, on his cell phone texting whoever, watching TV, or playing the Xbox. Guess what - we limit his time with each, and send his butt OUTSIDE! The worst thing we can do as parents is to let them grow up without exploring the world around them, and that includes nature.
I can't speak for all, but here's what my iPad is used for:
SSH/RDP/VNC into machines while I am away from my desk. You'd be surprised how well the on-screen keyboard and the touch mouse actually works. I, for years, tried to do this from whatever phone I carried, and often ended up walking all the way back to my desk. With a tablet, I don't have to and I honestly don't get frustrated - I can accomplish the task quickly and easily. Granted, you wouldn't want to log into your Windows terminal services box and start whipping up a new C# app from your iPad, but it's great for doing things like tweaking running services and such without having to lug around a laptop.
Web browsing. When I get home, I don't want to sit with a laptop or sit in my office on my desktop - but there's times I do like to kick back and waste time on the web while the wife watches some silly TV show. I love the "instant" nature - no extended awakening from sleep mode, no boot up, etc. Pick it up, surf, put it down.
Note taking. For many this wouldn't work, but for me it does. It depends on HOW you take notes, I suppose. My notes consist of short lines of text, no diagrams or anything like that, so tapping them into a tablet is just as easy as jotting them down in the 6"x9" spiral pad I used to carry.
Email. Email on an iPad is pretty darned smooth, especially for multiple accounts with OS4. I bounce between my phone and the iPad a lot, really just depends on which device is in my hand.
Pandora - sure, I could do the same thing on my desktop, but I tend to use the Pandora app on the iPad a lot more. Maybe I'm a little OCD about keeping stuff open on the desktop other than what I'm actively working with though.
Book reading. I'm not a reader, and the books I have (in the Kindle app) are all programming related and reference material. But it does get used for book reading a fair amount.
Quick on-the-run SQL queries. We use this one in meetings a lot. We'll be discussing something, and invariably a question will come up about something that can only be answered by looking at our data. The iPad gives me the instant ability to do so, again without having to be prepared with a ready-to-go laptop. Tap, slide, tap, pick the table, pick the filter criteria (where clause), and voila.
Then of course, there's the toddler aspect. As in, when I get home from work, my nearly 1-1/2 year old immediately begins asking for the iPad (by name, mind you). I've loaded up a handful of educational games, and it has helped us dramatically increase her skill set. Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, her hand eye coordination is impressive, her thinking skills (do this, then that, then that, to complete the task) have blown me away, in good part due to the interactiveness of the device. With a computer, using the mouse still hasn't quite clicked - but directly manipulating things with her finger immediately made sense to her. She wants, nay she demands, to spend her 30 minute windows of opportunity with the device. Her mother and I don't coach her with it either, we'll put the apps on and let her explore - and I'm constantly amazed with the problem solving skills of such a young mind. That alone was worth the cost to me. Between the conventional parent-child interactive learning, and the hands on figure-it-out learning on the iPad, something tells me she'll be well prepared for school in a few years.
Paranoid much, or is this anti-fanboyism of a higher caliber? Apple couldn't control the 'net any more than Microsoft or any other large could, which is to say... they really can't.
Sure, there can be bandwidth shaping terms and conditions thrown around, there can be prioritization of packets, and all the other things that have been happening on various network segments since the "good old days." I guess it's just more fun to demonize large corporations for taking part in doing business with whatever tools are available to them. Apple, Microsoft, etc. don't own the backbone. Nobody (singly) owns the backbone. Google is moving towards putting a LOT of fiber in the ground, so if you were to throw conspiracy theories around don't you think Mountain View would be more "dangerous" than Cupertino? That's not to say I believe Google is doing anything nefarious, because ultimately they're doing what is in their power to further their own brand, on their own dime. The 'net will operate with or without them - that's the beauty of it. Don't want to use Google's glass? Then don't establish a peering relationship with 'em. Simple.
I have a T-mobile G1, ordered it the first moment I was able. I've also put hands on nearly every other Android phone I could, including the Droid, Nexus One, etc.
While the latest iterations are indeed quite zippy, nobody can say the UI is as consistently smooth as even an iPhone 2G. It is like playing a video game on a GeForce 8400 GS vs. a GeForce 9800 GT - they both render the same stuff, and they both move around the same, but the frame rate is obviously faster on one of them. The latency between a command and its response is also faster on iPhone OS devices, and more consistently faster. Even if that is only a perception because of instantly performing an animation, it makes the device "feel" nicer. Scrolling in the browser is another example - its just smoother on the iPhone. There's plenty of video comparisons, but put 'em both in your hand and it really becomes obvious. It isn't something that makes the Nexus One or Droid or others "bad" phone, because they're VERY good phones, but there's perceptual things about the iPhone OS devices that strongly contribute to their popularity.
I haven't started developing for the iPad, although after being a user for the past 2 months I honestly think it's an outstanding platform to focus attention on.
The UI is buttery smooth. This is one thing EVERY other device I've put hands on doesn't even come close to getting right. Android is wonderful, and I love it - but the UI just isn't as fluid and responsive. This may not change how the device works but it certainly changes how you perceive the device is working. I see it every time someone uses an Android phone (myself included): click, click again because it didn't give you immediate feedback or response. Turn the device sideways, wait a couple seconds, flip it back and forth a couple times because the display didn't rotate. Things like that are minor in 'tech, but huge in usability.
The tougher process of getting an app INTO the iTunes app store I honestly think is helping weed out the lower grade fluff we find in the Android market. How many times have you gone looking through apps, found something that looked pretty good, installed it, and it was crap? How many reviews on the Android Market read something like this: Force closes, one star!. It's the same problem with all the various free Windows software that's everywhere on the net. You have more choice, but you have more choices of crap. If people are going to spend the time, money, and effort to get an app into Apple's store, they're more likely to make sure it's something that's worth being there. They want to get paid, after all.
Getting back to end-users, of which I've been exclusively since this thing launched -- it really is awesome. I carry it instead of a laptop nearly every time I would have taken my laptop. I carry it now when I wouldn't have carried anything before, simply because I can. Then again, if I had an iPhone I'd probably leave it home more often. Regardless, the beauty is being able to do real work on it (email, web-based enterprise apps, etc.) without having to take anything else with me. No power cord, no problem - I get a full day PLUS worth of power out of the battery. Battery life + 3G + usable screen size (1024x768 means my work webapps fit perfectly) + a very usable on-screen keyboard = happy camper.
This is how we handle errors and such on our internal software -- the user is prevented from continuing if "something" must be done to solve the issue. These are rare, because in many cases we can programmatically figure out what's wrong and dynamically prompt for replacement values and such. But in those instances where continuing would leave data in a "dangerous" state, we halt the user's progress, and they either get the opportunity to fix or they're instructed to get someone who can. If they wish, they can back out and redo the whole transaction.
We've found this works quite well - in most of the cases the users may not know exactly what they did that generated the error, but they appreciate being able to self-manage the problem without having to run to our dep't. for resolution.
That is very scary, and an obvious engineering flaw IMHO.
I'm an American car buff, and I know GM's stuff the best. General Motors' engine management systems are quite intelligent. They use either a two or three sensor pedal assembly. The two sensor models have two 0-5V throttle position sensors -- but UNLIKE TOYOTA they track opposite each other. One goes 0-5, while the other is going 5-0. The three sensor models do the same, but with one two different voltage levels on the redundant circuits. If the system detects an out-of-range error or other problem, the PCM tries to determine if it can safely control the throttle while failing into a "Reduced engine power" mode - just in case. If the PCM determines it is unsafe to drive the car (i.e. commanded throttle and actual throttle don't correlate), it will command the engine to idle or in severe cases where it can't return to idle rpm, it will switch off the engine entirely.
This is the way it has been since the beginning with GM.
If you read the blog post it has some valid points about how it works:
1. Voluntary patch
2. When non-genuine copies deteced, OS functionality is NOT reduced
3. Yes, Microsoft does decided to notify/annoy you that you're not using genuine software which is a good thing because most people don't know they are.
4. The goal is reduce the number of Windows installations using pirated copies many of which include malicious code.
5. No personally identifiable information is transmitted. Details on this can be found in ANY of our privacy policies which are standard across all Microsoft products.
6. It does not apply to any enterprise installations where Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is used. @FranTaylor, lots of people use Windows on a server...what planet are you one?:)
The slashdot headline is a little too Orwellian considering the body of the blog post. Looking forward to all the responses...I think.
#1. Voluntary, meaning automatically installed if the user has auto-updates turned on, yes? That isn't really voluntary with respect to why folks want auto updates turned on (TRUE security patches, and feature updates).
#3 and #4. Not falling for that song and dance. If it were true, you could simply click a button that says "no, I know with 100% certainty my copy is legitimately and legally licensed" and that would be it. But we all know that isn't the case, don't we...
Maybe I'm bitter, but I just had to replace my motherboard, and my retail Vista Business install is now calling me a criminal, despite having the nifty plastic box and DVD key sitting right here on my desk.
I hear ya. I have partially succeeded over the years in getting myself to use a more point-and-click style editor, but I keep falling back to vim. Old habits die hard, and it often seems easier to just pull off a:%s/something/else/g than Ctrl+H, [something], tab, [else] tab, Alt+A, Enter, Escape.
I've worked for several types of firms, and each has their own salary schedules and what not -- but the money ultimately comes based on two things:
How good you are
How well you negotiate
If you can't negotiate, your salary will always be low. I believe this is also the reason for the stereotype of women being paid less than men. I've seen it time and time again, the gals just won't fight as hard nor demand the top dollar from their bosses. The same is true with younger folks. I was no different, and I was severely underpaid for many years.
That is simple sounding process, indeed. But i bet it took you more than just 3 minutes for the download alone, let alone creating a bunch of DBs, users etc.
Your fingers can type only finitely fast, and your hand can move the mouse only finitely fast, and your internet connection finite bandwidth, and your macbook is only finitely fast.
The reboot alone most likely took way more than the 3minutes.
Either all of the above, or i would like to know where to get the timebubble device you are using aswell.
Comparison CentOS, no gui installation:
Ahh, an unbeliever;) No, my Mac reboots quite faster than three minutes. I got rid of my 1200bps modem back in 1992. I can type 140wpm. I can click with the best of 'em.
But, who knows -- perhaps its more difficult in Linux then!! Lets test that theory, using an Ubuntu 9.10 virtual machine I happen to have on my Mac:
brian@ubuntu:~$ time sudo apt-get install postgresql-8.4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
Suggested packages:
oidentd ident-server postgresql-doc-8.4
The following NEW packages will be installed:
postgresql-8.4 postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4,957kB of archives.
After this operation, 18.2MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-client-common 101 [49.8kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-client-8.4 8.4.1-1 [811kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-common 101 [85.6kB]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-8.4 8.4.1-1 [4,010kB]
Fetched 4,957kB in 6s (764kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-client-common.
(Reading database... 125720 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking postgresql-client-common (from.../postgresql-client-common_101_all.deb)...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-client-8.4.
Unpacking postgresql-client-8.4 (from.../postgresql-client-8.4_8.4.1-1_i386.deb)...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-common.
Unpacking postgresql-common (from.../postgresql-common_101_all.deb)...
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-8.4.
Unpacking postgresql-8.4 (from.../postgresql-8.4_8.4.1-1_i386.deb)...
Processing triggers for man-db...
Processing triggers for ureadahead...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Setting up postgresql-client-common (101)...
Setting up postgresql-client-8.4 (8.4.1-1)...
update-alternatives: using/usr/share/postgresql/8.4/man/man1/psql.1.gz to provide/usr/share/man/man1/psql.1.gz (psql.1.gz) in auto mode.
Setting up postgresql-common (101)...
Adding user postgres to group ssl-cert
Building PostgreSQL dictionaries from installed myspell/hunspell packages...
en_au
en_gb
en_us
en_za
Setting up postgresql-8.4 (8.4.1-1)...
Creating new cluster (configuration:/etc/postgresql/8.4/main, data:/var/lib/postgresql/8.4/main)...
Moving configuration file /
For legacy apps, why bother recoding at all? Legacy usually means "we're done with it, we deploy with a set/tested configuration with no new development scheduled." What prevents us from continuing to use existing MySQL v3.x through v5.x deployments into any foreseeable future? Nothing I can think of, so the legacy apps should be safe from a licensing/ownership standpoint.
For new/continuing development on existing apps, should the MySQL climate turn poor, converting your query syntax from MySQL to Postgres is quite trivial. The libraries to connect your apps are obviously also readily available. Unless you've REALLY tied your app to MySQL-specific options which cannot be easily duplicated, it shouldn't take long at all to get the queries changed and the app into Q/A testing.
While I agree the prospect of extra work in today's world could be upsetting, I don't believe the challenges involved with conversion to Postgres are nearly as difficult as some fear - or at least they haven't been for the ones I've done. I also don't think we need to panic about the MySQL situation quite yet either. In short, take a couple hours to play with Postgres and determine for yourself whether it makes sense for anything you're working with. I'm guessing many folks would be pleasantly surprised if they haven't looked at it for a while.
lol. Cute attempt to attack my profession. I indeed DO work a tech job, and do quite well with it thank you;)
For comparison, and since you mentioned Apple specifically, I have an experience that is quite fresh in my mind. LAST NIGHT I installed Postgresql version 8.4.2-1 on my Macbook Pro. The ENTIRE process took less than three minutes, including the time spent downloading:
I agree - PG v8 is the stuff awesome is made from. Slightly more confusing for non-techies to set up and get going, but still not exactly difficult - and nothing a quick start guide doesn't solve.
Migrating your typical apps from MySQL to PgSQL can take a bit of effort, but it definitely isn't difficult.
Quoted: "One of the riskiest movies of all times is now officially one of the most successful at the box office."
Gee, I wonder if that's because people are getting more and more nauseous over the regurgitated offal force fed to us by the movie industry for the past two decades?
Dear movie industry,
Stop remaking 20-30 year old movies. Thank you.
This should be a very large cue to the cable co's to shift their tiered pricing structure to an ala carte format. I, along with untold numbers of others, are sincerely fed up with our $100/mo. cable bills with poor quality video and tons of fluff we never watch. The second I can get access to all of the shows I like via the 'net, is the second I cancel my cable TV sub and go 100% internet based. I'm quite willing to wait a couple days for the shows to be posted on the 'net, if it means cutting my monthly expenditures by three figures.
Who here, at some point in developing with Visual Studio, NOT seen it pop up that stupid message saying you have to run the IDE with administrator privileges for something or another?
I think its great we're working on stuff like this, but with the satellite likely in geosynchronous orbit that equates to ~250ms packet delays round trip. The applications will obviously need to be tolerant of the delay, not that 1/4 second is out of the ordinary for really long links though.
Unchecked, or merely poorly checked third party code has long been a tender Achilles heel for any system. We beat down Windows 'round these parts with impunity, but often times the fault is with something outside of the code controlled by the Borg. Firefox is not immune obviously, and there should be some system to help prevent "issues" when extensions and plugins are used.
I wouldn't call it perfect, but Google's Android platform has a novel idea - your third party code must register for the privileges it requires to operate, and those privileges are then presented to the user for scrutiny in a very easy to understand manner. Install an Android application, and you get to see what rights you grant that app before it launches the first time. Hmmm, this game wants access to my contacts and the internet? No thank you, lets just delete that before it shares my phone list.
Their sales reps call me incessantly after buying a car with a packaged receiver, begging me to sign up.
Rep: "Did you enjoy your free trial?"
Me: "No, because it sounds like hammered poop! I didn't use it at all."
EVERY rep I spoke with would respond with questions about the setup, satellite problems due to buildings, etc. When I explained that with a clear view of the sky on a bright sunny day, that FM radio sounded clearly superior to their service, they seemed utterly confused - thinking my hardware was "bad." They would ask me to visit the dealer to have it checked. I would start to explain that XM/Sirius' 34kbps streams are simply awful to listen to, but then realized they wouldn't understand. So I politely stated their service didn't offer anything I would enjoy, and thanked them for the call. That was also a mistake... "Oh but we have 200 something channels!" "Right. Of poor quality sound that is quite unpleasant to my ears. Thanks for your time, but PLEASE remove me from your callback list."
Most folks I personally know who actually pay for sat radio, are listening to talk radio or sports radio where the low bitrate streams don't matter.
Can't form a complete picture without an inside look at what really happened. Danger/Microsoft obviously isn't going to just come out and tell us the who or how, they have enough egg on their face as it is.
We can throw hunches around all day long, but it all boils down to human error somewhere - or more likely, a series of errors. Perhaps backups weren't properly taken. Perhaps they were performing a platform shift to.NET and something went awry. Perhaps a dev was tapping out a query and forgot part of his where clause, irreversibly damaging an entire table. Perhaps the cleaning crew poured milk in the disk cluster. These are all quite valid possibilities, which singly probably wouldn't be an issue.
I don't think there's any argument for instability or reliability issues with a "cloud" platform, any more than one could form an argument for a traditional arrangement. If the system as a whole isn't managed and maintained, you are at a very high risk for disaster. The only universal truth is things WILL fail, and you have to plan for them.
Slashdot Mirror
Our new house is built with all kinds of radio-blocking "stuff." The foil Tekshield in the roof decking, radiant barrier insulation on the exterior walls, Low-E3 windows, etc. all block various forms of electromagnetic energy. WiFi is definitely not affected much - I can connect with ease a couple houses away. Cell phone signals on the other hand, are pretty soundly attenuated. I've had to get an AT&T MicroCell to assure solid coverage. 3-4 bars outside translate to 1 bar inside in the more common parts of the house.
He gets plenty of time with the 'tech, we're not cruel. :) Oddly enough, I'm his favorite Xbox buddy. If I won't go up and play, he quickly loses interest. Strange, I know. His time isn't limited by strict minute boundaries in most cases - bedtime is firm on weeknights, and he plans accordingly. Otherwise it's a simple "hey you've been in here a while, why not head outside and see what the other kids are doing?" We don't get much protest, and shortly after he's bounding down the stairs and out the door.
I'm also a big proponent of "figure it out." This weekend he mentioned his laptop didn't work, to which I simply asked "what's wrong with it?" It took a few iterations of "I don't know," to him reading out error messages, me urging him to Google what they meant (on his phone!), and a few trips up and down the stairs, but he finally researched enough to figure out the drive had failed (DRDY error, bad block counts were skyrocketing). That earned him lots of praise and a new laptop to replace his old one.
I know, it really is easy to "forget" your kids are over-doing something when they're NOT driving you nuts. :) But I digress, as parents, we need to set limits on our kids. Our 12 year old is, like most, always wanting to either be on the 'net on his laptop, on his cell phone texting whoever, watching TV, or playing the Xbox. Guess what - we limit his time with each, and send his butt OUTSIDE! The worst thing we can do as parents is to let them grow up without exploring the world around them, and that includes nature.
Then of course, there's the toddler aspect. As in, when I get home from work, my nearly 1-1/2 year old immediately begins asking for the iPad (by name, mind you). I've loaded up a handful of educational games, and it has helped us dramatically increase her skill set. Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, her hand eye coordination is impressive, her thinking skills (do this, then that, then that, to complete the task) have blown me away, in good part due to the interactiveness of the device. With a computer, using the mouse still hasn't quite clicked - but directly manipulating things with her finger immediately made sense to her. She wants, nay she demands, to spend her 30 minute windows of opportunity with the device. Her mother and I don't coach her with it either, we'll put the apps on and let her explore - and I'm constantly amazed with the problem solving skills of such a young mind. That alone was worth the cost to me. Between the conventional parent-child interactive learning, and the hands on figure-it-out learning on the iPad, something tells me she'll be well prepared for school in a few years.
Paranoid much, or is this anti-fanboyism of a higher caliber? Apple couldn't control the 'net any more than Microsoft or any other large could, which is to say ... they really can't.
Sure, there can be bandwidth shaping terms and conditions thrown around, there can be prioritization of packets, and all the other things that have been happening on various network segments since the "good old days." I guess it's just more fun to demonize large corporations for taking part in doing business with whatever tools are available to them. Apple, Microsoft, etc. don't own the backbone. Nobody (singly) owns the backbone. Google is moving towards putting a LOT of fiber in the ground, so if you were to throw conspiracy theories around don't you think Mountain View would be more "dangerous" than Cupertino? That's not to say I believe Google is doing anything nefarious, because ultimately they're doing what is in their power to further their own brand, on their own dime. The 'net will operate with or without them - that's the beauty of it. Don't want to use Google's glass? Then don't establish a peering relationship with 'em. Simple.
I have a T-mobile G1, ordered it the first moment I was able. I've also put hands on nearly every other Android phone I could, including the Droid, Nexus One, etc.
While the latest iterations are indeed quite zippy, nobody can say the UI is as consistently smooth as even an iPhone 2G. It is like playing a video game on a GeForce 8400 GS vs. a GeForce 9800 GT - they both render the same stuff, and they both move around the same, but the frame rate is obviously faster on one of them. The latency between a command and its response is also faster on iPhone OS devices, and more consistently faster. Even if that is only a perception because of instantly performing an animation, it makes the device "feel" nicer. Scrolling in the browser is another example - its just smoother on the iPhone. There's plenty of video comparisons, but put 'em both in your hand and it really becomes obvious. It isn't something that makes the Nexus One or Droid or others "bad" phone, because they're VERY good phones, but there's perceptual things about the iPhone OS devices that strongly contribute to their popularity.
I haven't started developing for the iPad, although after being a user for the past 2 months I honestly think it's an outstanding platform to focus attention on.
The UI is buttery smooth. This is one thing EVERY other device I've put hands on doesn't even come close to getting right. Android is wonderful, and I love it - but the UI just isn't as fluid and responsive. This may not change how the device works but it certainly changes how you perceive the device is working. I see it every time someone uses an Android phone (myself included): click, click again because it didn't give you immediate feedback or response. Turn the device sideways, wait a couple seconds, flip it back and forth a couple times because the display didn't rotate. Things like that are minor in 'tech, but huge in usability.
The tougher process of getting an app INTO the iTunes app store I honestly think is helping weed out the lower grade fluff we find in the Android market. How many times have you gone looking through apps, found something that looked pretty good, installed it, and it was crap? How many reviews on the Android Market read something like this: Force closes, one star!. It's the same problem with all the various free Windows software that's everywhere on the net. You have more choice, but you have more choices of crap. If people are going to spend the time, money, and effort to get an app into Apple's store, they're more likely to make sure it's something that's worth being there. They want to get paid, after all.
Getting back to end-users, of which I've been exclusively since this thing launched -- it really is awesome. I carry it instead of a laptop nearly every time I would have taken my laptop. I carry it now when I wouldn't have carried anything before, simply because I can. Then again, if I had an iPhone I'd probably leave it home more often. Regardless, the beauty is being able to do real work on it (email, web-based enterprise apps, etc.) without having to take anything else with me. No power cord, no problem - I get a full day PLUS worth of power out of the battery. Battery life + 3G + usable screen size (1024x768 means my work webapps fit perfectly) + a very usable on-screen keyboard = happy camper.
Just set the network card to 10-base-T, half duplex. The problem aught to solve itself!
This is how we handle errors and such on our internal software -- the user is prevented from continuing if "something" must be done to solve the issue. These are rare, because in many cases we can programmatically figure out what's wrong and dynamically prompt for replacement values and such. But in those instances where continuing would leave data in a "dangerous" state, we halt the user's progress, and they either get the opportunity to fix or they're instructed to get someone who can. If they wish, they can back out and redo the whole transaction.
We've found this works quite well - in most of the cases the users may not know exactly what they did that generated the error, but they appreciate being able to self-manage the problem without having to run to our dep't. for resolution.
That is very scary, and an obvious engineering flaw IMHO.
I'm an American car buff, and I know GM's stuff the best. General Motors' engine management systems are quite intelligent. They use either a two or three sensor pedal assembly. The two sensor models have two 0-5V throttle position sensors -- but UNLIKE TOYOTA they track opposite each other. One goes 0-5, while the other is going 5-0. The three sensor models do the same, but with one two different voltage levels on the redundant circuits. If the system detects an out-of-range error or other problem, the PCM tries to determine if it can safely control the throttle while failing into a "Reduced engine power" mode - just in case. If the PCM determines it is unsafe to drive the car (i.e. commanded throttle and actual throttle don't correlate), it will command the engine to idle or in severe cases where it can't return to idle rpm, it will switch off the engine entirely.
This is the way it has been since the beginning with GM.
//Microsoft Employee here//
If you read the blog post it has some valid points about how it works:
1. Voluntary patch 2. When non-genuine copies deteced, OS functionality is NOT reduced 3. Yes, Microsoft does decided to notify/annoy you that you're not using genuine software which is a good thing because most people don't know they are. 4. The goal is reduce the number of Windows installations using pirated copies many of which include malicious code. 5. No personally identifiable information is transmitted. Details on this can be found in ANY of our privacy policies which are standard across all Microsoft products. 6. It does not apply to any enterprise installations where Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is used. @FranTaylor, lots of people use Windows on a server...what planet are you one? :)
The slashdot headline is a little too Orwellian considering the body of the blog post. Looking forward to all the responses...I think.
#1. Voluntary, meaning automatically installed if the user has auto-updates turned on, yes? That isn't really voluntary with respect to why folks want auto updates turned on (TRUE security patches, and feature updates).
#3 and #4. Not falling for that song and dance. If it were true, you could simply click a button that says "no, I know with 100% certainty my copy is legitimately and legally licensed" and that would be it. But we all know that isn't the case, don't we...
Maybe I'm bitter, but I just had to replace my motherboard, and my retail Vista Business install is now calling me a criminal, despite having the nifty plastic box and DVD key sitting right here on my desk.
I hear ya. I have partially succeeded over the years in getting myself to use a more point-and-click style editor, but I keep falling back to vim. Old habits die hard, and it often seems easier to just pull off a :%s/something/else/g than Ctrl+H, [something], tab, [else] tab, Alt+A, Enter, Escape.
If you can't negotiate, your salary will always be low. I believe this is also the reason for the stereotype of women being paid less than men. I've seen it time and time again, the gals just won't fight as hard nor demand the top dollar from their bosses. The same is true with younger folks. I was no different, and I was severely underpaid for many years.
That is simple sounding process, indeed. But i bet it took you more than just 3 minutes for the download alone, let alone creating a bunch of DBs, users etc.
Your fingers can type only finitely fast, and your hand can move the mouse only finitely fast, and your internet connection finite bandwidth, and your macbook is only finitely fast.
The reboot alone most likely took way more than the 3minutes.
Either all of the above, or i would like to know where to get the timebubble device you are using aswell.
Comparison CentOS, no gui installation:
Ahh, an unbeliever ;) No, my Mac reboots quite faster than three minutes. I got rid of my 1200bps modem back in 1992. I can type 140wpm. I can click with the best of 'em.
... ... 125720 files and directories currently installed.) .../postgresql-client-common_101_all.deb) ... .../postgresql-client-8.4_8.4.1-1_i386.deb) ... .../postgresql-common_101_all.deb) ... .../postgresql-8.4_8.4.1-1_i386.deb) ... ... ... ... ... /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/man/man1/psql.1.gz to provide /usr/share/man/man1/psql.1.gz (psql.1.gz) in auto mode.
...
... /etc/postgresql/8.4/main, data: /var/lib/postgresql/8.4/main)...
But, who knows -- perhaps its more difficult in Linux then!! Lets test that theory, using an Ubuntu 9.10 virtual machine I happen to have on my Mac:
brian@ubuntu:~$ time sudo apt-get install postgresql-8.4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
Suggested packages:
oidentd ident-server postgresql-doc-8.4
The following NEW packages will be installed:
postgresql-8.4 postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4,957kB of archives.
After this operation, 18.2MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-client-common 101 [49.8kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-client-8.4 8.4.1-1 [811kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-common 101 [85.6kB]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ karmic/main postgresql-8.4 8.4.1-1 [4,010kB]
Fetched 4,957kB in 6s (764kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-client-common.
(Reading database
Unpacking postgresql-client-common (from
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-client-8.4.
Unpacking postgresql-client-8.4 (from
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-common.
Unpacking postgresql-common (from
Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-8.4.
Unpacking postgresql-8.4 (from
Processing triggers for man-db
Processing triggers for ureadahead
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Setting up postgresql-client-common (101)
Setting up postgresql-client-8.4 (8.4.1-1)
update-alternatives: using
Setting up postgresql-common (101)
Adding user postgres to group ssl-cert
Building PostgreSQL dictionaries from installed myspell/hunspell packages...
en_au
en_gb
en_us
en_za
Setting up postgresql-8.4 (8.4.1-1)
Creating new cluster (configuration:
Moving configuration file /
For legacy apps, why bother recoding at all? Legacy usually means "we're done with it, we deploy with a set/tested configuration with no new development scheduled." What prevents us from continuing to use existing MySQL v3.x through v5.x deployments into any foreseeable future? Nothing I can think of, so the legacy apps should be safe from a licensing/ownership standpoint.
For new/continuing development on existing apps, should the MySQL climate turn poor, converting your query syntax from MySQL to Postgres is quite trivial. The libraries to connect your apps are obviously also readily available. Unless you've REALLY tied your app to MySQL-specific options which cannot be easily duplicated, it shouldn't take long at all to get the queries changed and the app into Q/A testing.
While I agree the prospect of extra work in today's world could be upsetting, I don't believe the challenges involved with conversion to Postgres are nearly as difficult as some fear - or at least they haven't been for the ones I've done. I also don't think we need to panic about the MySQL situation quite yet either. In short, take a couple hours to play with Postgres and determine for yourself whether it makes sense for anything you're working with. I'm guessing many folks would be pleasantly surprised if they haven't looked at it for a while.
For comparison, and since you mentioned Apple specifically, I have an experience that is quite fresh in my mind. LAST NIGHT I installed Postgresql version 8.4.2-1 on my Macbook Pro. The ENTIRE process took less than three minutes, including the time spent downloading:
If this is too complex for you, I humbly submit MySQL may be too tough as well.
I agree - PG v8 is the stuff awesome is made from. Slightly more confusing for non-techies to set up and get going, but still not exactly difficult - and nothing a quick start guide doesn't solve.
Migrating your typical apps from MySQL to PgSQL can take a bit of effort, but it definitely isn't difficult.
Quoted: "One of the riskiest movies of all times is now officially one of the most successful at the box office."
Gee, I wonder if that's because people are getting more and more nauseous over the regurgitated offal force fed to us by the movie industry for the past two decades?
Dear movie industry,
Stop remaking 20-30 year old movies. Thank you.
This should be a very large cue to the cable co's to shift their tiered pricing structure to an ala carte format. I, along with untold numbers of others, are sincerely fed up with our $100/mo. cable bills with poor quality video and tons of fluff we never watch. The second I can get access to all of the shows I like via the 'net, is the second I cancel my cable TV sub and go 100% internet based. I'm quite willing to wait a couple days for the shows to be posted on the 'net, if it means cutting my monthly expenditures by three figures.
Who here, at some point in developing with Visual Studio, NOT seen it pop up that stupid message saying you have to run the IDE with administrator privileges for something or another?
Here's a quick link with just a few of the examples:
msdn.microsoft.com
I think its great we're working on stuff like this, but with the satellite likely in geosynchronous orbit that equates to ~250ms packet delays round trip. The applications will obviously need to be tolerant of the delay, not that 1/4 second is out of the ordinary for really long links though.
Unchecked, or merely poorly checked third party code has long been a tender Achilles heel for any system. We beat down Windows 'round these parts with impunity, but often times the fault is with something outside of the code controlled by the Borg. Firefox is not immune obviously, and there should be some system to help prevent "issues" when extensions and plugins are used.
I wouldn't call it perfect, but Google's Android platform has a novel idea - your third party code must register for the privileges it requires to operate, and those privileges are then presented to the user for scrutiny in a very easy to understand manner. Install an Android application, and you get to see what rights you grant that app before it launches the first time. Hmmm, this game wants access to my contacts and the internet? No thank you, lets just delete that before it shares my phone list.
Certainly nobody in my circles. I've asked - nobody I know uses Second Life. Are we missing the greatest thing since sliced bread? I'd wager a big no.
Their sales reps call me incessantly after buying a car with a packaged receiver, begging me to sign up.
... "Oh but we have 200 something channels!" "Right. Of poor quality sound that is quite unpleasant to my ears. Thanks for your time, but PLEASE remove me from your callback list."
Rep: "Did you enjoy your free trial?"
Me: "No, because it sounds like hammered poop! I didn't use it at all."
EVERY rep I spoke with would respond with questions about the setup, satellite problems due to buildings, etc. When I explained that with a clear view of the sky on a bright sunny day, that FM radio sounded clearly superior to their service, they seemed utterly confused - thinking my hardware was "bad." They would ask me to visit the dealer to have it checked. I would start to explain that XM/Sirius' 34kbps streams are simply awful to listen to, but then realized they wouldn't understand. So I politely stated their service didn't offer anything I would enjoy, and thanked them for the call. That was also a mistake
Most folks I personally know who actually pay for sat radio, are listening to talk radio or sports radio where the low bitrate streams don't matter.
Can't form a complete picture without an inside look at what really happened. Danger/Microsoft obviously isn't going to just come out and tell us the who or how, they have enough egg on their face as it is.
.NET and something went awry. Perhaps a dev was tapping out a query and forgot part of his where clause, irreversibly damaging an entire table. Perhaps the cleaning crew poured milk in the disk cluster. These are all quite valid possibilities, which singly probably wouldn't be an issue.
We can throw hunches around all day long, but it all boils down to human error somewhere - or more likely, a series of errors. Perhaps backups weren't properly taken. Perhaps they were performing a platform shift to
I don't think there's any argument for instability or reliability issues with a "cloud" platform, any more than one could form an argument for a traditional arrangement. If the system as a whole isn't managed and maintained, you are at a very high risk for disaster. The only universal truth is things WILL fail, and you have to plan for them.