Fortunately, there is good news. Though the latter will never be completely eliminated, data loss as a result of hard drive failures can!!! The secret it actually no secret at all - redundancy!
You can read a truck load of technical documentation, bore yourself to death with piles of market research, or even consult a psychic, but nothing will stop the inevitable failure of hard drives. It is an industry wide problem with (in my experience) little bearing on the hardware manufacturer. Sure, everyone has their favorites, but in the end the simple fact is that hard drives have moving parts and any thing with a moving part can, will, and DOES break...
While I agree in principal with the numerous posts placing a SAN as the preferred modus operandi, I believe that most individuals are commenting purely on a performance basis as determined by their own environments and needs.
As is the case with most questions concerning I/T infrastructure, I believe that several other factors much be fully considered prior to making an educated decision...
Funding/Resources - As with any project, two of the utmost concerns should be the cost and resourcing of any proposed solution. In your case, budget sounds to be a major motivation in going with the SAN technology. As well, if you currently have a SAN in place, one can only assume (hope?) that you currently have an appropriate support structure in place.
Goal - Again, any project must have a well defined goal to ever be successful. Under the described circumstances, I would equate this to the purpose of your proposed Intranet. The intended uses and content served via your intranet could heavily way on the decision of which technology to choose. If you will be serving simple information web pages a SAN is more than capable and an obvious choice. Alternatively, if your goal is to provide web-based CBT's, web-enabled applications, employee web-portals, etc... then a dedicated server(s) may be the appropriate path to venture down.
Scalability - Scalability is an obvious strong suit of a SAN. A SAN invasively allows for the transparent addition of processing power, memory, and not least of disk space. If you expect that the intranet will grow quick or expect it to become large, a SAN is the optimal option.
These are but a few of the key concerns that I would suggest that you further examine prior to making any type of commitment - financial or otherwise. Additionally, it is always a good idea to do your homework and investigate what other companies of similar size and market are choosing as their solution. Best of luck!
Though this 'Digital Time Machine' technology allows for the complete opposite type of activity, reading this article immediately reminded me of the scene from 'Fight Club' in which Tyler Durden painstakingly "splices single frames of pornography into otherwise innocuous family-films..."
"So, when the snooty cat and the courageous dog meet in reel three, that's when you'll catch Tyler's contribution."
While I suppose this practice of trimming frames to facilitate the creation of additional advertisement time is a bit less immoral than Tyler's pursuits, I don't find it to be any more forthright or any less dubious in nature!
What would be the point in spamming corporation's with your resume???
Any company that has management that is so gullible as to not only read spam (as opposed to simply deleting it...), but to ultimately hire someone as a result of it is definitely going to die a quick and painful death...
Even beyond that, who among you would want to work for a manager who not only reads but responds to spam with serious interest!!!
Even within an industry such as ours that is absolutely ravaged by the rampant (and often-unnecessary) use of acronyms, this consortium has reached new levels of stupidity and pretension.
Through the use of my Not-Quite-Patented® 'Acronym Counter', I have identified no less than TWENTY-FOUR used and abused acronyms within this document that didn't even amount to 2500 words!!! That is an unprecedented 1% of the total words!
Here an now I would like to propose the formation of a committee dedicated to ending the abuse of acronyms in technical documents concerning the I/T industry as a whole. We will be called the "Word Implementation Negating Division of the Operating World Subcommittee" (WINDOWS). On second thought, big, bad Bill might take exception to that...
"The idea is to build a library of everything, and the opportunity is to build a great library that offers universal access to all of human knowledge."
Not only does this sound like a rather far fetched plot from an old StarTrek episode, but it also seems to be an a physical and theoretical impossibility. Even if adequate storage space did exist for such a task (a 10 TB database would be but a small start), I do not foresee any type of technology that could ever adequately capture new data at a sufficient speed to harness that which is human innovation and creativity.
It is a nice thought, however, and I certainly wish him all the best in her pursuits...
In my view, one the primary obstacles that has yet to be overcome in the wonderful world of voice recognition (regardless of OS) is the specialized vocabulary that is required by the recognition software. By this, I am specifically referring the word syntax that the interface requires to achieve optimum performance.
While we have all seen the world quite capably adapt to the Palm-Graffiti style of hand writing recognition, many vendors have found it to be a much more formidable task to modify the manner in which people speak. Beyond the several language variations (languages, accents, lisps, etc...), developers must also take into consideration much more subtle disparities in speech such as separate dialects within a given language. This has caused quite an immense dilemma, one that has prevented the mainstreaming of such technology!!!
Even in the case of software such as Via Voice, the user is still given to the quite arduous task of creating a "dictionary" of sorts that recognizes their specific speech patterns and verbiage tendencies.
All of these factors lead to complications and idiosyncrasies that the average Joe User is unwilling or unable to accept!!!
I would suggest contacting Michael Knight of the much famed Night Rider series... If memory serves, his buddy Devon Miles had an extremely nice 18-wheeler with all types of elctronic goodies including computers hidden within the custom trailer...
Additionally, if you adopt their layout you would have a great parking spot!!!
Whether or not independent development of games for wireless devices/platforms will succeed is a very good question...one that I have actually pondered in the past. However, I believe that SDK's and development tools of this sort are putting the 'cart before the horse' in many respects...
Anyone who has ever attempted to engage in an interactive game via their GSM-enabled cell phone, for example, can attest to the many deficiencies beyond simply a lack of game titles. Poor ergonomics, slow response/performance, and intolerable graphics are but a few of the physical/hardware issues that will require much further attention prior to us concerning ourselves with the lack of a Quake port!!!
Even in the burgeoning marketplace of the slightly larger integrated devices that marry gadgets such as PDA's, cell phones, and GPS's into single units, these same issues remain valid. You can only do so much with so little before the device's size becomes to large and cumbersome for it to be practical to carry around on your belt!!!
IMHO, this may be a hot topic in a couple of years, but for the time being is before its time and will fail as a result!!!
In my experience, I have found that the ultimate freedom comes through utilization of a widely available feature on many phones - the hands-free speaker-phone!!!
Now, I know what you are thinking...noisy, impolite, and hard to understand!!! Well, as is true with ANYTHING, quality is a direct function of price... There are sets that have cheap speaker-phone capabilities and then there are some (such my own...) that have high quality speaker-phones. With my current setup, I have NEVER recieved a single complaint from a co-worker or a client!!!
Of course, YMMV, but I have evaluated several different form factors of phones including the Plantronics heads sets, cell phones with hand-free capabilities to the standard hand sets; all in a wide price range. IMHO, none compare to the total freedom provided via speaker phone!!!
Depending on the stats and reporting capabilities of the new search engine that Northern Light Technology develops, perhaps the CIA could come up with its own version of a "Ten Most Wanted" list.
Of course, this would be a bit different than that of the FBI's list, with a ranking of search strings rather than people. I would predict the top three being:
(1) where hell Osama bin Laden Cave Country
(2) bad-guys terrorists attack United States not nice people
(3) Natalie Portman hot grits petrified
Truthfully, which do you feel is the bigger waste of time??? The approximately two seconds it requires to click on the "back" button of your browser after following the bogus headline link to an advertisement OR the two hours we will spend complaining about this on/. !!!
Ultimately, this act of deception does little more than secure the fact that Yahoo News is, has been, and always will be a part of part of "Big Corporate America".
Beyond that point, everyone knows that being bombarded with advertising is a part of surfing the net! Most web sites (including our beloved/.) actively advertise in one manner or another... IMHO, the fact that a "news" site such as Yahoo News was a bit deceptive in presenting said advertisements should be all but expected...
Perhaps we are all attempting to look too deep into the software archives to find the solution here...maybe we should look a bit more towards the obvious!!!
My vote is for Word Perfect 6.0!!! It occupies minimal disk space, requires very few resources, and is well documented!!!:-)
Just a thought...I mean it worked great back in the day!!!
DISCLAIMER: If you think I am serious, YOU are the idiot - not me!!!:-)
Perhaps I am biased through my involvement in the I/T industry, but I find figures such as the one quoting Koreans having 4X greater access to broadband than Americans simply appalling...if not completely unbelievable!!!
Not that I have anything against the Korean citizens or believe that they are any less entitled to fast internet access (as are we all...). I am simply in utter disbelief that a once war-ravaged, divided country whose population indulges primarily in farming is in such a position of dominance over the United States in this respective area. For all intents and purposes, any comparison in terms of technological and/or economical dynamics would be heavily weighed in the favor of the United States. And yet, the Korean government and industries have been able to provide this amazing level of availability of the Internet to it's citizenry.
IMHO, anyone whom can be presented this fact and not arrive at the simple conclusion that there are evil corporate powers at work hindering the acceptance of broadband within the U.S. is simply not trying to see the truth or being paid off by big corporate money!!!
My personal situation is much akin to that of the individual who submitted this question to Slashdot. I am 24 yrs old with 10+ yrs. of overall experience with computers (6+ yrs. in a professional environment...) and am currently employed by a well-known, Fortune 500 company. And, I have accomplished all of this (including a very generous salary) without the assistance of a college degree of any sort...
I am currently in the highly enviable position of working for a corporation that not only encourages it employees to seek further higher education, but actually empowers them to do so with 100% reimbursement of all tuition/books/fees associated with attending university - please don't hate me because I'm fortunate...:)
So to address the question at hand, I will simply explain my strategy for attaining my desired degrees. As many have posted prior to me (and as should be common sense...), there are **NO** degrees that are both accredited and quick - all worthwhile degrees require at least a moderate level of commitment. That said, my personal plan is to leverage the limited number of college credits that I amassed while working for the I/T department of U of D Mercy (classes were free...) to provide me with eligibility for an accelerated Bachelors program for Business Administration - this is an 18-month program and is offered at MANY business oriented universities.
So why would a computer geek need/want a Bachelor's in Business Administration??? There are actually three reasons why this was appropriate in my situation - (1) it is the most logical if you are looking for promotion to management, (2) it is the easiest, quickest bachelor's degree available, and (3) It is a fully accredited degree that can be used as a stepping stone for further post-graduate education.
It is actually this final point that makes this plan so applicable, beneficial, and practical. Once you have completed your bachelor's degree in business, you can continue on to get a Master's Degree (in roughly another 12 - 18 months if you work hard...) in a more computer/technical related area. This could be anything from E-Business to a program targeted for future CIO's.
If you are anything like me, you have no desire to sit through tedious technical classes that strive to teach you old ideas and yesterday's technology. I read books and attend conferences to maintain my up-to-date standing in the world of technology. The benefit that I can derive from attending university is that of management and people skills that most computer geeks inherently lack. As proof of concept, I have actually been premature promoted to an interim management position only weeks after divulging my educational intensions to my superiors and taking the first preliminary steps...
Best of luck to you in whatever you path you choose - ultimately, any education or form of learning will prove to be beneficial for you mind and soul!!!
As the poster indicates, the rate at which Weatherly writes code is nothing less that phenomenal.
To provide further perspective on this impressively rapid rate of coding, I have done some rather rudimentary calculations. All of the figures below proceed with the assumption of a 5-day, 40-hour workweek (which we all know is unrealistic in the world of programming, but for the sake of simple stats it seemed appropriate):
How impressive is that...WOW!!! To think that this man averaged two lines of code per minute throughout the period of an entire year is nothing less than astonishing!!! Of course, these figures are a bit skewed by the means through which I calculated them, but nonetheless, this is quite an accomplishment...
This may or may not be feasible as I have never attempted such a thing (I have no need for 200+ ISO's)... Essentially, I am aware of two technologies within win2k/ntfs that may allow for such a configuration as I believe that you are looking for.
First, a functionality exists in win2k through which to mount drive partitions as folders... Unlike the idea of using subst & such, this is not constricted by the magic number of 26 drive letters. Simply identify/create the partitions (logical, extended, dynamic, physical drives whatever...) and edit the properties to have them mounted as folers. The ISO's could then be stored in partitions/drives mounted as folders with appropriate names. More can be gleamed on this topic by reading this Microsoft article at Technet.
A second alternative, that while being more complicated may provide for greater flexibility would be to implement DFS (Distributed File System). Through this package you can map ANY drive/partition on any workstation to appear as a shared folder on a server. As the name suggests, this would allow for a more distributed strategy that would allow you to leverage several machines in distributing your ISO's. More can be read on DFS at this site...
I hope this information proves to be useful for you and that I am not misunderstanding you intentions!!! As many others have pointed out, Linux would far and away be a better, more compact solution; however, like you I am saddled with the responsiblity of working at a Microsoft centric company...and for the record - IT SUCKS!!!
First off, I am glad to see that Taco is posting stories again and even more that he is "generous" enough to provide us with such an in depth review (of equipment that he likely got for free provided he plug it on his high-traffic web site...) Unfortunately, however, I believe that the good Commander neglected to cover some of the less desirable aspects of this piece of hardware... Just for giggles, I figured I would enumerate a few of the more unimpressive features of the SliMP3:
"It doesn't have a fancy plastic box" says CT. How is this a benefit, I like pretty boxes!!! Even more, I, for one, am not adverse to removing a couple of screw and taking off the "pretty box" and checking out what is underneath. Come on now, would a car enthusiast buy a automobile without a hood just for easier access to the motor??? I didn't think so...
Next, and this is a bit more trivial, but the internal NIC on this thing is only 10MB. Now I know what you are thinking - that is plenty fast enough for streaming audio. Well, in that aspect you are absolutely correct; however, what if you no longer have a hub/switch that even support 10MB anymore. I have a home network that this could work with quite nicely...that is, other than the fact that I am going to dust off one of my 10/100 auto-sensing hubs just for this purpose and loose my bragging rights of having a completely switched, 100MB home network!!!
I have one word for you..."ogg"!!! Besides being a rather strange noise to make, it is also the file type of the majority of my music. Having not supported this file type may be the death of an otherwise appealing gadget for hardcore hackers!!!
And finally, to conclude my little critique, I will point to the usefulness of such a gadget. While speaker wire does have distance limitations that CAT5 far surpasses, how many of us would encounter such a limitation in our own home. At work it would be quite feasible for attenuation to have negating affects, but at home this is really a mute point. As such, what is the benefit in having hardware vs. software decoding of MP3's when the same or similar can be accomplished through a free download of Winamp...
Well, I suppose I will get back down off of my soapbox... I do enjoy seeing the Taco back to doing some stories, I just hope that he exercises a it more objectivity in the future!!!
But with all of the recent advances in technology of this nature, I doubt that we will ever see this hit the market. With an expected public release date of 2009 (at the earliest...), I would have to think that something a bit more advance and more easily produced would be widely available and send this cool little advancement into obsolecence...
While I personally would do little more than "play" with such a port to determine it stability and flexibility, I believe this would quite possibly allow for further adoption of the operating system outside the typical confines of the Linux community. Which, IMHO, is a good thing...
Too often, I believe that through our own arrogance and unwillingness to simplify the use and installation of Linux distros for the common user (not the ultra-geeks of/.), we severely limit the potential user base for our wonderful operating system. As such, we miss out on a huge market share, if you will, of potential Linux users and supporters. Ports such as these that allow for an easier transition from win32 to Linux could tantalize John Q. Public into trying something new and eventually delve in the more complicated distros...
Just my $0.02USD, but I think the more people on Linux - the better. The only way we will ever stand a chance at overcoming the Evil Empire of M$ is through pure numbers and widespread support!!!
In the realm of industry certification, I believe there are three primary metrics that one must measure to determine which (if any) certifications are appropriate. In no particular order they are career path, geographical location, and current level of education.
I believe these all to be critical factors in the following ways:
Career Path - In the broad expanse that is today?s field of information technology, there are a vast number of specialties, niches and areas of work that one can engage in. If you find that you are particularly fond of a specific area, then it only stands to reason to pursue certifications that will not only bolster your existing knowledge of relevant material, but that are also widely recognized as credible by the industry. Of course, there are also generic certification such as network+, A+, I-net+, etc?however, I find these to be very common and less impressive to prospective employers?
Geographical Location - This is a biggie!!! The area in which you live will largely dictate the type and number of I/T jobs that are available to you. As such, it is important note trends and to tailor your certifications to meet the needs of the companies in your area. This will lead to a greater number of offers and more lucrative compensation.
Current Level of Education - This is arguably one of the most determinant factors in whether or not certification is appropriate for your situation at all. While I hate to speak in generalities, I believe that will be best to illustrate this point. Generally, an individual with a high-level, relevant college education is in need of additional certifications far less that one who may have only an associate?s degree or simply a high school diploma. The reasoning is actually quite simple in that the certification lend credibility to the knowledge and ability of the otherwise scholastically unproven individual, where the a person with a masters in computer science is far less likely to be questioned on their intellectual aptitude. However, as I stated, this is a generality?
Ultimately, I believe that attaining industry recognized certification can be highly beneficial in the short term with the ultimate challenge being to maintain and upgrade the certifications appropriately.
As for myself, I was a shameful college dropout with but two years of college to my credit. However, I almost view this as having been a head start on the computer revolution and have done quite well for myself with the aid of some certifications. I currently hold a MCSE+I (NT4.0), MCSE (Win2K), CCNA, MCDBA, CCA (Citrix), and a MCSD. Thanks to these certs, my years of experience, and a good line of BS I am now working at a fortune 500 company pulling in six figures!!!
For those of you who have far too many artistic yearnings to be limited by the simplistic verbiage supplied in the ever-repetitious flow of spam into your inbox, the Satire Wire [SatireWire.com] site is also hosting a second category of Spam oriented poetry that allows a bit more flexibility in word selection - the Freestyle Poetry contest [SatireWire.com]...
For those looking for an example of such artistry, here is last years winner:
SHAKESPAM
To spam, or not to spam: that is the question:
Whether 'tis slimier in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous claims,
Or to respond and create a sea of troubles,
Or, by deleting, end them
Neither a forwarder nor a spammer be;
For spam oft loses both itself and friend
But, soft! what message through yonder inbox comes?
It is the spam, and xfVa45af@yahoo.com is the sender.
The first thing we do let's kill all the spammers.
Even more surprisingly, this entry was from a female. Not to say that females are not capable of poetry or even working with computers...I just thought they actually read and enjoyed their spam!!! Atleast I think all of the blonde women do...:-)
To me, it is truly a sad day when the/. community as a whole shuns a progressive development in computer technology, regardless of it's practically or level of usefulness.
As a programmer (and even more, as a self-respecting geek...), I look positively on any innovation or development that may result in furthering my personal knowledge and/or stretching the limits of existing technology. And for those of you whom do not, I extend my sincerest apologies...
Admittedly, this specific feature of transparency (a.k.a. alpha-bending) of windows has been available in various software forms and in various operating systems for a considerable amount of time. However, had anyone actually read the article in its entirety, you would have realized that this is leveraging hardware video acceleration and not taxing the CPU in the least... Now, if this was possible with your Mac in '97 or your 25MHz 68040 NeXT computer a decade ago, then I will shut up, but I believe we all know that it wasn't!!!
Ultimately, my heart and sympathy go out to the lot of you whom find yourselves so very inclined to condemn something of this nature before every getting the entire story or even giving it a chance.
EVERY advance in technology is important...despite conflicting reports, Rome was not built in a day!!!
- n2q
Had I considered my social life when selecting my career, I would not have chosen to be a computer geek who works 60+ hours a week for a nominal salary in the cave that I have for an office...
If my social life was my primary concern then I obviously would have chosen a much more lucrative position such as male stripper or some other profession that catered more to a better social existance and a lot more SEX!!!
Then again, I don't know if the rush of getting naked in front of beautiful women could ever compare with the amazing feeling of completing awesome code or firing up the latest and greatest hardware for the first time...I guess I was just destined to be a geek!!!:-)
I am not claiming to be an expert in the study of laser dynamics, nor do I profess to be all-knowing in the field of architectural engineering; however, something that they stated in the article DID get my attention.
The author stated that one of the many hurdles in the past with this type of technology was the swaying that occurs, quite by design, in many of today's taller buildings. In the past, this motion caused an obvious problem with regard to focusing the laser beam on the respective target.
My question that I pose to any of the good Slash-Dotters out there that ARE experts in the above mentioned fields, is how this stumbling block may have been overcome with the new technology that has just become available in the past few years???
My first thought was that that the trajectory of the beam could be manipulated in small increments using small positioning motors that moved merely the lenses. That technology, however, has been around (in varying degrees of accuracy of course) for quite some time.
There is then the issue of the degree to which taller buildings sway. Some building, particularly ones build in earthquake prone areas, have a great degree of elasticity engineered into them to prevent them from succumbing to the stresses of outside movement. This can range from fractions of an inch to, in extreme cases, several feet. Does this add yet another restraint to the application of this technology - the height of the building???
Finally, I reverted back to the analogy that was made several times comparing the equipment used for this technology to resembling R2-D2. I then visualized the comical scene of a droid-like device at the top floor of a skyscraper fidgeting back-and-forth, attempting to maintain contact with a counterpart in an adjacent building as the wind of a storm blew violently. Not exactly the type of infrastructure I would want any of my LAN's built upon!!!
Slashdot Mirror
1. Death
2. Taxes
3. Hard Drive Failure
Fortunately, there is good news. Though the latter will never be completely eliminated, data loss as a result of hard drive failures can!!! The secret it actually no secret at all - redundancy!
You can read a truck load of technical documentation, bore yourself to death with piles of market research, or even consult a psychic, but nothing will stop the inevitable failure of hard drives. It is an industry wide problem with (in my experience) little bearing on the hardware manufacturer. Sure, everyone has their favorites, but in the end the simple fact is that hard drives have moving parts and any thing with a moving part can, will, and DOES break...
While I agree in principal with the numerous posts placing a SAN as the preferred modus operandi, I believe that most individuals are commenting purely on a performance basis as determined by their own environments and needs.
As is the case with most questions concerning I/T infrastructure, I believe that several other factors much be fully considered prior to making an educated decision...
Funding/Resources - As with any project, two of the utmost concerns should be the cost and resourcing of any proposed solution. In your case, budget sounds to be a major motivation in going with the SAN technology. As well, if you currently have a SAN in place, one can only assume (hope?) that you currently have an appropriate support structure in place.
Goal - Again, any project must have a well defined goal to ever be successful. Under the described circumstances, I would equate this to the purpose of your proposed Intranet. The intended uses and content served via your intranet could heavily way on the decision of which technology to choose. If you will be serving simple information web pages a SAN is more than capable and an obvious choice. Alternatively, if your goal is to provide web-based CBT's, web-enabled applications, employee web-portals, etc... then a dedicated server(s) may be the appropriate path to venture down.
Scalability - Scalability is an obvious strong suit of a SAN. A SAN invasively allows for the transparent addition of processing power, memory, and not least of disk space. If you expect that the intranet will grow quick or expect it to become large, a SAN is the optimal option.
These are but a few of the key concerns that I would suggest that you further examine prior to making any type of commitment - financial or otherwise. Additionally, it is always a good idea to do your homework and investigate what other companies of similar size and market are choosing as their solution. Best of luck!
Though this 'Digital Time Machine' technology allows for the complete opposite type of activity, reading this article immediately reminded me of the scene from 'Fight Club' in which Tyler Durden painstakingly "splices single frames of pornography into otherwise innocuous family-films..."
"So, when the snooty cat and the courageous dog meet in reel three, that's when you'll catch Tyler's contribution."
While I suppose this practice of trimming frames to facilitate the creation of additional advertisement time is a bit less immoral than Tyler's pursuits, I don't find it to be any more forthright or any less dubious in nature!
What would be the point in spamming corporation's with your resume???
Any company that has management that is so gullible as to not only read spam (as opposed to simply deleting it...), but to ultimately hire someone as a result of it is definitely going to die a quick and painful death...
Even beyond that, who among you would want to work for a manager who not only reads but responds to spam with serious interest!!!
What is this world coming to, seriously!!!
Even within an industry such as ours that is absolutely ravaged by the rampant (and often-unnecessary) use of acronyms, this consortium has reached new levels of stupidity and pretension.
Through the use of my Not-Quite-Patented® 'Acronym Counter', I have identified no less than TWENTY-FOUR used and abused acronyms within this document that didn't even amount to 2500 words!!! That is an unprecedented 1% of the total words!
Here an now I would like to propose the formation of a committee dedicated to ending the abuse of acronyms in technical documents concerning the I/T industry as a whole. We will be called the "Word Implementation Negating Division of the Operating World Subcommittee" (WINDOWS). On second thought, big, bad Bill might take exception to that...
Not only does this sound like a rather far fetched plot from an old StarTrek episode, but it also seems to be an a physical and theoretical impossibility. Even if adequate storage space did exist for such a task (a 10 TB database would be but a small start), I do not foresee any type of technology that could ever adequately capture new data at a sufficient speed to harness that which is human innovation and creativity.
It is a nice thought, however, and I certainly wish him all the best in her pursuits...
In my view, one the primary obstacles that has yet to be overcome in the wonderful world of voice recognition (regardless of OS) is the specialized vocabulary that is required by the recognition software. By this, I am specifically referring the word syntax that the interface requires to achieve optimum performance.
While we have all seen the world quite capably adapt to the Palm-Graffiti style of hand writing recognition, many vendors have found it to be a much more formidable task to modify the manner in which people speak. Beyond the several language variations (languages, accents, lisps, etc...), developers must also take into consideration much more subtle disparities in speech such as separate dialects within a given language. This has caused quite an immense dilemma, one that has prevented the mainstreaming of such technology!!!
Even in the case of software such as Via Voice, the user is still given to the quite arduous task of creating a "dictionary" of sorts that recognizes their specific speech patterns and verbiage tendencies.
All of these factors lead to complications and idiosyncrasies that the average Joe User is unwilling or unable to accept!!!
I would suggest contacting Michael Knight of the much famed Night Rider series... If memory serves, his buddy Devon Miles had an extremely nice 18-wheeler with all types of elctronic goodies including computers hidden within the custom trailer...
Additionally, if you adopt their layout you would have a great parking spot!!!
Whether or not independent development of games for wireless devices/platforms will succeed is a very good question...one that I have actually pondered in the past. However, I believe that SDK's and development tools of this sort are putting the 'cart before the horse' in many respects...
Anyone who has ever attempted to engage in an interactive game via their GSM-enabled cell phone, for example, can attest to the many deficiencies beyond simply a lack of game titles. Poor ergonomics, slow response/performance, and intolerable graphics are but a few of the physical/hardware issues that will require much further attention prior to us concerning ourselves with the lack of a Quake port!!!
Even in the burgeoning marketplace of the slightly larger integrated devices that marry gadgets such as PDA's, cell phones, and GPS's into single units, these same issues remain valid. You can only do so much with so little before the device's size becomes to large and cumbersome for it to be practical to carry around on your belt!!!
IMHO, this may be a hot topic in a couple of years, but for the time being is before its time and will fail as a result!!!
In my experience, I have found that the ultimate freedom comes through utilization of a widely available feature on many phones - the hands-free speaker-phone!!!
Now, I know what you are thinking...noisy, impolite, and hard to understand!!! Well, as is true with ANYTHING, quality is a direct function of price... There are sets that have cheap speaker-phone capabilities and then there are some (such my own...) that have high quality speaker-phones. With my current setup, I have NEVER recieved a single complaint from a co-worker or a client!!!
Of course, YMMV, but I have evaluated several different form factors of phones including the Plantronics heads sets, cell phones with hand-free capabilities to the standard hand sets; all in a wide price range. IMHO, none compare to the total freedom provided via speaker phone!!!
Depending on the stats and reporting capabilities of the new search engine that Northern Light Technology develops, perhaps the CIA could come up with its own version of a "Ten Most Wanted" list.
Of course, this would be a bit different than that of the FBI's list, with a ranking of search strings rather than people. I would predict the top three being:
(1) where hell Osama bin Laden Cave Country
(2) bad-guys terrorists attack United States not nice people
(3) Natalie Portman hot grits petrified
Truthfully, which do you feel is the bigger waste of time??? The approximately two seconds it requires to click on the "back" button of your browser after following the bogus headline link to an advertisement OR the two hours we will spend complaining about this on /. !!!
/.) actively advertise in one manner or another... IMHO, the fact that a "news" site such as Yahoo News was a bit deceptive in presenting said advertisements should be all but expected...
Ultimately, this act of deception does little more than secure the fact that Yahoo News is, has been, and always will be a part of part of "Big Corporate America".
Beyond that point, everyone knows that being bombarded with advertising is a part of surfing the net! Most web sites (including our beloved
Perhaps we are all attempting to look too deep into the software archives to find the solution here...maybe we should look a bit more towards the obvious!!!
:-)
:-)
My vote is for Word Perfect 6.0!!! It occupies minimal disk space, requires very few resources, and is well documented!!!
Just a thought...I mean it worked great back in the day!!!
DISCLAIMER: If you think I am serious, YOU are the idiot - not me!!!
Perhaps I am biased through my involvement in the I/T industry, but I find figures such as the one quoting Koreans having 4X greater access to broadband than Americans simply appalling...if not completely unbelievable!!!
Not that I have anything against the Korean citizens or believe that they are any less entitled to fast internet access (as are we all...). I am simply in utter disbelief that a once war-ravaged, divided country whose population indulges primarily in farming is in such a position of dominance over the United States in this respective area. For all intents and purposes, any comparison in terms of technological and/or economical dynamics would be heavily weighed in the favor of the United States. And yet, the Korean government and industries have been able to provide this amazing level of availability of the Internet to it's citizenry.
IMHO, anyone whom can be presented this fact and not arrive at the simple conclusion that there are evil corporate powers at work hindering the acceptance of broadband within the U.S. is simply not trying to see the truth or being paid off by big corporate money!!!
-n2q
My personal situation is much akin to that of the individual who submitted this question to Slashdot. I am 24 yrs old with 10+ yrs. of overall experience with computers (6+ yrs. in a professional environment...) and am currently employed by a well-known, Fortune 500 company. And, I have accomplished all of this (including a very generous salary) without the assistance of a college degree of any sort...
:)
I am currently in the highly enviable position of working for a corporation that not only encourages it employees to seek further higher education, but actually empowers them to do so with 100% reimbursement of all tuition/books/fees associated with attending university - please don't hate me because I'm fortunate...
So to address the question at hand, I will simply explain my strategy for attaining my desired degrees. As many have posted prior to me (and as should be common sense...), there are **NO** degrees that are both accredited and quick - all worthwhile degrees require at least a moderate level of commitment. That said, my personal plan is to leverage the limited number of college credits that I amassed while working for the I/T department of U of D Mercy (classes were free...) to provide me with eligibility for an accelerated Bachelors program for Business Administration - this is an 18-month program and is offered at MANY business oriented universities.
So why would a computer geek need/want a Bachelor's in Business Administration??? There are actually three reasons why this was appropriate in my situation - (1) it is the most logical if you are looking for promotion to management, (2) it is the easiest, quickest bachelor's degree available, and (3) It is a fully accredited degree that can be used as a stepping stone for further post-graduate education.
It is actually this final point that makes this plan so applicable, beneficial, and practical. Once you have completed your bachelor's degree in business, you can continue on to get a Master's Degree (in roughly another 12 - 18 months if you work hard...) in a more computer/technical related area. This could be anything from E-Business to a program targeted for future CIO's.
If you are anything like me, you have no desire to sit through tedious technical classes that strive to teach you old ideas and yesterday's technology. I read books and attend conferences to maintain my up-to-date standing in the world of technology. The benefit that I can derive from attending university is that of management and people skills that most computer geeks inherently lack. As proof of concept, I have actually been premature promoted to an interim management position only weeks after divulging my educational intensions to my superiors and taking the first preliminary steps...
Best of luck to you in whatever you path you choose - ultimately, any education or form of learning will prove to be beneficial for you mind and soul!!!
- n2q
As the poster indicates, the rate at which Weatherly writes code is nothing less that phenomenal.
To provide further perspective on this impressively rapid rate of coding, I have done some rather rudimentary calculations. All of the figures below proceed with the assumption of a 5-day, 40-hour workweek (which we all know is unrealistic in the world of programming, but for the sake of simple stats it seemed appropriate):
Lines/Month = 21,201.9
Lines/Week = 4,988.6
Lines/Day = 997.7
Lines/Hour = 124.7
Lines/Minute = 2.0
How impressive is that...WOW!!! To think that this man averaged two lines of code per minute throughout the period of an entire year is nothing less than astonishing!!! Of course, these figures are a bit skewed by the means through which I calculated them, but nonetheless, this is quite an accomplishment...
My sincere congratulations and compliments!!!
-n2q
This may or may not be feasible as I have never attempted such a thing (I have no need for 200+ ISO's)... Essentially, I am aware of two technologies within win2k/ntfs that may allow for such a configuration as I believe that you are looking for.
First, a functionality exists in win2k through which to mount drive partitions as folders... Unlike the idea of using subst & such, this is not constricted by the magic number of 26 drive letters. Simply identify/create the partitions (logical, extended, dynamic, physical drives whatever...) and edit the properties to have them mounted as folers. The ISO's could then be stored in partitions/drives mounted as folders with appropriate names. More can be gleamed on this topic by reading this Microsoft article at Technet.
A second alternative, that while being more complicated may provide for greater flexibility would be to implement DFS (Distributed File System). Through this package you can map ANY drive/partition on any workstation to appear as a shared folder on a server. As the name suggests, this would allow for a more distributed strategy that would allow you to leverage several machines in distributing your ISO's. More can be read on DFS at this site...
I hope this information proves to be useful for you and that I am not misunderstanding you intentions!!! As many others have pointed out, Linux would far and away be a better, more compact solution; however, like you I am saddled with the responsiblity of working at a Microsoft centric company...and for the record - IT SUCKS!!!
"It doesn't have a fancy plastic box" says CT. How is this a benefit, I like pretty boxes!!! Even more, I, for one, am not adverse to removing a couple of screw and taking off the "pretty box" and checking out what is underneath. Come on now, would a car enthusiast buy a automobile without a hood just for easier access to the motor??? I didn't think so...
Next, and this is a bit more trivial, but the internal NIC on this thing is only 10MB. Now I know what you are thinking - that is plenty fast enough for streaming audio. Well, in that aspect you are absolutely correct; however, what if you no longer have a hub/switch that even support 10MB anymore. I have a home network that this could work with quite nicely...that is, other than the fact that I am going to dust off one of my 10/100 auto-sensing hubs just for this purpose and loose my bragging rights of having a completely switched, 100MB home network!!!
I have one word for you..."ogg"!!! Besides being a rather strange noise to make, it is also the file type of the majority of my music. Having not supported this file type may be the death of an otherwise appealing gadget for hardcore hackers!!!
And finally, to conclude my little critique, I will point to the usefulness of such a gadget. While speaker wire does have distance limitations that CAT5 far surpasses, how many of us would encounter such a limitation in our own home. At work it would be quite feasible for attenuation to have negating affects, but at home this is really a mute point. As such, what is the benefit in having hardware vs. software decoding of MP3's when the same or similar can be accomplished through a free download of Winamp...
Well, I suppose I will get back down off of my soapbox... I do enjoy seeing the Taco back to doing some stories, I just hope that he exercises a it more objectivity in the future!!!
-n2q
But with all of the recent advances in technology of this nature, I doubt that we will ever see this hit the market. With an expected public release date of 2009 (at the earliest...), I would have to think that something a bit more advance and more easily produced would be widely available and send this cool little advancement into obsolecence...
While I personally would do little more than "play" with such a port to determine it stability and flexibility, I believe this would quite possibly allow for further adoption of the operating system outside the typical confines of the Linux community. Which, IMHO, is a good thing...
/.), we severely limit the potential user base for our wonderful operating system. As such, we miss out on a huge market share, if you will, of potential Linux users and supporters. Ports such as these that allow for an easier transition from win32 to Linux could tantalize John Q. Public into trying something new and eventually delve in the more complicated distros...
Too often, I believe that through our own arrogance and unwillingness to simplify the use and installation of Linux distros for the common user (not the ultra-geeks of
Just my $0.02USD, but I think the more people on Linux - the better. The only way we will ever stand a chance at overcoming the Evil Empire of M$ is through pure numbers and widespread support!!!
In the realm of industry certification, I believe there are three primary metrics that one must measure to determine which (if any) certifications are appropriate. In no particular order they are career path, geographical location, and current level of education.
I believe these all to be critical factors in the following ways:
Career Path - In the broad expanse that is today?s field of information technology, there are a vast number of specialties, niches and areas of work that one can engage in. If you find that you are particularly fond of a specific area, then it only stands to reason to pursue certifications that will not only bolster your existing knowledge of relevant material, but that are also widely recognized as credible by the industry. Of course, there are also generic certification such as network+, A+, I-net+, etc?however, I find these to be very common and less impressive to prospective employers?
Geographical Location - This is a biggie!!! The area in which you live will largely dictate the type and number of I/T jobs that are available to you. As such, it is important note trends and to tailor your certifications to meet the needs of the companies in your area. This will lead to a greater number of offers and more lucrative compensation.
Current Level of Education - This is arguably one of the most determinant factors in whether or not certification is appropriate for your situation at all. While I hate to speak in generalities, I believe that will be best to illustrate this point. Generally, an individual with a high-level, relevant college education is in need of additional certifications far less that one who may have only an associate?s degree or simply a high school diploma. The reasoning is actually quite simple in that the certification lend credibility to the knowledge and ability of the otherwise scholastically unproven individual, where the a person with a masters in computer science is far less likely to be questioned on their intellectual aptitude. However, as I stated, this is a generality?
Ultimately, I believe that attaining industry recognized certification can be highly beneficial in the short term with the ultimate challenge being to maintain and upgrade the certifications appropriately.
As for myself, I was a shameful college dropout with but two years of college to my credit. However, I almost view this as having been a head start on the computer revolution and have done quite well for myself with the aid of some certifications. I currently hold a MCSE+I (NT4.0), MCSE (Win2K), CCNA, MCDBA, CCA (Citrix), and a MCSD. Thanks to these certs, my years of experience, and a good line of BS I am now working at a fortune 500 company pulling in six figures!!!
For those looking for an example of such artistry, here is last years winner:
Even more surprisingly, this entry was from a female. Not to say that females are not capable of poetry or even working with computers...I just thought they actually read and enjoyed their spam!!! Atleast I think all of the blonde women do...
To me, it is truly a sad day when the /. community as a whole shuns a progressive development in computer technology, regardless of it's practically or level of usefulness.
As a programmer (and even more, as a self-respecting geek...), I look positively on any innovation or development that may result in furthering my personal knowledge and/or stretching the limits of existing technology. And for those of you whom do not, I extend my sincerest apologies...
Admittedly, this specific feature of transparency (a.k.a. alpha-bending) of windows has been available in various software forms and in various operating systems for a considerable amount of time. However, had anyone actually read the article in its entirety, you would have realized that this is leveraging hardware video acceleration and not taxing the CPU in the least... Now, if this was possible with your Mac in '97 or your 25MHz 68040 NeXT computer a decade ago, then I will shut up, but I believe we all know that it wasn't!!!
Ultimately, my heart and sympathy go out to the lot of you whom find yourselves so very inclined to condemn something of this nature before every getting the entire story or even giving it a chance.
EVERY advance in technology is important...despite conflicting reports, Rome was not built in a day!!!
- n2q
If my social life was my primary concern then I obviously would have chosen a much more lucrative position such as male stripper or some other profession that catered more to a better social existance and a lot more SEX!!!
Then again, I don't know if the rush of getting naked in front of beautiful women could ever compare with the amazing feeling of completing awesome code or firing up the latest and greatest hardware for the first time...I guess I was just destined to be a geek!!! :-)
- not-2-quick
I am not claiming to be an expert in the study of laser dynamics, nor do I profess to be all-knowing in the field of architectural engineering; however, something that they stated in the article DID get my attention.
The author stated that one of the many hurdles in the past with this type of technology was the swaying that occurs, quite by design, in many of today's taller buildings. In the past, this motion caused an obvious problem with regard to focusing the laser beam on the respective target.
My question that I pose to any of the good Slash-Dotters out there that ARE experts in the above mentioned fields, is how this stumbling block may have been overcome with the new technology that has just become available in the past few years???
My first thought was that that the trajectory of the beam could be manipulated in small increments using small positioning motors that moved merely the lenses. That technology, however, has been around (in varying degrees of accuracy of course) for quite some time.
There is then the issue of the degree to which taller buildings sway. Some building, particularly ones build in earthquake prone areas, have a great degree of elasticity engineered into them to prevent them from succumbing to the stresses of outside movement. This can range from fractions of an inch to, in extreme cases, several feet. Does this add yet another restraint to the application of this technology - the height of the building???
Finally, I reverted back to the analogy that was made several times comparing the equipment used for this technology to resembling R2-D2. I then visualized the comical scene of a droid-like device at the top floor of a skyscraper fidgeting back-and-forth, attempting to maintain contact with a counterpart in an adjacent building as the wind of a storm blew violently. Not exactly the type of infrastructure I would want any of my LAN's built upon!!!