I need a new laptop. My Toshiba 2805-202s is over a year old and has put in meritorious service (having survived a shorting power supply, replaced under warranty, and a motherboard-damaging fall, also replaced under warranty free-of-charge), running WinME (for DVD entertainment for the wife and I) and Linux (SuSE then RedHat 7.2; for work), but needs to be replaced.
This time my employer will purchase a laptop for me -- I just have to choose which one. Since the low end Toshibas no longer come with the point-stick (*sigh*) I'm considering alternatives. Suffice it to say I am torn between an IBM A-series or an Apple Titanium.
I'm leaning toward the Titanium. And, it's funny, but I feel like I'm returning to a first love... I started with an Apple ][+ in 1979 (I was 12) and eventually had a Apple//e, Apple//c, and, later, a Mac Plus. In the meantime I was using UNIX and DOS. I always hated DOS. Then OS/2 -- it was Ok, but...well...stiff. Then I had the opportunity, as a salesman for Businessland/ComputerCraft, to experience the NeXT -- it was slick and satisfying but unaccessible 'cause of price. But I had to bow to Windows, since I had to support my clients who used a WinTel desktop to access our UNIX accounting package. Eventually I started writing business apps in VB, Access, Paradox...that was an unhappy period. Happily, I found Linux and felt better ('cause I like server-side programming).
Mac OS X is NeXT but backward Mac compatible and at a reasonable price. That's my take. Playing with the Titanium at Fry's has been enjoyable -- sometimes frustrating, honestly -- and the underlying UNIX is accessible and tempting. Hey - it beats Win4Lin for using Internet Explorer for client-side testing (and I like Win4Lin and won't run Linux without it).
So I guess I'm getting sucked into the Mac Cult. Blame it on early conditioning...
My weirdo co-worker is also going get the Titanium but will scrap OS X and install PPC Linux. Honestly, I have no idea why.
I started telecommuting with the birth of my first son in October 1999. Initially, I had a dial-up connection over which I ran Citrix ICA (for corporate email connectivity) and K95 (for telnet connectivity to our UNIX/Linux servers; I was a legacy application/web developer). That sucked, but worked. I worked from home for the first weeks after "the delivery" but eventually returned to going into the office 4 days per week until my DSL line was installed.
This was fantastic. Bronze-level service from GTE/Earthlink for $49.95/mo, paid for by my company, and I was able to work from home 50%. A funny thing happened: although I was going into the office sometimes 3 days per week, I was working more than 50% from home -- because I started working more and more when I was home. That's a documented problem, by the way, and flies in the face of naysayers who claim telecommuters only work bewteen Roise and Oprah (er, you know what I mean).
Then the first glitches began: the DSL started getting flaky about 6 months into the contract. Since telnet doesn't like dropped connections (!) I was losing productivity. I started going to the office more to have a stable connection. Finally, for almost 2 months the DSL route to our colocation went from LA County to the Northeast back through Dallas/Irving and to a router on the fritz which would drop packets intermittently through the day before heading to Orange County, CA. Sometimes I could walk between Long Beach and Irvine before my packets would make the trip, it seemed. I was desperate, because I treasured being at home while working and loathed the commute. I tried and tried to escalate the problem -- I knew which router needed a kick, for crying out loud! -- but nothing ever happened. While I could get to slashdot.org just fine, I couldn't get to my company's servers (there are other causes for that besides network flakiness, I know, but in this case it was *really* a router. Really).
Finally I took drastic action: I bought a laptop, a Toshiba 2805-202s, and installed Linux (initially SuSE 7.1 but eventually RedHat 7.1...then 7.2) and replicated my company's development server environment. This meant I had to get an old (and I mean OLD) legacy application running -- based on acucobol it was -- along with the webserver, application server middleware (perl/Mason and a c++ program that fed data bewteen the legacy app and the web). Then, since my work touched the back-, middle- and front-ends and since we were requiring MSIE 5+ for the corporate web application on Windows, I had to also run the same for development and testing. I chose Win4Lin and it, by God, worked. At this point I had a self-contained work environment which allowed me to fully develop and test the application I was developing without *any* Internet connectivity whatsoever. Freedom - "Free" as in "untethered."
I could write perl, change page layout and form fields, add javascript, tweak apache, compile Cobol (the joy!) all on my laptop. This solved another problem: different work computers between home and office; the continuity between work sessions was broken by the different machines, tools, monitors, keyboards,etc. Now my work environment went with me wherever I would go. Consistency is cool.
I even developed a new workstyle: no longer did I sit at a desk, but I used two chairs (not side-by-side for an ever-increasing butt) - one to sit in, the other for my feet. I positioned the laptop in my lap, feet on the chair and got down to business. To this day I don't use a desk -- and the pain that was starting in my wrists disappeared. Yeah, I'll never work again for Fidelity Investments sitting like this, but I couldn't care less.
Of course, being off-line all the time wasn't practical and I did have to sync back to the development/production servers, but I was no longer reliant on broadband for my productivity. Since this time I'm changed jobs and still am able to work the same way: a replication of my work environment on my laptop. Often I'll leave home or the office and go to a secluded place to hack out a particularly difficult problem without the distactions of being online (I think this will be post #800+ for me on slashdot;-). My favorite place to be sequestered? A local tavern, of course!
To answer the question about getting reimbursed for lost productivity -- forget it, take matters into you own hands.
Who's comparing "a perl module" to bloviated software? Not me. But a very expensive, successful Blue Martini consultant compared the Perl/CPAN community offerings to, what he called, a half-completed hodge-podge that costs USD$1 Million just to take a peak at and recommended sticking with Perl/CPAN.
In my Music Appreciation (Apprehension?) class I learned that as a young boy Mozart broke a vaulted DRM of his day by simply attending a concert in an Italian church. The mass that day was kept under lock and key and would only be played once a year; all copies of the music were kept secret. What Mozart did is hear the mass (once) and then went home and wrote the entire score as if he was copying the original documents yet only assisted by his memory. His scoring was so good he was accused of stealing the score from the church. (Forgive my poor recollection of Mozart's superb recollection ancedote...)
There will always be a Mozart to break the DRM of publically performed (or distributed) works. DRM is a way of controlling the sharing of some piece of work. In reality, the only way to perfectly safeguard the rights is to not share the work -- or trust people. Hmmm...
That's neat -- but I'll stick with SOAP::Lite
on
Using SOAP with Tomcat
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I am amazed at how powerful perl w/ CPAN is and have yet to find the "killer app" requiring me to leave perl and get into Java servers or.NET stuff. I deploy a SOAP server with SOAP::Lite that is used for real-time prescription dispensing. The other end is Java on Windows. Yes, I ran into the "base64" encoding assumption but once pointed in the right direction we were golden.
A friend who is an expert with Blue Martini (a very expensive Java-based application server) said that perl with CPAN was more impressive.
But, as long as Microsoft and Sun have the advertising avenues to reach the PHBs, Perl will be the despised step-child of Web application development. But despised stepchildren tend to have, er, Cinderella stories.
Selling ads isn't the problem - it's changing the search results that sucks air. Google doesn't change results, it just sells clearly marked ads.
I think your REAL problem is that deep down you are a filthy, stinkin' communist who wants our capitalist paradise to slip into the failure that is socialism! Grrr....! Roarrrrr!
True. I almost mentioned Grub as in "...detect if I'm using Grub or LILO and prepare my system respectively." But I was lazy. I have some systems using Grub (7.2-based installs) but one is using LILO (7.1-based install). I just expected up2date to not leave my system in an unstable state.
That said, I also assumed the up2date on my servers ignored new kernels. Therefore I was surprised by the console stuck at "LI" after an unfortunate reboot. As a matter of fact, I would have bet money that auto-kernel updates were disabled. Guess I would have lost...
Not really. No one pays Linus for their kernel, so no consideration has been given and since his work is distributed under the GPL, which has a big, bold "NO WARRANTY" clause, it'd be nigh impossible to make him liable. However, RedHat, et al, do enter into a contract with their patrons and could be considered as liable since they package the distribution and offer expert consultation service. The service model for OS money-makers may open them up to suits that the OS programmers themselves would be shielded.
A little off topic but food for thought: when will RedHat get sued for allowing up2date to download a new kernel without running LILO to enable that kernel upon reboot?
Actually no[t a conservative], a Libertarian. Big difference.
Yep. A conservative is beholden to an ideal while a Libertarian is beholden to a party. BTW, have you noticed that the Libertarian philosophy is little known among the masses, but it seems every knows about the Libertarian party -- the Party that knows how to party...the other Greens (Drop Kemp, Vote Hemp!), etc... It's a shame that an entire political philosopgy has been reduced to a single off-beat issue.
Conservatives are mainly associated with the Republican Party these days, but historically there have been conservatives in both (and I mean "both" as inclusive of all the major parties in the US) parties. Great conservative thinkers and icons include well-known names such as Winston Churchill, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Ronald Reagan. But can a person on the street name a great Libertarian thinker? They should be able to name Thomas Jefferson, but, unfortunately, the message of Libertarianism has been limited to a stand on legalizing drugs and TJ doesn't spring to mind when discussing getting high (and if he does, you're too far gone to help:^).
The Libertarian Party is in great need of a libertarian thinker to promote libertarian ideals among the populace -- and to distance the movement from single-issue-itis.
Here's a story, basing Microsoft products as "shite", about using said Microsoft product in Linux and praises Apple's just-as-proprietary media format./*Head spins*/
So, am I to understand that MS sucks so very bad that we need to run out, install a different MS-free OS and then get a utility to run pieces of MS software to have a decent computing experience yet give no "thank you" to MS for making a product that enables us to have that enjoyable computing experience?
This reminds me of street beggars spitting on people who give them money for being capitalist pigs. Sheesh.
After reading the Slashdot story I tried water-cooling my Toshiba Satellite. I'm sorry to say but Hitachi has obviously not tried this in the real world, 'cause if they did...well, let's just say that I'm using my wife's desktop to write this post.
"Microsoft has some ideas (on how to break the independence on HTTP), IBM has some ideas, and others have ideas. We'll see," he said. But, he added, "if one vendor does it on their own, it will simply not be worth the trouble."
So...refreshing.
The problem with HTTP is that it is stateless and requires a constant connnection (or a state-tracking mechanism with repolling or push-back). This becomes a problem when dealing with web services that process large or time-consumming transactions before returning results. HTTP connections timeout. But, protocols such as SMTP, for example, don't require synchronious connectivity.
This is why I love SOAP/SOAP::Lite. It allows me to use firewall-piercing HTTP as a transport protocol, but it also allows me to use
HTTP/HTTPS
FTP
SMTP
TCP (straight up)
POP3
Jabber
and so on...
When HTTP is dead, CPAN will have the replacement module ready to go. (BTW, props to Paul Kulchenko!)
As one can readily tell, I'm no mathmatician (heck, I'm barely an arithmatician!)...Yes, I majored in Informtion System to avoid the math requirements in the CS program...
Slashdot Mirror
Then I definitely recommend a laptop, wifi card, and long battery life...good luck!
I can so attest that you've fused.
He's a graphic designer by trade and a Mac fanatic by nature...so an expensive Mac is easier to justify in his eyes than an expensive rice-burner.
This time my employer will purchase a laptop for me -- I just have to choose which one. Since the low end Toshibas no longer come with the point-stick (*sigh*) I'm considering alternatives. Suffice it to say I am torn between an IBM A-series or an Apple Titanium.
I'm leaning toward the Titanium. And, it's funny, but I feel like I'm returning to a first love... I started with an Apple ][+ in 1979 (I was 12) and eventually had a Apple //e, Apple //c, and, later, a Mac Plus. In the meantime I was using UNIX and DOS. I always hated DOS. Then OS/2 -- it was Ok, but...well...stiff. Then I had the opportunity, as a salesman for Businessland/ComputerCraft, to experience the NeXT -- it was slick and satisfying but unaccessible 'cause of price. But I had to bow to Windows, since I had to support my clients who used a WinTel desktop to access our UNIX accounting package. Eventually I started writing business apps in VB, Access, Paradox...that was an unhappy period. Happily, I found Linux and felt better ('cause I like server-side programming).
Mac OS X is NeXT but backward Mac compatible and at a reasonable price. That's my take. Playing with the Titanium at Fry's has been enjoyable -- sometimes frustrating, honestly -- and the underlying UNIX is accessible and tempting. Hey - it beats Win4Lin for using Internet Explorer for client-side testing (and I like Win4Lin and won't run Linux without it).
So I guess I'm getting sucked into the Mac Cult. Blame it on early conditioning...
My weirdo co-worker is also going get the Titanium but will scrap OS X and install PPC Linux. Honestly, I have no idea why.
- The virus is _NOT_ a
.net program, it's NOT running on the .net platform and it's NOT messing around with files from managed code.
So, its aSee: this message. Subscribing to this list is recommended.
Yes, that does help. Now my biggest problem is giving up the point-stick for a mouse pad. My thumbs aren't very precise... ;-)
This was fantastic. Bronze-level service from GTE/Earthlink for $49.95/mo, paid for by my company, and I was able to work from home 50%. A funny thing happened: although I was going into the office sometimes 3 days per week, I was working more than 50% from home -- because I started working more and more when I was home. That's a documented problem, by the way, and flies in the face of naysayers who claim telecommuters only work bewteen Roise and Oprah (er, you know what I mean).
Then the first glitches began: the DSL started getting flaky about 6 months into the contract. Since telnet doesn't like dropped connections (!) I was losing productivity. I started going to the office more to have a stable connection. Finally, for almost 2 months the DSL route to our colocation went from LA County to the Northeast back through Dallas/Irving and to a router on the fritz which would drop packets intermittently through the day before heading to Orange County, CA. Sometimes I could walk between Long Beach and Irvine before my packets would make the trip, it seemed. I was desperate, because I treasured being at home while working and loathed the commute. I tried and tried to escalate the problem -- I knew which router needed a kick, for crying out loud! -- but nothing ever happened. While I could get to slashdot.org just fine, I couldn't get to my company's servers (there are other causes for that besides network flakiness, I know, but in this case it was *really* a router. Really).
Finally I took drastic action: I bought a laptop, a Toshiba 2805-202s, and installed Linux (initially SuSE 7.1 but eventually RedHat 7.1...then 7.2) and replicated my company's development server environment. This meant I had to get an old (and I mean OLD) legacy application running -- based on acucobol it was -- along with the webserver, application server middleware (perl/Mason and a c++ program that fed data bewteen the legacy app and the web). Then, since my work touched the back-, middle- and front-ends and since we were requiring MSIE 5+ for the corporate web application on Windows, I had to also run the same for development and testing. I chose Win4Lin and it, by God, worked. At this point I had a self-contained work environment which allowed me to fully develop and test the application I was developing without *any* Internet connectivity whatsoever. Freedom - "Free" as in "untethered."
I could write perl, change page layout and form fields, add javascript, tweak apache, compile Cobol (the joy!) all on my laptop. This solved another problem: different work computers between home and office; the continuity between work sessions was broken by the different machines, tools, monitors, keyboards,etc. Now my work environment went with me wherever I would go. Consistency is cool.
I even developed a new workstyle: no longer did I sit at a desk, but I used two chairs (not side-by-side for an ever-increasing butt) - one to sit in, the other for my feet. I positioned the laptop in my lap, feet on the chair and got down to business. To this day I don't use a desk -- and the pain that was starting in my wrists disappeared. Yeah, I'll never work again for Fidelity Investments sitting like this, but I couldn't care less.
Of course, being off-line all the time wasn't practical and I did have to sync back to the development/production servers, but I was no longer reliant on broadband for my productivity. Since this time I'm changed jobs and still am able to work the same way: a replication of my work environment on my laptop. Often I'll leave home or the office and go to a secluded place to hack out a particularly difficult problem without the distactions of being online (I think this will be post #800+ for me on slashdot ;-). My favorite place to be sequestered? A local tavern, of course!
To answer the question about getting reimbursed for lost productivity -- forget it, take matters into you own hands.
Who's comparing "a perl module" to bloviated software? Not me. But a very expensive, successful Blue Martini consultant compared the Perl/CPAN community offerings to, what he called, a half-completed hodge-podge that costs USD$1 Million just to take a peak at and recommended sticking with Perl/CPAN.
sounds like the difference between source code and documentation...
That's why I prefer Windows, where all my applications are *huge.
There will always be a Mozart to break the DRM of publically performed (or distributed) works. DRM is a way of controlling the sharing of some piece of work. In reality, the only way to perfectly safeguard the rights is to not share the work -- or trust people. Hmmm...
A friend who is an expert with Blue Martini (a very expensive Java-based application server) said that perl with CPAN was more impressive.
But, as long as Microsoft and Sun have the advertising avenues to reach the PHBs, Perl will be the despised step-child of Web application development. But despised stepchildren tend to have, er, Cinderella stories.
What, exactly, is Google Butt? And why do you love it?
I think your REAL problem is that deep down you are a filthy, stinkin' communist who wants our capitalist paradise to slip into the failure that is socialism! Grrr....! Roarrrrr!
Or, not, I don't know...
That said, I also assumed the up2date on my servers ignored new kernels. Therefore I was surprised by the console stuck at "LI" after an unfortunate reboot. As a matter of fact, I would have bet money that auto-kernel updates were disabled. Guess I would have lost...
I'll take the mod hits to point out that the parent nailed it.
A little off topic but food for thought: when will RedHat get sued for allowing up2date to download a new kernel without running LILO to enable that kernel upon reboot?
Yep. A conservative is beholden to an ideal while a Libertarian is beholden to a party. BTW, have you noticed that the Libertarian philosophy is little known among the masses, but it seems every knows about the Libertarian party -- the Party that knows how to party...the other Greens (Drop Kemp, Vote Hemp!), etc... It's a shame that an entire political philosopgy has been reduced to a single off-beat issue.
Conservatives are mainly associated with the Republican Party these days, but historically there have been conservatives in both (and I mean "both" as inclusive of all the major parties in the US) parties. Great conservative thinkers and icons include well-known names such as Winston Churchill, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Ronald Reagan. But can a person on the street name a great Libertarian thinker? They should be able to name Thomas Jefferson, but, unfortunately, the message of Libertarianism has been limited to a stand on legalizing drugs and TJ doesn't spring to mind when discussing getting high (and if he does, you're too far gone to help :^).
The Libertarian Party is in great need of a libertarian thinker to promote libertarian ideals among the populace -- and to distance the movement from single-issue-itis.
So, am I to understand that MS sucks so very bad that we need to run out, install a different MS-free OS and then get a utility to run pieces of MS software to have a decent computing experience yet give no "thank you" to MS for making a product that enables us to have that enjoyable computing experience?
This reminds me of street beggars spitting on people who give them money for being capitalist pigs. Sheesh.
Wow. Talk about Vaporware...yikes...
And $0.0175 of that goes to the government's Free Speech Protection tax. Pay up.
Yes, but he'd probably try to break it over your head...
- "Microsoft has some ideas (on how to break the independence on HTTP), IBM has some ideas, and others have ideas. We'll see," he said. But, he added, "if one vendor does it on their own, it will simply not be worth the trouble."
So...refreshing.The problem with HTTP is that it is stateless and requires a constant connnection (or a state-tracking mechanism with repolling or push-back). This becomes a problem when dealing with web services that process large or time-consumming transactions before returning results. HTTP connections timeout. But, protocols such as SMTP, for example, don't require synchronious connectivity.
This is why I love SOAP/SOAP::Lite. It allows me to use firewall-piercing HTTP as a transport protocol, but it also allows me to use
- HTTP/HTTPS
- FTP
- SMTP
- TCP (straight up)
- POP3
- Jabber
- and so on...
When HTTP is dead, CPAN will have the replacement module ready to go. (BTW, props to Paul Kulchenko!)As one can readily tell, I'm no mathmatician (heck, I'm barely an arithmatician!)...Yes, I majored in Informtion System to avoid the math requirements in the CS program...