Ever since men went to the moon, there is no good excuse for technical difficulties. Now all we hear is "They sent a man to the moon, but they can't deliver my email","They sent a man to the moon but my toaster just broke","They sent a man to the moon but my fibre channel hardware doesn't play nice together."
Seems like before men went to the moon, we had an excuse for whatever technical thingy didn't work.
When you sign up they become the authorized re-seller of your products. Essentially, a customer of your's see all your pretty web site with the mod_perl and everything, then they click Buy it and they are taken to CCNows cash register. It seems pretty slick and they work nicely with people who auction stuff off on EBay. Now when CCNow gets the order they send you a virtual P.O. basically instructing you to drop ship the goods.
The down side is that they take 9 percent for each transaction. In addition they are eager to avoid disputes so they give a lot of leeway to the buyer, if they are unhappy or claim they didn't get the goods. On the other hand for someone who would not sell a lot of stuff wouldn't have to put up with the fee's and complexity of rolling your own commerce solution or using someone elses e-commerce with your own Merchant Account. In addition for those folks who can't get a Merchant Account this is fabu.
wife uses it on her web site and is very happy.
I think this is such a good idea, I am thinking it would be a good business to try to get into and compete with them.
If you your friend really is a Windows Developer than he or she must have run into a big Windows bug before.
Now I know Linux has bugs as well. The only sure fired way to elimate software defects is to eliminate end users, right?
Anyway, with Linux you have access to the source, and you can fix the bug or report it to someone for fixing or pay someone to fix it. With Microsoft you hope and wait.
Plus, ever try to bring up NT in a debugger? With Linux you can do just that. Of course, you can do some debugging with NT, but without access to the source it just isn't the same.
Makes good sense to me. Before you have reliable power, make sure you have access to the internet.
Although, I am a big fan of networks, the internet, and what not, does this really make any sense. Isn't it more important to have electricity you can rely on before you worry about internet cafes?
Sometimes methinks the FSF goes after violators in a much less overt way by pressuring the company for a donation of money or equipment in exchange for not going to court.
I have read a lot of your online material and I consider your advice to be the Rosetta stone in creating database driven web content.
What do you do to scale your web databases and keep the uptime near perfect.
What is your policy on upgrading OS'es, adding OS or database patches? What do you use for backup software? Are you using any special FS technology, replication or clustering solutions. What do you think of these technologies. Have you migrated to 64 bit OS and database? If not now, when?
Is HP still your platform of choice over Sun (Sparc/Solaris) and IBM (RS6000/AIX). Why or why not?
Thanks, I'll hang up and take my answer over the ether.
OK, it is true that today's laws are certainly encroaching on the freedom of the internet. Some of this is good, I want to be able to avoid fraudelent merchant. Some of this is bad, I don't want more taxes on goods that I purchase.
What doesn't make sense to me is that this will circumvent freedoms. The internet with it's routable protocols, and today's easy access to relatively high power computing is not going away. If something should be free we'll route around the roadblocks imposed by government and corporations. Data havens will spring up. Clusters of people will create alternative networks. That is the power and beauty of the internet and cyberspace. We are only limited by our imagination.
As long as we have open source, cheap computing, and access to reliable cabling we'll always be as free as we want to be.
BTW - We all need to make our respective elected officials aware of these important issues so giant global companies aren't the only voices being heard.
After reading the scads of comments below, one thing is quite clear. There are a lot of people willing to give expert testimony on the subject of licensing and copyright in the United States.
But one thing is perfectly clear, the cat is our of the bag. As long as computers are in wide circulation it is possible to get this program Mattel doesn't want anyone to get.
It doesn't really matter who owns the copyright, the patent, or the license in this case. The code is on the web, and it will be available as long as it is useful. When the blocking software from Mattel is no longer available, or CPHack doesn't work anymore then this program will be difficult to find. Eventually it will dissapear for the most part.
Information wants to be free. You can sue, you can holler, you can license, but CPHack and code like it will always be available if you want it.
On the other hand it never hurts to make your elected representatives aware of your intellectual property concerns, i.e. reverse engineering, software patents, etc..
Of course, I was trying to find AOHell the other day, and never did find it. Oh, well.
Some people have suggested that eventually all backups will be to disk rather than tape.
Personally, I don't know. I mean those ATL's or DLT's really scream, especially when you get 16 or so going at once. But if instead of loading a DLT the robot loaded a cartridge with 250GB of mirrored disk, it might hum pretty good to. Then that disk pack could be taken off site, or swapped into another bot.
Mainly, I just want to take 1000+ picutes with my digital camera without having to download all the time. timbu
One reason I love *NIX is that I appreciate choice.
With Win2K I have one choice, Intel and Microsoft.
With UNIX, and can choose a multitude of *NIX for INTEL, PPC, Sparc, Alpha, etc. Each hardare/software platform offers strengths and weaknesses, especially considering the level of support that is offered.
Choice is a strength to an IT organization. Choose the tool that most closely matches the problem you are attempting to solve. With the Microsoft / Intel choice you are very, very limited. If it doesn't work the way you like, wit and hope that Microsoft or Intel will fix things the way you like someday.
I like to be able to choose.
Magazines would prefer to cover one platform, with one OS. It is much easier to be an expert in one thing.
timbu
If I give you beer and include the recipe for the beer, does that mean that the beer is free as in software or free as in beer.
Those were cool. I got an LCD monitor that does that too. It's pretty cool since you can work on a much longer document when you pivot to portrait mode. It's from Mag Innovision, and it has a 4 port USB hub thrown in for good measure.
Has anyone tried this with X?
tim
If I distribute beer with the recipe for beer, does that make it free beer as in software, not free beer as in beer?
This could be great for a SAN. SAN technology is still in it's infancy. Gigabit technology is more like an extension of current technology while SAN is still in standards wars. It is very easy to buy SAN equipment from different vendors and your HBA won't talk to my device unless someone gets a firmware upgrade. When was the last time you thought about that when you bought a network card or a hub, 1988 or so??? Your post also supports my assuption that network storage will continue to be one of the fastest growing segments in technology for the next few years. In a few years we'll all be using data storage devices that aren't on out local computer/PDA for important data. It won't matter where you are or what OS you use. You'll log in and all your really important files (formatted in XML, HTML, or Plain Old Text) will be available for your immediate use. On the question about XFS allowing different hosts to low level sector read and writes, my read of what SGI is releasing seems like a yes. I would also bet more appliance devices show up that also do this. -timbu2
I interviewed with CA about 18 months ago. They must have spent 30 mintes going over how stuffy and uptight they are, and how they are proud of it. One thing sticks out, is that employees, can't smoke in a CA building, or outside, or in their own car in the parking lot. It seems like a company that needs to control that much of your behaviour can't be trusted. Then there was this whole attitude that any organization they bought had to give up everything and learn how to do things the CA way. It just seemed wierd and controlling. Anyway, when the interview was complete I asked them to not consider me for the position.
I have had AOL5.0 working for 3 months on a Win98 boxen with no problem. During that period I have also used Windows DUN, a VPN client, and now DSL with no problems. Of course, it took me a few minutes digging to figure out how to keep AOL from leaping to my rescue whenever I connected to the net in other ways. For those of you in need who have IE 5.01, select Internet Options from the Tools menu, once there navigate to the connection tab, if AOL is your default dial up, be sure to unclick "Alway's dial my default connection" That cleared up several problems for me. Of course I am very careful about what I install on this machine, which seems to make a huge difference. That's what allowed me to have uptimes over a month on a laptop running Win95. Does anyone know if AOL will run inside of VMWare on Linux?
Slashdot Mirror
Doesn't everyone remember Suck isn't a real news organization?
They publish irreverant jabs aimed mostly at ubercool web illuminati types.
It's a collosal joke. Gosh you guys are like the folks who haven't figured out the Simpson's are a parody of a family.
timbu
Ever since men went to the moon, there is no good excuse for technical difficulties. Now all we hear is "They sent a man to the moon, but they can't deliver my email","They sent a man to the moon but my toaster just broke","They sent a man to the moon but my fibre channel hardware doesn't play nice together."
Seems like before men went to the moon, we had an excuse for whatever technical thingy didn't work.
There is one place I know of.
It is called CCNow.
When you sign up they become the authorized re-seller of your products. Essentially, a customer of your's see all your pretty web site with the mod_perl and everything, then they click Buy it and they are taken to CCNows cash register. It seems pretty slick and they work nicely with people who auction stuff off on EBay. Now when CCNow gets the order they send you a virtual P.O. basically instructing you to drop ship the goods.
The down side is that they take 9 percent for each transaction. In addition they are eager to avoid disputes so they give a lot of leeway to the buyer, if they are unhappy or claim they didn't get the goods. On the other hand for someone who would not sell a lot of stuff wouldn't have to put up with the fee's and complexity of rolling your own commerce solution or using someone elses e-commerce with your own Merchant Account. In addition for those folks who can't get a Merchant Account this is fabu.
wife uses it on her web site and is very happy.
I think this is such a good idea, I am thinking it would be a good business to try to get into and compete with them.
If you your friend really is a Windows Developer than he or she must have run into a big Windows bug before.
Now I know Linux has bugs as well. The only sure fired way to elimate software defects is to eliminate end users, right?
Anyway, with Linux you have access to the source, and you can fix the bug or report it to someone for fixing or pay someone to fix it. With Microsoft you hope and wait.
Plus, ever try to bring up NT in a debugger? With Linux you can do just that. Of course, you can do some debugging with NT, but without access to the source it just isn't the same.
You are in maze of twisty passages all alike
I spent far too much time as a kid in text based adventure games on my TRS-80. My favorite was Pyramid, which featured the passage above.
Can anyone tell me the origin of the phrase "maze of twisty passages all alike"?
OK, good point. Reliable sanitation before electricity.
Still last time I check most internet access devices need electricity to work.
timbu
Makes good sense to me. Before you have reliable power, make sure you have access to the internet.
Although, I am a big fan of networks, the internet, and what not, does this really make any sense. Isn't it more important to have electricity you can rely on before you worry about internet cafes?
Well, maybe I should get in on something early.
How about I wire the moon for cable TV?
timbu
I ordered DSL from Onvoy.
I posted my diary of the experience on my home page.
All because I can't get cable and the phone company won't service my area.
timbu
Sometimes methinks the FSF goes after violators in a much less overt way by pressuring the company for a donation of money or equipment in exchange for not going to court.
Anyone seen this happen to their company?
timbu
Phillip:
I have read a lot of your online material and I consider your advice to be the Rosetta stone in creating database driven web content.
What do you do to scale your web databases and keep the uptime near perfect.
What is your policy on upgrading OS'es, adding OS or database patches? What do you use for backup software? Are you using any special FS technology, replication or clustering solutions. What do you think of these technologies. Have you migrated to 64 bit OS and database? If not now, when?
Is HP still your platform of choice over Sun (Sparc/Solaris) and IBM (RS6000/AIX). Why or why not?
Thanks, I'll hang up and take my answer over the ether.
tim
OK, it is true that today's laws are certainly encroaching on the freedom of the internet. Some of this is good, I want to be able to avoid fraudelent merchant. Some of this is bad, I don't want more taxes on goods that I purchase.
What doesn't make sense to me is that this will circumvent freedoms. The internet with it's routable protocols, and today's easy access to relatively high power computing is not going away. If something should be free we'll route around the roadblocks imposed by government and corporations. Data havens will spring up. Clusters of people will create alternative networks. That is the power and beauty of the internet and cyberspace. We are only limited by our imagination.
As long as we have open source, cheap computing, and access to reliable cabling we'll always be as free as we want to be.
BTW - We all need to make our respective elected officials aware of these important issues so giant global companies aren't the only voices being heard.
timbu
After reading the scads of comments below, one thing is quite clear. There are a lot of people willing to give expert testimony on the subject of licensing and copyright in the United States.
But one thing is perfectly clear, the cat is our of the bag. As long as computers are in wide circulation it is possible to get this program Mattel doesn't want anyone to get.
It doesn't really matter who owns the copyright, the patent, or the license in this case. The code is on the web, and it will be available as long as it is useful. When the blocking software from Mattel is no longer available, or CPHack doesn't work anymore then this program will be difficult to find. Eventually it will dissapear for the most part.
Information wants to be free. You can sue, you can holler, you can license, but CPHack and code like it will always be available if you want it.
On the other hand it never hurts to make your elected representatives aware of your intellectual property concerns, i.e. reverse engineering, software patents, etc..
Of course, I was trying to find AOHell the other day, and never did find it. Oh, well.
timbu
Some people have suggested that eventually all backups will be to disk rather than tape.
Personally, I don't know. I mean those ATL's or DLT's really scream, especially when you get 16 or so going at once. But if instead of loading a DLT the robot loaded a cartridge with 250GB of mirrored disk, it might hum pretty good to. Then that disk pack could be taken off site, or swapped into another bot.
Mainly, I just want to take 1000+ picutes with my digital camera without having to download all the time. timbu
One reason I love *NIX is that I appreciate choice.
With Win2K I have one choice, Intel and Microsoft.
With UNIX, and can choose a multitude of *NIX for INTEL, PPC, Sparc, Alpha, etc. Each hardare/software platform offers strengths and weaknesses, especially considering the level of support that is offered.
Choice is a strength to an IT organization. Choose the tool that most closely matches the problem you are attempting to solve. With the Microsoft / Intel choice you are very, very limited. If it doesn't work the way you like, wit and hope that Microsoft or Intel will fix things the way you like someday.
I like to be able to choose.
Magazines would prefer to cover one platform, with one OS. It is much easier to be an expert in one thing.
timbu
If I give you beer and include the recipe for the beer, does that mean that the beer is free as in software or free as in beer.
Those were cool. I got an LCD monitor that does that too. It's pretty cool since you can work on a much longer document when you pivot to portrait mode. It's from Mag Innovision, and it has a 4 port USB hub thrown in for good measure.
Has anyone tried this with X?
tim
If I distribute beer with the recipe for beer, does that make it free beer as in software, not free beer as in beer?
This could be great for a SAN. SAN technology is still in it's infancy. Gigabit technology is more like an extension of current technology while SAN is still in standards wars. It is very easy to buy SAN equipment from different vendors and your HBA won't talk to my device unless someone gets a firmware upgrade. When was the last time you thought about that when you bought a network card or a hub, 1988 or so??? Your post also supports my assuption that network storage will continue to be one of the fastest growing segments in technology for the next few years. In a few years we'll all be using data storage devices that aren't on out local computer/PDA for important data. It won't matter where you are or what OS you use. You'll log in and all your really important files (formatted in XML, HTML, or Plain Old Text) will be available for your immediate use. On the question about XFS allowing different hosts to low level sector read and writes, my read of what SGI is releasing seems like a yes. I would also bet more appliance devices show up that also do this. -timbu2
I interviewed with CA about 18 months ago. They must have spent 30 mintes going over how stuffy and uptight they are, and how they are proud of it. One thing sticks out, is that employees, can't smoke in a CA building, or outside, or in their own car in the parking lot. It seems like a company that needs to control that much of your behaviour can't be trusted. Then there was this whole attitude that any organization they bought had to give up everything and learn how to do things the CA way. It just seemed wierd and controlling. Anyway, when the interview was complete I asked them to not consider me for the position.
I have had AOL5.0 working for 3 months on a Win98 boxen with no problem. During that period I have also used Windows DUN, a VPN client, and now DSL with no problems. Of course, it took me a few minutes digging to figure out how to keep AOL from leaping to my rescue whenever I connected to the net in other ways. For those of you in need who have IE 5.01, select Internet Options from the Tools menu, once there navigate to the connection tab, if AOL is your default dial up, be sure to unclick "Alway's dial my default connection" That cleared up several problems for me. Of course I am very careful about what I install on this machine, which seems to make a huge difference. That's what allowed me to have uptimes over a month on a laptop running Win95. Does anyone know if AOL will run inside of VMWare on Linux?