200 MB is peanuts for modern disks. Takes them about five seconds to read it sequentially.
However, a *lot* of time is wasted doing disk seeks while booting. A few things can be done to stop wasting that time:
Do parallel loads of daemons. While daemon1 is loaded from disk, daemon2 is run. However, this could also cause extra seeks so this could be sub-optimal
Make a 'recorder' for the seeks done during boot and then defragment the disk to minimize disk seeks. This acually is what Windows XP does AFAIK.
Extension of the previous one: first pre buffer the defragmented area into the buffer cache.
Create a ramdisk which can be read sequentially, and use the ramdisk to boot the system. Lose the ramdisk when booting is done.
Also, sometimes utterly useless scripts are run. SuSE for example runs a script at every boot to seek *.rpmnew and *.rpmsave files in/etc. The output from this script is either hidden by the bootsplash image or scrolls off screen rapidly.
Some daemons could start after the login prompt is shown. This actually doesn't really speed up booting, but it sure makes it feel faster. For example: wait to 60 *after* the boot process is completed to start up daemons like cron, atd, cups, etc.
Serious answer on funny comment: actually it's a very high initial spike with a gradual decay. See the hourly usage stats generated for a slashdoted April's Fool site. Note that this site is specifically designed to withstand the slashdot effect by using light graphics, no database and very simple scripting. Server load was low.
No. Bounces never reach the spammer. Ever. Spammers always use fake sender addresses, so the bounces will go to an innocent bystander.
So, while totally ineffective, you also burden the innocent bystander with yet another bounce.
The only way to combat spam is to reject it on the SMTP level.
Note that the guy in the article was wrong. When a mailserver is offline for two days, no bounces are sent. Sending mailservers will usually retry for 5 days before bouncing the message.
However, spammers don't use mailservers to send their spam, they deliver the spam direcly to the receiving mailserver. They've got instant feedback on wether the spam is accepted by the mailserver or not.
When a mailserver is offline, spammers will know immediately. However I doubt they'd remove your name from the list because of this simple fact. Mailservers are regulary offline for multiple days.
In this case I rather think they installed a very good spamfilter on that brand new Exchange Server.
That would probably religious christians. To the rest of the world 666 is just a number. The only thing odd to me about the number is the precision of it while saying 'more than 666'.
A nice and confusing name apparently only chosen because the debian developers don't like intel for what they did (namely copying the amd64 and forgetting to mention that fact in their press releases).
spyware almost always hides its true intentions deeply into some EULA nobody reads
spyware usually is very hard to uninstall
Especially the last point is important. If my browser is infected with spyware, I simply want to go to controlpanel->software, select the program and uninstall it. Nearly always this is completely impossible. Lots of spyware nowadays actively combats uninstalling. And when software does that, it always is written by the Bad Guys.
Unfortunately you don't say what product your company was/is making, but I guess that was to be expected.
It doesn't matter if the developers have a clue. Linus has repeatedly said no.
This argument can also be applied to support for multiple processor architectures in the kernel. Linus said it would probably never happen. He said the kernel would only run on i386 compatible processors. Today Linux runs on about any processor you can think of.
Linus can be persuaded by good arguments. His opinions aren't static.
If I am doing technical writing, I use proper grammar. On slashdot, I don't. The purpose in writing is to convey meaning, as you say. I use what I think is the best way to convey meaning. Sometimes, that requires me to violate the "rules" of grammar. I don't feel bad about it at all.
Do, however, keep in mind that not everybody reading your text is a native english speaker. They may have trouble reading and understanding syntactically correct english, but you could be making it harder on them when your text is full of errors.
And yes, those non-native speakers would probably make a lot of mistakes when replying to your postings. But at least they've got an excuse.
(I'm dutch, so all spelling errors are non intentional -- being dutch however also means that its and it's translate to complete different words, with distinct pronounciation. Same goes with they're, their and there)
The focus problems are partly mandated by the javascript standards:-(
Basically, javascript assumes you always use windows-style focus and completely ignores the existence of focus-under-mouse (what I use in Windows too, by the way. tweakui can do this).
The popularity of IM protocols seems to be geographically determined, and a bit demographically.
Indeed in the Netherlands there are about 0 AIM users, while the USA has many. Everybody, and I mean everybody over here is using MSN Messenger, save some geeks who are using jabber or ICQ.
In other countries ICQ may still be popular, while others may like the Yahoo! IM.
Encryption is a bit overrated since it's pratically impossible to snoop into a tcp connection on the real internet. And when it's possible, it still has to be done. By someone who gives a damn (eg. not a professional sysadmin). Heck, with all those exploits in openssh, telnet may be the safer option.
However, I still prefer my connections encrypted, you never know;-)
The data has to be stored one way or another. The complexity now is in the applications, it will shift to the OS when using a db-fs.
Question is: will this increase or decrease total complexity?
With lots of applications getting more simple and only one getting more complex (the kernel plus supporting libraries), I think the system will become more robust.
When you compare the complexity of a db-fs to something like a full blown free database like PostgresQL, it should be far less complex. And programmers are willing to work on PostgresQL. Or openoffice, Or KDE. Or the Linux kernel. All very, very complex projects.
Slashdot Mirror
200 MB is peanuts for modern disks. Takes them about five seconds to read it sequentially.
However, a *lot* of time is wasted doing disk seeks while booting. A few things can be done to stop wasting that time:
Also, sometimes utterly useless scripts are run. SuSE for example runs a script at every boot to seek *.rpmnew and *.rpmsave files in /etc. The output from this script is either hidden by the bootsplash image or scrolls off screen rapidly.
Some daemons could start after the login prompt is shown. This actually doesn't really speed up booting, but it sure makes it feel faster. For example: wait to 60 *after* the boot process is completed to start up daemons like cron, atd, cups, etc.
Serious answer on funny comment: actually it's a very high initial spike with a gradual decay. See the hourly usage stats generated for a slashdoted April's Fool site. Note that this site is specifically designed to withstand the slashdot effect by using light graphics, no database and very simple scripting. Server load was low.
No. Bounces never reach the spammer. Ever. Spammers always use fake sender addresses, so the bounces will go to an innocent bystander.
So, while totally ineffective, you also burden the innocent bystander with yet another bounce.
The only way to combat spam is to reject it on the SMTP level.
Note that the guy in the article was wrong. When a mailserver is offline for two days, no bounces are sent. Sending mailservers will usually retry for 5 days before bouncing the message.
However, spammers don't use mailservers to send their spam, they deliver the spam direcly to the receiving mailserver. They've got instant feedback on wether the spam is accepted by the mailserver or not.
When a mailserver is offline, spammers will know immediately. However I doubt they'd remove your name from the list because of this simple fact. Mailservers are regulary offline for multiple days.
In this case I rather think they installed a very good spamfilter on that brand new Exchange Server.
Someone seems to be obsessed with the mnumber 666
That would probably religious christians. To the rest of the world 666 is just a number. The only thing odd to me about the number is the precision of it while saying 'more than 666'.
It's funny, laugh.
Call me a troll, but no, that won't do. amd64/x86_64 is missing.
A nice and confusing name apparently only chosen because the debian developers don't like intel for what they did (namely copying the amd64 and forgetting to mention that fact in their press releases).
I prefer the nice vendor-neutral x86-64.
Especially the last point is important. If my browser is infected with spyware, I simply want to go to controlpanel->software, select the program and uninstall it. Nearly always this is completely impossible. Lots of spyware nowadays actively combats uninstalling. And when software does that, it always is written by the Bad Guys.
Unfortunately you don't say what product your company was/is making, but I guess that was to be expected.
rdesktop is small and fast. needs X though.
This argument can also be applied to support for multiple processor architectures in the kernel. Linus said it would probably never happen. He said the kernel would only run on i386 compatible processors. Today Linux runs on about any processor you can think of.
Linus can be persuaded by good arguments. His opinions aren't static.
I'm still keeping my hopes up.
If I am doing technical writing, I use proper grammar. On slashdot, I don't. The purpose in writing is to convey meaning, as you say. I use what I think is the best way to convey meaning. Sometimes, that requires me to violate the "rules" of grammar. I don't feel bad about it at all.
Do, however, keep in mind that not everybody reading your text is a native english speaker. They may have trouble reading and understanding syntactically correct english, but you could be making it harder on them when your text is full of errors.
And yes, those non-native speakers would probably make a lot of mistakes when replying to your postings. But at least they've got an excuse.
(I'm dutch, so all spelling errors are non intentional -- being dutch however also means that its and it's translate to complete different words, with distinct pronounciation. Same goes with they're, their and there)
And 'across the pond' is pretty meaningless on the internet, save the slightly higher pingtimes.
Slashdot is an international site read by an international audience, like it or not.
"We have one machine, belonging to evolutionary biologist James Lovelock, for which we don't have a power supply cable."
I'm sending them a spare power cable of mine. Very hard to come by these days with all those modern wireless computers.
No it isn't. Throttle maybe, but steering definately not. Steering has to be mechanical in order to be street legal in most (all?) countries.
Correct maybe, but Unixen is still more geeky :-)
Problems with this blog:
I guess it's funny unless it happens to some Open Source product.
Most spammers are in the US.
The focus problems are partly mandated by the javascript standards :-(
Basically, javascript assumes you always use windows-style focus and completely ignores the existence of focus-under-mouse (what I use in Windows too, by the way. tweakui can do this).
Why not? If KDE uses the power of reiser4 with a fallback to plain old files, everything would work nicely together.
Which is useless, since Linus only accepts patches from Andrew.
The popularity of IM protocols seems to be geographically determined, and a bit demographically.
Indeed in the Netherlands there are about 0 AIM users, while the USA has many. Everybody, and I mean everybody over here is using MSN Messenger, save some geeks who are using jabber or ICQ.
In other countries ICQ may still be popular, while others may like the Yahoo! IM.
Encryption is a bit overrated since it's pratically impossible to snoop into a tcp connection on the real internet. And when it's possible, it still has to be done. By someone who gives a damn (eg. not a professional sysadmin). Heck, with all those exploits in openssh, telnet may be the safer option.
However, I still prefer my connections encrypted, you never know ;-)
The data has to be stored one way or another. The complexity now is in the applications, it will shift to the OS when using a db-fs.
Question is: will this increase or decrease total complexity?
With lots of applications getting more simple and only one getting more complex (the kernel plus supporting libraries), I think the system will become more robust.
When you compare the complexity of a db-fs to something like a full blown free database like PostgresQL, it should be far less complex. And programmers are willing to work on PostgresQL. Or openoffice, Or KDE. Or the Linux kernel. All very, very complex projects.
Yes, so make a file which can be read and written by the user, and nobody else. Since root can read all files, login is no problem.