At the risk of doing more damage to jazman's rainscreen, yes... I've found SOME of them to be more courteous. On the other hand, some of them are nasty jerks. But...compared to California drivers (jab) it is an amazing difference.
I have to ask, are you even from Seattle? I've lived here all my life and can honestly say it is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in. No matter where I travel (and believe me - quite a few places...) I am always thankful to return home to the fresh air, mountain ranges on both sides, comfortable weather, abundant trees, etc.
We have actual seasons, as opposed to many cities that seem to only have two, with a range of decently hot weather, to not-too-cool winters. In regards to rain, we had a nice long stretch of 60 or so days (someone correct me if I'm wrong) just a little while back where there wasn't any rain at all. One thing I can say about the rain though, is that it makes the air amazingly fresh.
Not exactly a technical topic, but Seattle's constant rain is an overstated load of hooey.
At my former company we subcontracted a managed VPN service through Qwest, between our California stores and headquarters in Seattle.
We found the Qwest solution to be advantageous because though the actual connection itself was slightly more expensive than a full T1 to the 'net (and significantly less expensive than a point-to-point to California), we had a full SLA on the service itself. We had a guarantee of no greater than 50ms latency between sites, a full bandwidth guarantee, etc.
The network itself was fully on Qwest's private OC-192 backbone, and we had the option of bringing in Internet access at whichever locations we would like, and for those connections Qwest would provide firewalling with their Nortel Shasta boxes.
Now that I have left that company I am even happier that I put in those connections, as no one has to learn anything new about the VPN, such as how to configure it, etc. We provided our own Ciscos.
I did try (for a few short weeks as a demo) AuBeta's service, which they claim to be a private ATM network. It was such a miserable failure, and their response time was abysmal. I would never recommend their service. Come to find out later, though they bash VPNs as being worthless compared to their ATM solution, they are actually using VPNs as part of the backbone of their network. This from the guy who designed the thing.
Nah, can't say I agree. First off you have the ISP costs. Then, you have the other local area businesses and college students (the coffee shop is next to the University of Washington's Bothell campus) that would leech, saturate, and overload the connection. If you only sold it for a couple of bucks an hour it would easily be profitable in one day.
You don't have to deal with WEP for this service (it's MAC address / cookie based, I believe) so support isn't an issue. Yes, the firewall is as powerful, but it is bad business sense, as you're advertising for every student in the area (or non-student) who can't connect to the university's network to go ahead and suck away your connection. With basic controls, you can cheaply sell it, or bundle it with other products (buy a coffee get 1 hour).
A small coffee shop I do side work for was looking for a similar solution, but wanted to be able to sell time to people without having to buy in to one of the larger deals (T-Mobile, etc.).
We found the ZyXEL ZyAIR B-4000, which has all that they need. It has (built-in) a four-port switch, NAT router/firewall, and wireless AP, and includes a thermal printer that does a one-touch purchase of wireless time by communicating with the AP over the LAN.
The AP is configured to isolate the wireless network from the LAN (DMZ mode), and authenticates the users through an SSL encrypted access page.
While the unit was rather pricey ($600ish), it's a no-brainer both economically and time-wise as there is nothing to really maintain...no computer to die, software to be corrupted, maintenance, etc. I find that it is a much better decision for them to pay a little more up front to have something that requires little to no intervention and will just run...
According to ABIT's site it's only 40 bit DES, which they claim "is adequate for general users."
I'm sorry, but this is a joke. Hopefully they'll have some sort of update that will move it up to something decently acceptible. DES is old, and is far from adequate for any use where "security" is involved.
A touch niche to break into...
on
Opengroupware
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
This seems to be one tough niche to break into. Look at the number of products trying to get into the market Exchange and Notes seem to dominate. The main issue is giving companies a reason to switch. I run an Exchange / Outlook shop simply because that's what it was when I got there. There simply is not the time or the money to try and make the switch. And why? Because it's Open Source? That is no reason to throw previously invested money out the window.
The other issue is unification. One search on Freshmeat reveals over sixty related projects. No one wants to band together on something. No one wants to create a "unified" product. It seems that there are a few things that have to be included by default - Exchange compatibility and transition tools.
Look at Oracle's Collaboration Suite, SuSE's OpenExchange Server, and all of the commercial "alternatives" out there. They include transition tools, but you have to hire a consultant to perform the transition. They include "Exchange compatibility" in that you can continue to run Outlook. Well, once you throw in the consultant and the cost of the connection utilities, you cost more than buying Exchange and licensing Outlook outright.
It's an endless cycle. Companies will continue to dump out alternatives, trying to play catch-up with Exchange, while Microsoft continues to add new features, lower their price to be competitive, and offer "free" training with purchase.
What's the solution to this issue? Hell if I know...I just install the stuff. But if we want a competitor that is _competitive_, the community will have to develop both an incentive to switch and the tools to do it.
I've stepped away from the software RAID idea on my boxes, due to the availability of cheap hardware RAID, such as Promise's SX4000. It will do hardware RAID 5 for four+ drives and has a SDRAM slot for cache expansion. Coupled with LVM, it ended up being a good solution for me, as I had both the reliability, and good volume management if I wanted to combine arrays.
The problem I've had with the software RAID is reliability and expandability. It is a pain in the ass if you lose a drive in the array, and it is next to impossible to add a drive (other than a stand by drive) to your existing RAID 5 setup.
Correction - light rail is a joke. It would not be $14 million per mile. I live in Seattle as well, and, as I'm sure you know, we haven't laid an inch of the new Sound Transit and we're already over budget by two billion - yes, that's with a "b".
And you're completely right. All the monorail will be is a transfer platform for current bus riders. It doesn't take any drivers off of the freeway. And, we're required to be on the freeway, because the Metro (bus) system sucks. I used to be a bus rider, but at my new job there isn't a bus stop except for 1/2 a mile away. Also, I would have to take one system (Community Transit) to downtown Seattle, would have three minutes to transfer to Metro (the stop is 3 blocks away), and if I miss my bus, I do not have an alternative for 1.5 hours.
So, however you look at it, WA transit is crap. We got screwed.
That's just too funny...now I wonder if we're going to hear stories about the evil M$ mob taking hits out on Open Source developers who are working on secret new phone technologies.
Give me a break. One twin is not a clone of the other.
Twins are the result of either two eggs being fertalized in the same month, or the rarer case of the egg being fertalized and split.
Aah yes...the "Faces on Mars".
Did you know that all they are is a result of bad lighting? As recent pictures have shown (check JPL's web site), they are just rock formations.
Yes, and where are your numbers? Do you know how to make that nice bit of complex proteins "evolve" into something else? Just because someone throws out an idea that is contrary to your own, doesn't entitle you to attack. Anyway, the particle comment, if you look at it more closely, was an illustration. He was saying that the ratio of particles in the universe and the chance of evolution occuring as proposed by modern theory are the same.
What I'm trying to say though, is that the value of human life seems to be less and less every day. We may be part of nature, but I believe that a human being is far more valuable than any other animal. Where is the line drawn? When do we know when it has enough brain activity? And really, what doctor is going to care? I cannot see a doctor refusing a woman an abortion and giving his reason as, "well, there's borderline brain activity, so I can't do it." The "goodness of humanity" just won't go along with that. The line will just be pushed more and more. Its almost as if the question is, "when does an embryo suddenly become a baby?"
Abortion is mainly a convenience these days. Sure there are the cases of rape and incest, but let's be honest: a majority of the times abortion is used is because people don't want to take responsibility for their actions. Sally had sex with Billy. Now Sally's pregnant, but she doesn't want her parents to know. What's the solution? A quick and easy abortion. Never mind the fact that the psychological and physical risks/affects on a woman who goes through with an abortion should be enough to make it illegal. So many people tout the "new methods" which are so quick and easy that it is a one day thing. The reality of the matter is that a majority of abortion clinics do not have these "new methods."
One thing that really made me think a while back was a cartoon I saw. A man was looking up into the sky and asking God, "God, why do you ignore us? Why haven't you sent someone to cure AIDS? Why haven't you sent someone to solve world hunger? Why haven't you sent us a great leader to fix this world?" God answered, "I did, but you aborted them."
I know it is a blatent statement of my opinion, but it has to make you think. Out of the hundreds of thousands of babies that have been aborted, how much potential was wasted?
If people would act decently, and accept responsibility for their own actions (and please don't point out rape and incest in this comment. I am not including them in this statement), I think this would be a lot easier of an issue to deal with.
Well then, it sure is nice to know that we were all parasites, leeching off of our mother's physical resources, so many years ago.
Its also nice to see that we can go ahead and slaughter early human life (YES, I said human life), and it is such a big deal if someone accidentally breaks an eagle's egg. What has society come to when we elevate the importance of an eagle's egg to a position higher than that of forming human life.
Kind of reminds me of a bumper sticker a while back "Be a hero, save a whale / Save a baby, go to jail."
So go ahead...say "It's my body, I'll do what I want." What if your mother had said that, and flushed your leeching parasite self out of her body? After all, it isn't human until it is outside of the body.
Where and when did we decide that, anyway? Where do we draw the line? It seems like it keeps getting pushed back further and further, all in the name of convenience. Is human life at conception? At six weeks? At seven months? Heck, let's just say that it isn't human until it is outside in the cold, harsh world.
Howdy...
Yep, I agree with you. Being influental doesn't necessarily make what you say true. What I'm saying though, is that it makes it worth listening to. When you look at how influental Jesus' life was, and the way He impacted the world, it should prompt consideration.
Though I'm not sure what you mean about the "people who subsequently deified him and built a religion around him," and the equating Him with Buddha or Ghandi. If you look at what He had to say, it's vastly different from anything else.
How can you say there is no evidence? When have you taken the time to look? Have you looked with the "open mind" that so many athiests claim to have?
Sounds like you didn't like what the most influental man who ever lived had to say...
You know, it never ceases to amaze me how people love to say that they are tolerant and that Christians are not, and that Christians are so rude and judgemental.
Hmm.
And what does that make them? How "tolerant" are they towards Christians? Seems pretty hypocritical to claim to be tolerant, demand tolerance, and then be exclusive in dishing it out.
Slashdot Mirror
At the risk of doing more damage to jazman's rainscreen, yes... I've found SOME of them to be more courteous. On the other hand, some of them are nasty jerks. But...compared to California drivers (jab) it is an amazing difference.
Damn! I fell for it! Now the whole city is doomed!
Yeah... bad city. Lots of rain. Move away. Earthquakes. Weak beer.
I have to ask, are you even from Seattle? I've lived here all my life and can honestly say it is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in. No matter where I travel (and believe me - quite a few places...) I am always thankful to return home to the fresh air, mountain ranges on both sides, comfortable weather, abundant trees, etc.
We have actual seasons, as opposed to many cities that seem to only have two, with a range of decently hot weather, to not-too-cool winters. In regards to rain, we had a nice long stretch of 60 or so days (someone correct me if I'm wrong) just a little while back where there wasn't any rain at all. One thing I can say about the rain though, is that it makes the air amazingly fresh.
Not exactly a technical topic, but Seattle's constant rain is an overstated load of hooey.
That's why it's still in Alpha. ;-)
Dave
At my former company we subcontracted a managed VPN service through Qwest, between our California stores and headquarters in Seattle.
We found the Qwest solution to be advantageous because though the actual connection itself was slightly more expensive than a full T1 to the 'net (and significantly less expensive than a point-to-point to California), we had a full SLA on the service itself. We had a guarantee of no greater than 50ms latency between sites, a full bandwidth guarantee, etc.
The network itself was fully on Qwest's private OC-192 backbone, and we had the option of bringing in Internet access at whichever locations we would like, and for those connections Qwest would provide firewalling with their Nortel Shasta boxes.
Now that I have left that company I am even happier that I put in those connections, as no one has to learn anything new about the VPN, such as how to configure it, etc. We provided our own Ciscos.
I did try (for a few short weeks as a demo) AuBeta's service, which they claim to be a private ATM network. It was such a miserable failure, and their response time was abysmal. I would never recommend their service. Come to find out later, though they bash VPNs as being worthless compared to their ATM solution, they are actually using VPNs as part of the backbone of their network. This from the guy who designed the thing.
Hope this helps.
Nah, can't say I agree. First off you have the ISP costs. Then, you have the other local area businesses and college students (the coffee shop is next to the University of Washington's Bothell campus) that would leech, saturate, and overload the connection. If you only sold it for a couple of bucks an hour it would easily be profitable in one day.
You don't have to deal with WEP for this service (it's MAC address / cookie based, I believe) so support isn't an issue. Yes, the firewall is as powerful, but it is bad business sense, as you're advertising for every student in the area (or non-student) who can't connect to the university's network to go ahead and suck away your connection. With basic controls, you can cheaply sell it, or bundle it with other products (buy a coffee get 1 hour).
A small coffee shop I do side work for was looking for a similar solution, but wanted to be able to sell time to people without having to buy in to one of the larger deals (T-Mobile, etc.).
We found the ZyXEL ZyAIR B-4000, which has all that they need. It has (built-in) a four-port switch, NAT router/firewall, and wireless AP, and includes a thermal printer that does a one-touch purchase of wireless time by communicating with the AP over the LAN.
The AP is configured to isolate the wireless network from the LAN (DMZ mode), and authenticates the users through an SSL encrypted access page.
While the unit was rather pricey ($600ish), it's a no-brainer both economically and time-wise as there is nothing to really maintain...no computer to die, software to be corrupted, maintenance, etc. I find that it is a much better decision for them to pay a little more up front to have something that requires little to no intervention and will just run...
$299 + SCO license = Too expensive!
According to ABIT's site it's only 40 bit DES, which they claim "is adequate for general users." I'm sorry, but this is a joke. Hopefully they'll have some sort of update that will move it up to something decently acceptible. DES is old, and is far from adequate for any use where "security" is involved.
This seems to be one tough niche to break into. Look at the number of products trying to get into the market Exchange and Notes seem to dominate. The main issue is giving companies a reason to switch. I run an Exchange / Outlook shop simply because that's what it was when I got there. There simply is not the time or the money to try and make the switch. And why? Because it's Open Source? That is no reason to throw previously invested money out the window.
The other issue is unification. One search on Freshmeat reveals over sixty related projects. No one wants to band together on something. No one wants to create a "unified" product. It seems that there are a few things that have to be included by default - Exchange compatibility and transition tools.
Look at Oracle's Collaboration Suite, SuSE's OpenExchange Server, and all of the commercial "alternatives" out there. They include transition tools, but you have to hire a consultant to perform the transition. They include "Exchange compatibility" in that you can continue to run Outlook. Well, once you throw in the consultant and the cost of the connection utilities, you cost more than buying Exchange and licensing Outlook outright.
It's an endless cycle. Companies will continue to dump out alternatives, trying to play catch-up with Exchange, while Microsoft continues to add new features, lower their price to be competitive, and offer "free" training with purchase.
What's the solution to this issue? Hell if I know...I just install the stuff. But if we want a competitor that is _competitive_, the community will have to develop both an incentive to switch and the tools to do it.
I've stepped away from the software RAID idea on my boxes, due to the availability of cheap hardware RAID, such as Promise's SX4000. It will do hardware RAID 5 for four+ drives and has a SDRAM slot for cache expansion. Coupled with LVM, it ended up being a good solution for me, as I had both the reliability, and good volume management if I wanted to combine arrays.
The problem I've had with the software RAID is reliability and expandability. It is a pain in the ass if you lose a drive in the array, and it is next to impossible to add a drive (other than a stand by drive) to your existing RAID 5 setup.
Aah, opinions...
Correction - light rail is a joke. It would not be $14 million per mile. I live in Seattle as well, and, as I'm sure you know, we haven't laid an inch of the new Sound Transit and we're already over budget by two billion - yes, that's with a "b".
And you're completely right. All the monorail will be is a transfer platform for current bus riders. It doesn't take any drivers off of the freeway. And, we're required to be on the freeway, because the Metro (bus) system sucks. I used to be a bus rider, but at my new job there isn't a bus stop except for 1/2 a mile away. Also, I would have to take one system (Community Transit) to downtown Seattle, would have three minutes to transfer to Metro (the stop is 3 blocks away), and if I miss my bus, I do not have an alternative for 1.5 hours.
So, however you look at it, WA transit is crap. We got screwed.
Sheesh...a Mt. Rushmore sized Larry Ellison face. Talk about tacky...
That's just too funny...now I wonder if we're going to hear stories about the evil M$ mob taking hits out on Open Source developers who are working on secret new phone technologies.
Give me a break. One twin is not a clone of the other. Twins are the result of either two eggs being fertalized in the same month, or the rarer case of the egg being fertalized and split.
Aah yes...the "Faces on Mars". Did you know that all they are is a result of bad lighting? As recent pictures have shown (check JPL's web site), they are just rock formations.
Sorry, but...how does this prove, or even suggest, that life did not start on Earth? Just because of...magnetite crystals?
Yes, and where are your numbers? Do you know how to make that nice bit of complex proteins "evolve" into something else? Just because someone throws out an idea that is contrary to your own, doesn't entitle you to attack. Anyway, the particle comment, if you look at it more closely, was an illustration. He was saying that the ratio of particles in the universe and the chance of evolution occuring as proposed by modern theory are the same.
Hmmm...that's pretty good logic. So, can you -prove- God does not exist? Sounds like you're just dying for a reason to say He doesn't...
Do you know how silly that sounds? That's kind of like saying Windows will evolve immediate patch application and fix itself. Give me a break...
Hi Nezalhualixtlan,
What I'm trying to say though, is that the value of human life seems to be less and less every day. We may be part of nature, but I believe that a human being is far more valuable than any other animal. Where is the line drawn? When do we know when it has enough brain activity? And really, what doctor is going to care? I cannot see a doctor refusing a woman an abortion and giving his reason as, "well, there's borderline brain activity, so I can't do it." The "goodness of humanity" just won't go along with that. The line will just be pushed more and more. Its almost as if the question is, "when does an embryo suddenly become a baby?"
Abortion is mainly a convenience these days. Sure there are the cases of rape and incest, but let's be honest: a majority of the times abortion is used is because people don't want to take responsibility for their actions. Sally had sex with Billy. Now Sally's pregnant, but she doesn't want her parents to know. What's the solution? A quick and easy abortion. Never mind the fact that the psychological and physical risks/affects on a woman who goes through with an abortion should be enough to make it illegal. So many people tout the "new methods" which are so quick and easy that it is a one day thing. The reality of the matter is that a majority of abortion clinics do not have these "new methods."
One thing that really made me think a while back was a cartoon I saw. A man was looking up into the sky and asking God, "God, why do you ignore us? Why haven't you sent someone to cure AIDS? Why haven't you sent someone to solve world hunger? Why haven't you sent us a great leader to fix this world?" God answered, "I did, but you aborted them."
I know it is a blatent statement of my opinion, but it has to make you think. Out of the hundreds of thousands of babies that have been aborted, how much potential was wasted?
If people would act decently, and accept responsibility for their own actions (and please don't point out rape and incest in this comment. I am not including them in this statement), I think this would be a lot easier of an issue to deal with.
Regards,
Dave
Well then, it sure is nice to know that we were all parasites, leeching off of our mother's physical resources, so many years ago.
Its also nice to see that we can go ahead and slaughter early human life (YES, I said human life), and it is such a big deal if someone accidentally breaks an eagle's egg. What has society come to when we elevate the importance of an eagle's egg to a position higher than that of forming human life.
Kind of reminds me of a bumper sticker a while back "Be a hero, save a whale / Save a baby, go to jail."
So go ahead...say "It's my body, I'll do what I want." What if your mother had said that, and flushed your leeching parasite self out of her body? After all, it isn't human until it is outside of the body.
Where and when did we decide that, anyway? Where do we draw the line? It seems like it keeps getting pushed back further and further, all in the name of convenience. Is human life at conception? At six weeks? At seven months? Heck, let's just say that it isn't human until it is outside in the cold, harsh world.
Just a thought.
Howdy... Yep, I agree with you. Being influental doesn't necessarily make what you say true. What I'm saying though, is that it makes it worth listening to. When you look at how influental Jesus' life was, and the way He impacted the world, it should prompt consideration. Though I'm not sure what you mean about the "people who subsequently deified him and built a religion around him," and the equating Him with Buddha or Ghandi. If you look at what He had to say, it's vastly different from anything else.
How can you say there is no evidence? When have you taken the time to look? Have you looked with the "open mind" that so many athiests claim to have? Sounds like you didn't like what the most influental man who ever lived had to say...
You know, it never ceases to amaze me how people love to say that they are tolerant and that Christians are not, and that Christians are so rude and judgemental.
Hmm.
And what does that make them? How "tolerant" are they towards Christians? Seems pretty hypocritical to claim to be tolerant, demand tolerance, and then be exclusive in dishing it out.
Just a thought...