The system is slowly building a DB of routes around the net, and I intend to build in the regexp matching-rules I use for router-identification into the host-identification stuff, but I ran out of time at the weekend. It will get better:-)
Samba is excellent, but the documentation leaves a little to be desired if you're not well up on the Windows platform. I'm sure all the Samba gurus will now disagree:-)
Just a big thankyou to the Samba team as well - a truly excellent piece of software:-)
If you won't tell it the city, it chooses a random place from the country. It does call it a guess... There's too little data in the DB at the moment to bother trying to make an educated guess based on IP bitmasks, but then it has been up and running for less than a week...
... I mean, look at Apple. They've built most of a business around being cool, sexy, and user-friendly. This is a triumvirate for the company, and with the unix-based OS-X, they'll be expanding into hardcore geek territory as well:-)
I even wrote eyecandy (the visualisation applet) on hostip.info - it's a trade: I show you something pretty, you put in your city. Or not. Your choice, but hopefully the eyecandy helps sweeten the deal:-)
If this can be duplicated for other patents, could this a possible route to pointing out how futile software patenting is ? I'd guess that if the USPTO had to constantly re-examine s/w patents they might be more leery of granting them...
With our new patent-pending macro-vote system, you too can auto-vote most of your constituents in a single mouse click. And you can do it as many times as you want!
Hence my comment about "giving me a break" about 10 seconds after posting the original. It was the CCIR601 sampling frequency within the deck that caused problems, not the colour burst frequency.
I live in a managed flat in Central London, where the entrance key to the concierge area is unlocked with an RFID tag. The door to the flat itself is still a normal key though:-)
One thing to look out for is the resonant frequency. We were trying to use RFID tags inside professional tape decks, to tell which tape was currently in the decl - it was an asset management project.
the only useful (in terms of range) RFID tags at the time (18 months ago now) were resonant at 13.5 MHz, which is very very close to the colour burst frequency of PAL TV... not ideal for the inside of a Pro. tape deck:-)
Complete redesign, readers outside and having to motion sensors to detect the tape's direction (if it was going in or out) delayed us quite considerably:-) Always read the small print....
Isn't this the sort of plug-in thing that Reiserfs is supposed to make a lot easier to do at a fundamental level ?
As I understand it, you register callbacks on the atomic operations of the FS, and your code gets run with appropriate parameters before/after whatever. A bit like SQL triggers...
Despite Microsoft's vaunted hiring interviews and techniques, it sounds like they have exactly the same problems managing people and peer-groups as every other large company.
My attitude has always been that the bottleneck is where you have to pay attention. In our case, the bottleneck isn't the internal-to-the-rack (gigabit) network, it's the to-the-web network, which can be 100mbit, but rarely exceeds 30mbit. We can serve data internally far far faster than anyone outside can receive it over the web-network interface, so I have no qualms about separating the disk and the server.
All the machines have a lot of RAM as well, which helps with the cacheable stuff:-)
I should qualify what I said - I've not used it under Solaris. My bad experience was with Linux, and that was about a year ago last I "was tried" by it.
I would also say that the Irix xlv system is fantastically reliable - there's a 20 Terabyte "disk" at one of our clients (Post-houses have a lot of disk for all those film-frames:-) which has never had a problem...
Hardware raid is surprisingly cheap for commodity PC's. Certainly it's worth the peace-of-mind for me:-)
I've never trusted software RAID on a multi-CPU (ie: one of our typical servers) system. I've had the raid screw up far too often for co-incidence. I'm pretty sure there's a race condition in there somewhere. I've had a server run for 5 months with no problems, then suddenly I get an SMS that a node is down. Bike over to the co-lo, and the filesystem's completely screwed... Never again. Hardware raid all the time:-)
I built a similar system for the web rack (disks are bulky, compared to 1U motherboards). Gave me 1.5 TB of SATA hardware RAID-5 in 2U. All the other machines boot off it - much better use of space:-)
... in the UK. I've managed to keep my mobile number for a couple of years now, but they did it by requiring every mobile number to start 07... That makes it impossible to have your home number on the phone:-(
Once you've published something on the internet, it's very hard to remove it. There are too many 'bots beavering away in the background. If I do a search for my name on google, I get info going all the way back to my post-grad days at college some 12 years ago....
The only real way to get rid of something is to pull it quickly.. leave it around and you've no chance......
Slashdot Mirror
Aah, but I don't own a Mac, so I'm fine :-)
Simon
The system is slowly building a DB of routes around the net, and I intend to build in the regexp matching-rules I use for router-identification into the host-identification stuff, but I ran out of time at the weekend. It will get better :-)
Simon
Samba is excellent, but the documentation leaves a little to be desired if you're not well up on the Windows platform. I'm sure all the Samba gurus will now disagree :-)
:-)
Just a big thankyou to the Samba team as well - a truly excellent piece of software
Simon
There's such a thing as being too vain, you know :-)
Simon.
If you won't tell it the city, it chooses a random place from the country. It does call it a guess... There's too little data in the DB at the moment to bother trying to make an educated guess based on IP bitmasks, but then it has been up and running for less than a week...
Simon.
... I mean, look at Apple. They've built most of a business around being cool, sexy, and user-friendly. This is a triumvirate for the company, and with the unix-based OS-X, they'll be expanding into hardcore geek territory as well :-)
:-)
I even wrote eyecandy (the visualisation applet) on hostip.info - it's a trade: I show you something pretty, you put in your city. Or not. Your choice, but hopefully the eyecandy helps sweeten the deal
Simon.
... has this happened in the US ?
...
If this can be duplicated for other patents, could this a possible route to pointing out how futile software patenting is ? I'd guess that if the USPTO had to constantly re-examine s/w patents they might be more leery of granting them
Simon
Instead of denigrating a fantastic acheivement, why not congratulate them ?
Going to Mars is a fine scientific aim, but if you read between the lines, their aims are also commercial - the moon is a definite target then...
Simon
With our new patent-pending macro-vote system, you too can auto-vote most of your constituents in a single mouse click. And you can do it as many times as you want!
Macro-vote, for a macro generation!
Simon.
If it's that automated, perhaps it's gone for a fly somewhere
Simon.
Hence my comment about "giving me a break" about 10 seconds after posting the original. It was the CCIR601 sampling frequency within the deck that caused problems, not the colour burst frequency.
/. doesn't let you edit posts....
Unfortunately
Simon.
I live in a managed flat in Central London, where the entrance key to the concierge area is unlocked with an RFID tag. The door to the flat itself is still a normal key though :-)
Simon
Whoops. Wrong neurons in the path - it was the CCIR sampling in the deck that ran at 13.5 MHz... It's late, ok ?? :-)
Simon.
One thing to look out for is the resonant frequency. We were trying to use RFID tags inside professional tape decks, to tell which tape was currently in the decl - it was an asset management project.
:-)
:-) Always read the small print....
the only useful (in terms of range) RFID tags at the time (18 months ago now) were resonant at 13.5 MHz, which is very very close to the colour burst frequency of PAL TV... not ideal for the inside of a Pro. tape deck
Complete redesign, readers outside and having to motion sensors to detect the tape's direction (if it was going in or out) delayed us quite considerably
Simon.
Isn't this the sort of plug-in thing that Reiserfs is supposed to make a lot easier to do at a fundamental level ?
As I understand it, you register callbacks on the atomic operations of the FS, and your code gets run with appropriate parameters before/after whatever. A bit like SQL triggers...
Simon.
First they ignore you
Then they laugh at you
Then they fight you
Then you win
Mohandas Gandhi
Despite Microsoft's vaunted hiring interviews and techniques, it sounds like they have exactly the same problems managing people and peer-groups as every other large company.
:-)
Perhaps geeks ain't so different after all
Simon
My attitude has always been that the bottleneck is where you have to pay attention. In our case, the bottleneck isn't the internal-to-the-rack (gigabit) network, it's the to-the-web network, which can be 100mbit, but rarely exceeds 30mbit. We can serve data internally far far faster than anyone outside can receive it over the web-network interface, so I have no qualms about separating the disk and the server.
:-)
All the machines have a lot of RAM as well, which helps with the cacheable stuff
Simon.
I should qualify what I said - I've not used it under Solaris. My bad experience was with Linux, and that was about a year ago last I "was tried" by it.
:-) which has never had a problem...
:-)
I would also say that the Irix xlv system is fantastically reliable - there's a 20 Terabyte "disk" at one of our clients (Post-houses have a lot of disk for all those film-frames
Hardware raid is surprisingly cheap for commodity PC's. Certainly it's worth the peace-of-mind for me
Simon.
I've never trusted software RAID on a multi-CPU (ie: one of our typical servers) system. I've had the raid screw up far too often for co-incidence. I'm pretty sure there's a race condition in there somewhere. I've had a server run for 5 months with no problems, then suddenly I get an SMS that a node is down. Bike over to the co-lo, and the filesystem's completely screwed... Never again. Hardware raid all the time :-)
Simon.
I built a similar system for the web rack (disks are bulky, compared to 1U motherboards). Gave me 1.5 TB of SATA hardware RAID-5 in 2U. All the other machines boot off it - much better use of space :-)
Simon
... in the UK. I've managed to keep my mobile number for a couple of years now, but they did it by requiring every mobile number to start 07... That makes it impossible to have your home number on the phone :-(
Simon
Simon
[grin] Damn, damn, damn. And I've tried *so* hard to get rid of that one....
Luckily the one with the goat and the marmoset is still under wraps. Oops.
Simon.
Once you've published something on the internet, it's very hard to remove it. There are too many 'bots beavering away in the background. If I do a search for my name on google, I get info going all the way back to my post-grad days at college some 12 years ago....
The only real way to get rid of something is to pull it quickly.. leave it around and you've no chance......
Simon