At $1,100 and $1,200 USD for an iPhone X (what ever), I just kept my iPhone 7. Still working. I guess for their next trick, Apple will start bricking phone 3 versions or older. At which point, Android, here I come.
For the past 15+ years, I have worked with systems that must not go down. No - really, 1 second of down time in a year is intolerable for some applications. (Not always every system I work with, but at least some fall into this category.)
If the original poster of this story failed to keep in mind when designing the infrastructure that a computer that won't ever go down isn't available, then he/she failed the first principal of fault flexible systems. That principal is to come to terms with the level of acceptable fault vs. the available budget. 9's cost money. How many do you want to buy? A uptime SLA for 99.99% is still three and a half days down over 1 year. 99.999% SLA will cost more. A lot more.
From the OP " millions of dollars in lost revenue." - this is perhaps the first time I've heard that statement that I actually believe it. That still doesn't mean "you have chosen wisely".
So, let us do a thought experiment in the absence of any data. I'm going to get things wrong here for this particular situation because I don't know details and will be making assumptions.
Data Storage: Sounds like "We don't need backups because we have RAID" issue. Sorry, study availability zones in S3 on Amazon. You can stripe your RAIDs across a local zone, stripe it to other data centers geographically separated. On Linode, you can rsync between data centers. On Rackspace, you can use object storage in multiple data centers (Linode and Rackspace this will require software to accomplish as they do not offer a API to fire off copies unlike S3 does.) This ensures that the totality of data is not stored in one basket. That still doesn't back it up - and you need to do that too. Data may need to be restored due to human as well as machine error. One situation I remember was engineering a database system with 4, 8, 16, 24, 36, and 48 hour delayed slaves for super fast point in time recovery - with hot transaction backups that could be selectively applied. Just to add to the server count, it was also Master|Slave^6/Master|Slave^6 - 14 DB servers and 7 ingress data clusters of 5 each. (I'd say if you are in the US, there is a 100% chance you've done something that was processed by this system in the last year if you drive a car.)
Data Acquisition: This should use something like Atom Hopper/Rabbit MQ/Service Mix (oh god, please not Service Mix) in a clustered environment across data centers. Use DNS round Robbin for a cheap way out to find your ingress servers but requires some consideration of DNS timeouts. Datapoints are posted as messages, and servers claim the work entry from the Atom Hopper queue. This prevents the situation where clients cannot report their data, and also protects the processing servers from having a regional failure or failing to process a data message.
Also, systems should be configured so that Ansible, Salt, Git, or Puppet can automatically build systems in the cloud when stressed or even a total data center failure. Strict deployment and versioning should be enforced so that no server can't be replaced at the drop of the hat somewhere else due to "one off" changes.
Treat servers like cattle, not pets.
Last - KNOW YOUR VENDOR. This is absolutely critical. Here is something I suggest you try for your self - call the support line and time how long it takes to get a human on the phone. Remember that some vendors cost more than others, and there's a good reason for that. Getting, keeping, and paying really smart people to help you out with zero notice costs money. A lot of money. And a vendor that will be willing to let you skip tier I - III support (after you've proven you're not an complete idiot) is even more rare. I know of only one company that will do that, and it's the same one that will win the call and get a human test. But they cost twice to three times what others do - because they give you what the others will not.
What I hear in the OP's post is that they suffered a catastrophic failure and rate limits and fraud protection kicked in. I do understa
Facebook said today that it had begun "fact-checking" photos and videos
Oh boy, this ought to be good. The extremists on both sides will howl in the ultrasonic range about Free Speach!" and "You're doing too much/not enough!"
What, exactly, are the hot, Top Secret contents of those emails?
Remember what the state department does - It has diplomats. They talk. They talk a lot. They have no need of Operationally Secure Information. And while a lot of spying goes on from diplomatic missions, the spy's chain of command does not run through the Department of State, nor do they use email. Think about what the State Department does. Then ask yourself, what kinds of secrets they will be a party to. EG: Who is who's mistress. Which children of what diplomats are doing drugs or other things that can be used against that diplomat. They don't get the nuclear launch codes - they have no need of them. They do not get troop movements, order of battle, or deployment orders. Again, they have no need to know.
Now, let us turn to the facts of the matter.
HRC used a private email sever under their control. President Trump's daughter and son in law used Yahoo accounts, whose servers are not under their direct control. If you know anything about email systems, then you'll know that any Yahoo engineer could view the contents of those accounts by simply logging in with their credentials.
Was it wrong for HRC to use a private email server? Yes. Absolutely. Was it wrong for others to use Yahoo accounts? Arguably even more stupid than what HRC did.
Let not your political desires affect your judgement. To put it like my grandmother used to say, if a shirt is dirty, then it's dirty. Don't try to convince yourself a mustard stain is any worse or better than a lobster bisque stain.
Historically, the folks on the right of the isle (eg; Republicans) have ignored the best interest of their constituents, while their constituents applaud their actions and call Democrats "libtards" and worse. 22 congress critters oppose something isn't news. That 22 can spark a change would be news. I don't expect this to make a fart in the wind of difference.
... that advertisers don't seem to be willing to acknowledge that they are annoying, unwelcome, and unloved for the most part. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between (I thought the Bud Lite frog ads were kinda cute, but they got old fast. The Clydesdale ads were a bit better, but they got old too.)
I never use my smart phone to browse any sites but my own. The Madison Ave. crowd seems to go wild when someone uses an iPhone on their sites to the point that I refuse, absolutely, to do so.
It seems to me that those that wish to sell to us learn to romance us a bit before sticking right up our... buying chute. If car manufacturers want to include a never ending stream of ads in the car, I may have to invest in a Taser to "discourage" such interruptions. Noting like 10Kva on a computer circuit to "suggest" submission.
But likely they'll make it so that if the ads don't play, the car doesn't run. Pity, that. I kind of gotten used to cars rather than horses for transportation.
I've been asked by them to unlock my phone. I happily do.
I just tell them that since I do not own the devices (my employer does), I would be committing a felony to allow them access.
Things escalate, threats are issued. I tell them that even if I give them access, they are committing a felony, (CFAA - access without permission)
Things escalate, more threats are issued. Then I cave in. Here's the passwords and tokens.
They log in, see nothing but fetish porn (gotta give them SOMETHING they see, otherwise they just keep digging), no email (web based, and carefully cleared from cache), and no external storage, and a few fake memos with lurid read warnings "COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL".
Once I get where I'm going, I wipe the system, load from known clean ISO, log into my cloud storage, download an image, and reburn. When I'm ready to depart, reverse the process.
It's not that I have anything I know to be illegal, it's just that there are so many laws, I'm sure they could find a way to bend it if they want to. Besides, I find it offensive to my sense of fairness to be searched without probable cause.
1. It's slow 2. It doesn't go anywhere other than the strip 3. Uber and Lyft competing with the monorail is absolute pure quill bull shit. I was in LV as a stopover for where I was going, and you could not get a cab - period.
Remember the Java DST bug? How about the SWIFT hiccup when the time change got applied backwards. Or how much it costs to update ever single time zone file on every computer in the world.
I am not advocating for or against DST - I'm advocating for pick you're poison and stick with it. Changing it and mucking around with it is expensive, consumes time I should be spending solving other problems, and is annoying.
I am accepting the premise of the question while knowing full well the premise is non-factual. I don't believe that NN rules place the government in control of the internet, but many that oppose NN mistakenly do believe that. One way to defuse a mistaken belief is to accept the premise, then disprove it on both the mistaken premise and the facts.
Mr. Pei's assertion that NN rules prohibit innovation and deployment of high speed internet completely ignores that fact that the Government has provided almost 50 billion dollars in grants (read that as FREE MONEY) to increase rural deployment of fiber - for less than 1% increase in deployment. By any twisted logic the telecom's apologist would care to blovate, there's simply no question that the taxpayer pumped at least 48 billion dollars into payments to stockholders that resulted in exactly zero for the citizens.
I firmly believe that the best way to solve this issue is to mandate "One Touch Make Ready", rescinding monopoly rents, enacting RAND payments for using public rights of way for all, and enforcing the exact terms of the grants and sending to prison (for life suits me down to my toenail lint) the telecom executives that have cheated the system.
Democrats REALLY want the Federal Government to gain control of the Internet.
I am a progressive. I do not want the government to control the internet, and I sure don't want the corporations with government granted monopolies to control it either.
Here's a thought for you: If you don't want the government to step in here, then pass "One Touch Make Ready" and strike down the laws the telecoms got enacted to prevent cities and counties to establish co-ops for internet. They don't have to allow tv, just internet. That would restore open market freedoms and elemenate the telecom monopolies.
A place I worked bought thousands of ink jet printers. Mistake #1. Not getting a supplies contract Mistake #2. They were a name brand printer will known for clogging cartridges and breaking. (I don't want to get sued so no, I'm not naming names.) Mistake #3. Bought a long term support contract and paid for it in advance.
Result - they rented warehouse space to store the printers until the warranty ran out multiple years later.
I encrypt my passwords with PGP, print them out (encrypted), store a file (encrypted) on different cloud services and a few other dittys I'll just keep to myself.
Aggressive tax avoidance by multinational corporations, including Nike and Apple.
It is legal in the US to avoid paying a tax. It is not legal to evade a tax, however. What's the difference?
Burger King was "bought" by Horton's, a Canadian company, and licenses back all the Burger King IP from Horton. If this consumes effectively most of the profit, Burger King can legally not pay US taxes on it's income. (Previous statement is opinion, assuming facts I have not verified.) This is why I don't go to Burger King anymore.
It is my understanding that Apple does that as well, but again, I have not verified it to be factual, and is thus to be considered opinion. This is why I don't purchase Apple products.
This would appear to be completely allowed within the US tax code. (I am not a tax professional, if you want to do this, you should purchase an opinion from a licensed tax professional.)
What is not legal is for company Blah to use false accounting to evade a tax. That will get you an orange jumpsuit and those fetching chrome bracelets.
My home modem is subjected to 50 meg ddos attacks every day. I think the "1/3'd" cited is pretty much a low ball. My web servers see 1 gig attacks just about every day, and my mail servers see at least 1 million emails per day rejected based on nothing more than it's RIR space. We won't even discuss what is going on with port 22 since I do not allow password PAM and require a key. If you are in APNIC, LATNIC, BRNIC, and much of RIPE space, sorry. It's firewalled completely for all ports. (Except for the UK, no one using my stuff needs the others.)
I am an ex-smoker of tobacco. I know how the fiend that rides the back of a smoker can crawl up the back of your neck, reach it's talons around, and rip off your face when you need that next smoke. All too well, do I know it. I also know the anti-tobacco evangelists, trying to "do good". Let me give you a hint: You are annoying and irritating. Your urgings to quit this filthily habit moved me not one iota until I had my first heart attack. You see, smoking isn't rational. It's deeply emotional and addiction based. If you aren't addicted, you have zero chance of understanding it, and worse, a negative chance to change others. People that are addicted have to choose to change. Logic, proof, and all the AMA studies in the world won't move a truly addicted person one angstrom. Yes - it's not logical. But it is human nature.
I've chewed nicotine gum now for about the last 12 years. My addiction to nicotine continues, albeit in a form that (hopefully) doesn't affect others, like smoking tobacco or vaping does. When I pass the smoking area, I wonder now how I could ever have desired it. And yet, I still feel the pull for "one last good smoke" - which I don't give into.
Vaping, just as smoking, puts chemicals in the air. No difference there.
To my mind, making your own hell is up to you. But including others in your damnation is not your right. If your actions put nicotine in the air others must breathe, such as smoking and vaping, then your right to do so ends at the effective boundary of others to avoid your chosen vice.
And again, I completely understand that critter that wants to rip your face off. I suffer from it to this day and I've not had a cigarette in over a decade. But your right to partake does not include the right to force others to imbibe in your vice as well. All I ask is that you consider how you'd feel of others felt they could force you to breathe flatulence. I doubt you'd be best pleased.
Slashdot Mirror
I wish I wasn't under a NDA, because I could speak truth to some really bad issues. Unless I'm under subpoena, I can't say any more.
At $1,100 and $1,200 USD for an iPhone X (what ever), I just kept my iPhone 7. Still working. I guess for their next trick, Apple will start bricking phone 3 versions or older. At which point, Android, here I come.
Youtube Studio seems to be up. Or is it just me?
Bookmaking should run on paramutual basis, that way the house always gets a defined take and the betters are competing against themselves.
For the past 15+ years, I have worked with systems that must not go down. No - really, 1 second of down time in a year is intolerable for some applications. (Not always every system I work with, but at least some fall into this category.)
If the original poster of this story failed to keep in mind when designing the infrastructure that a computer that won't ever go down isn't available, then he/she failed the first principal of fault flexible systems. That principal is to come to terms with the level of acceptable fault vs. the available budget. 9's cost money. How many do you want to buy? A uptime SLA for 99.99% is still three and a half days down over 1 year. 99.999% SLA will cost more. A lot more.
From the OP " millions of dollars in lost revenue." - this is perhaps the first time I've heard that statement that I actually believe it. That still doesn't mean "you have chosen wisely".
So, let us do a thought experiment in the absence of any data. I'm going to get things wrong here for this particular situation because I don't know details and will be making assumptions.
Data Storage: Sounds like "We don't need backups because we have RAID" issue. Sorry, study availability zones in S3 on Amazon. You can stripe your RAIDs across a local zone, stripe it to other data centers geographically separated. On Linode, you can rsync between data centers. On Rackspace, you can use object storage in multiple data centers (Linode and Rackspace this will require software to accomplish as they do not offer a API to fire off copies unlike S3 does.) This ensures that the totality of data is not stored in one basket. That still doesn't back it up - and you need to do that too. Data may need to be restored due to human as well as machine error. One situation I remember was engineering a database system with 4, 8, 16, 24, 36, and 48 hour delayed slaves for super fast point in time recovery - with hot transaction backups that could be selectively applied. Just to add to the server count, it was also Master|Slave^6/Master|Slave^6 - 14 DB servers and 7 ingress data clusters of 5 each. (I'd say if you are in the US, there is a 100% chance you've done something that was processed by this system in the last year if you drive a car.)
Data Acquisition: This should use something like Atom Hopper/Rabbit MQ/Service Mix (oh god, please not Service Mix) in a clustered environment across data centers. Use DNS round Robbin for a cheap way out to find your ingress servers but requires some consideration of DNS timeouts. Datapoints are posted as messages, and servers claim the work entry from the Atom Hopper queue. This prevents the situation where clients cannot report their data, and also protects the processing servers from having a regional failure or failing to process a data message.
Also, systems should be configured so that Ansible, Salt, Git, or Puppet can automatically build systems in the cloud when stressed or even a total data center failure. Strict deployment and versioning should be enforced so that no server can't be replaced at the drop of the hat somewhere else due to "one off" changes.
Treat servers like cattle, not pets.
Last - KNOW YOUR VENDOR. This is absolutely critical. Here is something I suggest you try for your self - call the support line and time how long it takes to get a human on the phone. Remember that some vendors cost more than others, and there's a good reason for that. Getting, keeping, and paying really smart people to help you out with zero notice costs money. A lot of money. And a vendor that will be willing to let you skip tier I - III support (after you've proven you're not an complete idiot) is even more rare. I know of only one company that will do that, and it's the same one that will win the call and get a human test. But they cost twice to three times what others do - because they give you what the others will not.
What I hear in the OP's post is that they suffered a catastrophic failure and rate limits and fraud protection kicked in. I do understa
Facebook said today that it had begun "fact-checking" photos and videos
Oh boy, this ought to be good. The extremists on both sides will howl in the ultrasonic range about Free Speach!" and "You're doing too much/not enough!"
I'm going to buy popcorn futures.
I have a very simple, and very pointed question.
What, exactly, are the hot, Top Secret contents of those emails?
Remember what the state department does - It has diplomats. They talk. They talk a lot. They have no need of Operationally Secure Information. And while a lot of spying goes on from diplomatic missions, the spy's chain of command does not run through the Department of State, nor do they use email. Think about what the State Department does. Then ask yourself, what kinds of secrets they will be a party to. EG: Who is who's mistress. Which children of what diplomats are doing drugs or other things that can be used against that diplomat. They don't get the nuclear launch codes - they have no need of them. They do not get troop movements, order of battle, or deployment orders. Again, they have no need to know.
Now, let us turn to the facts of the matter.
HRC used a private email sever under their control.
President Trump's daughter and son in law used Yahoo accounts, whose servers are not under their direct control. If you know anything about email systems, then you'll know that any Yahoo engineer could view the contents of those accounts by simply logging in with their credentials.
Was it wrong for HRC to use a private email server? Yes. Absolutely.
Was it wrong for others to use Yahoo accounts? Arguably even more stupid than what HRC did.
Let not your political desires affect your judgement. To put it like my grandmother used to say, if a shirt is dirty, then it's dirty. Don't try to convince yourself a mustard stain is any worse or better than a lobster bisque stain.
It's still dirty.
Historically, the folks on the right of the isle (eg; Republicans) have ignored the best interest of their constituents, while their constituents applaud their actions and call Democrats "libtards" and worse. 22 congress critters oppose something isn't news. That 22 can spark a change would be news. I don't expect this to make a fart in the wind of difference.
... that advertisers don't seem to be willing to acknowledge that they are annoying, unwelcome, and unloved for the most part. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between (I thought the Bud Lite frog ads were kinda cute, but they got old fast. The Clydesdale ads were a bit better, but they got old too.)
I never use my smart phone to browse any sites but my own. The Madison Ave. crowd seems to go wild when someone uses an iPhone on their sites to the point that I refuse, absolutely, to do so.
It seems to me that those that wish to sell to us learn to romance us a bit before sticking right up our ... buying chute. If car manufacturers want to include a never ending stream of ads in the car, I may have to invest in a Taser to "discourage" such interruptions. Noting like 10Kva on a computer circuit to "suggest" submission.
But likely they'll make it so that if the ads don't play, the car doesn't run. Pity, that. I kind of gotten used to cars rather than horses for transportation.
I've been asked by them to unlock my phone. I happily do.
I just tell them that since I do not own the devices (my employer does), I would be committing a felony to allow them access.
Things escalate, threats are issued. I tell them that even if I give them access, they are committing a felony, (CFAA - access without permission)
Things escalate, more threats are issued. Then I cave in. Here's the passwords and tokens.
They log in, see nothing but fetish porn (gotta give them SOMETHING they see, otherwise they just keep digging), no email (web based, and carefully cleared from cache), and no external storage, and a few fake memos with lurid read warnings "COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL".
Once I get where I'm going, I wipe the system, load from known clean ISO, log into my cloud storage, download an image, and reburn.
When I'm ready to depart, reverse the process.
It's not that I have anything I know to be illegal, it's just that there are so many laws, I'm sure they could find a way to bend it if they want to. Besides, I find it offensive to my sense of fairness to be searched without probable cause.
you haven't met my ex
I was pretty sure you have an "ex".
1. It's slow
2. It doesn't go anywhere other than the strip
3. Uber and Lyft competing with the monorail is absolute pure quill bull shit. I was in LV as a stopover for where I was going, and you could not get a cab - period.
Hit by fraud. It's not a "prank" when people die. It's homicide.
Remember the Java DST bug?
How about the SWIFT hiccup when the time change got applied backwards.
Or how much it costs to update ever single time zone file on every computer in the world.
I am not advocating for or against DST - I'm advocating for pick you're poison and stick with it. Changing it and mucking around with it is expensive, consumes time I should be spending solving other problems, and is annoying.
PopeRatzo,
I am accepting the premise of the question while knowing full well the premise is non-factual. I don't believe that NN rules place the government in control of the internet, but many that oppose NN mistakenly do believe that. One way to defuse a mistaken belief is to accept the premise, then disprove it on both the mistaken premise and the facts.
Mr. Pei's assertion that NN rules prohibit innovation and deployment of high speed internet completely ignores that fact that the Government has provided almost 50 billion dollars in grants (read that as FREE MONEY) to increase rural deployment of fiber - for less than 1% increase in deployment. By any twisted logic the telecom's apologist would care to blovate, there's simply no question that the taxpayer pumped at least 48 billion dollars into payments to stockholders that resulted in exactly zero for the citizens.
I firmly believe that the best way to solve this issue is to mandate "One Touch Make Ready", rescinding monopoly rents, enacting RAND payments for using public rights of way for all, and enforcing the exact terms of the grants and sending to prison (for life suits me down to my toenail lint) the telecom executives that have cheated the system.
Democrats REALLY want the Federal Government to gain control of the Internet.
I am a progressive. I do not want the government to control the internet, and I sure don't want the corporations with government granted monopolies to control it either.
Here's a thought for you: If you don't want the government to step in here, then pass "One Touch Make Ready" and strike down the laws the telecoms got enacted to prevent cities and counties to establish co-ops for internet. They don't have to allow tv, just internet. That would restore open market freedoms and elemenate the telecom monopolies.
A place I worked bought thousands of ink jet printers.
Mistake #1. Not getting a supplies contract
Mistake #2. They were a name brand printer will known for clogging cartridges and breaking. (I don't want to get sued so no, I'm not naming names.)
Mistake #3. Bought a long term support contract and paid for it in advance.
Result - they rented warehouse space to store the printers until the warranty ran out multiple years later.
I encrypt my passwords with PGP, print them out (encrypted), store a file (encrypted) on different cloud services and a few other dittys I'll just keep to myself.
The FCC has been clear all year that it's focused on "quality" over "quantity" when it comes to comments on net neutrality.
That's like saying "We only count votes from quality people. The total of the vote doesn't matter."
I don't have Facebook. This is why. It's also why I don't have television.
Aggressive tax avoidance by multinational corporations, including Nike and Apple.
It is legal in the US to avoid paying a tax. It is not legal to evade a tax, however.
What's the difference?
Burger King was "bought" by Horton's, a Canadian company, and licenses back all the Burger King IP from Horton. If this consumes effectively most of the profit, Burger King can legally not pay US taxes on it's income. (Previous statement is opinion, assuming facts I have not verified.) This is why I don't go to Burger King anymore.
It is my understanding that Apple does that as well, but again, I have not verified it to be factual, and is thus to be considered opinion. This is why I don't purchase Apple products.
This would appear to be completely allowed within the US tax code. (I am not a tax professional, if you want to do this, you should purchase an opinion from a licensed tax professional.)
What is not legal is for company Blah to use false accounting to evade a tax. That will get you an orange jumpsuit and those fetching chrome bracelets.
My home modem is subjected to 50 meg ddos attacks every day. I think the "1/3'd" cited is pretty much a low ball. My web servers see 1 gig attacks just about every day, and my mail servers see at least 1 million emails per day rejected based on nothing more than it's RIR space. We won't even discuss what is going on with port 22 since I do not allow password PAM and require a key. If you are in APNIC, LATNIC, BRNIC, and much of RIPE space, sorry. It's firewalled completely for all ports. (Except for the UK, no one using my stuff needs the others.)
I am an ex-smoker of tobacco. I know how the fiend that rides the back of a smoker can crawl up the back of your neck, reach it's talons around, and rip off your face when you need that next smoke. All too well, do I know it. I also know the anti-tobacco evangelists, trying to "do good". Let me give you a hint: You are annoying and irritating. Your urgings to quit this filthily habit moved me not one iota until I had my first heart attack. You see, smoking isn't rational. It's deeply emotional and addiction based. If you aren't addicted, you have zero chance of understanding it, and worse, a negative chance to change others. People that are addicted have to choose to change. Logic, proof, and all the AMA studies in the world won't move a truly addicted person one angstrom. Yes - it's not logical. But it is human nature.
I've chewed nicotine gum now for about the last 12 years. My addiction to nicotine continues, albeit in a form that (hopefully) doesn't affect others, like smoking tobacco or vaping does. When I pass the smoking area, I wonder now how I could ever have desired it. And yet, I still feel the pull for "one last good smoke" - which I don't give into.
Vaping, just as smoking, puts chemicals in the air. No difference there.
To my mind, making your own hell is up to you. But including others in your damnation is not your right. If your actions put nicotine in the air others must breathe, such as smoking and vaping, then your right to do so ends at the effective boundary of others to avoid your chosen vice.
And again, I completely understand that critter that wants to rip your face off. I suffer from it to this day and I've not had a cigarette in over a decade. But your right to partake does not include the right to force others to imbibe in your vice as well. All I ask is that you consider how you'd feel of others felt they could force you to breathe flatulence. I doubt you'd be best pleased.
I'm fat. I know I'm fat. Having someone say to me "You're FAT!" may be uncouth and rude, but it's true.
And as I stated, it's something I am already aware of, thank you, Capt. Obvious.
Just in case it isn't obvious, I'm kidding. I never break into anything I don't own or have written permission to do so.