I'm reading all sorts of comments by various people that this or that OS can be much faster if a certain tuning action is taken.
They forget something, Joe Schmoe doesn't know about this, Joe Schmoe doesn't know he has to turn on Command-Tag-Queueing of the Adaptec driver on linux, doesn't know about FBSD softupdates, doesn't know that he has to tweak the hell out of W2K to make it run secure on an Internet connection.
Joe Schmoe doesn't know that no matter what OS you choose, you need an expert to get it to run the way it's intended, fast and secure.
The explanation on the way different OSes treat their threading and I/O and the influence this has on performance of a mailserver is at least clear and should be a help to many admins and coders that are seeking performance gains on their systems.
I have seen other "copy protected" CDDAs and CDROMS.
Most of those were impossible to copy with "standard" CD recording software.
However, lately, most CD recorders give you the option to do a "raw" read / write, no checksums are done by the recorder itself.
More and more CD copying programs are emerging that support this feature.
If they want to remain compatible with the current base of installed players, they can't make these copyprotections work against raw data copies.
There are no technical specs of this copyprotection scheme available, my guess is that it's just another program that puts bad bits in the stream to make checksums go wrong and you can actually still copy the disk if you use a modern burner and software that both support raw data.
In the Netherlands, ADSL is a disaster right now.
I work for one of the ISPs that offer ADSL to their customers and we are facing major problems with our supplier.
Most of the country can't be serviced yet, not by our supplier or any other one.
The way the technical setup is right now, means that our customers have to log in on a website of our ADSL carrier provider and then log in to our system.
The whole process involves Microsoft PPTP which makes it virtually impossible to run secure tunnels over the ADSL link.
The amount of intermittent failures of the ADSL provider we use are also much higher than we would want to accept, but since there is no good alternative, we will have to make do with what we get.
ISDN is almost no alternative, since only one provider offers a 24/7 ISDN uplink.
This provider is a new player on the market and has a very limited service area.
Because ISDN and PSTN in our country are charged by the second, staying online 24/7 is not affordable at all.
The other alternative, Cable, is also not a serious one in most areas.
Most of the country has no option of an uplink by cable, if there is one, there is usually no choice between upstream providers.
The government ruled that for the coming 2 years, the monopoly on the TV cable is being prolongued.
This results in high pricing and bad service from the cable companies, since their users have no real alternative.
I have a bunch of "old" SGI boxes, that really rock. However, getting them repaired or upgrading them is almost impossible. Since SGI either doesn't repair them or asks Outrageous prices for spares, it's hard to keep these machines running. Really, if the specs would be available, I'd love to have them running linux, XFree for the Crimson RE, whee... How about getting a CPU and patching the board and PROMS/NVRAMS yourself, so you can finally get this R4400SC 150 MHz in your 100 MHz R4000 box? All this can be done, it won't really cost them revenue on new sales, but would make them more valuable because of the reduced writeoff of their equipment.
Hello Douglas, Great stuff, most people here haven't read the Dirk Gently book yet. Will you write a guide on holistic system administration in the future? This would, with your writing skills and the average system admin turn into a lot of fun at work.
THe thing here is, if someone REALLY wants to, he/she can circumvent anything you put up to prevent this. If you don't give them root, they will hack the box in single user mode. If you prevent them from running single user mode, they will just put another machine in the net. If you prevent that by allowing only certain MACaddresses, they will find something against that. The real issue here is, get people that aren't interested in violating other persons privacy and if they have to go through "confidential" data, they should know how to handle it.
The guy has never been laid and must be ready to blow. FYI, there is scientific evidence that he actually knocked up Maria Magdalena who fled to France baring his child. This making her the Grail and "Jesus Blood" the unborn child. Whee, I love religious discussions in businessplans, how many angels fit on the tip of a needle?
I remember downloading a version of windows media (can't remember what it was called then, DirectMovie or something) for Linux _written_ by Microsoft, it must of been one of their first Linux projects, and it was free. As mentioned before, that died a quick and silent death.don't see any reason why Microsoft wouldn't write IE or Media player for free for Linux (Linux isn't seriously going to threaten Windows on the desktop for a while - just like MacOS). M$ obviously does, they have ported to HP-UX and Solaris, which are only a VERY small part of the total X workstation servers. Also, the last time I checked, lynx displayed better and was more solid then Explorer... Also, linux IS a threat on the desktop for them RIGHT NOW. Except for that fact that every childish linux geek wannabe keeps cracking jokes about microsoft, using halarious dollar signs when writing MS or Microsoft, and making stupid jokes about BSOD when Windows/MS isn't even involved. I have over 10 years of professional experience with the Redmond Co. Based on this experience and actual knowledge about their product ( I am MCSE ) I can say that the only thing they have done good so far is taking bashings. Try setting up a cluster of centrally managed NT webservers with one single FTP box for webserving. This is the way most ISPs will want to do business. Oh, yes, remotely manageble from any platform with encrypted text only interface like ssh. Really, they offer a great alternative for novell 3 and several textbased frontoffice apps that run on DOS. As soon as you want to do anything in a way that they haven't thought of or if you want to interface with other OSes or software, don't go near them, because they always shut the door. Oh yes, great support they have, it takes $$, lots of time, then lots of more time to wait for a bugfix if you discover one. My experience is that most *NIX vendors, even GPL linux, has a better support, free or payed for, then M$ it's best option available for $$$.
Well, I've always been a bit annoyed with Linux's streaming media capabilites. Hell I remember how impressed I was when I first watched a high quality mpeg in X. It's certainly come a long way. I personally admin a site that has payed a 5 figure amount of US dollars to be able to stream 2000 streams at once. We run these of 2 linuxMy point is this is trivial. Linux doesn't need to be used everywhere. Maybe it shouldn't be used everywhere. We use it, we are happy. If other admins and users want to use windows let them boxes, for redundancy, they can easily do double that on one box, no problem at all. Slamming competition off both the server AND the desktop market by structurally refusing to support anything but your own OS, but giving the stuff away with the OS, is a monopolization method that has brought M$ to court on more then one occasion, they never won any case yet. This is a clear case of false competition to me and I'm waiting on Real's reply. Agreed, they are too expensive, but they DO deserve to get SOME cash for their product and fair competition instead of this M$ crap.
Only commercial setups have to pay for real player. This is not a war of cost or technical merit but one of publicity. Microsoft will use high profile publicity and general FUD tactics to force all competitors out of the market. Read again, it's the STREAMER software that has to be paid for, this is regardless. Furthermore, the realplayer basic is free, if you want the one with the really cool codec, realplayer PLUS, you pay regardless.
he question that needs to be answered is 'Why are websites choosing Microsoft media streaming products over freely available alternatives?'. If we get the answer to that, perhaps we'll be someway to fixing the problem. The answer to this is easy, try buying a machine with software that is capable of 1000 streams. You need to shell out thousands of dollars more for a linux box with realserver 1000 Licences then for a fatter hardware solution with M$ winzdoze and M$ streamer with UNLIMITED streams on it. The trick is once again, just like the browser and webserver software... "It's free, comes with the OS". Ya rite, another abuse of products to monopolize the market. Sell a packet instead of seperate products and people can't deny your prescence.
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I'm reading all sorts of comments by various people that this or that OS can be much faster if a certain tuning action is taken. They forget something, Joe Schmoe doesn't know about this, Joe Schmoe doesn't know he has to turn on Command-Tag-Queueing of the Adaptec driver on linux, doesn't know about FBSD softupdates, doesn't know that he has to tweak the hell out of W2K to make it run secure on an Internet connection. Joe Schmoe doesn't know that no matter what OS you choose, you need an expert to get it to run the way it's intended, fast and secure. The explanation on the way different OSes treat their threading and I/O and the influence this has on performance of a mailserver is at least clear and should be a help to many admins and coders that are seeking performance gains on their systems.
I have seen other "copy protected" CDDAs and CDROMS. Most of those were impossible to copy with "standard" CD recording software. However, lately, most CD recorders give you the option to do a "raw" read / write, no checksums are done by the recorder itself. More and more CD copying programs are emerging that support this feature. If they want to remain compatible with the current base of installed players, they can't make these copyprotections work against raw data copies. There are no technical specs of this copyprotection scheme available, my guess is that it's just another program that puts bad bits in the stream to make checksums go wrong and you can actually still copy the disk if you use a modern burner and software that both support raw data.
In the Netherlands, ADSL is a disaster right now. I work for one of the ISPs that offer ADSL to their customers and we are facing major problems with our supplier. Most of the country can't be serviced yet, not by our supplier or any other one. The way the technical setup is right now, means that our customers have to log in on a website of our ADSL carrier provider and then log in to our system. The whole process involves Microsoft PPTP which makes it virtually impossible to run secure tunnels over the ADSL link. The amount of intermittent failures of the ADSL provider we use are also much higher than we would want to accept, but since there is no good alternative, we will have to make do with what we get. ISDN is almost no alternative, since only one provider offers a 24/7 ISDN uplink. This provider is a new player on the market and has a very limited service area. Because ISDN and PSTN in our country are charged by the second, staying online 24/7 is not affordable at all. The other alternative, Cable, is also not a serious one in most areas. Most of the country has no option of an uplink by cable, if there is one, there is usually no choice between upstream providers. The government ruled that for the coming 2 years, the monopoly on the TV cable is being prolongued. This results in high pricing and bad service from the cable companies, since their users have no real alternative.
I have a bunch of "old" SGI boxes, that really rock. However, getting them repaired or upgrading them is almost impossible. Since SGI either doesn't repair them or asks Outrageous prices for spares, it's hard to keep these machines running. Really, if the specs would be available, I'd love to have them running linux, XFree for the Crimson RE, whee... How about getting a CPU and patching the board and PROMS/NVRAMS yourself, so you can finally get this R4400SC 150 MHz in your 100 MHz R4000 box? All this can be done, it won't really cost them revenue on new sales, but would make them more valuable because of the reduced writeoff of their equipment.
Hello Douglas, Great stuff, most people here haven't read the Dirk Gently book yet. Will you write a guide on holistic system administration in the future? This would, with your writing skills and the average system admin turn into a lot of fun at work.
THe thing here is, if someone REALLY wants to, he/she can circumvent anything you put up to prevent this. If you don't give them root, they will hack the box in single user mode. If you prevent them from running single user mode, they will just put another machine in the net. If you prevent that by allowing only certain MACaddresses, they will find something against that. The real issue here is, get people that aren't interested in violating other persons privacy and if they have to go through "confidential" data, they should know how to handle it.
The guy has never been laid and must be ready to blow. FYI, there is scientific evidence that he actually knocked up Maria Magdalena who fled to France baring his child. This making her the Grail and "Jesus Blood" the unborn child. Whee, I love religious discussions in businessplans, how many angels fit on the tip of a needle?
I remember downloading a version of windows media (can't remember what it was called then, DirectMovie or something) for Linux _written_ by Microsoft, it must of been one of their first Linux projects, and it was free. As mentioned before, that died a quick and silent death.don't see any reason why Microsoft wouldn't write IE or Media player for free for Linux (Linux isn't seriously going to threaten Windows on the desktop for a while - just like MacOS). M$ obviously does, they have ported to HP-UX and Solaris, which are only a VERY small part of the total X workstation servers. Also, the last time I checked, lynx displayed better and was more solid then Explorer... Also, linux IS a threat on the desktop for them RIGHT NOW. Except for that fact that every childish linux geek wannabe keeps cracking jokes about microsoft, using halarious dollar signs when writing MS or Microsoft, and making stupid jokes about BSOD when Windows/MS isn't even involved. I have over 10 years of professional experience with the Redmond Co. Based on this experience and actual knowledge about their product ( I am MCSE ) I can say that the only thing they have done good so far is taking bashings. Try setting up a cluster of centrally managed NT webservers with one single FTP box for webserving. This is the way most ISPs will want to do business. Oh, yes, remotely manageble from any platform with encrypted text only interface like ssh. Really, they offer a great alternative for novell 3 and several textbased frontoffice apps that run on DOS. As soon as you want to do anything in a way that they haven't thought of or if you want to interface with other OSes or software, don't go near them, because they always shut the door. Oh yes, great support they have, it takes $$, lots of time, then lots of more time to wait for a bugfix if you discover one. My experience is that most *NIX vendors, even GPL linux, has a better support, free or payed for, then M$ it's best option available for $$$.
Well, I've always been a bit annoyed with Linux's streaming media capabilites. Hell I remember how impressed I was when I first watched a high quality mpeg in X. It's certainly come a long way. I personally admin a site that has payed a 5 figure amount of US dollars to be able to stream 2000 streams at once. We run these of 2 linuxMy point is this is trivial. Linux doesn't need to be used everywhere. Maybe it shouldn't be used everywhere. We use it, we are happy. If other admins and users want to use windows let them boxes, for redundancy, they can easily do double that on one box, no problem at all. Slamming competition off both the server AND the desktop market by structurally refusing to support anything but your own OS, but giving the stuff away with the OS, is a monopolization method that has brought M$ to court on more then one occasion, they never won any case yet. This is a clear case of false competition to me and I'm waiting on Real's reply. Agreed, they are too expensive, but they DO deserve to get SOME cash for their product and fair competition instead of this M$ crap.
Only commercial setups have to pay for real player. This is not a war of cost or technical merit but one of publicity. Microsoft will use high profile publicity and general FUD tactics to force all competitors out of the market. Read again, it's the STREAMER software that has to be paid for, this is regardless. Furthermore, the realplayer basic is free, if you want the one with the really cool codec, realplayer PLUS, you pay regardless.
he question that needs to be answered is 'Why are websites choosing Microsoft media streaming products over freely available alternatives?'. If we get the answer to that, perhaps we'll be someway to fixing the problem. The answer to this is easy, try buying a machine with software that is capable of 1000 streams. You need to shell out thousands of dollars more for a linux box with realserver 1000 Licences then for a fatter hardware solution with M$ winzdoze and M$ streamer with UNLIMITED streams on it. The trick is once again, just like the browser and webserver software... "It's free, comes with the OS". Ya rite, another abuse of products to monopolize the market. Sell a packet instead of seperate products and people can't deny your prescence.