FYI, it was a joke. Of course it has spark plugs. You just can't see them...
Anyway, many modern engines (like this one) are "100K" before the first tune up. Just oil changes and checking fluid levels. Seriously doubt anyone has had to change plugs yet. In fact, a quick google didn't show anything useful.
Changing the oil is a PITA in this vehicle - no normal filter, it's a cartridge, and quite hard to get to too. Frankly, it's not worth my time anymore. My free time is a lot more precious now than it used to be. When my vehicle needs service, I have my wife take it in - she retired (young) so has time on her hands.
Factory trained techs? Erm. But no.
Fine. Substitute Manufacturer Trained, for a net result that is exactly the same.
That's NORMAL. Usually the first line of support doesn't know about back-end problems for HOURS, if at all, and no ability to get status information on anything. In fact, the first line of support is generally useless if you are technical at all. The fact is, 95% of their callers are NOT technical, so it forces us technical people to be treated the same as if we were clueless like the rest of the population (and of course as clueless as the $8 / hour script readers...)
It's unfortunate that the first line of support is staffed by clueless script readers, but your DSL line would cost 3 times more if it wasn't.
... Which is why you always test under load whether a real load or simulated.
PC Power supplies in general tend to be a little difficult that way. You need "enough" load on multiple outputs in order for the thing to work correctly. Wose is how they fail though, where some cheap power supplies fail in a way that shorts the mains to the output. Nothing like getting 120V AC on a 5V DC line.
Personally, I wouldn't trust anyone but a reputable dealer with factory trained techs to work on my car (which is new.) Hell, I won't even change the oil in the thing myself - it's just way too complicated. I CERTAINLY wouldn't let any quickie-mart oil changing place touch my vehicle.
That said, finding a reputable dealer isn't easy. I have to go about 30 miles away to find one as the dealer in my town is known to be pretty bad.
I used to do all my own work and had no problem rebuilding a carburetor, replace the radiator, brakes, etc. Now I can't even replace the spark plugs - I don't think my engine even HAS them, at least as far as I could see. The complexity of engines / etc. in modern vehicles is insane. I have a couple friends who refuse to own a car newer than 1974 for that reason.
Maybe, just MAYBE, they don't NEED java to play the fucking movie. Can't they just ship a disk that plays the damn thing? Why do I need a menu AT ALL? In fact, I don't.
I rip all of my DVD's for archiving (which if you have kids, you understand the need to do) and to remove all the crap. My rips just have the movie part. That's it. No commercials, previews, FBI warnings, nothing but the movie. Plus it gets loaded into the MythTV library, so I never mess with the disks again.
Sure beats the lame-assed Sony 400 disk DVD changer that took FOREVER to load a disk, and start playing. It locked up once and lost all the titles that had been hand-entered for each disk, so I pulled it out and beat the crap out of it with a sledge-hammer. Wife is MUCH happier with the myth box too - "It's like Tivo, but better!"
I refuse to buy any HD disk media until I can be sure that I can easily rip it and load it into myth. Until then, there is always The Pirate Bay.
Yes, but as a developer you have more skills than average.
Let's say your mom has a problem. How is she going to back up her data? Her machine may be in such bad shape that it doesn't even boot properly. If she CAN backup, does she even know WHAT to backup? Does she know how to restore it once the geek squad reimages the thing? Keep in mind that her system is probably teaming with rootkits, viruses, spyware, and dozens of other malware too. Even if she manages to backup data to a recordable CD or USB drive, is the backup any good? Will restoring just reload the malware again?
The fact is, she has to go to someone else for support ANYWAY. It doesn't matter AT ALL what OS she runs. That was my original point. Windows is no easier because it, like EVERY OTHER OS, requires certain skills to solve problems - skills that 95%+ of the population just does not have.
The ubiquitous nature of windows makes it very easy to fix your machine should something go wrong.
Really? Sorry, but that's just not true. In fact, the famous Geek Squad usually fixes all Windows problems by re-imaging your box (which may solve the problem, but also wipes all your data, which is not cool at all, and not REALLY a true fix.) It would be like hiring someone to fix a leak in your roof and you come home and find that the roof was replaced, but now all your personal possessions in your house are gone.
To really fix windows problems requires a fairly significant amount of skill / knowledge that MOST end users (and Geek Squad employees) simply DO NOT HAVE. If this guy's mom runs into problems on Windows, she will call him anyway.
Once a Linux box is properly setup and running (which I admit may be a bit of a challenge if you have certain bits of "Windows Only" hardware) it is LESS likely to have problems than a Windows box in the first place.
Then those people should probably be wearing masks. Seriously. If you life is at stake, would YOU take the chance that someone forgot about the ban and brought in a PB&J? Or had a snickers bar?
But why would I WANT $2 headphones when they totally suck and I already HAVE headphones that are awesome?
Many airlines (such as United) charge you $4 or so for the "movie" and either give you the headphones or allow you to use your own. Not being allowed to use your own would really suck.
This is the nanny society we live in. In fact, many schools DO have a total ban on peanut butter just for that reason. Having a "peanut free" table instead would discriminate against the poor kids suffering with a peanut allergy. Yes, even at a high school, where the kid with the allergy should have enough sense not to eat another child's food by that age. I've lived with severe allergies my entire life, but a total ban on anything like that is insane.
If you are talking about the general case for a meeting chair, keep in mind that the chair may ALSO have other duties, and may need to report on those duties (thus speaking...) But you are right, generally the chair doesn't use his position as a pulpit. A chair is not a dictator, a chair is a moderator / facilitator. That said, while unorthodox, what he did (stepping down, speaking, and resuming his chairmanship) is exactly the way it needed to be done to be legit.
Apparently, Microsoft now has the power (through its "paid" minions) to shape the makeup of not only the membership, but the standards board. This is a very bad situation. It destroys the legitimacy of ISO. Apparently the ISO doesn't have an ethics committee or ethics rules. If they do, they were swept under the carpet for the entire OOXML issue.
Delisting means removing. It should NOT be re-indexed EVER, until the site owner agrees in writing to stop the bad behavior. It can work off IP addresses. Domain names are free, but IP addresses are MUCH more limited.
However, anything with a high pagerank (early in the results) should have more scrutiny by google, and be de-listed quickly. Frankly, I find search engine spam worse than email spam. I can easily filter email spam, but search engine spam is MUCH more difficult since you frequently can't tell if a result is spam without visiting the spam site.
They should. Google already has guidelines that cover this type of behavior. They should enforce them. It's amazing how many sites (including well known sites) violate these guidelines all the time. You would think that Google, with all it's cash (meaning that it can afford to devote the manpower,) would want to improve the quality of their search results, delisting this crap. If they fail to do so, they will start to lose their user base.
If the government can install a device to monitor all net communications (See AT&T), ISPs can at LEAST install devices that simply count TCP SYN packets originating on their network destined to port 25 by originating IP address and identify / nuke the spambots. Shut off the numb-nuts running compromised machines. If this means that grannie is offline until she takes her e-machine into the brainless Geek Squad, so be it. Charge her a $50 reconnect fee and maybe she will start keeping her machine patched and install a firewall. Of course they can also just shut off direct access to external port 25 from all dynamic addresses and be done with it too (which works VERY well, and doesn't impact legitimate users at all who can always use port 587 for corp mail servers, etc.)
This problem has been solved for YEARS now, yet ISPs still haven't figured it out. We REALLY don't want the government legislating remedies, but unless the ISPs do something, government will.
The alternative is getting your entire network blacklisted by a million different admins - try getting out of all those blacklists...
It's totally ridiculous to assert that you job would be on the line because you were running open source software on a box that had a HARDWARE failure and went down. It's perfectly reasonable to claim that you should have had redundancy for a critical box.
Instead of responding to the valid comment you quoted, you instead make a personal attack.
All those "fears" (which you spew) about open source stability have failed to come to fruition. Open source has already proven itself. What has FAILED to be proven is all of the allegations Microsoft has been slinging around (which you seem to have fallen for, and are regurgitating.)
Enlightened executives are asking questions like "Why don't we use more open source?" Of course you can still come up with valid answers like "Only this Microsoft package does what we want," but to pan open source for no reason other than the ones like "nobody gets fired for buying Microsoft" smacks of incompetence. Your attack on Apache is especially clueless as you are attacking one of the most stable, successful, and "proven" open source projects - EVER.
Um, many systems can't handle 8G of ram. Windows (32 bit) can't handle more than around 3G (the exact number depends on what devices you have installed.)
64 bit windows and Linux can address lots of memory however, assuming your motherboard can (which many can't.)
But besides the limitations above, it makes sense to "swap out" the parts of memory you are not using. No sense in putting 8G of real ram in when 4G will be unused code that would have been in swap (not just the money cost, but also electrical cost.)
As I said, the brand-new Lenovo T61 I have here on my desk is no worse than the T20 I ALSO have on my desk, and no worse than any other laptop I have in my office (I have about a dozen at the moment... Most are getting wiped and sent out to donation.)
Um, we were using large RAM disks (the kind that hooked up to SCSI, had a built in UPS and disk to dump RAM contents) many years ago (8 now?) to speed up databases. That was limited by the SCSI bus, but access time and latency were near zero (which was awesome.) Of course, large back then meant 4G, and the average hard disk was 9G. This is evolutionary, not revolutionary.
True, you have a lot more RAM now than you used to... BUT, you are also not running DOS anymore. Hell, MS Office alone take 256M just to load Word (I KID...) But seriously, modern apps are huge. Because memory is cheap, apps are not efficient. We also use our systems differently, working with massive files (images, movies, music) and tend to run lots of apps at the same time, including virtual machines. Yes, you can still run windows in 512M, but it seems that even 2G isn't enough at times.
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FYI, it was a joke. Of course it has spark plugs. You just can't see them...
Anyway, many modern engines (like this one) are "100K" before the first tune up. Just oil changes and checking fluid levels. Seriously doubt anyone has had to change plugs yet. In fact, a quick google didn't show anything useful.
Changing the oil is a PITA in this vehicle - no normal filter, it's a cartridge, and quite hard to get to too. Frankly, it's not worth my time anymore. My free time is a lot more precious now than it used to be. When my vehicle needs service, I have my wife take it in - she retired (young) so has time on her hands.
Factory trained techs? Erm. But no.
Fine. Substitute Manufacturer Trained, for a net result that is exactly the same.
That's NORMAL. Usually the first line of support doesn't know about back-end problems for HOURS, if at all, and no ability to get status information on anything. In fact, the first line of support is generally useless if you are technical at all. The fact is, 95% of their callers are NOT technical, so it forces us technical people to be treated the same as if we were clueless like the rest of the population (and of course as clueless as the $8 / hour script readers...)
It's unfortunate that the first line of support is staffed by clueless script readers, but your DSL line would cost 3 times more if it wasn't.
... Which is why you always test under load whether a real load or simulated.
PC Power supplies in general tend to be a little difficult that way. You need "enough" load on multiple outputs in order for the thing to work correctly. Wose is how they fail though, where some cheap power supplies fail in a way that shorts the mains to the output. Nothing like getting 120V AC on a 5V DC line.
Personally, I wouldn't trust anyone but a reputable dealer with factory trained techs to work on my car (which is new.) Hell, I won't even change the oil in the thing myself - it's just way too complicated. I CERTAINLY wouldn't let any quickie-mart oil changing place touch my vehicle.
That said, finding a reputable dealer isn't easy. I have to go about 30 miles away to find one as the dealer in my town is known to be pretty bad.
I used to do all my own work and had no problem rebuilding a carburetor, replace the radiator, brakes, etc. Now I can't even replace the spark plugs - I don't think my engine even HAS them, at least as far as I could see. The complexity of engines / etc. in modern vehicles is insane. I have a couple friends who refuse to own a car newer than 1974 for that reason.
Maybe, just MAYBE, they don't NEED java to play the fucking movie. Can't they just ship a disk that plays the damn thing? Why do I need a menu AT ALL? In fact, I don't.
I rip all of my DVD's for archiving (which if you have kids, you understand the need to do) and to remove all the crap. My rips just have the movie part. That's it. No commercials, previews, FBI warnings, nothing but the movie. Plus it gets loaded into the MythTV library, so I never mess with the disks again.
Sure beats the lame-assed Sony 400 disk DVD changer that took FOREVER to load a disk, and start playing. It locked up once and lost all the titles that had been hand-entered for each disk, so I pulled it out and beat the crap out of it with a sledge-hammer. Wife is MUCH happier with the myth box too - "It's like Tivo, but better!"
I refuse to buy any HD disk media until I can be sure that I can easily rip it and load it into myth. Until then, there is always The Pirate Bay.
Yes, but as a developer you have more skills than average.
Let's say your mom has a problem. How is she going to back up her data? Her machine may be in such bad shape that it doesn't even boot properly. If she CAN backup, does she even know WHAT to backup? Does she know how to restore it once the geek squad reimages the thing? Keep in mind that her system is probably teaming with rootkits, viruses, spyware, and dozens of other malware too. Even if she manages to backup data to a recordable CD or USB drive, is the backup any good? Will restoring just reload the malware again?
The fact is, she has to go to someone else for support ANYWAY. It doesn't matter AT ALL what OS she runs. That was my original point. Windows is no easier because it, like EVERY OTHER OS, requires certain skills to solve problems - skills that 95%+ of the population just does not have.
The ubiquitous nature of windows makes it very easy to fix your machine should something go wrong.
Really? Sorry, but that's just not true. In fact, the famous Geek Squad usually fixes all Windows problems by re-imaging your box (which may solve the problem, but also wipes all your data, which is not cool at all, and not REALLY a true fix.) It would be like hiring someone to fix a leak in your roof and you come home and find that the roof was replaced, but now all your personal possessions in your house are gone.
To really fix windows problems requires a fairly significant amount of skill / knowledge that MOST end users (and Geek Squad employees) simply DO NOT HAVE. If this guy's mom runs into problems on Windows, she will call him anyway.
Once a Linux box is properly setup and running (which I admit may be a bit of a challenge if you have certain bits of "Windows Only" hardware) it is LESS likely to have problems than a Windows box in the first place.
Then those people should probably be wearing masks. Seriously. If you life is at stake, would YOU take the chance that someone forgot about the ban and brought in a PB&J? Or had a snickers bar?
But why would I WANT $2 headphones when they totally suck and I already HAVE headphones that are awesome?
Many airlines (such as United) charge you $4 or so for the "movie" and either give you the headphones or allow you to use your own. Not being allowed to use your own would really suck.
Every laptop I've seen has the ability to turn off wireless features. What braindead laptop have you found that doesn't?
This is the nanny society we live in. In fact, many schools DO have a total ban on peanut butter just for that reason. Having a "peanut free" table instead would discriminate against the poor kids suffering with a peanut allergy. Yes, even at a high school, where the kid with the allergy should have enough sense not to eat another child's food by that age. I've lived with severe allergies my entire life, but a total ban on anything like that is insane.
The headphones handed out for free by airlines are horrible. I always use my own which sound great, and actually FIT.
If you are talking about the general case for a meeting chair, keep in mind that the chair may ALSO have other duties, and may need to report on those duties (thus speaking...) But you are right, generally the chair doesn't use his position as a pulpit. A chair is not a dictator, a chair is a moderator / facilitator. That said, while unorthodox, what he did (stepping down, speaking, and resuming his chairmanship) is exactly the way it needed to be done to be legit.
Apparently, Microsoft now has the power (through its "paid" minions) to shape the makeup of not only the membership, but the standards board. This is a very bad situation. It destroys the legitimacy of ISO. Apparently the ISO doesn't have an ethics committee or ethics rules. If they do, they were swept under the carpet for the entire OOXML issue.
Delisting means removing. It should NOT be re-indexed EVER, until the site owner agrees in writing to stop the bad behavior. It can work off IP addresses. Domain names are free, but IP addresses are MUCH more limited.
However, anything with a high pagerank (early in the results) should have more scrutiny by google, and be de-listed quickly. Frankly, I find search engine spam worse than email spam. I can easily filter email spam, but search engine spam is MUCH more difficult since you frequently can't tell if a result is spam without visiting the spam site.
They should. Google already has guidelines that cover this type of behavior. They should enforce them. It's amazing how many sites (including well known sites) violate these guidelines all the time. You would think that Google, with all it's cash (meaning that it can afford to devote the manpower,) would want to improve the quality of their search results, delisting this crap. If they fail to do so, they will start to lose their user base.
This is right on.
Let's put it this way...
If the government can install a device to monitor all net communications (See AT&T), ISPs can at LEAST install devices that simply count TCP SYN packets originating on their network destined to port 25 by originating IP address and identify / nuke the spambots. Shut off the numb-nuts running compromised machines. If this means that grannie is offline until she takes her e-machine into the brainless Geek Squad, so be it. Charge her a $50 reconnect fee and maybe she will start keeping her machine patched and install a firewall. Of course they can also just shut off direct access to external port 25 from all dynamic addresses and be done with it too (which works VERY well, and doesn't impact legitimate users at all who can always use port 587 for corp mail servers, etc.)
This problem has been solved for YEARS now, yet ISPs still haven't figured it out. We REALLY don't want the government legislating remedies, but unless the ISPs do something, government will.
The alternative is getting your entire network blacklisted by a million different admins - try getting out of all those blacklists...
It amazes me that you continue down this path.
It's totally ridiculous to assert that you job would be on the line because you were running open source software on a box that had a HARDWARE failure and went down. It's perfectly reasonable to claim that you should have had redundancy for a critical box.
Instead of responding to the valid comment you quoted, you instead make a personal attack.
All those "fears" (which you spew) about open source stability have failed to come to fruition. Open source has already proven itself. What has FAILED to be proven is all of the allegations Microsoft has been slinging around (which you seem to have fallen for, and are regurgitating.)
Enlightened executives are asking questions like "Why don't we use more open source?" Of course you can still come up with valid answers like "Only this Microsoft package does what we want," but to pan open source for no reason other than the ones like "nobody gets fired for buying Microsoft" smacks of incompetence. Your attack on Apache is especially clueless as you are attacking one of the most stable, successful, and "proven" open source projects - EVER.
Unfortunately biodiesel produces a HUGE about of co2 when burned - more so than gasoline. So it makes the global warming problem worse.
Biodiesel is not a panacea.
Um, many systems can't handle 8G of ram. Windows (32 bit) can't handle more than around 3G (the exact number depends on what devices you have installed.)
64 bit windows and Linux can address lots of memory however, assuming your motherboard can (which many can't.)
But besides the limitations above, it makes sense to "swap out" the parts of memory you are not using. No sense in putting 8G of real ram in when 4G will be unused code that would have been in swap (not just the money cost, but also electrical cost.)
If you eat E. Coli contaminated lettuce, you can get sick too. SBC bought AT&T and assumed the name. The E. Coli is still in there...
As I said, the brand-new Lenovo T61 I have here on my desk is no worse than the T20 I ALSO have on my desk, and no worse than any other laptop I have in my office (I have about a dozen at the moment... Most are getting wiped and sent out to donation.)
Um dude? He is quoting the FA. It's pretty clear that this drive will release at prices closer to $30/G. Maybe next year they can get down to $8...
Um, we were using large RAM disks (the kind that hooked up to SCSI, had a built in UPS and disk to dump RAM contents) many years ago (8 now?) to speed up databases. That was limited by the SCSI bus, but access time and latency were near zero (which was awesome.)
Of course, large back then meant 4G, and the average hard disk was 9G. This is evolutionary, not revolutionary.
True, you have a lot more RAM now than you used to... BUT, you are also not running DOS anymore. Hell, MS Office alone take 256M just to load Word (I KID...) But seriously, modern apps are huge. Because memory is cheap, apps are not efficient. We also use our systems differently, working with massive files (images, movies, music) and tend to run lots of apps at the same time, including virtual machines. Yes, you can still run windows in 512M, but it seems that even 2G isn't enough at times.
So we still need swap.