MSSQL is a database, like any other. We use it here in-house with a proprietary application as it's front end. We rely heavily upon stored procedures and little gadgets lik SQLmail.
I cannot STAND MSSQL! Albeit (as I mentioned above) it is a database like any other, it is so friggin' expensive, so friggin' proprietary, and so friggin' inflexible that we will be STUCK with MSSQL until they run the flag up and put out everyone in little liferafts.
All our network administration, monitoring, and helpdesk support is backended by MySQL. It is cheap (that's read FREE for the uninformed), rapidly deployed, and easily interfaced. I LOVE MySQL! It always works, it never needs to be rebooted or restarted or resurrected from the dead, and I can run it on just about ANY platform I've got available.
When it comes right down to it, performance should NEVER be your determining factor on a database. It should be ONE of your factors, admittedly, but not the most important. Once in-place you are no longer "benchmarking" your db, you are SUPPORTING it. I enjoy seeing MySQL and Postgres improve and grow their feature set...they are still FREE!!!
...Don't EVEN get me started on the "easier, better, faster, safer" replication and backup!!!
I know I'm getting in a late on this discussion here but, on its own, Windows 3.x had NO facility to use the right-mouse-button for anything. WFWG was similarly crippled. With special mouse drivers you could simulate things like double-clicks but only with special third-party extensions could you do anything OS-wise with the right-mouse-button.
As for easily de-registering file types in Win9x or NT or W2K...I suppose I've become a bit jaded with Microsoft products. Technology professionals such as myself, such as the wide world of/.'ers, are very technically competent. I don't even *THINK* about how convoluted a procedure is to change file associations...I just know how to do it.
It has become rather ubiquitous in my mind, I suppose, that when I get trapped by the latest Media Player that I have to go into the File Types dialogue and re-set those associations back to WinAmp. I've forgotten that not everyone who uses a computer is so familiar with its limitations and workarounds.
My great question is - why do computers have to be so *EASY* to use? Why is it that we have the mentality that computers must be as simple to operate as toasters? I mean, look at UN*X. While there are no really great mysteries to using a UN*X terminal, it's not what most people would call a "user-friendly" environment...it was never really INTENDED to be a "user-friendly" environment. By our commodotization of computers, we make Microsoft ever-stronger.
In my own personal opinion computers are NOT commodity items; they never will be.
I'm looking into handhelds right now to help curb my natural "absentminded professor" tendencies. I have the Palm, the Visor, the iPAQ, and now the VR3.
The Agenda is already running Linux...what's everyone's take on it versus the iPAQ???
Low-tech is the way to go here. Most of us/.'ers are willing to spend copious amounts of cash on (good) computer equipment but don't necessarily know ANYthing about carptentry and such. (Glaring generality, I know...sorry to those of you who DO know carpentry!)
I bought two Gorilla Racks from Sam's. They are steel frameworks which lock together using a keyed-slot design and plywood or fiberboard inserts for the shelves themselves. It's all modular and even comes in the wire design I've seen advertised previously in this discussion.
Anyway, I assembled them together...attached PDU's underneath the shelving...bracketed Ethernet switch and router underneath, just enough to display their pretty lights...tossed on my servers, workstations, et al...KVM'ed those that needed it, ran monitors for the "test" devices...ran KVM cabling to my Wal-Mart special desk with hutchtop.
It works great for me but I do have one real caveat here - cabling. No matter WHAT you do with your plethora of equipment, cabling is ALWAYS a pain in the (expletive deleted). You are best off if you can come to some design which allows for trouble-free maintenance of your cabling without a) creating a rat's nest, and b) requiring you to re-do everything when you change out a cable. Personally, I swear by split-loom tubing for most of my runs. Using wire-ties is a no-no unless you are absolutely SURE you aren't going to move or replace something. Velcro strips and split-loom tubing is a much better, reusable, way to go. Don't really look at anything less than 1/2" tubing or you'll run out of room in the tube too quickly.
If you want to check out the Gorilla Rack stuff go here.
...not trying to be belabour the point here but...
Since WHEN is Linux (regardless of distro) a Corporate Enterprise? Companies like Caldera, Corel, et al, all came about in the technology "good times". Is is any wonder that they wanted to try and capitalize on the Open Source revolution? They took the Linux they thought they could use to make a buck and added their own goodies. The unfortunate thing was - their goodies weren't any compelling reason to BUY their product. We, as a community, could just as easily get Free or Open equivalents of their so-called goodies elsewhere.
Now that "times are bad(TM)", Caldera is getting beaten up by the Corporate Shareholders who're wondering why their product isn't selling; isn't selling while Linux is gaining an ever-stronger hold in the industry. Now why do you expect THAT to be so???
Linux on the desktop is still new, still quirky, and still burdened with the legacy of X. Linux on the server, however, is everything Microsoft wanted to be and more. Distros like Caldera and Corel have little to brag about for their server product...much to brag about their graphical desktops and productivity apps. Since when is a productivity app supposed to mean diddly-squat on your server?
Okay, I'm done...finished...kaput...I'm going to go look at the blinking lights on my ATM switch and sigh about the "good old days(TM)".
If you took a great deal of your time to create yet ANOTHER Natalie Portman collage...would you really want that "sucked up" by someone's search engine or image archive? I mean, what's fair about that???
No credit for all that hard work...for shame, for shame... you might want to check out Digimarc, though
One thing...what about all us "God forbid a UNIX user should install IE" geeks who are pushing for OPEN standards? There has NEVER been a concensus amongst graphical browsers about handling images, much less the HTML which lays them out. Why should they start now?
I am in agreement that having vector art displayable on graphical browsers is an imporant issue, but what's really WRONG with having a 28.8K SLIP (or, better yet, SHELL) connection to the Internet? Are the buzzards circling over our heads now because we prefer to use character-based terminals?
Last I heard, you could start Lynx *significantly* faster than you could start IE...
all/.'ers out there can take their $$$ from Mr' Bush's ill-advised "tax rebate to the American People(TM)", send those monies to the Open Source Movement of your choice (Patrick Volderking's getting MINE!), and beat Microsoft at its own game. Who needs politicians when you have each other?
I can think of a way possibly alleviate the "spinning after impact" problem. After working on helicopters for Uncle Sam, I have seen some interesting things done with rotary-wing aircraft.
On most helicopters, there are a series of transmissions connecting the engine to the rotors themselves. Now, with a helicopter you aren't terribly worried about what happens if your rotorblades hit something...if they HIT something you are usually going to be worried about more than the brown stain in the seat of your flightsuit.
In Whyachi, though, you could use some type of flywheel or clutch arrangement to disengage the direct drive motor from the weapon itself. Once the weapon gets spinning, inertia will help it to continue to spin even with reduced input from the motor.
This, of course, won't protect you from french keyboards... [;')
I hate to admit it but soon all our precious iNTEL-based motherboards are going to come sans PS/2.
I have already seen it. I deal stock-in-trade with Acer AOpen products and it is plain undeniable fact that "EVERYthing"(TM) is going USB. PS/2 is going the way of the legacy serial bus; buh-bye!! My own personal opinion is let's keep PS/2 and serial COM ports but technology must move ever onward, I suppose.
It sorta makes you wonder why, though. I mean, how much MORE bandwith and speed do you really need for your keyboard and mouse? Is there anything to be gained by eliminating the PS/2 port altogether save getting rid of a couple of headers off the motherboard? USB is still nothing more than a quicker serial bus after all...
Linux users like myself are only going to benefit from integrated USB support, be it in the kernal or as a loadable module. With the hardware moving on, we can't help but move with it regardless of its righteousness.
...being a (former) advocate for Compaq products, I must beg to differ with the statement of:
And if you exclude Compaq, with their non-standard components and horrible support for non-MS OSes.
Since Compaq bought Digital, there has been a conscious effort on Compaq's part to bring Alpha's BACK to the masses. TRU64 UNIX, VMS, and Linux are very well-supported on the Alpha line. As far as the Intel machines are concerned, how many OTHER Tier-1 hardware manufactures are providing direct support for users running Linux?
Compaq R&D's it's OWN equipment - from the server motherboards to the RAM you stick in it, Compaq designs and/or manufactures it all in-house. The price they pay for that is a slower development cycle on new products but it, in turn, allows for a much greater control over defects and quicker solutions to real-world issues.
Hell, if you fsck up your handheld iPAQ trying to put Linux on it, Compaq will support that, as well.
To include some ON-topic remarks here, I'm going on record as NOT being terribly enthusiastic about the HP-Compaq buyout. I have never had good experiences with HP's line of support (servers *or* printers *or* anything else). At least Compaq has a very clear-cut support channel. When Carly grabs Compaq's reins it'll be just one MORE company down the toilet...
I know this is OT...the past few posts in this vein are OT, BUT...
I *would* like to go on the (offtopic) record by saying that most of your windows memory leaks aren't REALLY unique to the windows platform nor are they BECAUSE of the windows platform.
If you are familiar with C-based programs, you will be familiar with the malloc() function. The malloc() function is a well-known and well-documented memory hog. Even well-written programs suffer from this...even well-written UN*X-based programs.
Someone (from Microsoft even) has a page devoted to alternatives to malloc()...
I am taking a few moments from my (hectic) whirlwind schedule here to weigh in on the 56k dialup issue.
I'm like alot of early-adopters - started on the 'Net while it was in it's infancy. I can remember praising the technology gods for the fruition of someone's idead to "emulate" a SLIP connection. Thus was born TIA, The Internet Adapter.
I was chainlinked to my 9600 (then 14.4) modem dialling into my ISP-provided UNIX shell account, firing up TIA, and browsing the (then) new, improved graphical Internet with my buggy copy of Mosaic. Here I was, a 'Net newbie surfing the Internet, telnet'ing into MUSH's, actually using gopher and WAIS services, and enjoying the newness of it all.
If the internet had stayed a playground for the geeks in us, things would *still* be usable for 14.4 modem dialup users running TIA. Instead we are saddled with a commercially-burdened monstrosity which eats at our bandwidth contraints and gobbles up IP addresses like they were bon-bons in WeightWatchers meeting.
What do I *still* use for my Internet usage? A simple, easy-to-use, always-working 56K external modem. There was nothing like listening to the posts from months back about people's DSL woes and laughing at how my 56K modem STILL works. Even better, it works EVERYWHERE. Even in podunk nowhere you can get a 28.8K connection. Hell, I remember when I thought I was FORTUNATE to get a true 28.8K connection with my ISP.
So, for now, I think the cards are stacked against people who DON'T want to pay for leased-line/Frame Relay and CAN'T get DSL/Cable/Satellite/Whatever. The ISP's who haven't gone under still do one thing (reasonably) well - 56K dialup. I've tried DSL and Cable, it really only gets me to an hourglass at someone's poorly-constructed, Flash/Shockwave/Java/Plugin-requiring site that much faster.
The reports of dialup's death have been greatly exaggerated...
I know from personal experience the (lack of) value to be found in the piece of paper a burgeoning sysadmin totes with him/her everywhere they apply for (not so) gainful employment.
My first questions are usually _really_ basic ones (e.g., "foo" part on your server or workstation isn't functioning; what do you do?). If the answers I get back are in the category of applying the latest service pack, they can walk back out the door just as quickly as they walk in.
Being an IT professional is, IMNSHO, more about problem-solving skills and thinking "outside the box". I can hire twenty people a day who can recite the OSI model from their CCNA prep book. What I'm _really_ looking for is someone I can trust to SOLVE PROBLEMS!!!
Slashdot Mirror
MSSQL is a database, like any other. We use it here in-house with a proprietary application as it's front end. We rely heavily upon stored procedures and little gadgets lik SQLmail.
I cannot STAND MSSQL! Albeit (as I mentioned above) it is a database like any other, it is so friggin' expensive, so friggin' proprietary, and so friggin' inflexible that we will be STUCK with MSSQL until they run the flag up and put out everyone in little liferafts.
All our network administration, monitoring, and helpdesk support is backended by MySQL. It is cheap (that's read FREE for the uninformed), rapidly deployed, and easily interfaced. I LOVE MySQL! It always works, it never needs to be rebooted or restarted or resurrected from the dead, and I can run it on just about ANY platform I've got available.
When it comes right down to it, performance should NEVER be your determining factor on a database. It should be ONE of your factors, admittedly, but not the most important. Once in-place you are no longer "benchmarking" your db, you are SUPPORTING it. I enjoy seeing MySQL and Postgres improve and grow their feature set...they are still FREE!!!
...Don't EVEN get me started on the "easier, better, faster, safer" replication and backup!!!
:::SHEESH:::
-PONA-
*ahem*
/.'ers, are very technically competent. I don't even *THINK* about how convoluted a procedure is to change file associations...I just know how to do it.
I know I'm getting in a late on this discussion here but, on its own, Windows 3.x had NO facility to use the right-mouse-button for anything. WFWG was similarly crippled. With special mouse drivers you could simulate things like double-clicks but only with special third-party extensions could you do anything OS-wise with the right-mouse-button.
As for easily de-registering file types in Win9x or NT or W2K...I suppose I've become a bit jaded with Microsoft products. Technology professionals such as myself, such as the wide world of
It has become rather ubiquitous in my mind, I suppose, that when I get trapped by the latest Media Player that I have to go into the File Types dialogue and re-set those associations back to WinAmp. I've forgotten that not everyone who uses a computer is so familiar with its limitations and workarounds.
My great question is - why do computers have to be so *EASY* to use? Why is it that we have the mentality that computers must be as simple to operate as toasters? I mean, look at UN*X. While there are no really great mysteries to using a UN*X terminal, it's not what most people would call a "user-friendly" environment...it was never really INTENDED to be a "user-friendly" environment. By our commodotization of computers, we make Microsoft ever-stronger.
In my own personal opinion computers are NOT commodity items; they never will be.
-PONA-
I'm sorry if this is a bit off-topic...
I'm looking into handhelds right now to help curb my natural "absentminded professor" tendencies. I have the Palm, the Visor, the iPAQ, and now the VR3.
The Agenda is already running Linux...what's everyone's take on it versus the iPAQ???
-PONA-
Low-tech is the way to go here. Most of us /.'ers are willing to spend copious amounts of cash on (good) computer equipment but don't necessarily know ANYthing about carptentry and such. (Glaring generality, I know...sorry to those of you who DO know carpentry!)
I bought two Gorilla Racks from Sam's. They are steel frameworks which lock together using a keyed-slot design and plywood or fiberboard inserts for the shelves themselves. It's all modular and even comes in the wire design I've seen advertised previously in this discussion.
Anyway, I assembled them together...attached PDU's underneath the shelving...bracketed Ethernet switch and router underneath, just enough to display their pretty lights...tossed on my servers, workstations, et al...KVM'ed those that needed it, ran monitors for the "test" devices...ran KVM cabling to my Wal-Mart special desk with hutchtop.
It works great for me but I do have one real caveat here - cabling. No matter WHAT you do with your plethora of equipment, cabling is ALWAYS a pain in the (expletive deleted). You are best off if you can come to some design which allows for trouble-free maintenance of your cabling without a) creating a rat's nest, and b) requiring you to re-do everything when you change out a cable. Personally, I swear by split-loom tubing for most of my runs. Using wire-ties is a no-no unless you are absolutely SURE you aren't going to move or replace something. Velcro strips and split-loom tubing is a much better, reusable, way to go. Don't really look at anything less than 1/2" tubing or you'll run out of room in the tube too quickly.
If you want to check out the Gorilla Rack stuff go here.
-PONA-
...not trying to be belabour the point here but...
Since WHEN is Linux (regardless of distro) a Corporate Enterprise? Companies like Caldera, Corel, et al, all came about in the technology "good times". Is is any wonder that they wanted to try and capitalize on the Open Source revolution? They took the Linux they thought they could use to make a buck and added their own goodies. The unfortunate thing was - their goodies weren't any compelling reason to BUY their product. We, as a community, could just as easily get Free or Open equivalents of their so-called goodies elsewhere.
Now that "times are bad(TM)", Caldera is getting beaten up by the Corporate Shareholders who're wondering why their product isn't selling; isn't selling while Linux is gaining an ever-stronger hold in the industry. Now why do you expect THAT to be so???
Linux on the desktop is still new, still quirky, and still burdened with the legacy of X. Linux on the server, however, is everything Microsoft wanted to be and more. Distros like Caldera and Corel have little to brag about for their server product...much to brag about their graphical desktops and productivity apps. Since when is a productivity app supposed to mean diddly-squat on your server?
Okay, I'm done...finished...kaput...I'm going to go look at the blinking lights on my ATM switch and sigh about the "good old days(TM)".
-PONA-
If you took a great deal of your time to create yet ANOTHER Natalie Portman collage...would you really want that "sucked up" by someone's search engine or image archive? I mean, what's fair about that???
No credit for all that hard work...for shame, for shame... you might want to check out Digimarc, though
-PONA-
...nice long diatribe...
One thing...what about all us "God forbid a UNIX user should install IE" geeks who are pushing for OPEN standards? There has NEVER been a concensus amongst graphical browsers about handling images, much less the HTML which lays them out. Why should they start now?
I am in agreement that having vector art displayable on graphical browsers is an imporant issue, but what's really WRONG with having a 28.8K SLIP (or, better yet, SHELL) connection to the Internet? Are the buzzards circling over our heads now because we prefer to use character-based terminals?
Last I heard, you could start Lynx *significantly* faster than you could start IE...
-PONA-
I've got a great plan...
/.'ers out there can take their $$$ from Mr' Bush's ill-advised "tax rebate to the American People(TM)", send those monies to the Open Source Movement of your choice (Patrick Volderking's getting MINE!), and beat Microsoft at its own game. Who needs politicians when you have each other?
all
Money wins again. WRONG!!! Geeks win again!!!
-PONA-
I can think of a way possibly alleviate the "spinning after impact" problem. After working on helicopters for Uncle Sam, I have seen some interesting things done with rotary-wing aircraft.
On most helicopters, there are a series of transmissions connecting the engine to the rotors themselves. Now, with a helicopter you aren't terribly worried about what happens if your rotorblades hit something...if they HIT something you are usually going to be worried about more than the brown stain in the seat of your flightsuit.
In Whyachi, though, you could use some type of flywheel or clutch arrangement to disengage the direct drive motor from the weapon itself. Once the weapon gets spinning, inertia will help it to continue to spin even with reduced input from the motor.
This, of course, won't protect you from french keyboards... [;')
-PONA-
I hate to admit it but soon all our precious iNTEL-based motherboards are going to come sans PS/2.
I have already seen it. I deal stock-in-trade with Acer AOpen products and it is plain undeniable fact that "EVERYthing"(TM) is going USB. PS/2 is going the way of the legacy serial bus; buh-bye!! My own personal opinion is let's keep PS/2 and serial COM ports but technology must move ever onward, I suppose.
It sorta makes you wonder why, though. I mean, how much MORE bandwith and speed do you really need for your keyboard and mouse? Is there anything to be gained by eliminating the PS/2 port altogether save getting rid of a couple of headers off the motherboard? USB is still nothing more than a quicker serial bus after all...
Linux users like myself are only going to benefit from integrated USB support, be it in the kernal or as a loadable module. With the hardware moving on, we can't help but move with it regardless of its righteousness.
-PONA-
...being a (former) advocate for Compaq products, I must beg to differ with the statement of:
And if you exclude Compaq, with their non-standard components and horrible support for non-MS OSes.
Since Compaq bought Digital, there has been a conscious effort on Compaq's part to bring Alpha's BACK to the masses. TRU64 UNIX, VMS, and Linux are very well-supported on the Alpha line. As far as the Intel machines are concerned, how many OTHER Tier-1 hardware manufactures are providing direct support for users running Linux?
Compaq R&D's it's OWN equipment - from the server motherboards to the RAM you stick in it, Compaq designs and/or manufactures it all in-house. The price they pay for that is a slower development cycle on new products but it, in turn, allows for a much greater control over defects and quicker solutions to real-world issues.
Hell, if you fsck up your handheld iPAQ trying to put Linux on it, Compaq will support that, as well.
To include some ON-topic remarks here, I'm going on record as NOT being terribly enthusiastic about the HP-Compaq buyout. I have never had good experiences with HP's line of support (servers *or* printers *or* anything else). At least Compaq has a very clear-cut support channel. When Carly grabs Compaq's reins it'll be just one MORE company down the toilet...
-PONA-
I know this is OT...the past few posts in this vein are OT, BUT...
I *would* like to go on the (offtopic) record by saying that most of your windows memory leaks aren't REALLY unique to the windows platform nor are they BECAUSE of the windows platform.
If you are familiar with C-based programs, you will be familiar with the malloc() function. The malloc() function is a well-known and well-documented memory hog. Even well-written programs suffer from this...even well-written UN*X-based programs.
Someone (from Microsoft even) has a page devoted to alternatives to malloc()...
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~zorn/Malloc.html
...you can hate microsoft for lots of things, but take it easy on the memory leaks that it shares with almost every OTHER OS out there.
-PONA-
I am taking a few moments from my (hectic) whirlwind schedule here to weigh in on the 56k dialup issue.
I'm like alot of early-adopters - started on the 'Net while it was in it's infancy. I can remember praising the technology gods for the fruition of someone's idead to "emulate" a SLIP connection. Thus was born TIA, The Internet Adapter.
I was chainlinked to my 9600 (then 14.4) modem dialling into my ISP-provided UNIX shell account, firing up TIA, and browsing the (then) new, improved graphical Internet with my buggy copy of Mosaic. Here I was, a 'Net newbie surfing the Internet, telnet'ing into MUSH's, actually using gopher and WAIS services, and enjoying the newness of it all.
If the internet had stayed a playground for the geeks in us, things would *still* be usable for 14.4 modem dialup users running TIA. Instead we are saddled with a commercially-burdened monstrosity which eats at our bandwidth contraints and gobbles up IP addresses like they were bon-bons in WeightWatchers meeting.
What do I *still* use for my Internet usage? A simple, easy-to-use, always-working 56K external modem. There was nothing like listening to the posts from months back about people's DSL woes and laughing at how my 56K modem STILL works. Even better, it works EVERYWHERE. Even in podunk nowhere you can get a 28.8K connection. Hell, I remember when I thought I was FORTUNATE to get a true 28.8K connection with my ISP.
So, for now, I think the cards are stacked against people who DON'T want to pay for leased-line/Frame Relay and CAN'T get DSL/Cable/Satellite/Whatever. The ISP's who haven't gone under still do one thing (reasonably) well - 56K dialup. I've tried DSL and Cable, it really only gets me to an hourglass at someone's poorly-constructed, Flash/Shockwave/Java/Plugin-requiring site that much faster.
The reports of dialup's death have been greatly exaggerated...
No, that's what Sircam is for... *SHEESH*, talk about off-topic!!!!
PHOOEY!!!
I know from personal experience the (lack of) value to be found in the piece of paper a burgeoning sysadmin totes with him/her everywhere they apply for (not so) gainful employment.
My first questions are usually _really_ basic ones (e.g., "foo" part on your server or workstation isn't functioning; what do you do?). If the answers I get back are in the category of applying the latest service pack, they can walk back out the door just as quickly as they walk in.
Being an IT professional is, IMNSHO, more about problem-solving skills and thinking "outside the box". I can hire twenty people a day who can recite the OSI model from their CCNA prep book. What I'm _really_ looking for is someone I can trust to SOLVE PROBLEMS!!!
set prompt='%{^[7^[[H^[[0;1;37;41m^[[K(%n@%m) %! %~ ^[[0;37;40m^[8^[[A^[[B%}%% '
...sorry, tcsh spoken here...
sometimes a little hard on the scrollback, but very nice to trot out to newbies. *OOH, AHH*
-PONA-