My take on this "science by press release" is that they are doing it for political reasons. Stem cell research is controversial, and they want to campaign in favor of it by showing the public that it can have huge benefits. Imagine if everyone that had kidney trouble was able to get a transplant! Now doesn't that make you want to support stem cell research?
Generally, you will find that using a SAN is better. The sort of equipment that is deployed in a SAN is typically higher-end than what you would get with a stand-alone RAID array.
You probably also get a number of other advantages. Your SAN is probably already backed up. Your SAN is likely already part of any disaster recovery plan.
And while you could view the SAN as a single point of failure, you could also view your local RAID array as a single point of failure. Any decent SAN implementation has redundancy at every level.
Of course, I'm biased, as I work for EMC, a big SAN company.
You probably need to sit down with your IT people and discuss with them exactly how the SAN is set up. You'll probably find that it has more than enough reliability and performance for any web server application.
So what are the real advantages of Mandrake? I'm currently running Red Hat. I have a friend who is religious about SuSe because it confoms more to the old-school Unix configuration scheme. What makes Mandrake popular?
You should probably look at people who have set up diskless Linux systems. The root directory is NFS. You can even use a network device for swap space. You'll probably need some sort of network file system for doing your work anyway.
The advantage of booting off of NFS is that you don't have to burn new CDs when you udate the cluster. I don't have any experience with this, but I suspect that while most diskless systems use special network boot ROMs on the network cards, you could do the same thing with a CD boot. You might even be able to have a Windows application that shuts down cleanly and boots from the network (something like loadlin).
So I guess I don't have answers, only more questions to research.
There have been a number of projects that do this under Unix over the years. Many of them do it for the purpose of process migration. Others do it just for recovery.
One such project that I used in the early 90s was Condor.
The typical approach is to do something along the lines of forcing a core dump and then doing some magic to restart the process from the core file.
See http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=3575 for another Linux Journal article on setting up a firewall with various features including port forwarding. This article predates the 2.4 kernel, so it's not relevant to iptables, but if you're running a 2.0 or 2.2 kernel, you should find an example there.
I just ran across it today when setting up a network. (You would think I would have remembered, considering that I wrote the article.)
Not only will Alan Cox probably leave Red Hat, but much of the userbase will leave. While Red Hat is a for-profit company, it is generally respected within the open source community for being solidly supportive of the community. AOL/TW, however, despite its good works regarding Mozilla, has no such reputation. The TW side of AOL, in particular, is very much a part of the traditional copyright establishment; the same establishment that opposes open-source DVD players and is pushing for additional copyright protection measures that would exclude the possibility of open-source support.
So if Red Hat is bought by AOL, I expect much of their user base will move to Mandrake, Debian, and Suse.
Most of the kernel configuration is simply a matter of which drivers to include in the kernel instead of as modules. Distributions put most of the stuff out as modules, so all that a kernel autoconfigurer would do is notice which modules are loaded and build them as part of the native kernel. The advantages of this are minor--slightly better memory utilization, no need for initrd.
On the other hand, there are some areas where an autoconfigurator would be handy. That's when determining which chipset features/bugs to compile for. Hopefully this project will focus on the areas of configuring that are more complicated than (y/M/n).
If we have a bunch of robots out there in the ocean, why just use them to monitor pollution levels? Why couldn't they also monitor shipping and submarines?
So we spread out a network of nano-robots throughout the oceans, and the US military then knows exactly where every submarine in the world is located. Whether scary privacy invasion or good intelligence, it's probably just about as doable as the stated objective.
Most likely, what they are really buying is some form of support contract for 120,000 linux installations (and possibly that many sets of CDs and manuals). The level of support provided would depend on the price paid.
On the other hand, it is possible that some of the Korean-language stuff is proprietary, so they must buy per-seat licenses.
Or it could be that the Korean beurocracy is in the habit of buying one copy per machine, even if they don't have to.
I remember covering logic in a class once, and we covered a standard list of fallacies. For example, Ad Hominem attacks are arguments against the person, not the idea. Is there a similar term for attacks against laws or court rulings based on their age? It seems that anytime someone tries to enforce a law that's more than 50 years old, the date is emphasized to imply that the law is dusty and obsolete.
Next thing you know, you'll hear reporters saying, "the defendent claimed that he should be able to post any opinion he wanted, citing a 1782 amendment concerning free speech."
This is a technical nitpick, but laws don't rule. Courts rule. Laws state.
But that's a direct quote from the original article. So the question is, is the 1913 thing a law or a judgement? If it's the latter, then it will be a lot easier for Microsoft to get its way.
While I'm not excited about the privacy implications of a national ID system, I do think it makes sense for states to standardize the format of the ID cards they issue. I've heard of places simply refusing to recognize out-of-state licenses because they can't keep their employees up to speed on recognizing which ones are fakes.
It is a web hosting service, but you don't have to put up a web page. For something like $5.95/month, you get *@yourdomain filtered and forwarded as you see fit.
Laziness dictates that you will often have the same CD or small number of CDs in your car. You don't get nearly the variety you would with a MP3 jukebox or radio station.
Creating mix tapes or CDs requires a significant effort. Unless you spend a lot of time preparing your music, you'll end up listening to only one artist for each commute, and that can get boring.
Of course, for me, my commute is only 15 minutes--not long enough to bother even fixing my broken radio.
Five years ago, this would have been the coolest thing in the world. Imagine being able to commute in the morning an listen to music instead of a pair of DJs chatting. Sure, you could pop in a tape or CD, but that can be a pain.
Now, it's not quite so interesting. The early adopters have been, at least in part, co-opted by car MP3 players. If I had a long commute, you can bet that's the direction I would invest my car audio dollars.
Of course, there is still a significant market for them, but it's just a little harder to get people excited about it than it would have been a few years ago.
What about writers? It should be easy enough to copy the magnetic strip from one card to another. I've always thought it would be fun to use an old (expired) credit card intead of the ones that they issued us. (It would also be nice to have a backup.)
That may seem like a stupid question, but you need to consider the reasons you want to have a backup before you settle on a method.
Are you afraid of your drive failing? If so, then using a RAID solution should cover you.
Are you afraid of losing your whole system (perhaps due to lightning or theft)? If so, then your backup must be kept physically isolated from your system.
Are you afraid of accidentally deleting files (such as `rm -rf/` or a virus)? If so, then a RAID solution is useless.
Are you afraid of having your system down for an hour or two while you replace a drive? If so, then regardless of other issues, you need a RAID setup.
Do you want to use your MP3s with some other device? If so, you probably want CD-R copies.
Of course, there are other considerations that I haven't mentioned or thought of.
While it may seem like a lame cop-out on the surface, I think that putting together a CD of old arcade games may make a great gift for some people. The target for such a gift would be someone who isn't likely to download and install it themselves, but would enjoy the games. So do the work for them (granted, it's not that much work) and get them a CD that they just pop in their system and play.
Think of it as the geek equivalent of hand-drawing your own greeting cards. Martha Stewart of Borg would be proud.
It's important to understand that Quicktime is not a compression algorithm. If it were, then I would agree with your statement. However, Quicktime is one level above the compression algorithm--it can work with many different algorithms. There's no reason to believe that there won't be a MPEG-4 codec for Quicktime soon (if it's not available already).
While the most popular codecs involved will change, Quicktime will be around for a long time to come.
You want to take any study that looks a lines of code as a metric with a grain of salt (or more likely, a full salt shaker). You really can't compare code on that basis when dealing with projects of differing inherrent complexity. For example, a single-threaded application program will be far less complex than re-entrant kernel code. If you're getting the same number of lines of code per programmer on each project, then you have much more experienced coders on the kernel project.
And to say the language doesn't matter is also nuts. Sure, you might find that if you select the right languages, but if you compare, say, assembly language to Java, you're not going to get the same results--and good luck selecting programmers with the same levels of experience to make a valid comparison.
The decision at hand really depends on how much time you have. If you start running out of time, then it's time to hire more help.
The article mentions that there is a "broadband adapter" that you can get for this--it's an ethernet port. Now if you could get it to work with two of them (I have no idea how the hardware works), then you could use this as a firewall/router. Since it's running on a CD, you don't have to worry about someone modifying files on it if they manage to hack in (which is unlikely, as the script kiddies wouldn't be up to modifying the x86-based Linux hacks to deal with the dreamcast, even if you didn't fix the known vulnerabilities). Of course, not having a hard drive also means limited logging.
So what is the problem that they are trying to solve? They wouldn't do this if they didn't think it would save them money, so obviously they think this will enhance profits. The article states that it is "part of an effort to reduce fraud and theft." I wonder how big a problem this is? Will having thumbprints reduce the problem, or will it just change the techniques used by the criminals? How much will this reduce revenue due to people not willing to provide their prints out of privacy concerns?
You can now get a DVD player for around a hundred dollars that will play DVDs, CDs, MP3s, VCDs, SVCDs, and mini-DVDs. I doubt you'll get all that from the XBox. Also, does the XBox offer digital audio out? Does it offer component video? Does the XBox run silent when playing discs?
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My take on this "science by press release" is that they are doing it for political reasons. Stem cell research is controversial, and they want to campaign in favor of it by showing the public that it can have huge benefits. Imagine if everyone that had kidney trouble was able to get a transplant! Now doesn't that make you want to support stem cell research?
Generally, you will find that using a SAN is better. The sort of equipment that is deployed in a SAN is typically higher-end than what you would get with a stand-alone RAID array.
You probably also get a number of other advantages. Your SAN is probably already backed up. Your SAN is likely already part of any disaster recovery plan.
And while you could view the SAN as a single point of failure, you could also view your local RAID array as a single point of failure. Any decent SAN implementation has redundancy at every level.
Of course, I'm biased, as I work for EMC, a big SAN company.
You probably need to sit down with your IT people and discuss with them exactly how the SAN is set up. You'll probably find that it has more than enough reliability and performance for any web server application.
So what are the real advantages of Mandrake? I'm currently running Red Hat. I have a friend who is religious about SuSe because it confoms more to the old-school Unix configuration scheme. What makes Mandrake popular?
You should probably look at people who have set up diskless Linux systems. The root directory is NFS. You can even use a network device for swap space. You'll probably need some sort of network file system for doing your work anyway.
The advantage of booting off of NFS is that you don't have to burn new CDs when you udate the cluster. I don't have any experience with this, but I suspect that while most diskless systems use special network boot ROMs on the network cards, you could do the same thing with a CD boot. You might even be able to have a Windows application that shuts down cleanly and boots from the network (something like loadlin).
So I guess I don't have answers, only more questions to research.
I've been reporting my age in hex, so I'll be turning 21 in May.
What you want is known as "checkpointing."
There have been a number of projects that do this under Unix over the years. Many of them do it for the purpose of process migration. Others do it just for recovery.
One such project that I used in the early 90s was Condor.
The typical approach is to do something along the lines of forcing a core dump and then doing some magic to restart the process from the core file.
See http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=3575 for another Linux Journal article on setting up a firewall with various features including port forwarding. This article predates the 2.4 kernel, so it's not relevant to iptables, but if you're running a 2.0 or 2.2 kernel, you should find an example there.
I just ran across it today when setting up a network. (You would think I would have remembered, considering that I wrote the article.)
Not only will Alan Cox probably leave Red Hat, but much of the userbase will leave. While Red Hat is a for-profit company, it is generally respected within the open source community for being solidly supportive of the community. AOL/TW, however, despite its good works regarding Mozilla, has no such reputation. The TW side of AOL, in particular, is very much a part of the traditional copyright establishment; the same establishment that opposes open-source DVD players and is pushing for additional copyright protection measures that would exclude the possibility of open-source support.
So if Red Hat is bought by AOL, I expect much of their user base will move to Mandrake, Debian, and Suse.
Most of the kernel configuration is simply a matter of which drivers to include in the kernel instead of as modules. Distributions put most of the stuff out as modules, so all that a kernel autoconfigurer would do is notice which modules are loaded and build them as part of the native kernel. The advantages of this are minor--slightly better memory utilization, no need for initrd.
On the other hand, there are some areas where an autoconfigurator would be handy. That's when determining which chipset features/bugs to compile for. Hopefully this project will focus on the areas of configuring that are more complicated than (y/M/n).
If we have a bunch of robots out there in the ocean, why just use them to monitor pollution levels? Why couldn't they also monitor shipping and submarines?
So we spread out a network of nano-robots throughout the oceans, and the US military then knows exactly where every submarine in the world is located. Whether scary privacy invasion or good intelligence, it's probably just about as doable as the stated objective.
Most likely, what they are really buying is some form of support contract for 120,000 linux installations (and possibly that many sets of CDs and manuals). The level of support provided would depend on the price paid.
On the other hand, it is possible that some of the Korean-language stuff is proprietary, so they must buy per-seat licenses.
Or it could be that the Korean beurocracy is in the habit of buying one copy per machine, even if they don't have to.
I remember covering logic in a class once, and we covered a standard list of fallacies. For example, Ad Hominem attacks are arguments against the person, not the idea. Is there a similar term for attacks against laws or court rulings based on their age? It seems that anytime someone tries to enforce a law that's more than 50 years old, the date is emphasized to imply that the law is dusty and obsolete.
Next thing you know, you'll hear reporters saying, "the defendent claimed that he should be able to post any opinion he wanted, citing a 1782 amendment concerning free speech."
This is a technical nitpick, but laws don't rule. Courts rule. Laws state.
But that's a direct quote from the original article. So the question is, is the 1913 thing a law or a judgement? If it's the latter, then it will be a lot easier for Microsoft to get its way.
While I'm not excited about the privacy implications of a national ID system, I do think it makes sense for states to standardize the format of the ID cards they issue. I've heard of places simply refusing to recognize out-of-state licenses because they can't keep their employees up to speed on recognizing which ones are fakes.
It is a web hosting service, but you don't have to put up a web page. For something like $5.95/month, you get *@yourdomain filtered and forwarded as you see fit.
As a bonus, you get some web space on the domain.
CDs have a number of disadvantages:
Laziness dictates that you will often have the same CD or small number of CDs in your car. You don't get nearly the variety you would with a MP3 jukebox or radio station.
Creating mix tapes or CDs requires a significant effort. Unless you spend a lot of time preparing your music, you'll end up listening to only one artist for each commute, and that can get boring.
Of course, for me, my commute is only 15 minutes--not long enough to bother even fixing my broken radio.
Five years ago, this would have been the coolest thing in the world. Imagine being able to commute in the morning an listen to music instead of a pair of DJs chatting. Sure, you could pop in a tape or CD, but that can be a pain.
Now, it's not quite so interesting. The early adopters have been, at least in part, co-opted by car MP3 players. If I had a long commute, you can bet that's the direction I would invest my car audio dollars.
Of course, there is still a significant market for them, but it's just a little harder to get people excited about it than it would have been a few years ago.
What about writers? It should be easy enough to copy the magnetic strip from one card to another. I've always thought it would be fun to use an old (expired) credit card intead of the ones that they issued us. (It would also be nice to have a backup.)
Why are you bothering to back up your data?
/` or a virus)? If so, then a RAID solution is useless.
That may seem like a stupid question, but you need to consider the reasons you want to have a backup before you settle on a method.
Are you afraid of your drive failing? If so, then using a RAID solution should cover you.
Are you afraid of losing your whole system (perhaps due to lightning or theft)? If so, then your backup must be kept physically isolated from your system.
Are you afraid of accidentally deleting files (such as `rm -rf
Are you afraid of having your system down for an hour or two while you replace a drive? If so, then regardless of other issues, you need a RAID setup.
Do you want to use your MP3s with some other device? If so, you probably want CD-R copies.
Of course, there are other considerations that I haven't mentioned or thought of.
While it may seem like a lame cop-out on the surface, I think that putting together a CD of old arcade games may make a great gift for some people. The target for such a gift would be someone who isn't likely to download and install it themselves, but would enjoy the games. So do the work for them (granted, it's not that much work) and get them a CD that they just pop in their system and play.
Think of it as the geek equivalent of hand-drawing your own greeting cards. Martha Stewart of Borg would be proud.
It's important to understand that Quicktime is not a compression algorithm. If it were, then I would agree with your statement. However, Quicktime is one level above the compression algorithm--it can work with many different algorithms. There's no reason to believe that there won't be a MPEG-4 codec for Quicktime soon (if it's not available already).
While the most popular codecs involved will change, Quicktime will be around for a long time to come.
You want to take any study that looks a lines of code as a metric with a grain of salt (or more likely, a full salt shaker). You really can't compare code on that basis when dealing with projects of differing inherrent complexity. For example, a single-threaded application program will be far less complex than re-entrant kernel code. If you're getting the same number of lines of code per programmer on each project, then you have much more experienced coders on the kernel project.
And to say the language doesn't matter is also nuts. Sure, you might find that if you select the right languages, but if you compare, say, assembly language to Java, you're not going to get the same results--and good luck selecting programmers with the same levels of experience to make a valid comparison.
The decision at hand really depends on how much time you have. If you start running out of time, then it's time to hire more help.
The article mentions that there is a "broadband adapter" that you can get for this--it's an ethernet port. Now if you could get it to work with two of them (I have no idea how the hardware works), then you could use this as a firewall/router. Since it's running on a CD, you don't have to worry about someone modifying files on it if they manage to hack in (which is unlikely, as the script kiddies wouldn't be up to modifying the x86-based Linux hacks to deal with the dreamcast, even if you didn't fix the known vulnerabilities). Of course, not having a hard drive also means limited logging.
Anyway, something to think about.
So what is the problem that they are trying to solve? They wouldn't do this if they didn't think it would save them money, so obviously they think this will enhance profits. The article states that it is "part of an effort to reduce fraud and theft." I wonder how big a problem this is? Will having thumbprints reduce the problem, or will it just change the techniques used by the criminals? How much will this reduce revenue due to people not willing to provide their prints out of privacy concerns?
You can now get a DVD player for around a hundred dollars that will play DVDs, CDs, MP3s, VCDs, SVCDs, and mini-DVDs. I doubt you'll get all that from the XBox. Also, does the XBox offer digital audio out? Does it offer component video? Does the XBox run silent when playing discs?