look into getting extra-immunized against diseases that are widespread (and even not so widespread) down there.
And be sure to get started (i.e. visit your local travel health center) at least 6 months ahead of time, (a year would be better) as some immunizations and whatnot require multiple doses with a long waiting period in between. You do NOT want to get your visa denied just because your missing some stinkin' vaccination...:)
I hate replying to myself
I hate replying to you too!
[rimshot]
(No offense intended, just couldn't resist the straight line!:)
Back on topic - I would agree that Linux probably is the best answer. However, there are various freeware/shareware apps for image editing under Windows that are scriptable. E.g. our faithful friend Gimp
there are perfectly good softwar firewalls for windows. I use BlackIce, personally, but there are other perfectly good ones, not to mention the one built-in to Windows XP sp2.
Hehhehheh!!! Mod parent funny! [wiping tears from eyes]
I did that awhile back for a data warehouse and reporting system with remote data collection points. (Half a TB of data with 50 million queries a day and a couple Gig to integrate every night). I did all the data validation and scrubbing and some preprocessing remotely to utilize the processing power of the collection machines as much as possible and kept the backend stored procedures strictly limited to import and reporting functions. The front end reporting also had some functions built into the client so I could harness the power of those machines as well. YMMV in that regard though depending on the architecture and intended purpose.
Tip 1 - don't use any clustering software on the back end. Every clustering model out there tries to be generic enough to handle a variety of apps. This adds unnecessary overhead and complexity. If you design the app for a multiplicity of servers in the first place your performance and scalability will be much better! Not to mention everything will be a lot simpler which makes troubleshooting much easier! In my app I just had a table with a list of server names. To add a server you just loaded a blank database on it, plugged the machine in and put the name in that table. A few key tables (such as that one) were automatically replicated every few minutes and if the schema was missing on a server it got built and populated on the fly using self-generating scripts. (Very handy if you're making changes to the structure!:)
Tip 2 - when importing drop your indexes! It's infinitely faster to bulk import into non-indexed tables and then rebuild the index once afterwards when you're ready for post-processing than it is to try to maintain the indexes for every little insert. (Literally about a thousand to one speed ratio if the data is any size at all).
Tip 3 - like tip 2 this is more general database design advice. And that is to base your normalization on the nature of the data and the queries, not necessarily on the technical granularity. In other words a little bit of de-normalization is okay if it reduces the complexity of your queries enough. In our case we had an insane number of cases where many tables could be cross related in different ways. Based on the reporting we needed to do we purposely duplicated a few fields (mostly indexes) here and there between tables. This cut the memory utiliation of some of the more complex queries by up to 50%. When some of the joins can result in gigabyte matrices that's a significant savings!
Tip 4 - try to spread the load. In the complex queries above we would of course try to break them down into smaller queries that could be run in sequence but that often resulted in the final report taking too long. The answer was to move the aggregation to the client. I.e. have the client pass the different parts of the report off to multiple servers to run in parallel and then pull the results together at the client side.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head. If you want me to consult further just email me, I'm not terribly expensive.:)
I've always used a 4-second rule and gotten away with it. I've replaced entire 48-port switches one wire at a time with the users non the wiser.
(Well, okay, maybe that last could be interpreted in more than one way, but you know what I mean!:).
The post is fine, and I understand what you're getting at much better now. And while individual cases may prove otherwise, in the grand scheme of things I tend to agree.
Thanks for the clarification!:)
Except that the over-arching topic is transportation which isn't even mentioned in the article or the post that linked it...
(Then again, if the poster had expanded a bit further on their thoughts and explained why their comment and/or the article were anything more than a non-sequitur we wouldn't be having this discussion.:)
There are so many things wrong with that post I don't even know where to begin. (And the article linked has no bearing on either your own post or the one you were replying to).
So WTF? Are you trolling?:)
I have used FrontPage a couple times over the years and it truly is horrible. Even the simplest text page with no tables or anything comes out as a nasty jumble of HTML that is terribly unpredictable across browsers.
I do believe FP (even the 2003 version which I happen to have tried recently because I was given a copy for free) is hands down the worst web editor out there. (Well, okay, it's a tie between FP and MS-Word!:)
So yeah, change ISPs...
Well, if your company isn't keen on hiring recent grads, an internship program seems like a bit of a waste.
An internship program is also a way of giving back to the community.
I would recommend doing a bit of research into the whys and wherefors of internship programs. Sitting down and talking with some of the managers at the companies involved and, even more importantly, discussing your concerns with the folks at your school's internship office will probably give you a lot more insight into why things are done the way they are.
I hate to hear what you go through with new hires! New hires aren't new to the industry so they have a minimal learning curve and make smaller mistakes along the way.
That said, some interns actually do get hired full time if they do well and are interested in staying on.
Now unpaid internships, that's just crass commercialism.
That may be the case sometimes but every case of internship that I've been involved with we were lucky if the intern's productivity equaled the cost of cleaning up their mistakes!!
do any slashdoters have experience switching their companies computers to, or even away from linux?
As an IT consultant I switch my clients to Linux whenever it makes sense. Usually it's a case where they have a handful of Windows boxes that were poorly implemented by some other firm. I look at what they have and if it's easier to move file/print/DB/web/email etc to a single Linux box than it is to clean up the existing clusterf*ck then I do it. And they are always happy! Not to mention small shops are usually pretty tight-fisted and like to have a couple decent boxes freed up to replace old workstations with.:)
I'll second the recommendation for Forrest's stuff. He's a very, very, good communicator. I've read plenty of electronics intros over the years and he beats 'em all hands down!
Either the question is very poorly worded or the submitter (and the editors) have no clue what they're asking.
From an application programming perspective the APIs have virtually nothing to do with the hardware platform.
(Though I must say it's amusing reading all these threads about it...!:)
That sucks!
Depending on your skillset, if you're in Seattle I might be able to hook you up with a decent employer.
(Unless of course you've taken this as a sign that you should start your own business.:)
Generally they run hotter for all of the obvious reasons. The difference in this case is FDB (Fluid Drive Bearings).
BTW, FWIW, as of the last year or so I'd say Seagate's HDDs (any size) w/FDB are better value for the money.
Slashdot Mirror
look into getting extra-immunized against diseases that are widespread (and even not so widespread) down there.
:)
And be sure to get started (i.e. visit your local travel health center) at least 6 months ahead of time, (a year would be better) as some immunizations and whatnot require multiple doses with a long waiting period in between. You do NOT want to get your visa denied just because your missing some stinkin' vaccination...
I hate replying to myself
:)
I hate replying to you too!
[rimshot]
(No offense intended, just couldn't resist the straight line!
Back on topic - I would agree that Linux probably is the best answer. However, there are various freeware/shareware apps for image editing under Windows that are scriptable. E.g. our faithful friend Gimp
there are perfectly good softwar firewalls for windows. I use BlackIce, personally, but there are other perfectly good ones, not to mention the one built-in to Windows XP sp2.
Hehhehheh!!! Mod parent funny!
[wiping tears from eyes]
I did that awhile back for a data warehouse and reporting system with remote data collection points. (Half a TB of data with 50 million queries a day and a couple Gig to integrate every night). I did all the data validation and scrubbing and some preprocessing remotely to utilize the processing power of the collection machines as much as possible and kept the backend stored procedures strictly limited to import and reporting functions. The front end reporting also had some functions built into the client so I could harness the power of those machines as well. YMMV in that regard though depending on the architecture and intended purpose.
:)
:)
Tip 1 - don't use any clustering software on the back end. Every clustering model out there tries to be generic enough to handle a variety of apps. This adds unnecessary overhead and complexity. If you design the app for a multiplicity of servers in the first place your performance and scalability will be much better! Not to mention everything will be a lot simpler which makes troubleshooting much easier! In my app I just had a table with a list of server names. To add a server you just loaded a blank database on it, plugged the machine in and put the name in that table. A few key tables (such as that one) were automatically replicated every few minutes and if the schema was missing on a server it got built and populated on the fly using self-generating scripts. (Very handy if you're making changes to the structure!
Tip 2 - when importing drop your indexes! It's infinitely faster to bulk import into non-indexed tables and then rebuild the index once afterwards when you're ready for post-processing than it is to try to maintain the indexes for every little insert. (Literally about a thousand to one speed ratio if the data is any size at all).
Tip 3 - like tip 2 this is more general database design advice. And that is to base your normalization on the nature of the data and the queries, not necessarily on the technical granularity. In other words a little bit of de-normalization is okay if it reduces the complexity of your queries enough. In our case we had an insane number of cases where many tables could be cross related in different ways. Based on the reporting we needed to do we purposely duplicated a few fields (mostly indexes) here and there between tables. This cut the memory utiliation of some of the more complex queries by up to 50%. When some of the joins can result in gigabyte matrices that's a significant savings!
Tip 4 - try to spread the load. In the complex queries above we would of course try to break them down into smaller queries that could be run in sequence but that often resulted in the final report taking too long. The answer was to move the aggregation to the client. I.e. have the client pass the different parts of the report off to multiple servers to run in parallel and then pull the results together at the client side.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head. If you want me to consult further just email me, I'm not terribly expensive.
I've always used a 4-second rule and gotten away with it. I've replaced entire 48-port switches one wire at a time with the users non the wiser. :).
(Well, okay, maybe that last could be interpreted in more than one way, but you know what I mean!
The post is fine, and I understand what you're getting at much better now. And while individual cases may prove otherwise, in the grand scheme of things I tend to agree. :)
Thanks for the clarification!
Except that the over-arching topic is transportation which isn't even mentioned in the article or the post that linked it... :)
(Then again, if the poster had expanded a bit further on their thoughts and explained why their comment and/or the article were anything more than a non-sequitur we wouldn't be having this discussion.
There are so many things wrong with that post I don't even know where to begin. (And the article linked has no bearing on either your own post or the one you were replying to). :)
So WTF? Are you trolling?
I have used FrontPage a couple times over the years and it truly is horrible. Even the simplest text page with no tables or anything comes out as a nasty jumble of HTML that is terribly unpredictable across browsers. :)
I do believe FP (even the 2003 version which I happen to have tried recently because I was given a copy for free) is hands down the worst web editor out there. (Well, okay, it's a tie between FP and MS-Word!
So yeah, change ISPs...
75' rolls of velcro cheap! And in colors too!
Well, if your company isn't keen on hiring recent grads, an internship program seems like a bit of a waste.
An internship program is also a way of giving back to the community.
I would recommend doing a bit of research into the whys and wherefors of internship programs. Sitting down and talking with some of the managers at the companies involved and, even more importantly, discussing your concerns with the folks at your school's internship office will probably give you a lot more insight into why things are done the way they are.
I hate to hear what you go through with new hires!
New hires aren't new to the industry so they have a minimal learning curve and make smaller mistakes along the way.
That said, some interns actually do get hired full time if they do well and are interested in staying on.
Now unpaid internships, that's just crass commercialism.
That may be the case sometimes but every case of internship that I've been involved with we were lucky if the intern's productivity equaled the cost of cleaning up their mistakes!!
do any slashdoters have experience switching their companies computers to, or even away from linux?
:)
As an IT consultant I switch my clients to Linux whenever it makes sense. Usually it's a case where they have a handful of Windows boxes that were poorly implemented by some other firm. I look at what they have and if it's easier to move file/print/DB/web/email etc to a single Linux box than it is to clean up the existing clusterf*ck then I do it. And they are always happy! Not to mention small shops are usually pretty tight-fisted and like to have a couple decent boxes freed up to replace old workstations with.
Nothing under six digits here but all under 850,000. Surely that signifies something.
Oh my gosh! That's amazing!
Why the odds of that must be, um, (whips out calculator), pretty good actually...
And here I was just re-watching the Goonies last night!
Definitely a little kids movie, but cute in its own way...
it pretty much matches my experience. Arrogant and ignorant, not really a good combo.
Yep, same here.
I know this is slashdot and all, but really, you should get out more.
Maybe I should get out more myself but I'll bite - what good (i.e. "Paycheck" doesn't count) movies have come out since then with a similar theme...?
I'll second the recommendation for Forrest's stuff. He's a very, very, good communicator. I've read plenty of electronics intros over the years and he beats 'em all hands down!
Either the question is very poorly worded or the submitter (and the editors) have no clue what they're asking.
:)
From an application programming perspective the APIs have virtually nothing to do with the hardware platform.
(Though I must say it's amusing reading all these threads about it...!
we manage something like 50,000 desktops and 2,000 servers with a staff of 20.
:)
Heh, that's obviously not a MS environment!
Personally I thought it should be Electric Bugaloo
That sucks! :)
Depending on your skillset, if you're in Seattle I might be able to hook you up with a decent employer.
(Unless of course you've taken this as a sign that you should start your own business.
But that was when ArcServe was already in the bloody claws of CA and beginning its slide into the abyss of CA software quality.
I have always wondered how the hell CA has stayed in business for so long.
why does a faster rpm drive run cooler?
Generally they run hotter for all of the obvious reasons. The difference in this case is FDB (Fluid Drive Bearings).
BTW, FWIW, as of the last year or so I'd say Seagate's HDDs (any size) w/FDB are better value for the money.