Yes, I was surprised by that comment as well, though the author doesn't list what operating systems are worthy of 'center-of-network' applications. Given the article, I'm guessing NT4/Win2k are considered worthy.
This is quite different from my experience at a Fortune 100 firm where all the guys responsible for keeping a factory going 24x7x365 run away screaming whenever you mention putting NT/W2k in production (whether the rep is warranted or not, they've actually been quite stable). They'd all rather have *nix (including Linux) servers any day of the week.
Do you know the full path to the missing dll? If so, then:
Find a copy of the version of the dll you want to use
regsvr32/u [full path to bad/missing dll]
delete the bad/[missing] dll
copy the dll you want to use to the former's location
regsvr32 [full path to new dll]
Then again, sometimes Windows (I deal with NT4 & 2000) just won't listen to you no matter how many commands you give it. You might also search the net for a program called OLEView (comes in Visual Studio and the NT Reskit). OLEView will show you what file the system actually uses when it needs a particular object (from a dll). Then you can be sure about which file you need to unregister and replace.
Regards,
The 'reading' the boost gauge in the 1G and 2G TELs is a computation based on the airflow through the mass air-flow sensor (MAS) adjusted for barometric press., temp, rpm, etc. You are right in that it is totally inaccurate (because it doesn't actually measure vac/boost).
I have an aftermarket boost gauge on my 2G GSX for the same reasons.
Except RedHat already gives away billions of dollars of Free software every year (as do Mandrake, Suse, et al) if you use the same accounting practices that Microsoft gets to use here.
If the deal had Microsoft giving $1B in hardware to schools along with $500M to help an independent firm set up and maintain those machines (without restriction as to what OS/Productivity suites run on them), I don't think I or anyone else would have much of a complaint and the schools would be provided with a real service. The maintenance number may need to be doubled or tripled, in reality.
As it stands now, Microsoft gets to kick out competition from one of the few places it actually had competition (Mac and increasingly, OSS), education, all without spending any real money. ($200M from a coffer with an illegally-gained $36B doesn't qualify as 'real' money in my book. 0.2/36 = 0.5%, btw.)
Of course, something that I find interesting is where does one *find* $200M in refurbished computers? $200M is probably more than the total x86 inventory of all the refurb shops in the country, unless they raise their prices;) Hmmm, finding that much refurb stuff will be quite a task. I think they should just buy the schools new stuff or set up a program to teach kids how to buy, assemble, and set up machines themselves. Because then it will either be much easier to support or some kids will learn something they wouldn't have otherwise.
If you can, you might try to get some time at a workstation that supports multiple desktops, remote applications, etc. Once I got a taste, I couldn't figure out how I'd ever gotten along without it. I use Win2k Pro at work (software/systems engineer) which is bearable, but my main complaint is that I typically have 20 or more applicaions/windows open at a time and switching between them all (and screen real estate) becomes a pain because I can't break them up across virtual desktops (and switch between those). I've tried getting software to do the virtual desktop thing on Win2k, but it didn't work with my laptop docked in the station (blue screen -- oops).
My workstation at home is Mandrake 8 (with Mandrake 7 on the server) and it fits my style of working much better, which is to say it supports n parallel threads of execution whereas MS Windows really only supports one.
I am a Systems/Software Engineer at Motorola and we use presentation software for things like:
project overviews
design reviews
status updates
presentation of findings to other engineers, mgmt, users
As an engineering student, I used Powerpoint for the same tasks. I would suspect that a great many engineers use presentation software like Powerpoint for the same things I do.
Access is fairly braindead, Word auto-mangles my documents, and Outlook is just dreadful IMO in terms of efficient correspondence, but I'm quite productive in Powerpoint and Excel as long as I keep the paperclip at bay (this is the '97 suite -- keep 2000 far, far away except for Outlook).
You seem to have a very narrow view of the responsibilities given to an engineer, researcher, trainer, etc. In today's world, engineers (and the rest of the people you listed) are asked to 'do it all' and that includes communicate with others.
Regards,
Stephen
P.S. On-topic content: IT should turn off macro capabilities as a matter of course. The functionality should not even exist in Word/Ppt/Excel installations. It's probably necessary in Access given the limitations of BillGSQL.
Actually, I know of at least one reason cheap, high-bandwidth services should be in demand: Gnutella. I started using LimeWire this weekend. It's really sweet, very nice GUI. Judging from the blinky lights on my cable modem, there's a lot of other people who like it (Gnutella) too. I recommended my sister download and install it (she's at the U. of Arizona), need to check up and see how that went (she is not computer-inclined; she can barely get USB devices to work). College students will *not* be giving up their MP3s. Not if there's even a halfway decent solution out there.
I do not dispute that shipping kitty litter across country is a bad idea, though, just that there are no uses for all that bandwidth.
I don't have an MS EULA (or any other company, but they're more or less all the same), but EULAs typically disclaim all warranty for fitness of purpose. So, you when you install IIS, you have to agree that even though you're installing this super-duper software, it may not be able to handle a GET request.
Of course, the GPL does the same thing with point 11 (with the explanation that there's no warranty because you received it freely):
11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
So, when somebody says they can't use Free software because there's no one to sue or get support, you should tell them that the EULA that came with their commercial software probably specifically removed those options from them and they'll have to make other arrangements anyway.
So, I think the 'no one to sue' argument is a bit of a red herring when used against free software.
Actually, I did read the entire article. I thought it was pretty balanced, overall (after the first page which had a lot of unnecessary flaming, e.g. the AIDS reference).
I think that an organization with >$30B in cash should leave schools alone (clearly, this is personal opinion, the law is on their side), especially when the schools are actually perpetuating MS's monopoly. I find it amusing that MS, in enforcing a perfectly legitimate license problem, is getting people to look at Free Software instead of just writing checks, not to mention some really bad PR.
In summary, I'm glad schools are looking to Free software and hope the trend picks up/continues. In general, I think the govt has a responsibility to the taxpayers to choose the most cost-effective software available. I don't think MS is the most cost-effective software available.
According to the latest stats on Etrade (Q3 2000), MS has $37,789,000,000 ($38B) in near-liquid (cash + stocks) assets. Yet, they are trying to drive educational institutions into the ground (along with everyone else, of course). Beating poor school districts senseless over licensing is a move that seems inherently wrong.
So...tell everyone you know about it. Teachers especially.
I've already emailed one teacher I know the article, and am pounding my brain for more.
If we all take the time to forward along the information we already know to the people in the right places, we can keep our school tax dollars where they should be: in the schools and not on MS's balance sheet. This goes for other software as well. IANAGP (graphics professional), but The GIMP is probably adequate for image processing all the way through high school (at least) save some very special circumstances.
At the risk of making all the posts to this article about SQL Server, can anybody tell me:
Does SQL Server really scale this well?
I thought that > 5TB was starting to stretch even Oracle and that you start looking to the DBs that the airline/financial industries run at that point. I had never even thought to consider SQL Server in the multi-TB database contender category. I had relegated it to the < 500GB application-space. Does anyone know if they are accomplishing this with a cluster of servers, and if so, how many?
Did the Mirage have the SQL Server development staff move down to Vegas?
I thought this phone number was Slashdotted when I first called. Just keep trying and you should get through eventually.
The call will prompt you for a bunch of information. I was a little hesistant providing all of that correct information to the credit agencies, but I suppose this opt-out stuff should decrease mailings, rather than increase, so maybe injecting good information into the Big Bad Databases will have a positive effect (net).
Best practices and real world practices are two very different things. When running an intranet site the security concern is negligable, and the same security practices apply to running ANY software on any system with anything remotely confidental.
You've got to be kidding me. What administrator would risk their PDC for the IIS vulnerability of the week/month? I think you're forgetting that something like 70% of cracks/hacks/security breaches are done by current/former employees.
If everyone followed that WU-FTP, BIND, Apache, etc., would all run on separate servers, so this whole argument would be moot.
In a previous post, you mentioned that being able to stick all these services on 1 or 2 boxes because the load on them wasn't very high. At the risk of sounding like a zealot, with the money saved on licensing, an Open Source solution would allow you to invest that money in another two or three boxes, which would allow you to spread out the services like you should.
If you think software/hardware is costly, then run the numbers on stopping the work of an entire company dead in its tracks because a disgruntled employee exploited an unpatched IIS Unicode vulnerability on your PDC/web/ftp/file server (let's go ahead and format the shared drive while we're at it--we've got a remote shell, after all; just to make sure we make the end-user impact measured in days/weeks of lost time)
Whatever OS/apps you choose, the services *must* be segregated to separate boxes to reduce the risk of harmful 'interactions' and to spread the risk associated with hardware failure. An admin who fails to do so is just being negligent. If an admin is being forced to do so by mgmt, then the admin has failed to properly present the risk/rewards of current scenario to management.
Well, you're right at least on one account. I am not qualified (at least right now) to work at a hardcore Unix shop, but I'm working on those skills (have an engineering degree, not CS).
I probably shouldn't have said 'I hate Microsoft as much as the average Slashdotter' because while I've been reading./ for the last 4 years or so, I haven't done any real research into whether readers of./ hate MS, on average -- looks like the editors do, anyway.
However, I'm a firm believer in right tool for the job, which is why an NT fileserver for my dad's office was the right choice -- reliable IT services for small/micro-business sucks and I didn't want to be his support guy.
I'm fairly new to my job (out of school a year ago), and when I signed on, I was told our software was Java on NT (new system) and C++ on Unix (HP-UX old system).
I work on the new system (with a bunch of brilliant people - one of the main reasons I took the job). Well, the new system has a supporting cast which consists of 300 VB apps (they are really miniature servers) that communicate with the main Java servers. Suffice it to say that we spend a *lot* of time working around problems that are due to the 'user-friendliness' of the MS platform that are totally avoided with something like *anything* on *nix. I just find it incredibly irritating that linux is considered not-quite-ready-for-desktop-primetime (which it isn't, at least not for 'average' users) when NT/W2k *is* considered ready-for-server-primetime (at least for Java server apps).
All right, I've wasted enough time on this. Good night,
In my experience NT is very stable until you try to 'do' something with it.
I set up a fileserver for my dad's office with NT4 Wkstn + sp6a. The thing has been up for over 4 months.
However, when I was running NT 4.0 wkstn as my personal workstation, the maximum uptime I ever got was ~21 days before the performance became unbearable. I used that workstation for running Netscape 4.x and Office 95/97 almost exclusively.
I just upgraded to Mandrake 8.0 from 7.0 (which rocks!, btw). I ran 'uptime' before I did so. 110 days uptime as a personal workstation. I primarily ran Netscape (which is notoriously crash-happy on Linux), development environments/code, installed tons of software, and Mozilla. The system was rock solid, all without a reboot and no degradation in performance for over 3 months.
My kick-ass Dell laptop (256MB + 550Mhz + 20GB) with W2k (work) has to be rebooted *daily*. Main applications: Netscape, Office97, Visual Studio (VB), Jbuilder3. That's bullshit.
Stephen
It appears that IBM is discontinuing all support of NT 4.0 and Win2k. Surely this is a misprint or something. Can anybody speak to this?
I hate Microsoft as much as the average Slashdotter, but dropping support for MS operating systems would be an incredibly bold move at this point in the 'game', especially by the likes of IBM.
Given the budget tightening at my company, I'm pushing for Linux as hard as I can. NT is such a PITA platform target (when developing Java-based server apps). Our entire group of developers is pro-*nix, it's the management who wants NT. I'd like to be able to point out that big companies are discontinuing support for MS because they think there are better (supported!) alternatives out there.
I work in an infrastructure applications group at a major semi-conductor company. Uptime and remote mgmt capabilities for our applications is paramount. However, some manager decided we would use NT everywhere, or at least we'd use it unless we had a very good excuse. (This is the first version of our system running on NT; we'll see how long it lasts.)
But I digress.
We're trying to develop a system/performance mgmt/monitoring system right now for our infrastructure. Without a truckload of time and cash, it's a real pain on NT. However, NetSaint + Linux is cake (set it up tonight w/ not too much trouble) and it's *free*, which ought to be a very good reason to use it in light of our recent layoffs. With the plug-ins capability, we can make it do exactly what we need very quickly. I haven't found that ability on a non-Unix platform yet.
I'll be showing my manager this combination on Monday.
Woohoo!
Stephen
Flashcom Sucks, then Steals
on
DSL Woes
·
· Score: 2
I arranged to get IDSL service from Flashcom in Arlington, TX. They sent Covad out fairly quickly, who installed it.
It worked for one hour. Then it stopped.
I racked up over 40 hours of tech/customer support phone calls trying to convince them it was not a problem on my side. typical exchange:
them: "wait! you're running Linux? linux can't do DSL."
me: "uh ok, I'll just boot back into NT."
them: "wait! you have multiple partitions. that's the problem"
me: "please let me talk to your supervisor"
them: "there are no supervisors here right now"
They also sent out Covad (2x) who replaced a card in the phone box at my apt. complex. Nothing works. But I *do* have service tickets at Flashcom, Covad, and SWBell. So that's something.
I decided to just give up on it, especially since I hadn't received a bill (3 months of wrangling). Then, on the day I start my move to AZ, I get a bill in the mail for $295 installation and 2 months x $51.85/mo. Fuck. Billed to my credit card. Double fuck.
Move to AZ
After hours on hold with Flashcom billing and 'customer service' I finally get them to close my account (even though it never worked, and was noted as such on my account history). Their 'equipment' had shown the link as working and active even though the router had not been plugged in for 3 months and the phone line had been disconnected for an entire month. They say they'll refund the money; no problem. 3 weeks later and no refund. More hours on hold. It's coming Real Soon Now. 2 more weeks. Receive another bill for monthly service at $51.85 (total is now $451. after I closed my account. again.) I file a dispute with my CC. Magically the full amount gets refunded. Receive letter from CC company (MBNA) saying dispute not necessary, cash refunded. I'm blissful. Next day, I check my CC statement, and the *entire fucking amount* has been recharged to my card. Call Flashcom (2 hours on hold for a long distance call that I keep being hung up on due to high caller volume. It's not even a FIFO system. It's a (Buffer full? Flush buffer.) system). After 4 hours, I get through. Oh, we didn't close your *billing* account; we just closed your internet account. Oh, and we re-charged you because the person who refunded the money last time only had this level of authority instead of this other one. Begin dispute process on new charges.
Moral: Do not set up automatic charges to your credit/debit card. That, and if you think you're going to take it in the a$$, then at least buy some KY.
If you have Flashcom now. I would highly recommend switching carriers as a preventive measure.
Stephen
Re:What about if we run out of oil?
on
Plastic Valley?
·
· Score: 1
Aha! I found it a link.
I read Thomas Gould's first book on the subject (from the 60s). A brief synopsis of the theory can be found here:
I checked amazon for the book I read, but could not find it. You may need to visit your local university. Look for something like 'Deep Gas Theory.' If you did ok in high-school chemistry, you shouldn't have a problem with this book (from a technical standpoint). BTW, I now go around telling people the earth produces oil according to this theory. All the Chem E's and Geologists I know think it's crazy, however. Not that they think it isn't possible, but that it's so contrary to Conventional Wisdom.
b) think a while about what's going to happen when the next big recession hits. Just because your skills are in demand now doesn't mean they always will be;or do you think PHP scripting and network programming are skills so integral to western civilization that you'll always have a job?
Do you think that during the next big recession companies will go around shutting off their computers?
I do not think (traditional i.e. non-dot.com) companies will shut down their websites, turn off their factory automation systems, or dismantle their networks. It's possible that companies will stop *expanding* their IT departments, but computers have had much to do with the increasing efficiency of businesses worldwide. Remember that much of our economic gains of the past decade have been attributed to rising productivity. Those gains in productivity are attributed to...computers. Somebody needs to be around to maintain the existing systems, at the very least.
However, I do see your point. The lower-skilled IT workers may find themselves in a pinch in a recesion. Not everyone who works in the IT industry is what I would call an IT professional. Just as there are 'grades' of expertise in the medical field (doctor, RN, candy-striper), there are grades of expertise in the IT industry. Unfortunately, the industry does not have easily discernible credentials to identify these grades. This leads to all IT workers being clumped together in the same group. I do not believe the 'doctors' of the IT industry will have any problem come recession time. However, if you 'candy-stripe' for your local dot.com (I realize candy-stripers are volunteers, but I'm trying to draw a parallel with respect to skill level), then you might be hoping for a union because that's the only way you're going to have a job. From an economic point of view, I think the candy-striper should lose his/her job in a recession, because I don't think artifically creating/sustaining wages/jobs is a Good Thing. The people whose skills add cash to the bottom line will have jobs. If you don't, then you're gone (and I have no problem with that). I think if you want a larger organization to take care of you, a Socialist country like Sweden would be a better fit.
    Po boy, I apologize. It seems I accidentally mis-moderated you. I originally had selected informative, but later went back and changed it to normal (thought I did, anyway) and it seems I screwed up.
    I agree wholeheartedly with your statements. Work to Live, not Live to Work. Read a book (perhaps Zen_and_the_Art_*); take a walk (find someplace quiet!); build something (LEGO, fast car, fancy meal). Take time to live.
A professional guild would go a long way toward establishing guidelines for what should be expected of a professional engineer and what are acceptable working conditions.
There *are* guidelines of what is expected of a professional engineer. In fact, there is an entire designation for it. It's called a Professional Engineer's license, and it's available from each state. The requirements are basically:
B.S. in an Engineering field from an accredited institution
Pass the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (FE/EIT)
5-7 years experience as a working engineer in your chosen field
Pass another test (after the 5-7 years) that focuses on your specific field (Systems, Mech, Chem Engineering)
When you have completed all of this, you then get to stick the P.E. designation on your business cards.
This designation needs to create a field for software engineers, however. Right now, it doesn't really cover any fields (via testing) that have sprung up in the last 20 years.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I was surprised by that comment as well, though the author doesn't list what operating systems are worthy of 'center-of-network' applications. Given the article, I'm guessing NT4/Win2k are considered worthy.
This is quite different from my experience at a Fortune 100 firm where all the guys responsible for keeping a factory going 24x7x365 run away screaming whenever you mention putting NT/W2k in production (whether the rep is warranted or not, they've actually been quite stable). They'd all rather have *nix (including Linux) servers any day of the week.
Regards,
Stephen
Then again, sometimes Windows (I deal with NT4 & 2000) just won't listen to you no matter how many commands you give it. You might also search the net for a program called OLEView (comes in Visual Studio and the NT Reskit). OLEView will show you what file the system actually uses when it needs a particular object (from a dll). Then you can be sure about which file you need to unregister and replace.
Regards,
Stephen
The 'reading' the boost gauge in the 1G and 2G TELs is a computation based on the airflow through the mass air-flow sensor (MAS) adjusted for barometric press., temp, rpm, etc. You are right in that it is totally inaccurate (because it doesn't actually measure vac/boost).
I have an aftermarket boost gauge on my 2G GSX for the same reasons.
What area of the country are you from?
Stephen
Except RedHat already gives away billions of dollars of Free software every year (as do Mandrake, Suse, et al) if you use the same accounting practices that Microsoft gets to use here.
;) Hmmm, finding that much refurb stuff will be quite a task. I think they should just buy the schools new stuff or set up a program to teach kids how to buy, assemble, and set up machines themselves. Because then it will either be much easier to support or some kids will learn something they wouldn't have otherwise.
If the deal had Microsoft giving $1B in hardware to schools along with $500M to help an independent firm set up and maintain those machines (without restriction as to what OS/Productivity suites run on them), I don't think I or anyone else would have much of a complaint and the schools would be provided with a real service. The maintenance number may need to be doubled or tripled, in reality.
As it stands now, Microsoft gets to kick out competition from one of the few places it actually had competition (Mac and increasingly, OSS), education, all without spending any real money. ($200M from a coffer with an illegally-gained $36B doesn't qualify as 'real' money in my book. 0.2/36 = 0.5%, btw.)
Of course, something that I find interesting is where does one *find* $200M in refurbished computers? $200M is probably more than the total x86 inventory of all the refurb shops in the country, unless they raise their prices
Regards,
Stephen
If you can, you might try to get some time at a workstation that supports multiple desktops, remote applications, etc. Once I got a taste, I couldn't figure out how I'd ever gotten along without it. I use Win2k Pro at work (software/systems engineer) which is bearable, but my main complaint is that I typically have 20 or more applicaions/windows open at a time and switching between them all (and screen real estate) becomes a pain because I can't break them up across virtual desktops (and switch between those). I've tried getting software to do the virtual desktop thing on Win2k, but it didn't work with my laptop docked in the station (blue screen -- oops).
My workstation at home is Mandrake 8 (with Mandrake 7 on the server) and it fits my style of working much better, which is to say it supports n parallel threads of execution whereas MS Windows really only supports one.
Stephen
- project overviews
- design reviews
- status updates
- presentation of findings to other engineers, mgmt, users
As an engineering student, I used Powerpoint for the same tasks. I would suspect that a great many engineers use presentation software like Powerpoint for the same things I do.Access is fairly braindead, Word auto-mangles my documents, and Outlook is just dreadful IMO in terms of efficient correspondence, but I'm quite productive in Powerpoint and Excel as long as I keep the paperclip at bay (this is the '97 suite -- keep 2000 far, far away except for Outlook).
You seem to have a very narrow view of the responsibilities given to an engineer, researcher, trainer, etc. In today's world, engineers (and the rest of the people you listed) are asked to 'do it all' and that includes communicate with others.
Regards,
Stephen
P.S. On-topic content: IT should turn off macro capabilities as a matter of course. The functionality should not even exist in Word/Ppt/Excel installations. It's probably necessary in Access given the limitations of BillGSQL.
It's a line from that famous fat-ass sage, Homer Simpson. Read the quote in all its glory.
Also quoted here (Homer actually shouts the line, or at least says it frantically, so the CAPS are not out of order..):
"ARE YOU GOING TO SEND THE DOGS, OR THE BEES, OR THE DOGS WITH BEES IN THEIR MOUTHS, SO WHEN THEY BARK THEY SHOOT BEES?" -Homer Simpson
Regards,
Stephen
Actually, I know of at least one reason cheap, high-bandwidth services should be in demand: Gnutella. I started using LimeWire this weekend. It's really sweet, very nice GUI. Judging from the blinky lights on my cable modem, there's a lot of other people who like it (Gnutella) too. I recommended my sister download and install it (she's at the U. of Arizona), need to check up and see how that went (she is not computer-inclined; she can barely get USB devices to work). College students will *not* be giving up their MP3s. Not if there's even a halfway decent solution out there.
I do not dispute that shipping kitty litter across country is a bad idea, though, just that there are no uses for all that bandwidth.
Regards,
Stephen
I don't have an MS EULA (or any other company, but they're more or less all the same), but EULAs typically disclaim all warranty for fitness of purpose. So, you when you install IIS, you have to agree that even though you're installing this super-duper software, it may not be able to handle a GET request.
Of course, the GPL does the same thing with point 11 (with the explanation that there's no warranty because you received it freely):
11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
So, when somebody says they can't use Free software because there's no one to sue or get support, you should tell them that the EULA that came with their commercial software probably specifically removed those options from them and they'll have to make other arrangements anyway.
So, I think the 'no one to sue' argument is a bit of a red herring when used against free software.
Regards,
Stephen
Thanks for mentioning where to find James Burke's "Connection" pieces. I love that guy.
I'm going to go subscribe now.
Regards,
Stephen
Actually, I did read the entire article. I thought it was pretty balanced, overall (after the first page which had a lot of unnecessary flaming, e.g. the AIDS reference).
I think that an organization with >$30B in cash should leave schools alone (clearly, this is personal opinion, the law is on their side), especially when the schools are actually perpetuating MS's monopoly. I find it amusing that MS, in enforcing a perfectly legitimate license problem, is getting people to look at Free Software instead of just writing checks, not to mention some really bad PR.
In summary, I'm glad schools are looking to Free software and hope the trend picks up/continues. In general, I think the govt has a responsibility to the taxpayers to choose the most cost-effective software available. I don't think MS is the most cost-effective software available.
Regards,
Stephen
According to the latest stats on Etrade (Q3 2000), MS has $37,789,000,000 ($38B) in near-liquid (cash + stocks) assets. Yet, they are trying to drive educational institutions into the ground (along with everyone else, of course). Beating poor school districts senseless over licensing is a move that seems inherently wrong.
So...tell everyone you know about it. Teachers especially.
I've already emailed one teacher I know the article, and am pounding my brain for more.
If we all take the time to forward along the information we already know to the people in the right places, we can keep our school tax dollars where they should be: in the schools and not on MS's balance sheet. This goes for other software as well. IANAGP (graphics professional), but The GIMP is probably adequate for image processing all the way through high school (at least) save some very special circumstances.
Regards,
Stephen
At the risk of making all the posts to this article about SQL Server, can anybody tell me:
Does SQL Server really scale this well?
I thought that > 5TB was starting to stretch even Oracle and that you start looking to the DBs that the airline/financial industries run at that point. I had never even thought to consider SQL Server in the multi-TB database contender category. I had relegated it to the < 500GB application-space. Does anyone know if they are accomplishing this with a cluster of servers, and if so, how many?
Did the Mirage have the SQL Server development staff move down to Vegas?
Anybody here do IT for the Mirage?
Stephen
I thought this phone number was Slashdotted when I first called. Just keep trying and you should get through eventually.
The call will prompt you for a bunch of information. I was a little hesistant providing all of that correct information to the credit agencies, but I suppose this opt-out stuff should decrease mailings, rather than increase, so maybe injecting good information into the Big Bad Databases will have a positive effect (net).
Regards,
Stephen
Best practices and real world practices are two very different things. When running an intranet site the security concern is negligable, and the same security practices apply to running ANY software on any system with anything remotely confidental.
You've got to be kidding me. What administrator would risk their PDC for the IIS vulnerability of the week/month? I think you're forgetting that something like 70% of cracks/hacks/security breaches are done by current/former employees.
If everyone followed that WU-FTP, BIND, Apache, etc., would all run on separate servers, so this whole argument would be moot.
In a previous post, you mentioned that being able to stick all these services on 1 or 2 boxes because the load on them wasn't very high. At the risk of sounding like a zealot, with the money saved on licensing, an Open Source solution would allow you to invest that money in another two or three boxes, which would allow you to spread out the services like you should.
If you think software/hardware is costly, then run the numbers on stopping the work of an entire company dead in its tracks because a disgruntled employee exploited an unpatched IIS Unicode vulnerability on your PDC/web/ftp/file server (let's go ahead and format the shared drive while we're at it--we've got a remote shell, after all; just to make sure we make the end-user impact measured in days/weeks of lost time)
Whatever OS/apps you choose, the services *must* be segregated to separate boxes to reduce the risk of harmful 'interactions' and to spread the risk associated with hardware failure. An admin who fails to do so is just being negligent. If an admin is being forced to do so by mgmt, then the admin has failed to properly present the risk/rewards of current scenario to management.
Stephen
Well, you're right at least on one account. I am not qualified (at least right now) to work at a hardcore Unix shop, but I'm working on those skills (have an engineering degree, not CS).
./ for the last 4 years or so, I haven't done any real research into whether readers of ./ hate MS, on average -- looks like the editors do, anyway.
I probably shouldn't have said 'I hate Microsoft as much as the average Slashdotter' because while I've been reading
However, I'm a firm believer in right tool for the job, which is why an NT fileserver for my dad's office was the right choice -- reliable IT services for small/micro-business sucks and I didn't want to be his support guy.
I'm fairly new to my job (out of school a year ago), and when I signed on, I was told our software was Java on NT (new system) and C++ on Unix (HP-UX old system).
I work on the new system (with a bunch of brilliant people - one of the main reasons I took the job). Well, the new system has a supporting cast which consists of 300 VB apps (they are really miniature servers) that communicate with the main Java servers. Suffice it to say that we spend a *lot* of time working around problems that are due to the 'user-friendliness' of the MS platform that are totally avoided with something like *anything* on *nix. I just find it incredibly irritating that linux is considered not-quite-ready-for-desktop-primetime (which it isn't, at least not for 'average' users) when NT/W2k *is* considered ready-for-server-primetime (at least for Java server apps).
All right, I've wasted enough time on this. Good night,
Stephen
In my experience NT is very stable until you try to 'do' something with it.
I set up a fileserver for my dad's office with NT4 Wkstn + sp6a. The thing has been up for over 4 months.
However, when I was running NT 4.0 wkstn as my personal workstation, the maximum uptime I ever got was ~21 days before the performance became unbearable. I used that workstation for running Netscape 4.x and Office 95/97 almost exclusively.
I just upgraded to Mandrake 8.0 from 7.0 (which rocks!, btw). I ran 'uptime' before I did so. 110 days uptime as a personal workstation. I primarily ran Netscape (which is notoriously crash-happy on Linux), development environments/code, installed tons of software, and Mozilla. The system was rock solid, all without a reboot and no degradation in performance for over 3 months.
My kick-ass Dell laptop (256MB + 550Mhz + 20GB) with W2k (work) has to be rebooted *daily*. Main applications: Netscape, Office97, Visual Studio (VB), Jbuilder3. That's bullshit. Stephen
I followed the link you provided over to IBM's 'Supported Services' page.
m l
http://www-1.ibm.com/services/sl/products/java.ht
Select:
Country=United States
Operating System=Win
Product Group=All
It appears that IBM is discontinuing all support of NT 4.0 and Win2k. Surely this is a misprint or something. Can anybody speak to this?
I hate Microsoft as much as the average Slashdotter, but dropping support for MS operating systems would be an incredibly bold move at this point in the 'game', especially by the likes of IBM.
Given the budget tightening at my company, I'm pushing for Linux as hard as I can. NT is such a PITA platform target (when developing Java-based server apps). Our entire group of developers is pro-*nix, it's the management who wants NT. I'd like to be able to point out that big companies are discontinuing support for MS because they think there are better (supported!) alternatives out there.
Stephen
I work in an infrastructure applications group at a major semi-conductor company. Uptime and remote mgmt capabilities for our applications is paramount. However, some manager decided we would use NT everywhere, or at least we'd use it unless we had a very good excuse. (This is the first version of our system running on NT; we'll see how long it lasts.)
But I digress.
We're trying to develop a system/performance mgmt/monitoring system right now for our infrastructure. Without a truckload of time and cash, it's a real pain on NT. However, NetSaint + Linux is cake (set it up tonight w/ not too much trouble) and it's *free*, which ought to be a very good reason to use it in light of our recent layoffs. With the plug-ins capability, we can make it do exactly what we need very quickly. I haven't found that ability on a non-Unix platform yet.
I'll be showing my manager this combination on Monday.
Woohoo!
Stephen
I arranged to get IDSL service from Flashcom in Arlington, TX. They sent Covad out fairly quickly, who installed it.
It worked for one hour. Then it stopped.
I racked up over 40 hours of tech/customer support phone calls trying to convince them it was not a problem on my side. typical exchange:
them: "wait! you're running Linux? linux can't do DSL."
me: "uh ok, I'll just boot back into NT."
them: "wait! you have multiple partitions. that's the problem"
me: "please let me talk to your supervisor"
them: "there are no supervisors here right now"
They also sent out Covad (2x) who replaced a card in the phone box at my apt. complex. Nothing works. But I *do* have service tickets at Flashcom, Covad, and SWBell. So that's something.
I decided to just give up on it, especially since I hadn't received a bill (3 months of wrangling). Then, on the day I start my move to AZ, I get a bill in the mail for $295 installation and 2 months x $51.85/mo. Fuck. Billed to my credit card. Double fuck.
Move to AZ
After hours on hold with Flashcom billing and 'customer service' I finally get them to close my account (even though it never worked, and was noted as such on my account history). Their 'equipment' had shown the link as working and active even though the router had not been plugged in for 3 months and the phone line had been disconnected for an entire month. They say they'll refund the money; no problem. 3 weeks later and no refund. More hours on hold. It's coming Real Soon Now. 2 more weeks. Receive another bill for monthly service at $51.85 (total is now $451. after I closed my account. again.) I file a dispute with my CC. Magically the full amount gets refunded. Receive letter from CC company (MBNA) saying dispute not necessary, cash refunded. I'm blissful. Next day, I check my CC statement, and the *entire fucking amount* has been recharged to my card. Call Flashcom (2 hours on hold for a long distance call that I keep being hung up on due to high caller volume. It's not even a FIFO system. It's a (Buffer full? Flush buffer.) system). After 4 hours, I get through. Oh, we didn't close your *billing* account; we just closed your internet account. Oh, and we re-charged you because the person who refunded the money last time only had this level of authority instead of this other one. Begin dispute process on new charges.
Moral: Do not set up automatic charges to your credit/debit card. That, and if you think you're going to take it in the a$$, then at least buy some KY.
If you have Flashcom now. I would highly recommend switching carriers as a preventive measure.
Stephen
Aha! I found it a link.
n /fungas/origins.asp
I read Thomas Gould's first book on the subject (from the 60s). A brief synopsis of the theory can be found here:
http://www.energy.com/Resources/Consumer_Educatio
I checked amazon for the book I read, but could not find it. You may need to visit your local university. Look for something like 'Deep Gas Theory.' If you did ok in high-school chemistry, you shouldn't have a problem with this book (from a technical standpoint). BTW, I now go around telling people the earth produces oil according to this theory. All the Chem E's and Geologists I know think it's crazy, however. Not that they think it isn't possible, but that it's so contrary to Conventional Wisdom.
Stephen
b) think a while about what's going to happen when the next big recession hits. Just because your skills are in demand now doesn't mean they always will be;or do you think PHP scripting and network programming are skills so integral to western civilization that you'll always have a job?
Do you think that during the next big recession companies will go around shutting off their computers?
I do not think (traditional i.e. non-dot.com) companies will shut down their websites, turn off their factory automation systems, or dismantle their networks. It's possible that companies will stop *expanding* their IT departments, but computers have had much to do with the increasing efficiency of businesses worldwide. Remember that much of our economic gains of the past decade have been attributed to rising productivity. Those gains in productivity are attributed to...computers. Somebody needs to be around to maintain the existing systems, at the very least.
However, I do see your point. The lower-skilled IT workers may find themselves in a pinch in a recesion. Not everyone who works in the IT industry is what I would call an IT professional. Just as there are 'grades' of expertise in the medical field (doctor, RN, candy-striper), there are grades of expertise in the IT industry. Unfortunately, the industry does not have easily discernible credentials to identify these grades. This leads to all IT workers being clumped together in the same group. I do not believe the 'doctors' of the IT industry will have any problem come recession time. However, if you 'candy-stripe' for your local dot.com (I realize candy-stripers are volunteers, but I'm trying to draw a parallel with respect to skill level), then you might be hoping for a union because that's the only way you're going to have a job. From an economic point of view, I think the candy-striper should lose his/her job in a recession, because I don't think artifically creating/sustaining wages/jobs is a Good Thing. The people whose skills add cash to the bottom line will have jobs. If you don't, then you're gone (and I have no problem with that). I think if you want a larger organization to take care of you, a Socialist country like Sweden would be a better fit.
Stephen
    Po boy, I apologize. It seems I accidentally mis-moderated you. I originally had selected informative, but later went back and changed it to normal (thought I did, anyway) and it seems I screwed up.
    I agree wholeheartedly with your statements. Work to Live, not Live to Work. Read a book (perhaps Zen_and_the_Art_*); take a walk (find someplace quiet!); build something (LEGO, fast car, fancy meal). Take time to live.
'nuff of that, I gotta go work so I can live.
There *are* guidelines of what is expected of a professional engineer. In fact, there is an entire designation for it. It's called a Professional Engineer's license, and it's available from each state. The requirements are basically:
When you have completed all of this, you then get to stick the P.E. designation on your business cards.
This designation needs to create a field for software engineers, however. Right now, it doesn't really cover any fields (via testing) that have sprung up in the last 20 years.
Regards,
Stephen