Exactly. You took a stand, good for you, if they fire you, oh well, you're in IT... get a job tomorrow. Decisions involve consequences, don't use lawyers to change that.
And, if they keep you, get a new job anyway and as you are leaving mention that you didn't appreciate having your job held over your head. That's what "at will" is all about.
I did forget one thing, If you have to come in (regardless of how long), or if you have to spend 4+ hours on-line off-hours, you get a comp-day. This allows you to actually get to see your family if you get stuck working all night.
-- Keith Moore
Not always true, where I work, when we are hired we are told that we will have on-call time. Our salaries are higher than usual though, and we have set limits to what can be called-in.
Desktop issues are 8:30am to 5:30pm, period. If you have a desktop issue, that will not get handled by on-call. We have 24/7 Computer Operations (They get paid hourly), and they deal with most of the nightly issues, however if there is a problem with backups then someone is called. Or if one of the 24/7 websites is down.
However, when I started managing the Server teams I insisted on improved equipment for backups (AIT2 Libraries) and web servers (Clusters). This has GREATLY reduced the number of calls we receive. Plus, since we have extra equipment we can set limits to how many failures we have before we get called.
If we lose one tape drive, or one web server from a cluster, we get notified in the morning.
The only problem with this is, that by the time we get called, it's going to be something that requires us going in.
Depending on which team it is, it's generally 2 weeks on, 4 to 8 weeks off. When you are on-call you MUST be available, if not you must notify Computer Operations that you are out-of-area (Hey, emergencies happen), and I'm secondary on-call for all systems.
Read the GPL, and most of these Open Source licenses. Sure, you can do what you want, but you still have to give credit!! Open Source puts a high level of emphasis on giving credit to the Authors.
It is still copyrighted material, just that the copyright pretty much allows you to do anything with the code, except remove the Credits information.
Have you looked at the site? What about the fact that they've collected all the Item information from the database so they can load it into their server? You don't find this at all questionable?
I think I'll go create a program that sniffs Amazon.com, collect their database, and then create a new site with it. pulling updates from their server at a regular basis.
And more is done on the server side now then ever. Since people can't just allow a game to be fun, they have to try to destroy it with stupid hacks. If you want to hack, fine,just don't play the game loser. Go back to Diablo with your level 520 Character with 1e25 hit points.
Having worked on the code for several MUDs, and other types of games, yes the roll code is the same concept, but hey, that really hasn't changed since D&D came out. To move from a text-based, turn based system to a Graphical quasi-realtime game is not a hack to the code, it's a rewrite from scratch.
And yes, Verant gladly admits that EQ, during combat is actually turn-based, it's how they are so easy on bandwidth. (Battle is just the result of rolls, which occur on the server side).
The other thing is that MUDs had no requirement for having sane directions. You could cross-link rooms all over the place, which was common for doing things like mazes and house-of-mirrors.
Yes, Everquest graphics are a bit behind, but this is Massive Multiplayer game, they perhaps don't want to limit themselves to a small group? Kunark uses higher end graphics, guess what, most people still play on the original Island becuase, since it uses older style graphics, it runs much faster on lower end machines.
EverQuest is fun. It isn't the best graphics, but it has a lot of people, it's good graphics, and it runs smooth on a 24000 baud connection. (I have 2 machines running EQ behind 48000 baud connections with no lag). Most people don't realize why certain games takeoff, I think people are angry that EQ is popular even though, in their very tiny minds, it has everything wrong with it. Dated graphics, per month charges, etc.
It's FUN, and Verant constantly adjusts play balance. It's as simple as that. EQ is a graphical LPMud, and to that end, they are still #1, and untouched.
To do a game like EQ, you can't do the best graphics, because you are going to cut out a chunk of society that doesn't have the latest wiz-bang hardware, and for a TRUE massive multiplayer game (not Unreal/Doom style Multiplayer) the more people you get, with a wider range of personalities, the better.
I don't play EQ just for the graphics, I play because there are constantly people from all over the world that I have actually gotten to know over time, just like the original MUD/MUSH/MUCK servers.
When I have a problem with the game, I have a GM assist me, or I can work with them on bugs. I have to pay per-month, but I also haven't purchased another $50 game in the past 15 months. I used to buy a game every two weeks, beat it, buy another. EQ has many levels of fun, and I doubt it's going anywhere soon. To get a server up and running, and keep it running costs money. If you spend 6 months building a character, I would find it a bit annoying to find that Oh, sorry, I didn't feel like supporting this server anymore, so I disconnected it, good luck, which is bound to happen with free servers. This is a persistent world, not a short one. It's not the same as Doom/Unreal, etc. Look at MUD/MUSH/MUCKs, and how many come and go.
If you don't have Programming skills, you aren't a Sysadmin, you are a technician, stick to NT, you'll do well there.
Yes, I know of programmers that like to make things complex, but that's bad programmers. Scripts/Programs are supposed to make things EASIER, not harder. When I took over from someone with no programming skills everything was very simple, too bad there was no way to verify that everytime a new filesystem was added it was also added to the backups. Within the first week we found a lot of missing files/directories, and the backup procedures for the Oracle Databases didn't keep up with the DBAs either. Now there is a script system that collects the information about the Filesystems and Databases and creates the backup scripts, and if there are any problems with creating these scripts, the entire UNIX Admin team gets and E-mail.
I know of the guys you are talking about, I hate them too (We had the same problem with Web Developers deciding that they HAD to have 18 versions of the same software installed in 15 different locations on their workstations). But that is the result of bad programming skill, as well as bad sysadmin skill.
K.I.S.S is for both programming and sysadmin. We can rebuild from a crash in about 10mins more than it takes to reinstall the OS, by simply pushing our standard tools from a reference server.
These guys are saying, we can't be expected to write decent software anymore, this is the MS age of crappy software and security. Users love it, they buy our stuff non-stop, and all these stupid people trying to prove how really, really bad our software is are just mean. Screw the users, just pay us.
VI is tough, but the interface is perfect for what it was designed for. I know you don't get it, but it was designed such that your hands never leave the home position if you are a touch typist.
I have worked with many Windows developers helping them port software to UNIX, and if we work together long enough, they eventually end up getting the Windows version of VIM to replace Visual/C++'s editor, since it's a much faster tool to work with. (And VIM has the syntax highlighting that they like from VC++'s editor).
For what it's meant to do, speed up coding, it's the perfect tool.
Anyway, the most fun is watching an old-school VI user using a Windows editor. They end up with i's all over their code.
No MS isn't, they scare the stockholders into thinking that if they don't use IE they won't succeed, and then the stockholders tell the board, and the board tells the VP's etc, and finally, at the end the developers have to use a crappy product because it's use it, or lose your job.
Of course, the smart ones leave the development arena until MS is bashed back down.
No, Microsoft will have more versions of Windows then there will be of UNIX over time, so they will end up being on the other end of the same FUD they tossed around about UNIX.
I doubt there will ever be 1 UNIX, but I think it will be down to a few sooner than you would think.
Every vendor I've dealt with besides Intel does this, the same model number can have upwards of 3 or 4 different chipsets. This is especially true of Compaq.
If you don't get any warnings with this enabled, then you are doing better. Also GNU was actually one of the LAST compilers to start accepting//, becuase so many people complained about it. It's still a compile time option (When you are building GCC) to disable accepting// in C code.
And, BTW// was added to C99. Not that I would ever use it in any of my C code, since I still work on older systems, which won't have a clue what to do with//.
Are you using Windows 3.10, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 95B, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT4.0, Windows NT 4.0SP4, Windows2000.
You should have stopped after Redhat/Slackware, once you mentioned version numbers you opened yourself up to this post.
And yes, there are a LOT of packages that require a minimum service pack level for NT, which is about the same as requiring a specific kernel, or version of Xlib.
Anyway, I haven't had much portability issues between the different distributions in over a year, which is more than I can say for Win9x and WinNT.
Debian has a set of ideals that they started with, and they are staying with. If you don't agree with them, don't use them. It's silly to try to convince them they are wrong, part of the point of multiple distributions is that you can choose your distribution for almost any reason. Ease of use, standardization, strict adherence to GPL.
Personally, in a society of people who think that every thought is only a shade of concept, and that there is no right/wrong, It's nice to see someone stand up for what they believe in.
I'm married, with 3 kids. If my boss tells me to do something wrong (putting a backdoor on what should be a "secure" software package). I will leave, period. My wife might complain, but if the marriage is built on respect, she will understand, and back my decision (I'm assuming a traditional single income family, not falling back on the wife's income). Anyway, we are talking about IT. If it takes you more than an hour to get a decent paying job, you aren't trying very hard.
Slashdot Mirror
You fool! Greenspan is Immortal, and you know it. There can be only one!
-- Keith Moore
Exactly. You took a stand, good for you, if they fire you, oh well, you're in IT... get a job tomorrow. Decisions involve consequences, don't use lawyers to change that.
And, if they keep you, get a new job anyway and as you are leaving mention that you didn't appreciate having your job held over your head. That's what "at will" is all about.
-- Keith Moore
They don't use beowulf, they use their own load-balancing system. It's closer to WebFarm than a cluster.
-- Keith Moore
Uhm, they are called LPmuds.
-- Keith Moore
Did you read his post? That's what he said.
BSD Takes much less to lock down.
In case you are clueless, that means it's more secure out of the box than Linux. Linux can be made secure, but only with much more effort.
-- Keith Moore
I did forget one thing, If you have to come in (regardless of how long), or if you have to spend 4+ hours on-line off-hours, you get a comp-day. This allows you to actually get to see your family if you get stuck working all night.
-- Keith Moore
Not always true, where I work, when we are hired we are told that we will have on-call time. Our salaries are higher than usual though, and we have set limits to what can be called-in.
Desktop issues are 8:30am to 5:30pm, period. If you have a desktop issue, that will not get handled by on-call. We have 24/7 Computer Operations (They get paid hourly), and they deal with most of the nightly issues, however if there is a problem with backups then someone is called. Or if one of the 24/7 websites is down.
However, when I started managing the Server teams I insisted on improved equipment for backups (AIT2 Libraries) and web servers (Clusters). This has GREATLY reduced the number of calls we receive. Plus, since we have extra equipment we can set limits to how many failures we have before we get called.
If we lose one tape drive, or one web server from a cluster, we get notified in the morning.
The only problem with this is, that by the time we get called, it's going to be something that requires us going in.
Depending on which team it is, it's generally 2 weeks on, 4 to 8 weeks off. When you are on-call you MUST be available, if not you must notify Computer Operations that you are out-of-area (Hey, emergencies happen), and I'm secondary on-call for all systems.
-- Keith Moore
Read the GPL, and most of these Open Source licenses. Sure, you can do what you want, but you still have to give credit!! Open Source puts a high level of emphasis on giving credit to the Authors.
It is still copyrighted material, just that the copyright pretty much allows you to do anything with the code, except remove the Credits information.
-- Keith Moore
Have you looked at the site? What about the fact that they've collected all the Item information from the database so they can load it into their server? You don't find this at all questionable?
I think I'll go create a program that sniffs Amazon.com, collect their database, and then create a new site with it. pulling updates from their server at a regular basis.
And more is done on the server side now then ever. Since people can't just allow a game to be fun, they have to try to destroy it with stupid hacks. If you want to hack, fine,just don't play the game loser. Go back to Diablo with your level 520 Character with 1e25 hit points.
-- Keith Moore
Having worked on the code for several MUDs, and other types of games, yes the roll code is the same concept, but hey, that really hasn't changed since D&D came out. To move from a text-based, turn based system to a Graphical quasi-realtime game is not a hack to the code, it's a rewrite from scratch.
And yes, Verant gladly admits that EQ, during combat is actually turn-based, it's how they are so easy on bandwidth. (Battle is just the result of rolls, which occur on the server side).
The other thing is that MUDs had no requirement for having sane directions. You could cross-link rooms all over the place, which was common for doing things like mazes and house-of-mirrors.
-- Keith Moore
Yes, Everquest graphics are a bit behind, but this is Massive Multiplayer game, they perhaps don't want to limit themselves to a small group? Kunark uses higher end graphics, guess what, most people still play on the original Island becuase, since it uses older style graphics, it runs much faster on lower end machines.
EverQuest is fun. It isn't the best graphics, but it has a lot of people, it's good graphics, and it runs smooth on a 24000 baud connection. (I have 2 machines running EQ behind 48000 baud connections with no lag). Most people don't realize why certain games takeoff, I think people are angry that EQ is popular even though, in their very tiny minds, it has everything wrong with it. Dated graphics, per month charges, etc.
It's FUN, and Verant constantly adjusts play balance. It's as simple as that. EQ is a graphical LPMud, and to that end, they are still #1, and untouched.
To do a game like EQ, you can't do the best graphics, because you are going to cut out a chunk of society that doesn't have the latest wiz-bang hardware, and for a TRUE massive multiplayer game (not Unreal/Doom style Multiplayer) the more people you get, with a wider range of personalities, the better.
I don't play EQ just for the graphics, I play because there are constantly people from all over the world that I have actually gotten to know over time, just like the original MUD/MUSH/MUCK servers.
When I have a problem with the game, I have a GM assist me, or I can work with them on bugs. I have to pay per-month, but I also haven't purchased another $50 game in the past 15 months. I used to buy a game every two weeks, beat it, buy another. EQ has many levels of fun, and I doubt it's going anywhere soon. To get a server up and running, and keep it running costs money. If you spend 6 months building a character, I would find it a bit annoying to find that Oh, sorry, I didn't feel like supporting this server anymore, so I disconnected it, good luck, which is bound to happen with free servers. This is a persistent world, not a short one. It's not the same as Doom/Unreal, etc. Look at MUD/MUSH/MUCKs, and how many come and go.
-- Keith Moore
This is silly.
If you don't have Programming skills, you aren't a Sysadmin, you are a technician, stick to NT, you'll do well there.
Yes, I know of programmers that like to make things complex, but that's bad programmers. Scripts/Programs are supposed to make things EASIER, not harder. When I took over from someone with no programming skills everything was very simple, too bad there was no way to verify that everytime a new filesystem was added it was also added to the backups. Within the first week we found a lot of missing files/directories, and the backup procedures for the Oracle Databases didn't keep up with the DBAs either. Now there is a script system that collects the information about the Filesystems and Databases and creates the backup scripts, and if there are any problems with creating these scripts, the entire UNIX Admin team gets and E-mail.
I know of the guys you are talking about, I hate them too (We had the same problem with Web Developers deciding that they HAD to have 18 versions of the same software installed in 15 different locations on their workstations). But that is the result of bad programming skill, as well as bad sysadmin skill.
K.I.S.S is for both programming and sysadmin. We can rebuild from a crash in about 10mins more than it takes to reinstall the OS, by simply pushing our standard tools from a reference server.
-- Keith Moore
These guys are saying, we can't be expected to write decent software anymore, this is the MS age of crappy software and security. Users love it, they buy our stuff non-stop, and all these stupid people trying to prove how really, really bad our software is are just mean. Screw the users, just pay us.
-- Keith Moore
VI is tough, but the interface is perfect for what it was designed for. I know you don't get it, but it was designed such that your hands never leave the home position if you are a touch typist.
I have worked with many Windows developers helping them port software to UNIX, and if we work together long enough, they eventually end up getting the Windows version of VIM to replace Visual/C++'s editor, since it's a much faster tool to work with. (And VIM has the syntax highlighting that they like from VC++'s editor).
For what it's meant to do, speed up coding, it's the perfect tool.
Anyway, the most fun is watching an old-school VI user using a Windows editor. They end up with i's all over their code.
-- Keith Moore
No MS isn't, they scare the stockholders into thinking that if they don't use IE they won't succeed, and then the stockholders tell the board, and the board tells the VP's etc, and finally, at the end the developers have to use a crappy product because it's use it, or lose your job.
Of course, the smart ones leave the development arena until MS is bashed back down.
-- Keith Moore
No, Microsoft will have more versions of Windows then there will be of UNIX over time, so they will end up being on the other end of the same FUD they tossed around about UNIX.
I doubt there will ever be 1 UNIX, but I think it will be down to a few sooner than you would think.
-- Keith Moore
Maybe some of us like getting large raises instead of a 1 or 2% COLA?
-- Keith Moore
If you don't want to pay that much, just get RedHat 6.2. It still comes with the Clustering software.
As a corporation, I can sell a cluster server with 24/7 support a heck of a lot easier than a cluster server that usenet people will help me support.
To a corporation, $2k is nothing, I spend more than that on support for the server we use for testing patches on.
-- Keith Moore
Every vendor I've dealt with besides Intel does this, the same model number can have upwards of 3 or 4 different chipsets. This is especially true of Compaq.
-- Keith Moore
That's why GNU invented -Wall --ansi --pedantic.
//, becuase so many people complained about it. It's still a compile time option (When you are building GCC) to disable accepting // in C code.
// was added to C99. Not that I would ever use it in any of my C code, since I still work on older systems, which won't have a clue what to do with //.
If you don't get any warnings with this enabled, then you are doing better. Also GNU was actually one of the LAST compilers to start accepting
And, BTW
-- Keith Moore
Are you using Windows 3.10, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 95B, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT4.0, Windows NT 4.0SP4, Windows2000.
You should have stopped after Redhat/Slackware, once you mentioned version numbers you opened yourself up to this post.
And yes, there are a LOT of packages that require a minimum service pack level for NT, which is about the same as requiring a specific kernel, or version of Xlib.
Anyway, I haven't had much portability issues between the different distributions in over a year, which is more than I can say for Win9x and WinNT.
-- Keith Moore
Not quite the same thing.
-- Keith Moore
Debian has a set of ideals that they started with, and they are staying with. If you don't agree with them, don't use them. It's silly to try to convince them they are wrong, part of the point of multiple distributions is that you can choose your distribution for almost any reason. Ease of use, standardization, strict adherence to GPL.
Personally, in a society of people who think that every thought is only a shade of concept, and that there is no right/wrong, It's nice to see someone stand up for what they believe in.
-- Keith Moore
That is what masquerading is for.
-- Keith Moore
I'll finish taking this thread off topic.
I'm married, with 3 kids. If my boss tells me to do something wrong (putting a backdoor on what should be a "secure" software package). I will leave, period. My wife might complain, but if the marriage is built on respect, she will understand, and back my decision (I'm assuming a traditional single income family, not falling back on the wife's income). Anyway, we are talking about IT. If it takes you more than an hour to get a decent paying job, you aren't trying very hard.
-- Keith Moore