I've tried the long distance telecommuting thing. I lived/worked for a company in San Diego, and wanted to move to the Pacific NorthWest. So, instead of risking loosing me (I was the Senior software developer there, and basically had my fingers in every pie in the place). I moved to Spokane Washington, and worked full time over a DSL line. Here are the experiences I've had.
ICQ *really* helps, and having video conferencing would have really helped. Having a good long distance plan really helps too. However, as time went by, they'd give me less and less to do. At one point, I couldn't get a hold of my boss for a full week, with nothing to do. Its difficult communicate with your co-workers, if they're not used to ICQ/text-based chat (talking to sales people at my company was basically impossible).
So, in my experience, if all parties involved (including all the people you interact with) are not commited to making it work, its not going to. People have a tendancy to forget about you too (out of sight, out of mind). I was lucky in that I was a straight coder (perl/mod_perl/apache/websites), so I could just SSH into the office servers.
Your work environment really matters. I had a separate room dedicated to my office (rather big, really), but it didn't have a door into the rest of the house. I learned, that I couldn't pay any attention to my cat during the day, but I couldn't shut the door (none to shut). I also found myself spending my entire day in the office, even after I stopped "working". I'd surf the web, or just waste my time away, all the while feeling like I was still at work.
I don't quite know how to solve that one, but having a home office really does encroach on the rest of your house. (I guess if you had a life, unlike me, it wouldn't be a problem).
I might try it again someday, when the technology is better, and video conferencing and VoIP is everywhere...
The problem (with some exceptions) isn't lack of interest. Its all takeoff weight. Water is *really* heavy. Plastic isn't, but the amount of water you'd need for the right amount of shielding would be *mundo* expensive. All for what? A space habitat? Now, granted, it would be nice, but that would be really freaking expensive.
We can't really attempt anything in space that requires a large amount of weight, until we get into asteroid mining. All the water, ore, etc. that we need.
Other plans, such as Robert Zubrin's "Mars Direct" plan, which proposes in-situ production of return fuel from mars' atmosphere is an example of accomplishing a large-scale mission without thinking large scale. But, if you specify using water...ouch!
Don't get me wrong...I wanna experience space travel...I want to go to Mars...but thinking in conventional terms with conventional means of getting human-made items into space just won't work.
I've seen a lot of posts here regarding T1s or T3s. I've done a bunch of research into this, and it breaks down into this:
You pay for your local loop (from your local telco) from your location to your service provider (UUNet or Qwest etc.). That typically costs around $350-$450 for a T1, and a little more expensive for a T3. Then you've got your net connection charges. You can get a fractional T1 or T3, and have less bandwidth to use, but you're not paying as much. When you need more bandwidth, give 'em a call, and they can up it for you.
That doesn't work so much with T1s, 'cause it really doesn't make sense price-wise since theres a lot of money involved in the connection itself, regardless of the bandwidth.
I've found Qwest to be the cheapest solution, and I hear the quality is really good (guarenteed 100% uptime, and 0% packet loss...within their network). What you could do, is purchase a T3, but only pay for 3megs of bandwidth (its usually charged in increments of 3 megs). Need more bandwidth? Add another 3 megs.
There are other solutions (especially for T1s) called Burstable T1s. This is where you only pay for an average bandwidth...for instance, they monitor your bandwidth usage every 5 minutes (in the case of UUNet), and average out your usage. They then take off the top 5% of your bandwidth, and then charge you for what you've used. The 5% off the top is so that, say for instance, you get/.'d once, but the rest of the month you're back to normal...you don't get charged for the/. (if it fits in that 5% usage).
Anyway...My suggestion is, if you're expecting a lot of growth, get a router that can support up to 45 megs/sec (full T3), get a T3, but only pay for 3 megs to start. For me, I figured the monthly bandwidth charges to be around $1300 for a T1's bandwidth, and $350 for the local loop. I can't remember what the charges were.
Lemme say again, that UUNet is EXPENSIVE! And, from an ISP standpoint (which is where my day job is), they're down a lot. I've never dealt with Quest, but they're pretty responsive to their customer service calls, and they boast a really sweet network.
I'm not sure when it was done, or what it was called (mid-90s I think), but this has been done in space.
As far as I can remember, a satellite was sent up into LEO, and separated in two pieces. One piece with a solar collector and a high-powered microwave transmitter, and the other end with a microwave reciever and a downlink to good-ol' Terra.
Essentially, they transmitted somewhere around 100kW of power, and about 86kW was recieved. So, it actually works, but anything caught in the path was fried like a mouse put in a microwave. They plan on using this technology on remote areas like Mars or something, where there are no biologicals that can be harmed by that.
If its very _very_ *VERY* accurate, they could beam the power down to a converted off-shore oil-rig capable of recieving the power, then running it along a power cable to the shore, but I wouldn't trust the geo-stationary orbit of the transmitter...I wouldn't want the orbit to decay, and start transmitting right over my house.:-\
I've been very interested in Teslas work for many years, and have reproduced some of his experiments (I think all hardcore geeks have built at least one tesla coil by the age of 16).
But, the modern experimentation of his theories is a very fascinating idea. If you could post your email address or webpage address where we can find updates, I think many of us would appreciate it. We might even be able to offer some small funds to get things going.
You also might want to check into any existing non-profit organizations that might already be doing this sort of thing. At the very least, you could probably join an amatuer research organization, and have other amatuers who already have experience join in. (of course, if you work for a think tank already, then thats better.;)
Thats what I'm going to be doing. I currently live in San Diego, but am moving to Spokane, Washington, but keeping my San Diego salary.
Live in a beautiful/cheaper area, less stress, work from home, and essentially make %20 more with the same salary.
For example: For what I'm currently paying for a 2 bedroom apt. in a *hot* section of town, I'm going to be living in a 3 bedroom *house* with a garage yard etc..
His "HOWTO become a hacker" has been around for quite a while. It's like posting a news item about the Bazaar essay. I do understand that is an important document (as is the Bazaar essay) and that every aspiring hacker (even if you know it or not) should read it. However, this isn't News. This is a great link that doesn't grow old.
By putting it in the "News" section implies that this is "New".
Isn't it amazing how fast such a non-distro topic turned into a Debian vs. Redhat war?
Personally, if it's free and runs the Linux kernel, I'm on it! Who cares where files are put, and how packages are managed. If you're so fussy about RPM or somesuch nonsense, just use sources for everything.
Personally, I use Redhat, but only use it for the absolute *minimum* base install...everything beyond that I compile by hand.
Hey, I'd pay for a quarterly subscription of Slashdot on a Disc. Just think, if Slashdot is/.ed, we can still get our geek news. It'd also be a lot more convenient to search locally through a large bunch'o data. Put it in some delimited format and distribute it like the USPS distributes it's zipcode data.
/. is not a "Linux only, OSS only" news site. Read the title: "News for nerds...stuff that maters".
I've said this before; it's important to pull your head out of the sand once-in-a-while, and take a look at the big picture. I really like Katz's writing, not because it's technical, but because it's insightful. If I wanted to read something technical, I'd grab an O'reilly book.
I keep hearing everyone spout the same rhetorical nonsense about Katz's writings. Why don't you open your minds for a change?
Yes, Katz's writings are not technical. Yes, they are sometimes regurgitated. However, they are an interesting viewpoint to subjects that I don't see anyone else here voiceing.
If everyone keeps looking at the low-level technical aspect of the 'net, then noone will be able to see where the geek culture is going. We are, after all, outcasts. And this is a nice writeup trying to get us all to pull our heads out of the sand (or our *sses).
Also, regarding spelling; how many of you people *still* spell 'a lot' without a space? Grab that brick-sized book called a 'Dictionary' sometime...it'll help.
Does anyone remeber your old Sega Master System? No? Think harder.
That wonderfully useless gaming system, because all your friends had Nintendos. Well, they had 3D glasses way back then...Interlaced frames on your TV screen, and the 3D glasses had polarized LCDs which showed alternating frames in either eye.
You might be able to use LDAP, along with a GDBM database for your authentication. I know there are client patches/modules for Apache, QPopper and other programs that need authentication. This way, you don't use the password file for your email services. The drawback is, users won't be able to telnet in (unless you can patch ``login'' to use LDAP as well).
Slashdot Mirror
I've tried the long distance telecommuting thing. I lived/worked for a company in San Diego, and wanted to move to the Pacific NorthWest. So, instead of risking loosing me (I was the Senior software developer there, and basically had my fingers in every pie in the place). I moved to Spokane Washington, and worked full time over a DSL line. Here are the experiences I've had.
ICQ *really* helps, and having video conferencing would have really helped. Having a good long distance plan really helps too. However, as time went by, they'd give me less and less to do. At one point, I couldn't get a hold of my boss for a full week, with nothing to do. Its difficult communicate with your co-workers, if they're not used to ICQ/text-based chat (talking to sales people at my company was basically impossible).
So, in my experience, if all parties involved (including all the people you interact with) are not commited to making it work, its not going to. People have a tendancy to forget about you too (out of sight, out of mind). I was lucky in that I was a straight coder (perl/mod_perl/apache/websites), so I could just SSH into the office servers.
Your work environment really matters. I had a separate room dedicated to my office (rather big, really), but it didn't have a door into the rest of the house. I learned, that I couldn't pay any attention to my cat during the day, but I couldn't shut the door (none to shut). I also found myself spending my entire day in the office, even after I stopped "working". I'd surf the web, or just waste my time away, all the while feeling like I was still at work.
I don't quite know how to solve that one, but having a home office really does encroach on the rest of your house. (I guess if you had a life, unlike me, it wouldn't be a problem).
I might try it again someday, when the technology is better, and video conferencing and VoIP is everywhere...
The problem (with some exceptions) isn't lack of interest. Its all takeoff weight. Water is *really* heavy. Plastic isn't, but the amount of water you'd need for the right amount of shielding would be *mundo* expensive. All for what? A space habitat? Now, granted, it would be nice, but that would be really freaking expensive.
We can't really attempt anything in space that requires a large amount of weight, until we get into asteroid mining. All the water, ore, etc. that we need.
Other plans, such as Robert Zubrin's "Mars Direct" plan, which proposes in-situ production of return fuel from mars' atmosphere is an example of accomplishing a large-scale mission without thinking large scale. But, if you specify using water...ouch!
Don't get me wrong...I wanna experience space travel...I want to go to Mars...but thinking in conventional terms with conventional means of getting human-made items into space just won't work.
I've seen a lot of posts here regarding T1s or T3s. I've done a bunch of research into this, and it breaks down into this:
/.'d once, but the rest of the month you're back to normal...you don't get charged for the /. (if it fits in that 5% usage).
You pay for your local loop (from your local telco) from your location to your service provider (UUNet or Qwest etc.). That typically costs around $350-$450 for a T1, and a little more expensive for a T3. Then you've got your net connection charges. You can get a fractional T1 or T3, and have less bandwidth to use, but you're not paying as much. When you need more bandwidth, give 'em a call, and they can up it for you.
That doesn't work so much with T1s, 'cause it really doesn't make sense price-wise since theres a lot of money involved in the connection itself, regardless of the bandwidth.
I've found Qwest to be the cheapest solution, and I hear the quality is really good (guarenteed 100% uptime, and 0% packet loss...within their network). What you could do, is purchase a T3, but only pay for 3megs of bandwidth (its usually charged in increments of 3 megs). Need more bandwidth? Add another 3 megs.
There are other solutions (especially for T1s) called Burstable T1s. This is where you only pay for an average bandwidth...for instance, they monitor your bandwidth usage every 5 minutes (in the case of UUNet), and average out your usage. They then take off the top 5% of your bandwidth, and then charge you for what you've used. The 5% off the top is so that, say for instance, you get
Anyway...My suggestion is, if you're expecting a lot of growth, get a router that can support up to 45 megs/sec (full T3), get a T3, but only pay for 3 megs to start. For me, I figured the monthly bandwidth charges to be around $1300 for a T1's bandwidth, and $350 for the local loop. I can't remember what the charges were.
Lemme say again, that UUNet is EXPENSIVE! And, from an ISP standpoint (which is where my day job is), they're down a lot. I've never dealt with Quest, but they're pretty responsive to their customer service calls, and they boast a really sweet network.
I'm not sure when it was done, or what it was called (mid-90s I think), but this has been done in space.
:-\
As far as I can remember, a satellite was sent up into LEO, and separated in two pieces. One piece with a solar collector and a high-powered microwave transmitter, and the other end with a microwave reciever and a downlink to good-ol' Terra.
Essentially, they transmitted somewhere around 100kW of power, and about 86kW was recieved. So, it actually works, but anything caught in the path was fried like a mouse put in a microwave. They plan on using this technology on remote areas like Mars or something, where there are no biologicals that can be harmed by that.
If its very _very_ *VERY* accurate, they could beam the power down to a converted off-shore oil-rig capable of recieving the power, then running it along a power cable to the shore, but I wouldn't trust the geo-stationary orbit of the transmitter...I wouldn't want the orbit to decay, and start transmitting right over my house.
I've been very interested in Teslas work for many years, and have reproduced some of his experiments (I think all hardcore geeks have built at least one tesla coil by the age of 16).
;)
But, the modern experimentation of his theories is a very fascinating idea. If you could post your email address or webpage address where we can find updates, I think many of us would appreciate it. We might even be able to offer some small funds to get things going.
You also might want to check into any existing non-profit organizations that might already be doing this sort of thing. At the very least, you could probably join an amatuer research organization, and have other amatuers who already have experience join in. (of course, if you work for a think tank already, then thats better.
One word: Telecommute.
Thats what I'm going to be doing. I currently live in San Diego, but am moving to Spokane, Washington, but keeping my San Diego salary.
Live in a beautiful/cheaper area, less stress, work from home, and essentially make %20 more with the same salary.
For example: For what I'm currently paying for a 2 bedroom apt. in a *hot* section of town, I'm going to be living in a 3 bedroom *house* with a garage yard etc..
Aren't computers great?!?!
His "HOWTO become a hacker" has been around for quite a while. It's like posting a news item about the Bazaar essay. I do understand that is an important document (as is the Bazaar essay) and that every aspiring hacker (even if you know it or not) should read it. However, this isn't News. This is a great link that doesn't grow old.
By putting it in the "News" section implies that this is "New".
Isn't it amazing how fast such a non-distro topic turned into a Debian vs. Redhat war?
Personally, if it's free and runs the Linux kernel, I'm on it! Who cares where files are put, and how packages are managed. If you're so fussy about RPM or somesuch nonsense, just use sources for everything.
Personally, I use Redhat, but only use it for the absolute *minimum* base install...everything beyond that I compile by hand.
Hey, I'd pay for a quarterly subscription of Slashdot on a Disc. Just think, if Slashdot is /.ed, we can still get our geek news. It'd also be a lot more convenient to search locally through a large bunch'o data. Put it in some delimited format and distribute it like the USPS distributes it's zipcode data.
/. is not a "Linux only, OSS only" news site. Read the title: "News for nerds...stuff that maters".
I've said this before; it's important to pull your head out of the sand once-in-a-while, and take a look at the big picture. I really like Katz's writing, not because it's technical, but because it's insightful. If I wanted to read something technical, I'd grab an O'reilly book.
An offtopic slashdot article is an oxymoron.
I keep hearing everyone spout the same rhetorical nonsense about Katz's writings. Why don't you open your minds for a change?
Yes, Katz's writings are not technical. Yes, they are sometimes regurgitated. However, they are an interesting viewpoint to subjects that I don't see anyone else here voiceing.
If everyone keeps looking at the low-level technical aspect of the 'net, then noone will be able to see where the geek culture is going. We are, after all, outcasts. And this is a nice writeup trying to get us all to pull our heads out of the sand (or our *sses).
Also, regarding spelling; how many of you people *still* spell 'a lot' without a space? Grab that brick-sized book called a 'Dictionary' sometime...it'll help.
Congrats Katz!
Does anyone remeber your old Sega Master System? No? Think harder.
That wonderfully useless gaming system, because all your friends had Nintendos. Well, they had 3D glasses way back then...Interlaced frames on your TV screen, and the 3D glasses had polarized LCDs which showed alternating frames in either eye.
True 3D way-back-then.
(Remeber Zaxon 3D and Maze-Hunter?)
You might be able to use LDAP, along with a GDBM database for your authentication. I know there are client patches/modules for Apache, QPopper and other programs that need authentication. This way, you don't use the password file for your email services. The drawback is, users won't be able to telnet in (unless you can patch ``login'' to use LDAP as well).
Well, a lot of us out here have Cablemodems, DSL lines or T1+ lines.
I download enough MP3s and RealAudio files, I practically download 6 cds a month anyway!