Doesn't sound like you're a big enough shop to convince Sun to port their compiler to x86. Does the old version of the compiler you're using run on newer sun hardware? Assuming that the hardware is as obsolete as you make it sound, there are low-end Sun boxes that aren't priced much higher than good x86 hardware (the Blade starts at $950 and the Ultra 5 at $2000)
If you're certain that porting the software would be too much work, perhaps you could get some other interested people involved in adding another dialect of Pascal to the GNU Pascal translator. This could be simpler than porting the whole app over. (hrmm... I just remembered.. there's a second Pascal implementation for Linux, freePascal or something (I think it's aiming for TurboPascal compatability, tho) have you tried both?)
The third option is to bite the bullet and undertake the process of porting it. Since it's a "text processing" app, Perl would be prime candidate (and, in theory, simpler to write in than other languages), Java would be another option for getting the rewrite off quickly (and due to it's multi-platform support would, again in theory, help prevent you from future vendor lock-in). Part of the reason I mention these languages is that they both have large libraries of platform independant code (Java's vast API and Perls massive collection of libraries) available for them, and that could possibly cut down the time it takes to port. Of course, a straight-across port, maintaining backwards compatability isn't even neccessary, as long as you provide a method to translate any existing data file from one format to another.
Plan for growth. There are places you can cut corners when you only have 100 users that are going to kill you when you have 1000. I'm not saying that you should neccessarily design the system around the growth, but try to avoid doing things that will need to be undone at a later date.
Do you want to make email-only users (IE not allow shell access), or are you just expecting some users to limit their use to just that?
What is the intended purpose of this? Is it a money-making venture, or more of a communal-access project?
What do you plan on ppl using their shell accounts for? Interactive access involving compilers &C can create a whole world of headaches.
A few ideas for you to consider...
Disk quotas & process caps are useful in preventing users from using all available system resources (not to mention how a single fork-bomb can ruin an admin's day).
If you plan on having different types of accounts, write scripts to automate account creation proccess. (knowing/learning a scripting language will pay off big).
Resist the urge to run bleeding edge software on the machine. OTOH, you have to keep up w/ security patches.
If you have any say in the hardware the machine is on, spring the extra cash for good hardware. SCSI drives (SCSI pays off bigtime when you have many different users trying to access the drive. ECC RAM is another good idea. "Server-Grade" hardware will usually last longer & be less prone to failures.
Logs, Logs, Logs. Make sure to keep good logs & have a good log-rotation process in place. Not only will they help you identify security problems, but they can be useful for debuging the system (and if you feel like putting the work in, identifying the actual usage paterns of the system to streamline/optimize the system for what it's really being used for)
Reading at 3 gave all sorts of altruism/freedom/creativity based answers, nobody really seems to have hit on one of my primary reasons for using OSS:
As I grew up, I got tired of stealing software
Some of my earliest memories involve my father running a Pirate BBS on his Commodore 64. As a child (Mind you, an 8yr old with leech access on one of the biggest warez boards in SoCal), pirating software was THE ONLY WAY of getting it, anyone who actually paid for it was lame. And it continued like this for some years, even after I got my first PC.
My sophomore & junior years of highschool brought with them several major developments:
Learning about the internet : Imagine, being able to communicate all over the world w/o phreaking!
Being introduced to Unix : My first ISP was shell only. My HS ran a unix network i their CS Lab. By the middle of my junior year, I was installing Slackware off of a foot-tall stack of floppies downloaded over a 14.4.
My first love : Going on 7 years have passed, and none of the girls I've met came close to her. Beatiful, intelligent, funny, creative, carring & a geek-chick to boot.
These three events were all hopelessly intertwined. Of course, I was still using windows and pirating software, but was slowly sliding towards using Linux and free software. I've been dual-booting since then, slowly using more Linux and less Windows.
At some point when Linux had become my primary OS, and I had finally regained confidence in my intellectual capabilities (an irrelevant drug abuse themed chapter of my life), I began to realize that I could contribute something back to the community.
I guess it's partly because there's a greater sense of community in creating software than stealing it (the 'net killed the warez community), partly out of sentimental attachment (these days it's more the ideal that she represents than any longing for her as a person) and partly a moral conviction (I hate the idea of being forced to pay for software) that I use & contribute to open-source software.
The quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" explains them being classified together. Either way, you're forcing ppl to swallow a lie about the fundamental nature of reality.
You may argue that Sci-Fi, in dealing with technology, is inherrently more plausible, but if the tech's not here, it's no better than a Microsoft press release.
I dunno... doing an ASCII representation of the goatse guy is a bit of an achievement. If they're going to delete trolls, fine, but I'd like to see a Troller Hall of Fame... the first goatse link... and who started the Portman/Grits thing?
There seems to be a lot of focus on import/export filters, which is an important feature, but not the make/break feature. Other than the few gorilla anti-MS users out there, most corporations establish standards and force ppl to use a particular software. With few exceptions, most documents any office drone has to work with come from in-house.
I just discovered AppWatch earlier this week and was starting to think of it as a useful resource. As long as ppl continue to block banner ads, I expect to see more not-entirely-massive sites go down the tubes as the value of web advertising goes down. The saddest part is that so much of the Slashdot contingent seems to think that blocking ads is harmless. Payment for banner-load/click-through is the closest working thing to our beloved micropayment system.
I guess a lot of OSS types really are just in it becuase they're tight-asses. In that light, I can almost see why the trolls keep linking goatse.
Finally, a place for hackers...
on
NYSE Goes To Linux
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Finally, a place for hackers at banks that doesn't involve maintaining 30yr old Cobol programs!
I'm working on something like this at school. We only have 3 computer labs on campus, and there has been a growing interest in Linux but not enough to even set a whole lab dual-booting. Right now, our linux setup consists of a dedidcated p200 server (NFS / NIS / lpr->samba), and 4 machines that dual-boot to Linux. Unfortunately if more than 4 ppl want to use Linux, they're stuck using windows' telnet.
The new lab admin is almost completely clueless about Linux, but interested. He just gave me the go-ahead, and if I can get a get an Xterm setup that sits in UMSDOS and boots w/ loadlin I can get the whole lab running Xterms. And once I've proven it to work, I might actually be able to get some funding from the administration to get a real server, like one of the 512MB/IDE-RAID/SMP machines over in the graphics department. +)
I can't wait until this gets into metamoderation. Even reading filtering to 4s, every other post is from somebody who say "but a 486 is too slow to run any useful programs well". Yes, we have clueless posters, but even worse, we have clueless moderators giving them mod points.
Only way to find out for sure is to test it out. It's always a good idea to test some idea before you do a rollout of that size. You might not be able to fully see how well the system scales for your app, but you can gt an idea by watching network traffic &C....
One possibility to keep in mind : We know that large businesses like to buy scads of identical computros from the likes of Dell & Compaq, if only to keep support & maintenance simple. Every few years, those companies are going to do upgrades, and replace large numbers of systems, and will have to dispose of the old machines somehow.
Arround Seattle, it's fairly well known that Boeing's surplus outlet/wearhouse is the place to go if you're looking for a deal on an old computer, and they're more than happy to make donations to schools & charitable organizations (one of the labs in my school is all Boeing surplussed computers/monitors).
While other companies might not be quite as easy to deal with, if you're in an urban area, I'd assume you'd be able to talk to some scrap dealers/auction houses and get a line on lots of 25-50 identical machines.
I have some idea of what Gator is for, and what (little) benefit it offers to the user but I don't really understand -why- it's being covertly bundled with so many other programs? I can only assume that software authors are getting some kind of kickbacks for packaging Gator with their programs.
Which brings it down to two separate issues; One of the issues deals with the software itself, it's ad manipulation & pop-upping. The other issues deals with the untrustworthy software that installs Gator for you. The second issue can't entirely be blamed on Gator, even though they've provided the incentives, they're not directly responsible.
But, until deceptive software like this starts getting the kind of mainstream media attention that other virii get, I don't see anything changing much. I hate to say it, but, perhaps somebody should come up with a simple, detailed "Evils of Gator, and how to remove the scourge" type message and spam it to a few million ppl, start a chain-letter, or whatnot.
Re:Lower sales for the monopolist
on
$1200 Cheap!
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
This was probably a troll, but it was moderated up, so there might be someone out there who is buying into this BS.
I hate to play the devils advocate here, but the troll did bring up a few good points, even if they were presented in a somehwhat inflamatory manner.
1) Incremental PC Performance increases
Looking over at pricewatch I see that P3s are available fromm 450Mzz to 1GHz, hiting every 50/66MHz jump, and a couple speeds are produced in both 100 & 133 FSB versions (AMD has essentially the same gig going). Joe Sixpack doesn't understand the concept of binning, they just see a dizying array of numbers, and get led around like lost puppies by sales clerks. Now, you and I may realize that we can save $50 by going w/ the 933 instead of a 1G, but Joe is really concerned about how much of a difference those 77MHz really make. The success of the x for Dummies books aside, most ppl don't like being made to feel stupid.
Again, it doesn't matter if the ecconomic pie is a limited resource or not, a lot of ppl are concerned about the current ecconomic downturn. Most people, when they hear Microsoft think Bill Gates, and most ppl associate Bill Gates with money. Now, even though Sony is a large multinational corporation, they're a large faceless multinational corporation. I can't see the average, slightly struggling American wanting to the personal fortune (remember, most ppl think Microsoft == Bill Gates) of the richest man in the world, when they can just buy an equivalent machine from Sony (which really has no connotation in their minds, save perhaps the Walkman/PSX).
Again... remember that most people can not separate Bill Gates from Microsoft. To them, Bill gates is the man in charge of writing Windows much in the same way as Lee Iacoca was once equated with Chrysler. Even if he has no say in the running of the company he's still the figurehead and mouthpiece, which furthers this along.
Besides, Microsoft was only able to successfully appeal the punishment, not the verdict.
Well, in an embedded environment, the overhead of having an interpreter (JRE) will most likely outweigh the bennefits of an interpreted language. If you were using a Java compiler that output machine code instead of byte code, things might be different.
One catch... If they depend on SGI systems for the development end of their biz, yet refuse to support SGI for the rendering, they're pulling large ammounts of revenue away from SGI. So, what's going to happen to SGI's R&D budget? Where is the money for the new, inovative and more powerful systems going to come from?
This is the same sort of bind we find the die-hard Napster (or gnutella or whatever) user getting into. They want to listen to commercial music w/o paying for it, but if nobody paid for it, no commercial music would be made.
Slashdot Mirror
Doesn't sound like you're a big enough shop to convince Sun to port their compiler to x86. Does the old version of the compiler you're using run on newer sun hardware? Assuming that the hardware is as obsolete as you make it sound, there are low-end Sun boxes that aren't priced much higher than good x86 hardware (the Blade starts at $950 and the Ultra 5 at $2000)
If you're certain that porting the software would be too much work, perhaps you could get some other interested people involved in adding another dialect of Pascal to the GNU Pascal translator. This could be simpler than porting the whole app over. (hrmm... I just remembered.. there's a second Pascal implementation for Linux, freePascal or something (I think it's aiming for TurboPascal compatability, tho) have you tried both?)
The third option is to bite the bullet and undertake the process of porting it. Since it's a "text processing" app, Perl would be prime candidate (and, in theory, simpler to write in than other languages), Java would be another option for getting the rewrite off quickly (and due to it's multi-platform support would, again in theory, help prevent you from future vendor lock-in). Part of the reason I mention these languages is that they both have large libraries of platform independant code (Java's vast API and Perls massive collection of libraries) available for them, and that could possibly cut down the time it takes to port. Of course, a straight-across port, maintaining backwards compatability isn't even neccessary, as long as you provide a method to translate any existing data file from one format to another.
Erp, one thing I forgot :
Plan for growth. There are places you can cut corners when you only have 100 users that are going to kill you when you have 1000. I'm not saying that you should neccessarily design the system around the growth, but try to avoid doing things that will need to be undone at a later date.
A few questions need be answered :
Do you want to make email-only users (IE not allow shell access), or are you just expecting some users to limit their use to just that?
What is the intended purpose of this? Is it a money-making venture, or more of a communal-access project?
What do you plan on ppl using their shell accounts for? Interactive access involving compilers &C can create a whole world of headaches.
A few ideas for you to consider...
Disk quotas & process caps are useful in preventing users from using all available system resources (not to mention how a single fork-bomb can ruin an admin's day).
If you plan on having different types of accounts, write scripts to automate account creation proccess. (knowing/learning a scripting language will pay off big).
Resist the urge to run bleeding edge software on the machine. OTOH, you have to keep up w/ security patches.
If you have any say in the hardware the machine is on, spring the extra cash for good hardware. SCSI drives (SCSI pays off bigtime when you have many different users trying to access the drive. ECC RAM is another good idea. "Server-Grade" hardware will usually last longer & be less prone to failures.
Logs, Logs, Logs. Make sure to keep good logs & have a good log-rotation process in place. Not only will they help you identify security problems, but they can be useful for debuging the system (and if you feel like putting the work in, identifying the actual usage paterns of the system to streamline/optimize the system for what it's really being used for)
As I grew up, I got tired of stealing software
Some of my earliest memories involve my father running a Pirate BBS on his Commodore 64. As a child (Mind you, an 8yr old with leech access on one of the biggest warez boards in SoCal), pirating software was THE ONLY WAY of getting it, anyone who actually paid for it was lame. And it continued like this for some years, even after I got my first PC.
My sophomore & junior years of highschool brought with them several major developments:
These three events were all hopelessly intertwined. Of course, I was still using windows and pirating software, but was slowly sliding towards using Linux and free software. I've been dual-booting since then, slowly using more Linux and less Windows.
At some point when Linux had become my primary OS, and I had finally regained confidence in my intellectual capabilities (an irrelevant drug abuse themed chapter of my life), I began to realize that I could contribute something back to the community.
I guess it's partly because there's a greater sense of community in creating software than stealing it (the 'net killed the warez community), partly out of sentimental attachment (these days it's more the ideal that she represents than any longing for her as a person) and partly a moral conviction (I hate the idea of being forced to pay for software) that I use & contribute to open-source software.
Hey, hiring scads of unskilled kids has made McDonald's a mulinational, multibillion dollar corporation, why should't it work for software design?
The quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" explains them being classified together. Either way, you're forcing ppl to swallow a lie about the fundamental nature of reality.
You may argue that Sci-Fi, in dealing with technology, is inherrently more plausible, but if the tech's not here, it's no better than a Microsoft press release.
I dunno... doing an ASCII representation of the goatse guy is a bit of an achievement. If they're going to delete trolls, fine, but I'd like to see a Troller Hall of Fame... the first goatse link... and who started the Portman/Grits thing?
There seems to be a lot of focus on import/export filters, which is an important feature, but not the make/break feature. Other than the few gorilla anti-MS users out there, most corporations establish standards and force ppl to use a particular software. With few exceptions, most documents any office drone has to work with come from in-house.
I just discovered AppWatch earlier this week and was starting to think of it as a useful resource. As long as ppl continue to block banner ads, I expect to see more not-entirely-massive sites go down the tubes as the value of web advertising goes down. The saddest part is that so much of the Slashdot contingent seems to think that blocking ads is harmless. Payment for banner-load/click-through is the closest working thing to our beloved micropayment system.
I guess a lot of OSS types really are just in it becuase they're tight-asses. In that light, I can almost see why the trolls keep linking goatse.
Finally, a place for hackers at banks that doesn't involve maintaining 30yr old Cobol programs!
I'm working on something like this at school. We only have 3 computer labs on campus, and there has been a growing interest in Linux but not enough to even set a whole lab dual-booting. Right now, our linux setup consists of a dedidcated p200 server (NFS / NIS / lpr->samba), and 4 machines that dual-boot to Linux. Unfortunately if more than 4 ppl want to use Linux, they're stuck using windows' telnet.
The new lab admin is almost completely clueless about Linux, but interested. He just gave me the go-ahead, and if I can get a get an Xterm setup that sits in UMSDOS and boots w/ loadlin I can get the whole lab running Xterms. And once I've proven it to work, I might actually be able to get some funding from the administration to get a real server, like one of the 512MB/IDE-RAID/SMP machines over in the graphics department. +)
AYE! Perhaps going with some kind of netboot for an Xterminal? The boys at have got a system in place for doing just that, bootrom images for popular net cards, instructions for low-cost rom burners, I think they've even got a mini-distro there...
I can't wait until this gets into metamoderation. Even reading filtering to 4s, every other post is from somebody who say "but a 486 is too slow to run any useful programs well". Yes, we have clueless posters, but even worse, we have clueless moderators giving them mod points.
Only way to find out for sure is to test it out. It's always a good idea to test some idea before you do a rollout of that size. You might not be able to fully see how well the system scales for your app, but you can gt an idea by watching network traffic &C....
One possibility to keep in mind : We know that large businesses like to buy scads of identical computros from the likes of Dell & Compaq, if only to keep support & maintenance simple. Every few years, those companies are going to do upgrades, and replace large numbers of systems, and will have to dispose of the old machines somehow.
Arround Seattle, it's fairly well known that Boeing's surplus outlet/wearhouse is the place to go if you're looking for a deal on an old computer, and they're more than happy to make donations to schools & charitable organizations (one of the labs in my school is all Boeing surplussed computers/monitors).
While other companies might not be quite as easy to deal with, if you're in an urban area, I'd assume you'd be able to talk to some scrap dealers/auction houses and get a line on lots of 25-50 identical machines.
I saw God once...
...and she was black.
I have some idea of what Gator is for, and what (little) benefit it offers to the user but I don't really understand -why- it's being covertly bundled with so many other programs? I can only assume that software authors are getting some kind of kickbacks for packaging Gator with their programs.
Which brings it down to two separate issues; One of the issues deals with the software itself, it's ad manipulation & pop-upping. The other issues deals with the untrustworthy software that installs Gator for you. The second issue can't entirely be blamed on Gator, even though they've provided the incentives, they're not directly responsible.
But, until deceptive software like this starts getting the kind of mainstream media attention that other virii get, I don't see anything changing much. I hate to say it, but, perhaps somebody should come up with a simple, detailed "Evils of Gator, and how to remove the scourge" type message and spam it to a few million ppl, start a chain-letter, or whatnot.
This was probably a troll, but it was moderated up, so there might be someone out there who is buying into this BS.
I hate to play the devils advocate here, but the troll did bring up a few good points, even if they were presented in a somehwhat inflamatory manner.
1) Incremental PC Performance increases
Looking over at pricewatch I see that P3s are available fromm 450Mzz to 1GHz, hiting every 50/66MHz jump, and a couple speeds are produced in both 100 & 133 FSB versions (AMD has essentially the same gig going). Joe Sixpack doesn't understand the concept of binning, they just see a dizying array of numbers, and get led around like lost puppies by sales clerks. Now, you and I may realize that we can save $50 by going w/ the 933 instead of a 1G, but Joe is really concerned about how much of a difference those 77MHz really make. The success of the x for Dummies books aside, most ppl don't like being made to feel stupid.
Again, it doesn't matter if the ecconomic pie is a limited resource or not, a lot of ppl are concerned about the current ecconomic downturn. Most people, when they hear Microsoft think Bill Gates, and most ppl associate Bill Gates with money. Now, even though Sony is a large multinational corporation, they're a large faceless multinational corporation. I can't see the average, slightly struggling American wanting to the personal fortune (remember, most ppl think Microsoft == Bill Gates) of the richest man in the world, when they can just buy an equivalent machine from Sony (which really has no connotation in their minds, save perhaps the Walkman/PSX).
Again... remember that most people can not separate Bill Gates from Microsoft. To them, Bill gates is the man in charge of writing Windows much in the same way as Lee Iacoca was once equated with Chrysler. Even if he has no say in the running of the company he's still the figurehead and mouthpiece, which furthers this along.
Besides, Microsoft was only able to successfully appeal the punishment, not the verdict.
It's worse than I thought... Numeric access to goatse takes you to hick.org...
In this case, it appears we've been saved by virtual hosting.
Hey, here's a link that goes to goatse. Do we get reverse-DNS?
I wonder what it does with Numeric IPs?
You'd stop reading slashdot 'cuz you're paranoid about cookies, but you're willing to include your exact location in your sig.
I guess it's true what they say 'bout crazies... You can't talk to a psycho like a normal human being
Well, in an embedded environment, the overhead of having an interpreter (JRE) will most likely outweigh the bennefits of an interpreted language. If you were using a Java compiler that output machine code instead of byte code, things might be different.
One catch... If they depend on SGI systems for the development end of their biz, yet refuse to support SGI for the rendering, they're pulling large ammounts of revenue away from SGI. So, what's going to happen to SGI's R&D budget? Where is the money for the new, inovative and more powerful systems going to come from?
This is the same sort of bind we find the die-hard Napster (or gnutella or whatever) user getting into. They want to listen to commercial music w/o paying for it, but if nobody paid for it, no commercial music would be made.