I don't think whoever submitted this story meant to say that the US gov't has a lousy or non-existant presence on the web. He just asked for a comparison between European and US pages.
Personally, I think the US Federal and most state webpages are pretty good tools for locating information. It is certainly a hell of alot easier than navigating a maze of phone numbers or finding someone that you know who already knows the information that you need.
The only thing that many government websites are missing are electronic forms. That lack has more to do with budgetary constraints than anything else though.
His point is that if Linux had a real Bourne Shell, he's wouldn't have to give two shits about what distro/version/patchlevel was installed as it related to his install scripts.
On Solaris, AIX, SunOS, DECos, HPUX, etc., you get the real/bin/sh. sh has been the same for years and is absolutley reliable.
Will bash work 95% of the time? Yes. But bash is still a work in progress, and more bugs will likely be found in the future. sh is sh and isn't being actively "enhanced" anymore.
... would be if you could easily set aside a certain percentage of your bandwidth (say 10-15%) for use by other people, and more if its available. That way you aren't taking a backseat to freeloaders on your own network, but you also aren't curring people off whenever you start a big, bandwidth-heavy transfer.
Yeah, it was great that these relics were destroyed. And yes, these weapons were witnesses to the mass murder that is war.
Two of them were Civil War Springfield rifled muskets. The other was a Army rifle from the Spanish-American war. They were three little pieces of history utterly destroyed by some moron like yourself.
Intolerant idiots like yourself are the ones who should be locked away from firearms. Not having the means to live someplace better than a trailer park does not make you a second class citizen.
The assholes are the fucktard managers who allow their employees to destroy the cargo that is placed in their care.
The assholes are the claims representatives who do their best to avoid processing claims for insurance that customers paid good money for.
Maybe if the floor supervisor and some of the managers at the UPS distribution centers got off their rears and kept the employees in line, this wouldn't be a probelm.
He shipped three collectible rifles via UPS Ground (the only legal way to ship them) they were so damaged that the barrels were bent and engravings on the stock were damaged beyond repair.
After six months without receiving his insurance money (almost $5000), he got his revenge. He filled 6 pickle jars with concentrated deer urine (very nasty smelling stuff) he packed them together, marked the box fragile and didn't insure it.
Knowing how high the computer is would be a very big deal.
Say the first floor of your building houses the HR and accounting staff; third floor houses call center agents. What group does a particular desktop belong to without height information?
I'll restate my original point; GPS is a total waste of time, unless you are inventorying pipeline equipment or something that is fixed and in a remote location.
What good does knowing where a PC is within 5 meters do? Offices reshuffle all the time and pc's change hands as new computers are ordered. All you need to know for a physical inventory is that the machine is present and what group (IT, development, accounting, etc) it belongs to.
I work in the enterprise systems management group for several large state agencies. We use Tivoli Inventory and a couple of asset management tools to inventory and keep track of over 65,000 pc's scattered throughout the state. As our network maps have evolved and become more details, we have been able to locate pc's down to the exact switch/hub port that it is connected to. If the pc is hooked to an unmanaged hub, we have scripts that talk to active directory and figure out who normally logs into the computer.
The scripts needed to accomplish this took two people about two weeks to implement. The result is inventory info that can be updated nearly in real-time, down to whatever level of detail you need.
Compare the cost of that to outfitting IT people with barcode reader equipped handhelds running all over the place scanning stuff.
Generally, computers are not located in the middle of the woods.
The barcode functionality should be fine for actual identification of the asset. Use good old fashioned address/room no. to locate the computer. If you don't want your people to have to manually enter data, use pull down menus or 4 digit alphanumeric codes for sites.
Remember that GPS requires a line of sight to 3 or more satellites and is accurate to 30m. I don't know about your sites, but my computer room is in the windowless 2nd floor of a 20-story building, where gps won't work. Also, a 30m margin of error could place my desk somewhere in the middle of the street.
You don't want to be tracked as a SysAdmin, it is a thankless job involving long hours and no advancement. If you are good at your job, you become essential and cannot go anywhere in the organization.
I would suggest learning software that requires extensive OS knowlege (something like Tivoli or Databases or SAP) as well as the ability to develop solutions to complex problems.
After a disk array craps out for the second time or after you create your 2,000th user account, the appeal of being a sysadmin diminishes. Also, that machine room gets chilly.
I decided that instead of paying $25-28 a month for a landline, I'd ditch it in favor of a cell phone, which costs me about $40 a month including long distance.
Cable modem is $40 and cable service $30... so I'm saving cash on the stupid phone line in favor of the added features & convience of a cell.
Linux users are familiar with unexplained bugs. Developers like to muck around with "stable" code, but don't like to document their changes well.
I also keep in mind that when I apply a kernel patch to Solaris, I don't have to worry about getting little suprises like a completely redesigned and poorly tested VM subsystem, because the Solaris development team were stuck in a mailing list flamewar.
Once you get out in the real working world, you'll come to appreciate your degree more. I started working on the Sysadmin/DBA side and have made the transition to a software/network engineer and am starting to appreciate the time I spent in school.
So don't do anything stupid until you are out of school and employed (ie. don't drop out) Just get a job and see what happens. If you hate your job, look for another one.
If you are reasonably intelligent and interested in doing stuff, you won't have too much trouble getting a job. One of the positive things about a recession is that it will shake the idiots and dotcom losers out of the industry.
What sorts of features have been ignored in commerical operating systems?
Broken volume managers?
Broken/Inconsistent VM's
Massive bloat?
Testing?
The need for every patch to be 80 lines or less? (Unless it involves re-writing something for the 10th time)
Release early and release often, to the tune of two or more 'production' kernel 'releases' a week?
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think whoever submitted this story meant to say that the US gov't has a lousy or non-existant presence on the web. He just asked for a comparison between European and US pages.
Personally, I think the US Federal and most state webpages are pretty good tools for locating information. It is certainly a hell of alot easier than navigating a maze of phone numbers or finding someone that you know who already knows the information that you need.
The only thing that many government websites are missing are electronic forms. That lack has more to do with budgetary constraints than anything else though.
The issue here is portability.
/bin/sh. sh has been the same for years and is absolutley reliable.
His point is that if Linux had a real Bourne Shell, he's wouldn't have to give two shits about what distro/version/patchlevel was installed as it related to his install scripts.
On Solaris, AIX, SunOS, DECos, HPUX, etc., you get the real
Will bash work 95% of the time? Yes. But bash is still a work in progress, and more bugs will likely be found in the future. sh is sh and isn't being actively "enhanced" anymore.
... would be if you could easily set aside a certain percentage of your bandwidth (say 10-15%) for use by other people, and more if its available. That way you aren't taking a backseat to freeloaders on your own network, but you also aren't curring people off whenever you start a big, bandwidth-heavy transfer.
I work at a gov't agency where everything is blocked.
So I just use citrix to connect to my house via port 443. I can use all the apps (icq, etc) on my home machine no problem.
Yeah, it was great that these relics were destroyed. And yes, these weapons were witnesses to the mass murder that is war.
Two of them were Civil War Springfield rifled muskets. The other was a Army rifle from the Spanish-American war. They were three little pieces of history utterly destroyed by some moron like yourself.
Intolerant idiots like yourself are the ones who should be locked away from firearms. Not having the means to live someplace better than a trailer park does not make you a second class citizen.
My dad wasn't the asshole.
The assholes are the fucktard managers who allow their employees to destroy the cargo that is placed in their care.
The assholes are the claims representatives who do their best to avoid processing claims for insurance that customers paid good money for.
Maybe if the floor supervisor and some of the managers at the UPS distribution centers got off their rears and kept the employees in line, this wouldn't be a probelm.
My father had a similar experience.
:D
He shipped three collectible rifles via UPS Ground (the only legal way to ship them) they were so damaged that the barrels were bent and engravings on the stock were damaged beyond repair.
After six months without receiving his insurance money (almost $5000), he got his revenge. He filled 6 pickle jars with concentrated deer urine (very nasty smelling stuff) he packed them together, marked the box fragile and didn't insure it.
Not suprisingly, the box was never delivered
This is why you pay with a credit card.
Just dispute the charge.
This is slashdot after all...
Some smartass somewhere has to mention that qmail and it's impossible-to-manage ezmlm program is a superior solution.
And while we're at it, djbdns rocks the house!
That thinks people will pay a penny/page to surf the web!
I think you are exaggerating the faults of Java more than a bit.
I use a Java GUI (swing) program and a several java server applications on AIX, Solaris and Windows NT every day, they perform pretty well.
Knowing how high the computer is would be a very big deal.
Say the first floor of your building houses the HR and accounting staff; third floor houses call center agents. What group does a particular desktop belong to without height information?
I'll restate my original point; GPS is a total waste of time, unless you are inventorying pipeline equipment or something that is fixed and in a remote location.
What good does knowing where a PC is within 5 meters do? Offices reshuffle all the time and pc's change hands as new computers are ordered. All you need to know for a physical inventory is that the machine is present and what group (IT, development, accounting, etc) it belongs to.
I work in the enterprise systems management group for several large state agencies. We use Tivoli Inventory and a couple of asset management tools to inventory and keep track of over 65,000 pc's scattered throughout the state. As our network maps have evolved and become more details, we have been able to locate pc's down to the exact switch/hub port that it is connected to. If the pc is hooked to an unmanaged hub, we have scripts that talk to active directory and figure out who normally logs into the computer.
The scripts needed to accomplish this took two people about two weeks to implement. The result is inventory info that can be updated nearly in real-time, down to whatever level of detail you need.
Compare the cost of that to outfitting IT people with barcode reader equipped handhelds running all over the place scanning stuff.
Generally, computers are not located in the middle of the woods.
The barcode functionality should be fine for actual identification of the asset. Use good old fashioned address/room no. to locate the computer. If you don't want your people to have to manually enter data, use pull down menus or 4 digit alphanumeric codes for sites.
Remember that GPS requires a line of sight to 3 or more satellites and is accurate to 30m. I don't know about your sites, but my computer room is in the windowless 2nd floor of a 20-story building, where gps won't work. Also, a 30m margin of error could place my desk somewhere in the middle of the street.
They won't be throwing it around on /.
This place will be gone by March 2002.
I've noticed this too.
Fortunately, I have been wearing a tinfoil hat which reflects the government mind-control ray away!
Put Windows 2000 on the machine and run netmeeting.
Presumably you are undertaking this project for some sort of business enterprise. I suggest dropping the fanatic attitude and getting the job done.
Use the right tool for the right job.
I can identify with what you are saying.
For me though, I just started to get bored as I learned more and more about Unix and my companies proprietary software.
Now I'm involved in a fairly large Tivoli rollout, so I'm presented with lots of interesting problems that are begging for creative solutions.
It's also cool to code in Prolog at work. I always liked AI stuff.
You don't want to be tracked as a SysAdmin, it is a thankless job involving long hours and no advancement. If you are good at your job, you become essential and cannot go anywhere in the organization.
I would suggest learning software that requires extensive OS knowlege (something like Tivoli or Databases or SAP) as well as the ability to develop solutions to complex problems.
After a disk array craps out for the second time or after you create your 2,000th user account, the appeal of being a sysadmin diminishes. Also, that machine room gets chilly.
Space Shuttle computers were powered until recently by hardened 1.6 MHz 8008 chips, most commonly seen in IBM PC XT's circa 1983.
I don't have a phone line at my house!
I decided that instead of paying $25-28 a month for a landline, I'd ditch it in favor of a cell phone, which costs me about $40 a month including long distance.
Cable modem is $40 and cable service $30... so I'm saving cash on the stupid phone line in favor of the added features & convience of a cell.
Esp. since the Democrats in congress are going out of their way to stonewall all of Bush's appointments.
Linux users are familiar with unexplained bugs. Developers like to muck around with "stable" code, but don't like to document their changes well.
I also keep in mind that when I apply a kernel patch to Solaris, I don't have to worry about getting little suprises like a completely redesigned and poorly tested VM subsystem, because the Solaris development team were stuck in a mailing list flamewar.
Once you get out in the real working world, you'll come to appreciate your degree more. I started working on the Sysadmin/DBA side and have made the transition to a software/network engineer and am starting to appreciate the time I spent in school.
So don't do anything stupid until you are out of school and employed (ie. don't drop out) Just get a job and see what happens. If you hate your job, look for another one.
If you are reasonably intelligent and interested in doing stuff, you won't have too much trouble getting a job. One of the positive things about a recession is that it will shake the idiots and dotcom losers out of the industry.
and purchasing an additional two-year warranty for like $150, then wait two weeks and send the thing in.
Vendors love selling extended warranties!
What sorts of features have been ignored in commerical operating systems?
Broken volume managers?
Broken/Inconsistent VM's
Massive bloat?
Testing?
The need for every patch to be 80 lines or less? (Unless it involves re-writing something for the 10th time)
Release early and release often, to the tune of two or more 'production' kernel 'releases' a week?