1. Online backup. The database system that I manage needs to be up 24x7 and needs a 100% reliable parallel backup system Oracle, Informix, etc offer that. El-cheapo DBMS's do not.
2. Referential Integrity and Triggers.
3. Documentation. Commerical RDBMSs include accurate, up-to-date multi-volume documentation sets.
4. Storage management. If I stick data into my database. I know that it is there and accessible. How do I know this? My RDBMS spoke to the storage hardware directly. A glorified flat-file DB like MySQL does not give me the confidence.
5. Scalability/Flexibility. I don't know about Oracle, but Informix can scale from 1 to 64 CPU's over 1 to 128 servers.
Right now we run Sun Enterprise servers. If we decide to migrate to DYNIX, HP-UX, Windows 2k, Linux, etc we can without worry. You cannot do that with MySQL access or Postgre. (since you have to worry about incompatibilities between filesystems)
6. When we find a bug or have a serious problem, we talk to skilled engineers on the phone. No trolling newsgroups or modifying code by myself. I'm a DBA, I don't have the time or the desire to hack database code. We pay good money for support, but then again, the database makes us alot of money too.
If you suggested running Oracle or some other expensive RDBMS for a little website, I'd say you are crazy to pay that much. Same thing goes for a small inventory database or something similar.
At the same time, if you run a large multiuser financial, sales, or data warehouse application on a 'free' database you are far too reckless and incompetent to be a IT professional.
x86 PCI video cards are designed to interface with a PC BIOS, which is completely different than OpenBoot. Unless you plan on hacking both OpenBoot and your video card bios, you should probaly just wait until the 3d cards start appearing cheap on eBay.
In addition, I've heard rumblings that the Blade 100 is using a new architecture (it will only run on SunOS 2.8 10/00 and up). So any SPARC linux distributions will not be working on it right away anyway.
If you are going to get one of these, I suggest running Solaris 8 on it. You'll be running a new flavor of Unix, but learning a new Unix flavor never hurt anybody.
That's like arguing that the First Amendment to the Constitution should be repealed, since ignorant hicks like you will rant on message boards, and then eat yourself.
The reason why people don't make a big stink about ignorant hicks like you being allowed to live would prompt the government to regulate stupid speech. It could even become a crime to pull 'facts' out of your ass.
** MODERATORS: This post does not agree with the Slashbot collective, mod down please **
Remember that not everyone shares your idealism.
Patents actually promote invention, in spite of the FUD spread by open-source zealots.
Why should I spend my time developing anything new if I get no benefit for discovering it. Patents give you exclusive rights for a particular product, allowing you to profit from your invention.
The traditional anti-patent, anti-intellectual property argument is "Hey, mathematical formulas are discoveries, not inventions! They already exist in nature" This is true, but people need to be paid and need to be able to profit as an incentive to develop more.
What you call a "protection racket" is one of the key points of law which has allowed the United States to reach it's current pinnacle of economic power.
Products like Linux, Apache and Mozilla are aberrations in the marketplace. They also introduce little in the way of new technology. Eliminating the so-called patent 'protection racket' merely allows competing nations and corporations steal each other's ideas and lower R&D budgets.
Games do NOT need to be realtime in order for you to do well.
I am not a hardcore gamer by any means, and get a 250-400 ping via my modem, but am usually among the top 4 players in a large (16 player +) tfc game. You just need to learn how to compensate for the delay. It is not very difficult. (Unless you try to be a sniper)
The real problem isn't a particular methodology like XP (which does have good ideas in it), it's the complete lack of professionalism in the software industry.
How many times have people heard of programmers with no degree working on or designing large-scale projects? It's insane. No one would hire an architect or mechanical engineer who didn't have at least a piece of paper from a college. But it happens all the time in software. The costs of the defective systems being turned out by untrained programmers is starting to matter.
Even a CS degree really isn't a sufficient solution to the problem. Software Engineering is NOT computer science, just as Chemical Engineering is not Chemistry. You need knowledge of the latter to do the former, but there is a different skill set which must be learned. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any school which is teaching it to potential software engineers. When they do, real software development can finally begin.
Most programmers are not artists. Many of them are trained monkeys, others just care about a high salary, some are skilled engineers or technicians.
Engineers can solve problems in elegant ways. The Chrysler Building in NYC is an office building, but the style in which it is crafted makes it more than an anonymous suburban office building.
Ever enter a large cathedral? The sheer size and bulk is designed to overwhelm the senses and awe an individual. You feel very small in a cathedral. Some feel the presence of god. Others see the balance of spires and stained glass and see beauty.
Visit an airshow someday and look at an F-15 or P-51 mustang on display. A fighter plane is a perfectly balanced piece of machinery. It sits on the runway, poised for takeoff like a bird of prey. It radiates power and the means to destroy men and property, but is a beautiful machine as well.
I think all of these examples are art in one form or another.
Great paintings are great because examining the artist's use of color and the brush strokes display's the feelings of the artists and brings other, more abstracts things to the surface.
Computer code can work the same way. Good coders have a style and have variations which can reveal their thought processes. Often one section of code performs multiple functions without being 'obvious' about it.
80% of the 'community' just leech off the newsgroups and get free help. my company is going to roll out some pretty major linux systems purchased from dell. why? dell quality is good and they will be around in three years to honor the warranties. i did not even consider VA as a vendor, they sell semi-generic hardware at high prices.
People are not using Linux because it is Free or because of the community. A Solaris license costs like $250. We are using Linux becuase Intel hardware costs 40-60% less than similar Sun hardware and NT sucks.
There is a reason for not having dust all over the place, unfortunately I do not remember what it is; I'm sure other posters will know.
"2. The cameras the astronauts had crosshairs permanantly in the frames. In some moon photos the crosshairs are BEHIND objects on the moon."
The pictures which have 'missing' crosshairs are pictures that were prepared for print in magazines like Life and National Geographic. The crosshairs were removed to make the pictures look better. The photos in the NASA archives (which are available online) show the appropriate crosshairs.
"3. The lack of a blast crater. (This one was partial explained, an expert said that the lander didn't need much actual blast force to land... however i would have thought in the lower gravity of space, it would have made an indentation because of how the entire surface seemed to be just a dust or sand.)"
The power of the rockets on the lunar lander are weaker than the launch boosters on some US surface-to-air missiles. I have seen Hawk SAM's launched in many different enviroments, and it leaves no crater in packed soil that is not wet. (It does leave scorch marks, which would not apply on the moon)
"4. There is no engine noise on the tape during the landing. Wouldn't there be a lot of engine noise?"
10 seconds to load assuming you have a linux box with nothing better to do, like use it's memory.
Netscape 6/Mozilla bloats into a giant, 96 MB chunk of shared memory in 10-15 minutes of use on my machine. Why should a web browser use more resources than oracle?
"Don't sue Napster...go after the users who are just using the software for illegal purposes" was supposed to be an absurd possibility, sort of like the cable companies arresting every person who steals cable.
Float is not the reason why people get 'screwed' by rebate offers. Back in my college days, I worked a big national computer retailer, who offered mail-in rebates for everything from canned air to computer systems.
As an assistant 'manager', I often drew the plum assignment of listening to people rant and rave about not getting rebate money.
About 75% of these people received no money becuase they simply did not read nor follow the instructions.
Some people even had photocopies of what they sent. Here are the most common mistakes that I saw:
- Wrong product or wrong model. (ie HP 690 printer instead of 660)
- No UPC. Many people mailed photocopies of UPC codes.
- No serial number or incorrect info. I remember one guy who wrote down a upc code as a computer's serial number.
- Submitting credit card draft instead of itemized receipt.
- Mailing rebates late. (Once over a year late)
Most of the other 25% of people with rebate problems receive them a little later than expected. At our store, we had to follow up on complaints until they were resolved; I would estimate that around 5-10 people per week (out of 25,000 or more rebate submissions) never received refunds for legitimate reasons.
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1. Online backup. The database system that I manage needs to be up 24x7 and needs a 100% reliable parallel backup system Oracle, Informix, etc offer that. El-cheapo DBMS's do not.
2. Referential Integrity and Triggers.
3. Documentation. Commerical RDBMSs include accurate, up-to-date multi-volume documentation sets.
4. Storage management. If I stick data into my database. I know that it is there and accessible. How do I know this? My RDBMS spoke to the storage hardware directly. A glorified flat-file DB like MySQL does not give me the confidence.
5. Scalability/Flexibility. I don't know about Oracle, but Informix can scale from 1 to 64 CPU's over 1 to 128 servers.
Right now we run Sun Enterprise servers. If we decide to migrate to DYNIX, HP-UX, Windows 2k, Linux, etc we can without worry. You cannot do that with MySQL access or Postgre. (since you have to worry about incompatibilities between filesystems)
6. When we find a bug or have a serious problem, we talk to skilled engineers on the phone. No trolling newsgroups or modifying code by myself. I'm a DBA, I don't have the time or the desire to hack database code. We pay good money for support, but then again, the database makes us alot of money too.
If you suggested running Oracle or some other expensive RDBMS for a little website, I'd say you are crazy to pay that much. Same thing goes for a small inventory database or something similar.
At the same time, if you run a large multiuser financial, sales, or data warehouse application on a 'free' database you are far too reckless and incompetent to be a IT professional.
x86 PCI video cards are designed to interface with a PC BIOS, which is completely different than OpenBoot. Unless you plan on hacking both OpenBoot and your video card bios, you should probaly just wait until the 3d cards start appearing cheap on eBay.
In addition, I've heard rumblings that the Blade 100 is using a new architecture (it will only run on SunOS 2.8 10/00 and up). So any SPARC linux distributions will not be working on it right away anyway.
If you are going to get one of these, I suggest running Solaris 8 on it. You'll be running a new flavor of Unix, but learning a new Unix flavor never hurt anybody.
Could this have anything to do with several JSOW missiles missing their targets by about 60 feet during the airstrikes against Iraq two weeks ago?
I think we've seen the first example of computer warfare against the US.
That's like arguing that the First Amendment to the Constitution should be repealed, since ignorant hicks like you will rant on message boards, and then eat yourself.
The reason why people don't make a big stink about ignorant hicks like you being allowed to live would prompt the government to regulate stupid speech. It could even become a crime to pull 'facts' out of your ass.
** MODERATORS: This post does not agree with the Slashbot collective, mod down please **
Remember that not everyone shares your idealism.
Patents actually promote invention, in spite of the FUD spread by open-source zealots.
Why should I spend my time developing anything new if I get no benefit for discovering it. Patents give you exclusive rights for a particular product, allowing you to profit from your invention.
The traditional anti-patent, anti-intellectual property argument is "Hey, mathematical formulas are discoveries, not inventions! They already exist in nature" This is true, but people need to be paid and need to be able to profit as an incentive to develop more.
What you call a "protection racket" is one of the key points of law which has allowed the United States to reach it's current pinnacle of economic power.
Products like Linux, Apache and Mozilla are aberrations in the marketplace. They also introduce little in the way of new technology. Eliminating the so-called patent 'protection racket' merely allows competing nations and corporations steal each other's ideas and lower R&D budgets.
If you have a life and don't want to manufacture your own monitor adapter, Black Box as them for like $75
Newer Sun workstations have standard VGA connectors, so you can probaly get by with a standard monitor.
They are probaly using a submarine because you can move the submarine to an equatorial area to launch the missile.
This reduces the amount of power needed by the rocket, since the higher rotational speed of the earth at the equator gives the rocket a boost.
HTML for manpages is especially stupid since Linux does not have an adequate web browser.
One of my favorite man implementations is on SCO, SCO uses text-only html and runs a dedicated man web server.
Games do NOT need to be realtime in order for you to do well.
I am not a hardcore gamer by any means, and get a 250-400 ping via my modem, but am usually among the top 4 players in a large (16 player +) tfc game. You just need to learn how to compensate for the delay. It is not very difficult. (Unless you try to be a sniper)
Does anyone know if RIAA is contracting with some firm to search for OpenNap servers?
If so, blocking the ip blocks of RIAA agents would make it difficult, if not impossible, to prove that you are violating the law.
Apps that need it:
- Payroll Processing.
- Databases (no, not mysql)
- Financial Processing
Why not use distributed processing?
- Complicated
- High Latency for transactions
- High licensing costs. (why license software when you can buy hardware?)
- more staff
- Complicated
I just want to point out... SCO is the root of all evil.
The real problem isn't a particular methodology like XP (which does have good ideas in it), it's the complete lack of professionalism in the software industry.
How many times have people heard of programmers with no degree working on or designing large-scale projects? It's insane. No one would hire an architect or mechanical engineer who didn't have at least a piece of paper from a college. But it happens all the time in software. The costs of the defective systems being turned out by untrained programmers is starting to matter.
Even a CS degree really isn't a sufficient solution to the problem. Software Engineering is NOT computer science, just as Chemical Engineering is not Chemistry. You need knowledge of the latter to do the former, but there is a different skill set which must be learned. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any school which is teaching it to potential software engineers. When they do, real software development can finally begin.
Most programmers are not artists. Many of them are trained monkeys, others just care about a high salary, some are skilled engineers or technicians.
Engineers can solve problems in elegant ways. The Chrysler Building in NYC is an office building, but the style in which it is crafted makes it more than an anonymous suburban office building.
Ever enter a large cathedral? The sheer size and bulk is designed to overwhelm the senses and awe an individual. You feel very small in a cathedral. Some feel the presence of god. Others see the balance of spires and stained glass and see beauty.
Visit an airshow someday and look at an F-15 or P-51 mustang on display. A fighter plane is a perfectly balanced piece of machinery. It sits on the runway, poised for takeoff like a bird of prey. It radiates power and the means to destroy men and property, but is a beautiful machine as well.
I think all of these examples are art in one form or another.
I think you captured the essence of what art is.
Great paintings are great because examining the artist's use of color and the brush strokes display's the feelings of the artists and brings other, more abstracts things to the surface.
Computer code can work the same way. Good coders have a style and have variations which can reveal their thought processes. Often one section of code performs multiple functions without being 'obvious' about it.
The linux 'community' is the biggest myth of all.
80% of the 'community' just leech off the newsgroups and get free help. my company is going to roll out some pretty major linux systems purchased from dell. why? dell quality is good and they will be around in three years to honor the warranties. i did not even consider VA as a vendor, they sell semi-generic hardware at high prices.
People are not using Linux because it is Free or because of the community. A Solaris license costs like $250. We are using Linux becuase Intel hardware costs 40-60% less than similar Sun hardware and NT sucks.
There is a reason for not having dust all over the place, unfortunately I do not remember what it is; I'm sure other posters will know.
"2. The cameras the astronauts had crosshairs permanantly in the frames. In some moon photos the crosshairs are BEHIND objects on the moon."
The pictures which have 'missing' crosshairs are pictures that were prepared for print in magazines like Life and National Geographic. The crosshairs were removed to make the pictures look better. The photos in the NASA archives (which are available online) show the appropriate crosshairs.
"3. The lack of a blast crater. (This one was partial explained, an expert said that the lander didn't need much actual blast force to land... however i would have thought in the lower gravity of space, it would have made an indentation because of how the entire surface seemed to be just a dust or sand.)"
The power of the rockets on the lunar lander are weaker than the launch boosters on some US surface-to-air missiles. I have seen Hawk SAM's launched in many different enviroments, and it leaves no crater in packed soil that is not wet. (It does leave scorch marks, which would not apply on the moon)
"4. There is no engine noise on the tape during the landing. Wouldn't there be a lot of engine noise?"
No air, no sound.
10 seconds to load assuming you have a linux box with nothing better to do, like use it's memory.
Netscape 6/Mozilla bloats into a giant, 96 MB chunk of shared memory in 10-15 minutes of use on my machine. Why should a web browser use more resources than oracle?
Not really.
"Don't sue Napster...go after the users who are just using the software for illegal purposes" was supposed to be an absurd possibility, sort of like the cable companies arresting every person who steals cable.
Float is not the reason why people get 'screwed' by rebate offers. Back in my college days, I worked a big national computer retailer, who offered mail-in rebates for everything from canned air to computer systems.
As an assistant 'manager', I often drew the plum assignment of listening to people rant and rave about not getting rebate money.
About 75% of these people received no money becuase they simply did not read nor follow the instructions.
Some people even had photocopies of what they sent. Here are the most common mistakes that I saw:
- Wrong product or wrong model. (ie HP 690 printer instead of 660)
- No UPC. Many people mailed photocopies of UPC codes.
- No serial number or incorrect info. I remember one guy who wrote down a upc code as a computer's serial number.
- Submitting credit card draft instead of itemized receipt.
- Mailing rebates late. (Once over a year late)
Most of the other 25% of people with rebate problems receive them a little later than expected. At our store, we had to follow up on complaints until they were resolved; I would estimate that around 5-10 people per week (out of 25,000 or more rebate submissions) never received refunds for legitimate reasons.
"PostgreSQL is production quality in a datacenter capacity"
Hah! Name one major company using PostgreSQL for a mission-critical database.
Wrong.
/sbin/sh for root and /bin/sh for other users.
The default shell in both Solaris 2.6 and 2.7 is
Maybe your site used csh, but Solaris gives you sh out of the box.
Come on, "How many workers are going to die in the new factories that this new floppy design will require?"
I do not think that anyone has ever died during the manufacture of floppy disks.
We use informix here for some pretty big OLTP systems running Linux.
Check it out:
http://www.informix.com/evaluate/