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User: Zorlon

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Comments · 28

  1. Good DIY Option on Ask Slashdot: Best Bang-for-the-Buck HPC Solution? · · Score: 1

    I've used supermicro in the past. Very cost effective if you like to assemble your own systems. I have no financial relationship. This is just an unsolicited testimonial. http://www.supermicro.com/prod...

  2. Re:Download from the source on How To Hijack Your Own Windows System With Bundled Downloads · · Score: 1

    This is a pet peeve of mine. I bought an ASUS with tons of 'ASUS' crap. I can't even wipe and re-install windows from an install CD anymore because of the 'recovery' partition on the hard drive. Oracle Java updates are always trying to install browser toolbars. Adobe PDF and Flash updates are always trying to install other crap. Why does MS let these vendors screw up the user experience?

  3. How about we beta test on Venus? on Harvard Scientists Say It's Time To Start Thinking About Engineering the Climate · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Then if it works we'll have a bonus planet to live it. Win Win :)

  4. Meanwhile back in the land of the not so free ... on UK To Finally Legalize Ripping CDs and DVDs · · Score: 5, Interesting
  5. Re:Single Sign on aka FB on Ask Slashdot: What's Holding Up Single Sign-On? · · Score: 1

    cpu6502,

    You have already identified yourself as a 50+ year old Apple I user.

  6. Re:Google argues most patents should be SEPs on Google Says Some Apple Inventions Are So Great They Should Be Shared · · Score: 1

    Please define SEP

  7. Now I know ! on Two Huge Holes In the Sun Spotted · · Score: 1

    God is going to pick the sun up like a bowling ball and toss it into the black hole in the center of the milky way. Probably on 12/21/2012

  8. IPhone Nano ... on Nanoresonators Create Ultra-High-Res Displays · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Looking forward to teeny tiny iPhones

  9. Strategic Incompetence on Getting Paid Fairly When Job Responsibilities Spiral? · · Score: 1

    You need to read Scott Adams' "The Joy of Work." If you really want to write articles and be in Marketing don't volunteer to do IT stuff. Clearly, your strategy of "quick and courteous service" (see page 40) is not working out for you.

  10. Adobe Crumbles on New Method Could Hide Malware In PDFs, No Further Exploits Needed · · Score: 1

    I find Adobe proprietary apps like pdf viewer and flash to be very annoying. I would love a nice rain to wash that mud away.

  11. Re:No way. on When Will AI Surpass Human Intelligence? · · Score: 1

    I agree, have you ever read a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Kurzweil book ? the guy can not write a decent paragraph. He should stick to synthesizers. I think that computers are instruments or tools like telescopes or microscopes. They allow us to peer into a universe of logic and math but, they are not 'intelligent'

  12. Note to Google: Infrastructure sucks on Google's Experimental Fiber Network · · Score: 1

    Having worked at UUNET/Worldcom I can tell you that building and maintaining infrastructure is a pain. What is Google going to do when a backhoe digs into their fiber feeder? I predict it will be 'beta' for a while and then dropped quietly.

    How about customer service? Where is the 800 number? Oh I am just 'Labs' experiment? Sorry for bothering you. What is the name of that guy in the video, can I call him?

  13. Open Source Lab? Big Deal! on Managing Young Sys Admins At Oregon State Open Source Lab · · Score: 1

    It's not like it's the Accounting department or HR. I have my own open source lab in my home.

  14. Re:No Comment on Myths About Code Comments · · Score: 1

    print "DEBUG: This is not a comment\n";

  15. It depends on your SLA on How Many Admins Per User/Computer Have You Seen? · · Score: 1

    As long as you manage expectations and, make management aware of the costs vs. risk.

    There are a lot of factors that determine the manpower needed:

    1) Are backups of files required by all users or just a few users (ie CEO, finance, hr etc)
    3) What is the expected work hours 24/7? or 8/5?
    4) How much redundancy is built into the servers? If they are in pairs then one can go down and be fixed during regular work hours.
    5) How is your storage set up ? Disk drives fail so you will need RAID, mirroring etc
    6) Have the servers been properly maintained ? A lot of times applications are put on servers without correct startup and shutdown scripts. If there is a power outage and the servers are cycled they should come up correctly with all applications.
    7) Do you have a monitoring system in place to try to catch problems before they become catastrophic failures.
    8) Do you have good configuration management so that the systems are as identical as possible.
    9) Do you have routine maintenance items automated - this is easier if you have item 8 above.

    All of these have cost and risk associated with them so it is important to go over them with management. You can explain how if you don't have a decent backup plan then data can get "lost."

  16. Do it in your head and keep a Journal on What Does Everyone Use For Task/Project Tracking? · · Score: 1

    If you are a one man IT shop then you can control your own work flow. Keep cryptic notes and todo lists in notebook in a journal style. File emails in different folders. It is funny but it works like a dynamic priority system. The hot projects will pop up any you will not have trouble remembering what to do. The repetative housecleaning tasks are good to do when you get tired of the 10 other things you need to do. One of the most rewarding things is going back through your notebook and cross of completed tasks. If you are good and can produce a lot of results then the management will not try to impose a "Time Management" system on you.

  17. Better Dys topian then Dat topien on William Gibson's Neuromancer Staged With Porn Star · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Doesn't the Declaration of Independents and Constitution imply that there is no Utopia hence we need checks and balances.

    Is Dystopia the same as Non-Utopia?

    Whenever someone (or some group) thinks they know what Utopia is, they try to force everybody down the same path.

  18. Corbomite on Soviets Built a Doomsday Machine; It's Still Alive · · Score: 2, Interesting
  19. Re:Apple's response: on Palm Pre iTunes Syncing Back With WebOS 1.1 Update · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... to Palm's Pre emptive strike

  20. Mcidasium on Periodic Table Gets a New, Unnamed Element · · Score: 1

    Mcidasium

  21. Re:First post on Global Warming Irreversible, NOAA Scientist Finds · · Score: 1

    In regards to the "This argument before" let me clarify. One of the things I mentioned was that once when I was having a conversation about AGW at work I was asked that if I believe that the world is flat (ie insinuating that I am a "Flat Earther") somehow equating any skepticism with anti-science. I am not at all anti-science I love math and science.

    So that I guess that shilly's argument is that if mathematical models can predict the position of the stars many centuries into the future then we should be able to predict climate. I bet that the models used to predict star locations are based on Newton's laws and, these can be checked with observations such as using red shift to determine how fast the stars are moving etc. Then you can use gravity, mass, acceleration etc to see how stars in the milky way are orbiting center of the galaxy over thousands of years (a blip in cosmic time). This can be done with a computer model and you can see how the constellations will change. So the argument is that since this scenario is predictable then climate is predictable using mathematical and computer models. I do not think that this is the case, and I used weather and economics as an example.

    Even if we had a (nearly) infinite sized computer and could model every atom, electron, photon, on and in the planet we could not predict the weather very far into the future. Even if we could model every penny spent in the economy we still could not predict what the Dow Jones average will be in 2010. These are dynamical systems that have the Chaos Theory attribute of 'sensitivity to initial conditions. This has more or less discounted the clockwork model of physical reality. Then we are faced with uncertainty. People hate uncertainty.

    As far as the difference between climate and weather, isn't just a matter of time scale? Climate is temperature, humidity averaged out over a longer time scale. One aspect of Chaos Theory is similarity across different scales or orders of magnitude. Like how sand dunes from satellite photos look like sand ripples on the beach.

    Al Gore is a politician right? I really don't like all the "talking points" labels like "Global Warming Denier" or "Global Warming Skeptic" these are just thrown out for debating points and don't really add anything of value to the discussion. Also the endless accusations of being under the influence of Big Oil etc are getting kind of tired (I'm not). I don't care about Exxon. I do care about our "addiction" to foreign oil, cleaning up pollution, environment and science. I just would like to be able to discuss the issue without the name-calling. Can't we just "disagree without being disagreeable".

  22. Re:First post on Global Warming Irreversible, NOAA Scientist Finds · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've seen this argument before and I also have been asked if I believe the earth is flat since I question the validity of climatology findings. Climate is more like economics and we know how easy it is to predict economic fluctuations :) If you read some books on complexity and chaos theory you will find that chaotic systems have a high degree of unpredictability. One of the best books on the subject is The Essence of Chaos by Edward Lorenz (a meteorologist) Comparing climatology science to Newton's discovery of orbital mechanics is a bit of a stretch. The planets orbits can be observed and checked in a few days. Climate predictions would need how long to prove? 10 years, 100? Climate is probably more like weather. We have lots of weather models and a big incentive to predict the weather but we can not reliably predict the weather more than 10 days into the future. How can we then say that we can predict the future climate? I also think that politics has muddied the water my insisting that man made CO2 is the main factor driving climate change. Of course I would like us to get off of foreign oil so I would be content with "Global Warming" being a "Convenient Myth" instead of an "Inconvenient Truth"

  23. Alas, will we not see the headline ... on Still No Contact from Beagle 2 · · Score: 1
    The Beagle Has Landed !!!
  24. The real test is .... on Google US Puzzle Championship · · Score: 1

    See who cracks the adobe encryption scheme.

  25. Think of the marketing possibilities ... on Diamonds As Room-Temperature Superconductors · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oracle + Diamond CPU + Intel = Unbreakable Diamond Inside