but decided against it. When I was working for the university we ghosted machines and we thought hmmm we could put SETI on all of them as they went out! Give the university a little credit, let it run in the bankground, and most of these machines went to individuals who would not come near to using all the speed of a 500 MHZ machine. However, we thought for a moment and said "Do we really want to risk it?" The obvious answer was no and that idea was filed away in the cylindrical file cabinet. Its good to use good judgement. He's lucky to not be doing time.
If you hold onto something tightly, you cannot share it. There are too many devices and too much content competing for my entertainment time and dollar to hassle with silly things such as this. Restrict your content and restrict your audience.
Which means a C2 system with no network access, at Fort Meade and all their couter-measures, and a pack of rapid, hungry hyenas sitting around it in a New York stuido sized apartment.
Yea, we understand what these marketing slogans mean. Unfortunately, nobody has lived up to one yet.
Like many here on Slashdot, I came from college away with a need for high speed bandwidth. Not only am I not alone, the ranks are growing. Each year, students with a need for speed leave looking for residences that offer these conveniences. Where a small number of individuals in their mid-30's consider bandwidth a necessity many of us in our early to mid 20's consider it a requirement of our living spaces. In my own case, high speed access was a requirement when looking for an apartment, (wireless 100KB both up and down, nice). Complexes outside of college towns are beginning to take notice as they begin to string CAT 5 through their buildings. In addition, many home builders are getting into the act with prewiring the homes with CAT 5 where traditionally they would drop CAT 2 and 3 for phones. While the bandwidth market won't take off tomorrow like so many had hoped "AT&T wireless, CLECs, etc." Give it 10 years when individuals like myself are ready to buy homes, THEN we will see the broadband revolution we were promised over the past few years.
I would add one thing to your comments. All of those rockets use conventional fuels. If it came to the point where we would need/want to lift this stuff towards another planteary body, we would probably want to use a nuclear-powered system. In theory, your getting a lot more boost, carrying capacity and fuel weight effeciency from a nuclear-powered rocket.
Since it seems we have two conversations going I thought I would interject with a form of documentation. In Code Complete Steven McConnell talks about the PDL or Programming Description Language. Basically its starts out as documentation but you keep refining each piece till you get to the point the easiest way to describe a function is through code. I now use PDL when Im coding prefacing everything with 'PDL- its an easy way to lift all the description out of the code later and gives anybody behind a good grounding in what my code is doing. Quite frankly I hate trying to make my way through someone else's code, its not fun. Had to once look through an Access-based program using Macros and modules developed by a brokerage. A book-think worth of code MAYBE a page worth of comments, DROVE ME INSANE! Oh well, PDL good stuff look into it, you will remember what you wrote and everyone around you will thank you for helping them understand.
Number 1: Major Code Rewrite
Duke has never been about the engine its always been about Duke and the wacky adventures he gets into. "Come Get Some" comes to mind. 3DRealms went back and totally rewrote the game for the Unreal engine. Never ever ever ever go back and totally rewrite something unless your working in parallel. It just isn't worth it.
Number 2: This has been hyped for a LONG TIME
I was still living in the DORMS playing Quake 2 when they said this thing would be out soon. I distinctly remember chatting with people on the second map on the original CTF rotation about it. Don't give me the crap about "Its done when its done".
Number 3: Give leeway to those companies that deserve
At Microsoft anytime you are on a team that ships a product you get an award. id Software and John Caramack will have shipped Doom 3 before this thing gets out the door. Blizzard gets leeway because they generally take longer but STUFF SHIPS! This must make 3DRealms investors bonkers. Do you pull the plug on the funding or do you get out a product.
I predict DNF will be exactly like Romero's piece of trash. It will smack of dating, be full of holes, and everyone will laugh. Show of hands of people who thing they could have studied C++ and game programming for two years then went pack to an ALREADY built engine and wrote this thing? Not sure if I could but I bet a big hunk of individuals here could.
If showing genuine appreciation is considered in that context, I guess then I do fellate everyone who goes out of their way to do something nice. Merry Christmas...even to the ACs.
I admit, I'm not a good programmer. I am a code monkey who is working to be a good programmer. One of the ways you become one is looking at good code. I have peaked at both Doom and Quake to just see what goes on in the head of one of the best programmers in the world. In doing so I have picked a few pointers without even realizing it until I did it. So thanks Mr. Carmack, you have given me a Christmas present, the gift of better programming.
Its sad that if want anyone to take responsibility for their actions you have to threaten them with a lawsuit. Just keeps the courts clogged and lawyers churning out of law schools.
Of course while your waiting printing for that pr0n you get to study for your university diploma from an accredited University somewhere in the middle of Madagascar! Thanks Email!
Before email I never knew there were so many women interested in showing me their tata's with such snappy come-ons as "We are all 18....and horny!" Who would ever have thought it! Me of all people would have women fawning over me like that and all thanks to email!
I'm going to play devil's advocate for a moment. I actually got into a debate with my Political Science professor about the very meaning of college.
The discussion came to programming and he passed out an article from some respected magazine about programmers coming from different liberal arts backgrounds. He then proceeded to ask the class what do you expect out of a college education. I raised my hand and told the 130+ in the class that I expected to be trained to get a really good job and everything over that was gravy. Startled by my commentary he began to relate the virtues of getting a college education and I agreed with him except for one point.
The whole idea of college 50 years ago was to expand your horizons and try different things, maybe even as little as 25 years ago actually. Now, try to get a professional job outside of sales without a college education; it can't be done. To me it has become another requirement of a job. My grandfather never finished high school and was the manager of a number of Levins stores starting in 1955. You can't get a job managing a McDonald's without a college education anymore.
So excuse while I burst everyone's bubble about well-roundness. I think there is something for being well versed in other cultures, knowing whats going in the world, the ability to speak and write well, and knowing how to manage others. However, well-roundness is just another word for employable so don't use it to cram classes that dont contribute to that goal into my schedule (not mine specifically because I'm graduated: metaphorical my schedule =) )
Link out to Maxim and Blalock's "interview" with full pictorial
spread. Seems as though her experimentation with "chemicals" provided
her with the necessary background to be science officer on Enterprise ROFL.
The songs are not going to be banned for all-time they are just being put up for awhile. If will not affect anyone's lives that they can't get their fix of Megadeth or Metallica. However, I do see the rationale of postponing the playlist at this juncture. The last thing I would want is to have a member of a survivor's family turn on the radio and hear "Stairway to Heaven" and breakdown in tears because they had a family member in the WTC. I don't believe its censorship, I do believe its a conscious decision to think about possible listeners. If you like the songs then go buy/download them and play them to your heart's content. We sometimes forget that its not about just our rights but about the rights of others as well.
It doesn't seem like much but its what I feel right now. April 19th, 1995 I was a sophomore in high school living on the southwest corner of Oklahoma City watching wall-to-wall coverage of what happened to my city and trying to do anything to help. Tuesday brought back many bad memories that I never really wanted to resurface but did. Being able to get information and find out what was happening......I'm going to start rambling so Im going to stop and just say this. I wanna thank the Slashdot Team for being just about the only place where I could find information on Tuesday and to each one of the posters who were mirroring reports here that people couldn't get to. (A special thanks to the person who linked to Sky News Broadband; I couldn't get to a TV and they were using FoxNews coverage). God Bless each of you that contributed reports and God Bless America
Agree with the poster below if your using Exchange for only POP3 your stupid to begin with. The large energy marketing company I work for has probably over 50,000 users worldwide and uses Exchange as our platform. Here are a couple of reasons why I think the eTesting Labs and the Consulting Times is bunk.
For this exercise I am using the 50,000 that they want to scale the IBM to not the 5,000 originally based in the article.
1. Running any mission critical application like email/groupware is suicide on one-box. I would not trust 50,000 users to one box no matter how much the salesperson tells me its cool. That bad boy's getting at least two servers no matter what.
2. If you just want email go with another email system. That's the whole point of Exchange is that you get Calendaring/E-Mail/Web-based Mail/Task Lists/Synch with Palm, PocketPC/Public Folders in one package. I will be the first to admit that there are best of breed applications out there and Exchange isn't one of them for the individual pieces but none of them can be put together all of the features and has the worldwide support of Microsoft and its partners. IBM has the same services but
3. Whoever did these tests have never dealt with users in a corporate environment. Come take a trip to my office and I'll take you to the trading floor. These guys and gals send 10MB Excel spreadsheet models every few minutes and probably, another 10 - 15 emails at the 10K for the rest. You might say "They should be putting those into a repository". Tell that to the trader who just had a REALLY bad day and watch your head get taken off along with the rest of your torso.
4. You got 50,000 users, Chances are spending $2.5 million bucks on a license for Exchange is chump change, in fact, probably $10 million dollars is chump change. When you play in the big leagues its not about price its about support. If something happens to our Exchange servers, Microsoft has people at our door 24x7. My little group of 14 just spent $80,000 for a TEST server not even production without batting an eye do you think licensing costs are a big problem for a company with 50K.
5. Exchange polls continously. Exchange will grab mail instantaneously when it hits your mailbox. You are always connected. You are not polling hourly your polling by the second for new messages. (extremely important in a trading environment when seconds matter.)
6. Unless your Walt Disney World where 50,000 individuals work in the parks and resorts your workforce is going to be spread out likely worldwide. I can show up in London, walk-in and begin working out of Outlook exactly if I had been at my desk here in Houston. I am NOT going to have the London people coming all the way back to Houston and back again to use their email on one OS/390 the bandwidth costs would be outrageous ESPECIALLY in a real-world environment where multi-MB attachments are the norm not the exception.
So what have we learned.
The eTesting Labs test was bunk because it was not a real-world stress test.
No one is going to buy one server to serve a workforce of 5000 or 50000 for that matter. So at least double your hardware costs.
In an environment of 5000+ individuals there should and will be some sort of groupware in place. What are the added costs of buying those best of breed programs to support the same functionality of Exchange at the very least a calendaring system.
Bandwidth costs are a real issue when you deal with a worldwide work force that is in the habit of sending multi-MB files across the network. (No me the lackey is not going to break that)
When you deal in that many users, money is not becoming as great a factor more then the service-level. (Yes I said hardware earlier doubling no matter what)
In conclusion, is Exchange the best for just POP3 mail, no. It can hold its own but more then likely you can find an even cheaper alternative then what the Consulting Times found. You use Exchange because you are looking for the feature-set and Microsoft back stop. For the record, we do use all of those features, we have Ipaqs =). Also, the total cost of ownership figured by the individuals was a good attempt but did not capture what TCO really is, the total cost of ownership for all affected areas. Come back to me with a feature set that's close to Exchange including all external licencing support costs then will talk again.
Back in high school I read a fiction book by Steven Coonts called the Minotaur. The book was about a high placed mole within the American government feeding information to the Soviets. The whole concept was to feed the Soviets "actual" information about our defense capabilities to get them to move and upgrade certain parts of their defense and essentially give up hope of trying to win.
I thought this was an interesting concept so I started to do a little researching. During the Cold War the Soviets employed a VAST array of missle and radar techonolgy throughout the country in order to combat the bomber threat of a US nuclear strike headed by B-1bs, B-2s, A-10s, and F-117a's and other airborne flight systems including going after AWACS aircraft guiding all these weapon systems.
In the end though the Soviets left the oceans open. This is where America truly deployed its nuclear defense arsenal as opposed to ground and air-based systems. The "boomers" Ohio-class and the nuclear-powered Los Angeles and enhanced LA "hunter-killers" versus an aging fleet of Soviet subs gave the US defacto reign underneath the water. Whereas the U.S. was able to track Soviet Typhoon (boomers) class subs, the Soviets could never track the Ohios with any consistency during the Cold War (if at all) due to its silent operation and sound dampening technologies.
So what do we learn. Sometimes you can divulge information that is factual to mask your true intentions. Using a truth to cover up another truth. The Soviets were scared enough of the B-1B with its ability to go supersonic and a big payload, also they much have known about the B-2 and F-117a's before the public did, why else would you invest that heavily in radar and missle technology. I won't say it all happened this way but it sure falls into place and makes a lot of sense.
Here's something for you to chew on boy genius. Let's say indeed someone launched 100 nuclear warheads at the US and we shot down 99 of them but one got through but through faulty upkeep didn't explode. I bet you would be pretty damn happy then wouldn't you. The world is a very ugly and dirty place. There are MANY people and countries who hate the United States for a number of different reasons. Why did Saddam Hussein not ever launch chemical warheads at Israel during the Gulf War? He knew if he did Israel would fire nukes right back at him.
Personally, I hope we never have to goto war. I don't feel its a good way to solve anything but extremists and irrational people don't responsd to logic and sometimes it takes a good-old-fashioned buttkicking to get it through there heads, ie Saddam Hussein. However there are a special breed of people who don't think about consequences of their actions and are willing to die for their cause. Do you believe a full reactionary nuclear strike from the United States is going to deter someone who has a deathwish and willing to die and take all the country's people with him/her? Of course not, because their willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. There lies the fault with MAD it assumes rationality and/or a wanting to live and hold onto power. Saddam was irrational but he was never stupid enough to believe that he wouldn't pay dearly from a nuclear strike. MAD makes sense when you have two superpowers trying to build their influence throughout the world, it doesnt against a dictator with a nuke having a really bad day and genuine hatred of the US so much as to die for it.
HT
It happened to me and I know better
on
Code Redux
·
· Score: 1
Preface: I know better, I know what Code Red can do, hell I work in IT so it makes even worse
I recently started with my company right out of college and one of my jobs is to optimize queries running against an MSSQL Server. I also own a couple of HDs so I bought trays so I can switch systems without putting my eval copy of SQL on my production system. After installation, I went onto the Internet to start downloading patches and then left because Im on a 28.8 modem. When I came back I found that I had sent over 6MB and only dl 2.5 and Inetinfo.exe was going nuts. Shit I thought, I got infected. Like I said it can happen to anyone even when your trying to do the right thing and get all patched up.
Hi Im Troy McClure you might remember from such posts as Why Business hates the GPL and when the hell did all of Slashdot become commies. But I want to talk to you today about decentralizing the power of our government. We have come to a point in our nation's history both politically and technologically that putting everyone together in one big place is a "bad" thing. We have advanced to the point communications wise where it makes no sense to put all our representatives in one place where they can effectively be lobbied and the views of their constituietnts be thrown by the way side. I am not calling for total anarchy; what I am calling for is a Work-At-Home program for Congress. Drag a T3 into every congresspersons and senate members office in their home state or district and have them work there. No more buddy buddy sessions with other members just plain old video conferencing. Give them the resources to still do their job (legislation hunting, underlings, a nice office), but all in the home district.
I predict if this were used that the will of the people of the district and the lobbying efforts of many orgainzations on BOTH sides of the aisle would be curtailed dramatically.
Just a thought,
HT
Why MS hates the GPL or Why no Linux firm makes $
on
Microsoft and the GPL
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· Score: 1
/me turns ont he Flame-retardant absestos suit!!!
Because as I have said in previous fourms the GPL is Linux's greatest assest and its biggest weaknesses. It both encourages collaboration, sharing, and committment at the grass-roots level and undercuts anything that isn't. RedHat turned a $600,000 profit this last quarter oooooooooooOOOO, scary! Please! Larry Ellison uses that kind of money to wipe his ass.
Personally, I think going forward the BSD licenses are much more attune to both business and geek interests. Its not just about free code, free source, and free beer its about employing people, getting better products for all and creating businesses that server all facets of the Linux market. Last time I checked on fuckedcompany there were a lot of companies going out-of-business because they gave their stuff away for free. The same goes for software. That's ok though. Everyone keep coding away on those projects that undercut business interests. If you want to make free software more power to ya, there are many people who will use it. However, do not expect business to go along with it. Even the notion that someone could create a free alternative is enough for most folks to turn away from that opportunity. Having seen it enough times I can tell you even with a superior product, customer service and a salesforce that wants to help; you cannot compete with free. Business does get it, business needs to make money to pay developers to make product to sell to the consumer. The reason business hates the GPL is because it does not offer a real way of charging for and making money, the BSD licensing-style does.
In the end on present course, Linux is and will be considered a revolution, but it will be relegated to the server ranks. Without the coperation of software companies who sustain business models built on license fees there will be no user/consumer level coding for Linux and we will continue to see the likes of companies like Eazel go the way of the dodo. To fully realize its potential as an OS that can change the world, Linux and the communitity are going to have to get both a lot more business friendly and a lot more user (No I don't know how to rebuild my kernel WTH is a compiler) friendly.
Love me, hate me, tell me Im dead wrong and burn me and relegate me to karma hell; but I am one of the few here that understand the technical, user-level, and business interests that all cross at the forgive the pun Linux fork in the road.
Slashdot Mirror
but decided against it. When I was working for the university we ghosted machines and we thought hmmm we could put SETI on all of them as they went out! Give the university a little credit, let it run in the bankground, and most of these machines went to individuals who would not come near to using all the speed of a 500 MHZ machine. However, we thought for a moment and said "Do we really want to risk it?" The obvious answer was no and that idea was filed away in the cylindrical file cabinet. Its good to use good judgement. He's lucky to not be doing time.
HT
Amen!
Google is both the ying and the yang the beginning and the end for this sort of stuff. I mean my goodness, distribute is the first thing returned!
Security professionals my butt!
HT
If you hold onto something tightly, you cannot share it. There are too many devices and too much content competing for my entertainment time and dollar to hassle with silly things such as this. Restrict your content and restrict your audience.
HT
Which means a C2 system with no network access, at Fort Meade and all their couter-measures, and a pack of rapid, hungry hyenas sitting around it in a New York stuido sized apartment.
Yea, we understand what these marketing slogans mean. Unfortunately, nobody has lived up to one yet.
Like many here on Slashdot, I came from college away with a need for high speed bandwidth. Not only am I not alone, the ranks are growing. Each year, students with a need for speed leave looking for residences that offer these conveniences. Where a small number of individuals in their mid-30's consider bandwidth a necessity many of us in our early to mid 20's consider it a requirement of our living spaces. In my own case, high speed access was a requirement when looking for an apartment, (wireless 100KB both up and down, nice). Complexes outside of college towns are beginning to take notice as they begin to string CAT 5 through their buildings. In addition, many home builders are getting into the act with prewiring the homes with CAT 5 where traditionally they would drop CAT 2 and 3 for phones. While the bandwidth market won't take off tomorrow like so many had hoped "AT&T wireless, CLECs, etc." Give it 10 years when individuals like myself are ready to buy homes, THEN we will see the broadband revolution we were promised over the past few years.
HT
I would add one thing to your comments. All of those rockets use conventional fuels. If it came to the point where we would need/want to lift this stuff towards another planteary body, we would probably want to use a nuclear-powered system. In theory, your getting a lot more boost, carrying capacity and fuel weight effeciency from a nuclear-powered rocket.
Random thoughts,
HT
Since it seems we have two conversations going I thought I would interject with a form of documentation. In Code Complete Steven McConnell talks about the PDL or Programming Description Language. Basically its starts out as documentation but you keep refining each piece till you get to the point the easiest way to describe a function is through code. I now use PDL when Im coding prefacing everything with 'PDL- its an easy way to lift all the description out of the code later and gives anybody behind a good grounding in what my code is doing. Quite frankly I hate trying to make my way through someone else's code, its not fun. Had to once look through an Access-based program using Macros and modules developed by a brokerage. A book-think worth of code MAYBE a page worth of comments, DROVE ME INSANE! Oh well, PDL good stuff look into it, you will remember what you wrote and everyone around you will thank you for helping them understand.
Wonderful! Lousy sound quality and choppy video for everyone!
HT
Number 1: Major Code Rewrite
Duke has never been about the engine its always been about Duke and the wacky adventures he gets into. "Come Get Some" comes to mind. 3DRealms went back and totally rewrote the game for the Unreal engine. Never ever ever ever go back and totally rewrite something unless your working in parallel. It just isn't worth it.
Number 2: This has been hyped for a LONG TIME
I was still living in the DORMS playing Quake 2 when they said this thing would be out soon. I distinctly remember chatting with people on the second map on the original CTF rotation about it. Don't give me the crap about "Its done when its done".
Number 3: Give leeway to those companies that deserve
At Microsoft anytime you are on a team that ships a product you get an award. id Software and John Caramack will have shipped Doom 3 before this thing gets out the door. Blizzard gets leeway because they generally take longer but STUFF SHIPS! This must make 3DRealms investors bonkers. Do you pull the plug on the funding or do you get out a product.
I predict DNF will be exactly like Romero's piece of trash. It will smack of dating, be full of holes, and everyone will laugh. Show of hands of people who thing they could have studied C++ and game programming for two years then went pack to an ALREADY built engine and wrote this thing? Not sure if I could but I bet a big hunk of individuals here could.
HT
If showing genuine appreciation is considered in that context, I guess then I do fellate everyone who goes out of their way to do something nice. Merry Christmas...even to the ACs.
I admit, I'm not a good programmer. I am a code monkey who is working to be a good programmer. One of the ways you become one is looking at good code. I have peaked at both Doom and Quake to just see what goes on in the head of one of the best programmers in the world. In doing so I have picked a few pointers without even realizing it until I did it. So thanks Mr. Carmack, you have given me a Christmas present, the gift of better programming.
Its sad that if want anyone to take responsibility for their actions you have to threaten them with a lawsuit. Just keeps the courts clogged and lawyers churning out of law schools.
HT
Check out the emails on FuckedCompany! MIRRORS! RIAA lawyers are
saying its going to be tougher then Napster. Juicy stuff!
Here and Here
Of course while your waiting printing for that pr0n you get to study for your university diploma from an accredited University somewhere in the middle of Madagascar! Thanks Email!
Before email I never knew there were so many women interested in showing me their tata's with such snappy come-ons as "We are all 18....and horny!" Who would ever have thought it! Me of all people would have women fawning over me like that and all thanks to email!
HT
I'm going to play devil's advocate for a moment. I actually got into a debate with my Political Science professor about the very meaning of college.
The discussion came to programming and he passed out an article from some respected magazine about programmers coming from different liberal arts backgrounds. He then proceeded to ask the class what do you expect out of a college education. I raised my hand and told the 130+ in the class that I expected to be trained to get a really good job and everything over that was gravy. Startled by my commentary he began to relate the virtues of getting a college education and I agreed with him except for one point.
The whole idea of college 50 years ago was to expand your horizons and try different things, maybe even as little as 25 years ago actually. Now, try to get a professional job outside of sales without a college education; it can't be done. To me it has become another requirement of a job. My grandfather never finished high school and was the manager of a number of Levins stores starting in 1955. You can't get a job managing a McDonald's without a college education anymore.
So excuse while I burst everyone's bubble about well-roundness. I think there is something for being well versed in other cultures, knowing whats going in the world, the ability to speak and write well, and knowing how to manage others. However, well-roundness is just another word for employable so don't use it to cram classes that dont contribute to that goal into my schedule (not mine specifically because I'm graduated: metaphorical my schedule =) )
Link out to Maxim and Blalock's "interview" with full pictorial spread. Seems as though her experimentation with "chemicals" provided her with the necessary background to be science officer on Enterprise ROFL.
The songs are not going to be banned for all-time they are just being put up for awhile. If will not affect anyone's lives that they can't get their fix of Megadeth or Metallica. However, I do see the rationale of postponing the playlist at this juncture. The last thing I would want is to have a member of a survivor's family turn on the radio and hear "Stairway to Heaven" and breakdown in tears because they had a family member in the WTC. I don't believe its censorship, I do believe its a conscious decision to think about possible listeners. If you like the songs then go buy/download them and play them to your heart's content. We sometimes forget that its not about just our rights but about the rights of others as well.
HT
It doesn't seem like much but its what I feel right now. April 19th, 1995 I was a sophomore in high school living on the southwest corner of Oklahoma City watching wall-to-wall coverage of what happened to my city and trying to do anything to help. Tuesday brought back many bad memories that I never really wanted to resurface but did. Being able to get information and find out what was happening......I'm going to start rambling so Im going to stop and just say this. I wanna thank the Slashdot Team for being just about the only place where I could find information on Tuesday and to each one of the posters who were mirroring reports here that people couldn't get to. (A special thanks to the person who linked to Sky News Broadband; I couldn't get to a TV and they were using FoxNews coverage). God Bless each of you that contributed reports and God Bless America
HT
Agree with the poster below if your using Exchange for only POP3 your stupid to begin with. The large energy marketing company I work for has probably over 50,000 users worldwide and uses Exchange as our platform. Here are a couple of reasons why I think the eTesting Labs and the Consulting Times is bunk.
For this exercise I am using the 50,000 that they want to scale the IBM to not the 5,000 originally based in the article.
1. Running any mission critical application like email/groupware is suicide on one-box. I would not trust 50,000 users to one box no matter how much the salesperson tells me its cool. That bad boy's getting at least two servers no matter what.
2. If you just want email go with another email system. That's the whole point of Exchange is that you get Calendaring/E-Mail/Web-based Mail/Task Lists/Synch with Palm, PocketPC/Public Folders in one package. I will be the first to admit that there are best of breed applications out there and Exchange isn't one of them for the individual pieces but none of them can be put together all of the features and has the worldwide support of Microsoft and its partners. IBM has the same services but
3. Whoever did these tests have never dealt with users in a corporate environment. Come take a trip to my office and I'll take you to the trading floor. These guys and gals send 10MB Excel spreadsheet models every few minutes and probably, another 10 - 15 emails at the 10K for the rest. You might say "They should be putting those into a repository". Tell that to the trader who just had a REALLY bad day and watch your head get taken off along with the rest of your torso.
4. You got 50,000 users, Chances are spending $2.5 million bucks on a license for Exchange is chump change, in fact, probably $10 million dollars is chump change. When you play in the big leagues its not about price its about support. If something happens to our Exchange servers, Microsoft has people at our door 24x7. My little group of 14 just spent $80,000 for a TEST server not even production without batting an eye do you think licensing costs are a big problem for a company with 50K.
5. Exchange polls continously. Exchange will grab mail instantaneously when it hits your mailbox. You are always connected. You are not polling hourly your polling by the second for new messages. (extremely important in a trading environment when seconds matter.)
6. Unless your Walt Disney World where 50,000 individuals work in the parks and resorts your workforce is going to be spread out likely worldwide. I can show up in London, walk-in and begin working out of Outlook exactly if I had been at my desk here in Houston. I am NOT going to have the London people coming all the way back to Houston and back again to use their email on one OS/390 the bandwidth costs would be outrageous ESPECIALLY in a real-world environment where multi-MB attachments are the norm not the exception.
So what have we learned.
The eTesting Labs test was bunk because it was not a real-world stress test.
No one is going to buy one server to serve a workforce of 5000 or 50000 for that matter. So at least double your hardware costs.
In an environment of 5000+ individuals there should and will be some sort of groupware in place. What are the added costs of buying those best of breed programs to support the same functionality of Exchange at the very least a calendaring system.
Bandwidth costs are a real issue when you deal with a worldwide work force that is in the habit of sending multi-MB files across the network. (No me the lackey is not going to break that)
When you deal in that many users, money is not becoming as great a factor more then the service-level. (Yes I said hardware earlier doubling no matter what)
In conclusion, is Exchange the best for just POP3 mail, no. It can hold its own but more then likely you can find an even cheaper alternative then what the Consulting Times found. You use Exchange because you are looking for the feature-set and Microsoft back stop. For the record, we do use all of those features, we have Ipaqs =). Also, the total cost of ownership figured by the individuals was a good attempt but did not capture what TCO really is, the total cost of ownership for all affected areas. Come back to me with a feature set that's close to Exchange including all external licencing support costs then will talk again.
Walk softly but carry a big stick...the time has come to bust out the stick.
Back in high school I read a fiction book by Steven Coonts called the Minotaur. The book was about a high placed mole within the American government feeding information to the Soviets. The whole concept was to feed the Soviets "actual" information about our defense capabilities to get them to move and upgrade certain parts of their defense and essentially give up hope of trying to win.
I thought this was an interesting concept so I started to do a little researching. During the Cold War the Soviets employed a VAST array of missle and radar techonolgy throughout the country in order to combat the bomber threat of a US nuclear strike headed by B-1bs, B-2s, A-10s, and F-117a's and other airborne flight systems including going after AWACS aircraft guiding all these weapon systems.
In the end though the Soviets left the oceans open. This is where America truly deployed its nuclear defense arsenal as opposed to ground and air-based systems. The "boomers" Ohio-class and the nuclear-powered Los Angeles and enhanced LA "hunter-killers" versus an aging fleet of Soviet subs gave the US defacto reign underneath the water. Whereas the U.S. was able to track Soviet Typhoon (boomers) class subs, the Soviets could never track the Ohios with any consistency during the Cold War (if at all) due to its silent operation and sound dampening technologies.
So what do we learn. Sometimes you can divulge information that is factual to mask your true intentions. Using a truth to cover up another truth. The Soviets were scared enough of the B-1B with its ability to go supersonic and a big payload, also they much have known about the B-2 and F-117a's before the public did, why else would you invest that heavily in radar and missle technology. I won't say it all happened this way but it sure falls into place and makes a lot of sense.
Here's something for you to chew on boy genius. Let's say indeed someone launched 100 nuclear warheads at the US and we shot down 99 of them but one got through but through faulty upkeep didn't explode. I bet you would be pretty damn happy then wouldn't you. The world is a very ugly and dirty place. There are MANY people and countries who hate the United States for a number of different reasons. Why did Saddam Hussein not ever launch chemical warheads at Israel during the Gulf War? He knew if he did Israel would fire nukes right back at him.
Personally, I hope we never have to goto war. I don't feel its a good way to solve anything but extremists and irrational people don't responsd to logic and sometimes it takes a good-old-fashioned buttkicking to get it through there heads, ie Saddam Hussein. However there are a special breed of people who don't think about consequences of their actions and are willing to die for their cause. Do you believe a full reactionary nuclear strike from the United States is going to deter someone who has a deathwish and willing to die and take all the country's people with him/her? Of course not, because their willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. There lies the fault with MAD it assumes rationality and/or a wanting to live and hold onto power. Saddam was irrational but he was never stupid enough to believe that he wouldn't pay dearly from a nuclear strike. MAD makes sense when you have two superpowers trying to build their influence throughout the world, it doesnt against a dictator with a nuke having a really bad day and genuine hatred of the US so much as to die for it.
HT
Preface: I know better, I know what Code Red can do, hell I work in IT so it makes even worse
I recently started with my company right out of college and one of my jobs is to optimize queries running against an MSSQL Server. I also own a couple of HDs so I bought trays so I can switch systems without putting my eval copy of SQL on my production system. After installation, I went onto the Internet to start downloading patches and then left because Im on a 28.8 modem. When I came back I found that I had sent over 6MB and only dl 2.5 and Inetinfo.exe was going nuts. Shit I thought, I got infected. Like I said it can happen to anyone even when your trying to do the right thing and get all patched up.
HT
Hi Im Troy McClure you might remember from such posts as Why Business hates the GPL and when the hell did all of Slashdot become commies. But I want to talk to you today about decentralizing the power of our government. We have come to a point in our nation's history both politically and technologically that putting everyone together in one big place is a "bad" thing. We have advanced to the point communications wise where it makes no sense to put all our representatives in one place where they can effectively be lobbied and the views of their constituietnts be thrown by the way side. I am not calling for total anarchy; what I am calling for is a Work-At-Home program for Congress. Drag a T3 into every congresspersons and senate members office in their home state or district and have them work there. No more buddy buddy sessions with other members just plain old video conferencing. Give them the resources to still do their job (legislation hunting, underlings, a nice office), but all in the home district.
I predict if this were used that the will of the people of the district and the lobbying efforts of many orgainzations on BOTH sides of the aisle would be curtailed dramatically.
Just a thought,
HT
/me turns ont he Flame-retardant absestos suit!!!
Because as I have said in previous fourms the GPL is Linux's greatest assest and its biggest weaknesses. It both encourages collaboration, sharing, and committment at the grass-roots level and undercuts anything that isn't. RedHat turned a $600,000 profit this last quarter oooooooooooOOOO, scary! Please! Larry Ellison uses that kind of money to wipe his ass.
Personally, I think going forward the BSD licenses are much more attune to both business and geek interests. Its not just about free code, free source, and free beer its about employing people, getting better products for all and creating businesses that server all facets of the Linux market. Last time I checked on fuckedcompany there were a lot of companies going out-of-business because they gave their stuff away for free. The same goes for software. That's ok though. Everyone keep coding away on those projects that undercut business interests. If you want to make free software more power to ya, there are many people who will use it. However, do not expect business to go along with it. Even the notion that someone could create a free alternative is enough for most folks to turn away from that opportunity. Having seen it enough times I can tell you even with a superior product, customer service and a salesforce that wants to help; you cannot compete with free. Business does get it, business needs to make money to pay developers to make product to sell to the consumer. The reason business hates the GPL is because it does not offer a real way of charging for and making money, the BSD licensing-style does.
In the end on present course, Linux is and will be considered a revolution, but it will be relegated to the server ranks. Without the coperation of software companies who sustain business models built on license fees there will be no user/consumer level coding for Linux and we will continue to see the likes of companies like Eazel go the way of the dodo. To fully realize its potential as an OS that can change the world, Linux and the communitity are going to have to get both a lot more business friendly and a lot more user (No I don't know how to rebuild my kernel WTH is a compiler) friendly.
Love me, hate me, tell me Im dead wrong and burn me and relegate me to karma hell; but I am one of the few here that understand the technical, user-level, and business interests that all cross at the forgive the pun Linux fork in the road.
Laters,
HT