I wanted the same type of box a year ago, and settled on Intel's D945GCLF2 board, which has a dual core Atom, onboard video, one memory slot, and two SATA plugs. Adding a 2Gb stick, a 500Gb Seagate drive, a generic CD-RW, and a case to put it all in ran just over $300. Runs Ubuntu 8.10 like a champ, and draws 35 watts when spinning the disk. To quiet it down, I replaced the stock northbridge fan with a Zalman passive cooler (instructions here).
A pair of NSLU2s with big USB drives was my first thought, too. The NSLU2 is small and silent, and you can pop them open and remove the intentional underclocking by clipping a resistor. (http://www.nslu2-linux.org/ has details.)
Epia-based systems are on the small side, and draw minimal power. Some people have gone a little overboard customizing theirs. If you're putting the system in an enclosed space where noise might be an issue, I recommend going with a power-brick over a case with a standard power supply. Mine sits quietly in the corner serving up Samba goodness off of RH9.
We once got a free night at a B&B after I installed a CD-Rom on their old PC. (This was back in the days when installation and driver setup was a bit tricky.)
I wouldn't be so quick to write this down to greed. The coffee shop I hang out in had to shut down "free" plugs after some thoughtless patron unplugged their juice refrigerator. Given the way the place is configured, it was easier to "pull the plug" entirely.
The large problem that nobody wants to acknowledge is also referred to as "the dead skunk on the table". That analogy has the benefit (?) of adding one more sense to the mix.
Then how do you explain that the vast majority of patents on file list fewer than 5 inventors?
"Patents" is an odd criteria to use to measure performance, unless your business is invention, or you're on the increasingly rare "R" side of "R&D". Most software development isn't about invention.
I'd vote for Gerald M. (Jerry) Weinberg, author of The Psychology of Computer Programming (and 40 or so other good books) for reminding us that software is built by human beings.
I think what we're seeing is the use of the HTTP Keep-Alive which is part of the HTTP 1.1 standard. Am I wrong?
IE does use Keep-Alive, but that's much higher up the protocol stack, and is a separate issue from taking shorcuts when setting up a low-level connection.
Keep-Alive merely provides a means for a browser to signal to the server that additional requests will follow on the same socket. If the server plays along, it will both leave the socket open at the end of the request, and will signal the browser by returning an appropriate header. This saves a lot of extra socket setup and tear-down, but is independent of whether the socket is set up correctly, or by a dubious short-cut.
An article in Business 2.0 covers the history of the officeless office experiment at Chiat/Day. It didn't go so well.
The end result was predictable: People began working out of the trunks of their cars in frustration, or just staying home. Fifteen months later, Chiat sold his agency and resigned. By 1998, the agency had abandoned the building. "This issue of giving people their personal space is a major one," Chiat says now. "I assumed that everyone would buy into the virtual office concept because it's so logical. But it's counter to everybody's emotional position. After a while I didn't have the energy to try and change that."
More on the pizza delivery hit can be found in the Mercury News article. This looks like a case of a brilliant scientist spiraling out of control after being fired. (They worked together. She was involved with his firing. He shoot her.) Such a thing is, sadly, not unknown in Silicon Valley.
Is it written in stone somewhere that you have to accept a promotion? Treat an offer of promotion as the starting point in a negotiation. Find out what's behind the offer. Management may be trying to "reward" you. Intead, ask for money/time off/a neat conference instead. That's worked for several friends. Or, they may be trying to fill a hole. If you don't want that hole, say so. "Accept this promotion or you're outta here" is pretty rare in my world.
Not quite true. The story goes that Gates and Allen (and Monte Davidoff) wrote the first cut of their Basic using an ARPA-funded PDP-10 at Harvard, and were able to retain rights after Gates father (a lawyer) stepped in.
Monte wrote the original floating-point support.
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I wanted the same type of box a year ago, and settled on Intel's D945GCLF2 board, which has a dual core Atom, onboard video, one memory slot, and two SATA plugs. Adding a 2Gb stick, a 500Gb Seagate drive, a generic CD-RW, and a case to put it all in ran just over $300. Runs Ubuntu 8.10 like a champ, and draws 35 watts when spinning the disk. To quiet it down, I replaced the stock northbridge fan with a Zalman passive cooler (instructions here).
A pair of NSLU2s with big USB drives was my first thought, too. The NSLU2 is small and silent, and you can pop them open and remove the intentional underclocking by clipping a resistor. (http://www.nslu2-linux.org/ has details.)
Epia-based systems are on the small side, and draw minimal power. Some people have gone a little overboard customizing theirs. If you're putting the system in an enclosed space where noise might be an issue, I recommend going with a power-brick over a case with a standard power supply. Mine sits quietly in the corner serving up Samba goodness off of RH9.
We once got a free night at a B&B after I installed a CD-Rom on their old PC. (This was back in the days when installation and driver setup was a bit tricky.)
I wouldn't be so quick to write this down to greed. The coffee shop I hang out in had to shut down "free" plugs after some thoughtless patron unplugged their juice refrigerator. Given the way the place is configured, it was easier to "pull the plug" entirely.
The AOL CD was included in the exit packet. Two months of free service was part of the severance package.
The large problem that nobody wants to acknowledge is also referred to as "the dead skunk on the table". That analogy has the benefit (?) of adding one more sense to the mix.
"Patents" is an odd criteria to use to measure performance, unless your business is invention, or you're on the increasingly rare "R" side of "R&D". Most software development isn't about invention.
> But doesn't this imply owners of legal software are also being spied upon?
Consult your license agreement. The type of software that phones home is not the type that customers get to own.
I'd vote for Gerald M. (Jerry) Weinberg, author of The Psychology of Computer Programming (and 40 or so other good books) for reminding us that software is built by human beings.
IE does use Keep-Alive, but that's much higher up the protocol stack, and is a separate issue from taking shorcuts when setting up a low-level connection.
Keep-Alive merely provides a means for a browser to signal to the server that additional requests will follow on the same socket. If the server plays along, it will both leave the socket open at the end of the request, and will signal the browser by returning an appropriate header. This saves a lot of extra socket setup and tear-down, but is independent of whether the socket is set up correctly, or by a dubious short-cut.
Oops. Bad link. here is the Business 2.0 article.
More on the pizza delivery hit can be found in the Mercury News article. This looks like a case of a brilliant scientist spiraling out of control after being fired. (They worked together. She was involved with his firing. He shoot her.) Such a thing is, sadly, not unknown in Silicon Valley.
Next time, you should ask before you plagiarize.
Unfortunately, Oracle is priced such that a mere pony won't suffice. They want most of the horse in the stable.
Parc spun off ParcPlace Systems (may it R.I.P.) many years ago.
Is it written in stone somewhere that you have to accept a promotion? Treat an offer of promotion as the starting point in a negotiation. Find out what's behind the offer. Management may be trying to "reward" you. Intead, ask for money/time off/a neat conference instead. That's worked for several friends. Or, they may be trying to fill a hole. If you don't want that hole, say so. "Accept this promotion or you're outta here" is pretty rare in my world.
Not quite true. The story goes that Gates and Allen (and Monte Davidoff) wrote the first cut of their Basic using an ARPA-funded PDP-10 at Harvard, and were able to retain rights after Gates father (a lawyer) stepped in. Monte wrote the original floating-point support.