The biggest reason that MicroSoft Office took over the market, back when it had competitors, was because they got the government to use it. This meant that all the businesses who wanted to do business with the govt switched to MS Office, so they could be sure that their proposals and quotes would be properly displayable within the government. Why would anybody choose WordPerfect if it might cost them their next contract?
To use Microsoft's words, the office suite is a cancer. If the DoD switches to another office suite, then many others end up having to switch as well. Then the people who do business with those businesses need to switch.... then the people who do busine... etc, et al, ad infinitum. --
Who would've thought?
on
Net Cemetery
·
· Score: 5
As much as I hate the whole dot-com market overreaction and all, what were some of these people thinking?
zoza.com? What do you think of when you heard 'zoza.com'. That's right, absofuckinglutely nothing.
bigwords.com. what's their motto, 'tired of only being able to buy a vowel?' your guide to antidisestablishmentarianism? helping you recover from Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanicconiosis? Who cares now, they've been
Floccipoccinihilipilificated.
carorder.com, because not only do you want to buy your car online, you want to buy it from someplace you've never heard of before.
elingo.com, for all your jargon needs!
icecreamvan.com. no, i'm not kidding.
popawheelie.com, because popping wheelies in real life is dangerous, and in potential violation of traffic laws.
while nobody here likes high unemployment in the tech sector, the fact of the matter is, it's not exactly shocking that most of these places died, nor is it particularly sad to see most of them go. --
Pico is easy to type in, it's not easy to use. If you actually want to do more than the equivalent of vi in insert mode, you're screwed. If that's all you want though, I agree it's a perfectly functional e-mail editor/basic text editor.
I agree that one should always use the right tool for the job. You don't say "I fancy Pizza" and then go buy tomato soup.
We'll take a common occurance for somebody who writes scripts, "parse error at line 1024". How to get to line 1024 in vi ':1024'. How to get to line 1024 in pico... page down page down page down page down, ^C (check to see what line i've paged down to so far)... page down page down page down..... 2 minutes later the pico user has managed to find the spot in the code that the vi user found in slightly less than a second.
Now let's say you finally find line 1024, it looks like the problem is that somehow you have mismatched braces. using vi, you check where your braces line up by putting the cursor over one of them, and hitting '%', instantly jumping to the partner brace. in pico.... well you go through the whole subroutine counting braces manually, because it can't help you. I'll gladly admit, the vi way is obfuscated, but at least it exists. With pico, you're just flat screwed.
As far as emacs being bloating... hellz yeah it is. If it had raw device i/o, and a boot loader, it'd be an operating system. But again, it all depends on what's the right tool for the job. If you get paid to handle large source trees, then time spent learning emacs (or any other IDE, be it visual slickedit or whatever) is time well spent. If your job is to troll slashdot, then that time is wasted.
Next time I suggest that you make your troll slightly less aggressive, and use better logic. While false logic is an excellent tool in the troll toolkit, it needs to be subtle to be effective. Additionally, you should use a user account, as your troll gets seen by fewer people when it's posted at 0. A user account increases readership, and it also makes the parent more likely to take your troll seriously, as it adds credibility. Older user accounts work best while trolling, as low UIDs increase believability. Preferably find an account with a UID 200, seeing as that's when the trolls started showing up. --
No, won't stop me either... sort of. I have a few DVD players scattered around the house, some modified, some not. My (unmodified) playstation 2 can't handle these titles, it kicks up a bizarre parental control error and fails to proceed.
All this kind of bullshit does is make consumers like myself want to say 'FUCK YOU' to Warner. Ironically, my "illegally" modified players all work fine with these titles, but I can't watch a legally purchased video, with a legally purchased video player. If I might not be able to view what I bought, why shouldn't I just grab vob files off from the net?
I wish you good luck, but wishes won't do nearly as much good as a lawyer. You're facing a situation where you could potentially have to start school over again. A lawyer, at this point in time, will have a better ROI than any investment you'll make for the rest of your life.
Secondly, take a look at the U of U Student Code. The Students Bill of Rights, section F. It reads: F. Freedom of Expression. Students have a right to examine and communicate ideas by any lawful means. Students may not be subject to discipline because of their constitutionally protected exercise of freedom of association, assembly, expression and the press.
It would seem to me you were within those rights. Get a lawyer.
Section D of the Students Bill of Rights talks about due process. D. Due Process. Students have a right to due process in any disciplinary matter involving the possibility of substantial sanctions. This includes a right to be heard, a right to decision and review by impartial persons or bodies, and a right to adequate notice. Remember, even if you're expelled, that the people who are reviewing your sanctions are people who, given the nature of your site, were not neccessarily impartial. Get a lawyer.
Look at Section IIA, the Student Standards of Behavior. Notice that what you did is not prohibited by these standards. Get a lawyer.
And in conclusion, STOP ASKING SLASHDOT AND GET A LAWYER!
BREAKING NEWS, THIS JUST IN.... We have received unconfirmed reports that John C Dvorak does not actually make valid points, nor does he have to. It seems that Mr Dvorak's continued employment is based on the number of readers he can attract. William Randolph Hearst is famous for having pioneered this insightful method of journalism, also known as 'yellow journalism'.
We have unconfirmed claims that Ziff-Davis doesn't care that Mr. Dvorak spews illogical tripe all over their editorial pages, as popular sites, such as slashdot.org, link to the inflammatory pages, helping them to gather more readers, and more money.
Our undercover source claims that Dvorak may be full of shit, regarding his claim that it will be multiple decades until broadband is widely deployed in first world nations.
The Myth Of The Telephone
Will The Telephone Ever Become The Standard?
by John C. Dvorak
December 31, 1877
My nomination for "most foolish company" this year is the obvious choice, Bell Telephone. What a foolish notion, this concept that the public is interested in real-time audio transmission. Why would anybody pay for such a capability when they already have the ability to send perfectly functional text-only messages for a much more reasonable fee, via the postal service, or the telegraph.
While some of us 'early adopters' might think it's reasonable to expect people to have a telephone in their house by the 21st century, the fact of the matter is that it's an unneccessary luxury. For half a decade we've had the telegraph, the British have had postal service since the late 17th century and it has worked just fine.
This 'telephone' is an unneccessary expense for casual communicators, and will never affect the lives of most people for centuries to come. Real-time audio transmission? who needs it!
Actually, my ps2 crashed about five minutes ago, while playing NHL Hockey. Just as I was about to finish kicking some Maple Leaf ass too. It just froze solid, alas.
This doesn't really do much for Linux, other than add fuel to the fire that "free software is more expensive". If you look at the results, Microsoft has an offering that costs $273k and gets 1700 QphH. The Linux offering, on the other hand, costs $950k and gets 2734 QphH. So for a little over triple the cost, you can get about a 50% increase in performance.
If you were really smart, you'd consider using Teradata on MP-RAS, which with a 1000gb database gets 18500 QphH, and only costs $700k, thus leaving $250k in your budget for end of year bonus checks.
While I realize that columnists purposefully generate controversy in order
to gain share, Dvorak's column on PVRs crossed the line from conversial to
just plain wrong. He makes ignorant assumptions as to the use of the units
based on no evidence, scientific or anecdotal. I'm quite surprised that
Forbes would wish to be associated with the author of such drivel.
The comparison of a PVR to mp3 file sharing is completely invalid. PVRs
do not offer any method for obtaining content illicitly. They also do
not offer a method to distribute the saved content to others, with the
exception of "save to VCR", which even the MPAA would agree is legal.
He seems to think that the only feature of a PVR is 'commercial skip'.
Obviously he doesn't have a PVR, or if he does, he hasn't had it for very
long. PVRs offer a convenient way to regularly record favorite
programming. Your favorite shows are recorded, whether you're there or
not, thus allowing the PVR owner to enjoy the original, unedited content,
which they already subscribe to, at their leisure.
Dvorak isn't too good with money, apparently. He insists that TiVo costs
$10 a month. Anybody who has half a brain will instead opt for the $200
lifetime subscription, which is to cover the cost of the guide data, and
software upgrades for their PVR. He should also consider shopping at
a different electronics store, as his 'average' price of $500/unit is
about $100-150 higher than the average price I've seen for 30 hour units.
One valid point that Dvorak makes is that adding a TiVo to the system
adds complexity. It seems like it "should" be complicated, but in reality
it's not. Toss the TiVo between your signal source (cable box, or DTV
reciever) and your receiver or TV. Done. Pretty difficult, eh? As for
the complexity of the remote control, it actually simplifies things nicely.
I actually prefer the TiVo interface to the interface presented to me by
my DTV receiver. The only awkwardness is in recording pay-per-view events,
which TiVo doesn't have guide data for, and can't do an on-screen purchase
for.
Dvorak describes the fact that a PVR requires access to a phone line to be
"a hassle in itself". The fact that after setup, the phone is used only
when you're not using it (usually late at night), and for short periods
of time is ignored. He also rants about a bug in one PVR implementation
as a reason to ignore the technology. If a single problem is reason to
ignore a technology, then I'll assert that a single column is reason to
ignore a pundit.
Perhaps the most amusing show of Dvorak's ignorance is his implication
that PVR technology only exists because broadcasters are unaware of it.
Either CBS, AOL-Time Warner, Discovery, Showtime, Disney and NBC aren't
broadcasters, or he's just dead wrong. They aforementioned companies
are all equity investors in TiVo, Inc.
In the second to last paragraph, Dvorak accidentally let's slip his real
motivation for his rant. He had trouble getting a ReplayTV unit to work.
Apparently this article is what happens when Dvorak has an electronics
malfunction and an article due simultaneously.
The problem is that an apology isn't merely a word that makes everybody feel better. If the US apologizes, then they're accepting responsibility for the incident. This would give China, and other countries, a method of preventing the US from engaging in these types of flights. Additionally the US could be pressure to accept damages caused by the incident.
Additionally, it should be conisdered that China has previously used the military strategy of "we have more people than you have bullets", it's a dangerous idea to even hint at accepting responsibility for an incident that wasn't the US's fault. Not to be cynical, but I don't imagine that Beijing would have any great issue with making it procedure to ram every P3 that flew by their coast.
It's a horrible game, and everybody loses. Unfortunately, once somebody starts playing it, there's no obvious way to stop.
I agree with you quite completely, you make some good points. People have a tendancy to forget history very quickly; they're only concerned with the Evil Du Jour. Even then, we all like to ignore problems until they get so big that they impact our lives directly.
It's sad though, that you feel the need to post anonymously just because you're posting something controversial. It's well thought out, and if handled properly (unlikely in this forum, I know), could result in an interesting debate.
On the flip side though, this is one of the really interesting parts of the Internet, that you can make arguments in an open forum without risking personal persecution because of your beliefs.
You see, when properly setup, most databases keep the information written across numerous drive arrays. If you follow, as an example, Oracle's recommendations on how to setup your hardware, you'll never have data which cannot be reconstructed after the loss of a single drive.
Yes, almost all software will let you do stupid things like use files instead of raw partitions, or to use hardware which allows unrecoverable failure. The question is whether such a system is "properly configured" according to vendor documentation. In the case of commercial DBMS, such as DB2 or Oracle, they aren't.
Personally, I'd be a little upset if somebody claimed a database passed the 'ACID' test, but had inserted a notoriously unreliable single point of failure (hard drive) into the system. Wouldn't you?
look, the fact of the matter is that all kids are little fuckups. for me, i know what games they own, but not what game they just borrowed from one of their little asshole friends. the real trouble is that anytime you try to "parent" the law calls it "child abuse".
and they wonder why we need technology to raise our children.
How dare those bastards make it possible for parents to keep their children from playing violent video games! This is censorship at it's worst, the way they're making it so I don't have to wonder what games my kids have been playing while I was out getting groceries!!
Thank god it's the X-Box not the Playstation 2 that has this control, since we all know that Microsoft is going to fail horribly with the X-Box anyway, seeing as Microsoft sucks, and the X-Box doesn't run Linux!
$30K is a lot? Only if you don't care about your company's data. First thing to do when evaluating a database, apply the ACID test.
Atomicity. Either everything in a transaction gets committed, or everything doesn't. You make sure that no matter what happens, with anything, if you shipped one widget, that inventory is updated accordingly, etc.
Consistency. The database goes instantly from one valid state to another. It never allows integrity constraints to be disobeyed. Never.
Isoluation. The database gets updated in a manner such that until a transaction is complete, no other query shall see any portion of the results of that transaction.
Durability. Once committed, the results of a transaction are permanent. If the database returns success, then 2 milliseconds later a hole in time and space sends one of the db hard drives to 5th century china, after inserting a new drive, the state will be exactly as it should be, with no information lost.
MySQL, for example, fails every single portion of the ACID test. Yet people will tell you to run your business on it because "it's really fast!" Of course it's fast, it's the db equivalent of a honda burning nitrous, with no way to turn the nitrous off. It'll be fast as hell, but you know it's only a matter of time until it blows up.
A lot of free databases lack basic capabilities such as sub-selects. This is where the value you're searching for is actually the result of another search. Yes, it's fully possible to write code which will do this in the client, but that's ludicrously inefficient if you're working with moderately sized datasets or larger. Instead of letting the db take care of that natively, you not only do the work yourself, in a non-standard hack, but you pass large amounts of unused data across a network stack, which uses resources.
I'm not saying all free databases are evil, they aren't. PostgreSQL is a very reasonable database which passes 'ACI' out of 'ACID'. That might be good enough for a lot of applications. Hell, flat files are good enough for a lot of applications.
The key here is to evaluate what you're doing. Before you look at the cost of the database, look at the cost of downtime, the cost of lost data, the costs associated with misreported data (caused by, for example, the database updating non-atomically), etc.
If the answer to the above cost reporting questions are all 'zero', including salaried time, then use MySQL. If not, consider using a real RDBMS.
Contrary to slashthink, businesses aren't completely stupid, they don't spend large amounts of money unless there's the benefit is expected to exceed the cost. There's a reason why most every business on the planet uses a real RDBMS.
i believe you for about as much as i believe that britney spears is jesus reborn.
even if you weren't so full of shit that your eyes turned brown, your post is equivalent to some moronic tech support guy going "it works for me" without researching the problem at all, with the exception that it tries to inflate your pathetic ego by mentioning that you have a "Line Quadruler".
the fact of the matter is that macrovision doesn't affect every projection TV, but it does affect quite a number of them, as it does quite a number of image preprocessors.
As for the specific size of your penis, I cannot comment, as I don't have access to a scanning electron microscope.
Slashdot Mirror
If you're a perfectionist, I'm Miyazaki.
--
The biggest reason that MicroSoft Office took over the market, back when it had competitors, was because they got the government to use it. This meant that all the businesses who wanted to do business with the govt switched to MS Office, so they could be sure that their proposals and quotes would be properly displayable within the government. Why would anybody choose WordPerfect if it might cost them their next contract?
To use Microsoft's words, the office suite is a cancer. If the DoD switches to another office suite, then many others end up having to switch as well. Then the people who do business with those businesses need to switch.... then the people who do busine... etc, et al, ad infinitum.
--
As much as I hate the whole dot-com market overreaction and all, what were some of these people thinking?
zoza.com? What do you think of when you heard 'zoza.com'. That's right, absofuckinglutely nothing.
bigwords.com. what's their motto, 'tired of only being able to buy a vowel?' your guide to antidisestablishmentarianism? helping you recover from Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanicconiosis? Who cares now, they've been
Floccipoccinihilipilificated.
carorder.com, because not only do you want to buy your car online, you want to buy it from someplace you've never heard of before.
elingo.com, for all your jargon needs!
icecreamvan.com. no, i'm not kidding.
popawheelie.com, because popping wheelies in real life is dangerous, and in potential violation of traffic laws.
while nobody here likes high unemployment in the tech sector, the fact of the matter is, it's not exactly shocking that most of these places died, nor is it particularly sad to see most of them go.
--
Pico is easy to type in, it's not easy to use. If you actually want to do more than the equivalent of vi in insert mode, you're screwed. If that's all you want though, I agree it's a perfectly functional e-mail editor/basic text editor.
I agree that one should always use the right tool for the job. You don't say "I fancy Pizza" and then go buy tomato soup.
We'll take a common occurance for somebody who writes scripts, "parse error at line 1024". How to get to line 1024 in vi ':1024'. How to get to line 1024 in pico... page down page down page down page down, ^C (check to see what line i've paged down to so far)... page down page down page down..... 2 minutes later the pico user has managed to find the spot in the code that the vi user found in slightly less than a second.
Now let's say you finally find line 1024, it looks like the problem is that somehow you have mismatched braces. using vi, you check where your braces line up by putting the cursor over one of them, and hitting '%', instantly jumping to the partner brace. in pico.... well you go through the whole subroutine counting braces manually, because it can't help you. I'll gladly admit, the vi way is obfuscated, but at least it exists. With pico, you're just flat screwed.
As far as emacs being bloating... hellz yeah it is. If it had raw device i/o, and a boot loader, it'd be an operating system. But again, it all depends on what's the right tool for the job. If you get paid to handle large source trees, then time spent learning emacs (or any other IDE, be it visual slickedit or whatever) is time well spent. If your job is to troll slashdot, then that time is wasted.
Next time I suggest that you make your troll slightly less aggressive, and use better logic. While false logic is an excellent tool in the troll toolkit, it needs to be subtle to be effective. Additionally, you should use a user account, as your troll gets seen by fewer people when it's posted at 0. A user account increases readership, and it also makes the parent more likely to take your troll seriously, as it adds credibility. Older user accounts work best while trolling, as low UIDs increase believability. Preferably find an account with a UID 200, seeing as that's when the trolls started showing up.
--
Most Linux users work without vi ever, let alone every day. They seem to have mistaken pico for an advanced editor.
--
All this kind of bullshit does is make consumers like myself want to say 'FUCK YOU' to Warner. Ironically, my "illegally" modified players all work fine with these titles, but I can't watch a legally purchased video, with a legally purchased video player. If I might not be able to view what I bought, why shouldn't I just grab vob files off from the net?
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
Secondly, take a look at the U of U Student Code. The Students Bill of Rights, section F. It reads:
F. Freedom of Expression. Students have a right to examine and communicate ideas by any lawful means. Students may not be subject to discipline because of their constitutionally protected exercise of freedom of association, assembly, expression and the press.
It would seem to me you were within those rights. Get a lawyer.
Section D of the Students Bill of Rights talks about due process.
D. Due Process. Students have a right to due process in any disciplinary matter involving the possibility of substantial sanctions. This includes a right to be heard, a right to decision and review by impartial persons or bodies, and a right to adequate notice.
Remember, even if you're expelled, that the people who are reviewing your sanctions are people who, given the nature of your site, were not neccessarily impartial. Get a lawyer.
Look at Section IIA, the Student Standards of Behavior. Notice that what you did is not prohibited by these standards. Get a lawyer.
And in conclusion, STOP ASKING SLASHDOT AND GET A LAWYER!
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
We have unconfirmed claims that Ziff-Davis doesn't care that Mr. Dvorak spews illogical tripe all over their editorial pages, as popular sites, such as slashdot.org, link to the inflammatory pages, helping them to gather more readers, and more money.
Our undercover source claims that Dvorak may be full of shit, regarding his claim that it will be multiple decades until broadband is widely deployed in first world nations.
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
Will The Telephone Ever Become The Standard?
by John C. Dvorak
December 31, 1877
My nomination for "most foolish company" this year is the obvious choice, Bell Telephone. What a foolish notion, this concept that the public is interested in real-time audio transmission. Why would anybody pay for such a capability when they already have the ability to send perfectly functional text-only messages for a much more reasonable fee, via the postal service, or the telegraph.
While some of us 'early adopters' might think it's reasonable to expect people to have a telephone in their house by the 21st century, the fact of the matter is that it's an unneccessary luxury. For half a decade we've had the telegraph, the British have had postal service since the late 17th century and it has worked just fine.
This 'telephone' is an unneccessary expense for casual communicators, and will never affect the lives of most people for centuries to come. Real-time audio transmission? who needs it!
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
Dear lord, it sounds to me like the NSA is some sort of spy agency! Does the United States government know about this?
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
Actually, my ps2 crashed about five minutes ago, while playing NHL Hockey. Just as I was about to finish kicking some Maple Leaf ass too. It just froze solid, alas.
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
This doesn't really do much for Linux, other than add fuel to the fire that "free software is more expensive". If you look at the results, Microsoft has an offering that costs $273k and gets 1700 QphH. The Linux offering, on the other hand, costs $950k and gets 2734 QphH. So for a little over triple the cost, you can get about a 50% increase in performance.
If you were really smart, you'd consider using Teradata on MP-RAS, which with a 1000gb database gets 18500 QphH, and only costs $700k, thus leaving $250k in your budget for end of year bonus checks.
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
The comparison of a PVR to mp3 file sharing is completely invalid. PVRs do not offer any method for obtaining content illicitly. They also do not offer a method to distribute the saved content to others, with the exception of "save to VCR", which even the MPAA would agree is legal.
He seems to think that the only feature of a PVR is 'commercial skip'. Obviously he doesn't have a PVR, or if he does, he hasn't had it for very long. PVRs offer a convenient way to regularly record favorite programming. Your favorite shows are recorded, whether you're there or not, thus allowing the PVR owner to enjoy the original, unedited content, which they already subscribe to, at their leisure.
Dvorak isn't too good with money, apparently. He insists that TiVo costs $10 a month. Anybody who has half a brain will instead opt for the $200 lifetime subscription, which is to cover the cost of the guide data, and software upgrades for their PVR. He should also consider shopping at a different electronics store, as his 'average' price of $500/unit is about $100-150 higher than the average price I've seen for 30 hour units.
One valid point that Dvorak makes is that adding a TiVo to the system adds complexity. It seems like it "should" be complicated, but in reality it's not. Toss the TiVo between your signal source (cable box, or DTV reciever) and your receiver or TV. Done. Pretty difficult, eh? As for the complexity of the remote control, it actually simplifies things nicely. I actually prefer the TiVo interface to the interface presented to me by my DTV receiver. The only awkwardness is in recording pay-per-view events, which TiVo doesn't have guide data for, and can't do an on-screen purchase for.
Dvorak describes the fact that a PVR requires access to a phone line to be "a hassle in itself". The fact that after setup, the phone is used only when you're not using it (usually late at night), and for short periods of time is ignored. He also rants about a bug in one PVR implementation as a reason to ignore the technology. If a single problem is reason to ignore a technology, then I'll assert that a single column is reason to ignore a pundit.
Perhaps the most amusing show of Dvorak's ignorance is his implication that PVR technology only exists because broadcasters are unaware of it. Either CBS, AOL-Time Warner, Discovery, Showtime, Disney and NBC aren't broadcasters, or he's just dead wrong. They aforementioned companies are all equity investors in TiVo, Inc.
In the second to last paragraph, Dvorak accidentally let's slip his real motivation for his rant. He had trouble getting a ReplayTV unit to work.
Apparently this article is what happens when Dvorak has an electronics malfunction and an article due simultaneously.
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
Additionally, it should be conisdered that China has previously used the military strategy of "we have more people than you have bullets", it's a dangerous idea to even hint at accepting responsibility for an incident that wasn't the US's fault. Not to be cynical, but I don't imagine that Beijing would have any great issue with making it procedure to ram every P3 that flew by their coast.
It's a horrible game, and everybody loses. Unfortunately, once somebody starts playing it, there's no obvious way to stop.
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
Hellz yeah, signal 11!
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
Whatever. /. has sucked since user 204.
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
It's sad though, that you feel the need to post anonymously just because you're posting something controversial. It's well thought out, and if handled properly (unlikely in this forum, I know), could result in an interesting debate.
On the flip side though, this is one of the really interesting parts of the Internet, that you can make arguments in an open forum without risking personal persecution because of your beliefs.
Cheers!
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
Oh wait... I forgot, they don't make anything anymore...
MY BAD!
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
Yo minidick, I always sign my trolls.
And you're so right.... I'm just INSANELY jealous that you obviously have more money than me.
No, I'm not being sarcastic, really. I wish I was JUST LIKE YOU!
You crack me up, dillweed.
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
You see, when properly setup, most databases keep the information written across numerous drive arrays. If you follow, as an example, Oracle's recommendations on how to setup your hardware, you'll never have data which cannot be reconstructed after the loss of a single drive.
Yes, almost all software will let you do stupid things like use files instead of raw partitions, or to use hardware which allows unrecoverable failure. The question is whether such a system is "properly configured" according to vendor documentation. In the case of commercial DBMS, such as DB2 or Oracle, they aren't.
Personally, I'd be a little upset if somebody claimed a database passed the 'ACID' test, but had inserted a notoriously unreliable single point of failure (hard drive) into the system. Wouldn't you?
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
look, the fact of the matter is that all kids are little fuckups. for me, i know what games they own, but not what game they just borrowed from one of their little asshole friends. the real trouble is that anytime you try to "parent" the law calls it "child abuse".
and they wonder why we need technology to raise our children.
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
How dare those bastards make it possible for parents to keep their children from playing violent video games! This is censorship at it's worst, the way they're making it so I don't have to wonder what games my kids have been playing while I was out getting groceries!!
Thank god it's the X-Box not the Playstation 2 that has this control, since we all know that Microsoft is going to fail horribly with the X-Box anyway, seeing as Microsoft sucks, and the X-Box doesn't run Linux!
--
"Don't trolls get tired?"
Atomicity. Either everything in a transaction gets committed, or everything doesn't. You make sure that no matter what happens, with anything, if you shipped one widget, that inventory is updated accordingly, etc.
Consistency. The database goes instantly from one valid state to another. It never allows integrity constraints to be disobeyed. Never.
Isoluation. The database gets updated in a manner such that until a transaction is complete, no other query shall see any portion of the results of that transaction.
Durability. Once committed, the results of a transaction are permanent. If the database returns success, then 2 milliseconds later a hole in time and space sends one of the db hard drives to 5th century china, after inserting a new drive, the state will be exactly as it should be, with no information lost.
MySQL, for example, fails every single portion of the ACID test. Yet people will tell you to run your business on it because "it's really fast!" Of course it's fast, it's the db equivalent of a honda burning nitrous, with no way to turn the nitrous off. It'll be fast as hell, but you know it's only a matter of time until it blows up.
A lot of free databases lack basic capabilities such as sub-selects. This is where the value you're searching for is actually the result of another search. Yes, it's fully possible to write code which will do this in the client, but that's ludicrously inefficient if you're working with moderately sized datasets or larger. Instead of letting the db take care of that natively, you not only do the work yourself, in a non-standard hack, but you pass large amounts of unused data across a network stack, which uses resources.
I'm not saying all free databases are evil, they aren't. PostgreSQL is a very reasonable database which passes 'ACI' out of 'ACID'. That might be good enough for a lot of applications. Hell, flat files are good enough for a lot of applications.
The key here is to evaluate what you're doing. Before you look at the cost of the database, look at the cost of downtime, the cost of lost data, the costs associated with misreported data (caused by, for example, the database updating non-atomically), etc.
If the answer to the above cost reporting questions are all 'zero', including salaried time, then use MySQL. If not, consider using a real RDBMS.
Contrary to slashthink, businesses aren't completely stupid, they don't spend large amounts of money unless there's the benefit is expected to exceed the cost. There's a reason why most every business on the planet uses a real RDBMS.
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"Don't trolls get tired?"
i believe you for about as much as i believe that britney spears is jesus reborn.
even if you weren't so full of shit that your eyes turned brown, your post is equivalent to some moronic tech support guy going "it works for me" without researching the problem at all, with the exception that it tries to inflate your pathetic ego by mentioning that you have a "Line Quadruler".
the fact of the matter is that macrovision doesn't affect every projection TV, but it does affect quite a number of them, as it does quite a number of image preprocessors.
As for the specific size of your penis, I cannot comment, as I don't have access to a scanning electron microscope.
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"Don't trolls get tired?"
and the admins over there should really read MS99-025. You'd think they wouldn't want to let people execute arbitrary code with admin privileges.
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"Don't trolls get tired?"