I second the 'DAT is ugly' comment. Prior to our DLT backups, we had a chain of DDS drives hanging off the backup server. There is an old saying 'backups are never a problem, its the restores you worry about.' Man those DDS drives had a poor restore history.
Fundamentally, a rotating head pressed against the media searching for sync with diagonal tracks is just sub-optimal. It puts data on the tape pretty efficiently (data density-wise), but mechanically it tends to eat tapes. You won't be pulling data off a piece of tape that looks like a miniature aerial view of the Rocky Mountains....
The rotating head collects the magnetic oxide much faster than the DLT setup, too. The magnetic oxide buildup leads to soft errors at first, then hard errors, then total tape and drive failure.
Hmmmm... do I try to squeeze parts of myself into card punch? Maybe fully unwrap 9-track tape, hook it aound my neck and execute a tape seek to end....
Hmmm... I truly don't know what batch processed mass suicide looks like. However, I do know how to find out.
Tell your programmers you need access to where they store their source code, and tell them to set it up so you can use Linux to run their code. You tell them its a porting project, but you need write access to put a log file in (to keep track of which code has been tested and which has not).
Then you run a perl program on all the source code, and for calc records, move the result indicators from one line to be the calc indicators for the next line. Do that on all file names have an A in them, and do a vice-versa on the files with names shorter than eight characters or contain the letter P. Maybe shift the input record result indicators over by three bytes, too.
Be sure to have wiped/pilfered the source code backups, first. If you plan it a few months in advance, be sure to bring termites in and turn them loose on all those stacks of green-bar in the binders.
Yup, that'll do it. Sit back with a video camera, get that first batch processed mass suicide on tape!;-)
Interesting stuff. It is true that I only know about the card-sorting machines anecdotally - people I've worked with ran them, and told me about them. I started in computers right at the cusp of the punched card --> CRT conversion (1979).
Similarly, my only assember experience was figuring out a couple Intel 8080 programs, and typing in and calling an assembler routine from one of my RPG II programs (Remember the days when magazines printed code you could use yourself?). So for assembler, I knew just enough to see what was going on, not enough to really do anything.
This particular thread of posts was discussing the candidacy of assembler for inclusion in the O'Reilly poster. The point I was trying to make was that this particular 3GL language, RPG II, really did qualify, and it came from a 2GL language, so assembler probably qualifies as well.
Your point about whole systems being written in assembler is both informative and sets straight my (incorrect) assumptions.
RPG is one of those languages that is higher up than assembly, but barely. We had a manager who had a wiring board in her office. It was from the mainframe days when the card sorter was a separate machine from the 'CPU'. Point being, in RPG II, I could 'see' the wiring board in the source code.
With RPG II, we had conditional loops and CASE statements, but no pointers. Still, some large business systems were written in RPG. One wouldn't expect a G/L, A/P, and A/R system to be written in assembler. They *could* be, but using a language built around records and the cycle of output, input, calculate makes more sense than trying it in assembler.
Today, RPG/400 is still going, installed on every IBM AS/400 sold. Of course, the language now has strong ties to the built in AS/400 database....
I wouldn't be surprised if today IBM has added 4GL components to the language.;-)
When I worked at the Health Department, we had a case where a Laotian immigrant moved into Tulare County. The guy was schizophrenic, and paranoid about people in uniforms. His family called the Health Department from the Bay Area, to warn us that he would run out of medicine in a week; but due to the language problem, (and general government inefficiency) they did not understand that the problem was urgent.
A week after his meds ran out, he was threatening his neighbors with a large knife.
The Porterville police officers confronted him, and his response was to lunge. Their response was to put seventeen bullets into him.
If I had more time, I would point out that it is a bad idea to arm only one side of a conflict - because then the other side has no incentive to enact restraint.
Thanks for the tip - I did miss that one. What is kind of funny is that I use the word 'complement' far more often than 'compliment'.
Since I never get a compliment on the proper usage of complement, I guess I'll just have to strive to complement my compliments with better grammar in the future.;-)
I have a political situation that prevents me from implementing NDPS. But you are correct - NDPS would be the way to go, to get to an IPX-free network.
Thank you very much! I had previously done some searching, but didn't come up with nearly the stuff you know. That's great set of links. Thank you thank you thank you.
Thanks for the complement. Is there any money in tech writing?
IPX was required for NetWare 4. With NetWare 5, IP became an option to replace IPX, though most people run both side by side (and take the performance hit). But you can run an entire NetWare shop on only IP if you want. With NetWare 6 and 6.5, IP is the preferred protocol.
I don't know if I ever used that. I think all the DOS boot stuff I used that came from Novell was the DR-DOS stuff. If that is what you are thinking of, then no - the NetWare EDIT program is different. It uses the escape key to save (or not, depending how you answer the exit prompt) and two function keys, F5 and F6 to mark text for cut/copy. The Delete key cuts, and the Insert key pastes. It will keep the cut/copy/paste buffer between files. It has some special movement keys like Ctrl-End for end of file, and things like that. The program is something like a whole 35 KB in size. Simplistic - like the KISS principle.
I've been getting used to pico. I's still inexperienced enough that I'm clumsy at it. If it were a complete clone of the DOS/Windows edit, I'd use it, because I "think" in terms of File, eXit or File saveAs. So I want to hit Alt-F, X - but need (for pico) to just hit Control-X. Its better than vi, but I still stumble enough that it frustrates me. Its a personal problem.
The NetWare editor keystrokes are ingrained enough that I could use it with ease - which is what I'm hoping for.
Yeah, I just used salvage today to solve in six minutes what would have taken a tape restore (30 minutes) had the file been on a MS box. Our users love us.
pico is the closest to what I want to use - although even it is different enough to force me to stop and read the screen to get a task done. That is on the frustrating side, repeated often enough. I couldn't get joe or jed to work via ssh - I'm certain it was a configuration problem - but being a newbie, it wasn't a problem I could solve. And other than Midnight Commander (which I have a hard time finding), I haven't been able to find other editors.... Hence, I'd like in Linux what I already know from NetWare. But that's just me.
A couple years ago, under Eric Schmidt, Novell started moving away from IPX/SPX and toward TCP/IP. Essentially, they had to re-write everything. But (to the smarter people at Novell) this was an opportunity - it let them separate the "services" from the transport. Thus, "NetWare" has really become another set of services, on top of (whatever) protocol you want.
If you were to put a sniffer on my NetWare 5 network, you would see the File and Print services (and NCP services) are TCP/IP packets. The only thing that forces me to run IPX are the stupid JetDirect cards. But I digress.
Currently, the NetWare OS is a set of NLMs (NetWare Loadable Modules). This is what they talk about when they say the NetWare 'kernel'. I'm pretty sure it is C code and some Assembler.
The plan is that when you install NetWare 7, you will get your choice of 'kernels' - either the old NLM based one, or the new Linux 2.6 based one.
And, since all the NetWare services will be / can be running on Linux - those services can be integrated into a Linux distibution.
The most valuable Novell service is its eDirectory. They also have an application distribution product, ZENWorks; and of course their email system, GroupWise; a whole set of products that use the Directory for tailored access (BorderManager firewall, a web-portal product, biometric security, single-sign-on password management, iFolder file synchronization, and more).
So the 'integration' is perhaps better described as porting what they do to both platforms. Your choice of kernel - but you will still be running eDirectory and other Novell services.
And the only thing missing was a Linux client, so this is good news.
It will be nice when the NetWare server gets full Linux compatiblity. Really, it will be a Linux server that supports NetWare services - but the distinction won't matter.
Personally, I would like to see the NetWare editor ported to Linux. I can't stand vi, and there really isn't a simple console (text-mode) editor geared for DOS/Windows users available on Linux. The NetWare EDIT program still fits the bill as arcane enough to not be yet-another-DOS-Edit clone, but does simple editing very easily. Cut-and-pastes between files, too. Its just a matter liking what you know.
I don't know how Microsoft does it. Of course, I don't know how Linux does it either. I do remember hearing that when UC Berkeley shut down one of their mainframes in the early 1980's, they found a process that had been running since the late 1960's.... (It was both a testiment to their skills as programmers to upgrade the OS while the machine ran, and, a testiment to IBM that the hardware never faulted to a point of a complete system crash in a decade and a half.
You do know that it is possible to install Qfixes without rebooting, right? If you use the default installer, it prompts you to reboot - but you don't have to use that installer. Microsoft does provide a way to copy in the patch files without reboots - they just don't advertise it much.
Now for major service packs - yes you have to reboot. And for video drivers, you have to reboot. But if you want to be the super-techie with the large uptime number in Windows, its not as hard as you make it out to be.
More often than I would have thought, working in IT. Mostly, I use the screwdriver blades. How come, getting into computers meant driving all these screws? I also use the knife blades - usually cable related. And of course, there's cleaning your fingernails during a particularly boring meeting.
I could see adding a USB memory stick as really helpful - though I wouldn't give up the screwdriver bits for it.
1) Add accounting. Someone with an MIS degree that actually understands finance has a huge advantage over the MIS degree without. Its businesses that hire MIS people, and the business runs on money.
2) Buy a copy of "What Color Is Your Parachute?" by Richard Nelson Bolles. He has execises in the book to help you identify what you like, and what you are good at (which may or may not be the same).
I had a boss that did something similar at Sears. Seems the one salesman would say "oh shit" every time he made a mistake on the cash register. Of course, Sears frowned on cussing in front of the customers, but this guy did it anyway, habit.
So my boss did the same as you did, except that he replaced the register receipt printing to say "oh shit" instead of "cancelled".
I'm told the look on the salesman's face was priceless....;-)
Total messages: 162,564
Total messages blocked by SpamAssassin: 36,927
January 2004
Total messages: 180,375
Total messages blocked by SpamAssassin: 48,661
So what we have is 10% growth in total messages, but a 31% growth in spam.
Making spam illegal isn't working. Not surprising to me.....
FWIW, I attribute the 10% growth to MyDoom and its ilk - my user base did not grow 10%, nor do I think my users suddenly started sending more email - they just received more stuff that got deleted (but counted) by the virus scanner.
Slashdot Mirror
Fundamentally, a rotating head pressed against the media searching for sync with diagonal tracks is just sub-optimal. It puts data on the tape pretty efficiently (data density-wise), but mechanically it tends to eat tapes. You won't be pulling data off a piece of tape that looks like a miniature aerial view of the Rocky Mountains....
The rotating head collects the magnetic oxide much faster than the DLT setup, too. The magnetic oxide buildup leads to soft errors at first, then hard errors, then total tape and drive failure.
In this case, you get what you pay for.
Hmmmm... do I try to squeeze parts of myself into card punch? Maybe fully unwrap 9-track tape, hook it aound my neck and execute a tape seek to end....
Hmmm... I truly don't know what batch processed mass suicide looks like. However, I do know how to find out.
Tell your programmers you need access to where they store their source code, and tell them to set it up so you can use Linux to run their code. You tell them its a porting project, but you need write access to put a log file in (to keep track of which code has been tested and which has not).
Then you run a perl program on all the source code, and for calc records, move the result indicators from one line to be the calc indicators for the next line. Do that on all file names have an A in them, and do a vice-versa on the files with names shorter than eight characters or contain the letter P. Maybe shift the input record result indicators over by three bytes, too.
Be sure to have wiped/pilfered the source code backups, first. If you plan it a few months in advance, be sure to bring termites in and turn them loose on all those stacks of green-bar in the binders.
Yup, that'll do it. Sit back with a video camera, get that first batch processed mass suicide on tape! ;-)
Similarly, my only assember experience was figuring out a couple Intel 8080 programs, and typing in and calling an assembler routine from one of my RPG II programs (Remember the days when magazines printed code you could use yourself?). So for assembler, I knew just enough to see what was going on, not enough to really do anything.
This particular thread of posts was discussing the candidacy of assembler for inclusion in the O'Reilly poster. The point I was trying to make was that this particular 3GL language, RPG II, really did qualify, and it came from a 2GL language, so assembler probably qualifies as well.
Your point about whole systems being written in assembler is both informative and sets straight my (incorrect) assumptions.
Thank you. :-)
With RPG II, we had conditional loops and CASE statements, but no pointers. Still, some large business systems were written in RPG. One wouldn't expect a G/L, A/P, and A/R system to be written in assembler. They *could* be, but using a language built around records and the cycle of output, input, calculate makes more sense than trying it in assembler.
Today, RPG/400 is still going, installed on every IBM AS/400 sold. Of course, the language now has strong ties to the built in AS/400 database....
I wouldn't be surprised if today IBM has added 4GL components to the language. ;-)
A week after his meds ran out, he was threatening his neighbors with a large knife.
The Porterville police officers confronted him, and his response was to lunge. Their response was to put seventeen bullets into him.
If I had more time, I would point out that it is a bad idea to arm only one side of a conflict - because then the other side has no incentive to enact restraint.
You should check out my journal
It was as crass as the infomercial's that tell you to "order now! time is limited! only ten minutes left!"
Even if they had a good idea, they established all the credibility of the hawkers of weight-loss formulas.
Ain't no gettin yer dignity back from that....
Thanks for the tip - I did miss that one. What is kind of funny is that I use the word 'complement' far more often than 'compliment'.
Since I never get a compliment on the proper usage of complement, I guess I'll just have to strive to complement my compliments with better grammar in the future. ;-)
I have a political situation that prevents me from implementing NDPS. But you are correct - NDPS would be the way to go, to get to an IPX-free network.
Thank you very much! I had previously done some searching, but didn't come up with nearly the stuff you know. That's great set of links. Thank you thank you thank you.
IPX was required for NetWare 4. With NetWare 5, IP became an option to replace IPX, though most people run both side by side (and take the performance hit). But you can run an entire NetWare shop on only IP if you want. With NetWare 6 and 6.5, IP is the preferred protocol.
Cool. Thanks for the tip - I'll look into it.
At this point, I'd like to stick with simple. ;-)
The NetWare editor keystrokes are ingrained enough that I could use it with ease - which is what I'm hoping for.
Yeah, I just used salvage today to solve in six minutes what would have taken a tape restore (30 minutes) had the file been on a MS box. Our users love us.
pico is the closest to what I want to use - although even it is different enough to force me to stop and read the screen to get a task done. That is on the frustrating side, repeated often enough. I couldn't get joe or jed to work via ssh - I'm certain it was a configuration problem - but being a newbie, it wasn't a problem I could solve. And other than Midnight Commander (which I have a hard time finding), I haven't been able to find other editors.... Hence, I'd like in Linux what I already know from NetWare. But that's just me.
If you were to put a sniffer on my NetWare 5 network, you would see the File and Print services (and NCP services) are TCP/IP packets. The only thing that forces me to run IPX are the stupid JetDirect cards. But I digress.
Currently, the NetWare OS is a set of NLMs (NetWare Loadable Modules). This is what they talk about when they say the NetWare 'kernel'. I'm pretty sure it is C code and some Assembler.
The plan is that when you install NetWare 7, you will get your choice of 'kernels' - either the old NLM based one, or the new Linux 2.6 based one.
And, since all the NetWare services will be / can be running on Linux - those services can be integrated into a Linux distibution.
The most valuable Novell service is its eDirectory. They also have an application distribution product, ZENWorks; and of course their email system, GroupWise; a whole set of products that use the Directory for tailored access (BorderManager firewall, a web-portal product, biometric security, single-sign-on password management, iFolder file synchronization, and more).
So the 'integration' is perhaps better described as porting what they do to both platforms. Your choice of kernel - but you will still be running eDirectory and other Novell services.
Did I explain that well enough?
It will be nice when the NetWare server gets full Linux compatiblity. Really, it will be a Linux server that supports NetWare services - but the distinction won't matter.
Personally, I would like to see the NetWare editor ported to Linux. I can't stand vi, and there really isn't a simple console (text-mode) editor geared for DOS/Windows users available on Linux. The NetWare EDIT program still fits the bill as arcane enough to not be yet-another-DOS-Edit clone, but does simple editing very easily. Cut-and-pastes between files, too. Its just a matter liking what you know.
I don't know how Microsoft does it. Of course, I don't know how Linux does it either. I do remember hearing that when UC Berkeley shut down one of their mainframes in the early 1980's, they found a process that had been running since the late 1960's.... (It was both a testiment to their skills as programmers to upgrade the OS while the machine ran, and, a testiment to IBM that the hardware never faulted to a point of a complete system crash in a decade and a half.
Now for major service packs - yes you have to reboot. And for video drivers, you have to reboot. But if you want to be the super-techie with the large uptime number in Windows, its not as hard as you make it out to be.
I could see adding a USB memory stick as really helpful - though I wouldn't give up the screwdriver bits for it.
Doesn't receive faxes, and is a Windows-only client. Looks like $0.10 per page.
1) Add accounting. Someone with an MIS degree that actually understands finance has a huge advantage over the MIS degree without. Its businesses that hire MIS people, and the business runs on money.
2) Buy a copy of "What Color Is Your Parachute?" by Richard Nelson Bolles. He has execises in the book to help you identify what you like, and what you are good at (which may or may not be the same).
So my boss did the same as you did, except that he replaced the register receipt printing to say "oh shit" instead of "cancelled".
I'm told the look on the salesman's face was priceless.... ;-)
December 2003
Total messages: 162,564
Total messages blocked by SpamAssassin: 36,927
January 2004
Total messages: 180,375
Total messages blocked by SpamAssassin: 48,661
So what we have is 10% growth in total messages, but a 31% growth in spam.
Making spam illegal isn't working. Not surprising to me.....
FWIW, I attribute the 10% growth to MyDoom and its ilk - my user base did not grow 10%, nor do I think my users suddenly started sending more email - they just received more stuff that got deleted (but counted) by the virus scanner.