However, I will (or at least should) be able to load the newest version of Winblows on my computer.
Yup, that would be nice. But not likely. I have a Pentium II-based PC, with a nice ASUS motherboard, with quality add-in boards (because I wanted them to be Linux-compatible). It came with Windows 95 OSR2. However, it is not compatible with Windows 98, both by checking the hardware compatibilty lists and by actually trying it several times. That was OK, though, until Sony decided that they would change Everquest to require Windows 98 or later, even for those people who had already purchased it and didn't want to change. So now, if I want to let my son continue to play Everquest, I have to upgrade to a newer computer (or at least motherboard).
So don't rule out that kind of imposed obsolesence. It's alive and well in today's marketplace.
SAMBA doesn't support Macs at all, but there is another package called netatalk that does. I'm in the process of setting up a SAMBA/CUPS/netatalk server for our printers, and it look like it will work well. However, I have just barely gotten it working, and there may be problems lurking ahead.
No, I'm pretty sure he was out on bond, as of late August if I recall. (a vague memory, sorry.)
But he was forbidden from leaving California, and of course it's nice not to be facing trial, so it's still great news for him.
I'm with Comcast@Home in Chesterfield, VA. As far as I can tell, we never lost connection, and my daughter was on-line most of the weekend.:-)
And get this: a rep from Comcast called me, Sunday afternoon, out of the blue, to let me know what was happening, and give me a phone number and URL that I could go to for status updates. Wow! I've been known to bash their customer service in the past, although I haven't needed it very often, but that proactive (sorry for the over-hyped jargon) approach to the problem wins them a lot of points from me!
They sent an e-mail the other day explaining what was going on, and said that if the service is interrupted, we would get credit for each day it was down, including the rental fee for the cable modem for those people who rent it. Their tech support would be available to help people switch to phone modems if they had to. It sounded like they were planning to make it as soft on us customers as they could.
It seems to me that Fox finally realized this, and has been scheduling football until 7:30, not even trying to show something else from 7:00 to 7:30. Good move.
Also, I share your pain about King of the Hill. It's one of my favorite shows. I wish it wasn't used so often as a placeholder in the schedule....
In August, I bought my wife an HP Pavillion N7540 (I think that's the right model #), with 15 inch screen, 1 GHz Athlon, and combo DVD/CDRW drive. Under $1800 total. She loves it, and I'm envious....
Look at the Compaq Armada series. I have heard many good things about the Armada E500 series. One of the neat things is that you can pop out the bays for floppy and CDROM, and stick batteries in there, giving a total of 3 batteries, and apparently pretty good battery life. I haven't used one myself, though.
Almost all of the barcode scanners I've seen connect between the keyboard and the PC, and essentially "type" the decoded characters into the computer. This is nice because it's compatible with everything -- no software required.
However, a keylogger in the PC would happily log the data, thinking it was typed on the keyboard.
The company I work for did this in 1998, and it's worked out really well. We were building the building from the ground up, and I was hired in time to get involved in the design, and even though it was my first significant network, it's worked out really well.
I was able to get the computer room located near the middle of the building, so that the 100 meter limits were OK. We had suspended ceilings, with LOTS of air ducts up above (we're a chemistry lab company = huge ventilation needs), and there
was plenty of room for cables. Make sure your installer runs the cables down the hallways, not cutting across rooms, and stays away from power cables. We ran plenum-rated cable everywhere, even the areas that weren't plenum, because it was so much easier.
I put 4 drops of CAT5 at each persons desk, with 6 in a few offices, and 8 in the conference rooms. Several of the 4-drop offices are already
maxed out, and you might want to make it 6 for at least the more senior people. On the other hand, the less senior people sometimes get crammed 2 to a room, and therefore 4 drops is hardly enough.
There were several rooms that "didn't need many wires", because of their intended use, but now that the use has changed (took about 18 months), we're pretty short there. Don't shortchange rooms like that.
I use CAT5 for both phones and data, and all the lines terminate on a big RJ45 patch panel. Then I use modular patch cords to connect outlets to the network switchs, or to the phone system, etc. I use blue cords for ethernet, green for digital phones, and red for analog phones (fax machines, etc). I used AMP panels and outlets, which have a small plastic colored "icon" that matches my color scheme, to make it less likely that someone plugs a modem into a digital phone jack (thereby frying it). Other brands have similar things.
Do keep good records. Figuring it out later sucks.
I use a cable tray running above the computer racks to get the cables to the servers. Much cheaper than a raised floor, and not TOO ugly.
My biggest mistake was that the wiring closet is too small. The phone company told me that they would need 4 feet of wall space, so that's what I planned for. However, we get our phone and network service over fiber, and that meant they had to install a full-sized 7 foot rack, with batteries, etc. Then they used the wall space for the copper phone lines. (They pulled 300 pairs!! even though we only ordered 2 pair for the fire alarm. That's planning for the future!)
Right now, Kylix is available, with C++ Builder and JBuilder coming in the next few months.
Actually, JBuilder has been available for Linux and Solaris since version 3. When you buy it, you get a disk that works on Windows, Linux, and Solaris.
I have been using JBuilder 4 on both Linux and Windows (dual booting), and love it.
Version 5 just arrived, but I haven't installed it yet. I expect to love it!
When I lived in Northern Virginia in the 70's, I recall a huge hamfest/computerfest that was run by
AMRAD, which is based near Dulles Airport. I don't see anything on
their website about events (the link is broken), but you could call them. I never went to one of their events, but I always wanted to. I usually heard about them after they happened.....
The letter from Dolby seems so vague it makes me wonder if they are bluffing. Is it a trademark, patent, or copyright violation they are accusing ad3dec of violating? Or is it a DMCA violation? Since they don't say, it makes me think that it's none of the above, and they're just trying to frighten people. I think NetBSD should write them back, and ask exectly what patent, trademark, or copyright the program violates, and see if there is any merit to Dolby's assertions.
I was a sys admin for a university computer system, which supported about 5000 users doing
e-mail, database, and number crunching stuff. I heard about, and eventually took, a position as
"the company computer guy" for a small local biotech company. They had about 30 people, about 50 PCs, 10 Macs, and were wanting to set up some Unix servers to handle the big stuff. My university job had been great, because they had always given us the flexibility to do learn stuff that interested us, but this was even more so.
The new job entailed lots of new, interesting stuff. They were building a new building for their company, so in the first year, I learned about premise wiring, telephone systems and services, LANs, WANs, NT server, building security systems, and more. Plus, we installed Unix and Linux for servers. It is a wonderful opportunity to build all the infrastructure from the ground up, and I was very lucky that we could afford to do just about everything "the right way", and had very little "legacy" stuff to hold us back.
It's not as demanding as it might seem. Mostly, people work 9-5, and while technically I'm on pager all the time, I don't get called more than 5 times a year, usually because of power outages.
Look for a small local company, that uses lots of computers, and is growing to the point where they
need a full-time sysadmin, not just users keeping things running. They may not be able to pay top dollar, but the freedom of being "head of IT" can make up for a lot. I love it!
The judge asked whether the DMCA created a "permanent" copyright, or an
effective extension of copyright. The lawyer smoothly dodged the questions by
saying that movie studios could (not "would," but "could") publish works in
unencrypted form when (if) their copyright on the work ever expires, or perhaps
someone could use a decryption device then, since it would no longer be illegal
under the DMCA to do so. The judge asked where those encryption devices
would be, after all, they've been banned by the DMCA. The lawyer had faith
that they would appear. So apparently: the fact that the studios haven't gotten
encrypted content working in an impenetrable fashion yet means that they aren't
screwing you out of your access to works when copyright expires.
Why do we have to wait for the copyright to expire? Someone could produce a DVD movie, and explicitly release it to the public domain, the way some software is. If even ONE DVD is in the public domain, then there is a legal justification for DeCSS, right? That seems to be what the judge and MPAA guy were saying. They seem to assume that the only way things become public domain is by the copyright expiring, but there are other ways. So, someone get busy and make a movie, put it on DVD, and declare it public domain. Just say that Apple and Jeff Goldblum told you to!
Over the years I have been thinking about this
type of thing, and I have developed the opinion that we need a federal law that prohibits the exchange of customer data between two (or more) businesses for value, either money, barter, reciprocal data exchange, or other thing of value. We might have to have an exception for credit bureaus, but I'm not so sure.
Note that this would NOT prohibit GIVING the data to another company, so that Company A could give Company B some customer data so that B could perform a service for A, such as a survey, debt collection, tech support, etc.
My knowledge of the business world is limited, so there might be some big holes in my idea. What do you think?
Slashdot Mirror
Yup, that would be nice. But not likely. I have a Pentium II-based PC, with a nice ASUS motherboard, with quality add-in boards (because I wanted them to be Linux-compatible). It came with Windows 95 OSR2. However, it is not compatible with Windows 98, both by checking the hardware compatibilty lists and by actually trying it several times. That was OK, though, until Sony decided that they would change Everquest to require Windows 98 or later, even for those people who had already purchased it and didn't want to change. So now, if I want to let my son continue to play Everquest, I have to upgrade to a newer computer (or at least motherboard).
So don't rule out that kind of imposed obsolesence. It's alive and well in today's marketplace.
SAMBA doesn't support Macs at all, but there is another package called netatalk that does. I'm in the process of setting up a SAMBA/CUPS/netatalk server for our printers, and it look like it will work well. However, I have just barely gotten it working, and there may be problems lurking ahead.
No, I'm pretty sure he was out on bond, as of late August if I recall. (a vague memory, sorry.)
But he was forbidden from leaving California, and of course it's nice not to be facing trial, so it's still great news for him.
And get this: a rep from Comcast called me, Sunday afternoon, out of the blue, to let me know what was happening, and give me a phone number and URL that I could go to for status updates. Wow! I've been known to bash their customer service in the past, although I haven't needed it very often, but that proactive (sorry for the over-hyped jargon) approach to the problem wins them a lot of points from me!
They sent an e-mail the other day explaining what was going on, and said that if the service is interrupted, we would get credit for each day it was down, including the rental fee for the cable modem for those people who rent it. Their tech support would be available to help people switch to phone modems if they had to. It sounded like they were planning to make it as soft on us customers as they could.
Also, I share your pain about King of the Hill. It's one of my favorite shows. I wish it wasn't used so often as a placeholder in the schedule....
The September 2001 issue of Mobile Computing and Communications had this article, that included a review of a different ASUS laptop.
In August, I bought my wife an HP Pavillion N7540 (I think that's the right model #), with 15 inch screen, 1 GHz Athlon, and combo DVD/CDRW drive. Under $1800 total. She loves it, and I'm envious....
Look at the Compaq Armada series. I have heard many good things about the Armada E500 series. One of the neat things is that you can pop out the bays for floppy and CDROM, and stick batteries in there, giving a total of 3 batteries, and apparently pretty good battery life. I haven't used one myself, though.
However, a keylogger in the PC would happily log the data, thinking it was typed on the keyboard.
I was able to get the computer room located near the middle of the building, so that the 100 meter limits were OK. We had suspended ceilings, with LOTS of air ducts up above (we're a chemistry lab company = huge ventilation needs), and there
was plenty of room for cables. Make sure your installer runs the cables down the hallways, not cutting across rooms, and stays away from power cables. We ran plenum-rated cable everywhere, even the areas that weren't plenum, because it was so much easier.
I put 4 drops of CAT5 at each persons desk, with 6 in a few offices, and 8 in the conference rooms. Several of the 4-drop offices are already
maxed out, and you might want to make it 6 for at least the more senior people. On the other hand, the less senior people sometimes get crammed 2 to a room, and therefore 4 drops is hardly enough.
There were several rooms that "didn't need many wires", because of their intended use, but now that the use has changed (took about 18 months), we're pretty short there. Don't shortchange rooms like that.
I use CAT5 for both phones and data, and all the lines terminate on a big RJ45 patch panel. Then I use modular patch cords to connect outlets to the network switchs, or to the phone system, etc. I use blue cords for ethernet, green for digital phones, and red for analog phones (fax machines, etc). I used AMP panels and outlets, which have a small plastic colored "icon" that matches my color scheme, to make it less likely that someone plugs a modem into a digital phone jack (thereby frying it). Other brands have similar things.
Do keep good records. Figuring it out later sucks.
I use a cable tray running above the computer racks to get the cables to the servers. Much cheaper than a raised floor, and not TOO ugly.
My biggest mistake was that the wiring closet is too small. The phone company told me that they would need 4 feet of wall space, so that's what I planned for. However, we get our phone and network service over fiber, and that meant they had to install a full-sized 7 foot rack, with batteries, etc. Then they used the wall space for the copper phone lines. (They pulled 300 pairs!! even though we only ordered 2 pair for the fire alarm. That's planning for the future!)
Good luck!
When I lived in Northern Virginia in the 70's, I recall a huge hamfest/computerfest that was run by AMRAD, which is based near Dulles Airport. I don't see anything on their website about events (the link is broken), but you could call them. I never went to one of their events, but I always wanted to. I usually heard about them after they happened.....
The letter from Dolby seems so vague it makes me wonder if they are bluffing. Is it a trademark, patent, or copyright violation they are accusing ad3dec of violating? Or is it a DMCA violation? Since they don't say, it makes me think that it's none of the above, and they're just trying to frighten people. I think NetBSD should write them back, and ask exectly what patent, trademark, or copyright the program violates, and see if there is any merit to Dolby's assertions.
The new job entailed lots of new, interesting stuff. They were building a new building for their company, so in the first year, I learned about premise wiring, telephone systems and services, LANs, WANs, NT server, building security systems, and more. Plus, we installed Unix and Linux for servers. It is a wonderful opportunity to build all the infrastructure from the ground up, and I was very lucky that we could afford to do just about everything "the right way", and had very little "legacy" stuff to hold us back.
It's not as demanding as it might seem. Mostly, people work 9-5, and while technically I'm on pager all the time, I don't get called more than 5 times a year, usually because of power outages.
Look for a small local company, that uses lots of computers, and is growing to the point where they need a full-time sysadmin, not just users keeping things running. They may not be able to pay top dollar, but the freedom of being "head of IT" can make up for a lot. I love it!
Over the years I have been thinking about this type of thing, and I have developed the opinion that we need a federal law that prohibits the exchange of customer data between two (or more) businesses for value, either money, barter, reciprocal data exchange, or other thing of value. We might have to have an exception for credit bureaus, but I'm not so sure. Note that this would NOT prohibit GIVING the data to another company, so that Company A could give Company B some customer data so that B could perform a service for A, such as a survey, debt collection, tech support, etc. My knowledge of the business world is limited, so there might be some big holes in my idea. What do you think?