"What fresh hell has this software engineer gotten themselves into? Leave your best answers in the comments. What are the lesser-known roles of the IT department? "
Software engineers should NOT be sysadmins. Full stop.
Sigh, and I posted without realizing I wasn't logged in. Dementia is coming on fast.
Used to be the TRS-80 go-to guy in highschool, owned a Tandy 1000HX (It was a giant leap from my TI-99/4A, but the TI still works), that developed random floppy read/write errors, I solved it by gluing pennies to the read head of the drive, eventually it would go south, and I would glue another penny on, then one day, I sheared the head off when I put a disk in, because the spring had suddenly decided to stop holding those pennies up.
DeathGuild/Thunderdome worked a shift at Arctica this year (and previous years).
Basically it worked like this:
1) Some of us are in the truck and are lining up bags of ice at the edge of the trailer (single bags, block ice, bags of 3, and full bags of 6) 2) Customer approaches counter with dedicated cashier, announces what they need 3) Dedicated Ice runner moves TEN FEET OR LESS to the trailer, grabs the ice and brings it to the front (Note for #3, the customer is still usually paying/receiving change by the time the ice is in front of them) 4) Customer leaves, wash, rinse, repeat.
That walk ALL the way back to the truck takes seconds, and the ice is there, right at the edge, and still being cooled to a degree by the trailer chillers, it takes them 15-20 seconds TOPS to get that ice. Each register also has a dedicated trailer (unless one is pulled for replacement with a new, full trailer). So what you are really saving is MAYBE 15 seconds or so per transaction, and then you have ice sitting out in 100+ degree heat.
Don't forget if we want to put out the ice people need, we would need to have every possible combo of ice sitting out there, so if we get a run on single bags, those full bags and blocks would just sit there simmering until someone comes along that wants them. I think a bigger speed up for the lines would for people to have their money ready, and not dick around in their drug addled state when we ask them what they want.
I'm curious how this will affect businesses that are currently using postini. Since google is moving postini functionality into google apps, does this mean a business will now have to sign up for google apps to continue using any postini features?
It seems that google has been fairly quiet about exactly what the postini shutdown means for business, and I've only found vague talk of how a business is supposed to transition to google to continue the service. Especially businesses that do not use gmail, but use their own mail servers.
The fact that they can screw with and abuse people so hard that they actually WANT to go work for EA, speaks volumes about how dedicated Activision must be to sucking every last cent of work out of their employees.
It isn't a matter of "fast" acceleration. The bonus behind using a nuclear or even an ion drive is IMPULSE. The ability to accelerate over a longer period of time. You might not accelerate as quickly (you definately won't) but you can reach higher velocities. Plus you lighten your mass somewhat by not carrying about and insanely large amount of chemical reactive mass.
Assuming they are using a pellet-bed plutonium reactor, the only fuel they will need for it will be hydrogen, not only will it act as a moderator (heh), but also as the propellant as it is super-heated and vented out the back of the craft.
I assume they will still carry chemical based thrusters to maneuver and for the initial boost once leaving mars.
Plus the design that I got to work with in college uses weapons grade plutonium! What better way to get the nuclear weapon stock down than to transform it into interplanetary engines?
K-Power was my mag of choice, so many cool basic programs, ported (heh) to TI-99/4a. Apple IIe, Atari-ST, Commodore, etc etc.
Sadly they became Family (VOMIT) computing and stopping being so damn cool..
Still have some old k-power issues....reminds me of late nights and the TI coding away in basic, saving to tape, then mailing the printout and the tape the next day. Only to receive a bump letter a few weeks later:)
I think the only current 2D commuters that should/would be allowed into this realm would be those of us that ride motorcycles, we already are invisible, need to constantly be aware of our surroundings (both front-back,side-side, AND above-below).
I dub my SunPCI Win2k install as running at cruft force 11 "Undead"
It shouldn't run, it shouldn't even boot into safe mode, but some odd digital alchemy has occured that has resulted in some necromantic miracle, resulting in a cantankerous, yet unkillable install of Windows.
In a previous job, I implemented Citrix Winframe (the old NT 3.51 flavor) to server nursing stations over LAN and WAN. We deployed well over 100 of the stations using two dual PPro systems (I said it was old).
While I was a bit insulated from the cost, the time spent troubleshooting issues was cut dramatically. At the same time, nary a complaint about speed was voiced. At all the stations, various MS office applications were used on a regular basis, as was Web browsing, and several nasty old DOS applications (getting those to work was a headache and a hack). Without it, immense amounts of time would have been wasted configuring costly PCs and dealing with individual issues on each machine. The ability to shadow a session and work with the user over the phone is priceless!
More recently using Win2k Terminal Services, I was happy how well the server scaled, even with users running large PLSQL jobs, manipulating large access databases etc. Most (if not all) of the problems associated with individual workstations were eliminated in a thin client environment.
I've looked over the Linux Term services, and while I really like the idea, for our users it isn't really an option yet. Even though the learning curve is small, it is enough right now that I wouldn't have the time to train everyone on the particulars of the MS equivalent linux apps.
If you are planning on a thin client environment, citrix or the MS equivalent is the way to go.
You have a full heated suit? Who makes it? I'm currently using a widder vest and gloves for heat (my Fieldsheer armored jacket and pants are pretty good insulators).
Well, even though we are a small company, to get into the server room you need to go through me, or the other admin. In cases where this has happened we stand in there and watch you. You do something stupid and we have the big assed axehandle hanging from a rack to show you the error of your ways.
I'm paranoid enough already, and if someone starts tossing the mains breakers, I won't hesitate to stomp said persons ass....
On the bigger boxen, you have the happy ability of dynamic reconfiguration. Plus the kernel_cage_enable=1 tag in/etc/system (There is more but I'm going to keep this simple).
I'm pulled entire memory/cpu boards out of running E4500's without a problem when cpu failure occurs.
I even have had to script dynamic online-offline of processors for various load testing purposes to determine how the system scales as CPU's are added/removed
If there is one thing about the big iron I like, it is the ability to manipulate the system on a level such as this.
Now Stratus systems are even more amazing...but as they said in Conan. "That is another story"
My my Redhat is just acting more like microsoft every day....
Makes me feel warm and fuzzy to see more and more people snatching code from FreeBSD though...It may not be in the limelight, but it must be good enough to inspire others to snag bits of it...
Slashdot Mirror
"What fresh hell has this software engineer gotten themselves into? Leave your best answers in the comments. What are the lesser-known roles of the IT department? "
Software engineers should NOT be sysadmins. Full stop.
Sigh, and I posted without realizing I wasn't logged in. Dementia is coming on fast.
Used to be the TRS-80 go-to guy in highschool, owned a Tandy 1000HX (It was a giant leap from my TI-99/4A, but the TI still works), that developed random floppy read/write errors, I solved it by gluing pennies to the read head of the drive, eventually it would go south, and I would glue another penny on, then one day, I sheared the head off when I put a disk in, because the spring had suddenly decided to stop holding those pennies up.
DeathGuild/Thunderdome worked a shift at Arctica this year (and previous years).
Basically it worked like this:
1) Some of us are in the truck and are lining up bags of ice at the edge of the trailer (single bags, block ice, bags of 3, and full bags of 6)
2) Customer approaches counter with dedicated cashier, announces what they need
3) Dedicated Ice runner moves TEN FEET OR LESS to the trailer, grabs the ice and brings it to the front
(Note for #3, the customer is still usually paying/receiving change by the time the ice is in front of them)
4) Customer leaves, wash, rinse, repeat.
That walk ALL the way back to the truck takes seconds, and the ice is there, right at the edge, and still being cooled to a degree by the trailer chillers, it takes them 15-20 seconds TOPS to get that ice. Each register also has a dedicated trailer (unless one is pulled for replacement with a new, full trailer). So what you are really saving is MAYBE 15 seconds or so per transaction, and then you have ice sitting out in 100+ degree heat.
Don't forget if we want to put out the ice people need, we would need to have every possible combo of ice sitting out there, so if we get a run on single bags, those full bags and blocks would just sit there simmering until someone comes along that wants them. I think a bigger speed up for the lines would for people to have their money ready, and not dick around in their drug addled state when we ask them what they want.
And here I thought the whole gamergate thing was the new gaslighting.
Not quite the same, but this sounds somewhat like the old iPad smart-cover bypass trick from a couple years ago.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2011/oct/26/ipad-lock-bypass-ios5-cover
No, dummy, RTFS. Pope Francis.
Settle down, Francis.
I'm curious how this will affect businesses that are currently using postini. Since google is moving postini functionality into google apps, does this mean a business will now have to sign up for google apps to continue using any postini features?
It seems that google has been fairly quiet about exactly what the postini shutdown means for business, and I've only found vague talk of how a business is supposed to transition to google to continue the service. Especially businesses that do not use gmail, but use their own mail servers.
Now if only the birth rate would drop world wide. Sigh, pipe dreams.
The fact that they can screw with and abuse people so hard that they actually WANT to go work for EA, speaks volumes about how dedicated Activision must be to sucking every last cent of work out of their employees.
So for the past few weeks homestarrunner.com has been spottily reachable at best...
A day or two ago they were back up to full speed...
And now they are slashdotted...
Just as I was going to check the latest strongbad email...
It isn't a matter of "fast" acceleration. The bonus behind using a nuclear or even an ion drive is IMPULSE. The ability to accelerate over a longer period of time. You might not accelerate as quickly (you definately won't) but you can reach higher velocities. Plus you lighten your mass somewhat by not carrying about and insanely large amount of chemical reactive mass.
Assuming they are using a pellet-bed plutonium reactor, the only fuel they will need for it will be hydrogen, not only will it act as a moderator (heh), but also as the propellant as it is super-heated and vented out the back of the craft.
I assume they will still carry chemical based thrusters to maneuver and for the initial boost once leaving mars.
Plus the design that I got to work with in college uses weapons grade plutonium! What better way to get the nuclear weapon stock down than to transform it into interplanetary engines?
They haven't "created" it quite yet. They are still developing it. At least according to the wording of the article.
Nope, I have Solaris 7 running on an IPX at home (for what reason I did this, I have no clue). That is the highest that this one can run.
Didn't see it on the first glance through.
:)
K-Power was my mag of choice, so many cool basic programs, ported (heh) to TI-99/4a. Apple IIe, Atari-ST, Commodore, etc etc.
Sadly they became Family (VOMIT) computing and stopping being so damn cool..
Still have some old k-power issues....reminds me of late nights and the TI coding away in basic, saving to tape, then mailing the printout and the tape the next day. Only to receive a bump letter a few weeks later
I guess you don't use FreeBSD in console mode?
Hit scroll lock and you can arrow key up and down on the console
Exactly,
I think the only current 2D commuters that should/would be allowed into this realm would be those of us that ride motorcycles, we already are invisible, need to constantly be aware of our surroundings (both front-back,side-side, AND above-below).
I dub my SunPCI Win2k install as running at cruft force 11 "Undead"
It shouldn't run, it shouldn't even boot into safe mode, but some odd digital alchemy has occured that has resulted in some necromantic miracle, resulting in a cantankerous, yet unkillable install of Windows.
Hmmm...
In my area of the cube farm the "beware of BOFH" sign prevails.....
and we are much worse than bears, bears don't stuff your keyboard up your ass in response to stupid questions...:)
In a previous job, I implemented Citrix Winframe (the old NT 3.51 flavor) to server nursing stations over LAN and WAN. We deployed well over 100 of the stations using two dual PPro systems (I said it was old).
While I was a bit insulated from the cost, the time spent troubleshooting issues was cut dramatically. At the same time, nary a complaint about speed was voiced. At all the stations, various MS office applications were used on a regular basis, as was Web browsing, and several nasty old DOS applications (getting those to work was a headache and a hack). Without it, immense amounts of time would have been wasted configuring costly PCs and dealing with individual issues on each machine. The ability to shadow a session and work with the user over the phone is priceless!
More recently using Win2k Terminal Services, I was happy how well the server scaled, even with users running large PLSQL jobs, manipulating large access databases etc. Most (if not all) of the problems associated with individual workstations were eliminated in a thin client environment.
I've looked over the Linux Term services, and while I really like the idea, for our users it isn't really an option yet. Even though the learning curve is small, it is enough right now that I wouldn't have the time to train everyone on the particulars of the MS equivalent linux apps.
If you are planning on a thin client environment, citrix or the MS equivalent is the way to go.
You have a full heated suit? Who makes it? I'm currently using a widder vest and gloves for heat (my Fieldsheer armored jacket and pants are pretty good insulators).
All right, I've already got the URL, who do I need to torture/kill?
And I'll be damned if I need to crawl around with a can of 'Chain-Wax' to lube this thing...:)
Well, even though we are a small company, to get into the server room you need to go through me, or the other admin. In cases where this has happened we stand in there and watch you. You do something stupid and we have the big assed axehandle hanging from a rack to show you the error of your ways.
I'm paranoid enough already, and if someone starts tossing the mains breakers, I won't hesitate to stomp said persons ass....
On the bigger boxen, you have the happy ability of dynamic reconfiguration. Plus the kernel_cage_enable=1 tag in /etc/system (There is more but I'm going to keep this simple).
I'm pulled entire memory/cpu boards out of running E4500's without a problem when cpu failure occurs.
I even have had to script dynamic online-offline of processors for various load testing purposes to determine how the system scales as CPU's are added/removed
If there is one thing about the big iron I like, it is the ability to manipulate the system on a level such as this.
Now Stratus systems are even more amazing...but as they said in Conan. "That is another story"
Makes me feel warm and fuzzy to see more and more people snatching code from FreeBSD though...It may not be in the limelight, but it must be good enough to inspire others to snag bits of it...
Scuze me whilst I don my flame resistant gear...