How many hours of your time was wasted by trying to figure out why you couldn't access the Macromedia site? How did not being able to access their site (i.e. download Flash) affect your business, or productivity?
3rd party, un-authorized censorship of your Internet connection cost you money, and inconvenience. Although it'd be hard to prove, that's grounds for a lawsuit. I'm not normally an advocate of suing people, but we can't let this kind of abuse of power get out of hand.
What other sites get abused this way? How am I to know that some ISP/backbone provider between me and the rest of the world isn't coloring my perception of events by tailoring what I see?
Spam is annoying. Telling me what I can and cannot see is unacceptable.
You mention that Autorip stalls when it can't find the CD info... how would you prefer it worked? Unfortunately, without a display, the only option would be to silently eject the disc so you can go on to the next, and you'd never know that that disc didn't RIP.
If missing discs completely is acceptable to you, it would probably be very simple to hack the Perl scripts. I'm sure there's other hackers out there like me that would be happy to take a look at it. However, consider the above carefully first.
>>Ii>The Right Thing to do, given that you have a hefty cluster-building budget to work with, is to buy one of each type of machine,
Depending on the total quantity of units that you're looking at after you figure out which one you want, you might be able to get your supplier to "loan" you one of each for your testing. At the very least, they should let you return one of them after the testing, if agreed to in advance.
Seeing as you're looking at 1U servers, I'd assume that you're looking to stuff a bunch of them in a rack... For $10k++ in sales, they'll loan you a computer for a month. If not, look around, there's suppliers that will.
Well, if they don't accept Jedi, would they have similar objections to Satanism? Hey, I'm not a Satanist, but in most people's views, it's probably a "legitimate" religion (meaning that they believe in Satan, although worshiping him may not be a popular or supported passtime...).
I guess that in my view, ANY attempt to decree what is a "valid" religion, no matter how hokey it seems, would be ludicrous and immoral. Hey, if some guy worships tulips, good for him, hey may well believe it's his religion. All the (flower) power to him. q:]
I guess the good thing is that most computer cd-rom drives don't need to be attached to a computer to play CD's... simply hook up the power, and push play.
Shock is definately a concern, but nothing a little creative mounting wouldn't overcome.
Personally, however, I still like hooking up my MP3 player to the system instead... no shock concerns, easy to mix and match tunes, etc. If it wasn't for the sticker-shock on Flash cards, it'd be ideal.
>> They mean well, but they don't live in the real world. I on the other hand mean well AND live in the real world, so here are two reasonable ways to handle it.
I have no problem with people refuting my claims/advice, but you offer no reasoning whatsoever as to why your "method" is better than using cookies. I certainly DO live in the "real world", and the methods suggested using cookies would definately provide simple, accurate, and objective measurements of unique users.
Do you not have experience using cookies? Do you not know what they do or how they work? Do you understand the problems with using IP addressing, as indicated in the cookie discussions above? Do you have any actual "substance" with which to argue those points?
I'll gladly submit to better ideas, if only you can show me the flaws in my own arguments and convince me of yours. Unfortunately, your post lacked any (possibly quite correct) details to support your claims.
>> redirecting from one page to another where the user must have a cookie it was accepted
You don't have to be as obtrusive as that, forcing the user to accept a cookie. I'd simply have a small (i.e. 1x1 pixel) frame on the page that requested/set the cookie, and checked if it was accepted. From this data, you could extrapolate:
The number of unique users that accept cookies
The number of visits per unique user that accepts cookies
The number of visits by users that don't accept cookies
extrapolate the number of unique users that don't accept cookies based on average visits/user
In today's world, the reality is that very few users don't accept cookies. They're convenient. They're enabled by default in most circumstances. Most people probably don't know they exist. I'm talking about "Joe User", not "Joe Slashdot".
I'd hazard a guess that the above would provide a 98%+ accurate indication of your user base, as well as additional info such as visits/user and user frequency.
>> Patents should help real innovations but that means a company has to have a REAL innovation.:-)
For now, we can hope that the silly (one-click) patents get thrown out in court case challenges such as with Rambus. In the long run, I hope that the Patent system "smartens up" in the patents that they actually grant...
>> "Stifling Innovation" is the newest buzz-word for "We don't like it and we can't profit off it".
Well, of course companies seek to make a profit off of their "intellectual property". As an investor, would you support spending millions upon millions on R&D if you knew that the minute you launched a product, somebody could reverse-engineer it for almost nothing and put you out of business?
Patent laws ENCOURAGE Innovation because it ensures that people can reap the rewards of successful R&D, and can recoup the money they invest.
Without Patent protection, companies would be much more leary about investing so heavily in new technology development.
However, I agree that there's limits... some of the patents that get granted are downright silly and obvious. There's got to be a limit to what's patentable, but there still has to be patents.
>> Doesn't this defeat the purpose of a file sharing program??
Only if the sole purpose of such a system was to illegally trade copyrighted material.
Although this does happen on Napster (and it's what most people like about it), Napster is "officially" intended for trading non-copyrighted material only. If they claimed otherwise, they'd be shut down in a second.
Great overview... I've had experience with your #1 suggestion (see my page from the original story), and it worked fairly well.
#2 is a little limited for what I wanted to do, but I might actually combine this with #1 in places it makes sense.
#3 scares the heck out of me, and doesn't really suit my needs anyways... I want to show a REAL environment.
Out of all the suggestions, there's some cool stuff, but unfortunately it doesn't look like much that is suited for "exactly" what I want... I guess I'm in for a few "all-nighter" Perl programming sessions, aren't I? q:]
Keep the suggestions rolling... although I'm gonna start working on the Perl scripting and Database design (just through DBD::CSV for now). If anyone's interested in something similar, let me know and I'll post the Perl scripts after it's done and tested.
Sorry, but I stand by my statement, but I'll clarify it for you. Using "native" Windows NT Server "Services for Macintosh" (probably the most robust Mac file connectivity at the moment, but still far from great), you will retain resource forks on an NTFS partition but not on a FAT one.
>>stick to file-sharing software that stores files using macbinary or binhex formats
Are talking about DAVE or PC MacLan? Get real! Have you ever used these jokes? DAVE is flakey as heck, a pain in the butt to set up, you have to buy a copy for EACH Mac, and crashes often! PC MacLan is better, but uses Appletalk instead of TCP/IP, so it's slow as hell! Sure, they're ok for small shops, but in any "real" environment, using the NT Server services is the only way to go.
NT Server has it's own issues, such as only showing a maximum of 4GB of disk space on any volume when seen on a Mac (unless you hack the registry), but it's not that bad overall.
As for my explanation of resource forks: is it wrong? No. Is it incomplete? Yes. Was it meant to be a thesis of the underworkings of the Mac operating system? No. Go see my website below.
Before you start flaming someone, know what the heck you're talking about, and take into account the intended purpose and audience of the original message.
"Macintosh" files saved on an NTFS volume will retain their resourse forks, whereas if they're saved on a FAT16/32 volume the resource forks will be lost.
Not important to many home users, but in any Mac/Windows shared network, this is VERY important... Mac files that have lost their resource forks are a pain in the butt to deal with, and are often useless without a lot of manual hacking of the file using something like "ResEdit".
FYI, resource forks on Mac are "kind of" the Mac equivalent of the three character extension on DOS files. They're used to tell the OS what kind of file it is, what application can be used to run it, etc.
When I was at my last company, we had a similar situation. It ended up that we got paid 1/4 time for monitoring the pager/cell, and full time for any time spent resolving issues. (24/support)
Getting paid for 6 hours work a day (1/4 time, 24 hours) for carrying a pager didn't work out too bad in the long run, and wasn't unreasonable for the company to pay.
I don't know if they were legally obligated to pay this or not, but it was a solution that was agreeable for everyone.
>> Each time there is a legitimate conflict, the disputed page should point to an index
And what if I happen to run "Nissan Fuck Shop"... do you really think that Nissan Motors' lawyers will sit back and be happy being listed right after me (after all, "F" comes before "M")?
I think not. Good idea, but in reality, the big boys wouldn't play nicely with the rest of us.
>> What can we do to help make sure information is free throughout the world?
I'll take the bait, I guess...
How is this different than the US government mandating that "censorware" be used in all schools and libraries? For many kids, these are the only places that they can access the Internet. In China, they're taking it only one "small" step beyond that (in this particular instance, anyways) by putting censorware in place for other "public" venues such as Internet Cafe's.
Now, seeing as these are similar issues, what's your view on schools and libraries right here at home? Personally, I'm dead-set against it... censorware is too susceptible to the personal biases of whoever sets up the "forbidden" databases. With there being thousands upon thousands of "banned" sites, who says that a few "good" sites don't get banned at the same time? I'd rather invest the money and time teaching values to our kids so that they don't get sucked in by the porn and crap you find on the 'net.
I don't know what censorware China is using, but I'm sure there's stuff other than porn being blocked (cnn.com maybe? Slashdot? Other "western" news sources?), but even companies here have a horrible track record of providing "proper" censorship (if there is such a thing). Many of them also block competitor's sites, and sites of those that oppose censorware. To me it's like the death penalty: is it worth the risk of possibly executing a single "innocent" man? To me: nope.
GPS systems not only give you your location in latitude/longitude, but also provide elevation. I'm sure they're not stupid enough to let this thing fly without checking it's own elevation to make sure it stays at 2000'.
With that data, and some cool programming, they wouldn't even need to know the orientation of the plane (even if it were upside down). (However, I have a feeling that they also have instruments to measure orientation).
At 66'/sec, the GPS data would change at a fast enough rate that they could make fairly quick analysis of what direction they're going, and what effect control surface changes have. If they decide to pull the elevator "up" and the plane starts going the wrong direction, they can assume that they're upside-down and make opposite corrections. Heck, they could have programmed it with no knowledge of how to "turn left", but rely on the GPS data to tell the plane if it's doing the correct thing (random control movements, feedback analysis of results).
Slashdot Mirror
The new tour is driven by a Perl script and a standard database... if you get bored and want source code, just ask.
MadCow.
3rd party, un-authorized censorship of your Internet connection cost you money, and inconvenience. Although it'd be hard to prove, that's grounds for a lawsuit. I'm not normally an advocate of suing people, but we can't let this kind of abuse of power get out of hand.
What other sites get abused this way? How am I to know that some ISP/backbone provider between me and the rest of the world isn't coloring my perception of events by tailoring what I see?
Spam is annoying. Telling me what I can and cannot see is unacceptable.
Mad-MadCow.
If missing discs completely is acceptable to you, it would probably be very simple to hack the Perl scripts. I'm sure there's other hackers out there like me that would be happy to take a look at it. However, consider the above carefully first.
MadCow.
Depending on the total quantity of units that you're looking at after you figure out which one you want, you might be able to get your supplier to "loan" you one of each for your testing. At the very least, they should let you return one of them after the testing, if agreed to in advance.
Seeing as you're looking at 1U servers, I'd assume that you're looking to stuff a bunch of them in a rack... For $10k++ in sales, they'll loan you a computer for a month. If not, look around, there's suppliers that will.
MadCow.
I guess that in my view, ANY attempt to decree what is a "valid" religion, no matter how hokey it seems, would be ludicrous and immoral. Hey, if some guy worships tulips, good for him, hey may well believe it's his religion. All the (flower) power to him. q:]
MadCow.
Shock is definately a concern, but nothing a little creative mounting wouldn't overcome.
Personally, however, I still like hooking up my MP3 player to the system instead... no shock concerns, easy to mix and match tunes, etc. If it wasn't for the sticker-shock on Flash cards, it'd be ideal.
MadCow.
I have no problem with people refuting my claims/advice, but you offer no reasoning whatsoever as to why your "method" is better than using cookies. I certainly DO live in the "real world", and the methods suggested using cookies would definately provide simple, accurate, and objective measurements of unique users.
Do you not have experience using cookies? Do you not know what they do or how they work? Do you understand the problems with using IP addressing, as indicated in the cookie discussions above? Do you have any actual "substance" with which to argue those points?
I'll gladly submit to better ideas, if only you can show me the flaws in my own arguments and convince me of yours. Unfortunately, your post lacked any (possibly quite correct) details to support your claims.
MadCow.
You don't have to be as obtrusive as that, forcing the user to accept a cookie. I'd simply have a small (i.e. 1x1 pixel) frame on the page that requested/set the cookie, and checked if it was accepted. From this data, you could extrapolate:
In today's world, the reality is that very few users don't accept cookies. They're convenient. They're enabled by default in most circumstances. Most people probably don't know they exist. I'm talking about "Joe User", not "Joe Slashdot".
I'd hazard a guess that the above would provide a 98%+ accurate indication of your user base, as well as additional info such as visits/user and user frequency.
MadCow.
IP's are misleading... every user behind a proxy server shows up as the same IP address. There could be thousands of users behind the same proxy.
MadCow.
For now, we can hope that the silly (one-click) patents get thrown out in court case challenges such as with Rambus. In the long run, I hope that the Patent system "smartens up" in the patents that they actually grant...
"I dream of a world where... ah, fuck it."
MadCow.
Well, of course companies seek to make a profit off of their "intellectual property". As an investor, would you support spending millions upon millions on R&D if you knew that the minute you launched a product, somebody could reverse-engineer it for almost nothing and put you out of business?
Patent laws ENCOURAGE Innovation because it ensures that people can reap the rewards of successful R&D, and can recoup the money they invest.
Without Patent protection, companies would be much more leary about investing so heavily in new technology development.
However, I agree that there's limits... some of the patents that get granted are downright silly and obvious. There's got to be a limit to what's patentable, but there still has to be patents.
MadCow.
As any self-respecting geek would know, 42 is "The answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything!".
MadCow42.
Only if the sole purpose of such a system was to illegally trade copyrighted material.
Although this does happen on Napster (and it's what most people like about it), Napster is "officially" intended for trading non-copyrighted material only. If they claimed otherwise, they'd be shut down in a second.
Do-not-pass-go-do-not-collect-$200-ly yours,
MadCow.
#2 is a little limited for what I wanted to do, but I might actually combine this with #1 in places it makes sense.
#3 scares the heck out of me, and doesn't really suit my needs anyways... I want to show a REAL environment.
Out of all the suggestions, there's some cool stuff, but unfortunately it doesn't look like much that is suited for "exactly" what I want... I guess I'm in for a few "all-nighter" Perl programming sessions, aren't I? q:]
Keep the suggestions rolling... although I'm gonna start working on the Perl scripting and Database design (just through DBD::CSV for now). If anyone's interested in something similar, let me know and I'll post the Perl scripts after it's done and tested.
Thanks everyone!
MadCow.
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q 219/2/91.ASP
MadCow.
Sorry, but I stand by my statement, but I'll clarify it for you. Using "native" Windows NT Server "Services for Macintosh" (probably the most robust Mac file connectivity at the moment, but still far from great), you will retain resource forks on an NTFS partition but not on a FAT one.
>>stick to file-sharing software that stores files using macbinary or binhex formats
Are talking about DAVE or PC MacLan? Get real! Have you ever used these jokes? DAVE is flakey as heck, a pain in the butt to set up, you have to buy a copy for EACH Mac, and crashes often! PC MacLan is better, but uses Appletalk instead of TCP/IP, so it's slow as hell! Sure, they're ok for small shops, but in any "real" environment, using the NT Server services is the only way to go.
NT Server has it's own issues, such as only showing a maximum of 4GB of disk space on any volume when seen on a Mac (unless you hack the registry), but it's not that bad overall.
As for my explanation of resource forks: is it wrong? No. Is it incomplete? Yes. Was it meant to be a thesis of the underworkings of the Mac operating system? No. Go see my website below.
Before you start flaming someone, know what the heck you're talking about, and take into account the intended purpose and audience of the original message.
MadCow.
"Macintosh" files saved on an NTFS volume will retain their resourse forks, whereas if they're saved on a FAT16/32 volume the resource forks will be lost.
Not important to many home users, but in any Mac/Windows shared network, this is VERY important... Mac files that have lost their resource forks are a pain in the butt to deal with, and are often useless without a lot of manual hacking of the file using something like "ResEdit".
FYI, resource forks on Mac are "kind of" the Mac equivalent of the three character extension on DOS files. They're used to tell the OS what kind of file it is, what application can be used to run it, etc.
MadCow.
Semantics... but hey, why not?
MadCow.
Getting paid for 6 hours work a day (1/4 time, 24 hours) for carrying a pager didn't work out too bad in the long run, and wasn't unreasonable for the company to pay.
I don't know if they were legally obligated to pay this or not, but it was a solution that was agreeable for everyone.
MadCow.
And what if I happen to run "Nissan Fuck Shop"... do you really think that Nissan Motors' lawyers will sit back and be happy being listed right after me (after all, "F" comes before "M")?
I think not. Good idea, but in reality, the big boys wouldn't play nicely with the rest of us.
MadCow.
I'll take the bait, I guess...
How is this different than the US government mandating that "censorware" be used in all schools and libraries? For many kids, these are the only places that they can access the Internet. In China, they're taking it only one "small" step beyond that (in this particular instance, anyways) by putting censorware in place for other "public" venues such as Internet Cafe's.
Now, seeing as these are similar issues, what's your view on schools and libraries right here at home? Personally, I'm dead-set against it... censorware is too susceptible to the personal biases of whoever sets up the "forbidden" databases. With there being thousands upon thousands of "banned" sites, who says that a few "good" sites don't get banned at the same time? I'd rather invest the money and time teaching values to our kids so that they don't get sucked in by the porn and crap you find on the 'net.
I don't know what censorware China is using, but I'm sure there's stuff other than porn being blocked (cnn.com maybe? Slashdot? Other "western" news sources?), but even companies here have a horrible track record of providing "proper" censorship (if there is such a thing). Many of them also block competitor's sites, and sites of those that oppose censorware. To me it's like the death penalty: is it worth the risk of possibly executing a single "innocent" man? To me: nope.
Just blathering, MadCow.
GPS systems not only give you your location in latitude/longitude, but also provide elevation. I'm sure they're not stupid enough to let this thing fly without checking it's own elevation to make sure it stays at 2000'.
With that data, and some cool programming, they wouldn't even need to know the orientation of the plane (even if it were upside down). (However, I have a feeling that they also have instruments to measure orientation).
At 66'/sec, the GPS data would change at a fast enough rate that they could make fairly quick analysis of what direction they're going, and what effect control surface changes have. If they decide to pull the elevator "up" and the plane starts going the wrong direction, they can assume that they're upside-down and make opposite corrections. Heck, they could have programmed it with no knowledge of how to "turn left", but rely on the GPS data to tell the plane if it's doing the correct thing (random control movements, feedback analysis of results).
I'm sure it's simpler than that though. q:]
MadCow.
Hmmmm... I dunno, but some of the "normal" things that I do on a network might be analyzed as "attacks" under certain viewpoints. What then?
MadCow.
It's pretty fuckin' scary to think that script-kiddies might actually hurt people with a computer virus...
MadCow.
Me too... three times this week.
???
MadCow