How is the credit card scanned? Does the partner telepathically read it? How is the information transported to the partner's systems? All this is in scope for PCI Compliance.
I suppose you could also obtain quorum with a witness SQL instance as well. But, at that point, it's probably more resource expensive than using the shared storage method of obtaining quorum.
Making the cloud PCI compliant is difficult in AWS and you'll spend a ton licensing software to make it happen.
What happens if the internet goes down? Not only do credit cards not process, but everything -- including ordering, grinds to a halt. Not a good system if you ask me. Not everyone needs the cloud, especially small businesses with less than reliable internet.
mySQL is not MS-SQL Server. While mySQL may offer more elegant out of the box failover options, it's unlikely a restaurant PoS application supports mySQL as a data source..NET programers with MS-SQL knowledge are cheaper than unix guys slinging mySQL.
That's not the way PoS systems are constructed because SQL Express usually doesn't come with support. That means if you have corruption/etc/some strange SQL bug, your data is lost. Most PoS vendors stick with supported software for their database infrastructure.
One of the hats I wear on a daily basis is MS-SQL DBA. I have experience with replication on 2003, 2008 and 2012 versions of Microsoft SQL server in enterprise environments.
I've also worked for numerous large restaurant chains in a consulting capacity and understand the unique needs here.
My suggestion within your parameters is to have two SQL instances going, and this can be on commodity hardware like desktop, and use transaction log shipping and DNS-based failover. You will have to script a utility to handle the database failover from DNS, however; but this is the poor man's solution.
However, the best option is to purchase shared storage (cheap -- a NAS appliance with an ISCSI target, so you can have shared storage QNAP, Synology, etc support this in their $150 bare enclosures) and use synchronous database mirroring in high safety mode . However, you will need to configure an Active Directory domain to get failover to be automated, and then place systems on that. Once that's done, you have an elegant failover solution that is fully automated. And cheap.
Note that Standard MS-SQL includes synchornous database mirroring, but Enterprise includes asynchronous -- which is overkill for your needs in my opinion.
Have you ever heard of someone called Steve Jobs? Apple was notorious for not paying shareholder dividends and holding onto cash, and Jobs seemed to have a "meh" attitude towards shareholders...he did what he wanted, and if people still wanted to invest, cool.. if not, their loss.
I have to chime in here because I feel like many of the comments have missed what this is in.."real world" programming: A Sales Opportunity.
It is inevitable that after a while, your client is going to want new features. If you offer a low rate for bug fixes, or offer a certain # of hours on bug fixes after the original term, you'll keep the channels of communications open with the client; rather than them forgetting about you.
So, you can act altruistic and offer some amount of free bug fixes..but use the requests for those bug fixes as an opportunity to suggest new functionality/features, or make changes outside of that realm that translate to billable work.
If you have a proper consulting agreement, any changes outside of bug fixes will already be in scope as a billable activity, so you should be able to bill for that time accordingly.
I find that keeping lines of communications open with clients after projects has done causes new projects to happen and is a great rainmaker. I think what seems like their thick-headedness is actually an opportunity for you to get more business out of them.
I think that if you were to translate the roles of CEO, COO, etc into the branches of American government, it'd look something like this:
CEO -- Barack Obama President (Chief Executive)
COO -- Joe Biden (VP)
CFO -- Ben Bernake (Chairman of Fed)
Chairman of the Board -- John Roberts
Board Members - Supreme Court Justices
I think that corporations just made new titles for roles that already existed in models of governance and applied them to corporate governance, but the "CTO" title might be the first time that this tradeoff has gone full circle, back into governmental institutions?
Oh yes, and a cursory observation of your past posts shows that you start most of them by declaring other's opinions stupid (or a synonym thereof), and/or insult them "You sound like a 17 year old kid...".
I take back my previous comments about ADD meds and SSRIs. Please go and get yourself on some SSRI's or some Adderall so you can be a happier person instead!:)
I get this information from talking to them and making observations of their behavior, not making mean spirited declarations like you have above. Many of them readily admit they do not need it and would like to stop using it, but it is now required for them to function at work at the level expected of them. Of course this is anecdotal and not empirical evidence.
And yes, I actually have a lot of knowledge about ADD medications, I worked as a pharmaceutical patent paralegal before starting an IT career. I was involved in helping writing the patent for Adderall XR among other things.
What medical knowledge or background in pharmacy do you have to justify your trollish comments?
With studies showing that an average 25% of college students admit to using ADHD medication (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adderall), does this mean that in the past 25% of college students needed to drink coffee rather than take amphetamine salts?
I think it's more likely to indicate (as someone who graduated college in 2006) the pattern I saw in my school -- find someone with an Adderall prescrption, pay them for a pill, and stay up all night studying so you can spend more time partying. I don't think these kids would fail out of school, just school would be harder.
However there probably is a fraction of a percent of students who really need it.
Regardless, I think all of this should be legal and if you are a college student you can decide what crazy pills you want to take. It's just children that are given these things in mass amounts, who themselves and their parents have little knowledge of their action, that I'm concerned about. No meth for kids please!!! Most parents would not serve their 8 year old a triple-lattee from Starbucks, why would they give meth?
Au contraire, I worry a lot about people hooked on SSRIs and benzodiazepides and the like. I had a roommate in college (this is years back) who was on Lithium for his depression. He was very anti-social and had a hard time communicating, making friends, etc.
So one day he stopped taking his Lithium and started coming to parties and being social. By sophomore year, he had friends, and was doing a lot better than he was with his medicine for his "social anxiety." So it looks like he was one of the folks over-prescribed, and maybe he stopped being so passionate/etc when he was on Lithium, and his parents liked that when he was at home with them.
My mom was hooked on Xanax the last few years of her life, that she got from her doctor, who tried to "treat" her depression and social anxiety/etc. Instead, it made her happy to stay at home and watch TV and be antisocial. But since she was happier and insistent on taking more, the doctor saw good results, and kept prescribing her this medicine that just made her an artificially happy person with no desire for friends or fulfillment. But it made her a different person and I don't believe the net effects were positive.
Again, this is all anecdotal, but I've seen anecdotal evidence like this too often to ignore. And I don't have big money like pharmaceutical companies to fund a proper scientific study. If you'd like to pay for this, let me know!:)
Hecubas, you are one of the rare, honorable folks who is using Adderall and is cognizant of its effects on children, abuse potential, and know it's actually the right choice. And for that you deserve a pat on the back.
But that said, you identify the issue I've pointed out in scientific studies -- that many parents dose up their kid to get them to be quiet and less annoying. And in methodologies for measuring progress, they measure behavior, parents' opinion on kids behavior, grades in school..which generally go up (you're on hardcore amphetamines all day, of course you get better grades!!)...but leave out issues that in teenage years/adulthood, it's really common for these kids to have lingering side effects and issues, and then truly be unable to function without Adderall since their brain chemistry has actually changed to accommodate the ever-increasing dosages of amphetamines.
As sad as that is, I think the DEA should have no business in this. But if they were going to have a business in something, over-prescribing children hardcore amphetamines should probably be the place they start, not some hippie smoking weed!
It's anecdotal evidence combined with a critique of the methodology employed for empirical evidence. And it's an all-too-common stereotype. Who needs to cite "anecdotal" evidence anyway?
From an epistemological standpoint, in science many times we make observations that contradict empirical results and as such must control for these variables.
This sounds a bit like those folks who believe "science" is a religion, and something is true because "science says so," regardless of the fact they do not understand the method applied.
What did people do before Adderall then, simply not function? It's only been around for around 30 years.
Every single person I've met (which are dozens) that regularly takes Adderall clearly does not "need" it to function, but they may think they do and exhibit classic signs of addiction.
However, medicines like this fit into most medical/social science methodology in that, if someone starts taking Adderall, of course they are more productive and may even feel better (e.g. euphoria) etc, so measuring those effects usually produces positive results.
Interceding variables like having doctors prescribing amphetamine salts like candy seem to be ignored in these methodologies.
Oh yes! Hmm, well, I suppose I should start using Rogue Antispyware or Windows AntiVirus 2011 -- they're able to "secure" up your system despite Symantec's presence 99% of the time!
You're right about it being a poor example -- I think "Civil Rights Movement" would be a far better example, and I agree with your sentiment about not using your real name. It's just that Facebook's real name policy has made it easier for people to slip up, I suppose.
That's certainly a more diplomatic and just as effective example.
I have to point out that had we been forced to use our "Real Names" on Slashdot, now data-miners have dirt on the both of us: Apparently, according to anonymous coward, I'm pro-terrorists, and you're racist against trolls and the type of person who enjoys calling people idiots.
Of course, that's not actually what happened, but my point is that with real names these little things can be taken out of context and made into something that it's not -- or affect peoples lives and careers. Not cool.
Replace "Weather Underground" with "Occupy Wall Street", or anything else..I just intended it as a metasynthatic variable for any radical political group.
It's people who read things like my quote and assume I'm a fan of terrorists that scares me about Facebook postings being taken out of context and hurting people's careers....
Slashdot Mirror
How is the credit card scanned? Does the partner telepathically read it? How is the information transported to the partner's systems? All this is in scope for PCI Compliance.
I suppose you could also obtain quorum with a witness SQL instance as well. But, at that point, it's probably more resource expensive than using the shared storage method of obtaining quorum.
Because of the quorum disk requirement.
What happens if the internet goes down? Not only do credit cards not process, but everything -- including ordering, grinds to a halt. Not a good system if you ask me. Not everyone needs the cloud, especially small businesses with less than reliable internet.
mySQL is not MS-SQL Server. While mySQL may offer more elegant out of the box failover options, it's unlikely a restaurant PoS application supports mySQL as a data source. .NET programers with MS-SQL knowledge are cheaper than unix guys slinging mySQL.
That's not the way PoS systems are constructed because SQL Express usually doesn't come with support. That means if you have corruption/etc/some strange SQL bug, your data is lost. Most PoS vendors stick with supported software for their database infrastructure.
I've also worked for numerous large restaurant chains in a consulting capacity and understand the unique needs here.
My suggestion within your parameters is to have two SQL instances going, and this can be on commodity hardware like desktop, and use transaction log shipping and DNS-based failover. You will have to script a utility to handle the database failover from DNS, however; but this is the poor man's solution.
However, the best option is to purchase shared storage (cheap -- a NAS appliance with an ISCSI target, so you can have shared storage QNAP, Synology, etc support this in their $150 bare enclosures) and use synchronous database mirroring in high safety mode . However, you will need to configure an Active Directory domain to get failover to be automated, and then place systems on that. Once that's done, you have an elegant failover solution that is fully automated. And cheap.
Note that Standard MS-SQL includes synchornous database mirroring, but Enterprise includes asynchronous -- which is overkill for your needs in my opinion.
Have you ever heard of someone called Steve Jobs? Apple was notorious for not paying shareholder dividends and holding onto cash, and Jobs seemed to have a "meh" attitude towards shareholders...he did what he wanted, and if people still wanted to invest, cool.. if not, their loss.
The similar thing done for monitors is known as a TEMPEST attack. It's only feasible against CRTs, though.
I have to chime in here because I feel like many of the comments have missed what this is in .."real world" programming: A Sales Opportunity.
It is inevitable that after a while, your client is going to want new features. If you offer a low rate for bug fixes, or offer a certain # of hours on bug fixes after the original term, you'll keep the channels of communications open with the client; rather than them forgetting about you.
So, you can act altruistic and offer some amount of free bug fixes..but use the requests for those bug fixes as an opportunity to suggest new functionality/features, or make changes outside of that realm that translate to billable work.
If you have a proper consulting agreement, any changes outside of bug fixes will already be in scope as a billable activity, so you should be able to bill for that time accordingly.
I find that keeping lines of communications open with clients after projects has done causes new projects to happen and is a great rainmaker. I think what seems like their thick-headedness is actually an opportunity for you to get more business out of them.
"Rainbow Tables" attack: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_tables
To finally drop Comcast and replace them with Sonic.Net DSL! I hope others follow suit and migrate to more ethical ISPs.
CEO -- Barack Obama President (Chief Executive)
COO -- Joe Biden (VP)
CFO -- Ben Bernake (Chairman of Fed)
Chairman of the Board -- John Roberts
Board Members - Supreme Court Justices
I think that corporations just made new titles for roles that already existed in models of governance and applied them to corporate governance, but the "CTO" title might be the first time that this tradeoff has gone full circle, back into governmental institutions?
I take back my previous comments about ADD meds and SSRIs. Please go and get yourself on some SSRI's or some Adderall so you can be a happier person instead! :)
I get this information from talking to them and making observations of their behavior, not making mean spirited declarations like you have above. Many of them readily admit they do not need it and would like to stop using it, but it is now required for them to function at work at the level expected of them. Of course this is anecdotal and not empirical evidence.
And yes, I actually have a lot of knowledge about ADD medications, I worked as a pharmaceutical patent paralegal before starting an IT career. I was involved in helping writing the patent for Adderall XR among other things.
What medical knowledge or background in pharmacy do you have to justify your trollish comments?
I think it's more likely to indicate (as someone who graduated college in 2006) the pattern I saw in my school -- find someone with an Adderall prescrption, pay them for a pill, and stay up all night studying so you can spend more time partying. I don't think these kids would fail out of school, just school would be harder.
However there probably is a fraction of a percent of students who really need it.
Regardless, I think all of this should be legal and if you are a college student you can decide what crazy pills you want to take. It's just children that are given these things in mass amounts, who themselves and their parents have little knowledge of their action, that I'm concerned about. No meth for kids please!!! Most parents would not serve their 8 year old a triple-lattee from Starbucks, why would they give meth?
So one day he stopped taking his Lithium and started coming to parties and being social. By sophomore year, he had friends, and was doing a lot better than he was with his medicine for his "social anxiety." So it looks like he was one of the folks over-prescribed, and maybe he stopped being so passionate/etc when he was on Lithium, and his parents liked that when he was at home with them.
My mom was hooked on Xanax the last few years of her life, that she got from her doctor, who tried to "treat" her depression and social anxiety/etc. Instead, it made her happy to stay at home and watch TV and be antisocial. But since she was happier and insistent on taking more, the doctor saw good results, and kept prescribing her this medicine that just made her an artificially happy person with no desire for friends or fulfillment. But it made her a different person and I don't believe the net effects were positive.
Again, this is all anecdotal, but I've seen anecdotal evidence like this too often to ignore. And I don't have big money like pharmaceutical companies to fund a proper scientific study. If you'd like to pay for this, let me know! :)
But that said, you identify the issue I've pointed out in scientific studies -- that many parents dose up their kid to get them to be quiet and less annoying. And in methodologies for measuring progress, they measure behavior, parents' opinion on kids behavior, grades in school..which generally go up (you're on hardcore amphetamines all day, of course you get better grades!!)...but leave out issues that in teenage years/adulthood, it's really common for these kids to have lingering side effects and issues, and then truly be unable to function without Adderall since their brain chemistry has actually changed to accommodate the ever-increasing dosages of amphetamines.
As sad as that is, I think the DEA should have no business in this. But if they were going to have a business in something, over-prescribing children hardcore amphetamines should probably be the place they start, not some hippie smoking weed!
From an epistemological standpoint, in science many times we make observations that contradict empirical results and as such must control for these variables.
This sounds a bit like those folks who believe "science" is a religion, and something is true because "science says so," regardless of the fact they do not understand the method applied.
Every single person I've met (which are dozens) that regularly takes Adderall clearly does not "need" it to function, but they may think they do and exhibit classic signs of addiction.
However, medicines like this fit into most medical/social science methodology in that, if someone starts taking Adderall, of course they are more productive and may even feel better (e.g. euphoria) etc, so measuring those effects usually produces positive results.
Interceding variables like having doctors prescribing amphetamine salts like candy seem to be ignored in these methodologies.
Oh yes! Hmm, well, I suppose I should start using Rogue Antispyware or Windows AntiVirus 2011 -- they're able to "secure" up your system despite Symantec's presence 99% of the time!
You're right about it being a poor example -- I think "Civil Rights Movement" would be a far better example, and I agree with your sentiment about not using your real name. It's just that Facebook's real name policy has made it easier for people to slip up, I suppose.
Hrm, I didn't know hackers even needed to look at the source code in order to make viruses that get around Symantec AV....
I have to point out that had we been forced to use our "Real Names" on Slashdot, now data-miners have dirt on the both of us: Apparently, according to anonymous coward, I'm pro-terrorists, and you're racist against trolls and the type of person who enjoys calling people idiots.
Of course, that's not actually what happened, but my point is that with real names these little things can be taken out of context and made into something that it's not -- or affect peoples lives and careers. Not cool.
It's people who read things like my quote and assume I'm a fan of terrorists that scares me about Facebook postings being taken out of context and hurting people's careers....