Yeah... because multi-sourcing major components of the 787 dreamsaster has worked out SO well for them. People keep talking about Alan Mulally's future in connection with Microsoft, but if anyone's gonna poach him from Ford it *should* be Boeing. A lot of heads need to roll over in Chicago to get that company back on track.
...when I put a piece of black electrical tape over the webcam on my laptop and tablet. Ok, maybe I was being paranoid, but as we've all seen now: "Just because we're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get us." Sometimes I hate being right.
Buy it all, figure out what works, return what sucks... that's what return policies are for (and incidentally is what happened to the last Belkin product I purchased, and why I'll never purchase another one).
That, or if you're buying for a business just remember: No one ever got fired for buying IBM, F5 or Cisco. Or HP for servers. ProLiants really do kick ass, although I hear Dells tend to use a little less power for equivalent performance... probably because they skimped on the redundant fans or some other "doesn't seem to matter until you need it" hardware (but that's pure speculation).
Or it's possible Dell equipment runs by feeding on the souls of the poor bastards that have to use it. Anything is possible.
They both do it... "corporate philanthropy" (or whatever you want to call it) is a big thing with Microsoft. There are a few reasons for that, I think... part of it is because Microsoft is actually made up of people, some of whom actually care about other people. Part of it is also because there are interesting technical problems involved in disaster response, and places where software can help. Finally, being involved in humanitarian efforts gives corporations a bit of a better public image.
Remember though, that the shitloads of money Microsoft made for sir Gates has been dumped into all manner of medical research, and while the company may spend millions on development and investigation of smelly ideas, they also spend millions on disaster relief around the world, donations to charities, matching gifts for employee donations, etc.
There are many, many things wrong with Microsoft's corporate culture, but the amount they give to charity in support of all manner of humanitarian efforts is one of the things I've always really liked about them.
Disclaimer: I'm currently employed by Microsoft (for just a short while longer), however the opinion above is entirely my own.
By your wonderful logic, de-bounce capacitors should be removed from everything with a pushbutton too... obviously, bounce is a hardware and/or user problem. The user should press the damn button quickly and firmly enough, and it should be designed with good enough contacts, that there's no bounce. So let's just remove all the de-bounce caps and call everything else a user problem.
Anyone who told you it's hard to configure was either running it on a VERY oddball hardware setup, or was lying to you. I originally switched to Slackware (in 2001) because it was so much easier to make everything "just work" than it was with the other distros. I still use it for that reason. I can go from bare metal to fully working system in a half hour or less.
Also, I got tired of the circular dependency hell from the other distros of the time. Maybe they're better now, but Slack's package management works just fine for me, thankyouverymuch.
You might get a lot of good people, but you'll probably miss out on the great ones. That's alright though, because thankfully for every shortsighted company like yours, there's another one that cares more about what people know and can demonstrate through their experience than about where they went to school. My experience has been that most of the people with the education are adequate, but most of the best employees have come in with completely unrelated (if any) schooling, and often from completely unrelated industries.
Interesting... that feature actually makes sense, in most contexts outside of gaming. I can't count the number of times I've called my laptop bad names because the cursor jumped while I was typing, due to me accidentally brushing against the touch pad. It's unfortunate it doesn't distinguish between a built-in touch pad and an external mouse though.
Mr. Anonymous, sorry about your loss - such things are never easy.
I hope you're not overly offended by those of us who make light of the image of crotch-sniffing dogs in women's clinics. I'm not sure of the person who made the "Wanted:" comment above, but for many people (myself included) humor is simply a way of dealing with the unpleasant and often painful realities of life. So, it's not an attempt to be dismissive of the pain and overall nastiness of the disease, but more coping mechanism. At least for some. Others truly are just insensitive clods.
Guess what... a lot of that is probably people on H1-B visas, who will very often work more hours for less pay. It's not that the number of American developers will grow by 25%, simply that the number of developers in the US will grow by 25%.
Haven't tried one of their new phones then, I see? I just bought a Nokia 521 on T-Mobile a few days ago, and so far I love it. They might be behind, and yes, killing off Symbian as quickly as they did may have been a bad mistake, but I think they've carved out a decent niche with WP, and are very much still in the running. Awesome hardware running a decent OS (and the only one I've seen that doesn't look like Win95 puked icons on the screen), I really think Nokia could've made substantially worse decisions.
Sadly, this is probably the most accurate version of what's happening today. The immigrants cheering this on seem to not realize that the immigration reform currently in the works is merely a way to legalize and increase the exploitation of those already here illegally. This will not end well, for anyone. We'll bring more tired and poor from overseas, as long as they have barely sufficient technical skill to push the right buttons at approximately the right time. We'll displace skilled workers with cheap, barely adequate labor, while working the cheap, barely adequate labor until they burn out and go home with their relative riches.
In the end we'll cheapen the skilled jobs to the point no one bothers to acquire the skills, and bring them down to the pay scale of a waiter at a middle-class restaurant, but working double the hours.
I wouldn't say the Sr. knows (or thinks they know) everything, but that the things they don't know they can either figure out on their own (using appropriate references such as books, internet, etc.), or have to go way above their peers to figure out. As an example, the things I have questions about and can't figure out quickly, I usually have to escalate to T3 product support from the vendor - they're not things that can be found/fixed by simple web searches or a quick question of a peer. Once talking to T3, the cases sometimes go on for weeks, and in a couple cases have resulted in the vendor publishing hotfixes because I had uncovered a bug in the product.
1) Someone else mentioned that SysAdmin is now spelled "Systems Engineer." This is absolute truth - I updated my resume and changed my current title from System Administrator to Systems Engineer, and immediately started getting on average 2-3 calls/emails per week. I think I also put "Sr." in front of it. If in doubt, the determining factor between Jr. and Sr. is "do you ask people questions, or do people ask questions of you?" If your peers are always coming to you for help/advice, you're a Sr. If you're always having to go ask for help from your peers, you're a Jr.
2) Be willing to accept contract / contract-to-hire jobs. Even though I'm currently in a full-time position, it seems the contract / CTH gig is by far the easiest way in the door at a couple companies. And while the job market is fairly tight with a lot of applicants, there are a lot of people who have NO CLUE applying for (and getting) these jobs. If you really know your stuff and can prove yourself, you can go from contract to full-time pretty easily.
3) Network. It's a buzz-word, I know, but get out, get to know people, do favors for people, etc. The more people you know, the easier it is to get in the door. It sucks, but it's the truth. Every job I've held, I've gotten because of people I know. I had one offer once that came as a result of a resume posted to Monster, which I ended up not taking (that one was Amazon), but the jobs I've actually held were due to references from people I knew.
If I had a big group to feed, I think that whale would do quite nicely, thank you. Any chance you and I could partner to develop a more friendly, targeted, whales-only dynamite? I mean really, we're talking food here, let's leave the small fry out of it, don't you think?
I was speaking about commonly available, modern, 3d-capable hardware. They might be out there, but I've never seen an Intel video card on the shelf at the local Fry's.
Comparing nVidia with AMD/ATI, nVidia has always had more "just works." I left out Matrox, because even though they've always been great solid cards and indeed have/had great Linux support, they're not something I would buy to put in a new machine (though since you mention them, I probably own at least 5 or 6 of them, in various PCI and AGP configurations, and I still use them in some of my older boxes - they're some of the best 2D cards out there).
If you can show me a discrete Intel card in the $75-$125 price range with comparable performance to an ATI or nVidia card in that same price range, by all means, I'd be interested in going that route next time I build a machine (though that will probably be at least another 6-8 years, considering I haven't even bothered to turn my desktop machine back on after the last power outage 3 months ago).
I'm a pragmatist... I get behind the company who best supports their hardware on Linux, regardless of if the driver is open or closed source... I just want it to work dammit, and in my experience nVidia has always had more "just works" on Linux. AMD might "support" open source drivers and such, but I've always been very disappointed by the end result. So, if I want it to work on Linux, I buy nVidia, end of story.
I can re-image a couple hundred servers in a day or two, easily, and have done so many times. Apparently I'm working for the wrong employer, if I can make 130,000 Euros for two days' work somewhere else. If it's a bunch of different hardware spread across multiple geographic locations, it could take a few weeks to get all the infrastructure in place and do all the testing, but I'd still be willing to take 130,000 EUR/month for that kind of job.
It really depends on the gun. I have a few different carry guns, depending on the situation. I have a couple of single-action autos* that I carry "cocked and locked" with a round chambered, and the gun holstered. There's not a chance I'd carry a 1911 un-holstered in that condition, even though it has enough safety features it would be highly unlikely to have an AD.
That said, the gun I've most frequently carried over the past 8 years or so is a Kel-Tec P3AT, which has no safety. I carry it with a belt clip only, no holster, and I carry it chambered. It's not a safety concern to me, because it's a DAO pistol. the trigger pull is about 1" long and very heavy, and is small enough that my jeans act as an effective holster (keeping something from accidentally catching and pulling the trigger).
The most important things to consider are: 1) Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire and 2) Carry in such a way that nothing else can accidentally pull the trigger.
To do #2 effectively, you must know the firearm you carry inside and out. Know its safe modes of carry, and its unsafe modes of carry, and only carry it using safe modes of carry. Even beyond that, only carry in a manner you feel comfortable with - For some people, this means don't carry a 1911 cocked and locked, carry it un-chambered, even though C&L is considered a safe mode of carry for that firearm. For a DAO pistol, chambered and holstered is fine, and they usually don't have a safety. If that makes you nervous, don't chamber a round.
Finally, even though open carry is perfectly legal in many places, it's usually a good idea to conceal just to avoid freaking people out who aren't familiar with guns. I support the right to open carry, but I think a lot of people who do it are idiots looking for a fight, and that I don't like. If you do open carry and someone complains to you, be polite and encourage them to call police if they're concerned. Let the dispatcher be the one to tell them that what you're doing is perfectly legal and they should ignore you and move on with their lives. Don't be an ass about it, or you'll just give the rest of us a bad name.
*Side Note: "Autos" in this context means an auto-loading pistol, as opposed to something like a revolver. It does not, in this context, mean it lets off a string of shots every time I pull the trigger.
If only I had mod points... Agile is another buzzword for management to hide behind and another way for them to pin their personal failures on the people who work for them. Hooray.
Right, you should be running on Linux, obviously. Anyone who doubts the security of Linux should just look at Android, and how secure and untouched by malware it is... oh wait. Umm... maybe OpenBSD? I mean, it's gotta be secure, cause Theo says so. So do the other 3 people who use it.
Maybe it's actually more important to just run a modern OS behind a good firewall, use safe computing practices (don't blindly click on stupid stuff from computers or networks with sensitive information), and keep everything well-patched. That will remove > 98% of risk. A properly locked down and patched Windows machine is no less secure than a properly locked down and patched Linux, Apple, BSD, or other machine.
Re:"will it be enough to revive HP's server fleet?
on
HP Launches Moonshot
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I'll absolutely second this - HP's servers kick ass, quite frankly. They've had a few pretty major problems in recent years (P400 and P800 array controllers were absolute pieces of shit from a reliability standpoint, and the P410 STILL doesn't work quite right with SATA drives, though it rocks with SAS disks), but overall the engineering that goes into HP servers puts them well ahead of their competition, from what I've experienced. I've used Dell, IBM, white box, and HP, on the scale of "hundreds to thousands" of each brand, stretching back 10+ years.
The HP's have been more reliable, more configurable, more robust (yes, this is different from reliable), more manageable, and FAR better supported. There's a reason companies pay a premium for HP hardware, and it's because it pays for itself many over during the life of the hardware.
There are companies and applications that don't need that kind of reliability and run on shoddy white-box hardware... think Google, Facebook, etc. There are others, particularly stateful services like telephony and conferencing, that depend on reliable hardware. For those like that, servers like what HP provides will always be in demand. So long as HP maintains their focus on engineering in the server space, they won't be going anywhere soon.
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Yeah... because multi-sourcing major components of the 787 dreamsaster has worked out SO well for them. People keep talking about Alan Mulally's future in connection with Microsoft, but if anyone's gonna poach him from Ford it *should* be Boeing. A lot of heads need to roll over in Chicago to get that company back on track.
...when I put a piece of black electrical tape over the webcam on my laptop and tablet. Ok, maybe I was being paranoid, but as we've all seen now: "Just because we're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get us." Sometimes I hate being right.
Buy it all, figure out what works, return what sucks... that's what return policies are for (and incidentally is what happened to the last Belkin product I purchased, and why I'll never purchase another one).
That, or if you're buying for a business just remember: No one ever got fired for buying IBM, F5 or Cisco. Or HP for servers. ProLiants really do kick ass, although I hear Dells tend to use a little less power for equivalent performance... probably because they skimped on the redundant fans or some other "doesn't seem to matter until you need it" hardware (but that's pure speculation).
Or it's possible Dell equipment runs by feeding on the souls of the poor bastards that have to use it. Anything is possible.
They both do it... "corporate philanthropy" (or whatever you want to call it) is a big thing with Microsoft. There are a few reasons for that, I think... part of it is because Microsoft is actually made up of people, some of whom actually care about other people. Part of it is also because there are interesting technical problems involved in disaster response, and places where software can help. Finally, being involved in humanitarian efforts gives corporations a bit of a better public image.
Remember though, that the shitloads of money Microsoft made for sir Gates has been dumped into all manner of medical research, and while the company may spend millions on development and investigation of smelly ideas, they also spend millions on disaster relief around the world, donations to charities, matching gifts for employee donations, etc.
There are many, many things wrong with Microsoft's corporate culture, but the amount they give to charity in support of all manner of humanitarian efforts is one of the things I've always really liked about them.
Disclaimer: I'm currently employed by Microsoft (for just a short while longer), however the opinion above is entirely my own.
By your wonderful logic, de-bounce capacitors should be removed from everything with a pushbutton too... obviously, bounce is a hardware and/or user problem. The user should press the damn button quickly and firmly enough, and it should be designed with good enough contacts, that there's no bounce. So let's just remove all the de-bounce caps and call everything else a user problem.
And then we'll call our hardware company "Apple."
Anyone who told you it's hard to configure was either running it on a VERY oddball hardware setup, or was lying to you. I originally switched to Slackware (in 2001) because it was so much easier to make everything "just work" than it was with the other distros. I still use it for that reason. I can go from bare metal to fully working system in a half hour or less.
Also, I got tired of the circular dependency hell from the other distros of the time. Maybe they're better now, but Slack's package management works just fine for me, thankyouverymuch.
You might get a lot of good people, but you'll probably miss out on the great ones. That's alright though, because thankfully for every shortsighted company like yours, there's another one that cares more about what people know and can demonstrate through their experience than about where they went to school. My experience has been that most of the people with the education are adequate, but most of the best employees have come in with completely unrelated (if any) schooling, and often from completely unrelated industries.
Interesting... that feature actually makes sense, in most contexts outside of gaming. I can't count the number of times I've called my laptop bad names because the cursor jumped while I was typing, due to me accidentally brushing against the touch pad. It's unfortunate it doesn't distinguish between a built-in touch pad and an external mouse though.
Mr. Anonymous, sorry about your loss - such things are never easy.
I hope you're not overly offended by those of us who make light of the image of crotch-sniffing dogs in women's clinics. I'm not sure of the person who made the "Wanted:" comment above, but for many people (myself included) humor is simply a way of dealing with the unpleasant and often painful realities of life. So, it's not an attempt to be dismissive of the pain and overall nastiness of the disease, but more coping mechanism. At least for some. Others truly are just insensitive clods.
What do you mean rudderless? Of course it has a rudder... it's just hard over to one side, and the control cable is broken.
Guess what... a lot of that is probably people on H1-B visas, who will very often work more hours for less pay. It's not that the number of American developers will grow by 25%, simply that the number of developers in the US will grow by 25%.
I am not knowing what is it wrong with that?
Haven't tried one of their new phones then, I see? I just bought a Nokia 521 on T-Mobile a few days ago, and so far I love it. They might be behind, and yes, killing off Symbian as quickly as they did may have been a bad mistake, but I think they've carved out a decent niche with WP, and are very much still in the running. Awesome hardware running a decent OS (and the only one I've seen that doesn't look like Win95 puked icons on the screen), I really think Nokia could've made substantially worse decisions.
Sadly, this is probably the most accurate version of what's happening today. The immigrants cheering this on seem to not realize that the immigration reform currently in the works is merely a way to legalize and increase the exploitation of those already here illegally. This will not end well, for anyone. We'll bring more tired and poor from overseas, as long as they have barely sufficient technical skill to push the right buttons at approximately the right time. We'll displace skilled workers with cheap, barely adequate labor, while working the cheap, barely adequate labor until they burn out and go home with their relative riches.
In the end we'll cheapen the skilled jobs to the point no one bothers to acquire the skills, and bring them down to the pay scale of a waiter at a middle-class restaurant, but working double the hours.
I wouldn't say the Sr. knows (or thinks they know) everything, but that the things they don't know they can either figure out on their own (using appropriate references such as books, internet, etc.), or have to go way above their peers to figure out. As an example, the things I have questions about and can't figure out quickly, I usually have to escalate to T3 product support from the vendor - they're not things that can be found/fixed by simple web searches or a quick question of a peer. Once talking to T3, the cases sometimes go on for weeks, and in a couple cases have resulted in the vendor publishing hotfixes because I had uncovered a bug in the product.
1) Someone else mentioned that SysAdmin is now spelled "Systems Engineer." This is absolute truth - I updated my resume and changed my current title from System Administrator to Systems Engineer, and immediately started getting on average 2-3 calls/emails per week. I think I also put "Sr." in front of it. If in doubt, the determining factor between Jr. and Sr. is "do you ask people questions, or do people ask questions of you?" If your peers are always coming to you for help/advice, you're a Sr. If you're always having to go ask for help from your peers, you're a Jr.
2) Be willing to accept contract / contract-to-hire jobs. Even though I'm currently in a full-time position, it seems the contract / CTH gig is by far the easiest way in the door at a couple companies. And while the job market is fairly tight with a lot of applicants, there are a lot of people who have NO CLUE applying for (and getting) these jobs. If you really know your stuff and can prove yourself, you can go from contract to full-time pretty easily.
3) Network. It's a buzz-word, I know, but get out, get to know people, do favors for people, etc. The more people you know, the easier it is to get in the door. It sucks, but it's the truth. Every job I've held, I've gotten because of people I know. I had one offer once that came as a result of a resume posted to Monster, which I ended up not taking (that one was Amazon), but the jobs I've actually held were due to references from people I knew.
Good luck.
If I had a big group to feed, I think that whale would do quite nicely, thank you. Any chance you and I could partner to develop a more friendly, targeted, whales-only dynamite? I mean really, we're talking food here, let's leave the small fry out of it, don't you think?
I was speaking about commonly available, modern, 3d-capable hardware. They might be out there, but I've never seen an Intel video card on the shelf at the local Fry's.
Comparing nVidia with AMD/ATI, nVidia has always had more "just works." I left out Matrox, because even though they've always been great solid cards and indeed have/had great Linux support, they're not something I would buy to put in a new machine (though since you mention them, I probably own at least 5 or 6 of them, in various PCI and AGP configurations, and I still use them in some of my older boxes - they're some of the best 2D cards out there).
If you can show me a discrete Intel card in the $75-$125 price range with comparable performance to an ATI or nVidia card in that same price range, by all means, I'd be interested in going that route next time I build a machine (though that will probably be at least another 6-8 years, considering I haven't even bothered to turn my desktop machine back on after the last power outage 3 months ago).
I'm a pragmatist... I get behind the company who best supports their hardware on Linux, regardless of if the driver is open or closed source... I just want it to work dammit, and in my experience nVidia has always had more "just works" on Linux. AMD might "support" open source drivers and such, but I've always been very disappointed by the end result. So, if I want it to work on Linux, I buy nVidia, end of story.
I can re-image a couple hundred servers in a day or two, easily, and have done so many times. Apparently I'm working for the wrong employer, if I can make 130,000 Euros for two days' work somewhere else. If it's a bunch of different hardware spread across multiple geographic locations, it could take a few weeks to get all the infrastructure in place and do all the testing, but I'd still be willing to take 130,000 EUR/month for that kind of job.
It really depends on the gun. I have a few different carry guns, depending on the situation. I have a couple of single-action autos* that I carry "cocked and locked" with a round chambered, and the gun holstered. There's not a chance I'd carry a 1911 un-holstered in that condition, even though it has enough safety features it would be highly unlikely to have an AD.
That said, the gun I've most frequently carried over the past 8 years or so is a Kel-Tec P3AT, which has no safety. I carry it with a belt clip only, no holster, and I carry it chambered. It's not a safety concern to me, because it's a DAO pistol. the trigger pull is about 1" long and very heavy, and is small enough that my jeans act as an effective holster (keeping something from accidentally catching and pulling the trigger).
The most important things to consider are: 1) Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire and 2) Carry in such a way that nothing else can accidentally pull the trigger.
To do #2 effectively, you must know the firearm you carry inside and out. Know its safe modes of carry, and its unsafe modes of carry, and only carry it using safe modes of carry. Even beyond that, only carry in a manner you feel comfortable with - For some people, this means don't carry a 1911 cocked and locked, carry it un-chambered, even though C&L is considered a safe mode of carry for that firearm. For a DAO pistol, chambered and holstered is fine, and they usually don't have a safety. If that makes you nervous, don't chamber a round.
Finally, even though open carry is perfectly legal in many places, it's usually a good idea to conceal just to avoid freaking people out who aren't familiar with guns. I support the right to open carry, but I think a lot of people who do it are idiots looking for a fight, and that I don't like. If you do open carry and someone complains to you, be polite and encourage them to call police if they're concerned. Let the dispatcher be the one to tell them that what you're doing is perfectly legal and they should ignore you and move on with their lives. Don't be an ass about it, or you'll just give the rest of us a bad name.
*Side Note: "Autos" in this context means an auto-loading pistol, as opposed to something like a revolver. It does not, in this context, mean it lets off a string of shots every time I pull the trigger.
If only I had mod points... Agile is another buzzword for management to hide behind and another way for them to pin their personal failures on the people who work for them. Hooray.
Corporate America sucks.
Right, you should be running on Linux, obviously. Anyone who doubts the security of Linux should just look at Android, and how secure and untouched by malware it is... oh wait. Umm... maybe OpenBSD? I mean, it's gotta be secure, cause Theo says so. So do the other 3 people who use it.
Maybe it's actually more important to just run a modern OS behind a good firewall, use safe computing practices (don't blindly click on stupid stuff from computers or networks with sensitive information), and keep everything well-patched. That will remove > 98% of risk. A properly locked down and patched Windows machine is no less secure than a properly locked down and patched Linux, Apple, BSD, or other machine.
I'll absolutely second this - HP's servers kick ass, quite frankly. They've had a few pretty major problems in recent years (P400 and P800 array controllers were absolute pieces of shit from a reliability standpoint, and the P410 STILL doesn't work quite right with SATA drives, though it rocks with SAS disks), but overall the engineering that goes into HP servers puts them well ahead of their competition, from what I've experienced. I've used Dell, IBM, white box, and HP, on the scale of "hundreds to thousands" of each brand, stretching back 10+ years.
The HP's have been more reliable, more configurable, more robust (yes, this is different from reliable), more manageable, and FAR better supported. There's a reason companies pay a premium for HP hardware, and it's because it pays for itself many over during the life of the hardware.
There are companies and applications that don't need that kind of reliability and run on shoddy white-box hardware... think Google, Facebook, etc. There are others, particularly stateful services like telephony and conferencing, that depend on reliable hardware. For those like that, servers like what HP provides will always be in demand. So long as HP maintains their focus on engineering in the server space, they won't be going anywhere soon.