... but I do think that cost is a major cause. The target market is in the late teens and while this segment has a lot of purchasing power, they're also a hotly metketed-to segment.
This inevitably results in fierce competition for the teen dollar, and hey, "if I can get this game for free, I can afford to spend the money on that neat pair of sneakers everyone says are so cool" and so on...
Now, for me, as an adult with a bit more of a budget than the average 18 year-old, the release date thing really annoys me. In Australia we usually have a long wait for product 'x', but I can buy online if I so choose and bypass the release date problem (except where a PAL version of a console game isn't available until long after the NTSC version)
... was to just get rid of a lot of equipment. Some was sold, some thrown away, some stuff is boxed up in case I ever need it again.
I sold off a couple of desktop machines and consolidated one good one, shifted a file server off into another room, went wireless where I could (though I've since rewired the main desktop box for network) and generally tried to cut down on clutter (like unplugging some rarely-used peripherals such as joystick, drawing tablet etc, getting a wireless keyboard and mouse with a decent battery charger).
I also fixed two powerboards and a network switch to the underside of my main desk, and shortened some cable runs so the cables were up off the floor. The long cables now serve a more useful purpose with my guitar and bass amps.
Turns out I'm a lot better off, though the clutter is inevitably going to build up again.
Oh, and I also rely more on my laptops than I used to, which is a factor in cutting down on the static hardware, I suppose
"the last thing the probe will photograph as it plummets to destruction in a small, grey, spindly, large-eyed biped looking upwards with a suprised look on its face"
I'll back you up on that, even though I'm an expat. I went 'home' recently for a flying visit and the centre of town (Swansea) had morphed from the reasonably calm (ish) regional centre I remembered into some kind of mad alcohol fueled anarchic mental asylum, with gangs of nutcases beating random objects and people in an alcoholic haze, as if somehow hoping it'd impress the half-dressed drunk chicks.
I wasn't happy. I'm not used to feeling scared in my 'own' town (and I'm not a small defenseless lad either). I was relieved to take a night out in Sydney on my return and actually feel comfortable.
But back to the bins. The fact the bins move around and form relationships with the benches worries me. Picture this: hot summer day. some genius has slathered a bin in sugary drinks, and wasps are congregating, as they do. You take a seat at a handy bench and take out your newspaper and start the crossword. Two minutes later said bin wanders up and starts nuzzling the bench, unwittingly bringing its deadly cargo of waspdom with it. Engrossed in the crossword, you don't notice until it's too late and one of the stripey bastards has found its way down the back of your neck...
Was I talking about IE? Was the OP? Surely we were debating the patch process in general, not specifically IE?
Besides which, a hell of a lot of corporates consider their intranet (extranet/web) apps 'critical'. IE (or other browser) is a major component in that mission-critical situation, wouldn't you say?
Your company just seems to have a problem of balance. Your company may have a slow process, but equally they'd be insane to lean too much the other way and just let the techies spin out patches willy-nilly without fear or favour.
Striking a balance is the trick, and non-technical managers will tend towards the extremely cautious end of the scale without their caution being necessarily grounded in a realistic appraisal of the problem. They don't realy understand it, so they go slowly and have accountability at every step.
Sounds like you might want a shorter chain of command, with technically knowledgable managers making the calls.
How you get that to happen, well, I really don't know. A new CEO might be a start (it's worked at my old company)
to be fair, it did seem to me like an offhand remark, so perhaps the esteemed journos being paid to write the puff should have italicized it. Hard to know without having the original remark handy, but as this was at TechEd, maybe a video or audio piece will become available...
real OSS projects actually have an organizational structure.. a closer knit group of users associated with the project will test and comment (or fix) problems they see with code. when the code seems to be good, it is released to the public as an actual release.
So what's different about that compared to the pre-release testers employed by Microsoft? not a lot, it may seem. Besides, my reading of the OP's post didn't indicate this was the meaning at all.
The fact is, going back to the OP's harebrained scheme, that no-one is going to apply a patch to a critical environment unless it's been through major testing. Sure, your l33t box under your desk which you rebuild every week anyway? patch it with whatever you like, but a production database server pushing out data to thousands of clients? I want that bastard tested thoroughly before the patch ever hits the net.
To the consumer, yes. IE is 'the internet'. Besides which, a patch which had a regression flaw and opened something exploitable by a major worm could cause mayhem beyond just breaking windows clients. A massive DDOS caused by a hole in IE? that would be nice, eh?
Ebola, as it currently stands, is too deadly to be a global threat. that's right. too deadly. it kills the host too quickly and in too spectacular a manner to achieve a serious spread. The real killers are the ones that spread silently, then take effect. Like flu.
Of course, it could mutate into a slower incubating version, in which case panic, put until then, I'm not worried about filoviruses. I'd be more worried about the asian 'bird flu'.
Could be costly - Windows + CALs + licences for the app in question, but if the budget is there this is a really good option. It'd most certainly be cheaper and less disruptive than rolling out XP to each desktop. Also has the advatanges of making updates to the LOB app really easy - one machine and off you go.
Price-wise, getting the app to run on the desktops would be cheaper, but almost certainly more of a nightmare in an ongoing situation.
'the dole' here down under... not sure why we call it that
dole1 n.
1. Charitable dispensation of goods, especially money, food, or clothing.
2. A share of money, food, or clothing that has been charitably given.
3. Chiefly British. The distribution by the government of relief payments to the unemployed; welfare.
4. Archaic. One's fate.
tr.v. doled, doling, doles
1. To dispense as charity.
2. To give out in small portions; distribute sparingly. See Synonyms at distribute.
So does this mean that it is likely that Microsoft are running AMD chips in their servers?
Not a clue what they're running at the end of the big pipes in the US, but the ones I've seen (and one I configured) in AU are HP, running Itaniums, IIRC, though it's possible they're in for a consulting job rather than for MSIT.
My recollection may be shaky, though, as I can't find the actual model on the HP site as yet...
Slashdot Mirror
Remember the recent Second Life Grey Goo incident?
I see Disney's MMORPG crumbling under a flood of magical fantasia broomsticks
... but I do think that cost is a major cause. The target market is in the late teens and while this segment has a lot of purchasing power, they're also a hotly metketed-to segment.
This inevitably results in fierce competition for the teen dollar, and hey, "if I can get this game for free, I can afford to spend the money on that neat pair of sneakers everyone says are so cool" and so on...
Now, for me, as an adult with a bit more of a budget than the average 18 year-old, the release date thing really annoys me. In Australia we usually have a long wait for product 'x', but I can buy online if I so choose and bypass the release date problem (except where a PAL version of a console game isn't available until long after the NTSC version)
So yeah, I think cost is the biggest factor.
> Either way I plan on getting up after the sun rises.
You're saying the sun *rises*?
I don't believe you - I've never seen it do that....
... was to just get rid of a lot of equipment. Some was sold, some thrown away, some stuff is boxed up in case I ever need it again.
I sold off a couple of desktop machines and consolidated one good one, shifted a file server off into another room, went wireless where I could (though I've since rewired the main desktop box for network) and generally tried to cut down on clutter (like unplugging some rarely-used peripherals such as joystick, drawing tablet etc, getting a wireless keyboard and mouse with a decent battery charger).
I also fixed two powerboards and a network switch to the underside of my main desk, and shortened some cable runs so the cables were up off the floor. The long cables now serve a more useful purpose with my guitar and bass amps.
Turns out I'm a lot better off, though the clutter is inevitably going to build up again.
Oh, and I also rely more on my laptops than I used to, which is a factor in cutting down on the static hardware, I suppose
two words
XP SP2
and if you don't have:
install XP, then switch on the damn firewall before you plug in the bloody ethernet cable
My alien-related thought was
"the last thing the probe will photograph as it plummets to destruction in a small, grey, spindly, large-eyed biped looking upwards with a suprised look on its face"
then I sobered up.
I'll back you up on that, even though I'm an expat. I went 'home' recently for a flying visit and the centre of town (Swansea) had morphed from the reasonably calm (ish) regional centre I remembered into some kind of mad alcohol fueled anarchic mental asylum, with gangs of nutcases beating random objects and people in an alcoholic haze, as if somehow hoping it'd impress the half-dressed drunk chicks.
I wasn't happy. I'm not used to feeling scared in my 'own' town (and I'm not a small defenseless lad either). I was relieved to take a night out in Sydney on my return and actually feel comfortable.
But back to the bins. The fact the bins move around and form relationships with the benches worries me. Picture this: hot summer day. some genius has slathered a bin in sugary drinks, and wasps are congregating, as they do. You take a seat at a handy bench and take out your newspaper and start the crossword. Two minutes later said bin wanders up and starts nuzzling the bench, unwittingly bringing its deadly cargo of waspdom with it. Engrossed in the crossword, you don't notice until it's too late and one of the stripey bastards has found its way down the back of your neck...
Aaaaaargh!!!
If I hadn't alerady posted to the thread, I'd give you a +5 "Painfully True" for that one.
Was I talking about IE? Was the OP? Surely we were debating the patch process in general, not specifically IE?
Besides which, a hell of a lot of corporates consider their intranet (extranet/web) apps 'critical'. IE (or other browser) is a major component in that mission-critical situation, wouldn't you say?
Your company just seems to have a problem of balance. Your company may have a slow process, but equally they'd be insane to lean too much the other way and just let the techies spin out patches willy-nilly without fear or favour.
Striking a balance is the trick, and non-technical managers will tend towards the extremely cautious end of the scale without their caution being necessarily grounded in a realistic appraisal of the problem. They don't realy understand it, so they go slowly and have accountability at every step.
Sounds like you might want a shorter chain of command, with technically knowledgable managers making the calls.
How you get that to happen, well, I really don't know. A new CEO might be a start (it's worked at my old company)
to be fair, it did seem to me like an offhand remark, so perhaps the esteemed journos being paid to write the puff should have italicized it. Hard to know without having the original remark handy, but as this was at TechEd, maybe a video or audio piece will become available...
real OSS projects actually have an organizational structure.. a closer knit group of users associated with the project will test and comment (or fix) problems they see with code. when the code seems to be good, it is released to the public as an actual release.
So what's different about that compared to the pre-release testers employed by Microsoft? not a lot, it may seem. Besides, my reading of the OP's post didn't indicate this was the meaning at all.
The fact is, going back to the OP's harebrained scheme, that no-one is going to apply a patch to a critical environment unless it's been through major testing. Sure, your l33t box under your desk which you rebuild every week anyway? patch it with whatever you like, but a production database server pushing out data to thousands of clients? I want that bastard tested thoroughly before the patch ever hits the net.
According to Microsoft, it's the open source software that is being written by one million monkeys.
Sometimes, you have to consider the possibility that they may be right
To the consumer, yes. IE is 'the internet'. Besides which, a patch which had a regression flaw and opened something exploitable by a major worm could cause mayhem beyond just breaking windows clients. A massive DDOS caused by a hole in IE? that would be nice, eh?
are you seriously suggesting you'd just release a brand new patch into the wild without even cursory testing?
who's going to want to install it? when everyone is a guinea pig, a certain reluctance to jump in first may manifest itself.
Ebola, as it currently stands, is too deadly to be a global threat. that's right. too deadly. it kills the host too quickly and in too spectacular a manner to achieve a serious spread. The real killers are the ones that spread silently, then take effect. Like flu.
Of course, it could mutate into a slower incubating version, in which case panic, put until then, I'm not worried about filoviruses. I'd be more worried about the asian 'bird flu'.
Could be costly - Windows + CALs + licences for the app in question, but if the budget is there this is a really good option. It'd most certainly be cheaper and less disruptive than rolling out XP to each desktop. Also has the advatanges of making updates to the LOB app really easy - one machine and off you go.
Price-wise, getting the app to run on the desktops would be cheaper, but almost certainly more of a nightmare in an ongoing situation.
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/cult/ay n-rand/
'the dole' here down under... not sure why we call it that
dole1 n.
1. Charitable dispensation of goods, especially money, food, or clothing.
2. A share of money, food, or clothing that has been charitably given.
3. Chiefly British. The distribution by the government of relief payments to the unemployed; welfare.
4. Archaic. One's fate.
tr.v. doled, doling, doles
1. To dispense as charity.
2. To give out in small portions; distribute sparingly. See Synonyms at distribute.
my point exactly...
to do in two hours what the BBC miniseries couldn't do in six or eight or however long it was
If I remember rightly, the TV series was 6 episodes of 30 minutes..... Amazon confirms
put your spellchecker on danger money, baby.
So does this mean that it is likely that Microsoft are running AMD chips in their servers?
Not a clue what they're running at the end of the big pipes in the US, but the ones I've seen (and one I configured) in AU are HP, running Itaniums, IIRC, though it's possible they're in for a consulting job rather than for MSIT.
My recollection may be shaky, though, as I can't find the actual model on the HP site as yet...
mod -1 missed the joke.
or maybe I had a sense of humour failure... that's as likely.
1894: Aldous Huxley Born, Tower Bridge opens to vehicle traffic, Women In South Australia gain right to vote, among other things.
Nothing about this 'double think' of which you speak though