Sounds a lot like Novell's iFolder which is a really neat application. Sync files from a central store to multiple computers using a thin client, or access then via a web browser. You can have any number of folders and control who can access what in each folder.
Well except iFolder will run on all platforms (mono), not just Windows. And it's free.
Except many people have varying concepts of affordable. I have kids so the BCBS plans for a family run in the range of $600 (barely covers anything) to a typical co-pay 100% plan you'd find at most corporations which runs almost $1100. That's over $13,000 a YEAR for health coverage. It's pretty scary when you're paying as much for health insurance as you are for your mortgage.
Healthcare in this country is broken. We spend insane amounts on all the bean counters whose job is specifically to figure out how NOT to cover something and then blow hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars on a war fought over a lie and yet universal healthcare is some sort of evil that we can't afford.
I know catastrophic illnesses can cost a lot of money. But over the course of, say, 20 years while your kids grow up, how many people are going to even come spent more than 25% of the $260,000 they pay in premiums.
I also think it should be illegal for hospitals and doctors to 'negotiate' rates with insurance companies. Why does being self employed, poor, or a small business owner mean you have to pay 2-3 times more for services than someone who works for IBM? Everytime I see those EOBs where 50-75% of the cost is 'negotiated away' - we're all human - if they can survive charging $300 for a procedure, it should cost $300 for EVERYbody, not just people stuck in cubicles.
And for those of you who will scream 'I don't want to pay for other people's healthcare in a universal system' you're naive. You already do. Besides that - you're supposed to be all 'support the small businesses' well, healthcare costs are a HUGE expense for small businesses. Imagine how many more would thrive if they didn't have such a disadvantage compared to medium or large size businesses?
Good luck finding coverage you can afford. You're going to need it. Like the previous poster said - you almost HAVE to have the co-pay plan with young kids - the doctor visits are frequent. You're pretty much stuck.
So the killer feature everyone is talking about is the ability to send songs and pictures to friends with Zune players. Cool idea. But the DRM will disable any transferred song after it is played three times or after three days whichever comes first.
I can see legally why thay had to do that, but I'm not sure that makes the wireless feature the killer app everyone thinks it is. Sure, some people may buy a song a friend sends them that they like after listening to it a couple of times, but again - neat feature, but not sure it's going to make Jobs quake in his boots.
You know it doesn't say much for an application when you have to RTFM to start it. I mean come on. I'm glad that this is a 'known issue', but expecting every user to read the bug list to try and start a program in
This is coming from an open source advocate and some who tries to get people to try Openoffice. But if I have to tell someone (oh yeah you need to do this, this and this jsut to get it to start in less than 30 seconds) sorry - that's a huge issue and means it won't get used. No matter have big a font they us in TFM.
Anyway - thanks for the pointers - yes DMA is turned on - always has been. -nodefault didn't do anything, but disabling java helped some. Still takes too long to start though.
i can't belive he asked slashdot.. there are plenty of forums out there deticated to this type of stuff.
Why is it every time someone asks a legitimate IT question on/. the poster is ridiculed with the above statement. Every. Single. Time. I for one think/. is a GREAT place to ask questions like these. Unless you've been the 'jack of all trades' IT guy at a small company, you have no idea what it is like. You're expected to know EVERYthing. Sure - there are forums all over the place dedicated to this specialty or that specialty. And if he was a network admin only, he likely would read those forums every day.
I think/. is a great place to ask questions like these. Sure you have trolls and ACs who sometime suggest silly solutions. But you also have a LOT of hardened geeks and IT types who have been around the block a few times who make good suggestions. Already here I've seen 3 or 4 solid solutions that he can now consider and do more research on to see which fits his company best.
Asking/. a question is not a sign of a n00b or bad IT person. What better place than one of the biggest techie readerships on the Internet to ask questions. I find many Ask Slashdot threads to be very informative, filed away for 'future use'
At least you followed up the standard 'I can't believe he asked/.' with an actual, you know, answer.
OK, move along nothign to see here. I had to waste a little Karma anyway.
You obviously never had to move some of the early generation HDTV triple CRT projection units. A friend of mine bought a 65" unit that had to weigh 170 lbs. The thing was a monster. We had to build ramps to get the thing off the semi trailer and onto a pickup truck which we backed up to his deck and used ramps to roll it to the house. Getting it over the door sill was an engineering feat.
So yes, a large HDTV monitor weighing 60lbs is VERY light. Most sets weighed 100lbs or more.
My #1 complaint with OOffice, on Suse anyway, is the extremely long start times. Doesn't matter if its the distribution RPMs or upgraded ones direct from OOffice. It can take 30-60 seconds to get the application open. Once it's open, it is very responsive (This is on a 2GHz Athlon 64 system), but the start times are killer. I don't mind if I'm working on docs and keep a window up and open, but for starting and viewing documents from email for example, its brutal. I've started using KWord/KCalc, etc which are much worse compatability wise, but start so much faster I don't care if the formatting is a bit off.
It is so sad when people try to do something nice (i.e. a tribute) only to be smacked down by money hungry trusts and estates who have no concept of the greater good. I think Google's logo art is an awesome thing. They gain nothing from it, yet it raises awareness of people, places, and causes.
I'm all for copyrights and trademark protection when it comes to trying to protect an authors original work, but come on. A tribute that would stay up 1-2 days honoring the artist and they make this big a deal over it?
Sigh - this world gets more screwed up by the day
While Insteon may be the next big thing, I think X10's problem is not X10 - it is all the crap we've added to our homes. If you want X10 to work properly in your home, you need to prep your home for X10.
I have 3 dwellings on my land - a large house, a small ranch on a seperate meter, and a detached garage/office served via a 60AMP 220V branch from the main panel in the large house.
For various reasons, my main X10 injection points are currently in the small ranch (RF receiver and HA controller TW-523) This means X10 signals to devices in the garage have to go from the ranch panel, through the meter, into the splices underground, back to the main house, and out to the garage via a 150 foot underground feed. My X10 devices work very well and false triggers simply don't happen. The garage units work just fine.
My setup is not super complex, but I did take some precautions. The small ranch and the main house each have a Leviton bridge/repeater units in their panels. The two panels also have the LV6289 RF filters which eliminate noise outside the narrow band X10 uses. They are wired in the panel between each hot leg and neutral. I have probably 6 UPS units in the house, but only have the 2200W server UPS on a 15A X10 block. I've never needed them with these filters in place.
X10 is cheap and it is not very tolerant of noise. However if you take the time to prep your home for X10, it can work very well. Plus you get what you pay for. X10 units use custom ICs design in the 70s. If you want quality X10 devices, go with Leviton. You'll pay more, but Leviton units use small microcontrollers to process the PLC signals and have much better signal conditioning than the X10 devices.
X10 may wane over time, but it has been around for decades and continues to survive because it's cheap and usually works. If you don't feel up to the added cost of the next generation stuff, some simple upgrades to your eletrical infrastructure can make your X10 much more reliable. I'm perfectly happy with my X10 infrastructure and don't have problems like I used to before I added the whole house repeaters and filters. IN my experience, anyway, the filters were the key to finally having a stable X10 network. THe repeaters simply help the signals reach the far away places like the garage.
Re:IFolder concept great implimentation nightmare
on
Ifolder Server Review
·
· Score: 2, Informative
It it clear they have not looked beyond x86 right now. You can find binary RPMs for many i386/i586 platforms at: http://forgeftp.novell.com/ifolder/server/3.5/ Just click that latest build, then 'linux' then your OS. They include log4net, libflaim, and iFolder rpms.
I'm trying to get it built for x86_64 and have run into a few snag which I've outlined here. Anyone with more x86_64 build smarts than I, by all means let me know.
So yes, the source RPMs are not perfect as I have found, but they are buildable (well, I'm still working on iFolder-Server itself - I'm close) Remember, this JUST got released open source. I expect it will be a little while before the RPMs stabilize and work for all the variants out there.
Not to comment on the product itself, but... that's a whole load of astroturf right there.
Not even close. I just happen to have overseen a significant Novell deployment where iFolder was one of our more popular offerings with our users. Never have worked for Novell, sold it, etc. Only deployed it. Life with Novell wasn't without its pains, but overall we found it a great suite of products for what we needed to accomplish.
It raises a conflict and provides the user with a variety of options based on the files in question (who changed them last, when they were changed, etc) You choose how to handle it.
Again - iFolder is not meant as a file sharing replacement where files are locked and only one user at a time can change a file. Just like in SVN or CVS, conflicts will arise that you have to deal with. But they are recognized and they give you a variety of ways to handle it (in the end choosing which file 'wins') and, of course, contacting other users to see who made what changes to ensure non are lost (I believe on outcome you are presented with is to save copies of the files to preserve all changes)
Re:iFolder for Windows -- locking issues?!
on
Ifolder Server Review
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I assume you were using v2. v2 had no sharing ability (so you probably used a single userid for that iFolder) and I can see why you would have had locking problems. It seems like a normal NSS folder (since you mention you had Novell) would have been MUCH better as NSS has built in version control for files.
v3 has much better sharing support in it, but even then, for the use case you describe, an NSS folder would be the way to go.
FTP/SCP requires the server be accessible via a network unless you manually keep copies locally on your laptop for instance. iFolder syncs files between a server store and your local machine (or multiple machines) so you always have a copy. Microsoft Offline Files are a similar concept though I always found the way iFolder handled the sync to be much cleaner than they way MS did it.
All syncing is done over normal SSL HTTP connections (at least in v2 it was)
So iFolder ensures you'll always have your files available, even if you have no network connection (on a plane, etc) and when you get that connection back, makes sure everything is synced.
Really cool use case? Executives with assistants. Executive is travelling - they have all their files locally and those files get 'backed up' to a server when they get connected. But if the assistant has updated a bunch of files as well, the executive will get those updates pushed to their laptop during the next background sync (say in a hotel)
Think an automated version of rsync over ssh. iFolder uses a totally different architecture and has a lot of management and sharing features, but at its simplest use, syncing two folders between a PC and a server, it accomplishes what rsync over ssh would.
We used iFolder 2 in a Novell cluster and it was a really nice product. Our laptop users loved it. None of the hassles of Windows offline folders (which seems to try to use a sledgehammer to nail in a tack) iFolder simply sits in the background and watches your iFolder for changes/new files and seamlessly syncs them with the iFolder on the server. You could use an SSL browser w/Java to view your iFolder from other PCs, etc. The one thing that took a while to get yoru head around was that the file store on the server was encrypted, making backup interesting. But you could link the user with the directory name (which was a hash of some kind) so restores of an iFolder were possible, but restores of a single file were not. The benefit was the files were 'pre' encrypted so you didn't have to encrypt the files on teh fly. But the obvious downside was how to get granular backups. Not sure how v3 is handling that.
v3 of iFolder definitely takes it to the next level with the ability to share iFolders with others and the ability to have multiple iFolders. I've got the rpms on hand and am setting up a Virtual Server to give it a whirl here myself.
Remember - v3 of the server JUST got released as open source. They've been banging on it VERY hard so I don't expect it to be flawless. But its a very exciting product.
As for the windows locking issues - unless that's something the commentor saw in v3 - we had a lot of iFolder users and never saw locking problems, even from users with laptops and desktops who had iFolder active at the same time. That's one of the appeals for computer geeks with more than one computer - true sync of files between all platforms and the server. If you can afford the space usage, its nice to know that even if the network is down, each unit will have that file you need.
I hope iFolder draws a following - its a sweet product.
Its not - the point of the original commentor was that is was bullshit. I was pointing out in the given context (windows appliances being infected) that it wasn't and that I had seen the same types of things where black box appliances are poorly maintained by vendors and become major security risks. A majority of them happen to be windows simply due to market share.
But that hard truth is this - I'd rather have a *nix based black box that got infrequent updates than a Windows one. Not because Windows sucks but because of the sheer # of worms that hit WIndows vs *nix. Someday that may change, but for now...
I'd have to agree Trac seems to be just what he's looking for. I've been very impressed with it when using packages that manage their development with it.
And yes, it does syntax highlighting, and I think its the neatest syntax highlight setup I've seen in a while. It is very well done.
ANother option, harder to setup, but likely more feature rich, would be Horde. Horde has a Wiki module, bug tracking (whups), SVN access (Chora), and more. That's generally been the setup I've used, but Trac is really making me wonder what I'll do the next time I feel the need to upgrade my dev environment....
Just because something runs Windows doesn't mean it can be administered like your average server or desktop. I've seen plenty of black box setups where you didn't have admin rights to the system and relied on them to release patches, etc and they become virus vectors because the 3rd party vendors weren't fast enough to release fixes through their own infrastructure. Or the vendor insists on handling updates and they aren't quick enough.
So while it could jus tas easily be bullshit, I've dealt with plenty 'black box' system running windows underneath where they shut you out entirely and you end up with infected nodes that you can't fix and have to wait till the vendor does. That's when its time to find a new vendor.
My small data center started with an AMD K6-2 300Mhz server back in 1998. My local ISP loves me and I have a 1MBps symetric DSL line, friendly TOS, and 5 public IPs. As my friends and I hosted more websites, I added a 1GHz Athlon server with 18GB SCSI Mirror and 60GB IDE mirror using 3Ware cards. Two friends setup their own servers as well (vanilla Intel based boxen with mirrored drives). The noise was pretty intense and I started to notice a significant hit on the 'ol electric bill.
The servers lived on a 'RedLAN' protected initially by a Nortel IIS400 firewall and then by 3 NetGear RT311 firewalls, with a fourth for the GreenLAN. When the RT311s started to get DDoSed with kiddies exhausting their tiny NAT tables, we 'upgraded' to an old NORTEL Contivity 1500 firewall (so we could VPN into the RedLAN) while the GreenLAN moved behind a NetGear FVS318. Add to that probably 4 white box desktops and a laptop on the GreenLAN.
Needless to say, the noise, heat load, and cost of electricity started to become an issue. So when we built a new garage with a large heated space above it, I decided it was time to consolidate my network. So here's what I've got now - much happier
The garage office is the main network point. The 4 servers have been consolidated down to 2 and hopefully soon 1. The one server is a dual Opteron server (Tyan S2882 mobo) running Linux VServer (I think there are 12) Right now it only has 250GB of storage, but has an SATA drive cage with 5 slots that I likely will use to expand to 1TB. The RedLAN and GreenLAN firewalls were consolidated with a D-Link DFL-700 firewall (which was able to do port redirection to multiple internal IPs - a requirement for the migration of services) My friends and I host approximately 123 domains with varying amounts of service on each. The RedLAN stays in the garage currently. the GreenLAN goes underground to the house over a 150m fiber. I have 3 WRT54G access points running DD-WRT firmware providing wireless throughout the property (we have 7.5 acres) Network backbone is a mix of NetGear and D-Link switches. Env monitoring is done via an old APC unit (works nicely) The 1GHz Athlon is now a desktop for the kids. I use an AMD64 Shuttle SN95G (love it!) and my wife uses a new Compaq Presario V2414 laptop. Printing is done via an HP4000DN and a Zerba 2746e label printer (with NetGear PS101 print server) for a small business I have. I also have various network connected home automation widgets. So the Static IP list is longer than you'd think.
The power feeding the servers and certain lights in the garage is hooked up to a generator standby switch. An exterior generator connection provides backup power in a pinch. The bulk of the servers and network gear are on a TrippLite 2200W UPS with additional battery pack. The last time the power went, it ran for close to two hours before running low.
Oh and our 5 phone lines (don't ask) are run on a Panasonic Digital Hybrid TD-1232 PBX system with integrated voice mail and voice response services.
The change in the electric bill has been significant! And the noise level in the office is way down. I've been very happy with the VServer setup.
For once I'm fairly content. The only improvements awaiting improved cash flow will be to piggyback the RedLAN onto the fiber along with the GreenLAN (and managed switches with VLAN capability are still kind of pricey) so I can install a Simpletech NAS250 or NAS400 box in the house for 'offsite' data replication. If the cash flow really improved, I'd probably setup a very low power 'standby' server that could keep critical services up and running in the event of a serious hardware failure on the main server. And would love to build a Mini-ITX MythTV setup. But the kids gotta eat!
So I'm bucking the trend and cutting back/consolidating.
I use ClamAV and for would recommend it for servers hands down. It has done extremely well on my mail server catching all sorts of garbage (viruses, phishing emails, etc) I also run ClamWin and while I continue to use it, I have found it can be VERY CPU intensive during weekly scans. The system is still usable, but very sluggish while the scan runs. Even with the Priority setting set to 'Low'
I've had similar problems way back with Norton and McAfee. McAfee had a CPU slider that we always set to 10% on machines we deployed and we never got 'my computer is SO slow this morning' calls because the AV was running.
If ClamAV/ClamWin can implement something similar - that would be sweet (not a C coder or I'd try myself) The other thing about McAfee I liked was it would scan files in the background very slowly - pretty much eliminating the need for full blown weekly scans (but we ran them on Friday's anyway) It sat inthe tray scanning files slowly giving your machine non stop protection.
So yeah, ClamAV s impressive and has come a LONG way. But the CPU load thing with ClamWin would prevent me from recommeding it for anywhere but home if you're going to do weekly scans
Check out the latest. What? 2003? Haven't there been any bug fixes since then?
While it sucks you've lost data because of XFS, mant people use it heavily every day without issue (I'm one of them) I've deployed XFS across mail, database, and web servers without issue. Your statements about are total FUD. The reason the last 'release' was in 2003 is not long after that, XFS was accepted into the kernel itself. Thus there we no longer a need to 'release' XFS patches for the kernel. If you look at the command packages, you'll see them being updated on a regular basis.
As for bugs, I think your statement of bugs not being fixed is incorrect as well. Check the closed bug list. You'll see many that are being closed. Also, in your open bug list above, it does appear rather long. But MANY of those bugs are from users who opened a bug saying 'XFS Crashed On Me' and then never followed up with more info. The XFS developers haven't cleaned many of those out it seems. Bugs in the 200s date from 2003, bugs from the 300's from 2004. Late 300's and 400's from 2005.
So I hate you've had data loss - I wouldn't wish that on anybody (having experienced a RAID5 triple disk failure combined with backup tape failure. Thank goodness for OnTrack!) But don't post FUD about a filesystem that has performed very well for a lot of people and continues to be improved and innovative.
Re:Can't blind on purpose
on
Set PHASRs On Stun
·
· Score: 5, Informative
A 1995 UN Convention bans the sale of devices which have as one of their purposes, the intent to blind people. See http://www.un.org/millennium/law/xxvi-18-19.htm So the whole war vs peace thing isn't really relevant. However, that convention seems easy to get around - if blinding someone is a SIDE effect - it seems like it would be allowed:
Protocol IV on Blinding Laser Weapons prohibits the use of laser weapons specifically designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision, that is to the naked eye or to the eye with corrective eyesight devices. The High Contracting Parties shall not transfer such weapons to any State or non-State entity.
I just happened to be finishing up an excellent, if a little dated, book on Laser Weapons called 'Laser Weapons - The Dawn of a New Military Age' Its out of print, but if you can find it, I highly recommend it. Co-authored by a military Major General and a Biomedical Engineering professor specializing in eye injuries, etc.
One thing that is NOT in TFA, is this key fact about Low Energy Laser weapons:
It is not possible to only flash blind a person with a laser for a sufficient time in broad daylight without simultaneously causing permanent changes to his eyes. Temproary flash blinding by a laser is only possible when eyes are more or less adapted to darkness.
The key point here is that a laser weapon like this will only be 'safe' on the targets at night. During the day it won't work.
If you really want to poke around and see whats out there, both experimental and deployed, try some of these searches (and since most stuff related to laser weapons is still highly classified, take what you read with a grain of salt):
These are programs primarily from the late 1980's and 1990's, but it gives you an idea what they were looking at back then and some may still be in R&D today. Systems like Stingray and LDS were deployed at some point or came very close to it.
One thing most people don't realize is that High Energy Laser weapons (HEL) like proposed for SDI, etc, are VERY difficult to deploy and run into serious problems with atmospheric distortion and interference (lookup Laser Thermal Blooming on Google - its a neat effect) But Low Energy Laser (LEL) weapons can easily blind soldiers, destroy optics, and destory sensitive sensors on vehicles, aircraft, and missles, and aren't as severely impacted by the environment like HEL weapons are. Plus they are CHEAP to build and the technology is widely available - thus the weapons aren't limited to the G-8. If you think terrorists haven't considered using LELs you're kidding yourself. They may not have the dramatic effect - but imagine the psychological impact on a society (think DC Sniper) if numerous people started going blind just walking down the street. Why do you think the FAA freaked out so badly when people pointed handheld laser pointers at landing aircraft. I have a Class IIIa laser on my desk I bought for $50 - how hard would it
No the math is correct. NEC Electrical Codes generally require that a known branch circuit load not exceed 80% of the branch circuit capacity. So if they say a 60 Amp branch circuit is needed which is what I saw in the specs, you can assume the device won't draw more than
60*.8 = 48Amp*220V = 10.5kW
And you generally factor in some breathing room. So maybe I should have said 9-10kW instead of 8-9kW.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds a lot like Novell's iFolder which is a really neat application. Sync files from a central store to multiple computers using a thin client, or access then via a web browser. You can have any number of folders and control who can access what in each folder. Well except iFolder will run on all platforms (mono), not just Windows. And it's free.
Except many people have varying concepts of affordable. I have kids so the BCBS plans for a family run in the range of $600 (barely covers anything) to a typical co-pay 100% plan you'd find at most corporations which runs almost $1100. That's over $13,000 a YEAR for health coverage. It's pretty scary when you're paying as much for health insurance as you are for your mortgage. Healthcare in this country is broken. We spend insane amounts on all the bean counters whose job is specifically to figure out how NOT to cover something and then blow hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars on a war fought over a lie and yet universal healthcare is some sort of evil that we can't afford. I know catastrophic illnesses can cost a lot of money. But over the course of, say, 20 years while your kids grow up, how many people are going to even come spent more than 25% of the $260,000 they pay in premiums. I also think it should be illegal for hospitals and doctors to 'negotiate' rates with insurance companies. Why does being self employed, poor, or a small business owner mean you have to pay 2-3 times more for services than someone who works for IBM? Everytime I see those EOBs where 50-75% of the cost is 'negotiated away' - we're all human - if they can survive charging $300 for a procedure, it should cost $300 for EVERYbody, not just people stuck in cubicles. And for those of you who will scream 'I don't want to pay for other people's healthcare in a universal system' you're naive. You already do. Besides that - you're supposed to be all 'support the small businesses' well, healthcare costs are a HUGE expense for small businesses. Imagine how many more would thrive if they didn't have such a disadvantage compared to medium or large size businesses? Good luck finding coverage you can afford. You're going to need it. Like the previous poster said - you almost HAVE to have the co-pay plan with young kids - the doctor visits are frequent. You're pretty much stuck.
So the killer feature everyone is talking about is the ability to send songs and pictures to friends with Zune players. Cool idea. But the DRM will disable any transferred song after it is played three times or after three days whichever comes first.
I can see legally why thay had to do that, but I'm not sure that makes the wireless feature the killer app everyone thinks it is. Sure, some people may buy a song a friend sends them that they like after listening to it a couple of times, but again - neat feature, but not sure it's going to make Jobs quake in his boots.
I've got a dual 8" drive unit from Digital down in my workshop. Why? I have no idea. The thing is HUGE. Twice the size of most avergae desktop towers.
Someday when I'm bored I'll have to fire it up and test out my old box of 8" floppies I've got in a box. Just for fun.
Anyway - thanks for the pointers - yes DMA is turned on - always has been. -nodefault didn't do anything, but disabling java helped some. Still takes too long to start though.
Why is it every time someone asks a legitimate IT question on /. the poster is ridiculed with the above statement. Every. Single. Time. I for one think /. is a GREAT place to ask questions like these. Unless you've been the 'jack of all trades' IT guy at a small company, you have no idea what it is like. You're expected to know EVERYthing. Sure - there are forums all over the place dedicated to this specialty or that specialty. And if he was a network admin only, he likely would read those forums every day.
I think /. is a great place to ask questions like these. Sure you have trolls and ACs who sometime suggest silly solutions. But you also have a LOT of hardened geeks and IT types who have been around the block a few times who make good suggestions. Already here I've seen 3 or 4 solid solutions that he can now consider and do more research on to see which fits his company best.
Asking /. a question is not a sign of a n00b or bad IT person. What better place than one of the biggest techie readerships on the Internet to ask questions. I find many Ask Slashdot threads to be very informative, filed away for 'future use'
At least you followed up the standard 'I can't believe he asked /.' with an actual, you know, answer.
OK, move along nothign to see here. I had to waste a little Karma anyway.
So yes, a large HDTV monitor weighing 60lbs is VERY light. Most sets weighed 100lbs or more.
My #1 complaint with OOffice, on Suse anyway, is the extremely long start times. Doesn't matter if its the distribution RPMs or upgraded ones direct from OOffice. It can take 30-60 seconds to get the application open. Once it's open, it is very responsive (This is on a 2GHz Athlon 64 system), but the start times are killer. I don't mind if I'm working on docs and keep a window up and open, but for starting and viewing documents from email for example, its brutal. I've started using KWord/KCalc, etc which are much worse compatability wise, but start so much faster I don't care if the formatting is a bit off.
It is so sad when people try to do something nice (i.e. a tribute) only to be smacked down by money hungry trusts and estates who have no concept of the greater good. I think Google's logo art is an awesome thing. They gain nothing from it, yet it raises awareness of people, places, and causes. I'm all for copyrights and trademark protection when it comes to trying to protect an authors original work, but come on. A tribute that would stay up 1-2 days honoring the artist and they make this big a deal over it? Sigh - this world gets more screwed up by the day
I have 3 dwellings on my land - a large house, a small ranch on a seperate meter, and a detached garage/office served via a 60AMP 220V branch from the main panel in the large house.
For various reasons, my main X10 injection points are currently in the small ranch (RF receiver and HA controller TW-523) This means X10 signals to devices in the garage have to go from the ranch panel, through the meter, into the splices underground, back to the main house, and out to the garage via a 150 foot underground feed. My X10 devices work very well and false triggers simply don't happen. The garage units work just fine.
My setup is not super complex, but I did take some precautions. The small ranch and the main house each have a Leviton bridge/repeater units in their panels. The two panels also have the LV6289 RF filters which eliminate noise outside the narrow band X10 uses. They are wired in the panel between each hot leg and neutral. I have probably 6 UPS units in the house, but only have the 2200W server UPS on a 15A X10 block. I've never needed them with these filters in place.
X10 is cheap and it is not very tolerant of noise. However if you take the time to prep your home for X10, it can work very well. Plus you get what you pay for. X10 units use custom ICs design in the 70s. If you want quality X10 devices, go with Leviton. You'll pay more, but Leviton units use small microcontrollers to process the PLC signals and have much better signal conditioning than the X10 devices.
X10 may wane over time, but it has been around for decades and continues to survive because it's cheap and usually works. If you don't feel up to the added cost of the next generation stuff, some simple upgrades to your eletrical infrastructure can make your X10 much more reliable. I'm perfectly happy with my X10 infrastructure and don't have problems like I used to before I added the whole house repeaters and filters. IN my experience, anyway, the filters were the key to finally having a stable X10 network. THe repeaters simply help the signals reach the far away places like the garage.
I'm trying to get it built for x86_64 and have run into a few snag which I've outlined here. Anyone with more x86_64 build smarts than I, by all means let me know.
So yes, the source RPMs are not perfect as I have found, but they are buildable (well, I'm still working on iFolder-Server itself - I'm close) Remember, this JUST got released open source. I expect it will be a little while before the RPMs stabilize and work for all the variants out there.
Not even close. I just happen to have overseen a significant Novell deployment where iFolder was one of our more popular offerings with our users. Never have worked for Novell, sold it, etc. Only deployed it. Life with Novell wasn't without its pains, but overall we found it a great suite of products for what we needed to accomplish.
Sorry - no astroturfing here.
Again - iFolder is not meant as a file sharing replacement where files are locked and only one user at a time can change a file. Just like in SVN or CVS, conflicts will arise that you have to deal with. But they are recognized and they give you a variety of ways to handle it (in the end choosing which file 'wins') and, of course, contacting other users to see who made what changes to ensure non are lost (I believe on outcome you are presented with is to save copies of the files to preserve all changes)
v3 has much better sharing support in it, but even then, for the use case you describe, an NSS folder would be the way to go.
All syncing is done over normal SSL HTTP connections (at least in v2 it was)
So iFolder ensures you'll always have your files available, even if you have no network connection (on a plane, etc) and when you get that connection back, makes sure everything is synced.
Really cool use case? Executives with assistants. Executive is travelling - they have all their files locally and those files get 'backed up' to a server when they get connected. But if the assistant has updated a bunch of files as well, the executive will get those updates pushed to their laptop during the next background sync (say in a hotel)
Think an automated version of rsync over ssh. iFolder uses a totally different architecture and has a lot of management and sharing features, but at its simplest use, syncing two folders between a PC and a server, it accomplishes what rsync over ssh would.
v3 of iFolder definitely takes it to the next level with the ability to share iFolders with others and the ability to have multiple iFolders. I've got the rpms on hand and am setting up a Virtual Server to give it a whirl here myself.
Remember - v3 of the server JUST got released as open source. They've been banging on it VERY hard so I don't expect it to be flawless. But its a very exciting product.
As for the windows locking issues - unless that's something the commentor saw in v3 - we had a lot of iFolder users and never saw locking problems, even from users with laptops and desktops who had iFolder active at the same time. That's one of the appeals for computer geeks with more than one computer - true sync of files between all platforms and the server. If you can afford the space usage, its nice to know that even if the network is down, each unit will have that file you need.
I hope iFolder draws a following - its a sweet product.
"along with the IETF's hot-swapping VRRP protocol" The current Vyatta docs note that VRRP is present and usable.
But that hard truth is this - I'd rather have a *nix based black box that got infrequent updates than a Windows one. Not because Windows sucks but because of the sheer # of worms that hit WIndows vs *nix. Someday that may change, but for now...
And yes, it does syntax highlighting, and I think its the neatest syntax highlight setup I've seen in a while. It is very well done.
ANother option, harder to setup, but likely more feature rich, would be Horde. Horde has a Wiki module, bug tracking (whups), SVN access (Chora), and more. That's generally been the setup I've used, but Trac is really making me wonder what I'll do the next time I feel the need to upgrade my dev environment....
So while it could jus tas easily be bullshit, I've dealt with plenty 'black box' system running windows underneath where they shut you out entirely and you end up with infected nodes that you can't fix and have to wait till the vendor does. That's when its time to find a new vendor.
The servers lived on a 'RedLAN' protected initially by a Nortel IIS400 firewall and then by 3 NetGear RT311 firewalls, with a fourth for the GreenLAN. When the RT311s started to get DDoSed with kiddies exhausting their tiny NAT tables, we 'upgraded' to an old NORTEL Contivity 1500 firewall (so we could VPN into the RedLAN) while the GreenLAN moved behind a NetGear FVS318. Add to that probably 4 white box desktops and a laptop on the GreenLAN.
Needless to say, the noise, heat load, and cost of electricity started to become an issue. So when we built a new garage with a large heated space above it, I decided it was time to consolidate my network. So here's what I've got now - much happier
The garage office is the main network point. The 4 servers have been consolidated down to 2 and hopefully soon 1. The one server is a dual Opteron server (Tyan S2882 mobo) running Linux VServer (I think there are 12) Right now it only has 250GB of storage, but has an SATA drive cage with 5 slots that I likely will use to expand to 1TB. The RedLAN and GreenLAN firewalls were consolidated with a D-Link DFL-700 firewall (which was able to do port redirection to multiple internal IPs - a requirement for the migration of services) My friends and I host approximately 123 domains with varying amounts of service on each. The RedLAN stays in the garage currently. the GreenLAN goes underground to the house over a 150m fiber. I have 3 WRT54G access points running DD-WRT firmware providing wireless throughout the property (we have 7.5 acres) Network backbone is a mix of NetGear and D-Link switches. Env monitoring is done via an old APC unit (works nicely) The 1GHz Athlon is now a desktop for the kids. I use an AMD64 Shuttle SN95G (love it!) and my wife uses a new Compaq Presario V2414 laptop. Printing is done via an HP4000DN and a Zerba 2746e label printer (with NetGear PS101 print server) for a small business I have. I also have various network connected home automation widgets. So the Static IP list is longer than you'd think.
The power feeding the servers and certain lights in the garage is hooked up to a generator standby switch. An exterior generator connection provides backup power in a pinch. The bulk of the servers and network gear are on a TrippLite 2200W UPS with additional battery pack. The last time the power went, it ran for close to two hours before running low.
Oh and our 5 phone lines (don't ask) are run on a Panasonic Digital Hybrid TD-1232 PBX system with integrated voice mail and voice response services.
The change in the electric bill has been significant! And the noise level in the office is way down. I've been very happy with the VServer setup.
For once I'm fairly content. The only improvements awaiting improved cash flow will be to piggyback the RedLAN onto the fiber along with the GreenLAN (and managed switches with VLAN capability are still kind of pricey) so I can install a Simpletech NAS250 or NAS400 box in the house for 'offsite' data replication. If the cash flow really improved, I'd probably setup a very low power 'standby' server that could keep critical services up and running in the event of a serious hardware failure on the main server. And would love to build a Mini-ITX MythTV setup. But the kids gotta eat!
So I'm bucking the trend and cutting back/consolidating.
I've had similar problems way back with Norton and McAfee. McAfee had a CPU slider that we always set to 10% on machines we deployed and we never got 'my computer is SO slow this morning' calls because the AV was running.
If ClamAV/ClamWin can implement something similar - that would be sweet (not a C coder or I'd try myself) The other thing about McAfee I liked was it would scan files in the background very slowly - pretty much eliminating the need for full blown weekly scans (but we ran them on Friday's anyway) It sat inthe tray scanning files slowly giving your machine non stop protection.
So yeah, ClamAV s impressive and has come a LONG way. But the CPU load thing with ClamWin would prevent me from recommeding it for anywhere but home if you're going to do weekly scans
While it sucks you've lost data because of XFS, mant people use it heavily every day without issue (I'm one of them) I've deployed XFS across mail, database, and web servers without issue. Your statements about are total FUD. The reason the last 'release' was in 2003 is not long after that, XFS was accepted into the kernel itself. Thus there we no longer a need to 'release' XFS patches for the kernel. If you look at the command packages, you'll see them being updated on a regular basis.
As for bugs, I think your statement of bugs not being fixed is incorrect as well. Check the closed bug list. You'll see many that are being closed. Also, in your open bug list above, it does appear rather long. But MANY of those bugs are from users who opened a bug saying 'XFS Crashed On Me' and then never followed up with more info. The XFS developers haven't cleaned many of those out it seems. Bugs in the 200s date from 2003, bugs from the 300's from 2004. Late 300's and 400's from 2005.
So I hate you've had data loss - I wouldn't wish that on anybody (having experienced a RAID5 triple disk failure combined with backup tape failure. Thank goodness for OnTrack!) But don't post FUD about a filesystem that has performed very well for a lot of people and continues to be improved and innovative.
I just happened to be finishing up an excellent, if a little dated, book on Laser Weapons called 'Laser Weapons - The Dawn of a New Military Age' Its out of print, but if you can find it, I highly recommend it. Co-authored by a military Major General and a Biomedical Engineering professor specializing in eye injuries, etc.
One thing that is NOT in TFA, is this key fact about Low Energy Laser weapons:
The key point here is that a laser weapon like this will only be 'safe' on the targets at night. During the day it won't work.
If you really want to poke around and see whats out there, both experimental and deployed, try some of these searches (and since most stuff related to laser weapons is still highly classified, take what you read with a grain of salt):
These are programs primarily from the late 1980's and 1990's, but it gives you an idea what they were looking at back then and some may still be in R&D today. Systems like Stingray and LDS were deployed at some point or came very close to it.
One thing most people don't realize is that High Energy Laser weapons (HEL) like proposed for SDI, etc, are VERY difficult to deploy and run into serious problems with atmospheric distortion and interference (lookup Laser Thermal Blooming on Google - its a neat effect) But Low Energy Laser (LEL) weapons can easily blind soldiers, destroy optics, and destory sensitive sensors on vehicles, aircraft, and missles, and aren't as severely impacted by the environment like HEL weapons are. Plus they are CHEAP to build and the technology is widely available - thus the weapons aren't limited to the G-8. If you think terrorists haven't considered using LELs you're kidding yourself. They may not have the dramatic effect - but imagine the psychological impact on a society (think DC Sniper) if numerous people started going blind just walking down the street. Why do you think the FAA freaked out so badly when people pointed handheld laser pointers at landing aircraft. I have a Class IIIa laser on my desk I bought for $50 - how hard would it
60*.8 = 48Amp*220V = 10.5kW
And you generally factor in some breathing room. So maybe I should have said 9-10kW instead of 8-9kW.