I installed Red Hat on my Thinkpad two years ago and bought Crossover Office so I could run Outlook to connect with the Exchange server. I never authenticated on the domain, so I'd login to somebody else's computer once a month for the mandatory password change so I could still get my email and use the network shares.
All worked beautifully until IT migrated to Active Directory and EVERYTHING stopped working. Well, actually only the shares and Outlook stopped working, but not having email is enough to end my Linux using days. IT wouldn't help at all on the AD server so my options are running low. SCO actually has software that would help, but I shiver at the thought of using a SCO product.
IT is now going to open up Outlook Web Access... I thought this would solve everything, but they are somehow locking it down so every client that connects to OWA will need to be running some sort of Windows-only Symantec software (we also use a Symantec firewall... maybe this is some sort of PPTP client, but IT wouldn't say). This makes me doubtful of getting it to work under Linux unless I can emulate the Symantec software.
Where I am going with this is that I used Linux on my work desktop for two years and some helpdesk guys even knew about it, but I was out on my own when IT went to AD, so this sort of thing sure isn't going to get any support from many IT departments. Good luck to you in running Linux at work. I wish I had more luck.
A cracker is someone who cracks software copy protection while a hacker is someone who comprimises systems and can be either white hat or black hat. Hacker has also come to mean anyone who fiddles around with computers a lot, though I don't care for that definition. I call those people geeks:)
Yes, but there is only one gum company and if you don't charge Bill Gates $1000 they will remove their product from your store and give it to the store accross the street.
Today I am wearing green shorts and a golf shirt with running shoes, which is about as dressed up as I get during the summer. I can easily get away with a t-shirt and sandals along with my shorts. I'm a tech in a TV studio and the only people more casual than techs are TV people. It's not unusual for the girl who works Master Control (dunno what really goes on in that room) to wear ripped jeans and a skimpy tank top. I love summer:)
Actually, blocking innocent bystandards is a major drawback to this. Techfocus is up and not too slow at the moment, but if you still can't get on drop me an email at shakin [at] opdl [dot] org with your IP and I'll make sure to remove it from the block list after doing a friendly reverse lookup on it.
The problem is that the RIAA used the Von Lohmann quote before the technical measures were put in place, so your argument is only good if they decide to grab another quote. Even then, some RIAA lawyer working from home or a separate office could easily view the site.
The bigger picture is the fallout.
boycott-riaa.com has covered Techfocus' efforts, as has several other web sites. There seems to be quite an underground movement supporting Techfocus. I am a moderator for the Techfocus forum on this subject. Check it out and help if you can.
It's about damn time Red Hat came out with a new version. I've been toiling on 9 for several months now and I need that new version of Mozilla. Debian could learn a lot from Red Hat's release cycle because it comes with Mozilla 1.0 and it would suck to be using Debian and stuck with an old browser.
Re:Why are they running Windows then?
on
Can .NET Really Scale?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
A common misconception is that anybody can administer an MS server, but the truth is that it's not a whole lot easier to do than administer a Unix box. What's scary is that it looks easier and most IT managers think it's easier. That's why most Windows admins are grossly incompetent, especially when it comes to security.
A good Windows admin costs the same as a good Unix admin.
Everything I learned about irony...
on
Isn't It Ironic?
·
· Score: 1
Everything I learned about irony I learned from Alanis Morrisette.
"Do you have any idea how much time and effort these multi-million dollar companies spend on pricing their products? You think they just randomly pluck a number from the air?"
Then how come games, for instance, are almost all priced withing $10 of each other? Surely there are huge differences in cost of development. Software is priced at the absolute maximum the market can bare. If you can sell 1 million copies at $20/piece or 500,000 copies at $50/piece, then you price it at $50 because you'll make more even if you sell less.
In short, they don't spend any money pricing their products, they just look at the product next to it on the shelf. Specialized apps are the exception, and you'll notice that they're priced WAY higher than anything else because they don't have as much competition.
Clusters, Mandrake, Opteron, 16GB. Add in an Xbox and Natalie Portman and you've got yourself a Slashdotter's wet dream. Well, I guess Natalie accomplishes that on her own, but I'm pretty sure if I had the rest of that stuff it would impress Natalie enough for her to date me. At least I hope so, or I've wasted a LOT of money over the years.
It depends greatly on the ABS system in use... it could be 2 sensor/2 wheel like on some older trucks, 3 sensor/4 wheel like on low-end or older cars, or 4 sensor/4 wheel that is more common now. Good modern cars apply ABS quicker (2 dozen or more times per second), but older cars do it as slow as 6 times per second. Given these situations, it's nearly impossible to give any kind of a blanket statement about ABS' effectiveness other than to say that it prevents lock-up and allows you to steer while braking hard.
Collision detection is along the same path as ABS brakes and traction control.
A Ferarri will brake pretty well without ABS, though lockup will occur, but your average family sedan, minivan or SUV won't at highway speeds. It will probably swerve and definitely lock up the wheels so you can't steer. ABS just looks at which wheels are locking up, then adjusts brake pressure so it doesn't lockup. It doesn't stop the car faster, it just gives you control while stopping. It's a good level of simple technology that does its job well.
Now take a look at traction control, which is in use on just about every high-end car or as an option on mid-level cars. It's just a different method for applying ABS brakes. When the computer sees slippage, it applies the brake harder to that wheel until it slows down enough to stop slipping.
Each of those technologies is proven and well-recieved by almost everyone because it helps the average driver, who doesn't really know what to do in an emergency situation other than slam on the brakes. Features like automatic collision detection are just an extension of that. They don't try to take control of the vehicle, but will greatly assist when the driver needs to take action. If the driver needs hard braking, then the car should make a good stomp on the pedal apply the brakes as hard as it can even if the driver is too weak to jam it to the floor. Under normal driving conditions, the brakes can feel softer, making braking a much more comfortable process with less jerk.
Think about when you get new brakes on a car you had driven the brakes almost to the metal on. Your first stop is inevitably harsh because you suddenly don't have to press the pedal as far anymore. The whole stopping experience changes because it's harder to get the brake pressure just right for normal braking conditions.
There's no reason why a car shouldn't compensate braking for different situations and basic radar-based techniques are a decent start.
Radar-based tracking is a fairly proven technology. It knows the difference between two different objects, so it starts tracking the car in front of you and should operate fine even if it switches lanes, so long as it's within radar range and whatever side to side, up and down tolerances are programmed.
Think in terms of the company? Sorry, but CYA (cover your ass). If you can get a huge amount of "now value" out of your decisions and you know that it will increase your company's dependence on you, then go for it. It's not as if you're the only one who can maintain these systems, but you'd be giving someone of your skill a job rather than someone of lesser skill. This gives you more room for a promotion and/or raise.
Do you think that's unethical? Show me a company that values its employees more than its own well-being and I'll show you an administrator who values his own well-being most of all.
There are a few ways of looking at it. The most simple being that Red Hat 9 et al are great for the desktop because they include the newest desktops and office apps without hassle. The AS edition is for the server where stability, lifecycle and support are more important.
If you are running commercial apps on the server, then have a look at what they officially support. We have two Websphere 5 servers and IBM supports Red Hat 7.3 and Suse 8.1 Pro (I may be wrong on that Suse version) on the server and Red Hat 8 for a development system. In this case, we also want support from IBM, so using AS makes sense even though Websphere works fine on Red Hat 9, Debian, etc.
The answer is really just a combination of what you're looking for. For a team of Linux experts who will update their own software, Red Hat is merely an installer. If you're going to update with RHN, then a long product lifecycle is important to keep your system secure.
Any of the free PHP accelerators will stop comments from slowing down the script. IMO, the accelerator functionality should be standard. It probably would be if Zend wasn't trying to make money by selling theirs. There'd also be application-level objects and variables if it wouldn't give PHP the ability to cache objects accross sessions, meaning that a developer could get enough speed increase from caching that Zend Accelerator wouldn't be needed.
Re:Kiss and say goodbye to Java language!!
on
PHP Cookbook
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· Score: 1
Ever hear of EJBs? Java can beat PHP any day of the week in regards to massive enterprise apps. PHP only really beats Java on its speed of development simplicity of deployment. Those are big enough reasons that PHP is a strong contender for medium-sized web sites and some large sites, but when you need Java's advanced functionality, there's no making PHP work.
Actually, PHP really needs an app server (ala Websphere) and some sort of Servlet or EJB-like server-side object. The app server could handle database connection pooling properly, caching, application-level opjects, etc. If PHP ever gets to that point, then it will compete with Java on the high-end. Hopefully an improved object model in PHP 5 will start the process.
I'd give anything
on
PHP Cookbook
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· Score: 2, Insightful
to see a book that deals with advanced application design in PHP. The problem with PHP is that most PHP developers are amateurs who don't know the first thing about app design. At best, apps are written with objects used randomly to accomplish some tasks and mostly include files for 2 dozen reused functions (or functions that aren't even reused, but still included in every page).
At worst, every database connection is hard-coded in a different place and there are no comments anywhere.
In either case, my God help anyone who wants to add functionality. These same people need a good book on relational database design, or be subjected to 4 years of universigy RDBMS design courses like I was. IMO, if you aren't willing to slit your wrists to get out of an RDBMS design class, you haven't taken enough of them.
PNG doesn't completely replace GIF. For instance, if you need a large graphic with only a few colors, a GIF will result in a smaller file size than PNG. In fact, PNG's only viewable advantage over GIF is the additional colors and its only viewable advantage over JPG is the lossless compression algorithm.
I don't pretend to be an expert on graphic file formats, but only a few times have I ever used PNG over GIF or JPG. The simple fact is that it won't compress photos as well as JPG and won't compress low-color graphics as well as GIF. That holds true at least for saving for web in Photoshop.
They flew people in from as far away as Canada, eh? Taking Toronto as the starting point, that would make it a whole 2 hour flight to Raleigh. I'm just teasing you, but really... how far away do you think we northern folk are?
Slashdot Mirror
I installed Red Hat on my Thinkpad two years ago and bought Crossover Office so I could run Outlook to connect with the Exchange server. I never authenticated on the domain, so I'd login to somebody else's computer once a month for the mandatory password change so I could still get my email and use the network shares.
All worked beautifully until IT migrated to Active Directory and EVERYTHING stopped working. Well, actually only the shares and Outlook stopped working, but not having email is enough to end my Linux using days. IT wouldn't help at all on the AD server so my options are running low. SCO actually has software that would help, but I shiver at the thought of using a SCO product.
IT is now going to open up Outlook Web Access... I thought this would solve everything, but they are somehow locking it down so every client that connects to OWA will need to be running some sort of Windows-only Symantec software (we also use a Symantec firewall... maybe this is some sort of PPTP client, but IT wouldn't say). This makes me doubtful of getting it to work under Linux unless I can emulate the Symantec software.
Where I am going with this is that I used Linux on my work desktop for two years and some helpdesk guys even knew about it, but I was out on my own when IT went to AD, so this sort of thing sure isn't going to get any support from many IT departments. Good luck to you in running Linux at work. I wish I had more luck.
A cracker is someone who cracks software copy protection while a hacker is someone who comprimises systems and can be either white hat or black hat. Hacker has also come to mean anyone who fiddles around with computers a lot, though I don't care for that definition. I call those people geeks :)
Yes, but there is only one gum company and if you don't charge Bill Gates $1000 they will remove their product from your store and give it to the store accross the street.
THAT'S how capitalism really works.
Today I am wearing green shorts and a golf shirt with running shoes, which is about as dressed up as I get during the summer. I can easily get away with a t-shirt and sandals along with my shorts. I'm a tech in a TV studio and the only people more casual than techs are TV people. It's not unusual for the girl who works Master Control (dunno what really goes on in that room) to wear ripped jeans and a skimpy tank top. I love summer :)
They seem to be smart enough to avoid you.
Actually, blocking innocent bystandards is a major drawback to this. Techfocus is up and not too slow at the moment, but if you still can't get on drop me an email at shakin [at] opdl [dot] org with your IP and I'll make sure to remove it from the block list after doing a friendly reverse lookup on it.
The problem is that the RIAA used the Von Lohmann quote before the technical measures were put in place, so your argument is only good if they decide to grab another quote. Even then, some RIAA lawyer working from home or a separate office could easily view the site.
The bigger picture is the fallout.
boycott-riaa.com has covered Techfocus' efforts, as has several other web sites. There seems to be quite an underground movement supporting Techfocus. I am a moderator for the Techfocus forum on this subject. Check it out and help if you can.
It's about damn time Red Hat came out with a new version. I've been toiling on 9 for several months now and I need that new version of Mozilla. Debian could learn a lot from Red Hat's release cycle because it comes with Mozilla 1.0 and it would suck to be using Debian and stuck with an old browser.
A common misconception is that anybody can administer an MS server, but the truth is that it's not a whole lot easier to do than administer a Unix box. What's scary is that it looks easier and most IT managers think it's easier. That's why most Windows admins are grossly incompetent, especially when it comes to security.
A good Windows admin costs the same as a good Unix admin.
Everything I learned about irony I learned from Alanis Morrisette.
Isn't that ironic?
*walks away in shame*
"Do you have any idea how much time and effort these multi-million dollar companies spend on pricing their products? You think they just randomly pluck a number from the air?"
Then how come games, for instance, are almost all priced withing $10 of each other? Surely there are huge differences in cost of development. Software is priced at the absolute maximum the market can bare. If you can sell 1 million copies at $20/piece or 500,000 copies at $50/piece, then you price it at $50 because you'll make more even if you sell less.
In short, they don't spend any money pricing their products, they just look at the product next to it on the shelf. Specialized apps are the exception, and you'll notice that they're priced WAY higher than anything else because they don't have as much competition.
Clusters, Mandrake, Opteron, 16GB. Add in an Xbox and Natalie Portman and you've got yourself a Slashdotter's wet dream. Well, I guess Natalie accomplishes that on her own, but I'm pretty sure if I had the rest of that stuff it would impress Natalie enough for her to date me. At least I hope so, or I've wasted a LOT of money over the years.
It depends greatly on the ABS system in use... it could be 2 sensor/2 wheel like on some older trucks, 3 sensor/4 wheel like on low-end or older cars, or 4 sensor/4 wheel that is more common now. Good modern cars apply ABS quicker (2 dozen or more times per second), but older cars do it as slow as 6 times per second. Given these situations, it's nearly impossible to give any kind of a blanket statement about ABS' effectiveness other than to say that it prevents lock-up and allows you to steer while braking hard.
Collision detection is along the same path as ABS brakes and traction control.
A Ferarri will brake pretty well without ABS, though lockup will occur, but your average family sedan, minivan or SUV won't at highway speeds. It will probably swerve and definitely lock up the wheels so you can't steer. ABS just looks at which wheels are locking up, then adjusts brake pressure so it doesn't lockup. It doesn't stop the car faster, it just gives you control while stopping. It's a good level of simple technology that does its job well.
Now take a look at traction control, which is in use on just about every high-end car or as an option on mid-level cars. It's just a different method for applying ABS brakes. When the computer sees slippage, it applies the brake harder to that wheel until it slows down enough to stop slipping.
Each of those technologies is proven and well-recieved by almost everyone because it helps the average driver, who doesn't really know what to do in an emergency situation other than slam on the brakes. Features like automatic collision detection are just an extension of that. They don't try to take control of the vehicle, but will greatly assist when the driver needs to take action. If the driver needs hard braking, then the car should make a good stomp on the pedal apply the brakes as hard as it can even if the driver is too weak to jam it to the floor. Under normal driving conditions, the brakes can feel softer, making braking a much more comfortable process with less jerk.
Think about when you get new brakes on a car you had driven the brakes almost to the metal on. Your first stop is inevitably harsh because you suddenly don't have to press the pedal as far anymore. The whole stopping experience changes because it's harder to get the brake pressure just right for normal braking conditions.
There's no reason why a car shouldn't compensate braking for different situations and basic radar-based techniques are a decent start.
Radar-based tracking is a fairly proven technology. It knows the difference between two different objects, so it starts tracking the car in front of you and should operate fine even if it switches lanes, so long as it's within radar range and whatever side to side, up and down tolerances are programmed.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of those!
They must be trying to play Doom 3.
Whoops. Websphere officially supports Red Hat AS 2.1 and Suse 8.1 Pro, not RH 7.3.
Think in terms of the company? Sorry, but CYA (cover your ass). If you can get a huge amount of "now value" out of your decisions and you know that it will increase your company's dependence on you, then go for it. It's not as if you're the only one who can maintain these systems, but you'd be giving someone of your skill a job rather than someone of lesser skill. This gives you more room for a promotion and/or raise.
Do you think that's unethical? Show me a company that values its employees more than its own well-being and I'll show you an administrator who values his own well-being most of all.
There are a few ways of looking at it. The most simple being that Red Hat 9 et al are great for the desktop because they include the newest desktops and office apps without hassle. The AS edition is for the server where stability, lifecycle and support are more important.
If you are running commercial apps on the server, then have a look at what they officially support. We have two Websphere 5 servers and IBM supports Red Hat 7.3 and Suse 8.1 Pro (I may be wrong on that Suse version) on the server and Red Hat 8 for a development system. In this case, we also want support from IBM, so using AS makes sense even though Websphere works fine on Red Hat 9, Debian, etc.
The answer is really just a combination of what you're looking for. For a team of Linux experts who will update their own software, Red Hat is merely an installer. If you're going to update with RHN, then a long product lifecycle is important to keep your system secure.
Any of the free PHP accelerators will stop comments from slowing down the script. IMO, the accelerator functionality should be standard. It probably would be if Zend wasn't trying to make money by selling theirs. There'd also be application-level objects and variables if it wouldn't give PHP the ability to cache objects accross sessions, meaning that a developer could get enough speed increase from caching that Zend Accelerator wouldn't be needed.
Ever hear of EJBs? Java can beat PHP any day of the week in regards to massive enterprise apps. PHP only really beats Java on its speed of development simplicity of deployment. Those are big enough reasons that PHP is a strong contender for medium-sized web sites and some large sites, but when you need Java's advanced functionality, there's no making PHP work.
Actually, PHP really needs an app server (ala Websphere) and some sort of Servlet or EJB-like server-side object. The app server could handle database connection pooling properly, caching, application-level opjects, etc. If PHP ever gets to that point, then it will compete with Java on the high-end. Hopefully an improved object model in PHP 5 will start the process.
to see a book that deals with advanced application design in PHP. The problem with PHP is that most PHP developers are amateurs who don't know the first thing about app design. At best, apps are written with objects used randomly to accomplish some tasks and mostly include files for 2 dozen reused functions (or functions that aren't even reused, but still included in every page).
At worst, every database connection is hard-coded in a different place and there are no comments anywhere.
In either case, my God help anyone who wants to add functionality. These same people need a good book on relational database design, or be subjected to 4 years of universigy RDBMS design courses like I was. IMO, if you aren't willing to slit your wrists to get out of an RDBMS design class, you haven't taken enough of them.
PNG doesn't completely replace GIF. For instance, if you need a large graphic with only a few colors, a GIF will result in a smaller file size than PNG. In fact, PNG's only viewable advantage over GIF is the additional colors and its only viewable advantage over JPG is the lossless compression algorithm.
I don't pretend to be an expert on graphic file formats, but only a few times have I ever used PNG over GIF or JPG. The simple fact is that it won't compress photos as well as JPG and won't compress low-color graphics as well as GIF. That holds true at least for saving for web in Photoshop.
They flew people in from as far away as Canada, eh? Taking Toronto as the starting point, that would make it a whole 2 hour flight to Raleigh. I'm just teasing you, but really... how far away do you think we northern folk are?