I wrote about this sentiment a few months ago. A few excerpts.
One of the reasons I like and support the use of open source software is that you can avoid most of the drama that comes from relying on 3rd party vendors. By this I mean.. you must pay exorbitant sums for ongoing maintenance, you are locked into their product upgrade treadmill, you have little say in the direction of their products, you have a single source for support, and if your vendor gets acquired there is a very good chance the product you depend on will go away or change in ways that force you to abandon it with even more pain. I’ve seen this play out from both sides of the table having spent time in both enterprise environments and working for software companies.
In my opinion those resources should be spent building and customizing systems based on open source software whenever practical. Rather than spend your time and money propping up another companies bottom line.. spend them internally refining the tools that run your business until they become a strategic advantage. Build your teams.. invest in your people and develop subject matter experts to give IT a growth path within the company. By doing this you own the results and end up with an advantage that can’t be easily duplicated. Too often IT is viewed strictly as a cost center.. and that’s a real shame because with a little leadership it doesn’t have to be that way. Better to be a builder and own the building than pay rent forever and be forced to move every time the landlord needs more money. And if you are a C level executive.. stop basing your IT strategy on what you read in airline magazines or the latest buzzword-laden reports from Gartner and their ilk.
Pfft... you kids and your trying to be all nostalgic. My first computer didn't HAVE a hard drive.. it had a cassette tape and you were lucky to get one of those. The first system of mine that did have a hard drive had a 51/4 full height 5 meg hard drive that used an MFM interface and was manually set in bios to a 'Type 1'. It turned at 3600 rpm and could do 5 mbit/s (ok had to look those up). At the time it was immense.. both in data capacity and size and weight. You could easily kill someone with it.
That thing is awesome... it's like Pimp My Rover over at JPL. It looks like that thing requires a lot more human interaction to operate though.. and so maybe not the best choice for Mars with the lag time.
I repair old pinball machines, some people I know also do and always look for sources of obsolete ics.
I've found that another good use for old pinball machine parts is to fake out Libyan terrorists who want you to build them a nuclear bomb. Of course.. experience shows the ruse doesn't hold for long.. so be sure to have a bulletproof vest and time portal handy for a quick escape.
As they found out in Pegasus... if you tap the energy of a supervolcano you are only going to hasten the eruption and the natives will think you are trying to steal their resources when you suggest they evacuate the planet.
Hannah Stubbs: The books... Vincent 'Vinnie' Antonelli: You have something against books? Hannah Stubbs: I have nothing against books! I am curious about the books in your trunk. Vincent 'Vinnie' Antonelli: You see, I was thinking of writing my story, so I bought this one on how to do it. Hannah Stubbs: Why do you need 25 copies of it? Vincent 'Vinnie' Antonelli: In case I want to read it more than once...
Sure we can do that... but you first Germany. Lets see how that works out. Or we could use Dogbert Power
Re:Perl - the COBOL of scripting languages
on
Perl 5.14 Released
·
· Score: 1
no, that would be C, which also holds your Perl together. I can run and admin a server without perl installed, but not without C
I guess you missed the part about 'in a minimum of time'.
Re:Perl - the COBOL of scripting languages
on
Perl 5.14 Released
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
All I'll say to that is that the entire computing world does not revolve around websites... or programming certification mills. =] Perl is the duct tape that holds the networked world together... and it's not dying any more than actual duct tape is. It's a refined tool used by professionals to do the jobs that have always needed done in a minimum of time and that don't cater to the latest buzz word laden development methodology.
Re:Perl - the COBOL of scripting languages
on
Perl 5.14 Released
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Excellent troll... really first rate. Did you get federal funding from the Ministry of Trolling for that gem? I've been working professionally in unix/linux environments for about 12 years and believe me perl is still quite alive and well doing real work in lots of different kinds of companies. Php is somewhat painful to code in by comparison but both have their place. Except for java.. it has no sane place but you still find it in use everywhere which just goes to show anything can succeed in this world with enough marketing dollars behind it.
Of course, if you limit the MAC addresses of computers that your router will offer addresses to, it doesn't REALLY matter what kind of password you put on your network. This is a very simple and secure method,
Not true... The people who can crack your wep key can also wirelessly sniff your network and spoof a legit mac address. That part of the network conversation isn't encrypted.
I would keep an eye on satellites. Break throughs like the one in this story might first appear in the environment of much higher solar intensity found in space.
In soviet russia the satellites keep eye on you! Bet you didn't see that one coming... but the satellites sure did.
Slashdot Mirror
... I was just pining for one of those.
... is so metal!
Encrypted comment begins now...
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.17 (Darwin)
Comment: GPGTools - http://gpgtools.org/
jA0EAwMCe0la60+pZSWuyV8bBnhItg/xbBvgbDi1bzHD2lNv77zrOESsRrQbjAaQ
jf/UbbNeDDcxk4xdSo+vzXSFVwHa6KylaSHnkj2xi39PCA1FbMWcyQs6S+7uyDIm
gKO6V2U4ku8S1iFGlpF28w=3D=3D
=3D18He
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
Thanks... I was waiting for the car analogy.
I wrote about this sentiment a few months ago. A few excerpts.
One of the reasons I like and support the use of open source software is that you can avoid most of the drama that comes from relying on 3rd party vendors. By this I mean.. you must pay exorbitant sums for ongoing maintenance, you are locked into their product upgrade treadmill, you have little say in the direction of their products, you have a single source for support, and if your vendor gets acquired there is a very good chance the product you depend on will go away or change in ways that force you to abandon it with even more pain. I’ve seen this play out from both sides of the table having spent time in both enterprise environments and working for software companies.
In my opinion those resources should be spent building and customizing systems based on open source software whenever practical. Rather than spend your time and money propping up another companies bottom line.. spend them internally refining the tools that run your business until they become a strategic advantage. Build your teams.. invest in your people and develop subject matter experts to give IT a growth path within the company. By doing this you own the results and end up with an advantage that can’t be easily duplicated. Too often IT is viewed strictly as a cost center.. and that’s a real shame because with a little leadership it doesn’t have to be that way. Better to be a builder and own the building than pay rent forever and be forced to move every time the landlord needs more money. And if you are a C level executive.. stop basing your IT strategy on what you read in airline magazines or the latest buzzword-laden reports from Gartner and their ilk.
http://jaredwatkins.com/wordpress/2011/04/dont-be-a-slave-to-your-vendors/
My first computer had a 256Mb hard drive
Pfft... you kids and your trying to be all nostalgic. My first computer didn't HAVE a hard drive.. it had a cassette tape and you were lucky to get one of those. The first system of mine that did have a hard drive had a 51/4 full height 5 meg hard drive that used an MFM interface and was manually set in bios to a 'Type 1'. It turned at 3600 rpm and could do 5 mbit/s (ok had to look those up). At the time it was immense.. both in data capacity and size and weight. You could easily kill someone with it.
We need more engineers and less psychology majors.
We need more engineers and less lawyers. There.. fixed that for you.
That thing is awesome... it's like Pimp My Rover over at JPL. It looks like that thing requires a lot more human interaction to operate though.. and so maybe not the best choice for Mars with the lag time.
It's almost like giving a Stradivarius violin to your neighbor's newbie kid and thinking that "because it's a Strad, it will make the kid sound good."
I like how you describe this... it makes perfect sense in a way that even a PHB can understand. But can I get that in a car analogy?
I repair old pinball machines, some people I know also do and always look for sources of obsolete ics.
I've found that another good use for old pinball machine parts is to fake out Libyan terrorists who want you to build them a nuclear bomb. Of course.. experience shows the ruse doesn't hold for long.. so be sure to have a bulletproof vest and time portal handy for a quick escape.
As they found out in Pegasus... if you tap the energy of a supervolcano you are only going to hasten the eruption and the natives will think you are trying to steal their resources when you suggest they evacuate the planet.
It won't save money, because the utility companies will just raise rates to compensate for falling revenue.
Supply and demand prevents this from happening without someone gaming the system (which is illegal but did happen in CA 10 years ago).
Tell that to my only power supplier that will be raising rates by 17% soon. Forcing an electric utility to go green is fairly expensive dontcha' know.
You need to experience a Mormon girl gone wild, you'll change your opinion.
Second!
Would it be accurate to say that only in California could a 5 car fender-bender involve three Priuses?
Yep.. and luckily nothing of value was lost.
The worst part about this... is that the post office was counting on the revenue from those mailings to stay solvent. Doh! No mail for you!
Hannah Stubbs: The books...
Vincent 'Vinnie' Antonelli: You have something against books?
Hannah Stubbs: I have nothing against books! I am curious about the books in your trunk.
Vincent 'Vinnie' Antonelli: You see, I was thinking of writing my story, so I bought this one on how to do it.
Hannah Stubbs: Why do you need 25 copies of it?
Vincent 'Vinnie' Antonelli: In case I want to read it more than once...
Sure we can do that... but you first Germany. Lets see how that works out. Or we could use Dogbert Power
no, that would be C, which also holds your Perl together. I can run and admin a server without perl installed, but not without C
I guess you missed the part about 'in a minimum of time'.
All I'll say to that is that the entire computing world does not revolve around websites... or programming certification mills. =] Perl is the duct tape that holds the networked world together... and it's not dying any more than actual duct tape is. It's a refined tool used by professionals to do the jobs that have always needed done in a minimum of time and that don't cater to the latest buzz word laden development methodology.
Excellent troll... really first rate. Did you get federal funding from the Ministry of Trolling for that gem? I've been working professionally in unix/linux environments for about 12 years and believe me perl is still quite alive and well doing real work in lots of different kinds of companies. Php is somewhat painful to code in by comparison but both have their place. Except for java.. it has no sane place but you still find it in use everywhere which just goes to show anything can succeed in this world with enough marketing dollars behind it.
You're right, no human being would stack books like this.
...is lowering your own.
Anyone else as surprised as I am that Microsoft HAS standards? All evidence points to the contrary...
Of course, if you limit the MAC addresses of computers that your router will offer addresses to, it doesn't REALLY matter what kind of password you put on your network. This is a very simple and secure method,
Not true... The people who can crack your wep key can also wirelessly sniff your network and spoof a legit mac address. That part of the network conversation isn't encrypted.
I would keep an eye on satellites. Break throughs like the one in this story might first appear in the environment of much higher solar intensity found in space.
In soviet russia the satellites keep eye on you! Bet you didn't see that one coming... but the satellites sure did.
If /dev/random is web scale, then I will use /dev/random
It's only web scale if you run nosql on it.