Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) (pronounced Peeps, as in marshmallow peeps)
Was that really necessary? I mean, are there really
people out there who don't know how to pronounce
Pepys? Did you not learn anything
at school? Sheesh!
BTW, I haven't the faintest clue what
marshmallow peeps are...
It's shipping, people have the new motherboards up and running.
No, they're not shipping. My delivery date has
been slipping. Supposedly it was going to arrive
before Christmas, but it never turned up. The
latest from Eyetech is that they're waiting for
new chips from IBM before they can build the
boards and assemble the finished machines. They're
estimating end of January delivery dates now,
but I'll believe it when the machine arrives on
my doorstep...
Re:So whats the role of the professor that you pay
on
Professors vs. WiFi
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
Who wins here? Why should I the student pay YOU the professor to give YOU the professor my attention? What do I get out of this deal?
The chance of an education. You get to turn up,
and either absorb or ignore the information you're
being taught. Which of those you do is entirely
your choice.
The fact that you're
paying is utterly irrelevant. If you expect
University staff to behave differently because
you're paying their wages, then you fundametally
don't grasp how education works. Personally, I
approve of blocking WiFi access. If you want to
access the net, then do so (outside of the
lecture theatre). If not, go to the
lecture and learn something. Again, your choice.
From the University's perspective, it makes sense
to encourage people to pay attention, as that
has a bearing on pass rates, which will affect
student numbers, and hence income, for future
years.
Current status information, historical logs, and reports can all be accessed via a web browser.
That's great for interactive use, but Nagios
(along with Big Brother, and most other monitoring
packages) doesn't seem to cater well to automating
report generation from outside of a web browser.
We need to generate weekly reports on the number
of outages, etc., and would like to be able to
schedule a cron job every Sunday night to say
"get me the uptime stats
for abc services, so I can put them into xyz
reporting package". We need to take the raw data
and calculate rolling averages, etc, to give to
customers (we're contractully obliged to do so).
I.e., the sort of reports we need are typically
more complex than is reasonable to expect Nagios
to do internally.
Was the interactive bias a deliberate decision,
or did it just evolve that way. More importantly,
are there any plans to improve things in this
area?
I've been asked to lock out employees (including my boss at the time) as they were being told they were being made redundant.
Yep. Standard practice at several places I've worked
is for me to be asked to watch for a certain person
to walk into the HR department. As soon as they're
through the door, disable the account. That way, by
the time they know they're being made redundant,
they've already lost their access to the system.
At a bank I worked at, that was followed by the
unlucky victim being frogmarched to their desk by
security, allowed to collect their personal
artifacts, and then being escorted from the
building...
There are few technical details on their web site,
but it appears to just be a mixed mode (data and
audio) CD, which when played using Bandlink's
CD player software, will give the "benefits"
described. Since I don't have any intention of
using their software, it's not a problem. Until,
of course, people start producing music that can
only be played with their player.
So far, record companies haven't been
brave enough to test such a tactic in the market,
although with copy
protected CDs, they're getting awfully close to
the line. The depressing thing is, I suspect the
general public would just meekly go along with
it:-(
No, I'm not sure. I know the server's the only part
that's been released so far, but I was under the
impression that the client port was underway too.
Certainly, Ryan's other games (Serious Sam, UT2003)
have been full client ports. You could try asking
him...
the free software world is severely lacking in UML diagramming tools. So, what do you say IBM?
Hopefully, they'll say "no". UML is a disease on
the face of the planet, and the sooner it's
destroyed, the better. Open sourcing Rose will
potentially prolong UML's lifespan, something
that I *really* don't want to happen. So like I
said, I hope IBM keep it closed source (not that
they have any incentive to open source it in the
first place). Yeah, you might think this is
flamebait, but it's genuinely what I believe...
Re:Similar problem with Adaptec
on
Sun vs. OpenBSD?
·
· Score: 2
This is a far better performance than, for example, NVidia, whose drivers are well-known for breaking every few kernel releases because of their binary-only nature.
Stop spreading your FUD here. This claim is totally unsubstantiated.
Do you have any idea who you're talking to here?
While I may not agree with everything Daniel does
(the BK flamefest springs to mind), there's no
doubt that he's an extremely talented and high
profile kernel developer, and I'll guarantee he
knows far more about kernel breakage than you do
(or I do, for that matter).
Plus, of course, if you even briefly scanned the
LKML archives occasionally, you'd see that the
Nvidia drivers do break.
It's not FUD at all because it's true.
This script allows you to specify whether a new window opens for each new instance or just have it open the URLs in a new tab.
This is a problem that no starter script can
workaround. They all (MSS included) only work on
single headed machines. I'm talking about needing
to start Mozilla on two different (non-Xinerama)
heads on the same machine. Currently, Mozilla won't
let you do this without creating multiple profiles.
Sigh. No, this won't work. Like I said, I need to
be able to open multiple instances on different
screens. You can only open a new browser window
on the same screen on which the main browser window
is running. To see the problem, try:
mozilla &
Xnest:1 &
export DISPLAY=:1
mozilla -remote "openurl(about:blank, new-window)"
The ability to run multiple instances of Mozilla
on different screens. This worked until 1.0rc2,
and then they removed it. Since I *need* this
funcitonality for my job, I have to keep a copy
of the old version lying around:-(
There are some 800x600 displays in the 13" to 10" range, but you start approaching the limits of pixel sizes.
No, not really. On a 10" screen, 800x600 is only
100dpi. IBM have been shipping 200dpi LCD screens
since 2001, so 1600x1200 easily achievable on that
size screen. The actual IBM models are 22", yielding
some 3500x2600 of high resolution goodness.
Which is not to say they're cheap, of course:-)
If you have the space, there is almost no real benefit to fitting the equipment into as tight a footprint as possible.
Perhaps you're right, but I suspect it's a
cultural thing. Living in London, space is a
precious commodity, and is priced accordingly.
To buy (or rent) enough floorspace to hold a
cluster of this size would cost a significant
amount of money, and the savings from cutting it
down would be *huge*. I guess it's hard for
those in the US
to really understand. To give you some idea,
Greater London has
an average population density of 11,850 people per
square mile rising to 22,200 if you only consider
Inner London (the City is essentially split into
two concentric rings, an inner and an outer).
Compare that with
Santa Fe, the nearest urban area to LANL,
with only 1,500 people per square mile, and you
get some idea of why I'm not used to space being
a common commodity.
Even the most densely populated area of the US,
Los Angeles, only has some 5,800 people per square
mile (although if you just consider Central New
York, then it's comparable to London, but that's
only the centre of the City, not the urbanized
area).
They didn't even use a rack mount solution, they used regular Shuttle XPC SS51G Mini-PCs
The question has to be... why? I've never understood
why so many people build clusters with essentially
desktop PCs. Haven't these people ever heard of the
1U rack mount case? Yes, it's a slightly more
expensive inital outlay. But surely the cost savings
in terms of floorspace and power/cooling for such a
large volume would outweigh that in no time flat?
Plus the Shuttle, like most other desktop cases,
don't have the option of hot swappable drives.
With the number of machines in this sort of
cluster, drive failure is a major problem. The
ability to just pull the failed drive out of the
front to replace it would be a huge win.
Any self-respecting geek probably knows full well, but worth taking any opportunity to plug the medium. MUDs (Multi User Dungeons) are still alive and well
Not a MUD, but in terms of text based games,
I still play Angband
on a regular basis, just as I played Moria, Larn,
Omega and Hack before it. And no, I don't use any
of the new fangled graphic tiles that are available
for it now. It was always a great game when it
was text only, and I see no reason to change that.
A large part of the appeal is the depth of the
game. Modern games are too shallow, and too easy
to complete. Angband is an immensely
detailed and immersive game, and there's nothing
in the modern era that compares. Diablo was a
blatant ripoff of the game style, but had all
of the depth and variety removed, and was *way*
too easy.
Go here to see her ad and you can make your own decisions.
Oh. At least I can now see what she looks like,
even if I can't watch the ad (pesky Quicktime).
Yes, I know I could theoretically use some mix
of Wine and the appropriate Windows DLLs, but
to be honest, I can't be bothered. I haven't yet
found anything in Quicktime that was sufficiently
worthwhile to motivate me to waste enough time to
get it working. It's much easier to just do without...
Ask and ye shall receive. Linux versions of both
are imminent from the immensely prolific Ryan C. Gordon. The man's a genius, and
deserves your support...
A slip-on connector to the coil had shaken off. Dumbest design I've ever seen
Just curious... why would the LT coil lead falling
off cause the engine to go bang? Surely the car
would just cut out and coast to a halt? BTW, it's
not necessarily that dumb a design. Remember, the
cars are essentially designed for normal driving,
not for racing. I currently have 5 Ford Capris,
all of which have slip on LT coil leads, and in 10
years of owning them, I haven't had a single
incident of the leads falling off...
Nina Riley won't reveal how the new Spectra shaver is used in the film except to say it's in a "very pivotal scene."
Well that was a complete waste of money for them,
then. I've just seen the film, and I didn't notice
any particular branding on the shaver -- it was
just a shaver!
Slashdot Mirror
Was that really necessary? I mean, are there really people out there who don't know how to pronounce Pepys? Did you not learn anything at school? Sheesh!
BTW, I haven't the faintest clue what marshmallow peeps are...
No, they're not shipping. My delivery date has been slipping. Supposedly it was going to arrive before Christmas, but it never turned up. The latest from Eyetech is that they're waiting for new chips from IBM before they can build the boards and assemble the finished machines. They're estimating end of January delivery dates now, but I'll believe it when the machine arrives on my doorstep...
The chance of an education. You get to turn up, and either absorb or ignore the information you're being taught. Which of those you do is entirely your choice. The fact that you're paying is utterly irrelevant. If you expect University staff to behave differently because you're paying their wages, then you fundametally don't grasp how education works. Personally, I approve of blocking WiFi access. If you want to access the net, then do so (outside of the lecture theatre). If not, go to the lecture and learn something. Again, your choice. From the University's perspective, it makes sense to encourage people to pay attention, as that has a bearing on pass rates, which will affect student numbers, and hence income, for future years.
Apply a chainsaw to one of them...
"Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly." -- Henry Spencer
That's great for interactive use, but Nagios (along with Big Brother, and most other monitoring packages) doesn't seem to cater well to automating report generation from outside of a web browser. We need to generate weekly reports on the number of outages, etc., and would like to be able to schedule a cron job every Sunday night to say "get me the uptime stats for abc services, so I can put them into xyz reporting package". We need to take the raw data and calculate rolling averages, etc, to give to customers (we're contractully obliged to do so). I.e., the sort of reports we need are typically more complex than is reasonable to expect Nagios to do internally. Was the interactive bias a deliberate decision, or did it just evolve that way. More importantly, are there any plans to improve things in this area?
Yep. Standard practice at several places I've worked is for me to be asked to watch for a certain person to walk into the HR department. As soon as they're through the door, disable the account. That way, by the time they know they're being made redundant, they've already lost their access to the system. At a bank I worked at, that was followed by the unlucky victim being frogmarched to their desk by security, allowed to collect their personal artifacts, and then being escorted from the building...
There are few technical details on their web site, but it appears to just be a mixed mode (data and audio) CD, which when played using Bandlink's CD player software, will give the "benefits" described. Since I don't have any intention of using their software, it's not a problem. Until, of course, people start producing music that can only be played with their player. So far, record companies haven't been brave enough to test such a tactic in the market, although with copy protected CDs, they're getting awfully close to the line. The depressing thing is, I suspect the general public would just meekly go along with it :-(
No, I'm not sure. I know the server's the only part that's been released so far, but I was under the impression that the client port was underway too. Certainly, Ryan's other games (Serious Sam, UT2003) have been full client ports. You could try asking him...
You'll be pleased to know that a Linux port is underway.
Hopefully, they'll say "no". UML is a disease on the face of the planet, and the sooner it's destroyed, the better. Open sourcing Rose will potentially prolong UML's lifespan, something that I *really* don't want to happen. So like I said, I hope IBM keep it closed source (not that they have any incentive to open source it in the first place). Yeah, you might think this is flamebait, but it's genuinely what I believe...
Do you have any idea who you're talking to here? While I may not agree with everything Daniel does (the BK flamefest springs to mind), there's no doubt that he's an extremely talented and high profile kernel developer, and I'll guarantee he knows far more about kernel breakage than you do (or I do, for that matter). Plus, of course, if you even briefly scanned the LKML archives occasionally, you'd see that the Nvidia drivers do break. It's not FUD at all because it's true.
This is a problem that no starter script can workaround. They all (MSS included) only work on single headed machines. I'm talking about needing to start Mozilla on two different (non-Xinerama) heads on the same machine. Currently, Mozilla won't let you do this without creating multiple profiles.
Sigh. No, this won't work. Like I said, I need to be able to open multiple instances on different screens. You can only open a new browser window on the same screen on which the main browser window is running. To see the problem, try:
The ability to run multiple instances of Mozilla on different screens. This worked until 1.0rc2, and then they removed it. Since I *need* this funcitonality for my job, I have to keep a copy of the old version lying around :-(
I couldn't agree more. In fact, K&R themselves said it best in the preface to the second edition:
No, not really. On a 10" screen, 800x600 is only 100dpi. IBM have been shipping 200dpi LCD screens since 2001, so 1600x1200 easily achievable on that size screen. The actual IBM models are 22", yielding some 3500x2600 of high resolution goodness. Which is not to say they're cheap, of course :-)
Perhaps you're right, but I suspect it's a cultural thing. Living in London, space is a precious commodity, and is priced accordingly. To buy (or rent) enough floorspace to hold a cluster of this size would cost a significant amount of money, and the savings from cutting it down would be *huge*. I guess it's hard for those in the US to really understand. To give you some idea, Greater London has an average population density of 11,850 people per square mile rising to 22,200 if you only consider Inner London (the City is essentially split into two concentric rings, an inner and an outer). Compare that with Santa Fe, the nearest urban area to LANL, with only 1,500 people per square mile, and you get some idea of why I'm not used to space being a common commodity. Even the most densely populated area of the US, Los Angeles, only has some 5,800 people per square mile (although if you just consider Central New York, then it's comparable to London, but that's only the centre of the City, not the urbanized area).
The question has to be... why? I've never understood why so many people build clusters with essentially desktop PCs. Haven't these people ever heard of the 1U rack mount case? Yes, it's a slightly more expensive inital outlay. But surely the cost savings in terms of floorspace and power/cooling for such a large volume would outweigh that in no time flat? Plus the Shuttle, like most other desktop cases, don't have the option of hot swappable drives. With the number of machines in this sort of cluster, drive failure is a major problem. The ability to just pull the failed drive out of the front to replace it would be a huge win.
Not a MUD, but in terms of text based games, I still play Angband on a regular basis, just as I played Moria, Larn, Omega and Hack before it. And no, I don't use any of the new fangled graphic tiles that are available for it now. It was always a great game when it was text only, and I see no reason to change that. A large part of the appeal is the depth of the game. Modern games are too shallow, and too easy to complete. Angband is an immensely detailed and immersive game, and there's nothing in the modern era that compares. Diablo was a blatant ripoff of the game style, but had all of the depth and variety removed, and was *way* too easy.
Oh. At least I can now see what she looks like, even if I can't watch the ad (pesky Quicktime). Yes, I know I could theoretically use some mix of Wine and the appropriate Windows DLLs, but to be honest, I can't be bothered. I haven't yet found anything in Quicktime that was sufficiently worthwhile to motivate me to waste enough time to get it working. It's much easier to just do without...
Ask and ye shall receive. Linux versions of both are imminent from the immensely prolific Ryan C. Gordon. The man's a genius, and deserves your support...
Just curious... why would the LT coil lead falling off cause the engine to go bang? Surely the car would just cut out and coast to a halt? BTW, it's not necessarily that dumb a design. Remember, the cars are essentially designed for normal driving, not for racing. I currently have 5 Ford Capris, all of which have slip on LT coil leads, and in 10 years of owning them, I haven't had a single incident of the leads falling off...
Sodium.
Well that was a complete waste of money for them, then. I've just seen the film, and I didn't notice any particular branding on the shaver -- it was just a shaver!