The Article is dated 5/97, so it's a few years old, but if you're looking for a longer discussion, and more information on the technology, it's a good place to start.
I've been waiting for digital ink since May, 1997. Looks like only a few more years now!
When they send the tech guys to your house, those tech guys will only know windows or macintosh. In addition, they will try and sell you an $80 3com ISA 10MBit card for $109 or so. Don't do it. Have a $20 PCI card there, and installed in your windows machine. All the tech guys will do is check the MAC address of the card, and turn on your cable modem.
Now, once they've gone, put that card in your linux box, and configure DHCP, and voila. Instant access. You can also just connect your linux box up to the cable modem with a different card, and call customer service, asking them to change the MAC address. It takes about 10 minutes once you get them on the phone.
Incidentally, the install guys know nothing about linux, but Mediaone actually has at least one guy who deals solely with Linux users who use MediaOne. His job is not to provide tech support, but to help the users whose systems have been compromised. I know, because I've spent many an hour on the phone with him.
Incidentally, I would have been happy to e-mail this to you, if you had registered.
MediaOne's cable modem service is excellent, IMHO. I run a 14 computer LAN off one of their basic rate cable modems. Not only is there plenty of speed, but they don't even mind. They actually support (sort of) Linux firewalls, and LANs behind them. My dream is that other cable modem ISPs take lessons in service and flexibility from MediaOne.
Banks requiring that Linux not be loaded is probably mostly b) motivated.
Tech support is the most costly component of a computer system for a large corporation. This may not make sense to those of you who haven't seen the insides of large corporations, but if a secretary cannot use his e-mail, he will call tech support, and take up real, live technician time figuring out what's going on before he reboots, occasionally before he shuts down his e-mail. The costs of a call like that are twofold: Direct costs associated with the call, (tech support utilization, phones, etc. etc.), and indirect costs associated with the secretary's loss of productivity.
Most organizations tend to live on the edge in terms of available tech support, and system functionality. This seems especially to be true in banks. (I've only seen the insides of a couple retail banks, and one large credit card bank, so YMMV.) Given the organizational-wide headaches and costs of switching from Office '95 to Office '97, do you really think the COO of our friendly financial institution believes that Linux will be less work?
It doesn't matter that Linux types may never call tech support, it doesn't matter that they won't tell a soul, the thought of the potential costs are frightening.
With regard to a), many institutions rely on internal obfuscation of information to maintain privacy, and comply with federal rulings. For example, a large bank does not encrypt internal e-mail. Despite the fact that upcoming merger information may very well be discussed via e-mail. Institutions rely on extremely strict software controls to allay fears about information leaks. In the e-mail scenario above, institutions count on it being harder to monitor e-mail with win9x than with Unix. (Actually true, although obviously an enterprising young geek could monitor via windows quite easily.) Bringing in a Unix box emphasizes the fact the intranet can be a hostile place. This does not feel good to a middle manager or COO who spends most of her time trying to control the smallest steps of corporate procedure.
In my opinion, it can make sense to limit end-user use of non-standard OS'es. (Here standard refers to whatever the corporation has standardized on.) I don't see a reason to force policy choices on MIS departments, however. Better to give MIS a feature list, and a budget, and leave well enough alone after that.
ZDNet got much better numbers from Samba recently:
ZD's PC Week says a similar configuration got them 150Mb/s - 160 Mb/s, depending on the client load. This is still not 217 Mb/s, but it does indicate a poor configuration of samba in mindcraft's test.
First, The kudos to Rob, et al: Way to go. There are very few collabarative discussion groups of this size _anywhere_ which do not suffer from the problems people have are complaining about: excessive noise, moderators "playing favorites", and overworked moderators. You are pushing toward a brave new world. : ).
Even places like Photo.net with similar daily hits to slashdot do not have this sort of borad-based moderation in place... Phil Greenspun, database-backed web design guru, might be interested, in fact.
A few thoughts:
1) Although nothing makes up for the versatility that humans have for moderation, perhaps an adaptive scoring system could be added on: functions like "set score += 1 if post contains 'linux'" or "set score = -10 if post contains 'luzer'" implemented on a per-user basis would be more expensive, but even more valuable than the current system. In this way, the moderators scores could be taken as a base. Those who are happy with the moderators, and only want to make sure they see their own posts at the top have an easy road ahead of them. Likewise, those who feel the moderators are fascist pigs.
2) The scoring system has one strong benefit people do not seem to be mentioning: Conscientious moderators encourage better, and more posting. My goal is clear: Get ratings of 3-4 on all my posts! Additionally, I am more motivated to post knowing that if my post is good, it will reach a wider group of people.
The broad-based scoring implements a small free market economy of ideas: the posters of dreck can continue in their ways, (reaching fewer and fewer people) while those who want a voice will be forced to value their fellow/.'ers time and intelligence.
Slashdot Mirror
Correct URL:
http://Microworkz.com/Products/i Toaster/iToaster.cfm
The actual link is: Here at ZD Net
Wired has a long, excellent feature article on Electronic Ink.
The Article is dated 5/97, so it's a few years old, but if you're looking for a longer discussion, and more information on the technology, it's a good place to start.
I've been waiting for digital ink since May, 1997. Looks like only a few more years now!
Here's the deal:
When they send the tech guys to your house, those tech guys will only know windows or macintosh. In addition, they will try and sell you an $80 3com ISA 10MBit card for $109 or so. Don't do it. Have a $20 PCI card there, and installed in your windows machine. All the tech guys will do is check the MAC address of the card, and turn on your cable modem.
Now, once they've gone, put that card in your linux box, and configure DHCP, and voila. Instant access. You can also just connect your linux box up to the cable modem with a different card, and call customer service, asking them to change the MAC address. It takes about 10 minutes once you get them on the phone.
Incidentally, the install guys know nothing about linux, but Mediaone actually has at least one guy who deals solely with Linux users who use MediaOne. His job is not to provide tech support, but to help the users whose systems have been compromised. I know, because I've spent many an hour on the phone with him.
Incidentally, I would have been happy to e-mail this to you, if you had registered.
MediaOne's cable modem service is excellent, IMHO. I run a 14 computer LAN off one of their basic rate cable modems. Not only is there plenty of speed, but they don't even mind. They actually support (sort of) Linux firewalls, and LANs behind them. My dream is that other cable modem ISPs take lessons in service and flexibility from MediaOne.
Correct Link here: http://linuxtoday.com/stories/5454.html
Corporations tend to be motivated by
a) politics
b) money
Banks requiring that Linux not be loaded is
probably mostly b) motivated.
Tech support is the most costly component of
a computer system for a large corporation. This
may not make sense to those of you who haven't
seen the insides of large corporations, but if
a secretary cannot use his e-mail, he will call
tech support, and take up real, live technician
time figuring out what's going on before he
reboots, occasionally before he shuts down his
e-mail. The costs of a call like that are
twofold: Direct costs associated with the call,
(tech support utilization, phones, etc. etc.), and
indirect costs associated with the secretary's
loss of productivity.
Most organizations tend to live on the edge in
terms of available tech support, and system
functionality. This seems especially to be
true in banks. (I've only seen the insides of
a couple retail banks, and one large credit card
bank, so YMMV.) Given the organizational-wide
headaches and costs of switching from Office '95
to Office '97, do you really think the COO of
our friendly financial institution believes that
Linux will be less work?
It doesn't matter that Linux types may never call
tech support, it doesn't matter that they won't
tell a soul, the thought of the potential costs are frightening.
With regard to a), many institutions rely on
internal obfuscation of information to maintain
privacy, and comply with federal rulings. For
example, a large bank does not encrypt
internal e-mail. Despite the fact that upcoming
merger information may very well be discussed via
e-mail. Institutions rely on extremely strict
software controls to allay fears about information
leaks. In the e-mail scenario above, institutions
count on it being harder to monitor e-mail with
win9x than with Unix. (Actually true, although
obviously an enterprising young geek could monitor
via windows quite easily.) Bringing in a Unix
box emphasizes the fact the intranet can be
a hostile place. This does not feel good to
a middle manager or COO who spends most of her
time trying to control the smallest steps of
corporate procedure.
In my opinion, it can make sense to limit
end-user use of non-standard OS'es. (Here
standard refers to whatever the corporation has
standardized on.) I don't see a reason to force
policy choices on MIS departments, however.
Better to give MIS a feature list, and a budget,
and leave well enough alone after that.
ZDNet got much better numbers from Samba recently:
ZD's PC Week says a similar configuration got them 150Mb/s - 160 Mb/s, depending on the client load. This is still not 217 Mb/s, but it does indicate a poor configuration of samba in mindcraft's test.
First, The kudos to Rob, et al: Way to go. There are very few collabarative discussion groups of this size _anywhere_ which do not suffer from the problems people have are complaining about: excessive noise, moderators "playing favorites", and overworked moderators. You are pushing toward a brave new world. : ).
/.'ers time and intelligence.
Even places like Photo.net with similar daily hits to slashdot do not have this sort of borad-based moderation in place... Phil Greenspun, database-backed web design guru, might be interested, in fact.
A few thoughts:
1) Although nothing makes up for the versatility that humans have for moderation, perhaps an adaptive scoring system could be added on: functions like "set score += 1 if post contains 'linux'" or "set score = -10 if post contains 'luzer'" implemented on a per-user basis would be more expensive, but even more valuable than the current system. In this way, the moderators scores could be taken as a base. Those who are happy with the moderators, and only want to make sure they see their own posts at the top have an easy road ahead of them. Likewise, those who feel the moderators are fascist pigs.
2) The scoring system has one strong benefit people do not seem to be mentioning: Conscientious moderators encourage better, and more posting. My goal is clear: Get ratings of 3-4 on all my posts! Additionally, I am more motivated to post knowing that if my post is good, it will reach a wider group of people.
The broad-based scoring implements a small free market economy of ideas: the posters of dreck can continue in their ways, (reaching fewer and fewer people) while those who want a voice will be forced to value their fellow
Thoughts?