You know, I have to wonder just what kind of contract Sun has this school nailed to.
You never get something like that cheap, especially Sun's overpriced excuse for hardware, without *big* conditions. I bet the whole school district is being forced to switch to Sun equipment.
And that's just wrong. That's Microsoft-style 'discounts.' My former school district ran a very diverse, but EFFECTIVE environment. The records server was an HP9000. The workstations were underpowered 95 machines that crashed daily. (P60's) They were Gateway 2000 leftovers from the Win3.x days, still somewhat in warranty. The server's a Dell Poweredge 1000 running NetWare 4.1x. NT's serving some very limited ends. And if they ever want to change something, they can change whatever they want, however they want. They have total freedom to work with their environment. At one point, Microsoft offered them educational discounts, on the terms that they upgraded all their workstations, and went to NT for everything, at about half retail cost. They blew Microsoft off.
I don't know about you, but I don't buy any of Sun's warm fuzzy crap, and it will be a cold day in hell before I let *any* vendor; even IBM, my favourite, lock me into their selection.
Take it from someone who *knows* Qwest; NOTHING is worth doing business with them. They can't even do PRI's properly, much less an ISP.
I just moved out of state. And out of the range of my original ISP. (They don't service this area.) On top of that, where I moved to has exactly *three* NXX exchanges local. (THANK YOU BELL ATLANTIC, YOU WORTHLESS BASTARDS.) And an old AT&T 4ESS switch formerly owned by Bell of Pennsylvania. Well, I wasn't about to pay $.12/min for 800# access (it costs most ISPs upwards of $.155/min for 800# calls! Not you; THEM!) and I wanted to keep with them.
The solution? I got a local dialup (the only ISP in the *state* that serves my NPA/NXX local) till I move and get my PRIs. I made arrangements with my ISP to prepay for my email for the next year, and they're letting me keep my webpages there too. I got a local dialup account, with the intent of cancelling in about 3 months, and I'm all set.
And if all else fails, remember, some of the national people will work with anything. Afterall, it's just ppp. If you can setup your account on the phone, assume you can connect with Linux. PPP is PPP is PPP. All that you need is your authentication method (plaintext, PAP, CHAP, PAP+CHAP, CID+CHAP, etc. (At home, I had a CID+PAP setup.)) your username, your password, your dns servers, any weird options like gateway and such, and you're good to go!
Sun is losing interest in Java, and it's starting to show. The only future they see for Java is as a client in a client/server world where Sun makes all the servers. So why should they spend their time building an IDE or RAD[1] tools?
If you look at the history of Java, and take a step back, it's actually fairly easy to see that Sun is losing interest in Java's original intentions. They sued Microsoft over it just to be a thorn in their side. They claim Java is a write-once-run-anywhere system, but they haven't worked very hard at getting other operating systems to run period.
It seems to me that at this point, Sun is hedging their bets on the SunRay1, which is a Java thinclient, that will more than likely only work with Sun servers. They want us to live in a world where we all use Java thinclients to work with our files and information on Sun servers. They want everyone else out of the picture of the Internet; they want to be the "dot-com" period. No Microsoft, no IBM, no nobody. I don't know about you, but I stopped supporting Sun *long* ago, and they're just going to get less and less support from me every day. They're making Microsoft-like moves at every turn, and it's making me sick.
Microsoft's doing a usability study on Linux. Okay.
I'm going to whack anyone who's asking why they're using clueless newbies. Microsoft is doing it for two reasons; one, a clueless newbie is the typical Microsoft customer. Two, a clueless newbie will easily get frustrated and say that Linux sucks, giving Microsoft more FUD ammunition. Both of those points should be obvious.
Microsoft is loading for bear with this. They're going to put all these total idiots on overpowered machines. They're going to have them use Linux for a few weeks. Then Windows 2000 for a few weeks. Release the 'study' as 'fact' and genuine 'scientific research' in their battle against all unixes.
Even Linus says Linux isn't ready or meant for the desktop. *sigh* Oh well. More Microsoft FUD on the way.. excuse me while I put on my PR Flak Jacket.
Sun's already getting their asses beat by IBM in the unix arena so badly, it's almost sad to watch Sun's faltering and pathetic attempts to so much as *touch* IBM.
For those of you who remain clueless, let me issue you the official reality check of RS/6000 supporters the world over.
The RS/6000 SP2 in it's many retail versions, including basic 16 node configurations, dots the 'Top 500 Supercomputers' list all over, probably comprising somewhere around 20% of it. Not a single retail Sun is found on that list. The SP2, even with nodes, is cheaper than a Sun 'HPC' setup that would come anywhere near it's performance.
Now let's get nice and dirty. Solaris is up to what, 2.7? After being SunOS 4.1.13. (Not sure on version number here, feel free to correct.) And still has bugs. Just recently IBM released OS/390 Version 2, Release 8. A followup to Version 2, Release 7. The S/390 is reguarded as one of the most powerful parallel computing systems available today, and OS/390 is without a doubt the most robust, reliable, and flexible unix-like operating system on the market.
Now we can get into what Sun wants to do, websites and such. Sorry, IBM's got it plenty under control with the RS/6000 C20, F40, F50, H50, R50, H70, and S70. They'll gleefully outserve any Sun you put them up against. And they run Apache, too. Then there's the ultimate in complete connectivity, the AS/400 series, which can handle more networking than Sun, comes with Domino, which while being commercial, follows standards and handles your webserving, email, LDAP, ad infinitum. And will smoke Netscape Suite-Spot. Domino gleefully handles slashdot effect! Whereas www.sun.com is almost as slow as www.cisco.com. I've never had a problem with www.austin.ibm.com, www.direct.ibm.com, or any of IBM's websites.
Face it; IBM's *BEEN* better since day ONE. IBM *invented* the mainframe and the midrange. They have YEARS of experience on Sun. And they know how to use it. So, take this reality check, cash it, trade in your Suns, and get some RS/6000's to do the job better.
For those who know me, they know that I tolerate absolutely no censorship of any sort. And I support this bill that congress is trying to pass. I support it unequivocally.
Why? Because it's not enforced censorship. Nor is it a way to control the media. It's a way to let the media regulate itself and enable parents to effectively control what their kids listen to. If anything, it gives more power to the people, forgive the corny phrase, rather than takes freedom away. It doesn't say 'if you get this and this rating, you can't sell it here there and there.' It says 'you have to label your product with it's rating in a clear manner.'
I supported the original thing like this; the parental advisory stickers. Whether or not the kids listen to the stuff is the parents deicision then; not the government's, not the stores, not the media's.
I truly hope this bill passes; the US is long overdue for something like this. Now if only we could get some genuine truth in advertizing and truth from the news media. *sigh*
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
I've got one NT box that I work on, a workstation..
NT 4 Workstation SP4 Build 1381.
I can't find the key. Applying the patch doesn't work. I can't install SP5 (CiscoWorks won't install then.) and going through the registry with REGEDIT.EXE doesn't show the registry entry mentioned.
So I'm inclined to believe that either it's not in SP4, or Microsoft has hidden it REALLY well. Applying the patch as instructed, even using the binary executable that you can download, does nothing. And a test against it fails. Yet I can still log on, so the registry cryptography keys must be intact.
This is scary. And a good reason to ban Windows from your office.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Watch this get moderated down by RedHat lovers...
on
Open Letter to Red Hat
·
· Score: 3
Well, for ONCE, somebody presents something just barely recognizable as intelligence in a statement that mentions RedHat. I'm amazed.
Well, unfortunately, barely recognizable doesn't cut it. Time to get out the hacksaw and tear that hammered together writing apart.
Robert says: dump money into GCC. RedHat lives or dies by GCC.
The REALITY: Good MORNING, WORLD! Let's see. Last I heard, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, RedHat, Debian, Slackware, Caldera, SuSE, and some others use GCC. Now in case you cluebies haven't noticed, egcs is now gcc, and egcs is about as useful for, say, Alpha, as bootable AIX tapes on a Dell PowerEdge. gcc may as well be written off as a loss, because Linus doesn't suggest, recommend, or advise compiling your kernels with egcs. Neither do I. So it's going to end up in a big bloody argument probably. Fun fun fun.
Robert says: dump money into a GPL office suite.
Reality: Money doesn't grow on trees, and in case you haven't noticed, business users are buying StarOffice and Corel's products. That's just a waste of resources if you want to replace Windoze, which is RedCrap's big happy goal.
Robert says: Make what they have now work better.
Reality: What, were you born yesterday? Why do you think they hire people in the first place? Hint; it's NOT to do tech support!
Robert says: subscription plans, this is important.
Reality: HA! AHAHHAHAHAHA!! REDHAT? Give you a reliable product at a fair price?! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHoh gods, I'm laughing so hard, I'm *crying*. Here, it's the cluephone. It's for you. RedHat is in this for money, not fairness. Money comes before all things Linux as far as RedHat's concerned. If they have to spend money to fix bugs in their distribution, it costs them money. So they rush to release, include bugs, and make up for it with the profits from the next version. Which in case you haven't noticed, is now double what the last version was. Can't wait till RedCrap switches to AIX-style licensing. "A two-user RedHat 7.0 license is now $80. A four-user license is now $200..."
Robert says: open up the RPM standards.
Okay, Robert. You see this? This is a cluebat. *WHACKWHACKWHACK* Next time, research before writing. Saves you a lot of pain, as you now see. RedHat has *never* been tight-lipped with but a few specifics on RPM. However, they tout RPM as the standard, when it's NOT. RPM is ineffecient, difficult to work with, and impossible to upgrade with. RPM should be dumped altogether, and the *spit* Linux Standards Base *snigger* needs to get off their asses and decide on a standard. The chances of that happening before 2010? About one in six trillion *against*.
Robert says: Cygnus and Borland/Inprise would make great acquisitions.
Robert, once again, money does NOT GROW ON TREES. Whether or not Borland/Inprise has been in decline, it COSTS MONEY. Lots and LOTS of money. Furthermore, Inprise is a faltering company, and is NOT a good buy. Linux is NOT the OS that will make or break any company's long-term profits and stability. You people need to get a grip and freaking realize this NOW. Linux is a media-darling because it's anti-Microsoft and as long as Microsoft is on the hot seat, Linux will be hot. And as soon as Microsoft is off the hotseat, some loyalists will stay, and the rest will dump Linux like a bad habit.
Robert says: Compaq or Dell would be a nice partner.
I reiterate; DO YOUR RESEARCH. Compaq *AND* Dell already HAVE partnerships with RedHat. THANK YOU, DRIVE THROUGH! Gods. I'm getting really frustrated reading this blatant lack of research.
Robert says; support the LSB.
The day I support the LSB is the day the LSB gets off it's ass and actually does some work that people follow that's of use to me. Now, the chances of THAT happening anytime soon, is so incredibly low, it would probably factor out to be six pages of digits ending in ':1', *against* it happening.
So.. next time somebody wants to write this kinda crap, do your research FIRST, so people like me don't have to basically *flame* you for misinforming. Or better yet; don't tell RedCrap how to run their business. They seem to be doing just fine without your input, which I'm sure you emailed to them directly, and were politely thanked for your 'valuable input.' They don't care, folks. They're gonna do it their way, and all you do is contribute to the growing flames of media hype that make people who actually *know* and *use* Linux, for the most part, SICK.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Okay, first off, I have to include a disclaimer. This is for MY protection, because I don't want some AC suing me over erroneous or really poor legal advice. This isn't legal advice. This is personal advice, given as a person. Coupled with my personal interpretation of the license. You should under no circumstances take this is as law, or even an attempt at being a lawyer. I'm just another guy. Further questions? Call Unisys.
That out of the way.. here's what it means.
First off, if you run a website, get out the checkbook. You aren't permitted to serve up GIFs without the license from Unisys. That's right; you can't serve LZW-containing content without a license from Unisys.
Secondly, use gimp? Welp, get out the checkbook. You owe Unisys $5000. Use gd pre-PNG? Make that check payable to "Unisys Corporation." Use Adobe Photoshop to make web content? The address to send the check to is on Unisys' website.
Lastly, do you view things with LZW compression in them? Well, better get a fresh pen. Unless you're using a 'licensed' viewer, you owe Unisys another $5000.
So, in short, what does it mean overall?
Use anything at all using LZW, ie; GIF89a images? Welp, you owe Unisys 5 grand just to look at 'em.
Now, can Unisys enforce this? Unfortunately, yes. In part. They can and will hunt down every piece of software with LZW compression, and demand $5000 or threaten to sue. They've done it before. They can't control the websites, but they're counting on the fear factor for that. And if they control the content creation, they don't really need to worry about serving it.
Now, why's Unisys doing this? I can't say for sure. Maybe because they've been in a steady rate of decline? Maybe because they got new lawyers? Maybe because they just want to get a new CEO by bidding a $30mil package, and this is an effective way to finance it.
Either way, this is something that can't be ignored. And Unisys won't just forget about it. Batten down the hatches, and protest. Raise hell. Make Unisys miserable. Find new and creative ways to legally harass them. Email them every last one of your GIFs. Email them a complete.tar.gz of the Gimp. Fax them your GIFs. Snail mail them diskettes and CD-ROMs containing GIFs. Include a letter stating that you are protesting their childish and hostile behaviour towards what is considered, for the most part, the standard image format for the web.
Let's show these pricks we mean business. I don't know about you, but I've got an old IBM ProPrinterII cranking, the TD light on my modem is lit solid, and I'm changing 3.5" diskettes every few minutes. In the meantime, let's all switch to JPEG or PNG.:)
VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
For those of you who don't know, DDNS is basically DHCP with hostnames built in.
Problem is.. it violates the real standards for DNS.
To do DDNS requires that all upstream servers update excessively; AXFR's are performed on average every *FIVE MINUTES* in DDNS from what I've seen.
Problem #2; Microsoft doesn't even know what an AXFR is. NT DNS follows standards for lookups, but if you need a secondary DNS server and your primary is NT, well, break out the checkbook. M$ DNS follows ZERO standards in zone transfers, not to mention file format! You *CAN'T* secondary with unix without more headaches than it's worth.
DDNS is nothing more than another Microsoft attempt to gain more control over the internet through 'evolving' standards by blatantly ignoring them.
I pity the fools who believe the hype.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
This kid couldn't crack a book. He couldn't crack his butt, much less any computer whatsoever. But he obviously can smoke crack.
What a bunch of media-whored trash. (Not slashdot.) "Running it by the editors" means "I'm being told what to say so they get free marketing." I don't believe a word he said.
He's a teenage punk without a clue who believes that just because he says so, everyone should crawl on their hands and knees to do his bidding.
The kid is being so used and abused by the media it's sick. And what's sad is I bet he's loving every minute of it, because this is his chance to look like a good guy and prove he knows his shit.
Well, he knows shit, but not much else. That much is certainly visible. The kid isn't paid to know anything, folks. The kid is paid to be a propoganda tool. He is a known name and a celebrity. In other words, a media tool. Not much more. Certainly not a philanthropist, and most definitely not a 'cracker' or 'hacker.'
Oh, sure, it was sent in Word.doc, but that's probably because of his editors and his laziness. He probably originally wrote it in MS-DOS Edit or pico so he could prove he was cool. But editors will have their way.
And they're going to have their way with him the rest of his life, or till he's no longer useful. Which'll probably be a few months at best, till they start a *new* season of 'Real World' or 'Road Rules,' neither of which strike me as accurate in the least. I mean, c'mon. Gimme a freaking break. I have watched these shows.
I don't know any 18-24 year olds that live in gigantic beachfront mansions, get everything paid for, and just have to act like assholes in front of cameras to get a paycheck.
And they wonder why people call it 'EmptyV.'
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Thank the gods! Finally a *DECENT* novel will have a movie! For those of you who haven't read Ender's Game, GO READ IT. Damn fine book. Orson Scott Card is a spectacular author, and Ender's Game is a true classic. Let's just hope they don't screw up the movie.:) -RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Would somebody please write ESR a reality check? He obviously needs one. It's PAINFUL to read this.
First off, WRONG. IRIX is not being dropped, only scaled back. Development will be continued in very limited proportions, and support and bugfixes will be continued.
Secondly, DEAD WRONG. IBM has about fifty times as much invested in Monterey than Linux. I'm not going to cite my sources, but that's fact. They're banking a HELL of a lot more heavily on Monterey than they ever will on Linux. Reason being that they stand to make more off Monterey, since it's basically AIX with iBCS only it's for PowerPCs. It runs Linux bins. So it's got one hell of a leg up on Linux with better corporate acceptance and wider support.
ESR really needs to check his facts before he goes spouting off.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Gee, is it just me, or wasn't Jon talking up how you should do everything within your power to get kids under 17 into R rated movies?
Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that Jon was touting Blair With Project as one of those movies you should take a kid to see? Wasn't he the one who wrote a two part story about how you should take your kids to see this movie? Was he not touting it as a new cinema phenomenon?
Would somebody please tell me when people learn to stop pulling this doublespeak bullshit?
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Okay, I'm intimately familiar with the situation at this point; I've been assisting a former employer in working towards a temporary emergency resolution since they're on MCI/WorldCom. Anyways, here's what appears to have happened. Please note the following disclaimer:
I do not speak for MCI/WorldCom or Lucent, I do not work for MCI/WorldCom or Lucent, I have no affiliation with MCI/WorldCom or Lucent, and I do not have any sort of business relationship with MCI/WorldCom or Lucent.
That said to cover my ass, here's what appears to have happened.
MCI/WorldCom has had capacity issues since mid-97. When it was just MCI, they stopped selling DS3's for a period of time a few years back because they simply didn't have the capacity. MCI has long had capacity issues, and as a direct result, has typically run their equipment at or near capacity. What appears to have happened is a cascade failure. I'm going to try and put this into words, but it's easier with pictures. Trust me.
What happens in a cascade failure? A network, at or near capacity, has a failure in a single core router for some reason, in MCI/WorldCom's case, a failure due to software. The load from that core is quickly distributed to the remaining core routers. These remaining core routers, being at or near capacity, almost immediately gave way under the load, failing due to other various reasons triggered by the excess load. As each router failed down the line, the load on the remaining routers increased exponentially, cascading into a full network outage.
Now, why isn't it fixed? Recovering from a cascade failure is extremely difficult. This is speaking from experience. I had a server cascade failure once; it's not an easy recovery from that. A network even moreso.
To recover from a cascade failure, load has to be taken out of the picture for a period of time so as to be able to bring things back online without any load. That's the reason for the 24 hour planned outage, I believe. Not working for MCI/WorldCom or Lucent, I can't be sure or confirm this. When the load is eliminated, what has to be done is each router all the way on down the line has to be fully reset, restored to the original configuration, reconfigured, then brought back online one by one, with *NO* load on the network. If there is load on the network equivalent to what there was when it went down, then that router will immediately fail again. After each router is brought back online, and tested, each interface must be brought back up, one at a time, so as to make sure the load does not cascade out of control again. Once this is done, stability can be assumed to be restored, assuming no more interfaces or connections are added.
Why MCI has taken so long to take this action, I don't know. Were I running the network, that would have been the first action upon noticing the cascade. Shut down all interfaces, cut off the load so that the cascade can be halted before the entire network is affected. Immediately notify all customers that, flat out, "a router failed due to a software upgrade, we don't know why, and we had to shut down all interfaces for a period of time to prevent the failure of the entire network. We don't know when we'll be able to get everyone back up." Furthermore, I'd do everything I could to get effected customers back online, and to find a way to get the customers attached to the failed router setup somewhere else, so as to get the network back up and be able to troubleshoot the failed router as quickly and cleanly as possible.
But like I said; I don't work for MCI/WorldCom or Lucent. I can't garauntee any of this information to be true. To be quite honest, I'm glad I don't work for either company. They have totally mishandled this whole situation, they're going to lose a lot of customers, and I believe they deserve it. You don't get and keep customers by keeping them in the dark and being very vague. Hell, if I call the Cleveland Verio NOC, they'll tell me exactly what happened when the T1 at work goes down. Either the 7513 had a failed RSP, or both powersupplies failed, etc. (And still my coworkers wonder why I hate Verio.. maybe because they're telling me these kind of things weekly?) MCI/WorldCom and Lucent have turned this into a disaster of proportions that never should have happened. Oh well. Their loss, other's gains.
Welcome to the Internet in this day and age, where information comes at a premium, and customer service is something of the past. Sad but true.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Us early risers (*groan*) get to make the first intelligent post, it seems. (Being patient through the poor performance and such helps too.) But anyways, AOL's doing the logical and intelligent thing.
In the middle of this messaging war, anything that's open source is like a giant bullseye painted on AOL's back. I doubt that AOL is doing this permanently. This is simply a measure that needs to be taken to protect themselves against Microsoft currently. I can forgive that.
AOL isn't blocking TOC/TiK clients, they're not actively attempting to create specific interopability problems either. This is a clear sign that they're not out to destroy TOC/TiK, but simply attempting to do damage control as quickly as possible.
Wait till the war is over. TOC/TiK will be back, rest assured. AOL's already realized that the open source community is one of their best and most powerful allies. But Microsoft is one of their worst enemies, and any information that MS can get is ammunition for use against them.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Okay, the totally nutso religious version of me time.
First off, let me explain my views on religion, so nobody is totally offended by my words after this. I believe that each person has the right to their own beliefs and systems, no matter who they are. No person, system, agency, or entity has the right to so much as question any others beliefs. This is morally and ethically WRONG. I am NOT Christian, my religious views if explained in detail would draw MUCH flak. Let's leave it at the fact that it is against my religion to say the pledge of allegiance.
That said... Call the ACLU *NOW*!
The Kansas School Board is hereby on my 'I wish you worthless scumbags would CURL UP AND *DIE*' list. They are BELOW humans; below the species from which we evolved, though I doubt a single one of them knows what species that is.
This is a blatant violation of the right to freedom of religion. They are now forcing their religious views upon thousands of students. They have banned something that was determined to be a *federal* requirement decades ago. They are turning their children into ignorant fools who I couldn't ever hire with a clean conscience, knowing that their education is so greatly lacking in science.
As I understand it, they have banned all educational topics relating to evolution period. Now, I don't know about you, but learning about how the human species evolved from apes is a pretty damned humbling experience, and a necessary one as far as I'm concerned. And now teachers have lost the option of teaching it.
Kansas will now be churning out uneducated, unqualified, ignorant children that will grow into ignorant adults, who won't be fit for a good many jobs simply because they lack basic knowledge.
A blatant violation of the freedom of religion that the constitution and bill of rights gives us all.
May you hypocrite school board members in Kansas burn in hell, and were it not illegal, I would even consider helping you along your way there. You are hypocrites. Do you know what a hypocrite is? It's someone who preaches one thing, and does the exact opposite. And every last one of you is a hypocrite, members of the Kansas School Board who supported this absurd and blatantly illegal policy.
I can already see you getting your bibles and your best excorsists, headed out to my home, you worthless hypocritical scum. Go right ahead and try it. Sue to find my identity because you can't handle the truth. Do whatever you want, and know that no matter how much you do to hurt me, you've still hurt your children over a hundred times worse.
Thanks for attempting to insure the corruption, destruction, and failure of an entire generation, but no thanks.
Hopefully your voting public will take note of this idiocy next election, and be kind enough to show you all the door. Quite permanently, as well, I hope. May you all go back to your 2 room churches in the boonies preaching tales of brimstone and fire for not hating every person like me. And may you never be heard from publically again.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
What utter and total bullshit. Bob Young's laughing all the way to the bank. Sure, maybe you made some cash too, but let's do the math.
6 million overinflated overrated shares of RHAT starting at $12 each. That's $72mil. Now they're at $55. That's $3.3 *BILLION* IN STOCK if I'm reading all these zeros correctly.
When will you FOOLS get this through your head? It doesn't matter if RedHat does or doesn't give back the community! You just made Bob Young and Co. $2.58 billion! And what happens when people start realizing that RedHat *ISN'T* worth $2.58bil under *ANY* circumstances?
Give me a break; RedHat's pulled a fast one, people fell for it, and in the end, they're going to get screwed. Never before have I seen such blatant lying in an IPO, or such idiocy from the public. Excuse me, I'm going to be ill.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Gods. I've got a friend who's subscribed to the AnchorDesk email and it drives me insane. Every time Linux is so much as mentioned, I get a forwarded copy. And over and over again, Jesse is saying it's not ready for this that or anything. A few times he's even out and out insulted Linux and/or the community.
This article is worthless. It's just crap he's spouting off to make himself look smart and to get more mindless monkey readers who want to hear good things about Linux because (mommy,daddy,employer) wouldn't (send them to LinuxWorld, buy them RedCrap 6, buy them Caldera, let them nuke a 95 install). Jesse isn't in the arena because he likes writing about things; he's in the market because he's become a name and he knows how to play with people's heads.
I give it about 4 or 5 weeks before Jesse's back to talking up NT and saying Linux is inferior once again. I'm just waiting for him to say all unixes are inferior to NT.. maybe something that stupid would get him fired. We can only hope.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
FYI, the *GREEN* can Guinness is Guinness pale in most parts of the world. The stuff in the dark bottles with serial numbers is Guinness Dark; don't drink that unless a hangover is in your plans for certain.;)
AND GET DRUNK!! Damn I wish I was at that party.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
No, I'm worried about the core principles, focus, and design of Linux. Not whether or not it has pretty GUIs. I won't use NT4 for servers, and I won't use Linux for servers if it's goals are to be like NT4. I don't give a damn if it is more stable; I want something that was designed for servers. Not your hotshit game machine.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Thousands of people who shouldn't even be allowed near a computer, much less anything resembling Linux, will begin flocking to Linux. RedHat will probably snag and pervert LIZARD for their own uses. Kiddies who barely know how to click a mouse will become 'eleet' as they install Linux with LIZARD because Linux is 'c00l, dood!'
Then watch all the distros switch to LIZARD, possibly even Debian, just for userbase. Why the hell do I want LIZARD? I don't want a simple install. I want a powerful, flexible install. LIZARD would only serve to make installation more of a hassle. Debian's already two CDs, watch it become 4 if LIZARD is used. I'll have more migraines in the internal network than ever before because LIZARD's so damned easy to use.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not an elitist. But I see absolutely no reason whatsoever for me to continue using Linux if it's going to stop being what it is, and try to be a desktop. I have no use for desktop operating system with install programs whose size rival that of a Microsoft install program.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
The USA already routinely condemn innocents to death penalty... Why don't you care about them ?
I REFUSE to allow ANY post like this, questioning my ethics or morals go unanswered.
I did not say I didn't care about them; I DO. However, that is NOT the topic at hand here, PERIOD. I did NOT address it because it was OFFTOPIC, as was your ENTIRE POST, not to mention FLAMEBAIT, Mister/Misses AC. So kindly shove it up your rectum.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Kevin Mitnick was, to put it bluntly, screwed. He was a guy with a basic knowledge of computers, and an intimate knowledge of cellular technology, and insatiable curiosity. He wasn't the terrorist super-cracker evil demon the world made him out to be.
The book about the whole thing, "Takedown," is full of half-truths and blatant lies. In condensed form, straight from someone who was at the Free Kevin rallies, here is the basics.
-Kevin Mitnick was an ordinary guy who was curious. -Kevin liked to explore things, albeit illegally. -Kevin like to 'borrow' those thing to figure them out, or to save a few bucks. -Kevin got caught. -The FBI/NSA decided to make an example out of Kevin, and locked him up. -Kevin was stripped of his rights of due process, and left to rot.
Which pretty much brings us up to now.
Kevin wasn't someone out to cause chaos; he was a curious guy, sorta like me, who just went about his learning a different way. I won't deny that some of the things he did were wrong, and I won't defend them. That's not the issue.
The issue is that Kevin Mitnick has been held in a federal prison, in solitary confinement frequently, for many years now, without trial, a bail set, or access to computers. The government has repeatedly stated that they will make sure that Kevin never touches another computer again as long as he lives.
What really scares me is that this could happen to anyone, and the government has proven it. Years of fighting the government, grass root efforts, rallies, campaigns, and more has had NO effect. Kevin's still locked up. What should happen if they decide to do that to you or me? Maybe we'll get the same support as Kevin, but what good will it do? The FBI/NSA have done more than make an example; they've shown that they are the law, and are above the laws set by our government. This is truly terrifying, as that basically means if they want to execute you for being a cracker or script kiddy, they could do it, and get away with it.
Noone is safe, and they've proven it. And there's nothing we can do about it, as they've proven. I don't know about you, but I'm very afraid of our government now. Maybe we'll all get lucky and the FBI and NSA will be dissolved. But I doubt that; with my luck, they're en route to arrest me and make sure I never see the light of day again.:P
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Now you've gone and gotten the resident RS/6000 pimp and guru involved.
First off; 500MHz bus is so incredibly easy for IBM to achieve, it's not funny. The problem is that they don't have a matching processor to use 500MHz bus. And 500/2 is NOT 262MHz. And you can't cleanly get 340MHz out of it either. Those speeds correspond to the RS64-II processors housed inside the RS/6000 S70 Advanced Server and the RS/6000 H70, two of the fastest single-system computers in the world.
IBM can do it. They've been doing all that for ages, save for the twin-die. In case all of you have forgotten, IBM/Motorola are now in bed together again. This is a very good thing, seeing as they share the CopperGold patents which are used in the production of all of IBM's PowerPC processors. I suspect it's also used in the motherboard manufacturing process.
Let's do a quick lookover of the RS/6000's I mentioned above; the S70 Advanced Server and the H70 in basic single processor configurations.
SPECint95: N.A. 144 SPECfp95: N.A. 182 OLTP Perf: 46.0 16.7 (N.A. denotes 'Not Available' - The S70AS does not have SPECint/SPECfp results publically available.)
How about handling the web?
In their max configurations.. the S70 Advanced Server with 12 RS64-II's at 262MHz achieves a SPECweb96 ops/sec score of an astounding 20,200. The H70, with 4 processors, achievs an astounding score of 11,774. Now let's jump ship on the more 'typical' RS/6000's and look at where IBM will more than likely stick this processor first.
The legendary SP2, otherwise known as Deep Thought. Yes, that's right. Deep Thought is available for *retail* sale, and eats no less than 60 spaces on the top 500 supercomputer list, in it's many retail configurations.
A *single* Type 9076 Wide node with dual POWER3 processors running at just 200MHz achieves the unbelievable SPECint95 of 222 and SPECfp95 of 468. Keep in mind this; these processors are running at just 200MHz. *DEAD* slow for you Intel weenies. Ancient technology, some would say.
Yet they achieve higher SPECint95 and SPECfp95 scores than pIII-Xeon 550's. By far. The single processor configuration achieves int95 of 111 and fp95 of 243. Now, cram 16 of those into a single computer known as the SP2, which is really just an active backplanar chassis. Realize the performance increase is a 'pure' curve; each wide node added is worth a SPECint95 score of 111 and a SPECfp95 score of 243. 16 of those give you an overall SPECint95 score of 1776 and an overall SPECfp95 score of 3888. That's 16 200MHz processors with 256M of memory per processor and 4M of L2.
IBM can do it, and deliver on it by the end of December if they wanted to! IBM knows what they're doing, and knows what they're saying. IBM doesn't do vaporware. They said OS/2 Warp 5 was going into beta months ago. Two weeks after they said that, I recieved my beta CDs. When they say they'll have a fix for an AIX problem within a week, you have it within a week.
IBM doesn't deliver vaporware; they deliver promises. Clouds with a silver lining, if you will, since this means that Motorola also gets access to this technology. (Assuming I understand their current pact correctly.) Who wants to jump the x86 ship with me now?
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Slashdot Mirror
You know, I have to wonder just what kind of contract Sun has this school nailed to.
You never get something like that cheap, especially Sun's overpriced excuse for hardware, without *big* conditions. I bet the whole school district is being forced to switch to Sun equipment.
And that's just wrong. That's Microsoft-style 'discounts.' My former school district ran a very diverse, but EFFECTIVE environment. The records server was an HP9000. The workstations were underpowered 95 machines that crashed daily. (P60's) They were Gateway 2000 leftovers from the Win3.x days, still somewhat in warranty. The server's a Dell Poweredge 1000 running NetWare 4.1x. NT's serving some very limited ends. And if they ever want to change something, they can change whatever they want, however they want. They have total freedom to work with their environment.
At one point, Microsoft offered them educational discounts, on the terms that they upgraded all their workstations, and went to NT for everything, at about half retail cost. They blew Microsoft off.
I don't know about you, but I don't buy any of Sun's warm fuzzy crap, and it will be a cold day in hell before I let *any* vendor; even IBM, my favourite, lock me into their selection.
-RISCy Business | Rabid unix guy, networking guru
Take it from someone who *knows* Qwest; NOTHING is worth doing business with them. They can't even do PRI's properly, much less an ISP.
I just moved out of state. And out of the range of my original ISP. (They don't service this area.) On top of that, where I moved to has exactly *three* NXX exchanges local. (THANK YOU BELL ATLANTIC, YOU WORTHLESS BASTARDS.) And an old AT&T 4ESS switch formerly owned by Bell of Pennsylvania. Well, I wasn't about to pay $.12/min for 800# access (it costs most ISPs upwards of $.155/min for 800# calls! Not you; THEM!) and I wanted to keep with them.
The solution? I got a local dialup (the only ISP in the *state* that serves my NPA/NXX local) till I move and get my PRIs. I made arrangements with my ISP to prepay for my email for the next year, and they're letting me keep my webpages there too. I got a local dialup account, with the intent of cancelling in about 3 months, and I'm all set.
And if all else fails, remember, some of the national people will work with anything. Afterall, it's just ppp. If you can setup your account on the phone, assume you can connect with Linux. PPP is PPP is PPP. All that you need is your authentication method (plaintext, PAP, CHAP, PAP+CHAP, CID+CHAP, etc. (At home, I had a CID+PAP setup.)) your username, your password, your dns servers, any weird options like gateway and such, and you're good to go!
Good luck.
-RISCy Business | Rabid unix guy, networking guru
Sun is losing interest in Java, and it's starting to show. The only future they see for Java is as a client in a client/server world where Sun makes all the servers. So why should they spend their time building an IDE or RAD[1] tools?
If you look at the history of Java, and take a step back, it's actually fairly easy to see that Sun is losing interest in Java's original intentions. They sued Microsoft over it just to be a thorn in their side. They claim Java is a write-once-run-anywhere system, but they haven't worked very hard at getting other operating systems to run period.
It seems to me that at this point, Sun is hedging their bets on the SunRay1, which is a Java thinclient, that will more than likely only work with Sun servers. They want us to live in a world where we all use Java thinclients to work with our files and information on Sun servers. They want everyone else out of the picture of the Internet; they want to be the "dot-com" period. No Microsoft, no IBM, no nobody. I don't know about you, but I stopped supporting Sun *long* ago, and they're just going to get less and less support from me every day. They're making Microsoft-like moves at every turn, and it's making me sick.
-RISCy Business | Rabid unix guy, networking guru
Microsoft's doing a usability study on Linux. Okay.
I'm going to whack anyone who's asking why they're using clueless newbies. Microsoft is doing it for two reasons; one, a clueless newbie is the typical Microsoft customer. Two, a clueless newbie will easily get frustrated and say that Linux sucks, giving Microsoft more FUD ammunition. Both of those points should be obvious.
Microsoft is loading for bear with this. They're going to put all these total idiots on overpowered machines. They're going to have them use Linux for a few weeks. Then Windows 2000 for a few weeks. Release the 'study' as 'fact' and genuine 'scientific research' in their battle against all unixes.
Even Linus says Linux isn't ready or meant for the desktop. *sigh* Oh well. More Microsoft FUD on the way.. excuse me while I put on my PR Flak Jacket.
-RISCy Business | Rabid unix guy, networking guru
From your resident RS/6000 guru...
Reality check time once again! Woohoo!
Sun's already getting their asses beat by IBM in the unix arena so badly, it's almost sad to watch Sun's faltering and pathetic attempts to so much as *touch* IBM.
For those of you who remain clueless, let me issue you the official reality check of RS/6000 supporters the world over.
The RS/6000 SP2 in it's many retail versions, including basic 16 node configurations, dots the 'Top 500 Supercomputers' list all over, probably comprising somewhere around 20% of it. Not a single retail Sun is found on that list. The SP2, even with nodes, is cheaper than a Sun 'HPC' setup that would come anywhere near it's performance.
Now let's get nice and dirty. Solaris is up to what, 2.7? After being SunOS 4.1.13. (Not sure on version number here, feel free to correct.) And still has bugs. Just recently IBM released OS/390 Version 2, Release 8. A followup to Version 2, Release 7. The S/390 is reguarded as one of the most powerful parallel computing systems available today, and OS/390 is without a doubt the most robust, reliable, and flexible unix-like operating system on the market.
Now we can get into what Sun wants to do, websites and such. Sorry, IBM's got it plenty under control with the RS/6000 C20, F40, F50, H50, R50, H70, and S70. They'll gleefully outserve any Sun you put them up against. And they run Apache, too. Then there's the ultimate in complete connectivity, the AS/400 series, which can handle more networking than Sun, comes with Domino, which while being commercial, follows standards and handles your webserving, email, LDAP, ad infinitum. And will smoke Netscape Suite-Spot. Domino gleefully handles slashdot effect! Whereas www.sun.com is almost as slow as www.cisco.com. I've never had a problem with www.austin.ibm.com, www.direct.ibm.com, or any of IBM's websites.
Face it; IBM's *BEEN* better since day ONE. IBM *invented* the mainframe and the midrange. They have YEARS of experience on Sun. And they know how to use it. So, take this reality check, cash it, trade in your Suns, and get some RS/6000's to do the job better.
-RISCy Business | Rabid unix guy, networking guru
For those who know me, they know that I tolerate absolutely no censorship of any sort. And I support this bill that congress is trying to pass. I support it unequivocally.
Why? Because it's not enforced censorship. Nor is it a way to control the media. It's a way to let the media regulate itself and enable parents to effectively control what their kids listen to. If anything, it gives more power to the people, forgive the corny phrase, rather than takes freedom away. It doesn't say 'if you get this and this rating, you can't sell it here there and there.' It says 'you have to label your product with it's rating in a clear manner.'
I supported the original thing like this; the parental advisory stickers. Whether or not the kids listen to the stuff is the parents deicision then; not the government's, not the stores, not the media's.
I truly hope this bill passes; the US is long overdue for something like this. Now if only we could get some genuine truth in advertizing and truth from the news media. *sigh*
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
I've got one NT box that I work on, a workstation..
NT 4 Workstation SP4 Build 1381.
I can't find the key. Applying the patch doesn't work. I can't install SP5 (CiscoWorks won't install then.) and going through the registry with REGEDIT.EXE doesn't show the registry entry mentioned.
So I'm inclined to believe that either it's not in SP4, or Microsoft has hidden it REALLY well. Applying the patch as instructed, even using the binary executable that you can download, does nothing. And a test against it fails. Yet I can still log on, so the registry cryptography keys must be intact.
This is scary. And a good reason to ban Windows from your office.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Well, for ONCE, somebody presents something just barely recognizable as intelligence in a statement that mentions RedHat. I'm amazed.
Well, unfortunately, barely recognizable doesn't cut it. Time to get out the hacksaw and tear that hammered together writing apart.
Robert says: dump money into GCC. RedHat lives or dies by GCC.
The REALITY: Good MORNING, WORLD! Let's see. Last I heard, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, RedHat, Debian, Slackware, Caldera, SuSE, and some others use GCC. Now in case you cluebies haven't noticed, egcs is now gcc, and egcs is about as useful for, say, Alpha, as bootable AIX tapes on a Dell PowerEdge. gcc may as well be written off as a loss, because Linus doesn't suggest, recommend, or advise compiling your kernels with egcs. Neither do I. So it's going to end up in a big bloody argument probably. Fun fun fun.
Robert says: dump money into a GPL office suite.
Reality: Money doesn't grow on trees, and in case you haven't noticed, business users are buying StarOffice and Corel's products. That's just a waste of resources if you want to replace Windoze, which is RedCrap's big happy goal.
Robert says: Make what they have now work better.
Reality: What, were you born yesterday? Why do you think they hire people in the first place? Hint; it's NOT to do tech support!
Robert says: subscription plans, this is important.
Reality: HA! AHAHHAHAHAHA!! REDHAT? Give you a reliable product at a fair price?! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHoh gods, I'm laughing so hard, I'm *crying*. Here, it's the cluephone. It's for you. RedHat is in this for money, not fairness. Money comes before all things Linux as far as RedHat's concerned. If they have to spend money to fix bugs in their distribution, it costs them money. So they rush to release, include bugs, and make up for it with the profits from the next version. Which in case you haven't noticed, is now double what the last version was. Can't wait till RedCrap switches to AIX-style licensing. "A two-user RedHat 7.0 license is now $80. A four-user license is now $200..."
Robert says: open up the RPM standards.
Okay, Robert. You see this? This is a cluebat. *WHACKWHACKWHACK* Next time, research before writing. Saves you a lot of pain, as you now see. RedHat has *never* been tight-lipped with but a few specifics on RPM. However, they tout RPM as the standard, when it's NOT. RPM is ineffecient, difficult to work with, and impossible to upgrade with. RPM should be dumped altogether, and the *spit* Linux Standards Base *snigger* needs to get off their asses and decide on a standard. The chances of that happening before 2010? About one in six trillion *against*.
Robert says: Cygnus and Borland/Inprise would make great acquisitions.
Robert, once again, money does NOT GROW ON TREES. Whether or not Borland/Inprise has been in decline, it COSTS MONEY. Lots and LOTS of money. Furthermore, Inprise is a faltering company, and is NOT a good buy. Linux is NOT the OS that will make or break any company's long-term profits and stability. You people need to get a grip and freaking realize this NOW. Linux is a media-darling because it's anti-Microsoft and as long as Microsoft is on the hot seat, Linux will be hot. And as soon as Microsoft is off the hotseat, some loyalists will stay, and the rest will dump Linux like a bad habit.
Robert says: Compaq or Dell would be a nice partner.
I reiterate; DO YOUR RESEARCH. Compaq *AND* Dell already HAVE partnerships with RedHat. THANK YOU, DRIVE THROUGH! Gods. I'm getting really frustrated reading this blatant lack of research.
Robert says; support the LSB.
The day I support the LSB is the day the LSB gets off it's ass and actually does some work that people follow that's of use to me. Now, the chances of THAT happening anytime soon, is so incredibly low, it would probably factor out to be six pages of digits ending in ':1', *against* it happening.
So.. next time somebody wants to write this kinda crap, do your research FIRST, so people like me don't have to basically *flame* you for misinforming. Or better yet; don't tell RedCrap how to run their business. They seem to be doing just fine without your input, which I'm sure you emailed to them directly, and were politely thanked for your 'valuable input.' They don't care, folks. They're gonna do it their way, and all you do is contribute to the growing flames of media hype that make people who actually *know* and *use* Linux, for the most part, SICK.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Okay, first off, I have to include a disclaimer. This is for MY protection, because I don't want some AC suing me over erroneous or really poor legal advice. This isn't legal advice. This is personal advice, given as a person. Coupled with my personal interpretation of the license. You should under no circumstances take this is as law, or even an attempt at being a lawyer. I'm just another guy. Further questions? Call Unisys.
.tar.gz of the Gimp. Fax them your GIFs. Snail mail them diskettes and CD-ROMs containing GIFs. Include a letter stating that you are protesting their childish and hostile behaviour towards what is considered, for the most part, the standard image format for the web.
:)
That out of the way.. here's what it means.
First off, if you run a website, get out the checkbook. You aren't permitted to serve up GIFs without the license from Unisys. That's right; you can't serve LZW-containing content without a license from Unisys.
Secondly, use gimp? Welp, get out the checkbook. You owe Unisys $5000. Use gd pre-PNG? Make that check payable to "Unisys Corporation." Use Adobe Photoshop to make web content? The address to send the check to is on Unisys' website.
Lastly, do you view things with LZW compression in them? Well, better get a fresh pen. Unless you're using a 'licensed' viewer, you owe Unisys another $5000.
So, in short, what does it mean overall?
Use anything at all using LZW, ie; GIF89a images? Welp, you owe Unisys 5 grand just to look at 'em.
Now, can Unisys enforce this? Unfortunately, yes. In part. They can and will hunt down every piece of software with LZW compression, and demand $5000 or threaten to sue. They've done it before. They can't control the websites, but they're counting on the fear factor for that. And if they control the content creation, they don't really need to worry about serving it.
Now, why's Unisys doing this? I can't say for sure. Maybe because they've been in a steady rate of decline? Maybe because they got new lawyers? Maybe because they just want to get a new CEO by bidding a $30mil package, and this is an effective way to finance it.
Either way, this is something that can't be ignored. And Unisys won't just forget about it. Batten down the hatches, and protest. Raise hell. Make Unisys miserable. Find new and creative ways to legally harass them. Email them every last one of your GIFs. Email them a complete
Let's show these pricks we mean business. I don't know about you, but I've got an old IBM ProPrinterII cranking, the TD light on my modem is lit solid, and I'm changing 3.5" diskettes every few minutes. In the meantime, let's all switch to JPEG or PNG.
VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
For those of you who don't know, DDNS is basically DHCP with hostnames built in.
Problem is.. it violates the real standards for DNS.
To do DDNS requires that all upstream servers update excessively; AXFR's are performed on average every *FIVE MINUTES* in DDNS from what I've seen.
Problem #2; Microsoft doesn't even know what an AXFR is. NT DNS follows standards for lookups, but if you need a secondary DNS server and your primary is NT, well, break out the checkbook. M$ DNS follows ZERO standards in zone transfers, not to mention file format! You *CAN'T* secondary with unix without more headaches than it's worth.
DDNS is nothing more than another Microsoft attempt to gain more control over the internet through 'evolving' standards by blatantly ignoring them.
I pity the fools who believe the hype.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Gods.
This kid couldn't crack a book. He couldn't crack his butt, much less any computer whatsoever. But he obviously can smoke crack.
What a bunch of media-whored trash. (Not slashdot.) "Running it by the editors" means "I'm being told what to say so they get free marketing." I don't believe a word he said.
He's a teenage punk without a clue who believes that just because he says so, everyone should crawl on their hands and knees to do his bidding.
The kid is being so used and abused by the media it's sick. And what's sad is I bet he's loving every minute of it, because this is his chance to look like a good guy and prove he knows his shit.
Well, he knows shit, but not much else. That much is certainly visible. The kid isn't paid to know anything, folks. The kid is paid to be a propoganda tool. He is a known name and a celebrity. In other words, a media tool. Not much more. Certainly not a philanthropist, and most definitely not a 'cracker' or 'hacker.'
Oh, sure, it was sent in Word.doc, but that's probably because of his editors and his laziness. He probably originally wrote it in MS-DOS Edit or pico so he could prove he was cool. But editors will have their way.
And they're going to have their way with him the rest of his life, or till he's no longer useful. Which'll probably be a few months at best, till they start a *new* season of 'Real World' or 'Road Rules,' neither of which strike me as accurate in the least. I mean, c'mon. Gimme a freaking break. I have watched these shows.
I don't know any 18-24 year olds that live in gigantic beachfront mansions, get everything paid for, and just have to act like assholes in front of cameras to get a paycheck.
And they wonder why people call it 'EmptyV.'
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Thank the gods! Finally a *DECENT* novel will have a movie! For those of you who haven't read Ender's Game, GO READ IT. Damn fine book. Orson Scott Card is a spectacular author, and Ender's Game is a true classic. Let's just hope they don't screw up the movie. :)
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Would somebody please write ESR a reality check? He obviously needs one. It's PAINFUL to read this.
First off, WRONG. IRIX is not being dropped, only scaled back. Development will be continued in very limited proportions, and support and bugfixes will be continued.
Secondly, DEAD WRONG. IBM has about fifty times as much invested in Monterey than Linux. I'm not going to cite my sources, but that's fact. They're banking a HELL of a lot more heavily on Monterey than they ever will on Linux. Reason being that they stand to make more off Monterey, since it's basically AIX with iBCS only it's for PowerPCs. It runs Linux bins. So it's got one hell of a leg up on Linux with better corporate acceptance and wider support.
ESR really needs to check his facts before he goes spouting off.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Gee, is it just me, or wasn't Jon talking up how you should do everything within your power to get kids under 17 into R rated movies?
Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that Jon was touting Blair With Project as one of those movies you should take a kid to see? Wasn't he the one who wrote a two part story about how you should take your kids to see this movie? Was he not touting it as a new cinema phenomenon?
Would somebody please tell me when people learn to stop pulling this doublespeak bullshit?
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Okay, I'm intimately familiar with the situation at this point; I've been assisting a former employer in working towards a temporary emergency resolution since they're on MCI/WorldCom. Anyways, here's what appears to have happened. Please note the following disclaimer:
I do not speak for MCI/WorldCom or Lucent, I do not work for MCI/WorldCom or Lucent, I have no affiliation with MCI/WorldCom or Lucent, and I do not have any sort of business relationship with MCI/WorldCom or Lucent.
That said to cover my ass, here's what appears to have happened.
MCI/WorldCom has had capacity issues since mid-97. When it was just MCI, they stopped selling DS3's for a period of time a few years back because they simply didn't have the capacity. MCI has long had capacity issues, and as a direct result, has typically run their equipment at or near capacity. What appears to have happened is a cascade failure. I'm going to try and put this into words, but it's easier with pictures. Trust me.
What happens in a cascade failure? A network, at or near capacity, has a failure in a single core router for some reason, in MCI/WorldCom's case, a failure due to software. The load from that core is quickly distributed to the remaining core routers. These remaining core routers, being at or near capacity, almost immediately gave way under the load, failing due to other various reasons triggered by the excess load. As each router failed down the line, the load on the remaining routers increased exponentially, cascading into a full network outage.
Now, why isn't it fixed? Recovering from a cascade failure is extremely difficult. This is speaking from experience. I had a server cascade failure once; it's not an easy recovery from that. A network even moreso.
To recover from a cascade failure, load has to be taken out of the picture for a period of time so as to be able to bring things back online without any load. That's the reason for the 24 hour planned outage, I believe. Not working for MCI/WorldCom or Lucent, I can't be sure or confirm this. When the load is eliminated, what has to be done is each router all the way on down the line has to be fully reset, restored to the original configuration, reconfigured, then brought back online one by one, with *NO* load on the network. If there is load on the network equivalent to what there was when it went down, then that router will immediately fail again. After each router is brought back online, and tested, each interface must be brought back up, one at a time, so as to make sure the load does not cascade out of control again. Once this is done, stability can be assumed to be restored, assuming no more interfaces or connections are added.
Why MCI has taken so long to take this action, I don't know. Were I running the network, that would have been the first action upon noticing the cascade. Shut down all interfaces, cut off the load so that the cascade can be halted before the entire network is affected. Immediately notify all customers that, flat out, "a router failed due to a software upgrade, we don't know why, and we had to shut down all interfaces for a period of time to prevent the failure of the entire network. We don't know when we'll be able to get everyone back up." Furthermore, I'd do everything I could to get effected customers back online, and to find a way to get the customers attached to the failed router setup somewhere else, so as to get the network back up and be able to troubleshoot the failed router as quickly and cleanly as possible.
But like I said; I don't work for MCI/WorldCom or Lucent. I can't garauntee any of this information to be true. To be quite honest, I'm glad I don't work for either company. They have totally mishandled this whole situation, they're going to lose a lot of customers, and I believe they deserve it. You don't get and keep customers by keeping them in the dark and being very vague. Hell, if I call the Cleveland Verio NOC, they'll tell me exactly what happened when the T1 at work goes down. Either the 7513 had a failed RSP, or both powersupplies failed, etc. (And still my coworkers wonder why I hate Verio.. maybe because they're telling me these kind of things weekly?) MCI/WorldCom and Lucent have turned this into a disaster of proportions that never should have happened. Oh well. Their loss, other's gains.
Welcome to the Internet in this day and age, where information comes at a premium, and customer service is something of the past. Sad but true.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Us early risers (*groan*) get to make the first intelligent post, it seems. (Being patient through the poor performance and such helps too.) But anyways, AOL's doing the logical and intelligent thing.
In the middle of this messaging war, anything that's open source is like a giant bullseye painted on AOL's back. I doubt that AOL is doing this permanently. This is simply a measure that needs to be taken to protect themselves against Microsoft currently. I can forgive that.
AOL isn't blocking TOC/TiK clients, they're not actively attempting to create specific interopability problems either. This is a clear sign that they're not out to destroy TOC/TiK, but simply attempting to do damage control as quickly as possible.
Wait till the war is over. TOC/TiK will be back, rest assured. AOL's already realized that the open source community is one of their best and most powerful allies. But Microsoft is one of their worst enemies, and any information that MS can get is ammunition for use against them.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Okay, the totally nutso religious version of me time.
First off, let me explain my views on religion, so nobody is totally offended by my words after this. I believe that each person has the right to their own beliefs and systems, no matter who they are. No person, system, agency, or entity has the right to so much as question any others beliefs. This is morally and ethically WRONG. I am NOT Christian, my religious views if explained in detail would draw MUCH flak. Let's leave it at the fact that it is against my religion to say the pledge of allegiance.
That said... Call the ACLU *NOW*!
The Kansas School Board is hereby on my 'I wish you worthless scumbags would CURL UP AND *DIE*' list. They are BELOW humans; below the species from which we evolved, though I doubt a single one of them knows what species that is.
This is a blatant violation of the right to freedom of religion. They are now forcing their religious views upon thousands of students. They have banned something that was determined to be a *federal* requirement decades ago. They are turning their children into ignorant fools who I couldn't ever hire with a clean conscience, knowing that their education is so greatly lacking in science.
As I understand it, they have banned all educational topics relating to evolution period. Now, I don't know about you, but learning about how the human species evolved from apes is a pretty damned humbling experience, and a necessary one as far as I'm concerned. And now teachers have lost the option of teaching it.
Kansas will now be churning out uneducated, unqualified, ignorant children that will grow into ignorant adults, who won't be fit for a good many jobs simply because they lack basic knowledge.
A blatant violation of the freedom of religion that the constitution and bill of rights gives us all.
May you hypocrite school board members in Kansas burn in hell, and were it not illegal, I would even consider helping you along your way there. You are hypocrites. Do you know what a hypocrite is? It's someone who preaches one thing, and does the exact opposite. And every last one of you is a hypocrite, members of the Kansas School Board who supported this absurd and blatantly illegal policy.
I can already see you getting your bibles and your best excorsists, headed out to my home, you worthless hypocritical scum. Go right ahead and try it. Sue to find my identity because you can't handle the truth. Do whatever you want, and know that no matter how much you do to hurt me, you've still hurt your children over a hundred times worse.
Thanks for attempting to insure the corruption, destruction, and failure of an entire generation, but no thanks.
Hopefully your voting public will take note of this idiocy next election, and be kind enough to show you all the door. Quite permanently, as well, I hope. May you all go back to your 2 room churches in the boonies preaching tales of brimstone and fire for not hating every person like me. And may you never be heard from publically again.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
$55-1/16 A SHARE?!
What utter and total bullshit. Bob Young's laughing all the way to the bank. Sure, maybe you made some cash too, but let's do the math.
6 million overinflated overrated shares of RHAT starting at $12 each. That's $72mil. Now they're at $55. That's $3.3 *BILLION* IN STOCK if I'm reading all these zeros correctly.
When will you FOOLS get this through your head? It doesn't matter if RedHat does or doesn't give back the community! You just made Bob Young and Co. $2.58 billion! And what happens when people start realizing that RedHat *ISN'T* worth $2.58bil under *ANY* circumstances?
Give me a break; RedHat's pulled a fast one, people fell for it, and in the end, they're going to get screwed. Never before have I seen such blatant lying in an IPO, or such idiocy from the public. Excuse me, I'm going to be ill.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Gods. I've got a friend who's subscribed to the AnchorDesk email and it drives me insane. Every time Linux is so much as mentioned, I get a forwarded copy. And over and over again, Jesse is saying it's not ready for this that or anything. A few times he's even out and out insulted Linux and/or the community.
This article is worthless. It's just crap he's spouting off to make himself look smart and to get more mindless monkey readers who want to hear good things about Linux because (mommy,daddy,employer) wouldn't (send them to LinuxWorld, buy them RedCrap 6, buy them Caldera, let them nuke a 95 install). Jesse isn't in the arena because he likes writing about things; he's in the market because he's become a name and he knows how to play with people's heads.
I give it about 4 or 5 weeks before Jesse's back to talking up NT and saying Linux is inferior once again. I'm just waiting for him to say all unixes are inferior to NT.. maybe something that stupid would get him fired. We can only hope.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
FYI, the *GREEN* can Guinness is Guinness pale in most parts of the world. The stuff in the dark bottles with serial numbers is Guinness Dark; don't drink that unless a hangover is in your plans for certain. ;)
AND GET DRUNK!! Damn I wish I was at that party.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Get clued.
No, I'm worried about the core principles, focus, and design of Linux. Not whether or not it has pretty GUIs. I won't use NT4 for servers, and I won't use Linux for servers if it's goals are to be like NT4. I don't give a damn if it is more stable; I want something that was designed for servers. Not your hotshit game machine.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Well, now it's going to happen. *sigh*
Thousands of people who shouldn't even be allowed near a computer, much less anything resembling Linux, will begin flocking to Linux. RedHat will probably snag and pervert LIZARD for their own uses. Kiddies who barely know how to click a mouse will become 'eleet' as they install Linux with LIZARD because Linux is 'c00l, dood!'
Then watch all the distros switch to LIZARD, possibly even Debian, just for userbase. Why the hell do I want LIZARD? I don't want a simple install. I want a powerful, flexible install. LIZARD would only serve to make installation more of a hassle. Debian's already two CDs, watch it become 4 if LIZARD is used. I'll have more migraines in the internal network than ever before because LIZARD's so damned easy to use.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not an elitist. But I see absolutely no reason whatsoever for me to continue using Linux if it's going to stop being what it is, and try to be a desktop. I have no use for desktop operating system with install programs whose size rival that of a Microsoft install program.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
The USA already routinely condemn innocents to death penalty...
Why don't you care about them ?
I REFUSE to allow ANY post like this, questioning my ethics or morals go unanswered.
I did not say I didn't care about them; I DO. However, that is NOT the topic at hand here, PERIOD. I did NOT address it because it was OFFTOPIC, as was your ENTIRE POST, not to mention FLAMEBAIT, Mister/Misses AC. So kindly shove it up your rectum.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Kevin Mitnick was, to put it bluntly, screwed. He was a guy with a basic knowledge of computers, and an intimate knowledge of cellular technology, and insatiable curiosity. He wasn't the terrorist super-cracker evil demon the world made him out to be.
:P
The book about the whole thing, "Takedown," is full of half-truths and blatant lies. In condensed form, straight from someone who was at the Free Kevin rallies, here is the basics.
-Kevin Mitnick was an ordinary guy who was curious.
-Kevin liked to explore things, albeit illegally.
-Kevin like to 'borrow' those thing to figure them out, or to save a few bucks.
-Kevin got caught.
-The FBI/NSA decided to make an example out of Kevin, and locked him up.
-Kevin was stripped of his rights of due process, and left to rot.
Which pretty much brings us up to now.
Kevin wasn't someone out to cause chaos; he was a curious guy, sorta like me, who just went about his learning a different way. I won't deny that some of the things he did were wrong, and I won't defend them. That's not the issue.
The issue is that Kevin Mitnick has been held in a federal prison, in solitary confinement frequently, for many years now, without trial, a bail set, or access to computers. The government has repeatedly stated that they will make sure that Kevin never touches another computer again as long as he lives.
What really scares me is that this could happen to anyone, and the government has proven it. Years of fighting the government, grass root efforts, rallies, campaigns, and more has had NO effect. Kevin's still locked up. What should happen if they decide to do that to you or me? Maybe we'll get the same support as Kevin, but what good will it do? The FBI/NSA have done more than make an example; they've shown that they are the law, and are above the laws set by our government. This is truly terrifying, as that basically means if they want to execute you for being a cracker or script kiddy, they could do it, and get away with it.
Noone is safe, and they've proven it. And there's nothing we can do about it, as they've proven. I don't know about you, but I'm very afraid of our government now. Maybe we'll all get lucky and the FBI and NSA will be dissolved. But I doubt that; with my luck, they're en route to arrest me and make sure I never see the light of day again.
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH
Now you've gone and gotten the resident RS/6000 pimp and guru involved.
First off; 500MHz bus is so incredibly easy for IBM to achieve, it's not funny. The problem is that they don't have a matching processor to use 500MHz bus. And 500/2 is NOT 262MHz. And you can't cleanly get 340MHz out of it either. Those speeds correspond to the RS64-II processors housed inside the RS/6000 S70 Advanced Server and the RS/6000 H70, two of the fastest single-system computers in the world.
IBM can do it. They've been doing all that for ages, save for the twin-die. In case all of you have forgotten, IBM/Motorola are now in bed together again. This is a very good thing, seeing as they share the CopperGold patents which are used in the production of all of IBM's PowerPC processors. I suspect it's also used in the motherboard manufacturing process.
Let's do a quick lookover of the RS/6000's I mentioned above; the S70 Advanced Server and the H70 in basic single processor configurations.
SPECint95: N.A. 144
SPECfp95: N.A. 182
OLTP Perf: 46.0 16.7
(N.A. denotes 'Not Available' - The S70AS does not have SPECint/SPECfp results publically available.)
How about handling the web?
In their max configurations.. the S70 Advanced Server with 12 RS64-II's at 262MHz achieves a SPECweb96 ops/sec score of an astounding 20,200.
The H70, with 4 processors, achievs an astounding score of 11,774. Now let's jump ship on the more 'typical' RS/6000's and look at where IBM will more than likely stick this processor first.
The legendary SP2, otherwise known as Deep Thought. Yes, that's right. Deep Thought is available for *retail* sale, and eats no less than 60 spaces on the top 500 supercomputer list, in it's many retail configurations.
A *single* Type 9076 Wide node with dual POWER3 processors running at just 200MHz achieves the unbelievable SPECint95 of 222 and SPECfp95 of 468.
Keep in mind this; these processors are running at just 200MHz. *DEAD* slow for you Intel weenies. Ancient technology, some would say.
Yet they achieve higher SPECint95 and SPECfp95 scores than pIII-Xeon 550's. By far. The single processor configuration achieves int95 of 111 and fp95 of 243. Now, cram 16 of those into a single computer known as the SP2, which is really just an active backplanar chassis. Realize the performance increase is a 'pure' curve; each wide node added is worth a SPECint95 score of 111 and a SPECfp95 score of 243. 16 of those give you an overall SPECint95 score of 1776 and an overall SPECfp95 score of 3888. That's 16 200MHz processors with 256M of memory per processor and 4M of L2.
IBM can do it, and deliver on it by the end of December if they wanted to! IBM knows what they're doing, and knows what they're saying. IBM doesn't do vaporware. They said OS/2 Warp 5 was going into beta months ago. Two weeks after they said that, I recieved my beta CDs. When they say they'll have a fix for an AIX problem within a week, you have it within a week.
IBM doesn't deliver vaporware; they deliver promises. Clouds with a silver lining, if you will, since this means that Motorola also gets access to this technology. (Assuming I understand their current pact correctly.) Who wants to jump the x86 ship with me now?
-RISCy Business | Rabid System Administrator and BOFH