This is old news Ohio-boy. The coasts have already dumped their Java middle-ware because it doesn't scale (DUH!) and are going back to Apache, mod_perl, PHP, MySQL and the like.
Uhm, remind me again why I would want to use web specific technology for MIDDLEWARE development. You know, making multiple flavors of big iron talk to each other. Abstracting away various legacy databases behind a single object model. That kind of crap. I fail to see how Apache and such would help me with that.
Oh, and it is Wisconsin-boy to you, and smile when you say that.:-)
Java has to much momentum to be supplanted by this Java'ish MS mutant. I am seeing huge demand for Java programmers even here in the midwest (which usually lags the coasts in addopting technology). Supprisingly, java has found a very strong niche in the middleware arena. I don't see Microsoft penetrating into that market unless they loosen up on the whole Windows Only mindset.
This is quite suitable for most cases. In situations where the default implementation is not suitable, we've written our own proxy/stub components, which implement our own transport.
That 'most cases' (emphasis added by me) is the telling bit. When DCOM faile, it can fail spectacularly. I've been working with it quite a bit lately, and it seems like anything dealing with late bindning or mixing you environments is just asking for trouble. Ever try to get a VB app to talk to a multi-threaded C++ ActiveX component? Here there be dragons! And don't even get me started about interfacing DCOM to non Windows systems. Things just seem to work more consistently in the CORBA world.
Yes, the move toward all-powerful megacorps is rather disturbing. Corporations are great tools for pooling resources and achieving economies of scale... up to a point. Become too large and powerful (ultimately monopolizing a market) and these advantages break down, and the public is left with the short end.
This is why I try to always shop at small, independently owned businesses. I never eat at fast food joints. As a small business owner myself, I try to support other small businesses, and I urge everyone else to do the same. It is all about choice and about quality... motivations that should be nothing new to the open source crowd.
We have had similar experience with Ameritech here in the mid-west. I was a partner in an ISP, and having anything done on a T1 or ISDN line was a total pain because of slow response from Ameritech. Going through a major provider like Norlight or TCG helped. They seem to have enough clout with Ameritech to get a little better respons.
Rumor even has it that Ameritech's service was so bad at one point that the public service commission was suing them.
Our situation improved when Ameritech ended up placing a Litespan cabinet (basically a central office in a box) co-located inside our premis. Then we could just look at the box ourself and tell our T1 providers if there were any alarm lights.
I would just like to commend you for this. All too often U.S. citizens tend to take for granted their particular lifestyle, and forget that a large portion of our population isn't very well off.
The funny thing is, I never originally set out to do anything nobel or generous. It was just that I had some old hardware that was not doing me any good, and I knew some people that could not afford a new computer. After a while the word got out, and I was getting donations of old computers, so I felt compelled to find people who could use them. The free trainging was just the natural next step.
I've discovered I've really like seeing that light bulb go on when a person discovers just how useful a tool a computer can be. I've also discovered that a properly configured Linux machine can have a very user friendly desktop that even a total computer neophyte can handle. This whole myth about Windows being easier is a load of crap. ANY system is easier when it comes preconfigured out of the box versus having to install it yourself.
If you can not get away from your job for several months, don't be afraid to do the same thing in your own community. Most metro areas have their share of poverty and poor education.
I build up net surfing stations using linux running on old hardware and then donate them to people who can't afford a new computer. I also occasionally teach free computer classes for people who need to improve their job skills but can't afford commercial training.
I just gave a security lecture to a bunch of graduating comp sci students. I focused mainly on buffer overflows, how they are exploited, and how to avoid writing them. I actually stepped through the process of writing some vulnerable code, overflowing it and disecting it in the debugger, and then writing a simple exploit. It really looked like I grabbed their attention (hopefully for the right reasons). Perhaps they will now avoid some of the common mistakes that lead to these news stories.
The point is: DVD players should have firewire output but don't. Most HDTVs and other consumer level digital video devices have firewire (my Sony camcorder does) so it would be natural to put it in DVD players. Unfortanely, the the MPAA and DVD consortium have blocked that from hapenning. If it is not conspiracy, why do the license contracts explicitly forbid firewire!?!?
If history shows us anything, it is that technology will do an end-around marketing idiocy. This SDI hack is just an example of that.
I will likely switch my domains to DomainDiscover from NSI. You must print out and mail in a form to do it (no web based form yet), but their reg agreement has none of the nasty clauses that many other registrars have.
It is sad really. I've been admining Internet domains for so long that my InterNIC handle is just my initials (TDP) with no numbers in it. It is painful to see the system corrupted and twisted in this way.
The main message of this book is obvious to anyone who really takes a good look at the current market. Technology stocks are way over valued and prices are being driven by hype more than anything else. It is still a good idea to put some of your long term investing into the market (dollar cost averaging and all that) but always hedge your bets by diversifying and puting money into some *safe* investments. My formula is:
I try to always fund my IRA or Keogh when the market has just had a big correction (i.e. I bargain hunt).
I keep an emergancy *warchest* of funds (at least three months of income) in a money market index account.
I keep some less liquid funds in the highest yield CDs I can find (currently around 8 percent).
I invest in real estate by buying rental properties or investing in a real estate trust. Currently I own one duplex and part of a future residential subdivision.
A good rule of thumb is that your percentage of investment in the stock market should slide in an inverse ratio with your age. Something like:
100 - age = percent to keep in the market
Depending on the level of risk you are willing to live with, you might pick a different number than 100 to subtract from.
This system seems to work for me, but I am not a financial expert, so take it with grain of salt.:-)
Still, he says that his company is thinking seriously about converting its mail server back from Linux to Windows NT. Group Logic has documented several cases where the sendmail program running on the Linux server lost an e-mail message. While it's had few other problems with Linux, he says the software is still difficult for much of the staff to manage; Windows NT is just easier for most of them to use and reconfigure. According to Newberry, saving the cost of a Windows NT license just isn't worth it.
Switching from Linux/Sendmail to NT/Exchange to improve reliability!? What are they thinking? I've dealt with Exchange/NT environments and they are unreliable under high load. I've NEVER had similar problems with sendmail based systems, and I've been admining for over a decade. Someone needs to stop listending to the MS marketing hype. If the really want to go to a proprietary mail system, put in HP OpenMail at least.
For those of you who are interested in Cosmology stuff of this type, I highly recommend reading "Wrinkles in Time" by George Smoot. It outlines his many years long quest to validate the big bang theory, included antenna arrays in the Antartic, high altitude balloons, and ultimately a satellite launch. It covers the politics and drama of government funded research as well as the science itself. It is a few years old (1994) but still a very enjoyable and worthwhile read.
I recently participated in a local music festival
(SpoofFest 2000) and got a chance to see an
older 'classic' Moog. A friend was using it
in his parody cover of Pink Floyd. Very cool.
All the keyboard geeks were drooling over it.:-)
If any of you are ever in Milwaukee when
SpoofFest is going on, definetely check it out...
it is always a great show. They practically
brought the house down this year!
Well, I know he used to work at Allen-Bradley (now called Rockwell Automation) before he left to start PKWare. I also used to work at Allen-Bradley, and though I never met him, I used to hear his name mentioned. Interestingly, I also left to start my own software company... and I wrote a LZW based compression program as my senior project in college. Weird. I'll turn 37 in less than 5 years. Hopefully I will not continue in his footsteps by falling over dead.
I am sorry to hear that Phil is dead. I never met him, but I've talked to several people who knew him, and they all said he was likeable guy.
Of course Brazil is best seen on the Big Screen... fortunately for me, I live half a block from a theater with an all classic movie format, and they occasionally run the directors cut of Brazil. They also ran Time Bandits not so long ago... all this, and in a city where I can pick up a print version of the Onion!:-)
What we need to do is make our own open source massively multiplayer games that no single corporation has control over. WorldForge seems to have potential... and I'm working on my own such project. Then it could be like Studio54 of old. Get through the door and anything is permitted once you are inside.:-)
I'm starting to like it a whole lot, so I'll probably upgrade to the full version of EditDV. For an inexpensive intro with upgrade to full capability, I don't think you can beat these guys.
I recently purchased the full EditDV, and it has worked out very well. Do not use it on Windows 95 or 98... Windows NT is the way to go if you are stuck on an MS platform. I'll be shifting more and more of my special effects rendering over to Linux as time goes on. EditDV has really nice import and export features, so this should not be a problem. I think I purchased the EditDV with 1394 card for $700 as a combo package. Another $300 for a 45 gig IDE drive and I was in business. You will want at least 128MB of RAM and a really high quallity video card of course.
I've heard of a package called MainActor (I think) that will do non-linear editing on Linux, though I have not had a chance to check it out yet. I am beginning to build a linux rendering farm for some homegrown effects rendering, so I will probably give MainActor a look fairly soon.
Maybe, but my caution stems as much from a concern for the health of a society that believes that every citizen has a right to own deadly weapons as it does from the actual statistics and hype. I use the US's attitude towards guns as a general marker of the society's attitudes in general, and I find the US particularly unwelcoming.
Fair enough. I think I understand where you are coming from. Just please understand that the gun debate is only one small part of our society, and not even the most important to most people. A great many people share your views; that is why the topic is so hotly debated here. Even among those that support gun ownership, they generally don't subscribe to the sort of action hero philosophy that our media is in love with.
I guess what I am trying to say is that America is much more than the face we broadcast to the world. The actions of our political leaders do not always reflect the feelings of the citizens. And that obnoxious/rude/loud American tourist is NOT a true representative of what America is all about (it is just that they are the ones that draw the most attention to themselves).
I guess what I am trying to say is that America is a mish-mash of a great many peoples and philosophies, and that is part of what makes it worth visiting. Heck, visit the Milwaukee / Chicago area and I promise to show you some of the *good* stuff that America has to offer.:-)
I've seen this discussed before... only it was called a Sacrificial Goat. The idea is that if your network attracts cracker attacks anyway, why not at least draw them off onto a harmless system. Put a non-critical system outside your firewall to occupy the time of the crackers. It will at least give you some early warning when an attack occurs.
Didn't Computer Associates or some such actually create a system for this purpose? I even recall that it could simulate an entire network. Personally, I think it is more useful to use an actual server to learn the real exploits that are being put in use. Just make sure you have a good firewall between the fake system and the real network.
I never forget it - it's right there in my mind whenever I'm discussing travel with friends - it's the reason I'll never set foot in America.
That is unfortunate. You seem to have boughten into the media hype that portrays America as a gangster filled, crime saturated battlezone. Random gun violence is almost unheard of here... that is why it still makes big news. That is not to say gun violence is not a problem, I just don't see it as something so serious that it should stop you from visiting the country. There is always some risk in traveling to any new place, but that shouldn't stop you from checking out what the world has to offer. Your likelyhood of being shot while visiting America is vanishingly small.
I am an independent contractor currently doing a telecommuting job for a major retailer... and it is working out great! No traffic to fight, and I can program in by boxers with a beer next me.:-)
It is good for the client also. They do not have to find me a cubicle or workstation, and I am more productive in my own environment anyway. For the right type of work and worker, this a total win for everyone involved. I expect this to trend to begin growing like wildfire... in fact, I am working on a business plan for a virtual consultancy. Anyone here want to join up?
The issue is not with censoreware, folks, the problem is with the use of hidden and encrypted ban lists. If everyone could see and change those lists at will, then censoreware, while still standing zero chance of actually working, would at least be acceptable.
I agree totally. Software can never replace parental involvement. That being said, might it still be possible to create software (in an open manner) that assists parents in monitoring their child's net usage? It would use public ban lists that the users themselves would maintain. Feedback from the users would constantly refine the publicly readable ban lists, and users could opt into lists that seem to most closely match their needs. They can always selectively permit or deny specific sites... and those choices could even help strengthen or weaken the weights assigned to sites in the ban lists.
I'm one of those people who hates it when my disk, cpu, or network monitors start showing activity I don't plan myself.
YES! This is annoying as hell, especially when you are doing video capture on your IEEE 1394 card and cannot afford delays introduced into your disk writes. #%$#&^$&^$ that damn fastfind! I will be sooooo happy when I have all my video editing stuff moved over to Linux.
Argonne National Labs has had something like this for quite a few years. I think they even call it the cave, though that might just be the nickname for it. It has a very cool demo program in which you are inside a giant fish tank with fish swimming all around you. Some are rather fanciful, like the 747 using its wings like fins. It is particularly weird when you see a fish swimming through your own body!
Slashdot Mirror
Uhm, remind me again why I would want to use web specific technology for MIDDLEWARE development. You know, making multiple flavors of big iron talk to each other. Abstracting away various legacy databases behind a single object model. That kind of crap. I fail to see how Apache and such would help me with that.
Oh, and it is Wisconsin-boy to you, and smile when you say that. :-)
Thad (I think I was just trolled)
Just my $.02
Thad
That 'most cases' (emphasis added by me) is the telling bit. When DCOM faile, it can fail spectacularly. I've been working with it quite a bit lately, and it seems like anything dealing with late bindning or mixing you environments is just asking for trouble. Ever try to get a VB app to talk to a multi-threaded C++ ActiveX component? Here there be dragons! And don't even get me started about interfacing DCOM to non Windows systems. Things just seem to work more consistently in the CORBA world.
Just my $.02.
Thad
This is why I try to always shop at small, independently owned businesses. I never eat at fast food joints. As a small business owner myself, I try to support other small businesses, and I urge everyone else to do the same. It is all about choice and about quality... motivations that should be nothing new to the open source crowd.
Peace,
Thad
Rumor even has it that Ameritech's service was so bad at one point that the public service commission was suing them.
Our situation improved when Ameritech ended up placing a Litespan cabinet (basically a central office in a box) co-located inside our premis. Then we could just look at the box ourself and tell our T1 providers if there were any alarm lights.
Thad
The funny thing is, I never originally set out to do anything nobel or generous. It was just that I had some old hardware that was not doing me any good, and I knew some people that could not afford a new computer. After a while the word got out, and I was getting donations of old computers, so I felt compelled to find people who could use them. The free trainging was just the natural next step.
I've discovered I've really like seeing that light bulb go on when a person discovers just how useful a tool a computer can be. I've also discovered that a properly configured Linux machine can have a very user friendly desktop that even a total computer neophyte can handle. This whole myth about Windows being easier is a load of crap. ANY system is easier when it comes preconfigured out of the box versus having to install it yourself.
Later,
Thad
I build up net surfing stations using linux running on old hardware and then donate them to people who can't afford a new computer. I also occasionally teach free computer classes for people who need to improve their job skills but can't afford commercial training.
Thad
Thad
If history shows us anything, it is that technology will do an end-around marketing idiocy. This SDI hack is just an example of that.
Thad
It is sad really. I've been admining Internet domains for so long that my InterNIC handle is just my initials (TDP) with no numbers in it. It is painful to see the system corrupted and twisted in this way.
Thad
I try to always fund my IRA or Keogh when the market has just had a big correction (i.e. I bargain hunt).
I keep an emergancy *warchest* of funds (at least three months of income) in a money market index account.
I keep some less liquid funds in the highest yield CDs I can find (currently around 8 percent).
I invest in real estate by buying rental properties or investing in a real estate trust. Currently I own one duplex and part of a future residential subdivision.
A good rule of thumb is that your percentage of investment in the stock market should slide in an inverse ratio with your age. Something like:
100 - age = percent to keep in the market
Depending on the level of risk you are willing to live with, you might pick a different number than 100 to subtract from.
This system seems to work for me, but I am not a financial expert, so take it with grain of salt. :-)
Later,
Thad
Still, he says that his company is thinking seriously about converting its mail server back from Linux to Windows NT. Group Logic has documented several cases where the sendmail program running on the Linux server lost an e-mail message. While it's had few other problems with Linux, he says the software is still difficult for much of the staff to manage; Windows NT is just easier for most of them to use and reconfigure. According to Newberry, saving the cost of a Windows NT license just isn't worth it.
Switching from Linux/Sendmail to NT/Exchange to improve reliability!? What are they thinking? I've dealt with Exchange/NT environments and they are unreliable under high load. I've NEVER had similar problems with sendmail based systems, and I've been admining for over a decade. Someone needs to stop listending to the MS marketing hype. If the really want to go to a proprietary mail system, put in HP OpenMail at least.
Thad
Thad
If any of you are ever in Milwaukee when SpoofFest is going on, definetely check it out... it is always a great show. They practically brought the house down this year!
Thad
I am sorry to hear that Phil is dead. I never met him, but I've talked to several people who knew him, and they all said he was likeable guy.
Thad
Thad
Thad
I recently purchased the full EditDV, and it has worked out very well. Do not use it on Windows 95 or 98... Windows NT is the way to go if you are stuck on an MS platform. I'll be shifting more and more of my special effects rendering over to Linux as time goes on. EditDV has really nice import and export features, so this should not be a problem. I think I purchased the EditDV with 1394 card for $700 as a combo package. Another $300 for a 45 gig IDE drive and I was in business. You will want at least 128MB of RAM and a really high quallity video card of course.
I've heard of a package called MainActor (I think) that will do non-linear editing on Linux, though I have not had a chance to check it out yet. I am beginning to build a linux rendering farm for some homegrown effects rendering, so I will probably give MainActor a look fairly soon.
Thad
Fair enough. I think I understand where you are coming from. Just please understand that the gun debate is only one small part of our society, and not even the most important to most people. A great many people share your views; that is why the topic is so hotly debated here. Even among those that support gun ownership, they generally don't subscribe to the sort of action hero philosophy that our media is in love with.
I guess what I am trying to say is that America is much more than the face we broadcast to the world. The actions of our political leaders do not always reflect the feelings of the citizens. And that obnoxious/rude/loud American tourist is NOT a true representative of what America is all about (it is just that they are the ones that draw the most attention to themselves).
I guess what I am trying to say is that America is a mish-mash of a great many peoples and philosophies, and that is part of what makes it worth visiting. Heck, visit the Milwaukee / Chicago area and I promise to show you some of the *good* stuff that America has to offer. :-)
Cheers,
Thad
Didn't Computer Associates or some such actually create a system for this purpose? I even recall that it could simulate an entire network. Personally, I think it is more useful to use an actual server to learn the real exploits that are being put in use. Just make sure you have a good firewall between the fake system and the real network.
Later,
Thad
That is unfortunate. You seem to have boughten into the media hype that portrays America as a gangster filled, crime saturated battlezone. Random gun violence is almost unheard of here... that is why it still makes big news. That is not to say gun violence is not a problem, I just don't see it as something so serious that it should stop you from visiting the country. There is always some risk in traveling to any new place, but that shouldn't stop you from checking out what the world has to offer. Your likelyhood of being shot while visiting America is vanishingly small.
Cheers
Thad
It is good for the client also. They do not have to find me a cubicle or workstation, and I am more productive in my own environment anyway. For the right type of work and worker, this a total win for everyone involved. I expect this to trend to begin growing like wildfire... in fact, I am working on a business plan for a virtual consultancy. Anyone here want to join up?
Thad
I agree totally. Software can never replace parental involvement. That being said, might it still be possible to create software (in an open manner) that assists parents in monitoring their child's net usage? It would use public ban lists that the users themselves would maintain. Feedback from the users would constantly refine the publicly readable ban lists, and users could opt into lists that seem to most closely match their needs. They can always selectively permit or deny specific sites... and those choices could even help strengthen or weaken the weights assigned to sites in the ban lists.
OK, a crazy idea... but worth discussing.
Thad
YES! This is annoying as hell, especially when you are doing video capture on your IEEE 1394 card and cannot afford delays introduced into your disk writes. #%$#&^$&^$ that damn fastfind! I will be sooooo happy when I have all my video editing stuff moved over to Linux.
Isaac
Izaak