It's a port to Java of the Quake engine which was never completed because of pressure put on the developers by ID Software. When I first saw it a couple of years ago, I was quite impressed!
Depends. I don't suppose you've done any work with the Lego Mindstorms robots.
I can tell you this, there's leJOS and TinyVM, which both run as small java virtual machines on the RCX. TinyVM takes up about 10k of space, and leJOS takes up about 17k.
I can tell you that from using it, I'm happy to report that programming the darned thing with Java is quite an entertaining experience!
What are the chances an even newer version will work reliably?? (rhetorical question)
Not likely. We ran some tests with 2000 and not only did it run slower, but it was even less reliable under load for us (for our particular needs). Actually, the higher-ups WERE pressuring us for a time to upgrade to Windows 2000 and SQL Server 2000, since the rest of the company was getting W2K on their desktops. I refused until we could prove whether or not we'd gain anything from the move, which I'm glad I did.
The java offerings for linux are buggy, slower and in some cases, just plain broken.
Agreed, in principle. We have not yet switched OS platforms, and indeed we may stick with WinNT if we find it to be more stable. However, we are definitely migrating choice components to something else (DB and Web Servers, and of course language).
Your post blames Microsoft for things that are really your companys fault. SQL Server doesn't "shut itself down automatically" unless
there is something wrong with the machine or its setup.
Agreed. At the same time, more so than the actual choice, I would blame the consultant who installed a database for which we don't have a real DBA (in house). We have had a number of 'experts' look at it, but to no avail. There's probably nothing wrong with the server hardware itself, from what we could tell.
Sounds like you got to clean up a mess left by someone else and you persuaded your company to use the tools you are most comfortable
using. I just don't think its fair in this case to blame MS for things that are the fault of the company and the consultant that it hired.
Actually, during the course of my employment I was QUITE comfortable using the MS stuff. I was finding Java scary, mostly because of the scope of how much rewriting had to be done. I chose the platform best-suited. While researching, I did actually consider sticking with ASP/COM, and just doing a rewrite with that. My research (which I won't go into), just showed that Java was going to give me a lot more for the effort.
You will need to get on the Apache mailing list and regularly apply patches to keep your application secure. Thats not something unique to IIS.
I will never argue that. I will argue, however, that the 'reboot and pray' method of upgrading isn't acceptable. I can upgrade an Apache installation without bringing the box down, and have done so before, and worrying that it might not come back up.
And what do you plan on replacing SQL Server with, Postgres? Plan on rolling your own full text indexing, replication, and transactions,
features I'm sure you already use being an eBusiness company and all.
You sound skeptical. Ok - we are not an eBusiness company. I work in the eBusiness department of a company which has been in existence for 20 years. Mind you, I never mentioned that the database is necessarily going to reside on Linux (though the front-end might). We have a lot of Informix expertise on our end, and are reviewing what needs to be done to move to Informix (possibly/probably on SCO), which will have the added benefit of having to only administer a single db platform. And of course there's the access to the legacy data and apps which is a nice bonus.
So in fairness, the technology that is "well-suited for the job" is the one you are most skilled at, and doesn't really have to do with the relative
strengths and/or weaknesses of either Apache or IIS. Right?
Probably not. I have less experience with Apache than I do with IIS, and before we started with Java, my VB/COM experience was more developed. We did have unique requirements, however. I cannot really go into them (usual NDA-type stuff), but let's just say that we have *so* much customization with our tools that it would have been impossible to keep sorted out using VB and COM. Again, there were other tools that we considered, but when reviewing our requirements Java came out on top for everything.
Although I'm glad you got your company to switch. I'm thinking of doing the same thing, but its primarily due to licensing and $$$.
Licensing is a bitch, but we're not getting away from that with our choices anyway. Our database will be Informix, and we will definitely be maintaining support contracts for the OS platform we decide on. The money is there. We had people willing to deal with whatever platform was decided as the best one, per our requirements. Our choice has been made for Java, and we're pretty much decided on the database. The OS for the front-end servers is still to be tested.
What version of SQL Server is shutting down on you?
7. It doesn't shut down constantly, but it's more like the darned thing can't get more than a 2 or 3-week uptime if its life depended on it (well - I guess its life DOES depend on it now, doesn't it?)
imho, it may easier to create a m$ web services solution, but i don't think you'll have the same flexibility and performance
Allow me to humbly disagree. There are things that certain technologies can do and certain things they cannot. In this world, no one technology is ever 'best' or 'worst', they are either well-suited for the job or they are not.
In my example, I work for a company which was always a Microsoft shop (Microsoft partner, and sells tons of MS stuff). Guess what - our particular eBusiness solution, which was developed using the latest/greatest MS solution wasn't up to snuff. We couldn't get the flexibility out of the application we needed (even a redesign wouldn't work - VB had too many limitations), IIS either crashes on a regular basis or needs constant hotfixes to keep it secure, and SQL Server shuts itself off whenever it feels like it. And we can blame the 'expert' consultant who set the thing up initially, took off, and left me to try to support the damned mess that was left.
Enter Java. Using Tomcat as the Servlet engine, and the Velocity template engine, we have nearly completed rewriting our entire eBusiness web application, and this new model demonstrates the ability to customize both the look and feel (a custom framework using Velocity which can load customized templates per customer), and a Servlet framework which can automagically load custom code on a per-customer basis. This code is simply written to extend previous code. Both are loaded on the fly (not necessarily compiled into the main application). Speed/ease of development? We are adding new customizations and features in a day or two when they used to take a week or two to complete when using VB/ASP and COM. In other words, by doing the complete rewrite we have already saved significant amount of developer time, after that initial investment.
We are using this new app in production now, and there have been no problems, other than SQL Server still shutting itself down. This will change within the next two months, as we are moving our database to something more robust which we already use for our backend.
Still being a MS-shop, I was shocked to find out that the president of our company decided to let me go ahead and use what I want on our servers. He was getting tired of the constant security worries and instability of the thing. And yes, we are going to switch to Linux/Apache as soon as we eliminate our final few dependencies on MS-specific code.
This particular thing, as mentioned by many already, only affects Acrobat, not the Reader. I'd be more worried about this:
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/31554, which has, of course, been patched by Adobe last November already.
From the article: "The virus spreads only by way of Adobe's Acrobat software--the program used to create PDF documents--not through Acrobat Reader, the free program that is used to view the files"
I don't own Acrobat, and I never will. I have other ways of creating PDFs which are cheaper. Most people don't have Acrobat. Most never will. This virus, thus, can't get far.
My report on this shows that I'm getting hammered quite a bit. Over 2500 attempted attacks, which is eating quite a bit of bandwidth. And yes, I'm on cable.
My thanks, once again, to the author of the wonderful Perl program which generated this (link available on site).
You might want to note that this can take long to run. I've had approx 1800 attacks on my machine, with a log file of about 55MB, and running this command right in the web page would make each request take about 10-15 seconds.
Multiply that by 1 request per second and you're toast. I'd suggest strongly that you use something else to generate your statistics OFFLINE, such as this excellent perl program which also generates quite a nifty, sortable report!
To the author of that, by the way, a warm thank you! I'm using it myself!
According to this page, the pad appears to be mostly a regular mouse pad but with added buttons for quick access to email, web sites (no doubt advertisements - notice the 'valuable discounts' line) and such.
On the other hand, this page mentions their 'smart card' which can be inserted into the pad. So yes, there is a reader. It stores settings for the pad, though. There's no guarantee, unfortunately, that there's a way to access the reader with the PC.
Then again, a quick disassembly of their software might prove me wrong.
It looks like a great place to start looking, for sure. Because of this, I'm definitely going to be looking at all of these models, and it made the choices easier (esp. having the reviews linked in).
My only wish, though, is to have an approximate PRICE listed so I can compare everything at once. And perhaps a chart of specs, comparing all the apples and oranges for me.
Later on, in another thread, you're going to be the guy who says 'They sit on problems for MONTHS and never fix them' aren't you?
Nooooo. But I do control a bunch of Linux boxes which have great uptimes. A couple of them had a full year before I took them down for a kernel upgrade. I've patched all other software throughout last year without taking any of the boxes down. Try doing that with NT. Now I didn't let them 'sit with problems' because I kept up with the kernel changelogs and only patched when I needed to because of a genuine issue (security or otherwise). I do the same with NT.
Before you say anything, mind that I also have 5 NT boxes in my control, and every time IIS needs a patch, which IS practically weekly, the damned thing needs a complete reboot. Not so with Apache. Not so with anything on my linux boxes, with the exception of the kernel.
And in a company which is a Microsoft shop (meaning, we're a VAR which resells pretty much exclusively MS products), the higher-ups are now asking me to move our other services to Linux because they've seen the stability of those boxes. Earlier (a year ago) our applications HAD to be on NT (their words) because we had to use what we sold. Now they have decided to let me move everything off NT, because they've seen for themselves how unreliable they are.
Most everyone's going to use the same 192.168.xxx.xxx address space
Well... there's 2 other choices. There's the 172.16.x.x which I use at home, and the 10.x.x.x (which obviously has a lot more 'space') which we use at work. Why not use the 10.x.x.x instead?
Re:Since when was the internet "meant to be free"
on
Wireless Freenets
·
· Score: 3
Companies don't lay down backbones as a public service, they do it to sell bandwith and make money.
I agree, but you obviously didn't read my post. The Internet was not created for the benefit of these companies. I recognize their right to exist and to make money, but I do not recognize their rights to control content, or to control who can view that content.
The Internet was created as a research tool. It was intended to connect people together. These companies did not create the internet. They provided us with a great service in connecting us to the internet in the past, but laying out a backbone is not an excuse to run a monopoly. Hence, these companies are, in many (not all) cases, abusing their power over users, and it is suggested that they may be outgrowing their usefulness.
I suggested that the community create their own networks. Ones that are run by the community, with free access for all. Inevitably you have to connect to another network, but that's the name of the game when it comes to the Internet, since there is no single global network which connects to everybody. Rather, everybody connects to somebody else, and eventually a path is formed.
Obviously the community can't create a cross-country backbone overnight, but get enough people together and it should be possible to first connect within the cities, and then eventually to expand outwards once the network gains power.
Slashdot Mirror
You mean something like this?
It's a port to Java of the Quake engine which was never completed because of pressure put on the developers by ID Software. When I first saw it a couple of years ago, I was quite impressed!
Depends. I don't suppose you've done any work with the Lego Mindstorms robots.
I can tell you this, there's leJOS and TinyVM, which both run as small java virtual machines on the RCX. TinyVM takes up about 10k of space, and leJOS takes up about 17k.
I can tell you that from using it, I'm happy to report that programming the darned thing with Java is quite an entertaining experience!
What are the chances an even newer version will work reliably?? (rhetorical question)
Not likely. We ran some tests with 2000 and not only did it run slower, but it was even less reliable under load for us (for our particular needs). Actually, the higher-ups WERE pressuring us for a time to upgrade to Windows 2000 and SQL Server 2000, since the rest of the company was getting W2K on their desktops. I refused until we could prove whether or not we'd gain anything from the move, which I'm glad I did.
The java offerings for linux are buggy, slower and in some cases, just plain broken.
Agreed, in principle. We have not yet switched OS platforms, and indeed we may stick with WinNT if we find it to be more stable. However, we are definitely migrating choice components to something else (DB and Web Servers, and of course language).
Your post blames Microsoft for things that are really your companys fault. SQL Server doesn't "shut itself down automatically" unless there is something wrong with the machine or its setup.
Agreed. At the same time, more so than the actual choice, I would blame the consultant who installed a database for which we don't have a real DBA (in house). We have had a number of 'experts' look at it, but to no avail. There's probably nothing wrong with the server hardware itself, from what we could tell.
Sounds like you got to clean up a mess left by someone else and you persuaded your company to use the tools you are most comfortable using. I just don't think its fair in this case to blame MS for things that are the fault of the company and the consultant that it hired.
Actually, during the course of my employment I was QUITE comfortable using the MS stuff. I was finding Java scary, mostly because of the scope of how much rewriting had to be done. I chose the platform best-suited. While researching, I did actually consider sticking with ASP/COM, and just doing a rewrite with that. My research (which I won't go into), just showed that Java was going to give me a lot more for the effort.
You will need to get on the Apache mailing list and regularly apply patches to keep your application secure. Thats not something unique to IIS.
I will never argue that. I will argue, however, that the 'reboot and pray' method of upgrading isn't acceptable. I can upgrade an Apache installation without bringing the box down, and have done so before, and worrying that it might not come back up.
And what do you plan on replacing SQL Server with, Postgres? Plan on rolling your own full text indexing, replication, and transactions, features I'm sure you already use being an eBusiness company and all.
You sound skeptical. Ok - we are not an eBusiness company. I work in the eBusiness department of a company which has been in existence for 20 years. Mind you, I never mentioned that the database is necessarily going to reside on Linux (though the front-end might). We have a lot of Informix expertise on our end, and are reviewing what needs to be done to move to Informix (possibly/probably on SCO), which will have the added benefit of having to only administer a single db platform. And of course there's the access to the legacy data and apps which is a nice bonus.
So in fairness, the technology that is "well-suited for the job" is the one you are most skilled at, and doesn't really have to do with the relative strengths and/or weaknesses of either Apache or IIS. Right?
Probably not. I have less experience with Apache than I do with IIS, and before we started with Java, my VB/COM experience was more developed. We did have unique requirements, however. I cannot really go into them (usual NDA-type stuff), but let's just say that we have *so* much customization with our tools that it would have been impossible to keep sorted out using VB and COM. Again, there were other tools that we considered, but when reviewing our requirements Java came out on top for everything.
Although I'm glad you got your company to switch. I'm thinking of doing the same thing, but its primarily due to licensing and $$$.
Licensing is a bitch, but we're not getting away from that with our choices anyway. Our database will be Informix, and we will definitely be maintaining support contracts for the OS platform we decide on. The money is there. We had people willing to deal with whatever platform was decided as the best one, per our requirements. Our choice has been made for Java, and we're pretty much decided on the database. The OS for the front-end servers is still to be tested.
What version of SQL Server is shutting down on you?
7. It doesn't shut down constantly, but it's more like the darned thing can't get more than a 2 or 3-week uptime if its life depended on it (well - I guess its life DOES depend on it now, doesn't it?)
imho, it may easier to create a m$ web services solution, but i don't think you'll have the same flexibility and performance
Allow me to humbly disagree. There are things that certain technologies can do and certain things they cannot. In this world, no one technology is ever 'best' or 'worst', they are either well-suited for the job or they are not.
In my example, I work for a company which was always a Microsoft shop (Microsoft partner, and sells tons of MS stuff). Guess what - our particular eBusiness solution, which was developed using the latest/greatest MS solution wasn't up to snuff. We couldn't get the flexibility out of the application we needed (even a redesign wouldn't work - VB had too many limitations), IIS either crashes on a regular basis or needs constant hotfixes to keep it secure, and SQL Server shuts itself off whenever it feels like it. And we can blame the 'expert' consultant who set the thing up initially, took off, and left me to try to support the damned mess that was left.
Enter Java. Using Tomcat as the Servlet engine, and the Velocity template engine, we have nearly completed rewriting our entire eBusiness web application, and this new model demonstrates the ability to customize both the look and feel (a custom framework using Velocity which can load customized templates per customer), and a Servlet framework which can automagically load custom code on a per-customer basis. This code is simply written to extend previous code. Both are loaded on the fly (not necessarily compiled into the main application). Speed/ease of development? We are adding new customizations and features in a day or two when they used to take a week or two to complete when using VB/ASP and COM. In other words, by doing the complete rewrite we have already saved significant amount of developer time, after that initial investment.
We are using this new app in production now, and there have been no problems, other than SQL Server still shutting itself down. This will change within the next two months, as we are moving our database to something more robust which we already use for our backend.
Still being a MS-shop, I was shocked to find out that the president of our company decided to let me go ahead and use what I want on our servers. He was getting tired of the constant security worries and instability of the thing. And yes, we are going to switch to Linux/Apache as soon as we eliminate our final few dependencies on MS-specific code.
I use some of the ones other users kindly mentioned, in addition to a wonderful Java PDF library called iText
It's nice to be able to produce the things from a Java Servlet dynamically.
This particular thing, as mentioned by many already, only affects Acrobat, not the Reader. I'd be more worried about this: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/31554, which has, of course, been patched by Adobe last November already.
From the article: "The virus spreads only by way of Adobe's Acrobat software--the program used to create PDF documents--not through Acrobat Reader, the free program that is used to view the files"
I don't own Acrobat, and I never will. I have other ways of creating PDFs which are cheaper. Most people don't have Acrobat. Most never will. This virus, thus, can't get far.
I worked as a consultant for a large Canadian law firm which shall remain nameless which put these chairs in ALL of their boardrooms.
I use another barometer, though. They deployed MS Site Server v3 on their intranet. 'Nuff said.
My report on this shows that I'm getting hammered quite a bit. Over 2500 attempted attacks, which is eating quite a bit of bandwidth. And yes, I'm on cable.
My thanks, once again, to the author of the wonderful Perl program which generated this (link available on site).
Hmm... www.whitehouse.gov seems to have been hacked. It's a porn site!
Kidding, kidding!
You might want to note that this can take long to run. I've had approx 1800 attacks on my machine, with a log file of about 55MB, and running this command right in the web page would make each request take about 10-15 seconds.
Multiply that by 1 request per second and you're toast. I'd suggest strongly that you use something else to generate your statistics OFFLINE, such as this excellent perl program which also generates quite a nifty, sortable report!
To the author of that, by the way, a warm thank you! I'm using it myself!
Thanks! I ran your proggy on my box, and here's what I got:
I'm in the 24.x.x.x range, so I'm getting bashed quite a bit.
Code Red 1:
Unique IPs: 105
Total hits: 105
Code Red 2:
Unique IPs: 172
Total hits: 395
This count is rising by the minute! No wonder my cable modem's been going nuts the last few days!
Why don't we all go and email him to let him know how great we think he is.
/.d!
Now not only will his machine be r00ted, but his email account will be
Holy shit! I just ran that against my logs, and I've got 493 so far!
:)
Good thing I'm running Apache
According to this page, the pad appears to be mostly a regular mouse pad but with added buttons for quick access to email, web sites (no doubt advertisements - notice the 'valuable discounts' line) and such.
On the other hand, this page mentions their 'smart card' which can be inserted into the pad. So yes, there is a reader. It stores settings for the pad, though. There's no guarantee, unfortunately, that there's a way to access the reader with the PC.
Then again, a quick disassembly of their software might prove me wrong.
It looks like a great place to start looking, for sure. Because of this, I'm definitely going to be looking at all of these models, and it made the choices easier (esp. having the reviews linked in).
My only wish, though, is to have an approximate PRICE listed so I can compare everything at once. And perhaps a chart of specs, comparing all the apples and oranges for me.
Later on, in another thread, you're going to be the guy who says 'They sit on problems for MONTHS and never fix them' aren't you?
Nooooo. But I do control a bunch of Linux boxes which have great uptimes. A couple of them had a full year before I took them down for a kernel upgrade. I've patched all other software throughout last year without taking any of the boxes down. Try doing that with NT. Now I didn't let them 'sit with problems' because I kept up with the kernel changelogs and only patched when I needed to because of a genuine issue (security or otherwise). I do the same with NT.
Before you say anything, mind that I also have 5 NT boxes in my control, and every time IIS needs a patch, which IS practically weekly, the damned thing needs a complete reboot. Not so with Apache. Not so with anything on my linux boxes, with the exception of the kernel.
And in a company which is a Microsoft shop (meaning, we're a VAR which resells pretty much exclusively MS products), the higher-ups are now asking me to move our other services to Linux because they've seen the stability of those boxes. Earlier (a year ago) our applications HAD to be on NT (their words) because we had to use what we sold. Now they have decided to let me move everything off NT, because they've seen for themselves how unreliable they are.
Finally, my post was a joke. Lighten up.
They have personal value to me, and in the future, I'm sure others will feel the same.
I, for one, feel the same way. They DO have personal value to you!
We HAD NT systems here that ran for almost 5 years, with reboots only for service packs and hotfixes.
That's not much of a feat if you consider that the damned things get released about every second day.
This is another fine example of people making mountains out of Microsoft molehills.
Most people around here tend to think of them as blackheads, I think. Or perhaps pus-filled pimples.
Most everyone's going to use the same 192.168.xxx.xxx address space
Well... there's 2 other choices. There's the 172.16.x.x which I use at home, and the 10.x.x.x (which obviously has a lot more 'space') which we use at work. Why not use the 10.x.x.x instead?
Companies don't lay down backbones as a public service, they do it to sell bandwith and make money.
I agree, but you obviously didn't read my post. The Internet was not created for the benefit of these companies. I recognize their right to exist and to make money, but I do not recognize their rights to control content, or to control who can view that content.
The Internet was created as a research tool. It was intended to connect people together. These companies did not create the internet. They provided us with a great service in connecting us to the internet in the past, but laying out a backbone is not an excuse to run a monopoly. Hence, these companies are, in many (not all) cases, abusing their power over users, and it is suggested that they may be outgrowing their usefulness.
I suggested that the community create their own networks. Ones that are run by the community, with free access for all. Inevitably you have to connect to another network, but that's the name of the game when it comes to the Internet, since there is no single global network which connects to everybody. Rather, everybody connects to somebody else, and eventually a path is formed.
Obviously the community can't create a cross-country backbone overnight, but get enough people together and it should be possible to first connect within the cities, and then eventually to expand outwards once the network gains power.