You don't want DNS to handle this. That's what dynamic routing is for. Let your routers use BGP to determine what link is up/down, and let it choose the best path to your server.
I would be surprised if changing the firewall rules was truly not an available option. There are situations where outbound rules are appropriate... For example, in a DMZ where there are multiple hosts that run different exposed services, you can mitigate some of the exposure (not all) by limiting the outbound-initiated traffic.
So when it comes down to it, the ISP has adopted a firewall policy that requires more management than they're willing to perform... If they don't want to manage firewall rules for every customer, then their going to have to write an outbound ip any any rule and deal with the increased exposure. Otherwise, they will have to identifiy and write firewall rules for every service on every server that a customer wants to run... It's a pain in the ass, but the ISP made their own decision about how to manage their firewalls.
Fortunately, the poster isn't limited to ISPs in his local area. The Internet is globally accessible, so he should be able to find another host that meets his needs somewhere. For example, I live in the Midwest, and my host is located on the West Coast.
Besides, the issue really is that this guy pays money for an ISP to host his webserver... NTP is a completely legitimate service to run, but the "service" provider won't open the necessary firewall rules in order to permit the traffic. It should be up to them to comply with his requests, not find arbitrary ways to limit how he can use the service.
I wouldn't pay for that kind of service... There's no reason that they shouldn't be able to put in a firewall rule that permits NTP to one or two public time servers. If your ISP isn't going to serve you, go elsewhere.
Just like all the fools running water cooling setups so they can overclock their 1.5 GHz machines to 3+ GHz.
That exactly the point... Just like some dweeb spending $300 trying to turn their 800 mhz Duron into a 2.4 ghz proc, isn't the huge cooling rig on the GPU just an indication that Nvidia is trying to push their hardware harder than the technology will allow? No wonder they missed the Christmas buying season..
Either way, I'd be reluctant to spend $400 on a top of the line video card if I had to worry that it might start a fire in my PC.
I suspect that this power source wasn't designed for laptops or calculators or ballpoint pens... Seems to me that the dangers associated with disposal of a radioactive power supply dictates that this product will not see the consumer market.
However, the longevity of the power source and its insensitivity to temperature suggest that it would be well suited for powering isolated scientific equipment. Missle silo monitoring and medical uses were mentioned in the article, but I'm sure that arctic weather stations or micro-satellites would be well suited uses for a small, long-term power supply.
If AMD did go under (God forbid), Intel would be likely to purchase a lot of AMD Intellectual Property, but I think that the motivation would be to keep it out of National Semiconductor's (or any other fabless chipmaker that wants to get into the Intel-compatible processor market) hands.
I don't think that the Archos Jukebox or the Apple iPod is suited to the poster's needs... Both devices use small harddrives, and if you take it running you'll be subjecting the rw heads and the disk surface to unnecessary wear. Imagine the drive platters whipping along at 4,000 RPM, with the heads crashing into and skidding along the surface with every stride...
A device using Flash memory would be better for jogging. In fact, I think given the problems with analog tape and conventional CD (including MP3/CD) players, the solid state properties of flash make it an excellent solution.
I like your idea, but where can you rent a Powerbook? Or more accurately, what retailer will rent you a notebook short term, so that you might evaluate the hardware? The only way I've heard of doing something like this is to lease a PC, but in that situation, you're locked into at least a 12 month term.
The previous version of ATI's MAXX video card used dual chips in a SLI (Scan Line Interleave) configuration. One chip would draw even numbered rows of pixels, while the other would draw the odd numbered lines.
Ask any first-year econ student "What can a distributer of a commodity product do to increase the demand (and thereby increase the price) of his/her product?" and they will tell you "Differentiate the product."
How does Starbucks get away with charging $1.00 for a cup of coffee when you can buy a cup of Folgers for 50 cents? They've differentiated their product by emphasising the quality of the bean, the uniqueness of thier roasting process, the skill of their baristas... But when it comes down to it, you've still paid twice as much for a cup of coffee. (I'm not implying that you got ripped off... You're getting what you've paid for, which includes the beans, the service, the comfy couch you sit in while you sip your latte.)
I would suggest looking for a niche in the market that you can serve well. Maybe you play to the Linux crowd by preinstalling Debian... You could play to the needs of the home user by offering installation or SOHO network services... Or you play to the small-businesses by offering complete server systems with installation and configuration services... There are plenty of opportunities where a small, local shop can service their customers better than Walmart or one of the cutthroat Pricewatch vendors.
Competing on terms of price alone is suicide... You'll get spanked by the retailers whose buying power dwarfs yours.
I've got that set up on my WinXP Pro PC right now, but I was disappointed with the results. My rig has a 21" CRT main monitor running at 1600 x 1200, with a secondary LCD running at 1024 x 768. The shitty thing is that I have to run my primary display (the one with the decent 3D accelerator) at 1024 x 768 to play my FPS games, which screws up the positioning of whatever window I was monitoring on my LCD. They tend to go almost off the far right side of the screen. So I can't see the IM/email/temp guage while I'm playing Jedi Knight II. (crap!) Plus, if I did get an IM or an email, it would take me about 10 minutes to get out of my game to deal with the message. And I've found that some OpenGL games won't work until I disable the secondary display adapter.
Just a word of warning for those who might make a large investment in a dual head or second video card plus a secondary monitor.
That T1 is going to have to terminate somewhere. Unless you've got a high speed serial interface on your Linux box or your Linksys SOHO router, you're going to have to have a "real" router in place, such as a Cisco or Nortel device. If that's the case, then see if you have a budget for Cisco's firewall feature-set and an extra ethernet interface. You'll have stateful inspection and NAT at your disposal, and you can have two Ethernet interfaces for your DMZs. Just be sure to make a copy of the config so that the part-time high school kid can restore the router if there's ever a problem for after you move on to another job.
Pricewatch has changed since you've used it. They have a new policy that requires the merchants to list the maximum shipping price. The list is now sorted by the sum of the unit price plus the maximum shipping price, which makes it obvious when a merchant is trying to make a profit off of shipping fees.
Of course, you're going to need to bring along some music to keep you from going insane during the drive, but here's something that can be entertaining after you've listened to all of your CDs too many times:
I like to listen to movies while I'm driving. Not watch movies (that would be dangerous) but I've recorded some of my favorite movies on audio tape and CD for road trips. I'm not talking about audio books, since they cost upwards of $40 per title, although I'm sure that it would also be a good way to keep yourself from falling asleep at the wheel, too. Just use the audio out on your VCR or DVD player to record to your tape deck or PC. (Or if you're one of the fools that bought a component CD recorder, here's your chance to use it.:))
This works well for movies that you know very well but love nonetheless. Some suggestions from my preferences: The Star Wars Trilogy, The Godfather parts I and II (to hell with III), Tommy Boy, Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, etc...
Lots of good points, but I disagree with this statement:
However, I Don't think you should be choosing the card format first, you should choose the camera first, and buy whatever media format it takes.
IMHO, it makes sense to decide what kind of digital devices you will use, and then pick a format. A few years ago, when I was shopping for a digital camera, I didn't consider the memory format. I purchased a Cannon digicam that uses the compact flash for storage. Fortunately, CF met my needs very well, as I can use it in my Ipaq, my MP3 player, and with a $15 converter, I can use it with my laptop's PCMCIA slot.
If I had purchased a camera that uses Smart Media, I would have a lot of options for MP3 players, but AFAIK, there are no PDAs or PCMCIA converters for the format.
At this point I've collected approximately eight CG cards with varying capacities that I can use with all of my devices, which ended up being a good investment.
However, if I were in the market for a new camera, I would most likely purchase devices that use the Secure Digital/Multi Media card format for expansion. They're very small (although they're probably subject to the same structural rigidity problems mentioned above), they come in large capactities, and unlike Sony's memory stick, they are a supported by a number of hardware vendors (Palm, Compaq, Fuji, Samsung...).
Disclaimer: I am a major Star Wars geek, and even though I'm now 27 years old, I like to purchase Star Wars Toys.
I don't know if I agree with this statement:
what good is a replica light saber if you can't saber duel with yer buddies?
When Episode I came out, My friends and I purchased the Hasbro Quia-Gon Ginn lightsaber that lights up and makes noises. After about 15 minutes of playing with them, we didn't ever engage in "duels" with them again. No one got hurt, but I think that since none of us had ever taken Kendo (or any other swordfighting lessons) ever before, we felt like a bunch of homos slapping each other with sticks. So if I ever purchase another light saber, I'm going to get one of the collector's pieces that doesn't have some totally fake looking blade attached. Instead, I'll put it in a display case.
I have to agree... This smacks of a poorly designed solution. We're missing a big piece of the puzzle: What application is being deployed. Instead of presenting the solution and asking how to do something impossible (keep a laptop battery permanently charged and mobile without plugging it into a AC wall socket) it would have been better to explain what application they're trying to use. Here are some questions that I would ask:
1) Are roving notebook PCs really the best option? I don't see why a stationary terminal couldn't accomplish the same task. 2)Does the vendor of this application recommend wireless LAN in a hospital setting? (AFAIK, cell phones and two-way pagers have to be turned off in a hospital because the transmitters in those devices can interfere with medical equipment.) 3) What kind of application requires that the client be permanently available? If data storage or network resources need to be retreived from the client, shouldn't they be stored on a central server rather than a bunch of roving laptops?
I suspect that the roving laptop solution was selected based on cost. The biggest obstacle that I see when designing a IT solution to a particular problem is budgeting. The fact of the matter is that if the money available for a solution will only allow you to implement a half-assed solution, then the project shouldn't be done. If financial contraints prevent the job from being done right, don't waste that money on the project. Instead push back for more funds, and if they aren't available, wait unit the next budget cycle. Truly, if the project is so necessary that it can't wait for another budget, then the project will have to be a priority and funds will have to be allocated from the current resources.
I kicked the MP3 jukebox idea around for a while last time I installed a car stereo. The best solution I could find were the Aiwa car stereos that provide a mini stereo line in jack. I think that the input on these head units were unique in the low- to mid-price range. Another alternative is the MP3-CD players, which also feature a line in.
Not to be picky, but I think Sharp makes the Zarus.
Okay, I guess that is picky.
I have an IPaq, and I feel that 8 hours of battery life limits your flexibility. I had a Palm IIIxe that lasted a month on two triple A batteries. I understand that my IPaq's 206 mhz processor and 320 x 240 backlit color screen require much more power than the 16 mhz, 160 x 160 Palm, but it really affects the way I use my handheld.
I don't live with my girlfriend, but I did install 802.11 (not dot eleven b - only 2 mb/sec but still faster than the cable modem) at her place. She loves it since she can take her laptop into the living room, porch, etc... and I have a comeback when she complains about all of my geek toys. "Hey, don't complain about the geek gear, Miss I'm-Working-While-I-Watch-Sex-In-The-City." Best investment I ever made.
I've attended the Cisco convention, Neworkers in the past, and I've been impressed with the organizer's attention to detail. The did a great job of negotiating deals with hotels, providing local transportation to the show, great food, great entertainment, and, oh yeah, lots of informative conferences.
And for the record, I would definitely attend a Slashdot convention. It would be very convenient if it was held in Michigan, as my company's plane flies there twice per week. But even if it wasn't, I'd make an effort to attend. I'd likely pay for it out of my own pocket, so I completely agree with scotpurl's suggestions regarding reasonably priced hotels, staging the convention in a city that is a major airline hub, etc...
now Lucas is going to f*ck with the original trilogy? LEAVE IT ALONE! Special Edition was bad enough... That whole scene with Jabba in the Mos Eisley hanger looked like sh*t.
Slashdot Mirror
You don't want DNS to handle this. That's what dynamic routing is for. Let your routers use BGP to determine what link is up/down, and let it choose the best path to your server.
I would be surprised if changing the firewall rules was truly not an available option. There are situations where outbound rules are appropriate... For example, in a DMZ where there are multiple hosts that run different exposed services, you can mitigate some of the exposure (not all) by limiting the outbound-initiated traffic.
So when it comes down to it, the ISP has adopted a firewall policy that requires more management than they're willing to perform... If they don't want to manage firewall rules for every customer, then their going to have to write an outbound ip any any rule and deal with the increased exposure. Otherwise, they will have to identifiy and write firewall rules for every service on every server that a customer wants to run... It's a pain in the ass, but the ISP made their own decision about how to manage their firewalls.
Fortunately, the poster isn't limited to ISPs in his local area. The Internet is globally accessible, so he should be able to find another host that meets his needs somewhere. For example, I live in the Midwest, and my host is located on the West Coast.
Besides, the issue really is that this guy pays money for an ISP to host his webserver... NTP is a completely legitimate service to run, but the "service" provider won't open the necessary firewall rules in order to permit the traffic. It should be up to them to comply with his requests, not find arbitrary ways to limit how he can use the service.
I wouldn't pay for that kind of service... There's no reason that they shouldn't be able to put in a firewall rule that permits NTP to one or two public time servers. If your ISP isn't going to serve you, go elsewhere.
Reread the original poster's sentence:
...and socket buffer sizes of 4-8 KBytes
The 15-30 kilobit number is a measure of bandwidth for typical traffic, and maximum bandwidth is acheived with buffers that are 4-8 kilobytes in size.
Just like all the fools running water cooling setups so they can overclock their 1.5 GHz machines to 3+ GHz.
That exactly the point... Just like some dweeb spending $300 trying to turn their 800 mhz Duron into a 2.4 ghz proc, isn't the huge cooling rig on the GPU just an indication that Nvidia is trying to push their hardware harder than the technology will allow? No wonder they missed the Christmas buying season..
Either way, I'd be reluctant to spend $400 on a top of the line video card if I had to worry that it might start a fire in my PC.
I suspect that this power source wasn't designed for laptops or calculators or ballpoint pens... Seems to me that the dangers associated with disposal of a radioactive power supply dictates that this product will not see the consumer market.
However, the longevity of the power source and its insensitivity to temperature suggest that it would be well suited for powering isolated scientific equipment. Missle silo monitoring and medical uses were mentioned in the article, but I'm sure that arctic weather stations or micro-satellites would be well suited uses for a small, long-term power supply.
If AMD did go under (God forbid), Intel would be likely to purchase a lot of AMD Intellectual Property, but I think that the motivation would be to keep it out of National Semiconductor's (or any other fabless chipmaker that wants to get into the Intel-compatible processor market) hands.
I don't think that the Archos Jukebox or the Apple iPod is suited to the poster's needs... Both devices use small harddrives, and if you take it running you'll be subjecting the rw heads and the disk surface to unnecessary wear. Imagine the drive platters whipping along at 4,000 RPM, with the heads crashing into and skidding along the surface with every stride...
A device using Flash memory would be better for jogging. In fact, I think given the problems with analog tape and conventional CD (including MP3/CD) players, the solid state properties of flash make it an excellent solution.
I like your idea, but where can you rent a Powerbook? Or more accurately, what retailer will rent you a notebook short term, so that you might evaluate the hardware? The only way I've heard of doing something like this is to lease a PC, but in that situation, you're locked into at least a 12 month term.
The previous version of ATI's MAXX video card used dual chips in a SLI (Scan Line Interleave) configuration. One chip would draw even numbered rows of pixels, while the other would draw the odd numbered lines.
Ask any first-year econ student "What can a distributer of a commodity product do to increase the demand (and thereby increase the price) of his/her product?" and they will tell you "Differentiate the product."
How does Starbucks get away with charging $1.00 for a cup of coffee when you can buy a cup of Folgers for 50 cents? They've differentiated their product by emphasising the quality of the bean, the uniqueness of thier roasting process, the skill of their baristas... But when it comes down to it, you've still paid twice as much for a cup of coffee. (I'm not implying that you got ripped off... You're getting what you've paid for, which includes the beans, the service, the comfy couch you sit in while you sip your latte.)
I would suggest looking for a niche in the market that you can serve well. Maybe you play to the Linux crowd by preinstalling Debian... You could play to the needs of the home user by offering installation or SOHO network services... Or you play to the small-businesses by offering complete server systems with installation and configuration services... There are plenty of opportunities where a small, local shop can service their customers better than Walmart or one of the cutthroat Pricewatch vendors.
Competing on terms of price alone is suicide... You'll get spanked by the retailers whose buying power dwarfs yours.
I've got that set up on my WinXP Pro PC right now, but I was disappointed with the results. My rig has a 21" CRT main monitor running at 1600 x 1200, with a secondary LCD running at 1024 x 768. The shitty thing is that I have to run my primary display (the one with the decent 3D accelerator) at 1024 x 768 to play my FPS games, which screws up the positioning of whatever window I was monitoring on my LCD. They tend to go almost off the far right side of the screen. So I can't see the IM/email/temp guage while I'm playing Jedi Knight II. (crap!) Plus, if I did get an IM or an email, it would take me about 10 minutes to get out of my game to deal with the message. And I've found that some OpenGL games won't work until I disable the secondary display adapter.
Just a word of warning for those who might make a large investment in a dual head or second video card plus a secondary monitor.
That T1 is going to have to terminate somewhere. Unless you've got a high speed serial interface on your Linux box or your Linksys SOHO router, you're going to have to have a "real" router in place, such as a Cisco or Nortel device. If that's the case, then see if you have a budget for Cisco's firewall feature-set and an extra ethernet interface. You'll have stateful inspection and NAT at your disposal, and you can have two Ethernet interfaces for your DMZs. Just be sure to make a copy of the config so that the part-time high school kid can restore the router if there's ever a problem for after you move on to another job.
Pricewatch has changed since you've used it. They have a new policy that requires the merchants to list the maximum shipping price. The list is now sorted by the sum of the unit price plus the maximum shipping price, which makes it obvious when a merchant is trying to make a profit off of shipping fees.
Of course, you're going to need to bring along some music to keep you from going insane during the drive, but here's something that can be entertaining after you've listened to all of your CDs too many times:
:))
I like to listen to movies while I'm driving. Not watch movies (that would be dangerous) but I've recorded some of my favorite movies on audio tape and CD for road trips. I'm not talking about audio books, since they cost upwards of $40 per title, although I'm sure that it would also be a good way to keep yourself from falling asleep at the wheel, too. Just use the audio out on your VCR or DVD player to record to your tape deck or PC. (Or if you're one of the fools that bought a component CD recorder, here's your chance to use it.
This works well for movies that you know very well but love nonetheless. Some suggestions from my preferences: The Star Wars Trilogy, The Godfather parts I and II (to hell with III), Tommy Boy, Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, etc...
Lots of good points, but I disagree with this statement:
However, I Don't think you should be choosing the card format first, you should choose the camera first, and buy whatever media format it takes.
IMHO, it makes sense to decide what kind of digital devices you will use, and then pick a format. A few years ago, when I was shopping for a digital camera, I didn't consider the memory format. I purchased a Cannon digicam that uses the compact flash for storage. Fortunately, CF met my needs very well, as I can use it in my Ipaq, my MP3 player, and with a $15 converter, I can use it with my laptop's PCMCIA slot.
If I had purchased a camera that uses Smart Media, I would have a lot of options for MP3 players, but AFAIK, there are no PDAs or PCMCIA converters for the format.
At this point I've collected approximately eight CG cards with varying capacities that I can use with all of my devices, which ended up being a good investment.
However, if I were in the market for a new camera, I would most likely purchase devices that use the Secure Digital/Multi Media card format for expansion. They're very small (although they're probably subject to the same structural rigidity problems mentioned above), they come in large capactities, and unlike Sony's memory stick, they are a supported by a number of hardware vendors (Palm, Compaq, Fuji, Samsung...).
Disclaimer: I am a major Star Wars geek, and even though I'm now 27 years old, I like to purchase Star Wars Toys.
I don't know if I agree with this statement:
what good is a replica light saber if you can't saber duel with yer buddies?
When Episode I came out, My friends and I purchased the Hasbro Quia-Gon Ginn lightsaber that lights up and makes noises. After about 15 minutes of playing with them, we didn't ever engage in "duels" with them again. No one got hurt, but I think that since none of us had ever taken Kendo (or any other swordfighting lessons) ever before, we felt like a bunch of homos slapping each other with sticks. So if I ever purchase another light saber, I'm going to get one of the collector's pieces that doesn't have some totally fake looking blade attached. Instead, I'll put it in a display case.
I have to agree... This smacks of a poorly designed solution. We're missing a big piece of the puzzle: What application is being deployed. Instead of presenting the solution and asking how to do something impossible (keep a laptop battery permanently charged and mobile without plugging it into a AC wall socket) it would have been better to explain what application they're trying to use. Here are some questions that I would ask:
1) Are roving notebook PCs really the best option? I don't see why a stationary terminal couldn't accomplish the same task.
2)Does the vendor of this application recommend wireless LAN in a hospital setting? (AFAIK, cell phones and two-way pagers have to be turned off in a hospital because the transmitters in those devices can interfere with medical equipment.)
3) What kind of application requires that the client be permanently available? If data storage or network resources need to be retreived from the client, shouldn't they be stored on a central server rather than a bunch of roving laptops?
I suspect that the roving laptop solution was selected based on cost. The biggest obstacle that I see when designing a IT solution to a particular problem is budgeting. The fact of the matter is that if the money available for a solution will only allow you to implement a half-assed solution, then the project shouldn't be done. If financial contraints prevent the job from being done right, don't waste that money on the project. Instead push back for more funds, and if they aren't available, wait unit the next budget cycle. Truly, if the project is so necessary that it can't wait for another budget, then the project will have to be a priority and funds will have to be allocated from the current resources.
It doesn't have a 8080... It has a Z80. Quoth the IMSAI website:
Zilog 20 MHZ. Z8S180 Processor- 1 Meg direct addressing (organized as sixteen 64K "pages"), code compliant with Z80 extended instruction set
The original IMSAI had an 8080.
I kicked the MP3 jukebox idea around for a while last time I installed a car stereo. The best solution I could find were the Aiwa car stereos that provide a mini stereo line in jack. I think that the input on these head units were unique in the low- to mid-price range. Another alternative is the MP3-CD players, which also feature a line in.
Okay, I guess that is picky.
I have an IPaq, and I feel that 8 hours of battery life limits your flexibility. I had a Palm IIIxe that lasted a month on two triple A batteries. I understand that my IPaq's 206 mhz processor and 320 x 240 backlit color screen require much more power than the 16 mhz, 160 x 160 Palm, but it really affects the way I use my handheld.
And for the record, I would definitely attend a Slashdot convention. It would be very convenient if it was held in Michigan, as my company's plane flies there twice per week. But even if it wasn't, I'd make an effort to attend. I'd likely pay for it out of my own pocket, so I completely agree with scotpurl's suggestions regarding reasonably priced hotels, staging the convention in a city that is a major airline hub, etc...