A while back (a year maybe?) Oracle announced their iFS product. Dubbed the Internet file system, it gave file system, IMAP, POP, FTP, and web access to the database through a common software. I haven't had the chance to work with it, and it still may not even be available, but to be able to store files in the database and enforce integrity, it's extremely easy to track revisioning, maintain lists, and perform searches and reports. It seems like wonderful technology that should be a part of every OS, but I'm curious as to performance. Has anyone had any experience with iFS?
In perhaps the best-coiffed event of the day, Claudia Schiffer took to the stage to announce that her Palm Vx Claudia Schiffer Edition is now available on her Web site.
Am I the only one who thinks there has to be a joke here somewhere, but can't quite put my palm^M^M^M^Mhand^M^M^M^Mfinger on it?
I've rolled out several Exchange servers for different clients. Here is a from-memory good/bad list for Exchange that I tell all my users before they settle on a mail system.
The Good
Unified message storage makes backing up everyone's mail a breeze
Outlook MAPI clients get instant new message notification without having to check every 10 minutes - A HUGE PLUS. I have yet to see a POP/IMAP solution that does this reliably.
Connects with pretty much every mail system out there
Supports Outlook as a MAPI client, and all POP3 and IMAP mail clients running on any OS
Fairly easy administration and all message system recipients are shown in the "Global Address List"
Exchange performs quite well on a single processor system with 256MB RAM
Installation is pretty easy
Mail server clustering (failover) is supported, although at a cost
If your users gripe enough, you can enable the web-based messaging at a performance cost
Messages to multiple receipients are stored only once (with multiple pointers) to reduce information store usage
The Bad
To back up individual mailboxes, you need a third party backup tool (Backup Exec or ARCServe)
Exchange eats memory up quickly to keep performance in check. You need a stand-alone machine with 256MB to 512MB RAM for a solid implementation.
Having all messages on the server could cause network bottlenecks if a 10MB video goes to "All Users"
Instant message notification only works with Outlook (MAPI Clients). POP/IMAP users are out of luck.
Because of the size of the installation, you shouldn't use the mail machine for anything else
Cost - OUCH! Exchange is one of the most costly enterprise mail systems available. Add to that the fact of a Win2K/NT Server license, Exchange user licenses, and backup software license and you've doubled or tripled the price of the hardware
Some of the message and delivery restrictions are not robust enough to prevent certain virus outbreaks...
Speaking of virus outbreaks, the instant message delivery may aid that. A good virus protection software is recommended - more $$$
In short - I like Exchange for it's features. It definitely has an advantage over sendmail/pop/imap. BUT - The need for a dedicated server (difficult for smaller installations) and astronomical costs make the decision more difficult.
Sure, like this will work. We'll just wind up squabbling in court about poor voting ballot layouts and mis-counted votes. Nothing will ever get voted in!
Me: "Hello, Sony?"
Sony: "Yes, this is Sony technical support. How can I help you?"
Me: "Well, I bought this robo-dog for a couple grand a few months ago and it was pretty slick."
Sony: "Was?"
Me: "Well, you see, Spot started following me around wanting to play ball."
Sony: "And?"
Me: "I was playing ball in the pool with my kids and Spot jumped off the diving board trying to fetch the ball. You know, metal sinks like a rock. Spot doesn't even sniff himself anymore. He just kind of sits there and twitches. Is that simulated hypothermia? Can I get him fixed or do I need to put him out of his misery?"
Sony: "Sorry, stupidity isn't listed on the warranty card."
We have a company in town that provides 2.4GHz wireless internet access. The biggest problem is if you order a T1's worth of data, and it starts raining, you may only get 128K or 256K. Weather adversely effects the signal quality. Laser transmission suffers from the same problems. The only way to get a strong connection in any weather conditions is to get a hard line.
I was watching ZDTV on my dish this weekend and they showed one at the PC expo in NYC. The device had a tiny LCD that was set in a watch "cover" - but a little skewed like it was quickly thrown together. It had a ribbon cable coming out of it to another machine - my guess is the watch was just a display and the ribbon just showed the display off another device. They mentioned IR or Bluetooth synchronization but for now it's simply vapor. Good idea - just several months out.
"98% of the population cannot solve this riddle." - Albert Einstein There are 5 houses in 5 different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same beverage. The question is "Who owns the fish?"
Clues:
The Brit lives in the red house.
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane drinks tea.
The green house is on the left of the white house.
The green house's owner drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man living in the center house drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Blends lives next to the man who keeps cats.
The man who keeps the horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
The German smokes Prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.
Does anyone else think that the X Files will do the same thing that Star Trek TNG did: Stop making a TV series and push for more involved/developed/interesting movie(s)? We already have the X Files movie, now all we need is "X Files: The Second Coming" or something. Cancel the TV series and you're done.
I guess the worse thing that could happen is we could wind up with "X Files: Voyager" that had one great looking character, and was set on another planet. At least it would only be on TV at 1:00AM:)
It seems odd to me that we should have to embrace yet another protocol in an effort to web-enable everything. What ever happened to opening a socket and sending the info you need? TCP/IP seems like a fairly reliable data transport, and if your app uses XML packets internally to represent data, all you need to do is stuff the data into a stream and you're done. Why is it that we need a thousand different protocols for the coffee pot and microwave? Let the devices that need to be connected have their own IP stack and DHCP, and for God's sake, leave my microwave alone! </rant>
I've been looking for a good digital camera lately and the one I'm really interested in is the Panason ic PV-SD4090. It has a 120MB LS-120 drive in it (from Imation that will also read and write 1.44MB floppies. It
weighs less
costs less
stores slightly less
let's you delete crap pictures
and a wealth of other features. I just don't see the point of a CDR in my camera.
Are there any conductive legos? I think it would be pretty sweet to build a rudimentary computer (8-bit? 16-bit?...) processor, I/O (lego keys of course), and a "screen" made up of moving legos (the 1x1 blocks or something) of different colors for a display.
You know, if you could get any off-the-shelf O/S to boot to a shell, you'd probably make it into the history books as the first person to make a plastic computer!
Doesn't this sound like a fairly open security hole? I can see it now...
"...in related news, a US Trident nuclear submarine was found to have been hacked and has been sending it's military GPS position to an IRC channel for the last 3 weeks. Sources close to the incedent have been thrown in the brigg, and the hacked Windows 2000 box was sent back to Microsoft (OS Division) with a Post-It note saying Please Fix. Linux zealots were heard laughing around the world."
Or I guess maybe the better point to make is...
"Oops - sorry Admiral. I'll have the lights back on in a minute! Running the web server process on the main computer was a good idea until its URL got posted to Slashdot...;-)"
I've been looking into embedding a few things and came across the Lantronix embeddable CoBox Micro device server. See the big picture. That nifty little gizmo redirects ethernet traffic to a serial port.
Now if you happen to have a Scenix PLC with the TCP/IP stack software (a free download) for it, you can bolt the serial UART to the back of the ethernet port and you now have a package that talks true TCP/IP and can serve web pages or send e-mail right through your ethernet network.
Last time I looked, the Scenix kit was about $150 (programmer, software, cables, power supply...) from Parallax, Inc. and the CoBox was about $200 in single unit quantities. Figure $8 for a Scenix PLC (chip only) and about $20 worth of green board from the Shack and you've spent less than $250 for an embedded system.
Going hog wild, you can pick up a LCD+keypad from Scott Edwards Electronics for $120, and a keypad from Parallax for $20, and you're up to $400.
Can your front door serve a web page that tells you who and when came through the door? Mine can!
Slashdot Mirror
You know, with all the green letters on the sample screenshot pages, I get the feeling I'm watching The Matrix live!
A while back (a year maybe?) Oracle announced their iFS product. Dubbed the Internet file system, it gave file system, IMAP, POP, FTP, and web access to the database through a common software. I haven't had the chance to work with it, and it still may not even be available, but to be able to store files in the database and enforce integrity, it's extremely easy to track revisioning, maintain lists, and perform searches and reports. It seems like wonderful technology that should be a part of every OS, but I'm curious as to performance. Has anyone had any experience with iFS?
...there will be a SETI@Home story posted on /. and ET will finally make him/her-self known to the masses:
:)
ET (ET@QUADRA-5.EAM3002.GALAXY.NET)
FIRST POST!
Sorry. Humor for the evening
Maybe they'll be able to find out if the Bermuda Triangle really does have quirks...
I just can't see explaining why I need a cryogenics tower for my computer to my wife...
In perhaps the best-coiffed event of the day, Claudia Schiffer took to the stage to announce that her Palm Vx Claudia Schiffer Edition is now available on her Web site.
Am I the only one who thinks there has to be a joke here somewhere, but can't quite put my palm^M^M^M^Mhand^M^M^M^Mfinger on it?
Sorry - I forgot to add full shared calendar and schedule support to the good list. It's one of the most given reasons for choosing Exchange.
The Good
- Unified message storage makes backing up everyone's mail a breeze
- Outlook MAPI clients get instant new message notification without having to check every 10 minutes - A HUGE PLUS. I have yet to see a POP/IMAP solution that does this reliably.
- Connects with pretty much every mail system out there
- Supports Outlook as a MAPI client, and all POP3 and IMAP mail clients running on any OS
- Fairly easy administration and all message system recipients are shown in the "Global Address List"
- Exchange performs quite well on a single processor system with 256MB RAM
- Installation is pretty easy
- Mail server clustering (failover) is supported, although at a cost
- If your users gripe enough, you can enable the web-based messaging at a performance cost
- Messages to multiple receipients are stored only once (with multiple pointers) to reduce information store usage
The BadIn short - I like Exchange for it's features. It definitely has an advantage over sendmail/pop/imap. BUT - The need for a dedicated server (difficult for smaller installations) and astronomical costs make the decision more difficult.
Hope this helps.
Sure, like this will work. We'll just wind up squabbling in court about poor voting ballot layouts and mis-counted votes. Nothing will ever get voted in!
"Don't be foolish and buy now. You can't actually buy a Pentium 4 motherboard yet, so you won't be able to use a Pentium 4 right away, anyway."
The P4 could make the Guiness Book fairly easily...
The Worlds Most Expensive Paperweight
Me: "Hello, Sony?"
Sony: "Yes, this is Sony technical support. How can I help you?"
Me: "Well, I bought this robo-dog for a couple grand a few months ago and it was pretty slick."
Sony: "Was?"
Me: "Well, you see, Spot started following me around wanting to play ball."
Sony: "And?"
Me: "I was playing ball in the pool with my kids and Spot jumped off the diving board trying to fetch the ball. You know, metal sinks like a rock. Spot doesn't even sniff himself anymore. He just kind of sits there and twitches. Is that simulated hypothermia? Can I get him fixed or do I need to put him out of his misery?"
Sony: "Sorry, stupidity isn't listed on the warranty card."
We have a company in town that provides 2.4GHz wireless internet access. The biggest problem is if you order a T1's worth of data, and it starts raining, you may only get 128K or 256K. Weather adversely effects the signal quality. Laser transmission suffers from the same problems. The only way to get a strong connection in any weather conditions is to get a hard line.
So now, instead of .01 W/cm^3 being absorbed by my skull, it's about 5W/cm^3? I'll take kemo for $500, Alex.
...my dog drank my homework!
I was watching ZDTV on my dish this weekend and they showed one at the PC expo in NYC. The device had a tiny LCD that was set in a watch "cover" - but a little skewed like it was quickly thrown together. It had a ribbon cable coming out of it to another machine - my guess is the watch was just a display and the ribbon just showed the display off another device. They mentioned IR or Bluetooth synchronization but for now it's simply vapor. Good idea - just several months out.
Yep
Einstein's Riddle
"98% of the population cannot solve this riddle." - Albert Einstein
There are 5 houses in 5 different colors.
In each house lives a person with a different nationality.
The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet.
No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same beverage.
The question is "Who owns the fish?"
Clues:
Does anyone else think that the X Files will do the same thing that Star Trek TNG did: Stop making a TV series and push for more involved/developed/interesting movie(s)? We already have the X Files movie, now all we need is "X Files: The Second Coming" or something. Cancel the TV series and you're done.
:)
I guess the worse thing that could happen is we could wind up with "X Files: Voyager" that had one great looking character, and was set on another planet. At least it would only be on TV at 1:00AM
It seems odd to me that we should have to embrace yet another protocol in an effort to web-enable everything. What ever happened to opening a socket and sending the info you need? TCP/IP seems like a fairly reliable data transport, and if your app uses XML packets internally to represent data, all you need to do is stuff the data into a stream and you're done. Why is it that we need a thousand different protocols for the coffee pot and microwave? Let the devices that need to be connected have their own IP stack and DHCP, and for God's sake, leave my microwave alone!
</rant>
- weighs less
- costs less
- stores slightly less
- let's you delete crap pictures
and a wealth of other features. I just don't see the point of a CDR in my camera.Are there any conductive legos? I think it would be pretty sweet to build a rudimentary computer (8-bit? 16-bit?...) processor, I/O (lego keys of course), and a "screen" made up of moving legos (the 1x1 blocks or something) of different colors for a display.
You know, if you could get any off-the-shelf O/S to boot to a shell, you'd probably make it into the history books as the first person to make a plastic computer!
LOL! See you over the 4th!
Doesn't this sound like a fairly open security hole? I can see it now...
;-)"
"...in related news, a US Trident nuclear submarine was found to have been hacked and has been sending it's military GPS position to an IRC channel for the last 3 weeks. Sources close to the incedent have been thrown in the brigg, and the hacked Windows 2000 box was sent back to Microsoft (OS Division) with a Post-It note saying Please Fix. Linux zealots were heard laughing around the world."
Or I guess maybe the better point to make is...
"Oops - sorry Admiral. I'll have the lights back on in a minute! Running the web server process on the main computer was a good idea until its URL got posted to Slashdot...
Was this article posted in an effort to see the /. effect on the cluster?
/. ten seconds ago. There! Look at that little bump on CPU utilization. Wow!"
"Well, it just got posted to
My $.01
I've been looking into embedding a few things and came across the Lantronix embeddable CoBox Micro device server. See the big picture. That nifty little gizmo redirects ethernet traffic to a serial port.
;-)
Now if you happen to have a Scenix PLC with the TCP/IP stack software (a free download) for it, you can bolt the serial UART to the back of the ethernet port and you now have a package that talks true TCP/IP and can serve web pages or send e-mail right through your ethernet network.
Last time I looked, the Scenix kit was about $150 (programmer, software, cables, power supply...) from Parallax, Inc. and the CoBox was about $200 in single unit quantities. Figure $8 for a Scenix PLC (chip only) and about $20 worth of green board from the Shack and you've spent less than $250 for an embedded system.
Going hog wild, you can pick up a LCD+keypad from Scott Edwards Electronics for $120, and a keypad from Parallax for $20, and you're up to $400.
Can your front door serve a web page that tells you who and when came through the door? Mine can!
Just playing...