If a college student today had the skills necessary to do the Summer of Code he probably has the skills necessary to find a much better paying job, even if just over the summer.
Get over yourself. Some (many) students don't want to leave their regular jobs over the summer for whatever reason. I didn't, although I certainly could have.
Yeah, because I want to get added to the "prefers leathermen and crossdressers affiliate list" so that I can explain to my wife why I'm suddenly getting calls from Steve who wants to help me with my secret.
It seems like every time IDE drives start to run into an addressing problem, they come up with a new model that's a few times bigger and lasts for another couple of years
Out of curiosity, is there a technical reason why they don't just jump to LBA64 or LBA80 or something else that'll be good for another few decades? Note: "to sell more hardware" isn't a technical reason.:-)
I worked my way through college as a motel night auditor (so I could do homework on the job). $4,500 was a lot more than I'd earn during summer break, and I'd actually enjoy the work I was doing. While I can see your point, understand that the Summer Of Code would be a huge step up for many would-be contributors.
Because sometimes stuff slips through the cracks, and the end users are the last line of defense for their own systems. We expect people not to fall for phone scams (and make fun of them if they do, excepting for mental disabilities), yet insist that it's not their fault for running the latest "Osama loves Beyonce" screensaver. Why the dichotomy?
Can you rewire your bathroom to code?
No. I'm also not a gasoline engine mechanic, but I know not to put latex paint in my car's fuel tank. Neither am I anybody's idea of street smart, but I don't walk down Drug Alley at 2am waving a twenty. Some things are inherently dumb, and we should be expected not to do them even without being explicitly told.
That's actually "4.0.1". There's a subtle-but-important difference, mainly that 4.1 doesn't exist outside CVS yet.
</pedant>
Sorry, but I see that mistake a lot, even among people that should be familiar with x.y.z version numbers. I know people who will think that Firefox 1.5 is less recent than 1.0.6 (which they mentally abbreviate to 1.06 -> 1.6).
Answer: spend some time moving tables with huge, infrequently accessed objects onto this drive, while leaving your smaller, more interactive tables on a smaller and faster drive. It's the best of both worlds, unless you have to keep all your data in huge tables that are continually slammed, in which case you have other problems that may need to be addressed.
but is there any conceivable way to repair a failed hard drive?
I bought a used 50MB SCSI drive for my Amiga (circa '95 or so). I had the case open and was running a graphical benchmark utility that showed KB/s, and it was hovering in the 400-450 range while the drive made this awful grinding sound. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I put a few drops of 3-and-1 oil on the exposed bearing and listened in awe as the metal-on-metal scream turned into a high-pitched whine. I was more amazed to watch the benchmark graph creep upward to 1.5MB/s or so.
Depending on how bad the drive is broken, it may be repairable. A bit of 3-and-1 did it for me, although I can't really recommend it as a general fix.
Why don't IBM and CA just release these patents into the public domain?
My guess? IBM doesn't see Free Software as competition, but as something they can use as part of the business solutions they sell to their customers. It's in their best interest to allow legal Free development of their patented methods.
On the other hand, I doubt they have any interest in allowing, say, Microsoft or Sun to use their IP. They've worked out a solution that allows their friends everything and their enemies nothing.
For example, say they come up with an algorithm that could make hard drive IO use 50% fewer interrupts. It would be to their advantage to allow Linux developers put it in the kernel while denying it to the Windows kernel, thereby making the products they support that much more competitive.
I won't argue whether that's good or bad, but I can definitely see why they'd want to reserve that right.
Where can you look to get a list of standardized job titles and descriptions? I don't know whether I'm a senior programmer, a junior systems architect, or just "guy in dark room with computer". I tried a (cursory) search at the ACM's web site, but didn't turn anything up.
Is my font data only applicable to printed text and not text displayed on a screen?
At least one source gives the opposite advice for screen displays (but recommends your scheme for printing). The general consensus among the web designers I've talked to is serif for headlines, sans- for the body.
Note that I wrote my critique about Interbase rather than Firebird, and posted it to my wiki in November 2001. As you read, it was a repost of an even earlier Slashdot post. Since Firebird only forked from Interbase in 2000, it's reasonable to assume that the two were still mostly identical at that point.
Now to present. See where I wrote this part?
Unless Firebird's undergone the same kind of rewrite that Netscape did while becoming Mozilla, I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.
That means that Interbase/Firebird was awful at the time I wrote my criticism, but that I don't know whether they've since fixed the I saw. Follow? OK. So you're basically saying that I'm an idiot because the some of the problems I had four years ago don't exist in the version you used last week.
And yeah, I used it in an xterm, although the terminal has exactly zero to do with isql's built-in line editor.
MySQL supports all of the Oracle features you need to build and operate an enterprise software system.
As of today, MySQL 4.1 is the current release. 5.0, the current development snapshot, is the first to support stored procedures. Since the choice today is between a tested system and stored procedures, it most certainly does not "support all the Oracle procedures [I] need to build and operate an enterprice software system".
Next year? Maybe. Right now? No way, according to mysql.com.
The last time I used Firebird on a major project, it sucked so badly that I wrote a program to convert its databases to PostgreSQL (even if they contained unreadable rows that kept the normal utilities from working). Unless Firebird's undergone the same kind of rewrite that Netscape did while becoming Mozilla, I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.
To each his own, of course, and the situation may indeed have improved. I don't see any clear advantage that it has over PostgreSQL, though, and I doubt it'll ever gain much momentum.
It's also been on my "I really must implement that" list for waaaay too long.
I finally got around to setting up a KDC for my domains. It's nice to run "kinit" once, and then have full access to every machine I'm supposed to have full access to. Implementing Kerberos for one service is massive overkill. Implementing it for IMAP, SMTP, LDAP, etc. at the same time is bliss.
The FreeBSD Handbook has a nice chapter on the subject. O'Reilly's "Kerberos: The Definitive Guide" is an excellent reference as well.
I got this one from my girlfriend: disable password authentication and use key-based authentication instead. This is my prefered solution, except that I have to solve some problems with public key authentication not working from some of the machines I use.
Your girlfriend rocks. I always disable password authentication on a new server before I enable sshd for the first time. I'm pretty certain I could safely give my root password out on IRC without much risk, although prudence says I'm not completely interested in testing that theory.
What sort of problems do you have with public key authentication? I've been using it for years from both Unix and Windows clients without problem. If you're feeling particularly 1337, GSSAPI authentication is pretty darn convenient and not all that hard to configure these days.
As far as Office Max and my credit card company are concerned, I bought that cartridge. There is no hypothetical "program" that I'm agreeing to - do they have my signature on a contract somewhere? - but instead a standard commodity sale. Once they have my money and I've left the store with my new purchase, I'll do whatever I feel like with it. Quite simply, it's none of their business, regardless of how hard they stamp their little feet and how many soon-to-be-discarded judgments they get.
Note: this is hypothetical. I haven't bought Lexmark in the past, and I for damn sure won't in the future. Neither will anyone I ever advise. Good PR move, guys.
You're wrong. Sorry for creating yet another followup thread, but the general consensus (which is all we have, barring a court ruling on the matter) is that the MS license is wholly incompatible with any Free Software licenses, meaning that not just anyone can write a parser for their files.
I *am* claiming that Office files are a closed-standard that the majority of people can open, read, write, and use without installing anything on their computer. And don't free viewers exist for people who don't buy Office.
You don't get it. There is no version of Office or the free reader available for my system. It's much, much easier for you to download Open Office (for free), or get a free copy from the government (which they'd be legally allowed to give out) than for me to buy a new computer just to run MS Office.
If they were foolish enough to mandate MS Office as the official standard for incoming data, then that free reader turns into an expensive full-blown MS Office install. How convenient is that for Joe Taxpayer who wants to reply to his jury summons?
RSS is a perfect example of an open standard that quickly got muddled with versions.
Not really. RSS is RSS because everyone and their pet ferret came up with their own subtly different version to address perceived shortcomings. On the other hand, there is 1 (one) Opendocument standard.
Agreed, which is why they should just stick with MS Office (which they've apparently already purchased) and save as XML instead. Problem solved.
[...]
You're pushing OSS for all the wrong reasons. It's not because it's cheaper or open, it's because it's not Microsoft.
Do you get paid to say that, or did you come up with it on your own? Understand this: Word DOC files are not an open standard. You may cry, whine, plead, and insist all you want, but they're not. Full stop. If Office would adopt an open format, then it would make a perfectly acceptable tool for government interaction with that portion of the population that can't afford or use Office. That is not the situation today, so Office is not an acceptable option.
And preventing the public from sending the government a.DOC format, which 90% of the business are already accustomed to, is a better idea?
I don't care what weird format the government chooses to accept in addition to the open standards. I heartily care which format they choose to transmit their information.
Slashdot Mirror
PLS GIVE ME A INVIT K THX BYE
Get over yourself. Some (many) students don't want to leave their regular jobs over the summer for whatever reason. I didn't, although I certainly could have.
Yeah, that'd be fun.
There will always be edge cases that one OS or another doesn't handle well, but those outliers don't have much in common with the typical situation.
Out of curiosity, is there a technical reason why they don't just jump to LBA64 or LBA80 or something else that'll be good for another few decades? Note: "to sell more hardware" isn't a technical reason. :-)
I worked my way through college as a motel night auditor (so I could do homework on the job). $4,500 was a lot more than I'd earn during summer break, and I'd actually enjoy the work I was doing. While I can see your point, understand that the Summer Of Code would be a huge step up for many would-be contributors.
Because sometimes stuff slips through the cracks, and the end users are the last line of defense for their own systems. We expect people not to fall for phone scams (and make fun of them if they do, excepting for mental disabilities), yet insist that it's not their fault for running the latest "Osama loves Beyonce" screensaver. Why the dichotomy?
Can you rewire your bathroom to code?
No. I'm also not a gasoline engine mechanic, but I know not to put latex paint in my car's fuel tank. Neither am I anybody's idea of street smart, but I don't walk down Drug Alley at 2am waving a twenty. Some things are inherently dumb, and we should be expected not to do them even without being explicitly told.
That's actually "4.0.1". There's a subtle-but-important difference, mainly that 4.1 doesn't exist outside CVS yet.
</pedant>
Sorry, but I see that mistake a lot, even among people that should be familiar with x.y.z version numbers. I know people who will think that Firefox 1.5 is less recent than 1.0.6 (which they mentally abbreviate to 1.06 -> 1.6).
Answer: spend some time moving tables with huge, infrequently accessed objects onto this drive, while leaving your smaller, more interactive tables on a smaller and faster drive. It's the best of both worlds, unless you have to keep all your data in huge tables that are continually slammed, in which case you have other problems that may need to be addressed.
I bought a used 50MB SCSI drive for my Amiga (circa '95 or so). I had the case open and was running a graphical benchmark utility that showed KB/s, and it was hovering in the 400-450 range while the drive made this awful grinding sound. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I put a few drops of 3-and-1 oil on the exposed bearing and listened in awe as the metal-on-metal scream turned into a high-pitched whine. I was more amazed to watch the benchmark graph creep upward to 1.5MB/s or so.
Depending on how bad the drive is broken, it may be repairable. A bit of 3-and-1 did it for me, although I can't really recommend it as a general fix.
My guess? IBM doesn't see Free Software as competition, but as something they can use as part of the business solutions they sell to their customers. It's in their best interest to allow legal Free development of their patented methods.
On the other hand, I doubt they have any interest in allowing, say, Microsoft or Sun to use their IP. They've worked out a solution that allows their friends everything and their enemies nothing.
For example, say they come up with an algorithm that could make hard drive IO use 50% fewer interrupts. It would be to their advantage to allow Linux developers put it in the kernel while denying it to the Windows kernel, thereby making the products they support that much more competitive.
I won't argue whether that's good or bad, but I can definitely see why they'd want to reserve that right.
Where can you look to get a list of standardized job titles and descriptions? I don't know whether I'm a senior programmer, a junior systems architect, or just "guy in dark room with computer". I tried a (cursory) search at the ACM's web site, but didn't turn anything up.
At least one source gives the opposite advice for screen displays (but recommends your scheme for printing). The general consensus among the web designers I've talked to is serif for headlines, sans- for the body.
Now to present. See where I wrote this part?
That means that Interbase/Firebird was awful at the time I wrote my criticism, but that I don't know whether they've since fixed the I saw. Follow? OK. So you're basically saying that I'm an idiot because the some of the problems I had four years ago don't exist in the version you used last week.
And yeah, I used it in an xterm, although the terminal has exactly zero to do with isql's built-in line editor.
As of today, MySQL 4.1 is the current release. 5.0, the current development snapshot, is the first to support stored procedures. Since the choice today is between a tested system and stored procedures, it most certainly does not "support all the Oracle procedures [I] need to build and operate an enterprice software system".
Next year? Maybe. Right now? No way, according to mysql.com.
To each his own, of course, and the situation may indeed have improved. I don't see any clear advantage that it has over PostgreSQL, though, and I doubt it'll ever gain much momentum.
I finally got around to setting up a KDC for my domains. It's nice to run "kinit" once, and then have full access to every machine I'm supposed to have full access to. Implementing Kerberos for one service is massive overkill. Implementing it for IMAP, SMTP, LDAP, etc. at the same time is bliss.
The FreeBSD Handbook has a nice chapter on the subject. O'Reilly's "Kerberos: The Definitive Guide" is an excellent reference as well.
Your girlfriend rocks. I always disable password authentication on a new server before I enable sshd for the first time. I'm pretty certain I could safely give my root password out on IRC without much risk, although prudence says I'm not completely interested in testing that theory.
What sort of problems do you have with public key authentication? I've been using it for years from both Unix and Windows clients without problem. If you're feeling particularly 1337, GSSAPI authentication is pretty darn convenient and not all that hard to configure these days.
Note: this is hypothetical. I haven't bought Lexmark in the past, and I for damn sure won't in the future. Neither will anyone I ever advise. Good PR move, guys.
That's true, where "Unix" == "Linux with nscd installed and running". Don't feel bad, these kinds of assumptions aren't new.
I don't know and I don't care.
You're wrong. Sorry for creating yet another followup thread, but the general consensus (which is all we have, barring a court ruling on the matter) is that the MS license is wholly incompatible with any Free Software licenses, meaning that not just anyone can write a parser for their files.
You don't get it. There is no version of Office or the free reader available for my system. It's much, much easier for you to download Open Office (for free), or get a free copy from the government (which they'd be legally allowed to give out) than for me to buy a new computer just to run MS Office.
If they were foolish enough to mandate MS Office as the official standard for incoming data, then that free reader turns into an expensive full-blown MS Office install. How convenient is that for Joe Taxpayer who wants to reply to his jury summons?
Not really. RSS is RSS because everyone and their pet ferret came up with their own subtly different version to address perceived shortcomings. On the other hand, there is 1 (one) Opendocument standard.
Agreed, which is why they should just stick with MS Office (which they've apparently already purchased) and save as XML instead. Problem solved.
[...]
You're pushing OSS for all the wrong reasons. It's not because it's cheaper or open, it's because it's not Microsoft.
Do you get paid to say that, or did you come up with it on your own? Understand this: Word DOC files are not an open standard. You may cry, whine, plead, and insist all you want, but they're not. Full stop. If Office would adopt an open format, then it would make a perfectly acceptable tool for government interaction with that portion of the population that can't afford or use Office. That is not the situation today, so Office is not an acceptable option.
And preventing the public from sending the government a .DOC format, which 90% of the business are already accustomed to, is a better idea?
I don't care what weird format the government chooses to accept in addition to the open standards. I heartily care which format they choose to transmit their information.
Which version? How do you embed formulas? How do you embed graphics? What archive format will you use to pack the whole mess up for distribution?
2) Use XML as a standard
Opendocument is a standardized XML representation, so I guess Mass. agrees with you completely.
3) Use RTF as a standard.
Does RTF support everything that Mass. may wish to embed in a document?
4) If all else fails, buy the $20 add-on program so you can save your Office documents as a PDF file.
Sounds good! Now you just need to make free PDF editors available to all your citizenry so that they can return completed forms to you.
I forget; what was your point again?