Even if practices like that work for a while, they're still not a good idea. PCs should be kept out of dusty environments, or cleaned regularly (every few months - more or less, depending on how fast dirt builds up) if they must be in one.
Why not? Because, as so many people have already pointed out, those boxes (SLICs) are too small to hold all of the necessary DSLAMs. The power requirements and heat output of the DSLAms is also a problem.
Go read the rest of the discussion. You'll find lots of info there.
Well, you answered your question pretty well yourself.
The first, at least with respect to commercial software is absolutely true. Vendors always want the customers to spend more money on the latest/greatest/biggest/best new version. They don't care about the customer, as long as they're making a profit.
The second point you made has a few aspects. While commercial software vendors have their own code to build on, the free software community must start from scratch when putting together an alternative to a commercial product. There's also the simple fact that people learn from experience. The coders who put a system together initially may have been relatively new then. When it comes time for a major rework of the system, they have much more experience - they're familiar with the system, know how it works, and how it should be. If the methods used when putting it together in the first place weren't as good as they could have been, it makes sense to just start over and do it right instead of wasting time cleaning up a mess.
Still, there really isn't much excuse for not creating a well planned, extensible system in the first place. If things were done better the first time around, there would be no need to start over again. Perhaps we as programmers need to take a look at our design processes and see what can be done better to make more 'future proof' code.
I've got an Inspiron 5000e with the 15" UXGA LCD - it does 1600x1200 wonderfully, and handles scaling to lower resolutions quite well (much better than the XGA LCD on the 5000).
I'm too lazy to find the URL right now, but the part of IBM's website you want is their Almaden Research Center. They also did a ThinkPad keyboard with dual pointing sticks, which looks like it would be fun to use, but never made it to a production device.
Quoth the Ninth Amendment: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people"
Or, the rights or the people are not limited to those explicitly listed in the Constitution.
Why? From their abstract, it looks like the AVES system requires support from the DNS servers. The reason for this is that the AVES system works by assigning a waypoint's IP to a customer's hostname when a user looks up the IP. Since the waypoint must know the source IP (in order to know where to expect packets from and forward them to the customer's NAT gateway), the user's system must be querying an AVES-aware DNS server directly. While upgrading DNS servers to support this wouldn't be as huge an undertaking as upgrading all of the Internet's routers to IPv6, it would still take a significant amount of effort and time.
In addition, since AVES depends on a DNS TTL of 0 when sending responses to clients, using AVES could cause a performance hit for clients. While doing a DNS lookup before initiating every connection probably wouldn't be a problem for singe users on a broadband connection, it may be noticeable for users on dialup or for a whole network that's behind a medium-sized pipe. Or, if it doesn't pose any problems for clients, it may mean a significantly increased load on DNS servers. Servers that typically just need to respond to a single query when a client wants to connect to a website would end up answering several queries by the same client because of the 0 TTL requirement. The servers would also have the added load of notifying waypoints.
Netware 4 (which it certainly could have been, though v3 is also possible) does come with an app called RCONSOLE for remote access to the server console over the network. However, it's not enabled by default so it would have been impossible to remotely connect to the system if no one had bothered to enable RCONSOLE prior to the system getting walled in. Even if you could connect to it remotely, Netware servers do not eve resemble *nix systems - there's no device file for the console that you echo bell characters to to make the speaker beep (not that the CLI even supports echoing characters to files anyway..). If you really wanted to, though, you could probably write an NLM (Netware Loadable Module) that would write the appropriate data to the speaker's IO port.
this, perhaps? Available with your choice of stripe reader/barcode reader and has a relay output that could control the door unlock mechanism. It doesn't sound like it would be too hard to write a little app that would check to see if the card had access to the door, and log the event.
Of course, I;m sure there are complete solutions available already that may or may not be cheaper than rolling your own.
Aside: why is it that people seem to be too lazy to spend a few minutesGoogle begofore sending in AskSlashdot questions?
But then, if you try to access this service with a tool they don't control, they change the access protocol.
It's not like the don't warn you - the AIM TOS specifically states that users must agree not to use any client other than the AOL. Besides, you don't have to pay for AIM. The official client does have ads, but it doesn't cost anything
In short, AOL lets vyou know the rules before you get involved. If you don't like them, don't use the service.
I haven't found it at all difficult to get two network cards (3Com 3C589D) working in my laptop (Compaq LTE 5380). When I was learning how to set up ethernet bridging, the laptop with its PCMCIA cards was very convenient, since I didn't have to reboot every time I wanted to remove or install a network card.
As for the issue of heat, I've had this laptop running 24/7 with only occasional shutdowns for over a year now. It does run a little hot, but I haven't had any problems.
With the exception of PCMCIA cards, SODIMM memory modules, and 2.5" hard drives, laptop parts arent commoditized - they aren't even standardized, really (CD/DVD drives are essentially the same form factor, but laptop manufacturers add their own unique connector and bezel). The rest of the parts are all specially designed for every different laptop. Very few laptop manufacturers have compatible parts (one exception is Dell and the now-defunct Quantex, who OEM'd the entire laptop from another manufacturer), which is why you can't walk into a PC shop, grab a bunch os standard laptop parts, and put them together.
If you're looking for a Linux laptop, Dell and QLITech (who took over from TuxTops; and they OEM the same system Dell sells as the 5000e as their Emperor).
As long as you don't change your
network card while you're reinstalling
What if I do? What if I don't have a NIC at all - a simple workstation with a local printer and Whistler+Office but no NIC would still be a complete system (unreliability of MS software notwithstanding for sake of argument).
Where do you hear these things? A case is unlikely to contain any lead - just steel, aluminum, etc. Circuit boards do contain lead, though, as do monitors (which is why it is now illegal to put CRTs in the trash here in Massachusetts).
Well, it *is* serial. Even if it was, 6 wires plus shield would not give you 64 combinations (which is obviously wrong for the additional reason that the keyboard interface has to be able to signal uniquely for each of 100+ keys). Power and ground take two wires, so you'd be left with 4, which would allow just 16 combinations.
Slashdot Mirror
Same here. I think it was in "Harper's".
Even if practices like that work for a while, they're still not a good idea. PCs should be kept out of dusty environments, or cleaned regularly (every few months - more or less, depending on how fast dirt builds up) if they must be in one.
Go read the rest of the discussion. You'll find lots of info there.
Well, you answered your question pretty well yourself.
The first, at least with respect to commercial software is absolutely true. Vendors always want the customers to spend more money on the latest/greatest/biggest/best new version. They don't care about the customer, as long as they're making a profit.
The second point you made has a few aspects. While commercial software vendors have their own code to build on, the free software community must start from scratch when putting together an alternative to a commercial product. There's also the simple fact that people learn from experience. The coders who put a system together initially may have been relatively new then. When it comes time for a major rework of the system, they have much more experience - they're familiar with the system, know how it works, and how it should be. If the methods used when putting it together in the first place weren't as good as they could have been, it makes sense to just start over and do it right instead of wasting time cleaning up a mess.
Still, there really isn't much excuse for not creating a well planned, extensible system in the first place. If things were done better the first time around, there would be no need to start over again. Perhaps we as programmers need to take a look at our design processes and see what can be done better to make more 'future proof' code.
My $0.02
I've got an Inspiron 5000e with the 15" UXGA LCD - it does 1600x1200 wonderfully, and handles scaling to lower resolutions quite well (much better than the XGA LCD on the 5000).
I'm too lazy to find the URL right now, but the part of IBM's website you want is their Almaden Research Center. They also did a ThinkPad keyboard with dual pointing sticks, which looks like it would be fun to use, but never made it to a production device.
Quoth the Ninth Amendment: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people"
Or, the rights or the people are not limited to those explicitly listed in the Constitution.
ISTR that was one of the Flanders kids that said that.. in the episode where Moe opened a family restaurant.
Why? From their abstract, it looks like the AVES system requires support from the DNS servers. The reason for this is that the AVES system works by assigning a waypoint's IP to a customer's hostname when a user looks up the IP. Since the waypoint must know the source IP (in order to know where to expect packets from and forward them to the customer's NAT gateway), the user's system must be querying an AVES-aware DNS server directly. While upgrading DNS servers to support this wouldn't be as huge an undertaking as upgrading all of the Internet's routers to IPv6, it would still take a significant amount of effort and time.
In addition, since AVES depends on a DNS TTL of 0 when sending responses to clients, using AVES could cause a performance hit for clients. While doing a DNS lookup before initiating every connection probably wouldn't be a problem for singe users on a broadband connection, it may be noticeable for users on dialup or for a whole network that's behind a medium-sized pipe. Or, if it doesn't pose any problems for clients, it may mean a significantly increased load on DNS servers. Servers that typically just need to respond to a single query when a client wants to connect to a website would end up answering several queries by the same client because of the 0 TTL requirement. The servers would also have the added load of notifying waypoints.
Netware 4.1 was out in 1996, 5 years ago. While I don't believe it had an actual telnetd, it did have RCONSOLE - a functional equivalent.
Netware 4 (which it certainly could have been, though v3 is also possible) does come with an app called RCONSOLE for remote access to the server console over the network. However, it's not enabled by default so it would have been impossible to remotely connect to the system if no one had bothered to enable RCONSOLE prior to the system getting walled in. Even if you could connect to it remotely, Netware servers do not eve resemble *nix systems - there's no device file for the console that you echo bell characters to to make the speaker beep (not that the CLI even supports echoing characters to files anyway..). If you really wanted to, though, you could probably write an NLM (Netware Loadable Module) that would write the appropriate data to the speaker's IO port.
Here are two systems I found in less than five minutes:
The Open Directory is also a good source of information - the have a whole page of Help Desk programs (though not all are OSS).
You seem to be "misconfusing" your spelling..
$20/mo ISP + $25/mo second phone line = $45/mo 56K connection
this, perhaps? Available with your choice of stripe reader/barcode reader and has a relay output that could control the door unlock mechanism. It doesn't sound like it would be too hard to write a little app that would check to see if the card had access to the door, and log the event.
Of course, I;m sure there are complete solutions available already that may or may not be cheaper than rolling your own.
Aside: why is it that people seem to be too lazy to spend a few minutesGoogle begofore sending in AskSlashdot questions?
But then, if you try to access this service with a tool they don't control, they change the access protocol.
It's not like the don't warn you - the AIM TOS specifically states that users must agree not to use any client other than the AOL. Besides, you don't have to pay for AIM. The official client does have ads, but it doesn't cost anything
In short, AOL lets vyou know the rules before you get involved. If you don't like them, don't use the service.
I haven't found it at all difficult to get two network cards (3Com 3C589D) working in my laptop (Compaq LTE 5380). When I was learning how to set up ethernet bridging, the laptop with its PCMCIA cards was very convenient, since I didn't have to reboot every time I wanted to remove or install a network card.
As for the issue of heat, I've had this laptop running 24/7 with only occasional shutdowns for over a year now. It does run a little hot, but I haven't had any problems.
I found that company shortly after posting. Of course, they don't sell to consumers - just manufacturers.
'squack' isn't a word - or is it not meant to be?
With the exception of PCMCIA cards, SODIMM memory modules, and 2.5" hard drives, laptop parts arent commoditized - they aren't even standardized, really (CD/DVD drives are essentially the same form factor, but laptop manufacturers add their own unique connector and bezel). The rest of the parts are all specially designed for every different laptop. Very few laptop manufacturers have compatible parts (one exception is Dell and the now-defunct Quantex, who OEM'd the entire laptop from another manufacturer), which is why you can't walk into a PC shop, grab a bunch os standard laptop parts, and put them together.
If you're looking for a Linux laptop, Dell and QLITech (who took over from TuxTops; and they OEM the same system Dell sells as the 5000e as their Emperor).
As long as you don't change your network card while you're reinstalling
What if I do? What if I don't have a NIC at all - a simple workstation with a local printer and Whistler+Office but no NIC would still be a complete system (unreliability of MS software notwithstanding for sake of argument).
Where do you hear these things? A case is unlikely to contain any lead - just steel, aluminum, etc. Circuit boards do contain lead, though, as do monitors (which is why it is now illegal to put CRTs in the trash here in Massachusetts).
The poster wanted to know how to interface with the PS/2 keyboard protocol, not how to convert from 5-pin connector to a 6-pin connector.
Well, it *is* serial. Even if it was, 6 wires plus shield would not give you 64 combinations (which is obviously wrong for the additional reason that the keyboard interface has to be able to signal uniquely for each of 100+ keys). Power and ground take two wires, so you'd be left with 4, which would allow just 16 combinations.