"People who pick Linux would never have selected Windows NT to begin with," says Dan Kusnetzky, International Data Corp.'s program director of operating environment research.
This is wrong... it might be true for people in the rarified atmosphere at IDC, but I replaced an NT4 server with Linux and Samba here and have been very pleased with the results (it is noticeably faster, and I no longer have to physically go to the machine - Telnet and X-Windows are so cool). I still use NT on my main workstation because of otherwise unavailable apps... but you know Linux is starting to remind me of the days when I had to use DOS and couldn't move to Windows 3.0 because I had apps that would only run under real DOS and not a Windows VM. Those days didn't last that long because everyone could see Windows had the momentum as a platform and knew to remain credible they had to offer their apps on the new platform.
There aren't that many apps which keep me on NT any more: Protel and Xilinx, plus the ability to render graphics to non-postscript printers like the EPSON 740 I just bought (Samba acts as a raw print server just fine).
From http://www.vmware.com/products/forwindowsnt.html For example, with VMware Virtual Platform, you can take your personal or business applications with you, and run them on the machine of your choice. Or you can run Windows NT concurrently with other operating systems such as Linux® on a single standard PC.
For my money the gal in the pic is very credible... but unlike the guy earlier I think that motion will not help hide detail, it will show up unrealistic physics and unnatural gracelessness.
Flash, like EEPROM has a finite write/erase cycle endurance. It used to be around 10,000 writes, then as processes improved manufacturers guaranteed 100,000 write/erase cycles, and now 1,000,000 cycle endurance is common.
But 1M-writes is a matter of a few seconds with the right program. Once a cell has gone beyond its endurance of writes it stops remembering your data correctly.
There are remapping algorithms for moving writes around the total amount of memory, but if you will be committing a lot of writes over a long period (fifo type applications, for example) then these devices are not for you.
However, if your data changes seldom, but is read a lot more than written, they can make a lot of sense.
That's extremely low, said Gene Hoffman, president and CEO of GoodNoise. "This has no material affect at all (on our business)," he said, indicating that the fee, at least, would not be a problem.
In fact, setting the charge so low is a good business decision, he added, as it makes it more likely that the companies would comply. "But it's bad for artists." Hoffman had not seen the letter, and did not know how his company would respond.
He said he didn't know how they's respond, not that they'd be complying!
This is the first Katz article where I read every paragraph without skipping. Maybe having a beginning flowing towards an end was the missing ingredient.
You mean you have a case?
on
Cooler Cases
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· Score: 0
My machine has bits pulled out and pushed into it so often that I can't remember the last time it had an actual case on it. I assume it runs cooler that way anyhow.
I agree with all your points. You basically have to incorporate (here in the UK, become a Limited Company) and regard yourself as a corporation that just happens to have one employee. Along with that goes all the grief of keeping receipts, issuing invoices, liasing with an accountant and so on. Goes with the territory.
On the unpredictability, I have been lucky and haven't hit any quiet patches; but you are right, you have to have money in the bank first because your paycheck can no longer be relied upon. This has downstream effects such as mortgage lenders raising an eyebrow: however, again in my experience, once you show them your accounts, and they see you make good money then they're all smiles.
On the NT invasion, I have been programming in C++ & MFC on NT for the last three years or so and only recently spent time with Linux, which was a revelation in several departments (mainly to do with how much of Win32 & NT itself MS had stolen from Unix, and yet munged up or made less capable). I have been looking at X programming recently (another revelation to run GUI processes on another box with all IO on the one you're sitting at) but I fear - and this is the point - that any new API I learn will be dust sooner rather than later. I see I could readily learn the X APIs, seeing as they are similar in intent to the Windows SDK APIs, but is it worth it? There's the tk way of doing things one could worship, too. But it occurred to me maybe we are entering a time of the Death of APIs where everything is written in Java and the rendering of the App - and which OS is being used - is a detail.
Contracting is the solution: yep
on
Why Work Sucks
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· Score: 1
I also make a living from contract work and agree that it kicks sand in the face of regular employment. It's true that you lose some degree of predictability and certainty that its present in regular employment; but as Katz points out this security is shrinking and there comes a point where it is no longer rational to say 'no' to a doubling of salary for an increasingly slender comfort blanket
The short term nature of most contracts can actually work in your favour: if you are any good then your employer does not want to lose you. Once you have a record of quality you can say 'no' to toilet-cleaning work that often tries to piggyback on what was explicitly agreed because both you and your employer know you can always move on to something else.
By the way, the best articles I have read on Slashdot have been on this subject: it seems to bring out the best in the posters because it is something we all have some experience of (and is very close to our hearts:) )
I bought a Hayes Accura ISDN last year which I am still using. But the Hayes name on a sticker couldn't disguise it was exactly the same box, board and firmware as the Zyxel ISDN modem: both companies seem to OEM it from the same Far East factory.
If Hayes' big deal was superior high-end quality, then I guess I'm not surprised they came to a sticky end seeing as Zyxel were selling exactly the same product cheaper.
There are six Americans for every (little) Englander; Taco is American and the servers are located in America. What were you expecting, BBC News?
It never promised every article to be relevant to you personally. I guess they didn't know how important you were.
a) If you don't like it, make a better one. If you can't make a better one, do you have any kind of right to be moaning in the first place? b) You don't have to read articles you find uninteresting.
thus far taken the attitude of live and let live... can we expect to see you on top of a water tower with a rifle now?
Slashdot Mirror
Thank you for this tip. One down, two to go :)
"People who pick Linux would never have selected Windows NT to begin with," says Dan Kusnetzky, International Data Corp.'s program director of operating environment research.
This is wrong... it might be true for people in the rarified atmosphere at IDC, but I replaced an NT4 server with Linux and Samba here and have been very pleased with the results (it is noticeably faster, and I no longer have to physically go to the machine - Telnet and X-Windows are so cool). I still use NT on my main workstation because of otherwise unavailable apps... but you know Linux is starting to remind me of the days when I had to use DOS and couldn't move to Windows 3.0 because I had apps that would only run under real DOS and not a Windows VM. Those days didn't last that long because everyone could see Windows had the momentum as a platform and knew to remain credible they had to offer their apps on the new platform.
There aren't that many apps which keep me on NT any more: Protel and Xilinx, plus the ability to render graphics to non-postscript printers like the EPSON 740 I just bought (Samba acts as a raw print server just fine).
From http://www.vmware.com/products/forwindowsnt.html
:) Never mind.
For example, with VMware Virtual Platform, you can take your personal or business applications with you, and run them on the machine of your choice. Or you can run Windows NT concurrently with other operating systems such as Linux® on a single standard PC.
Bet you feel dumb now
Read about it at the BBC.
For my money the gal in the pic is very credible... but unlike the guy earlier I think that motion will not help hide detail, it will show up unrealistic physics and unnatural gracelessness.
Flash, like EEPROM has a finite write/erase cycle endurance. It used to be around 10,000 writes, then as processes improved manufacturers guaranteed 100,000 write/erase cycles, and now 1,000,000 cycle endurance is common.
But 1M-writes is a matter of a few seconds with the right program. Once a cell has gone beyond its endurance of writes it stops remembering your data correctly.
There are remapping algorithms for moving writes around the total amount of memory, but if you will be committing a lot of writes over a long period (fifo type applications, for example) then these devices are not for you.
However, if your data changes seldom, but is read a lot more than written, they can make a lot of sense.
If the GUI - X or Windows - is idle, then it doesn't suck any CPU to speak of.
That's extremely low, said Gene Hoffman, president and CEO of GoodNoise. "This has no material affect at all (on our business)," he said, indicating that the fee, at least, would not be a problem.
In fact, setting the charge so low is a good business decision, he added, as it makes it more likely that the companies would comply. "But it's bad for artists." Hoffman had not seen the letter, and did not know how his company would respond.
He said he didn't know how they's respond, not that they'd be complying!
This is the first Katz article where I read every paragraph without skipping. Maybe having a beginning flowing towards an end was the missing ingredient.
My machine has bits pulled out and pushed into it so often that I can't remember the last time it had an actual case on it. I assume it runs cooler that way anyhow.
Has an embedded space in it. Use this instead
I agree with all your points. You basically have to incorporate (here in the UK, become a Limited Company) and regard yourself as a corporation that just happens to have one employee. Along with that goes all the grief of keeping receipts, issuing invoices, liasing with an accountant and so on. Goes with the territory.
On the unpredictability, I have been lucky and haven't hit any quiet patches; but you are right, you have to have money in the bank first because your paycheck can no longer be relied upon. This has downstream effects such as mortgage lenders raising an eyebrow: however, again in my experience, once you show them your accounts, and they see you make good money then they're all smiles.
On the NT invasion, I have been programming in C++ & MFC on NT for the last three years or so and only recently spent time with Linux, which was a revelation in several departments (mainly to do with how much of Win32 & NT itself MS had stolen from Unix, and yet munged up or made less capable). I have been looking at X programming recently (another revelation to run GUI processes on another box with all IO on the one you're sitting at) but I fear - and this is the point - that any new API I learn will be dust sooner rather than later. I see I could readily learn the X APIs, seeing as they are similar in intent to the Windows SDK APIs, but is it worth it? There's the tk way of doing things one could worship, too. But it occurred to me maybe we are entering a time of the Death of APIs where everything is written in Java and the rendering of the App - and which OS is being used - is a detail.
I also make a living from contract work and agree that it kicks sand in the face of regular employment. It's true that you lose some degree of predictability and certainty that its present in regular employment; but as Katz points out this security is shrinking and there comes a point where it is no longer rational to say 'no' to a doubling of salary for an increasingly slender comfort blanket
:) )
The short term nature of most contracts can actually work in your favour: if you are any good then your employer does not want to lose you. Once you have a record of quality you can say 'no' to toilet-cleaning work that often tries to piggyback on what was explicitly agreed because both you and your employer know you can always move on to something else.
By the way, the best articles I have read on Slashdot have been on this subject: it seems to bring out the best in the posters because it is something we all have some experience of (and is very close to our hearts
Haha to the ATH post :D
I bought a Hayes Accura ISDN last year which I am still using. But the Hayes name on a sticker couldn't disguise it was exactly the same box, board and firmware as the Zyxel ISDN modem: both companies seem to OEM it from the same Far East factory.
If Hayes' big deal was superior high-end quality, then I guess I'm not surprised they came to a sticky end seeing as Zyxel were selling exactly the same product cheaper.
There are six Americans for every (little) Englander; Taco is American and the servers are located in America. What were you expecting, BBC News?
... can we expect to see you on top of a water tower with a rifle now?
It never promised every article to be relevant to you personally. I guess they didn't know how important you were.
a) If you don't like it, make a better one. If you can't make a better one, do you have any kind of right to be moaning in the first place?
b) You don't have to read articles you find uninteresting.
thus far taken the attitude of live and let live