*chuckle* I actually do work for Live365. And no, doesn't sound like an employee post (I'm probably one of the few that actually reads slashdot). I wish we did have the resources to try to shill the usual net outlets, then I can try to commandeer that effort for something else;)
We're a lot smaller than most folks would imagine. one of the common complaints around here is that we don't have the resources to do any promotion to drive awareness and of course Pandora, last.fm gets tons more press ink than we do. Our best efforts are really the broadcasters at Live365, who really does the bulk of work of getting the word of mouth out to people to even find Live365.
Personally, it's the broadcasters and their enthusiasm that keeps us around. If this thing actually succeeds, it'll be more despite of us rather than because of us *chuckle*
Sony has won the console war and it's now time to ride the gravy train for the next few years off the software. The xbox was out late was never got traction, and the gamecube is still mainly targetted at kiddies..
MS is now in the awkward situation of either being content at number 2 or risk further alienating its base by releasing the next console too early. Nintendo being in that same leaky boat. So whether we like it or not, Sony's domination over this current generation of consoles will push out innovation for the next generation at least by an extra year or two. It'll be good for sony's bottomline but gamers will have to be happy with what they got for a little while...
Is it just me, or there seems to be a slowdown in major AAA titles in the last year or so for the consoles? I would generally buy at least 3 to 4 AAA titles a year, but this year and last year, Vice City is the only title I've picked up.. Either I'm getting pickier.. or the picking's gotten a lot thinner..
trying to explain the genius of M.U.L.E today is like trying to explain the genius of greek comedies and tragedies..
The comic and quirkiness of M.U.L.E was unequaled until Full Throttle. The child-like simplicity and the complex interactions was unequalled until Tetris. The joy of scalping your friends for 150 per unit for energy and food, and the sorrow of pirates snatching your hard earned crystite will never be equalled.
I will never have fonder memories of games than that those of M.U.L.E and Archon.. Even after all the computers I've ever owned, the Atari800 will forever hold a special place in my heart because of those two games..
Rest In Peace, Dani. Your foresight and genius was and still is unparalleled, and your humanity will continue to inspire us.
Try donating a token amount to the most crooked charities in this guy's name and put his phone number on it. If he thought getting flooded with spam and phones were bad, wait til the telemarketers gets on his back. good riddance to bad rubbish.
the high end server market is notorious for being slow to adopt change. Now HP is trying to get rid of not one but TWO legacy architecture in favor of the unproven itanium.. Though both PA-RISC and Alpha were niche players, they were highly regarded in their market. Maybe I'm just being a cynic, but somehow I got a feeling Carly is pulling a SGI and migrating to a platform because everybody ELSE thought it was a good idea..
Though I'm a big Sun box fan, I still have to give the proper respect for those two well regarded chips. RIP PA-RISC, Alpha..
Sound, Picture, Video sounds nice on paper but I can't imagine it would be too useful in practice. having grainy little pictures on 2 inch screens is just unbearable for any kind of useful application. The only reason I can think of to put a camera on a phone and email, is to get evidence when you get in a car crash. It's useless to view on PDA and horrible to be subjected to on a decent computer screen. Video is just a lame gimmick. Now, sound would seem to be promising.. but given I'm fairly used to decent quality of sound from cheapo discmans and ok quality from the current generation of mp3 players, listening to AM/FM quality mp3 on my phone gets less and less appealing. The only real use I've got out of wireless web at this point is checking short email messages, and checking movie times for a particular theatre if I overran on time and need to catch the next showing. It's simply too unpleasant to do too much websurfing on a phone simply because of the dimensions of the screen. Don't even get me started on web surfing on your phone savages the battery life.. And if you really feel the need to drool over porn on the 2" screen, I'd recommend putting yourself out of your misery.
so my new list is down to:
1. smaller dimension (anything bigger than my 270 will be junked, in fact, I wish it was 30% smaller)
2. better sound quality for the phone
3. longer battery life
everything else would be treated like the damn hairclip help in office.. I'll ignore it until it gets in my way. once it does, it's gone.
Given the average/.'er generally have a terminal case of gadgetitis, the PDA will need to do everything including cleaning the kitchen sink and run a solar power fusion generator. But I'm starting to wonder now that if we actually did get everything we wished for in a PDA, would we end up regretting it.. it's time to realize why the early Palm succeeded and the old Newton failed. simplicity, usability at a price we're willing to pay..
I'd like the city to give me money for hauling away my garbage too, instead of charging me for each trash can worth of stuff I throw away. The unfortunately fact is that, it cost money to take care of these problem. If it's up to the corporations, it's cheaper for them to dump the problem somewhere else than to take care of it. The key part is having "effective" and "smart" regulation. Having no regulation simply mean a much more expensive problem down the road. The California idiocy with electricity should be a lesson in trusting the big corporation to do the right thing.
Now the last story is about China moving forward toward open source. Where you have a government
with a penchant with crushing dissent supporting open source which prides itself on dissent.
and now moved onto this current story where megacorps is now lobbying for freedom of "choice" from legislation that dictates that government must use open source software..
as usual, what you see depends on where you stand...
thanks for the URL.. looks very grassroot at this point, but have to start somewhere. I was about to start filling out my information on the form when I noticed that the membership form wasn't secure and it asks for my social security number..
I'll send them a note about that. But I'm more than willing to put my time and money where my heart is, I just hope these guys knows what they're doing...
participation in dialog is one of the primary tenet in democracy. I'm not proposing under the table suitcases full of money. But if we do contribute our maximum legal contribution to candidate along with our votes, we can make a very persuasive arguments in our cause. The price of freedom is the price we pay to defend our freedom. If one is unwilling put forth the money, effort, and even lives to defend the freedom we have, and it gets taken away, we bear at least half of the responsibility. If there's a particular issue so important to you, stand up and defend it. Grousing about politicians being corrupt isn't going to change anything and for the most part it is that cynical attitude that kept us from our responsibility in the national dialog. If we dont like the pool of politicians that we get to choose from, then someone needs to step forward and be our voice. Sending money to companies or organization isn't going to change the political climate and isn't going to make our concerns heard. For our rights not to be trampled by everyone else's agenda, we need to become a political force. Given all the bad policies I've seen lately maybe we should be gotten organized a long time ago...
Re:How many will show up?
on
Mega-Geek March?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
here's a better idea.. start a foundation and instead of wasting money on the inevitable stupid looking costumes, each geek contributes $10. Next, select a politician target to defeat, preferably one of the DMCA proponent idiots. Take a pool of collected cash and give it to the opponent of the targetted politician and vote for the opponent come this midterm election. Given this is a midterm election, turn out will be light. After tossing out the targetted politician, put another politician in the crosshair. All we need is that first unemployed politician to make them take notice.
a march just convince the rest of the population that geeks are a bunch of weirdos and must avoid eye contact at every opportunity.
how about lawsuits and political contributions
on
Mega-Geek March?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I've always been skeptical of the rahrah marches that seems to dominate the latest fad. Unfortunately, the geek populace tends to be politically apathetic or cynical. A well organize block vote will have a much more effect on political policies than silly marches which generally devolves into a rotten excuse for street theatre and fringe hoodlumism. The end result will end up demeaning a well intended effort. Nothing speaks to a politician clearer than cold hard cash. Until open source becomes a serious political lobby like the christian right, NRA, or AARP, it'll merely be treated as an oddity and not be taken seriously.
part of the reason that I prefer the cradle on the desk is that I actually use the PDA while it's sitting in the cradle. And given my palmOs device is a treo270, I need to see whether an incoming call is from somebody that I want to talk to. Having the PDA stuck in a enclosure even with a display outside would prove awkward, since the display won't be close to eye level and will more than probably be under a desk.
The idea is technically sound but lacking in the useability department. Now a cradle that's stable and clings to the side of the monitor like one of those page holders would save desktop space and allow the PDA display to be visible.. that'd be something I'd consider since it'd be convenient and lessen the chance of the cradle getting lost in the desktop clutter *grin*
So given the everexpanding reach of porn versus the unfailing WIPO trampling of corps interest against the individuals, what will win out in the end?
more than likely it'll be 99% porn, 1% big corp.
but wait.. that's already happened..
maybe the best chance I can hope for to get any kind of a decent domain name that catches my fancy like the good ol virgin net days will be day of the "great pr0n meltdown"..
I wonder if that'll ever happen...
Re:Ability to fly is not a major requirement
on
Spy Fly
·
· Score: 1
hmm.. being able to manuever in 3D space is a major boon in SAR ops. It generally isn't considered because of
1. lack of proven technology at this point 2. cost
if flybots are readily available, I don't see how they wouldn't be preferred over the scurrybots.
Re:when will someone develop the advanced technolo
on
Motorola's i95cl
·
· Score: 1
I guess you've never had to contend with the situation where one ring goes off and the entire room of people goes into spasms reaching in various crevices for their gadgets *grin*
this affliction is followed closely by the spontaneous spasm where the person you're talking to suddenly convulses and find a sudden urge to reach for his/her gadget in the middle of a conversation...
the former was corrected with the silly tones.. the latter have yet encountered a solution..
beneficial uses?
on
Spy Fly
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I can imagine the flybot being life savers in rescue operations. Given the mine collapse in the news in the last few days (congrats all around for the successful rescue), I'm surprised there isn't a more humanitarian spin to promote this type of technology.
But then, talking about rescuing people doesn't generate as much buzz as "oh my god! the government is onto my pr0n collection!!"...
no comparison to the treo 270? ;o)
on
Motorola's i95cl
·
· Score: 1
I'm shocked:o) of course, I'm more than biased at this point. I love the 270. The keyboard is definitely the deal breaker comparing this phone to the 270. I can't imagine trying to keep updated with my checkbook app with a 10-key pad. The PDA and web surfing functions just seem unwielding when you have to 10key the thing. Imagine trying to post on slashdot with it, or IM using AIM or MS messenger on the road;o)
the i95 appears to be a phone first and PDA as an afterthought to me whereas t270 should really be used with a headset at all times (it's still too little too big to be used as a handset). Of course, t270 cost more as well..:o( but then it's worth every penny I paid for it.
try dealing with another system admin...
on
Sysadmin Day. Yay.
·
· Score: 1
I would say I get as much grief from users as I did from other admins.. you get huge egos, incompetence, laziness, and flat out arrogance.
A number of idiot SAs I haved worked with complains when any kind of work is required because it distracts them from working on:
1. the mp3 server they're setting up on the new server hardware they hijacked that's supposed to replace the database server that's running on 4 year old hardware.
2. spend most of the day trolling slashdot rather than doing proactive work to make sure things don't fail. In fact, some of them are more like firefighters that starts fires so they can swoop in and appear as the hero for the day.
3. spending hours flirting with some woman trying to impress the gal with his technical "prowess", while trying to fix her "broken link" while critical application server is down.
4. spending time CYA'ing since something they were supposed to be doing werent done, and so they try to shift responsibility to somebody else.
5. spending the entire day arguing with another dept on how something "isn't their problem" instead of doing the 5 minutes of work to fix it.
6. installing the latest and greatest bullshit software that cripples the existing backup program that works. The kicker is how they justify the server being down for most of the day because it's installed on the production server and how he should be appreciated for being "proactive" and doing the necessary "research"
7. spend the entire day griping to each other about not being paid their "worth"
the time had been good to us system administrators during the dotcom bubble. The last two years have really brought perspective back to being a system administrator. I pride myself on being a system administrator and working like a craftsman. I bring credit on myself for the quality of my work, instead of hotdogging or sabotaging so I can appear important. some admins should be spending their day reflecting the lessons learned in the last two years...
the gameboy linkup cable probably wouldn't have sold that many units w/o tetris..
I can't recall any gameboys w/o a tetris cart lying close in ambush. I was still playing tetris on my cell phone to kill time until I got the treo270:oD (now it's vegas slots..)
it really goes to show that a good concept will have more longevity and pretty graphics. Now, where's the MULE and a decent Archon update??
I'm not debating that the article doesn't have any solid "proof" or "analysis". The presence of the article just seems to try to make a point (troll) rather than of any journalistic merit. But then I forget I'm talking about journalist these days, whose idea of "journalist integrity" is about equal to the meaning of "ethics" to an Enron exec.
"I think it's just that people with bigger budgets like better computers!"
that statement needs to be better qualified, like "people with bigger budget have more choices in computers". People keep failing to note that clusters can better solve problems that can be broken up and solved in parallel. There are many classes of problems that can not be solved through that approach.
but's its getting way off the point. If you're making the national income average of about $40k-$45k per FAMILY, I doubt you'd be blowing money on a iMuck for websurfing and email. MOre than likely, the $499 emachine would fit the bill. So generic PCs have a bigger population to account for whereas Mac owners have a disportionate number of photoshop types earning them the "artsy fartsy" reputation.
but then, my criteria for better "home computers" involves what runs neverwinternights and WC3 better. For real work though, neither PCs or Mucks would fit the bill...
the article simply confirms writer of the article has an elitist leaning and is trolling for attention. Damn me for even giving this topic the light of day..
another good example of lying through statistics
on
Mac Users May Be Smarter
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
cheesy macs costs more than whitebox PC so income of the buyers becomes a factor..
to make a claim like that at least the source should consider economic factors that's involved. Heck, using the criteria they used, obviously workgroup server owners are much smarter than PC and Mac owners, and a Cray owner would be the smartest of all..
that's what happens when you have idiot tech journalists who has more interest in pushing an agenda rather than report real news. I'm sure CNut figures they'll get a whole bunch of pageviews from trolling.
corrupted boot disk got mirrored to the other boot disk. network interface glitch brought down cluster causing cluster to not failover correctly. 4 hours lost. real case.
still think you redundant power supply is worth anything?
1. fewer specialized configured desktops
(did you just format my hard drive which
has the calendar for the entire department
for the next give years?!) 2. less hardware disappearing. Can't use most
of the parts on the Sunray in your home PC
and wouldn't work w/o a sunray server. This
makes the less scrupulous less tempted to
steal hardware from the company.
(I came in last night, and my U10 is gone!) 3. less hardware issues to troubleshoot.
No dying hard disks, CPUs, CPU fans, cables
etc. If you suspect the hardware put a
new sunray in, user up in a few minutes. 4. Keeps the impatient from getting in trouble
by rebooting their system, even if the cause
is a NIS server outtage rather than their
desktop.
Negatives:
1. Single point of failure! Sunray server
freezes, you can end up with several buildings
of people sitting on their hands.
This problem negates all of the positives,
if the sunray server develops a problem
that you can not resolve quickly or get the
parts quickly, you're in a world of hurt
productivity wise.
the Sunray field office configuration works for 90% of the people, and 75% will be happy with it. the other 15% typically wants to do funky with the system instead of doing real work. the last 10% won't be happy no matter what you give them anyways, so screw them.
Being able to personalize a space does make people happier. But some people personalize their space and system to the point of distraction (all those damn illegal mp3 servers, and playing games rather than working).
It's much easier to convince your boss to let you log in from a building closer to home a few days a week, saving some commute and aggravation.
PC are an administrative mess, it's the option of the worst sort.
Slashdot Mirror
*chuckle* I actually do work for Live365. And no, doesn't sound like an employee post
(I'm probably one of the few that actually reads slashdot). I wish we did have the resources
to try to shill the usual net outlets, then I can try to commandeer that effort for
something else
We're a lot smaller than most folks would imagine. one of the common complaints around
here is that we don't have the resources to do any promotion to drive awareness and of
course Pandora, last.fm gets tons more press ink than we do. Our best efforts are really
the broadcasters at Live365, who really does the bulk of work of getting the word of
mouth out to people to even find Live365.
Personally, it's the broadcasters and their enthusiasm that keeps us around. If this thing
actually succeeds, it'll be more despite of us rather than because of us *chuckle*
Sony has won the console war and it's now time to ride the gravy train for the next few years
off the software. The xbox was out late was never got traction, and the gamecube is still
mainly targetted at kiddies..
MS is now in the awkward situation of either being content at number 2 or risk further
alienating its base by releasing the next console too early. Nintendo being in that same leaky
boat. So whether we like it or not, Sony's domination over this current generation of
consoles will push out innovation for the next generation at least by an extra year or two.
It'll be good for sony's bottomline but gamers will have to be happy with what they got for a
little while...
Is it just me, or there seems to be a slowdown in major AAA titles in the last year or so for the
consoles? I would generally buy at least 3 to 4 AAA titles a year, but this year and last year,
Vice City is the only title I've picked up.. Either I'm getting pickier.. or the picking's
gotten a lot thinner..
trying to explain the genius of M.U.L.E today is like trying to explain the genius of greek comedies
and tragedies..
The comic and quirkiness of M.U.L.E was unequaled until Full Throttle. The child-like simplicity and
the complex interactions was unequalled until Tetris.
The joy of scalping your friends for 150 per unit for energy and food, and the sorrow of pirates
snatching your hard earned crystite will never be equalled.
I will never have fonder memories of games than that those of M.U.L.E and Archon.. Even after all
the computers I've ever owned, the Atari800 will forever hold a special place in my heart because
of those two games..
Rest In Peace, Dani. Your foresight and genius was and still is unparalleled, and your
humanity will continue to inspire us.
Try donating a token amount to the most crooked charities in this guy's name and put his phone
number on it. If he thought getting flooded with spam and phones were bad, wait til the telemarketers
gets on his back. good riddance to bad rubbish.
the high end server market is notorious for being slow to adopt change. Now HP is trying to get rid
of not one but TWO legacy architecture in favor of the unproven itanium.. Though both PA-RISC and
Alpha were niche players, they were highly regarded in their market. Maybe I'm just being a cynic, but
somehow I got a feeling Carly is pulling a SGI and migrating to a platform because everybody ELSE
thought it was a good idea..
Though I'm a big Sun box fan, I still have to give the proper respect for those two well regarded
chips. RIP PA-RISC, Alpha..
Sound, Picture, Video sounds nice on paper but I can't imagine it would be too useful in practice.
/.'er generally have a terminal case of gadgetitis, the PDA will need to do
having grainy little pictures on 2 inch screens is just unbearable for any kind of useful application.
The only reason I can think of to put a camera on a phone and email, is to get evidence when you get
in a car crash. It's useless to view on PDA and horrible to be subjected to on a decent computer
screen. Video is just a lame gimmick. Now, sound would seem to be promising.. but given I'm fairly
used to decent quality of sound from cheapo discmans and ok quality from the current
generation of mp3 players, listening to AM/FM quality mp3 on my phone gets less and less
appealing. The only real use I've got out of wireless web at this point is checking short email
messages, and checking movie times for a particular theatre if I overran on time and need
to catch the next showing. It's simply too unpleasant to do too much websurfing on a phone
simply because of the dimensions of the screen.
Don't even get me started on web surfing on your phone savages the battery life.. And if you really
feel the need to drool over porn on the 2" screen, I'd recommend putting yourself out of your misery.
so my new list is down to:
1. smaller dimension (anything bigger than my 270 will be junked, in fact, I wish it was 30% smaller)
2. better sound quality for the phone
3. longer battery life
everything else would be treated like the damn hairclip help in office.. I'll ignore it until
it gets in my way. once it does, it's gone.
Given the average
everything including cleaning the kitchen sink and run a solar power fusion generator. But I'm
starting to wonder now that if we actually did get everything we wished for in a PDA, would we end up
regretting it.. it's time to realize why the early Palm succeeded and the old Newton failed.
simplicity, usability at a price we're willing to pay..
I'd like the city to give me money for hauling away my garbage too, instead of charging me for each
trash can worth of stuff I throw away. The unfortunately fact is that, it cost money to take
care of these problem. If it's up to the corporations, it's cheaper for them to dump the
problem somewhere else than to take care of it. The key part is having "effective" and "smart" regulation.
Having no regulation simply mean a much more expensive problem down the road. The California idiocy with electricity should be a lesson in trusting the big corporation to do the right thing.
Now the last story is about China moving forward toward open source. Where you have a government
with a penchant with crushing dissent supporting open source which prides itself on dissent.
and now moved onto this current story where megacorps is now lobbying for freedom of "choice"
from legislation that dictates that government must use open source software..
as usual, what you see depends on where you stand...
thanks for the URL.. looks very grassroot at this point, but have to start somewhere. I was about to start filling out my information on the form when I noticed that the membership form wasn't secure and it asks for my social security number..
I'll send them a note about that. But I'm more than willing to put my time and money where my heart is, I just hope these guys knows what they're doing...
participation in dialog is one of the primary tenet in democracy. I'm not proposing under the table suitcases full of money. But if we do contribute our maximum legal contribution to candidate along with our votes, we can make a very persuasive arguments in our cause. The price of freedom is the price we pay to defend our freedom. If one is unwilling put forth the money, effort, and even lives to defend the freedom we have, and it gets taken away, we bear at least half of the responsibility. If there's a particular issue so important to you, stand up and defend it. Grousing about politicians being corrupt isn't going to change anything and for the most part it is that cynical attitude that kept us from our responsibility in the national dialog. If we dont like the pool of politicians that we get to choose from, then someone needs to step forward and be our voice. Sending money to companies or organization isn't going to change the political climate and isn't going to make our concerns heard. For our rights not to be trampled by everyone else's agenda, we need to become a political force. Given all the bad policies I've seen lately maybe we should be gotten organized a long time ago...
here's a better idea.. start a foundation and instead of wasting money on the inevitable stupid looking costumes, each geek contributes $10. Next, select a politician target to defeat, preferably one of the DMCA proponent idiots. Take a pool of collected cash and give it to the opponent of the targetted politician and vote for the opponent come this midterm election. Given this is a midterm election, turn out will be light. After tossing out the targetted politician, put another politician in the crosshair. All we need is that first unemployed politician to make them take notice.
a march just convince the rest of the population that geeks are a bunch of weirdos and must avoid eye contact at every opportunity.
I've always been skeptical of the rahrah marches that seems to dominate the latest fad.
Unfortunately, the geek populace tends to be politically apathetic or cynical. A well
organize block vote will have a much more effect on political policies than silly marches which
generally devolves into a rotten excuse for street theatre and fringe hoodlumism. The end
result will end up demeaning a well intended effort. Nothing speaks to a politician clearer
than cold hard cash. Until open source becomes a serious political lobby like the christian right,
NRA, or AARP, it'll merely be treated as an oddity and not be taken seriously.
part of the reason that I prefer the cradle on the desk is that I actually use the PDA while
it's sitting in the cradle. And given my palmOs device is a treo270, I need to see whether an
incoming call is from somebody that I want to talk to. Having the PDA stuck in a enclosure
even with a display outside would prove awkward, since the display won't be close to eye level
and will more than probably be under a desk.
The idea is technically sound but lacking in the useability department. Now a cradle that's
stable and clings to the side of the monitor like one of those page holders would save desktop
space and allow the PDA display to be visible.. that'd be something I'd consider since it'd be
convenient and lessen the chance of the cradle getting lost in the desktop clutter *grin*
So given the everexpanding reach of porn versus the unfailing WIPO trampling of corps interest against the individuals, what will win out in the end?
more than likely it'll be 99% porn, 1% big corp.
but wait.. that's already happened..
maybe the best chance I can hope for to get any kind of a decent domain name that catches my fancy like the good ol virgin net days will be day of the "great pr0n meltdown"..
I wonder if that'll ever happen...
hmm.. being able to manuever in 3D space is
a major boon in SAR ops. It generally isn't
considered because of
1. lack of proven technology at this point
2. cost
if flybots are readily available, I don't see how
they wouldn't be preferred over the scurrybots.
I guess you've never had to contend with the
situation where one ring goes off and the entire
room of people goes into spasms reaching in
various crevices for their gadgets *grin*
this affliction is followed closely by the spontaneous spasm where the person you're talking
to suddenly convulses and find a sudden urge to
reach for his/her gadget in the middle of a
conversation...
the former was corrected with the silly tones..
the latter have yet encountered a solution..
I can imagine the flybot being life savers
in rescue operations. Given the mine collapse
in the news in the last few days (congrats
all around for the successful rescue), I'm
surprised there isn't a more humanitarian spin
to promote this type of technology.
But then, talking about rescuing people doesn't
generate as much buzz as "oh my god! the
government is onto my pr0n collection!!"...
I'm shocked
at this point. I love the 270. The keyboard is
definitely the deal breaker comparing this phone
to the 270. I can't imagine trying to keep
updated with my checkbook app with a 10-key pad.
The PDA and web surfing functions just seem
unwielding when you have to 10key the thing.
Imagine trying to post on slashdot with it,
or IM using AIM or MS messenger on the road
the i95 appears to be a phone first and PDA as
an afterthought to me whereas t270 should really
be used with a headset at all times (it's still
too little too big to be used as a handset).
Of course, t270 cost more as well..
it's worth every penny I paid for it.
I would say I get as much grief from users as I did from other admins.. you get huge egos, incompetence, laziness, and flat out arrogance.
A number of idiot SAs I haved worked with complains when any kind of work is required because it
distracts them from working on:
1. the mp3 server they're setting up on the new server hardware they hijacked that's supposed to
replace the database server that's running on 4 year old hardware.
2. spend most of the day trolling slashdot rather than doing proactive work to make sure
things don't fail. In fact, some of them are more like firefighters that starts fires so
they can swoop in and appear as the hero for the day.
3. spending hours flirting with some woman trying to impress the gal with his technical "prowess",
while trying to fix her "broken link" while critical application server is down.
4. spending time CYA'ing since something they were supposed to be doing werent done, and so
they try to shift responsibility to somebody else.
5. spending the entire day arguing with another dept on how something "isn't their problem"
instead of doing the 5 minutes of work to fix it.
6. installing the latest and greatest bullshit software that cripples the existing backup program that works. The kicker is how they justify the server being down for most of the day because
it's installed on the production server and how he should be appreciated for being "proactive"
and doing the necessary "research"
7. spend the entire day griping to each other about not being paid their "worth"
the time had been good to us system administrators during the dotcom bubble. The last two years have
really brought perspective back to being a system administrator. I pride myself on being a system administrator and working like a craftsman. I bring credit on myself for the quality of my work, instead of hotdogging or sabotaging so I can appear important. some admins should be spending their day reflecting the lessons learned in the last two years...
the gameboy linkup cable probably wouldn't have sold that many units w/o tetris..
I can't recall any gameboys w/o a tetris cart lying close in ambush. I was still playing tetris on my cell phone to kill time until I got the treo270
it really goes to show that a good concept will have more longevity and pretty graphics. Now, where's the MULE and a decent Archon update??
I'm not debating that the article doesn't have any solid "proof" or "analysis". The presence of the article just seems to try to make a point (troll) rather than of any journalistic merit. But then I forget I'm talking about journalist these days, whose idea of "journalist integrity" is about equal to the meaning of "ethics" to an Enron exec.
"I think it's just that people with bigger budgets like better computers!"
that statement needs to be better qualified, like "people with bigger budget have more choices in computers". People keep failing to note that clusters can better solve problems that can be broken up and solved in parallel. There are many classes of problems that can not be solved through that approach.
but's its getting way off the point. If you're making the national income average of about $40k-$45k per FAMILY, I doubt you'd be blowing money on a iMuck for websurfing and email. MOre than likely, the $499 emachine would fit the bill. So generic PCs have a bigger population to account for whereas Mac owners have a disportionate number of photoshop types earning them the "artsy fartsy" reputation.
but then, my criteria for better "home computers" involves what runs neverwinternights and WC3 better. For real work though, neither PCs or Mucks would fit the bill...
the article simply confirms writer of the article has an elitist leaning and is trolling for attention. Damn me for even giving this topic the light of day..
cheesy macs costs more than whitebox PC
so income of the buyers becomes a factor..
to make a claim like that at least the
source should consider economic factors
that's involved. Heck, using the criteria
they used, obviously workgroup server owners
are much smarter than PC and Mac owners,
and a Cray owner would be the smartest of all..
that's what happens when you have idiot
tech journalists who has more interest in
pushing an agenda rather than report real
news. I'm sure CNut figures they'll get a
whole bunch of pageviews from trolling.
journalistic integrity has hit a new low.
corrupted boot disk got mirrored to the other
boot disk. network interface glitch brought
down cluster causing cluster to not failover
correctly. 4 hours lost. real case.
still think you redundant power supply is worth anything?
positives:
1. fewer specialized configured desktops
(did you just format my hard drive which
has the calendar for the entire department
for the next give years?!)
2. less hardware disappearing. Can't use most
of the parts on the Sunray in your home PC
and wouldn't work w/o a sunray server. This
makes the less scrupulous less tempted to
steal hardware from the company.
(I came in last night, and my U10 is gone!)
3. less hardware issues to troubleshoot.
No dying hard disks, CPUs, CPU fans, cables
etc. If you suspect the hardware put a
new sunray in, user up in a few minutes.
4. Keeps the impatient from getting in trouble
by rebooting their system, even if the cause
is a NIS server outtage rather than their
desktop.
Negatives:
1. Single point of failure! Sunray server
freezes, you can end up with several buildings
of people sitting on their hands.
This problem negates all of the positives,
if the sunray server develops a problem
that you can not resolve quickly or get the
parts quickly, you're in a world of hurt
productivity wise.
the Sunray field office configuration works
for 90% of the people, and 75% will be happy with
it. the other 15% typically wants to do funky
with the system instead of doing real work.
the last 10% won't be happy no matter what you
give them anyways, so screw them.
Being able to personalize a space does make
people happier. But some people personalize
their space and system to the point of
distraction (all those damn illegal mp3 servers,
and playing games rather than working).
It's much easier to convince your boss to
let you log in from a building closer to home
a few days a week, saving some commute and
aggravation.
PC are an administrative mess, it's the option
of the worst sort.