Whenever mobile phones are mentioned on Slashdot, something akin to the following comment will inevitably appear:
'All I want is a phone that makes calls.'
I've never quite got my head around a tech site like Slashdot, where the demographic is almost certainly interested in new technology having such a negative response to technological advances in what our phones can do. You rarely [never?] hear this with other technology on this site:
'I wish Windows 7 had less features. All I want is the ability to write a letter' 'This 4Ghz Core 2 Due Hyperfighting Special Edition is too fast for me. I want a 68030 at 25Mhz'... instead we get 'Imagine a Beowulf cluster of...'
Is it because the non-techie crowd have embraced mobile tech, in some instances more than us (given that some teenagers seem to text more than they speak) and we've been out done? Are the non-techies better at mobile tech than us?
(Yes, I know that Slashdot doesn't speak with one voice, but I bet the comment appears somewhere in this article).
As others in this discussion have pointed out, if the concern about Oracle close-sourcing components of MySQL, then why not fork it now?
Also, beyond the large installed user base, is there anything particularly important about MySQL as a database that other open source databases cannot do?
But for me, the biggest frustration is that while there is all this concern about MySQL, the lack of direction is really damaging Sun who make excellent servers (SPARC and x64), software (Solaris 10/Open Solaris with ZFS, Dtrace, Containers etc. etc, OpenOffice, Glassfish, Virtualbox, Sun Cluster (free), QFS/SAMFS (cluster FS)) and many more interesting technologies).
IMHO, the existence of Sun is a positive thing for the open source community and MySQL is a small and largely unimportant part of Sun's inventory.
The value of OpenSolaris to Sun is the same as Fedora is to Red Hat Enterprise Linux; it's the cutting edge release that allows the new features to be added without compromising the stable release. It's improving as a desktop operating system, but that's not the real point of OpenSolaris. Solaris is primarily a server operating system and that's where it excels. It manages to include things today such as ZFS and Dtrace that will one-day have equivalents in Linux. These technologies are already mature on Solaris. Code from OpenSolaris is also used by the Sun OpenStorage platform and presumably will be the basis of the Sun OpenNetwork platform.
Before I'm modded down as a Linux-hating, Solaris fan-boi, I'm posting this from my home Linux workstation, sat next to my OpenSolaris server. Sometimes it's about the technology itself and not technology religion.
Although I'm a sat-nav owner, I have to agree with you; proper, paper based OS maps are fascinating.
I tend to use them when out walking but when planning a route, it's amazing how much detail is included that would otherwise be missed. I get involved in planning the occassional orienteering evening for our local chuch youth (teens) and it's suprising how many of them have no idea how to read a map. I guess it's not taught in schools anymore (we had the opportunity to do orienteering when I was at secondary school and it was there I learnt to read a map).
My Linux home directory is pretty tiny - only the dot files for my Linux environment (.gnome etc). I keep all my work documents and files on my OpenSolaris fileserver where ZFS provides resilience using RAID1 and point in time restores using the snapshot capabilities. I NFS mount the ZFS filesystem to my Linux box and CIFS share the same filesystem to my Windows PC and Mac.
My MP3 collection and photo albums are handled by iTunes and iPhoto respectively, syncing with my iPhone. The Mac backs these up to a Time Machine disk which in reality is a ZVol on my OpenSolaris server published as a LUN using iSCSI.
The ZFS filesystems and volumes are backed up to external USB drive using the "zfs send" command.
Blatant plug: I've documented most of the above experience on my blog.
For bookmarks, I use Xmarks to synchronise with the cloud, and take notes using Evernote.
I've got an HP ML110 G5 (dual core) with 1GB RAM running OpenSolaris and has 4 disks in. This is my "storage" server and runs ZFS, making it capable of serving CIFS, NFS and iSCSI. I've also got an HP ML115 G5 (quad core) with 5GB RAM running ESXi off a USB memory stick (internal USB socket). No failover in this configuration, but I'm able to run a complete test Windows 2008 domain (2 x DCs, 1 x Terminal Server, 1 x WSUS server, 2 x Vista clients and 2 x XP clients - all thanks to Technet).
The HP servers are cheap and relatively powerful. See my blog if you want more detail.
Two position statements first: 1) I'm primarily a Unix sysadmin of multiple flavours and love it, 2) I've only used Server 2008 on my test VM network.
Having setup a private network thanks to a company purchased Technet subscription, I now have two Active Directory Domain Controllers, a WSUS server and Terminal Server. My take on 2008 is that when approached the right way, it's actually a very nice operating system.
I like the new Terminal Services seamless window capability, the default policy of only installing the minimum required services, the new look Server Manager, even IIS7 looks nicely moduler. In fact, I could imagine managing a network of 2008 machines in a way that I never could with 2003. Now that might be my lack of fundamental 2003 knowledge (I can use it, but wouldn't describe myself as a "Windows System Administrator").
The reality, even for us Unix/Linux advocates, is that we're probably going to have to interop with Windows Server from time to time, and if it's Server 2008 that I'm having to work with, then I can live with that.
I still subscribe to EDGE even though I've lost a lot of interest in the games industry. The main reason is that I've got every issue since 1 and it's a hard habit to break!:-)
For me, the best thing about EDGE was the Redeye column, but that's been gone a long time.
I've started reading Retrogamer instead, which I find more interesting.
I would agree that Exchange and Active Directory are two very important reasons why Microsoft will remain dominant. The third MS technology that the Open Source community could really compete in, but appears to be sleeping is SharePoint.
On it's own SharePoint is a pretty basic application, but it's gaining a lot of traction, and the functionality is increasing with add-on modules. The Office integration with SharePoint is also getting better and when a company has most of its documents in MOSS, they aren't going to rip them out for something in the future as the hassle will be too great.
Thanks for the suggestion. I did contemplate a larger CRT, but I'm not sure there is the space for it.
As for the Linux suggestion, it's something I seriously considered, but my Dad's been using XP for a number of years and is comfortable with it. He's also got a *lot* of documents in Microsoft Works, and I'm not sure what else can read it. Although Works is very simplistic, it fits his needs perfectly - Word (or OpenOffice.org, or even AbiWord/Gnumeric) would be too complicated for him.
My father is 81 and uses a Windows XP machine daily. His primary use is email, the web and some basic office stuff (writing and the occasional spreadsheet using Microsoft Works). He sometimes downloads photos from his digital camera and prints them out. My parents bought a Kodak mini photo printer just for that.
He runs as a limited user, has Firefox for the web and Thunderbird for email. I've set up a static IP and installed VNC, configuring the router to only accept incoming traffic from my external IP. We use Microsoft OneCare for AV protection and I can monitor that from my wife's Vista PC (same OneCare "circle").
I rarely have to get involved in administering his computer. Windows Update does the majority of stuff, and I have a quick look at his machine every couple of months, although I do have the VNC access for other times.
It can be done! The biggest issue for me is that his eyesight isn't brilliant and he likes to run at 800x600 on a 17" (CRT) monitor. I'd like to get him a bigger monitor so he doesn't have to scroll, but a lot of LCD monitors look bad in non-native resolutions. Any ideas?
I'm looking to join the BCS in the next couple of weeks as I'm unhappy with the lack of professionalism in the IT industry. Unfortunately I will be the only one in a department of 20 people to care. The situation isn't likely to improve until it becomes sought after in interviews. My wife is in HR and they need to be CIPD qualified to progress in their career.
Hopefully the problem with IT is due to the immaturity of the industry and that things will improve in time.
I've recently bought an HP ML110 G5 for my VM experiments. It's got a dual core Xeon with the hardware virtualisation features that some products require, and it's dead cheap (at least in the UK , from Ebuyer). Has 4 DIMMM slots and can take up to 8GB RAM, four hard drive bays, plus two 5.25" for optical and is very, very quiet once booted. It's what I've used to test XenServer, Hyper-V and ESXi - all work fine (although ESXi needed more than the default 1GB RAM).
I've been tracking xVM for a while now, along with the other major VM players, for my home VM setup. I've downloaded and evaluated ESXi, XenServer Express and Hyper-V. The one difference that xVM will have that the others don't is a web interface for administrating the VMs. All the others require a Windows application, which in turn requires Windows (I haven't tried using Wine). xVM Server can be administered from any platform running a decent web browser.
The other difference between xVM and other Xen-based hypervisors is the base on which it's built. Citrix XenServer is built around CentOS which is used for the Dom0 (the administrative domain). Sun have built xVM around Solaris, so benefits from the FMA (Fault Management Architecture AKA self-healing), Crossbow (virtualised network stack), Dtrace and ZFS.
There is a lot of cool technology in xVM Server and it's certainly worth a look.
As someone who uses Linux at home and work, and also uses Solaris at work, I'm very pleased to see what Sun are doing. Solaris is a great operating system and I'm a bit bemused by the attitude that some Slashdotters have of "Why bother when I've got Linux?". I thought we were supposed to be geeks here and fascinated by interesting technology!
The biggest grumble I usually hear is that the default Solaris commands are not as feature rich as the GNU equivalents. The easy answer is that the GNU tools are most probably already installed in/usr/sfw and that to use them requires nothing more than a minor tweak to/etc/profile.
The reality is that, while Linux is great, it's not the only decent open source operating system out there and there are plenty of reasons to look at the alternatives (try it and see for yourself).
The problem with Stockwell wasn't with one individual getting it wrong; it was the entire intelligence operation that couldn't communicate properly and panicked in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings. The result was a tragic mistake.
I wouldn't call the people who shot Jean Charles de Menezes morons. He/They got the wrong man, but they followed a man who they thought was going to be a suicide bomber down into the Tube to stop him. That actually calls for a fair amount of bravery.
Of course, this might all be completely off-topic because according to The Times, the "policemen" might have actually been Special Forces Military Intelligence (the super secret SRR).
Although the anti-Police sentiments seem to be popular on Slashdot, my personal, limited experience with the UK Police has always been postive. I find that if you are polite and show them respect, and don't automatically take a defensive position, they tend to be absolutely fine. YMMV.
My understanding is that the books that were chosen were written by people who were either direct eye-witnesses to the events in the Gospel or close (e.g., Paul's letters). For example, the book of Acts does not detail the death of the apostle Paul, so it is believed to have been written before his death. Now Paul is reckoned to have died between 64-67AD, which suggests Acts was written prior to this.
Acts is the "sequel" to the Gospel of Luke which takes influences from the Gospel of Mark which is generally believed to be the first gospel to be written. This therefore dates the writing of Mark and Luke to 65AD, or within 3 decades of Jesus' ministry where a significant number of eye witnesses would still be around.
For those of us who deal in "Internet Time", 30 years is a long time. Apparently, for historians, it's a short period of time.
By comparison, most of the other rejected gospels (Judas, Peter, Philip) were written long after the original characters were dead, at least 100AD.
None of this is, of course, conclusive, but I personally find it quite interesting.
In our predominantly male working environment, we had one woman who was with us for about a year. She was one of our developers and without a doubt, was the best, most technical person across all our development teams. She understood both system administration as well as programming in C, C++, Java and others.
She left to go back to work on Beowulf clusters at a local Uni.
Incidentally, I've met Emma McGrattan (the woman who started this article), and I'd rate her technical skills highly as well.
I can sort of relate to some of the feelings you've had. I generally really enjoy my job and have often thought that if I were to make a list of the things I'd like to do in my career, then my current role ticks most of the boxes. But I found that for the first couple of months this year I was bored and couldn't wait to leave.
I got married last September so perhaps my personal life was just a lot more interesting than my work life, but I was a bit concerned that I might spend the next 35 years watching the clock.
And then I took a week off. Around the same time, a long overdue and troubled software release was finally completed and I returned to work refreshed and with a renewed enthusiasm.
Remember to take a break. Go and do something away from computers, enjoy your family time. It might be a breath of fresh air.
The BBC is often criticized for being biased. The thing is, the government often complain that it's anti-government, while the opposition complain that it's too liberal and left wing. In reality, I think the BBC does a pretty decent job of being impartial. There will be some bias as it's got human factors involved, but compared with many other media outlets, it's in a different league.
Slashdot Mirror
Wish I had some mod points today...
Someone please mod the parent up as insightful!
Whenever mobile phones are mentioned on Slashdot, something akin to the following comment will inevitably appear:
'All I want is a phone that makes calls.'
I've never quite got my head around a tech site like Slashdot, where the demographic is almost certainly interested in new technology having such a negative response to technological advances in what our phones can do. You rarely [never?] hear this with other technology on this site:
'I wish Windows 7 had less features. All I want is the ability to write a letter'
'This 4Ghz Core 2 Due Hyperfighting Special Edition is too fast for me. I want a 68030 at 25Mhz'... instead we get 'Imagine a Beowulf cluster of...'
Is it because the non-techie crowd have embraced mobile tech, in some instances more than us (given that some teenagers seem to text more than they speak) and we've been out done? Are the non-techies better at mobile tech than us?
(Yes, I know that Slashdot doesn't speak with one voice, but I bet the comment appears somewhere in this article).
As others in this discussion have pointed out, if the concern about Oracle close-sourcing components of MySQL, then why not fork it now?
Also, beyond the large installed user base, is there anything particularly important about MySQL as a database that other open source databases cannot do?
But for me, the biggest frustration is that while there is all this concern about MySQL, the lack of direction is really damaging Sun who make excellent servers (SPARC and x64), software (Solaris 10/Open Solaris with ZFS, Dtrace, Containers etc. etc, OpenOffice, Glassfish, Virtualbox, Sun Cluster (free), QFS/SAMFS (cluster FS)) and many more interesting technologies).
IMHO, the existence of Sun is a positive thing for the open source community and MySQL is a small and largely unimportant part of Sun's inventory.
The value of OpenSolaris to Sun is the same as Fedora is to Red Hat Enterprise Linux; it's the cutting edge release that allows the new features to be added without compromising the stable release. It's improving as a desktop operating system, but that's not the real point of OpenSolaris. Solaris is primarily a server operating system and that's where it excels. It manages to include things today such as ZFS and Dtrace that will one-day have equivalents in Linux. These technologies are already mature on Solaris. Code from OpenSolaris is also used by the Sun OpenStorage platform and presumably will be the basis of the Sun OpenNetwork platform.
Before I'm modded down as a Linux-hating, Solaris fan-boi, I'm posting this from my home Linux workstation, sat next to my OpenSolaris server. Sometimes it's about the technology itself and not technology religion.
Although I'm a sat-nav owner, I have to agree with you; proper, paper based OS maps are fascinating.
I tend to use them when out walking but when planning a route, it's amazing how much detail is included that would otherwise be missed. I get involved in planning the occassional orienteering evening for our local chuch youth (teens) and it's suprising how many of them have no idea how to read a map. I guess it's not taught in schools anymore (we had the opportunity to do orienteering when I was at secondary school and it was there I learnt to read a map).
My Linux home directory is pretty tiny - only the dot files for my Linux environment (.gnome etc). I keep all my work documents and files on my OpenSolaris fileserver where ZFS provides resilience using RAID1 and point in time restores using the snapshot capabilities. I NFS mount the ZFS filesystem to my Linux box and CIFS share the same filesystem to my Windows PC and Mac.
My MP3 collection and photo albums are handled by iTunes and iPhoto respectively, syncing with my iPhone. The Mac backs these up to a Time Machine disk which in reality is a ZVol on my OpenSolaris server published as a LUN using iSCSI.
The ZFS filesystems and volumes are backed up to external USB drive using the "zfs send" command.
Blatant plug: I've documented most of the above experience on my blog.
For bookmarks, I use Xmarks to synchronise with the cloud, and take notes using Evernote.
I've got an HP ML110 G5 (dual core) with 1GB RAM running OpenSolaris and has 4 disks in. This is my "storage" server and runs ZFS, making it capable of serving CIFS, NFS and iSCSI. I've also got an HP ML115 G5 (quad core) with 5GB RAM running ESXi off a USB memory stick (internal USB socket). No failover in this configuration, but I'm able to run a complete test Windows 2008 domain (2 x DCs, 1 x Terminal Server, 1 x WSUS server, 2 x Vista clients and 2 x XP clients - all thanks to Technet).
The HP servers are cheap and relatively powerful. See my blog if you want more detail.
Ah, another Google service that might one day disappear because Google don't think it's valuable enough.
See Google Browser Sync and Google Notebook for other examples.
Two position statements first: 1) I'm primarily a Unix sysadmin of multiple flavours and love it, 2) I've only used Server 2008 on my test VM network.
Having setup a private network thanks to a company purchased Technet subscription, I now have two Active Directory Domain Controllers, a WSUS server and Terminal Server. My take on 2008 is that when approached the right way, it's actually a very nice operating system.
I like the new Terminal Services seamless window capability, the default policy of only installing the minimum required services, the new look Server Manager, even IIS7 looks nicely moduler. In fact, I could imagine managing a network of 2008 machines in a way that I never could with 2003. Now that might be my lack of fundamental 2003 knowledge (I can use it, but wouldn't describe myself as a "Windows System Administrator").
The reality, even for us Unix/Linux advocates, is that we're probably going to have to interop with Windows Server from time to time, and if it's Server 2008 that I'm having to work with, then I can live with that.
I still subscribe to EDGE even though I've lost a lot of interest in the games industry. The main reason is that I've got every issue since 1 and it's a hard habit to break! :-)
For me, the best thing about EDGE was the Redeye column, but that's been gone a long time.
I've started reading Retrogamer instead, which I find more interesting.
I would agree that Exchange and Active Directory are two very important reasons why Microsoft will remain dominant. The third MS technology that the Open Source community could really compete in, but appears to be sleeping is SharePoint.
On it's own SharePoint is a pretty basic application, but it's gaining a lot of traction, and the functionality is increasing with add-on modules. The Office integration with SharePoint is also getting better and when a company has most of its documents in MOSS, they aren't going to rip them out for something in the future as the hassle will be too great.
Thanks for the suggestion. I did contemplate a larger CRT, but I'm not sure there is the space for it.
As for the Linux suggestion, it's something I seriously considered, but my Dad's been using XP for a number of years and is comfortable with it. He's also got a *lot* of documents in Microsoft Works, and I'm not sure what else can read it. Although Works is very simplistic, it fits his needs perfectly - Word (or OpenOffice.org, or even AbiWord/Gnumeric) would be too complicated for him.
My father is 81 and uses a Windows XP machine daily. His primary use is email, the web and some basic office stuff (writing and the occasional spreadsheet using Microsoft Works). He sometimes downloads photos from his digital camera and prints them out. My parents bought a Kodak mini photo printer just for that.
He runs as a limited user, has Firefox for the web and Thunderbird for email. I've set up a static IP and installed VNC, configuring the router to only accept incoming traffic from my external IP. We use Microsoft OneCare for AV protection and I can monitor that from my wife's Vista PC (same OneCare "circle").
I rarely have to get involved in administering his computer. Windows Update does the majority of stuff, and I have a quick look at his machine every couple of months, although I do have the VNC access for other times.
It can be done! The biggest issue for me is that his eyesight isn't brilliant and he likes to run at 800x600 on a 17" (CRT) monitor. I'd like to get him a bigger monitor so he doesn't have to scroll, but a lot of LCD monitors look bad in non-native resolutions. Any ideas?
I use this one daily.
The !$ will take the last parameter in the previous command. For example:
$ mkdir /a/very/long/pathname
$ cd !$
The shell expands the second command to:
$ cd /a/very/long/pathname
Useful in so many ways. The above is just a simple example.
I'm looking to join the BCS in the next couple of weeks as I'm unhappy with the lack of professionalism in the IT industry. Unfortunately I will be the only one in a department of 20 people to care. The situation isn't likely to improve until it becomes sought after in interviews. My wife is in HR and they need to be CIPD qualified to progress in their career.
Hopefully the problem with IT is due to the immaturity of the industry and that things will improve in time.
I've recently bought an HP ML110 G5 for my VM experiments. It's got a dual core Xeon with the hardware virtualisation features that some products require, and it's dead cheap (at least in the UK , from Ebuyer). Has 4 DIMMM slots and can take up to 8GB RAM, four hard drive bays, plus two 5.25" for optical and is very, very quiet once booted. It's what I've used to test XenServer, Hyper-V and ESXi - all work fine (although ESXi needed more than the default 1GB RAM).
I've been tracking xVM for a while now, along with the other major VM players, for my home VM setup. I've downloaded and evaluated ESXi, XenServer Express and Hyper-V. The one difference that xVM will have that the others don't is a web interface for administrating the VMs. All the others require a Windows application, which in turn requires Windows (I haven't tried using Wine). xVM Server can be administered from any platform running a decent web browser.
The other difference between xVM and other Xen-based hypervisors is the base on which it's built. Citrix XenServer is built around CentOS which is used for the Dom0 (the administrative domain). Sun have built xVM around Solaris, so benefits from the FMA (Fault Management Architecture AKA self-healing), Crossbow (virtualised network stack), Dtrace and ZFS.
There is a lot of cool technology in xVM Server and it's certainly worth a look.
Which begs the question, why hasn't Mozilla put more effort in making Firefox easy for enterprise users to deploy?
It strikes me as a large market they are not particularly interested in.
As someone who uses Linux at home and work, and also uses Solaris at work, I'm very pleased to see what Sun are doing. Solaris is a great operating system and I'm a bit bemused by the attitude that some Slashdotters have of "Why bother when I've got Linux?". I thought we were supposed to be geeks here and fascinated by interesting technology!
The biggest grumble I usually hear is that the default Solaris commands are not as feature rich as the GNU equivalents. The easy answer is that the GNU tools are most probably already installed in /usr/sfw and that to use them requires nothing more than a minor tweak to /etc/profile.
The reality is that, while Linux is great, it's not the only decent open source operating system out there and there are plenty of reasons to look at the alternatives (try it and see for yourself).
The problem with Stockwell wasn't with one individual getting it wrong; it was the entire intelligence operation that couldn't communicate properly and panicked in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings. The result was a tragic mistake.
I wouldn't call the people who shot Jean Charles de Menezes morons. He/They got the wrong man, but they followed a man who they thought was going to be a suicide bomber down into the Tube to stop him. That actually calls for a fair amount of bravery.
Of course, this might all be completely off-topic because according to The Times, the "policemen" might have actually been Special Forces Military Intelligence (the super secret SRR).
Although the anti-Police sentiments seem to be popular on Slashdot, my personal, limited experience with the UK Police has always been postive. I find that if you are polite and show them respect, and don't automatically take a defensive position, they tend to be absolutely fine. YMMV.
I'm fascinated by your comment. Could you give an example of what you mean?
Thanks
My understanding is that the books that were chosen were written by people who were either direct eye-witnesses to the events in the Gospel or close (e.g., Paul's letters). For example, the book of Acts does not detail the death of the apostle Paul, so it is believed to have been written before his death. Now Paul is reckoned to have died between 64-67AD, which suggests Acts was written prior to this.
Acts is the "sequel" to the Gospel of Luke which takes influences from the Gospel of Mark which is generally believed to be the first gospel to be written. This therefore dates the writing of Mark and Luke to 65AD, or within 3 decades of Jesus' ministry where a significant number of eye witnesses would still be around.
For those of us who deal in "Internet Time", 30 years is a long time. Apparently, for historians, it's a short period of time.
By comparison, most of the other rejected gospels (Judas, Peter, Philip) were written long after the original characters were dead, at least 100AD.
None of this is, of course, conclusive, but I personally find it quite interesting.
In our predominantly male working environment, we had one woman who was with us for about a year. She was one of our developers and without a doubt, was the best, most technical person across all our development teams. She understood both system administration as well as programming in C, C++, Java and others.
She left to go back to work on Beowulf clusters at a local Uni.
Incidentally, I've met Emma McGrattan (the woman who started this article), and I'd rate her technical skills highly as well.
I can sort of relate to some of the feelings you've had. I generally really enjoy my job and have often thought that if I were to make a list of the things I'd like to do in my career, then my current role ticks most of the boxes. But I found that for the first couple of months this year I was bored and couldn't wait to leave.
I got married last September so perhaps my personal life was just a lot more interesting than my work life, but I was a bit concerned that I might spend the next 35 years watching the clock.
And then I took a week off. Around the same time, a long overdue and troubled software release was finally completed and I returned to work refreshed and with a renewed enthusiasm.
Remember to take a break. Go and do something away from computers, enjoy your family time. It might be a breath of fresh air.
The BBC is often criticized for being biased. The thing is, the government often complain that it's anti-government, while the opposition complain that it's too liberal and left wing. In reality, I think the BBC does a pretty decent job of being impartial. There will be some bias as it's got human factors involved, but compared with many other media outlets, it's in a different league.