"Looking further ahead, Okamoto saw even bigger changes for Sony's game business. "Maybe the PlayStation 6 or 7 will be based on biotechnology," he said."
When they come to install Crash Bandicoot in my sternum, I am running the other way.
As someone more erudite (and wittier) than I once said,
"The most unsafe part of an automobile is the nut loose behind the steering wheel."
The insurance company auditors that have grilled me about our IT infrastructure (for business continuity purposes) NEVER ask what kind of hardware or software we use - they ask "Do you have a backup plan?" "Have you tested your backup plan?" "Do you have antivirus software installed?", etc.
Now I assume that some value could be given to the relative security or insecurity of hardware or software for the purpose of calculating risk and premium costs (much like the airbags on my car save a few buck a year) - but I expect the procedural implemenation and system policies (the 'driving record') will continue to have the most weight.
Kazaa / Grokster / whatever "upgraded" the software last week to REQUIRE installation of the Cydoor spyware junk. Morpheus has always committed to "no spyware."
There is a solution for those wanting to use Grokster but not have the Cydoor crap:
Has anyone done a definitive comparison or the various 'vintage' unix-flavor architectures to give people an assessment of the pros and cons of each? I am a big 'lunchbox' SPARC fan (the IPC, IPX, Classic and LX) and find them to be great little boxes for light duty tasks like DNS, DHCP, and running the backup drives. (I prefer OpenBSD for these boxen.)
However, the proprietary expansion slot format (SBUS) means that extra NICs, video cards, etc are priced at a premium to ISA or PCI equivalents. I know the Alpha Multia took PCI cards, but had heat problems (like the lunchbox sparcs).
It would be nice to have a head on head comparison of all of this 'formerly elite' hardware so people could make informed decisions.
I haven't received a BSA threat letter yet that didn't include marketing drek from some local company all too willing to 'make me legal'.
I work for a non-profit organization; I can purchase Win2K CALs for $7 a pop. But the companies 'helping' the BSA want me to pay full $50 price... I wonder why that is?
"NTT DoCoMo's Media Computing Lab is currently developing a wearable wireless phone that consists only of a wristband. The phone, called the "Whisper," because it vibrates rather than rings, contains a tiny microphone the wearer speaks into.
The wristband also contains a device that converts voice into vibrations that travel through the hand, the finger and into the ear canal.
To answer incoming calls, the wearer taps the index finger and thumb -- that's it -- and then sticks a finger in one ear to hear the person on the other line. "
First off, the word is principal, not principle, when one is speaking of amortizing a loan. Second, ValueLine shows the total outstanding LT debt of the company as 2.1 billion, which is a far cry from 3 billion. Lastly, you have no idea whether the principAL is being addressed or not - this has nothing to do with the profitability of the firm, and everything to do with the loan covenants. If the covenants were not being met, the debtors would have the right to call the loans and send the company to bankruptcy court. In fact, the truth is just the opposite - I call your attention to the company's SEC 10-Q filing, which contains a balance sheet item "Current Portion of Long-Term Debt", indicating that in July of this year, at least 18 million of the non-interest liability on LT debt was due in the next 3 months.
"HP has been working with Amazon since October 1999, Balma said, but the big contract win came in May 2000, when HP announced its systems would replace Unix servers from Sun Microsystems."
I don't see how offering existing users an incentive to upgrade now rather than later is some sort of evil campaign to raise licensing fees. Lots of companies offer incentives to upgrade; if there isn't a time limitation what's the incentive?
In fact, the MSRP for SQL 2000 with 5 client licenses is $1499.00; no change from SQL 7.
If your charity is 501c3 certified, then they qualify for MS charity pricing. Your $10,000 solution is more like $2000 - with seat licenses - and many companies get the stuff for free if they apply to MS.
I'll get marked down for this post, but the truth has to be said.
The Anandtech article is a hypothetical corporation, not a real one. This is written to sound like a real 'case study' and the tone is distinctly pro-Linux. While that in itself isn't a bad thing, the MS bashing relies on some shaky assertions at times. It would have been a better article if the criticisms stood on more solid footings.
First of all, the assertion that the company would HAVE to move to per-seat licensing when they moved to separate file, print and mail servers is just wrong. 2000 concurrent users are still 2000 concurrent users, whether they are connected to one server or three.
Secondly, the idea that after 'two or three years' the initial two multiprocessor servers should still be adequate for the 2000 concurrent users is ridiculous. I have three-year old servers in my company that, regardless of operating system, are no longer up to the task - the drive capacities are too small, the processors are 1/4 the speed of our newest desktops, and the upgrade paths are exhausted. How is this the fault of the OS?
Next, the author states that "The next couple of years saw a dramatic increase in data storage requirements and internet use", and then goes on to insinuate that the OS was somehow to blame for uptime / reliability of the hardware used. Wha..?
In the same paragraph, the author states that the failure of redundant servers was causing increased maintenance costs, and once again this was somehow caused by NT. First, the multiple servers weren't installed to be redundant - they were installed to handle separate functions, i.e., mail / file / print. What synchronization is required? Secondly, anyone who says that redundancy is somehow bad because there is more equipment to fail, and then blames the added cost of the equipment failure on the operating system, is just nuts.
Well, I think that's enough to get me modded down to -50, but it's the truth. Even fiction should be checked by an editor for factual veracity before publishing.
1. Open BSD is difficult , but not impossible, to install. You will learn more this way.
2. Most network services are turned off by default. Therefore, if you are new to *nix and have no idea what 'NFS' or 'identd' is, you don't open your machine to every Tom, Dick, and Script Kiddie by exposing services you don't understand.
3. The code has been audited for security. This means, if you are like most newbies and don't know/understand the patch and update system, you are more likely to have a relatively secure machine when you connect to the net (also see #2 above). If you install a popular Linux distro from a disc, you are most likely going to have at least one or two well-known exploits exposed until you patch.
4. Everyone should be made to use the 'sh' shell for a while. It builds character.
5. The base install doesn't include fighting penguin games or 4 different kinds of graphic manipulation or 3 different word processors. It gives you just the basics, just what you need, and it installs very fast. If you need more stuff, it provides a really nifty package management system that will grab source from the project's home site and build it for you.
Anybody left doing Copper Mountian DSL?
on
Rhythms Flatlines
·
· Score: 1
First Northpoint, now Rythyms. Are there any other national DSL providers using Copper Mountain frame-relay technology left?
I have provisioned DSL accounts for several offices and clients, and one thing I have experienced with EVERY vendor is some version of the following:
1. Order service.
2. Get DSL modem/router in mail.
3. Tech comes to install, brings preconfigured modem with him.
4. Tech leaves, but doesn't take other modem with him.
5. Months go by, nobody ever asks for the extra modem.
Currently, I have a tall stack of Flowpoint, 3com, Netopia and Lucent routers in my server room - 11 of them. How can anyone make money in this way? Northpoint, I know you are gone and don't want the routers - but Covad? NAS? Rythms? Do you want your hardware?
I have a Qwest line ordered - maybe I'll get two Ciscos!
Carried by an African swallow, and.... oh, never mind.
Re:/. crew's pro-democrat/left wing bias
on
Carnivore To Die?
·
· Score: 1
"...then you agree with Hitler. Surprized?"
Actually, I'm kind of surprised you invoked Hitler - according to Usenet rules this conversation is now at an end and you lost. Nevertheless....
I don't think the armed forces or police should have guns either; I am of a general mind that guns and violence are a pretty stupid way to resolve any kind of conflict. Yes, Iraq, Osama Bin-Laden, evil criminals, blah blah, etc., etc., but just because they are out there and thus you need guns, doesn't make the guns right, moral, or smart - just necessary. And still stupid.
And if Dick Armey was just a two-bit representative from a backwater district making a fool of himself, his views on religion, artistic expression, and sexuality wouldn't matter. The fact that he and his cronies drive the agenda ratchets the importance of his beliefs up a notch, though - don't you think?
If the moderates on either side prevailed in these debates things might make a little more sense and real work might get done. The fact that they are in the hands of extremists just makes it harder for the sensible voices to be heard, and places every argument in an "us against them, holy war" context.
Um, OK, so I figure this magnetic ring thing seems like a pretty good idea and all, I mean, I want to live forever too and all...
My problem is that I do a lot of work on my PC at night, often until late hours, and I am worried about the magnets interfering with my video display and possibly erasing my floppy disks. Do you have any suggestions?
Their website is driven by php-Nuke, a GPL'ed weblog, and all credit has been stripped on that as well... except for the page source:
META NAME="AUTHOR" CONTENT="Vidomi"
META NAME="COPYRIGHT" CONTENT="Copyright (c) 2001 by Vidomi"
META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="PC Video"
META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="PHP-Nuke - http://phpnuke.org"
Slashdot Mirror
"Looking further ahead, Okamoto saw even bigger changes for Sony's game business. "Maybe the PlayStation 6 or 7 will be based on biotechnology," he said."
When they come to install Crash Bandicoot in my sternum, I am running the other way.
As someone more erudite (and wittier) than I once said,
"The most unsafe part of an automobile is the nut loose behind the steering wheel."
The insurance company auditors that have grilled me about our IT infrastructure (for business continuity purposes) NEVER ask what kind of hardware or software we use - they ask "Do you have a backup plan?" "Have you tested your backup plan?" "Do you have antivirus software installed?", etc.
Now I assume that some value could be given to the relative security or insecurity of hardware or software for the purpose of calculating risk and premium costs (much like the airbags on my car save a few buck a year) - but I expect the procedural implemenation and system policies (the 'driving record') will continue to have the most weight.
Kazaa / Grokster / whatever "upgraded" the software last week to REQUIRE installation of the Cydoor spyware junk. Morpheus has always committed to "no spyware."
There is a solution for those wanting to use Grokster but not have the Cydoor crap:
http://www.cexx.org/cydoor.htm
We slipped from #2 in 2000. But we have some new draft picks this year, and from what I've seen of their driving, we should be back to #1 in no time.
Yes, remember what they say at despair.com:
"The only consistent feature of all your dissatisfying relationships is YOU."
Has anyone done a definitive comparison or the various 'vintage' unix-flavor architectures to give people an assessment of the pros and cons of each? I am a big 'lunchbox' SPARC fan (the IPC, IPX, Classic and LX) and find them to be great little boxes for light duty tasks like DNS, DHCP, and running the backup drives. (I prefer OpenBSD for these boxen.)
However, the proprietary expansion slot format (SBUS) means that extra NICs, video cards, etc are priced at a premium to ISA or PCI equivalents. I know the Alpha Multia took PCI cards, but had heat problems (like the lunchbox sparcs).
It would be nice to have a head on head comparison of all of this 'formerly elite' hardware so people could make informed decisions.
I haven't received a BSA threat letter yet that didn't include marketing drek from some local company all too willing to 'make me legal'.
I work for a non-profit organization; I can purchase Win2K CALs for $7 a pop. But the companies 'helping' the BSA want me to pay full $50 price... I wonder why that is?
From Oct 2000 Wired:
"NTT DoCoMo's Media Computing Lab is currently developing a wearable wireless phone that consists only of a wristband. The phone, called the "Whisper," because it vibrates rather than rings, contains a tiny microphone the wearer speaks into.
The wristband also contains a device that converts voice into vibrations that travel through the hand, the finger and into the ear canal.
To answer incoming calls, the wearer taps the index finger and thumb -- that's it -- and then sticks a finger in one ear to hear the person on the other line. "
"Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of those?"
First off, the word is principal , not principle, when one is speaking of amortizing a loan. Second, ValueLine shows the total outstanding LT debt of the company as 2.1 billion, which is a far cry from 3 billion. Lastly, you have no idea whether the princip AL is being addressed or not - this has nothing to do with the profitability of the firm, and everything to do with the loan covenants. If the covenants were not being met, the debtors would have the right to call the loans and send the company to bankruptcy court. In fact, the truth is just the opposite - I call your attention to the company's SEC 10-Q filing, which contains a balance sheet item "Current Portion of Long-Term Debt", indicating that in July of this year, at least 18 million of the non-interest liability on LT debt was due in the next 3 months.
If this is real, and off of an Exchange server, where's the warning about not opening Anna Kournikova photo attachments?
According to the article,
"HP has been working with Amazon since October 1999, Balma said, but the big contract win came in May 2000, when HP announced its systems would replace Unix servers from Sun Microsystems."
Where's the Microsoft in that?
I don't see how offering existing users an incentive to upgrade now rather than later is some sort of evil campaign to raise licensing fees. Lots of companies offer incentives to upgrade; if there isn't a time limitation what's the incentive?
In fact, the MSRP for SQL 2000 with 5 client licenses is $1499.00; no change from SQL 7.
If your charity is 501c3 certified, then they qualify for MS charity pricing. Your $10,000 solution is more like $2000 - with seat licenses - and many companies get the stuff for free if they apply to MS.
I'll get marked down for this post, but the truth has to be said.
The Anandtech article is a hypothetical corporation, not a real one. This is written to sound like a real 'case study' and the tone is distinctly pro-Linux. While that in itself isn't a bad thing, the MS bashing relies on some shaky assertions at times. It would have been a better article if the criticisms stood on more solid footings.
First of all, the assertion that the company would HAVE to move to per-seat licensing when they moved to separate file, print and mail servers is just wrong. 2000 concurrent users are still 2000 concurrent users, whether they are connected to one server or three.
Secondly, the idea that after 'two or three years' the initial two multiprocessor servers should still be adequate for the 2000 concurrent users is ridiculous. I have three-year old servers in my company that, regardless of operating system, are no longer up to the task - the drive capacities are too small, the processors are 1/4 the speed of our newest desktops, and the upgrade paths are exhausted. How is this the fault of the OS?
Next, the author states that "The next couple of years saw a dramatic increase in data storage requirements and internet use", and then goes on to insinuate that the OS was somehow to blame for uptime / reliability of the hardware used. Wha..?
In the same paragraph, the author states that the failure of redundant servers was causing increased maintenance costs, and once again this was somehow caused by NT. First, the multiple servers weren't installed to be redundant - they were installed to handle separate functions, i.e., mail / file / print. What synchronization is required? Secondly, anyone who says that redundancy is somehow bad because there is more equipment to fail, and then blames the added cost of the equipment failure on the operating system, is just nuts.
Well, I think that's enough to get me modded down to -50, but it's the truth. Even fiction should be checked by an editor for factual veracity before publishing.
Did anybody else think of Paul Dooley (the dad) in the movie 'Breaking Away' when the son gives the guy the refund on the used car?
"Reee-Fund? Reee-Fund?"
Maybe he works for QWEST now...
1. Open BSD is difficult , but not impossible, to install. You will learn more this way.
2. Most network services are turned off by default. Therefore, if you are new to *nix and have no idea what 'NFS' or 'identd' is, you don't open your machine to every Tom, Dick, and Script Kiddie by exposing services you don't understand.
3. The code has been audited for security. This means, if you are like most newbies and don't know/understand the patch and update system, you are more likely to have a relatively secure machine when you connect to the net (also see #2 above). If you install a popular Linux distro from a disc, you are most likely going to have at least one or two well-known exploits exposed until you patch.
4. Everyone should be made to use the 'sh' shell for a while. It builds character.
5. The base install doesn't include fighting penguin games or 4 different kinds of graphic manipulation or 3 different word processors. It gives you just the basics, just what you need, and it installs very fast. If you need more stuff, it provides a really nifty package management system that will grab source from the project's home site and build it for you.
First Northpoint, now Rythyms. Are there any other national DSL providers using Copper Mountain frame-relay technology left?
This kind of psycho-babble is required by the SEC for publicly traded companies.
I have provisioned DSL accounts for several offices and clients, and one thing I have experienced with EVERY vendor is some version of the following:
1. Order service.
2. Get DSL modem/router in mail.
3. Tech comes to install, brings preconfigured modem with him.
4. Tech leaves, but doesn't take other modem with him.
5. Months go by, nobody ever asks for the extra modem.
Currently, I have a tall stack of Flowpoint, 3com, Netopia and Lucent routers in my server room - 11 of them. How can anyone make money in this way? Northpoint, I know you are gone and don't want the routers - but Covad? NAS? Rythms? Do you want your hardware?
I have a Qwest line ordered - maybe I'll get two Ciscos!
Although the MTV droids may come after them then...
2500 EUR is only 2110 USD. Doesn't seem like a serious number. Maybe some digits were dropped?
Carried by an African swallow, and.... oh, never mind.
"...then you agree with Hitler. Surprized?"
Actually, I'm kind of surprised you invoked Hitler - according to Usenet rules this conversation is now at an end and you lost.
Nevertheless....
I don't think the armed forces or police should have guns either; I am of a general mind that guns and violence are a pretty stupid way to resolve any kind of conflict. Yes, Iraq, Osama Bin-Laden, evil criminals, blah blah, etc., etc., but just because they are out there and thus you need guns, doesn't make the guns right, moral, or smart - just necessary. And still stupid.
And if Dick Armey was just a two-bit representative from a backwater district making a fool of himself, his views on religion, artistic expression, and sexuality wouldn't matter. The fact that he and his cronies drive the agenda ratchets the importance of his beliefs up a notch, though - don't you think?
If the moderates on either side prevailed in these debates things might make a little more sense and real work might get done. The fact that they are in the hands of extremists just makes it harder for the sensible voices to be heard, and places every argument in an "us against them, holy war" context.
Um, OK, so I figure this magnetic ring thing seems like a pretty good idea and all, I mean, I want to live forever too and all...
My problem is that I do a lot of work on my PC at night, often until late hours, and I am worried about the magnets interfering with my video display and possibly erasing my floppy disks. Do you have any suggestions?
Their website is driven by php-Nuke, a GPL'ed weblog, and all credit has been stripped on that as well... except for the page source:
META NAME="AUTHOR" CONTENT="Vidomi"
META NAME="COPYRIGHT" CONTENT="Copyright (c) 2001 by Vidomi"
META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="PC Video"
META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="PHP-Nuke - http://phpnuke.org"