the best sysadmin is the one you don't know exists until you need them -- as long as things are working well without glitches or downtime, i'd say your sysadmins are working well.
often, beliefs are based on emotions, and when these are addressed with reason, the debate don't click.
but what bothers me about such debates is how, like many things it remains contrasted in such a dualistic way. fundie creationists go against rabid rationalists, and nobody hears the other side.
only a choice between A and B (which are already qualitatively different) is given -- its got to be creation ex-nihlo or a big bang, or something like that -- with no consideration for C -- synthesis. i'm not a creationist nor an evolutionist; yet both. i'm still searching. but at least i'm aware of an option C* -- and there must even be other ways we can interpret the data science provides us.
but it is important to seperate the exact phenomenon of the fossil record -- with our INTERPRETATION of it.
| Despite the size, the specifications make it clear that the ITX motherboard | has a full range of connections, including DVI, VGA, ethernet, four USB ports, | two PS/2 connections and more.
we do not want a 'full range' of connectors -- because anything that wastes circuitry for PS2 connections on a pico size board is a dodo (imo).
we DO NOT WANT: IDE, PS/2 or VGA connectors cluttering up our motherboard. they duplicate functions already better achieved with: SATA, USB, and DVI. we want as few ports as possible and still be able to achieve any function. so, what ARE the desireable ports?
-USB 2.0 (four ports) - SATA (two ports) - DVI (with optional VGA header) - SODIMM Slot for RAM (two) - ethernet (10/100/1000) - optional 802.11g/n
that's it -- no extra ones besides that. get the bios working so it can boot with those, and drop the legacy cruft.
j
'Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler' (Einstein)
this thing STILL has those !@#% PS2 keyboard and mouse connectors -- ugh. any small motherboard that still wastes circuitry for PS2 connectors for keyboard (instead of USB keyboard and mouse) is less desirable (imho).
once you add up the costs of the REQUIRED USB Optical Drive, adding the IDE drive, its not so far to the mac mini -- which certainly has better graphics performance. if you get a used mac mini -- price should be within range.
as an independent mac support technician (in toronto), i see this all the time. if you tell an ISP that you're not running MS Outlook on Windows, they will often fail to support you. however -- they have often been helpful enough to give you the POP and SMTP server addresses, port numbers, and other general info. sometimes, one can also glean these addresses out of the step-by-step online tutorials (designed for outlook). users haven't usually abstracted the paramaters from the particular workflow (i.e. step-by-step procedures, which include those same parameters). if you have to plug the same parameters into a different place, then, from the user's PoV, the procedures are not the same. they have to relearn the particulars of an OS version and application version in order to find the places where the identical parameters may be hidden -- and for them, this is a pain.
windows and mac users sometimes have different perceptions of this pain. windows users often think windows is 'easy', because all the real hard work the sys-admins do is usually hidden from them by large legions of microsoft-certified navigators -- which act as human wizards to guide them through where to plunk those parameters in (squirt me). mac and linux users, having grown out of a minority, have a history of having to find these things themselves. windows comes pre-installed, so windows users often never realize how much trouble it is to actually install an operating system (and attendant drivers).
users don't ask about the operating system of their clock-radio. they figure why should a computer be any different? they don't understand why they have to worry about this abstract thing called an OS, or why they should have to install it. the user comes in thinking the OS is a part of the thing they hold in their hand, and is busy doing too many other things (having a life), and never ponders why the OS should be abstracted from it. many windows users think of the OS as part of the machine -- i turn on a lamp, the light glows; i turn on my computer, i see my email. they often don't distinguish between email that exists 'locally' or 'webmail' that exists on a server.
there is comfort in the PC system -- once you've bought in to the windows universe, you never need to know or care that there is another world out there (that is not windows), except for the fact that there's a bunch of people that are pesky and incompatible with them. so long as most PCs ship with windows preinstalled, vista will constitute a large growing chunk of the market, and microsoft knows this. arcane software works to their advantage, because then you have to take a long course to learn their labyrinthine pathways, and get paid well for guiding mere users through these tangled woods. since windows is the dominant platform, it pays to support just the biggest chunk and cut your losses -- marginal, at best -- and thus, the hegemony is locked-in.
as many seasoned mac and linux users know, it is a PC world out there. the pesky wizards and clippy-clips are only there to help people put parameters in the right slot. mac users are used to a certain degree of managing our own systems -- moving font packages, control panels, and extensions into and out of the system folder. we never had a registry, and things were always object oriented. its only untidy habits from other platforms that made the idea of an 'uninstaller' necessary. give us an IP address, and we know it goes into the: System Preferences > Network panel. if you entcounter a linux user, and one of their legions of volunteers hasn't written up a FAQ for it -- they may just tell you to recompile the tcp_stack into the kernal so you can access DHCP support and RTFM.
where the windows user looks for the wizard to do it for them, mac and linux users might ask why would you need a wizard to enter an IP address? -- because in the PC world, everything is more involved. you have to poke into dialogue b
because they won't have to incur the OEM cost to include windows with each PC, they'll be able to sell their PCs for an amount less than what they charge OEMs to include windows -- all else being equal, it should give them slightly better margins per unit.
But Gates is still right... no matter how cool these new computers and their software are, they won't be enough for Apple to "win." And here is where we have to understand the difference between winning in Gatespeak and Jobspeak. When Gates speaks about winning he means WINNING, the whole enchilada, mastery of the universe. At this point in his career, every thought that comes out of Bill Gates' mind is grandly strategic. Steve Jobs, on the other hand, thinks solely in terms of tactics, not strategy. His wins are today, tomorrow, next week, next quarter. He revels in every little chance to push people around and make things the way he wants them to be. He can't help it. It was a bad strategy, for example, to snub Gates with Vanity Fair, but in the tactical mind of Steve Jobs, it was brilliant.
In Steve Jobs' mind, he has already won. Those of us who last for a few decades in this business find our own kind of peace and Steve Jobs' is best exemplified by the George Herbert quote, "Living well is the best revenge." Apple's future as a boutique computer company is secure. He dominates Apple completely. When he doesn't feel like being a high tech mogul, he can be a movie mogul, something Gates will never be. In Steve's mind, he has the best of everything. Apple software is cooler than Windows will ever be. Palo Alto, where Jobs lives, is trendier than Seattle. Even Jobs' plane, a Gulfstream V, is cooler than Gates' Challenger 604. It goes on and on. Gates has never even considered this latter point, but I'll guarantee you that Jobs has, and he revels in it.
back in the mid 1990's, there was a feature interview in some magazine (was it Time, or Forbe, or Business Week -- I don't know) -- with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates -- it had pictures of Jobs barefoot in his house, and Jobs complaining how everyone had to go through Gate's portal to do anything in the computer industry (except him, of course).
the interview came out maybe 1993 - 1994 -- just before they offered online or archived versions of these things. it was a good and informative interview.
does anyone know where i could find a copy of this lost interview??
great -- now the terrorists have a perfect way to detect his arrival. just use the jammer to trigger the bomb (offset by a couple minutes, to ensure he's entered well within range) -- duh.
Consumption beyond need is what appears to drive the economy, not the response to need. It cannot sustain unless it grows, and it cannot grow unless it perpetually consumes more than it needs. (John Townsend, Whole Earth Review, Summer 1991)
great -- just what we needed -- now they won't even have to hijack the plane, all they have to do is hack the remote to crash the plane, while they stay nice and safe on the ground -- bleach.:-P
the whole cost of the product is not just the amount to make it, but also to dispose of it, so its about time they charged to get rid of toxic ewaste -- other countries have solved a lot of problems just by charging for garbage -- germany got rid of a lot of excess packaging, and a lot of other problems this way...:-^ j
'Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add,
but rather when there is nothing more to take away'. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
as a technical writer for ten years, i've found the best book on the subject for people who aren't designers is: Robin William's Non-Designer's Design Book.
it covers the four basic principles of Design:
1) Proximity: Make sure than when you Poke button X, status indicator Y is PROXIMATE to X.
2) Alignment: Don't start things out on a new Arbitrary Visual Margin, reuse existing Bounding Rectangles to ALIGN things to each other.
3) Repetition: Don't use a different icon for the same thing; consistently use the same Motif throughout.
4) Contrast: If two elements are not exactly the same, make them distinguishably different.
After a few days, Willie got tired of the Water-Wheel -- and no blame to him, for it was no earthly use beyond amusement, and that which can only amuse can never amuse long. I think the reason children get tired of their toys so soon is just that it is against human nature to be really interested in what is of no use. If you say that a beautiful thing is always interesting, I answer, that a beautiful thing is of the highest use. Is not the diamond that flashes all its colours into the heart of a poet as useful as the diamond with which the glazier divides the sheets of glass into panes for our windows?
the signal (useful info) to noise (useless noise) will be huge.
with that much actually EXTRANEOUS data (how many hours of staring at the bathroom wall do you really want to store??), discarding what is useless will be a huge task -- because editing takes lots of time -- thus...
'As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful
as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a
vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value
than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over
for yourself.' (Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena v2)
The weather conditions which have shown such irregularities through the years, particularly recent years, do have something to do with conditions in the heavens... When these irregularities are observed we must take very strongly into consideration a phenomenon of which little account is usually taken, although it is constantly spoken of. I mean the phenomenon of sunspots.
But now there are also electric currents in the universe; for when we generate wireless electric currents on the earth we are only imitating what is also present in some way in the universe. Suppose a current from the universe is present, let's say, here in Switzerland, where we have a certain temperature. If a current of this kind comes in such a way that it brings warmth with it, the temperature here rises a little. Thus the warmth on earth is also redistributed by currents from the universe. They too influence the weather.
In addition, however, you must consider that such electromagnetic currents in the universe are also influenced by the sunspots. Wherever the sun has spots, there are the currents which affect the weather. These particular influences are of great importance.
| In the event of a massive cyberattack against the country | that was perceived as originating from a foreign source, | the United States would consider launching a counterattack | or bombing the source of the cyberattack
so if i was a bad guy in country Y, and i wanted to launch a military strike on country X -- all i would have to do is setup a botnet with a source of control in country X, and the USA would do its damage for me... yikes!!
Slashdot Mirror
that's why steve^2 made pc - so you could have one
without depending on the big guy.
microsoft wants to be de big guy -- but when de main breaks down,
all de dumb terminals go down.
open source kills de wiked witch, and all the monkees go free.
the best sysadmin is the one you don't know exists
until you need them -- as long as things are working well
without glitches or downtime, i'd say your sysadmins are working well.
2cents
j
often, beliefs are based on emotions,
and when these are addressed with reason,
the debate don't click.
but what bothers me about such debates is how,
like many things it remains contrasted in such a dualistic way.
fundie creationists go against rabid rationalists,
and nobody hears the other side.
only a choice between A and B (which are already qualitatively
different) is given -- its got to be creation ex-nihlo or a big bang,
or something like that -- with no consideration for C -- synthesis.
i'm not a creationist nor an evolutionist; yet both. i'm still searching.
but at least i'm aware of an option C* -- and there must even be
other ways we can interpret the data science provides us.
but it is important to seperate the exact phenomenon
of the fossil record -- with our INTERPRETATION of it.
| Despite the size, the specifications make it clear that the ITX motherboard
| has a full range of connections, including DVI, VGA, ethernet, four USB ports,
| two PS/2 connections and more.
we do not want a 'full range' of connectors -- because anything that wastes circuitry
for PS2 connections on a pico size board is a dodo (imo).
we DO NOT WANT: IDE, PS/2 or VGA connectors cluttering up our motherboard.
they duplicate functions already better achieved with: SATA, USB, and DVI.
we want as few ports as possible and still be able to achieve any function.
so, what ARE the desireable ports?
-USB 2.0 (four ports)
- SATA (two ports)
- DVI (with optional VGA header)
- SODIMM Slot for RAM (two)
- ethernet (10/100/1000)
- optional 802.11g/n
that's it -- no extra ones besides that.
get the bios working so it can boot with those,
and drop the legacy cruft.
j
'Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler' (Einstein)
this thing STILL has those !@#% PS2 keyboard and mouse connectors -- ugh. any small motherboard that still wastes circuitry for PS2 connectors for keyboard (instead of USB keyboard and mouse) is less desirable (imho).
once you add up the costs of the REQUIRED USB Optical Drive, adding the IDE drive, its not so far to the mac mini -- which certainly has better graphics performance. if you get a used mac mini -- price should be within range.
Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing
random digits is, of course, in a state of sin. (John Von Neumann)
as an independent mac support technician (in toronto), i see this all the time. if you tell an ISP that you're not running MS Outlook on Windows, they will often fail to support you. however -- they have often been helpful enough to give you the POP and SMTP server addresses, port numbers, and other general info. sometimes, one can also glean these addresses out of the step-by-step online tutorials (designed for outlook). users haven't usually abstracted the paramaters from the particular workflow (i.e. step-by-step procedures, which include those same parameters). if you have to plug the same parameters into a different place, then, from the user's PoV, the procedures are not the same. they have to relearn the particulars of an OS version and application version in order to find the places where the identical parameters may be hidden -- and for them, this is a pain.
windows and mac users sometimes have different perceptions of this pain. windows users often think windows is 'easy', because all the real hard work the sys-admins do is usually hidden from them by large legions of microsoft-certified navigators -- which act as human wizards to guide them through where to plunk those parameters in (squirt me). mac and linux users, having grown out of a minority, have a history of having to find these things themselves. windows comes pre-installed, so windows users often never realize how much trouble it is to actually install an operating system (and attendant drivers).
users don't ask about the operating system of their clock-radio. they figure why should a computer be any different? they don't understand why they have to worry about this abstract thing called an OS, or why they should have to install it. the user comes in thinking the OS is a part of the thing they hold in their hand, and is busy doing too many other things (having a life), and never ponders why the OS should be abstracted from it. many windows users think of the OS as part of the machine -- i turn on a lamp, the light glows; i turn on my computer, i see my email. they often don't distinguish between email that exists 'locally' or 'webmail' that exists on a server.
there is comfort in the PC system -- once you've bought in to the windows universe, you never need to know or care that there is another world out there (that is not windows), except for the fact that there's a bunch of people that are pesky and incompatible with them. so long as most PCs ship with windows preinstalled, vista will constitute a large growing chunk of the market, and microsoft knows this. arcane software works to their advantage, because then you have to take a long course to learn their labyrinthine pathways, and get paid well for guiding mere users through these tangled woods. since windows is the dominant platform, it pays to support just the biggest chunk and cut your losses -- marginal, at best -- and thus, the hegemony is locked-in.
as many seasoned mac and linux users know, it is a PC world out there. the pesky wizards and clippy-clips are only there to help people put parameters in the right slot. mac users are used to a certain degree of managing our own systems -- moving font packages, control panels, and extensions into and out of the system folder. we never had a registry, and things were always object oriented. its only untidy habits from other platforms that made the idea of an 'uninstaller' necessary. give us an IP address, and we know it goes into the: System Preferences > Network panel. if you entcounter a linux user, and one of their legions of volunteers hasn't written up a FAQ for it -- they may just tell you to recompile the tcp_stack into the kernal so you can access DHCP support and RTFM.
where the windows user looks for the wizard to do it for them, mac and linux users might ask why would you need a wizard to enter an IP address? -- because in the PC world, everything is more involved. you have to poke into dialogue b
because they won't have to incur the OEM cost to
include windows with each PC, they'll be able to sell
their PCs for an amount less than what they charge OEMs
to include windows -- all else being equal, it should
give them slightly better margins per unit.
Doesn't mean you can't have your RFID -- it just means they can't REQUIRE you to have it.
and that's a good thing.
Back when Photoshop came out, it was like a Colour version of MacPaint.
Photoshop evolved and built on the ideas contained in MacPaint.
You can see this even today, where the most common tools in the
Photoshop tool palette came from the MacPaint Toolset:
- Marquee Tool
- Lasoo Tool
- Pencil Tool
- Eraser Tool
- Text Tool
- Hand Tool
they even had identical icon bitmaps
for the first several versions of Photoshop(!).
found it -- Jobs and Gates in 1991 Fortune Interview
image here
From an old Cringley article:
But Gates is still right... no matter how cool these new computers and their software are, they won't be enough for Apple to "win." And here is where we have to understand the difference between winning in Gatespeak and Jobspeak. When Gates speaks about winning he means WINNING, the whole enchilada, mastery of the universe. At this point in his career, every thought that comes out of Bill Gates' mind is grandly strategic. Steve Jobs, on the other hand, thinks solely in terms of tactics, not strategy. His wins are today, tomorrow, next week, next quarter. He revels in every little chance to push people around and make things the way he wants them to be. He can't help it. It was a bad strategy, for example, to snub Gates with Vanity Fair, but in the tactical mind of Steve Jobs, it was brilliant.
In Steve Jobs' mind, he has already won. Those of us who last for a few decades in this business find our own kind of peace and Steve Jobs' is best exemplified by the George Herbert quote, "Living well is the best revenge." Apple's future as a boutique computer company is secure. He dominates Apple completely. When he doesn't feel like being a high tech mogul, he can be a movie mogul, something Gates will never be. In Steve's mind, he has the best of everything. Apple software is cooler than Windows will ever be. Palo Alto, where Jobs lives, is trendier than Seattle. Even Jobs' plane, a Gulfstream V, is cooler than Gates' Challenger 604. It goes on and on. Gates has never even considered this latter point, but I'll guarantee you that Jobs has, and he revels in it.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2002/pulpit_20
given that ipod has sold 100 million -- they have a long way to catch up...
j
back in the mid 1990's, there was a feature interview in some magazine
(was it Time, or Forbe, or Business Week -- I don't know) -- with
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates -- it had pictures of Jobs barefoot in his house,
and Jobs complaining how everyone had to go through Gate's portal
to do anything in the computer industry (except him, of course).
the interview came out maybe 1993 - 1994 -- just before they
offered online or archived versions of these things. it was a good
and informative interview.
does anyone know where i could find a copy of this lost interview??
j
great -- now the terrorists have a perfect way to detect his arrival.
just use the jammer to trigger the bomb (offset by a couple minutes,
to ensure he's entered well within range) -- duh.
Consumption beyond need is what appears to drive the economy,
not the response to need. It cannot sustain unless it grows,
and it cannot grow unless it perpetually consumes more than it needs.
(John Townsend, Whole Earth Review, Summer 1991)
great -- just what we needed -- now they won't even have to hijack the plane,
all they have to do is hack the remote to crash the plane, while they stay nice and safe
on the ground -- bleach.
Forest Mims had a rare talent for being able to teach electronics.
he's a lot of what made those early radio shack kits so good.
unless they're luck enough to find one of his talent,
the kits may not be as good.
2cents,
j
the whole cost of the product is not just the amount to make it,
but also to dispose of it, so its about time they charged to get rid
of toxic ewaste -- other countries have solved a lot of problems
just by charging for garbage -- germany got rid of a lot of excess
packaging, and a lot of other problems this way...
j
'Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add,
but rather when there is nothing more to take away'. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
as a technical writer for ten years, i've found the best book on the subject
for people who aren't designers is: Robin William's Non-Designer's Design Book.
it covers the four basic principles of Design:
1) Proximity: Make sure than when you Poke button X, status indicator Y is PROXIMATE to X.
2) Alignment: Don't start things out on a new Arbitrary Visual Margin, reuse existing Bounding Rectangles to ALIGN things to each other.
3) Repetition: Don't use a different icon for the same thing; consistently use the same Motif throughout.
4) Contrast: If two elements are not exactly the same, make them distinguishably different.
all the best,
j
your wisdom was also spoken here:
After a few days, Willie got tired of the Water-Wheel --
and no blame to him, for it was no earthly use beyond amusement,
and that which can only amuse can never amuse long.
I think the reason children get tired of their toys so soon
is just that it is against human nature to be really interested in
what is of no use. If you say that a beautiful thing is always
interesting, I answer, that a beautiful thing is of the highest use.
Is not the diamond that flashes all its colours into the heart
of a poet as useful as the diamond with which the glazier divides
the sheets of glass into panes for our windows?
(George MacDonald, The Gutta Percha Willie)
the signal (useful info) to noise (useless noise) will be huge.
with that much actually EXTRANEOUS data (how many hours
of staring at the bathroom wall do you really want to store??),
discarding what is useless will be a huge task -- because editing
takes lots of time -- thus...
'As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful
as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a
vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value
than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over
for yourself.' (Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena v2)
3cents
j
oh, i can see it now -- flowform computers...
http://www.livingwaterflowforms.com/
--
(its *funny*, mod me neither up nor down)
The weather conditions which have shown such irregularities through the
years, particularly recent years, do have something to do with conditions
in the heavens... When these irregularities are observed we must take
very strongly into consideration a phenomenon of which little account
is usually taken, although it is constantly spoken of.
I mean the phenomenon of sunspots.
But now there are also electric currents in the universe; for when we
generate wireless electric currents on the earth we are only imitating
what is also present in some way in the universe. Suppose a current from
the universe is present, let's say, here in Switzerland, where we have a
certain temperature. If a current of this kind comes in such a way that
it brings warmth with it, the temperature here rises a little. Thus the
warmth on earth is also redistributed by currents from the universe.
They too influence the weather.
In addition, however, you must consider that such electromagnetic currents
in the universe are also influenced by the sunspots. Wherever the sun has
spots, there are the currents which affect the weather. These particular
influences are of great importance.
(The Evolution of the Earth and Man and The Influence of the Stars)
| In the event of a massive cyberattack against the country
| that was perceived as originating from a foreign source,
| the United States would consider launching a counterattack
| or bombing the source of the cyberattack
so if i was a bad guy in country Y, and i wanted to launch a military strike
on country X -- all i would have to do is setup a botnet with a source of
control in country X, and the USA would do its damage for me... yikes!!
2cents