You should try running an online news source. The crap we get ranges from blatant ads, to things resembling news stories that are really ads. All of those get deleted. We've never run them. Still, we get them in all the time.
I agree, but there are a lot of Americans who would argue with you. Many areas believe they are the only ones that belong. And ya, I agree with the Native American position of "we were here first." I'm happy that I'm able to share their lands. My ancestors and myself had nothing to do with the bad things that happened with them. We were poor migrants, who showed up too late to the show.
I don't think the article mentioned it, but the posted story did. Flights to/from YYZ (Toronto) may cross American borders on approach or departure. They do run flights down to Mexico and Cuba, which I'm fairly sure transit over American airspace.
I know the Canada Cuba flights already have the US Government's interest though. If there's an American on board without permissions (like, most of us won't have), we'll get nailed because of the ongoing embargo. While they did change some limits on that, the average American like myself, can't go to Cuba still.
Depending on where you live, you already are. I don't see it as a problem, unless the majority (or larger minorities) start into the racism that they blame the "white" man for. Honestly, it's really weird to be one of the few white people in the area. Not for the sake of being the minority, but the racism that can accompany it. For the most part though, people are people, and treat you equally. It's the exceptions that are the problems, and the GP post is one of them.
I didn't mention it, but I sign and date a lot of my comments, especially when I'm helping someone else. That way, when they go in later to see what I changed.
# -jws 01/02/2009 - changes to trace xyz bug.
[code]
# -jws 01/02/2009 - end changes
There wouldn't be much of a reasons to change language to change to 30 line function into a 1 line function. Now, if it were throughout the whole code, that would be another matter.
For the Apache example, theirs is a good reason that it's overcommented, just as you said. For someone like me, it's too much, but I still keep the orig file around for a guide if necessary. Just because I know it inside and out doesn't mean I won't have a moment where I want to see what they said about a particular directive.
When I set up those servers, ntpd didn't cooperate very well for huge changes, it would just try to skew the clock. I wrote my own little program to check in with our local time server. Our time server would hit a real time server once a day, and the servers would all update hourly. In the case of those, I put it in at boot time, before any important services started that needed to know the time.
I just fixed a mail server for someone (after reading the article), and told them to remind me in 10 years to fix it again.:) Hopefully by then, they'll have rewritten the rule so it behaves better.
I've seen lots of people's machines that have their dates wrong though. NTP is a wonderful thing, if it works. It's possible that corp firewalls can block unexpected traffic, including NTP though.
I just got an embedded machine, which doesn't keep it's time right. I have to force an update at boot time, which makes the logs look real funny.
There was a Y2K bug on some of my servers (like, a decade ago), so if they rebooted after Dec 31, 1999, the BIOS couldn't understand the date, and rolled it back to Jan 1, 1998. Why 1998? I don't know. Everything that happened until the time updated was timestamped wrong though. That wasn't a big deal, it was just entertaining to see the beginning of the log saying 1998, and as soon as it fixed the time, it would switch to 2000. And no, it didn't take 2 years for the machine to boot.:)
Sometimes the "#hack to be fixed later" are very useful if you are consistent, and go back and fix them before handing it off. I'll put those in, knowing I'll fix it before it's done. I've been known to put "#HERE", at the end of the day, just to remind myself the next morning where I had stopped at.
Re:One person's myth is another person's fact.
on
Myths About Code Comments
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I actually did one of those comments a few days ago. There wasn't a better way to do a particular piece of code, so I put the comment in "// This is ugly, but there isn't a better way to do it.". It's a note to myself and future developers not to bother trying to fix an insignificant ugly piece.
I do agree with the article, not everything needs to be commented. He misses out on "self commenting" where the code explains itself, so you don't need to explain it in an added comment. Intuitive variable names rather than $a $b $c are very helpful both in development, and for future maintaining.
Sometimes things are overcommented, like the default Apache httpd.conf. I've been known to clean up such files with "mv filename filename.orig | cat filename.orig | grep -v ^# > filename", just to shorten it down to something reasonable that can be read. If you're familiar with the Apache httpd.conf, there's no need for all those comments. But, if someone needs to reference them, they're in the httpd.conf.orig.
It sounds like they knew they wouldn't find anything, so a few "accidental" drops to the laptop was their preferred interrogation method. While I do find this works sometimes on PC's, it rarely works on a laptop.
It sounds like they were looking to punish him for posting it, rather than actually looking for information.
At one company I worked for, we received a few computers from Europe. They had been shipped separately, just because that's how they arrived for shipment. One showed up at our office in pieces. The pieces appeared ok, but not a single part worked. I'm pretty sure they thought we were smuggling something inside the computer. Come on, was it necessary to remove and manhandle the motherboard, just to see that it didn't contain any drugs? We didn't get an apology, nor reimbursement for it. the US Customs stance was, "That's the way we got it, when we inspected it.". Ya, right.
Consistency is not in their methodology though. We shipped a lot of equipment around to various locations. Most got there fine. The occasional piece was mishandled by the shipping companies. Some were held for weeks by customs. It makes it hard to work, when you ship say 20 pieces, and only 15 show up on time.
How many admins you have should be weighed by the department manager. That is decided by the workload. How long does it take to get issues resolved?
I ran a shop with about 150 Linux servers, and about 2 dozen Windows machines. It took 2 to 3 people to do the job effectively. The Linux machines ran themselves very well. The Windows machines did ok, but required manual intervention on a fairly regular basis. If you're not geared up for automatic work, then your numbers would go up.
Do tasks get completed in a timely fashion? Then the staff load is correct. If the work queue is too long, then you need more people. "too long" is decided by the business needs. Is it acceptable for a workstation to be down for 10 minutes waiting for a tech to get to it? Then you're fine. If it's acceptable for a workstation to be down for days (the staff can move to another one), then you're still fine. If the problems are not resolved fast enough (desk workers not able to accomplish their tasks on a regular basis due to IT reasons), then you have a problem.
If the staff works 40 hours a week, and all goals are being accomplished, then they are doing the expected workload. Management should have already accounted for fluctuations in the workload though. If you had 30 IT guys for 40 desktops, and the IT guys sit around with nothing to do all day, then obviously you're overstaffed.
If you think that the workload is too high for the IT staff to accomplish, that's something to take up with your manager.
"Calls will be answered in the order you are received. The current wait time is 3 days, 14 hours. Your call is important to us, please stay on the line." I've already been on hold for 2 days. It wouldn't be so bad, but their hold music is terrible.:)
I looked after midnight (10/01/01 03:30am local). I got a white page flash up, with some numbers I think, and then youtube. It appears to be controlled by their newYear.swf. Makes you wonder, was there anything more nefarious in that? What a lovely way to start the new year. 10,000 Slashdotters infected with a nice fresh trojan.
It's a bit late in the evening to go through point by point, but even the right to bear arms has been torn apart. You can own weapons, if [list of qualifications and locations]. I'm in a fairly liberal state as far as that goes. I can own one without a license. One state I lived in, you couldn't, and they were very restrictive about which ones you could own. I was told by a gun store to keep quiet about one I owned, because it was illegal there. No, not anything big, fancy, or expensive. Just a cheap little gun (32 cal). I wasn't allowed to carry there though. My old concealed weapons permit from the state I lived in before didn't qualify, even though it does allow me to carry in more than a dozen other states.
In some locations, gun rights have been gutted. New York City and Las Vegas are two examples. California has rules that don't apply in the rest of the country, but are sometimes trivial to circumvent, such as the mods for an AR15 in that state. You can't own a fully automatic weapon (with certain exceptions).
But, lets not focus just on the gun rules.
First Amendment. Free speech has been left completely alone, unless you say something against someone who decides to mess with you. Well, or if you're in the wrong place. Google "free speech zone liberty bell" for an example of what I'm talking about.
Second Amendment. We already hit that.
Fourth Amendment. You're ok, unless the gov't wants to search you. The most obvious invasion is in traveling. But, if you are stopped by the police, they will search your person for "safety" reasons, which is still a violation. I'll agree that they should be safe, but it's still a violation.
Fifth Amendment. You won't be compelled, except when they want to coerce an answer from you.
Sixth Amendment. um, ya. I worked in a jail for a while. There were quite a few people being held waiting trial. That can be a long time. Lately, under certain circumstances, you can be held for an awful long time without trial.
Eighth Amendment. Well, just check your own local court cases on excessive bail. As for cruel and unusual punishment, that's rampant throughout the system. It usually comes before violations of the 4th and 6th.
I could continue, but like I said, it's late, and I'm thinking about sleeping.
You very carefully (or tactfully) left out the "R" word. When the people have suffered enough under the current law, they can and as history has shown will, stand up against what they despise most.
I had said a few years ago, the people here had tolerated almost everything they could. We've come down a few notches from the beginning of a civil war. We aren't very far from it though. I have some faith in our new leadership, but so much has gone wrong with American since those documents were written, that I'm not sure we can get back to a point where the people are truly happy. Commercial interests have taken such control over the way we live, that they will drive us over the edge sooner than later.
It would take a serious level of insanity for one person to stand up against it. If one person did, that person wouldn't be free for very long. When the people, with a unified front, stand up against what we all have become, then and only then, will things change. History has shown that it can, and will happen. Lately, I haven't met many people who aren't on the brink. They are homeless, living with friends or family. They are barely working, if at all. People are surviving through the little bit that they have left, or not at all.
This is no longer America, land of hope and freedom.
You should already be aware that most of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights has already been undermined, so I don't know how you'd be surprised that a few other words have been ignored. They have become a historic relic, not a guide to the modern legal system.
Slashdot Mirror
You should try running an online news source. The crap we get ranges from blatant ads, to things resembling news stories that are really ads. All of those get deleted. We've never run them. Still, we get them in all the time.
I agree, but there are a lot of Americans who would argue with you. Many areas believe they are the only ones that belong. And ya, I agree with the Native American position of "we were here first." I'm happy that I'm able to share their lands. My ancestors and myself had nothing to do with the bad things that happened with them. We were poor migrants, who showed up too late to the show.
I'm frequently not blessed with version control. A lot of times it's someone saying "Can you log into my server and fix something I can't figure out?"
No harm in any version control using the same method I do. :) Mine grew into that. Obviously, it was a good path if others chose it too.
I don't think the article mentioned it, but the posted story did. Flights to/from YYZ (Toronto) may cross American borders on approach or departure. They do run flights down to Mexico and Cuba, which I'm fairly sure transit over American airspace.
I know the Canada Cuba flights already have the US Government's interest though. If there's an American on board without permissions (like, most of us won't have), we'll get nailed because of the ongoing embargo. While they did change some limits on that, the average American like myself, can't go to Cuba still.
Depending on where you live, you already are. I don't see it as a problem, unless the majority (or larger minorities) start into the racism that they blame the "white" man for. Honestly, it's really weird to be one of the few white people in the area. Not for the sake of being the minority, but the racism that can accompany it. For the most part though, people are people, and treat you equally. It's the exceptions that are the problems, and the GP post is one of them.
Exactly. :) We don't have to agree on the method, or even the OS, and we can still agree. :)
That's actually what I've been doing at boot time for several years now. When I did my own program, it was quick and dirty to run my own.
Actually, that was an error on my part. In real life I wouldn't have piped the mv, it would have been &&. :)
And, there's always more than one way to skin a cat. :)
I didn't mention it, but I sign and date a lot of my comments, especially when I'm helping someone else. That way, when they go in later to see what I changed.
# -jws 01/02/2009 - changes to trace xyz bug.
[code]
# -jws 01/02/2009 - end changes
There wouldn't be much of a reasons to change language to change to 30 line function into a 1 line function. Now, if it were throughout the whole code, that would be another matter.
For the Apache example, theirs is a good reason that it's overcommented, just as you said. For someone like me, it's too much, but I still keep the orig file around for a guide if necessary. Just because I know it inside and out doesn't mean I won't have a moment where I want to see what they said about a particular directive.
I agree totally.
When I set up those servers, ntpd didn't cooperate very well for huge changes, it would just try to skew the clock. I wrote my own little program to check in with our local time server. Our time server would hit a real time server once a day, and the servers would all update hourly. In the case of those, I put it in at boot time, before any important services started that needed to know the time.
I just fixed a mail server for someone (after reading the article), and told them to remind me in 10 years to fix it again. :) Hopefully by then, they'll have rewritten the rule so it behaves better.
I agree, that would be the better solution.
I've seen lots of people's machines that have their dates wrong though. NTP is a wonderful thing, if it works. It's possible that corp firewalls can block unexpected traffic, including NTP though.
I just got an embedded machine, which doesn't keep it's time right. I have to force an update at boot time, which makes the logs look real funny.
There was a Y2K bug on some of my servers (like, a decade ago), so if they rebooted after Dec 31, 1999, the BIOS couldn't understand the date, and rolled it back to Jan 1, 1998. Why 1998? I don't know. Everything that happened until the time updated was timestamped wrong though. That wasn't a big deal, it was just entertaining to see the beginning of the log saying 1998, and as soon as it fixed the time, it would switch to 2000. And no, it didn't take 2 years for the machine to boot. :)
I'm actually thankful that they ran this one as a story. After seeing it, I remembered that rule. I just hopped in and fixed my servers.
The better rule would have been to watch for dates more than X days from today. But, they're using regular expressions, so that makes it a bit harder.
Sometimes the "#hack to be fixed later" are very useful if you are consistent, and go back and fix them before handing it off. I'll put those in, knowing I'll fix it before it's done. I've been known to put "#HERE", at the end of the day, just to remind myself the next morning where I had stopped at.
I actually did one of those comments a few days ago. There wasn't a better way to do a particular piece of code, so I put the comment in "// This is ugly, but there isn't a better way to do it.". It's a note to myself and future developers not to bother trying to fix an insignificant ugly piece.
I do agree with the article, not everything needs to be commented. He misses out on "self commenting" where the code explains itself, so you don't need to explain it in an added comment. Intuitive variable names rather than $a $b $c are very helpful both in development, and for future maintaining.
Sometimes things are overcommented, like the default Apache httpd.conf. I've been known to clean up such files with "mv filename filename.orig | cat filename.orig | grep -v ^# > filename", just to shorten it down to something reasonable that can be read. If you're familiar with the Apache httpd.conf, there's no need for all those comments. But, if someone needs to reference them, they're in the httpd.conf.orig.
It sounds like they knew they wouldn't find anything, so a few "accidental" drops to the laptop was their preferred interrogation method. While I do find this works sometimes on PC's, it rarely works on a laptop.
It sounds like they were looking to punish him for posting it, rather than actually looking for information.
At one company I worked for, we received a few computers from Europe. They had been shipped separately, just because that's how they arrived for shipment. One showed up at our office in pieces. The pieces appeared ok, but not a single part worked. I'm pretty sure they thought we were smuggling something inside the computer. Come on, was it necessary to remove and manhandle the motherboard, just to see that it didn't contain any drugs? We didn't get an apology, nor reimbursement for it. the US Customs stance was, "That's the way we got it, when we inspected it.". Ya, right.
Consistency is not in their methodology though. We shipped a lot of equipment around to various locations. Most got there fine. The occasional piece was mishandled by the shipping companies. Some were held for weeks by customs. It makes it hard to work, when you ship say 20 pieces, and only 15 show up on time.
If you ask real nice, they'll pat you down too. No, check there again, that felt good. Oops, I mean, I might be hiding a salami there. :)
This is really a management decision.
How many admins you have should be weighed by the department manager. That is decided by the workload. How long does it take to get issues resolved?
I ran a shop with about 150 Linux servers, and about 2 dozen Windows machines. It took 2 to 3 people to do the job effectively. The Linux machines ran themselves very well. The Windows machines did ok, but required manual intervention on a fairly regular basis. If you're not geared up for automatic work, then your numbers would go up.
Do tasks get completed in a timely fashion? Then the staff load is correct. If the work queue is too long, then you need more people. "too long" is decided by the business needs. Is it acceptable for a workstation to be down for 10 minutes waiting for a tech to get to it? Then you're fine. If it's acceptable for a workstation to be down for days (the staff can move to another one), then you're still fine. If the problems are not resolved fast enough (desk workers not able to accomplish their tasks on a regular basis due to IT reasons), then you have a problem.
If the staff works 40 hours a week, and all goals are being accomplished, then they are doing the expected workload. Management should have already accounted for fluctuations in the workload though. If you had 30 IT guys for 40 desktops, and the IT guys sit around with nothing to do all day, then obviously you're overstaffed.
If you think that the workload is too high for the IT staff to accomplish, that's something to take up with your manager.
I think that's my ISP's staffing figures.
"Calls will be answered in the order you are received. The current wait time is 3 days, 14 hours. Your call is important to us, please stay on the line." I've already been on hold for 2 days. It wouldn't be so bad, but their hold music is terrible. :)
I looked after midnight (10/01/01 03:30am local). I got a white page flash up, with some numbers I think, and then youtube. It appears to be controlled by their newYear.swf. Makes you wonder, was there anything more nefarious in that? What a lovely way to start the new year. 10,000 Slashdotters infected with a nice fresh trojan.
It's a bit late in the evening to go through point by point, but even the right to bear arms has been torn apart. You can own weapons, if [list of qualifications and locations]. I'm in a fairly liberal state as far as that goes. I can own one without a license. One state I lived in, you couldn't, and they were very restrictive about which ones you could own. I was told by a gun store to keep quiet about one I owned, because it was illegal there. No, not anything big, fancy, or expensive. Just a cheap little gun (32 cal). I wasn't allowed to carry there though. My old concealed weapons permit from the state I lived in before didn't qualify, even though it does allow me to carry in more than a dozen other states.
In some locations, gun rights have been gutted. New York City and Las Vegas are two examples. California has rules that don't apply in the rest of the country, but are sometimes trivial to circumvent, such as the mods for an AR15 in that state. You can't own a fully automatic weapon (with certain exceptions).
But, lets not focus just on the gun rules.
First Amendment. Free speech has been left completely alone, unless you say something against someone who decides to mess with you. Well, or if you're in the wrong place. Google "free speech zone liberty bell" for an example of what I'm talking about.
Second Amendment. We already hit that.
Fourth Amendment. You're ok, unless the gov't wants to search you. The most obvious invasion is in traveling. But, if you are stopped by the police, they will search your person for "safety" reasons, which is still a violation. I'll agree that they should be safe, but it's still a violation.
Fifth Amendment. You won't be compelled, except when they want to coerce an answer from you.
Sixth Amendment. um, ya. I worked in a jail for a while. There were quite a few people being held waiting trial. That can be a long time. Lately, under certain circumstances, you can be held for an awful long time without trial.
Eighth Amendment. Well, just check your own local court cases on excessive bail. As for cruel and unusual punishment, that's rampant throughout the system. It usually comes before violations of the 4th and 6th.
I could continue, but like I said, it's late, and I'm thinking about sleeping.
Shhhh.. It didn't expire. It's owned by the US Gov't. Illegal duplication will result in a one-way ticket to a nice resort in Cuba. :)
You very carefully (or tactfully) left out the "R" word. When the people have suffered enough under the current law, they can and as history has shown will, stand up against what they despise most.
I had said a few years ago, the people here had tolerated almost everything they could. We've come down a few notches from the beginning of a civil war. We aren't very far from it though. I have some faith in our new leadership, but so much has gone wrong with American since those documents were written, that I'm not sure we can get back to a point where the people are truly happy. Commercial interests have taken such control over the way we live, that they will drive us over the edge sooner than later.
It would take a serious level of insanity for one person to stand up against it. If one person did, that person wouldn't be free for very long. When the people, with a unified front, stand up against what we all have become, then and only then, will things change. History has shown that it can, and will happen. Lately, I haven't met many people who aren't on the brink. They are homeless, living with friends or family. They are barely working, if at all. People are surviving through the little bit that they have left, or not at all.
This is no longer America, land of hope and freedom.
[/soapbox]
You should already be aware that most of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights has already been undermined, so I don't know how you'd be surprised that a few other words have been ignored. They have become a historic relic, not a guide to the modern legal system.