You do have a point. It would be quite easy to, at the very least, plunge the Easter seaboard into total martial law. Even "plans seldom survive contact with the enemy" bit (that's what technology's for).
However, you have to remember one thing; they're terrorists, they have an image to uphold. No one wants to get slapped with the "Super Villain" label.
After all, with terrorism, we burn our time, money and effort with silly little things like "take your shoes off at the checkpoint", "no more than 2 ounces of liquids", "no lighters".
But I guarantee you the first jihadist that pops a laser ray out of an observatory and melts ${HISTORIC_MONUMENT} is going to have hell to pay.
Hm....a few things in your comment caught my eye...
...disks ~10% bigger just by switching to the larger sector size...1TB drive...they can fit 1.1TB of data onto the same size platter...the consumer will win.
Anybody remember when WDC settled that class-action lawsuit for the whole "1GB = 1 Billion Bytes", causing people to pop out and buy a "80GB" disk, only to discover it was really a "72GB" disk? (Yes, yes, the whole "how many bytes in a Kilobyte" thing)
When I put on my Business Hat, this makes sense. They can keep marketing "1TB" disks, they're just "1.1TB" with 4k blocks, rather than "0.97TB".
So, I'm seeing all of this hubris about "Windows XP going down because 4k disks are upon us!!!" which really makes me want to point out two things;
1) If you're using Virtualization with file-based storage (as opposed to disk-based storage), you're in the clear.
So we can all run a VM of WinXP for Development/Compatibility purposes if we *really* want to. The folks requiring 3D-acceleration will take a bit of a hit, but hey, if you haven't beaten that game after 10 years, cheat and get it over with already.
2) Are we seriously debating the *merits* of Windows XP?
The only reason it's any good is because of 9 years of patches and bugfixes. Re-Read that last part; It took them NINE years to get it going good.
...Wall To Wall Counseling (See FM 22-102 for more information). Seriously, this is something that you're going to have to address in numbers; either get everyone to sign a petition, or have a few of the younger guys meet the boss in the parking lot for a "Team Building One-on-One".
So...basically...we're all going to die, and take the planet with us, right?
That's deep, almost makes me want to find a quack doc and become "clinically depressed", maybe even start collecting payments, seeing as how I won't be able to work.
After all, I've got a *lot* more tires to burn now than I thought....
life is short, it's a bitch, and then you die, and I am not going to waste my life away feeling sorry for myself...
Ah, now that I will agree with you on. The old standby of "Get Over It" works for me, however I wouldn't assume outright that it would work for others (hence why I don't dispense that advice to those few individuals I know of who are very, truly clinically depressed).
The main problem with serious cases of depression isn't a "woe is me" complex, it's all the little things that manifest themselves because of the depression.
Things like insomnia, eating disorders, migraines, etc. All of which flood over one's personal life and into their work life, affecting the latter to the point where they're in danger of losing their jobs.
It's what's known as a cycle, and the downward spiral is too much for people to take sometimes. Hell, no one ever committed suicide because they were perfectly content with their lives. It takes an extreme amount of circumstances wearing someone down till they can't take it any more.
Anyone remember that teenage girl that hung herself in her closet, just because of some cyber-bullying? Every work of (I use the phrase loosely) journalism that I've read about it fails to explain/uncover everything else that that lead up to that situation.
Taken out of context, it's easy to think to one's self "well, one less emo kid to worry about", however there's far more to it. For good or ill, the human spirit is a hard thing to crush. Whatever led up to that (aside from the MySpace drama), must have worn her down pretty far. That was just what broke the camel's back.
My point being, there are some people that just can't handle the things that life throws at them, and when they actually attempt to turn things around, *wham* the real world tears that apart, too.
You have taken a poor stance on a topic you most likely fail to grasp. However, all I have to base that on is your current responses to this thread thus far. Therefore, because of your seemingly ingrained tendency to jump to conclusions, I perceive your supporting arguments (and subsequent arguments) are flawed.
To summarize this emboldened feeling I have for you, I'll simply state; Fuck you
Better now? I don't want you sliding into depression because some un-anonymous fuckwad wouldn't give you what you wanted.
Of course, I would prefer you just deal with the fact that life is complicated to the point were a few out-of-place photographs can't determine something so abstract as a frame of mind.
No. Neither you, the insurance company, myself, or any of us is qualified to make that decision.
Every photograph is taken out of context. That's the point of them, to freeze a moment in time. Not the hour or so before that, or the few seconds after that.
Hell, who's to say someone didn't spike her drink/food with something they innocently thought would "loosen her up a bit so she could have a good time"?
The day an Insurance company starts making decisions once reserved for medical professionals is a day I dread.
after her insurance provider found photos of her on Facebook smiling and looking cheerful at parties and out on the beach....
Well, she was on benefits because she was diagnosed as depressed, and it's already been said that any psychiatrist worth their salt will tell you to get yourself out there and at least *try* to have a good time.
But seriously, this is a bit out of hand, hasn't anyone at her insurance carrier ever had a picture taken? What does the photographer usually scream at you?
1. What kind of users are we talking here? Globally diverse store managers? Scientists? Wall Street? Web developers? Each one of these groups will have different ideas of what "Reliability" means. Which brings me to;
2. Tiers. What are your critical (never-down) services? Typically this translates to cost; how much will a company-wide email outage cost you per day? Hour? Minute? DNS/DHCP/WINS (shudder) and all your "infrastructure" services will probably fall under this category. But which Applications do you provide, and what are the users expectations?
This is a great chance to start having "User Group" meetings with the various sections of your user-base, and start fleshing-out requirements.
3. Plans. Everyone with a tie will love to see a black-and-white document outlining things like Backups, Disaster Recovery, Risk Analysis, Acceptable Use Policy, and so forth. However, most small networks (10-20 servers) don't have anything like this. Heck, even if it's "boot the old systems", it's still a plan. Write one up, use a template, Google has a few dozen last I checked.
4. Migration Plan. One thing you can bet on; if *anyone* non-IT has had free reign inside the network, there will be little files, scripts, cron jobs, applications, firewall settings, etc that have been tweaked and long forgotten. Before you "Decommission" anything, make sure it survives a reboot, and make an image of the filesystems.
Word from the wise; setup a Linux box somewhere with a good chunk of space and throw all of them on there, then make sure that system is backed up. Try to avoid mentioning this to anyone, as it increases the "awe" factor and cuts down on unnecessary retrieval requests
5. Blog, wiki-fy, etc. *Anything* that the users can take a look at and "see" what you're doing. Being an I.T. techie is like being a ninja; If you do your job right, no one even knows you're there. But screw up, and everyone will have a torch and pitchfork with your name on it. Sometimes having things out in the open will negate that (maybe they just bring flashlights, instead of actual torches).
6. Go Slow. Take a look at what servers you have, inventory what all is running on them, and guestimate how long it would take to set that up. Then multiply that by a Scotty factor and state that in your paperwork.
Remember, small-time IT guys seldom leave peacefully, they're typically ridden out on a rail. (This coming from someone who's been the exception to that, narrowly at times).
These run Ubuntu Server and Xen. We're in the progress of moving services from physical Solaris servers to virtual Xen servers.
You're running "Production" services on....Ubuntu...? For the life of me I could have sworn that was a "Desktop" oriented distribution.
Are you running Solaris x86 inside those Xen instances? Can you provide a few more details about your old and current setup? (Like what models of Sun servers were you replacing (and are you selling them)?
But you can run the OS on local storage, especially in the early stages.
I would just like to point out that I've been in several environments where people "started out" with their virtualized servers on local storage, then moved them over to SAN.
Let me just say that unless you're willing to drop some *serious* coin on SAN, avoid this...unless you're going to run top-end EMC of some kind, and keep your virtualized servers down to 20 or so per SAN.
Basically, it comes down to this; ever see the throughput 30+ servers pull down from a dual-port fiber connection when they all boot?. It's ugly, my friend.
If you decide to go that route regardless, invest in at least 2 dual-port 4GB Fiber HBAs per host server. You'll be thankful in the long run.
Argh, forgive the reply but the bottom of my post was chopped (had to login, got redirected, lucky to have a clipboard copy);
Anywho, my point is, if they want my money, they have to offer something that *I* want. The only way their going to get me to pay for something that I wouldn't want would be to make sure that ever dollar they spent stayed in the U.S.A. Slap a "100% Made in USA" label (that had better be accurate) on anything, and I'll buy it....until we stop importing 98% of our goods from China, then I'll go back to buying what I want again (suckers).
In Conclusion; someone please find the address of this Cable Exec. I just want to send him a letter, honest.
OKay, I don't own a television, and I have no intention of getting one. If I need media-based entertainment I go to one of three sources; 1. iTunes 2. "Other" Downloads. 3. Rent a DVD from a Brick-and-Mortar place. 4. Go to the theater.
Now, that's in priority. The only way Big Media is going to get my hard earned cash is if they cut a deal with iTunes, get it on the racks at BlockBuster, or make it damn-good enough in the first place for me to go straight to the theater. And that last one is a joke. For some reason, the local theaters in my area have actually refused to carry the types of movies that appeal to my demographic (the last "Punisher" flick was no where to be found). However, every one of the theaters have been crawling with chick flicks for the past six months. The horror.
I have one requirement for chick flicks; if you want my $8 per ticket there had better be either; A) Non-male Nudity. This is a Cash-for-Boobies opportunity. Not complicated. B) Exit Wounds. Someone buys the farm, and I *don't* mean in a Leonardo-DiCaprio-Titanic way.
Now here's the real kicker. Those two chick flick requirements are not going to change. You want me to take a few of my female friends to the movies to see Penelope Cruz' latest attempt at acting? Then make it *worth* my time. Hell, you want to guarantee a ticket? Put the nudity/death in the freaking previews!
Now I realize that I might sound a bit immature here, but lets face facts. When I walk into a theater, I can't ask them for plot, character development, or reflections of world issues any more. But what I can ask for is special effects, nudity and violence.
Case in point; someone get Michael Bay to crank out a "Decepticons vs The PlayBoy Mansion" (rated R, at least), and just watch the cash flow.
I'm terribly sorry, but you obviously have simply not been around long enough. Therefore, we're going to have to ask you to perform the following steps; 1. Go to the "Change Password" page on your Slashdot profile and type in your current password. 2. Get *really* drunk, like, wasted, more so than before you posted. 3. Put in a new password, but don't write it down, or pick "mommy" again (that was lame the first time you did it). 4. Sober up, realize you can't login, and create a new Slashdot account.
Indeed, you've piqued my interest. Can I have a group of slashdotters start submitting their experiences geeking it up in the adult entertainment industry, please?
I am truly humbled by your words, StikyPad. We cannot permit your wisdom to be restrained any longer!
You must go to that Siren that has ensnared you, and proudely proclaim that you will once again wander the Earth, for the Slashdotters need your words!
(And if she likes, she can tag along, but it's Fast Food from here on out.)
...supposed to be Disney evil or James Bond villain evil. This is closer to frothing tyrannical dictator evil.
Wow I just LoL'd coffee all over the place. Where's my mod points?
I follow the three-head rule;
if you can't give me three heads shrunken down and stitched up to my QA-Approved Design Specifications, then pack up your grass skirt and nose-bone buddy!
Slashdot Mirror
You do have a point. It would be quite easy to, at the very least, plunge the Easter seaboard into total martial law. Even "plans seldom survive contact with the enemy" bit (that's what technology's for).
However, you have to remember one thing; they're terrorists, they have an image to uphold. No one wants to get slapped with the "Super Villain" label.
After all, with terrorism, we burn our time, money and effort with silly little things like "take your shoes off at the checkpoint", "no more than 2 ounces of liquids", "no lighters".
But I guarantee you the first jihadist that pops a laser ray out of an observatory and melts ${HISTORIC_MONUMENT} is going to have hell to pay.
Hm....a few things in your comment caught my eye...
...disks ~10% bigger just by switching to the larger sector size...1TB drive...they can fit 1.1TB of data onto the same size platter...the consumer will win.
Anybody remember when WDC settled that class-action lawsuit for the whole "1GB = 1 Billion Bytes", causing people to pop out and buy a "80GB" disk, only to discover it was really a "72GB" disk? (Yes, yes, the whole "how many bytes in a Kilobyte" thing)
When I put on my Business Hat, this makes sense. They can keep marketing "1TB" disks, they're just "1.1TB" with 4k blocks, rather than "0.97TB".
Wonder what happens when I don my tin foil hat...
So, I'm seeing all of this hubris about "Windows XP going down because 4k disks are upon us!!!" which really makes me want to point out two things;
1) If you're using Virtualization with file-based storage (as opposed to disk-based storage), you're in the clear.
So we can all run a VM of WinXP for Development/Compatibility purposes if we *really* want to. The folks requiring 3D-acceleration will take a bit of a hit, but hey, if you haven't beaten that game after 10 years, cheat and get it over with already.
2) Are we seriously debating the *merits* of Windows XP?
The only reason it's any good is because of 9 years of patches and bugfixes. Re-Read that last part; It took them NINE years to get it going good.
Thanks for the score, however I'm pretty sure I drove the point home with the "Team building one-on-one" comment in the parking garage.
...Wall To Wall Counseling (See FM 22-102 for more information). Seriously, this is something that you're going to have to address in numbers; either get everyone to sign a petition, or have a few of the younger guys meet the boss in the parking lot for a "Team Building One-on-One".
"say 'testicles'"
That's a good one! I usually just yell "Look out!" or "Not the beer!"
The hippies screwed up, but so did we.
So...basically...we're all going to die, and take the planet with us, right?
That's deep, almost makes me want to find a quack doc and become "clinically depressed", maybe even start collecting payments, seeing as how I won't be able to work.
After all, I've got a *lot* more tires to burn now than I thought....
29 per cent increase in global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel between 2000 and 2008
You have *got* to be kidding me? What about all this emissions stuff they've been strapping to my engine?
Those crappy "Eco-Friendly" disposable cups and cutlery my employer's been stocking up on?
The recycled-paper-everything?
The ethanol they've put in my gas?
Those tiny cars I have to dodge around the highways?
All this has been for naught?
To hell with the hippies and their soy meat, time to go light some tires on fire or something....
life is short, it's a bitch, and then you die, and I am not going to waste my life away feeling sorry for myself...
Ah, now that I will agree with you on. The old standby of "Get Over It" works for me, however I wouldn't assume outright that it would work for others (hence why I don't dispense that advice to those few individuals I know of who are very, truly clinically depressed).
The main problem with serious cases of depression isn't a "woe is me" complex, it's all the little things that manifest themselves because of the depression.
Things like insomnia, eating disorders, migraines, etc. All of which flood over one's personal life and into their work life, affecting the latter to the point where they're in danger of losing their jobs.
It's what's known as a cycle, and the downward spiral is too much for people to take sometimes. Hell, no one ever committed suicide because they were perfectly content with their lives. It takes an extreme amount of circumstances wearing someone down till they can't take it any more.
Anyone remember that teenage girl that hung herself in her closet, just because of some cyber-bullying? Every work of (I use the phrase loosely) journalism that I've read about it fails to explain/uncover everything else that that lead up to that situation.
Taken out of context, it's easy to think to one's self "well, one less emo kid to worry about", however there's far more to it. For good or ill, the human spirit is a hard thing to crush. Whatever led up to that (aside from the MySpace drama), must have worn her down pretty far. That was just what broke the camel's back.
My point being, there are some people that just can't handle the things that life throws at them, and when they actually attempt to turn things around, *wham* the real world tears that apart, too.
I seriously hope she has a good lawyer.
ad hominems from an anonymous fuckwad
Okay, I'm up for some argumentum ad hominem.
You have taken a poor stance on a topic you most likely fail to grasp. However, all I have to base that on is your current responses to this thread thus far. Therefore, because of your seemingly ingrained tendency to jump to conclusions, I perceive your supporting arguments (and subsequent arguments) are flawed.
To summarize this emboldened feeling I have for you, I'll simply state; Fuck you
Better now? I don't want you sliding into depression because some un-anonymous fuckwad wouldn't give you what you wanted.
Of course, I would prefer you just deal with the fact that life is complicated to the point were a few out-of-place photographs can't determine something so abstract as a frame of mind.
And it worked...
No. Neither you, the insurance company, myself, or any of us is qualified to make that decision.
Every photograph is taken out of context. That's the point of them, to freeze a moment in time. Not the hour or so before that, or the few seconds after that.
Hell, who's to say someone didn't spike her drink/food with something they innocently thought would "loosen her up a bit so she could have a good time"?
The day an Insurance company starts making decisions once reserved for medical professionals is a day I dread.
after her insurance provider found photos of her on Facebook smiling and looking cheerful at parties and out on the beach....
Well, she was on benefits because she was diagnosed as depressed, and it's already been said that any psychiatrist worth their salt will tell you to get yourself out there and at least *try* to have a good time.
But seriously, this is a bit out of hand, hasn't anyone at her insurance carrier ever had a picture taken? What does the photographer usually scream at you?
SMILE!!!
Oh! And charts! Suits love charts!
Two points have already been mentioned before;
1. What kind of users are we talking here? Globally diverse store managers? Scientists? Wall Street? Web developers? Each one of these groups will have different ideas of what "Reliability" means. Which brings me to;
2. Tiers. What are your critical (never-down) services? Typically this translates to cost; how much will a company-wide email outage cost you per day? Hour? Minute? DNS/DHCP/WINS (shudder) and all your "infrastructure" services will probably fall under this category. But which Applications do you provide, and what are the users expectations? This is a great chance to start having "User Group" meetings with the various sections of your user-base, and start fleshing-out requirements.
3. Plans. Everyone with a tie will love to see a black-and-white document outlining things like Backups, Disaster Recovery, Risk Analysis, Acceptable Use Policy, and so forth. However, most small networks (10-20 servers) don't have anything like this. Heck, even if it's "boot the old systems", it's still a plan. Write one up, use a template, Google has a few dozen last I checked.
4. Migration Plan. One thing you can bet on; if *anyone* non-IT has had free reign inside the network, there will be little files, scripts, cron jobs, applications, firewall settings, etc that have been tweaked and long forgotten. Before you "Decommission" anything, make sure it survives a reboot, and make an image of the filesystems.
Word from the wise; setup a Linux box somewhere with a good chunk of space and throw all of them on there, then make sure that system is backed up. Try to avoid mentioning this to anyone, as it increases the "awe" factor and cuts down on unnecessary retrieval requests
5. Blog, wiki-fy, etc. *Anything* that the users can take a look at and "see" what you're doing. Being an I.T. techie is like being a ninja; If you do your job right, no one even knows you're there. But screw up, and everyone will have a torch and pitchfork with your name on it. Sometimes having things out in the open will negate that (maybe they just bring flashlights, instead of actual torches).
6. Go Slow. Take a look at what servers you have, inventory what all is running on them, and guestimate how long it would take to set that up. Then multiply that by a Scotty factor and state that in your paperwork.
Remember, small-time IT guys seldom leave peacefully, they're typically ridden out on a rail. (This coming from someone who's been the exception to that, narrowly at times).
These run Ubuntu Server and Xen. We're in the progress of moving services from physical Solaris servers to virtual Xen servers.
You're running "Production" services on....Ubuntu...? For the life of me I could have sworn that was a "Desktop" oriented distribution.
Are you running Solaris x86 inside those Xen instances? Can you provide a few more details about your old and current setup? (Like what models of Sun servers were you replacing (and are you selling them)?
Where is he going to buy a WRT54 at 2am on a Sunday morning in 2015 anyway?
I seriously "LoL'd" at that one. If he was going to go that route, I know he could pick up quite a few in one chunk over on ebay. However, good point.
Also, SPARC is dying
Beg your pardon, sir, but do you care to offer a citation for that reference? Perhaps a Netcraft confirmation of some sort?
Didn't think so....
For the record, it's just a tad over your head.
And for the record, SPARC isn't out of the game just yet...
...according to their 1st quarter results from FY2010, things are looking up.
But you can run the OS on local storage, especially in the early stages.
I would just like to point out that I've been in several environments where people "started out" with their virtualized servers on local storage, then moved them over to SAN.
Let me just say that unless you're willing to drop some *serious* coin on SAN, avoid this...unless you're going to run top-end EMC of some kind, and keep your virtualized servers down to 20 or so per SAN.
Basically, it comes down to this; ever see the throughput 30+ servers pull down from a dual-port fiber connection when they all boot?. It's ugly, my friend.
If you decide to go that route regardless, invest in at least 2 dual-port 4GB Fiber HBAs per host server. You'll be thankful in the long run.
Argh, forgive the reply but the bottom of my post was chopped (had to login, got redirected, lucky to have a clipboard copy);
Anywho, my point is, if they want my money, they have to offer something that *I* want. The only way their going to get me to pay for something that I wouldn't want would be to make sure that ever dollar they spent stayed in the U.S.A.
Slap a "100% Made in USA" label (that had better be accurate) on anything, and I'll buy it....until we stop importing 98% of our goods from China, then I'll go back to buying what I want again (suckers).
In Conclusion; someone please find the address of this Cable Exec. I just want to send him a letter, honest.
OKay, I don't own a television, and I have no intention of getting one. If I need media-based entertainment I go to one of three sources;
1. iTunes
2. "Other" Downloads.
3. Rent a DVD from a Brick-and-Mortar place.
4. Go to the theater.
Now, that's in priority. The only way Big Media is going to get my hard earned cash is if they cut a deal with iTunes, get it on the racks at BlockBuster, or make it damn-good enough in the first place for me to go straight to the theater. And that last one is a joke. For some reason, the local theaters in my area have actually refused to carry the types of movies that appeal to my demographic (the last "Punisher" flick was no where to be found). However, every one of the theaters have been crawling with chick flicks for the past six months. The horror.
I have one requirement for chick flicks; if you want my $8 per ticket there had better be either;
A) Non-male Nudity. This is a Cash-for-Boobies opportunity. Not complicated.
B) Exit Wounds. Someone buys the farm, and I *don't* mean in a Leonardo-DiCaprio-Titanic way.
Now here's the real kicker. Those two chick flick requirements are not going to change. You want me to take a few of my female friends to the movies to see Penelope Cruz' latest attempt at acting? Then make it *worth* my time.
Hell, you want to guarantee a ticket? Put the nudity/death in the freaking previews!
Now I realize that I might sound a bit immature here, but lets face facts. When I walk into a theater, I can't ask them for plot, character development, or reflections of world issues any more. But what I can ask for is special effects, nudity and violence.
Case in point; someone get Michael Bay to crank out a "Decepticons vs The PlayBoy Mansion" (rated R, at least), and just watch the cash flow.
"virtuous hacking is not reality"
circletimessquare;
I'm terribly sorry, but you obviously have simply not been around long enough. Therefore, we're going to have to ask you to perform the following steps;
1. Go to the "Change Password" page on your Slashdot profile and type in your current password.
2. Get *really* drunk, like, wasted, more so than before you posted.
3. Put in a new password, but don't write it down, or pick "mommy" again (that was lame the first time you did it).
4. Sober up, realize you can't login, and create a new Slashdot account.
P.S: Feel free to mod me down. It had to be said.
Indeed, you've piqued my interest. Can I have a group of slashdotters start submitting their experiences geeking it up in the adult entertainment industry, please?
/me gets the popcorn.
I am truly humbled by your words, StikyPad. We cannot permit your wisdom to be restrained any longer! You must go to that Siren that has ensnared you, and proudely proclaim that you will once again wander the Earth, for the Slashdotters need your words! (And if she likes, she can tag along, but it's Fast Food from here on out.)
...supposed to be Disney evil or James Bond villain evil. This is closer to frothing tyrannical dictator evil.
Wow I just LoL'd coffee all over the place. Where's my mod points?
I follow the three-head rule; if you can't give me three heads shrunken down and stitched up to my QA-Approved Design Specifications, then pack up your grass skirt and nose-bone buddy!