i also like my bacon crispy so that it breaks off in my mouth with the slightest pressure, but i also have the benefit of a full mouth of teeth, so i have a wider margin of acceptable crispiness... although i pretty sure cap'n crunch would not like the way i cook bacon:
1) take a full pound of oscar mayer's bacon 2) place unwrapped bacon in frying pan 3) peel individual slices from the main slab 4) continue until all slices have been separated 5) avoid straightening the slices (a.k.a. "pretty bacon") 6) continue cooking bacon in its own fat, maintaining a folded or button-like shape(a.k.a. "ugly bacon") 7) cook until all of the bacon is fully crisped 8) drain on paper towel and enjoy!(unless you are cap'n crunch, then send bacon back to the kitchen)
don't be an asshole. be honest, and let the applicant know that you are not hiring him because his skills are not at the level you are expecting for the given position.
explain what it is you really want to see experience-wise, even offer examples of where his skillz are deficient, but do it respectfully. offer to consider him again if he accomplishes XYZ, but tell him the position requires more skills than he currently possesses.
if you cat/mouse him, or treat him like a jerk, chances are you'll reap exactly sow. IANAL, but depending on what the labor laws are in your area, you might F yourself in the A, or even encourage rage and revenge in you recently humiliated interview reject.
you never know, your truthful (respectful) response might not only inspire someone that you'll want to hire in the future.
when i first read falcon storage engine, i initially thought of a storage software called falconstor. falconstor is more in the data backup/archive/recovery market, often used as a disk-to-disk-to-tape solution, or sometimes as a virtual tape device, but i imagine that often times a name that's close but different is almost always considered "too close" and forces a name change by somebody... let's see how this gets resolved. who knows, maybe the other falcon store(NSFW) might be the winner...
several jobs back i had a need to hire an entry level tech for third shift, so an ad was put in the paper. we were a 7x24 operation, and management requested that the IT department have at least a "warm body" on third shift. the help wanted ad was fairly specific in my search for an "entry level computer tech", but wouldn't you know i had bunch of MCSE's and other over-qualified respondents looking for work. i ended up conducting a phone interview with all of the applicants, explaining that it really was an entry level position and the salary range reflected this entry level status, and i still had a fair amount of folks interested in the job. so i scheduled a few meatspace interviews...
i had every applicant fill out an employment form before i would see them, and most of my questions were based on the app, i.e. what did you do at this or that employer, why did you leave, etc. during the interviews i explained which equipment needed to be monitored, which equipment needed immediate attention, and what items required escalation to first or second shift. most of the time they would be watching blinking lights, and to fill their time they would need to do a few low level tasks, like turning screws to build new boxes, or disassembling old boxes down to the components. then i put a box with a disassembled computer in front of them and ask them to put it together for me. for extra credit they could load the os and get it on the network.
i had 7 people out of about 25 who could pice a box together, 2 out of the 7 were able to complete the extra credit and load the OS. i offered the job to one of the two who was a divorced out of work dad(the other guy lived at home with mom and dad). i've known that dude for a long time, he was my best hire at that company. we no longer work together, but we often email and aim, and the experience he gained working in my department has given him a huge leg up in the last few jobs he's had...
i wouldn't sugar coat the tasks or requirements or expectations to your applicants. it doesn't cost anything to have a hard/rigerous interview(except for your time) but it will cost your company a lot more if your pick is not good and doesn't work out: training time, paycheck, unemployment benefits, etc., so choose wisely grasshopper. your entry level tech is not your friend, so during training, give him/her shit work i.e. "see that cabinet full of tangled cables and jumbled parts? organize it by size, color, function. untangle all the cables. test all the hard drives and memory. i want it done by the end of the day/week/whatever." in fact many organizations(unofficially) give the FNG exceptionally hard tasks, even a kobayashi maru to see how they respond. it's cruel, but it's one way an shake out the chaff from the wheat, and it's a baptism by fire that can bond people together...
i'm trying not trolling, but you got to be kidding me: you're "reduced" to using a mac because you can't order online a couple $5-10 cpu fans and replace it in your main box? cause you're too cheap? i would think that a couple of replacement fan's are cheaper than a mac mini...
* command-F (Apple-F) brings up the find command. command-Space or command-space-option brings up spotlight for contextual searches. obviously you know this, but what exactly are you looking for that you can't find? application config/support files? in Library or ~/Library. what system config options? you say you're saavy with linux so the apple-variant of the bsd layout should be pretty familiar to you.
* what do you want to see that's happening behind the scenes? top in a terminal and activity monitor are good places to start...
*you could do stuff with the CLI, but don't know how? what do you mean by this? 'cause files aren't exactly in the places you expect? like c:/windows/system32 or/var/adm/log? every major OS and their variants will have their idiosyncracies, and you'll have to learn their variances...
i do sympathize with you that your 1.4ghz mini is pinwheeling so frequently... it shouldn't do this if all you are using it for is safari or firefox... after all it doesn't sound like you are pushing the capability of the box very much. maybe in your zeal to "control" you mac, you might have inadvertantly touched/moved/hosed some critical pieces of the OS, hence the poor performance/response. have you considered backing up your data and re-installing the OS? how about a harddrive swap? you could also run the mini from an external firewire HD, bypassing the internal drive... the mini's perform pretty nicely in tiger. or if you're really fed up with OSX, why not ditch it an install a ppc linux or bsd? fedora and openbsd should both workl on apple hardware.
don't give jagbags like this guy the satisfaction actually steering traffic to his site.
video viewing requires some inane product registration. this guy is trying to get free product thru your clicks, and figures a high traffic generating site like/. will give him the clicks for free product.
what's up with that, tomcat7194@gmail.com?!?? run out of friends and family to sell out for your free ipod and mac mini, you gotta try the/. community? i think this kind of behavior will get your gmail account banned.
WTF! i can't believe CT would actually allow a submission like this to make it all the way thru...
come on CT, wake up, drink coffee, and kill this f*ckin' article!./ get's abused enough, don't let it get abused with this kind of trash or people will think/. has jumped the shark!!!
what bias? bias against ubuntu? no, in fact the opposite.i just installed xubuntu on one of my f*ckaround boxen to kick the tires. what you must be referring to as my "bias" is actually my hardon about installing software/OS on someone elses computer that they might not necessarily want. how would you like it if i installed an OS on your EXISTING computer, but you had no choice of OS? "i'll move all your data over, i promise, but i might not be able to capture everything. some things you'll have to do over again, like signing into your favorite websites..." would you like it? i think not.
neither giving a preloaded computer or installing on existing computers are a good idea, save for the reasons i listed in my original post(i.e. they specifically asked you for your help). no matter how well intentioned, anything else is a bad idea, lacking in common sense.
remember, the original question was to load ubuntu on existing computers, NOT giving a computer to someone who doesn't have a computer.
your suggestion of giving a pc with ubuntu pre-loaded is interesting, but very impractical. think it through, man... cheap pc = $0-$300 cheap LCD = $0-$200 cheap keyboard = $0-10 cheap mouse = $0-$5 -or- cheap KVM = $50-150 if you have all the components lying around, then it's free, but if you have to purchase any of it, individually or as a bundle, it's gonna cost something... even if it's just a computer and a KVM. and in all practicality, you prolly can only give out one or two complete pc's before realizing it's a very costly venture to outfit your entire family with new computers.
then there's the other common sense item you're ignoring, desk space. unlike all us geeks, most folks don't want multiple computers on/under/near their desk. "just one is enough, thanks".
but let's ignore all common sense: you go and give your folks a second computer with ubuntu preloaded on it, keyboard, mouse, lcd, the works. they have the extra desk space, they can use it side by side with their existing windows machine. and they even let you "train" them on how to use it... (they're happy to spend any time they can with you) eventually, you will find out that they are not using it because things like bookmarks and keychained passwords and cookies are all setup on their windows box and they've forgotten what their logins/passwords are to their favorite websites, and it's easier for them to continue using their existing machine than switch.
no, he's not talking about a water-cooled rig. he's talking about chilled water cooling, a method used by big buildings (i.e. high rise offices, hospitals, schools) for environmental control. occasionally you need to plan to have chilled water brought to a new build out (i.e. server room) so that it has appropriate cooling.
i agree with your top tier manufacturer suggestion, at least with sun and ibm.
i also think bare metal is prolly a better solution than xen.
frankly i think the AC has it right: imac or coffee beans. there have been some great examples here of how elderly parents have been recently converted to linux. cool. but the main point i was trying to make is that the question comes from a guy who is the family tech-guru, and he prolly already talks about the benefits of linux all the time, so hey man, give it a fucking rest during xmas. student or recently graduated or not a lot of disposable income? no problem, get an inexpensive gift that non-techs will appreciate: candles, silicon cooking utensils, a calendar, whatever there's tons of gifts under $5-10. go to the gap/urban outfitters/old navy/pier one/barnes and noble/borders and scour the sale bin for clothes or candles or widgets, etc... he prolly spends the rest of the year touting the benefits of FOSS, and how much better it is than M$, so... wait until the uninitiated ASKS for help/enlightenment/conversion. anything else is cramming his beliefs(well intended as they may be) down their proverbial throats.
yes, from a sysadmin perspective there are plenty of tools available without going thru the bother of creating oem-style installers... i was initially thinking g4u, but i got to thinking how i would make things easy for my parents, and other non-tech end users.
by creating an oem install disk, you make the emergency reinstall of a complete system including all standard apps by, say the sectretary or the copy boy easy for non-tech users. enabling the end user thru education and easy to use tools will in the end make them more self-sufficient.
i'm sorry, not to be mean, but giving ubuntu install media and a promise to help install it is like giving crocheted tea cozy to coffee drinker who neither has a teapot or likes drinks tea. it seems like an altruistic gift, like making a donation in someone else's name to help fight world hunger/peta/greenpeace, but it would probably be perceived as an excuse to get out of gift giving and yet another opportunity to soapbox your software political stance. they'd probably appreciate a bag of sticks and coal more than a linux install disk... at least they would be able to use is in a weber for grilling.
i think ubuntu is a great distro, but not everyone will want to use it(linux in general)... so what happens to the gift receipient who needs to use windows at home because he/she is a telecommuter?
"hey thanks father christmas! ubuntu linux!?!! this is really cool, but i can't install it on my work computer... really appreciate the thought though;-) you know what they say, it's the thought that counts! *cough* bull$hit gift *cough*"
or
"hey thanks uncle father christmas!! cool! i've always wanted to try linux on my pc! i can be a hacker just like you!! can i still play halo and GTA and WoW? no? what? maybe in emulation? no, i'm not allowed to drink wine... oh, thanks anyways..."
being the geek in the family, they prolly come to you for all their computer needs/requests for help, etc, but would you appreciate a copy of windows and a promise to help install it on your computer as a gift? if you really want to give a computer or linux related gift, get you folks a giant mousepad, or a new usb thumbdrive(1gb thumbdrives at microcenter for $15!), or some other a wrt54g with dd-wrt preloaded, but not an install disk.
most people don't like religion or politics crammed down their throats by friends and family, evangelism of any sort is usually a turn-off. be politically neutral with your christmas gifts and give something your family really wants. you can spend the rest of the year thumping you chest about ubuntu/linux/FOSS (you prolly already do), but make xmas not about your personal software beliefs.
yes. agreed. drink the koolaid, get msdn, and dive in head first. also, if you're concerned about building/deploying lots of boxes, consider the certified gold partner status, which i believe gives you access to the oem building tools... build disk images and "bundled" apps of what your big client wants as a standard system deployment.
but i dont think they will turn into a patent troll
much of their business is coming from government, defense and education. SGI is still selling MIPS based systems until the end of 2006, and will continue to manufacture MIPS/IRIX systems for several more years(most likely goverment amd defense contract obligations). most of the IRIX enginners have already been shifted to migrating the core technology from IRIX to linux. i don't believe SGI is turning into a SCO-like litigation machine, even if some PR monkey makes a wide sweeping statement about the vast amount of IP SGI is holding.
and while i'm on the topic of SGI and SCO, wasn't SGI initially accused by SCO of having violated licensing agreements in the whole SCO V. World debacle?
SGI has admitted defeat in the CPU market by porting EVERYTHING from IRIX to linux. it's a very risky process, and they've made a pretty good go of it. apple is the only other company whose actually managed a platform change THREE times and survived(four if you include OS change), perhaps SGI is hoping for similar results. if any company in the tech arena has a strong following, SGI certainly does.
i used to ask a particular software vendor(known for making server applications that ran on solaris, irix, windows and osx) why they didn't have a linux offering. the response was "how am i supposed to make any money from it?" this was the response from a seasoned unix software developer, who had wrongly assumed that anything linux=giving it away for free with source. eventually a linux version of his product was deployed, and although it hasn't had the market shares of the solaris or irix versions, i think the tides are slowly turning in favor of the linux version. and who convinced this developer to migrate to linux? his existing user base. actual paying customers, not potential customers.
not everything about linux/OSS has to be a major battle. a binary driver here and there for better acceptability is a pretty small concession to make. not every box i run has linux/bsd running, and its usually because i have equipment that requires drivers that don't yet exist/aren't ready for primetime in the *nix world.
Free and freedom are excellent goals to strive for in the computing realm, but it needs to be balanced with usability and stability. i'm not always able to retrograde to 10 year old technology, sometimes i need current technology, and i can't wait for a reverse engineered driver/hack to make it work with my system. ESR is correct, ipods, cameras, phones, pda, these are the trappings of the modern computing experience, and if you can't get it to work right with one OS, you'll use an OS that items will work with.
sometimes it's better to conceed the small fights, like binary drivers, and worry about the bigger battles, like market share. you vote with your wallet by saying "i have your product, i've spent my money and i want to use it with linux. if you can't make it work with linux i'm taking it back". refunding money is taking money out of their pocket, and most manufacturers don't ever want to do this. and invariably they will communicate with you on some level, because you are a customer, and they have an obligation.
remember a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and if your a paying customer, you the bird in the hand that they don't want to see fly away...
threatening/posturing that you will not buy a product because it doesn't run on linux is a wasted effort. you haven't spent any money, so your not a customer. if you're not a customer, they're not gonna listen to you, 'cause manufacturers listen to their installed customer base not their potential customer base. i'd gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today is a piss poor way to convince manufacturers to work strongly with OSS.
i've actually been a big fan of readhat since v4, and i still have a copy of redhat's release of motif, but i've been waffling between linux and bsd for the last couple of years...
i've tried most of the major and a few minor linux distros(RH, suse, deb, slack, ubuntu, knoppix, YDL, dsl, elive) over the years, but have always come back to RH/FC as the benchmark for a standard professional install. suse comes the closest to RH in terms of a professional install, and i'm over due to check it out again. frankly the most important issues to me are the initial installation and kernel tweaks, and app installs. RPM and YUM are decent package managers, although i thing sun's pkg is still better than either. installation of apps has to be easy, especially when you need to talk someone thru it.
then i tried openbsd at a friend's insistance, and it really changed my perspective...
openbsd - friendly install, no, but it is pretty easy to toss in the boot cd, point it to a ftp/http server, and install. i was even able to net install using a linksys wmp54g card for openbsd3.9. FC5 required some BS ndiswrapper crap, which just seems down right weird to me. recompiling the kernel is way easier on bsd. and the whole ports system for app installation is pretty cool(gentoo is looking pretty cool as a linux distro because of portage). and frankly, for what i use a linux/bsd box for(server, not workstation), i feel that openbsd is way more stable and lean than any of the linux distros.
the whole linux distro argument is really getting tiresome. pick a distro cause it works for you, cause it fits the need. it's not a gang. it's not a religion.
hard drive in the freezer voodoo...
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Computer Voodoo?
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been reading some interesting ide harddrive tricks, this is one of my favs so far... so i thought i'd toss a scsi drive voodoo i've used a few times to retrieve some data.. the ol' "stick it in the freezer" voodoo. granted, this is a last ditch effort, but it's worked several times for me. so it goes something like this...
years ago a graphic arts vendor was padding it's financials by shipping out demo RS6000 server and raid units to customers. on their books they'd list it as a sale and a returned product, even thought they were actually just demo units(they ended up getting in serious trouble for this behavior, but that's another story). they shipped one of these units to my company, and i remember trying to ship the unit back with out success. it sat on our shipping dock for over a year in it's original shipping crate, and was never claimed. so we ended up stripping it for parts. a total of twenty 4gb barracudas came out of the clovis raids. after some heavy usage, the 4 GB barracuda drives(before seagate had the 5 yr warranties) would start acting wonky, usually when you would try to read a critical file off of the drive. i remember these drives as being popular for their performance, but unpopular for their noise and heat. anyways, call me crazy, but i could tell by the sound of the drive that it was repeatedly trying to read the same sectors repeatedly before failing. mac os 7 and 8 would spin the watch and either recover with an error message that such-and-such file was unreadable, or it would tail spin endlessly and require a force quit/reboot. i'd make note of which files were problematic and copy as many of the other files as possible. when i was ready to copy off the final files, i'd pull the drive out of the mac, let it cool off to room temp, stick the drive in a ziplock, and into the freezer. meanwhile i'd stick a replacement drive in the system, rebuild it, and prep an external scsi case for the frozen drive. i'd boot the system completely, install the frozen drive, power the external scsi box, use scsi-probe or FWB scsi DA to discover and mount the drive, and Viola! i'd be able to copy my files off the drive.
this usually gave me a 5-10 minute window before the drive started acting up again, and at least on one occasion i crashed the heads into the platter(prolly from condensation). in any event, after a successful copy, we'd end up low level formatting the drives and press it back into service for photoshop scratch drives or disk image drives for cd replication.
There's a lot of many insightful comments, and a few jokes, but i have to agree with the comments regarding your sister taking advantage of you and belittling you. this is a big one, and we'll get back to this one later...
i think you have two basic choices, change the way you set up a windows box, or move to a different OS.
1) stop setting up your sister with administrative rights! set up an admin account and multiple user accounts(sister, games, pr0n surfer, etc) with no admin prives. when dumbass hoses her account, delete the old one, and recreate a new one. what about my games? if you have them now, i will load it for you. if not, you'll have to wait 'til next time. i need the admin password occasionally for online stuff ah, no you don't. infact tell me when you need it? cat got your tongue? in fact that's the reason you got into this mess in the first place. obviously you know not enough to wield the awesome responsibility of administrator.
set up the pc with remote desktop so you can access the computer remotely if necessary. i'm sure there are all sorts of widgets to report ip address changes, etc, so your sister being on dhcp dsl/cable shouldn't be an issue for remote access.
find something your sister does well so you can barter for your time. everytime you fix her computer/install software, she does *whatever she's good at* in return. pick something that requires a little time and not easily purchased, like a home cooked meal, or knitting a sweater, dog walking service, etc... this will eventually give her the hint that your time is worth something. and don't barter for something ephemeral:sex; a date with your sisters hot friend; help with your french homework; etc... these things will only bring you grief. only accept a bonefide service, durable goods, or handmade product(i.e. pot roast) that your parents might approve of.
moving her to XP pro will give you more control remotely, and better granularity for permissions and other rights that she won't miss being administrator all the time...
2) move from windows to linux/freebsd. ubuntu/linspire/knoppix/dragonfly one of the new easy to use and install distro. granted these won't have all of the features your sister is looking for in a computer: something her friends are using; sharing pictures and movies from youtube; being able to jump on the latest and greatest 'net meme... yeah linux/bsd/*nix will typically lag in this arena with the exception of...
3) mac os x. the out of box experience with apple products is second to none. from the initial account setup to the tight integration of applications, it's really just the best for people who want to surf, share pictures and movies, do some word processing and spreadsheet action, and general light to medium computer usage for folks who don't want to drag out the command line. get your sister a mac. hopefully you live in a big metro area, invite her to snacks/drinks after school/work, and drag her to one of the free application seminars at the apple store, help her find the mac that is appropriate for her, and let her know that when she has problems, there are a store full of people and "geniuses" that can help her. if she balks at the price, subsidize part of it just to get this leech of a family member off your back. i would suggest a laptop(mac book), so she can easily walk into the store with it.
or keep sucking her exhaust and waste by-products and keep fixing the pc you built for her while she spoonfeeds you with insults.
if you really want grid computing, use an out-of-the-box solution like xgrid, or a sun based solution. why linux? if not for some special OS-specific reason, sun or OSX will privide better success in the cluster realm. if you want HA, look into everything fiber with FC subsystems and brocade and heartbeat. please, this is not flame bait, just tired of the "linux everywhere" mentality. using the right tool for the job is more important...
... to figure out. we're gonna run into a problem regarding the loss of historical information both long term and short historical data. yeah, music, videos, and other cultural flotsom often record important insight into a culture that dry historical records do not. stone and clay tablets last for centuries and don't require a playback device/software. neither does photographic, printed material, or other analog forms of recording. creating yet another format only for the purpose of making money is reaching pandemic proportions, and the ones who lose are the generations that come after us, not being able to read the obscure media formats that were created in the late 20/early 21 century. big business is ruining our current and future cultural historical records becasue of their greed! what a pity...
...need to learn from the past when all of them were releasing their own branded os/hardware/peripherals/etc back in the mid 80's. it was horrible. sony/hitachi/mastushita/NEC all had their own OS and apps-suites, most of them would not inter-operate. then apple came in and showed the japanese how double-byte computing should really be done. yeah, it was somewhat inelegant at the time with the special fonts and soft-keyboard for kanji/hara/kata, but it was AWESOME! of course with XP and OSX these problems are all but a bad memory, except for the format feuds... now 20+ years later we're still seeing the same bullsh*t with competing proprietary hardware formats, hoping their's will be the winner in both consumer and computing arenas. I hope some small innovative american or israeli company will come in and re-define this area for the japanese tech companies and learn 'em a lesson;-) damn bluray-hd... and another thing... the dutch! they need to be learnt a lesson too for fueling the fire!
no doubt alot of first gen buyers feel like they are acting as beta tester, paying for the privilege to beta test for apple... i know, i've bought first gen apple products, and learned to wait for the revisions... se/30, imagewriter, laserwriter II NTX, quadra 700, quadra 900, bondi blue gum-drop imac, newton, 8100, 8600, b/w g3, sawtooth/mirror door/dually g4, sunflower/luxo jr imac, g5 etc this f*ckin' list can keep going...(some of these are personal, many were corporate often out of necessity). considering that most manufacturers are guilty of this in some respect, i think that apple is not unique in having first gen products have flaws. they are quick to fix the flaws, and usually release multiple revisions to fix primary and subsequent issues.
i learned pretty early on (my first personal purchase, se/30 - "the ol' 80mg quantum drive stick-tion problem" fixed in rev B, i bought rev A) to hold my ground and wait 3-4 months for the B or C rev's to hit the streets. back in the day i relied on all the pubs(macweek, macworld, macuser) to identify first round problems. nowadays sights such as/. , ogrady, AT, spymac, etc are the usual references in identifying problem hardware revs. having this kind of public review of a company's products really helps keep a manufacturer on it's feet.
consider how car/tire/chemical/pharm companies usually wait until multiple deaths are involved before fixing/altering/removing a botched product, i think the sins that apple commits when relasing a product to market to meet the demands of the corporate board AND the public's hunger for said product is pretty minor in comparison. no doubt you feel upset that you should have waited 1 day/week/month before buying that computer/laptop/ipod and you would have avoided all that frustration of purchasing a rev A product, but how many times has that already happened to you with other company products? IBM deathstar hard drives, RAMBus memory, Intel floating point processor glitch, prius reboot problem, microsoft bob etc.
often apple will bend over backwards to fix a problem, and extend the swap out/replacement timeframe(i.e. exploding batterys, melting power supplies, faulty ibook mobo's). did bridgestone and ford offer replacement tires/vehicles in the delaminating steel belts on the ford explorers? not until many people died, and even then they blamed the buying public for causing the problem.
isn't this really a PROOF OF CONCEPT? the plane the portugese tested was 3 meters long... not big enough for human passengers. currently fly-by-wire has multiple paths to the same device for redundancy, so having a wireless connection would be a good thing. considering the fact that airplanes are basically metal tubes, there aren't too many pathways that could be considered truely redundant... no matter if the wiring is harnessed above/below/port/starboard of the cargo or passenger cabin, all paths are still running parallel to each other. the wireless connection would allow a redundant connection without a pathway limitation. as a response to the comment that wires don't take up too much space, try having 5 redundant connections from point a-b, and you're talking a minimum of 2 wires for the simplest circuit(on/off switch) per pathway. what happens when it's a system that requires multiple degrees of motion with feedback? you think 2 wires is gonna do that? fiber, maybe, but not copper. and when you consider the amount of cabling that goes into a passenger class jet, you be safe to bet there's probably 1/4-1/2 mile worth of wiring for all your electrical systems. saving space and weight can become an important issue. and lastly a comment about hacking/jamming/disruption of fly-by-wireless: any flight control system that would actually use wireless technology will not end up using a consumer band of wavelength, nor would it use consumer grade software protocols. airflight as a business is culturally too important and profitable to allow disruption by such commonly available technology. fly-by-wireless tehnology will end up being very expensive, and very difficult to compromise, licensed and regulated heavily, and will operate in a far different spectrum band than bluetooth or 802.11.
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i also like my bacon crispy so that it breaks off in my mouth with the slightest pressure, but i also have the benefit of a full mouth of teeth, so i have a wider margin of acceptable crispiness... although i pretty sure cap'n crunch would not like the way i cook bacon:
1) take a full pound of oscar mayer's bacon
2) place unwrapped bacon in frying pan
3) peel individual slices from the main slab
4) continue until all slices have been separated
5) avoid straightening the slices (a.k.a. "pretty bacon")
6) continue cooking bacon in its own fat, maintaining a folded or button-like shape(a.k.a. "ugly bacon")
7) cook until all of the bacon is fully crisped
8) drain on paper towel and enjoy!(unless you are cap'n crunch, then send bacon back to the kitchen)
don't be an asshole.
be honest, and let the applicant know that you are not hiring him because his skills are not at the level you are expecting for the given position.
explain what it is you really want to see experience-wise, even offer examples of where his skillz are deficient, but do it respectfully.
offer to consider him again if he accomplishes XYZ, but tell him the position requires more skills than he currently possesses.
if you cat/mouse him, or treat him like a jerk, chances are you'll reap exactly sow. IANAL, but depending on what the labor laws are in your area, you might F yourself in the A, or even encourage rage and revenge in you recently humiliated interview reject.
you never know, your truthful (respectful) response might not only inspire someone that you'll want to hire in the future.
when i first read falcon storage engine, i initially thought of a storage software called falconstor. falconstor is more in the data backup/archive/recovery market, often used as a disk-to-disk-to-tape solution, or sometimes as a virtual tape device, but i imagine that often times a name that's close but different is almost always considered "too close" and forces a name change by somebody... let's see how this gets resolved. who knows, maybe the other falcon store(NSFW) might be the winner...
i had every applicant fill out an employment form before i would see them, and most of my questions were based on the app, i.e. what did you do at this or that employer, why did you leave, etc. during the interviews i explained which equipment needed to be monitored, which equipment needed immediate attention, and what items required escalation to first or second shift. most of the time they would be watching blinking lights, and to fill their time they would need to do a few low level tasks, like turning screws to build new boxes, or disassembling old boxes down to the components. then i put a box with a disassembled computer in front of them and ask them to put it together for me. for extra credit they could load the os and get it on the network.
i had 7 people out of about 25 who could pice a box together, 2 out of the 7 were able to complete the extra credit and load the OS. i offered the job to one of the two who was a divorced out of work dad(the other guy lived at home with mom and dad). i've known that dude for a long time, he was my best hire at that company. we no longer work together, but we often email and aim, and the experience he gained working in my department has given him a huge leg up in the last few jobs he's had...
i wouldn't sugar coat the tasks or requirements or expectations to your applicants. it doesn't cost anything to have a hard/rigerous interview(except for your time) but it will cost your company a lot more if your pick is not good and doesn't work out: training time, paycheck, unemployment benefits, etc., so choose wisely grasshopper. your entry level tech is not your friend, so during training, give him/her shit work i.e. "see that cabinet full of tangled cables and jumbled parts? organize it by size, color, function. untangle all the cables. test all the hard drives and memory. i want it done by the end of the day/week/whatever." in fact many organizations(unofficially) give the FNG exceptionally hard tasks, even a kobayashi maru to see how they respond. it's cruel, but it's one way an shake out the chaff from the wheat, and it's a baptism by fire that can bond people together...
* command-F (Apple-F) brings up the find command. command-Space or command-space-option brings up spotlight for contextual searches. obviously you know this, but what exactly are you looking for that you can't find? application config/support files? in Library or ~/Library. what system config options? you say you're saavy with linux so the apple-variant of the bsd layout should be pretty familiar to you.
* what do you want to see that's happening behind the scenes? top in a terminal and activity monitor are good places to start...
*you could do stuff with the CLI, but don't know how? what do you mean by this? 'cause files aren't exactly in the places you expect? like c:/windows/system32 or /var/adm/log? every major OS and their variants will have their idiosyncracies, and you'll have to learn their variances...
i do sympathize with you that your 1.4ghz mini is pinwheeling so frequently... it shouldn't do this if all you are using it for is safari or firefox... after all it doesn't sound like you are pushing the capability of the box very much. maybe in your zeal to "control" you mac, you might have inadvertantly touched/moved/hosed some critical pieces of the OS, hence the poor performance/response. have you considered backing up your data and re-installing the OS? how about a harddrive swap? you could also run the mini from an external firewire HD, bypassing the internal drive... the mini's perform pretty nicely in tiger. or if you're really fed up with OSX, why not ditch it an install a ppc linux or bsd? fedora and openbsd should both workl on apple hardware.
yeah, i was thinking "what cosplay award did hawkings win? possibly best scientist in a wheelchair costume award?"
what's even more embarrassing is that the purveyor of this submission is a high school student...
DO NOT CLICK!
DO NOT CLICK!
DO NOT CLICK!
don't give jagbags like this guy the satisfaction actually steering traffic to his site.
video viewing requires some inane product registration. this guy is trying to get free product thru your clicks, and figures a high traffic generating site like
what's up with that, tomcat7194@gmail.com?!?? run out of friends and family to sell out for your free ipod and mac mini, you gotta try the
WTF! i can't believe CT would actually allow a submission like this to make it all the way thru...
come on CT, wake up, drink coffee, and kill this f*ckin' article!
what bias? bias against ubuntu? no, in fact the opposite.i just installed xubuntu on one of my f*ckaround boxen to kick the tires. what you must be referring to as my "bias" is actually my hardon about installing software/OS on someone elses computer that they might not necessarily want. how would you like it if i installed an OS on your EXISTING computer, but you had no choice of OS? "i'll move all your data over, i promise, but i might not be able to capture everything. some things you'll have to do over again, like signing into your favorite websites..." would you like it? i think not.
neither giving a preloaded computer or installing on existing computers are a good idea, save for the reasons i listed in my original post(i.e. they specifically asked you for your help). no matter how well intentioned, anything else is a bad idea, lacking in common sense.
remember, the original question was to load ubuntu on existing computers, NOT giving a computer to someone who doesn't have a computer.
your suggestion of giving a pc with ubuntu pre-loaded is interesting, but very impractical. think it through, man...
cheap pc = $0-$300
cheap LCD = $0-$200
cheap keyboard = $0-10
cheap mouse = $0-$5
-or-
cheap KVM = $50-150
if you have all the components lying around, then it's free, but if you have to purchase any of it, individually or as a bundle, it's gonna cost something... even if it's just a computer and a KVM. and in all practicality, you prolly can only give out one or two complete pc's before realizing it's a very costly venture to outfit your entire family with new computers.
then there's the other common sense item you're ignoring, desk space. unlike all us geeks, most folks don't want multiple computers on/under/near their desk. "just one is enough, thanks".
but let's ignore all common sense: you go and give your folks a second computer with ubuntu preloaded on it, keyboard, mouse, lcd, the works. they have the extra desk space, they can use it side by side with their existing windows machine. and they even let you "train" them on how to use it... (they're happy to spend any time they can with you) eventually, you will find out that they are not using it because things like bookmarks and keychained passwords and cookies are all setup on their windows box and they've forgotten what their logins/passwords are to their favorite websites, and it's easier for them to continue using their existing machine than switch.
no, he's not talking about a water-cooled rig. he's talking about chilled water cooling, a method used by big buildings (i.e. high rise offices, hospitals, schools) for environmental control. occasionally you need to plan to have chilled water brought to a new build out (i.e. server room) so that it has appropriate cooling.
i agree with your top tier manufacturer suggestion, at least with sun and ibm.
i also think bare metal is prolly a better solution than xen.
frankly i think the AC has it right: imac or coffee beans. there have been some great examples here of how elderly parents have been recently converted to linux. cool. but the main point i was trying to make is that the question comes from a guy who is the family tech-guru, and he prolly already talks about the benefits of linux all the time, so hey man, give it a fucking rest during xmas. student or recently graduated or not a lot of disposable income? no problem, get an inexpensive gift that non-techs will appreciate: candles, silicon cooking utensils, a calendar, whatever there's tons of gifts under $5-10. go to the gap/urban outfitters/old navy/pier one/barnes and noble/borders and scour the sale bin for clothes or candles or widgets, etc... he prolly spends the rest of the year touting the benefits of FOSS, and how much better it is than M$, so... wait until the uninitiated ASKS for help/enlightenment/conversion. anything else is cramming his beliefs(well intended as they may be) down their proverbial throats.
yes, from a sysadmin perspective there are plenty of tools available without going thru the bother of creating oem-style installers... i was initially thinking g4u, but i got to thinking how i would make things easy for my parents, and other non-tech end users.
by creating an oem install disk, you make the emergency reinstall of a complete system including all standard apps by, say the sectretary or the copy boy easy for non-tech users. enabling the end user thru education and easy to use tools will in the end make them more self-sufficient.
i think ubuntu is a great distro, but not everyone will want to use it(linux in general)... so what happens to the gift receipient who needs to use windows at home because he/she is a telecommuter?
"hey thanks father christmas! ubuntu linux!?!! this is really cool, but i can't install it on my work computer... really appreciate the thought though ;-) you know what they say, it's the thought that counts! *cough* bull$hit gift *cough*"
or
"hey thanks uncle father christmas!! cool! i've always wanted to try linux on my pc! i can be a hacker just like you!! can i still play halo and GTA and WoW? no? what? maybe in emulation? no, i'm not allowed to drink wine... oh, thanks anyways..."
being the geek in the family, they prolly come to you for all their computer needs/requests for help, etc, but would you appreciate a copy of windows and a promise to help install it on your computer as a gift? if you really want to give a computer or linux related gift, get you folks a giant mousepad, or a new usb thumbdrive(1gb thumbdrives at microcenter for $15!), or some other a wrt54g with dd-wrt preloaded, but not an install disk.
most people don't like religion or politics crammed down their throats by friends and family, evangelism of any sort is usually a turn-off. be politically neutral with your christmas gifts and give something your family really wants. you can spend the rest of the year thumping you chest about ubuntu/linux/FOSS (you prolly already do), but make xmas not about your personal software beliefs.
yes. agreed. drink the koolaid, get msdn, and dive in head first. also, if you're concerned about building/deploying lots of boxes, consider the certified gold partner status, which i believe gives you access to the oem building tools... build disk images and "bundled" apps of what your big client wants as a standard system deployment.
much of their business is coming from government, defense and education. SGI is still selling MIPS based systems until the end of 2006, and will continue to manufacture MIPS/IRIX systems for several more years(most likely goverment amd defense contract obligations). most of the IRIX enginners have already been shifted to migrating the core technology from IRIX to linux. i don't believe SGI is turning into a SCO-like litigation machine, even if some PR monkey makes a wide sweeping statement about the vast amount of IP SGI is holding.
and while i'm on the topic of SGI and SCO, wasn't SGI initially accused by SCO of having violated licensing agreements in the whole SCO V. World debacle?
SGI has admitted defeat in the CPU market by porting EVERYTHING from IRIX to linux. it's a very risky process, and they've made a pretty good go of it. apple is the only other company whose actually managed a platform change THREE times and survived(four if you include OS change), perhaps SGI is hoping for similar results. if any company in the tech arena has a strong following, SGI certainly does.
i used to ask a particular software vendor(known for making server applications that ran on solaris, irix, windows and osx) why they didn't have a linux offering. the response was "how am i supposed to make any money from it?" this was the response from a seasoned unix software developer, who had wrongly assumed that anything linux=giving it away for free with source . eventually a linux version of his product was deployed, and although it hasn't had the market shares of the solaris or irix versions, i think the tides are slowly turning in favor of the linux version. and who convinced this developer to migrate to linux? his existing user base. actual paying customers, not potential customers.
Free and freedom are excellent goals to strive for in the computing realm, but it needs to be balanced with usability and stability. i'm not always able to retrograde to 10 year old technology, sometimes i need current technology, and i can't wait for a reverse engineered driver/hack to make it work with my system. ESR is correct, ipods, cameras, phones, pda, these are the trappings of the modern computing experience, and if you can't get it to work right with one OS, you'll use an OS that items will work with.
sometimes it's better to conceed the small fights, like binary drivers, and worry about the bigger battles, like market share. you vote with your wallet by saying "i have your product, i've spent my money and i want to use it with linux. if you can't make it work with linux i'm taking it back". refunding money is taking money out of their pocket, and most manufacturers don't ever want to do this. and invariably they will communicate with you on some level, because you are a customer, and they have an obligation.
remember a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and if your a paying customer, you the bird in the hand that they don't want to see fly away...
threatening/posturing that you will not buy a product because it doesn't run on linux is a wasted effort. you haven't spent any money, so your not a customer. if you're not a customer, they're not gonna listen to you, 'cause manufacturers listen to their installed customer base not their potential customer base. i'd gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today is a piss poor way to convince manufacturers to work strongly with OSS.
i've tried most of the major and a few minor linux distros(RH, suse, deb, slack, ubuntu, knoppix, YDL, dsl, elive) over the years, but have always come back to RH/FC as the benchmark for a standard professional install. suse comes the closest to RH in terms of a professional install, and i'm over due to check it out again. frankly the most important issues to me are the initial installation and kernel tweaks, and app installs. RPM and YUM are decent package managers, although i thing sun's pkg is still better than either. installation of apps has to be easy, especially when you need to talk someone thru it.
then i tried openbsd at a friend's insistance, and it really changed my perspective...
openbsd - friendly install, no, but it is pretty easy to toss in the boot cd, point it to a ftp/http server, and install. i was even able to net install using a linksys wmp54g card for openbsd3.9. FC5 required some BS ndiswrapper crap, which just seems down right weird to me. recompiling the kernel is way easier on bsd. and the whole ports system for app installation is pretty cool(gentoo is looking pretty cool as a linux distro because of portage). and frankly, for what i use a linux/bsd box for(server, not workstation), i feel that openbsd is way more stable and lean than any of the linux distros.
the whole linux distro argument is really getting tiresome. pick a distro cause it works for you, cause it fits the need. it's not a gang. it's not a religion.
years ago a graphic arts vendor was padding it's financials by shipping out demo RS6000 server and raid units to customers. on their books they'd list it as a sale and a returned product, even thought they were actually just demo units(they ended up getting in serious trouble for this behavior, but that's another story). they shipped one of these units to my company, and i remember trying to ship the unit back with out success. it sat on our shipping dock for over a year in it's original shipping crate, and was never claimed. so we ended up stripping it for parts. a total of twenty 4gb barracudas came out of the clovis raids. after some heavy usage, the 4 GB barracuda drives(before seagate had the 5 yr warranties) would start acting wonky, usually when you would try to read a critical file off of the drive. i remember these drives as being popular for their performance, but unpopular for their noise and heat. anyways, call me crazy, but i could tell by the sound of the drive that it was repeatedly trying to read the same sectors repeatedly before failing. mac os 7 and 8 would spin the watch and either recover with an error message that such-and-such file was unreadable, or it would tail spin endlessly and require a force quit/reboot. i'd make note of which files were problematic and copy as many of the other files as possible. when i was ready to copy off the final files, i'd pull the drive out of the mac, let it cool off to room temp, stick the drive in a ziplock, and into the freezer. meanwhile i'd stick a replacement drive in the system, rebuild it, and prep an external scsi case for the frozen drive. i'd boot the system completely, install the frozen drive, power the external scsi box, use scsi-probe or FWB scsi DA to discover and mount the drive, and Viola! i'd be able to copy my files off the drive.
this usually gave me a 5-10 minute window before the drive started acting up again, and at least on one occasion i crashed the heads into the platter(prolly from condensation). in any event, after a successful copy, we'd end up low level formatting the drives and press it back into service for photoshop scratch drives or disk image drives for cd replication.
i think you have two basic choices, change the way you set up a windows box, or move to a different OS.
1) stop setting up your sister with administrative rights! set up an admin account and multiple user accounts(sister, games, pr0n surfer, etc) with no admin prives. when dumbass hoses her account, delete the old one, and recreate a new one. what about my games? if you have them now, i will load it for you. if not, you'll have to wait 'til next time. i need the admin password occasionally for online stuff ah, no you don't. infact tell me when you need it? cat got your tongue? in fact that's the reason you got into this mess in the first place. obviously you know not enough to wield the awesome responsibility of administrator.
set up the pc with remote desktop so you can access the computer remotely if necessary. i'm sure there are all sorts of widgets to report ip address changes, etc, so your sister being on dhcp dsl/cable shouldn't be an issue for remote access.
find something your sister does well so you can barter for your time. everytime you fix her computer/install software, she does *whatever she's good at* in return. pick something that requires a little time and not easily purchased, like a home cooked meal, or knitting a sweater, dog walking service, etc... this will eventually give her the hint that your time is worth something. and don't barter for something ephemeral:sex; a date with your sisters hot friend; help with your french homework; etc... these things will only bring you grief. only accept a bonefide service, durable goods, or handmade product(i.e. pot roast) that your parents might approve of.
moving her to XP pro will give you more control remotely, and better granularity for permissions and other rights that she won't miss being administrator all the time...
2) move from windows to linux/freebsd. ubuntu/linspire/knoppix/dragonfly one of the new easy to use and install distro. granted these won't have all of the features your sister is looking for in a computer: something her friends are using; sharing pictures and movies from youtube; being able to jump on the latest and greatest 'net meme... yeah linux/bsd/*nix will typically lag in this arena with the exception of...
3) mac os x. the out of box experience with apple products is second to none. from the initial account setup to the tight integration of applications, it's really just the best for people who want to surf, share pictures and movies, do some word processing and spreadsheet action, and general light to medium computer usage for folks who don't want to drag out the command line. get your sister a mac. hopefully you live in a big metro area, invite her to snacks/drinks after school/work, and drag her to one of the free application seminars at the apple store, help her find the mac that is appropriate for her, and let her know that when she has problems, there are a store full of people and "geniuses" that can help her. if she balks at the price, subsidize part of it just to get this leech of a family member off your back. i would suggest a laptop(mac book), so she can easily walk into the store with it.
or keep sucking her exhaust and waste by-products and keep fixing the pc you built for her while she spoonfeeds you with insults.
if you really want grid computing, use an out-of-the-box solution like xgrid, or a sun based solution. why linux? if not for some special OS-specific reason, sun or OSX will privide better success in the cluster realm. if you want HA, look into everything fiber with FC subsystems and brocade and heartbeat. please, this is not flame bait, just tired of the "linux everywhere" mentality. using the right tool for the job is more important...
... to figure out. we're gonna run into a problem regarding the loss of historical information both long term and short historical data. yeah, music, videos, and other cultural flotsom often record important insight into a culture that dry historical records do not. stone and clay tablets last for centuries and don't require a playback device/software. neither does photographic, printed material, or other analog forms of recording. creating yet another format only for the purpose of making money is reaching pandemic proportions, and the ones who lose are the generations that come after us, not being able to read the obscure media formats that were created in the late 20/early 21 century. big business is ruining our current and future cultural historical records becasue of their greed! what a pity...
...need to learn from the past when all of them were releasing their own branded os/hardware/peripherals/etc back in the mid 80's. it was horrible. sony/hitachi/mastushita/NEC all had their own OS and apps-suites, most of them would not inter-operate. then apple came in and showed the japanese how double-byte computing should really be done. yeah, it was somewhat inelegant at the time with the special fonts and soft-keyboard for kanji/hara/kata, but it was AWESOME! of course with XP and OSX these problems are all but a bad memory, except for the format feuds... now 20+ years later we're still seeing the same bullsh*t with competing proprietary hardware formats, hoping their's will be the winner in both consumer and computing arenas. I hope some small innovative american or israeli company will come in and re-define this area for the japanese tech companies and learn 'em a lesson;-) damn bluray-hd... and another thing... the dutch! they need to be learnt a lesson too for fueling the fire!
i learned pretty early on (my first personal purchase, se/30 - "the ol' 80mg quantum drive stick-tion problem" fixed in rev B, i bought rev A) to hold my ground and wait 3-4 months for the B or C rev's to hit the streets. back in the day i relied on all the pubs(macweek, macworld, macuser) to identify first round problems. nowadays sights such as /. , ogrady, AT, spymac, etc are the usual references in identifying problem hardware revs. having this kind of public review of a company's products really helps keep a manufacturer on it's feet.
consider how car/tire/chemical/pharm companies usually wait until multiple deaths are involved before fixing/altering/removing a botched product, i think the sins that apple commits when relasing a product to market to meet the demands of the corporate board AND the public's hunger for said product is pretty minor in comparison. no doubt you feel upset that you should have waited 1 day/week/month before buying that computer/laptop/ipod and you would have avoided all that frustration of purchasing a rev A product, but how many times has that already happened to you with other company products? IBM deathstar hard drives, RAMBus memory, Intel floating point processor glitch, prius reboot problem, microsoft bob etc.
often apple will bend over backwards to fix a problem, and extend the swap out/replacement timeframe(i.e. exploding batterys, melting power supplies, faulty ibook mobo's). did bridgestone and ford offer replacement tires/vehicles in the delaminating steel belts on the ford explorers? not until many people died, and even then they blamed the buying public for causing the problem.
isn't this really a PROOF OF CONCEPT? the plane the portugese tested was 3 meters long... not big enough for human passengers. currently fly-by-wire has multiple paths to the same device for redundancy, so having a wireless connection would be a good thing. considering the fact that airplanes are basically metal tubes, there aren't too many pathways that could be considered truely redundant... no matter if the wiring is harnessed above/below/port/starboard of the cargo or passenger cabin, all paths are still running parallel to each other. the wireless connection would allow a redundant connection without a pathway limitation. as a response to the comment that wires don't take up too much space, try having 5 redundant connections from point a-b, and you're talking a minimum of 2 wires for the simplest circuit(on/off switch) per pathway. what happens when it's a system that requires multiple degrees of motion with feedback? you think 2 wires is gonna do that? fiber, maybe, but not copper. and when you consider the amount of cabling that goes into a passenger class jet, you be safe to bet there's probably 1/4-1/2 mile worth of wiring for all your electrical systems. saving space and weight can become an important issue. and lastly a comment about hacking/jamming/disruption of fly-by-wireless: any flight control system that would actually use wireless technology will not end up using a consumer band of wavelength, nor would it use consumer grade software protocols. airflight as a business is culturally too important and profitable to allow disruption by such commonly available technology. fly-by-wireless tehnology will end up being very expensive, and very difficult to compromise, licensed and regulated heavily, and will operate in a far different spectrum band than bluetooth or 802.11.