If you'd make your argument more clear, maybe this wouldn't happen. As another poster said, your message is muddy.
IT's job is, despite what you seem to think in your twisted head, to do what "Management" tells it to do, not what the users *want* to do.
Lets take your situation. You need unfiltered access, however, company policy is to have some sort of filtering in place. Fine. You work with YOUR boss, tell him what you need, and he will either instruct IT (or talk with the "boss" of IT) to get what you need. If what you are needing *really* is part of your job, other than some time, you have nothing to worry about. "Management" will tell IT to set up whatever needs setting up to provide you with the access you need.
If "Management" denies your request, then you either misunderstand what your job *actually* is, or you didn't clearly explain what you need/why you need it.
What is so hard to understand about that? This isn't Rocket Surgery...
You've managed to miss my point entirely. My point is IT isn't doing their job, they're doing management's job and implementing it as IT.
Your job isn't to implement management policy in technology. Somewhere along the line, someone in your department made this mistake of volunteering to do this and it was a really bad idea.
And now you get to reap the repercussions of it.
(Oh, and by the way... I have had assignments which have required me to access information most filters would block. I'm a security analyst and sometimes it's critical that I be able to get to a dangerous webpage, a phishing site or a site that contains information on how do things that filter vendors don't like and block. But this is neither here nor there. My use of the web and what I do at work is between me and my manager.)
Unless, of course, IT's boss(es) have INSTRUCTED them to prevent people like you from doing exactly that.
Just because IT tells you that you can't do something doesn't mean they are doing so because they want to be dicks.
WE have bosses to, 'ya know. You don't like the porn filter and/or want to be able to install games on your COMPANY computer? Talk to your boss. If you can get him to agree to your need of porn and/or games, then it will happen.
Grow up. You are at work to WORK, not browse porn and play games (unless, of course, you work for a pornographic game producing company)...
>it doesn't mean the IT staff isn't doing their jobs.
That's exactly what it means. Neither preventing people from installing games or preventing people from browsing porn is IT's job.
Where I work, we have an automated scanner process that scans the ports looking for known access points. When found, the port is automatically disabled (keeping the rest of the network functioning). When we discover a wireless network on campus that didn't get detected, we start doing remote probes to identify it, add it to the config for our automated scanner, and go from there.
As to what's being used, specifically, I couldn't tell you. I just know I've seen the trouble tickets when they pop up. I'm in "Client Services". The Network Services team is responsible for what I described.:)
BTW -- There is no need for students/faculty to be installing AP's as the campus is fully saturated. Yes, there are weak spots, but if the students/faculty even bother to report it (something we have a huge issue with, in some buildings), we add AP's or adjust/change antennas to correct the issue.
So... A little innocent wi-fi hack crashed network in several buildings?
That's a good reason to do an audit of your network structure. It should not be that easy to crash.
And if they are that flaky - just imagine someone hostile trying to bring down your network.
Either way, this merger might be sufficient to get me to overlook the brief outages. It bothered me that my car had XM when I liked the Sirius content better anyway. If they merge the content, there will be more things that I enjoy, which could better justify the price. Not sure how I feel about the merger yet. I very much hate how Sirius has their channels programmed (Channels 1, 9, 36, and possibly a couple others -- can't remember them all since I don't use it *that* often). Through my DishNetwork receiver, the sound is great. Their internet stream, and every portable receiver I've heard, sound like *crap* compared to XM. I don't know if there is any difference in the codecs used I've never looked into it *that* much), but everything I've read has stated that XM allows more bandwidth to each channel than Sirius does.
I truly hope things come out roses in the end, but until then, all we can do is wait.:)
My XM radio was standard equipment on my car (as was the mp3/CD changer). The placement of the antenna is the same on every Acura. I'm not the only person who has the problem, either. Other people who live near me with a variety of cars and equipment (Massachusetts & New Hampshire) have the same complaints.
By "passing" a tree, I mean driving down a road with 50+ foot pine trees one or each side of the road for a bit (which is pretty common around here). It's not really just driving by one tree that does it. If it's with a particular type of car, with factory installed radio, then I'd say it's either broken, or the car manufacturer has an issue they need to rectify.
I can't really apologize for the confusion about the tree part -- your exact words were "or when there's a big tree next to the road". You probably should have been more clear (or less dramatic.:) ).
I can say that, as far as tall structures and driving next to them, I do usually lose my signal if I pull up close enough to a building (like, for example, pulling through a drive-through at a fast food place), but I've never experienced it otherwise; even driving on the backwoods country roads (Route N, which goes through Yarrow, MO comes to mind).
As for equipment, I've a RoadyXT ($50 at Wally-World). Probably one of the cheapest radios you can get. While I did take my time and route the antenna wire through all the molding (even the dealer had a very difficult time finding it!), it's been great.
As I've said -- if the factory installed equipment is having issues, you can't really blame that on the XM service, can you? It just sounds like some sub-par equipment being used by the builder (SHOCK! HORROR!, I know.. heh).
Thanks for the conversation -- too many people on here would rather just belittle a person when they dare reply to a message.:D
I hate commercials too... But I hate losing signal when I go under a bridge, or when there's a big tree next to the road, or when it's cloudy. I hate it even more when I paid $120/year for that signal...
So I just listen to CDs instead. If you get a changer that plays MP3 CDs it takes a long time to even get through all the songs, much less get tired of them. You either had a broken radio/antenna or a very poor antenna install/placement. There is only one bridge I've gone under and lost signal (on Highway 80 in Omaha), I've never lost signal when PASSING a tree, nor have I *ever* lost signal when it was "cloudy". Hell, I was stuck on Highway 29 North when a freak blizzard hit causing MoDot to close the South-bound side (I lost count of how many Semi's and cars had crashed/gone into a ditch). It was snowing so much that you could barely see past the front of your own car. Still had XM.
I do wish I had the money for a CD/MP3 changer (I have a Kenwood deck that plays WMA's/MP3's from CD and USB devices). You can only listen to the same music collection so many times before it starts to get old (at least, for me anyway).
I'd like to bet it was your antenna that was broken/poorly placed. I had a radio that kept losing signal for no good reason (or so I thought). Turned out to be a break in the cable on the antenna. Once replaced, it was rock solid.
It's usually something people listen to when there are no other entertainment options, such as when they're driving. That's what the internet stream is for (included as part of the monthly fee). I listen to it all day long in my office. When I have a computer connected to my HT setup, I'll listen it while I have friends over for game night (nearly every Saturday/Monday). I also listen to it while I'm in the shower.
Yes, you may be happy listening to the same MP3's all day, every day, etc, however, I am not. Yes, many of the songs played can (and are) played for months on end, however, new songs are introduced all the time to break it up a bit. Add in the fact that every station (save for the 5 or so that ClearChannel owns, for which XM created 5 new channels to replace them) is commercial free, and I'm hooked. I'm not the only one or these places would have gone under a long time ago.
Are you really this stupid, or are you trolling? I can't tell.
I (and millions of others just like me) listen to satellite radio all the time (I listen to it all day in my office -- listening to it right now via an XM Radio gadget in Vista). I take a 4.5 hour trip to Omaha, NE at *least* once a month, and other shorter (but still hour plus trips) between those. Hell, I even listen to the Sirius stations while I'm at home through my DishNetwork service (MAN I wish they had XM instead of DirecTV -- the Sirius programming *sucks* compared to XM in my opinion) hooked up to my HT setup.
I *hate* commercial radio. I *loath* listening to commercials for seemingly half of an hour. I hate it so much that I barely watch TV live (I record virtually everything). XM has been *awesome* for me. I am not alone.
Just because *YOU* don't subscribe to it, and thusly think it's unneeded, does not make it so. It *is* a needed service. I absolutely *refuse* to listen to normal radio after having had my XM service for several years now.
As it is right now, if the merged company decides to adopt the Sirius broadcast hardware, I'll be very upset. It does not sound as nice as XM's does (Sirius just doesn't provide as much bandwidth to their music channels as XM does and this is *especially* noticeable on their internet stream).
Ah, the vast population of US truckers. I forget how large of a group they are. Are you kidding me, of course there is going to be a niche demographic that has to benefit from something like this, but at large this is an unneeded service. My previous statement however I agree is with too broad of a brush and I retract it.
...I have not had any issues with the update. I installed it yesterday, on a mostly fresh install of Vista Enterprise, onto a Dell OptiPlex 745 with 2gb RAM and a C2D 6600.
I've got our trouble tracking software running (DKHelpDesk), SMS Admin Console (been using it heavily today), Visual Studio 2008, and Office 2007 installed (well, along with Firefox, JavaRE, Adobe Reader, etc).
'Course, this particular machine is used for business uses and not gaming, but, at least I'm one person without issues (so far).:)
You either believe that teachers should be teaching whatever they please, or that they should follow a standard curriculum. You just contradicted yourself.
If a teacher wants to teach ID, or any other of their religious beliefs, they don't belong in a school *I* help fund. That's what all the religious K-12's are for. Leave your religious crap out of the public school system. If a parent wants their children to have religion, bring their asses to church, where that shit belongs.
While teachers should be allowed to teach what they please, they should not be allowed to impress their beliefs on others.
Teachers need to stick to a standardized curriculum, and if they disagree with evolution, they should simply SAY so when teaching it - teachers could say "This is NOT what I think happened, but there are a lot of people that DO think this way".
Teach the information, NOT beliefs - I want the state OUT of my bedroom, and separate from religion!
It's an interesting design, however, with that many plugs, I'd be afraid of all the "less intelligent" amongst us that will plug everything and its sister into this strip. Each circuit in a home is rated for so many amps, and with the huge TV's, power sucking computers, game consoles, lights, etc, etc that get plugged into these, I'd just be afraid it'd start a fire, or at the very least keep blowing a breaker (leading to the moron taping the breaker so it can't trip...)
I prefer HHDD-DDVVDD, thank you.
HD DVD, Bluray or regular?
Re:Shorting AMD stock: NASDAQ figures
on
Is AMD Dead Yet?
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Remember that we are no longer in a CPU speed race; CPUs are fast enough now for the average user. Funny. My mother has a newspaper clipping of me saying something very similar -- back in about '93. It wasn't true then, it's not true now. There are all *sorts* of things we can't even do today (like talk to our computer and have it do/write what we say).
Sure, if the *only* things you are doing with your PC are looking at web pages and "doing email" (as some put it), or "office work", then our current PC's are fine. Of course, the same was true of the computers at the time I was quoted in the paper, too. I want to do *more* and I'm not alone.
Just look back to '93, then compare that with what we can do now. Now, try to imagine what we could be doing in another 14 years...
Re:It is all about the platform.
on
Is AMD Dead Yet?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Doesn't Sun market/make some Opteron based servers?
Well, I can't answer for everyone here (obviously), however, I can tell you why I had a home server at home (I took apart my old one -- will be creating something more energy efficient).
I, as you seem to imply about yourself, have several computers at home. I also had family that would bring a PC/laptop over occasionally. I also have a linux PC running Apache/Gallery/MySQL (it was in addition to the "server" I had for my Windows PC's). The linux PC is an old Blue and White G3 with a defective IDE controller (Apple sent out a bunch with a CMD chipset that had a defect, but it wasn't noticed until it was too late). I can use this machine for my file serving, but I want something a little more modern. I was looking at this for a while, but the reports I've read state the MySQL access is too slow for Gallery (though people *are* using it). I am also keeping an eye on that mainboard (it was either on digg, or here, or both) sold at ClubIT that is supposedly the same board as in that $199 PC at Wal*Mart. Of course, I like my Intel "Bad Axe 2" board I just picked up, and I could put a cheap Celeron in one (I like it's 8 SATA ports and the built in firewire, should I choose to use it). I'm sure I can find a similar AMD board and get an even cheaper Sempron to put in.. I'll have to sit down and make up my mind.:)
I told you all that, to tell you this: The reason I have the server on a separate machine is so that I don't have to leave any of my desktops on all the time (I do leave my "main" machine, which is a laptop, on all the time, but it's not always at my desk which would make accessing anything on its, or an external HDD, rather difficult). Once I put together a new server, it will take over the duties of the G3, and be a "storage dump".
I'm not the type of person that will go around and unplug every electric item in the house to cut down on every watt of power -- I don't care *that* much, but if the machine isn't doing something, it's generally off. Now, before you ask, no, I'm not going to do Folding@Home (or the varied others) on all my machines -- I don't need all my machines running 100% CPU, driving up my electric bill (I have enough problems with my waterbed -- I just discovered it's thermostat died and it was always on, full blast, all the time.. GAH!). So long as my electric bill stays reasonable, I'll continue with things as they are (save for purchasing a newer, better, water bed heater/thermostat).
I should know better than to type this stuff at work -- my mind is scattered everywhere. Hopefully this will at least give you more insight into the topic.:)
Maybe I don't understand the question, but I installed a 500GB drive as a slave in one of my numerous machines at home, partitioned it to appear as 2 250GB drives on the network, set them as shared on the network over my Netgear router, then mapped to the drives on the other machines - wireless and wired. Transferring files is very fast. I even signed up for free DNS and installed free FTP software on that machine to use one of the partitions as a password protected FTP site that our friends and family have access to. Very easy to share files and pictures that way. My Azureus downloads directly into the FTP partition so I have access to those files anywhere in the world I have internet access.
I'm not a computer genius by any stretch and this setup can be done by anyone who knows how to use Google to learn stuff. But like I said, given that I'm no genius, maybe I'm just missing the gist here. I've never tried to stream anything over the network and maybe that requires more advanced software, I don't know. My XBOX 360 takes care of my media access as I have it pointed to all the places I have stuff stored and it works like a charm over my THX stereo and HDTV.
It was funny because of the way you worded it. "If you want faster downloads, just open your firewall". Many people translate that into either removing it, or setting your PC into a DMZ, and we all know what will happen in either case.
Why has my comment been modded "funny"? I was serious... If you open your firewall for incoming torrent connections, the download speeds are much better. The same is true of pretty much any peer-to-peer application. Additionally VOIP applications like Skype perform much more reliably. Not quite sure why anybody thinks my comment was "funny" - but maybe I've missed something.
I happen to think that should be illegal, unless they print "minimum of X on hand" in their add (in a *readable* font -- one that doesn't require lab equipment to see clearly). I hated working at BBuy (late 90's) and having to deal with the flack that would come because of this. Sometimes BBuy would use the "minimum of X" in their ad (usually with computers or large TV's), but most of the time they didn't bother.
That and the same people that bitch about the "bait and switch" technique are also the same people who ignore the one per customer limitation...
For those that don't get it.. the Bait and Switch is when a retailer posts a sale on an item without having adequate stock, forcing customers them to get something else.
When I bought my car, it came with a FULL tank of gas (13.5 gallons of it). When you purchase a new ink jet printer, the cartridges aren't even half full, normally.
I've always thought it was crazy that when you buy a new car, you have to keep filling the gas tank too! What a scam.
It's actually pretty easy, at least with my receiver (the 625) to pull the video off, but it does require opening the case. The files are normal.mpg files (with a different extension that starts with a t, but I forget what it is now). I had to download Media Player Classic to actually watch them (as, even when renamed to.mpg, WMP10 and 11 would not play them).
You just need a PC running some form of linux, ext2 support in your kernel, and a space to put the movie files. Being as the only linux machine I had is an old G3, I just took an ubuntu live CD, hooked an empty IDE drive into the machine, hooked up the DVR's HDD, and transferred them onto the empty drive (formatted as VFAT so it could be read in my windows machine).
Took forever (the files were 500mb+, depending on the length of the recorded show), but worked great.
(boy, I'm just burning the karma with OT posts today...)
Dummies like me. Spent $20 on a USB connector last night to see if I could transfer video from my DishTV to computer after I switched to Uverse.
The one thing I learned while working retail is that it doesn't matter *what* your prices are. Those same customers will *still* think the prices are too high. The only thing that would make those people happy would be if you paid them to show up to shop.
Grocery stores make 1%-3% profit and they do OK, but maybe food and electronics is a little bit too apples to oranges. i worked in a grocery store in highschool, and my manager, who did the books, said that our 3% margin was rather high for a grocery store. And the customers hated our prices.
Slashdot Mirror
This and this will get you started.
I'm using the following parts:
Ultra Wizard mid-tower (free after $40 rebate, no shipping, from Frys)
Thermaltake 500w "Modular" power supply
Intel "Bad Axe 2"
Intel E4500 (Allendale) C2D 2.2ghz processor
2GB G.Skill DDR
80gb Seagate SATA HDD
IDE CD-RW/DVD-RW (LiteOn or AOpen, I forget, doesn't matter)
nVidia 8600gts PCIe video
Works great with OSX, though the machine spends most of its time in XP (Can't play the games I play in OSX, natively).
IT's job is, despite what you seem to think in your twisted head, to do what "Management" tells it to do, not what the users *want* to do.
Lets take your situation. You need unfiltered access, however, company policy is to have some sort of filtering in place. Fine. You work with YOUR boss, tell him what you need, and he will either instruct IT (or talk with the "boss" of IT) to get what you need. If what you are needing *really* is part of your job, other than some time, you have nothing to worry about. "Management" will tell IT to set up whatever needs setting up to provide you with the access you need.
If "Management" denies your request, then you either misunderstand what your job *actually* is, or you didn't clearly explain what you need/why you need it.
What is so hard to understand about that? This isn't Rocket Surgery... You've managed to miss my point entirely. My point is IT isn't doing their job, they're doing management's job and implementing it as IT.
Your job isn't to implement management policy in technology. Somewhere along the line, someone in your department made this mistake of volunteering to do this and it was a really bad idea.
And now you get to reap the repercussions of it.
(Oh, and by the way... I have had assignments which have required me to access information most filters would block. I'm a security analyst and sometimes it's critical that I be able to get to a dangerous webpage, a phishing site or a site that contains information on how do things that filter vendors don't like and block. But this is neither here nor there. My use of the web and what I do at work is between me and my manager.)
Just because IT tells you that you can't do something doesn't mean they are doing so because they want to be dicks.
WE have bosses to, 'ya know. You don't like the porn filter and/or want to be able to install games on your COMPANY computer? Talk to your boss. If you can get him to agree to your need of porn and/or games, then it will happen.
Grow up. You are at work to WORK, not browse porn and play games (unless, of course, you work for a pornographic game producing company)... >it doesn't mean the IT staff isn't doing their jobs.
That's exactly what it means. Neither preventing people from installing games or preventing people from browsing porn is IT's job.
As to what's being used, specifically, I couldn't tell you. I just know I've seen the trouble tickets when they pop up. I'm in "Client Services". The Network Services team is responsible for what I described.
BTW -- There is no need for students/faculty to be installing AP's as the campus is fully saturated. Yes, there are weak spots, but if the students/faculty even bother to report it (something we have a huge issue with, in some buildings), we add AP's or adjust/change antennas to correct the issue. So... A little innocent wi-fi hack crashed network in several buildings?
That's a good reason to do an audit of your network structure. It should not be that easy to crash.
And if they are that flaky - just imagine someone hostile trying to bring down your network.
I truly hope things come out roses in the end, but until then, all we can do is wait.
My XM radio was standard equipment on my car (as was the mp3/CD changer). The placement of the antenna is the same on every Acura. I'm not the only person who has the problem, either. Other people who live near me with a variety of cars and equipment (Massachusetts & New Hampshire) have the same complaints.
By "passing" a tree, I mean driving down a road with 50+ foot pine trees one or each side of the road for a bit (which is pretty common around here). It's not really just driving by one tree that does it. If it's with a particular type of car, with factory installed radio, then I'd say it's either broken, or the car manufacturer has an issue they need to rectify.
I can't really apologize for the confusion about the tree part -- your exact words were "or when there's a big tree next to the road". You probably should have been more clear (or less dramatic.
I can say that, as far as tall structures and driving next to them, I do usually lose my signal if I pull up close enough to a building (like, for example, pulling through a drive-through at a fast food place), but I've never experienced it otherwise; even driving on the backwoods country roads (Route N, which goes through Yarrow, MO comes to mind).
As for equipment, I've a RoadyXT ($50 at Wally-World). Probably one of the cheapest radios you can get. While I did take my time and route the antenna wire through all the molding (even the dealer had a very difficult time finding it!), it's been great.
As I've said -- if the factory installed equipment is having issues, you can't really blame that on the XM service, can you? It just sounds like some sub-par equipment being used by the builder (SHOCK! HORROR!, I know.. heh).
Thanks for the conversation -- too many people on here would rather just belittle a person when they dare reply to a message.
FLAME ON!!!! Who cares. They both suck (O&A, more-so than Howard, in my opinion).
So I just listen to CDs instead. If you get a changer that plays MP3 CDs it takes a long time to even get through all the songs, much less get tired of them. You either had a broken radio/antenna or a very poor antenna install/placement. There is only one bridge I've gone under and lost signal (on Highway 80 in Omaha), I've never lost signal when PASSING a tree, nor have I *ever* lost signal when it was "cloudy". Hell, I was stuck on Highway 29 North when a freak blizzard hit causing MoDot to close the South-bound side (I lost count of how many Semi's and cars had crashed/gone into a ditch). It was snowing so much that you could barely see past the front of your own car. Still had XM.
I do wish I had the money for a CD/MP3 changer (I have a Kenwood deck that plays WMA's/MP3's from CD and USB devices). You can only listen to the same music collection so many times before it starts to get old (at least, for me anyway).
I'd like to bet it was your antenna that was broken/poorly placed. I had a radio that kept losing signal for no good reason (or so I thought). Turned out to be a break in the cable on the antenna. Once replaced, it was rock solid.
Yes, you may be happy listening to the same MP3's all day, every day, etc, however, I am not. Yes, many of the songs played can (and are) played for months on end, however, new songs are introduced all the time to break it up a bit. Add in the fact that every station (save for the 5 or so that ClearChannel owns, for which XM created 5 new channels to replace them) is commercial free, and I'm hooked. I'm not the only one or these places would have gone under a long time ago.
I (and millions of others just like me) listen to satellite radio all the time (I listen to it all day in my office -- listening to it right now via an XM Radio gadget in Vista). I take a 4.5 hour trip to Omaha, NE at *least* once a month, and other shorter (but still hour plus trips) between those. Hell, I even listen to the Sirius stations while I'm at home through my DishNetwork service (MAN I wish they had XM instead of DirecTV -- the Sirius programming *sucks* compared to XM in my opinion) hooked up to my HT setup.
I *hate* commercial radio. I *loath* listening to commercials for seemingly half of an hour. I hate it so much that I barely watch TV live (I record virtually everything). XM has been *awesome* for me. I am not alone.
Just because *YOU* don't subscribe to it, and thusly think it's unneeded, does not make it so. It *is* a needed service. I absolutely *refuse* to listen to normal radio after having had my XM service for several years now.
As it is right now, if the merged company decides to adopt the Sirius broadcast hardware, I'll be very upset. It does not sound as nice as XM's does (Sirius just doesn't provide as much bandwidth to their music channels as XM does and this is *especially* noticeable on their internet stream). Ah, the vast population of US truckers. I forget how large of a group they are. Are you kidding me, of course there is going to be a niche demographic that has to benefit from something like this, but at large this is an unneeded service. My previous statement however I agree is with too broad of a brush and I retract it.
...I have not had any issues with the update. I installed it yesterday, on a mostly fresh install of Vista Enterprise, onto a Dell OptiPlex 745 with 2gb RAM and a C2D 6600.
:)
I've got our trouble tracking software running (DKHelpDesk), SMS Admin Console (been using it heavily today), Visual Studio 2008, and Office 2007 installed (well, along with Firefox, JavaRE, Adobe Reader, etc).
'Course, this particular machine is used for business uses and not gaming, but, at least I'm one person without issues (so far).
If a teacher wants to teach ID, or any other of their religious beliefs, they don't belong in a school *I* help fund. That's what all the religious K-12's are for. Leave your religious crap out of the public school system. If a parent wants their children to have religion, bring their asses to church, where that shit belongs. While teachers should be allowed to teach what they please, they should not be allowed to impress their beliefs on others.
Teachers need to stick to a standardized curriculum, and if they disagree with evolution, they should simply SAY so when teaching it - teachers could say "This is NOT what I think happened, but there are a lot of people that DO think this way".
Teach the information, NOT beliefs - I want the state OUT of my bedroom, and separate from religion!
It's an interesting design, however, with that many plugs, I'd be afraid of all the "less intelligent" amongst us that will plug everything and its sister into this strip. Each circuit in a home is rated for so many amps, and with the huge TV's, power sucking computers, game consoles, lights, etc, etc that get plugged into these, I'd just be afraid it'd start a fire, or at the very least keep blowing a breaker (leading to the moron taping the breaker so it can't trip...)
Sure, if the *only* things you are doing with your PC are looking at web pages and "doing email" (as some put it), or "office work", then our current PC's are fine. Of course, the same was true of the computers at the time I was quoted in the paper, too. I want to do *more* and I'm not alone.
Just look back to '93, then compare that with what we can do now. Now, try to imagine what we could be doing in another 14 years...
Doesn't Sun market/make some Opteron based servers?
Thanks!
I, as you seem to imply about yourself, have several computers at home. I also had family that would bring a PC/laptop over occasionally. I also have a linux PC running Apache/Gallery/MySQL (it was in addition to the "server" I had for my Windows PC's). The linux PC is an old Blue and White G3 with a defective IDE controller (Apple sent out a bunch with a CMD chipset that had a defect, but it wasn't noticed until it was too late). I can use this machine for my file serving, but I want something a little more modern. I was looking at this for a while, but the reports I've read state the MySQL access is too slow for Gallery (though people *are* using it). I am also keeping an eye on that mainboard (it was either on digg, or here, or both) sold at ClubIT that is supposedly the same board as in that $199 PC at Wal*Mart. Of course, I like my Intel "Bad Axe 2" board I just picked up, and I could put a cheap Celeron in one (I like it's 8 SATA ports and the built in firewire, should I choose to use it). I'm sure I can find a similar AMD board and get an even cheaper Sempron to put in.. I'll have to sit down and make up my mind.
I told you all that, to tell you this: The reason I have the server on a separate machine is so that I don't have to leave any of my desktops on all the time (I do leave my "main" machine, which is a laptop, on all the time, but it's not always at my desk which would make accessing anything on its, or an external HDD, rather difficult). Once I put together a new server, it will take over the duties of the G3, and be a "storage dump".
I'm not the type of person that will go around and unplug every electric item in the house to cut down on every watt of power -- I don't care *that* much, but if the machine isn't doing something, it's generally off. Now, before you ask, no, I'm not going to do Folding@Home (or the varied others) on all my machines -- I don't need all my machines running 100% CPU, driving up my electric bill (I have enough problems with my waterbed -- I just discovered it's thermostat died and it was always on, full blast, all the time.. GAH!). So long as my electric bill stays reasonable, I'll continue with things as they are (save for purchasing a newer, better, water bed heater/thermostat).
I should know better than to type this stuff at work -- my mind is scattered everywhere. Hopefully this will at least give you more insight into the topic.
I'm not a computer genius by any stretch and this setup can be done by anyone who knows how to use Google to learn stuff. But like I said, given that I'm no genius, maybe I'm just missing the gist here. I've never tried to stream anything over the network and maybe that requires more advanced software, I don't know. My XBOX 360 takes care of my media access as I have it pointed to all the places I have stuff stored and it works like a charm over my THX stereo and HDTV.
I can never keep up..
For those that don't get it.. the Bait and Switch is when a retailer posts a sale on an item without having adequate stock, forcing customers them to get something else.
When I bought my car, it came with a FULL tank of gas (13.5 gallons of it). When you purchase a new ink jet printer, the cartridges aren't even half full, normally. I've always thought it was crazy that when you buy a new car, you have to keep filling the gas tank too! What a scam.
You just need a PC running some form of linux, ext2 support in your kernel, and a space to put the movie files. Being as the only linux machine I had is an old G3, I just took an ubuntu live CD, hooked an empty IDE drive into the machine, hooked up the DVR's HDD, and transferred them onto the empty drive (formatted as VFAT so it could be read in my windows machine).
Took forever (the files were 500mb+, depending on the length of the recorded show), but worked great.
(boy, I'm just burning the karma with OT posts today...) Dummies like me. Spent $20 on a USB connector last night to see if I could transfer video from my DishTV to computer after I switched to Uverse.
apples to oranges. i worked in a grocery store in highschool, and my manager, who did the books, said that our 3% margin was rather high for a grocery store. And the customers hated our prices.