It is not always that easy. Sometimes there is only one site that provides the content you either want or need. When that site kicks you out (never mind the error messages) because you are using the "wrong" (ie, not Microsoft) technology you have no other choice. Mind you, I always send an email to the company when this happens, but more often than not I simply get a canned "we are working on supporting [blah]" and nothing ever changes.
And it saddens me to hear you use the same old dumb stereotypes. Eastern Canada is no more or less "american" than Western Canada. Having lived in both Ontario and BC for a significant amount of time, and visited most other parts of canada, I can definitely say this stereotype is not true. The notion that eastern Canadians are somehow selfish and ignore western Canadias is a myth perpetrated for far too long. Many of the people I've spoken to who put down people from "hogtown" have never even BEEN to Toronto or Montreal, for god's sake.
Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people in ontario who think everyone in BC is a drug-crazed hippy who lives on a house boat or a mountain chalet. Unfortunately the reverse stereotype of the "all American" Torontonian is just as rediculous.
You speak of how Quebec has become an "uncool" place because of their silly fetish with the language, but the "traditional" western hate for all things Ontario is, frankly, just as dumb.
It is my beleif that to truly understand what it means to be Canadian, you should travel across the country at least twice. Until you've stayed in a place for a little while, you should avoid generalizing about the people there.
You know, one of my first PC's was a Samsung branded 286 (with a kick ass 1MB of ram and 40MB hard drive!) and the user's guide that came with it had nearly the EXACT same bad english as this web site... nice to see that while Samsung has gotten bigger, they aren't forgetting the little things...:)
One quibble, your point about closed hardware being more secure is false. Security through obscurity is NO security at all. If there is a hole, someone will find it. Just ask Intel.
Does anyone use this code on a production machine? Is it stable? I've got a bunch of Linux boxes just itching for the performance improvement and security of reiserfs. Is it possible to use this as the root file system? Thanks.
I myself love the way these things look. The only concern I have about them is the amount of manual effort they seem to require for navigation. Whatever the input method, it seems to me that to do something equivalent to, say, a "drag and drop" operation in 3d space is going to require a lot more concentration and effort. As many of us know, RSI is already a big problem in the common "2d" world. I just hope it doesn't become much worse in 3d.
Since Microsoft is trying to get banks to switch en-masse to W2K, perhaps they will work out a deal whereby whenever you exceed your client license, appropriate funds are automatically withdrawn from your bank account + a little extra for a "service charge".:)
Not ALL kernel code is useless. Just NT's kernel code. I doubt there is anything in the NT kernel which is substantially more interesting or useful than the myriad other Open Source kernels available now.
I agree, his statements about Windows NT not matching Linux on clusters is probably incorrect. Beowulf, as I understand it, is simply made up of a collection of systems running some message passing software over a tightly coupled local area network (100mbit, gigabit, etc). Not counting stability, cost, performance, and availability concerns, there is no fundamental technical reason why Windows NT (or Windows 95, FreeBSD, MacOS, BeOS, etc, etc) could not be made to do the same thing. Really all that is needed is good NIC drivers, a port of the MPI code, and a fairly efficient IP stack to handle the throughput. However the fact that IBM (or anyone else) could put together one of these clusters so easily is important, IMHO. It would probably take a lot longer to do with a non-OSS platform.
Also, database systems (and probably web servers too) do not really apply in this case as they typically use their own message passing schemes, which have no need for the "Beowulf"-specific middleware layer.
Slashdot Mirror
It is not always that easy. Sometimes there is only one site that provides the content you either want or need. When that site kicks you out (never mind the error messages) because you are using the "wrong" (ie, not Microsoft) technology you have no other choice. Mind you, I always send an email to the company when this happens, but more often than not I simply get a canned "we are working on supporting [blah]" and nothing ever changes.
Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people in ontario who think everyone in BC is a drug-crazed hippy who lives on a house boat or a mountain chalet. Unfortunately the reverse stereotype of the "all American" Torontonian is just as rediculous.
You speak of how Quebec has become an "uncool" place because of their silly fetish with the language, but the "traditional" western hate for all things Ontario is, frankly, just as dumb.
It is my beleif that to truly understand what it means to be Canadian, you should travel across the country at least twice. Until you've stayed in a place for a little while, you should avoid generalizing about the people there.
Have you ever actually been to Ontario? From what you are saying, it doesn't sound like it.
What's your phone number?
I myself wear birks, shorts, etc, whenever the weather dictates.
In a similar vein, here is an album cover done entirely by pressing various body parts against a color photocopier: http://www.thehip.com/hypercd/im ages/fully-cover.jpg. A description of the exact process they used is also there.
You know, one of my first PC's was a Samsung branded 286 (with a kick ass 1MB of ram and 40MB hard drive!) and the user's guide that came with it had nearly the EXACT same bad english as this web site... nice to see that while Samsung has gotten bigger, they aren't forgetting the little things... :)
One quibble, your point about closed hardware being more secure is false. Security through obscurity is NO security at all. If there is a hole, someone will find it. Just ask Intel.
Finally, a topic worthy of my .sig!
According to the Red-Hat Wealth Monitor, there are few companies RedHat can't afford to buy these days.
Can this thing be hacked to run an xterm (or rxvt) and telnet etc?
I'd have to agree with you, those UofT engineers are a bunch of lousy do-no-gooders.
Does anyone use this code on a production machine? Is it stable? I've got a bunch of Linux boxes just itching for the performance improvement and security of reiserfs. Is it possible to use this as the root file system? Thanks.
I myself love the way these things look. The only concern I have about them is the amount of manual effort they seem to require for navigation. Whatever the input method, it seems to me that to do something equivalent to, say, a "drag and drop" operation in 3d space is going to require a lot more concentration and effort. As many of us know, RSI is already a big problem in the common "2d" world. I just hope it doesn't become much worse in 3d.
Since Microsoft is trying to get banks to switch en-masse to W2K, perhaps they will work out a deal whereby whenever you exceed your client license, appropriate funds are automatically withdrawn from your bank account + a little extra for a "service charge". :)
Think of the advertising possibilities! Chairface chippendale would be proud!
"If there is nothing wrong with me, there must be something wrong with the UNIVERSE!!!"
Keep your eyes open for a really cool (albeit not necessarily earth shattering in meaning) IBM/Linux announcement in a few weeks...
Just to remind everyone, IBM already provides both Linux support and training. See http://www.ibm.com/linux
Hmmm... all Gas Giants eh? Anyone else here read Varley's Steel Beach? Yikes!
Not ALL kernel code is useless. Just NT's kernel code. I doubt there is anything in the NT kernel which is substantially more interesting or useful than the myriad other Open Source kernels available now.
You do know what a stock split is, and you are just being sarcastic... right?
Sure but now he is a delivery guy with a SPACE SHIP! I think that's where the nerd factor comes in.
I agree, his statements about Windows NT not matching Linux on clusters is probably incorrect. Beowulf, as I understand it, is simply made up of a collection of systems running some message passing software over a tightly coupled local area network (100mbit, gigabit, etc). Not counting stability, cost, performance, and availability concerns, there is no fundamental technical reason why Windows NT (or Windows 95, FreeBSD, MacOS, BeOS, etc, etc) could not be made to do the same thing. Really all that is needed is good NIC drivers, a port of the MPI code, and a fairly efficient IP stack to handle the throughput. However the fact that IBM (or anyone else) could put together one of these clusters so easily is important, IMHO. It would probably take a lot longer to do with a non-OSS platform.
Also, database systems (and probably web servers too) do not really apply in this case as they typically use their own message passing schemes, which have no need for the "Beowulf"-specific middleware layer.