Not the time savings I was talking about. I mean the time it takes to update 1200 separate mail-files with 1200 separate 1mb files. Exchange writes it to disk once (and fast into the database) for all 1200 users.
This can apparently be done with Qmail and plain old files as well.
it's clear you're only talking about Exchange 5.5.
Yes.
E2k has been out for well over a year and doesn't
The next version is always the one that works with MSFT stuff, isn't it?
The corruption of mail store you mentioned on improper shutdown is iffy at best
SCSI RAID system. No faults. No other files lost/corrupted/etc. System on UPS. No improper shutdowns of system that I know of.
Poof. Instant time and space savings, even if spread across 20-30 servers
Yes, this is the advantage of using a database to store messages. However, sendmail will not send a single message 30 separate times to 30 recipients at a remote sever; it sends it once. So the time savings are still there. On the remote system, the single messages gets exploded into X number of files, where X=number of local recipients. This is a downside of using separate files for each mailbox. So, no space savings.
I suppose it would be possible to have procmail strip attachments into files, and have an imapd re-assemble the messages when requested. Or, I could use Cyrus.
It has a unified message store, which is a blessing and a curse. Blessing for efficiency purposes, curse for recovery and migration purposes.
Just because it's "Jet" based doesn't make it an Access database.
Yeah, I suppose that Access databases are Jet databases doesn't matter.
Perhaps some of the problems you had were because you tried to open it up in Access to look at the pretty tables?
Uh, yeah. NO.
With all the problems you list, isn't it possible you might have configured something incorrectly?
Always possible, but not in this case.
Crashing
Bug, documented by Microsoft; applied suggested Microsoft fix. Fix does not always work.
corrupted message stores
Bug, documented by Microsoft, when related to "bad message" problem. Storage of all mail in single file increases chance of damage to mail store due to disk corruption and other hardware problems, or uncleanly closing the database (i.e., when exchange crashes). If IMS hands off a message to STORE.EXE, then STORE crashes before it's in the database, mail disappears. I've seen it happen.
slow mail delivery
IMAP on exchange is just not fast. 500MHz server, 512MB RAM, SCSI disks, 16 users, not heavily loaded, exchange delivers mail to imap clients much more slowly than less capable hardware running IMAPd on unix.
open relay
Not exchange servers I've configured, but it's the default settings. Check your SPAM headers sometime.
1mb PPT attachment to all 1200 of your executives
I don't have 1200 executives. However, let's play your game. In the 300 remote-servers example, you would not be delivering the attachment once, by the way. You would be delivering it at least 300 times. So, not "just a smidge over 1MB"
Granted, the general idea of using a database to store mail is a nice one, for this specific reason -- multiple delivery of email.
I like how it corrupts its Jet (Access) database and loses email. I also like the "bad message" feature that crashes store.exe. And the extremely slow message delivery via IMAP. Oh, and the open relay feature.
35,000 mailboxes on 300 servers, huh? Wow, that's like, 116 mailboxes per server. Yeah, scales really well. You would need a multiple of that number of machines if you ran an SMTP/IMAP/LDAP setup on Unix. Of course, the multiplier would be something like 0.01, but...
I've found that not using Outlook and Exchange greatly eases my anti-virus strategy. I suppose if you have a global address book of 35,000 people, 20 of whom any given person would need to actually correspond with, then you reall want to keep those Melissa-type microsoft viruses under control.
We used a unix-based email system at my previous company, and hey! I could back up individual mailboxes. "Brick level backup." Snort. And since email was stored in regular files, searching for messages was easy. My CEO had dat tapes going back into the 80s with his email on it.
The people who continue to say "Break it up! Break it up!" fail to see the consequences of that kind of action.
I don't know about that. To some extent, it seems to be a choice of, "inject turbulence into the IT industry now to aid its long-term viability," or "just let it be slowly crushed."
Also, it's not like a breakup would happen all in one morning. I imagine it would be slow and incremental. Something like, "By 2004, the Office Applications (See list) products will be spun out into a separate company. By 2003, Microsoft will spin off MSN." Etc. Companies spin off products and divisions all the time. How would a breakup be much different, other than it has the oversight of the court?
Homer (as Mr. Burns' Secretary)--
"Here are your messages:
`You have 30 minutes to move your car;'
`You have 10 minutes to move your car;'
`Your car has been impounded;'
`Your car has been crushed into a cube;'
`You have 30 minutes to move your cube.'"
Do this make me sound like Scott Case's bitch or what?
I've got Road Runner, and it's absolutely great. Reliable, cheap, fast, and unrestricted. The service may be provided by AOL/TimeWarner/CNN/Yap.com, but, so what? It's a good product at a good price. If this makes me Steve Case's bitch, so be it.:) But it doesn't actually, make me anything more than a satisfied customer.
I'm not sure what "jingoism" has to do with it -- jingoism is "extreme nationalism." Uh, okay. What that has to do with a discussion about a socioeconomic system, I don't know.
Oh, wait! He was insulting his ideological opponents before the debate even started. I get it now!
I don't know about X + QPE. But you could just not start QPE.
As far as MPEGs go, it has a buzzer, and a headphone jack. MPEG player (including mp3s) is built in. You could load up a microdrive with MP3s, I suppose. You could also get them from the network via a mounted filesystem.
Before this generates another spate of email about Linux and the IA-1, I have modified versions of Jailbait available on FBM.
They are for a 16MB CF card. Do this to put an image on the CF card:
dd if=image.img of=/dev/CF-DEVICE bs=1M
I will not tell you the root password. Boot single-user to not have to use the password, then do "passwd root" to change it.
You can boot single-user by adding the word "single" at the lilo prompt. For instance, "hdc single" -- where "hdc" is the lilo profile name.
Enjoy. The jailbait site has information on rebuilding Jailbait images.
p.s. avoid the Netgear EA101 USB Ethernet adapter, and perhaps any other adapter that uses the kaweth driver -- the hardware isn't reliable. Get a nice Pegasus adapter, like a D-Link.
Iv'e not found anything particularly nice about WinCE or its included apps. I find Windows more difficult to program for than Linux, using GTK. I've not started programming with QT, but it looks as easy, maybe easier. I'll avoid the JVM.
I agree with your "quirks" assessment. As I mentioned earlier, it still needs some "fit and finish." For instance, a way to edit/etc/pcmcia/* without a text editor. For instance, this would be nice:
1) insert Linksys 802.11b card
2) Zaurus sees if it is already listed in config files
3) if no, start a configuration app that asks what kind of device it is, etc.
4) zaurus modifies config files
... the same app could be used to view/configure already configured devices, or configure a device in advance of plugging it in. Or read an installer file from an SD or CF card that contains drivers for a new device. OR read installer packages on the device that came over from IntelliSync. Maybe they'll do things like this in the retail model. This is the developer model, the "D" on the model number is there for a reason. You have a pre-release device. They even cut the RAM in half (to 32MB) to encourage developers to write smaller apps. It absolutely rocks for a pre-release developer model. I can't wait to see the final version.
Also, as far as the remote-desktop thing goes, I can use VNC on the Zaurus to do the same thing, and it works with windows, macs and unix, unlike "Terminal Services."
I don't have a definitive answer, but I do have an anecdotal one: I charged a unit right out the box for about 10-15 minutes and then went around the office for an hour showing it to people -- so I'd say the battery life is pretty good. It dims the display very quickly, to save battery power.
I have three of them for a project at work. We plan to used them, or a device like them, to aid in scoring oral exams -- pace the exam, prompt the questions, collect the scores for each section, etc.
It has a number of nice features for this application:
Screen cover (unlike the iPaq)
$399 price includes two expansion slots ($499 iPaq has no slots)
Light (50% lighter than iPaq with $150 add-on expansion sleeve)
comes with linux on it (I don't have to reprogram 150 or so of these things)
works with inexpensive CF 802.11b cards, like the Linksys model.
can be powered/charged from AC without being in the cradle
although we don't plan to use it for the exams, the keyboard is nice
full networking support, including dhcp and multicast.
removable/replaceable battery. I have an iPaq that will no longer hold a charge, and I cannot replace the battery.
Adding a single PCMCIA slot and wireless card to an iPaq increases the cost to $850/unit and yields a device with no free slots, but 802.11b networking.
Adding a wireless card to this Zaurus yields a device with networking and one free slot (an SD slot) for $500. Plus, its noticeable smaller and lighter, and much easier to hold for a long time. Only problem so far: the 802.11b card blocks the stylus slot.
Now we just need apps! apps! apps! so that Sharp will ship this thing retail and sell them at best buy. It includes all the usual stuff - address book, calendar, todo list, email (pop/smtp), etc. Also includes games, like asteroids (everyone in my office found the asteroids game almost immediately). It just needs "fit and finish."
Sync over 802.11b would be a nice trick. Currently it uses Intellisync over USB, using 192.168.1.200 and 192.168.1.201 as the unit and host addresses for its private network. It would seem that a major corporate nice-thing would be to have a sync server for the Zaurus, so that employees could just walk near an access point and get things synced.
Anyway, it's easily the nicest PDA I've seen, and held.
Slashdot Mirror
Not the time savings I was talking about. I mean the time it takes to update 1200 separate mail-files with 1200 separate 1mb files. Exchange writes it to disk once (and fast into the database) for all 1200 users.
This can apparently be done with Qmail and plain old files as well.
Can you give me a pointer to QMail's bulletin system? How does it interact with IMAP?
it's clear you're only talking about Exchange 5.5.
Yes.
E2k has been out for well over a year and doesn't
The next version is always the one that works with MSFT stuff, isn't it?
The corruption of mail store you mentioned on improper shutdown is iffy at best
SCSI RAID system. No faults. No other files lost/corrupted/etc. System on UPS. No improper shutdowns of system that I know of.
Poof. Instant time and space savings, even if spread across 20-30 servers
Yes, this is the advantage of using a database to store messages. However, sendmail will not send a single message 30 separate times to 30 recipients at a remote sever; it sends it once. So the time savings are still there. On the remote system, the single messages gets exploded into X number of files, where X=number of local recipients. This is a downside of using separate files for each mailbox. So, no space savings.
I suppose it would be possible to have procmail strip attachments into files, and have an imapd re-assemble the messages when requested. Or, I could use Cyrus.
It has a unified message store, which is a blessing and a curse. Blessing for efficiency purposes, curse for recovery and migration purposes.
Just because it's "Jet" based doesn't make it an Access database.
Yeah, I suppose that Access databases are Jet databases doesn't matter.
Perhaps some of the problems you had were because you tried to open it up in Access to look at the pretty tables?
Uh, yeah. NO.
With all the problems you list, isn't it possible you might have configured something incorrectly?
Always possible, but not in this case.
Crashing
Bug, documented by Microsoft; applied suggested Microsoft fix. Fix does not always work.
corrupted message stores
Bug, documented by Microsoft, when related to "bad message" problem. Storage of all mail in single file increases chance of damage to mail store due to disk corruption and other hardware problems, or uncleanly closing the database (i.e., when exchange crashes). If IMS hands off a message to STORE.EXE, then STORE crashes before it's in the database, mail disappears. I've seen it happen.
slow mail delivery
IMAP on exchange is just not fast. 500MHz server, 512MB RAM, SCSI disks, 16 users, not heavily loaded, exchange delivers mail to imap clients much more slowly than less capable hardware running IMAPd on unix.
open relay
Not exchange servers I've configured, but it's the default settings. Check your SPAM headers sometime.
1mb PPT attachment to all 1200 of your executives
I don't have 1200 executives. However, let's play your game. In the 300 remote-servers example, you would not be delivering the attachment once, by the way. You would be delivering it at least 300 times. So, not "just a smidge over 1MB"
Granted, the general idea of using a database to store mail is a nice one, for this specific reason -- multiple delivery of email.
I like how it corrupts its Jet (Access) database and loses email. I also like the "bad message" feature that crashes store.exe. And the extremely slow message delivery via IMAP. Oh, and the open relay feature.
35,000 mailboxes on 300 servers, huh? Wow, that's like, 116 mailboxes per server. Yeah, scales really well. You would need a multiple of that number of machines if you ran an SMTP/IMAP/LDAP setup on Unix. Of course, the multiplier would be something like 0.01, but...
I've found that not using Outlook and Exchange greatly eases my anti-virus strategy. I suppose if you have a global address book of 35,000 people, 20 of whom any given person would need to actually correspond with, then you reall want to keep those Melissa-type microsoft viruses under control.
We used a unix-based email system at my previous company, and hey! I could back up individual mailboxes. "Brick level backup." Snort. And since email was stored in regular files, searching for messages was easy. My CEO had dat tapes going back into the 80s with his email on it.
The people who continue to say "Break it up! Break it up!" fail to see the consequences of that kind of action.
I don't know about that. To some extent, it seems to be a choice of, "inject turbulence into the IT industry now to aid its long-term viability," or "just let it be slowly crushed."
Also, it's not like a breakup would happen all in one morning. I imagine it would be slow and incremental. Something like, "By 2004, the Office Applications (See list) products will be spun out into a separate company. By 2003, Microsoft will spin off MSN." Etc. Companies spin off products and divisions all the time. How would a breakup be much different, other than it has the oversight of the court?
Homer (as Mr. Burns' Secretary)--
"Here are your messages:
`You have 30 minutes to move your car;'
`You have 10 minutes to move your car;'
`Your car has been impounded;'
`Your car has been crushed into a cube;'
`You have 30 minutes to move your cube.'"
(phone rings, Homer answers)
Homer: "Yello, Mr. Burns' office!"
Burns: "Is this about my cube?"
Maybe it's because the government now has a hook into Microsoft.
"It would be a shame for us to do X to you, because you *have* broken these various laws. On the other hand, we could use a favor..."
Do this make me sound like Scott Case's bitch or what?
:) But it doesn't actually, make me anything more than a satisfied customer.
I've got Road Runner, and it's absolutely great. Reliable, cheap, fast, and unrestricted. The service may be provided by AOL/TimeWarner/CNN/Yap.com, but, so what? It's a good product at a good price. If this makes me Steve Case's bitch, so be it.
sometimes actually something good and usable is created
That's as may be. But with Microsoft, before that "something good" is released in the market, it is encased in shit and chained to the wall.
Simple answer:
HD-DVD
The next generation DVD format, to support our bold new HDTV future. Locked down and tied to Microsoft and the MPAA, of course.
I'm not sure what "jingoism" has to do with it -- jingoism is "extreme nationalism." Uh, okay. What that has to do with a discussion about a socioeconomic system, I don't know.
Oh, wait! He was insulting his ideological opponents before the debate even started. I get it now!
Embezzler: Bank Teller!
Inside Trader: CFO!
Sexual Harasser: H.R. Manager!
Drunk Driver: Bus driver!
Price Fixer: CEO!
Monopolist: Monopolist!
Guess you don't know a lot about FLTK do you?
:)
Apparently not. The tarball screenshots looked pretty nice.
I wonder why the Agenda went with the Ugly theme for FLTK...
Oops, got my stories mixed up. The IA-1 has a single speaker in its base. No QPE. Jailbait is X + blackbox + netscape + some other stuff
:)
Hehe. The Sharp Zaurus has QPE and the buzzer.
Those things sounds useful, in combination. :)
I don't know about X + QPE. But you could just not start QPE.
As far as MPEGs go, it has a buzzer, and a headphone jack. MPEG player (including mp3s) is built in. You could load up a microdrive with MP3s, I suppose. You could also get them from the network via a mounted filesystem.
Before this generates another spate of email about Linux and the IA-1, I have modified versions of Jailbait available on FBM.
They are for a 16MB CF card. Do this to put an image on the CF card:
dd if=image.img of=/dev/CF-DEVICE bs=1M
I will not tell you the root password. Boot single-user to not have to use the password, then do "passwd root" to change it.
You can boot single-user by adding the word "single" at the lilo prompt. For instance, "hdc single" -- where "hdc" is the lilo profile name.
Enjoy. The jailbait site has information on rebuilding Jailbait images.
p.s. avoid the Netgear EA101 USB Ethernet adapter, and perhaps any other adapter that uses the kaweth driver -- the hardware isn't reliable. Get a nice Pegasus adapter, like a D-Link.
A toolkit that's put out in this form as an advertising gimmick by a software company?
:)
Actually, my spy network tells me that Sharp paid TrollTech to develop QPE.
toolkit that's more expensive than an MSDN
They will apparently be lowering the price.
They should have gone with X11/FLTK
Mmm... ugly, non-portable, AND obscure. A winning combo. QT can at least be used on Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, etc.
I do wonder if they (or someone else) will ship Wince for this thing at some point. Not that I want Wince.
it's unfair to make a price comparison yet
:)
I was comparing what I actually paid for both kits, a couple of weeks ago.
Iv'e not found anything particularly nice about WinCE or its included apps. I find Windows more difficult to program for than Linux, using GTK. I've not started programming with QT, but it looks as easy, maybe easier. I'll avoid the JVM.
/etc/pcmcia/* without a text editor. For instance, this would be nice:
I agree with your "quirks" assessment. As I mentioned earlier, it still needs some "fit and finish." For instance, a way to edit
1) insert Linksys 802.11b card
2) Zaurus sees if it is already listed in config files
3) if no, start a configuration app that asks what kind of device it is, etc.
4) zaurus modifies config files
... the same app could be used to view/configure already configured devices, or configure a device in advance of plugging it in. Or read an installer file from an SD or CF card that contains drivers for a new device. OR read installer packages on the device that came over from IntelliSync. Maybe they'll do things like this in the retail model. This is the developer model, the "D" on the model number is there for a reason. You have a pre-release device. They even cut the RAM in half (to 32MB) to encourage developers to write smaller apps. It absolutely rocks for a pre-release developer model. I can't wait to see the final version.
Also, as far as the remote-desktop thing goes, I can use VNC on the Zaurus to do the same thing, and it works with windows, macs and unix, unlike "Terminal Services."
Correction: iPaq cost is $750. The iPaq setup is abotu 150% of the price and mass of the Zaurus.
How long does the battery work?
I don't have a definitive answer, but I do have an anecdotal one: I charged a unit right out the box for about 10-15 minutes and then went around the office for an hour showing it to people -- so I'd say the battery life is pretty good. It dims the display very quickly, to save battery power.
It has a number of nice features for this application:
Adding a single PCMCIA slot and wireless card to an iPaq increases the cost to $850/unit and yields a device with no free slots, but 802.11b networking.
Adding a wireless card to this Zaurus yields a device with networking and one free slot (an SD slot) for $500. Plus, its noticeable smaller and lighter, and much easier to hold for a long time. Only problem so far: the 802.11b card blocks the stylus slot.
Now we just need apps! apps! apps! so that Sharp will ship this thing retail and sell them at best buy. It includes all the usual stuff - address book, calendar, todo list, email (pop/smtp), etc. Also includes games, like asteroids (everyone in my office found the asteroids game almost immediately). It just needs "fit and finish."
Sync over 802.11b would be a nice trick. Currently it uses Intellisync over USB, using 192.168.1.200 and 192.168.1.201 as the unit and host addresses for its private network. It would seem that a major corporate nice-thing would be to have a sync server for the Zaurus, so that employees could just walk near an access point and get things synced.
Anyway, it's easily the nicest PDA I've seen, and held.
Only if someone used a mail client that attempted to execute every attachment. Or if the user did chmod +x and then ran it.
I.e., only through stupidity. Not by just clicking on an icon, or, in some cases, merely "previewing" the message.
Windows and Office automate stupidity for you. It's a feature.