The word that you are so desperately looking for is "important".
That's precisely it, AC. Bingo.
To the other folks who responded, it's not that I don't understand your plight. Yes, it sucks when your software crashes. You lose money. And I do know, because I did a few years of IT work to put myself through college. It sure seems critical when your machine craps out.
But just because it's important, doesn't qualify it as mission (or safety) critical.
To put it another way, it's like how today's advertising is facinated with the word extreme. You see it all over advertising these days. Extreme this, extreme that. Extreme sports. Extreme deodorant protection. Extreme snack food.
And now, whenever you see the word extreme, your eyes edit it out. No useful information there, because everything is extreme. It's as effective as the word "the". No additional info is given. Anymore, people think that if you have an extreme reaction to penicillin, if you ingest some it'll make you go skateboarding.
And it's the same with mission critical. It means something, something other than what the marketing guys are pushing. It's becoming a watered down phrase. After all, why wouldn't you buy a mission critical database server? Nobody likes crashes, do they? Why buy a db server that's merely reliable?
Is mission critical. It's a seriously overused, and tragically misunderstood phrase.
Here's a good working definition of "mission critical". If you'd be willing to hang upside down out of a 10 story window by a rope that gets cut if your software crashes, then it's mission critical. If not, then it isn't. Be sure and ask your salesperson if they'd be willing to undergo this test to prove their software's mission critical reliability.
Hardware and software where people's lives are on the line are mission critical. Think Apollo missions and nuclear power plants, folks. Anything else, isn't.
According to him, there may be "more eyeballs" looking at open source software
More eyes looking at something means more chances of finding problems, dumbass.
but he does not believe those eyeballs are looking for security problems in a structured way."
As compared to the fantastic job some structured companies have done?
BTW, you'll note that the worm authors do not have any sort of gigantic megacorporation providing them with "structure", but you'll notice that they seem to find security holes to exploit just fine.
To sum up: Viega is a moron.
Beowulf seems older than that
on
Linux Clustering
·
· Score: 4, Funny
...doesn't it to you? I mean how long have you been sick of the "imagine a beowulf cluster of those" comments? Doesn't seem like only 10 years would make me that sick of it.
If you're making a proprietary something-or-other, fine. But this is for an IETF approved standard, which is something that everybody should be able to adhere to.
Having a proprietary standard breaks things. Imagine how much ftp would be used if you had to give some company a nickel every time you used it? Fortunately for ftp, it's royalty free, and that's why it's used. That's the beauty of royalty free standards. Anyone can implement them, and because they're free, anyone can use them.
Well, it's not really a problem anymore because the gif patent expired, so they're ok to use now.
But I still think the point is a valid one - and an excellent example of why software patents are a bad idea. I know it's contrary to Slashdot groupthink, but what if Microsoft's implementation is the superior one? (Work with me guys, it's hypothetical) Now, because of the patents, it'll never be used and we'll be missing out on a good thing.
Microsoft shouldn't be surprised that their patent-encumbered method didn't fly. Remember the whole "burn all GIFs" campaign, when a patent made gif files possibly illegal to use? Now - imagine that mess with your email, and Microsoft holding the reins. Argh.
We've been through the whole embrace-and-extend loop with MS before, and it's nice to see the IETF understand the problems that a patent encumbered standard would produce.
According to this article, the Tungusta blast was around 40 megatons. The Hiroshima bomb was only 13 kilotons.
I'm not saying this is a meteor strike, but I am saying we should keep in mind that there are other explanations. Let's wait until we see some radiation readings before we reach a conclusion.
Well it was a long day and I was tired when I posted. And as soon as I hit the submit button, I realized my error and just knew some smug jerk would be sure point it out. Thanks for not disappointing me.
...apologies to the pioneers of cold fusion, like Pons and Fleischman? Seems to me like a positive finding in a DoE report would at least be some verification that they might deserve one.
Re:Have it do something worthwhile
on
Palmtop Nirvana?
·
· Score: 1
Point well taken. I'm asking for a small laptop, after all, but I'll stick to "small" being the keyword.
Yup, that's exactly what I'd be looking for too. Some of Sony's VAIO laptops come pretty close. And I found that embedded gadget I was talking about earlier. It's vaporware...their site dried up, but at least the idea is out there now and maybe someone else will pick up the ball and run with it. I'd love to have one of these things. But again, it'd need a keyboard of some kind to be useful. Put that Psion keypad on there, and it'd be damn near perfect.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention...the IrDA keypad I wrote the driver for was actually pretty darn small. Still bigger than the gadget it talked to, but not too large. Folded down to about wallet size. Only problems I really had with it were, it was as large as the gadget it talked to, it was another thing you could lose, and it was line-of-sight and would drop signal in an annoying way. Chalk it up to yet another failed way to get text into a PDA. =)
Dan, did you try to map the signal to a 3 dimensional shape? A cube maybe??
Re:Have it do something worthwhile
on
Palmtop Nirvana?
·
· Score: 1
...currently I see mostly the interface as being the biggest idiocy
Again, I couldn't agree more. I have a saying for problems like this...it's like trying to tie your shoes with chopsticks. It's not the task that's difficult, it's the tools you have chosen. The UI for these things is stupid.
Handwriting recognition is a joke to that end. It's slow, it requires you to mangle your handwriting into a carricature that the PDA can recognize, and you still end up with something so mangled it could have just as well been written it l33t. No, that won't do.
Ayup. A big gripe of mine too. The reason why it sucks? There's a spec that MS came up with to get your little windows logo on your gadget that dictates exactly how many points per second you need to get from your touchscreen for handwriting recognition to work. And it's very very near the limits of what an AC97 link can do. Ergo, either you're throttling AC97 to death to get the points and starving the cpu, or throttling the cpu to interpret the points and starving the link. Everyone I know fudges these numbers. Can't think of a gadget out there that really nails this one.
If I was to single out _the_ one Psion feature I appreciated the most, it would undoubtedly be the good keyboard.
We tried to address this one as well. I wrote a driver for an IrDA keyboard. My thought was, well - neat trick, but if you're committed to carrying around a keyboard anyways, why not just get a laptop? IMHO, the only thing a PDA is good for is to ActiveSync to a desktop system, snag your schedule, and beep in your pocket when you forget something. YMMV, tho.
Oh yeah, as a funny side note, ActiveSync is nothing more than a PPP connection. You can ActiveSync your device to a Linux box. More of Redmond's fantastic "embrace and extend" philosophy. "Let's copy it, and then rename it!" *sigh*
You know, it would be nice if those things actually were PC or Mac compatible. And I don't mean compatible as in "but you can transfer files via an USB cable", but as in "you can take an old PC program or game and run it on the thing."
Me too. A lot.
There was a gadget on Slashdot a while back of some game-type thingy that was a 640x480 lcd, and an x86 core, complete with 10baseT and a 20Gig hd. It would be perfect. If I can find the link, I'll post it here later on.
Re:Have it do something worthwhile
on
Palmtop Nirvana?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Couldn't agree more, sterno. I worked for 3 years at a WindowsCE/Linux shop writing drivers for SA1110 and Cotulla chips (mostly) in PDAs. My impression of them all is that they're pretty much useless. Even when working correctly.;^)
They all sort of struck me as PHB toys. You know, if you're a wink-and-a-gun suit guy you have to have one, to show the other guy you were....well....you know...out there, on the cutting edge, yada yada yada.
As for me, after spending 3 years around these devices, never once have I said to myself, "Damn! If only I had a PDA, that would be perfect to solve this problem."
It's been said before, but a PDA is a solution in search of a problem.
True, and well spoken. Scotty is permanently in the geek lexicon. You'd be hard pressed to find a single human being in the western hemisphere that doesn't know what "Scotty, beam me up" means.
In fact, I'm an engineer, and one of the best pieces of engineering advice ever given to me was from his character. "You didn't tell him how long it would really take, did you? You'll never get a reputation as a miracle worker that way."
I still exaggerate my time estimates to this day, and when I come in under the deadline, I look as good as Scotty does, each and every time. I've had entire semesters at college that taught me less useful knowledge than that one simple quote.
Mr. Doohan is a geek icon, and an amazing person aside from his acting career. Most geeks don't know it, but he was part of the D-Day landing. A truly amazing person, and the world will be a smaller place with him not in it. Godspeed, Mr. Scott.
each girl will behave differently - depending on how much money is spent on her.
So...is that real money, or virtual money? If it's real cash, then kudos to the inventor - a female Tamagotchi that drains your cash. Wow. I'm still kicking myself for not thinking of it. Makes Everquest look like the March of Dimes.
Seriously. Offtopic? I tried to load the images thinking that if anyone could handle a Slashdotting, it'd be NASA. But guess what? The page loads, but the images do not. NASA is currently...Slashdotted.
Maybe it's not teh funnae, so by all means don't mod me funny. But it's on topic, especially if you want to see the images rather than read about how great they are. Informative if you agree, and redundant if you're sick of Slashdot jokes, but offtopic doesn't apply.
Remember, this is the problem meta mod is supposed to fix. Mod wisely folks.
If all the huge music makers merge, the RIAA will become redundant. One hardly needs a Recording Industry Association of America if there's only one company to represent. They can do it themselves.
Let's hope the 25% staff cut are RIAA morons.
So, to sum up: I, for one, welcome our new trash pop overlords.
Slashdot Mirror
From the article:
Soon after the appearance of the code Cisco confirmed that the FBI was investigating how the theft had occurred.
And...
Cisco said that it had not been stolen as a result of loopholes in its software.
So, they need the FBI to determine how the theft occurred, but they're sure it wasn't because their software has security holes?
Either you know how it happened or you don't, guys. Can't be both.
The word that you are so desperately looking for is "important".
That's precisely it, AC. Bingo.
To the other folks who responded, it's not that I don't understand your plight. Yes, it sucks when your software crashes. You lose money. And I do know, because I did a few years of IT work to put myself through college. It sure seems critical when your machine craps out.
But just because it's important, doesn't qualify it as mission (or safety) critical.
To put it another way, it's like how today's advertising is facinated with the word extreme. You see it all over advertising these days. Extreme this, extreme that. Extreme sports. Extreme deodorant protection. Extreme snack food.
And now, whenever you see the word extreme, your eyes edit it out. No useful information there, because everything is extreme. It's as effective as the word "the". No additional info is given. Anymore, people think that if you have an extreme reaction to penicillin, if you ingest some it'll make you go skateboarding.
And it's the same with mission critical. It means something, something other than what the marketing guys are pushing. It's becoming a watered down phrase. After all, why wouldn't you buy a mission critical database server? Nobody likes crashes, do they? Why buy a db server that's merely reliable?
Is mission critical. It's a seriously overused, and tragically misunderstood phrase.
Here's a good working definition of "mission critical". If you'd be willing to hang upside down out of a 10 story window by a rope that gets cut if your software crashes, then it's mission critical. If not, then it isn't. Be sure and ask your salesperson if they'd be willing to undergo this test to prove their software's mission critical reliability.
Hardware and software where people's lives are on the line are mission critical. Think Apollo missions and nuclear power plants, folks. Anything else, isn't.
But I'll sum it up in a few lines.
According to him, there may be "more eyeballs" looking at open source software
More eyes looking at something means more chances of finding problems, dumbass.
but he does not believe those eyeballs are looking for security problems in a structured way."
As compared to the fantastic job some structured companies have done?
BTW, you'll note that the worm authors do not have any sort of gigantic megacorporation providing them with "structure", but you'll notice that they seem to find security holes to exploit just fine.
To sum up: Viega is a moron.
...doesn't it to you? I mean how long have you been sick of the "imagine a beowulf cluster of those" comments? Doesn't seem like only 10 years would make me that sick of it.
Because a standard shouldn't be patented.
If you're making a proprietary something-or-other, fine. But this is for an IETF approved standard, which is something that everybody should be able to adhere to.
Having a proprietary standard breaks things. Imagine how much ftp would be used if you had to give some company a nickel every time you used it? Fortunately for ftp, it's royalty free, and that's why it's used. That's the beauty of royalty free standards. Anyone can implement them, and because they're free, anyone can use them.
Well, it's not really a problem anymore because the gif patent expired, so they're ok to use now.
But I still think the point is a valid one - and an excellent example of why software patents are a bad idea. I know it's contrary to Slashdot groupthink, but what if Microsoft's implementation is the superior one? (Work with me guys, it's hypothetical) Now, because of the patents, it'll never be used and we'll be missing out on a good thing.
Microsoft shouldn't be surprised that their patent-encumbered method didn't fly. Remember the whole "burn all GIFs" campaign, when a patent made gif files possibly illegal to use? Now - imagine that mess with your email, and Microsoft holding the reins. Argh.
We've been through the whole embrace-and-extend loop with MS before, and it's nice to see the IETF understand the problems that a patent encumbered standard would produce.
Exactly what makes this any different than, say...qemu?
Maybe this is a meteor strike, like the one in Tungusta, Russia in 1908?
According to this article, the Tungusta blast was around 40 megatons. The Hiroshima bomb was only 13 kilotons.
I'm not saying this is a meteor strike, but I am saying we should keep in mind that there are other explanations. Let's wait until we see some radiation readings before we reach a conclusion.
Well it was a long day and I was tired when I posted. And as soon as I hit the submit button, I realized my error and just knew some smug jerk would be sure point it out. Thanks for not disappointing me.
...'cause I just published an essay on English literature and the role of articles.
...apologies to the pioneers of cold fusion, like Pons and Fleischman? Seems to me like a positive finding in a DoE report would at least be some verification that they might deserve one.
Point well taken. I'm asking for a small laptop, after all, but I'll stick to "small" being the keyword.
Yup, that's exactly what I'd be looking for too. Some of Sony's VAIO laptops come pretty close. And I found that embedded gadget I was talking about earlier. It's vaporware...their site dried up, but at least the idea is out there now and maybe someone else will pick up the ball and run with it. I'd love to have one of these things. But again, it'd need a keyboard of some kind to be useful. Put that Psion keypad on there, and it'd be damn near perfect.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention...the IrDA keypad I wrote the driver for was actually pretty darn small. Still bigger than the gadget it talked to, but not too large. Folded down to about wallet size. Only problems I really had with it were, it was as large as the gadget it talked to, it was another thing you could lose, and it was line-of-sight and would drop signal in an annoying way. Chalk it up to yet another failed way to get text into a PDA. =)
Dan, did you try to map the signal to a 3 dimensional shape? A cube maybe??
Again, I couldn't agree more. I have a saying for problems like this...it's like trying to tie your shoes with chopsticks. It's not the task that's difficult, it's the tools you have chosen. The UI for these things is stupid.
Handwriting recognition is a joke to that end. It's slow, it requires you to mangle your handwriting into a carricature that the PDA can recognize, and you still end up with something so mangled it could have just as well been written it l33t. No, that won't do.
Ayup. A big gripe of mine too. The reason why it sucks? There's a spec that MS came up with to get your little windows logo on your gadget that dictates exactly how many points per second you need to get from your touchscreen for handwriting recognition to work. And it's very very near the limits of what an AC97 link can do. Ergo, either you're throttling AC97 to death to get the points and starving the cpu, or throttling the cpu to interpret the points and starving the link. Everyone I know fudges these numbers. Can't think of a gadget out there that really nails this one.
If I was to single out _the_ one Psion feature I appreciated the most, it would undoubtedly be the good keyboard.
We tried to address this one as well. I wrote a driver for an IrDA keyboard. My thought was, well - neat trick, but if you're committed to carrying around a keyboard anyways, why not just get a laptop? IMHO, the only thing a PDA is good for is to ActiveSync to a desktop system, snag your schedule, and beep in your pocket when you forget something. YMMV, tho.
Oh yeah, as a funny side note, ActiveSync is nothing more than a PPP connection. You can ActiveSync your device to a Linux box. More of Redmond's fantastic "embrace and extend" philosophy. "Let's copy it, and then rename it!" *sigh*
You know, it would be nice if those things actually were PC or Mac compatible. And I don't mean compatible as in "but you can transfer files via an USB cable", but as in "you can take an old PC program or game and run it on the thing."
Me too. A lot.
There was a gadget on Slashdot a while back of some game-type thingy that was a 640x480 lcd, and an x86 core, complete with 10baseT and a 20Gig hd. It would be perfect. If I can find the link, I'll post it here later on.
Couldn't agree more, sterno. I worked for 3 years at a WindowsCE/Linux shop writing drivers for SA1110 and Cotulla chips (mostly) in PDAs. My impression of them all is that they're pretty much useless. Even when working correctly. ;^)
They all sort of struck me as PHB toys. You know, if you're a wink-and-a-gun suit guy you have to have one, to show the other guy you were....well....you know...out there, on the cutting edge, yada yada yada.
As for me, after spending 3 years around these devices, never once have I said to myself, "Damn! If only I had a PDA, that would be perfect to solve this problem."
It's been said before, but a PDA is a solution in search of a problem.
True, and well spoken. Scotty is permanently in the geek lexicon. You'd be hard pressed to find a single human being in the western hemisphere that doesn't know what "Scotty, beam me up" means.
In fact, I'm an engineer, and one of the best pieces of engineering advice ever given to me was from his character. "You didn't tell him how long it would really take, did you? You'll never get a reputation as a miracle worker that way."
I still exaggerate my time estimates to this day, and when I come in under the deadline, I look as good as Scotty does, each and every time. I've had entire semesters at college that taught me less useful knowledge than that one simple quote.
Mr. Doohan is a geek icon, and an amazing person aside from his acting career. Most geeks don't know it, but he was part of the D-Day landing. A truly amazing person, and the world will be a smaller place with him not in it. Godspeed, Mr. Scott.
From the article:
"Something new would happen, there would be tremendous excitement, followed by disillusionment."
Sounds like the entire course of human history to me.
VeriSign filed an antitrust suit against Six Flags Waterparks, for having a rule that says it's wrong to pee in their pool.
This quote from the article:
each girl will behave differently - depending on how much money is spent on her.
So...is that real money, or virtual money? If it's real cash, then kudos to the inventor - a female Tamagotchi that drains your cash. Wow. I'm still kicking myself for not thinking of it. Makes Everquest look like the March of Dimes.
...of a music company accusing anyone of being an unfair monopoly. And, just to double your irony goodness...accusing Apple.
Seriously. Offtopic? I tried to load the images thinking that if anyone could handle a Slashdotting, it'd be NASA. But guess what? The page loads, but the images do not. NASA is currently...Slashdotted.
Maybe it's not teh funnae, so by all means don't mod me funny. But it's on topic, especially if you want to see the images rather than read about how great they are. Informative if you agree, and redundant if you're sick of Slashdot jokes, but offtopic doesn't apply.
Remember, this is the problem meta mod is supposed to fix. Mod wisely folks.
Overheard at NASA's image server:
"Houston, we have a problem..."
If all the huge music makers merge, the RIAA will become redundant. One hardly needs a Recording Industry Association of America if there's only one company to represent. They can do it themselves.
Let's hope the 25% staff cut are RIAA morons.
So, to sum up: I, for one, welcome our new trash pop overlords.