In my experience, I've heard admins spout bogus reasoning in response to a user that just isn't listening to what they say. Eventually, SOMETHING gets across to said user, and it hopefully has the desired effect.
I've heavily managed both GroupWise and Exchange systems. While comparing older versions, GroupWise is the winner hands down from an ease of administration perspective, but today, I'd easily hand it to Exchange. I don't see a whole lot (if any) more time devoted to Exchange than GroupWise, AND, I get a platform that my users are used to, that they like, and that I can very easily build on with an abundance of third party software. To be fair, I DO like GroupWise, but given a choice, would pick Exchange.
I wholeheartedly agree that acquisition costs for non-Microsoft products are less expensive than other alternatives. After all, it's hard to compete with, in some cases, free.
One poster mentioned the "opportunity cost" for managing a Windows environment due to the downtime suffered by Windows shops. One key fact is this: with proper planning, appropriate maintenance windows, and good people, even a lowly Windows environment can run and actually be very, very stable. I don't care what kind of environment you have, patches *are* required, and administration is required after the initial implementation.
Finally, there is the case of the "tool for the job" that a lot of people tend to forget in the zealousness for all things non-Microsoft. In some cases, MS *IS* the best tool for the job. I current manage a smallish environment where we have about 35 servers. Most are Microsoft, but some Linux is there for specific services. Because of software that we use in our line of business (that is what this is about, after all), we are primarily a Windows shop and will remain so for the foreseeable future. To move to Linux, even a free version like Fedora, would be incredibly expensive and result in a maintenance nightmare due to our primary business apps not supporting Linux. Before you say "then switch apps", consider that our apps are what keep us in business and what all of our people are trained on. It's easy to say "get rid of Windows", but a hell of a lot harder to make it actually happen. When you're spouting "TCO" analyses without actually considering specific environments, you're providing serious misinformation. Let's call it PCO - partial cost of ownership instead.
I agree that 2U servers can be better than 1U servers, but not across the board, especially when you're paying for rack space, which can be expensive. If you don't have HUGE storage needs, a 1U server will do fine. Heck, with a Dell 1850, you can get three 146GB drives in the unit, and have close to 300GB available using RAID 5. Most 1U servers are available with dual processors now, too. You are limited in other expansion options - notably just a single PCI slot is available - but for a lot of servers, that's probably not a big deal. You can get a lot of horsepower in very little rack space and have a lot of storage available.
Again, it just depends on what the server is doing whether or not you'd save money with a 2U over 1 1U.
I don't have mod points today, so I can't mod you up, but you're absolutely, 100% on the mark. I also absolutely agree that DRM that limits personal use of information is a bad idea. You should be able to do what you want with what you own.
I have a book coming out in January and would really rather get the royalty I'm due rather than have people stealing my stuff left and right...
...and I met on kiss.com a little over three years ago. We dated for a year, got married, have a wonderful 9-month old son with a daughter due in February.
That said, I did try Together, and it SUCKED with a capital S-U-C-K-E-D. I didn't sue them, but I should have.
It's really hit or miss out there. I met a lot of people from various sites. Some were scary and some were great - just like in "real life". It used to be a lot worse, but as more people get comfortable with it, the pool rounds out.
I totally agree. In fact, it was downright despicable to give the campus only $20 MILLION dollars out of the $50 million needed to actually complete the structure. He should just go back to campus, apologize for his rudeness, rip up the check he gave to the college and go home and write a letter of apology for his rudeness.
Who cares if he's really rich? If he gave away $20 million every day, he wouldn't be for very long, would he? No matter how you look at it, $20 million is a LOT of money.
I am sometimes absolutely appalled by the unappreciative nature of some people.
3Com used to be in the higher end switching market with pretty big gear - the Corebuilder 9000 was their high end chassis and was NICE. In fact, at one point (1999), they were the number two vendor in the market right behind Cisco. After working with 3Com and Cisco for a replacement of my campus network (I managed the network group at a college at the time), I selected 3Com based on the equipment features and the VERY attractive price in relation to the Cisco solution. The sales reps from 3Com were confident in the solution and in the support we'd get from 3Com moving forward
Two months after my installation was complete, 3Com EXITED the market. Yes - they immediately discontinued ALL of the brand new gear that we had just purchased. No notice. On a Monday morning, it was in the papers.
They botched their rep ALL over the place. I doubt I'd touch their new gear with a 10 foot pole. They're one of the flakiest companies I've ever had the misfortune to work with. Good gear, but absolutely horrid management.
It sure as hell isn't illegal to call our elected representatives who, in theory, represent the people. We're losing things left and right, but the ability to actual make our voices heard is still here (for now).
Argh! Your post was good and bad. Good in that your tagline references perhaps the best hour of television ever, but bad in that people are starting to abbreviate using TLDs!
First, I'm a technologyt agnostic kinda guy. I like Apple's stuff, like some of MS's stuff, like Linux, etc.
Second, the "monopolies commission" can come down like a ton of bricks on Microsoft because they are using their monopoly position to further themselves in the marketplace. Other companies can hardly be established, let alone successful, in certain arenas. The classic example here was MS leveraging their Windows desktop monopoly to crush Netscape.
Apple, on the other hand, enjoys no such monopoly. Sure, they don't license their DRM technology, but this is for competitive reasons in a market in which their is ample room for competition. Apple has no "lock" on the market like MS has on theirs. A monopoly is not created by a company selling a device and trying to lock you into that device. This would be a monopolistic situation if Apple had 98% market share and bundled iTunes with the operating system and would let it only work on iPods at the same time they were actively trying to crush other music services.
I'm not sure how clear this explanation was, but I hope it makes sense.
I didn't realize that flying was a basic human right... bear in mind that some of these measures really aren't intrusive. So what if you have to show them your license. They probably want to make sure you are still the person holding the ticket and that it hasn't been picked up by someone else and used for something bad. And, if it makes people (the general public) feel a little better about the process, then so be it.
I'l be the first one to stand up and say that the Patriot Act, the DMCA, etc, etc, etc are all bogus, but this one... not such a huge deal in my book. Hell, I've given banks more information about me just for the privilege of being able to apply for a loan and not too many people squawk about that.
So far, I've had no trouble at all using the units across circuit breakers. They're designed to work that way, even.
If you happen to have a circuit breaker that has surge protection at the panel (VERY rare), it won't work. Also, don't plug the unit into a plug strip or surge protector. Surge protectors filter out the frequency range used by the power line equipment, so you really do need to plug it directly into the wall. However, if you're concerned about surges coming over the wiring, don't worry. The units have their own protection.
Remember, the MAX for this stuff is 14Mbps, but you'll probably get 6 or 7 at best, which is still very good. Good luck!
You're obviously hung up on this, but it's standard vernacular in these cases and probably won't change just because you don't happen to like it. Sorry!
Really none to avoid that I can think of. I've used the D-Link, Netgear and Linksys units and like them all. Actually, they're all identical under the hood and work well together, too.
Scott
The word consumer does not always equate to "our customer". This this case, the AGs always refer to the citizens in their states that buy things as "consumers", which is perfectly appropriate. This is standard operating procedure in all 56 AG offices that are a part of the National Association of Attorneys General.
It was interesting to find this letter on Slashdot since I worked for the National Association of Attorneys General up until April of this year as the IT Director.
As for your concern about the word "consumer", you are correct in your assumption that the AGs consider you their consumer. However, the word consumer in this sense is defined as "citizens that are under our jurisdiction", not as "our customer".
I happen to have experience with many of the various powerline home networking options. Actually, they're VERY cool, and will probably work even on your old cabling. If you're just trying to get one remote system up and running, you'd need two (one for the computer and one to connect to your router - all via Ethernet) and they're around $70 each or so.
They're not speed demons at 4-8Mbps in real life, but still faster than broadband and not a bad choice at all.
I've been through this twice now. Once recently and once about 8 months ago. The first one was an upgrade from NT -> 2003 and the second was an upgrade from a 2000 AD -> 2003 AD. Both times, I ended up MORE than happy that I went to 2003. The tools for 2003 beat the hell out of the tools for 2000. If you decide to add Exchange to the mix, Ex 2003 is more stable and has better features over 2000. All in all, if you're going new, there's no reason to wait for the.2 or.3.
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In my experience, I've heard admins spout bogus reasoning in response to a user that just isn't listening to what they say. Eventually, SOMETHING gets across to said user, and it hopefully has the desired effect.
I've heavily managed both GroupWise and Exchange systems. While comparing older versions, GroupWise is the winner hands down from an ease of administration perspective, but today, I'd easily hand it to Exchange. I don't see a whole lot (if any) more time devoted to Exchange than GroupWise, AND, I get a platform that my users are used to, that they like, and that I can very easily build on with an abundance of third party software. To be fair, I DO like GroupWise, but given a choice, would pick Exchange.
I wholeheartedly agree that acquisition costs for non-Microsoft products are less expensive than other alternatives. After all, it's hard to compete with, in some cases, free.
One poster mentioned the "opportunity cost" for managing a Windows environment due to the downtime suffered by Windows shops. One key fact is this: with proper planning, appropriate maintenance windows, and good people, even a lowly Windows environment can run and actually be very, very stable. I don't care what kind of environment you have, patches *are* required, and administration is required after the initial implementation.
Finally, there is the case of the "tool for the job" that a lot of people tend to forget in the zealousness for all things non-Microsoft. In some cases, MS *IS* the best tool for the job. I current manage a smallish environment where we have about 35 servers. Most are Microsoft, but some Linux is there for specific services. Because of software that we use in our line of business (that is what this is about, after all), we are primarily a Windows shop and will remain so for the foreseeable future. To move to Linux, even a free version like Fedora, would be incredibly expensive and result in a maintenance nightmare due to our primary business apps not supporting Linux. Before you say "then switch apps", consider that our apps are what keep us in business and what all of our people are trained on. It's easy to say "get rid of Windows", but a hell of a lot harder to make it actually happen.
When you're spouting "TCO" analyses without actually considering specific environments, you're providing serious misinformation. Let's call it PCO - partial cost of ownership instead.
I agree that 2U servers can be better than 1U servers, but not across the board, especially when you're paying for rack space, which can be expensive. If you don't have HUGE storage needs, a 1U server will do fine. Heck, with a Dell 1850, you can get three 146GB drives in the unit, and have close to 300GB available using RAID 5. Most 1U servers are available with dual processors now, too. You are limited in other expansion options - notably just a single PCI slot is available - but for a lot of servers, that's probably not a big deal. You can get a lot of horsepower in very little rack space and have a lot of storage available.
Again, it just depends on what the server is doing whether or not you'd save money with a 2U over 1 1U.
I don't have mod points today, so I can't mod you up, but you're absolutely, 100% on the mark. I also absolutely agree that DRM that limits personal use of information is a bad idea. You should be able to do what you want with what you own.
I have a book coming out in January and would really rather get the royalty I'm due rather than have people stealing my stuff left and right...
...and I met on kiss.com a little over three years ago. We dated for a year, got married, have a wonderful 9-month old son with a daughter due in February.
That said, I did try Together, and it SUCKED with a capital S-U-C-K-E-D. I didn't sue them, but I should have.
It's really hit or miss out there. I met a lot of people from various sites. Some were scary and some were great - just like in "real life". It used to be a lot worse, but as more people get comfortable with it, the pool rounds out.
...is Russia when their unit of currency is a rock. Not a refined rock, mind you, but instead leftover bits from disasters.
I really had no idea you were being sarcastic... I'll let it go this time. :-)
I totally agree. In fact, it was downright despicable to give the campus only $20 MILLION dollars out of the $50 million needed to actually complete the structure. He should just go back to campus, apologize for his rudeness, rip up the check he gave to the college and go home and write a letter of apology for his rudeness.
Who cares if he's really rich? If he gave away $20 million every day, he wouldn't be for very long, would he? No matter how you look at it, $20 million is a LOT of money.
I am sometimes absolutely appalled by the unappreciative nature of some people.
3Com used to be in the higher end switching market with pretty big gear - the Corebuilder 9000 was their high end chassis and was NICE. In fact, at one point (1999), they were the number two vendor in the market right behind Cisco. After working with 3Com and Cisco for a replacement of my campus network (I managed the network group at a college at the time), I selected 3Com based on the equipment features and the VERY attractive price in relation to the Cisco solution. The sales reps from 3Com were confident in the solution and in the support we'd get from 3Com moving forward
Two months after my installation was complete, 3Com EXITED the market. Yes - they immediately discontinued ALL of the brand new gear that we had just purchased. No notice. On a Monday morning, it was in the papers.
They botched their rep ALL over the place. I doubt I'd touch their new gear with a 10 foot pole. They're one of the flakiest companies I've ever had the misfortune to work with. Good gear, but absolutely horrid management.
It sure as hell isn't illegal to call our elected representatives who, in theory, represent the people. We're losing things left and right, but the ability to actual make our voices heard is still here (for now).
Argh! Your post was good and bad. Good in that your tagline references perhaps the best hour of television ever, but bad in that people are starting to abbreviate using TLDs!
First, I'm a technologyt agnostic kinda guy. I like Apple's stuff, like some of MS's stuff, like Linux, etc.
Second, the "monopolies commission" can come down like a ton of bricks on Microsoft because they are using their monopoly position to further themselves in the marketplace. Other companies can hardly be established, let alone successful, in certain arenas. The classic example here was MS leveraging their Windows desktop monopoly to crush Netscape.
Apple, on the other hand, enjoys no such monopoly. Sure, they don't license their DRM technology, but this is for competitive reasons in a market in which their is ample room for competition. Apple has no "lock" on the market like MS has on theirs. A monopoly is not created by a company selling a device and trying to lock you into that device. This would be a monopolistic situation if Apple had 98% market share and bundled iTunes with the operating system and would let it only work on iPods at the same time they were actively trying to crush other music services.
I'm not sure how clear this explanation was, but I hope it makes sense.
I didn't realize that flying was a basic human right... bear in mind that some of these measures really aren't intrusive. So what if you have to show them your license. They probably want to make sure you are still the person holding the ticket and that it hasn't been picked up by someone else and used for something bad. And, if it makes people (the general public) feel a little better about the process, then so be it.
I'l be the first one to stand up and say that the Patriot Act, the DMCA, etc, etc, etc are all bogus, but this one... not such a huge deal in my book. Hell, I've given banks more information about me just for the privilege of being able to apply for a loan and not too many people squawk about that.
So far, I've had no trouble at all using the units across circuit breakers. They're designed to work that way, even.
If you happen to have a circuit breaker that has surge protection at the panel (VERY rare), it won't work. Also, don't plug the unit into a plug strip or surge protector. Surge protectors filter out the frequency range used by the power line equipment, so you really do need to plug it directly into the wall. However, if you're concerned about surges coming over the wiring, don't worry. The units have their own protection.
Remember, the MAX for this stuff is 14Mbps, but you'll probably get 6 or 7 at best, which is still very good. Good luck!
You're obviously hung up on this, but it's standard vernacular in these cases and probably won't change just because you don't happen to like it. Sorry!
Really none to avoid that I can think of. I've used the D-Link, Netgear and Linksys units and like them all. Actually, they're all identical under the hood and work well together, too. Scott
The word consumer does not always equate to "our customer". This this case, the AGs always refer to the citizens in their states that buy things as "consumers", which is perfectly appropriate. This is standard operating procedure in all 56 AG offices that are a part of the National Association of Attorneys General.
It was interesting to find this letter on Slashdot since I worked for the National Association of Attorneys General up until April of this year as the IT Director.
As for your concern about the word "consumer", you are correct in your assumption that the AGs consider you their consumer. However, the word consumer in this sense is defined as "citizens that are under our jurisdiction", not as "our customer".
I happen to have experience with many of the various powerline home networking options. Actually, they're VERY cool, and will probably work even on your old cabling. If you're just trying to get one remote system up and running, you'd need two (one for the computer and one to connect to your router - all via Ethernet) and they're around $70 each or so.
They're not speed demons at 4-8Mbps in real life, but still faster than broadband and not a bad choice at all.
I've been through this twice now. Once recently and once about 8 months ago. The first one was an upgrade from NT -> 2003 and the second was an upgrade from a 2000 AD -> 2003 AD. Both times, I ended up MORE than happy that I went to 2003. The tools for 2003 beat the hell out of the tools for 2000. If you decide to add Exchange to the mix, Ex 2003 is more stable and has better features over 2000. All in all, if you're going new, there's no reason to wait for the .2 or .3.
Dig his voicebox out with a spoon.
Microsoft could save a lot in licensing fees if they just switched to Linux and OpenOffice.
I know a lot of Slashdot readers are pretty young, but wow... 10BASE5 (thicknet) being new or unheard of... makes me feel OLD (and I'm only 30!)
And, let me tell YOU... I'm hung like a horse and always ready to go.