Do you think patents are stopping companies from creating 'perfect' devices, or are there other factors at work?
Of course there are. Companies are (if they are any good) motived to make the most money with the least effort. The 80-20 Rule speaks directly to this motivation. The "perfect" product is almost in direct opposition to it.
This is a perfect example of the heart of the privacy issue: who gets to decide what is and what is not a matter of privacy, what information is "worth" privacy protection, what circumstances warrant privacy, and what does not.
You can bet that the answer the vast majority of corporate America is going to respond with is "we do".
being overly optimistic on the ability of Democracy/Republic style of governments being the solution to the problem.
The representative form of government is the best solution for the problem; the sticking point in Iraq is the implementation, because the vast majority of the locals have to really want it--and want it at almost any cost--if it's never been in place before. Look at every nation, from the birth of the United States to former Soviet republics now trying a representative government that is more democracy than rubber stamp. The rich, the poor, the working class, the business owners, everyone has to want to make it work. And a key component to that is one thing that you will rarely, if ever, read or hear about in the popular news media: cultural integrity.
One of the major problems in Iraq is the simple fact that the cultural bias is to never be 100% honest, because recent history shows that will more likely get you killed or your family killed than not. Until we find a way to not only encourage but to actually get the leaders in Irag at every level of government to be as close to 100% honest, as close to 100% of the time about their intentions as well as their actions in order to be role models for the Iraqis (and Iranians and Syrians and Turks and Kurds and every other local ethnic and political group with an interest in Iraq), democracy is never going to "thrive" on a scale comparable to any given Western government.
've steered clear of the SAN/NAS solution for once simple reason: it's a single point.
If you honestly think a SAN, particularly an EMC SAN, is a single point of failure, then you don't understand SANs. Take a look at the high-end Clariion and Symmetrix models for redundancy and scalability. Then take a look at who some of EMC's bigger customers are.
No, I don't work for EMC, but my employer has several mid-level EMC storage systems. They work. Reliably, quietly, and yes, they scale nicely too.
a 50% success rate for a trick like this is uncomfortably high
It seems that the only thing "uncomfortably high" is the author. If real, a 50% failure rate is deplorable, to the point where it ought to have prompted some righteous moral outrage. This isn't just another intellectual exercise in social engineering, it's a failure of the system. It's equivalent to 5 out of 10 grocery stores accepting a check presented by someone not the account holder and with no signature on it. That sort of behavior wouldn't be socially tolerable, nor should this be.
If it is, in fact, a real event.
The author ought to be immediately forthcoming with the who, what, and when of his experiment if he really wants some serious consideration and feedback.
With a different password for each system, if someone shoulder surfs his password on one box, it isn't going to automatically grant access to any other box.
when my wife was in Insurance billing before she got her CPA she worked on old wyse 75 terminals and this was for a HUGE rich insurance company.
There are several legacy, "green screen" apps in the insurance industry still kicking around out there. Some of these were initially developed as far back as the late 1970s. They are capable of high transaction rates in comparison to java-driven, web-based, "thin client" applications. Many of today's OLTP applictions would be better suited for ASCI-based interfaces than the GUI-based interfaces, for no other reason than eliminating the constant transition from keyboard to mouse and back.
It's a short story that's part of his Sprawl Triology. It's been too long since I've read it to remember the differences, I'll have to see if it's in one of the issues of Omni I still have around somewhere and reread it. I'm actually in the middle of reading Count Zero, and just going by Gibson's quality of writing, I'd say that the story almost has to be better than the movie.
I can tell you that it's highly doubtful that the problem is the speed of your fibre cards. If you are getting latency at the host, it is likely that either you've got conflicting access on a number of the same drives in the storage server, or a problem with your fiber switch.
I can definitely say that without vendor make, model, and software version information, you're not likely to get much helpful information in this venue, and you properly ought to be going to the vendor for technical support.
the failure of more CIOs to become CEO has to be one of the biggest mysteries of our age
Not at all. CEOs are hired by boards of directors, the vast majority of whom are not comprised of current or former CIOs. It's the same reasoning that has lead to the grossly inflated paychecks and bonuses that we see CEOs getting today: many members of the board have apirations to becoming a CEO. It's a continuation of the "old boys' club" on an even more pervasive scale. Until shareholders start demanding different behavior by voting with their investment funds, the situation isn't likely to change.
This is the beginning of blurring the lines. When we start adding military-grade defensive measures to non-military areas, we are on a slippery slope that is only going to lead to escalation. How long before we start arming civilian aircraft with active defenses?
Rarely can a single person manage all of the details. Coupled with the generally poor estimating skills I've observed at all levels of staff and management, technical and otherwise, significant portions of projects tend to be guesses. Granted, usually educated guesses based on a certain amount of information, but ultimately still guesses. Getting management and users to want to have the patience to quantify everything is all but impossible.
Yes, to the point where you are a perfect candidate for life insurance. I'm thinking a ten year policy will do. If you e-mail me your full name, address, and next of kin, I'll even make them co-beneficiaries.
Wow, this guy has far too much time on his hands...This seems a little sick
He's actually doing us all a favor by insisting that theses companies (non-profit and for-profit alike) abide by the law and thereby resepect our privacy. The heart of the law and the FCC rules are our freedoms of speach and assembly, from which are derived our freedoms of association and privacy. To be truly free, the choice for association must also include the choice to not associate. His actions are an affirmation of the choice to voluntarily deny or revoke association.
Besides, if any one non-profit's continued success hinges on a mere $500.00, they were already very close to going out of business anyway.
How do you want to oberserve a process, which takes longer as our civilization exists?
Obviously we cannot observe the entire process, but an agreed-upon mid-point would certainly do.
And btw: how would you tell a proto-planet from a planet?
I hope there's already a general description for when a group of matter within a dust-cloud would be considered a planet, or planet-like, or at least planet forming. That would be a conclusive smoking gun to justify the theory as now being an observed working method.
and now they have a planet in a debris disk.
That's not what the article stated:
show for the first time that a planet is aligned with its star's circumstellar disk of dust and gas
Which is what changes the conversation.
The new observation does, indeed, go a long way to supporting the current theory of planet formation. However, it is far from a smoking gun. The article doesn't state if there's sufficient observable evidence to support the conclusion that this planet came from this dust cloud. If that's not the case, then we have no "virtual certainty", just more "probably" data points.
As for the "glib stab", presenting conclusions in the face of non-conclusive evidence calls for questioning, and any ethical scientist ought to expect that.
The article stated that the dust cloud and the gas giant were in different orbits. How precisely we are currently able to measure the boundry of the dust cloud is probably the key question. That, and what's the ratio of gas to dust in the cloud?
There's possibly a Nobel prize waiting for the person who can produce the formula for planet creation that accounts for the mass and rotation speed of the star; the mass, area, composition, rotation speed, and over-all gravimetric effect of the dust cloud; and the gravitational effect of any already-formed planets, comets, and other near-by objects.
Slashdot Mirror
Do you think patents are stopping companies from creating 'perfect' devices, or are there other factors at work?
Of course there are. Companies are (if they are any good) motived to make the most money with the least effort. The 80-20 Rule speaks directly to this motivation. The "perfect" product is almost in direct opposition to it.
[CT: We'd fix it if I thought it mattered]
This is a perfect example of the heart of the privacy issue: who gets to decide what is and what is not a matter of privacy, what information is "worth" privacy protection, what circumstances warrant privacy, and what does not.
You can bet that the answer the vast majority of corporate America is going to respond with is "we do".
being overly optimistic on the ability of Democracy/Republic style of governments being the solution to the problem.
The representative form of government is the best solution for the problem; the sticking point in Iraq is the implementation, because the vast majority of the locals have to really want it--and want it at almost any cost--if it's never been in place before. Look at every nation, from the birth of the United States to former Soviet republics now trying a representative government that is more democracy than rubber stamp. The rich, the poor, the working class, the business owners, everyone has to want to make it work. And a key component to that is one thing that you will rarely, if ever, read or hear about in the popular news media: cultural integrity.
One of the major problems in Iraq is the simple fact that the cultural bias is to never be 100% honest, because recent history shows that will more likely get you killed or your family killed than not. Until we find a way to not only encourage but to actually get the leaders in Irag at every level of government to be as close to 100% honest, as close to 100% of the time about their intentions as well as their actions in order to be role models for the Iraqis (and Iranians and Syrians and Turks and Kurds and every other local ethnic and political group with an interest in Iraq), democracy is never going to "thrive" on a scale comparable to any given Western government.
've steered clear of the SAN/NAS solution for once simple reason: it's a single point.
If you honestly think a SAN, particularly an EMC SAN, is a single point of failure, then you don't understand SANs. Take a look at the high-end Clariion and Symmetrix models for redundancy and scalability. Then take a look at who some of EMC's bigger customers are.
No, I don't work for EMC, but my employer has several mid-level EMC storage systems. They work. Reliably, quietly, and yes, they scale nicely too.
Yes, yours is definitely a better analogy, thanks for posting it.
a 50% success rate for a trick like this is uncomfortably high
It seems that the only thing "uncomfortably high" is the author. If real, a 50% failure rate is deplorable, to the point where it ought to have prompted some righteous moral outrage. This isn't just another intellectual exercise in social engineering, it's a failure of the system. It's equivalent to 5 out of 10 grocery stores accepting a check presented by someone not the account holder and with no signature on it. That sort of behavior wouldn't be socially tolerable, nor should this be.
If it is, in fact, a real event.
The author ought to be immediately forthcoming with the who, what, and when of his experiment if he really wants some serious consideration and feedback.
Of course.
With a different password for each system, if someone shoulder surfs his password on one box, it isn't going to automatically grant access to any other box.
I'm curious as to how you are going to manage to pay for school and simultaneously either replace your former income, or remove the need for it.
when my wife was in Insurance billing before she got her CPA she worked on old wyse 75 terminals and this was for a HUGE rich insurance company.
There are several legacy, "green screen" apps in the insurance industry still kicking around out there. Some of these were initially developed as far back as the late 1970s. They are capable of high transaction rates in comparison to java-driven, web-based, "thin client" applications. Many of today's OLTP applictions would be better suited for ASCI-based interfaces than the GUI-based interfaces, for no other reason than eliminating the constant transition from keyboard to mouse and back.
Nope, I'll have to add it to the list. I'm currenlty working my way through Gibson's catalog.
It's a short story that's part of his Sprawl Triology. It's been too long since I've read it to remember the differences, I'll have to see if it's in one of the issues of Omni I still have around somewhere and reread it. I'm actually in the middle of reading Count Zero, and just going by Gibson's quality of writing, I'd say that the story almost has to be better than the movie.
William Gibson wrote about much of this in Johnny Mnemonic
Hold the Caveman down and force-feed him the raw Gecko... that ought to take care of both of them in one swell foop.
I can tell you that it's highly doubtful that the problem is the speed of your fibre cards. If you are getting latency at the host, it is likely that either you've got conflicting access on a number of the same drives in the storage server, or a problem with your fiber switch.
I can definitely say that without vendor make, model, and software version information, you're not likely to get much helpful information in this venue, and you properly ought to be going to the vendor for technical support.
And there is a host of companies out there getting paid to do Samba support:
http://us1.samba.org/samba/support/us.html
It's the only consistent policy from the Bush administration regarding science, so why does anyone expect anything different now?
the failure of more CIOs to become CEO has to be one of the biggest mysteries of our age
Not at all. CEOs are hired by boards of directors, the vast majority of whom are not comprised of current or former CIOs. It's the same reasoning that has lead to the grossly inflated paychecks and bonuses that we see CEOs getting today: many members of the board have apirations to becoming a CEO. It's a continuation of the "old boys' club" on an even more pervasive scale. Until shareholders start demanding different behavior by voting with their investment funds, the situation isn't likely to change.
This is the beginning of blurring the lines. When we start adding military-grade defensive measures to non-military areas, we are on a slippery slope that is only going to lead to escalation. How long before we start arming civilian aircraft with active defenses?
Remember the Lusitania
Rarely can a single person manage all of the details. Coupled with the generally poor estimating skills I've observed at all levels of staff and management, technical and otherwise, significant portions of projects tend to be guesses. Granted, usually educated guesses based on a certain amount of information, but ultimately still guesses. Getting management and users to want to have the patience to quantify everything is all but impossible.
is what I'm doing worse for my health
Yes, to the point where you are a perfect candidate for life insurance. I'm thinking a ten year policy will do. If you e-mail me your full name, address, and next of kin, I'll even make them co-beneficiaries.
Personally, I'll take a poorly-lit set with grainy footage and a top-notch story and universe over perfectly produced crap any day.
So then, you're a Neverwhere fan?
Wow, this guy has far too much time on his hands...This seems a little sick
He's actually doing us all a favor by insisting that theses companies (non-profit and for-profit alike) abide by the law and thereby resepect our privacy. The heart of the law and the FCC rules are our freedoms of speach and assembly, from which are derived our freedoms of association and privacy. To be truly free, the choice for association must also include the choice to not associate. His actions are an affirmation of the choice to voluntarily deny or revoke association.
Besides, if any one non-profit's continued success hinges on a mere $500.00, they were already very close to going out of business anyway.
How do you want to oberserve a process, which takes longer as our civilization exists?
Obviously we cannot observe the entire process, but an agreed-upon mid-point would certainly do.
And btw: how would you tell a proto-planet from a planet?
I hope there's already a general description for when a group of matter within a dust-cloud would be considered a planet, or planet-like, or at least planet forming. That would be a conclusive smoking gun to justify the theory as now being an observed working method.
and now they have a planet in a debris disk.
That's not what the article stated:
show for the first time that a planet is aligned with its star's circumstellar disk of dust and gas
Which is what changes the conversation.
The new observation does, indeed, go a long way to supporting the current theory of planet formation. However, it is far from a smoking gun. The article doesn't state if there's sufficient observable evidence to support the conclusion that this planet came from this dust cloud. If that's not the case, then we have no "virtual certainty", just more "probably" data points.
As for the "glib stab", presenting conclusions in the face of non-conclusive evidence calls for questioning, and any ethical scientist ought to expect that.
The article stated that the dust cloud and the gas giant were in different orbits. How precisely we are currently able to measure the boundry of the dust cloud is probably the key question. That, and what's the ratio of gas to dust in the cloud?
There's possibly a Nobel prize waiting for the person who can produce the formula for planet creation that accounts for the mass and rotation speed of the star; the mass, area, composition, rotation speed, and over-all gravimetric effect of the dust cloud; and the gravitational effect of any already-formed planets, comets, and other near-by objects.