A search path has nothing to do with metadata. Metadata is information about data. The files matched by your search path are not data files.
You still have not answered the central question. Where does your proposed metadata come from? Do you expect the OS/filesystem to be able to determine what/whom the subject of the jpeg is, or are you going to fill out a questionnaire about every file you store?
Accually a lot of offices have a bosses appreciation day too.
Oh yeah, and it's always a complete and total surprise to the bosses. And the employees who get panhandled by the *administrative assistants* don't worry at all if they don't contribute and sign the card. Truth be told, I'd be more worried if there were an official Sysadmin Day, and I didn't sign the card.:)
Let's try it from a luser's viewpoint. ("You" is a general reference to sysadmins - nothing personal.)
Best case: You foobarred the heavy iron during the latest upgrade, as usual. I put in a trouble ticket (because you won't do anything without one) pointing out the problem and the fix exactly. You wait for a day then grudgingly fix the problem.
Middle case: I know another sysadmin foobarred the heavy iron, but I don't dare say that in the trouble ticket, although I give you some outrageous clues including the times the files were changed. You spend a week on the vendor's knowledge base before recompiling the offending libraries using the proper options.
Worst case: Same as best case above except you spend two weeks scoping out the vendor's knowledge base before making the fix already requested and detailed in the trouble ticket.
Absolutely Positively Worst case: Oops.:) I accidently remove two weeks worth of new source code that I have not checked in or backed up. I fill out the required Darwin Award application. Time slows to a crawl while I journey to your dark lair in the corner of the room of blinking machines. As my eyes adjust, I humbly submit the required form and request that a directory be restored from the nightly backups. Two days seems like a long time to wait for a simple thing, but it's still good.
In any case: I have to respond to the *automated* trouble-ticket-response satisfaction survey with glowing praise because I'm not stupid enough to believe the responses are really anonymous when I know you have root access to the mail servers and everything else.
Seriously, we do have one sysadmin who is unbelievably good and really helpful. I hope the secret doesn't get out and everyone else starts asking him for help. Okay, I guess this is my message of appreciation after all.
Does this mean that MS Windows is now a security threat threat too? Because afterall, we could now have terrorists embedding code into Windows that is malicious!
That's a silly supposition. Microsoft will employ the same stringent code review, testing, and applied obscurity that has made it the highly secure, NIH-approved, safe, and trustworthy (cue singers, softly: America the Beautiful, fade to slow-mo pan out of happy Windows laptop users looking at the statue of liberty while using IE and enjoying popups) platform that it is today. I hope you're not some software communist trying to subvert the Wind^H^H^H^HAmerican way.
To further increase profitability, why not offshore their highest paid employees, Steve and Bill?
First, let me say I've suggested offshoring highly paid executive jobs before. Also I do enjoy bashing Microsoft, and I have the troll points to prove it, but this is one thing I can't fault these two really rich guys for. Compared to CxOs of other large American companies, their salaries are paltry. The real reason their jobs should be outsourced is because they want to replace the workforce that made the company what it is today (while enjoying profit margins around 80%) to *save money*. Now, I'll get nailed by both sides.:)
And it's not purple. It's most definitely blue. Not even a particularly garish blue.
Perhaps it's system dependent. Using Mozilla under Linux on a KDE desktop with a fairly new Compaq CRT monitor, the Games color is an aggravatingly bright bluish purple. It is definitely "garish", although not as hurtful as the new IT theme. I just had a thought - you don't suppose the *color guy* for Slashdot is partially color blind? It's pretty common in males. I've wondered before why Taco is so attached to such a dreary shade of green.
Whether or not people will actually make any use of a FS metadata capabilities is a seperate issue. I don't want to spend all my time re-arranging directories and shuffling my data around to make it easier to find. I bought a computer to do such menial tasks...
I think warax summed it up pretty well. You still have not said where this metadata is coming from. Is the OS/filesystem supposed to know the jpeg is of your daughter and where it was taken? Or are you willing to play twenty questions every time you store a file? It would seem to be less work for both humans and computers to just use sensible names for directories and files. Most of us are no longer limited to 8.3 filenames, you know. If your computer can read your mind, please let me know what brand it is - I want one; I've always wanted a computer that would do what I wanted it to do instead of what I told it to do.
Well, the key to a database filesystem will be seamless data entry and simple, powerful access to search and reporting features.
I'm not sure what you mean by "seamless data entry." Maybe I missed something in the article. Are you suggesting people will be willing to provide meaningful metadata for a file when they aren't even willing to provide a meaningful file name? And "powerful access to search and reporting features"? As opposed to wimpy access to search and reporting features? It sounds a bit like marketspeak to me.
It seems to me that this push for "database filesystems" is from people who want to throw everything in one directory and name their files "1", "2", "3", etc. It just dumps more work on the CPU to handle more filesystem overhead. When you give a filesystem the attributes of a relational database, you also get all the related problems, overhead, and constraints. Records in a database table are very closely related. Files in a directory may have nearly nothing in common.
What I'm guessing is that we'll see a thinly veiled front end to grep -- and as much as I like grep, it's a serious pricker bush.
What is WinFS, except an admission that you can't *grep* or *strings* a Windows *folder* full of files? Files that have secret, constantly changing formats require metadata to make them searchable, which makes the filesystem bigger and slower. Being able to see the same file from two different directories doesn't impress me. I can do that with ln -s (if I really have a valid reason for it). I really don't see a lot of benefit to *nix in following Windows down this road. I'm sure I'll get enlightened shortly.:)
I think the point is that Microsoft wants a situation where there is Microsoft email and the other kind of email. With 90% of the lusers on the planet complaining that their MS email is not getting through, MS expects the rest of the world will cave in and be forced to use Microsoft email. I'm not saying it would work, but I don't even want to test it.
Basic hygiene should be performed at home and not in the office!
I feel your pain. We have this obsessive/compulsive guy who performs total dental cleanliness at least three times a day in the restroom. The problem is that he takes up two sinks and the only shelf for his paraphernalia. The rebreathed peppermint stink is bad enough, but flicking the flossed particles all about is too much.
Slashdot irony is when someone tells you you're full of fertilizer, then spends an entire week, or more, losing a defenseless position and finally marks you as a foe/freak as if you had done something bad. Think about it for a second. Oh well, another troll on the list.
I agree with that. I think the point is that like finding real gems in the real world, finding gems on TV is going to require a long search in that barren wasteland. By definition, most TV shows will be mediocre pap. Hopefully, there will still be the occasional show that does something new and captures our interest. I thought Junk Yard Wars was really interesting when it started, then they had to keep stretching and stretching it until it was pap.
When was TV anything else besides a barren wasteland of corporate-enforced mediocrity?
There was a show called The Prisoner a long time ago. It was British in origin but became very popular in the US. I couldn't do it justice by trying to explain it, but it was definitely different. The fact that I can still remember it raises it above mediocrity.:)
the entire reality TV phenomenon (which, if you notice, is getting further and further away from "reality")
Were there ever any shows that really were based on "reality"? Even Survivor, which is sometimes interesting because of the shifting alliances, is done in a completely contrived situation, and the end product is heavily edited. Those shows should really be called unreality TV. When I first heard the term "reality TV", my comment was, "Why would I ever want to watch a TV show about my everyday life or anyone else's?"
We pretty much know that #1 is false and that #2 is damn near impossible to prove. #3 is useless to them because TISC revealed the secret. They can sue TISC for that (if they have a leg to stand on), but they can't sue anyone else. Thus SCO is still performing barratry and they know it.
My past comments prove my low opinion of SCO, but judges tend to get annoyed by frivolous claims and make binding decisions with prejudice as a result. SCO has hired some supposedly heavyweight legal talent who must know this. IIRC, lawyers can be penalized for staging or cooperating with stunts. What is the possible upside in this claim that makes SCO and the lawyers willing to try it? They couldn't have all been sharing the crack pipe when they filed this - could they?
True, Mandrake does not *force* you to create a user account, but if you follow the default installation, as new users almost certainly will, you wind up with a non-root user who is automatically logged in when you boot. If Lindows followed the same model, I would have no problem with it. Robertson made it very clear during a Slashdot *interview* that users might be annoyed by entering a password to install software, so Lindows would not impose that terrible hardship. That kind of thinking is short-sighted and bad for Linux. One company should not be allowed to ruin things for the rest of us and the companies who try to make sure their users are secure. It's the same wooly-headed thinking that made Windows the security nightmare that it is today.
Sir. The RIAA has been claiming all along that the decrease in sales was due to "piracy". The increase in sales indicates that the real reason is economics. Have you not been paying attention or reading any of the articles?
Last I checked Lindows had fixed this root problem.
From the Linspire knowledge base:
Q. How secure is the Linspire/LindowsOS operating system, and do I have the option of not running as "root"?
A. We leave the option of running as root or not up to the computer owner. During the installation (or easily from the Settings menu after installation), Linspire/LindowsOS makes it easy to maintain and add user accounts which do not run as root.
Obviously, root is the default, and n00bs won't know any better. Mandrake adds a non-root user as the normal login by default.
. ..but It's still good to get your facts correct.
Yes, you should try it. I didn't say that Lindows didn't allow non-root users, only that the default user ran as root, which is a Bad Thing.
[From the linked article] Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, called the first-quarter figures "good news," but cautioned that the results were measured against a dismal period.
"The numbers of 2003 were down about 10 percent to 12 percent from the year before," Sherman said. "If we didn't have that kind of increase it would be really terrible."
Nothing new. The RIAA not only believes it is entitled to huge profits but also increasingly huge profits every year - even during a recession. Yearly two-digit profit increases are the RIAA's God-given right; anything less is proof of rampant piracy. Haarrrrrgh, matey, I bought only one (music) CD last year (and downloaded no music). I really plundered the RIAA! Now if they'd just take that long walk on a short plank . ..
Slashdot Mirror
A search path has nothing to do with metadata. Metadata is information about data. The files matched by your search path are not data files.
You still have not answered the central question. Where does your proposed metadata come from? Do you expect the OS/filesystem to be able to determine what/whom the subject of the jpeg is, or are you going to fill out a questionnaire about every file you store?
Accually a lot of offices have a bosses appreciation day too.
Oh yeah, and it's always a complete and total surprise to the bosses. And the employees who get panhandled by the *administrative assistants* don't worry at all if they don't contribute and sign the card. Truth be told, I'd be more worried if there were an official Sysadmin Day, and I didn't sign the card. :)
Let's try it from a luser's viewpoint. ("You" is a general reference to sysadmins - nothing personal.)
:) I accidently remove two weeks worth of new source code that I have not checked in or backed up. I fill out the required Darwin Award application. Time slows to a crawl while I journey to your dark lair in the corner of the room of blinking machines. As my eyes adjust, I humbly submit the required form and request that a directory be restored from the nightly backups. Two days seems like a long time to wait for a simple thing, but it's still good.
Best case: You foobarred the heavy iron during the latest upgrade, as usual. I put in a trouble ticket (because you won't do anything without one) pointing out the problem and the fix exactly. You wait for a day then grudgingly fix the problem.
Middle case: I know another sysadmin foobarred the heavy iron, but I don't dare say that in the trouble ticket, although I give you some outrageous clues including the times the files were changed. You spend a week on the vendor's knowledge base before recompiling the offending libraries using the proper options.
Worst case: Same as best case above except you spend two weeks scoping out the vendor's knowledge base before making the fix already requested and detailed in the trouble ticket.
Absolutely Positively Worst case: Oops.
In any case: I have to respond to the *automated* trouble-ticket-response satisfaction survey with glowing praise because I'm not stupid enough to believe the responses are really anonymous when I know you have root access to the mail servers and everything else.
Seriously, we do have one sysadmin who is unbelievably good and really helpful. I hope the secret doesn't get out and everyone else starts asking him for help. Okay, I guess this is my message of appreciation after all.
Does this mean that MS Windows is now a security threat threat too? Because afterall, we could now have terrorists embedding code into Windows that is malicious!
That's a silly supposition. Microsoft will employ the same stringent code review, testing, and applied obscurity that has made it the highly secure, NIH-approved, safe, and trustworthy (cue singers, softly: America the Beautiful, fade to slow-mo pan out of happy Windows laptop users looking at the statue of liberty while using IE and enjoying popups) platform that it is today. I hope you're not some software communist trying to subvert the Wind^H^H^H^HAmerican way.
To further increase profitability, why not offshore their highest paid employees, Steve and Bill?
First, let me say I've suggested offshoring highly paid executive jobs before. Also I do enjoy bashing Microsoft, and I have the troll points to prove it, but this is one thing I can't fault these two really rich guys for. Compared to CxOs of other large American companies, their salaries are paltry. The real reason their jobs should be outsourced is because they want to replace the workforce that made the company what it is today (while enjoying profit margins around 80%) to *save money*. Now, I'll get nailed by both sides. :)
I don't really see why this is worth talking about anyway. Who cares what it looks like as long as you can read it?
It's because people, including management, generally ignore me while passing by my cube. However, when I wear sunglasses, it draws attention.
And it's not purple. It's most definitely blue. Not even a particularly garish blue.
Perhaps it's system dependent. Using Mozilla under Linux on a KDE desktop with a fairly new Compaq CRT monitor, the Games color is an aggravatingly bright bluish purple. It is definitely "garish", although not as hurtful as the new IT theme. I just had a thought - you don't suppose the *color guy* for Slashdot is partially color blind? It's pretty common in males. I've wondered before why Taco is so attached to such a dreary shade of green.
if you just drop the "it." from the front, the color scheme disappears and you get the normal slashdot colors.
Wow, thanks, that's much better. That should go into the Slashdot survival guide.
Whether or not people will actually make any use of a FS metadata capabilities is a seperate issue. I don't want to spend all my time re-arranging directories and shuffling my data around to make it easier to find. I bought a computer to do such menial tasks...
I think warax summed it up pretty well. You still have not said where this metadata is coming from. Is the OS/filesystem supposed to know the jpeg is of your daughter and where it was taken? Or are you willing to play twenty questions every time you store a file? It would seem to be less work for both humans and computers to just use sensible names for directories and files. Most of us are no longer limited to 8.3 filenames, you know. If your computer can read your mind, please let me know what brand it is - I want one; I've always wanted a computer that would do what I wanted it to do instead of what I told it to do.
Well, the key to a database filesystem will be seamless data entry and simple, powerful access to search and reporting features.
I'm not sure what you mean by "seamless data entry." Maybe I missed something in the article. Are you suggesting people will be willing to provide meaningful metadata for a file when they aren't even willing to provide a meaningful file name? And "powerful access to search and reporting features"? As opposed to wimpy access to search and reporting features? It sounds a bit like marketspeak to me.
It seems to me that this push for "database filesystems" is from people who want to throw everything in one directory and name their files "1", "2", "3", etc. It just dumps more work on the CPU to handle more filesystem overhead. When you give a filesystem the attributes of a relational database, you also get all the related problems, overhead, and constraints. Records in a database table are very closely related. Files in a directory may have nearly nothing in common.
What I'm guessing is that we'll see a thinly veiled front end to grep -- and as much as I like grep, it's a serious pricker bush.
What is WinFS, except an admission that you can't *grep* or *strings* a Windows *folder* full of files? Files that have secret, constantly changing formats require metadata to make them searchable, which makes the filesystem bigger and slower. Being able to see the same file from two different directories doesn't impress me. I can do that with ln -s (if I really have a valid reason for it). I really don't see a lot of benefit to *nix in following Windows down this road. I'm sure I'll get enlightened shortly. :)
I think the point is that Microsoft wants a situation where there is Microsoft email and the other kind of email. With 90% of the lusers on the planet complaining that their MS email is not getting through, MS expects the rest of the world will cave in and be forced to use Microsoft email. I'm not saying it would work, but I don't even want to test it.
Interesting. I can't recall ever hearing of the show, but I haven't watched anything on MTV in years, so that's probably why.
Basic hygiene should be performed at home and not in the office!
I feel your pain. We have this obsessive/compulsive guy who performs total dental cleanliness at least three times a day in the restroom. The problem is that he takes up two sinks and the only shelf for his paraphernalia. The rebreathed peppermint stink is bad enough, but flicking the flossed particles all about is too much.
Slashdot irony is when someone tells you you're full of fertilizer, then spends an entire week, or more, losing a defenseless position and finally marks you as a foe/freak as if you had done something bad. Think about it for a second. Oh well, another troll on the list.
Good Lord. You can't really believe soap operas are about real people, can you, mishan?
I agree with that. I think the point is that like finding real gems in the real world, finding gems on TV is going to require a long search in that barren wasteland. By definition, most TV shows will be mediocre pap. Hopefully, there will still be the occasional show that does something new and captures our interest. I thought Junk Yard Wars was really interesting when it started, then they had to keep stretching and stretching it until it was pap.
When was TV anything else besides a barren wasteland of corporate-enforced mediocrity?
There was a show called The Prisoner a long time ago. It was British in origin but became very popular in the US. I couldn't do it justice by trying to explain it, but it was definitely different. The fact that I can still remember it raises it above mediocrity. :)
When PBS used to show real science shows NOVA, etc.
Billllions and billllions and billllions . . . [/Sagan] (Fondly remembered.)
the entire reality TV phenomenon (which, if you notice, is getting further and further away from "reality")
Were there ever any shows that really were based on "reality"? Even Survivor, which is sometimes interesting because of the shifting alliances, is done in a completely contrived situation, and the end product is heavily edited. Those shows should really be called unreality TV. When I first heard the term "reality TV", my comment was, "Why would I ever want to watch a TV show about my everyday life or anyone else's?"
Nice sig. I couldn't believe it when they gave Sounds of Silence that anti-award.
We pretty much know that #1 is false and that #2 is damn near impossible to prove. #3 is useless to them because TISC revealed the secret. They can sue TISC for that (if they have a leg to stand on), but they can't sue anyone else. Thus SCO is still performing barratry and they know it.
My past comments prove my low opinion of SCO, but judges tend to get annoyed by frivolous claims and make binding decisions with prejudice as a result. SCO has hired some supposedly heavyweight legal talent who must know this. IIRC, lawyers can be penalized for staging or cooperating with stunts. What is the possible upside in this claim that makes SCO and the lawyers willing to try it? They couldn't have all been sharing the crack pipe when they filed this - could they?
True, Mandrake does not *force* you to create a user account, but if you follow the default installation, as new users almost certainly will, you wind up with a non-root user who is automatically logged in when you boot. If Lindows followed the same model, I would have no problem with it. Robertson made it very clear during a Slashdot *interview* that users might be annoyed by entering a password to install software, so Lindows would not impose that terrible hardship. That kind of thinking is short-sighted and bad for Linux. One company should not be allowed to ruin things for the rest of us and the companies who try to make sure their users are secure. It's the same wooly-headed thinking that made Windows the security nightmare that it is today.
Right. He said that where?
Sir. The RIAA has been claiming all along that the decrease in sales was due to "piracy". The increase in sales indicates that the real reason is economics. Have you not been paying attention or reading any of the articles?
Last I checked Lindows had fixed this root problem.
From the Linspire knowledge base:
Obviously, root is the default, and n00bs won't know any better. Mandrake adds a non-root user as the normal login by default.
. . .but It's still good to get your facts correct.
Yes, you should try it. I didn't say that Lindows didn't allow non-root users, only that the default user ran as root, which is a Bad Thing.
[From the linked article] Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, called the first-quarter figures "good news," but cautioned that the results were measured against a dismal period. "The numbers of 2003 were down about 10 percent to 12 percent from the year before," Sherman said. "If we didn't have that kind of increase it would be really terrible."
Nothing new. The RIAA not only believes it is entitled to huge profits but also increasingly huge profits every year - even during a recession. Yearly two-digit profit increases are the RIAA's God-given right; anything less is proof of rampant piracy. Haarrrrrgh, matey, I bought only one (music) CD last year (and downloaded no music). I really plundered the RIAA! Now if they'd just take that long walk on a short plank . . .