Get yourself a Raspberry Pi Model B and a case ($50). Add-on a 128 GB USB thumbdrive or a hub + SSD if you need more space. Now install OpenVPN, SSH + SFTP, and Unison. Signup for a DDNS service (e.g. No-IP) - you can try it for free or pay $$ to lose the monthly reminders.
You now have the following capabilities:
Secure VPN from any public hotspot - conduct your transactions safely and securely.
Secure "cloud" access via SFTP - your files are stored behind two layers of encryption if you use RSA keys for SSH / SFTP.
Secure remote console access so you can fix anything goes wrong.
Secure file sync via Unison between as many computers as you like.
I've used this setup for a year now w/o a problem...
P.S. Owncloud is unstable for large files.
P.P.S. Bittorrent sync works great...if you want to trust a closed-source application with your private data.
I think you're prisoner's dilemma analogy is spot-on. Unfortunately, that particular case study never seems to turn out well for the prisoners.
I also agree with your scenario analysis. Both the nonfiction book "Caging the Nuclear Genie" and the fiction book "One Second After" discuss how less than a hundred nuclear devices, targeted at critical infrastructure elements (sea ports, bridges, power stations, etc) could effectively cause nationwide collapse and a return to essentially pre-industrial civilization. In this scenario, most of the casualties are due to starvation or exposure, rather than radiation or blast effects.
A tough problem to be sure, and one with no easy solution. Thank you for the thoughtful discussion!
I actually think we're in agreement on at least one thing: Nuclear weapons only make life "safer and peaceful" for those who have them, which is what I meant by "how you keep score".
Imagine for a moment you were suddenly elected President of Iraq and could immediately acquire a credible and robust nuclear deterrent. Would you do it? I sure as hell would. Unless my country has a nuclear deterrent, I am at risk to all the scenarios you outlined above - and since my country has resources that other countries need, I am very much at risk w/o an "equalizer" on the field of battle.
It's one thing to be bent on world domination, and quite another to have the ability to carry it out. Back in 1944, it was an option. Today, with nukes on the table, it's not. What do you think keeps crime in check - the police? Criminals are much more afraid of being shot and killed by an armed citizen than being caught by the cops. The same thing applies to nations, which is why there will never be a major conflict between nuclear powers unless one side's nuclear deterrence is rendered impotent first.
The math works like this:
1. If I have nukes, and you don't, I get to do whatever I want to you - invade your country, take your resources, whatever. This is the preferred state for me - and I will do everything in my power to maintain it.
2. If we both have nukes, I can't win a major conflict with you, so there's no point in starting one. If I attack you with conventional forces, you'll counter with nuclear strikes once you start losing. I don't like this scenario because I can't impose my will on you, but instead have to treat you as an equal, whether I like it or not.
BTW, political leaders dislike nukes because it takes some of their options away. Oil prices to high? Let's go take someone elses...oh, drat, they have a nuclear deterrent. The military-industrial complex dislike nukes because they're bad for business - who need's trillions of dollars in soldiers, tanks, aircraft, and warships when a few hundred nukes will provide all the security you need? Of course, that also rules out all that nation-building stuff that every empire wants to do...
In any event, we'll know the answer in a few more decades. Nuclear technology is 70 years old now - it's only a matter of time before it's widespread. What happens after that will be...interesting.
Excluding WW1 and WW2, how many of the slain were from countries that had nuclear weapons? Alternatively, how many were killed by internal strife - civil wars, ethnic cleansing, etc? Not to sound jaded, but it depends on how you keep score.
Nuclear weapons will not keep states from killing their own citizens, but they most assuredly will prevent two nuclear powers from escalating conflict beyond a certain point.
A fascinating question. Since I agree with Nidi62's excellent post, here's how I think it would play out, assuming that Germany, England, France and the US had nuclear weapons at the start of WW2:
Germany exterminates their local Jewish population and invades those countries that do not have a nuclear deterrent. England, France, and the US decry Germany's actions, push for economic sanctions, and fund / equip the local freedom fighters / terrorist groups (depending on your point of view) to promote "regime change" and make life for Germany difficult. The "Allies" don't invade - they can't afford the casualties. Germany becomes isolated from the world stage and ends up as impoverished as North Korean. The people of Germany either effect their own regime change, or live for generations in misery.
The thing about nuclear weapons is that they make a country proof against foreign invasion. All predators seek out easy prey - the kind that can't hurt them - and nation-states, whether acting morally or not, prefer easy prey...hence the hypocracy about nuclear proliferation.
You can't just pick a tactical tool as the magic bullet for success. Done correctly, the daily standup is an integral part of an iterative, incremental development process (Agile) which focuses team members on the work much must be completed within the current iteration (sprint). The PM and the Product Owner get a quick snapshot of progress and the team members get to request assistance on any blocked deliverables (user stories). This is a good thing.
OTOH, mandating a daily standup w/o also implementing an Agile framework is a waste of time...All you get is people standing in a circle wondering why they're their and what they should be doing.
P.S. I count at least 25 people in the photo from the WSJ article. Agile teams are 7 +/- 2 people. No way their meeting is gonna take only 15 minutes!
An interesting question. I humbly suggest that the objective of the course should be to expose students to as many different facets of the SciFi / Fantasy spectrum as possible given the time constraints.
The genre isn't just "SciFi" and "Fantasy" - it's much, much broader than that. The instructor should identify the segments first, and then allow the students to choose in which directions they want to explore. Here are some examples:
"Epic" Fantasy: J.R.R. Tolkien, Raymond E. Feist, Ursula K. LeGuin., and Michael Moorcock.
"Gaming" Fantasy: Marget Weiss & Tracy Hickman (DragonLance), R.A. Salvatore (The Darkelf Trilogy), and Gary Gygax (Gord the Rogue).
"Gritty" Fantasy: Steven Brust (Vlad the Assassin) and Robert Lynn Asprin (Thieves World).
"Traditional" Fantasy: Robert E. Howard (Conan) and Edgar Rice Burroughs (John Carter / Barsoom).
You can do the same kind of thing with SciFi...
"Military" SciFi: Keith Laumer (Bolos), David Drake (Hammer's Slammers), and - of course - David Weber (Starfire, Honor Harrington, and the Dahak series)
"Traditional" SciFi: Robert E. Heinlein, Orson Scott Card, and Ray Bradbury.
Until Google Apps can FLAWLESSLY import and export files with Microsoft Office (doc / xls / ppt) no company is going to use it. For good or ill, those are the file formats the world runs on. If Google fixes that issue (and that's a big if), then we can tackle the privacy question.
"Oh, and peeling off the 'Designed for Microsoft Windows XP' sticker is easy, too."
Not to mention VERY satisfying.;)
OK, but just not "believable"
on
Reviews: Star Trek
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
The latest Trek was OK as a pure fantasy action flick, but I had some problems with just how over-the-top they went for the younger crowd (caveat: I'm a 37-year old Trekkie and a former Naval officer).
I'm not talking about "canon" material, but rather the fanciful way in which they handed the keys of the Federation flagship to an academy midshipman after a 24-hour tour of duty.
Kirk has always been - and always will be - a swaggering action-oriented character, but he also picked up leadership and wisdom along his carer - skills he would have learned during his progression through Starfleet as an Ensign, Lieutenant, Commander, etc.
So at the end of the movie when they promoted Kirk from midshipman to Captain, I couldn't stifle a laugh...
OK, I follow CK's thread and he may very well be right from a theoretical standpoint given that he is/was a kernel developer after all; however, let's look at this from an end-user perspective.
My Gentoo Linux box (AMD64, 1xGB RAM) boots in 30 seconds. My Windows XP box (Intel Duo, 1xGB RAM) takes 11 MINUTES. Yes, you read that right, 11 minutes. That's how long it takes to load all of the crap that you need to run an XP box in a corporate environment (Norton Antivirus, Black Ice, domain authentication, etc). 11 minutes before I've got a usable desktop on Windows vs. 30 seconds on Linux - oh, and I'm not just loading the OS on that Linux box, but also apache, mysql, bind, dhcp, ntp, and a host of other stuff.
Now let's talk about the desktop. My Linux desktop of choice (XFCE) is fast and responsive. I can simultaneously surf, compile code, and record an HD broadcast to disk (PCHDTV-5500 card) while the kernel also does DNS, DHCP, IPTABLES/NAT and web server for my home LAN. But here's the best part - I get to choose my desktop experience. If I want eye candy I can run Enlightenment. Full features - KDE or Gnome. Bare bones - Blackbox. You have real FLEXIBILITY. You can match your software to the hardware you've got to work with.
Compare that to Windows. My corporate XP paperweight blue screens about every 3 days. I get one GUI and it does ONE thing at a time (try burning a CD and surfing the web and you'll see what I mean). Now M$ is pushing Vista on us and it will run even SLOWER, not to mention forcing us to throw out perfectly good hardware because XP is unsupported.
So while Linux may not be the fastest desktop that could theoretically be coded, it's a helluva lot better than the M$ alternative. IMHO, the question of desktop dominance has a whole lot more to do with corporate IT departments unwillingness to (support) change and a lot less about whether the Linux kernel's scheduler is good enough.
Every user I've ever met whose 2+ year-old Windows installation is limping along because of (1) all of the crap they've loaded on their system and (2) all of the "patches" that Micro$oft has courteously given them SWEARS their problem is a virus.
Actually, anytime anything goes wrong, the average user guesses "virus!".
The fact of the matter is that computers require MAINTENANCE and CARE just like anyother system. That means re-loading a Windoze OS every 2 years, removing lost files (.chk or lost+found), defragmenting, cleaning off spyware, etc.
The "two weeks notice" rule is a polite tradition that only employees are following. I have seen companies fire someone at 4 PM on a Friday, confiscate their laptop, and escort them from the building. Indeed, one popular belief is that this is the best way to terminate an employee because it minimizes the company's risk from the any actions that the employee make take.
In today's era of disappearing pension plans, Enron-style scandals, and myopic focus on productivity and profit, it is important to remember that the company - and by extension, all personnel within the company - are out to protect their interests first. In essence, corporate loyalty is a one-sided myth that companies promote to serve their own purposes. So here are some of my general thoughts on the resignation process:
1. Don't tell anyone that you're interviewing for another job (your manager may terminate you just for looking).
2. Don't tell anyone that you've accepted another job (since the offer could fall through at the last minute). If the new company wants references, use previous employers, customers, or close co-workers, but not your manager.
3. Negotiate your transition date with the new company on your terms - plan for some time off between jobs if you'd like.
4. Transfer all data and material from your laptop to storage at home. Sanitize the laptop as necessary. Wiping the entire drive and turning it in sans bootable OS is perfectly acceptable in my book.
5. If you aren't leaving just for more money, but are truly disappointed in the lack of vision and direction within the company, felt you were poorly managed, or are leaving for ethical concerns, draft a letter to the President / CEO (regardless of who your boss is) explaining why you are resigning. You only get two opportunities in life to tell the CEO of a company the unvarnished truth: (a) When you resign, and (b) When you win the lottery.
6. Once you're satisifed that your data is safe and that you've got a solid new job to move into with another company, decide on your notification strategy:
- Two weeks notice: Inform your manager and then sit at home and play games or read some good books at work (accompanied by long lunches until they confiscate your corporate credit card).
- 24-48 hrs notice: Inform your manager you'll be gone in two days and tell him (sincerely) best wishes for the future.
7. Submit your resignation paperwork and fire off the letter discussed in #5 above to the CEO / President.
...because the Windoze users keep asking me to help solve their problems! E.g. I can't print, why can't I upload, my app doesn't work anymore, blah, blah, blah.
In case you haven't tried, actually FIXING a Windows problem (as opposed to merely re-installing Windows and praying) is VERY difficult compared to Linux. Proprietary code, the insane world of the registry, DLL version hell, etc, etc.
It's gotten to the point that when someone asks me for help with their Windows box (including family members!), I tell them to install Linux and just walk away...
Star Fleet Battles (SFB) is a tactical wargame of starship combat designed by Amarillo Design Bureau (ADB). Although based on the original Star Trek episodes from the latter half of the 20th century, SFB divirges from the original source material to provide players with an intricate and well-balanced selection of races, starships, and weapons. An admittedly complex, but well-designed system of rules governs the interactions between ships, and allows players almost unlimited flexibility in making command decisions.
Play is conducted on a two dimensional hexagon grid with die-cut counters (or miniatures) representing ships, terrain, fighters, etc. The most common scenario is a duel consisting of two players; however, there is no limit (except time) to the number of players or ships which may engage in simultaneous combat. At its heart, SFB emphasizes speed and maneuver coupled with the timing and rhythm dicated by the weapon systems of the ship(s).
If you're good, go with Gentoo. The initial installation is fairly painful; however, it is very easy to maintain from that point on due to the excellent Portage system. You will always have the latest patches and updates available AND it is entirely feasible to never have to do a full-up install or upgrade on your server again - just keep using "emerge --update world".
As a side bonus, since Gentoo's an expert's distro and has a reputation as such, you'll likely gain some job security after sysadmin'ing it for a few years - a trick from the crusty old mainframe crowd that is worth learning...
The most important question to me is the future role of the Fedora distribution. Does RedHat and the steering committee intend to continue community development of a Linux distro derived from and encouraged by RedHat for the forseeable future? What assistance and limitations are being provided or imposed by RedHat in this endeavor? Can we (the users) count on Fedora being with us for years to come?
I'm looking to gauge the level of committment and stability in the Fedora project so that 2-4 years from now my systems are not orphaned again when my distro of choice ceases to exist.
Respectfully, and with many thanks for your team's hard work,
Denagoth
Back when I was in college I could never study in my dorm room - too many distractions. My solution: Go onto campus at night and study in one of the large lecture halls. It's quiet, there's plenty of board space for working problems, minimal distractions, and IMHO, the classroom atmosphere was more conducive to learning; especially when I told myself I wasn't going to go back to the dorm until the studying was done.
Interesting. The original purpose of the salaried designation was to evaluate employees on their performance, not simply their presence. In my current job, if I leave at 4:30 on a Friday nobody cares, because I meet my performance targets and I frequently "work" (e.g. send emails / provide direction to others) from home outside of normal hours anyway.
In your case it sounds like the company uses salaried personnel to keep overtime costs down w/o recognizing performance-based results. If your schedule truly is that draconian, you may wish to consider an alternative employer once the job market picks up.
One other note...The higher up the salaried food chain you climb, the greater the freedom you have re: schedule, expenses, etc. - provided you hit your performance targets.
Good Luck!
This sounds like an immediate need of the company as opposed to a long-standing practice. If this is in fact the case, then suck it up, do your job, and quit whining about it. Think back to all the times you used your salaried status to come in late, take a long lunch, and leave early while the hourly personnel marched to the 8-hr / day drumbeat. Now it's time to pay the piper. That's what it means to be salaried.
Try this one: "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws" by John R. Lott, Jr. If you search for it on Amazon, you will also get links to related material.
I read Lott's book awhile back, and it is a pure statistical (multiple regression) analysis. By looking at county-level crime reporting, he concludes that concealed firearm carry laws result in a decrease in crimes where the victim is present (e.g. murder, rape, home invasion, etc) and a slight increase in crimes where the victim is not present (e.g. auto theft). Additionally, counties w/o a concealed carry law that border counties with such a law (e.g. all of Maryland vs. Virginia) experience an increase in crime as the criminals go after easier, nearby targets.
None of the above should really come as a surprise if you assume that criminals are lazy, opportunistic, and have some degree of self-preservation. What is interesting is that no one in the anti-gun camp has ever mathematically refuted Lott's work (they hurled lots of insults and he reportedly got some rather incindierary flame mail, but nothing more). Lott's data is available for review and comes mainly from DOJ crime reporting.
Good Luck!
Anonymous Coward's post stirred up some memories within me of days gone by, so here's my $0.02 cents worth:
I remember installing my first modem in an 8088-XT Turbo PC clone and my first fateful connection...the awe at computing beyond my computer, of communicating with someone I had never met but with whom I shared a common interest.
I remember spending $700 on one of the first 14.4Kbps USR HST Dual Standards only a few years later, and even now think it was worth every penny.
I remember Xmodem and Ymodem, the arrival of Zmodem, and the days of experimenting with all the other transport protocols which fought for dominance in days gone by - Super8k, Lynx, Puma, and Bimodem - the first protocol to offer simultaneous uploading and downloading.
I remember arc, pak, zoo, lzh, and ultimately zip...I've lost count of the ways in which files were squeezed, packed, stored, crunched, squished, imploded, deflated, and otherwise reduced.
I remember Procomm, Telix, and Qmodem, and configuring the IRQs, ports, and address settings for each one.
I remember remotely configuring and administering PC-Board for a division of the Maxxon company via a DOS shell door and being paid with a brand new modem for my efforts.
I remember when being online required technical savvy...
Slashdot Mirror
...if you really want to increase productivity, just block all web traffic except over lunch hour. :)
You now have the following capabilities:
I've used this setup for a year now w/o a problem...
P.S. Owncloud is unstable for large files.
P.P.S. Bittorrent sync works great...if you want to trust a closed-source application with your private data.
I think you're prisoner's dilemma analogy is spot-on. Unfortunately, that particular case study never seems to turn out well for the prisoners.
I also agree with your scenario analysis. Both the nonfiction book "Caging the Nuclear Genie" and the fiction book "One Second After" discuss how less than a hundred nuclear devices, targeted at critical infrastructure elements (sea ports, bridges, power stations, etc) could effectively cause nationwide collapse and a return to essentially pre-industrial civilization. In this scenario, most of the casualties are due to starvation or exposure, rather than radiation or blast effects.
A tough problem to be sure, and one with no easy solution. Thank you for the thoughtful discussion!
I actually think we're in agreement on at least one thing: Nuclear weapons only make life "safer and peaceful" for those who have them, which is what I meant by "how you keep score".
Imagine for a moment you were suddenly elected President of Iraq and could immediately acquire a credible and robust nuclear deterrent. Would you do it? I sure as hell would. Unless my country has a nuclear deterrent, I am at risk to all the scenarios you outlined above - and since my country has resources that other countries need, I am very much at risk w/o an "equalizer" on the field of battle.
So, I ask again - would you do it?
It's one thing to be bent on world domination, and quite another to have the ability to carry it out. Back in 1944, it was an option. Today, with nukes on the table, it's not. What do you think keeps crime in check - the police? Criminals are much more afraid of being shot and killed by an armed citizen than being caught by the cops. The same thing applies to nations, which is why there will never be a major conflict between nuclear powers unless one side's nuclear deterrence is rendered impotent first.
The math works like this:
1. If I have nukes, and you don't, I get to do whatever I want to you - invade your country, take your resources, whatever. This is the preferred state for me - and I will do everything in my power to maintain it.
2. If we both have nukes, I can't win a major conflict with you, so there's no point in starting one. If I attack you with conventional forces, you'll counter with nuclear strikes once you start losing. I don't like this scenario because I can't impose my will on you, but instead have to treat you as an equal, whether I like it or not.
BTW, political leaders dislike nukes because it takes some of their options away. Oil prices to high? Let's go take someone elses...oh, drat, they have a nuclear deterrent. The military-industrial complex dislike nukes because they're bad for business - who need's trillions of dollars in soldiers, tanks, aircraft, and warships when a few hundred nukes will provide all the security you need? Of course, that also rules out all that nation-building stuff that every empire wants to do...
In any event, we'll know the answer in a few more decades. Nuclear technology is 70 years old now - it's only a matter of time before it's widespread. What happens after that will be...interesting.
Excluding WW1 and WW2, how many of the slain were from countries that had nuclear weapons? Alternatively, how many were killed by internal strife - civil wars, ethnic cleansing, etc? Not to sound jaded, but it depends on how you keep score.
Nuclear weapons will not keep states from killing their own citizens, but they most assuredly will prevent two nuclear powers from escalating conflict beyond a certain point.
A fascinating question. Since I agree with Nidi62's excellent post, here's how I think it would play out, assuming that Germany, England, France and the US had nuclear weapons at the start of WW2: Germany exterminates their local Jewish population and invades those countries that do not have a nuclear deterrent. England, France, and the US decry Germany's actions, push for economic sanctions, and fund / equip the local freedom fighters / terrorist groups (depending on your point of view) to promote "regime change" and make life for Germany difficult. The "Allies" don't invade - they can't afford the casualties. Germany becomes isolated from the world stage and ends up as impoverished as North Korean. The people of Germany either effect their own regime change, or live for generations in misery. The thing about nuclear weapons is that they make a country proof against foreign invasion. All predators seek out easy prey - the kind that can't hurt them - and nation-states, whether acting morally or not, prefer easy prey...hence the hypocracy about nuclear proliferation.
You can't just pick a tactical tool as the magic bullet for success. Done correctly, the daily standup is an integral part of an iterative, incremental development process (Agile) which focuses team members on the work much must be completed within the current iteration (sprint). The PM and the Product Owner get a quick snapshot of progress and the team members get to request assistance on any blocked deliverables (user stories). This is a good thing.
OTOH, mandating a daily standup w/o also implementing an Agile framework is a waste of time...All you get is people standing in a circle wondering why they're their and what they should be doing.
P.S. I count at least 25 people in the photo from the WSJ article. Agile teams are 7 +/- 2 people. No way their meeting is gonna take only 15 minutes!
An interesting question. I humbly suggest that the objective of the course should be to expose students to as many different facets of the SciFi / Fantasy spectrum as possible given the time constraints.
...you get the idea.
The genre isn't just "SciFi" and "Fantasy" - it's much, much broader than that. The instructor should identify the segments first, and then allow the students to choose in which directions they want to explore. Here are some examples:
"Epic" Fantasy: J.R.R. Tolkien, Raymond E. Feist, Ursula K. LeGuin., and Michael Moorcock.
"Gaming" Fantasy: Marget Weiss & Tracy Hickman (DragonLance), R.A. Salvatore (The Darkelf Trilogy), and Gary Gygax (Gord the Rogue).
"Gritty" Fantasy: Steven Brust (Vlad the Assassin) and Robert Lynn Asprin (Thieves World).
"Traditional" Fantasy: Robert E. Howard (Conan) and Edgar Rice Burroughs (John Carter / Barsoom).
You can do the same kind of thing with SciFi...
"Military" SciFi: Keith Laumer (Bolos), David Drake (Hammer's Slammers), and - of course - David Weber (Starfire, Honor Harrington, and the Dahak series)
"Traditional" SciFi: Robert E. Heinlein, Orson Scott Card, and Ray Bradbury.
Until Google Apps can FLAWLESSLY import and export files with Microsoft Office (doc / xls / ppt) no company is going to use it. For good or ill, those are the file formats the world runs on. If Google fixes that issue (and that's a big if), then we can tackle the privacy question.
"Oh, and peeling off the 'Designed for Microsoft Windows XP' sticker is easy, too." Not to mention VERY satisfying. ;)
The latest Trek was OK as a pure fantasy action flick, but I had some problems with just how over-the-top they went for the younger crowd (caveat: I'm a 37-year old Trekkie and a former Naval officer). I'm not talking about "canon" material, but rather the fanciful way in which they handed the keys of the Federation flagship to an academy midshipman after a 24-hour tour of duty. Kirk has always been - and always will be - a swaggering action-oriented character, but he also picked up leadership and wisdom along his carer - skills he would have learned during his progression through Starfleet as an Ensign, Lieutenant, Commander, etc. So at the end of the movie when they promoted Kirk from midshipman to Captain, I couldn't stifle a laugh...
...get a big dog and some special insurance from Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson.
OK, I follow CK's thread and he may very well be right from a theoretical standpoint given that he is/was a kernel developer after all; however, let's look at this from an end-user perspective.
My Gentoo Linux box (AMD64, 1xGB RAM) boots in 30 seconds. My Windows XP box (Intel Duo, 1xGB RAM) takes 11 MINUTES. Yes, you read that right, 11 minutes. That's how long it takes to load all of the crap that you need to run an XP box in a corporate environment (Norton Antivirus, Black Ice, domain authentication, etc). 11 minutes before I've got a usable desktop on Windows vs. 30 seconds on Linux - oh, and I'm not just loading the OS on that Linux box, but also apache, mysql, bind, dhcp, ntp, and a host of other stuff.
Now let's talk about the desktop. My Linux desktop of choice (XFCE) is fast and responsive. I can simultaneously surf, compile code, and record an HD broadcast to disk (PCHDTV-5500 card) while the kernel also does DNS, DHCP, IPTABLES/NAT and web server for my home LAN. But here's the best part - I get to choose my desktop experience. If I want eye candy I can run Enlightenment. Full features - KDE or Gnome. Bare bones - Blackbox. You have real FLEXIBILITY. You can match your software to the hardware you've got to work with.
Compare that to Windows. My corporate XP paperweight blue screens about every 3 days. I get one GUI and it does ONE thing at a time (try burning a CD and surfing the web and you'll see what I mean). Now M$ is pushing Vista on us and it will run even SLOWER, not to mention forcing us to throw out perfectly good hardware because XP is unsupported.
So while Linux may not be the fastest desktop that could theoretically be coded, it's a helluva lot better than the M$ alternative. IMHO, the question of desktop dominance has a whole lot more to do with corporate IT departments unwillingness to (support) change and a lot less about whether the Linux kernel's scheduler is good enough.
Every user I've ever met whose 2+ year-old Windows installation is limping along because of (1) all of the crap they've loaded on their system and (2) all of the "patches" that Micro$oft has courteously given them SWEARS their problem is a virus. Actually, anytime anything goes wrong, the average user guesses "virus!". The fact of the matter is that computers require MAINTENANCE and CARE just like anyother system. That means re-loading a Windoze OS every 2 years, removing lost files (.chk or lost+found), defragmenting, cleaning off spyware, etc.
The "two weeks notice" rule is a polite tradition that only employees are following. I have seen companies fire someone at 4 PM on a Friday, confiscate their laptop, and escort them from the building. Indeed, one popular belief is that this is the best way to terminate an employee because it minimizes the company's risk from the any actions that the employee make take.
In today's era of disappearing pension plans, Enron-style scandals, and myopic focus on productivity and profit, it is important to remember that the company - and by extension, all personnel within the company - are out to protect their interests first. In essence, corporate loyalty is a one-sided myth that companies promote to serve their own purposes. So here are some of my general thoughts on the resignation process:
1. Don't tell anyone that you're interviewing for another job (your manager may terminate you just for looking).
2. Don't tell anyone that you've accepted another job (since the offer could fall through at the last minute). If the new company wants references, use previous employers, customers, or close co-workers, but not your manager.
3. Negotiate your transition date with the new company on your terms - plan for some time off between jobs if you'd like.
4. Transfer all data and material from your laptop to storage at home. Sanitize the laptop as necessary. Wiping the entire drive and turning it in sans bootable OS is perfectly acceptable in my book.
5. If you aren't leaving just for more money, but are truly disappointed in the lack of vision and direction within the company, felt you were poorly managed, or are leaving for ethical concerns, draft a letter to the President / CEO (regardless of who your boss is) explaining why you are resigning. You only get two opportunities in life to tell the CEO of a company the unvarnished truth: (a) When you resign, and (b) When you win the lottery.
6. Once you're satisifed that your data is safe and that you've got a solid new job to move into with another company, decide on your notification strategy:
- Two weeks notice: Inform your manager and then sit at home and play games or read some good books at work (accompanied by long lunches until they confiscate your corporate credit card).
- 24-48 hrs notice: Inform your manager you'll be gone in two days and tell him (sincerely) best wishes for the future.
7. Submit your resignation paperwork and fire off the letter discussed in #5 above to the CEO / President.
Good luck!
...because the Windoze users keep asking me to help solve their problems! E.g. I can't print, why can't I upload, my app doesn't work anymore, blah, blah, blah.
In case you haven't tried, actually FIXING a Windows problem (as opposed to merely re-installing Windows and praying) is VERY difficult compared to Linux. Proprietary code, the insane world of the registry, DLL version hell, etc, etc.
It's gotten to the point that when someone asks me for help with their Windows box (including family members!), I tell them to install Linux and just walk away...
Star Fleet Battles (SFB) is a tactical wargame of starship combat designed by Amarillo Design Bureau (ADB). Although based on the original Star Trek episodes from the latter half of the 20th century, SFB divirges from the original source material to provide players with an intricate and well-balanced selection of races, starships, and weapons. An admittedly complex, but well-designed system of rules governs the interactions between ships, and allows players almost unlimited flexibility in making command decisions.
Play is conducted on a two dimensional hexagon grid with die-cut counters (or miniatures) representing ships, terrain, fighters, etc. The most common scenario is a duel consisting of two players; however, there is no limit (except time) to the number of players or ships which may engage in simultaneous combat. At its heart, SFB emphasizes speed and maneuver coupled with the timing and rhythm dicated by the weapon systems of the ship(s).
For more info, visit the SFB homepage at: http://www.starfleetgames.com/
If you're good, go with Gentoo. The initial installation is fairly painful; however, it is very easy to maintain from that point on due to the excellent Portage system. You will always have the latest patches and updates available AND it is entirely feasible to never have to do a full-up install or upgrade on your server again - just keep using "emerge --update world".
As a side bonus, since Gentoo's an expert's distro and has a reputation as such, you'll likely gain some job security after sysadmin'ing it for a few years - a trick from the crusty old mainframe crowd that is worth learning...
The most important question to me is the future role of the Fedora distribution. Does RedHat and the steering committee intend to continue community development of a Linux distro derived from and encouraged by RedHat for the forseeable future? What assistance and limitations are being provided or imposed by RedHat in this endeavor? Can we (the users) count on Fedora being with us for years to come? I'm looking to gauge the level of committment and stability in the Fedora project so that 2-4 years from now my systems are not orphaned again when my distro of choice ceases to exist. Respectfully, and with many thanks for your team's hard work, Denagoth
Back when I was in college I could never study in my dorm room - too many distractions. My solution: Go onto campus at night and study in one of the large lecture halls. It's quiet, there's plenty of board space for working problems, minimal distractions, and IMHO, the classroom atmosphere was more conducive to learning; especially when I told myself I wasn't going to go back to the dorm until the studying was done.
Interesting. The original purpose of the salaried designation was to evaluate employees on their performance, not simply their presence. In my current job, if I leave at 4:30 on a Friday nobody cares, because I meet my performance targets and I frequently "work" (e.g. send emails / provide direction to others) from home outside of normal hours anyway. In your case it sounds like the company uses salaried personnel to keep overtime costs down w/o recognizing performance-based results. If your schedule truly is that draconian, you may wish to consider an alternative employer once the job market picks up. One other note...The higher up the salaried food chain you climb, the greater the freedom you have re: schedule, expenses, etc. - provided you hit your performance targets. Good Luck!
This sounds like an immediate need of the company as opposed to a long-standing practice. If this is in fact the case, then suck it up, do your job, and quit whining about it. Think back to all the times you used your salaried status to come in late, take a long lunch, and leave early while the hourly personnel marched to the 8-hr / day drumbeat. Now it's time to pay the piper. That's what it means to be salaried.
Try this one: "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws" by John R. Lott, Jr. If you search for it on Amazon, you will also get links to related material. I read Lott's book awhile back, and it is a pure statistical (multiple regression) analysis. By looking at county-level crime reporting, he concludes that concealed firearm carry laws result in a decrease in crimes where the victim is present (e.g. murder, rape, home invasion, etc) and a slight increase in crimes where the victim is not present (e.g. auto theft). Additionally, counties w/o a concealed carry law that border counties with such a law (e.g. all of Maryland vs. Virginia) experience an increase in crime as the criminals go after easier, nearby targets. None of the above should really come as a surprise if you assume that criminals are lazy, opportunistic, and have some degree of self-preservation. What is interesting is that no one in the anti-gun camp has ever mathematically refuted Lott's work (they hurled lots of insults and he reportedly got some rather incindierary flame mail, but nothing more). Lott's data is available for review and comes mainly from DOJ crime reporting. Good Luck!
Anonymous Coward's post stirred up some memories within me of days gone by, so here's my $0.02 cents worth:
I remember installing my first modem in an 8088-XT Turbo PC clone and my first fateful connection...the awe at computing beyond my computer, of communicating with someone I had never met but with whom I shared a common interest.
I remember spending $700 on one of the first 14.4Kbps USR HST Dual Standards only a few years later, and even now think it was worth every penny.
I remember Xmodem and Ymodem, the arrival of Zmodem, and the days of experimenting with all the other transport protocols which fought for dominance in days gone by - Super8k, Lynx, Puma, and Bimodem - the first protocol to offer simultaneous uploading and downloading.
I remember arc, pak, zoo, lzh, and ultimately zip...I've lost count of the ways in which files were squeezed, packed, stored, crunched, squished, imploded, deflated, and otherwise reduced.
I remember Procomm, Telix, and Qmodem, and configuring the IRQs, ports, and address settings for each one.
I remember remotely configuring and administering PC-Board for a division of the Maxxon company via a DOS shell door and being paid with a brand new modem for my efforts.
I remember when being online required technical savvy...
*sigh*