We're buying Dell Optiplex 745 towers coming off corporate leases from a refurb reseller. It should be easy to find XP Pro, 4GB, 80+ GB, Core 2 Duo with 3 year warranties for under $350 shipped. Less if you can buy in quantity. Grab decent Samsung monitors from Costco locally for easy returns in case of bad pixels.
It's just not worth it to roll your own when you can buy a workstation that solid for that price, particularly when you don't have to be responsible for the warranty.
"Tapes are unreliable," DiGioia says. "Disaster recovery was nonexistent. It consisted of backup tapes in a box."... "Backups are kept on disk for 30 days and then overwritten, and tape is no longer used. Documents are archived on optical disc and microfilm. "
...so, 30 days on a mirrored SAN. No monthlies, yearlies. Long term is on optical (what kind? Consumer media degrades... What's the retention target?) and microfilm (quaint).
So, the quick recovery offered by the mirrored SAN is sexy, with an appropriate price tag. Writing off tape entirely seems very wrong.
For what it's worth, I think they're spot on to something. The next stage of this debate will probably happen when an apparently viable Theory of Everything appears. At that point, enough real work will go into analysis to prove that said Theory isn't valid within all possible valid frames of reference.
The real beauty of this assertion is that nothing of value is lost. It will only mean that some strong egos will have to deal with the philosophical outcome.
Does anyone else find it odd that so much discussion is taking place regarding free speech responsibilities for the ISP, while the church's agenda calls for BURNING BOOKS?
This makes me curious from a desktop administration perspective. Windows, for all its problems, has a great ecosystem of enterprise management tools for things like software installation and inventory, hardware inventory, health monitoring and more. All the stuff you need to effectively manage a large fleet of workstations with a few techs is available.
Most developers I know make poor system administrators, so it's hard to believe they take a completely laissez-faire approach to desktop management. Also, Google Docs seems like a really poor substitute for file shares on an enterprise NOS and directory service -- it's the "cloud" equivalent of a peer-to-peer LAN network when it comes to security structures.
My observation, at least here in the US: Once any crisis (or perceived crisis) becomes subdued, it ceases to be a factor of any kind after 6 to 9 months. After that point, the incident may exist historically but no one cares. If the incident is still causing an issue after 6 to 9 months it's most likely to be perceived as a "new" problem rather than a continuity.
Does anyone who has real experience administrating an NComputing environment care to weigh in on the usability and sustainability? Other than horsepower limitations, I've heard that they frequently react poorly to patching the base Windows environment.
We have some resource-restricted K-12 environments looking at this, as well as Microsoft's Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 to save money on workstations and power infrastructure. Fair warning, the Microsoft site seems practically devoid of substantial implementation detail and is more geared toward the kind of fluffy K-12 marketing that makes school administrators spend your tax dollars. I think it's somehow using USB keyboards, mice and monitors -- but I haven't been able to tell.
These technologies seem to be under consideration in place of, say, a "nettop" (atom-based) lab running workstation management for ease of administration, and possibly one of the many teacher-snoop-and-control software applications for managing their use. Given state testing requirements, most of our region uses Windows or Macs for compatibility with their testing software. The Macs are generally too expensive for regular purchase cycles, but it's apparently easier to find grants for them as opposed to PCs.
Newsflash: It's -their- network. Now, chew on this:
Say it was -your- responsibility to keep a network running which was used by a bunch of college students who don't know the first thing about maintaining and protecting their PCs. What, in your expert opinion, would be a "well guided" and "well managed" solution?
Quite the story. More tragic to me is that a man can survive all that, but was done in by unrequited love... I suppose I'd rather be struck by lightning myself.
1. Went to godaddy.com and searched for {obscurewords}.com. It's available. 2. Went to networksolutions.com and searched for the same. It's available. 3. Went back to godaddy.com and searched for the same, again. NOT available!
I stopped watching most TV about 2 years ago. My brain feels much better, thank you.
That said, in relation to the cost of satellite (Dish Network in my case): I pay Dish $5.99/mo for a nice clean picture of all the local stations in my area, several public access channels, access to all their pay-per-view, and a handful of others (Documentaries, NASA, CSPAN, etc.) It seems their local channels "add-on" is actually available as a separate service option.
This works great for me, as little as I turn the thing on. There are few programs available that I actually want to watch -- just the same as when I had 300 channels, and I don't spend a lot of time trying to find them.
That's a great point, IMHO, regarding community. I've lived in the same house for 11 years, and only recently started making a real effort to know my neighbors. It's been interesting. Some really appreciate it, while others seem a bit weirded out -- as if living in physical proximity is no good reason to socialize.
I still use a lot of tech, but have grown to prefer it when it enables communication -- like this exchange;^) I'd have to say that ceasing to use one tech in particular has helped in the last year -- television.
Maybe close. But it'll probably come out more like "The Mandalorian Armior", featuring the life and times of force-sensitive furniture. Beware the Sith folding chair...
Encouraging peer communication and collaboration in a learning environment? Good.
Using the fetid cesspool of MySpace, et al to accomplish it? Silly, if not completely irresponsible.
We upgraded our filtering device last summer, with the main impetus being effective blocking of MySpace. This is for several K-12 school districts. Why the hell would you even consider MySpace for education, when there's Moodle and other products you could choose?
My comments were never meant to be anything but a spew of my opinions, and I never represented them otherwise. Granted, that's what we all do anyway to some degree, no matter how our opinions are packaged or how much we think they're -the- facts, but the average domesticated primate doesn't grok that.
The "free-flow and exchange of ideas" could happen a lot more easily if we properly represented the context of said ideas. If the title and posturing of that article was "Piss On Yahoo! Mail Beta" it would have been much easier for me to accept (or dismiss).
Maybe this article will sway the opinion of people who are deciding on a new free email service to join. Hopefully folks will decide on more than this piece of writing.
The title of the article, "gmail beta vs yahoo mail beta", implies some sort of comparison between the services. What it seems to actually be is a 1,723 word (with associated screen-shots) criticism of Yahoo!'s product.
I had my Yahoo! email address before PigeonRank was a twinkle in a Google geek's eye. There are things I like and dislike about both Yahoo!'s and Google's interfaces. I consider Yahoo!'s new interface an improvement over the old one -- it's a considerable facelift, and works with IE and Firefox. Bottom line for me is that the real value of their services lies not in their interface, but the ability to exchange information. Yahoo! is more valuable to me, because folks know they can contact me at that address. It all makes me wonder if the author even bothered to give Yahoo! feedback on their product, or just wanted to show off their l33t ranting ability.
Please do consider celebrating tomorrow (Friday) in the traditional fashion by partaking of a hot dog with no bun... I have found that Eris seems to appreciate a nice side-dish in the bun's stead, such as some potato salad.
To diverse gods Do mortals bow; Holy Cow, and Wholly Chao.
Slashdot Mirror
We're buying Dell Optiplex 745 towers coming off corporate leases from a refurb reseller. It should be easy to find XP Pro, 4GB, 80+ GB, Core 2 Duo with 3 year warranties for under $350 shipped. Less if you can buy in quantity. Grab decent Samsung monitors from Costco locally for easy returns in case of bad pixels.
It's just not worth it to roll your own when you can buy a workstation that solid for that price, particularly when you don't have to be responsible for the warranty.
"Tapes are unreliable," DiGioia says. "Disaster recovery was nonexistent. It consisted of backup tapes in a box." ... "Backups are kept on disk for 30 days and then overwritten, and tape is no longer used. Documents are archived on optical disc and microfilm. "
...so, 30 days on a mirrored SAN. No monthlies, yearlies. Long term is on optical (what kind? Consumer media degrades... What's the retention target?) and microfilm (quaint).
So, the quick recovery offered by the mirrored SAN is sexy, with an appropriate price tag. Writing off tape entirely seems very wrong.
For what it's worth, I think they're spot on to something. The next stage of this debate will probably happen when an apparently viable Theory of Everything appears. At that point, enough real work will go into analysis to prove that said Theory isn't valid within all possible valid frames of reference.
The real beauty of this assertion is that nothing of value is lost. It will only mean that some strong egos will have to deal with the philosophical outcome.
Does anyone else find it odd that so much discussion is taking place regarding free speech responsibilities for the ISP, while the church's agenda calls for BURNING BOOKS?
This makes me curious from a desktop administration perspective. Windows, for all its problems, has a great ecosystem of enterprise management tools for things like software installation and inventory, hardware inventory, health monitoring and more. All the stuff you need to effectively manage a large fleet of workstations with a few techs is available.
Most developers I know make poor system administrators, so it's hard to believe they take a completely laissez-faire approach to desktop management. Also, Google Docs seems like a really poor substitute for file shares on an enterprise NOS and directory service -- it's the "cloud" equivalent of a peer-to-peer LAN network when it comes to security structures.
Geological time scale?
My observation, at least here in the US: Once any crisis (or perceived crisis) becomes subdued, it ceases to be a factor of any kind after 6 to 9 months. After that point, the incident may exist historically but no one cares. If the incident is still causing an issue after 6 to 9 months it's most likely to be perceived as a "new" problem rather than a continuity.
Does anyone who has real experience administrating an NComputing environment care to weigh in on the usability and sustainability? Other than horsepower limitations, I've heard that they frequently react poorly to patching the base Windows environment.
We have some resource-restricted K-12 environments looking at this, as well as Microsoft's Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 to save money on workstations and power infrastructure. Fair warning, the Microsoft site seems practically devoid of substantial implementation detail and is more geared toward the kind of fluffy K-12 marketing that makes school administrators spend your tax dollars. I think it's somehow using USB keyboards, mice and monitors -- but I haven't been able to tell.
These technologies seem to be under consideration in place of, say, a "nettop" (atom-based) lab running workstation management for ease of administration, and possibly one of the many teacher-snoop-and-control software applications for managing their use. Given state testing requirements, most of our region uses Windows or Macs for compatibility with their testing software. The Macs are generally too expensive for regular purchase cycles, but it's apparently easier to find grants for them as opposed to PCs.
Can't resist... http://xkcd.com/298/
Newsflash: It's -their- network. Now, chew on this:
Say it was -your- responsibility to keep a network running which was used by a bunch of college students who don't know the first thing about maintaining and protecting their PCs. What, in your expert opinion, would be a "well guided" and "well managed" solution?
TFA wasn't running ESXi? Thanks, now I can skip the read entirely. Silly TFA.
Anyway, isn't "virtualization" so last year? "Local cloud" is the groove.
Clearly, he's able to embrace the synergistic opportunities provided by the Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing paradigms... What's not to like?
Quite the story. More tragic to me is that a man can survive all that, but was done in by unrequited love... I suppose I'd rather be struck by lightning myself.
I treated myself to a brand new one -- black with a USB interface. Got it here:
http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/customizer.html
I'm clicking away right now, it's a beautiful thing.
Criminy, this is bad.
1. Went to godaddy.com and searched for {obscurewords}.com. It's available.
2. Went to networksolutions.com and searched for the same. It's available.
3. Went back to godaddy.com and searched for the same, again. NOT available!
NS is rotten to the core.
I stopped watching most TV about 2 years ago. My brain feels much better, thank you.
That said, in relation to the cost of satellite (Dish Network in my case): I pay Dish $5.99/mo for a nice clean picture of all the local stations in my area, several public access channels, access to all their pay-per-view, and a handful of others (Documentaries, NASA, CSPAN, etc.) It seems their local channels "add-on" is actually available as a separate service option.
This works great for me, as little as I turn the thing on. There are few programs available that I actually want to watch -- just the same as when I had 300 channels, and I don't spend a lot of time trying to find them.
That's a great point, IMHO, regarding community. I've lived in the same house for 11 years, and only recently started making a real effort to know my neighbors. It's been interesting. Some really appreciate it, while others seem a bit weirded out -- as if living in physical proximity is no good reason to socialize.
;^) I'd have to say that ceasing to use one tech in particular has helped in the last year -- television.
I still use a lot of tech, but have grown to prefer it when it enables communication -- like this exchange
Maybe close. But it'll probably come out more like "The Mandalorian Armior", featuring the life and times of force-sensitive furniture. Beware the Sith folding chair...
How about "The Making of The Children of Jar-Jar"... OMG no, wait...
Freakycool art you're linking to there. I like the snorse, particularly.
...But I will worry when they have their chips built by Setec Astronomy, instead.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakers_(film))
Encouraging peer communication and collaboration in a learning environment? Good.
Using the fetid cesspool of MySpace, et al to accomplish it? Silly, if not completely irresponsible.
We upgraded our filtering device last summer, with the main impetus being effective blocking of MySpace. This is for several K-12 school districts. Why the hell would you even consider MySpace for education, when there's Moodle and other products you could choose?
Forget Justin Long -- whatever happened to Ellen Feiss??
You old smoothie.
My comments were never meant to be anything but a spew of my opinions, and I never represented them otherwise. Granted, that's what we all do anyway to some degree, no matter how our opinions are packaged or how much we think they're -the- facts, but the average domesticated primate doesn't grok that.
The "free-flow and exchange of ideas" could happen a lot more easily if we properly represented the context of said ideas. If the title and posturing of that article was "Piss On Yahoo! Mail Beta" it would have been much easier for me to accept (or dismiss).
Maybe this article will sway the opinion of people who are deciding on a new free email service to join. Hopefully folks will decide on more than this piece of writing.
The title of the article, "gmail beta vs yahoo mail beta", implies some sort of comparison between the services. What it seems to actually be is a 1,723 word (with associated screen-shots) criticism of Yahoo!'s product.
I had my Yahoo! email address before PigeonRank was a twinkle in a Google geek's eye. There are things I like and dislike about both Yahoo!'s and Google's interfaces. I consider Yahoo!'s new interface an improvement over the old one -- it's a considerable facelift, and works with IE and Firefox. Bottom line for me is that the real value of their services lies not in their interface, but the ability to exchange information. Yahoo! is more valuable to me, because folks know they can contact me at that address. It all makes me wonder if the author even bothered to give Yahoo! feedback on their product, or just wanted to show off their l33t ranting ability.
Please do consider celebrating tomorrow (Friday) in the traditional fashion by partaking of a hot dog with no bun... I have found that Eris seems to appreciate a nice side-dish in the bun's stead, such as some potato salad.
To diverse gods
Do mortals bow;
Holy Cow, and
Wholly Chao.