If you want a good networking stack, you simply grab the BSD source and you're done.
Even Apple understands that.
You've got a point there - I never have any of these problems with a Mac.
Still, there's other variables involved. Apple only has a limited set of hardware they need to support. Maybe the problem is that, while Windows or Linux supposedly give you access to an unlimited choice of hardware, supporting that variety of hardware and all of it's combinations just isn't a reasonably achievable goal.
If Solaris is indeed superior, maybe IBM are getting a cut from Sun, too..
Well, that's a dubious proposition right there. Having admined Solaris for 15 years, and AIX and HP-UX for about 8, I consider AIX to be head and shoulders above Solaris. If you look at Solaris 10, it look like it coped a good deal of features from AIX.
I'm not sure why you would want to run Solaris on xSeries when the Sun equivalents are generally cheaper and you would only have a single vendor to point at.
I'd be a lot more interested in seeing Solaris on the P or I series servers. I wonder if that's in the works? Is Sun/IBM considering supporting Solaris on Power? Or perhaps Sun is considering transitioning to the Power architecture? It'd make sense - continuing to develop Sparc is a drain on Sun's resources, and IBM is itching to get Power (and it's derivative, Cell) established as an industry standard. I think IBM and Sun might have something to talk about, here.
It sounds good but I have a sneaking suspicion something in there is going to bite us in the ass. What is it?
I know what you mean. Superficially, it sounds like a good idea, but based on Kevin Martin's track record, I've gotta believe there's a worm in this apple somewhere....
Yeah, must be a pretty thin news day for Slashdot to be posting stories based on somebody's quotes. Not to mention the only thing remarkable about the quote is it's staggering stupidity:
Doherty reportedly said, "BD+, unlike AACS, which suffered a partial hack last year, won't likely be breached for 10 years."
How many times have you heard that? My money says it's hacked before this story rolls off of Slashdot's front page.
It's only universal among the uncreative minds of most scifi authors. Even on earth the diversity is so great that you wouldn't consider birds/insects/slugs to be "human-like forms" but even they have most of the parts (eye, head, nose, ears) in approximately the same relative locations. The chances of this occurring on another planet seem remote.
Yes, but then again consider sharks and dolphins. Very similar in appearance, even though one is a mammal and one is a fish. Frequently they're mistaken for one another even thought they aren't remotely related.
In terms of programs that provide services, the legislature has a broad power to "lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.
You forgot to list the rest of that section, where the Constitution states very specifically exactly what the legislature may do in pursuit of providing for the common defense and general welfare. It's not an open-ended statement. Let me refresh your memory:
Section 8 - Powers of Congress
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
Any powers not specifically delegated to the Federal government are reserved to the states.
I think that you basically mentioned the only real place where there's a market for PPC: on servers. Although I've always been a big fan of the Power architecture (I have a dual-G5 spaceheater sitting under my desk that I'm writing this on, right now), I don't think that offering G5 PowerMacs along side Intel PowerMacs would really do anything besides confuse customers and potentially make the platform less appealing for developers who don't realize how easy Universal code is to produce. So I think that's a non-starter.
I'd agree with that assessment. Also, consider that desktop/laptop CPU's have different requirements than server CPU's. One of the reasons Apple dumped PPC was that IBM wasn't earning enough on chips optimized for desktops to invest in the necessary R&D to keep them competitive with x86.
That is not an issue with servers, however, Power6 is already optimized for that purpose. Apple could probably offer a very attractive XServe indeed based on that chip. It would give them an offering that would outperform anything based on x86, making OS X a more attractive and versatile platform in general. I'd like to see them go for it.
IBM is hardly the only company taking advantage of exchange rates. As a global company, they can and should reposition jobs to whichever region has the advantage. This will be an ongoing trend as developing countries mature and rates shift.
I'm not talking about shifting jobs, I'm talking about how many units of a foreign currency a dollar will buy. Since the dollar is relatively weak now, when profits earned in foreign countries are converted into dollars they can appear to be increased, when all that's occured is that the foreign currencies will purchase more dollars. Since IBM reports it's earnings in dollars, a weak dollar is making their results appear more optimistic than they actually are.
IBM stock has reached a 52-week high and is set to go higher. After a quick look, it seems the job cuts are a balance vs their investments in future growth. Gotta have good quarters and making the Street happy.
Um, look a little closer at those results for the quarter. They're largely the result of taking advantage of exchange rates due to a weak dollar. As per the stock price increase, that's largely due to raising the dividend to $.40 a share (from $.30), and announcing a massive stock buy back plan, both tactics known for making Wall Street very happy. Unfortunately, they do nothing to increase the bottom line.
Telecommuting has the potential to reduce pat/maternity leave, reduce the amount of time kids are left in the hands of babysitters away from their parents, and keeps parents at home during the day. This would represent significant beneficial social change. I'm surprised it's not mandatory.
You're likely to have lots of time to spend with your kids, since any job you can do at home can just as easily be done by someone in Bangalore, India. I suppose whether that represents significant beneficial social change is a matter of perspective.
As per it being mandatory, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. And I don't think you'll be very happy about it if you do.
I have no problem with Cringley being called a hack. But like the old saying goes, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Whether or not he's got his numbers exactly right, if you've got any doubt there are massive layoffs occuring at IBM, read the comments attached to Cringley's articles:
Also, consider that IBM's employee headcount doesn't include contractors. I don't know how much including them would effect the headcount, but it's certainly by a substantial amount.
Being an idiot doesn't necessarily preclude his occasionally being somewhere in the ballpark of the truth.
Personally I've always thought that buying PwC was a bad move for IBM, and they should have just consolidated down to their core strengths -- big iron hardware, the AS/400 series, pure research, microchips and processors, and intellectual property.
That's what happens when technology companies decide they want to be business consultants. EDS started to tank right after they bought AT Kearney.
America continues to worry about losing its edge in the high-tech industry.
But that couldn't possibly be related to poor science education, could it?
Not that I want to defend this situation, but keep in mind that this has always been the case in this country, even while having an edge in the high-tech industry.
Our edge owes more to having a great economic environment for innovators and entrepreneurs than it does to having the brightest of populations. This has been a country of crackpots, idiots and religious cranks right from day one.
I tend to agree with you that this is a waste of time....but the government actually can do more than one thing at once.
That is no doubt true, but the question still remains - what makes this an issue requiring the involvement of government? I fail to see how it's any of the government's business what kind of images Google posts.
Sell their OS for standard hardware, even if they won't give the same warranty protection as if it were on their hardware AND court more game publishers to convince them to release more games for OSX, and I'd buy it.
Well, the integration between the software and the hardware is an integral part of the Mac experience, and Apple wants to protect that. While I doubt you'll ever see Apple license OS X for generic hardware, I wouldn't be surprised if at some point they licensed it to a couple of other manufacturers of premier hardware, such as HP or Lenovo. That way they could ensure the hardware/software integration while at the same time offering Mac users more hardware options.
Neither do I, I just think that they destroyed themselves back around 1980, when they decided to rely on manufactured pseudo-bands instead of attempting to discover new music. Thought experiment: would a big outfit like Columbia give a Leonard Cohen a recording contract today?
Well, you also have to consider that the entertainment industry of the 20th century was largely a fluke of the times and the technology. Prior to the 20th century, before performances could be captured and redistributed, it was unusual for a musician or an actor to be earning the outrageous amounts of money they earn now. In fact, those were generally rather low-paying occupations, even among the more celebrated performers.
Now that the gate-keepers who controlled access to distribution are being circumvented, what you're seeing in the entertainment industry is a return to artists having to earn their livings through live performances and endorsements rather than selling copies of the same performance over and over again.
Basically, the entertainment industry is returning to it's normal circumstances, and entertainers and those who made big bucks from them due to a fluke of the times are going to have to get over the sense of entitlement they cultivated through getting a free ride through most of the 20th century.
Yes, but the challenge isn't so much the hardware, but the availability of applications that are actually used in corporations. I've tried using my Mac as a work computer, and I just couldn't do it, even with Virtual PC on it (not every application likes being virtualized).
Ironically, as a corporate desktop, Linux is probably better supported than OS X.
The problem is that like wolves, lions, and Apes, we are a highly territorial creature*. So long as we keep pissing on fence posts to say "this is mine" then we will have war where two peoples have pissed on the same post.
When was the last time you saw a war fought over territory? Territory didn't get us into Iraq, or Vietnam, or Korea. The only actual territorial war going on now that I can think of off hand is the Israeli/Palistinian conflict.
Most wars these days are fought to gain political or economic advantage. Most territorial disputes are generally resolved by negotiation or arbitration. Nobody much seems to think they're worth going to war over anymore.
Red Hat seems to be making an honorable stand. They likely don't have the resources to take on MS solo, but IBM does and I could just about see them joining the fray. Note, IBM didn't have to spend 3 years demolishing SCO.
I don't see IBM joining the fray, and if they did join it, it would more likely be on the side of Novell.
Remember, SuSE is one of the 2 distros IBM offers support for (the other being RedHat). Considering that IBM now has access to MS tech on their hardware via SuSE, this is a net plus for IBM. And it's not like IBM doesn't have their own alliances with MS.
Remember, IBM makes their Linux money a.) selling hardware to run Linux on, and b.) software to run on Linux. Since they don't make any money from Linux itself, it's hard to see where they'd have a dog in this fight.
If Democrats take the House as expected, a Democrat would be the Speaker, and take the VP chair with all its Cheney power.
I don't think so. The Speaker of the House isn't in the line succession for Vice-President. The new Vice-President is selected by the President and confirmed by Congress. Think Ford succeeding Agnew, and Rockefeller succeeding Ford when Ford became President. Neither one was the Speaker of the House, both were chosen by the current President.
You're confusing succession to the Vice-Presidency with succession to the Presidency in the event both the President and the Vice-President are simultaneously killed or incapacitated.
Slashdot Mirror
If you want a good networking stack, you simply grab the BSD source and you're done.
Even Apple understands that.
You've got a point there - I never have any of these problems with a Mac.
Still, there's other variables involved. Apple only has a limited set of hardware they need to support. Maybe the problem is that, while Windows or Linux supposedly give you access to an unlimited choice of hardware, supporting that variety of hardware and all of it's combinations just isn't a reasonably achievable goal.
Trade-offs, trade-offs....
If Solaris is indeed superior, maybe IBM are getting a cut from Sun, too..
Well, that's a dubious proposition right there. Having admined Solaris for 15 years, and AIX and HP-UX for about 8, I consider AIX to be head and shoulders above Solaris. If you look at Solaris 10, it look like it coped a good deal of features from AIX.
I'm not sure why you would want to run Solaris on xSeries when the Sun equivalents are generally cheaper and you would only have a single vendor to point at.
I'd be a lot more interested in seeing Solaris on the P or I series servers. I wonder if that's in the works? Is Sun/IBM considering supporting Solaris on Power? Or perhaps Sun is considering transitioning to the Power architecture? It'd make sense - continuing to develop Sparc is a drain on Sun's resources, and IBM is itching to get Power (and it's derivative, Cell) established as an industry standard. I think IBM and Sun might have something to talk about, here.
It sounds good but I have a sneaking suspicion something in there is going to bite us in the ass. What is it?
I know what you mean. Superficially, it sounds like a good idea, but based on Kevin Martin's track record, I've gotta believe there's a worm in this apple somewhere....
Yeah, must be a pretty thin news day for Slashdot to be posting stories based on somebody's quotes. Not to mention the only thing remarkable about the quote is it's staggering stupidity:
Doherty reportedly said, "BD+, unlike AACS, which suffered a partial hack last year, won't likely be breached for 10 years."
How many times have you heard that? My money says it's hacked before this story rolls off of Slashdot's front page.
It's only universal among the uncreative minds of most scifi authors. Even on earth the diversity is so great that you wouldn't consider birds/insects/slugs to be "human-like forms" but even they have most of the parts (eye, head, nose, ears) in approximately the same relative locations. The chances of this occurring on another planet seem remote.
Yes, but then again consider sharks and dolphins. Very similar in appearance, even though one is a mammal and one is a fish. Frequently they're mistaken for one another even thought they aren't remotely related.
has the tag line 'progressive law' all over the place. I would suggest replacing the word 'progressive' with 'breakin' the'
Call them up and express your displeasure...
Main office:
Pittsburgh, PA
11 Stanwix Street
15th Floor
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-1319
TEL: 412.297.4900
FAX: 412.209.0672
If they really cared about civil liberties, they would release it freely online via P2P.
Aaron Russo distributed his Freedom to Fascism via Google video.
Have a look. It's the American equivalent of Taking Liberties.
You forgot to list the rest of that section, where the Constitution states very specifically exactly what the legislature may do in pursuit of providing for the common defense and general welfare. It's not an open-ended statement. Let me refresh your memory:
Any powers not specifically delegated to the Federal government are reserved to the states.
I think that you basically mentioned the only real place where there's a market for PPC: on servers. Although I've always been a big fan of the Power architecture (I have a dual-G5 spaceheater sitting under my desk that I'm writing this on, right now), I don't think that offering G5 PowerMacs along side Intel PowerMacs would really do anything besides confuse customers and potentially make the platform less appealing for developers who don't realize how easy Universal code is to produce. So I think that's a non-starter.
I'd agree with that assessment. Also, consider that desktop/laptop CPU's have different requirements than server CPU's. One of the reasons Apple dumped PPC was that IBM wasn't earning enough on chips optimized for desktops to invest in the necessary R&D to keep them competitive with x86.
That is not an issue with servers, however, Power6 is already optimized for that purpose. Apple could probably offer a very attractive XServe indeed based on that chip. It would give them an offering that would outperform anything based on x86, making OS X a more attractive and versatile platform in general. I'd like to see them go for it.
IBM is hardly the only company taking advantage of exchange rates. As a global company, they can and should reposition jobs to whichever region has the advantage. This will be an ongoing trend as developing countries mature and rates shift.
I'm not talking about shifting jobs, I'm talking about how many units of a foreign currency a dollar will buy. Since the dollar is relatively weak now, when profits earned in foreign countries are converted into dollars they can appear to be increased, when all that's occured is that the foreign currencies will purchase more dollars. Since IBM reports it's earnings in dollars, a weak dollar is making their results appear more optimistic than they actually are.
IBM stock has reached a 52-week high and is set to go higher. After a quick look, it seems the job cuts are a balance vs their investments in future growth. Gotta have good quarters and making the Street happy.
Um, look a little closer at those results for the quarter. They're largely the result of taking advantage of exchange rates due to a weak dollar. As per the stock price increase, that's largely due to raising the dividend to $.40 a share (from $.30), and announcing a massive stock buy back plan, both tactics known for making Wall Street very happy. Unfortunately, they do nothing to increase the bottom line.
Telecommuting has the potential to reduce pat/maternity leave, reduce the amount of time kids are left in the hands of babysitters away from their parents, and keeps parents at home during the day. This would represent significant beneficial social change. I'm surprised it's not mandatory.
You're likely to have lots of time to spend with your kids, since any job you can do at home can just as easily be done by someone in Bangalore, India. I suppose whether that represents significant beneficial social change is a matter of perspective.
As per it being mandatory, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. And I don't think you'll be very happy about it if you do.
I have no problem with Cringley being called a hack. But like the old saying goes, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Whether or not he's got his numbers exactly right, if you've got any doubt there are massive layoffs occuring at IBM, read the comments attached to Cringley's articles:
0 70504_002027_comments.html0 70511_002058_comments.html
s .php
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20
Not to mention reports from other IBMers here:
http://www.allianceibm.org/jobcutstatusandcomment
Also, consider that IBM's employee headcount doesn't include contractors. I don't know how much including them would effect the headcount, but it's certainly by a substantial amount.
Being an idiot doesn't necessarily preclude his occasionally being somewhere in the ballpark of the truth.
Personally I've always thought that buying PwC was a bad move for IBM, and they should have just consolidated down to their core strengths -- big iron hardware, the AS/400 series, pure research, microchips and processors, and intellectual property.
That's what happens when technology companies decide they want to be business consultants. EDS started to tank right after they bought AT Kearney.
A bad move, in both cases.
America continues to worry about losing its edge in the high-tech industry.
But that couldn't possibly be related to poor science education, could it?
Not that I want to defend this situation, but keep in mind that this has always been the case in this country, even while having an edge in the high-tech industry.
Our edge owes more to having a great economic environment for innovators and entrepreneurs than it does to having the brightest of populations. This has been a country of crackpots, idiots and religious cranks right from day one.
I tend to agree with you that this is a waste of time....but the government actually can do more than one thing at once.
That is no doubt true, but the question still remains - what makes this an issue requiring the involvement of government? I fail to see how it's any of the government's business what kind of images Google posts.
Sell their OS for standard hardware, even if they won't give the same warranty protection as if it were on their hardware AND court more game publishers to convince them to release more games for OSX, and I'd buy it.
Well, the integration between the software and the hardware is an integral part of the Mac experience, and Apple wants to protect that. While I doubt you'll ever see Apple license OS X for generic hardware, I wouldn't be surprised if at some point they licensed it to a couple of other manufacturers of premier hardware, such as HP or Lenovo. That way they could ensure the hardware/software integration while at the same time offering Mac users more hardware options.
Neither do I, I just think that they destroyed themselves back around 1980, when they decided to rely on manufactured pseudo-bands instead of attempting to discover new music. Thought experiment: would a big outfit like Columbia give a Leonard Cohen a recording contract today?
Well, you also have to consider that the entertainment industry of the 20th century was largely a fluke of the times and the technology. Prior to the 20th century, before performances could be captured and redistributed, it was unusual for a musician or an actor to be earning the outrageous amounts of money they earn now. In fact, those were generally rather low-paying occupations, even among the more celebrated performers.
Now that the gate-keepers who controlled access to distribution are being circumvented, what you're seeing in the entertainment industry is a return to artists having to earn their livings through live performances and endorsements rather than selling copies of the same performance over and over again.
Basically, the entertainment industry is returning to it's normal circumstances, and entertainers and those who made big bucks from them due to a fluke of the times are going to have to get over the sense of entitlement they cultivated through getting a free ride through most of the 20th century.
Yes, but the challenge isn't so much the hardware, but the availability of applications that are actually used in corporations. I've tried using my Mac as a work computer, and I just couldn't do it, even with Virtual PC on it (not every application likes being virtualized).
Ironically, as a corporate desktop, Linux is probably better supported than OS X.
The problem is that like wolves, lions, and Apes, we are a highly territorial creature*. So long as we keep pissing on fence posts to say "this is mine" then we will have war where two peoples have pissed on the same post.
When was the last time you saw a war fought over territory? Territory didn't get us into Iraq, or Vietnam, or Korea. The only actual territorial war going on now that I can think of off hand is the Israeli/Palistinian conflict.
Most wars these days are fought to gain political or economic advantage. Most territorial disputes are generally resolved by negotiation or arbitration. Nobody much seems to think they're worth going to war over anymore.
Wyoming?
How did they know?
Where do people think that boss's come from? Hell.
Truer words were never spoken...
Red Hat seems to be making an honorable stand. They likely don't have the resources to take on MS solo, but IBM does and I could just about see them joining the fray. Note, IBM didn't have to spend 3 years demolishing SCO.
I don't see IBM joining the fray, and if they did join it, it would more likely be on the side of Novell.
Remember, SuSE is one of the 2 distros IBM offers support for (the other being RedHat). Considering that IBM now has access to MS tech on their hardware via SuSE, this is a net plus for IBM. And it's not like IBM doesn't have their own alliances with MS.
Remember, IBM makes their Linux money a.) selling hardware to run Linux on, and b.) software to run on Linux. Since they don't make any money from Linux itself, it's hard to see where they'd have a dog in this fight.
If Democrats take the House as expected, a Democrat would be the Speaker, and take the VP chair with all its Cheney power.
I don't think so. The Speaker of the House isn't in the line succession for Vice-President. The new Vice-President is selected by the President and confirmed by Congress. Think Ford succeeding Agnew, and Rockefeller succeeding Ford when Ford became President. Neither one was the Speaker of the House, both were chosen by the current President.
You're confusing succession to the Vice-Presidency with succession to the Presidency in the event both the President and the Vice-President are simultaneously killed or incapacitated.