Not really. I read the article (yeah... I must be new), and it looked like every the work done by every other NOC in the world.
Sure, there's a lot of servers to manage, but if you've got everything automated anyway, it doesn't really matter how many thousands of servers you have. If one goes done, reimage it, and get on with life. Maybe they have to go and change a blown hard disk now and again.
You really should give Rails a try - yes, Ruby takes a while to get your head around, although that's less of a problem if you learn Ruby, and *then* Rails. Trying to do both at once is like learning C at the same time as OS development.
Once you've got the hang of Ruby things make much more sense.
Just to quickly run through your requirements:
User authentication: Have a look at the Restful Authentication plugin for something that'll just work. Or write your own auth system - it's really not that hard, and it's a good introduction task.
Database system independance: Available out of the box - you can even develop against one type of DB, and then deploy your app to another, so long as you don't drop down to vendor specific SQL queries.
CSS: This isn't so much a Rails feature. It has a few helper methods to load stylesheets and apply relevant classes to pages, but no built in styles. Have a look at Blueprint CSS if you want somewhere to start from.
Another thing, it took HOURS before a response was given to the situation.
From the sounds of it their support department is based in the data centre that went down, so I'd guess they were all stood outside waiting for the fire department to let them back in.
From the looks of it, that's what they did for some of their critical services.
Moving an entire data centre over night would be a bit of a crazy thing (although I've heard of it being done), but if you've got a few servers that your business can't run without it makes sense.
Having a hot spare already in the other data center would make even more sense, but sometimes it takes a crisis to realise just how much you depend on something.
It's possible their e-mail notification system was in that data centre, preventing them from being able to get at the customer database, and notify people who were effected.
If that wasn't the case though, I totally agree that it's sloppy not to be a bit proactive about things, and let the customers know whats going on.
In my opinion no course should be taught in Visual Basic.
It encourages bad habits, like putting business logic in your UI layer, and generally hacking things together instead of actually thinking about the structure of your software.
I know it's possible to make VB apps that are well structured, but because it's not the default way of working, most people never will.
I've never understood how people who are generally very intelligent can fail to grasp the most basic computer concepts so completely.
Fear. Plain and simple. I've seen too many otherwise intelligent people completely freeze up when presented with a computer.
I used to think that it was a case of the older generation not being used to them, but I still see it happening with people who are younger then me.
Once you get beyond things that they know how to do people seem to have an irrational fear of breaking things. Personally I think the first lesson in any basic IT course should be showing people just how hard it is to completely break modern computers.
I can definitely see the attraction of doing calculations on large datasets the Excel way - or rather, the 'spreadsheet' way, since Excel isn't the only spreadsheet system, just the most common..
I once heard Excel described as the world's most popular functional programming language, which if you take away the GUI, it effectively is.
Once you start looking at it that way, rather then "fucking Excel" it starts to be quite a lot more powerful.
While not a scientist myself, I did some data entry for a research department in my local hospital over the summer recently, and was shocked to find that their idea of data analysis was to mess about in Excel.
Quite quickly I went from data entry, to importing the data into a real database so some proper analysis could be done on it. Sadly I was still on data entry rates, but having a national research project on my CV makes up for it:)
That's either a positive or a negative, depending on how you look at things. It was certainly very useful when I needed to write a web interface that would allow people to search our document server once.
Mine was just fine. Thanks to busses, and the underground, allowing me to sit back and read the paper on my way to work.
How can you possibly try to claim that increased public transport is a bad thing? The more busses people are taking, the less cars there are to get in your way on whatever journey it is that you so desperatly need to get to the end of without having to wait at any point.
So where's the electricity coming from then? There may be no emissions *from the train*, but at some point in the chain, emissions have been made generating the electricity that is powering it.
Unless of course it's entirely solar/wind powered, but somehow I doubt that's the case.
Should actors and bands return their pay if the movie or album bomb?
No, they shouldn't. However artists with recording deals are actually able to make a loss if their album does bomb, since their label will still charge them for studio time and promotions.
I have no problem with it - you can book a tech support slot online, instead of turning up and queuing for a spot (which can be hours in the London store), and my Dad being able to drop by the Apple store to get some help has meant I get to stop doing tech support for my folks, and actually spend some time with them when I'm down, instead of their computers!
I'm not sure they actually are trying to target themselves as a "luxury" good.
It appears that you consider a computer that works from the moment you turn it on and real people enjoy using, a luxury, but I think that it's just how things should be.
the elaborate Apple stores with the people who fix your computer so you don't have to
That's called customer service. If I bought almost any other product, and it broke, I'd expect the person who sold it to me to get it fixed.
Apple doesn't make cheap laptops for the punters.
If you actually spec up an equivalent Dell, you'll find that it usually comes out slightly more expensive then the Apple machine. Just because Dell will sell you a $300 piece of crap doesn't mean they're selling you something better as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Not really. I read the article (yeah... I must be new), and it looked like every the work done by every other NOC in the world.
Sure, there's a lot of servers to manage, but if you've got everything automated anyway, it doesn't really matter how many thousands of servers you have. If one goes done, reimage it, and get on with life. Maybe they have to go and change a blown hard disk now and again.
You really should give Rails a try - yes, Ruby takes a while to get your head around, although that's less of a problem if you learn Ruby, and *then* Rails. Trying to do both at once is like learning C at the same time as OS development.
Once you've got the hang of Ruby things make much more sense.
Just to quickly run through your requirements:
User authentication: Have a look at the Restful Authentication plugin for something that'll just work. Or write your own auth system - it's really not that hard, and it's a good introduction task.
Database system independance: Available out of the box - you can even develop against one type of DB, and then deploy your app to another, so long as you don't drop down to vendor specific SQL queries.
CSS: This isn't so much a Rails feature. It has a few helper methods to load stylesheets and apply relevant classes to pages, but no built in styles. Have a look at Blueprint CSS if you want somewhere to start from.
Gettext is supported, and theirs a Rails plugin that replaces any methods that replace user-visible strings with gettext dictionaries.
I havn't used it, but from what I've heard it works much like you'd expect gettext to.
From the sounds of it their support department is based in the data centre that went down, so I'd guess they were all stood outside waiting for the fire department to let them back in.
From the looks of it, that's what they did for some of their critical services.
Moving an entire data centre over night would be a bit of a crazy thing (although I've heard of it being done), but if you've got a few servers that your business can't run without it makes sense.
Having a hot spare already in the other data center would make even more sense, but sometimes it takes a crisis to realise just how much you depend on something.
It's possible their e-mail notification system was in that data centre, preventing them from being able to get at the customer database, and notify people who were effected.
If that wasn't the case though, I totally agree that it's sloppy not to be a bit proactive about things, and let the customers know whats going on.
If try that one, then I'm fairly sure you won't be around long enough to have someone make an educated decision about how to punish you.
It's called Excel Calculation Services
I havn't used it myself, but from the brief glance I took at the overview, it looks like it would do the job.
In my opinion no course should be taught in Visual Basic.
It encourages bad habits, like putting business logic in your UI layer, and generally hacking things together instead of actually thinking about the structure of your software.
I know it's possible to make VB apps that are well structured, but because it's not the default way of working, most people never will.
Fear. Plain and simple. I've seen too many otherwise intelligent people completely freeze up when presented with a computer.
I used to think that it was a case of the older generation not being used to them, but I still see it happening with people who are younger then me.
Once you get beyond things that they know how to do people seem to have an irrational fear of breaking things. Personally I think the first lesson in any basic IT course should be showing people just how hard it is to completely break modern computers.
I once heard Excel described as the world's most popular functional programming language, which if you take away the GUI, it effectively is.
Once you start looking at it that way, rather then "fucking Excel" it starts to be quite a lot more powerful.
Lessons in SQL would be hugely useful.
:)
While not a scientist myself, I did some data entry for a research department in my local hospital over the summer recently, and was shocked to find that their idea of data analysis was to mess about in Excel.
Quite quickly I went from data entry, to importing the data into a real database so some proper analysis could be done on it. Sadly I was still on data entry rates, but having a national research project on my CV makes up for it
You got to write it.
That's either a positive or a negative, depending on how you look at things. It was certainly very useful when I needed to write a web interface that would allow people to search our document server once.
Yes, you've gotta be careful with those incompetant sysadmins that Google are hiring.
After all, they're constantly getting the servers hacked.
I don't know about the US, but over here the BBC make extensive use of it.
From any BBC channel you can get information such as the latest news, weather, and tv schedules by browsing a text based menu.
They also use it for large events such as The Olympics, and music festivals to allow you to choose what you want to be watching at the moment.
During Wimbledon for example you were able to pick which match you wanted to watch out of three or four different options.
Wow... bad commute into work this morning?
Mine was just fine. Thanks to busses, and the underground, allowing me to sit back and read the paper on my way to work.
How can you possibly try to claim that increased public transport is a bad thing? The more busses people are taking, the less cars there are to get in your way on whatever journey it is that you so desperatly need to get to the end of without having to wait at any point.
You've clearly never had to get on the London underground in rush hour.
That sounds terrifying. I'm sure they're not actually so bad, but I'd hate to have to overtake one of those things.
So where's the electricity coming from then? There may be no emissions *from the train*, but at some point in the chain, emissions have been made generating the electricity that is powering it.
Unless of course it's entirely solar/wind powered, but somehow I doubt that's the case.
Definately a bad example - I had no idea GameTap had the System Shocks, but I might have to go sign up so I can play them again.
No, they shouldn't. However artists with recording deals are actually able to make a loss if their album does bomb, since their label will still charge them for studio time and promotions.
I bet they can't write a first person shooter either.
We definately shouldn't trust their ability to write DNS servers.
(Hint for the humour impaired: Apples != Oranges)
The panda is an excellent example. They just weren't made to survive.
They need to eat constantly, because they get hardly any benefit from eating bamboo shoots, which they are unable to digest properly.
But they're too damn picky to eat anything but bamboo.
Anything that isn't willing to eat food capable of keeping it alive reliably deserves to die out, no matter how cute and cuddly it is.
I have no problem with it - you can book a tech support slot online, instead of turning up and queuing for a spot (which can be hours in the London store), and my Dad being able to drop by the Apple store to get some help has meant I get to stop doing tech support for my folks, and actually spend some time with them when I'm down, instead of their computers!
It appears that you consider a computer that works from the moment you turn it on and real people enjoy using, a luxury, but I think that it's just how things should be.
That's called customer service. If I bought almost any other product, and it broke, I'd expect the person who sold it to me to get it fixed.
If you actually spec up an equivalent Dell, you'll find that it usually comes out slightly more expensive then the Apple machine. Just because Dell will sell you a $300 piece of crap doesn't mean they're selling you something better as well.