Its the key to problem solving, and many in IT do not posess trouble shooting skills. Its almost always an issue before managemant to make sure folks are doing tasks that they are best suited for and help employees feel productive. When you are the only 'fast flyer' in the group, it can be a burdon, but also an opportunity. Others in the group are probably better finishers than you are. Help give them the framework they need to be successful.
You may discover someone in your group who can do nothing without referring to his/her notes, or looking on-line. Treasure those people instead of deriding them. Let them watch and document your problem solving, and you will never have to do the same problem twice. Your co-worker will jump at the chance to takle that problem next time.
Synergy is NOT about like minds, but about diverse minds acting for a single purpose/goal, and its worth striving for.
I have been looking at Gnome 3 on Fedora for a few weeks now.
I have made a concerted effort to 'use' it instead of just berate it. Learn the keystrokes, re-learn desktops up and down instead of right or left, etc.
Here are the things that I just cannot seem to come to grips with, yet:
1. Lack of configuration choices.
A. I hate tools bars! If they are really necessary, PLEASE allow me to hide it/them.
B. I had to use gconf-edit to set focus on mouse instead of click to focus. Ridiculous!
C. Adding an extra click to launch an application is NOT intuitive. Its like START/REALLY START?
D. Automatically compressing desktop spaces when the last application in that space closes is very frustrating. Start 20 or so apps in various desktops and get everything just how you like them. Then add an extension to Firefox and you need to restart it. And watch your carefully laid out desktops contract.:( Now you get to start Firefox in the bottom desktop instead of desktop two, where it belongs! What are you supposed to do, start all 20 apps again and get them all the way you want, every time you need to restart Firefox or Thunderbird? REALLY?
E. It is obvious and understandable that GNOME 3 is getting a lot of development right now. But it is VERY frustrating to users when significant changes are made to the GNOME configuration data bases and config files. You may carefully set up back ground and theme choices to have your entire desktop fail to load because of an incompatibility with an updated GNOME preference. Lets please settle on configuration choices before final release, pretty please?
2. Assumptions -- you know what they say about assumptions...
A. All users may really not want the exact same things showing on the top tool bar. On a smart phone we have limited space, but even there users have choices. On GNOME # desktops everyone has a long, boring, and almost empty tool bar. (and it won't hise! Oh wait, I already said that) Why?
B. You cannot, and MUST not assume that all users will read a howto web site, or take a class on Gnome 3 before trying to shut down their personal system. That is the only way to learn how to do it properly. (Hold the ATL key down while in your personal menu to see Logout change to Shutdown, and press Shutdown to see Reboot...) Sad... Other things like running and app from the desktop/window manager, need training before it can even be guessed at. (ALT F2) Just a bit arbitrary, don't you think? "Hey we need to allow a command input somehow. Lets just stick it on ALT F2, that's not used yet is it?"
3. New features, or features that have not been done before or better
I have managed UNIX desktops and servers for about 26 years. It really does 'depend'. Here are the salient factors:
1. Does the administrator have complete control?
2. Can the servers/desktops run effectively as diskless or thin clients?
3. Are all servers installed from the same base image/jumpstart/kickstart?
4. Are patches tested and maintained across all platforms on a regular interval?
In a perfect world, all 4 are true. Under those conditions it is possible to manage 200 UNIX/Linux server systems per admin. Given thin or diskless clients, the number of desktops supportable per admin is very high.
The worst case scenario is when all systems are different and carelessly maintained. The number can drop to 25 per admin on busy/active systems.
In the old days we used DEV VT220 style keyboards. These had the CONTROL key just left of the left shift key.
On dumb terminals with software handshaking (which most were) a CONTROL-S is stop trasmission. A CONTROL-Q is start transmission.
Many professional office staff in those days had young, female secretaries with long nails. Guess how many time a day support staff would get a call like this: "My computer is frozen!"
When my dad got his first computer, he called and asked me: "What's a cursor?" I suggested that he invite the 13 year neighbor of their's over for lunch!
My first CompSci class was computer math. The teacher insisted that twos compliment (used exclusively by IBM) was binary!
In 1984 I tried selling a PC with the best available video card and monitor to an engineering firm. They laughed me out of the building and bought TekTronix.
My first portable computer weighed about 35 pounds. I did a presentation of our software to a law firm in Dallas. During the presentation, I wrote on their new whiteboard with permanent marker. To make matters worse, when I lifted my computer off the very elegant leather table-top, two large divots came up with my computer! We did, however, get the contract!
However, it will be the compatibility with M$ software that will push Linux mainstream.
It was MS Word incompatibility that caused it to become the de facto standard when MS convinced PC manufacturers to pre-load Windows. There were many UNIX based and proprietary OS based word and document processing, and plublishing tools that were (only a few still exist) far superior to Word.
Prior to those days, MS used to rant about compatibility until it became a power buzzword.
It is a sad truth that the world of IT and computing in general would be better off tomorrow if MS disappeared from the face of the earth.
The dearth of computing platforms is already frightening. No one should be pushing future business towards the existing 'standards' of MS compatibility.
Linus is oft quoted as saying that he has no wish to make Linux compete with MS.
He is wise.
He is not alone. Thankfully, there are companies like Apache, and projects like perl and php, that defy the corporate doctrine of market share, in favor of innovation and common sense.
How does Amazon get their music distribution so right (DRM free, good tools), and their ebook distribution so wrong (DRM laden, attempts to lock ebook sales to kindle)?
One can only scratch their heads!
I will continue to use my N810 for ebook reading, and BAEN BOOKS and others for ebooks with no DRM at reasonable prices.
If you are physically at the office, and someone goes to your desk for assistance, and you are not there, the person is disappointed but accepts the circumstance.
If you are working in the lab at home (better equipment, no line outside your cube, better chair, etc) and you are indisposed when a call comes in, the requester is much more liable to dislike your 'at home' practice. Even if you call them back right away.
My job has always required: phone and access. Why does that have to be on location? Because it makes 'them' feel better, and for no other reason.
However, I still prefer to do heavy lab work at home. It is far more productive, and it is GAME ON much sooner!
I wear very LOUD shirts that my wife custom makes for me. We visit the fabric stores often and I get to pick what I like. She makes them with mandarin collars which I do button up, so I never have to wear a tie.
I am also heavier than I should be and so I wear bracers, not suspenders or belts.
The upside is that I never have to face a customer or vendor.
The downside is that its been 4 years since my last raise.:(
My 26 years as a UNIX and now Linux admin means nothing to todays management. However, my peers often queue up to ask for help. And that is what I live for. Just maybe I am the best systems admin ever, but I will never allow management to know that. I am happy when my peers appreciate me and the systems are all up.
Consulting is the fine art of being of real service without ever being responsible.:)
These tools allow you to 'visualize' a codebase in several very helpful ways. One important way is to generate connection graphs of all functions. These images can look like a mess, or a huge rail yard with hundreds of connections. The modules, libraries, or source files that are a real jumble of crossconnected lines are a clear indication of where to start clean up activities.:)
You do not run Windows out of choice.
You did not decide what the fortune 500 run on desktops.
The users at fortune 500s had no input into what is run on their desktops.
The executives and IS directors don't make decisions as to that, either.
Microsoft marketing and Microsoft lawyering did that for you years ago.
Please get in line and bend over. Really, you will like it.
Do you remember CP/M, M/PM, OASIS, MBOS, or any others?
Where did they all go? And especially, was it usefulnes or technical profficiency that they lacked?
Many still remember the days before Microsoft dominance, when we may have even
harbored hope for broader compatability and interoperability.
What is left?
Microsoft and UNIX. (Linux is a UNIX variant) Why is that all that is left?
If you cannot answer that question then you do not have the history or the experience necessary to determine what should be done about it, and you are simply in the Microsoft queue dishing out dollars for the 'ether' that is is Microsoft products.
No office productivity other than Microsoft? Come on folks! You know better than that. Microsoft neither wrote word, nor did they invent any such thing as office productivity. As a result of Microsoft dominance, most computer users have never used a really decent word processor, or especially a specialized word processor. Specialized word processor?? Yes there are and have been such things for many years (legal, techinal writing, book writing, etc). So the users of today get to mash their specialized requirements into Word, because that is all there is, and they simply don't know any better.
Exchange??? Give me a break. What do you get when you take industry standard protocols and add propriatary extensions? A Miscrosoft product. Do the proprietary extensions add value? Not from Microsoft. They are intended only to isolate and confuse, and they work exactly like designed.
If every corporation in the world dropped their use of exchange, a large majority of email problems (introduced by exchange servers with their broken headers and non standard prorocols) would dissapear. The world then would be a better place.
By keeping the marketplace closed (its called monopoly position) Microsoft has also been able to keep the populace ignorent. Read some history about countries and religions that have followed those tactics and see where they ended up. I have been waiting for years to see the wave of people with pitchforks and clubs attack Microsoft. It may not happen in my lifetime, and I feel sorry for the world of IT that has to live under the thumb of Microsoft until then.
Microsoft took the wrong (quickest) route to hardware buildout to launch. They also went as closed hardware as possible. Those decisions will bite them soom.
Think of this: My new PS3 doubles as my desktop.
Remember all the 'I will switch when all my games run on Linux' folks out there? They can now dual boot their shiny PS3 into Linux. Want to play a great game? Boot into PS3 console mode and play away. Need a larger hard drive? Any good SATA laptop drive will fit and work, and with a bit of cobbling you can hook up a 750GB SATA drive, for the true hobbiest.
Having a more open hardware platform lends itself to a richer and more diverse community. Oh wait. Microsoft has a community that you must pay a monthly fee to belong to! In contrast, Sony Online for PS3 is free, and also, Sony has donated code that has been accepted into the main 2.6.20 and above Linux kernels! That means that all PPC Linux builds from now on will work natively on the PS3.
Is the PS3 perfect? No. (512MB RAM) But it is definitely more than you are seeing.
Most folks look at the PS3 and see an expensive console. The wise look at the PS3 and see a great console, a BlueRay player, a desktop replacement, an amazingly attractive unit, and a HUGE, OPEN community.
Microsoft was CONVICTED by the USA Department of Justice for Predatory trade practices and Monopolistic behavior. In that litigation is was proven that Microsoft did indeed limit the ability of all hardware vendors to sell alternative operating systems by:
1. Contractual obligation. Only Microsoft products can be pre-installed or the vendor loses the ablity to sell any Microsoft products.
2. Incentives: All hardware vendors are offered incentives to advertise Microsoft products. When you go to Dell and see the logo: "Dell reccomends Microsoft XP" it is there only because Microsoft will pull Dell's incentive programs if it isn't.
3. Bundling: Microsoft was convicted of predatory practices because of bundling products in order to remove competition.
The list of dirty tricks from Microsoft is vast, but if you want proof of hardware vendor lock-in by Microsoft, look no further than the ruling in US vs Microsoft.
If I go to a restaurant and enjoy a meal, am I purchasing content?
If I make something similar for my family the following weekend have I copied content?
If I have near perfect recollection of a tune, and can whistle it and sing it and play it on the piano or guitar, am I copying content?
If I read a book and describe it to friends, am I copying content?
Of course, all of these descriptions fall under fair use. But it is fair use that is under attack by a select few. These simpleasures I have mentioned and many others could in fact be impacted by DRM and current lobbying efforts by 'content' vendors.
For instance: Walt Disney has been dead many years now, and he is regarded as a true pioneer and legend of animation. However, it illegal to study Disney at any school, and it always will be. You cannot learn to draw like Disney because all of the Companies' 'content' has perpetual copywrites and trademarks that are rigerously enforced. All of Disney's wisdom, inspiration, and capablity died with him and will not be seen again. Very anti-socail of the Disney Corporation.
Many years ago (prior to the 1940s) music in America was alive and vibrant and available to everyone. Think about Jazz in Kansas City, Soul music in Detroit, Gospel in the South, Hillbillies, Migrant worker camps as a result of the dust boll, hobo camps along the rail roads, etc.
There have always been an aristochracy that holds and prefers to 'own' everything. They have often hired the best minstrils and musicians and kept their works to themselves, often to engratiate themselves to other powerful persons.
However, prior to the 1940s and the introduction of Radio and Television on a wide scale in America, music and the arts where very accessable if only locally and ethnically.
The radio brought hilbilly and hobo music to the masses (Burl Ives and others), Gospel music to the northern states, and Jazz to the world. This was a unique and fascinating thing to everyone, and it had value. People would pay for 45 and listen to it at home over and over imagining the smokey campfires, the hunger and loneliness, the hardships they would never face, in the comfort of their living rooms. People would pay to be inspired and so on.
It didn't take long for radio station owners to understand mass marketing. They may not have understood at all it was they were doing in regards to harming our culture, but the money was obvious. These were hard times for migrant workers, recent war vetrans, mothers left alone to raise families, etc. These were also hard times for the working class across the country. Lots of blood was spilt over the formations of unions and the rights of workers.
In this environment of outrageous abuse of human rights by major land owners and manufacturers, the music industry as it was becoming was no different. The problem was that when they violated their musicians rights there was no physical harm, and so it continues to the present day. Only the dollar amounts and the players have changed, the techniques for making money in the industry are the same. It goes something like this:
"Hey I heard that there is a guy who will pay for you to sing into a tin can."
Sing into a tin can and make a few bucks, but "Please sign here."
"They sold a million copies of our song!" "Cool."
Go back to record maker and try to get compensated. Get laughed at instead.
The youth of our time have no sense of history (just like we were) and are easily convinced that what you hear on the radio is all that there is. Sure they have friends that are in a band, but that is just pretend. The band just plays what they hear on the radio and they suck at it, usually.
Sometimes those bands that don't totally suck hear about the guy with the tin can and come to think that is the reason and end of all music.
None of my 6 children have ever gathered around a campfire with competent musicians and played, sang,
In 1990-1992 I used to take my sons up to the office and play the flight simulators on the SGI boxes. We were each in an office, and we flew in the same space. Good times! And my craft was seldom the last surviving.
When we watched Jurasic Park, my three oldest sons shouted together: "Flight!" as soon as they saw the SGI box.
I had to lean over and whisper to my wife that yes, a 10 year old could do that.:)
I there was such a thing as a Windows community, it would be much worse.
Condiser getting help from Microsoft vs. getting help from the Linux community:
Mcrosoft: Please give me your credit card number...
Linux zealot: Newb! Google first before coming here!
Which do you prefer?
In fact most folks learn Windows the hard way, by trial and error because they refuse to pay someone to teach them. As a result, most Windows users are completely computer illiterate.
Folks looking to switch to Linux perceive an easy answer by applying to the 'community' to solve their problems.
The net is a wonderful place, and there are milions of people willing to help. Find them, but please, do not assume that a net citizen is your true friend. He is not and cannot be. Work within those limits, and the community is yours.
I have been testing some 2GB Compact Flash modules for use in embedded Linux systems.
Using Mysql, 25,000,000 cache flushes (yes, 25 MILLION) were forced to disk with not one error! It took a few weeks of pounding the database with 1000 inserts and 1000 deletes at a time. By keeping the number of 'extents' constant, we observed the same inode referenced each write. The count of transactions was in the Billions, but we were only interested in the number of writes, which we watched using tools like vmstat. We averaged about 11 writes per second.
Each generation of FLASH memory seems to get better, and my personal confidence in FLASH for primary OS platforms is rock solid.
That test system has been on and off for several months now with the same FLASH, without changing or updating the OS, and still not a single read or write error reported by the system.
One of the reasons that I carry a Treo 650 is for ebooks.
On a plane,
In the bathroom, (like at work)
At my desk at work at 4:30pm on a Friday afternoon when all caught up,
At night in bed when the wife would prefer I not have a light on,
etc etc etc
In the last year, I have read 19 novels completely on my phone, using mobipocket.
Couple the ebook on the phone, with the mp3 player on the same phone, and the experience is quite rich, anywhere, any time, even outside.
You sould know:
Many Authors publish all their works in ebook form; David Weber delivers his complete works on a CD in the cover of each of his hardbacks, including the current book! When I buy his books, I put the new book on my phone, so when I cant have the hardback nearby, I can continue the book on my phone.
just look around a bit, there is LOTS to read in ebook form.
Most people with desktop computers have windows installed, yes.
Most people with desktop computers are completely computer illiterate and don't even know what 'Windows' is. They just know enough to run a few applications. Most don't even know what those applications are.
Me on the phone with a corporate user: "Open a browser and point it to..."
User: "What is a browser?"
Saying that "most people are familiar with Windows" is a HUGE misnomer!
We have experimented on unsuspecting users many times by installing Linux on their systems, and installing an XP like theme under KDE and further customized the theme by changing a few icons.
NONE of those users knew any difference! We had to explain a few times that Open Office is similar to Word, and once I had to add an Open Office tool (text color, as I recall) to the tool bar, but that's it.
One family that we did this for has dug a little and 'discovered' how to take advantage of some Linux features that suprised us alot, and they were thrilled! Never underestimate the power of a 13 year old mind! She wouldn't go back to Windows now if she could (can't afford it anyway, she says).
So please, don't assume that everyone has the same experience in computing, and never assume what other people may like or even respond to. We just can't know for sure until we try.
Also remember that noone other than Microsoft is trying to maintain a monopoly in desktop operating systems by forcing everyong to pay a Microsoft TAX whenever they buy a PC. Its time for another Boston tea Party, and the Tea is Microsoft Windows!
Not to memtion that our forefathers would have already stormed Redmond with pitchforks, clubs, and small firearms demanding that their rights and Liberties be preserved! If you don't understand what I am talking about, then you may be part of the problem.
There are several ways to get the Linksys modified sources. They are bacically device dependant.
unslung.org has the nslu2 sources and even more enhancements.
Lots of places have the Linksys router stuff, but Sveasoft is even making money enhancing the Linksys enhancements. Now that's good stuff, regardless of my personal feelings on the matter. And I can even recommend the Sveasoft products. It boggles the mind what you can do in 8 or 16 MB! (DNS, SSH, HTTP, NFS, etc etc)
I have never tried asking Linksys directly for sources. I also do not see any documentation in the packages I have for how to get sources.
Slashdot Mirror
You may discover someone in your group who can do nothing without referring to his/her notes, or looking on-line. Treasure those people instead of deriding them. Let them watch and document your problem solving, and you will never have to do the same problem twice. Your co-worker will jump at the chance to takle that problem next time.
Synergy is NOT about like minds, but about diverse minds acting for a single purpose/goal, and its worth striving for.
57 here, and still curious and interested!
I have made a concerted effort to 'use' it instead of just berate it. Learn the keystrokes, re-learn desktops up and down instead of right or left, etc.
Here are the things that I just cannot seem to come to grips with, yet:
1. Lack of configuration choices.
A. I hate tools bars! If they are really necessary, PLEASE allow me to hide it/them.
B. I had to use gconf-edit to set focus on mouse instead of click to focus. Ridiculous!
C. Adding an extra click to launch an application is NOT intuitive. Its like START/REALLY START?
D. Automatically compressing desktop spaces when the last application in that space closes is very frustrating. Start 20 or so apps in various desktops and get everything just how you like them. Then add an extension to Firefox and you need to restart it. And watch your carefully laid out desktops contract. :( Now you get to start Firefox in the bottom desktop instead of desktop two, where it belongs! What are you supposed to do, start all 20 apps again and get them all the way you want, every time you need to restart Firefox or Thunderbird? REALLY?
E. It is obvious and understandable that GNOME 3 is getting a lot of development right now. But it is VERY frustrating to users when significant changes are made to the GNOME configuration data bases and config files. You may carefully set up back ground and theme choices to have your entire desktop fail to load because of an incompatibility with an updated GNOME preference. Lets please settle on configuration choices before final release, pretty please?
2. Assumptions -- you know what they say about assumptions ...
A. All users may really not want the exact same things showing on the top tool bar. On a smart phone we have limited space, but even there users have choices. On GNOME # desktops everyone has a long, boring, and almost empty tool bar. (and it won't hise! Oh wait, I already said that) Why?
B. You cannot, and MUST not assume that all users will read a howto web site, or take a class on Gnome 3 before trying to shut down their personal system. That is the only way to learn how to do it properly. (Hold the ATL key down while in your personal menu to see Logout change to Shutdown, and press Shutdown to see Reboot ...) Sad ... Other things like running and app from the desktop/window manager, need training before it can even be guessed at. (ALT F2) Just a bit arbitrary, don't you think? "Hey we need to allow a command input somehow. Lets just stick it on ALT F2, that's not used yet is it?"
3. New features, or features that have not been done before or better
1. Does the administrator have complete control?
2. Can the servers/desktops run effectively as diskless or thin clients?
3. Are all servers installed from the same base image/jumpstart/kickstart?
4. Are patches tested and maintained across all platforms on a regular interval?
In a perfect world, all 4 are true. Under those conditions it is possible to manage 200 UNIX/Linux server systems per admin. Given thin or diskless clients, the number of desktops supportable per admin is very high.
The worst case scenario is when all systems are different and carelessly maintained. The number can drop to 25 per admin on busy/active systems.
The battery pack for the Tesla Roadster, for instance, is about $30,000.00.
Lithium Ion batteries, like in your laptop. do NOT last forever.
On dumb terminals with software handshaking (which most were) a CONTROL-S is stop trasmission. A CONTROL-Q is start transmission.
Many professional office staff in those days had young, female secretaries with long nails. Guess how many time a day support staff would get a call like this: "My computer is frozen!"
When my dad got his first computer, he called and asked me: "What's a cursor?" I suggested that he invite the 13 year neighbor of their's over for lunch!
My first CompSci class was computer math. The teacher insisted that twos compliment (used exclusively by IBM) was binary!
In 1984 I tried selling a PC with the best available video card and monitor to an engineering firm. They laughed me out of the building and bought TekTronix.
My first portable computer weighed about 35 pounds. I did a presentation of our software to a law firm in Dallas. During the presentation, I wrote on their new whiteboard with permanent marker. To make matters worse, when I lifted my computer off the very elegant leather table-top, two large divots came up with my computer! We did, however, get the contract!
Enough for now!
However, it will be the compatibility with M$ software that will push Linux mainstream.
It was MS Word incompatibility that caused it to become the de facto standard when MS convinced PC manufacturers to pre-load Windows. There were many UNIX based and proprietary OS based word and document processing, and plublishing tools that were (only a few still exist) far superior to Word.
Prior to those days, MS used to rant about compatibility until it became a power buzzword.
It is a sad truth that the world of IT and computing in general would be better off tomorrow if MS disappeared from the face of the earth.
The dearth of computing platforms is already frightening. No one should be pushing future business towards the existing 'standards' of MS compatibility.
Linus is oft quoted as saying that he has no wish to make Linux compete with MS.
He is wise.
He is not alone. Thankfully, there are companies like Apache, and projects like perl and php, that defy the corporate doctrine of market share, in favor of innovation and common sense.
One can only scratch their heads!
I will continue to use my N810 for ebook reading, and BAEN BOOKS and others for ebooks with no DRM at reasonable prices.
The biggest problem? Perception of availability.
If you are physically at the office, and someone goes to your desk for assistance, and you are not there, the person is disappointed but accepts the circumstance.
If you are working in the lab at home (better equipment, no line outside your cube, better chair, etc) and you are indisposed when a call comes in, the requester is much more liable to dislike your 'at home' practice. Even if you call them back right away.
My job has always required: phone and access. Why does that have to be on location? Because it makes 'them' feel better, and for no other reason.
However, I still prefer to do heavy lab work at home. It is far more productive, and it is GAME ON much sooner!
The N810 is a tablet, runs Linux, has GPS, wifi, etc etc. And a third the cost, same resolution display, but fits in the shirt pocket nicely.
You got that spot on!
:(
:)
I wear very LOUD shirts that my wife custom makes for me. We visit the fabric stores often and I get to pick what I like. She makes them with mandarin collars which I do button up, so I never have to wear a tie.
I am also heavier than I should be and so I wear bracers, not suspenders or belts.
The upside is that I never have to face a customer or vendor.
The downside is that its been 4 years since my last raise.
My 26 years as a UNIX and now Linux admin means nothing to todays management. However, my peers often queue up to ask for help. And that is what I live for. Just maybe I am the best systems admin ever, but I will never allow management to know that. I am happy when my peers appreciate me and the systems are all up.
Consulting is the fine art of being of real service without ever being responsible.
See:
:)
http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/
and:
http://uml.sourceforge.net/index.php
These tools allow you to 'visualize' a codebase in several very helpful ways.
One important way is to generate connection graphs of all functions.
These images can look like a mess, or a huge rail yard with hundreds of connections.
The modules, libraries, or source files that are a real jumble of crossconnected lines are a clear indication of where to start clean up activities.
Good luck!
Why oh Why don't console game developers allow the use of keyboard and mouse in their games?
My left thumb is the LEAST dexterous digit, and yet that it what I am forced to 'aim' with.
The first PS3 game to release with a keyboard/mouse controller option will sell off the shelves!
You hear me? Just do it!
Thanks
You do not run Windows out of choice. You did not decide what the fortune 500 run on desktops. The users at fortune 500s had no input into what is run on their desktops. The executives and IS directors don't make decisions as to that, either. Microsoft marketing and Microsoft lawyering did that for you years ago. Please get in line and bend over. Really, you will like it. Do you remember CP/M, M/PM, OASIS, MBOS, or any others? Where did they all go? And especially, was it usefulnes or technical profficiency that they lacked? Many still remember the days before Microsoft dominance, when we may have even harbored hope for broader compatability and interoperability. What is left? Microsoft and UNIX. (Linux is a UNIX variant) Why is that all that is left? If you cannot answer that question then you do not have the history or the experience necessary to determine what should be done about it, and you are simply in the Microsoft queue dishing out dollars for the 'ether' that is is Microsoft products. No office productivity other than Microsoft? Come on folks! You know better than that. Microsoft neither wrote word, nor did they invent any such thing as office productivity. As a result of Microsoft dominance, most computer users have never used a really decent word processor, or especially a specialized word processor. Specialized word processor?? Yes there are and have been such things for many years (legal, techinal writing, book writing, etc). So the users of today get to mash their specialized requirements into Word, because that is all there is, and they simply don't know any better. Exchange??? Give me a break. What do you get when you take industry standard protocols and add propriatary extensions? A Miscrosoft product. Do the proprietary extensions add value? Not from Microsoft. They are intended only to isolate and confuse, and they work exactly like designed. If every corporation in the world dropped their use of exchange, a large majority of email problems (introduced by exchange servers with their broken headers and non standard prorocols) would dissapear. The world then would be a better place. By keeping the marketplace closed (its called monopoly position) Microsoft has also been able to keep the populace ignorent. Read some history about countries and religions that have followed those tactics and see where they ended up. I have been waiting for years to see the wave of people with pitchforks and clubs attack Microsoft. It may not happen in my lifetime, and I feel sorry for the world of IT that has to live under the thumb of Microsoft until then.
Retards
Attempting
Poetry
Microsoft took the wrong (quickest) route to hardware buildout to launch. They also went as closed hardware as possible. Those decisions will bite them soom.
Think of this: My new PS3 doubles as my desktop.
Remember all the 'I will switch when all my games run on Linux' folks out there? They can now dual boot their shiny PS3 into Linux. Want to play a great game? Boot into PS3 console mode and play away. Need a larger hard drive? Any good SATA laptop drive will fit and work, and with a bit of cobbling you can hook up a 750GB SATA drive, for the true hobbiest.
Having a more open hardware platform lends itself to a richer and more diverse community. Oh wait. Microsoft has a community that you must pay a monthly fee to belong to! In contrast, Sony Online for PS3 is free, and also, Sony has donated code that has been accepted into the main 2.6.20 and above Linux kernels! That means that all PPC Linux builds from now on will work natively on the PS3.
Is the PS3 perfect? No. (512MB RAM) But it is definitely more than you are seeing.
Most folks look at the PS3 and see an expensive console. The wise look at the PS3 and see a great console, a BlueRay player, a desktop replacement, an amazingly attractive unit, and a HUGE, OPEN community.
Game on!
Microsoft was CONVICTED by the USA Department of Justice for Predatory trade practices and Monopolistic behavior. In that litigation is was proven that Microsoft did indeed limit the ability of all hardware vendors to sell alternative operating systems by:
t ory
1. Contractual obligation. Only Microsoft products can be pre-installed or the vendor loses the ablity to sell any Microsoft products.
2. Incentives: All hardware vendors are offered incentives to advertise Microsoft products. When you go to Dell and see the logo: "Dell reccomends Microsoft XP" it is there only because Microsoft will pull Dell's incentive programs if it isn't.
3. Bundling: Microsoft was convicted of predatory practices because of bundling products in order to remove competition.
The list of dirty tricks from Microsoft is vast, but if you want proof of hardware vendor lock-in by Microsoft, look no further than the ruling in US vs Microsoft.
see:
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm
and for more dirty tricks:
http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/Dirty_Tricks_his
If I go to a restaurant and enjoy a meal, am I purchasing content?
If I make something similar for my family the following weekend have I copied content?
If I have near perfect recollection of a tune, and can whistle it and sing it and play it on the piano or guitar, am I copying content?
If I read a book and describe it to friends, am I copying content?
Of course, all of these descriptions fall under fair use. But it is fair use that is under attack by a select few. These simpleasures I have mentioned and many others could in fact be impacted by DRM and current lobbying efforts by 'content' vendors.
For instance: Walt Disney has been dead many years now, and he is regarded as a true pioneer and legend of animation. However, it illegal to study Disney at any school, and it always will be. You cannot learn to draw like Disney because all of the Companies' 'content' has perpetual copywrites and trademarks that are rigerously enforced. All of Disney's wisdom, inspiration, and capablity died with him and will not be seen again. Very anti-socail of the Disney Corporation.
Many years ago (prior to the 1940s) music in America was alive and vibrant and available to everyone. Think about Jazz in Kansas City, Soul music in Detroit, Gospel in the South, Hillbillies, Migrant worker camps as a result of the dust boll, hobo camps along the rail roads, etc.
There have always been an aristochracy that holds and prefers to 'own' everything. They have often hired the best minstrils and musicians and kept their works to themselves, often to engratiate themselves to other powerful persons.
However, prior to the 1940s and the introduction of Radio and Television on a wide scale in America, music and the arts where very accessable if only locally and ethnically.
The radio brought hilbilly and hobo music to the masses (Burl Ives and others), Gospel music to the northern states, and Jazz to the world. This was a unique and fascinating thing to everyone, and it had value. People would pay for 45 and listen to it at home over and over imagining the smokey campfires, the hunger and loneliness, the hardships they would never face, in the comfort of their living rooms. People would pay to be inspired and so on.
It didn't take long for radio station owners to understand mass marketing. They may not have understood at all it was they were doing in regards to harming our culture, but the money was obvious. These were hard times for migrant workers, recent war vetrans, mothers left alone to raise families, etc. These were also hard times for the working class across the country. Lots of blood was spilt over the formations of unions and the rights of workers.
In this environment of outrageous abuse of human rights by major land owners and manufacturers, the music industry as it was becoming was no different. The problem was that when they violated their musicians rights there was no physical harm, and so it continues to the present day. Only the dollar amounts and the players have changed, the techniques for making money in the industry are the same. It goes something like this:
"Hey I heard that there is a guy who will pay for you to sing into a tin can."
Sing into a tin can and make a few bucks, but "Please sign here."
"They sold a million copies of our song!" "Cool."
Go back to record maker and try to get compensated. Get laughed at instead.
The youth of our time have no sense of history (just like we were) and are easily convinced that what you hear on the radio is all that there is. Sure they have friends that are in a band, but that is just pretend. The band just plays what they hear on the radio and they suck at it, usually.
Sometimes those bands that don't totally suck hear about the guy with the tin can and come to think that is the reason and end of all music.
None of my 6 children have ever gathered around a campfire with competent musicians and played, sang,
When we watched Jurasic Park, my three oldest sons shouted together: "Flight!" as soon as they saw the SGI box.
I had to lean over and whisper to my wife that yes, a 10 year old could do that. :)
Running a web server over an RF port from the wrist watch to a phone scewed the results a bit, but its the only communication mode they had.
The smartphone was the only client they had handy to test with, since the test was carried out on a long flight.
Amazing stuff!
You are then a Microsoft shill.
Nice -- what to choose, evil Sony, or evil Microsoft. Niether!
I there was such a thing as a Windows community, it would be much worse. Condiser getting help from Microsoft vs. getting help from the Linux community: Mcrosoft: Please give me your credit card number ...
Linux zealot: Newb! Google first before coming here!
Which do you prefer?
In fact most folks learn Windows the hard way, by trial and error because they refuse to pay someone to teach them. As a result, most Windows users are completely computer illiterate.
Folks looking to switch to Linux perceive an easy answer by applying to the 'community' to solve their problems.
The net is a wonderful place, and there are milions of people willing to help. Find them, but please, do not assume that a net citizen is your true friend. He is not and cannot be. Work within those limits, and the community is yours.
Using Mysql, 25,000,000 cache flushes (yes, 25 MILLION) were forced to disk with not one error! It took a few weeks of pounding the database with 1000 inserts and 1000 deletes at a time. By keeping the number of 'extents' constant, we observed the same inode referenced each write. The count of transactions was in the Billions, but we were only interested in the number of writes, which we watched using tools like vmstat. We averaged about 11 writes per second.
Each generation of FLASH memory seems to get better, and my personal confidence in FLASH for primary OS platforms is rock solid.
That test system has been on and off for several months now with the same FLASH, without changing or updating the OS, and still not a single read or write error reported by the system.
One of the reasons that I carry a Treo 650 is for ebooks. On a plane, In the bathroom, (like at work) At my desk at work at 4:30pm on a Friday afternoon when all caught up, At night in bed when the wife would prefer I not have a light on, etc etc etc In the last year, I have read 19 novels completely on my phone, using mobipocket. Couple the ebook on the phone, with the mp3 player on the same phone, and the experience is quite rich, anywhere, any time, even outside. You sould know: Many Authors publish all their works in ebook form; David Weber delivers his complete works on a CD in the cover of each of his hardbacks, including the current book! When I buy his books, I put the new book on my phone, so when I cant have the hardback nearby, I can continue the book on my phone. just look around a bit, there is LOTS to read in ebook form.
Most people with desktop computers are completely computer illiterate and don't even know what 'Windows' is. They just know enough to run a few applications. Most don't even know what those applications are.
Me on the phone with a corporate user: "Open a browser and point it to ..."
User: "What is a browser?"
Saying that "most people are familiar with Windows" is a HUGE misnomer!
We have experimented on unsuspecting users many times by installing Linux on their systems, and installing an XP like theme under KDE and further customized the theme by changing a few icons.
NONE of those users knew any difference! We had to explain a few times that Open Office is similar to Word, and once I had to add an Open Office tool (text color, as I recall) to the tool bar, but that's it.
One family that we did this for has dug a little and 'discovered' how to take advantage of some Linux features that suprised us alot, and they were thrilled! Never underestimate the power of a 13 year old mind! She wouldn't go back to Windows now if she could (can't afford it anyway, she says).
So please, don't assume that everyone has the same experience in computing, and never assume what other people may like or even respond to. We just can't know for sure until we try.
Also remember that noone other than Microsoft is trying to maintain a monopoly in desktop operating systems by forcing everyong to pay a Microsoft TAX whenever they buy a PC. Its time for another Boston tea Party, and the Tea is Microsoft Windows!
Not to memtion that our forefathers would have already stormed Redmond with pitchforks, clubs, and small firearms demanding that their rights and Liberties be preserved! If you don't understand what I am talking about, then you may be part of the problem.
---
We are not cattle.
There are several ways to get the Linksys modified sources. They are bacically device dependant.
unslung.org has the nslu2 sources and even more enhancements.
Lots of places have the Linksys router stuff, but Sveasoft is even making money enhancing the Linksys enhancements. Now that's good stuff, regardless of my personal feelings on the matter. And I can even recommend the Sveasoft products. It boggles the mind what you can do in 8 or 16 MB! (DNS, SSH, HTTP, NFS, etc etc)
I have never tried asking Linksys directly for sources. I also do not see any documentation in the packages I have for how to get sources.