If technology gets to the point where you can't tell the difference between games and real life (in the obvious sense, ie touch, pain, total immersiveness) how many people will elect to stay in the virtual world?
In all honesty I was addicted to Asherson's Call and even to this day, over 2 years since I quit I still get the urge to play. By sure willpower I force myself not to resubscribe. (Actually uninstalling the software and getting rid of it helped control that urge..) Since then I won't even buy an MMORPG because i'm afraid i'll get too sucked in.
Take a look at the EQ Widow forum on yahoo, its full of horror stories from divorce to people losing businesses. Whats going to happen when technology gets so advanced you can't tell the difference between the real world and virtual?
Remember that old sci-fi show, can't remember the name but they try and settle a distant planet but they lose most of their gear? One piece they had remaining was a virtual headset which they used on at least one occasion to trick someone.
I hope we get close to that level of technology in my lifetime.. (Hopefully after i'm retired and the kids have moved out.:) but it will be curious to see what kind of social problems develope.
that it doesn't get the recognition in the developer community that it deserves. Why it isn't popular? I have no idea... It may be because there's no 'big' company behind it like mysql marketing it.
Watching people use mysql is like watching other people play video games. ie. If your watching someone play a video game and they aren't as good as your or absolutely pathetic, it can drive a person bonkers. I guess thats what postgresql users see when they see mysql users... people who don't know what they are doing or don't know any better.
You can base you opinion of postgresql users on whatever criteria you want, but the people who know this stuff have already formed an opinion about you and its based on real criteria such as the above.
The funny thing is, you don't even know what postgres can do. Did you even evaluate your options before you started developing or did you just jump on the mysql train?
Call me a fanboy if you want but at least I can say I evaluated both systems.
What i've come to realize is that there are tons of DBA's out there but not very many 'good' ones. I've been a DBA for 8 years and worked with dozens of other DBA's. I'd have to say there are only 4-5 that have impressed me, a dozen or so competent ones and the rest fall below the mark. I don't like to make assumptions but your post doesn't say good things about you.
It shouldn't take a masters degree to know that the Gotcha's [insert link everyone has seen before here] mysql has are pretty disturbing. But maybe your not really a DBA? I mean, most shops that use mysql, SQL Server and the like don't have fulltime DBA's.
I do, I really do but I ran into so many cross platform problems I simply gave up. Simple app's would not work between windows and linux and the many different browsers.
I spent hours debuging why something wasn't working one night, by chance I loaded up a different browser and it worked fine. Forget about user's being able to install a JVM but how do you write an applet or client application that is truely cross-platform? (And i'm ignoring the formating issues I experienced between linux and windows.)
I'll admit, i'm not Java guru but I haven't found any good books or documentation which recommends guidelines on how to do this successfully.
In houses with only one kid. If your lucky enough to have both a girl and boy you'll notice they don't discriminate between toys. My daughter (5) likes playing video games and computers, she plays with my son's trucks and legos but she also has her girlie stuff. My son (2.5) likes the same things and he'll play with her barbie dolls.
Now, my neighbour on the other hand doesn't like his son playing with girlie toys. You should have seen his face the day I told him I had a picture of his son wearing my daughters play high heel shoes with a magic wand in his hands. hehe.
But in all seriousness are women these days still discouraged from the sciences? If so, I honestly don't see it.
Sure, i'll go ahead and ask my manager for a new small form laptop right now cause I know he has tons of extra cash to spend.
I have a laptop now, one with a fancy backpack so I can transport it while on my motorcycle. Its not the smallest but its not the biggest either. But I can still see me being able to use a palmtop in alot more places than my laptop.
Re:The tagline says it all
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Linux vs. Windows
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Why is it so hard to understand that the more press Linux gets the better chance casual users are going to pick it up and give it a try? Yes the article is redundant from our point of view but what about the users out there that have been afraid to try linux or don't know much about it yet? At some point they are going to read so many articles like this they are going to give it a try or buy a computer with linux pre-installed.
So yes, the article is redundant for elitist that can't see other viewpoints.
and the quality sucks BUT there are many times i've been in places where I didn't have my digital camera and was able to snap a pic.
Yeah, its not great quality but the picture I got last week of my kid getting a hair cut was priceless.
This is why these multi-function devices are nice to have. They will never be as good as a standalone device but in some situations they are good enough and in 2 years they will probably be better than the standalone product your using today. Camera phones are low quality but give it a couple of years and you'll probably have 3 mega pixel cameras in there and be able to take crappy movies.
Its a royal pain in the arse.. I don't even try to use mine anymore. Sony has some nice small form laptops that would be suitable for small workspaces but they are still too big to carry around.
This palmtop on the other hand would be alot easier to carry and it would fit in at least one pocket of a jacket I wear.
Like another poster said, some people type on blackberrys and their cell phones.. I wouldn't want to type an essay on one of these but if i'm at the mall and want to type up an email i'm sure it would be ok for that.
Yes I remember that game, you basically had to use your head to steer. When I got out of the game I was so dizzy it wasn't funny. The resolution was horrible, I could even see guns to pick up but my friend luckily found a rocket launcher.
Apparently one of the staff had to come over and stand by the machine cause they were afraid I was going to tip it over.
I must say tho, i'm rather disappointed with the slow progress of VR. I thought we'd all have fancy helmets at home by now and prototypes of 'VR' rooms would be a reality.
Whether or not you could actually get money out of an rdbms vendor such as oracle in the event of a catastrophic failure doesn't matter. Its about coverying your ass. 99.9% of companies don't want to maintain rdbms software in order to use it, so they have to buy from someone. There's nothing really to argue here, its simple economics as you say.
I've read a few of your posts on this and I basically agree with your stance, the problem most people in management don't think along the same lines.
His post doesn't make sense because he doesn't understand management. In order to encourage the adoption of db's like mysql and postgresql you have to understand management. Its obvious by his comment he just doesn't understand them.
Every IT tech worker should try and at least understand management and their reasoning, how else could you expect to gain influence?
Well, when I say large DB i'm referring to a combination of data, users and application. You could only have a couple of gigs of data but hundreds/thousands of simutaneous users, so that would be a large DB.
On the other hand you could have a relatively low number of users, say a data warehouse but have hundreds of gigs of data.
Application complexity plays a part as well. So if your asking me its hard to set ranges as to what is/isn't a large database.
Yeah, your correct but unfortunately most saw that as a hack and you had to have half a clue to get it working. ie, its alot harder than double clicking on setup.:)
There's more to a database than feature set. While postgreSQL has enough features for 98% of the applications out there it isn't that simple.
In 8 years i've never lost data from an Oracle database from a software problem. I've seen data get lost, corrupted for a number of reasons including incompetent DBA's and their managers. (Off topic but once I was called into a major telephone company because they had some corrupted blocks from a hardware issue. I asked them how long did they keep their backups, 3 months they replied. Ok, how long have you known about this problem, 5 months. Hrmm... 3 - 5 = -2. You can fill in the rest of the story..)
I haven't used postgreSQL in a production environment long enough to know how stable it is. The reason companies choose commercial vendors for their DB's are two fold:
1) Track record. They know if they pick Oracle or DB2 they are getting a solid,proven database system. And there is an abundance (if not expensive) of knowledge out there. Their support is bar none and for the most part I have been extremely satisfied.
2) Managemnt loves to save money. Who wouldn't want to be able to say they saved the company millions of dollars by going to a 'free' or inexpensive (if you pay for support) rdbms like postgresql or mysql. One reason, blame. Opensource still has the stigma attached to it that no one is accountable for bugs. If a critical revenue generating db goes down because of a bug a manager needs to be able to point their finger. Until this stigma goes away we won't see alot of opensource adoption in the DB market. Whether this is right or wrong doesn't matter, people don't like change and opensource is a huge change for alot of managers.
In my 8 years as an Oracle DBA I don't think i've ever seen a corrupt index. Saying that, I don't even know how you could force a index to get corrupted so I don't think were seeing all the info here.
There is alot of hype in the database market as is there with any other area such as OS preference. A good DBA, like a good software developer will pick the database that fits the needs. Saying that, usually DBA's (like anyone else) are under certain constraints from management but heres my take:
For:
Mission Critical Apps and large DB's: Oracle or DB2 Mid-Range apps/Mid-sized DB's: The above + SqlServer, PostgreSQL. Small: SqlServer, PostgreSQL. (+ Oracle and DB2 if you like to toss around the $$).
I'd feel comfortable using PostgreSQL for upto and including mid-sized DB's. Currently I wouldn't use mySQL for anything until they fix their Gotcha's.
If you really and I mean really have faith in your developers and they have reviewed these gotcha's i'd consider MySQL but unfortunately, as every DBA knows this isn't always possible. It only takes one bad apple to mess everything up.
Of course there are many other factors to choosing a database but the core comes down to your employees and licensing. If all your DBA's have extensive training on Oracle then it doesn't make much sense to retrain them to use another DB just because it maybe a better fit. Also, if you have a server license for Oracle it doesn't make much sense to buy another so you can use DB2.
At our shop we have a mix of Oracle and SqlServer. But we do installs for DB2, Redbrick, informix, everything and anything under the sun.
I think this was a major stumbling block for postgreSQL's adoption. I'd love to use it here at work for some small projects but unfortunately were getting more and more windows servers.
PITR recovery is a must for any production database these days. Maybe there are some 3rd party packages but I don't think mysql supports this yet.
This is great news and I hope it spurs a new round of adoption for pgsql!
Almost everyone in IT has to sign their lives away these days but from what I understand its rare to see companies try and enforce it.
I don't think it would be a problem unless he 'helps' them violate any patents or pending-patents. Other than that really what does high level management do w.r.t. low level engineering and design? But i'm not in hardware so I may be way off base.
I really enjoyed the last season of Enterprise. Most of all, like you mention, it was great to have all the episodes basically follow a storyline.
But hey, I liked all of the Star Trek based shows. I'll admin, some too a season or two to get into but i've watched them all. I'm dreading the day a Star Trek show is canceled and not replaced by another.
The point is that if something/someone is trying to be elusive its going to be hard for us to find him/it.
Yes, Osama was a bad comparison but one that stuck out in my mind. If someone doesn't want to be found, even with the resources of the US looking for him he won't be found. Thats applicable to alien life forms as well, maybe they don't want to be found.
But hey, I don't fault you because your american and view everything as an attack.
I know this is going to get modded as a troll but it has to be said.
Sure the US can't even find Osama Bin Laden and people are surprised we haven't found other earth like planets light years away!?
The thing that scares people about linux as with other opensource software is support. That is changing with the likes of Redhat, Suse, etc. But the stigma is still there... Managment feels all nice and fuzzy when they can point blame at a big company like Sun.
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In all honesty I was addicted to Asherson's Call and even to this day, over 2 years since I quit I still get the urge to play. By sure willpower I force myself not to resubscribe. (Actually uninstalling the software and getting rid of it helped control that urge..) Since then I won't even buy an MMORPG because i'm afraid i'll get too sucked in.
Take a look at the EQ Widow forum on yahoo, its full of horror stories from divorce to people losing businesses. Whats going to happen when technology gets so advanced you can't tell the difference between the real world and virtual?
Remember that old sci-fi show, can't remember the name but they try and settle a distant planet but they lose most of their gear? One piece they had remaining was a virtual headset which they used on at least one occasion to trick someone.
I hope we get close to that level of technology in my lifetime.. (Hopefully after i'm retired and the kids have moved out. :) but it will be curious to see what kind of social problems develope.
Thats fine but didn't they announce way back when that they were increasing the free accounts? My account is still at 2MB.
Watching people use mysql is like watching other people play video games. ie. If your watching someone play a video game and they aren't as good as your or absolutely pathetic, it can drive a person bonkers. I guess thats what postgresql users see when they see mysql users... people who don't know what they are doing or don't know any better.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that postgresql is a better product, just look at the Gotcha's for Mysql and compare it to the gotcha's for postresql.
You can base you opinion of postgresql users on whatever criteria you want, but the people who know this stuff have already formed an opinion about you and its based on real criteria such as the above.
The funny thing is, you don't even know what postgres can do. Did you even evaluate your options before you started developing or did you just jump on the mysql train?
Call me a fanboy if you want but at least I can say I evaluated both systems.
It shouldn't take a masters degree to know that the Gotcha's [insert link everyone has seen before here] mysql has are pretty disturbing. But maybe your not really a DBA? I mean, most shops that use mysql, SQL Server and the like don't have fulltime DBA's.
I spent hours debuging why something wasn't working one night, by chance I loaded up a different browser and it worked fine. Forget about user's being able to install a JVM but how do you write an applet or client application that is truely cross-platform? (And i'm ignoring the formating issues I experienced between linux and windows.)
I'll admit, i'm not Java guru but I haven't found any good books or documentation which recommends guidelines on how to do this successfully.
Now, my neighbour on the other hand doesn't like his son playing with girlie toys. You should have seen his face the day I told him I had a picture of his son wearing my daughters play high heel shoes with a magic wand in his hands. hehe.
But in all seriousness are women these days still discouraged from the sciences? If so, I honestly don't see it.
I have a laptop now, one with a fancy backpack so I can transport it while on my motorcycle. Its not the smallest but its not the biggest either. But I can still see me being able to use a palmtop in alot more places than my laptop.
So yes, the article is redundant for elitist that can't see other viewpoints.
This is why these multi-function devices are nice to have. They will never be as good as a standalone device but in some situations they are good enough and in 2 years they will probably be better than the standalone product your using today. Camera phones are low quality but give it a couple of years and you'll probably have 3 mega pixel cameras in there and be able to take crappy movies.
This palmtop on the other hand would be alot easier to carry and it would fit in at least one pocket of a jacket I wear.
Like another poster said, some people type on blackberrys and their cell phones.. I wouldn't want to type an essay on one of these but if i'm at the mall and want to type up an email i'm sure it would be ok for that.
Apparently one of the staff had to come over and stand by the machine cause they were afraid I was going to tip it over.
I must say tho, i'm rather disappointed with the slow progress of VR. I thought we'd all have fancy helmets at home by now and prototypes of 'VR' rooms would be a reality.
I've read a few of your posts on this and I basically agree with your stance, the problem most people in management don't think along the same lines.
I've seen some bad DBA's but that one takes the cake. :)
Every IT tech worker should try and at least understand management and their reasoning, how else could you expect to gain influence?
On the other hand you could have a relatively low number of users, say a data warehouse but have hundreds of gigs of data.
Application complexity plays a part as well. So if your asking me its hard to set ranges as to what is/isn't a large database.
Yeah, your correct but unfortunately most saw that as a hack and you had to have half a clue to get it working. ie, its alot harder than double clicking on setup. :)
In 8 years i've never lost data from an Oracle database from a software problem. I've seen data get lost, corrupted for a number of reasons including incompetent DBA's and their managers. (Off topic but once I was called into a major telephone company because they had some corrupted blocks from a hardware issue. I asked them how long did they keep their backups, 3 months they replied. Ok, how long have you known about this problem, 5 months. Hrmm... 3 - 5 = -2. You can fill in the rest of the story..)
I haven't used postgreSQL in a production environment long enough to know how stable it is. The reason companies choose commercial vendors for their DB's are two fold:
1) Track record. They know if they pick Oracle or DB2 they are getting a solid,proven database system. And there is an abundance (if not expensive) of knowledge out there. Their support is bar none and for the most part I have been extremely satisfied.
2) Managemnt loves to save money. Who wouldn't want to be able to say they saved the company millions of dollars by going to a 'free' or inexpensive (if you pay for support) rdbms like postgresql or mysql. One reason, blame. Opensource still has the stigma attached to it that no one is accountable for bugs. If a critical revenue generating db goes down because of a bug a manager needs to be able to point their finger. Until this stigma goes away we won't see alot of opensource adoption in the DB market. Whether this is right or wrong doesn't matter, people don't like change and opensource is a huge change for alot of managers.
In my 8 years as an Oracle DBA I don't think i've ever seen a corrupt index. Saying that, I don't even know how you could force a index to get corrupted so I don't think were seeing all the info here.
There is alot of hype in the database market as is there with any other area such as OS preference. A good DBA, like a good software developer will pick the database that fits the needs. Saying that, usually DBA's (like anyone else) are under certain constraints from management but heres my take:
For:
Mission Critical Apps and large DB's: Oracle or DB2
Mid-Range apps/Mid-sized DB's: The above + SqlServer, PostgreSQL.
Small: SqlServer, PostgreSQL. (+ Oracle and DB2 if you like to toss around the $$).
I'd feel comfortable using PostgreSQL for upto and including mid-sized DB's. Currently I wouldn't use mySQL for anything until they fix their Gotcha's.
If you really and I mean really have faith in your developers and they have reviewed these gotcha's i'd consider MySQL but unfortunately, as every DBA knows this isn't always possible. It only takes one bad apple to mess everything up.
Of course there are many other factors to choosing a database but the core comes down to your employees and licensing. If all your DBA's have extensive training on Oracle then it doesn't make much sense to retrain them to use another DB just because it maybe a better fit. Also, if you have a server license for Oracle it doesn't make much sense to buy another so you can use DB2.
At our shop we have a mix of Oracle and SqlServer. But we do installs for DB2, Redbrick, informix, everything and anything under the sun.
Anyways, thats my 2 bits.
I think this was a major stumbling block for postgreSQL's adoption. I'd love to use it here at work for some small projects but unfortunately were getting more and more windows servers. PITR recovery is a must for any production database these days. Maybe there are some 3rd party packages but I don't think mysql supports this yet. This is great news and I hope it spurs a new round of adoption for pgsql!
I don't think it would be a problem unless he 'helps' them violate any patents or pending-patents. Other than that really what does high level management do w.r.t. low level engineering and design? But i'm not in hardware so I may be way off base.
But hey, I liked all of the Star Trek based shows. I'll admin, some too a season or two to get into but i've watched them all. I'm dreading the day a Star Trek show is canceled and not replaced by another.
Yes, Osama was a bad comparison but one that stuck out in my mind. If someone doesn't want to be found, even with the resources of the US looking for him he won't be found. Thats applicable to alien life forms as well, maybe they don't want to be found.
But hey, I don't fault you because your american and view everything as an attack.
I know this is going to get modded as a troll but it has to be said. Sure the US can't even find Osama Bin Laden and people are surprised we haven't found other earth like planets light years away!?
The thing that scares people about linux as with other opensource software is support. That is changing with the likes of Redhat, Suse, etc. But the stigma is still there... Managment feels all nice and fuzzy when they can point blame at a big company like Sun.