Every natural diamond has some flaws.. I don't remember the exact details now but I read an article on it awhile back which stated under close examination (microscope) a man made diamond is too perfect. Thats how they tell them apart.
I've been taking MA off and on for years but returned just over a year ago after a 6 year hiatus. Our school used to be run by an employee of our company (he retired last year). Its actually quicker to walk to our school than it is to get to my car. Our classes are twice a week, right after work so its very easy to get to class.
A month or so ago we managed to convince the instructor to give us keys so now we go over twice a week (mon, wed) for lunch workouts.
Just a tip, but find a school close to work, with class times that you can go to during lunch or right after work. If you have a family like me then once you get home its almost impossible to get out. For instance this morning I could have gone to a class but its less stressfull (couldn't resists), alright less hassle to stay home and not have to worry about the wife being crooked when I get home.
Really, that doesn't sound like a stressfull environment to me. Now, people who manage critical IT infrastructure where downtime means $$$ each minute then yeah, that would be stressfull.
IMHO, if your stressed out about your job its time to change environments. I know people that have had to take stress leave (no idea why) only to come back to the same job! Hello McFly! If the job stressed you out that much before start looking for a new one, things aren't going to change.
I'm a DBA, I maintain critical databases, where downtime means millions per day. Screwing up while working on that system I think is a tad more stressfull than if your going to meet your development deadline. But hey, I may be out to lunch here. Maybe i'm different but I don't find these situations stressfull either, I find them challenging and interesting. My favorite part of being a DBA is when things go wrong.....
IMHO, the only truely stressfull job out there would be one where your life or the lives of others is on the line. Doctors, Police, firefighters, military, etc.
Damn, if I hadn't posted to this discussion I would have modded you up. You hit the nail on the head... Alot of people in IT don't understand the big picture... Whether its through sheer ignorance or systems being so complex that you just can't know it all. And i'm afraid, seeing how software development is proceeding, its only going to get worse.
When I was in university people coded in C/C++ but now its Java, JDBC, SOAP, CORBA, XML, STRUTS, EJB's,.Net etc, etc. The list grows more each day.
Its the administrators. I hate to say it but alot of people who run/support databases aren't DBA's! They were either thrown into supporting it, or had an interest but its not their 'job'.
I've been a DBA for 8 years or so now and I encounter this problem all the time. Once I had a dev. group's call a meeting with us to find out what services we offered. The developers obviously didn't want to be there and were very vocal that they didn't need our services.
My first question was how did they backup their database? (They were running Oracle..)
Their response, "Oh, we let the filesystem backup catch it."
I responded, "Do you shutdown your database first?"
Them: "No"
Me: "You need us."
Save yourself the hassle, if you have a database that is critical to your business, hire someone that knows the internals. Whether its mysql, postgresql, db2, oracle, mssql, your going to save yourself alot of headaches.
Yeah, I know, DBA's are cool and its fun pretending but seriously, save this stuff for the experts.
I'm of the opinion that alot of database applications could run just as effectively off of flat files because most apps don't use the advanced features of RDBMS's. Thats why mysql is popular if you ask me.
1. There is a main company pushing mysql in the news and striking deals with other big companies such as Veritas and SAP. They appear to have a sales force that is very active. I rarely ever see anything w.r.t. postgres in the news.
2. Postgresql doesn't really support windows. I know, you can get it to run under Cygwin but most people don't want to hassle with that. They want native support.
Is postgresql a better database? IMHO it wins handsdown but as we know there more factors to whether or not software gets adopted.
mainly to hide the underlying structure from users. Also, i've seen alot of very complex and long sql in views that you really wouldn't want to put into your application.
As the grandparent said, it can also be used for security purposes, something which you don't want to code into your application either. Why? Because sometimes you can't guarantee users are going to enter the database via the application.
Views can also be used for version control. Views are view usefull, are they required? Probably not but they sure do make life alot easier. The grandparent may not have stated his case well but there are many valid reasons as to why you'd want to use a DBMS that has views.
Download DB2, Oracle or SqlServer. I'm not 100% srue about SqlServer but DB2 and Oracle allow you to download their software for free (with much better documentation) if you only use it for self-education.
Don't forget, the software comes with the hardware when you buy it. You really don't need to buy extra software to use digital cameras, etc.
Linux zealots need to face the music, windows is just too easy for the general population to use compared to Linux. Personally I think linux is ready for the 90% of the workplace but for home use, until it becomes easier to install programs (double click setup, next, next, next, done and it work) then most people won't use it at home.
Face it. People want PC's to be like game consoles, insert game (program) and play, no hassle, no fuss. After a long day at work most people don't want to go home and mess with their computers or use 4 apps to do the same thing 1 app does under windows.
They don't want to worry about compatibility when they buy a new piece of hardware. Tax season is a perfect example, alot of people use tax software. Do any of them support Linux, not that i'm aware of.
Were rehashing the same stuff here day after day. With stupid articles saying "Even my grandma or 2 year old kid can use linux, so can you!" Wait until you kid see's that new Elmo game at the store and begs you to buy it, or visits a friends house who has tons of cool software for his pc.
Linux is in a catch-22. It won't be ready for the desktop until vendors start supporting it. But vendors won't support it until more people use it. The way I see it we have to push for linux to be used in the work evironment first because its ready for that market. Its a stepping stone to the home user and until that happens the movement is going to stall.
The question we should be asking is why aren't more work environments using Linux? I could easily use linux (i'd need software for exchange and maybe office but thats easily available) but why won't my company switch? Won't they save alot of $$$? Whats holding them back?
I don't think the linux vendors are doing enough to answer those questions. They need to be knocking on CTO's doors and pitching them with solid answers.
Anyways, thats my rant for today. On the record, I love linux and have it on one computer at home but I have hard enough time helping my family use windows, I don't have to energy, willpower to teach them linux.
My dad at first wouldn't let me play games so all I could do was type up my school notes. I had the best notes in class (which I could search) and at my peak I could type almost 100 words per minute.
My mom was doing a typing course as part of a program she was doing. We would have races all the time and i'd practice just so I could beat here. I find it amazing that alot of people IT still hunt and peck. It may be just me but the sound of people typing erks the hell out of me, especially when they hunt and pick. You can hear those guys a mile away.
Normal upgrades because a royal PITA because of dependency hell.. Thats one issue that definately needs to be addressed.
I can see it now, you buy a digital camera and it actually comes with linux drivers. You try to install it and it says:
XYZ is needed by ABC.
So you upgrade ABC and you get 123 and 456 need to be upgrade first, 456 needs 789, etc, etc.
Not accurate but you get the picture.
Linux is not hard to use if setup specifically for
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A Babe in Tuxland
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a person. In this case its his daughter but same could be said for other types of people. I could go home and install linux for my parents and customize it for their particular needs. Chances are, if I did my job correctly, they wouldn't have too many issues.
However, the issue arises when an average user has to do some setup themselves.. They buy a new printer, digital camera, etc. Thats where the issues are now in linux. On Windows you put in the cd that came with the product and a few clicks later your ready to go. I think most of us are aware of the issues you can experience in linux.
Yeah, his kid has knows how to use a computer but newsflash, tons of kids do. My daugher has had her own computer since she was 2... Now if his kid could use a cash register and count out correct change i'd be impressed.
Gah, sorry, forgot to select plain text
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A Babe in Tuxland
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for years now. She's 4 and started using mine when she was about 2. At the time I didn't think she was old enough to use a computer but we bought a box of cereal that had a Mr. Potatoe head game in it. She wanted to play it so I popped it into my computer. There's this one game where Mr. Potatoe Head breaks a picture into 4-6 pieces and you have to put it back together. I glanced away for a sec and then I heard, "All done". I looked back and she had it put back together, I didn't even know she knew how to use a mouse.
So after that we bought some more games for her (mostly all educational where games teach numbers, letters, colors and lately more advanced games.) I thought about putting linux on her computer but in order to use flash sites (which kid sites are full off) you need to be running moz 2.6. The flash plugin is alot faster than earlier versions.
But then I realized she must have about 30 games for the windows platform. I don't think its worth the effort to put linux on her computer and try to get these games running under wine or somesuch. My daughter is 4.5 now and my son is 2.2 and they can put any game on by themselves and play it. The cdroms are getting a bit dirty tho.
Linux is all and good but there are no educational games out there for it and personally I don't think its the right platform for my kids right now. When they get older and need to do papers for school then it will be a different story.
Personally i'm not a big MS fan but i'm not a linux Zealot either.. I try to pick a platform that suits my needs. And what I see in that article and responses on its website, is that there are alot of linux zealots out there who can't see the forest through the trees. I don't think they realize some of the great software their kids are missing out on.
For my server at home I run linux... On my desktop I run Linux and Winbloze. On my kids computer I have windows.
Sure, any dummy can make note of departure/arrival times, its probably even accessible from flight control. But how are they going to tell if a route is profitable. The only way to find out is by determining passenger load. This guy had access to that information.
Of course, you could always try and scan the windows of the plane to see how many people are sitting in there but what if they all sit on the same side?
My parents were coming to visit me on a new route by a competitor to Air Canada. At some point (can't remember when) the pilot asked (half joking i'm sure) the passengers to move to the right side of the plane so Air Canada employees thought the plane was full. A couple of people actually changed their seats. Bah, it was a funny story when my mom told it.
Not sure how because when your sitting in a concert band its hard to hear other sections. Thats why you have the conductor up there. I was a trumpet player and with a couple trumpets sitting behind your head you don't hear much of anything else.:)
Your right in one sense but like another poster mentioned.. Each venue is different, which means different acoustics, which means different sections may have to play quieter, louder, etc. Alot of the pieces orchestra's play are complex as well and even tho they are skilled muscians they may still need direction. Some sections may be rushing or dragging the piece along... There are many things you need a conductor for, otherwise you wouldn't see conductors during performances. They'd be like any other stage production, watching from the sidelines and appear at the end for a bow and some flowers.
I haven't played in a concert band in ages but you do watch the conductor and follow him/her. Thats what I recall anyways.
The next computer I buy is going to be a laptop and hey, if its powerfull enough to play the latest games then that'll be even better.
Like alot of people i'm going to put a wireless network in my house so I can access the net from anywhere and what else is better suited for that than a laptop.
I'll keep a couple of my servers but they'll be running linux and hosting stuff.
I rarely use my hotmail address yet I have to clean it up everyday or I will hit my quota. I had to turn on their spam feature and set it to autodelete.
Knowing spammers use brute force tactics it won't take them long to start filling up unused email accounts.
Actually, i'm a DBA but we should be able to expect a basic level of proficiency from IT professionals... Should everyone be able to configure a router? No, but you think most should understand how to hook their laptop upto a phone line.
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Every natural diamond has some flaws.. I don't remember the exact details now but I read an article on it awhile back which stated under close examination (microscope) a man made diamond is too perfect. Thats how they tell them apart.
I've been taking MA off and on for years but returned just over a year ago after a 6 year hiatus. Our school used to be run by an employee of our company (he retired last year). Its actually quicker to walk to our school than it is to get to my car. Our classes are twice a week, right after work so its very easy to get to class. A month or so ago we managed to convince the instructor to give us keys so now we go over twice a week (mon, wed) for lunch workouts. Just a tip, but find a school close to work, with class times that you can go to during lunch or right after work. If you have a family like me then once you get home its almost impossible to get out. For instance this morning I could have gone to a class but its less stressfull (couldn't resists), alright less hassle to stay home and not have to worry about the wife being crooked when I get home.
Really, that doesn't sound like a stressfull environment to me. Now, people who manage critical IT infrastructure where downtime means $$$ each minute then yeah, that would be stressfull.
IMHO, if your stressed out about your job its time to change environments. I know people that have had to take stress leave (no idea why) only to come back to the same job! Hello McFly! If the job stressed you out that much before start looking for a new one, things aren't going to change.
I'm a DBA, I maintain critical databases, where downtime means millions per day. Screwing up while working on that system I think is a tad more stressfull than if your going to meet your development deadline. But hey, I may be out to lunch here. Maybe i'm different but I don't find these situations stressfull either, I find them challenging and interesting. My favorite part of being a DBA is when things go wrong.....
IMHO, the only truely stressfull job out there would be one where your life or the lives of others is on the line. Doctors, Police, firefighters, military, etc.
Damn, if I hadn't posted to this discussion I would have modded you up. You hit the nail on the head... Alot of people in IT don't understand the big picture... Whether its through sheer ignorance or systems being so complex that you just can't know it all. And i'm afraid, seeing how software development is proceeding, its only going to get worse.
.Net etc, etc. The list grows more each day.
When I was in university people coded in C/C++ but now its Java, JDBC, SOAP, CORBA, XML, STRUTS, EJB's,
Its the administrators. I hate to say it but alot of people who run/support databases aren't DBA's! They were either thrown into supporting it, or had an interest but its not their 'job'.
I've been a DBA for 8 years or so now and I encounter this problem all the time. Once I had a dev. group's call a meeting with us to find out what services we offered. The developers obviously didn't want to be there and were very vocal that they didn't need our services.
My first question was how did they backup their database? (They were running Oracle..)
Their response, "Oh, we let the filesystem backup catch it."
I responded, "Do you shutdown your database first?"
Them: "No"
Me: "You need us."
Save yourself the hassle, if you have a database that is critical to your business, hire someone that knows the internals. Whether its mysql, postgresql, db2, oracle, mssql, your going to save yourself alot of headaches.
Yeah, I know, DBA's are cool and its fun pretending but seriously, save this stuff for the experts.
I'm of the opinion that alot of database applications could run just as effectively off of flat files because most apps don't use the advanced features of RDBMS's. Thats why mysql is popular if you ask me.
1. There is a main company pushing mysql in the news and striking deals with other big companies such as Veritas and SAP. They appear to have a sales force that is very active. I rarely ever see anything w.r.t. postgres in the news. 2. Postgresql doesn't really support windows. I know, you can get it to run under Cygwin but most people don't want to hassle with that. They want native support. Is postgresql a better database? IMHO it wins handsdown but as we know there more factors to whether or not software gets adopted.
mainly to hide the underlying structure from users. Also, i've seen alot of very complex and long sql in views that you really wouldn't want to put into your application. As the grandparent said, it can also be used for security purposes, something which you don't want to code into your application either. Why? Because sometimes you can't guarantee users are going to enter the database via the application. Views can also be used for version control. Views are view usefull, are they required? Probably not but they sure do make life alot easier. The grandparent may not have stated his case well but there are many valid reasons as to why you'd want to use a DBMS that has views.
Download DB2, Oracle or SqlServer. I'm not 100% srue about SqlServer but DB2 and Oracle allow you to download their software for free (with much better documentation) if you only use it for self-education.
Don't forget, the software comes with the hardware when you buy it. You really don't need to buy extra software to use digital cameras, etc.
Linux zealots need to face the music, windows is just too easy for the general population to use compared to Linux. Personally I think linux is ready for the 90% of the workplace but for home use, until it becomes easier to install programs (double click setup, next, next, next, done and it work) then most people won't use it at home.
Face it. People want PC's to be like game consoles, insert game (program) and play, no hassle, no fuss. After a long day at work most people don't want to go home and mess with their computers or use 4 apps to do the same thing 1 app does under windows.
They don't want to worry about compatibility when they buy a new piece of hardware. Tax season is a perfect example, alot of people use tax software. Do any of them support Linux, not that i'm aware of.
Were rehashing the same stuff here day after day. With stupid articles saying "Even my grandma or 2 year old kid can use linux, so can you!" Wait until you kid see's that new Elmo game at the store and begs you to buy it, or visits a friends house who has tons of cool software for his pc.
Linux is in a catch-22. It won't be ready for the desktop until vendors start supporting it. But vendors won't support it until more people use it. The way I see it we have to push for linux to be used in the work evironment first because its ready for that market. Its a stepping stone to the home user and until that happens the movement is going to stall.
The question we should be asking is why aren't more work environments using Linux? I could easily use linux (i'd need software for exchange and maybe office but thats easily available) but why won't my company switch? Won't they save alot of $$$? Whats holding them back?
I don't think the linux vendors are doing enough to answer those questions. They need to be knocking on CTO's doors and pitching them with solid answers.
Anyways, thats my rant for today. On the record, I love linux and have it on one computer at home but I have hard enough time helping my family use windows, I don't have to energy, willpower to teach them linux.
Sorry.
As the subject says, you don't really cluster in the database world for performance. You do it for a number of reasons: 1) Cause in Oracle is cool tech to work on (most importantly) 2) If one node goes down your database keeps chugging alot, just slightly slower. 3) Cause its cool. Saying that the largest that I know of run off of big SMP systems like the HP Superdome. Oracle did a presentation on linux clusters and told us it was cheaper than large SMP boxes and could scale better. Well, recently we had a new project interested in RAC and for our test server we wanted 2 dual cpu blade servers, hardware wise cost 20k. Well, the Oracle licencing on top of that added 80k. I have no idea how running RAC could be cheaper than a single SMP box cause the licensing will kill ya. But anyways, you cluster so you reduce the points of failure and for scalability. Its well noted that Oracle scales excellent in a clustered environment, so you buy a couple of cheap boxes and just toss more in as you need extra capacity.
My dad at first wouldn't let me play games so all I could do was type up my school notes. I had the best notes in class (which I could search) and at my peak I could type almost 100 words per minute. My mom was doing a typing course as part of a program she was doing. We would have races all the time and i'd practice just so I could beat here. I find it amazing that alot of people IT still hunt and peck. It may be just me but the sound of people typing erks the hell out of me, especially when they hunt and pick. You can hear those guys a mile away.
Normal upgrades because a royal PITA because of dependency hell.. Thats one issue that definately needs to be addressed.
I can see it now, you buy a digital camera and it actually comes with linux drivers. You try to install it and it says:
XYZ is needed by ABC.
So you upgrade ABC and you get
123 and 456 need to be upgrade first, 456 needs 789, etc, etc.
Not accurate but you get the picture.
However, the issue arises when an average user has to do some setup themselves.. They buy a new printer, digital camera, etc. Thats where the issues are now in linux. On Windows you put in the cd that came with the product and a few clicks later your ready to go. I think most of us are aware of the issues you can experience in linux.
Yeah, his kid has knows how to use a computer but newsflash, tons of kids do. My daugher has had her own computer since she was 2... Now if his kid could use a cash register and count out correct change i'd be impressed.
my bad.
for years now. She's 4 and started using mine when she was about 2. At the time I didn't think she was old enough to use a computer but we bought a box of cereal that had a Mr. Potatoe head game in it. She wanted to play it so I popped it into my computer. There's this one game where Mr. Potatoe Head breaks a picture into 4-6 pieces and you have to put it back together. I glanced away for a sec and then I heard, "All done". I looked back and she had it put back together, I didn't even know she knew how to use a mouse. So after that we bought some more games for her (mostly all educational where games teach numbers, letters, colors and lately more advanced games.) I thought about putting linux on her computer but in order to use flash sites (which kid sites are full off) you need to be running moz 2.6. The flash plugin is alot faster than earlier versions. But then I realized she must have about 30 games for the windows platform. I don't think its worth the effort to put linux on her computer and try to get these games running under wine or somesuch. My daughter is 4.5 now and my son is 2.2 and they can put any game on by themselves and play it. The cdroms are getting a bit dirty tho. Linux is all and good but there are no educational games out there for it and personally I don't think its the right platform for my kids right now. When they get older and need to do papers for school then it will be a different story. Personally i'm not a big MS fan but i'm not a linux Zealot either.. I try to pick a platform that suits my needs. And what I see in that article and responses on its website, is that there are alot of linux zealots out there who can't see the forest through the trees. I don't think they realize some of the great software their kids are missing out on. For my server at home I run linux... On my desktop I run Linux and Winbloze. On my kids computer I have windows.
Sure, any dummy can make note of departure/arrival times, its probably even accessible from flight control. But how are they going to tell if a route is profitable. The only way to find out is by determining passenger load. This guy had access to that information.
Of course, you could always try and scan the windows of the plane to see how many people are sitting in there but what if they all sit on the same side?
My parents were coming to visit me on a new route by a competitor to Air Canada. At some point (can't remember when) the pilot asked (half joking i'm sure) the passengers to move to the right side of the plane so Air Canada employees thought the plane was full. A couple of people actually changed their seats. Bah, it was a funny story when my mom told it.
Not sure how because when your sitting in a concert band its hard to hear other sections. Thats why you have the conductor up there. I was a trumpet player and with a couple trumpets sitting behind your head you don't hear much of anything else. :)
Your right in one sense but like another poster mentioned.. Each venue is different, which means different acoustics, which means different sections may have to play quieter, louder, etc. Alot of the pieces orchestra's play are complex as well and even tho they are skilled muscians they may still need direction. Some sections may be rushing or dragging the piece along... There are many things you need a conductor for, otherwise you wouldn't see conductors during performances. They'd be like any other stage production, watching from the sidelines and appear at the end for a bow and some flowers. I haven't played in a concert band in ages but you do watch the conductor and follow him/her. Thats what I recall anyways.
I don't care if they are right next to each other, 4 wheels in my book is a car.
The next computer I buy is going to be a laptop and hey, if its powerfull enough to play the latest games then that'll be even better.
Like alot of people i'm going to put a wireless network in my house so I can access the net from anywhere and what else is better suited for that than a laptop.
I'll keep a couple of my servers but they'll be running linux and hosting stuff.
I rarely use my hotmail address yet I have to clean it up everyday or I will hit my quota. I had to turn on their spam feature and set it to autodelete. Knowing spammers use brute force tactics it won't take them long to start filling up unused email accounts.
I'll say, they don't even have remote denonators!!
Hehe, that ISO one is a keeper. :) Its nice to know i'm not the only person out there that experiences the same issues.
Actually, i'm a DBA but we should be able to expect a basic level of proficiency from IT professionals... Should everyone be able to configure a router? No, but you think most should understand how to hook their laptop upto a phone line.