I don't disagree that Linux might have been a better choice for a government agency but what really would have saved them here was telling EDS where to shove their Junk Bond status and hiring some competent technicians.
The process you've described does not involve overwriting your old kernel. There's the right way to do things and there's the wrong way. Doing things the wrong way on any OS will screw you over.
Microsoft can't help it if you force an XP update onto a Win2K machine using an automated tool. Trying to manually install a patch onto the wrong operating system WILL fail as it should.
Somebody else in the thread mentioned this - if you overwrite your Linux kernel with a botched version, your system's hosed. If you didn't keep a backup, it's damned near impossible to back it out.
Nobody can protect an incompetent admin from him / herself.
Admittedly I don't know about any other sites but they used Tivoli at the EDS site where I worked this summer. That may have been dictated by the client.
I would imagine they were using something like Microsofts SMS services or Bigfix to push out packages, and simply selected push out to all instead of a test community.
At the EDS site where I worked they use Tivoli to push out patches and applications.
It was EDS that screwed it up. I can't say I'm surprised. For once I find it hard to blame Microsoft - rolling an XP patch out onto a Windows 2000 machine (or 60000) will have the predictable effect of hosing the system. Given what I know about EDS (I worked there for two summers) I don't think running Linux would have helped.
I think saying the reason the PS2 did better than the Dreamcast is because of DVD playback is oversimplifying. Sony built up a lot of hype around the PS2 - enough that most of the people I know who were considering buying a Dreamcast decided to wait and get a PS2 instead. DVD playback had a very small impact, at least in my personal experience.
As for the PSP vs. the DS, I don't think Sony will be able to build up enough hype to make it appealing to wait, especially against Nintendo. Sega really dropped the ball with marketing the Dreamcast which is a shame because it had a lot of potential as a platform.
I think the DS has one more advantage going for it - one that Sony nailed down for the PS2 - backwards compatability. Having a few hundred titles for your old system playable on your new system is a good selling point.
The fact that the interface hasn't been made any easier to use, and only gets more fiddly and complicated confirms it. Winamp is the great golden flamingo God of bad user/interface design.
I use Winamp (2) and I like the interface just the way it is. It's easy to see at a glance whether shuffle and repeat are on. It's easy to see what track is playing. It's easy to see where the EQ levels are set. There's a keyboard shortcut for everything. In short, it stays out of my way.
Mind, I wish they'd stuck to audio - I can't stand the video playback. So I just don't install it. To each their own.
Bad Idea for both: turning off the ability of javascripts to change the status bar text also turns off link previewing - ridiculous; those should be two entirely separate things.
Uh? Works for me... Did you uninstall any previous versions before installing 1.0? Installing over an old copy still causes strange glitches, I've found.
I tried Opera and hated it. I tried Phoenix (I think it was version 0.2) and loved it. It's not just that I'm a cheap jerk - I'll only pay for software I like.
Given, the graphics aren't necessarliy "outstanding" but the engine is an enhanced SNES port. Zero mission is basically the original metroid, extended, with SNES graphics.
Game updates/patches circulate about the net forever, so you don't have to worry about this when you go back to play older games.
Patches don't necessarily circulate the net forever. It's very difficult to find a copy of the last patch for Heroes of Might and Magic III without registering for GameSpot, for example. Obviously I could register for GameSpot or I could use BugMeNot but one way it's intrusive and the other way it's a violation of their site's Terms of Service. Half Life 2 probably won't be one of those games but right now I have no way to tell.
One reason I don't buy games with this type of copy protection is I frequently go back and play older games if I enjoyed them.
Say five years from now Valve is out of business and the Steam servers have been shut down. Half Life 2 won't be playable without a crack - DMCA violation, go to jail.
They have newer versions of this idea intended for slightly younger kids. You get a board and some pieces that snap together (with regular clothing-type snaps). My little cousins have them.
They don't do quite as much as the real ones (I have two, one of which my dad had from the 1960s) but a four year old is not as likely to injure him or herself or fry the components.
Don't move the stickers, just take the cube apart and reassemble it in the solved position. With a little practice you can get them apart with your hands. Just turn one edge 45 degrees and twist one of the corners until it pops out.
After the bnetd debacle Blizzard firmly punted themselves onto the right hand side of those comparisons for me. All I wanted bnetd for was to run LAN games without having to install IPX. I blame Vivendi Universal rather than the Blizzard developers themselves.
I agree with most of your points but there are a few I don't.
I'm reasonably happy with about:config for advanced configuration. Most people who care about those 'edit in a text file' options are savvy enough to do some research and find out about about:config or find the Firefox Tips and Tricks page.
Also, I think the current button layout is a good compromise. You add buttons to the layout; some people take buttons out of the layout. I use keyboard shortcuts for everything making most of the buttons useless to me so I remove most of them.
Agreed. Firefox is snappy even on my oldest machine. I run it on my Compaq Armada 7770 Laptop - a Pentium 233 with 144 MB of RAM running Windows 2000. It's at least as fast as Internet Explorer.
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In any case, you'd still have to walk around and fix 60000 computers. I'd hate to be the co-op student on that site.
I don't disagree that Linux might have been a better choice for a government agency but what really would have saved them here was telling EDS where to shove their Junk Bond status and hiring some competent technicians.
The process you've described does not involve overwriting your old kernel. There's the right way to do things and there's the wrong way. Doing things the wrong way on any OS will screw you over.
Microsoft can't help it if you force an XP update onto a Win2K machine using an automated tool. Trying to manually install a patch onto the wrong operating system WILL fail as it should.
Somebody else in the thread mentioned this - if you overwrite your Linux kernel with a botched version, your system's hosed. If you didn't keep a backup, it's damned near impossible to back it out.
Nobody can protect an incompetent admin from him / herself.
Admittedly I don't know about any other sites but they used Tivoli at the EDS site where I worked this summer. That may have been dictated by the client.
At the EDS site where I worked they use Tivoli to push out patches and applications.
It was EDS that screwed it up. I can't say I'm surprised. For once I find it hard to blame Microsoft - rolling an XP patch out onto a Windows 2000 machine (or 60000) will have the predictable effect of hosing the system. Given what I know about EDS (I worked there for two summers) I don't think running Linux would have helped.
I think saying the reason the PS2 did better than the Dreamcast is because of DVD playback is oversimplifying. Sony built up a lot of hype around the PS2 - enough that most of the people I know who were considering buying a Dreamcast decided to wait and get a PS2 instead. DVD playback had a very small impact, at least in my personal experience.
As for the PSP vs. the DS, I don't think Sony will be able to build up enough hype to make it appealing to wait, especially against Nintendo. Sega really dropped the ball with marketing the Dreamcast which is a shame because it had a lot of potential as a platform.
I think the DS has one more advantage going for it - one that Sony nailed down for the PS2 - backwards compatability. Having a few hundred titles for your old system playable on your new system is a good selling point.
I use Winamp (2) and I like the interface just the way it is. It's easy to see at a glance whether shuffle and repeat are on. It's easy to see what track is playing. It's easy to see where the EQ levels are set. There's a keyboard shortcut for everything. In short, it stays out of my way.
Mind, I wish they'd stuck to audio - I can't stand the video playback. So I just don't install it. To each their own.
Uh? Works for me... Did you uninstall any previous versions before installing 1.0? Installing over an old copy still causes strange glitches, I've found.
I tried Opera and hated it. I tried Phoenix (I think it was version 0.2) and loved it. It's not just that I'm a cheap jerk - I'll only pay for software I like.
You mean like Metroid Fusion or Metroid Zero Mission?
Given, the graphics aren't necessarliy "outstanding" but the engine is an enhanced SNES port. Zero mission is basically the original metroid, extended, with SNES graphics.
You're not alone. I looked at the list and it hit me - I was two when some of these games were released.
I suspect it's a different game.
This is the game I was talking about:
Ghostbusters (1984 Activision)
I powered up my C64 and played Jumpman two days ago. It's just a fun game.
Patches don't necessarily circulate the net forever. It's very difficult to find a copy of the last patch for Heroes of Might and Magic III without registering for GameSpot, for example. Obviously I could register for GameSpot or I could use BugMeNot but one way it's intrusive and the other way it's a violation of their site's Terms of Service. Half Life 2 probably won't be one of those games but right now I have no way to tell.
One reason I don't buy games with this type of copy protection is I frequently go back and play older games if I enjoyed them.
Say five years from now Valve is out of business and the Steam servers have been shut down. Half Life 2 won't be playable without a crack - DMCA violation, go to jail.
They have newer versions of this idea intended for slightly younger kids. You get a board and some pieces that snap together (with regular clothing-type snaps). My little cousins have them.
They don't do quite as much as the real ones (I have two, one of which my dad had from the 1960s) but a four year old is not as likely to injure him or herself or fry the components.
Don't move the stickers, just take the cube apart and reassemble it in the solved position. With a little practice you can get them apart with your hands. Just turn one edge 45 degrees and twist one of the corners until it pops out.
*shrug* I can't play a game I don't own. Warcraft III was still in Beta when they squashed bnetd.
Yes, I am still playing Diablo I. For a long time, it was the only game that would run on all my housemates' computers.
After the bnetd debacle Blizzard firmly punted themselves onto the right hand side of those comparisons for me. All I wanted bnetd for was to run LAN games without having to install IPX. I blame Vivendi Universal rather than the Blizzard developers themselves.
I agree with most of your points but there are a few I don't.
I'm reasonably happy with about:config for advanced configuration. Most people who care about those 'edit in a text file' options are savvy enough to do some research and find out about about:config or find the Firefox Tips and Tricks page.
Also, I think the current button layout is a good compromise. You add buttons to the layout; some people take buttons out of the layout. I use keyboard shortcuts for everything making most of the buttons useless to me so I remove most of them.
Agreed. Firefox is snappy even on my oldest machine. I run it on my Compaq Armada 7770 Laptop - a Pentium 233 with 144 MB of RAM running Windows 2000. It's at least as fast as Internet Explorer.
Custom builds, optimized for particular architectures, some with SVG support:b uilds.htm
http://www.moox.ws/tech/mozilla/release