Depending on your exact position in the company, you may (or may not) be an irreplaceable asset of your company.
Given my own job, the best meassurement of "value to the company" is the amount of co-workers and bosses of other departments who would stand up and protest if your department would try to fire you. ALWAYS REMEMBER, the other departments are customers of the IT department, which gives them quite a power over your boss (because THEY grant him his budget). You should ask THEM to provide you with the required meassurements.
For example, make an official poll as how satisfied they are with your work, what are the strong and weak points of the service you are offering etc. That will give you (and your boss) the best feedback, how smooth your operation runs, where more work should be invested and what your departments top priorities should be in the future.
That may be true in parts when chatting about the weather, watching a television soap or searching for WMD.
But the majority of people out there still reads books (at least outside of the US). And when you're doing business, customers still tend to favour comanies who send out complete informations at once versus having to pull it out their nose.
I for myself hate instant messaging crap, 'cause your expected to answer instantly instead of having time to think about it, research information where needed and compose a reply (on a decent-keyboard-and-screen combination) that doesn't force my communication peer to ask back dozens of times and delays whatever (s)he's doing right now. And it helps of getting rid of some stress, as i can set priorities and do the answering in my own pace.
While email may die in the near future due to spam, instant messaging is unlikely to become its sucessor. If it's not universal between all kinds of systems, allows decent and relatively easy communication between completly different timezones, storing for the 7 to 10 year required by government, it's not going to be accepted by business. And the business accepted solution is, what you're going to use 8 hours a day in the foreseeable future.
Ok, this isn't something a normal user would do, but it's still nice for knowing you can if you want. Maybe even install Wikipedia on your PDA or something...
As far as i undetstand it, when you "buy Office", you are actually buying a license to use the software on ONE computer, which, by the terms of most licenses, is bound to the first computer you install it on. And yes, every company van tell you how you can use a technology you licensed from it.
If that license comes with or without install media doesn't directly affect the contract terms regarding the usage terms, it only affects delivery conditions (and of course the price). See also companies like ActiveState or VMWare, that sell mostly over the Internet.
IANAL but the only legal argly-bargly i CAN find questionable, is that most times you can only see the contract terms after buying the product - at least, when you are a private person instead of a company.
How come? Given that - for example - an audio stream might contain 10 minutes of white noise, isn't it a given possibility that it also contains the pattern of the watermark? The more different watermarks are out there, the more likely it is to match one by accident.
As long as the copyright info is encoded in a non-standard way into a data stream, theres always the possibility of random matches. Maybe i'm gonna invest a TB or so of my unlimited traffic server into a nice spider trap, where i'll serve/dev/random as audio files, just to see what will happen...
My personal best value is, that i know how to circumvent corporate security.
That was the main reason i was hired by a big automotive producer. (the second was, i'm a programmer with 10+ years of programming mission critical software).
They all know that i'm a hacker. Long, long ago i decided i'm one in the good sense of the word; meaning that while i'm capabale of hacking into systems and breaking the coprorates firewall, i only do it to systems i'm paid to administrate (to improve their security).
How does she get power after she drainded the accus?
Did she take an ISS compatible charger or solar sails to re-charge it. Or is it one of those new, experimental "iHamster perpetual motion" devices that can work on any available grain?
Actually, for developing a reliable system, at least one developer MUST use real data. Unless you're ready to send him to the production database after releasing the software to fix some unexpected problems.
But if you can't trust your techs, devs and sysadmins to handle sensitive data, then how are you expecting them to fix a problem on a production system?
While i do most developing and testing on test data (to simplify backup, restore und bugtracking), i *always* use a backup of the real database for final testing. This is especially important if you made changed in the database layout and you need to upgrade the production database during the next release.
BTW: While you're testing your upgrade procedure, take a note of the time reuired to do it (hence the real data). The companies planners might need this info for scheduling the upgrade; especially on systems that normally have a 24/7 workload to handle...!
As ugly as they may look like, this robust, office-type, metal desks with lots of drawers (like from bene.com) are quite ergonomic, transportable and will simply outlive the user.
For computer(s), i would suggest a laptop. If you find yourself taking the laptop to customers regularly, i recommend buying a suitable docking station for your desk. This way you can very easy connect it to your home setup and power adapter.
You should also set up a server where you have your source control and backup system, in case your laptop breaks or gets stolen.
Also, make sure you get as much RAM as possible in your laptop, especially if you're gonna work on complex systems where you will have many programs and debuggers running at the same time.
For me, blogging is just a better way to create small, hopefully interesting - articles without having to code HTML.
My nucleus-blogger (at http://www.magicbooks.org/ ist just a tool, where i can create my articles as a text-file and let a script upload it - and still the layout is the same on every page without having to worry about later layout-changes...
(I dumped my old hackit-on-the-fly approach recently and started from scratch - when there are good tools available, why not use them?)
My first installation of NetBSD was more of one-answer-multiple-choice question. I had to install my old AlphaStation as a router (back in 2001 or so). But none of the available install-CD's would work correctly with only 64MB RAM. Then i downloaded NetBSD and that did the trick...
A few weeks later i installed it on my desktop - in the progress wiping out my failed reiserfs - and it stayed there.
About Linux: Nice system, used it a lot. But choosing between BSD and Linux has more to do with what feels right for you than the great differences.
Probably the *one* thing that really turned me off Linux isn't even that really backward rpm stuff (which surely *never* will be userfriendly), but the way the kernel output is formated.
In BSD you can normally regex your way through dmesg-output for finding devices (thats how kernel-source autoconfiguration works), Linux isn't quite that clear. But anyway, i'm a perl programmer, so most of you won't have THAT problem:-)
The mirror itself could weight less than 5 kilograms. With the much lower gravity and especially the missing atmosphere (no wind!), basically all you need is some thin struts - similar to ones you get with any lightweight tent - and some reflecting (aluminium) foil to make up the reflecting surface.
You could more or less take the design of some of those foldable parabolic antennas, scale up the size and scale down the structural components.
Once the thing is set up on the moon, the only mechanical force it has to withstand is the turning into the sun and the shrinking/expanding during the 28-day moonday. (and it doesn't matter if the foil wrinkles a bit during moon-night).
Yes and no. But the large business is actually what drive the low-end market.
Generally, if you open business and buy a branded servers, you're stuck to that brand a long time. Naturally many companies look for manufacturers that also offer the real big-league stuff, so if they ever need a big iron they don't have to switch the manufacturer.
AND, for selling a real big super-computer server farm (Top1000), which makes real, hard millions of profit, you have to have the big irons in stock.
I'm sorry to disapoint you: UNIX systems already use that device (which is common in most known computers).
But because the software standard is that old (and the POSIX people fucked this up), you actually have to write to/dev/null while read access is from/dev/zero.
Of course, showing some SRAM cell prototypes is a long ways from being able to manufacture this technology in a cost effective way.
Well, were still talking about IBM here? Do you really think that a few hundred dollars more would even get noticed at clients that buy a server in the 100K range?
The main advantage of buying high-end gear from IBM, Cisco and the like isn't that you get cheap hardware ('cause you simply don't). You buy the gear from that company because you get 10 years in-house service including remote failure detection if you pay for it. That means, THEY call YOU before you even notice one of your tripple-redunant drives has problems. At this point in time, the technician is probably already on the way up to your office.
Sure, it's very expensive. But you save quite a lot by not having any significant downtime...
Seen in that context, 500 bucks more for RAM is IMHO just irrelevant to even think of...
You may not have seen any emails that you consider to be spam, however, are you sure that you haven't had emails deleted that weren't spam ? How can you be sure ?
I can't be 100% sure. Even with all filters turned of, you can't be sure to get all mails, though.
The main points are: First, this server is primarily used for private purposes. Second, i check the logs at intervals and/or when i get reported a problem (which very, very seldom happend). Third, here in Europe its quite custom to handle important things on the phone; or at least "handshake the transfer" before and/or after sending really important email/fax/letter to make sure it delivers. And Last, the most common cause for undelivered email is using the wrong mail adress or mistyping it.
And: Mail that is rejected at the mailserver-level gets bounced, so problems can be detected very easy from the sender while Mail that is filtered at the client-level gets thrown into a SPAM folder which i check at intervals.
Thus far, i got only 2 false positives in the last 3 months: One was from a domain that is known to host open relays and was resend after the bounce through another server that was OK, the other was a commercial newsletter i did indeed order, but looked spammy enough (HTML, weird subject, external image links) that even i had to look twice to know it wasn't SPAM.
Slashdot Mirror
Depending on your exact position in the company, you may (or may not) be an irreplaceable asset of your company.
Given my own job, the best meassurement of "value to the company" is the amount of co-workers and bosses of other departments who would stand up and protest if your department would try to fire you. ALWAYS REMEMBER, the other departments are customers of the IT department, which gives them quite a power over your boss (because THEY grant him his budget). You should ask THEM to provide you with the required meassurements.
For example, make an official poll as how satisfied they are with your work, what are the strong and weak points of the service you are offering etc. That will give you (and your boss) the best feedback, how smooth your operation runs, where more work should be invested and what your departments top priorities should be in the future.
That may be true in parts when chatting about the weather, watching a television soap or searching for WMD.
But the majority of people out there still reads books (at least outside of the US). And when you're doing business, customers still tend to favour comanies who send out complete informations at once versus having to pull it out their nose.
I for myself hate instant messaging crap, 'cause your expected to answer instantly instead of having time to think about it, research information where needed and compose a reply (on a decent-keyboard-and-screen combination) that doesn't force my communication peer to ask back dozens of times and delays whatever (s)he's doing right now. And it helps of getting rid of some stress, as i can set priorities and do the answering in my own pace.
While email may die in the near future due to spam, instant messaging is unlikely to become its sucessor. If it's not universal between all kinds of systems, allows decent and relatively easy communication between completly different timezones, storing for the 7 to 10 year required by government, it's not going to be accepted by business. And the business accepted solution is, what you're going to use 8 hours a day in the foreseeable future.
If someone has a speedy (15 minute+) connection, (s)he might go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_do wnload and just download the current database.
Ok, this isn't something a normal user would do, but it's still nice for knowing you can if you want. Maybe even install Wikipedia on your PDA or something...
As far as i undetstand it, when you "buy Office", you are actually buying a license to use the software on ONE computer, which, by the terms of most licenses, is bound to the first computer you install it on. And yes, every company van tell you how you can use a technology you licensed from it.
If that license comes with or without install media doesn't directly affect the contract terms regarding the usage terms, it only affects delivery conditions (and of course the price). See also companies like ActiveState or VMWare, that sell mostly over the Internet.
IANAL but the only legal argly-bargly i CAN find questionable, is that most times you can only see the contract terms after buying the product - at least, when you are a private person instead of a company.
How come? Given that - for example - an audio stream might contain 10 minutes of white noise, isn't it a given possibility that it also contains the pattern of the watermark? The more different watermarks are out there, the more likely it is to match one by accident.
/dev/random as audio files, just to see what will happen...
As long as the copyright info is encoded in a non-standard way into a data stream, theres always the possibility of random matches. Maybe i'm gonna invest a TB or so of my unlimited traffic server into a nice spider trap, where i'll serve
Actually, getting that tattoo erased is the harder thing (or at least much more painfull).
Just build your own railgun, see , or and shoot that fraking thing off the sky. Or, just let your local guv'ment deal with that new "spy-sat"...
My personal best value is, that i know how to circumvent corporate security.
That was the main reason i was hired by a big automotive producer. (the second was, i'm a programmer with 10+ years of programming mission critical software).
They all know that i'm a hacker. Long, long ago i decided i'm one in the good sense of the word; meaning that while i'm capabale of hacking into systems and breaking the coprorates firewall, i only do it to systems i'm paid to administrate (to improve their security).
I fear that we're all gonna die from old age, before IE completly supports PNG/MNG. And IE still has still a big piece of the market share pie...
How does she get power after she drainded the accus?
Did she take an ISS compatible charger or solar sails to re-charge it. Or is it one of those new, experimental "iHamster perpetual motion" devices that can work on any available grain?
Actually, for developing a reliable system, at least one developer MUST use real data. Unless you're ready to send him to the production database after releasing the software to fix some unexpected problems.
But if you can't trust your techs, devs and sysadmins to handle sensitive data, then how are you expecting them to fix a problem on a production system?
While i do most developing and testing on test data (to simplify backup, restore und bugtracking), i *always* use a backup of the real database for final testing. This is especially important if you made changed in the database layout and you need to upgrade the production database during the next release.
BTW: While you're testing your upgrade procedure, take a note of the time reuired to do it (hence the real data). The companies planners might need this info for scheduling the upgrade; especially on systems that normally have a 24/7 workload to handle...!
As ugly as they may look like, this robust, office-type, metal desks with lots of drawers (like from bene.com) are quite ergonomic, transportable and will simply outlive the user.
For computer(s), i would suggest a laptop. If you find yourself taking the laptop to customers regularly, i recommend buying a suitable docking station for your desk. This way you can very easy connect it to your home setup and power adapter.
You should also set up a server where you have your source control and backup system, in case your laptop breaks or gets stolen.
Also, make sure you get as much RAM as possible in your laptop, especially if you're gonna work on complex systems where you will have many programs and debuggers running at the same time.
..that Apple now develops a product that will cost more than one of those portable DVD-Players, but is more portable while less hackable?
Does that mean Apple is finally dumping Nerds in favour of the broad market? Sad, really....
For me, blogging is just a better way to create small, hopefully interesting - articles without having to code HTML.
My nucleus-blogger (at http://www.magicbooks.org/ ist just a tool, where i can create my articles as a text-file and let a script upload it - and still the layout is the same on every page without having to worry about later layout-changes...
(I dumped my old hackit-on-the-fly approach recently and started from scratch - when there are good tools available, why not use them?)
Who the hell wants animated Gif's anyway? I'd Call that a feature.
:-)
That entirely depends. NASA also has some quite nice animated gif's.
A real feature would be to automatically logon to the remote server and crashing it every time it serves a PopUnder
My first installation of NetBSD was more of one-answer-multiple-choice question. I had to install my old AlphaStation as a router (back in 2001 or so). But none of the available install-CD's would work correctly with only 64MB RAM. Then i downloaded NetBSD and that did the trick...
:-)
A few weeks later i installed it on my desktop - in the progress wiping out my failed reiserfs - and it stayed there.
About Linux: Nice system, used it a lot. But choosing between BSD and Linux has more to do with what feels right for you than the great differences.
Probably the *one* thing that really turned me off Linux isn't even that really backward rpm stuff (which surely *never* will be userfriendly), but the way the kernel output is formated.
In BSD you can normally regex your way through dmesg-output for finding devices (thats how kernel-source autoconfiguration works), Linux isn't quite that clear. But anyway, i'm a perl programmer, so most of you won't have THAT problem
LLAP & LG
Rene
Dude, this is Slashdot. Any URL containing the word farm in it, is not to be opened at work.
you mean like in www.BuiOurFarmaci.spam.com?
The mirror itself could weight less than 5 kilograms. With the much lower gravity and especially the missing atmosphere (no wind!), basically all you need is some thin struts - similar to ones you get with any lightweight tent - and some reflecting (aluminium) foil to make up the reflecting surface.
You could more or less take the design of some of those foldable parabolic antennas, scale up the size and scale down the structural components.
Once the thing is set up on the moon, the only mechanical force it has to withstand is the turning into the sun and the shrinking/expanding during the 28-day moonday. (and it doesn't matter if the foil wrinkles a bit during moon-night).
a more appropriate example would be "Titanic" (whatever version you prefer of the 20 or so made).
There were even people asking for a sequel...
Getting a good gyro in there for 1-axis stabilization might improve performance of the overall design quite well, i think.
I'm currently writing most of my programs in perl. So, naturally, i'm going to stick to *nix and so i'm planning to buy a small 12" iBook.
The two questions i currently have are:
*) Can i get a decent multi-bash console on OSX like the KDE Konsole application or do i have to roll my own?
*) Is there any way to hook up an old PS/2 keyboard, cause i don't want to give up my trusted IBM completly?
is that it didn't work for bloody product placement.
Who cares how good any TV series or movie is as long some assholes can use it for market?
Now, let's get all to our knees and thank our holy sales droids... NOT
Yes and no. But the large business is actually what drive the low-end market.
Generally, if you open business and buy a branded servers, you're stuck to that brand a long time. Naturally many companies look for manufacturers that also offer the real big-league stuff, so if they ever need a big iron they don't have to switch the manufacturer.
AND, for selling a real big super-computer server farm (Top1000), which makes real, hard millions of profit, you have to have the big irons in stock.
I'm sorry to disapoint you: UNIX systems already use that device (which is common in most known computers).
/dev/null while read access is from /dev/zero.
But because the software standard is that old (and the POSIX people fucked this up), you actually have to write to
LLAP & LG
Rene
Of course, showing some SRAM cell prototypes is a long ways from being able to manufacture this technology in a cost effective way.
Well, were still talking about IBM here? Do you really think that a few hundred dollars more would even get noticed at clients that buy a server in the 100K range?
The main advantage of buying high-end gear from IBM, Cisco and the like isn't that you get cheap hardware ('cause you simply don't). You buy the gear from that company because you get 10 years in-house service including remote failure detection if you pay for it. That means, THEY call YOU before you even notice one of your tripple-redunant drives has problems. At this point in time, the technician is probably already on the way up to your office.
Sure, it's very expensive. But you save quite a lot by not having any significant downtime...
Seen in that context, 500 bucks more for RAM is IMHO just irrelevant to even think of...
You may not have seen any emails that you consider to be spam, however, are you sure that you haven't had emails deleted that weren't spam ? How can you be sure ?
I can't be 100% sure. Even with all filters turned of, you can't be sure to get all mails, though.
The main points are: First, this server is primarily used for private purposes. Second, i check the logs at intervals and/or when i get reported a problem (which very, very seldom happend). Third, here in Europe its quite custom to handle important things on the phone; or at least "handshake the transfer" before and/or after sending really important email/fax/letter to make sure it delivers. And Last, the most common cause for undelivered email is using the wrong mail adress or mistyping it.
And: Mail that is rejected at the mailserver-level gets bounced, so problems can be detected very easy from the sender while Mail that is filtered at the client-level gets thrown into a SPAM folder which i check at intervals.
Thus far, i got only 2 false positives in the last 3 months: One was from a domain that is known to host open relays and was resend after the bounce through another server that was OK, the other was a commercial newsletter i did indeed order, but looked spammy enough (HTML, weird subject, external image links) that even i had to look twice to know it wasn't SPAM.
LLAP & LG
Rene