100% back of the envelope, likely wishful thinking, unsubstantiated guess.
Perhaps, but it's in line with my experience. For me it's a bit simpler, just go through and count the trouble tickets. Systems hosted on Windows machines get twice as many complaints about outtages or down time than the sites running on a LAMP platform. If I'm going to get woken up in the middle of the night, it's almost always a Windows box.
Sure you can argue it's the application or the coding skill and it doesn't take into account the popularity and traffic of the application, but that would seem to even out across 30 or 40 apps.
At least across the companies I work with, the Windows servers need more attention. And they need to be rebooted more often, rebuilt from scratch more often and they will slow down over time. I'm not sure how you can label my observation wishful thinking. It is what it is. I run Linux at home and my personal web sites on LAMP servers because I don't have to dork with them as much.
I wonder when the last time Didiot actually had any hands on experience with server? Armchair quarterbacks aren't limited to Sunday afternoons.
I do have to say the present is kind of a bummer compared to the world of the future we got to see at Disney Land years ago. Of course, that was back when Disney Land was actually a fun place to visit, too.
We've spent the last thirty years not getting much farther than LEO and not able to do a whole lot when we're lucky enough to get there, then breath a massive sigh of relief when we get back down.
Not only that but we're trapped down here with a bunch of right wing pseudo-christian democracy jihadists spending all our research money for generations to come on war that can't be won trying to spread democracy in a part of the world that doesn't respect the institution. Yeah, great f'ing future we've got to look forward to from here.
I did the math on a total electric conversion of an old VW Rabbit. The conversion cost came in at around $9,000.00.
Assuming I use 15 gallons a week now driving 52 miles round-trip to and from work, that's about $150.00 a month. I'd have to drive the same route for five years to break even. If gas prices went up another dollar a gallon, that cuts the payback to three and half years. If I lived in LA the math would be different.
And that's assuming the car doesn't need any other maintenance. New batteries, a clutch, transmission, or brakes.
I'm going to wait until next summer, let the hybrid technology improve a little more and get a Honda hybrid. Cash in on the subsidy and when the warranty expires toss a plug-in kit in there.
Assuming gas prices don't go down or keep trending up, over the lifetime of the car the payback will be worth it.
My ideal car would be a hybrid diesel. A plug-in package and grease car kit and you could tell the Saudis to cram their oil right up their hairy hind end.
Is the best enforcement policy to hold librarians personally responsible for the materials patrons' access?"
Well, if we're going to start blaming librarians for the actions of patrons on public terminals, why stop there? Why not broaden out the blame and let librarians take the rap for everything that's bothering us:
The war in Iraq - The Bush administration isn't accepting any responsibility for going to war on falsified pre-war intelligence, so let's blame those damn librarians! After all, if they were stocking better intelligence in the reference section that never would've happened.
Gas Prices - Obviously libraries weren't stocking enough books on alternative power, the rise in demand from China or America's affection for gas swilling monster trucks.
The National Debt - The Republican controlled House and Senate are spending us into a hole that will take our children a generation to pay back. But why should we care? Just don't touch our social security benefits and stay hell off my lawn! I heard there were some librarian jobs opening up in Florida, so quit whining and get to work stocking some better accounting books.
Supporting Terrorism - All them terrorists read stuff, didn't they? And where did they get some of those books? The library! If those librarians would've been paying better attention to what their patrons were reading, we could have nabbed those extremist Muslims before they got off the ground. Besides, if they were stocking books on extermist Christianity like they should be we might have converted one or two.
Gay Marraige - Those damn libraries, open to everyone. No membership lists like any decent minority-excluding country club would have. Makes people that are different think they belong here. Next thing you know fags will want to have rights and get married! And it all started with those damn libraries!
Creationism in Schools - Those librarians again, stocking books with "science" and all that other crap. Filling our kid's heads with ideas with facts instead of telling it the way it is in the Bible.
Wow, it took a bunch of Jeb-backing righties in Florida to show us the error of our ways. The cause of all our problems has been right under our nose the entire time!
The margin they make on music sales is, by and large, dictated by the record labels. But when Apple deals directly with the artist they have the opportunity to formulate a split that more fairly compensates both parties.
I doubt it adds up to much right now, but I see the day when places like iTunes are the music distribution channels of the very near future.
You all line up to pee in a bottle to prove a negative but are shocked at something like this? It's not really that much different. Proving you don't have some genetic condition isn't that much different than proving you don't do illegal drugs. If you don't have genetic defects there's nothing to hide, right?
Once you open the door to proving negatives as accepted social policy, there's no real end in sight.
Until something doesn't work, then who do you call?
If you have your system set up right you go the store room and get a new desktop or laptop, plug it up, login and start working again. For the company users it doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.
Start moving your critical apps to web-based applications and migrating productivity software to OpenOffice. If there's some application that you just have to have in Windows, consider running a Windows machine as a kiosk instead of paying for a full Windows license on every desktop. That really does help ease the transition.
It's really not that hard but listen to the whiners come out of the woodwork. Sheez! Most people won't except equivelent functionality from Linux, it has to be better before they would consider switching.
It's too bad OSS textbooks would not catch on here in the states. Profs and schools get major payola from the textbook publishers. That's why the prices go up and up and you never schools publish their own texts, which would save students a fortune. For some topics you'd still need outside texts but basic biology, chemistry and physics there's no reason those couldn't be standardized. PV=NRT hasn't changed in years.
Hey, Spitzer, when you're done reaming the music industry for payola, why not take a crack at textbook publishers? (Yes, the pun was intentional)
The remaining oil reserviors will be more expensive to extract, demand will keep rising as production plumets.
You are probably right but consider an historical example. In 1850 most homes were lit by whale oil lamps. As the supply of whales dwindled and the price of oil shot up it was only a matter of a few years before alternatives became more economical. Within a few years most homes had switched to smokeless kerosene and the market for whale oil tanked. The economic hammer fell on the whaling industry.
Oil is a little different but already gas prices are motivating a change in consumer car choices (try to buy a hybrid right now) and the auto industry is retooling as fast as they can shift production. That trend will accelerate as gas prices rise and we'll use less, the supplies will increase and the prices will sink again. Although this time the Chinese will likely soak up any extra capacity, so we may see permanently higher gas prices. SUV's didn't make a comeback until gas hit.90 cents a gallon a few years ago.
What should be a bigger concern is our dependence on foreign oil. But if you think that's going to be a priority for an oil family that's good buddies with the Saudi royal family, then you're kidding yourself. Imagine where we could be in alternate energy sources if we'd made that a national priority in the wake of 9-11.
With patents I think we're going to have to reach the wretched extreme before anything changes. Actually, I think we're already there. It doesn't get much more wretched than Epicrealm.
calls Linux 'a great product,' but adds, 'it's got to get the final tier of reliability and predictability that I'm going to bet a multi-billion dollar corporation's future on.
Well bo-f'ing-ho. Linux has done just fine in the face of thousands of buggers like him wanking out loud about what Linux has got to do. I've heard that same oral excrement for years. It's not "there" yet. Well, it's still gaining market share so the community must be doing something right. Just don't expect the community to respond to the same pressures and concerns that business does.
From the article:
As use of Linux and other open-source software spreads, the largest buyers of computing gear are demanding a new level of service, support and functions from the software.
So just sit back on your fat hind end and wait for other people to bring about the changes you want. Why not take some of those licensing $$$ you saved and hire a couple programmers to make some of those changes? Heavens, don't do anything constructive. Just sit back and make demands. Enjoy the benefits but PLEASE don't feel any obligation to give anything back or spare some of your precious time and corporate billions to help with improvements.
That's the great thing about Linux, if you don't like something you always have the option to hire someone to change it. In a MSFT environment if you don't like something all you can do is hope the next service pack or next version will fix it.
I guess I'm really tired of this attitude that Linux has to jump through this hoop or that one just to satisfy some corporate weenie. Quit making demands and start making improvements you risk-adverse whiners.
I notice that many companies are developing more and more web applications rather than buying expensive proprietary software.
I see the same thing across my customer base. Private side is probably a little ahead of the gov clients in that regard but they're all moving the same general direction.
That's a good thing all around in my book. If the apps run in any browser, then the underlying OS is not significant.
I'm guessing MSFT will counter this trend by binding web applications to client specific API's. Oh, wait, they're already doing that.:) Though I'm not at all sure that will be an effective long term strategy. Some of my customers are getting concerned about vendor and client lock-in. They don't necessarily want to dump their Windoze desktops but they want options going forward.
I'm seeing suspicion and annoyance at MSFT being translated into development decisions. More on the private side than in government, but it's across the board.
It would still be possible to spoof an RFID chip. Really this is nothing more than an implantable ID card. One that potential terrorists could, eventually, reverse engineer. With biokeys like fingerprints or retna scans it's much harder to fake, always on you and takes a willing effort by the person being identified.
The potential for abuse exists in either arena. Real progress won't happen until we stop trying to find an easy solution for security issues. Technology will only provide a false sense of security, we'll go back to sleep and be jarred awake by another 9-11 style attack.
In some ways the Israelis are way ahead of us in terms of their security paradigm. They're not dependent on gadget solutions. Certainly technology is part of the solution and can be a real help, but TSA's grand database ideas will never work right. RFID chips certainly won't do it, fingerprinting visitors is an insulting waste of effort and anything totally dependent on technology is doomed to failure.
As depressing as it sounds, it's people that have to be at the core of any security system. People at every level of the transportation process. Bag handlers, reservation clerks, fellow passengers, security screeners, gate crews, parking attendants...everyone. And when it comes to security in general, until we stop thinking about security as something that's up to the government or the cops, or the TSA we're never going to be any safer than we were before 9-11.
It doesn't bother me they charge for their products. It also doesn't bother me that some of their products have been a learning experience...for all of us.
But what bugs the crap out of me is the way they've leaned on OEM's not to offer any other OS alternative. MSFT has tilted the playing field in their direction and they've done that with anti-competitive practices. They're a convicted monopoly who bought themselves out of that mess with their lobbying clout.
If MSFT was where they are because they make good products at fair prices I'd be their biggest supporter. But that's not the case. My love for OSS stems not from it being free but by the freedom it offers. Free of DRM if I choose not to run it. If I need more capacity, I just install it with no fear. Free of the worry of some MSFT-funded dirtbag organization like BSA coming in to audit my software.
And if feels really good not running Windows on the bulk of my machines. And it feels good helping companies get off the upgrade treadmill and the CAL-go-round.
There's one twitwad company somewhere, in one of the Carolinas I think, that will fire workers for smoking on their own time. They have to take a piss test for nicotine!
The owner of that company should be shipped off to a Russian Gulag for a few months for "re-education".
On the other hand if you're in uniform it does cast the issue in a little different light.
Still, we're turning into a nation of hall monitors.
On the space shuttle the foam insulation struck the exposed heat shield of the orbiter. With the new design, which I really like, the insulating foam is below the crew compartment. The heat shield for the "spam can" on top is safely protected by the cargo container skirt. The external tank can shed foam and there are no critical parts exposed to damage. Should something like an engine nozzle get damaged, the crew compartment can be separated with the escape launcher on top.
This design is more efficient, cheaper to build, a lot safer and can carry more cargo into orbit. Ballistic recovery may not be glamorous but it is time tested and reliable.
Wings on a space ship are what you get when pilots are in charge of the space program instead of engineers.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps, but it's in line with my experience. For me it's a bit simpler, just go through and count the trouble tickets. Systems hosted on Windows machines get twice as many complaints about outtages or down time than the sites running on a LAMP platform. If I'm going to get woken up in the middle of the night, it's almost always a Windows box.
Sure you can argue it's the application or the coding skill and it doesn't take into account the popularity and traffic of the application, but that would seem to even out across 30 or 40 apps.
At least across the companies I work with, the Windows servers need more attention. And they need to be rebooted more often, rebuilt from scratch more often and they will slow down over time. I'm not sure how you can label my observation wishful thinking. It is what it is. I run Linux at home and my personal web sites on LAMP servers because I don't have to dork with them as much.
I wonder when the last time Didiot actually had any hands on experience with server? Armchair quarterbacks aren't limited to Sunday afternoons.
We've spent the last thirty years not getting much farther than LEO and not able to do a whole lot when we're lucky enough to get there, then breath a massive sigh of relief when we get back down.
Not only that but we're trapped down here with a bunch of right wing pseudo-christian democracy jihadists spending all our research money for generations to come on war that can't be won trying to spread democracy in a part of the world that doesn't respect the institution. Yeah, great f'ing future we've got to look forward to from here.
Bringing ancient Martian organisms back to life is all fun and games until one of them jumps on someone's face and sucks their brains out.
Assuming I use 15 gallons a week now driving 52 miles round-trip to and from work, that's about $150.00 a month. I'd have to drive the same route for five years to break even. If gas prices went up another dollar a gallon, that cuts the payback to three and half years. If I lived in LA the math would be different.
And that's assuming the car doesn't need any other maintenance. New batteries, a clutch, transmission, or brakes.
I'm going to wait until next summer, let the hybrid technology improve a little more and get a Honda hybrid. Cash in on the subsidy and when the warranty expires toss a plug-in kit in there.
Assuming gas prices don't go down or keep trending up, over the lifetime of the car the payback will be worth it.
My ideal car would be a hybrid diesel. A plug-in package and grease car kit and you could tell the Saudis to cram their oil right up their hairy hind end.
Did anyone besides me originally read that as the global DeepShit Threat Management System?
I think I like it better that way.
Well, if we're going to start blaming librarians for the actions of patrons on public terminals, why stop there? Why not broaden out the blame and let librarians take the rap for everything that's bothering us:
The war in Iraq - The Bush administration isn't accepting any responsibility for going to war on falsified pre-war intelligence, so let's blame those damn librarians! After all, if they were stocking better intelligence in the reference section that never would've happened.
Gas Prices - Obviously libraries weren't stocking enough books on alternative power, the rise in demand from China or America's affection for gas swilling monster trucks.
The National Debt - The Republican controlled House and Senate are spending us into a hole that will take our children a generation to pay back. But why should we care? Just don't touch our social security benefits and stay hell off my lawn! I heard there were some librarian jobs opening up in Florida, so quit whining and get to work stocking some better accounting books.
Supporting Terrorism - All them terrorists read stuff, didn't they? And where did they get some of those books? The library! If those librarians would've been paying better attention to what their patrons were reading, we could have nabbed those extremist Muslims before they got off the ground. Besides, if they were stocking books on extermist Christianity like they should be we might have converted one or two.
Gay Marraige - Those damn libraries, open to everyone. No membership lists like any decent minority-excluding country club would have. Makes people that are different think they belong here. Next thing you know fags will want to have rights and get married! And it all started with those damn libraries!
Creationism in Schools - Those librarians again, stocking books with "science" and all that other crap. Filling our kid's heads with ideas with facts instead of telling it the way it is in the Bible.
Wow, it took a bunch of Jeb-backing righties in Florida to show us the error of our ways. The cause of all our problems has been right under our nose the entire time!
Today it's news when an organization switches to MSFT Office.
I doubt it adds up to much right now, but I see the day when places like iTunes are the music distribution channels of the very near future.
Once you open the door to proving negatives as accepted social policy, there's no real end in sight.
Land of the free, home of the piss test.
If you have your system set up right you go the store room and get a new desktop or laptop, plug it up, login and start working again. For the company users it doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.
Start moving your critical apps to web-based applications and migrating productivity software to OpenOffice. If there's some application that you just have to have in Windows, consider running a Windows machine as a kiosk instead of paying for a full Windows license on every desktop. That really does help ease the transition.
It's really not that hard but listen to the whiners come out of the woodwork. Sheez! Most people won't except equivelent functionality from Linux, it has to be better before they would consider switching.
Hey, Spitzer, when you're done reaming the music industry for payola, why not take a crack at textbook publishers? (Yes, the pun was intentional)
You are probably right but consider an historical example. In 1850 most homes were lit by whale oil lamps. As the supply of whales dwindled and the price of oil shot up it was only a matter of a few years before alternatives became more economical. Within a few years most homes had switched to smokeless kerosene and the market for whale oil tanked. The economic hammer fell on the whaling industry.
Oil is a little different but already gas prices are motivating a change in consumer car choices (try to buy a hybrid right now) and the auto industry is retooling as fast as they can shift production. That trend will accelerate as gas prices rise and we'll use less, the supplies will increase and the prices will sink again. Although this time the Chinese will likely soak up any extra capacity, so we may see permanently higher gas prices. SUV's didn't make a comeback until gas hit .90 cents a gallon a few years ago.
What should be a bigger concern is our dependence on foreign oil. But if you think that's going to be a priority for an oil family that's good buddies with the Saudi royal family, then you're kidding yourself. Imagine where we could be in alternate energy sources if we'd made that a national priority in the wake of 9-11.
With patents I think we're going to have to reach the wretched extreme before anything changes. Actually, I think we're already there. It doesn't get much more wretched than Epicrealm.
Well bo-f'ing-ho. Linux has done just fine in the face of thousands of buggers like him wanking out loud about what Linux has got to do. I've heard that same oral excrement for years. It's not "there" yet. Well, it's still gaining market share so the community must be doing something right. Just don't expect the community to respond to the same pressures and concerns that business does.
From the article:
As use of Linux and other open-source software spreads, the largest buyers of computing gear are demanding a new level of service, support and functions from the software.
So just sit back on your fat hind end and wait for other people to bring about the changes you want. Why not take some of those licensing $$$ you saved and hire a couple programmers to make some of those changes? Heavens, don't do anything constructive. Just sit back and make demands. Enjoy the benefits but PLEASE don't feel any obligation to give anything back or spare some of your precious time and corporate billions to help with improvements.
That's the great thing about Linux, if you don't like something you always have the option to hire someone to change it. In a MSFT environment if you don't like something all you can do is hope the next service pack or next version will fix it.
I guess I'm really tired of this attitude that Linux has to jump through this hoop or that one just to satisfy some corporate weenie. Quit making demands and start making improvements you risk-adverse whiners.
I see the same thing across my customer base. Private side is probably a little ahead of the gov clients in that regard but they're all moving the same general direction.
That's a good thing all around in my book. If the apps run in any browser, then the underlying OS is not significant.
I'm guessing MSFT will counter this trend by binding web applications to client specific API's. Oh, wait, they're already doing that. :) Though I'm not at all sure that will be an effective long term strategy. Some of my customers are getting concerned about vendor and client lock-in. They don't necessarily want to dump their Windoze desktops but they want options going forward.
I'm seeing suspicion and annoyance at MSFT being translated into development decisions. More on the private side than in government, but it's across the board.
But the Republican controlled Congress gave it to them.
It's time to stop apologizing for Republican misdeeds and failed policy. It's my party and it's time for an overhaul.
Yeah, sure. Youbetcha. You want a brandy sweet or a brandy sour with dat?
:)
The potential for abuse exists in either arena. Real progress won't happen until we stop trying to find an easy solution for security issues. Technology will only provide a false sense of security, we'll go back to sleep and be jarred awake by another 9-11 style attack.
In some ways the Israelis are way ahead of us in terms of their security paradigm. They're not dependent on gadget solutions. Certainly technology is part of the solution and can be a real help, but TSA's grand database ideas will never work right. RFID chips certainly won't do it, fingerprinting visitors is an insulting waste of effort and anything totally dependent on technology is doomed to failure.
As depressing as it sounds, it's people that have to be at the core of any security system. People at every level of the transportation process. Bag handlers, reservation clerks, fellow passengers, security screeners, gate crews, parking attendants...everyone. And when it comes to security in general, until we stop thinking about security as something that's up to the government or the cops, or the TSA we're never going to be any safer than we were before 9-11.
Or sold on eBay.
...until it comes with a MUTE button.
But what bugs the crap out of me is the way they've leaned on OEM's not to offer any other OS alternative. MSFT has tilted the playing field in their direction and they've done that with anti-competitive practices. They're a convicted monopoly who bought themselves out of that mess with their lobbying clout.
If MSFT was where they are because they make good products at fair prices I'd be their biggest supporter. But that's not the case. My love for OSS stems not from it being free but by the freedom it offers. Free of DRM if I choose not to run it. If I need more capacity, I just install it with no fear. Free of the worry of some MSFT-funded dirtbag organization like BSA coming in to audit my software.
And if feels really good not running Windows on the bulk of my machines. And it feels good helping companies get off the upgrade treadmill and the CAL-go-round.
I think that's one thing you could watch without getting a headache.
The owner of that company should be shipped off to a Russian Gulag for a few months for "re-education".
On the other hand if you're in uniform it does cast the issue in a little different light.
Still, we're turning into a nation of hall monitors.
Sucky mod. It was on topic and funny.
This design is more efficient, cheaper to build, a lot safer and can carry more cargo into orbit. Ballistic recovery may not be glamorous but it is time tested and reliable.
Wings on a space ship are what you get when pilots are in charge of the space program instead of engineers.