Some of the comments here remind me of a post on a woodworking board a few months back. Essentially, the poster was lamenting because he had to fire a guy because he couldn't afford to keep him... Not because of the economy, but because the guy was an absolutely inflexible perfectionist. He'd spend $300 worth of time on what should have been a $60 job... The guy was a hell of a woodworker, at home in his own shop, but just couldn't adapt to a production environment.
This isn't about Windows vs. Unix. This is about admins not understanding their job is to get production rolling again, not to satisfy their obsessive need to understand every problem or their need to satisfy their ego. ("I'm a UNIX admin dammit, I refuse to use habits that make me look like a Windows admin" or it's equivalent is a refrain modded up again and again here on Slashdot.) If a reboot or a re-imaging fixes the problem, that's the right solution. If it doesn't, *then* you dig deeper.
The trouble is that the job of "get production rolling again" is not really an System Administration problem. That job is as an "System Operator", from old 70s and 80s parlance. Many people who are labeled "Administrators" are administrators in name only, and in practice do not have the actual authority to actually make decisions which are a core part of being an administrator ("systems" or otherwise). The fact that most people with this title don't realize this, and demand the authority, makes it hard for them and for the rest of us.
What is really needed is faster *bus speeds*. So many CPUs just sit around waiting for data that sits across the bus. That's where the dramatic throughput improvements lie. Pretty please, DARPA?:)
Seriously, though, this sounds like something out of a really bad Hollywood B-Movie.
I didn't know you could do stuff like this in real life.
Well, most of American life these days is a really bad Hollywood B-Movie, unfortunately. One where civil liberties and the Constitution are tossed out like so much trash.
I went to 4 LinuxWorld Expos in San Francisco, where I live. I enjoyed the first two, primarily because of the conferences, and the camaraderie. Once I get through two years of the conferences, the following years' repeats of the same conference topics was uninteresting. After the large corporations started getting tons of floor space, it became even less interesting (seeing the Novell Sales Guys hype up SUSE to with absurd marketing-speak was disheartening). Now, with this statement, it becomes very clear that LinuxWorld isn't for people who like Linux for it's own sake, and I'm not sad I haven't gone for the last couple years. It's now just for people who like and admire money and large corporations, and see F/OSS and Linux as the way to get more cash. Not that that is so bad, but it isn't why I'm interested in Linux. Why not rename this conference "LinuxMoneyWorld"?
People are going back and forth about whether or not the GPLv3 will apply to Microsoft, but the real crux of the deal is that it won't matter if there is no one that both has the resources and the motivation to force Microsoft to comply.
How could it possibly stop Microsoft from doing anything they do as long as no one has the money or the reason to take them to court over it and see it through completion. IBM is the only company I can think of that would really have both, and Microsoft isn't stupid enough to violate any of IBM's licenses, nor is it strategically positive for IBM to place themselve directly against Microsoft right now either.
Otherwise, who are we really expecting to take Microsoft to court? Novell? The Free Software Foundation? Please... Microsoft has been stalling the sum total of *Europe* for almost half a decade, if you think Novell or the FSF is going to force Microsoft to comply witht eh GPL you're delusional. Introducing!... In the left corner... weighing in at 90 pounds, sporting a long scraggly beard, receding hairline, ponytail, awful breath and "hacker BO"...surrounded by idealistic and hungry lawyers...wearing the Gnu Shorts...
Part of me wonders if there's a "breaking point" -- a point where Chinese officials will start loving money so much that they actually won't kick out a company that decides to take a stand against them.
I don't think that will happen. I think the problem lies in that while many Chinese politicians like money, they also like raw power. Power can come from having money, yes, but power also comes from other sources, such as title, role, authority, family relations, etc. The trouble is that if Internet/Web-based companies keep portraying the problem as "we're just trying to do business", they conveniently leave out of the discussion some other alternatives where they still may profit but not collaborate in repression. Off the top of my head, here's some:
1. Don't put servers in China proper. Sell advertising to companies that wish to advertise in China. If you get blocked because you believe in fostering free speech (or at least believe in not squashing it), help Chinese users access your resources via other, alternative methods, or rely on others to help users in repressive countries gain uncensored access. 2. Acknowledge that, while the Chinese market is indeed huge and has great potential, there are other parts of the world that can be focused on for business development that can ALSO generate profit and don't put journalists in jail for doing their jobs (among other offenses).
The argument that getting the Chinese people access to more censored information will somehow make them more free seems specious, as does the argument that money will somehow magically make the Chinese Maoists/Communists give up their system of government. Saudi Arabia gets a big chunk of money from the Free West, but the Absolute Monarchy still persists. Where exactly would the pressure come from that would make the Chinese government see the error of its ways if Western companies just say they'll do whatever they require to get access to their economy, including turning over e-mail, IPs and passwords at the governments request?
While I don't believe that companies should directly get involved in other countries internal affairs in general, I certainly don't think that they should HELP repressive governments support their repressive policies.
Only one problem with your idea of how local companies will just rise on the local totem pole and replace these search service providers with local talent. The problem is that what the customers/surfers are often looking for in Google/Y!/MSN is often exactly that which the local providers CANNOT provide. That is uncensored content. Granted, not everyone in the PRC logs on to their computer and searches for the dead bodies on Tiannamen Square, but they want what we got with Google: find what we are looking for, and not have obvious manipulation of the search returns. So, yes, there are local search engines in repressive countries, but they are hobbled by the censorship which their Western brethren are not (in the main) subject to.
If you do this for fun then quit trying to foist it on everyone else. Quit trying to trick governments into developing and supporting OSS. Quit bitching about Microsoft. You guys got the commercial world interested now you have to live with the consequences.
OK, ignoring the lack of precision of saying "you" and "you guys" with no defined target, I have to ask: Who, exactly, is "foisting" OSS on you? If someone comes up to you on the street and says "I just LOOOOVE this candy. I really, really do. You should eat it. Here, have some!" you are as free to just walk away. Just why is the "commerical world" interested (leaving aside that many people worked to make F/OSS what it is by keeping a day job and working on code and docs at home on *their own time*)? Maybe because it is a new commodity to be exploited, akin to coal or corn They are interested because the model works for whatever problem they are looking to solve. And, they can extend F/OSS to make it work better for their specific task, without having to go outside their organization to make their changes. But, like any tool, it only works well where it was designed to work.
I just don't get what people mean when people say stuff like this. If you think it is wrong for your government to use F/OSS, or you think that it is the wrong tool for the job, then call up your government representative and say so. If your boss is making you use F/OSS when you don't want to, either make a case for not doing so, or find another job (their are plenty of jobs that won't present this problem to you).
Trouble is, even shops that think they are using only "proprietary" software often are not. Like that HP Server over there and its included CDs with Microsoft Windows Server 2003? Yeah, take a closer look. It probably is running the installer.... under Red Hat Linux and the Anaconda installation tool.;)
Of course, you don't need FF 2.0 to do that. Anyone who has been using Tab Mix Plus has had these features (and a few more) for a while now. And there's a bunch more extensions that fly in the same flock, just search Firefox Add Ons and live it up, without upgrading.
Still, by concentrating on technological issues, the EFF calls attention away from the fact that the rights being fought over in court today concern not just internet wiretapping and music downloads, but are in fact a facet of the overall struggle for more basic rights like the right to free speech and the right to privacy.
So, join both the ACLU and the EFF. Problem solved. As far as your Internationlist Revolutionary approach, well, let's just say that I care more about shoring up and restoring the rights that are under threat in my own country *right now*, rather than sinking more cash into causes that may or may not benefit others elsewhere. The EFF, ACLU and the Center for Democracy and Technology are just the ticket for me right now.
As long as the ignorant masses stay complacent and docile, and as long as consumers obsesquiently gobble up DRM-laced products, there is no chance that free software will win.
I sympathize with you, but does Free Software have to win, or just merely have and maintain a strong niche to be successful? If one thinks about it that way, perhaps it has already "won". Just having a strong Free Sofware movement around is enough to influence purveyors of other software ecosystems to look over their shoulders to see what is happening in Free Software, and offers influence on every other approach. Right now, I personally can have an environment where I can minimize the use of proprietary softwares to a small component of my personal life. That doesn't count work, or when I pick up the phone, or use the electrical grid, etc., but it is a start.
On some points, you are probably correct, but on the last one, on "Spinhome", what's the big deal? It's not like he says that the money is going to support the network and then turns around and spends it on his land yacht. That site makes it pretty clear what the money will go towards.
And, do you think that Freenode would run as well as it does (today excepted) without some guy "who sits there all day running it"? Oh, people don't deserve money, but, yesyesyes buymoreservers/bandwidth? He's being paid for the service he provides. And so far, that's been a decent service.
Wow, he recieves thousands in donations yearly. Literally *thousands*. Why, he could be... a Thousandaire! What a mogul.
I had Bank of America. Then I switched to a credit union in 1997. No more weird fees, no more impersonal service, no more problems with getting a car loan due to old roommate credit "issues". Decent interest rates, and a warm sense of "belonging", and a knowledge that my money isn't being used to prop up a for-profit enterprise, just a non-profit one, that offers a tangible benefit to my community and fellow workers.
Yes, we have web-based banking (not AJAXed or fancy, but does the trick), automatic bill pay (though I don't use it), direct deposit, wire transfers. Yeah, I do hate the lack of just *tons* of ATMs, but the CU ATM Network isn't so bad, if you plan ahead a bit before traveling.
Forget Mega-Corporate banking. Join your community. Join your local Credit Union. (No, I don't work for a Credit Union;) ).
And I think it's preposterous to ask them to hew to some sort of Holier-Than-Thou philosophy while the rest of the world rushes to do business with China.
Only if they didn't state that they were going to hold themselves to a "holier-than-thou" philosophy, rather than waiting for someone else to ask them to... It would have been different if they never said "Don't be Evil", and happily did the greed thing like many other profit-chasing businesses, unencumbered by high morals. But, they said it, they made the edict, they enticed new employees with this philosophy, and so now we get to call them on their hypocrisy.
I'm a Yahoo Mail/Web Hosting user, and I've been seriously thinking of jumping to http://fastmail.fm// just because of the moral problems of the people who run these large corporations, throwing morals out with the Articles of Incorporation. At least Fastmail.fm is still small enough to not want to make these kinds of deals, swapping freedom for economic gains.
I don't mean to nitpick, but when you say you are "more balanced" because you are married and have a kid, you seem to imply that someone without a kid and not married is somehow "imbalanced". I'm sure you didn't mean it that way, but that statement can be easily misconstrued. Plenty of people are lacking "balance" that are married and have kids, just as single people without kids are as well.
Based on my experience, I'd say forget management as your end goal. Focus instead on your people skills. Realize how much just saying things like "Thank you" and "I don't know, but I'll find out." can make you hyper-valuable to many organizations. The myth of the anti-social IT guy is all too true in many cases. My focus on Liberal Arts in college did me well to be able to understand people's motivations, "read between the lines" on political issues, and forge consensus among people to clear the way for my work.
Yeah, then organizations may try to Peter Principle you into Management, but is that really why you were interested in IT to begin with? To be a manager? For some, yes, but for those who's intense, and fun, hobby became a career, I'd think that, in many cases, the answer is a big "No!"
Slashdot Mirror
Some of the comments here remind me of a post on a woodworking board a few months back. Essentially, the poster was lamenting because he had to fire a guy because he couldn't afford to keep him... Not because of the economy, but because the guy was an absolutely inflexible perfectionist. He'd spend $300 worth of time on what should have been a $60 job... The guy was a hell of a woodworker, at home in his own shop, but just couldn't adapt to a production environment.
This isn't about Windows vs. Unix. This is about admins not understanding their job is to get production rolling again, not to satisfy their obsessive need to understand every problem or their need to satisfy their ego. ("I'm a UNIX admin dammit, I refuse to use habits that make me look like a Windows admin" or it's equivalent is a refrain modded up again and again here on Slashdot.) If a reboot or a re-imaging fixes the problem, that's the right solution. If it doesn't, *then* you dig deeper.
The trouble is that the job of "get production rolling again" is not really an System Administration problem. That job is as an "System Operator", from old 70s and 80s parlance. Many people who are labeled "Administrators" are administrators in name only, and in practice do not have the actual authority to actually make decisions which are a core part of being an administrator ("systems" or otherwise). The fact that most people with this title don't realize this, and demand the authority, makes it hard for them and for the rest of us.
What is really needed is faster *bus speeds*. So many CPUs just sit around waiting for data that sits across the bus. That's where the dramatic throughput improvements lie. Pretty please, DARPA? :)
So, THIS is where the data centers in 2150 will be.... Will Amazon be selling "Moon Computing" then? :)
Well, most of American life these days is a really bad Hollywood B-Movie, unfortunately. One where civil liberties and the Constitution are tossed out like so much trash.
I went to 4 LinuxWorld Expos in San Francisco, where I live. I enjoyed the first two, primarily because of the conferences, and the camaraderie. Once I get through two years of the conferences, the following years' repeats of the same conference topics was uninteresting. After the large corporations started getting tons of floor space, it became even less interesting (seeing the Novell Sales Guys hype up SUSE to with absurd marketing-speak was disheartening). Now, with this statement, it becomes very clear that LinuxWorld isn't for people who like Linux for it's own sake, and I'm not sad I haven't gone for the last couple years. It's now just for people who like and admire money and large corporations, and see F/OSS and Linux as the way to get more cash. Not that that is so bad, but it isn't why I'm interested in Linux. Why not rename this conference "LinuxMoneyWorld"?
How could it possibly stop Microsoft from doing anything they do as long as no one has the money or the reason to take them to court over it and see it through completion. IBM is the only company I can think of that would really have both, and Microsoft isn't stupid enough to violate any of IBM's licenses, nor is it strategically positive for IBM to place themselve directly against Microsoft right now either.
Otherwise, who are we really expecting to take Microsoft to court? Novell? The Free Software Foundation? Please... Microsoft has been stalling the sum total of *Europe* for almost half a decade, if you think Novell or the FSF is going to force Microsoft to comply witht eh GPL you're delusional. Introducing!... In the left corner... weighing in at 90 pounds, sporting a long scraggly beard, receding hairline, ponytail, awful breath and "hacker BO"...surrounded by idealistic and hungry lawyers...wearing the Gnu Shorts...
Operators are standing by to take your on-line donation.
I don't think that will happen. I think the problem lies in that while many Chinese politicians like money, they also like raw power. Power can come from having money, yes, but power also comes from other sources, such as title, role, authority, family relations, etc. The trouble is that if Internet/Web-based companies keep portraying the problem as "we're just trying to do business", they conveniently leave out of the discussion some other alternatives where they still may profit but not collaborate in repression. Off the top of my head, here's some:
1. Don't put servers in China proper. Sell advertising to companies that wish to advertise in China. If you get blocked because you believe in fostering free speech (or at least believe in not squashing it), help Chinese users access your resources via other, alternative methods, or rely on others to help users in repressive countries gain uncensored access.
2. Acknowledge that, while the Chinese market is indeed huge and has great potential, there are other parts of the world that can be focused on for business development that can ALSO generate profit and don't put journalists in jail for doing their jobs (among other offenses).
The argument that getting the Chinese people access to more censored information will somehow make them more free seems specious, as does the argument that money will somehow magically make the Chinese Maoists/Communists give up their system of government. Saudi Arabia gets a big chunk of money from the Free West, but the Absolute Monarchy still persists. Where exactly would the pressure come from that would make the Chinese government see the error of its ways if Western companies just say they'll do whatever they require to get access to their economy, including turning over e-mail, IPs and passwords at the governments request?
While I don't believe that companies should directly get involved in other countries internal affairs in general, I certainly don't think that they should HELP repressive governments support their repressive policies.
I can't find out what version of Drupal the authors based this book on. Anyone know?
So, Rackspace offers "Fanatical Support". Does Google now offer "Frantic Support"?
:)
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Only one problem with your idea of how local companies will just rise on the local totem pole and replace these search service providers with local talent. The problem is that what the customers/surfers are often looking for in Google/Y!/MSN is often exactly that which the local providers CANNOT provide. That is uncensored content. Granted, not everyone in the PRC logs on to their computer and searches for the dead bodies on Tiannamen Square, but they want what we got with Google: find what we are looking for, and not have obvious manipulation of the search returns. So, yes, there are local search engines in repressive countries, but they are hobbled by the censorship which their Western brethren are not (in the main) subject to.
OK, ignoring the lack of precision of saying "you" and "you guys" with no defined target, I have to ask: Who, exactly, is "foisting" OSS on you? If someone comes up to you on the street and says "I just LOOOOVE this candy. I really, really do. You should eat it. Here, have some!" you are as free to just walk away. Just why is the "commerical world" interested (leaving aside that many people worked to make F/OSS what it is by keeping a day job and working on code and docs at home on *their own time*)? Maybe because it is a new commodity to be exploited, akin to coal or corn They are interested because the model works for whatever problem they are looking to solve. And, they can extend F/OSS to make it work better for their specific task, without having to go outside their organization to make their changes. But, like any tool, it only works well where it was designed to work.
I just don't get what people mean when people say stuff like this. If you think it is wrong for your government to use F/OSS, or you think that it is the wrong tool for the job, then call up your government representative and say so. If your boss is making you use F/OSS when you don't want to, either make a case for not doing so, or find another job (their are plenty of jobs that won't present this problem to you).
Trouble is, even shops that think they are using only "proprietary" software often are not. Like that HP Server over there and its included CDs with Microsoft Windows Server 2003? Yeah, take a closer look. It probably is running the installer.... under Red Hat Linux and the Anaconda installation tool.
Of course, you don't need FF 2.0 to do that. Anyone who has been using Tab Mix Plus has had these features (and a few more) for a while now. And there's a bunch more extensions that fly in the same flock, just search Firefox Add Ons and live it up, without upgrading.
Wait, I think I have a solution for your problem:
Log in.
I do. It's fun!(tm)
So, join both the ACLU and the EFF. Problem solved. As far as your Internationlist Revolutionary approach, well, let's just say that I care more about shoring up and restoring the rights that are under threat in my own country *right now*, rather than sinking more cash into causes that may or may not benefit others elsewhere. The EFF, ACLU and the Center for Democracy and Technology are just the ticket for me right now.
Yeah. And NBC has no editorial control at MSNBC, either, right?
Hope you were just being sarcastic, but the Mods aren't seeing the irony, it appears (Score: 3 Informative)...
I sympathize with you, but does Free Software have to win, or just merely have and maintain a strong niche to be successful? If one thinks about it that way, perhaps it has already "won". Just having a strong Free Sofware movement around is enough to influence purveyors of other software ecosystems to look over their shoulders to see what is happening in Free Software, and offers influence on every other approach. Right now, I personally can have an environment where I can minimize the use of proprietary softwares to a small component of my personal life. That doesn't count work, or when I pick up the phone, or use the electrical grid, etc., but it is a start.
On some points, you are probably correct, but on the last one, on "Spinhome", what's the big deal? It's not like he says that the money is going to support the network and then turns around and spends it on his land yacht. That site makes it pretty clear what the money will go towards.
And, do you think that Freenode would run as well as it does (today excepted) without some guy "who sits there all day running it"? Oh, people don't deserve money, but, yesyesyes buymoreservers/bandwidth? He's being paid for the service he provides. And so far, that's been a decent service.
Wow, he recieves thousands in donations yearly. Literally *thousands*. Why, he could be... a Thousandaire! What a mogul.
I had Bank of America. Then I switched to a credit union in 1997. No more weird fees, no more impersonal service, no more problems with getting a car loan due to old roommate credit "issues". Decent interest rates, and a warm sense of "belonging", and a knowledge that my money isn't being used to prop up a for-profit enterprise, just a non-profit one, that offers a tangible benefit to my community and fellow workers.
;) ).
Yes, we have web-based banking (not AJAXed or fancy, but does the trick), automatic bill pay (though I don't use it), direct deposit, wire transfers. Yeah, I do hate the lack of just *tons* of ATMs, but the CU ATM Network isn't so bad, if you plan ahead a bit before traveling.
Forget Mega-Corporate banking. Join your community. Join your local Credit Union. (No, I don't work for a Credit Union
Only if they didn't state that they were going to hold themselves to a "holier-than-thou" philosophy, rather than waiting for someone else to ask them to... It would have been different if they never said "Don't be Evil", and happily did the greed thing like many other profit-chasing businesses, unencumbered by high morals. But, they said it, they made the edict, they enticed new employees with this philosophy, and so now we get to call them on their hypocrisy.
Then go home.
Um, because MythTV does? And we don't want anything to damage the relationship with TMS/Zap2It?
Awesome video. Really shows how little innovation Microsoft offers in the UI department.
I'm a Yahoo Mail/Web Hosting user, and I've been seriously thinking of jumping to http://fastmail.fm// just because of the moral problems of the people who run these large corporations, throwing morals out with the Articles of Incorporation. At least Fastmail.fm is still small enough to not want to make these kinds of deals, swapping freedom for economic gains.
Bruce,
I don't mean to nitpick, but when you say you are "more balanced" because you are married and have a kid, you seem to imply that someone without a kid and not married is somehow "imbalanced". I'm sure you didn't mean it that way, but that statement can be easily misconstrued. Plenty of people are lacking "balance" that are married and have kids, just as single people without kids are as well.
Based on my experience, I'd say forget management as your end goal. Focus instead on your people skills. Realize how much just saying things like "Thank you" and "I don't know, but I'll find out." can make you hyper-valuable to many organizations. The myth of the anti-social IT guy is all too true in many cases. My focus on Liberal Arts in college did me well to be able to understand people's motivations, "read between the lines" on political issues, and forge consensus among people to clear the way for my work.
Yeah, then organizations may try to Peter Principle you into Management, but is that really why you were interested in IT to begin with? To be a manager? For some, yes, but for those who's intense, and fun, hobby became a career, I'd think that, in many cases, the answer is a big "No!"