Add to that - I have experienced the courtesy from Air France to be offered the service of a hotel with ants on the table and rooms looking like they were rented by the hour.
Just because they failed on calculating the transit time.
On one hand it may be good that the EU put on the brakes on this since it may make other companies think twice before attempting to buy companies where there may be similar problems.
On the other hand this creates a limbo for the involved companies where they aren't completely married, but neither divorced either.
I think that a lot hangs on the MySQL part where there are groups worrying about the continued life of that database in the hands of Oracle. And they may have a point there.
And pray to some deity that you don't have to be involved with Air France.
That can make most other airlines seem friendly.
But don't worry too much - it's the UK, not a third world country you are going too. Just bring a warm pajamas since not all hotels are up to winter standard. And expect the faucets in the sinks to be single faucets and only provide warm or cold water, not mixed temperate water.
There are a lot of things that are a bit funny in England aside from the fact that they drive on the wrong side. But that's just making things more interesting.
Don't worry about the food - it's far better than the rumor has it.
Places to visit depends on where you go, but if you go south you can visit Winchester (old capital of England) and the Eling Tidal Mill (place suitable for geeks) outside Southampton.
The big problem here is that you may not have any choice when buying a computer. It may already come preinstalled with a kiloton of junk that I don't need.
You may say - select a different model - but then I don't get the model with the functionality/hardware I want/need.
And then - a depression is far more complex than the surface a person has.
Even a deeply depressed person isn't always showing that they have a depression. They can look happy on the outside but have a dark soul on the inside that makes Darth Vader look like a schoolboy.
Any server that can offer a RAID disk solution would be fine. Blade servers seems to be an overkill for most solutions - and they are expensive.
And then run DFS (Distributed File System) or similar to have replication between sites for the data. This will make things easier. And if you have a well working replication you can have the backup system located at the head office and don't have to worry about running around swapping tapes at the local branch offices.
Some companies tends to centralize email around a central mail server. This has it's pros and cons. The disadvantage is that if the head office goes down everyone is without email service. But the configuration can be more complicated if each branch office has it's own.
It's also hard to tell how to best stitch together a solution for a specific case without knowing how the company in question works. There is no golden solution that works for all companies.
The general idea is however that DNS and DHCP shall be local. If they aren't then the local office will be dead as a dodo as soon as there is a glitch in the net. Anyone not providing local DNS and DHCP should be brought out of the organization as soon as possible. And DNS and DHCP doesn't require much maintenance either, so they won't put much workload on the system administration.
There are companies (big ones) that run central DHCP and DNS, but glitches can cause all kind of trouble - like providing the same IP address to a machine in Holland and in Sweden simultaneously (yes - it has happened in reality, no joke) - and the work required to figure out what's wrong when multiple sites are involved in an IP address conflict can cost a lot. And if you run Windows you should have roaming profiles configured and a local server on each site where the profiles are stored.
Local WWW and FTP servers - can work, but watch out too since you have to check out if it's for internal or external use. Do you really need a local WWW and FTP server for each site? I would say - no. And those servers should be on a DMZ. It can of course be one server servicing both WWW and FTP. The big issue with especially FTP servers if they are for dedicated external users is the maintenance of the accounts on those servers. Obsolete FTP server accounts are a security risk.
And if you run Windows I would really suggest that you do set up WDS (Windows Deployment Server). This will allow your PC clients to do a network boot and reinstall them from an image. Saves a lot of time and headache.
And today many users have laptop computers, so hard disk encryption should be considered to limit the risk of having business critical data going into the wrong hands. Truecrypt is one alternative that I have found that works really well. But don't run it on the servers.
This will make it a lot harder to decide the selection for each individual voter since the image will be different for each voter.
So - yes you may be able to recognize that a voted did make a selection but you won't know what the selection really was unless you have some very expensive equipment.
And as a voter I wouldn't be too worried about that kind of eavesdropping. Who besides the authorities would really be interested in the vote of an individual person bad enough to use the Van Eck phreaking method to see which option that was selected? There are easier methods - like hidden cameras.
And also - the Van Eck phreaking method won't impact the actual vote, so you can't change the outcome of the election using that.
I don't think that Science Fiction has run out of steam completely, but some authors aren't hanging the carrot far enough ahead of the mule so to say, which means that what they "predict" may already have happened.
If you go back to the grand old writers like Asimov, Heinlein and Dickson you will find that they play less on the science than on the social effects on the science as well as they are pushing ideas rather than technology. Sure they use technology to pave the way for a story, so in that way they are writing Science Fiction.
And don't forget that science is progressing - in leaps. And sometimes the technology is already there before it is known that it is there. It did take a while before the SR-71 and U2 were known to the public. Sometimes it's because it's used for covert ops, sometimes it's because the inventor isn't ready and sometimes its because others are jealous and don't want to allow that discovery/technology to be the right way. (Think of the continental drift theory)
But another factor that also causes Science Fiction to go over the edge is all those extreme special effects that Hollywood are pouring into the movies without consideration for the general story. Some Science Fiction movies/shows seems to be more of a special effects masturbation than support for the story. Just compare the Episode IV-VI of Star Wars with Episode I-III of Star Wars. In a way the special effects in the earlier movies weren't overwhelming us with "awesomeness" but kept on the level of necessity.
Another example of a well carried out story is Babylon 5 (R.I.P. Richard Biggs) where the special effects are a bit crude, but they weren't taking over the show. Even the old Star Trek had special effects, but some of them were a bit too crude to keep up to par with the expectation of realism. But the stories weren't bad, which is why we actually can enjoy the old classic episodes even today. So my advise to whoever is writing - don't play so much with the special effect, use various subplots and have things happen in the background. You never know when a subpart may come in handy. And if you are working with actors and write as the show goes on you may have great use for a subplot if one of your main actors suddenly is unavailable. Of course, you don't have to worry about missing actors when you write a book.
Too many Science Fiction stories of today are also focused heavily on action and less on the afterthought part. It's a bit too much about good person v.s. evil person and less about the inner conflict or different perspective. Just keep in mind the Heinlein quote: "Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind, it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate--and quickly."
Anyway - there are authors of today that are keeping Science Fiction vital; Jack McDevitt, Mike Resnik, Sarah Zettel, Eric Brown, Ann Aguirre, Iain M. Banks...
And there are writers that are writing Science Fiction, but that isn't playing that much with general ideas - like David Weber, Elisabeth Moon, David Drake...
The main thing here isn't really the individual story, but some stories is just a story and doesn't contain a deeper core of an idea aside from the story idea which ends when the book ends. The point is to get a core idea in a story which allow us to see, feel and visualize when the book / show has ended and we want to see more - and know that we ourselves may be a part of that "more". The idea can be a question "Are we alone - and what can we do to see if we are or not?" And questions like this can awake seekers that catches on to an idea and plays with it. If they play hard enough they may actually end up with an awesome result.
You can still predict that some tech is primitive.
When a computer develops a mind of it's own in a logical manner it's starting to reach the human level and we can start to discuss if it's primitive or not. If it starts to reproduce on it's own it's time to be careful.
Some mathematic formulas appears simple by themselves, but do the work that did result into the formula E=mc2 and you will realize that it takes some work to end up there.
But comments for their own sake - no, that's not necessary.
As for grammatical errors - it also depends on the native language of the programmer. Some coders does write good code, but their skill in English sucks big time - sometimes it would have been better if they hadn't written the comment at all.
Slashdot Mirror
42.
That sounds VERY familiar!
Add to that - I have experienced the courtesy from Air France to be offered the service of a hotel with ants on the table and rooms looking like they were rented by the hour.
Just because they failed on calculating the transit time.
I run a similar setup, using Fedora instead of Gentoo, and ends up using about 20W on that machine.
Old PIII machines are often relatively cheap to run. And mine doesn't even have a CPU fan which helps a lot from the noise perspective.
For a more modern setup I would think that a VIA motherboard or an Atom-equipped motherboard would be the thing to use.
At least a vacuum cleaner that dies won't kill anybody.
On one hand it may be good that the EU put on the brakes on this since it may make other companies think twice before attempting to buy companies where there may be similar problems.
On the other hand this creates a limbo for the involved companies where they aren't completely married, but neither divorced either.
I think that a lot hangs on the MySQL part where there are groups worrying about the continued life of that database in the hands of Oracle. And they may have a point there.
Luggage is only lost at Terminal 5 at Heathrow.
And pray to some deity that you don't have to be involved with Air France.
That can make most other airlines seem friendly.
But don't worry too much - it's the UK, not a third world country you are going too. Just bring a warm pajamas since not all hotels are up to winter standard. And expect the faucets in the sinks to be single faucets and only provide warm or cold water, not mixed temperate water.
There are a lot of things that are a bit funny in England aside from the fact that they drive on the wrong side. But that's just making things more interesting.
Don't worry about the food - it's far better than the rumor has it.
Places to visit depends on where you go, but if you go south you can visit Winchester (old capital of England) and the Eling Tidal Mill (place suitable for geeks) outside Southampton.
Won't work for laptops.
And depending on where you live you may not be able to get any other option on a laptop than windows.
The big problem here is that you may not have any choice when buying a computer. It may already come preinstalled with a kiloton of junk that I don't need.
You may say - select a different model - but then I don't get the model with the functionality/hardware I want/need.
And then - a depression is far more complex than the surface a person has.
Even a deeply depressed person isn't always showing that they have a depression. They can look happy on the outside but have a dark soul on the inside that makes Darth Vader look like a schoolboy.
Any server that can offer a RAID disk solution would be fine. Blade servers seems to be an overkill for most solutions - and they are expensive.
And then run DFS (Distributed File System) or similar to have replication between sites for the data. This will make things easier. And if you have a well working replication you can have the backup system located at the head office and don't have to worry about running around swapping tapes at the local branch offices.
Some companies tends to centralize email around a central mail server. This has it's pros and cons. The disadvantage is that if the head office goes down everyone is without email service. But the configuration can be more complicated if each branch office has it's own.
It's also hard to tell how to best stitch together a solution for a specific case without knowing how the company in question works. There is no golden solution that works for all companies.
The general idea is however that DNS and DHCP shall be local. If they aren't then the local office will be dead as a dodo as soon as there is a glitch in the net. Anyone not providing local DNS and DHCP should be brought out of the organization as soon as possible. And DNS and DHCP doesn't require much maintenance either, so they won't put much workload on the system administration.
There are companies (big ones) that run central DHCP and DNS, but glitches can cause all kind of trouble - like providing the same IP address to a machine in Holland and in Sweden simultaneously (yes - it has happened in reality, no joke) - and the work required to figure out what's wrong when multiple sites are involved in an IP address conflict can cost a lot. And if you run Windows you should have roaming profiles configured and a local server on each site where the profiles are stored.
Local WWW and FTP servers - can work, but watch out too since you have to check out if it's for internal or external use. Do you really need a local WWW and FTP server for each site? I would say - no. And those servers should be on a DMZ. It can of course be one server servicing both WWW and FTP. The big issue with especially FTP servers if they are for dedicated external users is the maintenance of the accounts on those servers. Obsolete FTP server accounts are a security risk.
And if you run Windows I would really suggest that you do set up WDS (Windows Deployment Server). This will allow your PC clients to do a network boot and reinstall them from an image. Saves a lot of time and headache.
And today many users have laptop computers, so hard disk encryption should be considered to limit the risk of having business critical data going into the wrong hands. Truecrypt is one alternative that I have found that works really well. But don't run it on the servers.
Randomize the image for each voting.
This will make it a lot harder to decide the selection for each individual voter since the image will be different for each voter.
So - yes you may be able to recognize that a voted did make a selection but you won't know what the selection really was unless you have some very expensive equipment.
And as a voter I wouldn't be too worried about that kind of eavesdropping. Who besides the authorities would really be interested in the vote of an individual person bad enough to use the Van Eck phreaking method to see which option that was selected? There are easier methods - like hidden cameras.
And also - the Van Eck phreaking method won't impact the actual vote, so you can't change the outcome of the election using that.
And why was this modded down?
It's known that smoking is unhealthy, and given the option I would really like to put an end to that kind of contamination smoking provides.
So +1 for Apple from me on this.
I don't think that Science Fiction has run out of steam completely, but some authors aren't hanging the carrot far enough ahead of the mule so to say, which means that what they "predict" may already have happened.
If you go back to the grand old writers like Asimov, Heinlein and Dickson you will find that they play less on the science than on the social effects on the science as well as they are pushing ideas rather than technology. Sure they use technology to pave the way for a story, so in that way they are writing Science Fiction.
And don't forget that science is progressing - in leaps. And sometimes the technology is already there before it is known that it is there. It did take a while before the SR-71 and U2 were known to the public. Sometimes it's because it's used for covert ops, sometimes it's because the inventor isn't ready and sometimes its because others are jealous and don't want to allow that discovery/technology to be the right way. (Think of the continental drift theory)
But another factor that also causes Science Fiction to go over the edge is all those extreme special effects that Hollywood are pouring into the movies without consideration for the general story. Some Science Fiction movies/shows seems to be more of a special effects masturbation than support for the story. Just compare the Episode IV-VI of Star Wars with Episode I-III of Star Wars. In a way the special effects in the earlier movies weren't overwhelming us with "awesomeness" but kept on the level of necessity.
Another example of a well carried out story is Babylon 5 (R.I.P. Richard Biggs) where the special effects are a bit crude, but they weren't taking over the show. Even the old Star Trek had special effects, but some of them were a bit too crude to keep up to par with the expectation of realism. But the stories weren't bad, which is why we actually can enjoy the old classic episodes even today. So my advise to whoever is writing - don't play so much with the special effect, use various subplots and have things happen in the background. You never know when a subpart may come in handy. And if you are working with actors and write as the show goes on you may have great use for a subplot if one of your main actors suddenly is unavailable. Of course, you don't have to worry about missing actors when you write a book.
Too many Science Fiction stories of today are also focused heavily on action and less on the afterthought part. It's a bit too much about good person v.s. evil person and less about the inner conflict or different perspective. Just keep in mind the Heinlein quote: "Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind, it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate--and quickly."
Anyway - there are authors of today that are keeping Science Fiction vital; Jack McDevitt, Mike Resnik, Sarah Zettel, Eric Brown, Ann Aguirre, Iain M. Banks...
And there are writers that are writing Science Fiction, but that isn't playing that much with general ideas - like David Weber, Elisabeth Moon, David Drake...
The main thing here isn't really the individual story, but some stories is just a story and doesn't contain a deeper core of an idea aside from the story idea which ends when the book ends. The point is to get a core idea in a story which allow us to see, feel and visualize when the book / show has ended and we want to see more - and know that we ourselves may be a part of that "more". The idea can be a question "Are we alone - and what can we do to see if we are or not?" And questions like this can awake seekers that catches on to an idea and plays with it. If they play hard enough they may actually end up with an awesome result.
Just wait until they figure out that raising the energy tax is the way to go.
Especially since Bing are mostly known for small engine carburetors.
Then it's just the black list left for those devices.
You can still predict that some tech is primitive.
When a computer develops a mind of it's own in a logical manner it's starting to reach the human level and we can start to discuss if it's primitive or not. If it starts to reproduce on it's own it's time to be careful.
If you are one of the top 1000 sites you have probably already paid Google for that position.
And it will take one fat bribe to cover for the lost revenue you will get when you have left Google.
Some mathematic formulas appears simple by themselves, but do the work that did result into the formula E=mc2 and you will realize that it takes some work to end up there.
But comments for their own sake - no, that's not necessary.
As for grammatical errors - it also depends on the native language of the programmer. Some coders does write good code, but their skill in English sucks big time - sometimes it would have been better if they hadn't written the comment at all.
Any device containing such technology is going to get on a black or hack list very fast.
I'm annoyed enough by all the splash screens thrown in the face every time I start a program.
That this doesn't break up any debris into more parts - or cause the "net" to break and provide additional pieces of junk circling the earth.
If you look at the market in general and don't focus on single products the perspective is different.
The number of products through history that haven't made it far outweighs the number of products that have survived.
And this isn't limited to applications, look at cars and a lot of other items.
From a linguistic point of view it is latin america, but you may see latin america as central america.
Obviously this puts a lot of software produced in the US to shame.
Today it seems like it's all about selling something crappy for money in the US with an EULA where you free yourself of all responsibility.
And when someone points out the flaws the lawyers are called in to hide the fact that there is a gap that can put Grand Canyon to shame.
No wonder that the world has suffered so much malicious software.
Sure - call me a troll, but it's also an observation. Time to market is more important than quality.
Some laws are more stupid than other laws too.
But it's really stupid to actually pull off a thing like this since it will just cause them to be permanently remembered.