Before I start, I don't work for any vendor, and I like and use linux. I also currently, and in the past, have had to look after several other operating systems.
Application support
If it doesn't run what you want, you can't use it. Companies don't like having lots of different platforms. They need to multi-skill staff, have to deal with different vendors, and they have to deal with interoperability. If the product they like runs on a platform they already have, and on linux (which they don't) they will need a very good reason to choose linux.
HA Clustering
Its been a while since I looked at high availability clustering under linux, but when I last looked about a year ago, it just wasn't there. There were some tools you could use to roll your own, but nothing that inspired trust. If your are going to a HA cluster you don't want to be trusting you own scripts to do anythign fancy, you may as well just buy a simple load ballancer. BTW when I talk about a High Availability cluster, I want a to be able to hit the power button on one server, and not receive ANY user complaints.
Error handeling
When linux runs it runs well, but when it dies it isn't so nice. Little things like automatically re-building a failed Software Raid set. Linux still locks up occasionaly, I havn't had that happen on a Major brand unix. I know there is a patch to include crash dumps in linux, but who is there to look at one. If you have support with a major brand of unix, and it crashes, they want to know why. This sort of attention inspires confidence, which leads me to...
Confidence
Don't get me wrong, I like linux. I can get it to work, and if it breaks I can (usually) fix it. Its a very usefull tool, and what it does it does fast and well. The very nature of its development means that it gets all the features that its target audience wants quickly. But if I'm asked to implement a system that will run for several years without downtime, I'm not going to be using software that was only written 6 months ago.
Due to a reprogramming hiccup, the main system and its backup went down immediately after being switched on
I presume they made a change to both systems, or more likely, the backup system was also connected to the military system and also choked on the data is was being fed.
Wouldnt it be advantageous to the UN to clean up a majority of the stuff (manmade) in space to prevent further problems such as the speculated involvement in the recent Columbia crash?
Off the top of my head there are only a handfull of space programs worthy of the name, US, Russia, China, Japan and the EU. I think most of the members of the UN have other things on their mind, like starvation, AIDS, war, terrorism, and general economics. I'm sure that space junk isn't high on the priority list.
Disclamer, I am Australian by birth, and living in Australia.
One point at a time.
For instance, while riding a bus or train in sydney, you often have to prove that you are not riding illegally or face a minimum fine, or (as i learned the hard way) jailtime for giving them the "innocent until proven guilty" speech.
The rule here is that you must have a valid ticket to ride a train (or be on a platform for that matter). Its not that you pay to enter, its like you pay to ride.
For that matter, I have never heard of anyone being jailed for not having a ticket. There is a fine, about $US50 I think, and I suppose they could jail you if you refuse to pay that, but it isn't an on-the-spot fine. They will let you go, and if you refuse to pay it, they will chase you up, take you to court, and possibly jail you. Why they would go that far I don't know, most likely the court would order the confiscation of soemthing of value (VCR, DVD Player), and sell it to recover the cost of the fine.
Also, when you leave any store in australia with bags that you entered with, often you must surrender them for a hand search to prove that you did not steal anything. This is even AFTER you pass through the security tag detectors. Guilty until proven innocent reigns here.
A slight mis-understanding of the law here. You do not have to surender your bags, and the store owner/employee can not stop you leaving unless they actualy see you steal something. Then it is a citizens arrest, and they are allowed to use reasonable force to restrain you untill the police arrive. Remember that Australia has a very different definition of reasonable force. If the shop owner pointed a gun at you you could get them (the shop owner) done for assult.
If you refuse to let them search your bags, then there is nothing they can do to stop you leaving the shop. They are allowed to refuse you entry, so if you kick up a fuss don't expect to shop there again, but nothing in the law gives then the right to search you or your bags.
Most larger shops have signs at the entrance stating their policy, and most exempt bags smaller then an A4 page.
Australia law isn't all that different from the US, you can take anyone to court over anything, but you have to prove it when you get there.
Are you sure? I thought the alpha could only use 48 bit addresses. Is this something they changes in the EV67/EV7? It's still 256TB, but it isn't quite the same.
Yes I know The CPU registers are 64 bit, but the way it handled virtual memory limited it to 48 usable bits.
There is a big difference between an LPAR on a mainframe and something like UML or VMWare. The fact that support for LPARs are built into the hardware for one.
Course, my company also believes that I can be terminated for things on my personal computer at home if I connect to their VPN network and have as much as threatened to do so. Therefore I refuse to connect from my home PC, even if it is required by my job.. I tell em I will do it at 8:00 am the next morning when I get on-site.
Of course it depends on what things on you personal computer they are talking about, a linux.iso, or a running copy of Nimda:-).
If they were serious about security, then they wouldn't let you connect you home PC to the corp. network at all, VPN or not. Do they mandate that evey home PC is patched up to the company standard? Or that a home PC only ever accesses the Internet through a firewall? Which is configured the same as the coprerate one?
Sounds like some one wants it both ways, doesn't want virus/worm infections from home PCs, but also doesn't want to supply PCs or laptops to people who have to work from home.
True, but that's not a bad thing. It shifts it to power plants where it's much easier to monitor and control the pollution than it is when you have a bunch of people in cars
But it does waste more energy. Typicaly something like 20-30% of the electricity is wasted simply delivering it to the home. It might be worse in the US with its 110v power system, but maybe not because long-distance transition would be at high voltage.
There was actully an article I read some time ago on using Java for high performance computing. Basically it tried to show that with a few tweeks to the JVM you could get more then 90% of the performance of C or FORTRAN for a variety of different problems.
It was really simple stuff, don't do array bounds checking when your compiler could show that it wasn't needed, and change the exception model that forced you to be able to roll back executed instrucitons. It may not have been fully java-spec, but they claimed it delivered the goods.
I'm not a big fan of Java myself, but it looked legit.
they imposed a similar requirement on pawn shops, that they get ID and I think even take a Polaroid. The reason of course was to make it harder for either thief or merchant to fence stolen goods
Earlier poster said
has to take personally-identifiable information from each customer when making a purchase.
I can understand taking the ID of the seller, who might have stolen the goods they are trying to sell. If I'm the one who wants to buy something from a pawn/DVD shop, why do I need to provide ID?
There are two meanings of the word "free" at work.
There is free (as in beer), which you do not have to pay for.
There is Free (as in speech), which does not restrict what you can do with it.
Obviously there can be no universal freedom. There is a saying "Your right to swing your fist stops at the tip of my nose". You are not (or should not) be free to yell "Fire" in a crowded enclosed space. Free software, as defined by the Free Software Foundation and the GPL is software that you are free to modify, and distribute as you wish, for any payment you wish. You cannot place restrictions on the software as to what can be done with it after you have given it to someone.
You get something for free (as in beer). If you modify it and distribute it, you must give everyone the same freedoms that you were given. To me it seems a small price to pay for getting the original software for free.
I'm not a GPL fanatic, but I like some of the ideas behind it. In todays software economy, lots of money is made by selling the right to use software, something you can't do with Free (as in speech) software. But many companies spend a lot of money on custom software that is never traded on the open market, either by developing in house or contracting out the work. In these cases companies could save a lot of money by adapting an existing product to their needs, rather then writing everything from scratch.
I wandered a bit, but this shoudl serve as a quick intro into free and Free software.
Run your code without the GPL'ed code. If it runs, it's standalone. If it cannot run without the GPL'ed code, it needs to be under the GPL.
I'm not trying to be rude, but thats a bad test.
I can write code that uses linux specific functions, but does not contain any GLP code itself. Most everyone thinks that is it legal to run propriatry code under linux, but I cant take a binary built under linux and just go and run on on any other platform. Well, not easily.
This is because the GPL puts no restrictions on the use of GPLed code, only on the redistribution of it.
The arguemnt is over the derms derivitive work.
From the GPL,
This License applies to any program or other work [...] [and] any derivative work under copyright law
[..]
Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program
The argument is based around the term "derivative work". If I take you code, and modify it to add a feature, the modified program is covered by the GPL, and therefore Free software. Remember that I am allowed to sell the new program, it is Free but not free.
If I don't sell the modified program, but use diff to produce a patch to your program. Is the patch GPL? Can I sell it under a non-Free license, making money and preventing the purchaser from passing it on to a third party.
you don't get a fixed x watts out at 20% volume knob rotation and 2x at 40%. It depends on the input signal. At say, 50% knob setting, a quiet music passage may result in 3W out to the speakers, a second later, someone banging a big drum can result in 100W out. Input signal amplitude and volume control (which is usually just an input attenuator) combine to produce an excitation signal whose amplitude, or level, determines what the output level of the amp is. Hope I explained that clearly:-)
Well, there are two quibbles. The first is that nearly all the input sources are digital (internal radio tuner, CD/DVD digital coax input).
The second is that I'm not looking for a fixed watt output. As you pointed out, that would be stupid, unless I'm listening to a pure sine wave. I want to ensure the peak power never goes to the point where the distortion is noticable. So when that drum hits the maximum valid input level, I can hear it clearly.
Maybe I need to burn a CD with a simple sine wave at maximum (-0db) volume for a CD, play it, and just see when the distortion becomes noticable.
The difference in log between 80 W and 70 W is only -0.5 dB (10*log(70/80)). Using -2 dB limits your power to about 50 W, using -20 dB limits your power to 0.8 W.
Thankyou. This is the answer I was looking for, someone to tell me the formula without me having to dig out my old EE text books. The key thing I forgot was the factor of 10.
Want to bet? Most people do not know how to interpret even the most basic specifications.
The point isn't a matter of specifications, its of durability.
I like to think that I can understand the specs of most equipment I buy. If its something I want to use then I think its worth the time to to a bit of research. I recently bought an amplifier for use at home. I looked up the specs, researched what they were, and decided what features I wanted.
When I go to a shop, I will find a bunch of brands that do everything I want, and match my specifications. Which one will last longer? I wouldn't mind paying another 50% if I had some confidence that it would last 50% longer, but how do I get that confidence?
In the end I bought a brand that several people recomended, including people who were not trying to sell me anything. I just hope it lasts.
BTW, can anyone tell me why the Denon amplifier has different Watt ratings? This PDF states 110w at 6 ohms, 110w at 8 ohm, (I'm OK up to here) but also at 8 ohms 70w but with 0.08% THD. 70w should be enough for what I want but it still puzzles me.
Speaking of versions that never were, are you old enough to remember that Windows was originally supposed to be DOS4?
Win95 was the first "DOS" replacement. Win3.1(1) would run on top of MS-DOS. As recently as this year I had to install MS-DOS 6.22 on a PC for soemthing, and from memory this was the last version of MS-DOS before the release of WIN95.
I have only seen MS-DOS 4 once. I jumber from version 3 to 5. I was told by someone once that MS-DOS 4 was very nice for networking, and that all the utilities (like copy) could understand that a drive was a network share and act appropriatly. Never seen it myself.
Slashdot Mirror
Niven has some very good talents, and his short stories can be excellent and thought provoking.
I have to say that for novels I think he is better when writing with other people.
Democracy isn't about no one telling you what to do. Its about everyone telling you what to do.
BTW when I talk about a High Availability cluster, I want a to be able to hit the power button on one server, and not receive ANY user complaints.
From the Australian ABC
I presume they made a change to both systems, or more likely, the backup system was also connected to the military system and also choked on the data is was being fed.
Off the top of my head there are only a handfull of space programs worthy of the name, US, Russia, China, Japan and the EU. I think most of the members of the UN have other things on their mind, like starvation, AIDS, war, terrorism, and general economics. I'm sure that space junk isn't high on the priority list.
One point at a time.
The rule here is that you must have a valid ticket to ride a train (or be on a platform for that matter). Its not that you pay to enter, its like you pay to ride.
For that matter, I have never heard of anyone being jailed for not having a ticket. There is a fine, about $US50 I think, and I suppose they could jail you if you refuse to pay that, but it isn't an on-the-spot fine. They will let you go, and if you refuse to pay it, they will chase you up, take you to court, and possibly jail you. Why they would go that far I don't know, most likely the court would order the confiscation of soemthing of value (VCR, DVD Player), and sell it to recover the cost of the fine.
A slight mis-understanding of the law here. You do not have to surender your bags, and the store owner/employee can not stop you leaving unless they actualy see you steal something. Then it is a citizens arrest, and they are allowed to use reasonable force to restrain you untill the police arrive. Remember that Australia has a very different definition of reasonable force. If the shop owner pointed a gun at you you could get them (the shop owner) done for assult.
If you refuse to let them search your bags, then there is nothing they can do to stop you leaving the shop. They are allowed to refuse you entry, so if you kick up a fuss don't expect to shop there again, but nothing in the law gives then the right to search you or your bags.
Most larger shops have signs at the entrance stating their policy, and most exempt bags smaller then an A4 page.
Australia law isn't all that different from the US, you can take anyone to court over anything, but you have to prove it when you get there.
Are you sure? I thought the alpha could only use 48 bit addresses. Is this something they changes in the EV67/EV7? It's still 256TB, but it isn't quite the same.
Yes I know The CPU registers are 64 bit, but the way it handled virtual memory limited it to 48 usable bits.
There is a big difference between an LPAR on a mainframe and something like UML or VMWare. The fact that support for LPARs are built into the hardware for one.
An LPAR on a zSeries mainframe doesn't count.
Of course it depends on what things on you personal computer they are talking about, a linux
If they were serious about security, then they wouldn't let you connect you home PC to the corp. network at all, VPN or not. Do they mandate that evey home PC is patched up to the company standard? Or that a home PC only ever accesses the Internet through a firewall? Which is configured the same as the coprerate one?
Sounds like some one wants it both ways, doesn't want virus/worm infections from home PCs, but also doesn't want to supply PCs or laptops to people who have to work from home.
But it does waste more energy. Typicaly something like 20-30% of the electricity is wasted simply delivering it to the home. It might be worse in the US with its 110v power system, but maybe not because long-distance transition would be at high voltage.
Umm, so they only run on bio-fuels such as ethanol or vegetable oil? Oh, they are electric? So they can only be re-charged from solar or hydro-power?
Sorry, electric != enviro-friendly. It can be, but not always. Most times, electricity is just shifting the polution some where else.
You are already modded up to 5, so I can't mod you higher. I'll just reply and say I think this is a good idea. Please implement!!!!
There was actully an article I read some time ago on using Java for high performance computing. Basically it tried to show that with a few tweeks to the JVM you could get more then 90% of the performance of C or FORTRAN for a variety of different problems.
It was really simple stuff, don't do array bounds checking when your compiler could show that it wasn't needed, and change the exception model that forced you to be able to roll back executed instrucitons. It may not have been fully java-spec, but they claimed it delivered the goods.
I'm not a big fan of Java myself, but it looked legit.
Like "gas" is a major cost?
Earlier poster said
I can understand taking the ID of the seller, who might have stolen the goods they are trying to sell. If I'm the one who wants to buy something from a pawn/DVD shop, why do I need to provide ID?
There are two meanings of the word "free" at work.
There is free (as in beer), which you do not have to pay for.
There is Free (as in speech), which does not restrict what you can do with it.
Obviously there can be no universal freedom. There is a saying "Your right to swing your fist stops at the tip of my nose". You are not (or should not) be free to yell "Fire" in a crowded enclosed space. Free software, as defined by the Free Software Foundation and the GPL is software that you are free to modify, and distribute as you wish, for any payment you wish. You cannot place restrictions on the software as to what can be done with it after you have given it to someone.
You get something for free (as in beer). If you modify it and distribute it, you must give everyone the same freedoms that you were given. To me it seems a small price to pay for getting the original software for free.
I'm not a GPL fanatic, but I like some of the ideas behind it. In todays software economy, lots of money is made by selling the right to use software, something you can't do with Free (as in speech) software. But many companies spend a lot of money on custom software that is never traded on the open market, either by developing in house or contracting out the work. In these cases companies could save a lot of money by adapting an existing product to their needs, rather then writing everything from scratch.
I wandered a bit, but this shoudl serve as a quick intro into free and Free software.
I'm not trying to be rude, but thats a bad test.
I can write code that uses linux specific functions, but does not contain any GLP code itself. Most everyone thinks that is it legal to run propriatry code under linux, but I cant take a binary built under linux and just go and run on on any other platform. Well, not easily.
The arguemnt is over the derms derivitive work.
From the GPL,
The argument is based around the term "derivative work". If I take you code, and modify it to add a feature, the modified program is covered by the GPL, and therefore Free software. Remember that I am allowed to sell the new program, it is Free but not free.
If I don't sell the modified program, but use diff to produce a patch to your program. Is the patch GPL? Can I sell it under a non-Free license, making money and preventing the purchaser from passing it on to a third party.
Well, there are two quibbles. The first is that nearly all the input sources are digital (internal radio tuner, CD/DVD digital coax input).
The second is that I'm not looking for a fixed watt output. As you pointed out, that would be stupid, unless I'm listening to a pure sine wave. I want to ensure the peak power never goes to the point where the distortion is noticable. So when that drum hits the maximum valid input level, I can hear it clearly.
Maybe I need to burn a CD with a simple sine wave at maximum (-0db) volume for a CD, play it, and just see when the distortion becomes noticable.
Thankyou. This is the answer I was looking for, someone to tell me the formula without me having to dig out my old EE text books. The key thing I forgot was the factor of 10.
this was my guess, but to get that 70w output do I set the volume to -2db or -20db?
The point isn't a matter of specifications, its of durability.
I like to think that I can understand the specs of most equipment I buy. If its something I want to use then I think its worth the time to to a bit of research. I recently bought an amplifier for use at home. I looked up the specs, researched what they were, and decided what features I wanted.
When I go to a shop, I will find a bunch of brands that do everything I want, and match my specifications. Which one will last longer? I wouldn't mind paying another 50% if I had some confidence that it would last 50% longer, but how do I get that confidence?
In the end I bought a brand that several people recomended, including people who were not trying to sell me anything. I just hope it lasts.
BTW, can anyone tell me why the Denon amplifier has different Watt ratings? This PDF states 110w at 6 ohms, 110w at 8 ohm, (I'm OK up to here) but also at 8 ohms 70w but with 0.08% THD. 70w should be enough for what I want but it still puzzles me.
It isn't informative, or even well read, but it is a valid point that contributes to the discussion. If I had points I would give it +1 insightful.
Given that a reply to this has been given +1 interesting, I'ld say this needs to be modded higher.
Win95 was the first "DOS" replacement. Win3.1(1) would run on top of MS-DOS. As recently as this year I had to install MS-DOS 6.22 on a PC for soemthing, and from memory this was the last version of MS-DOS before the release of WIN95.
I have only seen MS-DOS 4 once. I jumber from version 3 to 5. I was told by someone once that MS-DOS 4 was very nice for networking, and that all the utilities (like copy) could understand that a drive was a network share and act appropriatly. Never seen it myself.