Nor do draconian restrictions like attempting to ban something completely. The Prohibition experiment in the USA should have told us that if nothing else. Of course, no one has paid any attention to that example when it comes to the "drug wars".
If something exists then it is available. If an attempt to ban it is made it becomes even more widely available.
Look at alcohol. When it was banned it was available to anyone. Since the demand was great enough to create a large supply irrespective of any penalties, then there was no reason to worry about whether it was available to kids. There was no greater penalty attached to giving kids booze.
Once it was legalized - and controlled - then several things happened. The quality improved because suddenly you could be put out of what was a lucrative business if it made people sick. And just as suddenly you could go to jail for sellling it to minors (which, coincidentally, also put you out of business.)
Whether or not this game is "art" seems to me to not be an issue. There are some well-known artists whose works depict nude children and no one is advocating that his shows be open to elementary school field trips. There are clearly some things that affect immature minds in adverse ways.
The only really pertinent question is: "If we choose to control who gets it, how do we go about it?" Computer games aren't like bottles of whiskey in that they can be made available to anyone via a download. Just how does a society "control" this? By assuming that anyone with a credit card is an adult (like the on-line porn industry)?
If these are available in stores then how would we ensure that the store personnel keep them away from children? Lock the CDs up with the cigarettes?
And what sorts of penalties would be attached to not following whatever rules society thinks up?
It does seem clear to me that the gaming industry has gone too far with this particular game. There is an outcry now and even if it's unjustified it will result in "something being done". They had better hope that it's the right "something."
Back in the 80s Oregon decided that since their own residents already paid for their State Parks and campgrounds through taxes, that they'd hike the fees up for non-residents. We were shocked to pull into a State campground and see fees of over $20 (this was 20 years ago). So, naturally, we stopped going to Oregon. And, if we drove through Oregon we stopped buying anything there.
But what made them go back to charging the same price for everyone was when Idaho began charging double for Oregon residents at *their* campgrounds.
Although, come to think of it, we still don't buy anything in Oregon or stop there more than absolutely necessary. Their fuel is already high-priced because of their idiotic program to only expose the poor to cancer-causing chemicals in gasoline. In an apparent attempt to weed out high school dropouts, there is no self-service pumping in Oregon... you must use a trained gasoline attendant. Who is paid minimum wage to risk leukemia.
Most of the time I don't need brilliance, I need hard workers. I want employees who are motivated and what better proof of motivation could you offer than that you worked for free. How could you say "I like what I do" better than this?
Credentials don't mean much to me unless I can send the credentials out to fix a network. I would choose an amateur radio operator over someone whose former company paid for their MCSE just because the ham did it on their own.
I want people who can think critically, solve problems, and get things done and get on to the next job. It seems to me that these people are demonstrating that they have ambition and like to work.
Besides, I was disabled for a few years and I worked for free for some ISPs which needed the help. It paid off for me when they became my clients later.
My earliest memory is similar to yours except that I went outside without my diapers on and remember my mother swatting me with a fly swatter and herding me back to the house. That was traumatic, but I also remember the girl who lived next door that had nothing to do with any trauma. Maybe age 2 or so (I'm almost 60 now).
I can remember taking naps in kindergarten, a woman with a broken leg living in my grandmother's rooming house at about age 5, some conversations at age 6 or 7, random details about my school, my friends, etc. But nothing very coherant. None of those were traumatic.
I can also remember some clearly vivid events like getting lost at age 4 or so and having a policeman take me home, ice cream after tonsilectomy, car trips.
I think that most early memories are random... you keep the ones that don't just get flushed out at some point during brain development. See my other post on this.
Although it seems to vary amongst individuals, both our kids had a "memory block" at a certain point in their lives... about age 7 or 8.
As an example. We had our sailboat at a dock in a cove on the western coast of Vancouver Island. Our daughter, who was 2-1/2, was playing on the dock and announced to her mother, "I'm going to run as fast as I can." My wife said, "Don't forget to stop at the end of the dock."
So she ran right off the end of the dock. Of course she had her lifejacket on and it was an easy matter to pluck her from the 50 degree salt water. But this made such an impression on her that she would talk about it for years. Suddenly we noticed that she wasn't talking about it any more so we asked her if she remembered it.
The answer was no. In a 3-month span she had completely forgotten the entire incident. Something had flushed this memory from her brain and replaced it with what was probably more important information.
It was similar with our son. I started to think about what makes early childhood memories and why some of them stick I can remember some isolated incidents from my early life but most of it is gone until I was about 9.
Has anyone researched this? It seems to me that it would be an interesting path of investigation.
A plethora of users have demonstrated here that they aren't interested in adopting Linux. They are comfy with what works for them. And since they started out with MS and Windows applications, that's what they like.
The key phrase here is "started out with MS and Windows".
There are literally BILLIONS of potential users who have never become used to Photoshop or Outlook Express or MSIE. This untapped userbase is ripe for the picking and if Linux is there early with an OS that is cheap and applications in their languages then Linux could have a large proportion of those users.
Imagine Asia and Africa populated with computer users who can't see any reason to switch to Microsoft because they are used to what they have; Linux.
With the center-fire cartridge anyone can make a gun even if it's so simple as to hold it in a vice-grip and hit the firing pin with a nail. Ok, so the accuracy might not be so great. The point is that guns, even fully automatic guns, are not rocket science.
Any reasonably handy person with access to a lathe could make a single-shot handgun. Give me a mill and a lathe and some tooling and I'll turn out a copy of an Uzi. With a silencer.
Channel surf around on cable or satellite these days and you are likely to find pseudo-scientific programs all over the place. "Scientists study the Bermuda Triangle" was one headline I remember. Even The Learning Channel dips into these low spots from time to time. And given the lack of scientific knowledge on the part of most Americans (or even a large segment of Slashdotters for that matter) there will always be a certain number of credulous people.
One of my co-workers was talking to his brother who mentioned that he had watched one of these no-moon-landings programs and now believes that there never was a moon landing. My co-worker responded, "The only people who believe that there was no moon-landing are the morons who believe the CIA killed Kennedy." A long silence ensued.
The mass media panders to people like this and most rebuttals would only reach those who were clueful anyway. My advice is to laugh at anyone who says that a moon landing never occured. And roll on the floor when you meet a flat-earther.
One of the problems with amplifiers is...
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802.11 RF Amp
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· Score: 3, Interesting
That amplifiers amplify everything... including the ambient noise PLUS they also insert a certain amount of noise themselves (LNA stands for "low-noise-amplifier not no-noise-amplifier). So while the signals may be amplified, the noise level might also be amplified enough to negate the effect.
In addition, the FCC has a dba limit on the amount of signal you can have so you cannot just stick power amplifiers on all the devices in the network without incurring some exposure to fines and penalties (for interference).
It makes a lot more sense to design the wireless system to use numerous low-power devices spread around the area so that you can cover just what you need to cover and not simply saturate the area with signal.
One day he tells us that Linux will fail because it won't run Windows applications. The next day it will fail because it's too hard to understand. Now he thinks Linux will fail because it's too much like Windows.
Too much like Windows??? Dvorak is sounding more and more like an MS-pimp. Not only are the Linux developers supposed to produce an OS that is more stable, more secure, and more versatile than Windows, they have to make it do everything completely different to boot.
And guess what... if that happened yjrm he'd tell us that Linux will fail because it's not like Windows.
I compare Dvorak to my ex-mother-in-law who never forgave me for marrying her daughter and taking her away from home. Then, when I divorced her daughter and sent her home she never forgave me for that either. There's just no pleasing some people.
For every person who rants about someone dissing people under 30, there's a schmuck like this guy who says that "no one over forty will get it". People are all different and just because his parents were dull and stupid doesn't mean everyone over 40 is. I would never be so rude as to claim that someone is too young (or too old) to understand what I write about because I've encountered far too many of both sorts who are stimulating and interesting.
And how would this help me with home electronics??
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Linux for Home Electronics
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I got so carried away with my own rhetoric that I neglected to tie it in to home electronics so here goes:
Thirty years ago anyone who understood electronics theory and vacuum tubes could fix any home electronic device. Simply understanding how electronic circuits worked meant that a tech could move from one device to another. And manufacturers didn't have to design a new theory for each device, they just wired up the vacuum tubes in new ways which were still understandable. All a tech had to do was look at the schematic diagram, apply a few standard tools (oscilloscope, VTVM, signal injector, etc.) and he (or she) could make it work.
So if Sony uses Linux in its latest widget and you understand Linux, you'll understand how your widget works and how to get the most out of your widget. Plus, since Sony didn't have to design a brand new widget-operating-system, you will either be able to buy it cheaper than the Samsung widget or it will do more... or both. And if your widget breaks you won't have to buy a new one, you can just flash the bios and make it just like new.
So putting widely known operating systems into devices saves money for both the manufacturer and the consumer. This makes us all happier and a few of us wealthier. If you learn Linux, and Linux is the OS they put in all these devices, you have a better chance of joining that few.:)
So, why should we? My job is to design, implement, and administer networks for customers. Some of these are quite large networks and some are small but they all have one thing in common: in order to take care of them I have to understand the way all the components work. Ahhh.... I just heard a penny drop.
I spec Cisco routers and switches because I understand how they work and know that they will do the job. The customer doesn't have to pay me to spend time figuring out how to fix a problem; once I know what the problem is the chances are I can put a fix in quickly. Often without leaving my office! This saves the client money and, not coincidentally, makes me look good.
If Sony puts Linux into a device then I already have a better chance at understanding how to make that device work than if some engineer had designed his (or her) own idea for a cool command set.
And because Sony now doesn't have to put all that extra money into designing the OS, that means that their products will cost less. I can put their products into a network and save money on both ends: the procurement end and the administration end. This makes Cisco scramble to lower prices to keep market share. So even if we don't use Linux devices, the costs for networks goes down just because these devices are out there.
In short, I care what the underlying OS is on these devices because I don't have to learn a zillion different commands for the same things and I can, therefore, do my job quicker and more efficiently. You should care because when you get a job at a company you can hire me to do your network and look good when we save you money.
For years my thinking on spam filters was, "spam is the user's problem". Generally if you are careful about where your email address goes, my reasoning went, you won't be bothered. And, sure enough, I wasn't bothered.
But then I discovered that customers *were* bothered and bothered enough to switch their accounts in order to get email filtering. A bit of rethinking was in order here.
I implemented Message Wall on one of our boxes and had it connect to our regular email box. I figured that this way we could implement filtering and, if we didn't like it, we could move it off with just a DNS change. (The normal installation is to put it on the same box as the mail server but I didn't want to have to reconvert the mail server if I didn't like it.)
Messagewall has worked quite nicely in cutting down spam and email-borne viruses. We've implemented it on a school district too. One of the great things about it (besides "free") is that it has upgradable definitions, it's dead easy to exempt a user from the service, and it's free (did I mention that?).
You just don't get it....
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Cringely on P2P
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· Score: 3, Insightful
You don't comprise a "large number" of their customers. You comprise a small percentage. Most ISPs would gladly see you haul your P2P ass to another provider... be it ISDN, cable, modem or whatever else.
You cost them money directly in your use of bandwidth to act as a server. You also cost them money directly in responding to legal challenges by MPAA, RIAA, and all the other "AA" groups out there. If 90% of their customer base is perfectly happy surfing and downloading email, why would they want the 10% that you make up?
And what other small ISP is going to spring up and gather you to their fold when they cannot make money on you? Do you see where this is headed? You are not a market anyone wants. You are a liability. You don't have any market clout. They actually WANT you to go somewhere else.
You guys all whine about how these "business plans" need to be changed. Well I got news for you: the business plans have changed. And you aren't in them.
Re:It can be slowed down...
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Cringely on P2P
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· Score: 4, Insightful
In order to have P2P there has to be at least one person serving the data... it doesn't matter what port it's on if all the packets outbound are capped at 56k then P2P will collapse. And as far as port 80 goes, simply denying every packet inbound to port 80 (or 25 or 22 or 23 or whatever) except those addressed to previously approved static IP addresses would make connecting to a "server" damn difficult.
The advent of P2P may prove to be even more damaging to those of us who simply run our own mail servers or ssh in from work to check on data on our home computers. It could provide the impetus for ISPs to just deny any and all connections except "established" connections. Or, worse yet, go NAT.
In fact, lots of ISPs would love to implement NAT just to avoid the hefty costs involved in having a stable of real IP addresses for their users. Implementing NAT would be an easy way to give all users a static IP (cross-checked against MAC address) and just turn down the bandwidth of those users who overuse what they pay for.
So, if that happens you can add some gamers to the victims of P2P. Of course, since most P2P players are also gamers they'd just end up cutting their own throats. I can hear the whining on/. now.
This outage was caused by a researcher's data creating a storm of data which outpaced the network's ability to cope. The problem was allowing the research data to flow unimpeded across vital systems. The solution is to implement methods of controlling bandwidth, not just routing.
In order to prevent this from happening again, engineers should analyze the system to determine where to put data storage. In this case, almost certainly (although the article is unclear) data was stored in a central location but spanned across several servers and then backed up in another location. One part of the solution is to have distributed data storage spread across the institution and then that data backed up (across a separate network) to a central location.
The data storm itself could be prevented by using QoS bandwidth management. Of course, every network user believes that he/she should have unfettered access to all the bandwidth available, but quietly implementing some well-known techniques for limiting bandwidth usage would have at least mitigated the damage.
Finally, routing protocols other than spanning-tree or OSPF should be used. Creative implementation of internal addressing schemes (10.0.0.0 IP addresses) and a combination of BGP and last-resort static routes would certainly help to avoid these sorts of problems. I'm also wondering whether a *nix box running Zebra in critical locations might not reduce the problems. Certainly Zebra can remove the routing load from the Ciscos and, with plenty of RAM and processing speed available on PCs nowadays, could probably improve routing efficiency when a circuit goes down.
But the key to this problem is bandwidth management not routing management. Of course, the next problem could be routing. One seldom has the budget to solve everything.
My PDA is a Visor Edge. It's small (skinnier than the Visor I had that I broke), synchs with Ximian Evolution well, is rechargable and does exactly what I need a PDA to do. Namely, to make my telephone list available quickly while I'm out of the office. It also lets me jot down pieces of information (like who told me to do what and when and whether I did it) so that I can document my work.
I dropped my first Visor and broke the glass face and even though it was insured (and replaced in 3 weeks) I had to buy the Edge because I simply couldn't do my work effectively without one. I found the Edge on the 'net as a refurb for about $120 (8mb RAM) and have never, ever regretted buying it; not once!
My feelings on cell phone/pda combos is that I prefer to have one of each. If the cell breaks (and two of mine have had to be replaced) it's only $80. If the Edge breaks it's only $150 or so. If I had a Treo and it broke it would be $500! And I'd be without both a cell phone and a PDA until I got it replaced!
I never could use the paper planners very effectively... mine was so bulky that I kept it in my car and it was never where I needed it. The replacement Visor went to one of the guys at work who never had used anything like an organizer before and now he uses it in just the same way I use mine.
The Visor (or any Palm) is perfect for my needs but I must confess to a lust for a Zaurus.
It wouldn't be that hard to make the browser fake a pop-up and render this test irrelevant.
If MS, Intel and AMD ever really do Palladium...
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Transmeta Astro Processor
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Watch for Transmeta to go through the roof in sales! They will be one of the few chipmakers who will be able to run open source operating systems and MS is gonna make them all rich if Palladium is really implemented.
And from what it looks like with these chips, moving to TM chips won't be any hardship at all.
We just bought this...
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War of Honor
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· Score: 2
Our company provides science-fiction books in our employee library which we all can check out and read. Many of us, in fact, donate any sci fi we get at Goodwill or other cheap sources to this library. Anyway, we just got this book and one of the guys took it home without knowing about the CDROM and was just blown away by the amount of material!!! If Baen hadn't already made us rabid fans, this would have done it!!! Well done and thanks.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Just what exactly do you think "static exhibition" means? How could you fly it and remain "static"?
Nor do draconian restrictions like attempting to ban something completely. The Prohibition experiment in the USA should have told us that if nothing else. Of course, no one has paid any attention to that example when it comes to the "drug wars".
If something exists then it is available. If an attempt to ban it is made it becomes even more widely available.
Look at alcohol. When it was banned it was available to anyone. Since the demand was great enough to create a large supply irrespective of any penalties, then there was no reason to worry about whether it was available to kids. There was no greater penalty attached to giving kids booze.
Once it was legalized - and controlled - then several things happened. The quality improved because suddenly you could be put out of what was a lucrative business if it made people sick. And just as suddenly you could go to jail for sellling it to minors (which, coincidentally, also put you out of business.)
Whether or not this game is "art" seems to me to not be an issue. There are some well-known artists whose works depict nude children and no one is advocating that his shows be open to elementary school field trips. There are clearly some things that affect immature minds in adverse ways.
The only really pertinent question is: "If we choose to control who gets it, how do we go about it?" Computer games aren't like bottles of whiskey in that they can be made available to anyone via a download. Just how does a society "control" this? By assuming that anyone with a credit card is an adult (like the on-line porn industry)?
If these are available in stores then how would we ensure that the store personnel keep them away from children? Lock the CDs up with the cigarettes?
And what sorts of penalties would be attached to not following whatever rules society thinks up?
It does seem clear to me that the gaming industry has gone too far with this particular game. There is an outcry now and even if it's unjustified it will result in "something being done". They had better hope that it's the right "something."
Back in the 80s Oregon decided that since their own residents already paid for their State Parks and campgrounds through taxes, that they'd hike the fees up for non-residents. We were shocked to pull into a State campground and see fees of over $20 (this was 20 years ago). So, naturally, we stopped going to Oregon. And, if we drove through Oregon we stopped buying anything there.
But what made them go back to charging the same price for everyone was when Idaho began charging double for Oregon residents at *their* campgrounds.
Although, come to think of it, we still don't buy anything in Oregon or stop there more than absolutely necessary. Their fuel is already high-priced because of their idiotic program to only expose the poor to cancer-causing chemicals in gasoline. In an apparent attempt to weed out high school dropouts, there is no self-service pumping in Oregon... you must use a trained gasoline attendant. Who is paid minimum wage to risk leukemia.
And we NEVER stay at their campgrounds.
Most of the time I don't need brilliance, I need hard workers. I want employees who are motivated and what better proof of motivation could you offer than that you worked for free. How could you say "I like what I do" better than this?
Credentials don't mean much to me unless I can send the credentials out to fix a network. I would choose an amateur radio operator over someone whose former company paid for their MCSE just because the ham did it on their own.
I want people who can think critically, solve problems, and get things done and get on to the next job. It seems to me that these people are demonstrating that they have ambition and like to work.
Besides, I was disabled for a few years and I worked for free for some ISPs which needed the help. It paid off for me when they became my clients later.
My earliest memory is similar to yours except that I went outside without my diapers on and remember my mother swatting me with a fly swatter and herding me back to the house. That was traumatic, but I also remember the girl who lived next door that had nothing to do with any trauma. Maybe age 2 or so (I'm almost 60 now).
I can remember taking naps in kindergarten, a woman with a broken leg living in my grandmother's rooming house at about age 5, some conversations at age 6 or 7, random details about my school, my friends, etc. But nothing very coherant. None of those were traumatic.
I can also remember some clearly vivid events like getting lost at age 4 or so and having a policeman take me home, ice cream after tonsilectomy, car trips.
I think that most early memories are random... you keep the ones that don't just get flushed out at some point during brain development. See my other post on this.
Although it seems to vary amongst individuals, both our kids had a "memory block" at a certain point in their lives... about age 7 or 8.
As an example. We had our sailboat at a dock in a cove on the western coast of Vancouver Island. Our daughter, who was 2-1/2, was playing on the dock and announced to her mother, "I'm going to run as fast as I can." My wife said, "Don't forget to stop at the end of the dock."
So she ran right off the end of the dock. Of course she had her lifejacket on and it was an easy matter to pluck her from the 50 degree salt water. But this made such an impression on her that she would talk about it for years. Suddenly we noticed that she wasn't talking about it any more so we asked her if she remembered it.
The answer was no. In a 3-month span she had completely forgotten the entire incident. Something had flushed this memory from her brain and replaced it with what was probably more important information.
It was similar with our son. I started to think about what makes early childhood memories and why some of them stick I can remember some isolated incidents from my early life but most of it is gone until I was about 9.
Has anyone researched this? It seems to me that it would be an interesting path of investigation.
A plethora of users have demonstrated here that they aren't interested in adopting Linux. They are comfy with what works for them. And since they started out with MS and Windows applications, that's what they like.
The key phrase here is "started out with MS and Windows".
There are literally BILLIONS of potential users who have never become used to Photoshop or Outlook Express or MSIE. This untapped userbase is ripe for the picking and if Linux is there early with an OS that is cheap and applications in their languages then Linux could have a large proportion of those users.
Imagine Asia and Africa populated with computer users who can't see any reason to switch to Microsoft because they are used to what they have; Linux.
Where are my moderator points when I need them!!! Thanks for this. :)
Slashdot citations are references to other news sources anyway, so why shouldn't they just give one and let us follow the links from there?
With the center-fire cartridge anyone can make a gun even if it's so simple as to hold it in a vice-grip and hit the firing pin with a nail. Ok, so the accuracy might not be so great. The point is that guns, even fully automatic guns, are not rocket science.
Any reasonably handy person with access to a lathe could make a single-shot handgun. Give me a mill and a lathe and some tooling and I'll turn out a copy of an Uzi. With a silencer.
Channel surf around on cable or satellite these days and you are likely to find pseudo-scientific programs all over the place. "Scientists study the Bermuda Triangle" was one headline I remember. Even The Learning Channel dips into these low spots from time to time. And given the lack of scientific knowledge on the part of most Americans (or even a large segment of Slashdotters for that matter) there will always be a certain number of credulous people.
One of my co-workers was talking to his brother who mentioned that he had watched one of these no-moon-landings programs and now believes that there never was a moon landing. My co-worker responded, "The only people who believe that there was no moon-landing are the morons who believe the CIA killed Kennedy." A long silence ensued.
The mass media panders to people like this and most rebuttals would only reach those who were clueful anyway. My advice is to laugh at anyone who says that a moon landing never occured. And roll on the floor when you meet a flat-earther.
That amplifiers amplify everything... including the ambient noise PLUS they also insert a certain amount of noise themselves (LNA stands for "low-noise-amplifier not no-noise-amplifier). So while the signals may be amplified, the noise level might also be amplified enough to negate the effect.
In addition, the FCC has a dba limit on the amount of signal you can have so you cannot just stick power amplifiers on all the devices in the network without incurring some exposure to fines and penalties (for interference).
It makes a lot more sense to design the wireless system to use numerous low-power devices spread around the area so that you can cover just what you need to cover and not simply saturate the area with signal.
One day he tells us that Linux will fail because it won't run Windows applications. The next day it will fail because it's too hard to understand. Now he thinks Linux will fail because it's too much like Windows.
Too much like Windows??? Dvorak is sounding more and more like an MS-pimp. Not only are the Linux developers supposed to produce an OS that is more stable, more secure, and more versatile than Windows, they have to make it do everything completely different to boot.
And guess what... if that happened yjrm he'd tell us that Linux will fail because it's not like Windows.
I compare Dvorak to my ex-mother-in-law who never forgave me for marrying her daughter and taking her away from home. Then, when I divorced her daughter and sent her home she never forgave me for that either. There's just no pleasing some people.
For every person who rants about someone dissing people under 30, there's a schmuck like this guy who says that "no one over forty will get it". People are all different and just because his parents were dull and stupid doesn't mean everyone over 40 is. I would never be so rude as to claim that someone is too young (or too old) to understand what I write about because I've encountered far too many of both sorts who are stimulating and interesting.
I got so carried away with my own rhetoric that I neglected to tie it in to home electronics so here goes:
:)
Thirty years ago anyone who understood electronics theory and vacuum tubes could fix any home electronic device. Simply understanding how electronic circuits worked meant that a tech could move from one device to another. And manufacturers didn't have to design a new theory for each device, they just wired up the vacuum tubes in new ways which were still understandable. All a tech had to do was look at the schematic diagram, apply a few standard tools (oscilloscope, VTVM, signal injector, etc.) and he (or she) could make it work.
So if Sony uses Linux in its latest widget and you understand Linux, you'll understand how your widget works and how to get the most out of your widget. Plus, since Sony didn't have to design a brand new widget-operating-system, you will either be able to buy it cheaper than the Samsung widget or it will do more... or both. And if your widget breaks you won't have to buy a new one, you can just flash the bios and make it just like new.
So putting widely known operating systems into devices saves money for both the manufacturer and the consumer. This makes us all happier and a few of us wealthier. If you learn Linux, and Linux is the OS they put in all these devices, you have a better chance of joining that few.
So, why should we? My job is to design, implement, and administer networks for customers. Some of these are quite large networks and some are small but they all have one thing in common: in order to take care of them I have to understand the way all the components work. Ahhh.... I just heard a penny drop.
I spec Cisco routers and switches because I understand how they work and know that they will do the job. The customer doesn't have to pay me to spend time figuring out how to fix a problem; once I know what the problem is the chances are I can put a fix in quickly. Often without leaving my office! This saves the client money and, not coincidentally, makes me look good.
If Sony puts Linux into a device then I already have a better chance at understanding how to make that device work than if some engineer had designed his (or her) own idea for a cool command set.
And because Sony now doesn't have to put all that extra money into designing the OS, that means that their products will cost less. I can put their products into a network and save money on both ends: the procurement end and the administration end. This makes Cisco scramble to lower prices to keep market share. So even if we don't use Linux devices, the costs for networks goes down just because these devices are out there.
In short, I care what the underlying OS is on these devices because I don't have to learn a zillion different commands for the same things and I can, therefore, do my job quicker and more efficiently. You should care because when you get a job at a company you can hire me to do your network and look good when we save you money.
"Either way I'm all for getting rid of legacy software - one step at a time."
Umm... wouldn't this include Unix? Unix predates virtually every other operating system currently in wide use? It certainly is more "legacy" than OS2.
For years my thinking on spam filters was, "spam is the user's problem". Generally if you are careful about where your email address goes, my reasoning went, you won't be bothered. And, sure enough, I wasn't bothered.
But then I discovered that customers *were* bothered and bothered enough to switch their accounts in order to get email filtering. A bit of rethinking was in order here.
I implemented Message Wall on one of our boxes and had it connect to our regular email box. I figured that this way we could implement filtering and, if we didn't like it, we could move it off with just a DNS change. (The normal installation is to put it on the same box as the mail server but I didn't want to have to reconvert the mail server if I didn't like it.)
Messagewall has worked quite nicely in cutting down spam and email-borne viruses. We've implemented it on a school district too. One of the great things about it (besides "free") is that it has upgradable definitions, it's dead easy to exempt a user from the service, and it's free (did I mention that?).
You don't comprise a "large number" of their customers. You comprise a small percentage. Most ISPs would gladly see you haul your P2P ass to another provider... be it ISDN, cable, modem or whatever else.
You cost them money directly in your use of bandwidth to act as a server. You also cost them money directly in responding to legal challenges by MPAA, RIAA, and all the other "AA" groups out there. If 90% of their customer base is perfectly happy surfing and downloading email, why would they want the 10% that you make up?
And what other small ISP is going to spring up and gather you to their fold when they cannot make money on you? Do you see where this is headed? You are not a market anyone wants. You are a liability. You don't have any market clout. They actually WANT you to go somewhere else.
You guys all whine about how these "business plans" need to be changed. Well I got news for you: the business plans have changed. And you aren't in them.
In order to have P2P there has to be at least one person serving the data... it doesn't matter what port it's on if all the packets outbound are capped at 56k then P2P will collapse. And as far as port 80 goes, simply denying every packet inbound to port 80 (or 25 or 22 or 23 or whatever) except those addressed to previously approved static IP addresses would make connecting to a "server" damn difficult.
/. now.
The advent of P2P may prove to be even more damaging to those of us who simply run our own mail servers or ssh in from work to check on data on our home computers. It could provide the impetus for ISPs to just deny any and all connections except "established" connections. Or, worse yet, go NAT.
In fact, lots of ISPs would love to implement NAT just to avoid the hefty costs involved in having a stable of real IP addresses for their users. Implementing NAT would be an easy way to give all users a static IP (cross-checked against MAC address) and just turn down the bandwidth of those users who overuse what they pay for.
So, if that happens you can add some gamers to the victims of P2P. Of course, since most P2P players are also gamers they'd just end up cutting their own throats. I can hear the whining on
This outage was caused by a researcher's data creating a storm of data which outpaced the network's ability to cope. The problem was allowing the research data to flow unimpeded across vital systems. The solution is to implement methods of controlling bandwidth, not just routing.
In order to prevent this from happening again, engineers should analyze the system to determine where to put data storage. In this case, almost certainly (although the article is unclear) data was stored in a central location but spanned across several servers and then backed up in another location. One part of the solution is to have distributed data storage spread across the institution and then that data backed up (across a separate network) to a central location.
The data storm itself could be prevented by using QoS bandwidth management. Of course, every network user believes that he/she should have unfettered access to all the bandwidth available, but quietly implementing some well-known techniques for limiting bandwidth usage would have at least mitigated the damage.
Finally, routing protocols other than spanning-tree or OSPF should be used. Creative implementation of internal addressing schemes (10.0.0.0 IP addresses) and a combination of BGP and last-resort static routes would certainly help to avoid these sorts of problems. I'm also wondering whether a *nix box running Zebra in critical locations might not reduce the problems. Certainly Zebra can remove the routing load from the Ciscos and, with plenty of RAM and processing speed available on PCs nowadays, could probably improve routing efficiency when a circuit goes down.
But the key to this problem is bandwidth management not routing management. Of course, the next problem could be routing. One seldom has the budget to solve everything.
My PDA is a Visor Edge. It's small (skinnier than the Visor I had that I broke), synchs with Ximian Evolution well, is rechargable and does exactly what I need a PDA to do. Namely, to make my telephone list available quickly while I'm out of the office. It also lets me jot down pieces of information (like who told me to do what and when and whether I did it) so that I can document my work.
I dropped my first Visor and broke the glass face and even though it was insured (and replaced in 3 weeks) I had to buy the Edge because I simply couldn't do my work effectively without one. I found the Edge on the 'net as a refurb for about $120 (8mb RAM) and have never, ever regretted buying it; not once!
My feelings on cell phone/pda combos is that I prefer to have one of each. If the cell breaks (and two of mine have had to be replaced) it's only $80. If the Edge breaks it's only $150 or so. If I had a Treo and it broke it would be $500! And I'd be without both a cell phone and a PDA until I got it replaced!
I never could use the paper planners very effectively... mine was so bulky that I kept it in my car and it was never where I needed it. The replacement Visor went to one of the guys at work who never had used anything like an organizer before and now he uses it in just the same way I use mine.
The Visor (or any Palm) is perfect for my needs but I must confess to a lust for a Zaurus.
It wouldn't be that hard to make the browser fake a pop-up and render this test irrelevant.
Watch for Transmeta to go through the roof in sales! They will be one of the few chipmakers who will be able to run open source operating systems and MS is gonna make them all rich if Palladium is really implemented.
And from what it looks like with these chips, moving to TM chips won't be any hardship at all.
Our company provides science-fiction books in our employee library which we all can check out and read. Many of us, in fact, donate any sci fi we get at Goodwill or other cheap sources to this library. Anyway, we just got this book and one of the guys took it home without knowing about the CDROM and was just blown away by the amount of material!!! If Baen hadn't already made us rabid fans, this would have done it!!! Well done and thanks. :)