(Ooh, I got an off topic mod for an on-topic question. Love it!)
I wouldn't delay the OS. I was referring to more the other direction. You would want to release when it is ready, even if that is prior to the scheduled date.
I - in a way - use Debian since I've switched from openSUSE to Ubuntu, so I'd be curious if Ubuntu would be affected.
I used to telework much more. However, I find that (a) I get more done while monofocused in the office and (b) when I need people they're around.
Now, I do still telework some. In fact, I make sure I leave my office (a small 10'x20' room) by 3:30 or so in order to concentrate on coaching my boys' baseball teams. I then do work via vpn at night after they're asleep and while my beautiful bride is watching the Bachellorette or All My Children or whatever.
However, the allure of TW seems to be limited to mundane routine tasks. Anything that requires much paper handling (which we still for some reason have) or interaction just doesn't work in TW situations. Yeah, I've seen people post about IM, and it does work to an extent, but there's something about getting together in a hallway in front of a physical whiteboard that is missing from the TW equation.
Underpromise and over-deliver! That's my motto...
on
Why New Systems Fail
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
...or at least one of them. I haven't read the book yet - but it is now listed as a to-do in my list of to-do items taking up space on my blackberry.
In any case, I'd be curious what the answer is. In my short software development experience - only since '93 have I been doing enterprise-level development - I see one factor being the overwhelming key to failure.
Communication.
When you have analysts and developers (who are notorious for not being communicative in the first place) trying to interface with executives and managers (who are trying to CYA) then you have a perfect storm brewing.
Add to it, the fact that COTS solutions rarely actually fit the needs of everyone, and you subscribe to failure. A classic example that I just saw this week is with the California State Child Welfare lien processing system, written by Accenture. I asked for a minor change in the file layout some months ago. Only this week did I hear that I'd need a change request and that they'd get back to me in a few months.:P
By contrast, I've written my own in-house custom software systems for the enterprise. (One system in production has well over 500 concurrent users on any of fifteen different modules.) When teh customer(s) request a change, then it can - depending on complexity - be implemented and tested in a matter of days. Of course, harping on the communication theme, I'm in constant communication with teh customer, the end-user (if different), my developers, and my analysts. (I'm a PHB in the middle.) I make sure that we under-promise and over-delivery whenever possible.
Valid point. Since the misconception is that "free == cheap", I usually wait until something is up and running well before I mention it.
Sadly, my software developers (my staff) still haven't embraced Linux as much as they should. (Maybe it is because one of my main developers has a brother who works for the Evil Empire.)
Every chance I get to tell my manager that my team has used an OSS product for one thing or another, I mention it. I'm trying to get him to stop usign the term, "freeware" or "shareware" which implies something less than ideal.
Sure, we use multi-thousand dollar products for development, but there's always some tool, some image, some utility, some code that is just better and licensed under GPL or CL.
Like I always say, "why improvise when you can plagiarize."
Seriously, my department (1500 employees) has not made a move to either Vista (we now have about 30 Vista machines) or Win 7. I run it in VirtualBox under Ubuntu and so do about two others. However, the rest of the 1400 or so machines are running XP or even Win2K still. As it is, we've yet to find a compelling reason to "upgrade" from XP/2K. Most of the users have one or two apps running, some even run mainframe terminals still. The rest use office apps, which work just fine in XP.
For home users I can see moving to Win 7 (or even Ubuntu) but the business case just doesn't seem to justify the cost. Even new machines don't really seem to out perform older ones (< 5 year old) by much.
I'm not really worried. More a hypothetical question. I know my M$ budget this fiscal year is around $180,000 so they won't be coming after me anytime soon.:P
(Of course, I've switched from openSUSE on my laptop to Ubuntu - maybe I'm out of the patent protection...)
Okay, first off - I'm a Linux user. I love FOSS. I'm also a realist - i put my trust in that my staff will be able to write C# apps in Wintendo that will function. I expect in the near future that portions may be converted over to mono so that we may host items on Linux servers:
My question is this - does MS moving to a new license change my current licensing? How does it interact with those running SLES or Virtualized Windows 2008 under XEN?
I read this and can't help but think of Mao's slogan, "Smile, you're happy!" I know this is a private company - or at least a single government entity - but still it smacks of Orwellianism.
Maybe it is actually doubleplusgood but I just don't get it.
First off, forget the college degree if all you want it for is to design/develop games. You can do so on your own without the degree. *** I'd suggest laearning C/C++ and at least one.NET language as well as studying/learning UI and graphic design theories.
Now - I see a lot of comments previous to mine that suggest getting out and not working for a game company. I agree wholeheartedly. If you want to design just games, start your own game company. You will want a niche market - DS games, PC games for Thai Children, Mainframe Games - and focus on doing just that. Then you can expand out. One designer I know who's been somewhat successful is Bill Kendrick. He writes multi-platform educational games. My kids love them: http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org
Good luck out there.
*** Now, I have recently hired two developers who got the job partially because they worked on games while in college. They had collaborated on a C++ based game which was installable and playable. This put the two of them above the average applicant who had only done coursework. Keep in mind, I manage a government-based software development group so we don't "do" games here. However, their experience did help them get an edge when starting. (We do most development in C#/.NET.)
I'd laugh, except that I'm still supporting a 90's era VB6 program, which is written with Office in mind such that Excel spreadsheets are opened, closed and eventually that data are saved to a sql server......you'd think that being a PHB, I'd not have to do VB programming anymore.
As I use Linux (Ubuntu and openSUSE) on my primary home machines, I tend to run the Windows stuff - aside from Office 2007 - in VB. My kids have always complained about the game play.
Maybe not now.:P
It worked great when they were younger and Tux Paint, SuperTux, Chromium, TORCS, TuxRacer were what they wanted, but now they NEED to play the "in" gamez.
<sigh>
I'll just go back to playing my games on Stella and GFCE.
I don't know if the size of the hash has anything to do with the package or the resultant file, but what about simply doubling (or greater) the hash?
I did try to read the article, but got a bit lost when I began to read stuff like, "A basic boomerang distinguisher [12] is applied to a cipher EK() which is considered as a composition of two sub-ciphers: EK(1) = E1 2 E0. The rst sub-cipher is supposed to have a dierential  ! , and the second one to have a..."
Though this is an interesting design, I'm wondering if the savings would be better served from using simply less servers? Does Y! use a high-tech design and still have a ton of servers or do they spend less on design and more on higher-capacacity servers running virtualization?
Hey, I was just in a massive data center yesterday for a tour. (100,000 sq ft) They had a spare s390 sitting on the side of the room. Maybe Y! can borrow that baby and put on a few hundred linux and/or windows VMs...
Seriously, I wonder if this comes to pass and we continue on the binary process forever. (IIRC, some mainframes back in the '40s and '50s used decimal processing, which was too slow then, so all switched eventually to binary.)
I watched the little blurb and noticed the "younger" sister. Can you imagine the pressure she must be under as a teenager seeing her "older" sister get all the attention and focus?
I still remember the old saying after Win95 came out - in direct competition with the mainframe-centric OS/2 - "Windows 95 is a 32-bit shell to a 16-bit operating sysetm, written by an 8-bit company, originally written for a 4-bit processor by a company that can't stand one bit of competition."
Seems to hold somewhat true today.
Seriously, though. When you look at the ability to run VMs inside mainframes and potentially reduce floorspace and the associated costs, it may seem tempting to go mainframe. Even HP is always pushing the SuperDome on me. Funny, tho, I was just at a data center yesterday where they had an AS390 sitting on the side of the room, next to a z9. The z890 bought to replace the AS390 was about to be swapped out for the z9.
Time marches on.
IBM's big iron sill lives.
However, wanna bet that some portion of those running mainframes are running host OS's such as SLED and then running Xen inside of that with Win2008 servers?
Honestly, I think that his arguments fall flat. Though I like FB as much as anybody, and I feel for someone dealing with massive performance needs - I only have a paltry 30 servers running my main application - I wonder if he's being realistic.
There's a pretty simple answer for scaling infrastructure. It's, 'Don't be cheap,'" Heiliger said. He added that Facebook does drive hard bargains with its hardware and software infrastructure suppliers, and is careful not to overbuy.
I remember reading about how Amazon does it. They have clusters of servers running whatever OS suits the particular person having written the portion of code being used and will blow through something like 100 dead servers a day. IIRC, when you load a page from Amazon you get content delivered by 20+ servers onto one web page.
Maybe he just needs to scale out.
Or - I just noticed an unused AS390 in the server room today. Apparently the Z890 that replaced it is also going to be replaced by a new z9 machine. He could bundle some apps on the z890 or the 390.
I wonder if you can run.net or Java under OS/390 or MVS...
Slashdot Mirror
...now I know. They haven't actually flipped the switch yet.
Okay, back to work. Maybe a Vogon constructor fleet will get here first.
I don't know about the majority of /. people, but I know that none of my friends spend much time churning milk into butter.
Switching networks? Dunno.
yes. this is a "line in the sand" type of ruling more than anything. anybody can use tor or other proxy to circumvent the ruling.
(Ooh, I got an off topic mod for an on-topic question. Love it!)
I wouldn't delay the OS. I was referring to more the other direction. You would want to release when it is ready, even if that is prior to the scheduled date.
I - in a way - use Debian since I've switched from openSUSE to Ubuntu, so I'd be curious if Ubuntu would be affected.
I thought Debbie and Ian were releasing patches on Tuesdays. Am I wrong?
Oh, wait, it is *that* company.
Nevermind.
Seriously, I wonder why the ridgid schedule. Wouldn't it be better just to release when things are "ready"?
I used to telework much more. However, I find that (a) I get more done while monofocused in the office and (b) when I need people they're around.
Now, I do still telework some. In fact, I make sure I leave my office (a small 10'x20' room) by 3:30 or so in order to concentrate on coaching my boys' baseball teams. I then do work via vpn at night after they're asleep and while my beautiful bride is watching the Bachellorette or All My Children or whatever.
However, the allure of TW seems to be limited to mundane routine tasks. Anything that requires much paper handling (which we still for some reason have) or interaction just doesn't work in TW situations. Yeah, I've seen people post about IM, and it does work to an extent, but there's something about getting together in a hallway in front of a physical whiteboard that is missing from the TW equation.
...or at least one of them. I haven't read the book yet - but it is now listed as a to-do in my list of to-do items taking up space on my blackberry.
:P
In any case, I'd be curious what the answer is. In my short software development experience - only since '93 have I been doing enterprise-level development - I see one factor being the overwhelming key to failure.
Communication.
When you have analysts and developers (who are notorious for not being communicative in the first place) trying to interface with executives and managers (who are trying to CYA) then you have a perfect storm brewing.
Add to it, the fact that COTS solutions rarely actually fit the needs of everyone, and you subscribe to failure. A classic example that I just saw this week is with the California State Child Welfare lien processing system, written by Accenture. I asked for a minor change in the file layout some months ago. Only this week did I hear that I'd need a change request and that they'd get back to me in a few months.
By contrast, I've written my own in-house custom software systems for the enterprise. (One system in production has well over 500 concurrent users on any of fifteen different modules.) When teh customer(s) request a change, then it can - depending on complexity - be implemented and tested in a matter of days. Of course, harping on the communication theme, I'm in constant communication with teh customer, the end-user (if different), my developers, and my analysts. (I'm a PHB in the middle.) I make sure that we under-promise and over-delivery whenever possible.
Valid point. Since the misconception is that "free == cheap", I usually wait until something is up and running well before I mention it.
Sadly, my software developers (my staff) still haven't embraced Linux as much as they should. (Maybe it is because one of my main developers has a brother who works for the Evil Empire.)
Hmmmpf! And here I thought Windows 7 would be a better Unix than Unix.
Little did I know.
Every chance I get to tell my manager that my team has used an OSS product for one thing or another, I mention it. I'm trying to get him to stop usign the term, "freeware" or "shareware" which implies something less than ideal.
Sure, we use multi-thousand dollar products for development, but there's always some tool, some image, some utility, some code that is just better and licensed under GPL or CL.
Like I always say, "why improvise when you can plagiarize."
(I had to say that.)
Seriously, my department (1500 employees) has not made a move to either Vista (we now have about 30 Vista machines) or Win 7. I run it in VirtualBox under Ubuntu and so do about two others. However, the rest of the 1400 or so machines are running XP or even Win2K still. As it is, we've yet to find a compelling reason to "upgrade" from XP/2K. Most of the users have one or two apps running, some even run mainframe terminals still. The rest use office apps, which work just fine in XP.
For home users I can see moving to Win 7 (or even Ubuntu) but the business case just doesn't seem to justify the cost. Even new machines don't really seem to out perform older ones (< 5 year old) by much.
Honestly, I remember reading some /. article a few years back about this coming online back in '05 (?) and being very disappointed it wasn't there yet.
Of course, it would help if I read Koine Greek...
LOL!
:P
I'm not really worried. More a hypothetical question. I know my M$ budget this fiscal year is around $180,000 so they won't be coming after me anytime soon.
(Of course, I've switched from openSUSE on my laptop to Ubuntu - maybe I'm out of the patent protection...)
Okay, first off - I'm a Linux user. I love FOSS. I'm also a realist - i put my trust in that my staff will be able to write C# apps in Wintendo that will function. I expect in the near future that portions may be converted over to mono so that we may host items on Linux servers:
http://www.perfectreign.com/stuff/2009/20090312_secure_submitter.jpg
http://www.perfectreign.com/stuff/2008/20080912_JEDI_Vitals_Screen.png
http://www.perfectreign.com/stuff/2008/20081205_ie6_yoda_ii_ponte.jpg
My question is this - does MS moving to a new license change my current licensing? How does it interact with those running SLES or Virtualized Windows 2008 under XEN?
I read this and can't help but think of Mao's slogan, "Smile, you're happy!" I know this is a private company - or at least a single government entity - but still it smacks of Orwellianism.
Maybe it is actually doubleplusgood but I just don't get it.
Good point, not a good time for the industry.
Oh, and the developers in my instance had written the game on the side, not as part of any course. That showed me enthusiasm for the craft.
I just realized I have another coder who impressed me by having entered - and advanced - in a Microsoft competition: http://imaginecup.com/
Though, I'm a die-hard Linux user (currently Ubuntu 9.04 and openSUSE 10.3), I appreciate someone who is willing to enter a competition on their own.
First off, forget the college degree if all you want it for is to design/develop games. You can do so on your own without the degree. *** I'd suggest laearning C/C++ and at least one .NET language as well as studying/learning UI and graphic design theories.
Now - I see a lot of comments previous to mine that suggest getting out and not working for a game company. I agree wholeheartedly. If you want to design just games, start your own game company. You will want a niche market - DS games, PC games for Thai Children, Mainframe Games - and focus on doing just that. Then you can expand out. One designer I know who's been somewhat successful is Bill Kendrick. He writes multi-platform educational games. My kids love them: http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org
Good luck out there.
*** Now, I have recently hired two developers who got the job partially because they worked on games while in college. They had collaborated on a C++ based game which was installable and playable. This put the two of them above the average applicant who had only done coursework. Keep in mind, I manage a government-based software development group so we don't "do" games here. However, their experience did help them get an edge when starting. (We do most development in C#/.NET.)
I'd laugh, except that I'm still supporting a 90's era VB6 program, which is written with Office in mind such that Excel spreadsheets are opened, closed and eventually that data are saved to a sql server... ...you'd think that being a PHB, I'd not have to do VB programming anymore.
As I use Linux (Ubuntu and openSUSE) on my primary home machines, I tend to run the Windows stuff - aside from Office 2007 - in VB. My kids have always complained about the game play.
:P
Maybe not now.
It worked great when they were younger and Tux Paint, SuperTux, Chromium, TORCS, TuxRacer were what they wanted, but now they NEED to play the "in" gamez.
<sigh>
I'll just go back to playing my games on Stella and GFCE.
I don't know if the size of the hash has anything to do with the package or the resultant file, but what about simply doubling (or greater) the hash?
I did try to read the article, but got a bit lost when I began to read stuff like, "A basic boomerang distinguisher [12] is applied to a cipher EK() which is
considered as a composition of two sub-ciphers: EK(1) = E1 2 E0. The rst sub-cipher is supposed to have a dierential  ! , and the second one to have a..."
Man, it is hard being a PHB!
Though this is an interesting design, I'm wondering if the savings would be better served from using simply less servers? Does Y! use a high-tech design and still have a ton of servers or do they spend less on design and more on higher-capacacity servers running virtualization?
Hey, I was just in a massive data center yesterday for a tour. (100,000 sq ft) They had a spare s390 sitting on the side of the room. Maybe Y! can borrow that baby and put on a few hundred linux and/or windows VMs...
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Seriously, I wonder if this comes to pass and we continue on the binary process forever. (IIRC, some mainframes back in the '40s and '50s used decimal processing, which was too slow then, so all switched eventually to binary.)
I watched the little blurb and noticed the "younger" sister. Can you imagine the pressure she must be under as a teenager seeing her "older" sister get all the attention and focus?
Power to her!
I still remember the old saying after Win95 came out - in direct competition with the mainframe-centric OS/2 - "Windows 95 is a 32-bit shell to a 16-bit operating sysetm, written by an 8-bit company, originally written for a 4-bit processor by a company that can't stand one bit of competition."
Seems to hold somewhat true today.
Seriously, though. When you look at the ability to run VMs inside mainframes and potentially reduce floorspace and the associated costs, it may seem tempting to go mainframe. Even HP is always pushing the SuperDome on me. Funny, tho, I was just at a data center yesterday where they had an AS390 sitting on the side of the room, next to a z9. The z890 bought to replace the AS390 was about to be swapped out for the z9.
Time marches on.
IBM's big iron sill lives.
However, wanna bet that some portion of those running mainframes are running host OS's such as SLED and then running Xen inside of that with Win2008 servers?
There's a pretty simple answer for scaling infrastructure. It's, 'Don't be cheap,'" Heiliger said. He added that Facebook does drive hard bargains with its hardware and software infrastructure suppliers, and is careful not to overbuy.
I remember reading about how Amazon does it. They have clusters of servers running whatever OS suits the particular person having written the portion of code being used and will blow through something like 100 dead servers a day. IIRC, when you load a page from Amazon you get content delivered by 20+ servers onto one web page.
Maybe he just needs to scale out.
Or - I just noticed an unused AS390 in the server room today. Apparently the Z890 that replaced it is also going to be replaced by a new z9 machine. He could bundle some apps on the z890 or the 390.
I wonder if you can run .net or Java under OS/390 or MVS...