>Why should the EU be funding research for the corporate world?
Put simply - it shouldn't. The EU isn't capable of administering this kind of project and the money is typically wasted. I was the lead technical architect for a similar EU project that delivered jack shit in the end in spite of my best efforts. About 10-15 million euros spent on that one. The majority of the money spent on "project managers" and "business analysts" who were in fact neither.
Imagine a _very_ expensive restaurant in Venice with 30+ representatives (with their husbands/wives, flown from around Europe business class of course) from 15 public and private sector organisations from around Europe. I don't need to imagine it, I was there. And it was repeated many times over as the project roadshow travelled around Europe over a 2 year period. In my experience, that is where 90% of the research budget on this kind of project goes. Down bureaucrats throats. I used to be pro EU until I saw where the money went.
>love, secret, sex, or god Perhaps we should at least add another password to the list,
>like "unhackable" or something truly secure like that.
or what about "password" nobody would guess that?
As a former product manager for Oracle I can say that when it comes to Oracle strategy only two things matter:
1) Database licence sales 2) Larry Ellison's ego
[in that order of priority]
Oracle's foray into Linux must be with one or both of these in mind. Do not expect Oracle to promote Linux in any way that moves away from these priorities as it will not happen.
A basic install already set up for the windows convert, but underneath it hardware that will let me install my flavour of the month distro. Just give me hardware that doesn't need a degree in plumbing to get working with my favourite distro and I will be eternally grateful!
Gu Jianming, who lives near Liqian, said he was surprised to be told he might be descended from a European imperial army. But the birth of his daughter was also a surprise. Gu Meina, now six, was born with a shock of blonde hair.
If my wife gave birth to a half Chinese baby and told me that it was descended from an ancient lost tribe of Chinese settlers, I might be somewhat suspicious. Gu Jianming, wake up man, she cheated on you... My guess it is with the blond guy you saw in the village about 9 months ago!
Oracle beat the opposition (Ingres, Informix, etc al.) exactly this way. Read "The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison" if you don't believe it. Promise that release x.0 will have feature y that isn't even finished or tested just to sell ahead of the competition.
>"Losing a customer who you couldn't server in the first place is no big loss."
Most companies can't be too picky about which customers they want to deal with, especially when starting up. The reality is that growing a business is about risk. Obviously winning a contract you know you can't deliver on is madness. But a job that is just at the edge of your capabilities, or even just beyond them? A job that will allow your business to expand? These crucial decisions will determine whether you retire rich or poor.
anything that remotely involves creativity or innovation is not going anywhere
Creativity is not necessarily a big part of a job in IT though. For example, a DBA may have needed to be creative when the shXt hit the fan 10 years ago, but these days things shouldn't go wrong that often, and if they do then follow the backup and recovery plan that was probably written 5 years ago by someone creative. OK you need to know what you are doing, but the chances are you aren't the first DBA to have encountered this problem. Call the vendor for support. Push the buttons they tell you to. I'm not saying it's easy - you'll need to know what you're doing - but let's face it, innovation and creativity may not be the key skills you need here.
The same goes for many other white collar jobs out there. Does a lawyer need to be creative when drawing up a contract on the sale of house? Does a claims assessor have to be creative when looking at documentary evidence after a car accident?
There are a lot of jobs out there which have an inbox and an outbox, and a series of logical questions. Those that haven't already been automated, are exactly the kind that could be outsourced. And that does have the potential to affect any Western economy.
On the other hand, I've seen tons of spreadsheets with columns like:
Home Phone, Home Address, Business Phone, Business Address, Home Phone 2, Home Address 2, etc...
I've seen tons of database tables that look like this too;-)
Could you kindly expand on your argument?
I have developed many RDBMS based applications having worked for many years as a consultant for a major RDBMS vendor. In business, I've seen the following scenario many times before:
- A spreadsheet is developed by someone conscientious in the business to help them do their job done more easily (e.g. by a salesman or administrator)
- Other employees see the benefit of said spreadsheet and begin to use a copy.
- Over time, the copies go out to other branches, and eventually everyone becomes reliant on the spreadsheet.
- Branches of the spreadsheet begin to develop with individuals adding new functionality to satisfy their own requirements.
This is not a problem until:
1) Management wants a centralised reporting on the data. Where is my data? How can I report on it?
OR
2) The business process changes (e.g. following a change in legal regulations) and the spreadsheet must be redesigned. Where is my data? Where is my business logic?
While this scenario is possible in a distributed database environment, the chances of it happening are much more likely when the end users have full control of the data and the data definition.
So my biggest gripe with spreadsheets is that they are often misused. If you have a simple list (i.e. if your database would have 1 table!), and you want to order, filter and perform calculations on that data, then clearly a spreadsheet is enough. Issues like transaction control, multi user insert/update/delete, scalability, master-detail relationships, etc, may not be relevant to you.
I agree that it's difficult (impossible??) to predict what will happen 10 years from now... However, I think the big difference between now and other peaks and troughs we've seen is that in 1970, 1980 and even in 1990 there were many less people doing programming. The vast influx of people into the industry in the 1990s along with the mobilisation of off-shore development means that IT skills have become a commodity. Even if there is an industry-wide increase in IT spend, the supply of skilled people is there to absorb it.
The sad truth is that it's easy to replace the average programmer (or admin) that doesn't have real niche or functional knowlege. Ask any employment agency how many applications they'll get for a posting on dice or jobserve for "Java Programmer, J2EE" or "Oracle DBA, Solaris".
I hope some of the ideas that you mentioned happen (especially a growing trend to accept OSS). I hope I'm wrong, but I truly believe that nothing short of the invention of a Star Trek replicator would convince a Fortune 500 CIO to do anything but maintain or reduce his current IT spend.
I've been doing Consulting for the last 10 years. I've worked with (am still working with) lots of customers over that time and I think that the prediction is accurate. I just don't see anyone with big expansion plans for IT right now. And I don't see anything on the horizon that will change that. Most customers are happy enough with their current IT that they don't want to spend big any more. The ERP is in place. The online presence is in place. The board room question that's being asked is "WTF is IT doing now?"
The fundamental fact is that there are too many people in IT for the total budget available for IT spend. That means it's going to be tough for many. There will be little time to work out who is the best person for the job. In this climate, being good at your job is no guarantee of employment or a reasonable salary.
Overseas outsourcing will become less attractive because employers can get away with paying jack shit for local employees by relying on the over-supply of people who don't want to believe that the CS degree isn't worth anything to anyone any more.
1. A Nigerian is waiting my on my plot with my $10,000,000 in cash
2. The moon address means that I can get my Canadian lottery jackpot winnings absolutely tax free
3. Enlargement creams are 200% more effective in low gravity.
I'm offering you a once in a lifetime chance to take advantage of some these and countless other life-changing opportunities.
Sublet part of my lunar paradise, please paypal $50 to me now.
...Then we have to pass of the hardware to one of our IT consultants and he reformats the thing for us.
You can do this yourself by holding down the reset button on the back of the unit (need to use a pen or a screwdriver for this) for 30 seconds on power up. Of course, you'd need to download and apply the firmware patches through the web interface afterwards. This might save you some down time in future if you didn't already know about it...
FYI something else: I have had problems the power supply units on this and a previous Sonicwall (I've had two failures in 3 years - power supply stopped working and then managed to nuke the internals of my first Sonicwall appliance, the other power supply just stopped working). It might be worth spending $25 on keeping a spare given the number of reliant users you have...
From the original article... With proprietary software, forking generally does not take place since development is centralized within a firm and disciplined by market forces
I spent many years working for the largest software company in the world that isn't M$. I can tell you that this statement is true. Forking doesn't often happen in the closed source world. What actually happens is much worse....
Imagine there are two competing schools of thought that will determine the direction of a given product - let's call them "BJ" and "69". An internal turf war develops. The winning philosophy wins a VP(or higher)-level management battle. The winner will likely be as much about the personality and corporate status of the sponsor as the technical merits of the approach. Let's say "BJ" became the preferred approach. The key evangelists for school of thought "69" are made to eat their humble pie (or quit). The resentment that results will generally doom the product to failure, or at least damage progress for several years. If you as a customer were making use of the latest "69" features, it is likely that you'll find them unchanged, or worse desupported in future versions.
As the parent stated, with open source you at least have the option of supporting, fixing bugs or continuing development yourself.
It's a long story about how I got hold of it, but I use a Sonicwall SoHo as a firewall (+NAT gateway) for my home ADSL connection. I have to admit I do like the simplicity and Sonicwall's "buy what you need" policy.
However, I'm not convinced as to how secure it actually is. For example, I believe my FTP client was spoofed while I was downloading a BSD distro. The Sonicwall did report and (supposedly) block an attempted spoof (from a Polish IP range), but I noticed that my PC (running a fully patched Linux distro) made a call to an unusual port on the address listed as the source of the spoof (this was blocked on the way out by the Sonicwall). Scary... Having said that, that is the one anomaly I've noticed in 6 months of use, so maybe it's not so bad.
As far as your need for enhanced activity reporting goes, have you considered using an IDS like Snort?
I know the NHS recently agreed a $465 million contract to roll out Oracle HR. If I remember rightly, Oracle HR uses Oracle Forms and Oracle (web) Forms needs JInitiator. Not sure what the current state is, but JInitiator did not used to be supported on Linux... This might mean lock into IE - although I'm sure Larry would offer an alternative if this were ever to become a serious proposition.
Let's hope it happens, but I have to admit that this does smell of the NHS trying to apply pressure on Microsoft for discounts. Whether it happens or not, that the story itself exists and is credible is really bad news for Microsoft.
Non-US public sector, where corporate America is not that popular right now could offer a real shot in the arm for OSS. Their software purchasing decisions are as much about politics as technology. Whatever the reasoning, a few big projects like this will mean real budgets, real users and absolute cast iron customer reference sites...
I (honestly) kept a souvenir business card from a guy at BT Exact called Mike Hunt. The line "give Mike Hunt a call at BT" followed by handing over his business card is one I've inflicted on many fellow drunks over the years.
FYI, I believe Mike retired from BT a couple of years ago and is blissfully unaware of how much joy he's unwittingly bestowed upon the world of depressed alcoholics.
People will be prepared to pay for the RedHat "product". By product, we're talking about more than a Linux (and GNU) distro. We're talking about RHN, a support organisation and a certified platform for some of the industry's biggest Enterprise software vendors.
RedHat has earned (??) the reputation, rightly or wrongly, as Linux without the screwdriver. [And, more significantly, as Linux that can't get the CTO fired.] If an IT manager is splashing out $50k+ for Oracle 9i EE to run on a Linux cluster, he isn't going to worry about a few dollars more for RedHat licences.
Red Hat support, marketing and hours on the golf course with Larry Ellison is what you are paying for. If that's not appropriate or relavent to you or your organisation, then you should move to Debian or somewhere else.
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>Why should the EU be funding research for the corporate world?
Put simply - it shouldn't. The EU isn't capable of administering this kind of project and the money is typically wasted. I was the lead technical architect for a similar EU project that delivered jack shit in the end in spite of my best efforts. About 10-15 million euros spent on that one. The majority of the money spent on "project managers" and "business analysts" who were in fact neither.
Imagine a _very_ expensive restaurant in Venice with 30+ representatives (with their husbands/wives, flown from around Europe business class of course) from 15 public and private sector organisations from around Europe. I don't need to imagine it, I was there. And it was repeated many times over as the project roadshow travelled around Europe over a 2 year period. In my experience, that is where 90% of the research budget on this kind of project goes. Down bureaucrats throats. I used to be pro EU until I saw where the money went.
>love, secret, sex, or god Perhaps we should at least add another password to the list, >like "unhackable" or something truly secure like that. or what about "password" nobody would guess that?
As a former product manager for Oracle I can say that when it comes to Oracle strategy only two things matter:
1) Database licence sales
2) Larry Ellison's ego
[in that order of priority]
Oracle's foray into Linux must be with one or both of these in mind. Do not expect Oracle to promote Linux in any way that moves away from these priorities as it will not happen.
Kadin2048, you have it dead right.
A basic install already set up for the windows convert, but underneath it hardware that will let me install my flavour of the month distro. Just give me hardware that doesn't need a degree in plumbing to get working with my favourite distro and I will be eternally grateful!
From TFA...
Gu Jianming, who lives near Liqian, said he was surprised to be told he might be descended from a European imperial army. But the birth of his daughter was also a surprise. Gu Meina, now six, was born with a shock of blonde hair.
If my wife gave birth to a half Chinese baby and told me that it was descended from an ancient lost tribe of Chinese settlers, I might be somewhat suspicious. Gu Jianming, wake up man, she cheated on you... My guess it is with the blond guy you saw in the village about 9 months ago!
Oracle beat the opposition (Ingres, Informix, etc al.) exactly this way. Read "The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison" if you don't believe it. Promise that release x.0 will have feature y that isn't even finished or tested just to sell ahead of the competition.
>"Losing a customer who you couldn't server in the first place is no big loss."
Most companies can't be too picky about which customers they want to deal with, especially when starting up. The reality is that growing a business is about risk. Obviously winning a contract you know you can't deliver on is madness. But a job that is just at the edge of your capabilities, or even just beyond them? A job that will allow your business to expand? These crucial decisions will determine whether you retire rich or poor.
Mostly correct. However, be aware that Oracle are working on Linux and Linux-related projects.
Yeah, with java and cookies in the resume, at least I'll be able to say I already have relevant experience.
anything that remotely involves creativity or innovation is not going anywhere
Creativity is not necessarily a big part of a job in IT though. For example, a DBA may have needed to be creative when the shXt hit the fan 10 years ago, but these days things shouldn't go wrong that often, and if they do then follow the backup and recovery plan that was probably written 5 years ago by someone creative. OK you need to know what you are doing, but the chances are you aren't the first DBA to have encountered this problem. Call the vendor for support. Push the buttons they tell you to. I'm not saying it's easy - you'll need to know what you're doing - but let's face it, innovation and creativity may not be the key skills you need here.
The same goes for many other white collar jobs out there. Does a lawyer need to be creative when drawing up a contract on the sale of house? Does a claims assessor have to be creative when looking at documentary evidence after a car accident?
There are a lot of jobs out there which have an inbox and an outbox, and a series of logical questions. Those that haven't already been automated, are exactly the kind that could be outsourced. And that does have the potential to affect any Western economy.
Anyone else done a public demo of a web application and seen www..com being autocompleted in the address box as you type???
On the other hand, I've seen tons of spreadsheets with columns like: Home Phone, Home Address, Business Phone, Business Address, Home Phone 2, Home Address 2, etc... ;-)
I've seen tons of database tables that look like this too
Could you kindly expand on your argument?
I have developed many RDBMS based applications having worked for many years as a consultant for a major RDBMS vendor. In business, I've seen the following scenario many times before:
- A spreadsheet is developed by someone conscientious in the business to help them do their job done more easily (e.g. by a salesman or administrator)
- Other employees see the benefit of said spreadsheet and begin to use a copy.
- Over time, the copies go out to other branches, and eventually everyone becomes reliant on the spreadsheet.
- Branches of the spreadsheet begin to develop with individuals adding new functionality to satisfy their own requirements.
This is not a problem until:
1) Management wants a centralised reporting on the data. Where is my data? How can I report on it?
OR
2) The business process changes (e.g. following a change in legal regulations) and the spreadsheet must be redesigned. Where is my data? Where is my business logic?
While this scenario is possible in a distributed database environment, the chances of it happening are much more likely when the end users have full control of the data and the data definition.
So my biggest gripe with spreadsheets is that they are often misused. If you have a simple list (i.e. if your database would have 1 table!), and you want to order, filter and perform calculations on that data, then clearly a spreadsheet is enough. Issues like transaction control, multi user insert/update/delete, scalability, master-detail relationships, etc, may not be relevant to you.
mark
Head for the hills Eyal. Wild Bill's in town and he's raising a posse to come and getya...
I agree that it's difficult (impossible??) to predict what will happen 10 years from now... However, I think the big difference between now and other peaks and troughs we've seen is that in 1970, 1980 and even in 1990 there were many less people doing programming. The vast influx of people into the industry in the 1990s along with the mobilisation of off-shore development means that IT skills have become a commodity. Even if there is an industry-wide increase in IT spend, the supply of skilled people is there to absorb it.
The sad truth is that it's easy to replace the average programmer (or admin) that doesn't have real niche or functional knowlege. Ask any employment agency how many applications they'll get for a posting on dice or jobserve for "Java Programmer, J2EE" or "Oracle DBA, Solaris".
I hope some of the ideas that you mentioned happen (especially a growing trend to accept OSS). I hope I'm wrong, but I truly believe that nothing short of the invention of a Star Trek replicator would convince a Fortune 500 CIO to do anything but maintain or reduce his current IT spend.
I've been doing Consulting for the last 10 years. I've worked with (am still working with) lots of customers over that time and I think that the prediction is accurate. I just don't see anyone with big expansion plans for IT right now. And I don't see anything on the horizon that will change that. Most customers are happy enough with their current IT that they don't want to spend big any more. The ERP is in place. The online presence is in place. The board room question that's being asked is "WTF is IT doing now?"
The fundamental fact is that there are too many people in IT for the total budget available for IT spend. That means it's going to be tough for many. There will be little time to work out who is the best person for the job. In this climate, being good at your job is no guarantee of employment or a reasonable salary.
Overseas outsourcing will become less attractive because employers can get away with paying jack shit for local employees by relying on the over-supply of people who don't want to believe that the CS degree isn't worth anything to anyone any more.
land in the moon
Actually my moon plot has been very useful...
1. A Nigerian is waiting my on my plot with my $10,000,000 in cash
2. The moon address means that I can get my Canadian lottery jackpot winnings absolutely tax free
3. Enlargement creams are 200% more effective in low gravity.
I'm offering you a once in a lifetime chance to take advantage of some these and countless other life-changing opportunities.
Sublet part of my lunar paradise, please paypal $50 to me now.
# ln -s /usr/bin/clear /usr/local/bin/clearlyridiculous
A camera, tape and VCR might have offered him a more flexible long-term solution...
You can do this yourself by holding down the reset button on the back of the unit (need to use a pen or a screwdriver for this) for 30 seconds on power up. Of course, you'd need to download and apply the firmware patches through the web interface afterwards. This might save you some down time in future if you didn't already know about it...
FYI something else: I have had problems the power supply units on this and a previous Sonicwall (I've had two failures in 3 years - power supply stopped working and then managed to nuke the internals of my first Sonicwall appliance, the other power supply just stopped working). It might be worth spending $25 on keeping a spare given the number of reliant users you have...
I spent many years working for the largest software company in the world that isn't M$. I can tell you that this statement is true. Forking doesn't often happen in the closed source world. What actually happens is much worse....
Imagine there are two competing schools of thought that will determine the direction of a given product - let's call them "BJ" and "69". An internal turf war develops. The winning philosophy wins a VP(or higher)-level management battle. The winner will likely be as much about the personality and corporate status of the sponsor as the technical merits of the approach. Let's say "BJ" became the preferred approach. The key evangelists for school of thought "69" are made to eat their humble pie (or quit). The resentment that results will generally doom the product to failure, or at least damage progress for several years. If you as a customer were making use of the latest "69" features, it is likely that you'll find them unchanged, or worse desupported in future versions.
As the parent stated, with open source you at least have the option of supporting, fixing bugs or continuing development yourself.
As far as your need for enhanced activity reporting goes, have you considered using an IDS like Snort?
Let's hope it happens, but I have to admit that this does smell of the NHS trying to apply pressure on Microsoft for discounts. Whether it happens or not, that the story itself exists and is credible is really bad news for Microsoft.
Non-US public sector, where corporate America is not that popular right now could offer a real shot in the arm for OSS. Their software purchasing decisions are as much about politics as technology. Whatever the reasoning, a few big projects like this will mean real budgets, real users and absolute cast iron customer reference sites...
I (honestly) kept a souvenir business card from a guy at BT Exact called Mike Hunt. The line "give Mike Hunt a call at BT" followed by handing over his business card is one I've inflicted on many fellow drunks over the years. FYI, I believe Mike retired from BT a couple of years ago and is blissfully unaware of how much joy he's unwittingly bestowed upon the world of depressed alcoholics.
I believe the answer is "Yes".
"a link to any information regarding those Oracle optimizations?"
The Linux page on OTN would be a good place to start.
RedHat has earned (??) the reputation, rightly or wrongly, as Linux without the screwdriver. [And, more significantly, as Linux that can't get the CTO fired.] If an IT manager is splashing out $50k+ for Oracle 9i EE to run on a Linux cluster, he isn't going to worry about a few dollars more for RedHat licences.
Red Hat support, marketing and hours on the golf course with Larry Ellison is what you are paying for. If that's not appropriate or relavent to you or your organisation, then you should move to Debian or somewhere else.