Sorry, I was in a Software Eng class (still am) and trying to be brief. The professor was going in CLI commands to configure JBOSS, Apache's ANT, and J2SDK so I had to be paying more attention.
This is not light reading, but I spent a few weeks reading the 1000 page ( +/- 100 pages depending on version) of the RFC2002, which outlines Mobile IP. I've been out of this for a couple years since Sprint laid me off, moved me to a hell hole named Kansas, and decided to ignore my last 4 years of network data and put me back in data transport...troubleshooting DS1/3s WOO HOO! (you'll notice I continue your sarcasm). The new replacement is RFC3220 which I have not read. The only way I made it through the first was to load it on my laptop, and read about 20 pages a day during the 60 minute train ride to work. I don't have that commute or time luxury anymore.
If you have specific, technical questions, feel free to shoot them here or via email. John at SCHUBE dot COM I have an MBA, so I'm willing to speculate with ya on target markets too. The best applications I saw were for traveling salespeople. It's really a lightly tapped market, as most people aren't technologically savy enough to realize they can run a light application on their Treo (or whatever) and use it with backend SQL servers (or whatever). Sprint tiers this service with dedicated VPNs for large business users. You can usually see very large companies (like IBM) trying out these services early on.
The difference is handing off. I can drive from Las Vegas to Southern Cali, and then up to San Fran, all while handing off from network to network.....all while my application and destination server have no idea I've changed network points of connection. This may not seem like a big deal for short duration apps, like Explorer or Mail, where you can just restart the application and renew your DHCP, but there are some apps where you don't want the session to break constantly. If you never leave a small area, yes, you'll never know the difference.
For a real good write up, go to IETF and read the white paper on Mobile IP. WiFi compared to MIP/3G is kinda similar to comparing oranges to limes. They're both citrus, but don't taste the same.
I was a network engineer for Sprint PCS during the launch of 2G and 3G. By definition, 2G is still a circuit switched data call. Laymans terms: You're using your cell phone as a modem. You're confined to dial up speed max, as you're actually just switching through the voice network, going through a modem bank (Sprint used 3Com Edgeservers) and then going out a dial up line. This isn't the "mobile Internet" you use with 3G.
In 3G, your connection's speed is managed by overhead signaling and your connection will vary by the resources available (as implemented by CDMA 2000). To the layman, you may get only a basic channel of 9.6k if there is a lot of traffic. However, during periods of less activity, you'll peak up around 60-80 as an average. You may see it hit around 100k/sec, but voice traffic takes priority and will quickly knock you back down (unless you live in the sticks, or surf at 3am...after the drunks have called for their ride home).
You mention Mobile Internet, so I'm thinking you're alluding to Mobile IP. Mobile IP is only implemented in 3G, and uses Home Agent, Foreign Agents, AAA servers (authentication, billing), Packet Data Server Nodes (PDSN) and Packet Control servers (PCF). To the layperson, these are tunnels within IP, using care of addresses, to manage a network connection that is changing its point of connection. In implementation, you could fire up your laptop in NYC, and drive to Southern California without changing IP address. This way your applications don't break. I could post a thesis on this, but I'm currently sitting in a Software Engineering class (ignoring a slide show on Java Beans) so I'm gonna cut it short here.
I've shaken my head at PCs in a car, and some other oddities. This car, though, takes the cake. I'm not sure I'd really want to do this, even if I could. Enterprise servers aren't made for that vibration, and I've seen what a smoked power supply goes for (right after corporate decided to "save money" by dropping the warranties). Even with WiFi, Bluetooth, or wi-flavor of the month, you're just wasting resources. You might as well be in a Lambroghini Diablo, parked in traffic on the 5 in LA.
Thanks for the different point of view. It is definately different than the academia point I'm getting. I look at it and see all these graphs (8 or 9, unless you're looking at UML 2.0 or whatever V the newest is up to), and think to myself, "This is basicly overrated." But I just assumed it was my inexperience. The interaction charts are like "pong" charts used in telecom or network planning. The rest look like variations of the flow chart, which has been around longer than I've been alive.
I was quite impressed when I was reading IBM Rational Rose info that said it could create code. I suffered through C++, and so anything bypassing me keeping track of memory and "int" versus "float" is a winner to me. Again, though, the practical side of the brain just can't believe anything automated can create good code. I use Microsoft's rendering of HTML from Word as defense exhibit A. HTML is a much simpler "language" than C++. So if it flails through that I can't see how C++ would be much different, but on a larger scale.
I mentioned the Visual Basic flaming because there was an article on here just yesterday talking about flaming VB versus C, C++, and C#. People are hung up on "Basic".
For the reply about tools analogy. I could say technique and the other you mention also apply to tools. This is why you have ball peen hammers, roofing hammers, sledgehammers, and mallets. Either analogy (cars V tools) can apply. It's funny you mentioned cars, I used the analogy in my database class. Using MySQL versus Oracle, I said, "There's no point in requesting a Mercedes when the budget only allows for a Kia". Subseqently, I've found MySQL can be a "Mercedes" if need be. I didn't realize it was already penetrating terabytes and large enterprise levels of capability.
We've been discussing this in our Software Engineering classes lately. I'm learning UML and part of the whole push to to unify all these different means and methods of software development. If you look back, it's amazing how far and how fast it's all evolved, and then subsequently, how fractured things have become as well. We can flame all day and night about Visual Basic Vs This Language or that. And no one will be definitively right. I liken it to my toolbox in the garage. I have hundreds of tools that are great in their own right. However, there's a couple dozen I use regularly.
Hiroshima and Dresden? Or the "shock and awe" campaign? This is pure terror.
This is psy ops, which it sounds like you're familiar with. The purpose of psy ops is not to kill, rather, to preclude further losses on both sides. The example of this is the first Gulf war, where thousands gave up without fighting. The opposite is to say, "We only have the goal to smite out the other country (Israel, as an example)" and then follow through with random killing. On the issue of nuclear arms, what other country tries harder to fight the proliferation of those? None. We have fought many wars since then, and not used them. I think that speaks for itself.
"highway of death"
Again, there are exceptions. If you recall, we realized it had a negative connotation, and the war quickly ended afterwards. My wife was in a truck, hung out in the middle of the desert, refueling tanks. Did she get to finish her mission of cutting off Republican Guards? Nope. They stopped. On a side note: What do you think those people on the highway were returning from? Not a superbowl party. They were looters, rapists, murders, tresspassers being beat back. Were there a few there innocentlt? Possible. That's why are unlikely to repeat this, and we'll certainly not PLAN to do it again. Remember, the context of this disussion is the GOAL of the conflict(s).
...learned the lesson of the second world war
Let me get this right, you say the lesson is we SHOULD wait and see? I am very versed in military conflict and recent history and I can't say I've ever heard that as a lesson learned. On the flip side, we are not hasty either, even when we have war in mind. How long was it from 9/11 until Afghanistan? We went to the UN and had been waiting for months since notifying the world of our intent with Iraq.
I would like to point out that you think that the US is trying to make a difference, while extreme muslims are enforcing their view on others. This is really the same
No, I would equate extreme muslims to Timothy McVeigh, the Unibomber and others we quickly deal with. The government is elected by the people and accountable to the people. There is no accountability for terrorists, unless they get caught. So there is a distinct difference. Are they both passionate about their cause? Sure. Are they the same? No. Is the prosecutor who is passionate about putting away a murderer just as guilty as the murderer who is passionate about killing children? Maybe I misunderstood, but that's the type of logic/conclusions that equating the US to terrorists/dictators leads too.
To your final thoughts on military versus government, I agree and disagree. I'll just leave it there since it's just my opinion with no real evidence to dispute it. My perspective is this, as learned from officer training in armed conflict: The military is an extension of the country's foreign policy. For a successful campaign, the civilian leaders create policy, set out goals, and then the military makes it happen. Do we question the motives or goals? No, you don't want uncertainty from those who are putting their life on the line. Are there mistakes made? Sure, but we have rules, practices and procedures to deal with it. This is why I somewhat feel the media did a disservice with the Anbar (sp?) prison story about torture. The National Guardsman reported it to (I believe) the IG. In a rare move, the commander was relieved the very same week (I remember it being a matter of 1-3 days). Anyone in the military know this means two things: It's likely to be true and serious consequences follow. An officer's career is not remotely likely to recover. Anyway, I could develop this example further, however my point is this. For every travesty we commit, there are hundreds of men and women who will persevere to make sure it doesn't happen again. As I stated, I'll take this course of action over standing on the sidelines anyday. I find it a very strange dichotomy to say things are bad, yet take no action.
To the first reply: Thanks, I am glad you mentioned South Africa, as I really was curious if any 3rd world countries actively pursued those ideals.
To the poster who equates a US Pilot to suicide bombers:
You really don't know much, other than what's fed to you on the news, do you? The US Military has been going through very great pains to AVOID, not PURPOSELY target innocent civilians.
Either: you miss my point, are naive, or actually feel mistakes made by good men, trying to do good things justify murder. (or you're a troll). I'll be optimistic and go with one of the first two.
Since I'm former enlisted in the Air Force, and now a commissioned officer in the Air National Guard, which flies a great number of the sorties worldwide, I'll go ahead and reply.
First, weeks go into planning to avoid civilians. If there are known playgrounds or other sensitive areas to the west, we'll bring in the missiles or bombs from the North or South. This was if the blast carries, or the bomb goes long/short, it minimizes the chance of collateral damage. Do suicide bombers only target military? No. Do they go through pains to carefully plan the attack to NOT hit civilians? No. The military will chase those who shoot at them, but when they duck into mosques, we stop. They take up strategic points, and lay suppressive fire. Do we simply swing a tank turret around or bring in an AC-130 gunship and take care of the problem in a few seconds? No. Israel has and we see what happens there. We wait them out while taking casulties. Meanwhile said bad guys kill their own Muslim leaders in a Mosque on a holiday (I believe it was the last day of fasting, if memory serves correct). If that doesn't make it crystal clear that their sole intent is to murder anyone who doesn't agree with them, I really can't help you. I've never met a pilot who pulled out a pistol and shot someone who disagreed. Nope, but did Sadaam do this? Did he use Chemical Weapons on his own people? So, following the anti-US logic should we just pass UN resolutions, but do nothing, after a US President drops sarin gas on New York?? No, really, just wait quite a few years and be really, really mad...I'm sure he'll change (of course ignoring the term limits which dictators don't abide).
I could go on with hundreds of examples of people planning to minimize innocent casulties, but I'm sure your objective opinion would be more swayed by the few cases where things went wrong.
I'm not going to say everything the government does is right. I'm not going to say the Dubya is always correct. However, our country is still naive and optimistic enough to jump into the forray and try to make things better. I'll take the mistakes that go with occasional abuses/oversights/etc on this side, than those who sit on the sidelines and critique, or even worse, aid those who just want to murder with no other solution in mind.
The alternative is to become non-committal or isolationists. Both have historically been crystal clear cases of the wrong thing to do. We ignored the Japanese while they rolled across countries. We watched while Germany murdered millions and sank British ships. How successful was that strategy? Carter tried to ignore the middle east too. I'm sure he concluded that was a good idea while trying to figure out how to negotiate for our hostages or watching the footage of the Israel Olympic athletes being killed.
True, but did you read about the growing skinheads in Russia? This is not an exclusive problem in the USA. Actually, we're one of the few nations where the government goes out of its way to promote opposing views and diversity. Ever heard of EEO, EOH, etc? Show me another country (besides Western nations such as UK, Canada) that actively enforce these laws.
That said, it's a different mentality when these dillheads use the rights we die for to kill innocents. Being former military, I agree and understand the parent to this subthread. I may think you're an idiot, but I sacrifice so that you have the freedom. What I DONT stand are cowards who impose THEIR thoughts on others by getting on a schoolbus with children with the sole intention of impaling them with thousands of 2-penny nails and ballbearings. Oppressed, religious, whathaveyou, nothing justifies what these guys do. Hence, this is the reason you don't want to be near his bar. I would be very careful to align their causes with "discrimination" (such as against gays, faith, etc).
drag race (visit my website and you'll see my inclination to quarter mile racing). After I posted, I was certain someone would use a exception to disprove my analogy such as the Silver State Classic Challenge road race. The SSCC race is only held once a year, so it's conceivable to spend a whole year in preparation.
My point was that it was anti-climatic and could....err...SHOULD have been avoided by just doing a little more work. OK...here's a better analogy. You spend all year to prepare for a triatholon. You start the race, complete 80% of the race, and then hop on a motorcycle to take you to the finish line. lol...ok back to working on my homework...
NEVERMIND, dont bother with the results either
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Testing ISP Censorship
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· Score: 4, Informative
Good gracious. Maybe I'm in "DICK" mode today, but this completely disappoints me at every level. Sample size of two? I hope I've made a mistake, but a 39 page paper based upon an experiment with a sample size of TWO!!??
It'd be better off being summarized and turned into a Op/Ed piece. The paper itself seems very sound in structure, setting up methods and procedures for experimenting, developing a hypothesis and all the remaining factors for a good research paper. However, to have spent so much time in preparation for a sample of 2 is like spending a whole year prepping for a 10 second race.
Just my critical view of it, after several Associates, a Bachelors, Masters and starting on a second Masters degree.
read the actual results. Anyone reading/. will already have their opinion and a basic understanding. Save your time reading a redundant, almost circular article, by going straight to the actual results. Don't worry, the actual results will ALSO include the information in the article.
Thanks for the great reply. I hadn't realized they were interfacing with 3rd party A/V software. I'm a little out of the loop on A/V, as I abandoned keeping up on it around Norton 2000. Just as I stopped the upgrade train with M$, I also hopped off renewing a/v subscriptions. I alleviate the risk by running a hardware and software firewall, as well as following safe operating procedures (turn off pre-view in mail, don't ever open attachments). I know I'm in a somewhat precarious position, but I make regular back ups just in case.
At the risk of being redundant, though, you're still at their mercy of updates. It's a false sense of security and I think most educated users want control of upgrades/patches.
My Favorite quote was at the end:
With the code already available on the Net, this is effectively a security nightmare... unless you're a Mozilla or Opera user that is.
Even though I like Unix, suffer through Linux, and use Mozilla for mail, I prefer Explorer. Despite that preference, though, I use Opera now 80% of the time for exactly the reason of this parent article. I have other things to do than keep abreast of the latest hole M$ has been ignoring or constantly patching.
I am all for promoting GPS and other technology, but as a networking engineer with 8 years of GPS experience I fail to see the connection.
Specifically, you might use a stratum to sync up if a common NTP server doesn't suit you, but you really don't need "GPS skills". It's almost like the author wanted to throw in some buzzwords to sound more techie.
Back to the main assertion, I'd say we're just fine as sys admins (or network admins). I deployed all sorts of scripts and tools, such as Big Brother, to automate my job. Also learned NAWK/AWK, and Expect scripting for various activities such as installing SSH on aboutt 160 Sun servers running Solaris 8. I can safely say that despite my best efforts to automate, there was still always work to be done. Someone has to _RUN_ the scripts, and tweak them down the road. The best automation for computer systems still needs a fair amount of human intervention. It just makes us more productive. Instead of putting in 80 hours a week, we'll now get to see our family after a "normal" 40 hour week.
In an IP frenzy, Microsoft mistakenly submits a prank application that Dr. Fester Inurbutt had left over from April 1st, 2001. Inurbutt was overheard stating, "Man, what a bummer. I guess this means all OSS proponents will have to become lefties."
On a related note, Bill Gates reveales he is, in fact, a leftie and exempt from paying his own wiping licensing fees.
Sprint network goes down for 12 hours before technician catches it and fixes it. Phone company rep stated, "Hey, he was watching RotK! You're lucky the network came up at all that day."
We knew for a year or so that we would be assimilated into the mother pod at corporate HQ in Kansas. So I started suggesting we name our servers after extinct animals, starting with dodo (for the dodo bird).
We actually just started having more fun at work, then making changes to the network. We would lob our "stress balls" at anything interesting, and unbreakable.
The real maliciousness, however, was after we were laid off. I took the relocation package and moved to Kansas, but that's when all the problems really started. Files started disappearing, and finally entire file systems and backups. I'm not sure how they were doing it, but since part of the migration meant I gave up my root access and all admin responsibilities I couldn't investigate. In the past we could narrow it down, but without root and the logs I was powerless. I eventually quit and moved back to California, but I still haven't (nor has anyone else) figured out who was whacking files.
Actually I did exactly that. That was the "long story short". They got very concerned when I started calling a friend who is an government, automotive mechanical engineer, with close ties to GM. I was querying him about, "finding latent memory images of previous codes", which got their attention very quickly. I figured it must be like a memory location or a sector in a file system. Just because you "clear the code" (meaning, make the SES light go away), there must be an image left until overwritten. I saw them clear codes three times after that phone call (they must have thought, "This will REALLY clear it out"). After beating on them for 3 hours, they finally relented and in a very angry tone said they would fix the EGR. At that point I said, "No. No one is going to work on my car, that doesn't WANT to". I complained to the owner, General Manager, and the GM regional sales director, but never got a call back. Did I mention they also scratched the living hell out of my front clip and then buffed THROUGH my clear coat when trying to hide the scratches? Yeah...that dealership is bad news. Their issue was my headers, they were trying to say the headers were causing the code. I informed them about the Technical Service Bulletin from GM about the faulty EGR (which lead to the recall), as well as the headers being CARB approved and even _available from GM Performance Parts_! If they affected emissions, GM would not sell them (they were made by SLP, who made the Ram-Airs and SS around 95-97) and CARB would not have approved them. Side Bar: This is why SEMA is so crucial to the aftermarket autmotive community. They lobby the government, as well as the manufacturers, to make things better for the auto hobbyist.
I did put up a webpage with my two horror stories from that dealer, and the humorous dialogue during a 2000 visit with the Pontiac salesguy (same dealer) who had no clue the Trans Am only came with one size of engine for the last 7 years, since 1993. My stats showed noone ever hit the page when searching for "Pontiac Dealers California" or "David J Phillips dealership":) so I never bothered putting the page back up when I moved servers and re-organized my website.
If you're traveling in Central California around Big Sur or Monterey, on a two lane road, it's illegal to NOT pull over and let cars pass. I can't remember the threshold, but I think it's four cars. I've seen CHP pull over RVs that block all kinds of traffic.
On a related note, this is EXACTLY why I like some of our other rules, such as not allowing semis (tractor trailers) in the left lanes. I had forgotten just how bad it could be until I drove from San Diego to St. Petersburg, Florida. I had a very hard time controlling my anger when two semis decided to ride side-by-side for 30 miles, during "somewhat medium" congestion traffic.
They represent all the aftermarket manufactures for automotive parts.
For anyone interested, here is the email I sent to the author of the Wired Article:
I think the legislation allowing people to go to outside dealers for warranty work will be even better. In my case, I am an Engineer with a love for cars. I bought $700 software to reprogram my car, and another $400 on software to scan and log the data from the On Board Computer (OBD-II). A few years ago, I threw an SES (Service Engine Soon) light, and immediately scanned it with my gear. It read, "Low Flow - EGR Malfunction". I took the car in to the dealer, since emissions are warrantied for 100k miles in California, and I told them it was an EGR malfunction. The dealer serviceman looked incredulous. He replied, "You're not supposed to know that!" Long story short, I threw a code a week later and scanned it again. When I saw a repeat of the same error code, I looked closer at my repair sheet from the dealer. They had replaced my Air Pump, otherwise known as a Smog Pump, which is totally unrelated to Exhaust Gas Recirculation, or EGR valve. I bought an EGR valve off E-bay and just replaced it myself, thinking the issue would be over. After I installed the new EGR valve, the code cleared, never to return.
The story takes a funny twist at this point. I received a notice from California DMV that my car was being held up for registration renewal because of an uncorrected emissions recall. I look at the notice and it's for the EGR replacement. I took the car back to the dealer and they certified they replaced the recalled part. In other words, they certified they replaced a part they were unable to diagnose and that I ultimately had to replace myself. It's for reasons such as this that I sold my Trans Am and stopped racing. I spent thousands of dollars ensuring my '97 Trans Am had nothing but CARB (California Air Resource Board) approved modifications for low emissions, and high performance (427 dyno'd horsepower at the tires), yet $15 an hour greasemonkeys couldn't effectively manage the emissions process. It became too stressful trying to find a smogshop where people had a clue.
Soooo....I guess I can call all the Lucent 5ESS switches (and the Nortel ones afterwards) and tell them, "NEVERMIND!! You can turn off all those banks of 3Com Edgeservers in the switching room"??
You've made a couple very critical errors in your post. The modem phone call does not follow the same route through the switch. If you grab an older CDPD phone (aka 2 or 2.5G...before 3G) and connect it to your laptop, install the software to use it as a modem, you'll note it's dialing #777. This tells the switch how to treat the incoming call. The call BYPASSES the vocoders (the "voice mangler" you referred to) and goes out a T1 to a tall cabinet, which I learned to hate with a passion. These piece of $h1t boxes are the only ones we allowed through the door with a Windows OS. I managed, back then, about 200-300 servers, which were all the servers in Sprint PCS Lucent-switched markets, nationwide. These damn windows boxes hung all the time. The cabinet has two Edgeservers (one for each half of the "shelf"), which is basicly a Windows/Intel machine in a single card/slot. There were about 8-10 modem bank cards which passed up to four CPDP (circuit data, packet data) calls per card.
You were correct about the painful speeds. We were still limited to the old 56k standards established when we were all in preschool.
Sorry if I sounded pissy in the beginning. I just got through MetaModding and couldn't believe the number of BS posts modded "Interesting", especially the ones which were pure conjecture and obviously wrong to anyone intiated in the subject. No, your's wasn't a case of this, but I was still irritated, nonetheless.
Dont you mean "Custom High Volume Mail Distribution". Like a custom trashhauler, but in reverse.
Yeah, I know...boo hisss....but I couldn't help myself.
Been playing for years, but always small time
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Geeks and Poker?
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· Score: 1
I first got into gambling in Tulsa, at the horse track. It was fun to bet and then watch the race a few minutes later.
It took College to get me into Poker. I was a freshman at Oklahoma State University, and I soon learned the professors didn't take roll with 300 person classes (in an auditorium), or even the smaller ones. Anyway, in our dorm we'd set up on the pool table and play from 6pm until 6am, and then go eat at chow. I started missing lots of classes and flunked out.
I stopped for a few years, enlisted in the Air Force, and got my act together (determination in life, got married, etc). I still play small time and really like the World Poker Tour on TV. Its lots more fun, to me, to watch.
Slashdot Mirror
This is not light reading, but I spent a few weeks reading the 1000 page ( +/- 100 pages depending on version) of the RFC2002, which outlines Mobile IP. I've been out of this for a couple years since Sprint laid me off, moved me to a hell hole named Kansas, and decided to ignore my last 4 years of network data and put me back in data transport...troubleshooting DS1/3s WOO HOO! (you'll notice I continue your sarcasm). The new replacement is RFC3220 which I have not read. The only way I made it through the first was to load it on my laptop, and read about 20 pages a day during the 60 minute train ride to work. I don't have that commute or time luxury anymore.
If you have specific, technical questions, feel free to shoot them here or via email. John at SCHUBE dot COM I have an MBA, so I'm willing to speculate with ya on target markets too. The best applications I saw were for traveling salespeople. It's really a lightly tapped market, as most people aren't technologically savy enough to realize they can run a light application on their Treo (or whatever) and use it with backend SQL servers (or whatever). Sprint tiers this service with dedicated VPNs for large business users. You can usually see very large companies (like IBM) trying out these services early on.
For a real good write up, go to IETF and read the white paper on Mobile IP. WiFi compared to MIP/3G is kinda similar to comparing oranges to limes. They're both citrus, but don't taste the same.
In 3G, your connection's speed is managed by overhead signaling and your connection will vary by the resources available (as implemented by CDMA 2000). To the layman, you may get only a basic channel of 9.6k if there is a lot of traffic. However, during periods of less activity, you'll peak up around 60-80 as an average. You may see it hit around 100k/sec, but voice traffic takes priority and will quickly knock you back down (unless you live in the sticks, or surf at 3am...after the drunks have called for their ride home).
You mention Mobile Internet, so I'm thinking you're alluding to Mobile IP. Mobile IP is only implemented in 3G, and uses Home Agent, Foreign Agents, AAA servers (authentication, billing), Packet Data Server Nodes (PDSN) and Packet Control servers (PCF). To the layperson, these are tunnels within IP, using care of addresses, to manage a network connection that is changing its point of connection. In implementation, you could fire up your laptop in NYC, and drive to Southern California without changing IP address. This way your applications don't break.
I could post a thesis on this, but I'm currently sitting in a Software Engineering class (ignoring a slide show on Java Beans) so I'm gonna cut it short here.
I've shaken my head at PCs in a car, and some other oddities. This car, though, takes the cake. I'm not sure I'd really want to do this, even if I could. Enterprise servers aren't made for that vibration, and I've seen what a smoked power supply goes for (right after corporate decided to "save money" by dropping the warranties). Even with WiFi, Bluetooth, or wi-flavor of the month, you're just wasting resources. You might as well be in a Lambroghini Diablo, parked in traffic on the 5 in LA.
I was quite impressed when I was reading IBM Rational Rose info that said it could create code. I suffered through C++, and so anything bypassing me keeping track of memory and "int" versus "float" is a winner to me. Again, though, the practical side of the brain just can't believe anything automated can create good code. I use Microsoft's rendering of HTML from Word as defense exhibit A. HTML is a much simpler "language" than C++. So if it flails through that I can't see how C++ would be much different, but on a larger scale.
I mentioned the Visual Basic flaming because there was an article on here just yesterday talking about flaming VB versus C, C++, and C#. People are hung up on "Basic".
For the reply about tools analogy. I could say technique and the other you mention also apply to tools. This is why you have ball peen hammers, roofing hammers, sledgehammers, and mallets. Either analogy (cars V tools) can apply. It's funny you mentioned cars, I used the analogy in my database class. Using MySQL versus Oracle, I said, "There's no point in requesting a Mercedes when the budget only allows for a Kia". Subseqently, I've found MySQL can be a "Mercedes" if need be. I didn't realize it was already penetrating terabytes and large enterprise levels of capability.
So which couple dozen will we continue to use?
This is psy ops, which it sounds like you're familiar with. The purpose of psy ops is not to kill, rather, to preclude further losses on both sides. The example of this is the first Gulf war, where thousands gave up without fighting. The opposite is to say, "We only have the goal to smite out the other country (Israel, as an example)" and then follow through with random killing. On the issue of nuclear arms, what other country tries harder to fight the proliferation of those? None. We have fought many wars since then, and not used them. I think that speaks for itself.
"highway of death"
Again, there are exceptions. If you recall, we realized it had a negative connotation, and the war quickly ended afterwards. My wife was in a truck, hung out in the middle of the desert, refueling tanks. Did she get to finish her mission of cutting off Republican Guards? Nope. They stopped. On a side note: What do you think those people on the highway were returning from? Not a superbowl party. They were looters, rapists, murders, tresspassers being beat back. Were there a few there innocentlt? Possible. That's why are unlikely to repeat this, and we'll certainly not PLAN to do it again. Remember, the context of this disussion is the GOAL of the conflict(s).
...learned the lesson of the second world war
Let me get this right, you say the lesson is we SHOULD wait and see? I am very versed in military conflict and recent history and I can't say I've ever heard that as a lesson learned. On the flip side, we are not hasty either, even when we have war in mind. How long was it from 9/11 until Afghanistan? We went to the UN and had been waiting for months since notifying the world of our intent with Iraq.I would like to point out that you think that the US is trying to make a difference, while extreme muslims are enforcing their view on others. This is really the same
No, I would equate extreme muslims to Timothy McVeigh, the Unibomber and others we quickly deal with. The government is elected by the people and accountable to the people. There is no accountability for terrorists, unless they get caught. So there is a distinct difference. Are they both passionate about their cause? Sure. Are they the same? No. Is the prosecutor who is passionate about putting away a murderer just as guilty as the murderer who is passionate about killing children? Maybe I misunderstood, but that's the type of logic/conclusions that equating the US to terrorists/dictators leads too.To your final thoughts on military versus government, I agree and disagree. I'll just leave it there since it's just my opinion with no real evidence to dispute it. My perspective is this, as learned from officer training in armed conflict: The military is an extension of the country's foreign policy. For a successful campaign, the civilian leaders create policy, set out goals, and then the military makes it happen. Do we question the motives or goals? No, you don't want uncertainty from those who are putting their life on the line. Are there mistakes made? Sure, but we have rules, practices and procedures to deal with it. This is why I somewhat feel the media did a disservice with the Anbar (sp?) prison story about torture. The National Guardsman reported it to (I believe) the IG. In a rare move, the commander was relieved the very same week (I remember it being a matter of 1-3 days). Anyone in the military know this means two things: It's likely to be true and serious consequences follow. An officer's career is not remotely likely to recover. Anyway, I could develop this example further, however my point is this. For every travesty we commit, there are hundreds of men and women who will persevere to make sure it doesn't happen again. As I stated, I'll take this course of action over standing on the sidelines anyday. I find it a very strange dichotomy to say things are bad, yet take no action.
To the poster who equates a US Pilot to suicide bombers:
You really don't know much, other than what's fed to you on the news, do you? The US Military has been going through very great pains to AVOID, not PURPOSELY target innocent civilians.
Either: you miss my point, are naive, or actually feel mistakes made by good men, trying to do good things justify murder. (or you're a troll). I'll be optimistic and go with one of the first two.
Since I'm former enlisted in the Air Force, and now a commissioned officer in the Air National Guard, which flies a great number of the sorties worldwide, I'll go ahead and reply.
First, weeks go into planning to avoid civilians. If there are known playgrounds or other sensitive areas to the west, we'll bring in the missiles or bombs from the North or South. This was if the blast carries, or the bomb goes long/short, it minimizes the chance of collateral damage. Do suicide bombers only target military? No. Do they go through pains to carefully plan the attack to NOT hit civilians? No. The military will chase those who shoot at them, but when they duck into mosques, we stop. They take up strategic points, and lay suppressive fire. Do we simply swing a tank turret around or bring in an AC-130 gunship and take care of the problem in a few seconds? No. Israel has and we see what happens there. We wait them out while taking casulties. Meanwhile said bad guys kill their own Muslim leaders in a Mosque on a holiday (I believe it was the last day of fasting, if memory serves correct). If that doesn't make it crystal clear that their sole intent is to murder anyone who doesn't agree with them, I really can't help you. I've never met a pilot who pulled out a pistol and shot someone who disagreed. Nope, but did Sadaam do this? Did he use Chemical Weapons on his own people? So, following the anti-US logic should we just pass UN resolutions, but do nothing, after a US President drops sarin gas on New York?? No, really, just wait quite a few years and be really, really mad...I'm sure he'll change (of course ignoring the term limits which dictators don't abide).
I could go on with hundreds of examples of people planning to minimize innocent casulties, but I'm sure your objective opinion would be more swayed by the few cases where things went wrong.
I'm not going to say everything the government does is right. I'm not going to say the Dubya is always correct. However, our country is still naive and optimistic enough to jump into the forray and try to make things better. I'll take the mistakes that go with occasional abuses/oversights/etc on this side, than those who sit on the sidelines and critique, or even worse, aid those who just want to murder with no other solution in mind.
The alternative is to become non-committal or isolationists. Both have historically been crystal clear cases of the wrong thing to do. We ignored the Japanese while they rolled across countries. We watched while Germany murdered millions and sank British ships. How successful was that strategy? Carter tried to ignore the middle east too. I'm sure he concluded that was a good idea while trying to figure out how to negotiate for our hostages or watching the footage of the Israel Olympic athletes being killed.
That said, it's a different mentality when these dillheads use the rights we die for to kill innocents. Being former military, I agree and understand the parent to this subthread. I may think you're an idiot, but I sacrifice so that you have the freedom. What I DONT stand are cowards who impose THEIR thoughts on others by getting on a schoolbus with children with the sole intention of impaling them with thousands of 2-penny nails and ballbearings. Oppressed, religious, whathaveyou, nothing justifies what these guys do. Hence, this is the reason you don't want to be near his bar. I would be very careful to align their causes with "discrimination" (such as against gays, faith, etc).
My point was that it was anti-climatic and could....err...SHOULD have been avoided by just doing a little more work. OK...here's a better analogy. You spend all year to prepare for a triatholon. You start the race, complete 80% of the race, and then hop on a motorcycle to take you to the finish line. lol...ok back to working on my homework...
It'd be better off being summarized and turned into a Op/Ed piece. The paper itself seems very sound in structure, setting up methods and procedures for experimenting, developing a hypothesis and all the remaining factors for a good research paper. However, to have spent so much time in preparation for a sample of 2 is like spending a whole year prepping for a 10 second race.
Just my critical view of it, after several Associates, a Bachelors, Masters and starting on a second Masters degree.
read the actual results. Anyone reading /. will already have their opinion and a basic understanding. Save your time reading a redundant, almost circular article, by going straight to the actual results. Don't worry, the actual results will ALSO include the information in the article.
Thanks for the great reply. I hadn't realized they were interfacing with 3rd party A/V software. I'm a little out of the loop on A/V, as I abandoned keeping up on it around Norton 2000. Just as I stopped the upgrade train with M$, I also hopped off renewing a/v subscriptions. I alleviate the risk by running a hardware and software firewall, as well as following safe operating procedures (turn off pre-view in mail, don't ever open attachments). I know I'm in a somewhat precarious position, but I make regular back ups just in case.
My Favorite quote was at the end:
Even though I like Unix, suffer through Linux, and use Mozilla for mail, I prefer Explorer. Despite that preference, though, I use Opera now 80% of the time for exactly the reason of this parent article. I have other things to do than keep abreast of the latest hole M$ has been ignoring or constantly patching.Specifically, you might use a stratum to sync up if a common NTP server doesn't suit you, but you really don't need "GPS skills". It's almost like the author wanted to throw in some buzzwords to sound more techie.
Back to the main assertion, I'd say we're just fine as sys admins (or network admins). I deployed all sorts of scripts and tools, such as Big Brother, to automate my job. Also learned NAWK/AWK, and Expect scripting for various activities such as installing SSH on aboutt 160 Sun servers running Solaris 8. I can safely say that despite my best efforts to automate, there was still always work to be done. Someone has to _RUN_ the scripts, and tweak them down the road. The best automation for computer systems still needs a fair amount of human intervention. It just makes us more productive. Instead of putting in 80 hours a week, we'll now get to see our family after a "normal" 40 hour week.
On a related note, Bill Gates reveales he is, in fact, a leftie and exempt from paying his own wiping licensing fees.
Sprint network goes down for 12 hours before technician catches it and fixes it. Phone company rep stated, "Hey, he was watching RotK! You're lucky the network came up at all that day."
Famous last words before entering the ER room for 3rd degree chemical burns....
"Hey, why does my @$$ feel like it's on fire?"
Ever get cold? Invite a hacker to hit you with a few "Pings of Death" and bask in the warmth of your router tx/rx all the requests.
We actually just started having more fun at work, then making changes to the network. We would lob our "stress balls" at anything interesting, and unbreakable.
The real maliciousness, however, was after we were laid off. I took the relocation package and moved to Kansas, but that's when all the problems really started. Files started disappearing, and finally entire file systems and backups. I'm not sure how they were doing it, but since part of the migration meant I gave up my root access and all admin responsibilities I couldn't investigate. In the past we could narrow it down, but without root and the logs I was powerless. I eventually quit and moved back to California, but I still haven't (nor has anyone else) figured out who was whacking files.
I did put up a webpage with my two horror stories from that dealer, and the humorous dialogue during a 2000 visit with the Pontiac salesguy (same dealer) who had no clue the Trans Am only came with one size of engine for the last 7 years, since 1993. My stats showed noone ever hit the page when searching for "Pontiac Dealers California" or "David J Phillips dealership" :) so I never bothered putting the page back up when I moved servers and re-organized my website.
On a related note, this is EXACTLY why I like some of our other rules, such as not allowing semis (tractor trailers) in the left lanes. I had forgotten just how bad it could be until I drove from San Diego to St. Petersburg, Florida. I had a very hard time controlling my anger when two semis decided to ride side-by-side for 30 miles, during "somewhat medium" congestion traffic.
I think the legislation allowing people to go to outside dealers for warranty work will be even better. In my case, I am an Engineer with a love for cars. I bought $700 software to reprogram my car, and another $400 on software to scan and log the data from the On Board Computer (OBD-II). A few years ago, I threw an SES (Service Engine Soon) light, and immediately scanned it with my gear. It read, "Low Flow - EGR Malfunction". I took the car in to the dealer, since emissions are warrantied for 100k miles in California, and I told them it was an EGR malfunction. The dealer serviceman looked incredulous. He replied, "You're not supposed to know that!" Long story short, I threw a code a week later and scanned it again. When I saw a repeat of the same error code, I looked closer at my repair sheet from the dealer. They had replaced my Air Pump, otherwise known as a Smog Pump, which is totally unrelated to Exhaust Gas Recirculation, or EGR valve. I bought an EGR valve off E-bay and just replaced it myself, thinking the issue would be over. After I installed the new EGR valve, the code cleared, never to return.
The story takes a funny twist at this point. I received a notice from California DMV that my car was being held up for registration renewal because of an uncorrected emissions recall. I look at the notice and it's for the EGR replacement. I took the car back to the dealer and they certified they replaced the recalled part. In other words, they certified they replaced a part they were unable to diagnose and that I ultimately had to replace myself. It's for reasons such as this that I sold my Trans Am and stopped racing. I spent thousands of dollars ensuring my '97 Trans Am had nothing but CARB (California Air Resource Board) approved modifications for low emissions, and high performance (427 dyno'd horsepower at the tires), yet $15 an hour greasemonkeys couldn't effectively manage the emissions process. It became too stressful trying to find a smogshop where people had a clue.
John Schubert
You've made a couple very critical errors in your post. The modem phone call does not follow the same route through the switch. If you grab an older CDPD phone (aka 2 or 2.5G...before 3G) and connect it to your laptop, install the software to use it as a modem, you'll note it's dialing #777. This tells the switch how to treat the incoming call. The call BYPASSES the vocoders (the "voice mangler" you referred to) and goes out a T1 to a tall cabinet, which I learned to hate with a passion. These piece of $h1t boxes are the only ones we allowed through the door with a Windows OS. I managed, back then, about 200-300 servers, which were all the servers in Sprint PCS Lucent-switched markets, nationwide. These damn windows boxes hung all the time. The cabinet has two Edgeservers (one for each half of the "shelf"), which is basicly a Windows/Intel machine in a single card/slot. There were about 8-10 modem bank cards which passed up to four CPDP (circuit data, packet data) calls per card.
You were correct about the painful speeds. We were still limited to the old 56k standards established when we were all in preschool.
Sorry if I sounded pissy in the beginning. I just got through MetaModding and couldn't believe the number of BS posts modded "Interesting", especially the ones which were pure conjecture and obviously wrong to anyone intiated in the subject. No, your's wasn't a case of this, but I was still irritated, nonetheless.
Yeah, I know...boo hisss....but I couldn't help myself.
It took College to get me into Poker. I was a freshman at Oklahoma State University, and I soon learned the professors didn't take roll with 300 person classes (in an auditorium), or even the smaller ones. Anyway, in our dorm we'd set up on the pool table and play from 6pm until 6am, and then go eat at chow. I started missing lots of classes and flunked out.
I stopped for a few years, enlisted in the Air Force, and got my act together (determination in life, got married, etc). I still play small time and really like the World Poker Tour on TV. Its lots more fun, to me, to watch.
John