Are your experiences with it only in 'public' areas or private?
We're using wireless for large projects where a wired infrastructure is impractical. Sure there are problems - APs go down (like any other piece of hardware) and there are RF interferance issues, but generally just moving a few feet is enough to clear problem up.
I'm on wireless now, and I use it almost exclusively so I can keep my laptop's ethernet port free for testing things out.
I thought they'd been doing tours round this plant for many years.
A few years ago I went on a 'bizzare places' tour round the states and this was one of the places on the agenda.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to go on the tour round Y-12, but they were doing daily trips from the science & technology museum in nearby oakridge.
This is the difference between training and education.
Are we meant to be training school childred to use an application or are we educating them in the use of computer systems?
There is a difference.
IMO we should be Educating in schools not training, that means letting kids experiment with a variety of systems, an open source solution provides far better opportunities for learning how things work than a close source system.
> If you would like to receive these emails in the > future, please go to *link removed* to subscribe. > We will not send you future executive emails > unless you choose to subscribe.
Why exactly have you removed the link....
I'm sure there are lots of people here who'd love to subscribe to such emails or at least subscribe postmaster@microsoft.com:)
We use a very large amount of Linux at my work, and we're big users of all opensource software.
We've been trying very hard to standardize on a single linux distro, but so far this has been virtually impossible.
We've "done the Redhat thing", we used virtually every version of Redhat from 3.0.3 through to 9, but decided to stop when the Fedora project started (personally I've not liked any version of Redhat since 7.3).
However redhat just 'will not go away' we run several large Oracle databases & until very recently this has meant Redhat Advanced Server, so we've now got a site license for this too.
Debian: I have to admit to only being a recent convert to debian, however it has always been the prefered platform for some of our admins. Since RH9 went off the support matrix we've been planning to migrate our desktop solution to Debian, this is now underway with prototype systems in the field. As for support on Debian, well there isn't any - although we now know that a couple of very large companies will support debian, just not "officially". That coupled with the fact that we've got 3 debian developers on the staff gives us the "warm fuzzy feeling" we need:)
The story doesn't end there, with the introduction of the Altix (SGI) platform we hit another support matrix: SGI's version of Redhat or SuSE Enterprise server. Again Oracle rears it's ugly head - what do they support, the key word here is support. Well of those two it's only SuSE.
Cisco & Power over ethernet, now there's a combination to make my blood boil....
Just 'cos Cisco's "Phantom Power" was rejected by IEEE they sort of threw their rattle out of the pram and aren't supporting 802.3af on their ip phones for at least another year.
Fantastic....
Fortunately rather than lose the order for a few hundred IP handsets they've agreed to supply Powerdsine modules with each phone so we can power them off non cisco PoE switches.
Support means different things to different people.
I think support in this context means that you can ring them up and insist that they make it work. Companies just dont want to do this for linux.
There are a couple of reasons for this normally, mainly there are too many flavours of linux, different distributions are only the start of it.
Secondly they probably realise that the average linux user is a bit more clueful and will ask far more technical questions than your average Bangalore call centre can handle!
What I would like for 'support' for linux is a statement to the effect "we've tested this with kernel version foo and it works ok, YMMV...." and if it don't work here's a forum where somebody might answer your question...
Nobody seems to want to give this sort of information, or even keep the chipset in a component the same for more than a few seconds.
<RANT>
(Prism 54 cards prime example.... 2 cards, same manufacturer, same modle number, same PCI ID, same subversion.... Different chipset!)
</RANT>
However sometimes there are just commercial reasons why support is limited... a couple of LARGE companies I've had dealings with will officially support Redhat & SuSE on for their products. However all their development work is done on Debian and then ported to Redhat/Suse.
They can't specify that they support debian because of commercial agreements!
It's funny you mention 'legitimate' uses for Bittorrent, I've just been involved in settingup Home Computer Magazine.
This is a completely free (as in beer) magazine, which we're distributing via bittorrent because we wouldn't be able to deal with the bandwidth otherwise....
I wonder if anyones worked out why a certain TLA agency in the US has specified that the Lustre filesystem must be capable of holding 1 trillion files.
5 phone calls per person for 5 years works out about the trillion file mark!
Slashdot Mirror
At this years Networkshop (the UKERNA annual conference) one of the keynotes was to be given by a Microsoft employee on 'security'.
The entire lecture hall was packed, it being one of the last sessions.
"And now Mr [name] from Microsoft", the courteous round of applause followed, then "Mr [name]?" (whispers), "Has anyone seen Mr [name]".....
He just didn't show up, no explaination was given....
It wasn't that tough a crowd!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0517 545160/qid=1126780808/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-7850 888-5456064?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
That the same day the BBC have an article about wikipedia....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4152860.stm
Are your experiences with it only in 'public' areas or private?
We're using wireless for large projects where a wired infrastructure is impractical. Sure there are problems - APs go down (like any other piece of hardware) and there are RF interferance issues, but generally just moving a few feet is enough to clear problem up.
I'm on wireless now, and I use it almost exclusively so I can keep my laptop's ethernet port free for testing things out.
:) No that's what we did at Fort Knox!
I thought they'd been doing tours round this plant for many years.
A few years ago I went on a 'bizzare places' tour round the states and this was one of the places on the agenda.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to go on the tour round Y-12, but they were doing daily trips from the science & technology museum in nearby oakridge.
You're quite right - the costs of the science far outway the costs of the IT.
Within the IT budget the cost of maintaining the equipment & running it (including power & cooling) far outstrip the original purchase price.
[I work here too]
This is the difference between training and education.
Are we meant to be training school childred to use an application or are we educating them in the use of computer systems?
There is a difference.
IMO we should be Educating in schools not training, that means letting kids experiment with a variety of systems, an open source solution provides far better opportunities for learning how things work than a close source system.
> If you would like to receive these emails in the > future, please go to *link removed* to subscribe. > We will not send you future executive emails > unless you choose to subscribe.
:)
Why exactly have you removed the link....
I'm sure there are lots of people here who'd love to subscribe to such emails or at least subscribe postmaster@microsoft.com
Short Answer: Debian
:)
Long Answer: It depends.
We use a very large amount of Linux at my work, and we're big users of all opensource software.
We've been trying very hard to standardize on a single linux distro, but so far this has been virtually impossible.
We've "done the Redhat thing", we used virtually every version of Redhat from 3.0.3 through to 9, but decided to stop when the Fedora project started (personally I've not liked any version of Redhat since 7.3).
However redhat just 'will not go away' we run several large Oracle databases & until very recently this has meant Redhat Advanced Server, so we've now got a site license for this too.
Debian: I have to admit to only being a recent convert to debian, however it has always been the prefered platform for some of our admins. Since RH9 went off the support matrix we've been planning to migrate our desktop solution to Debian, this is now underway with prototype systems in the field. As for support on Debian, well there isn't any - although we now know that a couple of very large companies will support debian, just not "officially". That coupled with the fact that we've got 3 debian developers on the staff gives us the "warm fuzzy feeling" we need
The story doesn't end there, with the introduction of the Altix (SGI) platform we hit another support matrix: SGI's version of Redhat or SuSE Enterprise server. Again Oracle rears it's ugly head - what do they support, the key word here is support. Well of those two it's only SuSE.
Oh and we also use FreeBSD...
I'd like to use a PVR system, but there are no cards (that I've been able to find) that can decode the european sky channels.
There are pleanty of cards that can receive digital satellite broadcasts, but there are none for the sky system.
Being in an area that isn't served by a cable company satellite is the only option.
Anyone know any better?
If you're going to switch to a voice input system you'd need to do a study of the murder/suicide rates in cubeland....
I'm sure there's a Dilbert about this!
So handling the ethernet cables is as safe as it's ever been...
Just 'cos Cisco's "Phantom Power" was rejected by IEEE they sort of threw their rattle out of the pram and aren't supporting 802.3af on their ip phones for at least another year.
Fantastic....
Fortunately rather than lose the order for a few hundred IP handsets they've agreed to supply Powerdsine modules with each phone so we can power them off non cisco PoE switches.
I think support in this context means that you can ring them up and insist that they make it work. Companies just dont want to do this for linux.
There are a couple of reasons for this normally, mainly there are too many flavours of linux, different distributions are only the start of it.
Secondly they probably realise that the average linux user is a bit more clueful and will ask far more technical questions than your average Bangalore call centre can handle!
What I would like for 'support' for linux is a statement to the effect "we've tested this with kernel version foo and it works ok, YMMV...." and if it don't work here's a forum where somebody might answer your question...
Nobody seems to want to give this sort of information, or even keep the chipset in a component the same for more than a few seconds.
<RANT>
(Prism 54 cards prime example.... 2 cards, same manufacturer, same modle number, same PCI ID, same subversion.... Different chipset!)
</RANT>
However sometimes there are just commercial reasons why support is limited... a couple of LARGE companies I've had dealings with will officially support Redhat & SuSE on for their products. However all their development work is done on Debian and then ported to Redhat/Suse.
They can't specify that they support debian because of commercial agreements!
This is a completely free (as in beer) magazine, which we're distributing via bittorrent because we wouldn't be able to deal with the bandwidth otherwise....
Here's the torrent
I wonder if anyones worked out why a certain TLA agency in the US has specified that the Lustre filesystem must be capable of holding 1 trillion files.
5 phone calls per person for 5 years works out about the trillion file mark!