Thin client is probably a better solution. In a smaller organization this would probably be easier and cheaper to go this route, but when you start looking at 1,000+ PCs it makes no sense. In an array of 1,000 PCs, you know there's a LOT of CPU time going unused. If you clustered those 1,000 boxen together, you'd be able to (on average) support around 2,000 users with all the extra CPU. This is assuming you have a mix of engineers, secretaries, PHBs, etc and not all programmers, your milage may vary. There are much nicer solutions than this IMHO.
from the article: "A Delay Would Damage Microsoft's Corporate Pride"
What corporate pride? Microsoft has never hit a release date with its OS, why start now? The closest they've ever been to an "on time" release was Windows 2000, which of course means they launched an OS with 63,000 known bugs. So if the X box is having trouble, they have two options. Release it late, or release it buggy. I have a feeling we'll see an Xbox by Christmas that doesn't begin to live up to its expectations.
Every time I hear about some new "feature" of Windows XP or Office XP I juat smile and say "NOW you know why I run linux":-). Seriously, what's up with this OS? First they release specs saying that OEM vendors can't allow the PC to be opened to add hardware. Then they start talking about this revolutionary new system of using a "hardware checksum" I guess you'd call it, requiring you to call in and get a registration code. Autodesk used to do this, they don't anymore. Why? IT DIDN'T WORK. People didn't like it. Now this crap about trying to take out MP3s. Sorry Microsoft, there's a reason I run linux.
Not because TiVo is collecting data, but people (even our very own/. audience ironically enough) ACTUALLY FEEL SECURE when they bring a device into their living room. A great quote from Enenemy of the State: "The more technology you use, the easier it is for the government to keep tabs on you". I'm afraid of any device that has the capability of phoning home. My DSS dish is not plugged into a phone because I never want them calling my box and downloading my data. I don't register software, and I have doubleclick.net in my/etc/hosts as 127.0.0.1. Why? To keep those prying eyes out of my business. The fact that anyone is surprised byt this is beyond me.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Re:rootness and capabilities
on
New Linux Worm
·
· Score: 1
Umm... don't ALL services under NT run as admin? IIRC the only way to start services under NT is either by an admin or admin-equiv user. You know what's funny is that you're sure of yourself yet post as AC.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Re:rootness and capabilities
on
New Linux Worm
·
· Score: 1
Why DO all the daemons run as root? I've often wondered why Apache and sendmail NEED to run as root. Sendmail shouldn't need anything more than read/write to/var/spool/mail, write to/var/log/maillog, and read from/etc/mail. Same with Apache, it should be running as its own UID. Anyone have insights on this? If all my daemons are running as their own UID, an exploit wouldn't do much else other than mess up that daemon.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
From the looks of it you can. Sort of like leaving your pager or cell phone at home when you just don't want to be found. It does kind of look like someone was watching STNG for a little too long, which bugs me because on the USS 1701D You can just say "computer, locate my slacker employee" and it tells you what they're up to. Kinda scary, but as long as there's an off button, I would REALLY find this handy at my office.
That being said, there's another issue of PHB policies of "from 9 to 5 don't even think about turning it off" etc. I'd say I'm more concerned about that then the actual device. Sort of like Mr. Spacely following George around the office. That would be the only reason I wouldn't one. Fortunately I don't work for Mr. Spacely.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
If you have a server farm and your servers sit 75% idle most of the time, I'd look at load balancing a little better first. If say you have a Dell running as a web/email server, a VAlinux running as a Samba, and a Penguin running as a MySQL server, there's your problem. You have WAY too much horsepower going unused. Load balance the apps onto 2 boxen, dump the third, and there's your answer to APM problems. If power consumption is such a big deal, why did you beef these boxen up in the first place? This is like me complaining that I use too much diesel driving to work in my Mack truck hauling 3 trailers and asking where I can find cheaper diesel. The answer is simple, dump the Mack and buy a Volkswagon. Problem solved.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
maybe the problem isn't Hollywood
on
Antitrust
·
· Score: 1
I think the reason movies like this (see also Hackers, The Net, and other poorly done techy movies) fail in the geek circle is because as geeks, we are pretty boring to outsiders. Being a geek is reality. People don't want to watch a 2 hour movie about reality. Open Source is reality. No non-geek really cares what open source is and although the geeks would say "ooooohhh... linux!" anyone else in the croud would be saying "huh?". A movie about a teenage geek who eats lots of cold pizza, drinks Mt Dew, and spends his weekends at LUG meetings just doesn't sell. It's too real. If this kid was a revolutionist who defended his right to open source by gunning pro-M$ people down and starting his own secritive culture underground kinda thing (sensationalizing Linus and adding machine guns, basically), now that's a movie plot.
I guess my point here is that these movies aren't made for us. In terribly done movies like Hackers geeks screamed about how far off it was but the average person was either terrified of "hackers" IRL or they were just entertained by the stupidity of it. It wasn't real, but it was entertaining, and that's how Hollywood sells.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
I seem to remember a Looooong time ago reading about the possibility of using Analog (^%^%$&%???) video cassetes for backup. They were discussing some weird possiblities, including a "software channel" on cable that you could set your VCR to record and use the tape to install software. Cool idea, but very difficult (and pointless) to do with analog. Since the free software movement came about and now with DAT, I can see this becoming a reality if someone saw a market for it. Does anyone remember this?
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
The goal of the Olympic Movement is to make sure that the USA gets all the glory of being in the olympics and those "other" countries are just pawns to compete against the almighty USA. All olympic coverage must be extremely biased and show more tear-jerking stories about how a swimmer with no legs and no arms made it into the Olympics than actual Olympic events.
Ok, there is a point to this. I thought the coverage by NBC was revolting. There's 4 events going on at once, let's show a quick clip of the US beating up somebody and then run a 20 minute segment about someone who got to the olympics by milking cows his whole life. DirecTV offers me any football game I want, yet when it comes to a once in 4 year event like the olympics I can't find anything I want to see. What gives?
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
First of all, fix that link. I know it's a sign of intelligence to make sure only the smart ones can read the article but some people on/. aren't that bright.
From the aricle: Web users just need to plug in the ISD and regional code, followed by the phone number of a company with a registered numeric address, and its Web page will be brought up. Oh, is that all? So I just have to figure out where the server is located that I'm connecting too, then I just have to find the phone number. Go to Qwestdex.com. Oh wait a sec,.com's don't exist. Now I have to find the phone number for Qwestdex, but how do I find it on the internet if I don't know where to look in the first place?
It was said before, but it needs to be restated. There are these numerical thingies called IP addresses. They're 32 bits long and every server on the internet has a unique one. Hmm... sounds like what they're proposing has already been done. It's a lot easier to find www.google.com than to try and remember 64.208.32.100. I think they're trying to re-invent the wheel, but it's looking more like a Firestone:-)
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Mozilla rocks. I've been using M18 for 3 days now and it's much more stable than any Netscape release. In fact, I haven't crashed it yet! Plus they have the cool theme from Netscape 2 or 3 that makes me want to use it even more. The interface for NS6 sucks, and it was very buggy the last time I saw it. Go Mozilla.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
The/. headline made it confusing, but the press release made sense. You pay $29.99 and UPS will come to your door to take your old computer crap, working or not. In this way you're assured that the $30 you spend will help your deceased hardware find its way into proper recycling facilities and your old working crap finds it way into the hands of needy children.
The concept makes sense, I just would never justify the cost of shipping off my old crap as opposed to dropping it in the dumpster behind Computer Renassaince (as I have many a time) or giving it to the young kernel hackers in my LUG.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
It's a dangerous strategy if OS X takes off, since now there is a
UNIX-like OS with a first rate desktop / GUI development environment.
OS X is awesome, simply put. It put *BSD right in front of the most GUI driven group yet.. the Mac users. The OS itself is great but the cost of Apple Hardware will keep it from spawning into the next Good Idea(tm). Comparably equipped PCs costs about 1/2 the price of a Mac. I want a G4 cube in all its glory running OS X, but the cost of the thing plus its non-upgradabilityness (word?) pushes me away. I think this is also what will keep OS X from overtaking the desktop as it very well could.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
There's a piece of floating space crap that's infested with some kind of extra-terrestrial fungus. Why do they need money to keep it running? Is it using a long extension cord to reach the earth and if they unplug it will it come plunging down? It's a hunk of worthless crap now. Must be a government project.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
the company I work for already does this (or so they claim). In the employee policy manual, it specifically states that my employer can read my e-mail, listen to my voicemail, and monitor my internet activity. What's the solution? Use PGP e-mail. Most PHB's don't know what encryption is and are too naive to think their's someone in the company smarter than them. Use anonymizer to surf the web for any non work related stuff. It's that simple.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Umm, duh. My parents are the reason I turned out the way I did. Their guidance (or the lack of it in some cases) is what shaped me. If my parents were gun-toting assailins, chances are I'd be running around school with at least a nerf sniper gun conveniently found on Thinkgeek. More likely, I'd be carrying a knife or a gun. If my parents were little angels who made sure I stayed away from guns my whole life, I'd still be toting the nerf gun but nothing else. So anyway, I agree that parents are more of an influence than the internet.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
I'm a bit suspicious of Bush's intent. Was this comment made to slander the internet as a whole or directed at Gore, who's spent time on bills supporting the internet (and if I was an extremist, I'd bring up inventing the internet but that's not what I'm getting at). Al Gore likes the internet. Bush wants to use it against him. This is politics as usual Bush vs Gore, not "we must make sure that no one under the age of 300 is allowed to access the internet".
Quick note for Jamie: nice work on the numbers. I don't know if they were relevant or not but it's nice to see someone in the/. camp checks articles before posting them:-)
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Or is this delay a case of "proprietary component A will not play well with proprietary component B, and propietary component C will only play well with proprietary component D if Proprietary component E will play well with proprietary compent B". Funny how a company like AMD is using all standard hardware and not having any problems edging their chips up to 1.2 Ghz.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
So basically it points out that A) 1.13 Ghz is slightly faster than 1.1 Ghz. B) Because it's a new chip it costs much more than it's worth. In every case, a new processor has a high price tag that usally cuts the exisiting fastest processor in half. That's just the way it works. For that reason, I'll never buy the newest and fastest processor... the price isn't worth the slight performance edge. Go 2 or 3 steps down and you're looking at a fast processor at a decent price. This isn't news, it doesn't really matter, it just re-affirms my reason for not buying the latest and greatest chip.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Slashdot Mirror
Thin client is probably a better solution. In a smaller organization this would probably be easier and cheaper to go this route, but when you start looking at 1,000+ PCs it makes no sense. In an array of 1,000 PCs, you know there's a LOT of CPU time going unused. If you clustered those 1,000 boxen together, you'd be able to (on average) support around 2,000 users with all the extra CPU. This is assuming you have a mix of engineers, secretaries, PHBs, etc and not all programmers, your milage may vary. There are much nicer solutions than this IMHO.
from the article: "A Delay Would Damage Microsoft's Corporate Pride"
What corporate pride? Microsoft has never hit a release date with its OS, why start now? The closest they've ever been to an "on time" release was Windows 2000, which of course means they launched an OS with 63,000 known bugs. So if the X box is having trouble, they have two options. Release it late, or release it buggy. I have a feeling we'll see an Xbox by Christmas that doesn't begin to live up to its expectations.
chown us *your_base
Every time I hear about some new "feature" of Windows XP or Office XP I juat smile and say "NOW you know why I run linux" :-). Seriously, what's up with this OS? First they release specs saying that OEM vendors can't allow the PC to be opened to add hardware. Then they start talking about this revolutionary new system of using a "hardware checksum" I guess you'd call it, requiring you to call in and get a registration code. Autodesk used to do this, they don't anymore. Why? IT DIDN'T WORK. People didn't like it. Now this crap about trying to take out MP3s. Sorry Microsoft, there's a reason I run linux.
chown us *your_base
Not because TiVo is collecting data, but people (even our very own /. audience ironically enough) ACTUALLY FEEL SECURE when they bring a device into their living room. A great quote from Enenemy of the State: "The more technology you use, the easier it is for the government to keep tabs on you". I'm afraid of any device that has the capability of phoning home. My DSS dish is not plugged into a phone because I never want them calling my box and downloading my data. I don't register software, and I have doubleclick.net in my /etc/hosts as 127.0.0.1. Why? To keep those prying eyes out of my business. The fact that anyone is surprised byt this is beyond me.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Umm... don't ALL services under NT run as admin? IIRC the only way to start services under NT is either by an admin or admin-equiv user. You know what's funny is that you're sure of yourself yet post as AC.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Why DO all the daemons run as root? I've often wondered why Apache and sendmail NEED to run as root. Sendmail shouldn't need anything more than read/write to /var/spool/mail, write to /var/log/maillog, and read from /etc/mail. Same with Apache, it should be running as its own UID. Anyone have insights on this? If all my daemons are running as their own UID, an exploit wouldn't do much else other than mess up that daemon.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
From the looks of it you can. Sort of like leaving your pager or cell phone at home when you just don't want to be found. It does kind of look like someone was watching STNG for a little too long, which bugs me because on the USS 1701D You can just say "computer, locate my slacker employee" and it tells you what they're up to. Kinda scary, but as long as there's an off button, I would REALLY find this handy at my office.
That being said, there's another issue of PHB policies of "from 9 to 5 don't even think about turning it off" etc. I'd say I'm more concerned about that then the actual device. Sort of like Mr. Spacely following George around the office. That would be the only reason I wouldn't one. Fortunately I don't work for Mr. Spacely.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Silly /.'ers, the MIR already landed! Was I the only one to see the first ever South Park Halloween special?
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Precisely the time that Freaks & Geeks got replaced with Dateline. Those bastards!!
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
If you have a server farm and your servers sit 75% idle most of the time, I'd look at load balancing a little better first. If say you have a Dell running as a web/email server, a VAlinux running as a Samba, and a Penguin running as a MySQL server, there's your problem. You have WAY too much horsepower going unused. Load balance the apps onto 2 boxen, dump the third, and there's your answer to APM problems. If power consumption is such a big deal, why did you beef these boxen up in the first place? This is like me complaining that I use too much diesel driving to work in my Mack truck hauling 3 trailers and asking where I can find cheaper diesel. The answer is simple, dump the Mack and buy a Volkswagon. Problem solved.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
I think the reason movies like this (see also Hackers, The Net, and other poorly done techy movies) fail in the geek circle is because as geeks, we are pretty boring to outsiders. Being a geek is reality. People don't want to watch a 2 hour movie about reality. Open Source is reality. No non-geek really cares what open source is and although the geeks would say "ooooohhh... linux!" anyone else in the croud would be saying "huh?". A movie about a teenage geek who eats lots of cold pizza, drinks Mt Dew, and spends his weekends at LUG meetings just doesn't sell. It's too real. If this kid was a revolutionist who defended his right to open source by gunning pro-M$ people down and starting his own secritive culture underground kinda thing (sensationalizing Linus and adding machine guns, basically), now that's a movie plot.
I guess my point here is that these movies aren't made for us. In terribly done movies like Hackers geeks screamed about how far off it was but the average person was either terrified of "hackers" IRL or they were just entertained by the stupidity of it. It wasn't real, but it was entertaining, and that's how Hollywood sells.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
The ATI Rage support has come a LONG way and my ATI 128 works excellent under Xfree86 4.x. I do recommend this card for >=4.x!!!
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
I seem to remember a Looooong time ago reading about the possibility of using Analog (^%^%$&%???) video cassetes for backup. They were discussing some weird possiblities, including a "software channel" on cable that you could set your VCR to record and use the tape to install software. Cool idea, but very difficult (and pointless) to do with analog. Since the free software movement came about and now with DAT, I can see this becoming a reality if someone saw a market for it. Does anyone remember this?
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Actually, I think it goes more like this:
The goal of the Olympic Movement is to make sure that the USA gets all the glory of being in the olympics and those "other" countries are just pawns to compete against the almighty USA. All olympic coverage must be extremely biased and show more tear-jerking stories about how a swimmer with no legs and no arms made it into the Olympics than actual Olympic events.
Ok, there is a point to this. I thought the coverage by NBC was revolting. There's 4 events going on at once, let's show a quick clip of the US beating up somebody and then run a 20 minute segment about someone who got to the olympics by milking cows his whole life. DirecTV offers me any football game I want, yet when it comes to a once in 4 year event like the olympics I can't find anything I want to see. What gives?
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
First of all, fix that link. I know it's a sign of intelligence to make sure only the smart ones can read the article but some people on /. aren't that bright.
.com's don't exist. Now I have to find the phone number for Qwestdex, but how do I find it on the internet if I don't know where to look in the first place?
:-)
From the aricle: Web users just need to plug in the ISD and regional code, followed by the phone number of a company with a registered numeric address, and its Web page will be brought up. Oh, is that all? So I just have to figure out where the server is located that I'm connecting too, then I just have to find the phone number. Go to Qwestdex.com. Oh wait a sec,
It was said before, but it needs to be restated. There are these numerical thingies called IP addresses. They're 32 bits long and every server on the internet has a unique one. Hmm... sounds like what they're proposing has already been done. It's a lot easier to find www.google.com than to try and remember 64.208.32.100. I think they're trying to re-invent the wheel, but it's looking more like a Firestone
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Mozilla rocks. I've been using M18 for 3 days now and it's much more stable than any Netscape release. In fact, I haven't crashed it yet! Plus they have the cool theme from Netscape 2 or 3 that makes me want to use it even more. The interface for NS6 sucks, and it was very buggy the last time I saw it. Go Mozilla.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
The /. headline made it confusing, but the press release made sense. You pay $29.99 and UPS will come to your door to take your old computer crap, working or not. In this way you're assured that the $30 you spend will help your deceased hardware find its way into proper recycling facilities and your old working crap finds it way into the hands of needy children.
The concept makes sense, I just would never justify the cost of shipping off my old crap as opposed to dropping it in the dumpster behind Computer Renassaince (as I have many a time) or giving it to the young kernel hackers in my LUG.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
It's a dangerous strategy if OS X takes off, since now there is a UNIX-like OS with a first rate desktop / GUI development environment.
OS X is awesome, simply put. It put *BSD right in front of the most GUI driven group yet.. the Mac users. The OS itself is great but the cost of Apple Hardware will keep it from spawning into the next Good Idea(tm). Comparably equipped PCs costs about 1/2 the price of a Mac. I want a G4 cube in all its glory running OS X, but the cost of the thing plus its non-upgradabilityness (word?) pushes me away. I think this is also what will keep OS X from overtaking the desktop as it very well could.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
There's a piece of floating space crap that's infested with some kind of extra-terrestrial fungus. Why do they need money to keep it running? Is it using a long extension cord to reach the earth and if they unplug it will it come plunging down? It's a hunk of worthless crap now. Must be a government project.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
the company I work for already does this (or so they claim). In the employee policy manual, it specifically states that my employer can read my e-mail, listen to my voicemail, and monitor my internet activity. What's the solution? Use PGP e-mail. Most PHB's don't know what encryption is and are too naive to think their's someone in the company smarter than them. Use anonymizer to surf the web for any non work related stuff. It's that simple.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Umm, duh. My parents are the reason I turned out the way I did. Their guidance (or the lack of it in some cases) is what shaped me. If my parents were gun-toting assailins, chances are I'd be running around school with at least a nerf sniper gun conveniently found on Thinkgeek. More likely, I'd be carrying a knife or a gun. If my parents were little angels who made sure I stayed away from guns my whole life, I'd still be toting the nerf gun but nothing else. So anyway, I agree that parents are more of an influence than the internet.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
I'm a bit suspicious of Bush's intent. Was this comment made to slander the internet as a whole or directed at Gore, who's spent time on bills supporting the internet (and if I was an extremist, I'd bring up inventing the internet but that's not what I'm getting at). Al Gore likes the internet. Bush wants to use it against him. This is politics as usual Bush vs Gore, not "we must make sure that no one under the age of 300 is allowed to access the internet".
/. camp checks articles before posting them :-)
Quick note for Jamie: nice work on the numbers. I don't know if they were relevant or not but it's nice to see someone in the
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Pinstripe was the beta release, I'm not sure how much of the new RH RPMs were packaged into Pinstripe though.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
Or is this delay a case of "proprietary component A will not play well with proprietary component B, and propietary component C will only play well with proprietary component D if Proprietary component E will play well with proprietary compent B". Funny how a company like AMD is using all standard hardware and not having any problems edging their chips up to 1.2 Ghz.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson
So basically it points out that A) 1.13 Ghz is slightly faster than 1.1 Ghz. B) Because it's a new chip it costs much more than it's worth. In every case, a new processor has a high price tag that usally cuts the exisiting fastest processor in half. That's just the way it works. For that reason, I'll never buy the newest and fastest processor... the price isn't worth the slight performance edge. Go 2 or 3 steps down and you're looking at a fast processor at a decent price. This isn't news, it doesn't really matter, it just re-affirms my reason for not buying the latest and greatest chip.
"You'll die up there son, just like I did!" - Abe Simpson