--My advice is to call up IBM or Amdahl and see what their *basic* small mainframe plans start at. Get them to send out a sales rep that can seriously answer your questions. Remember, it's only really cost-effective if your needs + uptime requirements are at (or past) a certain point. (Plus you need good experienced mainframe / Linux people.) Be sure to ask about any "hidden costs" over the next 5-10 years.
--F'rinstance, I truly think Yahoo would benefit by consolidating into mainframe hardware. That would be HUGE publicity for both them and IBM.
--Keep in mind that you also might be able to "rent out" idle processor time / disk space on your mainframe to other people, as well.
--Dude, playing around with x86-based PC's to do "serving" is like playing with Lincoln logs and building a toy house. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
--Having a Mainframe with incredible I/O speed, redundancy, and hot-swap resource allocation is like having Paul Bunyan build your 500-room log cabin, patching the roof when it leaks, fixing the sink when it gets stopped up, and standing guard over it night and day.
http://www.newnorth.net/~bmorren/bunyan.html
--I'm only 31, but having worked in a mainframe environment for 9 years and comparing it to a PC... There's advantages to both, but the mainframe wins in the end for sheer Big Iron-ness when your usage needs pass a certain point.
> Might want to get yours now, before EMC does away with the free 30 day trial, or the $300 license and goes somewhere 'professional strength' with the product.
--If they're smart, they'll cut the price in half for a year or so, to increase interest in the product. (Well, I can hope vainly anyway.)
--Unless you have actually *used* vmware, you have no idea of the power or convenience it has. Currently I'm using it with Mepis Live-cd's to test 64Meg RAM limitations. You just tell vmware to limit the virtual session's memory to 64M, and don't have to play with kernel parms for every new ISO. I can tell vmware to set up IDE disks for linux instead of the default Scsi without having to tear down and reconfigure a physical machine.
--Like the other poster said, download it and try it for 30 days. If you don't like it, no loss.
--Hey I'm uncommon - does that mean I should be ignored, you insensitive jackass??
--I bought vmware for linux 2-3 years ago because I got tired of reinstalling Windows98. It's proven invaluable for testing since then. I was able to run the Knoppix DVD beta straight from the ISO file without having a DVD burner. And, you can do stuff like LVM with Scsi and IDE virtual drives without actually having a physical SCSI card.
--I'm still at 3.x though because I have no reason to upgrade to 4.x. $100 is not unreasonable, it's just that I'm jobless and 3.x still works fine for my needs.
Re:Given that they need the money, I doubt it.
on
EMC To Acquire VMware
·
· Score: 1
--On the face of it, I'd rather them have the $600 mill up front, rather than risk the company on an IPO. Steve Jobs was once fired from the company he started (Apple) due to the board of directors... It's not that hard to lose control over your company's direction and vision after you go public.
--Hopefully Vmware will continue to be a "good company" (and I mean to work for, as well.)
--98% of people who are using Kazaa *aren't* using it to transfer "legal content." (That's just my perception, anyway.) The ppl who want to transfer legit files generally use BitTorrent.
--I have an SBC 1500/128 and regularly DL ISO's for Knoppix and Mepis, as well as play Halo online occasionally. I've served (upload-only) the ISO's for a few hours at a time as well, and haven't heard any complaints from the ISP. But then again, I'm not doing it for >6 hours at a time, either.
--Oh wait, actually the first IBM PC I learned on had 256K of RAM, a monochrome monitor that couldn't do graphics, and (1) 5 1/4" 360K floppy drive. And it weighed about 75 pounds.
> I have this one game that was meant to run on a P90... tried it on my K7/500 -- 0.001 seconds after starting to play I'm dead.
--Don't do that.:b
--Seriously, I had a bunch of old DOS games that ran on a Tandy 1000sx, and when I put them on a 286-12MHz they were too fast. The stuff that ran on the 286 (Bushido? sopwith, Double Dragon, etc) were INSANE on a Pentium 100.
--Not too hard, if you're running Win98 just open up Start\Run\command.com
--Hold down the Alt key and use the numeric keypad, type in the number and let go of Alt between numbers. Just don't enter any 13's or 10's in case some j0k3r puts in "format c:"
> I expect that we're never going to get told why neither side uses kinetic-kill systems for the fighters' primary weapons, although I would guess that an energy weapon will have a point at which the 'projectile' dissipates; a kinetic-kill weapon in space would keep going, producing widely-ranging hazard zones from old battles.
--Actually that could be a *good* thing to write into the series - you would have to have regular patrols to detect/destroy the old kinetic armaments that were still travelling blindly thru space, and it would be *neat* to see a real-time 3D map of various hazards in the sector. Kind of like NASA's (current, sadly underfunded) "space junk" tracking system today.
--Fault: This COMPLETELY screws up ROTJ, where Vader ominously intones "SSisssterr... Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me" while fighting Luke in the final lightsaber battle.
--Yes, but the people at both bases are acting like ASSHOLES to somebody that got STRANDED. Antarctica is pretty inhospitable; wouldn't surprise me if somebody eventually went *postal* given that kind of situation.
--Put yourself in his shoes - you'd be pretty pissed off at the lack of "hospitality" yourself if you couldn't get gas for your ride and had to face the kind of choices he's facing.
Slashdot Mirror
--My advice is to call up IBM or Amdahl and see what their *basic* small mainframe plans start at. Get them to send out a sales rep that can seriously answer your questions. Remember, it's only really cost-effective if your needs + uptime requirements are at (or past) a certain point. (Plus you need good experienced mainframe / Linux people.) Be sure to ask about any "hidden costs" over the next 5-10 years.
--F'rinstance, I truly think Yahoo would benefit by consolidating into mainframe hardware. That would be HUGE publicity for both them and IBM.
--Keep in mind that you also might be able to "rent out" idle processor time / disk space on your mainframe to other people, as well.
--Dude, playing around with x86-based PC's to do "serving" is like playing with Lincoln logs and building a toy house. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
--Having a Mainframe with incredible I/O speed, redundancy, and hot-swap resource allocation is like having Paul Bunyan build your 500-room log cabin, patching the roof when it leaks, fixing the sink when it gets stopped up, and standing guard over it night and day.
http://www.newnorth.net/~bmorren/bunyan.html
--I'm only 31, but having worked in a mainframe environment for 9 years and comparing it to a PC... There's advantages to both, but the mainframe wins in the end for sheer Big Iron-ness when your usage needs pass a certain point.
--Personally, I wouldn't consider running vmware with Windows as a host. Too susceptible to random crashes. All my vmware base are belong to Linux. ;-)
> Might want to get yours now, before EMC does away with the free 30 day trial, or the $300 license and goes somewhere 'professional strength' with the product.
--If they're smart, they'll cut the price in half for a year or so, to increase interest in the product. (Well, I can hope vainly anyway.)
--Vmware is like riding a motorcycle.
"If you have to ask, you'll never understand."
--Unless you have actually *used* vmware, you have no idea of the power or convenience it has. Currently I'm using it with Mepis Live-cd's to test 64Meg RAM limitations. You just tell vmware to limit the virtual session's memory to 64M, and don't have to play with kernel parms for every new ISO. I can tell vmware to set up IDE disks for linux instead of the default Scsi without having to tear down and reconfigure a physical machine.
--Like the other poster said, download it and try it for 30 days. If you don't like it, no loss.
--Hey I'm uncommon - does that mean I should be ignored, you insensitive jackass??
--I bought vmware for linux 2-3 years ago because I got tired of reinstalling Windows98. It's proven invaluable for testing since then. I was able to run the Knoppix DVD beta straight from the ISO file without having a DVD burner. And, you can do stuff like LVM with Scsi and IDE virtual drives without actually having a physical SCSI card.
--I'm still at 3.x though because I have no reason to upgrade to 4.x. $100 is not unreasonable, it's just that I'm jobless and 3.x still works fine for my needs.
--On the face of it, I'd rather them have the $600 mill up front, rather than risk the company on an IPO. Steve Jobs was once fired from the company he started (Apple) due to the board of directors... It's not that hard to lose control over your company's direction and vision after you go public.
--Hopefully Vmware will continue to be a "good company" (and I mean to work for, as well.)
--At least they're not being bought out by MS.
--98% of people who are using Kazaa *aren't* using it to transfer "legal content." (That's just my perception, anyway.) The ppl who want to transfer legit files generally use BitTorrent.
--I have an SBC 1500/128 and regularly DL ISO's for Knoppix and Mepis, as well as play Halo online occasionally. I've served (upload-only) the ISO's for a few hours at a time as well, and haven't heard any complaints from the ISP. But then again, I'm not doing it for >6 hours at a time, either.
--Write a nastygram to the company's CEO and copy everyone you can.
--Then drop them, and find somebody else.
--That is in fact a fairly reasonable policy - and can be easily gotten around by using Squid, to have both computers using (1) Net connection. :)
--Port 3128 baby, it saves you teh MONNEH!!
+1 Better adaptation than Lucas's "prequels"
--You had OCTAL?! Why when I was a lad...
--Oh wait, actually the first IBM PC I learned on had 256K of RAM, a monochrome monitor that couldn't do graphics, and (1) 5 1/4" 360K floppy drive. And it weighed about 75 pounds.
--LUXURY!!
--Jerry Pournelle, is that YOU??
(anyone who's read his columns will understand)
> I have this one game that was meant to run on a P90 ... tried it on my K7/500 -- 0.001 seconds after starting to play I'm dead.
:b
--Don't do that.
--Seriously, I had a bunch of old DOS games that ran on a Tandy 1000sx, and when I put them on a 286-12MHz they were too fast. The stuff that ran on the 286 (Bushido? sopwith, Double Dragon, etc) were INSANE on a Pentium 100.
--BTW-- FYI, I did a search for "FIC" on the THG site, and came up with this:
f -- tom003,cat_id--462,keyword--FIC,SEARCH_GO.x--0,SEA RCH_GO.y--0,ir--264,ir--760.html
http://tomshardware.bizrate.com/buy/products__r
--Again no affiliation or anything; consider it a freebie.
--Tom's Hardware very recently did an article on whitebox laptops:3 1202/index .html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/200
--Googling got me this:
http://www.fic.com.tw/
--That's as far as I'm willing to take it right now, one of their Java applets almost crashed Opera just now.
(I subscribed to THG's newsletter, that's how your post triggered the memory of the article. Std disclaimer, no affiliation.)
--Not too hard, if you're running Win98 just open up Start\Run\command.com
--Hold down the Alt key and use the numeric keypad, type in the number and let go of Alt between numbers. Just don't enter any 13's or 10's in case some j0k3r puts in "format c:"
"Always look on, the Bright side of Life..." (whistles)
Uhhhh... Uzbekistan??
http://www.advantour.com/uzbekistan/
--I've played that game; it was fun (and a little tense.)
> I expect that we're never going to get told why neither side uses kinetic-kill systems for the fighters' primary weapons, although I would guess that an energy weapon will have a point at which the 'projectile' dissipates; a kinetic-kill weapon in space would keep going, producing widely-ranging hazard zones from old battles.
--Actually that could be a *good* thing to write into the series - you would have to have regular patrols to detect/destroy the old kinetic armaments that were still travelling blindly thru space, and it would be *neat* to see a real-time 3D map of various hazards in the sector. Kind of like NASA's (current, sadly underfunded) "space junk" tracking system today.
+2 AMEN, brother
--Fault: This COMPLETELY screws up ROTJ, where Vader ominously intones "SSisssterr... Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me" while fighting Luke in the final lightsaber battle.
...don't forget "netcat"...
--Yes, but the people at both bases are acting like ASSHOLES to somebody that got STRANDED. Antarctica is pretty inhospitable; wouldn't surprise me if somebody eventually went *postal* given that kind of situation.
--Put yourself in his shoes - you'd be pretty pissed off at the lack of "hospitality" yourself if you couldn't get gas for your ride and had to face the kind of choices he's facing.