You misunderstand QNX. They are not saying that users of QNX couldn't hack the kernel, (if they made source avaiable) they are saying that they have better things to do.
I run FreeBSD at home. I have the source on my system. I don't hack the kernel. It isn't that I couldn't do so, its that I have better things to do with my time. I'd rather play mandolin (sort of cross between 12 string guitar and violin, but much older then guitar) then play with kernels.
Right now we have one engineering mailing. That list is perminantly archived because one purpose is sending "implimentation Proposal for filesystem layout on [codename]". Most of the messages to that list though are of the form "Its my brithday, so I brought donuts for everyone in the usual spot", or "I have a doctors appt so you won't find me in today." The latter two need not be archived as they have no perminant value. The first has prminant value and should be saved (even if someone comes up with a good objection and you redo the proposal)
We end up being all on the same list because each department has a list, and then there is an all-engineering list. The department list works great for projects small enough that everyone is under the same boss. For projects too big for one boss it doesn't work, (Joe works for someone else, but he wanted my help this week on a cross functional problem so he has to know I'm not in) And the donuts message really doesn't need to go to those people who sit across the street from me, but the person next to me isn't in the same department but he should get it. (The person who sits next to me often works with me though our specaltie areas are obviously seperate)
In other words you need lists for a) geography, b) formal proposeals in a project, c) departments (My boss still needs to send only his people a mail), d) projects, e) the whole company.
And this is impossibal because I'm not capable of keeping track of that many lists and then making the reight decision on which it should go to. Well, I can but it requires that I have a list of each and takes time. Not to mention admin time on your part. Pick the subsets that seem to make the most sense. (You need an all company after that guess) I probably forgot a type of list you need, so if something else fits your needs better don't be afraid to add one.
Remember, lists are dynamic. You can add more latter, or delete some if they turn out to be useless. (but seperate useless from seldom used. The all company list shouldn't be used often, but when it is used you need it)
As others havce mentioned, there are clusters for super computing and for high reliability. I know nothing about the former, so concentrating on the latter:
There are two main ways to go about dealing with failures. One is to have data on both hosts consistent at all times, and the other is to discover the needed data when the other fails. There are tricky issues with both, but normally it is obvious which to choose. Sometimes a mixture works - which is what we choose for the product I'm working on.
An example of the all data on both is a database. You probably cannot discover at failover time who has appopintments when. So you write software to send a write command to two comptuers, each running your database. (Or more commonly you have a dual ported RAID disk so that when one comtpuer fails the backup can work with the master's disks) If your primary comptuer fails you can shift quickly and transparently to the backup. Some places will divide reads between the backup and the master (This doesn't work so well with shared disks, but works great for the two databases approach) SO that you never know which computer will get your request. It doesn't matter though as both are up to date.
An example of discovery is internet routers. If your cisco 7000 fails your pull a backup off the shelf, configure it, and connect the cables. (I don't know about the 7000 series, but for the smaller cisco routers it is very common to buy two identical ones at a time, configure them identical, connet cables to one, and set the second on top of the first with no cables - not even power connected.) When you connect the backup it uses the standard protocols to figgure out the network.
There are more examples. Like I said, in the project I'm working on now both make sense in different areas. Discovery takes longer to take over, but it doesn't have to worry about corrupted data.
Related to mice, are there any decient trackballs? Preferiabbly something that won't make my wrists worse?
I know one person who said he put a track ball on the floor, and used is feet to point. I'd like to try it, but most of the old style track balls I've seen are two buttons, and I don't think I could press a button and move the ball at the the same time. (This being a physical problem with the location of the buttons, not a comment on my [poor] coordination)
Others have come up with the idea of getting backup tapes from old news servers (These appearently really exist). They have all changed their mind when reminded that at the time usenet was a two weeks and it is deleted. X-NO-ARCHIVE was not an option meaning that people would post things expecting they would be deleted in a couple weeks and their word would not come back to haunt them. Bringing those archives online leaves on open to lawsuits since unanonymous postings that orginially only went to a small group are now avaiable.
That two weeks estimate is because that is how long it took for some remote sites to get a post after it was posted.
Yeah, I'd change ISPs in an instant if I knew they were monitoring me like this.
How would I know though? My ISP sends me a bill every month, and I pay it. My scripts dial a number and I get connected to the internet. I have no further communication with them. How would I know if they decide to sell data on where I was surfing? Who would tell me?
Remember, a number of folks will find a new ISP if they start selling data, so it is to their advantage to make sure I never find out.
Issue one of this to every soldier, with a fill copy of the bible attached (A old fashioned paper bible, not electronic form built in) Said soldier puts device/bible in front shirt pocket and is proected from bullets going through his heart, and the army doesn't have to serprate the christian soldier (which is protected by the bible) from the geek soldier (who is protected by the electronic device)
beowulf - think power requirements
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While in theory you can gather up enough junk 486s to make the top 500 list (assuming a lossly coupled problem), in practice the electrical cost would probably be greater then the cost of buying better machines. I suppose if everything worked on the first try, and you only had the system togather for a few minutes it wouldn't be that bad, but in the real world it won't work that well.
Back when RC-56 looked like a 50 year problem at current rates someone suggested room fulls of 386s (a 486 was still useful if a bit slow). I calculated that you would be better off buyiung a ppro-200 (the fastest machine money could have at that time though ppc soon after got optimsed) and your savings on electrisity would pay for the innitial cost in less then a year. (This assuming you could get 386s for free, and you had to pay for the ppro, and you wanted the same key rate). The work of settup up that many computers was not factored in.
In theory this is possibal. However it won't work well.
In theory your linux box just switches to the other connection, no problem. (Detection is a bit of a pain, but can be done) In parctice it doesn't help much. All your connections are to your cable IP address, which no longer reaches you. (it gets routed to your cable company who cannot reach you so they throw it away)
If you have a friend with several stable IP addresses and a good connection, then you can probably tunnel to them (with some work). Otherwise your problem isn't sending data out the backup line, it is getting data to come back over that line without losing connections.
If anyone has a solution please let me know - I'm on a dialup with poor line quality. I have a big problem with programs trying to hold a connction longer then the line will stay up at a time.
My boss has 3 positions open. he has 80 resumes on his desk. As a company we have 12 tech positions open, and 8 offers outstanding. (Resumes are shared between all engering managers, and yes, these are real numbers)
So you ask, how do you get from a resume to a job? The answre is knowing someone who already works here. My boss and our HR department is traned in interview technichs. However their best bet in finding a good canadate is to ask a former co-worker of the canidate who already has a job here what they think. And it is easy to find that former co-worker, because that person is the one who did the referal, and will get the referal bonus!
In other words almost nobody is hired here unless some current employee gets the referal bonus. This means that you need to know people, hard for some folks, and easy for others.
I assume that your in the catagory where it is hard for you to deal with people. Thats okay - for the last two years one person got most of the hiring bonus money. Managemnt had a position open up, and they automaticly went ot this one enginner and asked him for a recomendation! (He came from Cray, which laid off a lot of people in the last few years - he had an in with lots of people who were looking, and could weed the less desirable people without thought). Things have changed this year, as they always do but many of the people we hire were laid off from Cray.
The point is talk to folks you used to work with. Don't leave a contract without the personal email address of almost everyone, and make sure they ahve your address. Make sure you find out in each orginization who is most likely to do the refering of future emploiess. When you need a job send a small, personal, email asking those folks if they know of an opening. (One per orginization please, since you don't want them fighting over the hiring bonus). Of course it isn't so useful to have that today. Two years from now though, some of those folks have found jobs in other companies, and they tell their boss "I worked with him in the last job. We didn't cross paths often, but he got his work done, and there were no complaints about his work." Not the most glowing report, but to management it is much better then former bosses (there are all kinds of legal implications of giving bad references - you might win the court case, but just the thought of being sued is enough to make these less valuable), or references (which you have hand picked). Of course you choose the person who is going to recomend you, and that person gets a bonus, but that person also has to face working with you, and may not be your first choice. (Its like voting, you chose the lesser of the evils, where as with references you have a larger pool to chose from)
I hate doing everything I said above. That why I'm not contracting. That is why I want my project to succeede, I don't want to find a new job. Eventially I will have to, so I try to keep a list of all the people who have moved onto new jobs.
Rumor has it that dual athlon boards will be coming out within the enxt few months.
There is a hitch though: Linux will no support them! Thats right, Linux will not support SMP Athlons today. FreeBSD will not either. The good news is at least NT will not have support.
I think you see the problem: nobody will support them, so they won't sell, so nobody will add support, so . . .
I hope that someone overcomes that problems (and I think the board manufactures are working on NT support before they release something) When it works the Athlons will do much better SMP then any Intel offering. Seems that AMD, Cyrix (Do they make processors anymore) and the like got mad at Intel's SMP scheme and created a better one. The K-5 and cryix chips supported it, but nobody made a board to support it. I don't know if Athlon uses the same older spec or a new (alpha compatable?) spec, but I do know the Athlons all support a SMP standard better then Intel's.
I suspect that a linux implimentation of Athlon SMP will happen when boards are avaiable. AFAIK AMD is not hiding the specs.
The problem with banning cell phones it is doen'st take into account all the reasons to use one.
the "valley girl" trying to drive while the conversataion goes "And mike, ya know, he is two timing Julie." "Like wow, like what is she going"... (Okay, so I do a horriobal impression, buut you get the idea) should hang up and drive.
In my area there is a number I can call to get traffic conditions, if I call right before I get on the freeway I can find out about bad conditions and sometimes take a alternate route. I'm not as safe for the minute I'm making that call (Though I chose a fairly low risk area to make it), but I'm safer overall since I spend less time in heavy traffic.
And do you really want to pull someone over, for cell phone use, who just got a phone call "John, mom's in the xx hospital and with yy, and the doctors say she has 1 hour to live! Get here quick!"
Think carefully before you propose the turn signal come on when you turn the wheel.
Take a typical 4+ lane road. Can your algorythm tell the difference between "I'm turning the wheel left to move into the left lane", and "I'm turning the whell left because the road curves to the left." Now combine the two situations. Now take the person who decides to switch into the left lane on a right hand curve, meaning the wheel has to move less!
Of course all this ignores the major thing: as the driver behind you, I don't want to see your turn signal to tell me that you are changing lanes, I want to see your turn signal to tell me that you will soon be switching lanes and I should make some room so I'm not tailgating you as you move over. (I know that I'm the exception to the rule, and I'm supposed to put 3 feet between me and the guy in front of me whenever someone wants to change into my lane, but the bad habit of curitcy is hard to break)
I looked at using public transit one time. I was 20 minute to work, driving, or over an hour by bus. Even if the bus had gone by work more then 4 times in a day that was enough to kill the idea. I don't know when I get off work, last week I unexpectedly ended up working 2 hours latter then normal to take care of something that needed to be done now. If I had taken the bus in I would have been stuck at work all night.
Of course now I live out where I can smell fresh cut alfaha. To smell that twice a summer makes living downwind from a pig farm worth it. No bus service, but no different then when I was living in the city.
To put my complaint differently, public transportation needs to do more then go downtown. I need to give my kid a note of permission and tell him go visit grandma, and then go about my buisness, knowing the kid will be safe on the trip. (assuming grandma knows the kid is coming) But today the transit system assumes that I go home to work to the airport to work to home. And God help anyone who doesn't work downtown or wants to go anyplace else without a car.
I'd love to have good public transportation, but I've yet to hear of a plan that even in the best case would be one I'd consider using.
I work on a closed source project. Part of our process is to have a code review. I've been part of them, and I've had them done to my code.
Now this isn't as extensive as the theroitical work that could be done to closed source, it is more then the simple evaluation would inditcate.
Of course we are an exception. One of our old alpha testers went elsehwere, and she described her expirences as follows "They came ot me and said 'Two weeks in test! thats the longest anything has been in test, ship it'. 'Ship it, there are still bugs.' 'Yeah, but we know where they are.'" The project I'm working on was just shipped last week, and it spend 8 months in test. To get out of test that quickly we had to ship with a long list of bugs. We are not any worse then anyone else at coding.
Our test process is made much easier in that this is release 1.0, and we designed the hardware from the ground up. If we had to support as many different PCs as say linux or NT does, out test process would be much longer.
I remember a promotional video for work, one shot of the "future" was a class room, about 4th grade. Each kid had a desktop comptuer on their desk. And I remember clearly this girl who had to stand up and shift a foot to the side (of her desk) and raise her arm - the comptuer was in the way, and she had no hope of seeing the blackboard or of the teacher accually seeing her.
A laptop is smaller, but I think the point is clear: comptuers can be a tool, but they cannot get in the way of teaching.
I remember in school we went to the computer lab to type up an english assignment. We spend two days every couple months in the lab. The rest of the time was in class and we didn't need or use the comptuer.
My aunt teachers kindergarden in Texas. She has no idea why she has a comptuer in her classroom - kids in her class aren't expected to read. Some of the kids play a game in freetime. The rest ignore it. She keeps asking what is the point, and comes up with (whichever governer, I don't track their politics) won some brownie points with the voters when he could say every classroom had a comptuer. If that had been done right, every school would ahve had a comptuer lab.
Through 7th grade there is no point in having a computer. Even though I cannot read my own writing (as my teachers obserbed, when I try my hardest I'm still worse then other kids at their sloppiest - some physcal thing that they cannot explain) I need to know how to write. Today when I have an idea, paper is much easier to use they any comptuer to work it out - even if I then write a program to do that. Likewise, I do all my calculations with a calculator, but I need to know how to do it in my head. I cannot spell (as you probably have noticed), and I depend on my spell checker (where I can use one) - but I still think everyone should be thought to spell. Once you know the hard way let someone use the easy one.
after (about) 7th grade things change. I know you can multiply, so why would I make you multiply pi (to 2 decimal places) by 7.60 (or whatever the diameter of that circle measured to be) - I don't care that you can do the math, I care that you can find (in this case the circumfrence though you can find many other examples) Likewise my english teacher assumes that I can write (by hand). She cared about my report on Hamlet, not if I could correctly form my letters.
Despite all the hype about the paperless office, the old way will never go completely away.
Would you stand for advertising to your kids?
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I know if I were a parent I'd refuse to let my kids use a comptuer that is advertising. I refuse to allow a TV in my house because I cannot stand the mindless stream of sex and violence. Kids see some of that, and as a parent I have the right to censor what my kids see. (Note that this is my kids, you can allow your kids to see porn if you want)
Case in point: At a friends the other day, and he had the tv on. He called me over to see a comercial on tv. They showed a lady in her underware. To me that is porn, and I would not accept that in my home. To others that is normal. The point is I don't trust advertisers.
Now I'll agree that I cannot get away from advertisments. Nor can I shelter my kids from all kinds of what I consider over the line that others would not. That is not the point though.
Then we get into the issue of target. Advertisments are ment to get you to spend money. Kids do not have the judgements of adults (though some adults have poor judgemetn and some kids do well) Keep your spend money propaganda out of my kids mind! (Keep it out of mine too for that matter) When you require me to go through a portal you are forcing it on me. Let me at least choose the portal - ideall one with a privacy policy that I can agree with.
Please do not respond to the values of the above. I know many/. readers disagree. While my leanings are in the direction of this post I intentially went much farther then my beliefs to make a point: parents have the right to make choices for their kids.
Well, that depends. If your scanning a million different documents without an ADV, it won't work. Others have pointed out the problems. (contrast, diagnal...)
But be creative. My scanner is scsi, and my main machine doesn't have a scsi adaptor. (Accually it does, but it is wide scsi, and scanners ahve a bad repuatation for tieing up the scsi bus which isn't a good idea on a multitasking OS) I put the scanner on the old 386 (which seems to keep getting new functions) and then used network scanning to work.
At one place I lived we had several computers scattered throughout the house. We didn't need many scanners though, network scanning [would have] allowed us to preview scan on the slow machine with the scanner (a macII), and then use a faster machine once we had things straight. As it was we continually ran out of memory and harddrive space on a machine that spent more time processing the data then scanning. If I had done the final scans upstairs it would have been faster overall.
While many people call Bill Gates Satan, us geeks need to settle down. He represents many things that are wrong with the computing industry today. However that does not make him satan. Lets keep some perspective here folks. Evil is complex, and you don't want to confuse some sins (which we all have though we won't admit to)
Put it anouther way, If both Bill Gates and I get to heaven (or hell, suspend your disbelief in my religion if you must) I'd like to spend some time over a cup of coffee remembering. Sort of like today I can go to a high school reunion and have a enjoyable conversation with the brute who used to beat me up all the time.
Bill Gates is a man. He is mortal, despite his access to essentially unlimited amounts of money. You don't have to like his empire, but lets leave personal attacks for polititions.
After this lawsuit I was the one at our local McDonalds assigned to check the tempature of our coffee. It was withing specs, but on the hot side. I turned the tempature down. Next week I turned it back up. It seems that most coffee drinkers like their coffee hot, and they noticed and didn't like the colder coffee. (Note that the tempature was never out of mcDonalds specifications, but it was the hottest we could be and still be within specifications)
Assuming of course that the Pink Pages (is that the name) are really behind this, can't you sue them under British Libel laws. Seems like by writing someones net provider they are commiting libel themself.
Of course I don't claim to understand British laws, but I keep thinking that they must be over the line in this case.
There is GroupLens to apply something like this to USENET. Check out their work.
Unfortunatly, the only work I know going on with this is a few professors that I had in college. You can look at their web pages at: Joseph Konstan, John Riedl. The latter site has a lot more information. (ie a link to something)
It is usenet only, but I think this is a way to start. Then we just need a way to rate pages that everyone works on, and can agree to partially. If 100 people call a web site pron, and 10 call it interesting, I'd not want my children to see it. If 5 call it porn, and 100 call it interesting, it might be interesting, but not viewable (by my children who I want to protect more then most/. readers) without a parent to decide if the child needs to know about brest cancer in that level of detail. (TO give an example of where useful information and porn can cross).
Then there is violence. I wouldn't want to view any "violent" web site myself, if the site was movies and pictures of one person murdering anouther. However if the website was hunting videos, I personally consider that normal content and would let anyone of any age see it. A colarabative filter allows me (with time) to build up a personal database cross references with others. then it can say "100 other parents who tend to think like you have called this [murder] site bad" vs "Many people call this [hunting] site violent, but those who tend to agree with you recomend it." If the entire world rates every site they visit out of habit, this could be useful.
Note that above I intentially stuck to single issures. The hunting site with naked hunters is unaccaptable (to me), even though the hunting content may be good. Filtering software must be complex enough to handle all this issues, and yet be simple enough that people use it.
A friend of mine just opened a comptuer store. A month ago he could buy dvd drives to sell for $70 (I think his retail would ahve been 70, but I'm not sure). Now he has trouble even getting them, and has to pay $150. (I think that is wholesale prices, even if his retail you get the idea)
In other words, you can't buy them anymore so it doesn't matter.
Accully I would want him to tailgate the driver in front of him. However the car in front should also be controlled by Klaus. The car right in front will see a slight drop in gas milage, but that is more then made up for by the next car behind savings. Remember, these are all computer controlled cars. Their reaction time to the next drive slaming on the breaks due to a deer crossing the road is nil.
Bicyclists use the drafting principal to ride 25 mph all day in a race, where the average lone biker is doing well to maintain 15 mph.
Slashdot Mirror
You misunderstand QNX. They are not saying that users of QNX couldn't hack the kernel, (if they made source avaiable) they are saying that they have better things to do.
I run FreeBSD at home. I have the source on my system. I don't hack the kernel. It isn't that I couldn't do so, its that I have better things to do with my time. I'd rather play mandolin (sort of cross between 12 string guitar and violin, but much older then guitar) then play with kernels.
Formal and informal. Excellent idea.
Right now we have one engineering mailing. That list is perminantly archived because one purpose is sending "implimentation Proposal for filesystem layout on [codename]". Most of the messages to that list though are of the form "Its my brithday, so I brought donuts for everyone in the usual spot", or "I have a doctors appt so you won't find me in today." The latter two need not be archived as they have no perminant value. The first has prminant value and should be saved (even if someone comes up with a good objection and you redo the proposal)
We end up being all on the same list because each department has a list, and then there is an all-engineering list. The department list works great for projects small enough that everyone is under the same boss. For projects too big for one boss it doesn't work, (Joe works for someone else, but he wanted my help this week on a cross functional problem so he has to know I'm not in) And the donuts message really doesn't need to go to those people who sit across the street from me, but the person next to me isn't in the same department but he should get it. (The person who sits next to me often works with me though our specaltie areas are obviously seperate)
In other words you need lists for a) geography, b) formal proposeals in a project, c) departments (My boss still needs to send only his people a mail), d) projects, e) the whole company.
And this is impossibal because I'm not capable of keeping track of that many lists and then making the reight decision on which it should go to. Well, I can but it requires that I have a list of each and takes time. Not to mention admin time on your part. Pick the subsets that seem to make the most sense. (You need an all company after that guess) I probably forgot a type of list you need, so if something else fits your needs better don't be afraid to add one.
Remember, lists are dynamic. You can add more latter, or delete some if they turn out to be useless. (but seperate useless from seldom used. The all company list shouldn't be used often, but when it is used you need it)
As others havce mentioned, there are clusters for super computing and for high reliability. I know nothing about the former, so concentrating on the latter:
There are two main ways to go about dealing with failures. One is to have data on both hosts consistent at all times, and the other is to discover the needed data when the other fails. There are tricky issues with both, but normally it is obvious which to choose. Sometimes a mixture works - which is what we choose for the product I'm working on.
An example of the all data on both is a database. You probably cannot discover at failover time who has appopintments when. So you write software to send a write command to two comptuers, each running your database. (Or more commonly you have a dual ported RAID disk so that when one comtpuer fails the backup can work with the master's disks) If your primary comptuer fails you can shift quickly and transparently to the backup. Some places will divide reads between the backup and the master (This doesn't work so well with shared disks, but works great for the two databases approach) SO that you never know which computer will get your request. It doesn't matter though as both are up to date.
An example of discovery is internet routers. If your cisco 7000 fails your pull a backup off the shelf, configure it, and connect the cables. (I don't know about the 7000 series, but for the smaller cisco routers it is very common to buy two identical ones at a time, configure them identical, connet cables to one, and set the second on top of the first with no cables - not even power connected.) When you connect the backup it uses the standard protocols to figgure out the network.
There are more examples. Like I said, in the project I'm working on now both make sense in different areas. Discovery takes longer to take over, but it doesn't have to worry about corrupted data.
I know one person who said he put a track ball on the floor, and used is feet to point. I'd like to try it, but most of the old style track balls I've seen are two buttons, and I don't think I could press a button and move the ball at the the same time. (This being a physical problem with the location of the buttons, not a comment on my [poor] coordination)
Others have come up with the idea of getting backup tapes from old news servers (These appearently really exist). They have all changed their mind when reminded that at the time usenet was a two weeks and it is deleted. X-NO-ARCHIVE was not an option meaning that people would post things expecting they would be deleted in a couple weeks and their word would not come back to haunt them. Bringing those archives online leaves on open to lawsuits since unanonymous postings that orginially only went to a small group are now avaiable.
That two weeks estimate is because that is how long it took for some remote sites to get a post after it was posted.
Yeah, I'd change ISPs in an instant if I knew they were monitoring me like this.
How would I know though? My ISP sends me a bill every month, and I pay it. My scripts dial a number and I get connected to the internet. I have no further communication with them. How would I know if they decide to sell data on where I was surfing? Who would tell me?
Remember, a number of folks will find a new ISP if they start selling data, so it is to their advantage to make sure I never find out.
Issue one of this to every soldier, with a fill copy of the bible attached (A old fashioned paper bible, not electronic form built in) Said soldier puts device/bible in front shirt pocket and is proected from bullets going through his heart, and the army doesn't have to serprate the christian soldier (which is protected by the bible) from the geek soldier (who is protected by the electronic device)
While in theory you can gather up enough junk 486s to make the top 500 list (assuming a lossly coupled problem), in practice the electrical cost would probably be greater then the cost of buying better machines. I suppose if everything worked on the first try, and you only had the system togather for a few minutes it wouldn't be that bad, but in the real world it won't work that well.
Back when RC-56 looked like a 50 year problem at current rates someone suggested room fulls of 386s (a 486 was still useful if a bit slow). I calculated that you would be better off buyiung a ppro-200 (the fastest machine money could have at that time though ppc soon after got optimsed) and your savings on electrisity would pay for the innitial cost in less then a year. (This assuming you could get 386s for free, and you had to pay for the ppro, and you wanted the same key rate). The work of settup up that many computers was not factored in.
In theory this is possibal. However it won't work well.
In theory your linux box just switches to the other connection, no problem. (Detection is a bit of a pain, but can be done) In parctice it doesn't help much. All your connections are to your cable IP address, which no longer reaches you. (it gets routed to your cable company who cannot reach you so they throw it away)
If you have a friend with several stable IP addresses and a good connection, then you can probably tunnel to them (with some work). Otherwise your problem isn't sending data out the backup line, it is getting data to come back over that line without losing connections.
If anyone has a solution please let me know - I'm on a dialup with poor line quality. I have a big problem with programs trying to hold a connction longer then the line will stay up at a time.
My boss has 3 positions open. he has 80 resumes on his desk. As a company we have 12 tech positions open, and 8 offers outstanding. (Resumes are shared between all engering managers, and yes, these are real numbers)
So you ask, how do you get from a resume to a job? The answre is knowing someone who already works here. My boss and our HR department is traned in interview technichs. However their best bet in finding a good canadate is to ask a former co-worker of the canidate who already has a job here what they think. And it is easy to find that former co-worker, because that person is the one who did the referal, and will get the referal bonus!
In other words almost nobody is hired here unless some current employee gets the referal bonus. This means that you need to know people, hard for some folks, and easy for others.
I assume that your in the catagory where it is hard for you to deal with people. Thats okay - for the last two years one person got most of the hiring bonus money. Managemnt had a position open up, and they automaticly went ot this one enginner and asked him for a recomendation! (He came from Cray, which laid off a lot of people in the last few years - he had an in with lots of people who were looking, and could weed the less desirable people without thought). Things have changed this year, as they always do but many of the people we hire were laid off from Cray.
The point is talk to folks you used to work with. Don't leave a contract without the personal email address of almost everyone, and make sure they ahve your address. Make sure you find out in each orginization who is most likely to do the refering of future emploiess. When you need a job send a small, personal, email asking those folks if they know of an opening. (One per orginization please, since you don't want them fighting over the hiring bonus). Of course it isn't so useful to have that today. Two years from now though, some of those folks have found jobs in other companies, and they tell their boss "I worked with him in the last job. We didn't cross paths often, but he got his work done, and there were no complaints about his work." Not the most glowing report, but to management it is much better then former bosses (there are all kinds of legal implications of giving bad references - you might win the court case, but just the thought of being sued is enough to make these less valuable), or references (which you have hand picked). Of course you choose the person who is going to recomend you, and that person gets a bonus, but that person also has to face working with you, and may not be your first choice. (Its like voting, you chose the lesser of the evils, where as with references you have a larger pool to chose from)
I hate doing everything I said above. That why I'm not contracting. That is why I want my project to succeede, I don't want to find a new job. Eventially I will have to, so I try to keep a list of all the people who have moved onto new jobs.
Rumor has it that dual athlon boards will be coming out within the enxt few months.
There is a hitch though: Linux will no support them! Thats right, Linux will not support SMP Athlons today. FreeBSD will not either. The good news is at least NT will not have support.
I think you see the problem: nobody will support them, so they won't sell, so nobody will add support, so . . .
I hope that someone overcomes that problems (and I think the board manufactures are working on NT support before they release something) When it works the Athlons will do much better SMP then any Intel offering. Seems that AMD, Cyrix (Do they make processors anymore) and the like got mad at Intel's SMP scheme and created a better one. The K-5 and cryix chips supported it, but nobody made a board to support it. I don't know if Athlon uses the same older spec or a new (alpha compatable?) spec, but I do know the Athlons all support a SMP standard better then Intel's.
I suspect that a linux implimentation of Athlon SMP will happen when boards are avaiable. AFAIK AMD is not hiding the specs.
The problem with banning cell phones it is doen'st take into account all the reasons to use one.
the "valley girl" trying to drive while the conversataion goes "And mike, ya know, he is two timing Julie." "Like wow, like what is she going"... (Okay, so I do a horriobal impression, buut you get the idea) should hang up and drive.
In my area there is a number I can call to get traffic conditions, if I call right before I get on the freeway I can find out about bad conditions and sometimes take a alternate route. I'm not as safe for the minute I'm making that call (Though I chose a fairly low risk area to make it), but I'm safer overall since I spend less time in heavy traffic.
And do you really want to pull someone over, for cell phone use, who just got a phone call "John, mom's in the xx hospital and with yy, and the doctors say she has 1 hour to live! Get here quick!"
Think carefully before you propose the turn signal come on when you turn the wheel.
Take a typical 4+ lane road. Can your algorythm tell the difference between "I'm turning the wheel left to move into the left lane", and "I'm turning the whell left because the road curves to the left." Now combine the two situations. Now take the person who decides to switch into the left lane on a right hand curve, meaning the wheel has to move less!
Of course all this ignores the major thing: as the driver behind you, I don't want to see your turn signal to tell me that you are changing lanes, I want to see your turn signal to tell me that you will soon be switching lanes and I should make some room so I'm not tailgating you as you move over. (I know that I'm the exception to the rule, and I'm supposed to put 3 feet between me and the guy in front of me whenever someone wants to change into my lane, but the bad habit of curitcy is hard to break)
OpenBSD started with NetBSD, not FreeBSD. Agree that if you need top security, they are probably your best free choice.
I looked at using public transit one time. I was 20 minute to work, driving, or over an hour by bus. Even if the bus had gone by work more then 4 times in a day that was enough to kill the idea. I don't know when I get off work, last week I unexpectedly ended up working 2 hours latter then normal to take care of something that needed to be done now. If I had taken the bus in I would have been stuck at work all night.
Of course now I live out where I can smell fresh cut alfaha. To smell that twice a summer makes living downwind from a pig farm worth it. No bus service, but no different then when I was living in the city.
To put my complaint differently, public transportation needs to do more then go downtown. I need to give my kid a note of permission and tell him go visit grandma, and then go about my buisness, knowing the kid will be safe on the trip. (assuming grandma knows the kid is coming) But today the transit system assumes that I go home to work to the airport to work to home. And God help anyone who doesn't work downtown or wants to go anyplace else without a car.
I'd love to have good public transportation, but I've yet to hear of a plan that even in the best case would be one I'd consider using.
I work on a closed source project. Part of our process is to have a code review. I've been part of them, and I've had them done to my code.
Now this isn't as extensive as the theroitical work that could be done to closed source, it is more then the simple evaluation would inditcate.
Of course we are an exception. One of our old alpha testers went elsehwere, and she described her expirences as follows "They came ot me and said 'Two weeks in test! thats the longest anything has been in test, ship it'. 'Ship it, there are still bugs.' 'Yeah, but we know where they are.'" The project I'm working on was just shipped last week, and it spend 8 months in test. To get out of test that quickly we had to ship with a long list of bugs. We are not any worse then anyone else at coding.
Our test process is made much easier in that this is release 1.0, and we designed the hardware from the ground up. If we had to support as many different PCs as say linux or NT does, out test process would be much longer.
I remember a promotional video for work, one shot of the "future" was a class room, about 4th grade. Each kid had a desktop comptuer on their desk. And I remember clearly this girl who had to stand up and shift a foot to the side (of her desk) and raise her arm - the comptuer was in the way, and she had no hope of seeing the blackboard or of the teacher accually seeing her.
A laptop is smaller, but I think the point is clear: comptuers can be a tool, but they cannot get in the way of teaching.
I remember in school we went to the computer lab to type up an english assignment. We spend two days every couple months in the lab. The rest of the time was in class and we didn't need or use the comptuer.
My aunt teachers kindergarden in Texas. She has no idea why she has a comptuer in her classroom - kids in her class aren't expected to read. Some of the kids play a game in freetime. The rest ignore it. She keeps asking what is the point, and comes up with (whichever governer, I don't track their politics) won some brownie points with the voters when he could say every classroom had a comptuer. If that had been done right, every school would ahve had a comptuer lab.
Through 7th grade there is no point in having a computer. Even though I cannot read my own writing (as my teachers obserbed, when I try my hardest I'm still worse then other kids at their sloppiest - some physcal thing that they cannot explain) I need to know how to write. Today when I have an idea, paper is much easier to use they any comptuer to work it out - even if I then write a program to do that. Likewise, I do all my calculations with a calculator, but I need to know how to do it in my head. I cannot spell (as you probably have noticed), and I depend on my spell checker (where I can use one) - but I still think everyone should be thought to spell. Once you know the hard way let someone use the easy one.
after (about) 7th grade things change. I know you can multiply, so why would I make you multiply pi (to 2 decimal places) by 7.60 (or whatever the diameter of that circle measured to be) - I don't care that you can do the math, I care that you can find (in this case the circumfrence though you can find many other examples) Likewise my english teacher assumes that I can write (by hand). She cared about my report on Hamlet, not if I could correctly form my letters.
Despite all the hype about the paperless office, the old way will never go completely away.
I know if I were a parent I'd refuse to let my kids use a comptuer that is advertising. I refuse to allow a TV in my house because I cannot stand the mindless stream of sex and violence. Kids see some of that, and as a parent I have the right to censor what my kids see. (Note that this is my kids, you can allow your kids to see porn if you want)
Case in point: At a friends the other day, and he had the tv on. He called me over to see a comercial on tv. They showed a lady in her underware. To me that is porn, and I would not accept that in my home. To others that is normal. The point is I don't trust advertisers.
Now I'll agree that I cannot get away from advertisments. Nor can I shelter my kids from all kinds of what I consider over the line that others would not. That is not the point though.
Then we get into the issue of target. Advertisments are ment to get you to spend money. Kids do not have the judgements of adults (though some adults have poor judgemetn and some kids do well) Keep your spend money propaganda out of my kids mind! (Keep it out of mine too for that matter) When you require me to go through a portal you are forcing it on me. Let me at least choose the portal - ideall one with a privacy policy that I can agree with.
Please do not respond to the values of the above. I know many /. readers disagree. While my leanings are in the direction of this post I intentially went much farther then my beliefs to make a point: parents have the right to make choices for their kids.
Well, that depends. If your scanning a million different documents without an ADV, it won't work. Others have pointed out the problems. (contrast, diagnal...)
But be creative. My scanner is scsi, and my main machine doesn't have a scsi adaptor. (Accually it does, but it is wide scsi, and scanners ahve a bad repuatation for tieing up the scsi bus which isn't a good idea on a multitasking OS) I put the scanner on the old 386 (which seems to keep getting new functions) and then used network scanning to work.
At one place I lived we had several computers scattered throughout the house. We didn't need many scanners though, network scanning [would have] allowed us to preview scan on the slow machine with the scanner (a macII), and then use a faster machine once we had things straight. As it was we continually ran out of memory and harddrive space on a machine that spent more time processing the data then scanning. If I had done the final scans upstairs it would have been faster overall.
While many people call Bill Gates Satan, us geeks need to settle down. He represents many things that are wrong with the computing industry today. However that does not make him satan. Lets keep some perspective here folks. Evil is complex, and you don't want to confuse some sins (which we all have though we won't admit to)
Put it anouther way, If both Bill Gates and I get to heaven (or hell, suspend your disbelief in my religion if you must) I'd like to spend some time over a cup of coffee remembering. Sort of like today I can go to a high school reunion and have a enjoyable conversation with the brute who used to beat me up all the time.
Bill Gates is a man. He is mortal, despite his access to essentially unlimited amounts of money. You don't have to like his empire, but lets leave personal attacks for polititions.
After this lawsuit I was the one at our local McDonalds assigned to check the tempature of our coffee. It was withing specs, but on the hot side. I turned the tempature down. Next week I turned it back up. It seems that most coffee drinkers like their coffee hot, and they noticed and didn't like the colder coffee. (Note that the tempature was never out of mcDonalds specifications, but it was the hottest we could be and still be within specifications)
Assuming of course that the Pink Pages (is that the name) are really behind this, can't you sue them under British Libel laws. Seems like by writing someones net provider they are commiting libel themself.
Of course I don't claim to understand British laws, but I keep thinking that they must be over the line in this case.
There is GroupLens to apply something like this to USENET. Check out their work.
Unfortunatly, the only work I know going on with this is a few professors that I had in college. You can look at their web pages at: Joseph Konstan, John Riedl. The latter site has a lot more information. (ie a link to something)
It is usenet only, but I think this is a way to start. Then we just need a way to rate pages that everyone works on, and can agree to partially. If 100 people call a web site pron, and 10 call it interesting, I'd not want my children to see it. If 5 call it porn, and 100 call it interesting, it might be interesting, but not viewable (by my children who I want to protect more then most /. readers) without a parent to decide if the child needs to know about brest cancer in that level of detail. (TO give an example of where useful information and porn can cross).
Then there is violence. I wouldn't want to view any "violent" web site myself, if the site was movies and pictures of one person murdering anouther. However if the website was hunting videos, I personally consider that normal content and would let anyone of any age see it. A colarabative filter allows me (with time) to build up a personal database cross references with others. then it can say "100 other parents who tend to think like you have called this [murder] site bad" vs "Many people call this [hunting] site violent, but those who tend to agree with you recomend it." If the entire world rates every site they visit out of habit, this could be useful.
Note that above I intentially stuck to single issures. The hunting site with naked hunters is unaccaptable (to me), even though the hunting content may be good. Filtering software must be complex enough to handle all this issues, and yet be simple enough that people use it.
A friend of mine just opened a comptuer store. A month ago he could buy dvd drives to sell for $70 (I think his retail would ahve been 70, but I'm not sure). Now he has trouble even getting them, and has to pay $150. (I think that is wholesale prices, even if his retail you get the idea)
In other words, you can't buy them anymore so it doesn't matter.
Accully I would want him to tailgate the driver in front of him. However the car in front should also be controlled by Klaus. The car right in front will see a slight drop in gas milage, but that is more then made up for by the next car behind savings. Remember, these are all computer controlled cars. Their reaction time to the next drive slaming on the breaks due to a deer crossing the road is nil.
Bicyclists use the drafting principal to ride 25 mph all day in a race, where the average lone biker is doing well to maintain 15 mph.