I do not know if you have automated anything yet because from your description it sounds like it is still a very manual system. The Linux box I am assuming is a test box. Also it sounds like you are looking for a centralized storage location. It also sounds like this is using a mixed wired and wireless system. In my opinion, there has been very little thought put into how your network and future expansion.
For speed which it sounds like is your immediate concern, Current OS-X boxes have Gigabyte Ethernet capability. Most likely you have a single Gateway for the entire office. If this is the case, an upgrade is highly recommended. I would also look into your Windows and Linux box network cards. Default hardware by Dell and other major distributors tends to be cheap equipment. Cheaper gateways will reduce the speed of the network to the slowest entity. Which is your wireless device. Having separate Gateway and wireless devices may be something else to look into. A more advanced Gateway/Router will be able to allow you to easily change speed.
As far as a networked hard drive and Lan gateway, please don't do that. You are playing with fire. It is good for consumers for light duty use, but companies that need throughput and speed, it will die within the year. Many people that posted to create your own Linux storage box are correct. A single box is easily expanded into a larger server. You can buy an off the shelf system. I would also suggest that you do not use a test machine. Also you can create a Raid disk array to make swapping drives that die as painless as possible.
I did this professionally for many years. To conclude, upgrade your gateway and add a new computer for data storage.
As an American, I can say that privacy laws are lacking. Just recently states have started to look at the severity of problem and are passing judgments against the Patriot Act. Being an Engineer and MBA student, I see the problems first hand how the technology can be abused. It is just that the bureaucratic and slow manner that American laws change cannot keep up with technology. The laws will change, just look at the negative backlash to Bush due to the police state policies he pushed for.
I am not going to make excuses for the low grades, I will instead talk about the data itself. Other countries are in worse shape. This reviews just the developed countries. Which in a way is a good thing because it sets high baselines. It also shows technology wise how well each country is using their laws and technology. It is bad in it sets the bar so high that it even the good countries cannot meet the grade. Also developing nations get a zero in most of the indicators and is not shown. It can be taken out of context since it is just a single indication on the state of a country. There are other valid indicators on the state of the economy: PPP, GDP, HMI, etc. Which I might add Greece ranks varies from 19 to 35 in PPP indication.
Americans are not a single entity. We are diversified and many.
Re:Microsoft's Underdog
on
Gates on Google
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Microsoft has a long way to go to catch up to google. First thing they need to do is speed up their Infrastructure. Especially with the speed and acuracy of their web search. Another problem is the fact that they use advertisements slowing down the website greatly. True google is an advertiser, but images in their search engine are small, minimal, and no advertisements.
My sentiments exactly about EDS. If I owned a company, I would hire all IT resources myself. Even large corporations should have internal IT departments. Outsourcing the IT only leads to issues.
The reason EDS is stating this is it is most cost effective for them as well as any large corporation to have a single type of platform to support. Since a trained monkey can take a support call for windows (Specific repair steps) it costs very little to support those machines. The more types of operating systems the more difficult it is to support. Upper management realizes that and will do anything in their power to push for commonality in systems. Even if it means angering Engineers whom may need specialized operating systems like Linux.
It is a common FUD that Windows is easy to update. In fact, it is much more difficult to push a clean update of Windows then Linux, SunOS, AIX, HP-UX, or most other UNIX flavors. UNIX has an extremely scriptable update. I was able to write a full update procedure without issues for any UNIX side. Then push a quick update when needed. With windows, all types of hardware setups must tested prior to pushing an update. Half the time there will be one failure or another because of hardware conflicts. This is especially true for security updates.
Of course there is testing, approval, scheduling, data salvage, and other issues with pushing OS updates. However, when it takes forever to get the update to work correctly, it makes updates difficult.
The thing that makes IEEE great is it is independent from industry, yet it works with them all the time to make standards. Donations from organizations and individuals along with subscriptions finance events, education events, publications, and services. Renewal is about $20 student, and about $80 for professional members. Other society memberships cost extra, which includes access to the published papers and databases for those societies.
True having all online databases available to all members would be great, but it costs money to run. I would be willing to shell out more money for a standard membership if it opened up all the online IEEE databases. Free access to everyone for the databases could put a severe damper on the membership renewals. Yes, I would like to see the online database available to everyone, but without a membership fee, I don't see how it would be cost productive.
I see too much separation within the IEEE group in general. Many societies I wonder if they actually make enough to support their publications. Some societies most likely make more than enough. I guess my point is if IEEE needs to prioritize itself. Even if it means forcing societies to be only online publications.
As far as review costs, some documents just need the volunteer peer reviews. I am wondering if a forum system would be better then direct email. A forum system would force the information to be handled in one area. Access levels in a forum can be set. Also review levels. Also I believe a single forum would be much easier to manage than multiple, as societies within IEEE may want. Direct emails take way too much effort to manage as a whole. Even if it keeps things somewhat more secure.... Err obscure.. Especially with how much managing the review system costs.
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I do not know if you have automated anything yet because from your description it sounds like it is still a very manual system. The Linux box I am assuming is a test box. Also it sounds like you are looking for a centralized storage location. It also sounds like this is using a mixed wired and wireless system. In my opinion, there has been very little thought put into how your network and future expansion.
For speed which it sounds like is your immediate concern, Current OS-X boxes have Gigabyte Ethernet capability. Most likely you have a single Gateway for the entire office. If this is the case, an upgrade is highly recommended. I would also look into your Windows and Linux box network cards. Default hardware by Dell and other major distributors tends to be cheap equipment. Cheaper gateways will reduce the speed of the network to the slowest entity. Which is your wireless device. Having separate Gateway and wireless devices may be something else to look into. A more advanced Gateway/Router will be able to allow you to easily change speed.
As far as a networked hard drive and Lan gateway, please don't do that. You are playing with fire. It is good for consumers for light duty use, but companies that need throughput and speed, it will die within the year. Many people that posted to create your own Linux storage box are correct. A single box is easily expanded into a larger server. You can buy an off the shelf system. I would also suggest that you do not use a test machine. Also you can create a Raid disk array to make swapping drives that die as painless as possible.
I did this professionally for many years. To conclude, upgrade your gateway and add a new computer for data storage.
As an American, I can say that privacy laws are lacking. Just recently states have started to look at the severity of problem and are passing judgments against the Patriot Act. Being an Engineer and MBA student, I see the problems first hand how the technology can be abused. It is just that the bureaucratic and slow manner that American laws change cannot keep up with technology. The laws will change, just look at the negative backlash to Bush due to the police state policies he pushed for. I am not going to make excuses for the low grades, I will instead talk about the data itself. Other countries are in worse shape. This reviews just the developed countries. Which in a way is a good thing because it sets high baselines. It also shows technology wise how well each country is using their laws and technology. It is bad in it sets the bar so high that it even the good countries cannot meet the grade. Also developing nations get a zero in most of the indicators and is not shown. It can be taken out of context since it is just a single indication on the state of a country. There are other valid indicators on the state of the economy: PPP, GDP, HMI, etc. Which I might add Greece ranks varies from 19 to 35 in PPP indication. Americans are not a single entity. We are diversified and many.
Microsoft has a long way to go to catch up to google. First thing they need to do is speed up their Infrastructure. Especially with the speed and acuracy of their web search. Another problem is the fact that they use advertisements slowing down the website greatly. True google is an advertiser, but images in their search engine are small, minimal, and no advertisements.
Lastly, the number of useful and inovative projects google has produced makes microsoft look bad. This only leaves copycat items for Microsoft to produce. Here are some tools sites by google. http://www.google.com/options/, http://labs.google.com/, http://www.google.com/about.html. Strange thing is I can't find anything for Microsoft search tools being produced. http://www.msn.com/
My sentiments exactly about EDS. If I owned a company, I would hire all IT resources myself. Even large corporations should have internal IT departments. Outsourcing the IT only leads to issues.
The reason EDS is stating this is it is most cost effective for them as well as any large corporation to have a single type of platform to support. Since a trained monkey can take a support call for windows (Specific repair steps) it costs very little to support those machines. The more types of operating systems the more difficult it is to support. Upper management realizes that and will do anything in their power to push for commonality in systems. Even if it means angering Engineers whom may need specialized operating systems like Linux.
It is a common FUD that Windows is easy to update. In fact, it is much more difficult to push a clean update of Windows then Linux, SunOS, AIX, HP-UX, or most other UNIX flavors. UNIX has an extremely scriptable update. I was able to write a full update procedure without issues for any UNIX side. Then push a quick update when needed. With windows, all types of hardware setups must tested prior to pushing an update. Half the time there will be one failure or another because of hardware conflicts. This is especially true for security updates.
Of course there is testing, approval, scheduling, data salvage, and other issues with pushing OS updates. However, when it takes forever to get the update to work correctly, it makes updates difficult.
The thing that makes IEEE great is it is independent from industry, yet it works with them all the time to make standards. Donations from organizations and individuals along with subscriptions finance events, education events, publications, and services. Renewal is about $20 student, and about $80 for professional members. Other society memberships cost extra, which includes access to the published papers and databases for those societies.
... Err obscure.. Especially with how much managing the review system costs.
True having all online databases available to all members would be great, but it costs money to run. I would be willing to shell out more money for a standard membership if it opened up all the online IEEE databases. Free access to everyone for the databases could put a severe damper on the membership renewals. Yes, I would like to see the online database available to everyone, but without a membership fee, I don't see how it would be cost productive.
I see too much separation within the IEEE group in general. Many societies I wonder if they actually make enough to support their publications. Some societies most likely make more than enough. I guess my point is if IEEE needs to prioritize itself. Even if it means forcing societies to be only online publications.
As far as review costs, some documents just need the volunteer peer reviews. I am wondering if a forum system would be better then direct email. A forum system would force the information to be handled in one area. Access levels in a forum can be set. Also review levels. Also I believe a single forum would be much easier to manage than multiple, as societies within IEEE may want. Direct emails take way too much effort to manage as a whole. Even if it keeps things somewhat more secure.
Just my two cents. Active IEEE member since '96.