We're quickly entering an age where we'll be creating species's faster than we can kill them off; so we shouldn't get all worried when we kill them off. Last bald eagle dies -- just order a bald flying mouse.
I'm partially kidding; but partially serious too. If today's california condor isn't well suited in the modern environment; wouldn't it be better to grow better ones more able to survive - rather than forcing the unfortunate few remaining ones to suffer in an environment no longer well suited to them?
Zero downtime Upgrading between 8.0 and 8.1
on
PostgreSQL 8.1 Available
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· Score: 4, Informative
Using Slony you can do even better, with zero-downtime(!!!).
Make your old 8.0 system the master in the Slony replication pool.
Set up a slave using 8.1,
Wait until the initial sync is done.
turn off your 8.0 system and failover to the slave (now running 8.1).
It was an intentional bug, but the one doccumentd in the FarewellDossier documents arguably destroyed a superpower. Whether that's a best or worst bug, is left in the eye of the beholder.
One more reason to have the ability to code-review any source code you depend on.
If everyone somehow thinks VOIP on the internet is some magicly secure channel, they'll use it carelessly and lots of security problems will occur.
If they think it's a public chatroom (like an IRC channel) they'll be careful what they say, and fewer problems will result.
Same for email - if it were only widely known that email can be forged by anyone and read by anyone, the nigerian spammers wouldn't have any luck finding a mark. But the damn "email security" industry and ISPs set peoples expectations incorrectly and a lot of people get hurt.
The problem is that MySQL's business depended on a dual-licensing model where they selling a proprietary-licensed version of MySQL.
Sure, they could keep using the GPL'd InnoDB in the GPL'd version of MySQL; but they can not incorporate the GPL'd InnoDB in the proprietary MySQL.
Ironically, if Oracle insisted that future supported versions of InnoDB only be released as a GPL'd work - it could be one of the greates things for MySQL-the-GPL'd-product and one of the worst things to MySQL-the-company.
There's a ton of arible land in the world that does not have the absolutely-perfect-ideal climate.
Many cold areas - siberia, canada - may become nice temerate regions.
Many currently nice areas warmed by ocean streams (england) may suck as those ocean streams move elsewhere -- but it's just as plausable that nice-warm (or cool) ocean streams may end up pointing at other places that are currently too cool (or warm) and make them nice.
True, some deserts may get worse - others may get rain thanks to more evaporation
The only people who really have a lot to lose are the huge-scale real-estate gamblers (companies like ADM who control a lot of currently nice farmland) - and that wealth will move to people who are now miserably poor (siberia).
Even though Windows has a lot of cost - it adds negative value.
Since Dell (and any company looking to please its customers) will price things based on the value the customers receive, it makes perfect sense that they have to compensate the end user for the negative value Windows inflicts on them (pain, grief, anguish, suffering).
(seriously, however - On the Windoze box there's a bunch of third-party crap that Dell was paid to put on there - I know, I worked for a company that paid OEMs to pre-install crippleware in the hopes for upgrading -- and in effect subsidized the windows boxes. I suspect this is what's happening, and Dell's just passing on the subsidy).
From TFA: "Google stands to gain from learning about NASA's supercomputers, which could come in handy as the Mountain View search engine compiles even bigger indexes of information and video."
More realistically, NASA's supercomputer guys stand to gain from learning how to build even bigger supercompuers than their for cheaper.
I think the partnership's great, though -- I'd love to see what kinds of computing efforts could be pulled off with NASA's resources (billions are small to them (" as the average launch expenditures during its operations up to 2005 accumulates to $1.3 billion " from wikipedia); while it still makes news when Google raises 4-billion) and Google's knowledge.
Re:Just use your Social Security number.
on
Too Many Passwords
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· Score: 1
encrypting the SS#s when we submit them to companies.
Hmm.... For all these guys worrying about using a different password for each website - would it be legal to "make up" fake SS#s when dealing with stupid organizations who shouldn't really have access to it anyway. Personally, I think I'd feel quite a bit safer if my school (where I know the guys running IT) didn't have access to the same SS# for me as etrade.
And for that matter, I'd feel even safer if flakey companies like Visa who use even flakier companies like ChoicePoint
didn't have access to the same social security number that ETrade has.
Seems the real answer to me is what the parent poster suggested --- Visa should only have an encrypted version of my SS#, and ETrade should only have a version encrypted by a different key.
Just use your Social Security number.
on
Too Many Passwords
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· Score: 0, Flamebait
It's a number that's supposed to be kept secret with whomever you share it with (because society would collapse if they didn't) --- and it's a number that just about every organization seems to want anyway (so you don't have to fear revealing it to them since they have it anyway)
The article seems to blame the problem on bad strategy rather than bad execution: Microsoft, however, didn't heed the warning. Instead, it embarked on a strategy--championed by Jim Allchin, who today heads up development of the next version of Windows--that was fanatically focused on the operating system.
However it overlooks the point that Microsoft has extreme execution problems. Consider that even in the operating system "that was fanatically focused on" Microsoft lags Linux
Linux did Itanium first.
Linus did Paladium first.
Linux did NUMA first.
Linux did modern security policies(SELinux) before Vista Server.
Microsoft's real problem is that with a stagnant company they can't motivate their employees; so all the good ones leave for places like Google. Back when MSFT stock was doubling every few months, it was quite reasonable and fun for a microsoftie to work 18 hours and see his 1 million dollar option package multiply to 2 million and on to 10 million. Now, however, Balmer yells at his developers only to have them check their underwater options from Jan 2000 and realize it's just not worth it.
Could microsoft change? Yes, by sharing some of the billions of profits they make with their employees. But will they? Nope - they're busy saving that money for their shareholders.
If you're a decent engineer, there's no reason to work for microsoft anymore. You're far better off quitting, competing with them, and letting them buy you back. That's the only way to get your fair share of the billions that microsoft's been hording over the past few years.
The company I'm at has a big C#/ASP.NET application, but a couple marketing guys were doing UI prototyping in Ruby/Rails that appears to be nearing feature completion faster than the "real product".
It's kinda fun to see - but in the end only one of the two solutions will survive - perhaps with quite a few people's jobs on the line as the prize.
adding semantic enhancements to Linux namespaces is mixed at best......If the filesystems were free to compete in semantics, we could have one or several of the Linux filesystems leading them instead.
I could not agree more. I would very much like to see more advances/innovation/inventions out the F/OSS, and here's a place where it has happened but apparently is at the risk of stagnating.
Is there a recommended place (hopefully one of the big distros) where we can get a kernel that supports the hooks you need?
Personally, I'd speculate that these benefits would be a nice point of differentiation for one of the commercial distros; and its proven success in that environment could be a big motivation for the kernel to approve the changes.
A note to Sony, IBM, whomever. I haven't bought a game console since the original Atari 2600.
If PS3 runs Linux & Firefox & Thunderbird & Emacs & Open Office; and has access to a network and a hard drive, I will buy one and probably use it as my primary computer both at work and at home.
(from a former Apple / NeXT / Amiga fan who doesn't mind spending "too much" on interesting architectures)
Not quote firing hem, but how about going to his boss and point out that you're more qualified for his job than he is and want to be transfered above him. Mention it in a constructive way and say that you're doing it for the benefit of the company. If the difference between your skils and his is large enough to be noticed it'll probably happen. If not then it's not clear that it should have happened.
Based on Itanium, I'd say it's a bluff to move Apple away from IBM.
This is the same thing Intel did to HP who walked away from PA/RISC, and to SGI who walked away from MIPS, and to Compaq/DEC who walked away from Alpha --- so they turned from the leaders in 64-bit computing to resellers of wintel.
Hey, if it worked last time, let's try it again; and maybe the rest of the 64-bit competitors'll give up.
I think SCO has finally proven to us all how important the GPL is; and how the separation between patented commercial IP and the Free/Open parts of code are. Unfortunately the CDDL which seems to be a deliberately more "patent friendly" license will never be safe to use; since Sun practically admits that it may contain patented code that they have the right to redistribute but that forks of their project couldn't.
If Sun would remove such questionable (presumably licensed from SCO) components and release under the GPL, I'd happily start supporting it. As it stands, it looks like little more than a trojan for intellectual property legal games.
I think it'd be cool if people who duped such items through bugs suffered the consequences through in-game punnishments -- perhaps denizens from some other dimension who want their stolen items back.
Having some other-worldly demons force these guys to recover the items (if they sold them) and give them back would be a nice way to keep the game going -- and the fear of these demons may get people to refrain from cheating in the future.
so please don't subject me to a tax to cover your inability to stop a bunch of guys stealing your material.... Perhaps then we'll see a FSF/GPL of music able to take roots.
Oh, and a tax would be the surest thing to kill such a Free-Music movement - because suddenly the Free/Open Music would be forced to subsidize the labels.
I don't pirate movies (no tv) or music (my purchased cd collection is already too large) - so please don't subject me to a tax to cover your inability to stop a bunch of guys stealing your material.
Personally, I'd like to see the RIAA get their deepest, most desperate desire of locking down all their media and making anyone who wants it pay full price. And I wish them success in offending their best customers by making criminals out of them.
Allowing them to succeed in offending their customer base in this way is the best thing that could happen to independant labels with more reasonable policies and independant artists who go alone with no label. Perhaps then we'll see a FSF/GPL of music able to take roots.
Virtual worlds seem like an excelent arena for testing and experimenting with various economic models.
Have you guys considered using your world for economic model research that could be applicable helping understand real-world economics and potentially benefit to the rest of the world.
Or, if short of that; have you done any experiments with monatary supply; interest rates; etc with interesting results you can share.
Two days ago HP came into my office and gave a 2 hour roadmap presentation to let us know what will happen to Risk/Alpha over the next few years.
Well, Risk and Alpha are going away, and Itanium is the way of the future
Ten YEARS ago HP told us that Risc is going away and that EPIC/Itanium is the way of the future.
Remember, their Intel/EPIC announcement happened back in 1993.
My bet is that HP continues being a Windtel/x86 leader and that RISC (thanks to Cell and Niagra) move on with out them.
(oh, you said "Risk" is going away, not Risc. Well, that's more likely now that Carley's gone)
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds to me they need to hire someone with appropiate skills in either their PR or Legal departments.
Two non-security incidents in a month almost certainly mean that they're the victim of a FUD campaign.
The right way to answer that is not to validate the fud, but
... communicate the truth - which is a function of PR, and ... make sure no-one's illegally slandering their trademark -which is a function of legal.
The latter is far more dangerous to Apple than the hypothetical security non-issues a CSO could address.I'm partially kidding; but partially serious too. If today's california condor isn't well suited in the modern environment; wouldn't it be better to grow better ones more able to survive - rather than forcing the unfortunate few remaining ones to suffer in an environment no longer well suited to them?
One more reason to have the ability to code-review any source code you depend on.
If everyone somehow thinks VOIP on the internet is some magicly secure channel, they'll use it carelessly and lots of security problems will occur.
If they think it's a public chatroom (like an IRC channel) they'll be careful what they say, and fewer problems will result.
Same for email - if it were only widely known that email can be forged by anyone and read by anyone, the nigerian spammers wouldn't have any luck finding a mark. But the damn "email security" industry and ISPs set peoples expectations incorrectly and a lot of people get hurt.
Ironically, if Oracle insisted that future supported versions of InnoDB only be released as a GPL'd work - it could be one of the greates things for MySQL-the-GPL'd-product and one of the worst things to MySQL-the-company.
There's a ton of arible land in the world that does not have the absolutely-perfect-ideal climate.
The only people who really have a lot to lose are the huge-scale real-estate gamblers (companies like ADM who control a lot of currently nice farmland) - and that wealth will move to people who are now miserably poor (siberia).
Please explain to me what that's a bad thing.
Even though Windows has a lot of cost - it adds negative value.
Since Dell (and any company looking to please its customers) will price things based on the value the customers receive, it makes perfect sense that they have to compensate the end user for the negative value Windows inflicts on them (pain, grief, anguish, suffering).
(seriously, however - On the Windoze box there's a bunch of third-party crap that Dell was paid to put on there - I know, I worked for a company that paid OEMs to pre-install crippleware in the hopes for upgrading -- and in effect subsidized the windows boxes. I suspect this is what's happening, and Dell's just passing on the subsidy).
The article mentioned MySQL so it's only fair to mention that EnterpriseDB Secures $7 Million in Venture Capital Financing for their postgresql-based database. They share many of their innovations back to the community.
More realistically, NASA's supercomputer guys stand to gain from learning how to build even bigger supercompuers than their for cheaper.
It seems all too often that the press seems to misrepresent the old stoggy has-beens as "teaching" teh upstarts (like the other story on slashdot that claimed "HP Propelling Linux Into Truly 'Big' Time", when IBM & Google have pretty much proven that Linux is leading HP if anything propelling HP into the big time).
I think the partnership's great, though -- I'd love to see what kinds of computing efforts could be pulled off with NASA's resources (billions are small to them (" as the average launch expenditures during its operations up to 2005 accumulates to $1.3 billion " from wikipedia); while it still makes news when Google raises 4-billion) and Google's knowledge.
Hmm.... For all these guys worrying about using a different password for each website - would it be legal to "make up" fake SS#s when dealing with stupid organizations who shouldn't really have access to it anyway. Personally, I think I'd feel quite a bit safer if my school (where I know the guys running IT) didn't have access to the same SS# for me as etrade.
And for that matter, I'd feel even safer if flakey companies like Visa who use even flakier companies like ChoicePoint didn't have access to the same social security number that ETrade has.
Seems the real answer to me is what the parent poster suggested --- Visa should only have an encrypted version of my SS#, and ETrade should only have a version encrypted by a different key.
Good idea?
However it overlooks the point that Microsoft has extreme execution problems. Consider that even in the operating system "that was fanatically focused on" Microsoft lags Linux
Microsoft's real problem is that with a stagnant company they can't motivate their employees; so all the good ones leave for places like Google. Back when MSFT stock was doubling every few months, it was quite reasonable and fun for a microsoftie to work 18 hours and see his 1 million dollar option package multiply to 2 million and on to 10 million. Now, however, Balmer yells at his developers only to have them check their underwater options from Jan 2000 and realize it's just not worth it.
Could microsoft change? Yes, by sharing some of the billions of profits they make with their employees. But will they? Nope - they're busy saving that money for their shareholders.
If you're a decent engineer, there's no reason to work for microsoft anymore. You're far better off quitting, competing with them, and letting them buy you back. That's the only way to get your fair share of the billions that microsoft's been hording over the past few years.
And that is the problem with Microsoft today.
The company I'm at has a big C#/ASP.NET application, but a couple marketing guys were doing UI prototyping in Ruby/Rails that appears to be nearing feature completion faster than the "real product". It's kinda fun to see - but in the end only one of the two solutions will survive - perhaps with quite a few people's jobs on the line as the prize.
I could not agree more. I would very much like to see more advances/innovation/inventions out the F/OSS, and here's a place where it has happened but apparently is at the risk of stagnating.
Is there a recommended place (hopefully one of the big distros) where we can get a kernel that supports the hooks you need?
Personally, I'd speculate that these benefits would be a nice point of differentiation for one of the commercial distros; and its proven success in that environment could be a big motivation for the kernel to approve the changes.
If PS3 runs Linux & Firefox & Thunderbird & Emacs & Open Office; and has access to a network and a hard drive, I will buy one and probably use it as my primary computer both at work and at home.
(from a former Apple / NeXT / Amiga fan who doesn't mind spending "too much" on interesting architectures)
Not quote firing hem, but how about going to his boss and point out that you're more qualified for his job than he is and want to be transfered above him. Mention it in a constructive way and say that you're doing it for the benefit of the company. If the difference between your skils and his is large enough to be noticed it'll probably happen. If not then it's not clear that it should have happened.
I thought Microsoft endorsed their embraced and extended and renamed RSS. Seems like it's now not Atom vs RSS, but "Web Feeds" vs RSS.
This is the same thing Intel did to HP who walked away from PA/RISC, and to SGI who walked away from MIPS, and to Compaq/DEC who walked away from Alpha --- so they turned from the leaders in 64-bit computing to resellers of wintel.
Hey, if it worked last time, let's try it again; and maybe the rest of the 64-bit competitors'll give up.
If Sun would remove such questionable (presumably licensed from SCO) components and release under the GPL, I'd happily start supporting it. As it stands, it looks like little more than a trojan for intellectual property legal games.
Having some other-worldly demons force these guys to recover the items (if they sold them) and give them back would be a nice way to keep the game going -- and the fear of these demons may get people to refrain from cheating in the future.
Oh, and a tax would be the surest thing to kill such a Free-Music movement - because suddenly the Free/Open Music would be forced to subsidize the labels.
Personally, I'd like to see the RIAA get their deepest, most desperate desire of locking down all their media and making anyone who wants it pay full price. And I wish them success in offending their best customers by making criminals out of them.
Allowing them to succeed in offending their customer base in this way is the best thing that could happen to independant labels with more reasonable policies and independant artists who go alone with no label. Perhaps then we'll see a FSF/GPL of music able to take roots.
Virtual worlds seem like an excelent arena for testing and experimenting with various economic models.
Have you guys considered using your world for economic model research that could be applicable helping understand real-world economics and potentially benefit to the rest of the world.
Or, if short of that; have you done any experiments with monatary supply; interest rates; etc with interesting results you can share.
Ten YEARS ago HP told us that Risc is going away and that EPIC/Itanium is the way of the future. Remember, their Intel/EPIC announcement happened back in 1993.
My bet is that HP continues being a Windtel/x86 leader and that RISC (thanks to Cell and Niagra) move on with out them.
(oh, you said "Risk" is going away, not Risc. Well, that's more likely now that Carley's gone)