The IEDR is a hotbed of infighting and interference. Started by a few select academics in Dublin's UCD, it is still being meddled with non-stop. I sure as hell don't care whether or not they want to register adult websites, but the IEDR are particularly nasty even to legitimate domain registrations. For example, a private citizen can't register a personal domain unless they're a company or publicly known celebrity like a politician.
Leave the policing up to people better able to do the policing.
This technology was very recently deployed in Ireland. There have been severe problems with it, including both the video and tag system simultaneously billing some customers. Funny thing is a lot of people forget there's a toll there at all any more - there used to be constant protests about the motorway in question.
Try a second-hand one - Power Mac's are available very cheaply these days. The vertical integration is what gives Mac OS X its stability and quick release cycles.
So, for example, try running something non mission critical such as the Alumni database, or a webcasting server or a software mirror service on a FOSS box. Then people start to say how fast it is/doesn't break down. Then try something with some bite in it - maybe a read-only Samba server. Then maybe a read/write Samba server for a small group, which is linked to AD. Make the move in small steps, a bit like the Embrace & Extend strategy.
They aren't fixing Photoshop itself, they are making Wine better able to run it. Personally I don't know why adobe don't just go ahead and release it, although which toolkit they'd use for the graphics is probably an open question.
The OS/2 codebase is irrelevant to this discussion. IBM probably does have a load of contractual and legal problems with doing that. And they've done good work on moving people onto Linux-based solutions where possible.
The dark horse in this whole affair is Sun, not Apple. Sun has a very solid hardware and software business, and now has MySQL under its belt. It pretty much has zero real presence in the provision of online services. Sun essentially would get a shrink-wrapped business which takes care of itself and has very little redundant services. There is little political baggage with such a purchase either. They also get a platform to market their products virally (powered by Sun).
FreeBSD would probably fare OK in that situation, and might even make it as an offically supported OS on Sun hardware. Zimbra is potentially touchy subject as is PHP. Zimbra is possibly capable of being rebranded in a 'one box' solution, compared to the heavyweight Sun Java Messaging stuff.
Are there any good FOSS solutions which work on this principle? I have home rolled a CMS which stores stuff in a MySQL database but writes it all out to static HTML files which I can upload to the server via rsync. Advantages are that should I move college I just can rsync my site to the new web server without having to get and maintain a database on it.
Thing I can never understand is why they don't ditch A/C for server rooms and start putting big extract fans into the roof. In a relatively ok ambient climate like Ireland I can never see the need for refrigerated cooling because you still need A/C fans to circulate that.:S
Facebook runs pretty snappy - begs the question of are many other projects using ASP.NET, JSP or other heavy duty systems where PHP on Commodity hardware would scale well.
In any case I will be leaving if MS buys facebook.
If you are thinking of having your software deployed in a corporate environment - think again! A lot of places use tools like Windows SMS, AD Windows Group Policy and the system used in the undergrad labs in college here - Novell Zenworks. With all of these, an application that installs in a simple way (using a properly made MSI or NSIS installer) is a breeze for the admins. Once you add things like license checking then you're in trouble. Any host-based license checking isn't going to cut it and end-users should not have to 'activate' it.
Also many businesses don't allow direct access to Port 80 (or any internet port) from workstations that don't need it, and many do not still routinely give WWW access through something like a proxy. Having to make special rules for your specific software isn't going to endear you much to sysadmins. Often too, desktop support is a different branch of IT to things like proxy and networks - more prevelant in big companies.
One very well sold example of commercial software is a jukebox app called Touchtone. The author distributes the limited version freely and you buy a license file to use it. The license file has your name and an activation key encoded, so that if you spread it it's clear who you are. If you buy for multiple machines, same file does them all. No phoning home, and great support, so I bought his software. Do like that and you will do well.
What's bizarre is that I have often bought CD's on foot of hearing them in bars or even my local supermarket, where they often have weird and wonderful stuff on. Surely the copyright organisations must realise that every shop that turns off its music rather than paying their fees is more lost free advertising?
These cowboys gave a talk in our University in Dublin. They also wanted to film the talk, presumably so they could chop and change comments by the hostile audience and other learned speakers (experts in Thermodynamics and Magnetics). This quite sensibly wasn't allowed, but the talk went ahead anyway. However there didn't seem to be much behind the flashy powerpoint presentation. I think this is more of a scientifically-fictional pyramid scheme than anything else.
Is this not the sort of event that opponents of Free Software would be having a wet dream over? Surely having a prominent programmer in jail or on remand for murder is worth a thousand patent FUD stories. Also it begs the question of whether it's advisable in the long run for prominent authors to put their names on the actual project itself - compare ReiserFS to say Samba (rather than Tridgeserv for example).
Disclaimer: I use ReiserFS myself on my desktop!
In fact this is why I think FOSS can get a bad reputation with many PHB's. The quality of the documentation varies, it's either nonexistant or pretty complete. The best set of docs I've seen for free software would either be the Subversion book, the Gentoo install handbook or the manuals that SciLab has. Really goes through everything in-depth.
Also a good man page and a '--help' option for CLI utilities is always welcome. However a lot of people and 'new converts' to free operating systems tend to stick with the GUI for help, so HTML documentation that's easily accessible is a must. In fact it's usually buried somewhere in/usr/share or the like, and often programs don't tell you how to get at it easily.
Funny how politicians go up for election claiming this, that and the other - usually things like tax, education, health and transport. Then suddenly once they're in, enforcing draconian controls on digital media is what's important - would they get in if that's what they said up front?
Yes and the converse of this is also true. I had a beautiful Radeon Sapphire 9800 256MB card which I used to use occasionally to play RTCW and Half Life - I'm not a big gamer. So when I heard of Beryl I realised I had a big problem, as XGL was just too much hassle to pursue. I picked up an NVIDIA Geforce 6200GT 256MB on eBay and haven't been happier since. However the result of this is that the 9800 is going into my PVR box and I won't be touching ATI again for a long time.
Loads of places have cameras and also have a PA or music system, often controlled from the same room as the cameras. How does mounting both on a pole change anything?
Our tram stations are monitored by CCTV and if vandals appear then the controller will tell them that they risk being arrested if they stay there over the PA.
The Therac-25 was an example not only of foolishness and a casual attitude to a very potentially dangerous device - it was an example of how one person should never be allowed work alone.
It's documented that the programmer who wrote the RTOS for the linac worked alone and did not want or have to have anyone else in the company look over his code. Whoever allowed that type of situation to develop was more to blame than the programmer. The code was a bad hodgepodge of code for two earlier devices, an X-Ray only Therac 6 and an dual-mode Therac-20 both of which were in unproblematic service. For example the mode selection (which was the root cause of most of the known accidents) was dealt with in a totally different way than the beam energy selection!
The Therac 25 was in the main a great product (as one of the operators said after it was finally muzzled and put back into service "It's still an awesome machine"). But you let one idiot really do a good job screwing things up and you'll never sell another one.
Right now it isn't easy to quickly deploy Jetspeed 2 into Tomcat, unless you go for the pre-installed one. I'd love to see a PostgreSQL/insert-other-sql/OpenLDAP backed configuration system and a WAR file so that JS2 could be deployed easier. It really does look like a killer product.
It could make a compelling replacement for systems like Campus Pipeline.
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The IEDR is a hotbed of infighting and interference. Started by a few select academics in Dublin's UCD, it is still being meddled with non-stop. I sure as hell don't care whether or not they want to register adult websites, but the IEDR are particularly nasty even to legitimate domain registrations. For example, a private citizen can't register a personal domain unless they're a company or publicly known celebrity like a politician. Leave the policing up to people better able to do the policing.
This technology was very recently deployed in Ireland. There have been severe problems with it, including both the video and tag system simultaneously billing some customers. Funny thing is a lot of people forget there's a toll there at all any more - there used to be constant protests about the motorway in question.
Try a second-hand one - Power Mac's are available very cheaply these days. The vertical integration is what gives Mac OS X its stability and quick release cycles.
So, for example, try running something non mission critical such as the Alumni database, or a webcasting server or a software mirror service on a FOSS box. Then people start to say how fast it is/doesn't break down. Then try something with some bite in it - maybe a read-only Samba server. Then maybe a read/write Samba server for a small group, which is linked to AD. Make the move in small steps, a bit like the Embrace & Extend strategy.
Presumably apart from server load it wouldn't be a big deal assuming the users are working on a read-only login?
They aren't fixing Photoshop itself, they are making Wine better able to run it. Personally I don't know why adobe don't just go ahead and release it, although which toolkit they'd use for the graphics is probably an open question.
The OS/2 codebase is irrelevant to this discussion. IBM probably does have a load of contractual and legal problems with doing that. And they've done good work on moving people onto Linux-based solutions where possible.
The dark horse in this whole affair is Sun, not Apple. Sun has a very solid hardware and software business, and now has MySQL under its belt. It pretty much has zero real presence in the provision of online services. Sun essentially would get a shrink-wrapped business which takes care of itself and has very little redundant services. There is little political baggage with such a purchase either. They also get a platform to market their products virally (powered by Sun).
FreeBSD would probably fare OK in that situation, and might even make it as an offically supported OS on Sun hardware. Zimbra is potentially touchy subject as is PHP. Zimbra is possibly capable of being rebranded in a 'one box' solution, compared to the heavyweight Sun Java Messaging stuff.
Are there any good FOSS solutions which work on this principle? I have home rolled a CMS which stores stuff in a MySQL database but writes it all out to static HTML files which I can upload to the server via rsync. Advantages are that should I move college I just can rsync my site to the new web server without having to get and maintain a database on it.
Thing I can never understand is why they don't ditch A/C for server rooms and start putting big extract fans into the roof. In a relatively ok ambient climate like Ireland I can never see the need for refrigerated cooling because you still need A/C fans to circulate that. :S
Facebook runs pretty snappy - begs the question of are many other projects using ASP.NET, JSP or other heavy duty systems where PHP on Commodity hardware would scale well. In any case I will be leaving if MS buys facebook.
Presumably if microsoft wanted to they could have just said no to DRM to hollywood. I guess microsoft would have more clout than they would.
If you are thinking of having your software deployed in a corporate environment - think again! A lot of places use tools like Windows SMS, AD Windows Group Policy and the system used in the undergrad labs in college here - Novell Zenworks. With all of these, an application that installs in a simple way (using a properly made MSI or NSIS installer) is a breeze for the admins. Once you add things like license checking then you're in trouble. Any host-based license checking isn't going to cut it and end-users should not have to 'activate' it.
Also many businesses don't allow direct access to Port 80 (or any internet port) from workstations that don't need it, and many do not still routinely give WWW access through something like a proxy. Having to make special rules for your specific software isn't going to endear you much to sysadmins. Often too, desktop support is a different branch of IT to things like proxy and networks - more prevelant in big companies.
One very well sold example of commercial software is a jukebox app called Touchtone. The author distributes the limited version freely and you buy a license file to use it. The license file has your name and an activation key encoded, so that if you spread it it's clear who you are. If you buy for multiple machines, same file does them all. No phoning home, and great support, so I bought his software. Do like that and you will do well.
Would you pay for the privilage of bringing a CD into your 'unlicensed' bath room to listen to?
What's bizarre is that I have often bought CD's on foot of hearing them in bars or even my local supermarket, where they often have weird and wonderful stuff on. Surely the copyright organisations must realise that every shop that turns off its music rather than paying their fees is more lost free advertising?
These cowboys gave a talk in our University in Dublin. They also wanted to film the talk, presumably so they could chop and change comments by the hostile audience and other learned speakers (experts in Thermodynamics and Magnetics). This quite sensibly wasn't allowed, but the talk went ahead anyway. However there didn't seem to be much behind the flashy powerpoint presentation. I think this is more of a scientifically-fictional pyramid scheme than anything else.
Is this not the sort of event that opponents of Free Software would be having a wet dream over? Surely having a prominent programmer in jail or on remand for murder is worth a thousand patent FUD stories. Also it begs the question of whether it's advisable in the long run for prominent authors to put their names on the actual project itself - compare ReiserFS to say Samba (rather than Tridgeserv for example). Disclaimer: I use ReiserFS myself on my desktop!
In fact this is why I think FOSS can get a bad reputation with many PHB's. The quality of the documentation varies, it's either nonexistant or pretty complete. The best set of docs I've seen for free software would either be the Subversion book, the Gentoo install handbook or the manuals that SciLab has. Really goes through everything in-depth. Also a good man page and a '--help' option for CLI utilities is always welcome. However a lot of people and 'new converts' to free operating systems tend to stick with the GUI for help, so HTML documentation that's easily accessible is a must. In fact it's usually buried somewhere in /usr/share or the like, and often programs don't tell you how to get at it easily.
OpenBSD's systrace when set up properly probably does everything UAC can and more.
Funny how politicians go up for election claiming this, that and the other - usually things like tax, education, health and transport. Then suddenly once they're in, enforcing draconian controls on digital media is what's important - would they get in if that's what they said up front?
Yes and the converse of this is also true. I had a beautiful Radeon Sapphire 9800 256MB card which I used to use occasionally to play RTCW and Half Life - I'm not a big gamer. So when I heard of Beryl I realised I had a big problem, as XGL was just too much hassle to pursue. I picked up an NVIDIA Geforce 6200GT 256MB on eBay and haven't been happier since. However the result of this is that the 9800 is going into my PVR box and I won't be touching ATI again for a long time.
Loads of places have cameras and also have a PA or music system, often controlled from the same room as the cameras. How does mounting both on a pole change anything?
Our tram stations are monitored by CCTV and if vandals appear then the controller will tell them that they risk being arrested if they stay there over the PA.
The Therac-25 was an example not only of foolishness and a casual attitude to a very potentially dangerous device - it was an example of how one person should never be allowed work alone.
It's documented that the programmer who wrote the RTOS for the linac worked alone and did not want or have to have anyone else in the company look over his code. Whoever allowed that type of situation to develop was more to blame than the programmer. The code was a bad hodgepodge of code for two earlier devices, an X-Ray only Therac 6 and an dual-mode Therac-20 both of which were in unproblematic service. For example the mode selection (which was the root cause of most of the known accidents) was dealt with in a totally different way than the beam energy selection!
The Therac 25 was in the main a great product (as one of the operators said after it was finally muzzled and put back into service "It's still an awesome machine"). But you let one idiot really do a good job screwing things up and you'll never sell another one.
Right now it isn't easy to quickly deploy Jetspeed 2 into Tomcat, unless you go for the pre-installed one. I'd love to see a PostgreSQL/insert-other-sql/OpenLDAP backed configuration system and a WAR file so that JS2 could be deployed easier. It really does look like a killer product.
It could make a compelling replacement for systems like Campus Pipeline.