The EU isn't trying to standardise immigration, currency and language within its borders. Who told you that?
I don't think I have a warped view of the EU, I've been a several times and try to keep up (as much as a software engineer can, anyways). I thought the entire point of the EU was to unite a historicaly & culturaly fractured Europe to compete with the US, Japan, and China (politicialy, militarily, and economicaly). From wikipedia:
The European Union's activities cover all areas of public policy, from health and economic policy to foreign affairs and defence. However, the extent of its powers differs greatly between areas. Depending on the area in question, the EU may therefore resemble a federation a federation (for example, on monetary affairs, agricultural, trade and environmental policy), a confederation (for example, on social and economic policy, consumer protection, home affairs), an international organisation (for example, in foreign affairs).
Doesn't that encompass currency and immagration (the Euro and promoting free travel)? Sure they might officialy recognize 20ish languages and not activley promote one over another, but my point is that the EU has not overcome several rather important issues to truly unite the continent... and it has neither the right nor the aptitude to regulate the 'net.
The computer industry isn't anchored in the US, who told you that?
Uh, US schools/companies/government inveted the internet & every major OS in use today (Sure Linus was from Finland, but he's not there now...), has the best computer schools, and is the home of Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Sun, Red Hat, Google, Yahoo, Dell, HP, Novell, Palm, Pixar, Adobe/Macromidia, etc. Just to name a few. I'm really not trying to be US-centric or downplay foreign/international contributions - Samsung & Sony are giants, and great stuff has come out of Europe - but come on. What would make you believe that any other nation has contributed as much?
Sure, there's plenty of things to rag on the US for. But we still still make the best Movies, the best Software, and the best Snack Food. No question.
over its own members. Do we honestly think that an organization that cannot standardize immagration, currency, and language within its boarders is capable of running the worlds networks?
And how about the fact that the computer industry is anchord in SF Bay, Seattle, Boston, and New York? Aside form a couple notable companies based in Germany and Sweeden, on what ground does the EU think it is more qualified to handle this than the US?
Could it be that a major contributing factor to the decline in touring industry is the cost of tickets and the increasing quality of available media? I can not only hear the band better on mastered recordings, but I can; turn them off when I want, pause, take it with me, and repeat the 'performance' whenever I want, all for less than the ticket cost of a single show?
Maybe, it doesn't help.
But I don't think you can make the claim that music DVDs are to touring what move DVDs are to theatres. You can replicate the atmosphere of a theatre in you're own home pretty easily (after all, its just a dark, air conditioned room with a big screen where no one can talk). But going to a show is inherently social.. tailgaiting before the show, drinking/smoking, dancing, general rock show craziness... how does one reproduce that at home? Fine, that might not be your scene, but if that's the case, are you really the kind of person that would go in the first place?
As far as cost, clubs/local bars have been charging about the price of a CD for years now. In the larger arenas, ticket prices aren't that much higher for MOST bands, but it does feel like tickemaster and arena parking/food stands are gouging customers... I hope that is remedied soon, but I still feel like the large problem is a lack of great bands. Seriously, how many bands can you think of that could fill an arena these days, compared to IMHO higher points in rock history (late 60's/early 70's, early 90's)?
I have heard hundreds of stories about people that made alot of money doing stupid things. In spite of these stories, you just have to remind yourself that there are millions of people that lost their shirts, thinking that stupid things would make them rich, quick.
Amen to that. I'm reminded of a David Cross bit - for anybody that needs to remember that most dumb/untalented people do in fact fail, buy yourself a plane ticket to Los Angeles and just sit on a bench on Holywood Blvd. for a little while. No where else in the world can you see so many delusional people who spent everything to get there, thinking that they're going to be 'the next big thing', only to be chewed up and spit out by the city a few months later.
And pay umpteen-thousand dollars for an engineering education, just so I could make less money than a manager at McDonalds. Anybody else depressed that people make a lot of money doing stupid things?
Well if you're making McDonalds manager sallary, I suggest looking for a a new job. Entry level tech workers usualy make pretty decent money for people their age.
It doesn't bother me that a select few bloggers can make a decent living off of it, great writers are truly rare and valuble to society. Atually, what I find more depressing is that frequently bloggers are better, more honest, and more insightful that the professional US 'journalists'.
But you're right, there is a ton of money in 'stupid things'. I don't mind, and usualy applaud, people (ethically) making money off of it, though the demand for stupid junk depresses me some times. Case in point: high end fashion. It drives me nuts that there are so many rich idoits on 5th/Madison Ave in New York City demanding overpriced status symbols, but I feel better knowing that there are talented artists out there that can spot the demand and restore equillibrium by seperating fools from their money.
I'm going to ignore the fact that this an obvious re-post...
As a record store owner, my business faces ruin. CD sales have dropped through the floor. People aren't buying half as many CDs as they did just a year ago. Revenue is down and costs are up.
Doesn't the fact that, despite the buzz about the new medium, that the music scene itself is fairly stagnant at the moment? Aside from notable exceptions like the Rolling Stones & U2, the touring industry is dying too. Can't blame that one on piracy...
It was one of those boutique record stores that sell obscure, independent releases that no-one listens to, not even the people that buy them. I decided that to grow the business I'd need to aim for a different demographic, the family market
So you dropped the defining characteristic of your shop to sell a line that Wal-Mart is famous for (who can guarentee censorship and a lower cost to the consumers)? Doesn't sound like a great move to me. As a buisness owner, you have the power to adapt to a changing market. Newbury Comics (I'm not sure if that's just a Boston-area chain, but it's my best example) started off selling, well, comic books... when the market dried up, they started stocking cds... when that market when south, they started selling DVD's, toys, and tshrits. They've been successful for as long as I can remember.
For the lazy, or those who cut-and-paste for karma and miss major components:
The Server Mode variable (allows varying tolerance of 'bad' data & sql standard compliance, fixing the truncation 'feature' that everyone complains about)
The Archive Storage Engine (compressed, insert & select only engine ideal for logging)
The Federated Storage Engine ('virtual' tables, allows for cross-database joins)
You're absolutely right. The database should fail to accept bad data. Integrity doesn't mean that the database tries to make an educated guess about what you meant (MySQL does this, and its one of the many reasons why MySQL sucks)
Agreed, MySQL's data truncation has been a major problem and prevented it from being deployed on critical apps. However, as of 4.1 most of the connectors out there can convert the truncation warning into an exception, and 5.0 has server modes of varying strictness and SQL standard compliance to solve the problem.
I'm hardly a MySQL fanboy, but to say it 'sucks' is probably an overstatement. There are plenty of operations out there that don't need the features or can't justify the cost of the proprietary systems (nevermind the platform lock-in of MSSQL). Which really just leaves Postgres and MySQL - kind of a wash IMHO. Historicaly it was a few more features & better transaction support vs. lightweight/larger community/easy to configure - but the two are rapidly converging.
It's a total waste to make disposable dvd's. Major environmental hazard, since no one would dispose correctly. Unless they also used the biodegradable...
The mentality that "if its biodegradable it's ok" is a fallacy, as the current landfill strategy (here in the US anyways) is to pack tightly and bury it. NOTHING biodegrades in those conditions (insufficent oxygen and water); they've dug up bananna peels from the 70's. Plastics do degrade though, just not by microbes. All it takes is some concentrated UV and you'll be all set. And frankly, when compared to the energy infrastructure, the solid waste problem is hardly my biggest environmental concern.
My philosophy is that if DC is in such shape that I can never return, I really don't care about carrying around any personl data or very much anything else other than my life
Indeed. Besides, any (unforseen) situation that would render a major metro area uninhabitable probably means you aren't getting out alive anyways. If New Orleans couldn't be properly evacuated with several days notice, getting out of the beltway would be pretty damn tough. New York would be impossible.
... they would fix all of the broken ebuilds. Of all of Gentoo's issues, support is not one of them, their forums are really the best I've seen. The biggest problem is the portage is not scaling well, largely due to the high number of crappy submitted ebuilds, and the low number of testers and devs. It feels like its got much worse in the past year or two, with broken packages often making it to 'stable' and critical apps staying hard masked (the delay in MySQL 4.1, PHP5, and all of the Apache issues are my favorite examples).
I do love Gentoo & Portage, but so long as 'emerge -upD world' will fail consistently even on the most conservative use flags & keywords, I'll be using another distro.
Yeah, but a better example might have been the Smashing Pumpkins, who gave away Machina 2/the Friends & Enemies of Modern Music for free - online only - as a big fuck you to their label and a parting gift to the fans in 2000.
Its not really news to me when a local band or fading one hit wonder gives away their music, as the're likely doing it for exposure and not nessecarily principal.
Linux is *not* user friendly, and until it is linux will stay with >1% marketshare
Um, isn't that a little offtopic? StarOffice is cross platform; they're targeting corporate Widows users who are running MSO. The installation of StarOffice (or OpenOffice) is a breeze, it is really just double clicking a setup file.
I do agree with you that the package management and inconsistent (and rather ugly) GUI's of Linux will prevent it from being an OS for the average Joe for quite some time, but it's a fantastic server and the desktop has made enough progress that it is suitable for some government/corporate/educational settings (where there is an IT guy to handle all the config nonsense). We'll see what happens I guess.
But IMHO, Sun, Apple, and the FOSS community have learned that the best way to eat at MS isn't by pushing their respective OS, but by pushing superior cross platform apps that are easy to migrate to. Once you're not locked into a platform by your apps and trust vendors other than MS, a platform shift isn't as big a jump as it once was. How many home users do you know that considered or purchaced a Mac after falling in love with their iPod, or IT managers who are giving OSS another thought after seeing such gems as OOo, the Jakarta Project, or the Mozilla Foundation?
...between the casing of the Nano/4th Gen iPod and the mini? Based on the god-knows-how-many iPods I've seen, most of the mini's I've come across still look failry new, while just about every full sized iPod is fairly scuffed/scratched up. IMHO, the casing of the mini is a lot nicer looking too.
Also, any chance that Apple would replace the faceplate of my iPod if/when I send it off for a new battery? I can't imagine it would be expensive or difficult to do so, I just don't know if they would.
Indeed. Well, if anyone has figured out secrets to system administaration that the Google, Yahoo, Ebay, the Major ISP's and all the cost-concious LAMP operations haven't, its certainly news that I would want to read:D
To say a great sys-admin shouldn't know a platform, only concepts AND be able to work with whatever you hand them is ridiculous...It's like knowing the concepts in OO programming is much more important then knowing a particular OO language. However you can't hand someone a task to do in a specific OO language without some training prior in that particular language (whether it be self-taught for a few days or a course for a few weeks).
Well of course they might need a couple days or even a week or two of studying/training. But when you're talking about a new hire, or rolling out a new system/archtecture/whatever, isn't that always involved? The training period is very likely insignificant compared to the life of the project... if my next project required Ruby on Rails instead of my more familiar PHP and JSP, you could bet that the bulk of my time wouldn't be spent in the Ruby manual.
Of course I'm aware that Xserver exists. My initial response was a little tounge-in-cheek jab at Xserve for being little more than an overpriced BSD server. OSX is famous for being a rock solid enjoyable desktop, not a better or more cost-effective server.
Yes, but windows admins come a lot cheaper... at least up here where everyone and their dog has an MCSE
That's an illusion steming from the fact that its far too easy to pass of remedial Windows knowldege as expert Windows administration skills to a PHP. Any decent sysadmin knows concepts, not platforms, and can work with whatever you hand them.
... how they think Windows is the solution when they were unable to diagnose the problem?
Our company just installed the same image on two identical certified Linux-compatable servers for the same job. One will core dump, seemingly randomly, but often enough to render it unsuitable for production, while its counterpart other runs flawlessly 24/7. Would I be way off the mark in thinking that our problem is a subtle hardware defect in one machine, not a deffective OS, particularly after trying several different kernels/distros/versions/etc etc?
While the article is light on the scale of the operation (I've never heard of Crest Electronics), it frequently uses the pronouns it or the machine (as opposed to the plural) in reference to the server(s). It would seem silly to me to consider a platform shift and the associated costs when you're having trouble with a single unit.
I work with spyware infected systems every day, and I have never found a "rootkit" on one
The issuse is that they're extremely difficult to detect. What heuristics do you use that that the major AV companies are not aware of?
The most effective method that I have found to get rid of spyware on an infected system, by the way, is to boot from a live Windows bootable CD to delete all the crappy spyware directories...
I'm sure that works reasonably well, but once a system is comprimised, you never really know for sure. I find that the only surefire method, which incidentally often takes less time, is to wipe the drive and start fresh. The type of user that is going to get spyware probably doesn't have a complicated setup or do more than write documents and use iTunes, and backing up is as simple as looking for *.doc, *.xls, *.ppt, *.mp*, *.mov, *.wmv, and *.avi.
When you're talking about online content, the only means that a provider has to make money are from you directly or from advertising (or perhaps some combination of the two). Otherwise you're either ripping off their hard work, or expecting them to work for free for your entertainment.
Yes yes, the DMCA and record/movie execs are evil - but rather than rationalizing copyright infringment to yourself, why not just a good old fashioned boycott if you really want said execs to re-evaluate their buisness model?
they aren't single-mindedly trying to insert themselves into as many inboxes and search results as they possibly can
You would be incorrect - spamming (in regards to search engines) means to artificially and/or unethicaly inflate the ranking of a site.
The major search engine algorithms rank based on some combination of keyword relevance, user rating, and link quality/count, (possibly other criteria, who knows?). How they weigh each factor, how (and who) they blacklist, and how they detect spam is of course a hugely guarded secrete, but the bottom line is that links in blogs or signatures can increases the rank of the page that it points to - and can often allow junk sites to raise to the top of search engine rankings.
I guarentee that you would be suprised to learn the percentage of blogs out there that are just spammers trying to push their viagara/gambling/free ipod schemes. So just because the blog itself its not in your inbox and doesn't appear in any of your searches, it doesn't mean that its not degrading your experience on the internet.
The only thing that could be done to curtail this practice would be to require single-purpose bills that can't be loaded full of non-related crap. Of course, that would require a major change in our our legislative process works...
Why not just tack your proposal onto some popular bill?
I use AdWords on a few websites... What's in it for me to switch to MSN's?
Well, I'm unsure if you mean you advertise on a few websites or put ads on your your own websites for revenue. But, I've done a lot of work in the industry so here goes:
Google and Yahoo have a roughly equal share of the keyword-based advertising market (roughly 45% a piece), and most of the traffic comes from their own search engines, not their content network. The launch of MSN's program will imediatley cut into Yahoo's share (as current MSN ads are contracted to them), not Google's. It's hard to predict just how much though - Microsoft's search engine is less popular with a smaller index (and technicaly inferior IMHO), but Microsfot is pushing it pretty hard, and they own a fair number of hugely popular sites (MSNBC, Hotmail, ect). If you're targeting a specific demographic or website owned by MS, you'll have to consider them. But I don't see the major distributions out there flocking to an unproven system by a fairly new player to the search industry.
Between Google and Yahoo, I don't see overall differences in advertiser/advertisee ROI, but the two systems work slightly differently and could be quite different to a smaller operation. Where you place in Yahoo is based on how much you're willing to spend, where placement in Google is determined by a combination of the traffic you generate and your bid.
Bottom line, if you're only toying with AdWords at the moment, I wouldn't bother with MSN until you've experimented with Yahoo.
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The EU isn't trying to standardise immigration, currency and language within its borders. Who told you that?
I don't think I have a warped view of the EU, I've been a several times and try to keep up (as much as a software engineer can, anyways). I thought the entire point of the EU was to unite a historicaly & culturaly fractured Europe to compete with the US, Japan, and China (politicialy, militarily, and economicaly). From wikipedia:
The European Union's activities cover all areas of public policy, from health and economic policy to foreign affairs and defence. However, the extent of its powers differs greatly between areas. Depending on the area in question, the EU may therefore resemble a federation a federation (for example, on monetary affairs, agricultural, trade and environmental policy), a confederation (for example, on social and economic policy, consumer protection, home affairs), an international organisation (for example, in foreign affairs).
Doesn't that encompass currency and immagration (the Euro and promoting free travel)? Sure they might officialy recognize 20ish languages and not activley promote one over another, but my point is that the EU has not overcome several rather important issues to truly unite the continent... and it has neither the right nor the aptitude to regulate the 'net.
The computer industry isn't anchored in the US, who told you that?
Uh, US schools/companies/government inveted the internet & every major OS in use today (Sure Linus was from Finland, but he's not there now...), has the best computer schools, and is the home of Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Sun, Red Hat, Google, Yahoo, Dell, HP, Novell, Palm, Pixar, Adobe/Macromidia, etc. Just to name a few. I'm really not trying to be US-centric or downplay foreign/international contributions - Samsung & Sony are giants, and great stuff has come out of Europe - but come on. What would make you believe that any other nation has contributed as much?
Sure, there's plenty of things to rag on the US for. But we still still make the best Movies, the best Software, and the best Snack Food. No question.
over its own members. Do we honestly think that an organization that cannot standardize immagration, currency, and language within its boarders is capable of running the worlds networks?
And how about the fact that the computer industry is anchord in SF Bay, Seattle, Boston, and New York? Aside form a couple notable companies based in Germany and Sweeden, on what ground does the EU think it is more qualified to handle this than the US?
Could it be that a major contributing factor to the decline in touring industry is the cost of tickets and the increasing quality of available media? I can not only hear the band better on mastered recordings, but I can; turn them off when I want, pause, take it with me, and repeat the 'performance' whenever I want, all for less than the ticket cost of a single show?
... how does one reproduce that at home? Fine, that might not be your scene, but if that's the case, are you really the kind of person that would go in the first place?
Maybe, it doesn't help.
But I don't think you can make the claim that music DVDs are to touring what move DVDs are to theatres. You can replicate the atmosphere of a theatre in you're own home pretty easily (after all, its just a dark, air conditioned room with a big screen where no one can talk). But going to a show is inherently social.. tailgaiting before the show, drinking/smoking, dancing, general rock show craziness
As far as cost, clubs/local bars have been charging about the price of a CD for years now. In the larger arenas, ticket prices aren't that much higher for MOST bands, but it does feel like tickemaster and arena parking/food stands are gouging customers... I hope that is remedied soon, but I still feel like the large problem is a lack of great bands. Seriously, how many bands can you think of that could fill an arena these days, compared to IMHO higher points in rock history (late 60's/early 70's, early 90's)?
I have heard hundreds of stories about people that made alot of money doing stupid things. In spite of these stories, you just have to remind yourself that there are millions of people that lost their shirts, thinking that stupid things would make them rich, quick.
Amen to that. I'm reminded of a David Cross bit - for anybody that needs to remember that most dumb/untalented people do in fact fail, buy yourself a plane ticket to Los Angeles and just sit on a bench on Holywood Blvd. for a little while. No where else in the world can you see so many delusional people who spent everything to get there, thinking that they're going to be 'the next big thing', only to be chewed up and spit out by the city a few months later.
And pay umpteen-thousand dollars for an engineering education, just so I could make less money than a manager at McDonalds. Anybody else depressed that people make a lot of money doing stupid things?
Well if you're making McDonalds manager sallary, I suggest looking for a a new job. Entry level tech workers usualy make pretty decent money for people their age.
It doesn't bother me that a select few bloggers can make a decent living off of it, great writers are truly rare and valuble to society. Atually, what I find more depressing is that frequently bloggers are better, more honest, and more insightful that the professional US 'journalists'.
But you're right, there is a ton of money in 'stupid things'. I don't mind, and usualy applaud, people (ethically) making money off of it, though the demand for stupid junk depresses me some times. Case in point: high end fashion. It drives me nuts that there are so many rich idoits on 5th/Madison Ave in New York City demanding overpriced status symbols, but I feel better knowing that there are talented artists out there that can spot the demand and restore equillibrium by seperating fools from their money.
I'm going to ignore the fact that this an obvious re-post...
As a record store owner, my business faces ruin. CD sales have dropped through the floor. People aren't buying half as many CDs as they did just a year ago. Revenue is down and costs are up.
Doesn't the fact that, despite the buzz about the new medium, that the music scene itself is fairly stagnant at the moment? Aside from notable exceptions like the Rolling Stones & U2, the touring industry is dying too. Can't blame that one on piracy...
It was one of those boutique record stores that sell obscure, independent releases that no-one listens to, not even the people that buy them. I decided that to grow the business I'd need to aim for a different demographic, the family market
So you dropped the defining characteristic of your shop to sell a line that Wal-Mart is famous for (who can guarentee censorship and a lower cost to the consumers)? Doesn't sound like a great move to me. As a buisness owner, you have the power to adapt to a changing market. Newbury Comics (I'm not sure if that's just a Boston-area chain, but it's my best example) started off selling, well, comic books... when the market dried up, they started stocking cds... when that market when south, they started selling DVD's, toys, and tshrits. They've been successful for as long as I can remember.
You're absolutely right. The database should fail to accept bad data. Integrity doesn't mean that the database tries to make an educated guess about what you meant (MySQL does this, and its one of the many reasons why MySQL sucks)
Agreed, MySQL's data truncation has been a major problem and prevented it from being deployed on critical apps. However, as of 4.1 most of the connectors out there can convert the truncation warning into an exception, and 5.0 has server modes of varying strictness and SQL standard compliance to solve the problem.
I'm hardly a MySQL fanboy, but to say it 'sucks' is probably an overstatement. There are plenty of operations out there that don't need the features or can't justify the cost of the proprietary systems (nevermind the platform lock-in of MSSQL). Which really just leaves Postgres and MySQL - kind of a wash IMHO. Historicaly it was a few more features & better transaction support vs. lightweight/larger community/easy to configure - but the two are rapidly converging.
It's a total waste to make disposable dvd's. Major environmental hazard, since no one would dispose correctly. Unless they also used the biodegradable...
The mentality that "if its biodegradable it's ok" is a fallacy, as the current landfill strategy (here in the US anyways) is to pack tightly and bury it. NOTHING biodegrades in those conditions (insufficent oxygen and water); they've dug up bananna peels from the 70's. Plastics do degrade though, just not by microbes. All it takes is some concentrated UV and you'll be all set. And frankly, when compared to the energy infrastructure, the solid waste problem is hardly my biggest environmental concern.
My philosophy is that if DC is in such shape that I can never return, I really don't care about carrying around any personl data or very much anything else other than my life
Indeed. Besides, any (unforseen) situation that would render a major metro area uninhabitable probably means you aren't getting out alive anyways. If New Orleans couldn't be properly evacuated with several days notice, getting out of the beltway would be pretty damn tough. New York would be impossible.
... they would fix all of the broken ebuilds. Of all of Gentoo's issues, support is not one of them, their forums are really the best I've seen. The biggest problem is the portage is not scaling well, largely due to the high number of crappy submitted ebuilds, and the low number of testers and devs. It feels like its got much worse in the past year or two, with broken packages often making it to 'stable' and critical apps staying hard masked (the delay in MySQL 4.1, PHP5, and all of the Apache issues are my favorite examples).
I do love Gentoo & Portage, but so long as 'emerge -upD world' will fail consistently even on the most conservative use flags & keywords, I'll be using another distro.
Yeah, but a better example might have been the Smashing Pumpkins, who gave away Machina 2/the Friends & Enemies of Modern Music for free - online only - as a big fuck you to their label and a parting gift to the fans in 2000.
Its not really news to me when a local band or fading one hit wonder gives away their music, as the're likely doing it for exposure and not nessecarily principal.
Linux is *not* user friendly, and until it is linux will stay with >1% marketshare
Um, isn't that a little offtopic? StarOffice is cross platform; they're targeting corporate Widows users who are running MSO. The installation of StarOffice (or OpenOffice) is a breeze, it is really just double clicking a setup file.
I do agree with you that the package management and inconsistent (and rather ugly) GUI's of Linux will prevent it from being an OS for the average Joe for quite some time, but it's a fantastic server and the desktop has made enough progress that it is suitable for some government/corporate/educational settings (where there is an IT guy to handle all the config nonsense). We'll see what happens I guess.
But IMHO, Sun, Apple, and the FOSS community have learned that the best way to eat at MS isn't by pushing their respective OS, but by pushing superior cross platform apps that are easy to migrate to. Once you're not locked into a platform by your apps and trust vendors other than MS, a platform shift isn't as big a jump as it once was. How many home users do you know that considered or purchaced a Mac after falling in love with their iPod, or IT managers who are giving OSS another thought after seeing such gems as OOo, the Jakarta Project, or the Mozilla Foundation?
...between the casing of the Nano/4th Gen iPod and the mini? Based on the god-knows-how-many iPods I've seen, most of the mini's I've come across still look failry new, while just about every full sized iPod is fairly scuffed/scratched up. IMHO, the casing of the mini is a lot nicer looking too.
Also, any chance that Apple would replace the faceplate of my iPod if/when I send it off for a new battery? I can't imagine it would be expensive or difficult to do so, I just don't know if they would.
Indeed. Well, if anyone has figured out secrets to system administaration that the Google, Yahoo, Ebay, the Major ISP's and all the cost-concious LAMP operations haven't, its certainly news that I would want to read :D
To say a great sys-admin shouldn't know a platform, only concepts AND be able to work with whatever you hand them is ridiculous...It's like knowing the concepts in OO programming is much more important then knowing a particular OO language. However you can't hand someone a task to do in a specific OO language without some training prior in that particular language (whether it be self-taught for a few days or a course for a few weeks).
Well of course they might need a couple days or even a week or two of studying/training. But when you're talking about a new hire, or rolling out a new system/archtecture/whatever, isn't that always involved? The training period is very likely insignificant compared to the life of the project... if my next project required Ruby on Rails instead of my more familiar PHP and JSP, you could bet that the bulk of my time wouldn't be spent in the Ruby manual.
Of course I'm aware that Xserver exists. My initial response was a little tounge-in-cheek jab at Xserve for being little more than an overpriced BSD server. OSX is famous for being a rock solid enjoyable desktop, not a better or more cost-effective server.
Yes, but windows admins come a lot cheaper... at least up here where everyone and their dog has an MCSE
That's an illusion steming from the fact that its far too easy to pass of remedial Windows knowldege as expert Windows administration skills to a PHP. Any decent sysadmin knows concepts, not platforms, and can work with whatever you hand them.
Or, y'know, a Mac.
I really do love OSX... but it's desktop OS and we all know it.
... how they think Windows is the solution when they were unable to diagnose the problem?
Our company just installed the same image on two identical certified Linux-compatable servers for the same job. One will core dump, seemingly randomly, but often enough to render it unsuitable for production, while its counterpart other runs flawlessly 24/7. Would I be way off the mark in thinking that our problem is a subtle hardware defect in one machine, not a deffective OS, particularly after trying several different kernels/distros/versions/etc etc?
While the article is light on the scale of the operation (I've never heard of Crest Electronics), it frequently uses the pronouns it or the machine (as opposed to the plural) in reference to the server(s). It would seem silly to me to consider a platform shift and the associated costs when you're having trouble with a single unit.
I work with spyware infected systems every day, and I have never found a "rootkit" on one
The issuse is that they're extremely difficult to detect. What heuristics do you use that that the major AV companies are not aware of?
The most effective method that I have found to get rid of spyware on an infected system, by the way, is to boot from a live Windows bootable CD to delete all the crappy spyware directories...
I'm sure that works reasonably well, but once a system is comprimised, you never really know for sure. I find that the only surefire method, which incidentally often takes less time, is to wipe the drive and start fresh. The type of user that is going to get spyware probably doesn't have a complicated setup or do more than write documents and use iTunes, and backing up is as simple as looking for *.doc, *.xls, *.ppt, *.mp*, *.mov, *.wmv, and *.avi.
Would you prefer a subscription model?
When you're talking about online content, the only means that a provider has to make money are from you directly or from advertising (or perhaps some combination of the two). Otherwise you're either ripping off their hard work, or expecting them to work for free for your entertainment.
Yes yes, the DMCA and record/movie execs are evil - but rather than rationalizing copyright infringment to yourself, why not just a good old fashioned boycott if you really want said execs to re-evaluate their buisness model?
they aren't single-mindedly trying to insert themselves into as many inboxes and search results as they possibly can
You would be incorrect - spamming (in regards to search engines) means to artificially and/or unethicaly inflate the ranking of a site.
The major search engine algorithms rank based on some combination of keyword relevance, user rating, and link quality/count, (possibly other criteria, who knows?). How they weigh each factor, how (and who) they blacklist, and how they detect spam is of course a hugely guarded secrete, but the bottom line is that links in blogs or signatures can increases the rank of the page that it points to - and can often allow junk sites to raise to the top of search engine rankings.
I guarentee that you would be suprised to learn the percentage of blogs out there that are just spammers trying to push their viagara/gambling/free ipod schemes. So just because the blog itself its not in your inbox and doesn't appear in any of your searches, it doesn't mean that its not degrading your experience on the internet.
The only thing that could be done to curtail this practice would be to require single-purpose bills that can't be loaded full of non-related crap. Of course, that would require a major change in our our legislative process works...
Why not just tack your proposal onto some popular bill?
I use AdWords on a few websites... What's in it for me to switch to MSN's?
Well, I'm unsure if you mean you advertise on a few websites or put ads on your your own websites for revenue. But, I've done a lot of work in the industry so here goes:
Google and Yahoo have a roughly equal share of the keyword-based advertising market (roughly 45% a piece), and most of the traffic comes from their own search engines, not their content network. The launch of MSN's program will imediatley cut into Yahoo's share (as current MSN ads are contracted to them), not Google's. It's hard to predict just how much though - Microsoft's search engine is less popular with a smaller index (and technicaly inferior IMHO), but Microsfot is pushing it pretty hard, and they own a fair number of hugely popular sites (MSNBC, Hotmail, ect). If you're targeting a specific demographic or website owned by MS, you'll have to consider them. But I don't see the major distributions out there flocking to an unproven system by a fairly new player to the search industry.
Between Google and Yahoo, I don't see overall differences in advertiser/advertisee ROI, but the two systems work slightly differently and could be quite different to a smaller operation. Where you place in Yahoo is based on how much you're willing to spend, where placement in Google is determined by a combination of the traffic you generate and your bid.
Bottom line, if you're only toying with AdWords at the moment, I wouldn't bother with MSN until you've experimented with Yahoo.