Using RAID5 in software (be it completely in software like Linux MD or Windows Dynamics Disks, or 99% in Software, like most Onboard RAID Controllers out there) isn't a good idea if you want to run an "enterprise" setup. It might be okay for your mom's basement, or for test systems.
But productive systems should be using real raid controllers, equipped with half a gig of cache memory, a battery backup in case of a power failure for the cache, and dedicated processor for the raid5 overhead.
Intel might've screwed this up, but it will only affect non-professional IT.
I don't work in environments as large as yours, so i can only speak from my experience.
Are you using Software Restriction Policies? They solve your problem for sure. But implementing them right will require time and effort.
Another way is using special folder redirection, and mandatory user profiles. This is a bit easier, but it will prevent your users from making configuration changes. Depending on your environment, this can be an acceptable limitation.
Access to %ProgramFiles% for users is a big nono - just grant specific permissions which those legacy applications really need (yes, you will probably have several days of fun with filemon).
When discussing salaries, you usually mention the weeks of holidays you have (a week is 5 days), the amount you get per month, and the number of times you get paid per year.
In low wage jobs, you get paid 12 times a year.
In medium wage jobs, you get paid 13 times a year (the 13th payment is usually in the middle of december, before christmas).
In high wage jobs, there's everything from 13 times to 16 times a year.
> But many UNIXES don't *need* a sysadmin full time. Windows does.
Wrong. You can run both windows and Unixes unmaintened, but problems will arise. A bit later with unixes perhaps, but security updates are needed no matter what os you're running. They can be automated, but i prefer to approve patches (which is easy using WSUS, not-so-easy on most linux distributions i know).
> you have to worry about kids installing crud you don't want
They can't install jack shit if the admin is doing his job right.
> If they go FOSS, they don't need to check license compliance. They don't need to work out the correct license and purchase options.
This hassle is usually handled by your reseller;)
> A linux admin wouldn't be needed most of the time, so your monthly figure would be shared amongst half a dozen schools, instead of just the one.
I doubt that. Having a competent person on-site all the time is different than having one available on certain times. It is easier to talk about problems, and it is also easier for the admin to know what happens around him. This admin could also handle some advanced (faculatative) it courses, which would help interested kids to get to know their computer better.
I work in it service, and we service one or two schools. The main problems are:
* You cost by the hour: You only get called if the house is already burning Lot's of problems don't get mentioned, because people think they're not worth the money the need to spend fixing it
* You are in much less influencial position than someone internal If a customers NEEDS better/more equipment, as an outside service person it looks like you want to sell something
> And if they don't have a sysadmin for MS, why must they have one for other systems?
Not having a sysadmin is bad practice. It works with ms, it works with linux, but it's a stupid idea. A better model would be to use an ASP, which you can access from thin clients. That might be cheaper in the short run.
See, the problem is much more complicated than that.
(Disclaimer: This is the situation in switzerland)
Schools can't afford to hire qualified personal. A qualified System Administrator costs something from 6-10k per Month (x13). This is A LOT of money for a school.
Also, professional IT doesn't come cheap, and you usually have several software requirements. It's next to impossible for a "normal" School to get professionally supported (NBD Replacement for 3-5 years, Beige Boxes are NOT ACCEPTABLE) Machines without Windows licenses, so it would be a waste not to use them.
OTOH, microsoft offers significant discount for its software to schools. So it might be a lot cheaper to use a microsoft environment, because microsoft environments don't have compatibility problems which might necessitate the use of vmware, or sometimes even a windows terminal server.
Don't forget that a school usually consists of TWO different infrastructures. A smaller one for all the internal administration stuff, which most of the times REQUIRES windows, because of the ERP or Archival Software used, and a learning network. The latter COULD be setup using linux, but it would require additional infrastructure, which would in turn cost more money.
This is also the reason why most schools don't have a professional it at all. Setting up a windows environment is usually less complicated, but still, qualified windows personal is still rare and expensive.
I work for a Small ISV, we sell an ERP software for the IBM System i.
I specifically work in our tech departement, and i also do some "complimentary" services, like setting up Windows Domains and such, if the Customer doesn't have another IT Partner. Sometimes, private customers near us call us up for service.
Now, don't get me wrong, i don't have anything against private customers, but mostly it doesn't make any sense at all to even go there.
When you arrive at the customer, he already spent something around 200 Swiss francs, just for my knocking on his door. The next thing you will see is a seven year old machine, running Windows 98 (the customer told you on the phone that he runs "The Windows with X or something", yeah). Now, you have two possibilities:
Get the customer to buy a new system. Please know that we do make A LOT LESS money on selling a new system than on repairing the existing system. Most of them don't want to do that.
Try fixing the machine. If it's a software problem, you can have them sorted out in anything from 10 Minutes to 8 hours, depending on what the problem actually is. If it's the latter, the customer already spent 1600CHF, which is more than a new computer costs.
It frustrating really, but in most cases, the easiest way is to buy a new computer.
You can't get assaulted over the internet, period.
However, after chatting with someone, or even on the phone, one without understanding of technology might come to the conclusion that you're no longer talking to a stranger. And that's where their logic is flawed, and where the problem lies.
The more cynical observation would be that they are just to stupid.
Are you going to assume EVERYONE is your friend out there and rely on a 14 year old's education to figure it out?
Nobody should ever assume that "everyone" is your friend. You can be anything you want on the internet. Everything can be spoofed. Theres no way to be secure about anything (There are some exceptions to this, but they don't apply here). A 14 year old can have the education to be wary of what they read. That needs eduction though.
And if you have kids on there, and pedophiles as well, wouldn't you want to keep them apart?
Yes, but you also have kids and pedophiles in the same, real world. With the only difference that on the internet, a pedophile can't harm you. In the real world, he can.
It needs a 18 and under safeheaven where they screen things.
Dammit. And people over 18 just get the education about issues such as this from where? Kids need to learn to! If you can read and write on a computer, you should be able to know that ANYONE can write ANYTHING on the internet.
Screening myspace won't help here at all. Nothing helps here. People need education.
you know, the one who actually acted with malicious intent.
Was that really the case? Now, see, i know this question isn't politically correct at all, but it is necessary.
Some stupid 13 year old girl had sex with a guy. Afterwards she finds out that she wasn't really ready for it yet. But it can't be undone. Her parents find out, because of whatever. She claims rape, so that her parents don't punish her.
Guy gets all the troubles.
Assuming the above is true: Yes, he did something which was wrong by US law. This would've been legal in other countries, like Spain for example. He should still be punished for this.
However, if he gets sentenced for rape, this is another thing entirely.
There's adult content on the internet. Oh no. We're all going to die a slow and horrible death.
Seriously, what's the problem? That anyone can put content online? Should 12 year old be disallowed to create a website?
I don't see any reason why that should be.
The internet is not physical. It can't rape you. It can't assault you. It can't touch you.
The physical, real world however, can do that. Thats why kids need to be educated properly of risks.
You can't screen the internet. At least not the way it is currently built.
I'am 22 now, and have been using the Internet since i was eleven (back then with 14.4k). My parents didn't understand what i was doing, but i educated myself on using the internet. I learned that forging e-mails was trivial business, that everyone could say everything he wanted, and that it was easy to mimic someones elses behaviour.
Kids in this day and age usually have it better. The internet has become common place, there are less and less families without broadband internet access. Parents should be able to teach their kids what the internet is about, and make them aware of what can be done, technically.
Now, i don't mean the usual "STAY AWAY, IT IS DANGEROUS" crap. That doesn't work. Show them what is actually possible, and let them draw their own conclusions.
Yes, it means parents will have to LEARN TO UNDERSTAND the technology their kids use. But so is life. Educating kids never was an easy task, and probably never will be. It requires alot of time and effort.
It didn't even work right on my box (German Win XP SP2).
Apperently, several references to C:\program files\ where hardcoded. (It's C:\Programme\ in a German XP, and yes, there are lot's of variables for accessing this. Luckily, Vista will fix this mess.)
Also, it didn't link correctly because i already had a global install of GTK (shuffling around %PATH% solved this, though).
After it started, i tried connecting it to our Exchange 2003 Server. Didn't work. Just gave a nonsensical Error Message.
So i tried to connect it to my private mail account, which is accessible through IMAP. Showed all the folders, but no messages inside. Tried to close this abomination, but that didn't work either, so i killed it using the task manager.
Whats your point?
You only hurt yourself when you're addicted to porn.
Thus i don't think that this is a problem on a larger scale.
Like driving under influence, or something along that line.
You can Windows as a normal user under the following circumstances:
a) You are in a company, working with a professional IT environment, with a helpdesk and administrators with knowledge
b) You are an administrator with knowledge
Running windows as non-admin is not for the faint of heart. While most Microsoft software runs flawlessly as non-admin, there is a large percentage of third party software which does not. This can be fixed in most circumstances, changing permissions in C:\Program Files\, the HKLM Key in the Registry, giving some Special Permissions to users, etc. pp.
Most games still don't work as non-admin. Installing a new application becomes a rather tremendous task of trying to find out what doesn't work. Sometimes these missing permissions cause rather subtle errors, which aren't obvious to figure out.
You will need to use sysinternals filemon/regmon each time you install an application.
It's not a problem to create a professional company network with only restricted users, if you have staff which is always available (-> You are not using a service provider). And if you have a rather restricted set of applications which is in use (You don't upgrade apps on a weekly basis - might happen if you're using SPS or PBX configuration tools).
My usual recommendation to home users are the following points:
* Use COMMON SENSE, think about what you're doing * Keep a recent image of your machine on a seperate USB Harddisk * Run your machine behind NAT of some sort * Keep an updated Antivirus/Antispyware solution on your machine * If you can, buy a Mac
The latter is a good choice, as long as macs aren't to popular.
I disagree. Not everybody learns in the same way, and that was his point.
I do mostly sysadmin stuff, and when i have to learn something new, i usually go down this route:
* Read some basic quickstart howtos * Get a virtual machine online, install the software according to the quickstart howto * Do Trial & Error till everything works as desired * Save the configuration someplace * Get the complete documentation, reset the virtual machine * Start from scratch, with the complete documentation
It's much easier to understand documentation if you know at least the basics of what you're trying to do. When learning something new, trial&error has been a great way for me to get a "feel" for a system.
Trial&Error, though, does not help you understand the software completely. So it's a two step process for me. Getting familiar with a software, and then understanding it.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, i tought about this too.
Using RAID5 in software (be it completely in software like Linux MD or Windows Dynamics Disks, or 99% in Software, like most Onboard RAID Controllers out there) isn't a good idea if you want to run an "enterprise" setup. It might be okay for your mom's basement, or for test systems.
But productive systems should be using real raid controllers, equipped with half a gig of cache memory, a battery backup in case of a power failure for the cache, and dedicated processor for the raid5 overhead.
Intel might've screwed this up, but it will only affect non-professional IT.
I don't work in environments as large as yours, so i can only speak from my experience.
Are you using Software Restriction Policies?
They solve your problem for sure. But implementing them right will require time and effort.
Another way is using special folder redirection, and mandatory user profiles.
This is a bit easier, but it will prevent your users from making configuration changes. Depending on your environment, this can be an acceptable limitation.
Access to %ProgramFiles% for users is a big nono - just grant specific permissions which those legacy applications really need (yes, you will probably have several days of fun with filemon).
In switzerland, you get paid by the month.
When discussing salaries, you usually mention the weeks of holidays you have (a week is 5 days), the amount you get per month, and the number of times you get paid per year.
In low wage jobs, you get paid 12 times a year.
In medium wage jobs, you get paid 13 times a year (the 13th payment is usually in the middle of december, before christmas).
In high wage jobs, there's everything from 13 times to 16 times a year.
Could you be more specific?
It doesn't work that way.
YOU get the free porsche, if you get YOUR EMPLOYER to buy software.
But if YOUR EMPLOYER doesn't spend to money, you don't get the money for the porsche. You just get a pat on the head.
> But many UNIXES don't *need* a sysadmin full time. Windows does.
;)
Wrong. You can run both windows and Unixes unmaintened, but problems will arise. A bit later with unixes perhaps, but security updates are needed no matter what os you're running. They can be automated, but i prefer to approve patches (which is easy using WSUS, not-so-easy on most linux distributions i know).
> you have to worry about kids installing crud you don't want
They can't install jack shit if the admin is doing his job right.
> If they go FOSS, they don't need to check license compliance. They don't need to work out the correct license and purchase options.
This hassle is usually handled by your reseller
> A linux admin wouldn't be needed most of the time, so your monthly figure would be shared amongst half a dozen schools, instead of just the one.
I doubt that. Having a competent person on-site all the time is different than having one available on certain times. It is easier to talk about problems, and it is also easier for the admin to know what happens around him. This admin could also handle some advanced (faculatative) it courses, which would help interested kids to get to know their computer better.
I work in it service, and we service one or two schools. The main problems are:
* You cost by the hour:
You only get called if the house is already burning
Lot's of problems don't get mentioned, because people think they're not worth the money the need to spend fixing it
* You are in much less influencial position than someone internal
If a customers NEEDS better/more equipment, as an outside service person it looks like you want to sell something
> And if they don't have a sysadmin for MS, why must they have one for other systems?
Not having a sysadmin is bad practice. It works with ms, it works with linux, but it's a stupid idea. A better model would be to use an ASP, which you can access from thin clients. That might be cheaper in the short run.
See, the problem is much more complicated than that.
(Disclaimer: This is the situation in switzerland)
Schools can't afford to hire qualified personal. A qualified System Administrator costs something from 6-10k per Month (x13). This is A LOT of money for a school.
Also, professional IT doesn't come cheap, and you usually have several software requirements. It's next to impossible for a "normal" School to get professionally supported (NBD Replacement for 3-5 years, Beige Boxes are NOT ACCEPTABLE) Machines without Windows licenses, so it would be a waste not to use them.
OTOH, microsoft offers significant discount for its software to schools. So it might be a lot cheaper to use a microsoft environment, because microsoft environments don't have compatibility problems which might necessitate the use of vmware, or sometimes even a windows terminal server.
Don't forget that a school usually consists of TWO different infrastructures. A smaller one for all the internal administration stuff, which most of the times REQUIRES windows, because of the ERP or Archival Software used, and a learning network. The latter COULD be setup using linux, but it would require additional infrastructure, which would in turn cost more money.
This is also the reason why most schools don't have a professional it at all. Setting up a windows environment is usually less complicated, but still, qualified windows personal is still rare and expensive.
I work for a Small ISV, we sell an ERP software for the IBM System i.
I specifically work in our tech departement, and i also do some "complimentary" services, like setting up Windows Domains and such, if the Customer doesn't have another IT Partner. Sometimes, private customers near us call us up for service.
Now, don't get me wrong, i don't have anything against private customers, but mostly it doesn't make any sense at all to even go there.
When you arrive at the customer, he already spent something around 200 Swiss francs, just for my knocking on his door. The next thing you will see is a seven year old machine, running Windows 98 (the customer told you on the phone that he runs "The Windows with X or something", yeah). Now, you have two possibilities:
Get the customer to buy a new system. Please know that we do make A LOT LESS money on selling a new system than on repairing the existing system. Most of them don't want to do that.
Try fixing the machine. If it's a software problem, you can have them sorted out in anything from 10 Minutes to 8 hours, depending on what the problem actually is. If it's the latter, the customer already spent 1600CHF, which is more than a new computer costs.
It frustrating really, but in most cases, the easiest way is to buy a new computer.
I've got IE7 Beta2 installed. Crashes with an error in ieframe.dll.
Well, will continue to use miranda then.
Age of Consent Chart says 13.
Why shouldn't they? You can't get harmed on the internet.
I've been using the internet since i was 11, and explained it to my parents at that time. Nothing wrong about that.
People aren't stupid. They just act like that so they don't have to do work like learning technology.
Hmm, wrong.
You can't get assaulted over the internet, period.
However, after chatting with someone, or even on the phone, one without understanding of technology might come to the conclusion that you're no longer talking to a stranger. And that's where their logic is flawed, and where the problem lies.
The more cynical observation would be that they are just to stupid.
Just go to jail for copying movies.
I'm sure there are some lovely boys which would like to get to know you.
Nobody should ever assume that "everyone" is your friend. You can be anything you want on the internet. Everything can be spoofed. Theres no way to be secure about anything (There are some exceptions to this, but they don't apply here).
A 14 year old can have the education to be wary of what they read. That needs eduction though.
Yes, but you also have kids and pedophiles in the same, real world. With the only difference that on the internet, a pedophile can't harm you. In the real world, he can.
Dammit. And people over 18 just get the education about issues such as this from where?
Kids need to learn to! If you can read and write on a computer, you should be able to know that ANYONE can write ANYTHING on the internet.
Screening myspace won't help here at all. Nothing helps here. People need education.
Was that really the case? Now, see, i know this question isn't politically correct at all, but it is necessary.
Some stupid 13 year old girl had sex with a guy.
Afterwards she finds out that she wasn't really ready for it yet. But it can't be undone.
Her parents find out, because of whatever.
She claims rape, so that her parents don't punish her.
Guy gets all the troubles.
Assuming the above is true:
Yes, he did something which was wrong by US law. This would've been legal in other countries, like Spain for example.
He should still be punished for this.
However, if he gets sentenced for rape, this is another thing entirely.
There's adult content on the internet. Oh no. We're all going to die a slow and horrible death. Seriously, what's the problem? That anyone can put content online? Should 12 year old be disallowed to create a website? I don't see any reason why that should be. The internet is not physical. It can't rape you. It can't assault you. It can't touch you. The physical, real world however, can do that. Thats why kids need to be educated properly of risks. You can't screen the internet. At least not the way it is currently built.
Then tell them.
Make them aware.
I'am 22 now, and have been using the Internet since i was eleven (back then with 14.4k). My parents didn't understand what i was doing, but i educated myself on using the internet. I learned that forging e-mails was trivial business, that everyone could say everything he wanted, and that it was easy to mimic someones elses behaviour.
Kids in this day and age usually have it better. The internet has become common place, there are less and less families without broadband internet access. Parents should be able to teach their kids what the internet is about, and make them aware of what can be done, technically.
Now, i don't mean the usual "STAY AWAY, IT IS DANGEROUS" crap. That doesn't work. Show them what is actually possible, and let them draw their own conclusions.
Yes, it means parents will have to LEARN TO UNDERSTAND the technology their kids use. But so is life. Educating kids never was an easy task, and probably never will be. It requires alot of time and effort.
If you have neither, don't have kids.
It didn't even work right on my box (German Win XP SP2).
Apperently, several references to C:\program files\ where hardcoded. (It's C:\Programme\ in a German XP, and yes, there are lot's of variables for accessing this. Luckily, Vista will fix this mess.)
Also, it didn't link correctly because i already had a global install of GTK (shuffling around %PATH% solved this, though).
After it started, i tried connecting it to our Exchange 2003 Server. Didn't work. Just gave a nonsensical Error Message.
So i tried to connect it to my private mail account, which is accessible through IMAP. Showed all the folders, but no messages inside. Tried to close this abomination, but that didn't work either, so i killed it using the task manager.
There's still a LONG LONG way to go.
Whats your point? You only hurt yourself when you're addicted to porn. Thus i don't think that this is a problem on a larger scale. Like driving under influence, or something along that line.
It's the other way around. They have to prove that you did something wrong.
An absolutely stupid one.
But this is where the phrase "reality bites" comes from.
We don't have that either, so why should they get it?
You can Windows as a normal user under the following circumstances:
a) You are in a company, working with a professional IT environment, with a helpdesk and administrators with knowledge
b) You are an administrator with knowledge
Running windows as non-admin is not for the faint of heart. While most Microsoft software runs flawlessly as non-admin, there is a large percentage of third party software which does not. This can be fixed in most circumstances, changing permissions in C:\Program Files\, the HKLM Key in the Registry, giving some Special Permissions to users, etc. pp.
Most games still don't work as non-admin. Installing a new application becomes a rather tremendous task of trying to find out what doesn't work. Sometimes these missing permissions cause rather subtle errors, which aren't obvious to figure out.
You will need to use sysinternals filemon/regmon each time you install an application.
It's not a problem to create a professional company network with only restricted users, if you have staff which is always available (-> You are not using a service provider). And if you have a rather restricted set of applications which is in use (You don't upgrade apps on a weekly basis - might happen if you're using SPS or PBX configuration tools).
My usual recommendation to home users are the following points:
* Use COMMON SENSE, think about what you're doing
* Keep a recent image of your machine on a seperate USB Harddisk
* Run your machine behind NAT of some sort
* Keep an updated Antivirus/Antispyware solution on your machine
* If you can, buy a Mac
The latter is a good choice, as long as macs aren't to popular.
I disagree. Not everybody learns in the same way, and that was his point.
I do mostly sysadmin stuff, and when i have to learn something new, i usually go down this route:
* Read some basic quickstart howtos
* Get a virtual machine online, install the software according to the quickstart howto
* Do Trial & Error till everything works as desired
* Save the configuration someplace
* Get the complete documentation, reset the virtual machine
* Start from scratch, with the complete documentation
It's much easier to understand documentation if you know at least the basics of what you're trying to do. When learning something new, trial&error has been a great way for me to get a "feel" for a system.
Trial&Error, though, does not help you understand the software completely. So it's a two step process for me. Getting familiar with a software, and then understanding it.
Maintaining site-local fixes for a customer costs the customer a lot of money, and us a lot of time.
Such workarounds also make upgrading much more expensive, because depending on the fix, you can no longer follow a documented upgrade path.
As i've already outlined in my other post, oss isn't the main target of my rant.