One of the systems I support is a Sun v1280 with 96Gb RAM (three system boards maxed out). The system primarily is a db server running Oracle 10i. I set swap at 12Gb (per Sun's recommendation). However, this box has been up for over a year and actively utilized with swap usage unchanged at just over 200Kb. Still, swap is an OS requirement (at least for Solaris 8), even if it's set to just a meg.
Speaking of Strange in a Strange Land, the original published version was some 60,000 words shorter than the manuscript. I wouldn't say that either version is dominated by sex, but sex does play a central role in the entire story.
Sex, group sex, homosexuality, cannibalism; not to mention satirical interpretation of every major and minor religion - this book was hardly the turning point you speak of. And that's what makes it one of the best sci-fi works in literature. If there was a turning point in Heinlein's work, it must have happened before Strange in a Strange Land.
It's difficult to call this book science-fiction. Put aside the obligatory Martians, teleportation, and hovercraft, and there is really no "science" left in Strange in a Strange Land. So what is left is the bare minimum of fiction and good two thirds of the book is taken up by Jubal Harshaw's lectures on religion, art, history, and psychology.
Strange in a Strange Land is Heinlein's version of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus transposed to modern time and masterfully wrapped in the shiny "sci-fi" cover. It's a brilliant philosophical and literary work in every aspect.
...an operating system that actually morphed and adapted to the needs of the users...
Users? Aren't those the guys who always need their passwords reset and profiles restored? It already morphed and adapted and became Windows. We have only ourselves to blame. In Soviet Russia OS does not adapt to users; users adapt to... Oh, wait.
I always found these "coffee clubs" and "water clubs" a bit degrading. In my opinion, the costs of such trivial and necessary items around the office as coffee and water (and an occassional muffin, perhaps) ought to be covered by the employer. These are all productivity tools that, in the end, benefit the employer the most.
I think you are failing to see the problem here. We are talking about Microsoft's patchy business ethics; not about Bill's admirable charity work. These are two completely different subjects. I think the biggest problem most people have with Microsoft is the company's lack of innovation set against the background of its more than ample resources. We are talking about the world's leading software developer with a multi-billion budget. And the crap it produces.
Uranium (natural, enriched, or depleted) is both chemically toxic and radioactive. The article talks about using bacteria to reduce chemical toxicity of this metal. The radioactivity will remain. Chemical toxicity of uranium waste will kill you before its radioactivity does. This is not to say that radioactivity is not a concern.
Depleted uranium, for example, is only about half as radioactive as naturally-occurring uranium. However, its radioactivity has a cumulative effect. If you are breathing depleted uranium particles or drinking water contaminated with depleted uranium, the radioactive particles will be deposited in your body and radioactivity levels and its effects on your health will grow with time.
Depleted uranium is used by the US (among a few other countries) in anti-armor ammunition. Hundreds of tons of this stuff have been dispersed in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. When that artillery shell hits a tank, its depleted uranium content burns and turns into radioactive aerosol, which can stay in the air for days and can be carried by wind dozens of miles. When this radioactive dust eventually settles, it penetrates underground with rainfall and contaminates ground water.
It was also discovered that, for example, depleted uranium ammunition used by the US in Kosovo, contains trace elements of enriched plutonium, which is not good news either. If you want to test the long-term effects of radioactive waste in ground water on yourself but don't feel like moving to Kosovo, Maryland would be an adequate alternative.
Well, they did charge the man's son and they did find a gun in his house. Who is to say that this is not planted evidence in an attempt to retaliate for the embarassment.
If by "they" you mean the corporation and its shareholders, then I've got some bad news for you. They would not be doing this if it hurt their bottom line. Their management will be getting fat bonuses for "streamlining" the enterprise; and their shareholders won't be left holding the hat either. The price is being paid by the 5,000 folks who are getting canned. Besides, chances are that this announcement will be shortly followed by another - AOL hiring 5,000 workers in India.
SunOS 5.5.1 is nice but I think it's time for me to move on. Lately I've been hearin' alot about this "windows" thing. I should probably give it a shot. Will it work on a Sparc 2?
While you guys are still playing with windmills and solar panels, I already have a small lead-cooled reactor in my garage. And enriched plutonium is not as expensive as everyone thinks.
All these devices require a TV or monitor, IIRC. Those draw considerable power too, often dwarfing the gaming box's power.
I just had component plugs installed, so I connect my 360 directly to visual cortex. Even after medical expenses it saves a bundle on AC in the summer.
I fail to see any similarity between the F-2 dispute with Japan and today's siatuation with the F-35. Brits and the US have been involved in numerous joint aerospace projects for many decades. One of the results of such joint work was the most successful VSTOL fighter to date.
Regardless of why the UK wants source code for the F-35 - be it the fear of backdoors or weapons integration tasks - for the amount they invested in this project the Brits are entitled to get the complete package.
Without Britain's participation and without its 135-unit order the price of the F-35 will skyrocket. The UK is the only Tier 1 partner on this project. Withdrawal of the UK from F-35 development and procurement will delay the project and would likely scare away the remaining smaller partners, like Norway, which is seriously considering pulling out of the JSF consortium.
Most importantly, however, should the UK go through with its threat to drop F-35, the plane's export prospects will be destroyed. The F-35 will become another limited-edition fifth-generation fighter a la F-22.
I find it hard to believe that the US reluctance to share the source code with the Brits is solely due to export control concerns. There has to be more to it than just red tape.
Let me start off with some Russian folklore. A man brings a fur skin to a tailor and aks him to make a hat out of it. The tailor looks at the fur and names his price. The client asks if the tailor can make two hats from the same fur skin. "Yes, sure", says the tailor. "What about three hats?". The tailor agrees to that too. Finally they both decide that the tailor will make seven hats out of the fur skin. The next day the tailor presents his client with seven tiny fur hats.
When a customer requests seven new servers but provides the budget for only one, then it is hardly reasonable to accuse the IT department of incompetence. This is not to say that everyone I ever worked with in the IT field was a genius, but professionalism and common sense usually prevailed. Conflicts with users are unavoidable. However, when a user starts questioning my technical abilities, I found that disabling his account for a day or two helps to steer the discussion in a more constructive direction.
As we all know, little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A manager would think twice before cutting the budget for R&D or manufacturing. All these integrals, infinity, and big noisy machines with hydraulic arms - these are things most managers hope they will never have to understand. IT, on the other hand, is not that complicated (I mean, c'mon, everybody knows how to use Excel and Outlook). And so the process begins: outsourcing, consolidating, downsizing, and streamlining.
Be it incompetence in the IT department, in the management, or among the general user population - it is all really the management's fault: who else hired all these morons?
I work for a large aerospace company which has 2-hour service response contracts with all major hardware vendors - HP, IBM, Sun, SGI, Dell, etc. The service is not what it used to be. Before we actually had tech reps on site. Or at least they would come over within the 2-hour window. They usually would be carrying replacement parts. The right parts.
These days our admins consider it luck if within two hours they get a service call from India. And then its the game of "find that part number in your half-assed outsourced overseas database of spare parts from every vendor in the world." They always want to know if they can just mail the part so you install it yourself, or if you want an actual field tech to come out, since you have that fancy "platinum" support plan anyway. And then they ask you how does next Thursday sound. Motherf...
Having spares on site is a good idea, but with the variety of hardware we have, it would be too expensive to cover all critical systems (and according to our DBAs and users every last stinking workstation needs to be 24x7). And even having the right spare doesn't always save the day. Here's a fun little story: A couple years ago we got a few Sun A3500 arrays (may they burn in hell). I insisted we also buy a couple replacement disks in case shit. A month later we lost three hard drives in less than 40 minutes. Go figure. After much whining Sun agreed to test the drives and found a defect.
Service is goin down; hardware quality is going to hell; prices for both are going up; and only my salary stays the same.
If the user is the owner of said files, then he can chmod 'em all he wants. He can also move them, copy them, or delete them at random and then call the help desk and ask for restores. If, on the other hand, the user is not the owner of the files, then he has no business touching them on a production server. On a personal workstation - no problem. Sudo offers a good solution, when the user can identify specific things he needs to do as root and when the sysadmin has enough confidence in the user's technical abilities.
The bottom line is: the sysadmin is responsible for the systems he supports. If a problem occurs and it is determined that the user with sudo or root access caused it, the blame will still be with the sysadmin, who allowed the user to have extra access in the first place. Under normal circumstances the user does not need to have root access on a production box (although he may think that he does, but what he thinks is irrelevant... resistance is futile...). This is why we have development and test servers. Linux servers are no different in this regard.
I always imagined Wikipedia to be a great hall filled with a thousand of the top experts in every aspect of human civilization. Their brains filled with knowledge to the point when one more fact would make their heads explode like microwaved eggs.
In another equally great but not as good-smelling hall right next to the first one are a thousand monkeys typing on a thousand computers.
As one walks along a dark corridor connecting the two halls, there is a small room on the right between the water cooler and the snack bar, where five guys decide what the facts should be.
Why not move all US-based sites to the.www domain (Wild Wild West). It will make just as much sense as creating.asia for the "Asians". What about creating.east and.west domain and hand out every Web surfer a compass?
The primary purpose of this EULA is to protect Sony from being sued by the artists. As was already noted, this agreement pertains to the use of Sony software included on the CD. If you don't like the EULA terms, then don't use the software - its spyware-infested crap anyway.
Nevertheless, this EULA is a blatant attempt by Sony to rob consumers of their legal rights. Something should be done by all of us on an individual basis. Boycotting Sony products is a good idea, but such a boycott does not need to be all-inclusive. Face it; you can only buy PlayStation from Sony. The whole point is to make Sony suffer - not you. So buy the PS3 when it comes out, if you really must; but you certainly don't need to buy Sony laptops, DVD players, TVs, etc. There are alternatives and in many cases - better alternatives.
Intellectual property laws are long-overdue for a revision. A while ago I stumbled upon a site collecting information about the most ridiculous patents ever issued. It's hard to believe the kind of nonsense the US Patent Office is creating.
Clearly, the problem is not just with the laws, but also with their implementation. Looking at some of the patents one can't help but wonder about the technical skills of people issuing these patents, or, indeed, about their sanity.
It's all very funny until you realize that overly restrictive intellectual property laws are hampering scientific and technological progress. These kinds of restrictions give the edge to other countries that exploit our technological achievements while paying little attention to our patent game. It's time we think about this problem in terms of its impact on our economy and national security.
A hypothetical scenario (not that it can ever really happen): you - a complete computer ignoramus - went to Best Buy and bought one of those strange devices with two pencil-like protrusions on the top that, the salesman said, will let you access your lame AOL from your laptop without running any network cables.
You came home, followed the "Easy Installation Guide" and... IT WORKED, to your complete astonishment. The same day Jack - a pizza-faced college student and your next-door neighbor - cancelled his expensive Comcast broadband, because he just discovered a high-speed WAP that some loozer (you) left completely unprotected (courtesy of the Easy Installation Guide). Jack is a big fan of eMule and an mp3 connoisseur.
In a couple of months you receive a "settlement offer" from the RIAA gang, suggesting that you sell your car and wardrobe to pay for all those Metallica "hits" that you supposedly downloaded. After searching through AOL and discovering that Metallica is some sort of a musical band, you tell RIAA to shove it. They decide to drag you into court.
Question: how can they prove your guilt? A follow-up question: how can you prove your innocence?
Slashdot Mirror
One of the systems I support is a Sun v1280 with 96Gb RAM (three system boards maxed out). The system primarily is a db server running Oracle 10i. I set swap at 12Gb (per Sun's recommendation). However, this box has been up for over a year and actively utilized with swap usage unchanged at just over 200Kb. Still, swap is an OS requirement (at least for Solaris 8), even if it's set to just a meg.
Speaking of Strange in a Strange Land, the original published version was some 60,000 words shorter than the manuscript. I wouldn't say that either version is dominated by sex, but sex does play a central role in the entire story.
Sex, group sex, homosexuality, cannibalism; not to mention satirical interpretation of every major and minor religion - this book was hardly the turning point you speak of. And that's what makes it one of the best sci-fi works in literature. If there was a turning point in Heinlein's work, it must have happened before Strange in a Strange Land.
It's difficult to call this book science-fiction. Put aside the obligatory Martians, teleportation, and hovercraft, and there is really no "science" left in Strange in a Strange Land. So what is left is the bare minimum of fiction and good two thirds of the book is taken up by Jubal Harshaw's lectures on religion, art, history, and psychology.
Strange in a Strange Land is Heinlein's version of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus transposed to modern time and masterfully wrapped in the shiny "sci-fi" cover. It's a brilliant philosophical and literary work in every aspect.
Users? Aren't those the guys who always need their passwords reset and profiles restored? It already morphed and adapted and became Windows. We have only ourselves to blame. In Soviet Russia OS does not adapt to users; users adapt to... Oh, wait.
I always found these "coffee clubs" and "water clubs" a bit degrading. In my opinion, the costs of such trivial and necessary items around the office as coffee and water (and an occassional muffin, perhaps) ought to be covered by the employer. These are all productivity tools that, in the end, benefit the employer the most.
I think you are failing to see the problem here. We are talking about Microsoft's patchy business ethics; not about Bill's admirable charity work. These are two completely different subjects. I think the biggest problem most people have with Microsoft is the company's lack of innovation set against the background of its more than ample resources. We are talking about the world's leading software developer with a multi-billion budget. And the crap it produces.
Uranium (natural, enriched, or depleted) is both chemically toxic and radioactive. The article talks about using bacteria to reduce chemical toxicity of this metal. The radioactivity will remain. Chemical toxicity of uranium waste will kill you before its radioactivity does. This is not to say that radioactivity is not a concern.
Depleted uranium, for example, is only about half as radioactive as naturally-occurring uranium. However, its radioactivity has a cumulative effect. If you are breathing depleted uranium particles or drinking water contaminated with depleted uranium, the radioactive particles will be deposited in your body and radioactivity levels and its effects on your health will grow with time.
Depleted uranium is used by the US (among a few other countries) in anti-armor ammunition. Hundreds of tons of this stuff have been dispersed in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. When that artillery shell hits a tank, its depleted uranium content burns and turns into radioactive aerosol, which can stay in the air for days and can be carried by wind dozens of miles. When this radioactive dust eventually settles, it penetrates underground with rainfall and contaminates ground water.
It was also discovered that, for example, depleted uranium ammunition used by the US in Kosovo, contains trace elements of enriched plutonium, which is not good news either. If you want to test the long-term effects of radioactive waste in ground water on yourself but don't feel like moving to Kosovo, Maryland would be an adequate alternative.
Well, they did charge the man's son and they did find a gun in his house. Who is to say that this is not planted evidence in an attempt to retaliate for the embarassment.
If by "they" you mean the corporation and its shareholders, then I've got some bad news for you. They would not be doing this if it hurt their bottom line. Their management will be getting fat bonuses for "streamlining" the enterprise; and their shareholders won't be left holding the hat either. The price is being paid by the 5,000 folks who are getting canned. Besides, chances are that this announcement will be shortly followed by another - AOL hiring 5,000 workers in India.
SunOS 5.5.1 is nice but I think it's time for me to move on. Lately I've been hearin' alot about this "windows" thing. I should probably give it a shot. Will it work on a Sparc 2?
While you guys are still playing with windmills and solar panels, I already have a small lead-cooled reactor in my garage. And enriched plutonium is not as expensive as everyone thinks.
All these devices require a TV or monitor, IIRC. Those draw considerable power too, often dwarfing the gaming box's power. I just had component plugs installed, so I connect my 360 directly to visual cortex. Even after medical expenses it saves a bundle on AC in the summer.
So what exactly happed at this Tienamen Square?
I fail to see any similarity between the F-2 dispute with Japan and today's siatuation with the F-35. Brits and the US have been involved in numerous joint aerospace projects for many decades. One of the results of such joint work was the most successful VSTOL fighter to date.
Regardless of why the UK wants source code for the F-35 - be it the fear of backdoors or weapons integration tasks - for the amount they invested in this project the Brits are entitled to get the complete package.
Without Britain's participation and without its 135-unit order the price of the F-35 will skyrocket. The UK is the only Tier 1 partner on this project. Withdrawal of the UK from F-35 development and procurement will delay the project and would likely scare away the remaining smaller partners, like Norway, which is seriously considering pulling out of the JSF consortium.
Most importantly, however, should the UK go through with its threat to drop F-35, the plane's export prospects will be destroyed. The F-35 will become another limited-edition fifth-generation fighter a la F-22.
I find it hard to believe that the US reluctance to share the source code with the Brits is solely due to export control concerns. There has to be more to it than just red tape.
Let me start off with some Russian folklore. A man brings a fur skin to a tailor and aks him to make a hat out of it. The tailor looks at the fur and names his price. The client asks if the tailor can make two hats from the same fur skin. "Yes, sure", says the tailor. "What about three hats?". The tailor agrees to that too. Finally they both decide that the tailor will make seven hats out of the fur skin. The next day the tailor presents his client with seven tiny fur hats.
When a customer requests seven new servers but provides the budget for only one, then it is hardly reasonable to accuse the IT department of incompetence. This is not to say that everyone I ever worked with in the IT field was a genius, but professionalism and common sense usually prevailed. Conflicts with users are unavoidable. However, when a user starts questioning my technical abilities, I found that disabling his account for a day or two helps to steer the discussion in a more constructive direction.
As we all know, little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A manager would think twice before cutting the budget for R&D or manufacturing. All these integrals, infinity, and big noisy machines with hydraulic arms - these are things most managers hope they will never have to understand. IT, on the other hand, is not that complicated (I mean, c'mon, everybody knows how to use Excel and Outlook). And so the process begins: outsourcing, consolidating, downsizing, and streamlining.
Be it incompetence in the IT department, in the management, or among the general user population - it is all really the management's fault: who else hired all these morons?
I work for a large aerospace company which has 2-hour service response contracts with all major hardware vendors - HP, IBM, Sun, SGI, Dell, etc. The service is not what it used to be. Before we actually had tech reps on site. Or at least they would come over within the 2-hour window. They usually would be carrying replacement parts. The right parts.
These days our admins consider it luck if within two hours they get a service call from India. And then its the game of "find that part number in your half-assed outsourced overseas database of spare parts from every vendor in the world." They always want to know if they can just mail the part so you install it yourself, or if you want an actual field tech to come out, since you have that fancy "platinum" support plan anyway. And then they ask you how does next Thursday sound. Motherf...
Having spares on site is a good idea, but with the variety of hardware we have, it would be too expensive to cover all critical systems (and according to our DBAs and users every last stinking workstation needs to be 24x7). And even having the right spare doesn't always save the day. Here's a fun little story: A couple years ago we got a few Sun A3500 arrays (may they burn in hell). I insisted we also buy a couple replacement disks in case shit. A month later we lost three hard drives in less than 40 minutes. Go figure. After much whining Sun agreed to test the drives and found a defect.
Service is goin down; hardware quality is going to hell; prices for both are going up; and only my salary stays the same.
If the user is the owner of said files, then he can chmod 'em all he wants. He can also move them, copy them, or delete them at random and then call the help desk and ask for restores. If, on the other hand, the user is not the owner of the files, then he has no business touching them on a production server. On a personal workstation - no problem. Sudo offers a good solution, when the user can identify specific things he needs to do as root and when the sysadmin has enough confidence in the user's technical abilities.
The bottom line is: the sysadmin is responsible for the systems he supports. If a problem occurs and it is determined that the user with sudo or root access caused it, the blame will still be with the sysadmin, who allowed the user to have extra access in the first place. Under normal circumstances the user does not need to have root access on a production box (although he may think that he does, but what he thinks is irrelevant... resistance is futile...). This is why we have development and test servers. Linux servers are no different in this regard.
Been hearing alot 'bout it on TV lately...
I always imagined Wikipedia to be a great hall filled with a thousand of the top experts in every aspect of human civilization. Their brains filled with knowledge to the point when one more fact would make their heads explode like microwaved eggs.
In another equally great but not as good-smelling hall right next to the first one are a thousand monkeys typing on a thousand computers.
As one walks along a dark corridor connecting the two halls, there is a small room on the right between the water cooler and the snack bar, where five guys decide what the facts should be.
These don't look like drawings: http://www.sg.hu/kep/2005_08/0828kliper1.jpg http://www.spacenews.be/flash/img2005/1204b.jpg http://www.officeroutlook.com/news/Science/144.ht1 0.jpg
http://uplink.space.com/attachments/48341-klipper. jpg
Not the final product, of course, but at least an advanced mockup.
Why not move all US-based sites to the .www domain (Wild Wild West). It will make just as much sense as creating .asia for the "Asians". What about creating .east and .west domain and hand out every Web surfer a compass?
"Blessings of the state, blessings of the masses... Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents, and be happy."
Back home in the good old days KGB used to collect this sort of information. Just in case you get sick and they need to give you a shot.
The primary purpose of this EULA is to protect Sony from being sued by the artists. As was already noted, this agreement pertains to the use of Sony software included on the CD. If you don't like the EULA terms, then don't use the software - its spyware-infested crap anyway.
Nevertheless, this EULA is a blatant attempt by Sony to rob consumers of their legal rights. Something should be done by all of us on an individual basis. Boycotting Sony products is a good idea, but such a boycott does not need to be all-inclusive. Face it; you can only buy PlayStation from Sony. The whole point is to make Sony suffer - not you. So buy the PS3 when it comes out, if you really must; but you certainly don't need to buy Sony laptops, DVD players, TVs, etc. There are alternatives and in many cases - better alternatives.
Intellectual property laws are long-overdue for a revision. A while ago I stumbled upon a site collecting information about the most ridiculous patents ever issued. It's hard to believe the kind of nonsense the US Patent Office is creating. Clearly, the problem is not just with the laws, but also with their implementation. Looking at some of the patents one can't help but wonder about the technical skills of people issuing these patents, or, indeed, about their sanity. It's all very funny until you realize that overly restrictive intellectual property laws are hampering scientific and technological progress. These kinds of restrictions give the edge to other countries that exploit our technological achievements while paying little attention to our patent game. It's time we think about this problem in terms of its impact on our economy and national security.
A hypothetical scenario (not that it can ever really happen): you - a complete computer ignoramus - went to Best Buy and bought one of those strange devices with two pencil-like protrusions on the top that, the salesman said, will let you access your lame AOL from your laptop without running any network cables. You came home, followed the "Easy Installation Guide" and... IT WORKED, to your complete astonishment. The same day Jack - a pizza-faced college student and your next-door neighbor - cancelled his expensive Comcast broadband, because he just discovered a high-speed WAP that some loozer (you) left completely unprotected (courtesy of the Easy Installation Guide). Jack is a big fan of eMule and an mp3 connoisseur. In a couple of months you receive a "settlement offer" from the RIAA gang, suggesting that you sell your car and wardrobe to pay for all those Metallica "hits" that you supposedly downloaded. After searching through AOL and discovering that Metallica is some sort of a musical band, you tell RIAA to shove it. They decide to drag you into court. Question: how can they prove your guilt? A follow-up question: how can you prove your innocence?