I had the laser corrective surgery using the "flap" method in December 1998. I wore glasses for 15 years prior to that. I couldn't wear contact lenses because of my astigmatism and my sensitivity to poking things on my eyeball.
I was sooo tired of my glasses and contacts just weren't working for me, so this surgery was a godsend. My surgery resulted in 20:20 vision. Pretty astounding considering I had 20:400 with a pronounced astigmatism before.
It was fairly scary to go through the process, but I would do it again ten times over. It was worth every penny and every bit of discomfort. The only real discomfort was the first 2 days after surgery I had mild headaches.
Be cautious, find a good surgeon, make sure you know the risks and benefits and make your own decision. But for me... it's been the single most important health decision of my life.
I've been an email admin now for about 8 years as my primary focus. I've administered ccMail (back in the day), Netscape mail, Exchange (5.5 through E2K3) and Notes (4.0 through 6.5). I've done migrations and architecture design for all systems as well. Over the years I've learned a few things about SMTP, databases and email. Each product has it's benefits and each product has it's faults. Here are a few things to consider if you're comparing Exchange to Notes:
Exchange
Benefits
1) It's not Notes! (sorry couldn't resist)
2) Mail handling is it's primary function and it does it pretty dang well.
3) Outlook and Outlook web access work pretty well. Say what you want about the client experience, but compared to Notes... Outlook/OWA rocks.
4) Tight integration with all other Microsoft OS/applications and AD. This is pretty important for user authentication and security.
5) Fast and reliable SMTP engine.
6) Connectors to every system under the sun. If it isn't a built-in Microsoft code connector, then the manufacturer of the third party system will have one (think Rightfax, Call-Pilot, you name it).
7) Backwards compatibility for a whole mess of clients. Although it's a toss-up on whether or not you want to call this a benefit vs a fault.
8) It scales LARGE if you design it properly. It takes a lot of experience and time, but you CAN scale Exchange for a global 100K plus environment (a heck of a lot easier than Notes if you ask me, but YMMV)
Faults
1) Database replication for redundancy is non-existent. This one is a true SUCK. Notes really gets this right.
2) Application level clustering is non-existent. Again, Notes gets this right. Clustering in an Exchange world means OS level Windows clustering, which is complicated and delicate (although it gets better with every patch and OS upgrade).
3) Encryption is an afterthought. S/MIME while supported is a mess to manage in an AD infrastructure and you can forget PGP completely.
4) An awful lot of infrastructure dependencies with E2K and later. DNS, WINS (god help us), AD, the list goes on. That's an awful lot of infrastructure to put in place for one or two servers.
5) Email archival and storage management is weak to non-existent. You'll have to go third party for cradle -to-grave data lifecycle management.
Notes:
Benefits
1) Database replication. Notes works pretty damn seamlessly in replication.
2) Application level clustering. It just works. One of the nice things about Notes.
3) Console window. I love being able to watch the internals of the Notes server scroll through that CLI. Watch the server console for 15 minutes every day and you'll get a REALLY good idea what's going on in your environment.
4) Encryption is strong and built in to the app at every level. Pretty dang easy to admin too.
Faults
1) Horrendous client UI. This is the biggest SUCK I've ever seen in a client UI. God this thing is horrible.
2) Terrible email engine. Notes does application database work fairly well, but it is NOT an email server. I don't care what anyone tells you, email is never supposed to get stuck in a queue the way that Notes does. Have to restart the internal mail queue routers constantly just to keep messages flowing. Second biggest SUCK in relation to Notes.
3) Terrible web experience/access to email. I thought Exchange 5.5 OWA was bad, but it looks like paradise compared to Notes.
4) Client manage-ability from an admin perspective. GPO's and Outlook work pretty well. Notes doesn't have anything close. And again, we're back to the Notes client SUCK.
Look, I'm an admitted Exchange guy. It's what I do. Even more bizarre to most people... I like it. Not just like it, I've made a career out of it. That said, I'm not blind to the fact that it's not the only solution or the best solution. Honestly, there are things that Microsoft Exchange can do a LOT better. I'm encouraged by the direc
I'm not suffering under any delusions of privacy. I know that I already have so little that it's a laughable concept. My point is that I don't WANT this situation to continue and I am actively working to change it!
Again, I worry because the tone of your posts indicate you've abdicated even your desire for privacy.
"Privacy is an illusion. Get over it, or move to a 12x12 shack in Monana."
I'm sorry but how about "Hell NO! I won't get over it!" for an answer.
Privacy is something that I cherish and am fighting to protect. I will NOT give it up lightly and just say "Meh, who cares".
Now more than ever I am pushing to take back my privacy and protect my personal freedom. It worries me (to the point of nausea) that you are so willing to give up yours.
I'm no paranoid delusional either, but I think there may be some truth in the parent.
I mean honestly, collectively as a species were always a short mutation hop away from some pandemic. Why the repeated pressing on the panic button by the media? My personal conclusion is... follow the money trail.
Q? Who has the responsibility for pandemic prepardness?
A/ Homeland Security
Q? What is on that department's agenda?
A/ Establish power, control, and continued influence.
Q? What is one of the best ways to achieve these goals?
A/ Jump on everyone's fears and play to them.
Q? What's the best way to jump on everyone's fears?
A/ Get the media to repeatedly blast out these reports.
As everyone is fond of pointing out:
1. Identify panic button
2. Press it!
3. Tell everyone you can fix it! If you get a bigger budget (of course).
Not to pick "nits" but that isn't the only type of commuting that people are doing. What about your bigger road-trips? I really don't want to spend two hours in some hole-in-the-wall diner in the middle of nowhere waiting on a battery recharge when I need to be actually getting to my destination. 2 hours is an insanely long amount of time to get back on the road as compared to the 5 minute stop I make now.
This is the problem I don't see anyone even trying to resolve.
I'm not disagree-ing with you. Range can be "fixed" by the total amount of charge that the vehicle holds. Today's batteries make that a bit expensive in weight and materials, but that is improving.
My point is that a different infrastructure will have to be put into place for the fast recharging of electric cars.
What no one really talks about is the convenience of gasoline, in the fact that it takes 5 minutes at the pump to "recharge" and your off again.
I haven't seen anything even remotely close to that with batteries and electric cars. Until you have a near instantaneous recharge AND an easy to deploy infrastructure for recharging, I don't think you'll see a lot of movement towards electric cars. IMO
Ok, I've got to disagree to some of this. No, I'm not an Appplefanboi (I'm actually an Ms Exchange Architect...and yes I've heard all the jokes) but the desire to belong to an exclusive clique is part of human nature. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean that it is any less valid a reason to buy the product.
The part that I find fascinating is that this originated with a small group of people that took PRIDE in their new little company and products. I mean isn't that where it all starts? You put out a product or service with your business and you do your best to make money, but you also invest a lot of personal pride and ego into it too. So to demonstrate that and get some marketing mileage you get shirts made. You come with a company logo. You try to establish your company with a personality all its own.
All I'm saying is that corporations don't necessarily fall into the "evil world domination" mindset. They're usually guided to that place by CEO's that have sold their souls AFTER the company has made it big.;)
Ok. That's all well and good that you only have these potential four choices of distributions...BUT how the hell am I supposed to know that as a novice user? And how do I pick just one of them?!? Am I supposed to let Dell do that for me? Without knowing all the details about each distribution (and believe me I don't and most of the Windows user population that you want to switch to Linux doesn't either) how do I know which distro is best suited for me? Once again I see this as the computing elite (i.e. the Linux DYI crowd) ignoring the fact that most people don't want a huge amount of choice. They want just a couple - beginner (cheap) system, middle-of-the-road system, and high-end system.
-----
Sig? We don't need no stinking SIG's!
Slashdot Mirror
I was sooo tired of my glasses and contacts just weren't working for me, so this surgery was a godsend. My surgery resulted in 20:20 vision. Pretty astounding considering I had 20:400 with a pronounced astigmatism before.
It was fairly scary to go through the process, but I would do it again ten times over. It was worth every penny and every bit of discomfort. The only real discomfort was the first 2 days after surgery I had mild headaches.
Be cautious, find a good surgeon, make sure you know the risks and benefits and make your own decision. But for me... it's been the single most important health decision of my life.
And it was WORTH IT!!!
Exchange
Benefits
1) It's not Notes! (sorry couldn't resist)
2) Mail handling is it's primary function and it does it pretty dang well.
3) Outlook and Outlook web access work pretty well. Say what you want about the client experience, but compared to Notes... Outlook/OWA rocks.
4) Tight integration with all other Microsoft OS/applications and AD. This is pretty important for user authentication and security.
5) Fast and reliable SMTP engine.
6) Connectors to every system under the sun. If it isn't a built-in Microsoft code connector, then the manufacturer of the third party system will have one (think Rightfax, Call-Pilot, you name it).
7) Backwards compatibility for a whole mess of clients. Although it's a toss-up on whether or not you want to call this a benefit vs a fault.
8) It scales LARGE if you design it properly. It takes a lot of experience and time, but you CAN scale Exchange for a global 100K plus environment (a heck of a lot easier than Notes if you ask me, but YMMV)
Faults
1) Database replication for redundancy is non-existent. This one is a true SUCK. Notes really gets this right.
2) Application level clustering is non-existent. Again, Notes gets this right. Clustering in an Exchange world means OS level Windows clustering, which is complicated and delicate (although it gets better with every patch and OS upgrade).
3) Encryption is an afterthought. S/MIME while supported is a mess to manage in an AD infrastructure and you can forget PGP completely.
4) An awful lot of infrastructure dependencies with E2K and later. DNS, WINS (god help us), AD, the list goes on. That's an awful lot of infrastructure to put in place for one or two servers.
5) Email archival and storage management is weak to non-existent. You'll have to go third party for cradle -to-grave data lifecycle management.
Notes:
Benefits
1) Database replication. Notes works pretty damn seamlessly in replication.
2) Application level clustering. It just works. One of the nice things about Notes.
3) Console window. I love being able to watch the internals of the Notes server scroll through that CLI. Watch the server console for 15 minutes every day and you'll get a REALLY good idea what's going on in your environment.
4) Encryption is strong and built in to the app at every level. Pretty dang easy to admin too.
Faults
1) Horrendous client UI. This is the biggest SUCK I've ever seen in a client UI. God this thing is horrible.
2) Terrible email engine. Notes does application database work fairly well, but it is NOT an email server. I don't care what anyone tells you, email is never supposed to get stuck in a queue the way that Notes does. Have to restart the internal mail queue routers constantly just to keep messages flowing. Second biggest SUCK in relation to Notes.
3) Terrible web experience/access to email. I thought Exchange 5.5 OWA was bad, but it looks like paradise compared to Notes.
4) Client manage-ability from an admin perspective. GPO's and Outlook work pretty well. Notes doesn't have anything close. And again, we're back to the Notes client SUCK.
Look, I'm an admitted Exchange guy. It's what I do. Even more bizarre to most people... I like it. Not just like it, I've made a career out of it. That said, I'm not blind to the fact that it's not the only solution or the best solution. Honestly, there are things that Microsoft Exchange can do a LOT better. I'm encouraged by the direc
You must be a Manager. That type of attitude reaps rewards!
Again, I worry because the tone of your posts indicate you've abdicated even your desire for privacy.
I'm sorry but how about "Hell NO! I won't get over it!" for an answer.
Privacy is something that I cherish and am fighting to protect. I will NOT give it up lightly and just say "Meh, who cares".
Now more than ever I am pushing to take back my privacy and protect my personal freedom. It worries me (to the point of nausea) that you are so willing to give up yours.
I mean honestly, collectively as a species were always a short mutation hop away from some pandemic. Why the repeated pressing on the panic button by the media? My personal conclusion is ... follow the money trail.
Q? Who has the responsibility for pandemic prepardness?
A/ Homeland Security
Q? What is on that department's agenda?
A/ Establish power, control, and continued influence.
Q? What is one of the best ways to achieve these goals?
A/ Jump on everyone's fears and play to them.
Q? What's the best way to jump on everyone's fears?
A/ Get the media to repeatedly blast out these reports.
As everyone is fond of pointing out:
1. Identify panic button
2. Press it!
3. Tell everyone you can fix it! If you get a bigger budget (of course).
4. Profit!!
This is the problem I don't see anyone even trying to resolve.
My point is that a different infrastructure will have to be put into place for the fast recharging of electric cars.
What no one really talks about is the convenience of gasoline, in the fact that it takes 5 minutes at the pump to "recharge" and your off again.
I haven't seen anything even remotely close to that with batteries and electric cars. Until you have a near instantaneous recharge AND an easy to deploy infrastructure for recharging, I don't think you'll see a lot of movement towards electric cars. IMO
Speed of battery (or other storage mechanism) recharge,
and driving range per charge.
Until these issues are solved it remains a serious PITA to actually DRIVE one of these cars.
All I'm saying is that corporations don't necessarily fall into the "evil world domination" mindset. They're usually guided to that place by CEO's that have sold their souls AFTER the company has made it big. ;)
----------
This sig intentially left blank.
Ok. That's all well and good that you only have these potential four choices of distributions...BUT how the hell am I supposed to know that as a novice user? And how do I pick just one of them?!? Am I supposed to let Dell do that for me? Without knowing all the details about each distribution (and believe me I don't and most of the Windows user population that you want to switch to Linux doesn't either) how do I know which distro is best suited for me? Once again I see this as the computing elite (i.e. the Linux DYI crowd) ignoring the fact that most people don't want a huge amount of choice. They want just a couple - beginner (cheap) system, middle-of-the-road system, and high-end system. ----- Sig? We don't need no stinking SIG's!