1. No DRM. No exceptions. 2. How about a lower price tag instead of some BS fluff material.
I can't complain now. I almost exclusively buy jazz CDs from amazon.com and find that there are often many titles in my wishlist that are on sale for usually under $9. Three of those and I get free shipping. I have yet to see any form of DRM on any CD release of a jazz recording originally released on vinyl around 50 years ago. Lately many of these titles have been remasters from the one and only Rudy Van Gelder who recorded and engineered the original recording dates. These are top notch remasters from some of the best performances ever captured in jazz. Add to that no DRM, a price point under $10 (on sale), and free shipping and I personally hope the CD doesn't go away anytime soon.
Here is my rule and is founded on years of managing Unix/Linux systems professionally.
Never, ever use less than 1x physical RAM. Some operating systems use swap space on disk to through core dumps on a crash (Digital Unix... err Tru64 is one). Without a single swap space big enough to hold a physical RAM dump you might be SOL when it comes time for the vendor to diagnose. (In the case of Tru64 you're already SOL because they can't diagnose anything.)
2x physical, which is what I was always told as the recommended amount, is just ludicrous. It was then and it is even more so now.
So my rule is, first, know how much memory your machine uses under heavy load but not when the system is ailing because of an app leaking memory or some other out-of-the-norm issue. Now add that, plus a reasonable margin of error (I like 50%), to your physical and you have a good number. Remember what I said above about always having at least physical? It's very likely (though I've never run into this issue) that a system that wants to dump core to swap space may very well want to dump what's in active swap along with it. As far as the OS is concerned this memory space can be important (though, in the case of a system panic it seems impossible that the offending code would be sitting in swap space).
It should go without saying but the amount of paging space actually used should always be kept to a negligant amount. If this gets out-of-hand you need to add more RAM.
Finally, it's better to err on the side of too much than too little.
"nVidia already has pretty functional GNU/Linux drivers (albeit closed source)"
"Pretty functional" unless, like me, you are using a 5 or 6 year old GeForce2 on Fedora Core 5 with a Xen kernel. Then you're talking about doing nasty things like rebuilding the kernel that breaks compatibility with Yum. If nVidia made this available open source then Fedora/Xen would "just work" with accelerated graphics. As it is right now I choose not to break my kernel compatibility but I can even play Jeweled because it's 2D graphics are more than the open source driver can handle.
Unless ATI or nVidia opens their drivers my next Linux server will have an Intel graphics chip.
Call me crazy but I need my data to be accessible locally most all of the time (usually from a laptop that can be connected to any nasty network). A big fat disk on my home LAN just isn't gonna cut it for me unless I use it to backup my workstations and servers.
The solution that I've found that works very well for me is using IBM's Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) on a Linux server at home. Each night (my computers are on all the time) a TSM scheduler agent backs up every node on my network and keeps it on a big(ish) disk (just a plain ole ATA disk, no RAID, nothing fancy). Once setup it's pretty much hands-off except once every week or so I copy the "storage pool" that sits on the disk to DLT carts on my old slow stand-alone SCSI DLT IV tape drive ($100 on ebay). Then I burn a backup copy of TSM's database onto a CDRW (about to be either 2 CDRWs or a single DVD+RW) and store these at the office.
The way I figure it I can lose a disk on one of my workstations and recover from TSM (bare metal even on Windows though untested with the iBook). If I lose the disk on the backup server, I replace it and restore from the tape and database backup CD I made a week or so back and the next night my nodes will refresh the data that changed since that stale image. If my house burns to the ground (a possibility given that I live in a dense and dry forest in the Colorado mountains [well, foothills]) I still have a copy of all my stuff (albeit a week or so old) at the office. This solution is the only thing I've found that allows me to be mostly hands-off and just have it work. I invest an hour or so making my tape copies while I read/. and other web browsing.
I know it's not exactly what you had in mind with the question but there really is no reason not to consider a real recovery solution that scales very well (I've worked in enviornments that backup whole datacenters with TSM), is fairly painless to manage (once it's setup) and is pretty reasonably priced (especially considering what it costs to lose something critical). I'm sure you can find an old server and can scrape a few bucks together for a decent disk (or array if you feel it necessary). It's well worth the piece of mind it offers.
I had seen this article in the print copy of The Onion a few days ago when they came out.
When I saw this posting I seriously had to check the date a few times wondering if I had been caught in a time warp of sorts and whisked away to April Fools Day.
I've been noticing the editors here have been pretty sloppy lately (moreso than any time I can recall in the past [which is already a pretty low standard]) so it wouldn't suprise me one bit if it totally slipped through Zonk that this came from America's Finest News Source (a title that quickly should be awarded to/.).
Besides this argument being flat-out wrong I feel obligated to point out to you that software doesn't exist in a vacuum. Re-arranging the bits on whatever medium stores the executable code is, ultimatly, a hardware change.
This is an interesting account, although off-topic.
What I find really interesting is the case you describe above is *exactly* the same issues I had with DirecTV that led me go with Dish Network in the first place (it also helped motivate me when Dish started carrying the Sirius music streams but I digress). I've had no issues with Dish (except when I don't pay my bill and that's certainly not their fault).
Don't be surprised if DirecTV starts doing the same thing.
These companies are large, have highly automated and complex billing systems and often don't have employees that give a rat's ass about the customers. This is partially the fault of management and shareholders but, ultimately, is the fault of a market share that gladly hands over $30-90/month because they can't wait for the next season of "The Sopranos" to come out on DVD (hint: if it's not just as good 2 years later, it's probably not worth watching). Because of this and our need to keep up with those damned Jones' folks we (the consumer) tolerate this sort of activity.
If it really gets your goat there's always cable, or, even still, the free-to-air signals that don't cost you a dime (outside of whatever portion of taxes they get in subsidies and whatever products you buy that support the consumerism-based system). Remember this is a service you choose to pay for and you can stop supporting it at any time if you are that unsatisfied. Is television really *that* important to your well-being (especially when it is clearly causing you distress)?
I've been told, though I'm not sure how accurate this is but it seems reasonable given the nature of lawyers in US society, that if fraud is commited and you don't sign your card with your signature, then whatever fraud protection that may have been in place could be negated from your lack of signature.
I say just sign the card. I've had my card for only a few months and the signature is already worn off anyway. You can tell one was there at one time and that's what I'm banking on (haha) if something goes awry.
The servers this runs on I personally built (hardware and OS). I doubt I can say much but I know this project is high-up on the radar screen in the upper echelons at IBM.
It was a pretty fun project while I owned it (a few weeks to do my part) though the schedule seemed aggressive.
Honestly, however, I know very little about the project. To me it's just a bunch of servers.
>>> It's really quite a rare date (or an indication of hardware failure) to see a BSOD in Windows XP.
You're kidding, right? XP Pro here and I've seen 2 today alone. It's absolutely NOT a hardware issue as the driver that's blowing it all up doesn't talk to hardware (not directly anyway, and the root drivers work without issue).
Can we blame the driver? Sure, but the OS should be able to handle shit like that a lot better than it does.
You know, this works just as well and may even be more believable: ===== It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the conservatives have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans (as if any further evidence was needed! Daddy's Stock options? God Almighty!)
Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the conservatives have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors.. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the conservatives will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt.45 and a.38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at the NSA is updated with information about you, a now known terrorist.
Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the conservatives can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the conservative community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!
Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.
Becasue the 'official' iso images of RHL are thier copyright and they choose not to allow distribution of the iso. Thier CD layout is a new work of art and therefore isn't covered under the the same license(s) of the software found within.
As RH makes the binary packages publicly available (up to RHEL), which is not a requirement of the GPL but they were nice to the community in this respect. Becasue of this there's absolutly NOTHING stopping you me or anyone else from assembling our own iso layout and distributing it under GPL (or BSD or MyWhackyLicense for that matter).
It's well within thier right to do what they have done. I don't like nor do I have to.
Of course you're well within your rights to counteract this change and I see several members of the community already stepping-up to fill this void. This can only be a Good Thing(tm) long term though I'll be the first to admit it's going to be a bumpy ride for a bit.
The problem here is the system says the word. This could then be recorded and played back in an instant. The tone and timbre could also be easily changed instantly with any PC equipped with an SB Live! (or comparable) thus thwarting any attempt by the system to determine if the replayed word is, in fact, the same as when the system said it.
The problem here is that default passwords were easily guessed. This is the telecom's fault. Now, lets say they issued random defaults in a way they could be reasonably sure the owner is recieving it and the luser changed it to something easily guessed (4321, like on your luggage) then it's the user's fault and they should be billed (or at least the phone company should keep open that option).
They laid me off in 2001. Management there as a whole is clueless (moreso than average). It was an *awful* enviornment entagled so deep in political wrangling it was a miracle we ever acomplished anything. Our customers hated us. The employees hated management. Management treated employees like shit. Everyone was afraid of getting canned so they could spend more money re-doing the christmas decorations at the corporate HQ in Plano.
I once heard a Poli-Sci guy once say that a people gets the government it deserves. In this case I have to say a company gets the management it deserves.
Now that Dick Brown is gone perhaps that book they gave me (written by one of Dick's proxies) might actually be worth something more than toilet paper.
One good thing, perhaps all the lame emails from Dick would send out every month bragging about using the corporate jet to visit important clients in Hawaii (or some other equally exotic location) will finally come to an end.
My group couldn't even order a pair of hard disks to monitor systems and this fucker is flying all over the world looking for more customers to screw.
As far as I'm concerned... The fuckers deserve what they get.
DISCLAIMER: I'm a bit bitter still so this view should be taken with a grain of salt. Perhaps my area was exceptionally bad.
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Mmmmm. Benzene.
1. No DRM. No exceptions.
2. How about a lower price tag instead of some BS fluff material.
I can't complain now. I almost exclusively buy jazz CDs from amazon.com and find that there are often many titles in my wishlist that are on sale for usually under $9. Three of those and I get free shipping. I have yet to see any form of DRM on any CD release of a jazz recording originally released on vinyl around 50 years ago. Lately many of these titles have been remasters from the one and only Rudy Van Gelder who recorded and engineered the original recording dates. These are top notch remasters from some of the best performances ever captured in jazz. Add to that no DRM, a price point under $10 (on sale), and free shipping and I personally hope the CD doesn't go away anytime soon.
But, as I recall, Einstein was just a lowly clerk not a full-blown patent attorney.
Here is my rule and is founded on years of managing Unix/Linux systems professionally.
Never, ever use less than 1x physical RAM. Some operating systems use swap space on disk to through core dumps on a crash (Digital Unix... err Tru64 is one). Without a single swap space big enough to hold a physical RAM dump you might be SOL when it comes time for the vendor to diagnose. (In the case of Tru64 you're already SOL because they can't diagnose anything.)
2x physical, which is what I was always told as the recommended amount, is just ludicrous. It was then and it is even more so now.
So my rule is, first, know how much memory your machine uses under heavy load but not when the system is ailing because of an app leaking memory or some other out-of-the-norm issue. Now add that, plus a reasonable margin of error (I like 50%), to your physical and you have a good number. Remember what I said above about always having at least physical? It's very likely (though I've never run into this issue) that a system that wants to dump core to swap space may very well want to dump what's in active swap along with it. As far as the OS is concerned this memory space can be important (though, in the case of a system panic it seems impossible that the offending code would be sitting in swap space).
It should go without saying but the amount of paging space actually used should always be kept to a negligant amount. If this gets out-of-hand you need to add more RAM.
Finally, it's better to err on the side of too much than too little.
"nVidia already has pretty functional GNU/Linux drivers (albeit closed source)"
"Pretty functional" unless, like me, you are using a 5 or 6 year old GeForce2 on Fedora Core 5 with a Xen kernel. Then you're talking about doing nasty things like rebuilding the kernel that breaks compatibility with Yum. If nVidia made this available open source then Fedora/Xen would "just work" with accelerated graphics. As it is right now I choose not to break my kernel compatibility but I can even play Jeweled because it's 2D graphics are more than the open source driver can handle.
Unless ATI or nVidia opens their drivers my next Linux server will have an Intel graphics chip.
I dealt with this frustration by quitting http://www.ibm.com/, the source of it all (for me anyway). Believe me, I'm not alone in my "exit strategy".
Call me crazy but I need my data to be accessible locally most all of the time (usually from a laptop that can be connected to any nasty network). A big fat disk on my home LAN just isn't gonna cut it for me unless I use it to backup my workstations and servers.
/. and other web browsing.
The solution that I've found that works very well for me is using IBM's Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) on a Linux server at home. Each night (my computers are on all the time) a TSM scheduler agent backs up every node on my network and keeps it on a big(ish) disk (just a plain ole ATA disk, no RAID, nothing fancy). Once setup it's pretty much hands-off except once every week or so I copy the "storage pool" that sits on the disk to DLT carts on my old slow stand-alone SCSI DLT IV tape drive ($100 on ebay). Then I burn a backup copy of TSM's database onto a CDRW (about to be either 2 CDRWs or a single DVD+RW) and store these at the office.
The way I figure it I can lose a disk on one of my workstations and recover from TSM (bare metal even on Windows though untested with the iBook). If I lose the disk on the backup server, I replace it and restore from the tape and database backup CD I made a week or so back and the next night my nodes will refresh the data that changed since that stale image. If my house burns to the ground (a possibility given that I live in a dense and dry forest in the Colorado mountains [well, foothills]) I still have a copy of all my stuff (albeit a week or so old) at the office. This solution is the only thing I've found that allows me to be mostly hands-off and just have it work. I invest an hour or so making my tape copies while I read
I know it's not exactly what you had in mind with the question but there really is no reason not to consider a real recovery solution that scales very well (I've worked in enviornments that backup whole datacenters with TSM), is fairly painless to manage (once it's setup) and is pretty reasonably priced (especially considering what it costs to lose something critical). I'm sure you can find an old server and can scrape a few bucks together for a decent disk (or array if you feel it necessary). It's well worth the piece of mind it offers.
More interesting still is the Sun logo that comes up as the Urge icon under Firefox.
Does it cover how to install more RAM and a faster CPU needed to power the beast?
If it can support the orbit of the Deathstar then it qualifies.
I had seen this article in the print copy of The Onion a few days ago when they came out.
/.).
When I saw this posting I seriously had to check the date a few times wondering if I had been caught in a time warp of sorts and whisked away to April Fools Day.
I've been noticing the editors here have been pretty sloppy lately (moreso than any time I can recall in the past [which is already a pretty low standard]) so it wouldn't suprise me one bit if it totally slipped through Zonk that this came from America's Finest News Source (a title that quickly should be awarded to
Besides this argument being flat-out wrong I feel obligated to point out to you that software doesn't exist in a vacuum. Re-arranging the bits on whatever medium stores the executable code is, ultimatly, a hardware change.
This is an interesting account, although off-topic.
What I find really interesting is the case you describe above is *exactly* the same issues I had with DirecTV that led me go with Dish Network in the first place (it also helped motivate me when Dish started carrying the Sirius music streams but I digress). I've had no issues with Dish (except when I don't pay my bill and that's certainly not their fault).
Don't be surprised if DirecTV starts doing the same thing.
These companies are large, have highly automated and complex billing systems and often don't have employees that give a rat's ass about the customers. This is partially the fault of management and shareholders but, ultimately, is the fault of a market share that gladly hands over $30-90/month because they can't wait for the next season of "The Sopranos" to come out on DVD (hint: if it's not just as good 2 years later, it's probably not worth watching). Because of this and our need to keep up with those damned Jones' folks we (the consumer) tolerate this sort of activity.
If it really gets your goat there's always cable, or, even still, the free-to-air signals that don't cost you a dime (outside of whatever portion of taxes they get in subsidies and whatever products you buy that support the consumerism-based system). Remember this is a service you choose to pay for and you can stop supporting it at any time if you are that unsatisfied. Is television really *that* important to your well-being (especially when it is clearly causing you distress)?
My girlfriend's mom sent her some to go with the iPod I got her for christmas.
She loves them and has a blueberry and orange sock. Her mom kept the third one in the set.
A great accessory to keep the chrome case from getting all scratched-up in her purse.
I've been told, though I'm not sure how accurate this is but it seems reasonable given the nature of lawyers in US society, that if fraud is commited and you don't sign your card with your signature, then whatever fraud protection that may have been in place could be negated from your lack of signature.
I say just sign the card. I've had my card for only a few months and the signature is already worn off anyway. You can tell one was there at one time and that's what I'm banking on (haha) if something goes awry.
Maybe we should start applying decency standards to congress and the courts...
Or perhaps we should start with those awful campaign ads they use to get elected.
The servers this runs on I personally built (hardware and OS). I doubt I can say much but I know this project is high-up on the radar screen in the upper echelons at IBM.
It was a pretty fun project while I owned it (a few weeks to do my part) though the schedule seemed aggressive.
Honestly, however, I know very little about the project. To me it's just a bunch of servers.
>>> It's really quite a rare date (or an indication of hardware failure) to see a BSOD in Windows XP.
You're kidding, right? XP Pro here and I've seen 2 today alone. It's absolutely NOT a hardware issue as the driver that's blowing it all up doesn't talk to hardware (not directly anyway, and the root drivers work without issue).
Can we blame the driver? Sure, but the OS should be able to handle shit like that a lot better than it does.
You're right... For starters the Mandrake model MAKES SENSE!
You know, this works just as well and may even be more believable:
.. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the conservatives will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at the NSA is updated with information about you, a now known terrorist.
=====
It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the conservatives have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans (as if any further evidence was needed! Daddy's Stock options? God Almighty!)
Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the conservatives have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors
Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the conservatives can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the conservative community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!
Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.
So which is it and why would you want to scramble something when your not storing it somewhere?
If you're not storing, why bother with it in the first place?
Becasue the 'official' iso images of RHL are thier copyright and they choose not to allow distribution of the iso. Thier CD layout is a new work of art and therefore isn't covered under the the same license(s) of the software found within.
As RH makes the binary packages publicly available (up to RHEL), which is not a requirement of the GPL but they were nice to the community in this respect. Becasue of this there's absolutly NOTHING stopping you me or anyone else from assembling our own iso layout and distributing it under GPL (or BSD or MyWhackyLicense for that matter).
It's well within thier right to do what they have done. I don't like nor do I have to.
Of course you're well within your rights to counteract this change and I see several members of the community already stepping-up to fill this void. This can only be a Good Thing(tm) long term though I'll be the first to admit it's going to be a bumpy ride for a bit.
The problem here is the system says the word. This could then be recorded and played back in an instant. The tone and timbre could also be easily changed instantly with any PC equipped with an SB Live! (or comparable) thus thwarting any attempt by the system to determine if the replayed word is, in fact, the same as when the system said it.
The problem here is that default passwords were easily guessed. This is the telecom's fault. Now, lets say they issued random defaults in a way they could be reasonably sure the owner is recieving it and the luser changed it to something easily guessed (4321, like on your luggage) then it's the user's fault and they should be billed (or at least the phone company should keep open that option).
WTF?!?
They laid me off in 2001. Management there as a whole is clueless (moreso than average). It was an *awful* enviornment entagled so deep in political wrangling it was a miracle we ever acomplished anything. Our customers hated us. The employees hated management. Management treated employees like shit. Everyone was afraid of getting canned so they could spend more money re-doing the christmas decorations at the corporate HQ in Plano.
I once heard a Poli-Sci guy once say that a people gets the government it deserves. In this case I have to say a company gets the management it deserves.
Now that Dick Brown is gone perhaps that book they gave me (written by one of Dick's proxies) might actually be worth something more than toilet paper.
One good thing, perhaps all the lame emails from Dick would send out every month bragging about using the corporate jet to visit important clients in Hawaii (or some other equally exotic location) will finally come to an end.
My group couldn't even order a pair of hard disks to monitor systems and this fucker is flying all over the world looking for more customers to screw.
As far as I'm concerned... The fuckers deserve what they get.
DISCLAIMER: I'm a bit bitter still so this view should be taken with a grain of salt. Perhaps my area was exceptionally bad.