“
An important motive for the switch to open source were negative experiences with a proprietary database and the services provided by the company, remembers Kaell, without going into details. As soon as possible the Cadastre started switching to the alternative, Postgresql. "And we’ve gradually expanded from there." ACT now relies heavily on Linux servers, most of them virtualised. "We began by publishing invitations to tender in which we explained that we would prefer solutions based on open source." “
That sounds right to me. Any time a government is using taxpayers’ money to buy licences when they could use FLOSS for $0, taxpayers should demand change. Fiducial responsibility of governments should be driving adoption of FLOSS in government. It’s just silly to pay more for a product or service than the cost of production which is what M$’s OS is all about and Oracle’s database and Adobe’s graphics software too. There are all FLOSS alternatives for these widely used products. Waste on the scale M$ demands whether on client, server or a whole system is colossal. M$ had $11 billion operating profit from revenue of $18 billion for their client OS alone in their last fiscal year. That means the cost of production and distribution was only $7 billion. Of course, FLOSS not being sold would have even lower costs of production. Sharing saves a lot of money. Oracle, the database company had $37 billion in revenue their last fiscal year. Does the world owe such businesses a living? No.
I recommend a distro like Debian GNU/Linux as a basis for IT in government. Debian has been around a long time, is globally developed and distributed, costs $0 to use and is very open about bugs and solutions.
see Luxembourg's cadastre administration prefers to use open source | Joinup.
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Does the world owe such businesses a living?
A better question might be “Do these businesses owe anyone a free ride?” Certainly that answer is “No!”
Those who innovate and risk their fortunes to develop comprehensive solutions to problems that end up saving their customers gobs of money deserve every dollar that they receive from their satisfied customers.
Microsoft receives billions of dollars in profits from their products, but their customers get tens of billions of dollars in saving resulting from their use of these products. Many organizations do not manage their affairs effectively and are, on occasion, driven to cut back on expenses and some end up taking a flyer on open source freebie products, but that is hardly the rule.
Governments are going to stand regardless and that is why you see a few of them trying Linux. Businesses that get into such a fix are more likely to go bankrupt than to switch to Linux or other open source products. If they are making money, they are almost always using Microsoft products.
Clarence Moon
“If they are making money, they are almost always using Microsoft products.”
LOL so Google Facebook Amazon…. and may more don’t exist.
Just because you are using FOSS does not mean you are not paying for support Clarence Moon. http://www.postgresql.org/support/professional_support/
These are pay for what you use services.
Clarence Moon reality its a question of what you want to pay for. The software or the support. FOSS you pay for the Support and get support.
– BEGIN OIAOHM-SPEAK –
LOL so Google Facebook Amazon…. and may more don’t exist.
Oiaohm is right all is almost and almost is all. I know scary but true that’s from Old English so like it or not.
The software or the support. FOSS you pay for the Support and get support.
Clarence Moon false dichotomy is sound logic. Yes some philosophers says it’s not but it is really.
– END OIAOHM-SPEAK –
Brillo Majority of web depends on FOSS somewhere.
Sorry it is not almost all. The reality is the majority of on-line sales are processed by FOSS.
When you look into amount of transactions done on-line. Clarence Moon is talking out ass.
Reality business are making money with FOSS and Microsoft.
Brillo your translation missed my point completely. I think you better give up trying to read oiaohm you are useless at it.
My list was all major online vendors of stuff. Hint what Clarence Moon had overlooked.
– BEGIN OIAOHM-SPEAK –
Reality business are making money with FOSS and Microsoft.
Clarence Moon also beating strawman is soundreally its true.
LOL so Google Facebook Amazon…. and may more don’t exist
So do you think that these companies do not use Microsoft products internally? I think you are daft.
Brillo your translation missed my point completely. I think you better give up trying to read oiaohm you are useless at it.
You idiot Old English does not speak in third person.
– END OIAOHM-SPEAK –
Clarence Moon
“So do you think that these companies do not use Microsoft products internally? I think you are daft.”
Let be clear here.
“If they are making money, they are almost always using Microsoft products.”
–If they are making money– Lead in context locks the next part of your sentence. That the profit must be made using Microsoft products. Not true at all. Clarence Moon mostly likely you used a , instead of a full stop so forgetting that you just set context. Please be more careful with your grammar.
In fact companies like Google where they are using Microsoft products internally are operational costs not generating any revenue processes.
–BEGIN OIAOHM-SPEAK–
Clarence Moon mostly likely you used a , instead of a full stop so forgetting that you just set context.
Not true at all to set context you use a ! following ~ and a full stop.
–END OIAOHM-SPEAK–
“Sorry it is not almost all. The reality is the majority of on-line sales are processed by FOSS.”
Sorry but that is pure speculation on your part Mr. nameless nym. I will bet good money that the reality is closer to our usage, where both closed and open source commercial software are being used where it counts.
“These are pay for what you use services.”
So what! the problem with living on support alone is that the companies that live this way in effect bring nothing of substance to the table the fact is that their expertise can be replaced by anyone, and in many cases IS replaced by SME’s for the more popular products.
TO put it bluntly, if i decide that I don’t need to pay the makers of Postgre for enterpriseDB on an annual basis, but can live with less expensive contract support of SME’s that I know and trust. I win but the makers of enterpriseDB do not.
Of course the open source vendors can and do mitigate this by only open sourcing the core of the product and then pseudo-license the valuable add-ons as part of the terms of support. But the leverage of working of licensing those extra bits doesnt really seem guarantee the funding stream that being able to license and sell support for a closed source proprietary product would bring.
It’s just silly to pay more for a product or service than the cost of production which is what M$’s OS is all about and Oracle’s database and Adobe’s graphics software too.
Silly? Silly!? No!
It’s silly to limit yourself to FLOSS for “ethical” and “religious” reasons!
People and companies buy proprietary software because it enables them to get things done they apparently couldn’t get done without relying on proprietary software. Period.
That we don’t live in a FLOSS-only world is in itself the best evidence that FLOSS is lacking.
There are all FLOSS alternatives for these widely used products.
No, there are not. When will you understand? GIMP is not an alternative to Photoshop, unless you severely and arbitrarily limit yourself. And the same is true for plenty of other proprietary software, that there are no FLOSS alternatives.
And by the way, Mr. Pogson, your argument is really weak. It seems to me that you can’t decide if you want to be a die-hard FLOSS fanboy or just a wanna-be FLOSS fanboy. Valve you like, because their port of Steam to Linux is something that could hurt Microsoft. So, despite Steam’s proprietary nature, its use of DRM, and the fact that games on Steam cost money, you endorse it. With, for example, Adobe and Photoshop it’s a totally different matter. Adobe has stated numerous times that they see no benefit in porting Photoshop to Linux. Therefore Adobe is bad.
You aren’t really pro-Linux, you’re simply anti-Microsoft.
“*BSD is for those who love Unix. Linux is for those who hate MS.”
Seems to be true.
oldman
“So what! the problem with living on support alone is that the companies that live this way in effect bring nothing of substance to the table the fact is that their expertise can be replaced by anyone, and in many cases IS replaced by SME’s for the more popular products.”
There is a catch. SME’s don’t have the lead developers of projects.
oldman
“TO put it bluntly, if i decide that I don’t need to pay the makers of Postgre for enterpriseDB on an annual basis, but can live with less expensive contract support of SME’s that I know and trust. I win but the makers of enterpriseDB do not.”
To put it bluntly doing this you lose. You need alterations upstream effectively not hacks you need access to the project leads.
Mistake you just described is why people get hurt with FOSS. They think they can stupidly avoid paying the developers.
“Of course the open source vendors can and do mitigate this by only open sourcing the core of the product and then pseudo-license the valuable add-ons as part of the terms of support. ”
This leverage is not required. Dealing with the leads of the project or dealing with many layers back makes a very big difference to how fast the patch you need gets processed and the quality of it.
You might pay SME for local end user support. But when it comes to paying developers to code on a FOSS project you have shot yourself in the foot in lots of ways using a SME instead of one of the core groups that have the core developers.
This explains why you are such a twit about FOSS oldman. You fail to understand the importance of access to lead developers.
oldman some services like rapid repair of code base are limited to companies who are in the main project.
Yes some services you can go SME but not all with FOSS. This is the solid hard reality.
You might say SME can deal with the Open Source side. What happens if the SME shuts up shop on you. You have no relationship with the main project so are on your own.
Also when the SME does not have a good upstream relationship you also end up with the code base you are using is some mainline incompatible thing with lots of bugs.
Oldman there is a simple real world operational limit. Yes the smart idea of out source your IT is how to lay land mines.
“This explains why you are such a twit about FOSS oldman. ”
I wouldnt be calling anyone a twit Mr. Construction Laborer who dabbles in IT and whose management doesnt think his IT skills are important enough to assign him a stable machine…
At any rate…
I’ve been dealing with and using FOSS in some form all my professional life – probably longer than you have. I continue to work in an environment where it is commonplace. I get to see all the warts because I live with them and have to work around them. Unlike you I do not have rose colored gl;asses about FOSS, nor
There is nothing magical about access to the head developer, because more often than not he is nobody other than the guy who has been attempting to keep two steps ahead of a project. And just as an SME consulting company can fold, just so a head developer can leave a company, taking hie expertise with him. And because the company has open sourced their code, they have no way of stopping him from setting up shop and working for himself.
IN addition the so called “good relationship” with upstream is concerned is IMHO basically worthless. most of the problems where a patch is needed are addressed by having the SME LOOK upstream for a problem and its resolution and implement it.
“You have no relationship with the main project so are on your own.”
Hamster, By definition you are automatically on you own with FOSS at some point ALL the time. So what is the difference?
oldman
“And just as an SME consulting company can fold, just so a head developer can leave a company, taking hie expertise with him. And because the company has open sourced their code, they have no way of stopping him from setting up shop and working for himself.”
This is correct the key point is you want access to those lead developers.
Lot of closed source have the idea it stops their developers from leaving and setting up shop as competition. Reality not it does not.
Yes the fact lead developers can move between companies is why you don’t lock yourself in with contracts with FOSS so you can follow the developers you need.
There is a issue oldman. Inside a FOSS project there is a trust struct. A randomish coder submitting code upstream will have a longer time to get a patch applied then a Developer the FOSS project Lead knows and respects.
There is a tree strut that appears inside FOSS projects. Where your SME is on that tree effects how fast they can get your problems resolved and threw review. SME without developers high enough up in the projects you dependant on is a problem.
oldman
“most of the problems patch is needed are addressed by having the SME LOOK upstream for a problem and its resolution and implement it.”
Note most. Not all. Having upstream relationships place you in a better location.
So at some point when some issues hit you have to pay the upstream developers or suffer oldman. This is the problem you pay a SME and you can have spent your self out of the very budget you need to address the problem. Since the money is not going to the party you need it to.
Dealing with FOSS is not something that works best outsourcing to parties not in the projects you depend on.
Oldman the magic idea you can avoid paying people in the main project is how to get hurt. Come on oldman you need rapid response from Microsoft to repair stuff where you are so you pay a big contract to Microsoft. Not some third party who is unable to perform the changes.
Same applies to FOSS the third party is less able to perform the changes if there staff are not recognised by the project. To be recognised required regularly working on it. This so requires a percentage of income going to supporting developer working on that project.
oldman
“Unlike you I do not have rose colored gl;asses about FOSS”
I don’t have rose coloured glasses on this topic. I have see and checked the research on how FOSS project operate.
Reality here as normal you don’t understand how FOSS is operating. So you don’t understand why you cannot do particularly things without reducing the quality of your support.
Quality support with FOSS there are requirements.
Think about it this way the lower trusted is the developer you are using the more people in FOSS will have to certify off the patch before it gets accepted mainline by most projects. So equal longer delays before you find out if the patch is going to be mainline or not. So more risk of ending up on a forked code base that is a complete nightmare to maintain.
oldman
“By definition you are automatically on you own with FOSS at some point ALL the time.”
The thing is here oldman I understand exactly what I have todo to fix things in FOSS. Yes this does include at times paying parties in development core of particular things to write fixes that I could possibly do myself since I know their code will be accepted mainline sooner.
Also projects I do have a core dependence on I do spend time to know the developers behind so I know who is working where so if I need work done I can contact the right party. Reality I understand the relationship better.
FOSS I can be on my own. I can also pay to get stuff done Oldman. Advantage I am not stuck either way. Using a SME for your budget on FOSS can see you stuck without the budget to spend in the right places to get the results you need.
oldman
“I wouldnt be calling anyone a twit Mr. Construction Laborer who dabbles in IT and whose management doesnt think his IT skills are important enough to assign him a stable machine…”
Exactly why would I want a stable machine that does not get upgraded regularly. My job is to provide Stable Machines to everyone else Oldman. If I don’t have to skill to build a stable machine for myself no one else stands a hope.
If you have not worked out is also keeps us up with current hardware configurations. My management is not stupid Oldman. Somehow I think yours is. Since my machines are spare parts they get upgraded a lot more regularly than any other machine in the business. Also means our IT machines will normally hit any of the hardware defects first. So the quality of service to everyone not IT is improved.
Reality everyone in the IT department no matter how high here machine is spare parts. You want your own machine move department to sales, finance or technical writing and forget doing anything IT again oldman. Does not matter if you have a PHD if you are in the IT department the machine you are on is spare parts.
That this is not the case where you are I see you are a backwater with a older school of management oldman. What you have just said increases in my eyes that you are incompetent because your knowledge of newish hardware will not be with you. Why because you get a stable machine.
oldman basically where I am if you want a stable machine that does not change and you work in IT. BYOD end of story and have it at home.
Now in case of failure IT officer computer is not sales finance or anywhere import to processing today’s income. If you are coding the project due to lack of serviceable parts can be assigned that you go home and use your BYOD.
The reality you are a spoiled person oldman who does not have to live in the real world where profit has to be made. IT work computers are lower importance than the computers bringing in the money.
You have worked in education for far too long Oldman you need to get out in commercial and experience some of the other operating models.
you are a spoiled person oldman who does not have to live in the real world where profit has to be made
Yes, Oldman, you should know that, even in the outback, all the real work is done by kewl dweebs toting around their own droid phone and so able to capture good ideas in the middle of the night whenever the Muses strike. All those expensive workstations sitting in developer offices are just window dressing designed to fool the company stockholders.
Just Google for “bring your own device” and you can see for yourself.
Clarence Moon
“All those expensive workstations sitting in developer offices are just window dressing designed to fool the company stockholders.”
In a lot of ways yes they are window dressing. They get updated less frequent.
Here developers don’t have desktop machine in the normal sense they have spare parts from server infrastructural to use as they need. So it is possible for them to have setup a small scale of what they will be deploying the solution onto in their offices. This they can test more extremely since its isolated from the main network.
The spare parts have to be in the business to be able to repair the main servers systems. Its just far more productive to have them in use and tested before they are placed in the main servers or desktop locations.
Due to the fact Developers are using spare parts from the servers the parts they are developing on have the same performance profile as the servers.
Clarence Moon basically results have lead to what we do. Start off a long time ago a new developer did not have a desktop machine because it was lost in shipping and just used the spare parts. Results were better using the spare parts since testing better matched how it would function once really deployed.
Issue is lot of business never have tested this. Yes it something where I am that runs differently. The developers quite like it. New server hardware comes in they can have a piece of it.
Most other business the spare parts to the servers are off limits to the developers.
oldman can the developers were you are send a order to the IT department for a proto system to be assembled out of spare parts to the systems they will be running on. Even go straight down to stores and get them. Sometimes slightly different to how the current servers are configured because they suspect that is the cause of their poor performance.
The shop I am working in is different but effective.
Yes developer desktop machine comes from a rack case so there are no “expensive workstations” hardware in the company I am in. They might as well have a general office work station times a few from spares sitting on their desk as well. Of course this is with the understanding that those machines will be turned over.
Clarence Moon this is the issue there is very strong logic to what we do. It gets results. Most high end workstations are just server boards placed into a case that will not rack-mount simply. Yes it is possible at times for the machine the developer was working on to be the same one placed in live deployment using the model I work in.
Basically high end workstations are mostly reshaped cluster server spare parts.
This is also why when I am not in Office my Office will be raided. Its not productive having hardware sitting doing nothing. That I have a office that I am given floor space and can have a in and out box is a privilege. Yes oldman I have a desk that is mine in the business. I have a rack case that is mine and I have tagged hard-drives that are mine. Everything else is not. So what I am issued with will be in my office when I come back. What I have used from spares might have been all taken(and most likely will be). This is normal. Heck full-time staff who takes a day off have suffered from the same problem.
This reduces taking sickies as well. Turn up to work or you might not have anything in your office bar the basics ie your harddrives your desk your filing cabinets and your rackcase. This is effective on so many fronts.
Sales someone else takes over their desk same in finance. They don’t have a private office with own lockable storage. Of course you are not allowed to lock spare parts away.
–BEGIN OIAOHM-SPEAK–
Here developers don’t have desktop machine in the normal sense they have spare parts from server infrastructural to use as they need.
Fact is developers even use spare parts from local tips. My tin shed in rural Australia have spare parts from radio antenna array I used to track Russian space probes. It is very common now for developers to spend work time scavanging for reusable computer parts.
–END OIAOHM-SPEAK–
Brillo ridiculed oiaohm for explaining that his folks used server parts for their workstations.
I can speak from experience to state that in many cases a server kicks desktop butt. e.g. more RAM, RAID, Redundant PSU, ECC RAM, SCSI or other high-performance storage, multiple CPU sockets and multiple gigabit NICs are all items you might find in server parts not in the “ordered by Purchasing” standard PC. Where I last worked an ancient server (Xeon 2.9gHz, 2gB RAM, and quad SCSI drives) out-performed NIB (New, In Box) AMD64 3gB, single SATA 512 MB drives Lenovo PCs running either XP, “7″ or GNU/Linux while serving dozens of users at once. That’s one reason I use Beast. Beast was designed and built by me to eliminate bottlenecks and it shows.
I can speak from experience
Which is worth, what – $0.01 inc. tax?
Brillo ridiculed oiaohm for explaining that his folks used server parts for their workstations.
What makes you convinced that oiaohm is not just making stuff up on the spot (as usual)?
Have you seen his folks? Do you even know they exist? Can you identify the entity he works for? More importantly, what makes you think that having developers scavanging for equipment is not, in fact, a waste of resources?
Brillo wrote, “Have you seen his folks? Do you even know they exist? Can you identify the entity he works for? More importantly, what makes you think that having developers scavanging for equipment is not, in fact, a waste of resources?”
What makes you think we even care about oiaohm’s folks? This blog is about technology and what works best. Servers tend to be better PCs than most PCs because price is secondary to performance/reliability. Developers who actually know how PCs work and can build them are apt to be better developers than those who think only of abstractions all day long. e.g. The guy who hard-coded a 1s polling period for checking print queues in Ubuntu GNU/Linux had no idea that hundreds of users can run on a single server or cluster. Conceptually there’s nothing wrong with checking the print queues periodically. Implementation in the real world can make some assumptions seem foolish. The guy did not even make the polling interval configurable. It was embedded as a constant in the source code…
Brillo, don’t spend so much time attacking people as sharing ideas. You seem to be much shorter than oiaohm on the idea-front.
Just to prove that RP’s experience is, again, not even worth a dime.
HP Z820 Workstation:
- Dual Intel Xeon E56xx (up to 16 cores in total)
- Integrated SATA/SAS controller (up to 8 channels plus optional LSI 8-port SAS controller).
- 16 DIMM slots for up to a total of 512GB of memory
Dell Precision T5500:
- Dual Intel Xeon E56xx or X56xx (up to 12 cores in total)
- Up to 64GB of memory
- Integrated SATA controller and optional SAS controller
Beast? You don’t say!
Brillo scorned experience when he wrote, “Which is worth, what – $0.01 inc. tax?”
Typical teaching contracts use a pay-scale with increments of a $fewK per annum of experience. At that rate, 40 years of experience with computers should be worth $120K. There are places I could teach where I could make more than that but I don’t see the perfect job so I stay retired. The little woman is working me harder than any principal I have ever had. They, at least, did not have me doing shovel and wheel-barrow work in the heat of the day…
An example of a teaching pay-scale is in Appendix C pp 84-85 here. Note the experience increment for the current contract is ~$3K up to a maximum of 11 years…
Developers who actually know how PCs work and can build them are apt to be better developers than those who think only of abstractions all day long.
LOL! Just to be sure – when I mentioned writing apps on bare metal some comments ago, I only meant that as a joke. Clearly you don’t even have the faintest idea as to what people are actually using and for what purpose. Everything you say is based on either twisted backyard handyman reasoning or hearsays from random forums, blogs or news reports.
Here’s a reality check, RP – you don’t have anything that amounts to an educated opinion in the matters of IT, and the closest you have to actual industry experience is the duct-tape-and-spit projects you have undertaken in schools desparate enough to hire you. HP and Dell, meanwhile, continue to ship their “beasts” to be put on developers’ desks blissfully without knowing or caring about your existence. Don’t you ever feel that the things you posts here are nothing more than you figuratively standing in front of everyone with your pants down?
40 years of experience with computers should be worth $120K.
Yet you hardly have one year that’s worth a dime. I’ll leave the actual pay grade for you to figure out.
This reduces taking sickies as well. Turn up to work or you might not have anything in your office bar the basics ie your harddrives your desk your filing cabinets and your rackcase. This is effective on so many fronts.
Yeah, it’s always a damn shame when your stapler is gone. It’s only worse when there are no more staples. I hate it when that happens! Then you have to beat up some other guy in the office to access his secret stash.
The office is such a brutal place. I like it!
Brillo reality lot of stuff we are doing will be deployed servers. If customer what as PPC server, arm server, tile….. Developer has to work in that environment.
You buy a x86 workstation give that to the developer you can basically be locking his hands behind his back.
The means to build a network to match what the final solution as to work in is highly useful to developers.
Those two workstations you just quoted are mostly worthless for the we do. Also using highly powerful workstations normally result in client size programs being too memory hungry for the target clients.
Brillo really tell me how build a solution on a x86 workstation is going to show how it will perform in a arm or powerpc or tile server or blade server. Its not going to.
How are you going to be sure the software you have just build will run on the client machines suitable for production. The reality here testing of solutions you need to test with the parts the solution will be using. Brillo.
Highly expensive workstations are not worth a cracker to getting final results since there performance does does not match any of the final deployment parts. Having a Server cabinet and the means to grab some of the reserve servers and reserve network switch and connect up something the same as final solution pays for itself. Test results from the developers match what you expect to see in deployment.
Brillo each IT office has 1 full size Server Cabinet. Yes I was mean Server cabinet and typed rack case. Yes a 47U Server Cabinet. To place part into for development reasons. So yes you can place 10 servers and a kvm and switch in that no problem each as powerful as those workstations you were talking about.
The local tip joke you made most of these 47U Server Cabinets that is exactly where they came from. Nothing wrong with them. 10 dollars each. Ok its about 600 AUD if you have to buy them out right new. Thing is once you have the 47U Server Cabinets they are standard they don’t change you never buy them again. Its a true once off expense. Its in the class of buying a filing cabinet.
Remember this is about providing your developers with the right tools. So of a space of a filing cabinet they can place 10 computers using 4U space in there room no problems with space for other items in there.
The big advantage is if a developer needs huge processing power for some reason since the developer is using servers when it is no longer need that it can just be unbolted and taken to the server room or to another developer that currently needs it.
It also allowed developer to quickly see the cost in rack space they are spending. Yes it is possible for a developer here to have a blade server as there desktop machine. There are network lines between developers offices so yes you can plug into a wall plug to go straight from one office to another. You can also cut each room off to 100 percent isolated. The office space was design to suit IT developers down to the ground.
Chris Weig
“Yeah, it’s always a damn shame when your stapler is gone.”
Exactly to us a computer is just and over sized stapler. They are tools to get the job done and not getting job done because you could not get a stapler boss not happy with. If you cannot get server hardware same problem.
Chris Weig
“Then you have to beat up some other guy in the office to access his secret stash.”
To keep the peace secret stashes are not allowed.
Just to be a little more fun. The server room hardware contains all contains RFID tracking. Office doorways include RFID reader. So yes everything to go into a office is counted. So don’t even get any idea of doing a secret stash. This is nice automatic inventory tracking. So yes you don’t have to spend time signing parts out. Your id to go threw door plus RFID on the device tracks it to you. Also don’t think about taking any of the server hardware out the building. Yes even the hard drives.
In a place like this finding who as nicked off with your issued stapler is quick and simple Chris Weig just access the inventory tracking. Yes they are rfid tagged as well. You know what office your stapler is in.
The RFID tags help with tracking on maintenance as well.
Chris Weig yes funny enough staplers and sticky tape holders are the two items we don’t have walk. Ok they might be out of tape and stables but you always still have those.
The inventory tracking means unless people really need your parts they leave them alone. Problem is when you have been away for 4 weeks the odds of them not needing/wanting something of what you have set up is quite low. Since I do repair tech work I am expected to be able to build my own.
People who are just developers not repair techs as well are not expect to be able to take a pile of parts and build there own. Thing is since I can build I get the newest of the new. Yes this also makes my Server Cabinet popular for being raided of all contained hardware. Same with other repair techs.
You buy a x86 workstation give that to the developer you can basically be locking his hands behind his back.
Fifty Shades of Oiaohm.
Now there’s your next NYT best seller of the year.
Brillo wrote, “you don’t have anything that amounts to an educated opinion in the matters of IT”.
I have been using IT since 1968. You be sure I have an educated opinion about IT. I have used all manner of computers from analogue, germanium transistors, mainframes, mini, micro, and networks of computers. I have used computers to do all kinds of real work from number-crunching, simulation of physical systems, robotics, planning, CAD and a little multimedia.
GNU/Linux on a personal computer connected to a server and/or a cluster of PCs and servers can do just about anything, whether Brillo thinks I am full of crap or not. My opinion does not matter as much as the opinion of the many millions of users of GNU/Linux in the real world.
“My opinion does not matter…”
And there you have it.
I have been using IT since 1968. You be sure I have an educated opinion about IT.
Many office clerks have been using IT since 80/90s (and would have covered mainframe, mini-, micro- and networked computers for the 80s folks). should I regard them as “educated” on the subject matter as well?
Delusions of grandeur are a common symptom among backyard handymen, I am afraid.
And there you have it.
For someone who can’t tell the difference between hardware (wiring) issues and software (OS) issues, he sure makes more noise than his fair share, doesn’t he?
“Thing is since I can build I get the newest of the new.”
So how does a hundred core tilera chip help you in fixing those fences?
“If you have not worked out is also keeps us up with current hardware configurations. My management is not stupid Oldman. Somehow I think yours is. Since my machines are spare parts they get upgraded a lot more regularly than any other machine in the business. Also means our IT machines will normally hit any of the hardware defects first. So the quality of service to everyone not IT is improved.”
Exactly what hardware are you more up to date on Hamster that I don’t have. Solid state drives? Got em. multicore ARM chips – useless on a personal level to someone whose management is more concerned with getting creds to do electrical work. Large memory. In short sir, there is NOTHING that you have shown that justifys an update cycle so short that you have to work with spare parts, especially if the majority of what you are doing is physical construction jobbing.
My desktop can be expanded to 192Gb of RAM My portable Has 32Gb of RAM. so that I can do multi segmented routed network simulations involving a dozen virtual machines including virtual DNS/DHCP server.
Of course none of this will impress the great Hamster with his 12 year old custom rig, yet it still remains what I do and what I am paid well for.
“You have worked in education for far too long Oldman you need to get out in commercial and experience some of the other operating models.”
I’ve been out there and I’ve seen and work with people who are in commercial companies, many multinational.
I and I have no problem telling you Mr. hameless nym, that you are full of sh-t for the word go!
Brillo wrote, “Many office clerks have been using IT since 80/90s (and would have covered mainframe, mini-, micro- and networked computers for the 80s folks). should I regard them as “educated” on the subject matter as well?”
I was a member of the IEEE committee that standardized VMEbus in the 1980s. I wrote peer-reviewed articles about data-collection and analysis, patent applications, and I designed complete IT systems for schools. I was not just a user of IT but a creator.
I was a member of the IEEE committee that standardized VMEbus in the 1980s.
So you were a member of the committee that might or might have contributed anything significant to VMEbus.
There were (and still are) a lot of things going on in TCMM, you know?
I wrote peer-reviewed articles about data-collection and analysis, patent applications
So you have proven yourself worthy to use one of these boxes i.e. an equivalent of a science undergraduate. That’s cute.
I designed complete IT systems for schools
You are beginning to repeat yourself like a broken record, don’t you think?
You are stumped by a multiplexed communication protocol (ethernet). Your solutions are duct-tape-and-spit hobbyist monstrosities. Not a single sentence from the recounts of your stories shows even a shred of knowledge in things you claim to understand. What else anyone here need to know?
Just to clarify:
a member of the committee -> a member
Brillo wrote, “Just to clarify:
a member of the committee -> a member”
And what are you “clarifying”?
Or is it just more innuendo/FUD/garbage?
see IEEE.org
“IEEE is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members inspire a global community through IEEE’s highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities.”
“WHO CAN PARTICPATE?
Working Groups are open groups. They are comprised of individuals for individual standards projects or representatives from entities (such as corporations, government agencies or academic institutions) for corporate standards projects. All participating in working groups have technical expertise, knowledge and dedicated interest in the technology being standardized in the standard.
Working Groups meet and make technical decisions in the process of developing standards. Those participating in working groups have strong technical knowledge and expertise in the subject matter of the standard project, and understand and respect diverse points of view. Individuals and corporations in working groups work collaboratively to reach consensus in order to move the project to sponsor ballot and ultimately IEEE Standards Board approval.”
see http://standards.ieee.org/develop/participate.html
“WHAT IS A WORKING GROUP?
With PAR approval, a Working Group is defined and it can officially begin its work to develop or write the standard. In short, Working Groups work to create and write the standard. Working Groups are open to anyone to participate. For individual standards projects, IEEE or IEEE-SA membership is not required to participate. For corporate standards projects, IEEE-SA corporate membership is required. Overall, Working Groups strive for broad representation of all interested parties and encourage global participation.
In the spirit of openness, agendas for Working Group meetings are distributed beforehand and the results of the group’s deliberations are publicly available, usually through meeting minutes. Working Groups have a chairperson who facilitates the group discussions and offers leadership and guidance to the Working Group. He/she also serves as the contact person for technical questions about the standard.”
see http://standards.ieee.org/develop/wg.html
I am not sure whether or not the process has evolved since the 1980s but I was a member of the IEEE and you had to be competent to join. I had to be sponsored by two or more members of the IEEE who knew my work. My sponsors were two from the Department of Physics where I worked and one from the Department of Engineering with whom I had consulted on Finite Element Analysis which was hot in those days. Believe it or not particle accelerator physics and nuclear physics are challenging technical areas of human endeavour and I thrived in that environment.
Or is it just more innuendo/FUD/garbage?
Is stating that “you were a member that might or might have contributed anything significant to VMEbus” innuendo/FUD/garbage? Well, seeing your reluctance to show me what you have actually done in that committee, I am pretty sure that is a legitimate doubt rather than mere insinuation. Besides, innuendo/FUD/garbage are more your favorite spiels than mine anyway (as immediately observable in this blog).
In case I haven’t done made this clear:
Garbage: Insinuating that your opposition is try to discredit the committe you participated in rather than your person despite clear clarification.
Not garbage: Pointing out the fact that you have never shown you actual possess any genuine knowledge in any relevant subject matter, be it ethernet, VMEbus, AD, or anything having been mentioned or discussed.
I haven’t done -> I haven’t