1765447
submission
boner writes:
As the media increasingly reports on pirate attacks at sea, I started wondering what the optimal warship would look like to protect shipping in these areas. The problem with current warships is that they are expensive, lightly armoured and suited for the wrong task. For example, the frigates and destroyers currently patrolling these waters where built for convoy duties, submarine hunting, and fleet air protection, not for projecting force on a bunch of pirates in small fast boats. A major issue with modern warships is their lack of armour — the assumption being that ship-to-ship and air-to-ship combat is performed outside of gun range with supersonic guided missiles, not with rogue elements carrying rocket propelled grenades. The other issue is that the only part of a frigate or destroyer capable of catching a pirate boat is the helicopter. Also pressing is the fact that onboard personnel have limited combat training, necessitating the deployment of marines for boarding duty.
So, what would the optimal warship capable of dealing with the pirate threat look like? Heavily armoured, with marines and helicopter and plenty of mid-size guns, or fast attack boats geared towards destruction instead of arrest?
256731
submission
boner writes:
Our friends at the Register report : IBM embraces — wtf — Sun's Solaris across x86 server line.
Apparently the collaboration goes beyond x86, quoting from the article: Zeitler sounded bullish about the prospects of running Solaris on the System Z mainframes, ... [Zeitler] noted that he "would like to see" some Solaris on System P work, which would have Solaris compete head-to-head with AIX.
Does this mean corporate interest might be shifting towards Solaris? Ashlee Vance only too kindly notes: Solaris x86 enjoys a relatively small but devoted developer community. The Linux crowd seems to have taken notice of this with zealots bashing Solaris x86 at every chance during recent open source trade shows. Such concern is understandable given that Solaris offers a number of high-end features not found with Linux.
So how do Slashdotters see the longterm prospects for Solaris?
188111
submission
boner writes:
The Register (our trusted other source of news) has an article announcing the release of ITIL,v3. ITIL, or IT Infrastructure Library, represents an internationally-accepted good practice framework for managing IT operations. Somehow, ITIL seems to be much more accepted in Europe, with only lackluster mention and support in the USA.
How about the Slashdot readers? How many live and breathe ITIL in their daily lives and how are they geographically distributed? Is ITIL relevant to todays IT management and should we spend time on it?
