Well, then, you need a mistress.

When your nowhere to be found, your wife will think you're with your mistress, your mistress will think you're with your family, and you can have the time to submit bug reports!

In turn, you should accept that there is a difference between people who are using Linux as a desktop and need things like sound, and people who are using it in the server room.

I currently professionally support Linux systems. I like that it's similar to other Unix systems.

Let me see if I can even remember all of the Unix and Unix like operating systems I've had to support professionally...
- Pyramid OSx
- DG/UX
- DEC Digital Unix (OSF/1)
- HP MPE ix (MPE with a posix shell)
- HP/UX
- Xenix
- SCO Unix
- Solaris (Sparc, x86)
- AIX

Now, you can't say I'm resistant to change, as there is a large difference in how all of those systems are administered. I liked the fact that Linux was familiar and I could switch over to it.

What I don't like is that desktop related changes are encroaching on the server room. Fine, you like playing games or listening to music. Don't force me to go down the same path.

Northern France.... that's a very Ch'ti place. Very different from the south.

(Pronounce 'ch' as 'sh'.)

(Sorry, I suppose most people won't understand that...)

You have to take into account that there are no absolutes in politics, except at the extreme ends.

Slashdot is a US website, and most of the people here have a US perspective. From the average person's perspective in the US, Sweden, and most of Europe is socialist.

A lot of people in the US truly believe that Obama is socialist (esp. w.r.t. Obamacare), where as in Europe, Obama is more to the centre-right.

cheers,

(aol) Me Too!!! (/aol)

I have a Synology DS512+ with 5x 3T disks. For storage size, capability and low noise, you just can't beat it. And it runs Linux.

It goes well with my
  - Mac Pro (the old big silver box version),
  - i7 with 24G ram (home built)
  - i7 with 64G ram (home built)
  - 2 x Xeon E5-2620 (6 core each) 192G ram
  - Mac Mini

I have ethernet wired through the house, plus a wifi router on each floor.

Ah, the old day were good. I have 2 MicroVaxes, a Vaxsation 5000, a DEC Alpha. A half-height 20 megabyte drive that was as big as a washing machine, and a tape drive, just a bit bigger. A 6-CPU RS/6000, just a bit bigger than a microvax. I also had huge collection of every Sun Sparc you could imagine.

Pity, all of that had to go when I got married. :-(. I've had to build up my current collection by stealth, one piece at a time.

Mothers with small children, dropping them off to pre-school.

Evil. Pure Evil.

There is no greater enemy for a bike than a Mother driving along, turning backwards to stop the kids fighting while at the same time, looking for a place to park.

If Kickstarter worked from Veroncia Mars, then I don't see why it wouldn't work for B5.

I'd pay the cost of a DVD/Blu-ray if fund it, it I could get a disc as a reward.

And you're forgetting the wonderful wall of manuals.

Those VMS manuals were the greatest set of system documentation I've ever had the pleasure to work with. Combined with the on-line help system, you could be come an expert just by reading and trying things out.

One of the greatest disappointments I had was when I had to use MS Windows for the first time, there was no manual that details all of the commands possible. How can you know what a system can do, if you don't detail all of the features?

I agree. Hiring devs and interfacing is the better solution.

Now, the dev team doesn't have to be in house, it could also be an external team. As long as they develop against and API, then that's all that matters. If it's easier to hire an external team to develop than making the longer term commitment for new employees, then do that.

What I haven't seen anyone mention is the cost of upgrading. This is the biggest factor by far. It can cost you more in upgrading what you've customised than the original cost to create it.

I've seen many companies get their first Oracle ERP system, and go bananas customising everything. We it comes to upgrading, they get the estimate for the cost to upgrade their custom code, and they get a shock. I know of places that have cancelled their upgrade projects since the cost to upgrade with customisations was too much.

What happens in these cases is that for the upgrade, instead of bringing everything along, they reimplement the system, and ditch most of the customisations, only including the ones are are absolutely needed.

If instead of making changes to the Oracle ERP, you just feed it the data from interfaces, you have now de-coupled the need to change your custom code from the ERP upgrade - at most you will need to make minor changes to the interface data if Oracle change their API.

This is really the best way to go. I've been consulting/supporting oracle ERP systems for over 20 years. If you want to contact me privately, I'd happy help you further. Now, even though I do ERP consulting for a living, unless you're in Europe, my company won't be getting any business from you, so you can trust that my advice will be independent.

cheers.

From my perspective, it appears that both China and the US are willing to bend to their control any IT organization that they can.

I'm happy that a verified source have been made, but sad to think that it has now come to this - the US, China, Russia, ..... so many countries that it is no longer safe to host security projects.

If only I could get a CISCO router build in China, packages in the US and sold through a reseller in Russia.... it could be marketed are the ultimate freedom router*.

(* Note: freedom is not for the end user)

I've seen this happen with some of the Oracle support forums, and I really hate it.

What Oracle are doing now is that when you log a support request for some products, they first direct you to the customer forums to find an answer before you can complete entering the support request - and you have to acknowledge in the support request that you are aware of the customer forums.

The problem is that unless your problem is really simple, the forums are a waste of time, and when I have to log a support request, it's never for a simple issue, and normally for something that needs a brand new patch, or a patch that has only been out for a short period of time and only a few people have encountered the issue before.

The customer forums don't make the cost of the support contract any cheaper, so if it's saving money, then all it means that Larrty gets to spend more on another boat.

I have to say that it's expensive for a Fiesta (it's only around $20k where I am), but in general the US has the cheapest car prices for a western country. I think that's because the market is competitive, and consumers are price sensitive. Everyone in Europe, Australia and New Zealand get ripped off. The prices in Japan aren't so bad.

My last new car cost about 20% more in Euros, than in USD, and that was with a â1/$1.30 exchange rate - almost half price in the US. It would have been cheaper for me to purchase the car from the US, have it shipped over to Europe and then pay 20% in import duties.

The worst part was, the car was built in England!

My wife's Nissan has a backup camera. I wasn't use to it, as my main car has ultra-sonic parking sensors. Originally I didn't like the camera, until I was in a car park and it was pitch black. The camera has night vision capability, and I was able to see everything just like it was daylight (but only in black and white).

In this case, looking out of the windows didn't help much, but with the camera, I was able to see far further than the reversing light.

So?

To quote super chicken, "you knew the job was dangerous when you took it".

That was a risk I was willing to take. If I lost out and didn't get anything for my money, then oh well, maybe I'll not eat out one night instead and I'll be even.

No, that's a lie. They provided a digital download. No where was it ever promised that it was going to be a DRM free download.

I'm a backer. I was never told it would be DRM free.

I'm a backer.

No, we didn't pay a studio. We paid Rob to create a movie. Rob then worked with the studio to get extra funding and promotion.

If Rob didn't get agreement with the studio, then he still was going to make the movie with the money that he raised. It might not have had a wide cinema release, but he had enough money to made a reasonable quality movie.