Comment Re:System Registry (Score 1) 583
It's been more of the "bane of Windows" in the respect to manageability within the system. Outside of malware and the like, what do you think causes Windows to slowdown over time?
Submission + - Next-generation Linux file systems (ibm.com) 1
IndioMan writes: Linux continues to innovate in the area of file systems. It supports the largest variety of file systems of any operating system. It also provides cutting-edge file system technology. Two new file systems that are making their way into Linux include the NiLFS(2) log-structured file system and the exofs object-based storage system. Discover the purpose behind these two new file systems and the advantages that they bring.
Submission + - Placebo effect caught in the act in spinal nerves (sciencemag.org)
SerpensV writes: German scientists found direct evidence that spinal cord is involved in the placebo effect. According to "New Scientist":
"The researchers who made the discovery scanned the spinal cords of volunteers while applying painful heat to one arm. Then they rubbed a cream onto the arm and told the volunteers that it contained a painkiller but in fact it had no active ingredient. Even so, the cream made spinal-cord neural activity linked to pain vanish.
"This type of mechanism has been envisioned for over 40 years for placebo analgesia," says Donald Price, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, who was not involved in the new study. "This study provides the most direct test of this mechanism to date.""
"The researchers who made the discovery scanned the spinal cords of volunteers while applying painful heat to one arm. Then they rubbed a cream onto the arm and told the volunteers that it contained a painkiller but in fact it had no active ingredient. Even so, the cream made spinal-cord neural activity linked to pain vanish.
"This type of mechanism has been envisioned for over 40 years for placebo analgesia," says Donald Price, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, who was not involved in the new study. "This study provides the most direct test of this mechanism to date.""
Comment Re:Only Use LTS (Score 1) 1231
I actually just installed 9.10 as my first experience with Ubuntu. Of course after the install S.M.A.R.T. indicated the drive was failing so I cannot confirm if any issues were related to that or the OS. I guess I will find out when the new drive comes.
Regarding your comment about 6 month release cycles... I have been running OpenBSD for years on the same initial install. I have upgraded with every upgrade at their regular 6 month release period and it has performed as spectacular as expected.
Submission + - AT&T sues Verizon over ads (electronista.com) 1
mr100percent writes: AT&T on Tuesday sued Verizon for allegedly misleading customers with its "there's a map for that" ads. The complaint argues that Verizon is deliberately exaggerating the gaps in AT&T's coverage through its map of 3G networks, making it seem as though some areas have no coverage at all, not just 3G. Verizon has already had to alter maps after some earlier protests from AT&T.
Submission + - Cacti 0.8 Network Monitoring
GJdeBoer writes: The book is aimed at people managing a network and would like to get insight into the performance of that network. It covers the installation and configuration of the Cacti application. In the preface the book states that it's not necessary to be a Linux Guru to use the book and that exactly is the case. The book builds up your knowledge about Cacti and the necessary steps to configure it for your network, it teaches you about Net-SNMP and RRDTool, the building blocks of Cacti.
As I've been working with Cacti for several years now, my aim was to get a book that describes the best practices for Cacti installations and to get a reference guide for myself. My hope was to get some more knowledge about the inner workings of Cacti and I think although meant for Cacti beginners, the book did a good job at that. I got a more clear idea about the architecture of Cacti which helps me with the integration of Cacti in my client’s networks.
The book starts off with an introduction to Cacti. It explains what Cacti is, how the global architecture is and for what purposes it can be used. It also explains the basics of the prerequisite RRDTool. In the next chapter the book explains the installation of the prerequisites. The book then progresses on the installation, configuration and tasks like authentication and authorization of users. We then learn to add devices and assign templates to them.
The last chapters end the book with advanced topics for Cacti users such as Data Management and Cacti Management. It explains how to create your own data and snmp queries to be able to monitor custom devices. Personally, I found these chapters to be the most educational part of the book.
As for this book no advanced knowledge of Linux is needed. It explains the installation steps of Cacti and its prerequisites clearly and with a lot of exemplary screenshots. As Cacti is managed by means of an web interface it is the most clear way to make a point in a book about Cacti. The book is easy to read and I think the book covers the theory needed to install and operate a Cacti server perfectly. As it explains the use of Templates in Cacti and why you should use them, the book helps people build scalable and neat Cacti setups.
As a downside of the book I have found the clear focus being on the Debian side of Linux distributions. All the installation done in the book is by using apt-get, Debian and Ubuntu's package management system, but in the professional Linux world you are seeing more RedHat based distributions then Debian. I would have liked a couple of tooltips on how to install the prerequisites on RedHat or CentOS with the yum package manager or maybe by using source packages for installation. It's not a big downside for more advanced users but for the Linux novices, at who the book targets on, it could be a bit hard to find out the right way to install Cacti on a RedHat or CentOS box. Since the configuration of Cacti is the same on every platform this is only applicable for the installation chapters.
In general the book does exactly what the cover says: “Monitor your network with ease” although I found it a bit short. The book consists of a hundred and ten pages, but since there are a lot of screenshots on the pages there is less text. The book doesn't dive very deep into the inner workings of Cacti. One could argue that is exactly the point of the book: most people don't use that kind of knowledge. I would have liked a bit more insight into the MySQL database behind Cacti and troubleshooting steps for when your graphs stop working.
I think the book is great for people who want to start with Cacti because they want to monitor their network. They can install and operate a Cacti instance very quickly with help of this book without having previous knowledge of Linux. In my field of work I often come in contact with customers who have problems in their network. I always advice them to install a network monitoring appliance like Cacti. Since most of them use Windows networks they often have no experience in configuring a Linux server for Cacti. I think I will recommend this book in the future to these people.
Gert-Jan de Boer
Self-employed IT Consultant with a company that specializes in Networking, Voice over IP, Storage and Virtualisation. http://www.aazoo.nl/
As I've been working with Cacti for several years now, my aim was to get a book that describes the best practices for Cacti installations and to get a reference guide for myself. My hope was to get some more knowledge about the inner workings of Cacti and I think although meant for Cacti beginners, the book did a good job at that. I got a more clear idea about the architecture of Cacti which helps me with the integration of Cacti in my client’s networks.
The book starts off with an introduction to Cacti. It explains what Cacti is, how the global architecture is and for what purposes it can be used. It also explains the basics of the prerequisite RRDTool. In the next chapter the book explains the installation of the prerequisites. The book then progresses on the installation, configuration and tasks like authentication and authorization of users. We then learn to add devices and assign templates to them.
The last chapters end the book with advanced topics for Cacti users such as Data Management and Cacti Management. It explains how to create your own data and snmp queries to be able to monitor custom devices. Personally, I found these chapters to be the most educational part of the book.
As for this book no advanced knowledge of Linux is needed. It explains the installation steps of Cacti and its prerequisites clearly and with a lot of exemplary screenshots. As Cacti is managed by means of an web interface it is the most clear way to make a point in a book about Cacti. The book is easy to read and I think the book covers the theory needed to install and operate a Cacti server perfectly. As it explains the use of Templates in Cacti and why you should use them, the book helps people build scalable and neat Cacti setups.
As a downside of the book I have found the clear focus being on the Debian side of Linux distributions. All the installation done in the book is by using apt-get, Debian and Ubuntu's package management system, but in the professional Linux world you are seeing more RedHat based distributions then Debian. I would have liked a couple of tooltips on how to install the prerequisites on RedHat or CentOS with the yum package manager or maybe by using source packages for installation. It's not a big downside for more advanced users but for the Linux novices, at who the book targets on, it could be a bit hard to find out the right way to install Cacti on a RedHat or CentOS box. Since the configuration of Cacti is the same on every platform this is only applicable for the installation chapters.
In general the book does exactly what the cover says: “Monitor your network with ease” although I found it a bit short. The book consists of a hundred and ten pages, but since there are a lot of screenshots on the pages there is less text. The book doesn't dive very deep into the inner workings of Cacti. One could argue that is exactly the point of the book: most people don't use that kind of knowledge. I would have liked a bit more insight into the MySQL database behind Cacti and troubleshooting steps for when your graphs stop working.
I think the book is great for people who want to start with Cacti because they want to monitor their network. They can install and operate a Cacti instance very quickly with help of this book without having previous knowledge of Linux. In my field of work I often come in contact with customers who have problems in their network. I always advice them to install a network monitoring appliance like Cacti. Since most of them use Windows networks they often have no experience in configuring a Linux server for Cacti. I think I will recommend this book in the future to these people.
Gert-Jan de Boer
Self-employed IT Consultant with a company that specializes in Networking, Voice over IP, Storage and Virtualisation. http://www.aazoo.nl/
Submission + - Windows 7 vulnerable to 8 out of 10 viruses (sophos.com)
llManDrakell writes: Sophos recently ran a test to see how well UAC on Windows 7 was able to stop the latest viruses.
Submission + - Facebook's Limited Profile Not So Limited (facebook.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Think your embarassing Facebook photos, videos and posts are safely hidden from friends in your limited profile? Think again. Since at least June, users have been complaining that adding a friend to the limited profile and ensuring the limited profile has no access to photos, videos, wall posts or other information does not work.
http://www.artificialignorance.net/blog/facebook/are-facebooks-privacy-settings-working/
Facebook has ignored the issue all along, despite it being brought to its attention on their help section.
http://www.facebook.com/help/question.php?id=217979
http://www.artificialignorance.net/blog/facebook/are-facebooks-privacy-settings-working/
Facebook has ignored the issue all along, despite it being brought to its attention on their help section.
http://www.facebook.com/help/question.php?id=217979
Submission + - Finding Linux easier to use than Windows? 2
h c over lambda writes: Finally having gotten around to building a computer with gaming in mind, I've sort of had to change over to using Windows (Windows 7 to be precise, but on other computers I use other versions regularly and encounter the same issue). This is the first time I've had to use a Windows OS 'heavily' in a long time — sure, I've used them in passing but for nothing more than typing up some documents or browsing the Internet — and coming from Linux I actually find Windows extremely awkward to use.
Most people seem to have the exact opposite experience to me, finding Linux to be fiddly and generally annoying, but I like the way in which it is possible to quickly alter how the system works and customise it (almost) indefinitely. By comparison, Windows feels clunky and slow. Not slow as in operating speed, since for me Windows 7 runs just as quickly as the vast majority of Linux distros I've used, but slow in the sense that it takes forever to customise the system and generally get things done. Perhaps the biggest example of this for me is the Windows analogue of the Linux home folder; where the Linux home folder is easily modified to suit you, the Windows equivalent slaps permissions on folders that are tedious to bypass and particularly difficult to remove. It doesn't help that recent games have, for some reason, taking to using the 'My Documents' folder to store saved games and the like and if there's a way to change that I'd do it in a heartbeat. I like to have documents for work and the like in there; I'm perfectly happy looking through the game's folder in Program Files if I want to back up a save, install a mod, or so on.
I'm just curious to see if anyone else has encountered this kind of predicament using Windows after an extended spell on Linux, or it's just me thinking unusually.
(As an aside, I'm tempted to try running Windows 7 as a virtual machine on a Linux distro but I'm not too confident that games — the main thing I built this particular computer for in the first place — would run too well on such a virtual machine and with my download speed temporarily throttled to 128 kb/s after I accidentally exceeded my monthly download cap I'm hesitant to find out, though I am changing to an ISP with unlimited downloads on November 6th.)
Most people seem to have the exact opposite experience to me, finding Linux to be fiddly and generally annoying, but I like the way in which it is possible to quickly alter how the system works and customise it (almost) indefinitely. By comparison, Windows feels clunky and slow. Not slow as in operating speed, since for me Windows 7 runs just as quickly as the vast majority of Linux distros I've used, but slow in the sense that it takes forever to customise the system and generally get things done. Perhaps the biggest example of this for me is the Windows analogue of the Linux home folder; where the Linux home folder is easily modified to suit you, the Windows equivalent slaps permissions on folders that are tedious to bypass and particularly difficult to remove. It doesn't help that recent games have, for some reason, taking to using the 'My Documents' folder to store saved games and the like and if there's a way to change that I'd do it in a heartbeat. I like to have documents for work and the like in there; I'm perfectly happy looking through the game's folder in Program Files if I want to back up a save, install a mod, or so on.
I'm just curious to see if anyone else has encountered this kind of predicament using Windows after an extended spell on Linux, or it's just me thinking unusually.
(As an aside, I'm tempted to try running Windows 7 as a virtual machine on a Linux distro but I'm not too confident that games — the main thing I built this particular computer for in the first place — would run too well on such a virtual machine and with my download speed temporarily throttled to 128 kb/s after I accidentally exceeded my monthly download cap I'm hesitant to find out, though I am changing to an ISP with unlimited downloads on November 6th.)
Submission + - Nothing to Fear but Fearlessness Itself?
theodp writes: In last August's Is Technology Evil?, Robert X. Cringely voiced fears that Goldman Sachs and others were not so much evil as 'clueless about the implications of their work,' leaving it up to the government to fix any mess they leave behind. 'But what if government runs out of options?,' worried Cringely. 'Our economic policy doesn't imagine it, nor does our foreign policy, because superpowers don't acknowledge weakness.' And now Cringely's fears are echoed in We're Governed by Callous Children, currently the most-read WSJ story, in which Peggy Noonan frets: 'We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists — they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.' With apologies to FDR, do we have nothing to fear but fearlessness itself?
Submission + - Real Estate listings on Google Maps (blogspot.com)
reynost writes: I thought this is a pretty neat idea. Google Maps will now show real estate listings, rental listings, etc. in a particular area.
Low-Power Home Linux Server? 697
mpol writes "For years I've been using a home server with Linux, but recently I've been having doubts about the electric bill. I'm not touched by the recession yet, but I would like to cut costs, and going from a 100-Watt system to a 30-Watt system would save me 70 bucks a year. The system doesn't need to do much, just apache, imap, ssh and some nfs, but I do prefer to have a full-fledged system, where I can choose what to install on it. I also don't really care if it's a low-power Via or an ARM processor as long as it's cheap. I'm aiming for $300 or less for a full system, which I could then earn back in about four years through power savings. I've been reading about the Western Digital Mybook World Edition, which has an ARM processor but isn't that easy to install Debian on. A Mac Mini draws about 85 Watts, so that isn't an option either. Something a bit more than turn-key would be fine, but preferably not a complete hack-job. Adding a temporary CR-ROM or DVD-ROM, or a USB disk with an iso to install from would be nice. Any Slashdotters run nice and cheap low-power Linux systems? What can you recommend?"
Comment Which is why... (Score 1) 394
they should just give freedom of choice:
...and partly because in many cases testers often have opposing views about a feature.
You Used Perl to Write WHAT?! 307
Esther Schindler writes "Developers spend a lot of time telling managers, 'Let me use the tool that's appropriate for the job' (cue the '...everything looks like a nail' meme here). But rarely do we enumerate when a language is the right one for a particular job, and when it's a very, very wrong choice. James Turner, writing for CIO.com, identifies five tasks for which perl is ideally suited, and four that... well, really, shouldn't you choose something else? This is the first article in a series that will examine what each language is good at, and for which tasks it's just plain dumb. Another article is coming RSN about JavaScript, and yet another for PHP... with more promised, should these first articles do well."
Submission + - Dragonball Z Live Action Movie Filming (rottentomatoes.com)
wawannem writes: "We may someday see a live action adaptation of Dragonball Z! It seems details are hard to find, but it would seem that filming has begun. I remember rumors of this film as far back as 2000. The budget is listed at $100 million, so I am expecting big effects!"
