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Comment Re:Councils are the worst (Score 2) 133

Having been through several migrations of various ERP's and finance packages with my company, we always negotiated a fixed price contract, then we go by the "Configure, don't customize" motto and we will change our processes to match the software whenever possible rather than trying to customize the software.
When we migrated to Oracle, this led to an on-time and on-budget deployment of e-Business suite (Then version 11.something). There were a couple of areas where we needed custom code, mostly due to some external interfaces we needed, but most everything else was just configured out-of-the-box.

Comment Re:No not really (Score 5, Interesting) 464

I have a 10G Ethernet card on my iMac via an external Thunderbolt PCIe expansion chassis. So, OS X can use 10G.
I have a third party software iSCSI Initiator installed, so OS X can use iSCSI.
You fail to mention NFS, which OS X supports natively.

Aside from CPU upgradability, the 6 Thunderbolt ports means that this particular Mac Pro is the single most expandable Mac on the planet.
You can add a TON of PCIe expansion boxes to give you a ton of slots as needed, including additional graphics cards, RAID cards, etc.
Since everything is external, you also don't need to worry about upgrading the internal PS of the Pro or worry about cooling needs of the computer itself.
Yes, it'll mean that everything is external, but it also means that everything is "pay as you grow" and keeps the computer itself nice and small and hopefully less expensive (we shall see).

No, it's not for everyone, but it is an interesting design and it is expandable.

Comment Been there, done that, so true. (Score 5, Insightful) 462

Those of us born before 1985 or so can remember we LIVED WITHOUT INTERNET. We got by just fine. We went to libraries and subscribed to periodicals and bought books for information. We wrote letters on paper, used stamps, and waited days for mail turnaround. We read National Geographic for education and other activities. We survived, we liked it, we didn't notice much missing.
No 'net?
Been there.
Done that.
Was nice.
Don't wanna go back.
Pity the person who does.

Comment East vs. West (Score 1) 292

In the Kamigata area, they have a sort of tiered lunchbox
they use for a single day when flower viewing.
Upon returning, they throw them away, trampling them underfoot.
The end is important in all things.
- Hagakure (The Way of the Samurai)

Comment A solution looking for a problem? (Score 1) 248

Having seen enough similar "out there" products - at least when they were first conceived of - my reaction to your funny was "holy crap he's right!" and started wondering what could be done to bridge the gap from humorous absurdity to marketable product. The sound industry has long touted "1-bit digital audio" - similar concept awaiting for imaging?

Comment I teach intro CS. Sink-or-swim is good. (Score 1) 606

If you can't grasp the basics of variables, decisions, loops, functions and classes in 15 weeks then you are not ready for what comes next. I've had students who truly could not, and it would be cruel to let them continue on, only to get mired ever deeper and rack up more debt. If prerequisites, declared or implied, are not fulfilled then one is in no position to go farther. Those who take it again and struggle thru may pass (rare), but they have already shown that - aside from special cases and remarkable effort - they are just not equipped to compete in the complexity and speed of the subject.

If you can't grasp
class C { public: void d(int n){ for(int i=0;in;++i) cout”Hi! "; } };
void main() { C c; if (true) c.d(); }
in four months, you're not cut out for the career.

I get students who don't grasp the concept of variables. I mean they truly do not grasp the concept of x=3.
Maybe they can get it at some point, but they don't keep up.

If you can't play standard scales in 4 months, you're not up to compete against talented musicians.
If you can't dissect a frog in 4 months, you're not cut out to do surgery.
If you can't write a poem in 4 months, you won't be teaching college English.

Sure we can hypothesize special cases, or give contrary anecdotes. Building policy on that is like not driving to work because you might be killed in a crash. I know Einstein failed math; he overcame, and so can any special cases - it's not like one is forbidden from the subject everywhere for life.
If you can't grasp a bare minimum level of competency in four months of six hours a week lecture time plus up to all waking hours for assignments, take the hint - go find your talent, which isn't this.

Comment The flaw in FOSS (Score 1) 591

Hence my #1 general complaint with free open source software: developers tend to fix what they want to fix, not what must be fixed. Stuff which is hard to do, uninteresting, and little-observed (whether during development or in the bug report bin) tends to be passed over by those who have no incentive to do it other than in return for cold hard nasty cash.

Comment EDGE fallback? (Score 1) 277

Lacking 3G coverage, most areas have EDGE network available, and the 3G radio should fall back to that.
Yeah, it's slow - but at least it works (big difference between "slow" and "nothing"). 'tis rare that my iPad gets no service whatsoever, as most "middle of nowhere" areas still have EDGE at minimum.

Upshot: if your cell phone works, and you're not doing international roaming, it will at least function passably until you return to suitable civilization.

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