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Comment Re:Data Hoarding and my solution (Score 1) 414

Watch out for those "green" drives. We used ~a dozen of them in various (linux-based, whitebox & "proper" server-based) configurations and found they had the highest failure rate of any drive we've used. At the very least, a) read up on them and b) regardless of drive, monitor their S.M.A.R.T parameters for early signs of

failure (specifically bad sectors) and replace the drives when more than a few of these happen.

The three biggest problems imho with RAID are:

  1. 1. The controller issue you mention above -- we use software RAID on linux for this reason (most of the time)
  2. 2. Do you know when a drive is actually dead? It can be mostly dead and you don't know unless it gets kicked out of the array. It's scary how often 2 or more drives get booted from an array in short succession too. SMART monitoring is a must (Google did a major study on HD risk failures years back - *any* bad sectors at all, and particularly rate of change in bad sectors were the single biggest indicators of near-certain drive death within 6 months)
  3. 3. What happens (specifically to the various layers of caching) under power loss

#3 in particular is why some spend big bucks on expensive RAID solutions, #1 to an extent as well and particularly if you want 'performance'. You don't need this level of crazy, but you still need to be aware where your risks are so you can work around them.

Comment Re:Ports (Score 2) 459

Actually it would require a rewriting of the SMTP protocol :P However, the standard solution is to use port forwarding on an external unencumbered host accepting inbound port 25 and forwarding to your unblocked port (e.g. 1025). You can use a smarthost to similarly forward external email via another 'unblocked' host. This generally gets you closer to the benefits of a "local" mail server vs simply hosting your mail server external to your network.

Comment Re:Nah (Score 1) 498

Presumably this definition depends on the jurisdiction. At least in AU a contractor is as DragonWriter describes. A consultant can either be a contractor or an employee of a company. So typically it goes:

Internal roles:

  • casual employee (works less than full time, includes a 'loading' in their base rate to account for not paying them holiday pay, sick pay, long service leave etc)
  • part-time employee - same rights as full-time employee, but doesn't work full-time hours
  • full-time employee, fixed term - a full-time employee with an end-date
  • full-time employee - a full-time employee with an expectation of ongoing employment

Semi-external roles:

  • labour hire/temp - internal staff member 'loaned' by a 3rd party e.g. resourcing firm

External roles:

  • contractor - individual, usually with specialised skills &/or equipment, which is responsible for OUTCOMES not just effort. However they are often paid on an hourly basis. When they are, they are held to a higher standard of quality/responsibility than internal employees. They usually provide their own equipment, often work from home and typically only charge for directly produce work related to the task at hand.
  • company - of course a 'contract' defines the role provided, but usually the people providing the service on behalf of the company are employees of the external company. e.g. IT Consulting firms. They may be contractors etc. There are many advantages to this situation over hiring a straight contractor or any of the internal roles, but the cost is almost always higher due to overheads.

David

Comment Re:Golden two-punch (Score 1) 600

Dropbox is a decidedly single-user solution. Try running a corporate network of 20 people using add-hoc cloud-based file-sharing with no file locking. And try doing it without getting "Why can't I access xyz file?" or "What happened to my data?" questions every 15 minutes. File locking sounds like technical minutae until you realise it's probably the single biggest feature requirement of a reliable storage solution. Use a commodity NAS instead of you want free/cheap (just be wary that your backup position is likely to be unknown/untested, but that's probably on a par with giving the task to someone who doesn't know WTF they're doing on raw linux or M$ platforms). BTW there are some annoying limits with GMail for domains. Again though, beats trying to be a mail admin who doesn't know wtf they are doing :P

Comment Re:How much do you download? (Score 1) 199

With mobile broadband plans like Soul (Optus reseller) 1GB/month for $20 with a free modem over 24 months or Vodafone $39/5GB (which I use), you're going to be hard-pressed to find an ADSL connection that gives you that much speed & data at cost parity on its own, let alone once you throw in the $30 Telstra tax of having to have a landline.

As for a landline, last I checked, unless you get naked DSL, you're up for Telstra's $30/mth plan just for a phone line to use with a non-Telstra ADSL provider. Their

As an IT Consultant, I find most users (even techy ones!) are increasingly heading towards online services and using less and less computing resources (unless they install Vista) - basically using their machine as a Web terminal with some basic local programs - Office, file storage and maybe some utilities. A web browser, maybe an IDE and putty/ssh are all a lot of people need. This kind of usage goes well with mobile broadband, where the drop in latency (kills games and highly interactive client/server apps) and pain of connection (it takes time, and doesn't always work) are offset by both the convenience AND the cost. The cost argument is probably different outside of Aus, but here where you need to spend $50 per month to get more quota with ADSL than you do on mobile broadband, it's significant.

For renters, this is great. Particularly people in share houses (where people moving in/out or one person using all the quota can create issues, let alone the infrastructure cost and hassle of setting up cabling or secure (yet still compatible) wireless). $20/mth buys you 1GB of Internet quota. If you don't bittorrent (and when you're saving $30-$70+ per month by not having ADSL, you can suddenly afford a lot more DVDs) or download heaps, you'll be fine within that 1GB. Just don't expect it to reach the "maximum" speed too often, and don't expect it to feel overly fast. But it's certainly better than dial-up, and heaps more convenience.

Google's China Problem 203

Wraithfighter writes "The New York Times has a rather lengthy, but informative, piece on the origins of Google's current Chinese search engine, as well as a very informative look at how censoring is actually done in China. From the article: 'Are there gradations of censorship, better and worse ways to limit information? In America, that seems like an intolerable question -- the end of the conversation. But in China, as Google has discovered, it is just the beginning.'"

OMG BARBIE LINUX LOL!!1!!!! 124

tini1212 writes "LIKE OMG!! Have you guyz seen Barbie Linux!!??!?!?!? It's like totally cool! It's open source too!!! We can spend long nights patching the kernel, and look at pictures of that total hottie, Linus Torvalds!" From the site: "Making a bid for a piece of the emerging desktop Linux market, Mattel, Inc. announced the immediate availability of downloadable beta ISOs for BarbieOS 0.99, and said it hoped the final 1.0 retail version would be on store shelves in time for Christmas. The new OS was created by Mattel to power the upcoming revision of its popular B-Book line of laptops for girls between the ages of four and eleven. The original B-Book laptop, which ran a modified version of PalmOS, was a huge hit with consumers last holiday season, so much so that many stores had trouble keeping them in stock."

CUTEST WEB SITE EVER DISCOVERED!!! 341

ToeSocks06 writes "The cutest site i've ever or youve ever seen is this one CLICK IT NOW LOL!!! because they have the cutest pictures you will ever see :) :) :) Like hamsters wearing SO CUTE hats and so many kittens zomg i love kitties especially that brown one i hope they show him with hats to LOLOLOLOLOL!!! Ok I gottta go now bye!!!"

OMG WIRELESS EXTENSION CORDS!!! LOL!!! 182

True ChAoS writes "Using the latest in microwave energy transmission technology, the Wireless Extension Cords (WECs) 'beam' power right where you need it. Broadcasting in the 7.2GHz range, the WECs will not interfere with wireless networks, phones, or Bluetooth components. Be sure to heed all the warnings in the instruction manual; the microwaves used are relatively safe, but you don't want to cook your computer (or coworkers) by mistake." ThinkGeek is also owned by OSTG.

Sid Meier's New Games 54

Next Generation has an article discussing some of the newly announced titles Sid Meier introduced during his Walk of Game Induction Ceremony. From the article: "Following a time of kabobs and schmoozing, the projector flipped on, the movies began to roll, and the assembly of journalists and industry insiders was introduced to a trio of new Firaxis products (one down from the advertised four): the modern-day remake Sid Meier's Railroads; the CivIV expansion Warlords; and the major new curiosity of the evening, CivCity ROME."
User Journal

Journal Journal: Journal Update

Well, my journal never really took off here. Check out my website www.drkellam.com instead. It has many more posts now :-) The Doctor, signing off here.

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