Archive for October, 2009
Windows 7 creates blue screen for your heart
Oct 23rd
Oh it is a joke, don’t take it seriously, but look at what you get in Japan – the Windows 7 Whopper.
Can’t wait until Apple releases OS XI – but with garden burger patties…
Click the link to read all about it and watch the video…
FCC approves Net Neutrality Rules
Oct 23rd
You can find a ton of information all over, I’ll include links below for a few sites with commentary.
My comments are such…
I am VERY happy to see that something is going on to shake up the industry who seems hell bent on making the Internet not the Internet any further. The Internet is a collection of networks with data passing between them. It is not about having separate islands with explicit permission required to do X and Y or even to access Z. It is about cooperation and equality.
I am VERY sad to see that it is requiring government intervention to enforce a fair playing field for all networks and content/service providers. I’d have thought we were all adults, that pissing in the communal pool was considered bad form, that what is good for everyone is also good for business. I could be wrong.
I am not saying that these telecom companies need to give things away for free. I am not saying they should allow wonton abuse of their networks (based on reasonable definitions of abuse). I am saying that if I wish to use Skype (referenced in multiple articles) to call my friend, that I should be able to use Skype to call my friend. If I wish to use BitTorrent (the protocol, though I did the caps to give homage to the company) to move legal data around, I should be able to do so unhindered. If i want to watch television over the Comcast cable Internet network from NetFlix, then please, stay out of my way and don’t impose restrictions because you (Comcast) sell television service. (and let’s reference my old article on Comcast and the arbitrary byte caps)
Cheers FCC, sorry you had to be involved, hopefully once things are playing well you can remove your fingers and we people (businesses and consumers) can play in the park without supervision.
Boo on telecom companies who think they should control what I can and can not do or try to tell me what I can and can not access over my devices.
And the promised links:
- Wired: FCC Approves Net Neutrality Rules, Now the Fight Begins
- FOXNews.com: FCC Approves Proposed Net Neutrality Rules
- seattlepi.com blog: FCC approves net neutrality rules
- San Francisco Chronicle: FCC approves draft net-neutrality rules
My google query is here.
bool Virtual_systems; Virtual_systems=1;
Oct 16th
Ah, programming, something that most systems administrators can’t do to save their lives, beyond the simple scripts we write to help manage our sometimes obscure environments.
The title of this post is a poke at programming (in general), and germane to the blog post I reference below.
There is a huge difference between those that can code and those that can admin. I have brought this up many times over the years to anyone who would listen (and even when they would not). Programmers do not make good admins and I stand by that statement.
Yesterday, George Reese of enStratus wrote a blog post his O’Reilly blog describing this for the normal layman and also reminding us that administrators don’t make good programmers. He makes a very good point. His reference point is in regards to cloud computing as the basis for his post, though I feel that what he said fully encompasses the difference between the two opposing factions.
It does not matter if your system is virtual, physical, public cloud, private cloud, on your iPhone – the point is that there are differences between those that administrate and those that develop, and Mr. Reese does a great job disclosing those differences.
My favorite part was his statement about ‘Death by 1,000 Cuts’ – this rings so true but also affects so much more than just a developer working on administration. I have seen some mighty big cuts done by admins on many a system, from the normal ‘this was just a quick setup’ to my favorite:
#!/usr/bin/perl
# April 1st, 1998
# quick script to do <x>, needs to be rewritten for production
…
# the above needs to be rewritten if we put this in production
…
ack! I have seen this way too often. If it was a quick anything to do something then it probably wasn’t well thought out for long term use. I have written these kinds of things myself and fallen victim to my lack of forethought. With age comes wisdom and I haven’t done that kind of thing in a long time. Like weeks. :) (I am kidding)
Good administrators need to look beyond the just get it done mentality. The quick hacks we do should never be permanent but instead should be the symptom bandaid only used when we need to get pressing work done, then remove the bandaid and fix the problem. It is more than just about scripts, it is all about the tuning, configuration, and eventual production work done on any server handing our business.
Virtualization is great for this – you can do up all the quick hacks you want to test and investigate, but it is also easy to build that new image for production, put what you have learned into it, then deploy that, not the hackery.
I am not a programmer but I bet the same holds true for them – do not just get it done but instead put thought and design into it.
I won’t write a tome today about systems administration but it is always on my mind…
