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Comment: Teach kids how to search for data (Score 5, Insightful) 231

by jmilne (#46049169) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How To Reimagine a Library?
My own kids have this problem. They assume that if they type something into Google, they'll find what they need. The problem is, they don't know how to properly structure their queries so they find the relevant stuff quickly, so they end up wasting time just in the searching. Take the time to instruct the kids on how to structure a query in Google, and you'll save them a lot of time so they can actually complete their assignments quicker. Also, introduce them to other information sites like Wolfram Alpha or searching through a local newspaper database, so that they're aware that sites other than Wikipedia even exist.

Comment: Re:The basics... (Score 1) 324

Sure a T1 connection is god damn slow but it's what's being offered in the area for a reasonable fee. The main thing is that T1 defines a single connection rated at 1.55mbps both ways. So instead of running a single T1, it's not much more expensive to go and run a T3 (10 T1) or an E3 (10 T3) connections or as someone else pointed out, simply run fiber. You can get Pre-terminated fiber in 2km lenghts for a pretty fucking reasonable price per cable.

Ugh. It's not as if it's that hard to look up since you obviously don't know.

A DS3 (or T3, as you call it) is equivalent to 28 DS1 (or T1s). Not 10. Roughly 45 Mbps.

An E3 is roughly 34 Mbps, which is 16 E1 channels plus an additional signaling channel. It's also not going to be available in North America, where AT&T operates and where this person lives.

Comment: Re:I thought it was standard (Score 1) 172

by jmilne (#42478355) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Do You Deploy Small Office Wi-Fi SSIDs?

If you're looking for security, setup a RADIUS server and use 802.1x authentication instead of PSK.

Not to get nitpicky, but it's Slashdot and we're supposed to know better. The standard is 802.1X, not 802.1x. Capital letters for stand-alone standards, lowercase for addendums to a standard. Case matters, people.

Comment: Re:I'm puzzled (Score 1) 384

by jmilne (#33069222) Attached to: Chevy Volt Not Green Enough For California

Drivers who wait until they reach the road workers before trying to merge into the correct lane so they can pass everyone else who already queued up to go through the construction.

I agreed with you up to this point. Everyone queuing up in one lane before you reach the point of lane closure just means that you're slamming all of that traffic into half of the available space, and creating an even longer line and wait. I've been in too many jams where I wanted to get off at an exit two miles down the road, but there was construction five miles past that, and everyone was queuing up in a single lane (thanks to "helpful" truckers who sat in the free lane to prevent people from jumping ahead of everyone else).

Use ALL the available lanes, until you're forced not to. Seriously, it's better.

Comment: Rating inflation (Score 4, Interesting) 246

by jmilne (#32160524) Attached to: Hacking Vim 7.2
I read the review before I really noticed the rating. How does this book earn an 8 for a rating? The reviewer states that Chapters 1 was unnecessary, and has some harsh things to say about several other areas:

Chapter 3 is about text navigation. Sadly, the book doesn't go into as much detail on movement commands as I would've liked.

I had high hopes for Chapter 6 and 7, which deal with Vim scripting, but I was largely disappointed.

If you're looking for any advancing information on writing your own functions in Vim script, you're mostly out of luck here.

Overall, stylistically the book is a bit dry and humorless

I do feel the book should've gone into more detail in many areas. At 244 pages, the book is short and gives a rather shallow view of many of Vim's features.

There's nothing in this book you won't find in Vim's built-in documentation

At best, it seems like this would earn a 5 rating.

Comment: Policy-based routing (Score 1) 180

by jmilne (#29764895) Attached to: Affordably Aggregating ISP Connections?

If you're trying to combine different types of access (leased-line, cable, DSL), I think you're out of luck with trying to aggregate everything into a single "super circuit". However, you can certainly utilize all of those individual circuits. Look up policy-based routing. Most every platform out there should support it through some method. Set it up so that email goes over the DSL, your database queries goes over the cable connection, and your VoIP goes over the leased-line. You'll probably need to tweak it a bit at first until you get a nice blend of traffic, and you'll want to make sure to set up some default routes to handle things if you have an outage on one of your circuits, but you'll see better performance on individual circuits and use all of them. If you've got the same type of access, but through different providers, you'll probably have to do the same. If you've got the same type of access through the same provider, then MLPPP or GRE should work.

Comment: Re:Proud to be a Comcast customer? (Score 3, Informative) 281

by jmilne (#28375207) Attached to: Comcast To Bring IPv6 To Residential US In 2010

Because there's no such thing as IPv4 multicast... Oh, wait. That's exactly what cable companies have already been doing with switched digital. Multicast isn't the main reason a cable company would go with IPv6. The biggest problem Comcast (and other cable companies) has is that your cable modem gets two, and sometimes three IP addresses, let alone all those set-top boxes doing that switched digital. One to manage it, one to give you your "public" IP, and perhaps a third for your phone. 24 bits ( only gives you 16 million addresses, and that's assuming you're utilizing them rather effectively. They're probably using the for their internal network, but even so, that only gets you an extra million addresses. Look at the number of customers Comcast has, and you begin to see the problem they have just with addressing all those cable modems and set-top boxes.

Don't expect to be getting your own IPv6 address any time soon. Most likely, they're going to roll it out for managing all those devices first, and you'll still be assigned an IPv4 address for your Internet connectivity.

Comment: Re:Is it must me, or is that sum peanuts? (Score 1) 101

by jmilne (#26482831) Attached to: Feds Plot Massive Internet Router Security Upgrade

Do you really trust the routing registry? And I'm talking about more than just using an SSL cert to verify their information. How frequently do they update their entries? I saw a number of problems dealing with RADB when I worked at Sprint a few years back. Customers get assigned blocks that used to be assigned to other customers, and RADB didn't always reflect that change in usage in a timely manner.

That's where your money's going to go. Creating a secure registry, and the infrastructure to handle the amounts of changes that occur on a daily basis.

Comment: Re:A little extreme there, don't you think? (Score 2, Insightful) 872

by jmilne (#25949733) Attached to: Bittorrent To Cause Internet Meltdown

The Post Office is a good example for the Internet. Right around the holidays, everyone starts to send catalogs, Christmas cards, and other packages. Far more than the Post Office deals with on a normal basis. Which causes delays in delivery. They even warn people: send everything by such-and-such date or it won't arrive in time for Christmas.

That's pretty much the Internet. Everyone expects a certain amount of bandwidth to be used. Occasionally, someone will exceed that, but usually at the same time, someone else isn't using theirs, so it's okay. But with Torrent, it's basically everyone using their bandwidth all at the same time. It's always Christmas. Now, the Post Office could staff for that situation, but obviously, prices will have to go up to accommodate their extra load. Likewise, your ISP can provide all the bandwidth necessary to let everyone use their limit of bandwidth all the time, but they're going to have to raise the prices a lot in order to provide that.


+ - Sound financial reasons not to use Windows->

Submitted by
Tina Gasperson
Tina Gasperson writes "Every techie knows at least a dozen reasons to use something other than Windows, but high level decision makers like CIOs are often at a loss, especially when "that's what we've always used" and "you can't get fired for buying Microsoft" are phrases floating through their brains. CIO.com lays out seven sound reasons to go with something else next time the upgrade police visit."
Link to Original Source

+ - Cooling Your House With Solar Heat

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "The German Fraunhofer research institute has created the spin-off company SorTech, which plans to produce air conditioning systems that are run by solar heat. This mind-boggling feat is achieved by a thermo-chemical process called sorption. The technology could help to satisfy the increasing energy consumption used for air conditioning. It seems to be a perfect application for using solar energy: Good efficiency is possible by avoiding a conversion from heat into electricity and back to cooling energy. It also does not need a long term energy storage system, because the energy needed for cooling spikes exactly at the time, when most solar energy is available."

+ - "Brain Pacemaker" wakes man from vegetativ->

Submitted by Kram_Gunderson
Kram_Gunderson writes "Reuters is reporting that medical researchers have awakened a man from a six-year near-vegetative state using a pacemaker-like device tied to electrodes implanted in the man's brain. The man, who was robbed, beaten, and left for dead in 1999, can now chew his own food, speak with a limited vocabulary, and play cards with his family. The treatment was begun in 2005, and gives hope for recovery to patients in minimally-conscious states."
Link to Original Source

+ - MS Works Adware->

Submitted by ericrost
ericrost writes ""Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it will offer a free, advertising-supported version of its basic productivity software, Microsoft Works, as part of a test program with computers manufacturers."

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUS N0121019020070802

Well, we all knew it was coming. How do we feel about our Free applications competing with adware?"

Link to Original Source

A fail-safe circuit will destroy others. -- Klipstein