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That's an excellent question, and I'm glad you asked. Hell is your place of work on a Sunday when no one else is there so you can upgrade your Unix operating system. In this place called hell, there are strange and wonderful surprises.The first surprise shows itself in the form of a changed lock at the front gate, which causes your spry 52-year-old ass to have to scale an 8' tall fence.
The second surprise is that the security system in hell has been altered to automatically re-arm nights and on Sundays. That means every time I leave the computer room and head off to my office or the restroom, alarms start blaring and lights start flashing. This surprise has proven to be remarkably efficient. I get a lot of work done when I have to keep stomping back to the alarm keypad to shut off the alarms again and again and again.
The third and final surpise is just how slow the upgrade process is. If I didn't know better, I'd swear I was working on an old 20mhz AT class computer. Yes, that part of hell is just great, because it means I will only get 80% of the work done today, and will have to do this again next Sunday! Hooray!
So, those of you who think hell is a burning inferno have just not been told the truth. A burning inferno is a reason to pull out the popcorn and hot dogs. Some of you may think hell is a place where you just got 10 feet of snow dropped on you. Wrong again, that is just an excuse to stay indoors and listen to music.
That concludes today's little rant. BTW, there is no hell souvenir shop here, so I won't be able to get any of you t-shirts or coffee cups.
Follow Ups:
AHRGGGGGhuNIX AND STUFF
open source world!
Good security, but. the alarm system's only following theI T policy example, Bwkie!!
So doangetchanickersinatwist, maaaaaate!
;-)!
WarmestTimbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio ScroungerAnd gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
... has never been a favourite of mine - with its counter-intuitive command set.That's not to say that Windows is any better - it may have a more intuitive user-interface but it has this nasty habit of gobbling system resources and going catatonic from time to time...
For my money, the finest desktop/depatrmental operating system to date just has to be CTOS (Convergent Technologies Operating System).
Back in 1982-ish, CTOS was already offering the following functionality on Intel 8088 and 8086 processor chipsets:
- Multi-tasking (1 foreground task + multiple background services)
- Multi-User (first distributed client-server environment)
- Plug&Play Networking (clustering interface in all workstations - just cable needed)
- Disk Sharing (all stations access server disk, local disk visible on server)
- Printer Sharing (with print spooling and "device driver" concept)By the mid 1980's, CTOS hardware had embraced modular design concepts and was sold in neat clip-together modules - by this time with Intel's iAPX chipsets (up to and including 80386):
I can recall at one stage having a system that resembled a bloody aircraft-carrier...
Unfortunately, when Convergent was acquired by Burroughs/Unisys, the company and its product began its slide into obscurity, as internal politics, internal competition for R&D funding, sheer greed, etc. saw CTOS die an unnatural death.
Sigh!
One other thing that helped kill BTOS-CTOS and that was it was
expensive compaired to the PC.
Too bad. It was a multiuser, multitasking networked OS
long before the Winblose.
I spent a total of 3 months (in 3 x 1-month slots) at Camarillo between 1987 and 1992...
Remember the orginal B20, & B21's?
They were brown.
Slow as molassesEver see an OfficeFile?
It took 2 of us to lift the 60mb disk drive.
... Sure, I remember the the B21/22 range - I was an instructor in Sales Training from mid-1982 to mid-1984 and cut my teeth on Multiplan and Word Processor.Later (around 1987) switched back to sales in Banking Sector and got immersed in BTOS and FSA Finesse and some home-grown data comm applications handling upstream SNA and downstream TDI-Poll/Select (where a B39 was used a concentrator for up to 16 x S4000 cheque processors and also for IBM host communications as well as logging everything to local disk for reporting).
Later, took over BTOS/CTOS Marketing and ran the show until the early 1990's...
I remember having a particularly soft spot for one 3rd party CTOS application - Fasport from Software Research, Inc. in Cleveland (Will Limkemann's firm) - particularly in it's final incarnation as Fasport2000. Developed some systems with that product:
a) Golf Scoring with real-time leaderboard display
b) HR Skills Inventory and Profile Matching
c) Audio Dealer Client Management and Inventory
d) Municipal Services Billing
e) Banking Behavioural and Credit Scoring
etc...I was particularly angry when - in 2000 - they quietly pulled the plug on CTOS (and still mutter about it from time to time).
BTW, did you ever manage to lay your hands on a copy of the one book on CTOS ever published - "Exploring CTOS"? I've still got mine...
I was waiting to see how the talk about merger of Windows NT and CTOS
would turn out. But CTOS-BTOS equipment was getting to expensive compaired to the PC and with PC's becoming so dominate I think
that's what killed the deal.
The Yapahnk plant was a major player in the testing and helping to
straighten out Convergent's B21 & B22.
Our QC guys were mortified when the toured CT plant and found out
what was really going on there. It took a lot of effert to get them to straighten up.
Is Hell Exothermic or Endothermic?Dr. Schambaugh, of the University of Oklahoma School of Chemical Engineering, Final Exam question for May of 1997. Dr. Schambaugh is known for asking questions such as, "why do airplanes fly?" on his final exams. His one and only final exam question in May 1997 for his Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer II class was: "Is hell exothermic or endothermic? Support your answer with proof."
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:
"First, We postulate that if souls exist, then they must have some mass. If they do, then a mole of souls can also have a mass. So, at what rate are souls moving into hell and at what rate are souls leaving? I think we can safely assume that once a soul gets to hell, it will not leave.
Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for souls entering hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, then you will go to hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and souls go to hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in hell to increase exponentially.
Now, we look at the rate of change in volume in hell. Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in hell to stay the same, the ratio of the mass of souls and volume needs to stay constant. Two options exist:
1. If hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter hell, then the temperature and pressure in hell will increase until all hell breaks loose.
2. If hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until hell freezes over.So which is it? If we accept the quote given to me by Theresa Manyan during Freshman year, "that it will be a cold night in hell before I sleep with you" and take into account the fact that I still have NOT succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then Option 2 cannot be true...Thus, hell is exothermic."
... thereby avoiding the unpleasantness of roasting forever.Of course, this is based on the assumption that, as time passes, eventual freezing forever is less unpleasant than roasting - a moot point?
Danmed if she didn't make me.
And when I got cold feet she chased me up!"Poor bugger me,
my country,
poor bugger me!"AND, if anyone even Soxie, can remember the song from which that chorus comes, he wins .....
ta da!
"A free burial at sea! with a woman of your own choice, Sir!"
Cos I can't!
WarmestTimbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio ScroungerAnd gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
........ Sounds like a Ted Egan blurb.But I really don't know?
Smile
Nyuck, nyuck! ;~)
`
my hair was starting to look a lot like Curly's. ;~)
eh?
WarmestTimbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio ScroungerAnd gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
`
helped a bit.I recall meeting him at the first community meeting, after the 2003 fires, at which I suggested that community fire units, as in Vic/Melb and NSW/Sydney might not be a bad idea.
And losing it on the 'phone, a teeny bit, with the utilities complaint's staff!
'shit' is a powerful word when it's real!
WarmestTimbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio ScroungerAnd gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
later versions have 'country' instead, but the songs are no longer about the Gurindji specifically.and it was ted egan, too
Youse younguns do know stuff, see!
WarmestTimbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio ScroungerAnd gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
and doing the stuff you are talking about.Good to hear there is another Unix head here. Been doing the U since 82, and I can prove that I've forgotten more than most other folks know.
because I simply won't do the pulling cable trick. That's what they created money for.....to dangle in front of the cable people until they crawl out on the other side with the cables.
Dave
Later Gator,
Crank up your talking machine, grab a jar of your favorite "kick-back", sit down, relax, and let the good times roll.
.......I laughed out loud the whole way through your little adventures :o)You got more patience than me Charlie Brown!
Smile
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