Category: Technology (Page 4 of 4)

It’s late at night, and I’ve been hacking on my home network of Gentoo
Linux boxes. I’ve been performing rigorous analysis and system tests
(does the shit work) for nearly a year. I think it’s all culminating
here and now at 0100 AST 1000 miles off the coast of Florida on the
Caribbean island of Puerto Rico.

One of the biggest challenges in
maintaining more than one Linux box is the updating. The Open Source
community moves so fast, it’s impossible to maintain more than one box
by manual methods (ie performing updates physically yourself via CD or
Internet). You have a couple of options. You buy a distro, slap it in,
install it, firewall the hell out of it, and forget about upgrading for
at least a year. You’ll get lots of work done because you won’t be
constantly tweaking your machine and breaking things every other week,
and you’ll have good solid security more or less for a year. Or you try
to keep up with updates and end up breaking something, having to
install something that is not vendor supported, overwrite something
else, want to remove it, but can’t, and end up wiping and reinstalling
a new version. So on the one hand you don’t have access to usability
upgrades, and new features, on the other you end up spending more time
in administration for your machine than actually doing useful work. A
computer as a tool shouldn’t become the focus of the employee. The
computer must be able to take care of its needs with little interaction
from the user. Or if you prefer, the computer is too important to have
its well-being left in the hands of a user. Say it with me IT
professionals, "If you have to depend on the user for anything, you’ve
failed."

Now, this is where Gentoo comes in. It’s a distribution
based on the source code of the programs themselves. A Sparc, an old
Alpha, an MIPS machine, PPC, Intel, AMD Opteron all update the same
way, automatically, seamlessly. It’s beautiful, in theory of course

In
practice stuff still breaks, libraries still get whacked, and things
sometimes don’t work as advertised. For example, the library issue:
When you compile a program some of them dynamically link to certain
library files, for example openssl-0.9.6 a library for secure socket
layer encryption functions. A literal ton of programs (that’s funny
only if you realise that programs are electrons), link against this
library and use its wonderful features. What happens when you move to
openssl-0.9.7? This happened recently in the Linux world and it was a
pain in the ass.

I mean, you could go through all your binaries
and check to see with what they are linked. If it returns an error,
well there’s your culprit. There are thousands of binaries, and you
don’t want to do this stuff by hand. I really don’t care how long it
takes, I’d just like the computer to take care of it on its own, behind
the scenes, like a secret little administrative agent.

So
this is what I’ve been doing today. Turns out this openssl-0.9.6
business is now trivial thanks to Gentoo’s package tools, namely
revdep-rebuild. It takes a look at your installed package database and
draws all the lines between libraries and programs that link to them,
then recompiles the programs to link against the new library (I think
it just really brute forces the whole issue, but I have to investigate
more thoroughly). Pretty cool, huh? This is actually pretty heady stuff
and a lot more significant than it sounds. It allows you to hit the
moving target that is OSS development, maintaining integrity of your
Linux distribution, taking advantage of the fast pace of development
with absolutely NO manual intervention with any of the hosts you’re
maintaining.

It works like this. You set up a central master
server that is responsible for, downloading, compiling, and serving
packages. The network of client machines each pick up prepackaged and
pretested packages and install them at set intervals, every day if you
like. Gone are the days where you have to either wipe the client’s
machine and reinstall to upgrade, or tell them to just deal with it
until the following upgrade cycle in a year.

Man, it’s late,
and I don’t know why in the hell I decided to write all this down. Just
what I’ve been doing for the past couple of weeks, seamless automatic
maintenance of multiple (hundreds) hosts on a network. This rocks!

Now to bed.

My ode to Dave Barry

I
have to say that this most recent Linux kernel 2.6x that just came out
is WAY better than the first few releases of the last 2.4x series,
which were a disaster. The last series got out the door with some
serious virtual memory issues.

For instance, under heavy load,
the kernel would go into crisis management mode, like a middle manager
at an end of the year performance review. Yeah, I know, not pretty. And
as the boat was sinking, the kernel had its handy dandy thimble and was
dutifully bailing. This was the infamous disk thrashing kernel^TM (up until 2.4.12, I think).

So
you’d – get this – click on one program too many and the performance of
your system would deteriorate until – and I’m not making this up – it
became unresponsive and you’d have to hard reset it. That’s all fine
and dandy for that OTHER OS, but this was the first time that had
happened to me with Linux, and it was damn embarrassing. Yes, even more
embarrassing than all the crap I have stuffed in my garage, and no,
Viagra wasn’t going to fix it.

I checked around for a bit, and by a bit, I mean Slashdot,
but the Linux press was decidedly quiet, too quiet. I smelled cover-up.
Then one fine day the waters burst forth as Linus announced that he had
ripped the guts out of the VM (virtual memory) module, given it a
severe thrashing, and put in something more agreeable. I quickly
upgraded, and things seemed to be better, but I never quite got over my
trust issues. It still seemed dangerously, recklessly stupid under high
load, and by high load, I mean listening to mp3s and surfing the web.

Well,
I’d have to say that 2.6 is as beautiful and wonderful as 2.4 was ugly
and miserable. Wow, what an improvement and not just in desktop
responsiveness (which is very nice but not why we uber geeks use it in
the first place), but overall stability. I have confidence that it
won’t decide to push up daisies at an inappropriate time. In fact, my
primary desktop machine here, is my development database server,
webserver, nfs server, instant messaging server, remote update master,
print server, desktop publishing platform, multimedia player, video
machine, office suite, web development platform, and multimedia
authoring system.

<voice accent="Austin Powers">YEAH BABY</voice>

The biological human was created to struggle
against chaos, to seek order, put things in their place. It is this
never ending quest that gives us something to do, something to strive
for. It is this quest that will eventually finish us.

We need chaos, the unexpected, the uncontrollable. It is only
through mutation, disorder, messiness that we grow as humans and become
more god like.

Technology will eventually completely rob our souls from us,
dehumanizing others to the point where a point and click will terminate
a relationship.. A point and a click may eventually signify the end of
a life. We are already heading in that direction. Think smart bombs,
cruise missles.

I read today of a 18 foot wide vending machine that basically
replaces a convenience store. It is being field tested here in the US.
The Roboshop is already popular in Japan, where space is at a premium
and wages are high for unskilled labor.

Imagine a world with no convenience stores or more importantly no
convenience store clerks, waiters, service folks. There would be no
friendly hellos, no eye contact, no have a nice day. We will all live
our lives inside the bubble of our needs that are instantaneously
satisfied, gratified, and quelled. We will download our music, order
groceries on the web, pick up milk and eggs from a vending machine,
self check out at K-mart. We won’t go outside to check the weather or
look at the sky. We will watch CNN to tell us what to think. We will
bio-engineer our children, take more pills to delay aging, and seize
more and more control. Like a hungry dictator we will pacify the
masses. Give them what is good for for them. Control is everything.

We have fewer children later in life. We control reproduction. It’s
messy business. The time isn’t right. Well guess what? The time is
never right for messiness. Messiness is something we would never choose
for ourselves. We never choose disorder. It serendipitously finds us.
It must. We need it. It is the guide that we need it to be. Want has
nothing to do with anything. What we think we want trips us up, lets us
down, and never ever meets our expectations.

Yet we want to control. We WANT to know. It’s built in. We classify,
pacify, and create structure. We crave control like crack cocaine. The
more we have the more we want and less satisfied we are.

Here’s the Rub

I sometimes get a glimpse into the world of Microsoft. Why did
Windows succeed so completely, so dominantly? Windows is everywhere. It
is on every new PC. It’s bought stolen, copied, pre-installed. We want
it and we will do anything to get it.

I am more and more convinced that it is because Microsoft gives the
drug addict what he craves so desperately. Control. While the service
centered Unix world was carefully creating interdependence among their
consultants and Value Added Resellers (VARS), Microsoft was out
creating a cheap product individual customers could use and control on
their very own. It was simple. It was not multi-user. It gave the basic
user a sense that it was something they could manage. It did not take a
staff of sysadmins and a ten thousand dollar budget to get it up and
running and do something useful. The PC running Microsoft Windows, gave
us poor humans a bone to chew on. Sure it was just a bone, but
we owned that bone. We bought it and it was ours, and we didn’t have to
depend on ANYONE.

Windows is a technology that is built to satisfy humanity’s all
consuming craving for control. Bill Gates has known this for some time.
Bill knows we want the crack. He supplies the crack. We reward him.
Sure our lives are miserable, but he gives us what we feel is control.
He supplies us with technology to buy and use. We have a problem we
download a patch. We fix the problem. We have a virus, we buy a virus
scanner. We need to create a document, we buy Word. We buy a solution,
prepackaged with all the features Microsoft has told us we would need.
Why deal with the messy details of our particular problem.
Why try to explain it someone and have them help us out. Just buy some
software and all problems fit nicely into its container. All supersets
do not exist. Problems outside the glossy plastic and End User License
Agreement simply cannot be.

Maybe you need to buy another piece of software or wait until Microsoft tells you that the problem exists.

In our culture of self-reliance it was the car that beat out the bus or train.

The Camel of Chaos Puts Its Nose in the Tent

I don’t know if Linux will ever overtake Microsoft. I don’t know if
liberation will ever overtake order. I do know that there has begun a
revolution though. Linux was created by an ethnic swede living in
Finland, named Linus
Torvalds. Linux was created by a person who wanted a Unix machine but
could not afford it. He decided to do something to take control of the
situation. He wrote a version of Unix for himself and named it Linux.
He pacified his need, he created order.

Like a madman though, Linus threw it all away. He threw a monkey
wrench into the mix. He scattered his jigsaw puzzle. He shuffled the
deck. He kicked down the towering cathedral and tossed its pieces to
the hungry mob. You are hungry, he said. Feast on this.

Linus made one particular decision that would plunge the world of
technology into a state of disorder the likes of which have never been
seen. He gave his code away.

The hunger that had consumed so many without them even knowing it,
had left them gaunt, wild-eyed. They had been users, disconnected from
each other, feeding on what they thought would nourish their souls.
They had not realized what the truth was, and how with it, they would
never go hungry again.

Linux just may give us hope afterall.

Linux is about messiness, confusion, interdependence. It is harder
to use, harder to accept. Its Truth is not for the faint of heart.
Linux requires of you. It requires that you deal with people to get it
running to use its potential. Linux requires that you admit your need,
admit your failings, admit your incompleteness. It will never lie to
you. However, should you accept it, Linux will take you to heights that
few users have known.

Linux did not come to conquer Bill Gates. Linux did not come to define your problem and solve it.

Linux came to give you something that you might not want. Linux will set you free.

Now, I don’t know if Linux is the future of computing or not. Will
it be killed not by Microsoft but by the listlessness and smallness of
humanity? Will Linux be struck down by our inability to accept chaos
and its
inability to solve our need for order?

I don’t know the answers. But I do know one thing. If technology
will eventually dehumanize us to the point where life has no meaning,
then Linux is our only hope.

Man oh, man, if I hear another person say OpenOffice isn’t ready for prime time, I swear I’m gonna yank out their odbc and hit them over the head with it.

In my experience joe-generic office drone, when faced with OpenOffice or MS Office, is gonna make all the same mistakes independent of brand.

Word vs. Writer

He’s going to double carriage return to put spaces between paragraphs. He’s going to indent with spaces. He’s going to to use the B I U and font settings to change heading’s characteristics (which are double carriage returned as well). He’s going to freak out if you mention ODBC and mail merge. He’s going to tediously type out envelopes and form letters (“testing” them in the printer to align them correctly). After you teach him how to mail merge off of a DB, or that documents are easier to update when you define styles etc., he will thank you. When you return a few weeks later, he will be back to his same tried and true plodding slow-wittedness.

Powerpoint vs. Presenter

He’s going to make a presentation by first deciding on a background and header style. Then he’s going to mess with borders for 30 minutes. Then he’s going to play around with slide transitions. Then he’s going to import some useless graphics. Eventually he will think about content. Once there, he will repeat steps used to make the text document. You doubt me? Tell me if you’ve seen this done before? Gettysburg

Excel vs. Calc:

Will pore over columns of numbers for hours, hand editing and typing values. He will alt-tab between his spreadsheet and his calculator program to add numbers. He will select some columns and make a chart, spending 15 minutes to find the pie/scatter/bar configuration that looks prettiest, and then proceed to misname the  dependent and independent axises. Then he will select fonts, backgrounds, borders… and then spend no less then three hours trying to get his 40×129 monstrosity to fit on ONE page. He will waste no less then 40 sheets of paper to accomplish this. Upon success he will make 56 copies for distribution.

Did I miss anything? I’d say both products let people do their work as they normally do. I’ve observed for some time and both products give you equal levels of  functionality.

This has been my experience for 95% of all office workers, and I also find that their adamance towards MS is inversely proportional to their competence with it.

Microsoft Windows fills life with drama. Everyone hates it, but everyone keeps it on their desktop. Why?

"Hey Bob, I need that sales report by 1 pm today."

"Can’t get it to you by then, I’ll be here late. Got this problem in
Windows that I need to track down. Something is corrupting the
registry, and I’m on the phone with MS Tech Support right now. They say
they have a service pack. Looks like the afternoon’s shot."

"Oh, okay, good luck man." And you can almost hear him say, May the
force be with you, like Bob, is locked in battle with the forces of
darkness, defending all that is good and noble, while at the same time
risking his very existence. We need for our mundane mostly non-creative
work days to be filled with meaning, excitement.

You don’t believe me? Watch an office go into crisis mode after
somebody opens an email with a virus attachment. All kinds of crisis
management actions get kicked into place. First somebody shuts off the
Internet connection, then they quarantine the guy’s workstation. Then
the forensic team, made up of PC Week readers start to speculate on
what’s been affected and how to fix it. I think we have to reformat.
Should do a sweep of the entire network. We have to change all the
passwords. And out come the service packs… and oh there are many.
This could be weeks of work. You can almost detect the glee. There’s
this smell of semi-anxious nervous exhilaration.

It’s an attack! We’re under attack! This is HISTORY! It’ll be rough
men, but we’ll weather this. We’re in it together. If we go down, I
just want to let you know that you’re the finest group of people that
I’ve ever had the pleasure to know.

And you can hear the ratta-tat-tat of automatic fire, and the screams
of "I’ve lost ALL my data!" amongst the chaos and the drama.

Sigh, I feel left out. Linux never lies to me about the level of drama
in my life. Never. It lies about as much as a hammer. Linux is boring.
Linux forces you to do work, or face the fact that you are not being
productive. Sometimes Linux pisses me off. It doesn’t crash. It never
loses my work. I never get a virus. I feel left out.

These other people are living this incredible drama that magazines
write about. News channels are dedicated to it. The federal government
is hot on the issue. Everybody has it. Everybody complains about it.
The entire nation is embroiled in this compelling soul draining soap
opera that is Microsoft Windows.

And me? Little ol’ me? I sit unhappily in front of my Linux workstation
wishing to procrastinate… searching for a struggle, a cause,
something, anything. But there I sit. Guess I’d better get back to work
or I won’t have anything to eat.