Re: VMWare server question staring a VM from the Host OS (Linux) command line
On 01/19/2011 03:52 PM, Edward Ned Harvey wrote: >> From: discuss-boun...@blu.org [mailto:discuss-boun...@blu.org] On Behalf >> Of Jerry Feldman >> >> We are running VMWare server for the time being until we get our > why not vmware player or workstation? Both work in linux. Player is free. > Workstation has free time limited trial. IMHO, either one of these options > would HAVE to be better than vmware server, which is an abomination. Most of our FEs have VMWare Workstation on their laptops, but we need to have our VMs with much more memory than you are going to find on a laptop. The server that we are using has 64GB, and we are pushing back on IT because the server they wanted to send us has 128GB max. BTW: We have licenses for Workstation. The issue tends to be product related that requires an Oracle Express db. -- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: wireless keyboards
On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 11:24 PM, Mark J Dulcey wrote: > On 1/19/2011 6:15 PM, Tom Metro wrote: > > Tom Martinson wrote: > >> ...and it has to have a cord, no wireless. > > > > What's the consensus on wireless vs. wired keyboards? > > > > Years ago I avoided wireless keyboards and mice because they were > > notoriously unreliable. But the technology has improved, and I've been > > using a wireless mouse for several years without problems. > > > > There's more of an advantage to wireless with mice than with keyboards, > > given that the mouse "tail" tends to get in the way when you are using > > it. But at times a wireless keyboard could be useful too. > > > > The reviews I've read lately show that some wireless keyboards are still > > exhibiting reliability problems, but the broader issue apparently is a > > slight delay they introduce, which supposedly is bad for gaming. > > > > The benefit to wireless doesn't seem worth the bother - at least not for > > a work desktop - so I'm only considering wired models. > > > > -Tom > > I use a 2.4GHz Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse combo on one of my > computers, and it's solid so long as the batteries are good. It needs a > new pair of AAA batteries at something between 3 and 6 month intervals. > I haven't noticed any lag but I don't use it for first person shooter > games. > ___ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@blu.org > http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > I've been using the M$ Laser Wireless Desktop 6000 for quite a while both at work and home, and the battery life on it is very good. Much better than the battery life on my apple keyboard and mouse. I've always been quite surprised how well M$ hardware works. Of course it's probably not made by anyone that works for M$, probably made by a 3rd party company. -matt ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: VMWare server question staring a VM from the Host OS (Linux) command line
On 01/19/2011 02:26 PM, Jim Gasek wrote: > What do u mean "The server GUI"? The console on the actual > server itself? The GUI front end from the actual VM server > is very limited. I don't believe you can "break out" > into a "shell". If your server screen "goes dark" (?), the > usual way that you connect to everything is vsphere client, > and all the powerful stuff happens from the client > sending messages to the server. The server isn't > meant to be a console. The console is from elsewhere > over the network. We are using VMWare server for the time being. The system we will be getting is a vsphere system. What I am talking about is the web interface client: https://:8333/ui/ For some reason it does not connect to the running vmware server on . This seems to be related to MSIE and certificates, not specifically VMWare. Yesterday I had a need to power on a VM, but I was not able to connect to the UI, but I did not want to have to restart vmware on the host. I was eventually able to get it up so I could power on the VM. All the VMs are configured so I can easily log in via ssh when it is running, so the issue is strictly how can I "power on" a VM from the Linux command line on . I saw reference to vmware-cmd, but that is not installed. -- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
RE: VMWare server question staring a VM from the Host OS (Linux) command line
> From: discuss-boun...@blu.org [mailto:discuss-boun...@blu.org] On Behalf > Of Jerry Feldman > > >> We are running VMWare server for the time being until we get our > > why not vmware player or workstation? Both work in linux. Player is free. > > Workstation has free time limited trial. IMHO, either one of these options > > would HAVE to be better than vmware server, which is an abomination. > Most of our FEs have VMWare Workstation on their laptops, but we need to > have our VMs with much more memory than you are going to find on a > laptop. The server that we are using has 64GB, and we are pushing back > on IT because the server they wanted to send us has 128GB max. BTW: We > have licenses for Workstation. The issue tends to be product related > that requires an Oracle Express db. I only suggested player or workstation as a temporary stopgap until you get your real server. I assumed then you'd be going to ESX or ESXi. Please tell me you're not planning to use VMWare Server instead of ESXi. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: wireless keyboards
>> On 1/19/2011 6:15 PM, Tom Metro wrote: >>> Tom Martinson wrote: ...and it has to have a cord, no wireless. >>> >>> What's the consensus on wireless vs. wired keyboards? I can't bring myself to use a wireless keyboard. I just don't like the idea of broadcasting my passwords out to anyone within listening distance. Wireless mice don't bother me so much; there is only one site I use that uses a clicky password, and even then you have the option of using the keyboard or clicking on the numbers. I can see a use case for wireless keyboards as a MythTV remote, but that's a particular use case where passwords are not typically needed. Matt ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: wireless keyboards
On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 08:00:30AM -0500, Matthew Gillen wrote: > >> On 1/19/2011 6:15 PM, Tom Metro wrote: > >>> Tom Martinson wrote: > ...and it has to have a cord, no wireless. > >>> > >>> What's the consensus on wireless vs. wired keyboards? > > I can't bring myself to use a wireless keyboard. I just don't like the > idea of broadcasting my passwords out to anyone within listening > distance. Wireless mice don't bother me so much; there is only one site > I use that uses a clicky password, and even then you have the option of > using the keyboard or clicking on the numbers. > > I can see a use case for wireless keyboards as a MythTV remote, but > that's a particular use case where passwords are not typically needed. I use a wireless keyboard as my second MythTV remote. (The first is a fairly generic universal, which gets most of the use.) As it happens, the wireless mechanism is infrared. This is bad in the sense that the keyboard needs a relatively clear line of sight to the receiver, and good in the sense that anyone who wants to listen in on the passwords I type will need to be in that line of sight. -dsr- -- http://tao.merseine.nu/~dsr/eula.html is hereby incorporated by reference. You can't defend freedom by getting rid of it. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: VMWare server question staring a VM from the Host OS (Linux) command line
After going to the knowledge base, there is a command, vmrun: vmrun -T server -h https://:8333/sdk -u root -p ".vmx" I have not gotten that to run yet. VMWare documentation is inconsistent in that it specifies the port as above, and in other places uses the -P option. On 01/19/2011 03:34 PM, ninurta2005 wrote: > I check with some of the folks I work with for a solution. We have a > instance of VMWare on Ubuntu. He said the following when I asked the > same question as you. > > > "Not that I’m aware of. When a VM is running under linux it will lock > the image in /etc/init.d/ to prevent any data loss and security > concerns. VMware recommends that if need to you should restart the VM > using the web management console. " > > > > > *From:* Jim Gasek > *To:* Jerry Feldman > *Cc:* discuss@blu.org > *Sent:* Wed, January 19, 2011 2:26:21 PM > *Subject:* Re: VMWare server question staring a VM from the Host OS > (Linux) command line > > What do u mean "The server GUI"? The console on the actual > server itself? The GUI front end from the actual VM server > is very limited. I don't believe you can "break out" > into a "shell". If your server screen "goes dark" (?), the > usual way that you connect to everything is vsphere client, > and all the powerful stuff happens from the client > sending messages to the server. The server isn't > meant to be a console. The console is from elsewhere > over the network. -- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: VMWare server question staring a VM from the Host OS (Linux) command line
Jerry Feldman writes: > On 01/19/2011 02:26 PM, Jim Gasek wrote: >> What do u mean "The server GUI"? The console on the actual >> server itself? The GUI front end from the actual VM server >> is very limited. I don't believe you can "break out" >> into a "shell". If your server screen "goes dark" (?), the >> usual way that you connect to everything is vsphere client, >> and all the powerful stuff happens from the client >> sending messages to the server. The server isn't >> meant to be a console. The console is from elsewhere >> over the network. > We are using VMWare server for the time being. The system we will be > getting is a vsphere system. What I am talking about is the web > interface client: > https://:8333/ui/ > For some reason it does not connect to the running vmware server on > . This seems to be related to MSIE and certificates, not > specifically VMWare. Yesterday I had a need to power on a VM, but I was There is certainly a known issue with Firefox 3.6 (3.5 works). I'm surprised that MSIE has issues. Maybe you just need to get MSIE to accept the self-signed certificate? > not able to connect to the UI, but I did not want to have to restart > vmware on the host. I was eventually able to get it up so I could power > on the VM. All the VMs are configured so I can easily log in via ssh > when it is running, so the issue is strictly how can I "power on" a VM > from the Linux command line on . I saw reference to vmware-cmd, > but that is not installed. -derek -- Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board (SIPB) URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/PP-ASEL-IA N1NWH warl...@mit.eduPGP key available ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: VMWare server question staring a VM from the Host OS (Linux) command line
On 01/20/2011 07:50 AM, Edward Ned Harvey wrote: > I only suggested player or workstation as a temporary stopgap until you get > your real server. I assumed then you'd be going to ESX or ESXi. Please > tell me you're not planning to use VMWare Server instead of ESXi. > Definitely ESXi or vSphere or whatever VMWare is calling stuff now. In any case it will be the fully licensed commercial bare metal system. I don't know exactly what version since our IT department will be installing it before they deploy the system to Boston. Certainly not VMWare server. One of the plans is to replace some of our existing hardware as they die. -- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: VMWare server question staring a VM from the Host OS (Linux) command line
This could be useful to us too, if you can get it to work. We had a slightly different scenerio. We recently had VM crash on us and it took out all of the VM instances. We wound up having to restart the server. We couldn't be entirely sure if it was VM or the OS hiccuping on us, and taking out network connectivity. In our case, the Web GUI console was available locally, but it showed that none of the VM hosts were active. We were unable to start them. Stopping and restarting the VM Daemon didn't seem to help from the console. Plus we were also unable to connect to the host remotely and no ping reply; so we knew that network interface flaked out too. Regards From: Jerry Feldman Cc: discuss@blu.org Sent: Thu, January 20, 2011 10:48:11 AM Subject: Re: VMWare server question staring a VM from the Host OS (Linux) command line After going to the knowledge base, there is a command, vmrun: vmrun -T server -h https://:8333/sdk -u root -p ".vmx" I have not gotten that to run yet. VMWare documentation is inconsistent in that it specifies the port as above, and in other places uses the -P option. On 01/19/2011 03:34 PM, ninurta2005 wrote: > I check with some of the folks I work with for a solution. We have a > instance of VMWare on Ubuntu. He said the following when I asked the > same question as you. > > > "Not that I’m aware of. When a VM is running under linux it will lock > the image in /etc/init.d/ to prevent any data loss and security > concerns. VMware recommends that if need to you should restart the VM > using the web management console. " > > > > > *From:* Jim Gasek > *To:* Jerry Feldman > *Cc:* discuss@blu.org > *Sent:* Wed, January 19, 2011 2:26:21 PM > *Subject:* Re: VMWare server question staring a VM from the Host OS > (Linux) command line > > What do u mean "The server GUI"? The console on the actual > server itself? The GUI front end from the actual VM server > is very limited. I don't believe you can "break out" > into a "shell". If your server screen "goes dark" (?), the > usual way that you connect to everything is vsphere client, > and all the powerful stuff happens from the client > sending messages to the server. The server isn't > meant to be a console. The console is from elsewhere > over the network. -- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: keyboard trends
Jerry Feldman wrote: > IMHO, clicks should be configurable. Some people really need to hear the > clicks. There is of course software to do that. GRC's ClicKey (http://www.grc.com/freepopular.htm) supposedly does this for Windows. However I would imagine this is more about the feel than the sound, and that would be pretty hard to make configurable. :-) -Tom -- Tom Metro Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA "Enterprise solutions through open source." Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/ ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Tape job notification | completion with mail command
Hello All, I'm looking for a better way to work tape jobs. Seek input from others.. The goal is to put the job in the background and receive an email when the job is complete. Should I be using "nohup" at the start of the command? How can I add mail -s "tape job complete" sgold...@mit.edu Typical job tar -cvf /dev/nst0 101201_80W2Y_236F.tgz > tape94a & Thanks, Stephen Stephen Goldman System Administrator Department of Biology Massachusetts Institute of Technology 31 Ames Street, 68-316e Cambridge, Ma. 02139 617-452-2595 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Tape job notification | completion with mail command
On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 02:02:02PM -0500, stephen goldman wrote: > Hello All, > I'm looking for a better way to work tape jobs. Seek input from others.. > > The goal is to put the job in the background and receive an email when > the job is complete. > > Should I be using "nohup" at the start of the command? > > How can I add mail -s "tape job complete" sgold...@mit.edu > > > Typical job > > tar -cvf /dev/nst0 101201_80W2Y_236F.tgz > tape94a & Write a script called tapejob. Perl is good for this, but not actually necessary. Pass in the relevant tape parameters and addresses; have good defaults. Separate the error output and use that as the body of your mail message. Watch the errorlevel returned by the tar command; if it isn't zero, you want to fire off an alert message -- different subject? different recipients? Now you say tapejob -o tape94a -f 101201_80W2Y_236F.tgz -m sgold...@mit.edu & And it all works nicely. If you're going to fire these off by hand, 'screen' is an excellent tool to have around. If not, 'cron' or 'at' might be your friends. -dsr- -- http://tao.merseine.nu/~dsr/eula.html is hereby incorporated by reference. You can't defend freedom by getting rid of it. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
RE: Tape job notification | completion with mail command
> From: discuss-boun...@blu.org [mailto:discuss-boun...@blu.org] On Behalf Of > stephen goldman > Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 2:02 PM >How can I add mail -s "tape job complete" sgold...@mit.edu > Typical job > tar -cvf /dev/nst0 101201_80W2Y_236F.tgz > tape94a & This might work: $> (tar -cvf /dev/nst0 101201_80W2Y_236F.tgz > tape94a ; mail -s "tape job complete" sgold...@mit.edu) & -Nilanjan ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Tape job notification | completion with mail command
hi On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 2:02 PM, stephen goldman wrote: > The goal is to put the job in the background and receive an email when the > job is complete. shouldn't you just write a shell script [and run it via cron]? it could take arguments to be able to handle different files coming in or different tape drives. you can do all kinds of crazy stuff - have it poll a directory and process any files that are there - write a web page [with file upload (although the files may be too big for that)] - write a web service where you hit a certain URL with the right arguments and it does it all for you this seems to me like a programming problem. just spend enough time on requirements ... -- \js : "verbing weirds language." -calvin [http://or8.net/~johns/] ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: security ofwireless keyboards
Matthew Gillen wrote: > I can't bring myself to use a wireless keyboard. I just don't like the > idea of broadcasting my passwords out to anyone within listening > distance. The Security Now podcast has covered the security of wireless keyboards a few times. In episode 269 Steve Gibson says: ...the wireless keyboards have such weak security that essentially, when you turn the keyboard on, it chooses an eight-bit byte randomly and XORs the data that's being sent with that byte. ...the data is not technically in the clear. It's not plaintext. But, boy, I mean, it would just be a fun and relatively short exercise to decrypt that stream. It would be trivial to decrypt it. ... So the encryption of wireless keyboards is virtually ineffective. And in episode 271 he says: Yeah, I wanted to quickly calm everyone's nerves over the issue of keyboard security. ... I did some research, read some whitepapers and some security evaluations and so forth. And the good news is Logitech got it 100 percent correct. They did a beautiful job. ... There's nonvolatile memory in the keyboard and in what they call their little unifying receiver. This is Logitech's new technology. So at the factory, nonvolatile memory in the keyboard and in the unifying receiver are synchronized with the same 128-bit symmetric key, which the AES algorithm uses to encrypt keystrokes. So if you repair the keyboard, because for example you might pair it with a different receiver that hasn't seen that keyboard before, the pairing process does exactly the right thing. There are pseudorandom number generators at each end. They're able to establish a new key without it ever going over the wire, over the air, in the clear, in order to synchronize a new key that they agree upon on the fly. That's written into nonvolatile RAM and kept there. ...I haven't looked at anybody else's. But I know that the unifying receiver technology that Logitech has is doing this. And it does say in the specs, just in the regular top-level specs, 128-bit AES encryption. So that's the way they implemented it. I would imagine anything that Logitech has done, even if it's not the K320 wireless keyboard, that also says that would be using the same technology, which means you can trust it. So the level of security depends on the keyboard, with at least some of the newer models having adequate security. And elsewhere in that episode: ...anything Bluetooth is, well, okay. Anything Bluetooth is way more secure than a simple 8-bit XOR, if for no other reason than almost nothing could be less secure than an 8-bit XOR. ... Bluetooth is good security, very good security. Episodes 280 and 283 cover BlueTooth in depth. (I haven't listened to them yet.) Episode 269: transcript: http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-269.txt audio: http://media.grc.com/sn/sn-269.mp3 Episode 271: transcript: http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-271.txt audio: http://media.grc.com/sn/sn-271.mp3 Other episodes: http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm -Tom -- Tom Metro Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA "Enterprise solutions through open source." Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/ ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Microsoft keyboards
Matt Shields wrote: > I've been using the M$ Laser Wireless Desktop 6000... Wow, that sounds like a product name taken from an 80's B-movie. > I've always been quite surprised how well M$ hardware works. Agreed. Although I've never had any use for their ergonomic keyboards, I've used their mice for years (though now I use a Logitech V550 Nano). > Of course it's probably not made by anyone that works for M$, > probably made by a 3rd party company. No doubt they subcontract the manufacturing, and perhaps even the design. I used to think it was Logitech, but I don't think I saw any hard evidence of that. -Tom -- Tom Metro Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA "Enterprise solutions through open source." Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/ ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Tape job notification | completion with mail command
On Jan 20, 2011, at 2:02 PM, stephen goldman wrote: > > Hello All, >I'm looking for a better way to work tape jobs. Seek input from others.. > >The goal is to put the job in the background and receive an email when the > job is complete. I think that you're on the right track but you don't put the tar in the background. If you do that then you will need a second process watching for the first to complete. What you really want to do is put a little shell script around the tar job, have it do the mailing, and background that. Something like: #!/bin/sh tar -cvf /dev/nst0 files > /tmp/tar.log mail -s "Backup for `date`" sgold...@mit.edu < /tmp/tar.log --Rich P. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate
Bill Horne wrote: | On Wed, 2011-01-19 at 22:14 -0500, Ben Eisenbraun wrote: | > On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 09:21:52PM -0500, Bill Horne wrote: | > > On Wed, 2011-01-19 at 15:30 -0500, Ben Eisenbraun wrote: | > > > For home I think I'll buy the one with key inscriptions, | > > > since it'll be tough for the 3 year old to use otherwise. | > > | > > I recommend Dvorak for all children learning to type. | > | > Oh no. He's definitely going to be a vi user. :-) | > | > I thought they decided the Dvorak advantage was a myth? | | I hadn't heard that: please cite the study that proved it. | | ISTM that the advantage of Dvorak is so fundamental that it can't be | overcome; the most-often used keys are closer to the home row. It's not | something that seems debatable to me: shorter distance means less finger | travel, ergo more speed. | | Then again, I've been wrong before, so I'd like to look at the data. What I've got from reading the criticisms is that basically there isn't much data. What there is has some obvious problems, such as coming from people with a financial interest in convincing us that the Dvorak keyboard is faster than QWERTY. That is, the claim isn't that QWERTY is actually faster than Dvorak. The claim is that there's no credible scientific study showing that there's any difference. There might well be, but marketing campaigns aren't a good place to look for the evidence. If you want scientific evidence, you'll have to make it yourself. A few organizations with no financial interests in the outcome have tried to do this, and came up empty handed. But this hasn't been done too often, because funding and research organizations have much more important questions to spend their money on. I was a bit curious, when I first read about this, how there could be a financial interest in a keyboard layout. But it does turn out that the Dvorak layout was patented back in the 1920s and 1930s, and at that time you couldn't switch layouts by just changing a setting. The layout was "hard wired" into the typewriter mechanism, so to use a different layout, you had to buy a typewriter that had the new layout. Nowadays, when keyboards just send a digital keycode, it's easy to invent new keyboard layouts and experiment with them, but this wasn't possible back then, so there was money to be made if you could market a new layout. It seems reasonable that putting the common (in English) keys in the home row would lead to faster typing. But saying this doesn't make it true. If it's true, why has it turned out to be difficult to demonstrate scientifically? (Actually, that's an easy question to answer: When people are dying of cancer, heart disease, malaria and AIDS by the millions, why would we spend our limited human and financial resources studying something so inconsequential as a keyboard layout? So only people with an interest in the Dvorak layout have a motive to study the topic. ;-) -- _' O <:#/> John Chambers + /#\ | | ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Tape job notification | completion with mail command
On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 2:23 PM, Richard Pieri wrote: > On Jan 20, 2011, at 2:02 PM, stephen goldman wrote: > > > > Hello All, > >I'm looking for a better way to work tape jobs. Seek input from > others.. > > > >The goal is to put the job in the background and receive an email when > the job is complete. > > I think that you're on the right track but you don't put the tar in the > background. If you do that then you will need a second process watching for > the first to complete. What you really want to do is put a little shell > script around the tar job, have it do the mailing, and background that. > Something like: > > #!/bin/sh > tar -cvf /dev/nst0 files > /tmp/tar.log > mail -s "Backup for `date`" sgold...@mit.edu < /tmp/tar.log > > --Rich P. > > > ___ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@blu.org > http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > You could take this a bit further and have it let you know in the subject if it succeeded or not. #!/bin/bash tar -cvf /dev/nst0 files > /tmp/tar.log if [ "$?" -ne "0" ]; then mail -s "Backup failed for `date`" sgold...@mit.edu < /tmp/tar.log exit 1 fi mail -s "Backup succeeded for `date`" sgold...@mit.edu < /tmp/tar.log -matt ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate
Well, When the fastest runner in the world wears nike, there might be something. When the fastest race car driver drives an ford, there might be something there. When the fastest super computer in the US is made by Cray and uses AMD Opteron's there might be something. And when the fast person in the world used dvorak there might be something. Personally I believe that the keyboard you choose should fit your personal typing style. No money should be spent on trying to figure out which one is better. +++ As of 2005[update], writer Barbara Blackburn was the fastest English language typist in the world, according to The Guinness Book of World Records. Using the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, she has maintained 150 words per minute (wpm) for 50 minutes, and 170 wpm for shorter periods. She has been clocked at a peak speed of 212 wpm. Blackburn, who failed her QWERTY typing class in high school, first encountered the Dvorak keyboard in 1938, quickly learned to achieve very high speeds, and occasionally toured giving speed-typing demonstrations during her secretarial career. She appeared on The David Letterman Show and felt she was made a spectacle of.[3] Blackburn died in April 2008.[3] +++ Tom On 01/20/2011 07:32 PM, j...@trillian.mit.edu wrote: > Bill Horne wrote: > | On Wed, 2011-01-19 at 22:14 -0500, Ben Eisenbraun wrote: > |> On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 09:21:52PM -0500, Bill Horne wrote: > |> > On Wed, 2011-01-19 at 15:30 -0500, Ben Eisenbraun wrote: > |> > > For home I think I'll buy the one with key inscriptions, > |> > > since it'll be tough for the 3 year old to use otherwise. > |> > > |> > I recommend Dvorak for all children learning to type. > |> > |> Oh no. He's definitely going to be a vi user. :-) > |> > |> I thought they decided the Dvorak advantage was a myth? > | > | I hadn't heard that: please cite the study that proved it. > | > | ISTM that the advantage of Dvorak is so fundamental that it can't be > | overcome; the most-often used keys are closer to the home row. It's not > | something that seems debatable to me: shorter distance means less finger > | travel, ergo more speed. > | > | Then again, I've been wrong before, so I'd like to look at the data. > > What I've got from reading the criticisms is that basically there > isn't much data. What there is has some obvious problems, such as > coming from people with a financial interest in convincing us that > the Dvorak keyboard is faster than QWERTY. > > That is, the claim isn't that QWERTY is actually faster than Dvorak. > The claim is that there's no credible scientific study showing that > there's any difference. There might well be, but marketing campaigns > aren't a good place to look for the evidence. If you want scientific > evidence, you'll have to make it yourself. A few organizations with > no financial interests in the outcome have tried to do this, and came > up empty handed. But this hasn't been done too often, because funding > and research organizations have much more important questions to > spend their money on. > > I was a bit curious, when I first read about this, how there could be > a financial interest in a keyboard layout. But it does turn out that > the Dvorak layout was patented back in the 1920s and 1930s, and at > that time you couldn't switch layouts by just changing a setting. The > layout was "hard wired" into the typewriter mechanism, so to use a > different layout, you had to buy a typewriter that had the new > layout. Nowadays, when keyboards just send a digital keycode, it's > easy to invent new keyboard layouts and experiment with them, but > this wasn't possible back then, so there was money to be made if you > could market a new layout. > > It seems reasonable that putting the common (in English) keys in the > home row would lead to faster typing. But saying this doesn't make it > true. If it's true, why has it turned out to be difficult to > demonstrate scientifically? > > (Actually, that's an easy question to answer: When people are dying > of cancer, heart disease, malaria and AIDS by the millions, why would > we spend our limited human and financial resources studying something > so inconsequential as a keyboard layout? So only people with an > interest in the Dvorak layout have a motive to study the topic. ;-) > > > -- > _' > O > <:#/> John Chambers > + >/#\ >| | > ___ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@blu.org > http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: keyboard trends
On 01/20/2011 01:26 PM, Tom Metro wrote: > Jerry Feldman wrote: >> IMHO, clicks should be configurable. Some people really need to hear the >> clicks. > There is of course software to do that. GRC's ClicKey > (http://www.grc.com/freepopular.htm) supposedly does this for Windows. > > However I would imagine this is more about the feel than the sound, and > that would be pretty hard to make configurable. :-) > Well, clicks can be done in S/W so you hear them on the speaker. Sometimes they are annoying. I have a KeyTronic keyboard at work and at home, and so far I like it. -- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate
On Jan 20, 2011, at 2:51 PM, Tom Martinson wrote: > > When the fastest runner in the world wears nike, there might be > something. Usually a rather substantial monetary compensation for the endorsement. > When the fastest race car driver drives an ford, there might > be something there. Again, usually a rather substantial monetary compensation for the endorsement. > When the fastest super computer in the US is made > by Cray and uses AMD Opteron's there might be something. AMD is cheaper than Intel. As for Dvorak vs. Standard, Scholes set up his original typewriter not to make typing slower, but to make it faster. Anyone who says that QWERTY exists to make typing slower is either lying or has bought into myth. In practice, a good typist typing on a Standard layout is just as fast as an equally skilled typist typing on a Dvorak layout. So says the US Navy and US G.A.O and I'm having a hell of a time finding the actual report. I can find plenty of references to it but not the report itself. For the record -- so to speak -- according to Guinness, the records for Standard typists are comparable to or better than Barbara's Dvorak records. Here's one from IBM's files: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/modelb/modelb_4509PH04.html That 140 wpm record is sustained speed, a mere 10 wpm slower than Barbara's sustained typing speed. Stella's 1 minute burst is 216 words, 4 words per minute faster than Barbara's best. So no, the fastest English typist ever didn't use a Dvorak layout; she used an IBM Electric. --Rich P. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate
On 01/20/2011 07:32 PM, j...@trillian.mit.edu wrote: > Bill Horne wrote: > | On Wed, 2011-01-19 at 22:14 -0500, Ben Eisenbraun wrote: > | > On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 09:21:52PM -0500, Bill Horne wrote: > | > > On Wed, 2011-01-19 at 15:30 -0500, Ben Eisenbraun wrote: > | > > > For home I think I'll buy the one with key inscriptions, > | > > > since it'll be tough for the 3 year old to use otherwise. > | > > > | > > I recommend Dvorak for all children learning to type. > | > > | > Oh no. He's definitely going to be a vi user. :-) > | > > | > I thought they decided the Dvorak advantage was a myth? > | > | I hadn't heard that: please cite the study that proved it. > | > | ISTM that the advantage of Dvorak is so fundamental that it can't be > | overcome; the most-often used keys are closer to the home row. It's not > | something that seems debatable to me: shorter distance means less finger > | travel, ergo more speed. > | > | Then again, I've been wrong before, so I'd like to look at the data. > > What I've got from reading the criticisms is that basically there > isn't much data. What there is has some obvious problems, such as > coming from people with a financial interest in convincing us that > the Dvorak keyboard is faster than QWERTY. > > That is, the claim isn't that QWERTY is actually faster than Dvorak. > The claim is that there's no credible scientific study showing that > there's any difference. There might well be, but marketing campaigns > aren't a good place to look for the evidence. If you want scientific > evidence, you'll have to make it yourself. A few organizations with > no financial interests in the outcome have tried to do this, and came > up empty handed. But this hasn't been done too often, because funding > and research organizations have much more important questions to > spend their money on. > > I was a bit curious, when I first read about this, how there could be > a financial interest in a keyboard layout. But it does turn out that > the Dvorak layout was patented back in the 1920s and 1930s, and at > that time you couldn't switch layouts by just changing a setting. The > layout was "hard wired" into the typewriter mechanism, so to use a > different layout, you had to buy a typewriter that had the new > layout. Nowadays, when keyboards just send a digital keycode, it's > easy to invent new keyboard layouts and experiment with them, but > this wasn't possible back then, so there was money to be made if you > could market a new layout. > > It seems reasonable that putting the common (in English) keys in the > home row would lead to faster typing. But saying this doesn't make it > true. If it's true, why has it turned out to be difficult to > demonstrate scientifically? > > (Actually, that's an easy question to answer: When people are dying > of cancer, heart disease, malaria and AIDS by the millions, why would > we spend our limited human and financial resources studying something > so inconsequential as a keyboard layout? So only people with an > interest in the Dvorak layout have a motive to study the topic. ;-) > > basically, the QWERTY layout was patented in 1867 (actually the typewriter with that layout. The DVORAK was patented in 1932 shortly after the electric typewriter was developed. Which layout is better depends on personal preference and experience. I think it is really important to design a keyboard that does not require typing. We can wear a headband and just think about it. -- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Forms-design application builder tool?
I've built a hopefully-clever database schema for a sys-admin tool, and have grown a bit tired of manually invoking insert/update commands in raw SQL. Keeping track of the foreign-key indices, etc, manually is an error-prone pain. So I want a reasonably straighforward way of generating a form based on my schema, and can't seem to find anything useful. There are a couple of not-bad ones that can read a single multi-column table and crank out an html form, but nothing that can go through 15 or 20 existing tables in a MySQL database and provide reasonably-simple layout tools to put the fields where I want them on 2 or 3 screens. One of the most sophisticated ones out there, believe it or not, is the Base tool in OpenOffice--but it's modeled after a 1993-vintage version of MS Access (no thanks!). Well, there /are/ more-sophisticated tools, but they tend to be proprietary and have a learning curve significantly longer than the amount of time I'm trying to save on manually generating some PHP forms. If you were building a database-driven website design today (one that looks like, say, imdb.com, with the goal of providing browsable/updateable views of, say, DNS records), what framework would you start with? Secondarily, I want this thing to be scriptable, ideally with the same set of internal commands as the UI (to perform such operations as "insert new host into domain"). I suspect that's too much to hope for in a single off-the-shelf tool. BLU isn't quite the right place to ask this, where else should I turn? -rich ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Forms-design application builder tool?
On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 5:12 PM, Rich Braun wrote: > So I want a reasonably straighforward way of generating a form based on my > schema, and can't seem to find anything useful. > If you were building a database-driven website design today That's what I do for a living. > (one that looks like, say, imdb.com, Open up that page and "View Source." That's all that's involved :) > with the goal of providing browsable/updateable views of, > say, DNS records), what framework would you start with? Ruby on Rails. > Secondarily, I want this thing to be scriptable, ideally with the same set of > internal commands as the UI (to perform such operations as "insert new host > into domain"). I suspect that's too much to hope for in a single > off-the-shelf tool. Ruby can do that. There's a command console built in, where you can manipulate the data via the models with simple commands. Or you can write scripts integrated into your environment. > BLU isn't quite the right place to ask this, where else should I turn? Maybe http://bostonrb.org? -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate
Could Dvorak have benefits from people who suffer from a RSI or similar injury, because it requires your hands to move less? I've been using dvorak for a few years, I definitely type faster but I didn't type properly on qwerty anyways, using dvorak was an impetus to learn how to touch type correctly. My reasoning for staying is that it has to be at least as good as qwerty, since the keys I use more often require less movement to hit. That and I don't feel like retraining again. -- Samuel Baldwin - logik.li ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Forms-design application builder tool?
Rich Braun wrote: > So I want a reasonably straighforward way of generating a form based on my > schema, and can't seem to find anything useful. > > One of the most sophisticated ones out there, believe it or not, is the Base > tool in OpenOffice--but it's modeled after a 1993-vintage version of MS Access > (no thanks!). Have you looked at Kexi (http://www.kexi-project.org/)? It's described as "Microsoft Access for Linux." It was recently covered in Linux Journal. > If you were building a database-driven website design today (one that looks > like, say, imdb.com, with the goal of providing browsable/updateable views of, > say, DNS records), what framework would you start with? That's a rather different question. Catalyst, Mojolicious (http://mojolicious.org/), PSGI/Plack (http://plackperl.org/), or whatever is the latest flavor... -Tom -- Tom Metro Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA "Enterprise solutions through open source." Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/ ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Forms-design application builder tool?
Tom Metro suggested: > Have you looked at Kexi (http://www.kexi-project.org/)? It's described > as "Microsoft Access for Linux." I'll have to read that one; at first glance it does look like Koffice's answer to OpenOffice Base, both of which are answers to MS Access. The Kexi site even references the Northwind Traders database example which came with my MS Access software package in 1994 (!). I'm thinking something a bit more 2011, though, that looks more like an Ajax-enabled smartphone app and less like an IBM 3278 screen. I'll take either, though, if the so-called "rapid prototyping" gets me something that works more-or-less-good-enough in a matter of hours rather than weeks. > [Building an imdb-like site is] a rather different question. That's my /only/ question, actually. I have a set of data schema that, for all intents and purposes, consists of a primary list (call them Films) and several related lists like Actors, Genres, Awards, and Media Formats. I want to scroll through the list, sort by field, and if I click a specific value in a record currently displayed, bring up a list of data records that share that value in common. IMDB was invented in 1995 and it boggles my mind that an open-source rendition of that user-interface hasn't been published for general-purpose site design. Notwithstanding a recent terrible redesign of their site, the beauty of it has always been the simple logic flow (you're either on the "list" screen or the "detail" screen) and the two-dimensional highly-meshed cross linking (fields from the database are presented as clickable links which take you to the "list" screen of records containing that field/value nexus). I hired a guy to create such a thing from scratch but it bogged down after months of effort, so I'm trying to come up with a different approach on top of an existing framework instead of roll-my-own. > Catalyst, Mojolicious > (http://mojolicious.org/), PSGI/Plack (http://plackperl.org/), or > whatever is the latest flavor... Thanks for this list, I'll go off and loook at those... -rich ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Forms-design application builder tool?
On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 5:12 PM, Rich Braun wrote: > I've built a hopefully-clever database schema for a sys-admin tool, and > have > grown a bit tired of manually invoking insert/update commands in raw SQL. > Keeping track of the foreign-key indices, etc, manually is an error-prone > pain. > > So I want a reasonably straighforward way of generating a form based on my > schema, and can't seem to find anything useful. There are a couple of > not-bad > ones that can read a single multi-column table and crank out an html form, > but > nothing that can go through 15 or 20 existing tables in a MySQL database > and > provide reasonably-simple layout tools to put the fields where I want them > on > 2 or 3 screens. > > One of the most sophisticated ones out there, believe it or not, is the > Base > tool in OpenOffice--but it's modeled after a 1993-vintage version of MS > Access > (no thanks!). Well, there /are/ more-sophisticated tools, but they tend to > be > proprietary and have a learning curve significantly longer than the amount > of > time I'm trying to save on manually generating some PHP forms. > > If you were building a database-driven website design today (one that looks > like, say, imdb.com, with the goal of providing browsable/updateable views > of, > say, DNS records), what framework would you start with? > > Secondarily, I want this thing to be scriptable, ideally with the same set > of > internal commands as the UI (to perform such operations as "insert new host > into domain"). I suspect that's too much to hope for in a single > off-the-shelf tool. > > BLU isn't quite the right place to ask this, where else should I turn? > > -rich > > > > ___ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@blu.org > http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > CakePHP.org -matt ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate
On Jan 20, 2011, at 5:52 PM, Samuel Baldwin wrote: > > Could Dvorak have benefits from people who suffer from a RSI or > similar injury, because it requires your hands to move less? I'm inclined to say not as much as one might think (or an advertiser would have you believe). Much of the stress from typing comes from poor posture and poor arm/wrist/hand positioning along with not taking frequent breaks. Changing your key layout won't save you from those bad habits. With proper positioning and posture your arms and wrists should barely move while typing, just small movements from the arms and wrists. Everything else is fingers. And it is gentle tapping. I've seen key caps that have been worn down to the posts because of grossly excessive force used to type. If you're wearing off the key caps then you're doing it wrong and you're probably well on your way to self-inflicated injury. --Rich P. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate
On Thu, 2011-01-20 at 19:32 +, j...@trillian.mit.edu wrote: > (Actually, that's an easy question to answer: When people are dying > of cancer, heart disease, malaria and AIDS by the millions, why would > we spend our limited human and financial resources studying something > so inconsequential as a keyboard layout? So only people with an > interest in the Dvorak layout have a motive to study the topic. ;-) Well, it may be inconsequential to researchers responsible for providing solutions to those (admittedly serious) problems, but that's not the day-to-day stuff of business, where managers must concern themselves with increasing their firms' profitability to the point where those companies can afford to contribute to research for cures of disease. The tools available to businessmen, unlike those in research laboratories, are the prosaic ones of Operations Research, so let's do a little back-of-the-envelope analysis: An "average" typing speed is 30 Words per minute, or 7200 words per day in an eight-hour-shift, assuming a 50% mix of typing and other tasks. For an environment where the "loaded" cost of each employee is $100.00, an eight hour shift costs $800. That equates to a cost-per-word of $0.056. If the Dvorak layout increased typing speed by 10%, then the cost per word goes down to $0.05. This is, of course, a simplistic comparison, but my point is that when a company is paying $100/hour, small changes add up. The question, then, is whether Dvorak is more efficient to a degree that would justify altering our childrens' keyboards so that they grow up with it, and having computers instead of mechanical typewriters gives us the chance to find out. It doesn't take that many people, and there may already be a sufficienctly large sample of Dvorak users available to settle the question: if not, we can train some children on Dvorak without affecting their job prospects or employability in any significant way. FWIW. YMMV. Bill ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
