Re: Inexpensive hardware at Staples
Bill Ricker wrote: 250 Gb Western Digital External Drive (USB2): $89 Is that Linux friendly? The one touch backup software advertised on the package made me question if it might require proprietary drivers. If I can plug-and-go on a modern Linux w/ USB mass storage support, this would be great. The last one I used was a standard drive. The backup software I ignored. I hooked them up to a Linux-based NAS and reformatted them with ext3 without a problem. -- Dan Jenkins ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Rastech Inc., Bedford, NH, USA --- 1-603-206-9951 *** Technical Support for over a Quarter Century ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Inexpensive hardware at Staples
On May 9, 2006, at 10:07 PM, Bill Ricker wrote: 250 Gb Western Digital External Drive (USB2): $89 Is that Linux friendly? It's Linux-neutral. A standard USB2 interface and hard drive controller. Plugging it into a running Ubuntu machine had it come up automatically. The two backup buttons on the front seem to be ignored until Linux. The one touch backup software advertised on the package made me question if it might require proprietary drivers. It does include a copy of Dantz Retrospect Express software that only runs in Win 98se/ME/2000/XP. It claims MacIntosh compatibility for OS 9.22+ or OS X 10.2.8+ but claims you need to reformat the disk as HFS before using the installation CD. I think it has software to work on the Mac, too, although only if it's HFS-formatted. If I can plug-and-go on a modern Linux w/ USB mass storage support, this would be great. That it does. Ted Roche Ted Roche Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
On 5/9/06, Greg Rundlett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The information super highway must not be made into a censored toll-lane. I'm gonna dust off my There is no Internet mini-essay for this: -- There is this myth that the Internet exists as a single, cohesive network. It does not, and never has. The Internet is a network of networks. What that means is that a bunch of independent network operators have agreed to exchange traffic with each other because it benefits them. When you dial in to your ISP of choice (or plug in your Ethernet cable or whatever), you're not connecting to the Internet. You're connecting to your ISP. Your ISP probably connects to their ISP. Their ISP (if you're lucky) connects to several other ISPs, who connect to other ISPs, and so on. All these independent network operators form the Internet. To put this in more immediate terms: If I am your ISP, you are not connecting to the Internet. You are connecting to *my* network. You and I might have an agreement that in exchange for a monthly fee, I'll pass on your packets to someone else, but you're still using *my* network. If you don't like what I do with your packets, you're free to stop using my network, but you don't get to tell me how to run my network. So, the Internet exists as an abstract concept (and a useful one), but not as something you can touch. Not even as something you can route traffic through. All you can do is connect to some other guy's network and hope for the best. The idea that the Internet is this utopian cyberspace where everybody is equal is a myth, and always has been. -- I say this not because I think the big telcos should be allowed to do this, but because this the free Internet thing needs a reality check. -- Ben There is no Internet Scott ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
On 5/10/06, Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --There is this myth that the Internet exists as a single, cohesivenetwork. It does not, and never has. The Internet is a network ofnetworks. What that means is that a bunch of independent network operators have agreed to exchange traffic with each other because itbenefits them. When you dial in to your ISP of choice (or plug in yourEthernet cable or whatever), you're not connecting to the Internet. You're connecting to your ISP. Your ISP probably connects to theirISP. Their ISP (if you're lucky) connects to several other ISPs, whoconnect to other ISPs, and so on.All these independent networkoperators form the Internet. I'm old enought to remember before web browsers when I was in college. My college was on Bitnet (Because It's There) which connected at 9600 baud IIRC. Somewhere, there was a gateway that connected to the Arpanet (which morphed into what we think of as today's internet). There was telenet, Fidonet (BBS based with modems PC and a store and forward system for mail and file transfer), UUCP base networks (usenet?) and several others. Arpanet was originally for government and research. No commercial traffic was supposed to travel on it. There were newsgroups for selling/buying stuff that was a grey area. Heck, I sold a macintosh SE on it and at work bought a Sparc 1 motherboard. It took faith to buy something before eBay! UUNET started to create another backbone (I forget the name) that allowed commercial traffic. This eventually led to AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy and others to have an email gateway for thier users.At some point, just after Mosaic came out (for the macintosh?, before the PC version certainly) Arpanet split into MILNET for the .mil sites and the rest of the net. -- A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.- Daniel Webster
LDAP from scratch.
I'm about to set up an LDAP install, I believe from scratch, for a friend's company. I've done it before, and am familiar enough with LDAP from a systems standpoint that I don't think I'll need help there. The part of LDAP that continues to flummox, me, however, is its nomenclature; for example, in the previous install I did from scratch, I assigned some of the values to the wrong DNs because I couldn't find any that seemed to fit. Is there, somewhere, a list of what things like (say) inetOrgPerson actually *are*? And, perhaps, a good subset of appropriate DNs for an install that's going to replace NIS? Thanks... -Ken P.S. Yes, I've RTFM'd, but not recently. If there's an on-line resource that's been updated, please point it out to me. While I certainly don't fear manuals, I fear re-reading them just 'cause. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: LDAP from scratch.
On 5/10/06, Ken D'Ambrosio [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm about to set up an LDAP install, I believe from scratch, for afriend's company.I've done it before, and am familiar enough with LDAPfrom a systems standpoint that I don't think I'll need help there.The part of LDAP that continues to flummox, me, however, is its nomenclature;for example, in the previous install I did from scratch, I assigned someof the values to the wrong DNs because I couldn't find any that seemed to fit.Is there, somewhere, a list of what things like (say) inetOrgPersonactually *are*?And, perhaps, a good subset of appropriate DNs for aninstall that's going to replace NIS? I'm going through this myself on Solaris systems recently took Sun's LDAP as a Naming Service class.Sun's Java Directory Server 5.2 has all the schemas, etc for it in LDIF format. It's also free for a certain number of entries (though that limit may be gone) and it's available for other OS including Linux and (shudder) windows. It's the Netscape Directory Server/iPlanet code base that Red Hat's server is based on. Well, Red Hat's missing the 3 years of work Sun has done on it.OpenLDAP is the UMich reference spec.Ok, much of the schemas and names are in standard RFCs. This lets LDIFs from Red Hat, Novell, Sun and others exchange because they all use the same names. A certain 800lb gorilla didn't follow these and has different names. Sun has something that will let you work with AD. So does PADL below. There's even a tool to import all your NIS and /etc stuff: ldapaddent.NIS stuff will be in posixAccount objectClassSome websites:http://www.padl.com - lots of PAM modules http://web.singnet.com.sp/~garyttt - various LDAP HOWTOs (Gary T's)http://www.iana.com - standard object class oids http://docs.sun.com/sources/816-5613-10/index.html - Sun schema definitionshttp://www.ldapbrowser.com - a GUI LDAP browserThere's also 12 RFCs dealing with LDAP but I'm not sure what they are right now. -- A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.- Daniel Webster
Re: LDAP from scratch.
Here's a great generic LDAP resource: http://www.zytrax.com/books/ldap/ It's reference material as well as some overview introductory stuff, but most of all, it's got a browseable reference of standard schemas and DNs and all that to make it a little easier to find appropriate ones for your needs. I also use phpLDAPadmin to manage LDAP and it offers a similar browseable reference of the installed schemas in your particular setup. -N On Wednesday 10 May 2006 09:39 am, Ken D'Ambrosio wrote: I'm about to set up an LDAP install, I believe from scratch, for a friend's company. I've done it before, and am familiar enough with LDAP from a systems standpoint that I don't think I'll need help there. The part of LDAP that continues to flummox, me, however, is its nomenclature; for example, in the previous install I did from scratch, I assigned some of the values to the wrong DNs because I couldn't find any that seemed to fit. Is there, somewhere, a list of what things like (say) inetOrgPerson actually *are*? And, perhaps, a good subset of appropriate DNs for an install that's going to replace NIS? Thanks... -Ken P.S. Yes, I've RTFM'd, but not recently. If there's an on-line resource that's been updated, please point it out to me. While I certainly don't fear manuals, I fear re-reading them just 'cause. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
On 5/10/06, Tom Buskey [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm old enought to remember before web browsers when I was in college. It wasn't *that* long ago. :) Arpanet was originally for government and research. No commercial traffic was supposed to travel on it. Right. Back then, the ISP would have been the university, or some government agency. As you note, things were even more restricted back then. No commercial use (in theory), and a somewhat exclusive nature. The current idea that you can plunk down some cash and get an Internet connection came latter. Back then, you needed to know someone, so to speak. If the local admins decided your usage was getting in the way of the real users, I'd guess they would probably just disable your access. It took faith to buy something before eBay! Still does. ;-) -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
All you can do is connect to some other guy's network and hope for the best. The idea that the Internet is this utopian cyberspace where everybody is equal is a myth, and always has been. Your observations about the Internet are dead-on, and should be remembered. But I would disagree with the above, just because it seems rather self-defeatist. If we desire the Internet to reflect some of our American attitudes of free speech and to have a semi-Bill of Rights flavor, we *can* make it that way. We do have a (semi-functional) political/legal system and can mandate that ISPs function as utilitarian common carriers. Regards, . Randy -- The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the world. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
On Wed, 2006-05-10 at 10:35 -0400, Randy Edwards wrote: If we desire the Internet to reflect some of our American attitudes of free speech and to have a semi-Bill of Rights flavor, we *can* make it that way. We do have a (semi-functional) political/legal system and can mandate that ISPs function as utilitarian common carriers. I see ... and you intend to enforce this on Chinese ISPs how? My point is that not only does the Internet not exist, it's not American either. 8) It is the concept of a bunch of networks connected together ... and not only within the US. -- Cole Tuininga [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
I hate this sort of reasoning - it's the same defeatist attitude that leads people to justify buying an SUV instead of an efficient vehicle when gas-saving is under discussion. Well China buys more barrels every day than SUVs use over hybrids in a year - SO WHAT? Last time I optimized code, each optimization contributed practically nothing to the program speed - yet keeping it in mind increased overall execution speed almost 30%. Little things add up. (And the US isn't so little, in Internet terms.) We should make an effort to keep as much of the 'net free of cruft as possible. Do you USE much of the portion of the Internet that's in China? If not, why are you bringing it up? ;-) I understand that the internet is international - that has no particular bearing on keeping the parts we CAN have some impact on free/good/useful. Why should we make the connection to our houses faster - it has essentially no impact on the speed of the net in general. Sorry for the rant - that particular line of reasoning fills me with unreasoning anger. --DTVZ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
In addition to Cole's astute observation... On 5/10/06, Randy Edwards [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: All you can do is connect to some other guy's network and hope for the best. The idea that the Internet is this utopian cyberspace where everybody is equal is a myth, and always has been. But I would disagree with the above, just because it seems rather self-defeatist. It's only defeatist if it doesn't match your own goals. ;-) If we desire the Internet to reflect some of our American attitudes of free speech and to have a semi-Bill of Rights flavor, we *can* make it that way. We do have a (semi-functional) political/legal system and can mandate that ISPs function as utilitarian common carriers. American attitudes also include a strong dose of capitalism and the free market. Some would argue that the market should decide the rates we pay for Internet connectivity, and that regulating ISPs will only stifle innovation[1]. As many are fond of observing, free press is about the freedom to print what you want; it has nothing to do with how much it costs you to print it. Playing the innovation card isn't just an ideological knee-jerk response, either. For example, say we pass a law that says all packets are equal. That would make QoS illegal, which would suck for VoIP. Never forget about The Law of Unintended Consequences. We can also turn the argument around. If I can afford it, why *shouldn't* I be able to pay extra to have my packets delivered first? Shall we outlaw FedEx, since it means big business can afford to have their mail delivered sooner? I'm not defending the big telcos, believe me. I object to a lot of what they do as anti-competitive. The free market stops working when a few large players dominate. I think the solution, though, is to treat the disease, not the symptoms. Rather then trying to dream up laws to regulate the Internet, we should go after the disease: This cancer that the big telcos are becoming (again). Since we're on this subject, and I believe it is relevant to all of us: I've seen tons of rhetoric around this issue, but very little hard fact. Is there any *real* information out there? The www.savetheinternet.com site contains nothing but sensationalist propaganda. (The fact that I happen to sympathize with the sensationalist propaganda doesn't change what it is.) Footnotes - [1] Here, I use he original meaning of the term innovation, not Microsoft's default answer to every anti-trust allegation. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
I see ... and you intend to enforce this on Chinese ISPs how? Obviously it can't be done. But that Chinese telecomm company isn't running copper to my house. What can be done, again, is to make US ISPs function as neutral common carriers. That's relatively easy to do -- it just takes some political will. Regards, . Randy -- If computers have made me more productive, how come I'm not working less? Who's getting the profits from my increased productivity?! ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: LDAP from scratch.
First and foremost, thanks for the responses on my LDAP question. That being said... On Wed, May 10, 2006 10:20 am, Neil Schelly wrote: Here's a great generic LDAP resource: http://www.zytrax.com/books/ldap/ Simply reading the intro to this page (LDAP for rocket scientists) made me chortle, most especially There are innumerable excellent HOWTOs scattered over the Internet which are great if you need a tactical solution to a particular problem and are happy to put up with the vaguely uncomfortable feeling that you are entirely dependent on something you don't really understand. In a word: AMEN. These people have *been* there. -Ken (who's now scurrying off to peruse the site in detail) It's reference material as well as some overview introductory stuff, but most of all, it's got a browseable reference of standard schemas and DNs and all that to make it a little easier to find appropriate ones for your needs. I also use phpLDAPadmin to manage LDAP and it offers a similar browseable reference of the installed schemas in your particular setup. -N On Wednesday 10 May 2006 09:39 am, Ken D'Ambrosio wrote: I'm about to set up an LDAP install, I believe from scratch, for a friend's company. I've done it before, and am familiar enough with LDAP from a systems standpoint that I don't think I'll need help there. The part of LDAP that continues to flummox, me, however, is its nomenclature; for example, in the previous install I did from scratch, I assigned some of the values to the wrong DNs because I couldn't find any that seemed to fit. Is there, somewhere, a list of what things like (say) inetOrgPerson actually *are*? And, perhaps, a good subset of appropriate DNs for an install that's going to replace NIS? Thanks... -Ken P.S. Yes, I've RTFM'd, but not recently. If there's an on-line resource that's been updated, please point it out to me. While I certainly don't fear manuals, I fear re-reading them just 'cause. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: LDAP from scratch.
On Wed, May 10, 2006 10:20 am, Neil Schelly wrote: Here's a great generic LDAP resource: http://www.zytrax.com/books/ldap/ Simply reading the intro to this page (LDAP for rocket scientists) made me chortle, most especially There are innumerable excellent HOWTOs scattered over the Internet which are great if you need a tactical solution to a particular problem and are happy to put up with the vaguely uncomfortable feeling that you are entirely dependent on something you don't really understand. In a word: AMEN. These people have *been* there. -Ken (who's now scurrying off to peruse the site in detail) There's also a great DNS for Rocket Scientists on that site: http://www.zytrax.com/books/dns/ I'm a fan of both and both can be great intros/references for both DNS and LDAP. They aren't complete in all ways, but they are good and usually rather more detailed than your average man page. -N ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
On Wed, 2006-05-10 at 10:59 -0400, Drew Van Zandt wrote: I hate this sort of reasoning - it's the same defeatist attitude that leads people to justify buying an SUV instead of an efficient vehicle when gas-saving is under discussion. I understand how you would interpret it this way, but I definitely do not perceive my viewpoint as defeatist at all. My point is more that the viewpoint you hold is that your way is the right way to run the Internet. As we've established the Internet doesn't actually exist, we need to look at this as trying to assign policy to a very wide range of networks. I would argue that trying to create a blanket policy to such a diversity is folly. Different networks have different needs. The policies of some of these networks are governed by the cultural biases of the country/group/whatever that own and run them (much like ourselves). If we want to turn this discussion more towards we should mandate this neutrality for all US networks then! I would still disagree. For one thing, it's a bit difficult to constitute what are American networks or not. If a network is in Canada, but run by an American company can we mandate this? What if *part* of a network is in the US and part not? And what of specialty providers? I know one company that specializes in setting up networks for optimizing video transmissions. They allow their customers to connect to external resources, of course, but they give preference to their own video traffic because that's the service they're selling. Should we now tell them that they are no longer allowed to practice that business model? -- Cole Tuininga [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
On Wed, 2006-05-10 at 11:13 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: Since we're on this subject, and I believe it is relevant to all of us: I've seen tons of rhetoric around this issue, but very little hard fact. Is there any *real* information out there? The www.savetheinternet.com site contains nothing but sensationalist propaganda. (The fact that I happen to sympathize with the sensationalist propaganda doesn't change what it is.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peering The economics behind getting bits to travel across the Internet is somewhat murky. We pay our ISP (say MV) to handle our bits. MV in turn pays someone else (PAETEK?) to handle the non-local bits that need to traverse the Internet. At some point ISP's simply trade bits (peer) without charging each other. So UUNET and LEVEL3 (I think) simply exchange bits without exchanging any money. As I understand it, the big telco's are looking to leverage their dominance to end or at least modify peering arrangements. They want to force other ISPs to pay for bit delivery. I think the savetheinternet.com site fails to suggest a rational way to structure peering. The current structure may be inadequate. The Telco bill in congress is heading the wrong way. I am not sure of the right way. http://renesys.com/ is a NH firm that monitors the net. Someone there might have some insight. -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: LDAP from scratch.
Ken D'Ambrosio [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Is there, somewhere, a list of what things like (say) inetOrgPerson actually *are*? And, perhaps, a good subset of appropriate DNs for an install that's going to replace NIS? I found actually digging into the schema which ship with openLDAP to be very helpful. To the point where I needed something that was defined as top level thingie to be a secondary level thingie and was able to easily change it after looking at the rest of the code in the schema. Eventually I was even able to define my own schema which inherited from several of the other standard ones. I might still have this code somewhere, if you get stuck and want to try and revive those brain cells, let me know, I'll be happy to do so :) -- Seeya, Paul ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
On Wed, 2006-05-10 at 12:58 -0400, Python wrote: http://renesys.com/ is a NH firm that monitors the net. Someone there might have some insight. I poked around Todd Underwood's blog a little bit. He does not address net neutrality. http://www.renesys.com/blog/2006/03/a_tale_of_four_carriers_att_ve.shtml This is about Internet mergers. Now I know where BBN disappeared. -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Boston Linux Meeting Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 7:00 pm
When: May 17, 2006 7:00PM (6:30 for QA) Topic: Sybase on Linux Moderator: Patrick Enright Location: MIT Building E51 Room 315 Patrick's presentation will contain a brief update on the history of Sybase over the course of their 20 years with an update on Sybase's involvement on the linux platform, a detailed technical brief on the Sybase products that integrate with the Linux platform, followed by extremely interactive demonstrations of Sybase's Linux products to the Sybase Developer Network and CodeXchange. Please feel free to join the Sybase Developer Network in advance of this presentation and take a look at the Sybase offerings on Linux. For additional information, maps and directions please consult the BLU web site: http://www.blu.org Please note that there is a parking lot attached to E51 with an entrance on Amherst St. Also note that the BLU will be participating in USENIX Annual Technical Conference, Boston May 30 - June 3 at the Boston Marriott. http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix06/ And, don't forget our next installfest on Saturday, May 20th - I'll post an announcement later this week. -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 signature.asc Description: PGP signature
RE: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
Well said Ben. Glenn -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ben Scott Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 8:42 AM To: GNHLUG Subject: Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network? On 5/9/06, Greg Rundlett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The information super highway must not be made into a censored toll-lane. I'm gonna dust off my There is no Internet mini-essay for this: -- There is this myth that the Internet exists as a single, cohesive network. It does not, and never has. The Internet is a network of networks. What that means is that a bunch of independent network operators have agreed to exchange traffic with each other because it benefits them. When you dial in to your ISP of choice (or plug in your Ethernet cable or whatever), you're not connecting to the Internet. You're connecting to your ISP. Your ISP probably connects to their ISP. Their ISP (if you're lucky) connects to several other ISPs, who connect to other ISPs, and so on. All these independent network operators form the Internet. To put this in more immediate terms: If I am your ISP, you are not connecting to the Internet. You are connecting to *my* network. You and I might have an agreement that in exchange for a monthly fee, I'll pass on your packets to someone else, but you're still using *my* network. If you don't like what I do with your packets, you're free to stop using my network, but you don't get to tell me how to run my network. So, the Internet exists as an abstract concept (and a useful one), but not as something you can touch. Not even as something you can route traffic through. All you can do is connect to some other guy's network and hope for the best. The idea that the Internet is this utopian cyberspace where everybody is equal is a myth, and always has been. -- I say this not because I think the big telcos should be allowed to do this, but because this the free Internet thing needs a reality check. -- Ben There is no Internet Scott ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Hard drive troubleshooting
In /var/log/messages, smartd is reporting: Device: /de/hdb, 3 Currently unreadable (pending) sectors I'm trying to figure out where they are and how to fix them or mark them as bad. Took the machine down last night and ran SpinRite 6 on it. It reported no problems on the drive. Ran the smartctl tests, both short and long, and they finished without errors. There's a great HOWTO on fixing bad blocks at http:// smartmontools.sourceforge.net/badBlockHowTo.txt, but I don't seem to have any bad blocks to fix. Ideas on what else I can do to find/fix the errors? I'm downloaded the Western Digital diagnostics now and will see if that gets me anywhere... nope. Long and short tests all report no error. Would be glad to post the full smartctl diagnostics if anyone would like to read them. Since all the tests pass, I wondered if something else could be the source of the problems, like a driver, but SMART should be bypassing OS drivers and speaking to the hardware, I think. The drive shows Power-On hours over 33,000, so I'll plan on a replacement in any case, but I'm curious how to troubleshoot from here. Ideas welcomed. Ted Roche Ted Roche Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Hard drive troubleshooting
On 5/10/06, Ted Roche [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In /var/log/messages, smartd is reporting: Device: /de/hdb, 3 Currently unreadable (pending) sectors I managed to find this mail list thread: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=6194374forum_id=12495 Read down towards the end. It sounds like some drives have buggy firmware (surprise) that doesn't properly report bad sectors as relocated after relocation, or something like that. That also led me to the http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ page, which includes mention of your error. In particular: Normally when an uncorrectable sector is found, the disk puts this onto a 'pending sector list' to indicate that it should be replaced with a spare good sector. However this replacement won't take place until either the disk can read the data on the bad sector, or is commanded to write new data to that bad sector. So maybe that's it. If you don't already have the latest release of the SMART tools, you might want to download and build it from source, to see if that sheds further light on the problem. If you can get conclusive information, you can submit a bug report to the drive manufactuer, who will probabbly ignore it. Took the machine down last night and ran SpinRite 6 on it. It reported no problems on the drive. A few years ago, I had a client with a laptop whose hard disk started to go kaput. Laptop was running MS Win 98 SE with a FAT32 filesystem. It wouldn't boot, failed SCANDISK, and kept giving DOS critical errors trying to read files the client wanted. Plus bad sounding clicking noises. I'd heard lots of good things about SpinRite. So I bought a copy of SpinRite 5. I ran it at it's most through setting. SpinRite passed the drive with flying colors, claming all maintenance was done and no trouble was found. Meanwhile, back at the DOS prompt, the DIR command was still resulting in Abort, Retry, Fail sometimes. I asked GRC for my money back. To their credit, they responded promptly, refunded my money, and even offered to have me send the drive to them for examination to figure out why. I had to decline that (wasn't my disk). So while I was happy with GRC as a company, I was very unimpressed with SpinRite. That's just one experience, of course. Maybe it was a fluke. As I said, I've heard lots of good things about SpinRite, including on this list. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
On 5/10/06, Randy Edwards [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Okay, now you've done gone and provoked a rant out of me. :-) *Excellent*. ;-) First, the idea of regulating the ISPs is an obvious smear. Excuse me? How is that an obvious smear? What regulation are we talking about? Well, laws about how things have to be done are usually called that. Do you need me to define the word regulation for you? (Now *that's* an obvious smear. ;-) ) We're talking about telling ISPs to keep a flat-rate business model for their core Internet access ... When laws start telling businesses what prices they can charge, I view that as regulation, and fairly significant at that. Sometimes it's needed, but in my book, that solution is a last resort. Your opinion is apparently different from mine. Why, exactly, should ISPs be required to charge a flat rate? If I use more electricity, I pay more on my bill. If I drive a gas guzzling car, I pay for more gas. If I eat more food, I pay for it. If I print more pamphlets, or send more letters, or make more phone calls, I pay correspondingly more. For just about everything in the world, the more you use, the more you pay. Indeed, this isn't so much a law of the US as a law of nature. Why is data transfer different from the rest of the universe? ... and not to censor their customers. Provide a citation or reference for that claim, please. ... we're talking about an increasingly critical economic infrastructure here. Granted, but irrelevant to the question of innovation. Also irrelevant to the question of pricing (see mail, phone, electricity, et. al.). Gov't can -- and often does -- do wildly innovative things. Granted, but irrelevant to the question of how regulation stifles innovation. All your nifty examples of how government projects can be good are nice, but again, irrelevant to the question of stifling innovation. I'm not objecting on grounds that it's da gov'mint, but that regulation can easily become a stumbling block. This is true whether the regulations come from the legislature, or from a private industry group, or even from within an organization. A regulation -- a law, a rule, whatever you call it -- is a restriction. Regulations say one cannot do certain things, or that one must do things a certain way. Sometimes -- I'd say frequently, but it's impossible to measure -- new ideas will come into conflict with old regulations. You already saw my QoS example. I think it's a pretty good one. All packets are equal would have made perfect sense circa 1998, but it would have made QoS for VoIP illegal. How about a law saying core ISPs cannot block traffic? Sounds good, right? What about DDoS'es? When SQL Slammer hit, ISPs everywhere blocked port 1434 and got the Internet back up and running quickly. Oops, we made that illegal. Sorry! There are times where restrictions are needed. Thou shalt not kill seems to be a popular one. But I honestly believe we're all better off if we can get by without them. Regulation by definition does not thwart innovation and stifle business -- only bad regulation does that. Sure. It's predicting the bad that makes things difficult. If it were so easy to tell the bad from the good, I suspect we'd be living in a different world. -- Ben Limits Scott ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?
On 5/10/06, Python [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At some point ISP's simply trade bits (peer) without charging each other. Right. Peering is a simple, equal trade. Big ISPs need to interconnect with each other. They could pay each other equal amounts of money, but that would be dumb. They pay in bits. If either side decides it isn't mutually beneficial, they can end the agreement. As I understand it, the big telco's are looking to leverage their dominance to end or at least modify peering arrangements. They want to force other ISPs to pay for bit delivery. Could you provide a reference? Not that I don't believe it -- that sounds *exactly* what a big telco would try to do -- but I want to get the story from the horse's mouth, so to speak. In particular, if, say, Comcast went to Level 3 and said, Start paying us or we'll depeer, Level 3 could just as easily say, Fine, and all your customers won't be able to get to the websites and warez and porn they pay you for. It seems like it would self-correct, and fairly quickly. The Telco bill in congress is heading the wrong way. Anyone got links to actual legislation, existing FCC/FTC rules, bills, proposed bills, etc? That is what I'm most interested in, and also haven't been able to find. *Tons* of rhetoric and articles making vague claims, but all of it is just as unsubstantiated as my original essay in this forum was. I found one link, from Slashdot, to http://www.benton.org/benton_files/barton+bill.pdf, but that doesn't seem to have anything to do with this supposed Network Neutrality issue. It's about cable operators, sure, but I didn't find anything about competition or pricing, other than something about government agencies not granting preference to one provider over another in their own dealings. Did I miss something? You can twist perceptions / Reality won't budge -- Rush, Show Me Don't Tell Me -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
