Foo - 20 reasons why this summer sucked!

This has been one stinky summer thanks to work! So, here is a little rant to vent some frustration. If you don't want to see my pitty party, then don't read on. :rolleyes:

Lets see....
1. Roll out new AIX & Windows 2003 servers for a crummy flat file Kobal database application that isn't even HIPAA compliant!
2. My Help Desk guy quits in March just before I have to fly to Ohio to spend a week in AIX training.
3. Hire new person to fill the Help Desk position. He quits after month stating, "I need to be around people more than this job allows." WTF!
4. 5 NetWare 6 servers that still need the latest patches applied!
5. New AIX & Win2003 application updates in and still not applied.
6. Expand the network by 20 users spread out over 55,000 sq/miles & 20 facilities!
7. Update front end applications for the new AIX & Win2003 POS application. 200 computers, 25 facilities!
8. Get into bike crash, brake 2 ribs, road rash, huge hematoma on my left hip, mild concussion. Can't lift anything for 3 weeks!
9. Hire new Help Desk person.
10. New person works 1 week. Does not show up, call, or email me the second week! WTF! And she has the keys to EVERYTHING! UURRRGGGG!
11. Opening a new facility that includes a WAN link back to our Administrative office.
12. New Cisco routers for moving our small offices from dial up VPN to broadband. (25 facilities). WHERE IS MY BUDGET TO GET THIS DONE!
13. Received word that the new facility has to be up by September 1st!
14. Windows security updates cause STOP errors when logging into the pc with the NetWare client!
15. Office 2003 does not like to play nice with the old HP 5si running at 10Mbps and little memory.
16. Install new printer to replace the 5si since I couldn't find memory for the 5si!
17. Fiber link goes offline in our Helena facility. Drive 90 miles one way to reset the fiber transceivers because there is no body there brave enough to follow my instructions!
18. Staff in our Browning office unplugs the computers and phones in the reception area for a remodel with out labeling any of it. They try to put things back together to no avail. Sooo, I drive the 140 miles one way to find they have the analog modem plugged into the digital PBX phone jack and the digital phone plugged into the analog modem jack. Modem fried. You can actually smell the smoke in the modem.
19. Hire new Help Desk person. His first day was today. Train the new guy!
20. Drive back to Browning to install new modem.


OK, there ya have it. 20 reasons why my summer sucked. (this is only the highlights) :cry:


No chance of vacation. No chance in sight before winter sets in. Burn-out is fast approaching.

Thank god I commute by bicycle. Otherwise I would need to schedule an appointment with one of our Psychiatrists to get some heavy meds! :p

Ok, there is my pitty party. Now, I have work to do. :rolleyes:

Bob

Did you know work is supposed to be enjoyable?

I suspect you really had a great summer but like to complain.

Sorry this does not help,

ehenz

what's up with the help desk position? is it just a really crappy job, or are the people just deadbeats?

Helpdesk sucks. And, I don't know about his company, but they will sometimes make ovr qualified people work the crappiest job ever (helpdesk)...I know if I applied for a job in the city, even with all my experience, they would want to put me in a helpdesk situation first...I would have to quit. Not worth my time to make crap coin to do such a crappy job. I prefered janitorial work to helpdesk....

1. Roll out new AIX & Windows 2003 servers for a crummy flat file Kobal database application that isn't even HIPAA compliant!


I finally got ride of my aix box running some ancitent cryptic flat file crapbase. Best thing that happened to me this year. Now I just have an ancient IBM box sitting in my server room holding down an important piece of paper.



2. My Help Desk guy quits in March just before I have to fly to Ohio to spend a week in AIX training.
3. Hire new person to fill the Help Desk position. He quits after month stating, "I need to be around people more than this job allows." WTF!


Help desk sucks haha



4. 5 NetWare 6 servers that still need the latest patches applied!
5. New AIX & Win2003 application updates in and still not applied.


Thats always the worst. Especially if you work with a company hat is 24/7 and doesn't like when you take servers down to do updates.



6. Expand the network by 20 users spread out over 55,000 sq/miles & 20 facilities!


Wow..ratio users to sq/miles is huge :)



8. Get into bike crash, brake 2 ribs, road rash, huge hematoma on my left hip, mild concussion. Can't lift anything for 3 weeks!


Scars are temporary...glory is forever :D



9. Hire new Help Desk person.
10. New person works 1 week. Does not show up, call, or email me the second week! WTF! And she has the keys to EVERYTHING! UURRRGGGG!


Helpdesk sucks :)



13. Received word that the new facility has to be up by September 1st!


It never stops...work work work. Probably only told you a week ago :)



14. Windows security updates cause STOP errors when logging into the pc with the NetWare client!


But seriously...is windows more secure ;)



17. Fiber link goes offline in our Helena facility. Drive 90 miles one way to reset the fiber transceivers because there is no body there brave enough to follow my instructions!


"Come on guys...unplug and plug back in...don't make me drive out there to do what you know how to do to an alarm clock"

"I don't see the on/off switch"

"AHhhhhhh its a 6in by 3inch transiever...UNPLUG IT"

:D...I love dumb people. They make me work so hard and appreciate me so little :)



18. Staff in our Browning office unplugs the computers and phones in the reception area for a remodel with out labeling any of it. They try to put things back together to no avail. Sooo, I drive the 140 miles one way to find they have the analog modem plugged into the digital PBX phone jack and the digital phone plugged into the analog modem jack. Modem fried. You can actually smell the smoke in the modem.


Curious...do we work for the same company. They redid an office without telling me and call me at 6am wanting the office complete...by 7 am...when I didn't know it was even apart...



19. Hire new Help Desk person. His first day was today. Train the new guy!


Bets on how long he lasts?



I have one for ya. My boss wants me to learn about a program that was just released and currently has no manul on it. Build an intranet and learn and new programming language by the end of the month. Then he comes up and asks me to program a small web based app, at the same time, for a subcontract he has...but tells me I can't charge him to much cause it isn't a large contract. Sometimes I wonder why I stay in IT....oh yeah...job security and money (not much but enough)...

Bob,

Good luck. Just know there are other people suffering at the hands of technology trying to make everything work flawlessly for the uninformed of the world to make them believe technology really is their saviour...

Help desk jobs sometimes aren't bad. I've been doing it for almost six years.

Help desk manager jobs suck! ;)

Help desk jobs sometimes aren't bad. I've been doing it for almost six years.

Help desk manager jobs suck! ;)

I just don't like phone. I can't deal with people on the end just being clueless. If you have ever seen becker...when it comes to dealing with normal people I am becker. I just don't have the patience for people who ask dumb questions to what would normally be a really simple answer if A) rtfm or b) stayed awak in call long enough to remember how to bold and or show the toolbar along the top.

That and I don't like phones :D

We'd make a good team. I don't mind phones. I get to browse ebay while I help the clueless with the network and database problems... :)

Maybe we should go to work for N7CZinMT? As long as the winter is mild and the snow doesn't exceed 1 or 2 inches I'm game... :D

That and I don't like phones :D

you sound like me. i've had a natural aversion to phones for my entire life. i don't like talking into them for any length of time and i hate them when they ring. i don't know why, it's a technology that just doesn't agree with me. face to face or email is fine...just don't call me. ;)

Thats exactly how I look at them. I can't convery my message properly. I don't like not being face to face. I find it annoying to hold the phone. The whole phone thing bugs me. If it wasn't for work I would never in my entire life think to carry the evil cell phone let alone a blackberry where my email server can contact me anytime to tell me how much it sucks and likes to break down. Cell phones and connectivity technology are just plain evil...evil I say :D

The irony is I am neck deep in the technology. Deploying, building and phreaking our entire phone system. Its like I live in my own personal hell.

<snip>I suspect you really had a great summer but like to complain.

Its obvious that you have not read many of my posts. Ask around the forum here. I am sure I'm not known as a complainer. I think you have missed the point of this thread.


what's up with the help desk position? is it just a really crappy job, or are the people just deadbeats?


Actually, for someone that likes to work with computers and BDUs its a pretty good job. Especially for this job market. Not to mention pretty good benefits! I think there is a HUGE difference between Joe Smoe computer guy that helps his friends and family that has some knowledge vs. a computer professional who can deal with the stresses involved when you have 200 users expecting results.



Helpdesk sucks. <snip>

Well. I am not fond of doing the Help Desk job either.

Well, we are leaving an AS/400 server/application (relational database HIPAA compliant) for the crappy application on the AIX box. That is what happens when the technical staff's opinions are discarded by the administration.

As for phones. I don't really care one way or the other. The big factor with phone support is the BDU on the other end. Often getting them to click on the right icon is next to impossible. That is why I have installed remote control software on all the PCs.



<snip>Maybe we should go to work for N7CZinMT? As long as the winter is mild and the snow doesn't exceed 1 or 2 inches I'm game... :D

:roflmao: :lol:

Did you see my location to the left of my posts? Lets see. -40F in winter 12+ inches of snow not out of the question. +100F in the summer. 40-50deg F difference between night and day. Please.... :rolleyes:

Man, all this help desk stuff makes me think of this:

http://www.userfriendly.org/

Wow, I can list almost 20 reasons why my summer rocked!

As for phones. I don't really care one way or the other. The big factor with phone support is the BDU on the other end. Often getting them to click on the right icon is next to impossible. That is why I have installed remote control software on all the PCs.

YEah I love remote helpers. Our past 2 directors have disallowed installing remote programs. Thank god winxp has a remote help thats at least adequate.

20 reasons why my summer RULED:
the direct opposite of everything you listed N7CZinMT
I am going back to get my Masters of Arts in Teaching. Screw the corporate world.

YEah I love remote helpers. Our past 2 directors have disallowed installing remote programs. Thank god winxp has a remote help thats at least adequate.

We are just starting to roll out XP. I've not played with that application. We currently run WinVNC. It sure helps to keep me from driving 100+ miles because the remote BDU deleted an icon or can't figure out how to use the HELP function in word for the mail merge they are trying to do.

I'm the S.E. I'm not the people person in the department. I'm the guy that keeps the stuff running that the BDUs can't even fathom. Not to mention defending the network, but alas, that is another rant altogether.. :D

']20 reasons why my summer RULED:
the direct opposite of everything you listed N7CZinMT
I am going back to get my Masters of Arts in Teaching. Screw the corporate world.

I used to teach Network Engineering at a local technical college in the A.S. program. I really had a blast. I have often thought about going back to college to become a teacher. One day.....one day...

Heh, mine isn't 20 reasons, but still bad.

1) management asks us for our max "safe" production output per day, we tell them 2.5, no higher. For some reason this question make my bowels churn.

2) I discover why....they want us to do 3....since my co-worker has a bad habit of bailing, I get stuck with the OT.

3) I suddenly find out we have a bad batch of hardware, and we only had enough for the units under test....go go gadget soldering iron

4) get home at 12am, wake up at 4 to get ready for work.

5) find out management bought too much inventory and watns it flushed, we are now pushing 6 units a day...I request my own hammock and request is denied.

6) kick my co-workers butt into working longer...somewhat helps.

7) work from 6am to 11:30pm 5 days a week for the past 2 months. Sometimes saturdays 6am-3am.

8) they say we are finally oging to slow back down....5 *$&%^@#$ units a day.

9) I tell them in slightly nicer words to eat a bag of *&^%.

10) Stuck here tonight :(

I know how you feel man, I so know how you feel.

The beauty if IT. The more you know, the more your life sucks.

We are just starting to roll out XP. I've not played with that application. We currently run WinVNC. It sure helps to keep me from driving 100+ miles because the remote BDU deleted an icon or can't figure out how to use the HELP function in word for the mail merge they are trying to do.

I'm the S.E. I'm not the people person in the department. I'm the guy that keeps the stuff running that the BDUs can't even fathom. Not to mention defending the network, but alas, that is another rant altogether.. :D


XP is just using remote desktop(like a terminal services). It is a lot more secure than winVNC. I know VNC was freeware, but if you are stuck without XP for awhile you should try a product called Timbuktu. It has full Windows security with different perms for different type of users who you want to control the machine. It is only like $30 a copy or even less the more copies you buy..

As far as the helpdesk. You are probably hiring people who already have all the skills of a job. Hire someone who is just trying to break into the computer world but has great people skills. Helpdesk loses it's challenges pretty quickly and if you get someone who is in learning mode, they will appreciate the job better. People who already have the skills seem to get frustrated to quickly.
The end users may suffer a little, but if the helpdesk person has a good personality, he can usually smooth things over fairly quickly.

Anyway, I feel for your summer. I hope you company appreciates your hard work. If they don't find something else if possible. The few jobs before this job, I had some great times. This job sucks and I wish the economy was better so I can get the f out of here. BUT gotta work so I can enjoy my bicycling and other fun stuff.

Take a long ride.. It helps me blow off the steam when work sucks.

Well, that's my 2 cents...

Hey Bab.

Actually, they all were people that were "newish" to the field. So far, the current guy seems to be just what the doctor ordered.

As for the company appreciating my efforts. Well, I know my boss does. However the "organization" has done a poor job of showing it for all of the employees. We are entering our second year of an across the board pay freeze. Of course, they also increased the insurance coverage premiums by $80.00/month to go with the freeze. But I digress. :rolleyes:

Hey Bab.

Actually, they all were people that were "newish" to the field. So far, the current guy seems to be just what the doctor ordered.

As for the company appreciating my efforts. Well, I know my boss does. However the "organization" has done a poor job of showing it for all of the employees. We are entering our second year of an across the board pay freeze. Of course, they also increased the insurance coverage premiums by $80.00/month to go with the freeze. But I digress. :rolleyes:


We had the same thing. I got a 2% raise and our insurance went up something similar to yours. I'm glad to hear the new guy is working. Give him lots of compliments to start off with. Let him know he is appreciated so he'll stay for awhile :)

Try to look on the bright side. It is still day light savings time and it is lighter later so you can still ride later in the evening..

Quit complaining.

You are bipedular?

Got work?

Do you live in a 3'rd world country?

Eat garbage?

Need me to go on,

and on?

Be thankful dude, that is all you got to B**** about,

you are lucky,...

say it-

"I'm one lucky dude."

You own a bike?

Go ride it.

To put your 'prob' into perspective....a friend has lost her eyesight to diabetes, and had most of her toes on one foot removed.

Suck it up, if you can. While you can.

>jef.

Your right Jeff. "I AM ONE LUCKY DUDE!"

I never said anything about not being lucky. Or not having been blessed in many ways. Just ranting about being stressed with work. I know other technology professionals can relate. If you aren't one, I don't expect you to even come close to getting the whole point of this thread.

Your friend's losses are tragic, indeed. However, your use of them, and her, in an attempt to cause some guilty emotional response from me is pointless.

A little curious...why bother with a flat-file database? Is it faster than other options?

I feel for you on the helpdesk.

Not to cheapen your frustration, but it makes me want to vent mine:

1. Didn't get an internship related to my major (mechanical engineering)
2. Got stuck doing web development for another internship
3. People I'm developing for have NO specifics about what they want.
4. Dealing with IE all summer while web developing.
5. Didn't get the second evening "do-nothing" job that covers housing.
6. Crunched some numbers on my budget...dream of new bike crashes.
7. A pain to fit in time to drive good riding spots really inconvenient.
8. Stupid squeaking noise coming from the wheel wells
9. Squeaking came back 2 weeks after complete brake-job. Benign but hella annoying.
10. My 1 week of vacation was spent volunteering with almost no sleep.
11. There's girls in Portland?
12. Textbooks...only 4 this time, but 4 x $125 each.
13. Scary tuition bill intimidating my bank account.
14. My boss' bosses redefining my position for fall job.
15. Stupid Regal Cinemas near monopoly in Portland
16. One of the people I supervise in fall dropping out less than 4 weeks before school starts. Not a lot of time to recruit when the recruiting pool is all on vacation.
17. Crappy outdoor soccer season
18. Crappy indoor soccer season
19. No AC...100 degree weather
20. School again in 9 more days...I've been outside of Portland a total of 3-4 times the last 3 months.

Maelstrom, you're my hero and comedian.

A little curious...why bother with a flat-file database? Is it faster than other options?


Its kind of left in the hands of developers. It isn't faster (in my experience) tends to be less stable (can't handle multiple introductions of data without farting and needing a reindex)...I generally don't like flat file db's (nobody really does anymore) except for the most rudimentary and individual pieces of software.



Maelstrom, you're my hero and comedian


:beer: Thanx :D

A little curious...why bother with a flat-file database? Is it faster than other options? <snip>

Well, this is what happens when the technical staff is not consulted. Or, if you will, the opinion of the technical staff is not given it's due weight in the process. Our current system is worlds ahead of this new thing that was crammed down our thoat.

Oh well. It gives me a couple of new server operating systems on my resume. :D

Hehehe...it makes me feel quite good that this happens to other people. Sorry but I was going through day to day fighting and struggling with my director over a lot of topics because he is 'educated' and a smart guy, while I am technically sound. He just doesn't like to listen to me about things like

1 - backup - we have none. Lots of new servers but no enterprise data storage...he answer...win2003 has a 7 day data backup built in...my question "windows crashes badly...do you want to send the email"
2 - Anti-virus - we go from 2 systems working well. Sybari as our anti virus in our exchange server and norton as enterprise level. We then dump sybari (the BEST software ever, anyone with exchange should dish out the coin for it...) and norton and go with an enterprise level McAfee (I hate mcafee). Its slower, less resistant, doesn't want to do data updates and generally sucks big monkey balls on the enterprise level
3 - "We need these project done byt the end of the month"..."well boss...we are currently short handed by 2 full people, now run 3 extra properties on our wan and still have an ubundance of day to day calls (we do support and enterprise level admin)...we won't be able to finish all of these projects (including learning a new programming language and sql) in time, we need a delay"....boss says "if you fall behind ask for help"....I say "Ok...we need help, we are behind and you aren't around"...boss says "when he gets time he will help"...anyways...I am feeling pissed today...


I am just a tech who has been dealing with resoration and security / anti security for a long time. These things don't concern him, or my previous director, or the director before her. Why are directors sooo smart yet soooo dumb....AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Cheers

BTW Aix is interesting...not fantastic but interesting. Right up there with sco in my books of things on my resume that likely won't be useful again but definately fun to learn :)

Maalstrom, if your "Director" trusts anything that is produced by Microsoft, then he/she should have a mental exam! ESPECIALLY something as important as BACKUP and RECOVERY. Also known as DISASTER RECOVERY. My question to him, regarding backup, is , "What happens if the building burns down?" You see, I used to be a "Field Engineer" for Inacom Information Systems. IIS had many Rural Public school accounts. My first year with IIS we updated the Malta, Montana school with 250 new pcs and 4 new servers. All IBMs on a sweet 16MBps Token Ring network. (fastest thing out at the time!). Well, that following Chirstmas Eve, the boiler in the school exploded and the school, pcs, and servers were a total loss. Their data was safely on tape in the "IT" person's back pack. One call to IBM and we had the entire network delivered within 48 hours! (all new hardware & software)

The moral to the story is ANYTHING can happen. ANYTHING will happen. Even the unimaginable. Your director's short sightedness looms large. I feel for you, bro!

BTW Aix is interesting...not fantastic but interesting. Right up there with sco in my books of things on my resume that likely won't be useful again but definately fun to learn :)

While I'm not a huge fan of AIX (SMIT is a four-letter word!), it was used to run the entire Internet backbone at one time when the ENSS (edge nodal switching system) and CNSS (core nodal switching system) were highly modified RS6000/950 machines with specially developed linecards. As a matter of fact, I have the machine that used to host the central routing database (prdb.merit.edu) sitting in my garage. It's an old RS6000/530.

Many, if not most, of the custom "vertical market applications" that drive today's large scale businesses are running on AIX. One example of this is the database system used by ShopKo Optical. It does not enjoy the market share of the Microsoft paltform. Nor does NetWare. Both of which I would choose over any Microsoft platform/product. They are so much more powerful and robust. (and secure) Just my opinioin derived from 10 years in the field.

EDIT: Hey, don't rag on SMIT to hard. As an AIX newbie, it is my friend. :o

I gotta say, and I hope I'm not the only one here...that totally went over my head! Of course I am used to "no, stop, don't touch"...toddler not husband :-)

If we had a major crash/flood anything everythign would be lost. I have tried endlessly to get a major backup doesn't happen. Ironically our server room is located underneath the pool (I love engineers too) so leaks have happened in the past crippling our pbx's and destroying many digital cards. I can't do much more. They know my concerns. I also know if something on that level does happen it would be a clean slate. No files, no data, no app server...it would cost an endless amount to recreate just the apps let alone the time involved in rebuilding files. Just thinking about it gives me a headache...

Anyways enough whining. I have just been feeling the pressure lately. You first post reminded me of that, so I kind of co-whined.

Cheers :thumb::beer:

While I'm not a huge fan of AIX (SMIT is a four-letter word!), it was used to run the entire Internet backbone at one time when the ENSS (edge nodal switching system) and CNSS (core nodal switching system) were highly modified RS6000/950 machines with specially developed linecards. As a matter of fact, I have the machine that used to host the central routing database (prdb.merit.edu) sitting in my garage. It's an old RS6000/530.

Unix/linux isn't extremely popular here. It is used for some items but doesn't seem to be as prevelant as it is down there. Mac is the same way. In 17 years of fixing, repairing building pc's...I have seen...15 macs...total. And 1 was mine before it was mac...good ole apple IIc. :)

EDIT: Hey, don't rag on SMIT to hard. As an AIX newbie, it is my friend. :o

You have to admit that it's fairly frustrating when the "running man" falls down.

Many, if not most, of the custom "vertical market applications" that drive today's large scale businesses are running on AIX. One example of this is the database system used by ShopKo Optical. It does not enjoy the market share of the Microsoft paltform. Nor does NetWare. Both of which I would choose over any Microsoft platform/product. They are so much more powerful and robust. (and secure) Just my opinioin derived from 10 years in the field.

EDIT: Hey, don't rag on SMIT to hard. As an AIX newbie, it is my friend. :o

HEHEHEHE...we just turned off our aix box in place of a windows box running our property management system. In 4 years of being here...aix never crashed and any problem was easily recoverable. Windows crashes constantly...We also dumped both Novell servers in place of win2k > win2003

The only bonus to windows is when it does crash the db is FAR quicker to reindex.

I have never been a fan of *nix...but there are certain application with which they should be primary. (security, disaster recovery etc etc)

Hey, maelstrom. You have the EXACT intent of this thread! To vent with people that will have some understanding of the magnitude of the issues which produce the need to vent! I don't have anyone in my life that understands what I'm talking about when I need to vent. Besides, isn't that part of what the FOO forum is for? "Other then cycling topics"

cycleprincess - Don't worry about not understanding. What you have in this thread are a few Technology Professionals venting frustrations. We have a lingo all our own. Its actually a result of brain washing. :D



1010101010010101110101010101010100010101010100101010101010100101110101010110101

Sweet. Well in that case it was good to vent. I think tommorow I might try and find an old server (read slow) and try and build a mini backup for key items...I need to do something haha...

cheers

10110100110100010110

You have to admit that it's fairly frustrating when the "running man" falls down.

I'm not sure what the "running man" is? Could you expain it to me? Don't forget, I'm a NetWare guy. AIX is fresh meat. Or am I the fresh meat? Its getting late and I'm confused. :eek:

Unix/linux isn't extremely popular here. It is used for some items but doesn't seem to be as prevelant as it is down there. Mac is the same way. In 17 years of fixing, repairing building pc's...I have seen...15 macs...total. And 1 was mine before it was mac...good ole apple IIc. :)

Well, the general populous never really adhered to unix/linux. However most people don't realise that it's way more prevelant than what they can see. For instance, TiVo boxes run linux and Mac OSX is actually FreeBSD at the core. Many other appliances also use embedded unix. Motion control devices in factories often are run on QNX (one of the first embedded unix-derived RTOS) as do some medical care equipment. The weather graphics you see on the nightly news are generated on Irix running on SGIs. PDI of Shrek fame and Pixar use large rendering farms made up of FreeBSD and Solaris boxes.

I myself come from a scientific/engineering and educational/research world as well as havng a lot of experience working in the network engineering portion of in the telco space. In these applications, unix is still the choice amongst professionals.

I'm not sure what the "running man" is? Could you expain it to me? Don't forget, I'm a NetWare guy. AIX is fresh meat. Or am I the fresh meat? Its getting late and I'm confused. :eek:

I'm not sure if you ever used the old Motif graphical version of SMIT but when you clicked on something to have it commit an action, a little man started to run in the corner of the window (think about the silly animation you see on many web browsers). It was supposed to convey to the user that something was happening. When an action failed such as resizing a volume onto a drive that has existing data, the running man would stop and keel over. An error message would be displayed but it was very cryptic and included a big number you had to look up in a big book in order to decipher it. Typical this required to operators to go to a special locker, break open a sealed envelope and simultaneously insert and rotate their keys. :D "Captain, I have an authenticated emergency action message from the national command authority... do you concur?"

Maybe one of these days, I will relate to you my story about having to hotwire an AIX box because we lost one of the front panel keys.

Well, the general populous never really adhered to unix/linux. However most people don't realise that it's way more prevelant than what they can see. For instance, TiVo boxes run linux and Mac OSX is actually FreeBSD at the core. Many other appliances also use embedded unix. Motion control devices in factories often are run on QNX (one of the first embedded unix-derived RTOS) as do some medical care equipment. The weather graphics you see on the nightly news are generated on Irix running on SGIs. PDI of Shrek fame and Pixar use large rendering farms made up of FreeBSD and Solaris boxes.

I myself come from a scientific/engineering and educational/research world as well as havng a lot of experience working in the network engineering portion of in the telco space. In these applications, unix is still the choice amongst professionals.

You forgot most older telco systems run qnix / *nix...I do realize that *nix is hidden..most good firewalls are also nix. I guess I was speaking more on the application layer :)

My first *nix was freebsd...I do love it. In my current career there is just no point. If I do decide to move from whistler I might, at some point relearn *nix. Keep in mind this is a windwos town. Look at all the names of their prototypes and betas...longhorn, blackcomb etc.. etc... MOST are whistler based properties, bars, names :) The town loves and worships windows...I can't wait to see a giant blue screen of death appear on the mountain :D Gates owns a house here, an employee 'getaway' house and some condos in various hotels. We also tend to get stuff free...which is very appealing in a town with real estate prices that are the highest in canada. :)

Thanks for the "Running Man" explination, khoun.

Hey, lets through another OS into the mix. A buddy of mine works for Diebold. They make bank instant cash machines. (among many other bank systems) Last I hear, they were still running OS/2 on some of them! :eek:

Thanks for the "Running Man" explination, khoun.

Hey, lets through another OS into the mix. A buddy of mine works for Diebold. They make bank instant cash machines. (among many other bank systems) Last I hear, they were still running OS/2 on some of them! :eek:

OS/2 is no longer made, so if they are running it, it is an old version. I use to work for IBM when OS/2 was at it's peak. Bill Gates invented it and the original version were no different the NT 3.51 except the printer drivers sucked(the only piece IBM really wrote). BUT OS/2 needed lots of RAM and that was when RAM was still way way expensive. A lot of major players would only let their apps run on OS/2 servers. When Bill Gates left IBM, he took that code with him as well and came up with NT 3.5.

As far as not having backups, do what we did at one point(not on purpose of course :D ) Have a server that is one of the more minor servers crash and take a day or two to get it to come up. 1. You will be a hero for making it survive. 2. You boss might think twice that there are no backups of that server.

When Bill Gates left IBM, he took that code with him as well and came up with NT 3.5.

Just a bit of history behind NT. NT was not invented by Microsoft although they were working on a project they called NT at the time that they ended up junking because they couldn't meet their design goals. They also didn't want to reuse OS/2 code so they met with DEC and got some consulting from the DEC engineers. NT started out as WNT (the W did not stand for Windows) at Digital Equipment Corporation when Dave Cutler was working for DEC in their WRL (Workstation Research Labs in Palo Alto, CA). I believe the orignal internal codename was Mica. The joke goes that the name WNT is a one letter increment from VMS (DEC's popular mini/mainframe OS of the day). DEC was really cooking along with WNT until Dave left and went to work for Microsoft. As a matter of fact, the radical highly advanced processor of the early 1990s was the DEC Alpha that was specifically designed with special hardware support/acceleration to run WNT. The Alpha also had a special VAX emulation core and substantial hardware acceleration support for VMS as well. The WNT and Alpha projects were supposed to develop in lockstep coordination of one-another. WNT's front end was supposed to retain a lot of the look and feel of OpenVMS and Digital Unix/OSF1. It was also supposed to marry a lot of the underlying features of both OSes to support full-moon processing, grid-computing, high scaling, etc. Anyone who's ever used VMS can testify to the excellent distributed computing capabilities that OS brought to the DEC-clusters. Of course by the time it all landed in Microsoft land, things had changed and Microsoft spent a lot of effort ripping out much of the highly scaling multi-concurrent environment aspects of WNT. The name was then changed to NT and the rest is history.

Unix is pretty funs stuff. Try LynxOS for something a bit different.....realtime Unix.

The most useless thing I ever learned has to be learning to make VMS apps. Only good thing I got out of that was making what could have been the last bug report...I found a way to log myself out and continue to run processes....of course this makes the machine barf out crap on every terminal connected to it...so it's not a wise thing to do in a school computer lab....I think I still have scars from the beating I got for it :(

Unix is pretty funs stuff. Try LynxOS for something a bit different.....realtime Unix.

LynxOS is not Unix. It has a Linux ABI (application binary interface) but that's different. The intent of the ABI is to allow applications that were designed around unix environments to be easily ported and run in LynxOS. However there are some quirks and things running in an ABI will never run as fast as if running natively. Admittedly, they will run faster than if they were running in a VM subsystem emulation. I just got done porting some stuff to the LynxOS Linux ABI and found it lacking in quite a few areas... especially those pertaining to networking (there's some confusion between the Linux-like runtime stack and the BSD-like network stack). It is however a fairly robust RTOS with priority scheduling. But one thing that still needs to be done is to properly relate scheduling policy and memory management across the ABI. IMHO, QNX is a superior and mature RTOS if you want unix-compatibility because it's actually derived from unix. LynxOS just has a bolted on unix front-end.

They also didn't want to reuse OS/2 code so they met with DEC and got some consulting from the DEC engineers. NT started out as WNT (the W did not stand for Windows) at Digital Equipment Corporation when Dave Cutler was working for DEC in their WRL (Workstation Research Labs in Palo Alto, CA).

They might not have reused OS/2 code, but it had to be pretty darn close. My job after IBM was rolling out NT and there really was NO learning curve. At the time I never touch NT only OS/2 and NT was not very different at all. Even the ICONS were the same.

Oh well, Interesting stuff. Too much tech talk for me after hours!!! I do it for a living, so I don't want it as a hobby.

They might not have reused OS/2 code, but it had to be pretty darn close. My job after IBM was rolling out NT and there really was NO learning curve. At the time I never touch NT only OS/2 and NT was not very different at all. Even the ICONS were the same.

Yeah but that's just the GUI/front-end which actually was probably carried over from the pre-WNT development of NT. The real guts of NT was quite different than OS/2. The Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) concept was the hallmark of WNT's design and radical for its time. It along with the kernel-level pre-emption model was the thing that Microsoft really wanted from DEC. It's too bad that user-level threading and user-level pre-emption got thrown out otherwise WindowsNT would have been way ahead of the other OSes at the time. OS/2 applications emulation was achieved through an OS/2 VM subsystem. The VM concept admittedly was an idea borrowed from IBM but it was DEC (as did other companies) that did the borrowing (to support running POSIX unix and VMS applications concurrently with native apps) and not Microsoft and it was done long before Microsoft had approached DEC for help. However, the concept and not the implementation was borrowed. The requirement for OS/2 compatibility was indeed a by-product of Microsoft's influence and implementation of VM.