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What Kinds of Computer Geeks Inhabit EN World?
- Thread starter Eye Tyrant
- Start date
Terraism
Explorer
I'm aspiring - I just need to get a degree, though, and then I can move up the ranks! 
(Course, that won't be for a least a handful or so of years..)
FSCK - I'd say your current problem is one of two things -
A) You own an Apple computer?
B) You seem to connect to the internet through a shared 56k connection?
(Course, that won't be for a least a handful or so of years..)FSCK - I'd say your current problem is one of two things -
A) You own an Apple computer?
B) You seem to connect to the internet through a shared 56k connection?
Gargoyle
Adventurer
fsck said:
I just qualify for super, having tons of certs and experience, but only a 2 year degree in Electronic Systems. Really though, the industry is becoming so specialized that everybody has to be an expert at something, and ignorant of much else.
I'm a network engineer for GE with a CCNP, CCDP, and an old CNE I don't use anymore (and an expired MCSE, if that matters), and I'm working on my CCIE. I know just enough Unix to be dangerous and nothing of dbases or programming. I've got more systems than you, but as I use half of them for work and not hobby, that's only natural.
And I personally own a frankenstein of a Cisco lab:
1 ISDN simulator
1 5505 catalyst switch
1 4000 router
1 3640 router
1 2610 router
1 2511 terminal server
1 1601 router
2 2502 TR routers
2 token ring maus
Probably disk space and disk access speed on your file server. Another possibility would be lack of UPS's / wattage for all your desktops, or a tape backup system (though you've mentioned that.)
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That apple dig hurts...
But actually, they are shared on the ISDN (single line, 2B channel 128k aggregate). The modem is back-up for when ISDN is out.
The real problem, since you were polite enough to be my only taker, is a lack of adequate backup hardware! How the hell, as a consumer/home user, do you backup 200GB+ of disk?!
I suppose I could schedule CD-R burning, but a human still has to swap the discs... and at five minutes a disc that's something like 24 hours straight worth of backups. A whole day lost each month to backups? I think not.
You could purchase redundant disk, but then you have serious issues with mechanical failure and integrated units (i.e. if the disk heads fail your media is bad since it is all one piece). Plus, some of my systems already don't have enough IDE ports left -and I'll be damned if I'm going to open all the PCs up twice a month to swap disks around. And even then it wouldn't help me with the laptops.
The only real solution is tape, which is tremendously -nay, hideously expensive. DAT tapes are still the industry standard but even 20GB cost big $$. And the robots are even more expensive.
This isn't just a home problem, actually... here at Sun we are looking at 500GB SCSI disks by the end of '03 (for scarcely $1k a pop). If you were to fill a whole rack of Sun T3 arrays with 500GB disks... <shudders>... with 18 drives per array, 4 arrays per cabinet... a 72" cabinet gives you over 35 TERRABYTES worth of storage. Total cost is maybe $200k.
Where, I ask, WHERE is my 35TB single-cabinet tape silo? The answer, dear readers, is that it resides in disguise, in the form of an 8000-pound, multi-million dollar StorageTek Powderhorn silo -the largest they produce.
This concludes your enterprise IT rant for the day.
But actually, they are shared on the ISDN (single line, 2B channel 128k aggregate). The modem is back-up for when ISDN is out.
The real problem, since you were polite enough to be my only taker, is a lack of adequate backup hardware! How the hell, as a consumer/home user, do you backup 200GB+ of disk?!
I suppose I could schedule CD-R burning, but a human still has to swap the discs... and at five minutes a disc that's something like 24 hours straight worth of backups. A whole day lost each month to backups? I think not.
You could purchase redundant disk, but then you have serious issues with mechanical failure and integrated units (i.e. if the disk heads fail your media is bad since it is all one piece). Plus, some of my systems already don't have enough IDE ports left -and I'll be damned if I'm going to open all the PCs up twice a month to swap disks around. And even then it wouldn't help me with the laptops.
The only real solution is tape, which is tremendously -nay, hideously expensive. DAT tapes are still the industry standard but even 20GB cost big $$. And the robots are even more expensive.
This isn't just a home problem, actually... here at Sun we are looking at 500GB SCSI disks by the end of '03 (for scarcely $1k a pop). If you were to fill a whole rack of Sun T3 arrays with 500GB disks... <shudders>... with 18 drives per array, 4 arrays per cabinet... a 72" cabinet gives you over 35 TERRABYTES worth of storage. Total cost is maybe $200k.
Where, I ask, WHERE is my 35TB single-cabinet tape silo? The answer, dear readers, is that it resides in disguise, in the form of an 8000-pound, multi-million dollar StorageTek Powderhorn silo -the largest they produce.
This concludes your enterprise IT rant for the day.
der_kluge
Adventurer
backups
I'm fairly lax at backups. I don't own a zip drive or a CD burner. I've never really had a need for either of them. I do own a Superdisk (like a 1.44 floppy disk, but holds 120 megs), and it's just spiffy.
I once took the time to back up all the important things on my computer. I had Windows installed, and a host of shareware applications, all the typical stuff, really. So, I knew that if my drive ever did crash, I could reinstall windows, and I had most of that other stuff on CDs, so there wasn't anything to back up.
That left:
My word documents
My original compositions from Cakewalk
and other miscellaneous things.
I compressed it all, and put it on ONE 1.44 floppy disk.
I should probably do that again. It might require two floppy disks now though. (gasp!)
I'm fairly lax at backups. I don't own a zip drive or a CD burner. I've never really had a need for either of them. I do own a Superdisk (like a 1.44 floppy disk, but holds 120 megs), and it's just spiffy.
I once took the time to back up all the important things on my computer. I had Windows installed, and a host of shareware applications, all the typical stuff, really. So, I knew that if my drive ever did crash, I could reinstall windows, and I had most of that other stuff on CDs, so there wasn't anything to back up.
That left:
My word documents
My original compositions from Cakewalk
and other miscellaneous things.
I compressed it all, and put it on ONE 1.44 floppy disk.
I should probably do that again. It might require two floppy disks now though. (gasp!)
mmmm.... /me drools over the Cisco...
My older brother is a test engineer for Cisco at their Boulder facility, and his lab is comparable. It's amazing to walk in there and realize there are tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment racked around you that is used solely for TESTING.
RE: # of systems if I included my work systems I would have to start a different thread! And then you have to answer all kinds of jurisdiction questions... just what's in my office, or my building? What about remote data centers in other GEOs? Do sub-systems (chroots, E10k/E15k domains) on consolidated servers count? yadda yadda yadda...
And RE: UPS you are absolutely correct. That was the second most bothersome thing to me, until I found the APC 1000. I bought it used for $30 (batteries were shot), bought new batteries, and saved like $400 off the retail. It's only enough to power three systems and one small monitor... but if the power dies the systems will stay up and I can swap the monitor to shut them all down. The stand-alone UPS is for the wife's workstation (what I called the Win2k "Media Station" heh).
Disk speed and file access aren't an issue at all, however. Most of our files are archival, kind of like consumer near-line tape. And MP3 streaming is really low key... I could run a dozen streams off the server and it wouldn't blink an eye.
I'd sure love to have a nice Cisco router to play around with at home though... wanna sell me one on the cheap?
My older brother is a test engineer for Cisco at their Boulder facility, and his lab is comparable. It's amazing to walk in there and realize there are tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment racked around you that is used solely for TESTING.
RE: # of systems if I included my work systems I would have to start a different thread! And then you have to answer all kinds of jurisdiction questions... just what's in my office, or my building? What about remote data centers in other GEOs? Do sub-systems (chroots, E10k/E15k domains) on consolidated servers count? yadda yadda yadda...
And RE: UPS you are absolutely correct. That was the second most bothersome thing to me, until I found the APC 1000. I bought it used for $30 (batteries were shot), bought new batteries, and saved like $400 off the retail. It's only enough to power three systems and one small monitor... but if the power dies the systems will stay up and I can swap the monitor to shut them all down. The stand-alone UPS is for the wife's workstation (what I called the Win2k "Media Station" heh).
Disk speed and file access aren't an issue at all, however. Most of our files are archival, kind of like consumer near-line tape. And MP3 streaming is really low key... I could run a dozen streams off the server and it wouldn't blink an eye.
I'd sure love to have a nice Cisco router to play around with at home though... wanna sell me one on the cheap?
Gargoyle
Adventurer
Some backup ideas, most of which you've probably already thought of. (I'm not much of a systems person anymore, as network infrastructure is all I work on now):
As much of your data is static (music and movies I'd bet), I'd consider archiving it on DVD's or CDs, rather than backing it up regularly. This has the added convenience of portability. You can then play the CDs in MP3 compatible CD players. (and probably DVD's as well, though I'm not sure) Takes a lot of time to do it though, so probably you'd want to only archive your best stuff.
You probably don't have so much dynamic data (databases, documents, spreadsheets, etc) that needs to be backed up nightly so that you need a tape library system. You can probably deal with a couple of DAT tapes, or perhaps a large IDE hard drive installed in a removable tray.
I would also consider Internet backup services, (though I couldn't recommend one, and haven't used one in a long time) for off-site archival and backup if you're paying a flat fee for your ISDN, and especially if you can get broadband. This is especially good for disaster recovery.
Hope this helps.
As much of your data is static (music and movies I'd bet), I'd consider archiving it on DVD's or CDs, rather than backing it up regularly. This has the added convenience of portability. You can then play the CDs in MP3 compatible CD players. (and probably DVD's as well, though I'm not sure) Takes a lot of time to do it though, so probably you'd want to only archive your best stuff.
You probably don't have so much dynamic data (databases, documents, spreadsheets, etc) that needs to be backed up nightly so that you need a tape library system. You can probably deal with a couple of DAT tapes, or perhaps a large IDE hard drive installed in a removable tray.
I would also consider Internet backup services, (though I couldn't recommend one, and haven't used one in a long time) for off-site archival and backup if you're paying a flat fee for your ISDN, and especially if you can get broadband. This is especially good for disaster recovery.
Hope this helps.
Gargoyle
Adventurer
fsck said:mmmm.... /me drools over the Cisco...
I'd sure love to have a nice Cisco router to play around with at home though... wanna sell me one on the cheap?
Just one?
If I come across a spare one I'll let you know. I've already got two people waiting to take these off my hands after I get my cert though.
Tanager
Registered User
I only qualify as a wannabe, maybe not even that. More a Computer Assisted Design Geek.
Background is in fine arts (yes that's right BFA stands for Bachelor of -ommited so as not to offend Eric's grandmother- all) then self taught in HTML, Javascript, CSS and such. Along with wayy to much time spent futsin' around in photoshop, paint shop pro, freehand and quark.
The odd thing about all of this...I still have yet to develop a web site for myself!
Background is in fine arts (yes that's right BFA stands for Bachelor of -ommited so as not to offend Eric's grandmother- all) then self taught in HTML, Javascript, CSS and such. Along with wayy to much time spent futsin' around in photoshop, paint shop pro, freehand and quark.
The odd thing about all of this...I still have yet to develop a web site for myself!
Psionicist
Explorer
I am working on it. I am too young for degrees but what the heck, I'm geeky anyway.
For my age (I'm only 16) people tells me I know incredible much about computer for being so young.
I can easly put a computer together and I always know what parts are new, good and bad. I can configure said computer and tweak it for maximum performance, then overclock the hell out of it (yes, I think that sort of things is fun). I can perform voltage modifications for higher VCore (more overclocking), if that sort of things qualify I can always fix hardware related problems down to the degree where you have to replace broken electrical parts, but it's usually windows and IRQ conflicts so that's only for serious problems
I can also operate a huge amount of operating systems excluding Linux (but I know UNIX, go figure) and BSD something. I haven't had a reason to learn that stuff yet.
I can configure networks - in windows. Ehum.
I can create websites in lots of different ways with or without css, javascript, asp, sql, ssi, shtml and dhtml. I will learn php and mysql sooner or later. Shameless plug: http://psionicist.online.fr/
I am not to good at programming. I do know something of everything and I'm currently trying to master C++.
And there are a dozen more or less important things I've forgot to write.
Just wait until I'm 20 and I will 0wn Y0 AlL
For my age (I'm only 16) people tells me I know incredible much about computer for being so young.
I can easly put a computer together and I always know what parts are new, good and bad. I can configure said computer and tweak it for maximum performance, then overclock the hell out of it (yes, I think that sort of things is fun). I can perform voltage modifications for higher VCore (more overclocking), if that sort of things qualify
I can always fix hardware related problems down to the degree where you have to replace broken electrical parts, but it's usually windows and IRQ conflicts so that's only for serious problems I can also operate a huge amount of operating systems excluding Linux (but I know UNIX, go figure) and BSD something. I haven't had a reason to learn that stuff yet.
I can configure networks - in windows. Ehum.
I can create websites in lots of different ways with or without css, javascript, asp, sql, ssi, shtml and dhtml. I will learn php and mysql sooner or later. Shameless plug: http://psionicist.online.fr/
I am not to good at programming. I do know something of everything and I'm currently trying to master C++.
And there are a dozen more or less important things I've forgot to write.
Just wait until I'm 20 and I will 0wn Y0 AlL
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