Bill Schwanitz
type_o-@columbus.rr.com
For quite some time now I have been looking for my own personal workstation. The biggest problem I encountered was with the prices. The machines I wanted would cost me nearly $4,000.00 used (Sun Ultra 1 170E) So I had to settle on something a bit more affordable.
My first sun box is a Sun SparcStation IPC. It was made in 1995 and has 24MB of ram, about 1.3GB of disk space, two frame buffers, a cdrom drive and an 8 mm tape drive. All for $250.00
This machine is defiantly not a screamer, in fact it is quite slow. Do I care? No! The purpose of this machine is to experiment with Solaris and the Sun architecture.
Due to a dead NVRAM, I cannot install Solaris on the box. The person I purchased the machine from was very nice and is getting me a new chip. The NVRAM, as I understand it, contains the Host ID#, MAC address, and boot strap directions.
For those interested, the first operating system I installed on the box was OpenBSD 2.4. It was the only thing which did not seem to care about the NVRAM. I guess this is since OpenBSD was made for to work on PCs too, it could use the more advanced information that the SunOS and Solairs operating system does.
Unknown
The secret of Leadership is to consider the team more important than the product. Remember, a good team can develop many products.
Dennis Fox
What should you expect in an operating system? Should you have to reboot more than 2 times per week? Before I ran into an operating system called UNIX I just didn't know. I was a Microsoft clone that thought that point and drool was the only way that it was to be. It seems that Bill Gates has everyone conned into believing that crashing is normal and it isn't a defect in the kernel that makes you have to reboot; but we know better. And it is for this reason that I have changed teams. I have come to expect more. I expect to be able to turn my computer on and leave it on for as long as I like without worry. I should be able to do more than one process at a time without significantly losing performance. I think that I have found what I am looking for with UNIX. It also seems that corporate America as well as most of the providers on the Internet have found that as well. With billions of dollars as well as irreplaceable data at stake maybe they know something that we should know as well. Stability is the way to go.
James D. Corder
Spring is just around the corner and the sap is flowing in the maple trees once more. Again 369 was asked to cook for the Maple Sugar Festival, and their thousands of guests and 250 staff. However, this year we were given the honor of cooking for the staff members. The pase is just a tad slower than the main kitchen. That gives one more time to add a bit of flair to their culinary delights.
The new griddle just installed for this event was mounted to a wooden counter top. Well, as soon as the quarter inch cast iron griddle was hot enough to cook pancakes, much to our surprise, the counter top caught fire. Upon removing the stainless skins once saw that there was no heat shield between the griddle and the base. With the ingenuity that Scouts are known for, we build a brick buffer between the counter and the griddle: and lunch was on.
We were able to keep pase with the hungry hoards of staffers that came to our kitchen and we never ran out of hot food, coffee, or coco. When it was time to turn the kitchen over to the dinner Crew it was cleaned, all the dishes where washed and put away, and the next meal was started for the new chefs.
369
I am so proud of 369, they all chipped in and operated as perfect team.
MapleFest
Ho-Sheng Hsiao
Boy Scouts of America, Simon Kenton Council, sponsors an event called the Maple Sugar Festival. It is held at Camp Lazarus, some twenty-odd miles north of Columbus. Once again, Venturing Crew 369 volunteered to help out. The event was two-folds. Visitors came in and ate pancakes with some of the most delicious maple syrup, tapped fresh from Camp Lazarus`trees. There were also the camp staff running the place, and they had to eat too.
Crew 369 ran the entire "staff kitchen," along with Post 310, and 999 cleaning the dining hall. We served lunch to a bunch of soaked and tired volunteers. If you were out in the cold and rain all morning, you too would like a nice hot meal fore lunch. We made sure they got it.
For some of the youth volunteers, this was the first time being kitchen staff. At first, it looked intimidating and a lot of work. It wasn't. Once we had things in place, everything went on smoothly. The lesson learned here: how to run an operation smoothly, and effectively. The few hours we served the crowds slipped away and it was quickly time to pass the torch to the dinner shift, Post 310.
We had a blast:-)
We got to meet some of interesting people while dishing out those pancakes and hot dogs. Post 310, for example, showed us a different perspective. This was a post focusing on Fire and First Aid. The atmosphere they brought was relaxed, as one advisor described it "like a family." Antics, ancedotes flew around the room with ease. They also showed us what a healthy, co-ed group looks like.
We in turn have our web page, our newsletter, our manual, and some highly skilled people -- lots of things to be proud of. So we traded stories -- from toadies to schools -- all while putting out fires (the griddle had initially sat on a wooden table) and scalding our fingers.
This is something definitely worth going back to, next year. It also showed how much could be accomplished with more than a single Crew or Post. So if you're in the area, drop by sometime.
Ho-Sheng Hsiao
Our group went to Dayton and visited the Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum. An early warm morning, we found fog and snow waiting for us. Not that I cared -- we were there to see the planes, not the snow.
Fifty years of military aviation sat waiting for us in the hangers. Though you have to wonder why there's a statue of Icarus in the main lobby.
As the home of the Wright Brothers, the first successful in demonstrating powered flight, they held a special section. There was that talking mannequin (which was supposed to be one of the Wright Brothers) with a camera in the back. Mr. Corder wanted to get one. I thought that was pretty neat, though I'd like to stick that moving face on top of MIT's Cog. They also had the original wind tunnel used by the Brothers. Legend was that everyone said they couldn't build a wind tunnel. So they went ahead and built one. It was critical to their successful flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Sounds like a theme for our group.
Other exhibits that I never recalled from a visit eight years ago, were the Berlin Air Lift and the Holocaust sections. It was like walking into a tomb -- fake fog, hushed voices. Here, juxtaposed is some of humanity's best and worst, admirable and atrocious.
We walked around the modern plane section. Bombers, fighters, all were on display, including some famous experimental planes. The running comment, though, was where the 80's and 90's plane technology. Most of the modern planes (on display) were built and designed in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. As old as those planes seem though, they were built tough. The B-52 Stratofortress, for example, had a section of a damage report on display. Multiple holes in the fuselage, damaged structures and engines, the author wrote. It seemed he assumed that the plane landed in one piece. I'd like one of those, and stay up in the air all the time.
Or maybe as a launching point to high earth orbit.
We chose to watch "Destiny in Space" at the IMAX theater. Leonard Nimoy (autobiography, "I Am Not Spock") might have narrated, but I wasn't exactly paying attention. I remembering Apollo 13's awed description of an "earthrise", watching Earth rising from the Moon's horizon. They say how they suddenly realize how precious the Earth is. I wanted to experience that. I knew I didn't see it with my nose rubbed here on the ground. But the IMAX shots, with the blue-green haze of Earth hanging off the screen... Think big, I was told, also a lesson in humility. This really hit it home.
That, I think, was the best thing I carried back.
Hayden McManus. QS
Melbourne Australia
Hello 369!
I am the captain of my School's A Grade debating team and we have a debate next week on the topic - `The Micro$oft monopoly must be squashed and we are debating in the affirmative.
So... As you and the members of your Venturer Crew have information and more knowledge on the topic in comparison to myself and my fellow debaters, I was wondering if you could circulate this e-mail around your crew and perhaps have some of your crew put together some arguments for us and have them e-mailed back to me via this address.
Myself and my team would be eternally grateful for any assistance you or your crew could provide. I am simply asking the expertise of Venturer Crew 369 to be loaned to me in a great time of need. (groans from background) :o)
Please give it some thought and reply ASAP as the debate is on Monday 26 April 1999. I look forward to your reply and thank-you for your time.
James D. Corder
Hayden, I don't know if you can bring up the American Anti-Trust laws in Australia or not. However, Congress broke up AT&T [Largest phone/technology company in the world] because they were a trust [monopoly]. I would not want to argue if the American Anti-Trust laws are fair or not. But Micro$oft is a "trust" by said definition.
Second: look into the fact that if you want to buy Micro$oft, you only have one vendor. UNIX has 75 "separate" vendors!!! [That I know of] {See "UNIX Forever"}
If I don't like the support and/or service of Digital Equipment I can call Sun Microsystems, etc... Sure, there are more than one place that sells Micro$oft. However, if you don't like the way the OS performs, you have no choice!
Look into Solaris the UNIX Operating System by Sun Microsystems It sells for around $20.00 in the USA. Look at Netscape [Free] and Staroffice [Free]. You have a complete desktop for under $50.00. Micro$oft Office alone is more!!! In America, you can purchase Sun Workstations cheaper than you can PCs...
Jon Schlegel <schlegel@beer.com>
There are a number of reasons why Microsoft (R) can be considered a monopoly. Especially in the personal computer market. One of the points that I most often dwell on when bashing microsoft(tm)(R) is the lack of buyer choice. When a person buys a new personal computer from virtually anywhere, there is no question about what will be installed on that computer. Windows 98 (tm)(R)(c). (Until about 2002, when windows 2000 (tm)(R)(c)(*)(mt) comes out and that will be the defacto standard for installations). You can't even specially request a non-microsoft operating system to be pre-installed, nor can you request to have no operating system installed at all. Almost every distributer personal computers is under contractual agreement with microsoft to pre-install every single computer with their operating system.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
386BSD Auspex AUX AIX ArchBSD BTOS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
BSD cbUNIX CLIX Coherent CTIX DCOSx,
DELPHI DGUX OSF1 DomainOS DSR-NX Dynix
ESIX FreeBSD F-BSD-Arm HP-UX HarrisCXUX Helios
HEP-UPX Hurd IDRIS Interactive Irix Linux
LynxOS MachTen Minix MV-UX NCRSVR4MPRAS NetBSD
NeXT NonStopUX OpenBSD OS-MP Plan9 POSIX
PTX QNX RiscOS RT SCO ODT
SCOOpenServer SCO XENIX SINIX Solaris SPARC64
SPP-UX Stellar SunOS Sys III Sys V Topix
T.R.O.N. Ultrix UMAX-VRT UNICOS Unixware R40
UNIX V-88 USG UTS VENIX Version 5
Version 6 Version 7 Xenix
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once you have your pre-installed-with-microsoft-computer, you can choose to format the drive and install another operating system, but there is little point. Schools and colleges across America demand that electronic submissions of papers and other documents be in proprietary formats such as microsoft word. I recently had to turn in a design spec for one of my CIS courses. The spec HAD to be in word format. Me, having a computer that booted solely into FreeBSD (my choice for a desktop system), had no way to save a document in that format. I ended up spending a lot of time in a microsoft computer lab to complete the spec. Why don't schools choose to use open formats for documents? Because someone would have to learn something. They wouldn't want anyone to have to learn something unnecessarily.
A broken up microsoft would force them to open up their formats so that they could share within the divisions. With this in place, how you worked with a document, would not depend on how much you spent on an operating system. {See "Price Break Down"}
Ho-Sheng Hsiao
For the moment, let's not concern ourselves about Microsoft being a monopoly or not. We pretend Microsoft is just another business. Just look at Microsoft. We'll use a car metaphor, "If your car did _____?" I'm very tempted to use the "microsucks" euphemism...
(1) Microsoft has terrible products and services. Their systems crashes twice daily (meaning you have to reboot... or a program fails to run smoothly). What would you do if your car quits working twice a day for no apparent reason?
(2) Microsofts' products come with curdy support. Call up one of their technical hotlines. You pay them money. Their answers are usually "Pay more to upgrade to our latest version". Or if you were reporting "bugs", they are called "issues" and (as a home user, or a small corporate user) it gets relegated into a black hole. (Especially now. There are reports that Microsoft is "putting all their manpower" into their Windows 2000 project. Who has time to report and fix bugs in existing products?) OH, and the official recommendation from Microsoft is to reinstall Microsoft Windows 95/98 every month, or risk having a very unstable computing environment. What would you do if your car dealer, manufacturer, or insurer told you that, because your car quits working twice a day, you have to take it into the shop for several months and have it reworked? By the way, you have to pay for the car to be reworked. What if your car manufacturer, dealer, and insurer told you, to go replace the engine and transmission every month? Never mind that the car came with the defects when it was first bought!
(3) Microsofts' most lucrative business is the business applications: Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc. Word 5.0 works fine for some people, and Word 6.0 absolutely sucked. In a business setting where people sends documents back and forth, it is convenient to have everyone using the same version. Why? Because Microsoft changes the format of the documents from version to version. Take an office floor where everyone is using Word 97. Someone snags Word 2000 because he thinks it is cool. He is using the converters so people still using Word 97 can read his stuff. One day, he got tired, or piqued, or annoyed, and just sent something out in Word 2000 format. The person receiving it can't read it, so they have to keep it as Word 97 format. It happens several times. The Word 97 user decides to look into Word 2000, thinks it is cool, upgrades. Two people are now sending the stuff. Pretty soon, they are annoying everyone with sending Word 2000. They start looking into upgrades so they are not hassled. It spreads like a bacterial colony. The entire floor gets Word 2000. Word, a the full, corporate cost, gets expensive. Or maybe the Vice President decides that his secretary will start using Word 2000, in which case everyone in his part of the company upgrades.
You bought a car one year. Next year, another model comes out with the driver seat in a different place. Or maybe the left-right turn signals are different. Or maybe the engine doesn't take the same gas (you have to buy the gas from a certain dealer). The local government follows along and changes the traffic signals and lane assignments. What would you do?
Hopefully, you know the answers to all the car questions. It is simple: go get another car, from another dealer, from another insurer. The last one is ludicrous, since car manufacturers have to cater to the traffic laws. Or is it ludicrous? At least with traffic laws, you don't have the government changing them to suit their whims, or force you to pay more taxes so they can keep changing them. The basic fact remains. You don't like the car, you go buy a different one. Don't like the Ford models? Grab yourself a Chevy.
The answer for Microsoft, though, is not as simple. Let me ask you: would you give up your Microsoft operating system, with its office programs and browsers? Wipe it clean and get something else? Consider getting a Mac. Or a (gasp) desktop UNIX. If you do, congratulations. If you don't, why not?
Simple. Microsoft has an effective and efficient monopoly -- effective and efficient for themselves. The consumers get shafted.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Application Microsoft FreeBSD
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating sytem Windows 98 - $80 FreeBSD - Free, or $20 for CD + all applications.
Document editor Word - $40-$60 WordPerfect - Free
Almost anything Windows version - $60 FreeBSD/linux version - Free
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Makes Sense to me!
Never mind Microsoft's arguments that is what the consumer wants (I mean, come on, are those scenarios what you really want?), or why wouldn't they have a $16 billion dollar cash reserve.
Neil Coplin
As this is a debate, it is always a good idea to look at the opposing side as well. You do want to know what the other side is going to say in order to refute it.
Much of their argument will go something along the lines of how there are other types of computers than the common PC. Mr. Corder has already brought up the multiple varieties of the UNIX box. As well, there is the Macintosh OS (I'm the only Mac user in the group, so I kinda feel the responsibility of bringing this up ;) ). So upon purchasing a computer, the user has the option of three different operating systems.
And now the time for the rebuttal:
The majority of America does not want to have to deal with a command line prompt. This unfortunately says that most consumers are not going to buy a UNIX box. As well, they are not going to install Linux. This leaves the consumer the choice between the Macintosh OS and the Windows OS. In these two, the market share and software support is much higher for the Windows OS, so it feels as though there is a trust. Because the difference in these are so incredibly glaring, it seems to the normal consumer as though they do not have a choice.
Jesse Kass
The magazine the Economist had some several excellent articles on the issue of the Microsoft Anti-trust suit. I think they were published a month or two ago. They talked about what a monopoly exactly is and is not and how microsoft fits into that definition. I found they articles to be very enlightening, you may want try to find them.
Martin J. Garvey, The Hidden Cost Of NT, InformationWeek, 20 July 1998.
"Windows NT systems carry lower sticker prices than their Unix counterparts, but ongoing maintenance and support requirements can make them much more costly to run."
Ann Harrison, In LINUX We . . ., Software Magazine, Cover Story, September 1998.
"Randy Kessell, manager of technical analysis for a Southwestern Bell operation center, notes that because UNIX allows his company to do more remote network administration and software loads than was possible with either Microsoft or NetWare products, it has driven down their network management costs."
Ann Harrison In LINUX We . . .Software Magazine Cover Story, September 1998.
"Tim Payne, director of database marketing at Oracle, says many of his company's corporate customers have made large investments in UNIX. When Oracle announced in July that it would be offering 24x7 support for Oracle8 on Linux, he says 300 customers called the next day asking about availability. `It's reliable, it's proven, it runs on commodity Intel boxes, and it's a really low-cost alternative to NT,' says Payne."
Peter Coffee We do not have a failure to communicate PC Week, 4-13-98.
"Notably, I did not get a single message from anyone who took the position that Windows NT was good enough. Quite the opposite: Several messages expressed a resigned expectation that Windows NT 5.0 would stagger out the door, burdened with immature add-on services but without achieving corporate-class reliability in its basic functions.
"I heard from one reader who said that at his site, Linux on a 486 is outperforming Windows NT on a 200MHz Pentium, and he has Linux machines that have been running without interruption since before Windows NT 4.0 was released."
Barbara Darrow and Stuart Glascock Microsoft Admits NT Trails Solaris Computer Reseller News, 28 July 1998.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HP-UX Solaris AIX 4.3 Irix 6.4 Digital NTS
11.0 2.6 UNIX 4.0/EE
4.0d
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Extension
IPSec Yes No Yes No Yes No
IPv6 Yes Yes Yes No Yes No
RSVP Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes No
IP Multiplexing Yes Yes Yes No No No
IP Multicast Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial
Performance Optimizations
Telnet in kernel No Yes Yes No No No
Kernel Sockets No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
TCP Large Windows No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Zero Copy TCP/Hardware Checksum No Yes No Yes No No
Path MTU Discovery No No Yes Yes Yes No
OpenShortestPathFirst (OSPF) Yes No Yes No Yes Yes
RTP: Real Time Protocol No No Yes Yes No No
RTCP: Real Time Control Protocol No No Yes Yes No No
Parallelized TCP/IP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We have a Solaris box that hasn't been rebooted in two years," said James Domengeaux, president of Comspace.Com, a Houston-based Web reseller. In comparison, NT servers are rebooted often, he said. "That's a problem especially in e-commerce if you're talking transactions per second, because how many orders do you miss?" he said.
Mark Gibbs Lookin' into Linux Network World March 30, 1998.
"`I know three companies that are silently putting more and more into UNIX . . . at the expense of NT, simply because NT falls over too often,' says Peter Flynn, a consultant in Cork, Ireland. NT is known to crash too frequently for many IT manager's tastes. Typical causes are memory access violations and I/O errors.
"These companies aren't inclined to talk about their decisions `because of pressure from upstairs,' Flynn says. `The buy-Microsoft-only ethos has taken over from the buy-IBM-only, and managers who decided [against advice from technology people] to use NT rather than UNIX are now unwilling to lose face,' he adds.
Ann Harrison, In LINUX We..., Software Magazine, Cover Story, September 1998.
"Randy Kessell, manager of technical analysis for a Southwestern Bell operation center,... adds that his company is thinking about replacing their NT network server with UNIX. `Our preliminary tests show that the UNIX solution is outrunning the NT solution,' says Kessell. `It's much faster.'
James Niccolai New chip to debut in IBM's RS/6000 Model S70 InfoWorld Electric, 12 August 1998.
"The new processor will also make IBM's S70 one of the fastest Web servers on the market when used in certain configurations, according to a certain benchmark test selected by IBM. In a 12-way configuration, the S70 delivered SPECweb96 performance of 9,081 HTTP operations per second, making it the first system to break the 9,000 barrier, according to IBM.
Michael Stutz NASA Greets Beowulf Wired News, 17 August 1998.
"Enter Beowulf, a system that uses a parallel-processing architecture and off-the-shelf machines running the freely available Linux operating system. One machine is the server node, and distributes a processing job to all of the other machines, which are client nodes.
"The total hardware cost for CCD's 24-node Beowulf cluster was US$57,000 -- as compared to most commercial Supercomputers today, which cost between $10 million and $30 million. The cluster gives 2.4 gigabytes per second throughput, which means that a 200 GB hard drive can be scanned in only 20 seconds. While it took five to seven weeks to analyze the evidence of several intruders in the recent Israeli hacker case, Talleur said it would have only taken a few hours with Beowulf.
"The Beowulf project was developed at NASA by Thomas Sterling and Donald Becker in the summer of 1994; today, anyone can buy a Beowulf CD-ROM -- Red Hat Software's Extreme Linux package -- for $29.
The Washington Post Sunday, February 8, 1998; Page H01
Cincinnati Bell Information Systems, for instance, has used Sun workstations and servers to process checks for several years. It recently bought several top-of-the-line Sun servers to handle the demands of a million bills a day. The choices, said James Holtman, CBIS vice president, were either Sun servers or IBM mainframes. Microsoft's technology "isn't quite there yet. It has a ways to grow to match those-size systems," he said.
Linus Torvalds talks economics and operating systems InfoWorld, April 9, 1998.
"The corporate IT managers notice someday what is that box in the corner and they tell them that it's the departmental Web server that's been running for a year and a half, and by the way it's running Linux. One normal reaction is to upgrade it immediately to NT, but what happens is that they go back to Linux because the performance dropped.
James D. Corder
Quoted from: An In-Depth Analysis of Five Commercial UNIX Operating Systems and Windows NT Server 4.0 (Enterprise Edition) by D.H. Brown Associates, Inc.
"NT has long enjoyed an intuitive user interface for managing single systems, largely benefiting from the exceptional familiarity of the Windows look-and-feel adopted by the NT GUI. However, as users begin to deploy large numbers of servers, and geographically-dispersed servers, some of NT's architectural shortcomings for system management have become more apparent, deriving primarily from its design as a single-user system. The multi-user design of UNIX supports remote access at multiple levels, including the ability to login with a character session, via telnet, to edit configuration files, running GUI tools over the network-enabled X Window System, and now through Java versions of system management tools. NT currently enjoys none of these features. Rather, remote NT management typically involves either installing a local expert which Microsoft hopes will be easier due to NT's larger volumes and similarity to mainstream Windows versions or relying on layered system management products from Microsoft or third parties. Neither option, though, quite matches the efficiency of managing distributed UNIX systems."
Though I am not an advocate of Linux, for in my opinion it is a toy operating system [as compared to Solaris, etc...], it is interesting to see how many corporations are abandoning Microsoft for it. Unfortunately, many IT managers are not knowledgeable in technology. Instead of being a leader they simply manage-by-magazine, and therefore, are overwhelmed by one of the best marketing departments in the world.
Unfortunately for these "green" IT managers, many of the fortune 500 will not talk about their data centers. They don't want the Cracker World to have any idea what is behind their firewalls. Therefore, Managers-By- Magazine never see the true power of the UNIX world. However, they will when CEOs higher successful CIOs!
James D. Corder
In the 8/18/1999 Columbus Dispatch 8G an article by the same name from the Associated Press, proclaims that the new "eightway server" that links eight microprocessors to match the performance of the higher-priced computers will threaten the UNIX giant Sun Microsystems. This comment only goes to prove, once again, what technical neophytes are members of the press.
Earlier this year Microsoft announced that they could support a 1 Terabyte Database but stated few people on the planet would ever need such a large file. Moreover, Intel still proclaims the speed of their chips in Mhz and thinks that 500Mhz is fast.
In 1992 I build my fist "fourway server" a risc-chip based system running SunOS 4.1.3.
In 1994 I build my first "twelveway server" a risc-chip based system running Solaris 2.4. Later that year I proposed to build a "sixtyfourway server" utilizing the new Cray-Sun server, later to be known as an E-10,000.
In 1992 I was trained to program in Progress 4GL by a gentleman that maintained a 5 Terabyte Database. Later in my career I oversaw a staff that maintained a 12 Terabite Database.
In the early `90s Digital Equipment came out with their 600Mhz Risc Chip. In the October 1998 issue of The Adventure(1) we talked about Sun Microsystems reaching the 1GHz speed and expect to reach the 1.5Ghz speed by 2002.
Now I ask you, what is better an "8(500Mhz)-way" system or a "1,680(1Ghz)-way" system? Moreover, the RISC chip is 64bits while the Intel is 32bits. Therefore, the speed inside the chip is exponentially faster.
While most neophytes think that clock speed of the chip is the end-all-be-all measurement of a computer capacity, true technoids know that it is the speed between I/O devices that truly slow down a system let-alone a network. Therefore, once again, Sun Microsystem has the Intel world beat with its Gigaplane(2),3.2 GB/sec.
In my opinion, the only thing that Sun Microsystems has to worry about form the Intel world is the new "Beowulf" clusters. Unfortunately, most people will not hear about this since it runs under one of the 78 flavors of UNIX "Linux". And therefore, Microsoft will not use their wonderful marketing department to proclaim this new technology.
"SGI(3)... today announced that it will install the company's first 128-processor Linux(R) cluster at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC)......Ohio scientists, educators and engineers can begin to use the state's largest Beowulf cluster as a starting point into scalable high-performance computing."
Pixar(4) Selects Sun Microsystems as Exclusive Provider of Rendering Solution For `Toy Story 2' 120 Sun Enterprise(TM) 4500 Servers and 4.5 Terabyte Sun StorEdge(TM) Arrays Power Pixar's Newest Feature Film
``We chose Sun as the rendering platform for our mission-critical film productions because their systems are reliable and easy to maintain,'' said Greg Brandeau, vice president of Computer Operations for Pixar Animation Studios. ``Using Sun technology and powerful CPUs, we're able to produce a richer, more complex film in a shorter amount of time.''
``Pixar has been a loyal Sun customer since its first feature film, `Toy Story,''' said John Shoemaker, vice president and general manager, Enterprise Desktops and Server Systems, Sun Microsystems. ``What a thrill it is knowing that Sun technology is once again helping Pixar paint the silver screen with its amazing visions. Needless to say, we're big fans.''
With the Sun E4500 capacity of 14 CPUs each Pixar's Sun Farm will have the capacity to be a "1,680way server/cluster"
New Battle In Messaging
Microsoft is expected to announce that Prodigy, Tribal Voice, and PeopleLink will become alias against AOL, which is refusing to allow MSN's subscribers to communicate with the 43 million users of its dominant service.
WOW!
It is good to see someone take on the MS Monopoly. Rumors within the UNIX world have always stated that some day they would begin to stop traffic of MicroSoft only networks across the UNIX based and controlled InterNet.
In the past, UNIX based ISP have prevented pornographic sites and Spamming sites from crossing their routers and firewalls in attempt to provide a "better" environment for their users.
Microsoft has for years prevented any standard that is not theirs from working on their platform. [See the JAVA legal battles with Sun Microsystems, and those of Explorer / Netscape]. This is the fist time, on a large scale, that someone has prevented a Microsoft standard from working within "their" standard.
Who I feel sorry for are all the people that have bought into the Microsoft Only world and will someday have their E-mail and/or web site traffic prevented to cross major backbones in the world. Ok, I am looking forward to that day:-)
James D. Corder
A special "Thank You" goes out to Richard Schmidt & Richard H. Wooten of AT&T Alanta GA for their kind donation of 3B2 and Sun Equipment.
369 now has the necessary equipment to furnish their new facilities!Notes running on Solaris "provides us with better security" than a Microsoft solution. He added that "Lotus Notes is a far more technically superior product."
Neil Coplin
Two days straight of planting, planting, planting. If I had to guess, I'd say that I planted about 500 flowers alone. Just part of the over 5000 flowers that the crew planted though. It was a blast though. It was the second time that I had ever been to that golf course and I was glad to be back. It's so beautiful there. Of course, the beauty after this weekend is partly due to the efforts of the crew.
We planted flowers on three of the eighteen holes on the course. We began with hole 12, the signature hole of the course. (A very lovely hole that I wanted to attempt the whole time we were sitting there planting flowers) Being the first hole that we were planting, we weren't quite in the swing of things yet. The fact that we were planting on a 45 degree slope didn't help much. Of course, the slope we planted on that day was just a beginner course as to what was to come. After running from the rain that kept pouring down during the day, we finally finished the hole. It was then onto 15. Here, we had an even steeper slope. Since we knew that we were not going to finish the hole before the day's end, we had almost decided that we would bring in some repelling gear and use it to plant the flowers the next day. We didn't bring any of it the next day, but I'm sure that it would have helped. The defining moment of planting flowers on 15 was the torrential downpour that happened at the end of the first day. Actually, it's what made us call it a day. (Even though it stopped as soon as we were on our way out though)
The last of the three holes that we planted was hole 5. The surface here was much like that of 12, with one exception. It was bigger. We were all tired and sore by now, but our spirits maintained and pulled us through. Our temporary (until we get an official position) morale officer Joe Prinz kept us going. We all had a lot of fun. Now there is no more planting that we will do. It is time to sit back and watch the Memorial Tournament to see all of our handiwork. Oh yeah, and watch the golf too...
Ho-Sheng Hsiao
This year, Venturing Crew 369 went to Muirfield in force to plant flowers for Columbus's annual Memorial Golf Tournament. Over two days, we planted over 5,000 flowers on three holes. On our first day, our crew planted the flowers on Muirfield's signature hole, hole 12. Between the rest of the first day and the second day, we finished planting flowers on holes 15 and 5. We are looking forward to planting the flowers next year, as this event will become part of the regular calender.
R West. Simi Valley, CA
You Folks are truly living up to the Spirit of the Eagle. Thank you for your wonderful site. Very useful for our own son's upcoming Eagle Court of Honor.
Bless you.
James D. Corder
As many of you are aware, there are several levels to our youth mentor program. White and Red levels are not invited to my home. It is not until one has earned their Blue Cord that they are invited to "shadow" one of the Advisors, and Green Cord before they are offered an internship. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, but they are rare.
I have always driven little sports cars. However, when we sold the Automotive Distributorship I no longer had access to the fleet of trucks. Would you believe it, the new owners thought that browning their trucks was grand theft auto:-) It was at this time that I learned how useful a pick-up-truck was. I recall when I took 14 foot 4x4 posts home by hanging them out the sun roof. So I went out and purchased one. Ever since I have had trucks.
I recall the look on the face of a business associate when arriving to a business meeting in my Ford E350/351w. He expected me to be in my Olds. He thought that it was unacceptable for "my position!"
I recall, in high school, attending an American Builders and Contractors awards dinner. My snobbish date demanded that I get my fathers vehicle and a new suite, she didn't want to be seen in my Datsun 210. Ok, it was only a 210, but I was extremely proud of being able to pay cash for a brand new car. I knew that she meant the Olds-98 but I drove up in a Tilt-Back and a new corduroy 3-piece! Believe it or not, we kept dating for another 2 years. The astonishing thing was that the successful businessmen were more impressed with the Tilt-Back than would have been with the 98, even thought this was not my intensions.
Last month, while 369 was planting flowers for the Memorial Tournament, one of our youth asked me where my Lexus was. I informed him that I did not have one. He stated: "A man of your stature must have one!" I asked why. He got a funny lock on his face and walked away. I then heard him ask our Vice President: "I thought he was wealthy..." I walked away.
There have only been four times in my life that I was speechless:
1. Pat Ross, founders of Rax Restaurant, gave a speech on success.
2. Paul Dillon, founder of Boulevard Publications, when I met him.
3. Bobbie Sestina, not enough worlds in the english language to praise her, when she challenged me to have a Christmas party.
4. Upon receiving my Spurgeon Award.
When I met Mr. Dillon for the first time, I was at an Explorer Presidents Association [EPA] regional conference. I assumed he was one of the fathers and/or chaperones. He sat at my table and we had dinner together. This was my first regional EPA function. Somehow, he touched my hart. I was so afraid of saying something dumb, I excused myself from the table.
Over the next few years, we spent much time together working on the Exploring program. I recall, when I was on the National Exploring Protocol Committee and he was on the National Board of Boy Scouts of America, finding out that he was extremely wealthy. At that point I understood the difference between:
· Having it, and not flaunting it. vs.
· Flaunting it, and not having it.
It has amazed me, how many people want to look like they are successful, that they give up on being successful.
Don't let the elution of success stand in your way of being successful!
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Do not get me wrong, I have nothing against fancy cars [I want many of them] Simply, do not put the desire to look like you can afford such a car before you can afford such a car!
Or, in-other-words, do now worry about what others think of you. Simply worry about what God thinks of you:-)
Ho-Sheng Hsiao
When summer camp showed up on our Crew calendar, I expected something else. I remember trips before Junior High School. We sang songs, hiked around the woods, slept in camps, and learned some minor outdoors skills -- skills now after a year of college, I've forgotten. Most of all, I remembered being herded from one activity to another. Its time for learning firing skills; free time, go have fun; we're going to hike over to that hill today...
As a Venturer, though, I didn't really have to do anything at camp. Really. Just have fun. Relax. We traveled to the Chief Logan Reservation, a Boy Scouts camp, and if all else failed, I could read the books I brought along.
But first started as a vague notion of personal escape for me, turned into personal discovery. The books never had a chance -- there were so many things I could do.
We, the venture youths -- Bill, Neil, and myself -- brought along our Ranger guidebook. The idea is to complete as many of the requirements at camp as possible. This was expected, but optional. It all came down to how much I wanted that Ranger. It wasn't hard to want.
The afternoon we arrived at camp, I was surrounded by scouts of various ranks and class. From the scout-masters all the way down to the unranked scouts, I realized something. These ranks weren't just earned, they were also grown. It takes patience of years. What one ends up with isn't just a patch to sew on an uniform, or the recognition. I see staff members and adult leaders with self discipline, self-possession. These leaders know themselves enough to give something of themselves.
Would the struggle for Ranger take me there?
I know it does. Just fulfilling the Ranger elective for Archery, led Neil and Bill to end up running the Archery range. I went from knowing nothing about bows and arrows, to focusing down the point of an arrow and hitting (nearly) where I wanted it to go. It was exciting to see the arrows plunk into the target. But first things first. Until I started to focus on mastering the basics, my targets and my arrows won't meet. It was easy to overlook the fact that the basic techniques must come together first before I worry about hitting the arrow to the target.
Or take the Land Navigation core requirements as another example. Chief Logan's camp program provides two orienteering courses. One is a 1 mile; the other made by Army engineers was a 5 mile course with a way-point in the middle of the lake. So we, the youth, created a 2.5 mile course (to meet the requirements). While we were not able to see someone take it during our week there at camp, I know in the future we would come back and see the scouts take on the 2.5 mile course. Just like planting a seed, and seeing the giant out of the sapling. In constructing this course, we had to leave precise bearings so that others may follow.
I also took the COPE course along with Neil and a half-dozen of the Scouts. This requires teamwork. We started with warm-up games, and then the trust-building activity (falling while everyone keeps you inside a circle). The real challenge was to get the entire group together. Our first challenge, walking across a group of beams with not-quite random disabilities showed just how fractured we were. Too many open mouths, and not enough open ears, the Venturers did one thing, the older Scouts another, and the younger Scouts bounced along. To get through the challenge, we finally had to focus, focus, focus. The entire team coordinating with the rest. Pass the beams. Set them down. And I've also discovered in myself, to block off worrying about being blindfolded (my disability within the challenge -- the COPE instructor saw that I was bridging the beams too fast). Our second and our third challenge went through much better. We had a brief discussion, then everyone knew roughly what to do. And if some of our solutions didn't work out, we adapted. It was fun.
Three lessons I discussed. Bring together basic techniques so one can launch an arrow (or project). Leaving precise bearings for future Scouts (be a guiding light). Focusing the group the overcome adversity. Lessons we read about, but makes a world of a difference -- like the difference between reading about a rock hitting your head, and actually having one fall on you.
All of these assume you have an objective. On the archery range, it was the target. In the Land Navigation, we had a beginning and end point. On the COPE course, these were the challenges spelled out by the instructor. All of these activities work better (and are a lot more fun) with the objectives than without.
And camp (along with conversations with Mr. Corder) brought into the light the question, "what do you want to do in life?" Perhaps I had a vague answer. I learned how vague. It was this week at camp that exposed the questions for me to carve out the answers.
hope to go to summer camp next year, and see you there too:-)
James D. Corder
At the 1998-1999 Exploring/Venturing Awards Banquette the top 50 members were in attendance. World Renowned Financial Planner John E. Sestina gave an inspiring presentation on the many facets of wealth. Love-Wealth, Family-Wealth, Friendship-Wealth, and of course Money-Wealth. I was impressed at his ability to speak to such a diverse audience while simultaneously captivating them all!
Venturing Crew 369 was presented with the "Post Service Project of the Year" for their continuing efforts with the St. Stephens Food drive where over 2,000 families where provided with groceries for the month of December, over 5,000 children received toys for Christmas, the maintenance of an abandoned 1812 grave yard, services to the Center of Science and Industry, and being the only Scouting Unit to be invited to give a presentation to the Junior Achievement Young Entrepreneur Fair.
369's Associate Advisor, Andrew P. Drake was the 35 recipient of the "Explorer Hall of Fame Award" in Scouting's History for his 10 years continues service to the Scouting Movement. Mr. Drake is a 1994 recipient of the Bronze Big Horn Award, Past Governor's Aide, Member of the Exploring Committee, Member of the Venturing Committee...
Your's truly is the fourth recipient of the "William H. Spurgeon III Award" in Ohio.
Visit our Web Site
http://www.venturingbsa.com
Send us an E-Mail
exp369@www.venturingbsa.com
Crew 369 at Camp Chief Logan
Our Camp Site!
369 Runs the Archer Range!
Venturing Crew 369 is a UNIX System
Administration Youth Mentor Program
specializing in
Engineering Computer information Sciences by partnering with local
universities and major corporate entities.
Neil Coplin coplin.7@osu.edu
As Vice President of the Crew this year, I have two main initiatives that I will be pushing in addition to my normal duties. The first is making sure that the youth in the group are active and having a good time. The second is getting the crew more involved with activities outside of the computer world. While I was just elected, these initiatives are still tangible dreams. It's a good thing that the people in the Crew are able to make our dreams come true.
The first initiative is to make sure that the crew is active. Each crew member has responsibilities of writing an article and voting on the STWA each month. Often times they don't do this. I will try to find a way to make these responsibilities more enjoyable. I hope that getting the crew to do these responsibilities, they will realize that they are preparing them for the real world, where things will be expected of them, without them getting constant supervision. Keeping the youth active doesn't just mean having them do their responsibilities however. There is so much more to life than just work. We all plan to have a lot of fun. By making sure we have plenty of social events for the crew, we will be having a lot of fun. This means that I need to make sure these events are appealing to the members of the crew.
The second initiative is to get the crew more involved with activities outside the computer world. This includes volunteer service, fund raisers, and the outdoors (we are Boy Scouts). Though we all like computers, there is so much else to do and that has to be done. I for one would like to see work toward advancement in the scouting ranks. We currently have three of us working on our Bronze Award, but I would like to see more people working for this achievement. It is this sort of advancement that shows that you have gained the skills employers are looking for. It is this that shows your dedication. Having people work towards their Ranger Award will be the focus of our outside computer activites.
Ho-Sheng Hsiao hhh@lost-realities.org
I have two main objectives this year for the Crew -- besides the personal achievement of obtaining the Ranger rank, First, I intend to expand the core responsibilities of the youth officers and leaders through executing my position as Secretary-Treasurer. Second, I want our Crew to provide leadership for the other Crews in the Simon Kenton Council -- mainly since there is a serious lack of youth Council-level leadership.
Through our discussions, we the officers have agreed that our roles, as defined by our offices are all nice and well. Certainly, we should fulfill the duties and responsibilities of our job description -- the ones we write. However, none of us work in the way where we see our job as a "I do my part, you do yours." We form a team. A broader vision keeps us together, and often, our roles overlap each other. One assumes roles and responsibilities. I have the fortune to work with my colleagues, Bill Schanitz and Neil Coplin who understands this concept.
The combination of the Treasurer is much the same. This includes accounting the fund raising handled by youth, and the temporary "Munchie Funds" during Munchie Nights or Pizza Nights.
While the office of Secretary seem so much like paper pushing, that's hardly the case. Every organization has a legacy that provides it inertia. Though this inertia locks some established organizations into inflexibility, it also provides stability and longevity of the group. Specifically, I am starting with the minutes of our meetings. A written record available on the Web and Newsletters provides posterity. That's a lesson I learned in Summer Camp, one I fully intend to apply.
Spoken words may fade; written words remain time and again.
Having written records lead to my second objective. Often, when finding some activities to do, we really don't have many inspirations or ideas that hits you in your gut. Our Advisor has been there, and done many of the activities on our program. With all due respects, having your peers do something works on brains at a different level. There's a world of difference of following footsteps in the sand, and beating a track with someone besides you -- that someone may help, that someone may rival, that someone may hinder. I hope it is to help, and so I help.
Thus, once our membership increases this year, and our core responsibilities expand, we would now have enough resources to be a resource for other Venturing Crews. This includes publicity at the Junior Acheivement and State Fair conventions. This also includes staging our own convention. While we're at it, those meetings that we've kept records of provide the basis for an online resource for other Venturing Crews. Each of us can trade ideas for programs, see and be seen. As the hosting Venturing Crew, we would present seminars and plan extra activities during the convention.
But before that heppens, we youth have to bootstrap ourselves up to that next level. That. we'll keep in mind.
Neil Coplin coplin.7@osu.edu
Every year when the State Fair rolls around, Boy Scouts set up their displays in the Lauche building. Every year, thousands of people pile into the fair. Every year, Boy Scouts invite units to show off what they're doing. This year, we were the only Venture Crew to be invited.
During our trip to the fair, we had two priorities. To keep people happy by paying attention to them, and to have a bunch of fun ourselves. Because of the number of people we had going to the fair, we were able to spend part of our day browsing around the fair. Free tickets to the fair is always something fun. While I'm not one to go on all the nauseating rides that they have at the fair, I loved the classic car show that they had there. I just wish I would have remembered to go see the pig races (because that is what the fair is all about!).
For our display, we set up a tower of Sun Sparc Systems. We had one of them running our web page, for people to browse though. A second was running through our photo album, in order to show everyone what we've been up to. We also had a copy of course material, scrapbooks from past years, and old copies of "The Adventure", our international news letter. [Now in four countires]
In the end, we all had a blast. All of the people that we met were really interesting too. One of the people I talked too took his troop up to Canada for a fishing trip. He then did his 4H project on it, and he took home first prize. I can't wait till next year!
Jason Cunnyngham Toten@columbus.rr.com
The States largest food court with side attractions is how I would best describe it. My personal favorite aspect of the fair was the car exhibit, which featured many beautiful old cars that had been refurbished to a level of quality that was awesome! My personal favorite being the Ford ThunderBirds which in my mind are the greatest of the classics. A fellow Scout convinced me that the best part of the fair was the pig races. We had a great time, I really thought that our booth was looking very nice. We had set up our web page to running on Sun Microsystems Solaris 7 and we had another Sun scrolling through pictures of Venturing Crew 369 in action. The only part of the fair that wasn't a blast was the aching feet after a day of standing around all day, but talking to fair goers made it all worth wile.
UNIX Youth Mentor Program
Reformation Lutheran Church
1355 S. Hamilton Rd.
Columbus, Ohio 43227
Tuesday September 14th 7:30pm
· Take I70 to the Hamilton Road Exit.
· Hamilton Road North [Like you are going to Whitehall.
· One block north of Livingston Ave., on the left hand side [West] is the Church entrance. [If you come to Main St. you have gone to far]
· Parking is in the back.
The 369 Mentor Program is open to young men and women between the ages of 14 [and in high school] to 20 years of age.
On Tuesday September 14th at 7:30pm, 369 will be having an open house for local area high schools. Members are recommended by Teachers and Guidance Councilors. Students and their parents are invited to attend to find out how 369 partners with Universities and major corporate entities to provide an unparalleled program.
Interested youth may petition 369 to become members of the 1999/2000 program year on Tuesday 21st at 7:30pm.
369 chooses only those youth that show extreme dedication and commitment with an overwhelming desire to learn Engineering Computer Information Science and the UNIX System Administration Skills.
Footnotes
- (1)
- http://www.venturingbsa.com/ExpNews.d/1998.d/981027.Adventure.html#HDR17
- (2)
- Where everything plugs into. Backplane
- (3)
- http://linuxtoday.com/stories/8685.html
- (4)
- http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/990810/ca_sun_mic_1.html
- (5)
- Uniform, Events, and Books not included.
This page has been accessed $pagecount";
?>
times. Since Wed Sep 8 13:01:24 EDT 1999
369's Open House!