RdL>  It's getting hard to find CPU fans for Pentium II's 
 RdL> :) This did not happen all at once. It happened over 2 
 RdL> years. The hard drive in the computer is noisy, I'd 
 RdL> love to retire that machine.

Heh. I'm one of those guys who still runs Opus on a 486dx/33 with Wfw.

I still have my 286/20 with 2mb ram and plan on powering it up one day,
maybe put another Maximus node on it :) 

[...]

 RdL> The #1 thing that I love about linux and solaris is that I can use it at 
 RdL> no cost.  One day I want to start up a software 
 RdL> company of my own (if I ever have a product to make) 
 RdL> and can have very low IT costs. Free OS on servers and 
 RdL> workstations, free IDE, free databases, free 
 RdL> compilers, free application servers, even free support 

I would never start a company :) Crappy reward:effort ratio. I'm the type
that knows a business that will work when I see it. I'm a venture
capitalist. Let the directors do the work. 

 RdL> from mailing lists.  Sun employees are so willing to 
 RdL> help they've even VNC'd into my computer for 2 hours 
 RdL> for free to help me understand their product. If 

Those Sun guys know the value of customer service. Every struggling,
cornered company fighting for survival knows it. When they run out of
ideas, there's only customer service left. A desperate attempt to
proliferate OSS, which is ultimately an indirect paternship with all other
'open' business models. I know how contract tenders work, and what reps
need to sell to win them. I hope they don't compensate you with share
schemes because Nasqdaq:SUNW went +60.00->9.00 in 5 years :)

 ML> employment opportunity outcomes. Time is precious, 
 ML> which explains my natural ignorance towards learning 
 ML> anything I won't use to make money :) (via employment, 
 ML> capital growth or business ventures) which includes 
 ML> Solaris. Except the BBS.

 RdL> Same here. Solaris isn't a hobby thing to learn for fun to me, it's 
 RdL> serious stuff for use at work.  Having it at home 
 RdL> helps me gain more experience.  I intend on making a 
 RdL> long term carreer out of Java and Solaris.  Everyone 

I intend on making a long term career out of retirement :)

 RdL> knows Java, but how many can fill the jobs that demand 
 RdL> both?  There aren't tons of these jobs, but they are 
 RdL> high paying and for real big companies.  There has 
 RdL> been over 7 million downloads of Solaris 10 and there 
 RdL> really are companies that use it.

I don't doubt people use Solaris :) The last time I used Solaris 8.0 on x86
it was so bloody slow it was pissing me off.

I look after datacenters. I'm surrounded by different vendor equipment.
Sun, IBM, Wintels, SANs, midranges, silos are everywhere.

I just don't want to work anymore, and try to do as little as possible :)
Too much headache and stress, making someone else rich.

I want to become a DBA. Those guys practically do nothing from what I see.

[...]

 ML> It's a wholesome feeling. I've experienced it. I 
 ML> suggest proceeding with caution if this is the
 ML> situation you're in and avoid being trapped.

 RdL> I value your opinion. What are you suggesting I do? 
 RdL> I'm already an avid Linux, Windows and Solaris user.  
 RdL> I did say I'm replacing all of my HOME computers with 
 RdL> Solaris, but that doesn't mean my brain will forget 
 RdL> everything about Linux and Windows.  In fact we use 
 RdL> Windows on most workstations at work, and linux on several servers.

I'm fairly disenchanted nowadays. 

When I suggested avoid becoming trapped, I meant avoid becoming locked-in
to your current career role, position, or work and/or career altogether in
general. Put your focus into creating wealth and financial freedom and
break out of the rat race.

 ML> So far Deuce tells me there were some adaptations in 
 ML> Synchronet code to make it run smoother with DOS EMU. 
 ML> Apart from that nobody's maintaining that part of the 
 ML> source anymore and it's not "needed". I'm still 
 ML> seeking clarification.

 RdL> I wonder what they mean by not needed?  That there are 
 RdL> no Synchronet sysops that use this feature? Have they 
 RdL> found an other way to run DOS doors, or am I the only 
 RdL> one who wants to run them? Maybe that's why so many people call back :)

Well basically it's a complex process to run doors under DOS EMU.
Sycnrhonet uses a mod to make the process easier.

Here's what the Synchronet author said: 

|+------------------------7777
|& Subj: DOS EMU for BBS doors
|& Attr: Read
|& To  : Hostile
|& From: Digital Man #1
|& Date: Mon Apr 09 2007 03:41 pm PDT
|+-----------------------------------------------777777
|
| Re: DOS EMU for BBS doors
| By: Hostile to All on Sun Apr 08 2007 05:49 pm
|
|> Were there any specific adaptations (eg. sockets/handles code) made for
|> Synchronet to to work with DOS EMU ?; as I heard this was the case.
|
|Yes, see the USE_DOSEMU mod in src/sbbs3/xtrn.cpp
|
|> Or does running doors under DOS EMU require no particular internal BBS
|> support ?
|
|I believe it *can* work without any mods, but it's much easier if the BBS does
|some of the heavy lifting.

 ML> Mainly because of its proprietary nature. You're 
 ML> describing a state of Solaris that requires it to be 
 ML> running on Sun hardware.

 RdL> You may be saying that the x86 version of Solaris is 
 RdL> not secure, performant and scalable, but the SPARC 
 RdL> version is? OpenSolaris has run on x86 and SPARC since 
 RdL> 2005. It runs on any server hardware Red Hat runs on 
 RdL> (Dell, HP, IBM, Compaq, etc) Solaris 10 is based on 

From a software point of view maybe everything is secure etc. but you
really need to run Solaris on a SUN machine for optimised performance.
Solaris on x86 is just hopeless and for theoretical or academic use only. 

Even RHE needs to run on IA64 (which is not Intel 64).

I don't know how stable Solaris is on x86.

[...]

 RdL> Intel partnered with Sun and is promoting Solaris as 
 RdL> THE UNIX for the enterprise.  Linux is being 
 RdL> programmed to run on SPARC thanks to OpenSPARC. SPARC 
 RdL> servers can be cheap, like the T1000 which has 6 cores 
 RdL> each running 4 threads. I think it's about $4000. 

Yeah. $4k. I ain't got $4k for a PC :)

Let me see how much $4k is worth to me ... $4000 / $300 margin requirement
= 13 contracts on the ASX200. 13 contracts, for 6000 pts at $5/pt =
$400,000.

See, you spend $4k on a PC. I control almost half a million dollars with
it. That's how much $4k is really worth to me - not to be spent on easily
obsolete/redundant stuff. 

 RdL> Sun open sourced Java 6 in OpenJDK.  They've open 
 RdL> sourced their application server and called it 
 RdL> Glassfish. Every bit of software Sun has in their 
 RdL> portfolio is already open source or will be. Sun is 
 RdL> one of the most non-proprietary open company out 
 RdL> there.  They are on the JCP committee and help build 
 RdL> open standards.

Great to know. But Open Source doesn't necessarily mean free :) It might be
free now, but later most likely not.

 ML> I hear there's a mass exodus from Java (back) to C++ :)

 RdL> Interesting.  I only know a few C and C++ programmers. 
 RdL>  They won't bother learning Java because C and C++ do 
 RdL> everything they want and they don't see it going away. 
 RdL>  They're right about it not going away.  All of the 
 RdL> Java programmers I know love Java as religiously as C 
 RdL> programmers love C, and aren't looking back. Beyond 
 RdL> basic Java syntax, there are all the JSR standard APIs 
 RdL> and implementations, and the whole Java class library. 
 RdL>  The Java of 2007 is not what it used to be. 

Hey well when you use Java and surrounded by Java coders for and work for a
company that offers a lot of job security and career advancement for 9
years of course you'll only see a 'few' C/C++ people :)

Take one good look around your room and tell me how many black things you see.

...
...
...

Now tell me how many blue things you saw. :)

--- Maximus 3.01