jfields

Michele, It works like this: 1) You install the client software, which is easy. 2) It gets a "work unit" from the project server via the internet. 3) Your computer works on the work unit, whether connected or not. 4) When completed, your computer waits until you are connected again, then sends the work unit back in and requests another. Some projects are more suitable to working in a primarily offline environment. They might grab extra work units, knowing it will be awhile before they can get more. Some also retry variations of the original unit until they can connect again. As to the security, it is good, but unless you keep your computer totally disconnected, there is still some risk of attack. This is only my opinion, but I'd say that running a reputable distributed computing project is an insignificant addition to the computing risk you already have? Is your operating system completely patched, up to date and locked down as secure as it can be? If not, that is a far greater threat than a distributed computing project.

I've been in and out of distributed computing projects for awhile. The problem with many of them is stability. If something is going to glitch my system(s), I'm not going to run it. It is just that simple. A few projects like Genome@Home, Folding@Home and DistributedFolding have run on my boxes for awhile. But in the end, they all seem to have some memory leak or runtime problem that diminishes the reliability of the operating system. I've found software problems much more an issue than any kind of degredation of hardware. If you want a good rundown of a number of currently-popular distributed computing projects, look here: http://www.free-dc.org/

Amen to that one. If it isn't the disgusting smell, or the insane cost , watching someone you love die a slow, painful lingering death from being eaten alive from the inside will make you think twice. Instead of smoking for 40 years, why don't you just douse yourself in gasoline and light yourself on fire. Same end result, but you'd get 30 seconds of fame when you made the evening news. Depending on your status, maybe you'd get a Darwin Award to boot.

Your free, tasty home-brewed beer is at my house. Come get it.

Greenpeace? Sierra Club?

Rhino, Do you have any idea of how those tiles are affixed to the body of the shuttle? Do you know how many different shapes and sizes of tiles there are? You are missing the point. If you carried all the materials and tools you need to repair anything on the shuttle, you are basically saying you can carry an entire spare shuttle as cargo. You can't. You *must* prioritize and accept that there are unlikely contingencies for which you will be unprepared. You jump with a main and reserve. Do you jump with a spare container, in case there is structural failure of the harness? Even if you had it, could you change in time if the failure occurred at break-off altitude? Do you jump with more than one cypres, in case you are unconcious *and* your primary cypres fails? Do you routinely inspect and repack your main and reserve while in flight to make sure nothing happened since you left the jump plane? According to the criteria you are using for NASA, to do anything less than all of these is dumb. Space exploration, like skydiving, is a high-risk activity. You decide what risks you can minimize (not eliminate), evaluate your odds and choose to jump or not. If you want "safe", stay on the ground.

Rhino, It is like going on a trip in the most remote wilderness you can imagine. The shuttle seems big, but even so, it is impossible to carry spare parts and tools for everything. When you are driving in your car, do you carry an engine hoist, spare engine, extra transmissions, extra antifreeze, extra oil, spare windshield, etc.? The answer is no, because to do so would exceed the carrying capacity of your vehicle. You pick and choose what you forsee you'll need. Sadly, you don't always choose correctly. Even if you do, you don't necessarily have the knowledge or skill to do a repair anyway. It is hardly fair or reasonable to criticize NASA's preparedness without a sound understanding of the decisions that go into the shuttle's payload selection. I'm not saying I know what was onboard, just that I understand they can't have *everything* onboard.

Dorks, unite! Well, except Al Gore. He is over the dork-o-meter limit.

I'll miss Mister Rogers. May he live forever in reruns, so my daughter can share the fun. I remember him fondly. Even though he wasn't young, his loss was far more tragic than the pop/rap stars dying in their twenties of stupid stuff. He spent his whole life entertaining and educating young children with appropriate messages. I wish he could have continued making new shows forever.

Andy, I would add additional data fields and keep track of other stuff, but that is easy. The area where I haven't dabbled is in having SQL deal with files. So I need to study up on that. I'm a SQL novice. XML is out. While it might be a wonderful answer to the scenario, I know diddly squat about it, so it is even more impractical. Thanks for the direction.

I've been to that site. Also ASPin.com and a bunch of others. I got some help there on my cookie/SQL user login system. It is up and running now. Once I get the text issue hooked up, I'll be good to go to start entering the beginning data. Once I have a few entries done, I'll open it up to some beta testers. You'll be on the invite list. Thanks for the help!

Travis, Thanks. I guess I'll have to take that advice then wait until I get to work tomorrow where my reference books are.. unless Andy chimes in with my code. One can always be lazy and hope....

Okay. So, to use the text file approach, what next? Let's use the following example: Table: Testtable Field1: TestID (INT, identity field) Field2: junk (TEXT) How would I write the data in the "junk" TEXT field out to a text file with a SQL command? Anything wrong with using the INT from the "TestID" field as the filename, followed by a .txt or .asp extension? If it is unique, wouldn't that work? Then after writing the file, the database could store the filename and location in a different field, then delete the row out of "Testtable". Code, people, I'm pushing for code! Please? Pretty please, with beer on top?

Anything but that! You're scaring me, man!

Let me give some more info, since it seems like it would help... The site will have lots of text entries, from about 1 typed page to about 10 pages. Either way, way too long for char or varchar. Once written, the text will not change. Searchability would be nice, which is why I wanted to go with the TEXT datatype originally. I was reading through past READTEXT questions on the Microsoft SQL Programming newsgroup, and a lot of people were advocating writing the data out to separate files, with filenames and locations stored in the database. Storage would be easy and it would be easy to dish the text files back out as includes in ASP pages. But that ease seems like it would cost by losing many of the inherant advantages of keeping the information within the database. I have yet to get the READTEXT function really working right. I can get the text into the database through a web form, but I have a hell of a time reading it back out. I followed the syntax in my SQL reference book, but no luck. I get a message that one row was affected, but no data appears in the data window. I can't use regular select statements because the size limit of the data won't let me. Make more sense? Thanks.

The question is how? The data comes into the database in a TEXT data field now. If I could spit it out to a .txt or .asp file immediately and store the file name, I'd be happy with that. I'm just not sure how to approach it. I put a question into the MS SQL programming newsgroup as well, but so far no luck on feedback.

Hey SQL Gurus, I have a dilemma. I'm trying to work on a website that will store large amounts of text. The site is running ASP pages with an IIS/MS SQL backend. I was planning to use the TEXT datatype and READTEXT, but that seems to be a pain in the butt. The syntax is killing me. Another thought was to use BLOBs as a transitional storage, as it is an easy way for the data to come in from the source (website), then use SQL to dump the BLOB data out to individual files as they come in. The files would have to be dynamically and uniquely named (w/ datetime?), with the name being stored in the database. Then the database row with the temporary BLOB could be dropped to release the space. The created files could be inserted into the website on the fly as .asp includes or something. Thoughts?

My old sig was, "Any suggestions for a new sig?" She is the only one that responded, so I put her suggestion in verbatim. And aside from that, she IS one hot patootie.

We could always do Clay and Skreamer impersonations, and take turns discussing farm animals. Man, I miss those guys.

I have a Lynksys 4-port router at home, tied into PC-Cillin and ZoneAlarm Pro. So far, I like it pretty well. Just be sure to change the damned default password! It isn't like the Pix at work, but then again, for a total of about $200 (hardware + software) the boss bought me a "good-enough" system for a good price.

Our enterprise is pretty small. Most businesses our size are using ZoneAlarm or a light-duty appliance. The biggest issue I have with the Pix is it isn't very user-friendly. It seems very robust and the controls are nice and granular, but it isn't newbie-friendly plug and play. So far, I give it a 7 out of 10...

Pix firewall, actually, but close. I need a firewall up, and anti-spam e-mail filtering, to minimize the distractions I encounter and leave more time for lounging around dz.com.

A burp in our Cisco firewall and I am booted offline for 2 days while I diagnose it. I can reroute my e-mail, get partially running on backup connectivity, but the real tragedy was: I couldn't post on dz.com! The withdrawal was horrible. Some of you have been there, and you understand the true depths of my misery. I could only read a few posts at home on a slow connection on my wife's computer, and nothing at work. The agony! But it is all beter now. Ah, back to the sweet joy of postwhoring the day away....

Steve is right about accumulating equipment. I started out with a kit as well. I've been augmenting ever since. The nice bottle/carboy washer that attaches to my utility sink is a must. Things like racking tubes, spring-loaded fillers, carboy handles, hydrometer, etc. I'm also up to 3 glass carboys and about 4 plastic fermenters. Right now, I have two batches in carboys. Once I muster the courage to start brewing lambics, I'll probably have to buy some more carboys, since they ferment for a long time and I won't want to stop brewing. Books are also good. Recipe books like "Clone Brews", and how-to books, like the often referenced Papazian book. He also wrote a later "Homebrewer's Companion" book that goes into more detail about how things work, and the effects of different things on the brew. I have a beginner's library started. I've also built up a good supply of bottles. I buy good beer that doesn't come in twistoffs, so I reuse the brown bottles. One tip for getting labels off: ammonia. Fill a 5-gallon bucket with water, add about a cup of ammonia, and soak bottles for a few days. It disolves the glue, and the labels come right off. Be sure to rinse them when you're done, of course.

Yeah, right. I've brewed 3 batches in the last 2 months, but nothing before that for 6 years. It would be like me giving, well, freeflying lessons. Prepare for a flailing chicken! If you search on homebrew in the forums, there are lots of more experienced folks.