jfields

Beowulf clusters are really cool, but not where I'm headed with this. Another time, after I win the lottery. Then I'll play with my Beowulfs in my datacenter. Instead of speed, I'm looking for reliability and storage. If there was a good Linux app that handled distributed storage accross servers and integrated redundancy by automatically duplicating files on multiple servers while providing a single interface for users, that would be great. Basically, a Linux version of MS's distributed file system w/active directory. Hey, it's a nice wish, isn't it!

Hey fellow geeks... I should be picking up 6 dual-processor hot-swap SCSI rackmount servers today from a company that is going out of business. The price is definitely right. So I was thinking of keeping the cost down and not picking up 6 copies of Win2k Server. These machines will be used primarily as file servers. I should have enough drives in every machine to make them all RAID 5. I'm a Linux novice, having only used dual-boot Red Hat machines for awhile. These servers have to be interoperable with a Windows environment for file access. The network is TCP/IP, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. The OS has to support dual processors. The hardware should be pretty standard. I'm generally more interested in ease of admin than the widest array of features. OS-driven RAID would be good, in case I can't get RAID cards from the company going under. What flavors of Linux would you recommend for the situation? Thanks!

Deuce, Thanks for sharing. I'm sure you learned some things, and hope others have too. Now cut that shit out and engage your brain!

Of course he could be a stunt man, after being the six million dollar man. He took all that good government investment in his super powers and went to work in private industry making more money. Isn't that the American dream?

When I started out, there was basically no option for buying from a gear store in person. The one on-site was pathetic and run by someone I personally found to be be incompetent, even as a novice myself. I looked through websites and stuck on ParaGear. Although I bought my rig used, I ordered all the misc. little things like helmet, alti, goggles, etc. from ParaGear. The service was good, prices seemed good, and the deliveries were prompt. With a little time in the sport, I've ordered from Square 1 once, but I'm not a major gear buyer. Until I win the lottery, I'll be in maintenance and replacement mode. I won't be getting a second rig or downsizing my main in the forseeable future. As long as my gear is in good airworthy condition, I'll probably keep the same stuff I bought on jump 17. I'm looking for a new (used) jumpsuit, but may buy new if I can't find what I'm looking for in the use market. Basically, the most important thing is straightforward sales help that are honest about the suitability of different options on major purchases (rig, main, etc.). After that, I'd have to say price. Since I'm a relatively low-time conservative jumper, everything I need is carried by pretty much all the vendors. I'm not looking for exotic gear. That help, Lisa?

Kevin, I understand (slightly) the part about wanting to charge to have you watch, if you were going to ask questions and take up a lot of extra time. But I don't understand the part about having someone else do it if it was a free pack job. That doesn't make sense to me.

Michele, Sounds like about the direct opposite of the guy PilotDave and I are talking about. From the sounds of it, I'd have no problems giving my gear to the person you are talking about.

Dave, I hadn't heard 6 cypres fires, and that is amazing. You'd think anyone with that little altitude awareness/clue would just hang it up and revert to whuffo status. That is scary.

Good question. Which would apply to the profanity I just mumbled about your ancestry? Just kidding. I forget which is which.

SpeedRacer, What do you think you are, a scientist or something?

I know a rigger who basically doesn't jump. But he isn't a rigger I'd trust with a paper bag, much less my rig. I'm not saying the two are related though. I heard that the last time he jumped, he flailed his way all the way down to a cypres fire. I didn't witness it, but I'd believe it. Needless to say, I'm not naming names as it would be slanderous, but there are riggers that don't jump. Some are perfectly fine, and some aren't, just like anything.

It takes longer than that for the antibodies to build up after their vaccinations, and who would touch you without them? I guess you're out of luck this year.

Flu shots? Get 'em, don't get 'em? Fess up. Me? I don't get them. The Army required me to, and I got sick as hell. Other than that, I have not had them and rarely get ill. So I pass on the flu shots.

Good call. I enlisted.

Actually, that is reality. It doesn't matter what children are given materially if they are not taught values by their parents. It isn't always in a person's power to give anything more than love and common sense. Well equipped with just those two things, children can usually go on to do just fine. Part of being a parent is knowing that your children are different people than you, and must grow to succeed on their own without support. Part of the measure of a parent is how well their children do that.

The thing is, if I had chosen not to go after high school, they would have thrown a fit. They were basically willing to flush the money for me to at least go try. And at the time, I thought it was what I wanted. Of course, if I'd been a little less dense, I would have come to my realization after one year's tuition and not two...

Honestly, college can be right and wrong for the same person at different times. After high school, I spent two years in college. I had no freakin' clue what I was doing, other than wasting a whole lot of my parents money at a private college. So I left and enlisted in the Army. After I got out, I started putting myself through school in the evenings while working full time. Once I'd shown my parents that I was really ready, they picked up part of the cost. Like the warden said in Cool Hand Luke, "You got to get your mind right!"

I disagree as well. While I'm "kollege edumukated", I don't think it is a prerequisite for success, or more importantly, happiness. Plenty of people have perfectly wonderful lives without having to go through college. Sometimes, I wonder if I missed the boat when I spent so much time and effort getting through it. That said, I want to be able to provide the opportunity for my daughter, should she want to go to college. I don't see people that don't pay for the entire thing as being bad or irresponsible. Maybe they chose to do something else. Perhaps they believe it is important to help out when their child gets married by giving them the down payment on a house. Perhaps they don't have enough money for both and make a different choice than you. I think the irresponsible parents are the ones that don't love their children and take care of them to the best of their ability. That's all we can rightly ask, IMHO.

If the reverse is true, then you aren't being loud enough.

10? You were a glutton for punishment. Getting serious.... It doesn't matter whether you did 4, 10 or 20. If you volunteered and served your time honorably, that is all that matters. It is all about doing something for your country when you aren't required to do so.

I don't doubt it. That is why I said "some".

And where you live, the sheep thing is normal, right?

I do hold myself totally apart from the gun ownership advocates. I don't own a firearm. I never will. That means that I have made a personal decision, not that my mind is closed to ways of making gun ownership safer for both those that own them and those that don't. Even as someone who does not own a firearm, I have a vested interest in their safe use. My life, as well as those of my wife and daughter are somewhat reliant on the fact that people don't accidently or purposefully shoot us. As for putting chips in people's heads, I'm not in favor of it. Just as you use the "slippery slope" to extend it hypothetically to everyone, it is just as easy to hypothetically extend the "right to bear arms" to weapons where one mistake would take out millions of lives. I'm interested in a reasonable position that protects both sides. Your right to firearm ownership and my right to live peacefully. Neither extreme will accomplish that task.

But some of their spouses would object.

No kidding. When you smoke crack, you don't get the high until you get your rock. With skydiving, I'm high from the time I wake up on a jump day, through the 3 hour drive to a DZ, through the jumping, and all the way home. Sometimes the aftereffects last for days without spending any additional money. And unlike Marion Barry, it is okay if you get filmed getting a skydiving high.