Mac won a round today. Time Machine is expensive - but it works real well if you use it. Bonehead simple point in time backups. Every system should make it this easy and integrated into the OS. The others have tried - but Apple pulled it off.

Mon Jan 18 2021 16:31:06 MST from ParanoidDelusions

Mac won a round today. Time Machine is expensive - but it works real well if you use it. Bonehead simple point in time backups. Every system should make it this easy and integrated into the OS. The others have tried - but Apple pulled it off.

 

Sure.  I think Norton Ghost was even easier, and faster, but it's been a while and I never actually did Time Machine.  I could re-image a dozen computer labs in about 2 hours, and most of that was going to all the machines and inputting the command.

Ghost was good for imaging an entire machine - not so much for a point in time recovery of say, a single APP. 

I was able to say, "No, I do not like the upgrade version, just restore the previous version," through a simple graphic interface as a drag and drop function - and it worked without a hitch. That *is* magic. I've been dealing with enterprise backup of corporate servers and corporate desktops my entire career in Windows environment, and it is a difficult, error prone, unreliable mess at BEST. 

And Ghost eventually became an unreliable mess of a different sort, even at what it was good at - leading to me abandoning it for Clonezilla and other alternatives. 

Windows Home Server was brilliant at the time in this regard - and Microsoft's constant dicking around with permissions, policies, trusts and file systems eventually destroyed their own GOOD solution where they couldn't support it. 

Apple got Time Machine right. It should be this easy on ALL systems. 

Tue Jan 19 2021 22:07:00 MST from TheDave

 

Mon Jan 18 2021 16:31:06 MST from ParanoidDelusions

Mac won a round today. Time Machine is expensive - but it works real well if you use it. Bonehead simple point in time backups. Every system should make it this easy and integrated into the OS. The others have tried - but Apple pulled it off.

 

Sure.  I think Norton Ghost was even easier, and faster, but it's been a while and I never actually did Time Machine.  I could re-image a dozen computer labs in about 2 hours, and most of that was going to all the machines and inputting the command.

Tue Jan 19 2021 22:28:26 MST from ParanoidDelusions

Ghost was good for imaging an entire machine - not so much for a point in time recovery of say, a single APP. 

I was able to say, "No, I do not like the upgrade version, just restore the previous version," through a simple graphic interface as a drag and drop function - and it worked without a hitch. That *is* magic. I've been dealing with enterprise backup of corporate servers and corporate desktops my entire career in Windows environment, and it is a difficult, error prone, unreliable mess at BEST. 

And Ghost eventually became an unreliable mess of a different sort, even at what it was good at - leading to me abandoning it for Clonezilla and other alternatives. 

Windows Home Server was brilliant at the time in this regard - and Microsoft's constant dicking around with permissions, policies, trusts and file systems eventually destroyed their own GOOD solution where they couldn't support it. 

Apple got Time Machine right. It should be this easy on ALL systems. 

That's sad to hear.  I loved Ghost at the time, which was around 2004 lol

Windows server was always bullshit because they had everything double backwards, which meant it worked but was confusing as hell.  Just use positive permissions like unix does, fuckers.

Yeah, that was around the time it started fading. I think by 2010 I had moved on to Clonezilla and other FOSS and commercial imaging solutions because Ghost wasn't doing it all for me, anymore. Too many changes going on at the file system level and Norton wasn't keeping up. 

I don't understand the "double backwards" and "confusing as hell." 

In my experience, WHS (at least... I think 2012... maybe) was dead simple. The devices were a little pricey - but they were a piece of cake to set up and worked reliably. Windows permissions are simple. Linux permissions are more complex. 

The Windows world always approached starting with LEAST RESTRICTIVE permissions and restricting as necessary. This isn't a great ideology for security, but it is awesome for development, for user experience and honestly, for ease of administration. 

*nix has always applied an approach of MOST restrictive permissions. Lock everything down, and only open up permissions to those who need it. Great for security - it makes development, the user experience, and administration a living hell. 

Fri Jan 22 2021 06:51:21 MST from TheDave

 

Tue Jan 19 2021 22:28:26 MST from ParanoidDelusions

Ghost was good for imaging an entire machine - not so much for a point in time recovery of say, a single APP. 

I was able to say, "No, I do not like the upgrade version, just restore the previous version," through a simple graphic interface as a drag and drop function - and it worked without a hitch. That *is* magic. I've been dealing with enterprise backup of corporate servers and corporate desktops my entire career in Windows environment, and it is a difficult, error prone, unreliable mess at BEST. 

And Ghost eventually became an unreliable mess of a different sort, even at what it was good at - leading to me abandoning it for Clonezilla and other alternatives. 

Windows Home Server was brilliant at the time in this regard - and Microsoft's constant dicking around with permissions, policies, trusts and file systems eventually destroyed their own GOOD solution where they couldn't support it. 

Apple got Time Machine right. It should be this easy on ALL systems. 

That's sad to hear.  I loved Ghost at the time, which was around 2004 lol

Windows server was always bullshit because they had everything double backwards, which meant it worked but was confusing as hell.  Just use positive permissions like unix does, fuckers.

Fri Jan 22 2021 11:13:31 MST from ParanoidDelusions

Yeah, that was around the time it started fading. I think by 2010 I had moved on to Clonezilla and other FOSS and commercial imaging solutions because Ghost wasn't doing it all for me, anymore. Too many changes going on at the file system level and Norton wasn't keeping up. 

I don't understand the "double backwards" and "confusing as hell." 

In my experience, WHS (at least... I think 2012... maybe) was dead simple. The devices were a little pricey - but they were a piece of cake to set up and worked reliably. Windows permissions are simple. Linux permissions are more complex. 

The Windows world always approached starting with LEAST RESTRICTIVE permissions and restricting as necessary. This isn't a great ideology for security, but it is awesome for development, for user experience and honestly, for ease of administration. 

*nix has always applied an approach of MOST restrictive permissions. Lock everything down, and only open up permissions to those who need it. Great for security - it makes development, the user experience, and administration a living hell. 

 

Right, so instead of granting permissions you were checking a box to disable the permissions.  It would have made more sense to have the boxes checked by default with the permissions and then you uncheck them to remove permissions, if that's how they wanted to run things.  When you're on a permissions screen and it lists them and then you click YES that should be giving permission.

Also: I was studying network security at the time, so unix permissions are WAY more sensible.

Yeah, but for a WHS - the default of "Give permissions to EVERYONE unless you explicitly want to deny permissions," generally makes more sense. Windows HOME Server. 

It is, I'll admit - a little backwards in a corporate environment or in a SMB setting. 

Permissions are right down there with Backup (and for related reasons) as the shittiest part of working in IT. 

Sat Jan 23 2021 00:49:07 MST from TheDave

 

Fri Jan 22 2021 11:13:31 MST from ParanoidDelusions

Yeah, that was around the time it started fading. I think by 2010 I had moved on to Clonezilla and other FOSS and commercial imaging solutions because Ghost wasn't doing it all for me, anymore. Too many changes going on at the file system level and Norton wasn't keeping up. 

I don't understand the "double backwards" and "confusing as hell." 

In my experience, WHS (at least... I think 2012... maybe) was dead simple. The devices were a little pricey - but they were a piece of cake to set up and worked reliably. Windows permissions are simple. Linux permissions are more complex. 

The Windows world always approached starting with LEAST RESTRICTIVE permissions and restricting as necessary. This isn't a great ideology for security, but it is awesome for development, for user experience and honestly, for ease of administration. 

*nix has always applied an approach of MOST restrictive permissions. Lock everything down, and only open up permissions to those who need it. Great for security - it makes development, the user experience, and administration a living hell. 

 

Right, so instead of granting permissions you were checking a box to disable the permissions.  It would have made more sense to have the boxes checked by default with the permissions and then you uncheck them to remove permissions, if that's how they wanted to run things.  When you're on a permissions screen and it lists them and then you click YES that should be giving permission.

Also: I was studying network security at the time, so unix permissions are WAY more sensible.

I guess you've never worked with RACF, the security framework for MVS (or as it's now known, "Z/OS").

It's an ADD-ON.

Yes, you read that right.  If you don't run RACF you don't get security at all.  When RACF is running, it installs hooks into the OS so that when you attempt to open a dataset (that's what a file is called on a mainframe) it first runs a RACF hook to see if you're allowed to do that.

(Then if you're running DFHSM it might restore the dataset from a backup, in case it was migrated off to tape ... just because it's in the catalog doesn't mean it's actually there)

Mainframes are weird.  But I paid my way through college working summers in a mainframe shop so it's all good.

By the time my career got rolling, mainframes were largely gone. NT 4 was just rolling out. 

Mon Jan 25 2021 21:13:57 MST from IGnatius T Foobar

I guess you've never worked with RACF, the security framework for MVS (or as it's now known, "Z/OS").

It's an ADD-ON.

Yes, you read that right.  If you don't run RACF you don't get security at all.  When RACF is running, it installs hooks into the OS so that when you attempt to open a dataset (that's what a file is called on a mainframe) it first runs a RACF hook to see if you're allowed to do that.

(Then if you're running DFHSM it might restore the dataset from a backup, in case it was migrated off to tape ... just because it's in the catalog doesn't mean it's actually there)

Mainframes are weird.  But I paid my way through college working summers in a mainframe shop so it's all good.

Mainframes and RACF are not gone, you just have to be in the correct business market to interact with them.  For the most part, that would be Government and Banking.

Fair enough. If I had depended on either of those sectors to get my start in technology... 

I'd be a frycook. :) 

Tue Jan 26 2021 14:26:21 MST from Otto Roboto

Mainframes and RACF are not gone, you just have to be in the correct business market to interact with them.  For the most part, that would be Government and Banking.

Mainframes are still insanely great for shops that need to push really high transaction throughput.   In places where they run today, you're likely to find just as many Linux workloads running on them as legacy z/OS workloads.  Appropriately for the discussion in this room, Apple leading the charge to dismantle the "Intel Everywhere" state of the industry may actually lead to more Linux running on mainframes, as the world rushes to make Linux software even more readily available on multiple architectures than it is now.

Look for the Evil Empires of Seattle starting to offer mainframe Linux instances if this happens.

The more linux I get, the happier I am.

Linux is an interesting bird. It feels like it was done by developers in their spare time, a lot of the time. The entire environment. It is very much a DIYer fanzine kind of "that is good enough," tool. Kind of like the tools a craftsman might use in his woodshop. Things feel improvised and home made a lot of the time. 

Especially when it comes to aesthetics. Linux has a very, "pretty isn't necessary, utility is," design approach. This Coffin distro on V4 is a great example that it doesn't have to be that way. Coffin is beautiful and feels super high production - but someone made it themselves and it is freely distributed. 

RaspberryPi OS feels like it was made by an education board in Wisconsin, by comparison. 

Mon Feb 01 2021 04:34:02 MST from TheDave

The more linux I get, the happier I am.

Is the Apollo V4 Amiga FPGA computer the best NEW old Mac money can buy? 

My latest blog: 

http://donovancolbert.blogspot.com/2021/02/classic-mac-os-computing-on-apollo-v4.html

Well, it looks like Mac and iTunes won the music war. With Google Play Music migrating my library to Youtube Music - there is no way to download a song as a file... 

I was sitting here, fighting with that, trying to figure out how I was going to get "Breakfast in America" from my Youtube Music library into physical files - and then I discovered that I had actually purchased the album through iTunes. Good thing, that turns out. 

But then I was like, "Fuck - now I have to figure out how to get the physical file from iTunes..." 

As a general rule, I keep that bloatware off my primary Windows machine... so I was booting up my old Core Duo and dreading fucking around with iTunes there - when I looked over at my Macbook Pro sitting there on the desk looking at me like, "are you really that much of a fucking idiot?" 

So, I fired it up, loaded up iTunes there - had the songs as local files in a few minutes, converted from M4A to MP3 in a few more minutes, transferred to my NAS and then to my Amiga V4 - where they're now playing. 

Took me a couple of hours to puzzle my way through all of that - but now I've got a plan to get music purchases to my V4. 

And for some reason, playing music on my V4 while I use my Surface Pro to surf is soothing to me. Playing music is so retro. 

I refuse for any reason to let iTunes into my house on any machine period.  When I buy MP3s I usually use Amazon. DRM free, no hassle MP3s you can download to any device at any time.

I tried Amazon - but I couldn't find that they still offered music in this format anymore. It all seemed to be streaming. 

Wed Mar 17 2021 19:25:46 MST from TheDave

I refuse for any reason to let iTunes into my house on any machine period.  When I buy MP3s I usually use Amazon. DRM free, no hassle MP3s you can download to any device at any time.

Wed Mar 17 2021 21:47:51 MST from ParanoidDelusions

I tried Amazon - but I couldn't find that they still offered music in this format anymore. It all seemed to be streaming. 

 

Wed Mar 17 2021 19:25:46 MST from TheDave

I refuse for any reason to let iTunes into my house on any machine period.  When I buy MP3s I usually use Amazon. DRM free, no hassle MP3s you can download to any device at any time.

 

It's still possible, but they did make it a little harder to figure out how.  Try buying tracks on amazon without going to amazon music to do it.  That might work out.  There's also a download method for your purchased music in their music app.