Friday links: routers, rockets, comics

Good essay on how direct mail advice from the 1930s applies to today's search engine marketing: "The List-Offer-Package Rule states that when you are trying to sell something remotely, the list (who you are communicating with) is more important than the offer (the details of what you are selling, the item, the pricing, the guarantee), and the list and the offer are more important than the package (how it looks, the copy, the artwork, color and typography)."

So, if you have a magic machine that automatically puts the offer in front of the right list, you make a lot of money.

Nice one from the Overspend on IT For No Reason Department. Of course, you can run your DHCP and your routing on the same machine. And of course it makes sense for that machine to run Linux. The question is: is that machine a $2,000-4000 generic box, or a >$10,000 Cisco router? Converge all you want. It makes sense. But if you're going to be down to one box, why not lose the expensive box instead of the cheap one? Generic Linux/x86 boxes quickly displaced Unix servers for tasks such as print spooling and inbound SMTP, and now they're set to do the same for routing.

The main reason that they haven't yet is that the best mass training program covering Internet protocols calls itself "Cisco certification." When do we get something similar from the upstart Linux router vendors?

John Robb looks at the homemade rocket threat. If you were at SCALE, the avionics he links to are actually a little behind the cutting edge, and there's better stuff on the way. (I am glad that Fox News didn't show up at SCALE. Between the rockets and the Boeing 747 simulator, they would have had a great scare story.

Meanwhile, if you liked Brave New War, you'll love the new Iron Man villain: "open source terrorist."

But why would terrorists "go ballistic" (literally) when they can get better results with drones based on model airplane technology? If you're lucky, the target government will cut loose with anti-aircraft fire, magnifying the terror effect of your tiny drone.

Hooray! free comic books!

Syndicated 2008-04-18 19:57:37 from dmarti's blog