[nycbug-talk] MSNBC on the decline of technology jobs

[Michael Shalayeff]

Making, drinking tea and reading an opus magnum from alex at pilosoft.com:
> On Wed, 22 Jun 2005, Michael Shalayeff wrote:
> 
> > > > tracks files and their parts. It uses a B-Tree data structure to
> > > > track files. Because of it's B-tree data structure it can quickly
> > > > find a file or all it's parts.
> > > Actually, inodes don't have much to do with btrees. The specific
> > > implementation may (now you are getting into ufs vs ext2 vs jfs etc).  
> > > Inode just has a list of physical blocks associated with this file.
> > 
> > it is not "just a list of blocks"... in fact it does not even have all
> > the block numbers in it the block list is less then a half of info
> > stored in the inode.
> Well, I didn't say it was. We were just discussing disk storage. 

you said just has a list of blocks.
what is that just?
if you wanna say it includes the list of blocks then yes
but then again that's the least important part.
it could have been just one ptr instead of many...

> > > > If you already have the filesystem you may need to copy the files
> > > > and re-do the filesystem. You could also use a mount point to move
> > > > some of the files to a new partition.
> > > Correct. Could get more points for noting that some filesystems don't
> > > use static inodes and have infinite number available.
> > 
> > this is also wrong. there is always a limit. for example all the inodes
> > have to be stored somewhere there is your limit on the number of inodes.
> Incorrect. Get out of from your little bsdworld and look at, say, 
> reiserfs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReiserFS#Design
> 
> (Note that inode is just an object, so if you have disk space, you can 
> have as many inodes as can fit there). 
> 
> When I say 'infinite', I obviously mean 'no fixed limit'.

that's why people do not pass interviews.
they do not use th right words.
infinite is wrong. there is no infinite.

> > > > > * You screwed up boot block and server won't boot. You have the original
> > > > > OS CD. How do you boot off the CD the OS on the current hard drive? [very
> > > > > os-dependent, but in most cases boot -a will prompt you for root fs]
> > > > 
> > > > Use the install CD to fix the boot block.
> > > on linux, root=/dev/zzz, on bsd boot -a. Fixing i'd prefer an answer
> > > that'd say 'grubinstall' or lilo or installboot
> > 
> > boot -a has nothing to do w/ repairing a boot block. one does not need
> > root mounted as root to do that.
> Grr. See the original question. 
> > 
> > one can boot into any root and then just fsck+mount the damaged root for
> > repair.
> I know we don't agree on other things, but its not an excuse to try to 
> misinterpret what I say and claim that I'm wrong. 

i just read what you write and it does not mean exactly what you mean it does.
this also serves a purpose -- all interviews are subjective.
if you give the right answer but apparently the interviewer
believes the opposite it all becomes a wrong answer.

so yeah questions are good but they also have infinite number of answers.

cu

-- 
    paranoic mickey       (my employers have changed but, the name has remained)