http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/ zh-cn Copyright 2009 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:55:52 +0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Google 翻译能匹配出来吗？ PS2: 悔其少作真是太有道理了！这才过了不到2年，再看以前的东西就有不满意的地方了。要时间再长点会不会都不敢认是自己干的活儿了。]]>Google Revealed: The IT Strategy That Makes It Work A unique mix of internally developed software, open source, made-to-order hardware, and people management is the secret behind the search engine. In Building 43 at Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters is a video screen that depicts the world as seen in Google Earth. Across a revolving globe, streams of colorful pixels, like sparks from a Roman candle, mark the geographic origin of queries coming in to Google's search engine. It's a real-time representation of Google as the nexus of human curiosity. Google is different. And it's different not only because its thinking is original and its applications unique--witness search queries morphed into a lobby display of bursting color--but because the company's unconventional IT strategy makes it so. Commodity hardware and free software hardly seem like the seeds of an empire, yet Google has turned them into an unmatched distributed computing platform that supports its wildly popular search engine, plus a burgeoning number of applications. We used to call them consumer applications, but Google changed that. Businesses also use them because, well, Google is different. The IT infrastructure behind Google's Web services doesn't matter much to the millions of people conducting searches, but it's everything to the hundreds of engineers dedicated to Google's mission of organizing the world's information and making it "universally accessible and useful." That calls for an IT plan that matches the company's business vision in scope and ambition. Google managers tend to be reticent on the subject of IT strategy, they're loath to talk about specific vendors or products, and they clam up when asked about their servers and data centers. But a day spent with some of the company's IT leaders reveals there's more to Google's IT operations than a search engine running on a massive server farm. Behind the seeming simplicity is a mash-up of internally developed software, made-to-order hardware, artificial intelligence, obsession with performance, and an unorthodox approach to people management. There's a lesson in Google's IT philosophy for other companies: Shun the herding instinct that leads toward the same systems and software everyone else is using. There may well be competitive advantages in doing things your own way. "Culture drives the way you do things," says Douglas Merrill, VP of engineering and Google's de facto CIO. "To the extent, like us, your organizational culture is unusual in important ways, you will have to build different ways of running your traditional systems." TAKE OUR POLL Google's A Do-It-Yourselfer. Should You Be Too? Google's great IT advantage is its ability to build high-performance systems that are cost efficient (we didn't say cheap) and that scale to massive workloads. Because of that, IT consultant Stephen Arnold argues, Google enjoys huge cost advantages over competitors such as Amazon, eBay, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Google's programmers are 50% to 100% more productive than their peers at other Web companies, a result of the custom libraries Google developed to support programming of massively parallel systems, Arnold says. He estimates the company's competitors have to spend four times as much to keep up. Pimp My Server How does Google do it? For one thing, Merrill says, "we build hardware." Google doesn't manufacture computer systems, but it does order them to its own specifications, then installs and tunes them like something out of MTV's Pimp My Ride. "What it comes down to is we're very good at buying commodity servers and using them to their fullest, to the point where they're almost so damn hot they'll melt," open source program manager Chris DiBona says. That hands-on approach, born of the frugality of a garage startup, persists because Google's scale demands it. Google has between 200,000 and 450,000 servers spread among up to 65 data centers, depending on how you define them and who's doing the counting. And those numbers continue to rise. The company won't discuss these estimates; it considers such numbers to be a competitive advantage. In fact, one of the things Google likes about open source software is that it facilitates secrecy. "If we had to go and buy software licenses, or code licenses, based on seats, people would absolutely know what the Google infrastructure looks like," DiBona says. "The use of open source software, that's one more way we can control our destiny." Scale works in Google's favor. The marginal advantage of custom-built servers becomes significant when multiplied by hundreds of thousands of machines. The company is constructing a 30-acre data center along the Columbia River in The Dalles, Ore., where it can get low-priced hydroelectric power for computing and cooling (see story, "Google Goes Its Own Way In The Data Center"). Open source software lets Google control its own destiny, DiBona says. Google organizes its machines, which run Linux, into "cells," which DiBona describes as a kind of disk drive for Internet services. (Not to be confused with Gdrive, the long-rumored Google hosted storage service. "There is no Gdrive," a spokeswoman insists.) Software programs reside on racks of inexpensive computers, and programmers decide how much redundancy to give them. The cells take the place of commercial storage equipment; DiBona says Google's cells are cheaper to create and maintain, and he hints they can handle more data, too. No level of minutiae escapes Google's attention. For years, the company's engineers have studied the inner workings of microprocessors, and as Google continues to scale up, chips tuned to its unique needs could become a necessity. In a paper published in an industry journal last year, distinguished engineer Luiz Barroso said key workloads at Google suffered from single-core designs in recent years. Many server-side apps, such as serving the Google search index, don't process in parallel well at the instruction level on such chips. The arrival of more chip-level parallelism as Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, and Sun Microsystems build multiple cores onto their chips has been a boon, says Barroso, a former chip designer at Digital Equipment and Compaq. Google has even considered designing its own computer chips, but such a bold move may be unnecessary given industry trends. "Designing a microprocessor is a complex and costly task," says Urs Holzle, senior VP of operations. Google prefers to work with chip manufacturers to make sure they understand its applications and design chips that are a good fit. It's been advocating designs that focus on aggregate throughput and performance per watt rather than single-thread peak performance. "Recent trends in multicore CPUs very much follow that direction," says Holzle. Custom Tailored To wring every ounce of performance from its hardware, Google writes custom software--lots of it. Major innovations include MapReduce, a programming model to simplify processing and create large data sets; BigTable, a system for storing and managing massive amounts of data; Sawzall, an interpreted programming language for analyzing large data sets in a distributed computing environment; Google File System, a distributed file system for data-intensive applications; and Google Workqueue, a system that groups queries and schedules them for distributed processing. It's in tools like Sawzall that Google's obsessive focus on computational efficiency becomes clear. Not every company tackles productivity at such a fundamental level, but for Google it made sense to develop a programming language specifically to deal with data sets that are too large to fit in a conventional relational database. Even though other programming tools could be used to deal with the problem, Google engineers developed a custom solution for the sake of efficiency. Google engineers contend Sawzall programs are a fraction the size of equivalent MapReduce programs in C++ and significantly easier to write. Such concerns explain why Google isn't content with the standard Linux kernel; it runs a modified kernel tuned to its needs. By tinkering with the low-level behavior of Linux, Google engineers have solved data corruption and bottleneck problems, while increasing overall system reliability. The kernel alterations also made Google's computer clusters faster by making them communicate more efficiently. Of course, Google experiences the occasional system glitch, and, when it does, millions of users can be affected. Three years ago, a system failure hobbled 20% of search traffic for 30 minutes. Google created its own Web server instead of using the open source Apache Web server, which underpins more than 60% of Web sites. Google's Web server can run on more machines and balance workloads among servers more effectively than Apache for Google's large code base, which contains lots of dependencies among programs, DiBona says. The company's approach to software like the Common Gateway Interface standard for linking databases to dynamic Web pages may be harder to use than with Apache, but it runs faster. "If we can eke out 10% to 20% better performance, we can save a lot of power, AC, and people," DiBona says. Google built its own CRM system to support its business of selling Internet ads billed by a mixture of bid price and click-throughs. But Google isn't dogmatic about building its own tools. For accounting, it uses Oracle Financials. Sometimes, value can be bought off the shelf, Merrill says, holding up a plastic fork as an example. But there are times when off-the-shelf software won't do. "Our culture is pretty deeply embedded in many of our processes," he says. "So what we don't want to do is buy a tool, which by extension changes the cultural aspects of the way we do things." Keep It Interesting Google doesn't disclose how much it spends on IT. Susquehanna Financial Group estimates Google invested about $300 million in IT in the first half of this year, or about 30% of the company's overall capital expenditures during that period, according to analyst Marianne Wolk. For the past few years, she says, Google was spending roughly 50% of capital expenditures on IT, but that percentage has diminished as the company increases spending in other areas, including land, as it expands. Google's unorthodox approach to managing its Ph.D.s drove its decision not to budget research and development separately, as most tech companies do. "You end up in many companies with this divide between research and engineering," explains Alan Eustace, senior VP of engineering and research. By dividing those budgets, he says, "you're pretty much guaranteeing institutionally that you won't be solving interesting problems." IT management at Google is decentralized. The company has neither a CIO nor CTO, but it's brimming with senior-level engineers and other technologists. They include Bill Coughran, VP of engineering for systems infrastructure, who oversees the distributing computing programs that power Google's online applications, and Eustace, who's responsible for product R&D. Sergey Brin isn't just Google's co-founder--his day-to-day job is president of technology. Merrill, brought in as senior director of IS three years ago, now is responsible for internal engineering and worldwide support. Google employs a matrix management system where managers have many direct reports, and engineers report to multiple people. Engineers get most of their direction and critiques from the project leaders with whom they work. Since engineers can change projects every three months, Google eschews traditional approaches to project management and performance appraisals. Like other things at Google, artificial intelligence and computer automation perform some of the grunt work. "Our goal is to automate as many things as we can because it makes unfun things not happen," Merrill says. "Nobody wants to have a boring job, right?" A tracking system automatically pulls information on job applicants, gives a hiring manager a job candidate's resumé, offers questions to ask, and sends the manager an e-mail after the interview asking what he or she thought of the candidate. Job interviews can involve logic questions, writing code, talking about software architecture, and generally proving to Google's brain trust that the applicant is a fast learner, since the company doesn't keep people working on the same problems for very long. Lots of small, short-lived projects mean traditional project management software based on task lists isn't right for Google. For one thing, techies aren't very good at cataloging how they spend their hours. What they are good at, it turns out, is writing up a few short sentences or snippets about what they do each day. Those get compiled in a database along with periodic updates from project leaders about a team's deliverables. The project system tags the input by topic and routes to the appropriate people. "This is not hard AI," Merrill says. Still, who else manages workers like this? Performance reviews are handled in a similarly technocratic way. Google's "Perf" system lets managers write e-mails--again read by a computer before any human--describing what a worker did on a project that was good or bad. Come review time, peers get an e-mail asking to compare the employee to other Google people. Perf breaks up the answers, measures who's being compared with whom, and--get this--makes the answers public. The way Merrill figures it, techies like open-air back patting. Presumably, the process airs some dirty laundry, too, but Merrill says that would happen anyway. "We have to protect our culture as we're growing fast," he says. "That's what keeps us up nights." Google's approach isn't without its detractors. One marketing person who came to Google in 2004 as part of an acquisition grew frustrated by lack of resources and support, and quit. "I think Google is a great place to be from an IT engineer standpoint," the former employee says. "I don't know that it's quite as good as people think from the business and marketing side." The company has a ways to go before its marketing savvy matches its engineering. Apart from its search engine and advertising system, Google's wide variety of online applications have seen only modest adoption (see story, "In Depth: Google Aims At Microsoft Office's Weak Spot With Desktop Suite"). Its Gmail service has yet to seriously challenge long-established free e-mail services from Yahoo and Microsoft. The same is true for its online financial portal, Google Finance. And Google Maps remains a distant third to MapQuest and Yahoo Maps. Culture Of Choice Google employees use Linux, Mac OS, and Windows on desktop computers, depending on their needs and desires. Many use homegrown programs such as Google Desktop, Google Earth, the acquired Writely word processor, and the recently launched Google Spreadsheets. In general, if an employee wants certain software, he or she can request it through the company intranet without jumping through a lot of hoops for approval. Merrill is evasive when asked what kinds of commercial PC software are used at Google. "More important than what we put on each desktop is how we think about what to put on each desktop," he says obliquely. "Goo-gle's philosophy is that choice is always better than control. Tightly centralized control gets in the way of innovation." He then takes a jab at CIOs--which he describes as a title used by "old-world companies"--at other companies. "Most people in my job try to control. 'Here are the three things you can buy.'" Merrill explains. "I try to control as a little as I possibly can but make it easy to work within parameters that I know how to work with." Merrill sees a distinction between tools that tell you something and tools that stop you from doing something. For example, he observes that some financial services institutions block instant messaging because of they way they interpret regulations. "We don't think that's the right approach here," he says. The right approach, as Merrill sees it: Talk a lot; use data, not intuition; automate wherever you can. Collective Insight VP of engineering Adam Bosworth last year wrote that Google's success in making a more relevant search was based on "leveraging the wisdom of crowds," referring to the company's PageRank algorithm. (James Surowiecki's book, The Wisdom Of The Crowds, was published in 2004 by Random House.) Company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin built the business on PageRank, which analyzes the human-generated link structure of the Web to determine the relative importance of a Web page. As PageRank sees it, the more people link to a given page, the more important that page is likely to be. This turns out to be the perfect division of labor between man and machine: Evaluating content is easy for people, and analyzing large data sets is easy for computers. By marrying collective intelligence with automation, Page and Brin built a company fueled by artificial intelligence. "AI is a great tool for helping people make better decisions," Merrill says. "It's not so good at making complex decisions." The wisdom of the crowd, farmed and refined by machine, remains critical to Google. As Merrill puts it, "All of us together are smarter than any of us individually." That insight may not be as surprising now that it has been reinforced by the likes of Wikipedia and Digg.com, but it's still mostly lip service at many other companies. At Google, however, examples abound, such as the way the company decides on new employees. "No one can hire anyone here," Merrill insists. "Hiring decisions are made by public groups. We all hire everyone." That faith in group intelligence manifests itself in the lunch line. Google provides free meals to employees partly as a perk and to enhance productivity, but also to encourage interaction. It's about the pollination of ideas over salads and sandwiches. "If you want people to talk, if you want people to engage, how do you do that?" Merrill asks. "You give them lunch." Google has an expression to describe this open discourse: Live out loud. "Everything that's done privately is done publicly here," he says. (As if to make the point, Merrill took off his T-shirt during our photo shoot, showing off his tattoos.) "We make decisions in public. We expect people to debate. You're supposed to engage. You're supposed to disagree." TAKE OUR POLL Google's A Do-It-Yourselfer. Should You Be Too? There are, of course, limits. Merrill concedes that some things need to remain private. "Customer data privacy is obviously critical to us, so that stuff is protected a lot," he says. "But our belief is that some of the things that are private in normal businesses aren't really private." Normal businesses? That would be 99% of other companies. The challenge for Google is to remain different--which is part of its competitive advantage--while staying true to its mission to organize the world's information and make it universally, rather than selectively, accessible and useful. Because you can be sure that other companies are watching and learning from Google's every move. -- with Aaron Ricadela and Charles Babcock Google's Brew Of Open Source And Custom Code Special tools are needed to manage the company's highly customized IT infrastructure. By Charles Babcock, InformationWeek Aug. 28, 2006 URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192300293 Reliance on open source code runs deep among Google's developers, and the company uses open source in its production systems, too. The software has been Google-ized--something new added to make it fit Google's way of doing things. A majority of Google's engineering desktops are Linux machines. They're typically loaded with tools such as the Free Software Foundation's Gnu C Compiler; Make, a Unix utility for assembling files into a C program; and Apache Ant, open source code for assembling Java applications from Java files. In that sense, Google looks "very much like a typical IT shop in a lot of ways," says Chris DiBona, open source program manager. But when it comes to the Apache Web Server, one of the most common pieces of open source code, Google eschews the standard issue. "We use very little Apache around here," DiBona says. Google's internally developed Web server has been tuned to provide monitoring and health information for system reliability. Google developers use a homegrown system to generate a "build" out of complex software projects; the system is capable of integrating code in different languages from distributed developers. "We have a very large code base, and there are often a lot of dependencies," DiBona says. The system can heed those dependencies and enforces use of previously established, tested code when it fits files together. Google talks up its ties to open source, but the company's IT infrastructure is so customized, such as its "cell" data storage system, that specialized tools are needed to manage the code that taps such resources. Ajax, which powers Google Maps and Gmail, is one area in which Google has given some of its own development expertise back to the open source community. Google contributed $3 million to support interns for 600 open source projects this summer and last. Google Goes Its Own Way In The Data Center With patents on cooling baffles and fan mounts, its next big step is hydropowered electricity. By Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek Aug. 28, 2006 URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192300294 How many servers does Google have in how many data centers? Google's mum on that. But counting servers reveals as much about Google's infrastructure as tallying teeth tells you about a bear; better to worry about what the bear will eat next. VP of engineering Douglas Merrill acknowledges Google uses a standard server setup--what he calls an "office in a box"--for provisioning IT services as it expands. It's possible, even likely, that Google has adopted a common design for data centers, too. George Mason University professor Paul Strassmann suggested in a lecture last December that Google's Linux-based infrastructure is considerably cheaper to buy and maintain than a comparable setup of Sun Microsystems servers or Windows servers would cost. For IT shops that spend half their budgets just keeping machines up and patched, the implications are significant. Strassmann said IT pros know where they need to go--toward a Google-style architecture. Organizational growth has been the No. 1 issue, Holzle says. Some of the new servers going into Google's data centers are probably equipped with AMD Opteron multicore processors. Google won't confirm that, but one of the reasons AMD chips are selling so well to other companies is that they don't throw off as much heat as older alternatives. Google engineers, who pay close attention to microprocessor efficiency and heat dissipation, must find AMD chips hard to ignore. Intel is racing to improve the performance-per-watt of its own processor line. Google has tackled some of the tough issues of data center management with internally developed technology. The company has patented homegrown designs for a better cooling baffle and fan mount for its rack servers. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office lists 23 patents granted to Google, with 14 patent applications in the pipeline. That doesn't include patents obtained through acquisitions or filed outside the United States. Though Google doesn't build its own fans or power supplies, it cares about such components. The company requests specific high-efficiency designs from manufacturing partners, says Urs Holzle, senior VP of operations. Google's newest data center, under construction in The Dalles, Ore., has become a focus of media attention. An aerial photo of the data center appeared on the front page of The New York Times on June 14. Why Oregon? "We're always looking for candidate sites to host our infrastructure--selecting a site always means balancing a number of factors, including the availability of land and power, as well as a suitable workforce," Holzle explains in an e-mail interview. "The Dalles was one of the sites we found that met our needs, plus it's a beautiful area to live." The availability of cheap power--widely cited as the main reason Google is building on a river in Oregon--isn't an issue for most companies. Edward Koplin, a principal in the Baltimore engineering firm of Jack Dale Associates, says that among his firm's clients, which include the Army Corps of Engineers, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo, "not one of them brings up as an issue, 'How cheap can my power be?'" But then, their data centers aren't growing the way Google's are. Google declines to discuss how much it spends on electricity, but its financial documents note that data center costs have been rising. In a June filing, Google attributes an increase in the cost of revenues to, among other things, increasing data center costs, which include depreciation, labor, energy, and bandwidth costs. Yet, even more than the availability of power and local subsidies, beauty may explain Google's decision to locate in Oregon. Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, suggests that locating in an affordable, attractive, relatively undeveloped community represents an established strategy in high tech to attract and retain talent. "That was the old Microsoft model," he explains, noting that Redmond, Wash., was a nice place to live without much industry at the time Microsoft got started. "So once you got there it wasn't like you were going to go anyplace else. And they were able to keep turnover to an absolute minimum as a result." Electric power may be expensive, but it's cheap compared to brainpower. "For as long as I can remember, organizational growth has been the No. 1 issue," says Holzle. "If you need to grow quickly but don't want to fall apart as a company, you need to focus a lot more on hiring, training, and nurturing the right culture." Profile: Google Technologist Knows Problem Solving Firsthand Engineering VP overcame his own disabilities in determining which challenges matter most. By Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek Aug. 28, 2006 URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192300295 I'm a technology management type. I have pointy hair. No, I am not the pointy-haired boss." That's how Douglas Merrill describes himself in his blog, The Other End of Sunset. Google's VP of engineering, in keeping with the company culture, lives out loud. Douglas Merrill, VP of engineering, Google Merrill, 36, graduated from the University of Tulsa, majoring in social and political organization, then earned a master's and a doctorate from Princeton in psychology. He worked for the Rand Corp. as an information scientist; taught information security in Southeast Asia; joined Price Waterhouse, where he became leader of the West Coast security practice; then moved to Charles Schwab as senior VP of information security. In 2003, he was hired by Google. Google doesn't have a CIO. Merrill, with responsibility for Google's internal IT systems, comes closest. He overcame several challenges to get on that track. He was deaf from 3 years old till 6, the result of an infection in his auditory nerve. He sometimes apologizes for his accent, vaguely Southern and Canadian, a consequence of being raised in Arkansas, yet having a Canadian voice coach. He's also dyslexic; reading and math remain difficult. Merrill's hacking roots go back to Arkansas, where he disabled an online bulletin board used by white supremacists. "One of the things I found that really interested me is it turns out that it's not actually all that hard to crash those bulletin boards and make them unavailable," he says. An interest in how technology works and how people use it followed. Merrill's premise: There are no lasting technical solutions to social problems, and most interesting problems are social problems. "The particular tools and systems we give [people] yield certain kinds of problems," he says. Merrill sees it as his job to help solve them. 加利福尼亚州山景城(Mountain View)谷歌公司(Google，下称谷歌)总部有一座43号大楼，建筑的中央大屏幕上显示着一个与谷歌地球(Google Earth)相仿的世界地图，一个转动的地球上不停地闪动着五颜六色的光点，恍如罗马宫廷的千万烛灯，每一次闪动标志着地球的这个角落一名谷歌用户发起了一次新的搜索。这同时意味着谷歌又一次满足了人们对未知信息的好奇与渴望。 　　谷歌是与众不同的。它的独特不仅仅表现于革新的思维和充满创意的应用(比如那个大堂里的地球模型)，更在于其有别常规的IT策略。从人们的常理来看，简单的硬件商品和免费软件是无法构建出一个帝国的，但是谷歌做到了。在性能调整后，谷歌把它们变成一个无可比拟的分布式计算平台，该平台能够支持大规模的搜索和不断涌现的新兴应用。我们原本认为这些应用都是个人消费级别的，但是谷歌改变了这一切。现在商业世界也在使用它们，这就令这家搜索公司显得那么与众不同。 　　谷歌Web服务背后的IT架构对无数使用搜索引擎的用户来说也许并不是非常重要，但它是谷歌几百位致力于把全球信息组织起来，实现“随处可达，随时可用”目标的工程师们的最核心工作。这就需要一个在覆盖范围和野心上都与谷歌的商业愿景完全相符的IT蓝图作为支撑。 　　谷歌的经理们一直对公司的IT策略话题保持沉默，他们厌恶谈及特定的厂商或者产品，当被问到他们的服务器和数据中心时，他们总是闭口不谈。但与几位谷歌的IT领导一起呆了一天后，我们最终得以揭示该公司的IT是如何运作的，那可不仅仅是一个运行在无数服务器集群上的、表面看来非常简单的搜索引擎。在其简单的外表下，蕴涵着许多内部研发软件、定制硬件、人工智能，以及对性能的执着追求和打破常规的人力管理模式。 　　IT理念方面，谷歌对同行有一条建议：尽量避免那些人人都在使用的系统和软件，以自己的方式做事会更有独特的竞争优势。 　　“企业文化决定了你的做事方式。”道格拉斯•美林(Douglas Merrill)，这位谷歌工程副总裁和事实上的首席信息官(CIO) 指出，“到了我们这样的发展阶段，企业观念和文化非常与众不同，这也反过来鞭策我们必须要采用与众不同的方式来运行那些他人看来很常规的系统。” 　　谷歌最大的IT优势在于它能建造出既富于性价比(并非廉价)又能承受极高负载的高性能系统。因此IT顾问史蒂芬•阿诺德(Stephen Arnold)指出，谷歌与竞争对手，如亚马逊网站(Amazon)、电子港湾公司(eBay)、微软公司(Microsoft，下称微软)和雅虎公司 (Yahoo，下称雅虎)等公司相比，具有更大的成本优势。谷歌程序员的效率比其他Web公司同行们高出50%～100%，原因是谷歌已经开发出了一整套专用于支持大规模并行系统编程的定制软件库。据他估算，其他竞争公司可能要花上四倍的时间才能获得同等的效果。 　　打造服务器 　　谷歌究竟是怎样做到这点的呢？其中一个手段，美林认为，“是因为我们自己动手打造硬件。”谷歌并不制造计算机系统，但它根据自己的参数定制硬件，然后像MTV的节目“靓车打造”(Pimp My Ride)那样自己安装和调整硬件系统。开源程序经理克里斯•迪博纳(Chris DiBona)评论道：“我们很善于购买商业服务器，并且改造他们为我们所用，最后把性能压榨和发挥到极致，以致有时候他们热得像要融化了似的。” 　　这种亲手打造的方式，来源于谷歌从车库诞生时与生俱来的节俭风格，更与谷歌那超大型的系统规模息息相关，良好的习惯一直延续至今。据说谷歌在65个数据中心拥有20万～45万台服务器—这个数目会有偏差(取决于你如何定义服务器和由谁来做这项统计)。但是，不变的是持续上升的趋势。 　　谷歌不会去讨论这些资产，因为它认为保密也是一种竞争优势。事实上，谷歌之所以喜欢开源软件也是因为它的私密性。“如果我们购买了软件许可或代码许可，人们只要对号入座，就可以猜出谷歌的IT基础架构。”迪博纳分析说，“使用开源软件，就使我们多了一条把握自己命运的途径。” 　　谷歌喜欢规模化的服务器运行方式。当有成百上千台机器时，定制服务器的优势也会成倍增加，效果也会更趋明显。谷歌正在俄勒冈州哥伦比亚河边的达勒斯市建造一个占地30亩的数据中心，在那儿它可以获得运算和降温需要的低价水力电力能源(参见边栏《谷歌数据中心自有一套》)。 　　谷歌以“单元”(Cell)的形式组织这些运行Linux操作系统的服务器，迪博纳把这种形式比喻成互联网服务的“磁盘驱动器”(但别和一直谣传的谷歌存储服务Gdrive混淆了，“并没有Gdrive这回事。”一位谷歌女发言人明确表示。)，公司的软件程序都驻扎在这些并不昂贵的电脑机箱里，由程序员决定它们的冗余工作量。这种由很多单元组成的文件系统代替了商业存储设备；迪博纳表示谷歌这些单元设备更易于建造和维护，他还暗示他们能处理更大规模的数据。 　　谷歌不会漏过对任何技术细节的关注。多年来，公司的工程师就在研究微处理器的内部工作机制，随着谷歌规模的持续壮大，必然会用到特别定制和调节过的芯片。知名工程师路易斯•巴罗索(Luiz Barroso)去年在一篇发表在工业杂志上的论文中证实，近年来谷歌的主要负荷都由单核设计的系统承担着。但许多服务器端的应用，如谷歌搜索索引服务，所需的并行计算在单核芯片的指令级别上执行得并不好。 　　曾在数据设备公司(Digital Equipment)和康柏公司(Compaq)当过芯片设计师的巴罗索认为，随着AMD公司、英特尔公司(Intel)、太阳计算机系统公司(Sun)开始制造多核芯片，必将会出现越来越多芯片级别的并行计算。 　　谷歌也曾考虑过自己制造计算机芯片，但从业界潮流来看，这个冒险的举动似乎不是很必要。“微处理器的设计非常复杂而且成本昂贵，”运营高级副总裁乌尔斯•霍尔茨勒(Urs Holzle)表示。谷歌宁愿与芯片制造商合作，让他们去理解自己的应用并设计适合的芯片。这是一种客户建议式的设计，其关注点在于总体吞吐量、效能，以及耗电比，而不是看单线程的峰值性能。霍尔茨勒表示，“这也是最近多核CPU的设计潮流与未来方向。” 　　裁缝般地定制软件 　　为了能尽量压榨硬件性能，谷歌开发了相当数量的定制软件。创新产品主要包括用于简化处理和创建大规模数据集的编程模型MapReduce；用于存储和管理大规模数据的系统BigTable；分析分布式运算环境中大规模数据集的解释编程语言Sawzall；用于数据密集型应用的分布式文件系统的“谷歌文件系统”(Google File System)；还有为处理分布式系统队列分组和任务调度的“谷歌工作队列”(Google Workqueue)。 　　正是从Sawzall这些工具里体现出谷歌对计算效率的执著关注。并不是每家公司都能从底层去解决效率问题，但是对谷歌来说，为常规关系型数据库无法容纳的大规模数据集专门设计一种编程语言是完全合理的。即使其他编程工具可以解决问题，谷歌的工程师们仍然会为了追求效率而另外开发一套定制方案。谷歌工程师认为，Sawzall能与C++中的MapReduce相媲美，而且它更容易编写一些。 　　谷歌对效率的关注使它不可能对标准Linux内核感到满意；谷歌会根据自己的需要运行修改过的内核版本。通过调整Linux的底层性能，谷歌工程师们在提高了整体系统可靠性的基础上，还一并解决了数据损坏和数据瓶颈等一系列棘手问题。对内核的修改也使谷歌的计算机集群系统因为通信效率的提高而运行得更快。 　　当然，谷歌偶尔也会出现系统故障，情况一旦发生，无数的用户就会受到影响了。三年前一次持续30分钟的系统故障使20%的搜索流量受到影响。 　　谷歌开发了自己的网站服务器却没有使用开源的Apache服务器，尽管它在网站服务器的市场占有率超过60%。迪博纳认为，谷歌的网站服务器可以运行在更多数量的主机上，对谷歌站点上内容庞大又彼此互相依赖的应用程序来说，这种服务器的负载均衡能力远比Apache的能力更高。同时，在用标准公共网关接口(CGI)访问数据库动态网页方面，谷歌服务器的编程难度要比Apache更高，但是最终运行速度却更快。“如果我们能够压榨出10%～20%的性能，我们就可以节省出更多系统资源、电量和人力了。”迪博纳在总结中指出。 　　谷歌还设计了自己的客户关系管理(CRM)系统用于支持自己基于竞价和点击的互联网广告收费业务。但对是否需要设计自己的工具，谷歌的态度也不是一成不变的。比如在财会软件上，它就使用了甲骨文公司(Oracle)的Financials软件。 　　美林拿着一只叉子举例说明现成的产品也可以带来价值。但在有些场合现成的软件产品就不一定适用了。“我们的文化在各个层面对我们的运作都有深远影响，”他表示，“所以我们不想让购买所得的工具改变我们的工作方式和文化层面。” 　　保持活力 　　谷歌没有透露它在IT上的开销。Susquehanna 金融集团(Susquehanna Financial Group)分析师玛丽安•沃尔克(Marianne Wolk)估计今年上半年谷歌在IT上的花费高达三亿美元，相当于在此期间谷歌全部收入的30%。而在过去几年间，谷歌把全部收入的50%花在了IT上。现在，随着公司的发展，IT开销比例正在下降，其他领域如房地产业的投入正在增加。 　　非正统的科研人员管理方式使谷歌没法和大多数科技公司一样把研究和开发的预算分离开来。高级工程和研发副总裁阿兰•尤斯塔斯(Alan Eustace)解释说：“在许多大公司你会发现研究和工程是分离的。”但是把这两部分预算分离开来，他认为“就等于从制度上遏制了把各项工作变得更加有趣的可能。” 　　谷歌的IT是“去中心化”(Decentralized)的管理方式。公司没有 CIO或首席技术官(CTO)，但它拥有一大群高级工程师和技术人员。这中间包括主管系统基础设施工程的副总裁比尔•库格伦(Bill Coughran)，他负责掌管和支撑谷歌在线应用的大型分布式运算程序，而尤斯塔斯则负责产品的研发。谢尔盖•布林(Sergey Brin)的身份并不仅是谷歌的创始人之一，他的日常工作是技术总裁。美林在三年前作为信息系统高级主管加入谷歌，现在负责内部工程部门的管理和全球技术支持。 　　谷歌采用的是矩阵式管理系统，每位经理都有好几位直接汇报的上司，每位工程师也可以同时向几个人汇报。多数情况下，工程师们从共同工作的项目领导人处获得指导和评价。但每隔三个月工程师们就可以自发调换项目，因此谷歌改变了传统意义上的项目运作和绩效考评模式。如同处理其他技术问题一样，谷歌用人工智能和计算机自动化的方式来处理一些日常工作。“我们的目标是尽量自主运作，以免工作变得乏味。”美林表示，“没有人会喜欢乏味的工作，对吗？” 　　此外，谷歌的招聘跟踪系统能自动聚合应聘者的各种信息，为招聘经理提供候选人的工作简历，建议的面试问题，在招聘之后还会自动发送电子邮件询问招聘方对应聘人选的意见。工作面试包括逻辑问题、编写代码、讨论软件架构，和其他任何可以使谷歌相信应聘者具有快速学习新技术能力的证明，因为谷歌是不会让它的员工长时间只干一件事情的。 　　许多小型和短期的项目意味着基于任务表的传统项目管理方式的软件不适用于谷歌。比如，他们的技术人员都不擅于总结自己的时间分配计划。他们更擅长的是写下每日工作相关的简短介绍或是代码片断。这些内容会定期和小组领导提交的项目更新信息一起汇编到数据库里，项目管理系统根据输入内容的主题，加上标签把它们转发给相关人员。美林认为，“这样的系统还算不上真正的人工智能。”但是，除了谷歌还有哪家公司会这样管理员工呢？ 　　绩效考核也采用了类似的技术机制。谷歌的“Perf绩效”系统让经理们写电子邮件 (当然还是先由电脑而非人工进行分析)，邮件描述了员工在项目中表现的优劣。同事们则会收到另一封来自系统的电子邮件要求他们对比该员工与其他谷歌员工。 Perf系统自动分析所有反馈信息，对员工对比结果进行评估，并把结果公开。这正是美林想要的效果，技术让工作关系变得更加透明和人性化。可以预见，虽然打开窗户的同时也会放进苍蝇，但美林表示凡事总有缺憾。“飞速发展的同时，还必须保护我们的企业文化，”他说，“这能让我们保持清醒。” 　　对谷歌的方式，有人持不同意见。2004年因兼并加入谷歌市场部门的某工作人员，就由于缺乏资源和支持而辞职。“从IT工程师角度看，谷歌的确是个了不起的地方，”这位前雇员说，“但是，从商业或市场角度看，它就未见得如人们想象的那么出色。” 　　谷歌对市场的理解力，还远跟不上它的技术实力。除了搜索引擎和广告系统，谷歌大量的在线应用项目目前的作用还很有限。谷歌的Gmail服务面临着长期霸主雅虎和微软免费电子邮件服务强有力的挑战。它的在线金融门户Google Finance系统也存在类似的问题。谷歌地图也远远落后于MapQuest和雅虎地图，位居第三。 　　甄选企业文化 　　谷歌员工可以按照自己的需要和兴趣选择PC的操作系统，包括Linux、Mac OS和Windows。很多人使用公司自产的程序，如谷歌桌面(Google Desktop)、谷歌地图、购并的在线Writely 文字处理软件，以及最近研发的谷歌电子数据表(Google Spreadsheets)。在一般情况下，如果公司的某位员工需要某种特定软件，他不用费太多周折就可以通过公司内部网提出申请而获准使用。 　　当被问及谷歌在使用哪些商业PC软件时，美林闪烁其辞。“重要的不是我们在每台桌面电脑上安装了什么程序，而是我们对安装了什么电脑程序所持的态度，”他含糊地表示，“谷歌的原则是自由选择永远优于简单控制。严格的集中化管理会妨碍创新。” 　　接着，美林对其他公司的CIO制度略有非议，他认为这是老式公司才用的头衔。“大多数在我这个位置的人都在勉强控制局面，他们会说‘你只能购买这三样产品’。”美林解释说，“我会尽可能缩小控制范围，试着简化工作，把相关制约因素限制在我比较有把握的范围之内。 　　在告诉别人做什么和阻止别人做什么之间，美林很清楚两者的区别。例如，他注意到有些金融服务机构禁止员工使用即时通信(IM)软件，因为他们就是这样诠释自己的规章制度。美林指出“这不是正确的方法”。 　　在美林的观点中，正确的做法是：允许充分讨论，畅用数据，拒绝直觉，尽量自动化。 　　集思广益 　　去年工程副总裁亚当•伯斯沃斯(Adam Bosworth)在提到谷歌的文档排名算法(PageRank)时说，谷歌的搜索结果比别人更准确，是因为其得益于“大众智慧的力量”。[引自詹姆士• 苏罗维奇(James Surowiechi)所著《大众的智慧》，2004年由兰登书屋(Random House)出版。]公司创始人拉里•佩奇(Larry Page)和谢尔盖•布林(Sergey Brin)正是从PageRank开创了事业，PageRank通过分析网页上人工生成的链接结构来决定网页的相关重要性。对PageRank来说，越多人链接到一个特定网页，这个网页很可能越重要。 　　这样，人力和机器得到了完美分工：人类擅于内容评估，计算机则可轻松分析大规模数据集。通过嫁接集体的智慧与自动化处理，佩奇和布林建立了一家由人工智能驱动的公司。“人工智能是个了不起的工具，它可以帮助人们更好地做决定，”美林说，“但是它不适合做复杂的决定。” 　　通过机器收集和提炼的集体智慧对谷歌非常重要。就像美林指出的那样，“集体比个体更聪明”。“这个见解也许已不像当初那样令人耳目一新，因为维基百科(Wikipedia)和Digg.com已一再证明了这点。但是对于很多其他同类公司来说，对于这个观点的理解仍然有限。”美林解释说。 　　但在谷歌，相关的例子比比皆是，比如公司选择新员工的方式。“这里没有人有权聘用任何人，”美林坚称，“聘用由公开的集体决定。是我们所有人聘用了所有其他人。” 　　对集体智慧的坚持也体现在谷歌的午餐文化。谷歌为雇员提供免费午餐作为激励和提高效率的方式，但同时也是为了鼓励员工之间的互动。这是杯盘交错之间的交流。“如果你希望人们说话，希望人们投入，你会怎样做？”美林反问道，“你得给他们提供午餐。” 　　关于企业内部公开讨论的方式，谷歌有一条口号：畅所欲言。“在其他地方私下讨论的东西在这里变得公开了。”美林说。(仿佛为了说明这一点，美林在我们拍照时还脱掉T恤展示他的刺青。)“我们的决议都是公开讨论的结果。我们欢迎辩论。我们期待每个人的参与，渴望不同的观点。”美林这样说道。 　　当然，凡事都有底线。美林也同意有些事情仍然需要保密。“用户数据的私密性对我们显然非常重要，所以我们对这类数据资料会严加看管。”他表示，“但是某些常规商业领域里的秘密我们反而认为并非真的那么需要保密。”常规商业领域？那就包括了99%的其他公司。 　　谷歌目前面临的挑战就是保持其独特性—这恰恰也正是它的核心竞争力—同时它也坚持承担了组织全球信息的责任，使之随时随地可以被访问和利用，不受任何限制。可以想象，其他公司会密切关注和学习这家特立独行的企业的一举一动。 http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/07/post_108.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/07/post_108.html Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:55:52 +0800 cnzz的访问统计，出于好奇去加了一个。访问量当然不高，不过有个令我稍吃惊的结果：还蛮多人在搜索引擎里找bat文件的时间处理找到我这篇旧文的。 这让我想起Google翻译的一个功能来，叫“经过翻译的搜索结果”，它通过查找和对比互联网上现有文章的不同语种版本，给不同语言间的转换提供一个比字典更为context关联的选择，我觉得非常的有意义！因为有些词，比如在给阮同学提意见那个贴里的privilege 等词，是一定要联系上下文，理解才会比较准确和到位。 所以理论上来说，Google翻译能收集到的翻译样本越多，能提供的帮助也就越大，这和Trados的工作原理一样。 而自己在2年前给杂志做free lancer翻译时曾译过一些技术文章，当时就有个想法，想在自己的blog里把中英文同时贴一下，为搜索引擎提供一下素材。但顾虑到版权的问题，认真咨询了一下俺的编辑MW，他也赞同是个好主意，但版权上也确实不允许这么做。这想法就被搁置了。 但现在已过去2年，而且现实状况也有了很大改变，想来我这么做应该没大碍了吧。 这些文章都已是过去时，大家不必再点进来，是专给Google的爬虫们看的啦。 ]]> http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/07/post_107.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/07/post_107.html Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:39:54 +0800 略记一下。 1、见高中化学老师，n多年没见过了。和妈妈一起去拜访高中化学老师，老师身体不好，心脏和腿都出过问题。住得很遥远，不过居住环境很好。夸我跟以前比变化不大，即使在路上见到也还能认得出来。我赶紧奉上手机里新鲜热辣的证件照集，让老师现对比一番。 感触：还是应该多回家看看。 2、见大学同学。和老同学们从下午3点多聊到晚上9点多，还是很多话可说。看着她们的变化，想想自己的变化，感慨时间才是至高无上的大神啊。After all these years，有人越来越平和宽容，有人越来越焦虑隔阂，有人迷茫有人坚定，有人热衷经营有人投奔宗教，有人想干番事业有人退隐心起。 答应当年同舍好友，还是应该跟我们的另一位舍友多多联系。原来我们都不约而同地私下为她担心着（本还以为只有我一个人感觉不妥呢），虽然从表面上看，她一直是我们当中最有追求经历最金光闪闪最顺利的。 感触：知道自己想要的是什么不容易；每个人走到最后，必定就是走到自己选择的那个“坑”里去了；相信爱。 唉，我的确一回深圳就变成交际花，就这么一天空闲也排得满满的。 http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_106.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_106.html Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:33:33 +0800 另一件令我略微无所适从的事情，是七天正在大肆宣传的“洁净毛巾封包”服务。它的毛巾都如图所示，非常好的密封在塑料袋里。当然用起来非常放心感觉很好，不过我在拆开塑料袋时还是忍不住惋惜了一下，好大一只塑料袋啊！所以只能尽量不用它的毛巾，少拆一条是一条。下面是我自带的快干毛巾和手帕。 附一些在它楼下的小吃店拍的图。 原来合肥的小龙虾非常出名，夜市里到处摆着这样的一堆堆小龙虾： 俺没去尝试小龙虾，只吃了碗鸭血面： 在夜市旁边这家超市买了2个苹果，4块多，结账的时候阿姨愣愣地看着袋子里的苹果，轻叹一声：现在的苹果真贵。唉。 ]]> http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_105.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_105.html Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:44:33 +0800 ]]> http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_104.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_104.html Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:11:57 +0800 朱棣文在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲”，纯粹是因为Najja同学刚刚在推特上说，朱棣文现在长残了，年轻时也曾水灵过云云，出于色女的八卦本性，看到这篇自然忍不住就点开来，想看看照片啥的。内容自然也没细看，就翻着拖到了最后，没想到一眼看到这句，“而是因为他有一个灵魂”，字面上当然没错，但别扭，“一个”这词完全多余，属翻译里典型的画蛇添足。从这句再往前看，这段开头的一句，“man will not merely endure”，被翻成“人类不会仅仅存在”，也是我没法赞同的。结果一直往前看，发现还有不少地方，实在非常值得商榷啊。 so，我还是来挑挑阮同学的刺吧，他其他部分还是译得不错的啦。 1、原文：The year before, Bill Gates, the mega-billionaire philanthropist and computer nerd stood here. Today, sadly, you have me. I am not wealthy, but at least I am a nerd. 阮：前年站在这里的是比尔·盖茨先生，他是一个超级富翁、一个慈善家和电脑天才。今年很遗憾，你们的演讲人是我，虽然我不是很有钱，但是至少我是一个书呆子。 丹：这句我也懒得自己译，反正大家都懂（好吧，主要因为这句话确实不好译）。挑出来主要是一处不满，就是nerd这个词，为啥在盖子身上，就是“电脑天才”，在朱棣文身上，就成了“书呆子”。 2、原文：In science, it is important to be the first person to make a discovery, but it is even more important to be the last person to make that discovery. 阮：在科学中，第一个发现者是重要的，但是在得到公认前，最后一个做出这个发现的人也许更重要。 丹：这句不好算译错啥的，只是咋一读可能前后因果的会有点不清楚。我大概会这样处理：在科学领域，做开创性的发现者固然重要，但能不断宣扬这个发现，推动新理论最终为世人认可的发现者却更为重要。 3、原文：After all, deans of admissions of highly selective schools are in reality, “deans of rejection.” 阮：不过，那些大热门学校的招生主任总是很现实的，堪称“拒绝他人的主任”。 丹：主要是对“in reality”的理解我和他不同。我会这样译：但实际上，那些热门大学的招生主任，的确都是“冷面拒收主任”。 4、原文：This next movement consists of unsolicited advice, which is rarely valued, seldom remembered, never followed. 阮：接下来的第二乐章是送上门的忠告。这样的忠告很少有价值，几乎注定被忘记，永远不会被实践。 丹：主要是对“rarely valued”的意思我不赞同，应该是几乎没人会珍惜，并非就是真的“很少有价值”。 5、原文：Going forward, the ability to teach yourself is the hallmark of a great liberal arts education and will be the key to your success. 阮：从整体看，自学能力是优秀的文科教育中必不可少的，将成为你成功的关键。 丹：主要是“Going forward”，是“从整体看”吗？我认为是朝前看，虽然也不是特别满意的选择。我大概会译成：长远来说，自学能力是成功的人文教育的标志，对成功至为关键。 6、原文：In all negotiations, don’t bargain for the last, little advantage. Leave the change on the table. 阮：在任何谈判中，都把最后一点点利益留给对方。不要把桌上的钱都拿走。 丹：谈判的时候，不要想着盘剥占尽所有的便宜。要留有余地。 7、原文：Life is too short to go through it without caring deeply about something. 阮：生命太短暂，所以不能空手走过，你必须对某样东西倾注你的深情。 丹：这句不能算错，就是别扭。我也懒得改了，反正意思大家应该都懂，只是挑一下。 8、原文：The source of that pride won’t be the things you have acquired or the recognition you have received. 阮：物质生活和你实现的占有欲，都不会产生自豪。 丹：这一生中你拥有过的物品，自身获得的认可，都难以产生这份自豪感。 9、原文：Bell Labs, to quote what was said about Mary Poppins, was “practically perfect in every way,” but I wanted to leave behind something more than scientific articles. 阮：我对贝尔实验室的看法，可以引用Mary Poppins的话，“实际上十全十美”。但是，我想离开那种仅仅是科学论文的生活。 丹：看到这一句，我就想，阮同学大概是80后吧？问题主要是3个，一个是Mary Poppins是who的问题，像俺这把年纪的人应该会知道，它是音乐之声女主角演过的一部很popular的电影，另两个地方是practically 和 leave behind 的意思，我也不赞同他的译法， leave behind我认为是身后，去世后的意思。我的处理大概会是这样：贝尔实验室，就跟人们形容电影Mary Poppins的那样，“以世俗的眼光来看尽善尽美矣，”但我希望在自己死后能留下比科学论文更丰富的东西。 10、原文：but let me remind you that during the last ice age, the world was only 6 degrees colder 阮：但是让我来提醒你，上一次的冰河期，地球的气温也仅仅只下降了6度。 丹：好吧，我第几次说这话了：没错，但别扭。请允许我提醒诸位一句，从上个冰河期到现在，气温也只不过上升了6度而已。 11、原文：How much are we willing to invest, as a world society, to mitigate the consequences of climate change that will not be realized for at least 100 years? 阮：全世界作为一个整体，我们到底愿意付出多少，来缓和气候变化？这种变化在100年前，根本没人想到过。 丹：我们愿意为此付出多少，来消缓气候变化带来的恶果，而这也许要持续花上100年以上的时间才能实现？ 12、原文：I believe that man will not merely endure: 阮：我相信人类不会仅仅存在 丹：我相信人类不会默默忍受 13、原文：It is his privilege to help man endure 阮：他们有权力升华人类的心灵 丹：分歧主要是“It is his privilege”，我觉得应该是一种荣耀一种荣幸的意思，而不是字面的权力，如果是，福克纳以作家的身份这样说自己的职业，就显得有点可笑了。 恩，已把这篇的地址发邮件通知阮同学了。]]> http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_103.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_103.html Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:13:25 +0800 我的blog一般很少涉及到自己的工作相关内容，这篇可算例外，背后是一笔笔的血泪史啊（不是我的，客户们的）。 我们这个小小的公司，做了一款小小的软件。 在开头的几年里，它的部署非常简单，装完我们就可以拍拍屁股走人了。 到了前2-3年，事情慢慢变得复杂，我在装软件的同时，经常会顺手先给客户把Webshell（网页型的木马）挑干净，删掉一些有问题的默认例子（比如eWebeditor，超过30%的概率默认例子并未删除），给服务器的配置做点基本的安全加固（IIS和Apache里顺手能做的改进很多，但就是很多网管或集成商完全不注意） —— 这些事情花的时间甚至远超过软件本身的部署（基于我对抓小虫子的兴趣，俺还是做得很津津有味的）。这类事情在学校和企业的网站里简直比比皆是 —— 完全可以夸口，俺就没见过未被黑过的高校网站！政府网站有时候也不见得好到哪里去，比如见过某县级市的网站，被人放了整个运营的黄色站点在上面都不知道！ 再到最近1年，事情就更多了。有时候被人拉去看他们的服务器，客户会很委屈地说，我把网站服务数据库服务都停了啊，怎么还是给人加了非法用户。确实，你能把门看得死死的，可别的位置到处都是窗啊洞啊的。比如啥没打补丁，被人MS08-067攻击啦；比如Tomcat的deploy后台管理员密码居然为空（还沪上某著名集成商干的活还不止一次）；比如某著名医院的网站服务器，竟然成为抓鸡工具，24小时地运行着各款抓鸡扫描程序而不自知 ，上面的远程控制软件和抓鸡工具之丰富，简直是开眼了... ... 至于和网站相关的，就更是花招百出，令人叹为观止了。比如： * webshell 的免杀已经越写越花哨，有的就直接用一个个字符拼起来，然后再怎么exec一下，有的伪装成系统正常的文件名，啥md5.asp之类，几乎没有啥万全之策彻底找出它们。我写了个grep+正则的搜索，误报极多，但至少不太会漏，慢慢排除就是了； * 比如sql注入，啥变型都有，加各种干扰符号的，换各种Method的，GET/POST/HEAD里传参数还不算，还要在Cookie里(万恶的IIS啊！)弄，还各层编码转换，简直是。。。 * 比如挂马的脚本，也是越写越花哨，啥URL的加密编码都算简单的，还加各种随机参数，让你没法简单的用批量替换把恶意代码清理掉（我只能用ultraeditor的正则表达式替换法清理）； ... ... 我的Google Reader里，可能有1/3的肉丝都和安全有关，其实我完全看不过来，多半就看个标题，至少知道现在有啥新的流行趋势，生怕漏过一些重大的漏洞。结果就是碰到的问题越多，看到的安全漏洞越多，越感慨：安全这东西基本上就是个无底洞，万全之策基本上是个空想。世上只有安全的意识，并没有安全的产品啊！ http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_102.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_102.html Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:24:54 +0800 http://health.163.com/06/0531/17/2IFGROA900181UID.html http://www.oralb.com/tw/learningcenter/dailycare/cleaning.asp 再然后，如果有钱，可以买电动牙刷。好吧，我承认我虽然也买了，也热络了几天，但根本坚持不了用。如果还是用手动牙刷，那就要用软毛的，宁可慢慢刷，不要刺激到牙龈，把它刷坏了。 如果你再有钱，可以买很好的牙膏，比如有款叫Oravive奥蕾威的，不过实在很贵，最好拉人一起团购吧 （淘宝一箱的团购价每支38，单买60）。国产的我觉得云南白药那款好（虽然还比不上老外那款） —— 呵呵，就当我是托吧。 当然后面那些都是其次的辅助的，但牙线是一定要用的是必须的，特别是像我们这种基础差的人，唉。 我觉得Oral-b这款牙线还蛮好用的，家乐福屈臣氏随便都能买到 —— 某同学，在此也一并向你推荐了。 ]]> http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_101.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_101.html Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:51:13 +0800 这是昨天的上海冰雹，虽然单颗不算特别大，但胜在非常的密集。当时正在某高校，和老师们谈完正准备回，结果发现走不了，老师们也纷纷拿出相机手机对着外面拍。 这是大前天去上班时的在地铁站的景象。似乎也没有什么事故，却被堵得水泄不通，平时不用1分钟能走完的路，挤了10几分钟才过去。当时也有警察在场，却对疏导拥堵没有半点裨益。 另外，要找个免费稳定放图片又没有GFW的地还挺不容易，flickr被封，连Nokia的share.ovi也被封，真是考虑周全啊。]]> http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/2_3.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/2_3.html Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:50:09 +0800 我的大路考Failed掉了！ 当然Fail掉一点不奇怪，以我的资质，在桩考和小路考上Fail也不奇怪。但我一下来，所有人都说，你也太不应该了啊！因为我们那车，碰到了一个非常非常Nice非常宽容的考官（据说一年也难得碰到一次）。基本上所有小错误他都不会计较，而且非常愿意给机会你再试。所以人人都奇怪和惋惜，我居然能在这样的人手里也被关掉了。有趣的是，正因为这个考官非常宽容，一再地给机会我，我也就一再又一再地犯错，到了最后考官实在看不过眼只能把我关掉，并细细地开了一张标出我犯错条目的纸头 —— 珍贵资料啊！我犯的主要错误包括：未放手刹车起步、行驶中未正常使用灯光（超车打的方向灯我搞错了）、发现危险情况未及时采取措施（没反应过来踩刹车）、对车身前后左右空间感觉差、换挡时机差、车速不稳、掉头方式选择不当、转弯角度不对，etc。其实前几项错误里，单有任何一项都可以让我立刻不及格，可想而知这个考官有多好了。 虽然有点沮丧，不过我是完全接受这结果的，因为我是一定要把所有错误都犯遍，才会记得住，才会有长进的人。 比如桩考，我的6次模拟，也是所有的错误都犯了，啥碰杆啦、移库不入啦、停车2次了、倒车不入啦，等等等等。 所有人都认为我是紧张，是心理素质不好，可是自己却知道，那是因为我对很多事情光听听是听不进心里的，完全不会用心记，做的时候也不会提前先想想清楚，完全凭条件反射，偏偏我的反射弧又特别地长，等我把条件反射练练好的时候，肯定得比别人花更长的时间。 比如我做过的各式离谱事情包括：从来看不到家里的饮水机的水位也想不到去主动加水，终于一天因为干烧把加热器给烧坏了，以后才会眼里看到这事情，能及时加水；比如n年前在客户那里，一个轻率的举动，把客户一个重要目录给删了，而且是个不可恢复的文件系统，以后才会在客户那里做任何事情都想想后果；比如以前那个热水器，明知道不把盖子盖盖好，倒热水时会很容易倾溢出来，偏偏还是不时忘记，终于一天把整个左手背彻底烫伤，才算记住教训。 仔细想想我的人生好像也一直是这样的，经常心思完全不动，糊里糊涂地过着，直到真正犯下一桩一桩的错，才知道总结教训，才能真正入脑。所以这次虽然人人皆叹可惜，我还是非常感激那位仁慈的考官，他慷慨地允许我把错误都犯遍了——而我是正需要犯错的啊，大概以后就会认真地想认真地记得了。 http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_100.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/06/post_100.html Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:23:51 +0800 夏天到了 我们掀起新一轮的翻包大行动吧”。 我也自恋地再show包包，和去年比有些物品还是保留着，但也很多换代了，袋中袋更多了。另外笔记本电脑没拍，大概有一半几率会随身带，视乎当天要不要去客户那。我的挎包别人看到经常会问是不是旅行包。 从上到下，从左到右。 上排： 钱包、笔记本（活页）、手机+耳机、嘿嘿、购物袋、雨伞 中排： hello kitty口香糖、免水洗手液、手机电池袋、牙线盒、橙红色零钱袋、纸巾、药袋（眼药水、仁丹、止痛药、创口贴、万金油、etc）、碎花U盘袋（U盘、银行Ukey、小军刀、etc）、手帕 下排： 水杯、门禁卡、公交卡（小新）、名片盒、钥匙、圆珠笔荧光笔、润唇膏（其实从来没用过） ]]> http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/05/show.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/05/show.html Fri, 29 May 2009 12:52:45 +0800 近10年来俺都乖乖地做优秀员工，从没动过跳槽的念头，自然也从来没动用过毕业证这种东西。最近心血来潮，想考导游资格证，报名上说要毕业证原件，记得是在深圳的家中，打电话给妈妈帮忙找找。结果愣是没找到大学毕业证，只有高中的。反正导游资格考试规定上也是说高中或以上即可，就让妈妈把高中毕业证寄过来算了。 这份高中毕业证拿到手还是有点小感慨。 1、照片可真土啊，虽然现在也不时髦，但当年那张，混做小保姆绝对没问题。而且双眉紧皱，原来以前我这么严肃的啊。 2、这张毕业证的编号是某字第209号，所以俺居然是当年学校里的第209名毕业生，还是蛮靠前的哈。这间学校现在应该很难进了，不过俺读的时候还是刚起步，很轻易就接纳了我这个插班生，我们应该是它的第3届毕业生。 3、学校校长的印，这间学校的校长居然到现在还是此人！说来这个校长真强人，广东教育界绝对的风云人物，他的名字就是一面旗帜哇。从我进校到现在，一直对这间学校有绝对的掌控权，我觉得广东甚至全国的重点中学里都不可能再出现这么个强势的人物了。 4、晒晒俺当年的成绩：政治82，语文92，数学98，外语85，物理90，化学98，生物85，体育78。细想了一下当年的各位老师，语文、数学、物理、化学、体育的还记得，其他竟然都没有印象了。有印象的各位老师，也多年多年没回去看过了，唉。 http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/05/post_98.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/05/post_98.html Mon, 25 May 2009 16:18:55 +0800 Fenng写了这篇《三十学艺》，介绍了《 Linux Networking Cookbook》这本书的内容和作者。这本书我也在豆瓣上看到豆邻推荐过，貌似是一本很不错的参考书，考虑也去弄一本来看看。 Fenng同学特意提到作者37 岁才第一次接触计算机，我却第一眼留意到作者的名字，Carla Schroder ，那按说是位女性了。放狗一搜，果然是的。 而且她的“第一次接触计算机”的时间是1994年（“Her first PC was a Macintosh LC II. Next came an IBM clone--a 386SX running MS-DOS 5 and Windows 3.1 with a 14-inch color display”，她原来的职业是按摩理疗师，1997年开始接触Linux操作系统），所以她现在大概是50多岁了？按我们的看法，这个年纪，这个性别，已经是彻头彻尾的“大妈”，绝对不应该出没在年轻人扎堆的IT行业。可人家还真活得有滋有味的，写书、做技术顾问、IT专栏作家，etc。 她的个人主页http://tuxcomputing.com/的最后一行是这样写的：I am living proof that you're never too old to try something new; computers are a heck of a lot of fun; and anyone can learn to do anything. —— 这话说得，真是超赞啊！ 对比咱们国内，那么多网上帖子，讨论过了30 IT MM甚至GG要怎么转行，真是成见害人呐。 她还创建了一个目标人群为对Linux和开源软件感兴趣的女性网站：LinuxChix，logo是个骑着企鹅的女孩子： 看了Carla的人生历程，真的感慨，其实很多时候，束缚自己前进脚步的，只有你自己。]]> http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/05/post_97.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/05/post_97.html Mon, 18 May 2009 23:28:43 +0800 不惑”，蛮有意思的。宁波在豆瓣里回应我的推荐，特别标出这句“世界很大很大，人生很长很长，一个人有巨大的空间长成一个独特的人” —— 这也是我推荐这篇东西的原因。 那天和朋友回顾自己的职场生涯，其实也一直有这种类似的变化。虽然变化的过程的确非常缓慢，缓慢到身处其中并不自知，只有很长的时间后才惊觉其中的反差巨大。 我曾有过很多件事，都轻易地花掉了10多年以上的时间，才算真正做到或做好。在这众多缓慢的变化中，最大的收获就是：我终于能坦然认识和接受了自己的缺点，知道自己起步时必然会比别人碰到更多的挫折。但不要紧，我就是那样的人，只要我还能有“变化”就会有潜力，也就会有进步，终有一天，会走到自己的目标，尽管花的时间肯定远比别人的长。 比如英语，我整个的学生阶段，这都是最差的一门功课，能过75分就三呼万岁了。一直到大学毕业都没能让自己开窍。但在毕业的头几年的那段时间，种种的机缘之下，我才慢慢地把英语真正地用了起来，才会真心地觉得，能听懂英文还挺幸福的，能把英文译成流畅易懂的母语是值得骄傲的。 比如游泳，我们大学里统一教过的课程，我愣是没学会，到最后老师没辙了，指着泳池的短边说，只要你闷一口气，从这游到那，我就算你及格。就这样我还是不行。最后被罚跑1500米。直到了去年，请了位游泳教练教我。教练从最最基本的东西开始教，不知道光蹬腿的姿势就被他说了多少多少遍，在他的不断的纠正下，偶才终于学会游泳，据说姿势还比较好看的说，呵呵。 比如做讲演和培训，在学校的时候曾替老师上台读一个什么通知，下来后同学们说，我们看你拿纸的手在狂抖也，你是很紧张吧 —— 我是很紧张很紧张啊！工作时某次做个自己很熟悉领域的presentation，整个嗓子都是绷紧的，语速完全变型，胡乱讲完了。可在最近的4-5年里，我开始有意识地调整presentation里的种种技巧：音量要提高但音调又不能太高，发音要靠后才不累；语速要稳定绝对不能快；当意识到我的音质比较没有起伏顿挫后，就调整字句的节奏，在每句之间，在句内的词意之间，加入微妙的恰当的停顿，增加节奏，听众会比较容易集中精神；讲的内容要有铺垫、关联、悬念等技巧，不要一味照读。等到去年年底的年会培训，我一个人从早上讲到下午，但所有听的人都应该没觉得无趣，反馈大大地好。 在这些挫败和成功里，我总结出了规律：我学什么东西，大概都会比别人接受得慢巩固得慢。但到了最后，我也总还是能做成的。有了这个观念，才会有不放弃不自卑的底气，才能厚脸皮地承受批评，允许自己犯错，才有最后成功的可能。 这个规律最明显的例子体现在我最近的学车上。我和2位其他同事一起学。第一步是倒车和移库。男同事很快就动作熟练，并且一直发挥稳定，女同事比他稍慢，但脑子好，经常能看出我们操作的问题。我是最差的一个，离合的位置一直掌握不好，一打方向盘的时候不是踩死了就是放掉了。好不容易经过苦练，在训练场上我也终于能开得比较稳定了。然后大家就去模拟场参加模拟考。唉，男同事一把过关，女同事经过两次成功率也不错了。我呢，头3把（合共6次机会）竟然全部failed了！气得师傅对我大骂，跟车场旁边的人说，她哦，搞是搞得来，竟然模了3趟都不过！老早以前要有人这么说我，我肯定眼泪都快掉了，也可能掉头就走。现在嘛反正知道自己怎么回事，就陪着笑递包烟给师傅，说我会改的我都记住了我就是一时紧张哈。最后是经过6次模拟，师傅才比较放心。不过到了正式考试的时候，终于一次就顺利过关了。 还有很多很多在我身上的事例，比如俺的职场之路，都是动辄要过10多年，才开始明白过来。但不要紧，人生不就是用来浪费的吗，只要在浪费的时候有一点点提高就成，终有一天，你会做得和别人一样好，甚至更好的。唯一可惜的是，我明白这个道理太晚，很多事情因为以前好面子被放弃了，想想真可惜，也许慢慢也会补回来，反正活到老学到老嘛。 ]]> http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/05/post_96.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/05/post_96.html Tue, 05 May 2009 23:14:11 +0800 去年的： ]]> http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/04/post_95.html http://danzhu.debagua.net/notebook/2009/04/post_95.html Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:32:51 +0800