Fat32 is old. Why hasn’t it been replaced yet? I have files bigger than 4GB. I want filesystems bigger than 32GB. This Slashdot article gives some decent background, but doesn’t really come up with a winner. If we look at HFS, ext2, or NTFS, there are options for Mac, Linux, and Windows machines. Of course these options don’t include the journaling abilities of HFS+ or ext3. Does that mean NTFS is the only option? It used to be a bad idea to have a journaling filesystem on a USB key, which is one of the key devices that would need to support this. I don’t know if current wear leveling is good enough to deal with journaling, or if this issue is only an urban myth. Maybe the Mythbusters will take this one up. We all know that Linux will eventually get support for anything that is popular enough, regardless of legality. I don’t know if Microsoft has patents up its sleeve that it could use to attempt to shut down NTFS support on Linux, but it wouldn’t surprise me. That being said, I would think that Microsoft would prefer their filesystem to the other options I mentioned, and several I didn’t. As long as we are allowed to format devices we buy, any of these are an option yet. My current vote is for better NTFS support across platforms, but only time will tell. What do think would make the best FAT32 replacement?

As I continue to integrate my “real life” with my online life, I have been thinking a lot about reputation. How can I prove (to some extent) that I am me? How can I prove that I am trustworthy? What does it mean to be trustworthy? I like to use analogies, and the closest one I can think of right now is my FICO (credit score) number. There are three companies that collect and analyze information about my financial history and activities (very rarely with any sort of permission from me). They then sell this information to a third party who is trying to decide if I am worth the risk of doing business with.

Of course, there are other things besides financial risk that affect my online reputation; no analogy is perfect. I have often wondered what would happen if the three credit report companies went away overnight and we all had to start over tomorrow. I assume that costs of doing business would go up slightly, as with less information to go on, it is more risky for someone to decide to do business with me. On the other hand, if my credit score was low enough, a business might go off of an “average” credit score. Even with a slightly increased cost due to uncertainty, I might come out ahead.

There are a couple places I can think of online, like eBay, where a reputation system has been in place long enough to build up some history, but most online “locations” have not had a system in place, or have not had enough time to build up this history. Even on eBay, if I have built up an account with a negative reputation, there is little incentive to keep that account rather than abandoning it and starting with a new one. In addition, how do I go about building up a general online reputation without having to start over for each new website or online community? I continue to ponder this, but haven’t figured out a lot of answers yet. What do you think about online reputations?

I don’t think I have seen a manager who could handle the concept of an efficient worker. This isn’t an anomaly, it’s the way the world works. If we are to treat everybody equally, than it’s obvious that someone cannot work half as much. If a company actually wanted results, they would be looking to hire someone like Albert for 25 to 30 hours a week, but most companies today (unless they are under 50 employees) could not understand the concept of “don’t waste my time”. Too bad.