My business was contacted over a year ago by an organization on this list, looking to purchase web hosting. They had provided a credit card and it was automatically authorized. (but funds were not captured) I recognized the website as being that of a rebellion army listed by the USA and the EU as being a terrorist organization. They were at the time being hosted with another US-based company.
I had thought that providing services to them would be a double-edged sword. I did not have any particular interest in hosting a terrorist site, but I do not believe in censorship. Additionally, I suspected that such sites would be a good source of information for their enemies. (such as the US) On the other hand, there could be a legal danger of providing such services. Having myself worked for another hosting company that had itself hosted Al Qaeda's website during 9/11, I knew that this was no laughing matter.
Concerned, I contacted Homeland Security and the Department of Defence, which referred me to the FBI. The FBI expressed interest in this enough to have me speak with an agent via telephone. They requested to meet me in person, but due to string of bank robberies, they didn't have the time to follow through, and finally told me (by phone) that they had no problem with my company accepting money from this organization and providing services to them.
In the end, I thought it was too risky, only having a verbal confirmation of such, and decided to reject this customer. It was a few months afterwards, that I discovered this list, which was never mentioned to me by any of the discussed government agencies. At that time, I was happy to have rejected the business, but was angry that I was mislead into believing that I could safely conduct business with that organization.
In this case, I had gone through all the official channels I thought were neccessary and wise, and yet, if I had followed their advice, I would have been breaking the law! Heck, just by corresponding with these people, I likely broke some law or another. I'm quite certain at this point, that by running a small-business, esspecially online, you're just asking for reasons to be put into Guantanamo. Not that they need reasons, anymore.
At no time was I told that I shouldn't discuss this matter, so I assume that I'm free to do so, although I probably shouldn't make such assumptions.
First of all, you're looking at an Optiplex, which Dell often targets as a small-form-factor machine. While I agree that the floppy drives have the bezel removed, that is common of all OEMs, it looks nicer, and most systems I've seen don't even ship with floppy drives anymore. (and the interface was standard for those with floppies)
A half-height AGP card is not too non-standard, at least not in a machine like the Optiplex. You need to remember that this is a business-targeted machine. (word processing, not gaming) There are plenty of half-height AGP cards available.
That said, look at a Dimension, or an XPS system. They're much more customizable.
Personally, I buy a few new machines for my wife and myself every year, and even more for my company. I've found that buying OEM is easier and cheaper, and if the machine can be built big enough out of the gate, upgrading isn't an issue. (not when you buy a new machine every few months;-)
I know I'm preaching to the choir, but... what I don't understand, is why EMI hasn't yet figured out how that DRM costs them money?
I went into a CD store recently, saw a number of alums for sale by EMI, considered buying them, but saw the largely-printed "DRM" warning. Perhaps I'm unusual, but this prevented me from buying a single one of those albums. If not for the DRM, I would've bought one of the albums, and I would have likely purchased the others over time. Over the last few years, I've probably spent few hundred at AllOfMp3. Why? Because I could buy the music I wanted, not only at the price I wanted, but in the format I wanted.
Does the music industry really think if people didn't want CDs, that they would've switched from cassettes and vinyl? Of course people switched, because they WANTED compact-discs, there was an advantage. Does EMI think that if the masses wanted CDs and they only sold cassettes, that anyone would continue to buy EMI's music? Likely, the masses would just put their money elsewhere. Customers buy what they want, remember: "The customer is always right." As long as the layman wants MP3 files, and the audiophiles want FLAC files, DRM will not sell. If music is only available underneath DRM, then music will not sell.
I only assume that EMI believes that stopping DRM will stop illegal downloads, and the revenue gained by recouping the "losses" of illegal downloads will outweigh the losses that they now incur due to DRM. However, I believe that of those illegally downloading, there are the following groups:
1. People that would purchase the product if there was no DRM, but download illegally instead.
2. People that won't pay regardless.
3. People that use illegal downloads as time-shifted radio, driving sales.
Based on this list, I can only see DRM hurting EMI. Group #2 won't pay regardless, and they're driving away users from groups #1 and #3. Thus, their DRM is only removing a significant number of potential customers. There is NO advantage to EMI to continue pushing DRM.
If there were a pandemic, I doubt that people would necessarily be surfing YouTube. It'd be no loss to me to not have that kind of site available anyway:-).
YouTube is actually a good source of news. While your local news broadcast may be fairly informative, YouTube can be used to find news from various non-local news sources. This is especially important to determine how censored, biased, or even fabricated your local news may be.
Tracking international news sources is especially useful during war or terrorist attacks; however, it can also be useful in the event of a pandemic... I can easily imagine US-based media outlets censoring information to prevent mass panic.
Text-based news is also useful, of course, but there can be a great advantage to video. I tracked international coverage of the Iraq war via webpages, and the Israel/Lebanon conflict via youtube.
A better example is MacOnLinux which performs virtualization for PowerPC OSX. (it only works on PowerPC hardware, of course). Another interesting example is PearPC, which emulates a PowerPC machine.
The only part of the puzzle missing right now is an x86 variant.
That guy in Thailand handing over $2 for a copy of some software has the same expectancies that I have for £100. If he doesn't get quality, there is trouble.
Apparently, you've never experienced the 'service with a snarl' of ex-communist Eastern European states. Not everywhere in the world, do vendors consider the 'customer king' or 'the customer is always right'. In fact, in many countries, it is the exact opposite. This is in normal stores, even -- illegal markets are even worse.
Also interesting is the "transferring...using the net" part. He just assumes email is accessible to everyone, with no mention of possible security they employed. And yes the computers can be hacked, so is any adult with porn guilty of making it available to minors since a computer can be hacked? The potential for a computer to be "hacked" makes lots of people and companies guilty of lots of crimes.
Which makes me wonder: if they had encrypted the files, would they be in this mess?
Imagining that a company was to try giving free hardware in exchange for viewing ads:
A) What would prevent the company/individual from installing their own Operating System? Right now, the most "unfriendly" x86 platform are the Intel Macs, and they're not *that* hard to install another OS on. Would they create a proprietary efi replacement, or worse -- include the bootloader in ROM? Even still, m86k and early PPC-based Macs used to have in-rom bootloaders and they were hacked around.
B) What possible business model would make it possible to provide ad-based computers, when ad-based internet service providers failed? Of course, those ISPs had users circumventing the ads in various ways, sharing the internet amongst other computers; these problems would've decreased the value to advertisers (who wouldn't want to pay for ads that weren't even being seen). However, I'm still not convinced that anyone would take such a risky business model, when much "safer" business models of the same ilk have failed.
Hell, once this is out of the headlines, there wouldn't even be a reason that they couldn't just rehire him. 2 million for this kind of exposure? Better than a superbowl ad. Of course they're gonna milk it for as long as they can.
Should one be jailed and fined millions of dollars for plugging in an alarm clock at a public place? Littering, perhaps. Vandelism? Probably not.
The truth is that a car parked underneath a bridge is a much more realistic and simple solution for a terrorist. However, the city isn't calling out the bomb squad for every car parked under a bridge. In fact, I cannot think of more than one case that I've heard about where such an event has happened. I wonder why this hasn't happened more?
Really, the line should be drawn somewhere, and I think that line is 'common sense'. I think that this is a case of misunderstandings. The artists were too naive, they underestimated the stupidity of other people. The city reacted based on THEIR OWN concerns. This was not a hoax, the devices were not bombs, they weren't intended to look like bombs. Could some people mistake them as bombs? Apparently. However, I do not believe that one should be legally responsible for the mistaken actions and responses of another. The artists did break some laws, but nothing more than vandelism, trespassing, or littering.
Is this the result of the last presidental elections when Kerry was called a 'flip-flopper'? You know, sometimes people make mistakes. Maybe the city of Boston should realize that and consider changing their stance. Sometimes it is better to admit mistakes and correct one's actions, rather than carry a bad idea forward just because you're afraid of a little change. For that matter, I'd rather have a "flip flopper" as president than one that can't admit that they were mistaken in their judgements and decisions, and continues to drive our country forward like a Lemming off a cliff.
Regardless of what on e could call a device, the EULA explicitly states that a hardware partition or blade acts as its own device. Thus, hardware virtualization products (like Parallels) should be in the clear. Assuming that your lawyers can argue that it creates hardware partitions.
You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system.
I believe this ONLY prohibits software virtualization. The EULA clearly notes (page 1, #2) that a "hardware partition" is defined as a separate device. One could clearly argue that hardware virtualization of the likes of AMD's Pacifica and Intel's VT are can be called "hardware partitions". If not, what is a hardware partition? Multiple motherboards in a single chassis? Multiple northbridges and southbridges with dedicated processing cores on a single PCB? Where do we draw lines?
Parallels, the example given by many, requires hardware virtualization. Thus, this EULA should not restrict users from utilizing it to install and use Vista.
I certainly would mention that if someone called me to check a reference.
Assuming that in your state/country, that saying such a thing isn't unwise. Regardless of where you are, a bad reference can open you up to potential litigation. Some places have laws that prevent you from revealing certain details as it would infringe on the individual's right to privacy. If there is anything untrue or misinterpreted, you can be sued for defamation.
There are some places, of course, where none of this matters.
Everyone here is talking about the ex-communist style 'service with a snarl', and I agree that customer service rep here was a little too blunt. It isn't necessarily rude, but too blunt. He forgot the golden rule of customer service: never stop apologizing. "I'm sorry, but we can't help you." is a lot nicer than, "We have no intention of helping you." His job should be to "intend" to help, even if he cannot. That is what customer service is. There is no indication if this performance is common for this single employee, nor if this is indicative of the entire company. Do not judge Lycos by his actions, but by their policies.
I understand Lycos' position. They're providing a free service, they must purge accounts, and they use it to help drive some revenue for the customers that clearly aren't otherwise generating income (via ads), yet wish to continue utilizing the service. That said, I do question the fact that the account's data was removed so suddenly. For instance, if my company suspends a customer, we provide a 30 day window in which a customer can have their account reactivated without losing any data. Lycos should have suspended the account after 30 days, and removed the data after another 30 days. This would give adequate time for the customer to reactivate. Additionally, once the customer expressed an interest in obtaining the data, they should've provided an extension to the timeline for restoration.
Bad employees happen. Bad days happen. Bad customers happen. Downtime happens. Accidental loss of data happens. Intentional loss of data happens. Sh*t happens. Bad policies, however, don't just happen.
They should improve their policies, provide scripts for their customer service for such situations, give the employee a slap on the wrist (or fire him *IF* this is a continuing pattern), and clarify their policies with their existing customers.
An issue tracking system can allow single employee to be more productive. I've worked at (and owned) companies ranging from 1-5 employees, and even with the solo-man case, having the ticket system was substantially better than not having one.
Think about it, if you were a single employee and had a minimum of 30 different issues to keep track of at any time, don't you think that keeping them in a ticket system would be a lot easier than basic email?
I understand your point about using email filtering, but that is hardly okay for just a single user, let alone once there are multiple users (and one may wish to view the histories of other's calls) -- what do you suggest, shared imap folders? Really, its more complicated than its worth.
For the record, by the way, I use Request::Tracker. I don't terribly like it, but I haven't found anything better yet.
Ah, the bane of the user interface! I have both my mother's and grandmother's computers set to display google by default. They do not understand what a URL is, or what a 'location bar' is. In the most abstract sense, typing into either box will get them where they want to go. Usually, they will just use the google search box, since their eyes are drawn to it as it is in the "content area". The address bar, and urls in general, are not user-friendly. Even in a modern office with technically oriented workers, there are many that do not understand URLs. Does this make these people morons? No. They could use training, but the confusion is justified.
The truth is that there is a great confusion amongst users between these 'search boxes' and 'address boxes' that, to the user, do the same thing in a completely different way.
"A Winsock package was required to support TCP/IP networking in Windows 3.x. Usually third-party packages were used, but in August 1994 Microsoft released an add-on package (codenamed Wolverine) which provided limited TCP/IP support in Windows for Workgroups 3.11." - Wikipedia
The above from Wikipedia about matches my own vague memories from those times long-gone.
I deal with such scripts running on my Linux machines occasionally. Why? Because I'm a web hosting provider. Customers install popular CMS systems and web applications that eventually become vulnerable and exploited. Usually when this happens, it isn't to deface a website like it was years ago... today's attackers are after network resources.
They get in, do some tricks, and either send spam or create an IRC bot (which sometimes is then used as part of a 'botnet' to issue spam or launch attacks and scans against other machines)
I see it all the time. We do have tricks to dampen such attacks, but its more difficult when you want to be a more liberal host (such as mine), where you don't want to limit your paying users much, but you want to prevent abuse. Its a balancing act.
Apparently the OD limit is 400mg (although, yes, fatal dosage is much higher). One of these donuts and a double-shot of expresso or a large (by US standards) McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts coffee is enough to push you over that edge.
Think about how you felt the last time you drank 4-5 cups of coffee within an hour, then say with honesty that this is a good idea.
The simple facts are that while HP48/49 series are much better calculators, most schools, and individual teachers/professors won't allow you to use anything but a TI.
I myself bought an HP-48G and loved the thing. I had a horrible time convincing my teachers allow me to use it, they had never seen one before. I eventually came across teachers that I couldn't convince, and I ended up having to buy a TI.
In regard to those that say, "don't buy one". Some teachers/professors REQUIRE them, some PROHIBIT them, and others consider it OPTIONAL. Regardless, you really need to follow the pack here.
Thats my problem.. I wake up at 1pm, take an hour break from 4pm-5pm, take another break from 10pm through 12pm, and then work until 6am. Speaking of which, its about 5:50am now, time to head to bed.
Thats life, more-or-less every day.
Calculating in the breaks and weekend work, its upto 86hrs as week on the computer. This compares to approximately 33 hours a week with the wife and 49 hours of sleep. (usually not with the wife, because I'm on the computer)
The poorly framed pictures on a postcard do not overflow a buffer in your brain, causing you to spontaneously send out truckloads of postcards containing the compromised picture and inducing you to be highly suggestible to the advances of complete strangers.
Tell that to all of those people that fall 'victim' to chain-mails or to the people that enter into the 'million dollar sweepstakes'!
With the claims that this was running OSX, the most thrilling thing to me about this phone was that I could replace my Palm pda and my cell phone with a single device. I was excited about installing an ssh client, a softphone (important), and an instant messenger. I'd also want a decent media player -- that plays Vorbis. Without these things, however fancy, its useless.
Slashdot Mirror
My business was contacted over a year ago by an organization on this list, looking to purchase web hosting. They had provided a credit card and it was automatically authorized. (but funds were not captured) I recognized the website as being that of a rebellion army listed by the USA and the EU as being a terrorist organization. They were at the time being hosted with another US-based company.
I had thought that providing services to them would be a double-edged sword. I did not have any particular interest in hosting a terrorist site, but I do not believe in censorship. Additionally, I suspected that such sites would be a good source of information for their enemies. (such as the US) On the other hand, there could be a legal danger of providing such services. Having myself worked for another hosting company that had itself hosted Al Qaeda's website during 9/11, I knew that this was no laughing matter.
Concerned, I contacted Homeland Security and the Department of Defence, which referred me to the FBI. The FBI expressed interest in this enough to have me speak with an agent via telephone. They requested to meet me in person, but due to string of bank robberies, they didn't have the time to follow through, and finally told me (by phone) that they had no problem with my company accepting money from this organization and providing services to them.
In the end, I thought it was too risky, only having a verbal confirmation of such, and decided to reject this customer. It was a few months afterwards, that I discovered this list, which was never mentioned to me by any of the discussed government agencies. At that time, I was happy to have rejected the business, but was angry that I was mislead into believing that I could safely conduct business with that organization.
In this case, I had gone through all the official channels I thought were neccessary and wise, and yet, if I had followed their advice, I would have been breaking the law! Heck, just by corresponding with these people, I likely broke some law or another. I'm quite certain at this point, that by running a small-business, esspecially online, you're just asking for reasons to be put into Guantanamo. Not that they need reasons, anymore.
At no time was I told that I shouldn't discuss this matter, so I assume that I'm free to do so, although I probably shouldn't make such assumptions.
First of all, you're looking at an Optiplex, which Dell often targets as a small-form-factor machine. While I agree that the floppy drives have the bezel removed, that is common of all OEMs, it looks nicer, and most systems I've seen don't even ship with floppy drives anymore. (and the interface was standard for those with floppies)
;-)
A half-height AGP card is not too non-standard, at least not in a machine like the Optiplex. You need to remember that this is a business-targeted machine. (word processing, not gaming) There are plenty of half-height AGP cards available.
That said, look at a Dimension, or an XPS system. They're much more customizable.
Personally, I buy a few new machines for my wife and myself every year, and even more for my company. I've found that buying OEM is easier and cheaper, and if the machine can be built big enough out of the gate, upgrading isn't an issue. (not when you buy a new machine every few months
I know I'm preaching to the choir, but... what I don't understand, is why EMI hasn't yet figured out how that DRM costs them money?
I went into a CD store recently, saw a number of alums for sale by EMI, considered buying them, but saw the largely-printed "DRM" warning. Perhaps I'm unusual, but this prevented me from buying a single one of those albums. If not for the DRM, I would've bought one of the albums, and I would have likely purchased the others over time. Over the last few years, I've probably spent few hundred at AllOfMp3. Why? Because I could buy the music I wanted, not only at the price I wanted, but in the format I wanted.
Does the music industry really think if people didn't want CDs, that they would've switched from cassettes and vinyl? Of course people switched, because they WANTED compact-discs, there was an advantage. Does EMI think that if the masses wanted CDs and they only sold cassettes, that anyone would continue to buy EMI's music? Likely, the masses would just put their money elsewhere. Customers buy what they want, remember: "The customer is always right." As long as the layman wants MP3 files, and the audiophiles want FLAC files, DRM will not sell. If music is only available underneath DRM, then music will not sell.
I only assume that EMI believes that stopping DRM will stop illegal downloads, and the revenue gained by recouping the "losses" of illegal downloads will outweigh the losses that they now incur due to DRM. However, I believe that of those illegally downloading, there are the following groups:
1. People that would purchase the product if there was no DRM, but download illegally instead.
2. People that won't pay regardless.
3. People that use illegal downloads as time-shifted radio, driving sales.
Based on this list, I can only see DRM hurting EMI. Group #2 won't pay regardless, and they're driving away users from groups #1 and #3. Thus, their DRM is only removing a significant number of potential customers. There is NO advantage to EMI to continue pushing DRM.
YouTube is actually a good source of news. While your local news broadcast may be fairly informative, YouTube can be used to find news from various non-local news sources. This is especially important to determine how censored, biased, or even fabricated your local news may be.
Tracking international news sources is especially useful during war or terrorist attacks; however, it can also be useful in the event of a pandemic... I can easily imagine US-based media outlets censoring information to prevent mass panic.
Text-based news is also useful, of course, but there can be a great advantage to video. I tracked international coverage of the Iraq war via webpages, and the Israel/Lebanon conflict via youtube.
A better example is MacOnLinux which performs virtualization for PowerPC OSX. (it only works on PowerPC hardware, of course). Another interesting example is PearPC, which emulates a PowerPC machine.
The only part of the puzzle missing right now is an x86 variant.
Apparently, you've never experienced the 'service with a snarl' of ex-communist Eastern European states. Not everywhere in the world, do vendors consider the 'customer king' or 'the customer is always right'. In fact, in many countries, it is the exact opposite. This is in normal stores, even -- illegal markets are even worse.
reference?
Which makes me wonder: if they had encrypted the files, would they be in this mess?
Imagining that a company was to try giving free hardware in exchange for viewing ads:
A) What would prevent the company/individual from installing their own Operating System? Right now, the most "unfriendly" x86 platform are the Intel Macs, and they're not *that* hard to install another OS on. Would they create a proprietary efi replacement, or worse -- include the bootloader in ROM? Even still, m86k and early PPC-based Macs used to have in-rom bootloaders and they were hacked around.
B) What possible business model would make it possible to provide ad-based computers, when ad-based internet service providers failed? Of course, those ISPs had users circumventing the ads in various ways, sharing the internet amongst other computers; these problems would've decreased the value to advertisers (who wouldn't want to pay for ads that weren't even being seen). However, I'm still not convinced that anyone would take such a risky business model, when much "safer" business models of the same ilk have failed.
Hell, once this is out of the headlines, there wouldn't even be a reason that they couldn't just rehire him. 2 million for this kind of exposure? Better than a superbowl ad. Of course they're gonna milk it for as long as they can.
Should one be jailed and fined millions of dollars for plugging in an alarm clock at a public place? Littering, perhaps. Vandelism? Probably not.
The truth is that a car parked underneath a bridge is a much more realistic and simple solution for a terrorist. However, the city isn't calling out the bomb squad for every car parked under a bridge. In fact, I cannot think of more than one case that I've heard about where such an event has happened. I wonder why this hasn't happened more?
Really, the line should be drawn somewhere, and I think that line is 'common sense'. I think that this is a case of misunderstandings. The artists were too naive, they underestimated the stupidity of other people. The city reacted based on THEIR OWN concerns. This was not a hoax, the devices were not bombs, they weren't intended to look like bombs. Could some people mistake them as bombs? Apparently. However, I do not believe that one should be legally responsible for the mistaken actions and responses of another. The artists did break some laws, but nothing more than vandelism, trespassing, or littering.
Is this the result of the last presidental elections when Kerry was called a 'flip-flopper'? You know, sometimes people make mistakes. Maybe the city of Boston should realize that and consider changing their stance. Sometimes it is better to admit mistakes and correct one's actions, rather than carry a bad idea forward just because you're afraid of a little change. For that matter, I'd rather have a "flip flopper" as president than one that can't admit that they were mistaken in their judgements and decisions, and continues to drive our country forward like a Lemming off a cliff.
Regardless of what on e could call a device, the EULA explicitly states that a hardware partition or blade acts as its own device. Thus, hardware virtualization products (like Parallels) should be in the clear. Assuming that your lawyers can argue that it creates hardware partitions.
Parallels, the example given by many, requires hardware virtualization. Thus, this EULA should not restrict users from utilizing it to install and use Vista.
There are some places, of course, where none of this matters.
Everyone here is talking about the ex-communist style 'service with a snarl', and I agree that customer service rep here was a little too blunt. It isn't necessarily rude, but too blunt. He forgot the golden rule of customer service: never stop apologizing. "I'm sorry, but we can't help you." is a lot nicer than, "We have no intention of helping you." His job should be to "intend" to help, even if he cannot. That is what customer service is. There is no indication if this performance is common for this single employee, nor if this is indicative of the entire company. Do not judge Lycos by his actions, but by their policies.
I understand Lycos' position. They're providing a free service, they must purge accounts, and they use it to help drive some revenue for the customers that clearly aren't otherwise generating income (via ads), yet wish to continue utilizing the service. That said, I do question the fact that the account's data was removed so suddenly. For instance, if my company suspends a customer, we provide a 30 day window in which a customer can have their account reactivated without losing any data. Lycos should have suspended the account after 30 days, and removed the data after another 30 days. This would give adequate time for the customer to reactivate. Additionally, once the customer expressed an interest in obtaining the data, they should've provided an extension to the timeline for restoration.
Bad employees happen. Bad days happen. Bad customers happen. Downtime happens. Accidental loss of data happens. Intentional loss of data happens. Sh*t happens. Bad policies, however, don't just happen.
They should improve their policies, provide scripts for their customer service for such situations, give the employee a slap on the wrist (or fire him *IF* this is a continuing pattern), and clarify their policies with their existing customers.
An issue tracking system can allow single employee to be more productive. I've worked at (and owned) companies ranging from 1-5 employees, and even with the solo-man case, having the ticket system was substantially better than not having one.
Think about it, if you were a single employee and had a minimum of 30 different issues to keep track of at any time, don't you think that keeping them in a ticket system would be a lot easier than basic email?
I understand your point about using email filtering, but that is hardly okay for just a single user, let alone once there are multiple users (and one may wish to view the histories of other's calls) -- what do you suggest, shared imap folders? Really, its more complicated than its worth.
For the record, by the way, I use Request::Tracker. I don't terribly like it, but I haven't found anything better yet.
Ah, the bane of the user interface! I have both my mother's and grandmother's computers set to display google by default. They do not understand what a URL is, or what a 'location bar' is. In the most abstract sense, typing into either box will get them where they want to go. Usually, they will just use the google search box, since their eyes are drawn to it as it is in the "content area". The address bar, and urls in general, are not user-friendly. Even in a modern office with technically oriented workers, there are many that do not understand URLs. Does this make these people morons? No. They could use training, but the confusion is justified.
The truth is that there is a great confusion amongst users between these 'search boxes' and 'address boxes' that, to the user, do the same thing in a completely different way.
"without any side effects except a small tremor of the hands and some additional sweat."
;-)
One could argue that those are signs of a mild overdose
I deal with such scripts running on my Linux machines occasionally. Why? Because I'm a web hosting provider. Customers install popular CMS systems and web applications that eventually become vulnerable and exploited. Usually when this happens, it isn't to deface a website like it was years ago... today's attackers are after network resources.
They get in, do some tricks, and either send spam or create an IRC bot (which sometimes is then used as part of a 'botnet' to issue spam or launch attacks and scans against other machines)
I see it all the time. We do have tricks to dampen such attacks, but its more difficult when you want to be a more liberal host (such as mine), where you don't want to limit your paying users much, but you want to prevent abuse. Its a balancing act.
Apparently the OD limit is 400mg (although, yes, fatal dosage is much higher). One of these donuts and a double-shot of expresso or a large (by US standards) McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts coffee is enough to push you over that edge.
Think about how you felt the last time you drank 4-5 cups of coffee within an hour, then say with honesty that this is a good idea.
The simple facts are that while HP48/49 series are much better calculators, most schools, and individual teachers/professors won't allow you to use anything but a TI.
I myself bought an HP-48G and loved the thing. I had a horrible time convincing my teachers allow me to use it, they had never seen one before. I eventually came across teachers that I couldn't convince, and I ended up having to buy a TI.
In regard to those that say, "don't buy one". Some teachers/professors REQUIRE them, some PROHIBIT them, and others consider it OPTIONAL. Regardless, you really need to follow the pack here.
Thats my problem.. I wake up at 1pm, take an hour break from 4pm-5pm, take another break from 10pm through 12pm, and then work until 6am. Speaking of which, its about 5:50am now, time to head to bed.
Thats life, more-or-less every day.
Calculating in the breaks and weekend work, its upto 86hrs as week on the computer. This compares to approximately 33 hours a week with the wife and 49 hours of sleep. (usually not with the wife, because I'm on the computer)
Tell that to all of those people that fall 'victim' to chain-mails or to the people that enter into the 'million dollar sweepstakes'!
With the claims that this was running OSX, the most thrilling thing to me about this phone was that I could replace my Palm pda and my cell phone with a single device. I was excited about installing an ssh client, a softphone (important), and an instant messenger. I'd also want a decent media player -- that plays Vorbis. Without these things, however fancy, its useless.