My company has flip-flopped over the last three years as to which e-mail system we should use, so I've had a chance to try out a few.
What I really learned from all of these mail server transitions is that moving mail service from one MTA to another is error prone and bound to cause grief. You should expect to loose mail and hair, unless you're prepared to put a hurculean effort into transitioning every last little bit of mail from the old mail server to the new. And if even one piece of mail is missing, it's a sure bet that the user who owned it will devote themselves to making you miserable.
I would also like to add that my company has lost customers just because a small but vocal minority of users didn't like our web mail client. If the powers that be force the employees to use Outlook when they don't want to, there is likely to be trouble.
The people who need calendering services might want to consider alternatives to Exchange. We tried using Exchange specifically because of these features, and found it less that useful. We developed our own in-house solution that works over the web quite nicely, with or without having to see a piece of mail about the event. If you're interested, mail me off line and I'll show you the system.
Interesting in theory, but there are problems. First and foremost will be that such a field will trash the CEO's $500 watch. When that happens to a prospective customer/investor touring the facilities, it will be even less amusing.
Also, if someone is serious about stealing the PC and knows about the gate, an effective shield against the magnetic field isn't exactly complicated. Encasing it in a conductor should work for most equipment (e.g. one of those cool Aluminum briefcases). A large copper Pokemon ball would shield against a magnetic field of any strength, and look cool too.
If you're going to take the DIY approach, you should either be an experienced UNIX admin, or get yourself up to speed as fast as you can. The Aileen Frisch book Essential UNIX Administration (or Esential System Administration) is a good place to start. For running a mail server, also check out sendmail.org and Claus Assman's useful site on configuring sendmail.
I had similar paranoid security concerns, so I set up OpenBSD. It was a fairly painless install, provided you read the directions. I set up sendmail, UW-IMAP, IMP, and access it via secure http. UW-IMAP has some serious security concerns, but it's much easier to compile than Cyrus, my preferred IMAP server.
If you're new to UNIX admin though, try looking at FreeBSD. This is hands down the simplest UNIX installation I have ever done. It was almost as simple as starting the installation, walking away, and coming back when it was done. It also doesn't hurt that FreeBSD has excellent network performance.
In your example, the tinkerer making a liability claim against the manufacturer of the microwave. Nobody is trying to make warranty or liability claims against Digital Convergence. They're trying to figure out how the beast works, and find new uses for it.
To use a microwave equivalent of what Digital Convergence is trying to do: GE would be sueing you for intellectual property violations when you put a CD in the microwave to see what it would do (don't do this with a CD or microwave you like, by the way).
It appears that Digital Convergence is attempting to control how you use their product, not just protecting their intellectual property.
You're saying that like the 80's was a bad time.
A time without spam. A good time. Let's go back in time.:-)
I'll pass, thank you. The 80's was distinctly not know for the reliability of network services. I didn't get a working domain name server until the early 90's.
Let's not forget the glorious days before the web, when if you wanted to find a resource on the net, you needed to get one of the lists with domain names em ip addresses, and hope the descriptions were useful.
Telnet and ftp are useful protocols. But hypertext is a wonderful thing.
Something like this could be very useful, if handled properly. For instance, discrete referral to counseling or other relevant resources can be helpful, if the person making the referal handles it properly. The problem is that knowing how to handle the referral is not an exact science. There is also the problem that this program is being implemented in an atmosphere of paranoia.
The problem of troubled people needing help is what led me to join the Stephen Ministry program at my church. It provides a one on one helping relationship with people seeking help. It is possible that something like this could have helped to prevent some of the school shootings we've seen in the media in the last year.
Well, one answer would be for them to be sterlised, but that strikes me as being unethical since it isn't their fault - after all you can't choose your parents. I am personally in favour of using counselling and drugs until they have been determined to be safe and then released into society again.
Eeeck! You missed my point entirely. Surely you've heard the phrase "Final Solution" before? Here's a hint: it involved a lot of people taking one-way trips on trains in the early 1940's. Hint #2: the current Pope lived through it.
Wow, that's really scary. First, because it sounds exactly like Nazi propaganda. Second, because it reveals a profound level of ignorance.
"After all, it's not their fault that their genes give rise to this situation, and they shouldn't be blamed for it." They can't help it if they're genetically disposed to be inferior? Where have I heard those words before? Surely someone will come up with a final solution to this problem, so I shouldn't worry about it.
Even with yesterday's Supreme Court ruling on anonymous tips, it is still possible to report a person carrying a gun in a school to the police. I am not aware that carrying a gun in school (without a permit) is legal anywhere, and the decision did specifically mention exceptions for schools, airports and other public buildings. It has also always been possible to report a potentially dangerous condition to school officials, who are bound by law to take some action. School officials probably have some training appropriate for identifying dangerous individuals, and they have the resources of school counselors to call upon for making an evaluation.
The mere act of owning a firearm does not presume criminal intent. My entire family owns firearmes. We hunt together, we go target and skeet shooting together. None of us have ever been arrested, or committed a crime with our weapons. Unless I completely misunderstand my family, I don't think that anybody is planning on committing crimes, with or without weapons. Please, before you demonize all firearm owners as rebels and criminals, meet some of us.
The ASP approach has some other benefits you can use. All of your heavy processing can be offloaded to Microsoft Transaction Server. MTS uses compiled code only. Visual Basic, Visual C++, Delphi, and Borland C++ Builder all support MTS. MTS is also designed to make administration easier.
The down side to this is that the Microsoft solution is outrageously expensive. You'll be spending several thousands of dollars just for your operating system, server software, and development environment. You can really only consider it if you are well funded.
Slashdot Mirror
My company has flip-flopped over the last three years as to which e-mail system we should use, so I've had a chance to try out a few.
What I really learned from all of these mail server transitions is that moving mail service from one MTA to another is error prone and bound to cause grief. You should expect to loose mail and hair, unless you're prepared to put a hurculean effort into transitioning every last little bit of mail from the old mail server to the new. And if even one piece of mail is missing, it's a sure bet that the user who owned it will devote themselves to making you miserable.
I would also like to add that my company has lost customers just because a small but vocal minority of users didn't like our web mail client. If the powers that be force the employees to use Outlook when they don't want to, there is likely to be trouble.
The people who need calendering services might want to consider alternatives to Exchange. We tried using Exchange specifically because of these features, and found it less that useful. We developed our own in-house solution that works over the web quite nicely, with or without having to see a piece of mail about the event. If you're interested, mail me off line and I'll show you the system.
Interesting in theory, but there are problems. First and foremost will be that such a field will trash the CEO's $500 watch. When that happens to a prospective customer/investor touring the facilities, it will be even less amusing.
Also, if someone is serious about stealing the PC and knows about the gate, an effective shield against the magnetic field isn't exactly complicated. Encasing it in a conductor should work for most equipment (e.g. one of those cool Aluminum briefcases). A large copper Pokemon ball would shield against a magnetic field of any strength, and look cool too.
If you're going to take the DIY approach, you should either be an experienced UNIX admin, or get yourself up to speed as fast as you can. The Aileen Frisch book Essential UNIX Administration (or Esential System Administration) is a good place to start. For running a mail server, also check out sendmail.org and Claus Assman's useful site on configuring sendmail.
I had similar paranoid security concerns, so I set up OpenBSD. It was a fairly painless install, provided you read the directions. I set up sendmail, UW-IMAP, IMP, and access it via secure http. UW-IMAP has some serious security concerns, but it's much easier to compile than Cyrus, my preferred IMAP server.
If you're new to UNIX admin though, try looking at FreeBSD. This is hands down the simplest UNIX installation I have ever done. It was almost as simple as starting the installation, walking away, and coming back when it was done. It also doesn't hurt that FreeBSD has excellent network performance.
TinyEgo
In your example, the tinkerer making a liability claim against the manufacturer of the microwave. Nobody is trying to make warranty or liability claims against Digital Convergence. They're trying to figure out how the beast works, and find new uses for it. To use a microwave equivalent of what Digital Convergence is trying to do: GE would be sueing you for intellectual property violations when you put a CD in the microwave to see what it would do (don't do this with a CD or microwave you like, by the way). It appears that Digital Convergence is attempting to control how you use their product, not just protecting their intellectual property.
I'll pass, thank you. The 80's was distinctly not know for the reliability of network services. I didn't get a working domain name server until the early 90's.
Let's not forget the glorious days before the web, when if you wanted to find a resource on the net, you needed to get one of the lists with domain names em ip addresses, and hope the descriptions were useful.
Telnet and ftp are useful protocols. But hypertext is a wonderful thing.
Something like this could be very useful, if handled properly. For instance, discrete referral to counseling or other relevant resources can be helpful, if the person making the referal handles it properly. The problem is that knowing how to handle the referral is not an exact science. There is also the problem that this program is being implemented in an atmosphere of paranoia.
The problem of troubled people needing help is what led me to join the Stephen Ministry program at my church. It provides a one on one helping relationship with people seeking help. It is possible that something like this could have helped to prevent some of the school shootings we've seen in the media in the last year.
Eeeck! You missed my point entirely. Surely you've heard the phrase "Final Solution" before? Here's a hint: it involved a lot of people taking one-way trips on trains in the early 1940's. Hint #2: the current Pope lived through it.
Wow, that's really scary. First, because it sounds exactly like Nazi propaganda. Second, because it reveals a profound level of ignorance.
"After all, it's not their fault that their genes give rise to this situation, and they shouldn't be blamed for it." They can't help it if they're genetically disposed to be inferior? Where have I heard those words before? Surely someone will come up with a final solution to this problem, so I shouldn't worry about it.
Even with yesterday's Supreme Court ruling on anonymous tips, it is still possible to report a person carrying a gun in a school to the police. I am not aware that carrying a gun in school (without a permit) is legal anywhere, and the decision did specifically mention exceptions for schools, airports and other public buildings. It has also always been possible to report a potentially dangerous condition to school officials, who are bound by law to take some action. School officials probably have some training appropriate for identifying dangerous individuals, and they have the resources of school counselors to call upon for making an evaluation.
The mere act of owning a firearm does not presume criminal intent. My entire family owns firearmes. We hunt together, we go target and skeet shooting together. None of us have ever been arrested, or committed a crime with our weapons. Unless I completely misunderstand my family, I don't think that anybody is planning on committing crimes, with or without weapons. Please, before you demonize all firearm owners as rebels and criminals, meet some of us.
The ASP approach has some other benefits you can use. All of your heavy processing can be offloaded to Microsoft Transaction Server. MTS uses compiled code only. Visual Basic, Visual C++, Delphi, and Borland C++ Builder all support MTS. MTS is also designed to make administration easier.
The down side to this is that the Microsoft solution is outrageously expensive. You'll be spending several thousands of dollars just for your operating system, server software, and development environment. You can really only consider it if you are well funded.