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User: un4given

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Comments · 49

  1. SecureCRT FTW on Ask Slashdot: What Terminal Emulator Do You Use? · · Score: 1

    I work as a consultant and I have to use Windows as my primary OS due to software requirements. I also have to manage session data for hundreds of customers, and even more devices, so I choose SecureCRT. It lets me store sessions in a tree structure and also has the ability to store credentials (use with care) and automate logins via functionality similar to expect.

  2. Re:Will it be a PITA to use? on Microsoft To Support SSH In Windows and Contribute To OpenSSH · · Score: 1

    Of course it will be a PITA to use. It's Windows, and all of the administration tools have devolved over the years. You have horrible GUI tools, like the dreaded IIS manager, ridiculous CLI commands, like ntdsutil, diskpart and netsh. Why would this be any different?

  3. 50 is the new 30 on Ask Slashdot: IT Career Path After 35? · · Score: 1

    I started in IT in my early 30's and I work as a consultant at a small consulting company that I don't own. I am now almost 50. Throughout my career, I have stayed up to date on technology and gotten certified at a high level in everything relevant. I am technical and my income is 6 figures. Right now I specialize in storage and virtualization technologies, and I hold storage industry certs that are only available to EMC employees and partners. These limited-access certs have a lot of value. As technology trends shift, so will I. I will never move into management, as my value is in my technical skill, not my people management skills.

  4. Good resource for Ethanol-free gas stations on Has the Ethanol Threat Manifested In the US? · · Score: 1

    The site http://pure-gas.org/ has a pretty comprehensive list of gas stations and suppliers of Ethanol-free gas. In my experience, the Ethanol causes the most problems with small, 2-stoke engines like chainsaws and string trimmers. 2-stroke is very sensitive to air/fuel ratio, and the Ethanol makes them run leaner, which causes over-revving if not compensated for. Problem is that a lot of machines have limited adjustments, due to air quality laws. It is such an issue that companies like Stihl that make small engines are selling premixed 2-stroke fuel in cans for ridiculous prices. Also, you don't always know what the exact percentage of Ethanol is, so you can potentially have to adjust the carburetor for every batch of fuel.

  5. Floppy drives? on US Nuclear Missile Silos Use Safe, Secure 8" Floppy Disks · · Score: 1

    My concern here is not cybersecurity, but data integrity. Not sure what's on those ancient floppy disks, but if it is mission critical, then that's a problem. The failure rates on those would be unacceptably high.

  6. Sounds like he was on the right track on Symantec Fires CEO Steve Bennett · · Score: 3, Informative

    Disclaimer: I am an IT consultant and I work with multiple vendors' products, including Symantec. The biggest problem that we have with Symantec is support. It's horrible. It's so bad that Symantec has a program for it's partner resellers called TAPP. It requires certifications and training to get into, and only gives you access to more competent tech support than the general public gets. The fact that they even need such a program is telling.

  7. Hobby store with too much overhead on RadioShack To Close 1,100 Stores · · Score: 1

    I've been going to Radio Shack since...well, since it was a radio shack. Back in the days of breadboards, resistors, capacitors, transistors and these new things called integrated circuits that were going to change the world. When they had the light beam spanning the doorway that rang a buzzer when someone walked in.

    Sadly, I don't think they can return to those roots. Their stores have moved from the low-rent strip malls to the high-priced shopping mall locations, and I think the overhead is too high to sustain business selling $.99 parts and Raspberry PI's. I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see them being able to pull out of this.

  8. This is really just a patent extender on Doctors Say New Pain Pill Is "Genuinely Frightening" · · Score: 3, Interesting

    From my view of this "new" drug, it looks to me like it's just hydrocodone in a time-release form, without any acetaminophen in it. The intention of this drug company is take a medication that is now generic and produce a novel, patented form that can be sold at a premium. The fear that some doctors have is that each pill contains a large amount of hydrocodone, so if your intent was to abuse, you could crush it and get the full dose all at once, without the liver-poisoning acetaminophen. I don't really see how it's any different from plain oxycodone in that regard.

  9. Re:Still fewer cancers than fossil fuels on Safety Measures Fail To Stop Fukushima Plant Leaks · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't dispute your claim that coal puts a lot of radioactive material into the air, and I'm not anti-nuclear. However, with a coal power plant, it is a gradual and controlled release of radiation and if the coal-fired plant malfunctions or gets damaged, the release of that radioactivity stops. Contrast this with nuclear power, where a failure releases huge amounts of radioactivity at one time, in a concentrated area and continues to release radiation as additional systems fail (e.g. hydrogen explosions due to lack of cooling). The problem becomes compounded when you can't fix it, because the site is too radioactive to sustain human life.

  10. First hand advice on How Does a Self-Taught Computer Geek Get Hired? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am a self-taught geek, similar to you. I was a construction worker, and I wanted to change careers. I don't have a college degree. I built my skills by taking a few night classes at a local community college and by spending a couple of hours a night (or more), every night, working in my home lab, doing networking/IT kinds of things, and writing code. Next, I got a job doing some IT work for a construction company, on a project where a lot of construction knowledge was needed.

    After I got to the point where I felt comfortable with my skills, I put together a resume and got an interview with a small IT consulting company. I offered the company the following deal: Pay me whatever you want for 90 days. If at the end of that time I have demonstrated sufficient ability I want a raise to market rates. If not, I will move on, no hard feelings. Within 45 days, I got the raise. Within 3-4 years, I was making 100k a year.

  11. Re:Nothing THAT bad... on What Bizarre IT Setups Have You Seen? · · Score: 1

    Why not just hack off the ends and crimp new ends onto one end? Once you've done a few, this should take less time than splicing wires together and insulating the connections?

    Here's a novel idea: why not just buy the correct cables for the job?

  12. Management is almost always to blame on What Would You Demand From Your IT Department? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I am an IT consultant, and I make my living cleaning up the mess left behind by incompetent IT staff and management.

    Many times, an organization starts out small, and the most 'IT savvy' person in the office cobbles together a 'server' and 'network' from some old PCs and some network gear they bought from the office supply store on the corner. I arrive to find a Windows Workgroup (ugh) or poorly implemented Active Directory with a host of replication issues, orphaned objects and broken name resolution. Today I worked on a production network that was running their directory services, print queues and files shares off of a 120 day evaluation copy of Windows server!

    There are usually local user accounts, local printers shared off of a workstation, no redundancy, broken or no backups, physical layer problems (bad wiring) and a host of other problems. Quick fixes that were implemented over the course of years are now recurring problems that suck up the majority of the IT staff's time.

    These same kinds of problems can plague a large organization, albeit they may present as slightly different symptoms. The cause is always the same: inability of management to see the big picture. This lack of attention to detail starts with management and trickles down.

    The way to fix this is to get upper management to recognize that there is a problem. Unfortunately, this often would require somebody to admit that they aren't doing their job. Good luck with that. 90% of the time I find that this type of wholesale cleanup and reengineering only happens during a regime change.

  13. I would love to use these servers... on Sun's Bold New Ad Campaign · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, Sun has been changing their corporate focus every few months. Linux rocks, it sucks, it's OK, it rocks.

    They bought Cobalt, rebranded the systems, and then scrapped the whole product line.

    Sun is really spoiled by the whole "Big Iron At Even Bigger Prices" business model and I fear that this foray into x64 is another passing fad.
    Then the product goes away and I get stuck with a handful of oddball systems to support.

  14. Certifications can be instructional on What's the Point of IT Certifications? · · Score: 1

    A lot of people like to point out that certs don't prove you know anything, blah, blah, blah.

    Personally, when I was in the process of getting my MCSE, I was administering a 3000 user NT domain. I worked with Windows and Exchange server every day, and I Knew My Stuff (tm). However, I learned quite a bit during the certification process. Many times there are things that you may not work with in your current environment that are covered in the certification requirements.

    I also notice that most people that complain about certification are the ones who are not certified. I'm not sure how you can truly judge the quality of a cert if you have not achieved it yourself.

    Finally, if you truly Know Your Stuff, you can just go take the test for $125 and get the piece of paper. If you need to attend $5000 worth of training to get it, then maybe you don't know as much as you think you do...

  15. GPS-based NTP appliance on Time Syncing Through a Firewall Without NTP? · · Score: 1

    If the firewall truly cannot be changed, then use your own NTP primary time source which syncs off of the GPS constellation. This is a more secure way of keeping accurate time and is used by telecoms to sync their networks.

    http://www.truetime.net/nts200.html

  16. Re:ADM is also why your Coke sucks in the USA on Ethanol More Trouble Than It's Worth? · · Score: 2, Informative

    I really feel for the obese kids though. It is not their fault. So even if you won't address the problem yourself, PLEASE don't condone it in your children. Kids will grow up plenty happy if all they ever drink is milk juice and water.

    Maybe, maybe not. Let's look at some facts:

    All figures approximate and based on 8oz portions

    Water = 0 calories
    Cola = 105 calories
    Milk = 150 calories
    Apple juice = 120 calories
    Grape juice = 145 calories

  17. APC on Server Room Temp Monitoring and Notifications? · · Score: 2, Informative

    APC makes an inexpensive but very effective monitoring device:

    http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index .cfm?base_sku=AP9319

    I have installed these at multiple sites with great sucess. They do email or SNMP notifications and are manageable through a web interface.

  18. Re:All US base are... on Slashback: Hollywood, Commons, Misidentification · · Score: 1

    An antistatic bag won't do the job. You really do need tinfoil.

    Oh great, so if I put this thing in my pocket, now I need timefoil pants.

    At least they will match my hat...

  19. Re:emulate most pinball games on Portrait of The Last Remaining Pinball Wizard · · Score: 1

    You can download various tables and emulate most pinball games

    Anyone who talks of emulating a pinball machine is obviously not a pinball player.
    Pinball is all about feel: The bumpers, the angle of the table, how easily the machine tilts,
    how 'fast' it plays and how tight the out lanes are on both sides.
    A good pinball player can slide, shake, and bump a machine to keep the ball in play. You can't emulate that.

  20. Re:Oh great... on The Baby Bootstrap? · · Score: 2, Funny

    Actually, that may be better than just being up all night, like I am now.

    I guess I'm not the only MCSE on this site after all...

  21. Re:Letter to IT on BitTorrent Inherently Illegal? · · Score: 1
    Dear IT Department...

    You might as well ban FTP and HTTP traffic...
    >clickety click<
    Dear student,

    Thanks for the suggestion!

    Regards,

    Simon
  22. Re:How much power is "reasonable"? on AMD Demos Dual-Core Athlon 64 · · Score: 3, Informative

    2000 had two entirely separate sets of system files, one each for uni- and multi-processor. Even if you added a second CPU, if you didn't have the multiproc HAL to begin with, it simply wouldn't work.

    Fortunately, this is incorrect. As described in Microsoft's knowledge base, a HAL change is all that is required to take advantage of the second processor. Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, and 2003 all are capable of this, although NT needed a utility uptomp.exe to accomplish this feat.

    It is very common to have to do this on dual-processor capable servers when installing a second processor.

  23. Re:Body Bags Don't Win a War. on Richard Clarke on Cyberterrorism and Iraq · · Score: 1

    If the Texas border was better defended, we would have never had this Iraq mess in the first place.

  24. Re:Puh-lease on Windows Fails 8% of the Time · · Score: 1

    XP is 1000 times as stable as 2000, but it's with this trade off: device drivers and bad hardware can crash the system

    Actually, with regard to print drivers, the opposite is true.

    The Windows NT 4.0 print spooler ran in kernel space, meaning that a bad print driver could crash the entire system.

    In Windows 2000, the spooler runs in user space, although some drivers can run in kernel mode.

    In Windows 2003 and XP, kernel mode drivers are prohibited from installing by default. Each sucessive version of Windows has gotten better, not worse.

  25. Re:If you can use a CD Player... on Appropriate Music for Callers 'On Hold'? · · Score: 1

    Exactly! This is the *perfect* situation for Gentoo... Hey... What are you guys doing in there? Hey, get out!

    Oh great! Like the hold times weren't bad enough, now I have to wait for it to compile before I can even hear the music...