Just recently I tried to stick XP into a 2 GB VMware image. It probably came in under a GB, maybe 3/4 of one. I honestly wasn't counting because I naively thought, "surely 2 GB is enough?" This was on a domain with WSUS set up. Once I let the updates loose on it, it filled up completely, not counting SP3. It's possible that the installer for SP3 had already downloaded... I'm sure slipstreaming everything could bring the size back down, but I'm guessing most of the XP installs out there that are up-to-date are at around 3 GB without programs.
When you install an MSI onto the system, it can get stored away, so that the program can repair itself if something is wrong. MS finally beat DLL Hell by making Windows very anal about shared libraries, to the point where it keeps multiple versions of files around in different installers, and "lies" to installed software about which versions are available.
.NET is similar: the new runtimes can do most of what the old runtimes can, but for the places where they can't, you can just install the old versions as well as the new ones. Each of which has its own set of patches, which get stored and tracked. Not that MS invented this: Java does the same thing. Or a decent package manager. Anyway, I think a lot of the "bloat" is just administrative overhead.
When it was published, Watchmen was supposedly pretty different than what the major studios were putting out. There's stuff on Vertigo that blows it away in terms of gritty realism. Back then that stuff didn't exist, or at least wasn't published by the big guys.
It's a character-driven story...summarizing the plot leaves you with a standard whodunit, though the ending is pretty unique. But Watchmen is all about the characters. Given how flat the Matrix characters were (does Keanu Reeves even have control of his facial muscles?), I am hoping that the Watchmen will be nothing like it.
One thing that I can do on my traditional phone that I can't on my iPhone is dial by touch. That's sort of a big deal. Also, I want to get paid for being an analyst, where do I sign up?
If the people he refused to cooperate with were the police, then it is criminal. Not that we really know the details, but if it's true that they brought the cops in and he still wouldn't budge, then that's something they can legitimately charge him with.
"If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, its yours forever."
The guy was probably right, and in a perfect world the press would come to his aid rather than paint him as a villain. But good villains sell papers. I don't envy him. Somebody who takes so little pride in their work that they can just walk away without a fight is not somebody that I would bother to respect.
But you cannot get so attached to something (you don't own) that you allow things to get to the level that he did. A properly configured and smooth-running network is a thing of beauty. We can see that. Our managers cannot. Trying to protect the network against a crappy boss is like building a sand castle and shouting at the incoming tide. Let them screw it up. Go work somewhere else. You're a CCIE, you'll find a job.
People are blaming management, saying that they shouldn't have given one guy all the keys and let him get stressed out. But it looks like the opposite...like somebody there didn't like that the admin was himself a single point of failure. And when they tried to remedy that, he went AWOL.
I don't care if the GBICs were all dipped in gold. If you know you can't win, get out. In this case the worst that can happen is SF will have shot themselves in the foot by hiring less competent people. So what? Let it go. It's really their network. I know it doesn't feel that way, and it sucks to have all the responsibility and none of the control. So get the hell out, and look for better working conditions.
That said, if he *did* approach this with a level head, and they just chose to retaliate by falsely accusing him of sabotage, then I hope they all burn.
Seriously. They're just routers, and it's not like he paid for them. If you're going to go to jail to protect your life's work, it had better be the Sistine Chapel, not something anybody with a few years' experience and a hundred-dollar cert "diploma" can do.
Why do IT guys always think they're the only people qualified to do things that they themselves learned from others?
Computer networks are not any goddam secret. I feel bad for the guy given that the SF press is out to make him look like some kind of terrorist. But he's either clinically paranoid or think's he's god, or both.
FWIW, if you can't trust another (qualified) admin not to take down your network, then it's a house of cards to being with. That is, you're Doing it Wrong (TM).
I completely agree with your sentiment, however. Somewhere in the middle of baroque goverment regulations and nonsensical company policies sits the IT guy, who is neither judge nor jury, and just trying to make sure the server stays running.
Since it's Slashdot, I'm going to treat your questions as mental exercises rather than rhetorical:D
(1) I don't write enough accounting software, but it seems like once you change that rounding functions from "1-4 down, 5-9 up" to "1-9 down", you're taking money from the company, or the government, or both. If it's the latter, might want to go buy some soap-on-a-rope for your stay in prison.
(2) Legal, yes. Moral depends on whether there's a clear policy in place. It's not immoral do delete someones files off of *your* machines if they were warned in advance. When I notice someone using work machines as personal storage, I either let it slide or tell them to cut it out, depending on the size of the files.
(3) Just don't do it. It puts you and the company at serious risk. If it's out in the open, then deal with it, otherwise, do your job instead of looking for reasons to babysit or judge people. Not everyone knows what I know that they know, if you know what I mean.
(4) This one doesn't need a response since you obviously made it up:)
If your system isn't correctly calculating taxes, it could be worse to fix it, since any noticeable deviation is going to result in a visit from the auditor.
Sometimes an item is taxable or not depending on the usage, and only the customer knows the usage for sure. Sometimes the barcode peeled off and the person at the register has to do a price check and sell the item with tax or without. Nobody worries about the individual invoice, and especially not the edge cases. You just total it all up, pull out the part that belongs to the state, cut the check, and hope they don't audit you.
Is that ethical? Well, it's usually more ethical than how the states balance their own books, if that counts for anything.
You've put it well. I would like to add: this isn't A Corner in Wheat for heaven's sake. Nintendo has to meet the demand for new Wii systems, not the free market. There is no free market for Wiis. There is Nintendo, Nintendo's factories and the stores that carry Wiis. For the monopoly statement to have any weight at all, we'd have to be talking about a commodity.
The OP seems to expect Nintendo to:
1. Sell units at a loss, forcing everyone else out of the market
2. Create artificial shortage to drive prices up, and then
3. Keep charging the same price
Which is dumb, even for a conspiracy theory posted on Slashdot. In fact, it's so dumb that I'm going to have to assume it's actually true.
and Nintendo fanboys would be howling in anger about it
That's exactly why they should do it. Plus, they'd get credit for engineering the world's must abundant source of clean & renewable energy. All you need is Fritos, Pikachu alarm clocks, and web forums, and the turbines practically spin themselves.
When will we get cars that don't need fallible, lazy, often incompetent humans to drive them?
When we have software that doesn't need fallible, lazy, often incompetent people to write it.
We're simply not that strict about DUIs here in the US relative to European countries. I remember that in Germany, even though the minimum drinking age was lower, if you got caught drinking and driving, you were looking at paying a huge fine and not being able to drive for a long time. It seems like over here drinking is more taboo, but driving after a couple is not taboo enough.
Obviously there shouldn't be breathalyzers built into cards. But I wish that as a society we placed more of a stigma on bad drivers of all sorts. We treat a 16-year-old drinking like it's the end of the world, but that same 16-year-old, who apparently is five years away from being responsible enough to buy a beer, is allowed to control two tons of metal going the speed of a pitched baseball.
I should clarify: I wasn't trying to knock the OP, who was dead on about using square brackets to make editorial changes. Just that it seems funny how people who've done a lot of writing are pointing out that there's other ways to handle this, while others are getting hung up on the use of [sic]. Yes it's snarky, and yes, there's alternatives. All of this is pointed out in TFA.
Here's my system:
Don't go out of your way to type out someone's dialect. Chances are, you'll get it wrong.
Do quote verbatim when it's important to get the whole thing.
Otherwise, paraphrase (as opposed to dicing the quotation up with square brackets).
If it's obvious that you wouldn't have made the mistake yourself, don't bother with [sic]. It's like saying "no pun intended". It makes you look like an ass, so it had better be worth it.
Somebody was pointing out the fact that reporters may not be able to get perfect quotations, since they're using memory. That person was wrong. Assuming it's real journalism, you either use a tape recorder, or you find a new line of work.
People write terribly on the internet. It's shameful. I keep hoping it will get better as a whole as we return to a culture that embraces writing, since we are doing so much more of it. If anything, it's getting worse. If I have to read through another there/they're/their screwup, I'm going to give up on life. Since when did finishing second grade make you an elitist?
You can also set the type differently, like in a blockquote. I guess there isn't one answer that works for everything. Who would have seen that coming?
Local news...I'd say we found the first problem. Do they have billboards up where they cross their arms in navy blue blazers stuffed with shoulder pads? They're so cute when they do that.
I loved that part too...had no idea about the British edition. Thanks for the info.
I used to read a lot of Tom Robbins...supposedly the guy never revised anything, even while writing, just wrote something once and kept it. A lot of writers have claimed to do that (regardless of the truth) since it adds to the mystique. But I was tempted to believe it with Robbins, since his stuff was so hit or miss:D
According to WP there were at least 18 editions of Ulysses. Since it was published serially at various times, I'm guessing those mostly had to do with editors' whims but sadly in the art world many things (especially classics) get revised over time. Usually with a novel you get a foreword explaining the changes.
I agree with you about the Iraq page disclaimer. If nothing else it'd be a cute jab at McCain's web crawling.
You were right the first time...it's marketing. Plenty of security sites out there aimed at IT folks that discuss these things rationally and aren't trying to scare you.
Similarly, I've dealt with levelheaded IT guys and I've dealt with the ones who bust through the door talking about obscure exploits, hoping to catch someone who can't smell the BS and will pay for fake peace of mind.
I agree with your method, but "bandwidth thief" is misplaced. Nothing wrong with a referrer check, and I don't hotlink on forums...it's rude. But that's it. Rude, at best...not thievery. You posted the image, and it's your hosting bill. So if you only want it served in a specific context (certain referrer, certain browser, who knows) it's your responsibility to host it that way. Otherwise, people's browsers are asking for the image, and you're serving it. If you don't like giving out Halloween candy, don't answer the door.
You're absolutely right. I can log into my modem right now and check the signal level. The thing is, they don't know if I have 50 radioshack splitters rigged up in my basement, so they have to send someone to check. But yes my ISP does blow. You may recognize them -- they recently signed on with NebuAd and it took the threat of a congressional investigation to get them to knock it off (that is, wait till no one's looking to try again).
Slashdot Mirror
Just recently I tried to stick XP into a 2 GB VMware image. It probably came in under a GB, maybe 3/4 of one. I honestly wasn't counting because I naively thought, "surely 2 GB is enough?" This was on a domain with WSUS set up. Once I let the updates loose on it, it filled up completely, not counting SP3. It's possible that the installer for SP3 had already downloaded... I'm sure slipstreaming everything could bring the size back down, but I'm guessing most of the XP installs out there that are up-to-date are at around 3 GB without programs.
When you install an MSI onto the system, it can get stored away, so that the program can repair itself if something is wrong. MS finally beat DLL Hell by making Windows very anal about shared libraries, to the point where it keeps multiple versions of files around in different installers, and "lies" to installed software about which versions are available.
.NET is similar: the new runtimes can do most of what the old runtimes can, but for the places where they can't, you can just install the old versions as well as the new ones. Each of which has its own set of patches, which get stored and tracked. Not that MS invented this: Java does the same thing. Or a decent package manager. Anyway, I think a lot of the "bloat" is just administrative overhead.
When it was published, Watchmen was supposedly pretty different than what the major studios were putting out. There's stuff on Vertigo that blows it away in terms of gritty realism. Back then that stuff didn't exist, or at least wasn't published by the big guys.
It's a character-driven story...summarizing the plot leaves you with a standard whodunit, though the ending is pretty unique. But Watchmen is all about the characters. Given how flat the Matrix characters were (does Keanu Reeves even have control of his facial muscles?), I am hoping that the Watchmen will be nothing like it.
One thing that I can do on my traditional phone that I can't on my iPhone is dial by touch. That's sort of a big deal. Also, I want to get paid for being an analyst, where do I sign up?
If the people he refused to cooperate with were the police, then it is criminal. Not that we really know the details, but if it's true that they brought the cops in and he still wouldn't budge, then that's something they can legitimately charge him with.
"If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, its yours forever."
The guy was probably right, and in a perfect world the press would come to his aid rather than paint him as a villain. But good villains sell papers. I don't envy him. Somebody who takes so little pride in their work that they can just walk away without a fight is not somebody that I would bother to respect.
But you cannot get so attached to something (you don't own) that you allow things to get to the level that he did. A properly configured and smooth-running network is a thing of beauty. We can see that. Our managers cannot. Trying to protect the network against a crappy boss is like building a sand castle and shouting at the incoming tide. Let them screw it up. Go work somewhere else. You're a CCIE, you'll find a job.
People are blaming management, saying that they shouldn't have given one guy all the keys and let him get stressed out. But it looks like the opposite...like somebody there didn't like that the admin was himself a single point of failure. And when they tried to remedy that, he went AWOL.
I don't care if the GBICs were all dipped in gold. If you know you can't win, get out. In this case the worst that can happen is SF will have shot themselves in the foot by hiring less competent people. So what? Let it go. It's really their network. I know it doesn't feel that way, and it sucks to have all the responsibility and none of the control. So get the hell out, and look for better working conditions.
That said, if he *did* approach this with a level head, and they just chose to retaliate by falsely accusing him of sabotage, then I hope they all burn.
Seriously. They're just routers, and it's not like he paid for them. If you're going to go to jail to protect your life's work, it had better be the Sistine Chapel, not something anybody with a few years' experience and a hundred-dollar cert "diploma" can do.
Why do IT guys always think they're the only people qualified to do things that they themselves learned from others?
Computer networks are not any goddam secret. I feel bad for the guy given that the SF press is out to make him look like some kind of terrorist. But he's either clinically paranoid or think's he's god, or both.
FWIW, if you can't trust another (qualified) admin not to take down your network, then it's a house of cards to being with. That is, you're Doing it Wrong (TM).
I completely agree with your sentiment, however. Somewhere in the middle of baroque goverment regulations and nonsensical company policies sits the IT guy, who is neither judge nor jury, and just trying to make sure the server stays running.
:D :)
Since it's Slashdot, I'm going to treat your questions as mental exercises rather than rhetorical
(1) I don't write enough accounting software, but it seems like once you change that rounding functions from "1-4 down, 5-9 up" to "1-9 down", you're taking money from the company, or the government, or both. If it's the latter, might want to go buy some soap-on-a-rope for your stay in prison.
(2) Legal, yes. Moral depends on whether there's a clear policy in place. It's not immoral do delete someones files off of *your* machines if they were warned in advance. When I notice someone using work machines as personal storage, I either let it slide or tell them to cut it out, depending on the size of the files.
(3) Just don't do it. It puts you and the company at serious risk. If it's out in the open, then deal with it, otherwise, do your job instead of looking for reasons to babysit or judge people. Not everyone knows what I know that they know, if you know what I mean.
(4) This one doesn't need a response since you obviously made it up
If your system isn't correctly calculating taxes, it could be worse to fix it, since any noticeable deviation is going to result in a visit from the auditor.
Sometimes an item is taxable or not depending on the usage, and only the customer knows the usage for sure. Sometimes the barcode peeled off and the person at the register has to do a price check and sell the item with tax or without. Nobody worries about the individual invoice, and especially not the edge cases. You just total it all up, pull out the part that belongs to the state, cut the check, and hope they don't audit you.
Is that ethical? Well, it's usually more ethical than how the states balance their own books, if that counts for anything.
You've put it well. I would like to add: this isn't A Corner in Wheat for heaven's sake. Nintendo has to meet the demand for new Wii systems, not the free market. There is no free market for Wiis. There is Nintendo, Nintendo's factories and the stores that carry Wiis. For the monopoly statement to have any weight at all, we'd have to be talking about a commodity.
The OP seems to expect Nintendo to:
1. Sell units at a loss, forcing everyone else out of the market
2. Create artificial shortage to drive prices up, and then
3. Keep charging the same price
Which is dumb, even for a conspiracy theory posted on Slashdot. In fact, it's so dumb that I'm going to have to assume it's actually true.
and Nintendo fanboys would be howling in anger about it
That's exactly why they should do it. Plus, they'd get credit for engineering the world's must abundant source of clean & renewable energy. All you need is Fritos, Pikachu alarm clocks, and web forums, and the turbines practically spin themselves.
When will we get cars that don't need fallible, lazy, often incompetent humans to drive them? When we have software that doesn't need fallible, lazy, often incompetent people to write it.
We're simply not that strict about DUIs here in the US relative to European countries. I remember that in Germany, even though the minimum drinking age was lower, if you got caught drinking and driving, you were looking at paying a huge fine and not being able to drive for a long time. It seems like over here drinking is more taboo, but driving after a couple is not taboo enough.
Obviously there shouldn't be breathalyzers built into cards. But I wish that as a society we placed more of a stigma on bad drivers of all sorts. We treat a 16-year-old drinking like it's the end of the world, but that same 16-year-old, who apparently is five years away from being responsible enough to buy a beer, is allowed to control two tons of metal going the speed of a pitched baseball.
I should clarify: I wasn't trying to knock the OP, who was dead on about using square brackets to make editorial changes. Just that it seems funny how people who've done a lot of writing are pointing out that there's other ways to handle this, while others are getting hung up on the use of [sic]. Yes it's snarky, and yes, there's alternatives. All of this is pointed out in TFA.
Here's my system:
Don't go out of your way to type out someone's dialect. Chances are, you'll get it wrong.
Do quote verbatim when it's important to get the whole thing.
Otherwise, paraphrase (as opposed to dicing the quotation up with square brackets).
If it's obvious that you wouldn't have made the mistake yourself, don't bother with [sic]. It's like saying "no pun intended". It makes you look like an ass, so it had better be worth it.
Somebody was pointing out the fact that reporters may not be able to get perfect quotations, since they're using memory. That person was wrong. Assuming it's real journalism, you either use a tape recorder, or you find a new line of work.
People write terribly on the internet. It's shameful. I keep hoping it will get better as a whole as we return to a culture that embraces writing, since we are doing so much more of it. If anything, it's getting worse. If I have to read through another there/they're/their screwup, I'm going to give up on life. Since when did finishing second grade make you an elitist?
You can also set the type differently, like in a blockquote. I guess there isn't one answer that works for everything. Who would have seen that coming?
Local news...I'd say we found the first problem. Do they have billboards up where they cross their arms in navy blue blazers stuffed with shoulder pads? They're so cute when they do that.
The punctuation inside quotes is for quoting dialogue. I think the reason is to avoid having to punctuate twice. Example:
The poster said, "You must be new here.".
becomes
The poster said, "You must be new here."
For other usage it's pretty normal to leave the punctuation outside them.
It's "grammar". The fact that you aren't copy-editing those letters is probably for the best.
I loved that part too...had no idea about the British edition. Thanks for the info.
:D
I used to read a lot of Tom Robbins...supposedly the guy never revised anything, even while writing, just wrote something once and kept it. A lot of writers have claimed to do that (regardless of the truth) since it adds to the mystique. But I was tempted to believe it with Robbins, since his stuff was so hit or miss
According to WP there were at least 18 editions of Ulysses. Since it was published serially at various times, I'm guessing those mostly had to do with editors' whims but sadly in the art world many things (especially classics) get revised over time. Usually with a novel you get a foreword explaining the changes.
I agree with you about the Iraq page disclaimer. If nothing else it'd be a cute jab at McCain's web crawling.
McCain's supporters seem to be able to do it just fine...maybe he's faxing them out or something.
So that revolution I heard about was just an urban legend, then?
How about "living the dream"?
You were right the first time...it's marketing. Plenty of security sites out there aimed at IT folks that discuss these things rationally and aren't trying to scare you. Similarly, I've dealt with levelheaded IT guys and I've dealt with the ones who bust through the door talking about obscure exploits, hoping to catch someone who can't smell the BS and will pay for fake peace of mind.
I agree with your method, but "bandwidth thief" is misplaced. Nothing wrong with a referrer check, and I don't hotlink on forums...it's rude. But that's it. Rude, at best...not thievery. You posted the image, and it's your hosting bill. So if you only want it served in a specific context (certain referrer, certain browser, who knows) it's your responsibility to host it that way. Otherwise, people's browsers are asking for the image, and you're serving it. If you don't like giving out Halloween candy, don't answer the door.
What's a mouse?
You're absolutely right. I can log into my modem right now and check the signal level. The thing is, they don't know if I have 50 radioshack splitters rigged up in my basement, so they have to send someone to check. But yes my ISP does blow. You may recognize them -- they recently signed on with NebuAd and it took the threat of a congressional investigation to get them to knock it off (that is, wait till no one's looking to try again).