I have a hard time believing that the patch didn't work as advertised. I think I remember testing it by setting my clock ahead and watching if the time went from 1:59 am to 3:00am. It seems to be hit or miss. I also had problems with the IntelliAdmin patch on various Windows 2000 and 2003 servers. I successfully tested it in the same manner you mentioned, but when 1:59:59am ticked over for real, dozens of my machines didn't switch. Strangely enough, if I manually reset the clock back to 1:59:59am again, it will make the switch-over! It will be a long time before I trust that company again.
We all know how much Corporate IT hates change, yet the author failed to mention one of the biggest reasons Apple's hardware is corporate-ready: consistent configurations. Corporate PC platforms are designed with this requirement in mind, and Apple does it across their entire product lineup. A Dell Optiplex or HP Compaq DC-series desktop will be configured the same from intro to retirement. Compare that to a Dell Dimension or HP Pavilion, where you never know what you're going to get on a given week. Consistency is key for the imaging and deployment process, for pushing out new and updated applications in an automated manner, and for the Help Desk to work efficiently.
Actually this wasn't unforeseeable, it was announced back in 2005. Why the vendors only recently got around to addressing this issue is a mystery. The countless e-mails I have gotten from consulting companies about it have gotten real old too.
Here's some legendary support for ya: ADIC (now Quantum) told my storage engineer that they are too busy to deal with the change until after it has already occurred! It will be a cold day in hell before I buy something from these guys again.
"There are no HD DVD players in the stores. Their casualties and bodies are many. The titles are illusions. The Toshiba infidels can hide no longer. This is the truth I tell you!"
- Baghdad Bob, Sony Marketing VP
Haven't we heard this promise before? I'm still waiting for LCoS and OLED to take over the world. I'm sure this revolution will look pretty sweet in HD on the plasma panel I already own.
Sounds like the media isn't immune to the same cost-cutting that the rest of the capitalist world is falling victim to. Fact-checkers are easy to cut out because they work behind the scenes. The horrible grammar that is evident in most journalism these days means the proofreaders got the chop as well. Not that it matters anyway, since news is now the new entertainment!
(I promise my next post will be more upbeat)
C'mon already
on
EU to Ban Macs
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Guys, this is getting old. REAL old. I can appreciate a good April fools joke, especially the ones that almost sound believable because they make you pause for a second to do a quick mental what-if scenario, but this story is just lame.
Connolly needs to put his money where his mouth is. If he's got a valid gripe, he needs to file suit and let the courts settle it. If not, he needs to cease and desist. His ranting and raving has the tone of a supermarket tabloid, killing any credibility he might otherwise have. A court would most likely view it as a strike against him were the Mambo developers or Miro to file a declaratory judgement suit against him. Not that I'm offering any legal advice, of course.;-)
EPA numbers for hybrids are a bit askew compaired to their counterparts that run exclusively on fossil fuels. This is due to the EPA's testing procedures, which involve emissions measurements at the tail pipe and a bunch of calculations and formulas only a scientist with a government grant could love.
My car (2001 Audi, 1.8 liter turbo four, 225hp) goes about 340 miles on a fill-up, which for me averages out to about 16 gallons. Using the highly unscientific method of dividing the range by gallons of fuel used, that comes out to 21.25mpg. The EPA rating is 20 city / 28 highway, so mine lines up pretty accurately considering most of my driving is in an urban area. The highest I've seen is 26.something on the highway, which isn't bad considering my driving habits on long trips.
DirecTV, aka DAVE, will continue their witchhunt until it is no longer a viable source of revenue. That includes the toll they incur for any negative press on their actions.
Not that we are totally without recourse. I took great joy in personally killing a six-digit contract that Hughes Network Systems was virtually guaranteed to win because of their sister divison's actions. The salesperson probably has a picture of me on his dartboard thanks to the smirk I wore when I told him the fate of the deal he thought was a slam dunk.
Supporting the ACLU and the EFF is all well and good, but derailing the money train is a far more effective tool for getting a company's attention. It also feels pretty good, too.
Have you seen what Legos cost these days? How can a company making molded chunks of plastic for $80 a set possibly be losing money? Sounds like a company that's been living a little to fat at the trough to me.
To not retain the manuals and receipts of your software may hurt you when you want support, but since when was that legal grounds for prosecution? Do you have the receipts for every single thing you own? Suppose you buy a suit from a department store, and, two years down the road, a store employee sees you at a formal gathering and tries to demand proof of ownership of the suit. According to your logic, if you don't cough up the receipt for the suit (and if suits were bought like software, the invoice from your tailor for making alterations) you're as good as guilty.
My company received one of these letters last year from Microsoft. We ignored it and they ignored us. I imagine this works like OSHA, in that someone can make a complaint against you but if they won't sign off on the complaint and back it up with proof, the government won't waste their time.
I was using a wireless connection in my room at the Marriott Financial Center in Lower Manhattan two weeks ago. Or maybe I was on a network belonging to some poor schlep in the office building across the street who left his access point wide open. Don't recall seeing it on the room bill so that must have been the reason. Hey, buddy, if you're reading this, thanks! I'll be back soon so keep it going for me. And if I may be so self-serving, please boost the power or relocate the antenna a bit closer, standing by my window got tiring after a while.
What gave the author of this story the impression that I care about Microsoft's revenue? I suppose if I was a shareholder it might be of some remote concern, but otherwise it is a non-issue. What I do know about Microsoft's revenue stream is that my company puts far too much into it (blame ignorant executives).
If the author wanted to do a truely interesting story, try writing about how much Linux has cost Microsoft in sales. Let's talk about all the potential Exchange or SQL Server deployments that went with Sendmail/Postfix or MySQL/PostgreSQL instead. Talk about how I can stretch my budget instead of padding somebody else's.
My local theatre (AMC Barrington 30, near Chicago) was able to splice their normal infographics/shorts into the feature between the SWE2 teaser and the Birds short. What makes me curious, however, is if they managed to do this in the other auditorium showing the movie, which uses a DLT projector.
You're blowing the price point by quite a bit since the receiver alone fetches over $2000. Go for it's little brother, the TX-DS787, which you can get only for under $750. This leaves you plenty of coin for speakers.
Just stay away from Pioneer and Sony.
There's a lot more than style that made Nokia the most popular brand out there! Their ergonomics and features re second to none. I guess you're one of those Motorola flip-phone users who still think alphanumeric displays are useless. Besides, style sells. Just ask Apple.
I started with a 2160 through Cellular One. I dumped it for an Ericcson LX100 through AT&T since I couldn't stand C1's service and prices, and AT&T wasn't offering Nokias in my area yet. I was soon going nuts from the lack of features and horrible ergonomics. To this day I haven't found an Ericcson I liked. I wound up going back to C1 because AT&T wouldn't tell me how long it would be until they introduced Nokia's new 6100 series. I now am back on AT&T again (through the office), using a 5160, and I'm happy with it. I plan to get a 7100-series as soon as it comes out, and I'll switch to whatever provider is offering it in order to get it.
As for durability, mine has been dropped, in the rain, thrown, and fallen off the roof of my car when I forgot it up there, and it hasn't had a single problem. The only problem I did have was when a techie friend tried taking part of it apart and couldn't get it back together again.
What service provider do you have? I highly recommend finding another one. One of the few things I couldn't gripe about with Cellular One (Chicago area, 900MHz TDMA) was seemless switching between digital and analog. AT&T - my current carrier, since the office is now paying the bill - charges extra for analog service because they're getting it from an outside supplier (from CellOne in the Chicago area) but it is rare not to get a digital signal, even in southern Wisconsin.
Speaking as a product of some of the richest school systems in Illinois, I can assure you that throwing money at a problem does not cure it. My high school was largely filled with masters-level-or-higher teachers, many of which were pulling six figures anually- yet less than half of them could effectively teach a class to save their lives. One even flat-out admitted to the class that the only reason he teaches is so he can be a sports coach (yes, Bob Grazanzio at Conant High School in Hoffman Estates, Illinois- I'm talking about you!!). We had many great teachers, more than I could name here, but they got that way through their own means. It was real easy to pick out the teachers who genuinely loved their job and those who viewed it as merely a way to pay the bills.
The local community college isn't any better. Two years ago, they were so busy allocating every spare dime they had to underattended liberal arts classes that they didn't notice students camping out overnight in line to get into what few math and science courses were being offered.
The problem with school systems is not unlike most governement run agencies: too much time in the "non-profit bubble", and not enough contact with the real world. A perfect example is the concept of 'tenure'. When most people can't perform their jobs adequately, they are canned. Why should teachers be exempt?
Keeping on top of their respective fields should be their own responsibility, even if it's simply getting together with their co-workers to discuss their fields of study. I'm not sure how much most school districts encourage or fund this sort of thing, but I can't imagine it's an adequate amount.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd imagine they could take all of Q2 with this one.
We all know how much Corporate IT hates change, yet the author failed to mention one of the biggest reasons Apple's hardware is corporate-ready: consistent configurations. Corporate PC platforms are designed with this requirement in mind, and Apple does it across their entire product lineup. A Dell Optiplex or HP Compaq DC-series desktop will be configured the same from intro to retirement. Compare that to a Dell Dimension or HP Pavilion, where you never know what you're going to get on a given week. Consistency is key for the imaging and deployment process, for pushing out new and updated applications in an automated manner, and for the Help Desk to work efficiently.
Actually this wasn't unforeseeable, it was announced back in 2005. Why the vendors only recently got around to addressing this issue is a mystery. The countless e-mails I have gotten from consulting companies about it have gotten real old too. Here's some legendary support for ya: ADIC (now Quantum) told my storage engineer that they are too busy to deal with the change until after it has already occurred! It will be a cold day in hell before I buy something from these guys again.
"There are no HD DVD players in the stores. Their casualties and bodies are many. The titles are illusions. The Toshiba infidels can hide no longer. This is the truth I tell you!" - Baghdad Bob, Sony Marketing VP
Haven't we heard this promise before? I'm still waiting for LCoS and OLED to take over the world. I'm sure this revolution will look pretty sweet in HD on the plasma panel I already own.
Sounds like the media isn't immune to the same cost-cutting that the rest of the capitalist world is falling victim to. Fact-checkers are easy to cut out because they work behind the scenes. The horrible grammar that is evident in most journalism these days means the proofreaders got the chop as well. Not that it matters anyway, since news is now the new entertainment! (I promise my next post will be more upbeat)
Guys, this is getting old. REAL old. I can appreciate a good April fools joke, especially the ones that almost sound believable because they make you pause for a second to do a quick mental what-if scenario, but this story is just lame.
Connolly needs to put his money where his mouth is. If he's got a valid gripe, he needs to file suit and let the courts settle it. If not, he needs to cease and desist. His ranting and raving has the tone of a supermarket tabloid, killing any credibility he might otherwise have. A court would most likely view it as a strike against him were the Mambo developers or Miro to file a declaratory judgement suit against him. Not that I'm offering any legal advice, of course. ;-)
EPA numbers for hybrids are a bit askew compaired to their counterparts that run exclusively on fossil fuels. This is due to the EPA's testing procedures, which involve emissions measurements at the tail pipe and a bunch of calculations and formulas only a scientist with a government grant could love.
My car (2001 Audi, 1.8 liter turbo four, 225hp) goes about 340 miles on a fill-up, which for me averages out to about 16 gallons. Using the highly unscientific method of dividing the range by gallons of fuel used, that comes out to 21.25mpg. The EPA rating is 20 city / 28 highway, so mine lines up pretty accurately considering most of my driving is in an urban area. The highest I've seen is 26.something on the highway, which isn't bad considering my driving habits on long trips.
DirecTV, aka DAVE, will continue their witchhunt until it is no longer a viable source of revenue. That includes the toll they incur for any negative press on their actions.
Not that we are totally without recourse. I took great joy in personally killing a six-digit contract that Hughes Network Systems was virtually guaranteed to win because of their sister divison's actions. The salesperson probably has a picture of me on his dartboard thanks to the smirk I wore when I told him the fate of the deal he thought was a slam dunk.
Supporting the ACLU and the EFF is all well and good, but derailing the money train is a far more effective tool for getting a company's attention. It also feels pretty good, too.
As if being a call center employee wasn't bad enough, now you are guaranteed that EVERY person you talk to will be completely pissed off. Sign me up.
Have you seen what Legos cost these days? How can a company making molded chunks of plastic for $80 a set possibly be losing money? Sounds like a company that's been living a little to fat at the trough to me.
To not retain the manuals and receipts of your software may hurt you when you want support, but since when was that legal grounds for prosecution? Do you have the receipts for every single thing you own? Suppose you buy a suit from a department store, and, two years down the road, a store employee sees you at a formal gathering and tries to demand proof of ownership of the suit. According to your logic, if you don't cough up the receipt for the suit (and if suits were bought like software, the invoice from your tailor for making alterations) you're as good as guilty.
My company received one of these letters last year from Microsoft. We ignored it and they ignored us. I imagine this works like OSHA, in that someone can make a complaint against you but if they won't sign off on the complaint and back it up with proof, the government won't waste their time.
I was using a wireless connection in my room at the Marriott Financial Center in Lower Manhattan two weeks ago. Or maybe I was on a network belonging to some poor schlep in the office building across the street who left his access point wide open. Don't recall seeing it on the room bill so that must have been the reason. Hey, buddy, if you're reading this, thanks! I'll be back soon so keep it going for me. And if I may be so self-serving, please boost the power or relocate the antenna a bit closer, standing by my window got tiring after a while.
If the author wanted to do a truely interesting story, try writing about how much Linux has cost Microsoft in sales. Let's talk about all the potential Exchange or SQL Server deployments that went with Sendmail/Postfix or MySQL/PostgreSQL instead. Talk about how I can stretch my budget instead of padding somebody else's.
Oops, I mean DLP projector. DLT would be a backup tape (forgive me, I'm an M2 man myself)
My local theatre (AMC Barrington 30, near Chicago) was able to splice their normal infographics/shorts into the feature between the SWE2 teaser and the Birds short. What makes me curious, however, is if they managed to do this in the other auditorium showing the movie, which uses a DLT projector.
You're blowing the price point by quite a bit since the receiver alone fetches over $2000. Go for it's little brother, the TX-DS787, which you can get only for under $750. This leaves you plenty of coin for speakers. Just stay away from Pioneer and Sony.
There's a lot more than style that made Nokia the most popular brand out there! Their ergonomics and features re second to none. I guess you're one of those Motorola flip-phone users who still think alphanumeric displays are useless. Besides, style sells. Just ask Apple.
I started with a 2160 through Cellular One. I dumped it for an Ericcson LX100 through AT&T since I couldn't stand C1's service and prices, and AT&T wasn't offering Nokias in my area yet. I was soon going nuts from the lack of features and horrible ergonomics. To this day I haven't found an Ericcson I liked. I wound up going back to C1 because AT&T wouldn't tell me how long it would be until they introduced Nokia's new 6100 series. I now am back on AT&T again (through the office), using a 5160, and I'm happy with it. I plan to get a 7100-series as soon as it comes out, and I'll switch to whatever provider is offering it in order to get it.
As for durability, mine has been dropped, in the rain, thrown, and fallen off the roof of my car when I forgot it up there, and it hasn't had a single problem. The only problem I did have was when a techie friend tried taking part of it apart and couldn't get it back together again.
What service provider do you have? I highly recommend finding another one. One of the few things I couldn't gripe about with Cellular One (Chicago area, 900MHz TDMA) was seemless switching between digital and analog. AT&T - my current carrier, since the office is now paying the bill - charges extra for analog service because they're getting it from an outside supplier (from CellOne in the Chicago area) but it is rare not to get a digital signal, even in southern Wisconsin.
The local community college isn't any better. Two years ago, they were so busy allocating every spare dime they had to underattended liberal arts classes that they didn't notice students camping out overnight in line to get into what few math and science courses were being offered.
The problem with school systems is not unlike most governement run agencies: too much time in the "non-profit bubble", and not enough contact with the real world. A perfect example is the concept of 'tenure'. When most people can't perform their jobs adequately, they are canned. Why should teachers be exempt?
Keeping on top of their respective fields should be their own responsibility, even if it's simply getting together with their co-workers to discuss their fields of study. I'm not sure how much most school districts encourage or fund this sort of thing, but I can't imagine it's an adequate amount.