Doesn't mean office for Mac was *good*. New API or not, it was a pig of a product. One could pose the argument that they put it out to make the mac look bad, even.
UH.... re: only doing incrementals. Incrementals SUCK for restore time/effort. Do a full backup on a semi regular basis, too. And I'd be doing differentials instead of incrementals. Nothing worse than having to get up and running by doing a full restore, then multiple incrementals to get back up. plus, if one of your incrementals gets damaged, you're fucked. With diffs, you can have all your previous incrementals for the week corrupted, and so long as you have a current differential, you're sweet.
Use RAID and snapshotting (previous versions, shadow copies, whatever your OS of choice calls it) to take care of the "oh my disk broke and I need to get this TPS report done" factor (staying up and working).
Add an external disk for offsite backup ability.
For corporate use, there are other ways and means, but for home use that would be my method of choice at the moment.
Our chem warfare training assumes at least a 50% casualty rate. This is not what I signed up for
Um... what *DID* you sign up for? Free pony rides? You're training to GO TO WAR. People die in war. The whole point is that the enemy is trying to kill you (and vice versa).
The only reason the dickheads in power are so care-free about sending soldiers off to die is because so many of them seem so eager to sign up for it.
Can someone please also explain this to the creators of NSLOOKUP and DIG. Why the FUCK can I not pipe a list of hostnames or IPs into either tool is beyond me. I got the results i needed by hacking away with awk and grep and a shell loop but seriously... there needs to be a tool to just go "cat foo.iplist > nslookup-equivalent".
Heh. back in 2002 I killed a production SCO OpenServer box (running out company ERP package) with a portscan. Yes, I laughed:D Be careful - though if you can kill a box with NMAP, it probably needs patching or a firmware update.
Agreed on "dock done right". I prefer the dock to the windows XP/Vista start bar, but the WIndows 7 start bar/dock is superior.
You're right though, on the Mac, the dock isn't really for app switching, for that you're better of running Expose`, or the old alt+tab...
The other thing I really like about the Windows 7 dock thing is that its so easy to add/remove things from it. EG, if i am going to spend a day or so doing a bunch of similar tasks using apps i may not regularly use, it is as simple as:
Start -> type application name (or part of it). The new vista/7 search box will bring it up, hit enter
Once it loads, right click it's icon, and click "pin"
When i'm done with that app for the day/week, i just right click its icon and unpin
No "right click, unlock toolbars, drag/drop icon, lock toolbars". Similar to the way i work in OS/X actually, except as you say the task switching in 7 is more easily done via the dock/start bar. What I wish OS/X had was a feature like Windowmaker/NextStep where you can middle click on the desktop and get a Window list... Expose` is OK i guess, but I'm just not used to it yet.
Because: if you have to go to 64 bit, you drop compatibility with 16 bit apps anyway. The only real need for it is >3GB ram. Microsoft will no longer support XP past 2010. If you're going to go through the pain of certifying that your apps will run on 64 bit, you may as well make it 64 bit vista or Windows 7, as these will be supported for more than another 6-12 months.
Going to 64 bit XP *now* would be retarded.
If 64 bit XP currently works for you, fine. Its just not a real migration choice in late 2009.
OK, so the network firewall takes care of direct-connect internet stuff, but you're still screwed if someone connects behind the firewall (e.g., you run on a wireless network and they connect to it), you plug in a dodgy USB memory stick, a dodgy hard drive (examples of both of those have shipped with viruses on them in the past, it happens) or you're running software such as a browser or email client that is vulnerable to attack via buffer overflow or similar that does not require user intervention.
In the days before complex interactive web sites and multimedia email, your approach may well have been a reliable way of staying safe. If you're on a platform that is not targeted anywhere near as much (linux, os/x or whatever) then sure, your approach might work. But on Windows, you *are* going to get owned sooner or later. And with no virus protection at all, you probably won't even know it for a while when it happens...
Have you been lucky so far? Quite possibly, yes... still doesn't mean its a sensible approach to security....
So, if someone plugs into the same network was you, a) you likely have unpatched vulnerabilities and b) you won't even necessarily know you've been owned. Fine, if you're not plugged into a network, but I never ran AV and never updated back in the days of win2k either, and it wasn't until I happened to run a scanner one day that i realised i had an IIS worm installed when i hadn't even configured or started IIS myself...
Agreed. If you keep the systems free of spyware, viruses, and lock them down enough so users don't mess with them too much (i.e., they're set up as a work machine, and used only for work), Windows is as easy to keep "clean" as any other OS.
It is shitware (aka a lot of "shareware") installers, viruses, spyware, internet toolbars and other associated crap that messes them up.
If you deploy Linux, OS/X or any other operating system and hand over the root password (or sudo access) to a typical *user* it will get messed up too.
vs XP: GUI is actually nicer to use (yay for a toolbar i can turn into a proper Dock:D), previous versions, UAC (it works), 64 bit (yes, xp 64 bit exists, but its a dead end product), improved scheduler (with better support for SMP due to the dispatcher lock being removed - it certainly feels snappier for it), search that actually works well, etc.
If you have >1gb ram, i highly recommend giving the RC a go and see for yourself. Of course a heap of people on/. will bitch about it because of the DRM, activation, cost, etc - but as a usable product its actually quite neat.
Just to add to this... I've upgraded 2 machines from Vista 64 Ultimate to Windows 7 RC (both of them FAR from clean installs - one was 2 years old with a few hundred gig of games and other crap on it, the other was a work machine with a year worth of junk on it) and they both went pretty well. The only thing i had to do was do a repair of VMware workstation, as Windows 7's installer clobbered the network devices.
I figured "why not, I may as well see how it goes" as I'd need to do a reinstall anyway (and all the shit i care about is on a separate disk) if i wanted to do a clean install... but i was pleasantly surprised at how painless the upgrade was. ESPECIALLY considering it was only the RC...
I agree, you'd be dumb to *rely* on an upgrade to work and not be prepared to reinstall, but so far I've been happy with not doing it, using the RC.
Which is why they contribute to webkit, have one of the only standards-compliant browsers, have an open-sourced core of their OS, promote use of open source development/admin tools and contribute to many other open source projects. They even have plenty of documentation on cross-platform development, between OS/X, unix and windows...
This is likely more about their contractual obligations to copyright holders than anything else. If they can't control the devices accessing their store, they have no hope of controlling where content is authorised to be played. Which no doubt is one of the few reasons itunes has been a success with various record labels...
Simple. Apple, as a content distributor probably have to guarantee that they can control where their itunes content is played. If they allow palm to bypass the device authorisation, they can no longer do this.
Apple are fine with ITUNES on windows because they control the client software. Write some hacked version for Windows/Linux/OSX or whatever and see how they like it. I think you'll find they deem it unacceptable.
Yeah, agreed. But apple are making money out of itunes and providing "locked" hardware, so they're evil; remember this is slashdot...
Its kinda of a reverse-zealot thinking of the GPL. GPL zealots are always bitching about how the BSD license allows people to take your code and do whatever you like with it (eg, close-source it and improve it internally to your company - and selling it to make money), but when the shoe is on the other foot, and a company releases something free (as in, beer), but they don't want others making money off THEIR product, its all bad.
Hypocrisy, much?
Apple took the leap of faith, and put a shitload of time and effort into both the hardware, software, and recording industry licensing, etc to bring us itunes and the relevant hardware to go with it. it is probably (haven't looked, but would not surprise me in the slightest) that many of the contracts they have with recording studios specify that they must control how and where various media is played. Opening their store up to palm, or anyone else will remove their ability to control that.
But no, its apple and they're starting to make money, so they're EVIL.
At my company, quite a few people still run ancient computers with W2K because the IT department is too cheap to upgrade.
I think you'll find that your IT department are more than willing to upgrade, but the FINANCE department is unwilling to fund it.... nerds always like new toys, and windows 2000 is no longer new any more, good as it is (for an MS operating system, anyway).
The same finance department (or HR) has probably approached IT and asked them to stop people doing things other than work, at work - hence the proxy software. besides, proxy software can SAVE MONEY too, depending on your bandwidth expenses. A copy of SQUID or even ISA will more than pay for itself over a couple of months, if you pay $/gig for bandwidth, both in terms of caching shit so it is only downloaded once, and also because of the ability to block high volume, non-business related activity as well.
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Doesn't mean office for Mac was *good*. New API or not, it was a pig of a product. One could pose the argument that they put it out to make the mac look bad, even.
DVDs are a problem because you need to be physically present to baby sit the DVD swapping process, and they're slow.
If you want to back up several hundred gigs of data, you'll spend more time backing shit up than actually creating it.
Plus, in terms of $/gig, hard drives are not really much more expensive now.
UH.... re: only doing incrementals. Incrementals SUCK for restore time/effort. Do a full backup on a semi regular basis, too. And I'd be doing differentials instead of incrementals. Nothing worse than having to get up and running by doing a full restore, then multiple incrementals to get back up. plus, if one of your incrementals gets damaged, you're fucked. With diffs, you can have all your previous incrementals for the week corrupted, and so long as you have a current differential, you're sweet.
Disk is cheap nowadays.
Use RAID and snapshotting (previous versions, shadow copies, whatever your OS of choice calls it) to take care of the "oh my disk broke and I need to get this TPS report done" factor (staying up and working).
Add an external disk for offsite backup ability.
For corporate use, there are other ways and means, but for home use that would be my method of choice at the moment.
Uh, you run your window manager as root do you? Good luck with that...
Um... what *DID* you sign up for? Free pony rides? You're training to GO TO WAR. People die in war. The whole point is that the enemy is trying to kill you (and vice versa).
The only reason the dickheads in power are so care-free about sending soldiers off to die is because so many of them seem so eager to sign up for it.
Of course, i mean "cat foo.iplist | nslookup-equivalent". *sigh*
Can someone please also explain this to the creators of NSLOOKUP and DIG. Why the FUCK can I not pipe a list of hostnames or IPs into either tool is beyond me. I got the results i needed by hacking away with awk and grep and a shell loop but seriously... there needs to be a tool to just go "cat foo.iplist > nslookup-equivalent".
Or, alternatively, putting in the bin...
This is *no different* to people selling used CDs or DVDs... or books...
That's austria. I know you guys in the US are often geographically challenged, but come on... literally on the other side of the world.
Agreed on "dock done right". I prefer the dock to the windows XP/Vista start bar, but the WIndows 7 start bar/dock is superior.
You're right though, on the Mac, the dock isn't really for app switching, for that you're better of running Expose`, or the old alt+tab...
The other thing I really like about the Windows 7 dock thing is that its so easy to add/remove things from it. EG, if i am going to spend a day or so doing a bunch of similar tasks using apps i may not regularly use, it is as simple as:
No "right click, unlock toolbars, drag/drop icon, lock toolbars". Similar to the way i work in OS/X actually, except as you say the task switching in 7 is more easily done via the dock/start bar. What I wish OS/X had was a feature like Windowmaker/NextStep where you can middle click on the desktop and get a Window list... Expose` is OK i guess, but I'm just not used to it yet.
Because: if you have to go to 64 bit, you drop compatibility with 16 bit apps anyway. The only real need for it is >3GB ram. Microsoft will no longer support XP past 2010. If you're going to go through the pain of certifying that your apps will run on 64 bit, you may as well make it 64 bit vista or Windows 7, as these will be supported for more than another 6-12 months.
Going to 64 bit XP *now* would be retarded.
If 64 bit XP currently works for you, fine. Its just not a real migration choice in late 2009.
OK, so the network firewall takes care of direct-connect internet stuff, but you're still screwed if someone connects behind the firewall (e.g., you run on a wireless network and they connect to it), you plug in a dodgy USB memory stick, a dodgy hard drive (examples of both of those have shipped with viruses on them in the past, it happens) or you're running software such as a browser or email client that is vulnerable to attack via buffer overflow or similar that does not require user intervention.
In the days before complex interactive web sites and multimedia email, your approach may well have been a reliable way of staying safe. If you're on a platform that is not targeted anywhere near as much (linux, os/x or whatever) then sure, your approach might work. But on Windows, you *are* going to get owned sooner or later. And with no virus protection at all, you probably won't even know it for a while when it happens...
Have you been lucky so far? Quite possibly, yes... still doesn't mean its a sensible approach to security....
So, if someone plugs into the same network was you, a) you likely have unpatched vulnerabilities and b) you won't even necessarily know you've been owned. Fine, if you're not plugged into a network, but I never ran AV and never updated back in the days of win2k either, and it wasn't until I happened to run a scanner one day that i realised i had an IIS worm installed when i hadn't even configured or started IIS myself...
Or, you could buy a full install. Do you expect to be able to upgrade from Windows 98 as well
Agreed. If you keep the systems free of spyware, viruses, and lock them down enough so users don't mess with them too much (i.e., they're set up as a work machine, and used only for work), Windows is as easy to keep "clean" as any other OS.
It is shitware (aka a lot of "shareware") installers, viruses, spyware, internet toolbars and other associated crap that messes them up.
If you deploy Linux, OS/X or any other operating system and hand over the root password (or sudo access) to a typical *user* it will get messed up too.
If you have >1gb ram, i highly recommend giving the RC a go and see for yourself. Of course a heap of people on /. will bitch about it because of the DRM, activation, cost, etc - but as a usable product its actually quite neat.
Just to add to this... I've upgraded 2 machines from Vista 64 Ultimate to Windows 7 RC (both of them FAR from clean installs - one was 2 years old with a few hundred gig of games and other crap on it, the other was a work machine with a year worth of junk on it) and they both went pretty well. The only thing i had to do was do a repair of VMware workstation, as Windows 7's installer clobbered the network devices.
I figured "why not, I may as well see how it goes" as I'd need to do a reinstall anyway (and all the shit i care about is on a separate disk) if i wanted to do a clean install... but i was pleasantly surprised at how painless the upgrade was. ESPECIALLY considering it was only the RC...
I agree, you'd be dumb to *rely* on an upgrade to work and not be prepared to reinstall, but so far I've been happy with not doing it, using the RC.
Which is why they contribute to webkit, have one of the only standards-compliant browsers, have an open-sourced core of their OS, promote use of open source development/admin tools and contribute to many other open source projects. They even have plenty of documentation on cross-platform development, between OS/X, unix and windows...
This is likely more about their contractual obligations to copyright holders than anything else. If they can't control the devices accessing their store, they have no hope of controlling where content is authorised to be played. Which no doubt is one of the few reasons itunes has been a success with various record labels...
Apple are fine with ITUNES on windows because they control the client software. Write some hacked version for Windows/Linux/OSX or whatever and see how they like it. I think you'll find they deem it unacceptable.
LOL. looks like slashdot needs a new moderation option: "-1 I disagree". If you disagree, raise a counter-argument.
Yeah, agreed. But apple are making money out of itunes and providing "locked" hardware, so they're evil; remember this is slashdot...
Its kinda of a reverse-zealot thinking of the GPL. GPL zealots are always bitching about how the BSD license allows people to take your code and do whatever you like with it (eg, close-source it and improve it internally to your company - and selling it to make money), but when the shoe is on the other foot, and a company releases something free (as in, beer), but they don't want others making money off THEIR product, its all bad.
Hypocrisy, much?
Apple took the leap of faith, and put a shitload of time and effort into both the hardware, software, and recording industry licensing, etc to bring us itunes and the relevant hardware to go with it. it is probably (haven't looked, but would not surprise me in the slightest) that many of the contracts they have with recording studios specify that they must control how and where various media is played. Opening their store up to palm, or anyone else will remove their ability to control that.
But no, its apple and they're starting to make money, so they're EVIL.
mate, i hear iraq are looking for a new information minister?
I think you'll find that your IT department are more than willing to upgrade, but the FINANCE department is unwilling to fund it.... nerds always like new toys, and windows 2000 is no longer new any more, good as it is (for an MS operating system, anyway).
The same finance department (or HR) has probably approached IT and asked them to stop people doing things other than work, at work - hence the proxy software. besides, proxy software can SAVE MONEY too, depending on your bandwidth expenses. A copy of SQUID or even ISA will more than pay for itself over a couple of months, if you pay $/gig for bandwidth, both in terms of caching shit so it is only downloaded once, and also because of the ability to block high volume, non-business related activity as well.