There's something to that, even if the original poster's claim of not having spam anymore is local to him through unknown upstream changes.
Its long been suspected that the Russian government and Russian organized crime have cooperative links, if not outright overlapping "membership" (Putin is FSA/KGB, and its well known that ex-KGB members have been deeply involved in the Russian Mafia).
With this in mind, its not hard to speculate that if botnets controlled by Russian organized crime were put use against pro-Georgian assets, the ensuing defenses, publicity and exposure at the political/military level could possible cause these botnets to be far more vulnerable than they otherwise would be in the course of normal criminal activity.
This higher level exposure might lead to weakening them and reduce their effectiveness at normal tasks like spam.
Its also possible they may also be overutilized and prioritized for cyberwarfare and not for spam.
Where do you live, in a tent in the middle of Montana?
A disc returned on Monday is a new disc on Wednesday; a disc hits 'returned' status the day after I mail it, and I get a replacement disc the day after. Only twice have I had discs that wouldn't play right due to surface problems. Only *once* have I had a disc they had to mail from some distant sort facility, and that only added 2 days.
The only gripe I have is that they don't sort and mail discs on Saturday. This means that Thursday is the last day you can return a disc and expect a replacement with the usual turnaround. But this is offset by no late fees -- I've kept some discs 3 weeks (in some cases, cycling through my other at-a-time disc 3-4 times) before watching them.
About the only improvement I could see having would be a deal with Tivo for delivering/streaming content and list management. At that point it would become "On Demand" with a nearly unlimited library.
I'd probably buy another (well, the new one) Kawasaki Concours or a Honda ST.
My 91-uncrated-in-93 Concours was a great bike. The only problem I had with it was crud in the carbs from rust inside the tank, which was something of a well-known design issue with the huge tank never getting completely drained and allowing moisture to accumulate. An inline fuel filter fixed that completely.
I put 40,000 miles on it, including a trip from MSP through the Ozarks and a circle tour of Lake Superior and a lot of day trips and commuting.
That most Hardley riders don't see it is a tribute to their marketing BS.
I think some Harleys now come with fuel injection, but that's largely an emissions control issue, not a buyer demand issue. BMW has had it for over a decade. I remember Hondas with dual overhead cams in the 70s, Harley was still a pushrod engine, usually developing half or less the horsepower that Jap bikes with half the engine displacement developed.
But anyone serious about motorcycle *riding* as opposed to "outlaw biker lifestyle participation" has shunned Harleys for their stone-age design and 1950s technology.
About freaking time. I was wondering when they were going to make a good bare-metal hypervisor without all the $$$$$ add-ons that won't really be used, although it looks like we're still kept from using ICH RAID and SATA disks.
Whether or not the better livelihood of millions of people is worth the exchange of political freedoms is a moral and ethical judgment that's best reserved for discussion over a cup of coffee. This is not an absolute truth of things.
I'm pretty shocked that you're able to justify the same government that sent tanks into Tienanmen Square, killed millions of its own citizens and continues to jail its own people for political dissent in the name of a better livelihood.
But I must say I'm not surprised. I think the entire world is making the calculation in favor of capitalist-financed totalitarianism.
The whole Olympics is a glaring reminder of how willing capitalism is to walk in lockstep with totalitarianism.
The western media is handing the CPC a colossal propaganda victory by portraying China as just another modern, well-run Asian country, instead of as a totalitarian state that is willing to imprison people for speaking out on issues like why their kids were killed when shoddy schools collapsed.
(Sorry, USA haters, but this is real, old-fashioned, "Darkness at Noon" totalitarianism, and no, the US actions in the "War" on terror don't even come close.)
IT/IS is a tool for business, not many businesses make IT critical to their business plan. If you're in IT/IS right now, get more proactive in participating in business discussions by suggesting how IT can add value to the goals of that business.
The cynic in me wants to know how you're supposed to get "more proactive" when the same morons who don't understand the difference between "the cpu and the hard drive" announce unilateral IT decisions made without consultation like "we need to all get Blackberries" when they ignore information about other key systems with problems.
The problem is seldom lack of desire to participate, but decision makers who have no understanding of IT (besides wanting "shiny") and who choose to not include or consult with IT. Yes, you would think economic selection would filter out these kinds of executives, but we also thought economic selection wouldn't pay guys like Bob Nardelli $210 million in severance after ruining growth and depressing share prices.
As an IT consultant, I generally get a seat at the table (or at least invited into the room partway into the discussions) because they pay dearly for me on an hourly basis and I was hired because someone had half an idea that IT was something to pay attention to. But even then, good IT decision making plays second fiddle to a whole host of other concerns that are seldom considered business critical (eg, shiny toys, inconveniences that would be experienced by favored employees, etc).
The dipshit factor in IT I think has less to do with the inherent lack of social skills, but in the lack of respect the positions have within the organization. If you think it's not a valuable position, you don't pay for it and your don't hire for it as long as the job gets done to some minimal, keep-the-organization-going-standard.
I can only speak of them with respect to VMWare, but I almost always use bridged networking.
On my laptop, I connect to virtual hosts using an RDP client or ssh server vs. the clunkier console client, and its just easier when your virtual host has its own IP address (off the top of my head, I couldn't tell you what would be involved in port-mapping a NAT'd VM to connect to its internal services).
NAT'd I only use when I have to, mainly when I only have access to a single IP address or I want to masquerade an additional host's traffic as my own.
Do you have it backwards? Bridged hosts are bridged to the LAN and have their own IP address. NAT'd hosts have a RFC1918 address and share the host's IP address on the LAN.
Consumer Reports gave a "best buy" rating to the NordicTrak AudioStrider 990, which is $999 at Sears, as opposed to the $2000-3000 charged for the "pro" ellipticals.
I bought one and I've been pretty impressed. A neighbor has a $2k model, and I don't notice a difference other than I have more features than she does (movable arms, power incline, built-in fan and a so-so set of speakers for an iPod, custom programs, and a variety of other programs, and a heart-rate monitor). It takes SD cards which can do pre-programmed workouts based on your progress, although I'm told the cards "expire" (or self-destruct, more correctly) and can't be re-started. There should be a way to clone them, but I've never bothered.
I've used it on average 6 days per week since I bought in February and the only problem I had with it was the arms coming loose (blue Loc-tite and tightening the bolts) and the incline rollers attached to the pedals had a bearing seize, which was replaced under warranty. The heart rate monitor isn't accurate and sometimes doesn't even respond.
As for the exercise quality, I was a totally out of shape slob when I started and level 5 for 2 minutes would about kill me. Now I do level 8 for about 45 minutes and get a nice glisten of sweat and get my heart rate to about 145. I *feel* firmer and in better shape, but I don't necessarily look it (hey, I'm 41, 6'2 and 235 and had a l-o-n-g row to hoe). My workout now is 45 minutes one day, 30 minutes the next, and then a light weight workout on the off day, lather, rinse, repeat.
I would strongly recommend anyone to get a decent heart rate monitor. I found myself working way too hard (it felt good, but was somewhat counter-productive) when I got one (cheap Polar chest/wrist model). They say that the optimal weight loss benefit comes with long-duration relatively low heart-rate exercise, although anyone new to it will probably need to just stay out of the red zone and not worry about heart rate too much until they get into better shape.
As for entertainment, I tried watching TV/DVDs but just couldn't pay attention to them. I do my workout pretty early (5 AM), so just zoning out to the iPod works well for me. The "high" from working out plus the music is enough for me, although at times 45 minutes gets to be a tad long.
"Free" employer paid health insurance is a relic of the past, if it ever existed.
My first job with employer-provided insurance in the 1980s had a nominal charge every pay period for the cheapest plan (like $20 or something, in 1980s money, for a $9/hr job), and this plan limited me to specific clinics, procedures, specialists required a referral, etc. More flexible plans were more money, and spouses and kids were more money yet.
Most people with a spouse or kid are paying hundreds of dollars per month for health care coverage these days, if they can even get it. And the out of pocket costs don't end there, as there are almost always copays, limits and other gotchas that can make routine hospital visits or specialist treatment cost thousands.
I know there are some limited out of pocket costs in Europe, but I think the state bears a much higher proportion of the cost than do American employers do.
Do you think national healthcare is free?? Where do you think these countries get the money for that and other social[ist] programs? They tax the hell out of companies, imports (and individuals)
This has to account for some of the increased cost of doing business. I'm surprised its not mentioned more often.
It feels like you're not telling the whole story -- what did she possesses and how much and in what circumstances?
In even the harshest states, simple possession of small use quantities of even felony-level drugs doesn't result in maximum security prison time simply because there are too many people being caught committing the crimes and even our idiotic justice system has recognized to some extent that addiction and dependency are real issues.
Only 3-strikes offenders, non-personal-use quantities or possession during the commission of a felony end up adding up to real prison time. The federal system is worse due to mandatory minimums (which, IIRC, they recently made harder to impose).
I have heard of (usually) women getting burned on conspiracy beefs due to boyfriends/husbands/fathers/brothers being involved and the women being passively complicit.
So what actually happened to her that Illinois wanted to spend $40k a year to house her?
I'm just extrapolating from the general idea that a "controlled" hit from a nightstick to the body seems really unlikely to cause a death. I'll grant that an uncontrolled hit to the head may have serious consequences, but I'd also assume that a *trained* nightstick user wouldn't immediately smash someone on the head.
My guess is that if you looked at statistics, you'd see a higher incidence of death from tasers, but a lower incidence of injuries. The nightstick would have fewer deaths, but more non-permanent injuries (bruises, broken bones).
I suspect that the Tasers would produce more injuries than we tend to think, though, since people tend to collapse when tased, and its not hard to see minor head injuries and possibly broken bones when collapsing on concrete or other hard surfaces.
A poorly trained nightstick wielder will cause a lot more damage than a poorly trained taser wielder.
Few people die from being hit once with a nightstick in a controlled manner (I don't mean a wild swing in a melee), but an awful lot of people seem to be dying from single taser shots. I guess as a citizen, I'd rather see the odds of a compliance action have some small chance of a broken bone versus that same small chance of killing someone that you have with the taser.
I don't discount the taser -- its an effective weapon -- but I think it needs to be seen as a low-end substitute for a firearm first and an escalation from a nightstick second, and not as an entry level compliance tool. I think that taser's maker and police departments have gotten into an unintentional feedback loop where the police really want a completely disabling weapon that's "safe" and they parrot the maker's line that it is safe, and the maker really wants to sell tasers and they push it as safer than it really is, touting its widespread use by police.
I'd also like to see legislation banning the use of the taser as a general compliance weapon, and in cases where the police are caught using it as such the officers in question should be open to felony charges. Its too tempting for the cro-magnon cops.
Police and government leadership have so overreacted from excessive force complaints that the police don't get the right training on hitting weapons anymore.
Time was, a well-trained police officer using a sap or a stick could apply an amount of force that would ensure compliance without lasting injury. The PR-24 was also very useful for physical control outside of striking.
But as cops I know tell me, they can't use ANY hitting force for compliance unless they are being hit or are planning on charging the person in question. What this leads to is the only two tools left are the taser and the gun, and we know where this story goes.
As a Minnesota resident, I don't believe his legacy is viewed quite that positively, and I've heard that a lot of what's currently blamed on Pawlenty's lack of willingness to spend money is actually a result of missing leadership and runaway legislating during Ventura's term.
I think Ventura's legacy was also largely "positive" due to the era in which it occured -- 98-2002, which with the exception of the last half of 2001 and 2002, the state ran surpluses and the general economy was good.
The problem with delegation is that you have to be smart enough to select good advisers; if you're educationally (which I think is Ventura's real deficit) or intelligence deprived, you will select your advisers based on personality or other criteria which aren't helpful. Plus a "man of the people" generally isn't used to making these kinds of management decisions, and can very easily make huge mistakes, either through deceit or simple incompetence.
The other problem, specific to a third political party, is that *qualified* advisers are inherently biased towards the two party system. They're generally a product of it, and thus have attached loyalties to those with a vested interest. And generally speaking, any third-party candidate that's been elected has usually been a "short timer", which prevents advisers from making long-term changes in their loyalty, thus they may make choices and give advice that is beneficial to the vested parties and thus their long-term careers, and not to the third party movement/system.
Slashdot Mirror
There's something to that, even if the original poster's claim of not having spam anymore is local to him through unknown upstream changes.
Its long been suspected that the Russian government and Russian organized crime have cooperative links, if not outright overlapping "membership" (Putin is FSA/KGB, and its well known that ex-KGB members have been deeply involved in the Russian Mafia).
With this in mind, its not hard to speculate that if botnets controlled by Russian organized crime were put use against pro-Georgian assets, the ensuing defenses, publicity and exposure at the political/military level could possible cause these botnets to be far more vulnerable than they otherwise would be in the course of normal criminal activity.
This higher level exposure might lead to weakening them and reduce their effectiveness at normal tasks like spam.
Its also possible they may also be overutilized and prioritized for cyberwarfare and not for spam.
Where do you live, in a tent in the middle of Montana?
A disc returned on Monday is a new disc on Wednesday; a disc hits 'returned' status the day after I mail it, and I get a replacement disc the day after. Only twice have I had discs that wouldn't play right due to surface problems. Only *once* have I had a disc they had to mail from some distant sort facility, and that only added 2 days.
The only gripe I have is that they don't sort and mail discs on Saturday. This means that Thursday is the last day you can return a disc and expect a replacement with the usual turnaround. But this is offset by no late fees -- I've kept some discs 3 weeks (in some cases, cycling through my other at-a-time disc 3-4 times) before watching them.
About the only improvement I could see having would be a deal with Tivo for delivering/streaming content and list management. At that point it would become "On Demand" with a nearly unlimited library.
I'd probably buy another (well, the new one) Kawasaki Concours or a Honda ST.
My 91-uncrated-in-93 Concours was a great bike. The only problem I had with it was crud in the carbs from rust inside the tank, which was something of a well-known design issue with the huge tank never getting completely drained and allowing moisture to accumulate. An inline fuel filter fixed that completely.
I put 40,000 miles on it, including a trip from MSP through the Ozarks and a circle tour of Lake Superior and a lot of day trips and commuting.
That most Hardley riders don't see it is a tribute to their marketing BS.
I think some Harleys now come with fuel injection, but that's largely an emissions control issue, not a buyer demand issue. BMW has had it for over a decade. I remember Hondas with dual overhead cams in the 70s, Harley was still a pushrod engine, usually developing half or less the horsepower that Jap bikes with half the engine displacement developed.
But anyone serious about motorcycle *riding* as opposed to "outlaw biker lifestyle participation" has shunned Harleys for their stone-age design and 1950s technology.
Maybe you should check your dictionary for the definition of surrender. That little piece of diplomacy requires a compelling force.
Diplomacy is the only way to keep international peace.
Huh? I'm pretty sure military power has settled more conflict than diplomacy. WW I, II to be sure weren't ended with diplomacy.
About freaking time. I was wondering when they were going to make a good bare-metal hypervisor without all the $$$$$ add-ons that won't really be used, although it looks like we're still kept from using ICH RAID and SATA disks.
Whether or not the better livelihood of millions of people is worth the exchange of political freedoms is a moral and ethical judgment that's best reserved for discussion over a cup of coffee. This is not an absolute truth of things.
I'm pretty shocked that you're able to justify the same government that sent tanks into Tienanmen Square, killed millions of its own citizens and continues to jail its own people for political dissent in the name of a better livelihood.
But I must say I'm not surprised. I think the entire world is making the calculation in favor of capitalist-financed totalitarianism.
The whole Olympics is a glaring reminder of how willing capitalism is to walk in lockstep with totalitarianism.
The western media is handing the CPC a colossal propaganda victory by portraying China as just another modern, well-run Asian country, instead of as a totalitarian state that is willing to imprison people for speaking out on issues like why their kids were killed when shoddy schools collapsed.
(Sorry, USA haters, but this is real, old-fashioned, "Darkness at Noon" totalitarianism, and no, the US actions in the "War" on terror don't even come close.)
IT/IS is a tool for business, not many businesses make IT critical to their business plan. If you're in IT/IS right now, get more proactive in participating in business discussions by suggesting how IT can add value to the goals of that business.
The cynic in me wants to know how you're supposed to get "more proactive" when the same morons who don't understand the difference between "the cpu and the hard drive" announce unilateral IT decisions made without consultation like "we need to all get Blackberries" when they ignore information about other key systems with problems.
The problem is seldom lack of desire to participate, but decision makers who have no understanding of IT (besides wanting "shiny") and who choose to not include or consult with IT. Yes, you would think economic selection would filter out these kinds of executives, but we also thought economic selection wouldn't pay guys like Bob Nardelli $210 million in severance after ruining growth and depressing share prices.
As an IT consultant, I generally get a seat at the table (or at least invited into the room partway into the discussions) because they pay dearly for me on an hourly basis and I was hired because someone had half an idea that IT was something to pay attention to. But even then, good IT decision making plays second fiddle to a whole host of other concerns that are seldom considered business critical (eg, shiny toys, inconveniences that would be experienced by favored employees, etc).
The dipshit factor in IT I think has less to do with the inherent lack of social skills, but in the lack of respect the positions have within the organization. If you think it's not a valuable position, you don't pay for it and your don't hire for it as long as the job gets done to some minimal, keep-the-organization-going-standard.
I think you meant "...in an energy efficient way."
Because an electric motor will generate electricity in a cost efficient way, provided you're not paying for the electricity input!
Or "How I spent $50,000 on an MBA and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."
And the chocolate ration has been increased in Canada to 25 grams.
I can only speak of them with respect to VMWare, but I almost always use bridged networking.
On my laptop, I connect to virtual hosts using an RDP client or ssh server vs. the clunkier console client, and its just easier when your virtual host has its own IP address (off the top of my head, I couldn't tell you what would be involved in port-mapping a NAT'd VM to connect to its internal services).
NAT'd I only use when I have to, mainly when I only have access to a single IP address or I want to masquerade an additional host's traffic as my own.
Do you have it backwards? Bridged hosts are bridged to the LAN and have their own IP address. NAT'd hosts have a RFC1918 address and share the host's IP address on the LAN.
I think it read "Proof of license -- Certificate of Authenticity -- See License Terms -- Label not to be sold seperately".
Consumer Reports gave a "best buy" rating to the NordicTrak AudioStrider 990, which is $999 at Sears, as opposed to the $2000-3000 charged for the "pro" ellipticals.
I bought one and I've been pretty impressed. A neighbor has a $2k model, and I don't notice a difference other than I have more features than she does (movable arms, power incline, built-in fan and a so-so set of speakers for an iPod, custom programs, and a variety of other programs, and a heart-rate monitor). It takes SD cards which can do pre-programmed workouts based on your progress, although I'm told the cards "expire" (or self-destruct, more correctly) and can't be re-started. There should be a way to clone them, but I've never bothered.
I've used it on average 6 days per week since I bought in February and the only problem I had with it was the arms coming loose (blue Loc-tite and tightening the bolts) and the incline rollers attached to the pedals had a bearing seize, which was replaced under warranty. The heart rate monitor isn't accurate and sometimes doesn't even respond.
As for the exercise quality, I was a totally out of shape slob when I started and level 5 for 2 minutes would about kill me. Now I do level 8 for about 45 minutes and get a nice glisten of sweat and get my heart rate to about 145. I *feel* firmer and in better shape, but I don't necessarily look it (hey, I'm 41, 6'2 and 235 and had a l-o-n-g row to hoe). My workout now is 45 minutes one day, 30 minutes the next, and then a light weight workout on the off day, lather, rinse, repeat.
I would strongly recommend anyone to get a decent heart rate monitor. I found myself working way too hard (it felt good, but was somewhat counter-productive) when I got one (cheap Polar chest/wrist model). They say that the optimal weight loss benefit comes with long-duration relatively low heart-rate exercise, although anyone new to it will probably need to just stay out of the red zone and not worry about heart rate too much until they get into better shape.
As for entertainment, I tried watching TV/DVDs but just couldn't pay attention to them. I do my workout pretty early (5 AM), so just zoning out to the iPod works well for me. The "high" from working out plus the music is enough for me, although at times 45 minutes gets to be a tad long.
"Free" employer paid health insurance is a relic of the past, if it ever existed.
My first job with employer-provided insurance in the 1980s had a nominal charge every pay period for the cheapest plan (like $20 or something, in 1980s money, for a $9/hr job), and this plan limited me to specific clinics, procedures, specialists required a referral, etc. More flexible plans were more money, and spouses and kids were more money yet.
Most people with a spouse or kid are paying hundreds of dollars per month for health care coverage these days, if they can even get it. And the out of pocket costs don't end there, as there are almost always copays, limits and other gotchas that can make routine hospital visits or specialist treatment cost thousands.
I know there are some limited out of pocket costs in Europe, but I think the state bears a much higher proportion of the cost than do American employers do.
Do you think national healthcare is free?? Where do you think these countries get the money for that and other social[ist] programs? They tax the hell out of companies, imports (and individuals)
This has to account for some of the increased cost of doing business. I'm surprised its not mentioned more often.
It feels like you're not telling the whole story -- what did she possesses and how much and in what circumstances?
In even the harshest states, simple possession of small use quantities of even felony-level drugs doesn't result in maximum security prison time simply because there are too many people being caught committing the crimes and even our idiotic justice system has recognized to some extent that addiction and dependency are real issues.
Only 3-strikes offenders, non-personal-use quantities or possession during the commission of a felony end up adding up to real prison time. The federal system is worse due to mandatory minimums (which, IIRC, they recently made harder to impose).
I have heard of (usually) women getting burned on conspiracy beefs due to boyfriends/husbands/fathers/brothers being involved and the women being passively complicit.
So what actually happened to her that Illinois wanted to spend $40k a year to house her?
I'm just extrapolating from the general idea that a "controlled" hit from a nightstick to the body seems really unlikely to cause a death. I'll grant that an uncontrolled hit to the head may have serious consequences, but I'd also assume that a *trained* nightstick user wouldn't immediately smash someone on the head.
My guess is that if you looked at statistics, you'd see a higher incidence of death from tasers, but a lower incidence of injuries. The nightstick would have fewer deaths, but more non-permanent injuries (bruises, broken bones).
I suspect that the Tasers would produce more injuries than we tend to think, though, since people tend to collapse when tased, and its not hard to see minor head injuries and possibly broken bones when collapsing on concrete or other hard surfaces.
A poorly trained nightstick wielder will cause a lot more damage than a poorly trained taser wielder.
Few people die from being hit once with a nightstick in a controlled manner (I don't mean a wild swing in a melee), but an awful lot of people seem to be dying from single taser shots. I guess as a citizen, I'd rather see the odds of a compliance action have some small chance of a broken bone versus that same small chance of killing someone that you have with the taser.
I don't discount the taser -- its an effective weapon -- but I think it needs to be seen as a low-end substitute for a firearm first and an escalation from a nightstick second, and not as an entry level compliance tool. I think that taser's maker and police departments have gotten into an unintentional feedback loop where the police really want a completely disabling weapon that's "safe" and they parrot the maker's line that it is safe, and the maker really wants to sell tasers and they push it as safer than it really is, touting its widespread use by police.
I'd also like to see legislation banning the use of the taser as a general compliance weapon, and in cases where the police are caught using it as such the officers in question should be open to felony charges. Its too tempting for the cro-magnon cops.
Police and government leadership have so overreacted from excessive force complaints that the police don't get the right training on hitting weapons anymore.
Time was, a well-trained police officer using a sap or a stick could apply an amount of force that would ensure compliance without lasting injury. The PR-24 was also very useful for physical control outside of striking.
But as cops I know tell me, they can't use ANY hitting force for compliance unless they are being hit or are planning on charging the person in question. What this leads to is the only two tools left are the taser and the gun, and we know where this story goes.
As a Minnesota resident, I don't believe his legacy is viewed quite that positively, and I've heard that a lot of what's currently blamed on Pawlenty's lack of willingness to spend money is actually a result of missing leadership and runaway legislating during Ventura's term.
I think Ventura's legacy was also largely "positive" due to the era in which it occured -- 98-2002, which with the exception of the last half of 2001 and 2002, the state ran surpluses and the general economy was good.
The problem with delegation is that you have to be smart enough to select good advisers; if you're educationally (which I think is Ventura's real deficit) or intelligence deprived, you will select your advisers based on personality or other criteria which aren't helpful. Plus a "man of the people" generally isn't used to making these kinds of management decisions, and can very easily make huge mistakes, either through deceit or simple incompetence.
The other problem, specific to a third political party, is that *qualified* advisers are inherently biased towards the two party system. They're generally a product of it, and thus have attached loyalties to those with a vested interest. And generally speaking, any third-party candidate that's been elected has usually been a "short timer", which prevents advisers from making long-term changes in their loyalty, thus they may make choices and give advice that is beneficial to the vested parties and thus their long-term careers, and not to the third party movement/system.