at a premium of more than double what you'd pay for the same thing from any reliable 3rd party. I bought a Canon HF20 extended battery - OEM price $90.00USD. 3rd party price $20.00USD.
I bought the Cannon battery. Seems the warranty is void if you use non-Canon batteries. (or at least, that was my very quick read). Had I known that before I plonked down $$$ on the camera, likely I wouldn't have bought a HD camcorder at all. I won't buy Sony (see my other posts) and the Panasonic had already let me down. As for the Canon, I hate thier flaky software down load tool, and getting it by hand is a major pain in the camera.
The editors should be a lot more careful about fact checking when posting stories like this. If it turns out to be false, and damaging to Comcast's business due to the amount of Slashbots ranting about how much they hate the ISP, Slashdot's parent company could be looking at a lawsuit from Comcast for libel; and IMHO, they'd be within their rights.
Your logic cycle is broken. If Comcast gave good service, then even signifigant amounts of ranting would cause many more posts of "Huh? But Comcast always fixes my problems!" or "I have Comcast, and I never have problems." The fact is, that while I see and hear a lot of complaints about Comcast (and have no insignifigant amount of spam that originates on Comcast), I rarely see or hear of a good Comcast experience - at least, not on the Internet.
The anti-Capitalist bias on this site truly is genuinely appalling, and it highlights yet again the complete lack of integrity inherent in the double standard that Stallman has indoctrinated into his minions. Corporations doing the wrong thing doesn't give us carte blanche to likewise behave badly. If anything, it's exactly the opposite.
Again, if Comcast were dressed in pure white knight mode, any smudge or streak of mud would stand out. The fact that Comcast is generally seen as covered in excrement and their customers seem to be very vocal in their dissatisfaction with their services and offerings would indicate to me that Slashdot has very little to worry about vis-a-vi defimation even absent "Safe harbor" protections.
As for your comment of "anti-Capitalist bias on this site", I don't think I've seen people on Slashdot have anything against making money - only making it dishonestly. A view I share.
A Nazi would tell you you're not permitted to do something on your own network, which isn't the case here. Put this another way, you want to come into my home, and because you drop your pants and crap on your own carpet, expect me to allow you to do that in my house. Er, no, you're not allowed to do that here, and if you do, I'm going to be quite upset with you. Most people would agree that I have a right to be upset. For all that an Internet connection is an intangable, it is still chattel. Someone paid for it.
Grown ups realize that they can't do whatever they want when and where they'd like. I'm not sure why people think that is all right on the Internet no matter who pays for it, but really, it's not. Him what pays, says.
You want us to tell you how to hack around the network/security/TOS of your university? How about this observation from someone that also runs a network for students:
Comply with the policy when you use their infrastructure.
Now, how to go about that without invading your privacy? Easy - dual boot with encrypted file systems on the second partition. Keep pablum on the system you use to access their infrastructure. Keep your other stuff on a system you don't bring up using their infrastructure. Simple. If you don't want your browsing habits known (which I don't believe for a second they give a fart about), then go to a cyber cafe or something when you want to do things you don't want known.
Their network = their rules.
And for those that want to pick holes in their policies/make fun of how incompentent they are:
1. Not everytime do I tell my management team better ways to do what they want to do. Sometimes I think management is full of it. Now, if they ASK me, I have to tell them. But I don't have to open my big fat yap - and I don't, when I think they are being silly.
2. Not every "bone headed move" is all that bone headed. You need to be in the room to see why some direction was chosen. Sometimes it's stupidity, sometimes it a comprimise between time, money, resources, and what you really need to do. The old web blocking software wasn't very good at blocking http proxies. We simply didn't have the money or time to cobble up something better. All the people that knew this thought we were incompentent because it was so easy to get around the blocking software. The new software is very good at blocking that and a lot of other tricks. Our network = our rules. You're free to visit sites we don't like - on your own time, on your own network infrastructure, using your own computer. (Not that I agree with the policy, but it IS their network funded with tax dollars and subject to state law which requires web blocking software. Grow up and deal with it, change state law, or use your own stuff to do what they don't like.)
3. Get used to someone looking over your shoulder vis-a-vi computing. Employers are increasingly doing it, public institutions are required to do it, and others do it simply because they can. Failing to learn how to keep your stuff private is an invatation to these jerks to invade your privacy - so learn to make it difficult for them to do so. The first step in this process is to know that when you use someone else's network, computers, or infrastructure, they have a say in how that gets used. When you're on your own network, own computer, and own internet connection, THEN you can expect some privacy... if you're smart and use care.
Does anyone fail to see why I have refused to buy any Sony IP that I can possibly avoid for the past 20 years? (Remember boys and girls, the mother board of your computer may have Sony IP on it in a chip or BIOS.) This kind of mind set isn't new to Sony, it's been around in a noticable form for the past two decades.
I will even nix the purchase of computing equipment if I can find the same or better equipment that doesn't have Sony IP in it and the price isn't more than 5% higher. Since my employer buys several thousand systems a year, I hope that has a small but measurable effict on Sony's profits, though it likely doesn't. The times I have had to OK equipment with Sony IP in it, it made my teeth hurt, I felt less manly, I gained weight, lost more hair, and needed stronger glasses.
If an unjust law protects the bully, I prefer to stand up and say "lookit how this baaddd law is criminalizing ordinary people who are trying to reclaim parts of the culture that belong to them."
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No, I got that part. What I'm saying is that while breaking a bad law is one way to protest it, in this case, it doesn't need that. Simply not playing their game makes them go away. How hard, in a post RIAA/MPAA world, do you think it would be to change the copyright limit back to 20 or 30 years? I'm thinking the answer to that one is "not hard at all."
A glob of two part epoxy over the lense should do the trick for you.
(Someone else asked about black berrys)
On a crack-berry, if you don't WANT to read the emails when you take it out of the hoslster (like, to answer the PHONE), drill out the magnet in the holster.
why the iPhone is so popular. I looked at it, sure, it's nice, but the price is so high I can't justify buying one - let alone the monthly charge.
On the other hand, I want a phone. I don't want a camera, music player, handheld computer, contact manager, schedule keeper, blah blah blah. I want a phone. I want a phone to make phone calls. It's nice if it keeps a phone book, but the numbers I need, I know. Most of the time, (not the case with the iPhone, mostly) these "multi-tool" tech things don't do ANYTHING very well, though they do a lot.
Squidfood, I'm afraid you've completely missed the point. Almost every move a person can legally make with their copyright feeds the maw of this monster. We don't have to break the law to break the cartel. If you choose to do so, you are giving cover to the RIAA/MPAA. "Lookit dem baddddd ol' PIE-RATES! See!? They's breakin' da LAW!!!"
When, by simply refusing to play their game, you cut off their income from all but the blank media tax. And you can stop buying blank media too...
It is a hydra - by cutting off it's head (illegal copying), two more heads spring forth. But if you STARVE the head.....
We, as a consumer group, do have the power to stop RIAA and MPAA cold. How? Stop listening to music on the radio, don't buy any new CDs (used is fine), turn off your TV (and cable/sat/uverse), and don't go to the movies. It will take only about six months to completely destroy RIAA and MPAA if as few as 20% of the people do this.
The real problem as I see it is that very few of you want to be rid of the RIAA and MPAA, you just don't like how they do business. That's fine, I don't like how they do business myself. That's why I don't have cable or sat, I don't listen to music on the radio, I don't go to movies, I don't buy movies or CDs....
Put up or shut up folks. It's fine to complain, but do something about it, why don't you? The copyright cartels are paying the politicians far more than we do, and they're doing it with money we pay them. Quit paying them money to abridge your rights and desires.
Hey, fifteen years ago it was supposed to be in five years computers wouldn't need code monkeys because they'd program themselves. Ten years ago it was Nural networks that were going to put coders out of work. Five years ago it was "eveyone will know how to code". Now it's elbonia putting us out of work. You ever work with an elbonian coder? Ever notice how everything you ask them to do comes out slightly (or not so slightly) wrong?
Not that I care - I quit coding for a living years ago. Now I hold hands for a living. (Well, that's when it *seems* like - the life of a sys admin....)
1. People too clueless to be allowed to send email (or run an email server depending on why the listing is there) 2. People that do not use closed loop, unique token, confirmed opt-in 3. Spammers
If you have a problem with a SpamHaus listing, there are well documented ways to go about resolving the issue and having the listing removed. Remember children, SpamHaus only rejects emails sent to SpamHaus servers. If your mail is rejected by a non-spamhaus server, then the email administrator chose to do so, knowingly, and with effort to make that happen. No MTA software comes pre-configured to use ANY blocking list.
If you think SpamHaus is being unreasonable, there is a public foura where you can post about the probem and get non-spamhaus people to comment. It's called UseNet, and the group you want to post in is News.Admin.Net-Abuse.Email. But bring your nomex undies, you'll need 'em.
It's my opinion that SpamHaus is ***FAR*** too leinant, not too strict.
Had a customer with a motorcycle shop that had a rat problem. His dog (Jack Russel) went nuts one day, and the owner pulled out a sawed off shotgun and promptly put a hole through the wall.
Exit one rat, four servers, a 440 volt three phase power line, air conditioning condenser, and five twinax runs. Add to damages the vet bill (pellets hit the dog), the doctor bill (pellets hit the owner), and my added expense to replace the servers, bring them from cold to hot, re-running the twin-ax cables, and the $5,000.00 USD (and this was back 15 years or so ago, call it about 8,000 USD today) for, and I quote:
"Extraordinary charge recovery for work location in a free fire zone without body armor or hearing protection".
He paid it.
The rat? We buried it without honors or marking it's grave.
Watch ESPN. Write down the names of the advertisers. Contant Advertisers - COMPLAIN LOUDLY - that you won't buy their products if they continue to adertise on ESPN.
If ESPN corrects behavior - GREAT Enough people do this and ad buyers leave - ESPN Goes broke - GREAT. Not enough people do this, it's ignorned - BUMMER. fi
OK, you've gone for a tech solution to a problem before really asking what the problem here is. So what's the real problem? Legal libility, of course. Your customer X is accusing you of sharing data with their competition Y.
Create an job to track sensitive documents. If you only have a few, then it would be additional duties for someone. If you have a lot, it's a new position. This job is to track who has legitimate access to sensitive documents. When customer X starts throwing allogations you've shared data with customer Y, everyone that has legitimate access to the data is required to sign an affidavit that they did not share the data with people not autorized to have the info. Now customer X has to PROVE that one of your employee's did indeed do so, and that their affidavit is a lie. MUCH harder to prove and a lot cheaper for your company to defend against.
Of course, that won't stop customer X from THINKING you did, and that may cost you that customer, but absent using a full up sensitive document control system like the government does, there's no real inexpensive solution I've found. I'd be interested to see if/. comes up with one though.
Boss: "Minion! Go find us web hosting!" me: "Yesssss, maasssssssster!" me flips through a few pages of adverts, picks one, goes back "HEeeerrrrrr, massssster!" Boss: "Hmmmm.... McColo! I like the sound of that! Sounds like an Apple product! OK, get us loaded up there sparky, and make it snappy!"
Yeah, right. It's called "due diligence", and if you don't do it, your setting yourself up for trouble. So, what's the FIRST thing I look at when selecting a web host? Is it their stock prospectus? - I'll look at that, but not first. Their SEC 10Q? I'll look at that too, but not first. Nope, FIRST I look in News.admin.net-abuse.sightings. Then I go looking for off site hosted foura for that ISP and see what others have to say about them. Then I start asking about NOC details - staffing, times, power back up, cooling backup, hot sites, warm sites, cold sites, redundant routing (confirm on Looking Glass), all sorts of stuff I'd put in but I just got a page so I have to go... anyway, "innocent" customers of McColo getting knocked off line? It's a pain, but if they really are "innocent", then they can host elsewhere easily.
An even better trick - make a small partition on a drive or ram disk (nothing more than 10meg) and create your work directory like so:
~/home/workdir
Stuff all the stuff you what to hide in workdir, then mount the partition over it. What ever you put in before the mount disappears, what ever is on the partition that is mounted is put in it's place. One draw back is that even you can't get to it without dismounting the partition.
Another trick:
I run several mail machines and have directories of interest that are different on each. In the.profile or what ever, assign that directory to a variable. EG: idir="/usr/spool/locks/lp/admins/lp/interfaces" hdir="/var/spool/mqueue"
Need to go there? cd $idir
Need to lock out vendor users whose passwords were unlocked during the day, then clean up the locks directory, and kick off a disk spool back up? Script it all and call it miller_time
First, CPA do books, not taxes. If they do taxes as well, they are tax preparares and that is not the same thing as a cpa. Kind of like a plumber AND and air cond. guy. He can do both, but he's licensed and passed tests for each (in my state, anyway).
Just remember, you are going to get a lot of advice, and it falls on a bell curve rated "utter foolishness" to "Mind blowing". If you don't get a professional opinion, you could end up really hurting yourself.
At the very least, seek out a licensed professional and purchase an opinion. If you want, run by advice you're given here.
Hmmm. On the one hand, pedo's having to post their email address - any question that the registry won't be picked up for spamming?
On the other hand, a database of known child rapers? How long until child porn operations target them? Three seconds? Two? One?
On the gripping hand, let's look at who is a "sex offender". People that urinate in public (EG: side of the road in the bushes) are rated as a "Sex Offender" in Texas. Gee, go in the bushes, and get tagged as a "Sex Offender".
"First line technical support". Have you ever called first line technical support? The most common impression of FLTS is they can't manage walking and chewing gum at the same time. I know that's unfair because in almost every case FLTS must follow scripts written more with a view of "idiot customers AND idiot tech" than just "idiot customer" rather than "There's a real problem here that needs to be solved".
First step is to get out of first tier support. Or support entirely, which is what you're trying to do.
There are local charitiable organisations that need tech help and can't afford it. Like your food bank, shelter, red cross, hell, even the BBB, NPR, PBS, or Red Cross. Go to them and offer to help with tech issues. They likely don't know squat about tech, but if you are even half way effective, they'll write a glowing recommendation because you bailed them out of trobles they couldn't solve themselves. You help not just yourself, but others that are in dire straits. For nothing else, that's worthy right there.
Example: I wrote a customer master module to be used in accounting for customers, vendors, shippers, anywhere it was needed to tie a company/person/vendor/whathave you with multiple addresses, purchase orders, sales orders, trouble tickets, history (careful to not over normalize so as to update historical records with current info) blah blah blah. End result, I used this exact module over and over and over again for pledge drives, charity auctions, setting port-a-pottys, vending machines, you name it.
I know a gal that started out as first line tech support. Climbed to managing the help desk, from there, went to web master, and is now a director of IT somewhere else. All in four years. And she's good... really good.
It can be done. If someone wants to type cast you, it's because you let them do it and don't show them why they are wrong... or they are simply grossly stupid and unobservant. In the fist case, you've only yourself to blame, in the second, better you don't work there anyway.
Anyone following DRM and Sony knows that Sony considers their customers to be scum, not worth a bit of consideration. Sorry, but I don't buy motherboards with Sony technology if I can avoid it. I won't by Sony equipment, music, movies, or other IP if I can possibly avoid it.
I do not now, nor do I ever expect to own Blue-Ray as long as the only source is Sony. I guess it's a Good Thing that I find even the most boring book to be more interesting than any Blue-ray HD movie.
I do have a HD-DVD player. It's also an upconverting DVD player. I'm happy with it. My DVD's really pop out for me on HD.
The function of an IT manager is not to manage IT, it is to manage the people, projects, resources, and workload. IT managers do not need to be technically compentant, they need to be effictive and insightful leaders, willing to listen to both the IT people and the customers they serve.
An IT Manager can be completely technically incompentent, as long has he can trust his technical people, and as long as the IT customer is honest.
This applies only to the vast majority of business where IT is the process, not the object, of the business model. In those companies that IT is their business, then yes, the IT manager needs to be both technically compentant and IT wise. In other words, the Insurance IT manager doesn't need a great deal of understanding of IT, but the IT manager of a SAN vendor SHOULD be very well versed in tech.
If one is to derive personally happyness from work, then you have to do work where people are happy to see you. I tell the story of the Tech guy. One day, the big boss passes him in the hall way. Big Boss stops the tech, says: "You know, every time I see you I hear something broke. I'm begining to think you are breaking them. Stop that or find another job." Likely not a true story.
Just last week I got verbally pummeled, berated, and chewed out because a major IT function went wonky. Never mind that they pulled the trigger on it four weeks early, never mind they cancelled testing, never mind the project wasn't fully complete. It's my fault for bringing it in four weeks early and without testing that it broke, and required three more days to fix. Never mind that not a single malfunction stopped production (only reporting and accounting - that's what took three days to fix. The numbers were there, the info was there, just the reports hadn't been given even a first pass debug run).
Computers are "magic". Management incants the PO, and *POOF*! the job MUST be done already, I mean, it's PAID for, right? We had six meetings, right? What OTHER work could POSSIBLY be required?
Just remember - there is no work so easy as that which management doesn't do. At least, to management's eyes...
You want to be happy, again, find a job where people are really glad to see you.
Slashdot Mirror
at a premium of more than double what you'd pay for the same thing from any reliable 3rd party.
I bought a Canon HF20 extended battery - OEM price $90.00USD. 3rd party price $20.00USD.
I bought the Cannon battery. Seems the warranty is void if you use non-Canon batteries. (or at least, that was my very quick read). Had I known that before I plonked down $$$ on the camera, likely I wouldn't have bought a HD camcorder at all. I won't buy Sony (see my other posts) and the Panasonic had already let me down. As for the Canon, I hate thier flaky software down load tool, and getting it by hand is a major pain in the camera.
The editors should be a lot more careful about fact checking when posting stories like this. If it turns out to be false, and damaging to Comcast's business due to the amount of Slashbots ranting about how much they hate the ISP, Slashdot's parent company could be looking at a lawsuit from Comcast for libel; and IMHO, they'd be within their rights.
Your logic cycle is broken. If Comcast gave good service, then even signifigant amounts of ranting would cause many more posts of "Huh? But Comcast always fixes my problems!" or "I have Comcast, and I never have problems." The fact is, that while I see and hear a lot of complaints about Comcast (and have no insignifigant amount of spam that originates on Comcast), I rarely see or hear of a good Comcast experience - at least, not on the Internet.
The anti-Capitalist bias on this site truly is genuinely appalling, and it highlights yet again the complete lack of integrity inherent in the double standard that Stallman has indoctrinated into his minions. Corporations doing the wrong thing doesn't give us carte blanche to likewise behave badly. If anything, it's exactly the opposite.
Again, if Comcast were dressed in pure white knight mode, any smudge or streak of mud would stand out. The fact that Comcast is generally seen as covered in excrement and their customers seem to be very vocal in their dissatisfaction with their services and offerings would indicate to me that Slashdot has very little to worry about vis-a-vi defimation even absent "Safe harbor" protections.
As for your comment of "anti-Capitalist bias on this site", I don't think I've seen people on Slashdot have anything against making money - only making it dishonestly. A view I share.
A Nazi would tell you you're not permitted to do something on your own network, which isn't the case here. Put this another way, you want to come into my home, and because you drop your pants and crap on your own carpet, expect me to allow you to do that in my house. Er, no, you're not allowed to do that here, and if you do, I'm going to be quite upset with you. Most people would agree that I have a right to be upset. For all that an Internet connection is an intangable, it is still chattel. Someone paid for it.
Grown ups realize that they can't do whatever they want when and where they'd like. I'm not sure why people think that is all right on the Internet no matter who pays for it, but really, it's not. Him what pays, says.
Let me see if I have this right...
You want us to tell you how to hack around the network/security/TOS of your university?
How about this observation from someone that also runs a network for students:
Comply with the policy when you use their infrastructure.
Now, how to go about that without invading your privacy? Easy - dual boot with encrypted file systems on the second partition. Keep pablum on the system you use to access their infrastructure. Keep your other stuff on a system you don't bring up using their infrastructure. Simple. If you don't want your browsing habits known (which I don't believe for a second they give a fart about), then go to a cyber cafe or something when you want to do things you don't want known.
Their network = their rules.
And for those that want to pick holes in their policies/make fun of how incompentent they are:
1. Not everytime do I tell my management team better ways to do what they want to do. Sometimes I think management is full of it. Now, if they ASK me, I have to tell them. But I don't have to open my big fat yap - and I don't, when I think they are being silly.
2. Not every "bone headed move" is all that bone headed. You need to be in the room to see why some direction was chosen. Sometimes it's stupidity, sometimes it a comprimise between time, money, resources, and what you really need to do. The old web blocking software wasn't very good at blocking http proxies. We simply didn't have the money or time to cobble up something better. All the people that knew this thought we were incompentent because it was so easy to get around the blocking software. The new software is very good at blocking that and a lot of other tricks. Our network = our rules. You're free to visit sites we don't like - on your own time, on your own network infrastructure, using your own computer. (Not that I agree with the policy, but it IS their network funded with tax dollars and subject to state law which requires web blocking software. Grow up and deal with it, change state law, or use your own stuff to do what they don't like.)
3. Get used to someone looking over your shoulder vis-a-vi computing. Employers are increasingly doing it, public institutions are required to do it, and others do it simply because they can. Failing to learn how to keep your stuff private is an invatation to these jerks to invade your privacy - so learn to make it difficult for them to do so. The first step in this process is to know that when you use someone else's network, computers, or infrastructure, they have a say in how that gets used. When you're on your own network, own computer, and own internet connection, THEN you can expect some privacy... if you're smart and use care.
Does anyone fail to see why I have refused to buy any Sony IP that I can possibly avoid for the past 20 years? (Remember boys and girls, the mother board of your computer may have Sony IP on it in a chip or BIOS.) This kind of mind set isn't new to Sony, it's been around in a noticable form for the past two decades.
I will even nix the purchase of computing equipment if I can find the same or better equipment that doesn't have Sony IP in it and the price isn't more than 5% higher. Since my employer buys several thousand systems a year, I hope that has a small but measurable effict on Sony's profits, though it likely doesn't. The times I have had to OK equipment with Sony IP in it, it made my teeth hurt, I felt less manly, I gained weight, lost more hair, and needed stronger glasses.
Just kidding, I only felt mild disgust.
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No, I got that part. What I'm saying is that while breaking a bad law is one way to protest it, in this case, it doesn't need that. Simply not playing their game makes them go away. How hard, in a post RIAA/MPAA world, do you think it would be to change the copyright limit back to 20 or 30 years? I'm thinking the answer to that one is "not hard at all."
A glob of two part epoxy over the lense should do the trick for you.
(Someone else asked about black berrys)
On a crack-berry, if you don't WANT to read the emails
when you take it out of the hoslster (like, to answer
the PHONE), drill out the magnet in the holster.
why the iPhone is so popular. I looked at it, sure, it's nice, but the price is so high I can't justify buying one - let alone the monthly charge.
On the other hand, I want a phone. I don't want a camera, music player, handheld computer, contact manager, schedule keeper, blah blah blah. I want a phone. I want a phone to make phone calls. It's nice if it keeps a phone book, but the numbers I need, I know. Most of the time, (not the case with the iPhone, mostly) these "multi-tool" tech things don't do ANYTHING very well, though they do a lot.
I think many slashdotters already employ your strategy. /.'ers aren't 20% of the media market. So get the word out about why people should care.
.
But
Squidfood, I'm afraid you've completely missed the point. Almost every move a person can legally make with their copyright feeds the maw of this monster. We don't have to break the law to break the cartel. If you choose to do so, you are giving cover to the RIAA/MPAA. "Lookit dem baddddd ol' PIE-RATES! See!? They's breakin' da LAW!!!"
When, by simply refusing to play their game, you cut off their income from all but the blank media tax. And you can stop buying blank media too...
It is a hydra - by cutting off it's head (illegal copying), two more heads spring forth. But if you STARVE the head.....
...sit back, relax, and see who gets the post.
We, as a consumer group, do have the power to stop RIAA and MPAA cold. How? Stop listening to music on the radio, don't buy any new CDs (used is fine), turn off your TV (and cable/sat/uverse), and don't go to the movies. It will take only about six months to completely destroy RIAA and MPAA if as few as 20% of the people do this.
The real problem as I see it is that very few of you want to be rid of the RIAA and MPAA, you just don't like how they do business. That's fine, I don't like how they do business myself. That's why I don't have cable or sat, I don't listen to music on the radio, I don't go to movies, I don't buy movies or CDs....
Put up or shut up folks. It's fine to complain, but do something about it, why don't you? The copyright cartels are paying the politicians far more than we do, and they're doing it with money we pay them. Quit paying them money to abridge your rights and desires.
Hey, fifteen years ago it was supposed to be in five years computers wouldn't need code monkeys because they'd program themselves. Ten years ago it was Nural networks that were going to put coders out of work. Five years ago it was "eveyone will know how to code". Now it's elbonia putting us out of work. You ever work with an elbonian coder? Ever notice how everything you ask them to do comes out slightly (or not so slightly) wrong?
Not that I care - I quit coding for a living years ago. Now I hold hands for a living. (Well, that's when it *seems* like - the life of a sys admin....)
The only people I see with SpamHaus listings are:
1. People too clueless to be allowed to send email (or run an email server depending on why the listing is there)
2. People that do not use closed loop, unique token, confirmed opt-in
3. Spammers
If you have a problem with a SpamHaus listing, there are well documented ways to go about resolving the issue and having the listing removed. Remember children, SpamHaus only rejects emails sent to SpamHaus servers. If your mail is rejected by a non-spamhaus server, then the email administrator chose to do so, knowingly, and with effort to make that happen. No MTA software comes pre-configured to use ANY blocking list.
If you think SpamHaus is being unreasonable, there is a public foura where you can post about the probem and get non-spamhaus people to comment. It's called UseNet, and the group you want to post in is News.Admin.Net-Abuse.Email. But bring your nomex undies, you'll need 'em.
It's my opinion that SpamHaus is ***FAR*** too leinant, not too strict.
Had a customer with a motorcycle shop that had a rat problem. His dog (Jack Russel) went nuts one day, and the owner pulled out a sawed off shotgun and promptly put a hole through the wall.
Exit one rat, four servers, a 440 volt three phase power line, air conditioning condenser, and five twinax runs. Add to damages the vet bill (pellets hit the dog), the doctor bill (pellets hit the owner), and my added expense to replace the servers, bring them from cold to hot, re-running the twin-ax cables, and the $5,000.00 USD (and this was back 15 years or so ago, call it about 8,000 USD today) for, and I quote:
"Extraordinary charge recovery for work location
in a free fire zone without body armor or hearing
protection".
He paid it.
The rat? We buried it without honors or marking it's grave.
Watch ESPN.
Write down the names of the advertisers.
Contant Advertisers - COMPLAIN LOUDLY - that you won't buy their products if they continue to adertise on ESPN.
If
ESPN corrects behavior - GREAT
Enough people do this and ad buyers leave - ESPN Goes broke - GREAT.
Not enough people do this, it's ignorned - BUMMER.
fi
OK, you've gone for a tech solution to a problem before really asking what the problem here is. So what's the real problem? Legal libility, of course. Your customer X is accusing you of sharing data with their competition Y.
Create an job to track sensitive documents. If you only have a few, then it would be additional duties for someone. If you have a lot, it's a new position. This job is to track who has legitimate access to sensitive documents. When customer X starts throwing allogations you've shared data with customer Y, everyone that has legitimate access to the data is required to sign an affidavit that they did not share the data with people not autorized to have the info. Now customer X has to PROVE that one of your employee's did indeed do so, and that their affidavit is a lie. MUCH harder to prove and a lot cheaper for your company to defend against.
Of course, that won't stop customer X from THINKING you did, and that may cost you that customer, but absent using a full up sensitive document control system like the government does, there's no real inexpensive solution I've found. I'd be interested to see if /. comes up with one though.
Boss: "Minion! Go find us web hosting!"
me: "Yesssss, maasssssssster!"
me flips through a few pages of adverts, picks one, goes back "HEeeerrrrrr, massssster!"
Boss: "Hmmmm.... McColo! I like the sound of that! Sounds like an Apple product! OK, get us loaded up there sparky, and make it snappy!"
Yeah, right. It's called "due diligence", and if you don't do it, your setting yourself up for trouble. So, what's the FIRST thing I look at when selecting a web host? Is it their stock prospectus? - I'll look at that, but not first. Their SEC 10Q? I'll look at that too, but not first. Nope, FIRST I look in News.admin.net-abuse.sightings. Then I go looking for off site hosted foura for that ISP and see what others have to say about them. Then I start asking about NOC details - staffing, times, power back up, cooling backup, hot sites, warm sites, cold sites, redundant routing (confirm on Looking Glass), all sorts of stuff I'd put in but I just got a page so I have to go... anyway, "innocent" customers of McColo getting knocked off line? It's a pain, but if they really are "innocent", then they can host elsewhere easily.
An even better trick -
make a small partition on a drive or ram disk (nothing more than 10meg) and create your work directory like so:
~/home/workdir
Stuff all the stuff you what to hide in workdir, then mount the partition over it. What ever you put in before the mount disappears, what ever is on the partition that is mounted is put in it's place. One draw back is that even you can't get to it without dismounting the partition.
Another trick:
I run several mail machines and have directories of interest that are different on each. In the .profile or what ever, assign that directory to a variable. EG: idir="/usr/spool/locks/lp/admins/lp/interfaces"
hdir="/var/spool/mqueue"
Need to go there? cd $idir
Need to lock out vendor users whose passwords were unlocked during the day, then clean up the locks directory, and kick off a disk spool back up? Script it all and call it miller_time
First, CPA do books, not taxes. If they do taxes as well, they are tax preparares and that is not the same thing as a cpa. Kind of like a plumber AND and air cond. guy. He can do both, but he's licensed and passed tests for each (in my state, anyway).
Just remember, you are going to get a lot of advice, and it falls on a bell curve rated "utter foolishness" to "Mind blowing". If you don't get a professional opinion, you could end up really hurting yourself.
At the very least, seek out a licensed professional and purchase an opinion. If you want, run by advice you're given here.
Hmmm. On the one hand, pedo's having to post their email address - any question that the registry won't be picked up for spamming?
On the other hand, a database of known child rapers? How long until child porn operations target them? Three seconds? Two? One?
On the gripping hand, let's look at who is a "sex offender". People that urinate in public (EG: side of the road in the bushes) are rated as a "Sex Offender" in Texas. Gee, go in the bushes, and get tagged as a "Sex Offender".
"First line technical support". Have you ever called first line technical support? The most common impression of FLTS is they can't manage walking and chewing gum at the same time. I know that's unfair because in almost every case FLTS must follow scripts written more with a view of "idiot customers AND idiot tech" than just "idiot customer" rather than "There's a real problem here that needs to be solved".
First step is to get out of first tier support. Or support entirely, which is what you're trying to do.
There are local charitiable organisations that need tech help and can't afford it. Like your food bank, shelter, red cross, hell, even the BBB, NPR, PBS, or Red Cross. Go to them and offer to help with tech issues. They likely don't know squat about tech, but if you are even half way effective, they'll write a glowing recommendation because you bailed them out of trobles they couldn't solve themselves. You help not just yourself, but others that are in dire straits. For nothing else, that's worthy right there.
Example: I wrote a customer master module to be used in accounting for customers, vendors, shippers, anywhere it was needed to tie a company/person/vendor/whathave you with multiple addresses, purchase orders, sales orders, trouble tickets, history (careful to not over normalize so as to update historical records with current info) blah blah blah. End result, I used this exact module over and over and over again for pledge drives, charity auctions, setting port-a-pottys, vending machines, you name it.
I know a gal that started out as first line tech support. Climbed to managing the help desk, from there, went to web master, and is now a director of IT somewhere else. All in four years. And she's good... really good.
It can be done. If someone wants to type cast you, it's because you let them do it and don't show them why they are wrong... or they are simply grossly stupid and unobservant. In the fist case, you've only yourself to blame, in the second, better you don't work there anyway.
Anyone following DRM and Sony knows that Sony considers their customers to be scum, not worth a bit of consideration. Sorry, but I don't buy motherboards with Sony technology if I can avoid it. I won't by Sony equipment, music, movies, or other IP if I can possibly avoid it.
I do not now, nor do I ever expect to own Blue-Ray as long as the only source is Sony. I guess it's a Good Thing that I find even the most boring book to be more interesting than any Blue-ray HD movie.
I do have a HD-DVD player. It's also an upconverting DVD player. I'm happy with it. My DVD's really pop out for me on HD.
The function of an IT manager is not to manage IT, it is to manage the people, projects, resources, and workload. IT managers do not need to be technically compentant, they need to be effictive and insightful leaders, willing to listen to both the IT people and the customers they serve.
An IT Manager can be completely technically incompentent, as long has he can trust his technical people, and as long as the IT customer is honest.
This applies only to the vast majority of business where IT is the process, not the object, of the business model. In those companies that IT is their business, then yes, the IT manager needs to be both technically compentant and IT wise. In other words, the Insurance IT manager doesn't need a great deal of understanding of IT, but the IT manager of a SAN vendor SHOULD be very well versed in tech.
See http://www.octools.com/index.cgi?caller=articles/submersion/submersion.html
If one is to derive personally happyness from work, then you have to do work where people are happy to see you. I tell the story of the Tech guy. One day, the big boss passes him in the hall way. Big Boss stops the tech, says: "You know, every time I see you I hear something broke. I'm begining to think you are breaking them. Stop that or find another job." Likely not a true story.
Just last week I got verbally pummeled, berated, and chewed out because a major IT function went wonky. Never mind that they pulled the trigger on it four weeks early, never mind they cancelled testing, never mind the project wasn't fully complete. It's my fault for bringing it in four weeks early and without testing that it broke, and required three more days to fix. Never mind that not a single malfunction stopped production (only reporting and accounting - that's what took three days to fix. The numbers were there, the info was there, just the reports hadn't been given even a first pass debug run).
Computers are "magic". Management incants the PO, and *POOF*! the job MUST be done already, I mean, it's PAID for, right? We had six meetings, right? What OTHER work could POSSIBLY be required?
Just remember - there is no work so easy as that which management doesn't do. At least, to management's eyes...
You want to be happy, again, find a job where people are really glad to see you.