As a Tech Support guy, I'm often forced to "reverse-engineer" my own company's products, when the engineers don't provide documentation on how the stuff works, and when everybody's too busy working on the next release to talk to a lowly support rep.
It's the FUN part of troubleshooting.
It was MUCH more fun on Novell, because it had a built-in debugger. It's a PAIN IN THE ASS with NT, because they not only don't have a built in debugger, but so far I haven't found a decent one I can give to a customer free of charge to have them do something over the phone to gather info when a process has gone into the weeds.
I'll check out some of those links that are provided in some of the other messages on this topic, maybe my prayers have been answered. . . (funny, I can understand assembler, but not C++)
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Yeah, I thought that all the Mac people going to IE was pretty bad too - because IE loaded all those dreadful MS extensions, which conflict with eachother if you also have Photoshop 5.5 installed by the way. (MS successfully porting the DLL HELL problem to the Mac platform). Then Netscape started doing the same thing, only worse, Netscape started loading extensions from third-parties, so that if you weren't paying very close attention, you end up with a whole buttwad of garbage you have no chance of identifying.
Bring back CyberDog!
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
"Another thing: let me shut off the ability for sites to spawn new windows. It don't want every damn site I go t. . .
Yeah, they need a big "disable JavaScript" button on the toolbar, so we don't have to dig through menus to find the tabbed preferences dialog to locate the page with the list of checkboxes which contains "disable JavaScript" while a dozen "hot young amatuer shaved asian squirrels soaked in donkey piss" sites load.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
well, if 4.7 is their last chance, and the stability isn't already fixed, then what good will fixing the stability in a later release do them? They've already lost their most important, most valuable customer - YOU!
But seriously folks, Netscape stability (and speed) has gone way down the tubes. An example where vigorous competition has NOT benefitted us consumers.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I work at a distributed company, we have sites all over the world, and teams working on projects at multiple sites.
That said, I can say with authority that phone conferencing does NOT work. It's a pain in the ass. You never know if someone is there on the other line, or if they've left the room, or if they even showed up to the meeting in the first place. That's just one minor issue. Then you don't get facial expression, so people don't bother trying to make jokes, so meetings consequently end up very boring, then there are times when knowing who said what is very important. Being able to connect a face to a voice, and by association, a name, distinguishes the content of what they said. Over a speakerphone, half the time you have no idea who's saying what.
So, for personal use, I think videophones probably have no future, but for business use, I don't see how we're going to survive without this technology, as the trend towards globalization and mega-mergers continues.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
This is the link that never ends, it just goes on and on my friend, some people started clicking it not knowing what it was, and they'll continue clicking it forever just because this is the link that never ends. ..
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Well, what is the purpose of all this technology anyway? To make folks lives easier, or to make businesses money?
From the seller's point of view, meta auctions are good. They get more eyeballs on their products - on the other hand, this could have the effect of devaluing their product, if forced to compete against lower-priced items on other sites.
From the buyer's point of view, meta auctions are good, they get the customer a wider selection, and more power to find the lowest-priced item.
From the auctioneer's point of view, they're bad, because he's now gotta compete with other auctioneers with his service. His service is ultimately devalued, and his marketshare is likewise devalued.
From the meta auctioneer's point of view, of course they're good, they're his free-ticket to hijack someone else's service and offer it.
Would it be nice if the internet was site-independent? Yes, that's what HTML was designed for - but on the other hand, computers were designed to do what they're programmed to do, if that's limiting where a user can go from point A, that's what it was programmed to do. So, just because the feature exists in HTML - doesn't mean the site designer has to use it.
So, what is the purpose of an auction site? to make the auctioneer money. If that goes away, then so do the auction sites. (unless metering content to collect revenue from the meta auction sites somehow becomes feasible).
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
What would be MORE ideal is if we could get a plant to split a water molecule (via photosynthesis), and instead of building sugars, simply produce molecular hydrogen, and store the hydrogen somehow, raw, harvest that stored hydrogen, and you have power for all the fuel-cells that will be running the world in the next century.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I didn't mean to say that the TECHNICAL MINIMUM for OS 8 was 64 megs. I was just saying that the practical minimum is 64 megs. It's slow ass virtual memory drags everything down at less than 64. It was a dig at whatever idiot decided that the iMac would ship with an impractical amount of RAM. (most people I talked to who bought an iMac thought it was too slow - they were non-technical and didn't understand how much speed they'd pick up if they'd just upgrade it to 64 meg).
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
1. My wife had CTS, while she was pregnant, both with our son, then our daughter. Doctor said it was due to water retention, swelling, closing the tunnel, pinching the nerve.
2. My wife has had minor relapses since being pregnant, but taking B6 vitamin supplements seem to help. She's not really a big-time computer user.
3. I have chronic tendenitis in my right wrist, (towards the outer side of the joint) - mousing aggrivates it. I tried several of the mice laying around our lab, it's the strangest thing, but the MS mouse was the worst, and an old squarish HP mouse was the best, though I had to swap out the mouse ball in the HP mouse because it was too lightweight to be useful. I took a heavier mouse-ball from an MS mouse and put it in the HP mouse. The wrist still hurts, but it's no longer as bad as it was a few years ago, when I had to actually limit my work to an hour or two per day (then use keyboards only - back then, it was feasible, Windows 3.11 was more consistent in allowing keyboard-only use). I never saw a doctor about my wrist.
4. My REAL problem is my back, and I've tried all kinds of things - I've found that my upper back problems go away if I keep my shoulders and neck covered when I sleep, otherwise, cold drafts cause the muscles to knot up, and one "knotting incident" can cause me severe pain for up to a week. If I sleep on my back, it causes my lower back to really hurt. Otherwise, no other thing I do seems to affect it in any way, work posture, special chairs, special cusions for my chairs. I know I have a pinched nerve, because when I sit, I have a sharp pain in my abdomen. I've had that checked by a doctor, and there's nothing viscerally wrong. I've seen chiropractors, and they all seem more interested in getting me to endlessly come in 3 times a week for life. I don't have the time, and manipulations just don't seem to help long-term. The only thing that HAS helped is accupuncture. The lower-back problems have improved from intense pain, preventing me from working several years ago, to what it is now, medium discomfort, but not debilitating (unless I sleep on my back).
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
God, I know so many non-computer people who are like that.
My mother in law insisted that I set up Word on her PC to save to A: by default. Never mind that it crashes on startup if there's no disk in A:. Everything to floppies. She doesn't trust the HD, and won't pay for an internet acct.
The only way I could keep her daughter from printing, was I didn't buy a printer for the first two years we had a computer. She learned how to deal with stuff electronically, and not rely on a printer, despite my schenanigans (dinking with the machine, OS reinstalls, etc.) having occasionally set her work back. Luckily, I've always had tape backup. Yup, that's right, I bought a tape drive before I considered buying a printer.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Hey, if the NSA can get Microsoft and Netscape to insert the NSAKey, then certainly a flanking attack on the CPU side (Intel) or Mobo side (IBM) isn't out of the question either.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I read the Scientific American article too. All valid points. Here are some other valid points.
Can't ban em. Banning's ineffective. Ask any junkie how effective the ban on heroin is.
Even though there are all of these effective counter (counter) measures, it's still far better than doing nothing and waiting for Saddam to get really pissy.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Well, actually, those sneaky Brits are developing them (Cruise Missles) too. I think the US just gave them the technology so that for the next Slobodan, the Brits can sucker their taxpayers for $900k per-shot as well.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
What was the great threat Saddam posed during the Gulf War? To inflame hatred against Israel among the various Arab neighbors, and to bring them into the war.
How was he going to do this? Get the Israeli's pissed off by using tactics very reminiscent of Hitler in two ways: Ballistic Missiles (like Hitler's V-2 used against England), Poison Gas (Zyklon-b anyone?). Fortunately, he reportedly did not use any chemical weapons, but these were two attacks aimed directly at the hearts of Jews, some old enough to remember Hitler. Whether or not the Patriots ever took out a single Scud, is immaterial, the bulk of the populace of Israel believed that they worked at the time, and it kept the public outcry from reaching the boiling point where Israel would have had to respond - possibly with their nuclear forces, which would have instantly ignited a regional conflict. I remember how tense it was when I was watching that war - so while much of Patriot's effect was really a Placebo, it apparently worked.
Now, weather this new device will be actually effective against incoming warheads, or act as some kind of Placebo, or act as a deterrent, is immaterial. What matters is, something is being done about this obvious (naysayers notwithstandint) threat.
What if Pakistan were to field nuke-tipped ballistic missiles, and threaten India? India would do the same - unless our diplomats talked them out of it by promising to station interceptors to protect them . . . thus hopefully defusing the situation, at least temporarily. Well, it would be better than doing nothing.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Ah yes, it would be nice if all the psycho tinpot dictators in the world would just dismantle their nuclear stockpiles and be nice, so the rest of the world could get on with life and be peaceful and happy and direct all our resources towards feeding the poor, and coding for Linux.
Unfortunately, bullies exist, and bullies hit, and the teacher ain't gonna do a goddamn thing about it.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Harp project? what the hell are you talking about? HAARP? it's not a weapon. Not even remotely. While there's some credible speculation that the technology may someday be used as a sort of ground-penetrating radar to locat underground weapons complexes, all the stuff you've read about HAARP being a death-ray, weather control, or directed EMP weapon are complete bullshit.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Now who do you think would want to BUY a whole bunch of these missiles (programmed, of course, to NEVER hit a US-launched ICBM, in case they ever fell into the wrong hands)?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Out here, by Vandenburg AFB, we have a bunch of loonies protesting Vandenburg's involvment in THAAD testing, they're scheduled to launch a Minuteman as a test target in the next month or so.
Maybe they should box up these loonies, and put them on the minuteman before they light -er up.
With nuke/chem/bio -tipped ICBMs out there I'm VERY glad we have a Raytheon on our side. Although I'd really prefer we ban nuclear weapons, war and fighting altogether, there's obviously no way to do it. Any peacenicks out there think they can get Saddam to wave an olive branch? Under the face of all the economic leverage that could possibly be mustered in the world, AND all the military force, we could not force Saddam to bend.
So if he's armed, I think our only option is to defend ourselves.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Slashdot Mirror
As a Tech Support guy, I'm often forced to "reverse-engineer" my own company's products, when the engineers don't provide documentation on how the stuff works, and when everybody's too busy working on the next release to talk to a lowly support rep.
It's the FUN part of troubleshooting.
It was MUCH more fun on Novell, because it had a built-in debugger. It's a PAIN IN THE ASS with NT, because they not only don't have a built in debugger, but so far I haven't found a decent one I can give to a customer free of charge to have them do something over the phone to gather info when a process has gone into the weeds.
I'll check out some of those links that are provided in some of the other messages on this topic, maybe my prayers have been answered. . .
(funny, I can understand assembler, but not C++)
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
. . . the story of my life.
Don't let too many years go by before you decide to move.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Yeah, I thought that all the Mac people going to IE was pretty bad too - because IE loaded all those dreadful MS extensions, which conflict with eachother if you also have Photoshop 5.5 installed by the way. (MS successfully porting the DLL HELL problem to the Mac platform).
Then Netscape started doing the same thing, only worse, Netscape started loading extensions from third-parties, so that if you weren't paying very close attention, you end up with a whole buttwad of garbage you have no chance of identifying.
Bring back CyberDog!
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
oh hell, you Linux guys get that too? I get Dr. Watsons when closing Netscape windows on NT! All the friggin time.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
"Another thing: let me shut off the ability for sites to spawn new windows. It don't want every
damn site I go t. . .
Yeah, they need a big "disable JavaScript" button on the toolbar, so we don't have to dig through menus to find the tabbed preferences dialog to locate the page with the list of checkboxes which contains "disable JavaScript" while a dozen "hot young amatuer shaved asian squirrels soaked in donkey piss" sites load.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
well, if 4.7 is their last chance, and the stability isn't already fixed, then what good will fixing the stability in a later release do them? They've already lost their most important, most valuable customer - YOU!
But seriously folks, Netscape stability (and speed) has gone way down the tubes. An example where vigorous competition has NOT benefitted us consumers.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
you need a compiler for folks who want to run code natively on this beast.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I work at a distributed company, we have sites all over the world, and teams working on projects at multiple sites.
That said, I can say with authority that phone conferencing does NOT work. It's a pain in the ass. You never know if someone is there on the other line, or if they've left the room, or if they even showed up to the meeting in the first place. That's just one minor issue. Then you don't get facial expression, so people don't bother trying to make jokes, so meetings consequently end up very boring, then there are times when knowing who said what is very important. Being able to connect a face to a voice, and by association, a name, distinguishes the content of what they said. Over a speakerphone, half the time you have no idea who's saying what.
So, for personal use, I think videophones probably have no future, but for business use, I don't see how we're going to survive without this technology, as the trend towards globalization and mega-mergers continues.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
This is the link that never ends, .
it just goes on and on my friend,
some people started clicking it not knowing what it was,
and they'll continue clicking it forever just because this is the link that never ends. .
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Well, what is the purpose of all this technology anyway? To make folks lives easier, or to make businesses money?
From the seller's point of view, meta auctions are good. They get more eyeballs on their products - on the other hand, this could have the effect of devaluing their product, if forced to compete against lower-priced items on other sites.
From the buyer's point of view, meta auctions are good, they get the customer a wider selection, and more power to find the lowest-priced item.
From the auctioneer's point of view, they're bad, because he's now gotta compete with other auctioneers with his service. His service is ultimately devalued, and his marketshare is likewise devalued.
From the meta auctioneer's point of view, of course they're good, they're his free-ticket to hijack someone else's service and offer it.
Would it be nice if the internet was site-independent? Yes, that's what HTML was designed for - but on the other hand, computers were designed to do what they're programmed to do, if that's limiting where a user can go from point A, that's what it was programmed to do. So, just because the feature exists in HTML - doesn't mean the site designer has to use it.
So, what is the purpose of an auction site? to make the auctioneer money. If that goes away, then so do the auction sites. (unless metering content to collect revenue from the meta auction sites somehow becomes feasible).
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
What would be MORE ideal is if we could get a plant to split a water molecule (via photosynthesis), and instead of building sugars, simply produce molecular hydrogen, and store the hydrogen somehow, raw, harvest that stored hydrogen, and you have power for all the fuel-cells that will be running the world in the next century.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I didn't mean to say that the TECHNICAL MINIMUM for OS 8 was 64 megs. I was just saying that the practical minimum is 64 megs. It's slow ass virtual memory drags everything down at less than 64. It was a dig at whatever idiot decided that the iMac would ship with an impractical amount of RAM. (most people I talked to who bought an iMac thought it was too slow - they were non-technical and didn't understand how much speed they'd pick up if they'd just upgrade it to 64 meg).
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
1. My wife had CTS, while she was pregnant, both with our son, then our daughter. Doctor said it was due to water retention, swelling, closing the tunnel, pinching the nerve.
2. My wife has had minor relapses since being pregnant, but taking B6 vitamin supplements seem to help. She's not really a big-time computer user.
3. I have chronic tendenitis in my right wrist, (towards the outer side of the joint) - mousing aggrivates it. I tried several of the mice laying around our lab, it's the strangest thing, but the MS mouse was the worst, and an old squarish HP mouse was the best, though I had to swap out the mouse ball in the HP mouse because it was too lightweight to be useful. I took a heavier mouse-ball from an MS mouse and put it in the HP mouse. The wrist still hurts, but it's no longer as bad as it was a few years ago, when I had to actually limit my work to an hour or two per day (then use keyboards only - back then, it was feasible, Windows 3.11 was more consistent in allowing keyboard-only use). I never saw a doctor about my wrist.
4. My REAL problem is my back, and I've tried all kinds of things - I've found that my upper back problems go away if I keep my shoulders and neck covered when I sleep, otherwise, cold drafts cause the muscles to knot up, and one "knotting incident" can cause me severe pain for up to a week. If I sleep on my back, it causes my lower back to really hurt. Otherwise, no other thing I do seems to affect it in any way, work posture, special chairs, special cusions for my chairs. I know I have a pinched nerve, because when I sit, I have a sharp pain in my abdomen. I've had that checked by a doctor, and there's nothing viscerally wrong. I've seen chiropractors, and they all seem more interested in getting me to endlessly come in 3 times a week for life. I don't have the time, and manipulations just don't seem to help long-term. The only thing that HAS helped is accupuncture. The lower-back problems have improved from intense pain, preventing me from working several years ago, to what it is now, medium discomfort, but not debilitating (unless I sleep on my back).
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
God, I know so many non-computer people who are like that.
My mother in law insisted that I set up Word on her PC to save to A: by default. Never mind that it crashes on startup if there's no disk in A:. Everything to floppies. She doesn't trust the HD, and won't pay for an internet acct.
The only way I could keep her daughter from printing, was I didn't buy a printer for the first two years we had a computer. She learned how to deal with stuff electronically, and not rely on a printer, despite my schenanigans (dinking with the machine, OS reinstalls, etc.) having occasionally set her work back. Luckily, I've always had tape backup. Yup, that's right, I bought a tape drive before I considered buying a printer.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Hey, if the NSA can get Microsoft and Netscape to insert the NSAKey, then certainly a flanking attack on the CPU side (Intel) or Mobo side (IBM) isn't out of the question either.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I read the Scientific American article too. All valid points. Here are some other valid points.
Can't ban em.
Banning's ineffective. Ask any junkie how effective the ban on heroin is.
Even though there are all of these effective counter (counter) measures, it's still far better than doing nothing and waiting for Saddam to get really pissy.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Well, actually, those sneaky Brits are developing them (Cruise Missles) too. I think the US just gave them the technology so that for the next Slobodan, the Brits can sucker their taxpayers for $900k per-shot as well.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Doesn't this mean I qualify for disability on top of my $100k/yr programming job?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Yeah, if they're shipping with 64 mb RAM, that means that OS 9 requires 128.
I extrapolated this from the previous formula:
OS 8 required 64 mb, therefore, the iMac shipped with 32.
(I'm being facetious, lack of sufficient RAM was my main grip about iMac too!).
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
not to mention the Marine barracks that were hit in Saudi Arabia, killing around 200.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
What was the great threat Saddam posed during the Gulf War? To inflame hatred against Israel among the various Arab neighbors, and to bring them into the war.
How was he going to do this?
Get the Israeli's pissed off by using tactics very reminiscent of Hitler in two ways: Ballistic Missiles (like Hitler's V-2 used against England), Poison Gas (Zyklon-b anyone?).
Fortunately, he reportedly did not use any chemical weapons, but these were two attacks aimed directly at the hearts of Jews, some old enough to remember Hitler.
Whether or not the Patriots ever took out a single Scud, is immaterial, the bulk of the populace of Israel believed that they worked at the time, and it kept the public outcry from reaching the boiling point where Israel would have had to respond - possibly with their nuclear forces, which would have instantly ignited a regional conflict. I remember how tense it was when I was watching that war - so while much of Patriot's effect was really a Placebo, it apparently worked.
Now, weather this new device will be actually effective against incoming warheads, or act as some kind of Placebo, or act as a deterrent, is immaterial. What matters is, something is being done about this obvious (naysayers notwithstandint) threat.
What if Pakistan were to field nuke-tipped ballistic missiles, and threaten India? India would do the same - unless our diplomats talked them out of it by promising to station interceptors to protect them . . . thus hopefully defusing the situation, at least temporarily. Well, it would be better than doing nothing.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Ah yes, it would be nice if all the psycho tinpot dictators in the world would just dismantle their nuclear stockpiles and be nice, so the rest of the world could get on with life and be peaceful and happy and direct all our resources towards feeding the poor, and coding for Linux.
Unfortunately, bullies exist, and bullies hit, and the teacher ain't gonna do a goddamn thing about it.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Harp project? what the hell are you talking about? HAARP? it's not a weapon. Not even remotely. While there's some credible speculation that the technology may someday be used as a sort of ground-penetrating radar to locat underground weapons complexes, all the stuff you've read about HAARP being a death-ray, weather control, or directed EMP weapon are complete bullshit.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
India and Pakistan?
Now who do you think would want to BUY a whole bunch of these missiles (programmed, of course, to NEVER hit a US-launched ICBM, in case they ever fell into the wrong hands)?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
you GO girl!
Out here, by Vandenburg AFB, we have a bunch of loonies protesting Vandenburg's involvment in THAAD testing, they're scheduled to launch a Minuteman as a test target in the next month or so.
Maybe they should box up these loonies, and put them on the minuteman before they light -er up.
With nuke/chem/bio -tipped ICBMs out there I'm VERY glad we have a Raytheon on our side. Although I'd really prefer we ban nuclear weapons, war and fighting altogether, there's obviously no way to do it. Any peacenicks out there think they can get Saddam to wave an olive branch? Under the face of all the economic leverage that could possibly be mustered in the world, AND all the military force, we could not force Saddam to bend.
So if he's armed, I think our only option is to defend ourselves.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."