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User: walt-sjc

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  1. Re:Are you crazy if you rush out and install it? on Apple To Ship Mac OS X Snow Leopard On August 28 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh yes... He could install the ancient OS X... But keep in mind that Apple no longer provides updates for it like MS does for XP of the same vintage (not that I'm a fan of MS by any means...) Furthermore, unlike XP, he will be unable to install most modern software since nobody supports 10.1, .2, and even 10.3 support is getting quite rare.

    But back to your point. Yes, you are 100% correct that the old stuff will continue to function PROPERLY, but methinks the OP REALLY meant Effectively and Securely. Paid updates from Apple are really required for that.

    I'll share my perspective having used Mac's since 10.1 (everything earlier I considered unusable,) Windows since 2.0, Linux since 0.99 and a plethora of random crap before that back to about 1978.

    The amount of time I have spent messing with OS issues (problems) on OS X versus Linux or XP is FAR FAR less. If I value my time at a pathetic $20/hr, I've saved the cost of OS X probably about 100 times over. Whining about the cost of OS X updates is really, in my opinion, short sighted. This doesn't even get into how much better 10.5 is to use than 10.1. There is no F-ing way I would ever go back.

  2. Re:Summary doesn't make it clear... on Arizona Judge Tells Sheriff "Reveal Password Or Face Contempt" · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Prison about rehabilitation? Hahahahahaa!!!! Not hardly. Prison (not to be confused with Jail, which is different) is about keeping the baddies away from the rest of society so we can be safe. It's about punishment. Rehabilitation is a myth. The number that are rehabilitated is so small that it would probably be the same number if you didn't put ANYONE in prison. The proof that it is about punishment and keeping people away from society is the sentencing guidelines for different crimes, such as selling drugs, rape, child porn, etc.
    Not that sentencing guidelines are rational though - drug dealers usually get heavier penalties than child rapists, at least in my area.

  3. Re:I agree. on Medical Papers By Ghostwriters Pushed Hormone Therapy · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Also a Corporate death sentence, forced liquidation with the proceeds going to the government.

    Yes, fuck the investors over. You know - those fat cat investors... It's not like my retirement fund is at stake. Oh - wait. Shit. I guess it is.
    (I just LOVE poorly thought out "shoot from the hip" solutions.)

  4. Re:Can't you... on Linux-Friendly Label Printer Recomendations? · · Score: 4, Informative

    Um, the guy is NOT asking for a laser printer. I'm sure he already has a laser printer and was using a label printer cause lasers suck at label printing tasks. Label printers operate quite different. Manually feeding and re-feeding and re re re re re re re re re re feeding a sheet in a laser printer, modifying the print settings for each label is NOT the answer! Don't forget the 4 hours of labor with the printer torn apart trying to get loose labels off the inside of the printer, and the costs of replacement drums you have destroyed. A laser printer for *most* common label printing tasks is using the "hammer to drive in a screw" approach.

    Keep in mind that label printer label stock comes in a lot more options than laser printer label stock. Some are variable length where you can print something really short or a foot long depending on the label needed. Some have special adhesive, some are laminated. Some are thermal paper where others are thermal transfer.

    The solution is a unix friendly commercial unit. What makes them unix friendly? Simple: you can get programming docs for them. Zebra's are nice and you can even print by sending XML to it. Rather than trying to get a CUPS driver, which is pretty silly for labels, you put the "driver" in the application. The thing is, printing lots of labels just isn't something traditional apps (open office) are good at (outside of the traditional "print 400 copies of the same label" or "mailmerge"). You are much better off with a quick and dirty (web?) app that sends the right formatting commands directly to the printer. You can certainly get a cups driver for many many label printers, it's just not the best thing for cups to be in the middle between the app and the printer in most label printing cases that I have run across (years ago, I worked with industrial label printers.)

    Unfortunately, it is IMPOSSIBLE for any of us to answer the question because we only have the "I need a computer that uses electricity" level of detail. What exactly does he need the labels for? Shipping boxes? Equipment tags? Wires? File folders? e-stamps? Can't recommend anything without knowing how it's going to be used.

  5. Re:Killing desk space? on Small, High-Resolution LCD Monitors? · · Score: 0

    I love my 30" screen - I have another 21" next to it for IM/email that is always up. Actually running on separate systems, but Synergy makes it feel like one. As a side note, even with a dual DVI high end graphics card or TWO high end graphics cards in the same system, I find that everything slows to a crawl with 2 displays (most obvious with 3D apps.) Running a separate machine solved that problem.

  6. Re:How to fill up the storage? on Graphene Could Make Magnetic Memory 1000x Denser · · Score: 1

    Bing bing! You get the prize. The 2.5" SAS drives now common in rack servers are faster than their older 3.5" counterparts for this reason. You also have to remember that a smaller drive has a much shorter distance to seek as the outer track and inner track is much closer together. Tracks being closer together also means less movement track to track. Also means smaller heads, and smaller heads have less mass and are faster to move.

    It will be interesting to see how they design the heads as the density goes up so high. That is nearly as large of a problem as bit density.

  7. Re:How to fill up the storage? on Graphene Could Make Magnetic Memory 1000x Denser · · Score: 2, Informative

    You are thinking wrong. Instead of thinking of disk capacities increasing by 3 orders of magnitude, think of disks as shrinking nice and small (1 1/2"), using a lot less power and generating less heat yet being faster and storing twice the data of today's drives. Netbooks with the storage capacity of a large desktop of today.

  8. Re:No need on Lenovo Tinkers With Larger Delete and Escape Keys · · Score: 1

    I physically removed capslock on all my keyboards. A screwdriver works perfectly well. If I REALLY need it, I can usually poke something in a hole and still make it work.

  9. Re:No need on Lenovo Tinkers With Larger Delete and Escape Keys · · Score: 5, Funny

    Waaay back when, in the days of the glory of DOS, I transitioned a programmer from a terminal to a PC. He only had one arm. When telling him how to reboot, his response was "Oh that's just fucking great." He had to use a pencil in his mouth.

  10. Re:HERE'S AN IDEA on Lenovo Tinkers With Larger Delete and Escape Keys · · Score: 1

    Just install a Cone of Silence. They are readily available at your nearest spy store. I think... Unless you can't buy them anymore due to the Patriot Act...

  11. Re:Moving targets on Memory Usage of Chrome, Firefox 3.5, et al. · · Score: 1

    Posts like these amuse me. People think that just a few years ago we only used our computers for simple word documents. Here is a clue - we used them in nearly the same way we do now. Where were you?

    What has changed is that browsers can display dynamic content a little better than before which has opened up SOME new possibilities - but the basics of javascript and how computers are used in business in general have NOT CHANGED in 10 years. This means that some applications that used to be standalone are now web-based. While this has some advantages in terms of centralized management, generally web interfaces are not NEARLY as good as a custom designed app, and generally slower as everything you do is a partial or full page refresh. Case in point: Google shared docs. I won't dispute that the shared aspect is nice - I've been on a number of conference calls with shared editing and viewing of docs. BUT - google spreadsheet is NOT a replacement for Excel. Slow, and missing tons of features.

    What I am talking about (not bitching, which is an offensive term to me - please attempt to be somewhat professional) is that developers no longer care about memory efficiency in most cases because they are all using high end machines.

    You also ignored my points about the e-waste and economic reasons people shouldn't and are not buying new hardware - why? Hmmmmmm.

    Finally, did I say current apps are unusable on said machines? No. I said (in essence) that it was important to keep memory usage under control BECAUSE people are still using said machines. In fact, without having any statistics (since they aren't available) I would bet that the VAST majority (70%+) of the machines currently in use in the world have 1G of ram or less. I can infer this because sales of new systems are in the toilet. Businesses are not replacing their older equipment on the same schedule as they used to. I also see this in the clients I visit (which are rather diverse.) It's rare that a business user needs more than 1G. More is nicer because things are a little more snappy, but the actual need isn't there (so business users are not upgrading RAM either.)

  12. Re:Moving targets on Memory Usage of Chrome, Firefox 3.5, et al. · · Score: 1

    ... And it should do so with ram caching. But if internally it is designed as a memory pig, it will be a memory pig everywhere it is compiled. Applications designed and coded with care and an eye to efficiency are MORE likely to be faster anyway. Someone concerned about resources will also most likely be concerned about performance. Someone who is ONLY concerned about performance or features probably won't give a damn that the app uses 10 times more RAM that it really needs to.

  13. Re:Moving targets on Memory Usage of Chrome, Firefox 3.5, et al. · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes - because in the future, mobile devices will need 16G or RAM just to check email, news, weather, and maps. Your ancient POS 3G iPhone is just totally obsolete because it has so little RAM.

    But seriously, memory usage IS important - because the browser isn't the only thing I run on my machine, yet seems to suck WAY more memory than most other apps.

    Software developers have gotten lazy in not managing memory - they are usually running pretty high-end machines, ignoring the fact that people run OTHER applications too. In the modern economy, people are using older machines longer - and they SHOULD - e-Waste has gotten out of hand, and frankly a 4 year old 2.6G P4 with 512M-1G IS a reasonable machine to use for most business and home (non-gaming) applications. I should not need to upgrade to a quad-core 8G machine just so I can run email, a browser, AND and office app at the same time, when we USED to be able to do that with a 256M machine just fine.

    And yes, as another poster already mentioned, not all older machines can be upgraded (especially notebooks), and memory for older machines is a LOT more expensive than a burger lunch. Try more like a meal at a nice restaurant for 4, with a few drinks. By the way - in this modern economy with unemployment continuing to grow, that is a luxury many people can no longer afford.

  14. Re:Not surprising on Survey Finds Airport Wi-Fi More Important Than Food · · Score: 1

    Keep in mind that many of the airports with multiple fast food chains in them are actually run by the very same single monopoly firm (HMS Host is a biggie.) Your McDonalds, Starbucks, etc. are not managed by independent franchise owners.

  15. Re:Anyone say "air"? Re:Well Duh on Survey Finds Airport Wi-Fi More Important Than Food · · Score: 1

    I would happily pay for wifi service that WORKS as opposed to the free "cripple wifi" offered in many airports. The free wifi is generally not very usable. In contrast, the paid variety seems to work very well.

    Maybe there is a market for both. In fact, some airports DO have both.

    But along with wifi, POWER is a big need that is ignore by most airports including the new international terminal in San Francisco (you would think ALL the airports in the Bay area would "get it." San Jose seems to.

    One airport I frequent used to have an area with cubicles that even had PHONES in them. Unfortunately, this was converted to some other office use and is no longer available (Boo Hiss!!!)

  16. Re:Simple answer on Why Is It So Difficult To Fire Bad Teachers? · · Score: 1

    no such thing takes place

    And I'm the Tooth Fairy. Union leadership is notoriously corrupt and by definition, self-serving. Not saying you are, but the problem is WELL documented and pervasive. Unions are a big reason why the majority of manufacturing has left the country. Unions discourage performance and forbid rewarding hard work. Why? Because no matter how good you are at your job, you are paid according to years of service / whatever based on the union contract. A bright young man can work his ass off and be enormously productive and earn half what another man with 18 years of service makes, who sits on his fat ass all day. With tenure and his union backing him, the old slob can't be fired as long as he occasionally lifts a finger and farts. Unions have nearly destroyed blue collar jobs in this country. All that's left is "Welcome to Walmart! How may I help you find Chinese made garbage?"

  17. Re:what's so critical about a web browser? on IE8 Released As Critical Update For XP · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With IE being closed source, we will never know how many "quiet" vulnerabilities there are, and "quietly fixed" too. Maybe none. Maybe lots.

    But you know what? None of that matters. What matters is how vulnerable you are just using your machine in a normal way.
    The fact is, Windows machines are compromised more frequently and by more vectors than any other OS. And that includes IE - using it is more risky. It's an undeniable fact.

  18. Re:Didn't XP ship with 6? on IE8 Released As Critical Update For XP · · Score: 1

    Sadly, the larger the company generally the more clueless it becomes in regards to policy. There is probably some sound reasoning behind the IE6 requirement - like "Pet application #34 won't work with anything else". Unfortunately, instead of companies requiring that any application be "standards based and supported on multiple common browsers / platforms" they dictate the browser. I mean, one of the major features of browser based applications is that they are supposed to free you from lock-in!

    I have some nice horror stories from a very large multi-national bank I could tell...

  19. Re:Remote admin of a UNIX box? on Cross-Distro Remote Package Administration? · · Score: 1

    You create a local script that runs on each server that "pulls" updates and installs them, logging the results (alerting if something failed.) If you need to do Out Of Schedule updates, you can manually kick off the updates using a limited priv account that has explicit (restricted) sudo ability.

    Local packages are easier if they are all the same style package (I prefer dpkg's - apt is available for CentOS too.) Running a mixed distro system still means you have to build packages multiple times which is a PITA however. If you don't mind the size hit however, you can link statically so you can run the same binaries on all systems...

  20. Re:Puppet or CFEngine + Version Control on Cross-Distro Remote Package Administration? · · Score: 2, Funny

    I don't want the Swedish chef Bork Bork Borking up the systems...

  21. Re:Remote admin of a UNIX box? on Cross-Distro Remote Package Administration? · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's called "dssh". Google is your "search" friend (we will ignore the evil side of Google at the moment... :-)

  22. Re:Trademark Scope on Taser International Sues Second Life Creator Over Virtual Replicas · · Score: 1

    As I said (or implied) I think they do have a right to ask (demand) that their name not be used in someone's cartoon object. As for whether they would have difficulty entering the market, I seriously doubt they would bother when you can only get a dollar or two at the most per sale, and their expenses would be 50 times that.

    I would bet that MOST content creators (with a few exceptions) don't make a dime really, or find that their work is valued at something like 5 cents an hour.... A lot of them are just doing it for fun - and it helps cover some of their other expenses (virtual land and other goods.)

    Keep in mind that these cartoon "objects" generally are not very accurate representations of their real world counterparts because you are dealing with VERY simple modeling tools, and "keeping it simple" is important for performance reasons (most people don't have an ILM rendering farm at home, and LL's servers are overloaded all the time.) I think someone making a drawing of a taser is probably well within fair use. If I take a picture of my car and post it on the web, Toyota does NOT have a right to tell me to remove my photo.

  23. Re:Trademark Scope on Taser International Sues Second Life Creator Over Virtual Replicas · · Score: 1

    A Taser in SL is - well, not real - in any sense of the word. It's like a cartoon. The ONLY claim Taser has is trademark, and about the only thing they could do is get an order for LL and content creators in SL to stop using the Taser name. It will be nearly impossible to show that they were financially or reputation damaged, in any way.
    Cartoon people role play with these fake cartoon devices. They are not selling a "Taser Knockoff" since it is not a physical object you can touch.

    SL is loaded with people taking pictures of various real products and selling "digital goods", frequently under the recognized brand name of the original product - but we must all keep in mind that these are not real things people are selling on real street corners like a fake Rolex.

    The lawyers at Taser need to get a life.

  24. Re:How about: less douchebaggery? on Locking Down Linux Desktops In an Enterprise? · · Score: 1

    Unless you are insane, your firewall is configured to ONLY let in very specific ports. Your example is moot.

  25. Re:How about: less douchebaggery? on Locking Down Linux Desktops In an Enterprise? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Bingo.

    If you don't restrict sudo, you can do anything. I would bet that most people here use sudo for full root access and not restricted commands, and don't understand this.

    But back to the apache example, why oh why are people still starting it as root with the config files being owned by root? That's nuts. Use iptables to redirect port 80 to 8080 (and 443 to 8443) and get off the "root crackpipe."

    To be honest, the legacy requirement that you must be root to run applications on ports less than 1024 doesn't make sense in the modern security world and Linux (along with OSX, Solaris, etc.) should dump it. Unix derivitives are the ONLY OS's with such restrictions, and the workarounds of starting as root and dropping privs is just a bloody nightmare and SOOOOO unneeded. Along similar lines, native jailing of apps really should be built in to the OS. BSD has it, Solaris has it, Linux needs it. Right now it's bloody difficult to jail a user to a portion of the filesystem. vservers help but are not a true replacement for being able to jail a user (or hundreds of users) to a limited area.