Whatever you do, DO NOT allow remote root logins. Ever!
Unless you login via SSH with RSA keys
root is the one account that attackers can be reasonably sure exists on your computer. Allowing remote access to it allows them to hammer it with dictionary, brute force, and social engineering attacks from relative safety.
Not if you're using RSA keys.
Whether to use sudo depends on your role within your organization. I'm the sole admin of a small company, so I use root. If something stupid was done, it'd come right back to me, anyway, so what good is the logging?
And, I don't bother with passwords - they're too easily guessed and too hard to remember, and trying to keep 31 different passwords for NNN account on YYY server gets crazy real fast.
But, with RSA keys, I have no passwords to remember, and furthermore, I'm all but invulnerable to dictionary attacks and the like. I'd further recommend moving your SSH daemon to a funky port, so that automated scans don't see your potentially vulnerable hole.
My Linux laptop has RSA keys set up for each server, so it's a single command to become root on any server.
We just hired our first tech employee, and I can assure you that *he* won't be getting so much rope for a while - he'll be using sudo *IF* he needs root power, and then only on the dev server. Eventually, if he steps up to the plate, I'll gie him some more administrative privs, but that's a ways off...
Email is DESIGNED to handle failures of this kind. Assuming Yahoo is running some form of clustering, it's quite reasonable to think that systems will start/stop as load fluctuates. Availability of individual servers is largely irrelevant - it's the availability of the system at large that matters.
Telecommuting is about working from home, not doing a few work-related tasks while you enjoy the rest of your day. It's about saving time and money on the commute and on office space. If you're getting distracted at home, then your home office is not set up properly or you're not working in that home office.
Either that, or you've actually got the right idea about working at home!
See, I telecommute as a software engineer largely because I get interrupted by my children from time to time, I hear them talk excitedly about the toad they found in the side yard, I hear them squeal in the pool, etc.
It's the point to working at home for me!
I get to be effective and work the long hours, but still get to be "dad" and enjoy my family. For me, the best of both worlds. My family members all know that when I'm on the phone, to keep the noise down, and when I find myself getting distracted too much, I put on headphones playing my faviorite MP3s. I certainly don't work at home so I can "relax all day" - I definitely put in the time it takes to succeed.
But it's difficult for me to understand the idea of working 40 hours + 10 hours commute AWAY FROM HOME... why do people accept this? I never want to get used to that idea, and would rather take a cut in pay than go for this. So far, that's not a choice I've had to make.
they develop these buzzwords and this slang to make them appear learned, while all it does is make them look stupider.
I hate to nitpick, but you know, you did post it... and based on your later advice "tell them to piss off", I'd wager that word usage like this generally peppers your oral communications....
There's more to sounding learned than the use of buzzwords!
I think the benefits of this are slightly blurry - on the one hand it is socially invaluable to do this and I take my hat off to the guy for doing it, on the other it is an old inefficient PC that uses an awful lot of energy to do not that much.
Really? Most introductory computer users are going to type S-L-O-W-L-Y into their computer as they type up their homework or email. They'll spend large amounts of time staring at the screen trying to decipher what they're looking at. Does it really make any difference if their computer sits at 98% idle or 99.99999999926% idle?
I find that there's a law of diminishing returns for computers and computer usage, particularly when you're talking about consumer usage.
> Having a low-end pentium computer connected to the Internet at 56k delivers vast, incredible advantages over no computer at all.
> Having 10x faster computer at 10x the connection speed delivers much less more of an advantage.
> Having 100x faster computer at 100x the connection speed delivers very little more value than 10x.
Only in limited contexts (EG: performance clustering, rendering, some servers) is this not true, and this is why the $100 laptop with built-in mesh networking is such a big freaking deal! It has society-changing potential. When the poor and impoverished have cheap, easy access to information and technology, they can realize the true causes of their plight and take much more effective action to make their lives better.
That is absolutly incorrect. It is well know to those of us that beat the crap out of a bully or two in our youth, that a baseball bat to the head will change things very quickly. If you avoid arrest, the bully very quickly learns that you are not a "fun" target anymore.
How right you are, but here's the funny part that I found: you don't even necessarily have to win the fight, you just have to be willing to fight it.
Putting up the resistance is usually all that's necessary. The mere threat of resistance is enough - bullies don't want to fight, they want to walk on you without effort. So, make 'em work for it, and you'll generally be left alone. I've see that to be true all throughout life, in all my personal and business relationships.
Be friendly! Work hard, help people, go to parties, be social, and be honorable in all your dealings! But whatever you do, make DAMNED SURE that at the first sign of any real threat, that they know that it would be painful to be your enemy.
I have considered building and selling my own PCs, so that when clients tell me they're looking for a new PC and ask me who I recommend, I can offer to sell them something good, because I really haven't seen a major OEM I can recommend in good faith.
Go for it. In fact, I strongly recommend that you do so! Put together PCs from OEM parts. (hint: MA Labs is a GREAT distributor) It takes a $1 screwdriver, a power outlet, about 15 Sq Ft of counter space, and a 3-day prepay for parts. In the US, give yourself at least $100-$200 in margin. (it's not about percentage of markup, it's about absolute value, because it usually takes the same amount of time to build/support a cheap-o PC as an expensive one) And, make sure you charge a reasonable fee for additional services. Your time is money, after all!
You'll probably make out on your very first sale. Wash, rinse, repeat, and in just a few years, with some hard work, you'll have your own bona-fide business. Then, you'll be an executive, a notable in your community, and you can join the ranks of CEOs and business owners all over the country who write off their vehicles, and pay others to punctually open the store at 9:00 AM while you saunter in around noon. You can complain about high taxes, the cost of insurance, and the IRS, while sitting at the airport waiting for the mechanic to inspect the airplane you're considering purchasing.
It really is that simple! It's the path I've travelled, and it was well worth it... (and yes, I'm about to buy an airplane)
OpenBSD was the result of a squabble between Theo and the NetBSD team. This was a felicitous squabble for the rest of us, because OpenBSD is a great operating system.
To my mind this is very short-sighted. Perhaps it's appropriate that we have fallen back to regroup, but not going into space in a large scale is suicidal -- not on an individual basis, but for the species. The only question is the appropriate time frame.
The risk of an extinction event happening on Earth is pretty significant. The risk of it happening in the next 100 years is pretty damned slim. Probably the most significant likelyhood of our own extinction is ourselves, a la holy wars, pollution, and global warming.
However, do note that in 1960, space flight was very expensive, in 1980, flight was very expensive, and recently, for the first time, space flight was privatized.
Combine that with exponential growth rates in manipulating carbon nanotubes, and in fairly short order, I figure space flight will be routine when my grandkids are in their 30s. (my oldest kids are 17)
The technology needed to make space flight economical is being developed at a furious pace. Just give it some time...
'If a new car built by my company leaves Chicago traveling west at 60 miles per hour, and the rear differential locks up, and the car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside, does my company initiate a recall? You take the population of vehicles in the field (A) and multiply it by the probable rate of failure (B), then multiply the result by the average cost of an out-of-court settlement (C). A times B times C equals X. This is what it will cost if we don't initiate a recall. If X is greater than the cost of a recall, we recall the cars and no one gets hurt. If X is less than the cost of a recall, then we don't recall.'
It's important to remember that life carries the risk of death. If we are overzealous in liability lawsuits, then people simply stop doing anything that is considered risky.
This slows down technological progress, and makes technology that's often quite valuable unavailable.
For example, in the 1990s, Cessna, one of the world's largest manufacturers of smaller airplanes, had ceased production single-engine planes, and several other manufacturers were near death. The industry was, quite literally, dying due to the overwhelming financial pressure of liability lawsuits.
It didn't matter if the planes were generally safe, even if provably safer than automobiles.
It sounds terrible, to know that there's some potential flaw or dangerous tendency in a product, and to have to make calculations like the one you quote.
But, which would YOU rather have:
1) $900 lift tickets for snow skiers, due to liability lawsuits for anytime anybody gets hurt, along with the accompanying closure of any ski resort within 2,000 miles of you, or
2) $70 lift tickets, but you have to acknowledge that skiing is a dangerous sport, that you might get hurt, and if you do, you can't blame the ski resort.
As somebody who's ruined his right knee downhill skiing, I'd still choose the latter. I would rather have experienced the rush of skiiing the years that I did, than to never have lived it.
The salesman seemed confused by the fact that I didn't want a camera phone, and having a speakerphone was more important. If I was going to get a new phone today, I'd want a video phone even less. I want a phone, just a phone, and nothing but a phone (so help me $DIETY), and I'm sure I'm not alone, even in the U.S.
I have an ancient Audiovox trimode 9000 phone. It gets service ANYWHERE service is available. It has enough memory to remember all my phone numbers, it's rugged enough to survive years of beating at my hip, and it works today, some 5 years later, with no degredation of service except battery life. (I bought a new battery for it a year or so ago, and the new battery had WORSE life than the original!) The battery now gives me about 1 or 2 hours of talk time per day before going caput, and about 2 days of time between charges before giving up altogethe if I don't talk much.
I wish I could find a new battery for this phone that was worth a darn, because this phone is just plain AWESOME. It just works, day in and day out, it gets GREAT reception (I can't tell you how many times I've confused sombody by using my phone in an area with "no service") includes GPS for 911 calls, text messages just *fine* thank you, enough ring tones to be able to tell whose phone that's ringing, with enough great audio quality and reception to be great. (tri-mode means you get service even when all that's available is some analog tower from 1979 at some campground in lower WTF by the lake - you won't get any service at all with newer "all digital" phones)
Where are the batteries? I wish cell phones had standardized batteries! I don't give a flying hoot about having a "new" phone, I want *this** phone! I would happily pay $50-$100 to get this phone refurbished, with batteries that gave 3-4 days of life (with talking) like it use to!
What laws are you breaking in which you have a need to worry about the government searching your email...so much so that you have to run your own server?
When did my reasonable expectation "to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures" be suspended? (That's part of the 4th ammendment to the US Constitution)
Choosing to be private is not a crime, and does not imply criminal behavior. I'd suggest you become familiar with history, since one of the the first steps on the slippery slope to tyrany is an attack on personal privacy.
(Hint: hardly *any* people in history had less privacy and more fear than the peoples of Nazi Germany leading to and through World War II.)
I'd suggest you read Orwell's "1984" for a grim but prophetic view for just how bad things can get when you combine tyrany and technology.
This is why I have almost always had my OWN PRIVATE MAIL SERVER, used by myself, friends, and family.
Perhaps it's overkill for the average Joe, but as a technology provider anyway, keeping my own server is economical, and provides me strong assurances of privacy.
I've NEVER trusted Gmail, Hotmail, or any other hosted application. I've never trusted those 3rd party "webmail gateways" that let you use your email address via a website.
It's not paranoia, it's just understanding that anybody who's not really on your side just might actually be out to get you!
The real question is why have DMCA like measures in the first place? They don't stop content from being pirated anyhow, and just assist the industry in nickel and diming us.
Nickel and diming us - that's the point. It's called "preservation of profit potential" and is a key component to running a business. If it's successful in helping "them" nickel and dime us, then it'll stay. Count on it.
Despite the inflated "loss" numbers the industry likes to spin from whole cloth, I would not be the least bit surprised to learn that the amount of money they spend on copy protection is actually more than they could ever lose from piracy. Copy protection *might* stop some casual friend-to-friend copying, but at that level I can't imagine they are losing as much as these protections are costing them. Certainly this "protection" is doing nothing to stop the pirates.
I'm among the throng of people here who are disgusted by the state of "anti-piracy" measures on the PC platform.
But it only takes ONE good, profitable hit without those measures to turn the industry. Where is it?
One big hit that has the policy of "we trust you, $15.95 is our price, no stupid codes, no CD required, etc". That would change the industry.
But, I don't see it, and neither do you. In America, if you went to a yard sale and saw a Porsche in mint condition, with papers, with a $10 price tag on it, you'd still offer $5. It's no different with piracy.
But, somebody would post a copy of the $15.95 game, and millions would download it, and shareholders would grumble and breathe down the necks of the company, and... you get the idea.
It's like the assholes who vandalize the public bathrooms downtown, so that you have to go to a shop and beg for a johnny. It makes life harder for those of us honest people who end up paying the bills.
I find it quite telling that a fan of extreme programming, a methodology whoose central tenant is that programming should be done in pairs, is in fact the sole programmer in his organization.
There are other tenets of XP that I've used with great success: many small releases instead of one big release, focus on refactoring code and code evolution instead of the "GRAND SCHEME", improving the software turnaround cycle, etc. (in my company, we've shrunk the product delivery cycle to less than 2 hours, meaning that when any serious issues arise, we typically have a response time well under 24 hours)
So, I've not been able to utilize XP completely, but I do enjoy the 6-figure income that I've earned as the "sole programmer" in my company.
I've been long a fan of the Extreme Programming methodology, and as the "CTO" of a small company, (I'm the tech department, now hiring our first "other" programmer) I want to know if anyone here has used XP methodology, and what the optimum office environment for such methods would be?
Wow. Making a statement *that broad* without *any* supporting citation is just stupid. Here's an interesting graph that pretty clearly contradicts what you're saying...
Although the US poverty rate has climbed a little since 1970, it's dropped since its 1990's high. What's perhaps more telling is the TEXAS poverty rate, which has dropped considerably since 1970. In short, in the area most affected by Katrina, the poverty rate is dropping quite noticably!
There are poor folk now, there were poor folk 20 years go, 40 years ago, 80 years ago, 200 years ago, and there always will be poor folk - it's the stratification of financial levels that creates an economy - the urge to not be poor is the incentive behind the vast majority of wealth created.
Well, I had several parties contact me for availability and pricing, because they WANTED to censor their users' browsing. I was so naive.
Apparently, still are. Why didn't you take your "stupid idea" and implement it? Compare your idea with "Dan's Guardian and tell me how your product is in any way, effectively different.
In various contexts, products like Dan's Guardian are required by law. You could've made it big. Instead, you made some angry posts after the fact, it seems.
Th American way starts with the realizatino of a need for a better mousetrap. If you weren't so naive, you'd have done something profitable with your knowledge!
I remember reading some time ago that they've discovered ice on Mars, and that the amount of ice at the poles shrinks every year, indicating global warming.
Now, Jupiter has this new storm that's beginning to rival the classic Red Spot. Is this more sign of a warming solar trend?
I'd guess that even without encrypted torrents, most encrypted traffic on the net is business traffic of one sort or another. So the bad guys using encryption are already lost in the noise.
As an admin, I've made it a point for some years to encrypt everything possible. Backups are encrypted over an SSH tunnel, LDAP traffic is TLS encrypted, Email send/receive is SSL encrypted, WebDAV is SSL/HTTPS encrypted, etc. etc. etc. I'd guess probably 95% of the actual Internet traffic I personally generate and/or oversee is encrypted.
It costs nothing to sign your own certificates, and it's not too difficult to install yourself as a Certificate Authority in most any product that supports SSL/TLS.
Interesting thoughts on what is, to me, perhaps the most beautiful city in the world, and always one of my very favorites.
I find it amusing, though: I live in the Central Valley of California, small-town, USA. My job is largely performed from the recliner in my living room, cordless phone at my side, notebook warming my lap. I often joke that "my commute is only 10 feet long, but the traffic is a bitch, what with 5 kids and all". I make good money at it, but my primary hosting servers are in San Fransisco! Thus, I consider myself a "Web" worker, with strong ties to SF, yet I go there only to vacation. I've been to the hosting facility once in over 2 years. I've been to SF for recreation 5 or 6 times in that same timeframe.
How many of you just stick a computer on the end of an Internet connection without a firewall?
I do. All the time. RHES/CentOS based Linux systems. For years, anytime I've had a security breach happen, it happened well after I was aware of a problem. (Not all the systems I admin are actually mine - meaning that, when I identify a problem, I have to get approval to actually go fix it)
But, it's routine for me. No firewall. In fact, in quite a number of cases, the Linux system IS the firewall. I don't admin ANY Windows servers - a convention I made years ago that I've never regretted. (and thus, I'm a long-time slashdotter) How many such computers have YOU stuck on the end of an Internet Connection without a firewall?
When the windows guys go to install a fresh copy of Windows 2000 on a box connected to our network, you can gaurentee that machine has a virus before they can install the patches on the machine. They typically install the box off the network and then 'sneeker net' the service packs and other patches onto the machine before plugging it into the network.
But why? You can get a NAT router from Office Max for $20. It will allow for Internet Access, but make machines connected to it effectively invisible to worms. Using one of these, they could get updates from Windows Update without having to risk the machine. Isn't it amazing how little some people value their time... ?
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Whatever you do, DO NOT allow remote root logins. Ever!
Unless you login via SSH with RSA keys
root is the one account that attackers can be reasonably sure exists on your computer. Allowing remote access to it allows them to hammer it with dictionary, brute force, and social engineering attacks from relative safety.
Not if you're using RSA keys.
Whether to use sudo depends on your role within your organization. I'm the sole admin of a small company, so I use root. If something stupid was done, it'd come right back to me, anyway, so what good is the logging?
And, I don't bother with passwords - they're too easily guessed and too hard to remember, and trying to keep 31 different passwords for NNN account on YYY server gets crazy real fast.
But, with RSA keys, I have no passwords to remember, and furthermore, I'm all but invulnerable to dictionary attacks and the like. I'd further recommend moving your SSH daemon to a funky port, so that automated scans don't see your potentially vulnerable hole.
My Linux laptop has RSA keys set up for each server, so it's a single command to become root on any server.
We just hired our first tech employee, and I can assure you that *he* won't be getting so much rope for a while - he'll be using sudo *IF* he needs root power, and then only on the dev server. Eventually, if he steps up to the plate, I'll gie him some more administrative privs, but that's a ways off...
Email is DESIGNED to handle failures of this kind. Assuming Yahoo is running some form of clustering, it's quite reasonable to think that systems will start/stop as load fluctuates. Availability of individual servers is largely irrelevant - it's the availability of the system at large that matters.
Telecommuting is about working from home, not doing a few work-related tasks while you enjoy the rest of your day. It's about saving time and money on the commute and on office space. If you're getting distracted at home, then your home office is not set up properly or you're not working in that home office.
Either that, or you've actually got the right idea about working at home!
See, I telecommute as a software engineer largely because I get interrupted by my children from time to time, I hear them talk excitedly about the toad they found in the side yard, I hear them squeal in the pool, etc.
It's the point to working at home for me!
I get to be effective and work the long hours, but still get to be "dad" and enjoy my family. For me, the best of both worlds. My family members all know that when I'm on the phone, to keep the noise down, and when I find myself getting distracted too much, I put on headphones playing my faviorite MP3s. I certainly don't work at home so I can "relax all day" - I definitely put in the time it takes to succeed.
But it's difficult for me to understand the idea of working 40 hours + 10 hours commute AWAY FROM HOME... why do people accept this? I never want to get used to that idea, and would rather take a cut in pay than go for this. So far, that's not a choice I've had to make.
they develop these buzzwords and this slang to make them appear learned, while all it does is make them look stupider.
I hate to nitpick, but you know, you did post it... and based on your later advice "tell them to piss off", I'd wager that word usage like this generally peppers your oral communications....
There's more to sounding learned than the use of buzzwords!
=)
I think the benefits of this are slightly blurry - on the one hand it is socially invaluable to do this and I take my hat off to the guy for doing it, on the other it is an old inefficient PC that uses an awful lot of energy to do not that much.
Really? Most introductory computer users are going to type S-L-O-W-L-Y into their computer as they type up their homework or email. They'll spend large amounts of time staring at the screen trying to decipher what they're looking at. Does it really make any difference if their computer sits at 98% idle or 99.99999999926% idle?
I find that there's a law of diminishing returns for computers and computer usage, particularly when you're talking about consumer usage.
> Having a low-end pentium computer connected to the Internet at 56k delivers vast, incredible advantages over no computer at all.
> Having 10x faster computer at 10x the connection speed delivers much less more of an advantage.
> Having 100x faster computer at 100x the connection speed delivers very little more value than 10x.
Only in limited contexts (EG: performance clustering, rendering, some servers) is this not true, and this is why the $100 laptop with built-in mesh networking is such a big freaking deal! It has society-changing potential. When the poor and impoverished have cheap, easy access to information and technology, they can realize the true causes of their plight and take much more effective action to make their lives better.
"bullying the bully doesn't change it"
That is absolutly incorrect. It is well know to those of us that beat the crap out of a bully or two in our youth, that a baseball bat to the head will change things very quickly. If you avoid arrest, the bully very quickly learns that you are not a "fun" target anymore.
How right you are, but here's the funny part that I found: you don't even necessarily have to win the fight, you just have to be willing to fight it.
Putting up the resistance is usually all that's necessary. The mere threat of resistance is enough - bullies don't want to fight, they want to walk on you without effort. So, make 'em work for it, and you'll generally be left alone. I've see that to be true all throughout life, in all my personal and business relationships.
Be friendly! Work hard, help people, go to parties, be social, and be honorable in all your dealings! But whatever you do, make DAMNED SURE that at the first sign of any real threat, that they know that it would be painful to be your enemy.
I have considered building and selling my own PCs, so that when clients tell me they're looking for a new PC and ask me who I recommend, I can offer to sell them something good, because I really haven't seen a major OEM I can recommend in good faith.
Go for it. In fact, I strongly recommend that you do so! Put together PCs from OEM parts. (hint: MA Labs is a GREAT distributor) It takes a $1 screwdriver, a power outlet, about 15 Sq Ft of counter space, and a 3-day prepay for parts. In the US, give yourself at least $100-$200 in margin. (it's not about percentage of markup, it's about absolute value, because it usually takes the same amount of time to build/support a cheap-o PC as an expensive one) And, make sure you charge a reasonable fee for additional services. Your time is money, after all!
You'll probably make out on your very first sale. Wash, rinse, repeat, and in just a few years, with some hard work, you'll have your own bona-fide business. Then, you'll be an executive, a notable in your community, and you can join the ranks of CEOs and business owners all over the country who write off their vehicles, and pay others to punctually open the store at 9:00 AM while you saunter in around noon. You can complain about high taxes, the cost of insurance, and the IRS, while sitting at the airport waiting for the mechanic to inspect the airplane you're considering purchasing.
It really is that simple! It's the path I've travelled, and it was well worth it... (and yes, I'm about to buy an airplane)
OpenBSD was the result of a squabble between Theo and the NetBSD team. This was a felicitous squabble for the rest of us, because OpenBSD is a great operating system.
Come again? Definition for felicitous.
Perhaps you meant fallacious? or perhaps flagitious?
To my mind this is very short-sighted. Perhaps it's appropriate that we have fallen back to regroup, but not going into space in a large scale is suicidal -- not on an individual basis, but for the species. The only question is the appropriate time frame.
The risk of an extinction event happening on Earth is pretty significant. The risk of it happening in the next 100 years is pretty damned slim. Probably the most significant likelyhood of our own extinction is ourselves, a la holy wars, pollution, and global warming.
However, do note that in 1960, space flight was very expensive, in 1980, flight was very expensive, and recently, for the first time, space flight was privatized.
Combine that with exponential growth rates in manipulating carbon nanotubes, and in fairly short order, I figure space flight will be routine when my grandkids are in their 30s. (my oldest kids are 17)
The technology needed to make space flight economical is being developed at a furious pace. Just give it some time...
'If a new car built by my company leaves Chicago traveling west at 60 miles per hour, and the rear differential locks up, and the car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside, does my company initiate a recall?
You take the population of vehicles in the field (A) and multiply it by the probable rate of failure (B), then multiply the result by the average cost of an out-of-court settlement (C).
A times B times C equals X. This is what it will cost if we don't initiate a recall.
If X is greater than the cost of a recall, we recall the cars and no one gets hurt.
If X is less than the cost of a recall, then we don't recall.'
It's important to remember that life carries the risk of death. If we are overzealous in liability lawsuits, then people simply stop doing anything that is considered risky.
This slows down technological progress, and makes technology that's often quite valuable unavailable.
For example, in the 1990s, Cessna, one of the world's largest manufacturers of smaller airplanes, had ceased production single-engine planes, and several other manufacturers were near death. The industry was, quite literally, dying due to the overwhelming financial pressure of liability lawsuits.
It didn't matter if the planes were generally safe, even if provably safer than automobiles.
It took the passing of Federal laws to limit liability to something reasonable to restore the entire industry.
It sounds terrible, to know that there's some potential flaw or dangerous tendency in a product, and to have to make calculations like the one you quote.
But, which would YOU rather have:
1) $900 lift tickets for snow skiers, due to liability lawsuits for anytime anybody gets hurt, along with the accompanying closure of any ski resort within 2,000 miles of you, or
2) $70 lift tickets, but you have to acknowledge that skiing is a dangerous sport, that you might get hurt, and if you do, you can't blame the ski resort.
As somebody who's ruined his right knee downhill skiing, I'd still choose the latter. I would rather have experienced the rush of skiiing the years that I did, than to never have lived it.
How about you?
The salesman seemed confused by the fact that I didn't want a camera phone, and having a speakerphone was more important. If I was going to get a new phone today, I'd want a video phone even less. I want a phone, just a phone, and nothing but a phone (so help me $DIETY), and I'm sure I'm not alone, even in the U.S.
I have an ancient Audiovox trimode 9000 phone. It gets service ANYWHERE service is available. It has enough memory to remember all my phone numbers, it's rugged enough to survive years of beating at my hip, and it works today, some 5 years later, with no degredation of service except battery life. (I bought a new battery for it a year or so ago, and the new battery had WORSE life than the original!) The battery now gives me about 1 or 2 hours of talk time per day before going caput, and about 2 days of time between charges before giving up altogethe if I don't talk much.
I wish I could find a new battery for this phone that was worth a darn, because this phone is just plain AWESOME. It just works, day in and day out, it gets GREAT reception (I can't tell you how many times I've confused sombody by using my phone in an area with "no service") includes GPS for 911 calls, text messages just *fine* thank you, enough ring tones to be able to tell whose phone that's ringing, with enough great audio quality and reception to be great. (tri-mode means you get service even when all that's available is some analog tower from 1979 at some campground in lower WTF by the lake - you won't get any service at all with newer "all digital" phones)
Where are the batteries? I wish cell phones had standardized batteries! I don't give a flying hoot about having a "new" phone, I want *this** phone! I would happily pay $50-$100 to get this phone refurbished, with batteries that gave 3-4 days of life (with talking) like it use to!
What laws are you breaking in which you have a need to worry about the government searching your email...so much so that you have to run your own server?
When did my reasonable expectation "to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures" be suspended? (That's part of the 4th ammendment to the US Constitution)
Choosing to be private is not a crime, and does not imply criminal behavior. I'd suggest you become familiar with history, since one of the the first steps on the slippery slope to tyrany is an attack on personal privacy.
(Hint: hardly *any* people in history had less privacy and more fear than the peoples of Nazi Germany leading to and through World War II.)
I'd suggest you read Orwell's "1984" for a grim but prophetic view for just how bad things can get when you combine tyrany and technology.
This is why I have almost always had my OWN PRIVATE MAIL SERVER, used by myself, friends, and family.
Perhaps it's overkill for the average Joe, but as a technology provider anyway, keeping my own server is economical, and provides me strong assurances of privacy.
I've NEVER trusted Gmail, Hotmail, or any other hosted application. I've never trusted those 3rd party "webmail gateways" that let you use your email address via a website.
It's not paranoia, it's just understanding that anybody who's not really on your side just might actually be out to get you!
The real question is why have DMCA like measures in the first place? They don't stop content from being pirated anyhow, and just assist the industry in nickel and diming us.
Nickel and diming us - that's the point. It's called "preservation of profit potential" and is a key component to running a business. If it's successful in helping "them" nickel and dime us, then it'll stay. Count on it.
Despite the inflated "loss" numbers the industry likes to spin from whole cloth, I would not be the least bit surprised to learn that the amount of money they spend on copy protection is actually more than they could ever lose from piracy. Copy protection *might* stop some casual friend-to-friend copying, but at that level I can't imagine they are losing as much as these protections are costing them. Certainly this "protection" is doing nothing to stop the pirates.
... you get the idea.
I'm among the throng of people here who are disgusted by the state of "anti-piracy" measures on the PC platform.
But it only takes ONE good, profitable hit without those measures to turn the industry. Where is it?
One big hit that has the policy of "we trust you, $15.95 is our price, no stupid codes, no CD required, etc". That would change the industry.
But, I don't see it, and neither do you. In America, if you went to a yard sale and saw a Porsche in mint condition, with papers, with a $10 price tag on it, you'd still offer $5. It's no different with piracy.
But, somebody would post a copy of the $15.95 game, and millions would download it, and shareholders would grumble and breathe down the necks of the company, and
It's like the assholes who vandalize the public bathrooms downtown, so that you have to go to a shop and beg for a johnny. It makes life harder for those of us honest people who end up paying the bills.
I find it quite telling that a fan of extreme programming, a methodology whoose central tenant is that programming should be done in pairs, is in fact the sole programmer in his organization.
There are other tenets of XP that I've used with great success: many small releases instead of one big release, focus on refactoring code and code evolution instead of the "GRAND SCHEME", improving the software turnaround cycle, etc. (in my company, we've shrunk the product delivery cycle to less than 2 hours, meaning that when any serious issues arise, we typically have a response time well under 24 hours)
So, I've not been able to utilize XP completely, but I do enjoy the 6-figure income that I've earned as the "sole programmer" in my company.
=)
I've been long a fan of the Extreme Programming methodology, and as the "CTO" of a small company, (I'm the tech department, now hiring our first "other" programmer) I want to know if anyone here has used XP methodology, and what the optimum office environment for such methods would be?
What's it like? What are the gotchas?
Decades ago, Americans weren't this poor.
Wow. Making a statement *that broad* without *any* supporting citation is just stupid. Here's an interesting graph that pretty clearly contradicts what you're saying...
Although the US poverty rate has climbed a little since 1970, it's dropped since its 1990's high. What's perhaps more telling is the TEXAS poverty rate, which has dropped considerably since 1970. In short, in the area most affected by Katrina, the poverty rate is dropping quite noticably!
There are poor folk now, there were poor folk 20 years go, 40 years ago, 80 years ago, 200 years ago, and there always will be poor folk - it's the stratification of financial levels that creates an economy - the urge to not be poor is the incentive behind the vast majority of wealth created.
Well, I had several parties contact me for availability and pricing, because they WANTED to censor their users' browsing. I was so naive.
Apparently, still are. Why didn't you take your "stupid idea" and implement it? Compare your idea with "Dan's Guardian and tell me how your product is in any way, effectively different.
In various contexts, products like Dan's Guardian are required by law. You could've made it big. Instead, you made some angry posts after the fact, it seems.
Th American way starts with the realizatino of a need for a better mousetrap. If you weren't so naive, you'd have done something profitable with your knowledge!
I remember reading some time ago that they've discovered ice on Mars, and that the amount of ice at the poles shrinks every year, indicating global warming.
Now, Jupiter has this new storm that's beginning to rival the classic Red Spot. Is this more sign of a warming solar trend?
Why did I read so far down the page before finally seeing somebody who thought as I did?
What kinda idiot has super-sensitive information, and allows corporate lackeys administrative rights on their computers?
Ok in the IT dept, or software dev, but standard corporate shills? Come on... these guys are idiots.
I'd guess that even without encrypted torrents, most encrypted traffic on the net is business traffic of one sort or another. So the bad guys using encryption are already lost in the noise.
As an admin, I've made it a point for some years to encrypt everything possible. Backups are encrypted over an SSH tunnel, LDAP traffic is TLS encrypted, Email send/receive is SSL encrypted, WebDAV is SSL/HTTPS encrypted, etc. etc. etc. I'd guess probably 95% of the actual Internet traffic I personally generate and/or oversee is encrypted.
It costs nothing to sign your own certificates, and it's not too difficult to install yourself as a Certificate Authority in most any product that supports SSL/TLS.
Interesting thoughts on what is, to me, perhaps the most beautiful city in the world, and always one of my very favorites.
I find it amusing, though: I live in the Central Valley of California, small-town, USA. My job is largely performed from the recliner in my living room, cordless phone at my side, notebook warming my lap. I often joke that "my commute is only 10 feet long, but the traffic is a bitch, what with 5 kids and all". I make good money at it, but my primary hosting servers are in San Fransisco! Thus, I consider myself a "Web" worker, with strong ties to SF, yet I go there only to vacation. I've been to the hosting facility once in over 2 years. I've been to SF for recreation 5 or 6 times in that same timeframe.
How many of you just stick a computer on the end of an Internet connection without a firewall?
I do. All the time. RHES/CentOS based Linux systems. For years, anytime I've had a security breach happen, it happened well after I was aware of a problem. (Not all the systems I admin are actually mine - meaning that, when I identify a problem, I have to get approval to actually go fix it)
But, it's routine for me. No firewall. In fact, in quite a number of cases, the Linux system IS the firewall. I don't admin ANY Windows servers - a convention I made years ago that I've never regretted. (and thus, I'm a long-time slashdotter) How many such computers have YOU stuck on the end of an Internet Connection without a firewall?
When the windows guys go to install a fresh copy of Windows 2000 on a box connected to our network, you can gaurentee that machine has a virus before they can install the patches on the machine. They typically install the box off the network and then 'sneeker net' the service packs and other patches onto the machine before plugging it into the network.
But why? You can get a NAT router from Office Max for $20. It will allow for Internet Access, but make machines connected to it effectively invisible to worms. Using one of these, they could get updates from Windows Update without having to risk the machine. Isn't it amazing how little some people value their time... ?