At Tulane we just put kegs next to the couch. During Mardi Gras, we move both keg and couch out to the curb to watch the parades and catch beads. It was an exceedingly excellent system.
..."uses state-of-the-art computer and satellite technology" - so terrorists won't be able to do that... This is actually what scares me. Planes stay in service for a looong time. I think Delta's average fleet age is 13 years and United's is a little over 10. Think back to computers in 1997 and consider how far technology has progressed since then. Sure, terrorists may not be able to crack the system now, but what about 5 years from now? 10 years? Unless they upgrade this system periodically during refits, I would think this remote control system could become a serious liability in the future.
Yeah, but at least the Seagate drives provide a "homing pin" that will allow you to properly orient the jumper block with respect to the sticker. My Fujitsu drive simply has a 2x3 row of jumpers and it's left up to you to decide which way is up according to the sticker.:)
SATA is nice, though -- I'll agree with you there. It's about time they came up with something better than the PATA drives we've been using for the last decade or so.
You can most certainly build a computer cheaper than what you can purchase from Dell... most of the time. If you are willing to check out their refurbished gear, then you can usually purchase cheaper than you can build. Especially when factoring in the OEM parts purchased from Newegg which have no warranty. (Not that I've ever had an OEM purchase from Newegg fail on me, but I loathe the day that I do because I know I won't have any recourse to have that part replaced.) That also doesn't include the cost of your time. Is it really worth two to three hours out of your day to save, in this case, $27?
The last time I purchased a new computer I was able to purchase a refurbished Dell (plus extra RAM and the video card I wanted from Newegg) for less than it would have cost me to build it on my own, including hunting for the best deals on parts from several different vendors. It was worth it for me to both save money and time by just ordering the refurb PC from Dell and the $400 video card and RAM from Newegg. But, to each their own, I guess.
LOL. I have an old 4.3 GB Fujitsu hard drive sitting at home that is kind of misdocumented. They were nice enough to put the sticker on the top of the hard drive, just above the jumpers, to indicate which jumpers to select for master, slave, CSL. Unfortunately, they neglected to tell you that the jumper diagram indicated what it should look like if you held the drive upsidedown. And there's no chance that the sticker was accidentally put on upside down as the writing on the sticker is the correct way up. I thought I'd bought a broken drive when I first discovered this little issue.
Actually, my initial post was rather brief as I was on my out the door when I made it. That said, it appears that your largest complaint is over my confusion with Free AVG. I have fully conceeded my ignorance over Free AVG in multiple posts in this thread. Here's one example: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=224774&cid=182 03120. My only explanation for why I thought it was once a week was that I must have been smoking crack and/or I set my own install of Free AVG on my laptop to once a week for one reason or another. I haven't used that particular computer in months and I use other products on my other machines. (Not Symantec.)
Note that I did not mean to bash Free AVG at all. I in fact recommend it to all of my co-workers/friends who like to ask the "is there any way to get my McAfee/Norton to download free virus updates?" I've also installed it on my parents' computers, but I've left it up to my dad to maintain those installs. He's an IT Director -- I think he can figure it out. (Although that does explain why I always notice Free AVG updating as soon as I turn on the kitchen laptop...)
That's why you use an anti-virus because you don't have the time to research every threat out there yourself and create a way to catch it and fix it. If you'll read this post (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=224774&cid=18 203022), you'll see that I attempt to clarify myself a little more. In case you're too lazy to read it, I'll summarize. For a corporate level virus scanner, there should be no reason for Symantec to even provide a default definition update policy. That should be left up to the sysadmin to configure per his company's own written IT policies. If they don't do that, then they deserve to be infected as a professional sysadmin should not need his hand held. I'm sure that most of us work in environments where our written IT policies do not match whatever default update policies Symantec may provide.
If we were talking about the consumer version (Norton branded product versus the corporate, Symantec branded product), then I would be right there with everybody else decrying the irresponsibility of Symantec for not providing a sufficient default policy. And I really, really don't care much for Symantec's AV products (corporate and consumer versions), but in this case they provided a patch to their AV engine in May of last year, and they do release daily AV updates. It is entirely the fault of the sysadmins and/or their PHB that their software was not up to date and not configured properly.
Truthfully, the linked blog seemed to me like nothing more than a crude attempt to smear Symantec for one reason or another. (And honestly, isn't Symantec bad enough without having to twist the mistakes of others to try to make Symantec look even worse? Let's talk about how uninstalling the Norton product can break BITS (http://djlizard.net/2005/11/18/102) or how about Symantec labeling NSIS as a false positive... four times (http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2159763/symante c-mistakes-open-source).
I actually don't have much experience with most of the consumer level virus scanners these days anyway. I install (and recommend) Free AVG, but I obviously proved my lack of knowledge where it's concerned. I only run it on one machine at home, which hasn't been turned on in months, and which never leaves the cozy, secure confines of my private network -- so yeah, I tend to ignore it. In fact, I have yet to upgrade it to the new version (7.5?) since I haven't used the laptop since early January. I don't know why I thought it only updated once a week, but it never bothered me since I rely on other methods to ensure my network security. (Safe computing practices, monthly Windows patching, and essentially three routers of differing brands with inbuilt SPI firewalls which SHOULD keep any thing else out. The wireless is a concern, but it's about as secure as I can make it, too. The weakest attack vector would probably be my (physical) windows, and anybody likely to break one of those would be more likely to steal my computers than infect them with a virus.)
I do hate the fact that most of the consumer AV software has essentially become nagware, but in this day and age, I guess that's what's needed to help the masses keep their software up to date.
Everyone including you is blaming sysadmins. Don't forget there's a PHB somewhere within CNN who is definitely ultimately responsible and might be the cause. Good point. It's hard for me to imagine that there would be somebody out there with such an idiotic policy... Then I remembered a client of mine back in '03. The office was such that it had a nominal IT position to handle minor stuff, but then would bring my group in for the more advanced IT tasks. Anyway, after repairing a couple of computers I informed the "IT" guy that I really needed to patch his servers ASAP as there was a new virus running rampant and infecting 2K/XP machines and I knew that their servers hadn't been patched yet. (If I didn't do it, nobody did.) I explained that I would show him how to patch his 15 or so Windows 2K machines so he could do those. Anyway, long story short, he told me that this patch couldn't be that big a deal and that "virus scanning was handled at the firewall" (note, this office didn't have a firewall -- they were completely open to the rest of the corporate WAN) so he was safe. I just said "whatever" and went home. The guy was one of those who had to make his own mistakes before he actually learned anything, and I knew this about him. About 3 days later, guess who gets the call to eradicate the virus from their servers and 2K machines?
So yeah, you might just be right. It could be the PHB's fault.
I'll say the Gwinnett store drew people from Alpharetta. I lived in a hotel in Alpharetta for a month before I finally got an apartment in Duluth. I think I made 3 trips to Fry's for random stuffs wile I was living in that hotel.
"dominos: naked and covered in grits" (if you don't get this one, you must be new here... you insensitive clod) Wow. I haven't seen the Natalie Portman and Grits joke in a loooooong time.
I think the only "joke" you missed was linking to a redirect page to a Goatse bomb. Can't say I miss those days, though.
(Posting without +1 Karma becuase I know that this is straying waaaaay OT)
Odd. Are you sure about this? We receive new defs (with new date stamps in our management software and new.vdb file names) each day. Are they just changing the dates and renaming the updates before we receive them?
OK. For some reason I thought it was only once a week, but I could be mistaken. I only have it installed on one of my laptops here and that laptop hasn't been turned on in ~2 months -- I installed Ubuntu on another laptop and have been using the Ubuntu laptop instead.
My point is this: the corporate version of Symantec does not automatically install any download rules. They leave this up to the installer who is hopefully capable of properly configuring their update rules and/or updating their servers manually, most likely so that they can properly test the latest virus definitions for errors or anomalies before pushing them in to production. See the comment below that links to the article about Excel being treated as a virus.
I work for... well, it doesn't matter. In our facility absolutely NO patches or virus definition updates are applied without first being approved by another group whose sole job it is to make sure these pathces don't affect something critical to our operations. Furthermore, we only download our defs from approved (IE our own) sources so as to ensure that we are ONLY downloading what's already been tested.
In short, we are all professionals and we should be capable of ensuring that our defs are up to date. We don't need (nor will we allow them to in our case) Symantec to hold our fuckin' hands throughout this process. When I install a corporate virus scanner, I fully expect to have to configure the machine policies in order to match our IT policies. If somebody's only updating their definitions once a week, then that's not Symantec's fault. That's the fault of whatever sysadmin was too stupid to properly configure his software.
That said, I still think Symantec's a piece of shit and I wish we were allowed to use other solutions in its place, but that's not for me to decide. Their management software is no where near as feature rich as EPO, and I seem to have to spend more time dealing with Symantec issues than I do with EPO issues. (Because, yes, we do monitor our machines each day to ensure that they are updating properly. CNN we are not.) Please don't think for a minute that I like defending Symantec. I just believe in placing the blame properly where it belongs, and in this case it's the idiot sysadmins who weren't doing their job.
What kind of anti-virus product only updates once a week (on Wednesdays)... And most importantly, what kind of security company lets its product remain installed without updating? To be quite honest, those are all user configurable options, are they not? To think! Some of us may not WANT Symantec to hold our hands when it comes to maintaining our AV installs. Can you really hold Symantec liable for the mistakes of its customers?
Furthermore, doesn't Free AVG only update once a week as well?
I was thinking the same thing myself. I used to live in Duluth, just off Old Norcross, about 5 minutes away from Fry's. In fact, the proximity of Fry's and Microcenter were partially responsible for me moving there. (Yeah. I'm a nerd.) Anwyay, I was probably in the Duluth store about once a week and it was ALWAYS hopping. I mean, it's right next to the always busy Gwinett Place Mall.
So imagine my surprise when I drive a friend home from work one day and stumble across the almost finished Alpharetta store. WTF? And it's not even in nearly as prominent an area as the Duluth store, or the South Houston store that I used to frequent when staying in Houston. I can't say that I really understand that location...
Would anyone care to speculate if this move is likely to retain or repel customers? Was that question at the end of the submission really necessary? I mean, this is/. Unless you're new here, you already know that/.'ers steadfastly approve of being able to run third party apps on their phones and will spur any carrier who states otherwise.
So... I guess this means that T-Mobile is on the/. blacklist, too...
Either you haven't had too many jobs, or you've clearly never worked in a job that you absolutely hate going to every day. Yes, we work to make money, but there can reach a point where working at a place you hate can be detrimental to your mental well being, no matter how much the pay.
In other words, all other considerations aren't secondary, IMO. Check the place out. Make sure it's a place you actually want to work. I was recently offered a job with a 50% pay increase. The job would have also required a 1500 mile move to a more expensive area of the country, would have required ~50% more hours per week from me, and it would have been in a more stressful work environment than the one I'm in now. In short, I said no. 50% more money doesn't mean a whole lot if you don't think you're going to be happy.
You gotta admit: if that paragraph isn't true, it is definitely libel by its defaming nature. Most people would be angry if this were in their own wikipedia entry. I know the Slashdot title is sensationalist, but in all honesty, I can see why he'd want to sue. What the hell are you talking about. I would LOVE it if somebody put that in my wikipedia entry. 1) That would make me seem a lot cooler than I really am. Everybody knows that it's cool to drink alcohol and do drugs. 2) That would mean that somebody had actually taken notice of me to a level that they would feel the need to slander my name in public. If only I were so popular!
(Please note that the post above is a joke, so please take it like one:-P)
I was going to compose my own post, but you pretty much summed up what I was going to state. Most of these people posting here have probably never worked in the Healthcare IT industry. With the HIPPA laws (or is it HIPAA? I forget.) there are extremely stringent guidelines describing what will happen to a company if they mistakenly allow data to be released without authorization. Merely not being in compliance with the regulations (and there are many, including a stipulation regarding removable media) can bring reprecussions for a company.
I think the problem with/. is that a lot of people here are obviously smart, computer-centric, people and naturally chafe at the idea of having restrictions imposed on their use of technology. Additionally, these people can probably be trusted not to mistakenly introduce a vulnerability to their company's network. But if you spend enough time in IT -- especially in an environment populated with high school educated people with little computer experience (such as a healthcare billing office), many/.'ers will gain a newfound respect for why IT occasionally has to institute many of its policies.
I don't know if this is the method that the user used to obtain the episode of 24 or if Fox even still does this, but about 10 - 15 years ago most networks would uplink the latest episode of a particular series to a C-Band satellite at a specific time so that their afiliates around the country could obtain it for the following week's broadcast. Note that they would do this without encoding the episode. I know for a fact that Fox and CBS both did this with their shows, as I can remember watching the Simpsons and Star Trek: TNG via these affiliate broadcasts before any of my friends could watch them. (Fox also used this method to broadcast the NHL games at the time. It was great being able to watch the Pittsburg Penguins play via satellite when my local affiliate was showing the Dallas Stars game.)
I would think it likely that Fox and other networks still use this method to distribute episodes to their local affiliates, and that this is how the uploader managed to obtain the episode before it was officially aired. Not having a C-Band satellite dish anymore, however, I can't verify this theory. Anybody out there actually still have a C-Band satellite dish? That's actually hooked up and usable?
Sooo.... that means that you could buy an Intel Mac, install Windows on it, and THEN virtualise OSX on that Windows install. That should keep you within the terms of the licnese agreement!
Alternatively, couldn't you virtualise Windows from within OSX and then virtualise OSX again from within the virtual Windows install?:)
The problem is that accounting runs the risk of picking the cheapest package out there, not necessarily the best accounting package. While one option may be cheaper in the short order, it may run you more money in the long term from unforseen costs due to inferior software support or each revision of the software requiring a hardware upgrade, etc. I'm sure that many of us in IT have run in to situations where we've been forced to make less than desireable choices due to accounting constraints. Not to mention, he's in healthcare where, unless an executive makes it one of their pet projects to "modernize" the computers, IT generally gets the shaft as far as funding is concerned. At least, that was my experience in my 4 years of performing healthcare IT. Some of you may have worked in poorly funded environments, but I'll bet not many of you have replaced dumb terminals with Windows 95 machines... in 2004.
Accounting does deserve some input on the features that they require and the overall usability, and in the end, the CFO will still be the one to sign the purchase order, but when you're talking a client/server package that needs to be compatible with their current environment, it's not a bad idea to have the director of IT involved in the decision.
Didn't say it was Microsoft's fault that Intuit wrote their crap that way. I did say that it was stupid that Windows places the Admin account in Safe Mode and then requires a SECOND admin account. Never have seen an answer as to why that is. Sorry about that. Looks like I misunderstood you. I do agree that it is stupid that it places the Admin account in Safe Mode. I have noticed that it runs as admin on my mom's work computer, as well. I have yet to use Vista, but I really hope that the improved security model will have a solution for issues such as this. I've been slowly trying to intruduce my folks to Linux (Ubuntu is nice and easy these days - last time they needed a computer rebuilt, I sent the laptop back to them with Ubuntu on it and I've heard nary a complaint), but Quickbooks is actually one of the reasons that I haven't attempted to switch my mom's work computer to Linux. Even if there were a Linux equivalent, I would imagine that, unless the Linux alternative provides tools to migrate her data from Quickbooks, switching her to a Linux equivalent wouldn't be worth the time and effort wasted in rebuilding her inventory and accounts database.:(
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At Tulane we just put kegs next to the couch. During Mardi Gras, we move both keg and couch out to the curb to watch the parades and catch beads. It was an exceedingly excellent system.
..."uses state-of-the-art computer and satellite technology" - so terrorists won't be able to do that... This is actually what scares me. Planes stay in service for a looong time. I think Delta's average fleet age is 13 years and United's is a little over 10. Think back to computers in 1997 and consider how far technology has progressed since then. Sure, terrorists may not be able to crack the system now, but what about 5 years from now? 10 years? Unless they upgrade this system periodically during refits, I would think this remote control system could become a serious liability in the future.Yeah, but at least the Seagate drives provide a "homing pin" that will allow you to properly orient the jumper block with respect to the sticker. My Fujitsu drive simply has a 2x3 row of jumpers and it's left up to you to decide which way is up according to the sticker. :)
SATA is nice, though -- I'll agree with you there. It's about time they came up with something better than the PATA drives we've been using for the last decade or so.
Yup. But not on this drive. It's actually probably the only drive I've seen where the jumper block is a solid six pins.
You can most certainly build a computer cheaper than what you can purchase from Dell... most of the time. If you are willing to check out their refurbished gear, then you can usually purchase cheaper than you can build. Especially when factoring in the OEM parts purchased from Newegg which have no warranty. (Not that I've ever had an OEM purchase from Newegg fail on me, but I loathe the day that I do because I know I won't have any recourse to have that part replaced.) That also doesn't include the cost of your time. Is it really worth two to three hours out of your day to save, in this case, $27?
The last time I purchased a new computer I was able to purchase a refurbished Dell (plus extra RAM and the video card I wanted from Newegg) for less than it would have cost me to build it on my own, including hunting for the best deals on parts from several different vendors. It was worth it for me to both save money and time by just ordering the refurb PC from Dell and the $400 video card and RAM from Newegg. But, to each their own, I guess.
LOL. I have an old 4.3 GB Fujitsu hard drive sitting at home that is kind of misdocumented. They were nice enough to put the sticker on the top of the hard drive, just above the jumpers, to indicate which jumpers to select for master, slave, CSL. Unfortunately, they neglected to tell you that the jumper diagram indicated what it should look like if you held the drive upsidedown. And there's no chance that the sticker was accidentally put on upside down as the writing on the sticker is the correct way up. I thought I'd bought a broken drive when I first discovered this little issue.
Crap. Forgot to hit Preview...
Note that I did not mean to bash Free AVG at all. I in fact recommend it to all of my co-workers/friends who like to ask the "is there any way to get my McAfee/Norton to download free virus updates?" I've also installed it on my parents' computers, but I've left it up to my dad to maintain those installs. He's an IT Director -- I think he can figure it out. (Although that does explain why I always notice Free AVG updating as soon as I turn on the kitchen laptop...) That's why you use an anti-virus because you don't have the time to research every threat out there yourself and create a way to catch it and fix it. If you'll read this post (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=224774&cid=1
If we were talking about the consumer version (Norton branded product versus the corporate, Symantec branded product), then I would be right there with everybody else decrying the irresponsibility of Symantec for not providing a sufficient default policy. And I really, really don't care much for Symantec's AV products (corporate and consumer versions), but in this case they provided a patch to their AV engine in May of last year, and they do release daily AV updates. It is entirely the fault of the sysadmins and/or their PHB that their software was not up to date and not configured properly.
Truthfully, the linked blog seemed to me like nothing more than a crude attempt to smear Symantec for one reason or another. (And honestly, isn't Symantec bad enough without having to twist the mistakes of others to try to make Symantec look even worse? Let's talk about how uninstalling the Norton product can break BITS (http://djlizard.net/2005/11/18/102) or how about Symantec labeling NSIS as a false positive... four times (http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2159763/symant
I actually don't have much experience with most of the consumer level virus scanners these days anyway. I install (and recommend) Free AVG, but I obviously proved my lack of knowledge where it's concerned. I only run it on one machine at home, which hasn't been turned on in months, and which never leaves the cozy, secure confines of my private network -- so yeah, I tend to ignore it. In fact, I have yet to upgrade it to the new version (7.5?) since I haven't used the laptop since early January. I don't know why I thought it only updated once a week, but it never bothered me since I rely on other methods to ensure my network security. (Safe computing practices, monthly Windows patching, and essentially three routers of differing brands with inbuilt SPI firewalls which SHOULD keep any thing else out. The wireless is a concern, but it's about as secure as I can make it, too. The weakest attack vector would probably be my (physical) windows, and anybody likely to break one of those would be more likely to steal my computers than infect them with a virus.)
I do hate the fact that most of the consumer AV software has essentially become nagware, but in this day and age, I guess that's what's needed to help the masses keep their software up to date.
So yeah, you might just be right. It could be the PHB's fault.
I'll say the Gwinnett store drew people from Alpharetta. I lived in a hotel in Alpharetta for a month before I finally got an apartment in Duluth. I think I made 3 trips to Fry's for random stuffs wile I was living in that hotel.
I think the only "joke" you missed was linking to a redirect page to a Goatse bomb. Can't say I miss those days, though.
(Posting without +1 Karma becuase I know that this is straying waaaaay OT)
Odd. Are you sure about this? We receive new defs (with new date stamps in our management software and new .vdb file names) each day. Are they just changing the dates and renaming the updates before we receive them?
OK. For some reason I thought it was only once a week, but I could be mistaken. I only have it installed on one of my laptops here and that laptop hasn't been turned on in ~2 months -- I installed Ubuntu on another laptop and have been using the Ubuntu laptop instead.
My point is this: the corporate version of Symantec does not automatically install any download rules. They leave this up to the installer who is hopefully capable of properly configuring their update rules and/or updating their servers manually, most likely so that they can properly test the latest virus definitions for errors or anomalies before pushing them in to production. See the comment below that links to the article about Excel being treated as a virus.
I work for... well, it doesn't matter. In our facility absolutely NO patches or virus definition updates are applied without first being approved by another group whose sole job it is to make sure these pathces don't affect something critical to our operations. Furthermore, we only download our defs from approved (IE our own) sources so as to ensure that we are ONLY downloading what's already been tested.
In short, we are all professionals and we should be capable of ensuring that our defs are up to date. We don't need (nor will we allow them to in our case) Symantec to hold our fuckin' hands throughout this process. When I install a corporate virus scanner, I fully expect to have to configure the machine policies in order to match our IT policies. If somebody's only updating their definitions once a week, then that's not Symantec's fault. That's the fault of whatever sysadmin was too stupid to properly configure his software.
That said, I still think Symantec's a piece of shit and I wish we were allowed to use other solutions in its place, but that's not for me to decide. Their management software is no where near as feature rich as EPO, and I seem to have to spend more time dealing with Symantec issues than I do with EPO issues. (Because, yes, we do monitor our machines each day to ensure that they are updating properly. CNN we are not.) Please don't think for a minute that I like defending Symantec. I just believe in placing the blame properly where it belongs, and in this case it's the idiot sysadmins who weren't doing their job.
Furthermore, doesn't Free AVG only update once a week as well?
I was thinking the same thing myself. I used to live in Duluth, just off Old Norcross, about 5 minutes away from Fry's. In fact, the proximity of Fry's and Microcenter were partially responsible for me moving there. (Yeah. I'm a nerd.) Anwyay, I was probably in the Duluth store about once a week and it was ALWAYS hopping. I mean, it's right next to the always busy Gwinett Place Mall.
So imagine my surprise when I drive a friend home from work one day and stumble across the almost finished Alpharetta store. WTF? And it's not even in nearly as prominent an area as the Duluth store, or the South Houston store that I used to frequent when staying in Houston. I can't say that I really understand that location...
So... I guess this means that T-Mobile is on the
Either you haven't had too many jobs, or you've clearly never worked in a job that you absolutely hate going to every day. Yes, we work to make money, but there can reach a point where working at a place you hate can be detrimental to your mental well being, no matter how much the pay.
In other words, all other considerations aren't secondary, IMO. Check the place out. Make sure it's a place you actually want to work. I was recently offered a job with a 50% pay increase. The job would have also required a 1500 mile move to a more expensive area of the country, would have required ~50% more hours per week from me, and it would have been in a more stressful work environment than the one I'm in now. In short, I said no. 50% more money doesn't mean a whole lot if you don't think you're going to be happy.
(Please note that the post above is a joke, so please take it like one
I was going to compose my own post, but you pretty much summed up what I was going to state. Most of these people posting here have probably never worked in the Healthcare IT industry. With the HIPPA laws (or is it HIPAA? I forget.) there are extremely stringent guidelines describing what will happen to a company if they mistakenly allow data to be released without authorization. Merely not being in compliance with the regulations (and there are many, including a stipulation regarding removable media) can bring reprecussions for a company.
/. is that a lot of people here are obviously smart, computer-centric, people and naturally chafe at the idea of having restrictions imposed on their use of technology. Additionally, these people can probably be trusted not to mistakenly introduce a vulnerability to their company's network. But if you spend enough time in IT -- especially in an environment populated with high school educated people with little computer experience (such as a healthcare billing office), many /.'ers will gain a newfound respect for why IT occasionally has to institute many of its policies.
I think the problem with
I don't know if this is the method that the user used to obtain the episode of 24 or if Fox even still does this, but about 10 - 15 years ago most networks would uplink the latest episode of a particular series to a C-Band satellite at a specific time so that their afiliates around the country could obtain it for the following week's broadcast. Note that they would do this without encoding the episode. I know for a fact that Fox and CBS both did this with their shows, as I can remember watching the Simpsons and Star Trek: TNG via these affiliate broadcasts before any of my friends could watch them. (Fox also used this method to broadcast the NHL games at the time. It was great being able to watch the Pittsburg Penguins play via satellite when my local affiliate was showing the Dallas Stars game.)
I would think it likely that Fox and other networks still use this method to distribute episodes to their local affiliates, and that this is how the uploader managed to obtain the episode before it was officially aired. Not having a C-Band satellite dish anymore, however, I can't verify this theory. Anybody out there actually still have a C-Band satellite dish? That's actually hooked up and usable?
Sooo.... that means that you could buy an Intel Mac, install Windows on it, and THEN virtualise OSX on that Windows install. That should keep you within the terms of the licnese agreement!
:)
Alternatively, couldn't you virtualise Windows from within OSX and then virtualise OSX again from within the virtual Windows install?
The problem is that accounting runs the risk of picking the cheapest package out there, not necessarily the best accounting package. While one option may be cheaper in the short order, it may run you more money in the long term from unforseen costs due to inferior software support or each revision of the software requiring a hardware upgrade, etc. I'm sure that many of us in IT have run in to situations where we've been forced to make less than desireable choices due to accounting constraints. Not to mention, he's in healthcare where, unless an executive makes it one of their pet projects to "modernize" the computers, IT generally gets the shaft as far as funding is concerned. At least, that was my experience in my 4 years of performing healthcare IT. Some of you may have worked in poorly funded environments, but I'll bet not many of you have replaced dumb terminals with Windows 95 machines... in 2004.
Accounting does deserve some input on the features that they require and the overall usability, and in the end, the CFO will still be the one to sign the purchase order, but when you're talking a client/server package that needs to be compatible with their current environment, it's not a bad idea to have the director of IT involved in the decision.