Re:Maine & Linux - from a Mainiac Tuxer
on
Maine School & Linux
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· Score: 4, Interesting
My girlfriend (yes... even 40 year old L/Unix admins have real girlfriends) works as an admin assistant for the maintenance department of a local high school They use Windoze, and have more troubles than you can imagine. Now, to be fair, their admins are not the brightest pixels in the stream, but schools tend to not pay the most money, so they get what they pay for. Her boss has been waiting for a couple of weeks to get his 98 box fixed. From what I can tell, she knows more than the IT guys.
That said, I taught a Linux class to several people a couple of months ago. Maine recently began a program to distribute laptops to all 7th graders. Since most schools had Apple systems, they were at a loss on how to integrate them.
Enter Linux. In two days, I taught a group of Apple and Windows skilled folks Linux basics, stressing command line skills and how to use Google for support. I was blown away by how quickly they came up to speed. Since they already had basic computer skills, all they needed to do was learn a slightly different way to apply them. All but one were able to build Linux boxes with SAMBA and DHCP services that both the Apple and MS boxes could tap into. The one that couldn't refused to adapt and constantly whined about using the command line. (I know, almost all of this can be done with a GUI. But I wanted them to learn more than how to point, click, select the defaults.)
So, I say hogwash to this failing. Those that don't want to learn, won't, you can't change that. Those that are able to take knowledge and apply it to new ideas will flourish.
People that can learn and adapt will be the people most sought after in our society because they will move it forward.
First all, I agree that this is a great idea to supplement HFS storage of documents. Documents will often fit into more than one category, so users have to choose one, and then do multiple searches to find it later. (Should I file a review for an employee under his name, reviews, and year, or year, reviews, and name, or reviews, name, and year??)
If users don't use thoughtful, meaningful, and clear directory structures and file names now, what possible argument can be given that they will use anything else in a thoughtfull, meaningful, and clear way? I get enough calls from users that can't even remember where they saved documents or what they named them (or why I should know) to make me doubt their ability to utilize such a toolset.
The ability to store keywords in a document and search by them have been in word processing programs for years. Those that are organized will take new tools such as newdocms and use them to the greatest advantage and receive the most benefit. Those that are not organized will only be further confused as they continue to save Document1.doc, Document2.doc, etc. with even more meaningless keywords such as 'expense report' or 'boobie picture'.
Uh... the point was that if I don't need software, I don't have to install it, hence I never have to patch it.
Like, if I have a server that never needs a browser, or a GUI, I never have to worry about patches for it. That's the nice thing about having a small OS with modules, instead of tying everything together.
Of course, Windoze users wouldn't know the benefits about having highly configurable systems like that....
If a piece of software doesn't work right or introduces severe security issues, simply remove it until it is corrected.
It's a good thing that OS developers are smart and would never be so stupid as to develop an OS that would require a high security risk software, like a browser, just to run. An OS has to be modular and highly configurable in order to do that, and that always makes more sense than a monolithic beast.
... is one that is never plugged in, never turned on, and never used.
As soon as you turn it on and plug it in to a network, or let someone log in and use it, all kinds of evil things can happen.
So, with the above being the most secure system, we have to make compromises. Take passwords/phrases for instance. We could specify a pass phrase of at least 60 characters with mixed case, numbers, and special characters. That might take a cracking program a little longer to break. But the odds that the casual user will remember it and not write it down someplace increases as the difficulty of the password increases.
Or, we could install smart card devices and require their usage, along with pass phrases and biometrics. But that increases costs and complexity. Not only do I need smart card readers and software at my desk, but also every system that I will use to VPN in with.
Or, we could remove all floppy disks and CD drives from our user's machines, and prevent them from downloading from the internet, but then we have to listen to them gripe all the time.
Or, we could remove Windows 2000 and use some as-yet-to-be-named totally secure, non-breakable software that provides 90% of the same functionality. But then the users would lose access to Outlook and Word and whine again because they don't want to learn something new.
Instead, we do the best with what we have, and move on. Fix the security leaks as they come up, and hope we get to them before the crackers do. Yes, I would love for MS to do a better security job, and I would also love to install Linux on the desktop. But since neither is going to happen anytime soon, we deal with it. (Although XP has finally made our CIO sit up and consider replacing MS.)
I'll bet that the cost is directly related to the skills of the technical staff. For exampple:
Case #1 (my company)
We pay support for many products (Oracle, Sun, Weblogic) but rarely use it. Why? We get tired of debugging their product. We have a very talented staff, and by the time we finally call support, we have already done all the stuff they are going to tell us to do again (Yes support-person, it is plugged in and turned on.) We often end up doing things that are of no value, and we know it, only because the support person won't give us any help until we do it. In one instance, they actually had the nerve to ask us to install a kernel patch and reboot our production system in the middle of the day. They had no concept of testing and QA of changes. So, for us, Open Source is a godsend. We use Google to find answers to problems, and have even read code a couple of times. All for free, except for our time.
Case #2 -- Some other company
This company has promoted their office manager to IS director. He doesn't know a USB from his pie-hole and has to pay out major bucks to get someone to come in and make sure his computer is plugged in and turned on. Open Source products without support contracts are too expensive for him, because not only does he waste a lot of effortand have a lot of downtime, his medical expenses will go through the roof.
Each company has to determine the true cost of support and whether or not it is worth it. We spend big bucks on software support mostly so we can get patches and upgrades, not phone support.
Decide for yourself...
on
Design Patterns
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Is it worth it?? Can't say, never read it. But,as an antiquated piece of shit myself that has seen every TNBT (the next big thing) come down the road, it probably was outdated 2 minutes after it hit the news stands, replaced by TNBT.
But, as an antiquated piece of shit who has bought dozens of other TNBT books, it might be worth it. We used to use things called algorithms, and had books written by the thousands with them. I still have a C book on my shelf at work that I reference from time to time because of code segments it has. A good book outlasts TNBT, since they basically all say the same crap. My test is to try and decide if it will make a good reference book, something that will be used every day and can make me an even better haxor than I are now (yes, I meant the poor grammer).
My advice is to get off your lazy geek butt and get thee to a real bookstore, not one of those Internet things. That you can do for free (well, I think you still can, there might be copyright issues). Pick it up and actually read portons of it. Buy it online if you can save a few bucks, or buy it right there if it is so good you can't live without it.
But, for geeks sake man (woman??), make up your own friggen' mind. Make a decision. Stand up for yourself. Don't follow the rest of TNBT sheep. Or go buy the damn thing because they said so, and continue to be an Windows NT programmer. (whoopss..did I say that??)
TW Cable guy came to install broadband on my hex-wife's computer. It was an older box I put together, and the floppy drive and CD wouldn't read his installer. I tried to talk him through some things over the phone, but as with most of these installers, he just followed his list. I convinced him to leave the NIC installed and I would install the software later that night.
I showed up later and cleaned the CD-ROM, but the floppy was toast (drivers were on a floppy). So, following normal geek instinct, I accessed the web using the existing dial up, downloaded just the drivers for the NIC, fired everything up, and my daughter was jumping for joy within 5 minutes. I never did install the CD software.
So the next time the cable guy shows up to install something, disable the CD and floppy and do it yourself later.
I agree with the assessment about using non-Intel hardware, but disagree with the big v/s little argument, specifically the manpower requirement. Our website uses several automated tools to distribute updates to our webservers and app servers, which are Netras. The Netras all share the exact same Sun image, which is very, very small. All unneeded packages (X, language packs, etc) were removed. Unison is used to keep the web pages and JSP pages syncronized.
We have had 1 failure (SCSI drive) since implemented 1 year ago. It took us 20 minutes to have the box back up and running (Jumpstart). Granted, we only have 20 now. But based on the amount of time we actually spend working on the machines, one of us could handle 5 to 10 times this amount.
Now, 100 Netras cost about 600,000. You can't touch any other Sun equipment at that price and get 100 CPUs. A Sunfire15K w/72 CPUs is over $3M, without maintenance. I could afford a couple more admins at those prices.....
It has been discovered that some people that go to movies don't pay. They have friends that work at the theaters that let them in for free, or go see more than one movie after getting their ticket. Some have even gone as far as hiding in the trunks of cars at what few drive-ins remain.
To combat this piracy threat, estimated at 20 million samolians a year, theaters will require all persons entering the theater to have barcodes branded on their foreheads. They will be cross checked against a central database to ensure that they only see the movie they paid for, and that only one person with the unique bar code is in any theater at the same time.
Since every major cinema will have different standards, the FCC will use an auction to allocate the portion of your forehead to be branded. Those sections in the middle region, which are flatter and easier to read, will of course bring the highest dollars.
Privacy advocates are already concerned that the 'movie police' will now be able to tell what movies each and every person in the world have seen, and began lobbying for legislation prohibiting this practice. But since it was released that Ralph Nader often visits www.goatse.com, all lobbying efforts have mysteriously ceased.
In other news, following recent examples of airport security checks, movie theaters are installing food detectors at all entrances to ensure no dangerous food items are brought into the facility. The theaters will provide certified safe foods at concession areas for those that wish to eat or drink during a movie.
Not to mention the hundreds of phone calls trying to find out if you are 'upgrading' to XP (no, BTW). Our NT admins and Systems Director were driven nuts by our vendor and Microsoft trying to find out whether or not we were going to go to the XP license scam^H^Heme.
It got to the point where the NT admin sent all non-known phone numbers directly to voice mail.
Sheesh... another non-technical person trying to push technical solutions. How much did you have to pay Thawte for your initial certificate so you could sign the rest? Maybe I will go into business for myself if every Tom, Dick, and Jamie can do it.
I post to get opinions, not marketing hype. Take it elsewhere. In case you haven't noticed, most/. users are very sensitive to this kind of crap.
My company has a web presence such we feel that it is in our best interest to use a big gun, such as Verisign, to issue certs even though we know we are getting the shaft. Regardless of whether or not Verisign is doing their job or not asside, Microsoft and Netscape browsers trust them blindly and most of the Internet community doesn't know any better.
Besides, the biggest issue I have is not the $800/year we spend for the 128-bit certificate, but the fact I have to buy one for each server, even if they use the same name (read the license agreement... it's in there.)
Since customers are required to sign up for our service, why can't we buy one Verisign certificate just for the sign-up server, then require customers to install a new root cert for our company to use our service. In fact, we could make that part of the install process with a 'click here and select OK' message. Most users would blindly click it an go on. Then we could create as many of our own certs for the rest of our servers as we wanted with no cost, and maybe evern 5 or 10 year expirations so we don't have to replace the blasted things every year.
Any thoughts?? I'm sure our marketing department could put together a wonderful page explaining how Verisign trusts us, blah blah blah.
If you head really read my post, you would have seen that I would need two additional phone lines because of the way we use the Internet. That would be an additional $52 (Additional phone lines are $26 here, I don't set the rates.) Add to that a ISP account at $10/month. My broadband is $39/month, a savings of $23.
Now, to be fair, we could just buy one additional line and just tie up the existing phone, meaning we would only have to spend an extra $3/month. And for $3/month, I get great d/l speeds for my Counterstrike downloads, drivers, p0rn, etc?? Sounds like a great deal to me.
My point was, which you obviously missed, is that the generation that makes most of the decisions are not computer literate, it's the under 30 crowd who is. Once the youger group gets to the stage in their lives when they get to control the house budget, I think you will see broadband gain a larger audience.
To put it another way, would you rather drive a Ford Escort or spend a little more and drive a nice Pontiac Bonneville and get a smoother and more dependable ride? They both can get you where you are going, and if I were only driving a few miles a day to work, the Escort would be fine. But if I spent a large part of my day driving, the Bonneville would be the better choice. For me, the aggravation I have suffered over the last 10 years of dial up (yes, I used to use 1200baud), is worth the additional $3/month of broadband.
And thanks for proving the point about many dial-up users being idiots....you were an excellent example.
Ok, idiots is probably too strong a term, but still not too bright. But my girlfriend and I would not be able to live without broadband anymore. It's not those things that have been mentioned as reasons earlier, such as movies and music downloads, but the little things.
We now pay most of our bills online, so we spend quite a bit of time going from site to site. Any help in the speed department is worth it, and now all of our bills get paid on time, every month.
My girlfriend is a serious ebay addict. She buys and sells so much stuff that she easily spends 10 hours a week there.
Counter-strike. Ever played it over a 56K modem? It's just not right.
Research for trips, building supplies, electrical supplies, plumbing supplies. Which of course leads to....
BUYING STUFF ONLINE IS GREAT!!! I'm going to try and do all my major x-mas shopping online this year.
Phone line cost is way too high for dial-up. Since we are often both on at the same time, it's not just one extra analog line now, it's two. I know, I could install a Linux dial-on-demand router in the basement and share a phone line. But that makes load times even worse
In the last 6 months, we have become a networked house. I ran CAT-6 cable to every room but the closets and toilets. We have a computer room (was a den) with two desktops in it, and a laptop we can take to all the rooms. (hmmm..it might be handy to have a laptop in the bathroom afterall.) I know, see Linux dialer above, but those load times still suck.
I hate to say it, but most Internet users that make the purchasing decisions in a home just don't have the skills to do these things or to understand them. The good news is that as their kids get older, they start to move out and buy broadband.
For example... my 15 year old daughter wanted some clothes for school so she went an Internet web site, made up a wish list, and sent me a link. Click-click later, she has a couple of t-shirts and socks sailing my way. But my ex-wife doesn't understand why the Internet is such a big deal, so she won't get her broadband. (It's full of p0rn, you know.....yes I do!)
So.. what you are saying is those that are working harder than others shouldn't be paid more? And that companies shouldn't be allowed to ask their employees to give a little more?? Reminds me of a Union shop I worked where I was told not to work so hard because it made the others look bad.
Ever hear of competition? I know, our unions, school systems and government have tried to kill it off, but it works. I will agree we need laws to protect over-the-top expoitation, but we still need competition in the work place. If I work harder than Joe Slacker, I expect my company to treat me like I am worth it, not paid according to some Union slacker scale. The expectation where I work is for sys admins to put in 50-55 hour weeks. For that, I get flex time for coming in 30 minutes earlier, taking a 30 minute lunch, and staying an extra 15-30 minutes to miss traffic. Nice trade off on those Wednesday afternoons in Maine when the golf course is calling.
Using the same brush stroke, I remember being told to work 96 hour work weeks for a 6 weeks in order to get the programs ready for a bank merger. We did, but that was the last time our management ever asked us. They saw what it did to us, after two weeks we became zombies and our work suffered. They cut us back to 60 hour weeks for the remainder of the project, and we still got it done on time.
So, if your company is constantly asking for you to work long hours, make sure they compensate you somehow and realizie how it impacts your work. If they don't get it, start looking for another job or shut the fsck up.
Q. Do I need a license to stream mp3/mp3PRO encoded content over the Internet?
Yes. A license is needed for commercial (i.e., revenue-generating) use of mp3 / mp3PRO in real time broadcasting (terrestrial, satellite, cable and/or any other media), broadcasting / streaming via Internet, intranets and/or other networks or in other electronic content distribution systems, such as pay-audio or audio-on-demand applications.
However, no license is needed for private, non-commercial activities (e.g., home-entertainment, receiving broadcasts and creating a personal music library), not generating revenue or other consideration of any kind or for entities with an annual gross revenue less than US$ 100 000.00.(emphasis mine)
Does this mean that open source free ware is still...well...free??
OK.. let's create a religion that meets their criteria. Something that is organized and has a belief system. I'm tired of telling people I'm an athiest anyway. Maybe I can pretend to believe in a 'life force' that binds everything together in the universe as long as I don't have to worship it.
But let's do it right this time. No heaven or hell, no eternal damnation, no confessions, no martyrs, no bleeding icons (bleeding as in blood, not as in the bloody British vernacular). No one in charge for life, no special group that gets to make the rules because they wear silly clothes or funny hats, no vague guidebook that contradicts itself. No 'special' days or times. Let's let other people make fun of our religeon as long as we can make fun of theirs. No admission fees either.
What does that leave for the basis of a religeon? I guess a religeon isn't really a religeon without all the accessories.
Maybe it's because the writer chose to use adult language and facts to suggest a viewpoint instead of being vague and condesending.
Heaven forbid that someone actually mention a product they paid for and like instead of finding fault with everything that is commercial. As if the bells of Quake and nVidia not rung too often in postings.
But then, since I wrote it, I might be biased. But hey, I could be wrong:)
RIAA is their own worst enemy.
on
Napster Not To Blame
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· Score: 3, Interesting
For some reason, downloading music never appealed to me. I like to browse music stores, pick up and handle CDs. But I always balked at paying over $12.00 for a cd if it wasn't a greatest hit's CD or I hadn't heard most of the songs before. I had downloaded a couple of pieces, but found it to be too much of a bother and the quality was too unpredictable. Music on the Internet?? It just wasn't worth it.
Recent events have changed all that. I had put my CD collection on my hard drive so I could listen to them while I worked. But, through a series of events, I had to rebuild my entire system. Unfortunatly, I couldn't reinstall my purchased copy of RealPlayer/RealOne/Real and didn't want the new one because of their stupid subscription based service.
I dumped Real and bought MusicMatch at a real store, intending to dump my CDs to my new 40GB hard drive. In the box was an offer for MusicMatch radio. I had done Winamp before, but again, the quality just wasn't there. To my surprise, I discovered that for $4 a month, I can get crisp, clear music delivered over my broadband, and was able to create my own 'stations' based on the music I liked. I could skip tracks too if I wanted. The best part was I could click on the playlist and create lists of CDs to buy later, or buy them right on the spot. Wow.. this was cool. Now, my music collection is growing a couple of CDs a month, even though I still hate paying over $12. Internet music (which I paid for) was STIMULATING me to buy CDs. It really dawned on me then how stupid RIAA is for not encouraging access to music over the Internet. I was proof that the Internet actually increase music sales.
Then, a few days ago, RIAA announced their legal action regarding list4ever.com. Curiosity got the best of me, so I fired up Google and started looking around. Know what I discovered?? Hundreds of sites where I can download music and videos, sites I never knew about before. I still haven't downloaded anything, but now I know where to go if I want to, all thanks to RIAA.
I never did dump my CDs to the new hard drive.....
Official U.S. government system for authorized use only.
Do not discuss, enter, transfer, process or transmit
classified, sensitive national security information of
greater sensitivity than that for which this system is
authorized. Use of this system constitutes consent to
monitoring. Unauthorized use could result in criminal
prosecution. Unclassified, non-senstive, non-privacy
act use only.
Where are the privacy advocates when you really need them??? The were all whining yesterday about
toll system monitoring, yet just by clicking a slashdot link we consent to monitoring.
You people are just not doing your jobs and will have to be fragged.
In most states, an unmarked police car can follow you on the road and note your every movement without you even knowing about it or agreeing to it. There is no way to prevent it, and, even more scary, it is not illegal. There is not even an opt-out capability. They can use this information in court against you at any time they chose!!!
The only way to prevent this loss of privacy is to stay at home, lock the doors, don't use the phone or cable TV, or even pick up your mail. You must remain inside at all times and out of site.
Only then can you really enjoy your privacy. Of course, you can't enjoy anything else, but who cares. At least you can enjoy your privacy.
Slashdot Mirror
My girlfriend (yes ... even 40 year old L/Unix admins have real girlfriends) works as an admin assistant for the maintenance department of a local high school They use Windoze, and have more troubles than you can imagine. Now, to be fair, their admins are not the brightest pixels in the stream, but schools tend to not pay the most money, so they get what they pay for. Her boss has been waiting for a couple of weeks to get his 98 box fixed. From what I can tell, she knows more than the IT guys.
That said, I taught a Linux class to several people a couple of months ago. Maine recently began a program to distribute laptops to all 7th graders. Since most schools had Apple systems, they were at a loss on how to integrate them.
Enter Linux. In two days, I taught a group of Apple and Windows skilled folks Linux basics, stressing command line skills and how to use Google for support. I was blown away by how quickly they came up to speed. Since they already had basic computer skills, all they needed to do was learn a slightly different way to apply them. All but one were able to build Linux boxes with SAMBA and DHCP services that both the Apple and MS boxes could tap into. The one that couldn't refused to adapt and constantly whined about using the command line. (I know, almost all of this can be done with a GUI. But I wanted them to learn more than how to point, click, select the defaults.)
So, I say hogwash to this failing. Those that don't want to learn, won't, you can't change that. Those that are able to take knowledge and apply it to new ideas will flourish.
People that can learn and adapt will be the people most sought after in our society because they will move it forward.
You guys can come to Maine ... it's been one of the coldest Decembers I can remember in the 20 years I've been here....
First all, I agree that this is a great idea to supplement HFS storage of documents. Documents will often fit into more than one category, so users have to choose one, and then do multiple searches to find it later. (Should I file a review for an employee under his name, reviews, and year, or year, reviews, and name, or reviews, name, and year??)
If users don't use thoughtful, meaningful, and clear directory structures and file names now, what possible argument can be given that they will use anything else in a thoughtfull, meaningful, and clear way? I get enough calls from users that can't even remember where they saved documents or what they named them (or why I should know) to make me doubt their ability to utilize such a toolset.
The ability to store keywords in a document and search by them have been in word processing programs for years. Those that are organized will take new tools such as newdocms and use them to the greatest advantage and receive the most benefit. Those that are not organized will only be further confused as they continue to save Document1.doc, Document2.doc, etc. with even more meaningless keywords such as 'expense report' or 'boobie picture'.
Uh ... the point was that if I don't need software, I don't have to install it, hence I never have to patch it.
Like, if I have a server that never needs a browser, or a GUI, I never have to worry about patches for it. That's the nice thing about having a small OS with modules, instead of tying everything together.
Of course, Windoze users wouldn't know the benefits about having highly configurable systems like that....
... do I use this ... uh ... no.
OK, I'm done.
Wish Windoze security updates were this easy......
If a piece of software doesn't work right or introduces severe security issues, simply remove it until it is corrected.
It's a good thing that OS developers are smart and would never be so stupid as to develop an OS that would require a high security risk software, like a browser, just to run. An OS has to be modular and highly configurable in order to do that, and that always makes more sense than a monolithic beast.
It's Dayton Daily News, not Daily Dayton News. Of course, being a native, the error was was easy for me to pick up on.
... is one that is never plugged in, never turned on, and never used.
As soon as you turn it on and plug it in to a network, or let someone log in and use it, all kinds of evil things can happen.
So, with the above being the most secure system, we have to make compromises. Take passwords/phrases for instance. We could specify a pass phrase of at least 60 characters with mixed case, numbers, and special characters. That might take a cracking program a little longer to break. But the odds that the casual user will remember it and not write it down someplace increases as the difficulty of the password increases.
Or, we could install smart card devices and require their usage, along with pass phrases and biometrics. But that increases costs and complexity. Not only do I need smart card readers and software at my desk, but also every system that I will use to VPN in with.
Or, we could remove all floppy disks and CD drives from our user's machines, and prevent them from downloading from the internet, but then we have to listen to them gripe all the time.
Or, we could remove Windows 2000 and use some as-yet-to-be-named totally secure, non-breakable software that provides 90% of the same functionality. But then the users would lose access to Outlook and Word and whine again because they don't want to learn something new.
Instead, we do the best with what we have, and move on. Fix the security leaks as they come up, and hope we get to them before the crackers do. Yes, I would love for MS to do a better security job, and I would also love to install Linux on the desktop. But since neither is going to happen anytime soon, we deal with it. (Although XP has finally made our CIO sit up and consider replacing MS.)
I'll bet that the cost is directly related to the skills of the technical staff. For exampple:
Case #1 (my company) We pay support for many products (Oracle, Sun, Weblogic) but rarely use it. Why? We get tired of debugging their product. We have a very talented staff, and by the time we finally call support, we have already done all the stuff they are going to tell us to do again (Yes support-person, it is plugged in and turned on.) We often end up doing things that are of no value, and we know it, only because the support person won't give us any help until we do it. In one instance, they actually had the nerve to ask us to install a kernel patch and reboot our production system in the middle of the day. They had no concept of testing and QA of changes. So, for us, Open Source is a godsend. We use Google to find answers to problems, and have even read code a couple of times. All for free, except for our time.
Case #2 -- Some other company This company has promoted their office manager to IS director. He doesn't know a USB from his pie-hole and has to pay out major bucks to get someone to come in and make sure his computer is plugged in and turned on. Open Source products without support contracts are too expensive for him, because not only does he waste a lot of effortand have a lot of downtime, his medical expenses will go through the roof.
Each company has to determine the true cost of support and whether or not it is worth it. We spend big bucks on software support mostly so we can get patches and upgrades, not phone support.
Is it worth it?? Can't say, never read it. But,as an antiquated piece of shit myself that has seen every TNBT (the next big thing) come down the road, it probably was outdated 2 minutes after it hit the news stands, replaced by TNBT.
But, as an antiquated piece of shit who has bought dozens of other TNBT books, it might be worth it. We used to use things called algorithms, and had books written by the thousands with them. I still have a C book on my shelf at work that I reference from time to time because of code segments it has. A good book outlasts TNBT, since they basically all say the same crap. My test is to try and decide if it will make a good reference book, something that will be used every day and can make me an even better haxor than I are now (yes, I meant the poor grammer).
My advice is to get off your lazy geek butt and get thee to a real bookstore, not one of those Internet things. That you can do for free (well, I think you still can, there might be copyright issues). Pick it up and actually read portons of it. Buy it online if you can save a few bucks, or buy it right there if it is so good you can't live without it.
But, for geeks sake man (woman??), make up your own friggen' mind. Make a decision. Stand up for yourself. Don't follow the rest of TNBT sheep. Or go buy the damn thing because they said so, and continue to be an Windows NT programmer. (whoopss..did I say that??)
TW Cable guy came to install broadband on my hex-wife's computer. It was an older box I put together, and the floppy drive and CD wouldn't read his installer. I tried to talk him through some things over the phone, but as with most of these installers, he just followed his list. I convinced him to leave the NIC installed and I would install the software later that night.
I showed up later and cleaned the CD-ROM, but the floppy was toast (drivers were on a floppy). So, following normal geek instinct, I accessed the web using the existing dial up, downloaded just the drivers for the NIC, fired everything up, and my daughter was jumping for joy within 5 minutes. I never did install the CD software.
So the next time the cable guy shows up to install something, disable the CD and floppy and do it yourself later.
I agree with the assessment about using non-Intel hardware, but disagree with the big v/s little argument, specifically the manpower requirement. Our website uses several automated tools to distribute updates to our webservers and app servers, which are Netras. The Netras all share the exact same Sun image, which is very, very small. All unneeded packages (X, language packs, etc) were removed. Unison is used to keep the web pages and JSP pages syncronized.
We have had 1 failure (SCSI drive) since implemented 1 year ago. It took us 20 minutes to have the box back up and running (Jumpstart). Granted, we only have 20 now. But based on the amount of time we actually spend working on the machines, one of us could handle 5 to 10 times this amount.
Now, 100 Netras cost about 600,000. You can't touch any other Sun equipment at that price and get 100 CPUs. A Sunfire15K w/72 CPUs is over $3M, without maintenance. I could afford a couple more admins at those prices.....
It has been discovered that some people that go to movies don't pay. They have friends that work at the theaters that let them in for free, or go see more than one movie after getting their ticket. Some have even gone as far as hiding in the trunks of cars at what few drive-ins remain.
To combat this piracy threat, estimated at 20 million samolians a year, theaters will require all persons entering the theater to have barcodes branded on their foreheads. They will be cross checked against a central database to ensure that they only see the movie they paid for, and that only one person with the unique bar code is in any theater at the same time.
Since every major cinema will have different standards, the FCC will use an auction to allocate the portion of your forehead to be branded. Those sections in the middle region, which are flatter and easier to read, will of course bring the highest dollars.
Privacy advocates are already concerned that the 'movie police' will now be able to tell what movies each and every person in the world have seen, and began lobbying for legislation prohibiting this practice. But since it was released that Ralph Nader often visits www.goatse.com, all lobbying efforts have mysteriously ceased.
In other news, following recent examples of airport security checks, movie theaters are installing food detectors at all entrances to ensure no dangerous food items are brought into the facility. The theaters will provide certified safe foods at concession areas for those that wish to eat or drink during a movie.
Not to mention the hundreds of phone calls trying to find out if you are 'upgrading' to XP (no, BTW). Our NT admins and Systems Director were driven nuts by our vendor and Microsoft trying to find out whether or not we were going to go to the XP license scam^H^Heme.
It got to the point where the NT admin sent all non-known phone numbers directly to voice mail.
Sheesh ... another non-technical person trying to push technical solutions. How much did you have to pay Thawte for your initial certificate so you could sign the rest? Maybe I will go into business for myself if every Tom, Dick, and Jamie can do it.
/. users are very sensitive to this kind of crap.
I post to get opinions, not marketing hype. Take it elsewhere. In case you haven't noticed, most
My company has a web presence such we feel that it is in our best interest to use a big gun, such as Verisign, to issue certs even though we know we are getting the shaft. Regardless of whether or not Verisign is doing their job or not asside, Microsoft and Netscape browsers trust them blindly and most of the Internet community doesn't know any better.
... it's in there.)
Besides, the biggest issue I have is not the $800/year we spend for the 128-bit certificate, but the fact I have to buy one for each server, even if they use the same name (read the license agreement
Since customers are required to sign up for our service, why can't we buy one Verisign certificate just for the sign-up server, then require customers to install a new root cert for our company to use our service. In fact, we could make that part of the install process with a 'click here and select OK' message. Most users would blindly click it an go on. Then we could create as many of our own certs for the rest of our servers as we wanted with no cost, and maybe evern 5 or 10 year expirations so we don't have to replace the blasted things every year.
Any thoughts?? I'm sure our marketing department could put together a wonderful page explaining how Verisign trusts us, blah blah blah.
If you head really read my post, you would have seen that I would need two additional phone lines because of the way we use the Internet. That would be an additional $52 (Additional phone lines are $26 here, I don't set the rates.) Add to that a ISP account at $10/month. My broadband is $39/month, a savings of $23.
Now, to be fair, we could just buy one additional line and just tie up the existing phone, meaning we would only have to spend an extra $3/month. And for $3/month, I get great d/l speeds for my Counterstrike downloads, drivers, p0rn, etc?? Sounds like a great deal to me.
My point was, which you obviously missed, is that the generation that makes most of the decisions are not computer literate, it's the under 30 crowd who is. Once the youger group gets to the stage in their lives when they get to control the house budget, I think you will see broadband gain a larger audience.
To put it another way, would you rather drive a Ford Escort or spend a little more and drive a nice Pontiac Bonneville and get a smoother and more dependable ride? They both can get you where you are going, and if I were only driving a few miles a day to work, the Escort would be fine. But if I spent a large part of my day driving, the Bonneville would be the better choice. For me, the aggravation I have suffered over the last 10 years of dial up (yes, I used to use 1200baud), is worth the additional $3/month of broadband.
And thanks for proving the point about many dial-up users being idiots....you were an excellent example.
Ok, idiots is probably too strong a term, but still not too bright. But my girlfriend and I would not be able to live without broadband anymore. It's not those things that have been mentioned as reasons earlier, such as movies and music downloads, but the little things.
- We now pay most of our bills online, so we spend quite a bit of time going from site to site. Any help in the speed department is worth it, and now all of our bills get paid on time, every month.
- My girlfriend is a serious ebay addict. She buys and sells so much stuff that she easily spends 10 hours a week there.
- Counter-strike. Ever played it over a 56K modem? It's just not right.
- Research for trips, building supplies, electrical supplies, plumbing supplies. Which of course leads to....
- BUYING STUFF ONLINE IS GREAT!!! I'm going to try and do all my major x-mas shopping online this year.
- Phone line cost is way too high for dial-up. Since we are often both on at the same time, it's not just one extra analog line now, it's two. I know, I could install a Linux dial-on-demand router in the basement and share a phone line. But that makes load times even worse
- In the last 6 months, we have become a networked house. I ran CAT-6 cable to every room but the closets and toilets. We have a computer room (was a den) with two desktops in it, and a laptop we can take to all the rooms. (hmmm..it might be handy to have a laptop in the bathroom afterall.) I know, see Linux dialer above, but those load times still suck.
I hate to say it, but most Internet users that make the purchasing decisions in a home just don't have the skills to do these things or to understand them. The good news is that as their kids get older, they start to move out and buy broadband.For example
So .. what you are saying is those that are working harder than others shouldn't be paid more? And that companies shouldn't be allowed to ask their employees to give a little more?? Reminds me of a Union shop I worked where I was told not to work so hard because it made the others look bad.
Ever hear of competition? I know, our unions, school systems and government have tried to kill it off, but it works. I will agree we need laws to protect over-the-top expoitation, but we still need competition in the work place. If I work harder than Joe Slacker, I expect my company to treat me like I am worth it, not paid according to some Union slacker scale. The expectation where I work is for sys admins to put in 50-55 hour weeks. For that, I get flex time for coming in 30 minutes earlier, taking a 30 minute lunch, and staying an extra 15-30 minutes to miss traffic. Nice trade off on those Wednesday afternoons in Maine when the golf course is calling.
Using the same brush stroke, I remember being told to work 96 hour work weeks for a 6 weeks in order to get the programs ready for a bank merger. We did, but that was the last time our management ever asked us. They saw what it did to us, after two weeks we became zombies and our work suffered. They cut us back to 60 hour weeks for the remainder of the project, and we still got it done on time.
So, if your company is constantly asking for you to work long hours, make sure they compensate you somehow and realizie how it impacts your work. If they don't get it, start looking for another job or shut the fsck up.
OK .. let's create a religion that meets their criteria. Something that is organized and has a belief system. I'm tired of telling people I'm an athiest anyway. Maybe I can pretend to believe in a 'life force' that binds everything together in the universe as long as I don't have to worship it.
But let's do it right this time. No heaven or hell, no eternal damnation, no confessions, no martyrs, no bleeding icons (bleeding as in blood, not as in the bloody British vernacular). No one in charge for life, no special group that gets to make the rules because they wear silly clothes or funny hats, no vague guidebook that contradicts itself. No 'special' days or times. Let's let other people make fun of our religeon as long as we can make fun of theirs. No admission fees either.
What does that leave for the basis of a religeon? I guess a religeon isn't really a religeon without all the accessories.
Maybe it's because the writer chose to use adult language and facts to suggest a viewpoint instead of being vague and condesending.
:)
Heaven forbid that someone actually mention a product they paid for and like instead of finding fault with everything that is commercial. As if the bells of Quake and nVidia not rung too often in postings.
But then, since I wrote it, I might be biased. But hey, I could be wrong
For some reason, downloading music never appealed to me. I like to browse music stores, pick up and handle CDs. But I always balked at paying over $12.00 for a cd if it wasn't a greatest hit's CD or I hadn't heard most of the songs before. I had downloaded a couple of pieces, but found it to be too much of a bother and the quality was too unpredictable. Music on the Internet?? It just wasn't worth it.
.. this was cool. Now, my music collection is growing a couple of CDs a month, even though I still hate paying over $12. Internet music (which I paid for) was STIMULATING me to buy CDs. It really dawned on me then how stupid RIAA is for not encouraging access to music over the Internet. I was proof that the Internet actually increase music sales.
Recent events have changed all that. I had put my CD collection on my hard drive so I could listen to them while I worked. But, through a series of events, I had to rebuild my entire system. Unfortunatly, I couldn't reinstall my purchased copy of RealPlayer/RealOne/Real and didn't want the new one because of their stupid subscription based service.
I dumped Real and bought MusicMatch at a real store, intending to dump my CDs to my new 40GB hard drive. In the box was an offer for MusicMatch radio. I had done Winamp before, but again, the quality just wasn't there. To my surprise, I discovered that for $4 a month, I can get crisp, clear music delivered over my broadband, and was able to create my own 'stations' based on the music I liked. I could skip tracks too if I wanted. The best part was I could click on the playlist and create lists of CDs to buy later, or buy them right on the spot. Wow
Then, a few days ago, RIAA announced their legal action regarding list4ever.com. Curiosity got the best of me, so I fired up Google and started looking around. Know what I discovered?? Hundreds of sites where I can download music and videos, sites I never knew about before. I still haven't downloaded anything, but now I know where to go if I want to, all thanks to RIAA.
I never did dump my CDs to the new hard drive.....
You people are just not doing your jobs and will have to be fragged.
In most states, an unmarked police car can follow you on the road and note your every movement without you even knowing about it or agreeing to it. There is no way to prevent it, and, even more scary, it is not illegal. There is not even an opt-out capability. They can use this information in court against you at any time they chose!!!
The only way to prevent this loss of privacy is to stay at home, lock the doors, don't use the phone or cable TV, or even pick up your mail. You must remain inside at all times and out of site.
Only then can you really enjoy your privacy. Of course, you can't enjoy anything else, but who cares. At least you can enjoy your privacy.