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User: aschlemm

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  1. UPNP w/OpenBSD NAT'ing firewall? on Belkin To Offer Firmware Fix For Router Hijacking · · Score: 1

    If MSN Messenger requires UPNP support in a firewall please explain to me how I've been using MSN Messenger and MSN Messenger-like clients from clients inside my internal which sits behind an NAT'ing OpenBSD firewall. AFAIK OpenBSD doesn't support UPNP and from some of the comments I've read from the BSD crowd UPNP is considered a huge security risk since it allows clients to arbitrarily open holes in a firewall.

  2. Re:USB drivers & camera support? on Red Hat's CEO Suggests Windows For Home Users · · Score: 1

    It all depends on how easy it is to use. I've been using my Kodak DX4900 with SuSE and "gphoto2" and it works great. However most home users aren't going to want run a CLI program and I'm not sure that the GUI-shells that run on top of "gphoto2" are all that great. There are just too many different consumer electronic devices that exist and there isn't any unified support mechanism in Linux that allows all of these devices to be supported. It's true that many devices like PDA, digitial cameras, etc. work with Linux but it's not something that Joe and Jane Average can handle in terms of setting up Linux support for some ubber cool device that Linux doesn't recognize by default.

  3. Re:enteprise versus normal on Red Hat Linux Support To End · · Score: 1

    We run Red Hat ES 2.1 in our office and the big difference is that RedHat supports their Enterprise products for 5 years. I too am shocked that they're EOL'ing RedHat 9 so quickly. For small workstations I've been using SuSE since they usually support 4 releases of their distro at a time. They tend to do a new release once every 6 months so that means that I get around two years of updates for a given release.

  4. South Beach Diet on Hackers On Atkins · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've lost 40 pounds going from 230 to 190 since I started following the South Beath Diet. It appears similar to the Atkins diet in that for the first two weeks on phase 1, carb intake is pretty restricted. After two weeks then a person stays on phase 2 until they reach their ideal weight. After that the diet is phase 3 which is really maintainence mode for life. This diet teaches the differences between good carbs and bad carbs and so my wife and I enjoy a great variety of food in this diet while avoiding the bad carbs.

    It was tough at first as we eat potatoes, lots of rice, and bread before starting the diet. We avoid potatoes and only use brown rice, and whole or sprouted grain breads now. We also try to avoid sugar but the diet book as some tasty desserts. We use to enjoy chocolate quite a bit but now we're into dark chocolate only, and in moderation. We both feel so much better as we no longer experience the highs of lows of our blood sugar going up and down because of our poor diet. My wife also had problems with high tryglyceride levels in her blood but her last blood work came base with normal tryclyceride levels and at that time she had only been on the diet for 3 weeks!

    I highly recommend the South Beach Diet for anyone wanting a diet that works (If your following It!) while not feeling like you're on a diet. We eat more now that what we used to and still lose weight since we're not getting all of the bad carbs and sugars like we used to. The other thing I suggest is people look at the packages of the good they eat and note the serving size. You'll be surprised how offen a package contains 2 or more servings and eating the whole thing in one sitting helps to promote weight gain since it's more food than what a person needs IMHO.

  5. Re:A question about the Sun's behavior on X17 Solar Flare Sends 2B Tons of Plasma at Earth · · Score: 1

    Sounds like another candidate ripe for an on-camera street interview with Jay Leno.

  6. Re:That would have been interesting. on Novell & SUSE In Link Up? · · Score: 1

    Which still doesn't make sense if they plan to get out of the OS business since they'd be rolling their own distro of SuSE if the sale had gone through. I don't see why they couldn't partner with SuSE and have SuSE help them port their wares to Linux. About the only thing which might cause Novell to need their own distro would be if Novell's offerings compete directly with RedHat and/or SuSE's offerings. Even then Novell should be OK since both RedHat and SuSE both release their source code They don't have to worry about SuSE and/or RedHat pulling a Microsoft on them like what happed to Lotus and the famous "DOS ain't done 'till Lotus won't run."

  7. Re:a few points to consider on Software Error Causes Crisis in Mississippi · · Score: 1

    Well there's a number of states that require you to go to state run liquor stores in some cases. In Washington and Oregon you can get beer and wine in the supermarket but if you want the hard stuff then its off to the state run liquor store in Washington or in Oregon it has to be an Oregon Liquor Control Commission outlet.

  8. Re:yeah whatever on PHP Scales As Well As Java · · Score: 1

    Geeze who spends money on a J2EE application server environment up front these days. You can get both the JDK and JBoss for free and work with that first. About the only thing really needed with the JBoss through is that's worth paying for a 1 year subscription to their documentation which I got for $99.00. That was a great deal given the number of developer hours that would be wasted trying to figure stuff out without any documentation.

    We had two learning curves in that we were figuring out how to setup JBoss and also we were learning XDoclet on the fly. In the end though we've got JSP, and EJB code that isn't really tied to a given application server. With the doclet tags embedded into our EJB code we have XDoclet generating all of the boiler plate things like interfaces and XML deployment descriptors. If we wanted to deploy to Weblogic we'd just change our ANT build.xml file to tell XDoclet we want support for Weblogic rather than JBoss.

    We use the embedded Tomcat servlet engine in JBoss and it is rather slow when it does the initial compilation from JSP ==> Servlets ==> bytecodes but that's only the first time a JSP page is accessed. The next time the same page is accessed it loads very quickly.

  9. Re:J2EE != EJB on PHP Scales As Well As Java · · Score: 1

    The EJB 2.0 spec introduced a "Local Interface" which is used to allow EJBs co-located in the sam EJB container to communicate efficiently without the overhead of RMI. If one is writing a local interface for an EJB, the methods are not declared as throwing a RemoteException.

  10. Re:IBM crushed OS/2. on Longhorn in 2006 · · Score: 1

    I ordered OS/2 2.0 over the phone before it was released and for less than $100.00 I also ordered an OS/2 C compiler from IBM. It had the SDK and so I don't know what sort of nightmare you're talking about here WRT to OS/2 2.0's SDK. I agree that the lack of apps was difficult. I was at least able to have a decent native OS/2 word processor called "DeScribe" and it worked quite well for me. It was more flexible than Word but everyone wanted Windows and Word at that time. Eventually Borland released an IDE for OS/2 and I worked with that to a certain extent.

    In the end though I found myself looking for GNU text utilities and really wanted a Unix-like OS which sort of drive me to using Linux. I also purchased a Dell system that came with Win95 and thought it was OK. It wasn't perfect but it was way more stable than Win3.1 which was what drive me to OS/2 in the first place. I also had a great time with Quake, Quake II, and Diablo on the Win95 box.

  11. Re:RAID 1 for me on Maxtor's 300 GB Monster Reviewed · · Score: 1

    For long-range twin-engine planes they use what's called ETOPS (Extended Twin Engine Operations). A twin engine aircraft has to stay within a certain range of a usable airfield so it has a place to divert if it loses an engine. I recall something like 180 minutes had been approved by the FAA but this might be different in other countries.

  12. Re:We just decided to use Samba on Samba Beats Windows IT Week Labs Test Results · · Score: 1

    And your remote monitoring is done for free right? If you're not working for free the your proposed setup isn't that much different IMHO.

  13. Re:It's the little things that sink the ship.... on MS Dissatisfaction High, Users Consider Switching · · Score: 1

    I just went through this today in trying to burn some files to a CD in XP. I would go into explorer and use the right-mouse button to do a "Sent To" to the CDRW device. Nothing would happen each time I tried this. I finally logged out and restarted and I got some error about the filesystem so I had to wait for CHKDSK to repair a few things. You're not kidding that Windows if full of this sort of thing. Rather than tell you want's wrong it just acts flaky to force you to reboot. I'm now sitting here waiting for XP to do it's stupid file copy thing before it allows me to burn a CD. 502MB and it's taken XP nearly 1 hour just to do the temporary file copy thing first so I can actually get to burning a CD.

    The wife uses XP and so sometime I have to to use it as well. :-(

  14. Re:Linux and OpenBSD user on Linux Users Try FreeBSD 5, Windows · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've switched my firewall away from Linux to OpenBSD for the same reason that "pf" and "altq" are really great and the "pf" syntax is just so much easier to write and understand IMHO. I say this after using both the older "ipchains" and newer "iptables" under Linux. I maintain a couple of development severs at work and so I still use "iptables" when I have no choice. If anyone asks me for a suggestion for a firewall I suggest a dual-homed OpenBSD system hands down. It only takes a few configuration files to be setup to getting a working setup.

    For my own uses I keep my OpenBSD configuration files in RCS and so when I do a new install of it I slap my configuration files on the box and I've got a new working system going very quickly. This is really great since my firewall hardware is rather old and so I actually have one box running as my firewall and then have a second OpenBSD firewall all patched up and ready to go so if my primary unit goes down. I'm comtemplating a 3rd firewall box so I can have a test one that I can install new versions of OpenBSD as they are made available. 3.4 is coming the beginning of November.

    I've even pulled out my 12 year old 486DX/33 system from mothballs and with $17.00 worth of upgrades from the local PC recycler (EISA SCSI controller, EISA network card, and 1GB SCSI2 drive), the box is now pulling print server duty for Linix and Windows system in our office using Samba, "apsfilter" and "ghostscript". OpenBSD is a nice small OS that leaves lots of room for spooling print jobs on a 1GB disk. About the only down side is it requires a bit of disk space to keep all of the source available for patches and building new releases. I build my own release on a box I have with a large hard drive and copy my built release to the other less capable OpenBSD boxes using "scp", and "ssh" to update the boxes remotely.

  15. Re:If C had had bounds checking on The Next Path for Joy · · Score: 1

    Even Java doesn't save programmers from themselves in all cases. As someone that has written a great deal of Java code since 1996 I see programmers making the same sort of mistakes I saw them make in C++. The biggest problem is that it seems that most programmers going into Java think that because Java does garbage collection that no longer have to worry about memory management. That's total bunk! I can't tell you how often I've seen programs where people add an object to a container and then never bother to remove it. After time the JVM grows to 100s of MB in size bring the system to its knees.

    To make Java programs that reliable that can run for longs periods of time you have to expend allot of extra effort and run them through memory profilers, force garbage collection to occur and then take a heap snapshort and go through and look objects that are left stranded because one or more objects still hold a reference to it.

    At least when working on C++ projects we all understand (or are at least aware) of the fact that we need to worry about allocating/deallocting memory and that we need to worry about bounds checking as well. We tend to use the auto_ptr in C++ in as many places as it makes sense to try to ensure we don't cause any memory leaks with objects that are dymanically allocated.

  16. Re:Oh dear lord... on The Next Path for Joy · · Score: 1

    The other thing that I didn't see mentioned is that there are some protection features available for C/C++. I saw that the OpenBSD team has integrated IBM's ProPolice into their base system which helps protect systems against stack-smashing attacks.

    Compilation Solutions in C/C++

  17. Re:Java : C :: Emacs : vi on The Next Path for Joy · · Score: 1

    The on thing I've never liked with Java through is that if you know what class implements an interface that is given to you , you can cast the interface back to the implementing class. I guess I'm too much of purist as this allows abstraction to be thrown into the toilet IMHO.

  18. Re:It's J2EE, not Linux on Windows Cheaper When Studied by MSFT Analysts · · Score: 1

    Get your terms straight...EJB = Enterprise Java Beans

    There are 3 types of EJBs

    1) Entity
    2) Session
    3) Message-driven

    I did a fair amount of development with JBoss doing some EJBs using CMP (Container Managed Persistence) and with a tool like XDoclet which generated the boilerplate stuff like interfaces and XML Deployment Descriptors it was a huge timesaver.

  19. Re:Changes to the Workplace from the Dot Com days on Dotcom Era Fads · · Score: 1

    I can't type today...I meant to say that "I'm not trying to be a hard ass..." I probably sound like I am though since I'm not real symphathetic...

  20. Re:Changes to the Workplace from the Dot Com days on Dotcom Era Fads · · Score: 3, Informative

    I guess I've been around too long in software development circles and don't see what the problem is. I've worked for a number of companies and we were always expected to work 5 days a week. Generally most of the companies I worked for had what we called "core hours" which were between the hours of 10AM and 4PM. These were the hours we're expected to be around for meetings etc. This also gives people the flexibility to come in from anywhere from 7:00AM to 10:00AM so long as we're around during core hours. I've never worked anyplace where people would take afternoons off during the work week.

    I have worked for a few companies there had a schedule where people could work nine 9 hour days in a row which then allowed a person to every other Friday off. I've always put in alot of hours in my programming jobs over the year since it goes with this sort of job. We don't do death marches but the programmers I work with know if they're behind or not and if they need to work an extra day or two on the weekend sometimes to catch up they do it. I never saw any of this "slacker" behavior where just because someone put in some extra hours on some days earlier in the work week that they're now entitled to take a few afternoons off during the week.

    I'm trying to sound like a hard ass but I was around as a programmer long before the dot.con boom and I'm still around after the bust. I've never ever had a programming job that was 9 to 5 and that just sort of goes with the job IMHO. At least now with VPN solutions available if I have to do some work on the weekend I can do it from home and not waste the time driving into the office. And with the IT downturn I'm doing alot more than just programming now. I'm also our office's part-time Oracle DBA and I'm also resposible for system admin duties for several Linux servers and a Win2K server.

    I do agree that you should be able to take the vacation time off that you've earned but I'm not real sympathetic about whether you can or can't take Thursday and Friday afternoon off. A reasonable manager may not care how many hours you work each week so long as you get all of your work done on time and done correctly. But your manager may also have a PHB putting pressure on him/her and so that pressure gets passed down to you.

  21. Re:I still like RedHat... so here's what I do. on The Increasing Cost of Red Hat Linux? · · Score: 1

    Due to some of the software we needed to run (like Oracle) and some other stuff from HP that only seems to like RedHat or Debian, the company I work for just bought a copy of RedHat Enterprise Linux ES 2.1. We got it for $349 but we had to download our own ISOs and burn CDs. We only have support for 90 days but since we're a small company we have to watch what we spend. I'm worried about RedHat's EOL of 7.x as I wonder if AS, ES, and WS 2.1 will be going EOL as well. I see that they have a 3.0 Beta of AS but that's not something I'd be comfortable with using and certainly the customers we're selling to wouldn't like that either. Cost isn't so much of an issue since our customers have deep pockets but if RedHat EOLs things too quickly and drops support our customers aren't going to be too happy.

    Frankly if the HP software we had was supported under SuSE I'd move our server to SuSE as they at least support thier product for at least 2 years or 4 releases back before they drop support. They support Oracle on their Enterprise platform so we're covered there as well. In the case of a really bad exploit or something I've even seen SuSE release patches to their distros that they weren't even supporting anymore.

    I know at some point we may have some customers in Europe and I've made it clear to my management that we'll need to have support for SuSE as well since SuSE is the largest disto in Europe and I wouldn't be suprised to see customers over there asking for SuSE instead of RedHat Linux.

  22. Send Monopoly Money! on SCO Wants $699 for Linux Systems · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm sure a lot of people have old Monopoly games laying around unused. I good use of all that paper Monopoly money would be to send the appropriate amount to SCO for their licensing fee.

  23. Re:There are solutions on Sluggish WiFi Connections Hurt Everyone · · Score: 1

    If someone wants to support 802.11g then they could always configure an 802.11g AP so it's not dual mode and only supports "g" mode. That would keep the "b" users out. Also interms of signal strength for a larger area multiple APs can be put in place so everyone is withing a hotspot is relatively close to an access point. I'm assuming that an 802.11 client will tend to use the AP that it receives the strongest signal from.

  24. Re:News Flash on Technology Buying Slump · · Score: 1

    It's really sad how quickly people forget why some .coms went out of business. It was amazing to see the sort of waste that went on at some of the .coms. They spent their money on expensive office furnature, toys, and some even chartered airplanes and sent their best people off to Hawaii at the company's expense.

    Some of the .coms might have actually had a good working model but they burned through their VC money and so they weren't around long enough to see if their model actually worked.

    I talked to a guy I know in Seattle and during the high times the company he was working for was giving BMWs away as signing bounuses. 6 months later they're axing people from their ranks right and left...

  25. Re:The only secure airline on Backscatter X-Rays Coming to Airports · · Score: 1

    They should at least provide a nice, soft terrycloth robe for the flight...