Now let's sit back and hear all the conspiracy theories about how Google is slowly preparing for world domination.
Am I the only one who finds it somewhat terrifying the degree to which google and its services have become a necessary tool in the life of every IT staffer? What happens if someone drops a nuke on google? What happens if all of the millionaire employees retire and are replaced with traditional wallstreet analysts? I love the things the company has done, the things they have created, but the last thing I want to see is for existing independent internet wonders like wikipedia to fall under the google umbrella. There are already too many extremely valuable eggs in that basket.
Re:I appreciate the effort but...
on
EFF's Logfinder
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
the sysadmins are competent enough to handle this themselves.
I didn't bother to read a description of the tool, but there's nothing to say that a competent admin might not want something like this if it eased his burden. Also, there's the matter of incompetent admins. Many of us wear multiple hats. I do development, support, and administration on linux and windows for a small office, mostly by myself. Suffice to say, nobody can be perfect at everything. I'm always looking for tools that help me automate common tasks and, generally speaking, manage more with less.
It's not so much about laziness as about being lost. Many people have trouble solving simple problems on their pc such as "why is my system so slow?". If they knew how to solve the problem, they probably would. How often have you avoided doing something because you weren't sure where to begin, how much work it would entail? It's not laziness.
Sorry, I have a pet peeve about the word laziness. I once worked somewhere where everytime there was an error in code, it was the fault of those lazy programmers working 60 hour weeks without overtime.
Rather, they blame the guys who write the bad stuff -- not the guys who make it possible.
Additionally, I think a lot of people blame themselves. They feel they have done something stupid and don't want to admit it. This happens all the time with complicated technology and, working support, I see it happen on a daily basis.
There also used to be a company, based in california I believe, that did in fact specialize in extracting gold and presumably other precious materials from computer hardware. I think they went out of business, in part because the extraction process was too expensive. Additionally, I think manufacturers use less gold now.
but sooner or later you're going to do a complex query spanning multiple tables, and you'll wish you used SQL. Usually the best approach is a combination....
Even though DB_DataObject has an ok query interface, I agree that eventually they are going to need to be writing some sql. It's just unavoidable, but my guess is that this will not happen very often. When the time came, if DB_DataObject couldn't handle it, my plan was to toss them up to the pear:Db level. This is a generic database interface similar to perl's dbi which is only slightly better than mysql_* functions.
Thank you for the link to Ibatis. It looks fairly slick. I don't really think these guys could ever handle java/.net style development, but I might give it a go sometime. Again, thanks.
Lately I have been tasked with helping our communications department get on track with creation of a data driven website. At the moment, we're talking about helping two people. One is a graphic designer who manages a fairly large website. She has done a little bit of asp/access, but I don't think she understands it particularly well. She says she did a little php a long time ago. The other individual has been maintaining a filemaker database which presently contains data that is not in an optimal format for programming. This second individual has, using filemaker, managed to generate static pages off of the data (using some rather scary techniques). While they both have probably seen or written a few sql statements, I doubt they understood what they were doing.
I am on loan to this department, so I can't just finish the project in a weekend and then hand it to them. Rather it's going to be a fairly long drawn out educational process (~2 months @ 1/2 time). They need to be able to understand how it works, how to maintain it, how to enhance it. Essentially they need to be an integral/invested part of the development process.
Anyways, my initial idea was to have them use PHP alongside Pear's DB_DataObject and eventually Html_QuickForm libraries. For those not in the know, DB_DataObject is an object oriented data access layer generator framework thingy. Basically, instead of establishing connections, writing sql statements, and iterating over recordsets, they can write fairly simple code like the following.
require_once('some-config-file.php');
$student = new DB_Student();// declaration
$student->get(2);// gets the student with pri key=2
print $student->name;// print's student's name.
$student->name = "Bob Bobertson"; set students name.
$student->update();// commits name change
Now when I see a newbie book teaching people to pound out their own sql and use old school mysql_connect style functions, I question my judgement. Is it a good idea or a bad idea to try to introduce these kinds of rapid development tools to novices? On one hand, these tools make my life easier on a daily basis. On the other hand, sometimes it's better to know the basics before going off to advanced topics like this. What do you guys think?
It should be noted that whatever happens we are not sticking with filemaker (not even my decision). We will either be using Access which doesn't appear to be supported by DB_DataObject or potentially Access/ADP/MSDE or Access/Linked/MySQL which both do work with DB_DataObject. I am desperately trying to set up something that lets them create/edit/drop tables from within Access and lets them easily design queries in access which are then usable with DB_DataObject.
Thus far, the closest I've come is using MSDE (light weight MS SQL Server) as the backend for Access. This is done using the Active Data Project (ADP) format not with linked tables. They can create/edit/drop tables and create views in Access. The views and tables are all reachable via DB_DataObject. However, there is no expression builder in the Access interface when working in this fashion.
This is problematic because these folks are more accustomed to using wizards to dump all of their messed up logic right into their database software. I can see them wanting to create numerous complicated views but not knowing how unless they learn a sizable chunk of TSQL. If they have to do that, the value of a library like DB_DataObject, which prevents them from having to write sql, is significantly reduced.
Personally, I think it all comes down to which they want to be easier: creating access forms/queries/etc or creating data driven web pages. Any thoughts?
People don't understand how the FOIA works. I work for a quasi-public agency which occasionally receives FOI requests. We respond to FOI requests as fast as we possibly can (we generally turn them around on the order of days, not weeks, from what I hear).
Perhaps the fundamental problem is that freedom of information requests are required to protect the freedom of information. If the government would provide an alternate mechanism for distributing information to the public, then this mechanism would not even need to exist.
For example, let's say that someone wants to know what tools the fbi uses to monitor internet traffic and how they work. They could just ask the fbi and the fbi could just tell them. People shouldn't need/be required to dig around in old stacks of documents for weeks at a time at great expense to the requester and to the tax payer.
Is it reasonable to assume the owner is only going to use the machine for recipes and tv? What about web browsing or emailing or chatting? Maybe the owner will start entering their own recipes onto the computer using word processing software. Who knows for sure?
Maybe a touch screen is a good idea in the same way that an integrated pointing device on the keyboard is a good idea, but I still believe you should have a traditional mouse. Of course another downside to touchscreens is finger prints....
Touch screens are one of those things that sound neat but in fact aren't. Also, the price seems a bit steep for the utility. I've seen new projectors for close to $600 (not that one would be appropriate for most kitchens)
As for the keyboard, the one you have selected looks really neat, and I personally think it would be cool to have one. However, I might question the usability aspects of it. We have a public area computer, and the number one concern with the keyboard is being able to move it around easily. In that respect, there are two problems with your selected keyboard. First, it has a wire and this can potentially be very inconvenient if you are trying to get it out of the way to clear up counter space. Secondly, it is floppy not rigid. If you have to flatten out the keyboard everytime you move it this will be annoying. Additionally, you couldn't type with the keyboard in your lap.
We have a wireless keyboard with an integrated trackball mouse. This is handy because there is only one device and it is easy to move around. These are hard to find, and the down side is that all pointing devices in keyboards suck. To offset the suckage but retain the benefit of an all in one wireless device, I would recommend setting up a combo keyboard and a separate wireless mouse.
As for spillage with the keyboard, this is a real concern, but I think you're probably going to have to just live with the risk. If you find a particularly suitable keyboard, you might want to buy two. Also, be aware that not all serious spills are fatal. I dropped a coke on our wireless one and we were able to crack it open and clean it out.
There are two kinds of paranoia: Total, and insufficient. I am both, because if you think you are sufficiently paranoid, you're not - Guildenstern, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
When it comes to sexual obscenity in general, there is more to consider than simply individual liberty. There is a undeniable cost to society from the dissemination of sexually obscene material, although I will be the first to admit the difficulty of quantifying that cost.
Everything has a cost. Please explain the nature of this cost and why eliminating or reducing it should trump civil liberties.
We're doing a website redesign and I was VERY keen on using some kind of content management system. However, I'd never done anything with one before, and it wasn't clear to me where to start.
I spent about a week setting up (or trying to setup) different CMS systems on our server and playing with them (drupal, midgard, bitflux, etc). After a week, my conclusion was that all of the open source CMS systems I was encountering were fairly complicated and that learning how to use them and deploy them in a manner that would allow other people to use them effectively would take more time than I had available. In particular it wasn't even clear if I could convince the site designers to get on board with something like that.
I'm still interested in bringing CMS usage into the office. However, I'm going to wait until I've had a little time to play with them on my own time, which is something I was interested in doing anyway.
I second that. After working for a few large companies, an unstable startup, and one company on a perpetual deathmarch track, my current job as a university all around IT guy is stable, enjoyable, 8-5, and has excellent perks. In particular, our retirement plan is absolutely ridiculous (in a good way) compared to anything I've seen in the corporate sector. I've found the educational environment itself to be a lot more rewarding. You do things to help people, not a bottom line.
I work in a small university department. There are several different people working on the website. Most are using some variant of dreamweaver. Most are very non technical. Getting version control working seemlessly and reliably within dreamweaver and other clients, and then attempting to explain it to everyone so that they actually understand it, is simply put, not worth it. As far as using something outside of dreamweaver, I think that's too complicated for most, especially for those who might only make a change once or twice a month.
Some might be saying that Dreamweaver has some sort of pseudo version control thing built in. Frankly, I don't trust it. I'd rather have something standard like cvs, subversion, or sourcesafe. I'm new to dreamweaver so that attitude could change but I doubt it.
That said, I'm planning on automating some backups to in essence archive older versions of the site, libraries, and scripts... sort of a poor man's version archive system.
MS selling anti-spyware is like Goodyear selling anti-defective-tire-glue-or-something.
People keep saying this. It's not really true. Of course some of this spyware is getting on because of exploits in things like internet explorer. However, they have been plenty of exploits in other browsers like Firefox.
The bottom line is that as long as users just click on executables without caring where they came from or reading what is included in the install, there will be spyware problems. Microsoft can not change this. They can improve their software, and they are improving their software. However, a malicious code detection and removal tool will probably always be part of the solution on any OS targeted towards popular use amongst cluefree users.
I see Qualcomm on the list, too. Is there something special we're supposed to be inferring? Slow news day?
Are you kidding????? This is quite possibly the best news I've ever gotten from slashdot. Perhaps now I can finally convince my fairly liberal sole Eudora user to let the program die. Die Eudora Die!! Even better, Michael Dell was a big contributor. Perhaps this is just what I need to convince the fairly liberal management to let me go with a local vendor using standard parts. Thank You Slashdot. Best news ever.
I haven't read the article, but (assuming infinite expansion) presumably the issue with the universe ending is with everything approaching entropy. In other words, we lose accessible energy. If we can escape to another universe, who's to say we can't steal some other universe's energy to keep our own universe kicking. It's Mega Maid!!! She's gone from suck to blow! (or vice versa in this case).
I'm afraid I've grown rather attached to this universe.
Assuming that xbox sales really do hurt microsoft's os and applications market, then we might be talking about a disruptive technology. In that case, Microsoft has a couple of choices. They can try to bring it to market and potentially canibalize their own business or they can wait until someone else brings it to market.
If they bring it to market themselves, they may be cannibalizing their own OS/applications business but the money still goes into their pockets. On the other hand, very few big businesses are successful at bringing products to market that are disruptive with respect to their existing products. If it truly was disruptive to their OS/apps market, it would be a marvel of business ingenuity for them to have successfully brought the xbox to market.
As things are, I really don't think the xbox puts a dent, ding, scuff, or scratch in os/app sales. For starters, most of the cash probably comes from businesses. Second, the percentage of people who are sticking with Windows solely for games has got to be extraordinarily small.
When I look at the xbox, all I see is expansion into additional markets and, longer term, creation of entirely new markets for their existing os/app products. I mean, the thing runs a stripped down version of windows. They may be losing money now, but that won't last forever.
Same goes for me, and I'm on elune. I think maybe they just need to work on the way people are loaded in high population areas. Maybe they could load rough models first or just hide characters until their models can be loaded (works in ironforge with pcs but not with monsters). On the whole, I think it's a great game, worth the occassional bit of downtime.
In other words it is completely your employers fault, not yours.
Well, the employee is the one who pursued a job that did not match their capabilities, resources, or needs. I've been in stressful jobs where the requirements did not meet my resources (specifically I wasn't 5-6 people). Even if the employer puts the employee in over their head, it is still the employee's choice to stay or go or to request more manageable work.
I spend at least 2 hours a week updating my computer at home now.
Unless you are using dial-up, I don't understand why this is the case. I personally probably spend less time per week patching 20 pcs at work. Everything's just so automatic these days: windows patches, virus updates. We don't deploy spybot/adaware but don't they have automatic updates too?
Slashdot Mirror
Now let's sit back and hear all the conspiracy theories about how Google is slowly preparing for world domination.
Am I the only one who finds it somewhat terrifying the degree to which google and its services have become a necessary tool in the life of every IT staffer? What happens if someone drops a nuke on google? What happens if all of the millionaire employees retire and are replaced with traditional wallstreet analysts? I love the things the company has done, the things they have created, but the last thing I want to see is for existing independent internet wonders like wikipedia to fall under the google umbrella. There are already too many extremely valuable eggs in that basket.
the sysadmins are competent enough to handle this themselves.
I didn't bother to read a description of the tool, but there's nothing to say that a competent admin might not want something like this if it eased his burden. Also, there's the matter of incompetent admins. Many of us wear multiple hats. I do development, support, and administration on linux and windows for a small office, mostly by myself. Suffice to say, nobody can be perfect at everything. I'm always looking for tools that help me automate common tasks and, generally speaking, manage more with less.
It's not so much about laziness as about being lost. Many people have trouble solving simple problems on their pc such as "why is my system so slow?". If they knew how to solve the problem, they probably would. How often have you avoided doing something because you weren't sure where to begin, how much work it would entail? It's not laziness.
Sorry, I have a pet peeve about the word laziness. I once worked somewhere where everytime there was an error in code, it was the fault of those lazy programmers working 60 hour weeks without overtime.
Rather, they blame the guys who write the bad stuff -- not the guys who make it possible.
Additionally, I think a lot of people blame themselves. They feel they have done something stupid and don't want to admit it. This happens all the time with complicated technology and, working support, I see it happen on a daily basis.
There also used to be a company, based in california I believe, that did in fact specialize in extracting gold and presumably other precious materials from computer hardware. I think they went out of business, in part because the extraction process was too expensive. Additionally, I think manufacturers use less gold now.
Thank you for the response.
but sooner or later you're going to do a complex query spanning multiple tables, and you'll wish you used SQL. Usually the best approach is a combination....
Even though DB_DataObject has an ok query interface, I agree that eventually they are going to need to be writing some sql. It's just unavoidable, but my guess is that this will not happen very often. When the time came, if DB_DataObject couldn't handle it, my plan was to toss them up to the pear:Db level. This is a generic database interface similar to perl's dbi which is only slightly better than mysql_* functions.
Thank you for the link to Ibatis. It looks fairly slick. I don't really think these guys could ever handle java/.net style development, but I might give it a go sometime. Again, thanks.
Lately I have been tasked with helping our communications department get on track with creation of a data driven website. At the moment, we're talking about helping two people. One is a graphic designer who manages a fairly large website. She has done a little bit of asp/access, but I don't think she understands it particularly well. She says she did a little php a long time ago. The other individual has been maintaining a filemaker database which presently contains data that is not in an optimal format for programming. This second individual has, using filemaker, managed to generate static pages off of the data (using some rather scary techniques). While they both have probably seen or written a few sql statements, I doubt they understood what they were doing.
// declaration // gets the student with pri key=2 // print's student's name. // commits name change
I am on loan to this department, so I can't just finish the project in a weekend and then hand it to them. Rather it's going to be a fairly long drawn out educational process (~2 months @ 1/2 time). They need to be able to understand how it works, how to maintain it, how to enhance it. Essentially they need to be an integral/invested part of the development process.
Anyways, my initial idea was to have them use PHP alongside Pear's DB_DataObject and eventually Html_QuickForm libraries. For those not in the know, DB_DataObject is an object oriented data access layer generator framework thingy. Basically, instead of establishing connections, writing sql statements, and iterating over recordsets, they can write fairly simple code like the following.
require_once('some-config-file.php');
$student = new DB_Student();
$student->get(2);
print $student->name;
$student->name = "Bob Bobertson"; set students name.
$student->update();
Now when I see a newbie book teaching people to pound out their own sql and use old school mysql_connect style functions, I question my judgement. Is it a good idea or a bad idea to try to introduce these kinds of rapid development tools to novices? On one hand, these tools make my life easier on a daily basis. On the other hand, sometimes it's better to know the basics before going off to advanced topics like this. What do you guys think?
It should be noted that whatever happens we are not sticking with filemaker (not even my decision). We will either be using Access which doesn't appear to be supported by DB_DataObject or potentially Access/ADP/MSDE or Access/Linked/MySQL which both do work with DB_DataObject. I am desperately trying to set up something that lets them create/edit/drop tables from within Access and lets them easily design queries in access which are then usable with DB_DataObject.
Thus far, the closest I've come is using MSDE (light weight MS SQL Server) as the backend for Access. This is done using the Active Data Project (ADP) format not with linked tables. They can create/edit/drop tables and create views in Access. The views and tables are all reachable via DB_DataObject. However, there is no expression builder in the Access interface when working in this fashion.
This is problematic because these folks are more accustomed to using wizards to dump all of their messed up logic right into their database software. I can see them wanting to create numerous complicated views but not knowing how unless they learn a sizable chunk of TSQL. If they have to do that, the value of a library like DB_DataObject, which prevents them from having to write sql, is significantly reduced.
Personally, I think it all comes down to which they want to be easier: creating access forms/queries/etc or creating data driven web pages. Any thoughts?
People don't understand how the FOIA works. I work for a quasi-public agency which occasionally receives FOI requests. We respond to FOI requests as fast as we possibly can (we generally turn them around on the order of days, not weeks, from what I hear).
Perhaps the fundamental problem is that freedom of information requests are required to protect the freedom of information. If the government would provide an alternate mechanism for distributing information to the public, then this mechanism would not even need to exist.
For example, let's say that someone wants to know what tools the fbi uses to monitor internet traffic and how they work. They could just ask the fbi and the fbi could just tell them. People shouldn't need/be required to dig around in old stacks of documents for weeks at a time at great expense to the requester and to the tax payer.
We use Red Hat and I like it quite a bit. However, if we didn't get an academic service agreement ($50/yr), it would be bloody murder.
Is it reasonable to assume the owner is only going to use the machine for recipes and tv? What about web browsing or emailing or chatting? Maybe the owner will start entering their own recipes onto the computer using word processing software. Who knows for sure?
Maybe a touch screen is a good idea in the same way that an integrated pointing device on the keyboard is a good idea, but I still believe you should have a traditional mouse. Of course another downside to touchscreens is finger prints....
Touch screens are one of those things that sound neat but in fact aren't. Also, the price seems a bit steep for the utility. I've seen new projectors for close to $600 (not that one would be appropriate for most kitchens)
As for the keyboard, the one you have selected looks really neat, and I personally think it would be cool to have one. However, I might question the usability aspects of it. We have a public area computer, and the number one concern with the keyboard is being able to move it around easily. In that respect, there are two problems with your selected keyboard. First, it has a wire and this can potentially be very inconvenient if you are trying to get it out of the way to clear up counter space. Secondly, it is floppy not rigid. If you have to flatten out the keyboard everytime you move it this will be annoying. Additionally, you couldn't type with the keyboard in your lap.
We have a wireless keyboard with an integrated trackball mouse. This is handy because there is only one device and it is easy to move around. These are hard to find, and the down side is that all pointing devices in keyboards suck. To offset the suckage but retain the benefit of an all in one wireless device, I would recommend setting up a combo keyboard and a separate wireless mouse.
As for spillage with the keyboard, this is a real concern, but I think you're probably going to have to just live with the risk. If you find a particularly suitable keyboard, you might want to buy two. Also, be aware that not all serious spills are fatal. I dropped a coke on our wireless one and we were able to crack it open and clean it out.
There are two kinds of paranoia: Total, and insufficient. I am both, because if you think you are sufficiently paranoid, you're not - Guildenstern, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
What are you driving at?
When it comes to sexual obscenity in general, there is more to consider than simply individual liberty. There is a undeniable cost to society from the dissemination of sexually obscene material, although I will be the first to admit the difficulty of quantifying that cost.
Everything has a cost. Please explain the nature of this cost and why eliminating or reducing it should trump civil liberties.
Thank you. It looks interesting and I am looking at it now.
We're doing a website redesign and I was VERY keen on using some kind of content management system. However, I'd never done anything with one before, and it wasn't clear to me where to start.
I spent about a week setting up (or trying to setup) different CMS systems on our server and playing with them (drupal, midgard, bitflux, etc). After a week, my conclusion was that all of the open source CMS systems I was encountering were fairly complicated and that learning how to use them and deploy them in a manner that would allow other people to use them effectively would take more time than I had available. In particular it wasn't even clear if I could convince the site designers to get on board with something like that.
I'm still interested in bringing CMS usage into the office. However, I'm going to wait until I've had a little time to play with them on my own time, which is something I was interested in doing anyway.
I second that. After working for a few large companies, an unstable startup, and one company on a perpetual deathmarch track, my current job as a university all around IT guy is stable, enjoyable, 8-5, and has excellent perks. In particular, our retirement plan is absolutely ridiculous (in a good way) compared to anything I've seen in the corporate sector. I've found the educational environment itself to be a lot more rewarding. You do things to help people, not a bottom line.
I work in a small university department. There are several different people working on the website. Most are using some variant of dreamweaver. Most are very non technical. Getting version control working seemlessly and reliably within dreamweaver and other clients, and then attempting to explain it to everyone so that they actually understand it, is simply put, not worth it. As far as using something outside of dreamweaver, I think that's too complicated for most, especially for those who might only make a change once or twice a month.
Some might be saying that Dreamweaver has some sort of pseudo version control thing built in. Frankly, I don't trust it. I'd rather have something standard like cvs, subversion, or sourcesafe. I'm new to dreamweaver so that attitude could change but I doubt it.
That said, I'm planning on automating some backups to in essence archive older versions of the site, libraries, and scripts... sort of a poor man's version archive system.
MS selling anti-spyware is like Goodyear selling anti-defective-tire-glue-or-something.
People keep saying this. It's not really true. Of course some of this spyware is getting on because of exploits in things like internet explorer. However, they have been plenty of exploits in other browsers like Firefox.
The bottom line is that as long as users just click on executables without caring where they came from or reading what is included in the install, there will be spyware problems. Microsoft can not change this. They can improve their software, and they are improving their software. However, a malicious code detection and removal tool will probably always be part of the solution on any OS targeted towards popular use amongst cluefree users.
I see Qualcomm on the list, too. Is there something special we're supposed to be inferring? Slow news day?
Are you kidding????? This is quite possibly the best news I've ever gotten from slashdot. Perhaps now I can finally convince my fairly liberal sole Eudora user to let the program die. Die Eudora Die!! Even better, Michael Dell was a big contributor. Perhaps this is just what I need to convince the fairly liberal management to let me go with a local vendor using standard parts. Thank You Slashdot. Best news ever.
I haven't read the article, but (assuming infinite expansion) presumably the issue with the universe ending is with everything approaching entropy. In other words, we lose accessible energy. If we can escape to another universe, who's to say we can't steal some other universe's energy to keep our own universe kicking. It's Mega Maid!!! She's gone from suck to blow! (or vice versa in this case).
I'm afraid I've grown rather attached to this universe.
Psht. Children are unpleasant and inefficient. This way, they will be mostly obsolete.
Nah, don't get rid of them yet. I'm guessing immortality will only increase the need for biologically compatible spare parts.
Assuming that xbox sales really do hurt microsoft's os and applications market, then we might be talking about a disruptive technology. In that case, Microsoft has a couple of choices. They can try to bring it to market and potentially canibalize their own business or they can wait until someone else brings it to market.
If they bring it to market themselves, they may be cannibalizing their own OS/applications business but the money still goes into their pockets. On the other hand, very few big businesses are successful at bringing products to market that are disruptive with respect to their existing products. If it truly was disruptive to their OS/apps market, it would be a marvel of business ingenuity for them to have successfully brought the xbox to market.
As things are, I really don't think the xbox puts a dent, ding, scuff, or scratch in os/app sales. For starters, most of the cash probably comes from businesses. Second, the percentage of people who are sticking with Windows solely for games has got to be extraordinarily small.
When I look at the xbox, all I see is expansion into additional markets and, longer term, creation of entirely new markets for their existing os/app products. I mean, the thing runs a stripped down version of windows. They may be losing money now, but that won't last forever.
Same goes for me, and I'm on elune. I think maybe they just need to work on the way people are loaded in high population areas. Maybe they could load rough models first or just hide characters until their models can be loaded (works in ironforge with pcs but not with monsters). On the whole, I think it's a great game, worth the occassional bit of downtime.
In other words it is completely your employers fault, not yours.
Well, the employee is the one who pursued a job that did not match their capabilities, resources, or needs. I've been in stressful jobs where the requirements did not meet my resources (specifically I wasn't 5-6 people). Even if the employer puts the employee in over their head, it is still the employee's choice to stay or go or to request more manageable work.
I spend at least 2 hours a week updating my computer at home now.
Unless you are using dial-up, I don't understand why this is the case. I personally probably spend less time per week patching 20 pcs at work. Everything's just so automatic these days: windows patches, virus updates. We don't deploy spybot/adaware but don't they have automatic updates too?