One of our LAN admins just got back from the Brainshare conference. He's got a Dell D600 too. When he came back to work, he was pretty thrilled to be able to show everyone in the office how he'd managed to get Red Hat installed on it, plus drivers for the built-in wireless networking and a beta of the GroupWise for Linux 6.5 client.
It works, sure. He just had to go to a conference of other networking geeks to get the help he needed. A lot of hardware installs are like that.
I don't think the argument that "it should install easy" works against merely Linux anymore. Windows XP has more than it's share of hassle on install too -- especially if you want to cook up one configuration that installs on any hardware quickly and glitch-free. Our IT department inisists that all computers running XP *must* be installed by a technician precisely for that reason -- if we didn't install it, we can't guarantee that software will run on it. This creates a lot of work for us and we'd love to be rid of it, but it has to be done. User-driven installs of Windows XP just break far too often.
And have we all forgotten that XP will refuse to boot if you change too much hardware too fast? Build me a Knoppix-style WindowsXP Live CD and then I'll believe in fairies.
My local college station, KUNM 89.9, has been broadcasting some really worthwhile stuff.
They play the usual line of NPR news programs (where coverage of events lasts longer than a 30-second soundbyte), there's a local call-in show that's not half bad, and the human interest content of All Things Considered actually manages to interest me.
There are some interesting snippets that they throw in for more ecclectic tastes as well. A short astronomy program called StarDate (from the McDonald Observatory) airs without fail at 7 o'clock, just as the stars are coming out. Radio dramas are still alive too, both classic shows and contemporary new shows.
The radio entertaining and informative and I don't have to sit my ass down to pay attention to it -- I can listen as I clean the house, do some light reading, or surf the web. And since it's a public broadcasting station, the only ads I have to listen to are the notices of other programs I might be interested in, a short blip naming sponsors, and the bi-yearly pledge drive. I feel more than compensated for.
I'm considering getting a Hauppage TV-FM capture card, not so much for the video capture (I do a little capturing here and there though), but mainly for the radio tuner. From there, I plan to see if I can set up MythTV to auto-capture the rest of the radio programs I can't listen to during the workday.
Best of all, it's a community network, reflective of the people who actually live here. Aside from the syndicated stuff, many of the shows are produced right there in the station. I have an outside chance of bumping into the owners and operators of the station in the grocery store -- No nationalized ClearChannel mouthpieces here.
TV -- Bah. It's little more than a DVD monitor these days, and I although I feel a bit out of touch when my friends talk about what's on, I feel like by switching on my radio I've gained more than I've lost.
Question the "free" argument... License cost makes up only a small portion of the total cost of ownership. More significant costs include: Installation and deployment,
Data migration and testing (especially if customer uses Access databases)
My emphasis, there. And I couldn't agree more. Handling issues of inaccessable Access databases is incredibly important, and is notorious for chewing up helpdesk hours.
Especially when Office 2000 broke Access compatibility with 98 databases, and forced everyone to upgrade (or to not touch the database with Access2000 so that those who had not yet upgraded could still get to their data).
OfficeXP did the same thing to 2000 databases - all it took was one XP user to touch the database, and all the 2000 users would suddenly be out of the loop. I fully expect Access2k3 to be the same way.
So yes, consider those Access databases as a major component of the cost of data migration. When one version of Access touches the database, be ready to install and deploy that same version to all your other clients, because with Access, you migrate your data whether you're ready to or not. And you pay every year for the privilige! Hooray!
Okay.... so what happens when the cards come with an RFID inside them that checks against the UPC barcode?
These cards will go the way of the dodo. Instead we'll get "FUN!" keychains with the RFID inside them, read by the cash register as they insta-ring you up. No hassle, no fuss, all telemetry.
Heh -- please take the "insensitive clod" as firmly tongue-in-cheek. Flippancy is par for the course around here.:)
This insensitive clod would love to see the university hop off of the MS upgrade-go-round - the cash saved from the licenses (and man-hours of support!) would more than justify some well-deserved raises and a few new positions to get the real work of the university done.
Er... as an employee of an academic institution, I really must protest.
First, you're an insensitive clod.
Second, the money that we get comes from a mix of payments made by students and funded legislated by the state. Neither of those sources are eager to part with their cash, and in order to earn it, the institution has to provide value.
Part of proviing value in our case is delivering the maximum service for the smallest outlay of cash. In other words, you're damn skippy we have to pinch our pennies, often to the point of under-funding projects, begging for grant money, and underpaying the staff and faculty. This we do in the name of providing a higher education, because there's no money to be made here. Only reputations.
The trick is to pinch the pennies in ways that appear extravegant and bold, to "show" that we're a competitive, forward-thinking institution with the future in mind.
it's not like it reads, "Thou shalt not do anything we don't like."
Are you sure about that? It's in the fine print. Really fine print, as it turns out -- it's in microtext in the dot over the second "i" in "millennium."
I heard about one bank chain in the USA that created one-time credit card numbers for use on the Internet. Basically, when you find something on the net that you want to buy, you go to the bank's website and request a disposable credit card number. Then you go to the vendor's site, fill that number in, and make your order. The number is accepted, processed, and expired immediately.
As far as the vendor knows, that's the only credit card number you have, but you can be secure that the number won't find it's way around to abusers. Plus, your real number is isolated from your identity.
This whole "Eistein was right after all" angle is misinformed. He wanted a static universe because that was the historic conception of the universe. His own science didn't allow for it, but he wrangled an equation for one out of it anyway. Turns out he was wrong, is wrong, and will always have been wrong. Einstein's motivation for putting in the cosmological constant was ideological, not observational -- and that's a recipe for Dumb Science.
Dumb Science isn't "right after all," no matter how much you respect the guy who came up with it.
Each skill branch was a collection of skills based off of a stat (Dex, Agility, Moxie, whatever). Characters' skill ratings were based off of a value derived from their stats (basically the stat/4 -- a 20 stat would give you a base 5 in every related skill) plus however many skill points they invested in their trees as they advanced. Instead of rolling to meet a challenge rating, Paranoia players would try to roll under their combined skill rating.
The only other significant mechanical difference I can think of was the damage system. Instead of hit points, you had an arbitrary descriptor ranging along the lines of "okay, stunned, hurt, incapacitated, dead." This allowed for more theatrical and less numeric roleplaying. Andn none of that goddamned two phase "move-equivilent action, attack of opportunity" BS. Good for miniatures, but suck for a good roleplaying session.
In fact, I take it back. Paranoia 2nd Ed didn't invent D20; they imporved on it, and D20 didn't even EXIST then.
Third, an individual or group of IT insiders could target a single organization by obtaining a good copy of Linux, and then customizing it for an organization, including malevolent code as they do so. That version would then become the standard version for the organization. Given the prevalence of inter-corporation and inter-governmental spying, and the relatively large numbers of people in a position to accomplish such subterfuge, this last scenario is virtually certain to occur. Worse, these probabilities aren't limited to Linux itself, the same possibilities (and probabilities) exist for every open source software package installed and used on the machines.
The advert that appeared (one of those ones that takes up a quarter of the page and shifts all the article text around) was this:
FREEVBCODE.COM -- Get high-quality, FREE Visual Basic code
The real kicker is that I can already get free, high-quality Visual Basic code... Just open the wrong attachment in Outlook.
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One of our LAN admins just got back from the Brainshare conference. He's got a Dell D600 too. When he came back to work, he was pretty thrilled to be able to show everyone in the office how he'd managed to get Red Hat installed on it, plus drivers for the built-in wireless networking and a beta of the GroupWise for Linux 6.5 client.
It works, sure. He just had to go to a conference of other networking geeks to get the help he needed. A lot of hardware installs are like that.
I don't think the argument that "it should install easy" works against merely Linux anymore. Windows XP has more than it's share of hassle on install too -- especially if you want to cook up one configuration that installs on any hardware quickly and glitch-free. Our IT department inisists that all computers running XP *must* be installed by a technician precisely for that reason -- if we didn't install it, we can't guarantee that software will run on it. This creates a lot of work for us and we'd love to be rid of it, but it has to be done. User-driven installs of Windows XP just break far too often.
And have we all forgotten that XP will refuse to boot if you change too much hardware too fast? Build me a Knoppix-style WindowsXP Live CD and then I'll believe in fairies.
My local college station, KUNM 89.9, has been broadcasting some really worthwhile stuff.
They play the usual line of NPR news programs (where coverage of events lasts longer than a 30-second soundbyte), there's a local call-in show that's not half bad, and the human interest content of All Things Considered actually manages to interest me.
There are some interesting snippets that they throw in for more ecclectic tastes as well. A short astronomy program called StarDate (from the McDonald Observatory) airs without fail at 7 o'clock, just as the stars are coming out. Radio dramas are still alive too, both classic shows and contemporary new shows.
The radio entertaining and informative and I don't have to sit my ass down to pay attention to it -- I can listen as I clean the house, do some light reading, or surf the web. And since it's a public broadcasting station, the only ads I have to listen to are the notices of other programs I might be interested in, a short blip naming sponsors, and the bi-yearly pledge drive. I feel more than compensated for.
I'm considering getting a Hauppage TV-FM capture card, not so much for the video capture (I do a little capturing here and there though), but mainly for the radio tuner. From there, I plan to see if I can set up MythTV to auto-capture the rest of the radio programs I can't listen to during the workday.
Best of all, it's a community network, reflective of the people who actually live here. Aside from the syndicated stuff, many of the shows are produced right there in the station. I have an outside chance of bumping into the owners and operators of the station in the grocery store -- No nationalized ClearChannel mouthpieces here.
TV -- Bah. It's little more than a DVD monitor these days, and I although I feel a bit out of touch when my friends talk about what's on, I feel like by switching on my radio I've gained more than I've lost.
What about the other thing Feynman said -- the bit about how "if I could explain it simply, it wouldn't be worth the Nobel prize?"
Sure, that sounds good...
Until COBRA COMMANDER hijacks the asteroid base and holds the entire EARTH for ransom!
Betcha hadn't thought of THAT, had you?
My emphasis, there. And I couldn't agree more. Handling issues of inaccessable Access databases is incredibly important, and is notorious for chewing up helpdesk hours.
Especially when Office 2000 broke Access compatibility with 98 databases, and forced everyone to upgrade (or to not touch the database with Access2000 so that those who had not yet upgraded could still get to their data).
OfficeXP did the same thing to 2000 databases - all it took was one XP user to touch the database, and all the 2000 users would suddenly be out of the loop. I fully expect Access2k3 to be the same way.
So yes, consider those Access databases as a major component of the cost of data migration. When one version of Access touches the database, be ready to install and deploy that same version to all your other clients, because with Access, you migrate your data whether you're ready to or not. And you pay every year for the privilige! Hooray!
Okay.... so what happens when the cards come with an RFID inside them that checks against the UPC barcode?
These cards will go the way of the dodo. Instead we'll get "FUN!" keychains with the RFID inside them, read by the cash register as they insta-ring you up. No hassle, no fuss, all telemetry.
Yay! Now he'll see my post!
Maybe he browses at +5. :)
Heh -- please take the "insensitive clod" as firmly tongue-in-cheek. Flippancy is par for the course around here. :)
This insensitive clod would love to see the university hop off of the MS upgrade-go-round - the cash saved from the licenses (and man-hours of support!) would more than justify some well-deserved raises and a few new positions to get the real work of the university done.
Er... as an employee of an academic institution, I really must protest.
First, you're an insensitive clod.
Second, the money that we get comes from a mix of payments made by students and funded legislated by the state. Neither of those sources are eager to part with their cash, and in order to earn it, the institution has to provide value.
Part of proviing value in our case is delivering the maximum service for the smallest outlay of cash. In other words, you're damn skippy we have to pinch our pennies, often to the point of under-funding projects, begging for grant money, and underpaying the staff and faculty. This we do in the name of providing a higher education, because there's no money to be made here. Only reputations.
The trick is to pinch the pennies in ways that appear extravegant and bold, to "show" that we're a competitive, forward-thinking institution with the future in mind.
Especially considering that the building was "erected." :)
Every server on the web is at least THEORETICALLY CAPABLE of launching a DoS, aren't they?
In other news, GWB has signed legislation that makes IP addresses illegal forever. The bombing begins in 15 minutes.
And, like Agent Smith, the purpose of XP Reloaded is for it to copy itself over all other existing OSes.
I know what it feels like when XP Reloaded detects and overwrites my Gentoo partition. It feels like dying.
it's not like it reads, "Thou shalt not do anything we don't like."
Are you sure about that? It's in the fine print. Really fine print, as it turns out -- it's in microtext in the dot over the second "i" in "millennium."
All I wanted was Linux! And they said no, we think you're on drugs! We're sending you to get help! And all I wanted was one lousy Linux!
I think he's saying the future versions of Windows will dispense Diet Coke, but I could be mistaken.
I can't help but note, however, that your language is contructed in a textbook-correct fashion.
I heard about one bank chain in the USA that created one-time credit card numbers for use on the Internet. Basically, when you find something on the net that you want to buy, you go to the bank's website and request a disposable credit card number. Then you go to the vendor's site, fill that number in, and make your order. The number is accepted, processed, and expired immediately.
As far as the vendor knows, that's the only credit card number you have, but you can be secure that the number won't find it's way around to abusers. Plus, your real number is isolated from your identity.
Damn smart, I thought.
This whole "Eistein was right after all" angle is misinformed. He wanted a static universe because that was the historic conception of the universe. His own science didn't allow for it, but he wrangled an equation for one out of it anyway. Turns out he was wrong, is wrong, and will always have been wrong. Einstein's motivation for putting in the cosmological constant was ideological, not observational -- and that's a recipe for Dumb Science.
Dumb Science isn't "right after all," no matter how much you respect the guy who came up with it.
Second Edition Paranoia practically INVENTED D20.
Each skill branch was a collection of skills based off of a stat (Dex, Agility, Moxie, whatever). Characters' skill ratings were based off of a value derived from their stats (basically the stat/4 -- a 20 stat would give you a base 5 in every related skill) plus however many skill points they invested in their trees as they advanced. Instead of rolling to meet a challenge rating, Paranoia players would try to roll under their combined skill rating.
The only other significant mechanical difference I can think of was the damage system. Instead of hit points, you had an arbitrary descriptor ranging along the lines of "okay, stunned, hurt, incapacitated, dead." This allowed for more theatrical and less numeric roleplaying. Andn none of that goddamned two phase "move-equivilent action, attack of opportunity" BS. Good for miniatures, but suck for a good roleplaying session.
In fact, I take it back. Paranoia 2nd Ed didn't invent D20; they imporved on it, and D20 didn't even EXIST then.
Disagreement on this point is treasonous.
Have you ever been unable to start your car because of an asthma attack?
Ever had your car refuse to start because your breath was Listerine fresh?
Ever debated borrowing a friend's car because they had the flu/herpes/cold sores?
You will -- and the New Mexico legislature will bring it to you.
Wouldn't this have been more appropriate yesterday? It was Tuesday, after all, and we all know what day *that* is...
FREEVBCODE.COM -- Get high-quality, FREE Visual Basic code
The real kicker is that I can already get free, high-quality Visual Basic code... Just open the wrong attachment in Outlook.
could be snow, could be hail
It's *snail!*
The new kernel is coming soon... but Slashdot subscribers can crush kernel.org right now!