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User: terrywin

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  1. Impossible... on How an IRS Agent Stole $1M From Taxpayers (onthewire.io) · · Score: 1

    WOW...I can't believe it. This could not have happened!

    Tthe king would not allow the IRS to perpetrate fraud!

    Nor would he permit the IRS to target anyone whose political leanings where presumed to be "offensive" to his beliefs.

    This story is a non-starter... Did anyone check Snopes to see if it was true?

     

  2. Re:Dreamers on How Did Volkswagen Cheat Emissions Tests, and Who Authorized It? · · Score: 1

    Yeah...but it took, what, 8 years to convict the guy?

    As much as I hate the way the Chinese government works against its people, they seem to have done a few things right: In China, if your caught intentionally contaminating the food supply...you are executed in front of a firing squad.

    Sounds like the right thing to do!

  3. How naive... on VW Fiasco Puts Ethics In Engineering Under the Spotlight, CEO Steps Down · · Score: 2

    "ethics violations challenge our trust of the engineering"

    Ethics violations are now and have been occuring for longer than I can remember. Make no mistake about it ... it's all about money, plain and simple.

    Anyone who has been paying attention to the last 20-30 years should know by now that "trust" in Engineering, Medicine, etc. (pick anything) has been corrupted by the all mighty dollar.

  4. It's a classic... on The Greatest Keyboard Ever Made · · Score: 1

    They were a great keyboard! At work I'm still using an IBM compatible 5250 style keyboard that has great tactile feedback. I even bought one for my home PC -- it's 6-7 years old and still going strong :)

    http://www.ioconnections.com/p...

  5. ATT...they're cheap!

    Try Frontier...lucky to get 3MB for a measly $45.00 per month + taxes. A local monolpoly at work...

  6. Re:Title is Not Properly Descriptive... on Slashdot Asks: How Do You Pay Your Taxes? · · Score: 1

    Exactly. As for myself, I will continue to file by paper/snail mail. Lets face it, even if everyone filed electronically is there anyone naive enough to believe that the tax rates would be reduced because of the savings?

  7. Re:Well, of course COBOL is still around on COBOL Will Outlive Us All · · Score: 1

    You hit the nail on the head. Another thing that most of the younger folks in IT do not understand is that its very likely their bank and insurance companies are running COBOL on the back end systems producing statements, calculating rate adjustments, etc.
    For these two industries COBOL does all of the heavy lifting and its not likely to be replaced anytime soon...

    Even today I'm still coding in COBOL on a medium sized manufacturing system and to replace it with C or Java would be a fools errand...

  8. Data seems invalid/incorrect on Feds Help You Find Your Fastest Internet Service · · Score: 1

    This either shows invalid data being provided by the industry OR their mapping software is junk. I live further than 18,000ft from the switching office yet for my area it lists the local telco (Frontier) as 3-6Mbps. However, the local engineer has already told me that my speed would be between 384K and 1Mbps...if I was lucky. I have worked on PC's in the outlying area and if you can keep the cheap, chinese-made modems working, yes you can make the 384K. IMO, for the $50 per month charge...they can keep their DSL.

  9. Link to article... on Will Your Answers To the Census Stay Private? · · Score: 1
  10. Re:It won't work. on Jerry Seinfeld Will Plug Vista · · Score: 1

    "Some people sit around and worry that someday someone will make them upgrade to Vista."

    Jeez...your talking about me! How did you know?

    I will never install an OS that "phones home" to the mothership with such regularity...and beyond my control...

  11. Re:No, *THESE* are slaves on Apple Sued For Turning Workers Into Slaves · · Score: 1

    I can't help but wonder why you were modded as flamebait...

  12. Re:Why can't he sell it back? on Switching To Solar Power – One Month Later · · Score: 1

    Choosing the power producer who "energizes the line" is an ineffective method of deregulation when the utility that transports the power (e.g. the utility that owns the lines/poles/substations) is a monopoly and can "charge what the market will bear". Come to NY and live under NYSEG for a change...

  13. How many bunnies? on Early Review Calls New Indiana Jones Film Dreadful · · Score: 1

    Until I see how many bunnies are given by Playboy I'll consider this a lopsided review ;-)

  14. Re:Oh, they saw it all right on Sony Sues Rootkit Maker · · Score: 1

    This should be modded up! It's a great overview of what really happens in big business technology decisions...have seen it more than once.

  15. Re:IBM on National Archive File Format Time Bomb · · Score: 1

    Note: The firewall module (written by IBM) has been outdated for years and IBM told everyone this way back when...if this shop is still running it, they should have shifted to an alternative by now as was previously recommended by Big Blue (they have had ample time to do so...).

    As far as actual user/business programs are concerned, the parent is correct...code written over 25 years ago on earlier versions of this platform (S/38, S/36) will still run today. Not to mention the fact that IBM changed from a CISC to RISC CPU architecture years ago and in most businesses not one program had to be recompiled!

    It truly is a remarkable platform :)

  16. Avoiding Commercials on Consumers Prefer Movies At Home · · Score: 1

    If the movie is going to have a *lot* of special effects and/or looks to be a blockbuster that will benefit from a big screen, then I'll go to the theater and shell out the $8-$9 for tickets, otherwise I'll wait for the VHS to appear.

    Terry

    tired of watching 15 minutes of commercials at an $8 entry fee :(

  17. Re:Beta Release? on IE7 Announced for Longhorn and WinXP · · Score: 1

    "No other OS today will run a program designed
    for an Operating System 10 years old while still
    having the features one would expect from a modern
    operating system."

    I guess you need to define "features of a modern
    OS". The AS/400 (now called iSeries) runs an
    operating system called OS/400. This OS has
    supported a change from a 32 to 64 bit platform,
    without requiring program object changes, for
    over 10 years. Now, if you had said a "PC based
    Operating System..." - I might agree ;-)

    Terry

  18. Re:For those who have RTFA issues... on MS To Limit Security Fixes to Legal Copies of Windows · · Score: 2

    I'm still running Win98 with a software firewall and Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware installed - haven't had any problems nor has it *ever* been compromised.

    It does everything I need it to do - why should I
    NEED to upgrade? I recommend you apply for a
    marketing job at MS ;-)

  19. Interesting... on CIO Magazine On Offshore IT · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "You can't expect day-one or even month-six gains," Zupnick says. "You have to look at offshore outsourcing as a long-term investment with long-term payback."

    IMHO in the last couple decades, most US companies have *not* looked at long-term investment or paybacks - only the short term profits. This should be a wake-up call to all those CEO/CIO's!

    Terry

  20. Re: learn to fix cars on IBM Moving Developer Jobs Overseas · · Score: 1

    >> You don't have to wait. You can get 0% interest* >> on anything you want.

    Have you looked at the sticker prices lately?
    Your paying for that interest in the price of
    the vehicle.

    Buy a clue. NOBODY loans money interest free.

    Sheesh, kids today haven't got a clue....

    Terry

  21. Re:This could be great for gun control on RIAA Grabs Student's Life's Savings · · Score: 1

    "You soon wont even be able to sue them if guns are ACTUALLY used for something illegal."

    Based on that logic I should be able to sue
    a car manufacturer when a drunk driver hits
    me -or- sue the manufacturer of the baseball
    bat that was used to beat me by some criminal
    in a dark alley.

    You need to think about this a little more :)

    Terry

  22. Re:Consolidation of bad software? on Oracle's Hostile Takeover Bid For PeopleSoft · · Score: 1

    Actually, its more reminiscent of RPG which
    is what their World software is written in
    which, I might add, is a highly stable system
    used by thousands of mid-size companies.

    BTW, its COBOL :)

    Terry

  23. Re:Cobol as an Environment on Mainframe Techies Are A Dying Breed · · Score: 1

    "A lot of you bigots need to realize that your
    unemployement checks are almost certainly
    processed with Cobol."

    This is most certainly true. In addition,
    MOST of the worlds largest bank and insurance
    industries run their back-end systems on
    mainframe COBOL. We're talking *millions* of
    transactions a day being processed, analyzed,
    stored, etc. These systems often have robotic
    tape systems, fibre connections, etc. Maybe
    they could be replaced by a cluster of BEOWOLF
    clusters, but I doubt it ;-)

    COBOL's been pronounced dead many, many times.
    Neither it nor mainframes are going away any
    time soon :)

    Terry
    (one of those *aging* COBOL programmers)

  24. They're required for Windows boxes... on Death to the 3.5" Floppy? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    From my experience, you *must* have a floppy
    capable of booting DOS when a Windoze box
    takes a dump and doesn't revive itself.

    I always carry a modified Win* emergency
    boot disk in the briefcase.

    Unfortunately, I don't currently have one
    for my Mandrake or FreeBSD boxes. But then
    again they haven't trashed themselves enough
    to require a floppy to restart :)

    Terry

  25. Samples = Potential Profit on Ebert, Gillmor on the Music Industry · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Here is the part the RIAA and MPAA should be paying attention to:

    "Back when I was a member of the prime music-buying demographic, I went into Markland's Record Store on Main Street in Urbana, Illinois, and took the latest 45s into a soundproof listening booth where I could sample them. I sampled them a lot. So did all the other kids. Sometimes we would sample the same song every day for a week. The Marklands knew what we were up to. They also knew that we yearned to own those records, and that when we found the 89 cents for a 45 or the $3.98 for an LP we'd be their customers. We were fueling our enthusiasm."

    I remember those days (although I didn't do it as much as some of my friends). You heard these great tunes and the first thing on your mind was "How am I going to make some money to buy this 45?" (lawn mowing, collecting pop bottles, etc.)

    Its obvious the video/music cartel - just don't GET IT! They're attacking the wrong side of the
    problem (piracy) instead of looking at the future.

    Terry