Since this thread is so quiet, I'll go ahead and add one.
Unattended is a system for installing Windows and apps hands-off. Great use of Perl and BATch files to do something useful. Kind of a PITA to set up, but once going, it's well worth the time investment.
Truckers aren't high-tech dudes. Why do you think CB radios are still so popular among them?
Because they work? Do you have anything better?
FWIW, having been a trucker myself, I'd say that there are more tech savvy truckers out there than most would realize. From laptops, to wireless (in truck stops, and even ad-hoc networks in the parking lot), to GPS systems truckers often depend on technology for business, communication, and entertainment.
Personally, I used to have to submit weekly reports each week, in word format. Usually this was just a bunch of text that needed to have a pretty header and footer attached to it.
What I would've loved to do is keep a list of things I'd done that week in a text file on my harddrive, then have a cron job that ran a perl script to convert the incoming text into a word document, then email it to my boss.
WSH and Office's VBA implementations can easily handle this. The way I usually handle this sort of thing is to write the data in plain text (or CSV for Excel) and then use VBA code to format it and make it pretty. I've done just this sort of thing with both Word and Excel using VBScript on an ASP page. I've gotten out of scripting lately, but.NET may make it even easier to do this sort of thing.
You could even have Outlook email it for you, though it'd probably complain that something was trying to send email on your behalf. That could be solved with Push The Freakin' Button, or by doing a direct SMTP connection to your mail server.
If your VBScript isn't up to par, then AutoIt is a decent macro program that couldn't also do what you want, but it wouldn't be as reliable or robust...plus it can't do it in the background. I have had to use it for progams that had no scripting interface though, and was thankful that it existed.
I don't know what "skilled Win2K users and networking specialists" you've been talking to, but I think some more info may be in order here.
Though I don't have a Win2K machine handy to test right now, I don't believe it's normal for that port to be open for no reason. I can verify that neither my WinXP PC and my Win2003 server have it open, and I don't recall it ever being opened on Win2K.
Are you running Win2K Professional? Do you have the RRAS service running? Have you tried any diagnostic tools like TCPView to isolate the process? Up to date virus scan and adware scans? Any communication on that port? Any odd processes in TaskManager? If you shutdown background tasks, does that port remain open? Oh, and since you seem to be lacking in ability, how did you come to the conclusion that port was open?
..,no one has taken the time to document how nor post the solution where it can be found.
The solution is simple. Stop the process listening on that port. I don't think anyone needs to write a HOWTO on that. And seeing that I haven't heard of anyone else complaining about this (nor seen it myself), I'm inlcined to believe it's something unique to your setup - not Windows.
I have found that most security issues that abound in the Wide World of Windows occur because those in the know, do not.
Perhaps those that think they are "in the know, do not" (like ISP techs). But those of actually in the know do know how to track down a process holding a port open.
I think, phnork, that you may want to hold off on your anti-MS diatribe until you find what the issue actually is. Dollars to doughnuts it's your fault, not MS.
Look into New Hampshire's Senate and House and I think you'll see a somewhat similar solution. By NH's state Constitution, state legislators receive a salary of $100 per year. Naturally, that's not enough money for anyone to make a living out of it, so it attracts less career politicians and more part-timers.
As a lot of the legislators also have real jobs, it also cuts down on the amount of legislating they do.
Then they have 400+ members in the House, so that each member represents a small district (New Hampshire is exceedingly small already). This cuts down on campaign costs and needed contributions. Of course, their Senate has only 24 members, which I find odd.
Not saying it's perfect, but it's good enough for the FreeState project to pick as their target.
Yeah, the more of the story is pretty well detailed in the WHT forums.
Rumors have ben flying for quite awhile that Paul (the owner) was either involved or turned a blind eye to DDoS drones on his network. Some rumors stated that he's DDoS competitors to prove the superiority of CITHosting's DDoS hardened servers.
Seeing as this "data center" seems to have been his basement, I'd bet his (lack of) logs, records, and monitoring left the FBI little choice but to seize the whole thing. And, we can assume he was uncooperative as he may have been involved or at least knoweledgeable.
The general reputation of Foonet also seemed to be a bit on the black hat side. No doubt there may have been some legitimate customers as well, but they seem to be known more for their spammers and script kiddies (and cheap shell accounts) than for their legitimate webhosting.
All in all, it looks to me like the FBI did what it had to do to effectively process the warrant. They were evidently going after a network, not a specific machine. Unfortunately, some legitimate customers got caught up in it.
It looks like CTIHosting was recently sold, and is being moved to a new data center in Chicago. Let's hope that it comes back as a legitimate business this time. They've already stated that IRC will be down indefinitely, so that's a good sign.
Looks like the seizure occurred on 02/14, and that as of 2/23 some servers have already been shipped back and put back on-line. As of now, their IRC network is still down...though it's unclear whether that's due to an FBI decision, the FBI still having their servers, or a CITHosting decision.
The only thing I find a bit odd about this whole thing is that it looks like they too the opportunity to relocate their data center to Chicago (it was previously in Cleveland). According to their news,
The FBI has begun retuning equipment to CIT which is being shipped to our new facilities in Chicago.
Wouldn't that unnecessarily delay the process of restoring service to their customers? Was the move already planned, or did they suddenly decide that they needed a different data center? Is it possible they're blowing the seize out of proportion in order to cover outages due to their move? Or did the seizure even actually happen?
I've got an IBM Thinkpad 240X that's also an ultra-portable, and I absolutely LOVE it. Though it's small (12" screen), the keyboard is fantastic (as are all Thinkpads) and it's rock solid (as are all Thinkpads). I upped the RAM to 192MB (max) and put in a 5400 RPM 40GB drive and run Windows XP quite happily on it with a 500 MHz PIII-M. Only complaints are the single PCMCIA slot and the single USB port.
When I first got it, I would carry the CDROM and floppy drive everywhere, but then I realized that I never used them. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to remember the last time I used either one. Trust me...you won't miss them. Other things that fell by the wayside include a console cable, a stack of CD's, an external CD-RW, a bulky USB hub, and various cables (crossover, console, USB, etc.).
As for accessories, my basic list includes a USB optical mouse (that I normally only use for extended sessions), an extra AC adapter on the desk at home, 1 extra battery (fully charged, swapped out every couple of days) that I leave in the car, a 10' Ethernet cable with a crossover connector, a telephone cord (that I hardly ever use), a USB hard drive (stays at home for backups), and a wireless card.
Oh, and a small 75W inverter that I leave in the car to power my laptop if my battery runs dead (you could get an AC/DC adapter instead, but I use my inverter for other things as well, eg. rechargeable batteries, my cell phone, etc.)
I also have an Ethernet card because the 240X doesn't have it built in (I'm sure your's will, though) as well as a spare just in case I or someone else needs it.
Of course, I spend a lot of my day in my car (or close to it), so you may need to adjust accordingly. I'd recommend a lock, though I don't carry one myself. Obviously I have a small bag that I carry the laptop and needed accesories in. I also have another bag with the CD-RW, floppy drive, some CD's, and more esoteric cables and connectors packed and stashed in the car in case the day ever comes when I need them, but I rarely do.
One hint that I can give you, is that you'll almost always be able to work around whatever it is you don't have handy--except for lack of power and network or modem connection. So make those your priorities.
According to the CIA World Factbook, Iraq has about 12% arable land. That's roughly the same as Japan's, who I don't think anybody would be surprised if they had pesticides.
For comparison, it is a bit lower than the United States' 19%.
Email is, as we all know, technically insecure. Any company that sends confidential information via email on a server they do not own or admin is asking for trouble.
I don't believe it's unethical to know the confidential information, but only to use it. So, in this case, the former employee would presumably already know the confidential information, and the admin can choose to disregard it.
In most cases, however, it's quite simple for an admin to filter the email simply by subject and sender name without having to look at the actual text. A quick glance thru the text would also give an indication of it's purpose, but would only result in a very rudimentary comprehension of the contents.
Allowing the former employee to filter his own inbox would also be the same as what any marginally tech-savvy employee would've done either before leaving the company or before the password on the mail server was changed. I see no ethical problem there.
I realize, of course, that the company has a right to the emails in the inbox. But, they really don't have any right to personal correspondence anymore than they do if you were to write loveletters on office stationery. A trusted third party (which the admin has to be, by design) to intervene and balance the competing interests seems quite fair and ethical to me.
As for violating laws in several countries...whoop-de-do. We all know that most laws are inane and mainly benefit corporations... especially anything to do with technology.
I'm not familiar with dBase, but it sounds a lot like Microsoft Access. Perhaps the poster should look into that...maybe running under that CodeWeaver's Office emulator if he wants it under *nix.
For a good bit more work, but less money and the karma boost of avoiding proprietary (and somewhat buggy) Access, it looks like OpenOffice has rudimentary support for databases. Take a look at the UnixODBC project, specifically this PDF, which seems to do a decent job of explaining the steps involved. Note that I've never tried this, but it certainly looks workable. As a bonus, you should be able to use any database with an ODBC component.
Of course, you could always go with dBase (who bought some of the rights from Borland), who have a web enabled dBase version. It'll need to be hosted on a Windows machine, it looks like though.
You may also want to take a look here which lists Windows and *nix xBase compatible programs. xBase was (is?) a standard that dBase, Clipper, FoxPro and others adhered to. Perhaps you'll find something there. Also, there was a dBase for UNIX at one point...I don't think it's still for sale, but you may be able to turn up a copy on eBay or something.
One last suggestion would be KNoda which is a KDE frontend that allows for queries, forms, and table design. It looks a bit like Access, though, once again I haven't tried it.
That should start you on your research...good luck.
Since you're the admin of the server, and the account in question is that of a relative, I propose you filter the email. Look thru the account, remove anything potentially embarassing (perhaps with the knowledge and cooperation of your relative) and turn over any work-related emails to the company.
There's no reason to divulge personal or private correspondence, but there's also no reason not to turn over work related information. Keep whatever you do quiet, and I suspect you'd be perfectly fine legally as well. And, if the company in question knows the relation between you and the former employee, I dare say they're going to practically expect you to filter the email beforehand anyways.
The problem with web forums is that, by and large, they get inundated with Windows users looking for help. USENET, as you mentioned, is a haven to spam, plus there's multiple groups and NNTP servers to track.
Microsoft does have a news server which I use occassionally, both on the Web and through NNTP. There's alot of granularity in the groups, which is nice when I'm, say, working on a scripting problem, I can hit the.NET Scripting group and get good responses. There's also multiple languages available, perhaps useful for non-English speakers. But, unless if you're looking for more general discussions like Slashdot has, I don't think you'll find it there.
For general sysadmin and related discussion, problem solving, tips, etc., I've found mailing lists are much more manageable and informative. A real good provider is Sunbelt Software. The NTSysAdmin and Exchange lists are the most popular and general (and the only ones I'm a member of), but there's also ones dedicated to Windows security, Active Directory, etc. Be aware, though, that there's a LOT of traffic on some of these lists. Mine go into a Public Folder, but you can also get the digest if you prefer. One other one that I have used and recommend is the WinNT-List. I'm not on it currently, but mainly because of time restraints. Then again...I hardly check the Sunbelt lists anymore either....
And, of course, I've yet to find a similar forum to replace Slashdot's unique blend of tech, news, and politics...that's why I'm still here.
And so far, the linux dialogs are the only ones I've found that let me type an entire path into the "file" box - this alone is a HUGE convenience for a console-geek like myself.
Say what? I don't use MacOS, but I can testify that Windows has allowed you to do this since at least Win95. You can even do relative paths, or just a folder and it'll open the folder. There's no tab completion, but in later versions there's at least drop down completion (MS prefers that to tab-completion it seems, since it jumps out at you)....Try it sometime, you might be pleasantly surprised.
But seriously, you may want to take a look at
this Tom's Hardware article detailing the weaknesses of an integrated chip.
For those looking for the quick answer, I'll do my best to summarize. First off, since integrated graphics tend to be low cost solutions, transistor counts are nowhere near current add-in boards. From the article, Nvidia's FX5200 has 47 million transistors (FX5600=80 million and FX5900=130 million), while their onboard solution (equivalent to GeForce4 MX440) has only 27 million.
Then, there's the question of memory bandwidth. Dual channel DDR 400 has a peak of 6.4GB/s, which is shared, while an equivalent GeForce4 MX440 would have a dedicated 8GB/s.
Now, to your question. Does this consume a ton of bandwidth and affect performance? Well, that would all depend on what you're doing with it.
If you're running 3D games and the like, then both performance and bandwidth will be an issue and limit your framerates. Comparing the previous review and
this review of add in boards, shows about a 25% reduction in framerate (at 1024x768) between an add in GeForce4 MX440 and an NForce2 integrated chipset in UT2003, and an almost 40% reduction in 3DMark 2001. Since the machines were not identical, don't take the numbers as gospel, but they were similar enough to make a meaningful comparison IMHO.
That being said, for normal 2D work, bandwidth utilization is negligible and shouldn't seriously impact performance as shown by
this SysMark 2002 test. AFAIK, this doesn't take into account extremely intensive RAM->CPU loads, but I wouldn't expect results to vary significantly, since memory requirements for 2D work are relatively low.
Be warned though, that Tom's Hardware did note image quality issues with most of the integrated chips-which they theorized was the result oflow cost manafacturing, not a limit of the technology itself. This theory is bolstered by the fact that their low cost add in card (Radeon 9200) suffered the same problems.
Here is a tip(because I've used this many times)- If you have on-site support, dont have them tell you to try this and that. That isnt YOUR job. Tell them firmly that you have on-site support, and they need to send somebody out.
And here's another tip. Read your contract with Dell (or others) and it states that you get on-site service only after phone troubleshooting fails to resolve the problem, and at the phone tech's discretion. Dell policy is that the onsite service is for hardware replacement only, not troubleshooting. Here's the quote:
Technician will be dispatched if necessary following phone-based troubleshooting. Availability varies. Other conditions apply.
Just for some background, I work in corporate IT, and generally end up doing things nobody else can do. So I spend a lot of time on the phone and internet with vendor support.
Just for some background, I used to work for Dell, and talk to folks like you at least once a week.
A lot of small businesses don't have time to fuck around doing this shit, and they don't want to pay a guy to come in everytime they want somebody to change one setting, add an email address, etc...
That's fortunate, since there's really no settings to change. And if a small biz owner can't comprehend how to add a user to an existing Windows SBS network, I dare say s/he has much bigger problems than IT infrastructure. With the potential for security holes big enough for a 757 to taxi thru, I'll also say that an ISP's POP or IMAP mail would be a much better solution. Using the cash from the $100/year support contract, I think that SOHO email and website hosting needs would be more than taken care of.
Just doing a casual glance at the emergecore website does tell me one thing.... they DO seem to be winning quite a few awards.
No doubt praise is being heaped upon them like the glowing review from Sudhian, and such prestigious technology critics as channelweb.com and smallbiztechnolgy.com. Of course, if you actually read the reviews, you'll notice they point out the same flaws as I do: an anemic firewall, minimal functionality, and less than stellar performance. If one of these articles does an honest comparison to this prodcut's competition, I've yet to see it.
Some little know company called 'NEWSWEEK' said 'The IT-100 is a GODSEND'.
Interestingly enough, there's no article attached to that PR quote, nor could I find anything with Google. Either way, I'm not one to take Newsweek's IT opinion very seriously.
There are good Linux server appliances available. This is not one of them. There are good solutions involving a low end server and Windows Small Business Server. This is not anywhere near comparable. There's even an argument to be made for peer-to-peer networking. This is not any better. This is a SOHO router, a SOHO Wireless Access Point, and a hard drive for very simple file sharing.
I fail to see how this is any significant improvement over a peer-to-peer network and less than $150 in decent networking hardware. If you'd like to argue the technical merits of the product, please do so. If you'd rather channelweb.com and Newsweek do your thinking for you...well, I hope I never have the misfortune of hiring you.
Okay, so for $1400, I'm getting about $300 or less of parts, a single point of failure for my entire network, and shoddy software.
Okay, so it's pretty and unassuming...looks just like a typical SOHO router. Big whoop. With the mass of Ethernet cables and power cords behind it, it's looks won't garner any awards I'd reckon.
The Low setting only blocks file sharing and proxy from the outside, but is the only Basic Mode setting with which you are able to run the VPN service.
That makes a whole lot of sense...I suppose that folks who want a VPN don't deserve a firewall too?
You can run multiple domains on the IT100, allowing for easy office setups where the hard drive space is shared between multiple companies.
Yeah...I've heard a lot of clamoring for that feature in the SOHO market. Glad they decided that was worthy of the cut....
...you are not allowed to set folder-level permissions for users on the IT100 server. However, every user has a folder that will be private to them on the network, and there is a separate public folder for all users.
A whole public folder, huh? And no folder or file level permissions? I suppose that granular Read/Write/Modify/etc. permissions are out of the question too then? Now I see why you may want multiple domains....
We were initially thrown off on how to connect to the IT100 for file sharing, as it was not accepting our logins. We quickly discovered that when logging in, we needed to include the full domain username, meaning the username "colin" became "colin@mydomain.com".
Does this mean it won't actually validate logins on say...login? Or that the reviewer couldn't figure it out? So much for replacing a domain controller, I guess....
Your username is limited to 19 characters, so if you have a long domain name, you may be in for a shortened username.
Okay, Bob, you're username is bob@sub.domain.local^H. Guess I'll have to fire Richard.
You could potentially run into problems where you have an office with ten employees, but only two people in that office should be able to read the sensitive files you want to share; you cannot set individual permissions for the folders. However, you can use file sharing from your local Windows/Linux computer and allow those users to properly access the files on your machine, so there is a work around.
Yep, it's a good thing I spent $1400 on a server so that I can resort to peer-to-peer networking. Won't this make backing up and finding files fun again?
VPN allows me to connect to my machine on my network without opening up my computers to the rest of the world by assigning them a public IP address.
Yeah, I guess since the firewall in this thing sucks ass, you would be opening your desktops to the rest of the world....
The web server was another cool feature added to the IT100 and would be great for sharing pictures with family and friends, or documents and other work information with business partners....this Apache server supports dynamic content such as PHP and CGI.
I know I always recommend running your dynamic content webserver on your domain controller and fileserver. Especially when your firewall (which is on the same box) sucks.
When it crashed, we did not have to do any maintenance, as it rebooted itself after 2 minutes. Normal file sharing went off without a hitch; it was only under the heavy traffic from encoding high quality MP3s that we were able to get the IT100 to crack. Again, you can tell by the system specs that the IT100 is not designed to be a heavy-duty server, and if it were, you would be paying five-times as much.
I don't really mean that culture will eventually evolve into a homegenous mix. Even here in the US, there are distinct cultures in most major cities. But, all of these cultures share a common desire for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and democratic government. And, some 200-odd years ago, a group of people in the US was motivated enough to take up arms and fight for it.
I think that situations similar to that will (and have) played out in all societies. When a populace disagrees with their government enough, and their government refuses to peacefully disband, then revolution is inevitable. And I think that, in the end, a form of democratic governments will be installed after the revolution.
Your point on cultural differences is well taken. Though, these too will be lessened in the future, I think, though it is a slow process. European permissive attitudes towards sex and drugs is starting to make inroads here in the US, and though moral conservatives would have you believe otherwise, I think they will eventually prevail because they are more in line with how our population actually behaves. Different cultures, will of course, continue to have differences...but freedom of information and government transcends cultural differences, and apply on a much more basic level.
I do believe I'm babbling now, so I think I'll stop.;)
Though this is somewhat of a new area of interest to me, and I must admit I've done little to no research into existing theories of "cultural evolution", it seems to me that it is only inevitable that all civilizations eventually come to a similar finale. With increasing globalization and immigration, cultures are rapidly merging and being exported - even without the aid of colonialism and wars to support them.
Without artifical barriers to cultural imports and exports (such as immigration caps, censorship, etc.) I believe this process would become quite rapid in most societies. Of course, in the actual world, these artifical barriers and natural ones such as xenophobia and religious conflicts tend to temper the merging of cultures.
It seems to me that all people share common desires, wants, and needs and eventually will come to a conclusion on the best way to achieve those. I don't necessarily think that the conclusion will be reached by all people at the same time, just that most cultures rise and fall in similar manners, looking at other cultures for guidance and examples. Looking at major civilizations currently and in history, I think there's a clear pattern of religious rulers, despotic rulers, and democratic rulers (and in some cases, a combination of two or three!).
In the context of Iraq, I don't believe their recent regime was any worse than leaders in Anglo-Saxon history some 300-400 years ago. Eventually, the people get sick of it and revolt, leading to a new form of government. I believe that Iraq, left alone, would eventually come to this conclusion. Of course, the issue was whether Hussein would kill a bunch of Americans before that happened.;)
Pornography is evil because it has a single purpose. That purpose is evil because Jesus says so: "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). Adultery is evil ("Thou shalt not commit adultery"); therefore lust is evil; therefore pornography - which is intended to stir up lust - is evil.
What if you're not married? How about women looking at male pornography (I assume gay porn is ruled out by some other part of the bible)? What if it's your wife in a porno? A lot of people get pretty lusty about chicks in Catholic school girl outfits...are they evil?
I'd say Jesus needs a New and Improved Testament to fill in the gaps....
So you're saying that someone who engages is mass murder, mass torture, the use of weapons of mass destruction against his own people, and so on is not evil, just misunderstood?
There's darker moments in Anglo-Saxon history. I wouldn't say Hussein is misunderstood, but that he justifies his own actions. We, at this point of our civilization find his actions to be unjustifiable. But, take a look in our history of civilization and you'll see large moments in time that Hussein would fit right in. Iraq is simply in a different time civilization wise (don't let the modern trappings of materialism distract you), and eventually they will advance to the next stage. Now that we're the catalyst for their advancement, I sincerely hope they're able to move on to the next stage, but I fear they won't be and they'll actually go backwards, but I've been wrong before.
As for using weapons of mass destruction on his own people, the people were rebels attempting a coup. The US and other governments have done similar (see Waco, TX and the Civil War), and the US is confirmed to have used military and civilian personnel for testing of chemical and radioactive substances.
Oh, and for your information, Bin Laden is evil too. As is anyone who purposely targets civilians. Yes, that makes the IRA evil, too.
In a democratic government (of which both the US and Britain are), there are no civilians. Though you may choose to not carry a gun, the bottom line is that we elected our leaders. Therefore, we are responsible for their actions. Since bin Laden (or the IRA) has no hope of defeating a conventional military, their only way of fighting is to convince the people ultimately in charge of that military that it's not worth it. Electing a leader and designating the most well equipped, trained and funded among us to be our soldiers neither absolves us of their actions nor protects us from retribution.
Ultimately, it is we the people that dictate policy and our government - and that the enemy has a conflict with...why shouldn't they attack us? Because we have a mighty miltary force who we'd rather them attack?
Since I may have been overly harsh in my previous reply, I decided to do the legwork for you and price out your license requirements.
For 6 Windows 2003 Servers, 2 Exchange 2003 Servers and 200 CALs to Windows Server ad Exchange Server, it'd be $24,294 under the Open License Program without Software Assurance, but including docs and CD's.
$15,828 of this is for the Exchange 2003 side, which you didn't include in your $30,000 quote. To pit apples vs. apples, your $30,000 quote for 4 servers with 200 CALs just got reduced to $8,466.
Now, admittedly, Red Hat Enterprise ES Standard for 4 servers would only be $3200, but, like I said, let's make sure we know what we're talking about when we throw numbers out.;-)
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Proper respect...or propers...or prop. Don't look at me, I didn't make it up. Just reporting it.
Unattended is a system for installing Windows and apps hands-off. Great use of Perl and BATch files to do something useful. Kind of a PITA to set up, but once going, it's well worth the time investment.
Because they work? Do you have anything better?
FWIW, having been a trucker myself, I'd say that there are more tech savvy truckers out there than most would realize. From laptops, to wireless (in truck stops, and even ad-hoc networks in the parking lot), to GPS systems truckers often depend on technology for business, communication, and entertainment.
Though I don't have a Win2K machine handy to test right now, I don't believe it's normal for that port to be open for no reason. I can verify that neither my WinXP PC and my Win2003 server have it open, and I don't recall it ever being opened on Win2K.
Are you running Win2K Professional? Do you have the RRAS service running? Have you tried any diagnostic tools like TCPView to isolate the process? Up to date virus scan and adware scans? Any communication on that port? Any odd processes in TaskManager? If you shutdown background tasks, does that port remain open? Oh, and since you seem to be lacking in ability, how did you come to the conclusion that port was open?
The solution is simple. Stop the process listening on that port. I don't think anyone needs to write a HOWTO on that. And seeing that I haven't heard of anyone else complaining about this (nor seen it myself), I'm inlcined to believe it's something unique to your setup - not Windows.
Perhaps those that think they are "in the know, do not" (like ISP techs). But those of actually in the know do know how to track down a process holding a port open.I think, phnork, that you may want to hold off on your anti-MS diatribe until you find what the issue actually is. Dollars to doughnuts it's your fault, not MS.
As a lot of the legislators also have real jobs, it also cuts down on the amount of legislating they do.
Then they have 400+ members in the House, so that each member represents a small district (New Hampshire is exceedingly small already). This cuts down on campaign costs and needed contributions. Of course, their Senate has only 24 members, which I find odd.
Not saying it's perfect, but it's good enough for the FreeState project to pick as their target.
Rumors have ben flying for quite awhile that Paul (the owner) was either involved or turned a blind eye to DDoS drones on his network. Some rumors stated that he's DDoS competitors to prove the superiority of CITHosting's DDoS hardened servers.
Seeing as this "data center" seems to have been his basement, I'd bet his (lack of) logs, records, and monitoring left the FBI little choice but to seize the whole thing. And, we can assume he was uncooperative as he may have been involved or at least knoweledgeable.
The general reputation of Foonet also seemed to be a bit on the black hat side. No doubt there may have been some legitimate customers as well, but they seem to be known more for their spammers and script kiddies (and cheap shell accounts) than for their legitimate webhosting.
All in all, it looks to me like the FBI did what it had to do to effectively process the warrant. They were evidently going after a network, not a specific machine. Unfortunately, some legitimate customers got caught up in it.
It looks like CTIHosting was recently sold, and is being moved to a new data center in Chicago. Let's hope that it comes back as a legitimate business this time. They've already stated that IRC will be down indefinitely, so that's a good sign.
The only thing I find a bit odd about this whole thing is that it looks like they too the opportunity to relocate their data center to Chicago (it was previously in Cleveland). According to their news,
Wouldn't that unnecessarily delay the process of restoring service to their customers? Was the move already planned, or did they suddenly decide that they needed a different data center? Is it possible they're blowing the seize out of proportion in order to cover outages due to their move? Or did the seizure even actually happen?
When I first got it, I would carry the CDROM and floppy drive everywhere, but then I realized that I never used them. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to remember the last time I used either one. Trust me...you won't miss them. Other things that fell by the wayside include a console cable, a stack of CD's, an external CD-RW, a bulky USB hub, and various cables (crossover, console, USB, etc.).
As for accessories, my basic list includes a USB optical mouse (that I normally only use for extended sessions), an extra AC adapter on the desk at home, 1 extra battery (fully charged, swapped out every couple of days) that I leave in the car, a 10' Ethernet cable with a crossover connector, a telephone cord (that I hardly ever use), a USB hard drive (stays at home for backups), and a wireless card.
Oh, and a small 75W inverter that I leave in the car to power my laptop if my battery runs dead (you could get an AC/DC adapter instead, but I use my inverter for other things as well, eg. rechargeable batteries, my cell phone, etc.)
I also have an Ethernet card because the 240X doesn't have it built in (I'm sure your's will, though) as well as a spare just in case I or someone else needs it.
Of course, I spend a lot of my day in my car (or close to it), so you may need to adjust accordingly. I'd recommend a lock, though I don't carry one myself. Obviously I have a small bag that I carry the laptop and needed accesories in. I also have another bag with the CD-RW, floppy drive, some CD's, and more esoteric cables and connectors packed and stashed in the car in case the day ever comes when I need them, but I rarely do.
One hint that I can give you, is that you'll almost always be able to work around whatever it is you don't have handy--except for lack of power and network or modem connection. So make those your priorities.
For comparison, it is a bit lower than the United States' 19%.
Email is, as we all know, technically insecure. Any company that sends confidential information via email on a server they do not own or admin is asking for trouble. I don't believe it's unethical to know the confidential information, but only to use it. So, in this case, the former employee would presumably already know the confidential information, and the admin can choose to disregard it. In most cases, however, it's quite simple for an admin to filter the email simply by subject and sender name without having to look at the actual text. A quick glance thru the text would also give an indication of it's purpose, but would only result in a very rudimentary comprehension of the contents. Allowing the former employee to filter his own inbox would also be the same as what any marginally tech-savvy employee would've done either before leaving the company or before the password on the mail server was changed. I see no ethical problem there. I realize, of course, that the company has a right to the emails in the inbox. But, they really don't have any right to personal correspondence anymore than they do if you were to write loveletters on office stationery. A trusted third party (which the admin has to be, by design) to intervene and balance the competing interests seems quite fair and ethical to me. As for violating laws in several countries...whoop-de-do. We all know that most laws are inane and mainly benefit corporations... especially anything to do with technology.
For a good bit more work, but less money and the karma boost of avoiding proprietary (and somewhat buggy) Access, it looks like OpenOffice has rudimentary support for databases. Take a look at the UnixODBC project, specifically this PDF, which seems to do a decent job of explaining the steps involved. Note that I've never tried this, but it certainly looks workable. As a bonus, you should be able to use any database with an ODBC component.
Of course, you could always go with dBase (who bought some of the rights from Borland), who have a web enabled dBase version. It'll need to be hosted on a Windows machine, it looks like though.
You may also want to take a look here which lists Windows and *nix xBase compatible programs. xBase was (is?) a standard that dBase, Clipper, FoxPro and others adhered to. Perhaps you'll find something there. Also, there was a dBase for UNIX at one point...I don't think it's still for sale, but you may be able to turn up a copy on eBay or something.
One last suggestion would be KNoda which is a KDE frontend that allows for queries, forms, and table design. It looks a bit like Access, though, once again I haven't tried it.
That should start you on your research...good luck.
There's no reason to divulge personal or private correspondence, but there's also no reason not to turn over work related information. Keep whatever you do quiet, and I suspect you'd be perfectly fine legally as well. And, if the company in question knows the relation between you and the former employee, I dare say they're going to practically expect you to filter the email beforehand anyways.
Microsoft does have a news server which I use occassionally, both on the Web and through NNTP. There's alot of granularity in the groups, which is nice when I'm, say, working on a scripting problem, I can hit the .NET Scripting group and get good responses. There's also multiple languages available, perhaps useful for non-English speakers. But, unless if you're looking for more general discussions like Slashdot has, I don't think you'll find it there.
For general sysadmin and related discussion, problem solving, tips, etc., I've found mailing lists are much more manageable and informative. A real good provider is Sunbelt Software. The NTSysAdmin and Exchange lists are the most popular and general (and the only ones I'm a member of), but there's also ones dedicated to Windows security, Active Directory, etc. Be aware, though, that there's a LOT of traffic on some of these lists. Mine go into a Public Folder, but you can also get the digest if you prefer. One other one that I have used and recommend is the WinNT-List. I'm not on it currently, but mainly because of time restraints. Then again...I hardly check the Sunbelt lists anymore either....
And, of course, I've yet to find a similar forum to replace Slashdot's unique blend of tech, news, and politics...that's why I'm still here.
You'd probably be best off by just changing the location of the My Docs folder. Right click it on the desktop.
Say what? I don't use MacOS, but I can testify that Windows has allowed you to do this since at least Win95. You can even do relative paths, or just a folder and it'll open the folder. There's no tab completion, but in later versions there's at least drop down completion (MS prefers that to tab-completion it seems, since it jumps out at you)....Try it sometime, you might be pleasantly surprised.
But seriously, you may want to take a look at this Tom's Hardware article detailing the weaknesses of an integrated chip.
For those looking for the quick answer, I'll do my best to summarize. First off, since integrated graphics tend to be low cost solutions, transistor counts are nowhere near current add-in boards. From the article, Nvidia's FX5200 has 47 million transistors (FX5600=80 million and FX5900=130 million), while their onboard solution (equivalent to GeForce4 MX440) has only 27 million.
Then, there's the question of memory bandwidth. Dual channel DDR 400 has a peak of 6.4GB/s, which is shared, while an equivalent GeForce4 MX440 would have a dedicated 8GB/s.
Now, to your question. Does this consume a ton of bandwidth and affect performance? Well, that would all depend on what you're doing with it.
If you're running 3D games and the like, then both performance and bandwidth will be an issue and limit your framerates. Comparing the previous review and this review of add in boards, shows about a 25% reduction in framerate (at 1024x768) between an add in GeForce4 MX440 and an NForce2 integrated chipset in UT2003, and an almost 40% reduction in 3DMark 2001. Since the machines were not identical, don't take the numbers as gospel, but they were similar enough to make a meaningful comparison IMHO.
That being said, for normal 2D work, bandwidth utilization is negligible and shouldn't seriously impact performance as shown by this SysMark 2002 test. AFAIK, this doesn't take into account extremely intensive RAM->CPU loads, but I wouldn't expect results to vary significantly, since memory requirements for 2D work are relatively low.
Be warned though, that Tom's Hardware did note image quality issues with most of the integrated chips-which they theorized was the result oflow cost manafacturing, not a limit of the technology itself. This theory is bolstered by the fact that their low cost add in card (Radeon 9200) suffered the same problems.
Just for some background, I used to work for Dell, and talk to folks like you at least once a week.
That's fortunate, since there's really no settings to change. And if a small biz owner can't comprehend how to add a user to an existing Windows SBS network, I dare say s/he has much bigger problems than IT infrastructure. With the potential for security holes big enough for a 757 to taxi thru, I'll also say that an ISP's POP or IMAP mail would be a much better solution. Using the cash from the $100/year support contract, I think that SOHO email and website hosting needs would be more than taken care of.
No doubt praise is being heaped upon them like the glowing review from Sudhian, and such prestigious technology critics as channelweb.com and smallbiztechnolgy.com. Of course, if you actually read the reviews, you'll notice they point out the same flaws as I do: an anemic firewall, minimal functionality, and less than stellar performance. If one of these articles does an honest comparison to this prodcut's competition, I've yet to see it.
Interestingly enough, there's no article attached to that PR quote, nor could I find anything with Google. Either way, I'm not one to take Newsweek's IT opinion very seriously.
There are good Linux server appliances available. This is not one of them. There are good solutions involving a low end server and Windows Small Business Server. This is not anywhere near comparable. There's even an argument to be made for peer-to-peer networking. This is not any better. This is a SOHO router, a SOHO Wireless Access Point, and a hard drive for very simple file sharing.
I fail to see how this is any significant improvement over a peer-to-peer network and less than $150 in decent networking hardware. If you'd like to argue the technical merits of the product, please do so. If you'd rather channelweb.com and Newsweek do your thinking for you...well, I hope I never have the misfortune of hiring you.
Okay, so it's pretty and unassuming...looks just like a typical SOHO router. Big whoop. With the mass of Ethernet cables and power cords behind it, it's looks won't garner any awards I'd reckon.
That makes a whole lot of sense...I suppose that folks who want a VPN don't deserve a firewall too?
Yeah...I've heard a lot of clamoring for that feature in the SOHO market. Glad they decided that was worthy of the cut....
A whole public folder, huh? And no folder or file level permissions? I suppose that granular Read/Write/Modify/etc. permissions are out of the question too then? Now I see why you may want multiple domains....
Does this mean it won't actually validate logins on say...login? Or that the reviewer couldn't figure it out? So much for replacing a domain controller, I guess....
Okay, Bob, you're username is bob@sub.domain.local^H. Guess I'll have to fire Richard.
Yep, it's a good thing I spent $1400 on a server so that I can resort to peer-to-peer networking. Won't this make backing up and finding files fun again?
Yeah, I guess since the firewall in this thing sucks ass, you would be opening your desktops to the rest of the world....
I know I always recommend running your dynamic content webserver on your domain controller and fileserver. Especially when your firewall (which is on the same box) sucks.
I think that situations similar to that will (and have) played out in all societies. When a populace disagrees with their government enough, and their government refuses to peacefully disband, then revolution is inevitable. And I think that, in the end, a form of democratic governments will be installed after the revolution.
Your point on cultural differences is well taken. Though, these too will be lessened in the future, I think, though it is a slow process. European permissive attitudes towards sex and drugs is starting to make inroads here in the US, and though moral conservatives would have you believe otherwise, I think they will eventually prevail because they are more in line with how our population actually behaves. Different cultures, will of course, continue to have differences...but freedom of information and government transcends cultural differences, and apply on a much more basic level.
I do believe I'm babbling now, so I think I'll stop. ;)
Without artifical barriers to cultural imports and exports (such as immigration caps, censorship, etc.) I believe this process would become quite rapid in most societies. Of course, in the actual world, these artifical barriers and natural ones such as xenophobia and religious conflicts tend to temper the merging of cultures.
It seems to me that all people share common desires, wants, and needs and eventually will come to a conclusion on the best way to achieve those. I don't necessarily think that the conclusion will be reached by all people at the same time, just that most cultures rise and fall in similar manners, looking at other cultures for guidance and examples. Looking at major civilizations currently and in history, I think there's a clear pattern of religious rulers, despotic rulers, and democratic rulers (and in some cases, a combination of two or three!).
In the context of Iraq, I don't believe their recent regime was any worse than leaders in Anglo-Saxon history some 300-400 years ago. Eventually, the people get sick of it and revolt, leading to a new form of government. I believe that Iraq, left alone, would eventually come to this conclusion. Of course, the issue was whether Hussein would kill a bunch of Americans before that happened. ;)
What if you're not married? How about women looking at male pornography (I assume gay porn is ruled out by some other part of the bible)? What if it's your wife in a porno? A lot of people get pretty lusty about chicks in Catholic school girl outfits...are they evil?
I'd say Jesus needs a New and Improved Testament to fill in the gaps....
There's darker moments in Anglo-Saxon history. I wouldn't say Hussein is misunderstood, but that he justifies his own actions. We, at this point of our civilization find his actions to be unjustifiable. But, take a look in our history of civilization and you'll see large moments in time that Hussein would fit right in. Iraq is simply in a different time civilization wise (don't let the modern trappings of materialism distract you), and eventually they will advance to the next stage. Now that we're the catalyst for their advancement, I sincerely hope they're able to move on to the next stage, but I fear they won't be and they'll actually go backwards, but I've been wrong before.
As for using weapons of mass destruction on his own people, the people were rebels attempting a coup. The US and other governments have done similar (see Waco, TX and the Civil War), and the US is confirmed to have used military and civilian personnel for testing of chemical and radioactive substances.
In a democratic government (of which both the US and Britain are), there are no civilians. Though you may choose to not carry a gun, the bottom line is that we elected our leaders. Therefore, we are responsible for their actions. Since bin Laden (or the IRA) has no hope of defeating a conventional military, their only way of fighting is to convince the people ultimately in charge of that military that it's not worth it. Electing a leader and designating the most well equipped, trained and funded among us to be our soldiers neither absolves us of their actions nor protects us from retribution.
Ultimately, it is we the people that dictate policy and our government - and that the enemy has a conflict with...why shouldn't they attack us? Because we have a mighty miltary force who we'd rather them attack?
For 6 Windows 2003 Servers, 2 Exchange 2003 Servers and 200 CALs to Windows Server ad Exchange Server, it'd be $24,294 under the Open License Program without Software Assurance, but including docs and CD's.
$15,828 of this is for the Exchange 2003 side, which you didn't include in your $30,000 quote. To pit apples vs. apples, your $30,000 quote for 4 servers with 200 CALs just got reduced to $8,466.
Now, admittedly, Red Hat Enterprise ES Standard for 4 servers would only be $3200, but, like I said, let's make sure we know what we're talking about when we throw numbers out. ;-)