I've been a T-Mobile customer for more than a year. I subscribed to the MobileStar mobile internet service back before T-Mobile bought them. I'm a gadget freak, and I telecommute full time. I'm the perfect target for this device.
I spoke to my local Houston T-Mobile sales office last week and again yesterday, dying to get my hands on one. They said they had 'em, but couldn't sell 'em to me until Oct 1. Fine, no problem. I showed up this morning at 9am to meet them when they opened the front doors, concerned that I wouldn't be the first in line to grab one. Turns out T-Mobile didn't even have them anywhere in Houston.
I ran over to the Galleria CompUSA, where I'd already seen the boxes, and asked to buy one. Sure, they said, but it's $450. I explained to the clerk that that was the price without activation, and that it was $250 with activation. They had to call two different reps to figure out I was right - but the T-Mobile reps actually told the clerks not to sell the devices because the service wasn't ready.
I then had to call the local T-Mobile store, get them on the phone with CompUSA (all over my Verizon cell phone) and get them to agree that yes, they could sell it to me, yes, the service was active. But CompUSA still wouldn't lower the price from $450. Even worse, they couldn't activate it at the store - I had to hoof it back over to T-Mobile again.
At that point, I walked out of the store, went over to Verizon, and renewed my existing contract for another two years. I want to make sure I don't tempt myself and try that messy service again.
The most hotly expected title, IIS5, is another sequel to one of Microsoft's popular games. Players will try to avoid massive publicity that could disrupt their home base, while simultaneously doing patches in real time. Weapons at the player's disposal include new firewalls and cluster services (aka "cluster bombs"). While some multiplayer features are still present from the original version, the much-anticipated massively multiplayer mode is still not available, as verified by a recent posting on Slashdot.
Under the Aqua skin with User Switching enabled; you cannot. Hit Cntrl-Alt-Delete, notice the lack of the option. Goto start "turn off computer", still not there.
Sure you can, as long as you're a member of a domain. If you're not a member of a domain and you don't have any security set up, then you can't, but even if you just join a domain then you can lock your desktop no matter what switching you have turned on. I do it all the time.
Do it, start explorer.exe up again and watch in wonderment as XP takes a good 3-5 minutes to figure out what the fuck just happened. There is about a 25% chance that it will die on the spot and an even greater chance that it will not be the same after explorer.exe is restarted any ways.
Again, not on my desktop or laptop, but your mileage obviously varies.
Microsoft has issued a press release saying that users should use the term Secure Windows. "As part of our new security initiatives, we believe that changing the public's viewpoint is crucial. Simply referring it as 'Windows' implies that it can easily be broken," noted an anonymous Microsoft press spokesman.
News that AOL was considering a name change to "Stable Netscape" for their web browser product could not be confirmed at press time.
Microsoft will beat Linux at clustering in the business sector, by creating the PERCEPTION that Windows NT clusters are reliable (even if it takes a huge support infrastructure just to tell the MCSE monkey to reboot the damned machine) and that Linux clusters are somehow less reliable because they lack said support infrastructure.
As somebody who's tried MS clustering, let me tell you that is one arena in which they will never succeed. The only time MS clustering even comes close to succeeding in the business sector is where you've already bet the farm on MSSQL or Exchange, and your growth rate has required more horsepower/uptime than a single box can handle. Nobody starting from scratch with clustering would even consider the MS route. My bosses didn't believe me until we brought in two separate MS-cheerleader consultants, and they even agreed. Clustering isn't where Windows succeeds in adding the perception of value.
The value is the ability to buy a server, install it, and have "the MCSE monkey" administer it with zero training. Microsoft has succeeded in adding value by making all of their administrative tools nearly identical, via the MS Management Console. Our network admin can take care of SQL problems as they crop up, even though he's completely inexperienced in SQL, simply because he's fluent with the MMC. If you want to administer a service in *nix, you need to learn the specialized admin tools for that service. That's the cost, and that's where the MS value comes in. Trained monkeys can administer high-end servers instantly.
Well okay, but look what happened to Bruce Perens when he talked down MS at HP... boom, fired.
Perens wasn't working within the company framework. If I think my company's doing something wrong, I don't speak out in public: I work closely with my supervisors and make sure they do the right thing. If they continue to make the wrong choices, and I've tried my best, then I don't play whistleblower and run to the shareholders. That marks you as somebody who's not trustworthy, somebody who isn't a team player. You pull that, you get fired, no matter how high-profile you are.
I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that's how the system works. The officeplace is like the Matrix - ya gotta fight the bad elements from within.
Frankly, as an HP employee, I am alarmed at all this closeness with Microsoft lately
Then do something about it.
You remind me of the people who whine about the government, but never get out to the polls on voting day. What have you done about it? If you're alarmed by the closeness with Microsoft, then either you haven't been paying attention to HP or else you're one of the newly merged Compaq folks, who were a lot more open-source-friendly. HP's been in bed with MS for years: I distinctly remember HP being one of the first companies to adopt the restore-cd-only policy with their Pavilions, only including a restore CD and not an operating system CD. HP's Kayak dual-CPU workstations were among the first & best NT-running machines I ever used, and I know they didn't build it to run Linux. HP's always been close with MS.
So if HP's relationship with MS surprises you, then you need to get more active with your management in the day-to-day decisionmaking. Every time HP releases a solution that specifically favors MS, sometimes at the expense of their customers, speak up and try to change their minds.
One more question for the grou: I have read a lot (for a Business Analyst) about wireless networking and have yet to see a place which explains the "lettering system" used by the 802.11 products. Why are a, b, and g given those names? Are there 802.11c and d awaiting consideration?
Do a Google search and you'll get the answer. 802.11d is a set of protocol addons to 802.11b to enable it to work where 802.11b is illegal, for example. More info here.
It's in dual band devices such as this one from linksys
The device you point out is an access point, not a card. Buying a combo 802.11a/b access point means you have to have 802.11a access *cards*, or else your money on the a/b access point was wasted - and you should have just gotten an 802.11b access point. But if you have 802.11a cards, then you can't use them at the public/private access points away from your house/job - like at coffee shops all over the place these days. So these combo access points really don't help much.
The truth is about halfway down the article, where they acknowledge that 802.11g is coming down the pike with better range than 802.11a, plus backwards compatibility with 802.11b. Any of us who already have investments in 802.11b are going to be more than a little hesitant to rip out that infrastructure and replace it with another incompatible format - when we can get an even better format, with backwards compatibility, by waiting a few more months.
I don't even buy the argument that homeowners just now getting wireless should get 802.11a equipment: they can't take their wireless cards and use them at public or private 802.11b access points. Why pay extra for something you can only use at home, when you can get something cheaper that works all over the US? It would be like buying a cellular phone that only worked in your neighborhood.
You were on *vacation*, not working. There's a big difference between navigating with the wife on vacation ("Hey, honey, let's go find a nice place to eat"), and trying to get to a customer's office within 15 minutes in a town you've never seen before ("His raid array is down - get there as fast as possible!"). When I'm on vacation, I take a map. When I'm on a deadline and I have to meet suits, I bring GPS.
the top of cars today are great, but the underbody is an ugly mess of crap, gas tank straped under the frame, susspention components with no areodynamic thought in mind, cables, and other crap just sitting under there.
You should check out the new Infiniti G35 - they're the first cars I know of that really paid attention to the underbody. Very well-done and smooth.
Diesel(TDI) or gas? The TDI has most of the pep and 45+ mpg to boot... a great car to have in the interm till we get the promised 100+ mpg.
Gas. The TDI is a dog doesn't have anywhere near the pep - you're talking 180 hp for the gas versus 90 hp for the diesel. We drove it, and it was night and day slower, while the gas turbo screams up to 6500rpm. Plus it comes with a Tiptronic transmission, which is worth every penny for the geek factor alone.
Since it's Tori Amos, we don't really have to worry about that...
That was my other guess - that they glued the CD player closed to make sure the CD didn't escape. Could be construed as a terrorist activity, letting those CDs loose into the wild.
This would lead to a bunch of cookie-cutter cars, most of which have lousy handling, don't perform well, and are ugly to boot. Oh yeah... I forgot. This is GM we're talking about. Never mind.
Ever sat inside a Corvette? How about a Cavalier? Notice that they have exactly the same dashboard components like climate controls, stereo, etc? My best friend's $40k Caddy has exactly the same interior feel as my $18k Oldsmobile. GM does it to cut costs (just like this story's example) without regard to the end effect on the product. They don't understand that people who drive different cars want to *feel* different, and it backfires.
My girlfriend & I just bought a new Jetta (turbo, natch) and checked out all of the VW vehicles while we were waiting. Every single one felt completely different - the Beetle has round, hip dashboard controls, the Jetta has trendy black controls, the Passat has classy controls. If VW can pull it off and make a profit, the General should too.
Have you *ever* seen v1 of a system work flawlessly? It's so immature to toss the word "proprietary" in here, as if to insinuate that being open-source would fix anything. There's tons of open-source programs in v1 status with bugs. Anybody see any news headlines when Mozilla 1.0 came out and there were bugs in it? No? End of story.
These days, the choice seems to come down to whoever's hiring.
If you're the kind of person who really shines, who likes working hard and wants to impress your boss, stick with the private sector. If you just want to get by until you retire, and you'd rather do your more challenging work in your spare time, then work in the public sector.
The next atrocity will be carried out by a bunch of people with good old whitebread names. Anybody called Mohammed Al'whatever is under too much suspicion these days to fart in public. The next big thing will be carried out by a bunch of people with names [possibly changed by deedpole] like Joe White, Billy Bob Bobbit etc.
You mean like the Oklahoma City bombing?
Wait a second, I think you're on to something. The 9/11 attacks were actually carried out by rednecks with names like Billy Bob, but they were wearing disguises to fool us! Aha!
Instead of making me invisible, I just want it to make me look thinner. Shave off my side edges by painting the background over my sides, and voila, I've lost 20 pounds.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been a T-Mobile customer for more than a year. I subscribed to the MobileStar mobile internet service back before T-Mobile bought them. I'm a gadget freak, and I telecommute full time. I'm the perfect target for this device.
I spoke to my local Houston T-Mobile sales office last week and again yesterday, dying to get my hands on one. They said they had 'em, but couldn't sell 'em to me until Oct 1. Fine, no problem. I showed up this morning at 9am to meet them when they opened the front doors, concerned that I wouldn't be the first in line to grab one. Turns out T-Mobile didn't even have them anywhere in Houston.
I ran over to the Galleria CompUSA, where I'd already seen the boxes, and asked to buy one. Sure, they said, but it's $450. I explained to the clerk that that was the price without activation, and that it was $250 with activation. They had to call two different reps to figure out I was right - but the T-Mobile reps actually told the clerks not to sell the devices because the service wasn't ready.
I then had to call the local T-Mobile store, get them on the phone with CompUSA (all over my Verizon cell phone) and get them to agree that yes, they could sell it to me, yes, the service was active. But CompUSA still wouldn't lower the price from $450. Even worse, they couldn't activate it at the store - I had to hoof it back over to T-Mobile again.
At that point, I walked out of the store, went over to Verizon, and renewed my existing contract for another two years. I want to make sure I don't tempt myself and try that messy service again.
The most hotly expected title, IIS5, is another sequel to one of Microsoft's popular games. Players will try to avoid massive publicity that could disrupt their home base, while simultaneously doing patches in real time. Weapons at the player's disposal include new firewalls and cluster services (aka "cluster bombs"). While some multiplayer features are still present from the original version, the much-anticipated massively multiplayer mode is still not available, as verified by a recent posting on Slashdot.
Under the Aqua skin with User Switching enabled; you cannot. Hit Cntrl-Alt-Delete, notice the lack of the option. Goto start "turn off computer", still not there.
Sure you can, as long as you're a member of a domain. If you're not a member of a domain and you don't have any security set up, then you can't, but even if you just join a domain then you can lock your desktop no matter what switching you have turned on. I do it all the time.
Do it, start explorer.exe up again and watch in wonderment as XP takes a good 3-5 minutes to figure out what the fuck just happened. There is about a 25% chance that it will die on the spot and an even greater chance that it will not be the same after explorer.exe is restarted any ways.
Again, not on my desktop or laptop, but your mileage obviously varies.
But we've got nowhere to go but up....
Microsoft has issued a press release saying that users should use the term Secure Windows. "As part of our new security initiatives, we believe that changing the public's viewpoint is crucial. Simply referring it as 'Windows' implies that it can easily be broken," noted an anonymous Microsoft press spokesman.
News that AOL was considering a name change to "Stable Netscape" for their web browser product could not be confirmed at press time.
Microsoft will beat Linux at clustering in the business sector, by creating the PERCEPTION that Windows NT clusters are reliable (even if it takes a huge support infrastructure just to tell the MCSE monkey to reboot the damned machine) and that Linux clusters are somehow less reliable because they lack said support infrastructure.
As somebody who's tried MS clustering, let me tell you that is one arena in which they will never succeed. The only time MS clustering even comes close to succeeding in the business sector is where you've already bet the farm on MSSQL or Exchange, and your growth rate has required more horsepower/uptime than a single box can handle. Nobody starting from scratch with clustering would even consider the MS route. My bosses didn't believe me until we brought in two separate MS-cheerleader consultants, and they even agreed. Clustering isn't where Windows succeeds in adding the perception of value.
The value is the ability to buy a server, install it, and have "the MCSE monkey" administer it with zero training. Microsoft has succeeded in adding value by making all of their administrative tools nearly identical, via the MS Management Console. Our network admin can take care of SQL problems as they crop up, even though he's completely inexperienced in SQL, simply because he's fluent with the MMC. If you want to administer a service in *nix, you need to learn the specialized admin tools for that service. That's the cost, and that's where the MS value comes in. Trained monkeys can administer high-end servers instantly.
Well okay, but look what happened to Bruce Perens when he talked down MS at HP... boom, fired.
Perens wasn't working within the company framework. If I think my company's doing something wrong, I don't speak out in public: I work closely with my supervisors and make sure they do the right thing. If they continue to make the wrong choices, and I've tried my best, then I don't play whistleblower and run to the shareholders. That marks you as somebody who's not trustworthy, somebody who isn't a team player. You pull that, you get fired, no matter how high-profile you are.
I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that's how the system works. The officeplace is like the Matrix - ya gotta fight the bad elements from within.
Frankly, as an HP employee, I am alarmed at all this closeness with Microsoft lately
Then do something about it.
You remind me of the people who whine about the government, but never get out to the polls on voting day. What have you done about it? If you're alarmed by the closeness with Microsoft, then either you haven't been paying attention to HP or else you're one of the newly merged Compaq folks, who were a lot more open-source-friendly. HP's been in bed with MS for years: I distinctly remember HP being one of the first companies to adopt the restore-cd-only policy with their Pavilions, only including a restore CD and not an operating system CD. HP's Kayak dual-CPU workstations were among the first & best NT-running machines I ever used, and I know they didn't build it to run Linux. HP's always been close with MS.
So if HP's relationship with MS surprises you, then you need to get more active with your management in the day-to-day decisionmaking. Every time HP releases a solution that specifically favors MS, sometimes at the expense of their customers, speak up and try to change their minds.
Is there any introductory reads about all the different 802.11's? it seems that we now have a b c d e f g.
Google and ye shall receive.
Average throughput in our environment was 6Mbs due to roaming computer(Medical practice) problems.
Eeek - I assume you know about HIPAA regulations, which certainly don't allow unencrypted patient data to be sent wirelessly?
One more question for the grou: I have read a lot (for a Business Analyst) about wireless networking and have yet to see a place which explains the "lettering system" used by the 802.11 products. Why are a, b, and g given those names? Are there 802.11c and d awaiting consideration?
Do a Google search and you'll get the answer. 802.11d is a set of protocol addons to 802.11b to enable it to work where 802.11b is illegal, for example. More info here.
It's in dual band devices such as this one from linksys
The device you point out is an access point, not a card. Buying a combo 802.11a/b access point means you have to have 802.11a access *cards*, or else your money on the a/b access point was wasted - and you should have just gotten an 802.11b access point. But if you have 802.11a cards, then you can't use them at the public/private access points away from your house/job - like at coffee shops all over the place these days. So these combo access points really don't help much.
The truth is about halfway down the article, where they acknowledge that 802.11g is coming down the pike with better range than 802.11a, plus backwards compatibility with 802.11b. Any of us who already have investments in 802.11b are going to be more than a little hesitant to rip out that infrastructure and replace it with another incompatible format - when we can get an even better format, with backwards compatibility, by waiting a few more months.
I don't even buy the argument that homeowners just now getting wireless should get 802.11a equipment: they can't take their wireless cards and use them at public or private 802.11b access points. Why pay extra for something you can only use at home, when you can get something cheaper that works all over the US? It would be like buying a cellular phone that only worked in your neighborhood.
So basically what you're saying is that you can't be a sailing fan if you can't spell? Sounds fair to me...
Just like you can't be a Linux fan if you say "nome" instead of "gnome". There's some things that just scream ignorance.
and watching real men sale real boats
If you can't spell "sail" then you're not a real fan. Nice try, though.
Navigation is not that hard. Really.
You were on *vacation*, not working. There's a big difference between navigating with the wife on vacation ("Hey, honey, let's go find a nice place to eat"), and trying to get to a customer's office within 15 minutes in a town you've never seen before ("His raid array is down - get there as fast as possible!"). When I'm on vacation, I take a map. When I'm on a deadline and I have to meet suits, I bring GPS.
the top of cars today are great, but the underbody is an ugly mess of crap, gas tank straped under the frame, susspention components with no areodynamic thought in mind, cables, and other crap just sitting under there.
You should check out the new Infiniti G35 - they're the first cars I know of that really paid attention to the underbody. Very well-done and smooth.
Diesel(TDI) or gas? The TDI has most of the pep and 45+ mpg to boot... a great car to have in the interm till we get the promised 100+ mpg.
Gas. The TDI is a dog doesn't have anywhere near the pep - you're talking 180 hp for the gas versus 90 hp for the diesel. We drove it, and it was night and day slower, while the gas turbo screams up to 6500rpm. Plus it comes with a Tiptronic transmission, which is worth every penny for the geek factor alone.
Since it's Tori Amos, we don't really have to worry about that...
That was my other guess - that they glued the CD player closed to make sure the CD didn't escape. Could be construed as a terrorist activity, letting those CDs loose into the wild.
This would lead to a bunch of cookie-cutter cars, most of which have lousy handling, don't perform well, and are ugly to boot. Oh yeah... I forgot. This is GM we're talking about. Never mind.
Ever sat inside a Corvette? How about a Cavalier? Notice that they have exactly the same dashboard components like climate controls, stereo, etc? My best friend's $40k Caddy has exactly the same interior feel as my $18k Oldsmobile. GM does it to cut costs (just like this story's example) without regard to the end effect on the product. They don't understand that people who drive different cars want to *feel* different, and it backfires.
My girlfriend & I just bought a new Jetta (turbo, natch) and checked out all of the VW vehicles while we were waiting. Every single one felt completely different - the Beetle has round, hip dashboard controls, the Jetta has trendy black controls, the Passat has classy controls. If VW can pull it off and make a profit, the General should too.
Use those greeting cards that play a tune when you open them.
Pay Tori to personally visit each reviewer with a guitar and play her songs.
Distribute the songs in Ogg Vorbis format. (rimshot)
Have you *ever* seen v1 of a system work flawlessly? It's so immature to toss the word "proprietary" in here, as if to insinuate that being open-source would fix anything. There's tons of open-source programs in v1 status with bugs. Anybody see any news headlines when Mozilla 1.0 came out and there were bugs in it? No? End of story.
These days, the choice seems to come down to whoever's hiring.
If you're the kind of person who really shines, who likes working hard and wants to impress your boss, stick with the private sector. If you just want to get by until you retire, and you'd rather do your more challenging work in your spare time, then work in the public sector.
The next atrocity will be carried out by a bunch of people with good old whitebread names. Anybody called Mohammed Al'whatever is under too much suspicion these days to fart in public. The next big thing will be carried out by a bunch of people with names [possibly changed by deedpole] like Joe White, Billy Bob Bobbit etc.
You mean like the Oklahoma City bombing?
Wait a second, I think you're on to something. The 9/11 attacks were actually carried out by rednecks with names like Billy Bob, but they were wearing disguises to fool us! Aha!
Instead of making me invisible, I just want it to make me look thinner. Shave off my side edges by painting the background over my sides, and voila, I've lost 20 pounds.