I see alot of discussion here about the wavelength and power absorption effects on biological systems.
When did someone figure out the mechanism by which non-ionizing radiation harms biological systems? Was the nobel prize awarded while I wasn't looking?
Relax people, we probably absorb more EMF from our TVs, DVD players, computers, and cell phones than from ELF transmissions.
Wow, this might be the beginning of something that i've been looking for since I started using linux years ago..
A single place to manage all my users and computers. Novell and Microsoft have done it very well. Hell, Apple even has a better way to manage users and computers than PAM and OpenLDAP on Linux.
Maybe this is the final admission that single sign on cobbled together by using PAM and OpenLDAP is not the solution that corporate IT guys want.
A public company cares about making money - that's why IE has lagged behind many other browsers as of late (and why development pretty much stopped on IE 6).
Now Google wants to build a browser? Why? Don't give me the "platform to launch pay services" argument. A browser is a browser - I can buy music, ebay products, and job hunt through pretty much any of the 3 browsers installed on my system.
That's a pretty easy marketing phrase; and it is the very one that made Microsoft rich.
Back in the good ol' days when most small to medium size networks ran Netware file servers - Windows NT was just a blip on the radar. How did MS take all that marketshare from Novell?
I remember deploying windows 95 and 98 for my clients and liking the fact that there was ALREADY a novell client built into windows. The fact that it worked better than Novell's client on occassion didn't suck either.
Before you know it, windows is everywhere, and people are slowly replacing Netware with NT. It just worked with windows better.
Sun could learn a lesson here. Maybe replacing windows on the desktop is still a monsterous task - but replacing a file server isn't. Maybe if SUN offered a drop in replacement for windows 2000/2003 server I would consider it. Run solaris 10, or Linux on it - I don't care, but make it be a drop in replacement. Active Directory, Remote storage, replication----blah blah blah...the works. On the outside it looks like a windows server, on the inside (where it counts) it's not.
A drop in replacement that reproduces all the functionality, with none of the drawbacks of windows would be great.
I've been troubleshooting slow network connections at two of our remote offices, and I found something very interesting. Both of the offices are connected to us via a Cisco VPN. Each of the offices is connected to the internet via a PIX firewall and cable modem. During the past year I've seen the performance of these links deteriorate to worse than ISDN speed performance - here's why:
It seems these cable modem networks are flooded with zombie machines constantly scanning networks for vulnerable hosts to infect. Cisco's floodguard freaks out and thinks that its internet connection is being ddos attacked and starts discarding packets it thinks are malicious.
Well, it seems that Cisco's algorithm for determining malicious packets isn't perfect, so it throws out the baby with the bath water....resulting in a REALLY slow connection.
After disabling floodguard the links were back up to 3 Mbps and 10 Mbps.
So if your networks are zombie free, and you can't figure out why your internet connection sucks and you are running floodguard, try disabling it and running some tests.
OK, i'm not in an apartment, I own a townhouse; but I think your power concerns aren't totally justified.
I run two servers full time at my house. I have a single 2.4 GHz xeon 1u rackmount box, and a 1u Dell Powervault for my storage needs (P4 2.6 Ghz).
I had them disconnected for one month while I used them on a work-site and I found my electric bill was only about $8.00 cheaper! I drink more than that in beer on a Friday night.
The electricity cost isn't horrible, but the space, heat, and fan noise are other factors that might make my setup intolerable in your environment.
Microsoft developers work long and hard on new operating systems so that old apps won't be broken by an OS upgrade. Microsoft knows that it's dominance (much like the x86 architecture) comes from it's backwards compatibility.
Now microsoft wants to push a new USB standard that forces everyone to upgrade their USB devices? How many people will toss out last years scanners, cameras, iPods, floppy drives, flash card readers, and countless other devices just because Microsoft says so?
Microsoft better tread lightly here. They are reaching a point where most people see no benefit from upgrading operating systems or office suites. Forcing people to throw away good hardware will almost certainly hurt sales of their software.
Is there really a market for another cheap router? Our last ISP (years ago) gave us a 2500 series cisco router. It was great, built well, fast and it even had an ISDN backup for the T1 circuit. Nice gear, never had a day of downtime due to the router in 5 years, but pricey.
Now we've got an Adtran. Literally, one third the cost of the cisco, performs just as well (without ISDN backup). Lots of ISPs are switching to Adtran stuff because it's cheap and it works.
Lots of people here are griping about the cost of fiber to the home to the taxpayer.
Why should this utility be different than any other? New roads cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year, and much more than that to maintain the existing roads. No one ever protests the construction or repair of roads.
Water and sewer lines also cost local governments millions of dollars. No one wants to see those go away either.
Why shouldn't local governments get their citizens connected? Local governments are charged with the responsibility to educate, protect and provide the necessities for it's people. Doesn't information access fall into that category?
Linus Torvalds said it best when asked why anyone would help develop Linux. He said "it's a lot like roads...no one person owns the roads but everyone benefits from having well maintained roads."
Broadband companies could do more to protect their users and the internet in general - here are a few suggestions:
1. Block outbound port 25 from residential users that OBVIOUSLY have compromised machines sending out hundreds or thousands of emails a day.
2. Provide cable/DSL modems with some NAT/Firewalling capability turned on by default. Tech savvy users will figure out how to forward ports or disable NAT if necessary.
3. Provide free trial anti-virus software with their configuration software.
4. During installation of supplied software, ask the user if they would like to turn on "automatic software updates".
These steps would go a long way to securing 90% of non-tech savvy people. Geeks could ignore all this and go about their business.
These black boxes will be used as a tool by insurance companies to raise rates for all. I'm sure insurance companies KNOW most people speed. Sure, only a small percentage get caught (via speeding tickets or accidents), but this new influx of data will trigger rate hikes for most.
I know many people that drive aggresively, yet have zero accidents or tickets on their driving records. I also know many "soccer-moms" that drive slowly, but are so busy changing DVDs, yelling at the kids, and eating lunch in the mini-van, that they hit everything on the road. The black boxes, since they can not measure in car distraction, might actually portray these individuals as "low-risk".
Big-brother on the highways is there for one reason: profit.
Airlines and broadband are no longer businesses, they are commodities that are necessary for the public good. Guess what that makes them?
You guessed it: Utilities.
Airlines and broadband need to be regulated utilites much like the telephone, gas, and electric utilities. The government could dictate minimum quality of service and regulate rates.
As it stands now, both industries have poor performance, and very poor business models. It may be the time to just give up on the airline and broadband "businesses".
I really do believe we can stuff enough algorithms in a movie that only the dedicated hackers can spend the time and effort to try to plumb through those 1,000 algorithms to try to find a way to beat it.
Here's the problem with that opinion - it only takes ONE hacker to beat the "algorithms". How long do you really think it will take 10,000 hackers all over the world to beat these "algorithms"?
Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's really hard to put it back in.
The "zero tolerance" stance on piracy will never work. Make it difficult for large scale pirates (guys mass producing pirated DVDs all over Asia) by involving local law enforcement. Suing Joe Consumer for copying the latest Soprano's DVD is bad for business and just plain stupid.
The RIAA thinks by using scare tactics on a few people it will stop the millions of people that trade files online. This is stupid for two reasons:
1. The "long arm of the US law" doesn't extend beyond US borders. Good luck trying to sue file traders in Iran.
2. Tech savy people will stop using file trading software and operate their own FTP servers. I've already done this. My friends and I login to my FTP site and upload and download the newest stuff we aquire (VPN and login required). It's alot like trading tapes back in the day. If the RIAA tries to crack my server, i'll sue the hell out of them for unlawful search and seizure, trespassing, and any other terrorist technicality my attorney can find for breaking into my private server.
I used to actually buy CDs. I no longer want to thanks to the strongarm tactics of the RIAA (I buy only used CDs now). The RIAA can go f themselves.
When installing word or any office program ALWAYS run a "custom" installation and get to the screen with all the grey boxes that turn white when selected for installation. Select the top-most box and click "run from installed location". All the lower boxes should turn white - that means they will all be installed on the HD.
After the installation is complete, the installer will ask if you want to delete the installation files or leave them on the hard disk. LEAVE THE FILES ON THE DISK. While this only applies to Office 2003, it does make patching or servicing the installation later a breeze.
I used group policies to force every user's web session through a filtering proxy server. The proxy drops pop-up windows, active X plugins, and nasty spyware and viruses. As far as I know, the only way to make IE secure, is to prevent the bad stuff from getting to it.
We run a few access points without encryption, just MAC address filtering for access control. Is that considered insecure?
The traffic from those points can not get to anything that is considered "secure" so we really don't care about someone sniffing frames of data.
We don't encrypt these particular access points since managing WEP keys sucks and WPA isn't supported by all our client hardware yet. (Also PEAP and LEAP are not supported on all our clients either).
I suspect these "non-encrypted" access points are considered insecure, when in reality there are some access controls in place.
None of our users have privilages above standard "domain user". We also block executables and installable files at our proxy server. This should be standard security policy regardless of the operating systems used on the machines.
I'm the network admin for a private school. We are predominantly a windows shop, with a handful of macs thrown in. (And some linux machines running in my office.)
Why we use windows:
1. Everything runs on windows. Our Executive staff never worries about software or hardware compatibility when making software purchases. Try to find educational software, donor management, and student records software that doesn't run on windows. This makes purchasing very easy.
2. Group policies. Being able to lock down every little setting and creating a uniform "expierience" at every workstation from a central management console is crucial.
3. Cost. Windows on X86 is a cheap platform. We pay $40.00 per copy of windows and $60.00 per copy of MS office. I like OS X, but at Academic pricing it is still $99.00.
These are just some reasons for choosing windows. When OS X or Linux beats windows in all three of these areas - we WILL switch.
Slashdot Mirror
I see alot of discussion here about the wavelength and power absorption effects on biological systems.
When did someone figure out the mechanism by which non-ionizing radiation harms biological systems? Was the nobel prize awarded while I wasn't looking?
Relax people, we probably absorb more EMF from our TVs, DVD players, computers, and cell phones than from ELF transmissions.
-ted
Wow, this might be the beginning of something that i've been looking for since I started using linux years ago..
A single place to manage all my users and computers. Novell and Microsoft have done it very well. Hell, Apple even has a better way to manage users and computers than PAM and OpenLDAP on Linux.
Maybe this is the final admission that single sign on cobbled together by using PAM and OpenLDAP is not the solution that corporate IT guys want.
-ted
A public company cares about making money - that's why IE has lagged behind many other browsers as of late (and why development pretty much stopped on IE 6).
Now Google wants to build a browser? Why? Don't give me the "platform to launch pay services" argument. A browser is a browser - I can buy music, ebay products, and job hunt through pretty much any of the 3 browsers installed on my system.
How is this going to "challenge microsoft"?
Now if they were building an OS, i'd be excited.
-ted
That's a pretty easy marketing phrase; and it is the very one that made Microsoft rich.
Back in the good ol' days when most small to medium size networks ran Netware file servers - Windows NT was just a blip on the radar. How did MS take all that marketshare from Novell?
I remember deploying windows 95 and 98 for my clients and liking the fact that there was ALREADY a novell client built into windows. The fact that it worked better than Novell's client on occassion didn't suck either.
Before you know it, windows is everywhere, and people are slowly replacing Netware with NT. It just worked with windows better.
Sun could learn a lesson here. Maybe replacing windows on the desktop is still a monsterous task - but replacing a file server isn't. Maybe if SUN offered a drop in replacement for windows 2000/2003 server I would consider it. Run solaris 10, or Linux on it - I don't care, but make it be a drop in replacement. Active Directory, Remote storage, replication----blah blah blah...the works. On the outside it looks like a windows server, on the inside (where it counts) it's not.
A drop in replacement that reproduces all the functionality, with none of the drawbacks of windows would be great.
And the market would pay for that.
-ted
I've been troubleshooting slow network connections at two of our remote offices, and I found something very interesting. Both of the offices are connected to us via a Cisco VPN. Each of the offices is connected to the internet via a PIX firewall and cable modem. During the past year I've seen the performance of these links deteriorate to worse than ISDN speed performance - here's why:
It seems these cable modem networks are flooded with zombie machines constantly scanning networks for vulnerable hosts to infect. Cisco's floodguard freaks out and thinks that its internet connection is being ddos attacked and starts discarding packets it thinks are malicious.
Well, it seems that Cisco's algorithm for determining malicious packets isn't perfect, so it throws out the baby with the bath water....resulting in a REALLY slow connection.
After disabling floodguard the links were back up to 3 Mbps and 10 Mbps.
So if your networks are zombie free, and you can't figure out why your internet connection sucks and you are running floodguard, try disabling it and running some tests.
-ted
The report also estimated it would take as long as five years and cost $5 million to $11 million to recover the bomb.
I'll bet it costs a few terrorists alot less than that to retrieve the weapon.
-ted
Sure, i've got a CS degree - and I don't even write code for a living - I'm a network admin.
RELAX! It was supposed to be a funny post.
Geez....no sense of humor on slashdot today.
-ted
OK, i'm not in an apartment, I own a townhouse; but I think your power concerns aren't totally justified.
I run two servers full time at my house. I have a single 2.4 GHz xeon 1u rackmount box, and a 1u Dell Powervault for my storage needs (P4 2.6 Ghz).
I had them disconnected for one month while I used them on a work-site and I found my electric bill was only about $8.00 cheaper! I drink more than that in beer on a Friday night.
The electricity cost isn't horrible, but the space, heat, and fan noise are other factors that might make my setup intolerable in your environment.
-ted
Where do I get a gig like that?
He basically had some software look for similarities in the code, and then manually verified the hits.
Wow....$550/hour to do that. I've got a CS degree - I'll volunteer to do it for half that!
Oh yeah, he also explained the significance of return statements so that non-programmer types could understand.
-ted
Of backwards compatibility.....
Microsoft developers work long and hard on new operating systems so that old apps won't be broken by an OS upgrade. Microsoft knows that it's dominance (much like the x86 architecture) comes from it's backwards compatibility.
Now microsoft wants to push a new USB standard that forces everyone to upgrade their USB devices? How many people will toss out last years scanners, cameras, iPods, floppy drives, flash card readers, and countless other devices just because Microsoft says so?
Microsoft better tread lightly here. They are reaching a point where most people see no benefit from upgrading operating systems or office suites. Forcing people to throw away good hardware will almost certainly hurt sales of their software.
-ted
We run mostly windows 2000 and windows XP machines and I can say that our failure rate is NOWHERE near these numbers.
Why you ask?
We prevent any user from installing software. We push out patches on a regular basis, and our anti-virus software is self-updating.
Simply, we keep users from doing bad things to their machines.
We also run some OS X machines - those seem to be just as stable in a controlled environment.
Our linux machines don't get touched by end users (Most of our users are scared of linux). Those machines are also reliable.
I guess the common thread in all of this is bad users are to blame - not bad operating systems.
-ted
Is there really a market for another cheap router? Our last ISP (years ago) gave us a 2500 series cisco router. It was great, built well, fast and it even had an ISDN backup for the T1 circuit. Nice gear, never had a day of downtime due to the router in 5 years, but pricey.
Now we've got an Adtran. Literally, one third the cost of the cisco, performs just as well (without ISDN backup). Lots of ISPs are switching to Adtran stuff because it's cheap and it works.
Remind me again why we need MORE cheap routers?
-ted
Lots of people here are griping about the cost of fiber to the home to the taxpayer.
Why should this utility be different than any other? New roads cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year, and much more than that to maintain the existing roads. No one ever protests the construction or repair of roads.
Water and sewer lines also cost local governments millions of dollars. No one wants to see those go away either.
Why shouldn't local governments get their citizens connected? Local governments are charged with the responsibility to educate, protect and provide the necessities for it's people. Doesn't information access fall into that category?
Linus Torvalds said it best when asked why anyone would help develop Linux. He said "it's a lot like roads...no one person owns the roads but everyone benefits from having well maintained roads."
Broadband "roads" are that important.
-ted
Our Dells have the BIOS locked down via password, and they store that and other bios settings in non-volatile flash memory.
-ted
Broadband companies could do more to protect their users and the internet in general - here are a few suggestions:
1. Block outbound port 25 from residential users that OBVIOUSLY have compromised machines sending out hundreds or thousands of emails a day.
2. Provide cable/DSL modems with some NAT/Firewalling capability turned on by default. Tech savvy users will figure out how to forward ports or disable NAT if necessary.
3. Provide free trial anti-virus software with their configuration software.
4. During installation of supplied software, ask the user if they would like to turn on "automatic software updates".
These steps would go a long way to securing 90% of non-tech savvy people. Geeks could ignore all this and go about their business.
-ted
I just noticed on a clean install of XP SP2 that the integrated video output from an Intel 845G chipset is corrupted. Removing SP2 corrects the issue.
There are alot of 845 chipesets out there; I wonder if they all have the video issue.
-ted
These black boxes will be used as a tool by insurance companies to raise rates for all. I'm sure insurance companies KNOW most people speed. Sure, only a small percentage get caught (via speeding tickets or accidents), but this new influx of data will trigger rate hikes for most.
I know many people that drive aggresively, yet have zero accidents or tickets on their driving records. I also know many "soccer-moms" that drive slowly, but are so busy changing DVDs, yelling at the kids, and eating lunch in the mini-van, that they hit everything on the road. The black boxes, since they can not measure in car distraction, might actually portray these individuals as "low-risk".
Big-brother on the highways is there for one reason: profit.
-ted
Airlines and broadband are no longer businesses, they are commodities that are necessary for the public good. Guess what that makes them?
You guessed it: Utilities.
Airlines and broadband need to be regulated utilites much like the telephone, gas, and electric utilities. The government could dictate minimum quality of service and regulate rates.
As it stands now, both industries have poor performance, and very poor business models. It may be the time to just give up on the airline and broadband "businesses".
-ted
I really do believe we can stuff enough algorithms in a movie that only the dedicated hackers can spend the time and effort to try to plumb through those 1,000 algorithms to try to find a way to beat it.
Here's the problem with that opinion - it only takes ONE hacker to beat the "algorithms". How long do you really think it will take 10,000 hackers all over the world to beat these "algorithms"?
Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's really hard to put it back in.
The "zero tolerance" stance on piracy will never work. Make it difficult for large scale pirates (guys mass producing pirated DVDs all over Asia) by involving local law enforcement. Suing Joe Consumer for copying the latest Soprano's DVD is bad for business and just plain stupid.
-ted
The RIAA thinks by using scare tactics on a few people it will stop the millions of people that trade files online. This is stupid for two reasons:
1. The "long arm of the US law" doesn't extend beyond US borders. Good luck trying to sue file traders in Iran.
2. Tech savy people will stop using file trading software and operate their own FTP servers. I've already done this. My friends and I login to my FTP site and upload and download the newest stuff we aquire (VPN and login required). It's alot like trading tapes back in the day. If the RIAA tries to crack my server, i'll sue the hell out of them for unlawful search and seizure, trespassing, and any other terrorist technicality my attorney can find for breaking into my private server.
I used to actually buy CDs. I no longer want to thanks to the strongarm tactics of the RIAA (I buy only used CDs now). The RIAA can go f themselves.
-ted
When installing word or any office program ALWAYS run a "custom" installation and get to the screen with all the grey boxes that turn white when selected for installation. Select the top-most box and click "run from installed location". All the lower boxes should turn white - that means they will all be installed on the HD.
After the installation is complete, the installer will ask if you want to delete the installation files or leave them on the hard disk. LEAVE THE FILES ON THE DISK. While this only applies to Office 2003, it does make patching or servicing the installation later a breeze.
-ted
I used group policies to force every user's web session through a filtering proxy server. The proxy drops pop-up windows, active X plugins, and nasty spyware and viruses. As far as I know, the only way to make IE secure, is to prevent the bad stuff from getting to it.
-ted
We run a few access points without encryption, just MAC address filtering for access control. Is that considered insecure?
The traffic from those points can not get to anything that is considered "secure" so we really don't care about someone sniffing frames of data.
We don't encrypt these particular access points since managing WEP keys sucks and WPA isn't supported by all our client hardware yet. (Also PEAP and LEAP are not supported on all our clients either).
I suspect these "non-encrypted" access points are considered insecure, when in reality there are some access controls in place.
-ted
None of our users have privilages above standard "domain user". We also block executables and installable files at our proxy server. This should be standard security policy regardless of the operating systems used on the machines.
-ted
I'm the network admin for a private school. We are predominantly a windows shop, with a handful of macs thrown in. (And some linux machines running in my office.)
Why we use windows:
1. Everything runs on windows. Our Executive staff never worries about software or hardware compatibility when making software purchases. Try to find educational software, donor management, and student records software that doesn't run on windows. This makes purchasing very easy.
2. Group policies. Being able to lock down every little setting and creating a uniform "expierience" at every workstation from a central management console is crucial.
3. Cost. Windows on X86 is a cheap platform. We pay $40.00 per copy of windows and $60.00 per copy of MS office. I like OS X, but at Academic pricing it is still $99.00.
These are just some reasons for choosing windows. When OS X or Linux beats windows in all three of these areas - we WILL switch.
-ted