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User: spudnic

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  1. Re:Two counterpoints on al Qaeda Hacks XP? · · Score: 2

    Maybe they promoted it kind of like the GI Bill here in America. Give us x years of service and you will come out of it with a great education and lots of experience to put on your resume.

    .

  2. Re:Two counterpoints take two on al Qaeda Hacks XP? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So what are the QA procedures for Solitaire? I'm sure that gets almost as much runtime on most office machines as the networking stack.

    I don't think they would have had to put a backdoor into the kernel for them to cause problems.
    .

  3. Re:not as easy as you might think on al Qaeda Hacks XP? · · Score: 2

    Yes, they do. And that's why they have a reputation for it. They're known as the OS that reviews every line of code. If everyone did it, it wouldn't be a big deal.

    .

  4. Re:Home networking at this level? No thanks. on Linksys Incorporates HomePlug Networking · · Score: 1

    The main reason I see for a home server rather than some peer-to-peer thing is that you don't have to worry about someone turning off/rebooting their machine that you are currently playing an mp3 from.

    An inexpensive box that sits in a corner and just runs makes life much easier. Everyone saves their files to their home directory on the server. Just set everyones "My Documents" folder to point to the server for the wife and kids and it is seamless.

    No getting annoyed when somebody shuts down their machine, and you only have to worry about backing up one machine to save everyone's data.

    .

  5. Re:Internationel support? on Comparing the DVRs? · · Score: 1

    Getting a package together to perform the functions of the tivo isn't the hard part, it's maintaining programming information. That is what makes the tivo a tivo. Afterall, the tivo is just a linx box with some pretty good software.

    And I'm not just talking about a schedule you could suck down off some website, pass through a perl script, and call it a schedule. Tivo has to know what local cable system I'm on and what subscription level I have. It even has to track when my local cable company makes a lineup change before it happens so that none of my shows will be missed. They pay dearly for this information.

    .

  6. Re:Be prepared for lots of new desktops! on GNOME 2.0 Developer Platform Beta · · Score: 1

    * March 15: Gnome 2.0 Desktop Final

    Beware the Ides of March!


  7. Re:Defense? on Slashback: Banco, Warez, Fiction · · Score: 2

    "I didn't know any of this was even going on. Someone must have cracked my box and set up an FTP server. I swear! Ok, then prove I'm lying."

    .

  8. Re:Downloading music on 2001 UCLA Internet Census · · Score: 1

    It would be interesting to see the -source- of downloaded music based on experience. How many new users even know that newsgroups exist? Or that you can find just about anything on irc? Or that irc isn't Instant Messanger?

    .

  9. Re:Price on 2001 UCLA Internet Census · · Score: 1

    I did almost all of my Christmas shopping at Amazon this year. I got in when they where doing their free shipping deal. It works out great for me because I was able to find items that I think people would like and I didn't have to spend hours (days?) stuck in some horrid mall. The prices are fairly competitive, and with the no tax/free shipping combo, it's hard to beat.

    I had all of the presents wrapped and sent to my parent's house. It's much better than having to deal with bringing packages cross-country. When I go home for Christmas all of the presents from me will already be under the tree and I will have more time to spend doing other stuff.

    .

  10. Re:Except.. on 2001 UCLA Internet Census · · Score: 1

    I'm assuming they could determine experience based on the number of years a user has had Internet connectivity and how much time they spend on the 'net in an average week.

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  11. Re:i'm new on Making Linux Look Harder Than It Is · · Score: 2

    All that you have said is true, but you're completely missing the point. People don't want to read a manual. Most people just want to unpack their new computer, turn it on, and start experimenting. It may take a few hours of playing around with Windows to gain enough understanding to do your day to day work. They might not be able to do any hardcore hacking on the system, but it's intuitive enough to get working.

    Many people rave about how great it is that you can go on irc any time of the day to get help setting up samba or whatever your latest project is. This isn't a selling point! Sure, it says that we have a great community of users who are willing to help out when they can, but NO user should have so much trouble trying to decipher incoherent error messages while setting up basic peer-to-peer file sharing that they have to seek help on a freakin' irc channel. Most users don't even know what irc or newsgroups are! "No, I don't have those on my computer, I just have the Internet." ;)

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  12. Re:But on the other hand... on Making Linux Look Harder Than It Is · · Score: 2

    You've actually brought up something that I had been thinking as I was reading this article. There are tons of books about administering Linux primarily from the command line, but relatively few (that I've seen at least) that offer a new user training in using a GUI.

    Why? Well the main reason I see is that there is so much choice. When the people sat down to write "Windows for Dummies" they had a pretty good idea of what the user's desktop was going to look like, where Control Panel is and what things are available through it.

    If you are trying to develop a training course for Linux you can't make those assumptions. Which distro are they using? Which desktop from that distro did they choose to install? Did they install both and not know what they're using now? Have they installed the Ximian (or whatever) extras? Which window manager are they using today?

    In the situation where I'm called up and asked for Linux help, instead of getting into all of this I'd much rather just try to walk the through it on the command line. At least there is a baseline to work from.

    .

  13. Re:Treo on Slashback: Authors, Innards, Boson · · Score: 2, Informative

    Possible, but what I read said it had twice the hard drive capacity as the iPod, not half.

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  14. Re:fax will never die... at least not yet. on Email Turns Thirty · · Score: 1

    I know in my area that Time Warner advertises the Road Runner service heavily to businesses on radio, billboards, and newspapers. Yes, it's a little more expensive for a business, but not much. Home users pay ~$44 while a business with like services are charged ~$75. Business plans go up from there offering additional stuff (banks of IP's, more bandwidth, providing NAT routers, etc).

    The big problem is getting cable laid if it is not available. What we've been able to do for several of our clients is to get commitments from other businesses in their office park, building, or whatever to to subscribe to the service. This makes it much more lucrative for them to get the cable in their. If there is any additional install fee, it is broken up among all of the people who agreed to get the service and included as part of their monthly bill for the first year.

  15. Re:It's amazing how much innovation this caused... on Email Turns Thirty · · Score: 1

    No, that doesn't work because every time I try to do just that invariably after I submit the form it says something like "Now please check your email and click the link to..."

  16. Re:Is this the right man for the job? on Information Security On An Olympic Scale · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Maybe this IS security through obscurity. Maybe the article is just a front for what will actually be running on the servers. "Let's tell them we'll be running W2K and have all of the service fingerprints report as though we actually where, but then install xxxxxxx"

    It could be. ;)

    .

  17. Re:Available on Amazon ...... sort of......... on This is IT? · · Score: 3, Funny

    You missed the best part of the Amazon product page:

    Customers who shopped for this item also shopped for these items:

    * Playboy (1994) VHS ~ Ginger Lynn Allen
    * Girls Gone Crazy DVD
    * Invincible, Michael Jackson
    * Corporate Cults by Dave Arnott

  18. Re:Okay... why is this any different on This is IT? · · Score: 1

    Because most adults wouldn't (or couldn't) be able to balance on the thing without a lot of practice and effort. Trust me, I know. ;) That may be great for some people, but not to be widely accepted.

    .

  19. Re:what about the accident-prone? on This is IT? · · Score: 1

    The security guys where there to make sure that two people who had never even seen the things before and had no practice at all wouldn't fall off.

    They would have been crazy not to have them there. Can you imagine if one of the hosts had fallen off IT and broken something? The company would lose massive sales, plus have a black eye from the beginning.

    I'm sure people will hurt themselves with this, but people can hurt themselves with anything. Just not on the world wide television debut! ;)

    As for the helmets, that is a bigger problem if people would be required to wear them. Not many women would want to put something like that on while heading to work or meeting.

  20. Re:SegWay in Combination with other things on This is IT? · · Score: 2

    1. What's the pounds-per-square-inch of force at the two points where the wheels meet the surface being traveled on? Is this enough to seriously injure feet/break bones when loaded with someone of average mass?

    On the show this morning Kamen intentionally ran over the chicks foot. She said she barely felt it.

    2. How does this thing handle on more slippery surfaces? The tires seem designed for dry surfaces where a smooth tire can expect reasonably good traction.

    Once again, on the show this guy ran it through a shallow pool of water (looked like 2-3 inches) and emerged on a platform with a ramp leading down to the ground. He came out of the water, started down the ramp, stopped, did a 360, and continued down the ramp.

    3. If I were to have a view from an overhead camera of an open squarish area with a bunch of salesrobots riding these around while trying to conduct business on their cellphones and reading their latest pager messages, would it be much like watching a science film about how molecules speed up and collide under heat/pressure? ;-)

    The idea is that if you can do those things and walk at the same time, you should be ok. The chick on the show was able to remove both hands and rest her knee on the handles while moving along.

    7. Will it have an emergency 'stop NOW' button to tell the processors "Halt horizontal movement and just balance, NOW"?

    All you do is step off. The platform senses this and stops immediately.

    8. Are the electronics sections reasonably proof from the elements of weather?

    Like I said, they ran the thing through water. The whole thing got wet. I'm sure they've waterproofed everything. As for the housing for the electronics, the Time diagram shows that it can support the weight of 3 SUV's running over it.

    9. Thanks to SUBWAY (tm), Jared lots a whole bunch of pounds. Thanks to SegWay, he can find them again.

    Exactly!

    One word for all the people saying how this is no better than a bike while I'm posting... Bikes are fine for college kids, which I'm assuming most of the posters of this garbage are, but not for business people. Women can't easily ride a bike wearing a skirt. Heck, men can't (or wouldn't) want to ride a bike with a suit on. Even in everyday clothes most adults wouldn't want to get sweaty or nasty from riding bikes on the way to work.


  21. Re:As seen on Excite on @Home Network Approaching Shutdown · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My Road Runner connection went up $4 a couple of months ago. While I never like to see increases, I was more than happy to pay the difference. As long as I see that the value to me exceeds the cost I'll stick with them.

    .

  22. Re:As seen on Excite on @Home Network Approaching Shutdown · · Score: 2

    I'd assume that a large portion of that is for bandwidth. I know I regularly pull down ~15Gig a week since I got Road Runner over a year ago (no, I'm not a porn hound, I do a lot of off-site backups to my machine). And that figure doesn't count all the stuff that comes down from news groups (that's where the porn comes in ;) because I'm assuming that my connection to their news servers only traverses their internal network.

    The rest of the money is probably spent on their internal data lines connecting POPs, devaluation of hardware, facilities costs, insurance, support /administrative /billing /sales staff wages and benefits, etc. It could add up to quite a bit.

    We really take cable ISP's for granted. For $40 a month, it's a deal that nobody who wants fast access could pass up.

  23. Re:Bad schedules? TiVo is your friend on Futurama Season 4 Update from David X. Cohen · · Score: 1

    You can do the same thing with Tivo.

    ------
    Adding stuff to beat the lameness filter.

  24. Re:Limited Usefulness on 3Com's 10/100 Switching... Wallplate · · Score: 1

    Why didn't you just come out of the wall into one of those cheap nat/firewall/switch boxes and connect all of your pc's to that?

  25. Re:Prettier outside, same junk inside on Concept PC 2001 · · Score: 1

    At one site that I did consulting work for they had a problem with people stealing RAM (of course this was several years ago). Just to keep up with what was stolen I wrote scripts that checked the current hardware config with the database and email me when changes occured.

    My point is that if someone wants to steal something, they are going to do it.