Pros: * Does appear and function more like a desktop application.
Cons: * Slow load times. This could be the result of a good slashdotting, but I doubt it. * Slow, bloated javascript. (any minor action results in 30 seconds of 100% cpu usage) * High amounts of CSS errors (IE-specific tags) * No apparent way to disable the rendering of HTML email (only external images, which is *ON* by default!) * No apparent way to view the raw source of emails. * The virus scanner -- its cute, but its extremely annoying.
> Files are not scanned until you try to download them.
> Files are *repeatedly* scanned. If you download the same attachment 10 times, it will scan it 10 times.
Verdict: Its an improvement on the old Yahoo mail, but its no where near as polished (or responsive) as Gmail.
This "problem" is not limited to ServersCheck. A Google 'Suggest' search for just about any popular software package will turn up entries that include the words "crack", "serial" or "keygen".
Just for kicks I tried the following queries:
Photoshop Paintshop Autocad 2005 3d Studio Max Fruity Loops Windows 2000 Pro Office 2003 Soundforge
*All* of them resulted in illicit entries appearing in the suggestions box.
...which makes me suspect they *will* support other browsers in the future....either that, or they will drop support for IE.;)
To find out why they dont support them know, issue the following javascript commands at that page:
document.getElementById('contentDiv').style.displa y = 'block';
document.getElementById('redirectLinkDiv').style.d isplay = 'none';
..Which will remove the browser warning and display the rest of the page. Under Firefox 1.5.0.3 it is *really* screwed up. A quick look at my CSS debugger shows about 50 errors from non-standard CSS tags.
Actually, no. One of the things I did on my last job was prepare "servers" to be shipped out to new pizza hut locations. The old setup included a commodity x86 PC running SCO openserver (5.something, if I recall) and a bunch of dumb terminals. The new setup was basically a windows 2000 box connected to a bunch of "ePic" terminals.
The interface on the SCO boxes does look like DOS, but it definitely isnt.
Get rid of the KVM. 4 monitors (flat panels if you need the space, CRTs if you cant spare the cost) + 4 keyboards and mice are *so* much easier to deal with when you are working on more than one machine at a time. Add a USB keyboard and mouse as well, because you will undoubtedly encounter more than a few systems that will require them.
Second; set up a network that is isolated from your company's main network. This is so that any infected PCs would not be able to spread the virus/worm/etc to the other machines in your office. Ideally, this network would have its own external IP, as well as a strict firewall (Slackware running on a cheap 2-NIC PC has always done the trick for me, but YMMV). You will probably need a fileserver on this network (for hosting patches, AV installs, anti-spyware tools, windows upgrades, etc) running some flavor of Linux or Unix.
Lastly; Anti-static mats over the entire bench. Nothing is worse than having to call up a customer to tell them you accidentally fried their video card.
If you do a google image search for "www.google.com", one of the first results you get is an image of Alyson Hannigan. That image resides on my server.
I havent the foggiest idea how that image got associated with the string "www.google.com", no why it would be ranked so high. I havent linked to that image directly in over a year, and only on a page that Google shouldnt be trowling for images anyhow.
BTW, a good 70% of the traffic to my server is people looking for that image.
Ive personally seen XP machines get infected with Blaster, Sasser, etc, during the install of Windows. These days, if you install Windows with an active connection to the internet, or to a network of infected machines, your nuts.
I generally install Windows with the box disconnected from the network, install all the latest updates of a CD, then attempt to connect to the network. Most of the time, that works...
After sitting here and reperatedly hitting refresh (over 200 times), I have yet to see any MS ads on LT. Ive seen ads for everything else - Bellsouth, Rackspace, Netzero, Symantec - but not Microsoft. Show me these ads, I say,/then/ you can rant.
The solution is simple; switch end users away from IE, to *any* other browser (just as long as said browser does not use IE as the rendering engine). It doesnt neccessarily have to be Mozilla/Firefox, it could be Opera. Any browser that has all the basic features; web standards complicance, popup blocking, extensibility, etc. Theming isnt neccessary, but its always nice.
I work as field networking tech for a local SORC (Small Office and Residential Computing) company. Every chance I get, I urge users to ditch IE and move to something better. Usually, they ask me to install it for them, and I gladly do so. Most end users dont understand spyware, dont know or care what web standards are, but they *DO* know about popups... That in itself is one of the biggest selling points for alternative browsers. If it stops popups dead, the end users will like it.
It is unfortunate, though, that most end users are unaware of browser hijackers. They just assume that random porn popups and huge annoying toolbars are "part of the web experience". Most users dont realize that the only reason thier web experience sucks is because of the browser they are using. Heck, for most end users, the web *IS* the browser.
For any tech who has contact with end users; I urge you to reccommend them to switch away from IE. Granted, doing so will effectively remove them from your list of regular customers for browser spyware removal, but it will greatly improve thier web experience, and, eventually, the web itself.
It doesnt, although the mere fact that its compiling the program means that more things can go wrong... So, in essence, its worse than a pure binary installer, but the novely of it compiling from source more than outweighs that.
Slashdot Mirror
Pros:
* Does appear and function more like a desktop application.
Cons:
* Slow load times. This could be the result of a good slashdotting, but I doubt it.
* Slow, bloated javascript. (any minor action results in 30 seconds of 100% cpu usage)
* High amounts of CSS errors (IE-specific tags)
* No apparent way to disable the rendering of HTML email (only external images, which is *ON* by default!)
* No apparent way to view the raw source of emails.
* The virus scanner -- its cute, but its extremely annoying.
> Files are not scanned until you try to download them.
> Files are *repeatedly* scanned. If you download the same attachment 10 times, it will scan it 10 times.
Verdict:
Its an improvement on the old Yahoo mail, but its no where near as polished (or responsive) as Gmail.
This "problem" is not limited to ServersCheck. A Google 'Suggest' search for just about any popular software package will turn up entries that include the words "crack", "serial" or "keygen".
Just for kicks I tried the following queries:
Photoshop
Paintshop
Autocad 2005
3d Studio Max
Fruity Loops
Windows 2000 Pro
Office 2003
Soundforge
*All* of them resulted in illicit entries appearing in the suggestions box.
To find out why they dont support them know, issue the following javascript commands at that page:
"Pep Boys" auto parts uses Linux on their POS terminals...
Actually, no. One of the things I did on my last job was prepare "servers" to be shipped out to new pizza hut locations. The old setup included a commodity x86 PC running SCO openserver (5.something, if I recall) and a bunch of dumb terminals. The new setup was basically a windows 2000 box connected to a bunch of "ePic" terminals.
The interface on the SCO boxes does look like DOS, but it definitely isnt.
The Kentucky Department of Justice uses OpenOffice beta 2 internally.
Get rid of the KVM. 4 monitors (flat panels if you need the space, CRTs if you cant spare the cost) + 4 keyboards and mice are *so* much easier to deal with when you are working on more than one machine at a time. Add a USB keyboard and mouse as well, because you will undoubtedly encounter more than a few systems that will require them.
Second; set up a network that is isolated from your company's main network. This is so that any infected PCs would not be able to spread the virus/worm/etc to the other machines in your office. Ideally, this network would have its own external IP, as well as a strict firewall (Slackware running on a cheap 2-NIC PC has always done the trick for me, but YMMV). You will probably need a fileserver on this network (for hosting patches, AV installs, anti-spyware tools, windows upgrades, etc) running some flavor of Linux or Unix.
Lastly; Anti-static mats over the entire bench. Nothing is worse than having to call up a customer to tell them you accidentally fried their video card.
Its a good trick, but it isnt perfect. Char #1072 looks almost like a lower-case 'a', but it does not match. Example
Granted, this may only be with the particular font that Im using, but Id be willing to bet its like that in most fonts.
Nay. I just tried it with the stock Wine in Debian Sid, no go. The installer complained about a lack of an MSI installer and exited.
If you do a google image search for "www.google.com", one of the first results you get is an image of Alyson Hannigan. That image resides on my server.
I havent the foggiest idea how that image got associated with the string "www.google.com", no why it would be ranked so high. I havent linked to that image directly in over a year, and only on a page that Google shouldnt be trowling for images anyhow.
BTW, a good 70% of the traffic to my server is people looking for that image.
Yeah, I wrote one of those back in '98...yeah, its still booting...
Bio-neural gel-packs, anyone?
Of course, the logs were rotated Sunday, and they are only up to a few thousand thus far...
Magnavolt! The final word in auto security. No embarassing alarm noise, no need to trouble the police, and it won't even run down your battery!
Ive personally seen XP machines get infected with Blaster, Sasser, etc, during the install of Windows. These days, if you install Windows with an active connection to the internet, or to a network of infected machines, your nuts.
I generally install Windows with the box disconnected from the network, install all the latest updates of a CD, then attempt to connect to the network. Most of the time, that works...
So I guess ODing on LSD really does cause cancer... ;)
Too bad there's not something that gives you a decent OS, thumb keyboard *and* bluetooth to a pc.
Theres always the Sharp Zaurus with a Bluetooth card...
Too bad the Apple Newton didn't come with WiFi... ;)
After sitting here and reperatedly hitting refresh (over 200 times), I have yet to see any MS ads on LT. Ive seen ads for everything else - Bellsouth, Rackspace, Netzero, Symantec - but not Microsoft. Show me these ads, I say, /then/ you can rant.
The solution is simple; switch end users away from IE, to *any* other browser (just as long as said browser does not use IE as the rendering engine). It doesnt neccessarily have to be Mozilla/Firefox, it could be Opera. Any browser that has all the basic features; web standards complicance, popup blocking, extensibility, etc. Theming isnt neccessary, but its always nice.
I work as field networking tech for a local SORC (Small Office and Residential Computing) company. Every chance I get, I urge users to ditch IE and move to something better. Usually, they ask me to install it for them, and I gladly do so.
Most end users dont understand spyware, dont know or care what web standards are, but they *DO* know about popups... That in itself is one of the biggest selling points for alternative browsers. If it stops popups dead, the end users will like it.
It is unfortunate, though, that most end users are unaware of browser hijackers. They just assume that random porn popups and huge annoying toolbars are "part of the web experience". Most users dont realize that the only reason thier web experience sucks is because of the browser they are using. Heck, for most end users, the web *IS* the browser.
For any tech who has contact with end users; I urge you to reccommend them to switch away from IE. Granted, doing so will effectively remove them from your list of regular customers for browser spyware removal, but it will greatly improve thier web experience, and, eventually, the web itself.
"The operation timed out when attempting to contact www.bargainpda.com"
Yeah, just wait for it...
..Only Biff's name is now 'Bill', and the book is really an operating system...
It doesnt, although the mere fact that its compiling the program means that more things can go wrong... So, in essence, its worse than a pure binary installer, but the novely of it compiling from source more than outweighs that.
Name *one* Windows installer that builds from source.