"We will soon be announcing that we will not be announcing a new product."/Just quit WoW after 30 months of raiding 5 days a week//I already have a job, thanks
My comment, while tinged by the whole T20 thing, was meant to be generic. This isn't the first time a CCP employee was caught cheating, and it won't be the last.
I am aware of what was given out already on this particular incident. My comments were about incidents like this in general (a GM was caught recently with a faction ship loaded with officer's modules headed into his character's alliance territory).
Besides, in the BoD/T20 incident, there are apparently a number of BPOs unaccounted for still.
Given the recent events (mainly surrounding Band of Brothers) of employee misconduct, have you considered changing your privacy policies in cases where an employee is involved?
I understand the privacy policy concerning the average player, and not wanting to discuss GM actions. However, when it is an employee involved who has been found guilty, some things need to be aired out in public in order to instill confidence in CCP by your playerbase.
We aren't looking for their real names. We want to know:
1) What exactly was the offense? 2) How was the offense corrected? (ISK or items removed) 3) What characters were terminated as a result of the investigation? 4) Is the person still a CCP employee?
It's amazing to see Blizzard actually re-instate these accounts, and I'm damned glad they did. I've been avoiding trying to get WoW going under Cedega lately due to the looming threat of Warden and how people thought it was react to Cedega.
This certainly isn't the first time they've mass banned people due to "mistakes" in their detection programs. Almost my entire guild was banned last year when one of their programs to check for cascaded raid timers was set for 7 days instead of 6; even then it would have been wrong due to Blizzard resetting all raid timers during a patch the week before. After raising a stink on the forums plus a number of calls to Blizzard, they reversed all our bans with a measly 24 hour credit.
Paris Hilton? BAH! Asia Carrera!
on
Top Ten Geek Girls
·
· Score: 4, Informative
If a toddler needs to go to the doctor, you don't toss him the keys to a Ferrari, you have someone drive him there instead.
Gentoo can be a great learning experience, but it isn't for everyone. Those of us who readily use it have our reasons and the minor installation issues are irrelevent.
Back when I was first getting into computers, I always used to buy the Computer Shopper magazine. It was huge (250-350) pages, but only about half of it was ads. The rest of it consisted of, mostly, hardware and software reviews. It was also fairly cheap at the time, at around $2.50 an issue.
Then it went to $2.95 an issue and consisted of 2/3 ads.
Then it went to $3.98 an issue and consisted of 3/4 ads, but dropped down to only about 200 pages.
At that point I never bought another copy.
(Yes, the numbers aren't exact, but it makes my point.)
Right now, I only block popups, though I'm considering blocking far more. I used to block all of doubleclick's stuff, but they aren't as common as they once were.
This comes as no surprise at all, given our experiences in WoW. The entire GM staff is completely incompetent, with no knowledge of their own game. Any time you start a ticket, you can almost always guess, word for word, what the copy-and-paste response will be.
And I speak from experience. Almost my entire guild was banned for a couple days due to a moron GM with no understanding of the game. It took about a day to get it straightened out, but this is was still a PR disaster that Blizzard still failed to handle properly, even after the fact.
(Long story short, they said we killed Ragnaros 3 times in 8 days, so we MUST have been cascading timers since such a feet was impossible. We educated them on how their timer system works, and the response was "See! You just admitted it yourself! The timer is 8 days, and the suspensions are upheld." The timer is SEVEN days, not EIGHT. Even after a senior GM reversed the suspensions, we still got more copy-and-paste responses saying they had 'reviewed our accounts' *cough*BULLSHIT!*cough* and the suspensions would not be reversed.)
Blizzard has a good game, they just need customer service to back it up. As it stands, that service is non-existent or so horrible that it becomes downright insulting to have anything to do with it.
I didn't finish watching it, and deleted it as fast as I can...but, unfortunately, that image will be forever burned into my retinas, and that shrill voice will forever ring in my ears...
Because an 8-drive RAID-10 array w/10k RPM Savvio drives will probably beat a 4 drive RAID-10 array w/15k RPM Cheetah drives. It will certainly beat a 3-drive RAID-5 array that is even more common on 1U servers, even if it's only 6 drives you can cram into there.
You are going to combat the excessive amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere by...producing more CO2? Even 'sequestered underground,' that isn't much of an option.
I'm in a bit of the opposite boat. No matter what time I went to bed, no matter how tired I was, I usually wouldn't fall asleep until 2am or so. And, of course, a 7am alarm had no chance in hell of waking me up.
Hence, my situation is fairly different, but some of the same things may help you as well as others here.
A) Shower and eat earlier in the evening, not just before bedtime. I never wake up early enough to shower in the morning, so I've always done it at night before bed.
B) Read before you go to sleep. Not tech manuals--that will probably make you think if work too much--even if you enjoy work, it's still not good. Read something along the lines of fantasy, or something humorous--Scott Adams books, Dilbert and User Friendly comic prints, something like that. Something that relaxes you and takes your mind off other things.
C) Lose weight! This was probably the biggest thing for me, of course. I was on the road to being labeled morbidly obese. I had tried many things, but finally went on a low-carb diet. I dropped 75lbs in a few months. My guess is that I was a good candidate for sleep apnea, and this probably stopped it. I still have another 60lbs or so to lose to get to a reasonable weight, but it has already made an amazing difference. I also no longer go into work and just about fall asleep until lunchtime.
No, you don't want to do low-carb forever, as no matter what people say, it isn't something your body is meant to do. But for the short-term to lose weight and stave off needing bypass surgery before you're 30, it's a good deal.
I have TWO Cisco 1602 routers at work that this happened to. The vendor had shipped them (refurbed routers) to our stores directly, and they were missing the slot covers on the back. Mice crawled into them, pissed on the board, and it ate away the etchings. It even completely disolved some pins on the main IC inside.
I'd post pics, but I'd rather not get Slashdotted!
Designing around a specific resolution is simply BAD practice. Any web developer doing so should be shot. I used to do web development, and we followed some fairly strict guidelines.
A) Absolutely no horizontal scrolling required (this is the closest we got to designing to a resolution--this test was always done at 640x480 with a maximized browser window)
B) Never do any 'under construction' bullshit. If you don't have a page ready, don't link it.
C) Absolutely no flash, java, javascript, or other plugins. I REFUSE to use any sites that are completely flash-based.
D) Proper attention to contrasting colors, as well as keeping colorblindness in mind.
E) Don't specify fonts by name. Not everyone has, or can use, Avant Garde and Dingbats.
F) The page should render reasonably well under text-based browsers such as Lynx and links. It doesn't have to format perfectly (very, very difficult to pull off), but should at least be navigable, with all information visable.
G) Frames shouldn't be used.
H) Forcing a link to open in a new browser window should never be done. IF the user wants it in another window, or another tab, then let them make the choice.
I) Even though I say no Javascript, I'll re-iterate this one. If you design your site to open it's own new window, turn off the button bar, turn off the menus, resize itself, and/or disable right-clicking, go blow your brains out NOW and do the rest of us a favor. Right now. Do not pass go, and please make sure you use hollow-points.
J) The page should render correctly under, minimum, Explorer 3+, Netscape 3+, Opera, Konqueror, Mozilla/Firefox/Galeon, and any other web browser you can get your hands on. It won't always render identically, no matter what you do--but should remain usable, as properly formatted as possible, and fully navigable and visable.
All of the above issues are turning the Web into a mish-mash of unreadable, un-navigable garbage. If enough people refuse to stay on badly designed sites, the sites will die. Eventually, practices will change--hopefully.
This is good timing. I think Sun should take a look at how SGI handled this.
SGI sat back one day, wondering about how they were spending something like $2billion a year on IRIX development. It finally dawned on them that they were a graphics software and support company, not an operating system company. So they switched to Linux, dropped IRIX like a rotten apple, and helped put a small portion of the $2billion they saved into helping get Linux to the point where they wanted it.
Sun could so the same--save billions, but still make a massive contribution to the Linux community, and help make sure Linux is 'where they want it.' It wouldn't take long, and they'd save a fortune.
Austin is the only reason to take 281 instead of 35 =P
I haven't gone that way in a couple years. Perhaps it's improved.
Besides, my phone may have been partly to blame the last time. I started losing signal more and more often (Nokia 6160), so finally replaced it (6560).
I really don't like it--slow as hell, and reception is better, but still a tad flaky. Unfortunately, it's the only phone they offered that had a somewhat 'normal' keypad on it. Now you have all these damned circular rockers and other useless crappy keypads on all the new phones. What's worse is that AT&T sells it, yet doesn't even support it's capabilities on their network--you can't even add/change anything on it without spending $60+ for Oxygen Phone Manager.
I've travelled all over Texas quite a bit, based out of San Antonio, and use AT&T for my work cell phone.
In any of the larger towns (50k+) it tends to be good, without many dead spots.
The IH35 and IH10/90 corridors have good coverage.
Taking 281 between San Antonio and Dallas is another story. If you've taken this route, odds are good that if I mention 'that McDonald's on the hill in Lampasass,' you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. This is the only location for about 250 miles that you can get a signal.
Of course, west Texas heading towards El Paso or heading up towards Amarillo is mostly dead once you turn off IH90.
Most of the sticks have spotty service, which unfortunately, I'm in too often. I'm told that Verizon has good coverage in these fringe areas.
I've used my AT&T cell on trips taking me to Denver, Burbank/Valencia California, and to Calgary/Banff (Canada...duh). All those locations were good.
Odd spots:
The Sybase offices on the 19th (?) floor of Lincoln Center in Dallas. If you put your cell phone down on the table, you can watch it rotate between Digital, Extended Area, and Roam, and watch the antenna bar go up and down--while the phone sits still.
The Amerisuites near Aurora (Denver) Colorado. As soon as you walk into the main lobby, your signal dies. Step into the elevator, and as soon as the doors close you get a signal again. It's clear all the way up and back down, until the elevator doors open again at the lobby. Walk outside the lobby about 30 ft from the building, and you get a full signal again.
Hey, it beats the hell out of Sprint PCS. That was just a total POS, and rarely worked at all.
Back in the bad ol' days, I used to help people with computer problems all the time in exchange for various odds and ends.
I knew a guy who ran a TV repair service. I wrote caller ID software for him, including reporting, etc. I set up an arcnet network for him once with spare parts I had. I did various other odd jobs (menuing systems using--*drumroll* batman) over the years for him.
I got various parts from him, including my first daisy wheel printer (complete with a crooked J!). He also, reguarly, would buy me 100 packs of 720k floppies, and the fancier disk drawers/cases.
Hey, we're talking 1991 or so here. All of this was behind the times, but it's the cheap stuff.
I finally upgraded from an NEC V30 (8086 upgrade) to a 386 SX-25 by helping a guy build his new system--a 486 SX complete with the seperate math coprocessor. And, of course, the new system had a bad power supply. The first time we fired it up, it fried everything. Absolutely everything. A first-generation sliding-tray load 1x CD-ROM (no more caddies!), the MB, CPU, math co, every memory stick (4MB), the HD (probably 80MB at the time), video card...everything. Luckily, he bought everything from one shop, so they replaced every last piece. And I got my shiny new/old 386.
Those days are long gone. I've been bought dinner once or twice by people since then, maybe given a minor trinket sort of thing. But, in general, people take it for granted. You can have a friend drag you out for 5 hours to fix a system for another friend (who you have never even met), and you're lucky to get a 'thanks' for it.
*THAT* is why I almost never help anyone anymore. I think this is becoming a more common attitude amonst us geeks, and rightfully so. The ignorant masses will just have to learn on their own for once! =P
I agree that some morons may have slipped through the cracks with a CCNP. But the CCIE certi costs $400-450 for the written test. Once you pass that, then you get the privilege of paying $1200+ for the hands-on exam. Until last year (i.e. when your 3000-ish CCIE took it), it was two days--now it's one day. They put you into a room full of various Cisco equipment--everything under the sun. They give you a set of scenarios, and you have to build design and build the network properly.
During the two-day test, the second day the proctor would break your network in every way imaginable, and you had to fix it.
You simply can't fake out and pass a test like that. You have to know what you are doing to have any hope--unless you paid off the proctor, that is...
I agree with nettdata, Cisco has one of the only certification programs out there that actually means something. Granted, though, this is more true for CCNP/CCDP and CCIE certs, and not so much CCNA.
My company sent me to an NT class once that was part of an MCSE track. The instructor was an absolute moron, and the MCSE-track students even worse. One student was *bragging* that he had spent 'only' about $18k so far. He immediately followed up lamenting about having to finish within the next month, though, because MS was about to expire his current MCSE track. If he didn't take the exam and pass, he'd have to re-take every class and exam he had done so far.
Even if a detrimental flaw is found and exploited, it won't be anything new for us network admins.
The major TCP flaw that was announced recently also affected most Cisco equipment. We just did the usual--grab the patched IOS and load it up during a maintenance window.
Updates like this happen all the time, and the most you probably notice is your overnight porn..erm...Linux ISO downloads stopped about 3am or so.
I do know about what Matrox has. I used Matrox dual-head for years (G450, I believe), and it sucked--bad--under Linux, using their proprietary drivers or not. I eventually convinced work to let me get a low-end nVidia dual-head, and things greatly improved.
While I do game at home, nothing I play can use dual-head, other than stretching--which is unplayable. Ever tried playing with your crosshair split in half by 4 inches?
I probably will end up doing what others have suggested--just mix a PCI card in with the AGP. I don't have to have 3D acceleration on all the screens--just one (at home at least, none at work).
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, and the announcement will be:
/Just quit WoW after 30 months of raiding 5 days a week //I already have a job, thanks
"We will soon be announcing that we will not be announcing a new product."
My comment, while tinged by the whole T20 thing, was meant to be generic. This isn't the first time a CCP employee was caught cheating, and it won't be the last.
I am aware of what was given out already on this particular incident. My comments were about incidents like this in general (a GM was caught recently with a faction ship loaded with officer's modules headed into his character's alliance territory).
Besides, in the BoD/T20 incident, there are apparently a number of BPOs unaccounted for still.
Given the recent events (mainly surrounding Band of Brothers) of employee misconduct, have you considered changing your privacy policies in cases where an employee is involved?
I understand the privacy policy concerning the average player, and not wanting to discuss GM actions. However, when it is an employee involved who has been found guilty, some things need to be aired out in public in order to instill confidence in CCP by your playerbase.
We aren't looking for their real names. We want to know:
1) What exactly was the offense?
2) How was the offense corrected? (ISK or items removed)
3) What characters were terminated as a result of the investigation?
4) Is the person still a CCP employee?
*avoided mentioning BoD even once!
**oops!
It's amazing to see Blizzard actually re-instate these accounts, and I'm damned glad they did. I've been avoiding trying to get WoW going under Cedega lately due to the looming threat of Warden and how people thought it was react to Cedega.
This certainly isn't the first time they've mass banned people due to "mistakes" in their detection programs. Almost my entire guild was banned last year when one of their programs to check for cascaded raid timers was set for 7 days instead of 6; even then it would have been wrong due to Blizzard resetting all raid timers during a patch the week before. After raising a stink on the forums plus a number of calls to Blizzard, they reversed all our bans with a measly 24 hour credit.
Whoever put Paris Hilton on the list needs to be shot. If you want a REAL geek girl who also shows the goods go for (SFW), the self-described "nerd of porn."
If a toddler needs to go to the doctor, you don't toss him the keys to a Ferrari, you have someone drive him there instead.
Gentoo can be a great learning experience, but it isn't for everyone. Those of us who readily use it have our reasons and the minor installation issues are irrelevent.
Back when I was first getting into computers, I always used to buy the Computer Shopper magazine. It was huge (250-350) pages, but only about half of it was ads. The rest of it consisted of, mostly, hardware and software reviews. It was also fairly cheap at the time, at around $2.50 an issue.
Then it went to $2.95 an issue and consisted of 2/3 ads.
Then it went to $3.98 an issue and consisted of 3/4 ads, but dropped down to only about 200 pages.
At that point I never bought another copy.
(Yes, the numbers aren't exact, but it makes my point.)
Right now, I only block popups, though I'm considering blocking far more. I used to block all of doubleclick's stuff, but they aren't as common as they once were.
This comes as no surprise at all, given our experiences in WoW. The entire GM staff is completely incompetent, with no knowledge of their own game. Any time you start a ticket, you can almost always guess, word for word, what the copy-and-paste response will be.
And I speak from experience. Almost my entire guild was banned for a couple days due to a moron GM with no understanding of the game. It took about a day to get it straightened out, but this is was still a PR disaster that Blizzard still failed to handle properly, even after the fact.
(Long story short, they said we killed Ragnaros 3 times in 8 days, so we MUST have been cascading timers since such a feet was impossible. We educated them on how their timer system works, and the response was "See! You just admitted it yourself! The timer is 8 days, and the suspensions are upheld." The timer is SEVEN days, not EIGHT. Even after a senior GM reversed the suspensions, we still got more copy-and-paste responses saying they had 'reviewed our accounts' *cough*BULLSHIT!*cough* and the suspensions would not be reversed.)
Blizzard has a good game, they just need customer service to back it up. As it stands, that service is non-existent or so horrible that it becomes downright insulting to have anything to do with it.
I feel dirty now...tainted...
I didn't finish watching it, and deleted it as fast as I can...but, unfortunately, that image will be forever burned into my retinas, and that shrill voice will forever ring in my ears...
Why did I ever click on that?
Because an 8-drive RAID-10 array w/10k RPM Savvio drives will probably beat a 4 drive RAID-10 array w/15k RPM Cheetah drives. It will certainly beat a 3-drive RAID-5 array that is even more common on 1U servers, even if it's only 6 drives you can cram into there.
Say it, not day it...
That's what I get for not doing a preview...
I guess I'll be the first one to day it...
You are going to combat the excessive amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere by...producing more CO2? Even 'sequestered underground,' that isn't much of an option.
I'm in a bit of the opposite boat. No matter what time I went to bed, no matter how tired I was, I usually wouldn't fall asleep until 2am or so. And, of course, a 7am alarm had no chance in hell of waking me up.
Hence, my situation is fairly different, but some of the same things may help you as well as others here.
A) Shower and eat earlier in the evening, not just before bedtime. I never wake up early enough to shower in the morning, so I've always done it at night before bed.
B) Read before you go to sleep. Not tech manuals--that will probably make you think if work too much--even if you enjoy work, it's still not good. Read something along the lines of fantasy, or something humorous--Scott Adams books, Dilbert and User Friendly comic prints, something like that. Something that relaxes you and takes your mind off other things.
C) Lose weight! This was probably the biggest thing for me, of course. I was on the road to being labeled morbidly obese. I had tried many things, but finally went on a low-carb diet. I dropped 75lbs in a few months. My guess is that I was a good candidate for sleep apnea, and this probably stopped it. I still have another 60lbs or so to lose to get to a reasonable weight, but it has already made an amazing difference. I also no longer go into work and just about fall asleep until lunchtime.
No, you don't want to do low-carb forever, as no matter what people say, it isn't something your body is meant to do. But for the short-term to lose weight and stave off needing bypass surgery before you're 30, it's a good deal.
I don't think they *could* use their knowledge because it was lost. Once the time loop was stopped, it was as if it never happened.
Mostly.... Don't you just love paradoxes?
I have TWO Cisco 1602 routers at work that this happened to. The vendor had shipped them (refurbed routers) to our stores directly, and they were missing the slot covers on the back. Mice crawled into them, pissed on the board, and it ate away the etchings. It even completely disolved some pins on the main IC inside.
I'd post pics, but I'd rather not get Slashdotted!
Designing around a specific resolution is simply BAD practice. Any web developer doing so should be shot. I used to do web development, and we followed some fairly strict guidelines.
A) Absolutely no horizontal scrolling required (this is the closest we got to designing to a resolution--this test was always done at 640x480 with a maximized browser window)
B) Never do any 'under construction' bullshit. If you don't have a page ready, don't link it.
C) Absolutely no flash, java, javascript, or other plugins. I REFUSE to use any sites that are completely flash-based.
D) Proper attention to contrasting colors, as well as keeping colorblindness in mind.
E) Don't specify fonts by name. Not everyone has, or can use, Avant Garde and Dingbats.
F) The page should render reasonably well under text-based browsers such as Lynx and links. It doesn't have to format perfectly (very, very difficult to pull off), but should at least be navigable, with all information visable.
G) Frames shouldn't be used.
H) Forcing a link to open in a new browser window should never be done. IF the user wants it in another window, or another tab, then let them make the choice.
I) Even though I say no Javascript, I'll re-iterate this one. If you design your site to open it's own new window, turn off the button bar, turn off the menus, resize itself, and/or disable right-clicking, go blow your brains out NOW and do the rest of us a favor. Right now. Do not pass go, and please make sure you use hollow-points.
J) The page should render correctly under, minimum, Explorer 3+, Netscape 3+, Opera, Konqueror, Mozilla/Firefox/Galeon, and any other web browser you can get your hands on. It won't always render identically, no matter what you do--but should remain usable, as properly formatted as possible, and fully navigable and visable.
All of the above issues are turning the Web into a mish-mash of unreadable, un-navigable garbage. If enough people refuse to stay on badly designed sites, the sites will die. Eventually, practices will change--hopefully.
This is good timing. I think Sun should take a look at how SGI handled this.
SGI sat back one day, wondering about how they were spending something like $2billion a year on IRIX development. It finally dawned on them that they were a graphics software and support company, not an operating system company. So they switched to Linux, dropped IRIX like a rotten apple, and helped put a small portion of the $2billion they saved into helping get Linux to the point where they wanted it.
Sun could so the same--save billions, but still make a massive contribution to the Linux community, and help make sure Linux is 'where they want it.' It wouldn't take long, and they'd save a fortune.
Austin is the only reason to take 281 instead of 35 =P
I haven't gone that way in a couple years. Perhaps it's improved.
Besides, my phone may have been partly to blame the last time. I started losing signal more and more often (Nokia 6160), so finally replaced it (6560).
I really don't like it--slow as hell, and reception is better, but still a tad flaky. Unfortunately, it's the only phone they offered that had a somewhat 'normal' keypad on it. Now you have all these damned circular rockers and other useless crappy keypads on all the new phones. What's worse is that AT&T sells it, yet doesn't even support it's capabilities on their network--you can't even add/change anything on it without spending $60+ for Oxygen Phone Manager.
I've travelled all over Texas quite a bit, based out of San Antonio, and use AT&T for my work cell phone.
In any of the larger towns (50k+) it tends to be good, without many dead spots.
The IH35 and IH10/90 corridors have good coverage.
Taking 281 between San Antonio and Dallas is another story. If you've taken this route, odds are good that if I mention 'that McDonald's on the hill in Lampasass,' you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. This is the only location for about 250 miles that you can get a signal.
Of course, west Texas heading towards El Paso or heading up towards Amarillo is mostly dead once you turn off IH90.
Most of the sticks have spotty service, which unfortunately, I'm in too often. I'm told that Verizon has good coverage in these fringe areas.
I've used my AT&T cell on trips taking me to Denver, Burbank/Valencia California, and to Calgary/Banff (Canada...duh). All those locations were good.
Odd spots:
The Sybase offices on the 19th (?) floor of Lincoln Center in Dallas. If you put your cell phone down on the table, you can watch it rotate between Digital, Extended Area, and Roam, and watch the antenna bar go up and down--while the phone sits still.
The Amerisuites near Aurora (Denver) Colorado. As soon as you walk into the main lobby, your signal dies. Step into the elevator, and as soon as the doors close you get a signal again. It's clear all the way up and back down, until the elevator doors open again at the lobby. Walk outside the lobby about 30 ft from the building, and you get a full signal again.
Hey, it beats the hell out of Sprint PCS. That was just a total POS, and rarely worked at all.
Back in the bad ol' days, I used to help people with computer problems all the time in exchange for various odds and ends.
I knew a guy who ran a TV repair service. I wrote caller ID software for him, including reporting, etc. I set up an arcnet network for him once with spare parts I had. I did various other odd jobs (menuing systems using--*drumroll* batman) over the years for him.
I got various parts from him, including my first daisy wheel printer (complete with a crooked J!). He also, reguarly, would buy me 100 packs of 720k floppies, and the fancier disk drawers/cases.
Hey, we're talking 1991 or so here. All of this was behind the times, but it's the cheap stuff.
I finally upgraded from an NEC V30 (8086 upgrade) to a 386 SX-25 by helping a guy build his new system--a 486 SX complete with the seperate math coprocessor. And, of course, the new system had a bad power supply. The first time we fired it up, it fried everything. Absolutely everything. A first-generation sliding-tray load 1x CD-ROM (no more caddies!), the MB, CPU, math co, every memory stick (4MB), the HD (probably 80MB at the time), video card...everything. Luckily, he bought everything from one shop, so they replaced every last piece. And I got my shiny new/old 386.
Those days are long gone. I've been bought dinner once or twice by people since then, maybe given a minor trinket sort of thing. But, in general, people take it for granted. You can have a friend drag you out for 5 hours to fix a system for another friend (who you have never even met), and you're lucky to get a 'thanks' for it.
*THAT* is why I almost never help anyone anymore. I think this is becoming a more common attitude amonst us geeks, and rightfully so. The ignorant masses will just have to learn on their own for once! =P
I agree that some morons may have slipped through the cracks with a CCNP. But the CCIE certi costs $400-450 for the written test. Once you pass that, then you get the privilege of paying $1200+ for the hands-on exam. Until last year (i.e. when your 3000-ish CCIE took it), it was two days--now it's one day. They put you into a room full of various Cisco equipment--everything under the sun. They give you a set of scenarios, and you have to build design and build the network properly.
During the two-day test, the second day the proctor would break your network in every way imaginable, and you had to fix it.
You simply can't fake out and pass a test like that. You have to know what you are doing to have any hope--unless you paid off the proctor, that is...
I agree with nettdata, Cisco has one of the only certification programs out there that actually means something. Granted, though, this is more true for CCNP/CCDP and CCIE certs, and not so much CCNA.
My company sent me to an NT class once that was part of an MCSE track. The instructor was an absolute moron, and the MCSE-track students even worse. One student was *bragging* that he had spent 'only' about $18k so far. He immediately followed up lamenting about having to finish within the next month, though, because MS was about to expire his current MCSE track. If he didn't take the exam and pass, he'd have to re-take every class and exam he had done so far.
Morons...
Even if a detrimental flaw is found and exploited, it won't be anything new for us network admins.
The major TCP flaw that was announced recently also affected most Cisco equipment. We just did the usual--grab the patched IOS and load it up during a maintenance window.
Updates like this happen all the time, and the most you probably notice is your overnight porn..erm...Linux ISO downloads stopped about 3am or so.
I do know about what Matrox has. I used Matrox dual-head for years (G450, I believe), and it sucked--bad--under Linux, using their proprietary drivers or not. I eventually convinced work to let me get a low-end nVidia dual-head, and things greatly improved.
While I do game at home, nothing I play can use dual-head, other than stretching--which is unplayable. Ever tried playing with your crosshair split in half by 4 inches?
I probably will end up doing what others have suggested--just mix a PCI card in with the AGP. I don't have to have 3D acceleration on all the screens--just one (at home at least, none at work).