This is a simple case of creating a market for your product. In any other day and age it would fall flat on it's face, but today, we do it as a matter of recourse to protect current markets (yes, riaa, et. al.).
Simply put, create a card that might be able to do something (protect content? track users?), and then REQUIRE everyone to buy it as a matter of law. By simply getting a law passed, a company can create a new billion dollar market. Ingenious, except for the fact that it turns more Americans into criminals.
When are businesses going to realize that you're not going to make any money from your customers if you keep putting them in jail?
Not really, and he's right. You really do have to look at the speech. If speech was completely protected, you could accuse your neighbor of being a child molestor over a property dispute, broadcasting it to the city and calling 'anonymous' tips to the police and child protective services departments, without fearing any legal consequence - and breaking your neighbors bank account with legal fee's.
The point he was trying to get to was that not all speech is protected (like the above) and some speech is indeed more protected than others (like the truth, if you haven't forfieted your right to tell it through a non-discloser agreement). Each case is looked at individually.
One more example, along the lines of IP: If you create a better mouse trap, you can patent the design and the plans to make one. If someone reads your plans - do they have the right to tell the world how to make their own better mouse trap using what they remember of your design? That's the kind of 'speech' that's not protected because it would take your idea and destroy it's fiscal value to you, the creator of the mouse-defigulator.
That's how the mpaa see's DeCSS - as the posting of their better mouse-trap design, and to some degree they're right. Personally, I think the inventor of said 'mousetrap' should concentrate on building the trap with quality materials and creating brand recognition, but that's me. I mean hell, it works for Nike - you can get tennis shoes for $15 bucks, but people still buy air-Jordan's for $115.
People like you suck. I'm sorry, I don't mean to troll here, but really, did we catch you in a bad mood? Do you really mean to tell me you've never pulled over on a road trip to see that 3000 lb ball of yarn, or pay 15 smacks to get into "Bedrock" Arizona? [It was a riot, and 15 bucks well spent.]
Life is not about business, and no one in the world will have his epitaph say "I should have spent more time at work". Personally, I'd buy it just to show off how much of a geek I was to my fellow Marines. Because I'm bigger.;)
Sgt_Jake
Being the paranoid freak I am, I just realized something - with the.net strategy, they can knock out *nix one hit at a time. Anything that runs IIS they can update to block any non-IE browser, and call it a bug they're working on. They can load checks on your computer that will recognize non-MS servers (file, proxy, whatever) and give mis-leading errors to make you think it's *nix. T\
They can do to us what they did blue mountain greeting cards, one piece at a time, and at their leisure. By the time they're done, the only thing people are going to care about is whether or not it's compatible with 'the internet', which MS will own hands down. And the DOJ won't be able to afford to go after them because they'll own the software that lets journalists do their jobs.
Shit.
Ctimes2
-soon we're all going to be fully owned subsidiary of MS.
I don't buy it.
North of the north pole is a dimension, not a time. Yeah yeah, I know, before the big bang space and time were one. Well... that's why I don't buy it. At the TIME just prior to the big bang, all matter in the universe was in one spot, in one time.
That's still a time and place. Not a non-time, or non-space, even if you want to claim "it doesn't matter" (pun intended_). Since time and space are both perceptions, you can't discount the fact that your perceptions may be wrong, no matter how close the mathmatical probibilities are. I mean really, flip a coin 100 times and mathmatically you should get a close approximation to 50%, right? Yet the tendency is to land heads up 72%. Go figure.
I gotta say, I appretiated the hell out of it. I almost bought it yesterday at Sams Club (wholesale prices, wholesale quantities. I can buy a side of beef that goes bad just as fast as a 40 pack of hamburgers for half the price!).
What's my point? Well, I have two Sis cards, two Rage cards, and 4 boxes with just enough of a windows partition on each to play games without an emulator. This game might have been a fiasco for me - You see, I'm not a big fan of the Myst series, but my wife is. I was going to buy it for her, but thought I'd ask if she really wanted it before dropping 60 bucks on it. I would have bought it without checking anything other than what was printed on the side of the box.
As the review reads, I would have had hours of frustration trying to get it to run before giving up and uninstalling. Which by all reports could have destroyed my windows partition. Which means I would have to reinstall windblows (95 by the way, I've given up on all the other forks...) and then restore my boot sectors. And knowing me, I would have hosed all 4 of my windows boxes just because by box 2 it would have become personal, and as you know, when it's personal, bad things happen.
Thanks for the review, it saved me some headaches.
Ctimes2
I'm not sure how much this would count, but - how many services from yahoo, excite, aol, etc. offer chat rooms that allow you to swap pictures (albeit fake) of what you look like to a potential love interest.
It's got everything - love, trepidation, a hint of sex, adventure, all the makings of a summer blockbuster!
Wow... that just sucked. I mean, it really, really, sucked. Seriously, a four year old kid could have responded "NUH UH! big poopy-head!" and sucked less. Dear God, man, did you think before you posted?
MS is afraid that you can take ideas from the public domain or from gov. research and make something out of it (which you can) and then take your invention/innovation/etc. and GPL the code. This makes public domain knowledge a resource (knowledge is a resource) that they can't exploit for commercial gain, and in _this_ they have a point.
Cell phone companies took NASA research to make a commercial product that is spreading like wildfire. If someone had taken NASA's public research and GPL'd the idea for a portable telephone (aka, made their own cell phone using exsisting broadcast technologies and communications research by nasa - not like shortwave radio) this could have prevented or at least detered large companies from launching communications satalite. Why? Because they couldn't 'innovate' without releasing all their technology under the GPL and therefor under review by their competitors.
From here it becomes a philisophical debate: Is that a good thing or a bad thing? (It's better business to blindside your competitor with a new whizbang whistle-bobbit, but it's better for the consumer to have this level of competition). From MS's perspective, this isn't dirty pool, they're not lying or trying to decieve anyone, they just think that what they're doing is right and what we're doing doesn't make good business sense. The reason we differ is because they're businessmen and we're consumers.
Sgt_Jake
The teacher should have (could have?) sued for slander if the parody was mean spirited. Really didn't have anything to do with his school. Speach is in fact still free, but if you attack someone or their reputation because your P.O.'d you should expect retaliation. I'd do it, wouldn't you?
90% + majority? of what, people? Mormons, as officially reported 2 years ago make up less than 40% of the population of Utah. Alabama was worse to me, although SF is better...
Ctimes2
You know what? I do live in utah, work in technology, and he's on crack. Yes, the cost of living is low. Yes, the liquor laws are screwy. Yes, there is also a different culture here if you will.
But the real reason you can't entice good engineers here is because of the much lower pay with fewer 'addaboys', location, and the stigma of "Utah" (are you a mormon? Do you eat your young? Do you have horns? = no, yes, and only on full moons by the way. !These are real questions I've been asked when I was a bartender by people from out of town. *sigh*)
The night life leaves a lot to be desired, but people don't want to move here because it's.. well lets face it. It's a weird place to live. It takes getting used to, and if you had your choice would you really pick Utah?
Vlad - if they didn't PAY ME that's why you will continue to do tech support. For years to come you will be the cranky overpaid mouse swapping cable monkey you are, while those around you excel. The people who go places in this industry [and in music] are those who are lucky enough to get paid for it, but do it because they love it. Edgar Alan Poe died flat broke, drunk, face down in a gutter. His works weren't even found until years after his death. One of the greats and he never got paid a dime, go figure.
And vlad, please keep up with the news. First, some of them shouldn't be paid - I mean really, the olsen twins album? Second the RIAA makes money hand over fist. The artists get less than one cent per CD sold. The dixie chicks made approx. $300,000 on their first gold/plat album. That's total. $100k apiece not including expenses (which they paid). The album made close to 400 million dollars.
If you don't enjoy doing it, do something else. Save us all your whining.
Microsoft doesn't have any "real" enterprise servers either, so what's your point? Microsoft makes software. OH OH! You mean they make DRIVERS for some "real" enterprise servers!.. but they don't really make most of those drivers do they? They get them from the hardware manufacturers of "real" enterprise servers.
But if we're going to be really honest, I've seen very few "real world" or "real" _true_ enterprise class machines running an OS by MS for anything other than exchange (which we all know is unstable unless you have a REALLY smart tech, which is harder to find than a linux driver for soundtron 9000 circa 1996 sound processor), or possibly a DNS server. Essential business tools, but hardly an argument for back-end db's, webservers, secure transactions, etc. - the work of a "real" enterprise class system.
Is Linux that enterprise OS? I suppose it could be if you wanted to make it yourself. But if you get a $45,000 disk array (disks and batteries not included) that comes with veritas disk clustering software, are you going to put linux on it because you like free beer/software? Or a MS OS because you want multiple redundant copies of solitare? Doubtful. Very very doubtful.
Of course, 3 years ago, linux didn't even rate static on anyone's radar, so I'd say there's been progress. Consider the accomplishments of the OS - MS=25 years, Linux=10... what do you think Elbereth? Who's kidding who? Can Linux really compete with windows for the enterprise class machines in a field where BOTH MS and Linux are at present, (and let's be honest) bit players?
Loyalty ends with happiness. If you're unhappy and don't expect to be challenged in a positive way, bail now, and suggest your co-workers do the same. Those who think they can achieve success will achieve it or fail, but in either case they'll learn something about themselves, business, and technology - and learning something will only make them more valuable. If they're as talented as you say, they won't be any worse off anyway. They may even thank you for the experience.
Fross, what the hell are you talking about? If you left the keys in your car, and someone stole your car and killed someone with it, is it still partly your fault? Don't think so. - Alex is right on the nose with his reply, I'm going to expand.
The gun argument is not only bad, it's flamebait. Your bias against guns and your pleas for shared responsiblity and fault are misguided and ill informed.
If someone breaks into a gun store, steals a gun and ammo, and kills someone, do we hold the gun store liable? How about the glass company that installed the front window the killer climbed through? How about the lock manufacturer that made the lock that was supposed to secure the guns in the cabinet? How about the ammo company? Gun company? Gun powder company? Hell, why not hold the mineral company that mined the ore that Smith and Wesson bought to make the gun that the gun store lost in a robbery that was used to kill someone responsible? After all, if it weren't for them, the murder never would have happened! OR... OR... I know! We could hold the murderer responsible for murder.
Good thinking Fross - Let's not have a whole world full of people who might be held responsible for committing a crime. That would be scary.
I saw this article today - Monday, Nov. 20th so I doubt anyone will read this, but anyway -
I installed bastille over this last weekend on a box I'm turning into a firewall, my first attempt at any type of security precaution. I was impressed with Bastille even though I didn't understand half (or more) or the questions. It did become a little frustrating to answer pages of questions I didn't understand, but at least I have an idea of what I'm supposed to know something about anyway. I don't really know much about what Bastille did but I do know my box is more secure. How do I know? Because not even my home lan can talk to it. I have to attach the console and keyboard to do anything.:)
I'm still working on getting it to actually function as a firewall, but for now at least I know it's secure. Thanks for the app, it's been a good introduction to learning what I didn't know I didn't know.
Hey no argument on the abilities of the PC/NT group, but still. Not every outage is from virii, and how do you know your group can handle it before the migration? Once you've made the migration there's no turning back, because with every outage the response is: "We fixed it by patching it with this upgrade, loaded this virus software, added more memory, etc. It won't be a problem again". Good response until the next time it happens.
7 months later it's still going down for ligitimate reasons while my sendmail is still staying up. Someone else responded with a semi-solution I thought was pretty good. Find out what the users want outlook for and try to provide that without the use of exchange. I've heard of a couple of products that can provide all the functionality of an exchange server to the outlook client, but can't remember the names of them. Anyone? anyone? fry?
Here's my current situation: We have 2 data centers, each serving the public at large. These centers are in 2 different states in the US. One uses an Exchange server, one site (mine) is still holding out - until they (the PC and NT group) can prove to me that exchange is stable enough to depend on.
My site gets it's mail every day, all day, 24x7. Once, about 2 months ago tmp filled up and delayed our mail for about 15 minutes.
The other site moved to exchange about a week before mellisa hit and was down for 2 days. I Love You took it down for another 2 days. It's been in full production at the sister site for about 7 months now and here are my observations: The exchange server is down EVERY WEEKEND (4 hours +) and _averages_ a couple hours of down time during the week. The PC and NT group says it's stable, and getting better every week. I don't know, maybe they got some new skins for the desktop, but it hasn't changed one bit as far as I can see.
I know this because when their mail dies, my site has to pick up the slack since we depend on mail for some of our system alerts.
Look, Exchange is inevitable (unless some of the open source clones get up to speed). It has business functions that are currently unmatched in an enterprise mail/scheduling capabilities offered elsewhere. But the stability factor can be devistating when you have a project that's falling behind and you need your documentation. Find another way.
Talk about melodrama. I was a geek through school too, and as much as I can appretiate & respect this kid's stand, there are WAY too many comments on/. that show a desperate need for a reality check. Jocks are often assholes. Geeks are often singled out. These are the truths of high school no matter what 'society's' perceptions are, and you're not going to change them by not holding a homecoming dance, or holding the chess club playoffs (which I won) at half time.
There are traditions throughout our society that are important if for nothing other than defining ourselves as a whole & recognizing the individuality of our members. The fact that this kid won is proof that the members of his school recognized him as someone who stood out for one reason or another, and I suspect he will receive high fives from jocks he's never even met on Monday.
What needs to happen is bringing [jocks: insert sub-class here] and [geeks: see previous tag] into the same clubs and making them depend on each other for the prize. I'd like to see student assistant coaches from the computer club (a good perl script could make some pretty original plays), and a wrestler or two would do well for themselves to be on the... well, chess club.
It would seem to me the real perception problem comes from the anti-socials as well, who's first reaction is to call a jock something derogitory without even knowing that jocks name. The reverse is true too, with jocks throwing names at the goths without knowing them - but I hope my point is clear. You can't tear someones traditions appart and expect them to thank you, but you can be a part of those traditions without losing your individuality (if you can't maintain your individuality in the face of a different culture, then your not really different anyway) Without getting involved in each others activities, you can't possibly hope to come to an understanding - much less actually get along with each other.
As far as his suspension goes, don't over react. It's so far beyond laughable it's not even funny. The students know it, I'll be most of the teachers know it, and the parents know it too. Soon, when the students stage a walkout in protest, the school board is hit with a lawsuit, and the front pages of the newspapers (again) shine the glaring light of bad publicity on them - The administrators will know it too, and then - may God have mercy on their souls.
Ctimes2
How is it that Americans constantly proclaim their amazingly free society when totalitarian legislation like this can become law? Because we're free to pass any totalitarian legislation we want. duh.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a simple case of creating a market for your product. In any other day and age it would fall flat on it's face, but today, we do it as a matter of recourse to protect current markets (yes, riaa, et. al.).
Simply put, create a card that might be able to do something (protect content? track users?), and then REQUIRE everyone to buy it as a matter of law. By simply getting a law passed, a company can create a new billion dollar market. Ingenious, except for the fact that it turns more Americans into criminals.
When are businesses going to realize that you're not going to make any money from your customers if you keep putting them in jail?
Ctimes2
Not really, and he's right. You really do have to look at the speech. If speech was completely protected, you could accuse your neighbor of being a child molestor over a property dispute, broadcasting it to the city and calling 'anonymous' tips to the police and child protective services departments, without fearing any legal consequence - and breaking your neighbors bank account with legal fee's.
The point he was trying to get to was that not all speech is protected (like the above) and some speech is indeed more protected than others (like the truth, if you haven't forfieted your right to tell it through a non-discloser agreement). Each case is looked at individually.
One more example, along the lines of IP: If you create a better mouse trap, you can patent the design and the plans to make one. If someone reads your plans - do they have the right to tell the world how to make their own better mouse trap using what they remember of your design? That's the kind of 'speech' that's not protected because it would take your idea and destroy it's fiscal value to you, the creator of the mouse-defigulator.
That's how the mpaa see's DeCSS - as the posting of their better mouse-trap design, and to some degree they're right. Personally, I think the inventor of said 'mousetrap' should concentrate on building the trap with quality materials and creating brand recognition, but that's me. I mean hell, it works for Nike - you can get tennis shoes for $15 bucks, but people still buy air-Jordan's for $115.
Ctimes2
People like you suck. I'm sorry, I don't mean to troll here, but really, did we catch you in a bad mood? Do you really mean to tell me you've never pulled over on a road trip to see that 3000 lb ball of yarn, or pay 15 smacks to get into "Bedrock" Arizona? [It was a riot, and 15 bucks well spent.] ;)
Life is not about business, and no one in the world will have his epitaph say "I should have spent more time at work". Personally, I'd buy it just to show off how much of a geek I was to my fellow Marines. Because I'm bigger.
Sgt_Jake
(day late and a dollar short but holy shit)
.net strategy, they can knock out *nix one hit at a time. Anything that runs IIS they can update to block any non-IE browser, and call it a bug they're working on. They can load checks on your computer that will recognize non-MS servers (file, proxy, whatever) and give mis-leading errors to make you think it's *nix. T\
Being the paranoid freak I am, I just realized something - with the
They can do to us what they did blue mountain greeting cards, one piece at a time, and at their leisure. By the time they're done, the only thing people are going to care about is whether or not it's compatible with 'the internet', which MS will own hands down. And the DOJ won't be able to afford to go after them because they'll own the software that lets journalists do their jobs.
Shit.
Ctimes2
-soon we're all going to be fully owned subsidiary of MS.
I don't buy it.
;)
North of the north pole is a dimension, not a time. Yeah yeah, I know, before the big bang space and time were one. Well... that's why I don't buy it. At the TIME just prior to the big bang, all matter in the universe was in one spot, in one time.
That's still a time and place. Not a non-time, or non-space, even if you want to claim "it doesn't matter" (pun intended_). Since time and space are both perceptions, you can't discount the fact that your perceptions may be wrong, no matter how close the mathmatical probibilities are. I mean really, flip a coin 100 times and mathmatically you should get a close approximation to 50%, right? Yet the tendency is to land heads up 72%. Go figure.
Ctimes2
PS - I don't buy gravity either.
Have you ever heard the old saying "too many cooks spoil the stew?"
')
I gotta say, I appretiated the hell out of it. I almost bought it yesterday at Sams Club (wholesale prices, wholesale quantities. I can buy a side of beef that goes bad just as fast as a 40 pack of hamburgers for half the price!).
What's my point? Well, I have two Sis cards, two Rage cards, and 4 boxes with just enough of a windows partition on each to play games without an emulator. This game might have been a fiasco for me - You see, I'm not a big fan of the Myst series, but my wife is. I was going to buy it for her, but thought I'd ask if she really wanted it before dropping 60 bucks on it. I would have bought it without checking anything other than what was printed on the side of the box.
As the review reads, I would have had hours of frustration trying to get it to run before giving up and uninstalling. Which by all reports could have destroyed my windows partition. Which means I would have to reinstall windblows (95 by the way, I've given up on all the other forks...) and then restore my boot sectors. And knowing me, I would have hosed all 4 of my windows boxes just because by box 2 it would have become personal, and as you know, when it's personal, bad things happen.
Thanks for the review, it saved me some headaches.
Ctimes2
I'm not sure how much this would count, but - how many services from yahoo, excite, aol, etc. offer chat rooms that allow you to swap pictures (albeit fake) of what you look like to a potential love interest.
It's got everything - love, trepidation, a hint of sex, adventure, all the makings of a summer blockbuster!
Ctimes2
Wow... that just sucked. I mean, it really, really, sucked. Seriously, a four year old kid could have responded "NUH UH! big poopy-head!" and sucked less. Dear God, man, did you think before you posted?
MS is afraid that you can take ideas from the public domain or from gov. research and make something out of it (which you can) and then take your invention/innovation/etc. and GPL the code. This makes public domain knowledge a resource (knowledge is a resource) that they can't exploit for commercial gain, and in _this_ they have a point.
Cell phone companies took NASA research to make a commercial product that is spreading like wildfire. If someone had taken NASA's public research and GPL'd the idea for a portable telephone (aka, made their own cell phone using exsisting broadcast technologies and communications research by nasa - not like shortwave radio) this could have prevented or at least detered large companies from launching communications satalite. Why? Because they couldn't 'innovate' without releasing all their technology under the GPL and therefor under review by their competitors.
From here it becomes a philisophical debate: Is that a good thing or a bad thing? (It's better business to blindside your competitor with a new whizbang whistle-bobbit, but it's better for the consumer to have this level of competition). From MS's perspective, this isn't dirty pool, they're not lying or trying to decieve anyone, they just think that what they're doing is right and what we're doing doesn't make good business sense. The reason we differ is because they're businessmen and we're consumers.
Sgt_Jake
It's 11:39 am, Monday, and I'm on my 75th hour since Friday morning last week. Ain't it grand... Ctimes2
The teacher should have (could have?) sued for slander if the parody was mean spirited. Really didn't have anything to do with his school. Speach is in fact still free, but if you attack someone or their reputation because your P.O.'d you should expect retaliation. I'd do it, wouldn't you?
Ctimes2
90% + majority? of what, people? Mormons, as officially reported 2 years ago make up less than 40% of the population of Utah. Alabama was worse to me, although SF is better...
Ctimes2
You know what? I do live in utah, work in technology, and he's on crack. Yes, the cost of living is low. Yes, the liquor laws are screwy. Yes, there is also a different culture here if you will.
But the real reason you can't entice good engineers here is because of the much lower pay with fewer 'addaboys', location, and the stigma of "Utah" (are you a mormon? Do you eat your young? Do you have horns? = no, yes, and only on full moons by the way. !These are real questions I've been asked when I was a bartender by people from out of town. *sigh*)
The night life leaves a lot to be desired, but people don't want to move here because it's.. well lets face it. It's a weird place to live. It takes getting used to, and if you had your choice would you really pick Utah?
Ctimes2
ctimes2
And vlad, please keep up with the news. First, some of them shouldn't be paid - I mean really, the olsen twins album? Second the RIAA makes money hand over fist. The artists get less than one cent per CD sold. The dixie chicks made approx. $300,000 on their first gold/plat album. That's total. $100k apiece not including expenses (which they paid). The album made close to 400 million dollars.
If you don't enjoy doing it, do something else. Save us all your whining.
Ctimes2
Everything you said means one thing. We Americans... WE'RE NUMBER ONE! WOO!WOO!
- thanks to Jon Stewart of 'the daily show' for this quote.
Microsoft doesn't have any "real" enterprise servers either, so what's your point? Microsoft makes software. OH OH! You mean they make DRIVERS for some "real" enterprise servers! .. but they don't really make most of those drivers do they? They get them from the hardware manufacturers of "real" enterprise servers.
But if we're going to be really honest, I've seen very few "real world" or "real" _true_ enterprise class machines running an OS by MS for anything other than exchange (which we all know is unstable unless you have a REALLY smart tech, which is harder to find than a linux driver for soundtron 9000 circa 1996 sound processor), or possibly a DNS server. Essential business tools, but hardly an argument for back-end db's, webservers, secure transactions, etc. - the work of a "real" enterprise class system.
Is Linux that enterprise OS? I suppose it could be if you wanted to make it yourself. But if you get a $45,000 disk array (disks and batteries not included) that comes with veritas disk clustering software, are you going to put linux on it because you like free beer/software? Or a MS OS because you want multiple redundant copies of solitare? Doubtful. Very very doubtful.
Of course, 3 years ago, linux didn't even rate static on anyone's radar, so I'd say there's been progress. Consider the accomplishments of the OS - MS=25 years, Linux=10... what do you think Elbereth? Who's kidding who? Can Linux really compete with windows for the enterprise class machines in a field where BOTH MS and Linux are at present, (and let's be honest) bit players?
Ctimes2
Loyalty ends with happiness. If you're unhappy and don't expect to be challenged in a positive way, bail now, and suggest your co-workers do the same. Those who think they can achieve success will achieve it or fail, but in either case they'll learn something about themselves, business, and technology - and learning something will only make them more valuable. If they're as talented as you say, they won't be any worse off anyway. They may even thank you for the experience.
:)
so says ctimes2Landers.
Ctimes2
Fross, what the hell are you talking about? If you left the keys in your car, and someone stole your car and killed someone with it, is it still partly your fault? Don't think so. - Alex is right on the nose with his reply, I'm going to expand.
The gun argument is not only bad, it's flamebait. Your bias against guns and your pleas for shared responsiblity and fault are misguided and ill informed.
If someone breaks into a gun store, steals a gun and ammo, and kills someone, do we hold the gun store liable? How about the glass company that installed the front window the killer climbed through? How about the lock manufacturer that made the lock that was supposed to secure the guns in the cabinet? How about the ammo company? Gun company? Gun powder company? Hell, why not hold the mineral company that mined the ore that Smith and Wesson bought to make the gun that the gun store lost in a robbery that was used to kill someone responsible? After all, if it weren't for them, the murder never would have happened! OR... OR... I know! We could hold the murderer responsible for murder.
Good thinking Fross - Let's not have a whole world full of people who might be held responsible for committing a crime. That would be scary.
Ctimes2
I installed bastille over this last weekend on a box I'm turning into a firewall, my first attempt at any type of security precaution. I was impressed with Bastille even though I didn't understand half (or more) or the questions. It did become a little frustrating to answer pages of questions I didn't understand, but at least I have an idea of what I'm supposed to know something about anyway. I don't really know much about what Bastille did but I do know my box is more secure. How do I know? Because not even my home lan can talk to it. I have to attach the console and keyboard to do anything. :)
I'm still working on getting it to actually function as a firewall, but for now at least I know it's secure. Thanks for the app, it's been a good introduction to learning what I didn't know I didn't know.
Ctimes2
7 months later it's still going down for ligitimate reasons while my sendmail is still staying up. Someone else responded with a semi-solution I thought was pretty good. Find out what the users want outlook for and try to provide that without the use of exchange. I've heard of a couple of products that can provide all the functionality of an exchange server to the outlook client, but can't remember the names of them. Anyone? anyone? fry?
Ctimes2
Here's my current situation: We have 2 data centers, each serving the public at large. These centers are in 2 different states in the US. One uses an Exchange server, one site (mine) is still holding out - until they (the PC and NT group) can prove to me that exchange is stable enough to depend on.
My site gets it's mail every day, all day, 24x7. Once, about 2 months ago tmp filled up and delayed our mail for about 15 minutes.
The other site moved to exchange about a week before mellisa hit and was down for 2 days. I Love You took it down for another 2 days. It's been in full production at the sister site for about 7 months now and here are my observations: The exchange server is down EVERY WEEKEND (4 hours +) and _averages_ a couple hours of down time during the week. The PC and NT group says it's stable, and getting better every week. I don't know, maybe they got some new skins for the desktop, but it hasn't changed one bit as far as I can see.
I know this because when their mail dies, my site has to pick up the slack since we depend on mail for some of our system alerts.
Look, Exchange is inevitable (unless some of the open source clones get up to speed). It has business functions that are currently unmatched in an enterprise mail/scheduling capabilities offered elsewhere. But the stability factor can be devistating when you have a project that's falling behind and you need your documentation. Find another way.
Ctimes2
There are traditions throughout our society that are important if for nothing other than defining ourselves as a whole & recognizing the individuality of our members. The fact that this kid won is proof that the members of his school recognized him as someone who stood out for one reason or another, and I suspect he will receive high fives from jocks he's never even met on Monday.
What needs to happen is bringing [jocks: insert sub-class here] and [geeks: see previous tag] into the same clubs and making them depend on each other for the prize. I'd like to see student assistant coaches from the computer club (a good perl script could make some pretty original plays), and a wrestler or two would do well for themselves to be on the ... well, chess club.
It would seem to me the real perception problem comes from the anti-socials as well, who's first reaction is to call a jock something derogitory without even knowing that jocks name. The reverse is true too, with jocks throwing names at the goths without knowing them - but I hope my point is clear. You can't tear someones traditions appart and expect them to thank you, but you can be a part of those traditions without losing your individuality (if you can't maintain your individuality in the face of a different culture, then your not really different anyway) Without getting involved in each others activities, you can't possibly hope to come to an understanding - much less actually get along with each other.
As far as his suspension goes, don't over react. It's so far beyond laughable it's not even funny. The students know it, I'll be most of the teachers know it, and the parents know it too. Soon, when the students stage a walkout in protest, the school board is hit with a lawsuit, and the front pages of the newspapers (again) shine the glaring light of bad publicity on them - The administrators will know it too, and then - may God have mercy on their souls.
Ctimes2
Because we're free to pass any totalitarian legislation we want. duh.
Ctimes2