I worked on the DEW Line in the early eighties. The USAF installed a crypto system that had been compromised. We were not allowed to send any classified traffic over it. One reason we thought of for this was to give the Russians a hobby breaking the keys and decrypting our purely administrative traffic. The more likely reason was that USAF was completely insane.
Lexmark sells printers below their cost so they can sell horriblely expensive ink cartridges. How else do they sell an $89.00 printer that takes a $79.00 cartridge. HP sold the Deskjet 610 series that uses a black cartridge that was almost identical to the other 600 series carts, but had half the ink at the same price. The list goes on.
I would be leary of using third party ink in any unit that has a fixed or expensive print head. I've seen quite a few Epson and Canon printers written off because of inappropriate ink.
However, if the unit has the head built into the cartridge, take a chance. If the print quality is not to your liking you've only lost the price of the cartridge.
Does it make a difference? I'm sitting here running Debian and listing to Rambling Jack Elliot does Woody Guthrie. What can Microsoft do to intrude on my mood?
I work as a senior tech at compusmart for a while. I quit because of a) incompetence and b) unethical practices by the other senior techs. One of them replaced a motherboard (I'm not kidding) five times for the same problem. The other one would do quick fixes and not bother to test the systems before he shipped them. When the units came back he would tell the customers that it was a different problem and charge them again. My role was to deal with high priority problems (ie customers who were unhappy) so most of their repairs eventually made it to my bench. The management were all sales types who were only interested in selling new systems etc. It was not a happy time in my life.
I now work for a small repair shop where I get to do things according to my ethical standards (and by the way, get higher wages).
As far as standards go, both the techs I spoke of above were A+ certified, but then again I've worked with journeyman electronic techs I wouldn't trust to change a light bulb.
Let's get past the Microsoft is evil stuff. As a corporation they are unethical and a bad bunch of bastards but how are the worse than most other big businesses? If you don't like them, don't use their products (I don't). Microsoft perceives themself as being under attack, and is striking out in the only way they know.
I don't care what Microsoft does. They have no way to kill free/open source (take your pick) software. They say that when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Microsoft has a god aweful big hammer, but free software is not anything like a nail. They have no tools to deal with it.
Re:That's because Linux admins are self-taught
on
Linux Is Cheaper
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· Score: 1
I've worked with good MCSE's and bad MCSE's. The good ones are experienced people who got the paper because management told them to. The bad ones are those who took the course, got walked trough the tests and now consider themselves qualified.
I worked as a senior tech for a large computer retailer. They were planning on opening a new store and hired a new MCSE to be the sysadmin for the new location. They needed a place to stash him for a month so the sent him to work in the shop. I started him off easy by having him swap a hard drive for a warranty repair. Six hours later he finally had the machine able to recognize the drive but told me it was defective because the machine wouldn't boot. When asked if he had partitioned and formatted the drive he said "Whats that?".
My point is that just because you have a MCSE does not mean you have a clue. (It also does not mean you are clueless.) Experience is the only way to get a clue.
Just an idea, but if you are that offended by the story, don't read it. If you wish be presented with only the thing you agree with your brain will stagnate.
I beg to differ. I make my own beer and both me and my wife consider it to be superior to any commercial product. I take a little attention to detail but the results are worth it. It's like open source (or free as in) beer.
I'm not up on the latest versions of Windows, (the last versions I worked with were 98SE and NT4) so I may be wrong on this. I know of one person who upgraded their PC and now runs XP. To run many of their old 98 apps under XP they have to run as Admin. The problem seems to be that the old apps stick their files in places that a normal user doesn't have write access to. This could probably be fixed by changing permissions, but the average user doesn't have a clue how to do this. The other fix would be to buy new versions of all your software, but this seems a little expensive.
Overall I prefer apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade.
The problem with the censorware is that they also filter political sites they disagree with.
Our policy at our local library is that unless a resource violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms it is illegal for us to remove it. Patrons with children sign an Internet Use Agreement which states that we do not use any filtering software and that it is their responsibility to be aware of what their children are doing online.
Parent have to take responsibilty for their children. This goes for books etc. as well as the Internet.
AFAIK the law in Canada forbids censorship in libraries so we don't have funding problems because of this.
And after you've done your 1000th windows install to fix some silly software problem you will see that to use any tool you have to understand how it works.
I spent two years as senior technician in the service department at a major computer retailer. 95% of the problems I saw were caused by windows' inability to protect itsself from itsself. When your system is configured by a honking big binary file (the registry) that must be parsed correctly for the system to start, and then allow any software on the system to write to it, you're asking for trouble.
With Linux you generally don't need to know much more than the average windows user to install and use the system. However when you have a problem you can RTFM and generally fix it. By having many small text files for configuration it's much more difficult to break your system in a way that requires reinstallation rather than repair.
I have heard that windows has gotten more stable, (the last versions I dealt with were 98SE and NT4) but as long as the configuration is based on the registry you can keep it.
The last Redhat distro I used was 7.0 and it didn't setup UDMA for my drives. A little tweaking with hdparm did the trick. With Debian, the first thing I did was to compile a custom kernel, so I don't think I checked the drive speed after the install.
Actually, I switched from using word processors to using Latex. It is much easier to use and the documents look significantly better.
I also switched from Redhat to Debian because of dependancy hell. I printed out a copy of the install howto, followed the steps and had a working system. The installer is different from Redhat, but it also allowed me to configure my system exactly as I wanted. Until another distribution has something as sweet as apt-get, I'm sticking with Debian.
Re:call em information broker
on
Libraries Are 31337
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· Score: 2, Informative
I agree. Google is a wonderful tool, but it cannot compare with information that is actually cataloged. The other reason for not going completely digital is that information stored digitally is not stable. Just think how easy it would be for someone like Ashcroft to change history if there were no hard copy records. Or when we find out our 30 year cd's crap out after five years.
The only problem is that if 100% die,(or some large fraction of this), who is going to pay off the insurance and to who?
Hmmm, sounds like a good opportunity for one of these american corporations.
Re:This is the way it should be...
on
KDE Gets The Hat
·
· Score: 1
I agree. The thing I like about Linux is the ability to customize thing to your own preferences. I am currently using WindowMaker as a desktop, but mostly use Gnome and KDE applications. The movement toward unifying the Linux desktop is IMHO wrong headed. Linux is about choice. If you require a consistant "look and feel" then use applications that provide them. But please don't restrict my choice to use the tools that I prefer.
Why is it that whenever anything anti-Microsoft appears on/. the microsofties complain about microsoft bashing and then whine that they know they are going to get modded down?
From the number of times I see comments such as the above, they are obviously not getting modded down.
Slashdot Mirror
I worked on the DEW Line in the early eighties. The USAF installed a crypto system that had been compromised. We were not allowed to send any classified traffic over it. One reason we thought of for this was to give the Russians a hobby breaking the keys and decrypting our purely administrative traffic. The more likely reason was that USAF was completely insane.
i'm transfering all of my vinyl to cd. BITE ME.
There are plenty of ways to automate formatting etc. LaTex is my personal favorite
Lexmark sells printers below their cost so they can sell horriblely expensive ink cartridges. How else do they sell an $89.00 printer that takes a $79.00 cartridge. HP sold the Deskjet 610 series that uses a black cartridge that was almost identical to the other 600 series carts, but had half the ink at the same price. The list goes on.
I would be leary of using third party ink in any unit that has a fixed or expensive print head. I've seen quite a few Epson and Canon printers written off because of inappropriate ink.
However, if the unit has the head built into the cartridge, take a chance. If the print quality is not to your liking you've only lost the price of the cartridge.
Does it make a difference? I'm sitting here running Debian and listing to Rambling Jack Elliot does Woody Guthrie. What can Microsoft do to intrude on my mood?
I work as a senior tech at compusmart for a while. I quit because of a) incompetence and b) unethical practices by the other senior techs. One of them replaced a motherboard (I'm not kidding) five times for the same problem. The other one would do quick fixes and not bother to test the systems before he shipped them. When the units came back he would tell the customers that it was a different problem and charge them again. My role was to deal with high priority problems (ie customers who were unhappy) so most of their repairs eventually made it to my bench. The management were all sales types who were only interested in selling new systems etc. It was not a happy time in my life.
I now work for a small repair shop where I get to do things according to my ethical standards (and by the way, get higher wages).
As far as standards go, both the techs I spoke of above were A+ certified, but then again I've worked with journeyman electronic techs I wouldn't trust to change a light bulb.
Let's get past the Microsoft is evil stuff. As a corporation they are unethical and a bad bunch of bastards but how are the worse than most other big businesses? If you don't like them, don't use their products (I don't). Microsoft perceives themself as being under attack, and is striking out in the only way they know.
I don't care what Microsoft does. They have no way to kill free/open source (take your pick) software. They say that when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Microsoft has a god aweful big hammer, but free software is not anything like a nail. They have no tools to deal with it.
I've worked with good MCSE's and bad MCSE's. The good ones are experienced people who got the paper because management told them to. The bad ones are those who took the course, got walked trough the tests and now consider themselves qualified.
I worked as a senior tech for a large computer retailer. They were planning on opening a new store and hired a new MCSE to be the sysadmin for the new location. They needed a place to stash him for a month so the sent him to work in the shop. I started him off easy by having him swap a hard drive for a warranty repair. Six hours later he finally had the machine able to recognize the drive but told me it was defective because the machine wouldn't boot. When asked if he had partitioned and formatted the drive he said "Whats that?".
My point is that just because you have a MCSE does not mean you have a clue. (It also does not mean you are clueless.) Experience is the only way to get a clue.
Just an idea, but if you are that offended by the story, don't read it. If you wish be presented with only the thing you agree with your brain will stagnate.
So the Americans were only involved in Vietnam because of the French? You Yanks are stupider than I thought!
This is why technicians who work on televisions and monitors need to be either journeyman tradesmen or an apprentice supervised by a journeyman.
I beg to differ. I make my own beer and both me and my wife consider it to be superior to any commercial product. I take a little attention to detail but the results are worth it. It's like open source (or free as in) beer.
Who was it who said "The only intuitive interface is the nipple. Everything after that is learned."?
I'm not up on the latest versions of Windows, (the last versions I worked with were 98SE and NT4) so I may be wrong on this. I know of one person who upgraded their PC and now runs XP. To run many of their old 98 apps under XP they have to run as Admin. The problem seems to be that the old apps stick their files in places that a normal user doesn't have write access to. This could probably be fixed by changing permissions, but the average user doesn't have a clue how to do this. The other fix would be to buy new versions of all your software, but this seems a little expensive.
Overall I prefer apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade.
The problem with the censorware is that they also filter political sites they disagree with.
Our policy at our local library is that unless a resource violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms it is illegal for us to remove it. Patrons with children sign an Internet Use Agreement which states that we do not use any filtering software and that it is their responsibility to be aware of what their children are doing online.
Parent have to take responsibilty for their children. This goes for books etc. as well as the Internet.
AFAIK the law in Canada forbids censorship in libraries so we don't have funding problems because of this.
And after you've done your 1000th windows install to fix some silly software problem you will see that to use any tool you have to understand how it works.
I spent two years as senior technician in the service department at a major computer retailer. 95% of the problems I saw were caused by windows' inability to protect itsself from itsself. When your system is configured by a honking big binary file (the registry) that must be parsed correctly for the system to start, and then allow any software on the system to write to it, you're asking for trouble.
With Linux you generally don't need to know much more than the average windows user to install and use the system. However when you have a problem you can RTFM and generally fix it. By having many small text files for configuration it's much more difficult to break your system in a way that requires reinstallation rather than repair.
I have heard that windows has gotten more stable, (the last versions I dealt with were 98SE and NT4) but as long as the configuration is based on the registry you can keep it.
The last Redhat distro I used was 7.0 and it didn't setup UDMA for my drives. A little tweaking with hdparm did the trick. With Debian, the first thing I did was to compile a custom kernel, so I don't think I checked the drive speed after the install.
Actually, I switched from using word processors to using Latex. It is much easier to use and the documents look significantly better.
I also switched from Redhat to Debian because of dependancy hell. I printed out a copy of the install howto, followed the steps and had a working system. The installer is different from Redhat, but it also allowed me to configure my system exactly as I wanted. Until another distribution has something as sweet as apt-get, I'm sticking with Debian.
I agree. Google is a wonderful tool, but it cannot compare with information that is actually cataloged. The other reason for not going completely digital is that information stored digitally is not stable. Just think how easy it would be for someone like Ashcroft to change history if there were no hard copy records. Or when we find out our 30 year cd's crap out after five years.
Changing the velocity will change the trajectory.
The only problem is that if 100% die,(or some large fraction of this), who is going to pay off the insurance and to who?
Hmmm, sounds like a good opportunity for one of these american corporations.
I agree. The thing I like about Linux is the ability to customize thing to your own preferences. I am currently using WindowMaker as a desktop, but mostly use Gnome and KDE applications. The movement toward unifying the Linux desktop is IMHO wrong headed. Linux is about choice. If you require a consistant "look and feel" then use applications that provide them. But please don't restrict my choice to use the tools that I prefer.
As a non-profit organization, why should there be a step 3?
Not everything in this world is done for (monetary) profit.
Why is it that whenever anything anti-Microsoft appears on /. the microsofties complain about microsoft bashing and then whine that they know they are going to get modded down?
From the number of times I see comments such as the above, they are obviously not getting modded down.
I agree. I switched from Redhat 7.0 to Woody for
exactly the same reasons. Apt-get rocks.