And I can see by your high UID that you are fairly new to the Internet.
Let me introduce you to the wonders of online shopping. You too can buy a $5 wrench.
Actually, $4.65.
You may want to look at local pawn shops, yard sales, and flea markets. Just like prostitutes, if you look in the seeder areas, you can get something much bigger, for less money.
The problem is obvious. You need to hire someone to offload some of your work to.
Being the owner and management is a big responsibility, but it doesn't have to drive your life. Look at what tasks do not absolutely have to be done by you. You didn't mention the size of your firm. I'm assuming it's more than just you, or you plus one.
If you spend a substantial amount of the day arranging for customers to be satisfied, and directing employees to handle those tasks, hire a customer service manager.
If you're trying to collect money from customers, and trying to balance the books, hire an accountant.
If you're doing all the grunt work for your firm, hire staff to do that...
You get the idea.
It may seem to not make a lot of sense. If you're barely breaking even, how can you hire someone, even part time? Well, if you're stretched that thin, that means you are getting worn down by the job, which will impact your own productivity, and possibly the productivity of the whole company. Bring it back to 8 hours a day. Most likely, your company will do better, you won't burn yourself out in the next 6 months (or have a heart attack first), and hey, you made one more job in this economy..:) You obviously have enough work to support it, if you are spending that much time at it.
It all depends on your definition of social engineering. I find the best results come with a $5 wrench and a few minutes in an alley. People become very cooperative to anything you ask for.
I have a lot more words to say about that.. And "malware" would be much kinder than any of them.
Back to posting disinformation on Facebook. Lets see what new obscure location I can live today.. I've already been in to places like Wild Goose Chase, Australia, Gambell, AK, and of course, ever semi-secret government installation that I could find. I was a bit upset that I had to explain one of them, because Facebook refused to accept the location. Where, oh where, do I want to live today?
This is an almost entertaining conversation. Everyone's thinking so linearly. User puts content up on Facebook. User deletes content from Facebook, It's all done.
In reality, user puts content up on Facebook.
Facebook compiles, refines, and disseminates that information to various other parts of the company, and to third parties. Those third parties buy and sell that information. Once it's out there, there's no taking it back.
Facebook could ask their other divisions to delete it. They may no longer have it indexed in the same way.
User "JWSmythe", is account number 1234567 on Facebook.
He may now be jwsmythe@example.com, who posted message "Privacy is a lie" at 2:34am local time. He's been auto-tagged as a conspiracy nut, and an insomniac.
His name, address, and IP information have been sold to both "The Nutjob Press" and "GrandaPharma Sleep Aids".
Where I'm working now actually deals with such lists. I'm sitting on about 70 million records of consumer data, that was gathered through various means. By various, I mean we acquired the list, I reviewed it, found there to be some good, but plenty of crap. The data was collected by some of the expected places, like those great offers to win [something you won't], if you just give all your personal information. Some was supplied by online retailers, who you wouldn't expect to sell it. I went and verified that buried in their ToS was permission to sell your information to affiliated 3rd parties.
And, if you're worried about deleting your Facebook posting saying "dammit, I burnt dinner tonight", that should really be the least of your concerns. Your state likely sells your drivers license data (name, address, DOB, SSN, DL#, violation history, vision correction requirement, organ donor status, etc, etc). Your grocery store, who is kind enough to give you discounts on food for using their card is selling your purchase history. Even your bank likely sells your information and transaction history. Did you really want to buy that membership with teenagebestiality.com (hopefully not a real site)?
It's not always an "official" company decision or policy. It could have been a rogue employee who happened to have access to the database. More likely, it was an executive decision that will be officially denied, with a money trail that leads off to nowhere.
The only thing that gives me comfort is the years I've spent providing disinformation about myself and my aliases online. The truth has become so diluted that when someone pulls a report from these nefarious sources, they find I've lived all over the world, and done things that wouldn't be possible without a double zero in front of my name and someone named M frequently reprimanding me for taking advantage of my license to kill.
As a matter of fact, I ordered parts to upgrade one of my cars, which hopefully will be here by the weekend. And ya, I tune my PCs and their OSs to work better than average. And if I ever found a button that said "Do not touch", I'd probably just ask why, and/or investigate the reason for it. No button would ever be installed to never use. Obviously that switch has a purpose, and an intended time to be used.:)
Average Joe would just push it 'cause they don't know better.
I'll hit the easy one first. The automotive example. The parts and labor manual specifies how long a job *should* take. That's an average skill mechanic, on an average job. Sure, everything may turn out great, and he finishes a 3 hour job in 1 hour. More than likely, the job will take 2.75 to 3.5 hours. The shop facilitates the job according to various things, including their work load. If the book says 0.25 hours to change the brakes on one wheel, and you need 4 done, you will receive a bill for 1 hour (not including parts and shop fees). They could put 4 guys on it, and have it done in 0.25 hours. They could leave one newbie tech on it, and it may take 6 hours. Or every nut and bolt on the damned thing is rusted in place, so they had to use liquid wrench, torches, and high torque impact guns just to get it apart. It will be billed at 1 hour.
Doctors and lawyers use their subordinates to assist them. You are billed for the hours it takes to accomplish the task, regardless if you have a paper shuffler, or the lead doctor on it.
Now, in this particular circumstance, it was one guy. He billed lots of extra hours. I'm guessing his position required security clearance, so he wouldn't have been farming out the tasks to other people of unknown origins. He claimed he worked the hours.
I can see the possibility of billing extra hours. At one job, I was assigned tickets, and was told to log the hours it should have taken, rounded up to 0.25 hours. I did plenty of 2 minute tasks in 0.25 hours, and 46 minute tasks in 1.0 hours. A little quick math shows, if I had 20 tickets that took 2 minutes each, that was 40 minutes of real-world clock time, but 5 hours of billable time. Of course, they weren't paying me for those hours, they were billing customers. I was on salary.
That doesn't seem to be the case here. He'd just bill the hours, and shrug his real responsibilities, while the company gracefully ignored it. Well, until the gov't came in and audited. It can get expensive when you get caught. Apparently about $2.5 million for ignoring one guy's work ethic.
I was just sent it last night, and my first reaction to stage 1 was "that's a simple cipher.". When I tried to crack the cipher, and found it wasn't.. So as a good hacker, I checked around to see if anyone else had done any work towards it.
I finished stage 1 and 2, and decided it wasn't worth the time finishing it, since they wouldn't hire me anyways.:) That, and I think I'm allergic to the UK. Having cameras all over the place, watching my every move, gives me the creeps. I'm ok with the occasional stalker, but these aren't even people that decided they were madly in love with me, and want to kill me. I'd always feel like I'd be hearing a voice over a hidden speaker saying "Citizen, you have violated citizens code XYZ. Please remain where you are. You will be transported for re-education."
It would have been more impressive if it didn't look like a C64 generated the ubercool graphic on the screen, and she had at least said something more tech than "Unix" and "find the file".. If she was actually using find and file, I would have been at least a little impressed. find and grep would have probably at least helped.:) At very least "oh look, the password is taped to the monitor" would be more believable than in the middle of a dinosaur attack the console was still logged in and unlocked.
I never said Windows is Unix. I said that they are trying to add parts. It's more of a token towards their ongoing extend, embrace, and extinguish methodology.
Windows 8 hasn't been finalized. Heck, it's still pre-beta. You can't say that it *won't* have some sort of Unix-like compatibility. Even if it isn't available on day 1, it could be released later. Or as they say, it's a forward looking statement, and should not be used to predict future performance of the product.
Cygwin has done a better job, but even that isn't perfect. And it never will be. As you said, Windows is not Unix.
Windows is, and will remain, being the rogue OS, stubbornly remaining different, while everyone else cooperates towards a common future.
We're now to the point where most people, like it or not, have more Unix devices than Windows devices.
Being that virtually everyone has dropped the idea of building their own OS, I expect we'll see that Unix-like operating systems will be the only choice in a few years, and most likely Linux will remain on top of that. Despite it not hitting the desktop like everyone had hoped, it's found it's niche in everything that needs processing power. Since people have become comfortable with Linux (Android) on their phones and tablets, I would see real expansion of that to desktops sometime in the next few years.
All were similar in concept, but had their own ways of doing things. As this branched away from a common path, most groups agreed on a common set of rules, known as POSIX.
Once you've learned how one Unix-like environment works, you can use them all. You will find that a Linux server, an Android phone, a TiVo DVR, and even an Apple desktop, all operate in very similar ways, although each has its quirks.
The outstanding rogue operating system now is Windows. They too have recognized that they are missing out by remaining completely non-compliant, and have begun incorporating various aspects of POSIX as add-on (SFU or SUA) and 3rd party (Cygwin) packages.
The chart you displayed should have had the "Unix" name divided between major and minor groups. Major being operating systems such as Linux. Minor elements combined in as "Other Unix" and "Other OS". In that, "Windows" having such a minor share, should have only been labeled "Other OS".
In November 1993, Cray, Inc accounted for 40% all systems in the graph, and the largest share of the "Unix" segment. It would have been a mixture of UNICOS, COS, and Solaris. "Unix" as a specific OS only accounted for 15%. Even those were simply the OS name provided for the list, as an indication of a Unix-like operating system, not that it was actually "Unix".
Now get back out there, and don't make me hit you with a wrench again.
Just because one person, or a million people, believe in some fictional story, does that make it any more real?
There are people who believe in witches, vampires, lizard aliens, the illuminati, secret underground military bases, secret underground alien bases, Yggdrasil, hell, heaven, purgatory, and valhalla.
There are people who believe in luck. How many people go to Vegas to become rich? How many play the lottery, knowing that this time is their lucky break?
Just because you want something bad enough, or even if someone wrote a book about it a while back, doesn't make it real.
Fairy tales have their place. Society has set aside one day a week where people can discuss their fictional beliefs. The rest of the time, I prefer that people stay firmly rooted in reality.
Don't be so sure of that. In an office with a zero tolerance for workplace violence, it is perfectly likely they'll be called. The police love easy convictions. An employer and staff members make statements that he did verbally threaten a senior staff member. Of course the guy getting kicked out will deny the whole thing, or attempt to downplay it. When he finally gets his state assigned lawyer, they'll recommend for a plea. Plead guilty, take 30 days and $100, and be glad that's all you got.
The alternative is bad. What if this guy is the one who will come back and do some workplace violence thing? It looks really bad if the cops didn't try to stop it. Then there'll be civil actions all over the place.
That's why those zero tolerance policies are in place. People *have* come back to workplaces and killed people. The business has a responsibility to share holders (public or private), and the staff, to ensure smooth operations. If they didn't enforce it, the management would be liable.
And ya, it is all about the money. Someone will try to sue anyone, any time they can. Any good business will cover their asses with air tight legal paperwork.
Ya, I bought my own monitors too. I had a pair of 24" wide screens on my desk at one work. I have a 32" and a 24" at home. The 24" is a nice place to stick windows I need to be able to see, but don't need to actively work on.
I was trying to set up for 4 screens at home, but 3 wide take up way too much horizontal space. I wanted all the screens for playing X-Plane.:) I did have 'em going once, but had to take two off so the rest of the space was usable.
You could try asking your boss about bringing in your own computer. One think you should always remember about bringing equipment into work though is, once it's there, you may not ever get it home again. Around the time you quit or get laid off, someone will question if it's ok to take it home with you. You may not be allowed near your desk to even put your hands on it. There'll always be someone who says that it's company property, and they've always seen it there. Even if you have the original receipt, someone may argue that you were reimbursed for it, so now it's company property.
By the time you leave, it may not be worth arguing over. That's why I don't mind bringing in my spare parts from home. I bring in stuff that I upgraded from. Some of it, they're parts I upgraded friends and families machines from, and they didn't want to take home their old parts. In any case, if I can't walk out the door with it, it doesn't matter much. In a situation where you're laid off, there's a definite chance you won't be able to leave with it. I worked at a place where someone got laid off. He wasn't able to return to his desk to get his stuff. I was working a remote site that day. It was a few days later where I got a chance to get his stuff for him. All his nice stuff mysteriously disappeared.
We haven't had to actually address that scenario at my office yet. If we did, it would become a matter that HR and the lawyers would have to address.
I'm actually not a big enough prick to say "that laptop isn't allowed, it's mine now.". If it ever was necessary, I (or security) would take possession of it, verify there's no confidential data on it, and return it to the person at the door.
Written office policy, as I understand it, is enforceable. You can demote, terminate, the employee, or control items which can or cannot be brought on the property. Just as we can say no alcohol, drugs, or weapons are allowed on premises, we can dictate other items.
His response would seem to be the immediate response, so his forfeit equipment would really be forfeit. It would be handed off to the arresting officer as evidence. He'd get it back, eventually.
On the forfeiture... Consider if you went into a club or concert with a flask of your own alcohol. It's very likely they'd take it from you, and not return it. That's not always posted at the door/gate. They may ask you to leave, or may just take it and allow you to stay.
The TSA does this all the time. I know it falls under a different set of rules, but the logic applies. You are told clearly "Do not bring.... beyond this point". If you do, you forfeit it. I've lost several screwdrivers, a pair of scissors, and several half empty bottles of soda.
I know that we have to work within legal constraints. We can't have a written policy that says "you cannot do... under penalty of death." There are concerns for security and privacy though with something like a laptop, or any device that can store data. What if the unauthorized person copied off confidential data. Say M&A documents, customer lists, etc.. In a health care scenario, they may have copied patient records, which removal of records via unauthorized means is a clear violation of HIPAA. You can't let someone who walked in with a USB flash drive walk back out with it. It then falls under the same rules as all media storage devices in the facility.
I work in a field that does have sensitive data, beyond customer records and internal documents. We work under a stack of rules. Some are mandated by our customers and vendors. Some are federal laws. Someone coming or going with a data storage device is a really big deal. Anyone who brings in a foreign piece of hardware has to be trusted that they *won't* be carrying out any confidential information, and they are given the lecture accordingly.
Depending on the speed of yours, that's pretty much what they have.
The new machines we're getting are quad core with at least 4GB ram. With Win7 Pro, it's about $500. The same machine with just WIn7 home is about $250 to $325. I don't have the numbers or model number in front of me, otherwise I'd give you the accurate numbers. We need Pro, because we have AD set up. It wasn't my choice. I was hired into this Microsoft dedicated company. AD hasn't been too bad, except when it gets confused and drops a controller just because it wants to.. Since the machine has to be on the domain, it had to be Win7Pro or higher.
We already sent off any single core 2.8GHz to be recycled (without hard drives or memory). The machines that were compatible with the memory, we used to upgrade other workstations. The rest? Well, there's a box full of PC133 floating around somewhere.:) If we could sell the drives, and 20GB to 40GB drives were worth anything, I could make a fortune.:) Those came from previously retired equipment.
The funny part is, when we've handed some people their new workstations, they don't switch over. "But I'm all set up on the old one." That is, bookmarks and the like. And they still complain about the speed, even though they have the faster machine sitting on their desk, plugged in and turned on.. I have very little sympathy at that point.
We let our people migrate themselves, because they have all kinds of convoluted personal filing systems, bookmarks, and the like. We'll assist, but we can only do so much. When we take their my documents folder and desktop, and copy them over, they'll inevitably say that there's something missing.
I only sympathize with them, because I see the difference between *my* home machine, and their workstations. My home machine is 6 core 4Ghz with 6Gb RAM. There's no way I can justify that to the boss though. I just wanted that at home, because I occasionally game on it. I like to be able to crank all the settings to max, and still have smooth game play.:)
If you were advised not to bring property to the workplace, but you did so anyways, you will fall under the rules of that advisory.
And if you threatened anyone at a workplace in the manner you just threatened me, you would find yourself in jail. Most workplaces now do not tolerate violence, or the threat of it. You would be charged with assault, as that is what you just committed. In my state, it is a second degree misdemeanor, which has a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. After your jail time, you will find that you will no longer be employed.
Beyond that, it will be on your criminal history. Virtually all companies now run a criminal background check when hiring. No company would accept the liability of a prospective employee who has a history of workplace violence.
Please remember that when you grow up and actually get a job.
It's not so bad. The worst machines are 5 or 6 years old.:)
I actually do work in the best interest of the users. The only tablets in user are personally owned. Most don't get network privileges.
We've done everything we can. Memory upgrades have come from retired computers. Drive upgrades have come from retired servers. And ya, as we get machines in, they get deployed. Some upgrades have come from my personal spare parts from home. My workstation is one of the oldest, and that's the way it will stay until the staff machines are upgraded.
The users are still upset about it.. There isn't much else I can do to expedite it.
I am Director of IT for a company of about 30 employees. I hear it all, because everything comes back to me...
Do you know how many "I want a new computer" requests I get per day? A lot. I'd love to satisfy their requests. Unfortunately, I don't just yank new computers out of my ass. I have to pass the purchase request up the chain of command (the CEO), and I have to justify *why". That conversation is usually pretty quick. He asks why. I tell him because the staff wants upgrades. He asks if it's required. I say "not really." The request is denied. Oddly enough, I have to be accountable for my expenses, and I can't just go around saying "gimme, gimme, gimme". For us, desktop computers, regardless of the department, is an IT expense. And I'm not going to build out a really nice gaming machine for someone, if I could get 3 new workstations instead. I don't care how much you complain.
Do you know how many people want someone to sit at their desk all day, and help them? Well, a lot. It was enough, where I hired someone to be there for them full time. Sometimes they're legitimate problems. Sometimes they're not.
I still get the unauthorized foreign hardware problem occasionally. That went *way* down after I announced that any unauthorized foreign hardware found on the network would be forfeit to the company, to do with as we pleased. That rule was agreed upon with the CEO. I haven't actually seized any equipment, I just threaten to. Putting up your own unencrypted access point under your desk is not a good idea for security. I've had to deal with this before. In the past, if foreign hardware shows up, their network port gets shut down until the problem is resolved. If it's so important that you believe the company needs it to operate, bring it with me to the CEO. If you own it, and want to use it, we cooperate. We'll give it a look over, make sure it doesn't create any new security concerns, and sign off on it.
Really, I'd love to give everyone gaming machines that could take any level of abuse they throw at them. I'd love to give them all 60" screens, overstuffed executive chairs, and super-ergonomic mice and keyboards. I'd love to give them all tablets, so they can sit in meetings and tap on the screens. Once vendors start giving that stuff away, we'll have it deployed to all the staff. As long as their are budgets, and we have to consider if the users get everything they want, or they get paid.
Slashdot Mirror
And I can see by your high UID that you are fairly new to the Internet.
Let me introduce you to the wonders of online shopping. You too can buy a $5 wrench.
Actually, $4.65.
You may want to look at local pawn shops, yard sales, and flea markets. Just like prostitutes, if you look in the seeder areas, you can get something much bigger, for less money.
The problem is obvious. You need to hire someone to offload some of your work to.
Being the owner and management is a big responsibility, but it doesn't have to drive your life. Look at what tasks do not absolutely have to be done by you. You didn't mention the size of your firm. I'm assuming it's more than just you, or you plus one.
If you spend a substantial amount of the day arranging for customers to be satisfied, and directing employees to handle those tasks, hire a customer service manager.
If you're trying to collect money from customers, and trying to balance the books, hire an accountant.
If you're doing all the grunt work for your firm, hire staff to do that...
You get the idea.
It may seem to not make a lot of sense. If you're barely breaking even, how can you hire someone, even part time? Well, if you're stretched that thin, that means you are getting worn down by the job, which will impact your own productivity, and possibly the productivity of the whole company. Bring it back to 8 hours a day. Most likely, your company will do better, you won't burn yourself out in the next 6 months (or have a heart attack first), and hey, you made one more job in this economy.. :) You obviously have enough work to support it, if you are spending that much time at it.
It all depends on your definition of social engineering. I find the best results come with a $5 wrench and a few minutes in an alley. People become very cooperative to anything you ask for.
That'd be a really cool trick.
I've heard glowing reviews about both of them.
They're a real bright spot in the landscape.
The girls there are beautiful, their eyes really light up.
Oh, the fun I can have with these. Thanks. :)
I have a lot more words to say about that.. And "malware" would be much kinder than any of them.
Back to posting disinformation on Facebook. Lets see what new obscure location I can live today.. I've already been in to places like Wild Goose Chase, Australia, Gambell, AK, and of course, ever semi-secret government installation that I could find. I was a bit upset that I had to explain one of them, because Facebook refused to accept the location. Where, oh where, do I want to live today?
This is an almost entertaining conversation. Everyone's thinking so linearly. User puts content up on Facebook. User deletes content from Facebook, It's all done.
In reality, user puts content up on Facebook.
Facebook compiles, refines, and disseminates that information to various other parts of the company, and to third parties. Those third parties buy and sell that information. Once it's out there, there's no taking it back.
Facebook could ask their other divisions to delete it. They may no longer have it indexed in the same way.
User "JWSmythe", is account number 1234567 on Facebook.
He may now be jwsmythe@example.com, who posted message "Privacy is a lie" at 2:34am local time. He's been auto-tagged as a conspiracy nut, and an insomniac.
His name, address, and IP information have been sold to both "The Nutjob Press" and "GrandaPharma Sleep Aids".
Where I'm working now actually deals with such lists. I'm sitting on about 70 million records of consumer data, that was gathered through various means. By various, I mean we acquired the list, I reviewed it, found there to be some good, but plenty of crap. The data was collected by some of the expected places, like those great offers to win [something you won't], if you just give all your personal information. Some was supplied by online retailers, who you wouldn't expect to sell it. I went and verified that buried in their ToS was permission to sell your information to affiliated 3rd parties.
And, if you're worried about deleting your Facebook posting saying "dammit, I burnt dinner tonight", that should really be the least of your concerns. Your state likely sells your drivers license data (name, address, DOB, SSN, DL#, violation history, vision correction requirement, organ donor status, etc, etc). Your grocery store, who is kind enough to give you discounts on food for using their card is selling your purchase history. Even your bank likely sells your information and transaction history. Did you really want to buy that membership with teenagebestiality.com (hopefully not a real site)?
It's not always an "official" company decision or policy. It could have been a rogue employee who happened to have access to the database. More likely, it was an executive decision that will be officially denied, with a money trail that leads off to nowhere.
The only thing that gives me comfort is the years I've spent providing disinformation about myself and my aliases online. The truth has become so diluted that when someone pulls a report from these nefarious sources, they find I've lived all over the world, and done things that wouldn't be possible without a double zero in front of my name and someone named M frequently reprimanding me for taking advantage of my license to kill.
Hey, I resemble that remark. :)
As a matter of fact, I ordered parts to upgrade one of my cars, which hopefully will be here by the weekend. And ya, I tune my PCs and their OSs to work better than average. And if I ever found a button that said "Do not touch", I'd probably just ask why, and/or investigate the reason for it. No button would ever be installed to never use. Obviously that switch has a purpose, and an intended time to be used. :)
Average Joe would just push it 'cause they don't know better.
BTW, I like your alias.
Sure you can. I've done it twice. Each time, reality was replaced with something stranger.
Don't ask what it was like before. I'm fairly sure it would cause a paradox of some sort. I believe that's what happened to the 1970's.
There are a couple flaws with your logic.
I'll hit the easy one first. The automotive example. The parts and labor manual specifies how long a job *should* take. That's an average skill mechanic, on an average job. Sure, everything may turn out great, and he finishes a 3 hour job in 1 hour. More than likely, the job will take 2.75 to 3.5 hours. The shop facilitates the job according to various things, including their work load. If the book says 0.25 hours to change the brakes on one wheel, and you need 4 done, you will receive a bill for 1 hour (not including parts and shop fees). They could put 4 guys on it, and have it done in 0.25 hours. They could leave one newbie tech on it, and it may take 6 hours. Or every nut and bolt on the damned thing is rusted in place, so they had to use liquid wrench, torches, and high torque impact guns just to get it apart. It will be billed at 1 hour.
Doctors and lawyers use their subordinates to assist them. You are billed for the hours it takes to accomplish the task, regardless if you have a paper shuffler, or the lead doctor on it.
Now, in this particular circumstance, it was one guy. He billed lots of extra hours. I'm guessing his position required security clearance, so he wouldn't have been farming out the tasks to other people of unknown origins. He claimed he worked the hours.
I can see the possibility of billing extra hours. At one job, I was assigned tickets, and was told to log the hours it should have taken, rounded up to 0.25 hours. I did plenty of 2 minute tasks in 0.25 hours, and 46 minute tasks in 1.0 hours. A little quick math shows, if I had 20 tickets that took 2 minutes each, that was 40 minutes of real-world clock time, but 5 hours of billable time. Of course, they weren't paying me for those hours, they were billing customers. I was on salary.
That doesn't seem to be the case here. He'd just bill the hours, and shrug his real responsibilities, while the company gracefully ignored it. Well, until the gov't came in and audited. It can get expensive when you get caught. Apparently about $2.5 million for ignoring one guy's work ethic.
I was just sent it last night, and my first reaction to stage 1 was "that's a simple cipher.". When I tried to crack the cipher, and found it wasn't.. So as a good hacker, I checked around to see if anyone else had done any work towards it.
I finished stage 1 and 2, and decided it wasn't worth the time finishing it, since they wouldn't hire me anyways. :) That, and I think I'm allergic to the UK. Having cameras all over the place, watching my every move, gives me the creeps. I'm ok with the occasional stalker, but these aren't even people that decided they were madly in love with me, and want to kill me. I'd always feel like I'd be hearing a voice over a hidden speaker saying "Citizen, you have violated citizens code XYZ. Please remain where you are. You will be transported for re-education."
It would have been more impressive if it didn't look like a C64 generated the ubercool graphic on the screen, and she had at least said something more tech than "Unix" and "find the file".. If she was actually using find and file, I would have been at least a little impressed. find and grep would have probably at least helped. :) At very least "oh look, the password is taped to the monitor" would be more believable than in the middle of a dinosaur attack the console was still logged in and unlocked.
I never said Windows is Unix. I said that they are trying to add parts. It's more of a token towards their ongoing extend, embrace, and extinguish methodology.
Windows 8 hasn't been finalized. Heck, it's still pre-beta. You can't say that it *won't* have some sort of Unix-like compatibility. Even if it isn't available on day 1, it could be released later. Or as they say, it's a forward looking statement, and should not be used to predict future performance of the product.
Cygwin has done a better job, but even that isn't perfect. And it never will be. As you said, Windows is not Unix.
Windows is, and will remain, being the rogue OS, stubbornly remaining different, while everyone else cooperates towards a common future.
We're now to the point where most people, like it or not, have more Unix devices than Windows devices.
Scanning across my living room...
2 Windows computers (for gaming)
1 Dual boot laptop (Windows/Linux)
1 Mac (Unix)
3 Android tablets (Unix)
2 Android phones (Unix)
So the score just in this room is... 2.5 Windows, 6.5 Linux.
We won't talk about my 4 old TiVo DVR's in the other room, or the stack of old Linux servers waiting to find a new home.
Being that virtually everyone has dropped the idea of building their own OS, I expect we'll see that Unix-like operating systems will be the only choice in a few years, and most likely Linux will remain on top of that. Despite it not hitting the desktop like everyone had hoped, it's found it's niche in everything that needs processing power. Since people have become comfortable with Linux (Android) on their phones and tablets, I would see real expansion of that to desktops sometime in the next few years.
[smacks G3ckoG33k with a wrench, and drags him into another room]
Look here, we have something to explain to you.. Unix spawned many variations.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Unix_history-simple.svg
All were similar in concept, but had their own ways of doing things. As this branched away from a common path, most groups agreed on a common set of rules, known as POSIX.
Once you've learned how one Unix-like environment works, you can use them all. You will find that a Linux server, an Android phone, a TiVo DVR, and even an Apple desktop, all operate in very similar ways, although each has its quirks.
The outstanding rogue operating system now is Windows. They too have recognized that they are missing out by remaining completely non-compliant, and have begun incorporating various aspects of POSIX as add-on (SFU or SUA) and 3rd party (Cygwin) packages.
The chart you displayed should have had the "Unix" name divided between major and minor groups. Major being operating systems such as Linux. Minor elements combined in as "Other Unix" and "Other OS". In that, "Windows" having such a minor share, should have only been labeled "Other OS".
In November 1993, Cray, Inc accounted for 40% all systems in the graph, and the largest share of the "Unix" segment. It would have been a mixture of UNICOS, COS, and Solaris. "Unix" as a specific OS only accounted for 15%. Even those were simply the OS name provided for the list, as an indication of a Unix-like operating system, not that it was actually "Unix".
Now get back out there, and don't make me hit you with a wrench again.
Well....
As most coat hangers sold now are plastic, I'd say that's a problem..
And a single coat hanger is a single conductor. It would take 2 metal coat hangers that don't touch (or one at half the distance).
I'd be willing to bet, with properly insulated and terminated coat hangers, they'd be superior to monster cables. :)
Just because one person, or a million people, believe in some fictional story, does that make it any more real?
There are people who believe in witches, vampires, lizard aliens, the illuminati, secret underground military bases, secret underground alien bases, Yggdrasil, hell, heaven, purgatory, and valhalla.
There are people who believe in luck. How many people go to Vegas to become rich? How many play the lottery, knowing that this time is their lucky break?
Just because you want something bad enough, or even if someone wrote a book about it a while back, doesn't make it real.
Fairy tales have their place. Society has set aside one day a week where people can discuss their fictional beliefs. The rest of the time, I prefer that people stay firmly rooted in reality.
Don't be so sure of that. In an office with a zero tolerance for workplace violence, it is perfectly likely they'll be called. The police love easy convictions. An employer and staff members make statements that he did verbally threaten a senior staff member. Of course the guy getting kicked out will deny the whole thing, or attempt to downplay it. When he finally gets his state assigned lawyer, they'll recommend for a plea. Plead guilty, take 30 days and $100, and be glad that's all you got.
The alternative is bad. What if this guy is the one who will come back and do some workplace violence thing? It looks really bad if the cops didn't try to stop it. Then there'll be civil actions all over the place.
That's why those zero tolerance policies are in place. People *have* come back to workplaces and killed people. The business has a responsibility to share holders (public or private), and the staff, to ensure smooth operations. If they didn't enforce it, the management would be liable.
And ya, it is all about the money. Someone will try to sue anyone, any time they can. Any good business will cover their asses with air tight legal paperwork.
Ya, I bought my own monitors too. I had a pair of 24" wide screens on my desk at one work. I have a 32" and a 24" at home. The 24" is a nice place to stick windows I need to be able to see, but don't need to actively work on.
I was trying to set up for 4 screens at home, but 3 wide take up way too much horizontal space. I wanted all the screens for playing X-Plane. :) I did have 'em going once, but had to take two off so the rest of the space was usable.
You could try asking your boss about bringing in your own computer. One think you should always remember about bringing equipment into work though is, once it's there, you may not ever get it home again. Around the time you quit or get laid off, someone will question if it's ok to take it home with you. You may not be allowed near your desk to even put your hands on it. There'll always be someone who says that it's company property, and they've always seen it there. Even if you have the original receipt, someone may argue that you were reimbursed for it, so now it's company property.
By the time you leave, it may not be worth arguing over. That's why I don't mind bringing in my spare parts from home. I bring in stuff that I upgraded from. Some of it, they're parts I upgraded friends and families machines from, and they didn't want to take home their old parts. In any case, if I can't walk out the door with it, it doesn't matter much. In a situation where you're laid off, there's a definite chance you won't be able to leave with it. I worked at a place where someone got laid off. He wasn't able to return to his desk to get his stuff. I was working a remote site that day. It was a few days later where I got a chance to get his stuff for him. All his nice stuff mysteriously disappeared.
We haven't had to actually address that scenario at my office yet. If we did, it would become a matter that HR and the lawyers would have to address.
I'm actually not a big enough prick to say "that laptop isn't allowed, it's mine now.". If it ever was necessary, I (or security) would take possession of it, verify there's no confidential data on it, and return it to the person at the door.
Written office policy, as I understand it, is enforceable. You can demote, terminate, the employee, or control items which can or cannot be brought on the property. Just as we can say no alcohol, drugs, or weapons are allowed on premises, we can dictate other items.
His response would seem to be the immediate response, so his forfeit equipment would really be forfeit. It would be handed off to the arresting officer as evidence. He'd get it back, eventually.
On the forfeiture... Consider if you went into a club or concert with a flask of your own alcohol. It's very likely they'd take it from you, and not return it. That's not always posted at the door/gate. They may ask you to leave, or may just take it and allow you to stay.
The TSA does this all the time. I know it falls under a different set of rules, but the logic applies. You are told clearly "Do not bring .... beyond this point". If you do, you forfeit it. I've lost several screwdrivers, a pair of scissors, and several half empty bottles of soda.
I know that we have to work within legal constraints. We can't have a written policy that says "you cannot do ... under penalty of death." There are concerns for security and privacy though with something like a laptop, or any device that can store data. What if the unauthorized person copied off confidential data. Say M&A documents, customer lists, etc.. In a health care scenario, they may have copied patient records, which removal of records via unauthorized means is a clear violation of HIPAA. You can't let someone who walked in with a USB flash drive walk back out with it. It then falls under the same rules as all media storage devices in the facility.
I work in a field that does have sensitive data, beyond customer records and internal documents. We work under a stack of rules. Some are mandated by our customers and vendors. Some are federal laws. Someone coming or going with a data storage device is a really big deal. Anyone who brings in a foreign piece of hardware has to be trusted that they *won't* be carrying out any confidential information, and they are given the lecture accordingly.
Depending on the speed of yours, that's pretty much what they have.
The new machines we're getting are quad core with at least 4GB ram. With Win7 Pro, it's about $500. The same machine with just WIn7 home is about $250 to $325. I don't have the numbers or model number in front of me, otherwise I'd give you the accurate numbers. We need Pro, because we have AD set up. It wasn't my choice. I was hired into this Microsoft dedicated company. AD hasn't been too bad, except when it gets confused and drops a controller just because it wants to.. Since the machine has to be on the domain, it had to be Win7Pro or higher.
We already sent off any single core 2.8GHz to be recycled (without hard drives or memory). The machines that were compatible with the memory, we used to upgrade other workstations. The rest? Well, there's a box full of PC133 floating around somewhere. :) If we could sell the drives, and 20GB to 40GB drives were worth anything, I could make a fortune. :) Those came from previously retired equipment.
The funny part is, when we've handed some people their new workstations, they don't switch over. "But I'm all set up on the old one." That is, bookmarks and the like. And they still complain about the speed, even though they have the faster machine sitting on their desk, plugged in and turned on.. I have very little sympathy at that point.
We let our people migrate themselves, because they have all kinds of convoluted personal filing systems, bookmarks, and the like. We'll assist, but we can only do so much. When we take their my documents folder and desktop, and copy them over, they'll inevitably say that there's something missing.
I only sympathize with them, because I see the difference between *my* home machine, and their workstations. My home machine is 6 core 4Ghz with 6Gb RAM. There's no way I can justify that to the boss though. I just wanted that at home, because I occasionally game on it. I like to be able to crank all the settings to max, and still have smooth game play. :)
If you were advised not to bring property to the workplace, but you did so anyways, you will fall under the rules of that advisory.
And if you threatened anyone at a workplace in the manner you just threatened me, you would find yourself in jail. Most workplaces now do not tolerate violence, or the threat of it. You would be charged with assault, as that is what you just committed. In my state, it is a second degree misdemeanor, which has a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. After your jail time, you will find that you will no longer be employed.
Beyond that, it will be on your criminal history. Virtually all companies now run a criminal background check when hiring. No company would accept the liability of a prospective employee who has a history of workplace violence.
Please remember that when you grow up and actually get a job.
It's not so bad. The worst machines are 5 or 6 years old. :)
I actually do work in the best interest of the users. The only tablets in user are personally owned. Most don't get network privileges.
We've done everything we can. Memory upgrades have come from retired computers. Drive upgrades have come from retired servers. And ya, as we get machines in, they get deployed. Some upgrades have come from my personal spare parts from home. My workstation is one of the oldest, and that's the way it will stay until the staff machines are upgraded.
The users are still upset about it.. There isn't much else I can do to expedite it.
And that's what I tell my users too....
And the other reason is the way staff treats IT.
I am Director of IT for a company of about 30 employees. I hear it all, because everything comes back to me...
Do you know how many "I want a new computer" requests I get per day? A lot. I'd love to satisfy their requests. Unfortunately, I don't just yank new computers out of my ass. I have to pass the purchase request up the chain of command (the CEO), and I have to justify *why". That conversation is usually pretty quick. He asks why. I tell him because the staff wants upgrades. He asks if it's required. I say "not really." The request is denied. Oddly enough, I have to be accountable for my expenses, and I can't just go around saying "gimme, gimme, gimme". For us, desktop computers, regardless of the department, is an IT expense. And I'm not going to build out a really nice gaming machine for someone, if I could get 3 new workstations instead. I don't care how much you complain.
Do you know how many people want someone to sit at their desk all day, and help them? Well, a lot. It was enough, where I hired someone to be there for them full time. Sometimes they're legitimate problems. Sometimes they're not.
I still get the unauthorized foreign hardware problem occasionally. That went *way* down after I announced that any unauthorized foreign hardware found on the network would be forfeit to the company, to do with as we pleased. That rule was agreed upon with the CEO. I haven't actually seized any equipment, I just threaten to. Putting up your own unencrypted access point under your desk is not a good idea for security. I've had to deal with this before. In the past, if foreign hardware shows up, their network port gets shut down until the problem is resolved. If it's so important that you believe the company needs it to operate, bring it with me to the CEO. If you own it, and want to use it, we cooperate. We'll give it a look over, make sure it doesn't create any new security concerns, and sign off on it.
Really, I'd love to give everyone gaming machines that could take any level of abuse they throw at them. I'd love to give them all 60" screens, overstuffed executive chairs, and super-ergonomic mice and keyboards. I'd love to give them all tablets, so they can sit in meetings and tap on the screens. Once vendors start giving that stuff away, we'll have it deployed to all the staff. As long as their are budgets, and we have to consider if the users get everything they want, or they get paid.
I believe this explains it fully... :)