Someone posted this months ago, and it tells how to gut-out a lot of the add-ins that make acrobat so slow to open. You lose some functionality, but much of it is un-needed while viewing pdfs on the web.
Not to mention clearing out old ones. Thankfully, the admin made network images of each model, and all the lab computers ran DeepFreeze.
Having few resources and many varied computers to maintain (and an onslaught of kids determined to ruin them), I came up with a solution using a small linux install to keep a local image of each computer on its own harddrive. The computer would then first boot into linux and then, based on the parameters set, would either rebuild from the windows image, or just reboot into windows.
It worked pretty well because the kids got tired of messing with the computers - since all their "work" would get wiped out on the next reboot.
See my journal if you're intereste in how I made it all work. The trick is that with lilo, you can call it from linux, telling it to default to a particular "image" only on the next reboot, overriding the normal default.
It's designed for fat32/win98 (make tgz images), but could easily be modified to use dd/gzip for ntfs/winxp.
Actually, my job, working as a tech for the school district, was not do to what the teachers asked. It was to keep the computers running, maintain the security of the network, and to follow approved procedures for adding new software.
And remember that you're responsible for maintaining the computers with all the software. You do realize that for a variety of reasons, installing one piece of software can break another software's installation.
So, if you're responsible for maintaining 40 different pieces of software on the computers, and a teacher comes up and wants something he downloaded off the web installed for the next class, you're most likely a fool if you do it. That software needs to be tested to make sure it behaves with all the other pieces of software - and that it isn't loaded with spyware or other security-breaking issues. And you also need to make sure they have all the licenses to install it on 25 computers - even if the teacher just bought one (they usually don't understand that concept - that you have to pay for it for all the computers - even if you can use the same disk to install it on all of them).
If you have more than a handful of computers and a handful of software packages, you have to be really careful about what you just install willy-nilly, or you'll end up with a worthless pile of computers.
A friend of mine used to have a commodore 64 with the (what is the number) 1581 disk drive. It all stopped working shortly after his young nephew came over. When he took it to the shop, the repair tech laughed as he told him the drive was full of oreo cookie halves. Apparently the newphew saw him putting black skinny things into the drive and decided to emulate...
I like the rhythm of Alt-F, S... I can hit "Alt" with the thumb, rock forward to hit F, and roll over to to hit S.
Ctrl-S requires and ackward attack with the pinky.
The thing it, wouldn't it be irritating if in a new versin of Excel they change "ctrl-S" from "save" to "exit without saving" - and didn't bother to tell anyone.
Their unadvertised change of ctrl-A lost me just as much work - and it can't have been an accident. The new action of ctrl-A had to have been specifically programmed. They're good at pop-up boxes. Why not have a pop-up happen the first time I use ctrl-A telling me "You're trying to select all. We've enhanced ctrl-A so it doesn't select all." I'm sure that could have fit somewhere in all that bloat.
A study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, helps to confirm that most people have a hard time properly interpreting the tone of an e-mail. It found that only about half the time were the readers able to properly identify if an e-mail was sent seriously or sarcastically. Adding further to the miscommunication, the senders of the e-mail were expecting the reader to understand the message's tone 80% of the time.
According to one of the researches, psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, "That's how flame wars get started. People in our study were convinced they've accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance."
The study was conducted using 30 pairs of undergraduate students, giving them 20 statements about various topics such as campus food. The senders then gave the statements either a serious or sarcastic tone.
because one cell got separated from its brethren in a sort.
I was "upgraded" to excel 2003 this summer, which caused such a decrease in my productivity.
One new "feature" is that the ever ubiquitous ctrl-A, which every other app, and all older versions of Excel used to "select ALL", no longer selects ALL. Excel 2003 now tries to look at the group of cells you're currently sitting in, and selects what it thinks is a convenient group. The problem is, if there's a gap in a column, it won't reach across all of your data - just to that column-border.
So, you do a ctrl-A, and a sort, and all of a sudden all your data is no longer correctly associated across the row like it used to be.
What a great surprise that was, to get this great new feature... especially when I got to throw out an entire day's work because I had no way to rearrange my data back into the correct order.
The fix is to use the box at the corner of column letters and row numbers (upper left). Or, as is entirely obvious, and just like all other aps... hit ctrl-A twice.
I work for an apparel company. And this should probably apply to everyone who can communicate a message with their product.
I imagine that if I wanted to make "live free or die" t-shirts, or "Never forget Tienman Square" t-shirts for a very interested Chinese market that the Chinese government would have a strong interest in stopping us. They might even make my company agree to not make such t-shirts.
If google and yahoo are to be stopped, shouldn't my company too? How about Ore-Ida making "freedom fries" to sell in China?
In any case, all this does is play into the hands of the Chinese government and the businesses they choose to provide "autorized search" for their people. This only hurts our businesses by locking them out of a lucrative market.
Now, whether it's ethical for these businesses to do work for a repressive regime is another matter. The business will be done, one way or another. Is it better to get in there at least a little, even with sensorship? I'm glad I don't have to make that call.
And how should this apply to countries like Germany and France, when the forbid Yahoo and E-bay from selling Nazi-related items? Is that not also sensorship and "repression"?
Actually the congress and excecutive tend to pander to those who give them big fat checks. They don't really care too much about noisy minorities or majorities. It's all about the money.
That's only part of the picture. Yes, I'm in North America, but I'm also coordinating people's efforts here in the US, Canada, Mexcio, etc.
A global corp has to have an HQ somewhere, and my company's happens to be on the west coast.
Yes, of course, I'm disposable. But the funny thing is that I strive for that. I'm working on projects to make my job redundant. It currently takes too much manual work and I'm working to have a database solution implemented that will cut out about 50% of what I do. I like that I'm making things more efficient and more effective - and I'm making it so the people I coordinate with around the world no longer has me and my office as a bottleneck.
Sure, it puts me out of a job, but in the long run, I'm showing what I'm worth and other people will want to see how I can make their offices and divisions more effective.
I've always strived to make my job not needed. As a sysadmin, I wanted the place to run itself so I could go do what I wanted. I was mostly successful.
As a supply chain analyst, I strive for the same thing.
Then, figure out which moron thought it was a good idea to outsource half the work, and fire them, or get them fired. You would think by now smart people would have figured out this globalization scam is a congame.
This problem is not always caused by out-sourcing, but yes, globalization is there.
I work for a global corporation, and as I mentioned earlier in this discussion, I help coordinate efforts on an ongoing project with groups in Asia and Europe. Those people aren't there because of out-sourcing, but rather because we have markets and sell products in those markets. It would be silly and very ethno-centric to assume that we here in the USA can make the best decisions for what will sell in Europe or China - and that we alone can build the relationships with suppliers and customers from here in the USA.
Globalization suggests that if we want to sell in Asia and Europe that we need to be in Asia and Europe, doing things they way they are done in Asia and Europe.
That said, we still need to coordinate and communicate across the globe.
The world is getting "flatter", if you subscribe to Tom Friedman's views. We are all gaining more ability to communicate and do business with people all over the world. The trick is to do this when it's actually profitable, and not just because it's cheaper in the short term.
I have the fortune to have have a cool job where I have to coordinate efforts with people in both Asia and Europe. Europeans are going home when I come to work, and the Asians are just getting there when I'm leaving work. And they're just starting when I go to bed.
Most of my work with them can be handled via e-mail. So, before I go to ged, I check my work email and respond to issues in Asia so they don't have to wait a day to get a response. I'm not an early bird, but I try to do the same in the morning before leaving for work.
My boss knows I deal with things this way and realizes that I may be stuck at home dealing with a Europe-issue and will be late into the office, or that I might have been up late for the same reason. So everyone's fairly flexible about these things.
Of course, I don't mind taking my work home. I find that even if I'm going to bed, the people in foreign offices are more relaxed when they get an immediate response to a problem e-mail, even if I'm just saying, "got your message and I'll take care of it first thing in my morning".
Also, I got xearth for windows and put it on my computer in the Mercatur view, with labels set on our foreign offices. It helps me "feel" for when people are in their days.
Why are you installing XP (or any other OS) with it directly connected to the internet?
Get a router with NAT to block most of the bad stuff - and heck, disconnect IT from the internet. Get the computer working and as much security in place before going online with it.
A simple netgear or linksys router provides tons of protection and costs about $50... definitely worth the time saved from reinstalling windows once or twice.
If you're really paranoid, download the security patches and burn them to CD so you can install them without going online.
especially for sysadmins, most of whom spend far to much time in firefighter mode
I had the great pleasure of working at the engineering school of a university. My boss had been there for years and built the place up from nothing, basically. It was very well organized and ran very well. We didn't have many windows boxes, which helped - it was mostly sun sparc stations and Tektronix X-terminals.
We spent most of our time doing what he called "polishing the fire-engine". That was just basic maintenence - checking printers, servers, logs, tidying labs, etc. We had a lot of time to go visit our users (profs and students) and find out what things were bugging them.
It was so great! I got to spend a lot of time researching new offerings, etc. I also spent a lot of time talking to profs. What I loved would be that I would start the conversation, "how's the computer going". They would always say "just fine" and we'd chat. Just as I turned to leave, they'd say "oh yeah... this program is doing...".
What I loved was that we were able to keep everyone happy be getting from them the little things that were bothering them before they became big things.
As for managing tasks, I would ask people to e-mail me anything they needed... even if I was just there talking to them. Once I got them to do this, I was able to manage my "to do" list through my inbox.
Of course, if there was a network problem (rare - and usually not caused by us), they can't e-mail, but I would print up some signs saying what was up and post them - and then tell the dept. secretary what's up.
Most people don't mind if things get broke from time to time, or if they have to wait for something. The vital thing is that they know what's going on and when to expect it to be fixed, or when they can get their thing done.
Sysadmins don't often have good people skills, but they're vital for keeping the whole system, including the users, working well.
Ultimately, it comes down to "what is the point of the business"? The answer, typically, is to make money by selling software solutions.
With that established as your goal, you have to answer the question, "does standardizing on one language help us to sell more software solutions and make more money?" If standardization does not help you achieve your goal, then it's not worth pursuing.
Conversely, when someone comes to propose using another language, the same question needs to be asked. "does adding this new language to our set of tools help us sell more software solutions and make more money?"
It really all boils down to a value proposition. Does this thing X that we want to do provide value to our customers (either by cheaper product, faster delivery, more reliable product)? If not, you probably ought to find things that do add value and focus on those.
3. Solar collectors for power. Get off the grid altogether! Spend $10,000 on good panels, (which can collect even in low-light conditions), and batteries and all the wiring, etc., and you needn't pay another electricity bill ever again.
For the last 10 years, I've lived in a few different apartments and my electricity bill has not often been above 50, and often below. With that as an average cost, that $10,000 is about 16 years of power. Would that equipment last that long without replacement?
While I like the idea of being independent of the power company, I'm not sure it pays off that well at that price.
You don't go from Colonel to General by rocking the boat. You get it by going along with the current administration and keeping things smooth for them.
Power Steering is a belt driven hydraulic pump, it will still work if you move your engine into a lower gear when it cuts out although it is far less effective.
We're talking about a situation where someone is running from the cops. It's probably not the time most people will be thinking about how to downshift to keep their power-steering.
I know in my car, as soon as the engine dies, the steering stiffens a lot and the breaks require a lot of pushing to work. Killing a car at high speed with other drivers around is simply asking for trouble.
Spike strips work because they clear the road of other drivers. But killing a car in motion is not likely to happen on a cleared road and could lead to dangerous situations.
I think cops won't be inclined to do this simply from a liablity situation. Most people in the US would file very large lawsuits against the police departments if they are injured in a car crash caused by the police essentially disabling the breaking and steering functions of a perp's car.
You're right that this was a political situation - not to appease people who would be upset about losing their blackberry, but rather to preserve the status-quo in the patent system.
If RIM got shutdown, the outcry for patent reform would have been overwhelming. There are too many many powerful entities interested in preserving the current, broken, system.
The government couldn't care less if we have blackberries. It's the campaign contributions from companies with lots of bad patents that they're worried about.
If they can't easily remove the objects in the right of way, they will destroy them, and they have no legal obligation to compensate you since it's a known right of way.
It would be a real shame if their cables got damaged while I was rebuilding my fence. Those automatic post-holers can go wild sometimes.
Slashdot Mirror
Someone posted this months ago, and it tells how to gut-out a lot of the add-ins that make acrobat so slow to open. You lose some functionality, but much of it is un-needed while viewing pdfs on the web.
How to use liposuction to repair Adobe Reader 6
I couldn't believe the difference it made.
Not to mention clearing out old ones. Thankfully, the admin made network images of each model, and all the lab computers ran DeepFreeze.
Having few resources and many varied computers to maintain (and an onslaught of kids determined to ruin them), I came up with a solution using a small linux install to keep a local image of each computer on its own harddrive. The computer would then first boot into linux and then, based on the parameters set, would either rebuild from the windows image, or just reboot into windows.
It worked pretty well because the kids got tired of messing with the computers - since all their "work" would get wiped out on the next reboot.
See my journal if you're intereste in how I made it all work. The trick is that with lilo, you can call it from linux, telling it to default to a particular "image" only on the next reboot, overriding the normal default.
It's designed for fat32/win98 (make tgz images), but could easily be modified to use dd/gzip for ntfs/winxp.
We just got optical mice instead. No moving parts...
Actually, my job, working as a tech for the school district, was not do to what the teachers asked. It was to keep the computers running, maintain the security of the network, and to follow approved procedures for adding new software.
And remember that you're responsible for maintaining the computers with all the software. You do realize that for a variety of reasons, installing one piece of software can break another software's installation.
So, if you're responsible for maintaining 40 different pieces of software on the computers, and a teacher comes up and wants something he downloaded off the web installed for the next class, you're most likely a fool if you do it. That software needs to be tested to make sure it behaves with all the other pieces of software - and that it isn't loaded with spyware or other security-breaking issues. And you also need to make sure they have all the licenses to install it on 25 computers - even if the teacher just bought one (they usually don't understand that concept - that you have to pay for it for all the computers - even if you can use the same disk to install it on all of them).
If you have more than a handful of computers and a handful of software packages, you have to be really careful about what you just install willy-nilly, or you'll end up with a worthless pile of computers.
A friend of mine used to have a commodore 64 with the (what is the number) 1581 disk drive. It all stopped working shortly after his young nephew came over. When he took it to the shop, the repair tech laughed as he told him the drive was full of oreo cookie halves. Apparently the newphew saw him putting black skinny things into the drive and decided to emulate...
I like the rhythm of Alt-F, S... I can hit "Alt" with the thumb, rock forward to hit F, and roll over to to hit S.
Ctrl-S requires and ackward attack with the pinky.
The thing it, wouldn't it be irritating if in a new versin of Excel they change "ctrl-S" from "save" to "exit without saving" - and didn't bother to tell anyone.
Their unadvertised change of ctrl-A lost me just as much work - and it can't have been an accident. The new action of ctrl-A had to have been specifically programmed. They're good at pop-up boxes. Why not have a pop-up happen the first time I use ctrl-A telling me "You're trying to select all. We've enhanced ctrl-A so it doesn't select all." I'm sure that could have fit somewhere in all that bloat.
That seems to go well with a recent study:
0 215034769.htm
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2006Jan/gee2006
Study confirms people misinterpret e-mails
A study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, helps to confirm that most people have a hard time properly interpreting the tone of an e-mail. It found that only about half the time were the readers able to properly identify if an e-mail was sent seriously or sarcastically. Adding further to the miscommunication, the senders of the e-mail were expecting the reader to understand the message's tone 80% of the time.
According to one of the researches, psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, "That's how flame wars get started. People in our study were convinced they've accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance."
The study was conducted using 30 pairs of undergraduate students, giving them 20 statements about various topics such as campus food. The senders then gave the statements either a serious or sarcastic tone.
If you hit a wall at 100mph, no amount of body armour is going to save you, as all your internal organs are going to be crushed in the impact.
And that's why skiers whould wear personal airbags!
Do they get to wear brown shirts too?
The sad part is now that you've mentioned this, this disucssion has devolved into a right vs left, liberal vs conservative argument.
Isn't that exactly what authoritarians like? Keep the people distracted with their own squabbles while they take us all to the cleaners?
Good job, people.
What you're describing isusing rape to dominate, humiliate, and subjugate another human being.
There's a huge difference between that and being attracted to someone and having desire to have a relationship with them.
By your logic, men could go out raping lesbians as a way of trying to get them to take part in straight lifestyle.
because one cell got separated from its brethren in a sort.
I was "upgraded" to excel 2003 this summer, which caused such a decrease in my productivity.
One new "feature" is that the ever ubiquitous ctrl-A, which every other app, and all older versions of Excel used to "select ALL", no longer selects ALL. Excel 2003 now tries to look at the group of cells you're currently sitting in, and selects what it thinks is a convenient group. The problem is, if there's a gap in a column, it won't reach across all of your data - just to that column-border.
So, you do a ctrl-A, and a sort, and all of a sudden all your data is no longer correctly associated across the row like it used to be.
What a great surprise that was, to get this great new feature... especially when I got to throw out an entire day's work because I had no way to rearrange my data back into the correct order.
The fix is to use the box at the corner of column letters and row numbers (upper left). Or, as is entirely obvious, and just like all other aps... hit ctrl-A twice.
Thank you, Microsoft.
I work for an apparel company. And this should probably apply to everyone who can communicate a message with their product.
I imagine that if I wanted to make "live free or die" t-shirts, or "Never forget Tienman Square" t-shirts for a very interested Chinese market that the Chinese government would have a strong interest in stopping us. They might even make my company agree to not make such t-shirts.
If google and yahoo are to be stopped, shouldn't my company too? How about Ore-Ida making "freedom fries" to sell in China?
In any case, all this does is play into the hands of the Chinese government and the businesses they choose to provide "autorized search" for their people. This only hurts our businesses by locking them out of a lucrative market.
Now, whether it's ethical for these businesses to do work for a repressive regime is another matter. The business will be done, one way or another. Is it better to get in there at least a little, even with sensorship? I'm glad I don't have to make that call.
And how should this apply to countries like Germany and France, when the forbid Yahoo and E-bay from selling Nazi-related items? Is that not also sensorship and "repression"?
Actually the congress and excecutive tend to pander to those who give them big fat checks. They don't really care too much about noisy minorities or majorities. It's all about the money.
That's only part of the picture. Yes, I'm in North America, but I'm also coordinating people's efforts here in the US, Canada, Mexcio, etc.
A global corp has to have an HQ somewhere, and my company's happens to be on the west coast.
Yes, of course, I'm disposable. But the funny thing is that I strive for that. I'm working on projects to make my job redundant. It currently takes too much manual work and I'm working to have a database solution implemented that will cut out about 50% of what I do. I like that I'm making things more efficient and more effective - and I'm making it so the people I coordinate with around the world no longer has me and my office as a bottleneck.
Sure, it puts me out of a job, but in the long run, I'm showing what I'm worth and other people will want to see how I can make their offices and divisions more effective.
I've always strived to make my job not needed. As a sysadmin, I wanted the place to run itself so I could go do what I wanted. I was mostly successful.
As a supply chain analyst, I strive for the same thing.
Then, figure out which moron thought it was a good idea to outsource half the work, and fire them, or get them fired. You would think by now smart people would have figured out this globalization scam is a congame.
This problem is not always caused by out-sourcing, but yes, globalization is there.
I work for a global corporation, and as I mentioned earlier in this discussion, I help coordinate efforts on an ongoing project with groups in Asia and Europe. Those people aren't there because of out-sourcing, but rather because we have markets and sell products in those markets. It would be silly and very ethno-centric to assume that we here in the USA can make the best decisions for what will sell in Europe or China - and that we alone can build the relationships with suppliers and customers from here in the USA.
Globalization suggests that if we want to sell in Asia and Europe that we need to be in Asia and Europe, doing things they way they are done in Asia and Europe.
That said, we still need to coordinate and communicate across the globe.
The world is getting "flatter", if you subscribe to Tom Friedman's views. We are all gaining more ability to communicate and do business with people all over the world. The trick is to do this when it's actually profitable, and not just because it's cheaper in the short term.
I have the fortune to have have a cool job where I have to coordinate efforts with people in both Asia and Europe. Europeans are going home when I come to work, and the Asians are just getting there when I'm leaving work. And they're just starting when I go to bed.
Most of my work with them can be handled via e-mail. So, before I go to ged, I check my work email and respond to issues in Asia so they don't have to wait a day to get a response. I'm not an early bird, but I try to do the same in the morning before leaving for work.
My boss knows I deal with things this way and realizes that I may be stuck at home dealing with a Europe-issue and will be late into the office, or that I might have been up late for the same reason. So everyone's fairly flexible about these things.
Of course, I don't mind taking my work home. I find that even if I'm going to bed, the people in foreign offices are more relaxed when they get an immediate response to a problem e-mail, even if I'm just saying, "got your message and I'll take care of it first thing in my morning".
Also, I got xearth for windows and put it on my computer in the Mercatur view, with labels set on our foreign offices. It helps me "feel" for when people are in their days.
Why are you installing XP (or any other OS) with it directly connected to the internet?
Get a router with NAT to block most of the bad stuff - and heck, disconnect IT from the internet. Get the computer working and as much security in place before going online with it.
A simple netgear or linksys router provides tons of protection and costs about $50... definitely worth the time saved from reinstalling windows once or twice.
If you're really paranoid, download the security patches and burn them to CD so you can install them without going online.
especially for sysadmins, most of whom spend far to much time in firefighter mode
I had the great pleasure of working at the engineering school of a university. My boss had been there for years and built the place up from nothing, basically. It was very well organized and ran very well. We didn't have many windows boxes, which helped - it was mostly sun sparc stations and Tektronix X-terminals.
We spent most of our time doing what he called "polishing the fire-engine". That was just basic maintenence - checking printers, servers, logs, tidying labs, etc. We had a lot of time to go visit our users (profs and students) and find out what things were bugging them.
It was so great! I got to spend a lot of time researching new offerings, etc. I also spent a lot of time talking to profs. What I loved would be that I would start the conversation, "how's the computer going". They would always say "just fine" and we'd chat. Just as I turned to leave, they'd say "oh yeah... this program is doing...".
What I loved was that we were able to keep everyone happy be getting from them the little things that were bothering them before they became big things.
As for managing tasks, I would ask people to e-mail me anything they needed... even if I was just there talking to them. Once I got them to do this, I was able to manage my "to do" list through my inbox.
Of course, if there was a network problem (rare - and usually not caused by us), they can't e-mail, but I would print up some signs saying what was up and post them - and then tell the dept. secretary what's up.
Most people don't mind if things get broke from time to time, or if they have to wait for something. The vital thing is that they know what's going on and when to expect it to be fixed, or when they can get their thing done.
Sysadmins don't often have good people skills, but they're vital for keeping the whole system, including the users, working well.
If a machine cost $50,000 but saved 500 square feet of space that may very well be cheaper in the long term than a $100,000 machine that saved none.
Heck, that $50,000 machine is even cheaper than the $100,000 machine in the near term too!
Ultimately, it comes down to "what is the point of the business"? The answer, typically, is to make money by selling software solutions.
With that established as your goal, you have to answer the question, "does standardizing on one language help us to sell more software solutions and make more money?" If standardization does not help you achieve your goal, then it's not worth pursuing.
Conversely, when someone comes to propose using another language, the same question needs to be asked. "does adding this new language to our set of tools help us sell more software solutions and make more money?"
It really all boils down to a value proposition. Does this thing X that we want to do provide value to our customers (either by cheaper product, faster delivery, more reliable product)? If not, you probably ought to find things that do add value and focus on those.
3. Solar collectors for power. Get off the grid altogether! Spend $10,000 on good panels, (which can collect even in low-light conditions), and batteries and all the wiring, etc., and you needn't pay another electricity bill ever again.
For the last 10 years, I've lived in a few different apartments and my electricity bill has not often been above 50, and often below. With that as an average cost, that $10,000 is about 16 years of power. Would that equipment last that long without replacement?
While I like the idea of being independent of the power company, I'm not sure it pays off that well at that price.
I have, and I would agree with the parent poster.
You don't go from Colonel to General by rocking the boat. You get it by going along with the current administration and keeping things smooth for them.
Power Steering is a belt driven hydraulic pump, it will still work if you move your engine into a lower gear when it cuts out although it is far less effective.
We're talking about a situation where someone is running from the cops. It's probably not the time most people will be thinking about how to downshift to keep their power-steering.
I know in my car, as soon as the engine dies, the steering stiffens a lot and the breaks require a lot of pushing to work. Killing a car at high speed with other drivers around is simply asking for trouble.
Spike strips work because they clear the road of other drivers. But killing a car in motion is not likely to happen on a cleared road and could lead to dangerous situations.
I think cops won't be inclined to do this simply from a liablity situation. Most people in the US would file very large lawsuits against the police departments if they are injured in a car crash caused by the police essentially disabling the breaking and steering functions of a perp's car.
You're right that this was a political situation - not to appease people who would be upset about losing their blackberry, but rather to preserve the status-quo in the patent system.
If RIM got shutdown, the outcry for patent reform would have been overwhelming. There are too many many powerful entities interested in preserving the current, broken, system.
The government couldn't care less if we have blackberries. It's the campaign contributions from companies with lots of bad patents that they're worried about.
If they can't easily remove the objects in the right of way, they will destroy them, and they have no legal obligation to compensate you since it's a known right of way.
It would be a real shame if their cables got damaged while I was rebuilding my fence. Those automatic post-holers can go wild sometimes.