Yes, I do not disagree, however, the point is that the posting/article do not do enough to clarify that this is only a computer projection based on a worst case scenario.
More to the point, the post references stale data, possibly for the exaggerated figures contained therin. An accurate accounting would be far less newsworthy. A headline of "Current living carriers of Ebola is tabulated as 1,500 cases" would send an entirely different message.
It is for this reason that I regularly discount claims of high outrage over poorly reported statistics. I get that "yea, I see what is really going on here" feeling when the reporter leans over and photographs a rainbow glean on a few square inches of seawater and proclaims that widespread pollution is resulting from the recent Gulf Oil Spill.
Sadly there is a category of colleagues who seize upon these poor statistics and embrace them as fact further propagating the fallacy.
Yes, apples to oranges, but please do not mislead me you have apples, when all you have is that orange.
First off Ebola is a tragedy and is worthy of all efforts at control and eradication, not because I may someday be at risk, but because real people are dying.
However....
The posting links to an "updated assessment" which you can view. Looking there, one is led to believe that on Oct 24, the number of Ebola cases are 30,000 worldwide. But if you look really closely, this is just a projection based on data accumulated 30 days ago. Is this the most current data we can view on which to base our assessment? Look now at the bottom of the page and you will see updated assessments including one for Oct 29 (yesterday).
Look for the WHO situation reports further down.
Currently the stats are:
approx 13,000 confirmed or suspected cases total
approx 6,000 cases confirmed.
approx 5,000 deaths
approx 1,000 total cases of live people testing positive for infection
And the big news.....
Cases in the past 21 days approx 1,500
vs.
30,000
My question is why are we trying to inject this fear into our people?
Why the over inflated assessment for the purpose of publication?
Is the author guided by an alternative motive, or are they just too lazy to look?
Again.. Ebola is a huge concern and a tragedy to humankind. We need to do everything we can to fight this outbreak. But we should be given accurate information not scare tactics.
I have been a happy t-mobile customer for a decade. Not a problem mind you, but the t-mobile unlimited data plan has a soft cap. They DO inform you of the cap, and I do not know what the penalty feels like because I have never consumed enough of my plan to reach it.
And what about my hard wired ISP? Selling me 15 MB/s and giving me never more than 8? Now I would like to see the FTC step in there and right that wrong...
Yes. I can confirm it it true. I have a Cable TV Internet Service in Los Angeles. I ordered their second tier offering, Something like speeds up to 15 mb/s download. After the tech left, I ran a test, and I was getting like 5 mb/s. Alot less than what they promised. I called to ask, and I was told that performance vaires by location. OK, was my reply. If I get only 5 mb/s, then why should I not pay for the 10mb/s plan instead of the 15? I still only get 5, right? The tech asked me to wait a moment, and returned to say that my account had been setup at the standard 10mb by mistake. She fixed it and now I would get 15. I ran another test, and now I get 8 mb/s. So what changed? If I get 5 on the 10mb plan, but it only takes a quick config change to get me 8, then why can I not get 8 on the 10 mb plan?
I read the description on wikipedia. I do not see where this replacement for email and IM has accomodations for SPAM control. Can anybody give a synopsys on how WAVE will protect me from unwanted commercial solicitation?
More often than not, when I go to install a new software into my Windows computer, I am presented with a warning that the software has not passed Windows Authentication. Usually, there is either printed documentation, or a window below the warning, telling me to ignore the warning, and Click OK.
I have done this enough times, that I now click through the warning without hesitation.
A visitor to your secure website could be likewise instructed to ignore the warning, and told to explicitly "add this Certificate" which will permanently dispose of the warning.
Seeing this warning once or twice, the public will become accustomed to adding Certificates, and the Monopoly of the CA's will be damaged or broken.
The answer, therefore, is to make liberal use of Independent Certificates, or use as your CA, a commonly used Open Certificate. For example FOSSCA.
The major Authorities will try to smear as untrustworthy the FOSSCA but eventually, people will click through it, just like they do with the Microsoft warning.
Is it forbidden to use a cell phone on a Private Jet or in your Private Plane?
I don't own one, so I do not know the true answer to this, but my gut feeling is that there are no restrictions in this case.
If using a cell phone from above ground level was harmful to the safety of the occupants or damaging to the networks below, then why are there no regulations or carrier contract provisions to prevent it?
I do believe the reason to ban cell phones is money.
I recently flew Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong, and yes, the in-flight entertainment system is Linux based, although I did not notice which distro.
If you are looking for Linux in use, in business, don't forget the phone company uses Unix for the electronic switching equipment. Always have. That is a HUGE installed base.
Following the Superbowl a few days ago, was a Television program that introduced the concept that a criminal was able to control the webcam (on a Mac) to surrepticiously view the activities in the room in which the running laptop was placed.
My wife said "They cannot really do that!", to which I replied, "Oh, yes they can". In the TV program, the laptop was conveniently left open and running in the bedroom.
It has bothered me alot that Skype is a closed source program that responds to commands from outside of your home, and conveniently, has complete control of your microphone and webcam. And as a default, Skype installs in the system tray, so that it is "always on".
I buy alot of rebate items at Frys Electronics and I have found over the years that...
1) The cashier will give you the wrong rebate form. This was notorious when they had 8 rebates for Seagate drives. The cashier would grab the first one they found. Result. Rebate refused. Note: Fry's now prints the rebates with your receipt, so this happens less.
2) The rebate will require that you include some part of the package that doesn't exist. This is true with memory modules. Read the fine print, and it says to clip the logo and the UPC. Trouble is they gave you a package without the logo or missing the UPC (memory comes from the cage, and may not have a UPC).
3) They refuse your rebate, saying it was late. Now I got copies of everything, including the envelope. How can I prove when I mailed it? Stand in line at the PO and send it registered mail? WTF?
4) The form says to include the original receipt. The cashier says it is OK to send the Rebate Receipt. Wrong.. Rebate receipt is not acceptable, must include the original! Refused.
All of the above have happened, more than once. Worst are the memory rebates. They lie like dogs. They trick you. Anything but play fair.
I don't remember where I first heard this, and I may not be reciting it properly, but it goes something like this:
Officer pulls you over, and asks to search your vehicle.
You respond:
Officer, I have the utmost respect for the law, as I am sure, you do as well.
The fourth ammendment to the constitution assures that citizens are not to be subjected to unreasonable search and seisure, except in cases of probable cause.
And that the probable cause be supported by oath or affirmation.
I am within my rights to ask what is the probable cause related to your request for a search?
Then wait for an answer
If you are in Los Angeles, you can expect to then be handcuffed, and your vehicle searched while you cool off in the back of the squad car.
I run a backup server with a bunch of removable 400 GB drives.
rsync the requisite sub-dirs from each linux box is easy./etc//home//root/ and occasionally a/var/lib/mysql or/var/www
The trick to windows is to create a hidden (at least to the windows lusers) file share on their C-drive. Give read only permission to a backup user login. Then mount the share with smbclient. Use rsync to update your copy of the files on your backup disks. Note, I only backup the Documents and Settings folder.
Note that rsync is wonderful, in that it will skip any files that are already up to date. Backups normally zip along, since most people will create or update fewer than 20 documents per day.
Note.. There is a trick to backing up samba shares, and it has to do with the timestamps.. You need a --modify-window=10 otherwise it tries to backup files that are already current.
I make three staged backups. Daily, Weekly and once a month. Not scientific, but it hasn't let me down yet. Great part is that there is no proprietary format for the archive. Indeed, I setup a samba share on the backup server, and I can connect from any workstation and retrieve (or better yet, examine in place) any file that gets backed up.
Thanks to rsync's efficiency, I backup the web server via the internet, once a day.
My backups usually run less than an hour or two a day (40 workstations, 8 linux, one web)
I tried BRU, Amanda and more. This is a simple solution that works best.
I maintain a relatively small network of about 50 workstations and about two dozen other devices.
I distribute IP's thru DHCP, and I maintain an ACL via IPTABLES on my Linux router. DHCP distributes IP's based on MAC accress, and I do allow unknown MAC's to get an IP.
The trick is, that any IP that I did not setup in DHCP, is blocked via the ACL to all Internet Access.
Invariably, I get some VP/EXEC/VIP, call me and ask why his visiting sales rep cannot access his email. I walk into the office and the fellow has jacked into my network.
My reply is Sorry.. You can use our WLAN for internet access. No jacking into the network.
The WLAN is connected outside the firewall, so whatever they do there is of no concern to me.
Yes, there are flaws in this method, but so far, it has brought every unathorized network connection to my attention...
My kids like to play Gunbound.http://gunbound.net/
They weasled my wifes login, and loaded it onto her PC. I found out why the other day, because they were having trouble installing the "upgrade".
Trouble was, my wifes login no longer has "Administrator Access". So I elevated the privs, did the upgrade, and downgrade the privs.
Gunbound don't run.
So I uninstall, and try to delete the program folder, and get Access Denied.
Long story short, even after uninstall, Gunbound left a process running on the computer. This reeks of backdoor/trojan.
I look at their site/game and it is very sophisticated. Lots of great programming! How do they pay for all of this? There is no charge to play, and no advertisements.
My guess is....
Computer for Sale!
Really just a standard corporate PC.
XP Pro, half gig ram, 18 inch LCD and Office Pro.
I have the full 9 page hardcopies of the configs.
Item for item, they are identical.
Why would I lie?
I run rsync on a backup server, and save the files without compression on removeable disks.
It makes it alot easier to find a file, cause it exists in the same location, uncompressed.
The huge advantage though, is that rsync only transfers those files that have changed. Which means that backups are very quick.
I also mount samba shares on the backup server, and do rsync backups of "My Documents" folders for the windows boxes. Works great there too!
Even better, the My Documents folders are available as (read only) Samba shares on the backup box, and the users can find their own files in the backups.
I have been doing this for years, and it works great!
I used to work for Computerland, about a hundred years ago...
We setup a lease program with a local outfit, for our customers who wanted to lease their IBM PC's instead of buying them.
This is what the guy from the lease company told me:
A leasing company doesn't have a bank full of money, with which to purchase your equipment with. It is simple where the money comes from. It is a loan.
The "lease application" that you fill out, is a loan application for the bank the leasing company uses to finance your purchase. The "Lease initiation fee" is the banks required down payment for the loan they are giving the leasing company, plus a little profit.
So, the lease translates into a loan. Plus some profit for the leasing company. Net effect is that you will pay more for a lease, than a loan.
So why do people lease? The answer is in the fact that a lease and a loan appear in very different columns on a companies financials. Sometimes it is worth the extra cost, for a company to have fewer assets, in which case, the lease option is better.
The flip-flop is the basic component of the discreet electronic computational device. It represents either a one, or a zero.
Three flip-flops, representing the A register, the B register and the Accumulator are wired so that the A and the B register are compared, the results are placed in the accumulator.
The results of a 0 + 0 = 0
The results of a 1 + 0 = 1
The results of a 0 + 1 = 1
The results of a 1 + 1 = 0 (and the carry bit is set)
This is addition in its simplest form.
Repeating this operation over multiple bits, allows an integer of fixed length to be summed.
Subtraction is handled by a handy trick that is available only to binary. The trick is that if you invert a bit and add, the result is subtraction. This is called the ones complement.
Computers do subtraction by ADDING the ones complement.
Multiplication is handled by repetition of the ADD operation.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I do not disagree, however, the point is that the posting/article do not do enough to clarify that this is only a computer projection based on a worst case scenario. More to the point, the post references stale data, possibly for the exaggerated figures contained therin. An accurate accounting would be far less newsworthy. A headline of "Current living carriers of Ebola is tabulated as 1,500 cases" would send an entirely different message. It is for this reason that I regularly discount claims of high outrage over poorly reported statistics. I get that "yea, I see what is really going on here" feeling when the reporter leans over and photographs a rainbow glean on a few square inches of seawater and proclaims that widespread pollution is resulting from the recent Gulf Oil Spill. Sadly there is a category of colleagues who seize upon these poor statistics and embrace them as fact further propagating the fallacy. Yes, apples to oranges, but please do not mislead me you have apples, when all you have is that orange.
First off Ebola is a tragedy and is worthy of all efforts at control and eradication, not because I may someday be at risk, but because real people are dying. However.... The posting links to an "updated assessment" which you can view. Looking there, one is led to believe that on Oct 24, the number of Ebola cases are 30,000 worldwide. But if you look really closely, this is just a projection based on data accumulated 30 days ago. Is this the most current data we can view on which to base our assessment? Look now at the bottom of the page and you will see updated assessments including one for Oct 29 (yesterday). Look for the WHO situation reports further down. Currently the stats are: approx 13,000 confirmed or suspected cases total approx 6,000 cases confirmed. approx 5,000 deaths approx 1,000 total cases of live people testing positive for infection And the big news..... Cases in the past 21 days approx 1,500 vs. 30,000 My question is why are we trying to inject this fear into our people? Why the over inflated assessment for the purpose of publication? Is the author guided by an alternative motive, or are they just too lazy to look? Again.. Ebola is a huge concern and a tragedy to humankind. We need to do everything we can to fight this outbreak. But we should be given accurate information not scare tactics.
I have been a happy t-mobile customer for a decade. Not a problem mind you, but the t-mobile unlimited data plan has a soft cap. They DO inform you of the cap, and I do not know what the penalty feels like because I have never consumed enough of my plan to reach it. And what about my hard wired ISP? Selling me 15 MB/s and giving me never more than 8? Now I would like to see the FTC step in there and right that wrong...
Yes. I can confirm it it true. I have a Cable TV Internet Service in Los Angeles. I ordered their second tier offering, Something like speeds up to 15 mb/s download. After the tech left, I ran a test, and I was getting like 5 mb/s. Alot less than what they promised. I called to ask, and I was told that performance vaires by location. OK, was my reply. If I get only 5 mb/s, then why should I not pay for the 10mb/s plan instead of the 15? I still only get 5, right? The tech asked me to wait a moment, and returned to say that my account had been setup at the standard 10mb by mistake. She fixed it and now I would get 15. I ran another test, and now I get 8 mb/s. So what changed? If I get 5 on the 10mb plan, but it only takes a quick config change to get me 8, then why can I not get 8 on the 10 mb plan?
I read the description on wikipedia. I do not see where this replacement for email and IM has accomodations for SPAM control. Can anybody give a synopsys on how WAVE will protect me from unwanted commercial solicitation?
More often than not, when I go to install a new software into my Windows computer, I am presented with a warning that the software has not passed Windows Authentication. Usually, there is either printed documentation, or a window below the warning, telling me to ignore the warning, and Click OK.
I have done this enough times, that I now click through the warning without hesitation.
A visitor to your secure website could be likewise instructed to ignore the warning, and told to explicitly "add this Certificate" which will permanently dispose of the warning.
Seeing this warning once or twice, the public will become accustomed to adding Certificates, and the Monopoly of the CA's will be damaged or broken.
The answer, therefore, is to make liberal use of Independent Certificates, or use as your CA, a commonly used Open Certificate. For example FOSSCA.
The major Authorities will try to smear as untrustworthy the FOSSCA but eventually, people will click through it, just like they do with the Microsoft warning.
Is it forbidden to use a cell phone on a Private Jet or in your Private Plane?
I don't own one, so I do not know the true answer to this, but my gut feeling is that there are no restrictions in this case.
If using a cell phone from above ground level was harmful to the safety of the occupants or damaging to the networks below, then why are there no regulations or carrier contract provisions to prevent it?
I do believe the reason to ban cell phones is money.
I recently flew Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong, and yes, the in-flight entertainment system is Linux based, although I did not notice which distro.
If you are looking for Linux in use, in business, don't forget the phone company uses Unix for the electronic switching equipment. Always have. That is a HUGE installed base.
Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Start Skype when I start windows
At least for WinXP. The Mac is somewhere else.
Following the Superbowl a few days ago, was a Television program that introduced the concept that a criminal was able to control the webcam (on a Mac) to surrepticiously view the activities in the room in which the running laptop was placed.
My wife said "They cannot really do that!", to which I replied, "Oh, yes they can". In the TV program, the laptop was conveniently left open and running in the bedroom.
It has bothered me alot that Skype is a closed source program that responds to commands from outside of your home, and conveniently, has complete control of your microphone and webcam. And as a default, Skype installs in the system tray, so that it is "always on".
Am I the only person to feel uneasy about this?
I buy alot of rebate items at Frys Electronics and I have found over the years that...
1) The cashier will give you the wrong rebate form. This was notorious when they had 8 rebates for Seagate drives. The cashier would grab the first one they found. Result. Rebate refused. Note: Fry's now prints the rebates with your receipt, so this happens less.
2) The rebate will require that you include some part of the package that doesn't exist. This is true with memory modules. Read the fine print, and it says to clip the logo and the UPC. Trouble is they gave you a package without the logo or missing the UPC (memory comes from the cage, and may not have a UPC).
3) They refuse your rebate, saying it was late. Now I got copies of everything, including the envelope. How can I prove when I mailed it? Stand in line at the PO and send it registered mail? WTF?
4) The form says to include the original receipt. The cashier says it is OK to send the Rebate Receipt. Wrong.. Rebate receipt is not acceptable, must include the original! Refused.
All of the above have happened, more than once. Worst are the memory rebates. They lie like dogs. They trick you. Anything but play fair.
I agree. I avoid the rebates whenever I can.
Officer pulls you over, and asks to search your vehicle.
You respond:
Officer, I have the utmost respect for the law, as I am sure, you do as well.
The fourth ammendment to the constitution assures that citizens are not to be subjected to unreasonable search and seisure, except in cases of probable cause.
And that the probable cause be supported by oath or affirmation.
I am within my rights to ask what is the probable cause related to your request for a search?
Then wait for an answer
If you are in Los Angeles, you can expect to then be handcuffed, and your vehicle searched while you cool off in the back of the squad car.
I run a backup server with a bunch of removable 400 GB drives.
/etc/ /home/ /root/ and occasionally a /var/lib/mysql or /var/www
rsync the requisite sub-dirs from each linux box is easy.
The trick to windows is to create a hidden (at least to the windows lusers) file share on their C-drive. Give read only permission to a backup user login. Then mount the share with smbclient. Use rsync to update your copy of the files on your backup disks. Note, I only backup the Documents and Settings folder.
Note that rsync is wonderful, in that it will skip any files that are already up to date. Backups normally zip along, since most people will create or update fewer than 20 documents per day.
Note.. There is a trick to backing up samba shares, and it has to do with the timestamps.. You need a --modify-window=10 otherwise it tries to backup files that are already current.
I make three staged backups. Daily, Weekly and once a month. Not scientific, but it hasn't let me down yet. Great part is that there is no proprietary format for the archive. Indeed, I setup a samba share on the backup server, and I can connect from any workstation and retrieve (or better yet, examine in place) any file that gets backed up.
Thanks to rsync's efficiency, I backup the web server via the internet, once a day.
My backups usually run less than an hour or two a day (40 workstations, 8 linux, one web)
I tried BRU, Amanda and more. This is a simple solution that works best.
I distribute IP's thru DHCP, and I maintain an ACL via IPTABLES on my Linux router. DHCP distributes IP's based on MAC accress, and I do allow unknown MAC's to get an IP.
The trick is, that any IP that I did not setup in DHCP, is blocked via the ACL to all Internet Access.
Invariably, I get some VP/EXEC/VIP, call me and ask why his visiting sales rep cannot access his email. I walk into the office and the fellow has jacked into my network.
My reply is Sorry.. You can use our WLAN for internet access. No jacking into the network.
The WLAN is connected outside the firewall, so whatever they do there is of no concern to me.
Yes, there are flaws in this method, but so far, it has brought every unathorized network connection to my attention...
"This wireless router is better because it has..
Cryptonite"
_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
No kidding..
And the poor sap bought the wireless router.. with Cryptonite!
They weasled my wifes login, and loaded it onto her PC. I found out why the other day, because they were having trouble installing the "upgrade".
Trouble was, my wifes login no longer has "Administrator Access". So I elevated the privs, did the upgrade, and downgrade the privs.
Gunbound don't run.
So I uninstall, and try to delete the program folder, and get Access Denied.
Long story short, even after uninstall, Gunbound left a process running on the computer. This reeks of backdoor/trojan.
I look at their site/game and it is very sophisticated. Lots of great programming! How do they pay for all of this? There is no charge to play, and no advertisements.
My guess is....
Computer for Sale!
Really just a standard corporate PC.
XP Pro, half gig ram, 18 inch LCD and Office Pro.
I have the full 9 page hardcopies of the configs.
Item for item, they are identical.
Why would I lie?
Dimension 4700 - custom configured
April 15, 2005
Internet explorer - $1,127
Firefox - $1,576
Safari (Mac) - $1,675
Same model, same custom config, same everything.
Higher price.
WTF?
It makes it alot easier to find a file, cause it exists in the same location, uncompressed.
The huge advantage though, is that rsync only transfers those files that have changed. Which means that backups are very quick.
I also mount samba shares on the backup server, and do rsync backups of "My Documents" folders for the windows boxes. Works great there too!
Even better, the My Documents folders are available as (read only) Samba shares on the backup box, and the users can find their own files in the backups.
I have been doing this for years, and it works great!
I have a handful of macs that I admin, and tho the mac users don't know it, they can get root by simply holding down the "S" key during startup.
I ordered the upgrade anyway.
We setup a lease program with a local outfit, for our customers who wanted to lease their IBM PC's instead of buying them.
This is what the guy from the lease company told me:
A leasing company doesn't have a bank full of money, with which to purchase your equipment with. It is simple where the money comes from. It is a loan.
The "lease application" that you fill out, is a loan application for the bank the leasing company uses to finance your purchase. The "Lease initiation fee" is the banks required down payment for the loan they are giving the leasing company, plus a little profit.
So, the lease translates into a loan. Plus some profit for the leasing company. Net effect is that you will pay more for a lease, than a loan.
So why do people lease? The answer is in the fact that a lease and a loan appear in very different columns on a companies financials. Sometimes it is worth the extra cost, for a company to have fewer assets, in which case, the lease option is better.
A cpu chip is a layered silicon sandwich consisting of transistors, resistors and capacitors.
Two or three transistors are combined to create a nand gate http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electro nic/nand.html#c2
which can be paired to form a nand gate latch or flip-flop
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electro nic/nand.html#c1
The flip-flop is the basic component of the discreet electronic computational device. It represents either a one, or a zero.
Three flip-flops, representing the A register, the B register and the Accumulator are wired so that the A and the B register are compared, the results are placed in the accumulator.
The results of a 0 + 0 = 0
The results of a 1 + 0 = 1
The results of a 0 + 1 = 1
The results of a 1 + 1 = 0 (and the carry bit is set)
This is addition in its simplest form.
Repeating this operation over multiple bits, allows an integer of fixed length to be summed.
Subtraction is handled by a handy trick that is available only to binary. The trick is that if you invert a bit and add, the result is subtraction. This is called the ones complement.
Computers do subtraction by ADDING the ones complement.
Multiplication is handled by repetition of the ADD operation.
Division is done by Repeated Subtraction http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs1104/BuildingBlocks/di vide.020.html
Upon this foundation we build microcode. Upon the microcode we can build an Assembler Language, and from Assembler, we build Perl.
And yes, in Perl, you can add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers in any base you want.
Perhaps I should have been more clear in my original post... Computers are dumb. At their heart, they can only add ones and zeros.
Subtraction is done by ADDING the ones compliment.
Comparison is done by ADDING the ones compliment and testing for zero.
Can somebody confirm this?
Turing machines are not physical objects but mathematical ones.
Please mod the AC posts as flamebait!
Computers cannot subtract, they cannot multiply and they cannot spell check a document.
Computers can add binary numbers, and that is all.
Computer software exploits this ability with some clever logical gymnastics to give us the "Computer Appliance" that we enjoy today.
This fellow appears to have some difficulty discerning what is a computer, what is computer software, and what is a Rogue Windows exploit.
There is only one entity to blame here. Microsoft, for producing a weak Operating System.