If you are in the server room, and you have:
A: a spreadsheet that your predecessor made.
B: a post-it note on the switch saying it what it does.
Which one do you trust?
C: Neither. I looked at the spreadsheet before I entered the server room, and then read the note before logging on at the console of the switch. I'm willing to _believe_ that each of them were correct at some point in time, but the only thing that I will _trust_ is the running configuration of the switch itself.
The switch could have easily been reconfigured remotely without anyone ever seeing the post-it. Not only that, with all the fans in your average server room it's not impossible that that little yellow note got blown off some time ago and then put back on what someone thought was the right switch.
circuit ID ? in that a farmer's synonym for "MAC address" ?
Actually, it's a simple test designed to separate the people who should be working with the corporate wide area network from the people who should be forcefully prevented from coming anywhere within fifteen metres of the comms cabinet, using a taser if necessary.
If you have to ask which group your answer has placed you in then I'm not going to tell you.
I just assume that any event capable of destroying my ability to transmit said passwords to my successor also destroys any ability to give a damn about my job. Problem solved.
So what was it like working for the City of San Francisco, anyway?
If in the original film, the 1st Terminator sent back had indeed completed it's mission and killed Sarah Connor, then that would have ensured Skynet never gets/will be created.
I don't agree. There were two possible endings to the story in Terminator 1 -- Either the T-800 is destroyed and pieces of it are recovered by Cyberdyne systems or it survives and, to quote a famous engineer from another movie about time travel, "How do we know he didn't invent the thing?" Cyberdyne systems could have found themselves with a new chief researcher with a few odd habits and a mean temper.
The only way for the closed time loop which created Skynet to be broken is if the Terminator is completely destroyed such that no trace of its existance can be found. This happened in the last scene of Terminator 2, which is why the story ended there and no effort was made to make a second sequel, TV series, or anything else like that.
Kind of like how there only needed to be one Highlander movie.
Right on. And until Monsanto corporation sponsors a study which shows that their product Aspartame is anything other than good for you we're going to go right on drinking it.
you're stuck travelling parallel to the vehicle next to you with oncoming traffic coming up fast and...
...and then, with the flick of a switch, you override the speed limiter and keep on going just as fast as you want to.
Because, naturally, you read the article. You didn't have to read very much of it, just the headline would have been enough. Here, I'll even show you where.
'Flick of a switch' to override speed limiter
The effectiveness of new anti-speeding technology to be trialed in New South Wales has been questioned, because drivers will be able to override the system. [...]
"There is a capability for the device to be switched off quickly with the flick of a switch," Mr Daley
said.
Or maybe -- now stop me if this seems to be too radical -- we could try building really big cars. I'm talking about a single huge car that could hold easily forty or fifty people. And these special really big cars could just spend all day driving back and forth between places where people live and where they work. That way lots of people could get to work without having to drive.
They would cost a bit to operate, but we could offset that by having everybody pay a small fare when they get on the really big car, and sell advertising space on the sides to keep the cost down. We might even get some sort of government support for it if enough people like it.
If the really big car idea has some merit, we might even try building some kind of trains that run above or below the street level... I'd better go patent this idea before someone else comes up with it.
A skilled racing driver could undoubtedly drive safely at a speed far above the posted limit; a 79 year old grandmother with cataracts is unsafe even when driving below the limit.
While a skilled racing driver could undoubtedly drive safely at very high speeds or a racing track in the company of other racing drivers, he or she would have to be a complete idiot to try the same thing on a poorly maintained side street frequented by 79 year old grandmothers with cataracts.
Lack of driving ability combined with poor judgment cause most accidents. It only takes one.
When you think about the cost of IT staff to support your desktops or servers, the cost of the OS, even from Microsoft is trivial and hardly worth ranting about.
And yet, somehow, Dr Cheikh Modibo Diarra, chairman of Microsoft in Africa, is claiming that the purchase price Microsoft software is equal to the total cost of ownership despite that cost being trivial and hardly worth ranting about.
Of course, fanboys gotta have something retarded to pick on.
And it's good to see that you can also completely miss the point while picking on it.
'You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership.'
Wow. So all that money that we're spending hiring administrators, paying for software support and beating applications with a crowbar until they run properly is _completely unnecessary!_ I have been such a fool for all of these years. All I needed to do was pay the sticker price for a copy of Windows Server and that would have been enough for everything!
Now imagine a tax which made the hamburger cost 3 euro and lowered the sales tax on healthy foor dropping its price to 2,50. A LOT easier to remain healthy.
I'm imagining a tax which would make the hamburger cost 3 euros. That would lead to reduced sales from that location, causing them to not only raise prices on the rest of their menu items but also to drop a few of the more expensive items, such as the less popular bagel options.
The end result is that prices go up across the board, people end up eating even worse than they were before, spending more, and blaming the government taxes for it.
Personally, I like your tax a lot better than mine, but things don't always work out in sensible ways.
The problem isn't that there aren't enough taxes on junk food, the problem is that there's too much crap in it.
While it would be nice to think that putting taxes on garbage disguised as food would promote the availability of real food, I'm inclined to doubt that things work that way.
Unless they start publishing books 1-4 with a warning label, "This series is unfinished, and may never be completed" any new readers have right to complain.
If you can't figure out by looking at the cover, or at least the first three pages of a book that it is part of a series, and are also unable to locate other books by the same author and determine by looking at them whether or not the in fact exist, then maybe the act of reading may be a bit too challenging.
The fact that books do not carry warning labels like "This product requires basic literacy skills" and "Not for use as a personal lubricant" does not give readers any right to complain either. That just means that the publishers have certain, hopefully realistic expectations regarding the mental capabilities of their customers.
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C: Neither. I looked at the spreadsheet before I entered the server room, and then read the note before logging on at the console of the switch. I'm willing to _believe_ that each of them were correct at some point in time, but the only thing that I will _trust_ is the running configuration of the switch itself.
The switch could have easily been reconfigured remotely without anyone ever seeing the post-it. Not only that, with all the fans in your average server room it's not impossible that that little yellow note got blown off some time ago and then put back on what someone thought was the right switch.
Doveryai, no proveryai.
Personally I would settle for "I'm sorry about this. We were all really drunk at the time."
Actually, it's a simple test designed to separate the people who should be working with the corporate wide area network from the people who should be forcefully prevented from coming anywhere within fifteen metres of the comms cabinet, using a taser if necessary.
If you have to ask which group your answer has placed you in then I'm not going to tell you.
So what was it like working for the City of San Francisco, anyway?
You left out a qualifier or two there.
The simple fact is that things which are still around today were built better 50 years ago.
The ones which fell apart after two years aren't around for comparison any more.
Nope. I was also very confused when I read that one server could fit into a package the size of a Wal-Mart.
Yes, and it runs on an Atari Portfolio.
Easy money.
I don't agree. There were two possible endings to the story in Terminator 1 -- Either the T-800 is destroyed and pieces of it are recovered by Cyberdyne systems or it survives and, to quote a famous engineer from another movie about time travel, "How do we know he didn't invent the thing?" Cyberdyne systems could have found themselves with a new chief researcher with a few odd habits and a mean temper.
The only way for the closed time loop which created Skynet to be broken is if the Terminator is completely destroyed such that no trace of its existance can be found. This happened in the last scene of Terminator 2, which is why the story ended there and no effort was made to make a second sequel, TV series, or anything else like that.
Kind of like how there only needed to be one Highlander movie.
Right on. And until Monsanto corporation sponsors a study which shows that their product Aspartame is anything other than good for you we're going to go right on drinking it.
Nobody ever died from trusting Monsanto, right?
...and then, with the flick of a switch, you override the speed limiter and keep on going just as fast as you want to.
Because, naturally, you read the article. You didn't have to read very much of it, just the headline would have been enough. Here, I'll even show you where.
Now how hard was that?
Spoken like someone who doesn't have a warehouse full of GPS receivers to sell.
Or maybe -- now stop me if this seems to be too radical -- we could try building really big cars. I'm talking about a single huge car that could hold easily forty or fifty people. And these special really big cars could just spend all day driving back and forth between places where people live and where they work. That way lots of people could get to work without having to drive.
They would cost a bit to operate, but we could offset that by having everybody pay a small fare when they get on the really big car, and sell advertising space on the sides to keep the cost down. We might even get some sort of government support for it if enough people like it.
If the really big car idea has some merit, we might even try building some kind of trains that run above or below the street level... I'd better go patent this idea before someone else comes up with it.
While a skilled racing driver could undoubtedly drive safely at very high speeds or a racing track in the company of other racing drivers, he or she would have to be a complete idiot to try the same thing on a poorly maintained side street frequented by 79 year old grandmothers with cataracts.
Lack of driving ability combined with poor judgment cause most accidents. It only takes one.
It's true. At least 95% of all collisions occur when both vehicles are standing still.
That only means you aren't using a big enough sledgehammer. Trust me, with enough force any peg can get into any hole.
The state of the hole afterwords is a problem for the end user.
And with good reason.
And yet, somehow, Dr Cheikh Modibo Diarra, chairman of Microsoft in Africa, is claiming that the purchase price Microsoft software is equal to the total cost of ownership despite that cost being trivial and hardly worth ranting about.
And it's good to see that you can also completely miss the point while picking on it.
Wow. So all that money that we're spending hiring administrators, paying for software support and beating applications with a crowbar until they run properly is _completely unnecessary!_ I have been such a fool for all of these years. All I needed to do was pay the sticker price for a copy of Windows Server and that would have been enough for everything!
*cough cough cough* *mumble* *cough cough*
And don't forget the most important part, a DVD collection of every movie or TV show Bruce Campbell ever made.
This may come as an unpleasant shock to you, but there is a lot more to food than just how much energy it can produce when you set fire to it.
Drinking a bucket of paint? Zero calories. Eating rocks? Zero calories. Does that make them good for you? Heck no.
I'm imagining a tax which would make the hamburger cost 3 euros. That would lead to reduced sales from that location, causing them to not only raise prices on the rest of their menu items but also to drop a few of the more expensive items, such as the less popular bagel options.
The end result is that prices go up across the board, people end up eating even worse than they were before, spending more, and blaming the government taxes for it.
Personally, I like your tax a lot better than mine, but things don't always work out in sensible ways.
They prefer the term "Concierge".
The problem isn't that there aren't enough taxes on junk food, the problem is that there's too much crap in it.
While it would be nice to think that putting taxes on garbage disguised as food would promote the availability of real food, I'm inclined to doubt that things work that way.
If you're going to go after the nutters, why not try the founder, president and CEO of the multinational corporation that makes the Kindle, instead of picking on the French Canadian guy who draws pictures of breasts for a living?
It was, after all, his idea and was his company's business model long before Ryan Sohmer started talking about it.
If you can't figure out by looking at the cover, or at least the first three pages of a book that it is part of a series, and are also unable to locate other books by the same author and determine by looking at them whether or not the in fact exist, then maybe the act of reading may be a bit too challenging.
The fact that books do not carry warning labels like "This product requires basic literacy skills" and "Not for use as a personal lubricant" does not give readers any right to complain either. That just means that the publishers have certain, hopefully realistic expectations regarding the mental capabilities of their customers.