You'll notice I talked about the other students using it. I always wondered how they insured that the caffeine was evenly distributed in the powdered sugar. I'd have felt more comfortable with a liquid solution, but they apparently didn't want to dilute their carefully-concentrated sludge with anything like water. On the other hand, since they were intentionally frying their circuits with five or six hundred milligrams at a pop, they probably wouldn't have cared if the bowl was filled with reagent-grade caffeine.
For the record, I don't dring coffee, so I did a caffeine analysis on every soda in the vending machine. I found Diet Mountain Dew to be the clear winner, so I just drank that!
LOL, it sure sounds like a made up science, but it's not! Google it, you'll find it's a very active field of inquiry. Of course, I wanted to get an additional degree in Astrophysics, just so I could claim to be a Biogeoastrophysiochemist, but my wife wouldn't go for it!
When I was a grad student in Biogeochemistry some years ago, many of the students were serious caffeine junkies. Since Think-geek wasn't around to supply everything from bubble-gum to body-wash with a cafeine kick-start built in, they found another solution.
Next to the coffee pots were all the usual additives, and nice little sugar bowl containing a mixture of pure caffeine and powdered sugar, labled "Caffeine: 100mg/tsp". The average cup of joe contains about 100mg naturally, so a couple of teaspoons of this sweetener would make expresso look like diet cola!
The truly frightening thing was watching some students add four or five teaspoons to their double-brewed black death fluid in the mornings.
I'm getting very worried about the religeous right dictating legislation. As it happens, I am personally opposed to pornography, but strongly believe in the individuals right to choose. This legislation seems to be trying to strike the right balance by making sexually-explicit content self-label. However, as the maintainer of several websites, I have some concerns:
The "Please protect the children" plea is overused, and raises a red flag for me. Once censorship is approved for one set of materials, it becomes very easy to gradually expand that list to include all materials deemed dangerous/undesirable by the ruling class. I see the camel's nose coming into the public tent.
All sex-related legislation suffers from the difficulty of defining the material affected by the legislation. My wife reads romance novels that I would probably classify as pornographic. Naturally, she disagrees. I have seen nude photography that, in my opinion, is clearly art, but others would denounce as blatantly sexual. Humans are complex creatures, and highly sexual in nature -- nearly any object or body-part can be considered sexually-charged in some context. So, who makes the rules? As soon as breasts/genetalia are outlawed, some moral watchdog will point out that tight clothing, short skirts or exposed ankles are also inherently "sexy" and should be regulated. Burka's all around!
Apparently it will be a crime for a sexually-explicit theme to be linked to innocent search terms in a search engine. Interesting. I don't control the search engines, or how they associate text and sites -- in fact those algorithms are carefully protected. So, if Yahoo, for reasons known only to it, indexes my site under "Cartoons" or "Fun" or whatever, I can be held criminally accuntable even I have labeled any explicit material as mature, and provide an opportunity for the underaged to exit? There's a serious flaw in this reasoning.
Hmmm. I guess Bezos, will all is zillions of dollars, has little appreciation for art, and prefers the look of plastic/laminate/chrome. I have much more modest means,and live in cubeville (although I have a rather-larger-than-usual cube). This cube is made more bearable by some fine handmade (by me!) barrister's bookshelves, several nice pieces of artwork, and other nice touches. I find it more relaxing and pleasant to work in than sterile workspaces used by some of my co-workers.
In my opinion, if you're going to spend more than half your waking hours in a room, it makes good sense to dedicate some resources to making it as comfortable and aethetically pleasing as possible. Unless, I suppose, you're a Benedictine monk trying to mortify the physical senses while seeking enhanced spirituality. . . However, Bezos doesn't strike me as that sort of man!
I want to be the first person to patent a channel of non-stop commercials using this technology. Basically, as soon as some poor schmuck surfs to my channel, he will be prevented from ever leaving. I'll need to have the FCC approve some means of tracking users, to insure that even if the schmuck unplugs the television he'll be returned to my channel the next time it's turned on. This of course, falls under, "protecting my rights", and with a small financial contribution should present no obstacle.
The beauty of this station is that it should pick up every user who uses a scan feature to set up their new TV, giving me a huge captive audience. Also, I won't have to pay for any content (after all, the last thing I want is a break in the commercials), so I can charge advertising companies big money for every minute of my diabolical broadcast. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!!!
From TFA (emphasis mine) The cadence you get to experience when the XK's engine is pushed toward the 600 rpm point is what Jaguar touts as a centerpiece technology feature. Gee, and my beater Jetta idles at 850 rpm . . . it must be a sports car!
This is just ONE of the places the author shows he's pretty fuzzy on mechanical concepts. This is a slashvertisement designed to look like a pseudo-technical article -- there's almost no meat in this bit of fluff, and most of that is incorrect.
It takes some serious chutzpah to steal a font outright and then try to get legal protection of "your" work. And they'd have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddeling judges. Microsoft's arguments were pathetic -- they've obviously gotten used to bought-and-paid-for system in the U.S. (*SIGH*).
Next week I think I'll register a few new fonts:
Messenger: Looks a lot like Courier
Verbatim: Somewhat resembles Verdana
Times Ripoff: Amazing similar to Times New Roman
You know, font development isn't easy -- it's much harder than it first appears to build a font that is attractive, easily readable, and infinitely scalable. Using Microsoft's new font-development technique, even a yutz like me can produce attractive fonts in minutes. Maybe Microsoft should patent the technique of "stealing from others" -- they've used it enough they might be able to get trademark protection on it as well.
This is not surprising. The Flying Spaghetti Monster who created all things has thus far deigned to appear to only a handful of people, from which me may infer that He desires to remain hidden from the masses so that we can develop faith.. We know that, while he created the world, he included fossils and geologic clues to amuse the scientists and encourage creative thought among humans. Now, had he reached out with his noodely appendage and healed a high percentage of the prayerful in this study, with all those statisticians standing by, it would have destroyed faith for all would soon have known of his existance.
Silly people -- did they really believe the Flying Spaghetti Monster would allow his plans to be unraveled by such a blatent manipulation? Hasn't he said, "Thou shalt not tempt thy FSM, except it be with grated cheese?" These silly mortals have no idea who they're messing with. Beware the noodly appendage filled with wrath!
Ouch -- that hits pretty close to home. As somebody who has beat my head bloody trying to fight some of the idiocy that passes for government in the US let me say that it's not that easy to derail the system. The folks in power aren't entirely stupid (O.K, Bush is!). They've engineered a system where there are so many affronts, on so many levels, that you can't concentrate on any one of them. Our system of democracy depends on an educated public (oops) being able to recognize an abuse, come to some sort of consensus, and take actions months or years later when we get a chance to vote. The problem is that a large number of people need to be made aware of a single issue and then act in a concerted fashion to effect change.
The politicians know that as soon as any given abuse begins to attract our collective attention, all they have to do is engage in an even bigger abuse on another front. The public isn't well enough organized, educated or motivated to respond to an ever-changing barrage of attacks on all fronts simultaneously, which is EXACTLY what the politicians are counting on. Basically, the current administration has declared war on the populace, and the Blitzkrieg has overwhelmed the defenses. Most people are angry, but are shell-shocked, and unsure how best to respond.
Voting is a rare event, and you only get to choose between two hand-picked industry shills, the real independants are weeded out long before any of the primarys. Protests take a great deal of time and effort to organize, and are routinely ignored. Civil disobedience used to get publicity, but now you're just quietly carted off, charged with everything they can think of, and fined insane amounts to guarantee you won't do it again. All very quiet, neatly taken care of, and the tame press won't breathe a whisper to anyone, so there's no publicity. The only action left is actual violence -- hey do you suppose that's why they're stepping up surveillance, eliminating civil rights, and building secret prisons around the world? Gee, these guys have thought of everything. So, I've done everything but the violence option (which I won't pursue). I've wasted lots of time, effort and money, and been roundly defeated by our government. I accomplished ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I'm yielding the field while I still my life and my family -- democracy is dead.
This sounds disturbingly familiar. I was recently emancipated from a company of several hundred employees engaged in selling computer services to other firms and organizations. New management decided that "right sizing" the workforce would be a good idea, and about 25% of our staff dissapeared over a few months. In order to fund better bonuses for senior staff, the budget for hardware was slashed. Mandatory overtime was implemented, bonuses were suspended, etc. Somewhere along the line our sterling service record began to suffer, and paying customers began to feel the effects of the insanity affecting our management.
The customers didn't want to deal with our pointy-haired-bosses any more than we did, so they began managing from below (sounds like your group) -- setting requirements, deadlines and assigning tasks capriciously. Naturally, our overworked staff was frequently unable to meet these demands even though many of us were working 70-hour weeks in frantic desperation. When customers complained to management about our "poor" performance, management broke out the whips and chains.
At this point point, a few key people (including myself) sought jobs elsewhere, taking with them the knowledge of how all these critical systems were
interwoven, and how a bunch of old hardware had been coaxed into performing far beyond it's intended lifespan and capacity. Now, as we look back at our old company there's a pall of smoke rising from the server room, and the pointy-haired bosses have fled the wreckage with their golden parachute payments, and are looking for fresh companies to destroy. Maybe they've arrived at your firm?
So, be careful, and ask yourself why the IT department is failing to perform. I find it less likely that they're all lazy and incompetent than mismanaged and overworked. If so, having another group of self-appointed pony-floggers show up to "motivate" them may not have the effect you intend. By setting yourselves up as technical wizards, you and your associates are likely to be called upon to step up to the plate and run the IT department when your current nerds decide to abandon ship. Have fun!
I'm currently using the Sennheiser PX 100's the original poster inquired about, and I find them excellent for portable listening on my laptop. They're comfortable, surprisingly durable, and have excellent sound in a small package. However, these are my travel 'phones, and I have a couple of other suggestions for in-cube listening.
I have a pair of Sennheiser HD580's that I use in the office. They're a bit pricey, but they are PERFECT for office use. Very comfortable, impeccable sound quality, and just enough ambient bleed to prevent me from ignoring my boss when she enters my cube. If you can spare the bucks, these are HIGHLY recommended.
If you work in a noisy office, I would also consider a set of sound-canceling headphones. I used to work near a woman who spent all day on the phone and had the most raucous bray, er laugh, I've ever heard. I bought a set of Sony noise-canceling headphones (right about $100 if memory serves) and was amazed at what a good job they did of shutting her up so I could work. I used to leave the headphones on in "noise-canceling" mode even when I wasn't listening to music just to quiet her down. Well worth the investment, although they broke in about a year.
One final suggestion, others have remarked on the use of cube-mirrors etc to see who's sneaking up on you. I found a more subtle solution is to frame a dark print (I use space art by Ziemanski) with a glass face, and hang it jut to the side of your monitor. It looks classy, and functions as a rather large and wide-angle rear-view mirror if your cube lights are down.
I can vividly remember the first time I got to use a "big" telescope - it was the 24.5" scope at Goldendale. I'd been reading "Sky & Telescope" for years, and had made frequent use of a very low-grade refractor. Finally I was going to see deep-space objects they way they looked in the glossy color photos. I dialed in the Ring Nebula (M57), put my eye to the lens . . . and saw a dirty smudge that looked like someone forgot to clean the eyepiece. When I scanned the scope slightly, however, the smudge stayed fixed in space, it was M57. I couldn't believe it -- I scanned several other nebula, with similar results.
I was heartbroken -- the human eye is a lousy instrument for astronony, and even a couple tons of telescope can't fix that. That day my dream of seeing the horsehead in technicolor died.
On the other hand, I soon discovered radio astronomy. Since all the images are false-color interpolations, somehow it didn't bother me that I couldn't "see" the images with my eyes. I got pretty good at jiggling color maps to make aesthetically-pleasing and accurate images. False color is a wonderful technique, and can readily bring out subtle details invisible to the eye. I confess, however, that I long for a magic telescope that would let me see the rich and subtle details of space in real time.
Unfortunately, the "Intellectual Property Owners" (I hate that phrase), don't actually have to counter the six-hundred pages of cogent, articulate reasoning in this article. The merely have to wave 601 pages of nice crisp currency, the the battle is won.
Canada, I salute you. You've been a shining light of freedom. Alas, I fear that your government has been watching the self-serving buffoons running the U.S.A. for too long, and will happily trade both their ethics and your freedom for a bit of lucre. If they prove be be built of better stuff, I'll be applying for work over the border. Anyone want to adopt a good Oracle DBA/Linux Sysadmin?
Not only has the theatre experience become progressively more expensive and less pleasant, home theatres are simultaniously becoming both better and less expensive. The combination makes it a rarity for me to go to the movies.
My home theatre is modest, but sufficient. We can watch a DVD on a high-resolution screen with very nice sound, sitting on comfortable furniture, at a time of our choosing. No commericals, ticket lines, drunks, cellphones etc. Just the two of us watching a movie. We can neck (or go for broke) if we feel like it.
Overall, it's not only a better value, but a better experience than driving to the overcrowded theatre and fighting hordes of ill-mannered teenagers for a sticky, soda-covered chair in a noisy room. The theatre is doomed to become the domain of poor and/or uncultured.
Amen. Well, it's always possible that, within my lifetime, we'll have a nice big one smack a hole in some continent. Even being blindsided by a big one would spur innovation in the survivors.
Let me try to alleviate the more paranoid ravings regarding laptop biometrics. As currently implemented, IBM's biometrics are supplementary to the password system: any resources protected by the fingerprint scanner can ALSO be accessed by supplying the proper password or passphrase.
The fingerprint scanner is a convenience, and is actually pretty finicky (e.g it won't work until your fingertips unwrinkly after a shower).
I have one, and seldom use it, because it's faster/more reliable for me to type the password than to scan a finger a couple of times. Although I suppose that you COULD get a basic login using my severed finger, it it was nice and fresh and clean. . . oh my!
Just for the record, I was going for "funny", but as others pointed out, there's nothing funny about spending twenty years in Gitmo as a terrorist. Sorry for any confusion.
Find or make a small, slightly battered cardboard box, preferably double-walled.
Dribble a bit of power-steering fluid (or some other dark, oily substance) into the bottom of the box.
Toss in a rag soaked in ammonia (just to make sure it smells funny and emits nitrogen for the bomb-detectors).
Fill the box will all those letters
Throw in a few batteries, an old clock, or a can of soda, just to make it heavy and add interest to any x-ray images. Oh, and wires are good too!
Include a letter to the president of the company, explaining your problem, and asking to be removed from their mailing list. Explain that the junk included above is some sort of peace offering. Mention that, if you get more mail, it will be similarly returned when you get around to it. Be extremely polite.
Seal the box with LOTS of packing tape
Address the box with letters cut from newspapers, just like in the spy movies. Don't include a return address (after all, it's FILLED with their letters, and they obviously know your address!).
Mail box from an unattended drop, with excessive postage
After the FBI, CIA and local bomb-squads get around to opening the box, they'll probably hand-deliver your request to the company president!
I have a hosts entry to route doubleclick (and a number of similar festering pustules) to 127.0.0.1. I also have a specific firewall rule to drop their packets into a black hole if they come from somwhere else.
Ahh, we must work for the same company! We apparently spent a small fortune to develop something called "e-time". Biggest bodge-job I've seen in my life! But it was all developed with state of the art Microsoft tools, by certified code monkeys, so it must be good (or so the reasoning goes). Bah Humbug!
Slashdot Mirror
For the record, I don't dring coffee, so I did a caffeine analysis on every soda in the vending machine. I found Diet Mountain Dew to be the clear winner, so I just drank that!
LOL, it sure sounds like a made up science, but it's not! Google it, you'll find it's a very active field of inquiry. Of course, I wanted to get an additional degree in Astrophysics, just so I could claim to be a Biogeoastrophysiochemist, but my wife wouldn't go for it!
Next to the coffee pots were all the usual additives, and nice little sugar bowl containing a mixture of pure caffeine and powdered sugar, labled "Caffeine: 100mg/tsp". The average cup of joe contains about 100mg naturally, so a couple of teaspoons of this sweetener would make expresso look like diet cola!
The truly frightening thing was watching some students add four or five teaspoons to their double-brewed black death fluid in the mornings.
Are you, by chance, related to the Dread Pirate Roberts?
Thanks for the correction in my mental image of Amazon. My estimation of Bezos and the workplace there just went up several notches!
LOL! Thanks Shadyman, I needed to hear that one more time! Now, what do those poor children need today: my money, my liberty, or my life???
In my opinion, if you're going to spend more than half your waking hours in a room, it makes good sense to dedicate some resources to making it as comfortable and aethetically pleasing as possible. Unless, I suppose, you're a Benedictine monk trying to mortify the physical senses while seeking enhanced spirituality. . . However, Bezos doesn't strike me as that sort of man!
The beauty of this station is that it should pick up every user who uses a scan feature to set up their new TV, giving me a huge captive audience. Also, I won't have to pay for any content (after all, the last thing I want is a break in the commercials), so I can charge advertising companies big money for every minute of my diabolical broadcast. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!!!
From TFA (emphasis mine)
The cadence you get to experience when the XK's engine is pushed toward the 600 rpm point is what Jaguar touts as a centerpiece technology feature.
Gee, and my beater Jetta idles at 850 rpm . . . it must be a sports car! This is just ONE of the places the author shows he's pretty fuzzy on mechanical concepts. This is a slashvertisement designed to look like a pseudo-technical article -- there's almost no meat in this bit of fluff, and most of that is incorrect.
Next week I think I'll register a few new fonts:
You know, font development isn't easy -- it's much harder than it first appears to build a font that is attractive, easily readable, and infinitely scalable. Using Microsoft's new font-development technique, even a yutz like me can produce attractive fonts in minutes. Maybe Microsoft should patent the technique of "stealing from others" -- they've used it enough they might be able to get trademark protection on it as well.
Silly people -- did they really believe the Flying Spaghetti Monster would allow his plans to be unraveled by such a blatent manipulation? Hasn't he said, "Thou shalt not tempt thy FSM, except it be with grated cheese?" These silly mortals have no idea who they're messing with. Beware the noodly appendage filled with wrath!
Ouch -- that hits pretty close to home. As somebody who has beat my head bloody trying to fight some of the idiocy that passes for government in the US let me say that it's not that easy to derail the system. The folks in power aren't entirely stupid (O.K, Bush is!). They've engineered a system where there are so many affronts, on so many levels, that you can't concentrate on any one of them. Our system of democracy depends on an educated public (oops) being able to recognize an abuse, come to some sort of consensus, and take actions months or years later when we get a chance to vote. The problem is that a large number of people need to be made aware of a single issue and then act in a concerted fashion to effect change. The politicians know that as soon as any given abuse begins to attract our collective attention, all they have to do is engage in an even bigger abuse on another front. The public isn't well enough organized, educated or motivated to respond to an ever-changing barrage of attacks on all fronts simultaneously, which is EXACTLY what the politicians are counting on. Basically, the current administration has declared war on the populace, and the Blitzkrieg has overwhelmed the defenses. Most people are angry, but are shell-shocked, and unsure how best to respond. Voting is a rare event, and you only get to choose between two hand-picked industry shills, the real independants are weeded out long before any of the primarys. Protests take a great deal of time and effort to organize, and are routinely ignored. Civil disobedience used to get publicity, but now you're just quietly carted off, charged with everything they can think of, and fined insane amounts to guarantee you won't do it again. All very quiet, neatly taken care of, and the tame press won't breathe a whisper to anyone, so there's no publicity. The only action left is actual violence -- hey do you suppose that's why they're stepping up surveillance, eliminating civil rights, and building secret prisons around the world? Gee, these guys have thought of everything. So, I've done everything but the violence option (which I won't pursue). I've wasted lots of time, effort and money, and been roundly defeated by our government. I accomplished ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I'm yielding the field while I still my life and my family -- democracy is dead.
The customers didn't want to deal with our pointy-haired-bosses any more than we did, so they began managing from below (sounds like your group) -- setting requirements, deadlines and assigning tasks capriciously. Naturally, our overworked staff was frequently unable to meet these demands even though many of us were working 70-hour weeks in frantic desperation. When customers complained to management about our "poor" performance, management broke out the whips and chains.
At this point point, a few key people (including myself) sought jobs elsewhere, taking with them the knowledge of how all these critical systems were interwoven, and how a bunch of old hardware had been coaxed into performing far beyond it's intended lifespan and capacity. Now, as we look back at our old company there's a pall of smoke rising from the server room, and the pointy-haired bosses have fled the wreckage with their golden parachute payments, and are looking for fresh companies to destroy. Maybe they've arrived at your firm?
So, be careful, and ask yourself why the IT department is failing to perform. I find it less likely that they're all lazy and incompetent than mismanaged and overworked. If so, having another group of self-appointed pony-floggers show up to "motivate" them may not have the effect you intend. By setting yourselves up as technical wizards, you and your associates are likely to be called upon to step up to the plate and run the IT department when your current nerds decide to abandon ship. Have fun!
I have a pair of Sennheiser HD580's that I use in the office. They're a bit pricey, but they are PERFECT for office use. Very comfortable, impeccable sound quality, and just enough ambient bleed to prevent me from ignoring my boss when she enters my cube. If you can spare the bucks, these are HIGHLY recommended.
If you work in a noisy office, I would also consider a set of sound-canceling headphones. I used to work near a woman who spent all day on the phone and had the most raucous bray, er laugh, I've ever heard. I bought a set of Sony noise-canceling headphones (right about $100 if memory serves) and was amazed at what a good job they did of shutting her up so I could work. I used to leave the headphones on in "noise-canceling" mode even when I wasn't listening to music just to quiet her down. Well worth the investment, although they broke in about a year.
One final suggestion, others have remarked on the use of cube-mirrors etc to see who's sneaking up on you. I found a more subtle solution is to frame a dark print (I use space art by Ziemanski) with a glass face, and hang it jut to the side of your monitor. It looks classy, and functions as a rather large and wide-angle rear-view mirror if your cube lights are down.
I was heartbroken -- the human eye is a lousy instrument for astronony, and even a couple tons of telescope can't fix that. That day my dream of seeing the horsehead in technicolor died.
On the other hand, I soon discovered radio astronomy. Since all the images are false-color interpolations, somehow it didn't bother me that I couldn't "see" the images with my eyes. I got pretty good at jiggling color maps to make aesthetically-pleasing and accurate images. False color is a wonderful technique, and can readily bring out subtle details invisible to the eye. I confess, however, that I long for a magic telescope that would let me see the rich and subtle details of space in real time.
Canada, I salute you. You've been a shining light of freedom. Alas, I fear that your government has been watching the self-serving buffoons running the U.S.A. for too long, and will happily trade both their ethics and your freedom for a bit of lucre. If they prove be be built of better stuff, I'll be applying for work over the border. Anyone want to adopt a good Oracle DBA/Linux Sysadmin?
My home theatre is modest, but sufficient. We can watch a DVD on a high-resolution screen with very nice sound, sitting on comfortable furniture, at a time of our choosing. No commericals, ticket lines, drunks, cellphones etc. Just the two of us watching a movie. We can neck (or go for broke) if we feel like it.
Overall, it's not only a better value, but a better experience than driving to the overcrowded theatre and fighting hordes of ill-mannered teenagers for a sticky, soda-covered chair in a noisy room. The theatre is doomed to become the domain of poor and/or uncultured.
Amen. Well, it's always possible that, within my lifetime, we'll have a nice big one smack a hole in some continent. Even being blindsided by a big one would spur innovation in the survivors.
The fingerprint scanner is a convenience, and is actually pretty finicky (e.g it won't work until your fingertips unwrinkly after a shower). I have one, and seldom use it, because it's faster/more reliable for me to type the password than to scan a finger a couple of times. Although I suppose that you COULD get a basic login using my severed finger, it it was nice and fresh and clean. . . oh my!
The USA is obviously hosed. . . I'm waiting for failover to a functioning system. ;-)
Just for the record, I was going for "funny", but as others pointed out, there's nothing funny about spending twenty years in Gitmo as a terrorist. Sorry for any confusion.
- Find or make a small, slightly battered cardboard box, preferably double-walled.
- Dribble a bit of power-steering fluid (or some other dark, oily substance) into the bottom of the box.
- Toss in a rag soaked in ammonia (just to make sure it smells funny and emits nitrogen for the bomb-detectors).
- Fill the box will all those letters
- Throw in a few batteries, an old clock, or a can of soda, just to make it heavy and add interest to any x-ray images. Oh, and wires are good too!
- Include a letter to the president of the company, explaining your problem, and asking to be removed from their mailing list. Explain that the junk included above is some sort of peace offering. Mention that, if you get more mail, it will be similarly returned when you get around to it. Be extremely polite.
- Seal the box with LOTS of packing tape
- Address the box with letters cut from newspapers, just like in the spy movies. Don't include a return address (after all, it's FILLED with their letters, and they obviously know your address!).
- Mail box from an unattended drop, with excessive postage
After the FBI, CIA and local bomb-squads get around to opening the box, they'll probably hand-deliver your request to the company president!I have a hosts entry to route doubleclick (and a number of similar festering pustules) to 127.0.0.1. I also have a specific firewall rule to drop their packets into a black hole if they come from somwhere else.
Ahh, we must work for the same company! We apparently spent a small fortune to develop something called "e-time". Biggest bodge-job I've seen in my life! But it was all developed with state of the art Microsoft tools, by certified code monkeys, so it must be good (or so the reasoning goes). Bah Humbug!