Uh, the idea of a DoS is to keep other people from connecting to a system. Only in very specific cases is someone going to use this against a system that has no open ports. Really, think about your attacks before making them.
This goes directly against the credo of Skript Kiddies (sorry, my l33t translator is on sabbatacal, so I've only capitalized it for emphasis) and worm authors; If you throw enough shit against the wall, somebody will see a picture in it.
Legend;
Shit - Packets
Picture - Open Ports / exploitz (l33t tr4nsl4t0r is back with coffee!)
DOS by bandwidth saturation. That's the only DOS and that's a problem regardless of if you're using a knock system or not.
I hate being DOS'ed. When people throw those diskettes, like, ow. 5 1/4's had sharp corners!
I don't know how much DOS it would take to fill up my bandwidth, though. It was pretty small; like the size of a decent MP3. (Not even in the Stairway to Inna Gadda Da Vida range!)
If, on the other hand, by DOS you mean DoS; this message will self-destruct with bad karma in 5...4...3...2...1...
Replace SMTP with a more secure protocol. Give a 12 month window for everyone to upgrade their clients. Then make port 25 filtering mandatory for all ISPs.
Governing Body: Replace your SMTP server! ISP: No. Governing Body: Uhm, ok, replace your SMTP server NOW! ISP: No. Governing Body: Filter port 25 then? ISP: Who are you?
Re:The virus is spread by UNIX
on
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· Score: 1
he says that "A new email virus called MyDoom is spreading rapidly across the Internet through UNIX mail servers, bringing with it a dangerous attachment that, when opened, can give attackers access to users' computers through an electronic backdoor."
Finally, you have to ask whether it matters. So, Sun's overpriced machines using their overpriced compilers run a bit faster than their overpriced machines using a free compiler. So what? If you want bang for the buck, or even just maximum bang, why in the world would you buy a Sun these days anyway?
Without doing any sort of conclusive tests, I've tested three of my machines with
openssl speed rsa dsa
for speed. Here's how it panned out;
AMD Athlon XP1800+ - 1000% as fast
AMD K62-400 - 200% as fast
Power Macintosh 750 195MHz G3 - 100% as fast
In short, I'm not terribly impressed with the power of that UltraSPARC processor; especially considering it's so closely matched with my two lower-end boxes.
I'd recommend that we on the side of Free Software study the anti-abortion tactics with dealing with such incidents. The first, and most obvious step, is one that was taken last time: immediate and honest sounding disavowel of the actions of the DOSer. Its going to get old for RMS, ESR, Linus, Perens, etc continuously getting out and saying the same thing ("We don't support this, its wrong. We're still right, but the virus writers aren't with us, etc, etc, etc"), but it needs to happen.
It may, however, be a boon for them to do so atleast once on 'official record' (eg; the media. {sigh} ).
You have to consider that the people writing/spreading these worms are, presumably, firmly entrenched in the OSS camp. If the leaders of said camp were to speak out against it, suddenly they're doing things that go directly against the wishes and desires of the very men they look up to.
Actually, I don't think IBM cares about BSD vs. Linux as far as IP is concerned. They just knew that Linux had the momentum in its favor and they had to support some kind of Unix anyway so why not make points with the open source community?
Actually, I'd say they're behind Linux because it's got the most (best) press right now. With its fresh, friendly face it's C[I|E|T]O friendly. It's also got the most momentum, the most vendor support, and probably the highest *N?X adoption rate. Anecdotally, I could attribute some of it to old OS/2 flames and Microsoft nose-rubbing, but I won't.:)
IBM has been around since before computers were computers; they're too wise not to bet on a sure thing.
While not on-topic, I'm geniunely curious every time I see a sig such as yours;
Sig: "All negative mods are now being metamodded as unfair. Think before you abuse."
Can I ask you why it is you feel this way? Would you, for example, M2 "unfair" a "Flamebait" or "Troll" moderation on a Goatse, ASCII art penis, or other trite?
What is it about the threshold system that doesn't satisfy you to the point where you have taken such an extreme viewpoint?
Not looking to start any kind of argument or anything; I'm just curious as to your motivation. Thanks for your time.
I swear that makes me mad just reading it. Not only is it condesending, its an outright lie. I'm not a tech savy and I installed my own network card. It took longer to walk to the store down the road to pick it up than to install it, I'm sure you know.
Spoken like a person who's never worked as a PC repair technician. The first time you have to wrench a PCI network card out of an AGP/ISA slot and check whether the motherboard still works or not, you'll see where he was coming from.
He said he's wife knows more. That doesn't imply she's smarter, but more knowledgeable. Well, she SHOULD be more knowledgeable in computer science, but how much that translates into work or other fields is questionable.
I've known a lot of people who were GREAT in school, but absolutely horrific at practical application of knowledge. It's a real eye opener the first time you see a straight-A student fumbling to try to solve a problem that's not indexed in a textbook.
Not really on topic, and it applies as well to men and women in all fields of study and application; it's just a peeve of mine that people so often naturally associate "education" with "ability".
Know any College or University students who can't compose a sentence and can barely read? I do!
[sales rep-tile] "Can I help you?" [me] "Nah, I'm just looking for a network card." [sales rep-tile] "This is a good one, and we can put it in for you." [me] "Oh, I'll just put it in myself." [sales rep-tile] "Now sweetheart that's very complicated, are you sure you should try that?"
I tend to ask a similar question of any customer who opts to install hardware themselves. Why? Atleast 30% of the time it comes back "broken". Often times I've offered to do basic installs like that for 1/5 hour labour rate or similar just to save the re-stocking and/or RMA hassle. The sweetheart comment may have been him being macho/sexist, may have been how he adresses all females (some men refer to other men as "Bubba", "Bud" or "Dude"), may have been his attempt at flirting with you (c'mon, women don't flirt overtly?) or it may have been an embellishment of your memory (may or may not relate to paradigms; ie, you expected him to say it, therefore he said it).
Someone pointed out how many men were making useless, patronizing comments in response to this article. While that's very true, a lot of the comments are trite (welcome to Slashdot, etc.), I could posit that a lot of the female comments have been agressive or defensive.
You called him a "rep-tile". Sexually geared agressive comment directed towards a male sales rep. If he happened upon your or a similar post, how's he likely to react next time a woman offers to perform her own hardware installation?
By using such charged, gender-oriented labels you're only helping to blur the mental line people (men) make between "Strong, empowered woman" and "Self-righteous bitch".
The attitude women reported in the article is very much obvious with tech support too.
Don't be offended. Nobody is taken seriously by tech support. {sigh} If only I were kidding...
Being a man, and having a rather deep voice so as to be obviously male, I'm still not taken seriously. Big companies always want to pass the buck, etc. I take it with a grain of salt and occasionally I get someone understanding, compassionate, and at that moment not worried about their CST or daily rating or up-coming performance review or "Is the prick supervisor listening in on calls today?" who leaves the script alone and actually helps me. No, women in my experience don't tend to be more compassionate than men. They're all drones.:/
Regarding your other experiences, I find that saddening. I treat all customers the same; I'm there to ascertain their needs, sell them what they need, and a little bit of what I can get away with. If any customer, regardless of sex, creed, colour, height, or eye colour asks me for a GeForce FX5200 with 128MB of DDR - by joe they'll be invoiced, thanked, and happy(?) with their new video card in short order! You know what you want? I don't have to work for it? Yay! Why waste time patronizing a person who's already got their mind set? You'll just waste a lot of time losing a sale. Duh?
Unfortunately, that view is not held by most of the world... particularly men when it comes to women in technology.
Now here's where I have to reel you in some.:) That coin has two sides, my friend. I've known my share of women in technology who were embittered by men to the point of sheer blindness. It got to the point with some that they would refuse to accept any knowledge, experience, or advice (even when asked) from any man that didn't coincide with their pre-established viewpoint. "But according to the specs, the PS/2 ports are interchangable!" "Yes," I replied, "electrically they are, but that doesn't mean they'll function properly when reversed." Boy, was I ever cursed at. By the time she was finished chewing on my head I was practically a wife-beating pedophile. To the best of my knowledge, she finally checked the connections (a 10 second excersize that could have avoided a 30 minute battle royale) and lived happily ever after.
Other women have adapted such a deep persecution complex that they're incommunicable. I've had technical discussions and arguments with many peers; some of them women. But do you know how frustrating it is to be told that you're only claiming you're correct because "I'm a woman and you don't think I know what I'm talking about!"?!? It's indefensible! At first I'd spout empirical evidence about former arguments, I'd unleash a plethora of facts supporting my point, and as a last resort I'd compromise and find strengths in their argument in order to placate them. "Well, you're partly right, but in this specific instance... "
Often times I've seen technically inclined, extremely bright, well educated, highly experienced women shunned from technical groups because of that very attitude. At some point, a lot of people (men included) have to step back and consider how much of their strife is brought upon themselves.
I refuse to believed this. I go to Radio Shack fairly often and you rarely see any women in the shops.
Suuuure, if your local Radio Shack is an original inventory model with capacitors, flux, wire, cable, PCB et al. The only ones I can find within 100KMs of me are full of toys, a thousand types of telephone (Taz, anyone?), cell phones and accessories, and an assortment of a thousand other useless gizmos. You have to LOOK to find the technological components, and many of the ones I've needed recently (eg; a soldering iron with a tip useful for finite electronics rather than bulky speaker wires) are no longer stocked because, hey, they just don't have the room.
Tom Peters came up with some interesting numbers for the female buying power in what might be considered bloke domain. Women purchase well more than 50% of car stuff: cars, tyres, car services.
I work in a retail computer store. I've found, in my experience, that it's far easier to a) upsell, and b) add services to the bills of women than men. I believe that women don't grasp things technological the way men do and seem to be far easier convinced of things (n.b. I don't lie to customers, I sell them things they either need, should have, or that could/would make their experience better. I don't sell snake oil. Hate the taste.;) )
Now the reason I quoted that passage of yours; I find the electronics situation highly analagous to the automotive, where a woman can be convinced into things they really don't need (tire rotations, rad flush/fill, new plugs/wires, heck, even new mechanical/electric parts that 'might go') whereas men tend to ask questions; "Why do I need that? I had my rad flushed six months ago."
Example; husband and wife. Husband has broken leg, cannot drive. Wife takes husband's car to dealership for a recall. Oops! Mechanic ("Parts Replacement Technician") seems to have noticed that the power steering fluid chamber / cylinder (I forget the exact part) is broken and lost all pressure. Husband reminds wife that car was steering perfectly fine not 1 hour before it arrived at garage. Wife insists that this "professional" knows what he's talking about, and we'll just get it fixed and be on our merry way.
I fully believe that women can account for a higher percentage of tech purchases because, be it nature (the way our brains work) or nurture (the difference in up-bringing), women don't have the inate understanding of things technical to know not only what questions to ask, but when and why to ask them.
On that note, there are several abilities that women posess such as those pertaining to fashion, the care and nurture of children that men simply lack. Witness homosexual men; they tend to have what's referred to as a "strong female side" which tends to increase these abilities and, in some cases, diminish the attributes that are (stereo)typically associated with maledom. To flip the coin, homosexual women often tend to be more mechanically inclined, more likely to throw back and enjoy a beer with their steak and will often suffer from "trucker mouth". Both examples are at the extreme end of the scale, the former being known as femme, fag, flamer and the latter as butch or dyke. Of course we all posess X and Y chromosomes, and all have both female and male attributes to certain degrees.
I've been called sexist before for my views, but I don't think it's the slightest bit discriminatory to believe that men and women are just as psychologically different as we are physically.
Reading between the lines, it looks to me like Verisign want to start providing real time DNS updates, in which case there is a reason for change it. Currently they update the database twice a day, which is well within the limits of the current serial number scheme. But with real time updates, they could easily get to 100 updates in a day.
I've always had a problem with change for the sake of change. The current system allows them, in their semantic "the SOA value must represent the date" methodology already allows them 100 updates per day. Why do they think they require more??!
With their new timeout values (900 seconds), 86400 seconds being in a day, they only have a reasonable set of 96 update cycles anyways, otherwise they'd be changing the zone so frequently every other update would be missed by half the world.
Ok, so the new format permits them 86400 changes in a day. My question is this; why are they, a "responsible" domain authority, making so many changes, and furthermore what is the utility of each change?
"We've found a way to line our pockets with more money, so why shouldn't we use cheap, hard to understand overseas techs? We're greedy, plain and simple."
Stemming primarily from my bilingual Canada, I often find myself speaking with native French speaking bilinguals who are often very difficult to understand when speaking English. As a result, I now request to speak with a native English speaker. Apply the same practise to Indian call agents and soon you'll find that the company will have no choice but to offer native language technical support agents for their primary customer base. This being North America, said base(s) would be, quite probably in order of populace; English, Spanish, and French. (I could be wrong about the order of the last two).
In one sense, it actually adds costs when callers or agents have to repeat questions or instructions several times due to a simple communications breakdown. It also does no good when a foreign language agent has to walk through a script of steps when a native language agent could ascertain early on that several of the steps have already been accomplished and move on to more useful problem solving steps.
Most schools have a usage policy to which all students must agree before using computer resources. The article doesn't state whether use of the "net send" command is permitted or not.
ObRTFA. {smile}
According to the article, there was no stated policy, and this student was "made an example of";
Rollins told me that students had been using campus computers in unacceptable ways, and he hoped to make an example of Carl. The Birdville school district does not have a written policy on what to do in this kind of situation, so the decision rested with the principal.
I, myself, have been caught in this short-sighted level of computer administration by business teachers masquerading as computer/LAN administrators. A typing teacher of mine, named Ms. Noah, once strolled past my workstation (in, I believe, grade 7 or 8) while I was opening a document in WordPerfect (5.1 - the latest and greatest at the time). At some point prior to this occasion, a folder called "Noah" had been created in my network home directory, presumably for the purposes of distributing assignments et al. I ignored it and selected my document. Without accepting any explanation, she demanded that I re-open the file/open dialog at which point she determined, with the help of the other sysadmin, that I was "hacking" and had, in their estimation, entered Ms. Noah's home directory. This was an unquestioned, no exception suspension offence. Thus began my downhil road where computers were concerned, and I was thereafter labelled as a "trouble maker", which went so far as to see my high school warned about me which gave me very limited (and supervised-only) access to school computers, and removed several opportunities for advancement in my chosen field.
Other such examples included;
Dropping to a command-prompt to set the date (to the current decade {cough}) to ease my work in which I required the date/time macro several times. In short, with the date incorrect, it was faster to manually enter the date each time, which led (and contributed) to the next point;
When our class was in the library inputting work into the computer, the students realized that assistance from me was more comprehensive than that of the teacher. They would therefore 'look busy' until the teacher left, satisfied that the flock was hard at work. Vis, I would inevietably find myself assisting other students to the point where my own work would suffer, which in part led to my ability to type faster than all my peers. 15 minutes to enter a document that took others upwards of an hour will do that to a person.;) In the end, I'd be constantly penalized for not doing my work, and the natural suspiscion of the staff led them to believe I was spending my time 'hacking' rather than performing my required work. I wonder if, when I was removed from the computers, they noticed the degradation in work/quality from the remainder of the class. (I'm surprised they managed to print or save their assignments, letalone apply stylistic changes)
Using applications that were buried 2-3 sub-menus deep in the school's own menuing system was considered a 'hacking' offence, as the students were not implicitly instructed on their use (or existance).
For years, and due to past 'behavioural' problems (ie; I am a hands-on person faced with almost entirely book/written work, which caused me to fidget), my parents, both working full time jobs, had no reason to disbelieve, or no inclination to investigate each offence. As a result, I was completely at the mercy of unqualified, nay, ignorant instructors who believed they could do no wrong.
A lesson to all parents; investigate why your son/daughter is being penalized. You could save a lot of strife for yourself in the next few years of their education, and save them the hassle, embarrassment, and future behavioural problems associated with placement in any number of behavioural modification classes as a result of poor educators.
Just as a dark room helps us sleep. . . light helps us wake up. How about getting a bedroom light that plugs into the wall and use a simple timer from RadioShack as a supplement to your alarm.
The problem with that solution is the natural function of the human iris. At night, when dark, it opens as wide as possible to allow any small amount of light to enter. When you suddenly turn on a light, especially when you're groggy and aren't fully conscious enough to adjust yourself, you'll wind up with a headache and, as another poster suggested, you'll adapt and find yourself sleeping with the covers over your head, your face in the pillow, or turning off your light with your eyes closed.
It's easy to shut off an alarm and then get back to sleep. The reason for this is that people put their alarm clocks beside their bed. Don't do that! Put it somewhere where you have to get up in order to shut it off. Once you're out of bed, your mind will probably be clear enough not to get back in and sleep.
I've tried that before. I've also tried two-three staggered alarms scattered through my room set to go off every 2-3 minutes or so but I got to the point where setting my alarms at alternating random intervals every night became too tedious. In the morning, I would literally sleep walk a circular pattern - dodging couch, coffee table, computer, laundry hamper, and open wardrobe doors to shut off each of the alarms in sucession. In hindsight, I suppose it was great excersize, but it didn't help me wake up.
It's an acceptable short-term solution for a heavy sleeper (New job! Three alarms, baby!), however there are several drawbacks. I've already had my life {cough} threatened when I hit snooze repeatedly on one clock. With three clocks going off and a new, different alarm setting off every few minutes you're sure to be evicted, killed, or find yourself eating your alarm clocks for breakfast.:)
Every year in the city where I live, we have at least one terrible fire caused by a family using candles or an antiquated, non-working kerosene heater.
I find it strange that my parents and grandparents managed to live for years without any electricity in their homes, yet nowadays we have political figures crying to rid our homes of the life-threatening scourge of the modern era - CANDLES!
In my humble opinion, people too stupid to safely manage a candle deserve what they get. Darwinism forever - remove the warning labels and let the stupid sort themselves out. Our gene pool is far too diluted with stupdity and lack of personal responsibility.
Say it with me, folks; "I burned my house down. Wax makers are not responsible for my losses."
It's a long-standing rule of Fight-O-Net / UselessNet / Slice'n'DiceDot that when one attempts to correct the grammer or speling of another, invariably they themselves will make a misteak.
If for no other reason, of course, than the fact it doubles the fun of language police.
Linux proponents are always saying that anyone who thinks linux is hard to get running good are just ignorant. Consider that the reverse is also true -- that anyone who can't get Windows to run stable is equally ignorant.
Sure, your little HOWTO was very enlightening. First, you have to get users to religiously perform tasks which they can't comprehend. Second, you have to have them clean the registry - not only dangerous, but even less comprehended than defragmenting. Not only that, but you have to have them do it every time they make a significant change to the registry (vis, uninstalling). Thing is - I'd bet 90% of my customer base has no clue what would comprise such a change.
Of course, you've also got them not only visiting, but scouring and researching Windows Update for updates that "might affect their computer". If you can get a random selection of atleast 50 typical computer users to explain to you what DCOM is and why/how it may affect their computer, I'll give you every piece of electronic equipment I own.
Then, you have to convince them to use an antiquated version of Internet Explorer and not to use Outlook Express ("It's the standard! All my friends use it! I have a full address book!"). You also have to convince them not to use the application that arguably most Windows running businesses use - Microsoft Office.
So now that their computer isn't functional (no e-mail, no word procesor - and don't tell me Eudora and WordPerfect because you might as well suggest they run Pine and WordStar as far as they're concerned), and now that they're spending more time watching what they install (installing a non-malicious by nature application renders their OS unstable? How's that even logically feasible?) and maintaining their system more than they're using it; what's the benefeit to the "User Friendly" Windows environment?
Slashdot Mirror
Whereupon it prompts you for the FLOPPY (yes, I'm yelling) containing said drivers.
This goes directly against the credo of Skript Kiddies (sorry, my l33t translator is on sabbatacal, so I've only capitalized it for emphasis) and worm authors; If you throw enough shit against the wall, somebody will see a picture in it.
Legend;
I hate being DOS'ed. When people throw those diskettes, like, ow. 5 1/4's had sharp corners!
I don't know how much DOS it would take to fill up my bandwidth, though. It was pretty small; like the size of a decent MP3. (Not even in the Stairway to Inna Gadda Da Vida range!)
If, on the other hand, by DOS you mean DoS; this message will self-destruct with bad karma in 5...4...3...2...1...
The FUD alarm in my head is just deafening..
That's why I tested a Mac with a 138MHz speed deficiency which came up almost number-for-number evenly matched with its processing superior.
Is there some documentation as to the machine-specific optimizations of OpenSSL on the various architectures it supports?
Without doing any sort of conclusive tests, I've tested three of my machines with
for speed. Here's how it panned out;In short, I'm not terribly impressed with the power of that UltraSPARC processor; especially considering it's so closely matched with my two lower-end boxes.
It may, however, be a boon for them to do so atleast once on 'official record' (eg; the media. {sigh} ).
You have to consider that the people writing/spreading these worms are, presumably, firmly entrenched in the OSS camp. If the leaders of said camp were to speak out against it, suddenly they're doing things that go directly against the wishes and desires of the very men they look up to.
Actually, I'd say they're behind Linux because it's got the most (best) press right now. With its fresh, friendly face it's C[I|E|T]O friendly. It's also got the most momentum, the most vendor support, and probably the highest *N?X adoption rate. Anecdotally, I could attribute some of it to old OS/2 flames and Microsoft nose-rubbing, but I won't. :)
IBM has been around since before computers were computers; they're too wise not to bet on a sure thing.
While not on-topic, I'm geniunely curious every time I see a sig such as yours;
Can I ask you why it is you feel this way? Would you, for example, M2 "unfair" a "Flamebait" or "Troll" moderation on a Goatse, ASCII art penis, or other trite?
What is it about the threshold system that doesn't satisfy you to the point where you have taken such an extreme viewpoint?
Not looking to start any kind of argument or anything; I'm just curious as to your motivation. Thanks for your time.
Spoken like a person who's never worked as a PC repair technician. The first time you have to wrench a PCI network card out of an AGP/ISA slot and check whether the motherboard still works or not, you'll see where he was coming from.
I've known a lot of people who were GREAT in school, but absolutely horrific at practical application of knowledge. It's a real eye opener the first time you see a straight-A student fumbling to try to solve a problem that's not indexed in a textbook.
Not really on topic, and it applies as well to men and women in all fields of study and application; it's just a peeve of mine that people so often naturally associate "education" with "ability".
Know any College or University students who can't compose a sentence and can barely read? I do!
Quoth Metallica; Sad, but True.
I tend to ask a similar question of any customer who opts to install hardware themselves. Why? Atleast 30% of the time it comes back "broken". Often times I've offered to do basic installs like that for 1/5 hour labour rate or similar just to save the re-stocking and/or RMA hassle. The sweetheart comment may have been him being macho/sexist, may have been how he adresses all females (some men refer to other men as "Bubba", "Bud" or "Dude"), may have been his attempt at flirting with you (c'mon, women don't flirt overtly?) or it may have been an embellishment of your memory (may or may not relate to paradigms; ie, you expected him to say it, therefore he said it).
Someone pointed out how many men were making useless, patronizing comments in response to this article. While that's very true, a lot of the comments are trite (welcome to Slashdot, etc.), I could posit that a lot of the female comments have been agressive or defensive.
You called him a "rep-tile". Sexually geared agressive comment directed towards a male sales rep. If he happened upon your or a similar post, how's he likely to react next time a woman offers to perform her own hardware installation?
By using such charged, gender-oriented labels you're only helping to blur the mental line people (men) make between "Strong, empowered woman" and "Self-righteous bitch".
Alright, you caught me, I'm not a genetics expert and as such I should use analogies I'm more familiar with. The point, however, stands.
Don't be offended. Nobody is taken seriously by tech support. {sigh} If only I were kidding...
Being a man, and having a rather deep voice so as to be obviously male, I'm still not taken seriously. Big companies always want to pass the buck, etc. I take it with a grain of salt and occasionally I get someone understanding, compassionate, and at that moment not worried about their CST or daily rating or up-coming performance review or "Is the prick supervisor listening in on calls today?" who leaves the script alone and actually helps me. No, women in my experience don't tend to be more compassionate than men. They're all drones. :/
Regarding your other experiences, I find that saddening. I treat all customers the same; I'm there to ascertain their needs, sell them what they need, and a little bit of what I can get away with. If any customer, regardless of sex, creed, colour, height, or eye colour asks me for a GeForce FX5200 with 128MB of DDR - by joe they'll be invoiced, thanked, and happy(?) with their new video card in short order! You know what you want? I don't have to work for it? Yay! Why waste time patronizing a person who's already got their mind set? You'll just waste a lot of time losing a sale. Duh?
Now here's where I have to reel you in some. :) That coin has two sides, my friend. I've known my share of women in technology who were embittered by men to the point of sheer blindness. It got to the point with some that they would refuse to accept any knowledge, experience, or advice (even when asked) from any man that didn't coincide with their pre-established viewpoint. "But according to the specs, the PS/2 ports are interchangable!" "Yes," I replied, "electrically they are, but that doesn't mean they'll function properly when reversed." Boy, was I ever cursed at. By the time she was finished chewing on my head I was practically a wife-beating pedophile. To the best of my knowledge, she finally checked the connections (a 10 second excersize that could have avoided a 30 minute battle royale) and lived happily ever after.
Other women have adapted such a deep persecution complex that they're incommunicable. I've had technical discussions and arguments with many peers; some of them women. But do you know how frustrating it is to be told that you're only claiming you're correct because "I'm a woman and you don't think I know what I'm talking about!"?!? It's indefensible! At first I'd spout empirical evidence about former arguments, I'd unleash a plethora of facts supporting my point, and as a last resort I'd compromise and find strengths in their argument in order to placate them. "Well, you're partly right, but in this specific instance ... "
Often times I've seen technically inclined, extremely bright, well educated, highly experienced women shunned from technical groups because of that very attitude. At some point, a lot of people (men included) have to step back and consider how much of their strife is brought upon themselves.
Suuuure, if your local Radio Shack is an original inventory model with capacitors, flux, wire, cable, PCB et al. The only ones I can find within 100KMs of me are full of toys, a thousand types of telephone (Taz, anyone?), cell phones and accessories, and an assortment of a thousand other useless gizmos. You have to LOOK to find the technological components, and many of the ones I've needed recently (eg; a soldering iron with a tip useful for finite electronics rather than bulky speaker wires) are no longer stocked because, hey, they just don't have the room.
I work in a retail computer store. I've found, in my experience, that it's far easier to a) upsell, and b) add services to the bills of women than men. I believe that women don't grasp things technological the way men do and seem to be far easier convinced of things (n.b. I don't lie to customers, I sell them things they either need, should have, or that could/would make their experience better. I don't sell snake oil. Hate the taste. ;) )
Now the reason I quoted that passage of yours; I find the electronics situation highly analagous to the automotive, where a woman can be convinced into things they really don't need (tire rotations, rad flush/fill, new plugs/wires, heck, even new mechanical/electric parts that 'might go') whereas men tend to ask questions; "Why do I need that? I had my rad flushed six months ago."
Example; husband and wife. Husband has broken leg, cannot drive. Wife takes husband's car to dealership for a recall. Oops! Mechanic ("Parts Replacement Technician") seems to have noticed that the power steering fluid chamber / cylinder (I forget the exact part) is broken and lost all pressure. Husband reminds wife that car was steering perfectly fine not 1 hour before it arrived at garage. Wife insists that this "professional" knows what he's talking about, and we'll just get it fixed and be on our merry way.
I fully believe that women can account for a higher percentage of tech purchases because, be it nature (the way our brains work) or nurture (the difference in up-bringing), women don't have the inate understanding of things technical to know not only what questions to ask, but when and why to ask them.
On that note, there are several abilities that women posess such as those pertaining to fashion, the care and nurture of children that men simply lack. Witness homosexual men; they tend to have what's referred to as a "strong female side" which tends to increase these abilities and, in some cases, diminish the attributes that are (stereo)typically associated with maledom. To flip the coin, homosexual women often tend to be more mechanically inclined, more likely to throw back and enjoy a beer with their steak and will often suffer from "trucker mouth". Both examples are at the extreme end of the scale, the former being known as femme, fag, flamer and the latter as butch or dyke. Of course we all posess X and Y chromosomes, and all have both female and male attributes to certain degrees.
I've been called sexist before for my views, but I don't think it's the slightest bit discriminatory to believe that men and women are just as psychologically different as we are physically.
{Donning asbestos undies}
I've always had a problem with change for the sake of change. The current system allows them, in their semantic "the SOA value must represent the date" methodology already allows them 100 updates per day. Why do they think they require more??!
With their new timeout values (900 seconds), 86400 seconds being in a day, they only have a reasonable set of 96 update cycles anyways, otherwise they'd be changing the zone so frequently every other update would be missed by half the world.
Ok, so the new format permits them 86400 changes in a day. My question is this; why are they, a "responsible" domain authority, making so many changes, and furthermore what is the utility of each change?
Stemming primarily from my bilingual Canada, I often find myself speaking with native French speaking bilinguals who are often very difficult to understand when speaking English. As a result, I now request to speak with a native English speaker. Apply the same practise to Indian call agents and soon you'll find that the company will have no choice but to offer native language technical support agents for their primary customer base. This being North America, said base(s) would be, quite probably in order of populace; English, Spanish, and French. (I could be wrong about the order of the last two).
In one sense, it actually adds costs when callers or agents have to repeat questions or instructions several times due to a simple communications breakdown. It also does no good when a foreign language agent has to walk through a script of steps when a native language agent could ascertain early on that several of the steps have already been accomplished and move on to more useful problem solving steps.
ObRTFA. {smile}
According to the article, there was no stated policy, and this student was "made an example of";
I, myself, have been caught in this short-sighted level of computer administration by business teachers masquerading as computer/LAN administrators. A typing teacher of mine, named Ms. Noah, once strolled past my workstation (in, I believe, grade 7 or 8) while I was opening a document in WordPerfect (5.1 - the latest and greatest at the time). At some point prior to this occasion, a folder called "Noah" had been created in my network home directory, presumably for the purposes of distributing assignments et al. I ignored it and selected my document. Without accepting any explanation, she demanded that I re-open the file/open dialog at which point she determined, with the help of the other sysadmin, that I was "hacking" and had, in their estimation, entered Ms. Noah's home directory. This was an unquestioned, no exception suspension offence. Thus began my downhil road where computers were concerned, and I was thereafter labelled as a "trouble maker", which went so far as to see my high school warned about me which gave me very limited (and supervised-only) access to school computers, and removed several opportunities for advancement in my chosen field.
Other such examples included;
For years, and due to past 'behavioural' problems (ie; I am a hands-on person faced with almost entirely book/written work, which caused me to fidget), my parents, both working full time jobs, had no reason to disbelieve, or no inclination to investigate each offence. As a result, I was completely at the mercy of unqualified, nay, ignorant instructors who believed they could do no wrong.
A lesson to all parents; investigate why your son/daughter is being penalized. You could save a lot of strife for yourself in the next few years of their education, and save them the hassle, embarrassment, and future behavioural problems associated with placement in any number of behavioural modification classes as a result of poor educators.
The problem with that solution is the natural function of the human iris. At night, when dark, it opens as wide as possible to allow any small amount of light to enter. When you suddenly turn on a light, especially when you're groggy and aren't fully conscious enough to adjust yourself, you'll wind up with a headache and, as another poster suggested, you'll adapt and find yourself sleeping with the covers over your head, your face in the pillow, or turning off your light with your eyes closed.
I've tried that before. I've also tried two-three staggered alarms scattered through my room set to go off every 2-3 minutes or so but I got to the point where setting my alarms at alternating random intervals every night became too tedious. In the morning, I would literally sleep walk a circular pattern - dodging couch, coffee table, computer, laundry hamper, and open wardrobe doors to shut off each of the alarms in sucession. In hindsight, I suppose it was great excersize, but it didn't help me wake up.
It's an acceptable short-term solution for a heavy sleeper (New job! Three alarms, baby!), however there are several drawbacks. I've already had my life {cough} threatened when I hit snooze repeatedly on one clock. With three clocks going off and a new, different alarm setting off every few minutes you're sure to be evicted, killed, or find yourself eating your alarm clocks for breakfast. :)
I find it strange that my parents and grandparents managed to live for years without any electricity in their homes, yet nowadays we have political figures crying to rid our homes of the life-threatening scourge of the modern era - CANDLES!
In my humble opinion, people too stupid to safely manage a candle deserve what they get. Darwinism forever - remove the warning labels and let the stupid sort themselves out. Our gene pool is far too diluted with stupdity and lack of personal responsibility.
Say it with me, folks; "I burned my house down. Wax makers are not responsible for my losses."
It's a long-standing rule of Fight-O-Net / UselessNet / Slice'n'DiceDot that when one attempts to correct the grammer or speling of another, invariably they themselves will make a misteak.
If for no other reason, of course, than the fact it doubles the fun of language police.
Sure, your little HOWTO was very enlightening. First, you have to get users to religiously perform tasks which they can't comprehend. Second, you have to have them clean the registry - not only dangerous, but even less comprehended than defragmenting. Not only that, but you have to have them do it every time they make a significant change to the registry (vis, uninstalling). Thing is - I'd bet 90% of my customer base has no clue what would comprise such a change.
Of course, you've also got them not only visiting, but scouring and researching Windows Update for updates that "might affect their computer". If you can get a random selection of atleast 50 typical computer users to explain to you what DCOM is and why/how it may affect their computer, I'll give you every piece of electronic equipment I own.
Then, you have to convince them to use an antiquated version of Internet Explorer and not to use Outlook Express ("It's the standard! All my friends use it! I have a full address book!"). You also have to convince them not to use the application that arguably most Windows running businesses use - Microsoft Office.
So now that their computer isn't functional (no e-mail, no word procesor - and don't tell me Eudora and WordPerfect because you might as well suggest they run Pine and WordStar as far as they're concerned), and now that they're spending more time watching what they install (installing a non-malicious by nature application renders their OS unstable? How's that even logically feasible?) and maintaining their system more than they're using it; what's the benefeit to the "User Friendly" Windows environment?