We spend a trivial amount of money on space exploration as compared to social welfare programs. What you propose would be the final admission of defeat and the end of space exploration, period.
Why?
We can NEVER, EVER spend enough money on social welfare programs to satisfy those that demand them, and so the idea that we can tread water for "a few decades" while we get our shit together is ludicrous.
It's kind of like deciding to have kids - if you wait until you are really, Really, REALLY ready, you will die childless.
Lets see... 8 years ago Windows 3.11 on 386's (some with an Evergreen upgrade WooHoo) Netware lan
So if ANY of the systems are still in place, have fun. I was a contractor seconded (loaned) to our client, a public utility. I worked at their only nuclear plant, located in a county named for booze in the southern part of a state only known for Blue crabs and political corruption.
When you find my old boss Frank in Contractor Planning tell him you know when he played Solitaire last (the plant tracked it for a while and then left the log on an open drive.)
Former job: had access to 3 different database systems and the Lan. Passwords had to be changed every month, and no repeats were allowed for 6 months.
Result: ALL my systems used the same password, and it was of the form [lastname+sequential 2 digit number]
I was in blatant violation of the password policies, but they were unworkable. Policy was: different passwords for each system, composed of a random string of letters, numbers, and sysmbols. Add in changing it every month, and you get the picture.
And BTW - everyone on site, even the IT dept., did it the way I did.
"I have actually heard of someone creating a spreadsheet, then adding up the figures with an idiot-calculator and entering this in the total box"
You must be referring to my old boss. We were doing a budget on an $40,000,000 construction project and the final column total was off by $1.00. He threw a snit and required it be fixed by just filling in the final amount by hand.
The problem was caused by rounding, but no one could be bothered to use a proper round() function - just click the little widget on the Excel button bar and those pesky cents dissapear!
His more fundamental problem was that he viewed computers as glorified typewriters, good only for making spiffy output for the monthly report. This really came to roost when, while doing Primavera scheduling runs, the project showed as running late. As this was unacceptable for the monthly report, he would cut logic ties and arbitrarily change values until the schedule was "acceptable" for inclusion in the monthly report. This went on for months, and then he couldn't understand at the end why the job was ACTUALLY LATE!
"2. Attempting to create hack-proof software is futile."
Cliche time. "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
While it is true no software can be hack-proof, that doesn't mean that a decent copy protection scheme shouldn't be implemented.
Re:WTF's up with all the talk of carrying PASSENGE
on
Studies In Ornithopters
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Yeah - and the fact that "army personnel" could care less: the V-22 is flown by the Marines exclusively. And if one doesn't think there's a difference, head off to the bar nearest the local Marine base. I'm sure someone will provide enlightenment.
These little devices do have their uses. I have a 3com Office Connect 56k which is a 4 port hub and 56k modem. It connects my machine (Home/experimental/upstairs) and my wife's (home office/separate business/downstairs).
Its utility lies in the fact that 90% of the time, only 1 person is working, so the live machine gets the full bandwidth.
The other 10% of the time, we can go on line without stepping on the other's connection. Sure, it's slow, but not slower than " *&^$WTF? Did you just kill my connection? Sorry."
"Keep a list of all assigned projects, whether on a web page for all to see, or on a whiteboard, and make damn sure everybody knows where it is. Get priorities assigned, not as in TOP but as in position on the list."
Dead on the money. Your problem isn't solely an IT issue - it exists whenever someone gets independent work assignments.
My own example comes from construction. When I first joined my company, I was assigned some subcontracts to manage. Then some data input into the accounting side of the project. Then something else. Etc, Etc. Within 2 months, my boss was calling me to task because I wasn't "getting stuff done." So I went into my office, and wrote a list of my major assignments (all of which he gave me with "right away" as a schedule). I presented it to him and requested that he put them in rank order, 1-12, and I would devote all of my time to #1 until done or stopped, then #2, etc.
3 results:
1) My boss said "Wow - I had no idea you had this many assignments" (that he assigned, of course) and he took some off my plate.
2) He was forced to identify what was really important on the project. He just assumed I knew what the priorities were.
3) I got a tool by which to measure my progress and document to him that I actually WAS getting work done.
This worked OK for me, maybe not for others, but it might be worth a try.
Step 1: Choose your Candidates. Voting machine is a touch screen with Names (choose language at start of session), Pictures (for the illiterate), and a No Vote choice. Navigation is by Next, Back, etc.
Step 2: Review On Screen
Step 3: PRINT OUT BALLOT!! Ballot is both machine readable (bar code?) and plain text. All offices are listed, with candidate of choice or No Vote, so people can't say "I missed that one."
Step 4: Review Printed Ballot
Step 5: Insert Printed Ballot into machine that reads and tabulates.
Now you have 2 running tallies - touch scrren and machine read ballots - that can be cross checked throughout the day. If the tallies disagree at the end of the day, BOTH are chucked and the printed ballots are hand counted. If a recount is requested, run through the machine reader again or hand count.
No one gets to bitch about not being able to understand the ballots. Voter gets plenty of review. And if the shit hits the fan, the paper ballots are the only ballots for record.
I mean, how hard is this?
It seems similar to when GM bought EDS back in the 80's and expected the Miracle of Computers to increase production automatically. States want a solution that is 100% reliable, 100% accurate, and will eliminate recounts, protests, manual vote tabulation. Not gonna happen.
Read my post carefully. At no point do I suggest he "uses" their property at all. His POSESSION of it isn't illegal - the copy itself was authorized by the copyright holder. And if the company allowed him to take the CD's when he was laid off, the CD's are his.
Lets put it this way. I write a doctoral thesis. A copy gets put in the university library, SOP.
Flash forward 10 years. The university calls me to ask if I'd be willing to sell them the copyright, because the research now has value. I look in my files and realize that I have lost my only copy.
Question - Do I have a right to demand that the University hand over their copy of my work because I have lost my original?
Answer - Hell no. They may not have permission to use it beyond the library, but that copy is theirs, fair and square, and they don't have to give it back.
If I meet David Drake while reading a copy of Hammer's Slammers, he can't just grab it out of my hands and keep it because he own the copyright.
"Remember, if no deal is struck, they get it back once you admit to having it."
Not necessarily. As long as he doesn't publish the code somehow, his may well be the only existing copy. It's actually a bargaining point. They either deal with him fairly, or they get zilch. All he must do is "lose" the disks. Remember, his copy is legal under fair use (backup copies made while employed) and the only thing the owners can do is compel him to destroy it. They can't compel him to give the code back - he doesn't have a relationship with them anymore.
"the A/C is not in this building, there is a campus wide HVAC system (we're located on the U of Regina campus)."
Can you be more specific? You need to know exactly WHAT your central plant is supplying your building, because it's not cold air.
If they are supplying condenser water (between 60F and about 110F), then your building has local units cooling your server room - probably Lieberts (trade name). If so, you need to 1. power the leiberts from some temporary power source (your own generators with some temporary cables?) and 2. (if they have actually stopped supplying condenser water) cross connect domestic water to the condenser water supply (use proper backflow preventors) The domestic water part will be Mucho $$$. Or renting a portable cooling tower for your own condenser water - don't forget power for this too.
If your central plant supplies chilled water (about 25F-40F, depending on the chemical mix) you would need to rent a portable chiller plant and power for that, along with whatever power your building equipment needs.
Best option is probably to rent a truck mounten air conditioner and generators and run temporary ducting to blast cold air into your space.
Forget the swamp cooler ideas - you will have humidity problems, and it won't provide the amount of cooling you need.
Password Tracker - works like a champ. This was before Mozilla came out with password remembering and form filling. For that matter, it still does it better than Mozilla does.
"It's Europe, not the US. Politicians there don't tend to have constituencies composed of enormous companies."
Hmmm.
Volkwagen AG (partially owned by the state gov't of Westfalia)
Airbus - more direct gov't subsidies than you can shake a stick at.
Peugot (It's against French law (patent?) for any car other than a Peugot to have a Zero in the middle of a 3 digit model # - that's why it's the Porsche 911 instead of the 901)
That's just 3 off the top of my head, all of whom are protected by their politicians.
Oh, sorry, I forgot: the US is Evil, Europe is Noble, Africa and South America are Victims... (repeat in a sing-song voice until you believe it!)
In American culture (we're not talking Maori, here), visible tattoos and body mods scream "LOOK AT ME! NOTICE ME!". This can be interpreted as deep insecurity: "I'm not worth being noticed for who I am or what I do, so maybe this nose ring will get attention." While perhaps sociologically fascinating, it's not going to make an interviewer look any more favorably on you.
What a tattoo or piercing mainly says to me is "Hi - I'm insecure."
I second that emotion. I've been scarfing down the Baen Free Library on my Palm III (That's right, 2 MB, B&W screen, uphill BOTH ways). I use the MobiPocket reader (free).
You can change the font size to where it's quite easy to read, and it's actually *easier* to read at night with the backlit screen.
Slashdot Mirror
We spend a trivial amount of money on space exploration as compared to social welfare programs. What you propose would be the final admission of defeat and the end of space exploration, period.
Why?
We can NEVER, EVER spend enough money on social welfare programs to satisfy those that demand them, and so the idea that we can tread water for "a few decades" while we get our shit together is ludicrous.
It's kind of like deciding to have kids - if you wait until you are really, Really, REALLY ready, you will die childless.
"I, for one, will welcome our new ________ overlords."
Dammit, what is the source of that quote? I Googled for it and all I got was 50 blogs all linking to each other. Bleh.
Anyway, first one to answer gets modded up. Oh crap, I can't mod if I post. I'll owe you.
Lets see...
8 years ago
Windows 3.11 on 386's (some with an Evergreen upgrade WooHoo)
Netware lan
So if ANY of the systems are still in place, have fun. I was a contractor seconded (loaned) to our client, a public utility. I worked at their only nuclear plant, located in a county named for booze in the southern part of a state only known for Blue crabs and political corruption.
When you find my old boss Frank in Contractor Planning tell him you know when he played Solitaire last (the plant tracked it for a while and then left the log on an open drive.)
I guess you didn't have the model with drain holes.
Yes, IBM saw us coming.
"pneumonic devices"
Devices that give you the plague?
How about "mnemonic".
Former job: had access to 3 different database systems and the Lan. Passwords had to be changed every month, and no repeats were allowed for 6 months.
Result: ALL my systems used the same password, and it was of the form [lastname+sequential 2 digit number]
I was in blatant violation of the password policies, but they were unworkable. Policy was: different passwords for each system, composed of a random string of letters, numbers, and sysmbols. Add in changing it every month, and you get the picture.
And BTW - everyone on site, even the IT dept., did it the way I did.
"I have actually heard of someone creating a spreadsheet, then adding up the figures with an idiot-calculator and entering this in the total box"
You must be referring to my old boss. We were doing a budget on an $40,000,000 construction project and the final column total was off by $1.00. He threw a snit and required it be fixed by just filling in the final amount by hand.
The problem was caused by rounding, but no one could be bothered to use a proper round() function - just click the little widget on the Excel button bar and those pesky cents dissapear!
His more fundamental problem was that he viewed computers as glorified typewriters, good only for making spiffy output for the monthly report. This really came to roost when, while doing Primavera scheduling runs, the project showed as running late. As this was unacceptable for the monthly report, he would cut logic ties and arbitrarily change values until the schedule was "acceptable" for inclusion in the monthly report. This went on for months, and then he couldn't understand at the end why the job was ACTUALLY LATE!
"2. Attempting to create hack-proof software is futile."
Cliche time. "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
While it is true no software can be hack-proof, that doesn't mean that a decent copy protection scheme shouldn't be implemented.
Yeah - and the fact that "army personnel" could care less: the V-22 is flown by the Marines exclusively. And if one doesn't think there's a difference, head off to the bar nearest the local Marine base. I'm sure someone will provide enlightenment.
These little devices do have their uses. I have a 3com Office Connect 56k which is a 4 port hub and 56k modem. It connects my machine (Home/experimental/upstairs) and my wife's (home office/separate business/downstairs).
Its utility lies in the fact that 90% of the time, only 1 person is working, so the live machine gets the full bandwidth.
The other 10% of the time, we can go on line without stepping on the other's connection. Sure, it's slow, but not slower than " *&^$WTF? Did you just kill my connection? Sorry."
"Keep a list of all assigned projects, whether on a web page for all to see, or on a whiteboard, and make damn sure everybody knows where it is. Get priorities assigned, not as in TOP but as in position on the list."
Dead on the money. Your problem isn't solely an IT issue - it exists whenever someone gets independent work assignments.
My own example comes from construction. When I first joined my company, I was assigned some subcontracts to manage. Then some data input into the accounting side of the project. Then something else. Etc, Etc. Within 2 months, my boss was calling me to task because I wasn't "getting stuff done." So I went into my office, and wrote a list of my major assignments (all of which he gave me with "right away" as a schedule). I presented it to him and requested that he put them in rank order, 1-12, and I would devote all of my time to #1 until done or stopped, then #2, etc.
3 results:
1) My boss said "Wow - I had no idea you had this many assignments" (that he assigned, of course) and he took some off my plate.
2) He was forced to identify what was really important on the project. He just assumed I knew what the priorities were.
3) I got a tool by which to measure my progress and document to him that I actually WAS getting work done.
This worked OK for me, maybe not for others, but it might be worth a try.
"Thus SCO will face a furry..."
Tribbles are going to invade Utah?
"utimate solution for those pesky barricaded hostage situations in tight urban areas"
Or mount the toys on a regular manned model. Just the thing for taking care of cars illegally parked in a HC spot.
Step 1: Choose your Candidates. Voting machine is a touch screen with Names (choose language at start of session), Pictures (for the illiterate), and a No Vote choice. Navigation is by Next, Back, etc.
Step 2: Review On Screen
Step 3: PRINT OUT BALLOT!! Ballot is both machine readable (bar code?) and plain text. All offices are listed, with candidate of choice or No Vote, so people can't say "I missed that one."
Step 4: Review Printed Ballot
Step 5: Insert Printed Ballot into machine that reads and tabulates.
Now you have 2 running tallies - touch scrren and machine read ballots - that can be cross checked throughout the day. If the tallies disagree at the end of the day, BOTH are chucked and the printed ballots are hand counted. If a recount is requested, run through the machine reader again or hand count.
No one gets to bitch about not being able to understand the ballots. Voter gets plenty of review. And if the shit hits the fan, the paper ballots are the only ballots for record.
I mean, how hard is this?
It seems similar to when GM bought EDS back in the 80's and expected the Miracle of Computers to increase production automatically. States want a solution that is 100% reliable, 100% accurate, and will eliminate recounts, protests, manual vote tabulation. Not gonna happen.
Read my post carefully. At no point do I suggest he "uses" their property at all. His POSESSION of it isn't illegal - the copy itself was authorized by the copyright holder. And if the company allowed him to take the CD's when he was laid off, the CD's are his.
Lets put it this way. I write a doctoral thesis. A copy gets put in the university library, SOP.
Flash forward 10 years. The university calls me to ask if I'd be willing to sell them the copyright, because the research now has value. I look in my files and realize that I have lost my only copy.
Question - Do I have a right to demand that the University hand over their copy of my work because I have lost my original?
Answer - Hell no. They may not have permission to use it beyond the library, but that copy is theirs, fair and square, and they don't have to give it back.
If I meet David Drake while reading a copy of Hammer's Slammers, he can't just grab it out of my hands and keep it because he own the copyright.
"Remember, if no deal is struck, they get it back once you admit to having it."
Not necessarily. As long as he doesn't publish the code somehow, his may well be the only existing copy. It's actually a bargaining point. They either deal with him fairly, or they get zilch. All he must do is "lose" the disks. Remember, his copy is legal under fair use (backup copies made while employed) and the only thing the owners can do is compel him to destroy it. They can't compel him to give the code back - he doesn't have a relationship with them anymore.
(IT Dept. Budget/12 Months)/# of computers in company = Monthly $$/computer charged to each department.
Usage? irrelevant.
You laugh, but this is the way my company does it. No, really. And it kinda sorta works.
"I can't wait until my generation is in charge."
/. complaining about what a jerk you are, and how they can't wait until THEY are in charge.
And your employees are writing
"the A/C is not in this building, there is a campus wide HVAC system (we're located on the U of Regina campus)."
Can you be more specific? You need to know exactly WHAT your central plant is supplying your building, because it's not cold air.
If they are supplying condenser water (between 60F and about 110F), then your building has local units cooling your server room - probably Lieberts (trade name). If so, you need to
1. power the leiberts from some temporary power source (your own generators with some temporary cables?) and
2. (if they have actually stopped supplying condenser water) cross connect domestic water to the condenser water supply (use proper backflow preventors) The domestic water part will be Mucho $$$. Or renting a portable cooling tower for your own condenser water - don't forget power for this too.
If your central plant supplies chilled water (about 25F-40F, depending on the chemical mix) you would need to rent a portable chiller plant and power for that, along with whatever power your building equipment needs.
Best option is probably to rent a truck mounten air conditioner and generators and run temporary ducting to blast cold air into your space.
Forget the swamp cooler ideas - you will have humidity problems, and it won't provide the amount of cooling you need.
Password Tracker - works like a champ. This was before Mozilla came out with password remembering and form filling. For that matter, it still does it better than Mozilla does.
Or just buy the cables
1334026 IBM PS/2 5' Coiled Keyboard Cable
1393120 IBM PS/2 10' Coiled Keyboard Cable
"It's Europe, not the US. Politicians there don't tend to have constituencies composed of enormous companies."
Hmmm.
Volkwagen AG (partially owned by the state gov't of Westfalia)
Airbus - more direct gov't subsidies than you can shake a stick at.
Peugot (It's against French law (patent?) for any car other than a Peugot to have a Zero in the middle of a 3 digit model # - that's why it's the Porsche 911 instead of the 901)
That's just 3 off the top of my head, all of whom are protected by their politicians.
Oh, sorry, I forgot: the US is Evil, Europe is Noble, Africa and South America are Victims... (repeat in a sing-song voice until you believe it!)
Blech
I think it's more subtle than that.
In American culture (we're not talking Maori, here), visible tattoos and body mods scream "LOOK AT ME! NOTICE ME!". This can be interpreted as deep insecurity: "I'm not worth being noticed for who I am or what I do, so maybe this nose ring will get attention." While perhaps sociologically fascinating, it's not going to make an interviewer look any more favorably on you.
What a tattoo or piercing mainly says to me is "Hi - I'm insecure."
I second that emotion. I've been scarfing down the Baen Free Library on my Palm III (That's right, 2 MB, B&W screen, uphill BOTH ways). I use the MobiPocket reader (free).
You can change the font size to where it's quite easy to read, and it's actually *easier* to read at night with the backlit screen.
"dump a guiness on the keyboard."
Also be sure to get an IBM Model M keyboard with the BLUE logo, not gray.
Why? The ones with the blue logo have drain holes in the bottom, so that that nasty brown mud doesn't congeal in there.