The IT slump of the past few years has led me more into more time of a consultant than a full time admin. I have several clients who pay me a small monthly retainer in case anything goes wrong. I make a little less cash, but then again I can work on other projects.
When I go in to a company and check a network out, top to bottom, server to workstation. I 99.9 percent of the time gigs of mp3's, pirated applications, and everyone has Kazaa. And for the next week everyone hates me cause I disable downloads, remove kazaa, block ports, and lock down the network. Not to mention find that some savvy employee is running an ftp server, or using company bandwidth to sell his wifes beanie babies.
I also am an on call tech for Dell. Usually this is installing new systems, doing data transfers. In short making the new system mirror the old one in software and data.
I have yet to hear someone say" Yeah all those mp3 are from CD's I own" "Here is my original copy of office xp" I get handed burned CD's and hear things like "dude you can get all the music and software you want off the internet." And this is not teenies nor young adults. But people into their 50's. I will not install anyting from a burned copy and a scribbled down serial number. They get burned, they are gonna point the finger at me.
I love my work. But if I had a dollar for everyime some client calls me to fix something, install something and then teach them how to download(steal) music and software. I would be a rich man.
I download music. I can remember the last time I bought a CD.2 years ago. I can always claim that all the Cure, Bill Idol, 80's hits, on my hard drives that I did once on the LP(probably in moms attic) so I am entitled. I gess if I wear out my copy of Nueromance, I can just go take a new one, free.
Recently I did a an 8 station wireless network in a wealthy mans house. Plus two laptops. The house is a Kazaa nightmare. Guy can afford CD's but he doesnt buy them.
I think the government shouldn't regulate or charge for info, but I think we on the internet have proven that we pirate and steal like crazy. I am a 33 year old admin, old fart in the business. I have many colleagues, and we pass warez around like crazy, and giggle about it. But we admit it. We do not try and take the moral high ground.
I am tired of hearing about all this bitching about our rights are being impugned. Why dont we all petition our ISPS to block all file sharing services? Doesn't take much CPU to rip a CD. We were doing it on P//s, and we all use linux, so whats the problem? Don't give me the argument about you ain't got the time to rip it? You had the time to poke around the net and download the song ten times till you got a good rip?
Jeez, maybe I am getting old. But Kazaa is a pirates playground, edonkey, gnutella, and others.
1. I do HTML (dont consider this coding) 2. I can do Perl, and PHP, a little of both, can hack up stuff if needed(don't consider this coding) 3. I can do shell scripting(THIS IS NOT CODING in my book)
I can compile, make, you name it. Change various lines to do what it needs to do. But I dont consider that coding. I hold higher standards for coders.
Let it be said I don't code WHOLE programs from scratch. I do kludges when necessary to make things talk to each other.
Ok here is the skinny from my experience and flame away. But if you do it this way you can grab a lot of certs and learn a lot along the way. Nothing is better than real world experience but a little paper behind you doesn;t hurt.
A+ - Everyone and is brother does have it. So get it anyway. One book and one week studying. Took the tests back to back. Shows you have some basic hardware knowledge. Cause hardware and software knowledge don't exactly walk hand in hand.
Net+ - Another easy one but really good in the sense of getting you up to speed on networking essentials. Subnetting, IP, the language and eqipment.
Linux + - Learn the fundementals of Linux - Pass the test. Good starting block for your RHCE.
RHCE- Do I need to explain this one? Red Hat is the industry standard Linux at the moment.
AS for the MS stuff. It is good to have the hands on experience and the classes as well. the 2000 and net stuff is not all that easy. The 4.0 was a walk in the park. Professional and server are easy exams. But AD and the other ones are a bitch because they expect you to have experience with the product. And the exams are adaptive, very hard to teach the test with these. And also whose fault is it if you but cheat sheets?
I am a fairly good Linux Admin, and a Fairly good Linux admin. I do not code. Don't want to. I just like keeping the highways a rolling. I don't care what you drive on them.
But I will say this. A good Linux admin will not be a good windows admin and vice versa. Because both will be predisposed to see all bad in the opposite product. I look at windows and linux for the respective uses of each. Do not tie yourself down with one. Stay off of OS bandwagons. Learn as much as you can about both. Or any OS you can.
I find myself time and time again sitting in the middle of the fence. My linux pals who dog Windows cause, they ***gasp*** cant admin it, and are too proud to ask someone or check MSDN. Or the Windows bunch who are stuck on reinstall when something craps out.
I am 33 years old and was not in the military. But TRIED to join but was refuse due to a curvature of the spine. But due to an innate ability for langauge, computers, and native intelligence, was given a chance, and in the end I opted out.
BUT my friends were sent to IRAQ, desert storm babies if you will. Guys that I knew as healthy and hearty individuals. Three of whom I would trust with my life. Engineers. They have told me that chemical weapons were discovered. But the US government covered it up. These are guys who have had genetic scans, have been told not to have children. They are physically fucked up because of the war. Not an uncommon tale.
When a teen in the US can build a fucking BREEDER REACTOR in a shed in his neighbors yard. YOU ARE TELLING ME IT IS AT ALL NOT POSSIBLE THE IRAQUIS DO NOT HAVE THE CHANCE TO BUILD A FUCKING BOMB? When there is so much cold war russian shit on the black market that no one sold them anything? Hey it aint all that hard to refind, and it aint all that hard to find.
I have 5 USB 2.0 80 gig drives in the field. I get them for 140 bucks a piece.
1. They offer another back up option. My networks have tapes but they also have this extra redundancy. Connect it to a plane jane windows box running 2000(any old box). And you can have it back up your entire network quickly and easily in the wee small hours. 80 gigs is a lot space and you can restore from it rather quickly, much quicker than a tape. Still keep the tapes but for an 80 gig back up that will run for about 3 years constantlym you can beat the price.
2. I have one that does in my tech back with 4 20 gig partitions, one is mp3's for me to listen to. One is just about every software tool imaginable. The third is ISOs of all the redhats, windows, solaris,office, you name it i got it. And the fourth I use to grab files with that need fixing.
I also carry an interface card with me. Because now I dont carry around all those cds. If I have to dump a lotta data, i just pop in the 2.0 card(if the machine doesnt have it) and I boogie.
USB 2.0 is fast enough for me, will be more widepread than firewire. And I have never had a problem with it.
Now my 'doctor' bad is just a Leatherman, this drive, and the adaptor card, and one cd with the drivers.
Firewire is great technology but Apple forced intels hand when the wanted to charge per installation per motherboad. They reneged but way after the fact. That is why it didnt take off so quick.
I have an ipod, and an ibook. And firewire is fast. But I gotta say when I can dump 10 gigs in hardly anytime. No messing with tapes(I still use em but this is quicker) if it fails I always have the tape.
My other USB 2.0 personal drive gets the same treatment as my clients. I leave the house for the night, it goes with me.
Puto
Re:WOPR? David Lightman.
on
Kevin Free
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· Score: 2
Funny thing is MCI would call numbers placed through their systems and get a carrier, or the odd SYSOP answering the phone. Then they would trace the number back, which was a splice off a trunk that ran from the junction through a pvc pipe i had buried in the yard, i had my own nonlisted number.
MCI never clued on this, as they would have called ma bell. They just got my name and called the house and my dad answered the phone. If it would have been me. I would have pretended to be dad and told them to fuck off. And then removed the line and asked them to prove it, as I had a legitmate bbs on my own line.
Ahhh young and sneaky.
Now old and noisy.
Puto
Re:WOPR? David Lightman. Hey RTFA
on
Kevin Free
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· Score: 2
I said there we had a hodge podge of machines in our group. I had an Apple ][ with a 10 meg Corvus drive. Never said I had a Commodore. My bad for not saying for what comp I had. There was also another company that built harddrives for the Apple then, they were external,well they all were. Can't remember their name.
And before you call bullshit, read the article. And if you want to call me a liar, do it with your own handle. I posted with mine.
Puto
WOPR? David Lightman.
on
Kevin Free
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I was busted hacking MCI and ATT in 84 for long distance codes(for phreaking purposes), which I then used to call bbs'round the world. I also was accused digging around in patient info in two local hospitals.
I was all of 14. I could pass myself off as a bell employee, had a valid ID. I was able to get a list of celeb phone numbers and harass them in a 14 year old manner. These are all true.
1. Yoko Ono- Asked her to send me nekkid pics so I could start a bulemics club using her photo instead of stinking fingers down our throats. 2.Don King - Called him and home and asked who did his hair cause I wanted a similar doo. 3. Joan Rivers, just to tell her she was a hag.
Busted into teleconferencing systems, wreaked havoc with corporate PBX's.
I did all of this stuff with a group of friends, we social engineered, brute force attacks, all done from a hodge podge of Apple//s,Trs80s, and one Commode 64.
We had a great knowledge base of other hackers plus bell lineman headsets, phone company gear.
In short we had a lotta fun and did a lotta damage to companies. 250k in phone charges to MCI alone, and the only reason we got caught was because an early 80's version of a script kiddie turned us in.
Fortunately most companies were amused, we showed them our exploits, they made us promise not to tell, and cut deals the FCC and with our parents not too let us touch comps for 5 years. No court, no fines, nothing. A little tiny slap on the wrist.
And I was very angry then. Now I fondly look back on that time with a grin(as do my parents NOW) and thank god my parents did not have to shell out 250k for the hacked codes, or for the 500 floppies of pirated software, or my ten meg drive fulla of bomb plans, software, and general mayhem.
Point is that we can do a lot of damage with our curiosity. Mitnick had others peoples code, compromised systems, and got busted. You do something illegal, and especially in an industry with closely guarded secrets you are going to get burned, and deserve punishment. It could be corporate espionage or selling out to a foreign power.
AS for the security not being good. If I walk into the 7/11 and Apu is in the bathroom and I know I can walk over and steal a bag of funions and a Big Gulp without paying, does it make it right? If I know I can bust into a system and take whats not my mine? Does the crime justify my curiosity?
If I get caught speeding can I tell the cop that I was just seeing how fast she goes, just this one time?
He knew he was wrong, and looking at his crimes, he messed with some big players, and felt the heat. Albeit some of it might have been unecessary, but a message was sent.
As for Kevin, he just built on a culmination of tools and tips that others had been sitting on for years and using. I do not see any shining brilliance, just a very intelligent guy who used availible tools. Like Linux and UNIX tools. Making use of availible resources.
Social engineering is a tool employed by charming people and sociopaths. I, unfortunately, know it is one of my great skills, but rarely trot it out anymore.
We all wanted to be David Lightman and see Protovisions latest games. And Lightman got bit in the ass wy a WOPR(always wanted to say that)
And in the old days the spirit of hacking was fun. We did get into systems, the phone company, build blue boxes(and the other ones) stole payphones and hooked them up at home, hacked the blue special box at kmart to turn it on by remote(best hack ever). And in the day we policed ourselves.
The Asmimov thing I get with the I Robot. And it is a homage to a great master whose work about robots has influenced 99.9 of robotic sci-fi since, and probably 100% of all people building robots now. Paying some respects in a major way.
"I'm intrigued that their company name so bluntly builds off of Apple and Asimov symbols"
I disagree with the connection to apple. Because IBOOK and IMAC were products long after I-Robot hit the shelves. I Robot hit the shelves in 1950, so I say they got the jump on Apple. Maybe Asmimovs family should seek some sort of injunction. An IBook,Imac is a silicon based calculating machine, here we have prior art for 52 years, that Asimov actively developed until 1976. Apple is always suing people for walking past the factory, or releasing a case that emulates theirs.
I like Apple, I own an IBOOK. Good little machine. I own three x86's running windows, linux, and solaris(gasp yes solaris,stability at its finest). I never associated my apple with Asimov, and never will. But probbably some geeks over at apple gave it the name to pay homage to a great man.
Point is that Apple had nothing to do with inspiring this company. Shameless apple plug.
man, messing with the Asimov the day after christmas. it just aint right.
Damn dont you you know the MAC has all the killer apps?
I have two linux boxes, a Powerbook, and a Windows PC at home. Plus dedicated Red Hat Box sitting on the net. I am happy.
Linux boxes are for me to play around with the OS and learn more about it, little NAT happening, little Apache.
Powerbook for reliability and to keep my abreast of OSX. For when I don't need to think, watch dvds on the road.
Dedicated box, for customers and it was absurdly cheap. 120 gigs, 1 gig of ram, and 400 gigabyties of transfer a month. 109 bucks monthly. A must have at that price. Kicking Red Hat.
The PC runs windows 2000. For office, visio, and web browsing, and gaming, and a bunch of other little apps that are windows only, and I use cygwin to hit my other boxes.
I love UNIXes in general. I love OS's in general. So I keep many around as possible and use each for its features that the other doesn't have. And I am not going to limit myself to one and limit my personal productivity.
The MAC community is like the Linux community. Always screaming they have all the APPs in the world, and Windows sucks. Well, it just aint true, and I for one aint gotta take no subsitutes or "it will be there in a few years" arguements.
Unix for webserving and servers. No other, will accept no other.
MAC- Well maybe Final Cut Pro, but Windows and Linux have more productivity apps for them. Apart or together. And fellows, mac didnt invent UNIX, they made a smart move.
I think this is a good thing for the Mac community that they are releasing this. Gets some more apps out there, get some more people to try apple.
But it is gonna be funny to see what the community thinks of this. Linux should take some hints. Apple is taking a better move. We have wine, which is not the way to go.
Puto
I do not condone spam and I hate it. I think it is one of the worst things ever invented. Eats up time and bandwidth.
We joked the guy good too. Loads of crap delivered to his house. Threatening phone calls. And god knows what else. Fine, he is getting his medicine in spades.
However, if I come home and strange cars are parked in front of my house and people are taking photos. I am gonna be suspicious. Could be crooks, murderers, you name it. So while I might be the ultimate asshole in the unviverse, I am gonna do something. And If I am not an asshole but a regular joe, I am gonna so something.
Take pics of my house(I am a nice guy) while i am pulling up. I am gonna chase you down, get your plate, call a buddy in the dmv. And call you and ask you why the fuck you taking pics of my crib. I will even call the police.
He might be invading our mailboxes but he aint standing on our lawns with an instamatic. That is taking it a step way to far.
He spammed, we junk mailed em. Pretty much quid pro quo. He got the message. But what kinda loser decides to drive by the house and then take pics and then gets pissy when the guy tracks him down? And then whines about it on the net when the guy catches him. Both are assholes in my book.
As for the nintendo thing well penny-arcade had it sorted out a day before the slash dot post.
Re:i'm so confused Crack Smoking confusing you?
on
AOL Wins Anti-Spam Case
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· Score: 2, Informative
AOL is evil.
You ever try to cancel an account with them? Good three monhts before you get any results. Plus the asshole who gets rude on the phone with when you try to cancel.
There was a time when AOL was the only National ISP and most techs kept an AOL account for travel to hit email and keep in touch.
And AOL sells its own customers to spam lists. Plus the advertisements they inundate you with.
AOL bought all those companies to further there share in the marketplace. They bought Netscape(where is it now) they bought Winamp, and ICQ, which totally sucks now and gives its own nice little pop ups.
Time Warner inventing phone telemarketing as we know it. I worked in a call center running dialing systems in the early 90's.
We called people whos subsciptions were about to end, had ended, and even vaguely looked at a magazine in the airport.
Entertainment Weekly, People, Time, NewSweek, and we were hired outsourced to other magazines. And this is a Time Warner org. Still operational today. All sanctioned by time warner. BUT NOOOOOOOOO they are not evil.
AOL hates Microsoft cause they took a big part of their business. Because AOL is all about the content they want you to see. And with IE and other Browsers, it is about what you want. Sour grapes all over the place.
GEEZ
PUTO
Re:yes, but.... REal History of Dos Fools
on
Decentralization
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Found this gem on the NANET Comedy Conference. If you know anything about DOS vs Windows vs OS/2 vs... then READ IT.
How It Came To Pass...
Long ago, in the days when all disks flopped in the breeze and the
writing of words was on a star, the Blue Giant dug for the people the
Pea Sea. But he needed a creature who could sail the waters, and would
need for support but few rams.
So the Gatekeeper, who was said to be both micro and soft, fashioned a
Dosfish, who was small and spry, and could swim the narrow sixteen-bit
channel. But the Dosfish was not bright, and could be taught few new
tricks. His alphabet had no A's, B's, or Q's, but a mere 640 K's, and
the size of his file cabinet was limited by his own fat.
At first the people loved the Dosfish, for he was the only one who
could swim the Pea Sea. But the people soon grew tired of commanding
his line, and complained that he could be neither dragged nor dropped.
"Forsooth," they cried. "the Dosfish can only do one job at a time, and
of names, he knows only eight and three." And many of them left the
Pea Sea for good, and went off in search of the Magic Apple.
Although many went, far more stayed, because admittance to the Pea Sea
was cheap. So the Gateskeeper studied the Magic Apple, and rested
awhile in the Parc of Xer-Ox, and he made a Window that could ride on
the Dosfish and do its thinking for it. But the Window was slow, and
it would break when the Dosfish got confused. So most people contented
themselves with the Dosfish.
Now it came to pass that the Blue Giant came upon the Gateskeeper, and
spoke thus: "Come, let us make of ourselves something greater than the
Dosfish." The Blue Giant seemed like a humbug, so they called the new
creature OZ II.
Now Oz II was smarter than the Dosfish, as most things are. It could
drag and drop, and could keep files without becoming fat. But the
people cared for it not. So the Blue Giant and the Gateskeeper
promised another OZ II, to be called Oz II Too, that could swim the
fast new 32-bit wide Pea Sea.
Then lo, a strange miracle occurred. Although the Window that rode on
the Dosfish was slow, it was pretty, and the third Window was the
prettiest of all. And the people began to like the third Window, and
to use it. So the Gateskeeper turned to the Blue Giant and said, "Fie
on thee, for I need thee not. Keep thy OZ II Too, and I shall make of
my Window an Entity that will not need the Dosfish, and will swim in
the 32-bit Pea Sea."
Years passed, and the workshops of the Gateskeeper and the Blue Giant
were overrun by insects. And the people went on using their Dosfish
with a Window; even though the Dosfish would from time to time become
confused and die, it could always be revived with three fingers.
Then there came a day when the Blue Giant let forth his OZ II Too onto
the world. The Oz II Too was indeed mighty, and awesome, and required
a great ram, and the world was changed not a whit. For the people said,
"It is indeed great, but we see little application for it." And they
were doubtful, because the Blue Giant had met with the Magic Apple, and
together they were fashioning a Taligent, and the Taligent was made of
objects, and was most pink.
Now the Gateskeeper had grown ambitious, and as he had been ambitious
before he grew, he was now more ambitious still. So he protected his
Window Entity with great security, and made its net work both in
serving and with peers. And the Entity would swim, not only in the Pea
Sea, but in the Oceans of Great Risk. "Yea," the Gateskeeper declared,
"though my entity will require a greater ram than Oz II Too, it will be
more powerful than a world of Eunuchs.
And so the Gateskeeper prepared to unleash his Entity to the world, in
all but two cities. For he promised that a greater Window, a greater
Entity, and even a greater Dosfish would appear one day in Chicago and
Cairo, and it too would be built of objects.
Now the Eunuchs who lived in the Oceans of Great Risk, and who scorned
the Pea Sea, began to look upon their world with fear. For the Pea Sea
had grown, and great ships were sailing in it, the Entity was about to
invade their oceans, and it was rumored that files would be named in
letters greater than eight. And the Eunuchs looked upon the Pea Sea,
and many of them thought to immigrate.
Within the Oceans of Great Risk were many Sun Worshippers, and they
wanted to excel, and make their words perfect, and do their jobs as
easy as one-two-three. And what's more, many of them no longer wanted
to pay for the Risk. So the Sun Lord went to the Pea Sea, and got
himself eighty-sixed.
And taking the next step was He of the NextStep, who had given up
building his boxes of black. And he proclaimed loudly that he could
help anyone make wondrous soft wares, then admitted meekly that only
those who know him could use those wares, and he was made of objects,
and required the biggest ram of all.
And the people looked out upon the Pea Sea, and they were sore amazed.
And sore confused. And sore sore. And that is why, to this day, Ozes,
Entities, and Eunuchs battle on the shores of the Pea Sea, but the
people still travel on the simple Dosfish.
You make a valid point. I am constantly dealing with employees of companies that hire me as a conusltant(GASP).
This week I was called into an orginization that has genius programmer. Mr. PHP, KING Database, the kid has skills I would give a testicle for(really). But he cant see the big picture. He can see the OSS pic, but not around it.
His answer always is to build instead of buy. We are always locking horns because he never realizes. 1. Although you might be out of more cash intitally, you get a product that functions out of the box, has been tested, and has support. 2.You build, you have to go through alpha, beta, testing, and then it works. SO you extend the time frame by a factor of 20 just so he could roll his own.
He hates me because they usually end up outsourcing projects to me.
Two examples.
1. Company sells a product that they have had on the market for 50 years. They sell a lot of said product. They want eccommerce because people are asking for it. Their in house IT kiddie tells them he can write a store ground up in six months and cost them nothing but a 5 grand as a bonus to him.
They call me for an opinion. They ask me me if they offered me the same money what would i do and in what kinda time frame. I said 5 grand? 3 weeks complete eccommerce. Turnkey. I send them a contract. They sign.
They get hosting that comes with a miva merchant. I build a complete site with 300 products in the three weeks time. I make it pretty, you dont even know its miva. And in three months they have netted 20 grand off the website. 5 grand solution, three weeks time. The client loves it. The IT guy hates it.
2. Second problem. Customers want knowledgebase. Inhouse it says he can develop in three months. Guess he knew they would call me. They want forums where customers can ask questions and company members can respond. How much and how soon. 1500 dollars and two days I say. The IT guy tells me impossible and I will not make them happy. I tell the company I will do it free and they do not have to pay me if they dont like it. They say go for it.
I buy Vbulletin. 165 bucks. Customize the look, put their logo. Create forums. 1 day.
The customers and the owners love it. Instant forums, instant knowledgebase.
The great thing is all the products i used were inexpensive, plenty of info for them all over the net. And if for some reason they get mad at me. It wont be hard to find someone to tinker with them.
I sell the solution that will not lock the customer into a corner. Namely me. And I keep customers because I sell proven things.
Yo, IT is not Michael Sims. But REALLY Michael Simms. So it could be the same guy. Because Michael Simms editor at slashdot has given interviews with CNN, answered questions with newsgroups using MICHAEL SIMMS as his name.
I ain't saying it is the sam guy. But sho do look strange.
Well I am gonna post this three times, so flame on, troll, do whatever. I dont care here is what a little investigation brought back. Maybe someone here can do a more digging with this evidence.
The links are too articles and the articles are quoted below the links. Almost looks like to be the same Michael as Michael Simms from Slashdot has a uk email address in one. Isnt Linux Games UK based?
This an excerpt from an article about a LUG that interviewed Michael and Timothy from Slashdot. Please note Michaels last Name is SIMMS, not Sims. The same one as the Linux Gamers Guy.
Please join us for a glimpse into "A Day in the life of a Slashdot Poster". Our presenters will be michael (Michael Simms) and timothy (Timothy Lord) of/. fame. Timothy and Michael will discuss Slashdot's history, what it's like working on one of the busiest sites on the Web, and other issues of importance to the Linux and Open Source community.
This is an article where Michael Simms(Michael from Slashodot)responds to a forum question about slashdot and his return email is on a UK. Server, more wood for the fire?
From: Michael Simms <grim@argh.demon.co.uk> To: scrappy@hub.org (The Hermit Hacker) Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Slashdot... Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 02:37:57 +0100 (BST)
> Does anyone know what you have to do to get anything on slashdot? When > v6.5 and v6.5.1 was released, I posted something to Slashdot announcing > it, especially considering that the new MVCC code added by Vadim...
To get anything on/. you need to have a very big stick and live close to rob so when he doesnt get round to posting information, you can beat him with it. If you dont live close to him, then the chances are about one in a billion it will get posted. You could always email linus and get him to mail rob, that will do it too {:-)
Yep, making line Enos from the Duke of Hazzard today. I am on the case.
Yo, IT is not Michael Sims. But REALLY Michael Simms. So it could be the same guy. Because Michael Simms editor at slashdot has given interviews with CNN, answered questions with newsgroups using MICHAEL SIMMS as his name.
I ain't saying it is the sam guy. But sho do look strange.
Well I am gonna post this three times, so flame on, troll, do whatever. I dont care here is what a little investigation brought back. Maybe someone here can do a more digging with this evidence.
The links are too articles and the articles are quoted below the links. Almost looks like to be the same Michael as Michael Simms from Slashdot has a uk email address in one. Isnt Linux Games UK based?
This an excerpt from an article about a LUG that interviewed Michael and Timothy from Slashdot. Please note Michaels last Name is SIMMS, not Sims. The same one as the Linux Gamers Guy.
Please join us for a glimpse into "A Day in the life of a Slashdot Poster". Our presenters will be michael (Michael Simms) and timothy (Timothy Lord) of/. fame. Timothy and Michael will discuss Slashdot's history, what it's like working on one of the busiest sites on the Web, and other issues of importance to the Linux and Open Source community.
This is an article where Michael Simms(Michael from Slashodot)responds to a forum question about slashdot and his return email is on a UK. Server, more wood for the fire?
From: Michael Simms <grim@argh.demon.co.uk> To: scrappy@hub.org (The Hermit Hacker) Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Slashdot... Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 02:37:57 +0100 (BST)
> Does anyone know what you have to do to get anything on slashdot? When > v6.5 and v6.5.1 was released, I posted something to Slashdot announcing > it, especially considering that the new MVCC code added by Vadim...
To get anything on/. you need to have a very big stick and live close to rob so when he doesnt get round to posting information, you can beat him with it. If you dont live close to him, then the chances are about one in a billion it will get posted. You could always email linus and get him to mail rob, that will do it too {:-)
Yep, making line Enos from the Duke of Hazzard today. I am on the case.
I speak English,Spanish, Portequese, and a smattering of french. Born and bred in the US.
I would say that comment is far from the truth though. Even though Slashdot is a US based site so english the language and maybe the rest of you guys are interlopers. So why should citizens of an English Speaking country, visiting an english speaking site, be expected to speak another language? You like slashdot, so you read it in English.
I tend to disagree with that comment because with all the anti-american sentiment that floats around here that most people are foreigners(Canadians included). So I would say I good many of us speak another language.
I agree that many people in the US dont have another language when they should.
1. They dont see the necessity, as English is the dominant business language in the world. You need it for international business. 2. You go anywhere and people speak English because we are big tourists. 3.The US is not in proximity with other countries so we do not have the necessity or luck of having to learn another langauge. Europe you guys are all bordered next to each other, short hops in between, easy to travel. Easy to learn another langauge.
I think you are trolling. 45% of the US speaks spanish I beleive. We latinos are falling out the woodwork.
And most people on slashdot are fairly intelligent, including us North Americans, well traveled, and gasp, speak other languages.
We aint as dumb as you think. Course then Germans are all Nazis, Italian women are all Harry, I could go on.
I suppose these days the majority of the posters are of university age or just the fact they might soley sit and code all day, do network support, or something desktop centric and thinks makes you somewhat of a computer purist.
This thing will probably go gangbusters in the business world. Do I need to point out again they can use these things in hospitals, docs can carry them around and have instant access to patient data? You can't teach an old doc to type but you can teach him to point and click. Imagine all of the patients records for him to review right there, and also to digitally sign off on medications, release forms, paperwork? I worked in the medical IT in the mid to late 90's and we would have killed for this for our clients. AND our clients were always asking for this portability. You leave your office to do rounds of your hospital patients, you can have all of their records at your fingertips. Your staff can dump the records necessary and hand it to you. Plus keep your drug interaction software, E an M coding stuff. Scheduling, xrays. The screen is bigger than a pda, Doctors are gonna eat this alive.
What inventory sytems. You are doing inventory and rely on a stock numner, you can carry one of this around with wand and it will show you the item as well as give you all the details.
Companies can give these to employees so they can have access, to employee manuals, data, you name it. Much more portable than a lap top.
Sales Departments can configure payments, interest options, the whole shebang, and then slide this sucker across the desk.
Games? This aint for games. This aint for coding. This is for strict ease of use in certain apps. And I am sure if you sit down and put some thought into it you would come up withmany uses.
I tested one and it recognized my chicken scrach, which my wife says could be confuse with Sanskrit.
It is a good product and sad to say MS made it. IT is here now and has pretty damn good functionality for many things. Sure someone will hack up linux to run on it, more power to you. But in the business world you need what works NOW, not what will work, or what you can say can be made to work.
We need to take over the Desktop, then move on. But to downplay something as usefuls as this with FUD from the OSS camp is just ridiculous.
Anyone in IT who has been in it for more than 5 years, done heave support, and has had to be a solution provider will recognize this a a good item.
I grew up in the South(New Orleans which really isnt the south or north).
I am a peace loving person, liberal as all get out. But I received proper gun training at a very early age from my father and uncles. We don't hunt but ever other saturday I was taken to the range to learn cleaning and discharging of many types of firearms. And most of my friends did as well.
I dont hunt, neither does my father, he was airborne in the Korena War and goes out of his way not to harm anything. He loves all life. Yet he taught my mother and I to shoot. And we spent time as a family doing it. My dad taught me how to drive, shoot, fly, cook cheese toast, and is still teaching me how to be a man.
I would say a large percentage of us in the USA are trained and quite aware of the power that we hold. However, criminals or not and they do use firearms in a harmful manner.
I think that if you look at the facts they will say most gun use is by criminals. Sadly we do have suicides, accidental deaths. But these happen anywhere.
And you know many criminals will think twice if they know you might have a gun.
Well you make a good point, if we lived in a perfect world where we all played nice in the sandbox but.
1. Libraries pay for books. You check the book out. Read it, bring it back. You aren't making a free photo copy and then letting your friends make a copy. And only one person can have that book at a time. And most importantly libriaries are subsidized and have to fight for the money they get, they do not just exist.
3. Open Source Software - Well it is a good model if you pay for service, or donate to the project, or even buy the gasp COMMERCIAL PAY VERSION. Which most people don't do. Most people in the community just dig around Source Forge for something they need. And we wonder why IT is staying in a slump. Anyway, OSS is a good way to get loads of people working on something, then take the good of it, and make it commercial.
4. Slashdot, SLASHDOT not make money? Don't let the.org fool ya. Slashdot is a money making enterprise. May not have started that way, but you see the banner ads. And not from little companies. IBM, RackSpace, Sun, AND EVEN GASP MICROSOFT. Someone has to pay for all the bandwidth we eat up every day. And why not make some loot as well? I bet Taco and Neal do quite well, and OSDN gets a nice montly check fromt banner revenues.
And what is this " Create a way for us internet people to get a hold of the newest and latest music online and not charge download fees" hmmm so if all music was for free, how would the label or the artist make money? Even less people would buy cd's. The money is not made in concerts, not too much, but from LP sales and merchandise. You think the stones made their entire fortune from touring? Years upon years of alblum sales.
Take a reality check. I am not gonna own a company and give you 2 million dollars to cut a record, so you can can just pay me my 2 million back one day. I am gonna want a piece, which is fair. Quid pro Quo. Most people around here still haven't realized that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
I am for downloading tunes, but paying for them, whether it is a.50c or a buck. But I gotta tell you any code I write that I deem econmically viable. I sell and sell and sell. I gotta eat, wife has to eat.
How can you lump Duran Duran and Flock of Seagulls in with Poison? Well, all three bands wore heavy eye liner at one point.
I think Poison was the bigger of the sell out band of the three, following by Duran. However, Duran did some decent tunes. Flock of Seagulls was a really good light band but wouldn't go saying they were commercial to the extent of Britney,Duran, and Poison. Duran did write most of their own stuff.
Poison was glam and guitar rock mixed then they evolved into a hair band. Couple of good tunes but nothing earth shattering. Working class mulletheads. Every rose has it thorns is a good ballad. They owe much to KISS(damned Knights in Satans Service.
IT musta hav been 3-5 years ago in New Orleans, I had a girlfriend who worked at the Virgin Record store. I remember going to see her(and check out her coworkers) and that had this machine that ypu picked your tracks from a list and it burned you a cd. It took awhile, you got a recept and picked it up from the staff in like 20-30 minutes. IT was like a buck a track. I remember thinking that it would be a cool idea, but hell I had a burner and didn't pay it any mind. I guess I wrote it off like I did video jukeboxes in 84(remember those? Morris Day and the Time, Michael Jackson, Scandal).
I would also like to see more traditional bands promoting downloads on the net. By traditional I mean guitars, drums. Maybe even a singer. Not techno,trance mixes from stolen samples and loops. Most of us can do that. I dabbled and dee-jayed but never considered myself a musician. Give me some high quality acoustic guitar playing, clean vocals. Just cause it is on the computer dont need to sound like it was made on one.
Yeah man, I worked at the Verio in New Orleans and had the privelige of seeing what they do there. Althouh I left Verio for greener pastures, the company does spend the money on its redundancy and protecting its equipment.
Slashdot Mirror
The IT slump of the past few years has led me more into more time of a consultant than a full time admin. I have several clients who pay me a small monthly retainer in case anything goes wrong. I make a little less cash, but then again I can work on other projects.
//s, and we all use linux, so whats the problem? Don't give me the argument about you ain't got the time to rip it? You had the time to poke around the net and download the song ten times till you got a good rip?
When I go in to a company and check a network out, top to bottom, server to workstation. I 99.9 percent of the time gigs of mp3's, pirated applications, and everyone has Kazaa. And for the next week everyone hates me cause I disable downloads, remove kazaa, block ports, and lock down the network. Not to mention find that some savvy employee is running an ftp server, or using company bandwidth to sell his wifes beanie babies.
I also am an on call tech for Dell. Usually this is installing new systems, doing data transfers. In short making the new system mirror the old one in software and data.
I have yet to hear someone say" Yeah all those mp3 are from CD's I own" "Here is my original copy of office xp" I get handed burned CD's and hear things like "dude you can get all the music and software you want off the internet." And this is not teenies nor young adults. But people into their 50's. I will not install anyting from a burned copy and a scribbled down serial number. They get burned, they are gonna point the finger at me.
I love my work. But if I had a dollar for everyime some client calls me to fix something, install something and then teach them how to download(steal) music and software. I would be a rich man.
I download music. I can remember the last time I bought a CD.2 years ago. I can always claim that all the Cure, Bill Idol, 80's hits, on my hard drives that I did once on the LP(probably in moms attic) so I am entitled. I gess if I wear out my copy of Nueromance, I can just go take a new one, free.
Recently I did a an 8 station wireless network in a wealthy mans house. Plus two laptops. The house is a Kazaa nightmare. Guy can afford CD's but he doesnt buy them.
I think the government shouldn't regulate or charge for info, but I think we on the internet have proven that we pirate and steal like crazy. I am a 33 year old admin, old fart in the business. I have many colleagues, and we pass warez around like crazy, and giggle about it. But we admit it. We do not try and take the moral high ground.
I am tired of hearing about all this bitching about our rights are being impugned. Why dont we all petition our ISPS to block all file sharing services? Doesn't take much CPU to rip a CD. We were doing it on P
Jeez, maybe I am getting old. But Kazaa is a pirates playground, edonkey, gnutella, and others.
Puto
I don't consider myself a coder.
1. I do HTML (dont consider this coding)
2. I can do Perl, and PHP, a little of both, can hack up stuff if needed(don't consider this coding)
3. I can do shell scripting(THIS IS NOT CODING in my book)
I can compile, make, you name it. Change various lines to do what it needs to do. But I dont consider that coding. I hold higher standards for coders.
Let it be said I don't code WHOLE programs from scratch. I do kludges when necessary to make things talk to each other.
Puto
Ok here is the skinny from my experience and flame away. But if you do it this way you can grab a lot of certs and learn a lot along the way. Nothing is better than real world experience but a little paper behind you doesn;t hurt.
A+ - Everyone and is brother does have it. So get it anyway. One book and one week studying. Took the tests back to back. Shows you have some basic hardware knowledge. Cause hardware and software knowledge don't exactly walk hand in hand.
Net+ - Another easy one but really good in the sense of getting you up to speed on networking essentials. Subnetting, IP, the language and eqipment.
Linux + - Learn the fundementals of Linux - Pass the test. Good starting block for your RHCE.
RHCE- Do I need to explain this one? Red Hat is the industry standard Linux at the moment.
AS for the MS stuff. It is good to have the hands on experience and the classes as well. the 2000 and net stuff is not all that easy. The 4.0 was a walk in the park. Professional and server are easy exams. But AD and the other ones are a bitch because they expect you to have experience with the product. And the exams are adaptive, very hard to teach the test with these. And also whose fault is it if you but cheat sheets?
I am a fairly good Linux Admin, and a Fairly good Linux admin. I do not code. Don't want to. I just like keeping the highways a rolling. I don't care what you drive on them.
But I will say this. A good Linux admin will not be a good windows admin and vice versa. Because both will be predisposed to see all bad in the opposite product. I look at windows and linux for the respective uses of each. Do not tie yourself down with one. Stay off of OS bandwagons. Learn as much as you can about both. Or any OS you can.
I find myself time and time again sitting in the middle of the fence. My linux pals who dog Windows cause, they ***gasp*** cant admin it, and are too proud to ask someone or check MSDN. Or the Windows bunch who are stuck on reinstall when something craps out.
Puto
The scary thing is that YOU referred to the cock as "JUICY". I wonder are you and his dad still in contact?
Ewww, who describes a cock as juicy. That just ain't right.
Puto
I have to call some serious bullshit on this.
I am 33 years old and was not in the military. But TRIED to join but was refuse due to a curvature of the spine. But due to an innate ability for langauge, computers, and native intelligence, was given a chance, and in the end I opted out.
BUT my friends were sent to IRAQ, desert storm babies if you will. Guys that I knew as healthy and hearty individuals. Three of whom I would trust with my life. Engineers. They have told me that chemical weapons were discovered. But the US government covered it up. These are guys who have had genetic scans, have been told not to have children. They are physically fucked up because of the war. Not an uncommon tale.
When a teen in the US can build a fucking BREEDER REACTOR in a shed in his neighbors yard. YOU ARE TELLING ME IT IS AT ALL NOT POSSIBLE THE IRAQUIS DO NOT HAVE THE CHANCE TO BUILD A FUCKING BOMB? When there is so much cold war russian shit on the black market that no one sold them anything? Hey it aint all that hard to refind, and it aint all that hard to find.
You need to read your own post.
Asshole
Puto
I have 5 USB 2.0 80 gig drives in the field. I get them for 140 bucks a piece.
1. They offer another back up option. My networks have tapes but they also have this extra redundancy. Connect it to a plane jane windows box running 2000(any old box). And you can have it back up your entire network quickly and easily in the wee small hours. 80 gigs is a lot space and you can restore from it rather quickly, much quicker than a tape. Still keep the tapes but for an 80 gig back up that will run for about 3 years constantlym you can beat the price.
2. I have one that does in my tech back with 4 20 gig partitions, one is mp3's for me to listen to. One is just about every software tool imaginable. The third is ISOs of all the redhats, windows, solaris,office, you name it i got it. And the fourth I use to grab files with that need fixing.
I also carry an interface card with me. Because now I dont carry around all those cds. If I have to dump a lotta data, i just pop in the 2.0 card(if the machine doesnt have it) and I boogie.
USB 2.0 is fast enough for me, will be more widepread than firewire. And I have never had a problem with it.
Now my 'doctor' bad is just a Leatherman, this drive, and the adaptor card, and one cd with the drivers.
Firewire is great technology but Apple forced intels hand when the wanted to charge per installation per motherboad. They reneged but way after the fact. That is why it didnt take off so quick.
I have an ipod, and an ibook. And firewire is fast. But I gotta say when I can dump 10 gigs in hardly anytime. No messing with tapes(I still use em but this is quicker) if it fails I always have the tape.
My other USB 2.0 personal drive gets the same treatment as my clients. I leave the house for the night, it goes with me.
Puto
Funny thing is MCI would call numbers placed through their systems and get a carrier, or the odd SYSOP answering the phone. Then they would trace the number back, which was a splice off a trunk that ran from the junction through a pvc pipe i had buried in the yard, i had my own nonlisted number.
MCI never clued on this, as they would have called ma bell. They just got my name and called the house and my dad answered the phone. If it would have been me. I would have pretended to be dad and told them to fuck off. And then removed the line and asked them to prove it, as I had a legitmate bbs on my own line.
Ahhh young and sneaky.
Now old and noisy.
Puto
I said there we had a hodge podge of machines in our group. I had an Apple ][ with a 10 meg Corvus drive. Never said I had a Commodore. My bad for not saying for what comp I had. There was also another company that built harddrives for the Apple then, they were external,well they all were. Can't remember their name.
And before you call bullshit, read the article. And if you want to call me a liar, do it with your own handle. I posted with mine.
Puto
I was busted hacking MCI and ATT in 84 for long distance codes(for phreaking purposes), which I then used to call bbs'round the world. I also was accused digging around in patient info in two local hospitals.
//s,Trs80s, and one Commode 64.
I was all of 14. I could pass myself off as a bell employee, had a valid ID. I was able to get a list of celeb phone numbers and harass them in a 14 year old manner.
These are all true.
1. Yoko Ono- Asked her to send me nekkid pics so I could start a bulemics club using her photo instead of stinking fingers down our throats.
2.Don King - Called him and home and asked who did his hair cause I wanted a similar doo.
3. Joan Rivers, just to tell her she was a hag.
Busted into teleconferencing systems, wreaked havoc with corporate PBX's.
I did all of this stuff with a group of friends, we social engineered, brute force attacks, all done from a hodge podge of Apple
We had a great knowledge base of other hackers plus bell lineman headsets, phone company gear.
In short we had a lotta fun and did a lotta damage to companies. 250k in phone charges to MCI alone, and the only reason we got caught was because an early 80's version of a script kiddie turned us in.
Fortunately most companies were amused, we showed them our exploits, they made us promise not to tell, and cut deals the FCC and with our parents not too let us touch comps for 5 years. No court, no fines, nothing. A little tiny slap on the wrist.
And I was very angry then. Now I fondly look back on that time with a grin(as do my parents NOW) and thank god my parents did not have to shell out 250k for the hacked codes, or for the 500 floppies of pirated software, or my ten meg drive fulla of bomb plans, software, and general mayhem.
Point is that we can do a lot of damage with our curiosity. Mitnick had others peoples code, compromised systems, and got busted. You do something illegal, and especially in an industry with closely guarded secrets you are going to get burned, and deserve punishment. It could be corporate espionage or selling out to a foreign power.
AS for the security not being good. If I walk into the 7/11 and Apu is in the bathroom and I know I can walk over and steal a bag of funions and a Big Gulp without paying, does it make it right? If I know I can bust into a system and take whats not my mine? Does the crime justify my curiosity?
If I get caught speeding can I tell the cop that I was just seeing how fast she goes, just this one time?
He knew he was wrong, and looking at his crimes, he messed with some big players, and felt the heat. Albeit some of it might have been unecessary, but a message was sent.
As for Kevin, he just built on a culmination of tools and tips that others had been sitting on for years and using. I do not see any shining brilliance, just a very intelligent guy who used availible tools. Like Linux and UNIX tools. Making use of availible resources.
Social engineering is a tool employed by charming people and sociopaths. I, unfortunately, know it is one of my great skills, but rarely trot it out anymore.
We all wanted to be David Lightman and see Protovisions latest games. And Lightman got bit in the ass wy a WOPR(always wanted to say that)
And in the old days the spirit of hacking was fun. We did get into systems, the phone company, build blue boxes(and the other ones) stole payphones and hooked them up at home, hacked the blue special box at kmart to turn it on by remote(best hack ever). And in the day we policed ourselves.
Puto
The Asmimov thing I get with the I Robot. And it is a homage to a great master whose work about robots has influenced 99.9 of robotic sci-fi since, and probably 100% of all people building robots now. Paying some respects in a major way.
"I'm intrigued that their company name so bluntly builds off of Apple and Asimov symbols"
I disagree with the connection to apple. Because IBOOK and IMAC were products long after I-Robot hit the shelves. I Robot hit the shelves in 1950, so I say they got the jump on Apple. Maybe Asmimovs family should seek some sort of injunction. An IBook,Imac is a silicon based calculating machine, here we have prior art for 52 years, that Asimov actively developed until 1976. Apple is always suing people for walking past the factory, or releasing a case that emulates theirs.
I like Apple, I own an IBOOK. Good little machine. I own three x86's running windows, linux, and solaris(gasp yes solaris,stability at its finest). I never associated my apple with Asimov, and never will. But probbably some geeks over at apple gave it the name to pay homage to a great man.
Point is that Apple had nothing to do with inspiring this company. Shameless apple plug.
man, messing with the Asimov the day after christmas. it just aint right.
Puto
Damn dont you you know the MAC has all the killer apps? I have two linux boxes, a Powerbook, and a Windows PC at home. Plus dedicated Red Hat Box sitting on the net. I am happy. Linux boxes are for me to play around with the OS and learn more about it, little NAT happening, little Apache. Powerbook for reliability and to keep my abreast of OSX. For when I don't need to think, watch dvds on the road. Dedicated box, for customers and it was absurdly cheap. 120 gigs, 1 gig of ram, and 400 gigabyties of transfer a month. 109 bucks monthly. A must have at that price. Kicking Red Hat. The PC runs windows 2000. For office, visio, and web browsing, and gaming, and a bunch of other little apps that are windows only, and I use cygwin to hit my other boxes. I love UNIXes in general. I love OS's in general. So I keep many around as possible and use each for its features that the other doesn't have. And I am not going to limit myself to one and limit my personal productivity. The MAC community is like the Linux community. Always screaming they have all the APPs in the world, and Windows sucks. Well, it just aint true, and I for one aint gotta take no subsitutes or "it will be there in a few years" arguements. Unix for webserving and servers. No other, will accept no other. MAC- Well maybe Final Cut Pro, but Windows and Linux have more productivity apps for them. Apart or together. And fellows, mac didnt invent UNIX, they made a smart move. I think this is a good thing for the Mac community that they are releasing this. Gets some more apps out there, get some more people to try apple. But it is gonna be funny to see what the community thinks of this. Linux should take some hints. Apple is taking a better move. We have wine, which is not the way to go. Puto
I do not condone spam and I hate it. I think it is one of the worst things ever invented. Eats up time and bandwidth.
- 12 -16
We joked the guy good too. Loads of crap delivered to his house. Threatening phone calls. And god knows what else. Fine, he is getting his medicine in spades.
However, if I come home and strange cars are parked in front of my house and people are taking photos. I am gonna be suspicious. Could be crooks, murderers, you name it. So while I might be the ultimate asshole in the unviverse, I am gonna do something. And If I am not an asshole but a regular joe, I am gonna so something.
Take pics of my house(I am a nice guy) while i am pulling up. I am gonna chase you down, get your plate, call a buddy in the dmv. And call you and ask you why the fuck you taking pics of my crib. I will even call the police.
He might be invading our mailboxes but he aint standing on our lawns with an instamatic. That is taking it a step way to far.
He spammed, we junk mailed em. Pretty much quid pro quo. He got the message. But what kinda loser decides to drive by the house and then take pics and then gets pissy when the guy tracks him down? And then whines about it on the net when the guy catches him. Both are assholes in my book.
As for the nintendo thing well penny-arcade had it sorted out a day before the slash dot post.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002
Puto
AOL is evil.
You ever try to cancel an account with them? Good three monhts before you get any results. Plus the asshole who gets rude on the phone with when you try to cancel.
There was a time when AOL was the only National ISP and most techs kept an AOL account for travel to hit email and keep in touch.
And AOL sells its own customers to spam lists. Plus the advertisements they inundate you with.
AOL bought all those companies to further there share in the marketplace. They bought Netscape(where is it now) they bought Winamp, and ICQ, which totally sucks now and gives its own nice little pop ups.
Time Warner inventing phone telemarketing as we know it. I worked in a call center running dialing systems in the early 90's.
We called people whos subsciptions were about to end, had ended, and even vaguely looked at a magazine in the airport.
Entertainment Weekly, People, Time, NewSweek, and we were hired outsourced to other magazines. And this is a Time Warner org. Still operational today. All sanctioned by time warner. BUT NOOOOOOOOO they are not evil.
AOL hates Microsoft cause they took a big part of their business. Because AOL is all about the content they want you to see. And with IE and other Browsers, it is about what you want. Sour grapes all over the place.
GEEZ
PUTO
Found this gem on the NANET Comedy Conference. If you know anything about
DOS vs Windows vs OS/2 vs... then READ IT.
How It Came To Pass...
Long ago, in the days when all disks flopped in the breeze and the
writing of words was on a star, the Blue Giant dug for the people the
Pea Sea. But he needed a creature who could sail the waters, and would
need for support but few rams.
So the Gatekeeper, who was said to be both micro and soft, fashioned a
Dosfish, who was small and spry, and could swim the narrow sixteen-bit
channel. But the Dosfish was not bright, and could be taught few new
tricks. His alphabet had no A's, B's, or Q's, but a mere 640 K's, and
the size of his file cabinet was limited by his own fat.
At first the people loved the Dosfish, for he was the only one who
could swim the Pea Sea. But the people soon grew tired of commanding
his line, and complained that he could be neither dragged nor dropped.
"Forsooth," they cried. "the Dosfish can only do one job at a time, and
of names, he knows only eight and three." And many of them left the
Pea Sea for good, and went off in search of the Magic Apple.
Although many went, far more stayed, because admittance to the Pea Sea
was cheap. So the Gateskeeper studied the Magic Apple, and rested
awhile in the Parc of Xer-Ox, and he made a Window that could ride on
the Dosfish and do its thinking for it. But the Window was slow, and
it would break when the Dosfish got confused. So most people contented
themselves with the Dosfish.
Now it came to pass that the Blue Giant came upon the Gateskeeper, and
spoke thus: "Come, let us make of ourselves something greater than the
Dosfish." The Blue Giant seemed like a humbug, so they called the new
creature OZ II.
Now Oz II was smarter than the Dosfish, as most things are. It could
drag and drop, and could keep files without becoming fat. But the
people cared for it not. So the Blue Giant and the Gateskeeper
promised another OZ II, to be called Oz II Too, that could swim the
fast new 32-bit wide Pea Sea.
Then lo, a strange miracle occurred. Although the Window that rode on
the Dosfish was slow, it was pretty, and the third Window was the
prettiest of all. And the people began to like the third Window, and
to use it. So the Gateskeeper turned to the Blue Giant and said, "Fie
on thee, for I need thee not. Keep thy OZ II Too, and I shall make of
my Window an Entity that will not need the Dosfish, and will swim in
the 32-bit Pea Sea."
Years passed, and the workshops of the Gateskeeper and the Blue Giant
were overrun by insects. And the people went on using their Dosfish
with a Window; even though the Dosfish would from time to time become
confused and die, it could always be revived with three fingers.
Then there came a day when the Blue Giant let forth his OZ II Too onto
the world. The Oz II Too was indeed mighty, and awesome, and required
a great ram, and the world was changed not a whit. For the people said,
"It is indeed great, but we see little application for it." And they
were doubtful, because the Blue Giant had met with the Magic Apple, and
together they were fashioning a Taligent, and the Taligent was made of
objects, and was most pink.
Now the Gateskeeper had grown ambitious, and as he had been ambitious
before he grew, he was now more ambitious still. So he protected his
Window Entity with great security, and made its net work both in
serving and with peers. And the Entity would swim, not only in the Pea
Sea, but in the Oceans of Great Risk. "Yea," the Gateskeeper declared,
"though my entity will require a greater ram than Oz II Too, it will be
more powerful than a world of Eunuchs.
And so the Gateskeeper prepared to unleash his Entity to the world, in
all but two cities. For he promised that a greater Window, a greater
Entity, and even a greater Dosfish would appear one day in Chicago and
Cairo, and it too would be built of objects.
Now the Eunuchs who lived in the Oceans of Great Risk, and who scorned
the Pea Sea, began to look upon their world with fear. For the Pea Sea
had grown, and great ships were sailing in it, the Entity was about to
invade their oceans, and it was rumored that files would be named in
letters greater than eight. And the Eunuchs looked upon the Pea Sea,
and many of them thought to immigrate.
Within the Oceans of Great Risk were many Sun Worshippers, and they
wanted to excel, and make their words perfect, and do their jobs as
easy as one-two-three. And what's more, many of them no longer wanted
to pay for the Risk. So the Sun Lord went to the Pea Sea, and got
himself eighty-sixed.
And taking the next step was He of the NextStep, who had given up
building his boxes of black. And he proclaimed loudly that he could
help anyone make wondrous soft wares, then admitted meekly that only
those who know him could use those wares, and he was made of objects,
and required the biggest ram of all.
And the people looked out upon the Pea Sea, and they were sore amazed.
And sore confused. And sore sore. And that is why, to this day, Ozes,
Entities, and Eunuchs battle on the shores of the Pea Sea, but the
people still travel on the simple Dosfish.
Great handle by the way.
You make a valid point. I am constantly dealing with employees of companies that hire me as a conusltant(GASP).
This week I was called into an orginization that has genius programmer. Mr. PHP, KING Database, the kid has skills I would give a testicle for(really). But he cant see the big picture. He can see the OSS pic, but not around it.
His answer always is to build instead of buy. We are always locking horns because he never realizes.
1. Although you might be out of more cash intitally, you get a product that functions out of the box, has been tested, and has support.
2.You build, you have to go through alpha, beta, testing, and then it works. SO you extend the time frame by a factor of 20 just so he could roll his own.
He hates me because they usually end up outsourcing projects to me.
Two examples.
1. Company sells a product that they have had on the market for 50 years. They sell a lot of said product. They want eccommerce because people are asking for it. Their in house IT kiddie tells them he can write a store ground up in six months and cost them nothing but a 5 grand as a bonus to him.
They call me for an opinion. They ask me me if they offered me the same money what would i do and in what kinda time frame. I said 5 grand? 3 weeks complete eccommerce. Turnkey. I send them a contract. They sign.
They get hosting that comes with a miva merchant. I build a complete site with 300 products in the three weeks time. I make it pretty, you dont even know its miva. And in three months they have netted 20 grand off the website. 5 grand solution, three weeks time. The client loves it. The IT guy hates it.
2. Second problem. Customers want knowledgebase. Inhouse it says he can develop in three months. Guess he knew they would call me. They want forums where customers can ask questions and company members can respond. How much and how soon. 1500 dollars and two days I say. The IT guy tells me impossible and I will not make them happy. I tell the company I will do it free and they do not have to pay me if they dont like it. They say go for it.
I buy Vbulletin. 165 bucks. Customize the look, put their logo. Create forums. 1 day.
The customers and the owners love it. Instant forums, instant knowledgebase.
The great thing is all the products i used were inexpensive, plenty of info for them all over the net. And if for some reason they get mad at me. It wont be hard to find someone to tinker with them.
I sell the solution that will not lock the customer into a corner. Namely me. And I keep customers because I sell proven things.
Puto
Double the Speed, Double Your Burn?
Jesus Harold Christ on a Rubber crutch. This is getting outta control.
This is as bad when they catch some poor kid with a ound of weed and it becomes a major bust worth over "2,000,000" dollars.
156=421 due to speed times?
Anyway, I hope some of these were professional duplicators. They are cheap and fast. I cant imagine having to handload 156 burners.
Puto
Yo, IT is not Michael Sims. But REALLY Michael Simms. So it could be the same guy. Because Michael Simms editor at slashdot has given interviews with CNN, answered questions with newsgroups using MICHAEL SIMMS as his name.
0 01 -02/msg00396.html
/. fame. Timothy and Michael will discuss Slashdot's
9 9- 07/msg00385.php
/. you need to have a very big stick and live close
I ain't saying it is the sam guy. But sho do look strange.
Well I am gonna post this three times, so flame on, troll, do whatever. I dont care here is what a little investigation brought back. Maybe someone here can do a more digging with this evidence.
The links are too articles and the articles are quoted below the links. Almost looks like to be the same Michael as Michael Simms from Slashdot has a uk email address in one. Isnt Linux Games UK based?
Michael Simms..
http://www.nylug.org/mlist/nylug-talk_mhonarc/2
This an excerpt from an article about a LUG that interviewed Michael and Timothy from Slashdot. Please
note Michaels last Name is SIMMS, not Sims. The same one as the Linux Gamers Guy.
Please join us for a glimpse into "A Day in the life of a Slashdot
Poster". Our presenters will be michael (Michael Simms) and timothy
(Timothy Lord) of
history, what it's like working on one of the busiest sites on the Web,
and other issues of importance to the Linux and Open Source community.
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/19
This is an article where Michael Simms(Michael from Slashodot)responds to a forum question about slashdot
and his return email is on a UK. Server, more wood for the fire?
From: Michael Simms <grim@argh.demon.co.uk>
To: scrappy@hub.org (The Hermit Hacker)
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Slashdot...
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 02:37:57 +0100 (BST)
> Does anyone know what you have to do to get anything on slashdot? When
> v6.5 and v6.5.1 was released, I posted something to Slashdot announcing
> it, especially considering that the new MVCC code added by Vadim...
To get anything on
to rob so when he doesnt get round to posting information, you can
beat him with it.
If you dont live close to him, then the chances are about one in a
billion it will get posted. You could always email linus and get him
to mail rob, that will do it too {:-)
Yep, making line Enos from the Duke of Hazzard today. I am on the case.
Puto
Yo, IT is not Michael Sims. But REALLY Michael Simms. So it could be the same guy. Because Michael Simms editor at slashdot has given interviews with CNN, answered questions with newsgroups using MICHAEL SIMMS as his name.
0 01 -02/msg00396.html
/. fame. Timothy and Michael will discuss Slashdot's
9 9- 07/msg00385.php
/. you need to have a very big stick and live close
I ain't saying it is the sam guy. But sho do look strange.
Well I am gonna post this three times, so flame on, troll, do whatever. I dont care here is what a little investigation brought back. Maybe someone here can do a more digging with this evidence.
The links are too articles and the articles are quoted below the links. Almost looks like to be the same Michael as Michael Simms from Slashdot has a uk email address in one. Isnt Linux Games UK based?
Michael Simms..
http://www.nylug.org/mlist/nylug-talk_mhonarc/2
This an excerpt from an article about a LUG that interviewed Michael and Timothy from Slashdot. Please
note Michaels last Name is SIMMS, not Sims. The same one as the Linux Gamers Guy.
Please join us for a glimpse into "A Day in the life of a Slashdot
Poster". Our presenters will be michael (Michael Simms) and timothy
(Timothy Lord) of
history, what it's like working on one of the busiest sites on the Web,
and other issues of importance to the Linux and Open Source community.
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/19
This is an article where Michael Simms(Michael from Slashodot)responds to a forum question about slashdot
and his return email is on a UK. Server, more wood for the fire?
From: Michael Simms <grim@argh.demon.co.uk>
To: scrappy@hub.org (The Hermit Hacker)
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Slashdot...
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 02:37:57 +0100 (BST)
> Does anyone know what you have to do to get anything on slashdot? When
> v6.5 and v6.5.1 was released, I posted something to Slashdot announcing
> it, especially considering that the new MVCC code added by Vadim...
To get anything on
to rob so when he doesnt get round to posting information, you can
beat him with it.
If you dont live close to him, then the chances are about one in a
billion it will get posted. You could always email linus and get him
to mail rob, that will do it too {:-)
Yep, making line Enos from the Duke of Hazzard today. I am on the case.
Puto
Hmm,
I speak English,Spanish, Portequese, and a smattering of french. Born and bred in the US.
I would say that comment is far from the truth though. Even though Slashdot is a US based site so english the language and maybe the rest of you guys are interlopers. So why should citizens of an English Speaking country, visiting an english speaking site, be expected to speak another language? You like slashdot, so you read it in English.
I tend to disagree with that comment because with all the anti-american sentiment that floats around here that most people are foreigners(Canadians included). So I would say I good many of us speak another language.
I agree that many people in the US dont have another language when they should.
1. They dont see the necessity, as English is the dominant business language in the world. You need it for international business.
2. You go anywhere and people speak English because we are big tourists.
3.The US is not in proximity with other countries so we do not have the necessity or luck of having to learn another langauge. Europe you guys are all bordered next to each other, short hops in between, easy to travel. Easy to learn another langauge.
I think you are trolling. 45% of the US speaks spanish I beleive. We latinos are falling out the woodwork.
And most people on slashdot are fairly intelligent, including us North Americans, well traveled, and gasp, speak other languages.
We aint as dumb as you think. Course then Germans are all Nazis, Italian women are all Harry, I could go on.
Jeez
Puto
I suppose these days the majority of the posters are of university age or just the fact they might soley sit and code all day, do network support, or something desktop centric and thinks makes you somewhat of a computer purist.
This thing will probably go gangbusters in the business world. Do I need to point out again they can use these things in hospitals, docs can carry them around and have instant access to patient data? You can't teach an old doc to type but you can teach him to point and click. Imagine all of the patients records for him to review right there, and also to digitally sign off on medications, release forms, paperwork? I worked in the medical IT in the mid to late 90's and we would have killed for this for our clients. AND our clients were always asking for this portability. You leave your office to do rounds of your hospital patients, you can have all of their records at your fingertips. Your staff can dump the records necessary and hand it to you. Plus keep your drug interaction software, E an M coding stuff. Scheduling, xrays. The screen is bigger than a pda, Doctors are gonna eat this alive.
What inventory sytems. You are doing inventory and rely on a stock numner, you can carry one of this around with wand and it will show you the item as well as give you all the details.
Companies can give these to employees so they can have access, to employee manuals, data, you name it. Much more portable than a lap top.
Sales Departments can configure payments, interest options, the whole shebang, and then slide this sucker across the desk.
Games? This aint for games. This aint for coding. This is for strict ease of use in certain apps. And I am sure if you sit down and put some thought into it you would come up withmany uses.
I tested one and it recognized my chicken scrach, which my wife says could be confuse with Sanskrit.
It is a good product and sad to say MS made it. IT is here now and has pretty damn good functionality for many things. Sure someone will hack up linux to run on it, more power to you. But in the business world you need what works NOW, not what will work, or what you can say can be made to work.
We need to take over the Desktop, then move on. But to downplay something as usefuls as this with FUD from the OSS camp is just ridiculous.
Anyone in IT who has been in it for more than 5 years, done heave support, and has had to be a solution provider will recognize this a a good item.
Puto
Dunno but I can say this.
I grew up in the South(New Orleans which really isnt the south or north).
I am a peace loving person, liberal as all get out. But I received proper gun training at a very early age from my father and uncles. We don't hunt but ever other saturday I was taken to the range to learn cleaning and discharging of many types of firearms. And most of my friends did as well.
I dont hunt, neither does my father, he was airborne in the Korena War and goes out of his way not to harm anything. He loves all life. Yet he taught my mother and I to shoot. And we spent time as a family doing it. My dad taught me how to drive, shoot, fly, cook cheese toast, and is still teaching me how to be a man.
I would say a large percentage of us in the USA are trained and quite aware of the power that we hold. However, criminals or not and they do use firearms in a harmful manner.
I think that if you look at the facts they will say most gun use is by criminals. Sadly we do have suicides, accidental deaths. But these happen anywhere.
And you know many criminals will think twice if they know you might have a gun.
Puto
Well you make a good point, if we lived in a perfect world where we all played nice in the sandbox but.
.org fool ya. Slashdot is a money making enterprise. May not have started that way, but you see the banner ads. And not from little companies. IBM, RackSpace, Sun, AND EVEN GASP MICROSOFT. Someone has to pay for all the bandwidth we eat up every day. And why not make some loot as well? I bet Taco and Neal do quite well, and OSDN gets a nice montly check fromt banner revenues.
.50c or a buck. But I gotta tell you any code I write that I deem econmically viable. I sell and sell and sell. I gotta eat, wife has to eat.
1. Libraries pay for books. You check the book out. Read it, bring it back. You aren't making a free photo copy and then letting your friends make a copy. And only one person can have that book at a time. And most importantly libriaries are subsidized and have to fight for the money they get, they do not just exist.
3. Open Source Software - Well it is a good model if you pay for service, or donate to the project, or even buy the gasp COMMERCIAL PAY VERSION. Which most people don't do. Most people in the community just dig around Source Forge for something they need. And we wonder why IT is staying in a slump. Anyway, OSS is a good way to get loads of people working on something, then take the good of it, and make it commercial.
4. Slashdot, SLASHDOT not make money? Don't let the
And what is this " Create a way for us internet people to get a hold of the newest and latest music online and not charge download fees" hmmm so if all music was for free, how would the label or the artist make money? Even less people would buy cd's. The money is not made in concerts, not too much, but from LP sales and merchandise. You think the stones made their entire fortune from touring? Years upon years of alblum sales.
Take a reality check. I am not gonna own a company and give you 2 million dollars to cut a record, so you can can just pay me my 2 million back one day. I am gonna want a piece, which is fair. Quid pro Quo. Most people around here still haven't realized that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
I am for downloading tunes, but paying for them, whether it is a
Puto
How can you lump Duran Duran and Flock of Seagulls in with Poison? Well, all three bands wore heavy eye liner at one point.
I think Poison was the bigger of the sell out band of the three, following by Duran. However, Duran did some decent tunes. Flock of Seagulls was a really good light band but wouldn't go saying they were commercial to the extent of Britney,Duran, and Poison. Duran did write most of their own stuff.
Poison was glam and guitar rock mixed then they evolved into a hair band. Couple of good tunes but nothing earth shattering. Working class mulletheads. Every rose has it thorns is a good ballad. They owe much to KISS(damned Knights in Satans Service.
Puto
IT musta hav been 3-5 years ago in New Orleans, I had a girlfriend who worked at the Virgin Record store. I remember going to see her(and check out her coworkers) and that had this machine that ypu picked your tracks from a list and it burned you a cd. It took awhile, you got a recept and picked it up from the staff in like 20-30 minutes. IT was like a buck a track. I remember thinking that it would be a cool idea, but hell I had a burner and didn't pay it any mind. I guess I wrote it off like I did video jukeboxes in 84(remember those? Morris Day and the Time, Michael Jackson, Scandal).
I would also like to see more traditional bands promoting downloads on the net. By traditional I mean guitars, drums. Maybe even a singer. Not techno,trance mixes from stolen samples and loops. Most of us can do that. I dabbled and dee-jayed but never considered myself a musician. Give me some high quality acoustic guitar playing, clean vocals. Just cause it is on the computer dont need to sound like it was made on one.
Puto
Yeah man, I worked at the Verio in New Orleans and had the privelige of seeing what they do there. Althouh I left Verio for greener pastures, the company does spend the money on its redundancy and protecting its equipment.
Puto