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User: sybarite

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Comments · 44

  1. Thoughts of a Middle Aged Geek on Lessons of a $618,616 Death · · Score: 1

    I rarely post to Slashdot, but feel the need to weigh in on this topic. At 40, I am at an age where I increasingly am confronted with the end-of-life issues of loved ones. I have a dear friend who at 72 has been battling cancer for a few years. I cherish the fact that he is still with us for whatever time he has left. This man is more active than I am and is a real world character from the movie "The Bucket List".

    There are some gut-wrenching decisions that need to be made about when to let the inevitable take its course. I do believe this is best left to the patient and their families. I do think that it is to be expected (and okay) that the majority of health care spending is at the end of one's life. Those who choose to battle on against odds do benefit society by providing subjects for the experimental. They are the pioneers whose treatment may one day lead to either a cure or successful management of the disease. Perhaps not for themselves, but for those on down the line.

    I think that this article was also an indictment of the US healthcare system. The overhead and markup is horrendous. The system engineer in me dislikes inefficiency and believes strongly in process improvement. I think we can and should do better for all of us. The challenge is obviously that there are too many constituencies and stakeholders that are unwilling to work together toward a common good as they profit mightily from the status quo. They spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt when anyone tries to change the current system. This article illustrates again to me that medical care is not market driven service, so a market-based approach to health care delivery might not be effective.

  2. Exchange Active Sync Support on What Do You Want In iPhone 2.0? · · Score: 1

    I am hoping for Exchange Activesync support. I have several clients who will switch from Windows Mobile-based phones to the iPhone in droves if this were available.

  3. Re:More Info on the Topic at Hand on Alternatives to Citrix Remote Computing? · · Score: 1

    Client printer redirection is fussy and a pain. I manage several Citrix based networks. I always attempt to eliminate client printer redirection by insisting on network based printers instead. Much easier and more reliable.

  4. Watchguard Firebox on A Dedicated Firewall for a Small Town? · · Score: 1

    Take a look at Watchguard Firebox (www.watchguard.com). It's an appliance based on a Linux kernel and support is excellent. I'm not sure on your functional requirements, but something like an x1000 will set you back only about $2800. I've supported at least a 2-3 dozen over the years and they are a joy to work with.

  5. Re:They meant "free" WiFi on New Orleans to Deploy Free Wi-Fi City Wide · · Score: 1

    I have a client that is doing work in New Orleans right now. Several employees were just equipped with Verizon EVDO PC cards for Internet access. From what I understand most of the reconstruction contractors use the same. So for what its worth, the municipal wifi will likely compete with Verizon more than a local ISP.

  6. Partimage on PC Cloning Solution? · · Score: 4, Informative

    Try partimage (http://www.partimage.org/ . It doesn't have all the management tools like remote imaging, certificate security, etc, but I routinely use partimage from a Knoppix CD to clone Windows machines. Once cloned you can change the sid using newsid.exe from Sysinternals (http://www.digitalissues.co.uk/html/os/misc/parti mage.html).

    If you want to get really creative, maybe you could put a small linux partition on the systems that you can boot to for this purpose. Or maybe you could make a bootable system restore CD. Here is a faq to get started: http://www.digitalissues.co.uk/html/os/misc/partim age.html.

  7. Repackage Updates as MSI on Updating Free Software in the Enterprise? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hi Wally,
    There are many softwares available that can repackage an install as an MSI. You can than repackage your updates to Firefox, etc and apply using Group Policy as you are used to. There are even some OS efforts (http://msi-repackaging.sourceforge.net/)

    I hope that you don't let software distribution be a stickler here. The benefits to rolling out Firefox, etc are many.

  8. If you are running Windows XP.... on How to Prevent IP Theft by Your Own Employees? · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...you can edit the following registry key to change the value of Start from 3 to 4. This will disable the USBSTOR.SYS driver preventing the use of USB filesystems. It will not disable other types of USB devices.

    HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR

  9. Re:Thin Ice on Countries Plan Land Rush in Warming Arctic · · Score: 1

    I can assure you that the United States Navy will operate in any body of water outside 12 nautical miles from land and possibly inside 12 nm for transit passage in a strait. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Conven tion_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea

  10. Re:OpenOffice on Multiuser Windows Systems on Windows OSS Only For Administrators? · · Score: 1

    I really appreciate the time and detail of your post. It actually has been a while (v1.0) since I have tried to install OpenOffice on Citrix. I am going to suspend further comment until I spend some time first hand on this issue (after reading the FAQ ;) ) Thanks again.

  11. Re:OpenOffice on Multiuser Windows Systems on Windows OSS Only For Administrators? · · Score: 1

    Appreciate the response. Look, I'm not trying to knock OpenOffice, but the faq you pointed me to illustrates my point that there is a per-user setup that has to occur. When we are talking dozens of users on a Citrix farm of multiple servers, it gets pretty tedious. Forget Citrix for a minute, how about an evironment where one might work from different machnines. I found some articles in the forum about others that have set it up such that the per-user setup is scripted and silent that I will try. My original point I was trying to make was that I don't understand why it has to be installed in such a way that there is per user setup in the first place. I can install Office once on a multiuser system and then it is installed for everyone without special scripting or further per user setup required. Users shouldn't be presented with setup or registration requests, just be able to sit down and work on the software. I guess I was asking for a different type of installation and I probably should have directed the comments at OO community. Cheers.

  12. Re:OpenOffice on Multiuser Windows Systems on Windows OSS Only For Administrators? · · Score: 1

    I will plan on it. Thanks. (Just hope one day not to have to.... it is tedious and to some it is rocket science and discourages them from using the software.)

  13. OpenOffice on Multiuser Windows Systems on Windows OSS Only For Administrators? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not trying to through rocks, but trying to highlight a need... Running OpenOffice on a Windows system with multiple users where said users are not administrators is a problem for me and an impediment to the adoption of OpenOffice for many of my clients. Most Windows software I run needs to be installed only once while administrator and then all other nonpriveleged users can run the software. This doesn't appear to be the case with OO. I don't get the per-user install requirement for OO. This problem is most pronounced on Citrix. I found an ugly script that includes multiple reghacks on OOOforum.org that I will soon test, but in general, this issue has got to be an impediment to OO deployment on many Windows networks.

  14. Re:What Server Based Applications are Running? on Integrating Linux into a Windows Network? · · Score: 1

    Not usually. Most people (with more than one server) would be using Per Seat CALs which allow the client to attach to any server in the organization. So it would be the same number of CALs regardless of the number of servers.

  15. What Server Based Applications are Running? on Integrating Linux into a Windows Network? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you have an application that requires Microsoft to run on the backend, then you are going to have trouble replacing said server with Samba. If it is an application that everyone uses, then even if you replace the other servers with Samba, you will still need the Microsoft CALs (client access license) to attach to the one remaning server. That is where the costs get you, not always the server software, but the CALs.

    You can still make a case for migrating away from Microsoft at that point, but not based on software purchase price.

    If you still need to buy software, have you seen this website? http://www.techsoup.org/ The nonprofit price for Microsoft software is very, very low.

  16. I'm Sick of Mergers... on Symantec to Buy Veritas · · Score: 1

    I mean, almost nothing good ever comes out of them for the consumer. Service takes a hit, products get dropped, prices go up. Where are the so called synergies?

  17. Re:EULA vs GPL on Blizzard Stomps Bnetd in DMCA Case · · Score: 1

    This case exemplifies while the ideals of the Free Software Foundation are critically important. Unless people support and embrace Free Software, more and more onerous terms will accompany software. If some have their way, all we will have available is DRM embedded hardware and software where the use of the software is metered out like a utility.

    Unfortunately, I don't think most people care enough to fight for their rights by avoiding non-free software.

  18. Re:The worst part is... on SCO Caps Legal Expenses At $31 Million · · Score: 1

    Dude, you hassle the guy in church? I despise SCO as much as the next ./'er, but I don't think I would discuss their situation in church...

  19. M.S. claims exploits happen AFTER patch is issued on IE Download.Ject Exploit Fixed · · Score: 1, Informative

    I work for a consulting company that is a Microsoft Parter. Recently we had a Microsoft sponsored security seminar where the MS guy said that most exploits occur when hackers reverse engineer Microsoft security patches. This is what he defined as a "0-day exploit". I was pretty disgusted by this twisted propaganda. Any regular subscriber to BugTraq is aware of many vulnerabilities in fully patched Microsoft systems that are not corrected for months.

  20. Re:STOP RUNNING AS ADMIN! on Spyware Becoming Worst Tech Support Problem · · Score: 1

    I can tell you from experience that I have seen spyware install itself into HKLM when the users are not local administrators. The spyware software in this case must have been exploiting a flaw or buffer overflow to get itself installed.

  21. Get Slack on Red Hat Linux 9 Reaches End-of-Life · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I switched from Red hat to Slackware 9.1. I've been very pleased with the performance, stability and elegance of this distribution.

  22. WinInstall LE on Tracking Changes to a Windows System? · · Score: 4, Informative

    I use WinInstall LE for this purpose. It is included on the Windows 2000 Server CD and can also be downloaded from here... It is used primarily to repackage an application install as a MSI file, but it produces a text file that shows all file system and registry changes between the before and after snapshots.

  23. Fun with Spamassassin on Pranks for April Fool's Day 2004? · · Score: 1

    Configure the sitewide spamfilter to send thousands of emails for natural male enhancement to the one in the company that you think could most benefit.

  24. Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars on Mars Terraforming Debate · · Score: 2, Informative

    Kim Stanley Robinson has written an excellent science fiction trilogy on just this subject that I highly recommend. See this link for description and reviews: Red Mars

  25. Re:Beware inertia and fear on Beyond Pay? · · Score: 1

    You seem like a pretty cool manager. I hope your team appreciate you.