When Criminals and Terrorists Communicate In Real Time: Yeah... It's what happens when *YOU* use any form of telecommunications.
Welcome to the new world order.
They're not representing the people and therefore undemocratic. Fire them.
Ultimately, this is a philosophical problem. There is no common ground in this country. Shitty ideas are allowed to survive. You tolerate one ounce of Faith... One ounce of wishful thinking... And it all degenerates to the lowest common denominator. There is no way anyone can even begin to hope politicians could be virtuous without first having an *entire* populace firmly rooted in objective reality. All this NSA wiretapping bullshit is just government breaking the bonds so carefully set by the founding fathers. Even *they* got it wrong. Instead of enshrining Freedom, they should have enshrined Reason and Objective Reality. We would have avoided a civil war, NSA snooping, and whatever other bullshit comes down the pike. Government is not a necessary evil. Government is a necessary good. It's the only way to solve the problem of physical force between people. Anything else will ultimately leads to anarchy and chaos. Which of course leads to tyranny.
Don't fire them... Fire yourself.
Institute a fake company-wide budget so each department can pay each other department for the services they provide. Set the prices for services equal to what it would cost to outsource. Tie each department's "profit" to a yearly bonus for that department separate from each other department. Then you can only demand what you're willing to pay for. You'll be surprised how service will improve when you can offer a tip.
Having been a Network and Systems Administrator, I agree that this is an obvious breach in security. The only specific information I can offer is that you need to nip this bad IT practice in the bud by protecting yourself. My suggestion is that you assess the overall committment to quality your employer has. I have a procedure that I've used in the past for measuring that. You need to do a regular "check-up" on your situation in an objective manner. If the situation gets bad, start looking for work elsewhere. It's not your job to fix a shop you don't run. If you can't force your company to implement a good security practice, you are then obviously not running the show.
Sometimes a situation for an admin can get horrible. However, this kind of job attracts tenacious problem solvers that just won't quit. It's kind of like boiling a frog. If you drop a frog in boiling water, he'll immediately jump out. But if you put him in warm water and turn up the heat slowly, he'll get cooked before he knows it. Being in a bad situation can warp your perspective and drag you down, interfering with your ability to stay focused on a search for another job.
Bad IT practices are *rampant*. Don't get caught up in it... Guard your sanity. Measure your situation objectively and regularly. Also make sure to save, save, save your money so that if the situation gets really bad, you can simply quit (with a believable excuse other than a simple "screw you") and have the financial resources to do so. The thing that made the situation go really bad (i.e. a new boss from hell) may be rectified soon (i.e. he gets fired) and then you could go back or at least make use of a good reference from someone else in the company. Email me requesting more information and I'll help you by forwarding to you the quality-measuring procedure I've developed.
It is my experience that businesses short change themselves right out of quality. If one way to do that is to use Open Source or Free Software without paying someone for support (if you can't fully support it yourself), then yes that means low quality. There's no reason a company can't spend the same amount of money originally budgeted for closed source license costs on Open Source or Free software support. In many cases, I would say that these companies would benefit *much* more than those committed to closed source alternatives.
Having said that, this is a much wider issue than just software. It boils down to how companies can't do without at least the appearance of quality (customers wouldn't stand for it) but that also won't pay for real quality (they treat it as if it just costs too much).
A similar idea is the true cost of the beef you eat. What is the total impact to the planet for the production of the meat you eat?
In I.T., cheap doesn't mean low cost, it means low quality. Just because your Linux distribution says i386 doesn't mean that the spare 386 desktop should be used as a server... Likewise, any organization that depends on data handling infrastructure deserves what it gets when it tries to do things "on the cheap."
In my I.T. career, I have found that people will either treat you as Hero or Villain. The problem is that both of these are skewed perspectives that stem from a much bigger problem: You have chosen to stand between a person (the user) and their psychosis (a fear of the unknown). It wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't for the greedy companies trying to make technology sexy at any cost. This creates a perceived need for the technology, the "fax effect" tipping point of which, causes everyone else to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Information Age, which brings us here.
This kind of field attracts people with an infinite learning-curve pain threshold. We, the tech geeks, are *numb* to it. We will happily reboot the machine for the 50th time in a row to isolate the cause of the problem to identify the solution with the least long-term negative impact on performance, security, or whatever else the system was designed for. Not so for your joe sixpacks and soccer moms.
I like to think of us tech geeks as digital pushers with the users as junkies. Not all addictions are equally bad... However, if you lose perspective, you will fall into the trap of enjoying watching the rapture of your junkies a little too much to realize you're in a locked room with them and you just gave them the last bit of tech crack you have... Not a pretty sight.
My advice: Don't let people tell you how to do your job. You're the expert. Make them take ownership of their issues. Never assume someone is too stupid to figure it out themselves. Never make promises to deliver by a deadline unless forced to at gun point. You can't give an estimate on how long it will take to fix until you know what *might* be the fix. It takes time to research the fix and even then it might not fix it. Don't try to be a Superman. You're not. You don't wear a cape and can't fly. It's better to retain your power and watch your ass as best you can. OWN EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH. What I mean is this: read every email, know every password, be able to get back in if they lock you out. This isn't wrong. You're SUPPOSED to be the most trusted person at the company. Why not? I.T. is the *lifeblood* of any company. Any fool that messes with the cook deserves what they get.
"The meaning of the word computer has changed but has always lagged behind the capabilities of machines in use at the time. The word was originally used to describe a person who performed arithmetic calculations and this usage is still valid."
I had a rule that when a four-sided dice (looks like a pyramid with chopped off corners) was rolled by a player for damage, if for some strange reason it landed on a chopped off corner and stayed up on it's own, that was considered an "instant kill". I have actually seen this happen twice.
Look... It's really very simple. It's just a little thing called LANGUAGE. The one thing that separates humans from animals is the ability to process symbols. Humans can. Animals can't. Animals process signs rather than symbols. Animals see changes in the weather and sense that winter is coming. Humans that have never seen winter can learn from another human that has seen winter how to prepare for it by conversing about it.
Computers are essentially nothing *but* symbolic (in a numeric sense). In reality, they're just dumb electronic machines. It takes a *Human* to superimpose symbolic meaning on it's electromechanical behavior. However, it's behavior is consistent enough and is sufficiently guided by symbolic design such that we take advantage of it's superior speed to make it do very special tasks far removed from it's simple beginnings.
The more the operator thinks in terms of symbols, the greater success is had and lesser effort is required to achieve a useful result. Think of it: Code is symbolic. Therefore, error messages are inherently symbolic. Ah, but it takes a user to demand an icon! Pretty pictures and pleasant sounds... Until something goes WRONG! Then... The dreaded, scary popup dialog box! Something that comes along and just shits all over the user's lovely, sanitized, icon-driven experience...
Why is the current state of popular computing warped by this mindless, disempowering design strategy? Money. Pure and simple. Who gets caught up in the fray? Us symbolic-thinking, problem-solving, technicians! That's who. Why? Money. We need it. We have to eat. We'd probably treat this as just a hobby if it weren't for the fact that we got the bright idea that we could do it for money. And there's the rub.
So... What's a smart guy to do? Kiss every user's ass and try to be less annoying (inherently smart/technologically empowered/free thinking)? It's a choice. We all have to make it...
You could simply be yourself at all times, but be prepared to take the brunt of abuse from clueless idiots that couldn't get by without people like you. It's like painting a bullseye on your forehead. The only alternative is to go into business for yourself, and run the show the right way. Remember the carrot and the stick approach. The carrot is the sexy technology. The stick is the forced training classes. However, this kind of thing NEVER flies unless it's enforced from the top. That's why it has to be your company for it to work.
Anything less is HELL. I know. Don't expect simple, knee-jerk, icon-driven users to think like technicians. It's like trying to teach a pig to sing. It won't work and it'll just annoy the pig. Let's just get rid of the drone class called USERS. Vow to never again let another non-technician ever touch a computer. Just think of it... Why is everything computer-related considered a do-it yourself project?!? Money. Greedy little computer companies selling dreams of sexy technology to computer idiots with money. Of course something will go wrong eventually... And it's that same money that will draw us suckers into the mix. Let the former users become "computer-service-consumers". If they need a report or printed document, let them pay a computer-using, computer-technician professional produce it! Users have money. They don't have computer-based expertise! They don't want the (true) grief (of using real computers) anyway! Turn every user's computer into a toaster! Let them call a word-processing department and have them create a document for them. It will save them tons of grief *and* still serve to separate them from their money! AND, IT WILL CREATE TONS OF I.T. JOBS! I can see it now... An I.T.-service-driven economy! Charge them for every change-order! Nickel and dime them to death! (An evil grin slowly forms while hands rub together vigorously) MUHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!
God... After taking years of abuse from cluseless idiot users, the dot-bomb market crash, and being unemployed the two years thus losing my house... I feel much better now.:-)
Nerd: Too smart for this planet. Too smart to know it. His/her intelligence interferes with normal daily activities (social relations, sex, walking and chewing gum at the sametime). Seeks perfect solutions to all (interesting or not interesting) problems. Related terms: Propeller-head, Freaking Nerd
Geek (Originally referred to the lowly circus performer who bit the heads off of small animals for the shock value to the audience): Anyone overly enthusiastic about ANY one area (i.e. music geek, astronomy geek, computer geek). Usually extremely technically skilled. Usually extremely clever, seeking out clever solutions to interesting problems (i.e. Hacks). Usually extremely intelligent. Driven by their passion for the subject to the point of obsession. Related terms: Uber-geek, Alpha-geek
Don't fear spam from shopping online ever again. The original disposable email service. Regain power over your inbox from commercial forces, and catch them spamming. Fully user supported and operating free of exploitable commercial ties. No debt, no operating loss, fully self sustaining... a virtual vault for your email address. Now with version 2.0 free and premium services.
Quick start: three easy steps to total spam control.
1. Create an account: Providing a username, a password, and an email address you wish hidden from spammers.
2. Every time you need to give out your email address to somebody you don't trust, log in to Sneakemail and create a new Sneakemail address.
3. Give this Sneakemail address to them instead.
Mail sent to this Sneakemail address is rerouted to your real address, and when you reply it is rerouted back to the sender. Your real address is never seen. If you receive unwanted mail through this Sneakemail address, such as spam, you can take control by either filtering incoming mail using the Sneakemail filters, disabling the Sneakemail address itself, or disposing of it permanently. You also now know where a spammer got your address.
You now know all you need to know to protect your inbox from the internet by using Sneakemail.
Emailed server alerts that go to your PERSONAL cellphone? Get a job with a real company that has the balls to spend the money it takes to do I.T. right, rather than expect their slaves^H^H^H^H^H^Hemployees to remain chained to their unstable servers. Have they ever heard of redundancy? Any company that shores up their meager I.T. server budget with competent, creative, professionals asked to hold the whole thing up like Atlas supporting the world, deserves what they get (downtime, loss of productivity, employee burnout).
Don't be a sucker. Either raise your standards or shut your mouth and cover your ass.
"I immediately deleted this professor's reviews, as I always do those rare times that a professor complains."
"TeacherReview had a "no review is ever deleted" policy."
"As I find about about these reviews, I always delete them."
This guy is absolutely ridiculous... Can you say CONTRADICTION?
This sounds like the anon.penet.fi pseudonymous mail that promised to never reveal users' identities. Sure enough, they buckled under pressure from the Church of Scientology. I'm pretty sure they did so without telling the users.
The use is being able to call anyone for free. You can use FWD to call non-U.S. POTS lines. You can also call from land lines to FWD. Netmeeting is H.323-based and doesn't work behind NAT. Since everyone uses NAT, this is bad. SIP however, can be made to work behind NAT. FWD set it up to work behind NAT. I have a free FWD Windows-CE client on my IPAQ. Try that with Netmeeting...
The one drawback with it is that it's not encrypted. Skype is encrypted.
You know, I'm one of those many IT people in the U.S. affected by the economic downturn and also probably by outsourcing. However, I just recently thought about it and have come to the conclusion that it's not a bad thing. Change is good. I like buying cheap products. If getting cheap IT workers means cheaper products, I'm all for it. I know that in the short term it means that my skills are worthless in this market, but that's just because I chose to paint myself into a corner and didn't diversify my skill set so I'd be ready when this eventually happened. This has happened with hardware in the past which is why I can get so much more bang for my PC-buying buck. America has been good at leading the technological way. If that's our niche, it's going to be tough but I and all those in the same boat as me will have to position ourselves in such a way as to be flexible enough to handle it. It's either that, or go communist.:-)
Rican writes "MSNBC has an interesting article about how 'Googledorks' are using the powerful search engine to do searches across the web for sensitive and/or private information."
---
From the website:
googleDork (gOO gol'Dork) noun 1. Slang. An inept or foolish person as revealed by Google.
---
Ok... So who here is the googledork (hint: It's not me)? The dork who googles for the victim's information or the clever person who googles for the dork's information? Confused? If the website is more authoritative than the original slashdot poster (Rican) then maybe Rican is the dork?
A computer professional with 25 years of experience should know that it's not the admin's fault if the company he works for is SO CHEAP that they don't buy redundant hardware so that HE CAN take a critical server down for maintenance during the busiest time of the month. Imagine, if you can, NO SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE in the WHOLE NETWORK.
Blame the techies? Why not? With more "experienced" professionals like you around who don't get it, everyone SHOULD expect an impatient tone from the tech support people running around like a chicken with their head cut off trying to do the impossible.
People skills?!? I HAVE GREAT PEOPLE SKILLS! IT'S THE LAZY PEOPLE THAT REFUSE TO OBTAIN COMPUTER SKILLS AND THAT INSIST ON WASTING THEIR TIME AND MINE THAT I HAVE NO PATIENCE FOR!
Slashdot Mirror
Problem: Appearance of no non-cash payment methods being available
Solution: Zcash (Bitcoin-like alternative with Zero-Knowledge Proofs; Immune to whitelisting/greylisting/fascistlisting)
Snowden: Anonymous ‘Zcash’ Could Solve Bitcoin Surveillance Risks
When Criminals and Terrorists Communicate In Real Time: Yeah... It's what happens when *YOU* use any form of telecommunications. Welcome to the new world order.
They're not representing the people and therefore undemocratic. Fire them.
Ultimately, this is a philosophical problem. There is no common ground in this country. Shitty ideas are allowed to survive. You tolerate one ounce of Faith... One ounce of wishful thinking... And it all degenerates to the lowest common denominator. There is no way anyone can even begin to hope politicians could be virtuous without first having an *entire* populace firmly rooted in objective reality. All this NSA wiretapping bullshit is just government breaking the bonds so carefully set by the founding fathers. Even *they* got it wrong. Instead of enshrining Freedom, they should have enshrined Reason and Objective Reality. We would have avoided a civil war, NSA snooping, and whatever other bullshit comes down the pike. Government is not a necessary evil. Government is a necessary good. It's the only way to solve the problem of physical force between people. Anything else will ultimately leads to anarchy and chaos. Which of course leads to tyranny. Don't fire them... Fire yourself.
Don't forget Rearden Metal...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor
Cheers!
Institute a fake company-wide budget so each department can pay each other department for the services they provide. Set the prices for services equal to what it would cost to outsource. Tie each department's "profit" to a yearly bonus for that department separate from each other department. Then you can only demand what you're willing to pay for. You'll be surprised how service will improve when you can offer a tip.
I'd settle for seeing elevators in two-story buildings NOT having a button to select which floor to go to...
Having been a Network and Systems Administrator, I agree that this is an obvious breach in security. The only specific information I can offer is that you need to nip this bad IT practice in the bud by protecting yourself. My suggestion is that you assess the overall committment to quality your employer has. I have a procedure that I've used in the past for measuring that. You need to do a regular "check-up" on your situation in an objective manner. If the situation gets bad, start looking for work elsewhere. It's not your job to fix a shop you don't run. If you can't force your company to implement a good security practice, you are then obviously not running the show.
Sometimes a situation for an admin can get horrible. However, this kind of job attracts tenacious problem solvers that just won't quit. It's kind of like boiling a frog. If you drop a frog in boiling water, he'll immediately jump out. But if you put him in warm water and turn up the heat slowly, he'll get cooked before he knows it. Being in a bad situation can warp your perspective and drag you down, interfering with your ability to stay focused on a search for another job.
Bad IT practices are *rampant*. Don't get caught up in it... Guard your sanity. Measure your situation objectively and regularly. Also make sure to save, save, save your money so that if the situation gets really bad, you can simply quit (with a believable excuse other than a simple "screw you") and have the financial resources to do so. The thing that made the situation go really bad (i.e. a new boss from hell) may be rectified soon (i.e. he gets fired) and then you could go back or at least make use of a good reference from someone else in the company. Email me requesting more information and I'll help you by forwarding to you the quality-measuring procedure I've developed.
It is my experience that businesses short change themselves right out of quality. If one way to do that is to use Open Source or Free Software without paying someone for support (if you can't fully support it yourself), then yes that means low quality. There's no reason a company can't spend the same amount of money originally budgeted for closed source license costs on Open Source or Free software support. In many cases, I would say that these companies would benefit *much* more than those committed to closed source alternatives.
Having said that, this is a much wider issue than just software. It boils down to how companies can't do without at least the appearance of quality (customers wouldn't stand for it) but that also won't pay for real quality (they treat it as if it just costs too much).
A similar idea is the true cost of the beef you eat. What is the total impact to the planet for the production of the meat you eat?
In I.T., cheap doesn't mean low cost, it means low quality. Just because your Linux distribution says i386 doesn't mean that the spare 386 desktop should be used as a server... Likewise, any organization that depends on data handling infrastructure deserves what it gets when it tries to do things "on the cheap."
Yee ha
In my I.T. career, I have found that people will either treat you as Hero or Villain. The problem is that both of these are skewed perspectives that stem from a much bigger problem: You have chosen to stand between a person (the user) and their psychosis (a fear of the unknown). It wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't for the greedy companies trying to make technology sexy at any cost. This creates a perceived need for the technology, the "fax effect" tipping point of which, causes everyone else to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Information Age, which brings us here.
This kind of field attracts people with an infinite learning-curve pain threshold. We, the tech geeks, are *numb* to it. We will happily reboot the machine for the 50th time in a row to isolate the cause of the problem to identify the solution with the least long-term negative impact on performance, security, or whatever else the system was designed for. Not so for your joe sixpacks and soccer moms.
I like to think of us tech geeks as digital pushers with the users as junkies. Not all addictions are equally bad... However, if you lose perspective, you will fall into the trap of enjoying watching the rapture of your junkies a little too much to realize you're in a locked room with them and you just gave them the last bit of tech crack you have... Not a pretty sight.
My advice: Don't let people tell you how to do your job. You're the expert. Make them take ownership of their issues. Never assume someone is too stupid to figure it out themselves. Never make promises to deliver by a deadline unless forced to at gun point. You can't give an estimate on how long it will take to fix until you know what *might* be the fix. It takes time to research the fix and even then it might not fix it. Don't try to be a Superman. You're not. You don't wear a cape and can't fly. It's better to retain your power and watch your ass as best you can. OWN EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH. What I mean is this: read every email, know every password, be able to get back in if they lock you out. This isn't wrong. You're SUPPOSED to be the most trusted person at the company. Why not? I.T. is the *lifeblood* of any company. Any fool that messes with the cook deserves what they get.
"The meaning of the word computer has changed but has always lagged behind the capabilities of machines in use at the time. The word was originally used to describe a person who performed arithmetic calculations and this usage is still valid."
Computer operators?
I had a rule that when a four-sided dice (looks like a pyramid with chopped off corners) was rolled by a player for damage, if for some strange reason it landed on a chopped off corner and stayed up on it's own, that was considered an "instant kill". I have actually seen this happen twice.
Look... It's really very simple. It's just a little thing called LANGUAGE. The one thing that separates humans from animals is the ability to process symbols. Humans can. Animals can't. Animals process signs rather than symbols. Animals see changes in the weather and sense that winter is coming. Humans that have never seen winter can learn from another human that has seen winter how to prepare for it by conversing about it.
:-)
Computers are essentially nothing *but* symbolic (in a numeric sense). In reality, they're just dumb electronic machines. It takes a *Human* to superimpose symbolic meaning on it's electromechanical behavior. However, it's behavior is consistent enough and is sufficiently guided by symbolic design such that we take advantage of it's superior speed to make it do very special tasks far removed from it's simple beginnings.
The more the operator thinks in terms of symbols, the greater success is had and lesser effort is required to achieve a useful result. Think of it: Code is symbolic. Therefore, error messages are inherently symbolic. Ah, but it takes a user to demand an icon! Pretty pictures and pleasant sounds... Until something goes WRONG! Then... The dreaded, scary popup dialog box! Something that comes along and just shits all over the user's lovely, sanitized, icon-driven experience...
Why is the current state of popular computing warped by this mindless, disempowering design strategy? Money. Pure and simple. Who gets caught up in the fray? Us symbolic-thinking, problem-solving, technicians! That's who. Why? Money. We need it. We have to eat. We'd probably treat this as just a hobby if it weren't for the fact that we got the bright idea that we could do it for money. And there's the rub.
So... What's a smart guy to do? Kiss every user's ass and try to be less annoying (inherently smart/technologically empowered/free thinking)? It's a choice. We all have to make it...
You could simply be yourself at all times, but be prepared to take the brunt of abuse from clueless idiots that couldn't get by without people like you. It's like painting a bullseye on your forehead. The only alternative is to go into business for yourself, and run the show the right way. Remember the carrot and the stick approach. The carrot is the sexy technology. The stick is the forced training classes. However, this kind of thing NEVER flies unless it's enforced from the top. That's why it has to be your company for it to work.
Anything less is HELL. I know. Don't expect simple, knee-jerk, icon-driven users to think like technicians. It's like trying to teach a pig to sing. It won't work and it'll just annoy the pig. Let's just get rid of the drone class called USERS. Vow to never again let another non-technician ever touch a computer. Just think of it... Why is everything computer-related considered a do-it yourself project?!? Money. Greedy little computer companies selling dreams of sexy technology to computer idiots with money. Of course something will go wrong eventually... And it's that same money that will draw us suckers into the mix. Let the former users become "computer-service-consumers". If they need a report or printed document, let them pay a computer-using, computer-technician professional produce it! Users have money. They don't have computer-based expertise! They don't want the (true) grief (of using real computers) anyway! Turn every user's computer into a toaster! Let them call a word-processing department and have them create a document for them. It will save them tons of grief *and* still serve to separate them from their money! AND, IT WILL CREATE TONS OF I.T. JOBS! I can see it now... An I.T.-service-driven economy! Charge them for every change-order! Nickel and dime them to death! (An evil grin slowly forms while hands rub together vigorously) MUHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!
God... After taking years of abuse from cluseless idiot users, the dot-bomb market crash, and being unemployed the two years thus losing my house... I feel much better now.
Nerd: Too smart for this planet. Too smart to know it. His/her intelligence interferes with normal daily activities (social relations, sex, walking and chewing gum at the sametime). Seeks perfect solutions to all (interesting or not interesting) problems. Related terms: Propeller-head, Freaking Nerd
Geek (Originally referred to the lowly circus performer who bit the heads off of small animals for the shock value to the audience): Anyone overly enthusiastic about ANY one area (i.e. music geek, astronomy geek, computer geek). Usually extremely technically skilled. Usually extremely clever, seeking out clever solutions to interesting problems (i.e. Hacks). Usually extremely intelligent. Driven by their passion for the subject to the point of obsession. Related terms: Uber-geek, Alpha-geek
Here's what I use:
Sneak Email
Don't fear spam from shopping online ever again.
The original disposable email service. Regain power over your inbox from commercial forces, and catch them spamming.
Fully user supported and operating free of exploitable commercial ties. No debt, no operating loss, fully self sustaining... a virtual vault for your email address.
Now with version 2.0 free and premium services.
Quick start: three easy steps to total spam control.
1. Create an account: Providing a username, a password, and an email address you wish hidden from spammers.
2. Every time you need to give out your email address to somebody you don't trust, log in to Sneakemail and create a new Sneakemail address.
3. Give this Sneakemail address to them instead.
Mail sent to this Sneakemail address is rerouted to your real address, and when you reply it is rerouted back to the sender. Your real address is never seen. If you receive unwanted mail through this Sneakemail address, such as spam, you can take control by either filtering incoming mail using the Sneakemail filters, disabling the Sneakemail address itself, or disposing of it permanently. You also now know where a spammer got your address.
You now know all you need to know to protect your inbox from the internet by using Sneakemail.
Emailed server alerts that go to your PERSONAL cellphone? Get a job with a real company that has the balls to spend the money it takes to do I.T. right, rather than expect their slaves^H^H^H^H^H^Hemployees to remain chained to their unstable servers. Have they ever heard of redundancy? Any company that shores up their meager I.T. server budget with competent, creative, professionals asked to hold the whole thing up like Atlas supporting the world, deserves what they get (downtime, loss of productivity, employee burnout). Don't be a sucker. Either raise your standards or shut your mouth and cover your ass.
"I immediately deleted this professor's reviews, as I always do those rare times that a professor complains."
"TeacherReview had a "no review is ever deleted" policy."
"As I find about about these reviews, I always delete them."
This guy is absolutely ridiculous... Can you say CONTRADICTION?
This sounds like the anon.penet.fi pseudonymous mail that promised to never reveal users' identities. Sure enough, they buckled under pressure from the Church of Scientology. I'm pretty sure they did so without telling the users.
The use is being able to call anyone for free. You can use FWD to call non-U.S. POTS lines. You can also call from land lines to FWD. Netmeeting is H.323-based and doesn't work behind NAT. Since everyone uses NAT, this is bad. SIP however, can be made to work behind NAT. FWD set it up to work behind NAT. I have a free FWD Windows-CE client on my IPAQ. Try that with Netmeeting...
The one drawback with it is that it's not encrypted. Skype is encrypted.
You know, I'm one of those many IT people in the U.S. affected by the economic downturn and also probably by outsourcing. However, I just recently thought about it and have come to the conclusion that it's not a bad thing. Change is good. I like buying cheap products. If getting cheap IT workers means cheaper products, I'm all for it. I know that in the short term it means that my skills are worthless in this market, but that's just because I chose to paint myself into a corner and didn't diversify my skill set so I'd be ready when this eventually happened. This has happened with hardware in the past which is why I can get so much more bang for my PC-buying buck. America has been good at leading the technological way. If that's our niche, it's going to be tough but I and all those in the same boat as me will have to position ourselves in such a way as to be flexible enough to handle it. It's either that, or go communist. :-)
Go Postal. Or rather, go Postal 2.
From the article:
Rican writes "MSNBC has an interesting article about how 'Googledorks' are using the powerful search engine to do searches across the web for sensitive and/or private information."
---
From the website:
googleDork (gOO gol'Dork) noun 1. Slang. An inept or foolish person as revealed by Google.
---
Ok... So who here is the googledork (hint: It's not me)? The dork who googles for the victim's information or the clever person who googles for the dork's information? Confused? If the website is more authoritative than the original slashdot poster (Rican) then maybe Rican is the dork?
A computer professional with 25 years of experience should know that it's not the admin's fault if the company he works for is SO CHEAP that they don't buy redundant hardware so that HE CAN take a critical server down for maintenance during the busiest time of the month. Imagine, if you can, NO SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE in the WHOLE NETWORK.
Blame the techies? Why not? With more "experienced" professionals like you around who don't get it, everyone SHOULD expect an impatient tone from the tech support people running around like a chicken with their head cut off trying to do the impossible.
People skills?!? I HAVE GREAT PEOPLE SKILLS! IT'S THE LAZY PEOPLE THAT REFUSE TO OBTAIN COMPUTER SKILLS AND THAT INSIST ON WASTING THEIR TIME AND MINE THAT I HAVE NO PATIENCE FOR!