should be reserved for those cases when the system administrator already has reason to suspect someone
Which of course, they did. So in this case there's really nothing to complain about. As a sysadmin myself, I generally stay out of the proxy logs and/or people's home drives. However, there have been occasions where I've had to poke around:
a) Internet logs: Innapropriate behavior or suspect behavior gets one of two things. I general GREP of the logs for inappropriate keywords, or in most circumstances, a GREP of logs for the person in question.
b) Home drives: Recently we've been getting a bit high on the drive size in home directories. I don't like quotas, because some people have legit reasons to use more space. However, I do find this a bit useful: du -ms/home/* | awk '{ if ( $1 > 100 ) print $2 ":" $1 }' (basically, print out size/username of directories > 100MB)
Most users here (a school) are sub-100MB, with space for documents, some graphics, etc. More recently, we've been having issues with students storing game installers, demos, etc on the network space. Having several GB extra when I do a network-based backup can be annoying, so I periodically check out the homes of large drives. Minimal intrusion is done if possible, I just scan for the deepest large directory, then see the filenames. If they seem suspicious, I may investigate further, but in most cases the "WARCRAFT_3_DEMO.EXE" is a dead givaway.
The trick in being an admin is to be as unrestrictive/unintrusive as possible, while still finding ways to grab the info you need to deal with cases of abuse. Not always an easy thing to do... and sometimes I wonder where the students find the time/place to download over 50MB of pr0n (and hope I've never used the keyboard on that terminal).
If registrars had any brains, they would realize that it really should be difficult to make a DNS record in two sections:
a) Section a: public. Info for people that need/want to contact you about your site to file bug/complaint/etc reports. Should be optional - at least as far as personal info goes.
b) Section b: private. Info needed for renewal requests, legal issues, emergency contact etc. Not optional, but not visible to the general public.
WHY: Email addresses that are publicly available tend to end up getting spammed, and personal addresses can make you a victim of a stalker etc if they don't like your site.
And how about things like the DROX (Domain Registry of X). I get lots of letters from these morons wanting me to switch to their domain handling services... and I know they're getting my info from the WHOIS record.
Personally, I'd love to see whomever decided to *ensure that all DNS registration information is correct* etc etc get sued big-time the next time somebody gets a stalker visit because the registrar required personal information and then put it on the WHOIS.
Is there any reason they COULDN'T do this? This way, you net the 99% that use domains legitimately, and the 2-5% that don't you either get their proper info on private record or slam their site shut for abuse.
And frankly, TCP/IP is a bad example, being as the Internet was quickly becoming the "big thing" for computers MS couldn't really afford not to have TCP/IP in the OS. Trumpet came out to augment a lack in windows at the time, but that doesn't mean that MS adding a TCP/IP stack was a deliberate shot at Trumpet so much as that Trumpet showed them what they were lacking.
a) The internet cafe is more or less a public place, as well as a private establishment. If they don't have a sign indicating monitoring, at least they wouldn't have anything indicating that you do have 100% privacy
b) No "privacy" was violated until the issue with SPAM was discovered. At this time, massive SMTP requests were tracked to a particular machine/NIC using the MAC address.
c) MAC generally being a fairly unique identifier (not many people MAC-spoof), there was a fair bit of surety that the monitoring action was being taken against the same scummy spamming individual, used to acquisition evidence against his activity which while if perhaps not illegal, would almost indefinately violate the usage agreement for the cafe.
d) You don't really really even have that many privacy "rights" with your ISP. They log activity for these very reasons (spammers, kiddy-fiddlers, other illegal activitiy). If you were tagged as a spammer (with a non-spam friendly ISP) or a kiddy-pr0nography, you would no doubt come under scutiny with them as well.
And this just to shows how little the EU anti-monopoly fine (and even less, the US antitrust) will affect MS. At $600mil, the fun for massive abuse of power is less than trademark/etc litigation.
I wonder though, what is MS's estimated assets. 2 billion seems a rather hefty amount even for them, and not something they'd just toss away without some advantage from it over alternatives (how long can you tie something up in court for $2B?)
It's not just a joke, it's joke with a glimmer of truth to it. The government is looking at tracking the homeless. The aren't at the stage of RFID's yet, but it's a sinister look at what might happen in the future - or at least something similar.
If they were to secretly start RFID branding the homeless, would they have the money to fight back. Would anyone believe "Crazy Ed" when he comes around one day babbling about government agents and implants? How far could it get before they were caught, and there were repercussions?
This is no more in poor taste than many of the bleak futuristic "what if" novels.
Indeed, otherwise such stories - if false - might negetively affect Gateway's stock. Yahoo might be in for some A/F humour, but wouldn't chance a story of this type because of the possible legal repercussions.
Of course, you can't buy it as it comes up with an "April Fool" page if you try
But how about this:
a) Holes on the top of the tubes... it would keep the hampsters from peeing through them at least... not sure about dust issues depending on size
b) Maybe make the tubes difficult to access for sod-carrying hampsters - and put a special fan nearby to carry out their shavings
c) Have the tubes go through the case, but have the actual tubed-areas cordoned off from any sensitive electronics (you'd need a biggercase)
Just a few thoughts. Hampstercase is a cute idea but in practice hampsters are messy little creatures best left away from electronics
a) The plates would likely be changed
b) The thief isn't as likely to know how to change a MAC
c) You can sniff the mac within the wireless area, you actually have to see the license plate of the car.
Heck, if it were actively seeking connections and went through an urban area you might be able to track it rather well as it wandered in/out of different people's wireless range.
Just without software.... it's called roomates. You get the poor/cheap roomate, and/or his poor/cheap buddies, they come over, and viola - all your leftovers are gone (as well as some of your beer, other alcohol, possibly utensils, etc).
This would somewhat kill the "on-demand" angle though, since a tape isn't instant-seek the way a DVD or video files is. You could probably accomplish this with a DVD, or even a VCD. I've seen cheap MP3/VCD mplayers on ebay for under $30... in fact I own one and it has a decent picture.
Shouldn't be too hard to rewire the controls to a timed "power-on" circuit (timed to power off after presentation length), and maybe some chapters so that you could skip through sections.
With a computer you could go that extra step though, and have different files selectable from a menu... since many people probably wouldn't want *all* information but might find interest in specific topics (then it's semi-interactive).
While the "smelly" part isn't all that great, having a dumbass for a boss... so long as that boss recognises the fact that he/she doesn't know shit about the in-depth aspects of what you do. I wouldn't say my boss is clueless... he knows enough to tell if I were jacking off and not working hard, but he also knows enough to let me do my job as best I see fit, and offer assistance in constructive ways (overtime, equipment budget, etc)
Having a boss that knows jack-shit but things that he/she knows best how to do your job... that's what sucks (as per your situation).
And of course, back to the odour topic... how far does it perpetrate? Maybe you could use it as an early-warning system to avoid getting caught at solitaire on a slow day
With the rate of progress in the world, it's hard to compare against something that happened in the past. A good question is, and especially with the available of information and global communication... would the Chinese government perpetrate another such incident as Tiananmen Square?
In this case, I'm guessing that it's basically meaning co-operation between two groups resulting in mutual benefit (in this case the customer/salesperson). However, the rest of the sentence pretty much says that already, so it's basically a bunch of BS meant to make them sound important.
Sure, there will be lots of innovation, and it will mostly be in countries that don't have a retardedly broken patent system or just simply ignore U.S. patents.
It's like the issue with Indian outsourcing. It's all fine and good when corporations save money at the expense of Joe Taxpayer... until there are enough Joe Taxpayers out of work that it notibly affects the economy... there aren't enough Joe Taxpayers paying taxes... or buying products... because they're all of of work or working for barely-scraping-by wage as that's all there is.
It's the same with patents, innovation will be strangled, but some big corps will profit greatly. Then at some point, the US will realize that they're beating beaten out in the world market, since another country (China perhaps) is making a similar product but with more attractive pricing/features. Then eventually they will notice that they're being beat out in the local market, and finally you end up with 2 results:
The US becomes the next Rome... where the few profit over the many... until the many become so weak that they are overtaken and the whole deck of cards starts to tumble.
Massive reform, and not just patents... but most of the legal system, the electoral system, the policing system. Eventually it has to come, or rot will continue to spread from the core.
Remember, no one person makes up a country, but a lot of those "one persons" (P2Pers, startup companies, outsourced employees) start suffering and the damage becomes more visible.
Winamp was made by "NullSoft", although LLamas do feature quite prominently in their persona for some reason. Were they inspired by Llamasoft, related, or perhaps just share some common odd obsession with the creatures?
I buy some "extra-spicey-superhot-chili" at Joe's Supermarket... the next day will I be mailed coupons for milk-of-magnesia and toilet paper?
How about when I slip and fall somewhere, and they determine that I broke my ankle (which I recently did) because of low calcium (I didn't buy enough 'milk' products).
How about medication... will Jane at the front counter know when I bought a family pack of condoms in the pharmacy... and then refuse to go out with me because she thinks I'm a sex fiend (though perhaps I am just supplying a local school or clinic).
It's not about the coupons that come with my chili... it's about all the other damn people that I interact with that have no business knowing what my shopping habits are... and especially not drawing false conclusions from them.
It's a discount off the inflated price, or rather, if you DON'T have the card, you DON'T GET THE NORMAL PRICE
Really, do you think they they're still not making a ton of profit off the items sound at "membership discount" levels? Yes, you can shop elsewhere... in my case though elsewhere generally involves an 80km drive to the next city... and prices here are definately higher with the "discount" let alone without.
It's the same concept as gasoline.... sell them at $0.83/L for about 6 months and they'll think they're getting a deal when it goes back to $0.69, even though it used to be $0.52.
You're not getting a deal, you're only getting at best a nominal price instead of an extreme one, or less screwed than before.
Well, really a molded case shouldn't be that much heavier than a non-molded one - assuming the interior is hollow. Your current PC case is (presumably) metal... molding a hollow case with 2mm thick edges would just allow you to make some cool shapes.
I remember a relative that took ceramics course and made some neat jars etc. I'd almost be tempted to try that for making a mold, then using the mold for something a little more solid (metal, temperature-resistant plastic, plaster?)
1) You could do this for "resolves to a valid domain" and cut off a lot of the P2P infect spamdrones. Puts more load on your server though
2) You could terminate normal domains used for spam. But when they're profitable, the ISP/registrar doesn't seem to bother
3) See #2. There are lots of ISPs with rules than they know are broken, but the dollars keep the spammers in
And also
4) As somebody who doesn't run a spam-friendly server, has never had issues with (sending) spam, you now want me to register.mail domain on top of my regular one? What if somebody steals that domain... should the.mail not match my normal domain? Seriously, what could be done with.mail that can't be done with a normal domain... they're just letters that resolve to an IP address.
I wonder how many times the job actually involves direct contact with disgusting fecal matter as opposed to many of the other things a plumber can do:
a) Clogged toilet, just use a plunger and/or some special chemicals
b) Broken faucet, leaky pipe, etc. From my experience this is where most people I know call the plumber. Otherwise, we use Drano or the plunger on el-toilet
c) Installations. New homes requires plumbing to be installed, etc... you need a plumber for this too
And with all the above, you pick the call. You aren't a corporate plumber, if you're not up to handling the "my 300lb wife clogged the toilet again and it overflowed over the bathroom floor," then you don't have to.
IT people who work for themselves are quite often happier than the cube-dwellers, provided they're making enough to get by. On the other hand, the "company" IT guy has to clean up Bonzai, deal with the user who keeps getting infected and clogging the network with spam transmissions, porno popups from installed malware, etc.
Of course, it all depends though. I work the "office job" with a few locations... yes many of my users aren't all that technically adept, some are downright clueless (and admit it), etc etc. But generally, I enjoy my job. Most people respect my position, especially my boss.
I think a lot of the problem other IT people have is that the boss thinks he knows how to do the job, but blames the IT guy when things don't work out... security gets scrapped for functionality, new toys, etc etc. It's not so much about the job as the people that manage the job, and that's often the complaint of many an office work.
Having myself had many good managers I realize the difference, and nothing was quite as cool as having my boss tell her boss off, for distracting me from the work I'm suppose to do:-)
The first example that comes to mind is the CD thing mentioned in the blurb. Why the hell would I want to flip through CDs? That's the EXACT REASON I ripped them to my computer to start with, was so I could see a nice, flat list rather than hundreds of individual CDs.
Well, apart from the physical medium I'd suppose that the electronic form would be slightly more customizable. Regardless, flipping through Mp3 albums of CD's and clicking "play" is still slightly more convenient than digging out a disc (hoping it's not scratched), and popping it in the drive.
Maybe you get to flip through CD's by Artist. You could select a block of CD's and add to a playlist, with the option of selecting/deselecting individuals. You can also sort in a way more intuitive than your physical albums.
This doesn't require a lot of "extra 3D rendering power," as a lot of it is incorporated in the basic 3d cards available from years ago. It also doesn't waste power that might otherwise be dedicated to your games... since if programmed in any sane way it would stop rendering the Operating System GUI when the game starts up in fullscreen.
Slashdot Mirror
Though I recently converted much of my mod/XM/s3m/IT collection to mp3 format, since it will play in my car/portables that way.
I haven't *downloaded* any of those files in ages though. Anyone know where one can find good ones?
should be reserved for those cases when the system administrator already has reason to suspect someone
/home/* | awk '{ if ( $1 > 100 ) print $2 ":" $1 }'
Which of course, they did. So in this case there's really nothing to complain about. As a sysadmin myself, I generally stay out of the proxy logs and/or people's home drives. However, there have been occasions where I've had to poke around:
a) Internet logs: Innapropriate behavior or suspect behavior gets one of two things. I general GREP of the logs for inappropriate keywords, or in most circumstances, a GREP of logs for the person in question.
b) Home drives: Recently we've been getting a bit high on the drive size in home directories. I don't like quotas, because some people have legit reasons to use more space. However, I do find this a bit useful:
du -ms
(basically, print out size/username of directories > 100MB)
Most users here (a school) are sub-100MB, with space for documents, some graphics, etc. More recently, we've been having issues with students storing game installers, demos, etc on the network space. Having several GB extra when I do a network-based backup can be annoying, so I periodically check out the homes of large drives. Minimal intrusion is done if possible, I just scan for the deepest large directory, then see the filenames. If they seem suspicious, I may investigate further, but in most cases the "WARCRAFT_3_DEMO.EXE" is a dead givaway.
The trick in being an admin is to be as unrestrictive/unintrusive as possible, while still finding ways to grab the info you need to deal with cases of abuse. Not always an easy thing to do... and sometimes I wonder where the students find the time/place to download over 50MB of pr0n (and hope I've never used the keyboard on that terminal).
If registrars had any brains, they would realize that it really should be difficult to make a DNS record in two sections:
a) Section a: public. Info for people that need/want to contact you about your site to file bug/complaint/etc reports. Should be optional - at least as far as personal info goes.
b) Section b: private. Info needed for renewal requests, legal issues, emergency contact etc. Not optional, but not visible to the general public.
WHY: Email addresses that are publicly available tend to end up getting spammed, and personal addresses can make you a victim of a stalker etc if they don't like your site.
And how about things like the DROX (Domain Registry of X). I get lots of letters from these morons wanting me to switch to their domain handling services... and I know they're getting my info from the WHOIS record.
Personally, I'd love to see whomever decided to *ensure that all DNS registration information is correct* etc etc get sued big-time the next time somebody gets a stalker visit because the registrar required personal information and then put it on the WHOIS.
Is there any reason they COULDN'T do this? This way, you net the 99% that use domains legitimately, and the 2-5% that don't you either get their proper info on private record or slam their site shut for abuse.
And frankly, TCP/IP is a bad example, being as the Internet was quickly becoming the "big thing" for computers MS couldn't really afford not to have TCP/IP in the OS. Trumpet came out to augment a lack in windows at the time, but that doesn't mean that MS adding a TCP/IP stack was a deliberate shot at Trumpet so much as that Trumpet showed them what they were lacking.
Hmmm, well let's think for a moment:
a) The internet cafe is more or less a public place, as well as a private establishment. If they don't have a sign indicating monitoring, at least they wouldn't have anything indicating that you do have 100% privacy
b) No "privacy" was violated until the issue with SPAM was discovered. At this time, massive SMTP requests were tracked to a particular machine/NIC using the MAC address.
c) MAC generally being a fairly unique identifier (not many people MAC-spoof), there was a fair bit of surety that the monitoring action was being taken against the same scummy spamming individual, used to acquisition evidence against his activity which while if perhaps not illegal, would almost indefinately violate the usage agreement for the cafe.
d) You don't really really even have that many privacy "rights" with your ISP. They log activity for these very reasons (spammers, kiddy-fiddlers, other illegal activitiy). If you were tagged as a spammer (with a non-spam friendly ISP) or a kiddy-pr0nography, you would no doubt come under scutiny with them as well.
Take the headshot of the person in question, nab a picture of a weight-loss candidate in a bikini/speedo.
Cut/Paste, print with a good inkjet, and at night post the new picture on their window...
And this just to shows how little the EU anti-monopoly fine (and even less, the US antitrust) will affect MS. At $600mil, the fun for massive abuse of power is less than trademark/etc litigation.
I think that userfriendly got this one right.
I wonder though, what is MS's estimated assets. 2 billion seems a rather hefty amount even for them, and not something they'd just toss away without some advantage from it over alternatives (how long can you tie something up in court for $2B?)
It's not just a joke, it's joke with a glimmer of truth to it. The government is looking at tracking the homeless. The aren't at the stage of RFID's yet, but it's a sinister look at what might happen in the future - or at least something similar.
If they were to secretly start RFID branding the homeless, would they have the money to fight back. Would anyone believe "Crazy Ed" when he comes around one day babbling about government agents and implants? How far could it get before they were caught, and there were repercussions?
This is no more in poor taste than many of the bleak futuristic "what if" novels.
Indeed, otherwise such stories - if false - might negetively affect Gateway's stock. Yahoo might be in for some A/F humour, but wouldn't chance a story of this type because of the possible legal repercussions.
Of course, you can't buy it as it comes up with an "April Fool" page if you try
But how about this:
a) Holes on the top of the tubes... it would keep the hampsters from peeing through them at least... not sure about dust issues depending on size
b) Maybe make the tubes difficult to access for sod-carrying hampsters - and put a special fan nearby to carry out their shavings
c) Have the tubes go through the case, but have the actual tubed-areas cordoned off from any sensitive electronics (you'd need a biggercase)
Just a few thoughts. Hampstercase is a cute idea but in practice hampsters are messy little creatures best left away from electronics
a) The plates would likely be changed
b) The thief isn't as likely to know how to change a MAC
c) You can sniff the mac within the wireless area, you actually have to see the license plate of the car.
Heck, if it were actively seeking connections and went through an urban area you might be able to track it rather well as it wandered in/out of different people's wireless range.
Just without software.... it's called roomates. You get the poor/cheap roomate, and/or his poor/cheap buddies, they come over, and viola - all your leftovers are gone (as well as some of your beer, other alcohol, possibly utensils, etc).
This would somewhat kill the "on-demand" angle though, since a tape isn't instant-seek the way a DVD or video files is. You could probably accomplish this with a DVD, or even a VCD. I've seen cheap MP3/VCD mplayers on ebay for under $30... in fact I own one and it has a decent picture.
Shouldn't be too hard to rewire the controls to a timed "power-on" circuit (timed to power off after presentation length), and maybe some chapters so that you could skip through sections.
With a computer you could go that extra step though, and have different files selectable from a menu... since many people probably wouldn't want *all* information but might find interest in specific topics (then it's semi-interactive).
Nothing worse than a smelly dumbass for a boss.
While the "smelly" part isn't all that great, having a dumbass for a boss... so long as that boss recognises the fact that he/she doesn't know shit about the in-depth aspects of what you do. I wouldn't say my boss is clueless... he knows enough to tell if I were jacking off and not working hard, but he also knows enough to let me do my job as best I see fit, and offer assistance in constructive ways (overtime, equipment budget, etc)
Having a boss that knows jack-shit but things that he/she knows best how to do your job... that's what sucks (as per your situation).
And of course, back to the odour topic... how far does it perpetrate? Maybe you could use it as an early-warning system to avoid getting caught at solitaire on a slow day
With the rate of progress in the world, it's hard to compare against something that happened in the past. A good question is, and especially with the available of information and global communication... would the Chinese government perpetrate another such incident as Tiananmen Square?
Synergy
In this case, I'm guessing that it's basically meaning co-operation between two groups resulting in mutual benefit (in this case the customer/salesperson). However, the rest of the sentence pretty much says that already, so it's basically a bunch of BS meant to make them sound important.
Sure, there will be lots of innovation, and it will mostly be in countries that don't have a retardedly broken patent system or just simply ignore U.S. patents.
It's like the issue with Indian outsourcing. It's all fine and good when corporations save money at the expense of Joe Taxpayer... until there are enough Joe Taxpayers out of work that it notibly affects the economy... there aren't enough Joe Taxpayers paying taxes... or buying products... because they're all of of work or working for barely-scraping-by wage as that's all there is.
It's the same with patents, innovation will be strangled, but some big corps will profit greatly. Then at some point, the US will realize that they're beating beaten out in the world market, since another country (China perhaps) is making a similar product but with more attractive pricing/features. Then eventually they will notice that they're being beat out in the local market, and finally you end up with 2 results:
The US becomes the next Rome... where the few profit over the many... until the many become so weak that they are overtaken and the whole deck of cards starts to tumble.
Massive reform, and not just patents... but most of the legal system, the electoral system, the policing system. Eventually it has to come, or rot will continue to spread from the core.
Remember, no one person makes up a country, but a lot of those "one persons" (P2Pers, startup companies, outsourced employees) start suffering and the damage becomes more visible.
Winamp was made by "NullSoft", although LLamas do feature quite prominently in their persona for some reason. Were they inspired by Llamasoft, related, or perhaps just share some common odd obsession with the creatures?
Is it too late to send them over, or maybe at least Michael? How about if we pay the shipping?
I buy some "extra-spicey-superhot-chili" at Joe's Supermarket... the next day will I be mailed coupons for milk-of-magnesia and toilet paper?
How about when I slip and fall somewhere, and they determine that I broke my ankle (which I recently did) because of low calcium (I didn't buy enough 'milk' products).
How about medication... will Jane at the front counter know when I bought a family pack of condoms in the pharmacy... and then refuse to go out with me because she thinks I'm a sex fiend (though perhaps I am just supplying a local school or clinic).
It's not about the coupons that come with my chili... it's about all the other damn people that I interact with that have no business knowing what my shopping habits are... and especially not drawing false conclusions from them.
It's a discount off the inflated price, or rather, if you DON'T have the card, you DON'T GET THE NORMAL PRICE
Really, do you think they they're still not making a ton of profit off the items sound at "membership discount" levels? Yes, you can shop elsewhere... in my case though elsewhere generally involves an 80km drive to the next city... and prices here are definately higher with the "discount" let alone without.
It's the same concept as gasoline.... sell them at $0.83/L for about 6 months and they'll think they're getting a deal when it goes back to $0.69, even though it used to be $0.52.
You're not getting a deal, you're only getting at best a nominal price instead of an extreme one, or less screwed than before.
Well, really a molded case shouldn't be that much heavier than a non-molded one - assuming the interior is hollow. Your current PC case is (presumably) metal... molding a hollow case with 2mm thick edges would just allow you to make some cool shapes.
I remember a relative that took ceramics course and made some neat jars etc. I'd almost be tempted to try that for making a mold, then using the mold for something a little more solid (metal, temperature-resistant plastic, plaster?)
1) You could do this for "resolves to a valid domain" and cut off a lot of the P2P infect spamdrones. Puts more load on your server though
.mail domain on top of my regular one? What if somebody steals that domain... should the .mail not match my normal domain? Seriously, what could be done with .mail that can't be done with a normal domain... they're just letters that resolve to an IP address.
2) You could terminate normal domains used for spam. But when they're profitable, the ISP/registrar doesn't seem to bother
3) See #2. There are lots of ISPs with rules than they know are broken, but the dollars keep the spammers in
And also
4) As somebody who doesn't run a spam-friendly server, has never had issues with (sending) spam, you now want me to register
I wonder how many times the job actually involves direct contact with disgusting fecal matter as opposed to many of the other things a plumber can do:
:-)
a) Clogged toilet, just use a plunger and/or some special chemicals
b) Broken faucet, leaky pipe, etc. From my experience this is where most people I know call the plumber. Otherwise, we use Drano or the plunger on el-toilet
c) Installations. New homes requires plumbing to be installed, etc... you need a plumber for this too
And with all the above, you pick the call. You aren't a corporate plumber, if you're not up to handling the "my 300lb wife clogged the toilet again and it overflowed over the bathroom floor," then you don't have to.
IT people who work for themselves are quite often happier than the cube-dwellers, provided they're making enough to get by. On the other hand, the "company" IT guy has to clean up Bonzai, deal with the user who keeps getting infected and clogging the network with spam transmissions, porno popups from installed malware, etc.
Of course, it all depends though. I work the "office job" with a few locations... yes many of my users aren't all that technically adept, some are downright clueless (and admit it), etc etc. But generally, I enjoy my job. Most people respect my position, especially my boss.
I think a lot of the problem other IT people have is that the boss thinks he knows how to do the job, but blames the IT guy when things don't work out... security gets scrapped for functionality, new toys, etc etc. It's not so much about the job as the people that manage the job, and that's often the complaint of many an office work.
Having myself had many good managers I realize the difference, and nothing was quite as cool as having my boss tell her boss off, for distracting me from the work I'm suppose to do
The first example that comes to mind is the CD thing mentioned in the blurb. Why the hell would I want to flip through CDs? That's the EXACT REASON I ripped them to my computer to start with, was so I could see a nice, flat list rather than hundreds of individual CDs.
Well, apart from the physical medium I'd suppose that the electronic form would be slightly more customizable. Regardless, flipping through Mp3 albums of CD's and clicking "play" is still slightly more convenient than digging out a disc (hoping it's not scratched), and popping it in the drive.
Maybe you get to flip through CD's by Artist. You could select a block of CD's and add to a playlist, with the option of selecting/deselecting individuals. You can also sort in a way more intuitive than your physical albums.
This doesn't require a lot of "extra 3D rendering power," as a lot of it is incorporated in the basic 3d cards available from years ago. It also doesn't waste power that might otherwise be dedicated to your games... since if programmed in any sane way it would stop rendering the Operating System GUI when the game starts up in fullscreen.