Ummmmm, yea, Microsoft as a news provider. Just the job for a convicted monopoly. And don't say, "They're just getting news from other sites" because what you choose to cover is the biggest bias in the news industry.
I wish they would get over this illusion that they are a content provider. They are SUPPOSED to be a software company, and hell, I'll even throw the X-Box in that category. Maybe if they stopped trying to own one of everything and just concentrated on their damn OS, it would be worth buying.
I don't buy it. Thats like saying Google has a trademark on the idea of putting two O's in something.
There is no law against having a similar name to an existing company, ESPECIALLY if you're not in competition. Why google would feel threatened is beyond me.
I was going to say, "A new PDA, A nice swiss watch, a few ounces of blow, and a hooker off whose ass to snort it, all for the same price" but I thought that would be over the top.
Heh. This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Google Bombing"
Doesn't seem like it would be all that efficient to google for email addresses. You'd have to do some parsing on the other end to dig them out of the rest of the page content, maybe a little work to make sure they weren't spam armored. Of course, I guess if you've hijacked some poor slobs computer, CPU cycles aren't really your problem anymore.
Re:Even if it's user error...
on
Are You Annoying?
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Certainly smarter than me. =P
I kept looking for phantom problems. They were mainly running a big database app, and for a good while, there actually WAS a problem with it. But we added about 10000% more server, and it was all fine.
It was after that, that I started getting reamed. After all, I'd suggested more server and they'd paid for it, so why hadn't the problem gone away?
The original system had run at about 99% cpu util. pretty much all the time, with bottlenecks everywhere, CPU, IO, RAM, everything. The new system generally hovered around 10% with spikes to 60% or 80% running across four processors. I checked IO and it wasn't that, I checked the network (which involved about 4 days crawling through ductwork with a fricking tone wand between my teeth. They had the best networking in the whole building---one jump from the server router to their router, and both routers were new and highly functional.
It was at this point when I realized that I was being consciously fucked. It was priceless to watch their faces as I laid out my info. Since their job was repetitive and the database ran consistently (consistently bad. fucking VB.) I could tell what they were doing by the size and duration of the spikes. I even tested it out, after hours.
It was seriously damning stuff; I could show every time they requested a new page, every time they submitted new data, or ran a query, and that stuff was consistently slow as hell. On the days when they claimed the network was slow the cpu utilization looked like a dead guys ekg. It was pretty obvious to everyone that it could hardly be slow if nothing was going on.
The week after that was probably the worst week they ever had...The average utilization jumped through the roof, hovering around 70% and their boss hadn't worked down there since the new servers had been added, so everything looked blazing fast to her.
I never wanted to be a BOFH, but there are times when I completely understand where they're coming from. Users can really suck.
Re:Even if it's user error...
on
Are You Annoying?
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· Score: 4, Interesting
That only works if there really is a problem.
I once dealt with a situation where I had a group of users who would have vague computer problems usually "the network is slow" or some other difficult to verify gripe whenever they weren't in the mood to work.
I got my ass chewed so repeatedly over this crap that I invested a massive amount of time and effort in monitoring these users, and documenting their supposed slow downs, and so when the end of the month rolled around and my monthly asschewing commenced I could produce reams of documentation proving that there were no problems.
Did not make me very popular with about half the building, but I was dead tired of taking the heat for their sloppy work ethic and sheer incompetence.
To be thrown into the river in a sack with a rooster and a dog, and to be torn apart by their struggles as you all drown.
I don't even remember what it was punishment for...I mean, they didn't even HAVE spammers or IP Lawyers back then.
The best one from the middle ages is to be stuffed into a barrel studded with nails, then kicked down a hill. Though a close second would have to be any of a number of things they used to make you do with your own intestines. Yuck.
The RIAA and the MPAA have objected to all the advances that made it easier to make personal copies of music/movies etc. Each and every one of them (most notably VHS) was condemmed as industry destroying.
"The court here *breaths from oxygen mask* finds...that the plaintif...the Santa Cruz Operations group...has made...claims...that...are...groundless...and lacking...basis...in fact...Now...I will...list...the four-hundred...and twenty...legal precidents...*Deep breath of oxygen*...on which I...based...my desicion."
Like Synaptic, which clearly fall under this "patent". Same with Redhat Update.
I'm surpised they didn't bother to file the rest of the lawsuits. Norton has an update GUI that looks like this, and I'd wager a dozen other pieces of software as well. The type of whorish, intellectually dishonest individual who usually files these suits is usually more efficient.
Well, sure if you want to the absolute second, but if you spread the requests across 5 minutes, say, or something similar, it would certainly help, and I doubt most people would complain.
I don't think they'd have to be convinced, I think it actually falls into the law, at least here in the US:
According to Blacks (Law dictionary):
A person is guilty of a felony if he threatens to commit any crime of violence with purpose to terrorize another or to cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation, or otherwise to cause serious public inconvenience, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience. 18 U.S.C.A. 3077; Model Penal Code, 211.3.
Sounds pretty clear cut. And this is one place where Bush's obsession with invading countries could actually work to our advantage.
Might be worth 40k not to have this guy chasing you around with those...
I actually competed in latin once...
on
Is Math A Sport?
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· Score: 1
The competition was split between academic questions so ridiculously absurd that even the professors spent half their time stumped, and a poorly-thought out bit of track and field.
Since about half the track team was in latin at my school, we made up for our mediocre academic finish by pummeling the crap out of them in track.
Come to think of it, I've "competed" in a lot of academic subjects (I even got a "letter" for it in high school, which would have looked good on my letter jacket if I'd ever got one. It's quite fetching in the junk drawer, I assure you), and most of those competitions just devolve into trivia.
So if you want to cheapen your math knowledge by doing trivia, by all means, go olypmic. I myself think I'll leave that junk in high school, and go compete where I get a sweet salary when I win.
The thing that got me first was the "One good song on an album" phenomena which coincided with the RIAA saying, "These little single song CDs are a waste of money for us...They cost as much to make as a regular cd, but don't cost any more. Lets stop making them."
At which point I decided that it was irrational to pay for 11 crappy songs in order to get one good song.
I hope the RIAA chokes and dies. A good band can make a kickin living off concerts and direct CD sales, and I've got no problem paying for a CD when the money is actually going to the BAND.
Slashdot Mirror
Ummmmm, yea, Microsoft as a news provider. Just the job for a convicted monopoly. And don't say, "They're just getting news from other sites" because what you choose to cover is the biggest bias in the news industry.
I wish they would get over this illusion that they are a content provider. They are SUPPOSED to be a software company, and hell, I'll even throw the X-Box in that category. Maybe if they stopped trying to own one of everything and just concentrated on their damn OS, it would be worth buying.
Heh. Not that nice. I was thinking more along the lines of something like this.
=)
I don't buy it. Thats like saying Google has a trademark on the idea of putting two O's in something.
There is no law against having a similar name to an existing company, ESPECIALLY if you're not in competition. Why google would feel threatened is beyond me.
I was going to say, "A new PDA, A nice swiss watch, a few ounces of blow, and a hooker off whose ass to snort it, all for the same price" but I thought that would be over the top.
For a watch whose big thrill function is that it connects to MSN? I wouldn't pay 72.50 for it.
You could get a kickin PDA for that...hell the New HP only costs 280.00!
Just doesn't seem worth it. Get a nice swiss dress watch, a sweet PDA, and a few grams of blow for the same price.
Heh. This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Google Bombing"
Doesn't seem like it would be all that efficient to google for email addresses. You'd have to do some parsing on the other end to dig them out of the rest of the page content, maybe a little work to make sure they weren't spam armored. Of course, I guess if you've hijacked some poor slobs computer, CPU cycles aren't really your problem anymore.
Too late in the year for a basketball joke.
That's EXACTLY what I thought! It even kinda looks like that...I guess even David Brin can post at -1 Redundant.
There are human rights in China?
Certainly smarter than me. =P
I kept looking for phantom problems. They were mainly running a big database app, and for a good while, there actually WAS a problem with it. But we added about 10000% more server, and it was all fine.
It was after that, that I started getting reamed. After all, I'd suggested more server and they'd paid for it, so why hadn't the problem gone away?
The original system had run at about 99% cpu util. pretty much all the time, with bottlenecks everywhere, CPU, IO, RAM, everything. The new system generally hovered around 10% with spikes to 60% or 80% running across four processors. I checked IO and it wasn't that, I checked the network (which involved about 4 days crawling through ductwork with a fricking tone wand between my teeth. They had the best networking in the whole building---one jump from the server router to their router, and both routers were new and highly functional.
It was at this point when I realized that I was being consciously fucked. It was priceless to watch their faces as I laid out my info. Since their job was repetitive and the database ran consistently (consistently bad. fucking VB.) I could tell what they were doing by the size and duration of the spikes. I even tested it out, after hours.
It was seriously damning stuff; I could show every time they requested a new page, every time they submitted new data, or ran a query, and that stuff was consistently slow as hell. On the days when they claimed the network was slow the cpu utilization looked like a dead guys ekg. It was pretty obvious to everyone that it could hardly be slow if nothing was going on.
The week after that was probably the worst week they ever had...The average utilization jumped through the roof, hovering around 70% and their boss hadn't worked down there since the new servers had been added, so everything looked blazing fast to her.
I never wanted to be a BOFH, but there are times when I completely understand where they're coming from. Users can really suck.
That only works if there really is a problem.
I once dealt with a situation where I had a group of users who would have vague computer problems usually "the network is slow" or some other difficult to verify gripe whenever they weren't in the mood to work.
I got my ass chewed so repeatedly over this crap that I invested a massive amount of time and effort in monitoring these users, and documenting their supposed slow downs, and so when the end of the month rolled around and my monthly asschewing commenced I could produce reams of documentation proving that there were no problems.
Did not make me very popular with about half the building, but I was dead tired of taking the heat for their sloppy work ethic and sheer incompetence.
My favorite in the code is the following:
To be thrown into the river in a sack with a rooster and a dog, and to be torn apart by their struggles as you all drown.
I don't even remember what it was punishment for...I mean, they didn't even HAVE spammers or IP Lawyers back then.
The best one from the middle ages is to be stuffed into a barrel studded with nails, then kicked down a hill. Though a close second would have to be any of a number of things they used to make you do with your own intestines. Yuck.
The RIAA and the MPAA have objected to all the advances that made it easier to make personal copies of music/movies etc. Each and every one of them (most notably VHS) was condemmed as industry destroying.
I just wish they'd learn.
It's not as funny as it seems. If you put in cash in early 2002, you'd still have made almost a 200% return, even with the new lows.
If you'd sold at 17 with all the SCO bigwigs, you'd have prolly made 4-500%
You obviously haven't heard many judges talk.
...are...groundless...and lacking...basis...in fact...Now...I will...list...the four-hundred ...and twenty...legal precidents...*Deep breath of oxygen*...on which I...based...my desicion."
"The court here *breaths from oxygen mask* finds...that the plaintif...the Santa Cruz Operations group...has made...claims...that
Like Synaptic, which clearly fall under this "patent". Same with Redhat Update.
I'm surpised they didn't bother to file the rest of the lawsuits. Norton has an update GUI that looks like this, and I'd wager a dozen other pieces of software as well. The type of whorish, intellectually dishonest individual who usually files these suits is usually more efficient.
Didn't bush make some big statement about a manned mission to Mars?
I guess when it didn't successfully divert attention from the war casulaties, he tossed that idea.
Well, sure if you want to the absolute second, but if you spread the requests across 5 minutes, say, or something similar, it would certainly help, and I doubt most people would complain.
Seems like the ideal stoner party game.
Duuuude, I am soooo much more relaxed than you.
Talkin smack bitch? Watch my total relaxation crush your total relaxation.
Whoooooaaaaaa
I post game patches, linux distros, and crap like that on p2p. Makes my ISP work for my money.
There are plenty of legitimate uses for p2p file sharing, even if you don't count music/movies/pirated code.
I don't think they'd have to be convinced, I think it actually falls into the law, at least here in the US:
According to Blacks (Law dictionary):
A person is guilty of a felony if he threatens to commit any crime of violence with purpose to terrorize another or to cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation, or otherwise to cause serious public inconvenience, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience. 18 U.S.C.A. 3077; Model Penal Code, 211.3.
Sounds pretty clear cut. And this is one place where Bush's obsession with invading countries could actually work to our advantage.
Check this out!
Might be worth 40k not to have this guy chasing you around with those...
The competition was split between academic questions so ridiculously absurd that even the professors spent half their time stumped, and a poorly-thought out bit of track and field.
Since about half the track team was in latin at my school, we made up for our mediocre academic finish by pummeling the crap out of them in track.
Come to think of it, I've "competed" in a lot of academic subjects (I even got a "letter" for it in high school, which would have looked good on my letter jacket if I'd ever got one. It's quite fetching in the junk drawer, I assure you), and most of those competitions just devolve into trivia.
So if you want to cheapen your math knowledge by doing trivia, by all means, go olypmic. I myself think I'll leave that junk in high school, and go compete where I get a sweet salary when I win.
The thing that got me first was the "One good song on an album" phenomena which coincided with the RIAA saying, "These little single song CDs are a waste of money for us...They cost as much to make as a regular cd, but don't cost any more. Lets stop making them."
At which point I decided that it was irrational to pay for 11 crappy songs in order to get one good song.
I hope the RIAA chokes and dies. A good band can make a kickin living off concerts and direct CD sales, and I've got no problem paying for a CD when the money is actually going to the BAND.
The first thing that leapt to my mind was, "If he doesn't get a signal, is he going to turn around and try it again...only lower?"
And lower...
And lower...
And his next article is going to deal with how he pulled a wifi equipped plane out of his roof, using a common lawn tractor.